Aleramici
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Aleramici were a medieval family of Italian nobility which ruled various northwestern counties and marches from the tenth to the fourteenth century. The founder of the family was William I of Montferrat, a Frank, who came over to Italy in 888 or 889 to aid his fellow Frank Guy III of Spoleto in a quest for the Iron Crown of Lombardy. His son Aleram was the first to carry the title marchio or margrave.
By the twelfth century, the Aleramici were one of the most considerable in Lombardy, related to the Capetians and the Hohenstaufen. Members of the family participated frequently in the Crusades, and became kings and queens of Jerusalem. They also married into the Byzantine imperial families of Comnenus, Angelus, and Palaeologus and, as a result of the Fourth Crusade, founded the Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica.
The family ruled Montferrat until 1305 and Saluzzo from 1175 to 1548. The family had many collateral lines (such as the Del Carretto and the Lancia) and was related by marriage to many others (Del Vasto and Palaeologus).
