Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Papal State: the pope's own lands · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Papal legates of the March

The March has no marquis on 1 January 1200: the pope holds it directly, by the oaths the towns swore in 1198-1199, and governs it through cardinal-legates rather than a resident rector.

Giovanni di San Paolo of S. Prisca and the cardinal of S. Lorenzo in Lucina were sent in March 1198 to take the March from Markward. They excommunicated him, received the towns into the Church's fealty, made agreements with Fermo and Jesi early in 1199 to raise a papal army, and closed the first phase in summer 1199 when Markward swore fealty to the pope.

By March 1199 Innocent could write that almost all the March had come back into his hands. In autumn 1199 Cinzio went on to Sicily to organise the war against Markward. Giovanni still acts as legate for the pope on 17 November 1199, but he has resumed his work at the curia, so on 1 January 1200 the March may have no legate on the spot; Cardinal Guido of S.

Maria in Trastevere will come as legate in March 1200. The pope's hold is light: the towns govern themselves, keep their own armies and fight their own wars, and accept papal lordship mainly as a shield against the Germans.

Who he is

Name
Giovanni di San Paolo, cardinal-priest of S. Prisca (his colleague Cinzio Cenci of S. Lorenzo in Lucina left for Sicily in autumn 1199)
Title
Apostolic legate in the March of Ancona (with a colleague)
Since
March 1198
Born
Not pinned
Family
Giovanni: a Roman, former abbot of S. Paolo fuori le Mura, trained in medicine; kin to the Bobone or the Colonna (sources differ). His colleague Cinzio (Cencio, Cinthius) Cenci, cardinal-priest of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, was born in the Regola district of Rome (FIU).
Confidence
medium

The Dizionario Biografico (Giovanni di San Paolo) says Innocent III sent him to the March in March 1198 beside the cardinal of S. Lorenzo in Lucina to defend the Church's rights against Markward; the two excommunicated Markward in 1198 when he refused to acknowledge papal lordship; early in 1199 they worked to raise an army and a papal party by agreements with towns of the March (Fermo and Jesi are named); the first phase ended in summer 1199 with Markward's oath of fealty and the lifting of the excommunication (FIU: a commission of three cardinals, Guido of S. Maria in Trastevere among them, treated with him at Veroli in 1199 and got his renunciation of the regency).

Cinzio went to Sicily in autumn 1199 to organise the war against Markward (FIU). Giovanni resumed curial work in July 1199 but is still documented as legate acting in the pope's stead on 17 November 1199; on 7 February 1200 he sits in a curial case at Rome. Guido of S. Maria in Trastevere becomes legate in the March and the province of Ravenna in March 1200 (FIU). Whether anyone is resident in the March for the pope on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Overlord

Innocent III

What it holds

  • The towns' oaths of fealty to the Church (1198-1199)
  • The right to summon the towns to the papal host and to the pope's assemblies (parliaments), set out in a letter of 1200 (date not pinned)
  • The yearly rent (census) owed by the towns, set out in the same letter
  • Appeals from the towns' courts to papal justice
  • Arbitration of the towns' quarrels

How it was acquired

By the recovery of 1198: Innocent III claimed the March as Church land under the old donations and Alexander III's view that it was largely the Church's (1177), and his legates took it from Markward with the towns' help.

Allies and rivals

Allies: the league of 31 August 1198 (Ancona, Osimo, Senigallia, Fermo, with Ravenna and Rimini); Fermo and Jesi by the agreements of early 1199. Rivals: Markward and the Staufen party of Philip of Swabia, who count the March as imperial; the towns' own appetite for each other's land.

How things stand that morning

The pope is overlord of the whole March from the Foglia to the Tronto in name and by oath; in fact each commune rules itself and its contado. No papal castle, garrison or resident rector is documented in the March on 1 January 1200 in the sources read. To the north the Montefeltro counts and Urbino (Northern Italy map) acknowledge no papal officer; to the south, across the Tronto, lies the kingdom of Sicily's Abruzzo.

Wealth

The yearly rents and dues of the towns, set out in 1200 (amounts not given here).

Military

No standing papal force in the March is documented; the legates raised troops through the towns (agreements with Fermo and Jesi, early 1199). The pope's marshal Jacob commands the papal troops elsewhere (see the papal realm record).

Threats

  • The towns' wars with each other (Matelica destroyed in 1199)
  • A German return under Philip of Swabia's banner
  • Markward's claim to the March under Henry VI's grant

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. March 1200Cardinal Guido of S. Maria in Trastevere (Guido de Papa) arrives as legate in the March and the province of Ravenna, holding the post until the autumn.Depends on: The pope keeping the March under cardinal-legates. Stopped by: A crisis elsewhere taking the cardinal away, or the towns refusing him.
  2. 1200 (date not pinned)Innocent III writes to several March cities setting their duties: fealty renewed every ten years, service in the host, attendance at parliaments, a yearly census and appeals to papal justice.Depends on: The towns' continued loyalty. Stopped by: A rising of the towns or a German return.
  3. 1201 (not 1200)War between Ancona and Osimo, Jesi, Fermo and Fano; the pope presses them into the concord of Polverigi on 18 January 1202.Depends on: The league of 1198 breaking up. Stopped by: Papal arbitration before the quarrel turns to war.
  4. 1208 (not 1200)Innocent III grants the March to Azzo VI d'Este as marquis; Otto IV regrants it in 1210.Depends on: The pope finding direct rule unworkable. Stopped by: A strong papal rector able to hold the towns.

Where the sources disagree

  • The Dizionario Biografico entry on Giovanni di San Paolo names his colleague as 'Cencio Savelli, del titolo di S. Lorenzo in Lucina'. FIU's cardinals list and the campaign notes (Part 4) make the cardinal of S. Lorenzo in Lucina Cinzio (Cencio) Cenci, and Cencio Savelli (the future Honorius III) the deacon of S. Lucia in Silice. The DBI's surname looks like a confusion of the two Cencios; we follow the campaign notes and FIU.
  • The campaign notes (Part 3) list no legate for the March, and no legate in Sicily, among the legates in the field on 1 January 1200. FIU sends Cinzio Cenci of S. Lorenzo in Lucina to Sicily in autumn 1199 to organise the war against Markward, so he is probably in the kingdom that morning; and the Dizionario Biografico shows Giovanni di San Paolo still acting as legate for the March on 17 November 1199, though back at the curia since July 1199.

Evidence: The legation, its dates and the agreements with Fermo and Jesi come from the Dizionario Biografico; Cinzio's departure for Sicily, the Veroli commission and Guido's legation of March 1200 from FIU; the letter of March 1199 from the Enciclopedia Italiana (Ancona); the 1200 letter on the towns' duties from the Enciclopedia dei Papi. No rector of the March is named for 1199-1200 in any source read.

On the map: Not drawn: the pope's March is coloured through the communes' records and the papal realm record.

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.

12 more in the sources library for Southern Italy and the Islands.

Sources and studies

  1. GIOVANNI di San Paolo, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 56 (2001)
  2. S. Miranda, The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: cardinals created in the 1190s (FIU)
  3. Ancona, Enciclopedia Italiana (1929)
  4. Innocenzo III, Enciclopedia dei Papi (2000)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.