Arduin of Italy

Arduin of Ivrea
Arduin of Ivrea in a 19th century engraving
King of Italy
Reign	15 February 1002–1014
Coronation	14 May 1004, in San Michele Maggiore
Predecessor	Otto III
Successor	Henry II
Born	c. 955 Pombia, Kingdom of Italy
Died	14 December 1015 (aged 59–60) Abbey of Fruttuaria, Italy
Burial	Abbey of Fruttuaria
Spouse	Bertha
Issue	Arduin Otto Guibert
House	Anscarids
Father	Dado of Pombia
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Arduin (Italian: Arduino; 955 – 14 December 1015) was an Italian nobleman who was Margrave of Ivrea (c. 990–1015) and King of Italy (1002–1014).

Arduin was born in 955 in Pombia during a period in which the Kingdom of Italy was struggling to maintain its independence from the ambitions of the Holy Roman Empire. Italy was conquered in 961 by Emperor Otto I, and the Italian King Berengar II was deposed. Arduin, Berengar's grand-nephew, was only a boy when this happened; he later became Margrave of Ivrea in 990, and in 991 became Count of the Sacred Palace of the Lateran in Rome. In 1002, after the death of Emperor Otto III, the Italian nobles elected Arduin as King of Italy in the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore in Pavia, making him the first independent Italian king since Berengar's deposition 41 years earlier. Arduin was initially supported by the Archbishop of Milan.

The new German king Henry II opposed Arduin. In 1004, Henry invaded Italy, defeated Arduin, and was crowned King of Italy in Pavia; however, he soon withdrew back to Germany, and Arduin was able to reassert his authority for the next decade. Henry II invaded Italy again in 1014 and was proclaimed Emperor in Rome, at which point Arduin was finally forced to relinquish his crown. He died soon after at Fruttuaria Abbey, ending the independence of the Kingdom of Italy. There would not be another native King of Italy until Italian Reunification in 1861.