In the geographical area of modern-day Romagna, all patrimonial activity developed through the relationships that the kinship group established with the church and the archbishops of Ravenna, as well as the aristocracy upon which it depended. Relationships with the Ravennate archbishop, unquestionably the wealthiest landowner in the exarchal lands and the Pentapolis, were maintained in fact throughout the whole period between the ninth and eleventh centuries.

The changes these relationships underwent can be described in three phases. The first, at the height of the second generation, was that of patrimonial acquisition: in the final decades of the ninth century, Engelrada I benefitted from the extensive patrimony bequeathed to her by her husband, incorporating it with other properties obtained from private individuals and through direct contact with the archbishops of Ravenna. By associating herself with them through emphyteosis, she built great wealth in estates while activating relationships of patronage in such a way as to rapidly insert herself into the local elite. For the second phase, in the middle of the tenth century, we find a substantial split between Engelrada's descendents and Peter, the archbishop of the time. This patrimonial conflict culminated in a violent military clash which terminated in 967, when Emperor Otto I requisitioned all the assets causing the controversy. These were equivalent to most of the patrimony of the deceased Engelrada, and the emperor allocated them, by law, to the church of Ravenna.