Italy was not united under a single royal head, but was a heterogeneous mass of dukedoms, of foreign invaders, with the popes as the head of all.
"The Tapestry Book"
Helen Churchill Candee
Most of the new Norman countships and dukedoms thus created in Italy had declared themselves fiefs of the Church; and the successor of the Apostle might well hope, by aid of the Norman priest-knights, to extend his sovereignty over Italy, and then dictate to the kings beyond the Alps.
"Harold, Book 10. The Last Of The Saxon Kings"
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
His birth took place on December 28th, 1857, and it must have seemed then a remote possibility that in less than five and twenty years he would succeed to one of the proudest dukedoms in the land, with the opportunities of a royal alliance.
"The Portland Peerage Romance"
Charles J. Archard