Ravenna

Who holds it

Name

Guglielmo di Cabriano

Title

Archbishop of Ravenna

Since

11 February 1191

Confidence

high

The Italian Wikipedia list pins the notes' Guglielmo as Guglielmo di Cabriano, archbishop from 11 February 1191 to 1201. He was bishop of Asti from before July 1173 until his translation to Ravenna. After his death in 1201 the see stays vacant until Alberto Oselletti on 10 March 1202.

What it holds

• Ravenna: lordship of the city, shared with a commune of nobles who administer the church's estates
• Argenta: castle and district midway between Ravenna and Ferrara; the struggle with the Este for it begins around 1200
• Lugo: the castle first recorded in 1037, on lands of Ravenna's monasteries
• Cervia and its salt pans, under the archbishops since the early Middle Ages [how much he controls in 1200 is not pinned]
• Estates scattered through the old exarchate and Pentapolis

How it was acquired

A Byzantine and Carolingian inheritance, enlarged by 10th-century grants of the coast from the Po di Primaro to Cervia, with the counties of Ferrara, Comacchio, Cervia, Decimano and Traversara. The 12th-century communes stripped most of it away.

How things stand that morning

The archbishop is still a lord in Ravenna and in a handful of castles and salt lands, but most Romagna cities are free communes and his greater claims are paper.

Wealth

Salt of Cervia, rents of the vast church estates, and the port of Ravenna.

Threats

• The Este of Ferrara at Argenta
• The Romagna communes
• The papal claim to the exarchate

Advocates and rivals

The commune of Ravenna; the Este and Ferrara over Argenta; Faenza, which will destroy Lugo's castle in 1218; the Romagna communes; Innocent III, who claims the exarchate for the Roman Church.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1201Guglielmo dies; after a vacancy Alberto Oselletti becomes archbishop on 10 March 1202.Depends on: His natural death. Stopped by: Nothing likely.

Places of note

• Ravenna: The archbishop's city and palace
• Argenta: Archiepiscopal castle disputed with the Este

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The archbishop's name and dates are firm; what he actually controlled in each place on 1 January 1200 is thinly documented in the sources read.

On the map: Only the places the archbishop is known to have held are drawn; his wider claims in the Romagna overlap the papal claim drawn by the Papal State record.

Primary sources for Ravenna

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.

• The Deeds of Innocent III, Anonymous (a curial official, perhaps Peter of Benevento) (about 1208 to 1209). The curia's own account of the pontificate's first decade, with letters copied in. Read online