The first part of the book is dedicated to the prosopographic reconstruction of the kinship group, and to the political context and relationships in which the members, both men and women, operated from the second half of the ninth century to the beginning of the twelfth. The first chapter examines the first century of the Hucpoldings in Italy. Fundamentally, it suggests that the criteria for the inclusion into the ranks of Carolingian elite in the Italian kingdom were a relationship with the royal power and the attainment of public offices in different areas of the kingdom, such as in the palace of the capital Pavia, eastern Emilia, the duchy of Spoleto or the marchese of Tuscany.