Notes:

Adalbert Atto (or Adalberto Azzo) (died 13 February 988) was the first Count of Canossa and founder of that noble house which eventually was to play a determinant rôle in the political settling of Italy and the Investiture Controversy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Adalbert first appears in sources as a son of Sigifred, who is called de comitatu Lucensi, signifying that he hailed from Lucca. He was originally a vassal of King Lothair II and a miles of Adelard, Bishop of Reggio. He rose to prominence rapidly by sheltering Queen Adelaide in his castle at Canossa after she fled from the castle of Garda (951), where Berengar II had imprisoned her.

In 958, he was made a count sine re, by Adelaide. He did not appear again as a count in documents until December 961, during Berengar's ascendancy. On 20 April 962, he appeared as count of Reggio and Modena (comes Regensis sive Mutinensis). These appointments were probably a further product of his support for Adelaide and her new husband, Otto I of Germany. With the queen, he negotiated a division of power with the bishop of Reggio whereby the bishop was confirmed as comes civitatis, count of the city, and Adalbert as comes comitatus, count of the county, where the county was said to begin three or four miles outside the city walls. He appears with a similar title, comes comitatus Mantuanensis, in Mantua in a letter of the abbess of Santa Giulia dated 10 June 977.

In 984, Adalbert appears as a margrave. When Henry II, Duke of Bavaria, was acclaimed as king that year, he united Parma, Piacenza, Bergamo, Cremona, and Brescia to Adalbert's territories. However, Henry's usurpation of the throne was brief.

Adalbert Atto built a monastery at Canossa in 961, dedicated to S. Apollonio in 971. He also built a monastery at Brescello. He and his family were all buried in S. Apollonio.

Adalbert married the Supponid Hildegard (Ildegarda) and had three sons: Geoffrey and Tedald, who became respectively bishop (970) and count (1001) of Brescia, and Rudolph, who predeceased him. He had a daughter Prangarda who married Manfred I of Susa.

Adalbert — Hildegard. [Group Sheet]

Prangarda — Manfred, I of Turin. Manfred (son of Arduin Glaber and Emilia) died 1000. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Ulric Manfred II (or Olderico Manfredi II or Manfredo Udalrico; 992 - 29 October 1034) was the Margrave of Turin and Susa in the early 11th century.

Biography

Born in Turin, Ulric Manfred was the son of Manfred I. Ulric Manfred inherited a vast march centred on Turin (1000), which had been created from the lands of Arduin Glaber. By a charter dated 31 July 1001, the Emperor Otto III confirmed his possessions and granted him several privileges. This grant was requested by Hugonis marchionis, probably Hugh the Great, margrave of Tuscany.

Ulric Manfred, immediately upon his succession, began to consolidate his power vis-à-vis Arduin of the March of Ivrea on one hand and the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II on the other. In the fight over the regnum Italicum, he gained a great deal of territory at the expense of the Eporedian march. By the preserved notarial deeds of a priest named Sigifred (1021 and 1031), a precise catalogue of the cities under his control can be known: Turin, Ivrea, Albenga, Ventimiglia, Auriate, Tortona, and Vercelli. In all the wars between Arduin and Henry, Ulric Manfred prudently avoided any confrontation with the two leaders and gradually extended his territories by arms (he was at war with the margrave of Tuscany, Boniface III, in 1016) and by increasing his authority within his proper domains. In 1024, following the death of Henry, he opposed the election of Conrad II and instead invited William V of Aquitaine to take the Italian throne, but to no avail.

Ulric Manfred, though his capital was Turin, rarely resided in that strategic, but small city. He lived an itinerant life typical for an early eleventh century feudal lord, moving from castle to castle in order to maintain his control and to effect the administration of his dominions. His daughter Adelaide abandoned Turin as a capital and the itinerant baronial lifestyle for setting up house in Susa.

Ulric Manfred restored the old church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Susa and Novalesa Abbey. He also founded, in 1029, a new Benedictine abbey in Susa, for the relics of Saint Justus of Novalesa (Italian: San Giusto) and also dedicated to him. The church of the Abbey of San Giusto is now Susa Cathedral. He fortified the villages of Exilles and Bardonecchia. He died at Turin and was buried there in the cathedral.

Family

Ulric Manfred married Bertha (born 997) of the Obertenghi, daughter of Oberto II, in 1014. That year, the Emperor Henry confirmed their joint donation to the abbey of Fruttuaria. On 29 December 1037, the Emperor Conrad confirmed a donation to San Giusto expressly without her. She must therefore have died in the meanwhile. Other than his aforementioned heir, Adelaide, Ulric Manfred had two other daughters:

Irmgard (also Emilia or Immula; died 28 January 1078), married Otto III, Duke of Swabia
Bertha (died after 1050), inherited Vasto and Busco, married Otto, Marquis of Liguria (a great-grandson of Aleram) and was the mother of Boniface del Vasto

Ulric married Bertha, of the Obertenghi 1014. Bertha (daughter of Otbert, II Margrave of Milan) was born 997; died Bef 29 Dec 1037. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Adelaide of Susa (also Adelheid, Adelais, or Adeline; ca. 1014/1020 - 19 December 1091) was the Marchioness of Turin from 1034 to her death. She moved the seat of the march from Turin to Susa and settled the itinerant court there. She was the last of the Arduinici.

Biography

Born in Turin to Ulric Manfred II and Bertha, daughter of Oberto II around 1014/1020, Adelaide's early life is not well known. Her only brother predeceased her father in 1034, though she had two younger sisters, Immilla and Bertha. Thus, on Ulric's death, the great margraviate was divided between his three daughters, though the greatest part by far went to Adelaide. She received the counties of Ivrea, Auriate, Aosta, and Turin. The margravial title, however, had primarily a military purpose at the time and, thus, was not considered suitable for a woman.

Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, therefore arranged a marriage between Adelaide and Herman IV, Duke of Swabia, to serve as margrave of Turin after Ulric's death (1034). The two were married in January 1037, but Herman died of the plague while fighting at Naples in July 1038.

Adelaide remarried in order to secure her vast march to Henry of Montferrat (1041), but he died in 1045 and left her a widow for the second time. Immediately, a third marriage was undertaken, this time to Otto of Savoy (1046). With Otto she had three sons, Peter I, Amadeus II, and Otto. She also had two daughters, Bertha and Adelaide. Bertha, the countess of Maurienne, married the Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, while Adelaide married Rudolf of Rheinfeld, who opposed Henry as King of Germany.

After 1060, Adelaide acted as regent for her sons. In 1068, Henry tried to divorce Bertha and consequently drove Adelaide to an intense hatred of him and his family. However, through the intervention of Bertha, Henry received Adelaide's support when he came to Italy to submit to Pope Gregory VII and Matilda of Tuscany at Canossa. Adelaide and Amadeus accompanied the humiliated emperor to Canossa. In gratitude for her mediation, Henry donated Bugey to Adelaide and her family and took back Bertha as his wife, returning to Germany.

Adelaide later played the mediator between her two royal sons-in-law, Henry and the aforementioned Rudolf during the wars of the 1080s in Germany. She was an opponent of the Gregorian reform, though she honoured the papacy, and defender of the autonomy of abbacies.

In 1091, Adelaide died, to the general mourning of her people, and was buried in the parochial church of Canischio (Canisculum), a small village on the Cuorgnè in the Valle dell'Orco, to which she had retired in her later years. In the cathedral of Susa, in a niche in the wall, there is a statue of walnut wood, beneath a bronze veneer, representing Adelaide, genuflecting in prayer. Above it can be read the inscription: Questa è Adelaide, cui l'istessa Roma Cole, e primo d'Ausonia onor la noma.

Personality

Adelaide had passed her childhood amongst the retainers of her father and had even learned the martial arts when young, bearing her own arms and armour. She was reputed to be beautiful and virtuous. She was pious, putting eternal things ahead of temporal. Strong in temperament, she did not hesitate to punish even the bishops and grandees of her realm. She patronised the minstrels and always received them at her court, urging them to compose songs emphasising religious values. She was a founder of cloisters and monasteries that transmitted the history of the region. One failure of Adelaide's career was the loss of the County of Albon.

Family

Adelaide and Herman IV, Duke of Swabia had at least three children:

Gebhard I, Count of Sulzbach
Adalbert I, Count of Windberg
Adelaide, married Hermann von Peugen

Adelaide and Otto of Savoy had five children:

Peter I of Savoy
Amedeus II of Savoy
Otto, Bishop of Asti
Bertha of Savoy, married Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Adelaide (died 1080), married Rudolf von Rheinfeld

Adelaide — Otto, I Count of Savoy. Otto (son of Umberto, I Count of Savoy and Ancilla of Lenzburg) was born Between 1010 and 1020; died Abt 1057. [Group Sheet]

Ermengard — Otto, III Duke of Swabia. Otto (son of Henry of Schweinfurt and Gerberga) died 28 Sep 1057; was buried Bavaria, Bayern, Germany. [Group Sheet]