At the same time, Rudolph was asked by several Italian nobles led by Margrave Adalbert I of Ivrea to intervene in Italy on their behalf against Emperor Berengar.[4] Having entered Italy, he was crowned king at Pavia in the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore.[5] In 923, he defeated Berengar at the Battle of Firenzuola;[6] Berengar was murdered the following year,[7] possibly at the instigation of Rudolph. The king then ruled Upper Burgundy and Italy together, residing alternately in both kingdoms.
However, in 926 the Italian nobility turned against him and requested that Hugh of Arles, the effective ruler of Provence (or Lower Burgundy), rule them instead.[7] Rudolph's father-in-law Duke Burchard II of Swabia came for his support; however, he was attacked and killed near Novara by the henchmen of Lambert, Archbishop of Milan. The king returned to Upper Burgundy to protect himself, assuring Hugh's coronation as King of Italy in the process. In 926 or 935, Rudolph rendered the royal symbol of the Holy Lance to the East Frankish king Henry the Fowler in exchange for the Swabian Basel estates.[1]
The two Burgundian kingdoms unified from 933; Rudolph ruled until his death in 937 and was succeeded by his son Conrad.[4] After his death in 937, his daughter Adelaide was married to Hugh's son Lothair,[4] while Hugh married Rudolph's widow Bertha.[a] Adelaide later became the second wife of Otto the Great, crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962, and the mother of Emperor Otto II.[9]
Notes
^"When Rudolf II died in 937, leaving only a young son, Hugh immediately married his widow, Bertha of Swabia..."[8]
Bouchard, Constance Brittain (1999). "Burgundy and Provence, 879–1032". The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, c. 900 – c. 1024. Cambridge University Press.
Eads, V. (2010). Rogers, Clifford J. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology: Volume I. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0195334036.
Jackman, Donald C. (2008). Ius hereditarium Encountered II: Approaches to Reginlint. Editions Enlaplage.
Reuter, Timothy; McKitterick, Rosamond, eds. (1999). "Appendix". The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, c. 900 – c. 1024. Cambridge University Press.
