MONFERRATO, MARCHESI of. – The dynasty of the marquises of M. began in the 10th century with ALERAMO, coadjutor prince of Berengar II, whose daughter Gerberga he married. To the dominions granted him by the King he succeeded in adding others granted by Otto I after his triumph. He then received the margravial government of several counties between the Po and the sea: Vado (Savona), Acqui, Loreto, and Torresana. The two branches of the family soon divided the government of the extensive dominions between them: the Anselmian branch, called del Vasto, settled in the territories of Savona, while the Ottonian branch took the name of M. from the name that was beginning to be used for the county of Torresana. Whereas in the 11th century the princes of the Anselmian branch predominated, in the 12th century the marquises of M. prevailed, eventually establishing themselves as the only true successors and heirs of Aleramo.
With great skill they succeeded in remaining faithful to the emperors of the House of Franconia and then to those of the House of Swabia; they contracted matrimonial ties with the Capetian house of France, and later GUGLIELMO V married Judith of Babenberg, daughter of the margrave of Austria and aunt of Frederick Barbarossa. In the middle of the 12th century, Guglielmo V, thanks to imperial support, was the hegemonic prince of western Italy; and although he faithfully supported Frederick Barbarossa in his struggle with the Communes, he was unable to derive any considerable advantage for his family from this. Of his various sons, the eldest, GUGLIELMO, sought his fortune in the East: he married the sister of the king of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV, but died before he could obtain that throne; another, RANIERI, went to Constantinople and married the daughter of the basileus Manuel I, but died in the civil struggles of that court; a third, CORRADO, took an active part in the events of the Third Crusade; through a marriage he acquired rights to the crown of Jerusalem, but died suddenly at the hands of the henchmen of the Old Man of the Mountain. At the death of Guglielmo V, the margraviate passed to his only surviving son, BONIFACIO I. He too, seduced by the mirage of the East, took part in the Fourth Crusade, acclaimed as leader by the French and Flemish Crusaders. In the partition of the Byzantine Empire
ced, in order to preserve his dominions, to oscillate between one side and the other. In 1227 he joined the Lombard League, arousing the Emperor’s deep displeasure; in 1228 he allied himself with Asti, but provoked the opposition of Alessandria and Milan. Attacked by the Milanese in 1232, he was forced to submit feudally to the victor. Only after the Battle of Cortenuova did he return to allegiance to the Empire. But when the conflict between Frederick II and Innocent IV broke out, the marquis, won over by financial subsidies from the Genoese, again abandoned the Emperor and went over to the Church; yet as soon as Frederick II appeared in Piedmont, Bonifacio II hastened to make declarations of imperial loyalty. The imperialist troubadours denounced him for this unscrupulous passage from one side to the other, perjuring himself with the greatest ease. Bonifacio II, however, concerned to save his state, could not fail to take into account the political oscillations of the great neighboring Communes. In 1247 he again abandoned Frederick and allied himself with the Pope, but, threatened by the imperialist forces, was forced to yield. In 1248 the Emperor received him back into his favor, but he was an unreliable vassal. After Frederick II’s death in 1250, Bonifacio once more declared himself a partisan of the Church, but in 1253 he transferred his allegiance to Conrad IV. Between 1253 and 1254, after the death of Bonifacio II, the margraviate passed to his son GUGLIELMO VII. More capable than his father, the young prince replaced Bonifacio’s cautious, often passive policy with an active, audacious, and frequently rash policy. His aim appears to have been to acquire political and economic bases richer and more solid than the old land of M., which was scarcely productive. The conflict between Manfred and Charles of Anjou gave him the opportunity to offer his support to the Angevins; but he later opposed the Angevins by supporting Alfonso of Castile, whose imperial aspirations he recognized, and subsequently favored Rudolf of Habsburg. He skillfully exploited the conflicts among the various political factions to compel not a few Communes to call upon him as mediator in their internal struggles, or as captain, or as lord. Ivrea, Vercelli, Acqui, Tortona, and Casale thus entered into his political game. Guglielmo VII could not delude himself into thinking that he could annex these Communes to his distinctly feudal state, but it was sufficient for him to succeed in coordinating these communal forces under his hegemony. A momentary triumph was his summons to Milan, where Archbishop Ottone secured the government for him in order to obtain his aid against his enemies, the Torriani; Guglielmo VII, however, believed that he could maintain a balance between the Torriani and the Visconti, and his domination in Milan came to a swift end. In the west as well, he encountered the hostility of the counts of Savoy: in 1280, while traveling to the court of Castile, he was captured by Savoyard forces and, in order to regain his freedom, had to consent to abandon Turin, which he had succeeded in occupying. Guglielmo VII nevertheless persisted in his anti-Angevin policy, and his adherence to the coalition against Charles of Anjou led to the marriage between the Byzantine emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos and the daughter of the marquis Guglielmo, Violante, who in Byzantium took the name Irene. The Visconti, the Savoyards, and the Republic of Genoa organized a coalition against the marquis to eliminate the danger posed by the formation along the Po of a state threatening to the various parties. The conflict ended with the rebellion of Alessandria: the marquis was captured and died in prison (1292). The collapse of the Monferrato political structure was exploited above all by the Visconti of Milan. In M., the young GIOVANNI I began his rule under the protection of the king of Naples, Charles V, and of the marquis of Saluzzo, Tommaso. The marquis Giovanni died as early as 1306 without leaving heirs.
M. was then contested by Giovanni’s sister, the Byzantine empress Irene, and by his kinsman, the marquis of Saluzzo. The Monferrato feudal lords decided in favor of the Byzantine Emperor, who sent his second son, Teodoro, to govern the margraviate. Thus began in M. the second margravial dynasty, that of the Palaiologoi. TEODORO I Palaiologos and his son GIOVANNI II hoped to pursue an independent policy in order to attain a predominant position in western Italy. They nevertheless encountered the opposition of the major political forces, the Visconti of Milan and the Savoyards in the west, who agreed in suppressing the ambitions of Monferrato and were eager to secure predominance over the marquises. During the second half of the 14th century and throughout the 15th century, the Palaiologoi of M. returned to the policy of Guglielmo VI and Bonifacio II: securing the preservation of the state by balancing Savoyard influence against that of the Visconti-Sforza faction. The extinction of the Palaiologos dynasty made it possible for Emperor Charles V to decide the future of the margraviate of M.: in order to prevent too great a strengthening of the
house of Savoy, it assigned the marquisate to the house of Gonzaga of Mantua. Thus the third marquises’ dynasty, that of the Gonzaga, came into being in M.; under the protection of the Empire and Spain, they ensured the existence of the marquisate until the eighteenth century: in 1708 the Emperor occupied Mantua and authorized the duke of Savoy, Vittorio Amedeo II, to occupy M., in accordance with the secret agreements of 1705. Thus, after a life of seven centuries, M. disappeared as an autonomous state.