Malaspina Family

Feudal family powerful in northern Italy in the Middle Ages. Descended from Marquis Oberto I, who was created count palatine by the Holy Roman emperor Otto I, the family at first controlled Tuscany, eastern Liguria, and the March of Lombardy. Early in the 11th century the Este, Pallavicino, and Massa-Corsica family branches separated from the Malaspina. The situation