Rome

Who holds it

Name

Innocent III (Lotario dei Conti di Segni)

Title

Pope, lord of the city; the commune's senator governs under oath to him

Since

Elected 8 January 1198; the senator's oath and the prefect's homage date from February 1198

Confidence

high

Gregorovius names the senator in office when Innocent was elected as Scotto Paparone, a Roman noble; Innocent had the senate pass to a man named through his own agent, and the senator now swears a fixed oath of fealty to the pope (Gregorovius quotes it: 'I, senator of the City, will from now on be faithful to you, our lord Pope Innocent'). Gregorovius places Pandolfo della Suburra in the senatorship during the war with Viterbo of 1199-1200, which supports the campaign's [thin] note; Luchaire has Pandolfo as senator again in 1202 and holding the Capitol for the pope in the troubles of 1203-1204. The prefect, Pietro di Vico, an enemy of the papacy and Henry VI's man until 1197, swore fealty in public consistory and received the prefect's purple mantle from the pope's hands as a sign of investiture on 22 February 1198 (Gregorovius; Luchaire gives 23 February).

Luchaire lists his fiefs as Civitavecchia, Vetralla, Carbognano and Caprarola in the Cimini hills.

What it holds

• Rome: lordship of the city, exercised through the senator's oath of fealty; the commune keeps its senate, courts and militia
• The Lateran palace and the Leonine City around St Peter's, the pope's own residences
• The prefecture of the city, held of the pope by Pietro di Vico since 22 February 1198 (investiture by the mantle)
• The district of the city (districtus Urbis): the Agro Romano from the Tolfa foothills to the Alban and Sabine hills and the sea, claimed by the commune as its contado
• Ostia and Porto at the Tiber mouth, with the salt pans that supply Rome
• The Tiber port (Ripa) and the city gates, with their tolls
• Vitorchiano, which broke away from Viterbo in 1199 and put itself under Rome: claimed by Rome and besieged by the Viterbese on 1 January 1200
• Baronial castles inside the district (Orsini, Frangipane, Conti, Colonna, Savelli, Annibaldi): held by the families, owing the commune and the pope only what they choose to give

How it was acquired

Papal lordship over Rome rests on the early medieval duchy of Rome and the Carolingian donations, but since the revolution of 1143-1144 the city has had its own commune. The pact of 1188 between Clement III and the senate, which Luchaire calls the 1188 charter, gave the pope recognised rights while leaving the commune its government. Innocent III turned that into direct control in his first weeks: the senator's oath of fealty and the prefect's investiture, by which an office the emperors had used against the popes became a papal fief.

How things stand that morning

The pope controls the senate through the oath and through his kinsmen; Pandolfo della Suburra is very probably senator (Gregorovius). The commune makes war on its own account: in January 1200 its militia is in the field against Viterbo. The barons hold their castles in the district as they please, and the communal party is quiet but not beaten.

Wealth

Pilgrims at St Peter's and the Lateran; the curia's business, which fills the city's inns, money-changers and notaries; the salt of Ostia; the Tiber port and the gate tolls; the census of the Papal State and of the kingdoms and churches that pay Rome, received at the Lateran.

Threats

• The war with Viterbo over Vitorchiano, live on 1 January 1200
• The communal party of Giovanni Capocci and Giovanni Pierleoni, which wants the senate free of papal control (open civil war in 1203-1204, per Luchaire)
• Baronial feuds: Orsini against the Scotti and the Conti (street fighting in 1202, per Luchaire)
• Resentment of the pope's brother Riccardo dei Conti, whose wealth and towers grow with the pontificate

Advocates and rivals

The communal party led by two former senators, Giovanni Capocci and Giovanni Pierleoni, who want a senate free of the pope (Luchaire). The great families with towers in the city and castles outside: the Orsini (Celestine III's Bobone kin), the Conti (Innocent's own), the Scotti (his mother's kin in Luchaire's account), the Savelli, Frangipane, Pierleoni, Annibaldi and Capocci. The prefect's family, the di Vico, papal vassals since 1198.

Viterbo, the enemy of the moment.

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. 6 January 1200 (Gregorovius, Luchaire); some modern accounts put it on 6 January 1201The Romans defeat the Viterbese in battle; Riccardo dei Conti, the pope's brother, pays for the reinforcements. In the peace that follows, brokered by Innocent, Viterbo submits to the senate and people of Rome, promises vassalage, pays tribute, renounces Vitorchiano and pulls down part of its walls (Gregorovius).Depends on: The Roman militia taking the field in midwinter with Riccardo's money, and Viterbo choosing battle rather than terms. Stopped by: A truce the pope imposes before the armies meet; a Tuscan or baronial ally relieving Viterbo; Riccardo withholding his money.

Places of note

• The Lateran: Papal palace and cathedral of Rome
• St Peter's and the Leonine City: Basilica and walled papal quarter across the Tiber
• Ostia salt pans: Salt works at the Tiber mouth that supply Rome
• Vitorchiano: Castle that broke from Viterbo in 1199 and appealed to Rome; besieged by the Viterbese

Where the sources disagree

• Date of the decisive battle with Viterbo: Gregorovius and Luchaire put the Roman victory on 6 January 1200; Treccani (Enciclopedia dei Papi) says a papal and communal army defeated Viterbo early in 1201, the Italian Wikipedia on Vitorchiano dates the relief of Vitorchiano to 1201, and the DBI on Riccardo Conti dates his funding of the second campaign to '1199 or 1201'. Either way the war is live on 1 January 1200; the campaign should rule whether the battle falls five days into the game or a year later.
• The campaign notes mark Pandolfo della Suburra as senator [thin]. Gregorovius places him in the senatorship during the Viterbo war, which supports the note; it is still not a dated list of senators.

Evidence: Thick for the pope's settlement with the senate and the prefect (Gesta Innocentii, used by Gregorovius and Luchaire); fair for the Viterbo war, whose dating is disputed; thin for the real extent of the commune's district in 1200.

On the map: The district is drawn as the modern communes of Rome and Fiumicino, which roughly match the Agro Romano. The commune's claims reached further (Tivoli, the Sabina, the Alban hills), while the barons' castles inside the district were in practice their own; the drawing shows the core the commune and the pope actually governed.

Primary sources for Rome

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
• 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
• The Book of Census of the Roman Church, Cencius Camerarius (Cencio Savelli, later Pope Honorius III) (1192, with later additions). The papal rent roll: every church, monastery, town and kingdom that owed a census to Rome in 1192, diocese by diocese, with the sums, followed by lists of papal lands and castles, the ceremonial Ordo and copies of charters. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online