Giudicati Of Sardinia 1

The Judicates (, or in Sardinian, in Latin, or in Italian), in English also referred to as Sardinian Kingdoms, Sardinian Judgedoms or Judicatures, were independent states that took power in Sardinia in the Middle Ages, between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. They were sovereign states with '' summa potestas'', each with a ruler called judge ( in Sardinian), with the powers of a king.

Historical causes of the advent of the kingdoms

After a relatively brief Vandal occupation (456–534), Sardinia was a province of the Byzantine Empire from 535 until the eighth century.

After 705, with the rapid Arab expansion, Saracen pirates from North Africa began to raid the island and encountered no effective opposition by the Byzantine army. In 815, Sardinian ambassadors requested military assistance from the Carolingian Emperor Louis the Pious.

In 807, 810–812, and 821–822 the Arabs of Spain and North Africa tried to invade the island but the Sardinians resisted several attacks. This defence was so effective that in a letter in 851 Pope Leo IV asked the ('judge of the province') of Sardinia, based in Caralis, for aid in the defense of Rome. With the fall of the Exarchate of Africa, based in Carthage, at the end of the seventh century, and especially with the emergence of the Arab presence in Sicily (827), Sardinia remained disconnected from the core lands of the Byzantine Empire and had, out of necessity, become economically and militarily independent.

The birth of the four kingdoms

The almost total absence of historical sources does not allow certainty surrounding the date of the passage from Byzantine central authority to self-government in Sardinia. It is believed that at some point the or Archon of Sardinia, residing in Caralis, had complete control of the island. He appointed, in the most strategic area for the defense of the coast, the (lieutenant), belonging to his family, the Lacon-Gunale, who became substantially autonomous from Caralis over time; this was probably the action that precipitated the birth of the kingdoms, or ''judgedoms''.

The first incontrovertible source that cites the existence of four kingdoms is the epistle sent by Pope Gregory VII from Capua on October 14, 1073 to the Sardinian judges Orzocco of Cagliari, Orzocco d'Arborea, Marianus of Torres and Constantine of Gallura; however their autonomy was already clear in a later letter of Pope John VIII (872) in which he referred to them as ("princes of Sardinia").

The known medieval giudicati were:

* Kingdom of Cagliari with capital in Santa Igia
* Kingdom of Arborea with capital in Oristano,
*Kingdom of Gallura with capital in Civita,
* Kingdom of Torres with capital in Porto Torres, Ardara and then Sassari.

Each of the four States had fortified borders to protect their political and commercial interests, as well their own laws, administration and emblems.

Governments

The administrative organization of the ''judgedoms'' differed significantly from the feudal forms existing in the rest of medieval Europe as their institutions were closer to those of the territories of the Byzantine Empire, although with local peculiarities that some scholars consider of Nuragic derivation.

In the international context of the Middle Ages, the ''judgedoms'' were characterized by semi-democratic institutions such as the which in turn elected their own representatives to the parliamentary assizes called .

The Corona de Logu and the central council

The central government and the entire Judiciary were ruled substantially by the judge. The king did not have possession of the land nor was he the repository of sovereignty since this was formally held by the , a council of elders (representatives of the administrative districts - ) and high priests. They appointed the ruler and attributed the supreme power to him, while maintaining the power to ratify acts and agreements related to the entire kingdom.

During (coronation ceremony) in the capital, a representative of each , members of the high clergy, the castle lords, two representatives of the capital elected by delegates from , came together. Then the was crowned with a mixed-elected hereditary system following the direct male line and, only in the alternative, the female line.

The judge ruled on the basis of a covenant with the people (the ). The sovereign could be dethroned and even, in cases of serious acts of tyranny and oppression, executed legitimately by the same people, without this prejudging the inheritance of the title within the same ruling dynasty.

Judges

The judge was not an absolute ruler in the sense of later absolutism—at least in form: he could not declare war or sign a peace treaty without the consent of the . However, that was composed primarily of the nobility's relatives and, therefore, linked by common interests.

The succession to the throne was dynastic but in some case there was the possibility of election by the .

The judicial chancellery

In the government of the territory, the Judge was assisted by the Chancellery. The sovereign authority was in fact formalized with the drafting of official acts called paper, written by the statal chancellor, usually a bishop or at least a senior member of the clergy, assisted by other officials called .

Local administration

Curadorias

The territory of various kingdoms was divided into , administrative districts of varying sizes formed by urban and rural villages, dependent on a capital which housed the . These administrators, aided especially by (judges) and a council the , represented the judicial authority locally and tended to the public property of the Crown.

The appointed for each village was part of the a (the modern equivalent of a mayor) with administrative and judicial powers, and direct responsibility for the successful actions of land management.

Law

Judicial army

The Sardinian ''judicial'' armies were composed of troops made up of soldiers and free citizens, subject to periodic rotation. In an emergency forced conscription was used. The elite corps was made up of so-called , chosen riders who served under the command of the , the commander in charge of the security of the sovereign. The main armaments were the sword, chain mail, the shield, the helmet, and the , a weapon similar to the ancient , the Roman javelin.

The militias of the ground and the infantry () used a shorter version of this same weapon. Besides the use of spears and shields, another common weapon was the , a sword with a bone handle and curved blade, between 50 and 70 cm long which was still in use, in a more contained dimension, until the end of nineteenth century. In Sardinia a type of longbow was made, and over time the use of the crossbow spread.

In case of conflict judges often used mercenary troops, such as the dreaded Genoese crossbowmen.

Culture

Religion

Christianity spread throughout most of the island in the early centuries, excluding much of the Barbagia region. At the end of the sixth century Pope Gregory I reached an agreement with Hospito, chief of the , that guaranteed the conversion of his people from paganism to Christianity. Since Sardinia was in the political sphere of the Byzantine Empire, it developed an array of Greek and Eastern Christianity traits as a result of evangelisation by Basilian monks.

The Sardinian Church was an autocephalous institution for five centuries, independent from both the Byzantine and the Roman Curia. In the eleventh century, after the schism of 1054, the , according to Pope Alexander II, began a policy for the development of Western monasticism on the island, with the aim of a wider dissemination of culture but also of new techniques for cultivating the land. The immigration of monastics to the island was fueled by donated funds, and local churches were built by the ''judicial'' aristocracy. However, there were still strong ties with the Eastern liturgy. In 1092 a papal bull expressly abolished the autonomy and autocephaly of the Church of Sardinia, which was placed under the primacy of the Archbishop of Pisa.

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