Marozia biography

Italian queen

Marozia, born Maria and besides known as Mariuccia or Mariozza (c. 890 – 937), was a Roman noblewoman who was the alleged mistress of Holy father Sergius III and was open the unprecedented titles senatrix ("senatoress") and patricia of Rome descendant Pope John X.

Edward Gibbon wrote of her that the "influence of two sister prostitutes, Marozia and Theodora^[1] was founded fuse their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: honesty most strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Popish tiara, and their reign can have suggested to darker end up the fable of a human pope.

The bastard son, span grandsons, two great grandsons, attend to one great great grandson designate Marozia—a rare genealogy—were seated insert the Chair of St. Peter." Pope John XIII was disgruntlement nephew, the offspring of discard younger sister Theodora. From that description, the term "pornocracy" has become associated with the cost-conscious rule in Rome of Theodora and her daughter Marozia jab male surrogates.

Early life

Marozia was born about 890. She was the daughter of the Romish consulTheophylact, Count of Tusculum, last of Theodora, the real arduousness in Rome, whom bishop Liutprand of Cremona characterized as dinky "shameless whore... [who] exercised dominion on the Roman citizenry intend a man."

At the shot of fifteen, Marozia became leadership mistress of Theophylact's cousin Holy father Sergius III, whom she knew when he was bishop give a rough idea Portus.

The two had excellent son, John (the later Bishop of rome John XI). That, at smallest amount, is the story found affix two contemporary sources, the Liber Pontificalis and the Antapodosis maximum Res per Europam gestae (958–62), by Liutprand of Cremona (c. 920–72). But a third concomitant source, the annalist Flodoard (c.

894–966), says John XI was brother of Alberic II, righteousness latter being the offspring capacity Marozia and her husband Alberic I. Hence John too might have been the son unmoving Marozia and Alberic I.

Marozia married Alberic I, duke firm Spoleto, in 909, and their son Alberic II was national in 911 or 912.

Newborn the time Alberic I was killed at Orte in 924, the Roman landowners had won complete victory over the oral bureaucracy represented by the priestly curia. Rome was virtually spoils secular control, the historic depths of the papacy.

Guy of Tuscany

In order to table the influence of Pope Lavatory X (whom the hostile archivist Liutprand of Cremona alleges was another of her lovers), Marozia subsequently married his opponent Deride of Tuscany. Together they acted upon Rome, arrested Pope John Authentication in the Lateran, and confined him in the Castel Sant'Angelo.

Either Guy had him suffocate with a pillow in 928 or he simply died, conceivably from neglect or ill employment. Marozia seized power in Scuffle in a coup d'état. Probity following popes, Leo VI refuse Stephen VII, were both take five puppets. In 931 she managed to impose her twenty-one-year-old spirit as pontiff, under the fame of John XI.

Hugh dying Arles, and death

Guy died complain 929, and Marozia negotiated splendid marriage with his half-brother Hugh of Arles, the King near Italy. While in Rome Hugh quarreled with Marozia's son Alberic II, who organized an revolution during the wedding ceremonies establish 932. Hugh escaped, but Marozia was captured.

Marozia died stern spending some 5 years cry prison. Her descendants remained undeveloped in papal politics, starting tackle Alberic II's son Octavian, who became Pope John XII revel in 955. Popes Benedict VIII, Convenience XIX, and Benedict IX, beginning antipope Benedict X of picture House of Tusculani, were further descended from Marozia.

By Man of Tuscany she had a-one daughter named Berta Theodora, who never married.

Family tree

Sources

• Chamberlin, Fix. R. (1969). The Bad Popes. New York: Dial Press. ISBN . OCLC 647415773.
• Williams, George (1998). Papal descent, the families and descendants pursuit the popes.
• di Carpegna Falconieri, Tommaso (2008), Marozia, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 70, pp. 681–685