# Rudolf of Habsburg Cedes the Romagna (1278)

URL: https://allhistories.com/vatican/timeline/1278-rudolf-of-habsburg-cedes-the-romagna
Location: Romagna, Papal States
Themes: Treaties & Law

The Romagna, the region around Ravenna, Bologna, Faenza and Forlì, formed part of the old Exarchate of Ravenna promised to the popes by Pepin and Charlemagne. In practice it had remained under imperial influence, and its turbulent communes were ruled by local lords and contested by Guelph and Ghibelline factions. Rudolf of Habsburg, elected King of the Romans in 1273 with papal support, needed papal recognition and an imperial coronation. Negotiations under Gregory X and then Nicholas III produced a series of charters; in 1278, after imperial agents had briefly demanded oaths from the Romagnol towns, Rudolf issued a definitive renunciation of all imperial rights over the Romagna and the former Exarchate, confirmed by the German princes. Nicholas III then sent his nephew Cardinal Latino Malabranca and Bertoldo Orsini to take possession, and the towns swore fealty to the Roman Church. With the Romagna, the Papal States stretched from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic and from Campania to the Po delta. Papal control there was always fragile, and powerful signori such as the Malatesta, Ordelaffi and Manfredi ruled their cities in practice, but the 1278 act gave the papacy its lasting legal title.

## Why it matters
The 1278 renunciation gave the Papal States their full medieval territorial extent.

Pope at the Time: [Pope Nicholas III](https://allhistories.com/vatican/popes/pope-nicholas-iii)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Rudolf I of Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_I_of_Germany)
- [Wikipedia — Papal States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_States)
- [Wikipedia — Pope Nicholas III](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Nicholas_III)
- [Wikipedia — Papal Monarchy (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_III)