ARDUIN OF IVREA, King of Italy. - Of the strong Arduinic lineage, of Germanic origin and later a family of feudatories of the Kingdom of Italy, A. was born in 955 to Dadone, count of Pombia. After an obscure youth in which he governed his father's county and married Berta, daughter of Oberto II marquis of Liguria, having three sons by her (Arduino or Ardiano, Ottone and Guiberto), he succeeded his cousin Corrado Covone marquis of Ivrea, from whom he derived the fame of the name and the impulse toward greater fortunes. It was the time of the bitter dispute between civil and ecclesiastical power for dominion over the city: and both in Ivrea and in Vercelli, though the latter depended on the march, ecclesiastical power had prevailed. A. broke out into a struggle - which was animated, violent and had traits of inhuman ferocity - against the two bishops. The occasion for it was offered, in 995, by the donation, arranged by the empress Adelaide, of the court of Caresana to the chapter of Vercelli. A. did not tolerate it: having seized the city, the bishop Pietro was killed, his body burned in the fire of the Cathedral, and the episcopal church of Vercelli had to bow before the ferocious feudatory. Warmondo, bishop of Ivrea, also came into conflict with the marquis; in vain he hurled excommunication against him twice, in vain Pope Gregory V, having intervened, threatened anathema; but the situation became difficult even for A.; left vacant after two favorable bishops - Raginfredo and Adalberto - the see of Ivrea returned, with the German Leone, imperial chaplain, to the opposing party. The hatreds spread to the countryside, where A. stirred up against the bishop his own dependents, tenant farmers and second-rank soldiers. Then he had the audacity (even if he was not compelled) to present himself in Rome, to justify himself before the emperor Otto III and Pope Sylvester II, shortly after the hanging of Giovanni Crescenzio and the anti-imperial conspiracy. The synod that judged him divided his goods between the two bishops his enemies, and demanded penance from him.
But, against the sentence, A. broke out into desperate and open war against a far greater enemy: the Empire. Having recovered his possessions, already in the following spring of 1000, his strength was so considerable that he was acclaimed in Piedmont, for the first time, king of Italy. And in vain the bishop Warmondo, and his other colleague, Leone, thundered against the usurper and the tyrant, appealing to all the princes of the earth, that, Otto III having just died in the expedition to the South, on 23 Jan. 1002, A. was crowned king of Italy in Pavia, by the great men of the Kingdom. The recognition was immediate throughout northern and central Italy; and his chancellor was the same as that of the unfortunate Otto, Pietro, bishop of Como. However, as soon as Henry II was elected in Germany, the storm raged again, provoked by old enmities and new resentments. And Henry II, before the year ended, sent against A. Oddone, count of Carinthia and of Verona. But A., stronger, defeated the imperial envoy and forced him to cross back over the Alps. After all of 1003 had passed, in the spring of 1004 Henry II descended in his turn to acquire the prestige necessary for the imperial coronation and to take vengeance; A.'s army was routed; in Pavia, Henry was crowned king of Italy and stifled in blood the revolt that had broken out violently, at night, in the city.
A. fortified himself in his fortified castle of Sparone: and for a whole year he withstood the siege. Once the emperor had returned to Germany, once again A.'s power revived and he was able to establish his seat again at Pavia. Henry II did not return to Italy until 1013; A., weary, attempts a peace with him, but in vain; therefore the conflict is rekindled, extending to Rome, where Henry is for the imperial coronation. Although he had prevailed, the Emperor, made prudent by the inflamed passions, soon retraced the unsafe mountain paths, while all around in northern Italy rebellion was ablaze. A., having seized Vercelli, Novara, and Como, expels their bishops, devastates their countryside and divides the enemy goods among his faithful. But as soon as A. has left it, Vercelli turns against him under bishop Leone.
A life as agitated and mysterious as few others. Periods of absolute scarcity of news are interspersed with others for which there is an abundance of news. A. is weary of the fickle fortunes and ill; with the loss of Vercelli, fortune abandons him again and he suddenly seeks peace within the walls of the abbey of Fruttuaria, which is not even his, and there awaits death, which is not long in coming (14 Dec. 1015).
A certain conventional historiography attributed to him the role, which was not his, even if attitudes of it are not lacking, of champion of the Italian idea against German power. He was rather the champion of lay power against ecclesiastical power in the feudal sphere; personal and dynastic interest was truly the animating spring of his action.
Bibliography6 works
Pier Fausto Palumbo