Adalbert Atto from Canossa

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Adalbert-Atto von Canossa, Vita Mathildis des Donizio, around 1115. Vatican City, FOT, Ms. Vat. Lat. 4922, fol. 20v.

Adalbert Atto von Canossa († February 13, 988 ) also called Adalberto Azzo, was the first Count of Canossa. He was also Count of Reggio nell'Emilia , Mantua and Modena and played a role in the disputes between Emperor Otto I the Great and Berengar II King of Italy (950 - 961).

origin

Adalbert Atto came from a longobard noble family who controlled Lucca around 940 and at the same time had extensive territories in Lombardy. His father, Count Sigifredus , immigrated to Lucca, had extensive estates in Lombardy around 940 and, together with his sons Adalbert Atto, Sigifredus II († n. 972), and Gerardus († v. 998), in the Apennines , 18 km southwest of Reggio nell'Emilia ( Italy ) had Canossa Castle built.

The name and origin of his mother are not known.

Life

The first news about the life of Adalbert Atto concerns the arrival of the family, that is, his father, Count Sigifredus, and his three sons in Lucca. Adalbert Atto therefore probably lived in Lucca for some time. According to the same source, Atto was the builder of Canossa Castle, which he is said to have built in May 915. With regard to his other known life dates, however, this appears extremely early, as he did not die until after 975. It can therefore be assumed that this castle was built by him, his father and his brothers together around 940.

Remains of Canossa Castle, Reggio Emilia Province .

Adalbert Atto was Count of Reggio nell'Emilia and a feudal man of the King of Italy, Lothar II (948 - 950) from the House of Bosonids and was also in the service of Bishop Adelard of Reggio.

Help for Queen Adelheid

The fact that he stood up for the widow of Lothar II , the Queen of Italy Adelheid (* 931, † December 16, 999) was essential for the further rise of his house . She was the daughter of King Rudolf II of Hochburgund , who was also King of Italy from 922 to 926.

After his death on November 22, 950 Berengar II , Margrave of Ivrea , who had previously led the reign, was elected king and wanted to marry the queen widow Adelheid with his son Adalbert II (936-971) to secure his rule . When she refused, Berengar II locked her in a tower in Garda Castle in 951 . However, with the help of Bishop Adelard von Reggio and Adalbert Atto, she was able to flee with her daughter Emma and found friendly reception and protection in his rock castle Canossa. This dramatic escape was also told by Hrotsvit von Gandersheim in her work “ Gesta Oddonis ” about the life of Emperor Otto I.

From Canossa Castle, Adelheid called the Roman-German King Otto I to help, who then set out on his first trip to Italy in early September 951 and crossed the Alps personally with an army. King Berengar II fled to the mountain fortress of San Marino from his capital Pavia in the face of the approaching army . King Otto I was thus able to move into the Lombard royal city of Pavia on September 23, 951 . After Charles Cawley, it was Adalbert Atto who mediated the marriage between the widowed King Otto I and Adelheid.

Empress Adelheid next to her husband, King Otto I, in the Meissen Cathedral

As a daughter, daughter-in-law and widow of kings, Adelheid met all the requirements of a royal bride and was also able to convey certain claims to the crown of Italy. Last but not least, the widow was only about nineteen, attractive and educated. In any case, King Otto sent messengers from Pavia and asked the queen-widow Adelheid for her hand. He married Adelheid in Pavia in 951 and was then proclaimed King of the Lombards .

Consequences of helpfulness

Since Adelheid became the wife of King Otto I, Adalbert Atto not only had the merit of being the widow of a deceased - nominal - King of Italy, but also the wife of the future Roman-German Emperor - and a later saint - in need of assistance to have. He was therefore in high esteem with her and Otto I. This had a very beneficial effect on his estate, since his family were given the counties of Modena , Carpi and Reggio in 962 , the county of Mantua in 977 , and the county of Brescia in 980 .

With this positive turnaround for Adalbert Atto, the matter was by no means over. Somewhat surprisingly for him there was a compromise between Otto I and Berengar II. The punishment for the imprisonment of the now queen of Otto I consisted only in the fact that Berengar was forced at the Augsburg Reichstag on August 7, 952, the (reduced) Kingdom of Italy to rule as a vassal of King Otto I and no longer as sovereign. Despite this legal disadvantage, Berengar remained in power. The weakening of King Otto I by the uprising of his son Liudolf 952/53 offered Berengar the opportunity to by Pope John XII. (955 - 964) and the nobles loyal to the emperor to recapture the territories lost to them. This also happened to Adalbert Atto, who was besieged in his castle Canossa by a force of King Berengar. He therefore turned to King Otto I, who in 957 sent his - reconciled - son Liudolf with an army to Canossa, who forced Berengar to give up the siege and drove him to a mountain fortress.

Berengar II, however, was persistent. When Liudolf died shortly afterwards on September 6, 957, Berengar again took control of Italy. The moment had come for him to take revenge on his enemies again. He not only harassed Adalberto Atto and other fiefdoms of the empire in Italy, but also the - only nineteen year old - Pope John XII. In the year 960 they again called for help to King Otto. He then decided to combine the punitive expedition with the long-planned train to Rome for the imperial coronation. He crossed the Alps, entered Pavia without a fight and declared Berengar II, who had fled to the fortress of San Leo di Montefeltro, deposed. Even Berengar's attempt to form a daring coalition consisting of Pope John XII, who had fallen away from the meanwhile crowned Emperor Otto I, the Saracens of Fraxinetum , and the Hungarians could not ultimately avert his fate. He finally had to surrender in 964, was taken as a prisoner to Bamberg , where he died in 966. Pope John XII was deposed at a synod in Rome on December 4, 963.

Adalbert Atto was finally able to enjoy his extensive county property undisturbed. He appears in documents on April 20, 962 as Count of Modena and Reggio and on June 10, 977 as Count of the County of Mantua.

Ownership extension 984

From the year 984 he is called Margrave in documents. In the same year external circumstances led to a substantial expansion of the Canossa property. Emperor Otto II died in 983. His son and successor - the future Emperor Otto III. - was a three year old child at the time. Heinrich II. Duke of Bavaria, known as the quarrel, a cousin of the late emperor, saw this as an opportunity to ascend the throne of the empire himself. He was therefore proclaimed and paid homage to the new Roman-German king in Quedlinburg and Magdeburg as the successor to his cousin, Emperor Otto II (973-983).

To support this usurpation he tried to get important representatives of the imperial aristocracy on his side. Adalbert Atto, who was considered a reliable pillar of the imperial power in Italy and had a key strategic function due to the location of his possessions, benefited from this situation, as "King" Heinrich enfeoffed him with the counties of Parma , Piacenza , Bergamo , Cremona and Brescia .

However, Heinrich had underestimated the energy and diplomatic skills of two women who were directly affected by his usurpation: the emperor's widow, Theophanu (* around 960; † 991) and his mother, Adelheid of Burgundy - the same one Adalbert Atto had before many Years ago in Canossa. Together with Willigis , Imperial Chancellor and Archbishop of Mainz (975-1011), they succeeded in a short time in succession to the throne of the crowned but only three-year-old son of Emperor Otto II. As King Otto III. to ensure. While Heinrich had to submit to his three-year-old nephew in order to at least get his Duchy of Bavaria back, Alberto Atto was able to keep the counties that had been awarded to him, since he had shown his loyalty to the young king in good time.

Relations with the bishops who had their diocese in his counties were not entirely unproblematic for Adalberto Atto. Despite Adalbert Atto's enfeoffment with the counties, the counties insisted on exercising the authority of the count themselves in the cities of their bishopric. In order to put an end to the dispute, as a compromise, the count's office was finally divided in such a way that Adalbert Atto was count of the respective county, but the bishop exercised the count's rights in his royal seat. Adalbert Atto therefore appears in contemporary documents often as "Count of County X" and not as "Count of X."

Adalbert Atto died on February 13 after 975 or 988 and was buried in the church of the monastery of St. Appollonius near Canossa, which he founded.

Patrons and donors

Adalbert set up several religious foundations, including the establishment of a monastery in Canossa in 961. This was consecrated to Saint Apollonius and from then on served as the burial place of the house. Both he and his wife and children were buried there. In addition, he donated another monastery in Brescello on the banks of the Po in the Reggio Emilia region and equipped this with land for the construction of the buildings and for the maintenance of the monastic community.

Marriage and children

Adalbert Atto was married to Ildegarda (Hildegard) († January 11, 982), whose family has not been established, but which probably came from the house of the Supponids.

The following children are known from this marriage:

  • Rodolfo († before the father on July 21, 973/74),
  • Tedaldo († Canossa May 8, 1012), Margrave, Count of Reggio etc. He became the closer progenitor of the house ∞ Willa von Spoleto († August 30, before 1007), daughter of Teubaldo Margrave and Duke of Spoleto,
  • Prangarda ∞ v. March 8, 991 Manfredo I Margrave of Turin († 1000),
  • Goffredo († n. 998), 970 bishop and count of Brescia.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Poull, G. (1994) La Maison souveraine et ducale de Bar (Presses Universitaires de Nancy), p. 33
  2. ↑ Ernst W. Wies: "Otto the Grosse - Fighters and Prayers", 3rd edition, 1989, Verlag Bechtle, Esslingen, Munich, ISBN 3-7628-0483-4 , p. 134
  3. ^ Charles Cawley: Medieval Lands in Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Northern Italy, Conti di Reggio. (Marchesi e Conti di Mantua)
  4. ↑ Ernst W. Wies: "Otto the Grosse - Fighters and Prayers", 3rd edition, 1989, Verlag Bechtle, Esslingen, Munich, ISBN 3-7628-0483-4 , p. 133
  5. ^ Ernst W. Wies: "Otto der Grosse - Fighters and Prayers", 3rd edition, 1989, Verlag Bechtle, Esslingen, Munich, ISBN 3-7628-0483-4 , p. 213
  6. ↑ Wickham, Chris. Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400-1000. MacMillan Press: 1981.
  7. ^ Charles Cawley: Medieval Lands in Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Northern Italy, Conti di Reggio. Note [897] The poem Matilde e I Canossa, by Donizone, verses 407-416 and 590, cited in Poull (1994), p. 33.
personal data
SURNAME Adalbert Atto from Canossa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Adalberto Azzo from Canossa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Margrave, Count of Canossa
DATE OF BIRTH 10th century
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 988