Hildegard (a Supponid daughter) and her husband Adalbert-Atto of Canossa, are depicted in a Medieval manuscript under noble arches and above their three sons Rudolph, Geoffrey (Gotofred), and Tedald (the grandfather of Matilda of Tuscany)
The family consolidated its holdings in northern Italy through the 820s, 830s, and 840s, often controlling the counties of Brescia (hereditarily), Parma, Cremona, and Piacenza among others. Their power was extended and not highly centralised. They shared power with the bishops in the cities and were stoutly loyal to the emperors in order to ensure the peace and stability necessary to rule their vast and separated domains in the Po valley. This loyalty bought them great power, especially in their heartland of Emilia.
A Supponid daughter, Engelberga, married the Emperor Louis II. With her influence, the Supponids became the most powerful noble family in Italy during the two decades of Louis's reign and one of the few to hold high offices. Following Louis's death, the Supponids supported their relatives, the dukes of Friuli, and the German claimants for the Italian crown against the Guideschi dukes of Spoleto and the West Franks. Their influence declined rapidly after they fell out with Berengar I in 913 and joined the faction of Rudolph II of Burgundy in 922.
↑ Nash, Penelope (2017). Empress Adelheid and Countess Matilda: Medieval Female Rulership and the Foundations of European Society. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN978-1-137-59088-6.
Wickham, Chris. Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400-1000. MacMillan Press: 1981.
Year 824 (DCCCXXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Lothair I was a 9th-century Carolingian emperor and king of Italy (818–855) and Middle Francia (843–855).
Louis II, sometimes called the Younger, was the king of Italy and emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 844, co-ruling with his father Lothair I until 855, after which he ruled alone.
Conrad I, called the Younger, was the king of East Francia from 911 to 918. He was the first king not of the Carolingian dynasty, the first to be elected by the nobility and the first to be anointed. He was chosen as the king by the rulers of the East Frankish stem duchies after the death of young King Louis the Child. Ethnically Frankish, prior to this election he had ruled the Duchy of Franconia from 906.
The history of Italy in the Middle Ages can be roughly defined as the time between the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the Italian Renaissance. Late antiquity in Italy lingered on into the 7th century under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty, the Byzantine Papacy until the mid 8th century. The "Middle Ages" proper begin as the Byzantine Empire was weakening under the pressure of the Muslim conquests, and most of the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell under Lombard rule in 751. From this period, former states that were part of the Exarchate and were not conquered by the Lombard Kingdom, such as the Duchy of Naples, became de facto independent states, having less and less interference from the Eastern Roman Empire.
The Duke of Spoleto was the ruler of Spoleto and most of central Italy outside the Papal States during the Early and High Middle Ages. The first dukes were appointed by the Lombard king, but they were independent in practice. The Carolingian conquerors of the Lombards continued to appoint dukes, as did their successors the Holy Roman Emperors. In the 12th century, the dukes of Spoleto were the most important imperial vassals in Italy. From 1198, the Duchy became under the sovereignty of the States of the Church.
In medieval historiography, West Francia or the Kingdom of the West Franks constitutes the initial stage of the Kingdom of France and extends from the year 843, from the Treaty of Verdun, to 987, the beginning of the Capetian dynasty. It was created from the division of the Carolingian Empire following the death of Louis the Pious, with its neighbor East Francia eventually evolving into the Kingdom of Germany.
Ermengard of Italy was Queen of Provence as the spouse of King Boso. She was the second and only surviving child of Emperor Louis II. In her early life, she was betrothed to Constantine, the junior Byzantine emperor, but whether the marriage actually occurred or not is still debated among historians. In 871, Ermengard and her family were taken hostage by Adelchis of Benevento but were later freed. In 876, Ermengard married Boso, a nobleman with connections to the Carolingian dynasty, and became queen upon his accession to the throne of Provence in 879. After her husband's death in 887, she served as regent of the kingdom during the minority of her son Louis the Blind.
Lambert I was the duke and margrave of Spoleto on two occasions, first from 859 to 871 and then from 876 to his death.
The Bosonids were a dynasty of Carolingian era dukes, counts, bishops and knights descended from Boso the Elder. Eventually they married into the Carolingian dynasty and produced kings and an emperor of the Frankish Empire.
Adalbert Atto was the first Count of Canossa and founder of that noble house which eventually was to play a determinant role in the political settling of Regnum Italicum and the Investiture Controversy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Suppo I was a Frankish nobleman who held lands in the Kingdom of Italy in the early ninth century.
Bertila of Spoleto was the wife of Berengar I of Italy, and by marriage Queen consort of Italy and Holy Roman Empress.
Suppo II was the Duke of Spoleto from 871 until his death. He was the archiminister (archminister) and consiliarius (counsellor) of the Emperor Louis II. In 869-870 he travelled to Constantinople as imperial missus together with Anastasius the Librarian, to negotiate a peace with the Byzantines. Throughout Louis's reign he was the most powerful lay magnate in Italy.
Suppo II (835-885) was a member of the Supponid family. Engelberga, the wife of Louis II may have been his sister. He was Count of Parma, Asti, and Turin. Along with his cousin, Suppo III, he was the chief lay magnate in Italy during Louis's reign.
Adelchis I or Adelgis I was the Count of Parma by the 830s, of Cremona after 841, and eventually of Brescia. According to some sources, he succeeded to the Duchy of Spoleto in 824. He was a second son of Suppo I and father of Suppo II. His main area of interest was in the Aemilia and eastern Lombardy.
The Conradines or Conradiner were a dynasty of Franconian counts and dukes in the 8th to 11th Century, named after Duke Conrad the Elder and his son King Conrad I of Germany.
The papal nobility are the aristocracy of the Holy See, composed of persons holding titles bestowed by the Pope. From the Middle Ages into the nineteenth century, the papacy held direct temporal power in the Papal States, and many titles of papal nobility were derived from fiefs with territorial privileges attached. During this time, the Pope also bestowed ancient civic titles such as patrician. Today, the Pope still exercises authority to grant titles with territorial designations, although these are purely nominal and the privileges enjoyed by the holders pertain to styles of address and heraldry. Additionally, the Pope grants personal and familial titles that carry no territorial designation. Their titles being merely honorific, the modern papal nobility includes descendants of ancient Roman families as well as notable Catholics from many countries. All pontifical noble titles are within the personal gift of the pontiff, and are not recorded in the Official Acts of the Holy See.
The County of Piacenza was a county of the Frankish kingdom of Italy. Its centre was the ancient and walled city of Piacenza at the confluence of the Trebbia and the Po, just downriver from the royal capital of Pavia. Much of the county was dominated by the Apennine Mountains. It roughly corresponds to the modern province of Piacenza.
The Frankish emperor Louis II campaigned against the Emirate of Bari continuously from 866 until 871. Louis was allied with the Lombard principalities of southern Italy from the start, but an attempt at joint action with the Byzantine Empire failed in 869. In the final siege of the city of Bari in 871, Louis was assisted by a Slavic fleet from across the Adriatic.
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