Berenger I., king of Italy from 888 to 924. His father was Eberhard, duke of Friuli; his mother a daughter of Louis le Debonnaire of France. Upon the deposition of Charles the Fat, Berenger was recognized as king of Italy by one assembly of the states, and Guido, duke of Spoleto, by another. Civil war ensued, but Guido, who had assumed the title of king and emperor, died in 891, and his son Lambert, who also assumed these titles, died in 898. Another competitor for the throne arose in Arnulph, king of Germany; but he died in 899. The nobles then called in Louis, son of Boson, kins; of Provence, who marched into Italy; but Berenger surrounded him and forced him to take an oath never to reenter Italy. He violated his oath, returned, and was crowned. Berenger surprised him near Verona, took him prisoner, caused him to be blinded, and sent him back to Provence. Berenger was now crowned by Pope John X. as king and emperor, and gained considerable successes over the Saracens and Hungarians, who had invaded his dominions.

The nobles, jealous of his growing power, set up another competitor, Rudolph, king of Burgundy, who invaded Italy in 921. A decisive battle took place at Firenzuola, July 29, 923. At the moment when the army of Rudolph was on the point of rout, his brother-in-law brought up large reinforcements; and Berenger, in turn defeated, was forced to take refuge in Verona, where he was assassinated, in March, 924, by a man named Lambert, to whose son he was godfather. - Berenger II., king of Italy from 950 to 961, son of Gisela, daughter of Berenger I., and of Adalbert, marquis of Ivrea. His stepmother, Ermengarda, had placed upon the throne her brother Hugh, count of Provence, who at length ordered Berenger to be seized and blinded. He escaped, and took refuge in Germany with Otho the Great, and in 943 began to excite the Italians against Hugh, and in 945 entered Italy at the head of an army, upon the invitation of the nobles and bishops. Hugh abdicated in favor of his son Lothaire, who received the title of king, but Berenger exercised the real authority.

Lothaire died, it is supposed by poison, in 950. Berenger was now crowned together with his son Adalbert, to whom he wished to marry Adelaide, the widow of Lothaire. She sought the protection of Otho, who in 951 marched into Italy, penetrated without opposition to Pavia, the capital of Berenger, and married Adelaide. The next year Otho returned to Germany, whither he was followed by Berenger, who besought him to restore to him the crown upon any conditions, and whom he finally reestablished as a feudatory of the German empire. But, scarcely on his throne again, Berenger undertook to punish those of his subjects who had taken part with Otho. The German emperor thereupon sent an army under his son Ludolph, who speedily overran nearly all Italy, but died the next year. In 961 Otho himself took the field. Berenger shut himself up in the fortress of St. Leo, where he stood a long siege, but was starved out in 964, and forced to surrender. He and his wife were imprisoned at Bamberg, where he died in 966. His son Adalbert troubled the Germans for a while, but was at last forced to flee and take refuge in Constantinople.