Boniface III, Margrave of Tuscany
By inheritance he was count (or lord) of Brescia, Canossa, Ferrara, Florence, Lucca, Mantua, Modena, Pisa, Pistoia, Parma, Reggio, and Verona from 1007 and, by appointment, margrave of Tuscany[1] from 1027 until his assassination in 1052.
His father nominated him as heir over his brothers and, in 1016, he was again fighting alongside the emperor, this time against the margrave of Turin, Ulric Manfred II.
[3] When Conrad II finally succeeded in entering Italy, he was met with defiance at Lucca and he deposed the reigning margrave of Tuscany, Rainier, and gave his lands and titles to Boniface.
[4] He thereby considerably increased his paternal domains and Boniface rose to be the most powerful person between the middle Po and the northern border of the Patrimonium Petri (Patrimony of Saint Peter).
Emperor Conrad II wanted to tie his most powerful vassal in south of the Alps to his inner circle in the long term through a marriage.
[5] Here Boniface met Beatrice of Lorraine, niece and foster daughter of Empress Gisela of Swabia with whom a marriage covenant could be arranged.
[6] According to the agreements, Beatrice brought important assets in Lorraine: the Château of Briey and the Lordships of Stenay, Mouzay, Juvigny, Longlier and Orval, all the northern part of her paternal family's ancestral lands.
Preparing to hack off the ears and nose of a young man, Boniface was confronted by the youth's mother, who begged him be spared and promised him her son's weigh in silver.
Boniface replied to his offer that he "was no merchant, but a soldier," adding: "Absit ut hostes ferro capti redimantur argento".
Boniface received the emperor and the empress, Agnes of Poitou, with honour and munificence on their arrival at Piacenza and his governor did so at Mantua on their return journey.
Although the Romans wanted Halinard of Lyons, the Bavarian Bishop Poppo of Brixen was chosen, taking the name of Damasus II.
One Scarpetta Carnevari apparently nursed a grudge for this act and years later, while Boniface was preparing a galley for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, shot him with a poisoned arrow on the river Oglio, near Martino dall'Argine in the region of Spineta while on the hunt.
