Marozia

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Marozia, born Maria and also known as Mariuccia or Mariozza (c. 890 - 932/937), was a Roman noblewoman who was the alleged mistress of Pope Sergius III and was given the unprecedented titles senatrix ("senatoress") and patricia of Rome by Pope John X.

Edward Gibbon – though confusing Theodora (the mother of Marozia) with Theodora (the sister of Marozia) – wrote memorably of her that the "influence of two sister prostitutes, Marozia and Theodora, was founded on their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: the most strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman mitre, and their reign may have suggested to darker ages the fable of a female pope. The bastard son, the grandson, and the great grandson of Marozia – a rare genealogy – were seated in the Chair of St. Peter." From this inaccurate description the term pornocracy has become associated with the effective rule in Rome of Theodora and her daughter Marozia through male surrogates.

Marozia was born about 890. She was the daughter of the Roman consul Theophylact, Count of Tusculum and of Theodora, the real power in Rome, whom Liutprand of Cremona characterized as a "shameless whore...[who] exercised power on the Roman citizenry like a man."

At the age of 15, she became the mistress of his cousin Pope Sergius III, whom she knew when he was bishop of Portus. The two had a son, John.

In 909, when she was pregnant of Sergius, Marozia married Alberic I, duke of Spoleto. Besides legitimating John, Alberic had another son by Marozia, Alberic II, born in 911 or 912. Alberic I was killed at Orte in 924.

In order to counter the influence of Pope John X (who Liutprand alleges was another of her lovers) she subsequently married his opposer Guy of Tuscany, who loved his beautiful wife as much as he loved power. Together they attacked Rome, arrested Pope John X in the Lateran, and jailed him in the Castel Sant'Angelo. Guy had him smothered with a pillow in 928, and Marozia seized power in Rome in a coup d'état. The following popes, Leo VI and Stephen VIII, were both her puppets. In 931 she even managed to impose her son as pontiff, under the name of John XI. John was only 21 at the time.

When her husband died in 929, Marozia negotiated a marriage with his half-brother, Hugh of Arles, who had been elected King of Italy. Hugh was already married, but annulled that marriage so Hugh and Marozia could be wed. Alberic II, Marozia's son, led the opposition to the rule of Marozia and Hugh. After deposing them in 932, at the very wedding ceremonies, Alberic II imprisoned his mother until her death. Hugh escaped the city.

Marozia died in prison, sometime between 932 and 937. Marozia had the great misfortune of having eloquent detractors: the Liber Pontificalis and the chronicle of Liutprand of Cremona are the main sources for the details of her life.

Alberic II was in his turn father of Octavian, who became Pope John XII in 955. Popes Benedict VIII, John XIX, and Benedict IX, of the House of Tusculani, were also Marozia's descendants. By Guy of Tuscany she had a daughter named Berta Theodora, who never married.