March of Ivrea

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The March of Ivrea was a large frontier county in the northwest of Italy in the tenth century. Its capital was Ivrea, and it was held by a Burgundian family of margraves called the Anscarids. The march was the primary frontier between Italy and France and served as a defense against any interference from that state.

The march was created for Anscar in 888 by Guy III of Spoleto, then newly elected king of Italy. Anscar and his family had been some of Guy's supporters in his failed quest for the French throne. The initial Eporedian march consisted of Piedmont and most of Liguria with the counties of Acqui, Alba, Asti, Bredulo, Auriate, Turin, Ivrea, Vercelli, Pombia, Stazzona, Bulgaria, Lomello, Savona, and Ventimiglia.

The Anscarid fortunes rose in the middle of the century and some margraves became kings of Italy, but in the early eleventh century the margraviate fell vacant and the Emperor Conrad II did not appoint a new margrave.

• 888 – 902 Anscar
• 902 – 924 Adalbert I
• 924 – 940 Berengar I
• 957 – 962 Guy
• 962 – 965 Adalbert II
• 965 – circa 990 Conrad
• circa 990 – 1015 Arduin

[edit] Sources

• Wickham, Chris. Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400-1000. MacMillan Press: 1981.