Boniface III (also Boniface IV or Boniface of Canossa) (c. 985 – 6 May 1052), son of Tedald of Canossa and the father of Matilda of Tuscany, was the most powerful north Italian prince of his age. By inheritance he was count (or lord) of Brescia, Canossa, Ferrara, Florence, Lucca, Mantua, Modena, Pisa, Pistoia, Parma, Reggio, and Verona from 1007 and, by appointment, margrave of Tuscany from 1027 until his assassination in 1052. Early life He was the son of the Margrave Tedald and Willa of Bologna. The Lombard family's ancestral castle was Canossa and they had held Modena for several generations. They possessed a great many allodial titles and their power lay chiefly in Emilia. Boniface was probably associated with his father before the latter's death. In 1004, with the title marchio, he donated land to the abbey of Polirone, and he appears in two documents of the same year as gloriosus marchio. He kept his court at Mantua, which he transformed into a city of culture: "With so many magnificent spectacles and feasts that all posterity and all their contemporaries marvelled thereat." Imperial politics In 1014, Boniface aided the Emperor Henry II in putting down Margrave Arduin of Ivrea, who claimed the Kingdom of Italy in opposition to Henry. His father nominated him as heir over his brothers and, in 1016, he was again fighting alongside the emperor, this time against the margrave of Turin, Ulric Manfred II. In 1020, Boniface defeated a rebellion of his brother Conrad, but the two reconciled and both were later recorded as dukes. In 1027, he supported the candidacy of the Salian Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany for the thrones of Italy and the Holy Roman Empire against the other claimants: William V of Aquitaine, Robert II of France, or Hugh Magnus. When Boniface's Lombard enemies tried to incite his brother against him, the two offered battle to them at Coviolo, near Reggio, and emerged victorious, though Conrad was killed. When Conrad II finally succeeded in entering Italy, he was met with defiance at Lucca and he deposed the reigning margrave of Tuscany, Rainier, and gave his lands and titles to Boniface. This seems to be the probable scenario, though the exact date of Boniface's assumption of the Tuscan lordship is uncertain. He thereby considerably increased his paternal domains and Boniface rose to be the most powerful person