| March of Verona and Aquileia | |||||||||||
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March ofHoly Roman Empire
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| 952–1167 | |||||||||||
 Flag of the March of Verona | |||||||||||
 Italy about 1050, with the Veronese march in the northeast | |||||||||||
| Capital | Verona | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Medieval Europe | ||||||||||
• Established | 952 | ||||||||||
• Formation of the Lombard League | 1167 | ||||||||||
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| Today part of | |||||||||||
TheMarch of Verona and Aquileia was a vastmarch (frontier district) of theHoly Roman Empire in the northeastern Italian region during theMiddle Ages, centered on the cities ofVerona andAquileia. Seized by KingOtto I of Germany in 952, it was held by the Dukes ofBavaria; from 976 inpersonal union with theDuchy of Carinthia. Themargravial regime ended with the advent of theLombard League in 1167.
The march roughly comprised the historicFriuli andVeneto regions from the border withLombardy and theChiese River in the west to theTagliamento and theIsonzo (Soča) in the east, the upper Soča valley within theJulian Alps is today part of the SlovenianGoriška region. Initially it also included present-dayTrentino uphill to theAdige river in the northwest. Except for thelagoons controlled byVenice, it stretched from theAdriatic Sea to the crest of theDolomites and theCarnic Alps in the north, where the mountainousCarnia region borders with Carinthia. The western lands around Verona comprised thePo Valley, theEuganean andBerici Hills, theVenetian Prealps andLake Garda.
Beside the capital Verona near the southwestern border withTuscany, the march included the episcopal seat of Aquileia, the historic Friulian capitalUdine with nearbyCividale and the port ofGrado in the east, as well as the major cities ofVicenza,Treviso, andPadua, which played a vital role in forming the Lombard League. The March of Verona was a strategically important province, which governed the southern approaches to theAlpine passes leading toGermany, and significant in the—ultimately failed—attempts of theHoly Roman Emperors to maintain the rule over Italy.
TheMarca Veronensis et Aquileiensis was created by KingBerengar I of Friuli about 890 as part of a general restructuring of his realm, when it replaced the former CarolingianMarch of Friuli last held by Berengar's liensmanWalfred. It was separated from the Italian kingdom after theGerman kingOtto I had campaigned against KingBerengar II of Italy in 951. At theReichstag meeting atAugsburg in the next year, Berengar II retained Italy, but had to renounce the Veronese march, which was attached to the stem duchy ofBavaria under Otto's brother DukeHenry I. At that time theMarch of Istria was attached to Verona as a county. From 952 to 975, bothCarinthia and Verona were under the control of the dukes of Bavaria, forming a massive Italian, German, and Slavic fief ruled by relatives of the SaxonOttonian dynasty.[1]
After several revolts led by his Bavarian cousins, EmperorOtto II in 976 deposed DukeHenry II of Bavaria and established theDuchy of Carinthia under the loyalLuitpolding vassalHenry the Younger on the southeastern territories. He also received Verona as a Carinthian march and from that time on, it was under the control of the Carinthian dukes and at other times not. Already in 975, acommune had been chartered in the capital city, when Otto II ceded to Verona the powers of the marquisate. From this time Verona and several other cities in the march gradually developed into independentcity-states, and in turn the titleMargrave of Verona became an essentially empty hereditary honour in the ducal houses of Bavaria and Carinthia. Henceforth the Holy Roman Emperors began to appointvicars to represent them, instead ofmargraves, in Verona.
From 1004 KingHenry II of Germany, having conquered the Kingdom of Italy, allotted several Veronese territories in the Adige Valley aroundTrento (Trient) to theBishops of Trent. HisSalian successor,Emperor Conrad II, upon his coronation in 1027 separated these lands from the Italian kingdom and gave the Trent bishopsimmediate authority, elevating them to the rank of ImperialPrince-Bishops. Trentino remained under episcopal rule—contested by the Counts ofTyrol—until itssecularisation in 1803.
In 1061Empress Agnes enfeoffed theSwabian countBerthold from theHouse of Zähringen with Carinthia and Verona. Though he could not prevail, neither as Carinthian duke nor as Veronese margrave, he bequested the title to his descendants from the House ofBaden, who went on to rule their Swabian territories as a "Margraviate". At that time in 1070, Istria was resurrected into a march again and detached from Verona, while in the course of theInvestiture Controversy in 1077 the territories of Friuli in the east, around the episcopal city of Aquileia were separated from the March to provide an ecclesiasticalPatriarchate of Aquileia, like Trent an immediate vassal of KingHenry IV of Germany.
In 1151 theHohenstaufen KingConrad III of Germany finally divested DukeHenry V of Carinthia of the remaining Veronese march and enfeoffed MargraveHerman III of Baden. However, in 1164, the most important cities formed the Veronese League, aStädtebund association aimed at protecting their independence against the Italian policies of Conrad's nephew EmperorFrederick Barbarossa. The League was led by Venice; other members were Verona, Padua, Vicenza, and Treviso. In 1167, the Veronese cities joined theLombard League; this constituted thede facto end of the march, confirmed by the Lombard victory at the 1176Battle of Legnano. The Emperors continued to name vicars, though by then the office was purely nominal, as from the 13th century onwards the actuallords of Verona were thepodestàs from theScaliger (della Scala) dynasty. In 1405 the Veronese citizens submitted to Venice, which until about 1420 conquered most of the territory of the former march and incorporated it into theDomini di Terraferma.
