I mundeburdi degli Ottoni per monasteri regi dalla Lombardia al Monte Amiata: concetti e funzionamenti

The 'mundiburdium' (royal protection) was a strictly personal privilege, bestowing on the protected person the right to access to the royal court. At its core lay the idea of royal protection and the image of the royal shield, under which the protected person would find defence. Though personal, this privilege actually worked as a tool to assure the integrity of land assets. The use of 'mundiburdium' increased in the Ottonian period, particularly in the relationships between kings and royal monasteries. This reflected a more general shift in the institutional dynamics of the Kingdom of Italy. Once the royal administration began to deteriorate in the late- and post-Carolingian period, several monasteries progressively lost their major interest in the exercise of public rights, which was mainly granted through the privilege of 'immunitas'. Abbeys owning scattered and widespread estates aimed to safeguard their land holdings (St. Salvatore on Monte Amiata), particularly the most strategic assets (St. Ambrose in Milan). As a consequence, these abbeys mainly aimed to obtain charters of 'mundiburdium' from the kings, as the privilege of royal protection was the most suitable one to neutralise every kind of seigneurial muggers. The privilege of 'immunitas' was much less required, with the execption of some urban monasteries that replaced the local cathedral church in the exercise of public powers (as it happens in Pavia). The 'mundiburdium' was a very useful tool also for the Ottonians and their forms of governance. Personal links of protection and co-management of monastic estates let the Saxon kings to compensate for dim administrative structures and stabilize their kingdom, which has to be understood in terms of 'Herrschaftsverband' and not of State.