somewhat more than a panegyric on the living." He left behind him three children, Guido, Lambert, and Hermenegarda, who married and survived a prince of equal rank on the confines of Piedmont. Guido succeeded as Duke of Tuscany. He was instrumental in the election of his half-brother Hugh, Count of Provence, to the kingdom of Italy, anno 926. But this event hastened the downfall of their house. He was mild and moderate, and expiring in the prime of life, left his inheritance to his brother Lambert, who succeeded as fifth Duke of Tuscany. But his half-brother Hugh, King of Italy, trampling on the prejudices of mankind, married Marozia, Guido's widow. This was followed by public hatred and contempt: the monarch therefore dreading the resentment of the Marquis Lambert, and perhaps hoping a rich forfeiture, denied his nearness of blood; and regardless of his mother's fame, pretended she had substituted this issue to her second husband. The intrepid Lambert threw down the gauntlet, and challenged the defamer to single combat. The challenge was accepted, and an easy victory obtained; but instead of embracing his genuine brother, the monarch loaded the conqueror with irons; confiscated his dominions, and deprived him of his eyes. The unhappy prince survived his misfortune many years; but he was dead to his enemies, and to the world. Among barbarians, a blind warrior, who is no longer capable of managing a horse, or of wielding a lance, must be excluded from all the honours and offices of public life. † The House of Este. Leibnitz and Muratori, after much research, and long hesitation, admitted a third Adalbert, the unquestioned ancestor of the House of Este, to be the son of Guido, Marquis of Tuscany, elder brother of the last mentioned Marquis, Lambert. Gibbon considered that there were difficulties so insuperable to this supposition, as to make him refuse his assent to it. Above all, the age of this Adalbert, as proved by the age of his son, offers an insurmountable bar. Gibbon, however, was inclined to believe that he was a collateral branch of this family; and that he might be the son of a second Boniface, the younger brother of Adalbert the Second. * Gibbon's Posthumous Works, vol. ii. p. 650. All that can be positively proved of this Adalbert is, that he flourished in Lombardy or Tuscany, in the beginning of the tenth century. This Adalbert, thus called The Third, had a son, Otbert the First, whose existence and power stand upon decisive authority; for he attained the rank of Count of the Sacred Palace to the Kings of Italy. He appears on the following occasion. When the tyrant Hugh, half-brother of Lambert, last Marquis of Tuscany, was necessitated to fly beyond the Alps, and the Marquis Berengarius was exalted to the throne, a grant of four Castles was made to the Bishop of Modena; and in that grant the new monarch declares that," it was made at the request of his trusty and wellbeloved, the Marquis Otbert." At the end of nine years, for reasons now unknown, he became a fugitive and a rebel; and escaping to the Saxon court, inflamed the ambition of Otho, with whom he returned to dethrone his sovereign. This conduct has rendered the virtues of his character doubtful; and the union of the kingdoms of Germany and Italy, was a measure, to which perhaps a patriot ought not to have contributed. But it cannot be questioned, that from the Emperor Otho, the Marquis Otbert was entitled to riches and honours. With these he was amply rewarded. The Count of the Sacred Palace was the prime minister of the kingdom of Italy; and it was observed, in classic style, that the Dukes, Marquises, and the Counts, submitted to the pre-eminence of his Consular Fasces. In an age, when every magistrate was a noble, and every noble was a soldier, the Count Palatine often assumed the command of armies; but in his proper station, he represented the judicial character of the Emperor; and pronounced a definitive sentence, as the judge of all civil and cri, minal appeals. The city of Pavia, and the castle of Lomello were his ordinary residence, but he visited the provinces in frequent circuits; and all local or subordinate jurisdiction was suspended in his presence. This important office was exercised above twelve years by the Marquis Otbert: the public acts, the few that have escaped, announce the proceedings of his tribunal at Lucca, Verona, &c, and he continued to deserve and enjoy the favour of the Emperor. In the decline of life, he took the monastic habit, in a Benedictine abbey, which he had richly endowed, where he laboured to expiate the sins of his secular life.* * Gibbon's Posthumous Works, vol. ii. p. 662. His son, Otbert II. succeeded him in his patrimonial estates, but not in the office of Count Palatine. The life of the second Otbert was tranquil or obscure; he was rich in lands, in vassals, and in four valiant sons, Azo, Hugh, Adalbert, and Guido: but their valour embittered his old age, and involved the family in treason and disgrace. When two hostile kings were elected to the empire, Henry the Saxon, and Arduin the Lombard; and disputed the iron crown in a civil war of ten years, Marquis Otbert II. his four sons, and his grandson Azo II. were the adherents of the unsuccessful candidate Arduin; and suffered confiscation of their estates; but being afterwards forgiven their ample forfeitures, professed themselves the grateful and loyal servants of their benefactor. When, however, the Emperor Henry died issueless, the sons of Otbert II. again opposed the election of Conrad the First. Azo I. succeeded his father. He married Valdrada, daughter of Peter Candianus, the Fourth, Doge or Duke of Venice, and neice of Hugh, Duke of Tuscany, by whom he acquired a rich territory, and a commanding influence in the Venetian province. Fifteen miles to the south of Padua he fixed his permanent and principal seat in the castle and town of Ateste, or Este, formerly a Roman colony of some note: and by a harmless anticipation, we may apply to his descendants the title of Marquis of Este; which they did not however assume, till the end of the twelfth century. From Este, their new estates, the inheritance of Hugo the Great, extended to the Adege, the Po, and the Mincius. Their farms and cattle were scattered over the plain; many of the heights, Montagnana, Monfelice, &c. were occupied by their forts and garrisons; and they possessed a valuable tract of marsh-land, the island of Rovigo, which almost reaches to the gates of Ferrara.* His son, Albert Azo II. succeeded him. Of this Marquis, the name and character shine conspicuous through the gloom of the eleventh century. He was styled Marquis of Liguria. Like one of his Tuscan ancestors, he was distinguished by the epithet of the Rich. The particulars of his rent-roll cannot now be ascertained an occasional, though authentic, deed of investiture, enumerates eighty-three fiefs or manors, which he held of the empire in Lombardy and Tuscany, from the marquisate of Este to the county of Luni: but to these possessions must be added the lands *Gibbon's Posthumous Works, vol. ii. p. 666. which he enjoyed as the vassal of the church, the ancient patrimony of Otbert,( the Terra Otbertenga) in the counties of Arezzo, Pisa, and Lucca, and the marriage portion of his first wife; which, according to the various readings of the manuscripts, may be computed either at twenty, or at two hundred thousand English acres.* If such a mass of landed property were now accumulated on the head of an Italian nobleman, the annual revenue might satisfy the largest demands of private luxury or avarice; and the fortunate owner would be rich in the improvement of agriculture, the manufactures of industry, the refinement of taste, and the extent of commerce. But the barbarisms of the eleventh century diminished the income, and aggravated the expence of the Marquis of Este. In a long series of war and anarchy, man, and the works of man, had been swept away; and the introduction of each ferocious and idle stranger, had been overbalanced by the loss of five or six perhaps of the peaceful industrious natives. The mischievous growth of vegetation, the frequent inundations of the rivers, were no longer checked by the vigilance of labour; the face of the country was again covered with forests and morasses: of the vast domains which acknowledged Azo for their lord, the far greater part was abandoned to the wild beasts of the field, and a much smaller portion was reduced to the state of constant and productive husbandry.† His first wife was Cuniza, or Cunegonda, a German heiress, whose ancestors by their nobility and riches, were distinguished among the Suabian and Bavarian chiefs; whose brother was invested by the Emperor Henry III. with the Dutchy of Carinthia, and the Marquisate of Verona, on the confines of the Venetian possessions of the house of Este. This marriage was productive of a son, who received at his baptism the name of GUELPH, to revive and perpetuate the memory of his uncle, his grandfather, and his first progenitors on the maternal side. After the death of Cunegonda, the Marquis of Este married Garsenda, daughter, and at length heiress of the Counts of Maine; by whom he had two sons, Hugo and Fulk, the younger of whom is the acknowledged parent of the Dukes of Ferrara and Modena. The third wife of Azo was Matilda, another widow of noble birth, his cousin in the fourth degree. He died in 1097, aged upwards of an hundred § years. || § Ibid. p. 669. * Gibbon's Posthumous Works, vol. ii. p. 668. + Ibid. The descent given in the text agrees with that given in Anderson, p. 667. Ibid. p. 672. The Guelphish Line. The House of Guelph were descended from Ega, a Major Domus in France in the time of King Dagobert I. who died A. D. 646 He married Gerberga, daughter of Richemeres, Duke of Franconia, by Gertrudis, daughter of Ansbertus, Duke on the Moselle, who died A. D. 570, and was son of Vanbertus, Duke on the Moselle, who died A. D. 528, son of Albero, Duke on the Moselle, who died A. D. 491, son or grandson of Pharamond, Duke of the East Franks, who died A. D. 470, and was grandfather to Merovæus, ancestor to the Merovingian Kings of France. * Erchembaldus was son of Ega and Gerberga. He was Major Domus of King Clodovæus II. and died A. D. 661. His son Lendisius succeeded as Major Domus, and died A.D. 680, leaving issue one son, Ethicus, or Adelricus, Duke of Alsatia, who died A. D. 720. He had a younger son Hetto; and His eldest son Adelbertus was Duke of Alsatia, and died 741. His son Eberhard was Duke of Alsatia, and left issue Warinus, who died s. p. and Isembart, who was Lord of Altorf, in the court of Charlemaine A. D. 760. He married Irmintrudis, sister to Hildegardis, wife of Charlemaine. They had a son surnamed GUELPHUS, the origin of which name, however ridiculous, I shall give in the words of a grave historian, Dr. Heylin. "I shall crave leave," says he, "to speak of the original of the Guelphian family, Dukes at the same time of Bavaria and Saxony; of which they are at this time the sole remainder. A family derived from one Guelphus, whence it had the name, the son of Isenburdus, Earl of Altorf in Schwaben; whose wife, call Jermentrudis, having accused a poor woman of adultery, and causing her to be grievously punished for having twelve children at a birth, was afterwards delivered of the like number, and all of them sons. Her husband being absent at the time of her delivery, she commanded the nurse to kill eleven of them, fearing, it seems, the like shame and punishment, as by her instigation was inflicted on the other woman. The nurse, going to perform the ungodly command, was met by the That which is given in the former editions of Collins, is according to the older genealogists given by Anderson, in p. 665. Anderson, p. 478, 614. * |