Commune of Reggio

Who rules

Name

Not pinned: Reggio's officers for 1199 and 1200 were not found in the sources read

Title

Podestà or consuls

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

not pinned

Confidence

low

In 1183 the consul Rolando della Carità received the imperial investiture under the Peace of Constance (it.wikipedia). A podestà named Doinabello is given for the counterattack on Modena in 1201 (it.wikipedia; the name was not checked). The yearly list (the Memoriale potestatum Regiensium) could not be read.

Overlord

The king of Italy (the emperor) in law under the Peace of Constance; the pope and Philip of Swabia both claim the Matildine castles in Reggio's hills, but neither has an officer there.

What the realm holds

• Reggio: the city, its walls and suburbs and the near countryside under its direct jurisdiction
• The plain between the Enza and the Secchia: Bibbiano, Montecchio, Cavriago, Bagnolo, Novellara, San Martino in Rio, Rubiera
• Rubiera: a new borgo with walls and a castle, built between 1190 and 1200 to guard the Modena border
• The foothills and the Apennines as far as the ridge: Albinea, Vezzano, Viano, Baiso, Casina, Castelnovo ne' Monti (sworn 1188 and 1197), Villa Minozzo, Ramiseto, Busana, Collagna, Ligonchio, with their rural lords
• The lords of Correggio in the north, rooted in Reggio's countryside
• Not held: the Matildine castles (Canossa, Bianello, Carpineti), held by their castellan families and claimed by the pope and by Philip of Swabia; Carpineti swears to Reggio only in 1218

How it was acquired

Consular commune of the 12th century and member of the Lombard League; the Peace of Constance confirmed its regalian rights (1183). The mountain communities submitted to the commune between 1188 and 1237, Castelnovo ne' Monti among the first (1188, 1197), Carpineti in 1218.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Parma and Cremona (attested as Reggio's friends in 1202, when they award it the Rubiera dispute; for 1199 the alliance is inferred). Rivals: Modena (the Secchia border, Rubiera against the Modenese fort at Marzaglia; war from 1201). Later rivals: Mantua (from 1205, over Suzzara). Families: the da Fogliano and the Sessi (rival factions in the 12th and 13th centuries), the Roberti, the Manfredi (a branch of the Figli di Manfredo), the da Canossa, the dalla Palude, the da Baiso.

The realm that morning

Reggio holds its plain and the lower hills; in the mountains it has the sworn villages (Castelnovo ne' Monti) and the lesser lords. The Matildine castles are held by their own castellans: the da Canossa at Bianello and the neighbouring hills, the castle of Canossa and its abbey by holders not pinned, Carpineti by its people and coveted by the da Baiso, by Parmesan partisans of a Malaspina and by the commune. Guastalla on the Po belongs to the abbey of San Sisto of Piacenza (Matilda's gift of 1102), and Cremona will control it and Luzzara by the 1200s (the date was not found).

Across the Secchia lies Modena with the Della Rosa of Sassuolo; across the Enza, Parma; over the ridge, the Garfagnana of Lucca (tuw).

Wealth

The Via Emilia, the plain's grain and the hills' pasture and wood; the new statutes, schools and trade of 1199 (it.wikipedia). Reggio's own mint is confirmed by an imperial grant only in 1219.

Military

The city host; the new fortified borgo of Rubiera on the Modena border; mountain castles of sworn lords. No figures in the sources read.

Threats

• Modena on the Secchia: open war from 1201
• The Matildine castellans and the papal and Staufen claims to their castles
• The feud of the Sessi and the da Fogliano

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. 1 January 1200 or another fixed day early in 1200 (not pinned)The new officers for 1200 take office.Depends on: The yearly election. Stopped by: Faction strife in the city.
2. 1201 (beyond 1200)Modenese forces occupy land at Casalgrande on the Secchia; Reggio counterattacks to Formigine and the Sanguineto bridge, captures Modena's podestà Alberto da Lendinara, and uses its prisoners to build the castle of Rubiera.Depends on: The Secchia border quarrel and Modena's fortification of Formigine (decided in 1200). Stopped by: A border settlement or the mediation of Parma and Cremona before the fighting.
3. June 1202 (beyond 1200)Modena, with Ferrara and Verona, besieges Rubiera without taking it; Parma and Cremona mediate and award the victory to Reggio.Depends on: The war of 1201. Stopped by: Peace in 1201.

Places of note

• Rubiera: New fortified borgo built 1190-1200 to guard the Modena border
• Castelnovo ne' Monti: The 'new castle of the lord abbot of Canossa'; its people swore to Reggio in 1188 and 1197

Where the sources disagree

• campaign notes Part 5 speaks of the lands of Countess Matilda 'in Tuscany' as claimed by the pope and by Philip of Swabia; the same claims cover her castles in the Reggio Apennines (Canossa, Bianello, Carpineti, Quattro Castella), which lie in Emilia, not Tuscany. On the ground none is held by the pope or by Philip that winter.
• The campaign notes name no bishop of Reggio; the it.wikipedia list gives Pietro from before 10 September 1187 to November 1210.

Evidence: The 1199 statutes, the Rubiera works and the 1201-1202 war are on it.wikipedia (Storia di Reggio Emilia, Rubiera); the officers for 1199 and 1200 and the 1199 alliances in detail were not found.

On the map: The line follows the Enza and the Secchia and the watershed; Guastalla, Luzzara and Brescello on the Po are left out because their holders that winter are not pinned. The Matildine castle districts are cut out and drawn in their own records.

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.

• The Lombard city annals of Piacenza, Milan, Cremona, Parma, Mantua and Verona (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries). The communes' own year lists. Read online