216 Haug
from the island using both military and diplomatic means, attempting to con-
vince Frederick Barbarossa, not only as emperor but as ostensible feudal lord
and key ally, of the justness of their cause.
The various concessions that the pope and the emperor made to win over
powerful allies on the island, where the Genoese and Pisans waged open
warfare from 1165, did not simplify the legal situation.4 For example, just the
year before, the Genoese had helped Barisone of Arborea, one of the rulers
of Sardinia with the title judex, succeed in being crowned king of Sardinia
by Frederick Barbarossa.5 They had accompanied Barisone on his journey
to meet the emperor in Pavia, and the detailed account of the coronation in
the Annales Ianuenses gives the impression that the Genoese consuls had his
crown made in Genoa.6 The Pisans protested vigorously at this unlawful and
presumptuous act. An important argument in the dispute was the question of
which of the two cities had first expelled the Saracens from Sardinia to recon-
quer it on behalf of the empire and the emperor. Both cities inevitably claimed
this honor as a way of giving force to their claims for possession. The issue first
arises in the Annales Ianuenses in 1164: shortly after the coronation of Barisone,
the Pisans complained to Frederick Barbarossa that he had ceded the crown
and kingdom of Sardinia—the island that rightly belonged to them—to the
judex, who was “their peasant and vassal.”7 The Genoese in turn rejected this
legal claim:
frühe Kommune. Formen und Funktionen des Umgangs mit der Vergangenheit im hochmittelal-
terlichen Pisa (1050–1150) (Berlin, 2006), pp. 336–342.
4 John C. Moore, “Pope Innocent III, Sardinia, and the Papal State,” Speculum 62:1 (1987),
pp. 81–101.
5 In “Pope Innocent III” (p. 82), Moore points out that in the twelfth century, some Sardinian
judices described themselves as kings without imperial approval, but that the status achieved
by Barisone was nevertheless exceptional. See Corrado Zedda in this volume, in particular his
recent discussion of the genesis of the Sardinian iudicati, their legal status, and organization.
6 Obertus, Annali Genovesi di Caffaro e de’suoi continuatori dal MXCIX al MCCXCII, ed. Luigi
Tommaso Belgrano (Genoa, 1890), p. 161: “et post paucos dies consules fecerunt coronam, que
facta fuerat Ianue, imponere capiti regis, et hoc in ecclesia sancti Syri papiensis cum multi-
bus decoribus (and after a few days the consuls caused the crown, which had been made in
Genoa, to be placed upon the head of the king in the church of St. Syrus of Pavia with many
honors).” On the agreements between the judex and the commune of Genoa, see also Dino
Puncuh, ed., I Libri Iurium della Repubblica di Genova, 5 vols (Rome, 1992–1999), vol. 2, nos.
382, 383, 384, 385, 386.
7 Obertus, Annali Genovesi, p. 161: “Datis enim isti nostro rustico et nostro homini coronam et reg-
num; et certe non est persona, cui tanta dignitas conveniat. Iniuste enim, si placet, factitis, quia
Sardinia nostra est (For you have given the crown and the kingdom to our peasant and our