Ratold of Italy

…drives Guy out of Pavia, where Arnulf is crowned King of Italy.

Berengar is recognized as king and a vassal of Arnulf.

Zwentibold returns to Germany, as fever has wreaked havoc on the German armies.

Arnulf’s march northward through the Alps is interrupted by Rudolph, King of Transjurane Burgundy, and it is only with great difficulty that Arnulf crosses the mountain range.

In retaliation, Arnulf orders his illegitimate son Zwentibold to ravage Burgundy.

Guy has retreated in order to regroup at a fortified place on the Taro and dies there suddenly on December 12, leaving his son Lambert under the tutelage of his mother Agiltrude, an opponent of the Carolingians.

Both will contest the throne with Berengar and Arnulf.

Ageltrude travels with her fourteen-year-old son to Rome to receive papal confirmation of Arnulf's imperial succession, while her husband marches north with his troops, but Formosus, who still desires to crown Arnulf, is imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo.

Guy IV of Spoleto had been granted the Duchies of Spoleto and Camerino in either 888, when his father, Guy II, was crowned King of France, or 889, when his father was crowned King of Italy.

Though his father never secured the French kingdom, he did maintain his Italian crown and thus happily divested himself of his responsibilities in Spoleto itself, the hereditary possession of his family.

A capable warrior and leader, Guy conquers Benevento from the Greeks and makes himself prince here in 895.

He offers the regency of his conquered principality to Guaimar I of Salerno, the husband of his sister Itta, but …

…Guaimar, together with his wife, is captured en route to Benevento by Adelfer, the gastald of Avellino, who he had tried to assassinate.

Guy has to go down and besiege Avellino to get his release.

Guaimar returns to Salerno in disgrace.

A new embassy had arrived in Regensburg in September 895, beseeching Arnulf's aid, and in October Arnulf undertakes his second campaign into Italy.

He crosses the Alps quickly and takes Pavia, then continues slowly, garnering support among the nobility of Tuscany.

First Maginulf, Count of Milan, and then Walfred, Count of Pavia, joins him.

Eventually, even the Margrave Adalbert II abandons Lambert.

Arnulf, finding Rome locked against him and held by Ageltrude, has to take the city by force on February 21, 896, freeing the pope.

He is greeted at the Ponte Milvio by the Roman Senate, who escort him into the Leonine City, where he is received by Pope Formosus on the steps of the Santi Apostoli.

On February 22, 896, Formosus leads the king into the church, anoints and crowns him, and salutes him as Augustus.

Arnulf then proceeds to the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, where he receives the homage of the Roman people.

Arnulf then proceeds to exile to Bavaria two leading senators, Constantine and Stephen, who had helped Ageltrude seize the city.

Leaving one of his vassals, Farold, to hold Rome, Arnulf marches on Spoleto, where Ageltrude had fled to join Lambert.

On his way down, Arnulf suffers a paralyzing stroke, forcing him to call off his campaign and return to Bavaria.

The election of Pope Boniface VI, a native of Rome, had come about as a result of riots soon after the death of Pope Formosus.

Prior to his reign, he had twice incurred a sentence of deprivation of orders as a subdeacon and as a priest.

After a pontificate of fifteen days, he is said by some to have died of gout, by others to have been forcibly ejected to make way for Stephen VI, the candidate of the Spoletan party.

Arnulf only retains power in Italy as long as he is personally here.

On his way north, he stops at Pavia, where he crowns his illegitimate son Ratold, sub-King of Italy, after which …