Life
Otto was the son of Aleram and his first wife. Notably obscure, he did not appear with his parents and his younger brother Anselm at the foundation of the monastery of Grazzano in 961. On Aleram's death in 967, the large marca Aleramica was broken up: Montferrat went to Otto and Liguria to Anselm. Their elder brother William II had already deceased.
In his own lifetime, Otto does not appear in any document with the margravial title, but he appears in the documents of later generations cited as such. He appears in a confirmation of the possessions of the abbacy of Fruttuaria with the title in a patronymic. He probably never used the title in life, but his descendants retroactively applied it to him, as he held the same post as they.
Otto died in 991, as known by the foundation act of his son for the monastery of Spigno, which Otto himself had planned on building. [1] By his wife, whose name is lost, he left two sons: an eldest named William III, who succeeded him, and younger named Riprando. He also left two daughters, Otta and Waldrada (Gualderada).
Amadeus II was the count of Savoy from 1078 to 1080. His life is obscure and few documents mention him. During his rule, he was overshadowed by his mother, but he had good relations with the papacy and, for a time, the Holy Roman emperor.
Conrad of Montferrat was a nobleman, one of the major participants in the Third Crusade. He was the de facto King of Jerusalem by virtue of his marriage to Isabella I of Jerusalem from 24 November 1190, but officially elected only in 1192, days before his death. He was also the eighth Marquess of Montferrat from 1191.
Leopold III, known as Leopold the Good, was the Margrave of Austria from 1095 to his death in 1136. He was a member of the House of Babenberg. He was canonized on 6 January 1485 and became the patron saint of Austria, Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Vienna. His feast day is 15 November.
Aleram was the first Marquis of Montferrat and Liguria in Northern Italy until his death. He was son of William I of Montferrat and is mentioned in documents for the first time in 933 when he received a fief near Vercelli by Hugh of Italy. In 955 he was invested of lands in what is now the province of Alessandria.
The Elder House of Welf was a Frankish noble dynasty of European rulers documented since the 9th century. Closely related to the Carolingian dynasty, it consisted of a Burgundian and a Swabian group. It has not been definitively clarified, however, whether the two groups formed one dynasty or whether they shared the same name by coincidence only. While the Elder House became extinct in the male line with the death of Duke Welf of Carinthia in 1055, his sister Kunigunde married into the Italian House of Este and became the ancestor of the (Younger) House of Welf.
Hermann Billung was the margrave of the Billung March from 936 until his death. The first of the Saxon House of Billung, Hermann was a trusted lieutenant of Emperor Otto I.
William III was the third Marquis of Montferrat and Count of Vado from 991 to his death. He was the eldest son and successor of Otto I. William I and II were the father and son, respectively, of Aleram, the first Marquis, but neither served as Marquis himself.
Margaret of Hungary was a Byzantine Empress by marriage to Isaac II Angelos and Queen of Thessalonica by marriage to Boniface of Montferrat. She was regent of Thessalonica during the minority of her son Demetrius of Montferrat in 1207–1216.
Oberto I Obizzo was an Italian count palatine and margrave and the oldest known member of the Obertenghi family.
John III was the consul and duke of Gaeta from some time between October 984 and January 986 until his death.
Visone is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Alessandria in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 80 kilometres (50 mi) southeast of Turin and about 30 kilometres (19 mi) southwest of Alessandria. Its name becomes from the homonymous Visone creek, that flows into its territory and enters Bormida river not far from the village.
The March or Marquisate of Turin was a territory of medieval Italy from the mid-10th century, when it was established as the Arduinic March. It comprised several counties in Piedmont, including the counties of Turin, Auriate, Albenga and, probably, Ventimiglia. The confines of the march thus stretched across the Po Valley from the Western Alps in the north, to the Ligurian Sea.
William VII, called the Great Marquis, was the twelfth Marquis of Montferrat from 1253 to his death. He was also the titular King of Thessalonica.
William II was the co-Marquis of Montferrat with his father Aleram.
Henry (c.1020-c.1044/5) was a member of the Aleramid dynasty.
The Marchof Montferrat was a frontier march of the Kingdom of Italy during the Middle Ages and a state of the Holy Roman Empire. The margraviate was raised to become the Duchy of Montferrat in 1574.
Manfred I, known as Manfredi Lancia, was the second Margrave of Busca, famous for his financial difficulties and his Occitan poetry. He was the first person to adopt the surname Lanza or Lancia, giving rise to the Lanza family.
Ottone del Carretto, a patron of troubadours and an imperialist, was the margrave of Savona (c.1185–91) and podestà of the Republic of Genoa (1194–95) and of Asti (1212). He was the founder of the Del Carretto family.
The Paleologo-Oriundi are an Italian family which dubiously claims descent from Flaminio Paleologo, an illegitimate son of John George Palaeologus, Marquis of Montferrat 1530–1533. John George's family, the Palaeologus-Montferrat family descended from Theodore Palaiologos, a son of Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos. Though portions of their recent claimed ancestry are documented, contradictions in their genealogy exist and their descent remains incompletely verified and disputed, with some genealogists wholly dismissing their claims. If they were to be genuine, the Paleologo-Oriundi would be male-line descendants of the last dynasty of Byzantine emperors, though they would not be considered part of that dynasty proper on account of their descent through an illegitimate son.
