margrave of Ivrea Anscar of Ivrea

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 37339

Notes:

Anscar I (died March 902) was the margrave of Ivrea from 888 to his death. From 877 or 879, he was the count of Oscheret in Burgundy. He supported Guy III of Spoleto for the throne of France after the deposition of Charles the Fat in 887, but after Guy's failed attempt and the coronation of Odo, Count of Paris, he returned with Guy across the Alps, where the duke was elected King of Italy. In gratitude, he created the March of Ivrea in the northeast and invested his Burgundian supporter. He was a son of the count Amadeus of Oscheret of possible Bavarian origin with landholdings also in Tegernsee. Anscar was a counsellor of Boso of Provence and brother of Fulk, Archbishop of Rheims, who strongly supported the Carolingian dynasty in France. With Fulk, he probably invited Guy to France. Anscar fought on behalf of Guy's kingship in Italy. He battled Arnulf of Carinthia during the latter's invasion of 894 and he supported Guy's son Lambert after Guy's death that year. In 896, he was one of the few in the north to oppose Arnulf second invasion. After Lambert's death, he supported Berengar of Friuli as king and became his chief counsellor.

Anscar's wife was unknown, but he had only one son, Adalbert, through whom he was the progenitor of a dynasty, the Anscarids.

Anscar — . Unknown [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 37337

Notes:

Adalbert I (died 17 July 923 or 8 October 924) was the son of Anscar of Ivrea and, from his death in 902, margrave of Ivrea.

He rebelled against his father-in-law Berengar I in 905 in support of Louis III. When Louis was defeated, captured, and blinded, Adalbert was exiled to Burgundy, whence his family had originated. He later returned and rebelled again, this time with Lambert, Archbishop of Milan, in support of another rival for the Italian throne: Rudolf II of Burgundy. Initially unsuccessful, he and Rudolf jointly defeated Berengar at the Battle of Firenzuola on 29 July 923.

He married firstly, before 900, Gisela of Friuli, a daughter of Berengar I of Italy and Bertila of Spoleto. With her, he had two children:

Berengar, successor
Bertha, abbess of Modena

Around 915, he married Ermengard, the daughter Adalbert II of Tuscany and Bertha, daughter of Lothair II. From this marriage he had a second son, Anscar, Duke of Spoleto.

Adalbert — Gisela of Friuli. (daughter of Berengar I of Italy) [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Berengar II of Italy
• Reference Number: 37336

Notes:

Berengar was a son of Margrave Adalbert I of Ivrea and his wife Gisela of Friuli, daughter of the Unruoching king Berengar I of Italy. He thereby was a direct descendant of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious in the female line. He succeeded his father as margrave about 923 and married Willa, daughter of the Bosonid margrave Boso of Tuscany and niece of King Hugh of Italy. The chronicler Liutprand of Cremona, raised at Berengar's court at Pavia, gives several particularly vivid accounts of her character.

About 940 Berengar led a revolt of Italian nobles against the rule of his uncle. To evade an assault by Hugh's liensmen, he, forewarned by the king's young son Lothair, had to flee to the court of King Otto I of Germany. Otto avoided taking sides, nevertheless in 845 Berengar could return to Italy with hired troops, welcomed by the local nobility. Hugh was defeated and retired to Arles, he was nominally succeeded by Lothair. From the time of Berengar's successful uprising, all real power and patronage in the Kingdom of Italy was concentrated in his hands with Hugh's son Lothair as titular king. Lothair's brief reign ended upon his early death in 950, presumably poisoned.

Berengar then assumed the royal title with his son Adalbert as co-ruler. He attempted to legitimize his kingship by forcing Lothair's widow Adelaide, the respective daughter, daughter-in-law, and widow of the last three Italian kings, into marriage with Adalbert. However, the young woman fiercely refused, whereafter Berengar had her imprisoned at Garda Castle, allegedly mistreated by Berengars's wife Willa. With the help of Count Adalbert Atto of Canossa she managed to flee and entreated the protection of King Otto of Germany. Otto, himself a widower since 946, took the occasion to gain the Iron Crown of Lombardy: Adelaide's requests for intervention resulted in his 951 invasion of Italy. Berengar had to entrench himself at San Marino, while Otto received the homage of the Italian nobility, married Adelaide himself, and assumed the title of a King of the Lombards. He afterwards returned to Germany, appointing his son-in-law Conrad the Red Italian regent at Pavia.

Berengar by Conrad's agency appeared at the 952 Reichstag in Augsburg and paid homage to Otto. He and his son Adalbert remained Italian kings as Otto's vassals, though they had to cede the territory of the former March of Friuli to him, which the German king enfeoffed to his younger brother Duke Henry I of Bavaria as the Imperial March of Verona.
Berengar remained a rebellious subordinate: when Otto had to deal with the revolt of his son Duke Liudolf of Swabia in 953, he attacked the Veronese march and also laid siege to Count Adalbert Atto's Canossa Castle. After 960, he even invaded the Papal States under Pope John XII, on whose appeal finally KIng Otto, aiming at his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor, again marched against Italy. Berengar's troops deserted him and Otto by Christmas 961 had taken Pavia by default and declared Berengar deposed. He proceeded to Rome, where he was crowned emperor on 2 February 962. He then once more turned against Berengar, who was besieged at San Leo.

Meanwhile Pope John had entered on negotiations with Berengar's son Adalbert, which in 963 caused Otto to move into Rome, where he deposed the pope and had Leo VIII elected. The next year, Berengar finally surrendered to Otto's forces, he was captured and imprisoned at Bamberg in Germany, where he died in 966. His wife Willa spent the rest of her life in a German nunnery.

Berengar — . Unknown [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Rozala of Italy, Rozala of Provence, or Susannah of Italy
• Reference Number: 37335

Rozala — Arnulf II of Flanders. Arnulf (son of Baldwin III of Flanders) was born Between 960 and 961; died 30 Mar 987. [Group Sheet]