Port · The Papal State: the pope's own lands · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Ancona

Ancona is the chief port of the March and the only sea power on the Adriatic between Venice and Apulia, a commune that answers to no lord in practice.

Its old shield was Byzantium: under the Komnenian emperors it was the Greeks' foothold in Italy, with the right to trading houses (fondachi) in Byzantine ports. It bought off Barbarossa's siege in 1167 and held out for six months in 1173 against Christian of Mainz and the Venetian fleet. With Byzantine protection gone since the fall of the Komnenoi (1185) and Venice pressing its trade, Ancona has turned to the pope.

In 1198 it openly took Innocent III's side, and on 31 August 1198 it headed a league of the March and Romagna towns (Osimo, Senigallia and Fermo, with Ravenna and Rimini) against Markward of Annweiler, the emperor's marquis. In the same year Osimo bound itself for ten years to ship its goods through no port but Ancona's. On 1 January 1200 Markward is gone to Sicily, Ancona leads the league and stands with the pope, and no war of its own is recorded that winter.

Its break with Osimo, Jesi, Fermo and Fano comes in 1201.

Who holds it

Title
The commune of Ancona: its consuls, councils and yearly officers
Since
not pinned
Family
Not pinned
Confidence
low

No consul or podestà of Ancona is named for 1199-1200 in the sources read. The Enciclopedia Italiana describes a council of citizens and periodic officers (anziani, regolatori) without dates; whether a podestà rather than consuls governed in 1199 is not pinned. The commune's leading families of these years are not documented in the sources read.

Lord in 1200

The commune governs itself. It openly took Innocent III's side in 1198 and swore to him as overlord; no papal officer or garrison is known in the city.

Overlord

The pope, by the oath the city swore in 1198; in practice self-governing.

Allies and rivals

Allies: the pope; Osimo, bound by the ten-year port treaty of 1198; Senigallia, Fermo, Ravenna and Rimini in the league of 31 August 1198. Rivals: Venice, which tries to choke its shipping; Jesi, which presses down the Esino valley from Chiaravalle to the sea. By 1201 Osimo, Jesi, Fermo and Fano will be its enemies.

How things stand that morning

Self-governing; the leading member of the league of 1198; under the pope's overlordship by its own oath, with no papal rector or garrison in the city. Its small contado runs between the sea, the lower Esino, the Aspio and the Musone. Osimo holds the land beyond the Aspio and Jesi the middle Esino.

Wealth

Port dues, sea trade, the mint and the salt and grain trade; a small contado.

Military

Walls on a strong headland, a fleet of galleys and the citizen host; the castles of its small contado (said to number twenty, undated). It survived the sieges of 1167 and 1173.

Threats

  • Venice's pressure on its trade
  • Jesi's push down the Esino valley
  • The league of 1198 souring into the war of 1201
  • Philip of Swabia's party, which still counts the March as imperial

Charter

No imperial or papal charter of liberties is pinned for 1200. Tradition holds that Alexander III recognised it as a free city of the Church (undated in the sources read); Alexander III also sanctioned its peace with Venice in 1177. The ten-year treaty of 1198 gives Ancona the loading and unloading of Osimo's trade in its port (potestatem honerandi et exonerandi in portu Ancone).

Council

A council of citizens with yearly officers; consuls in the twelfth century. The officers who held office on 1 January 1200 are not pinned.

Communities

Greek and Levantine merchants are likely given the Byzantine tie but are not documented for 1200 in the sources read; a Jewish community is attested at Ancona later and is not pinned for 1200.

Militia

Citizen militia and a war fleet. Ancona fought Venice at sea in 1149-1150 and again in 1183 (Enciclopedia Italiana). No numbers survive for 1200.

Walls and castle

A walled city on the headland of Monte Guasco, with the cathedral of San Ciriaco on the height above the harbour. The walls were extended in 1220 (Enciclopedia Italiana).

Trade and crafts

The sea trade is everything: across the Adriatic to Dalmatia and Ragusa, to Constantinople and Romania under the old Komnenian privileges, and to Acre and the Syrian ports, with consuls and colonies abroad (dates not pinned). Grain, salt, wine, oil, cloth and timber pass through the port. The commune strikes its own silver coin, the agontano, issued without the name of emperor or pope (first recorded in 1170 according to the Enciclopedia Italiana).

Its sea law (the statutes of the sea and of the arsenal, the Terzenale) is of uncertain date.

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.

In 1200

  1. 1200 (date not pinned)Innocent III writes to several March cities fixing their duties to the Church: an oath of fealty renewed every ten years, service in the papal host, attendance at the pope's assemblies (parliaments), a yearly rent (census) and the right of appeal to papal justice.Depends on: The pope keeping the towns' loyalty after Markward's departure. Stopped by: The towns refusing the terms, or a German return to the March.
  2. 1201 (not 1200)Ancona leaves the league and goes to war with Osimo, Jesi, Fermo and Fano.Depends on: Quarrels over trade and the contado growing once the German threat is gone. Stopped by: Papal mediation, or a renewed outside threat holding the league together.

Later, on the likely course

  1. 18 January 1202Under Innocent III's pressure Ancona and its allies swear a concord with the enemy towns at Polverigi.Depends on: The war of 1201. Stopped by: No war, or a victory that makes peace needless.

Places of note

  • Port of Ancona: The only deep harbour of the March; the city's galleys and the Levant trade.
  • Polverigi: The castle on the edge of Ancona's and Osimo's land where the concord of 18 January 1202 will be sworn.

Where the sources disagree

  • The Enciclopedia Italiana dates Christian of Mainz's siege to 1174; the Federiciana and most accounts give 1173.

Evidence: The league of 31 August 1198, the Osimo port treaty and the war of 1201 come from the Federiciana (Meriggi, 2005); the commune's officers and factions in 1199-1200 are not documented in the sources read.

On the map: The contado follows the description of a small territory between the sea, the lower Esino, the Aspio and the Musone; which castles it held on 1 January 1200 is not pinned, and Polverigi and Agugliano are edge guesses.

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. Ancona, Enciclopedia Federiciana (A. Meriggi, 2005)
  2. Ancona, Enciclopedia Italiana (1929)
  3. Innocenzo III, Enciclopedia dei Papi (2000)
  4. Storia di Ancona (it.wikipedia)

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