Middle Ages A first Bishop of Trent is recorded as a participant of the
synod at Aquileia in 381. The area was part of the
Lombard Kingdom and the
Kingdom of Italy, until the 951 campaign of
German king
Otto I against King
Berengar II of Italy. In 952 Berengar had to cede the
March of Verona to Otto, who enfeoffed his younger brother Duke
Henry I of Bavaria. From 1004 Emperor
Henry II the Saint and his successor
Conrad II separated several smaller territories in the northeast of the Veronese march and granted them to the Trient diocese. Originally a
Bavarian fief, by 1027 the prince-bishopric was established by Conrad II, together with the similar
Prince-Bishopric of Brixen. The states were created to favor passage to Imperial armies across the
Alps towards Italy along the two ancient roads, the
Via Claudia-Augusta and the
Via Altinate, entrusting the area to two bishops instead of often rebellious lay princes. The prince-bishops were true
Holy Roman Empire princes, and enjoyed the right to take part to
Imperial diets. The princes of Trento maintained a strong allegiance to the Emperor, even when the latter was excommunicated: this because they need his protection against the growing power of subjects like the counts of Tyrol, who controlled the area around
Bozen, those of
Eppan, and others. In one of the attempts to reassure his temporal authority over these lesser but fierce nobles, the bishop Adelpreto was slaughtered at
Arco, on 20 September 1172, by the lords of
Castelbarco. The supremacy of the prince-bishops of Trento and Brixen were however re-established by Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa in 1179 and again by his son
Henry VI of Hohenstaufen. The bishop earned the right to have a coin of his own and to impose tolls. The principate was reorganized and reformed by bishop
Federico Wanga (1207–18), a relative of Emperor
Otto IV. Allied with the Bishop of Brixen and allowing wide estates to the
Teutonic Knights he managed to thwart at all the nobles' strength, and recovered much of the territories lost in the past years. In order to state in a definitive way his authority he also collected all the official documents certificating the bishop's authority in the so-called
Book of St Vigilius (
Codex Wangianus),
Vigilius being the patron saint of Trento. Moreover, Federico supported trading over the Adige way across the Alps, and made concessions to the
middle class. The drying of the valley allowed the area to become one of the most renowned of Italy for the production of
wine. The statute issued by Federico on 19 June 1208 is considered the most ancient official document concerning the
Alps mining industry. The city was encircled with a new line of walls and towers, and the building of the Cathedral was commenced. The death of Wanga in the
Holy Land, during a
Crusade, stopped his reforms. In 1236 Emperor
Frederick II of Hohenstaufen deposed the bishops and ensured to himself the authority over the important military area of Trento, annexing it to the Mark of
Treviso — the administration was entrusted to his faithful friend,
Ezzelino III da Romano at
Verona. In the 13th century the Counts of Tyrol took advantage of the confused situation to carve out a conspicuous power as a
Vogt for himself, much at the loss of the Bishops of
Chur, Brixen, the
Archbishopric of Salzburg and Trento itself. Count
Meinhard II of Tyrol (1258–1295), also
Duke of Carinthia from 1286, totally subjected the bishops of Trento and Brixen under his power, and reorganized his new state along the more modern lines inspired to those of other Italian principalities. In the 14th century, during the disputes between the rival emperors
Charles IV of Luxembourg and
Louis IV of Wittelsbach, the principality suffered several destructions and was temporarily again annexed to the latter's Bavarian territories. The threat by Tyrol increased, when in 1363 Countess
Margaret Maultasch ceded her lands to
Rudolf IV of Austria from the mighty
House of Habsburg.
15th and 16th centuries In 1419 the bishop
George I of Liechtenstein (1390–1419) escaped the subjugation to Tyrol submitting directly to the emperor, but this did not prevent the bishops to lose further authority over the city and the countryside in the course of the 15th century, even though an attempt by the citizens to create a
republic in 1407 was bloodily suppressed. In 1425 Trento was declared a
commune. Another revolt broke out ten years later, and Austro-Tyrolese troops invaded the territory of the principality. In the following year, the bishops struggled in order to thwart the growing power of the Habsburgs, and in the end the principality reduced to an effective subjugation to Austrian authority. In June 1511 the two principalities of Trento and Brixen received the status of "perpetual confederate" states among Austrian possessions. The peace of 1516 with the
Republic of Venice, however, reduced the principality to a discontinuous
enclave between large Habsburg possessions. During the war against Venice, in 1509, the territory had been ravaged by
Landsknechts returning from a failed expedition against
Vicenza. This was followed by
pestilences in 1510 and 1512, famines in 1512, 1519 and 1520, and an
earthquake in 1521: these grievous happenings spurred the beginning of forms of resistance against Habsburg rule. A true rebellion broke out in 1525, called
Bauernkrieg or "contadine revolt". The rebellers were led by
Michael Gaismayr, who had devised a complex plan of liberation of all the territories of Brixen and Trento and program of social freedom based on egalitarian principles (
Landesordnung). The rebels, however, lacked organisation and were easily suppressed in 1526 by Austrian
mercenaries and by the bishop
Bernardo Clesio, who ferociously exterminated them in the battles of the
Eisack valley and
Sterzing. The rebellion leaders were beheaded, hanged or mutilated, while the simple followers were released but with a "mark of infamy" impressed on their brow. Any dream of further revolt ended when Gasmayr was murdered by the archduke's killer in
Padua in 1532. Some thousand of Tyrolese and Trentine rebels took shelter in
Moravia, near
Auspitz, where they established "fraternal farms" (
Bruderhöfe). Bishop Cardinal
Bernardo Clesio is considered the true refounder (
Neubegründer) of the authority of the princes of Trento. An adviser of emperor
Maximilian I of Habsburg and a friend of
Erasmus of Rotterdam, he played an important role in the election of Emperor
Charles V of Habsburg at
Frankfurt in 1519, and in that of his brother
Ferdinand I as
King of Bohemia in 1526. His personal charisma reverted the subalterne status of the Trento state between the Habsburg territories, gaining the seignory of Castelbarco and
Rovereto. His statute of the city, issued in 1528, remained in use until 1807. Under Clesio's rule Trento was renovated with a new urbanistic asset, and a new great church, S. Maria Maggiore: these were needed in order to host the important and influential
Council of Trent (1545–63), and, after the sudden death of Clesio in 1539, were completed by his successor, cardinal
Cristoforo Madruzzo. Also the economy and services were greatly improved. The presence of famous intellectual and scholars during the Council, spurred the diffusion of
Renaissance in the principality. The introduction of the
Counter-Reformation in the principality brought also a general recover of the
Italian language over the
German one, as the
Protestant ideas had found more followers in the German-speaking population. This "Golden Age", however, was ended by Emperor Ferdinand I, who invaded the Trentine territories, occupying Rovereto and, in 1567, declaring the Confederation Treaty over. The dispute was settled only in 1578, when the Imperial Diet reinstated the prince-bishops' suzerainty.
Modern Age In the 17th century the principality suffered the economic consequences of the
Thirty Years' War and the decline of Venetian trade. The principality was held by the Madruzzo family (who also indirectly controlled Brixen) until 1658, with the death of
Carlo Emanuele. Emperor
Leopold I of Habsburg assigned therefore the principality to his cousin Archduke
Sigismund Francis, regent of Tyrol and
Further Austria. Relationships with the Austrian Empire were again settled in 1662. Three years later, however, Sigismund Francis died and the principality was included in the Habsburg emperors' direct dominions. This however did not mean the loss of his semi-independent status, and several outstanding results were obtained anyway — the balance active of 1683, the completion of the Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, and the drying of the
marshes in the
Adige valley.
Rice cultivation was introduced in the lands obtained. The situation worsened at the beginning of the 18th century, when the Trentino and the Tyrol were invaded by
French and
Bavarian armies, and Trento itself was bombed for six days in September 1703. But the most dangerous menace to the principality status were the claims of emperor
Charles VI of Habsburg to reunite under the Habsburg crown all the hereditary territories of his house. The bishops continued their struggle for independence against the growing Austrian prominence, until
Napoleon's invasion of 1796. == Aftermath ==