Guy III of Spoleto

Guy III of Spoleto (, , died 12 December 894) was King of Italy since 889, and Emperor since 891. Initially, he was Margrave of Camerino from 880, and became Duke of Spoleto and Camerino in 883. After the deposition of emperor Charles in late 887, Guy attempted to gain the throne of West Francia but failed, and then tried to capture Lotharingia. In March 888, he was crowned as king in the southern Lotharingian city of Langres, but soon returned to Italy in order to claim that realm. His main opponent in Lombardy was king Berengar I, who claimed the rule over Italy since late 887. During the second half of 888, Guy gained control over much of northern and central Italy. In 889, he was crowned King of Italy in Pavia, by the Pope Stephen V. In 891, the same pope crowned him Emperor in Rome, and also crowned Guy's son and co-ruler Lambert as King of Italy. In 892, Guy also secured the imperial title for Lambert, who was crowned co-emperor by the Pope Formosus in Ravenna. Guy died in 894, and was succeeded by Lambert.

Early life Guy was the second son of Guy I of Spoleto and Itta, daughter of Sico of Benevento. Guy I was the son of Lambert I of Nantes and his second wife, Adelaide of Lombardy, who was a daughter of Charlemagne's second eldest son, Pepin of Italy. In 842, the former Duchy of Spoleto, which had been donated to the Papacy by Charlemagne, was resurrected by the Franks to be held against Byzantine catapans to the south, as a Frankish border territory by a dependent margrave.

Consequently, Guy's family had been important players in Italian politics since the early ninth century. the family's interests were generally hostile to the papacy, a policy that Guy initially followed.

With Lambert's death in 880, he bequeathed to Guy the march of Camerino, and in 882 Guy supported his nephew Guy II of Spoleto's invasion of the Papal States. Rising up in rebellion, Guy allied himself with the neighbouring Saracens and began acquiring further territory. At this point, at a diet at Ravenna, the emperor declared him guilty of high treason, and Berengar of Friuli was commanded to strip him of his fief by force.

In 883, Guy inherited his nephew's title of Spoleto and reunited the dukedom, henceforth as the "Duchy of Spoleto and Camerino" bearing the title of dux et marchio (and gaining his regnal number III), and by the end of 884, Emperor Charles III was forced to make peace with Guy, where he formally recovered his titles.

Guy of Spoleto was opposed by Berengar of Friuli for the Iron Crown of Lombardy. Although Berengar had the advantage of being allied with the Carolingian family, and this was followed by his coronation as Roman Emperor on 21 February 891, together with the crowning of his son Lambert II as King of Italy.

The situation in Italy began to deteriorate with the election of a new pope, Formosus, in 891. Distrustful of Guy, he began to look elsewhere for support against the emperor, as Guy found it increasingly difficult to end the threat of Berengar who still held out in his Duchy of Friuli. To bolster his overall position, at Ravenna on 30 April 892, Guy forced Pope Formosus to crown Lambert as co-emperor. Guy retreated in order to regroup at a fortified place on the Taro and died there suddenly in late autumn, leaving his son under the tutelage of his wife. Both would contest the throne with Berengar and Arnulf.

Attempt to seize the throne of Western Francia Following the death of Emperor Charles III the Fat in January 888, he was elected King of West Francia in February 888 at Langres, in opposition to Odo, Count of Paris. He was supported at the time by the counts of Vermandois and Flanders, as well as the bishops of Reims, Langres, and Senlis. However, Odo's victory over the Normans on June 24, 888, at Montfaucon-en-Argonne which led to his recognition by the Carolingian King of East Francia, Arnulf of Carinthia, and a second coronation at Reims in November 888 cemented the legitimacy of the Robertian ruler and dashed Guy's hopes for the French throne; consequently, he turned his attention to Italy.

Legacy At the time of his return to Italy, Guy had introduced himself as an adventurer, accompanied by fortune-seekers. His actions in regards to the nobility and clergy sought to legitimise his brisk rise to power, to the point that his motto, Renovatio Regni Francorum, inspired even higher ambitions than the ones he had already achieved.

Guy's power never extended over much beyond his hereditary lands, which offered a stark illustration of the fact that the imperial title, with its pretensions of universal rule, had by the end of the ninth century become merely a token of the pope's favour, to be fought over by various Italian nobles. He did not even firmly control the north of Italy, battling other claimants over the throne for much of his reign. He did try to maintain the Carolingian tradition and issue capitularies as former emperors had. In 891, he demanded the traditional service in the army of all arimanni, whether they owned land or not.