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The Marquisate of Monferrato was an ancient pre-unitary Italian state that arose in the 11th century when the Aleramic March, previously managed by all the descendants of Aleramo in consortship, was divided between the Marquises of Monferrato and the Marquises of the Vasto. It was governed by the Aleramici, Palaiologos, and Gonzaga dynasties. The Marquisate came to an end in 1574 when it was incorporated into the Gonzaga domains and elevated to a duchy.

Its highly irregular territorial geography and the lack of a large urban capital or corresponding ecclesiastical district that could confirm its identity attest to how this state originated from the feudal logic of the Early Middle Ages, while surviving throughout the communal era and coexisting with the famous Italian Renaissance lordships.

For most of its existence, the Marquisate was divided into two large separate areas: the northern one, including the current provinces of Vercelli, Alessandria, Turin, and Pavia, and the southern one, including those of Alessandria, Savona, Asti, and Cuneo.

Origin of the name
The toponym "Monteferrato" is first mentioned in a document from 909 by Berengar of Friuli, but its meaning is unknown. According to various hypotheses, it could mean "Territory of spelt", "Territory of iron", or "Territory of the Friars". Given the improbability of these possibilities, Professor Geo Pistarino presents two opposing hypotheses: Monferrato could either indicate a degraded and uncultivated territory (assuming the existence of the medieval Latin word "feratus" derived from "feralis"), or a previously uncultivated territory that has been put into use (considering "ferratus" as the past participle of "ferre", with the meaning of producing).

Origins
The Marquisate of Monferrato originated from the dissolution of the Aleramic March, granted in 958 by the King of Italy Berengar II to the knight Aleramo, whose mysterious origins may be traced back to the Count of Champagne. The march was managed collectively until the end of the 11th century when the Aleramic descendants Boniface and Rainier established a precise division of the territory, with the former becoming the Marquis of the Vasto, the southern territory including Savona, and the latter the Marquis of Monferrato, the northern territory.

The Aleramici family
The Marquess William V, son of Rainier, ruled during the Commune era and tried to increase the prestige of his family by aligning with the Holy Roman Empire. Following the destruction of Milan by Frederick Barbarossa, the northern Italian communes formed the Lombard League and founded the city of Alessandria, placing it precisely in the territories of Monferrato to weaken the Empire's strongest Italian ally. However, following the failure of Barbarossa in the Siege of Alessandria, the Marquess became convinced that the only way to bring glory to the dynasty was through the Outremer, and worked to make his sons important figures there, but the four did not find great success there:


 * William married the heir to the throne of Jerusalem, Sibilla, but died of illness shortly after their marriage and before the birth of their son, Baldwin.


 * Renier married the Byzantine princess Maria Komnene, daughter of the basileus Manuel I, and became governor of Thessalonica. After the death of his father-in-law, he took part in the usual Byzantine succession struggle, supporting his wife Maria, but was imprisoned and later poisoned by Andronikos I Komnenos during the Massacre of the Latins.


 * Conrad became marquess of Monferrato in 1186, after his father Guglielmo left for Jerusalem, following the ascension of his nephew Baldwin to the throne. After the premature death of Baldwin, the defeat of the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin, and the fall of Jerusalem, the marquess answered the call of Pope Clement III and took part in the Third Crusade, landing in Tyre. Corrado defended the city strenuously against the siege of Saladin and was appointed its Lord after the recapture of Acre. The enterprise gave Corrado great valor, so that after the death of Queen Sibilla, Balian of Ibelin chose him as the husband of Isabella, the legitimate heir to the Crusader state. However, a few days after the coronation, Corrado was assassinated by order of Richard Cœur de Lion, supporter of Guy of Lusignan, who claimed the throne as the widower of Sibilla.


 * Boniface, appointed marquess after Corrado's departure, was called to lead the Fourth Crusade and consequently commanded the sack of Constantinople. Almost appointed Emperor of the Latin Empire, Boniface obtained the Kingdom of Thessalonica, but was killed a few years later in an ambush by the Bulgarians of Tsar Kaloyan.

Following these unfortunate events, the descendants of Boniface were forced to abandon their dreams of glory in the East. The political scenario in Italy in the 13th century was characterized by the conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, and the Marquises of Monferrato distinguished themselves for their shameless ability to ally with one side or the other in case of foreign policy problems or for personal gain. The Marquises William VI and Boniface II focused primarily on countering the communes of Asti and Alessandria, which were continuously increasing their power at the expense of the Marquisate. In 1253, a few days before his death, Bonifacio II was awarded the dominion over the powerful commune of Casale by Conrad IV of Germany. His son, William VII, regained a central role in Italian geopolitics for the Marquisate. He began his government allied with the Guelphs, quickly conquered Nizza della Paglia, and directed his expansionist ambitions towards Ivrea and Canavese. However, the enormous power that was converging in the hands of the Count of Provence, Charles I of Anjou, who in a few years subjected numerous municipalities in southern Piedmont and conquered the Kingdom of Sicily, convinced William to ally with the Ghibellines, marrying Beatrice, daughter of Alfonso X, King of Castile and pretender to the imperial throne. When Ivrea also submitted to Charles I of Anjou in 1271, the Marquis was convinced to go to war and, allied with the municipalities of Asti, Genoa, and Pavia, achieved a decisive victory near Roccavione, ousting the Angevins from Piedmont. Many of the municipalities previously subject to Charles I of Anjou then turned to William VII. In the following years, the Marquis was appointed lord and captain of Alessandria, Asti, Genoa, Pavia, Milan, Turin, Vercelli, and many other municipalities, becoming the main Italian exponent of the Ghibelline faction.

His military hegemony, however, was not destined to last: the Asti nobles were the first to rebel, followed by Thomas III of Piedmont, who considered himself the rightful ruler of Turin and took it back by imprisoning William while he was crossing the Alps to go to his father-in-law, Alfonso of Castile. Then it was the turn of the Visconti, who ousted him from the lordship of Milan. The rapid collapse of his power seemed to slow down with the conquest of Alba and the marriage of his daughter Yolande to the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, but then even Alessandria, corrupted by Asti with the huge sum of 85,000 florins, revolted. In 1292 William marched with his army to the city, obtaining the surrender of its citizens, but they dishonorably imprisoned him during the negotiations and left him to die of starvation in an iron cage. The sudden death of the main military commander of northern Italy left a large number of communes defenseless; some of them turned to the House of Savoy (represented in Italy by the Achaea cadet branch), but most were subdued by Matteo I Visconti.

John I of Montferrat, the son of Guglielmo VII, formed an alliance with Manfred IV of Saluzzo and Charles II of Anjou, and continued his father's war against Alessandria, contributed to the removal of the Visconti from Milan in favor of the Della Torre family, and, above all, conquered Asti where he settled. In 1305, only two years after the submission of Asti, Giovanni fell seriously ill and died without producing heirs. The extinction of the Ottonian line of the Aleramici dynasty left the succession of the marquisate uncertain: Manfred IV of Saluzzo, justified by the agreements made by Boniface II with his ancestor Manfred III, and Charles of Anjou made a pact to divide the Monferrine lands, establishing city parliaments to ensure the loyalty of the new subjects.

I Paleologi
John I, however, in his will had resorted to the Semi-Salic law, through which he designated his heir as the Byzantine prince Theodore Palaiologos, son of his sister Violante. Theodore Palaiologos landed in Genoa in 1306 and secured the alliance of the Superba by marrying Argentina, daughter of the Captain of the People Opicino Spinola. Having regained the loyalty of part of the Monferrato, including Casale, in 1310 Theodore officially obtained investiture as Marquis from Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor, but the Upper Monferrato remained occupied by the Angevin troops. These were finally expelled from Piedmont in 1345 by Giovanni II with the battle of Gamenario, which also resulted in the Monferrine conquest of Alba and Acqui Terme.

However, the expansionist aims of the Marquises of Monferrato in the following decades clashed with the Savoy and, above all, with the increasingly powerful Visconti, who conquered Casale in 1370 and reunited their possessions in the Duchy of Milan in 1395. The 15th century was characterized by a series of wars, in the first part of which Marquis Theodore II regained Casale and, allied with the condottiero Facino Cane, occupied Milan and Genoa. In 1427, Marquess John Jacob sided with Venice against Filippo Maria Visconti, within the Wars in Lombardy, but the situation soon turned against him: Casale was quickly occupied by the company of Francesco Sforza; taking refuge in Chivasso, the Marquis received a declaration of war from Amadeus VIII of Savoy as well. Attacked on all fronts, John Jacob was forced to concede to their demands: Chivasso would be annexed to the Duchy of Savoy, while the rest of Montferrat would come under his protection, becoming a sort of vassal state. After regaining peace at a high price, in 1434 the Marquis established Casale as the official capital of Montferrat.

In 1447, the death without heirs of Filippo Maria Visconti and the consequent proclamation of the Golden Ambrosian Republic by the citizens of Milan marked the resumption of hostilities, as both Charles of Orléans and Louis of Savoy claimed rights to the duchy. The Marquis John IV, in exchange for Alessandria, sided with the defense of the independence of the Milanese commune, which had also hired Francesco Sforza. The people of Alessandria surrendered to Giovanni IV in 1449, but the following year Sforza, who in the meantime had appointed himself Duke of Milan, captured the Marquis. After about a year, Giovanni renounced Alessandria and was then released. In 1453, the fall of Constantinople forced Venice to interrupt the clashes in Italy to concentrate on defending its possessions in the Mediterranean; however, the resulting treaty of Lodi was unfavorable to Montferrat, resulting only in the return of the villages of Felizzano and Cassine. The disastrous economic and political situation of the Marquisate, moreover, left Montferrat court almost indifferent to the deposition of the Palaiologos of Constantinople.

In the following decades, the Marquises were forced to follow a strenuous policy of survival. In 1464, Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, declared the independence of the Marquisate, interrupting the vassal relationship towards the Duchy of Savoy, but the Savoyard influence on Montferrat politics remained important. In 1513, during the War of the League of Cambrai, the approach of Marquis William IX towards France led Charles III, Duke of Savoy to conspire to bring the Aleramic Oddone of Incisa to the throne of Montferrat. When the plot was discovered, William IX marched on the small Marquisate of Incisa, annexing it and condemning Oddone to death. Accused of high treason, William was exonerated by the Monferrine orator Urbano from Serralunga. In 1533, while French influence on Monferrato was increasing, the male line of the Palaiologos family became extinct with the death of Marquis John George. The dynastic crisis was resolved in 1536 by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who granted the Marquisate to Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, who had married Margaret, daughter of Guglielmo IX, precisely to secure the Monferrine succession.

I Gonzaga
I primi anni di governo sul Monferrato da parte dei Gonzaga non furono semplici, a causa delle continue guerre sul suolo italiano tra il regno di Francia e gli Asburgo: nel 1555, durante l'ultima fase di queste guerre, Casale fu occupata da truppe francesi, ma il trattato di Cateau-Cambrésis la restituì a Guglielmo Gonzaga. Uno dei primi atti del nuovo marchese fu l'abolizione dei parlamenti cittadini istituiti da Manfredo IV di Saluzzo e mantenuti dai Paleologi, ma ciò creò grande discontento, soprattutto a Casale. Dapprima Guglielmo cercò di sbarazzarsi del problema proponendo il Monferrato a Filippo II di Spagna in cambio di Cremona, ricevendo un secco rifiuto. Quindi nominò governatore del Monferrato Flaminio Paleologo, figlio illegittimo di Giovanni Giorgio Paleologo, sperando che il suo legame con la precedente dinastia potesse placare il discontento, ma ciò volse decisamente in suo sfavore quando lo stesso Flaminio fu coinvolto dalle principali famiglie di Casale in una congiura che avrebbe dovuto portare all'assassinio del marchese durante l'insediamento del vescovo Ambrogio Aldegati. Il complotto venne sventato per tempo e Flaminio fu arrestato e avvelenato, mentre tutti i rivoltosi furono cacciati da Casale. Gli esiliati trovarono rifugio presso Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, le cui mire espansionistiche erano state attirate dalla situazione molto tesa. Nel 1573, per limitare le ambizioni del duca di Savoia sul marchesato, Guglielmo chiese a Massimiliano II d'Asburgo che i suoi domini fossero trasformati nel Granducato di Mantova e del Monferrato, ma l'imperatore, non volendo concedergli troppo potere, acconsentì solamente ad elevare il suo rango marchionale: nacque così il ducato del Monferrato. Ciò risultò assai inutile, considerando che i Savoia invasero il nuovo ducato una prima volta nel 1613, successivamente nel 1628 e lo conquistarono definitivamente durante la guerra di successione spagnola.

Geografia
Il marchesato del Monferrato era situato tra il Piemonte sud-orientale e la riviera ligure. Quest'area, che prese il nome di Monferrato, si estende verso sud a partire dalla destra idrografica del Po inoltrandosi A sud nell’Appenino ligure fino a giungere sullo spartiacque tra versante adriatico e versante tirrenico a monte della costa ligure di Genova e Savona. L'indipendenza ottenuta dalle città di Asti e Alessandria durante l'età comunale divise il territorio in due zone, una meridionale, denominata Alto Monferrato, e una settentrionale, denominata Basso Monferrato. I confini del marchesato mutarono continuamente durante la sua storia: sotto il marchese Guglielmo VII arrivò a comprendere il territorio situato tra Torino e Brescia, ma varie sconfitte militari lo ridimensionarono fino a perdere anche la città di Chivasso, una delle più importanti.

Strada Franca
Nei primi anni del XV secolo, quando il territorio del marchesato si ritrovò suddiviso in due zone distinte e separate, il collegamento tra di loro fu ottenuto istituendo, attraverso il ducato di Milano, una cosiddetta "strada franca", vale a dire una strada su cui le persone e le merci potevano transitare senza essere assoggettate a dazi o gabelle. Il tracciato della strada, ancora al giorno d'oggi indicato da pannelli di segnalazione, andava dal comune di Bergamasco, attraversava il comune di Masio e il fiume Tanaro, poi quello di Felizzano, infine raggiungeva nuovamente il territorio del marchesato a Fubine.

Principali città

 * Casale Monferrato (capitale dal 1434), monferrina dal 1253
 * Chivasso (sede marchionale prima del 1434), monferrina dal X secolo al 1432
 * Moncalvo (sede marchionale prima del 1434), monferrina dal X secolo
 * Pontestura (sede marchionale prima del 1434), monferrina dal X secolo
 * Trino (sede marchionale prima del 1434), monferrina dal X secolo
 * Acqui Terme, monferrina dal 1345
 * Alba, monferrina dal 1345
 * Nizza Monferrato, monferrina dal 1264

Bibliografia

 * Roberto Maestri, Il Marchesato di Monferrato, in La Marca Aleramica. Storia di una regione mancata, a cura di Raoul Molinari, Umberto Soletti Editore, Baldissero d'Alba, 2008.
 * Gigliola Soldi Rondinini, Il Monferrato: crocevia politico, economico e culturale tra Mediterraneo e Europa: Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Ponzone, 9-12 giugno 1998
 * Carlo Ferraris - Roberto Maestri, Storia del Monferrato. Le origini, il Marchesato, il Ducato, Editore Circolo Culturale I Marchesi del Monferrato, Alessandria 2016, ISBN 978-88-97103-01-1
 * Beatrice Del Bo, Uomini e strutture di uno stato feudale. Il marchesato di Monferrato (1418-1483), LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2009, ISBN 978-88-7916-440-5
 * Mario Gallina, Fra Occidente e Oriente: la crociata aleramica per Tessalonica, in Conflitti e coesistenza nel Mediterraneo medievale, 2003
 * Mario Ravegnani Morosini, Signorie e Principati, III, Maggioli, Dogana (RSM) 1984.
 * G. Aldo di Ricaldone, Monferrato tra Po e Tanaro, Gribaudo-Lorenzo Fornaca editore Asti 1999
 * G. Aldo di Ricaldone, Annali del Monferrato, Vol I e II L.Fornaca editore, Asti
 * D. Testa, Storia del Monferrato, Gribaudo-Lorenzo Fornaca editore Asti 1996


 * Approfondimenti

Voci correlate

 * Monferrato
 * Aleramici
 * Paleologi di Monferrato
 * Gonzaga
 * Sovrani del Monferrato
 * Ducato del Monferrato