The Struggle For Sardinia In The Twelfth Century 217
For it is we, who in olden times, overran this terrain by force of arms;
our fathers and forefathers with their armies conquered the judicate of
Cagliari, captured King Musaitus and all his possessions, and paraded
him in our city as an enemy captive. Furthermore, so that the Roman
prince knew that the kingdom of this ruler had recently been annexed
and added to the domain and sphere of influence of the Roman em-
pire thanks to the Genoese, his followers and men, the consuls sent the
Genoese bishop of the time to the emperor in Germany with the said
King Musaitus.8As the new “king,” Barisone was subsequently able to settle the sum that the
emperor demanded for the coronation by taking out a loan from the Genoese.
This circumstance forced Barisone, who was in great debt, to surrender himself
the Genoese, not entirely of his own free will. To settle the debt, he granted
them privileges over Sardinia, as the chronicler Chancellor Obertus narrated,
which are copied in Genoa’s cartulary.9
The head negotiators of the Pisans and the Genoese met again when the
emperor was holding court in Lodi in 1166. Frederick Barbarossa had mean-
while withdrawn the fiefdom from the judex Barisone—virtually a prisoner
vassal; and certainly he is not the person to whom such dignity should come. For it is unjust,
if you please, what you have done, because Sardinia is ours).”
8 Obertus, Annali Genovesi, p. 161: “Quoniam verum est, quod ab antiquo armis et vi subiugaviu-
mus illam, et in iudicato Calarensi fuerunt parentes et antecessores nostri cum exercitu, et subi-
ugaverunt illud iudicatum, et regem nomine Musaitum ceperunt et omnia sua, duxeruntque
eum in civitatem nostram tamquam captum hostem. Et consules episcopum, qui tunc Ianue
erat, mandaverunt ad imperatorum Alamannie ducentem secum predictum regem Musaitum,
ut princeps Romanus cognosceret regnum iustius regis esse nuper aditum et adiunctum dicioni
et potestati Romani imperii per fideles et homines suos Ianuenses.”
9 The consul’s plea for Genoese help is recorded in Obertus, Annali Genovesi, p. 164: “Ivit rex,
et non potuit cum omnibus illis habere consilium. Tandem venit ad domum consulis, et dixit:
domine consul, ego sum quasi in carcere positus, et non possum inde exire nisi consilio uestro
et auxilio nobilium terre uestre (The king went [to Genoa], and was not able to have counsel
with all of them. At last he went to the house of the consul, and said: ‘I am as though placed
in chains, and am not able to go thence without your counsel and the aid of the nobles in
your land’).” The promise of the judex is on p. 166: “ego enim, antequam mare intremus, volo
vobis et civitati isti id facere et dicere, quod tota terra mea, id est insula Sardinia, ex qua in curia
imperatoris palam sum investitus, sit vestra et posterum vestorum (For I, so that sooner we
may go by sea, wish to do and say it for you and for your city: that my whole land, that is the
island Sardinia, in which I am publicly invested by the imperial court, should be yours).” The
privileges are attested in Puncuh, Libri Iurium, vol. 2, nos. 382–389, especially the charters of
16 September 1164.