ARDUINO of IVREA, King of Italy. — Of the powerful Arduinic line, of Germanic origin and later a family of feudal lords in the Kingdom of Italy, Arduino was born in 955 to Dadone, Count of Pombia. After a obscure youth during which he governed his father’s county and married Berta, daughter of Oberto I, Margrave of Liguria, by whom he had three sons (Arduino or Ardicino, Ottone, and Guiberto), he succeeded his cousin Corrado Covone, Margrave of Ivrea, from whom he derived his fame and the impetus for greater ambitions. It was a time of fierce strife between civil and ecclesiastical power for control of the cities: in both Ivrea and Vercelli, though under the authority of the march, the ecclesiastical power had prevailed. Arduino entered into conflict—one that was bitter, violent, and marked by inhuman ferocity—against the two bishops. The occasion arose in 995 with the donation, arranged by Empress Adelaide, of the court of Caresana to the chapter of Vercelli. Arduino would not tolerate this: seizing the city, Bishop Peter was killed, his body burned in the fire that consumed the cathedral, and the episcopal see of Vercelli was forced to yield to the fierce feudal lord. Warmondo, Bishop of Ivrea, also clashed with the margrave; in vain he twice hurled excommunication against him, and in vain did Pope Gregory V intervene, threatening anathema. Yet the situation grew difficult even for Arduino: after two pro-Arduino bishops—Ragnifredo and Adalberto—had occupied the see of Ivrea, it passed, with the German Leo, imperial chaplain, to the opposing faction. The hatreds spread into the countryside, where Arduino turned even his own dependents—farmers and minor military officers—against the bishop.
Then he had the audacity (if not the necessity) to present himself in Rome, to clear himself before Emperor Otto III and Pope Sylvester II, not long after the hanging of John Crescentius and the anti-imperial conspiracy. The synod that judged him divided his goods between the two hostile bishops and imposed penance upon him.
But against this sentence, Arduino launched a desperate and open war against a far greater enemy: the Emperor. He recovered his possessions, and by the following spring of 1000 his strength was such that he was acclaimed King of Italy in Piedmont. In vain did Bishop Warmondo and his fellow prelate Leo thunder against the “usurper,” the “tyrant,” appealing to all the princes of the earth; for, barely had Otto III died in his campaign in the Mezzogiorno on 23 January 1002, Arduino was crowned King of Italy in Pavia by the magnates of the realm. Recognition was immediate throughout northern and central Italy; and his chancellor was the same man who had served the unfortunate Otto, Peter, Bishop of Como. Yet as soon as Henry II was elected in Germany, the storm broke anew, stirred by old enmities and fresh resentments. Before the year was out, Henry II sent against Arduino, Oddo, Count of Carinthia and Verona. But Arduino, stronger, defeated the imperial envoy and forced him back across the Alps. All through 1003 passed, and in the spring of 1004 Henry II himself descended to secure the prestige necessary for his imperial coronation and to exact vengeance. Arduino’s army was routed; in Pavia, Henry was crowned King of Italy and crushed in blood the revolt that flared violently in the city that night.
Arduino fortified himself in his stronghold of Sparone and for a full year endured the siege. When the emperor returned to Germany, Arduino’s power rose once more, and he was able to re-establish his seat in Pavia. Henry II did not return to Italy until 1013; weary, Arduino sought peace with him, but in vain. The conflict reignited and spread to Rome, where Henry was present for his imperial coronation. Though the emperor had prevailed, made cautious by the rising passions, he soon found the treacherous mountain paths, while all around in northern Italy rebellion burned. Arduino seized Vercelli, Novara, and Como, expelled their bishops, laid waste the countryside, and divided the enemy’s goods among his followers. But scarcely had he left Vercelli when it turned against him under Bishop Leo.
A life as agitated and mysterious as few others. Periods of almost complete silence alternate with others rich in detail. Arduino, weary of his stormy fortunes and ill, lost Vercelli, and fortune abandoned him once more. Suddenly he sought peace within the walls of the abbey of Fruttuaria, which was not even his own, and there awaited death, which came swiftly on 14 December 1015.
A certain historiography, inclined to melodrama, assigned him the role—one he never truly played—of champion of the Italian idea against German power. He was rather the champion of lay power against the ecclesiastical in the feudal arena; personal and dynastic interest was truly the driving force behind his actions.