History
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, even 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.
Northern Italy is a geographical region in the northern part of Italy. Non-administrative, it consists of eight administrative Regions in northern Italy: Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. As of 2014, its population was 27,801,460. Rhaeto-Romance and Gallo-Italic languages are spoken in the region, as opposed to the Italo-Dalmatian languages spoken in the rest of Italy.
Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometres from the lakes Garda and Iseo. With a population of about 200,000, it is the second largest city in the region and the fourth of northwest Italy. The urban area of Brescia extends beyond the administrative city limits and has a population of 672,822, while over 1.5 million people live in its metropolitan area. The city is the administrative capital of the Province of Brescia, one of the largest in Italy, with over 1,200,000 inhabitants.
Parma is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. It is home to the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world. Parma is divided into two parts by the stream of the same name. The district on the far side of the river is Oltretorrente. Parma's Etruscan name was adapted by Romans to describe the round shield called Parma.
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. They are not heard of after the middle of the tenth century.
The Iron Crown of Lombardy is both a reliquary and one of the oldest royal insignias of Christendom. It was made in the Early Middle Ages, consisting of a circlet of gold and jewels fitted around a central silver band, which tradition holds to be made of iron beaten out of a nail of the True Cross. The crown became one of the symbols of the Kingdom of the Lombards and later of the medieval Kingdom of Italy. It is kept in the Cathedral of Monza, outside Milan.
Rudolph II, a member of the Elder House of Welf, was King of Burgundy from 912 until his death. He initially succeeded in Upper Burgundy and also ruled as King of Italy from 922 to 926. In 933 Rudolph acquired the Kingdom of Lower Burgundy (Provence) from King Hugh of Italy in exchange for the waiver of his claims to the Italian crown, thereby establishing the united Burgundian Kingdom of Arles.
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Pope Stephen VIII was Pope from 14 July 939 to his death in 942.
Lothair I or Lothar I was the Holy Roman Emperor, and the governor of Bavaria (815–817), King of Italy (818–855) and Middle Francia (840–855).
Louis II, sometimes called the Younger, was the King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 844, co-ruling with his father Lothair I until 855, after which he ruled alone. Louis's usual title was imperator augustus, but he used imperator Romanorum after his conquest of Bari in 871, which led to poor relations with the Eastern Roman Empire. He was called imperator Italiae in West Francia while the Byzantines called him Basileus Phrangias. The chronicler Andreas of Bergamo, who is the main source for Louis's activities in southern Italy, notes that "after his death a great tribulation came to Italy."
The Duchy of Benevento was the southernmost Lombard duchy in the Italian peninsula, centered on Benevento, a city in Southern Italy. Being cut off from the rest of the Lombard possessions by the papal Duchy of Rome, Benevento was practically independent from the start. Only during the reigns of Grimoald I of Benevento and the kings from Liutprand on was the duchy closely tied to the kingdom. After the fall of the kingdom, however, alone of Lombard territories it remained as a rump state, and maintained its de facto independence for nearly three hundred years, though it was divided after 849.
Berengar I was the King of Italy from 887. He became Holy Roman Emperor after 915, until his death in 924. He is usually known as Berengar of Friuli, since he ruled the March of Friuli from 874 until at least 890, but he had lost control of the region by 896.
Kingdom of Burgundy was a name given to various states located in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The historical Burgundy correlates with the border area of France, Italy and Switzerland and includes the major modern cities of Geneva and Lyon.
In medieval historiography, West Francia or the Kingdom of the West Franks was the western part of Charlemagne's Empire, ruled by the Germanic Franks that forms the earliest stage of the Kingdom of France, lasting from about 840 until 987. West Francia was formed out of the division of the Carolingian Empire in 843 under the Treaty of Verdun after the death of Emperor Louis the Pious and the east–west division which "gradually hardened into the establishment of separate kingdoms (...) of what we can begin to call Germany and France."
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.
The Widonids, Guidonids or Vitone were an Italian family of Frankish origin prominent in the ninth century. They were descended from Guy of Nantes, whose origins were Austrasian. They were an aggressive dynasty, expanding their base of power into the Papal States, ever loyal to the Empire and never the Papacy. They were related to the Carolingians in the female line and one even made a claim to the throne of France on that basis. The Widonids and the Rogonids competed for control of the Breton March through much of the ninth century.
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 Italy and the Investiture Controversy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Mauring was a Frankish nobleman, the son of Suppo I of the Supponids. He succeeded his father in Brescia as count in 822 and, following the brief reign of Adelard, in Spoleto as duke in August 824. According to the Annales of Einhard and the Royal Frankish Annals, he died within a few days of his succession.
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.
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.
Wibod was the Bishop of Parma from 855 until his death. He was, during the reigns of Louis II, Carloman, Charles III, and Berengar I, the most important power-broker in Emilia.
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.
