BERENGAR, bean-gar, two kings of Italy in the 9th and 10th centuries. BEREN GAR I, son of the Duke of Friuli by a daughter of Louis-le-Debonnaire, during the confusion which followed on the dissolution of the em pire of Charlemagne, laid down the crown of Italy, and after a civil war obtained it in 888. At a later period, having been invited by Pope John X to repel the Saracens who were dev astating the south of Italy, he was crowned emperor of Rome (915). His warlike expedi tions had generally been fortunate, and his in ternal government was generally acceptable to his subjects; but his nobility, jealous of his authority, stirred up a new competitor for the throne in the person of Rudolf II, who invaded Italy in 921, and ultimately obliged Berengnr to take refuge in Verona, where he was assassi nated in 924. BERENGAR II, grandson Of BEREN CAR I, was at first Count of Ivrea, while the throne of Italy was occupied by Hugo, count of Provence, a tyrant who had incurred the enmity of almost all the great feudal lords of the kingdom. Berengar taking advantage of
this feeling, put himself at the head of a force collected in Germany in 945, and was almost universally welcomed. Hugo abdicated in favor of his son Lothario, who reigned nominally for a few years, and was succeeded in 950 by Berengar, in whom all the powers of the gov ernment had previously centred. A quarrel with the Emperor Otho in the following year deprived him of his throne, but he was per mitted to resume it on agreeing to acknowledge Otho as his liege lord. In a second quarrel he was not allowed to escape so easily. After losing his territories he shut himself up in the fortress of Saint Leo, and defended himself bravely till famine compelled hizn to submit. He was imprisoned at Bamberg and died there in 966.