Everything about Guy Iii Of Spoleto totally explained
Guy of Spoleto (died
12 December 894), sometimes known by the Italian version of his name,
Guido, or by the German version,
Wido, was the
margrave of Camerino from
880 (as Guy I or Guy II) and then
duke of Spoleto and Camerino (as
Guy III) from
883. He was crowned
King of Italy in
889 and—at least on parchment—
Holy Roman Emperor in
891.
Guy was the second son of
Guy I of Spoleto and Itta, daughter of
Sico of Benevento. Guy I was the son of
Lambert I of Nantes and his second wife,
Adelaide of Lombardy, who was a daughter of
Charlemagne's eldest son,
Pepin of Italy. In
842, the former
Duchy of Spoleto, which had been donated to the
Papacy by Charlemagne, was resurrected by the
Franks to be held against
Byzantine catapans to the south, as a Frankish border territory by a dependent
margrave. Guy's elder brother,
Lambert, willed Guy the march of
Camerino. In 883, Guy inherited his nephew's share (Spoleto) and reunited the dukedom, henceforth as the "Duchy of Spoleto and Camerino" bearing the title of
dux et marchio. He married
Ageltrude, daughter of
Adelchis of Benevento, who bore him a son named
Lambert.
In 882, at a diet at
Ravenna, the Emperor
Charles the Fat dispossessed him of his fiefs for a felony, but he recovered them the next year and his titles. In 885, he fought the
Saracens of the
Garigliano.
After the deposition of Charles the Fat in
887, by virtue of being a relative of
Archbishop Fulk of Rheims, he'd hopes of being crowned
king of France, and in fact travelled as far as
Langres, where the bishop crowned him as such. But because of
Odo's coronation that year (888), he turned and went back with designs on the crown of
Italy and the
emperorship.
Guy of Spoleto was opposed by
Berengar of Friuli for the
Iron Crown of Lombardy, but succeeded in having himself crowned
King of Italy by
Pope Stephen VI in 889 and then as
Roman Emperor in May 891, when he'd his son
Lambert II crowned king. The following year (892), at
Ravenna on
30 April, Guy forced
Pope Formosus to crown Lambert as co-emperor.
The pope took the next opportunity to oppose Guy by supporting
Arnulf of Carinthia for the Italian and imperial titles. In
893, Formosus invited Arnulf to come to
Pavia to overthrow Guy and be crowned himself. Arnulf instead sent his son
Zwentibold with an army to join Berengar, the deposed king, and march on Pavia. Their joint army surrounded Pavia, but Guy probably bribed them to leave him unmolested. The following year, they defeated Guy at
Bergamo and took Pavia and
Milan. Berengar was recognised as king and a vassal of Arnulf. Zwentibold returned to Germany. Guy retreated in order to regroup at a fortified place on the
Taro and died there suddenly in late autumn, leaving his son under the tutelage of his wife. Both would contest the throne with Berengar and Arnulf.
Guy's power never extended over much hereditary lands, which offered stark illustration of the fact that the imperial title, with its pretensions of universal rule, had by the end of the
ninth century become merely a token of the pope's favour, to be fought over by various Italian nobles. He didn't even firmly control the north of Italy, battling other claimants over the throne for much of his reign. He did try to maintain the Carolingian tradition and issue
capitularies as former emperors had. In 891, he demanded the traditional service in the army of all
arimanni, whether they owned land or not.
Sources
- Caravale, Mario (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: LXI Guglielmo Gonzaga – Jacobini. Rome, 2003.
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