Kings of Italy is a title worn by the rulers of kingdoms located in the territory of a modern state. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the north of Italy, the Italian (Lombard) kingdom was formed. For almost 800 years, it was part of the Holy Roman Empire, when the title of the Italian king was worn by its emperors.
In 1804, the kingdom of Italy was created by the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The last king of Italy, Umberto II, ruled from 05/09/1946 to 06/12/1946
First roman king
The title of king appears in the early Middle Ages. They were the rulers of a number of historical kingdoms that arose in 395 after the collapse of the Roman Empire into two parts: Western and Eastern, known as Byzantium, which lasted another thousand years. The Western Roman Empire was attacked by barbarians. The leader of one of these peoples, Odoacer, in 476 overthrew the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and was proclaimed the first king of Italy.
The Byzantine emperor Zeno made him his governor. The entire structure of the Roman Empire was preserved. Odoacer became a Roman patrician. But the power under the control of Byzantium did not suit him, and he supported the commander Ill, who rebelled against Zeno. The latter turned to Theodorich, the leader of the Ostgoths, for help. His army, crossing the Alps in 489, captured Italy. Theodorich becomes her king.
Friulian Duchy - the state of the Lombards
In 534, Byzantium declared war on the Ostrogoths, after 18 years their state ceased to exist, Italy became part of it. After 34 years, the Lombards invaded the Apennine Peninsula. They captured the internal regions of Italy, forming the state of the Lombards - Friulian Duchy. It is from this time that the name of the northern region of Italy comes - Lombardy. The Byzantines from the territory of the former Western Roman Empire left coastal lands.
Entry into Francia
The actual rulers of the Italian lands under the rule of Byzantium were the popes, who feared the strengthening of the Lombards and the capture of Rome. The only ones who could resist these warlike long-bearded Germans were the Franks. The founder of the ruling dynasty of kings of the Franco-Carolingian Pepin Korotky, crowned by Pope Stephen III and became king of Italy, helped to conquer the Italian possessions of Byzantium for the papal throne. The Duchy of Rome, Umbria, the Ravenna Exarchate, and Pentapol became the foundation of the Papal State.
The seizure of part of the papal territories by the Langobars in 772 forced the king of the Francs, Charlemagne, to join the war. In 774, the Langobarov state ceased to exist. Charlemagne declared himself king of Italy, or rather its northern part. After 5 years, Pope Adrian I officially crowned him.
In 840, the lands of the Franks were swept by unrest, as a result of which France was divided into several states. Italy became part of the Middle Kingdom, whose king becomes Lothar I. The Franks did not pay much attention to Italy, considering it an insignificant outskirts. The country was ruled in the same way as under the Langobars. The control center was located in the city of Pavia, which was considered its capital.
The entry of northern Italy into the Holy Roman Empire
Gradually, Italy, which did not have much significance among the Franks, unofficially broke up into several feudal states, the management of which was in the hands of the local elite. In 952, the Italian king Berengar II fell into vassal dependence on the German emperor Otto I. An attempt to free himself from submission to the Germans led to the fact that in 961, the emperor Otton at the head of the army took Pavia deposed King Berengar and was crowned “the iron crown of the Longobars”. Northern Italy for many years entered the Holy Roman Empire.
Southern Italy
In southern Italy, events developed in a different way. Local princes often recruited Normans. As a result of marriage in 1030 to the sister of the ruler of Naples, Sergius IV, the Norman Rainulf received as a gift the county of Avers, in which the first Norman state was formed. The Normans, gradually subjugating the territory of the South of Italy, displacing the Arabs, Byzantines, created a single state. Their power was blessed by the pope.
By the beginning of the 15th century, the entire territory of Italy was divided into five large states that play a significant role (two republics - Florentine and Byzantine, Duchy of Milan, Papal State, Kingdom of Naples), as well as five independent dwarf states: Genoa, Mantua, Lucca, Siena and Ferrara Since the end of the 15th century, the so-called Italian wars took place in Italy, as a result of which some cities and provinces were ruled by the French, Spaniards, and Germans.
Unification of Italy, the creation of the kingdom
After the proclamation of Napoleon Bonaparte as emperor of France in 1804, he becomes the king of all possessions in Italy and is even crowned with the iron crown of the Langobar. The papacy is losing secular power. Three states were formed on the territory of Italy: the Northwest was part of France, the Italian kingdom in the northeast and the Kingdom of Naples.
The struggle for the unification of Italy continued, but only in 1861 did the pan-Italian parliament that met in Turin publish a document establishing the kingdom. It was led by Victor Emmanuel, the king of Italy, formerly the king of Turin. As a result of the unification of Italy, Lazio and Venice were annexed. The formation of the Italian state continued.
But the time of the monarchies has passed. Revolutionary trends affected Italy. The First World War and the crisis of the 30s led to the rule of nationalists led by Mussolini. King Victor Emmanuel III tarnished himself with a shameful non-interference in the internal affairs of the country, which led to the creation of a fascist regime. This completely averted the people from royal rule. His son Umberto II ruled the country for 1 month and 3 days. In 1946, a republican system was established by universal suffrage in the country.