Introduction

The introduction outlines the subject of the research. One of the most relevant early medieval elite kinship groups of the Italian kingdom were the Hucpoldings, named after that Hucpold who had held the office of count palatine under Louis II. Key features of the research are the long chronological range and the wide geographical area investigated. The chapter then retraces the main historiographical steps taken in investigations of early medieval kinship groups from the second half of the twentieth century until the latest developments. A specific section is dedicated to the presentation and analysis of the documentary and narrative sources used in this research.

Family Patterns and Political Affirmation (945–1012)

With the fourth generation, the kinship group reached its maximum horizontal cognatic extension. Extensive parental relationships and the achievement of the rank of marquis allowed a wide-ranging capacity for action in a large part of the kingdom. The relationship with the royal power was then always fundamental, even in the Ottonian period. Political and relational developments are therefore investigated in the different areas of activity of the Hucpoldings, namely the duchy of Spoleto, march of Tuscany, exarchate of Ravenna and eastern Emilia, especially the territory of Bologna.

The Exarchate

The second section is dedicated to the analysis of patrimonial data that the examination of private charters has generated. It is divided into the three chapters following geographically the areas of affirmation of the group. Starting from the actual places of landed wealth, the investigation then deals with the reconstruction of the patronage networks and local loyalties on which the Hucpoldings based their hegemony. The fourth chapter concerns the exarchal area. In this context, relations with the archbishops of Ravenna were always fundamental because their church always represented a valuable basis for their acquisition of landed wealth though emphyteosis. It proposes that thanks to the relevance of these bonds the group could link with exarchal elites.

Features and Practices of Power: From Officials to Lords

In this chapter, analysis is directed to the power enjoyed by the Hucpoldings, their unique qualities, their relationships and the strategies they adopted to build their seigneurial hegemony in the local communities affected by their presence. From this perspective, the particularities of their lordship are investigated. Their hegemony was achieved in a novel way when compared with other Italian elites.

Ruling on the Border : Landed Possessions from the Po Valley to the Apennines in Bononia’s Diocese

The sixth chapter deals with the Bolognese territory, an area located at the edges of the Emilia region between the Italian kingdom and the exarchate of Ravenna. After having acquired fiscal lands and thanks to the emphyteutic bond with the Ravenna archbishops, the group established there a broad seigneurial rule between the plain and the Apennines. Although it never touched the city of Bologna, their hegemony extended over the plain to the north towards the course of the Po and the Apennine valleys to the south. Fundamental elements of their power were the many castles and the foundation of the private monastery of S. Bartolomeo di Musiano.

Discontinuity between Public Powers and Private Seigneurial Rule

The conclusion summarizes the key features of the Hucpoldings as a wide kinship group. Beyond assessing once more the legitimacy of such prosopographic effort by placing this research in the proper historiographical context, it underlines that the specific attention given to the women of the kindred and to their cognatic ties allows us to draw a varied and striking picture of the Hucpoldings, and in general of early medieval elites kinship groups, compared with previous studies.

Kinship, Self-awareness and Memory

The third part of the research proposes the diachronic reconstruction of the evolution of powers and awareness of the relations of kinship through a thematic analysis. The seventh chapter aims at defining the aspects that characterized the kinship group as a whole, such as self-awareness and memory through onomastic choices and monastic foundations. It shows that, in the Hucpolding case, the patrimonial possessions came to be the main cohesive feature of the group only in the years spanning the tenth to eleventh centuries. Only at that time did the switch from cognatic to agnatic structures occur.

The Local Basis of Power in a Wide Political Network (1012–1116)

The third chapter deals with the dynamics of seignorial affirmation and strategies of power implemented locally by the descendant branches of the group in their respective areas of influence: the low Apennines and the plain around the city of Bologna, the area of Faenza in Romagna, the countryside around Florence and the Apennines between Tuscia and Emilia. Specific attention is devoted to kinship ties with the Canossa, demonstrated by a cluster of charters kept by the church of Pisa. The chapter proposes that despite the progressive affirmation and the development of each seigneurial rule in different patrimonial areas, the kinship network remained active, vital and connected until at least the beginning of the twelfth century.

The March of Tuscany

The growth of Hucpolding landed possessions in Tuscia is marked by two distinct phases. The first covers the second half of the ninth century, when key elements of their presence included two monasteries in the Florentine area and close relationships with the Adalbertings; the second, the second half of the tenth century after the group achieved the marchisal office, when the full resources of the fisc became available to them. Chapter 5 examines the evolution of parental assets in the march, aligned with the pathway to marchisal authority. It proposes that the marchisal office was fundamental to the expansion of their power in the region – a power that proved transitory, however, after the loss of the public office.

The Hucpoldings’ Involvement in the Political Struggles of the Kingdom of Italy (847–945)

The first part of the book is dedicated to the prosopographic reconstruction of the kinship group, and to the political context and relationships in which the members, both men and women, operated from the second half of the ninth century to the beginning of the twelfth. The first chapter examines the first century of the Hucpoldings in Italy. Fundamentally, it suggests that the criteria for the inclusion into the ranks of Carolingian elite in the Italian kingdom were a relationship with the royal power and the attainment of public offices in different areas of the kingdom, such as in the palace of the capital Pavia, eastern Emilia, the duchy of Spoleto or the marchese of Tuscany.