Patriarchate of Aquileia (Friuli)

Who rules

Name

Pellegrino II

Title

Patriarch of Aquileia: metropolitan of the north-eastern sees and prince of the Empire holding the county of Friuli with ducal rights

Since

1195, as successor of Godfrey, who died at Udine on 9 October 1194 (election and consecration dates not pinned)

Born

not pinned; said to be a native of Cividale

Family

Not pinned. English Wikipedia makes him a Spanheim-Ortenburg, a son of Margrave Engelbert III of Istria (died 1173) and kin of Duke Ulrich II of Carinthia; the same article garbles other dates, so treat this as unconfirmed. Before his election he is said to have been prior of Cividale and archdeacon of Aquileia.

Confidence

high for the office, low for the family

Office and dates from the English Wikipedia articles on Pellegrino II and Godfrey; the peace of January 1202 from the charter as summarised by Sever (2025). Family and stance thin.

Overlord

The German king for the regalia of the principality (both crowned kings claim the right); the pope for the see.

What the realm holds

• Friuli as a principality: the county of Friuli with ducal rights (1077), from the Livenza to the Isonzo and the Timavo.
• Cividale (Civitas Austriae), the patriarchs' residence until 1238 and the chief town of Friuli, with the chapter and the patriarch's palace.
• Aquileia, the see, with the basilica and the cathedral chapter.
• Udine castle and its small settlement (granted to the church by Otto II in 983; Godfrey died there in 1194).
• Gemona, the market town on the road to Carinthia, under a gastald.
• Sacile on the Livenza, which received communal liberties in 1190.
• San Daniele, Monfalcone, Marano and Muggia (the church's castles; their 1200 garrisons and gastalds not pinned).
• The Carnia, governed from Tolmezzo by a gastald, and the Canal del Ferro with the road over the Pontebba pass (grazing rights granted to the church by Otto III in 1001).
• The upper Isonzo round Tolmin and the Natisone valleys behind Cividale (the patriarch's gastaldie: thin for 1200).
• Soffumbergo castle above Faedis, an eleventh-century castle used for centuries as the patriarchs' summer residence.
• Overlordship of the Cadore, held by the da Camino as the church's vassals since 1138.
• The Kočevje (Gottschee) district in southern Carniola, the church's until 1247 (German Wikipedia, Herzogtum Krain), and the Cistercian abbey of Stična, founded by Patriarch Pellegrino I in 1136 (a Church map record).
• The castle of Gorizia, held by the counts as a fief of the church (terms rewritten in January 1202).
• Overlordship of the free noble houses and ministeriales who hold the church's castles (see the lords records) and of the bishop of Concordia's towns, Portogruaro and San Vito.
• Claims: the marches of Istria and Carniola (granted 1077, held by the Andechs since the 1170s); the patriarch recovers Istria only in 1208-09.

How it was acquired

Henry IV granted Patriarch Sigeard the county of Friuli with ducal rights in April 1077 and the marches of Istria and Carniola on 11 June 1077. Earlier emperors had given the church castles and rights in Friuli: Udine, Fagagna and other castles by Otto II's diploma of 11 June 983, the grazing of the Canal del Ferro by Otto III in 1001, and Muggia under the Italian kings. Pellegrino II succeeded in 1195.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: Treviso, at war with the patriarch, the bishops of Feltre, Belluno and Ceneda and Padua from 1183 until the rectors of Mantua and Verona gave sentence ending the war in October 1193 (Dizionario Biografico, Ezzelino II); English Wikipedia adds that Treviso plundered those bishops' lands in 1193 and Godfrey ravaged some seventy Trevisan villages, and that war was still open at his death in 1194; the counts of Gorizia, his own advocates, who are in dispute with him over the advocacy and church lands and are allied with Treviso against him by 1201-02; the da Camino, his vassals in the Cadore but citizens of Treviso; Ezzelino II da Romano, who backed the counts of Gorizia against the patriarch on several occasions (Dizionario Biografico, undated) and fought a long lawsuit with the patriarch's abbey of Sesto al Reghena (1185-1198); the Andechs margrave, who holds the marches the church claims. Natural friends: the bishops of Feltre-Belluno and Ceneda, Treviso's victims. Venice is a rival on the coast that becomes his ally against Treviso by 1201-02 (English Wikipedia, thin).

In April 1198 Innocent III asked Pellegrino to settle a dispute over the lands of the abbey of Sesto al Reghena and to lift the excommunication Ezzelino II had received from the patriarch of Grado (English Wikipedia, Ezzelino II). Inside Friuli the free noble houses resent the patriarch's favour to his ministeriales, men mostly of servile origin, and that quarrel feeds the stormy relations with Treviso from the 1190s into the 1200s (Treccani).

The realm that morning

On the morning of 1 January 1200 Pellegrino II holds Friuli from the Livenza to the Isonzo and the Timavo, the Carnia and the Canal del Ferro, with the Cadore as a da Camino fief. The last settlement found with Treviso is the arbitral sentence of October 1193; fighting with Treviso and the counts of Gorizia is attested again only by 1201, so on the evidence read the Livenza frontier is under that uneasy settlement that winter. No raided zone is attested, so no belt is drawn.

His dispute with the counts of Gorizia over the advocacy and the church's lands is live and becomes open war, with Gorizia allied to Treviso, before the peace of January 1202; the date the fighting began is not pinned. Who holds Pordenone, on his side of the Livenza, is not pinned (see Pordenone). He holds Muggia in Istria, and his claims to the marches of Istria and Carniola are dormant. The crusade fortieth, ordered at the end of December 1199, has still to be levied on his clergy.

Across his borders: Treviso's contado and the lands of the da Camino and the bishop of Ceneda beyond the Livenza, the bishop of Belluno-Feltre to the west of the Cadore, the bishop of Bamberg's Kanaltal (Tarvisio) and the duke of Carinthia to the north, the counts of Gorizia, the Karst lords and Carniola to the east, and Venice's Grado and lagoon to the south (ven sheet). Venice already holds Pola through a rector (1198) and the Istrian coast through oaths, so the coast the church claims is slipping away.

Wealth

The roads over the Alps: the tolls on the road from the Adriatic to Carinthia through Venzone and the Canal del Ferro, the markets of Cividale and Gemona and the river ports of Aquileia and Portogruaro; the church's estates and tithes across a very large diocese; the castellans' service for their fiefs; fish and salt of the Marano lagoon (thin). The see is in debt: Godfrey left large debts in 1194 and in 1196 Pellegrino took a high-interest loan from citizens of Piacenza (Treccani).

Military

No standing force. The church's host is raised from the free noble castellans and ministeriales who hold its castles, the gastalds' levies from the Carnia, Cividale, Gemona and the other gastaldie, and the townsmen; by custom the advocate, the count of Gorizia, leads it, and the advocate is his rival. Castles: Udine, Cividale, Gemona, Sacile, San Daniele, Tolmezzo, Monfalcone, Muggia, Soffumbergo and the vassals' castles.

Record: Godfrey ravaged Trevisan villages in the war ended by the 1193 sentence; in 1201 Pellegrino is said to have besieged Pordenone and been beaten on the Tagliamento (English Wikipedia, unsourced). No numbers in the sources.

Threats

• Treviso and its allies across the Livenza, at war with the patriarchs since 1183.
• The counts of Gorizia, his own advocates, drifting into alliance with Treviso.
• Venice's hold on the lagoons and its treaties with the Istrian towns.
• Debt: Godfrey's debts of 1194 and Pellegrino's high-interest loan from Piacenza citizens in 1196.
• The Andechs margrave's hold on the marches of Istria and Carniola that the church claims.
• The crusade fortieth, ordered at the end of December 1199, to be collected from his clergy during 1200.

Officers

Gastalds (gastaldi) in the patriarch's castles and towns (Cividale, Udine, Gemona, Tolmezzo for the Carnia, Sacile and others); the communes of the small towns each have a patriarchal gastald or captain at their head. No officer's name for 1200 has been pinned. The advocate, the count of Gorizia, holds the church's high justice and by custom leads its host.

Vassals

The counts of Gorizia (advocates; Gorizia castle and Friulian fiefs); the da Camino (the Cadore since 1138); the free noble houses and ministeriales who hold the church's castles: the lords of Spilimbergo (castle documented 1120), the lords of Prata with Porcia (one lordship until about 1203), Polcenigo, Cucagna, Villalta and the consortium of Fagagna, Prampero, Strassoldo (documented 1188-1190), Duino and Mels (castle of 1026); the bishop of Concordia for Portogruaro and San Vito.

Coinage

Not pinned for 1200. The patriarchs struck silver pennies at Aquileia in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and Friesach pennies circulate widely; which issues are current that winter is not settled here.

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. 1200-1201 (not pinned)War with Treviso breaks out again along the Livenza, the old quarrel over the bishoprics of Ceneda, Feltre and Belluno.Depends on: The 1193 sentence failing; Treviso pressing on Ceneda and the da Camino. Stopped by: Mediation by Venice, the pope or the Lombard rectors, as in 1193.
2. 1200-1201 (not pinned)The counts of Gorizia join Treviso against the patriarch; their league is attested by 1201-02.Depends on: The advocacy dispute staying unresolved. Stopped by: An early settlement of the advocacy and of the castle of Gorizia.
3. During 1200The crusade fortieth is levied on the clergy of the patriarchate.Depends on: The patriarch obeying Rome's order of December 1199. Stopped by: Delay or refusal by the patriarch or his clergy.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201Pellegrino besieges Pordenone and is beaten on the Tagliamento by the league; he then seeks an alliance with Venice (English Wikipedia, unsourced: thin).Depends on: The war with Treviso and Gorizia continuing into 1201. Stopped by: A peace in 1200; a different outcome of the campaign.
2. January 1202Peace with Counts Engelbert III and Meinhard II in the church of San Quirino near Cormons: the counts receive the castle of Gorizia as a fief with all its rights and servants but without its ministeriales, and the castle Slovene historians call Mozberk with its ministeriales.Depends on: Both sides being exhausted and the patriarch needing his hands free against Treviso. Stopped by: A victory for either side before then.

Places of note

• Cividale, the patriarch's residence and chapter: Chief town and usual residence of the patriarchs until 1238.
• Aquileia basilica: The see and its chapter.
• Udine castle: Castle of the church since 983; not yet the capital.
• Gemona: Market town and gastaldia on the road to Carinthia.
• Venzone and the Canal del Ferro road: Road and toll country towards the Pontebba pass.
• Soffumbergo castle: The patriarchs' summer residence.
• Sacile: The church's town on the Livenza, facing Treviso.
• Tolmezzo: Seat of the gastald of the Carnia.

Where the sources disagree

• campaign notes (Part 6 D and Part 9) put Aquileia as Staufen-leaning [thin]. English Wikipedia says Pellegrino 'remained neutral when war broke out in 1198'. Kept as imperial per the campaign notes; his advocates the counts of Gorizia are firmly with Philip of Swabia.
• campaign notes call the patriarch a rival of Venice and of the Andechs. True on 1 January 1200, but by 1201-02 he is said to seek Venice's alliance against Treviso and Gorizia (English Wikipedia, thin).
• English Wikipedia says the counts of Gorizia were given 'full independence of Aquileia' in 1202 as the price of a Venetian alliance; the charter of January 1202 (Sever 2025) shows instead the counts taking the castle of Gorizia as a fief of the church, without its ministeriales. The charter is preferred.
• The Cadore: Italian Wikipedia has the da Camino holding it since 1138 (Guecellone II, from his uncle Alberto di Collalto); English Wikipedia's Biaquino II article says Biaquino (born about 1220) obtained it from Patriarch Bertold. Read as a later re-investiture; the da Camino hold it in 1200.
• Carniola: German Wikipedia (Herzogtum Krain) says the patriarchs stayed nominal margraves of Carniola from 1077 to 1282 with the land pawned to noble houses, while the margrave lists name the Andechs margraves of Istria as margraves of Carniola too. The map colours only the Andechs' own Carniolan castles as istria and gives the other Carniolan lords their own ground.
• The war with Treviso: the Dizionario Biografico (Ezzelino II) says the rectors of Mantua and Verona ended it by a sentence in October 1193; English Wikipedia (Godfrey) says it was still open at Godfrey's death on 9 October 1194 (unsourced there). The DBI is preferred: no war is shown on 1 January 1200, and it is renewed by 1201.

Evidence: The office, the 1077 grants, the 1193 sentence ending the first war with Treviso and the January 1202 peace with Gorizia are documented. When the war was renewed, the patriarch's family and his stance between Philip and Otto are thin, and the English Wikipedia article on Pellegrino is unsourced on the 1201 campaign.

On the map: The patriarch's principality is drawn as solid ground, but in 1200 it is a mesh of the church's own castles and gastaldie, vassals' castles and the bishop of Concordia's towns. The Karst, the Vipava valley and the Pivka district are the least certain parts. Pordenone is left inside it though its holder is not pinned. The Kočevje forest district is drawn on a single secondary statement.

Primary sources for this realm

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.

• History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
• Documents on the older commercial and political history of the Republic of Venice, part 1, 814 to 1205 (documents of 814 to 1205, edited 1856). Venice's treaties and privileges in full text. Read online