Albert Azo the
Second was no more than seventeen when he first drew the
sword of rebellion and patriotism, when he was involved with
his grandfather, his father, and his three uncles in a
common proscription. In the vigour of his manhood, about his
fiftieth year, the Ligurian Marquis governed the cities of
Milan and Genoa as the minister of Imperial authority. He
was upwards of seventy when he passed the Alps to vindicate
the inheritance of Maine for the children of his second
marriage. He became the friend and servant of Gregory VII.,
and in one of his epistles that ambitious pontiff recommends
the Marquis Azo, as the most faithful and best beloved of
the Italian princes, as the proper channel through which a
king of Hungary might convey his petitions to the apostolic
throne. In the mighty contest between the crown and the
mitre, the Marquis Azo and the Countess Matilda led the
powers of Italy. And when the standard of St. Peter was
displayed, neither the age of the one nor the sex of the
other could detain them from the field.
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