The March is the long Adriatic slope from the Foglia to the Tronto: walled hill towns, river valleys running down to the sea, and the ports of Ancona, Fano, Senigallia and Pesaro.
Markward ruled it for Henry VI until the towns threw him out in 1198 and accepted the pope as lord. On 1 January 1200 the papal claim is recognised, but the towns are the real powers: Ancona leads a league and binds its neighbours to its port, and the neighbours resent it. Within two years they will be at war with each other.
Who holds it
- Name
- Innocent III
- Title
- Pope, lord of the March since 1198 [rector on 1 January 1200 not pinned]
- Since
- 1198
- Confidence
- high
Henry VI gave Markward of Annweiler the March of Ancona, with the duchy of Ravenna and Romagna, as hereditary fiefs at Easter 1195 (Federiciana). In March 1198 Innocent sent the cardinals Cinzio of S. Lorenzo in Lucina and Giovanni di San Paolo of S. Prisca as legates to the March to make Markward acknowledge papal sovereignty (FIU). On 31 August 1198 Ancona put itself at the head of a league of the towns of the March and Romagna against Markward, whom the people hated for his taxes: Osimo, Senigallia and Fermo joined, with Ravenna and Rimini; Markward gave way and withdrew south (Federiciana, Ancona).
The same year Ancona made a ten-year pact with Osimo binding Osimo to use only Ancona's port (same).
What it holds
- Ancona: port city and commune, head of the 1198 league, under papal lordship
- Osimo, Senigallia and Fermo: members of Ancona's 1198 league, communes under papal lordship
- Pesaro, Fano and Jesi: towns of the old Pentapolis and the Esino valley
- Camerino, Macerata, Recanati, Tolentino, San Severino and Fabriano: inland communes [individual status in 1200 not pinned]
- Ascoli: commune on the Tronto, facing the Kingdom's Abruzzi
- Urbino and the Montefeltro: claimed as part of the March; held by the counts of Montefeltro [thin]
How it was acquired
The Pentapolis (Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia, Ancona) was named in the Carolingian donations; the southern March grew from the imperial march of Fermo (it.wikipedia: the 'Marca Fermana' between the Musone and the Tronto). The papal claim to the whole March stayed on parchment until 1198. Innocent later granted the March to Azzo VI of Este as a papal fief (the Federiciana dates it to 1205, most accounts to 1208).
How things stand that morning
Papal lordship recognised by the communes; real power with the towns and with Ancona's league.
Wealth
Ancona's harbour and its trade with Venice, Dalmatia and Byzantium; the smaller ports of Fano, Senigallia and Pesaro; grain, wine and wool of the hill country; the coast road to Apulia.
Threats
- Ancona's quarrels with Osimo, Jesi, Fermo and Fano: open war in 1201, peace made by the pope at Polverigi on 18 January 1202 (Federiciana)
- Venice's pressure on Ancona's trade
- Markward's partisans, and any imperial revival
- Raids across the Tronto from the Kingdom's Abruzzi during the regency war
Advocates and rivals
Ancona and its league; the rival communes (Osimo, Jesi, Fermo, Fano); Venice, Ancona's trade rival on the Adriatic; Markward, who still styles himself marquess; the counts of Montefeltro in the north-west; the Este, who will be enfeoffed later.
Places of note
- Polverigi: Where the pope will make peace among the March towns on 18 January 1202
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Fair for the 1198 rising and league; thin for individual towns and for the papal government of the March in 1200.
On the map: The outline follows the modern Marche boundary with Umbria and Abruzzo, which keeps the old Apennine and Tronto frontiers. The Montefeltro is shown only by three communes as a claim.
Primary sources for Papal State
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Annals of Montecassino; Annals of Ceccano (Fossanova) (12th and early 13th centuries; Ceccano to 1217). Two sets of annals from either side of the papal and Sicilian frontier. Read online
- Chronicle of Richard of San Germano, Richard of San Germano (first version about 1216, enlarged to 1243). The fullest southern narrative of the Hohenstaufen kingdom, written by a notary on the border of the Terra di Lavoro. Read online
- Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
- Chronicle of Andres, William of Andres (about 1220 to 1234). The chronicle and cartulary of a small abbey between Guines and Ardres, near the border of Flanders and Boulogne. Read online
- Chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg, Burchard of Ursberg (about 1229 to 1230, reworked by Conrad of Lichtenau). Written a generation later by a fierce partisan of the Staufen and a critic of Innocent III. Read online
- Chronicle of Robert of Auxerre, Robert of Auxerre (Robert of Saint-Marien) (about 1190 to 1211; continued at Saint-Marien to 1227). A universal chronicle whose last twenty years are contemporary and well informed from Burgundy and the Auxerrois. Read online
- Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
- Chronicle of Sicard, bishop of Cremona, Sicard of Cremona (about 1210 to 1213). A universal chronicle whose last part is a well-placed eyewitness account by a Lombard bishop who served emperors and popes. Read online
12 more in the sources library for Southern Italy and the Islands.
Sources and studies
- Ancona (Treccani, Enciclopedia Federiciana)
- Marcovaldo di Annweiler (Treccani, Enciclopedia Federiciana)
- S. Miranda, The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: consistory of September 1190 (FIU)
- March of Ancona (en.wikipedia)
- Marca anconitana (it.wikipedia)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.