Milo () was the Count (later Margrave) of Verona from 931 until 955. He was a vassal of four successive kings of Italy from 910. Under Berengar I he became a courtier (familiaris) and by 924 head of the bodyguard. By 927 he had expanded his landholdings to have vassals of his own. Under Hugh, he revolted twice but kept his position in Verona. Under Berengar II, he was raised to the rank of margrave (marchio) in 953.
Milo was a son of Manfred, from Mosezzo in the region of Novara. His brother Manfred was the count of Lomello. His given name suggests a kinship with the Widonids, perhaps on his mother's side. He is described in a document of 906 as being "of Frankish origin" and not a Lombard. His wife, Valperga, was also a Frank. All the evidence suggests that he belonged from the beginning to the upper ranks of the nobility.
Berengar I's vassal
Milo's first documentary appearance associates him with the city of Verona and with the aristocratic supporters of King Berengar I. On 1 September 906, he undersigned a donation by the German bishop of Verona, Adalard, to his friend Ingelfred, also a German. It is unclear how Milo came to prominence at Verona—possibly he arrived in the retinue of Ingelfred—but he was to spend the rest of his life based out of the city.
In November 910, Milo was one of ten vassals of the king who acted as a judicial "college" during two placita (public hearings) held at Cremona by Berengar. These placita marked the resumption of public royal justice after it had fallen in abeyance during years of civil war between rivals for the throne. On 1 December 914, Milo witnessed a gift of Ingelfred, who since 906 had become count of Verona, to the nunnery of San Zaccaria in Venice. Milo was to show generosity to the nuns in his will, and it is possible that he had relatives living there. He subscribed Ingelfred's gift with a signum manus as a "lord vassal of the king [from the people] of the Franks".
As a loyal support and vassal, Milo was rewarded by Berengar with a real property after Berengar was crowned Emperor by Pope John X in 915. The diploma recording this royal gift is now lost. Milo was eventually welcomed into the imperial household—the so-called familia—of Berengar as head of the emperor's personal bodyguard. He was holding this position when, on 7 April 924, Berengar was assassinated at Verona. According to Bishop Liutprand of Cremona, a contemporary, Milo had tried in vain to warn the emperor of the conspiracy. Three days after the assassination, he caught the assassin, the steward (sculdascio) Flambert, and hanged him alongside his accomplices.
Hugh's vassal
Milo retained his status as a royal vassal after the coronation of King Hugh in 926. By this time he also had vassals of his own. On 15 November 927, he undersigned the testament of Notker, bishop of Verona, being accompanied as a witness by one of his vassals, as per Lombard law. In this document he signed his name with his own hand and not with, as on all previous occasions, a signum manus. This may indicate that he had learned to write in the preceding decade.
According to Liutprand of Cremona, Milo was one of the noblemen who helped quash a tentative rebellion around 930. Two local judges, Walpert and Everard Gezo, were plotting to assassinate the king in collaboration with some dissident nobles during one of Hugh's visits to the capital, Pavia. The plot became known, and Everard Gezo was captured, his eyes and tongue cut out.
Like his predecessor, Hugh rewarded Milo for his loyalty with grants of public rights, land and offices. By 929, Milo had received from Hugh the right to collect the decima or tithe, an annual tax of a tenth (probably not an ecclesiastical tithe), in the jurisdiction of the villa of Ronco all'Adige. This secured for him a valuable revenue stream that he would hang onto for the rest of his life. Only briefly did he let it go: on 11 July 929, he and Valperga gave the decima of Ronco and the church dedicated to the Virgin that they had founded there to the canons of Verona in accordance with Frankish law. This was witnessed by four of his vassals. In different circumstances in 931, he took the gift back.
In 930 or 931, Hugh embarked on a major reorganization of the kingdom. He appointed new loyalist counts Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Reggio. He placed his half-brother Lambert at the head of the margravate of Tuscany and his young son Lothair was associated with him as junior king. It is probably around this time that, as part of this effort to strengthen his hold on the kingdom, he appointed Milo count of Verona. Ingelfred was dead by this time; his son, Aitingus (or Egitingus), was displaced.