Guy II (sometimes III) (died late 882 or early 883) was the eldest son and successor of Lambert I as

Duke of Spoleto The Duke of Spoleto was the ruler of Spoleto and most of central Italy outside the Papal States during the Early and High Middle Ages (c. 500 – 1300). The first dukes were appointed by the Lombard king, but they were independent in practice. Th ...

and Margrave of Camerino. He was elected to succeed to these titles on his father's death in 880. He had an ambitious plan of expansion to the south and to the west that conflicted with the

Papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

. He received a papal letter on 18 July in the year of his accession.

Pope John VIII Pope John VIII ( la, Ioannes VIII; died 16 December 882) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 14 December 872 to his death. He is often considered one of the ablest popes of the 9th century. John devoted much of his papacy ...

asked for a meeting, but Guy ignored him and instead invaded the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

. John responded by begging the aid of

Charles the Fat Charles III (839 – 13 January 888), also known as Charles the Fat, was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 888. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandso ...

, already

King of Italy King of Italy ( it, links=no, Re d'Italia; la, links=no, Rex Italiae) was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The first to take the title was Odoacer, a barbarian military leader, ...

, and crowning him

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

on 12 February 881. Charles did little to help against Guy, however. A papal letter dated to 11 November and addressed to Charles referred to Guy as ''Rabbia'', an epithet meaning "rage." It stuck as a nickname. As ruler, Guy used the motto ''

Renovatio regni Francorum The motto ''Renovatio regni Francorum'' ("renewal of the kingdom of the Franks") was used by several monarchs of the Carolingian, Widonid and Ottonian dynasties in the 9th through 11th centuries. It served to emphasise the importance of the ethnic ...

'' (renewing the kingdom of the Franks), like his Carolingain predecessors. In February 882, at a diet convoked in

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

by Charles, the duke, emperor, and pope made peace and Guy and his uncle, Guy of Camerino, vowed to restore stolen papal lands. In a March letter to Charles, John claimed that the vows went unfulfilled. Guy never succeeded in his dreams of expansion or in keeping his promises: he died young, later that year or early in the next. His uncle succeeded him, as his children were minors. His son Guy IV later ruled in Spoleto and the

Principality of Benevento The Duchy of Benevento (after 774, Principality of Benevento) was the southernmost Lombard duchy in the Italian Peninsula that was centred on Benevento, a city in Southern Italy. Lombard dukes ruled Benevento from 571 to 1077, when it was conq ...

. His daughter Itta married

Guaimar I of Salerno Guaimar I (also ''Waimar'', ''Gaimar'', or ''Guaimario'') (c. 855 – 901) was the prince of Salerno from 880, when his father entered the monastery of Monte Cassino in August. His parents were Prince Guaifer and Landelaica, daughter of Lando I of ...

Notes

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guy 02 of Spoleto 9th-century dukes of Spoleto Guideschi dynasty Margraves of Italy 9th-century births 883 deaths Year of birth unknown