Medieval Corsica - Papal Fief

Papal Fief

Towards the end of the eleventh century, the Papacy laid claim to Corsica, saying it had been donated to the Church by Charlemagne. All Charlemagne had really done was promise that stolen ecclesiastical lands would be returned. Nevertheless, the clergy of Corsica supported the Papacy and, in 1077, the Corsicans declared themselves subject to the Holy See in the presence of Landulf, Bishop of Pisa and Apostolic Legate to the island. Pope Gregory VII responded by making Landulf and his successors saecular lords and perennial apostolic legates of the isle. This was confirmed by Urban II in 1190 and extended into a concession of full sovereignty.

Pisa replaced the papal legates who were governing the island with judges (judices) of their own appointment. Valuable chiefly as a source of timber for the Pisan fleet, but also as an important transit point for the slave trade, Corsica flourished under Pisan sovereignty, but crises soon arose. The Corsican episcopate resented Pisan overlordship and the rival Republic of Genoa schemed to have Rome reverse the grant of 1077. In 1138, Pope Innocent II divided the ecclesiastical rule of the island between Pisa and Genoa. However, the war between the two trading rival escalated and, in 1195, Genoa captured Bonifacio. The next twenty years were occupied by unrelenting Pisan efforts to recapture it. In 1217, the pope put an end to this by annexing the city to the Holy See.