Sardinian judiciary
The four Sardinian judicates (= rule by a judge) originated in the 9th century when the island of Sardinia belonged to Byzantium , which it was unable to protect due to internal problems. Because of this isolation and raids by the Arabian pirate fleet , the coastal areas of Sardinia became depopulated. Cities like Bithia , Cornus , Nora and Tharros were permanently devastated . Therefore, autonomous political structures developed on the island.
The four judicates documented in the 11th century (sard. Rénnu or lógu) emerged successively : Cagliari , Logudoro , Arborea and Gallura . Each of the independent Sardinian territories was ruled by a iudike , a judge. At this time, the rural churches of Sant'Elia di Tattinu near Nuxis , San Giovanni in Sinis on the Sinis peninsula and San Giovanni Battista in Assemini , as miniatures of San Saturno , emerged as eloquent testimony to the economic decline and the rule of the Orthodox clergy . The Arborea judiciary founded the today's Sardinian provincial capital Oristano in 1070 , when the judge Onroccus moved the court of Tharros there.
Since the island was still threatened and Pope Benedict VIII sought to exert his influence here, he took the conquest of southern Sardinia in 1015 by al-Muğāhid al-'Amirī, Lord of Dénia in the Caliphate of Córdoba, as an opportunity to take the two sea powers Genoa and To mobilize Pisa , which the Saracens defeated on the Sardinian coast in 1016 and thus gained privileges on the island. Pisa expanded these privileges in the judiciary of Cagliari to such an extent that a Pisan assumed the judiciary through marriage at the beginning of the 13th century. The north of the island was under the influence of both sea powers and Gallura lost its autonomy to Pisa shortly afterwards through marriage . In 1238, Enzio , the son of Frederick II , married Adelasia, who ruled Torres and Gallura. In 1239, when Frederick appointed him king of Sardinia, Enzio was unable to enforce his rule because of other obligations. After Adelasia's death in 1259, Torres fell to the Genoese families of Doria , Malaspina and Spinola .
In the dispute between the emperor and the pope, the Italian city-states also came under pressure, and their territories in Sardinia became the plaything of the powers that be. In 1297, King James II of Aragón received Sardinia from the Pope as a fief. When in 1326 the Aragonese claim to rule by Alfonso IV , the successor of Jacob II, was realized with the conquest of Cagliari and his appointment as king of Sardinia, the abolition of the judiciary intended by the popes was almost a success.
The only judiciary that still retained its independence was Arborea, which initially defended itself against the conquerors under its iudikissa Eleonora di Arborea (1347-1404), from 1383 a judge, until 1478. Eleonora di Arborea completed her father's Carta de Lógu , a collection and modification of all relevant legal texts in Sardinian at the time . This charter , now kept in the University Library of Cagliari, was valid until 1827. The Sardinians still revere Judikissa Eleonora as a national heroine.
literature
- Berz, Michael: Sardinia under the influence of Eleonora d'Arborea. Portrait of a Sardinian ruler between history and legend , diploma thesis Univ. Passau, 1996.