The da Lonigo family: a lineage of milites in the heart of the Veronese–Trevigian March (12th–13th centuries)

Abstract

This paper examines an agnatic group of knights from Lonigo (Vicenza), referred to in the sources as de Leonico or de Lunico, by analysing their complex strategies of social advancement over the course of five generations, from the early twelfth to the mid-thirteenth century. This case study leads us into a large rural centre, located several kilometres from the cities of Verona and Vicenza, whose local elites skillfully wove connections with a broad network of rural aristocratic powers – marquises, counts, and capitanei. The da Lonigo family represents the upper tier of the rural militia of the Marca Veronese-Trevigiana: deeply rooted in the territory, they controlled a small fortress, several mills, lands (both allodial and held in fief), and local clienteles; they navigated a broad political landscape spanning across the March and regularly held high offices in the local commune. Through the reading of some chronicles, combined with the analysis of still largely unexplored archival evidence, this study situates their trajectory within the broader context of regional factional wars, with whose leaders – especially Alberico and Ezzelino III da Romano – the da Lonigo were able to align, ultimately sharing their fate.