Italy was invaded by the Visigoths in the 5th century, and Rome was sacked by Alaric in 410. The (traditional) last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed in 476 by an Eastern Germanic general, Odoacer.

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Collapse of the Exarchate
At the end of the 8th century the popes definitely aspired to independence, and found a way to achieve it by allying with the

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The Holy Roman Empire
In 951 King Otto I of Germany had married Adelaide of Burgundy, the widow of late King Lothair II of Italy. Otto assumed the Iron Crown of Lombardy

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• Giudicati
• Medieval Corsica
• Italian city-states

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• Cristina La Rocca (Ed.): Italy in the Early Middle Ages: 476-1000 (Short Oxford History of Italy), Oxford 2002.
• Ruggiero, Guido. The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the

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In the 14th century, Northern Italy and upper-central Italy were divided into a number of warring city-states, the most powerful being Milan, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Genoa, Ferrara, Mantua, Verona and Venice. High Medieval Northern Italy was further divided by the long

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