MAROZIA. - Born in 892 in Rome to Teofilatto, papal vestararius and magister militum, and to Teodora, a most influential woman. She married Alberico, margrave of Camerino and duke of Spoleto (915), by whom she had the son Alberico II. After Alberico’s death, she entered into a second marriage with Guido of Tuscany (926), thereby further increasing her already considerable power in Rome.
This union provoked fear and resentment in Pope John X, who allied himself with Guido’s half-brother, Hugh of Provence. Marozia waged war against the Pope and his supporters, succeeding in having him deposed (928). After John X’s death—he was murdered in prison—Marozia, who in the meantime had proclaimed herself senatrix and patricia of Rome, arranged the election of her son John, who became pope under the name John XI (931). Illicit relations with Pope Sergius III have been wrongly attributed to her. Widowed a second time, she offered her hand to her brother-in-law, King Hugh of Provence, Guido’s uterine brother; but the new marriage was seen as an affront to morality and religion. Hugh nevertheless came to Rome and married Marozia (932). During the wedding festivities, Alberico II, having suffered a grave insult from the king, stirred up the people and the nobility, and while Hugh escaped by flight, Marozia was taken prisoner and thrown into prison by her son, where she died in 937.