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Around 650 the powers of the Byzantine governors of Sardinia, the Judex and the dux, were delegated to a single authority. Between 851 and 863, under the pressure of the Arab raids, the legates of the single authority in the four most important districts of the island appointed themselves as Judex, each placing himself at the command of a sovereign, autonomous Giudicato or kingdom, that is Calaris (Cagliari), Arborea,Torres (Logudoro) and Gallura [i].
Thus it was that a peculiar political autonomy developed in Sardinia, giving rise to very innovative institutions for that time, a blend of the island’s Nuragic and Roman-Byzantine heritage. These kingdoms applied the Roman juridical concept of the State, sovereignty and public/private property, and differed radically from the European feudal institutions of the same period [n].
Su Judike, the sovereign Judge, did not hold absolute powers over the land or the patrimony of the kingdom, and could not declare war or ratify peace without the consent of the Corona de Logu, the parliament which elected the Judge and ratified the acts of the realm. Su logu (the place) was the territory of the Giudicato.
The Judge governed on the basis of a pact with the people who, if their civic expectations went unmet, could de-throne and even execute their ruler, without however repealing the hereditary nature of the royal title.
With the advent of the Giudicati, the Sardinian language spread throughout Sardinia: the first Sardinian legal code, the Carta de Logu [n], promulgated by Eleanor of Arborea in 1392, was written wholly in Sardinian.
In 1015 Arabs coming from the Balearic Islands occupied Cagliari. In 1016, on the Pope’s request, the maritime republics of Pisa e Genoa, for once acting as allies, joined forces with the Sardinians, and thrust the Arabs back to the Balearics, but they also began to interfere in the life of the Giudicati.
Starting from 1050 the Judges began to confer lands on the Monastic orders (the Victorines of Marseilles, the Vallombrosians and the Camaldolensians) favouring the arrival in Sardinia of specialised artisans who built many Romanesque churches, no less than 150 throughout the island, which in the majority of cases have come down to us intact thanks also to the absence of seismic phenomena in Sardinia.
Between the XII and XIII centuries, the Judges built dozens of castles on the strategic heights of the island. Many castles dating from this period were subsequently renovated by the Pisans and Genoese, who also built new ones. In southern Sardinia visitors can explore the Castle of S. Michele, Cagliari; that of Eleanor di Arborea, Sanluri; of Conte Ugolino, Siliqua; Salvaterra, Iglesias, of the Malaspina family, Bosa; Orgogliosu, Silius, Las Plassas, Las Plassas, and Monreale, San Gavino Monreale.
In 1257 Santa Igia, the capital of the Giudicato of Cagliari, was destroyed by a coalition of Pisan nobles and Cagliari passed under the direct control of the Municipality of Pisa.
At the end of 1200 three of the four Sardinian Giudicati were no longer in existence, Arborea alone continued to exist as a sovereign kingdom. In 1297 Pope Boniface VIII, in opposition to Pisa and Genoa, founded the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica, appointing James II of Aragon as its king.
In 1353, under Judge Marianus IV, the friction between Arborea and Aragon led to war; the troops of the Giudicato rapidly occupied southern Sardinia and besieged Cagliari, enjoying the support of the population in revolt, but the two sovereigns reached an agreement which awarded Gallura to Arborea in feudal tenure for 50 years.
Hostilities broke out once again on 1364 and Arborea was supported by many Sardinian noblemen in what we might call the first pan-Sardinian alliance. In 1366 the Judge’s troops conquered southern Sardinia and Iglesias but were halted at Monteleone by Brancaleone Doria, who in that same year by marrying Eleanor of Arborea, daughter of Marianus IV, became his ally.
In 1383 Eleanor became regent of the Giudicato, until the eighteenth birthday of her son; she attempted to reach an agreement with Aragon but Brancaleone, who had gone to the court of Barcelona with that aim in mind, was arrested, imprisoned in Cagliari and released only in 1390, following the peace of Sanluri (1388).
In 1391 hostilities broke out once again and the Sardinians occupied the territories handed back in 1388. The Aragonese put up strong resistance at Cagliari and Alghero and the war dragged on for more than a decade. Eleanor died of the plague in 1402.
The Giudicato of Arborea and Aragon clashed in a bloody battle at Sanluri on 30 June 1409. The Sardinian troops were defeated by those of Martin the Younger, thus marking the fall of the Giudicato of Arborea. This was the start of the much resented Aragonese domination of Sardinia (1410-1720).
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