Arduin Glaber

Who was Arduin Glaber?

Arduin Glaber was the Count of Auriate from c. 935 and Margrave of Turin from c. 950. He placed his family, the Arduinici, on a firm foundation and established the march of Turin through conquests and royal concessions. The Chronicon Novaliciense, the chronicle of the abbey of Novalesa, is the primary source for his life.

Arduin was the eldest son of Roger, Count of Auriate, a Frankish nobleman who immigrated to Italy in the early tenth century. Auriate comprised the region bounded by the Alps, the Po River, and the Stura, today the regions of the Saluzzese and Cuneese. Arduin succeeded his father sometime around 935.

Count Arduin is first documented on 13 April 945, when he sat in judgement at a conference of count Lanfranc at Pavia in the presence of King Lothair II. It was probably earlier, between 940 and 942, that he had acquired Turin and the Susa Valley, bring Novalesa back under Christian control. In 941 King Hugh exiled Berengar of Ivrea and abolished the March of Ivrea. Since Berengar's family, the Anscarids, had thitherto held Turin, it is probably that Hugh bestowed it on Arduin at this time. By the spring of 942 Berengar had arrived at the court of Otto I of Germany.