Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Medieval Scandal
Political power constantly changed hands in medieval Tuscany. Nevertheless, two notori-
ous women wielded power effectively against a shifting backdrop of kings and popes. The
daughter of a Roman senator and a notorious prostitute-turned-senatrix, Marozia already
had one illegitimate son by her lover Pope Sergius III and was pregnant again when she
married the Lombard duke of Spoleto, Alberic I, in 909 AD. He was hardly scrupulous
himself: he'd achieved his position by murdering the previous duke, and he soon had Sergi-
us III deposed. When Alberic was in turn killed, Marozia married Guy of Tuscany and con-
spired with him to smother Pope John X and install (in lethally rapid succession) Pope Leo
VI and Stephen VIII.
After Guy's death, Marozia wooed his half-brother Hugh of Arles, the new king of Italy.
No matter that he already had a wife: his previous marriage was soon annulled. But at the
wedding ceremony, Marozia's son, Alberic II, who had been named Pope John XI, had the
happy couple arrested. Marozia spent the rest of her life in prison, but her legacy lived on:
ultimately five popes were her direct descendants.
Countess Matilda of Tuscany (1046-1115) was another powerful woman. Rumour has it
that she was more than just an ally to Pope Gregory VII, and there's no doubt she was a
formidable strategist. To consolidate her family's Tuscan holdings, she married her own
stepbrother, Godfrey the Hunchback. She soon arranged for him to be sent off to Germany,
annulling that marriage then marrying a powerful prince 26 years her junior.
When Matilda's ally Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor Henry
IV in 1077 (for threatening to replace him with an antipope), the emperor showed up out-
side her castle barefoot and kneeling in the snow to beg the pope's forgiveness. Gregory,
who was Matilda's guest, kept him waiting for three days before rescinding the excommu-
nication. Henry retaliated for what he saw as Matilda's complicity in his humiliation, con-
spiring with Matilda's neighbours to seize her property, and even turning her trophy hus-
band against her - but Matilda soon dislodged Henry's power base in the north with the
support of his own son, Conrad. Disgraced by his own family and humbled on the battle-
field by a woman, Henry died in 1106.
