The investiture controversy heats up with an anti-king elected in Germany and an anti-pope elected by Henry IV who then take the fight against Gregory and Matilde down into Italy with the Normans of Robert Guiscard waiting in the wings.
We look at the anarchy Italy fell into after the end of the Carolingians with the dealings of such men as Berengarius of Friuli and Guy of Spoleto, intersperse with some more foreign kings and emperors.
In this episode the Franks make their definitive entrance into Italy and the existence of the Lombard kingdom hangs in the balance. We take a look at how the events really went and then go back, following the story of Alessandro Manzoni’s “Adlechi” to see a juicier version of the events.
