The “Pragmatic Nobles” who used diplomacy and Church alliances to rule for 400+ years. Dynasty that would learn to survive by being much ‘smarter’ than the rebel Alberico but… TOO much
The confiscation of 1014 was not the end of Castellengo. It was, in retrospect, only the prologue.
Part II: The Pragmatic Heirs — The Mystery of the Postern Gate
Into the space Alberico left behind stepped the De Bulgaro — a family who had looked at his fate and drawn a very different set of conclusions about how to survive in a world of kings and emperors.
Who Were the Bulgaro?
The name sounds foreign, and it raised eyebrows even then, but the De Bulgaro were almost certainly Lombard or Frankish — part of the great consortile tradition, clan-based families who held property collectively across multiple branches, like a corporation with a coat of arms. They were also crucially aligned with the Bishop of Vercelli, which made them the Emperor’s men by proxy, making them legally untouchable.
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