Guy III of Spoleto (german: Wido, it, Guido; died 12 December 894) was the margrave of Camerino from 880 and then

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

Camerino Camerino is a town in the province of Macerata, Marche, central-eastern Italy. It is located in the Apennines bordering Umbria, between the valleys of the rivers Potenza and Chienti, about from Ancona. Camerino is home to the University of Cam ...

from 883. He was crowned

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, ...

in 889 and

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), ...

in 891. He died in 894 while fighting for control of the Italian Peninsula. Guy was married to

Ageltrude Ageltrude or Agiltrude (around 860 - died 27 August 923) was the Empress and Queen of Italy as the wife of Guy (reigned 891–94). She was the regent for her son Lambert (reigned 894–98) and actively encouraged him in opposing the Carolingians ...

, daughter of

Adelchis of Benevento {{Infobox noble, type , name = Adelchis , title = , image = Adelchis.JPG , caption = Adelchis, from the 11th-century ''Codex legum Langobardorum'' , alt = , CoA = , ...

, who bore him a son named Lambert.

Early life

Guy was the second son of

Guy I of Spoleto Guy I (died 860) was the Duke of Spoleto from 842. He was the son of Lambert I of Nantes and Adelaide of Lombardy, the eldest daughter of Pepin of Italy. He travelled with his father in 834 in the entourage of Lothair I. He was given the abbey of ...

and Itta, daughter of

Sico of Benevento Sico ( 758 – 832) ...

. Guy I was the son of

Lambert I of Nantes Lambert I (died 836) was the Count of Nantes and Prefect of the Breton March between 818 and 831 and Duke of Spoleto between 834 and 836. Lambert succeeded his father Guy. Lambert participated in an expedition undertaken by Louis the Pious in 81 ...

and his second wife,

Adelaide of Lombardy Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The demo ...

, who was a daughter of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

's second eldest son,

Pepin of Italy Pepin or Pippin (or ''Pepin Carloman'', ''Pepinno'', April 777 – 8 July 810), born Carloman, was the son of Charlemagne and King of the Lombards (781–810) under the authority of his father. Pepin was the second son of Charlemagne by his th ...

. In 842, the former

Duchy of Spoleto The Duchy of Spoleto (, ) was a Lombard territory founded about 570 in central Italy by the Lombard ''dux'' Faroald. Its capital was the city of Spoleto. Lombards The Lombards had invaded Italy in 568 AD and conquered much of it, establishing ...

, which had been donated to 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 ...

by Charlemagne, was resurrected by the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

to be held against

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

catapans to the south, as a Frankish border territory by a dependent

margrave Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Emp ...

. Consequently, Guy’s family had been important players in Italian politics since the early ninth century. Although in 876 Guy and his elder brother, Lambert,

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 ...

, had been commissioned by

Charles the Bald Charles the Bald (french: Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), king of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a ser ...

to accompany

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 ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

to break up the alliances that many of the southern Lombard states had made with the

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...

, the family’s interests were generally hostile to the papacy, a policy that Guy initially followed. With Lambert’s death in 880, he bequeathed to Guy the march of

, and in 882 Guy supported his nephew

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

's invasion of 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 ...

. This brought him into conflict with the Emperor

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 ...

, and in 882, at an assembly at

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

, the emperor dispossessed him of his fiefs, together with a significant number of other important, but minor, Italian nobles. Rising up in rebellion, Guy allied himself with the neighbouring Saracens and began acquiring further territory. At this point, at a diet at

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 ...

, the emperor declared him guilty of high treason, and

Berengar of Friuli Berengar I ( la, Berengarius, Perngarius; it, Berengario; – 7 April 924) was the king of Italy from 887. He was Holy Roman Emperor between 915 and his death in 924. He is usually known as Berengar of Friuli, since he ruled the March of Friu ...

was commanded to strip him of his fief by force. In 883, Guy inherited his nephew's title of Spoleto and reunited the dukedom, henceforth as the "Duchy of Spoleto and Camerino" bearing the title of ''dux et marchio'' (and gaining his regnal number III), and by the end of 884, Emperor Charles III was forced to make peace with Guy, where he formally recovered his titles. Then in 885, he fought his occasional allies, the Saracens of the

Garigliano The Garigliano () is a river in central Italy. It forms at the confluence of the rivers Gari (also known as the Rapido) and Liri. Garigliano is actually a deformation of "Gari-Lirano" (which in Italian means something like "Gari from the Liri"). ...

Rule as Emperor

Spoleto, denaro di stampo largo del duca guido, 889-894

After the deposition of Charles the Fat in 887, by virtue of being a relative of

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

Fulk of Rheims Fulk the Venerable (died June 17, 900) was archbishop of Reims from 883 until his death. He was a key protagonist in the political conflicts of the West Frankish kingdom that followed the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire in the late ninth cen ...

, he had hopes of being crowned king of

West Francia In medieval history, West Francia (Medieval Latin: ) or the Kingdom of the West Franks () refers to the western part of the Frankish Empire established by Charlemagne. It represents the earliest stage of the Kingdom of France, lasting from about ...

, and in fact travelled as far as

Langres Langres () is a commune in France, commune in northeastern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Departments of France, department of Haute-Marne, in the Regions of France, region of Grand Est. History As the capital o ...

, where the bishop crowned him as such. But because of

Odo Odo or ODO may refer to: People * Odo, a given name; includes a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Franklin Odo (born 1939), Japanese-American historian * Seikichi Odo (1927–2002), Japanese karateka * Yuya Odo (born 1990), J ...

's coronation that year (888), he turned and went back with designs on the crown of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and the emperorship. Guy of Spoleto was opposed by Berengar of Friuli for the

Iron Crown of Lombardy The Iron Crown ( lmo, Corona Ferrea de Lombardia; it, Corona Ferrea; la, Corona Ferrea) is a relic and may be one of the oldest royal insignia of Christendom. It was made in the Early Middle Ages, consisting of a circlet of gold and jewels fit ...

. Although Berengar had the advantage of being allied with the

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...

family, and of having been crowned as king of Italy in 887, from 888 Guy was closer to Rome, and had already allied himself with

Pope Stephen V Pope Stephen V ( la, Stephanus V; died 14 September 891) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from September 885 to his death. In his dealings with Photius I of Constantinople, as in his relations with the young Slavic Orthodox c ...

, who had described Guy “as his only son”. Fighting between the rival contenders began, and it was Guy who had himself proclaimed king of Italy in a diet held at

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...

at the end of the year 888. He was formally crowned

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, ...

by Pope Stephen V in 889 in Pavia, in the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore, and this was followed by his coronation as Roman Emperor on 21 February 891, together with the crowning of his son Lambert II as King of Italy. The situation in

began to deteriorate with the election of a new pope,

Formosus Pope Formosus (896) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 6 October 891 until his death on 4 April 896. His reign as pope was troubled, marked by interventions in power struggles over the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the K ...

, in 891. Distrustful of Guy, he began to look elsewhere for support against the emperor, as Guy found it increasingly difficult to end the threat of Berengar who still held out in his Duchy of Friuli. To bolster his overall position, at

on 30 April 892, Guy forced Pope Formosus to crown Lambert as co-emperor. The pope therefore took the next opportunity to oppose Guy by supporting

Arnulf of Carinthia Arnulf of Carinthia ( 850 – 8 December 899) was the duke of Carinthia who overthrew his uncle Emperor Charles the Fat to become the Carolingian king of East Francia from 887, the disputed king of Italy from 894 and the disputed emperor from Feb ...

for the Italian and imperial titles. In 893, Formosus invited Arnulf to come to

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th centu ...

to overthrow Guy and be crowned himself. Arnulf instead sent his son

Zwentibold Zwentibold (''Zventibold'', ''Zwentibald'', ''Swentiboldo'', ''Sventibaldo'', ''Sanderbald''; – 13 August 900), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was the illegitimate son of Emperor Arnulf.Collins 1999, p. 360 In 895, his father granted hi ...

with an army to join Berengar, the deposed king, and march on Trento. Their joint army surrounded Trento, but Guy probably bribed them to leave him unmolested. The following year, they defeated Guy at

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

and took Trento and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. Berengar was recognised as king and a vassal of Arnulf. Zwentibold returned to Germany, as fever had wreaked havoc on the German armies.Mann IV, pg. 51 Guy retreated in order to regroup at a fortified place on the

Taro Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Africa ...

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.

Legacy

Guy's power never extended over much beyond his 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 did not 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 A capitulary (Medieval Latin ) was a series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from the Frankish court of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, especially that of Charlemagne, the first emperor of the Romans in the west since the ...

as former emperors had. In 891, he demanded the traditional service in the army of all ''

arimanni The arimanni (singular ''arimannus'') were a warrior class of freemen in Lombard and later Frankish Italy. In contemporary documents ''arimanni'' are sometimes denominated as ''liberi homines'' (free men) or ''exercitales'' (soldiers). The ranks ...

'', whether they owned land or not.

Sources

*di Carpegna Falconieri, Tommaso
"Guido, conte marchese di Camerino, duca marchese di Spoleto, re d'Italia, imperatore"
''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', LXI. Rome: 2004, pp. 354–361. *Mann, Horace, K. ''The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol III: The Popes During the Carolingian Empire, 858–891''. 1925 *Mann, Horace, K. ''The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol IV: The Popes in the Days of Feudal Anarchy, 891–999''. 1925 *Comyn, Robert. ''History of the Western Empire, from its Restoration by Charlemagne to the Accession of Charles V, Vol. I''. 1851

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guy 03 of Spoleto 9th-century births 894 deaths Year of birth unknown 9th-century Holy Roman Emperors 9th-century kings of Italy 9th-century dukes of Spoleto Italian monarchs Guideschi dynasty Frankish warriors