Benedetta of Cagliari

Benedetta (c. 1194 – 1232/1233) was the daughter and heiress of William I of Cagliari and Adelasia, daughter of Moroello Malaspina. She succeeded her father in January or February 1214.

She was consecrated in 1214 by Riccus, Archbishop of Cagliari, in the presence of the higher clergy and the grandees. She swore an oath not to diminish the territory of the giudicato, nor to alienate its castles, nor to make foreign alliances without their consent. Then, on 14 June, she married Barisone III of Arborea, son of Peter I, who was imprisoned by her father. He took the dynastic name "Torchitorio V" and they ruled their two giudicati jointly, each being cited in the acts of the other in their own giudicato. Then, Benedetta made homage to the Holy See.

With Archbishop Riccus, the bishop of Sulcis, and her husband, she made many donations to the churches of S. Giorgio di Suelle and the church of Sulcis. Benedetta favoured natives over Pisans for positions in her government and preferred to cultivate the economy of Sardinia than that of the Republic of Pisa. In 1215, the wrath of Pisa fell on her.

In that year, Lambert Visconti, then judge of Gallura, landed a large army near Cagliari and took the dominating hilltop of S. Gilla, fortifying it. Benedetta was subsequently forced to flee her capital for the interior. In June 1216, she made a donation to the cathedral of Pisa in hopes of procuring their support, but in 1217, Lambert's brother, Ubald I Visconti, forced her to accept terms surrendering Cagliari. She received the giudicato back as fief from the consul of Pisa. However, violence between Sardinians and Pisans escalated in Cagliari and Benedetta and Barisone made an alliance with Comita III of Torres and the Republic of Genoa in hopes of expelling the Pisans.

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