 Hence John too may have been the son of Marozia and Alberic I.

Marozia married Alberic I, duke of Spoleto, in 909, and their son Alberic II was born in 911 or 912.By the time Alberic I was killed at Orte in 924, the Roman landowners had won complete victory over the traditional bureaucracy represented by the papal curia.Rome was virtually under secular control, the historic nadir of the papacy.