March of Ivrea

The March of Ivrea was a large frontier county in the northwest of the medieval Italian kingdom from the late 9th to the early 11th century. Its capital was Ivrea in present-day Piedmont, 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.

Upon the deposition of the Carolingian king Charles the Fat by his nephew Arnulf of Carinthia in 887, the power in Italy was assumed by the Unruoching margrave Berengar of Friuli, who received the Iron Crown of the Lombards from the hands of Archbishop Anselm II of Milan. Arnulf, King of East Francia marched against Italy to gain the Lombard crown for himself and Berengar chose to pay homage to him, which led to discord with the Italian nobility. They supported the ambitious Duke Guy III of Spoleto, who had just failed to succeed Charles in West Francia, but now with the support of Archbishop Anselm and Pope Stephen V prevailed against Berengar and had himself crowned King of Italy at Pavia in 889.

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