page_title: Italy in the Middle Ages
section_title: The Holy Roman Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Italy in the Middle Ages / Italian states and the Holy Roman Empire / The Holy Roman Empire
context_page_description: The history of the Italian peninsula during the medieval period can be roughly defined as the time between the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the Italian Renaissance.
  Late Antiquity in Italy lingered on into the 7th century under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty, the Byzantine Papacy until the mid 8th century.
  The "Middle Ages" proper begin as the Byzantine Empire was weakening under the pressure of the Muslim conquests, and the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell under Lombard rule in 751. Lombard rule ended with the invasion of Charlemagne in 773, who established the Kingdom of Italy and the Papal States. This set the precedent for the main political conflict in Italy over the following centuries, between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, culminating with conflict between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV and the latter's "Walk to Canossa" in 1077.
  The term "Middle Ages" itself ultimately derives from the description of the period of "obscurity" in Italian history during the 9th to 11th centuries, the saeculum obscurum or "Dark Age" of the Roman papacy as seen from the perspective of the 14th to 15th century Italian Humanists.
context_section_description: In 951 the thrones of Italy and Germany were united. The ruler of the new realm, Otto I, claimed that the union revived the empire of Charlemagne and received the title of Holy Roman Emperor in 962. The Emperor, or his subordinate ruler of the Kingdom of Italy, nominally controlled the Northern Italian communes. The papacy went through an age of decadence, which ended only in 999 when emperor Otto III selected Silvester II as pope.
caption: Holy Roman Empire, 10th century
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