Counts of Tusculum

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The counts of Tusculum were the most powerful secular noblemen in Latium during the tenth through twelfth centuries. Their house furnished some popes and an antipope during the eleventh century and were often in control of the papacy during the Pornocracy from 904 to 963.

The counts of Tusculum became arbiters of Roman politics and religion for a long period of time, more than a century; in general, they were pro-Byzantine and anti-German; from their clan came many popes of the transitory period between Early and High Middle Ages (from 914 to 1049).

The particular "formula" created by Counts of Tusculum to solve the problem of the dual civil and religious power in Rome involved nominating one member of the family pope (religious leader) and one consul (civil leader). After 1049, the Tusculan papacy came to an end. In fact, the Tusculan papacy was largely responsible for the reaction known as the Gregorian reform. Subsequent events (from 1062 on) confirmed a fundamental shift in regional politics as the counts came to side with the Holy Roman Emperors against the Rome of the reformers.

[edit] Counts

This list is partially incomplete in the tenth century and the chronology and dates of the various countships are often uncertain. They were only counts from about 1013, lords before.