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Republic Of Lucca
The Republic of Lucca () was a medieval and early modern state that was centered on the Italian city of Lucca in Tuscany, which lasted from 1160 to 1805. Its territory extended beyond the city of Lucca, reaching the surrounding countryside in the north-western part of today's Tuscany region, to the borders with Emilia-Romagna and Liguria. The Republic of Lucca remained independent until 1799. Later the state continued to exist but was, de facto, dependent upon Napoleonic France, and ceased officially its existence in 1805, when it was transformed in the Principality of Lucca and Piombino. Background Within the Imperial Kingdom of Italy, the city of Lucca had been the residence of the Margraves of Tuscany until the time of Margrave Hugh. A certain autonomy was granted by a 1084 diploma issued by Emperor Henry IV, while on his Italian campaign during the Investiture controversy with Pope Gregory VII. No feudal castle could be built in the range of 6 miles from the city wall. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Signoria
A ''signoria'' () was the governing authority in many of the Italian city-states during the Medieval and Renaissance periods. The word ''signoria'' comes from ''signore'' (), or "lord", an abstract noun meaning (roughly) "government", "governing authority", ''de facto'' "sovereignty", "lordship"; : ''signorie''. History of the ''Signoria'' During the late 13th and early 14th centuries, a significant shift occurred in the governance of Italian cities. Whereas citizens had once chosen their own leaders, they began to entrust power to a single ruler. Such authority often spiraled out of control when the citizens could not depose of rulers who had failed to govern wisely. This transition had far-reaching consequences and was met with mixed reactions at the time. In ''The Divine Comedy'', Dante frequently depicted Italy as a land ruled by despots and condemned the rise of lordship, associating it with humanity’s most destructive impulses such as pride, which drove some individuals ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liguria
Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with the former territory of the Republic of Genoa. Liguria is bordered by France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) to the west, Piedmont to the north, and Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to the east. It rests on the Ligurian Sea, and has a population of 1,509,908 as of 2025. The region is part of the Alps–Mediterranean Euroregion. Etymology The name ''Liguria'' predates Latin and is of obscure origin. The Latin adjectives (as in ) and ''Liguscus'' reveal the original root of the name, ''ligusc-'': in the Latin name -sc- was shortened to -s-, and later turned into the -r- of , according to rhotacism (sound change), rhotacism. Compare whence . The name derives from the ancient Ligures people, although the territory of this people was much larger th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Welf VI
Welf VI (111515 December 1191) was the margrave of Tuscany (1152–1162) and duke of Spoleto (1152–1162), the third son of Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, and a member of the illustrious family of the Welf (also known as the House of Guelph). Biography Welf inherited the familial possessions in Swabia, including the counties of Altdorf and Ravensburg, while his eldest brother Henry the Proud received the duchies of Bavaria and Saxony and his elder brother Conrad entered the church. Henry married Welf to Uta, the daughter of Godfrey of Calw, count palatine of the Rhine. On Godfrey's death in 1131, a dispute opened up between Godfrey's nephew Adalbert and Welf over the inheritance of Calw. Welf was an uncle to the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (Barbarossa's mother, Judith, was Welf's sister). Welf himself was only a decade or less older than his nephew, during whose reign most of Welf's activity occurred. When Conrad III of Germany, Frederick's uncle, confiscated t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (; ), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 1152. He was crowned King of Italy on 24 April 1155 in Pavia and emperor by Pope Adrian IV on 18 June 1155 in Rome. Two years later, the term ' ("holy") first appeared in a document in connection with his empire. He was later formally crowned King of Burgundy, at Arles on 30 June 1178. His nickname of ' (meaning "Red Beard" in Italian) "was first used by the Republic of Florence, Florentines only in 1298 to differentiate the emperor from his grandson, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II ... and was never employed in medieval Germany" (the colour red was "also associated in the Middle Ages with malice and a hot temper"; in reality, Frederick's hair was "blond", although his beard was described by a contemporar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conrad Of Tuscany
Conrad (, ) was the margrave of Tuscany from 1119/20 until 1129/31. He was a German (''Teutonicus'' in contemporary records), appointed by the Emperor Henry V to bring Tuscany back under imperial control. During the long Investiture Controversy, the Tuscan countess Matilda of Canossa had taken the ecclesiastical side against the emperor and imperial influence in the Tuscan margraviate was at low ebb upon her death in 1115. Conrad was the second in a series of 12th-century German appointees who proved too weak to restore imperial control and whose tenures are associated with the rise of self-government in the Tuscan cities—Florence, Genoa, Lucca, Pisa and Siena. Origins His family and his place of birth are unidentified, although two conflicting lines of evidence both point to Bavaria. While in Tuscany, he donated land to the Bavarian abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra. The land in question suggests he might have been a relative of the counts of Scheyern (or Scheiern). On the other h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medieval Commune
Medieval communes in the European Middle Ages had sworn allegiances of mutual defense (both physical defense and of traditional freedoms) among the citizens of a town or city. These took many forms and varied widely in organization and makeup. Communes are first recorded in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, thereafter becoming a widespread phenomenon. They had greater development in central-northern Italy, where they became city-states based on partial democracy. At the same time in Germany they became free cities, independent from local nobility. Etymology The English and French word "commune" () appears in Latin records in various forms. They come from Medieval Latin , plural form of (that which is common, community, state), substantive noun from (common). Ultimately, the Proto-Indo-European root is ''*mey-'' (to change, exchange). When autonomy was won through violent uprising and overthrow, the commune was often called (a conspiracy) (). Origins During the 10 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matilda Of Tuscany
Matilda of Tuscany (; or ; – 24 July 1115), or Matilda of Canossa ( ), also referred to as ("the Great Countess"), was a member of the House of Canossa (also known as the Attonids) in the second half of the eleventh century. Matilda was one of the most important governing figures of the Italian Middle Ages. She reigned in a time of constant battles, political intrigues, and excommunications by the Church. She ruled as a feudal margravine and, as a relative of the imperial Salian dynasty, she brokered a settlement in the so-called Investiture Controversy. In this extensive conflict with the emerging reform Papacy over the relationship between spiritual (''sacerdotium'') and secular (''regnum'') power, Pope Gregory VII dismissed and excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (then King of the Romans) in 1076. At the same time, Matilda came into possession of a substantial territory that included present-day Lombardy, Emilia, Romagna, and Tuscany. She made the Canoss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pope Gregory VII
Pope Gregory VII (; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana (), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. One of the great reforming popes, he initiated the Gregorian Reform, and is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Emperor Henry IV to establish the primacy of papal authority and the new canon law governing the election of the pope by the College of Cardinals. He was also at the forefront of developments in the relationship between the emperor and the papacy during the years before he became pope. He was the first pope to introduce a policy of obligatory celibacy for the clergy, which had until then commonly married, and also attacked the practice of simony. During the power struggles between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, Empire, Gregory excommunicated Henry IV three times, and Henry appointed An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest (, , ) was a conflict between church and state in medieval Europe, the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture), abbots of monasteries, and the Pope himself. A series of popes in the Christianity in the 11th century, 11th and Christianity in the 12th century, 12th centuries undercut the power of the Holy Roman Emperor and other European monarchies, and the controversy led to nearly 50 years of conflict. It began as a power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV (then King, later Holy Roman Emperor) in 1076. The conflict ended in 1122, when Pope Callixtus II and Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Henry V agreed on the Concordat of Worms. The agreement required bishops to swear an oath of fealty to the secular monarch, who held authority "by the lance" but left selection to the church. It affirmed the right of the church to invest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry IV (; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and List of kings of Burgundy, Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor—the second monarch of the Salian dynasty—and Agnes of Poitou. After his father's death on 5 October 1056, Henry was placed under his mother's guardianship. She made grants to German aristocrats to secure their support. Unlike her late husband, she could not control the election of the popes, thus the idea of the Libertas ecclesiae, "liberty of the Church" strengthened during her rule. Taking advantage of her weakness, Archbishop Anno II of Cologne kidnapped Henry in April 1062. He administered Germany until Henry came of age in 1065. Henry endeavoured to recover the royal estates that had been lost during his minority. He employed low-ranking officials to carry out his new policies, causing disco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh, Margrave Of Tuscany
Hugh (; 953/4 – 21 December 1001), called the Great, was the Margrave of Tuscany from 969 until his death in 1001, and the Duke of Spoleto and Margrave of Camerino from 989 to 996 (as "Hugh II"). He was known for his restoration of the state apparatus in Tuscany after decades of neglect from various Margraves, whose main interests lay elsewhere. Hugh was also noted for his support of the new Ottonian dynasty (in Italy since 961), and has been praised for his justice by the contemporary theologian Peter Damian in his ''De principis officio'' (On the Office of a Prince). Hugh's rule has also been remembered for its close cooperation with the Papal States in the resolution of territorial disputes and his generosity in gifting marchesal (public) lands for the foundation of monasteries of the Catholic Church. Background Hugh was the son and successor of Hubert, an illegitimate son of King Hugh. His mother was Willa, a daughter of Boniface I, Duke of Spoleto and Margrave of C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
