IRortbweötern lUníversítp Xíbrari?
Evanston, Illinois
THE
CABINET CYCLOPAEDIA.
London :
Printed by A. & R. SpottUwoode,
New-Street-Square.
THE
CABή«T CY^fHiOSR^DIA.
X^OKIMIfJCKP ftX 7RE
REV. HIONYSIUS LAÄDNKR, LL.D. ./-.R-S. L. & E.
XZ<4:3?(>irX^S. &c. &c.
ASSISTED BT
EMINENT LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.
î0Î0tOVp*
ITALIAN REPUBLICS;
OB, THE
ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND FALL OF ITALIAN FREEDOM.
J. C. L. DE SISMONDI.
LONDON:
PRIMTBD FOB
LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN,
PATBEN08TBR.BOW ;
AND JOHN TAYLOR,
IIPPER OOWER STREET.
18S2.
UVHVULl'MK
ce?a. .vutunt tntanf fi^ n*
ti/ t/i^ pnopU et M»""-
/W" /A>,
toxiöon
rRINTEn Hai U)î3liM^N Klílití OKMK BUllíí-N & ' «lOGBr^Wl-HNt ííTKK KOV: J
AND JOHN TAYLDP HI')r.ÄOöWl * .>líUÍKT. ^
18 3 J
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
"Would it be possible to comprise the history of
the Italian Republics in a single volume ? " This
question, addressed to me by Dr. Lardner, the
learned editor of the Cabinet Cyclopaedia, gave
birth to the present work. It was flattering to me
to he associated, in a great historical undertaking,
with the most distinguished English writers ; hut, at
a moment when the rights of nations are weighed
anew in the balance of public opinion,—when diplo¬
macy and war have been invoked, in turn, to give or
take away from nations the faculty of advancing with¬
out limit in civilisation, under their respective laws ;
— at such a moment^ it was still more flattering and
precious, in my eyes, to lay before the two powerful
nations which glory in being without a master, the
claims of ill-fated Italy to enjoy the same freedom.
I thus found the opportunity of reproducing, in the
two languages of freemen, the memory of what Italy
was the first to achieve for obtaining the greatest of
blessings, — the memory of the impulse and example
which she gave, and which all others but followed,
— and, at the same time, the memory of those
crimes of her oppressors which have robbed her of
the advantages with which she has endowed the
A 3
vi
PREFACE»
rest of the human race. It seemed to me that the
more rapid my recital of the starting up of Italy
from her slumber, — of her struggles, her misfor¬
tunes, and her glories, — the stronger would be the
impression, and the greater the facility with which
I could seize, in the history of Italian freedom, that
unity of interest which escapes in the simultaneous
existence of a hundred independent states. I was
already familiarised by long study with this history,
in all its details. After having presented it in six¬
teen volumes, I no longer felt that influence of
novelty by which petty facts often seduce authors
into the belief that every notion which it has cost
them much labour to acquire must have a propor¬
tionate value with the reader. I could sacrifice details
and episodes without regret. I knew, in some sort,
by experience, the vicissitudes which in Italy pro¬
duced lasting results ; and those which, on the con¬
trary, produced none. I undertook, then, not an
abridgment of my great work, but an entirely new
history, in which, with my eyes fixed solely on the
free people of the several Italian states, I have
studied to pourtray, within a compass which should
be compatible with animation and interest, their first
deliverance, their heroism, and their misfortunes.
I have confined myself within the limits assigned
to me : it is for the reader to judge whether I
have employed them with due advantage.
J. C. L. DE SiSMONDI.
London, January, 1832.
ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL
TABLE
or THE
HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS;
oa OF
THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND FALL OF
FREEDOM IN ITALY.
INTRODUCTION.
P*gc
Importance of the Study of the Italian República ; the Science of go¬
verning Men for their Advantage began with them - - - 1
There ia nothing to study in the Abuse of Force, or the Ot^reasion of
the vanquished, by Barbarians . . - - fi
The instructive Part of History begins with the Fusion of the Con¬
querors with the conquered for the good of all . - - S
Prosperity of Italy during the middle Ages ; her Neighbours, seeking
only her Plunder, are instructed by her Example - - 4
Our Purpose ; a Summary of the History of this Prosperity, ' its
Causes, and its Destruction - - . - - - 5
CHAPTER I.
STATE OF THE FOFULATION OF ITALY AT THE FALL OF THE
ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE FIFTH CENTURY. SUCCESSIVE IN¬
VASIONS OF BARBARIANS BY WHOM ITALY WAS HARASSED
FOR FIVE CENTURIES. THE FIRST EFFORTS OF TOWNS TO
DEFEND AND GOVERN THEMSELVES TO BE DATED FROM THE
TENTH CENTURY.
All the Inhabitants of Italy made Roman Citixens
when the Citizen had ceased to be sovereign - - 6
Luxury of the senatorial Families at Rome ; Poverty
and Idleness of the others - - - 7
tíü axalttical am> chronological table.
A. D. Page
The Italian Citie* reflective Imagea only of Rome ; in.
dolence of their Inhabitant«; they renounce the Art
ofWar . - . - - 7
Oppreision and rapid Decay of the Cultivator« of the
lÄnd in the Country, wheUier en«laved or free • 8
Decay of the Nation during the apparent Froaperity of
the Reign« of the Antoninea . - -9
The Barbarian« charged with the Defence of the Empire
pillage, and flnally «uppre«« it ... 10
476. Odoacre King of Italy; 489, Invaaion of the Ostro¬
goths ; 568, Invaaion of the Lombards . .10
The Lombard« divide Italy with the Greek« ; their War
with the Frank« ; their Defeat - . .11
800. Charlemagne, their Conqueror, determine« to restore
the Empire of Civilisation with the Sword of the Bar¬
barian . - . - - 12
Successor« of Charlemagne, French, Italians, and Bur.
gundians ; 951, Otho the great Saxon - - 12
Change in Manners introduced by the Barbarians ; feudal
System ; fortified Castles - - .13
800—900. Towns raise Walls around them ; their Inhabitants arm
to defend them . .... 14
SOiV-llOO. Towns make themselves independent of the Nobles, who
enfranchise and arm the rural Population . .15
961—1039. Constitution of the Kingdom of Italy under the German
Emperors ; growing Independence* - . . 16
1039—1125. Disputes of the Emperors with the Pope; Quarrel of
Investitures - . - . . 17
717—1125. Rome governs herself in a State of Freedom, while the
Pope undertakes to govern the Church - - 18
The Wealth of the Clergy tempted Kings to distribute
the Prelacies to their Favourites - - 18
Character of Hildebrand, Reformer of the Clergy;
renders them independent of the secular Power - 19
1073. Pontificate of Hlldebrand,'Gregory VII.; his Succès.
sors ; Peace of Worms, 1122 - - - 20
The War of Investitures completes the Dissolution of the
social Tie between the difl'erent Members of the
Kingdom of Italy - . - - 21
Organisation of Cities ; their Militias, their Councils,
their Finances . . . - 22
Other free Cities in Southern Italy disengage themselves
from the Ruins of the Greek Empire . - 23
Decline of the Greek Power on the Coast of Italy, Ra¬
venna, Bari, Genoa,>nd Pisa - . .24
452. Retreat of the Venetians to their Lagune ¡ (31, their
first Doge - . . - . 25
809. They found Venice their Capital ; they refkise to submit
to the Western Empire . . . .26
analytical and chronolooical table. ix
a. d. page
Naples,'Gaëta, and Amalfl maintain their Independence
agûnst the Lombarda and Saracens for six Centuries 26
1000—1138. Northern Adventurers subdue Southern Italy and its
three Republics . . . . í¡
Pisa and Genoa aggrandised by Commerce ; their War
with the Saracens - . . .58
Venice, Pisa, and Genoa assist the first Crusade with
their Fleets - • - . - 29
The Effbct of six Centuries of suffering; Italy finds
Protection in the Spirit of Association . - 59
CHAP. 11.
FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. DETERMINED TO RESTRICT THE LIBER¬
TIES OF THE CITIES OF ITALY.—THEIR RESISTANCE. LEAGUE
OF LOMBARDY. TRUCE OF VENICE. PEACE OF CONSTANCE,
WHICH SETTLED THEIR RIGHTS.
1100—1152. Corporations in Towns the only public Force which
maintained itself in Italy
Milan and Pavia direct two adverse Leagues among the
Cities ; their Ambition
Different Leagues between the Cities of Piedmont, the
Marches, Tuscany, and Ombria - • •
1139—1155. Arnold of Brescia preaches Liberty and Reformation of
Morals at Rome; his Execution . . .
1154. (October) Frederick Barbarossa enters Italy to subdue it
1155. (13th of February) Frederick besieges Tortona ; he takes
and burns that City
1155. Frederick is crowned at Rome, and returns to Germany
without being admitted into the Cities
The Milanese congratulate themselves on their Resist,
ance ; they succour those who have suffered for them
. 30
e
. 31
32
33
34
. 35
y
- 35
36
1158. Second Expedition of Frederick into Italy ; he threatens f
Milan ; his Treaty with that City . - 37
The Diet of Roncaglia regulates the Rights of the Em.
pire, without respect to that Treaty . - 39
1159. The Milanese resume their Arms ; they are placed
under the Ban of the Elmpire ; their Fields ravaged . 39
(10th of July) Frederick besieges Crema; its heroic
Resistance and Ruin - . . . 40
1168, (March) After three Years' Resistance, the Milanese
surrender at Discretion ; their City is raxed to the
Ground - . - - - 41
Their Example warms the Zeal of the Italians; Discon.
tent exasperated by a Schism - - .48
X AITAIiYTlCAli AND CBRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.D.
1163. League of Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviao, to re*
eatabliih Liberty in Lombardy - - .43
1166. Frederick re-enter« Italy; traveraea it, and 6nda on
erery aide the Spirit of Liberty - 43
1167. (27th of April) All the Citiea united in the League of
Lombardy rebuild Milan ■ • - .45
Frederick beaiegea and aubduea Rome; bia Army ia
afterwarda destroyed by Sicknesa - . - 46
1168. (March) Frederick forced to quit Italy; the Lombarda
build Alexandria . - - . . 46
1173. The Archbishop Christian. The Emperor's Lieutenant
in Tuscany . - - . .47
1174. (April) He inveata Ancona ; he ia forced to raise the
Siege . . . . - .48
1174,1175. Frederick besieges Alexandria during four Months ; he
ia forced to raise the Siege - - . . 49
1175. Negotiations to give a Constitution to Italy ; the Im¬
possibility of coming to an Understanding . .50
1176. (29th of May) Frederick defeated by the Milanese at
Lignano - - . . . . 50
1177. Congress of Venice first Compact in Europe between a
Monarch and his Subjects ; Truce of six Years, during
which all Claims remain suspended . .51
1117—1183. Frederick at last acknowledges that his Sulqecta have
Rights, and seeks Peace in good Faith - - 51
1183. (25thof June) Peace of Constance, which fixes the Rights
of the Cities and those of the Bnperors . - 52
CHAP. IIL
PROGRESS OF THE CITIES TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE FROM THE
PEACE OF CONSTANCE TO THE DEATH OP FREDERICK THE
SECOND. RELENTLESS STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE GOELPHS
AND GHIBELINES. THE FIRST CHIEFS OP PARTIES WHO
RAISE THEMSELVES TO TTRANNIC POWER. 118S 1250.
The House of Hohenstauflbn makes an Attempt to in.
fringe the Liberties granted to; the .Cities try the
Peace of Constance . . ... 53
1183—1187. The Struggle, nevertheless, is renewed, but it is for the
Independence of the Holy See . . -54
Danger to Italy from the Union of the three Crowns
of the Two Sicilies, Lomlrardy, and the Empire . 55
Troubles caused by the Nobles ; Extinction of Families ;
ancient Dukes and Marquisses . . . .56
AITALYTICAL AND CHRONOIiOGICAL TABLE. XÍ
A. D. Page
DiTiiion of the CaitiUan Noblei between the two Leagues
of Ouelphs and Ghibelines . . .57
The Nobles become Citizens of Republics ; their Quarrels
and Violences • . . . . 5S
Institution of Fodestaa, Judges, and Generals, to restrain
the Turbulence of the Nobles . . .38
1197—1S16. Wars arising from a double Election' to the Eminre ; the
Pope favours the young Frederick 11. * . - 30
Innocent 111. re-establishes the Monarchy of the Popes,
and opposes it to that of the Emperors ... -60
Fanaticism and Success of Innocent 111. ; Conquest of
Constantinople by the Venetians . - 61
Constitution of the Roman Republ'ic and Powers of the
Senator Independent of the Pope - -6!
Innocent forms Leagues between the Cities of the March
of Ombria and of Tuscany - . . .63
1215. Quarrel between the Ouelph and Ghlbeline Nobles at
Florence ; Death of Buondelmonte • . -64
War between the Ouelphs and Ghibelines of Lombardy ;
Expulsion of the Nobles of Milan . . . -65
1216—1233. Character of Frederick II. ; his Influence on the Italian
Language ; his Crusade . . - - 63
1226. (2d of March) Renewal of the League of Lombardy to
protect the Pope against the Emperor ; Gregory IX.
forces the Cities to burn the Paterini Heretics . 66
1234—1250. Frederick, with Saracen Soldiers, attacksthe Pope, who
excites the Emperor's Son to revolt . >68
Confidence of Frederick in Eocelino di Romano, Tyrant
of Verona and Padua - - • - 00
1237. (27th of November) Victory of Frederick; 11. over the
Milanese at Cortenova - - . .70
1239. Gregory IX. excommunicates Frederick ; he engages
Genoa and Venice to succour Lombardy . - 71
1211. (3d of May) Victory of the Pisans at Melnria ; they
arrest the Prelates on their Way to the Council . 72
1245. (17th of July) Frederick II. condemned by the Council
of Lyons - . . - - 73
Numerous Conspiracies excited by the Monks against
Frederick . . - - . .73
Ferocity of Eccelino at Padua ; 16th of June, 1247,
Revolt of Parma against the Emperor . .74
1248. (18th of February) The Imperial Army before Parma ;
his Camp forced by the Guelphs . - .75
(8d of February) The Ghibelines drive the Guelphs out
of Florence, and raze their Palaces to the Ground . 76
1249. (26th of May) Victory of the Bolognese at Fossalta over
Henslus, natural Son of the Emperor ; his Captivity - 77
Effbrts of Frederick to be reconciled to the Church ; his
Death, on the 13th of December, 1250 . . 78
xii ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
CHAP. IV.
INTEKREGNUM OF THE EMPIRE. DECLINE AND SUIUDGATION
OF THE LOMBARD REPUBLICS.—CHARLES OF ANjrOU CALLED
TO THE SUPPORT OF THE GUELPHS. HIS POWER. HIS
CRUELTT. SICILIAN VESPERS. 1251—1282.
A. D.
125L
issa
1254.
1360.
1250—1260.
1259.
1256—126L
1250—1300.
'1264.
Page
The Cities enjoped three Centuries of Liberty, upon which
History is silent . . . -
The Struggle between two Factions, originating in
honourable Sentiments, costs the Lombards their
Liberty - - - -
Conrad, Son of Frederick, and after him Manfred, Chieft
of the Ghibeline Party in Italy
Ingratitude of the Pope towards the Milanese ; alienates
them from the Guelph Party ...
Turbulence of the Nobles at Rome, and in all the Oties
(20th of October) The Florentines recover their Liberty,
and create their Militia ...
Institution of the Signoria at Florence; it recalls the
exiled Guelphs ....
Year of Victory, of the Florentines over Pistola, .VoL
terra, Pisa, and Sienna ; the Gold Florin of Florence
The Ghibeline Nobles exiled from Florence, with Fari.
nata degli Uberti at their Head ; they retire to Sienna
(4th of September) Defeat of the Florentine Güeldis
near Arbia ; they evacuate Florence
The Ghibelines determined to destroy Florence; it is
saved by Farinata . ...
Tyranny of Eccelino di Romano at Verona, .Vicenaa,
Padua, Peltre, and Belluna - . .
Crusade preached against Eccelino ; the City of Padua
taken firom him ...
(16th of September) Defeat of Eccelino at Soncino ; his
Death ....
The Turbulence of the Nobles forces the Lombards to
compromise their Liberty in order to control it
They intrust the Signoria to those whom they charge
with the Command of their Army
The House Delia Torre directs the Milanese Guelphs
and other Lombards ...
Commencement of the hereditary Power of the House
of Este at Ferrara, and La Scala at Verona
Ascendancy of the Ghibelines; in all Italy; Uneasiness
of the Popes ....
Urban IV. calls Charles of Anjou into Italy to oppose
the Ghibeliites . . . .95
- 78
- 79
k
. 80
81
81
. 83
e
. 84
84
85
86
87
88
- 89
is
. 90
o
. 91
e
. 91
iS
- 92
9S
. 94
ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. xiÜ
A. D. Page
12S5. (26th of February) Manfted defeated and killed at the
Battle of Orandella ; Charlea King of the Two Siciliei 96
The Guelph Party recovers the Ascendancy in all Italy ;
its Triumph at Florence . . - 97
1268. Conradin arrives in Italy; Zeal of the Ghibelines in his
Favour ; he is defeated, on the 23d of August, at
Tagliacozzo . - . . . 97
1269—1282. Charles of Anjou named by the Pope Imperial Vicar, and
acknowledged Lord by the Towns . .98
Gregory X. and Nicholas III. endeavour to humiliate
Charles, and raise the Ghibeline Party . *99
1278. The Emperor Rodolf acknowledges the Right of the
Pope over all the Country since become the States of
the Church . . ... luo
1277. Napoleon della Torre vanquished, on the 21st of Janii.
ary, by Otho Visconti ; the Ghibeline Nobles return to
Milan - . . . .101
1281. (22d of February) Election of Martin IV., who favours
with all his Power Charles of Anjou - . 102
1282. (30th of March) Sicilian Vespers, which overthrow the
Tyranny of Charles of Anjou - - -103
CHAP. V.
ITALY NEGLECTED BY THE EMPERORS ABANDONED BY THE
POPES.— COUNT UGOLINO AT PISA. THE BIANCHI AND NERI
AT FLORENCE. CLOSING OF THE GRAND COUNCIL AT VENICE.
EXPEDITION OF THE EMPEROR HENRY VII. INTO ITALY.
1283—1313.
Italy ceases to be subject to the Chiefs of two Factions
only . . . - . - 10*
Weakness of Charles II. King of Naples; three Em.
perors who do not visit Italy ... 103
First Examples of the Nepotism of Popes in fkvour of
the Orsini, Colonna, and Savelli . - .106
The pontifical Power weakened under Celestine V. and
Boniface VIIL . . . . . 106
Prodigious Prosperity of Italy ; Progress of Agricul-
ture . . .... 107
Beauty of the Cities; Monuments of Architecture;
Commencement of the Fine Arts ... 108
Activity of Commerce and of Manufactures ; general
Wealth . - - - - 100
Grandeur of Pisa ; its Rivalry with Genoa ; a ruinous
War begun in 1282 - - . . 110
XÍT ANAIjYTICAL and chbonodogicai# table.
A. D. Page
1284. (6th oí Augurt) Defeat of the Pitan« by the Genoete off
Meloria ; Decline of their Republic • - 110
1288. Ugolino della Ghirardetca, Commander of Pita; hit
Treachery, and cruel Death - - • 111
1292. Guido di Montefeltro, Commander of Pita ; hit Victo-
riet over the Guelpht of Florence and Lucca - 112
1292. The Gonfalonier of Justice, Chief of the Signoria at
Florence, charged to reprett the Turbulence of the
Noble« ..... lis
The Nobiet excluded by an Ordinance of Law from all
Share in the Government ... 114
1296—1800. Quarrel of the Cancellieri Neri and Blanchi at Pistola ;
their Discord reaches Florence ... 115
1301. Boniface VIII., to reconcile them, calls Charles of Valois
into Tuscany - ... 116
Violence of the two Parties; Efforts of Benedict XL to
reconcile them ; the Papal Court transferred to
France - - - . - 117
Greatness of the Venetian Nobles; less turbulent and
more skilful than those of Lombardy - - 117
Formation in 1172 of the Grand Council of Venice, at
ffrst annual, and elected by the People . . 118
Successive Development of the Venetian Constitution
in the l.3th Century - .... 119
1297. (28th of February) Decree for the closing of the Grand
Council of Venice . . . . . 120
131L Creation of the Council of Ten, which completes the
Organisation of the Venetian Aristocracy . .121
1308—1313. Reign of the Emperor Henry VIL ; bis Expedition into
Italy - . - . - . 121
The Turbulence of the Nobles had thrown all the Cities
of Lombardy under the Yoke of some Sovereign Lord 122
131(1 Henry VIL liberates the Lombard Cities from their
Tyrants, and recalls the Exiles ... 123
1311. Revolt of the Guelpht of Lomt>ardy against Henry VIL ;
he arrives at Genoa . ... 194
War of the Genoese against the Venetians ; Victory of
the former at Cortola in 1298 ... 125
The Genoese confer the Signoria on Henry VIL, and
afterwards resume it ; he goes to Pisa . . 126
1312. Zeal of the Ptsans for Henry ; Armament of the
Guelphs against him ; his Coronation . . 127
(I9th of September) Henry VIL threatens Florence;
he is obliged to withdraw himself . . . 127
1313. (24th of August) Death of Henry at Buonconvento ;
Suspicions of having been poisoned . . X28
analytical and chronological table. xv
CHAP. VL
caEATNESS OF SOME GHIBELINE CHIEFS. DISORGANISATION OF
THAT PARTY BY THE PERFIDY AND INCONSISTENCY OF THE
EMPEROR I.OUIS OF BAVARIA. EFFORT OF THE FLORENTINES
TO MAINTAIN THE BALANCE BETWEEN THE POWERS OF ITALY.
—THF-V FALL UNDER THE TYRANNY OF THE DUKE OF ATHENS.
— his expulsion. 1314—1343.
A. D. Page
1314. (19th of October) Double EHection to the Empire, of
Louis IV. and Frederick IlL f Politics of the Pope -
1313—1322. Bertrand du Poiet, the Pope's Legate in Italy, attacks
the House of Visconti - - . - 130
Grandeur of Matteo Visconti ; his Death, the 22d of
June, 1322 - - - - - - 131
Uguccione di Faggiuola, Captain of Pisa, his Victories
over the Guelphs . . . • - 132
1316. (10th of April) Uguccione driven from Pisa ¡ Castruccio
becomes Master of Lucca . . >133
Lucca becomes the Arsenal of the Ohibelines ; great
Talents of Castruccio - - . - . 133
Florence at the Head of the Gueiph Party in Tuscany ;
Democratic Spirit of that City .... 134
1323—1328. The Balia of Florence, all the Magistracies named by
Lot .. .....135
Victories gained by Castruccio over the Florentines, who
call to their Aid the Duke of Calabria . . . 136
1327. Louis IV., Conqueror of Frederick III., enters Italy ;
his Character . . . . . 136
Perfídy of Louis IV. towards the Visconti and Pisans ; he
trusts solely to Castruccio .... 137
1328. Coronation of Louis IV. ; he determines to depose the
Pope ; Death of Castruccio ... 133
1329. Fresh Perfidy of Louis IV. ; he returns to Germany . 139
1312—1329. Reign of Can' Grande della Scala at Verona ; he con.
quers Padua ; his other Conquests, and Death . 139
1330—1338. John of Bohemia in Italy ; the Enthusiasm which he ex.
cites; Lordships conferred on him - . 141
The Florentines resolved to maintain against him the
political Ek]uilibrium of Italy . ... 142
1332. (September) The Florentines agree with the Lords of
I^mbardy to divide between them the States of John 143
1333. (October) John abandons or sells all his Lordships, and
quits Italy - . - • ... 144
1336. The Florentines deceived by the Lombard liords ; con.
tract an Alliance with the Venetians . - HI
a
Xri ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A. D. P«ge
1336—1338. SurceMiTC Subjugation of aereral free and Guelph Citica
which detach thenuelreafirom Florence . .145
1341. (6th of July) The Pitani take PoMefeion of Lucca, to the
Prejudice of the Florentinei . . - -146
1343. (lit of Auguft) The People of Florence confer the Title
of Captain on the Duke of Atheni - - 147
Talent! of the Duke of .4thcni tot Intrigue; the Art
with which he oppose* one Party to the other . 147
(8th of September) the Duke of Atheni cauiei bimaelfto
be proclaimed Sovereign Lord of Florence - 146
1343. Growing Tyranny of the Duke Athens ; hii Alliance
with the Ghibelinea - . - 148
(36th of July) Revolt of Florence againit the Duke of
Atheni ; he ii driven out of it on the 3d of August - 149
CHAP. VIL
REVIVAL OF LEITERS. REVOLtlTIONS ATTEMPTED BY TWO MEN
OF LETTERS. — ITALY RAVAGED BT THE PLAGUE AlTD BY
COMPANIES OP ADVENTURE. POWER OP THE HOUSE DP
VISCONTI. WAR BETWEEN THE MARITIME REPUBLICS.
DANGER A.VD FIRMNESS OP THE REPUBLIC OP FLORENCE.
1344—1364.
The Exercise of the intellectual Faculties during the
Barbarous Ages a Source of Suffering in the other
Countries of Ehirope, a Source of Enjoyment in Italy 151
Progressive March of the Arts, and afterwards of scien¬
tific Studies .... iss
Eloquence makes no Progress ; Poetry ; Petrarch and
Boccaccio . . . . 153
Zeal for Latin Literature; Commencement of the Study
of Grecian Literature . . .153
1347. Revolution attempted at Rome by Cola di Rienxo, a
passionate Admirer of Antiquity . .154
He makes use of the Monuments of the Arts to raise
the ' Enthusiasm of the Romans, and to recall their
ancient Glory . . .155
His Hatred of the Nbhle* ; be gets himself named Tri.
bune on the 20th of May, and drives them out of Rome 156
He wants Courage and Capacity, and suflbrs himself to
be driven out of Rome, on the 15tb of December . 156
1354. (July) Cola named Senator by the Pope ; he is assas¬
sinated, on the 8th of Octdber . . .157
1356. (May) Friar Jacob Bossolari raises Pavia against its Ty.
ranu ; his tragic End . , .157
ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XVÜ
A.D.
lSt5.
P»ge
ms.
- 158
. ISy
1351.
1350—13M.
1353
1354.
1355.
1362—1364
DecUne of the Authority of the Emperort ; Charle* IV.,
hit Expedition into Italy
Pope* of Avignon ; Conque*t of Romagna and of the
March by Cardinal Albornox
(18th of September) Joan I. of Naplei cautea her Huaband,
Andrew of Hungary, to be aaaaseinated ; the Plague .100
The Italian Population dlaarmed by theirTyranta ; Form¬
ation of Companiei of Adventure
The great Company of the Duke Guamieri making War
on all the World . . .
League of the Lombard Lord* againit the Viaconti ;
they employ the great Company
Noble Reaiatance of the Florentine Republic to the great
Company . . . •
Power of the Viaconti, Lord* of aixteen Citie* of
Lombardyi Florence atop* their Conquest* - .164
The Viaconti Masters of Bologna} tiieir audden Attack
on Florence • -
War of the Genoeae with the Venetian* in the Levant ;
Grandeur of Paganino Dorla
(10th of October) Genoa give* itself to the Archbishop
Vboonti : Conspiracy of Marino Falieri
Division of the diffèrent Sovereignties of the Viaconti
between the tiiree Brothers ; Genoa throws off* their
Yoke ....
Revolution* caused in Tuscany by the Emperor Charles
IV. . . .
Intrigues of the Visconti at Pisa to enslave that Republic 169
War between Pisa and Florence ; French, English,
and Gascon Soldiers, who carry the Plague thither . 170
Giovanni Agnello causes himself to be declared Doge
of Pisa . . . .170
161
. 162
IGJ
. 163
165
. 106
. 167
- 168
. 168
CHAP. VIII.
THE FLORENTINES CALL UPON THE CITIES OF ITALY TO RECOVER
THEIR LIBERTY.—GREAT WESTERN SCHISM.—WAR OF CHIOZZA.
INSURRECTIONS OF THE POPULACE AGAINST THE CITIZENS.
— CONQUESTS or GIAN GALEAZZO VISCONTI DUKE OF MILAN.
HIS DEATH. 1365 1402.
Danger which Italian Liberty incurred from Galeazzo
and Barnabas Visconti ; their perfidious Policy - 171
1368. The Pope and Emperor menace the Visconti, who
makes Peace with them . . .172
a 2
xviii ANAI»YTICAIi AND CHBONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.D.
136S—>1370. Charles IV. sufihrt Pisa to recover its Liberty; he is
threatened at Sienna ; he restores to Lucca its lode,
pendence . . - - • 173
The Visconti excommunicated by Urban V. ; Death of
this Pope • - - • 174
1375. (July) The Florentines, betrayed by the Church, carry
War and Liberty into her States - - - 175
1376,1377. Ferocity of the Soldiers of the Church in the War of
liberty ; Massacre of Faensa and C^sene . . 175
1378. Peace of Florence with the Church, Consequence of the
great Western Schisms • - - 176
Election of Urban VL at Rome ; he quarrels with his
Cardinals, who raise Clement VII. to the Chair - 177
Scandal given by the two Antipopes at Rome and Avig.
non - - - • • 178
Joan of Naples excommunicated by Urban VL, and de¬
throned by Charles IIL de Dures - - -178
War of Chiozza between the two Republics of Genoa
and Venice - - - 179
Danger which Venice incurs after the Tsüting of Chi.
ozza ; Carlo Zeno comes to its Aid, lit January, 1380 - 180
1380. The Genoese besieged in Chiozza, and forced to surren¬
der at discretion ; Peace of the 8th of August, 1381 - 181
1378. Discord at Florence between the major and minor Arts ¡
Burgher Aristocracy - - . - 182
Inveteracy-of the Florentine Aristocracy agmnst the
Descendants of the ancient Ghibelines - - 183
C18th of June) Salvestro de' Medici, Gonfalonier, appeals
to the People against the Burgher Aristocracy - . 184
(20th of July) Insurrection of the dampi, the poorest
Artisans of Florence - - 185
Cleverness and Vigour of Michael Lando, Gonfalonier
of the Gompi ¡ the Populace submits to him . . 185
1382. Division among the victorious Democratic Party ; it is
anew excluded from Power ... 186
Rivalry between the différent Orders in the other Re¬
publics, Adorni and Fregosi, at Genoa . . .187
The Mounts of Sienna, three Burgher Aristocracies,
one below the other - . . . 187
Opposition between Barnabas Visconti and his nephew
Glan Galeazzo, at Milan . - . 189
1385. (May 6th) Gian Galeazzo arrests his Uncle Barnabas, and
puts him to Death ; Vices of the new Tyrant - 189
He encourages Alberic di Barbiano, Founder of the Art
of War in Italy - . . .190
1387, 1388. Gian Galeazzo conquers Verona, Padua, and Treviso . 191
1387—139(1 All the Princes of Lombardy subdued or disgraced by
the Crimes which Visconti makes them commit - 192
13901 Francis II. of Carrara, aided by the Florentines, retakes
Padua licom Giqn Galeazzo - . . igj
ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOOICAL TABLE. xiz
A. D. Page
1392. (21(t of October) Jaoobo Appiano raitet himaelf b; Auai.
aination to the Tyranny of Pita . . 19i
1395. (Itt of May) Diploma of the Emperor Wincealaua createi
Oian Galeaazo Viiconti Duke of Milan . . 195
139(^1402. Genoa, Perugia, Sienna, Pin, Lucca, and Bologna, loae
their Lil>erty through the Intrigues of Gian Galeazzo 196
1402. (3d of Septemtrer) Florence delivered by the Plague,
which unexpectedly carries olT Gian Oaleazzo .197
CHAP. IX.
AMARCUT IN THE DUCHT OP MILAN. THE VENETIANS CONQUER
PADUA AND VERONA. THE FLORENTINES, PISA. FLORENCE,
MENACED IN TURN BY LADISLAUS KING OF NAPLES AND
FILIPPO MARIA VISCONTI, MAINTAINS AGAINST THEM THE
EQUILIBRIUM OP ITALY. 1403 1432.
Liberty had, in the 12th Century, produced a great
moral Advancement - .197
The Return of despotic Governments had, on the con¬
trary, multiplied Crimes and Treasons . -196
The Number of fl-ee Stales diminish every Century, and
Virtue becomes more rare . . . 199
In the 15th Century it was Crime that made Princes . 199
1402—1412. The Children of Gian Galeazzo under the Guardianship
of Condottieri, who betray them - . . 200
140L (16th of October) The Mother of those young Princes
dies by Poison ; numerous Tyrants in Lombardy . - 201
1412. (16th of May) Gian Maria Visconti assassinated, after
committing atrocious Cruelties - • . 202
All the Virtue of Italy at this Period took Refuge in
Florence ... . 902
1404 (7th of April) Francesco da Carrara conquers Verona
ftom the Visconti . ... 206
(23d of June) Venice declares War 'against Francesco da
Carrara ¡ Conquest of Vicenza and Verona . - 204
1405. (19th of November) Carrara capitulates at Padua; the
Venetians put him to Death, togeth» with his Chil.
dren - . • . .906
All the Tuscan Republics throw off the Yoke of the
Children of Gian Galeazzo Visconti - . 206
The Florentines determine to conquer Pisa ; Resistance
and Valour of the Pisans .... 207
1406. (9th of November ) The Florentines Masters of Pisa ;
great Emigration of the Pisans - • • - 207
a 3
XX ANALYTICAL AND CHBDNOLOGICAL TABLE.
A. D."
1409.
1406,
1409.
1410.
1414.
1412.
1412—1421.
1424.
1423—1425.
1426.
1427—1430.
1431.
1432.
P«fe
(March) Council eonrrdtad at Piia to put an end to the
great Wettern Scbitm ... . 206
Laditlaua King of Naplea profited bjr the Schitin to
take Poftettion of the Statea of the Cbuicb - - 209
He attack! Florence ; Alliance of the Florentinea with
Louia of Anjou and Braccio di Montone . • 210
All the Armies of Italy fonned in the two Schoola of
Braccio and Sforza . - • .211
(2d of January) The Florentine Army, led by Braccio, en¬
ter» Rome ..... 212
(6th of Augutt) Death of Laditlaua, which delirert
Florence from great Danger - . - - 212
(16th of June) FUippo Maria Viaconti, third Duke of
Milan, succeed» hit Brother . . - 213
Intriguing Activity and Ambition joined to Timidity
in this Duke ... . . 214
Conquesta of Francetco Carmagnola, Vltconti't Ge.
neral ; Civil Wan at Naples ... 215
Death of the Two great Captaina, Sforza and Braccio 215
War between the Duke of Milan and the Florentine
R^Hiblic, which implores the Aid of Venice . - 216
Carmagnola, who had patted over to the Venetians, takes
Brescia from the Duke of Milan ... 217
War in the Milanese between the most illustrious Ge.
neralt in Italy . ... .217
Reverses of Carmagnola -, Distrust of him by the Ve.
netiaos ... . . . 218
(5th of May) Francesco Carmagnola betrayed, arrested,
and beheaded at Venice ... . 219
CHAP. X.
C09M0 de' KEDICI CHIEP of the PLOEEirriHS EEFUBUC.
death of the last visconti. — effobts of the milanese
to recover their libertt. — they are subjugated bt
francesco sforza. consfiract of stefhano porcarl at
rome. 1431 1454.
The lower Class of the People again accustomed to Sub.
ordination . . . . . 219
Liberty ought to be common to all, but Power should
be vested in those only who can comprehend its true
Objects ..... 220
Order still maintained in the Italian States which bad
lost their Liberty .... 221
ANALTTIOÁL AND CHRONOLOOICAL TABLE. XXi
A. D. P«gc
Great Proiperitjr of the Subjecta of Venice ; their Attach.
ment to St. Mark ... - c j'j
Proaperity of Florence united with more Intelligence
and more Turbulence . . . .
1381—1431 Oloriouf Adminiitration of the Albiazi at Florence ;
Chiefi of a moderate Aristocracy . . . S¿>
Opulence and growing Credit oí Cosmo de' Medici ; his
Character ... . . 234
1433. (7th of September) Rinaldodegll Alblzzl causes Cosmo de'
Medici to be exiled from Florence . - . 225
1431 (September) Cosmo de'Mcdlcl recalled; Rinaldodegli
Albizzi exiled ...... 3S6
I431-'1447. Albizzi.takes RefUge with Visconti, who renews the AVar
with Florence . . . . . SS7
Francesco Sforza and Coleonl In the Service of Florence
and Venice ; the Piccininl in that of the Duke ■ 227
1441. (S4th of October) Marriage of Francesco Sforza with Bi¬
anca Visconti ; ISth of August, 1447, Death of Visconti 228
1435. (5th of August) Battle of Ponza ; Alphonso of Aragon
made Prisoner by the Genoese ... 229
He is set at Liberty by the Duke of Milan, and subdues
the Kingdom of Naples .... 230
1447. (Hth'of August) The Republic of Milan re-established ;
Extinction of the Visconti . . • . 230
The Doge of Venice, Foscari, and Cosmo de' Medici
reAise the Milanese their Alliance - . . 231
Ambition of Cosmo de' Medici ; his Enmity to Rq>ublics
and to Liberty ... . .231
The Address of Francesco Sforza, who deceives alter¬
nately the Milanese and Venetians ... 232
1448. (18th of October) After having gained many Victories
over the Venetians, Sforza passes over to them . 233
1449. Sforza conquers a great Partof Lombardy - . 234
1450l (26th of February) Milan opens its Gates to Sforza, and
acknowledges him Duke . - - .235
1452. Frederic 111. will not acknowledge Sforza Duke - 236
Successive Loss of the Liberties of Rome and the States
of the Church ... . .236
1447—1454. The Pope Nicolas V. the Protector of Letters, but an
Enemy of Liberty - . . - 237
Efforts of Stephane Porcari to recover the Rights of the
Romans . . ... 238
1453. (5th of January) Conspiracy of Stephane Porcari ; his
Execution - • - • - • • 239
a
xxii ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
CHAP. XL
ITALT LOSES ALL THE GREAT MEN WHO SHONE IN THE PRE¬
CEDING PERIOD. THE REPUBLIC OP FLORENCE ENSLATED BT
THE MEDICI. — WAR OF THE VENETIANS AOAINET THE TURKS.
— CONQUEST OF CYPRUS. 1454 1478.
A. D. 1"»««
Alaim which the Conquest of ConttRiitinopIe by the
Turks spread th'oughout Italy - - • S40
Mahomet II. proposes to subdue Rome as he had done
Constantinople ... - - S41
The Council of Ten at Venice jealous of Foacaii ; his
domestic Misfortunes - - ... 842
1457. (23d of October) the Doge, Francesco Fosean, is deposed,
and dies immediately on leaving the Palace - 843
1453. (27th of June) Death of Alphonso of Aragtm ; Succession
of his natural Son Ferdinand - • - 843
Sforza refuses to assist the Anjou Party, who would de.
throne Ferdinand .... 844
1465. Ferdinand treacherously puts to Death Nicolo Piccinino 845
1464. (1st of August) Death of Cosmo de' Medici, alter having
destroyed all Equality at Florence . . . 845
His Authority till the Year 1455 divided with Neri
Capponi ..... 847
1455—1464. Struggle of Cosmo de* Medici srith the Aristocracy which
he had favoured ..... 848
Cosmo, in his old Age, favours the Aggrandisement of
Lucas Pitti - 84G
Building of the Pitti Palace,;which gives Occasion to nu.
merous Abuses of Power .... 249
1464—147(X Administration of Pietro de' Medici ; his Incapacity - 849
1466L (8th of March) Death of Francesco Sforza ; Succession of
Galeazzo Sforza . . ... 250
Lucas Ktti ruined ; Pietro de' Medici sole Ruler at Flo¬
rence ... . . . 851
Pietro de' Medici from Sickness abandons public Busi-
ness to 6ve or six ambitious Intriguers . . 851
1469. (2dof December) Death of Pietro de* Medici . .858
Enslavement of Bologna; Obscurity of Lucca and Si.
enna ; violent Convulsions at Genoa . . 852
Oppression of Illyria and Greece by the Venetians . 853
1454^—1468. Conquest of a Number of Christian States by Ma.
hometIL ....... 854
1463—1470i War of the Venetians with the Turks ; Death of Pius IL,
and of Scanderbeg ..... 855
1476—1474 Negotiations of the Venetians with Huasun Cassan ; their
great Travellers . . . . . 856
Expeditions of the Venetians in Asia Minor, and their
Cruelties . . - . .857
ANALYTICAL AND CnBONOLOGlCAL TABLE. XXÜi
A. D. Pag«
Civil Wart of Cyprua ; Part taken by the Venetiana in
them ; Caterina Cornaro ■ . . . SS6
1477, 1478. The Turkith Armiea enter Italy ; the Venetiana make
Peace with them, on the SGth of January, 1479 • 299
CHAP. XXL
FRBQUENCY OF CONSPIRACIES. THE LAST RESOURCE OP THE
ITALIAN PATRIOTS. THEIR ILL SUCCESS. CONSPIRACY OP
THE PAZZL ADMINISTRATION OP LORENZO HE* MEDICI.
HIS DEATH. 1470 1493.
Deapotism supported by all the inert Part of the Nation 259
Nations seem to be attached each to their Government
in Proportion to its Imperfections • ■ 9(X)
The Tyrants of Italy won the Attachment of the Pea¬
santry and the Populace - - • 961
While the superior Classes detested Tyranny - 261
Murders were so common that they Inspired no Rcpug.
nance .... . .96
1470. (6th of April) Conspiracy of Bernardo Nardi ; he sur.
prises Prato ; his Execution .... 963
1476. (1st of Septemtier) Monarchical Conspiracy at Ferrara in
Favour of Nicolo d'Eiste . - - . - 964
Conspiracy of Jerome Oentili at Genoa . . 965
Conspiracy of Ol^ü, Visconti, and Lampugnani at
Milan ... - 966
(26th of December) They kill the Duke Galeazzo Sforza,
and are in their Turn killed . ... 967
Discontent of the Fazzi at Florence; their Connection
with the Pope Sixtus IV. . . 967
Sixtus IV. approves a Conspiracy to restore Uberty to
Florence ... ... 969
1478. Conspiracy of the Pazzi ; Distribution of the diflbrent
Parts . . . - - - 999
(26th of April) GiuUo de' Medici killed ; Lorenzo escapes
from the Conspirators - ... 270
Massacre of the Pazii ; Execution of all the Conspirators 271
(1st of June) Lorenzo de' Medici excommunicated for
having hung an Archbishop - - . 279
1479. Revolutions at Genoa and at Milan against the Duchess
Sforza ..... . . 273
(6th of December) Lorenzo departs for Naples, to demand
Peace flrom Ferdinand .... 274
1480. (6th of May) Treaty of Lorenzo with Ferdinand ; he
sacriflces Sienna to him - - - -27.7
xxiv ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
P«ge
(IStli of April) Changer in the Conatitution of Florence
to augment the Power of the Medici ... 715
(S8th of July) The Turlu at Otranto ; 3d of December,
Peace of Sixtus IV. with the Florentine« - . S76
Anarchy at Rome under the Pontificate« of Sixtu« IV.
and Innocent VI11. - ... .716
Talent«, Character, and Conduct of Lorenao de' Medici ;
Conspiracy in Romagna - . . . . S77
6. Savonarola arrived at Florence ; Reform of tbePiag.
noni ..... 178
Lorenzo «ick, a«ks Absolution from Sevooarda, who
refuses it ; he dies, the 8th of April . . . 719
CHAP. XIII.
lyvAsioN or italt bt charles viii. — rixTao, son of
I.ORENaO sx' MEDICI, DRIVEN OUT OF FLORENCX. REVOLT
AND WAR or riSA. POLITICAL AND RELISIOUS REFORM OF
SAVONAROLA AT FLORENCE. HIS DEATH. 1492 1498.
The Independence of Italy must necessarily fall with the
Loss of Liberty ... . . S80
Princes could no longer make Use of the Enthusiasm of
the People for their Defence . . - . ffiO
The Italian Militia brave ; but terrified by the Ferocity
of the Transalpine People - . . 181
All the Provinces of France and Spain united at this
Period under twe separate Monarch« - . S82
Newly acquired Power of the Emperor, of the Swiss,
of the Turks ; Pretensions of France to Naples . 183
1494. (August) Entry of Charles VIII. into Italy ; the States
of Lorabardy favour him .... 183
Pietro II. de' Medici at Florence; his Alliance with the
King of Naples .... . . 184
Alexander VL at Rome ; Ferdinand at Naples ; his Son
Alphonso succeeds him, on the 15th erf January - 185
Charles VIII. arrives before Sarzana ; Pietro de' Medici
delivers to him the Fortresses of the Florentines . 185
(19th of November) The Medici driven out of Florence,
and the Florentines from Pisa . . . 186
(17tta of November) Charles VIIL at Florence ; he breaks
his Faith with the Florentines ; he treats with them . 187
1495. (list of February) Charles Blaster of the Kingdom <rf
Naples without having given Battle . ¡88
League to force the French to leave Italy ; 6th of July,
Battle of Fomovo ..... 189
(Hd of October) Charles returns to France ; the French
again lose all Italy ..... 189
1483—1491.
1481
1491
AKALVTICAL ANO OHBONOLOOICAL TABt£. XXY
A. D. Fâ(«
All tlie Tranulpine Nation* begin to exerciee Authority
over Italy ...... S90
U9fi—1498. Three Parties equally balanced at FtoreDoe; Formation
of the Council General . .391
Influence of Savonarola, religious and political Prophet
and Refurmer . . . . . . S9t
Irritation of Pope Alcxandor VI. against Savonarola - 29^2
Challenge of a Franciecan to Savonarola to pas* together
through a burning Pile ... - C93
1498. (17th of April) Scaffbld prepared atFlorence ; tempestuous
Rain prevents the Trial by Fire - - f94
Savonarola, abandoned by the People and condemned by
the Popo, is burnt alive, on the 83d of May . 195
CHAP. XIV.
THE FRENCH MASTER! OF MILAN A KS GENOA.—THE SFAKIARDS
OF NAPLES. THE GONFALONIER SODERINI AT FLORENCE.
CONQUEST or PISA. LEAGUE OP CAMBRAT AGAINST TENK E.
THE MEDICI RE'ESTABLISUED AT PLORENCE. 1499—1512.
The Transalpine Nations continue to pillage Italy till
they entirely destroy her Prosperity - • S95
1498. Louis XII. succeeds Charles VIII. ; his Pretension* to
the Duchy of Milan ; Sforia abandoned - * 196
1499. The Venetians attacked by the Turks; form an Alliance
with the French against Sforxa ... . £97
The Florentines carry on the War timidly against Pisa ;
the Pope forms an Alliance with the French - S98
(13th of August) Entry of the French into the Milanese,
which they sufajugate, as well as Genoa • • - 896
IStXX (February) Sforsa recalled to Lombardy ¡ he is besieged
at Novara and made Prisoner ... . 199
1501. Treaty of Grenada ; Partition of the Kingdom of Naples
between the French and Spaniards . . - 300
150Z The Fre()ch quarrel with the Spaniards ; they lose the
Kingdom of Naples in 1503 .... 301
1504. The French Masters of Lomliardy ; the Spaniards of
the Two Sicilies ; the Germans called Into the Ve.
netian States by Louis Xll. . - • 30S
1507. (7th of February) Insurrection at Genoa against the
French, who violate the Capitulation - - 303
Genoa subdued and punished; Revolutions in the States
of the Church ... . . 303
Consequences of the War between Florenee and Pisa ;
Obscurity and Decline of Sienna aud Lucca - 304
xxvi ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A. D. P«««
1509. (16th of Auguft) The Florentine« nameSoderini Gonük
lonier for life . - • - - - 305
1509. (8th of June) li«a again iubdued by the Florentine«, who
are obliged to purchase the Consent of France and
Spain - • - - - 306
1499^1503. Disastrous War between the Turks and Venetians • 306
1508. Conquests of the Venetians in Romagna ; their Quarrel
with Julius IT. . - - • - 307
(10th of December) League signed at Cambray against
Venice ... . . . 308
1509. (14th of May) Battle of Aignadel, lost by the Venefians ;
all the Terra Firma of the Venetians imraded by
the Confederates . . ' - .309
1510. (S4th of February) The Pope, disgruted rHth his Allies,
grants Absolution to the Venetians - . . 311
The Pope causes the French to be attacked by ail their
former Allies, in order to drive them out of Lorn,
hardy - - . . .311
1511. The Pope experiences Reverses; he forms a powerful
League against the French . . . .319
1512. Victory obtained by Gaston de Foix; he is killed
while gaining, the Battle of Ravenna, on the 11th of
April . . . . .313
(June) The French driven out of Italy by the Swiss,
Germans, Spaniards, and Venetians . . 314
(August) Entry of the Spaniards into Tuscany, led by
the Medici ; Pillage and Massacre at Prato . - 315
(Slst of August) Revolution at Florence, which re.esta-
blishes the Power of the Medici . . .315
CHAP. XV.
CALAMITIES WITH WHICH THE FRENCH, SFANIARDS, AND GER¬
MANS OVERWHELM ITALY. PILLAGE AND RUIN OF ALL THE
GREAT CITIES. OPPRESSION OF THE ITALIAN NATION, AND
LOSS OF ITS INDEPENDENCE. 151S 1530.
1513. (21st of February) Death of Julius II., who attempts
in vain to drive the Barbarians out of Italy . . 317
The Reputation of Leo X. little merited ; his Levity
and Inconsistency ..... 317
The Power of Leo X. unites all the States of the Church
to the Florentine States . . . .319
Conspiracy at Florence punished; municipal Liberty
destroyed in the States of the Church ... 319
The Republic of Venice ruined by the Wan of the League
of Cambray .... . .319
ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLS. XXTÜ
A. D. Pact
1514. War had become more atrocioua with the ProgreM of
Civiliiation .... . . 390
1513. (S4th of March) Treaty of Alliance between Venice and
Liouia XIL againit the Oermana . . .391
The French beaten at the Riotta on the 6th of June ;
new Calamitiea of the Venetians . . .391
1515. Francis I. in Lombardy, 13th of September; terrible
Battle at Marignano, against the Swisa - .399
The French regain Possession of the Milanese, and
treat with the Pope ... . . 323
1516. (13th of August) Treaty of Noyon, which puts an End
to the Wars of the League of Cambray . . 394
1519. Successive Extinction of the House of Medici in the
legitimate Branches ..... 325
1521. (8th of May) Leo X. forms an Alliance with Charles V.
to attack the French, and dies, the 1st of December - 326
1589. (9th of January) Election of a Flemish Pope, Adrian VL ;
all Italy subdued by the Transalpine Nations . 326
(8Sth of May) The French lose all Lombardy ; SOth of
May, Oenoa pillaged by the Spaniards . . 397
1523. (18th of November) Clement VII. succeeds Adrian VI. ;
his Difficulties and his Faults . . . . 328
1524. (98th of October) Francis I. besieges Pavía ¡ he is made
Prisoner there the 24th of February, 1525 - . 329
1525. Secret League between the Italians proposed by
O. Moroni to recover their Independence - .330
The Crown of Naples offiered to Pescara, in Concert with
France, which renounces its Claims on Italy - 331
The Confederates betrayed by the Court of France and
Pescwa ; their Projects defeated ... 332
1586. (14lh of January) Treaty of Madrid to set Francis L at
liberty ; new Intrigues .... 332
The Duke of Milan besieged in his Cattle by the
Spaniards ; atrocious Cruelty of the latter . .333
1597. (3Dth of January) Bourbon, at the Head of ^nish and
German Adventurers, marches on Rome . . 334
(6th of May) Rome taken by assault ; Bourbon is killed ;
horrible ñllage - • ... 334
The Pillage to which Rome was abandoned for the Space
of nine Months; the Inhabitants put to the Torture - 335
(August) Another French Army in Italy; Pillage of
Paria ; the Pope joins the French, on the 10th of
November ..... 336
1588. Lautrec enters the Kingdom of Naples with this Army,
and blockades the Capital . . - .337
(30th of August) Destruction of the French Army by
Sickness, and by the Spaniards . . -338
(18th of September) Revolution at Oenoa ; Andrea Doria
ra^tabUshea the B^ublic . . • - 339
XXViii AlfALTTICAIi AND CHRONOLOOICAL TASIiE*
A D.
1529. Kegotlatiolu for the Terminetion of the War ; 20th of
June, Treaty of Barcelona between the Emperor and
Pope - - - 339
(5th of Aoguft) Treaty of Cambray, by which France
give« up Italy - ..... 340
1529,1S301 Treatie« of the Emperor with all the Prince» of Italy - 340
1530. (22d of February and 24th of March) Charle» V. receive»
at Bologna the Crown« of Lotnbardy and of the
Empire - - - - - 341
CHAP. XVI.
OPPRESSIOS or ITALT DURIWG THE LAST THREE CENTURIES.
SUCCESSIVE FALL OF ALL THE REPUBLICS. THEIR LAST
CONVULSIONS.
A. D. Page
The Independence of Italy would have been advan.
tageoui to France i the Error of France gave Italy
to^Charle* V. . - - - 341
The Miifortunea of the Italian« become now only
Episode« in the Hi«tory of other Sation« - . 342
1527. ( 17th of May) Florence on the Sew« of the Taking of
Rome, expelled the Medici - - ... 343
The Florentines, in their Danger devote themselves to
Arms, which they had till then neglected - . 343
1529. (14th of October) Florence invested by the Armies
which Charles V. lends to.Clement VII. - . 344
Frequent Sallies of the Florentine» ; Projects of Femicci
for their Deliverance ... - 345
1530. (14th of July) to the 2d of August, March of Ferrucci ;
his Defeat and Death at Gavinana ... 346
(12th of August) Capitulation of Florence j shame,
lessly violated ..... 347
1531—1537. Tyranny of Alexander de' Medici ; he die» by Assassin.
ation ; Cosmo the first Grand Duke . - 347
1552. (11th of August) The Siennese introduce the French
into their City ; Cosmo I. attacks them . . 34S
1555. (2d of April) Capitulation of Sienna after atrocioua
Cruelties committed by the General of Cosmo . 349
1556. Burlamach i of Lucca attempts to restore Liberty to the
Tuscan Cities ¡ his Execution . . 349
1556. (9th of November) Martinian Law, which reduced the
Aristocracy of Lucca, overthrown through the In.
iluence of the French,2Sth of December, 1801 . 350
1547. (2d of January) Conspiracy of Fieschi at Genoa agaiiMt
the Aristrocracy founded by Andrea Doria . .351
1628. (Ist of April) Conspiracy at Genoa of Julias Cesar V&.
cheroj his Death . . . sj-2
ANALYTICAL AND ClIRONULOGICAL TABLE. XXÍA
A. D. Page
1684. (18th of May) Genoa bombarded by the Fleet of Louii
XIV. . . . .3B2
Corruption of the Genoese Aristocracy; frequent Re¬
volts ; Corsica ceded to France, in 1768 . 353
1746. (5th of December) An Insurrection of the unarmed Peo¬
ple at Genoa drives out the Austrians - . S34
1797. (6th of June) Convention of Montebello, which gives
Equality to the Genoese in the Ligurian Republic - 355
1530—1600. The Senate of Venice, aware of its Weakness, abstains
from all War, except against the Turks . . 356
1601—1645. The Venetians, to liberate themselves R'om the House
of Austria, form an Alliance with the Protestants - 357
1618. Conspiracy of the Marquis of Bedmar against Venice
He seems to hide a Project of freeing Italy Orom the
Spanish Yoke - ... 357
1645—1699. Two Wars maintained by the Venetians against the
Turks - . - - 358
1700—1798. Corruption of the Venetian Aristocracy ; its last War
with the Turks - - - . 360
1718—1796. The Name of Republic stained by the most odious Ty¬
ranny at Venice - - - - 361
1796. The Senate of Venice permits the Austrians to make
their Territory the Theatre of War - - 361
1797. (17th of April) The Senate sound the Tocsin for the
Massacre of the French even in the Hospital - - 363
(3d of May) France declares War agmnst Venice, which
is conquered, and ceded to Austria - . . 363
1805. (36th of December) Venice restored to the Kingdom of
Italy, and to Liberty ... 3S3
The Regeneration of 1796 restores more Liberty to Italy
than it lost in 1405 - - - . 363
The Coalition of 1814 placed all Italy again under the
Yoke which the Nation most detested - - 364
The Italians have, since that Period, repeatedly
triumphed over their own Tyrants ; foreign Force
alone enchains them - . - . 364
There will be no lasting Peace in Europe until the Na¬
tion which was the first to becouae flee shall have re¬
covered its Independence • • -365
mSXÛRY
OF- THK.
ITALT50Í RßRBm^S.
INTRODUCTION.
Xhb republics which flourished in Italy during the
middle ages have neither been attached by ancient
alliances, nor opposed by long rivalries and wars, to the
powers which divide Europe at this day. From this it
might be supposed that their history is altogether of
secondary importance, and that each people, after having
studied its own, should give precedence over that of the
Italians to the history either of hereditary allies, or of
those who, by a prejudice of barbarism, are called natural
enemies. It would be a great error : history has no
true importance but as it contains a moral lesson. It
should be explored, not for scenes of carnage, but for
instructions in the government of mankind. The know¬
ledge of times past is good only as it instructs us to
avoid mistakes, to imitate virtues, to improve by ex¬
perience: but the pre-eminent object of this study,—the
science of governing men for their advantage, of de¬
veloping their individual faculties, intellectual and moral,
for their greater happiness, — that political philosophy,
began in modern Europe only with the Italian republics
of the middle ages, and from them diflbsed itself over
other nations.
After the destruction of the Roman empire, which
carried away ancient civilisation with it in its fall, power
henceforth, through many generations, belonged only to
barbarians, exercising with their brutal passions the
B
s HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS.
rights of conquest over human society. There was M
longer a government^ no longer an association of all
the inhabitants of a country organised for the common
good : society was divided between the conquerors and
the conquered. The former, indeed, had a spirit of
independence : they were companions united under their
chief, to satisfy in common their rapacity and luxury ;
it was their glory to be feared, to be obeyed, and to be re¬
venged. Afterhaving exhausted their caprices on the van.
quished, they delighted in hearing such feats celebrated
by their poets at festivals, as great deeds in which they
took pride. For those, on the contrary, who had fallen
under the yoke of the barbarians, there was no pro.
tection to be expected, there was no government formed
even partly for their advantage—in short, there was no
social bond. They were compelled to labour, that their
conquerors might enjoy, — to suffer and be humiliated,
that those might pride themselves on their domination.
Such was the state of Europe for a long period after tho
fall of the Roman empire,— a state of which th¿ history
offers but little real instruction, and on which perhaps it
may be as well not to dwell. ^V''e are easily seduced by
the display of energy : the courage of the barbarians,
employed only in crime and devastation, attracts us ;
long rivalries sometimes appear to us as a reason for
hatred between descendants ; and a poetic hue still dis.
guises ages which can only teach us one lesson— to avert
at all price their return.
Useful history, that of which the knowledge should
be universally diffused, begins only with the period when
the victors and vanquished, inhabitants of the same
country, were fused into one people ; and still more
decisively when they became united by a single bond,
the public good, at the period when the government be¬
longed to the people, and not the people to the govern¬
ment. The fusion of conquerors and conquered was
more or less rapid in the different states of Europe : in
some it lowered the former, in others it raised the latter ;
and public order cannot be considered as having been esta-
INTRODUCTION.
S
bushed till the people were no longer confounded with the
propeïty which they credited for the use of their riiasters.
After the invasion of the barbarians, the people every
where belonged, in the first instance, to the army ; but,
as the army must preserve its organisation to remain
powerful, it could not exist without a chief : the power
of the chief was often confounded with that of his sol¬
diers, who sometimes found it advantageous to invest him
with almost despotic authority. Thus it frequently hap¬
pened that the chief, called by the barbarians king, from
having been no more than the deputy chosen by the army,
became its master. He had ruled for the army, by the
army, and finally he ruled the army itself: government
from being military became patrimonial ; the people and
the army belonged alike to the king, and were governed
solely for the advantage of the king. In the midst of these
governments, either military or patrimonial, when Gaul
belonged to the Franks, Spain to the Visigoths, England
to the Saxons, and at a later period to the Normans, or
when each of these countries belonged to a king of the do¬
minant race, Italy began earljr to feel, and to declare, that
she belonged only to herself — to assume authority, and to
exercise it for her own advantage. Italy, invaded by
the barbarians, like the other western states, pillaged,
oppressed, and disorganised, could, no more than they,
repel the invaders or expel them, and constitute herself
a single state. There, as elsewhere, the ancient social
body was annihilated ; but there, more than elsewhere,
the principle of life remained in the fragments of the
broken colossus: the Italians succumbed as a nation,
but the component parts of their grand social union,
their cities and towns, the first elements in some sort of
what forms a nation, arose and defended themselves on
their own account ; every smaller association of men,
which had survived the great one, had the courage to
exist for itself — to feel that it had interests to protect,
sentiments above fear, and virtues that deserved success.
The Italians sought the good of all, not that of masters
at the expense of slaves. Their hearts first told them,
D 2
4 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAH REPUBLICS.
and their reason confirmed, that they had still a country:
for her they ^t the first example of those public Tir-
tues which became the pattern of Europe. From the
moment they formed their own governments, and formed
them for the common good, they prospered; while every
other nation suffered, they rose in intelligence as well m
virtue. The exercise of commerce and the arts aug¬
mented their wealth, and fixed on them the attention oí
other nations; their example enlightened the smaller
associations framed in the towns of the rest of Eun^,
and imitating them at a distance; their experience di¬
rected the meditations of some superior minds formed
in the government of the Italian republics, who rose
from the practice to the theory of civil society, and
showed, not only to their own country, but to future
nations and ages, the object to which all human asso¬
ciations should tend, and the beat means by which to
attain it.
In the mean time, while the Italian republics increased
in population, intelligence, virtue, and wealth, the patri¬
monial governments of the rest of Europe advanced also,
but in another manner. Nations made some slow pro¬
gress in civilisation; their chiefs increased in power, not
by the developement of the resources of their people, bat
by the agglomeration of new states; their kingdoms,
subject to the laws of inheritance and primogeniture,
which always cause, and in no long period, the extinction
of rich families, had grown, as the patrimony of the
wealthy grows, by inheritance, by marriage, and by the
abuse of power. The ancient sovereign families had,
for the most part, become extinct, if not in all their
branches, at least in the eldest; and their territories had
accumulated on a few survivors in the younger branches.
About ten powerful succeetled a hundred feeble princes.
Towards the end of the fifteenth century, the chiefs of
the French, German, and Spanish nations were tempted
to invade Italy, allured by the marvellous opulence of a
country where the plunder of a single town afforded
sometimes greater riches than they could wrest from
INTRODUCTION.
5
millions of their own subjects. The most frivolous
pretexts sufficed ; and, during forty years of war, that
prosperous and beautiful country was ravaged by all the
various nations which could ñnd their way into Italy.
The insatiable brigandage of tliese new barbarians at
length destroyed the opulence which had allured them;
but the soldiers of the north and west carried into their
own countries, along with the treasures of the Italians,
tlie instruction and example of a more advanced civilis¬
ation : numerous germs of a better state of things, carried
away from the Italian republics of the middle ages, were
spread over the rest of Europe. Let us not, while we
now reap the harvest, forget the parent soil.
It is this first developement of the Italian nation,
thus instructive to every other, that we here purpose
shortly to retrace. We have endeavoured to include in
a single volume a summary of the events of which the
Italian peninsula was tlie theatre, from the fall of the
Roman empire to the end of the Middle Age. This
summary will not satisfy the philosopher, who wishes to
distinguish in the mass of general history the peculiar
genius of each people, to foUow institutions from their
birth, to know their action and their defects, to study
man in his various circumstances, and to see depicted
individuals as well as nations. We refer those who can
bestow time and attention on historical studies to the
much larger work which we have already published on
the same subject: they will there find ample details,
and they will be put in the way to obtain still more.
Proposing to ourselves here only a summary of facts,
and a more luminous view of the ideas they suggest, in
order to satisfy the curiosity of those who can give only
a limited time and attention to the study of history, we
have abstained from all references; we have considered
it useless to cite authorities which we have made known
elsewhere; and, above all, we have endeavoured to make
the following pages universally intelligible without the
aid of any other book.
B 3
6
Bisroar of the itauan republics.
CHAPTER I.
STATC OF THE FOPULATION OF ITALT AT THK FALL OF TUX
ROMAN XMPIRE IN THE FIFTH CENTURT. ITALT TORMENTED
DURING FIVE CENTURIES BT THE SUCCESSIVE INVASIONS OF
BARBARIANS. FIRST EFFORTS OF TOWNS, IN THE TENTH CEE*
TURT, TO DEFEND AND GOVERN THEMSELVES.
Ancient Italy lost har freedom in the conquests of the
Roman republic. Her numerous and warlike petóle
had long defended themselves, either in the chain of
mountains which, issuing from the southern ^Upib crosses
the whole length of Italy; or in the vast and rich plains
to the east of that chain, formerly occupied by the Cis*
alpine Gauls. This people disappeared ; their cities,
enlarged and embellished by the Romans, lost all inde¬
pendence, all remembrance of nationality ; the land was
no longer cultivated but by slaves; when the Roman
republic itself in its turn also lost its freedom. Rome
held sway over the greatest part of the known world ;
but, under the necessity of employing despotic authority,
in order to secure the obedience of the army, and the
distant provinces, she finally became herself the pro¬
perty of the master whom she had imposed on others.
One of the early successors of Augustus had granted to
every Italian the rights of citizenship in Rome; but
those rights had ceased to confer a participation in the
sovereignty of the republic. On the other hand, the
inhabitants of the municipalities of Italy, in becomipg
Roman citizens, renounced no one of the rights of tlieir
native cities, of which they might be either jealous or
proud.
Italy continued to decline rapidly unJer the empe¬
rors : the component parts were no longer in due pro-
POPULATION m THE FIFTH CENTUBY. f
portion. Rome contained about two or three thousand
senatorial families, whose luxury and splendour sur¬
passed all the pomp now displayed by the greatest
nobles of our richest monarchies ; but whose effeminacy
and pusillanimity shrunk from all the active ofRces ÓT
life. These families were often decimated by despotism ;
their property was frequently confiscated ; and they be¬
came rapidly extinct: but others arrived from the
provinces to take their place. They were surrounded
by an immense population, lodged in miserable houses,
almost the only property they possessed. Rome con¬
tained several millions of inhabitants: the smallest num¬
ber only exercised the necessary arts and employments
of life, and even this more active part of the population
(composed chiefly of foreigners and freedmen) left the
manual work entirely to slaves; the remainder, all
those who gloried in the title of Roman citizen, who
had long despised every vocation but the military service,
henceforward rejected even that, and lived in absolute
idleness : supported by distributions of com and largesses
from the public treasury, they passed their days in the
bath, the circus, and the amphitheatre. The state not
only supported them, but took upon itself the charge of
amusing them by gratuitous public spectacles. Whole
families became extinct from the vices engendered by
idleness ; but their place was continually supplied by the
crowd which flocked from the provinces to enjoy a life
of indolence, largesses, immunities, and public shows.
Italy was covered with cities : the greater number of
those now existing flourished in at least equal splendour
in the time of the Roman empire ; some, such as Milan,
Verona, Bologna, Capua, were so considerable as to pre¬
sent an image of Rome, with their circus, their amphi¬
theatre, their tumultuous and idle population, their
riches, and their poverty. Their administration was
nearly republican, most commonly composed, after the
example of Rome, of a curia, or municipal senate elected
by the people, and of duumvirs, or annual consuls. In all
these towns, among the first class of inhabitants were t6
n 4
8 BinOBT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC«.
be found the proprietors of the neighbouring Iwd, lodged
in palaces with their slaves and freedmen ; secondlj,
the arrisans and shoplieepers whom their consumption
established around them ; lastly, a crowd of idle people,
who had preserved just enough of land to supply, with
the strictest economy, the means of existence. It does
not appear that there was any prosperous manufactory
in Italy. All manual labour, as wdl in towns as in the
country, was executed by slaves. Objects of luxury,
for the most part, came from Asia. War had for a
long time been the only occupation of the Italians ; for a
long period, too, the l^ons had been levied partly among
the Romans, and partly among their allies in Italy : but,
under the emperors, the distrust of the master seconded
the luxurious eflfeminacy of the sulijcct, the Italiana
finally renounced even war ; and the l^ons were re¬
cruited only in Pannonia, Gaul, and the other provinces
bordering on the Rhine and the Danube. At a later
period, the barbarians who menaced Rome were seduced
by liberal pay to engage in its defence; and in the Roman
armies the enemies of Rome almost entirely replaced the
Romans. The country could not, as in modem states,
supply the place of cities in recruiting the armies with a
class of men accustomed to the inclemencies of the
weather, and inured to toil. The only labourers to be
found were an oppressed foreign race, who took no in¬
terest in public affairs. The Romans cultivated their
land either by slaves purchased from the barbarians, and
forced by corporal punishment to labour, or by coioni
partiarii, to whom was given a small share in the har¬
vest as wages : but, in order to oblige these last to con¬
tent themselves with the least possible share, they were
attached to the land, and nearly as much oppressed as
slaves themselves. The proprietors of land varied be¬
tween these two systems, according as the price of slaves
varied, or the c<dona (peasants, labourers) were more or
less numerous : no cultivator of the land had any pro¬
perty in it. The greatest part was united in immense
domains, sometimes embracing whole provinces, the ad.
INVASIONS OP BARBARIANS.
9
ministratioQ of which was intrusted to freedmen, whose
only consideration was, how to cultivate the land with
the least possible expense, and how to extract from their
labourers the greatest degree of work with the smallest
quantity of food. The agriculturists, as well what were
called freetltnen as slaves, were almost all barbarians by
birth, without any interest in a social order which only
oppressed them, without courage for its defence, and
without any pecuniary resources for themselves ; their
numbers also diminished with an alarming rapidity,partly
from desertion, partly from new invasions of barbarians,
who carried them off to sell as slaves in other Roman
provinces, and, finally, from a mortality, the necessary
consequence of poverty and starvation.
Italy, nevertheless, was supposed to enjoy a constant
prosperity. During the entire ages of Trajan and the
Antonines, a succession of virtuous and philosophic
emperors followed each other ; the world was in peace ;
the laws were wise and well administered ; riches
seemed to increase ; each succeeding generation raised
palaces more splendid, monuments and public edifices
more sumptuous, than the preceding; the senatorial
families found their revenues increase; the treasury
levied greater imposts. But it is not on the mass of
wealth, it is on its distribution, that the prosperity of
states depend : increasing opulence continued to meet the
eye, but man became more miserable ; the rural popu¬
lation, formerly active, robust, and energetic, were suc¬
ceeded by a foreign race ; while the inhabitants of towns
sunk in vice and idleness, or perished in want, amidst
the riches they had themselves created.
It was into this Italy, such as despotism had made it,
that the barbarians penetrated. Eager for the booty which
it contained and could not defend, they repeatedly
ravaged it during the last two centuries of the western
empire. The mjercenary troops that Rome had levied
amongst them for its defence, preferring pillage to pay,
frequently turned their arms against those they were
engaged to defend. They vied with the Romans in
10 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAK BEPHBLICS.
making and unmaking empero« ; and generally choee
them from their own ranks, in order to secure to the
soldier a greater share of the property of the citizen.
The booty diminished as the avidity of these fm-eignen
increased. The pomp of the western empire soon ap¬
peared, to an army thus formed, an useless expense.
Odoacer, of the nation of the Heruli, chief of the mer¬
cenaries who then served in Italy, suppressed it by do-
posing, in 476', the last emperor. He took upon him¬
self the title of king, and distributed amongst his soldiers
one third of the land in the most fertile provinces : he
governed during seventeen yeara this still glorious
country, as a rich farm which the barbarians had a right
to cultivate for their sole use.
The mercenaries united under the sceptre of Odoacer
were not sufficiently strong to defend Italy against a new
invasion of barbarians. The Ostrogoths, encouraged by
the Grecian sovereign of new Rome, the emperor of the
east, arrived in 489, under the command of Theodoric,
from the countries north of the Euxine to the borders of
Italy : they completed the conquest of it in four, and
retained possession of the Peninsula sixty-four years,
under eight successive kings. These new barbarians, in
their turn, demanded and obtained a portion of land and
slaves ; they multiplied, it is true; but became rapidly
enervated in a deUcions climate, where they had sud¬
denly passed from the severest privations to the enjoy¬
ment of every luxury. They were at last conquered
and subdued, in the year 553, by the Romans of Con¬
stantinople, whom they despised as the d^enerate suc¬
cessors of the same nation which their ancestors had
vanquished.
The invasion of the Lombards, in 568, soon followed
the destruction of the monarchy of the Ostrogoths.
Amongst the various hordes which issued from the north
of Germany upon the southern .r^ons, the Lombards
were reputed the most courageous, the most cruel, and &e
proudest of their independence ; but their number was
inconsiderable, and they scarcely acknowledged any
LOMBARDV CUBJUOATED BY THE IRANKS. 11
Bocial tie auíBcient to keep them united : accordinglv,
they never completed the conquest of Italy. From 5w
to 774, twenty-one Lombard kings, during S06 years,
succeeded each other without establishing their dominion
either on the Lagunes, at the extremity of the Adriatic
gulf, where such of the inhabitants of upper Italy as
were personally the most exposed had taken refuge and
founded the Venetian republic ; or on the shores of the
Adriatic, now called Romagna, governed by a lieutenant
of the emperor of Constantinople, under the title of
exarch of the five cities of Pentapolis; or on Rome, de¬
fended only by the spiritual arms of the patriarch of the
western church ; or on the southern coast, where the
Greek municipalities of Naples, Gaëta, and Amalfl
governed themselves almost as independent republics.
The Lombards, nevertheless, founded a kingdom in
northern Italy, of which Pavia was the capital; and in
southern Italy the duchy of Beneventum, which still
maintained its independence two centuries after the
kingdom was subjugated.
From the middle of the eighth century the Lombards,
masters of a country where the great towns still contained
much wealth, where the land had lost nothing of its
fertility, where the example of the vanquished had
taught the vanquishers the advantage of reviving some
agricultural industry, excited the envy of their neigh¬
bours the Franks, who had conquered and oppressed the
Gauls, who despised all occupation but war, and desired
no wealth but what the sword could give. They by
repeated invasions devastated Italy ; and at length, in
774, completed the destruction of the Lombard mon¬
archy. For more than twenty years the popes or
bishops of Rome had been in the habit of opposing the
kings of France to the monarchs of Lombardy, who
were odious to them, at first as pagans, and afterwards
as heretics. Chief of the clergy of the ancient capital,
where the power of the emperors of Constantinople had
been nominally established but never felt, they con¬
founded their pretensions with those of the empire; and
12 BISTORT OF TUB ITALIAN REFVBUCA
the Lombards having recently conquered the exarchate
of Ravenna, and the Pentapolis, they demanded that
these provinces should be restored to Rome. The
Frank Idngs made themselves the champions of this
quarrel, which gave them an opportunity of conquering
Úie Lombard monarchy ; but Charles, the king who
accomplished this conquest, and who was the greatest
man that barlnuism ever producetl,in treating with Rome,
in subjugating Italy, comprehended all the beauty of a
civilisation which his predecessors had seen only to de¬
stroy : he conceived the lofty idea of profiting by the
barbarian force at his disposal to put himself at the head
of the civilisation which he laboured to restore. In¬
stead of considering himself as the king of the conquerors,
occupied only in enriching a barbarous army with the
spoils of the vanquished, he made it his duty and his
glory to govern the country for its best interests, and for
the common good : he did more. In concert with Pope
Leo 111., he re-established the monarchy of the con¬
quered as a western Roman empire, which he considered
the representative of right, in opposition to barbaric
force : he received from the same pope, and from the
Roman people, on Christmas-day in the year 800, the
title of Roman emperor, and the name of Charlemagne,
or Charles the Great, which no one before had ever so
well deserved. As king, and afterwards as emperor, he
governed Italy, together with his other vast states, forty
years : he pursued with constancy, and with increasing
ability, the end he proposed to himself, viz. establish¬
ing the reign of the laws, and a flourishing civilisation :
but barbarism was too strong for him ; and when he
died, in 814, it was re-established throughout the
empire.
Italy had eight kings of the family of Charlemagne,
reckoning his son and grandson, who reigned under him,
and were, properly speaking, his lieutenants. Charles
le Gros, great grandson of Charlemagne, was deposed in
888 ; after which ten sovereigns, either Italian or Bur-
gundian, but allied to the race of the Franks, disputed.
BUCCESEIVE INVASIONS OV BAUBARIANH. IS
for seventy years more, the crown of Italy and the
empire. In ySl, Otho i. of Saxony, king of Germany,
forced Berenger II., who then leigned, to acknowledge
himself his vassal : in 9^1) Otho entered Italy a second
time with his Germans, was crowned at Rome with the
title of emperor, and sent Berenger II. to end his days
in a fortress in Germany.
Thus, nearly fíve centuries elapsed from the fall of the
ancient Roman empire to the passing over of the re¬
newed empire to the Germans. For a long space of
time Italy had been pillaged and oppressed, in turn, by
barbarians of every denomination, who wantonly over¬
ran the country only to plunder, and believed themselves
valiant because, though in small numbers, they spread
terror over a vast extent, and imagined by bloodshed to
give a dignity to their depredations. The country, thus
exposed to so many outrages, did not remain such as the
Romans had left it. The Goth, Lombard, Frank, and
German warriors, who had successively invaded Italy,
introduced several of the opinions and sentiments of the
barbarian race, particularly the habit of independence
and resistance to authority. They divided with their
kings the country conquered by their valour. They
caused to be ceded to them vast districts, the inhabitants
of which they considered their property equally with the
land. Ttie Lombard monarchy comprehended thirty
dukedoms, or marquisates ; their number diminished
under Charlemagne and his successors ; but, at the same
time, there rose tmder them a numerous class of counts
and vavasors, amongst whom every duke divided the
province that had been ceded to him, under condition
that they should swear fealty and homage, and follow
him to the wars. The counts, in their turn, divided
among the warriors attached to their colours the land
apportioned to them. Thus was the feudal system,
which made the possession of land the warrior's pay, and
constituted an hereditary subordination, founded on in¬
terest and confirmed by oath, from the king down to
the lowest soldier, established at the same time through-
14 HISTORY OF THE ITAUAK REPVBLIOk
out Europe. The Lombards had carried into Italy the
first germs of this system, which had been developed by
the Franks, and invigorated by the dvil wars of Charle»
magne and his successors : these wars rendered it neces¬
sary that every feudatory should fortify his dwelling to
preserve his allegiance to his lord; and the country,
vrhich till then had been open, and without defence,
became covered with castles, in which these feudal lords
established their residence.
About the same time,—that is to say, in the ninth cen¬
tury,— cities began to rebuild their ancient walls; for the
barbarian kings who had every where levelled these walls
to the ground no longer opposed their reconstruction, the
danger of being daily invaded by the rival princes who
disputed the throne made them necessary ; besides, at
this epocha new swarms of barbarians from all parts
infested Europe ; the inhabitants of Scandinavia, under
the name of Danes and Normans, ravaged England
and France; the Hungarians devastated Germany and
Upper Italy ; the Saracens, masters of Africa, infested
the southern coasts of Italy and the isles : conquest was
not the purpose of any of these invaders ; plunder and
massacre were their only objects. Permission to guard
themselves against continual outrages could not be with¬
held from the inhabitants of towns. Several thousand
citizens had often been obliged to pay ransom to little
more than a hundred robbers : but, from the time they
were permitted by their emperors to rebuild their walls,
to purchase or manufacture arms, they felt themselves in
a state to make themselves respected. Their long suffer¬
ing had hardened them, had accustomed them to pri.
vations and danger, and had taught tliem it was better
to defend their lives than yield them up to every con¬
temptible aggressor ; at the same time, the population of
cities, no longer living in idleness at the expense of the
provinces of the empire, addicted themselves to industry
for their own profit : they had, accordingly some wealth
to defend. The ancient curiae and municipalitie» had
been retained in all the towns of Italy by their barbarian
EPFOUTS OF TOWNg TO DEFEND THEMSELVES. 15
maáters, in order to distribute more equally the burdens
imposed by the conquerors, and reach individuals more
surely. The magistrates were the chiefs of a people
who demanded only hread, arms, and walls.
From the time when towns were secured by walls,
their power rapidly increased ; the oppressed from all
parts sought refuge in them from the oppressors : they
carried with them their industry, and arms to protect
the walls that defended them. Every where they were
sure of a good reception ; for every city felt it had
strengtli only in proportion to the number of its citizens:
each vied with its neighbour in efforts to augment the
means of defence, and in the reception given to strangers.
The smaller towns imitated the greater, the villages
those in their turn ; and each had a castle, or at least a
tower, where the population, in case of a sudden attack,
might retire with tlie most precious of their effects.
In the mean time the dukes, marquisses, counts, and
prelates, who looked on these cities as their property, on
the inhabitants as men who belonged to them, and la¬
boured only for their use, soon perceived that these
citizens were ill disposed to obey, and would not suffer
themselves to be despoiled ; since they had arms, and
could defend themselves under the protection of their
walls : residence in towns thus became disagreeable to
the nobles, and they left them to establish themselves in
their castles. They became sensible that to defend these
castles they had need of men devoted to them ; that, not¬
withstanding the advantage which their heavy armour
gave them when fighting on horseback, they were the
minority ; and they hastened to enfranchise the rural
population, to encourage their growth, to give them arms,
and to endeavour to gain their affections. The effect of
this change of rule was rapid : the rural population in the
tenth and eleventh centuries increased, doubled, qua¬
drupled in exact proportion to the land which they had
to cultivate.
Otho I., his son Otho II., and his grandson Otho III.
were successively acknowledged emperors and kings
lb HI8T0RV OF THE ITAUAN REFUBLIC8.
of Italy, from 96I to 1002. When this branch of
the house of Saxony became extinct, Henry II. of
Bavaria, and Conrad the Salic of Franconia, filled
the throne from 1004 to 1039* During this period
of nearly eighty years, the German emperors twelve
times entered luly at the head of their armies, which
they always drew up in the plains of Roncaglia near
Placentia : Uiere they held the states of Lombardy,
received homage from their Italian feudatories, caused
the rents due to be paid, and promulgated laws for the
government of Italy. A foreign sovereign, however,
almost always absent, known only by his incursions at
the head of a barbarous army, could not efficadously-
govem a country which he hardly knew, and where his
yoke was detested. During these five reigns, the social
power became more and more weak in Italy. The em¬
perors were too happy to acknowledge the local authoL.
rities, whatever they were, whenever they could obtain
from them their pecuniary dues : sometimes they were
dukes or marquisses, whose dignities had survived the
disasters of various invasions and of civil wars ; some¬
times the archbishops and bishops of great cities, whom
Charlemagne and his successors had frequently invested
with duchies and counties escheated to the crown, reckon¬
ing that lords elected for life would remain more de¬
pendent than hereditary lords; sometimes, finally, they
were the magistrates themselves, who, although dectcd
by the people, received from the monarch the title of
imperial vicars, and took part with the nobles and pre¬
lates in the Plaids (Placita), or diets of Roncaglia.
After a stay of some months, the emperor returned
with his army into Germany ; the nobles retired to their
castles, the prelates and magistrates to their cities:
neither of these last acknowledged a superior authority to
thdr own, nor reckoned on any other force than i^at
they could themselves employ to assert what they called
their rights. Opposite interests could not fail to pro¬
duce collision, and the war was universal. In the time
of Conrad the Salic, the prelates almost througjhoiit
ÀVTUORITV OF TBE BISHOPS OF BOMB. 17
Lombardy joined the cities against the nobles; and from
1085 to 1089 there was a general war between these two
orders of society. Conrad put an end to it, by a con¬
stitution which 18 considered to be the basis of feudal law.
By this the inheritance of fiefs was protected from the
caprices of the lords and of the crown,— the most op¬
pressive conditions of feudal dependence were suppressed
or softened,—and the few remaining slaves of the land
were set free.
The crown of Conrad the Salic passed in a direct line
to his son, grandson, and great grandson. The first,
Henry III., reigned from 1039 to 1056; the second,
Henry IV., from 1056 to 1106; the third, Henry V.,
fl'om 1106 to 1125. The last two reigns were troubled
by the bloody quarrel between the Empire and the
court of Rome, called the war of investitures. Rome
had never made part of the monarchy of the Lombards.
This ancient capital of the world, with the territory ap¬
pertaining to it, had, since the conquest of Alboin,
formed a dukedom, governed by a patrician or Greek
duke, sent from Constantinople. The bishop of Rome,
however, who, according to the ancient canonical forms,
was elected by the clergy, the senate, and the people of
his diocese, had much more authority over his flock than
this foreign magistrate. He considered himself, too, as
patriarch of the West, and the head of all the Latin
churches. This authority, it is true, was not indisput¬
ably acknowledged by orthodox prelates ; and the bar¬
barians, who professed either paganism or Arianism, held
it in contempt. The pontiff, however, who now began
to take exclusively the name of Pope, had more than once
successfully defended Rome with his spiritual arms
when temporal ones had failed. When, in the year 717,
an icomclaat, or enemy of images, filled the throne of
Constantinople, the popes, under the pretence of heresy,
rejected his authority altogether : a municipality, at tlie
head of which were a senate and consuls, dien go¬
verned Rome nearly as an independent state ; the Greeks,
occupied nvith their own dissensions, seemed to forget it i
0
18 HUTORT or TUM ITALIAH BEPVBUCS.
and Rome owed to tliia forgetfulness fifty jean of s ntt
of liberty. The Romans found once more a faint imaf^e
of their past glory : sometimes eren the title of Roman
repuUic was revived. They approved, notwithstanding,
of pope Stephen II. conferring on the princes of the
Franks the dignity of patricians, in order to transfer to
them the authority which the Greek magistrate ezemsed
in their city in the name of the emperor of Constantinople;
and the people gladly acquiesced when, in the year 800,
Leo III. crowned Charlemagne as Augustus, and re¬
storer of the western empire. From that period Rome
became once more the c^iital of the empire. At Rome the
chiefs of the empire were henceforth to receive the golden
crown from the hands of tlie pope, after having received
the silver one of the kingdom of Germany at Aix-la-
Chapelle, and the iron crown of Lomhardy at Milan.
Great wealth and much feudal power were, by die
gratitude of the emperors, attached to the see of BLome.
The papacy became the highest object of ambition te
the whole sacerdotal order ; and, in an age of violence
and anarchy, barons notorious for their robberies and
young libertines recommended only by the favour of scnne
Roman ladies, not unfrequently filled the pontifical disir.
The other bishops selected were often no better. The
German emperors, on arriving at Rome, were sometimes
obliged to put an end to such a scandal, and choose among
the competitors, or depose a pope who put aU Christen¬
dom to the blush. Henry III. obliged the people to
renounce the right which they had lütherto exercised,
and so greatly abused, to take part in the election (k
popes. He named, himself, four successively, whom be
chose among the most learned and the most pious of the
clergy of Italy and Germany ; and thus powerfully
seconded the spirit of reform which b^;aii to animate
the church from the eleventh century.
Amidst the convulsions to which society was exposed,
the wealth of the clergy had remained intact. The
kings whom it tempted dared not seize it for them¬
selves ; but they distributed it, with the dignities of the
PLAMS OP RBFORXATIOIf BT HILDKBRABD. 19
Church, among tlieir favourites — Aeir creature«, — ser>
vile priests, who had nothing ecdesiastical but the
name. These promotions excited a general clamour.
Religious men pretended that kings introduced corrup¬
tion into the body of the clergy— that they destroyed
the independence wliich ought to belong to the ministers
of Grod. An ardent desire to purify the priesthood, by
preventing these dignities from ^ing distributed in
purely temporal views, was manifested ; but it belonged
to one of the greatest characters produced in the middle
age to agitate all Christendom for the attainment of this
end.
Hildebrand, born at Soana, in Tuscany, a man of the
most obscure conditio», but from the moment when he
entered into orders distinguished for his talents, was sent
by his convent to pursue his studies at Cluny, in
France. He conceived, in his solitude, the plan of re¬
volution, by which he proposed to himself the subjuga¬
tion of the world to the sacerdotal power. In the
universe he saw but God, the priest his sole minister,
and mankind obedient. He designed that the whole
priesthood should be moved by one single will, should
know only one passion — that of establishing the power
of Heaven. The whole church appeared to him cor¬
rupted ; he undertook to reform it in its head, in its
members, in the whole body of the faithful under its
control. He anathematised all intervention of the secu¬
lar power in the distribution of the dignities of the
ebwch ; it was, he said, simony — making a commerce
of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The crime was the
same, whether the people in their public assemblies, or
nobles, or kings, took part in the election of prelates, or
attempted to confer on them the investiture of even the
temporal power attached to their bishoprics. In 1059»
he obtained of the council of Lateran that the election of
popes should be vested in the cardinals ; and the nomi¬
nation of all prelates in the chapters, jointly with the
pope. To detach the clergy from human society, he
proscribed and punished with severity the maixiage of
c 2
20 BISTORV OF THE ITALIAN BBPVBLICS.
priests^ which, till then, had been permitted or tolerated
by some provincial councils, particnlaiiy in Lomhardy.
Finally, concentrating all the power itf the church in t^
pope, he taught the priests to consider him as an unerr¬
ing being, who became holy by his election — who could
alone name and depose bishops — assemble, preside
over, and dissolve councils : he was, he said, in short, a
god upon earth— absolute roaster of all princes, who were
bound to kiss his feet, and whom he could depoae at
will, by releasing their suhgects from their oaths of
fidelity.
Hildebrand accomplished, at least for a time, the ios-
mense revolution which he had undertaken : be changed
the spirit of the popedom, of the clergy, and the people/
and he enslaved kings. He procured, by his inflaeMe,
the election of the four popes who preceded him in the
chair of St. Peter, which he ascended himself in the
year 1073, taking the name of Gregory VII. The
popes hia successors continued, after his death in lOfifl,
to act upon his maxims, and seemed as if still animated
by his spirit. Nevertheless, he experienced from the
clergy, above all from those of Lomhardy, a prodigious
resistance. He tormented Italy and Germany with a
constant civil war ; he called in against Rome the Nor¬
mans, who burnt the city, and sold almost all the inh»>
hitants into slavery ; he compelled his heroic rival, the
emperor Henry IV., to do penance before him -in the
open court of Canosa, whilst the ground was covered
with snow ; he obliged him to remain three days and
three nights in the halnt of a penitent, barefooted «lyt
fasting, before he would grant him absolutitm. The
successors of Gregory VII. excited the two sons of
Henry IV. succesaivdy to revolt against him, and depo»
him. Henry soon died of a broken heart. Henry V.,
the second of these unnatural children, whose cause the
pope had espoused, after having obtained the crown by the
aid of the priests, became their enemy in his turn. Duriag
sixteen years he made war against the chnrch, to maintain
the ipdependence of the imperial crowh, and the rights of
WAR or INVESTITURES.
21
secular sovereigns over the fiefs held by the clergy.
The people at length, wearied and exhausted, forced these
two rival powers to an agreement, in which the rights of
both were curtailed. In the diet of Worms, 1122, the
emperor abandoned to the pope the investiture of bishops
by the ring and crosier ; while he reserved to himsdf
the transmission of the regal rights attached to each
bishopric by the concession of the sceptre. These were
only exterior ceremonies ; in fact, the people alone
were deprived of their rights in the choice of their pas¬
tor. Sovereigns retained almost exclusively the nomi¬
nation of prelates in their respective dominions.
The war of investitures, which lasted more than sixty
years, accomplished, the dissolution of every tie between
the different members of the kingdom of Italy. Civil
wars have at least this advantage,—that they force the
rulers of the people to consult the wishes of their
subjects, oblige them to gain affections which constitute
their strength, and to compensate, by the granting of
new privileges, the services which they require. The
prelates, nobles, and cities of Italy obeyed, some the
emperor, others the pope; not from a blind fear, but
from choice, from affection, from conscience, according
as the political or religious sentiment was predominant
in each. The war was general, but every where waged
with the national forces. Every city armed its militía^
which, headed by the magistrates, attacked the neigh,
bouring nobles or towns of a contrary party. While each
city imagined it was fighting either for the pope or the
emperor, it was habitually impelled exclusively by its
own sentiments : every town considered itself as a whole,
as an independent state, which had its own allies and
enemies ; each citizen felt an ardent patriotism, not for
the kingdom of Italy, or for the empire, but for his own
city.
At the period when .either kings or emperors had
granted to towns the right of raising fortifications, that
of assembling the citizens at tlie sound of a great bell, to
concert together the means of their common defence,
0 S
22 BISTORT OF THB ITALIAIT BEFCBLICS.
had been also conceded. This meeting of all the man
of die state capeUe of bearing aims was called a p&r-
iiamerU. It assemUed in the great square, and riected
annually two consuls, charged with the adminietratioB ef
justice at home, and the command of the army abroad.
The militia of erery city was divided into separate
bodies, according to local partitions, each kd by a
gonfaionxere, or standard bearer. They foug^ on foot,
and assemUed lennd the earroeeio, a heavy car drawn by
oxen, and covered with the flags and armorié bearings of
the dty. A high pole rose in the middle of this ess,
bearing the oohmra and a Christ, which seemed to Ueas
the army, with bolh arms extended. A priest said daily
mass at an altar ^aced in die front of the car. The
trumpeters of die community, seated on the back part,
sounded the chaige and the retreat. It was Heribert
ardibishop of Milan, contemporary of Conrad the Sali^
who invented this car in imitation of the ark of alliance,
and caused it to be adopted at Milan. AU die
cities of Italy foUowed the example : this sacred car, hi.
trusted to the guardianship of the militia, gave them
weight and confidence. The nobles who committed
themselves in the civil wars, and were obliged to have
recourse to the protection of towns, where they had been
admitted into the first order of citixens, formad the
only cavalry.
The parUamen^ which named the consols, appointed
also a secret council, caUed a CmtUio di CrednutOy to
assist the government, composed of a few members
taken from each division ; besides a grand council of the
people, who prepared the decisiona to be submitted to
the parliament. The ContiUo di Credenza was, at the
same time, charged with the administration of the finances,
consisting chiefly of entrance duties c<dlected at the gates
of the dty, and voluntary contributions asked of the
dtízens in moments of danger. As industry had rapidly
increased, and had preceded luxury,»as domeatie life
was sober, and the produce of labour considerahle,—wealth
had greatly augmented. The dtizens aUowied then»*
OBiaiNAL OOKilTITUTlONI OF TBB FREE TOWNB. 23
■elves no other use of their riches than that of defending
or embellishing their country. It was from the year 900
to the year ISOO that the most prodigious works were un¬
dertaken and accomplished by the towns of Itidy. They
began by surroun^ng themselves with thick walls,
ditches, towers, and counter guards at the gates; im¬
mense works, which a patriotism ready for every sacrifice
could alone accomplish. The maritime towns at the
same time constructed their ports, quays, canals, and
custom-houses, which served also as vast magatines for
commerce. Every city built public palaces for the Sig-
noria, or municipiil magistrates, and prisons; and con¬
structed also temples, which to this day fill us with
admiration by their grandeur and magnificence. These
three regenerating centuries gave an impulse to archi¬
tecture, which soon awakened the other fine arts.
The republican spirit which now fermented in every
city, and gave to each of them constitutions so wise, ma¬
gistrates so sealous, and citizens so patriotic, and so capable
of great achievements, had found in Italy itself the models
which had contributed to its formation. The war of
investitures gave wing to this universal spirit of liberty
and patriotism in all the munidpslities of Lombardy, in
Piedmont, Venetia, Romagna, and Tuscany. But there
existed already in Italy other free cities, of which the
experience had been sufficiently long to prove that a
petty people finds, in its complete union and devotion to
the common cause, a strength often wanting in great
states. The free cities which flourished in the eleventh
century rose froih the ruins of the western empire ; as
those in Italy which preceded them in the career of
liberty irose from the ruins of the empire of the East.
When the Greeks resigned to the Lombards Italy,
which a few years before they had conquered from the
Ostrogoths, Üiey still preserved several isolated ports
and fortified {daces along the coast. Venice, at the ex¬
tremity of the Adriatic ; Ravenna, at the south of the
mouth of the Po ; Genoa, at the foot of the Lignrian
mountains ; Pisa, towards the mouths of the Arno ;
0 4
24 HISTORY OF THE ITAUAH REPUBUOR
Borne, Gaëu, Naples, Amalfi, Ban, were either nerer
conquered bj the Lombards, or in subjection too short a
time to have lost their ancient walls, and the habit of
guarding them. These dtíes served as the refuge of
Boman civilisation. All those who had preserved any
fortune, independence of mind, or hatred of oppression,
assembled in them to concert the means of resisting the
insolence of their barbarian masters. The Grecian em¬
pire maintained itself at ¿Constantinople in all its ancient
pride; but, with oriental apathy,it regarded these remains
as still representing its province of Italy, while it did no¬
thing for their defence. From time to time, a duke, an
exarch, a patrician, a catapan, or other magbtrate, was
sent, with a title announcing the highest pretensions, but
unaccompanied by any real force. The citizens of these
towns demanded money and wldiers to repair and defend
their fortifications ; whilst the emperors, on the contrary,
demanded that the money and soldiers of Italy shodd
be sent to Constantinople. After some disputes, the
Greek government found it prudent to abandon the
question, and shut its eyes on the establishment of a
liberty which it despised, but which perhaps might be
useful in the defence of these distant possessions; finally,
the magistrates, whom these towns themselves nominated,
became die acknowledged depositories of the imperial
authority. The disposal of their own money and sol¬
diers was allowed them, on condition that nothing should
be demanded of the emperors, who were satisfied to see
their names at the head of every act, and their image op
the coin, without exacting odier acts of submission.
This policy was not, however, exactly followed widi
respect to Bavenna, or afterwards to Bari. In these
cities the representative of the emperor had fixed his
residence with a Greek garrison. Bavenna, as well as
the cities appertaining to it, denominated the Pentapolis,
was conquered by the Lombards between 720 and 730.
Bari became then the capital of the thema of Lombardy,
which extended over a great part of Apulia. We have
already shown how Bome passed from the Greek to tl^
ORIGIN OF VENICU.
western empire : we suspect, rather than know, that
Cknoa and Pisa, after having been occupied the
Lombards, preserved their relations with Constantinople.
The pallium, or silk flag, presented for some time to the
emperors, was considered by them as a sort of tribute ;
hut Venice on the upper sea, Gaëta, Naples, and Amalfi,
on the lower, advanced more openly to independence.
From the invasion by Attila in 452, the marshes
called Lagune, formed at the extremity of the Adriatic
by the slime deposed by seven or eight great rivers,
amidst which arose innumerable islands, had been the
refuge of all the rich inhabitants of Padua, Vicenza,
Verona, Treviso, and other great cities of Venetia, who
fled from the sabres of the Huns. The Roman empire
of the west survived this great calamity twenty-four
years ; but it was only a period of expiring agony, during
which fresh disasters continually forced new refugees to
establish themselves in the Lagune. A numerous popu¬
lation was at length formed there, supported by fishing,
the making of salt, some otlier manufactories, and the
commerce carried on by means of these many rivers.
Beyond the reach of the barbarians, who had no vessds,
forgotten hy the Romans, and their successors the Ostro¬
goths, they maintained their independence under the ad¬
ministration of tribunes, named by an assembly of the
people in each of the separate isles. The Venetians looked
upon the Ostrogoths, and their successors the Lombard^
as heretics ; so that religious zeal strengthened their
aversion to the dominant powers of Italy. On the
other hand, the population of each island forming a
little separate repuWc, jealousies arose ; their tribunes
disagreed. To put an end to these factions, the citizens
of every island met in a single assembly at Heracles in
697, and elected a chief of maritime Venetia, whom they
cidled doge, or duke. This title, borne by the Greeït
governors of the provinces of Italy, seems to indicat#
tíist the doge was considered a lieutenant of the empe¬
ror of Constantinople. The Venetians, in fact, persisting
in regarding themselves as members of the eastern en-
26 HurroRY or the Italian republics.
pire, never acknowledged the pretensions of Charle¬
magne and his successors to the dominion of all Italy.
It was in 809, in a war against Pepin, son of Charle¬
magne, that the Venetians made choice of the island of
the Rialto, near which they assembled their fleet, with their
wealth collected on board, and built the city of Venice, the
capital of their republic. Twenty years afterwards Ihey
transported thither, from Alexandria, the body of St.
Mark, the evangelist They chose him patron of their
state. His lion figured in their arms, and his name
in their language, whenever they would designate with
peculiar affection their country or government
While the Venetians disputed with Üie Lombards,
the Frank and the German emperors, the little land
on which stood their houses, they had also to dispute
the sea that bathed them with the Slavonians, who had
established themselves for the purpose of piracy on the
eastern side of the Adriatic. Amidst them, on üie same
coast, several little cities inhabited by Greeks, but for¬
gotten by the empire, endeavoured in vain to defend
their liberties and municipal governments. In 997»
these small towns of Istria and Dalmatia made aUiance
with Venice ; consented to receive judges chosen by the
doge, and to fight under his banner. With their aid
Venice vanquished the pirates of Narenta and Croatia;
and the doge from that period took the title of duke of
Venice and Dalmatia.
The first magistrate of the republics of Naples, Gaëta,
and Amalfi bore likewise the title of doge. These
three cities, forgotten by the Greek emperors, and re¬
ceiving no aid from them, still held by the ties of com¬
merce to Greece. The inhabitants had devoted them¬
selves with ardour to navigation ; they trafficked in the
Levant, and covered southern Italy with its rich mer¬
chandise. The country situated beyond the Tiber had
been exposed to fewer invasions than upper Italy. It
had not, however, entirely escaped. A Lombard chief
entered it in 589, and founded the great duchy ef
Benevento, which comprehended nearly the whole
tHKt TOWN« or auCTHERN ITALY. t?
southern part of the peninsula. This dukedom main»
mined itself independent of the kingdom of the Lorn*
bard« at Pavia, and had not been involved in it« faU.
It defended itself with valour against Charlemagne and
his succeBwnrs, who attempted its conquest ; but in 899»
at the end of a civil war, it was divided into the three
principalities of Benevento, Salerno, and Capna. The
Saracens had established colonies, in the year 828, in
■Sicily, which till then had been subject to the Grade
empire : these Saracens, a few years afterwards, passed
into southern Italy. The three republics of Niqdes,
Oaëta, and Amalfi preserved their independence by
exciting enmity between the Lombards and Seracens,
Vrho equally menaced them ; but these barbarians soon
sank into the languor produced by the charms of a
southern climate. It seemed as if they had no longer
Dourage to risk a life to which so many enjoyments were
attached. When they fought it was with effeminacy ;
and they hastened the termination of every war, to
plunge i^;ain into the voluptuous ease from which it had
roused them. The citizens of the republics had the
advantage over them of walls and defiles ; ami, withmit
being braver than the Lombards, maintained didr inde¬
pendence against them for six centuries.
Southern Italy, till the year 1000, was disturbed
only by the petty wars between the Lombard prin-
dpalities, the republics under the protection of the
Greek empire, the catapam of Bari, and the wander.,
iug bands of Mussulmans, whom love of plunder more
than rdigious zeal had Inrought into Italy. But about
this epoch there arrived at Salerno, and afterwards
in Apulia, Norman adventurers, the second or third
generation of those terrible Danisli corsairs who had
so long and so cruelly ravaged France, and who were
Already, in 912, estaÚished in Neustria, where they
adopted Christianity and the French language. They
retained the valour of their ancestors, their love of
adventure, and passion for voyages. They first came
in great numbers to visit as pilgriins the sanctuaries of
28 BISTORT OF THE ITALIAK BEPVBUOi.
Bouthern Italy, and afterwards entered as soldiers into
the armies either of the princes of Lombardy, the
republics, or the Greeks of Bari, who had recently
reconquered the whole of Apulia. They proved so
superior in valour to all those to whom they were op>
posed, that these mercenaries soon made all the small
states, among which they had come to seek adventures,
tremble. In 1041, they conquered Apulia from the
Greeks; in IO6O, Calabria; from IO6I to IO9O, SL
cUy : about the same time they subjugated the three
Lombard principalities of Beneventum, Salerno, and
Capua. The three republics were the last states in
southern Italy which fell under the Norman yokeu
We do not, indeed, know the date of the conquest of
Gaëta, the records of the history of the town being very
scanty. But Amalfi, illustrious for the foundatiim, in
the Holy Land, of the hospital and military order of
St. John of Jerusalem, for the invention of the com¬
pass, and for the preservation of the pandects of Jus¬
tinian, surrendered to the Normans in 1131. The
leader of these last was then Roger II. ; to whom the
antipope Anacletus had, the preceding year, given the
title of king of the Two Sicilies. Roger besieged, in
1138, the city of Naples; which though, in turns,
succoured by the emperor of Germany and the rejmblic
of Pisa, was compelled also to surrender.
The republic of Pisa, which vainly sought to save
from ruin these first Italian republics of the middle
^es, was a city which navigation and commerce had
enriched. Genoa, which soon became its rival, had
escaped the pillage of these northern conquerors, imd
had preserved a constant intercourse with Constan¬
tinople and with Syria; from whence the citizens bron^t
the rich merchandise which they afterwards dispersed
throughout Lombardy. The Pisans and Genoese, in¬
vigorated by a seafaring life, were accustomed to defend
with the sword the merchandise which they conveyed
from one extremity to the other of the Mediterranean.
They were often in conflict with the Saracens, like
PISA AND OENOA.
them addicted to maritime commerce, to which these
last frequently added piracy. The Saracens pillaged
Genoa in the year 936. In 1005 they entered a
suburb of Pisa ; and again invested that city in the
year 1012. Their colonies in Sardinia, Corsica, and
the Balearic Isles, constantly menaced Italy. The
Pisans, seconded by the Genoese, in their turn attacked
Sardinia, in the year 1017 ; but completed the conquest
only in 1050. They established colonies there, and
divided it into fiefs, between the most illustrious fa¬
milies of Pisa and Genoa. They also conquered the
Balearic Isles from the Saracens, in the year IIIS.
When, towards the end of the eleventh century, the
western world took up the dispute with the Saracens
for the sepulchre of Jesus Christ, Venice, Pisa, and
Genoa had already reached a high point of commercial
power ; these three cities had more vessels on the Medi¬
terranean than the whole of Christendom besides. They
seconded the Crusaders with enthusiasm. They pro¬
visioned them when arrived off* the coast of Syria, and
kept up their communication with the west. The Ve¬
netians assert that they sent a fleet of 200 vessels, in
the year 1099> to second the first crusade. The Pisans
affirm that their archbishop Daimbert, who was after¬
wards patriarch of Jerusalem, passed into the east with
120 vessels. The Genoese daim only twenty-eight
galleys and six vessels: but all concurred with equal
xeal in the conquest of the Holy Land ; and the three
maritime republics obtained important privileges, which
they preserved as long as the kingdom of Jerusalem
laated.
Such were the changes which the space of six cen¬
turies from the fall of the Roman empire accomplished
in Italy. Towards the end of the fifth century, the so-
dal tie, which had made of the empire one body, became
dissolved, and was succeeded by no other. The citizen
felt nothing for his fellow-citizen ; he expected no sup¬
port from him, and ofiered him none. He could no¬
where invoke protection; he every where saw only
äO burrobt or tbs xtauak republics.
viofance tnd oppression. Towards the begiiming of
the twelfth century, die citizens of the towns of It»^
had as little to expeet from abroad. The emperor ct
the Germans, who called himself their sovereign, was,
with his barbarian army, only one enemy more. But
mdTersally, where the circle of the same wall formed a
common interest, the spirit of association was developed.
The citizens promised each other muttud assistance.
Courage grew with liberty ; and the Italians, no longer
oi^ressed, found at last in themselves their own de¬
fence.
CHAP. II.
raSDEElCC BAZBASOMA ZNDZAVOUBS TO ABBIDGK BHI LIBBBTIBB
or thl towns or halt. thzik bbsintancb. tub
league or lombakdt. —tbuck OS venice—»ans feace of
constance which nxes theie elohts.
When the inhabitants of the cities of Italy associated
for their common defence, their first necessity was to
guard against the brigandage of the barbarian annica^
which invaded their country and treated them as
enemies; the second, to protect themselves from the
robberies of other barbarians who called themselves their
masters. Their united efforts soon ensured their safety;
in a few years they found themselves rich and powezfol;
and these same men, whom emperors, prelates, and
nobles considered only as freed serfii, perodved that they
omstituted almost the only public force in Italy. Their
sdf-confidence grew with their power ; and the desire of
domination suçceeded that of independence. Those cities
which had accumulated the most wealth, whose walls
enelosed the greatest population, attempted, from the first
hall of the twelfth century, to secure by force of arms
OBIQIN OF OUBLPlfS AND OUIBBLINBS. 81
die obedience of such of the neighbouring towns as did
not appear sufficiently strong to resist them. These
greater cities had no intention to strip the smaller of
their liberty ; their sole purpose was to force them into
a perpetual alliance« so as to shsve their good or evil
fortune, and always place their armed force under the
standard of the dominant city.
The long war of the investiture», between the Fran-
conian emperors and the popes, had given the first im¬
pulse to this ambition : as general interests were involved,
as it was a question of distant operations and common
danger, the cities felt the necessity of alliances, and of
an active correspondence, which soon extended from one
extremity of Italy to the other. The smaller towns soon
found that this general policy was beyond their means,
and that the great cities, in which commerce and wealth
had accumulated knowledge, and which alone received
the communications of the pope or of the emperor,
naturally placed themselves at the head of the league
formed in their provinces, either for the empire or fnnr
the church. These two leagues were not yet known in
Italy by the names of Guelph and Ghibeline, which in
Germany had been the war-cry of the two parties at the
battle of Winsberg, fought on the 2Ist of December,
1140, and which had previously distinguished, the
former the dukes of Saxony and Bavaria, devoted to the
pope ; the latter, the emperors of the house of Francoiüa.
But although these two names, which seem since to
have become exclusively Italian, had not yet been
adopted in Italy, the hereditary affection respectively for
the two parties already divided the minds of the people
for more than a century, and faction became to each
a second country, often served by them with not less
heroism and devotion than their native city.
Two great towns in the plains of Lombardy surpassed
every other in power and wealth : Milan, which habits
ually directed the party of the church ; and Pavia, which
directed that of tlie empire. Both towns, however, seem
to have çhanged parties dxiring the reigns of Lothario IIL
HISTORY OR THE ITALIAIT BEIMTBtlCB-
and ConradII., who, from the year 1125 to 1152, placed
in opposition the two houses of Gudphs and Ghibdinea
in Germany. Milan, having during the first half of the
twelfth century experienced some resistance from the
towns of Lodi and Como, rased the former, dispersing
ihe inhabitants in open villages, and obliged the latter to
destroy its fortifications. Cremona and Novara ad.
hered to the party of Pavia ; Tortona, Crema, Bergamo,
Brescia, Placentia, and Parma, to that of Milan. Among
the towns of Piedmont, Turin took the lead, and disputed
the authority of the counts of Savoy, who called them¬
selves imperial vicars in that country. Montferrat con¬
tinued to have its marquises. They were among the
few great feudatories who had survived the civil wars;
but the towns and provinces were not in subjection to
them, and Asti was more powerful than they were.
The family of the Veronese marquises, on the contrary,
who from the time of the Lombard kings had to defend
the frontier against the Germans, were extinct ; and the
great cities'of Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Treviso, and
Mantua, nearly equal in power, maintained their inde-
|>endence. Bologna held the first rank among the
towns south of the Po, and had become equally formi.
dable on the one side to Modena and Reggio, and on the
other to Ferrara, Ravenna, I mola, Faenza, Forli, and
Rimini. Tuscany, which had also had its powerful
marquises, saw their family become extinct with the
countess Matilda, the contemporary and friend of
Gregory VII. Florence had since risen in power,
destroyed Fiesole, and, without exercising dominion
over Âe neighbouring towns of Pistoja, Areszo, San
Miniato, and Volterra, or the more distant towns of
Lucca, Cortona, Perugia, and Sienna, was considered
the head of the Tuscan league ; and the more so that
Pisa at this period thought only of her maritime ex¬
peditions. The family of the dukes of Spoleto had
also become extinct, and the towns of Ombría rqjained
their freedom ; but their situation in the mountains pre¬
vented them from rising into importance. In fine.
1153. ARNOIJ) OF BRESCIA AT ROME. 33
Rome herself indulged the same spirit of independence.
An eloquent monk, the disciple of Abelard, who had made
himself known throughout Europe, preached in 1139
A twofold reform, in the religious and political orders ;
the name borne by him was Arnold of Brescia. He spoke
to men of the antique liberty which was their right ;
of the abuses which disfigured the church. Driven out
of Italy by pope Innocent II. and the council of Lateran,
he took refuge in Switserland, and taught the town of
Zurich to frame a free constitution ; but in the year 1143
he was recalled to Rome, and that city again heard the
words " Roman republic," " Roman senate," " comitia
of the people." The pope branded his opinions with
the name of " heresy of the politicians;" and Arnold of
Brescia, having been given up to him by the emperor,
was burnt alive before the gate of the castle of St.
Angelo, in the year 1155. But his precepts survived,
and the love of liberty in Rome did not perish with him.
In southern Italy, die conquests of the Normans had
finally smothered the spirit of liberty; and the town of
Aquila in the Abruzzi alone preserved any republican
privileges.
Such was the state of Italy, when the Germanic diet,
assembled at Frankfort in 1152, conferred the crown on
Frederick Barbarossa, duke of Swabia, and of the house
of Hohenstaufen. This prince was nephew to Conrad III.,
whom he succeeded ; he was allied to the two houses
of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, which had contended
with each other for the empire, and was regarded, with
good reason, by the Germans as their most distinguished
chief. Frederick Barbarossa was not only brave, but
understood the art of war, at least so far as it could be
understood in an age so barbarous. He made himself
beloved by the soldiers, at the same time that he sub¬
jected them to a discipline which others had not yet
thought of establishing. He held his word sacred ; he
abhorred gratuitous cruelty, although the shedding of
human blood had in general nothing revolting in it to a
prince of the middle ages : but the prerogatives of his
D
54 HISTORY OP THE ITAJLIAN REPTTBLICI. 1154.
crown appeared to him sacred rights, which from pride^
and even from conscience, he was disposed to preserve and
extend. The lulians he considered in a state of revolt
against the imperial throne and the German nation ; and
he believed it to be his first dutj to reduce them to
subjection.
Frederick Barbarossa, accordingly, in the month of
October, 1154, entered Italy with a powerful German
army, by the valley of Trent. He proposed to himself
not only receiving there the crowns of Italy and the em¬
pire, and reducing to obedience subjects who appeared to
him to forget their duty to their sovere^n ; but also to
punish in particular the Milanese for their arrogance; to
redress the complaints which the citizens of Pavia and
Cremona had brought against them ; and to oblige Milan
to render to the towns of Lodi and Como) which it had
dismantled, all the privileges which Milan itself enjoyed.
On arriving at Roncaglia, where the diets of the king¬
dom of Italy were held, he was assailed by complaints
from the bishops and nobles against the towns, as well
as by complaints against the Milanese from the consuls
of Pavia, of Cremona, of Como, and of Lodi ; while
those of Crema, of Brescia, of Placentia, of Asti and
Tortona, vindicated them. Before giving judgment on
the différences submitted to his decision, Frederick
announced his intention of judging for himself the state
of the country, by visiting in person Piedmont and
Montferrat. Having to pass through the Milanese ter¬
ritory on his way to Novara, he commanded the consuls
of Milan to supply him with provisions on the road.
The towns acknowledged that they owed the emperon
upon their journeys the dues designated by the feudal
words "foderum, parata, manaionaticum," forage, foo^
and lodging: but the Germans, retarded in their march by
heavy and continual rain, took two days to reach a stage
which the Milanese supposed they would reach in one :
provisions of course failed ; and the Germans avenged
themselves on the unhappy inhabitants by pillaging and
burning the villages wherever sufficient rations were not
1155. FIHST EXPEDITION OF FREDERICK. S5
found. Frederick treated with kindness the towns of
Novara and Turin ; but those of Chieri and Asti had
been denounced to him as entertaining the same senti«
ments as Milan ; the inhabitants fled at his approach,
and he plundered and burnt their deserted houses. Ar¬
rived next before Tortona, he ordered the inhabitants to
renounce their alliance with the Milanese; but they,
trusting to the strength of the upper town, into which
they had retreated, while Frederick occupied the lower
part, had the courage to refuse. The Germans began
the siege of Tortona on the ISth of February, 1155.
They could not prevent the entrance of 200 Milanese,
to assist in its defence. For sixty-two days did this brave
people resist the attacks of the formidable army of Fre¬
derick, the numbers of which had been increased by the
armed force of Pavia, and the other Ghibeline towns.
The want pf water compelled them at last to sur¬
render ; and the emperor allowed them to retire to
Milan, taking only the few effects which each individual
could carry away ; every thing else was given up to
the pillage of the soldiers, and the houses became a
prey to the flames. The Milanese received with respect
these martyrs of liberty, and every opulent house gave
shelter and hospitality to some of the imhappy inhabit¬
ants of Tortona. Frederick meanwhile placed on his
head, in the temple of Pavia, the iron crown of the kings
of Lombardy ; and began his march on Rome, to receive
there the golden crown of the empire.
But the Germans who accompanied the emperor, not¬
withstanding the ardour with which they had under¬
taken this distant expedition, began to be tired of so
long an absence from their home. The licence extended
to their pillage and debauchery no longer appeared to
them a sufficient compensation for tedious marches and
the dangers of war. They pressed the emperor to ad¬
vance towards Rome, and to avoid all quarrel with the
great towns by which they passed, although almost all
refused to admit them within their walls,—providing
subsistence and lodging for them in the suburbs only.
D 2
36 HI8T0RT OF THE ITAUAlf BEPUBUCS. 1155.
The impossibility of múnitiiiiiig disci¡diiie ia a npa-
úous army, which beheld for the first time the unknown
riches of commerce and the arts ; the difficulty of ayoid«*
ing quarrels between two nations, neither of which un¬
derstood the language of the other, perhaps justified this
precaution. Frederick thus passed by Placentia, Parma,
Bologna, and Florence. He was not received even into
Rome ; his troops occupied what was styled the Leonine
city, or the suburb built round the Vatican : he was
there crowned by the pope, Adrian IV.; while his army
was obliged to repel the Romans who advanced by the
bridge of St. Angelo and the borgo* of Trastevere to
disturb the ceremony. Frederick withdrew from Rome
the following day ; conducting his army into the moun¬
tains, to avoid the great heat of summer. The citizens
of Spoleto, not having supplied with sufficient haste the
provisions he demanded, he attacked, took, and burnt
their city : sickness, however, began to thin the ranks
of his soldiers ; many also deserted, to embark at Ancona.
Frederick, with a weakened army, directed his march
on Germany by the valleys of the Tyrol. The citi¬
zens of Verona, who would not admit the Germans
within their walls, constructed for him a bri^e of boats
on the Adige, which he hastily passed over, but had
hardly gained the opposite bank, when enormous pieces
of wood, carried down by the impetuosity of the current,
struck and destroyed the bridge. Frederick had no doubt
that the Lombards had laid this snare for him, and
flattered themselves with the breaking of the bridge
whilst he should he in the act of passing over; but he
was no longer sufficiently strong to avenge himself.
The emperor at length returned into Germany vrith
his barbarian soldiers. He every where on his passage
spread havoc and desolation ; the line by which he
marched through the Milanese territory was marked by
fire ; the villages of Rósate, Trecale, and Galiau, the
towns of Chieri, Asti, I'ortona, and Spoleto were burnt.
But whilst he thus proved his barbarism, he also
* Borgo U the communication between IVaatevere and the Vation.
1158. SECOND INVASION OF FREDERICK. 87
proved his weakness. He did not dare to attack the
stronger and more populous cities, which congratulated
themselves on having shut their gates, and refused sub¬
mission to him. Thus a year's campaign sufficed to
destroy one of the most formidable armies that Germany
had ever poured into Italy ; and the example of ancient
times encouraged the belief that it would long before
the emperor could again put the Germans in motion.
The Milanese felicitated themselves on having preserved
their liberty by their courage and patriotism. Their trea¬
sury was indeed empty ; but the zed of their opulent
citizens, who knew no other luxury than that of serving
their country, soon replenished it. These men, who
poured their wealth into the treasury of the republic,
contented themselves with black bread, and cloaks of
coarse stuff. At the command of their consuls, they
left Milan to join their fellow.citizens in rebuilding,
tvith their own hands, the walls and houses of Tortona,
Rósate, Trecale, Galiata, and other towns, which had
suffered in the contest for the common cause. They
next attacked the cities of Pavia, Cremona, and No¬
vara, which had embraced the party of the emperor,
and subjected them to humiliating conditions ; while they
drew closer their bonds of dliance with the towns of
Brescia and Placentia, which had declared for liberty.
But Frederick had more power over Germany than
any of his predecessors : he was regarded there as the
restorer of the rights of the empire and of the German
nation. He obtained credit for reducing Italy from
what was called a state of anarchy and revolt, to order
and obedience. His vassals accordingly flocked with
eagerness to his standard, when he summoned them, at
the feast of Pentecost, 1158, to compel the submission
of Italy. The battalions of Germany entered Lom-
bardy at the same time by all the passes of the Alps.
Their approach to Brescia inspired the inhabitants with
so much terror, that they immediately renounced their
alliance with Milan, and paid down a large sum of
money for their ransom. The Milanese, on the con-
38 HISTOBT OF THE ITAUAN BEPUBLICS. 1158.
tniiy, prepared themselves for resistance. They had
eidier destroyed or fortified all the bridges of the Adda ;
flattering themselves that this river would suffice to
stop the progress of the emperor ; but a body of Ger¬
man cavalry dashetl boldly into the stream, and, swim¬
ming across the river, gained in safety the opposite
bank. They then made themselves masters of the
bridge of Cassano, and the whole army entered into
the Milanese territory. Frederick, following the course
of the Adda, made choice of a situation about foor
miles from the ruins of the former LodL Here he
ordered the people of Lodi to rebuild their town, which
would in future secure to him the passage of the Adda.
He summoned thither also the militias of Pavia and
Cremona, with those of the other towns of Lombardy,
which their jealousy of Milan had attached to the Gld-
beline party ; and it was not till after they had joined
him that he encamped, on the 8Ui of August, 1158,
before Milan. His engines of war, however, were in¬
sufficient to beat down the walls of so strong and large
a town ; and he resolved to reduce the Milanese by
famine. He seized their granaries, burnt their stacks
of corn, mowed down the autumnal harvests, and an¬
nounced his resolution not to raise the si^e till the
Milanese had returned to their duty. The few noblei^
however, who had preserved their independoice hi
Lombardy proceeded to the camp of die emperor.
One of them, the count de Blandrate, who had before
given proofs of his attachment to the town of Milan,
oflered himself as a mediator, was accepted, and obtained
terms not unfavourable to the Milanese. They en¬
gaged to pay a tribute to Frederick of 9000 marks of
silver, to restore to him his r^al ri^ts, and to the
towns of Lodi and Como their independence. On their
side, they were dispensed from opening their gates to
the emperor." They preserved the ri^t of electing their
consuls, and included in their pacification their aUies
of Tortona and Crema. This treaty was signed the
7th of September, 1158.
1159.
THIRD WAR WITH MILAN.
39
Frederick, in granting an honourable capitulation to
revolted subjects, whom he had brought back to their
obedience, had no intention of renouncing the rights of
his empire. He considered that he had preserved, un¬
touched, the legislative authority of the diet of his king¬
dom of Italy. The Milanese, on the contrary, regarded
their treaty as definitive ; and were both astonished and
indignant when Frederick, having assembled, towards the
11th of November following, the placita or diets of the
kingdom at Roncaglia, promulgated by this diet a con¬
stitution which overthrew their most precious rights. It
took the administration of justice from the hands of the
consuls of towns, to place it in those of a single judge, and
a foreigner, chosen by the emperor, bearing the name of
podestà ; it fixed the limits of the regal rights, giving
them much more importance than had been contem¬
plated by the Milanese when they agreed to acknowledge
them ; it deprived cities, as well as the other members
of the empire, of the right of making private war ; it
changed the boundaries of territories appertaining to
towns, and in particular took from Milan the little town
of Monza, and the counties of Seprio and of Martesana,
which the inhabitants had always regarded as their
own property. Just motives had made the emperor
and the diet consider these innovations necessary for
the public peace and prosperity ; but the Milanese
regarded them only as perfidious violations of the treaty.
When the podestà of the emperor arrived at Milan
to take possession of the tribunal, he was sent con¬
temptuously away. The Milanese fiew to arms ; and
making every effort to repossess the different passes
of the Adda, prepared to defend themselves behind this
harrier. Frederick, on his side, assembled a new diet of
the kingdom of Italy at Bologna, in the spring of 1159»
and placed Milan under the ban of the empire.
The emperor did not yet attempt to reduce the Milan¬
ese by a regular siege. His army was neither sufficiently
numerous to invest so large a town, nor his engines of
war of sufficient force to make a breach in such strong
D 4
40 HTSTORT OF THE ITALIAN BEFVBUCB. II6O.
walls ; but be proclaimed his détermination to emçkj
aD his power, as monarch of Germany and Italy, to mil
that rebellious town. The Milanese, accordin^y, soon
saw their com mowed down, their autumn harvests de¬
stroyed, their vine stocks cut, the trees which covered
their country either cut down or barked, their canals of
irrigation broken : but the generous citisena of this
new republic did not allow themselves to be discouraged
by the superior force of such an enemy, or by the incsi«
table issue of such a contest. They saw clearly .that they
must perish ; but it would be for the honour and the
liberty of Italy : they were resolved to leave a great ex.
ample to their countrymen, and to future generations.
The people of Crema had remained faithful to the
Milanese in their good and evil fortune ; but the siege
of that town presented fewer difficulties to the emperor
than the siege of Milan. Crema was of small extent,
and could be invested on every side ; it was also more
accessible to the engines of war, thou^ surrounded by
a double wall and a ditch filled with water. The Cre-
monese began the siege on the 4th of July ; and on the
10th, Frederick arrived to direct it in person. Four hun¬
dred Milanese had thrown themselves into the town, to
partake the combats and dangers of their allies. The
emperor, who regarded the besieged only as revoked
subjects, sought to terrify them by the spectacle of pu¬
nishments. Hostages had been sent to him by Milan
and Crema: he ordered several of them to te hung
before the walls of the town. Some were children of the
most distinguished families: he caused them to be
bound to a moving tower, which was brought so close to
the attack that the besieged could not rqid it without
killing or wounding their own children. A cry of de¬
spair resounded along the walls of Crema. The wretched
parents implored death from their fellow-citizens, to
escape witnessing the agony of their children, and at the
same time cried out to their children not to fear giving
up their lives for their country. The battle, in fact, was
not interrupted ; and the moving tower was repelled, after
1160.
SIEOE OF CREMA.
41
nine of the young hostages who covered it with their
bodies had been killed. During six entire months did
the small town of Crema resist the whole army of the
emperor. Famine at length accomplished what force
could not; and on the 26th of January^ 1160, the
heroic inhabitants capitulated, abandoning their wealth
to pillage, and their houses to the flames. For them¬
selves, wasted by famine and fatigue, they obtained
permission to withdraw to Milan.
The siege of Crema exhausted the patience of the
German army. At this period, soldiers were unaccus¬
tomed to such protracted expeditions. When they had
accomplished flieir feudal service, they considered they
had a right to return home. The greater number, ac¬
cordingly, departed ; but Frederick, with immovable
constancy, declared he would remain, with the Italians
only of the Ghibeline towns, to make war against the
Milanese ; and placing himself at the head of the mili¬
tias of Pavia, Cremona, and Novara, carried on the war
a whole year, during which his sole object was to destroy
the harvests, and prevent the entrance of any kind of
provision into Milan. In the month of June, 1 l6l, a
new army arrived from Germany to his aid. His sub¬
jects began to feel ashamed of having abandoned their
monarch in a foreign country, amongst a people whom
they accused of perfidy and rebellion. They returned
with redoubled animosity, which was soon manifested
by ferocious deeds ; they tortured and put to death every
peasant whom they surprised carrying provisions of any
kind into Milan. The rich citizens of the republic had
aided the government in making large magazines, which
were already in part exhausted : an accidental fire
having consumed the remainder, hunger triumphed over
courage and the love of liberty. For three entire years
had the Milanese, since they had been placed under the
ban of the empire, supported this unequal contest ;
when, in the beginning of March, 1162, they were
reduced to surrender at discretion. In deep despair they
yielded up their arms and colours, and awaited the
42 HI8T0BT OF THX ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1162.
orders of the emperor. Frederick, harsh and hai^tj,
was not ferocious: never had he put to death bj the exe.
cntioner rebels or enemies whom he had vanquished. He
suffered nearly a month to elapse before he pronounced
his final determination ; perhaps to augment the anxiety
of the subdued,—perhaps, also, to pacify his own wrath,
which he at last vented on walls and inanimate objects,
while he pardoned man. He ordered the town to be
completely evacuated, so that there should not be left in
it a single living being. On the 25th of March, he siun-
moned the mihtias of the rixal and Ghibeline cities, and
gave them orders to rase to the earth the houses as well
as the walls of the town, so as not to leave one stone
upon another.
Those of the inhabitants of Milan whom their poverty,
labour, and industry attached to the soil, were divided
into four open villages, built at a distance of at least two
miles from the walls of their former city. Others sou^t
hospitality in die neighbouring towns of Italy ; even in
those which had shown most attachment to the emperor.
Their sufferings, the extent of their sacrifices, the re¬
collection of their valour, and the example of their noble
sentiments, made proselytes to the cause of liberty in
every city into which they were received. The dde-
gates of the emperor also (for he himself had returned
to his German dominions), the podestas whom he had
established in every town, soon made those Lombards
who had fought with him feel only shame and regret at
having lent their aid to rivet his yoke on their own
necks. All the privileges of the nation were violated ;
justice was sacrificed to party interest. Taxes con¬
tinually augmenting had increased six-fold ; and hardly
a third part of the produce of the land remained to the
cultivator. The Italians were universally in a state of
suffering and humiliation ; tyranny at lengdi reached
even their consciences. On the death of pope Adrian
IV., in September, 1159, the electing nrdinals had
been equally divided between two candidates ; the one
a Siennese, the other a Roman. Both were declared
1159.
SCHISM IS THE CHURCH.
43
duly elected by their separate parties ; the first, under
the name of Alexander III.; the second, under that
of Victor III. Frederick declared for the latter, who
had shown himself ready to sacrifice to him the liber¬
ties and independence of the church. The former had
been obliged to take refuge in France, though almost
the whole of Christendom did not long hesitate to declare
for him. While one council assembled by Frederick at
Favia rejected him, another assembled at Beau vais not
only rejected but anathematised Victor. Excommuni¬
cation at length reached even the emperor ; and Alex¬
ander, to strengthen himself against Frederick, endea¬
voured to gain the affections of the people, by ranging
himself among the protectors of the liberties of Italy.
Frederick re-entered Italy in the year 1163, accom¬
panied not by an army, but by a brilliant retinue of Gler-
man nobles. He did not imagine that in a country which
he now considered subdued, he needed a more imposing
force ; besides, he believed tliat he could at all times com¬
mand the militias of the Ghibeline towns; and, in fact,
he made them this year rase to the ground the walls of
Tortona. He afterwards directed his steps towards
Rome, to support by his presence his schismatic pontiff* ;
but, in the mean time, Verona, Vicenza,. Padua, and
Treviso, the most powerful towns of the Veronese
marches, assembled their consuls in congress, to con¬
sider of the means of putting an end to a tyranny which
overwhelmed them. The consuls of these four towns
pledged themselves by oath in the name of their cities
to give mutual support to each other in the assertion of
their former rights, and in the resolution to reduce the
imperial prerogatives to the point at which they were
fixed under the reign of Henry IV. Frederick, informed
of this association, returned hastily into northern Italy,
to put it down. He assembled the militias of Pavia,
Cremona, Novara, Lodi, and Como, with the intention
of leading them against the Veronese marches; but he
soon perceived that the spirit of liberty had made progress
in the Ghibeline cities as well as in those of the Guelphs ;
44 > HI8T0BT OF THE ITAELAlf BEPVBLIC8. 1166.
that the militias under his command complained as much
of the vexations inflicted by his podestas as those against
whom he led them ; and that they were ill disposed to
face death only to rivet the chains of their country.
Obliged to bend before a people which he considered
only as revolted subjects, he soon renounced a contest so
humiliating, and returned to Germany, to levy an army
more submissive to him. Other and more pressing in¬
terests diverted his attention from this ol^ect till the
autumn of 1166. During this interval his anti-pope,
Victor III., died ; and the successor whom he caused to
be named was still more strongly rgected by the church.
On the other side, Alexander III. had returned from
France to Rome; contracted an alliance with William, the
Norman king of the two Sicilies ; and armed the whole
of southern Italy against the emperor.
When Frederick, in the month of October, 1166,
descended the mountains of the Grisons to enter Italy
by the territory of Brescia, he marched his army di¬
rectly to Lodi, without permitting any act of hostility
on the way. At Lodi, he assembled towards the end of
November, a diet of the kingdom of Italy, at which he
promised the Lombards to redress the grievanees occa¬
sioned by the abuses of power by his podestaa, and to
respect their just liberties ; he was desirous of separating
their cause from that of the pope, and the king of Sicily ;
and to give greater weight to his negotiation, he marched
his army into central Italy. The towns of Romagna
and Tuscany had hitherto made few complaints, and
manifested little zeal in defence of their privilcgea.
Frederick hoped that by establishing himself amongst
them, he should revive their loyalty, and induce them
to augment the army which he was leading against
Rome. But he soon perceived that the spirit of liberty,
which animated the other countries of Italy, worked
also in these : he contented himself, accordingly, with
taking thirty hostages from Bologna, and having vainly
laid siege to Ancona, he, in the month of July, 116?,
marched his army towards Rome.
1167. THE LEAGUE OF LOHBARDV.
45
The towns of the Veronese marches, seeing the em¬
peror and his army pass without daring to attack them,
became bolder : they assembled a new diet, in the be¬
ginning of April, at the convent of Pontida, between
Milan and Bergamo. The consuls of Cremona, of
Bergamo, of Brescia, of Mantua and Ferrara met
there, and joined those of the marches. The union of
the Guelphs and Ghibelines, for the common liberty,
was hailed with universal joy. The deputies of the
Cremonese, who had lent their aid to the destruction
of Milan, seconded those of the Milanese villages in
imploring aid of the confederated towns to rebuild the
city of Milan. This confederation was called the League
of Lombardy. The consuls took the oath, and their
constituents afterwards repeated it, that every Lombard
should unite for the recovery of the common liberty f
that the league for this purpose should last twenty
years ; and, finally, that they should aid each other in
repairing in common any damage experienced in Uiis
sacred cause, by any one member of the confederation :
extending even to the past this contract for reciprocal
security, the league resolved to rebuild Milan. The
militias of Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona, Mantua, Ve¬
rona, and Treviso arrived the 27th of April, 1167, on
the ground covered by the ruins of this great city.
They apportioned among themselves the labour of re¬
storing the enclosing walls ; all the Milanese of the four
villages, as well as those who had taken refuge in the
more distant towns, came in crowds to take part in this
pious work ; and in a few weeks the new-grown city
was in a state to repel die insults of its enemies. Lodi
was soon afterwards compelled, by force of arms, to
take the oath to the league; while the towns of Venice,
Placentia, Parma, Modena, and Bologna voluntarily
and gladly joined the association.
Frederick, meanwhile, arrived within sight of Rome.
The Romans dared to await him in the open field ; he
defeated them with great slaughter, and made himself
master of the Leonine city. The inhabitants still de-
46 HISTORY OF THE ITA LIAN REPUBLICS. 1168.
fending themselves in the Vatican, he dislodged them
by setting fíre to Santa Maria, the adjoining church ;
Alexander, in his fright, escaped by the Tiber. After
his retreat the Romans took the oath of fidelity to the
emperor, without, however, receiving his army within
their walls ; but fever, and the suffocating heat of the
Campagna, soon began, by its ravages, to avenge the
Italians: ft-om the first days of August an alarming
mortality broke out in the camp of the emperor. The
princes to whom he was most attached, the captains in
whom he had most confidence, two thousand kni^ts,
with a proportional number of common soldiers, were
carried off in a few weeks. He endeavoured to flee
from the destructive scourge ; he traversed in his retreat
Tuscany and the Lunigiana ; but his route was marked
with graves, into which every day, every hour, he de¬
posited the bodies of his soldiers. He was no longer
strong enough to vanquish even the opposition of the
little town of Pontremoli, which refused him a passage ;
and it was by roads almost impracticable that he at length
crossed the Apennines. He arrived at Pavia about the
middle of September, and attempted to assemble a diet ;
but the deputies of Pavia, Novara, Vercelli, and Como
alone obeyed his summons. He harangued the assembly
with great vehemence ; and, throwing down his glove,
challenged the rebellious cities to a pitched battle. He
passed the winter in combating, with his small remain¬
ing army, the league of Lombardy ; but in the month
of March, 1168, he escaped from the Italians, and re¬
passed Mount Cenis, to return and arm the Germans
anew against Italy. After his departure. Novara, Ver¬
celli, Como, Asti, and Tortona also entered into the
confederation, which resolved to found, as a monument
of its power, and as a barrier against the Ghibelines of
Pavia and Montferrat, a new city, on the confluence of
the rivers Tanaro and Bormida. The Lombards named
it Alexandria, in honour of the chief of the church, and
of their league. They collected in it all the inhabitants
of the different villages of that rich plain, which extends
1168.
RESPITE OF ITALY.
47
from the Po to the Ligurian Alps^ and secured to them
all the liberty and privileges for which they themselves
had fought.
Frederick had sacrificed more time, treasure, and
blood, to strengthen his dominion over Italy than any
of his predecessors : he had succeeded for a long period
in associating the German nation in his ambition. He
persuaded the Germans that their interest and their
honour were concerned in the submission of the Italians.
They began, however, to feel tired of a long contest, from
which they derived no advantage : other interests, affairs
more pressing, demanded the presence of the emperor at
home ; and Frederick was obliged to suspend for five
years his efforts to subdue Italy. During this period
the towns of Lombardy, in the plenitude of their power
and liberty, corrected dieir laws, recruited their finances,
strengthened their fortifications, and finally placed their
militias on a better war establishment. Their consuls
met also in frequent diets, where they bound themselves
by new oaths to the common defence, and admitted
fresh members into the confederation, which at length
reached to the extremity of Romagna.
Frederick, however, did not entirely abandon Italy. He
sent thither Christian, the elected archbishop of Mentz,
and arch-chancellor of the empire, as his representative.
This warlike prelate soon felt that there was nothing to
be done in Lombardy ; and he proceeded to Tuscany,
where the Ghibeline party still predominated. His first
pretension was to establish peace between the two mari¬
time republics of Genoa, and Pisa, which disputed with
arms in their hands the commerce of the East. As he
found a greater spirit of pride and independence in the
Pisans, he caused to be thrown into a dungeon their
consuls, who had presented tiiemselves at the fliet of the
Tuscan towns convoked by him at San Ginasio, in the
month of July, 1173 ; he arrested, at the same time, the
consuls of the Florentines their allies, while he studiously
fiattcred those of Lucca, of Sienna, of Pistoia, and the
nobles of Tuscany, Romagna, and Ombría; promising to
48 HISTOBT OF THE ITALIA»» BEPUBLTCS. 1174.
avenge them on their enemies : but, said he, to do so
more effectually, you must first co-operate with me in
crushing the enemies of the emperor." He thus sue*
ceeded in persuading them to second him in the attack
which he meditated for the following spring on Ancona.
This city, the most southern of all those attached to the
league of Lombardy, contained about twelve thousand
inhabitants, enriched by maritime commerce, and con¬
fident in the strength of their almost unassailable position.
Their town, beautifully situated on the extremity of a
promontory, which surrounded a magnificent port, pre¬
sented on the side open to the continent only precipitous
rocks, widi the exception of a single causeway. The
citizens had accordingly repulsed successfully for ages
all the attacks of the barbarians, and all the pretensions
of the emperors. The archbishop. Christian, arrived
before Ancona in the beginning of April, 1174, and in¬
vested the city with an army levied among the Ghibe-
lines of Tuscany and Ombría. The people of Ancona
repulsed their attack with their accustomed bravery. But
hunger, more formidable than the sword, soon menaced
them. The preceding harvests had failed ; their granaries
were empty ; and an enemy's fleet closed their port.
They saw the harvest ripen, without the possibility of
a single sack of corn reaching them. All human subsist¬
ence was soon exhausted : undismayed, however, they
tried to support existence with the herbs and shdl-fidi
which they gathered from their rocks, or with the leaffier
which commerce had accumulated in their magazines.
Such was the food on which had long subsisted a young
and beautiful woman. Observing one day a soldier sum¬
moned to battle, but unable from hunger to proceed, she
refused her breast to the child whom she suckled; offered
it to the warrior ; and sent him, thus refreshed, to shed
his blood for his country. But to whatever distress
the people of Ancona were reiluced, they rejected
every proposal to capitulate. At length the succour
invoked from the Guelphs of Ferrara and Romagna ap¬
proached ; Christian saw the fires which they light«d on
1175.
SIEGE AT ANOONA.
49
the rnountain of Falcognara, about four miles from
Ancona ; and, unable to gire them battle with an army
exhausted by the fatigues of a long siege, he hastily re¬
treated.
In the beginning of October, 1174, Frederick, at the
head of a formidable army, agaiu re-entered Italy. He
passed from the county of Burgundy into Savoy, and
descended by Mont Genis. Suza, the first town to which
he came on his passage, was taken and burnt ; Asti, in
alarm, opened its gates, and purchased its security from
pillage by a heavy contribution ; but Alexandria stopped
the progress of the emperor. This city, recently founded
by the league of Lombtudy, did not hesitate to enter into
a contest with the imperial power, for the sake of its
confederates ; although its mud walls were an object of
derision to the Germans, who first gave this town the
surname of Alexandria delia paglia, or of straw. Ne¬
vertheless these walls of mud and straw, but defended by
générons and devoted citizens, resisted all the efiforts of
the most valiant army and the most warlike monarch of
Germany. Frederick consumed in vain four months in a
siege, which was prolonged through the winter. The
inundation of rivers more than once threatened him with
destruction, even in his camp ; sickness also decimated
his soldiers. Finally, the combined army of the Lom¬
bard league advanced from Placentia to Tortona ; and
on Easter Sunday of the year 1175 Frederick found
himself obliged to raise the siege, and to march for
Pavia, to repose his army.
This last check at length compelled the emperor ta
acknowledge the power of a people which he had been
accustomed to despise. The chiefs of the Lombard army
showed themselves well prepared for battle ; but still
respecting the rights of their monarch, declined attacking
him. He entered into negotiation with them : all pro¬
fessed their ardent desire to reconcile the prerogatives of
the emperor and the rights of the Roman church with
those of liberty. Six commissioners were appointed to
settle the basis of a treaty which should reconcile these
E
50 BISTORT OF THE IJALLLK REFTBLICS. 1176«
sevenl daims. They began by demanding that the anníca
on each side should be disbanded. Frederick did not hesi¬
tate to comply : be dismissed bis Germans, and remained
at Paria, trusting solely to the fidelity of bis Itafian
Gbibelines. L^;ates from the pope anÍTed also to joÍB
the commissioners ; and the negotiations were opened.
But the donands of Frederick were so high as to render
agreement almost impossible. He declared that be de¬
sired only his just rights ; *' but they must be those,"
said be, " which have been exercised by my predeeea*
sors, Cluurlemagne, Otbo, and the emperors Henry 111.
and Henry IV." The deputies of the towns opposed to
this the concessions of Henry V. and Lothario ; but
even these could no longer 'satisfy them. For the
Italians, liberty bad advanced with civilisation ; and
they could not now submit to the ancient prerc^tives of
their masters, without returning to their own ancient
barbarism.
The negotiations were broken ofi^ and Frederick sent
to Germany for another army, which, in the spring of
1176, entered the territory of Como, by the Gristms.
The emperor joined it about the end of May, after
traversing, without being recc^nised, the territory of
Milan. It was against this great town that he entertained
the most profound resentment, and meditated a new
attack. He flattered himself that he should find the citi¬
zens still trembling imdmr the chastisement which he
had before inflicted on their city. On the 29th of May,
he met the Milanese army between Lignano and Barano,
about fifteoi miles from Milan. Only a few auxiliaries
from Placentia, Verona, Brescia, Novara, and VercdU
had yet joined them. An impetuous charge of the
German cavalry made that of the Lombards give way.
The enemy pressed forward so near the carroceio, as to
give great alarm lest this sacred car should fall into their
hands. But in the army of the Milanese there was a
company of 900 young men, who had devoted them¬
selves to its defence, and were distinguished Iqt the
name of " the company of death." These farave youtits
1177» VICTORY OV THE liOHBARDS.
51
seeing the Germans gain ground, knelt down ; and in¬
voking God and St. Ambrose, renewed their vow to
perish for their country; then rising, they advanced
with such impetuosity that the Germans were discon¬
certed, divided, and driven back. The whole army, re¬
animated by this example, hastily pressed forward. The
Germans were put to flight ; their camp was pillaged ;
Frederick was separated from his companions in arms,
and obliged to conceal himself ; and it was not till he
had passed several days, and encountered various dangers,
that he succeeded in reaching Pavia, where the empress
was already mourning his death.
The defeat at Lignano at length determined Frederick
to think seriously of peace, and to abandon pretensions
which the Lombards resisted with so much energy.
New negotiations were opened with the pope ; and
Venice was chosen, in concert with him, as the place for
holding a congress. This town had withdrawn its sig¬
nature from the league of Lombardy; it was acknow¬
ledged foreign to the Western empire, and might be
considered neutral, and indifferent in the quarrel between
the emperor and the free towns. Thepope, Alexander III.,
arrived at Venice on the 24th of March, 1177* The
emperor, whose presence the Venetians feared, first fixed
his residence at one of his palaces, near Ravenna ; ap¬
proached afterwards as far as Chiozza, and finally came
even to Venice. The negotiation bore upon three dif¬
ferent points,—to reconcile the emperor to the church,
by putting an end to the schism ; to restore peace be¬
tween the empire of the West and that of the East, and
the king of tiie Two Sicilies ; and finally to define the
constitutional rights of the emperor and of the cities of
Lombardy. Frederick was ready to submit to the
church ; and he had few subjects of dispute with the Gre¬
cian emperor, or the Norman king of the SicUies : these
parts of the treaty were not difficult to terminate. But
that part which related to the league of Lombardy must
be founded on a new order of ideas : it was the first
pact that Europe had seen made between a monarch and
E 2
52 HUTOBT OF THE ITAIX4N BEPVBUCS. 1183.
his salgects ; the first boundary line traced between au¬
thority and liberty. After long and vain attempts, the
negotiators separated, contenting themselves only with
obliging the emperor and the Lombards to condode a
truce of six years, bearing date from the Ist of August,
1177. During its existence, the rights on each side
were to remain suspended ; and the freedom of com¬
merce was re-established between the cities which
remained faithful to the emperor, and those which drew
still closer their bonds of union by a renewal of the
league of Lombardy.
The six years of repose, however, which this truce
guaranteed, accustomed the emperor to submit to limit¬
ations of Ids authority. Thirty years had passed since
the contest had begun between him and the Italian
nation ; age had now tempered his activity and calmed
his pride. New incidents had arisen to fix his attention
in Germany. His son, Henry VI., demanded to be
associated in the sovereignty of his two kingdoms of
Germany and Italy. A definitive peace only could re¬
store to Frederick his rights and revenues in Lombardy,
which his subjects there did not dispute, but which tl^
truce held suspended. The adverse claims were honestly
weighed at the diet of Constance ; reciprocal concessions
were made both by the monarch and his sulgects, and
the peace of Constance, the basis of new public rights for
Italy, was at length signed on the 25th of June, 118S.
By this peace the emperor renounced all r^al privileges
which he had hitherto claimed in the interior of towns.
He acknowledged the right of the confederate cities to
levy armies, to enclose themselves within fbrtificatioiia,
and to exercise by their commissioners within th»r own
walls both civil and criminal jurisdiction. The consuls
of towns acquired by the simple nomination of the
people all the prerogatives of imperial vicars. The
cities of Lombardy were further authorised to strengthen
their confederation for the defence of their just rig^Ms,
recognised by the peace of Constance. But, on the
other side, they engaged to maintain the just rights of
1183.
peace of constance.
53
the emperor, which were defined at the same time ; and
in order to avoid all disputes, it was agreed that these
rights might always be bought off by the annual sum of
2000 marks of silver. Thus terminated, in the esta¬
blishment of a legal liberty, the first and most noble
struggle which the nations of modem Europe have ever
maintained against despotism.
CHAP. III.
rROGRESS OF THE CITIES TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE, FROM THE
PEACE OF CONSTANCE TO THE DEATH OF FREDERICK II.
RELENTLESS ENMITY BETWEEN THE GUELPHS AND GHIBELINES.
FIRST PARTY CHIEFS WHO ATTAINED TYRANNICAL POWER.
Thb generous resistance of the Lombards, during a war
of thirty years, had conquere4 from the emperors po¬
litical liberty for all the towns of the kingdom of Italy.
The right of obeying only their own laws, of being go¬
verned by their own magistrates, of contracting alliances,
of making peace or war, and, in fine, of administering
their own finances, with the exception only of a certain
revenue payable into the imperial treasury, was more
particularly secured by the peace of Constance to the
confederate cities of the league of Lombardy. But the
Germans easily comprehended the impossibility of re¬
fusing to their allies the privileges which their enemies
had gained by conquest ; the liberties, therefore, stipu¬
lated by the peace of Constance, were rendered common
to all the towns of Italy: and those which had been most
distinguished by their attachment to the Ghibeline party,
were often found the most zealous for the establishment
and preservation of all the rights of the people. The
cities, however, did not consider themselves independent.
They were proud of the title of members of the empire :
they knew tíiey must concur in its defence, as well as in
E 3
54 BISTOBT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1188.
the maintenance of internal peace ; reserring imly that it
must be in pursuance of their free choice and deliber-
ation. They were in a manner confederates of an em¬
peror, who acted on them rather by persuasion than
orders ; rather as a party chief than as a monarch : and
as he was habituated to this compromise with puUic
opinion in his relations with the princes of the empire,
he yielded with the less repugnance to his Italian sulgects.
It is a circumstance highly honourable to the princes of
the house of Hohenstaufen, which continued to reign
sixty'seven years after the peace of Constance, that
during this long period they made no attempt to infringe
the conditions of the compact. They admitted, with good
faith, all the consequences of the concessions made ; diey
pardoned liberty, which the vulgar order of kings always
regarded as a usurpation of the subjects on the rights of
the crown.
It was not long, however, before the struggle was
renewed between the emperor and most of the towns.
It was supported with not less devotion and not fewer
sacrifices ; it caused not less calamity, whilst it endured;
and it was crowned, at its close, with results not leas
happy. But the cities did not, as in the preceding
struggle, engage in it for their own immediate interest ;
they rather seconded the policy of the holy see, which
sought the independence of the church and of Italy, and
did not cease to fight for the attainment of this object
till the extinction of the house of Hohenstaufen.
Frederick I. survived the peace of Constance seven
years. During this period he visited Italy with his son
Henry VI. : he remained some time at Milan, where he
was received with respect, and gained the afiection of
all the inhabitants, towards whom he testified the utmost
trust, confidence, and kindness. Instead of endeavouring
to intimidate Lombardy, and recover by intrigues his
former power, he waik occupied only wiih the marriage
of his son Henry, whom he had previously crowned king
of Germany, with Constance, sole heiress of the Nor¬
man kings who had conquered the Two Sicilies. Thp
1184. PEACEFUL RETURN OF FREDERICK TO MILAN. 55
union of this crown with that of Germany and of Lom-
hardy would have reduced the pope to be no more than
the first bishop of his states ; it would have disarmed
the two auxiliary powers which had supported the league
of Lomhardy against the emperor ; and it alarmed the
churchj in proportion as it flattered his ambition. The
endeavours to prevent or dissolve this union gave rise to
all the wars of the period embraced in the present chapter.
Frederick Barbarossa did not see the commencement of
them. When the news of the taking of Jerusalem by
SaladiUj on the 2d of October, 1187) had thrown all
Europe into consternation, Frederick, listening only to
his religious and chivalric enthusiasm, placed himself at
the head of the third crusade, which he led into the East
by land, and died the 10th of June, 1IQG, of a stroke of
apoplexy, caused by the coldness of the waters of the
little river Salef in Asia Minor.
Henry VI. had worn for five years the German and
Italian crowns, when he received in Germany, where he
then was with his wife, news of the death of William II.,
king of the Two Sicilies, to whom Constance was sue.
cessor ; and a few months after, that of his father Fre¬
derick I. He immediately began his journey towards
southern Italy. Tancred, a bastard of the race of the
Norman kings, put in opposition to him by the Sicilians,
defended, fçr some time with success, the independence of
those provinces, but died in 1194 ; and Henry, who had
entered the kingdom as conqueror, and had made himself
detested for his cruelty, also died there suddenly, on the
28th of September, 1197* He left by his marriage with
Constance only one son, Frederick II., hardly four years
old, who lost his mother in the following year; and
was, under the protection of the pope, acknowledged,
child as he was, king of the Two Sicilies : but the im¬
perial and Lombard crowns were withheld from him for
several years.
From the peace of Constance to the death of Henry VI.
the free cities of Italy had, for the space of fifteen years,
E 4
56 HI8T0HY OF THB ITAUAN BEPVBLICS. 1190:.
no contest to maintain against the emperora ; bat their
repose and liberty were, daring this period, constantly
endangered by the pretensions of the nobility. The
growing grandeur of the citiee, and the decay of the
imperial power, had left the nobles of Italy in a rery
ambiguous position.
They in some measure no longer had a country ; their
only security was in their own strength ; for the emperor
in resigning his power over the towns had not thoo^it
of giving an organisation to the nobles dispersed in
castles. All the families of Italian dukes, and almost
all those of marquises and counts, had become extinct ;
those who remained had lost all jurisdiction over their
inferiors ; no feudal tenure was respected ; no vassal
appeared at the baronial court, to form the tribunal of
his lord. The frontiers of the kingdom of Lombaidy
were caUed tnarches, after a German word adopted into
almost all the European languages, and the commander
of these frontien was called marquis ; but the families of
the powerful Tuscan marquises were extinct, as well aa
those of the marquises of Ancona, of Fermo, of Came*
rino, of Ivrea, and of those of the Veronese and Treviaan
marches. There remained, however, on these frontiers
some families which bore the same title, and had pre.
served some wrecks of these ancient and powerful mar.
quisates: such was the marquis d'Este, in the Veroneae
march; the marquises of Montferrat, Palavadno, Mala*
spina, in the march of Ivrea ; but they were not acknow.
ledged as lords paramount, or lords of counties and ba*
ronies : there was moreover no other organisation than
that created by the spirit of party. The nobles were not
united by the hierarchical connection of the feudal sya<
tem, but by the affections or antipathies of the Guelphs
or Ghibelines. In general, the most powerful families
among the nobles, those who had castles sufEdendy
strong, lands sufficiently extensive, and vassals suffidendy
numerous to defend diemsdvea, listening only to the am¬
bition of courts, were attached to the Ghibeline partys
Those families, on the contrary, who possessed caadea
1190> DEPRESSION OP THE NOBILITY. 57
capable of but little resistance, situated on accessible emi.
nences, or iu plains; those whose castles were near great
towns, and too weak to support a contest with them, had
demanded to be made citizens of the towns ; they had
served them in the wars of the league of Lombardy ;
they had since taken a principal share in the government,
and they thus found themselves attached by common
interests to the party of the Guelphs. Independent
nobles were no more to be found in all the plains of
Lombardy ; there was not one who had not become
citizen of some republic ; but every chain of mountain
was thick-set with castles ; where a nobility choosing
obedience to an emperor rather than to citizens, main¬
tained themselves independent: tliese, too, attracted
sometimes by the wealth and pleasures of towns, and
sometimes desirous of obtaining influence in the counsels
of powerful republics, in order to restore them to the
emperor, demanded to be made citizens, when they
thought it would open the way to a share in the govern¬
ment ; and as war was their sole occupation, they were
often gladly received by the republics, which stood in
need of good captains. It was thus the Ghibeline family
of Visconti, whose flefs extended from the Alps to the
Lago Maggiore, became associated with the republic of
Milan. The house of Este, allied to the Guelphs of
Saxony and Bavaria, and devoted to the pope, possessors
of several castles built on the fertile chain of the Euga-
nean hills, joined the republic of Ferrara ; the parallel
chain, which serves as a base to the Tyrolese Alps, was
crowned with the castles of Ezzel, or Eccelino, of Ro¬
mano, a family enriched by the emperors, entirely
devoted to the Ghibeline party, and in process of time
attached to the republics of Verona and Vicenza. In like
manner were situated on the northern side of the Apen¬
nines the fortresses of the Ghibeline uobles, who ex¬
cited revolutions in the republics of Placentia, Parma,
Reggio, and Modena : on the southern side were the
castles of other Ghibelines, in turns citizens and enemies
of the republics of Arezzo, Florence, Pistols, and Lucca:
58
HISTORY OF THE ITAUAW REPUBLIC«. 1190.
lower in the valleys of the Po, or in the npper vale of
Amo, were the castles of the Goelphs, who had become
decidedly citizens of the same republics.
The more the social tie was weakened in die Idngdom
of Lomhardy, the more eager the nobles became to be
admitted into the cides. Their wealth and military
education soon led them, by the suffrages of their fellow»
citizens, to the magistracy in this their new country.
But if they displayed more talent for war and polities,
they evinced much less subordination or submission to
the laws. Their aversions were more virulent, and they
gloried in cherishing them as a family inheritance. Ac¬
customed in their castles to decide every question by the
sword, they brought the same habits to the towns. Retain,
ing, when they became inhabitants of cities, the wild
independence of their ancient fastnesses, their houses
were fortresses ; thick walls, high and narrow windows,
a massive door of oak, secured with iron bars, promised
to resist more than one attack ; and if they were at last
forced, a high square tower still served for refuge. From
these palaces of the nobles bands of assassins were often
seen issuing, to rob or murder citizens, who were treated
as enemies : chains were prepared to be thrown across
the streets, and in an instant form barricades ; behind
which were seen ranged several hundred warriors. The
peaceable citizens, to whom these quarrels were indif.
ferent, never knew whether the peace they then saw reign
around them should not in, a few hours be changed into
a general war. The power of the consuls seemed in¬
sufficient to repress these fiery passions. All the towns
saw the necessity of adopting the institution of the
podestà, which they had received from Frederick Bar¬
barossa. Their custom was accordingly to choose
annually, by their conaiglio di eredenxa, a foreign knight
of arms, a warrior chosen from one of the confederate
cities. This knight, whom they named podeatà, was
accompanied by two or three doctors in civil and cri¬
minal law, dependent on him, and acting under him
as judges. The podesta received at the same time the
1190.
JUDICIAL INariTVTIONg.
59
command of the militia, and the power of the sword of
justice, or of pronouncing and causing to be executed
sentences on criminals. He was bound to render, at the
end of the year, an account of the manner in which he
had performed his functions to commissioners chosen by
the people, and called syndics, before whom he remained
a certain number of days amenable to justice. The towns
believed that this foreign judge would remain impartial
amidst their factions ; but the podesta himself rarely
escaped participating in the deep hatred of the Ouelphs
or Ghibelines : he needed also a hand of iron to maintain
order among nobles, so turbulent and so vindictive ; he
was accordingly invested with almost unlimited authority,
the republics preferring rather to submit to his despotic
sway than to anarchy. The violence of faction, never¬
theless, and its natural consequence, a severe admin¬
istration of justice, inspired the citizens universally with
a deep hatred of the nobles, who were alone accused of
having introduced disorder within their walls; and before
the end of the twelfth century all the Lombard cities rose
successively against the nobles, excluded them from all
public functions, and even expelled them from the towns.
Brescia, Padua, and Modena were the first to set the
example ; but, after a few months, private aSbction tri¬
umphed over public resentment, and the nobles were
recalled.
The death of Henry VI. was followed by a general
war throughout the empire, which gave fresh activity to
the passions of the Italian nobles, and greater animosity
to the opposing parties. The two factions in Germany
had simultaneously raised to the empire the two chiefs
of the houses of Guelph and Ghibeline. Philip I. duke
of Swabia, and brother of Henry VI., had been named
king of the Romans by the Ghibelines; and Otho IV.,
son of Henry the Lion, duke of Bavaria and Saxony, by
the Guelphs. Their contest was prolonged to the 22d of
June, 1208, when Philip was assassinated by a private
enemy. The Germans, wearied with eleven years of
civil war, agreed to unite under the sceptre of his rival«
60 HISTORY OF THE ITAUAN REPYBLICS. 121S.
Otho IV., whom they crowned anew. The followiiig
year he passed into Italy, to receive from the pope
the golden crown of the empire. But though Otho was
the legitimate heir of the Guelphs of Bavaria, so long
chiefs of the opposition to the imperial pserogatiTO^
yet now wearing himself the crown, he was deairoiit
of possessing it with these disputed rights: every one
was denied him, and all his actions controlled hy the
pope. There was soon a declared enmity between the
emperor and the pontiff, who, rather than consent to
any agreement, or to abate any of his pretensions, raised
against the Guelph emperor the heir of the Ghihe-
line house, the young Frederick II., grandson of Fre¬
derick I., hardly eighteen years of age, and till then
reigning under the pope's tutelage over the Two Sicilies
only. Frederick, excited and seconded by the pope, boldly
passed through Lombardy in 1212, and arrived at Aix
la Chapelle, where the German Ghibelines awaited, and
crowned him king of the Romans and Germans. Otho IV.
in the mean time returned to Germany, and was acknow«
ledged by Saxony. The civil war, carried on between
the two chiefs of the empire, lasted till the 19th of
May, 1218, when Otho died, without any attempt by
either party to despoil his rival of his hereditary posses»
sions. It was this civil war that caused the names of
Guelphs and Ghibelines to be exclusively substituted for
those of party of the church, and party of the empire. In
fact, each noble family, and each dty, seemed to consult
only their hereditary affection, and not their political prin¬
ciples, in ranging themselves under either standard. The
Guelphs placed themselves in opposition to the pope, to
repel his Ghibeline candidate ; and Milan, Placentia, and
Brescia braved even excommunication to resist him:
while, on the contrary, the Ghibelines of Pavia, Cre¬
mona, and of the March armed themselves with seal
against an emperor of the Guelph blood.
During this period, while the minority of Frederick 11,
left so much time to the cities of Italy to consolidate
their independence, and to form real republics, the per«
1197.
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III.
61
son most influential and most prominent in history was
the pope, Innocent III., who reigned from 1197 to
1S16. He was a Roman noble, count of Signa, and only
thirty-seven years of age when he ascended the papal
chair : he had been raised to it by his reputation for
sanctity and learning. A worthy successor of Gregory VII.,
he elevated, like him, the sovereignty of the popes ; but
he seemed to labour for that purpose with a fanaticism
more religious, and a pride less worldly : all his efforts
tended much more to confirm the power of the church
and of religion than his own. Like Alexander III. he
did not refuse to join the people in their efforts to ob¬
tain liberty, provided that liberty bowed with awe before
the authority of the church, and admitted no private
judgment in matters of faith. He founded the two
mendicant orders of Franciscans and Dominicans ; new
champions of the church, who were charged to repress
all activity of mind, to combat growing intelligence, and
to extirpate heresy. He confided to the Dominicans the
fearful powers of the inquisition, which he instituted :
he charged them to discover and pursue to destruction
the new reformers, who, under the name of paterini,
multiplied rapidly in Italy. He roused the fanatics of
France to exterminate, in the Albigenses,the same reform¬
ers ; and to destroy not only heretics, but all who, in the
population of Languedoc, had any wealth or independ¬
ence. He addressed his orders to the kings of Europe
with a haughtiness worthy of Gregory VII. ; but always
fixing his attention much more on discipline and the
maintenance of morality than on the augmentation of
his temporal power. Finally, he gained a triumph over
the eastern church, which he had not sought, but of which
he knew how to profit, in subjecting to his authority,
and attaching to the Latin church, the patriarch of
Constantinople, till then his rival and antagonist.
In the beginning of his pontificate, 119^^ crusade had
been preached in France by Fulk de Neuilly. The cru¬
saders, having resolved to go by sea to the Holy Land, bor¬
rowed vessels of the republic of Venice ; and finding
62 HISTORY or THE ITAUAK REPUBLICS. 1204.
themseWes afterwards too poor to pay the freight on
which they had agreed, they offered instead of it their
military services. After having subdaed Zara, which
had revolted against the republic, they bore up to Con¬
stantinople in concert with old Andrea Danddo, doge
of Venice. On the 12 th of April, 1204, they took
by assault the capital of the Grecian empire. They
named a Frendiman, Baldwin, count of Flanders, em¬
peror of Constantinople, and elected under him a Latin
patriarch. They gave the kingdom of Thessalonica to an
Italian, the marquis of Montferrat ; and they abamkmed
to the Venetians, for their share of the conquest, one
fourth and a half of the Roman empire. The doge was
named lord of this portion of the empire, but the con¬
quests of the republic were in reality limited to the
island of Candia, some other isles, Achaia, and the
Morea. These possessions beyond the sea diverted for
a long period the republic of Venice from any pottid-
pation in the affairs of Italy.
While Innocent III. caused his power to be felt in the
remotest parts of Christendom, he suffered to be consti¬
tuted at Rome, under his own eye, a republic, the liberty
of which he respected, and over which he assumed no
authority. The thirteen districts of Rome named each
annually four representatives or caporwni ; their meet¬
ing formed the senate of the republic, who, with die
concurrence of the people, exercised the sovereignty,
with the exception of the judicial power. This power
belonged, as in other republics, to a foreign mditary
chief, chosen for one year, and assisted by dvil ju^es,
dependent on him, but bearing the name of aenofor,
instead of podesta. We have still extant the form of
oath taken by the first of these senators, named in 1207.
By it he engages to guarantee security and liberty to
the pope as well as to his brothers the cardinals, but
promises no submission to him for himself.
In the beginning of the pontificate of Innocent III.,
two German generals, to whom Henry VI. had given
the titles of dyke of Spoleto, and marquis of Anoma, hdd
1204. LEAQUES IN OMBRIA AND TUBGAN7. 63
in dependence and subjection the provinces nearest Rome.
Innocent, to revive the spirit of liberty, sent thither two
legates ; and by their interference, the cities of tiiese pro¬
vinces, built for the most part in the mountains, and
without any means of becoming either wealthy or popu¬
lous, threw off the German yoke, and made alliance with
those cities which from the preceding period had entered
into the league of Lombardy: thus two Guelph leagues
were formed, under the protection of the pope ; one in
the March, comprehending the cities of Ancona, Fermo,
Osimo, Camerino, Fano, Jesi, Sinigallia, and Pesaro ;
the other in the duchy, comprehending those of Spoleto,
Rieti, Assisa, Foligno, Nocera, Perugia, Agobbio, Todi,
and Città di Castello. These leagues, however, in accus¬
toming the cities of these two provinces to regard the
pope as their protector, led them afterwards to submit
without resistance to the sovereignty of the church.
Other legates had been about the same time sent into
Tuscany by the pope : they convoked at St. Ginasio, a
borough situated at the foot of the mountain of San Mi-
niato, the diet of the towns of that country. These pro¬
vincial diets were in the habitof assembling frequently, and
had till then been presided over by an officer belonging
to the emperor, in memory of whom the castie in which
he resided is still called San Miniato al Tedesco. These
diets settled the differences which arose between cities,
and had succeeded in saving Tuscany from the civil wars
between the Guelphs and Ghibelines. Pisa, which had
been loaded with favours by the sovereigns of the house
of Hohenstaufen, and which had obtained from them
the dominion of sixty-four castles or fortified towns on
the shores of Tuscany, and over the isles of Corsica,
Elba, Capraia, and Pianosa, proclaimed its determin¬
ation of remaining faithful to the Ghibeline party, and
its consuls withdrew from the diet convoked at San Gi¬
nasio ; but those of the cities of Florence, of Sienna, of
Areizo, of Pistola and of Lucca, accepted the protection
of the pope, offered by his two legates, and promised to
coalesce in defence of their common liberty. Numerous
64 HISTORY OF THE ITAUJLlt REPHBUCS. 1215.
noUe families in these towns, both Gndphs and Ghibe-
lines, had demanded the rights of citiaendiip. Hitherto
the magistrates sncceeded in maintaining peace, and one
of the objects of the leagues was to preserve it ; but, in
1215, a Guelph noble of the upper Vale of Amo,
named Bnondelmonte, who had been made citizen of
Florence, demanded in marriage a young person of the
Ghibeline house of Amidei, and was accepted. While tbc
nuptials were in preparation, a noUe lady of the family
Donati stopped Bnondelmonte as he passed her door, and,
bringing him into the room where her women were at
work, raised the veil of her daughter, whose beanty
was exquisite. " Here," said she, " is the wife 1 had
reserved for thee. Like thee, she is Guelph ; whilst thou
takest one from the enemies of thy church and race."
Bnondelmonte, dazzled and enamoured, instantly accepted
the proffered hand. The Amidei, looked upon his incon¬
stancy as a deep affront. AU the noble Ghibeline families
of Florence, about twenty-four in number, met, and agreed
that he should atone with his life for the offence. Bnondel¬
monte was attacked on the morning of Easter Sunday,
just as he had passed the Ponte Vecchio, on horseba«^,
and kiUed at the foot of the statue of Mars, which stQl
stood there. Forty-two families of the Guelph party
met and swore to avenge him ; and blood did indeed
atone for blood. Every day some new murder, some
new battle, alarmed Florence during the space of thirty-
three years. These two parties stood opposed to each
other within the waUs of the same city; and althou^
often reconciled, every little accident renewed their ani-
mosity, and they again flew to arms to avenge ancient
wrongs.
The death of Innocent III., and, two years after¬
wards, of Otho IV., broke the unnatural alliance be¬
tween a pope and the heir of a Ghibeline family. The
Milanese, excommunicated by Innocent for having fouf^t
against Frederick II., did not the less persist in making
war on his partisans ; well convinced that the new pope,
Honorius III., would soon thank them for it. They
1220.
EAHLY AOE OF FREDERICK 11.
65
refused Frederick the iron crown of Lombardjr, preserved
Rt Monza, and contracted an alliance with the count
Thomas of Savoy, and with the cities of Crema, Pla-
centia, Lodi, Vercelli, Novara, Tortona, Como, and Alex¬
andria, to drive the Ghibelines from Lombardy. The
Ghibelines defeated them on the 6th of June, 1218,
in a great battle fought against the militias of Cremona,
Parma, Reggio, and Modena, before Ghibello. This
reverse of fortune calmed for some time their military
ardour. The citizens of every town accused the nobles
of having led them into war from family enmities and
interests foreign to the city : at Milan, Placentia, Cre¬
mona, and Modena, there were battles between the nobles
and the people. Laws were proposed, to divide the
public magistracy in due proportions between them ;
finally the Milanese, in the year 1221, expelled all the
nobles from their city.
The young Frederick re-entered Italy; and, after
some differences with Honorius III., received from him,
on the 22d of November, 1220, the crown of the em¬
pire. He afterwards occupied himself in establishing
order in his kingdom of the Two Sicilies, where, during
his minority, the popes had encouraged an universal in¬
subordination. Born in the march of Ancona, at Jesi,
in December, 119^) he was Italian as well by language
as by affection and character. The Italian language,
spoken at his coiut, first rose above the patoù in com¬
mon use throughout Italy, regarded only as a corruption
of Latin : he expressed himself with elegance in this
language, which, from his time, was designated by the
name of lingua cortigiana ; he encouraged the first
poets, who employed it at his court, and he himself made
verses ; he loved literature and encouraged learning ; he
founded schools and universities; he promoted distin¬
guished men ; he spoke with equal facility Latin, Italian,
German, French, Greek, and Arabic ; he had die intel¬
lectual suppleness and finesse peculiar to the men of the
south, tlie art of pleasing, a taste for philosophy, and
great independence of opinion, with a leaning to infi-
F
66 BISTORT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 12SS.
delity; hence he is accused off lulling written a book
against the three rerelatioos of Moses, Jesus, and Ma¬
homet, entitled " De Tribus Irapostoribus," which no
one has ever seen, and which perhaps never existed.
His want of faith in the sacred character of the Roman
church, and the sanctity of popes, is less doubtful ; he
was suspicious of them, and be employed all his address
to defend himself against their enterprises. Honorina III.,
desirous of engaging him to recover the Holy Land from
the Saracens, made him, in 1225, marry Yolanda de Ln-
signan, heiress of the kingdom of Jerusalem ; after which,
Honorius and his successor Gr^ory IX. pressed him to
pass into Palestine. A malady stopped him, in 12^7,
just as he was about to depart : the pope, to punish him
for this delay, excommunicated him. He still pursued
him with his anathema when he went to the Holy Land
the year following, and haughtily testified his indignathm,
because Frederick, in the year 1229, recovered Jerusa¬
lem from the hands of the sultan by treaty, rather than
exterminate the infidels with the sword.
Meanwhile the Guelph party again raised their stand¬
ard in Lombardy, the republics of Milan, Bologna, Pla-
centia, Verona, Brescia, Faenza, Mantua, Vercdli, Lodi,
Bergamo, Turin, Alexandria, Vicenza, Padua, and Tre-
viso, assembled their consuls in council at San Zenone
in die Mantuan territory, on the 2d of March, 1226.
They renewed the ancient league of Lombardy fsr
twenty-five years ; and engaged to defend in concert,
their own liberty and the independrace of the court of
Rome. Three years afterwards, they sent succour to
Gregory IX., when he was attacked by Frederick II. on
his return from the Holy Land ; and they were included
in the treaty of peace between the pope and the empenv
in 12S0.
The pope, however, thou^ defended by the arms of
the Lombards, made diem pay dearly for the favour
which he showed in naming them to the emperor as his
allies. He consented to protect their dvil liberty only
so far as they sacrificed to him their liberty of con8ciaK&
1S33.
PERflBCUTIONg.
67
The same spirit of reformation which animated the Al-
bigenses had spread throughout Europe : many Christians,
disgusted with the corruption and vices of the clergy, or
whose minds revolted against the violence on their rea¬
son exercised by the church, devoted themselves to a con¬
templative life, renounced all ambition and the pleasures
of the world, and sought a new road to salvation in the
alliance of faith with reason. They called th^selves
cathari, or the purified ; paterini, or the resigned. The
free towns had, till then, refused permission to the
tribunals of the inquisition, instituted by Innocent III.,
to proceed against them within their walls ; but Gre¬
gory IX. declared the impossibility of acknowledging as
allies of the holy see republicans so indulgent to the
enemies of the faith : at the same time, he sent among
them the most eloquent of the Dominicans,- to rouse their
fanaticism. Leo dà Perego, whom he afterwards made
archbishop of Milan, had only a too fatal success in that
city, where he caused a great number of paterini to be
burnt. Saint Peter Martyr, and the monk Roland of
Cremona, obtained an equal triumph in the other cities
of Lombardy. The monk John of Vicenza had the
cities of the March assigned to him as a province, where
the heretics were in still greater numbers than in Lom¬
bardy, and included in their ranks some of the most pow¬
erful nobles in the country; among others, EccelinoII.
of Romano. The monk John announced himself the
minister of peace, not of persecution. After having
preached successively in every town, he assembled, on
the plain of Paquara, the 28th of August, 1233, almost
the whole population of the towns of the March : he
exhorted them to peace in a manner so irresistible, that
the greatest enemies, setting aside their animosities, par¬
doned and embraced each other ; and all, with tears of
joy, celebrated the warm charity of this man of God.
This man of God, however, celebrated the festival of
this reconciliation by judging and condemning to the
flames sixty cathari in the single town of Verona, whose
sufferings he witnessed in the public square ; and after-
^8 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1234.
wards obtained full power from the towns of Vioensa
and Padua to act there in the like manner.
It was only a short period after the peace of Pa-
quara that Frederick II., heliering he had sufficiently
re-estahlished his power in southern Italy, began to turn
his attention towards Lomhardy ; he had no intention
of disputing the rights guaranteed by his grandfather at
the peace of Constance ; but it was his will that the
cities should remain, what they ought to be by the treaty,
members of the empire, and not enemies of the emperor.
He had raised an army, over which he feared neither the
influence of the monks nor the pope. He had trans¬
ported from the mountains of Sicily, into the city of
Luceria, in the capitanate, and into that of Nocera, in
the principato, two strong colonies of Saracens, which
could supply him with 30,000 mussulman soldiers,
strangers, by their language and religion, to all the in¬
trigues of the court of Rome. There was in the Vero¬
nese march a man endowed with great military talents,
ambitious, intrepid, and entirely devoted to the emperor,
— Eccelino III., of Romano, already powerful by the
great flefs he held in the mountains, and the number
of his soldiers, whom Frederick made still more so, by
placing him at the head of the Ghibeline party in aU
the cities. Eccelino, born on the 4th of April, 119^,
was precisely of the same age as the emperor. The
pope had summoned him to arrest his father, and
deliver him to the tribunal of the inquisition as a pa-
terino : but though Eccelino knew neither virtue, pity,
nor remorse, he was not sufficiently depraved for such
a crime.
As Frederick was on the point of attacking the
Guelphs of Lomhardy on the south with the Sañcena,
while Eccelino advanced on the east, he learnt that his
son Henry, whom he had in the year 1220 crowned,
king of Germany, in spite of his extreme youth, seduced
by the Guelphs and the agents of the pope, had revelled
against him. The Milanese, in 1234, sent deputise to
offer him the iron crown, which they had rcffused to
1237.
ECOEUNO DA ROMANO*
his father. The latter hastened into Germany, and or¬
dered his son to meet him at Worms, where he threw
himself at the feet of his father, and entreated forgive¬
ness. Frederick deprived him of the crown, and sent
him to Apulia, where he died a few years afterwards.
The emperor was obliged to employ two years in re¬
storing order in Germany : he after that returned into
Italy by the valley of Trento, and arrived, on the l6th
of August, 12S6, at Verona with 3000 German ca¬
valry. A senate of eighty members, nobles and Ghi-
belines, then governed that republic : Frederick, by his
address in managing men, engaged them to name Ec-
celino captain of the people: this committed to him
at the same time the command of the militia and the
judicial power ; and, in the state of excitement in
which the parties were, much more occupied with the
tiiumph of their faction than with the security of
their liberty, gave him almost sovereign power. Fre¬
derick, obliged to return to Germany, left under the
command of Eccelino a body of German soldiers, and
another of Saracens, with which this able captain made
himself, the same year, master of Vicenza, which he
barbarously pillaged, and the following year of Padua.
This last was the most powerful city of the province,
that in which the form of government was the most de¬
mocratic, and in which the Guelphs had always exer¬
cised the most influence. Eccelino judged it necessary
to secure obedience by taking hostages from the richest
and most powerful families ; he employed his spies to
discover the malcontents, whom he punished with tor¬
ture, and redoubled his cruelty in proportion to the hatred
which he excited.
The same year, 1237, Frederick approached Mantua;
and thus giving courage to the GhibeUne party, made
them triumph over the Guelphs, who had, till flien, the
ascendant in that city: he was joined there by 10,000
Saracens, whom he summoned from Apulia, and after¬
wards advanced into the Cremonese territory to attack
the confederate army of the Guelphs, commanded by the
F 3
70 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN BEPVBLICS. 12S7.
consuls of Mäan, who knew no other art of war but the
bravery evinced in battle. Frederick was a more able
captain: by manœuvring between Brescia and Cremona,
he drew the Milanese beyond the Oglio, and iinaUy sue«
ceeded, as they believed the campaign finished, in placing
himself between them and their country at Cortenuova
near Crema. The Guelphs, although thus cut off firom
retreat, boidly accepted iMttle on the 27th of November,
1237, and long disputed the victory. Their defeat was
only the more bloody : it cost them 10,000 men killed
or taken prisoners, with the loss of the carroccio. The
fugitives followed during the night the course ai the
Oglio to enter the Bergamasque mountains ; they would
all, however, have fallen into the hands of die Ghibe-
lines, if Pagan della Torre, the lord of Valsassina, and
a Guelph noble, had not hastened to their assistance,
opened the defiles covered by his fortresses, and broui^t
them thus safely to Milan. The citizens of this town
never forgot so important a service ; and they contracted
with the house of della Torre an alliance which subse¬
quently proved dangerous to their freedom.
The defeat of the Guelphs at Cortenuova alarmed the
towns of Lombardy, the greater number of which de¬
tached themselves from Milan. Frederick, entering
Piedmont the following year, gave preponderanee to the
Ghibeline party in the cities of Turin, Asti, Novara,
Alexandria, and several others. The constituticMi was
not changed when the power in council passed from one
party to another ; but the emperor generally reckoned
his partisans among the nobility, while the people were
devoted to the church : accordin^y, the triumph of die
aristocracy generally accompanied that of the Ghibeline
party. Four cities only, Milan, Brescia, Placentia, and
Bologna, remained at the end of the year opposed to the
imperial power. Frederick began his attack on them by
laying siege to Brescia ; but the Brescians dared to face
the storm : they supported, during sixty-ei^t days, the
repeated attacks of the emperor, rendered all his efforts
fruitless, and forced him at last to raise the ai^ with
an army weakened mid diabouraged.
1239. REKEWAt OP THE LOMBARD LEAGUE. 71
In the mean time, Gregory IX. redoubled his efforts
to save the Guelph party from ruin. He saw, with
alarm, an emperor, master of the Two Sicilies and of
Germany, on the point of vanquishing all resistance in
Upper Italy. He anticipated that this monarch, whose
mussulman soldiers were constantly passing through the
states of Rome, would escape the influence of the church,
and soon evince no respect whatever for a religion which
he was accused of not believing. Gregory had recourse
to the two maritime republics of Venice and Genoa,
which, in general occupied with their conquests and com¬
merce in the East, seldom took any part in the politics
of Italy. He represented to them, that they would be
soon deprived of the freedom of the seas, if they did not
make some effort to save the champions of liberty and
of the church in Lombardy. He at length obtained
their agreement to contract an alliance with the four
only surviving cities of the league of Lombardy ; and
finally, towards the beginning of the year 1239, he ful¬
minated another sentence of excommunication against
Frederick. This had a greater effect than Gregory
ventured to hope. A considerable number of nobles of
Guelph origin, seduced by court favours, had been won
over to the imperial party. They perceived that after
the anathema of the pope, the emperor distrusted them.
The marquis d'Este and the count di San Bonifacio
were even warned that their heads were in danger, and
they made their escape from the imperial camp : all the
other Guelph nobles followed their example ; and the
Guelph cities gained captains habituated to arras and
familiarised with higher ideas of politics.
Gregory began to think he should give still grèater
weight to the anathemas which he launched against the
emperor, if they were sanctioned by a council. In the
year 1241 he convoked at Rome all the prelates of
Christendom. Frederick, who had been established at
Pisa since the autumn of the year 1239, exerted him¬
self to prevent the meeting of a council which he dreaded.
While the two other raarittnie republics had declared for
p 4
72 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1241.
the Giielphs, Pisa was entirely of the Ghibeline party.
The people were enthnsiasticaUy attached to the emperor,
and among the nobles, a few only, proprietors of fiefs in
Sardinia, headed by the Visconti of Gallura, had for¬
saken him for the Guelphs. The Pisans, further excited
by their jealousy of the Genoese, promised Frederick
that they would brave for him all the thunders of the
church, and assured him they knew well how to hinder
the meeting of the counciL A considerable number of
French prelates had embarked at Nice for Ostia, on
board Genoese galleys. Ugolino Buzzacherino de Si»-
mondi, admiral of the Pisans, lay in wait with a powerful
fieet before Mcloria, attacked Áem on the 3d of May,
1241, sunk three vessels, took nineteen, and made pri¬
soners all the French prelates who were to join the council
at Pisa. The republic loaded them with chains, but they
were chains made of silver, and imprisoned them in the
chapter house of the cathedral. Gregory, alarmed at
this reverse of fortune, survived only a few months:
he died the 2l8t of August, 1241; and the collie of
cardinals, reduced to a very small number, passed nearly
two years before they could agree on a new choice. At
last, on the 24th of June, 1243, Sinibald de' Fieschi, of
Genoa, who took the name of Innocent lY. was elected
to the chair of St. Peter. His family, powerful in
Genoa and in the Ligurian mountains, was also allied
to many noble families, who possessed castles on the
northern side of the Apennines ; and this position gave
him great influence in the neighbouring cities of Pla-
centia, Parma, Reggio, and Modena. The elevation of
a Fieschi to the pontificate gave courage to the Guelph
party in all these cities.
Frederick had recourse in vain to the new pope to be
reconciled to the church ; Innocent IV. was determined
to see in him only an enemy of religion, and of the
pontifical power, and a chief of barbarians, who in turns
summoned his Germans and his Saracens to tjrraonise
over Italy. He drew closer his alliance with die cities
of the league of Lombardy, and promised them to cause
1245.
COUNCIL OF LYONS.
78
the emperor to be condemned and deposed by an cecu-
tnenicai council, as his predecessor would have done;
but instead of convoking the council in Italy, he fixed
for that purpose on the city of Lyons, one half of which
belonged to the empire, and the other to the kingdom
of France. He determined on placing himself with
the prelates whom he had summoned under the pro¬
tection of St. Louis, who then reigned in France. He
went from Rome to Genoa by sea, escaping the Pisan
fleet which watched to intercept his passage: he excited
by his exhortations the enthusiasm of the Guelphs of
Genoa, and of the cities of Lombardy and Piedmont,
whicii he visited on his passage ; and arriving at Lyons, he
opened, on the 28th of June, 1245, in the convent of
St. Just, the council of the universal church. He found
the bishops of France, England, and Germany eager to
adopt his passions; so that he obtained from them at their
third sitting, on the 17tli of July, a sentence of con¬
demnation against Frederick II. The council declared,
that for his crimes and iniquities God had rejected him,
and would no longer suffer him to be either emperor or
king. In consequence, the pope and the council released
his sub|jects from their oath of allegiance; forbade them
under pain of excommunication to obey him under any
title whatever; and invited the electors of the empire to
proceed to the election of another emperor, whUe the
pope reserved to himself the nomination of another king
of the Two Sicilies.
Frederick at first opposed all his strength of soul
against the sentence of excommunication pronounced
by the council on him. Causing his jewels to be brought
him, and placing the golden crown of the empire on his
head, he declared before a numerous assembly that he
would still wear it, and knew how to defend it ; but,
notwithstanding the enthusiasm of the Ghibeline party,
the devotion of his friends, and the progress of philo¬
sophical opinions, which he had himself encouraged, the
man whom the church had condemned was in constant
danger of being abandoned or betrayed. The mendicant
74 HI8T0BT OF THE ITALIAN BEPVBLICS. 1247*
monks ereiy ^rhere excited conspiracies against him.
They took advantage of the terrors inspired by aickneai
and age, to make sinners return, as they said, to the ways
of salvation, and desired them to make amends for thsir
past transgressons, by delivering the chor«^ of God from
its most dangerous enemy. Insurrections frequently
broke forth in one or other of the Two Sicilies j still
oftener the emperor discovered amongst his conrtiers
plots to destroy him, either by the dagger or poison ;
even his private secretary, his intimate friend, l^etro
delle Vigne, whom he had raised from abject poverty, to
whom he had intrusted his most important affairs, gave
ear to the counsel of the monks, and promised to poiaoB
his master. Frederick, on his part, became suspicions
and cruel : his distrust fell on his most faithful friends;
and the executions wliich he ordered sometimes preceded
the proofs of guilt. He had confided Germany to his son
Conrad, and the exclusive government the Veronese
marches to Eccelino. The hatred which this ferocioos
man excited by his crimes fell on the emperor. EcceUoo
imprisoned in the most loathsome dubgeons those whom
he considered his enemies, and frequently put them
to death by torture, or suffered them to perish by hunger:
he was well aware that the relatives of these victims must
also be his enemies : they were, in their turn, arrested ;
and the more he sacrificed to his barbarity, the more
he was called upon to strike. The citizens of MOas,
Mantua, Bergamo, and Brescia every day heard of new
and horrible crimes committed by the governor of the
marches ; they conceived the greater detestation of the
Ghibeline party, and entertained the firmer determination
to repel Frederick. He, on the contrary, had no dioi^ts
of attacking them: he established himself during the
council of Lyons at Turin, and thence entered into a
negotiation with St. Louis, to obtain by his mediatimi
a reconciliation with the church, to which he made,
in token of his submission, the offer to accompany Louis
to the Holy Land.
The revolt of Parma, on the l6th of June, 1247,
1247.
SIEOE OP PARMA.
75
obliged Frederick to resume his arms at a moment when
he was least disposed. The friends and relatives of
pope Innocent IV.^ the Guelph nobles of the houses of
Corregió, Lupi, and Rossi, re-entering Parma, whence
they had been exiled, triumphed over their adversaries,
and in their turn expelled them from the city. Fre-
derick was determined at any price to recover Parma.
He sent for a numerous band of Saracens from Apulia,
commanded by one of his natural sons, named Frederick,
to whom he gave the title of king of Antioch. He
assembled the Lombard Ghibelines, under the command
of another of his illegitimate sons, named HansJfr Hen-
sius, called by him king of Sardinia, and whom he had
made imperial vicar in Lombardy. Eccelino arrived
too at his camp from the Veronese march, with the
militias of Padua, Vicenza, and Verona ; and the sol¬
diers whom he had raised in his hereditary ñefs. On
the other side, the Guelphs of Lombardy hastened to
send succour to a city which had just sacrificed itself for
them. The Milanese set the example ; the militias of
Mantua, Placentia, and Ferrara followed it; and the
Guelphs, who had been exiled from Reggio, Modena,
and other Ghibeline cities, thinking they served their
country in fighting for their faction, arrived in great
numbers to shut themselves up in Parma. Frederick was
prevented from hanging the hostages given previous to
the revolt, before the walls of the city, by the militia Of
Pavia ;■ who declared it was with the sword of Ghibeline
soldiers only, and not with that of the executioner, that
they would secure the throne of the emperor. The siege
made little progress ; the winter had begun, but Frede¬
rick persisted in his attempt. He proclaimed his de¬
termination to rase Parma to the ground, and to transfer
those of the inhabitants who should be spared into his
fortified camp, of which he would make a new town,
called Vittoria. This camp, which he quitted on a
hawking party, on the 8th of February, 1248, was in
his absence surprised by a sortie of a Guelph army from
Parma, taken, and pillaged, his soldiers were dispersed.
76 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAN BEPVBLICS- 1248.
and the emperor had the humiliation of being forced to
raise the siege.
Before this event, he had sent his son, the king of
Antioch, into Tuscany with I6OO German cavihry, to
secure Florence to his party ; where, since the death of
Buondelmonte, the Guelphs and Ghibelines, always in
opposition, had not ceased fighting. There was seldom
an assembly, a festival, a public ceremony, without
some offence given, either by one or other of the
parties. Both flew to arms; chains were thrown across
the streets ; barricades were immediately formed, and in
every quarter, round every noble family ; the more con¬
tiguous, who had the most frequent causes of quarrel,
fought at the same time in ten diflèrent places. Never¬
theless the republic was supposed to lean towards the
Guelph party; and the Florentine Ghibelines, in their
relations with other people, had never sought to separate
from their fellow-countrymen, or to place themselves in
opposition to their magistrates. Frederick, fearing to
lose Florence, wrote to the Uberti, the chiefs of the
Ghibeline faction, to assemble secretly in their palace all
their party, to attack afterwards in concert and at onoe
all the posts of the Guelphs ; whilst his son, the king of
Antioch, should present himself at the gates, and thus
expel their adversaries from the city. This plan was
executed on the night of Candlemas, 1248 : the iñrricades
of the Guelphs were forced in every quarter, because
they defended themselves in small bands against the
whole of the opposite party. The Ghibelines, masters
of the town, ordered aÛ the Guelphs to quit it. They
afterwards demolished thirty-six palaces belonging to the
same number of the most illustrious families of that
party ; and intimidating the other cities of Tuscany, they
constrained them to follow their example, and declare
for the emperor.
Frederick II., after the check experienced by him at
Parma, returned to his kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and
left to his son Hensius, who established himself at Mo-
dena, the direction of the war in Lombardy. The pope.
1249.
LA 6ECCI1IA nAFITA.
77
however, had sent a legate, the cardinal Octavian degli
Ubaldini, to the Guelph cities, to engage them to pursue
their victory, and punish the imperial party for what he
called their revolt against the church. The powerful
city of Bplpgjia, already celebrated for its university, and
superior to the neighbouring ones by its wealth, its
population, and the zeal which a democratic government
excites, undertook to make the Guelph party triumph
throughout the Cispadane region. Bologna first attacked
Romagna, and forced the towns of Imola, Faenza, Forli,
and Cervia to expel the Ghibelines, and declare for
the church. The Bolognese next turned theh* arms
against Modena. The Modenese cavalry, entering Bo¬
logna one day by surprise, carried off from a public
fountain a bucket, which henceforth was preserved in
the tower of Modena as a glorious trophy. The war
which followed furnished Tassoni with the subject of
his mock-heroic poem, entitled " La Secchia Rapita."
The vengeance of the Bolognese was, however, any thing
but burlesque ; after several bloody battles, the two ar¬
mies finally met at Fossalta on the 26th of May, 1249.
Philip Ugoni of Brescia, who was this year podesta of
Bologna, commanded the Guelph army, in which was
united a detachment from the militias of all the cities
of the league of Lombardy. The Ghibelines were led
by king Hensius : each army consisted of from fifteen
to twenty thousand combatants. The battle was long
and bloody, but ended with the complete defeat of the
Ghibeline party ; king Hensius himself fell into the
hands of the conquerors : he was immediately taken to
Bologna, and confined in the palace of the podesta. The
senate of that city rejected all offers of ransoih, all in¬
tercession in his favour. He was entertained in a splen¬
did manner, but kept a prisoner during the rest of his
life, which lasted for twenty-two years.
This last check overwhelmed Frederick. He had
DOW during thirty years combated the church and the
Guelph party : his bodily as well as mental energy was
worn out in this long contest. His life was embittered
78 HISTOBT OF TBB ITALIAN BEPVBUCS. 1250.
by the treason of those whom he believed his friends, b}
the disasters of his partisans, and by the misfortunes
which had pursued him even in his own family. He
saw his power in Italy decline; while the crown of Ger¬
many was disputed wiUi his son Conrad, by competitors
favoured by the church. He appeared to be at length
himself disturbed by the excommunications of the pope,
and the fear of that hell with which he had been so
incessantly menaced. He implored anew the assistance
and mediation of St. Louis of France, who was then in
the isle of Cyprus. He provided magnificently for the
wants of the crusade army, which this king commanded:
he solicited leave to join it. He offered to engage never
to return from the Holy Land, and to submit to the moat
humiliating expiations which the church could impose.
He succeeded in inspiring St. Louis with interest and
gratitude. Frederick, while waiting the effect of St. Louis's
good offices, seemed occupied solely in the affairs of his
kingdom of the Two Sicilies, where he restored order,
and established a prosperity not to be seen elsewhere in
Eiu-ope. On the 1 Sth of December, 1250, he was seised
with a dysentery, of which he died, in the fifty-sixth
year of his age, at his castle of Florentino, in the capita-
nate where he had fixed his residence.
CHAP. IV.
INTERREGNUM OP THE EMPIRE. DECLINE AND SUBJUGATION
OP THE LOMBARD REPUBLICS. CHARLES OP ANJOU CALLED
TO THE SUPPORT OP THE GUELPHS. HIS POWER. — HIS
CRUELTY. SICIUAN VESPERS.
The Italian cities, which for the most part date the
commencement of their liberty from the confiicts be¬
tween the sovereigns of Italy and Germany, or the in¬
vasion of Otho the Great, in 951, had already, at the
death of Frederick II., ei\joyed for three centuries the
1251.
DrmmEoKvir.
79
protection and progreative improvement of tlieir muni¬
cipal constitutions. These three centuries, with refer¬
ence to the rest of Europe, are utterly barbarous. Their
history is every where obscure and imperfectly known. It
records only some great revolution, or the victories and
calamities of princes ; the people are always left in the
shade : a writer would have thought it beneath him
to occupy himself about the fate of plebeians ; they were
not supposed to be worthy of history. The towns of
Italy, so prodigiously superior to all others in wealth,
intelligence, energy, and independence, were equally re¬
gardless of preserving any record of past times. Some
grave chroniclers preserved the memory of an important
crisis, but in general the cities passed whole centuries
without leaving any written memorial ; thinking it per¬
haps good policy not to attract notice, and to envelope
themselves in obscurity. They, however, of necessity
departed from this system in the last century, owing to the
two conflicts, in bo of which they remained victorious.
From 1150 to 1183, they had fought to obtain the
peace of Constance, which they regarded as their con¬
stitutional charter. From 1183 to 1250, they pre¬
served the ñill exercise of the privileges which they had
so gloriously acquired : but while they continually ad¬
vanced in opulence, while intelligence and the arts be¬
came more and more developed, they were led by two
passions, equally honourable, to range themselves under
two opposite banners. One party, listening only to
their faith, their attachment, and their gratitude to a
family which had given them many great sovereigns,
were ready to venture their all for the cause of the
Ghibelines ; the other, alarmed for the independence of
the church, and the liberty of Italy, by the always in¬
creasing grandeur of the house of Hohenstaufen, were
not less resolute in their endeavours to wrest from it the
sceptre which menaced them. The cities of the Lom¬
bard league had reached the summit of their power at
the period of this second conflict. During the inter¬
regnum which lasted from tlie death of Frederick II.
80 HISTORY OF THE ITAtlAW REPUBLICS. 1354.
to the entrance into Italy of Henry VII. in 1310, the
Lombard republics, a jwey to the spirit of faction,
and more intent on the trinmph of either the Guriph
or Ghibeline parties, than on securing their own con-
stitations, all submitted themselves to the military
power of some nobles to whom they had intrusted
the command of their militias, and thus all lost their
liberty.
On the death of Frederick II., his son, Conrad IV.,
king of Germany, did not feel himself sufficiendy strong
to appear in Italy, and place on his head, in succession,
the iron crown at Monza, and the golden crown at
Rome. He wished first of all to secure that of the Two
Sicilies ; and embarked at some port in Istria for Naples,
in a Pisan vessel, during the month of October, 1251.
The remainder of his short life was passed in combating
and vanquishing the Neapolitan Guelphs. He died
suddenly at Lavello, on the 21st of May, 1254. His
natural brother, Manfred, a young hero, hardly twenty
years of age, succeeded by bis activity and courage in
recovering the kingdom which Innocent IV. had already
invaded, with the intention of subduing it to the tem¬
poral power of the holy see. But Manfred, beloved
by the Saracens of Luceria, who were the first to de¬
fend him, and admired by the Ghibelines of the Two
Sicilies, was for a long time detained there by the attacks
of the Guelphs, before he could in his turn pursue them
through the rest of Italy. Conrad had left in Germany
a son, still an infant, a:^rwards known under the name
of Conradin ; he was acknowledged king of Germany,
under the name of Conrad V., by a small party only.
The electors left the empire without a head ; and when
they afterwards proceeded to elect one, in the year 1257,
their sufirages were divided between two princes, strängen
to Gerrnany, where they had never set foot ; one, an
Englishman, Richard earl of Cornwall ; the other, a
Spaniard, Alphonso X. of CastUe.*
* Until the end of the year 1S56, William, count of Holland, one of the
competiton whom the Guelph party bad given to Frederick 11., bore the
title of King of the Romana
1251.
RETURN OF TBE FOFE.
81
Innocent IV. was still in France, when he learnt the
death of Frederick 11.; he returned theiice in die be¬
ginning of the spring of 1251; wrote to all the towns to
celebrate the delivernnce of the church ; gave boundless
expression to his joy; and made his entry into Milan,
and the principal cities of Lombardy, with all the pomp
of'a triumph, lie supposed that the republicans of
Italy had fought only for him, and that he alone would
henceforth be obeyed by them ; of this he soon made
them but too sensible. He treated the Milanese with
arrogance, and threatened to excommunicate them for
not having respected some ecclesiastical immunity. It
was the moment in which the republic, like a warrior
reposing himself after battle, began to feel its wounds.
It had made immense sacrifices for the Guelph party ;
it had emptied the treasury, obtained patriotic gifts from
every citizen who had any thing to spare ; pledged its
revenues, and loaded itself with debt to the extent of its
credit. For the discharge of their debts, the citizens
resigned themselves to the necessity of giving to their
podestà, Beno de' Gozzadini of Bologna, unlimited power
to create new imposts, and to raise money under every
form he found possible. The ingratitude of the pope, at
a moment of universal suffering, deeply offended the Mi¬
lanese ; and the infiuence of the Ghibelines in a city,
where, till then, they had been treated as enemies, might
be dated from that period.
Innocent IV. pursued his journey towards Rome ;
but ' found the capital of Christendom still less dis¬
posed than the first city of Lombardy to obey him.
The Romans, in 1253, called another Bolognese noble,
named Brancaleone d'Andolo, to the government of
their republic ; and gave him, with the title of senator,
almost unlimited authority. The citizens, continually
alarmed by the quarrels and battles of the Roman
nobles, who had converted the Colisœum, the tombs of
Adrian, Augustus, and Cœcilia Metelia, the arches of
triumph, and other monuments of ancient Rome, into
»
83 BISTORT OP TBE FTAUAK BEFITBUCS. 1351,
BO many fortreaaes, whence iasued handitti, whom they
kept in pay, to pillage paaaengers, and peaceable nap*
chants, demanded of the gOYemment, above all things,
vigour and sererity. They foigot the guarantee due t»
the accused, in their attention to those only which were
required by the public peace. The senator Brancaleam^
at the head of the Roman militia, suceessÍTely attacksi
these monuments, become. the retreat of robben and
assassins ; he levelled ta tím groimd the towers which
surmounted them ; he Kanged the adventurers who de¬
fended them, with their commanders the nobles, at the
palace windows of the latter ; and thus established, hj
terror, security in the streets of Rome. He has^
showed more reflect to Innocent than to the Roman
nobility. The pope, in order to be at a distance from
him, had transferred his court to Assisi. Brancaleooe
sent him word, that it was not decorous in a pope to be
wandering like a vagabond from dty to city ; mtd tha^
if he did not immedistdy return to the capital of Chris,
tendom, of which he was the bishop, the Rcwaaos, with
their senator at their head, would march to Aasiu^aiMl
send him out of it by setting fire to the town.
Thus, although the power of kings had given way to
that of the people, liberty was in general ill understood
and insecure. The passions were knpetuona ; a ccrtmn
point of honour was attadied to vi^ooe; the nobles
believed they gave proof of indepmideiMe by rapine and
outrage; and the friends oS order beUeved they had
attained the highest purpose of government, when they
made such audacious disturhers tremhle. The tac-
bul^ice and number of the noble criminals, the suj^ait
which their crimes found in a false pmnt of honour,
form an excuse for the judicial institutions of the Ita¬
lian republics, which were all more calculated to strike
terror into criminals too daring to conceal themselves,
than to protect the aeoused against the uivast ■i»'
picion of secret crimes. Order could be msintW|Mll
only by an iron hand ; but this iron hand soon crwbid
libórty. Neverthdess, among the Italian citiea these
1251. tiPlHlT OF THB FLORRNTIN». 85
wu one which, above all others, seemed to think of
jnatice more than of peace, and of the security of the
citiaen more than of the puniriiment of the guilty. It was
Florence ; its judicial inatitutions are, indeed, far from
meriting to be held up as models ; but they were the
first in Italy which offered any guarantee to die citizen ;
because Florence was the city where the love of liberty
was the most general and the most constant in every
claBi ; where the cultivation of the understanding was
carried farthest ; and where enlightenment of mind
soonest appeared in the improvement of the laws.
The Ghibeline nobles had taken possession of the
sovereignty of Florence, with the help of the king of
Antioch, two years before the death of his father, Fre¬
derick II.; but their power soon became insupportable
to the free and proud citizens of that republic, who had
already become wealthy by commerce, and who reckoned
amongst them some distinguished literary men, such as
Brunetto Latini, and Guido Cavalcante, without hav¬
ing lost their simplicity of manners, their sobriety of
habits, or their bodily vigour. Frederick II. still lived,
when, by an unanimous insurrection, on the 20th of Oc¬
tober, 1250, they set themselves free. All the citizens
assembled at the same moment in the square of Santa
Croce ; they divided themselves into fifty groups, of
which each group chose a captain, and thus formed
companies of militia : a council of these officers was the
first-bom authority of this newly-revived rq>ublic. The
podestà, by his severity and partiality, had rendered
himself universally detested: they deposed him, and
supplied his place by another judge, under the name of
captain of the people, but soon afterwards decreed that
the podestà and the captain should each have an in-
dependent tribunal, in order that they should exercise
upon each other a mutual control ; at the same time,
they determined that hoth should be subordinate to the
supreme magistracy of the republic, wlüch was charged
with the ailministration, but divested of the judicial
power. They decreed that this magistracy, which they
o 2
84 BISTORT OF THE IT ALIAS REPTBLICS. 1354.
called the signoria, should be always present, always
assembled in the palace of the republic, erer ready to
control the podestà or the captain, to whom they had
been obliged to delegate so much power. The town
was divided into six parts, each testier, as it was called,
named two anziani. These twelve magistrates ate
together, slept at the public palace, and could never go
out but together ; their function lasted only two months.
Twelve others, elected by the people, succeeded them ;
and the republic was so rich in good citizens, and in
men worthy of its confidence, that this rapid succession
of anziani did not exhaust their number. The Floren¬
tine militia, at the same time, attacked and demolished
all the towers which served as a refuge to the nobles, in
order that all should henceforth be forced to submit to
the common law.
The new signoria was hardly informed of the death
of Frederick, when, by a decree of the y^h of January,
1351, they recalled all the Guelph exiles to Florence.
They henceforth laboured to give tiiat party the pre¬
ponderance throughout Tuscany. They declared war
against the neighbouring cities of Pistoia, Pisa, Sienna,
and Volterra ; not to subjugate them, or to impose hard
conditions, but to force them to rally round the party
which they considered that of the church and of liberty.
The year 1354, when the Florentines were commanded
by their podestà, Guiscardo Pietra Santa, a Milanese, is
distinguished in their history by the name of the " year
of Victories." They took Üie two cities of Pistoia and
Volterra ; they forced those of Pisa and Sienna to signa
peace favourable to the Guelph party ; they refused to
profit by a tif^asnn which had given them possession of
tlie citadel of Arezzo, and they restored it to the Aretini;
lastly, they built in the Lunigiana, beyond the territory
of Lucca, a fortress destined to shut the entry of Tus¬
cany on the Ligurian side, which, in memory of their
podesta, bears to this day the name of Pietra Santa. The
signoria showed themselves also worthy to be the go-^
vernors of a city renowned for commerce, the arts, and
1258.
FARINATA DEGLI UBERTI.
85
liberty. The whole monetary system of Europe was at
this period abandoned to the depr^ations of sovereigns
who continually varied the title and weight of coins,—
sometimes to defraud their creditors, at other times toforce
their debtors to pay more than they had received, or the
tax-payers more than was due. During 150 years more,
the kings of France violated their faith with the public,
making annually, with the utmost effrontery, some im¬
portant change in the coins. But the republic of Flo¬
rence, in the year 1252, coined its golden florin, of
21- carats fine, and of the weight of one drachm. It
placed the value under the guarantee of publicity, and
of commercial good faith ; and that coin remained un¬
altered, as the standard for all other values, as long as
the republic itself endured.
A conspiracy of Ghibelines to recover their power in
Florence, and to concentrate it in the aristocratic faction,
forced the republic, in the year 1258, to exile the most
illustrious chiefs of that party. It was then directed by
Farinata degli Uberti, who was looked upon as the
most eloquent orator and the ablest warrior ii» Tus¬
cany. All the Florentine Ghibelines were favourably
received at Sienna, although the two republics had mu¬
tually engaged in their last treaty not to give refuge to
the rebels of either city. Farinata afterwards joined
Manfred, whom he found firmly established on the
throne of the Two Sicilies ; and represented to him that,
to guard his kingdom from all attack, he ought to secure
Tuscany, and give supremacy to the Ghibeline party.
He obtained from him a considerable body of German
cavalry, which he led to Sienna. Hostilities between the
two republics had already begun : the colours of Man«
fred had been dragged with cotitempt through the
streets by the Florentines. Farinata resolved to take
advantage of the irritation of the Germans, in order to
bring the two parties to a general battle. He knew that
some ignorant artisans had found their way into the
tignoria of Florence, and he tried to profit by their pre¬
sumption. He flattered them with the hope that he would
Q 3
86 BISTOBT OF THE TT^UAX BEFI BLICS. 1268.
open to them one of the gates of Sienna, if tiMj ordeieJ
their army to present itself under the waUa of thateity. At
the same time, his emissaries undertook to exdte the iD
will of the jdebeians against the noUes of the Guelph
party, who, being more clear-sighted, mi^t discorer Ùs
intrigues. Notwithstanding the opposition of the nobles
in council, the gigitoria resolved to march a Gudjd) army
through the territory of Sienna. They demanded, for
this purpose, succour from Bologna, Pistoia, Prato, San
Miniato, San Gemignano, Volterra, and Colle. They
appointed a meeting with the militias of Arezzo and of
Orvieto at Monte Aperto, fire miles from Sienna, on the
other side of the Arbia. The whole power of the Gn^ib
party in Tuscany, amounting to 30,000 infantry and
3000 cavalry, was collected there. The Gudphs were
only anxious how they should draw their enemies from
within the walls of Siennx They were themsdves in a
state of perfect security, when, on the 4th of September,
1260, they were unexpectedly attacked by Faiinafa
degli Uberti, and by the generals of Manfred. The (Bii-
belines had not more than 13,000 men, reckoning the
emigrants of Florence, the militias of Sienna and of
Pisa, and the Germans ; but they relied on a treacheroas
understanding in the Guelph camp. Bocca de^ Ab-
bati, placing himself at the head of the traitors, and
suddenly seizing the great standard of the repuhhe,
threw it to the ground. The whole army was panic-
struck when they saw the colours fall : they learned that
the enemy was master of the head-quarters, withont
knowing their numbers. The Guelphs fled on all sides ;
but, unrelentingly pursued, left 10,000 dead on the
field of battle, and a great number of prisoners in the
hands of the enemy.
The Florentine Guelphs found themselves too much
weakened by the defeat of Arbia to maintain themselves
in Florence. The drcumfnence of the walls was too
vast, and the population too much discouraged by the
enormous loss which they had experienced, to admit of
defending the dty. All those, accordingly, who had ex-
1260.
BATTLE OF ARDIA.
87
ercised any authority in the republic,— all those whoae
names were sufficiently known to discover their party,•>>
left Florence for Lucca together, on horseback. The
Guelphs of Prato, Pistola, V'olterra, and San Gemi-
gnano could not hope to maintain their ground, when
those of Florence failed. All abandoned their dwellings,
and joined the Florentines at Lucca. That city granted
to the illustrious fugitives the church and portico of
San Friano, and the surrounding quarter, where they
pitched their tents. The Ghibelines entered Florence on
the 27dl of September; immediately abolished the po¬
pular government; and formed a new magistracy, com¬
posed entirely of nobles, who took the oath of fidelity to
Manfred, king of the T wo Sicilies.
At a diet of the Ghibeline cities, assembled at Empoli,
the ambassadors of Pisa and Sienna strongly repre¬
sented, that whilst Florence existed, the preponderance
of the Ghibeline party in Tuscany could never be secure.
They affirmed, that the population of that proud and
warlike city was entirely devoted to the Guelph party ;
that there was no hope of mitigating their hatred of the
nobles and of the family of the last emperor ; that de¬
mocratic habits were become a sort of second nature to
every one of the inhabitants ; they concluded with de¬
manding that the walls of Florence should be rased to
the ground, and the people dispersed among the neigh¬
bouring towns. All the Ghibelines of Tuscany, all the
deputies of the cities jealous of Florence, received the
proposition favourably. It was about to be adopted,
when Farinata degli Uberti rose, and repelled with in¬
dignation this abuse of the victory which he had just
gained. He protested that he loved his country far bet¬
ter than his party ; and declared that he would, with
those same companions in arms whose bravery they had
witnessed at the battle of Arbia, join the Guelphs, and
fight for them, sooner than consent to the ruin of what
was in the world most dear to him. The enemies of
Florence dared not answer him ; and the diet of Empoli
o 4
88 BISTORT OF THE ITALIAN BEPVBLICR. 1S60L
contented itself with decreeing that the league of Tus¬
cany should take into pay 1000 of the soldiers of Man¬
fred, to support in that province the preponderance of
the Guelph party. Dante has immortalised Farinata as
the saviour of Florence, and Bocca degli Abbati as
the traitor who placed it on the brink of destructkm.
His poem is filled with allusions to this memorable
epoch.
While the Ghibelines thus acquired the preponderanee
in Tuscany, the tyrant fell who at the head of that party
had caused so much blood to fiow in the Treviian
march. Eccelino was hereditary lord of Bassano and
Pedemonte: he succeeded in making himself named
captain of the people by the republics of Verona, Vicenaa,
Padua, Peltre, and Belluno. By this title he united the
judicial with the military power; he was subject only to
councils which he might assemble or not at his pleasure.
It does not appear that there was any permanent magis¬
tracy, like the signoria of Florence, to repress his abuse
of power. Accordingly, he soon dianged the authority
which he derived from the people into a frightful
tyranny : fixing his suspicions upon all who rose to any
distinction, who in any way attracted the attention oi
their feUow-citizens, he did not wait for any expression
of discontent, or symptom of resistance, in the nobler
merchants, priests, or lawyers, who by their eminence
alone became suspected, to throw them into {ndson, and
there, by the most excruciating torture, extract confes¬
sions of cfknes that might justify his susjudons. Hie
names which escaped their lips in the agony of torture
were carefully registered, in order to supply fresh
victims to the tyrant. In the single town of Padua
there were eight prisons always full, notwifiistanding
the incessant toil of die executioner to empty them;
two of these contained each 300 prisoners. A brother
of Eccelino, named Alberic, governed Treviso with less
ferocity, hut with a power not less absolute. Cremona
was in like manner subject to a Ghibeline chief ; Milan
no longer evinced any repugnance to that party. In that
1256. CRUBADK AGAINST EOOELINO.
89
eity, as well as in Brescia, the factions of nobles and
plebeians disputed for power.
Alexander IV., to destroy the monster that held in
terror the Trevisan march, caused a crusade to be
preached in that country. He promised those who
combated the ferocious Eccelino all the indulgences
usually reserved for the deliverers of the Holy Land.
The marquis d'Este, the count di San Bonifazio, with
the cities of Ferrara, Mantua, and Bologna, assembled
their troops under the standard of the church ; they
were joined by a horde of ignorant fanatics from
the lowest class, anxious to obtain indulgences, but
unsusceptible of discipline, and incapable of a single
act of valour. Their number, however, so frightened
Eccelino's lieutenant at Padua, that he defended but
feebly the passage of the Bacchiglione, and the town.
The legate Philip, elected archbishop of Ravenna, en¬
tered Padua at the head of the crusaders, on the 18th
of June, 1256; but he either would not pr could
not restrain the fanatic and rapacious rabble, which
he had summoned to the support of his soldiers :
for seven days the city was inhumanly pillaged, by
those whom it had received as its deliverers. As soon
as Eccelino was informed of the loss he had sustained, he
hastened to separate and disarm the 11,000 Paduans be¬
longing to his army ; he confined them in prisons, where
all, with the exception of 200, met a violent or lingering
death. During the two following years, the Guelphs
experienced nothing but disasters : the legate, whom the
pope had placed at their head, proved incompetent to
command them ; and the crowd of crusaders whom he
called to his ranks served only to compromise them, by
want of courage and discipline. The Ghibeline nobles
of Brescia even delivered their country into the hands
of Eccelino after he had put the legate's army to Sight,
in the year 1258. The 'following year, this ^rant, un¬
equalled in Italy for bravery and military talent, always
an enemy to luxury, and proof against the seductions of
90 HISTORr OF TBB ITALIA» BEPOBLICB. 1S59>
women, making the boldeat tremble with a hxA, and pn*
aerring in his diminntiTe person, at the age of aixtj-fiTe^
ail the vigour of a soldier, advanced into the centre of
Lombardjr, in the hope that the nobles of Milan, with
whom he had already opened a corrnpondence, would
surrender this great city to him. He passed the Oglio»
and afterwards the Adda, with the most brilliaiit army
he had ever yet commanded : but the marquis Palavicino,
Buoso da Doara, the Cremonese chieftain, and other Ghi>
belines, his ancient associates, disgusted with his crimes,
had secretly made an aUiance with the Chielphs, for his
destruction. When they saw him advance so far from
his home, they rushed upon him from all sides. On the
l6th of September, 1259) whilst he was preparing to
retire, he found himself stopped at the bridge of Cassana
The Brescians, no longer obedient to his command, began
their movement to abandon him ; all the pmnts of re¬
treat were cut ofFby the Milanese, Cremonese, Ferrarians,
and Mantuans: repulsed, pursued as far as V'imereatoi,
and at last wounded in the foot, he was made prisoner,
and taken to Soncino: there, he refused to speak, rejected
all the aid of medicine ; tore off all the bandines from
his wounds, and finally expired, on the eleventh day of
his captivity. His brother with all his family were
massacred in the following year.
The defeat of Eccelino, and the destruction the
family of Romano, may be regarded as the last great
effort of the Lombards against the establishment of
tyranny in their country. About this time, the citieB
began to be accustomed to absolute power in a sbi^
person. In each republic, the nobles, always divided by
hereditary feuds, regarded it as di^acefiil to sulmiit to
the laws, rather than do themselves justice by force of
arms : their quarrels, broils, and brigandage carried
troubles and disorder into every street and public place.
The merdiants were continually on the watch to shut
their shops on the first cry of alarm ; for the satellites
of the nobles were most commonly ^nditti, to whom
126o. TURBULENT SPIRIT OP THE NOBLES. 91
they gave shelter in their palaces, and who took advan.
tage of the tumult to plunder the ^ops. At the same
time that the nobles irritated the plebeians by their arro¬
gance, they ridiculed their incapacity, and endeavoured
to exclude them from all the public offices. The people
often, in their indignation, took arms ; the streets were
barricaded, and the nobles, besieged in their town houses,
were driven to take refuge in their castles ; but if the
militias of the towns afterwards presumed to pursue in
the plains of Lombardy the nobles whom they forced to
emigrate, they soon found themselves sadly inferior.
In the course of this century, the nobles had acquired
the habit of fighting on horseback, with a lance, and
covered with heavy armour. Continual exercise could
alone render them expert in the manoeuvres of cavalry,
and accustom them to the enormous weight of the
cuirass and helmet ; on the other hand, this armour
rendered them almost invulnerable. When they charged
with couched lance, and with all the impetuosity of
their war-horses, they overthrew and annihilated the ill-
armed infantry opposed to them, without experiencing
themselves any damage. I'he cities soon frit the ne¬
cessity of opposing cavalry to cavalry, and of taking into
their pay either those nobles who made common cause
with the people, or foreigners and adventurers, who
about this time began to exchange their valour for hire.
As the custom was prevalent of giving the command of
the militia to the firstofficer of justice, in order to give him
authority either to direct the public force against rebels
or disturbers of order, or to discipline the soldier by the
fear of punishment, no commander could be found who
would undertake the military service of a town, without
at the same time possessing the power of the judicial
sword,—such power as was intrusted to the podestà or
captain of the people. It became necessary then to de¬
liver into his charge what was named the «ignoria; and
the more considerable this corps of cavalry, thus placed
for a certain number of years at the service of the
republic, the more this sigtmia, to which was attached
92 HISTORY OF THE ITAUAN REPUBLICS. 126ü.
the power of adjudging life or death in the tribunals,
became dangerous to liberty.
Among the first feudal lords who embraced the cause
of the people, and undertook the service of a town, with
a body of cavalry raised among their vassals, or among
the poor nobles, their adherents, was Pagan della Torre,
the lord of Valsassina. He had endeared himself to the
Milanese by saving their army from the pursuit of
Frederick II. after the battle of Cortenuova. He was
attached by hereditary affection to the Guelph party ;
and although himself of illustrious birth, he seemed to
partake the resentment of the plebeians of Milan against
the nobility who oppressed them. When he died, his
brother Martino, after him Raymond, then Philip,
lastly. Napoleon della Torre, succeeded each other as
captains of the people, commanders of a body of cavalry
which they had raised and placed at the service of the
city ; they were the acknowledged superiors of the podestà
and the tribunals. These five lords succeeded each
other in less than twenty years ; and even the shortness
of their lives accustomed the people to regard their elec¬
tion as the confirmation of a dynasty become hereditary.
Other Guelph cities of Lombardy were induced to
choose the same captain and governor as Milan, because
they believed him a true Guelph, and a real lover of the
people. These towns found the advantage of drawing
closer their alliance with the city which directed their
party; of placing themselves under a more powerful
protection ; and of supporting their tribunals with a
firmer hand. Martin della Torre had been elected
podestà of Milan in 1256 ; three years later, he ob¬
tained the title of elder, and lord of the people. At the
same time, Lodi also named him lord. In 126S, the
city of Novara conferred the same honour on him.
Philip, who succeeded him in 1264, was named lord by
Milan, Como, Vercelli, and Bergamo. Thus b^an to
be formed among the Lombard republics, without thdr
suspecting that they divested themselves of their liberty,
the powerful state which a century and a half later
1360.
NEW TYRANTS.
9S
became the duchy of Milan. But the pope, jealous of
the house of Delia Torre, appointed archbishop of Milan
Otho Visconti, whose family, powerful on the borders of
the Lago Maggiore, then shared the exile of the nobles
and Gliibelines. This prelate placed himself at the
head of their faction; and henceforward the rivalry
between the families of Delia Torre and Visconti made
that between the people and the nobles almost for¬
gotten.
The bitter enmity between the two parties of the
Guelphs and Ghibelines was fatal to the cause of liberty.
With the former, the question was religion, — the in-
dependehce of the church and of Italy, menaced by
the Germans and Saracens, to whom Manfred granted
not leas confidence than Frederick II. ; with the latter,
honour and good faith towards an illustrious family,
and the support of the aristocracy as well as of royalty ;
— but both were more intent on avenging offences a
thousand times repeated, and guarding against exile, and
the confiscation of property, which never failed to follow
the triumph of the opposite party. These party feelings
deeply moved men who gloried in the sacrifices which
they or their ancestors had made to either party; while
they regarded as entirely secondary the support of the
laws, the impartiality of the tribunals, or the equal par¬
ticipation of the citizens in the sovereignty. Every
town of Lombardy forgot itself, to make its faction tri¬
umph ; and it looked for success in giving more unity
and force to power. The cities of Mantua and Ferrara,
where the Guelphs were far the more numerous,
trusted for their defence, the one to the count di San
Bonifazio, the otiier to the marquis d'Este, with so much
constancy, that these nobles, under the name of captains
of the people, had become almost sovereigns. In the
republic of Verona, the Ghibelines, on the contrary, pre¬
dominated ; and as they, feared their faction might sink
at the death of Eccelino, they called to the command of
their militia, and the presidency of their tribunals,
Mastino della Scala, Innl of the castle of that name in<
94 fllSTOBY OF THE ITALIAN BEFIBL1C8. mi.
the Veronew territorj ; whoae power became herediuay
in bis family. The marquis Pelavieino, the most re¬
nowned Ghibeline in the whole valley of the Po ; whose
•trongest castle was San Donnino, between Parma sinI
Placentia, and who had formed and disciplined a snperh
body of cavalry, was named, alternately with his friend,
Buoso da Doara, lord of the city of Cremona. Pavia
and Placentia also chose him almost always their cap¬
tain; and this honour was at the same time conferred on
him by Milap, Brescia, Tortona, and Alexandria. The
Ghibeline party had, since the offence given by Inno¬
cent IV. to theGuelphs of Milan, obtained the aseendency
in Lombardy. The house of Delia Torre seemed even
to lean towards it ; and it was all powerful in Tuscany.
The city of Lucca had been the last to accede to that
party in 1263; and the Tuscan Guelphs, obliged to
leave their country, had formed a body of soldiers,
which placed itself in the pay of the few cities of Lom¬
bardy still faithful to the Guelph party.
The court of Rome saw, with great unMsiBcas, this
growing power of the Ghibeline party, firmly esta¬
blished in the Two Sicilies, under the sceptre of Man.
fred. Feared even in Rome and tite ne^bouring
provinces ; master in Tuscany, and making daily
progress in Lombardy,—^Manf^ seemed on the point
of making the whde peninsula a mngle monardiy. It
was no longer with the aims of the Italians that the
pope could expect to subdue him. The Germans afforded
DO support. Divided between Richard of Cornwall and
Alphonso of Castile,'they seemed desirous of deliveting
themselves from the impmal authority, by dividing
between foreignars an empty title; while each state
sought to establish a separate md^endence at hom^
and abandon the supremacy of the empire over Italy.
It was accordingly necessary to have recourse to other
barbarians to prevent the formation of an Italian mon¬
archy fatal to the power of the pontiff. Alexander IV.
died on the 2.'>th of May, 1261 : three months after-
irard^ a Frenchman, who took the name of Urban IV.«
1S65.
CHARLES OF ANJOU.
95
was elected his successor ; and he did not hesitate to
arm the French against Manfred.
His predecessor had already opened some negotiations,
for the purpose of giving the crown of Sicily to Ed¬
mund, son of Henry III. king of England. Urban put
an end to them by having recourse to a prince nearer,
braver, and more powerfuL He addressed himself to
Charles count of Anjou, the brodier of St. Louis,
sovereign in right of his wife of the county of Provence.
Charles had already signalised himself in war ; he was,
like his brother, a faithful believer, and still more
fanatical and bitter towuds the enemies of the church,
against whom he abandoned himself without restraint
to bis harsh and pitiless character. His religious zeal,
however, did not interfere with his policy ; his interest
set limits to his subjection to the church ; he knew how
to manage those whom he wished to gain ; and he could
flatter, at his need, the public passions, restrain his
anger, and preserve in his language a moderation which
was not in his heart. Avarice appeared his ruling
passion ; but it was only the means of serving his am-
bition, which was unbounded. He accepted the oifer
of the pope. His wife Beatrice, ambitious of the title
of queen, borne by her three sisters, pawned all her
jewels to aid in levying an army of 30,000 men, which
she led herself through Lombardy. He had preceded her.
Having gone by sea to Rome, with 1000 knights, he
made his entry into that city on the 24th of May, 12,65.
A new pope, like his predecessor a Frenchman, named
Clement IV., had succeeded Urban, and was not less
favoxirable to Charles of Ai\jou. He caused him to be
elected senator by the Roman republic, and invested
him with flie kingdom of S£cily, which he charged him
to conquer; under the condition, however, that the crown
should never be united to that of the cmpi», or to the
sovereignty of Lombardy and Tuscany. A tribute of
8000 ounces of gold, ancl a white palfmy, was, by this
investiture, assigned to St. Peter.
The Frmich army, headed by Beatrice, did not pass
9^ HISTORY OP THE ITAI.IA1« REPUBLICS. 12^.
through Italy till towards the end of the summer of
126*5 ; and in the month of February of the following
year, Charles entered, at its head, the kingdom of Naples.
He met Manfred, who awaited him in the plain of
Grandella, near Benevento, on the 26th of February.
The battle was Uoody. The Germans and Soraoens
were true to their ancient Talour; but the Apnlians fled
like cowards, and the brave son of Frederick II., aban¬
doned by them on the field of battle, periahed. The
kingdom of the Two Sicilies was the price of this vic¬
tory. Resistance ceased, but not massacre. Charles gave
up the pillage of Benevento to his soldiers ; and they
cruelly put to death all the inhabitants. The Italians,
who believed they had experienced from the Germans
and Saracens of Frederick and Manfred all that could
be feared from the most barbarous enemies, now found
that there was a degree of ferocity still greater than
that to which they had been accustomed from the house
of Hohenstaufen. The French seemed always ready to
give as to receive death. The two strong colonies of
Saracens at Luceria and Nocera were soon exterminated,
and in a few years there remained not in the Two
Sicilies a single individual of that nation or religion,
nor one German who had been in the pay of Manfred.
Charles willingly consented to acknowledge the Apnliana.
and Sicilians his subjects ; but he oppressed them, as
their conqueror, with intolerable burdens. While he dis¬
tributed amongst his followers all the great fiefs of the
kingdom, he so secured, with a hand of iron, his de¬
tested dominion, that two years afterwards, when Cow-
radin, the son of Conrad, and the nephew of Manfred,
arrived from Germany to dispute the ciown, few male-
contents in the Two Sicilies had the courage to declare
for him.
The victory of Charles of Anjou over Manfred re¬
stored the ascendant of the Guelph party in Italy.*
Philip dßlla Torre, who for some time seemed to he¬
sitate between the two factions, at last gave pissagr»
through the Milanese temtory to the army of Beatrice.
1S68. CRUELTY OP OHABLE« OF AMJOV. 97
Buoao da Doara was accosed of hanng received money not
to oppose her on the Oglio. The count di San Bonifazio,
the marquis d'Este, and afterwards the Bolognese, openly
joined her party. After the battle of Grandella, the
Florentines rose, and drove out, on the 11th of Novem¬
ber, 126(j, the German garrison, commanded by Guido
Novello, the lieutenant of Manfred. They soon after¬
wards received about 800 French cavalry from Charles,
to whom they intrusted, for ten years, the tignoria of
Florence ; that is to say, they conferred on him the
rights allowed by the peace of Constance to the emperors.
At the same time they re-established, with full Uherty,
their internal constitution ; they augmented the power
of their numerous councils, from which they excluded
the nobles and Ghibelines ; and they gave to the corpo.
rations of trade, into which all,the industrious part of the
population was divided, a direct share in the govern¬
ment
It was about tlie end of the year 1267 that the young
Conradin, aged only sixteen years, arrived at Verona,
with 10,000 cavalry, to daim the inheritance of which
the popes had despoiled his family. All the Ghibelines
and brave captains, who had distinguished themselves in
the service of his grandfather and uncle, hastened to join
him, and to aid him with their swords and counsel.
The republics of Pisa and Sienna, always devoted to his
family, but whose zeal was now redoubled by their jea¬
lousy of the Florentines, made immense sacrifices for
him. The Romans, ofiended at the pope's having aban¬
doned their city for Viterho, as well as jealous of his
pretensions in the republic, from the government of
which he had excluded the nobles, opened their gates to
Conradin, and promised him aid. But all these efibrts,
all this zeal, did not suffice to defend the heir of the
house of Hohenstaufen against the valour of the
French. Conradin entered the kingdom of his fathers
by the Abruzzi ; and met Charles of Anjou in the plain
of TagUacozio, on the 2Sd of August, 1268. A despe¬
rate battle ensued: victory long remained doubtfùJ.
H
38 jiisvokr 'ôr the itauan repvbucb. itsb.
Two divisions of the army of Charles were already de¬
stroyed ; and the Germans, who considered themselves
the victors, were dispersed in pursuit of Ae enemy;
when the French prince, who, till then, had not apu
peared on the ñdd, fell on diem with his body af
reserve, and completely routed them. Conradin, forced
to fly, was arrested, forty-five miles from Tagliacosao,
as he was about to embark for Sicily. He was brought
to Charles, who, without pity for his youth, esteem far
his courage, or respect for his just right, exacted, from
the iniquitous judges before whom he subjected him to
the mockery of a trial, a sentence of death. Conradin
was beheaded in the market-place at Naples, on the
26th of October, 1268. With him perished several of
his most illustrious companions in arms, — Germ an
princes, Ghibeline nobles, and citizens of Pisa; and,
after the sacrifice of these first victims, an uninterrupted
succession of executions long continued to fill the Two
Sicilies with dismay.
The defeat and death of Conradin established dm
preponderance of the Gnelph party throug^teut the
peninsula. Charles placed himself at the head of it:
the pope named him imperial vicar in Italy during
the interregnum of the empire, and sought to annex to
that title all the rights formerly exerdaed by the empe¬
rors in the free cities. Clement IV. died on the 29th t£
November, 1268,— one month after the ezecutiim of
Conradin. The cardinals remained thirty-three months
without being able to agree on the choice of a successor.
During this inten^num, — the longest the pontifical
chair had ever experienced,—Charles remained sole chief
of the Guelph party, ruling over the whole of Itaty,
which had neither pope nor emperor. He convoked, in
1269, a diet of the Lombard cities at Cremona, in
which the towns of Placentia, Cremona, Parma, llo-
dena. Ferrara, and Reggio, consented to confer on him
the signoria : Milan, Como, Vercelli, Novara, Alexan¬
dria, Tortona, Turin, Pavia, Bergamo, and Bologna, de¬
clared they should feel honoured by his alliance and
1S72. POLICY or ORBOOttJI X SI9
friendship, but could not take him for master. Italjr
already felt the weight of the French yoke, which would
have pressed still heavier if the crusade against Tunis
to which Charles of Anjou was summoned by his bro¬
ther, Saint Louis, had not diverted his projects of
ambition.
The conclave assembled at Viterbo at length raised to
the vacant chair Tebaldo Visconti, of Placentia, who
was at that time in the Holy Land. On his return to
Italy, in the year 127S, he took the name of Or^ory X.
This wise and moderate man soon discovered that the
court of Rome had overreached itself : in crushing the
house of Hcdienstaufen, it had given itself a new mas¬
ter, not less dangerous than the preceding. Gregory, in¬
stead of seeking to annihilate the Ghibdines, like his
predecessors, occupied himself only in endeavouring to
restore an equilibrium and peace between them and the
Guelphs. He persuaded the Florentines and Siennese to
recall the exiled Ghibelines, for the purpose, as he an¬
nounced, of uniting all Christendom in the defence of
the Holy Land ; and testified the strongest resentment
against Charles, who threw obstacles in the way of this
reconciliation. He relieved Pisa from the interdict that
had been laid on it by the holy see. He showed favour
to Venice and Genoa ; both of which, offended by the
arrogance and injustice of Charles, had made common
cause with his enemies. He engaged the electors of Ger¬
many to take advantage of the death of Richard of
Cornwall, which took place in 1271, and put an end to
the interregnum by proceeding to a new election. The
electors conferred the crown, in 1273, on Rodolph of
Hapsburg, founder of the house of Austria. The death
■of Gregory X., in the beginning of January, 1276, de¬
prived him of the opportunity to develop the projects
which these first steps seem to indicate ; but Nicolas 111.,
who succeeded him in 1277, after three ephemeral
popes, undertook more openly to bumble Charles, and
to support the Ghibeline party. He forced the king
of Si<^ to renounce the title of imperial viaar,
II 2
100 BISTORT OF THR ITAUAN BBPVBUCS. 197A
to which Clurles had no tide excqit during the üMv»
regnum of the empire : he still farther engaged hiin tt
teaign the tide of senator of Rome, and the digni^ of the
tignoria, which had been conferrñi on him by the cities
of Lombardy and Tuscany, by representing to him that
his power over these provinces was contrary to the buB
of investiture, which had put him in possession of the
kingdom of Naples.
Rodolph of Hapsbuig, who had never visited Itafy,
and was ignorant of the geography of that country, urn,
in his turn, persuaded by the pope to confinn the
charters of Louis le Débonnaire, of Otho I., and of
Henry VI., of which copies were sent to him. In
diese charters, whether true or false, taken from the
ehoncery at Rome, the sovereignty of the whole of
Emilia or Romagna, the Pentapolis, the march of An*
eona, the patrimony of St. Peter, and the campagne of
Rome, from Radicofani to Ceperano, were assigoed Ii
die church. The imperial chancery confirmed, without
examination, a concession which had never been resUy
made. The two Fredericks, as well as their predeees^
sors, had always considered tois whole extent of country
as belonging to the empire, and always exercised there
the imperial rights. A chancellor of Rodoljdi arrived in
these provinces to demand homage and the oadi of aU^
giance, which were yielded without difficulty; but
Nicolas appealed against this homage, and calkd k a
sacrilegious usurpation. Rodolph was oUiged to ac¬
knowledge that it was in contradiction to his own diplo¬
mas, and resigned his pretensions. From that period^
1£78, the republics, as well as the principalities situaied
in tiie whole extent of what is now called the States of
the Church, held of the holy see, and not of the coo-
peror.
A revolution, not long previous, in the principal dtiss
of Lombardy, had secured the preponderance to the
nobles and the Ghibeline party. These, having been for
a eonriderable period exiled from Milan, experienced a
continuation of disasters, and, instead of fear, excitad
1277« MBB or THB VISCONTI AT MILAN. 101
companion. While Napoleon della Torre, chief of the
republic of Milan, was exasperating the plebeians and
Guelphs with his arrogance and contempt of their free,
dom, he was informed that Otho Visconti, whom he had
exiled, although archbishop of Milan, had assembled
round him at Como many nobles and Ghibelines, widi
whom he intended making an attack on the Milanese
territory. Napoleon marched to meet him ; but, deapia«
ing enemies whom he had so often vanquished, he care¬
lessly suffered himself to be surprised by the Ghibelines
at Desio, in the night of the 2Ist of January, 1277*
Having been made prisoner, with five of his relatives, he
and they were placed in three iron cages, in which the
archbishop kept them confined. This prelate was him.
self received with enthusiasm at Milan, at Cremona, and
Lodi. He formed anew the councils of these republics,
admitting only Ghibelines and nobles ; who, ruined by
a long exile, and often supported by the liberality of
the archbishop, were become humble and obsequious :
their deference degenerated into submission ; and the
republic of Milan, henceforth governed by the Visconti,
became soon no more than a principality.
Nicolas III., of the noble Roman family of the
Orsini, felt an hereditary affection for the Ghibelines,
and every where favoured them. A rivalry between
two illustrious families of Bologna, the Gieremei and
the Lambertazid, terminated, in 1274, in the exile of
the latter, who were Ghibelines, with all their adherents.
The quarrel between the two families became, from that
period, a bloody war throughout Romagna. Guido de
Montefeltro, lord of the mountains in the neighbourhood
of Urbino, who had never joined any republic, received
the Ghibelines into his country ; and in commanding
them gained the reputation of a great captain. Nico,
las III. sent a legate to Romagna, to compel Bologna
and all the Guelph republics to recall the Ghibelines,
and establish peace throughout the province. He suc¬
ceeded in 1279- Another legate on a similar mission,
and with equal success, was sent to Florence and Sienna.
u 3
102 HISTORT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1280.
The balance seemed at last on the point of beiiig
established in Italy, when Nicolas died, on the 19th of
August, 1280.
Charles, who had sulmiitted without oppositiaay and
without even manifesting any displeasure, to the depres>
hi<Hi of a party on which were founded all his hopes, and
to a reconciliation which destroyed his influence in the
Guelph republics, hastened to Viterbo as soon as he
learned the death of the pc^, fully resolved not to aoflStr
another of his enemies to ascend the chair of St. Peter.
He caused three cardinals, relatives of Nicolas, whoa
he regarded as being adverse to him, to be removed by
force from the conclave ; and, striking terror into (bit
rest, he obtained, on the 22d of January, 1281, the
election of a pope entirely devoted to him. This was a
canon of Tours, who took the name of Martin IV. He
seemed to have no higher mission than that of accondliig
tike ambition of the king of the Two Sicilies, and serving
him in his enmities. Far ii-om thinking of forming any
balance to his power, he laboured to give him the aove,
reignty of all Italy. He conferred on him the title of se¬
nator of Rome ; he gave the government of all the pro»
vinces of the church to his French officers ; he caused
the Ghihelines to be exiled from all the cities ; and he
encouraged, with all his power, the new design of
Charles to take possession of the Eastern empire. Con¬
stantinople had been taken from the Latins on the
25th of July, 1261 ; and the son of the last Latin em*
peror was son-in-law of Charles of Anjou. Martin IV.
excommunicated Michael Paleologus, the Greek empe¬
ror, who had vainly endeavoured to reconcile the two
churches. The new armament, which Charles was about
to lead into Greece, was in preparation at the same rime
in all the ports of the Two ^eilies. The king^s agmta
Collected the taxes with redoubled insolence, and levied
money with greater severity. The judges endeavoured
to emothcr resistance by striking terror. In the mean¬
while, a noble of Salerno, named John da PToeida, the
fidend, confidant, and physician of Frederick II., and of
1282.
SICILIAN VESPERS.
103
Manfred, viaited in disguise the Two Sicilies, to re¬
animate the zeal of the ancient Ghibelines, and rouse
their hatred of the French and of Ciiarles. After having
traversed Greece and Spain to excite new enemies against
him, he obtained assurances that Michael Paleologus,
and Constance, the daughter of Manfred and wife of
don Pedro of Aragon, would not suffer the Sicilians to
be destroyed, if these had the courage to rise against their
oppressors. Their assistance was, in fact, promised,—it
was even prepared ; but Sicily was destined to be deli¬
vered by a sudden and popular explosion, which took
place at Palermo, on the 30th of March, 1282. It was
excited by a French soldier, who treated rudely the
person of a young bride as she was proceeding to the
church of Montreal, with her betrothed husband, to re¬
ceive the nuptial benediction. The indignation of her
relations and friends was communicated with the ra¬
pidity of lightning to the whole population of Palermo.
At that moment the bells of the churches were ringing
for vespers : the people answered by the cry, " To
arms — death to the French ! " The French were
attacked furiously on all sides. Those who attempted to
defend themselves were soon overpowered ; others, who
endeavoured to pass for Italians, were known by their
pronunciation of two words, which they were made to
repeat — ceci and cfccrt, and were, on their mispro.
nunciation, immediately put to death. In a few hours,
more than 4000 weltered in their blood. Every town
in Sicily followed the example of Palermo. Thus the
Sicilian vespers overthrew the tyranny of Charles of
Atvjou and of the Guelphs ; separated the kingdom of
Sicily from that of Naples ; and transferred the crown
of the former to don Pedro of Aragon, the son-in-law
of Manfred, who was considered the heir to the house of
Hohenstaufen.
H 4
104 HI8T0BT OF THE ITAUAN BEFUBUCS. 128S,
CHAP. V.
RALT HKOLCCTKD BT THE SMPBEOEt. — ABABOOHED BT THE
POPES. — COUBT DOOLINO. THE BLABCHl ABD BEBI AT FLO*
BEBCE. CUISE OF THE GEABD CODNCU. AT TEBICE. — THE
EMPEEOa HEBET TH. HIS EXPEDRIOB IBTO RALT.
Hithebto we have found the connecting chain of the
eTents, of which we haTe undertaken the narratiTe, in a
common interest felt throughout Italy. In seekii^ to
trace the concurrent history of more than two hnndicd
small states, we have formd their frequent revohitiona
referable to the efforts made by the Italians to maintain
the balance between the rights of the empire, of the
church, and of each city. In the period on which we
now enter, politics become complex, interests more
widely spread ; and it is much more difficult to seine
and follow a dominant idea amidst the various revedu-
tions to which Italy was a prey. This difference results
chiefly from the fact, that no potentate existed in Italy
at this time superior to the republics ; such as the former
kings of Naples, the emperors, and popes, who succeeded
in acquiring the entire government of a factum, and in
thus directing to one end the opposite efforts of all the
people of the peninsula.
Charles of Anjou, the first Frendi king of the Two
Sicilies, survived the Sicilian vespers only three years.
He died on the 7th of January, 1285, aged sixty-five
years. At this period, his son, Charles II., was a foi-
soner in the hands of the Sicilians : he was set at liberty
in 1288, in pursuance of a treaty, by which he acknow¬
ledged the separation and independence of the two crowns
of Naples and Sicily. The first was assigned to the
Guelphs and the house of Anjou ; the second to the
GhibelineB, and the house of Aragon : bat Nicholas IV.,
by whose influence the treaty was made, broke it, r».
1S88. DKCLINB OF THE ROYAL POWER. 105
leased Charles from his oath, and authorised him to
begin the war anew. This war, which lasted twenty-
four years, occupied without lustre the whole reign of
Charles II. TMs prince was milder than his father,
but weaker also. He had neither the stem character of
Charles of Anjou, which excited hatred ; nor his talents,
which commanded admiration or respect. He always
called himself the protector of the Guelph party, but
ceased to be its champion ; and neither the court of Rome,
nor the Guelph republics, any longer demanded counsel,
direction, or support from the court of Naples. He died
on the 5th of May, 1309; >nd was succeeded by his son
Robert. The influence of the emperors, as protectors of
the Ghibeline party, during this period was almost ex¬
tinct in Italy. Rodolph of Hapsburg, who reigned with
glory in Germany from 1273 to 1291, never passed the
Alps to be acknowledged emperor and king of the Lom¬
bards ; after him, Adolphus of Nassau, and his suc¬
cessor, Albert of Austria,—the one assassinated in 1298,
the other in 1308,—remained alike strangers to Italy.
The Ghibeline party was, accordingly, no longer supported
or directed by the emperors, but it maintained itwlf by
its own resources, by the attachment of the nobles to
the imperial name, and still more by the self-interest of
the captains ; who, raised to the rignoria either by the
choice of the people or of their faction, created for
themselves, in the name of the empire, a sovereignty to
which the Italians unhesitatingly gave the name of
tyranny.
Lasdy, the third power, that of the pope, which till
then had directed the politics of Italy, ceased about this
time to follow a regular system, and consequently to
give a powerful impulse to faction. Martin IV., whose
life terminated two months after that of Charles I., had
always acted as his creature, had seconded him in his
enmities, in his thirst of vengeance against the Sicilians,
and in his effbrts to recover his dominion over Italy.
But Honorius IV., who reigned after him, from 1285
to 1287, appeared to have no other thought than that of
106 BISTOBT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1S85.
AggrMKliiiing the noUe house of Savelli at Rome, of
which he was himself a member: after him, Niodaa IV.,
from 1288 to 1292, was not less zealous in his efforts
to do as much for that of Colonna. His predeecMor,
Nicolas III., had a few years preriously set the ex¬
ample, by applying all his power as pope to the elers.
tion of the Orsini. These are nearly the first examples of
the nepotism of the popes, who had hardly yet b^;nn to
feel themselves sovereigns. They raised these three great
Roman families ahove all their ancient rivals : almost
all the castles in the patrimony of St. Peter, and in the
Campagna of Rome, became their property. The houses
of Colonna, Orsini, and Savelli, to support their nobi¬
lity, soon began to traflic in their valour, by hiring
themselves out with a body of cavalry to such as would
employ them in war ; whilst the peasants, their vassals,
seduced by the spirit of adventure, and still more by
the hope of plunder, abandoned agriculture to enlist in
the troops of th^ liege lord. The effect of their dis¬
orderly lives was, that the two provinces nearest Rome
soon became the worst cultivated and the least popuksis
in all Italy, although the treasures of Europe poured into
the capital of the Faithful. After Nicolas IV., a poor
hermit, humble, timid, and ignorant, was raised, in 1294,
to the chair of St. Peter, under the name of Celestine V.
His election was the effect of a sadden burst of religioas
enthusiasm, which seized the collie of cardinals ; aL
though this holy senate had never before shown thcni.
selves more ready to consult religion than policy.
Celestine V. maintained himself only a few months on
the throne ; all his sanctity could not serve as an excuse
for his incapacity ; and the cardinal Benedict Caietan,
who persuaded him to abdicate, was elected pope in his
place, under the name of Boniface VIII. Boniface,
able, expert, intriguing, and unsmipulous, would have
restored the authority of the holy see, which daring die
latter pontificates had been continually sinking, if the
violenóe of his character, his ungovernable pride, and hia
transports of passion, had not continually thwarted hia
1283. PUOSPERITV OP THB REPUBLICS. 107
policy. He endeavoured at fírst to augment the power
of the Guelpha by the aid of France ; he afterwarda
engaged in a violent quarrel with the family of Colonna,
whom he would willingly have exterminated; and, finally,
taking offence against Philip le Bel, he treated him with
as much haughtiness as if he had been the lowest of hit
vassals. Insulted, and even arrested, by the French
prince, in his palace of Anagni, on the 7th of Septem*
her, 1303, Boniface died a few weeks afterwards of rage
and humiliation.
While the power of the kings of Naples, of the em>
perora, and of the popes, was as it were suspended in
Italy, innumerable small states, which had risen to
almost absolute independence, experienced frequent re>
volutions, for the most part proceeding from internal
and independent causes. We can, at most, only indicate
shortly those of the republics, the most distinguished and
the most influential in Italy : but, before thus entering
within the walls of the principal cities, it is right to give
a sketch of the general aspect of the country, particularly
as the violent commotions which it experienced might
give a false idea of its real state. This aspect was one
of a prodigious prosperity, which contrasted so much the
more with the rest of Europe that nothing but poverty
and barbarism were to be found elsewhere. The open
country, designated by the name of contado, appertaining
to each city, was cultivated by an active and industrious
race of peasants, enriched by their labour, and not fear¬
ing to display tlieir wealth in their dress, their cattle, and
their instruments of husbandry. The proprietors, in¬
habitants of towns, advanced them capital, shared the
harvests, and alone paid the land-tax : they undertook
the immense labour which has given so much fertility to
the Italian soil,—that of making dikes to preserve the
plains from the inundation of the rivers, and of deriving
from those rivers innumerable canals of irrigation. The
naviglio grande of Milan, which spreads the clear waters
of the Ticino over the finest part of Lorabardy, was
begun in 1179> resumed in 1257, and terminated a
108 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1283.
few years afterwards. Men who meditated, and who
applied to the arts the fruits of their study, practised
dready that scientific agriculture of Lombardy and
Tuscany which became a model to other nations ; and
at this day, after five centuries, the districts formerly
free, and always cultivated with intelligence, are easily
distinguished from those half-wild districts which had
remained subject to the feudal lords.
The cities, surrounded with thick walls, terraced,
and guarded by towers, were, for the most part, paved
with broad fiag-stones ; while the inhabitants of Paris
could not stir out of their houses without plunging into
the mud. Stone bridges of an elegant and bold archi¬
tecture were thrown over rivers ; aqueducts carried
pure water to the fountains. The pidace of the po-
destas and signorie united strength with majesty. The
most admirable of those of Florence, the Palazzo-
Vecchio, was built in 1298. The Loggia in the same
city, the church of Santa Croce, that of Santa Maria del
Fiore, with its dome, so admired by Michael Angdo,
were begun by the architect Arnolfo, scholar of Nicolas
di Pisa, between the years 1284 and 1300. The pro¬
digies of this first-born of the fine arts multiplied in
Italy : a pure taste, boldness, and grandeur struck the
eye in all the public monuments, and finally reached
even private dwellings; while the princes of France,
England, and Germany, in building their castles, seemed
to think only of shelter and defence. Sculpture in
marble and bronze soon followed the progress of archi¬
tecture: in 1300, Andrea di Pisa, son of the architect
Nicolas, cast the admirable bronze gates of the Bap¬
tistery at Florence ; about the same time, Cimabue and
Giotto revived the art of painting, Casella music, and
Dante gave to Italy his divine poem, unequalled in
succeeding generations. History was written honestly,
with scrupulous research, and with a graceful sim-
jUicity, by Giovanni Vülani, and his school ; the study
of morals and philosophy began ; and Italy, ennobled
1283.
ARTS AND trade.
109
by freedom^ enlightened nations^ till then sunk in dark¬
ness.
The arts of necessity and of luxury had been cul-
tivated with not less success than the fine arts : in every
street, warehouses and shops displayed the wealth that
Italy and Flanders only knew how to produce. It ex¬
cited the astonishment and cupidity of the French or Ger¬
man adventurer, who came to find employment in Italy,
and who had no other exchange to make than his blood
against the rich stuffs and brilliant arms which he coveted.
The Tuscan and Lombard merchants, however, traf¬
ficked in the barbarous regions of the west, ■ to carry
there the produce of their industry. Attracted by the
franchises of the fairs of Champagne and of Lyons,
they went thither, as well to barter their goods as to
lend their capital at interest to the nobles, habitually
loaded with debt ; though at the risk of finding them¬
selves suddenly arrested, their wealth confiscated, by
order of the king of France, and their lives, too, some¬
times endangered by sanctioned robbers, under the
pretext of repressing usury. Industry, the employ¬
ment of a superabundant capital, the application of
mechanism and science to the production of wealth,
secured the Italians a sort of monopoly through Eu¬
rope: they alone offered for sale what all the rich
desired to buy ; and, notwithstanding the various op¬
pressions of the barbarian kings, notwithstanding the
losses occasioned by their own often-repeated revo¬
lutions, their wealth was rapidly renewed. The wages
of workmen, the interest of capital, and the profit of
trade, rose simultaneously, while every one gained
much and spent little ; manners were still simple, luxury
was unknown, and the future was not forestalled by
accumulated debt.
The republic of Pisa was one of the first to make
known to the world the riches and power which a small
state might acquire by the aid of commerce and liberty.
Pisa had astonished the shores of the Mediterranean
110 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1284.
by the number of vessels and galleys that sailed under
her flag, by the succour she had given the crusaders, by
the fear she had inspired at Constantinople, and by the
conquest of Sardinia and the Balearic Isles. Pisa was
the first to introduce into Tuscany the arts that ennoUe
wealth: her dome, her baptistery, her leaning tower,
and her Campo Santo, which the traveller's eye embraces
at one glance, but does not weary of beholding, had been
successively built from the year 1063 to the end of the
twelfth century. These chefs-d'œuvre had animated the
genius of the Fisans : the great architects of the diir-
teenth century were, for the most part, pupils of Nicolas
di Pisa. But the moment was come in which the ruin
of this glorious republic was at hand; a deep-rooted
jealousy, to be dated from the conquest of Sardinia, had
frequently, during the last two centuries, armed against
each other the republics of Genoa and Pisa : a new war
between them broke out in 1282. It is difiicult to
comprehend how two simple cities could put to sea such
prodigious .fleets as those of Pisa and Genoa. In 1282,
Ginicel Sismondi commanded thirty Pisan galleys, of
which he lost the half in a tempest, on the 9th of Sep¬
tember ; the following year. Rosso Sismondi commanded
sixty-four ; in 1284, Guido Jacia commanded twenty-
four, and was vanquished. The Pisans had recourse
the same year to a Venetian admiral, Alberto Morosini,
to whom they intrusted 103 galleys: but, whatever
efforts they made, the Genoese constantly opposed a
superior fleet. This year, however, all the male popu¬
lation of the two republics seemed assembled on their
vessels: they met on the 6th of August, 1284, once more
before the Isle of Meloria, rendered famous forty-three
•years before by the victory of the Pisans over the same
enemies. Valour was still the same, but fortune had
changed sides ; and a terrible disaster effaced the memory
of an ancient victory. While the two fleets, almost
equal in number, were engaged, a reinforcement of
thirty Genoese galleys, driven impetuously by the wind,
struck the Pisan fleet in flank : seven of their vessels
1288.
COUNT ÜGOLINO AT PISA.
Ill
were instantly siink, twenty-eight taken. £000 citizens
perished in the battle, and 11,000 who were taken pri¬
soners to Grenoa preferred death in captivity rather
than their republic should ransom them, by giving up
Sardinia to the Genoese. This prodigious loss ruined
the maritime power of Pisa ; the same nautical know¬
ledge, the same spirit of enterprise, were not trans¬
mitted to the next generation. All the fishermen of the
coast quitted the Pisan galleys for those of Genoa. The
vessels diminished in number, with the means of manning
them ; and Pisa could no longer pretend to he more than
the third maritime power in Italy.
While the republic was thus exhausted by this great
reverse of fortune, it was attacked by the league of the
Tuscan Guelphs; and a powerful citizen, to whom it
had intrusted itself, betrayed his country to enslave it»
Ugolino was count of the Gherardesca, a mountainous
country situated along the coast, between Leghorn and
Piombino: he was of Ghibeline origin, but had married
his sister to Giovan di Gallura, chief of the Guelphs of
Pisa and of Sardinia. From that time he artfully opposed
the Guelphs to the Ghibelines; and though several accused
him of having decided the issue of the battle of Meloria,
others regarded him as the person most able, most powerful
by his alliance, and most proper, to reconcile Pisa with the
Guelph league. The Pisans, amidst the dangers of the
republic, felt the necessity of a dictator. They named
Ugolino captain-general for ten years: and the new
commander did, indeed, obtain peace with the Guelph
league ; but not till he had caused all the fortresses of
the Pisan territory to be opened by his creatures to the
Lucchese and Florentines,— a condition of his treaty with
them which he dared not publicly avow. From that
time he sought only to strengthen his own despotism, by
depriving all the magistrates of power, and by intimi¬
dating the archbishop Boger degli Ubaldini, who held
jointly with him the highest rank in the city. The
nephew of Ubaldini, having opposed him with some
haughtiness, was killed by him on the spot with his own
lis BISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1S88.
hand. His violence, and the number of executions which
he ordered, soon rendered him equally odious to the two
parties: but he had the art, in his frequent changes
from one to the other, to make the opposite party believe
him powerfully supported by that with which he at the
moment sided. In the summer of 1282 the Guelphs
were exiled: but finding in the Ghibeline chiefs, the
Gualandi Sismondi and Lanfranchi, a haughtiness which
he thought he had subdued, he charged his son to in¬
troduce anew the Guelphs into the city. His prqject
was discovered and prevented ; the Ghibelines called the
people on all sides to arms and liberty. On the 1st of
July, 1288, Ugolino was besieged in the palace of the
gignoria: the insurgents, unable to vanquish the obstinate
resistance opposed to them by himself, his sons, and his
adherents, set fire to the palace ; and, having entered it
amidst the flames, dragged forth Ugolino, two of his
sons, and two of his grandsons, and threw them into the
tower of the Sette Vie. The key was given to the arch¬
bishop ; from whom was expected the vigilance of an
enemy, but the charity of a priest. That charity, how¬
ever was soon exhausted : the key after a few months
was thrown into the river; and the wretched count
perished in those agonies of hunger, and of paternal and
filial love, upon which poetry *, sculpture, and painting
have conferred celebrity.
The victory over count Ugolino, achieved by the most
ardent of the Ghibelines, redoubled the enthusiasm and
audacity of that party ; and soon determined them to
renew the war with the Guelphs of Tuscany. Notwith.
standing the danger into which the republic was thrown
by the ambition of the last captain-general, it continued
to believe, when engaged in a hazardous war, that the
authority of a single person over the military, the
finances, and the tribunals was necessary to its proteo-
tion ; and it trusted that the terrible chastisement just
inflicted on the tyrant would hinder any other from
following his example. Accordingly Guido de Monte-
* Dante.
1292. NOBLES EXCLUDED FROM POWER. US
feltro was named captain. He had acquired a high
reputation in defending Forli against the French forces
of Charles of Anjou; and the republic had not to repent
of its choice. He recovered by force of arms all the
fortresses which Ugolino had given up to the Lucchese
and Florentines. The Pisan militia, whom Montefeltro
armed with cross-bows, which he had trained them to
use with precision, became the terror of Tuscany. The
Guelphs of Florence and Lucca were glad to make
peace in 1293.
While the Pisans became habituated to trusting the
government to a single person, the Florentines became
still more attached to the most democratic forms of
liberty. In 1282 they removed the anziani, whom
they had at first set at the head of their government, to
make room for the priori delle arti, whose name and
ofiice was preserved not only to the end of the republic,
but even to our day. The corporation of trades, which
they called the arti, were distinguished by the titles of
major and minor. At first only three, afterwards six,
major arti were admitted into the government. The
college, consisting of six priori delle arti, always as¬
sembled, and living together, during two months, in the
public palace, formed the signoria, which represented
the republic. Ten years later, the Florentines completed
this signoria by placing at its head the gonfaloner of
justice, elected also for two months, from among the
representatives of the arts, manufactures, and commerce.
When he displayed the gonfalon, or standard of the
state, the citizens were obliged to rise and assist in the
execution of the law. The arrogance of the nobles,
their quarrels, and the disturbance of the public peace
by their frequent battles in the streets, had, in 1292,
irritated the whole population i^ainst them. Giano
della Bella, himself a noble, but sympathising in the
passions and resentment of the people, proposed to bring
them to order by summary justice, and to confide the
execution of it to the gonfaloner whom he caused to be
elected. The Guelphs had been so long at the head of
I
114 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1292.
the republic, that their noble families, whose wealth had
immensely increased, placed themselves above all law.
Giano determined that*their nobility itself should be a
title of exclusion, and a commencement of punishment ;
a rigorous edict, bearing the title of "ordinance of jus¬
tice," first designated thirty-seven Guelph families of
Florence, whom it declared noble and great, and on
this account excluded for ever from the aignoria; re¬
fusing them at the same time the privilege of renouncing
their nobility, in order to place themselves on a footing
tvith the other citizens. When these families troubled
the public peace by battle or assassination, a summary
information, or even common report, was sufficient to
induce the gonfaloner to attack them at the head of the
militia, rase their houses to the ground, and deliver their
persons to the podestà, to be punished according to their
crimes. If other families committed the same disorders, if
they troubled the state by their private feuds and outrages,
the signoria was authorised to ennoble them, as a punish¬
ment of their crimes, in order to subject them to the
i^ame summary justice. A similar organisation, under
different names, was made at Sienna, Pistoia, and Lucca.
In all the republics of Tuscany, and in the greater
number of those of Lombardy, the nobility by its tur¬
bulence was excluded from aU the magistracies; and in
more than one, a register of nobles was opened, as at
Florence, on which to inscribe, by way of punishment,
the names of those who violated the public peace.
However rigorous these precautions were, they did
not suffice to retain in subjection to the laws an order
of men who believed themselves formed to rule, and
who despised the citizens with whom they were asso¬
ciated. These very nobles, to whom was denied all
participation in the government of the republic, and
almost the protection and equality of the law, were no
sooner entered into their mountain castles, than they
became sovereigns, and exercised despotic power over
their vassals. The most cultivated and wooded part of
the Apennines belonged to the republic of Pistoia. It
1300. FACTIONS OF THE BIANCHI AND NERI. J 15
was a considerable district^ bordering on the Lucchese^
Modenese, Bolognese, and Florentine territory, and was
emphatically designated by the name of the Mountain.
It was covered with castles belonging either to the
Cancellieri, or Panciatichi, the two families most power¬
ful in arms and wealth in all Italy : the first was Guelph,
the second Ghibeline ; and as the party of the former
then ruled in Tuscany, they had obtained the exile of
the Panciatichi from Pistoia. The Cancellieri took
advantage of this exile to increase their power by the
purchase of land, by conquest, and by alliance ; in their
family alone they reckoned one hundred men at arms.
This family was divided into two branches, of distant
relationship, and which were distinguished by the names
of Bianchi and Neri (whites and blacks) ; a quarrel
arose between them, and was maintained with all the
perfidy and ferocity of which the Pistoiese nolrility
were then accused. Mutilations, assassinations, and
desperate battles, from 1296 to 1300, followed each
other with a frequency which at last alarmed all
Tuscany. The Florentines, desirous of pacifying
Pistoia, engaged that city to banish from its bosom all
the Cancellieri, but at the same time opened their own
gates to them, in the hope of being able to accomplish a
reconciliation. This powerful family, allied to all the
Guelph nobility of Italy, instead of forgetting their
reciprocal injuries, drew their hosts into their quarrel :
there were, it is true, already other causes of excite¬
ment in Florence. Corso Donati, a Guelph, possessed
great infiuence over the ancient families who had from
the beginning directed that party. Vieri de Cerchi, a
Guelph also, was the chief of those who, like himself,
had recently risen to wealth and power ; he reproached
the former for not forgetting the ancient enmity between
the Guelphs and Ghibelines ; for still troubling the
republic with factions, when there was no longer any
motive ; and proposed to substitute equal laws, for
superannuated proscriptions. The Cancellieri of the
Neri party sided with Corso Donati, the ancient nobles,
I 2
Il6 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1301.
and the most violent of the Guelphs. Those of the Blanchi,
on the contrary, took part with Vieri deCerchi, the mode¬
rate Guelphs, and subsequently with the Ghibelines and
the Panciatichi. In this last party enlisted Dante, the
historian Dino Compagni, the father of Petrarch, and
all those who began about this time at Florence to dis¬
tinguish themselves in literature.
Boniface VIII. endeavoured to reconcile the two
parties who, under the names of Bianchi and Neri,
began to divide all Tuscany ; but, violent and choleric,
he was ill calculated to make peace between men as in¬
temperate as himself. He soon espoused with zeal the
party of the Neri, the aristocracy, and the most
zealous Guelphs. He had called Charles de Valois, the
brother of Philip le Bel, to Italy, to place him at the
head of an expedition which he meditated against Sicily.
He charged him to pacify Tuscany in his way ; and
gave him to imderstand that it would be easy, in states
so rich, to repay himself for his trouble. The republic
of Florence dared not refuse the mediation of Charles:
it was accustomed to regard the house of France as the
protector of the church and of the Guelph party. It,
however, limited, in precise terms, the authority allowed
him, before receiving him, and the 800 cavalry which
he commanded, within the city. But the French
princes, at this period, neither respected nor compre¬
hended the liberty of the citizen : they were incapable of
forming any idea of the reciprocal rights which th^
had to maintain. Charles, making no account of the
engagements which he had taken, formed an intimate
alliance with the Neri, whom he soon discovered to be
the more aristocratic, and more virulent in their enmities.
Having agreed on bis share of the booty, he gave, from
the 5th to the 11th of November, 1301, a loose rein to
their passions. He permitted them to pillage and hum
the houses of their enemies ; to kiU those who were the
most odious to them ; to carry off the heiresses of rich
families, and marry them to their sons ; to cause sen¬
tences of exile and confiscation to be pronounced against
1302. PERSECUTION OF THE BIANOHI. 117
all the most illustrious families of the Blanchi party by
the podestà, a creature of Charles de Valois,' whom he
had brought there. The French cavalry, and the
Guelphs of Romagna, whom Charles had also intro¬
duced into the city, assisted in all these outrages. It
was then that Dante, and Petracco dell'Ancisa, the father
of Petrarch, were exiled from their country, with many
hundred others. Charles at last quitted Florence, on the
4th of April, 1302, carrying off immense wealth. His
cavalry were loaded with gold and precious stuffs ; hut
he carried with him also the curse of the Florentines,
which seemed to follow him in his unsuccessful expedi¬
tion against Sicily. Benedict XI., the successor of Boni¬
face, vainly endeavoured, during his short pontificate, to
reconcile Äe Blanchi and Neri in the cities of Tuscany,
and to recall the latter from exile. He died of poison, on
the 4th of July, 1304. Some accuse Philip le Bel of
the crime ; he at least reaped all the benefit.' This king
succeeded by fraud in getting a Frenchman elected
pope, under the name of Clement V., whom, to keep
him more subservient to his will, he always retained in
France ; drawing thither, also, the college of cardinals,
who were recruited in that country, so that the successors
of Clement might also be Frenchmen. It was the
beginning of the long retirement, or, as the Italians call
it, exile of the popes, at Avignon, which terminated in
1377, and soon after began anew with the great western
schism. This exile was favourable to the independence
of Rome, and of the other cities of the pontifical states ;
and at the same time rendered the holy see almost indiffer¬
ent to the Guelph party, which it had often indecently
seconded.
While the nobles of the Italian cities had, by their
turbulence, excited the resentment of aU classes of the
people,— while, by their disobedience to the laws, con¬
tempt of the tribunals and of public peace, they had
drawn on themselves the exclusion not only from the
magistracies, but from the common rights, the most
precious to Üie citizens of a free state, — the nobility of
T ^
I ^
118 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1297*
Venice rose in importance^ and took possession of the go¬
vernment. Submissive to the laws^ but shaping them for
their own use,—forgetting individuals and families, to
occupy themselves only about their corporate interests,—
they arrived, by insensible usurpations, to the sovereignty
of this ancient republic. This nobility of Venice, which
appeared so docUe to the laws, so patient, so skilful, was
the oldest in Europe. It inherited the honours of the
Roman empire ; and alone preserved, from the fifth to
the eleventh century, the family names, according to the
Roman custom, which had been abandoned by the rest
of Europe. Like the nobles in the other cities of Italy,
they were in turn sovereigns in their fiefs, and subjects
in the city. After the conquest of the Greek empire, the
Venetians distributed among their nobles several islands
in the Archipelago, of which they preserved the sove¬
reignty, with the titles of dukes or counts, even after
the Greeks had recovered Constantinople ; but they had
not, and could not have, any fortresses in the vast plains
that surround Venice. They had no devoted vassads, al¬
ways ready to espouse their quarrels ; nor retreats, into
which to withdraw from the power of the law. They
acknowledged and submitted to the authority of the tri¬
bunals ; they conducted themselves as citizens, and thus
soon became masters of the state.
It was by slow and artfully disguised encroachments
that the nobility of Venice succeeded in substituting itself
for the civic power, and investing itself with the soveu
reignty of the republic. During the earlier period, the
doge was an elective prince, the limit of whose powar
was vested in assemblies of the people. It was not tiU
1032 that he was obliged to consult only a council,
formed from amongst the most illustrious citizens, whom
he designated. Thence came the name given them of
pregadi (invited). The grand council was not formed
till 1172, 140 years later, and was, from that time, the
real sovereign of the republic. It was composed of 480
members, named annually on the last day of September,
by twelve tribunes, or grand electors, of whom two were
1297. ARISTOCRACY OF VENICE. 119
chosen by each of the six sections of the republic. No
more than four members from one family could be
named. The same counsellors might be re-elected
each year. As it is in the spirit of a corporation to tend
always towards an aristocracy^ the same persons were
habitually re-elected ; and when they died, their chil¬
dren took their places. The grand council, neither
assuming to itself nor granting to the doge the judicial
power, gave the first example of the creation of a body
of judges, numerous, independent, and irremovable ;
such, nearly, as was afterwards the parliament of
Paris. In 1179» it created the criminal quarantia;
called, also, the vecchia quarantia, to distinguish it from
two other bodies of forty judges, created in 1229. The
grand council gave a more complete organisation to the
government formed from among its members. It was com¬
posed of a doge ; of six counsellors of the red robe, who
remained only eight months in office, and who, with the
doge, formed the signaría / and of the council of pre-.
gadi, composed of sixty members, renewed each year.
The doge was obliged, on entering office, to take a
rigorously detailed oath, which guaranteed all the pulfiic
liberties. At his death, a commission of enquiry was
formed, to examine whether he had not exceeded his
powers ; and in case he had, his heirs were responsible. In
1249, tihe sovereign council renounced the election of the
doge, and entrusted it to a commission drawn by lot from
among the whole council. This commission named an¬
other ; which, reduced by lot to one fourth, named a
third ; and by these alternate operations of lot and elec¬
tion, at length formed the last commission of forty-one
members, who could elect the doge only by a majority
of twenty-five suffrages. It was not till towards the end
of the thirteenth century that the people began to dis¬
cover that they were no more than a cipher in the republic,
and the doge no more than a servant of the grand coun¬
cil, — surrounded, indeed, with pomp, but without any
real power. In 1289, the people attempted themselves
I 4
120 HISTORY OY THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1297.
to elect the doge ; but the grand council obliged him
vrhom the popular suffrages had designated to leave Ve¬
nice, and substituted in his place Pietro Gradenigo, tile
chief of the aristocratic party. Gradenigo undertook to
exclude the people from any part in the election of the
grand council, as they were already debarred from any
participation in the election of a doge. He represented
it to the grand council as notorious, that for more than a
century the same persons, or families, were invariably
re-elected ; that the twelve tribunes charged with the
annual election contented themselves with examining
only whether any of the ancient members merited
exclusion from the sovereign council, and confirming all
the others ; that since the election was reduced only to
the condemnation of some individuals, it was more ex¬
pedient to confide that judgment to the equity of the
same tribunal to which the citizens intrusted their ho¬
nour and their lives, than to the arbitrary will of twelve
individuals, most frequently nominated by intrigue. He
proposed, accordingly, instead of election, the purifica¬
tion of the grand council by the forty criminal judges.
The decree which he proposed and carried on the 28th
of February, 1297, is famous in the history of Venice,
under the name of serrata del maggior cormgUo
(shutting of the grand council). He legally founded that
hereditary aristocracy,—so prudent, so jealous, so am¬
bitious, — which Europe regarded with astonishment ;
immovable in principle, unshaken in power ; uniting
some of the most odious practices of despotism with the
name of liberty ; suspicious and perfidious in politics;
sanguinary in revenge ; indulgent to the subject ; sump¬
tuous in the public service, economical in the administra¬
tion of the finances ; equitable and impartial in the admi¬
nistration of justice ; knowing well how to give prosperity
to the arts, agriculture, and commerce ; beloved by the
people who obeyed it, whilst it made the nobles who par¬
took its power tremble. TheVenetian aristocracy completed
its constitution, in 1311, by the creation of the Council of
Ten, which, notwithstanding its name, was composed of
1297* SHUTTING OP THE GRAND COUNCIL. 121
sixteen members and the doge. Ten counsellors of the
black robe were annually elected by the great council, in
the months of August and September ; and of the six
counsellors of the red robe, composing a part of the
signoria, three entered office every four months. The
Council of Ten, charged to guard the security of the state
with a power higher than the law, had an especial com¬
mission to watch over the nobles, and to punish their
crimes against the republic. In this they were restrained
by no rule : they were, with respect to the nobility, the
depositaries of the power of the great council, or rather
of a power unlimited, which no people should entrust to
any government. Some other decrees completed the sys¬
tem of the serrata del maggior consiglio. It was forbidden
to the quarantia to introduce any new man into power. In
1315, a register was opened, called the Golden Book, in
which were inscribed the names of all those who had sat
in the great council. In 1319> all limitation of number
was suppressed ; and, from that period, it sufficed to
prove that a person was the descendant of a counsellor,
and twenty-five years of age, to be by right a member of
the grand council of Venice.
On the 25th of November, 1308, the diet of Germany
named Henry VII. of Luxembourg as successor to
Albert of Austria ; and this election suddenly brought
Italy back to the same struggle for her independence
which she had so heroically supported against the two Fre¬
dericks. From the death of the second Frederick, fifty-
eight years had passed since she had seen an emperor.
Rodolph of Hapsburg, Adolphus of Nassau, and Albert of
Austria, had too much to do in Germany, to occupy them-
sevles with this constantly agitated country, where they
could demand obedience only with arms in their hands.
Henry VII. was a brave, wise, and just prince j but he
was neither rich nor powerful. He secured to his
son, by marriage, the crown of Bohemia, which had ex¬
cited some jealousy among the Germans ; and he be¬
lieved it would be expedient, in order to avoid all
quarrel in the empire, to quit it for some time. To
122 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN BEFITBLIC8. ISIO.
flatter the national vanity, he determined on an expedi¬
tion to Italy.
Henry, himself a Belgian, had no power but in
Belgium and the provinces adjoining France. From
Luxembourg he went through the county of Burgundy
to Lausanne. Here he received, in the summer of 1310,
the ambassadors of the Italian states, who came to do
him homage. He entered Piedmont, by Mont Cenis,
towards the end of September, accompanied by only
two thousand cavalry, the greater part of whom ytere
Belgians, Franc-Comtois, or Savoyards. This force
would have been wholly insufficient to subdue Italy j
but Henry VII. presented himself there as the sup¬
porter of just rights, of order, and, to a certain degree,
of liberty. The result of the violence of faction, and
of the exhaustion of the citizens, had been, to subject
almost all Lombardy to petty tyrants. Every city had
its lord, sometimes chief of the Guelph, sometimes of
the Ghibeline faction, whom his partisans had, for their
own interests, invested with dictatorial power. Some¬
times he was a neighbouring noble, who, seconded by a
band of his vassals, had inspired terror, and whom the
people respected, because he forced to obedience tur¬
bulent nobles who had never submitted to any law ; and
sometimes too he was a captain of foreign cavalry, called
to the service of the republic by the council, with the
title of lord assigned at the same time. The name
of liberty, and the cry of popoh ! popolo ! were every¬
where frequently heard ; but it was only to overthrow
the existing power, and substitute another quite as
arbitrary. These despotisms, it is true, were of short
duration ; but yet hardly one city enjoyed true liberty.
The desire of tranquillity, resulting from the outrages
committed by the nobles or by factions, was so great,
that the citizens demanded, above all, of the lords and
magistrates strength to make themselves feared,—to pu¬
nish rapidly and severely whoever troubled tie public
peace. Every city submitted to a form of summary
justice, preferring that to anarchy, although the sove-
1310. HENRY Vit. IN LOMBARHY.
128
reign lord often made an ill use of it, either to gratify
his brutal passions, or to accumulate wealth which
should be his resource in exile; an evil always to be
expected.
The lords of all Lomhardy and Piedmont came to
present themselves to Henry ; some at Turin, others at
Asti. He received them with kindness, but declared
his determination to establish legal order, such as had
been settled by the peace of Constance, in all the cities
of the empire ; and to name in each an imperial vicar,
who should govern in concert with the municipal ma¬
gistrates. Philippone di Langusco, at Pavia; Simon
da Colobiano, at Vercelli; William Brusato, at No¬
vara ; Antonio Fisiraga, at Lodi ; in obedience to this
intimation, laid down the sovereign power. At the
same time, Henry every where recalled the exiles, with¬
out distinction of party : at Como and Mantua, the
Ghibelines ; at Brescia and Placentia, the Guelphs ;
leaving out, however, the exiles of Verona, a powerful
city, which he did not visit, and which was governed
by Can' Grande della Scala, the most able Ghibeline
captain in Italy, the best soldier, the best politician,
and the person whose services and attachment the em¬
peror most valued. The rich and populous city of
Milan required also to be treated with address and
consideration. The archbishop, Otho Visconti, had
retained the principal authority in his hands to a very
advanced age. But long previously to his death,
which took place in 1295, he had transferred to his
nephew, Matteo Visconti, the title of captain of the
people, and had accustomed the Milanese to consider
him as his lieutenant and successor. Matteo did, in
fact, govern after him, and with almost despotic power,
from 1295 to 1302. He was also named lord of several
other cities of Lomhardy ; at the same time he strength¬
ened his family by many rich alliances. But Visconti
had not the art to conciliate either the remains of national
pride, or the love of liberty which still subsisted among
his subjects, or the jealousy of the other princes of Lorn-
124 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1311.
bardy. A league to give the preponderance to the
Guelph party in this province was formed by Alberto
Scotto, lord of Placentia, and by Ghiberto da Cor-
reggio, lord of Parma : they forced the Viscontis to quit
Milan, in 1302, and installed in their place Guido della
Torre and his family, who had been exiles twenty-five
years. When Henry VII. presented himself before
Milan, he found it governed by Guido della Torre
and the Guelphs. Matteo Visconti and the Ghibelines
were exiled. Henry exacted their recall ; he was
crowned in the church of St. Ambrose, on the 6th of
January, 1311, and afterwards asked of the dty a gra¬
tuity for his army of one hundred thousand florins. Till
thèn, the Italians had seen in the monarch only a just and
impartial pacificator ; but when he demanded money,
the different parties united against him. A violent
sedition broke forth at Milan. The Delia Torres and
the Guelphs were forced to leave that city. Matteo
Visconti and the Ghibelines were recalled, and the
former restored to absolute power. The Guelphs, too,
in the rest of Lombardy, rose, and took arms against
the emperor. Crema, Cremona, Lodi, Brescia, and
Como revolted at the same time. Henry consumed
the greater part of the summer in besieging Brescia,
which at last, towards the end of September, 1311, he
forced to capitulate. He granted to ffiat town equitable
conditions, impatient as he was to enter Tuscany ; but,
although Lombardy seemed subdued to his power, he
left more germs of discontent and discord in it than he
had found about a year before.
Henry VII. arrived with his little army at Genoa, on
the 21st of October, 1311. That powerful republic
now maintained at St. Jean d'Acre, at Pera opposite to
Constantinople, and at Caffa in the Black Sea, military
and mercantile colonies, which made themselves re¬
spected for their valour, at the same time that they
carried on the richest commerce of the Mediterranean.
Several islands in the Archipelago, amongst others,
of Chios, had passed in sovereignty to G^oese families.
1311.
HENRY Vil. AT GENOA.
125
The palaces of Genoa, already called the " superb," were
the admiration of travellers. Its sanguinary rivalry
with Pisa had terminated by securing to the former the
empire of the Tyrrhene Sea. From that time, Genoa
had no other rival than Venice. An accidental ren¬
counter of the fleets of these two cities in the sea of
Cyprus lighted up between them, in 1293, a terrible
war, which for seven years stained the Mediterranean
with blood, and consumed immense wealth. In 1298,
the Genoese admiral. Lamba Doria, meeting the Vene¬
tian commander, Andrea Dándolo, at Corzuola or Cor-
cyra the Black, at the extremity of the Adriatic Gulf,
burnt sixty-six of his galleys, and took eighteen, which
he brought into the port of Genoa, with 7000 prisoners ;
suffering only twelve vessels to escape. The humbled
Venetians, in the next year, asked and obtained peace.
The Genoese, vanquishers in turn of the Pisans and
Venetians, passed for the bravest, the most enterprising,
and the most fortunate mariners of all Italy. The
government of their city was entirely democratic ; but
the two chains of mountains which extend from Genoa,
the one towards Provence, and the other towards Tus¬
cany (called by the ItaliansieiZiwere diGenoa, because
the foot of these mountains forms the shore of the sea),
were covered with the castles of theLigurian nobles; the
peasantry were all dependent on them, and were always
ready to make war for their liege lords. Four families
were pre-eminent for their power and wealth — the
Doria and the Spinola, Ghibelines ; the Grimaldi and
the Fieschi, Guelphs. These nobles, incensed against
each other by hereditary enmity, had disturbed the state
by so many outrages, that the people adopted, with re¬
spect to them, the same policy as that of the Tuscan
republics, and had entirely excluded them from the
magistracy. On the other hand, they had rendered such
eminent and frequent services to the republic ; above all,
they had produced such great naval commanders, that
the people, whenever the state was in danger, had
always recourse to them for the-choice of an admiral.
126 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1SÍ2.
Seduced by the glory of these chiefs, the people often
afterwards shed their blood in their private quarrels ;
but often, also, wearied by the continual disturbanceft
which the nobles excited, they had recourse to foreigners
to subdue them to the common law. The people were
in this state of irritation against the Ligurian nobtes,
when Henry VII. arrived at Genoa, in 1311 ; and to
oblige them to maintain a peace, which they were
continually breaking, the Genoese conferred on that
monarch absolute authority over the republic for twenty
years. But when the emperor suppressed the podestà,
and then the abbate or defender of the people, and
afterwards demanded of the city a gift of 60,000 florins,
the Genoese perceived that they needed a government
not only to suppress civil discord, but also to protect
rights not less precious than peace ; an internal ferment¬
ation of increasing danger manifested itself ; and Henry
was happy to quit Genoa in safety, on the l6th of Fe¬
bruary, 1312, on board a Pisan fleet, which transported
him with about 1500 cavalry to Tuscany.
Henry VII., when he entered Italy, was impartial
between the Guelphs and Ghibelines. He owed his
election to the influence of the popes, and he was ac¬
companied by cardinal legates, who were to crown him
at Rome. He had no distrust either of Robert, then
king of Naples, the son of Charles II., or of the Guelph
cities. He had no hereditary affection for the Ghite-
lines, the zealous partisans of a family long extinct.
He endeavoured, accordingly, to hold the balance fairly
between the two parties, and to reconcile them wher¬
ever he was allowed ; but experience had already taught
him that the very name of elected emperor had a magic
influence on the Italians, either to excite the devoted
affection of the Ghibelines, or the terror and hatred of
the Guelphs. It was with the latter that resistance to
him had begun in the preceding year in Lombardy ;
and that revolt had burst forth on all sides since his
departure. Robert, king of Naples, who assumed the
part of champion of the Guelph party, already testified
131á.
HENRY VII. IN TUSCANY.
127
an open distrust of him ; and Florence, which by its pru¬
dence, ability, wealth, and courage, was the read director
of that party, took arms to resist him, refused audience to
his amlrâssadors, raised all the Guelphs of Italy against
him, and finally constrained him to place that city-under
the ban of the empire. The republic of Pisa, on the
other hand, whose affection for the Ghibeline party was
connected with its hopes, as well as its recollections,
served him with a devotion, zeal, and prodigality, which
he had not met elsewhere. The Pisans had sent him,
when at Lausanne, a present of 6*0,000 florins, to aid
him on his passage to Italy. They paid his debts at
Genoa, and they gave him another present when he
entered their city ; finally, they placed at his disposal
thirty galleys and 600 cross-bowmen, who accompanied
him to Rome, where he received the golden crown of the
empire from the hands of the pope's legate, in the church
of St. John de Lateran, on the 29th of June, 1312.
The Romans, who had taken arms against him, and
had received within their walls a Neapolitan garrison,
kept their gates shut during the ceremony, and would
not suffer one of his soldiers to enter the city.
The coronation of the emperor at Rome was the
term of service of the Germans : they took no interest
afterwards in what was passing, or might be done, in that
country. They were anxious to depart; and Henry
found himself at Tivoli, where he passed the summer,
almost entirely abandoned by his transalpine soldiers.
Had the Neapolitan king Robert been bolder, Henry
would have been in great danger. In the autumn,
however, the Ghibelines and Bianchi of central Italy
rallied round him, and formed a formidable army, with
which he marched to attack Florence, on the 19th of
September, 1312. The Florentines, accustomed to leave
their defence to mercenaries, whose valour was always
ready for pay, made small account of a military courage
which they saw so common among men whom they de¬
spised ; but no people carried civil courage and firmness
in misfortune farther. Their army was soon infinitely
128 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1313.
superior in numbers to that of Henry ; they carried on
with perfect calmness their commerce and negotiations,
as if their enemies had already departed for Germany,
hut they would not drive them out of their territory hy
giving battle ; they preferred hearing patiently their de¬
predations, and waiting till they had worn out their
enthusiasm, exhausted their finances, and should depart
of themselves, which they did on the 6th of January,
1313, finding they could obtain no advantage. Henry,
after having given some months of repose to his army,
took the command of the militia of Pisa, and made war
at their head against Lucca ; at the same time, he soli¬
cited from his brother, the archbishop of Treves, a
German reinforcement, which he obtained in the follow¬
ing month of July. On the 5th of August, 1313,
Henry VII. departed from Pisa, commanding 2500
ultramontane and 1500 Italian cavalry, with a propor¬
tionate number of infantry. He began his march to¬
wards Rome, having been informed that Robert, called
hy the Florentines to their aid, advanced with all the
forces of the Guelph party to oppose him. The declining
military reputation of the Neapolitans inspired the Ger¬
mans with little fear, and Robert had hut a small num¬
ber of French cavalry to give courage to his army ; hut
the priests and monks, animated with zeal in defence of
the ancient Guelph party and the independence of the
church, seconded him with their prayers, and the re¬
port soon spread that they had seconded him in another
manner and in their ovm way. The emperor took the road
of San Miniato to Castel Fiorentino ; arrived at Buon
Convento, twelve miles beyond Sienna; and stopped there
to celebrate the festival of St. Bartholomew. On the
24th of August, 1313, he received the communion
from the hands of a Dominican monk, and expired a few
hours afterwards. It was said the monk had mixed the
juice of Napel in the consecrated cup. It was said,
also, that Henry was already attacked hy a malady
which he concealed. A carbuncle had manifested itsetf
1313.
death op henry vii.
129
below the knee ; and a cold bath, which he took to calm
the burning irritation, perhaps occasioned his sudden
and unexpected death.
CHAP. VI.
THE POWER. AfTD GREATNESS OF SOME OF THE GHIBELINE CHIEFS.
DISORGANISATION OF THAT PARTY, THROUGH THE INCON¬
SISTENCY AND PERFIDY OF THE EMPEROR LOUIS OF BAVARIA.
— EFFORT OF THE FLORENTINES TO MAINTAIN AN EQUILIBRIUM
BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT POWERS OF ITALY. THE TYRANNY
AND EXPULSION OF THE DUKE OF ATHENS.
The electors of the empire were not convoked at Frank¬
fort to name a successor to Henry VII. till ten months
after his death. Ten, instead of seven, princes pre¬
sented themselves ; two pretenders disputed the electoral
rights in each of the houses of Saxony, Bohemia, and
Brandenburg. The electors, divided into two colleges,
named simultaneously, on the 19th of October, 1314,
two emperors: the one, Louis IV. of Bavaria ; the other,
Frederick III. of Austria. Their rights appeared equal ;
their adherents in Germany were also of nearly equal
strength ; the sword only could decide ; and war was
accordingly declared, and carried on till the 28th of
September, 1322; when Frederick was vanquished and
made prisoner at Muhldorf.
The church abstained, while the civil war lasted, from
pronouncing between the two pretenders to the «mpire.
Clement V. did not witness their double election ; he died
on the 20th of April, 1314. It was necessary, two years
afterwards, to use fraud and violence, to confine the car¬
dinals in conclave at Lyons, for the purpose of naming his
successor. They at last elected the bishop of Avignon.
He was a native of Cahors, the devoted creature of king
Robert of Naples; and took the name of John XXII.
He was the first who made Avignon, which was his
episcopal town, the residence of the Roman court,
K
ISO HISTORY OF THE ITAWAN REPUBLICS. I SIS.
exiled from Italy. He was an intriguer, notoriously
profligate, scandalously avaricious : he fancied himself,
however, a philosopher, and took a part in the qnarrd
between the realists and nominalists ; he made himself
violent enemies in the schools, on the members of which
he sometimes inflicted the punishment of death. While
he used such violence towards his adversaries as he-
retics, he shook the credit of the court of Rome, by
being himself accused of heresy. His great object was
to raise to high temporal power the cardinal Bertrand
de Poiet, whom he called his nephew, and who was
believed to be his son. For that purpose, he availed
himself of the war between the two pretenders to the
empire, regarded by him as a prolongation of the inter¬
regnum, during which he asserted aU the rights of the
emperors devolved on the holy see. He charged car¬
dinal Bertrand to exercise those rights as legate in Lom-
bardy, crush the Ghibelines, support the Guelphs ; but
above all, subdue both to the authority of the church
and its legate.
The cardinal Bertrand de Poiet launched his ex¬
communications, and employed the soldiers, whom his
father had raised for him in Provence, particularly
against Matteo Visconti, lord of Milan, one of the most
able and powerful of the Ghibehne chiefs. Visconti
made himself beloved by the Milanese, whom he had
always treated with consideration. Without being vir¬
tuous, he had preserved his reputation unstained by
crime. His mind was enlightened. To a perfect know¬
ledge of mankind, he added quiek-sightedness, prompt
decision, and a certain military glory, heightened by
that of four sons, his faithñd lieutenants, who were aU^
distinguished among the brave. The Italians gave him
the surname of Great, at a period when, it is true, they,
were prodigal of that epithet. Matteo Visconti, in his'
war with the Lombard Guelphs, took possession of
Pavia, Tortona, and Alexandria. He besieged, in con¬
cert with the Genoese Ghibelines, Robert king of
Naples, who had shut himself up in Grenoa, desirous
1513.
MATTGO VISCONTI AT MILAN.
131
of making that city the fortress of the Guelphs of
Lombardy. Visconti compelled the retreat of Philip
de Valois, who, before he was king, had entered Italy
at the solicitation of the pope, in 1320. The following
year he vanquished Raymond de Cardona, a Catalonian,
and pne of the pope's generals ; he persuaded Frederick
of Austria, who had sent his brother to aid the pope, to
recall his Germans, making him sensible it could suit
neither of the pretenders to the empire to weaken the
Ghibelines, who defended in Italy the interests of who¬
ever of the two remained conqueror. But, after having
made war against the church party twenty years, with¬
out ever suspecting that he betrayed his faith, for he
was religious without bigotry, age awakened in him
the terrors of superstition; he began to fear that the
excommunications of the legate would deprive him of
salvation ; he abdicated in favour of his eldest son,
Galeazzo ; and died a few weeks afterwards, on the 22d
of June, 1322. The remorse and scruples of Matteo
Visconti had carried trouble and disorder into his own
party, and gave boldness to that of his adversaries. A
violent fermentation at Milan at length burst forth ;
Galeazzo was obliged to fly, and the republic was pro¬
claimed anew : but virtue and patriotism, without which
it could not subsist, were extinguished ; and, after a few
weeks, Galeazzo was recalled, and reinvested with the
lordship of MUan.
The two parties of the_ Guelphs and Ghibelines, since
the death of Henry VII., no longer nearly balanced each
other in virtue, talents, and patriotism. In the begin¬
ning of their struggle, there were almost as many re¬
publics on one side as the other ; and sentiments as
J *
pure, and a devotion as generous, equally animated the
partisans of the empire and of the church. But, in the
fourteenth century, the faction of the Ghibelines had
become that of tyranny,—of the Guelphs that of liberty;
The former displayed those great military and political
tdents which personal ambition usually develops. In thé
seocHid were to be found, almost exclusively, patriotism;
K 2
132 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1314,
and the heroism which sacrifices to it every personal in¬
terest. The republic of Pisa alone, in Italy, united the
love of liberty jvith the sentiments of the Ghibeline
party. This republic had been thunderstruck by the
death of Henry VII. at a moment when a career of
glory and prosperity seemed to open on him. Pisa, ex¬
hausted by the prodigious efforts which she had made
to serve him, was true to herself, when aU the Guelphs
of Tuscany rose at once, on the death of Henry, to
avenge on her the terror which that monarch had in¬
spired. She gave the command of her militia to Uguc-
cione dà Faggiuola, a noble of the mountainous part of
Romagna, which, with the March, produced the best
soldiers in Italy. The Pisans, under the command of
Faggiuola, obtained two signal advantages over the
Guelphs. They took Lucca, on the 14th of June, 1314,
while the Lucchese Guelphs and Ghibelines were engaged
in battle in the streets of that city ; and, on the 29th of
August of the same year, they defeated, at Montecatino,
the Florentines, commanded by two princes of the house
of Naples, and seconded by all the Guelphs of Tuscany
and Romagna. But the Pisans soon perceived that they
were fighting, not for themselves, but for the captain
whom they had chosen. Almost immediately after his
victory, he began to exercise an insupportable tyranny
over Pisa and Lucca. Fearing much more the citizens
of these republics than the enemies of the state, he, on
the slightest suspicion, employed the utmost severity
against all the most illustrious families. At Lucca, he
threw into a dungeon Castruccio Castracani, the most
distinguished of the Ghibeline nobles, who had recently
returned to that city with a brilliant reputation, acquired
in the wars of France and Lombardy. A simultaneous
insurrection at Lucca and Pisa, on the 10th of April,
1316, delivered these cities from Uguccione dà Faggiuola,
and his son, while, at the head of their cavalry, they
were departing to join each other. This revolution r€^
established the republic of Pisa ; but left it exhausted
and ruined by long hostilities, and discontented with the
1316.
CASTRUCCIO AT LUCCA.
133
Ghibelines and with its own nobility, who, by a blind
spirit of party, bad drawn it into continual war. In
the month of May, 1322, fifteen chiefs of noble Gbibe-
line families, defeated in an obstinate battle, were exiled
from Pisa ; and, in less than a year afterwards, all the
Pisans estabbsbed in Sardinia were massacred on the
same day, in consequence of a plot, formed by a Pisan
rebel, to deliver Sardinia to Alpbonso, the son of
James II. of Aragon. The war with the Aragonese, to
defend the island, completed the ruin of the republic ;
and bostibties terminated with the abandonment of this
important possession, on the lOtb of June, 1326.
The revolution of Lucca, which bad deprived Uguc-
cione dà Faggiuola of power, conferred it on bis prisoner,
Castruccio Castracani, who still bore the fetters on bis
feet when the insurgents debvered bim from bis dungeon
to be proclaimed lord of Lucca. Castruccio was of the
ancient family of the Interminelb, so long exiled, with ab
the Ghibelines, from that city, that it might web have
been bebeved that they bad lost all influence ; but the
emigrants of the Itaban republics frequently acquired,
during their exile, new wealth and consideration. Want
frequently forced them to labour with redoubled dib-
gence,—to devote themselves to commerce, or to military
studies. Lucca, bad been esteemed the citadel of the
Guelpb party in Tuscany during the latter part of the
thirteenth century : since its rich Gbibebne exiles bad
been recalled, it was become entirely of the latter party.
The family of Castruccio bad acquired its wealth in Eng¬
land ; be bad himself learned the art of war there, and
in France and Lombardy. He bad seen displayed, in
these countries, the bravery of the soldier ; but be owed
to bis own intebect and studies the art of leading and
disposing armies, which in Italy only began to deserve
the name of mibtary science. Signally brave himself, be
had the art of communicating to the soldier bis courage
and enthusiasm. No one bad so quick and sure an eye on
the field of battle. He was a. no less able politician t|ian
warrior ; and whether he took part with the Gbibetine
K 3
134 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 13l6.
chiefs of Lombardy, or the emperor Louis of Bavaria^ he
became always the sole director of those who admitted
him into their council. To such talents and acquirements
was added hardly one virtue: without fideh'ty in his
engagements, without pity for the people, without gra¬
titude to those who had served him, he put to death, by
various cruel executions, all those who at Lucca excited
in him the slightest suspicion ; and, amongst others, the
Quartigiani and the Poggi, to whom he owed his eleva¬
tion. Castruccio was thirty-two years of age when he
obtained the sovereignty of his country. He was taU,
with an agreeable countenance ; and his face, thin and
surrounded with long fair hair, was remarkable for its
paleness.
The republic of Florence found itself called upon to
make head against Castruccio, and defend, against his am-;
bition, the independence of Tuscany. Florence was the
Athens of Italy. The genius displayed by some of it^
citizens,—the talent and intelligence in business to be
found even in the mass of the people, — the generosity
which seemed the national character, whenever it was
ijecessary to protect the oppressed or defend the cause of
liberty,— raised this city above every other. Sienna,
Perugia, and Bologna were at this period, like Florence,
attached to the Guelph party ; and these four republics,
with some weaker towns, formed the Guelph league of
Lombardy, The democratic spirit of the Florentines,
which imparted so much energy, had also its dangers.
These republicans, jealous of all distinction, and passion¬
ately attached to equality, demanded it not only in obe¬
dience, but in command. They insisted that the greatest
possible number of citizens should, in turn, arrive at the
office of priori, which, for two months, represented the
sovereignty. It, however, did not proceed from base
cupidity : this office, as weU as every other of thé
magistracy, was gratuitous. The republic provided the
table of the priori mily when they were in the palace.
In the month of October, _ 1323, the Florentines intro-
liuced drawing by lot into "the nomination of their fir^
1323. CONSTITUTION OF FLORENCE.
135
magistrates. They ordained that a general hst of all the
eligible citizens, Guelphs, and at least thirty years of age,
should be formed by a majority of five independent ma¬
gistracies, of which each represented a national interest:
the priori, that of the government ; the gonfaloner, that
of the militia ; the captains of the party *, that of the
Guelphs ; the judges of commerce represented the mer¬
chants ; and the consuls of the arts, industry. Each of
these had a right to point out the most ehgible citizen.
The list which they prepared was submitted to the re¬
vision of a balia (a word signifying power), composed
of the magistrates in office, and the thirty-six deputies
chosen by the six divisions of the town. The balia effaced
from the list the names of all those whom it considered
incapable ; and classed the others according as they ap¬
peared suitable to the different magistracies, to which
they were finally to be raised by lot. Lastly, it divided
the list of names by series ; so that the destined purse
from which to draw the signoria contidned twenty-one
tickets, on each of which was inscribed a gonfaloner and
six priori ; similar purses were prepared, from which to
draw by lot the names of the twelve buon' uomini, the
nineteen gonfaloniers of the companies, and all the other
magistrates of the republic. All this arrangement
was to last only three years and a half, after which a
new balia recommenced. Still, in our day, the municipal
magistrates of Tuscany are drawn by lot, in the same
manner. The activity, wisdom, and extensive views of
the Florentine republic, while its supreme magistrates
were changed by lot every two months, proves, at the
same time, how much intelligence and patriotism there
was in the people, and how worthily the priori appre¬
ciated statesmen, who, without having ostensible offices,
directed the republic by their counsel.
This movable signoria, however, could not meet in
war on equal terms with Castruccio, who united to high
talents an energetic character, promptitude, secrecy,
* The Capitani di Parte were the elective heads of the Guelph party,
three in number.
K 4
136 HISTORY OF THE ITAUAN REPUBLICS. 1325.
and unity of design. He began the war by taking from
the Florentines Pistoia, where an abbot, by the little
artifices of a monk, had obtained possession of the sove¬
reignty. The abbot, on the 5th of May, 1325, sold his
country to Castruccio. Florence took into its service
Don Raymond de Cardona, a Catalonian general, whom
the cardinal Bertrand de Poiet had introduced into Italy.
But all who served the Florentines speculated on their
wealth : Cardona remarked, that in the brilliant army
which the republic had placed under his command, there
were many rich merchants, who bore impatiently the
fatigues and privations of the service : in order to sell
them leave of absence at a higher price, he resolved to
complete their disgust. He led them in the middle of
summer round the marshes of Bientina, where he long
detained them. Many merchants obtained leave of
absence by rich presents ; but many more died or fell
sick. With his army thus weakened by his own fault,
he engaged Castruccio at Alto Pascio, and was defeated,
on the 23d of September, 1325. Raymond was taken
prisoner ; the carroccio fell into the hands of the enemy ;
and these trophies of victory ornamented the tri¬
umphal pomp with which Castruccio returned to Lucca
at the head of his army. A signal defeat of the Bolo-
gnese, at Monteveglio, on the 15th of November, 1325,
completed the discouragement of the Guelph party.
Bologna sought a protector in the cardinal de Poiet, on
whom was conferred the signoria. The Florentines had
recourse to the king of Naples, who agreed to aid them
only on condition that they would confer the signoria on his
son, the duke of Calabria. Intelligence that Castruccio
had engaged the emperor Louis of Bavaria to enter
Tuscany, induced them, though with the utmost repug¬
nance, to adopt this measure.
Louis of Bavaria had treated his prisoner Frederick
of Austria with magnanimity. He not only set him at
liberty, but associated him in his government." Louis
passed in Germany for a loyal and generous prince;
perhaps, only because violent and cruel actions inspired
1327.
LOUIS OF BAVARIA IN ITALY.
137
there little horror ; public opinion was not yet awakened;
and no one rendered an account to the people of the mo¬
tives of princes, or of their sudden changes from one party
to another : but when the emperor arrived in a civilised
country, where free and virtuous men had a share in
the government, and brought to light the actions of
princes, his conduct, for the most part, seemed stained
with cowardice and perfidy — the more so, that he de¬
ceived without remorse men whom he called deceivers,
only because they were more clever than himself. Louis
of Bavaria gave a meeting at Trento, in the month of
February, 1327, to the principal chiefs of the Ghibeline
party; they advanced him 150,000 florins, to pay the
expenses of his expedition to Italy : three months after¬
wards he entered that country with a suite of not more
than 600 horsemen ; but the lords of Milan, Mantua,
Verona, and Ferrara met him, with their men at arms,
for the most part German mercenaries, who thus formed
for him a fine army. He received the iron crown at
Milan, on the 30th of May ; Galeazzo Visconti, the rich¬
est and most powerful of the Lombard lords, enter¬
tained him hospitably: but at the same time that he
excited the jealousy of the other Ghibeline chiefs, his
fine German cavalry and his treasure awakened the
cupidity of Louis. Having secured the obedience of
these mercenaries, and feigning to lend an ear to the
reports made against Galeazzo by the other Ghibeline
lords, he arrested Visconti, together with his sons and
his two brothers, in his palace at Milan, on the 6th of
July, 1327; and threatened to put them to the torture
if they did not deliver to him their fortresses and their
treasure. He detained them eight months in dungeons,
without trial, and without assigning any reason for this se¬
verity. After eight months he liberated them, at the inter¬
cession of Castruccio. He then offered to sell them the
sovereignty, of which he had himself deprived them :
but they were not rich enough; for he had deprived
them of the means by which they could profit by lus
offer. In the month of September, Louis passed into
138 HISTOKY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1327.
Tuscany, at the head of the army which he had seduced
from the Visconti. The Pisans, exhausted with the
war against Lucca and Sardinia, and desirous of pre¬
serving the peace which they had concluded with the
Guelphs, sent to offer the emperor 60,000 florins, on
that condition, Louis arrested their ambassadors, and
threatened to put them to death by torture, if their
country did not iraplicity obey his will ; after one month
of hesitation, Pisa acknowledged him sovereign, and was
forced to advance him 150,000 florins.
From the moment Louis of Bavaria was joined by
Castruccio, he listened to no other counsel ; and undor
the direction of this able politician, he showed a vigour
and intelligence that promised to give him the dominion
over aU Italy, in spite of the excommunications which
the pope poured on him with redoubled irritation, upon
seeing him defeat all the intrigues of his favourite, Ber¬
trand de Poiet. Castruccio persuaded Louis of the
importance of confirming his right to the empire by his
coronation at Rome ; he delayed, therefore, the war on
Florence, near which the duke of Calabria had assem¬
bled a numerous army, till his return. It is not im¬
probable that Castruccio meant to reserve for himself
the conquest of that city. Louis had named him duke
of Lucca, Pistoia, Volterra, and the Lunigiana, on the
11th of November, 1327 ; and he flattered himself with
the hope of uniting all Tuscany to this dukedom, after
the departure of the emperor. Castruccio accompanied
Louis to Rome ; he was made senator of that city, and
count palatine of St. John de Lateran. He carried the
imperial sword at the coronation, which took place on
the 17th of January, 1328, at the Vatican: die cere¬
mony was performed by schismatic bishops, and in con¬
tempt of the excommunications of John XXII. Louis
in his anger commenced a process in law to depose the
pope and appoint a successor ; but at this moment he
was deprived of the counsel of Castruccio, who had been
recalled to Tuscany by news of the taking of Pistoia
by the Florentines, on the 28th of January, 1328. On
1328. OREilTNESS AKD DEATH OF CASTRUCCIO. 139
his return he took Pisa by surprise ; besieged Fistoia^
and made himself master of it on the 3d of August of
the same year ; but not till after such fatigue as to oc-
■cttöion an iUness^ of which he died, on the 3d of Sep¬
tember following. The death of this formidable and
ambitious captain saved Florence from the greatest
danger which she had yet incurred ; and, to complete her
good fortune, the sovereign she had chosen to oppose
Castruccio, the duke of Calabria, died also about the
same time. He had distinguished himself only by his
vices, his want of foresight, and his depredations. Louis
of Bavaria, too, ceased to be formidable: he completed his
discredit by his perfidy towards those who had been the
most devoted to him. Salvestro de' Gatti, lord of Vi-
terbo, had been the first Ghibeline chief to open a for¬
tress to him, in the states of the church ; Louis arrested
him, and put him to the torture, to force him to reveal
the place where he had concealed his treasure. The
emperor had rendered himself odious and ridiculous at
Rome, by the puerility of his proceedings against John
XXII., and his vain efforts to create a schism in the
church. Having returned to Tuscany, he deprived the
children of Castruccio of the sovereignty of Lucca, on the
l6th of March, 1329, and sold it to one of their relatives,
who, a month afterwards, was driven out by a troop of
German mercenaries, which had abandoned the emperor
to make war on their own account, that is to say, to live
by plunder. Louis passed the summer of 1329 in
Lombardy. Towards the end of the autumn he returned
to Germany, carrying with him the contempt and de¬
testation of the Italians. He had betrayed all who
had trusted in him ; and completely disorganised the
Ghibeline party, which had relied on his support.
That party had just lost another of their most dis¬
tinguished chiefs. Can' Grande della Scala. He was the
grandson of the first Mastino, whom the republic of
Verona had chosen for master after the death of Eccelino,
in 1260. Can' Grande reigned in that city from 1312
to 1329j with a splendour which no other prince ia
140 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1328.
Italy equalled. Brave and fortunate in war, and wise
in council, he gained a reputation for generosity, and
even probity, to which few captains could pretend.
Among the Lombard princes, he was the first protector
of literature and the arts. The best poets, painters, and
sculptors of Italy, Dante, to whom he offered an asy¬
lum, as well as Uguccione dà Faggiuola, and many
other exiles illustrious in war or politics, were assembled
at his court. He aspired to subdue the Veronese and
Trevisan marches, or what has since been called the
Terra Firma of Venice. He took possession of Vicenza;
and afterwards maintained a long war against the re¬
public of Padua, the most powerful in the district, and
that which had shown the most attachment to the Guelph
party and to liberty. But Padua gave way to all the
excesses of democracy : the people evinced such jealousy
of all distinction, such inconstancy in their choice, such
presumption, that the imprudence of the chiefs as well
as of the mob drew down the greatest disasters on the
republic. The Paduans, repeatedly defeated by Can'
Grande della Scala from 1314 to 1318, sought protec¬
tion by vesting the power in a single person ; and fixed
for that purpose on the noble house of Carrara, which
had long given leaders to the Guelph party. The
power vested in a single person soon extinguished all
the courage and virtue that remained ; and on the 10th
of September, 1328, Padua submitted to Can' Grande
della Scala. The year following he attacked and took
Treviso, which surrendered on the 6th of July, 1329.
He possessed himself of Feltre and Cividale soon after.
The whole province seemed subjugated to his power ;
but the conqueror also was subdued. Attacked in his
camp with a mortal disease, he gave orders on entering
Treviso, that his couch should be carried into the
great church, in which, four days afterwards, on the
22d of July, 1329, he expired. He was not more than
forty-one years of age : Castruccio was forty-seven at
his death. Galeazzo Visconti died nearly about the same
age, less than a year before. The Ghibeline party.
1329- can' grande DELLA SCALA at verona. 141
which had produced such great captains, thus saw them
all disappear at once in the middle of their career.
Passerino de' Bonacossi, tyrant of Mantua, who belonged
to the same party, had been assassinated on the 14th of
August, 1328, by the Gonzagas, who thus avenged an
affront offered to the wife of one of them. They took
possession of the sovereignty of Mantua, and kept it in
their family tiU the eighteenth century. Of all the
princes who had well received Louis of Bavaria in Italy,
the marquis d'Este was the only one who preserved his
power. He was lord of Ferrara ; and even this prince,
though Guelph by birth, was forced by the intrigues of
the pope's legate to join the Ghibelines.
The Ghibeline party, which had been rendered so
formidable by the abihty of its captains, was now com¬
pletely disorganised. The Lombards placed no con¬
fidence in those who remained; they had forgotten
liberty, and dared no longer aspire to it ; but they
longed for a prince capable of defending them, and
who, by his moderation and good faith, could give
them hopes of peace. They, saw none such in Italy :
Germany unexpectedly offered one. John, king of
Bohemia, the son of Henry VII., arrived at Trent
towards the end of the year 1330. The memory of
his father was rendered dearer to the Italians by the
comparison of his conduct with that of his successor ;
and John was calculated to heighten this predilection.
He could not submit to the barbarism of Bohemia ; and
inhabited, in preference, the county of Luxemburg, or
Paris, and having acquired a spirit of heroism, by his
constant reading, or listening to the French romances
of chivalry, he aspired to the glory of being a complete
knight. All that could at first sight seduce the people was
united in him ; beauty, valour, dexterity in all corporeal
exercises, eloquence, an engaging manner. His conduct
in France and Germany, where he had been, by turns,
warrior and pacificator, was noble. He never sought
any thing for himself ; he seemed to be actuated only
by the love of the general good or glory. The Italians,
142 HISTORY OF THE ITAUAN BEFUBLICS* 1330.
jusdy disgusted with their own princes, eagerly offered to
throw themselves into his arms ; the city of Brescia sent
deputies to Trent, to offer him the sovereignty of their
republic. He arrived there, to take possession of it, on
the 31st of December, 1330. Almost immediately
after, Bergamo, Cremona, Pavia, Vercelli, and Novara
followed the example of Brescia. Azzo Visconti him¬
self, son of Galeazzo, who, in 1328, had repurchased
Milan from Louis of Bavaria,"could not withstand the
enthusiasm of his subjects; he nominally ceded the
government to John, t^ng henceforth the title of his
vicar only. Parma, Modena, Reggio, and, lastly, Lucca
also, soon gave themselves to John of Bohemia. John,
in all these cities, recalled indiscriminately the Guelph
and Ghibeline exiles, restored peace, and made them, at
last, taste the first-fruits of good government.
But the Florentines, attached to liberty, and satisfied
with their constitution, who saw a foreign prince, a
Ghibeline, and the son of Henry VII., whom they had
always resisted, arrive on their frontier, could not par¬
ticipate in this infatuation. They knew that, whatever
might be the virtue and talents of an absolute prince,
his government always degenerated into tyranny ; that,
if he was not himself corrupted by power, his successors
never failed of being so. Numerous examples in Italy,
in their own time, sufficiently demonstrated the rapid
degeneracy of the race of princes, and the profound
pity merited by a people governed by the son of a great
man. They were weU aware that it was the municipal,
democratic, independent constitutions of the cities of
Italy, and the constant emulation between them, that
had given them such an immense superiority over the
rest of Europe. They easily perceived that Itály, in
spite of its division, had nothing to fear for its in¬
dependence from its transalpine enemies ; while it had
every thing to dread for its liberty, as well as for its
civilisation, from the immeasurable growth of an ab^
solute principality formed within its bosom. The Flo¬
rentines did not undertake to restore liberty to thoae
1330.
KINO JOHN OF BOHEMIA.
143
people who had no longer sufficient elevation of soul to
desire or energy to defend it ; but they pursued for
themselves the noble policy of opposing all usurpation
or conquest by any who pretended to domination in
Italy ; and if they could not preserve to each city its in-
dependencCj at least of maintaining, through the changes
which time necessarily brings, the balance between the
different powers, in such a manner that respect for the
rights of all should be guaranteed by the alliance of
those who demanded only to be free themselves, and to
preserve the liberty of others. This system of balancing
the different powers in Italy, invented by the statesmen
of Florence, was, during the fourteenth and the greater
part of the fifteenth centuries, the fundamental rule of
their conduct.
The Florentines did not find sufficient strength in
the Guelph party to oppose the menacing greatness of
the king of Bohemia. Robert of Naples was become
old ; he wanted energy, and his soldiers courage. The
repubhc of Bologna, formerly so rich and powerful, had
lost its vigour under the government of the legate, Ber¬
trand de Poiet ; those of Perugia and Sienna had within
themselves few resources, and those few their jealousy
of Florence prevented their liberally employing. There
remained no more free cities in Lombardy; and all
those, in the states of the church, which, during the
preceding century, had shown so much spirit, had
fallen under the yoke of some petty tyrant, who im¬
mediately declared for the Ghibeline party. The Flo-
rencines felt the necessity of silencing their hereditary
enmities, and their ancient repugnances, and of making
an alliance with the Lombard Ghibelines against John
of Bohemia, with the condition that, in dividing his
Spoils, they should all agree to prevent the aggrandise¬
ment of any single power, and preserve between them^
selves an exact equilibrium, in order that Italy, after
their conquests, should incur no danger of being sub.»
jugated by one of them. The treaty of alliance against
the king of Bohemia, and the partition of the states
144 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 133^.
which he had just acquired in Italy, was signed in the
month of September, 1332. Cremona was to be given
to Visconti ; Parma to Mastino della Scala, the nephew
and successor of Can* Grande ; Reggio to Gonzaga ;
Modena to the marquis d'Este ; and Lucca to the Flo¬
rentines. John did not oppose to this league the re¬
sistance that was expected from his courage and talents.
Of an inconstant character, becoming weary of every
thing, always pursuing something new, thinking only
of shining in courts and tournaments, he soon r^arded
all these little Italian principalities, of which he had
already lost some, as too citizen-like and unlordly: he sold
every town which had given itself to him, to whatever
noble desired to rule over it ; and he departed for Paris
on the 15th of October, 1333, leaving Italy in stUl
greater confusion than before. The Lombard Ghibe-
lines, confederates of the Florentines, succeeded, before
the end of the summer of 1335, in taking possession of
the cities abandoned by the king of Bohemia. Lucca,
which alone fell to the share of Florence, was defended
by a band of German soldiers, who made it the centre
of their depredations, and barbarously tyrannised over
the Lucchese. Mastino della Scala offered to treat for
the Florentines with the captains who then commanded
at Lucca; and he succeeded in obtaining the sur¬
render of the town to him, on the 20th of December,
1335. As soon as he became master of it, he began
to flatter himself that it would afford him the means
of subjugating the rest of Tuscany; and, instead of
delivering it, as he had engaged, to the Florentines|,
he sought to renew against them a Ghibeline league
jointly with the Pisans and all the independent noUes
of the Apennines.
The Florentines, forced to defend themselves against
their ally, who, after they had contributed to his eleva¬
tion, betrayed them, sought the alliance of the Venetians,
who also had reason to complain of Mastino. A treaty
was signed between the two republics, on the 21st of
Juhe, 1336. The war to which Florence liberafly con-
1537.
DANOER OF FLORENCE.
145
tributed in money, was made only in Lombardy, and
was successful. Padua was taken from Mastlno on the
3d of August, 1.S37, and, as that town showed no ardent
desire of liberty, it was given in sovereignty to the Guelph
house of Carrara. The Venetians took possession of
Treviso, Castel-Franco, and Ceneda. It was the first ac¬
quisition they had made heyond the Lagune, their first
establishment on Terra Firma, which henceforward was
to mingle their interests with those of the rest of Italy.
But their ambition at this moment extended no farther.
Satisfied themselves, and sacrificing their allies, they
made peace with Mastino della Scala, on the 18th of
December, 1338, without stipulating that the city of
Lucca, the object of the war, should be given up to the
Florentines, for which these had contracted a debt of
450,000 florins. The Florentines, successively betrayed
by. all their allies, saw the danger of their position aug¬
ment daily ; the Guelphs lost, one after the other, every
supporter of their party : the vigour of the king of
Naples, now seventy-five years of age, was gone. The
pope, John XXII., had died at Avignon, on the 4th of
December, 1334; and his successor, Benedict XII.,
like him a Frenchman, neither understood nor took any
part in the affairs of Italy. A few months previous,
on the 17th of March, 1334, the cardinal Bertrand de
Poiet had been driven by the people from Bologna ; and
this ambitious legate, no longer supported by the pope his
father, had disappeared from the political scene. But the
Bolognese did not long preserve the liberty which they
had recovered. One of their citizens, named Taddeo
de Pepoli, the richest man in all Italy, had seduced the
German guard which they held in pay, and by its aid
took possession of the sovereignty of Bologna, on the
28th of August, 1337. He then made alliance with
the Ghibelines. The number of the free cities, on the
aid, or at least the sympathy, of which Florence could
reckon, continually diminished. The Genoese, from
the commencement of the century, had consumed their
strength in internal wars between the great Guelph and
T.
146 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1341.
Ghibeline famiKes ; as long as they were free, however,
the Florentines, without any treaty of alliance, regarded
them as friendly ; but the long protracted civil wars
had disgusted the people with the govemmeut : they
rose on the 23d of September, 1339, and overthrew it,
replacing the signoria by a single chief, Boccanegra, on
whom they conferred the title of doge. It might have
been feared they had only given themselves a tyrant :
but the first doge of Genoa was a friend to liberty ; and
the Genoese people having imitated Venice, in givmg
themselves a first officer in the state with that title,
were not long before they carried the imitation farther,
by seeking to combine liberty with power vested in a
single person. In the mean while Mastino della Scala
suffered a Parmesan noble to take from him the dty of
Parma. As from that time he had no farther communi¬
cation with Lucca, he offered to sell it to the Florentines.
The bargain was concluded in the month of August,
1341 j but it appeared to the Pisans the signal of thdr
own servitude, for it cut off* aU communication between
them and the Ghibelines of Lombardy. They imme¬
diately advanced their militia into the Lucchese states, to
prevent the Florentines from taking possession of the
town ; vanquished them in a great battle, on the 2d of
October, 1341, under the walls of Lucca; add, on the
6th of July following, took possession of that dty for
themselves.
The people of Florence attributed this train of dis¬
asters to the incapadty of their magistrates. The burden
of the taxes, and of the debt vdth which the republiç
was loaded ; and the jealousy entertained of the rich mer¬
chants, who, in spite of the democratic form of the con¬
stitution, in fact governed the state, excited a discontent
which soon took the darkest hue. The people who in
all Italy were regarded as by far the most republican,
those who owed all their greatness to liberty, for which
they had made such immense sacrifices, the people who
carried their love of equality and their jealousy of all
distinction to excess, of a sudden appeared wearied
1S42.
TBE DVKE OF ATHENS.
147
of their own sovereignty ; they demanded a master, in
order to punish and humiliate those who appeared too
great to be reached by the laws of a republic ; they
asked to submit to the authority of a single person. At
this period, Gaultier de Brienne, duke of Athens, a
French nohle, but born in Greece, passed through
Florence, on his way from Naples to France. The
duchy of Athens had remained in his family from the
conquest of Constantinople till it was taken from his
father in 1312. There remained to him only that of
Lecce, in the kingdom of Naples. He had been the
lieutenant of the duke of Calabria, at Florence, in 1326,
and had then distinguished himself by his bravery and
the acuteness of his understanding. It was for this
man the Florentines, after their defeat at Lucca, took a
sudden fancy. They protested they never should have
experienced so many disasters if the duke of Athens had
been at the head of their army. On the 1st of August,
1342, they obliged the signoria to confer on him the
title of captain of justice, and give him the command of
their militia.
The duke of Athens was of that degenerate race of
Franks, established in the Levant, whom the people of
the West designated by the name of Pullani, to indicate
their small stature, their apparent weakness, and fre¬
quently their cowardice. To this physical conformation
they joined the most unbridled love of pleasure, cunning,
perfidy, habits of despotism, and contempt of human
life ; the vices, in short, which connection with the East
necessarily communicates to barbarians, always more
disposed to be corrupted than to improve. The duke
of Athens was named president of the tribunals, and
commander of the forces of the republic; offices of
more power than ought to have been given to such a
man, but not enough for his ambition : he aspired to
be absolute sovereign, and to make a single duchy
of Tuscany. He entered into negotiation with those
cities which were subject to or allied with Florence,
■with ä view to induce them to place themselves
V 2
148 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. IStí,
under his rule, and to shake off the yidie and alliance
of the republic. With a rapidity of perceptúni,
and a talent for intrigue, which he had acquired io
Greece, he, in a few days, unravelled all the secret
designs, aU the jealous passions, which divided the re¬
public. He perceived that the first class of citizens,
who had the greatest share in the government, had
also the greatest share in the public hatred; they were
objects of execration to the ancient nobility, whom they
had excluded from aU the offices of government; o£
jealousy to the second class of citizens immediately
under them; and of envy and anger to the populace, who
declared themselves crushed by the taxes. The duke
of Athens sacrificed them to these various passions ; he
beheaded many, and ruined others by fines. He sent
to France and Naples for a troop of cavalry, better
suited to intrigue than war. He ordered them to mix
among the people, seduce them into taverns, and ke^
them in a constant state of intoxication, celebrating at
the same time the valour and liberality of the duke, and
announcing to them that if he was absolute master, he
would make the poorest people in Florence live in
merriment and abundance. Having thus excited the
people to a ferment, he convoked them in parliament
in the public square, on the 8th of September. The
agitators directing the lowest orders proclaimed him
sovereign lord of Florence for his life, forced the public
palace, drove from it the gonfalonier and the priori, and
installed him there in their place.
The liberty of Italy had been at an end, if the duke of
Athens had succeeded in establishing the despotism
of which he had just laid the foundation : all the other
republics seemed plunged in a deep lethargy. The
desire of investing power in a single person had invaded
the proudest and most opulent cities, all those which had
before shown the greatest abhorrence of tyranny. As
the rest of Europe was not yet ready to profit by the
example and instruction of Italy, the slavery of Flo¬
rence, the destruction of all liberty in the city whidi
1S43.
EXPULSION OF THE HUKE.
149
gave impulse to the spirit of enquiry, to philosophy^
politics, eloquence, poetry, and the fine arts, would have
stopped, perhaps for centuries, the civilisation of the
world. Gaultier of Athens united all the qualities that
Machiavel, l60 years later, enumerated as necessary
to a prince, the founder of a despotism. Courageous,
dissembling, patient, clear-sighted, perfidious, he knew
neither respect nor pity ; he was bound by no affection
and no principle : accordingly, he sought the alliance of
the Ghibeline tyrants of Romagna and Lombardy,
whom he had till then combated as enemies to his sove¬
reign the king of Naples. They on their side joyfully
coalesced with a despot, who delivered them from an
example which might prove contagious to their subjects
in the liberty and happiness of Florence: he had no
enemies abroad; and his executioners rapidly delivered
him from the more dangerous of his enemies at home.
Happily, Florence was not ripe for slavery : ten months
sufficed for the duke of Athens to draw from it 400,000
golden florins, which he sent either to France or Naples ;
but ten months sufficed also to undeceive all parties who
had placed any confidence in him ; to uni^e them all in
one common hatred, and in a common determination to
overthrow his tyranny. Three conspiracies, unconnected
witli each other, were secretly formed : they soon com¬
prehended almost all the citizens of Florence. The duke,
without discovering them, repeatedly defeated them, by
the precautions, more rigorous each day, which he took for
his security : his cruelty kept pace with his suspicions ;
he questioned with the torture all those on whom fell
the slightest of his doubts ; it was thus he was led to
seize Baldinaccio degli Adimari, who, though the duke
was unaware of it, was the chief of one of the conspiracies.
The universal terraent which this arrest excited made
him sensible that he was in the road to a discovery ; he did
not, however, betray his sentiments ; he asked reinforce¬
ments from all his allies, apd it was not till those were
in motion that, on the 26th of July, he convoked three
hundred of the most distinguished citizens, professedly
L 3
150 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1343.
to consult them on the aflfairs of the republic. Orders
were given in the palace to put every one to death as
soon as he entered ; but the people also were ready. In
each of the massive palaces of Florence, the citizens
were silently assembling : they arrived one by one, with¬
out noise, and unperceived. The cavalry of' the duke
fiUed the street, where every body seemed occupied only
with their own afPairs ; no agitation, no apparent con¬
fusion, announced any explosion, when suddenly tíie
cry " To arms ! " burst from the old market-place, and
was re-echoed to the gates of St. Peter's. Instantly from
every window, from the roofs of all the houses, fell a
shower of stones and tiles, previously made ready, on
the heads of the duke's cavalry ; every palace opened and
poured forth armed men, who threw chains across the
streets, and made barricades; the cry of "Popolo! popoio!
Libertà!" resounded from one extremity of Florence to
the other. The cavalry, surprised, dispersed, and over¬
whelmed with stones, were soon disarmed ; the chains
were then taken up, and troops of citizens united and
marched to the Palazzo Vecchio, where the duke de¬
fended himself with 400 transalpine soldiers. Gaultier
might have long held out in this massive fortress, if it
had been sufficiently victualled ; but hunger forced him
to have recourse to the mediation of the bishop of
Florence. He capitulated, on the 3d of August, 1343 ; the
bishop concealed him till the 6th from the fury of the
people, and sent him off secretly in the night with
his cavalry, to whom the duke of Athens owed their
pay ; arrived at Venice, he stole away from his com¬
panions in misfortune, to avoid paying them, and
escaped in a small vessel to Naples, whither he had
previously sent his treasure.
1844.
nEVXVAli uf letters.
151
CHAP. VII.
THE KEVrVAI. or LETTERS. — REVOLUTIONS ATTEMPTED BY TWO
LEARNED MEN. — ITALY RAVAGED BY THE PLAGUE, AND BY
COMPANIBS OF ADVENTURERS. THE POWER OF THE HOUSE OF
VISCONTI. WAR BETWEEN THE MARITIME REPUBLICS. THE
DANGERS AND FIRMNESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF FLORENCE.
The oppression which weighed upon the rest of Europe
contributed to the maintenance of barbarism^ less by
rendering difficult, and sometimes dangerous, the acquis
sition of knowledge, than by taking away all attraction
from the exercise of the mind. Thought was a pain to
those capable of judging the state of the human species,
—of studying the past ; of comparing it with the pre¬
sent ; and of thus foreseeing the future. Danger and
suffering appeared on all sides. The men who, in
France, Germany, England, and Spain, felt themselves
endued with the power of generalising their ideas, either
smothered them, not to aggravate the pain of thought,
or directed them solely to speculations the farthest from
real life,— towards that scholastic philosophy which so
vigorously exercised the understanding, without bring¬
ing it to any conclusion. In Italy, on the contrary,
liberty secured the full enjoyment of intellectual exist¬
ence. Every one endeavoured to develop the powers
which he felt within him, because each was conscious
that the more his mind opened the greater was his enjoy¬
ment ; every one directed his powers to a useful and
practical purpose, because each felt himself placed in a
state of society in which he might attain some influence,
either for his own benefit or that of his fellow-creatm'es.
The first want which towns had experienced was that of
their defence. Accordingly, military architecture had
taken precedence in the arts. From its exercise the trans¬
ition was easy to that of religious architecture, at a time
L 4
152 BISTOBY OF THE ITALIAN BEPUBLICS. 1344,
when religion was indispensable to every heart,—to civil
architecture, then encouraged by a government in whidi
every thing was for all. The study and pursuit of the
beautiful in this first of the fine arts had paved the way
to all the others. From the pleasures of the imagination
through the eye, men ascended to those derived from
the soul ; and hence the birth of poetry.
In the sciences, also, the Italians had begun with
the personal protection of man. The consideration of his
health presented itself ; and the earliest school of medi¬
cine was founded at Salerno, in the neighbourhood of the
three republics of Gaëta, Naples, and Amalfi. Then
followed that of his private rights and property ; and
the university of Bologna acquired immense celebrity in
the teaching of civil and canon law, before any other
study was diligently pursued. The rights of all naturally
rose out of the rights of each ; and politics, as a science,
yet existed only in Italy. Statesmen sought, in history,
how governments made the happiness or misery of na¬
tions, and the study of antiquity was pursued with
ardour ; while the two Villani wrote history with as
much judgment, elevation of soul, and philosophy as
Polybius. At the same time, the thinking men in
France, who, instead of brutifying themselves in order
to suffer less from despotism, anarchy, and the invasion
of the English, exercised their understandings, pas¬
sionately embraced the study of the scholastic theology.
They commented on, and developed with subtlety, prin¬
ciples of which they did not permit themselves to judge;
and the faculty of the Sorbonne, in the university of
Paris, was acknowledged to be the first theological
school in Europe ; it was that in which the most acute-
ness and depth of thought were united to the most im¬
plicit faith. In Italy, on the contrary, the mind,
accustomed to examine the claims of authority, had
already produced, since the time of Frederick II., and
still more after the translation from the Arabic of thé
books of Averrhoes, thinkers whom the priests accused
not only of heresy, but of incredulity and epicurism.,
1344.
STUDY OP ANTIQUITY.
153
The popular form of government must have early
accustomed the Italians to speak in public ; but the ex¬
ample of their preachers was prejudicial to their elo¬
quence : they made discourses, instead of speaking.
They supposed that they ought always to begin with
what they called proposing ; that is, taking a text from
some celebrated author, either sacred or profane. And
this support which they sought in what was said by
another, introduced the substitution of pedantry for
reason. Accordingly, the fourteenth century, in Italy so
fruitful in great men, has left us no model of political
eloquence. The Italians were accustomed to express in
verse all that strongly moved them. Poetry was for
them the language of truth and of persuasion, as much
as of the imagination. Lyric poetry, above all, took
the place of eloquence : it shone forth with great bril¬
liancy in the fourteenth century. Some of the canzoni
of Petrarch express the elevated sentiments of a great
soul. A crowd of poets at this epoch obeyed the same
inspiration. The name of Petrarch, born in 1304, and
that of Boccaccio, in 1313, both Florentines, are the
most universally known. The second owes his celebrity
to the light, elegant, and easy prose of his novels, more
than to his poetry. Both have descended to posterity with
their Italian writings alone, which they regarded only as
relaxations from their labour, and not with their Latin
works, upon which they depended for their glory.
The Italians, in the fourteenth century, discovered, as
it were, anew the ancient world : they felt an affinity of
thoughts, hopes, and tastes with the best Latin writers,
which inspired them with the highest admiration. Pe¬
trarch, and particularly Boccaccio, passed from this
study to that of Grecian antiquity ; and, on his solicit¬
ation, the republic of Florence, in 1360, founded a chair
of Grecian literature, the first in the West. A passion
for erudition spread from one end of Italy to the other,
with an ardour proportionable to the dark ignorance of
the preceding centuries. It was imagined that all know-
'ledge consisted in knowing and imitating the ancient
154 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1S47.
masters. The highest glory was attached to classical
learning ; and Petrarch and Boccaccio attained a degree
of celebrity, credit, and power, unequalled by any other
men in the middle ages ; not by reáson of those merits
which we feel at the present day, but as the pontiffs and
interpreters of antiquity.
We owe to the learned of the fourteenth century, and
to their school, a deep sentiment of gratitude. Thqr
discovered, and rendered intelligible to us, all the chefs-
d'œuvre of antiquity. Fragments only of classic works
remained, scattered throughout Europe, and on the point
of being lost. Those learned men of Italy collected,collated,
and explained them : without their antiquarian zeal, all
the experience of past ages, all the models of taste,
aU the great works of genius, would never have reached
us; and, probably, without such guides we should
never have attained the point on which we now stand.
But they injured their own age by their exclusive bias
to erudition. The imagination was extinguished ; genius
disappeared ; and even the language retrograded. It
was abandoned, as too vulgar, for the Latin, by all those
who attained any distinction for talents : the forms of
thinking of the ancients were adopted with those of their
language, and pedantry soon smothered all national ori¬
ginality.
Two of these men, learned in the Greek and Latin
literature, friends of Petrarch, loving liberty, not like
Italians of the middle ages, but like Sons of ancient
Rome, profited by their celebrity and by their power
over their auditors to re-establidi a republican govern¬
ment ;—Coladi Rienzo, at Rome,in 1347,and Jacopode'
Bussolari, ten years later, at Pavia. The former, thou^
of obscure birth, soon signalised himself by his progress
in letters, by his familiarity with all the writers of an¬
tiquity, by his knowledge of the manners and laws of
the Romans, and of the monuments and inscriptions
which still ornamented the capital of the world. No
one possessed like him the art of explaining them, and
of striking out in his explanations those traits of grandeur
1847
COLA DI BISNZO.
155
and glory which distinguish the ancient republic. Bom
at Rome, he was a more ardent Roman than republican ;
seeking rather to restore the sovereignty of the ancient
city than the liberty of mankind. He rejected with
deep indignation the usurpations of two barbarians ;
the one a German, calling himself Roman emperor ;
the other a Frenchman, who called himself the pontiff
of Rome. All those who rose to eminence by the study
and example of the ancient Romans {q>peared to him
bound to labour to bring back Italy and mankind under
the dominion of Rome. Petrarch had also a religious
respect for the name of Rome ; but living by turns at
the court of Avignon, or at those of the tyrants of Lom-
hardy, he had much less elevation of soul and tme
enthusiasm than Cola di Rienzo. The latter was sus¬
ceptible of all the emotion which the fine arts give ; and
he employed his own sensibility to act on a susceptible
people. Sometimes at the foot of one of the most admir¬
able monuments of ancient architecture, he explained its
purpose to the crowd, by which he was always attended ;
he made them feel its beauty, and would take occasion
to recall the grandeur and freedom of ancient Rome,
which still spoke to her children from those colossal ruins.
He would contrast it with the state of degradation and
suffering to which Rome was then reduced. He sometimes
interpreted in the public places the inscriptions which
he discovered ; and would draw forth proofs of the
sovereignty which Rome exercised over the whole world.
Sometimes he displayed in the capitol allegorical pictures
which he had composed, and, in explaining them, would
call upon the Roman people to quit their state of servitude,
and recover what he emphatically called the ffood state.
The pope had never exercised any sovereign power in
Rome ; but the absence of his court, in ruining the little
commerce of the tradesmen, had contributed to throw
the city into a desolate state of anarchy. The nobles
had reduced the government, composed of a senator and
thirteen caporioni to entire dependence on themselves;
and the nobility of Rome, as well as of the rest of Italy«
156 HI8T0BT OF THE ITAMAW HEPUBLIC8. 1347
believed it beneath their station to be submissive to the
law. The Colonna, Orsini, and Savelli families, always
at war with each other, garrisoned all the fortresses in
Rome with banditti, their satellites ; and at their head
made daily attacks in the streets upon each other.
Cola di Rienzo had a classic hatred for these turbulent
nobles ; a hatred which he believed he had inherited
from the Gracchi. He felt anxious to be made tribune
of the people, in order to deliver them from the yoke of
the patricians; and on the 20th of May, 1347, while the
Colonnas had quitted Rome with a small body of troops,
he summoned the people to take possession of the go¬
vernment and of the guard of the city. The Romans
appointed him, with the bishop of Orvieto, the pope's
vicar, or depository of his spiritual power, as tribunes.
They ascended the capitol together. At first therevoluticm
seemed accomplished. The power of the name of Rome ;
the joy of men of letters throughout Europe ; the hatred
provoked by the Roman nobles ; the indifference of the
pope, and his distance from Rome, favoured this revo¬
lution. For some weeks it was approved and acknow.-
ledged by all Italy. But Cola di Rienzo, though elo¬
quent, learned, and a poet, was neither a statesman nor
a warrior: he knew not how to consolidate this ffood
state, to which he pretended to have restored the Ro¬
mans. He continued to occupy them with allegories,
festivals, and processions, while they demanded of him
something more positive. His head was turned by
vanity ; and he assumed a degree of pomp which excited
ridicule. He had soon to support a war against the
nobles whom he had exiled ; and though several of the
Colonnas perished in an ill-Conducted attack on Rome,
Cola in repelling' them gave proofs of incapacity and
cowardice. The pope sent a legate to Rome, to appease the
civil war ; and this legate, being a French noble, sided
with the nobility. The latter having taken possession of a
division of the town, the tocsin summoned the people to
defend themselves, but it sounded in vain ; and on the
15th of December, 1347, Cola di Rienzo, obliged to
1S56.
JACOPO DE' BU8S0DARI.
157
abandon the .capitol, retreated to the castle of St.AngeIoy
and afterwards sought refuge with Charles IV., son of
John, king of Bohemia, who gave him up to the pope
in 1352.
The pope Innocent VI., having in the following year
charged his legate, Egidio Albornoz, to recover the
ecclesiastical states from the hands of the tyrants who
in each city had seized the sovereignty, made Cola di
Rienzo accompany him, in order to profit by the influ¬
ence which the tribune might still have retained at
Rome. The legate sent him there in the month of
July, 1354; declaring at the same time that he made
him Roman senator by the authority of the pope. Cola
found again his friends at Rome, and for a short time
succeeded in awakening the popular enthusiasm ; but he
was now only an instrument in the hand of the legate,
and it did not depend on hiin to realise the hopes which
he excited. A new sedition broke forth ; and this time
the people joined his enemies the Colonnas : his palace
was burnt down, he was arrested as he endeavoured to
escape in disguise, dragged to the porphyry lion at the
foot of the capitol stairs, and there stabbed, on the 8th
of October, 1354.
The monk Jacopo de' Bussolari, who in thçL month of
March, 1356, had also restored a sort of ephemeral
liberty to Pavia, was, like Cola, a learned man, a poet, anä
a friend of Petrarch ; he was a man of ardent imagination,
who had borrowed his love of liberty from the ancients.
He was a monk of St, Augustine, and was sent to his
birthplace, Pavia, to preach there during Lent. This
city had been governed, since the year 1313, hy the
Ghibeline family of Beccaria, who were supported
from abroad by the Viscontis, and the marquis de Mont-
ferrat A war having broken out between the marquis
and the lords of Milan, the Beccarias declared against
the Viscontis, who had till then regarded the lords of
Pavia almost as their lieutenants. The Viscontis in
their anger besieged Pavia; and the city would soon have
fallen, if Jacopo de' Bussolari had not, by his eloquent
158 BISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1356.
semons, roused the energy of the Pavesans : he preached
the refom of morals, faith, liberty, and courage ; he at
the same time animated them by his example. On the
27th of May, 1356, in descending from the pulpit, he
placed himself at their head ; marched out of the town ;
attacked the redoubts of the Milanese, took three, one
after the other; and forced the Viscontis to raise the si^.
It was as important to deliver his country from domestic
tyranny as from a foreign yoke. As he often preached
against the vices and usurpations of the Beccarias, they
endeavoured to get him assassinated; the Pavesans, to
protect him, supplied him with a guard; there were
several engagements between the faithful troops of their
pastor and the satellites of the tyrants. At last Jacopo
de' Bussolari issued an order to the Beccarias, to leave the
city : they obeyed, but, making an alliance wiúi the
Viscontis, renewed the war. In 1358, the monk caused
the palaces of the Beccarias to be rased to the ground; in
1359, the Viscontis again besieged the city. An epi«
demical diséase broke out in it with virulence ; all the
allies which Jacopo de' Bussolari had procured the Pa-
vesans successively abandoned them. The eloquent and
courageous monk perceived that he must at last yield to
fortune; and in the month of October, 1359, offered to
capitulate with the Viscontis, and to deliver the city to
them, on condition that they should preserve all the
municipal liberties, that the eidles whom he had recalled
should be allowed to remain, and that an amnesty should
be granted the citizens, without a single exception : he
stipulated nothing for himself; and the Viscontis employ¬
ing his ecclesiastical superiors against him, he was con¬
fined in the prison of his convent at Vercelli, where
he died a miserable death. They afterwards annulled
the capitulation of Pavia ; declaring that, as they were
imperial vicars, they could not be held to execute any
thing which they promised, contrary to the rights of
the empire.
This empire had passed from Louis of Bavaria, who
died on the 10th of October, 1347, to Charles IV. of
1S52.
CARDINAL ALBORNOZ.
159
Bohemia. He had been set up as competitor with the
former by the pope, on the 10th of July, 1346, and
was called the king of the priests : he was, however,
soon after the death of Louis, acknowledged by the
whole empire. Desirous of obtaining the same acknow¬
ledgment in Italy, he entered it on the 14th of October,
1354, but without an army; " appearing," says Villani,
" with his disarmed knights mounted on travelling
palfreys, rather as a merchant going to a fair than an
emperor." He was crowned at Milan, and afterwards at
Rome : and extracted from the republics, as he passed, a
ransom for their liberty; he caused, by his petty intrigues,
much trouble and insurrection, but he at the same time
degraded, in the eyes of the Italians, the imperial ma¬
jesty, by his cupidity, and want of dignity and energy.
The popes who succeeded each other at Avignon also
lost the respect of the faithful by their immoralities,
intrigues, and ambition. To Benedict XII., an honest
but weak man, possessing a feeble imderstanding, had
succeeded, in 1342, Clement VI., who lighted the fire
of civil war again in Germany, and signalised him¬
self in his Italian politics by the most atrocious treach¬
ery. Towards the end of 1352, he was succeeded by
Innocent VI. This pope formed the project of recover¬
ing the state belonging to the church ; the sovereignty
of which the imperial charters had abandoned to him..
He made choice, for this purpose, of cardinal Al¬
bornoz, a Spaniard, who had already signalised himsdf
in arms against the Moors ; he gave the cardinal little
money and few soldiers, but he reckoned, and with some
reason, on the favour of the people. These last, in
every city of Romagna and of the March, had suffered
themselves to be enslaved by the boldest and richest of
their fellow-citizens : all were wearied with the yoke of
these petty tyrants, and, without any good reason to
trust to the govmiment of the church, they were glad of
a change. Albornoz, who had still more ability in in¬
trigue than he had military talent, succeeded in setting
these tyrants at variance one with the other ; in obtain-
160 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1347.
ing the assistance of the Guelphs of Tuscany ; an^
finally, in deposing and subduing them all: but before
he terminated these conquests, Innocent VI. died, on
the 12th of September, 1362, and was succeeded by
Urban V.
The kings of Naples, during this period, had sunk
still lower in power and consideration. Robert died on
the 19th of January, 1343, at the age of eighty. He
had given his grand-daughter, Joan, in marriage to her
cousin Andrew, the son of the king of Hungary. An¬
drew was son of the eldest son of Charles II. ; and had
a better right than Robert himself to the crown of
Naples. The latter, whom his nephew regarded as an
usurper, had been desirous of confounding the rights of
the two branches of his family, by marrying Joan to
Andrew, and crowning them together ; but these young
people felt towards each other only jealousy and hatred.
Andrew was brutal, Joan was elegant in her manners,
but depraved. She consented to an assassination, which
delivered her from her husband, on the 18th of Septem¬
ber, 1345 ; and two years after, married her cousin,
Louis of Tarento, the instigator of the murder. The
crown of Hungary had passed to the elder brother of
Andrew,—Louis, called the Great. To avenge his bro¬
ther, he entered Italy, and conquered Naples in 1348.
Joan, meanwhile, fled, with her husband, to Provence ;
and, to conciliate the favour of the pope, abandoned to
him the sovereignty of Avignon. It was exactly at the
period of the greatest calamity that ever befell mankind.
The plague, brought from the East, made the circuit of
Italy, and afterwards of all Emope ; aná in every place
it reached carried off, in seven or eight months, one
third of the population. It is known in history by the
name of " the plague of Florence ; " because, while it
mowed down millions of obscure victims elsewhere, at
Florence, where it carried off nearly a hundred thou¬
sand persons, an advanced civilisation rendered the loss
more sensibly felt. Many distinguished men sank under
this scourge ; several philosophers studied it ; and a
ISílS.
GREAT PLAGUE.
161
writer, Boccaccio, has left of it an admirable de¬
scription. The terror and desolation, which an inflic¬
tion so dreadful caused throughout Italy, superseded
all political hatreds, — all wars, however (¿stinate.
.Louis of Hungary, in the middle of his campaign
and of his successes, was discouraged, upon seeing the
most flourishing armies swept off by sickness. In 1351,
he signed a peace with Joan, who returned with her
husband to her kingdom of Naples, where both long
continued their career of vice and voluptuousness ;
abandoning all care of administration, and of the na¬
tional defence ; permitting their provinces, in the bosom
of peace, to be plundered and laid waste, in a manner
hardly to be feared in the most disastrous wars.
The most immediate cause of the suflerings of the
kingdom of Nacples, and of all Italy, was the fonn-
ation of what was called " companies of adventure.''
Wherever tyrants had succeeded to free governments,
their first care had been to disarm the citizens, whose
resistance was to be feared ; and although a little indus¬
try might soon have supplied swords and lances, yet the
danger of being denounced for using them soon made
the subjects of these princes lose every military habit.
Even the citizens of free towns no longer thought of de¬
fending themselves: their way of life had weakened their
corporeal strength ; and they felt an inferiority too dis¬
couraging when they had to oppose, without defensive
armour, cuirassiers on horseback. The chief strength
of armies henceforth was in the heavy-armed cavalry,
composed of men who had all their lives followed the
trade of war, and who hired themselves for pay. The
emperors had successively brought into Italy many of
their countrymen, who afterwards passed into the service
of the tyrant princes. TheViscontis and Delia Scalas had
sent for many to Gei;many, believing that these men
—who did not understand the language of the country,
—who were bound to it by no affection,—-.and who were
accessible to no political passion, — would be their best
SI
l6¿ HISTOBT OP THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS- 1548.
defenders. They proved ready to execute the most bar.
barons orders, and for their recompenc^ demanded only
tíie enjoyments of an intemperate sensuality.
But the Lombard tyrants were deceived in believing
the German soldier would never covet power for himself,
and would continue to abuse the right of the stronger
for the advantage of others only. These adventurers
soon discovered that it would be better to make war and
pillage the people for their own profit, without dividing
the spoil with a master. Some men of high rank,
who had served in Italy as condottieri (hired captains),
proposed to their soldiers to follow them, make war on
the whole world, and divide the booty among them,
selves. The first company, formed by an Italian noble
at the moment that the Viscontis dismissed their sol¬
diers, having made peace with their adversaries, made
an attack suddenly on Milan, in the hope of plundering
that great city; but was almost annihilated in a
battle, fought at Parabiago, on the 20th of February,
1359. A German duke, known only by his Christian
name of Werner, and the inscription he wore on his
breast of " enemy of God, of pity, and of mercy,"
formed, in 1343, another association, which maintained
itself for a long time, under the name of " the great
company." It in turns entered the service of princes ;
and, when they made peace, carried on its ravages and
plunderings for its own profit. The duke Werner and
his successors, — the count Lando, a German ; and the
friar Moríale, knight of St. John, — devastated Italy
from Montferrat to the extremity of the kingdom of
Naples. They raised contributions, by threatening to
burn houses and harvests, or by putting the jmsoners
whom they took to the most horrible tortures. The pro-
vinces of Apulia were, above all, abandoned to their
devastations ; and the king and queen of Naples made
not a single effort to protect their people.
There now remained no more than six independent
princes in Lombardy. The Viscontis, lords of Milan,
had usurped all the centrd part of that province; the
1S48.
COMPANIES OP ADVENTURERS.
163
western part was held by the marquis of Montferrat,
and the eastern by the Delia Scala, lords of Verona,
Carrara of Padua, Este of Ferrara, and Gonzaga of
Mantua. These weaker princes felt themselves in danger,
and made a league against the Viscontis, taking into their
service the great company ; but, deceived and pillaged
by it, they suffered greater evils than they inflicted on
their enemies. When at last the money of the league
was exhausted, and it could no longer pay the company,
this band of robbers entered into the service of the re¬
public of Sienna, to be let loose on that of Perugia, of
which the Siennese had conceived a deep jealousy. But
the Florentines would not.consent to their entering Tus¬
cany, where their depredations had been alreädy felt.
They shut all the passes of the Apennines ; they armed
the mountaineers ; they made these adventurers experi¬
ence a first defeat at the passage of Scalella, on the
24th of July, 1S.'58, and obliged them to fall back on
Romagna. The legate Albornoz, to deliver himself from
such guests, made them enter Perugia the year follow¬
ing. Never had the company been so brilliant and so
formidable : it levied contributions on Sienna, as well as
Perugia ; but vengeance and cupidity alike excited them
against the Florentines. They determined on pillaging
those rich merchants, whom they considered far from
warlike, or forcing them to ransom themselves.
The Marquis de Montferrat, desirous of taking the
company into his service, pressed the republic of Flo¬
rence, by his ambassadors to do what the greatest
potentates had always done,—pay the banditti to be rid
of them. He offered himself for mediator and gua¬
rantee, and promised a prompt and cheap deliverance ;
but the Florentine republic protested it would not
submit to any thing so base; it assembled an army
purely Italian, placing it under the command of an
Italian captain, who was ordered to advance to the fron¬
tier, and offer battle to the company. The robbers
gave way in proportion to the firmness of the republic :
they made the tour of the Florentine frontier by Sienna,
M 2
164 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1350.
Pisa, and Lucca, always threatening, yet never daring
to violate it. On the 12th of July, 1359, they ijent
the Florentine commander a challenge to battle, and
afterwards failéd to keep the rendezvous which they
had given. They escaped at last from Tuscany, with'
out having fought, and divided themselves in the ser¬
vice pf different princes, humbled indeed, but too much
accustomed to this disorderly life not to he anxious to
begin it anew.
The republic of Florence was continually occupied,
since the expulsion of the duke of Athens, in guarding
against the ambition of the Viscontis, which threatened
the subjugation of all Italy. Azzo Visconti, the son
of that Galeazzo who had been so treacherously used by
Louis of Bavaria, had, in 1328, purchased the city of
Milan from that emperor, and soon afterwards found
himself master of ten other cities of Lombardy ; but he
died suddenly, in the height of his prosperity, the l6th
of August, 1339. As he left no children, his imde
Luchino succeeded him in the sovereignty. Luchino
was false and ferocious, but clever, and possessed in war
the hereditary talent of the Viscontis. He was called a
lover of justice, probably because he punished criminals
with an excess of cruelty, and maintained by terror
a perfect police in his states. He died, poisoned by
his wife, on the 23d of January, 1349- His brother
John, archbishop of Milan, succeeded him in power.
The latter found himself master of sixteen of the largest
cities in Lombardy ; cities which, in the preceding cen¬
tury, had been so many free and flourishing republics.
His ambition continually aspired to more extensive
conquests; and, on the l6th of October, 1350, he en¬
gaged the brothers PepoU to cede to him Bologna.
These nobles, who had usurped the sovereignty of their
country, were at this time engaged in a quarrel with
the legate, Giles Albornoz, who asserted that Bologna
belonged to the holy see. The archbishop was already
treated by the pope as an enemy ; and preferred ex¬
citing still further his wrath, to die renunciatipn of so
1S51^ GREATNESS OF TBE VISCONTIS.
165
important an acquisition. When Clement VI. sum¬
moned him to come, and justify himself at the court of
Avignon, he answered, that he would present himself
there at the head of 12,000 cavalry and 6000 infantry.
The pope, in his alarm, ceded to him the fief of Bologna,
on the 5th of May, 1352, on condition of receiving from
him an annual tribute of 12,000 fiorins, Florence saw,
with terror, this city, which had so long been her most
powerful and faithful ally, the Guelph city of letters,
commerce, and liberty, thus pass under the yoke of a
tyrant, who had designs upon her liberty also ; who laid
snares around her ; who formed alliances against her
with all the petty tyrants of Romagna, and all the
Ghibeline lords of the Apennines. She was at peace
with him, it was true ; but she well knew that the Vis¬
contis neither believed themselves bound by any treaty,
nor kept any pledge.
The number of free cities continually diminished.
Pisa was still free, but had, from attachment to the
Ghibeline party, made alliance with the Viscontis. Si¬
enna and Perugia were free also, but weak and jealous ;
they were incessantly disturbed by internal dissensions.
The Florentines could not reckon on them. The arch¬
bishop of Milan suddenly ordered, towards the end of
the summer, 1351, John Visconti da' Oleggio, his lieu¬
tenant at Bologna, to push into Tuscany at the head of
a formidable army, without any declaration of war.
The republic had no ally, and but slight reliance on the
mercenaries in its service ; but the Florentines, who
showed little bravery in the open field, defended them¬
selves obstinately behind walls ; and the great village of
Scarperia, in the Mugello, although so ill fortified that the
walls of many of the houses served instead of a surrounds
ing wall, and having a garrison of only 200 cuirassiers
and 300 infantry, stopped the Milanese general sixty-
one days. He was at last obliged, on the l6th of Octo¬
ber, to retire to Bologna.
The republics of Venice and Genoa were, it might
have been thought, the natural allies to whom the Flo-
SI 3
l66 HISTORY OP THK ITALIAN BEPUBLICS. 1352.
rentines should have had recourse fw their common
defence. Their interests were the same ; and the Vis¬
contis had resolved not to suffer any tree state to subrast
in Italy, lest their subjects should leam that there
was a better government than their own. Unhappily,
these two republics, irritated by commercial quarrels in
the East, were then engaged in an obstinate war with
each other. The Genoese had fortified Pera, a suburb
of Constantinople, of which they had rendered th«n-
selves masters, as well as of Caffa in the Crimea ; and
these two colonies almost equalled the metropolis in
wealth and magnificence. These republicans engaged
in a quarrel with the emperor Cantacuzene, besieged
his capital, and burnt his fleet. Two years later, they
quarrelled also with the Crimean Tartars at Caffa, and
attempted to interdict the Latins from carrying on any
commerce with them at Tana, now Taganrok. This
attempt produced a quarrel with the Venetians, and a
war between these two states was the consequence. The
Venetians formed an alliance with the Greek emperor,
and with Peter IV. of Aragon ; formidable fleets, com¬
manded the one by the Genoese admiral, Paganino
Doria, the other by the Venetian, Nicolo Pisani, dis¬
played a courage and ability to resist at once man and
the elements, which no maritime people have ever since
surpassed. On the 13th-of February, 1352, Paganino
Doria, with sixty-four galleys, attacked, in the straits of
the Bosphorus, the Venetians, Catalonians, and Greeks,
who had collected, at least, seventy-eight vessels. A
violent tempest assailed, in those narrow seas, the two
fleets in the midst of their combat: they were over¬
taken by a dark night ; whilst the violence of the winds
and tide mixed their vessels, and drove them one against
the other. The loss on both sides was prodigious; but
the morning discovered to Pisani that he was no longer
in a state to continue the combat : he retired to Candia,
and the Greeks made peace with the Genoese. A battle,
not less bloody, took place in the following year, on the
29th of August, off the coast of Loiera, in Sardinia.
1354. WAR OF GENOA AND VENICE. l67
Faganino Doria no longer commanded the Genoese; they
were defeated with immense loss : in their distress and
discouragement, they gave themselves up, on the 10th
of October, 1353, to John Visconti, lord of Milan. This
tyrant, the richest in Italy, helped them to re-establish
their fleet ; the command was given anew to Faganino
Doria, who attacked and destroyed the Venetian fleet
in the Gulf of Sapienza, in the Morea, on the 3d of
November, 1354. The Venetians, exhausted by such
great exertions, made peace in the month of May fol¬
lowing.
Genoa had sacrificed her liberty to her thirst of ven¬
geance ; for although the republic had not conferred the
signoria on the archbishop Visconti without imposing
conditions, it soon experienced that oaths are not bind¬
ing on a prelate and a tyrant. The freedom of Venice
also was in the utmost danger from the consequences of
the same war. It was only a few months after the
peace was signed, that Marino Faliero was elected suc¬
cessor to Andrea Dándolo, in the ducal chair, on the
11th of September, 1354. The disorders and calamities
of war had relaxed every social tie ; the merchants,
and the workmen employed in the construction of ves¬
sels, were discontented ; the nobles conducted themselves
with increasing insolence ; and the laws were ill observed.
Marino Faliero, who was old, and furiously jealous of a
young and beautiful wife, was insulted, under a mask,
(hping the carnival, by the president of the quarantia. He
believed the offender in love with his wife. The offence
he received was not punished with the severity which he
demanded. He lent an ear to the complaints of the
plebeians, many of whom had experienced in their
domestic life mortal injuries from the young nobility ;
and excited a conspiracy, of which he consented to be
the chief. But just as he was on the point of wreaking
his vengeance on the government of his country, and on
the whole order of nobles, some of his accomplices were
denounced to the Council of Ten : they were seized, and
put to the torture, on the night of the 15 th of April,
u 4
108 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1855
1355. Their disclosures implicated the doge^ -who -was
also arrested, and on the day after was beheaded.
Though the war of the maritime republics might have
deprived Florence of the aid of Venice or Genoa, it had
at least diverted the attention of John Visconti; made
bim direct his exertions elsewhere ; and procured some
repose to Tuscany. He died on the 5tb of October,
1354, before he could renew his attacks ; and his three
nephews, the sons of his brother Stephen, agreed to suc¬
ceed him in common. The eldest, who showed less talent
for government, and more sensuality and vice, than his
brothers, was poisoned by them the year following. The
two survivors, Barnabas and Galeazzo, divided Lom-
bardy between them ; preserving an equal right on
Milan, and in the government. Their relative, Visconti
da' Oleggio, who was their lieutenant at Bologna, made
himself »independent in that city nearly about the same
time that the Genoese, indignant at seeing all their con¬
ventions violated, rose in insurrection on the 15th of
November, 1356, drove out the MUanese garrison, and
again set themselves free.
The entry of Charles IV. into Tuscany formed also-
a favourable diversion, by suspending the projects of the
Viscontis against the Florentines ; but it cost them
100,000 florins, which they agreed to pay Charles by
treaty on the 12th of March, 1355, to purchase his
rights on their city, and to obtain his engagement that
he should nowhere enter the Florentine territory. ThC'
republics of Pisa and Sienna, who received him within
their walls, paid still dearer for the hospitality which
they granted him. ' The emperor encouraged the mal¬
contents in both cities ; he aided them to overthrow the
existing governments ; he hoped by so doing to make
these republics little principalities, which he intended to
bestow as an apanage on his brother, the patriarch of
Aquileia : but after having caused the ruin of his parti¬
sans; after having ordered or permitted the execution
of the former magistrates, who were innocent of any
crime, insurrections of the people forced him to quit
1357.
BEVOIiUTION AT PISA.
169
both cities, without retaining the smallest influence in
either. After he had quitted Italy, the Viscontis were
engaged in the war to which we have already alluded,
against the marquises of Este, of Monferrat, della Scala,
Gonzaga, and Carrara. The siege of Pavia, and the
ravages of the great company exhausted their resources,
but did not make them abandon their projects on Tus¬
cany. The influence which they retained in the repub¬
lic of Pisa, as chiefs of the Ghibeline party, seemed to
facilitate their schemes.
Pisa, in losing its maritime power and its possessions
in Sardinia, had not lost its warlike character ; it was
still the state in Italy where the citizens were best ex¬
ercised in the use of arms, and evinced the most bravery.
It had given proofs of it in conquering, under the eye
of the Florentines, the city of Lucca, which it still re¬
tained. Nevertheless, since the peace made by the duke
of Athens on the 14th of October, 1342, commercial
interests had reconciled the two republics. The Flo¬
rentines had obtained a complete enfranchisement from
aU imposts in the port of Pisa ; they had established
there their counting-houses, and attracted thither a rich
trade. From that time the democratic party predo¬
minated in the Pisan republic ; at its head was a rich
merchant, named Francesco Gambacorta, who attached
himself to the Florentines, and to the maintenance of
peace. His party was called that of the Bergolini;
while that of the great Ghibeline families attached to the
counts of la Gherardesca, who despised commerce and ex¬
cited war, was called the Raspanti party. The Viscontis
sought the alliance of the latter ; the moment did not
appear to them yet arrived in which they could assume
to themselves the dominion over all Tuscany. It was
sufficient for their present views to exhaust the Floren¬
tine republic by a war, which would disturb its com¬
merce ; to weaken the spirit of liberty and energy in the
Pisans, by subduing them to the power of the aristo¬
cracy, in the hope, that when once they had ceased to be
free, and had submitted to a domestic tyrant, they
170 HISTORY OF THE ITALUlN BEFCBLICS. 1364.
would soon prefer a great to a' little prince, and throw
themselves into bis arms. The revolution, which in
1355 had favoured the emperor in restoring power to
the Raspanti, facilitated this prqjeet.
In pursuance of this view, the party of the Raspanti, at
the suggestion of the Viscontis, in 1357 began to distarh
the Florentines in the enjoyment of the franchises secured
to them at Pisa by the treaty of peace. The Floreihi
tines, guessing the prcgect of the Lombard tyrant, instead
of defending their right by arms, resolved on braving an
unwholesome climate, and submitting to the inconveni¬
ence of longer and worse roads, tranqiarted all their
counting-houses to Telamone, a port in die maremma of
Sienna. They persisted till 1361 in despising all die
insults of the Pisans, as wdl as in rejecting all their
offers of reconciliation : at length, animösity increasing on
both sides, the war broke out, in 1S62. The Viscontis
supplied the Pisans with soldiers. France during this
period had been laid waste by the war with the English ;
and as the sovereigns were rarely in a state to pay their
troops, there had been formed, as in Italy, companies of
adventurers, En^sh, Gascon, and Frendi, who Uved at
the cost of the country, plundering it with the utmost
barbarity. The peace of Bretigny permitted several of
these companies to pass into Italy : they carried with
them the plague, which made not less ravages in 1361
than it had done in 1348. The En^ish company
commanded by John Hawkwood, an adventarer, who
rendered himadif celebrated in Italy, was sent to the
Pisans by Barnabas Visconti. After various successes, the
two republics, at hist exhausted by the plague, and by the
rapacity, and want of discipline cff the adventnras whom
they had taken into pay, made peace on the 17th ef
August, 1364. But the purpose of the Viscontis was
not the less attained. The Pisans haviiq; exhausted
their resources, were at a loss to make the last pa3riMnt
of 30,000 Amins to their army ; they were redimod to
accept the offer made them by Giovanni Agnello, one of
their fellow citizens, of advancing that sum, on cwwii-
1365.
sanger of florence.
171
tion of being named doge of Pisa. The money had
for this purpose been secretly advanced by Barnabas
Visconti, to whom Agnello had pledged his word never
to consider himself more than his lieutenant at Pisa.
Thus the field fertilised by liberty became continually
more circumscribed ; and Florence, always threatened by
the tyrants of Lombardy, saw around her those only who
had alienated their liberty, and who had no longer any
sentiment in common with the republic.
CHAP. VIII.
THE FLORENTINES SUMMON THE CITIES BELONGING TO THE
STATES OF THE CHURCH TO RECOVER THEIR LIBERTT. GREAT
WESTERN SCHISM. —WAR OF CHIOZZA. INSURRECTIONS OF
THE POPULACE AGAINST THE CITIZENS. — CONQUESTS OF GIAN
OALEAZZO VISCONTI, DUKE OF MILAN. HIS DEATH.
The chief magistrates of the Florentine republic could
not conceal from themselves the danger which now
menaced the liberty of Italy. They found themselves
dosed in, —blockaded, as it were,—by the tyrants, .who
daily made some new progress. The two brothers Vis¬
conti, masters of Lombardy, had at their disposal im¬
mense wealth and numerous armies; and their ambition
was insatiable. They were allied, by marriage, to the
two houses of France and England : their intrigues ex¬
tended throughout Italy, and every tyrant was under
their protection. At the same time, their own subjects
trembled under frightful cruelties. They shamelessly
published an edict, by which the execution of state cri¬
minals was prolonged to the period of forty days. In it
the particular tortures to be inflicted, day by day, were
detailed, and the members to be mutilated designated,
before death was reached. On the other hand, their
172 HISTORY OP THE ITAMAW REPUBLICS. 1368.
finances were in good order ; they liberally rectmipemed
their partisans^ and won over traitors in every state ini-
mical to them. They pensioned the captain of every
company of adventurers, on condition that he engaged to
return to their service whenever called upon. Meanwhûè,
these captains, with their soldiers, over-ran, plundered,
and exhausted Italy, during the intervals of peace;
reducing the country to such a state as to be incapable of
resisting any new attack. All the Ghibelines, all the
nobles who had preserved their independence in the
Apennines, were allied to the Viscontis. The march of
these usurpers was slow, but it seemed sure. The mo¬
ment was foreseen to approach when Tuscany would be
theirs, as well as Lombardy; particularly as Florence had
no aid to expect either from Genoa or Venice. These
two maritime republics appeared to have withdrawn
themselves from Italy, and to place their whole existence
in distant regions explored by their commerce.
For a moment, the few Italian states still ^e were
led to believe that the succour, now so necessary, to m-
able them to resist the Viscontis, would arrive both from
France and Germany. The pope and the emperor an¬
nounced their determination to deliver the country, over
which they assumed a supreme right, from every other
yoke. Urban V., moved by the complaints of äie Christian
world, declared that his duty, as bishop of Rome, was
to return and live there ; and Charles IV. protested'that
he would deliver his Roman empire from the devasta^
tions of the adventurers, and from the usurpations of
the Lombard tyrants. In 1S67, Urban returned to
Italy ; and the same year formed a le^ue with the em¬
peror, the king of Hungary, the lords of Padua, Fer¬
rara, and Mantua, and with the queen of Napki^ —
against the Viscontis. But when Charles entered Italy,
on the 5th of May, 1368, he thought only of profitir^
by the terror with which he inspired the Visconti^ ta
obtain from them large sums of money ; in return fo»
which he granted them peace. He afterwards continueA
his march through the peninsula, with no other olgeat
1369.
LUCCA RESTORED TO FREEDOM.
173
than that of collecting money. His presence, however,
caused some changes favourable to liberty. A festivid
was prepared for Üm at Lucca, on the of Septem¬
ber ; on which day he intended confirming, by his in¬
vestiture, the sovereignty of the doge Gian Agnello
over Pisa and Lucca. But the stage on which Agnello
had mounted gave way, and in the fall he broke his leg.
The Pisans profited by this accident to recover their
freedom, and the emperor kept Lucca for himself. At
Sienna, he favoured a revolution which overthrew the
ruling aristocracy ; intending, on his return to that city,
after a devotional visit to Rome, to take advantage of
the disturbance, and get himself appointed to the signo-
ria : but a sedition against him broke forth on the 18 th
of January, 1369. Barricades were raised on all sides ;
his guards were separated from him, and disarmed ; his
palace was broken into. No attempt, indeed, was made
on his person ; but he was left alone several hours in the
public square, addressing himself in turn to the armed
troops which closed the entrance of every street, and
which, immovable and silent, remained insensible to all
his entreaties. It was not till he began to suffer from
hunger, that his equipages were restored to him, and he
was permitted to leave the town. He returned to Lucqa,
where he had already lived, in the time of his father, as
prince royal of Bohemia. The Lucchese were attadied
to him, and placed in him their last hope to be delivered
from a foreign yoke, which had weighed upon them
since the year 1314. They declared themselves ready
to make the greatest sacrifices for the recovery of their
freedom ; and they, at the same time, testified to him so
much confidence and affection as to touch his heart. By
a diploma, on the 6th of April, 1369, Charles restored
them to liberty, and granted them various privileges; but,
on quitting their city, he left in it a German garrison,
with orders not to evacuate that town till the Lucchese
had paid the price of their liberty. It was not tUl the
month of April, 1370, and not without the aid of Flo¬
rence and their other allies, that they could acq[ult the
174 HISTORY OF THE ITAEIAN BEPOBUCS. 1S70.
enonnous sum of 300,000 florins, the price of the re-
establishment of their republic. The Guelph exila
were then immediately recalled; a close alliance was
contracted with Florence ; and the signoria, compoaeá
of a gonfalonier and ten anziani, to be changed every two
months, was reconstituted.
Urban V., on his arrival in Italy, endeavoured also to
oppose the usurpations of the Viscontis, who had just
taken possession of San Miniato, in Tuscany, and who,
even in the states of the church, were rendering thenudNvi
more powerful than the pope himself. Of the two becM
thers, Barnabas Visconti was more troublesome to him,
by his intrigues. Urban had recourse to a bull of ex¬
communication, and sent two legates to bear it to him ;
hut Barnabas forced these two legates to eat, in his |no-
sence, the parchment on which the bull was written, to¬
gether with the leaden seals and silken strings. The
pope, frightened at the thought -of combating men wlm
seemed to hold religion in no respect, and wearied,
moreover, with his ill successes, was glad to return to
the repose of Avignon, where he arrived in the month of
Septonber, 1370 ; and died the November foUowing.
Gregory XI., who succeeded him, was ambitions, co-
veious, and false. He joined the Florentines in their war
against the Viscontis ; but the legates, to whom he had
entrusted the government of the eccleriastical states, and
who had rendered themselves odious by their rapadty
and immorality, formed the project of seizing for them>
selves Tuscany, which they had engaged to'd^end. All
the troops of the Florentines had been placed at then*
disposal, for the purpose of carrying the war into
XiCanbardy. The cardinal legate, who commanded die
eocidiined army, resided at Bologna ; the church having
rescued that city from the grasp of Visconti da'
on the 3l8t of Mardb, 1360. He signed a truce widi
Barnabas Visconti, in the month of June, 1375; amd,
before die Florentines could recall their soldiers, sent
John Hawkwood with a formidable army to surpiiac
Florence. The Florentines, indignacd at nch a aha—ir
1S75.
Tax VAB OF 1.IBERTT.
175
less want of good faidi on the part of the churchy whose
most faithful allies they had always been, vowed ven¬
geance on the see of Rome. They determined to rouse
liie spirit of liberty in every dty belonging to it, and
drive out the French legates, — more odious and perfi¬
dious than the most abhorred of the Italian tyrants.
They, in the month of June, 1375, without placing any
confidence in Barnabas Visconti, made an alliance with
him against the priests, who had just deceived them under
the faith of the most solemn oaths. They admitted the
republics of Sienna, Lucca, and Pisa into this league ;
they formed a commission of eight persons, to direct the
military department, called " the eight of war ; " they
assembled a numerous army, and gave it colours, on
which was inscribed, in golden letters, the word " li¬
berty." This army entered the states of the church,
proclaiming that the Florentines demanded nothing for
themselves, — that not only would they make no con¬
quests, but would accept dominion over no people who
might offer themselves ; they were desirous only of
universal liberty,—and would assist the oppressed with
all their power, solicitous fpr the recovery of their free¬
dom.
The army of liberty carried revolution into all the
states of fibe church with an inconceivable rapidity:
eighty cities and towns, in ten days, threw off* the yoke
of the legates. The greater number constituted them¬
selves republics ; a few recalled the ancient families of
princes, who had been exiled by Egidio Albornoz, and to
whom they were attached by hereditary affection. Bo¬
logna did not accomplish her revolution before the SOth
of March, 1376. This ancient republic, in recovering
its liberty, vowed fidelity to the Florentines, to whom it
owed the restoration of its freedom. The legates, beside
themselves with rage, endeavoured to restrain the people
by terror. John Hawkwood, on the 29th of March,
1376, delivered up Faenza to a frightful military execu¬
tion ; 4000 persons were put to death, property pillaged,
and women violated. The pope, not satisfied with such
176 HMTOBT OF THE ITAUAN BEPUBUC8. 1578.
rigour. Bent Robert of Geneva, another cardinal legate^
into Italy, with a Breton company of adventuren^
coneidared as the most ferocious of all those trained to
plunder by the wars of France. The new legate treated
Cesena, on the Ist of February, 1377, with still great«
barbarity. He was heard to call out, during the mas¬
sacre, " I will have more blood ! — kill all ! — blood,
blood ! " Gregory XI. at last felt the necessity of
returning to Italy, to appease the universal revolt. He
entered Rome on the 17th of January, 1377 ; although
the Florentines, who had sent the standard of liboty to
the senators and bannerets of Rome, and had made alli¬
ance with the Romans, expostulated on the danger they
incurred, if they admitted the pontiff within their,
walls.
The two parties, however, began to be equally weary
of the war. Some of the cities enfranchised by die Flo¬
rentines were already detached from the league. The
Bolognese had made, on the 21st of August, 1377, a
separate peace with the pope, who had agreed to acknoar-
ledge their republic. Barnabas Visconti carried on with
the holy see secret negotiations, in which he offered to
sacrifice to the church his ally, the republic of Florence.
This republic was then pressed for its consent to the
opening of a congress for restoring peace to Italy, to be
held at Sarzana, in the beginning of the year 1378 : the
presidency of the congress was given to Barnabas Vi»,
çonti. The conference had scarcely opened when the
Florentines perceived, with more indignation than sur¬
prise, that the Lombard tyrant, who had fought in con¬
cert with them, intended that they should pay to him
and to the pope the wh(de expenses of the war. The
negotiations took the most aUriaing turn, when the un¬
expected news arrived of the death of Gr^ory XI., on
the 27th of March, 1378 ; and the congress separated,
without coming to any decision. The year which n¿w
opened was destined to bring , with it the most important
revolutions throughout Italy. Amidst those oonvuL
sions, the peace of Florence with the court of Rom^
1378.
OREAT SCHISM OF THE WEST.
177
weakened by the great western schism, was not difficult
to accomplish.
The pontifical chair had been transferred to France
since tlie year 1305. Its exile from Italy lasted
seventy-three years. The Christian world, France ex¬
cepted, had considered it a scandal ; but the French
kings hoped by it to retain the popes in their depend¬
ence ; ' and the French cardinals, who formed more than
three fourths of the sacred coUege, seemed determined to
preserve the pontifical power in their nation. They
were, however, thwarted in this intention by the death of
Gregory XI. at Rome ;—for the conclave must always
assemble where the last pontiff dies. The clamour of the
Romans, and the manifestation of opinion throughout
Christendom, were not without influence on the con¬
clave. On the 8th of April, 1378, it elected — not,
indeed, a Roman, whom the people demanded ; but an
Italian,—Bartolomen Prignani; who, having lived long
in France, seemed formed to conciliate the prejudices
of both parties. He was considered learned and pious.
The carffinals had not, however, calculated on the de-
velopement of the passions which a sudden elevation
sometimes gives ; or on the degree of impatience, arro¬
gance, and irritability of which man is capable, in his
unexpected capacity of master, though in an inferior
situation he had appeared gentle and modest. The new
pope, who took the name of Urban VI., became so vio¬
lent and despotic, so confident in himself, and so con¬
temptuous of others, that he soon quarrelled with all his
cardinals. They left him ; assembled again at Fondi ;
and, on the 9th of August, declared the holy see vacant;
asserting that their previous election was null, having
been forced by their terror of the Romans. Conse¬
quently, on the 20th of September, they elected another
X Their choice, no better than the former, fell on
t, cardinal of Geneva, who had presided at the
massacre of Cesena : he took the name of Clement VII.
He was protected by queen Joan, with whom Urban had
already quarrelled. Clement established his court at
N
178 HISTORY OP THE ITALIAW REPUBLICS. 1378w
Ntples; but an insurrection of the people made Ima
quit it the year following, and determined him on return¬
ing, with his cardinals, to Avignon. Urban VI., mean¬
while, deposed, as schismatics, all the cardinals who had
^ected Clement, and replaced them by a new and more
numerous college ; but he agreed no better with these
than with their predecessors. He accused them of a
conspiracy against him; he caused many to be put to
the torture in his presence, and while he recited 1^ bre¬
viary ; he ordered others to be thrown into the sea in
sacks, and drowned ; he quarrelled with the Romans,
and the new sovereign of Naples, whom he had himsdf
named ; he paradeil his incapacity and rage through all
Italy ; and finally took refuge at Genoa, where he died,
on the 9th of November, 1389. The cardinals who ac¬
knowledged him named a successor on his death, as the
French cardinals did afterwards on the death of Cle¬
ment VIL, which took place on the l6th of September
1394> The church thus found itself divided l^tween
two popes and two colleges of cardinals, who redprocaHy
anathematised each other. Whilst the cathoUe fiúth
was thus shaken, the temporal sovereignty of the pope,
founded by the conquests of the cardinal Albornoz, was
overthrown. Several of the cities enfranchised by the
Florentines in the war of liberty, preserved their re¬
publican government ; but the greater number, parti¬
cularly in Romagna, fell again under the yoke of petty
tyrants.
The part which Joim of Najdes had taken in the
schism, by protecting what the orthodox called the revolt
of Robert of Geneva and the cardinals, awakened the re¬
sentment which Louis of Hungary still entertained for the
murder of her first husband ; she had since successively
married three others, without having a child : her na.-
tural heir was the last prince of the race of Charles of
Anjou, named Oharles da Durazzo> the grandson of king
Robert's brother, and cousin to the king of Hungary, at
whose court he had been brought up. The aged Louia,
learning that Urban VI. had excommunicated and de-
1S78.
WAR OF CBIOZZA.
179
posed Joaiij charged Charles da Durazzo to execute the
sentence. He entrusted him with an army, with which
the young prince traversed Italy, without meeting any
resistance ; he entered Naples on the l6th of July,
1381, and proclaimed himself king, under the name of
Charles III. The queen, who could not arm a single
person in her defence, was constrained to surrender to
him five weeks afterwards. After detaining her nine
months in prison, he caused her to be smothered
under a feaÄier bed. Louis of Hungary did not long
survive this revolution : he died on the 11th of September,
1382, leaving heiress to his dominions a daughter, with
whom Charles da Durazzo soon disputed the crown of
Hungary. The emperor Charles IV. had died before
Louis, at Prague, on the 29th of November, 1378, and
had been succeeded by his son, the debauched Wenceslaus.
About the same period (1380) the crown of Prance
had passed to a minor, Charles VI., who afterwards be¬
came mad. Italy had little to fear from abroad ; the
danger sprang up in her own bosom.
The republics of Venice and Genoa, on every occa¬
sion mutually opposed, regarded each other as rivals.
The Genoese carried on a considerable commerce in
Cyprus, but had excited there the resentment of the
people, who in 1372 rose, and at a public festival mas¬
sacred all the Genoese on whom they could lay hands.
The republic avenged this outrage committed on its ci¬
tizens; and in 1373 conquered the isle of Cyprus: but,
using its victory with moderation, restored the island
in fief to the house of Lusignan. The Venetians, not¬
withstanding, offered their alliance to the Cypriots, and
in 1378 they, in concert, besieged the Genoese at Fa-
magosta. In the many quarrels of the Venetians with
Louis of Hungary, and with Francesco da Carrara, lord
of Padua, they had always found the Genoese siding
with their adversaries. The two republics finally attached
themselves to the two opposite factions which disputed
the remains of the empire of Constantinople, now arrived
•t its last term. Mutual animosity went on continually
N 2
180 HISTORY OF THE ITAU^W BEPUBMCSS. 1379.
increasing. At last the Venetian and Genoese fleets met
before Antium^ in the month of July, 1378* Th^
attacked each other in the height of a tempest; and
Genoese were vañquished. It was the first batfle of a
fearful war : Lucian Doria was charged, in the month
of May, 1379; to avenge the Genoese. Having entered
the Adriatic, on the 29th of that month he met the
Venetian fleet, commanded by Vittor Pisani, before Pola.
Lucian was killed early in the engagement; hut that only
served to redouble the animosity of the Genoese; and the
Venetian fleet was almost annihilated. The senate threw
Vittor Pisani, the greatest admiral the republic ever bad,
into prison, to punish him for a disaster which would
have been avoided had his counsel been taken ; for he
had given battle by the express order of the senate, con¬
trary to his own judgment. Pietro Doria, who sue-
needed Lucian in the command of the Genoese fleet,
arrived on the 6th of August, to attack the canal or port
of Chiozza, twenty-five mUes south of Venice. It is
one of the numerous openings which cut the Aggere, m
long bank formed by nature between the Lagune and
the sea. Francesco da Carrara sent at the same time a
flotUla of Paduan boats, to attack in rear the Venetians,
who defended this opening. The port of Chiozza was
forced, and the town taken, on the l6th of August Chiosn,
like Venice, is in the bosom of the Lagune. The Genoese
fleet, having arrived thus far, could pass up to the canak
of Venice. . Never had the republic been in such im¬
minent danger ; never had she offered to purchase
peace by greater or more humiliating sacrifices. But
the Genoese, the king of Hungary, and the lord et
Padua, rejected all advances : Pietro Doria declared that
he would not make peace, before he had bridled, with
his own hand, the bronze horses in the square of
St. Mark (the same which have since been seen in
the Place du Carrousel at Paris). The Venetians, driven
to the last extremity, redoubled their patriotic exertions:
they orew Vittor Hsani from his dungeon, to place him
in the command of a new fleet; they shut their canals
1S80.
DEFEAT OF THE GENOESE.
181
with stockades; they recalled their many vessels dispersed
in the Levant, and gave the command of them to Carlo
Zeno, another of their greatest citizens. The defence
of Venice was, notwithstanding, so far doubtful, that
the signoiia had made preparations to remove to Candia
on the first reverse of fortune.
On the 1st of January, 1880, Carlo Zeno arrived
with the fieet which he had collected in the eastern
seas ; the Venetians, instead of waiting to be besieged,
proposed blockading the Genoese fleet in the Lagune of
Chiozza, into which it had so victoriously entered.
They succeeded in first shutting the canal of Chiozza,
and afterwards all the other ports or canals which cut
the Aggere: each of these advantages was, however,
purchased by an obstinate battle. Forty-eight galleys,
and 14,000 Genoese mariners or soldiers, were shut in
at Chiozza; but they were not abandoned by their
country : it sent a new fleet' into the Adriatic for their
deliverance, while the lord of Padua made the utmost
exertions to open a communication with them. The
Venetians, always investing the besieged still closer,
succeeded in avoiding the battle continually offered
them. The Genoese at last perceived that diere was
no possibility of saving their galleys ; they constructed
boats, in which they intended to escape, and gain the
fleet which awaited them in the high seas. The mo¬
ment these boats were transported to the sea-shore, they
were attacked and burnt by the Venetians. Deprived
of all resource, and pressed by famine, the Genoese
at last surrendered at discretion, on the 21st of June,
1880. Notwithstanding this great reverse of fortune,
Genoa was not cast down. The Venetians, hard pressed
by land, were obliged to abandon Treviso, and shut
themsdves up anew in their Lagune, But the two re¬
publics, equally exhausted by the war, were glad to sign,
on the 8th of August, 1881, a treaty of peace, which
re-established their former relations, nearly as they
stood before it commenced. The treaty of peace with
the king of Hungary was more disadvantageous to the
N S
182, HISTORY OP THE IT AMAN REPUBLICS. li>78.
Venetians: they ceded to him the whide of Dalm«tki*
but as he died the year following, they took adrantaga
of the embarrassment into which his daagbter was
thrown, to recover their possessions in that province.
The discord which had so long fermented in Flo¬
rence between the higher citizens who administered the
government, and the lower orders, who demanded a
more complete equality, broke out in 1378 ; a year
fruitful in events to Italy. The form of the Florentine
constitution was entirely democratic, the only sovereign
was the people ; the nohles and the Ghib^nea were
excluded from all participation in the government ; but
a perfect equality appeared to exist in the rest of the
nation, which was rendered more complete by the
citizens being called by lot to the highest dignities in
the state. Nevertheless, if government is instituted
for the good of all, to invest all indiscriminately with
power, would be very far from obtaining that good, the
object of the common efibrt. Eduoatiim, and the lei¬
sure which gives time for reflection, are two conditions
equally necessary to man, in order to attain the com¬
plete developement of his understanding, and the know¬
ledge, if ever he should arrive at the administration of
public affairs, of what would constitute the happiness
of all. Those who have not learnt to think, those to
whom manual labour leaves no time for meditation, oug^t
not to undertake the guidance of their feliow-cittzean,
by entering the difficult career of government. There
was at Florence, as there is every where, a distinction
to be made between families whose fortune gives them
the means of intellectual improvement, and those who,
to live, are obliged to devote themselves to mere labour,
so much calculated to render the faculties of the
mind obtuse. This distinction was marked by tfte
division of citizens into twenty-one corporations of arts
and trades ; the seven higher arts were distinguished
by the name of arti maggiort. In those alone the ma¬
gistrates were always chosen ; and they comprehended
families sometimes so enriched by commerce as to rival
137a.
DISCORD ur FLORENCE.
183
princes in magnificence: they were designated by the
new appellation of nobiii popolani, nobles of the people^
and produced men distinguished in the government of
the r^ublic for as much virtue as talent.
There was, however, a want of union among these
great families ; they had been divided between the two
parties, which were at first headed by the Albizzi and
Ricci : the Albizzi were among the number of those
families which the same revolution that drove out the
Ghibelines had, for more than a century, placed at the
head of the republic. They made it a part of their
religion to maintain the Guelph party in all its puiity,
and they caused the law of admonition, which excluded
from the magistracy every descendant of the ancient
Ghihelines, and under that pretext every new man, to
be executed in all its rigour. Their faction, then, was
essentially aristocratic. The Ricci, and with them the
Scali, Strozzi, Alberti, and the Medici, had attained later
tiieir immense opulence. The name of Medici was
never pronounced before the middle of this century:
their adversaries profited by the obscurity of their
origin, to pretend that their ancestors were Ghibelines.
The interest of new families led them to support demo¬
cratic opinions, and to demand that the distinction
between Guelph and Ghibeline, which no longer related
to any thing real, should be annihilated. The com¬
mission of eight, for the department of war, which had
directed, with such courage and ability, the attack on
the holy see, were all of the Ricci faction. In arming
the republic against the church, it appeared as if they
had made it adopt all the principles of the Ghibelines ;
but when the citizens, impatient of the weight of taxes,
began to sigh for peace, the Albizzi took advantage of
their discontent, to revive against their adversaries the
accusation of Ghibelinism. They even intended, under
this pretext, to exclude them from their country. The
increasing ill-will between the two factions made it
obvious that the quarrel must soon break out. ^Vhen
Salvestro de Medici was, in the month of June, 1379,
N 4
184 HISTORY OP THE ITAUAN BEPUBLICS. 1378.
made by lot gonfaloner, he proposed a law to suspend
the proceedings called admonition, which the Albizzi di¬
rected against his party. The college or little council
of the signoria rqected it, as too favourable to the Ghl-
belines. Salvestro appealed, on the 18 th of June, to a
council of the people, and afterwards to the people
themselves. Violent indignation was immediately ma¬
nifested against this small oligarchy, which, under
pretext of maintaining the ancient Guelph party in all
its purity, had branded so many honourable names with
exclusion, had encouraged divisions in a republic to
which union was necessary, and had thrown doubts on
the civic rights of half Florence. The law proposed by
Salvestro de' Medici passed by an immense majority.
But this first victory awakened more violent disputes
upon the rights and equality of the citizens ; on the pri¬
vileges of the nobili popolani ; on the artifices by which
they reserved among themselves the nomination to the
magistracies ; on the prerogatives of the major in oppo¬
sition to the minor arts ; and upon the dependent con¬
dition of the numerous artificers who must range under
the banner of the major arts, without being permitted to
form themselves into a corporation, or to enjoy any of the
advantages attached to these associations. The law which
the Medici had just carried, provided only that no new
family should be excluded from the magistracies under
the pretext that their ancestors were Ghibelines. The
people soon demanded that those who had previously
been excluded by the admonition should be reinstated
in all their rights ; that the minor arts should be ad¬
mitted to furnish members for the magistracies in the
.same proportion as the major arts ; finally, that three
new corporations should be formed, to include workmen,
dyers, weavers, fullers, and others employed in the
woollen trade. These men, belonging to the vmttm
art, having no participation in the government, regarded
themselves as excluded from every political right. They
formed a numerous portion of the population at Flo¬
rence, called in derision by the name of ciompi. The
1378.
SEDITION OF THE CIOMFI.
185
signoria, so far from yielding to these demands, reckoned
on restraining the people by terror; on the 20th'of July
they caused one of the chiefs of the ciompi to be put to
the torture, as having been found guilty of a plot against
the state ; but this only proved a signal for explosion.
The ciompi, and all the poorer classes of artisans, flew
to arms. The signoria called the urban guard to their
aid ; but those dared not assemble. On the 22d of July
the ciompi laid siege to the palace of the podestà, and
took it on the 23d ; they attacked and made themselves
masters also of the palace of the signoria : at that mo>
ment a carder of wool, named Michele Lando, in a
short waistcoat and barefooted, marched at the head of
the people, carrying in his hand the gonfalon of . the
state, which he had seized in the palace of the podestà :
an acclamation suddenly resounded from the crowd who
followed him, proclaiming him gonfaloner. During the
three preceding days, the populace, masters of the city,
had committed many crimes and disorders ; but they
had no sooner g^ven a new chief to the state, than the
chief thus chosen laboured, with admirable courage and
capacity, to restore order and peace. He ordained that
for the ñiture the supreme magistracy should be com¬
posed of three members of the migor arts, three of the
minor, and three of the ciompi. He put an immediate
end to pillaging, burnictg, and every other disorder.
He restored authority to the tribunals, security to the
citizens ; and exhibited by his own example how much
a free government spreads sound sense and elevated
sentiments among even the lowest classes of society. The
ciompi, it is true, did not long submit to a government
which they had themselves created. They rose anew ;
but Michele Lando vigorously attacked and vanquished
them: a vast number were exiled from the city.
The popular party, however, is near its defeat when
the moderate chiefs are forced to subdue the spirit
of the more ardent. Frightened at some blamable
excesses committed by their partisans, they deprive
themselves of all vigour in order to suppress them ; they
186 BlSTORir OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1582«
disarm those by whose strength they have conquered;
they distrust their friends, and confide in dieir enemies.
A man of the lower order had ranquished the anarchists
whom no other than himself could have mbdued : but
immediately afterwards, Florence blushed to have en¬
trusted so much power to a man of his class ; and on
the next drawing of lot for the magistracy, the three
ciompi drawn for the priori were not permitted to nt
in the signoria. Giorgio Scali, Salvestro de' Medici, and
Benedetto Alberti were placed at the head of the re-
public : although bdonging themselves to the aristocrat,
they were the enemies of that order. On discovering
a plot of the Albizzi, their ancient rivals, to effect a
revolution, with the rid of the troops of Charles III.
king of Naples, which then traversed Tuscany, they
caused men who had so long administered the republk
with glory to die on the scaffold. The public, not.
withstanding the confession of the accused, were not o«-
vinced that they were really guilty, or justly punished.
But division soon sprang up in the new administration:
some, no longer fearing any rival, insolently abused
their power. Giorgio Scali, learning that one of his
creatures, accused of bearing false witness, was in the
prison of the captain of the people, who prosecuted him,
forced the palace of that judge, on the 15th of January,
1582, at the head of a troop of armed men ; gave it up
to piUage ; and set its prisoner free. Benedetto Alberti,
who had always acted honestly, and in the prineiptss of
an austere republican, was indignant at the conduct of
his ancient associate. He summoned the peqpk to
avenge the insulted honour of the tribunals : for that
purpose, he made advances to the major arts and the
party of the Albizzi. Gioigio Scali was placed at the
bar, and received sentence of death, wbi(^ was imme¬
diately executed. The aristocracy fdt, meanwhile, that
it had recovered power. On the 21st of January, the
city rose at the cry of " Long live the Guelph party 1 "
The nobles, the rich merchants, and the higher citizens
comprdiended in the miyor arts, took possesrion of the
1382.
NEW FACTIONS AT GENOA.
187
public places, created a htUia, or supreme commission,
to reform the state ; abolished all the laws which had
arisen from the revolution, or the tumult of the ciompi ;
exiled Michele Lando, Benedetto Alberti, and all those
who had in any way signalised themselves in the in¬
surrection ; and, finally, reconstituted the aristocracy
of the nobili popolani more firmly than it had ever yet
stood.
Similar revolutions broke out at the same time in the
other Italian republics: in every one the same progress was
to be distinguished. The party which in all had risen
to power, as democratic, no sooner felt themselves in
possession ôf it than they turned towards aristocracy.
The leaders of the rising generation presented them.,
selves as hereditary tribunes of the people, at the same
time that £hey impugned hereditary rights. At Genoa,
men of new families completely usurped from the
ancient houses of Doria, Spinola, Grimaldi, and Fiesehi,
all power in the government ; and ranged thems^ves,
soon after the middle of the century, under the standard
of two plebeian families,— the bne named Adomi,
and Guelphs ; the other Fregosi, and Ghibeiines.
While they proclaimed their hatred of the aristocracy,
and their determination not to allow the doge to te
taken from a noble family, they combated for the Adorni
and Fregosi, with the same enthusiasm and spirit of client-
elage with which their ancestors had fought for a Doria or
a Fiesco. The ruinous civil wars into which the republic
was precipitated by the rivalry between these two fami¬
lies, and the fear that theViscontis might profit by these
troubles to enslave it, at last determined Antoniotto
Adomi, the doge, in 1396, to confer, on the 26th of
October, the signoria on Charles VI. king of France, in
the hope that a distant monarch might lend the support
of his name to the government, without having either
the power or the inclination materially to injure the
liberty of the republic.
At Sienna, after the nobles had been excluded from
the magistracies, several plebeian aristocracies succeeded
188 HISTOKY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1882.
each other. The signoria, composed of nine members,
renewed every two months, had found means of reserv¬
ing to themselves the nomination of those by whom they
were to be replaced. From that time, the election ran
among not more than ninety families of rich merchants,
who, from 1283 to 1355, remained the real rulers of
the republic. This first burgher aristocracy was called
" the order," or " monte," of " nine." The jealousy it
excited in the rank next below it caused the revolution,
which Charles IV. encouraged, in the hope of becoming
master of Sienna, on his first passage through that dty.
The Nine, like the nobles, were excluded from all parti¬
cipation in the government. It was agreed to replace
them by a popular magistracy of twelve members,
chosen from the burghership ; but these men were no
sooner in power, than, affecting to observe an exact me¬
dium between the aristocracy just excluded and the de¬
mocracy whose invasion they feared, they created an
order or monte of twelve, out of those burgh» families
who aspired only to a respectable mediocrity. This
order, once in possession of the magistracy, became not
less exclusive than its predecessors, and consequently
not less odious. When Charles returned in 1368, for
the second time, to Sienna, the twelve were deprived
of power ; and a third order was created, named " the
reformers," taken from among the classes inferior in
wealth and education to thd monte of nine and of twdve.
This order did not, at first, usurp all the power of the
republic,—it demanded only an equal partition with
the other two ; but soon betrayed irritation, because,
being by far the most numerous, it had not the most
influence. Its pretensions often occasioned commo¬
tions, and changes in the constitution. When the
ciompi seized the government at Florence, the reform¬
ers, who regarded themselves as holding the same rank
in life, made alliance with them ; but, frequently giving
way to sudden bursts of passion, they were accused
of fsifing in good faith as well as prudence. They
were at lengtii driven out of Sienna, on the 24th df
1385.
OIAN QALEAZ^O VISCONTI.
189
March, 1385, after an obstinate battle between tbem
and the other orders of citizens. Four thousand were
exiled ; and Sienna remained, from that time, weak¬
ened and shaken in her principles of liberty.
The terror in which the house of Visconti had held Flo¬
rence and the other Italian republics began somewhat to
subside. Barnabas, grown old, had divided the cities of
his dominions amongst his numerous children. His
brother, Galeazzo, had died on the 4th of August, 1378;
and been replaced by his son, Gian Galeazzo, called
count de Virtus, from a county in Champagne, given
him by Charles V., whose sister he had married. Bar¬
nabas would willingly have deprived his nephew of his
paternal inheritance, to divide it among his children.
Gian Galeazzo, who had already discovered several plots
directed against him, uttered no complaint, hut shut him¬
self up in his castle of Pavia, where he had fixed his re¬
sidence. He doubled his guard, and took pains to display
his belief that he was surrounded by assassins. He
affected, at the same time, the highest devotion : he was
always at prayers, a rosary in his hand, and surrounded
witli monks ; he talked only of pilgrimages and expiatory
ceremonies. His uncle regarded him as pusillanimous,
and unworthy of reigning. In the beginning of May,
1385, Gian Galeazzo sent to Barnabas to say, that he
had made a vow of pilgrimage to our Lady of Várese,
near the Lago Maggiore ; and that he should be glad to
see him on his passage. Barnabas agreed to meet him at
a short distance from Milan, accompanied by his two
sons. Gian Galeazzo arrived, surrounded, as was his
custom, by a numerous guard. He affected to be
alarmed at every sudden motion made near him. On
meeting his uncle, however, on the 6th of May, he
hastily dismounted, and respectfully embraced him ; hut,
vrhile he held him in his arms, he said, in German, to
his guards, " strike !" The Germans, seizing Barnabas,
disarmed and dragged him, with his two sons, to some
distance from his nephew. Gian Galeazzo made several
vain attempts to poison his uncle in the prison into
190 HISTORY OP THE IT AMAN REPUBLICS. 1S8&
irhich he had thrown him ; but Banubas, suspicioas of
all the nourishment offered him^ was on his guard, and
did not sink under these repeated efforts till the 18th of
December of the same year.
All Lombardy submitted, without difficulty, to Giao
Galeaszo. His uncle had never inspired one human being
with either esteem or affection. The nephew had no
better title to these sentiments. False and pitilew, he
joined to immeasurable ambition a genius for enterprise,
and to immovable constancy a personal timidity which
he did not endeavour to conceal. The least unexpected
motion near him thraw him into a paroxysm of nervous
terror. No prince employed so many soldiers to guard
his palace, or took such multiplied precautions of dis¬
trust. He seemed to acknowledge himself the enemy of
the whole world. But the vices of tyranny had not
weakened his ability. He employed his immense wealth,
without prodigality ; his finances were always fiourish.
ing ; his cities well garrisoned and victualled ; his army
well paid; all the captains of adventure scattered
throughout Italy received pensions from him, and were
ready to return to his service whenever called upmt. He
encouraged the' warriors of the new Italian school : he
well knew how to distinguish, reward, and win their
attachment. Many young Italians, in order to train
thmnselves to arms, had, from about the middle of this
century, engaged in the German, English, and French
troops, which inundated Italy ; and they soon proved,
that Italian valour, directed by the reflection and intel¬
ligence of a highly civilised nation, who carried their
arms as well as tactics to perfection, had greatly the
advant^e over the brute courage of barbarians. Al-
beric, count of Barbiano, a Bomagnole noble, and an
ancestor of the princes Belgiojoso, of Milan, formed a
company, under the name o£ St George, into which be
admitted Italians only, and which, in 1878, he placed in
the service of Urban VI. This company defeated, at
Ponte Molle, that of the Bretons, attached to Cle-
mept VII., and r^arded as the most formidable of the
1386. DOWNFALL OF 8CALA AND CARRARA. ipi
foreign troops. From that time, the company of St.
Gieorge was the true school of military science in Italy.
Young men of courage, talent, or ambition flocked into
it from all parts ; and all the captains who, twenty years
later, attained such high renown, gloried in having
served in that company.
Gian GaleazKO was no sooner firmly established on
the throne of Milan, than he resumed his project of
suljgugating the rest of Italy : the two principalities of
the Delia Scala at Verona, and of the Carrara at Padua,
were the first to tempt his ambition. The house of
La Scala had produced, in the beginning of the century,
some great captains and able politicians ; but their suc¬
cessors had been effeminate and vicious, — princes, who
hardly ever attained power without getting rid of their
brothers by poison or the dagger. The house of Carrara,
on the contrary, which gloried in being attached to the
Guelph party, produced princes who might have passed
for virtuous, in comparison with the other' tyrants
of Italy. Francesco da Carrara, who then reigned,
his son and grandson, were men of courage, endued
with great capacities, and who knew how to gain the
affection of fibieir subjects. The republic of Venice
never pardoned Carrara his having made alliance against
her, with the Genoese/and the king of Hungary. After
the death of the last named, Venice engaged Antonio
della Scala to attack Padua, offering him subsidies to aid
hhn in the conquest of that state. Carrara did all in his
power to be reconciled to the prince, his neighbour,
whom, in 1386, he repeatedly vanquished ; as well as
with the republic, — always ready to repair the losses
sustained by the lord of Verona. Unable to obtain
peace, he was at last reduced to accept the proffered
alliance of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who took Verona on
the 18th of October, 1387* Instead of restoring to
Carrara the city of Vicenza, as he had premised, he
immediately offered his assistance to the Venetians
against Padua : that republic was imprudent enough to
accept the offer. Padua, long besieged, was given up to
192 HISTORY OF THE ITAXIAN BEPUBUCS. ISSff.
Visconti, on the 2Sd of November, 1388. A few days
afterwards, Treviso was surrendered to him ; so that
the frontiers of the lord of Milan's dominions extended
even to the edge of the Lagune. He had no sooner planted
his standard there, than he menaced Venice, which had
so unwisely facilitated his conquests.
AU the rest of Lombardy was dependent on the lord
of Milan. The marquis of Montferrat was brought
at the court of Galeazzo, who governed his states as
guardian of this young prince. Albert, marquis d'Este,
had, on the 26th of March, 1388, succeeded his brother
in the sovereignty of Ferrara, to the prejudice of his
nephew Obizzo, whom he caused to be beheaded with
his mother. He put to death by various revolting exe¬
cutions almost pU his relations, at the suggestmn of
Gian Galeazzo, whose object was, by rendering him thus
odious to the people, to make the lord of Ferrara feel
that he had no other support than in him. Accord¬
ing to the same infernal policy, Gian Galeazzo accused
the wife of the lord of Mantua, daughter of Barnabas,
and his own cousin and sister-in-law, of a criminal in¬
tercourse with her husband's secretary. He forged fet¬
ters by which he made her appear guilty, concealed
them in her apartment, and afterwards pointed out
where they were to be found to Francesco da Gfenzsga,
who, in a paroxysm of rage, caused her to be beheaded,
and the secretary to be tortured, and afterwards put to
death in 1390 : it was not till after many years thiU he
discovered the truth. Thus all the princes of Lombardy
were either subdued or in discredit for the crimes whi¿
Visconti had made them commit, and by which he held
them in his dependence ; he then began to turn his
attention towards Tuscany. In the years 1388 and
1389, the Florentines were repeatedly alarmed by his
attempts to take possession of Sienna, ñsa, Bol(^a, San
Miniato, Cortona, and Perugia : not one attempt had
yet succeeded ; but Florence saw her growing danger,
and was well aware that the tyrant had not yet attadced
her, only because he reserved her for his last conquest.
1S90. WAR BETWEEN FLORENCE AND VISCONTI. 1Q3
The arrival at Florence of Francis II. of Carrara,
who came to offer his services and his hatred of Gian
Galeazzo to the republic, determined the Florentines to
have recourse to arms. The lord of Milan, in receiving
the capitulation of Padua, had promised to give in
compensation some other sovereignty to the house of
Carrara ; but he had either poisoned Francis I., or suf¬
fered him to perish in prison. Several attempts had
been made to assassinate Francis II. in the province of
Asti, whither he had been exiled. In spite of many
dangers, he at last escaped, and fled into Tuscany,
taking his wife, then indisposed, with him. He left
her there, and passed into Germany, in the hopes of
exciting new enemies against Gian Galeazzo ; while the
florentines made alliance with the Bolognese against the
lord of Milan, and placed their army under the command
of John Hawkwood, who ever afterwards remained in
their service. Carrara, seconded by the duke of Bavaria,
the son-in-law of Barnabas, whose death the duke was
desirous of avenging, re-entered Padua on the 14th of
June, 1390, by the bed of the Brenta, and was received
with enthusiasm by the inhabitants, who regarded him
more as a fellow-citizen than a master. He recovered
possession of the whole inheritance of his ancestors.
The extensive commerce of the Florentines had ac¬
customed them to include all Europe in their negoti¬
ations ; and, as they liberally applied their wealth to the
defence of tíieir liberty, they easily found allies abroad.
After having called the duke of Bavaria fromXiermany,
in 1390, they in the year following sent to France for
the count d'Axmagnac with a formidable army ; but the
Germans as well as the French found, with astonish¬
ment, that thèy could no longer cope with the ntew
Italian militia, which had substituted müitary science
for the routine of the transalpine soldier. Armagnac
was vanquished and taken prisoner, on the 25th of July,
1391i l'y Giacomo del Verme; and died a few days
afterwards. John Hawkwood, who, in the hope of
joining him, had advanced far into Lombardy with the
0
194 HISTORY CT THE ITALIAH BBrVBUCfl. 1^9^.
Fknentme anny^ had great difBculty ia leading it hack
in estfety through plains mandated by the Adige. Affair
this campaign, the rqmUie, feding the want of repose^
made peace with Galeaazo, on the 28th oí Januaiy,
1892 ; well knowing that it could place no trost in húá,
and that this treaty was no security against his intrigues
and treachery.
These expectations were not bdied ; for one plot fol¬
lowed another in rapid accession. The Fhwentiaus
about this time reckoned on the friaidship of the Hsaa^
who had placed at the head thdr republic Pietas
Gambacorta, a rich merchant, fom^ly an exile at
Florence, and warmly attached to peace and hberty:
but he was old, and had for his secretary Jaoopo A^
piano, the friend of his diildhood, who was nearly of
his own age. Yet Galeazso found means to seduce the
secretary: he instigated him to the assassination of
Gambacorta and his chüdren, on the 2l6t of October,
I892. Appiano, seconded by the satellites fuimshed
him by the duke of Milan, made himself master of Pisa:
but, after his death, his son, who coidd with difficiilty
maintaiu himself there, sold the dty to Gian Galeaiuo^
in the month of February, 1399; reserving only the
principality of Fiomhino, which he transrakted to his
desceaidants. At Perugia, Pandol^o Ba^kme, chief a£
the noble and Ghibeline party, had, in 1390, put hinwelf
under the protection of Gian Galeazao, who aided hi» >0
changing the Bmited authority conferred on him into a
tyranny : bnt three years afteiwards he was assassmatod^;
and the republic of Perugia, dktsacted by the convulsioBs
of opposing factions, was compelled to yield itsdf up tp
Gian Galeazzo, on the 2l8t January, 1400.
The Germans observed with jealottsy the continually
increasii^ greatness of Visconti; w^ch appeared te
them to annilnlate the rights ef ^ empire, and dry op
the sources of tribute, on a partition of which they alwaps
reckoned. They pressed Wenceskus to make war
Gian Galeazzo. But that indolent and aensual monw^
after some threats, gave it to be understood that for
2S95. OIAN OALEAZZO, DUKE Of MILAN. 195
Bioney he -vrculd willingly sanction the usurpations of
Gian Galeazzo: and, in fact, on the Ist of May, 1S95,
he granted him, for the sum of 100,000 florins, a diploma
which installed him duke of Milan and count of Pavia;
comprehending in this investiture twenty-six cities and
their territory, as far as tiie Lagune of Venice. These
were the same cities which, more than three centuries
before, had signed the glorious league of Lofmbardy. The
duchy of Milan, according to the imperial buH, was to
pass solely to the legitimate male heir of Gian Galeazzo.
This concession of Wenceslaus caused great discontent
in Germany : it was one of the grievances for which the
diet of the empire, on the 20th of August, 1400, de¬
posed the emperor, and appointed Robert elector palatine
in his stead. Robert concluded a treaty of subsidy with
the Florentines, or rather entered - into their pay, to
oppose Gian Galeazzo: but when, on the 2Ist of October,
1401, he met the Milanese troops, commanded by Jacopo
del Verme, not far from Brescia, be experienced, to his
surprise and discomfiture, how much the German ca¬
valry were inf^ior to the ltdian. He was saved from a
compete defeat mdy by Jacopo da Carrara, who led a
body of Italian caValry to his aid. Robert found it neces¬
sary to retreat, with disgrace, into Germany, after having
received from the Florentines an immense sum of mimey.
Gian Galeazzo Visconti continued his course of usurp¬
ation. In lS97i he attacked, at the same time, Francesco
da' Gonzaga at Mantua, and the Florentines, without
any previous declaration of war. After having ravaged
Tuscany and the Mantuan tenitory, he consented, on
the 11th of May, 139^^ to sign, under the guarantee of
Venice, a truce of ten years, dnuing wMdi period he
was to undertake nothing against Tuscany. That,
hosnever, did not prevent him, in 1399> from taking
under his protection the counts of Poppi and Ubertini,
in the Apennines; or from eitgaging the z^ublic of
Sienna to surrender itself to him, on the 11th of No¬
vember in the same year.
The {dague broke out anew in Tuscany, and deprived
0 2
196 HISTOBT OF THE ITAUAIT BBPUBLICi. 1400.
the free states of all their remaining yigottr. The na-
gistrates^ on whose prudence and courage they rdkd,
in a few days sank under the contagion^ and left ftee
scope to the poorest intriguer. This happened at
Lucca to the Guelph house of Guinigi, whidh had
produced many distinguished citizens^ all employed in
the first naagistracies. They perished under this disesie
nearly, about the same time. A young man of their
family, named Paulo Guinigi, undistingnidhed dAer
for talent or character, profited by this calamity, on the
14th of October, 1400, to usurp the sovereignty. He
immediately abjured the Guelph party, in wÚch he
had been brought up, and placed himself under the
protection of Gian Galeazzo. At Bologna, also, the chief
magistrates of the republic were, in like manner, swq)t
away by the plague. Giovanni Bentivoglio, descended
from a natiural son of that Idng Hensius so long pri¬
son»' at Bologna, took advantage of the state of languor
into which the r^mblic had fallen, to get himself pro¬
claimed sovereign lord, on the 27th of February, 1401.
He at first thought of putting himsdLf under the protec¬
tion of the duke of Milan ; but Gian Galeazzo, coveting
the possession of Bologna, instead of amicably receivi^
attacked him the year following. Bentivo^o was dc*
feated at Casalecchio, on the 26th of June, 1402. His,
capital was taken the next day by the Milanese general,
he himself made prisoner, and two days afterwards pub
to death. Another general of Galeazzo, in May, 1400,
took possession of Assisa ; the hberty of Genoa, Pe¬
rugia, Sienna, Pisa, Lucca, and Bologna had, one after
the other, fallen a sacrifice to the usurper. The Can-
cellieri, in the mountains of Pistoia, the Ubddini, in
those of the Mugello, had given themselves up to the
duke of Milan. The Florentines, having no longer com¬
munications -with the sea, across the territories of Sienna,
Pisa, Lucca, and Bologna, saw the sources of - their
wealth and commerce dry up. Never had the lepublie
been in more imminent danger ; when the plague, vHiiflh
had so powerfully augmented its calamitiei, came to its
1402. DEATH OF OIAN OALEAZZO. IQJ
aid. Glan Galeazzo Vigconti was seized with it at his
castle of Marignano, in which he had shut himself up,
to be, as he hoped, secure from all commimkation with
man. He was carried off by the pestilence, on the
3d of September, 1402.
CHAP. IX.
ANARCHT IN THE DUCHY OP MILAN. THE VENETIANS MAKE
THE CONQUEST OF PADUA AND VERONA. THE FLORENTINES
OF PISA. FLORENCE, MENACED IN TURN BY LADISLAUS KINO
OF NAPLES AND FILIPPO MARIA VISCONTI, MAINTAINS AGAINST
THEM THE BALANCE OF ITALY.
The Feneration of liberty in Italy was signalised still
more, if it were possible, by the developement of the
moral than by that of the intellectual character of the
Italians. The sympathy existing among fellow-citizens,
from the habit of living for each other and by each
other,— of connecting every thing with the good of
all,—produced in republics virtues which despotic states
cannot even imagine. Man must have a country, before
he can conceive the duty of sacrificing himself for it.
The arts of intrigue and fiattery are recommendations
to a master; his favour is gained by encouraging
his vices : and, in his turn, he recompenses those who
serve him at the expense of morality, by dividing with
them his power. But to please the people, to rise by
the people, virtues must be exhibited to them, not
vices : the sympathy of all is gained only by that which
is most honourable in each. A popular assembly is
swayed only by an appeal to its virtues: even in
its errors, some frankness, probity, and generosity,
by which men sympathise together, are always to
be found ; while, if a dark deed be but conceived, it is a
0 3
198 HISTOBY OF THE ITALIAN REFUBLICS. 1408.
secret careñiUy kept, with conscjoiis shame, from every
eye—it would be easier to execute than to announce or
recommend it to the public. Tyrants act on men by
terror, corruption, venality, espionnage, envy. Free
governments can lead the people only by exciting their
more honourable passions. Floquence, to move men in
masses, must make its appeals to honour, pity, justice,
and courage. Accordingly, how rich in virtues was
Italy in the twelfth century, vdien covered with re¬
publics, and when every city simultaneously fought for
liberty ! These virtues, the most precious of all treasures,
diminished with the progress of time, and in exact pro.
portion with the diminution of free states. From the
moment a man entered one of those republics, he iBÍ|^t
reckon with certainty on finding good faith in treaties
and negotiations ; zeal for the common advantage in all
alliances ; courage and fortitude in adversity ; an un¬
bounded liberality from the rich to the poor; in all
great calamities, an eagerness, in every one who had
property, to devote it to the salvation of all ; finally, an
energy in the peojde to resist, by common exertion,
every act of injustice or violence. £v«i their excesses
arose most commonly from some virtuous indication.
From the moment^ on the contrary, that a man entered
the states of one of the tyrants of Lombardy or Ro^
magna, he found a government hostile to public opinkm,
supporting itself only by perfidy and crime. Spies
watched and denounced every expresrâon of generous
feeling; they insinuated themsdves into families to
betray them; they abused the sacred ties of kindred,
home, and neighboiurhood, to convert them into snares ;
they made all fed tiiat the wisdom of the subject con¬
sisted in distrusting every one, and not meddling in the
afikirs of another. Assasaination and poison were com¬
mon means of government. Every Italian tyrant was
stained with the blood of his kindied ; paid murderers
despatched the olgects of his suspidons; he outraged
public virtue, and could maintain order only by fear.
Death itself at length failing to inspire terror, he coou
1408. DECLINE OF FREEDOM AND VIRTUE. 199
bined with coital punishment protracted tortures, the
exhibition of which only rendered men more hardened
and fî»ce.
But the field of virtue in Italy contracted from age
to age, while that of crime enlarged itself. The in¬
habitants of the kingdom of Naples^ from its foundation
in the twelfth century,—from the subjugation of the
three republics of Naples, Gaëta, and Amalfi,—'had been
dead to every feeling of association, sympathy, or patriot¬
ism : they had since that time been governed by a corrupt
court and nobility, which offered examples otdy of vices.
In the thirteenth century, Lombardy also had been de.
tached from the domain of liberty. During the con¬
vulsions occasioned either by the violence of the Guelph
and Ghibeline factions, or by the contempt of the noUes
for all law, every repulffic, in its turn, fell repeatedly
under tlie yoke of some tyrant ; and, however ^ort his
reign, it sufficed to fainiliarise the mind with violence
instead of justice, and with the success of crime. At
the same time, the devotion of factions to their chiefii,
the reference of patriotism to party, and not to the
common weal, perverted morality, and confounded the
rules of right and wrong.
In the fourteenth century it was still worse : power
in Lombardy had passed to those who made of it the
uses most dœtructîve of public virtue. Men rose to
be princes by crime : their perfidy towards their neigh¬
bours, and Üieir domestic treadiery, marked the com¬
mencement and duration of every reign. Tyrants were
so numerous, so constantly under the observation of
every citizen, that their example was always operating
to corrupt the people. No father of a family could hide
from his children ffie fact, that the prince they must obey
had attained power only by betraying his friends or his
fellow-citizens, by poisoning or poniarding his unde
or his brother. The states of the church exhibited not
fewer examples of the success of crime : every city of
Romagna, of the March, of the patrimony of St. Reter^
had its tyrant ; and every tyrant reigned only to tread
200 HISTORY OP THE ITAtlAN REPUBLICS. 1408.
under foot every moral duty. Nay, more: Banulias
and Gian Galeazzo Visconti had, in scnne sort, kept a
school of treachery for Tuscany and the states of the
church. They had always encoun^ed every usurp¬
ation ; and promised beforehand their alliance to who¬
ever could smother the voice of a free people, and scdwe
them from the sway of morality to that of crime.
These causes of immorality, all which in Italy con¬
spired against public virtue, operated in the banning
of the 15th century with redoubled force. When Gian
Galeazzo unexpectedly died of the plague, in the height
of his successful career, he divided his estates between
his two sons,—Gian Maria, then thirteen years of age,
whom he declared duke of Milan ; and Filippo Maria,
twelve years old, whom he left count of Pavia. But, as
these princes were too young to reign, he recommended
them to the condottieri in his service, whom he intro¬
duced into the council as part of the regency: these
were the captains of that new militia which had so wdl
served him in the accomplishment of his projects, and
in whom he placed the greatest confidence. The school
of Alberic Barbiano, which had formed such brave sol¬
diers and able generals, could not, in like manner, produce
good citizens and virtuous men ; and Gian Galeazao,
for the protection of his children, needed counsellors
guided % principles that would have stood in his
way as long as these men were his servants. Jacopo
del Verme, Pandolpho Malatesta, Facino Cane, Ottobon
Terzo, and the other captains in whom he trusted,
were soldiers of fortune, who made of their valour a
trade of carnage and plunder ; who, indifferent to what
was just or unjust, were ready to fight for whoever
would pay them, and to betray those for any other who
would pay them more. They did not long remain
faithful guardians to the trust which their master had
reposed in them. They shared it with Catherine, -widow
of Gian Galeazzo, and with Francesco Barbavara, sup¬
posed to be her lover, and known to have commenced
Ws career as valet-de-chambre to the duke. Warriore
1403. NEW TTRANTS IN L0HBABD7.
201
disdained to obey a woman and her valet ; the chiefs,
too, of the ancient parties in the cities which Visconti
Had subdued, rose with their partisans to recover the
sovereignty of their fathers. The condottieri resisted
them, but resisted them for themselves : Facino Cane
made himself tyrant at Alexandria ; Ottobon Terzo
at Parma; Pandolpho Malatesta at Brescia. Amidst
this anarchy, the duchess Catherine believed herself
energetic in proportion as she was violent and cruel.
She caused several Milanese nobles to be beheaded
without trial ; she gave up many cities to be sacked by
the soldiers ; and thus only redoubled the hatred which
she excited : she was thrown into prison, where she died
by poison on the l6th of October, 1404 ; and Francesco
Barbavara was obliged to fly. The rest of the duchy of
Milan was divided into as many principalities as there
were cities. In some, it was the ancient chiefs of the
Guelph or Ghibeline party who recovered power ; in
others, the captain of adventure who happened to be in
garrison there : in several it was some daring villain,
such as Giovanni da Vignate at Lodi, or Gabrino Fon-
dolo at Cremona, who, profiting by the friendship and
confidence of some other usurper, assassinated him, and
took his place. Never, even in that country so fertile in
tyrants, was power stained with so many crimes.
Gian Maria Visconti, who had seen almost all the
cities subdued by his father detached from his dominion,
still continued to bear the title of duke of Milan ; while
his power, even in that city, passed from one ambitious
chief to another, and was at last assumed by Facino
Cane, one of the best generals of his father. All that
Gian Maria Visconti preserved of sovereign power was
an unbounded indulgence in every vice. His libertinism
would hardly have been remarked ; he was chiefly sig¬
nalised by the frightful pleasure which he sought in the
practice of cruelty. He was passionately devoted to the
chace ; but such sports soon failed to quench his thirst
for cruelty. The tortures inflicted on mute animals, not
finding expression by speech, did not come up to his
sos HI8T0BV OF TBE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 140&
ferodous ideas of eojoyment. He therefore resolred
substitute men for brute animals ; and caused all the oí»
minais condemned by the tribunals to be given up to him
as olgects of this inhuman sport. He had his hounds ftd
with human flesh, in order to render them more feroeieas
in tearing the victims; and, when ordinary convicts were
s(»rce, he denounced to the tribunals even the crimes in
which he had participated, to obtain the condemnation
of his accomplices : after which he delivered them to his
huntsman, Squarcia Giramo, charged with providing for
the ducal chace. He was at last, on the l6th May,
1412, assassinated by some Milanese noUes.
The virtue and elevation of soul which had done sudi
honour to the Italian nation became obscured even as
the republics of Genoa, Lucca, Pisa, Sienna, Perugia,
and Bologna. These republics, in the course the
fourteenth century, had aU more than once fallen under
the power of some tyrmt : accordingly, the examples of
cruelty, perfldy, and the success of those usurpers to
whom tla^y had been forced to submil^ had had a cos-
rupting influence on their citizens. Neither had Venice
preserved the true Italian virtue : its citizens often gave
proofs of an unbounded devotion to their country, of an
unreserved submission to its most severe ordinances ; but
it was a narrow-minded and jealous aiistocracy, which,
acooniing to the sjnrit of that government, su^tituted
national selfishness for patriotism. The Vmietians took
not into the least consideration any other people : they
fancied they gave proofs of heroism, when the advan¬
tage of their repuUie was in question, in suppressing
every human sentiment, in silencing every moral duty.
Venice was governed by secret councils, where the voice
of the people was never hemd ; its foreign policy was ad¬
ministered bylheCoundl of Ten ; which, in its mysterioqs
meetings, took interest only for a guide. The decemvirs
dared unblushingly propose to their colleagues deliberating
under the sanction of an oath, and animated with the
same spirit as themselves, the sacrifice of what was honest
and just to what was usefuL Italian virtue had tiicm
140S.
VIRTUE OF FLORENCE.
208
reñige at Florence : it was there only that the people de^i
liberated ; that they associated together either for peace
or war, or negotiaitioD, as well as for the common »lmi>
nistration of the government. Nothing was proposed to
the puUic, nothing could obtain the assent of all, except
what all felt to be just, honourable, and generous. The
republic of Florence was always ready to risk its repose
and wealth for the equilibrium and independence of
Italy ; for the common liberty ; and for the prepress of
intelligence and civilisation. During two centuries, it
was always seen eager to put itself forward as the
champion of all that was good and noble. Italy might
justly glory in the fact, that wherever she was freé,
she was always found constant in the road of virtue :
dhe is not answerable for the crimes with which she was
sullied by her tyrants. Several thousand citizens had
always contributed, by their vote, to all that Florence did
that was grand and noble ; while about fifty princes,
distributed in as many palaces, with the few wretches
which it belongs to tyrannical governments dways to
bring forward, sufficed to commit, in spite of a whole
pt^ulation, all the crimes which affrighted Italy.
At the moment in which the death of Gian Galeazzo
annihilated, at least for a time, the threatening power of
the dukes of Milan, the two republics in Italy which
alone had survived his intrigues, and which he had in
vain menaced, profited by the anarchy into which Lom<-
bardy had fallen, to recover their power, and aggrandñe
themselves by conquest. Venice, which had shut itself
up in its Lacune, issued forth to extend its frontiers to
the Lake of Garda; and Florence, to which Gian Galeazzo
had interdicted all approach to the sea, conquered Pisa,
whose ports were necessary to its commerce, and rimost
to its existence.
Francesco da Carrara, re-established in the sovereignty
of Padua in the year ISQO, had from that period re¬
mained faithful to the Guelph party and to Florence : he
hoped to profit by the confusion in which the death of
Gkm Galeazzo had left all Lombardy ; and he invited
201 HISTOBT OF THE ITAI<IAN BEPITBLICg. 1404.
Gulielmo della Scala to join him, and recoTer together
the, sovereignties of Verona and Vioenza. Gulielmo was
the son of that Antonio della Scala who, hj his alliance
with the Venetians fifteen years before,had caused the min
of Carrara and his own ; but a community of misfortune
had reconciled than. On the 7th of April, 1404, they,
in conjunction, took Verona. On the 21st of the same
month Delia Scala died ; and the report was spread that
Carrara had poisoned him. Be that as it may, Carrara,
on the 17th of May following, arrested the two sons of
Delia Scala, and took possession of fiie dty and fortress
of Verona. Vicenza, in the mean time, yielded to die
Venetians. The latter had hitherto sought their gran¬
deur only in commerce, in their navy, and in their posses^
sions beyond sea; but the confusion into which Lombardy
was thrown gave birth in them to a new ambition : diey
resolved on extending their dominion in a country whi<h
seemed to offer itself for their conquest.
They entered into treaty with die duchess Cadierine
Visconti, who renounced all right which her son might
have on Verona and Padua ; and they set on foot an
army of 9000 cavalry. Their immense wealth permit
ted them to choose the most distinguished captains md
the best soldiers in Italy. The republic, in tiding thM^
into pay, made it one rule, never t# confide the command
of its armies to one of its own citizens, that they might
have nothing to fear from his power or glory; and
another, not to allow the soldiers to enter the city of
Venice, the defence of which needed no more than its
Lagune, galleys, and sailors. Two senators, distinguished
by the title of procurators of St. Mark, were (haiged to
attend in the camp, and watch over the foreign general
whom the signoria had chosen.
War between Venice and the lord of Padua was de¬
clared on the 23d of June, 1404. Francesco da Carrara
carried it on with the utmost valour ; but opposed, with¬
out allies, to forces infinitely superior to his own, he saw
successively forced the passage of several canals vdiich
intersected his territory, and behind which he had raised
1405. VENICE CONQUERS PADUA.
205
fortifications. The whole of the Paduan territory was ra.
vaged by the Venetian army, and almost all its fortresses
taken before the end of the campaign of 1404. A division
of the army arrived to besi^ Carrara in his capital, on
the 12th of June, 1405 ; at the same time that another
division besieged his second son, Jacopo da Carrara, in
Verona, and forced him to capitulate, on the 23d of
June. The whole rural population had taken refuge in
Padua ; and the privations and sufferings experienced in
consequence occasioned a contagious malady, which car¬
ried off* 40,000 persons. Carrara and his son continued
to fight at the head of the survivors with determined
bravery, till the Venetians made themselves masters of
the first entrenchment. On the IQth of November, 1405,
a capitulation became necessary. Carrara always flattered
himself that the Venetians would grant him some remu¬
neration for the principality which they wrested from
him. He repaired to Venice, with his eldest son, on the
faith of the general with whom he had capitulated. On
their arrival, they were thrown into prison ; where they
found Jacopo da Carrara, who had been taken prisoner at
Varona. The Council of Ten, putting in practice the ad¬
vice given later by MachiaveUi, of annihilating the whole
race of dethroned tyrants, in order to destroy with them
the zeal, hopes, and plots of their partisans, caused
Francesco da Carrara and his two sons to be strangled in
prison, on the l6'th of January, 1406*. They, at the
same time, set a . price on the head of the youngest
princes, who had escaped from them, and on those of all
the survivors of the house of Delia Scala : not one fell
under the dagger of the assassin, notwithstanding the
great recompence shamelessly promised by the Vene¬
tians ; but, on the other hand, not one ever recovered the
states of his fathers.
The Florentines regarded Francesco da Carrara as one
of the firmest champions of the Guelph party in Lom-
bardy : they valued his alliance ; but tiiey did not think
themselves obliged to plunge into war for him, whom
they accused of having provoked it by his unjust ag-
Z06 HISTOBT OF TBE ITALIAX BEPUBLICg. 1405,
gression on Verona. All their efforts, also, were then
(hrected against Pisa : they regarded the conquest of that
city as a necessary condition of their existence, cfct
sfaice the blockade which Gian Galeazzo had made them
éxperience, by subjugating all the states that opened to
them any commimication with the sea. Gian Galeazao
had left the lordship of Pisa to his natural sou, Galniel
Maria, who had, with his mother, taken possession of
that dty. 'Hiat of Sienna had recovered its freedom iu
the month of Mmch, 1404, and had renewed its allianeS
with Florence. Perugia and Bologna had also, in the
^ceding month of September, thrown off the y<dce of
the Viscontis, and voluntarily submitted to the (^urdi ;
which had left them their republican form of goven-
ment. The Cancellieri, the counts Guidi and Ubertim,
and the other feudal nobles of the Apennines, who had
pSaced themselves under the protection of Gian Galeazzo,
had been punished for it by the Flm-entine republic
which had a^n subdued than to its power. Luoea
remained subject to Paulo Guinigi, who governed that
ancient repubHe with moderation, and desired mily to be
fbrgotten by his neighbours. Pisa ^one, in Tuscany,
remained tiie enemy of Florence. As Gabriel was sen¬
sible that his brothers, the Viscontis, were (hen in no
state to defend him, he purchased the protection of dm
marshal Boudcault, the representative of the kmg o
France at Genoa. Bcmdcault exercised only the limited
authority assigned by the constitution to the dc^ The
Genoese were far more zealous than the mardial in the
support of the independence of Pisa. They feared die
competition of the Florentines in their maritime com«'
merce, if once they were masters of Pisa, Leghora,
and Porto Pisano. Boucic»ult, on the contrary, after
having taken Gabriel Maria under his protection, soon
tiiought of making them an article of trade. He offered
to sell Pisa to the Florentines, in the month of June^
1405, for the sum of 400,000 florins; which be agreed
to divide with Gabriel Maria. The Pisans, informed oC
this negotiation, rose on the 21st of Jvij; disarmed the
1406. THE FLORENTINES CONQUER PISA. 20?
gmison of their tyrants ; made themselves masters of
die gates of the city; but failed in their attack on the
citadel. Boucicault, informed of these matters, mo¬
derated his demand; and asked the Florentines no
more than 206,000 florins for the Pisan citadel, and
the castles which he stiU held in the territory of Pisa.
The Flmrentines paid him that sum: he was engaged
to divide it with Gabriel Maria ; but, to rid himself of
this claim, he accused Gabriel of a plot against the king
of France, and caused him to be breaded.
The Florentines hoped to induce the Pisans to submit
to them by negotiations; and they ofiered the most ad¬
vantageous conditions : but riie Pisans, who proudly
regarded themselves as the most ancient and illustrious
of the Tuscan republics, and as having preserved, more
than any other, their wariike courage, vigorously be-
their citadel, and retook it on the 6th of
September. They afterwards demanded peace of the
iiorentines, oflering to reimburse them the money they
had paid: to flidlitate the negotiation, they recalled
from exüe Giovanni Gambacorta, whose family had been
always favoured by Florence, and named him captain of
the people. But thdr offers were all rejected ; and the
Pisans, forced to have recourse to arms, not only fought
vafiantly themselves, but eagerly sacrificed their whole
fortune to purchase the services of the condottimi,
whom they called to their aid from aU parts of Italy.
The war continued for more than a year : the Pisans
successivdy lost all their fortresses and territwy : tbdr
dty was blockaded daring the campaign of 1406; and
ÛÛsy courageously supported privations, malade, and,
finidly, Ihndne. But the chief whom they had elected
did not show a Uke heroism : Giovanni Gambacorta se¬
cretly treated with the Florentines ; and obtained the
gift of ii0,000 florins, and the county of Bagno, to open
to them the gates of Pisa; whidbi was done in ^ ni^t
of the 8th and 9th of November, 1406. The Florentines
did afl in their power to reconcile the Pisans to the
yoke which they forced on them : their army was pre-
208 BISTORT OF THE ITAUAR REPXTBUCg. 140^.
ceded into the famished towns by wagon-loada of
hijead, which the soldiers distributed themsdves to all
that demanded it. Gino Capponi, the commissioner of
Florence, promised, not only the strictest attention to
justice, but privileges, and even friendship, to the con«
quered people. These advances were all in vain; the
Pisans were too haughty to submit to rivals whom they
had so long combated. The most ancient and opu¬
lent families removed to Lucca, Sardinia, and
The young men almost all engaged in the companies
adventure, to find in the camp an independence which
they could no longer hope for in their-own country:
and Pisa, in losing its liberty, lost its commerce, popu¬
lation, and every remnant of prosperity.
The Florentines endeavoured to relieve Pisa ñom its
state of poverty, by filling it with foreigners : they of¬
fered it to the church for the meeting of the council
which was to terminate the great western schism. This
schism had lasted since the year 1878- Pietro di Luna,
an Aragonese, one of the cardinals who had gjven rise to
it, had succeeded Clement VII., who died at Avignon in
IS94. The succession of popes in the other division of
die church had been more rapid. Boniface IX., who had
succeeded the turbulent Urban VI., in 1389) was a betfi^
warrior than churdiman ; he reconquered successively at
the states which his predecessor had lost: he entered Rome,
and consolidated his power by executions. Innocent VII.,
who succeeded him, in 1404, was a gentle and moderate
man ; but as he abandoned the exercise of power to his
brother, who governed only by terror, the number of
executions drove the Romans to revolt. The pope was
anew driven from his capital; but, returning in 1406, he
died a few months aftmi^ards, and Gr^ory XII., a Ve¬
netian, was named his successor.
In both divisions of the church, the prolongation of
the schism was considered dishonourable and calamitous
to Christendom : in both the sovereigns were zealous
to suppress it ; but on both sides the popes opposed an
obstinate resistance. They had been each elected íj
1409.
COUNCIL OF PISA.
209
the two colleges of cardinals^ under the express condi¬
tion that each would be rrady to cede his ri^ts, and
abdicate at the same time with his competitor. They
either refused, or by a thousand artifices delayed, to do
80. Benedict XIII. was besieged in his palace at
Avignon by the troops of the king of France, in
order to constrain him to yield: but, after he had
declared himself ready to abócate, his adversary, Gre¬
gory XII., refused. Benedict, however, advanced as
far as La Spezzia, and Gr^ory as far as Lucca, to
meet in conference with their two colleges ; but both
persisted in not taking the last step. Tourards the
end of 1408, their cardinals, losing all patience, left
them, and assembled at Leghorn ; whence they issued
a summons to convoke the oecumenical council at Pisa,
in the month of March following. This council, in which
were assembled almost all the prelates of Christendom,
after long discussion, condemned and deposed the two
popes, on the 5th of June, 1409 ; anJ» on the 7th of July,
the assembled cardinals of the two obediences" named
in their place a third, Alexander V. The deposed
popes woiüd not submit to the sentence of the council :
both preserved a small flock of the faithful,—the one in
Aragon, the other at Rimini and Naples. Gregory had
retired to the first-mentioned town ; so that, instead of
two, there were three popes in the western church. To
terminate the schism, it became necessary to assemble a
second general councU ; which, sitting at Constance, on the
1st of November, 1414, forced two of the popes to ab¬
dicate, and deposed the third. The church, at the same
time, implored a reform ; to accomplish which, a third
council was assembled at Basle, on the 2Sd July, 1431,
and this laid the foundation of a new schism.
While two or three pretenders to the pontifical chair
were thus obliged to defend themselves against each
cfther, as well as against their own cardinals and against
all Christendom, the king of Naples profited by tho
confusion to take possession of nearly all the states
of the church. That king was Ladislaus, son of
p
210 HISTORY OP 7HB ITA1.IAH IIEPUBUCS. 140f
Charlfls 111. da Durazzo, whom hé had succaedod ia
1;386j being at that time only ten years old. Louis IL
of Anjou, a minor, like Ladi^aua, disputed the Ûattft,
with him. The queen, Joan, when pressed by the
Hungarians, bad adopted Louis I., duke of Aigoii, the
brother of Charles V. ; who had entered the kingdom of
Naples in 1382, and died there in 1384. He leñ one
son, Louis II., then under age, to whom his mother
and her partisans gave the title of Idn^ of Sicily. The
war between these two children, directed their
mothers, ruined the kingdom of Naples during die latter
part of the fourteenth century, and destroyed its m.,
fluence over the rest of Italy. It was net till 1399
that Ladislaus succeeded in driving out, the. princes of
Anjou, and subduing the kingdoin. He had grown up
amidst civil war, receiving the hardening education of
privation and danger, alternately seconded or obstructed
by intrigue and treachery. He was hiayOj and bad
studied the art of war ; but wasrStiU more expert in.dissi«
raulation and perfidy. His ambition was unbounded, and.
his passions unrestrained by anyone moralpiiodple. After,
short attempts to preserve Provence and. to acqpiie the
crown of Hungary, to which his birth gave him a title,
he judged it more advantageous to direct aU his efiPorta
against the states which bounded his dominions in Italy.
In April, 1408, he took possession of Rome ; and soon,
afterwards of Perugia. He conquered almost all the
cities of the March, and of the duchy of foleto ; from
thence he entered Tuscany, ravaged, the territories of.
Arezzo and of Sienna, and took possession of Cortona.
The Florentines, when they saw themselves thus at-,
tacked, without any subject of quarrel, by this ambitious
and faithless prince, resolved on opposing to him
Louis II. of Anjou.. They recalled Louis from France,
in 14Q9 ; and offered a subsidy to aid him in recoverii^
the crown of Nicies. At the same time, they formed a
closer connection vnth one of the two generals who then
attracted the attention of all Italy. Among the nu¬
merous captains who had been formed in the school of
1409. TBE BRACCESOHI AND 8F0RZEBCHT. 311
Alberic da Barbiano, there were two regarded as infinitd^
BUl>erior to all others, fVom the progress which they had
made in the art of war. Braccio da Montone, a noble
of Perttgfa, had studied how to render his army man¬
ageable, by augmenting the number of officers, and by
accustoming it to fight in detached bodies, which dis¬
persed and rallied at will. The other was Sforza Atten-
dnlo, a peasant of Cotignola, in Romagna, who at first
distinguished fbr prodi^ous strength of body and un¬
daunted bravery, soon became equally distinguished in
military tactics; but, instead of adopting the new
method of Braccio, he applied himself to bringing the
ancient system to perfection. He continued to move
his army in large masses; which nö one conducted
with such unison and steadiness. Braccio distin¬
guished himself by impetuous valour, by prompt and
decisive action, and sometimes by trusting to chance :
Sforza, by prudent, steady, and cool conduct. All the
soldiers of fortune in Italy soon attached themselves to one
or other of these two captains ; who, nearly of the same
age, and having made their first campaigns together, now
found themselves opposed to each other in a rivals of
interest and glory. The name of the Bracceschi schoofwas
given to the band of soldiers of the one, and Sforzesdii
to the other ; and, when a state called one of these into
its service, it was nearly sure of having the other op¬
posed to it.
The Florentines formed a close connection with Brac¬
cio : they placed him at the head of their army ; and
they settled oU him a considerable pension, which was
to continue even when out of their service, provided he
always returned to it when called upon. Louis of Anjou
rendered them but little service : he was engaged in a
war on their aecoimt in the states of Rome, when he
received news that the Genoese had, on the 6th of Sep¬
tember, 1409, risen against the French, and driven
them out of Genoa. Apprehending that his commu-
nioation with-France rai^t be interrupted, he hastily
returned to Provence. After his departure, Braccio
p 2
s 12 HISTOBY OF THE ITAUAN REPUBLÍC8. 1410.
carried on the war succeesfully against die Nej^fitaaa.
With the Florentine army he made himself master of
Rome, on the 2d of January, 1410. Flmence, how.
ever, had no sooner gained a signal advantage owr
Ladislaus, than it offered him peace, which he eageriy
accepted: he bound himself by treaties in terms Urn
most precise, and confirmed them fay oaths the most
solemn ; which were no sooner taken than unfalndiing^
violated fay him. The war was interrupted only Sat
the time necessary for the repose of the troops ; each year
forced them to a new campaign. Louis of Anjou was
twice called into Italy fay the Florratines: he gained
over Ladislaus, at Boccasecca, on the 19th of May,
1411, a great victory, of whidi he knew not bow to
take advantage. He again retired, and left Ladislans to
finish the conquest of the ecclesiastical states; whOe
John XXIII., successor of Alexander y.^onIy struggled
to prevent the convocation of the council of Crastance,
which deposed him. Ladislaus, who owed his success
chiefiy to the talents and bravery of Sfmraa, then in Ins
pay, made every year some fresh conquest in Tnscai^.
The Florentine republic, attacked fay him on ah sida^
and, exhausted fay continual exertion, found no longer
any resource fay which to resist him, and began to kce
all hope ; when the king of Naples was seized in Ms
camp with a violent and painful malady, attributed to
his debaucheries. He was conveyed in a litter to Napka;
and died on arriving there, on the 6th of August 1414.
His sister, Joan II., widow of the son of the duke of
Austria, succeeded him. She was forty years of a^ ;
and, like her brother, abandoned to the most unrestnàaed
libertinism. She left ihe government of her kingdom
to her lovers, who disputed power fay arms : they called
into her service, or into that of her second husband, or
of the rival princes whom she in turn adopted, the two
armies of Sforza and Bracdo. The consequence was the
ruin of the kingdom of Naples ; which ceased to menace
the rest of Italy.
The moment Ladislaus disappeared, a new enemy
141S. FILIPPO HARIA VISCONTI. SIS
MOse to disturb the Florentines—Filippo Maria Vis¬
conti, the Inrother of Gian Maria, and third duke of
Milan. He was received in that capital on the l6th of
June, 141S, four days after the murder of his brother.
Filippo immediately married the widow of Facino Cane,
the powerful condottiere, who had retained Gian Maria
in his dependence; and who died the same day that
Gian Maria was assassinated. By this sudden mar¬
riage he secured the army of Facino Cane,—which was,
in fact, master of the greater part of the Milanese : with
its aid he undertook, without delay, to recover the rest
of his states from the hands of those tyrants who had
divided amongst them the dominions of his father.
Filippo Maria, like him, united immeasurable ambi¬
tion with extreme timidity. During the first year of
his reign, which was to decide his existence as prince or
subject, he fought with determined courage ; but from
ihat time, though he continually made war, he never
showed himself to his armies. Even in his palace and
garden, he shrank fiom the eye of man : he never con¬
sented to an interview with the emperor Sigismond, who
had gone to Milan to exert himself for the extinction of
the schism. It is asserted that Filippo Maria was so
sensible o£ his extreme i^liness, that he could not sup¬
port the humiliation of being looked at. He had the art
of discovering great talents, and of attadiing the best
captains of Italy, in as great a degree as his father ; but
placed less con£dence in those worthy of obtaining it,
and possessed less elevation and constancy in his projects.
Always as timid as be was ambitious, he became discon-
raged on the smallest reverse of fortune in the attacks
which he continually made on his neighbours: versatile'
in politics, he no sooner made peace than he renewed'
WW, or contracted an alliance than he broke it. He
aeemed no less alarmed at the success of his own generals,
than at that of his enemies. He was always the first to
stqp their progress, and to prevent them from profiting
by. their success ; so that his tortuous conduct daily pro¬
duced some unexpected thwarting result. Without pity
p 3
S) 4 HISTOaV of THE italiah bepcbucs. 1431.
fof iús gulgects, he exposed them both to the Texatione
of his own solars and those of the enemy. He wodd
have ruined Lomhardy, if the fertility of that rich pro¬
vince had not exceeded his power of miaehirf.
In the battle of 'Monxa, by whieii he acqviied Ida
brother's inheritance^ and the only battle in whidi he
was ever present, he remarked the brilHant courage of
Francesco Ç^toro^ola, a Piedmontese soldier of Sprtmm,
and immediatdy gave him a eommand. Csrm^iBale
sopn justified the duke's choice by the most distingmabcd
talents for war, the most brifiiant victories, and the meat
noble chamctpr. Frsmceseo Carnn^tfia was, after a
few years, placed at fiip head of tiiie cMrn's armies;
and, from the year 1412 to that of 1422, saecessÍTify
atfaeked aU the tyrants who had divided heritage tt
Gian Galeazzo, and brought those small states again
nndor tho dominion of the duko of Milan. Even the
republic pf Genoa submitted to him, in 1421, on the
same conditions as those on whi^ it had before submit«
ted to the king of France,—reserving aU its fibertiesj
and gianfing the duke's iWtenant, who was Carmagnola
himselfi only those prerogafiTea which fiie eonstítufiea
yielded to tlm doge.
^ soon as Filippo Msaia bad accomplished the con¬
quest of Itombardy, he rwsimod dm ysmdöeta of hù father
against Romagna and Tusesny. He om^rmed tba
treaties of allianee wbl^ Gia» Galeaiso had costraeted
vrith all the Ghibdine tyrants of the first^named pro»
vince; renewed hie inttigaes against the repoblie at
Florenoe, and comluned dmm widi those which he at
the same fime carried on in the kingdom of Naplsw
Joan, who had sent back to France her second husband,
Jaques, count de la Marehe, and who had no children,
was persuaded, in 1420, by one of her fevers, to
a4opt Alpbonso the Magnanimous, king of Aragon and
^Uy, to whom she entrusted some of the fbrtreasaa
Kapfes« 8he revoked this adoption in 14SS; and
substituted in his pla<£ Louis 111. of Anjou, s(hi q#
LMfis II. The former put biinself at the head of dm
ItôS. VISCONTI ATTACKS THE FLORENTINES. 215
sncieht party of Dtirazzo ; the latteT, of that of Anjou;
The consequencé was a civil war^ hi which the two gttai
eaptainSj Sforza atid Bracdo, were opposed to each dther,
and aeqtiired new titles to gtoryi Tlie duke of Milan
made aîliânee with Joan 11. and Lduis 111. of Anjoh:
Sharza, named great constable of thé kingdom, was their
gtineraL The Florentines remained constant to Braccio,
whotn AlphOBfso had made governor of the Abruzzi; and
who had seised, at the same tíme, the tígnoria of Peru¬
gia, bis native dty. He ibund a warlike disposition iii
the Perugkns, associated them in his glory^ and made
them sharers in the wealth whidi his aihns had procured
him. He subdued several of the small neighbouring states,
and seemed to be forming a military principality ; which
Florence accepted as an ally, to defend, in concert, the
independence of Tuscimy. But Sforza and Braceio both
perished, as Italy awaited with anxiety the result of the
struggle about to be commenced. Sforza was drowned
at the passage of the Pescara, on the 4th of January,
1424 ; Braccio was mortaUy wounded at the battle
of Aquila, on the 2d of June of the same year. Fran¬
cesco, son of the former, succeeded to his father's name
and the command of his army, both of which he was
destined to render still more illustrions^ The son of
Braccioj on the contrary, lost the sovereignty of Pèru-Î
gla, Avfaách resumed its freedom on the 29th of July of
the same year; and die remnant of the army fOrméd
by this great captain elected for its chief his most able
Iteutenabt,- NieiÄo Piednine.
This was the moment which Filippo Maria chose Co
push on his army to Romagna, and vigorously attack
the Florentines, after he had ackliowledged their right to
defend that province. The Florentines, having no tried
general at the head of tlïeir troops, experiendcd, from the
6th of September, 142S, to the 17th of OetobeV; 1425,
not less than six suceesûvë defeats, dther iii liiguria of
Romagna. Undismayed by defeat, they re-assemhled
tlieir army for the seventh time : the patdcitism of theif
rich merchants made up for the penury of their exhausted
g 4
2l6 HISTOBir OF THE ITAUAM BEPVBUCg.
treasury. They, at the same time^ sent their most d»-
tinguished statesmen as ambassadors to Venice^ to reprr«
sent to that republic, that if it did not join them wh^
they still stood, the liberty of Italy was lost for enr.
Lorenzo Bidolfi, one of the ten commissioners of war, bad
been sent on this mission to the signoria of VaiM|:
finding great difficulty in persiiading it to take part ia
the war, he exclaim^, " I acknowledge we have been
wrong in not opposing Filippo Maria in time ; fot, ^
our slowness, we have made him duke of Afilan and
master of Genoa : but you, by sacrificing us, render him
king of Italy. We, in om turn,, if we must submit to
him, will make him emperor." An illustrious fogithi^
Francesco Carmagnola, who arrived about this time qt,
Venice, accomplished what Florence had nearly failed in,
by discovering to the Venetians die project of the duke
of Milan to subjugate them. Francesco Carmagwda
had, by the victories he had gained, the glory he lud
acquired, and the infiuence he obtained over the sol¬
diers, excited the jealousy, instead of. the gratitude^, of
Filippo Maria; who dis^aced him, and deprived him.
of Ids employment, vrithout assigning any reason. Car¬
magnola returned to court, but could not even obtain an
interview with his master. He retired to his native
country, Piedmont: his wife and children were ar¬
rested, and his goods confiscated. He arrived at last,
by Germany, at Venice; soon afterwards some emis¬
saries of the duke of Milan were arrested for an attmnpt
to poison him. The doge, Francesco Foscari, wishing
to give lustre to his reign by conquest, persuaded the
senate of Venice to oppose the increasing ambition of
the duke of Milan. A league, formed between Florence
and Venice, was successively joined by the marquis qf
Ferrara, the lord of Mantua, the Siamese, the duke
Amedeus VIII.- of Savoy, and the king Alphonso of
Naples, who jointly declared war against Filippo Maria
Visconti, on the of January, 1426. Carmagnola
was charged to raise an army of 16,000 cuiras^ers and
8000 in&ntiy in the states of Mantua.
1428. CONQUESTS OF THE VENETIANS. 217
The good fortune of Carmagnola in war still at¬
tended him in the campaign of 1426. He was as suc¬
cessful against the duke of Milan as he had been for
him : he took from him the city and whole province of
Brescia. - The duke ceded this conquest to the Venetians
by treaty on the 30th of December : but he employed
the winter in assembling his forces ; and in the beginning
of spring renewed theT war. He equipped a consider¬
able fleet on the Po^ in order to take possession of the
states of Mantua and Ferrara, the allies of the two re¬
publics. This fleet was attacked by the Veneti^s, and,
after an obstinate battle, burnt, near Cremona, on the
2l8t of May, 1427. The duke of Milan had given the
command of his'army to Nicolo Piccinino, the pupil of
Braccio, who had brought with him the flower of thé
Bracceschi army. Nicolo attacked Carmagnola on the
12th of July, at Casalsecco; but the heat was so intense^
and the dust rose in such clouds from under the horses'
feet, that the two armies, enveloped in nearly the dark¬
ness of night, could no longer distinguish each other, or
discern the signals: they separated without claiming
advmtage on either side. A third battle took place,
on the 11th of October, 1427> in a marsh near Macalo:
Carmagnola here completely defeated the Milanese
army, commaqded by Carlo Malatesta, in which were
united Francesco Sforza, Nicolo Piccinino, and aU the
most illustrious captains of Italy. By an imprudent
generosity, Carmagnola released these, important pri¬
soners ; and thus provoked the resentment of the pro¬
curators of St. Mark, who accompanied him. A new
peace, signed on the 18th of April, 1428, again sus¬
pended hostilities without reconciling parties, or inspiring
either of the belligerents with any confidence. The
Florentines took advantage of this interval of repose to
attack Paulo Guinigi, lord of Lucca; whose alliance
with the duke of Milan had irritated them, although
he had afterwards been abandoned by Filippo Maria.
The Lucchese, profiting by this last circumstancej
revolted agunst.Âeir lord in the month , of September,
Si8 history oy thz: itauak repumcg. 14SL
deposed him, sind sent him piiseacr to Milan. The
florentmes were afterwards driven oat of die states if
Lucca hy Nicolb Hochiído, who defeated them on the
borders of the Serchio, on the 2d of Decéraber» 14p80;
and the geoerd war recommenced.
In tibis last Campaign, fortune abandoned Carnau
gnola. Ob the 174h (rf' May, 1431, he suffered himsdf
to be surprised at Sondbo, which he had readied with
his advanced guard, by Francesco Sforza, who toek
prisoners 1'600 of his cavalry : he, however, escaped, and
rqtEiined his still brilliant army. On the 2i3d of May he
a^ioached the Fü, to second the Venetian fleet in aa
attadr on Cremona : but the fleet, pushed by that of the
MUanese on the opposite diore, was destroyed in hh
presence, without die possibility of his rendering it say
aid. However great his cbesire to repair these cheete,
be could not meet the enemy again during the remaittütíf
of the summer. A deadly distemper broke oat among
the horses throughout Italy; his troops were dismountede
and, as the fate oi batde depended almost entirely on tin
cavalry, this calamity reduced him to complete iiisdinh
The senate of Venice, which made it a rule never
to defend the republic but by foreign arms, —> never to
teilist its citizens under its banners either as generali
or soldiers, further observed that of governing widi
extrañe rigour those fordgn adventurers of whom its
armies were composed, and of never believing in the
virtue of men w}io trafficked in their own blood. The
Venetiafts distrusted them : they supposed them ever ffis*
posed to treachery ; and if they were unfortunate, though
only from imprudence, they rendered them re^nsibk.
The condottieri were made fully to understand that they
were not to lose the amies of the republic without an«
i wering for the event with their lives. The senate joined to
this rigour the perfidy and mystery which characteifoe an
aristocracy. Having decided on punishing Carmagnola for
the late disasters, it begiui by deceiving him. Hewas loaded
withmarks of deference and confidence; hewas invited to
come to Venice in the month of April, 1482, to fix witik
14S2. execution of carhaonola.
219
the signoria the plan of the ensuing campaign. The
most distingmshed senators went to meet him, and
conduct him in pomp to the palace of the doge. Clar-
magnola, introduced into the senate, was placed in the
chair of honour : he was pressed to speak ; and his dis>
course applauded. The day began to close : lights were
not yet called for ; and the general could no longer dis-
Cinguidh the faces of those who surrounded him ; when
suddenly the «búrt, or soldiers of police, threw them¬
selves on him, loaded him with chains, and dragged him
to the prison of the palace. He was next day put to the
torture,—rendered still more painful by the wounds which
he had received in the service of this ungrateful r^ublic.
Both the accusations made against him, and his answers
to the questions, are buried in tihe profound secrecy with
which the Venetian senate covered all its acts. On the
5th of May, 1452, Francesco Carmagnola, twenty days
after his arrest, was led out,—his mouth gagged to pre-
vent any protestation of innocence,—and placed between
the two columns on' tíie square df St. Mark : be was
there beheaded, amidst a trembling people, whom the
senate of Venice was resolved to govern only by terror.
CHAP. X.
COSMO DE' MEDICI, CHIEF OF THE EEFDBLXC OF FLORENCE. DEATH
,OF THE LAST VISCONTI. EFFORTS OF THE MILANESE TO RE¬
COVER THEIR THEY ARE ENSLAVED RY FRANCESCO
SFORZA. CONSPIRACY OF STEFANO FORCARI AT ROME.
The fermentation which had manifested itself at Flo¬
rence among the lower orders of the people, in the
momentary triumph of the Ciompi, began to subside.
Manufacturers, artisans, men who to live needed their
daily labour, themselves renounced the first offices
of ^ repuUic. They felt that political equality did
not exclude a certain degree of subordination : they a< -
Imowledged the power of capital, by which they hved .
â20 BISTORT OF THE ITALIAK BEPOBLICS. 14S?.
of loiowledge, which discovered outlets for the pro*
ductions of their industry; and they were disposed to
Obey the rich merchants who employed them. Accus*
tomed by the habits of private life to trust to the in.
telligence of their superiors for their most important
interests, —for those which most constantly occupied
Üieir minds,—they regarded them as still more proper to
decide on political questions, which sometimes excite the
passions of the people, but seldom lead them to prndat
counsel. It is from time to time only that society, even
in the freest states, is universally agitated by some ab*
stract question, which makes the deeper impression the
less it is imderstood: experience comes afterwards to
disabuse people of an exaggerated or unreasonable ex*
pectation. Thus, false ideas of equality made the Flo¬
rentines first demand that every citizen should have an
equal share in the government: after they had experienced
the violences and d^edalions caused by the anarchy of
the Ciompi, they unhappily forgot the advantages of true
equality. - They did not sufficiehily seek to procure to
aÊ eqiud protection and equal justice, to awaken in all
that interest in public af&irs which should excite the
developement of their faculties. The fiame which burnt
too fiercely in 1378 had consumed the materials which
should have nourished it; and, fifty years later, the
Florentine people no longer evinced qny jealousy of those
who, by their position, seemed naturally destined to
rule them.
General ideas exercise a durable infiuence only on
minds capable of comprehending them. Let liberty
exist for all ; but lelt power remain with those who com*
prehend its objects,—with those who can distinguish Üie
means by which to attain them,—with those who are too
proud to acknowledge masters, and too generous to desire
subjects, — with those who, anxious for the intellectual
pibgress and for the material well*being of their kind,
would give up all their time and attention to obtain
both,-With those who, enjoying the advantages of,a
liberal'education, have ininda ndtfaer irritated by jea*
1438. CONDITION OF THE LOWER ORDERS. 221
lousy,^ narrowed by prejudice, nor disturbed by chimerical
apprehensions. Let all, however, have some share in
political power ; such a share as may be necessary to pre¬
serve them from oppression,—to raise their minds and
feelings in emergency above material interests, — to
divest them of selfishness, that they may, when called
upon, comprehend the great questions of morality: but
let them participate in this political power as dtizens,
not as magistrates.
The number of republics had so much diminished in
Italy, that the lower orders ran a far greater risk of
being corrupted by the example of servility, than by that
of the excesses of democracy. In the kingdom of Na¬
ples, in Romagna, and Lombardy, those orders remained
without protection, exposed to the outrides of the soldier
and the oppression of the fiscal officer. Nevertheless,
with the exception of the calamities inflicted by the
passage of companies of adventure, the burden imposed
on them was subject to rules of equal distribution : they
were unacquainted with the personal vexations, the do¬
mestic oppression, which the nobles inflicted on the ple¬
beians in the west of Europe. Accordingly, in spite of
frequent calamities, and of a great diminution of pro¬
ductive energy, Itidy, which had ceased to be free, had
not ceased to be prosperous. In Lombardy, especially,
agriculture and husbandry being well understood, the
natural fertility of the soil was turned to the most pro¬
fitable account; while innumerable manufactures and
extensive commerce animated and enriched the towns.
After the kingdom of Naples and the duchy of Milan,
the republic of Venice was, in powef, the third state of
Italy. The people of Venice were deprived, almost as
much as those of Milan, of all participation in political
power. Their suffrages were never demanded, their
voice was never heard ; they never thought even of ques.
tioning the wisdom of their government. But the
senate, far wiser in its administration than the tyrants
of Lombardy, never allowed their subjects to bear any
other burdens than those imposed by itself; and those
SS2 BUTORT OV THB ITALIAJT BBFVB1J€8. JéSSi
ytere always looderate, alwa)w equaBy distaiboUiii, » ai
Sfwrit of justice. All that the Venetians paid the sCat»
was employed scropulously, and with economy, eithee
ior the common d^ence, or for the ornament of Ihdr
country. The government cost the petóle npthiog. The
people, themselTes, looked with, pride upon the emph^.
ment of their money in the pubhc works. The pe»»
vinces of the Terra Firma were carefully secured ñom
the vexations of the soldier, and as much as possible
from, the invasion- of the enemy. The âtf of Venice
from; the period of its foundation had never hem invaded,
-^had never seen the Bialto soiled die feet of
foreign armies,-—had. never suffered ev«i the tem«
porary domination of a tyranlv The riches of comaeioe
and industry, fostered by such constant secntity, had
grown, beyond all precedent.. The provinces of' the
Tecra Firma, forgetting all pretension to independa
ence, found, themselves happjr by compariscm with their
neighbours. The peasantry, in particular, were ready to
gjve their lives for St. Mark: — it was thus they, always
designated the state. The only possessions of the re¬
public that had reason to complain were those of the
Levant: there the V^etian mñchants sacrificed their-
industry to. the narrow spirit, of monopoly.
The republic of Florence was the fonrth state of
IjUdly in wçalth and importance. More generous than
Veoicie^ it. had more frequently endangered itself by
wars, which, exposed.it' often to invasion. Less prudent
in its internal administration,- it had more than once
experienced the convulsions of contending faction^ and
sometimes even, those of temporary tyranuy. On the
other side, the Florentines owed to the nature of their
government a.degreeof enei^, activity, and intelligaice
whidb put them in. a state to. repair ^eir losses much
more rapidly. They, had iu their city manufactures re¬
nowned through western world, particularly, that
of woollen stuJ6&, which occupied more hands than any
other, and those of âlk and gold brocade. Their
merchants, ware the greatest capitaBstsof Europe their
1433. ADMINIBTltATIOtfi or TAB AlfKZZI. 223
Q()n^4Bg-]»0tta^ were swttereid: ^nn^húui the cora-
Basreiel pacts- oif Itio world ; and their fond», were often
lent to piinoesr at enormoua interest. The feendtory; of
the Flonenthiea waa enriched tho; most ijldnstrioiu
agricvdtiue. Idi it was concentratedj oo a givm space,
the most laboui; and the largest esgdiiAh The citizeas
submitted of their own aocerd; to heavy imposta but the
peaaanti^. were treated with more omsidenUñon. A mcN
derate and equable partition' of the; taxes was souglitm
ha maintained' ; and it was in t|iis view that the Floran«
tines, in 1429> invented the oatasto, — an. enumeration
aqd: description, of property of every kiiuih nrith an
estimate Us value, to serve as a bads to taxes
always impoaad- in due proportion. The subjects, of
Florence must have found tbemselyes ati least asihippyr
as those of Venice : but tbemsmoiy of Uberty-anddoH
di^rodence was more recent ;;and Pisa, Fiatoia, Arezzo>
Volterr^ and even less important-, town», made repeated
efforts to recover their, liberty. Not one town, couldi
yet resign itself to be subject to the FlorentUtes;
tVithin the circle of Tuscany, too, Inucca, which did
not lose its liberty from the time of Paulo. Guinigi until
our day, and Sienna, which preserved, hers tiU li5dfi>
seemed to invite these cities to govern: themselvea as
independent republics. In the- two above mentioned,
however, the democratic fermentation which had-agitated
all free states daring tbe latter half o£ the fourteenth
century began to subside, and the government had re-
turned to the hands .of those who were htted; ftr it 1^
their education and talents.
The democratic party at Florence, directed by tbe
Alherti» Ricd, and Me^ci, were deprived of power in
1331. in consequence of tbe abuse wlüch their associates,
the Ciompi, had made of their victory. From that
tUoe their rivali^ the Alhizri, directed Áe r^ahUc for
the space-of, fifty-three yettrs^ from 1381 to 1434, with
a happiness and glory till then imexampled; No tri-
uiQph.of au aristocratic faction -ever merited a more
briùiant place in hietpty. The one in questlnn mainc
384 hi8t0bt of the italiak refttblic8. 1453.
tRined itself by the ascendency of its talents and vir-
tueSj without ever interfering with die ri^ts of die
other dtizens, or abasing a prep<mdera(nee whidi was.
all in opinion. It was the most prospérons epoch of
the xepubliCj—that during which its opulence acquired
the greatest developement^—that in which the arts,
sciences, and literature adopted Florence as their native
country,—that in which were bom and formed all those
great men, of whom the Medici, their contemporaries,
have reapál die glory, without having had any share in
producing them,—Âat, finally, in which the r^blie
most constandy followed the noblest policy : consider,
ing itself as the guardian of the fiberty of Italy, it
in turns set limits to the ambition of C^an Galeazzo
Visconti ; of Ladislaus, king of Naples ; and of IH-
ippo Maria, duke of Milan. Tomaso d^i AIIhzzí,
and . after him Nicolo da Uzzano, had been the chieft
of the aristocracy at this period of glory and wisdom.
To diose succeeded Rinaldo, son of Tomaso degli AL
bizzi ; who foi^ot, a httle- more than his predecessor^
that he was only a simple citizen. Imjpetuons, ar.
rogant, jealous, impatient of all opposition, he lost the
pre-eminence which his family had so long maintained.
Rinaldo dc^ Albizzi saw, with uneaáness, a rival
present himself in Cosmo, son of Giovanni de* Medici,
who revived a parly formerly the vanquishers of his
ancestors. This man enjoyed an hereditary popularity
at Florence ; because he was descended from one of tlm
demagogues who, in 137S, had undertaken the defence
of the minor arts against the aristocracy : he, at the
same time, excited the jealousy of the latter by his im¬
mense wealth, which equaUed fhat of the greatest princes
of Italy. Althoi^h the Albizzi saw with distrust the
family of their rivals attain the supreme magistracy,
they could not exclude from it Giovanni de* Medici, who
was gonfalonier in 1431. His son Cosmo, bom in 1389,
was priore in 1416: he was the head of a commercial
estabhshteent which had counting-houses in aU dm
great cities of Europe^ and in the Levant : he, at the
1433.
008M0 DE' MEDICI.
225
same tim«, cultivated literature with ardour. His paláce,
one of the most sumptuous in Florence, was the resort
of artists, poets, and learned men ; of those, among
others, who about this time introduced the Platonic
philosophy into Italy. The opulence of Cosmo de'
Medici was always at the service of his friends. There
were very few poor citizens at Florence to whom his
purse was not open.
Cosmo de' Medici had no thought of reviving the
doctrine of his ancestors, respecting the right of the
lowest order of citizens to enter the magistracy. He
expressed no democratic opinions, although he severely
criticised the government and its measures, whilst under
the direction of Rinaldo degli Albizzi. He wished to
have seen adopted other alliances and another policy. He
asserted that, since the death of Nicolo da Uzzano, in
1427, the security of the state had been endangered by
imprudent wars, and the finances dilapidated by the
robbery of the commissaries, particularly in the ex¬
pedition against Lucca. Constant opposition and accu¬
sation at last so provoked Rinaldo, whose character was
impetuous and violent, that he determined on proceed¬
ing against Cosmo as a state criminal. In the month
of September, 1433, asignoria, drawn by lot, was found
to be composed of the most devoted creatures of the
Albizzi. Bernardo Guadagni presided at it as gonfa¬
lonier. On the 7th of September, he summoned Cosmo
de' Medici to present himself at the palace, and render
an account of his conduct ; and, on his arrival there,
committed him prisoner to the tower of the clock.
The people were immediately called to a parliament by
the tolling of the great bell. The Florentines had
preserved, from the first period of their republic, the
custom of these parliaments, in which the whole popu¬
lation assembled in the public square. Without its
being necessary to make those present prove that they
were citizens, and without securing any guarantee to the
feeUe against the powerful, they voted by acclamation
on what was proposed by the signoria. In consequence
Q
226 HISTORY OF THE ITAIJAH REPOBMOS. 1433.
of the sorereignty of the people, the parliunent was
r^rded as superior to aU law, to the constitution ilsdl^
and even to justice ; when warned of some great national
danger which justified revolutionary measures, it was sup.
posed to be invested with the whole power of the stats,
to be raised above all rule : but experience proved that the
parliament always sanctioned every revolution, and that
the sovereignty of the people lent its name to every act
of tyranny. As such a parliament could not deliberate
it was required to transmit its power to a balia, or oonoH
mission, which it invested with all the rights possessed
by the Florentine people themselves. Rinaldo degji Al-
hizzi presented a list of the names of those of whmn he
wished the balia to be composed ; about two hundred in
number. The balia obtained the purses from which
were to be drawn the names of the magistrates. They
excluded whom they pleased ; they entered new names;
they condemned to exile Cosmo de' Medici and hb
friends. Albizzi had reckoned on Cosmo's being exe¬
cuted : he accused Bernardo Guadagni of haviig
received money from his enemy to spare him; and
regarded as a defeat the incomplete vengeance whidt he
had jiist wreaked.
The event justified his fears. Precisdy a year
terwards, in the month of September, 1434, a new si-
gnoria was drawn, with Nicelo Donati preñdeiit, and
entirely favourable to Cosmo* 6è' Medici. The balia,
notwithstanding its partiality, had not dared to exclude
from the magistracy all the eminent men attached to
that great citizen. Donati, in ibis turn, summoned to
the palace, Rinaldo d^li Albizzi and his friends ; who,
instead of obeying, endeavoured to defend themselves :
but the same people who had voted for them in the last
parliament, so far from taking arms at their call, ap¬
peared at a new one convoked by Donati,—when tfasy
showed the same docility,—where they approved in the
same manner by their acclamation anodier balia pre¬
sented' by the gonfalonier : and this was no sooner con¬
stituted, than Cosmo de' Medid, with all hit fiàotdi
1443. RISE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA.
227
were recalled ; and Rinaldo Albizai, with all his party^
exiled.
Albizzi soi;^ht an asylum with Filippo Maria^ duke
of Milan, on whom, as long as he had directed the
republic, he had always made war. Forgetting the
danger which he had often foretold to liberty in the
aggrandisement of the Visconti, and believing, like all
exiles, that his country could never submit to be with¬
out him, but would rise in his favour on his approach,
he pressed Filippo to make war on Florence. The war
actually broke out in the same year. Nicolo Piccinino,
the successor of Braccio, whom die duke of Milan had
placed at the head of his armies, repeatedly penetrated
into Tuscany : but the presence of Albizzi, who accom¬
panied him, produced no effect. Francesco Sforza was
opposed, on the side of the Florentines, to Piccinino.
Sforza had formed an intimate friendship with Cosmo
de' Medici ; he had often in his need had recourse to the
purse of the rich banker ; and he already laboured to
rise from the rank of condottiere to that of sovereign.
In 1443, he had made the pope, Eugenius IV., cede to
him the March of Ancona, in recompence for his services
against the pope's subjects ; and he purposed, in making
himself feared by Filippo Maria, to obtain in marriage
his only but illegitimate daughter, who would bring bim
in dower at least some fragments of the duchy of Milan.
During the remainder of the reign of Filippo Maria,
he was habitually at war with foe two republics of
Venice and Florence. He was desirous of recovering
from foe former the Brescian and Bergamasque territory,
which he had been forced to cede to the Venetians ; and
he resumed against the Florentines foe project of his an¬
cestors, to extend the dominion of the Viscontis over Tus¬
cany. Francesco Sforza and Bartolomen Coleoni gave
many proofs of their great talents in the service of
the two republics. Nicolo Piccinino and his two sons,
Francesco and Jacomo, showed not less ability in the
service of foe duke of Milan. The last named, however,
almost always lost groimd by his distrust of his own
Q 2
228 HISTOBT OP THE ITALIAN BEPUBLIC8. 1447«
generals, his yersatility, his taste for contradictory iiw
trigues, his eagerness to sign peace every year, and to
recommence hostilities a few weeks afterwards. The
history of this war is rendered so confused by the secret
practices of Filippo Maria, which most commonly
seemed in opposition to his own interest, that we do
not attempt to fix it in the memory. The duke of Mi¬
lan, in making peace with the two republics, on the 2 ist
of October, 1441, granted their general, Francesco
Sforza, his daughter Bianca in marriage, ceding with
her in dower the lordships of Cremona and PontreiAolL
It seemed to be his purpose thus definitively to reconcile
himself with Sforza: but it was impossible for this
prince to remain firm in one resolution, or to preserve
his confidence in those whom he had rendered powerfuL
He soon entered into the most complicated intrigues to
deprive his son-in-law of all his lord^ps. The war was
renewed between him and the two republics; and Sforza
was again the general whom the republics put at the
head of their combined army. He was still thdr com¬
mander in 1447, when Filippo Maria, pressed by the
Venetians, menaced even in die country around MOan,
and fearing to lose his sovereignty, implored the aid of
his son-in-law, promising him a sincere reconciliatum.
Francesco Sforza, who had just lost the March of An-
cona by the secret practices of the duke of Milan, yet
accepted these last ofiers. He renounced his ancient
alliance with the Florentines and Venetians ; and, on
the 9th of August, he set forward with his army from
Romagna, where he then was, to the succour of his
father-in-law. Arrived at Cotignola, the village of his
family, — the village in which his father, after havii^
thrown his pickaxe into the branches of an oak, to be
decided either by its ominous fall, or by its remaining
fixed, had seized the sword to engage in a company of
adventure, — he there learned the death of the duke of
Milan, which had taken place at his capital, on the 18th
of August, 1447.
The war of Lombardy was complicated by its con-
lééT. KINO ALPH0N80 AT NAPLES. 229
nection wiüi another war which at the same time
ravaged the kingdom of Naples. The queen, Joan II.,
had died there, on the 2d of February, 1345; three
months after the death of her adopted son, Louis III. of
Anjou : by her will she had substituted for that prince
his brother René, duke of Lorraine. But Alphonso,
king of Aragon and Sicily, whom she had primarily
adopted, and who had advanced as far as Ischia, the
more effectually to observe the events which might
occur at Naples, claimed the succession, on the ground
of this first adoption, as well as of the ancient rights
of Manfred, to whom he had succeeded in the female
line. The kingdom of Naples was divided between
the parties of Aragon and Anjou. The Genoese, who
had voluntarily ranged themselves under the protection
of the duke of Milan, offered their assistance to the
duke of Anjou ; their ancient enmity to the Catalonians
and Aragonese being further quickened by commercial
jealousies. On the 5th of August, 1435, their fleet
met that of Alphonso, before the island of Ponza.
They defeated it in a great battle ; in which Alphonso
had been made prisoner, with his brother, and aU the
flirst nobles of his kingdom. These prisoners were
conducted to Milan, and there in a little time set at
liberty, by an unexpected generosity of Filippo Maria ;
whom Alphonso had made sensible how mudi the sub¬
jection of the kingdom of Naples to the French would
endanger the independence of the duchy of Milan, as
well as of all Italy. Visconti contracted not only a
dose alliance with his prisoner, whom he liberated, but
promised to aid him in ascending the throne of Naples.
This alliance, however, cost him the lordship of Genoa ;
for the Genoese, indignant at seeing the fruits of their
victory carried off by the prince whom they had chosen,
rose on the 27th of December, 1435, drove out the
Milanese garrison, and recovered their freedom. Al¬
phonso, seconded by the duke of Milan, recommenced
the war against René of Anjou with greater advantage.
On the 2d of June, 1442, he took from him the city of
a 3
230 BISTORT OF THE ITAIiIAN BEFCBLICS. 1447.
Naples : from that time peace was re-establidied in that
Idngdom, and Alphonso signalised himself by a liberality
which gained for him the surname of " the Magnanhn.
ous." No monarch ever showed more zeal in liter,
ature, or granted a more constant and more enlightened
protection to men of letters. He proved, by many noUe
actions, that he had profited by the lessons of antiquity
which he admired and studied with so much ardour.
He established himself amidst a people which he had
conquered, but whose hearts he gained ; and returned
no more either to Sicily or Aragon. He died at Naples,
on the 27th of June, 1458.
Filippo Maria Visconti, at his dealh, left no legitimate
successor : the distant relatives who bore his name were
not descended from the princes his ancestors, who had
usurped the seigniory of Milan ; and they had not been
even thought of in the imperial hull wMch had insti.
tu ted the Milanese duchy in favour of Gian Galeazzo.
This huU had expressly excluded women from the suc¬
cession ; who had, besides, never inherited any Italian
seigniory. Accordingly, Valentina Visconti, sister to
the last duke, and married to the duke of Orleans, and
Bianca Visconti, the natural daughter of Filippo Maria^
married to Francesco Sforza, had ndther of them any
right to succeed to the last duke. Upon the extincti«»
of the male line of Visconti, on whom- the repuhEc of
Milan had conferred the seigniory, the sovereignty legi¬
timately returned to the republic itadf, which daimed
its restoration. Four illustrious citizens, Antonie Tri-
Tulzio, Teodoro Bossi, Giorgio Lampugnani, and In-
nocenzio Cotta, on the 14th of August, 1447, excited
the people to insurrection ; and, with their support, re¬
constituted the Milanese republic. They, at the same
time, engaged all the captains of adventure and men at
arms who had been in the service of the duke of Milan
to declare for them. The most illustrious among these
were the two brothers Hodnino, sons of Nicolu, who
had died on the 15th of October, 1444 ; the three
brothers San Severine, natural children of a piinody
1447- REVIVAL OF THE MILANESE REPUBLIC. 231
house at Naples ; butj above all, Francesco Sforza, who,
with his brUliant army, entered the service of the re¬
public, upon condition that the republic should confirm
the cession of Cremona, which his wife had brought to
him in dower, and add to it the seigniories of Brescia
and Verona, if Sforza succeeded in taking either or both
those towns from the Venetians.
An excellent opportunity then presented itself of
restoring to Italy liberty and independence. In the
country most exposed to the invasion of the transalpine
nations there were three rich and powerful republics,
—Milan, Venice, and Florence,—supported on one side
by the warlike republics of Switzerland ; on the other,
by the more feeble ones of Genoa, Lucca, Sienna, and
Bologna. An equitable alliance between them would
have sufficed to secure Italy for ever from the barba¬
rians who menaced it on the side of France and Ger¬
many. The opulence of these three republics, their
numerous population, and the devotion with which the
citizens of free states always concur, with their whole
power, in the defence of their country, would have been
sufficient to render vain every foreign attack. Unhap¬
pily, the two men at the head of the republics of Flo¬
rence and Venice conñdered only a present and sordid
advantage ; they had not the elevation of soul to prefer
the future liberty of Italy ; and they refused to admit
the republic of Olilán into a confraternity so desirable
for the three states.
Francesco Foscari, who was doge of Venice from
1423 to 1457; had communicated to the republic, of
which he was the chief, his own warlike ambition. He
had made it achieve the conquest of the Brescian and
Bergamasque territory. He judged the opportunity
favourable to detach new provinces from the duchy of
Milan, or perhaps to subjugate the whole ; and he re¬
jected all the advances of the Milanese republic, which
ardently desired peace. Cosmo de' Medici, at Florence,
also, so far from having, like the preceding chiefs of
that republic, a true love of liberty, began to aspire to
Q 4
â32 HISTORY OF TUE ITA1<IAH HBPITBUCS. 1447*
become thejprince of a country in which he had rim
as head of the democratic party. He was so superior
to his former associates, in wealth, in the number of
dependants, in the deference shown him by foidgn
powers ; he was likewise so elated by the flattery of all
the most distinguished men of letters; that he bdiered
himself fonned to govern widiout opposition, and with¬
out a rival. Almost all the Italian republics had suc¬
cessively submitted to the influence of some family,
which had raised itself above every other. The turn
of Florence seemed at last come ; Cosmo was deter¬
mined the Medici should take the same rank there
which the Bentivogli held at Boh^jiia. He had him¬
self contributed to retain that republic, the ally of Flo.
rence, under the domineering power of an usurping
family. When Annibal Bentivoglio fell, on the 24th
of June, 1445, by the hand of assassins, armed by the
pope and the duke of Milan, Cosmo de' Medici supplied
the Bolognese with another Bentivoglio, by disclosmg
an aflhir of gallantry which one of that name had wi&
a Florentine lady of burgher family. The fruit of flut
intrigue was a son, named Santi Cáscese, whom Cosmo
de' Medici caused to be received, as the head of the
Bolognese republic. The moment was, in fact, come
when the credit of the Medici was to prevail over the
legal power of the Florentine signoria; and in which
they might, like the Bentivog^, transmit thdr usurped
power, not only to their legitimate children, but to their
spurious descendants. Cosmo felt no kind of sympathy
for the newly forming republic at Milan, whi^ vainly
endeavoured to awaken in Italy the ancient enthusiasm
for liberty: he was jealous, too, of the republic of Venice,
which appeared to him to aspire to the dominion of
the whole peninsula. By way of counterpoise, he pro¬
mised Francesco Sforza his support to moimt the throne
which had been filled by the duke of Milan.
Francesco Sforza, who had evinced talents for war
superior to those of the most distinguished c^tahui of
the age, possessed, at the same time, the frankness and
1448. PERFIDY OP FRANCESCO SFORZA. 233
tile liberality vrhich military habits produce. He was
considered a man eminently true and generous ; his
fnends felt devotion to him, his soldiers enthusiasm.
But it is not in the trade of captains of adventure that
men can be formed to true honour. Francesco Sforza
showed himself, more than once, perfidious even to his
own lieutenants ; some of whom he put to death with
great cruelty, for having only excited his suspicion. But
what, above all, revealed his character, and, at the same
time, his devemess, was the address with which he, in
turn, deceived the two republics which trusted him ;
rendering their subsidies and soldiers subservient to his
own elevation, and betraying them, one after the other,
when he had gained his object. It was thus he won at
once the admiration of his friend and disciple, Louis XL,
and lost the esteem of all honourable men.
The duke of Orleans, in the name of his mother,
Valentina Visconti, advanced pretensions to the duchy of
Milan ; and caused it to be attacked by French troops on
the side of Asti. Sforza, not to commit himself with
France, left the care of repelling them to Bartolomeo
Coleoni, who served the Milanese, but not under the
command of Sforza. Sforza, himself, in the mean while,
on the l6th of November, 1447, took by assault Pla-
centia, then the second city of Lombardy, and pillaged
it with a barbarity from which it never recovered. He
also employed himself in exasperating the dissension
which began to manifest itself in the Milanese counciL
Trivulzio was a Guelph, Bossi and Lampugnani were
Ghibelines; and the hereditary hatred between their
families envenomed their mutual jealousy. Trivulzio
engaged the Venetians to offer peace to the republic
of Milan, on condition of ceding to them Crema and
the Ghiara d'Adda. The Ghibelines, excited by Sforza,
refused to accede to the treaty, and caused it to be
rejected by the council of 800 : he, at the same time,
strengthened their confidence by his victories. In the
month of May, 1448, he took from the Venetians all
they had conquered on the right of the Adda. On
2Sé HISTORY OF THE ITALXAIC BEFUBLHH. 1440.
the 17th of July, he burnt their fleet on the Po, near
Casal Maggiore; and, on the 15th of September, ha
gained a great and last victory over them at Caravaggio,
where he made nearly their whole army prisoners af
war.
Sforza, after these victories, thou^t the Venetians
sufBeiently subdued to prevent them from attempting to
conquer a state which offered such vigoroua resistanoe.
He feared likewise that the Milanese mig^t be too much
elated to submit to him. He therefore released all the
Venetian prisoners taken by him at Cu'avaggio; and cm
the ISlh of October, 1448, signed a treaty with the Ve>
netians, by which he guaranteed to thrái Brescia and
Bergamo, and ceded Crema and the Ghiara d'Adda, on
(condition that they should aid him in making the conquest
of the duchy of Milan, with all the territory attached to it
under Filippo Maria. The Milanese, incUgnant at this
treachery, soon perceived the extremity of their danger.
Several of the condottieri in their pay, imagining they
might derive greater advantages firom an ambitious usurper
than from a republic, preferred following the fortune of a
captain so able and so fortunate as Sforza. Among the
subject cities, also, there were many that, despairing of
setting themselves free, desired, at least, that Milan, of
which they were jealous, should, like them, be subject to
a master. Placentia was the first to yield to Sfinsa ;
Ahhiate-Grasso, Várese, Tortona, Alexandria, soon after
successively opened their gates to him. Pavia had sub¬
mitted to him in the preceding year, while he was still in
the service of the Milanese. In the month of February,
1449, he took posessicm (tf Parma; in the Septonber
following, of Lo^ and Crema. The Milanese, however,
though so hardly pressed, were not wanting to themsdvea.
They obtained some succour from the duke of Savoy ;
and the richest citizens placing their whole fortunes at
the service of the state, it was enabled to supply ita
militia with firdocks, then a recent invention, and a
costly arm, hut inspiring the cavalry with great terror.
The republic of Venice percdved at last, but too lati^
1450. FRANCESCO SFORZA DUK> OF MILAN. 235
that its own interests, and the independence of Italy,
equally demanded of them to save the republic of Milan.
On the 27th of September, 1449> they signed a treaty
with the Milanese, by which they acknowledged the new
republic, and assigned as limits to it the Adda, the Tessih,
the Po, and the Swiss Alps : at the same time, they
abandoned to Sforza seven of the largest cities of Lom-
bardy, with their fertile provinces. Sforza believed him¬
self too near attaining his object to renounce it: he,
however, sent his brother to Venice to declare his ac¬
ceptance of the treaty ; and, in conformity with the
orders which he had received, he removed his army
from Milan. The events occurred in the sowing season ;
and he was desirous of inspiring the Milanese with
confidence, to finish the sowing of their land, and
thus consume the greater part of their grain. As soon
as this operation was over, he hastily recalled his army ;
he stopped the supplies of provisions, which the Milanese
sent for in every direction ; and he renewed hostilities.
The Venetians attempted to succour MUan ; but he de.
feated them, on the 28th of December. The famine
which he produced soon became extreme : the people,
incapable of supporting it, rose on the 25th of FeWary,
1450; and, on the 26th, they opened the gates to Fran¬
cesco Sforza, proclaiming him duke of Milan. The
Venetians still attempted, for some years after, to dispute
his newly acquired greatness : in this view, they made
alliance with Alphonse, king of Naples, and the duke of
Savoy. But Cosmo de' Medici, who became daily more
powerful at Florence, and who substituted private af¬
fection for the generous and ancient love of liberty,
drew closer his alliance with Sforza, and sent him aid.
Meanwhile, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks,
on the 29th of May, 1453, spread terror throughout
Christendom. The Italians began to feel the necessity
of re-estahlishing peace among themselves, for the sake
of their common defence against barbarians: and a
treaty was accordingly signed at Lodi, on the 9th of
April, 1454. Bergamo and Brescia, with the territory
236 HISTORY OP THE ITAMAN REPUBLICS. 1452
thereunto belonging, fell to the Venetians ; but to Fran,
cesco Sforza was secured the duchy of Milan, in which
Crema and the Ghiara d'Adda were comprehended.
The consent of the emperor was wanting to h^timati«
the title of duke of Milan to Francesco Sforza. But Fre-
derick III. of Austria, who reigned since the 2d of Feb.
ruáry, 1440, positively refused to acknowledge him. The
new duke, however, felt not the least uneasiness : he de¬
spised Frederick as a weak and indolent prince, incapaUe
either of defending Germany or his hereditary states;
and who thought of Italy only as a fair, in which to
sell at auction titles, dignities, and investitures to the
vanity of the great. In 1432, Sigismond had sold tibe
title of marquis of Mantua to Giovanni Francesco da
Gonzaga, for 12,000 florins ; on the 15th of May, 1452,
Frederick III. sold, at a higher price, the title of duke
of Modena and Reggio to Borso d'Este. This family
did not obtain from pope Paul II. till nineteen years
later the title of duchy for the seigniory of Ferrara,
which they held from the church. Sigismond, and
after him Frederick, sold, with the utmost effirontery,
the titles of counts, barons, knights, imperial notaries,
and the legitimatising of bastards, to all who would
purchase, them ; and Francesco Sforza, believing himself
sure of obtaining a vain diploma whenever he asked for
one, did not esteem it worth the price.
Almost at the same time that the last attempt of the
Lombards to recover their liberty failed at Milan, the last
attempt of a Roman citizen to restore liberty to Rome
was punished with death by pope Nicholas V. The
liberties of Rome, as well as those of all the states of the
church, had been lost, without the possibility of mark,
ing the exact moment of their destruction. The senator
and caporioni, or bannerets of Rome, had long adminis¬
tered the government of the republic, without having
the limits of their authority, and of that of the pope, the
first citizen of the state, properly defined. The former,
in the oaths taken on entering ofiice, instead of swearing
obedience to the pope, promised him protection : they
1453. LAST 8TRC00LE OF ROHE FOR LIBERTY. 237
swore not to allow any one to touch his life or limb, or
to infringe his liberty. These magistrates, as well as
those of the other states of the church, were always
elected by the people. The church was regarded as the
protector of popular liberty ; and, when a city returned
under its sovereignty, it always considered that it had
recovered fi-eedom. The pope, however, often made the
people transfer to him the right of naming the senator of
Rome, or the rectors of the other cities of the church.
During the long residence of the popes at Avignon, the
court of Rome had forgotten its ancient principles of
liberty : its legates had assumed absolute power. The
anarchy of Rome, the outrages committed by the nobles,
the tyranny of several usurpers, had accustomed the
people to the loss of liberty. They had frequently
sought refuge, from a tyranny more cruel, in the absolute
power of the prelates. Perugia, Bologna, and other cities,
had often conferred the signoria on the legate, or the
Roman people on the pope, with the suspension of all
the rights of the citizen. The great western schism again
shook the power of the pontiffs in the states of'the
church, a few years after they had been conquered by
the cardinal Albornoz. The popes, unacknowledged by
one half of the church, impoverished, and endangered,
lived, nearly the whole duration of the schism, exiled
from Rome, and most frequently dependent on the so¬
vereign lord of Rimini. Martin V., who was elected
at the conclusion of the schism by the council of Con¬
stance, did not immediately recover the obedience of the
Roman states : he passed the greatest part of his pon¬
tificate at Florence. Eugenius IV., who succeeded him
on the 3d of May, 1431, again lost, in consequence of
his turbulent, ambitious, and despotic character, several
of the states that Martin V. had recovered. His prime
minister, the patriarch Vitelleschi, stained his reign with
numerous acts of cruelty and perfidy ; not one of the
Uberties of Rome, or of the states of the church, were
any longer respected.
Nicholas v., who succeeded Eugenius IV. on the 6th
S38 H16T0BT OF THK 1TAI.IAN REPUBLICS. 1458.
of May^ 1447> was known at Florence under the nsiac
of Toniaso da Sarzana. He had been preceptor to Bi-
naldo degli Albizzi^ and afterwards the daily guest of
Cosmo de' Medici. His knowledge in ancient litaratme,
in the fine arts, and philosophy, cansed him to be ranked
among the most distinguished members of the society
that assembled at the house of that illustrious citizen.
But the studies of Tomaso da Sarzana had not destroyed
the servile habits of his mind and education. Gram¬
marians, poets, and rhetoricians were, in this century,
too much accustomed to regard themselves as clients or
dependants on the rich and great ; to live by their
bounty, and at their table ; to receive from their mouths
the word of command for thdr opinions and sentiments.
Tomaso da Sarzana could not learn, in the palace of Cosmo
de' Medici, to love or respect a liberty which his patron
was secredy undermining, and of which he was labour¬
ing to derive his country. After he had obtained the
pontificate, he showed the same zeal for the progress of
ancient learning, for collections of manuscripts, foac trans¬
lations of Greek works, for the restoratiim of the monu¬
ments of antiquity, and for the encouragement of
contemporary artists, that had distinguished him in a
more humble career. But Nicholas V. rgected impa-
tiendy idl opposition, all control of his will : he deter¬
mined on seeing in the Bomans only submissive subjects,
to whom he denied all participation in the government.
Stefano Porcari, a Boman noble, willing to profit by
the interregnum which preceded the nominatiim aí
Nicholas v., to make the Roman citizens demand the
renewal aiul confirmation of their ancient rights and
privileges, was denounced to die new pope as a danger¬
ous person ; and, so far from obtaining what he had
hoped, he had the grief to see the citizens always more
stricdy excluded from any participation in public affairs.
Those were entrusted only to prelates, who, being pre¬
pared for it neither by their studies nor sentiments,
suffered the administration to fall into die most shame¬
ful disorder.
145S. DEATH OF STEFANO POROARI. 259
In an insiirrection of the people in the Piazza Navona,
arising from a quarrd which began at a bull-fight, Stefano
Porcaii endeavoured to direct their attention to a more
noble object, and turn this tumult to the advantage of
liberty. The pope hastily indulged all the fancies of the
people, with respect to their games or amusements ; but
firmly rejected all their serious demands, and exiled Por-
cari to Bologna. The latter hoped to obtain by conspiracy
what he had failed to accomplish by insurrection. There
were not less than 400 exiled Roman citizens : he per¬
suaded them all to join him, and appointed them a ren¬
dezvous at Rome, for the 5th of January, 1453, in the
house of his brother-in-law. Having escaped the vigiL
ance of the legate of Bologna, he proceeded there him¬
self, accompanied by 300 soldiers, whom he had enlisted
in his service. The whole band was assembled on the
night of the appointed 5th of January ; and Stefano
Porcari was haranguing them, to prepare them for the
attack of the capitol,—in which he reckoned on re¬
establishing the senate of the Roman republic, — when,
his secret having been betrayed, the house was sur¬
rounded with troops, the doors suddenly forced, and the
conspirators overcome by numbers before their arms had
been distributed. Next morning, the body of Stefano
Porcari, with those of nine of his associates, were seen
hanging from the battlements of the castle of St. Angelo.
In spite of their ardent entreaties, they had been denied
confession and the sacrament. Eight days later, the execu¬
tions, after a mockery of law proceedings, were renewed,
and continued in great numbers. The pope succeeded in
causing those who had taken refuge in neighbouring
states to be delivered up to him ; and thus the last spark
of Roman liberty was extinguished in blood.
240 history of the italian bepvblicr. 1454.
CHAP. XI.
ITALY LOSES THE GREAT MEN WHO GAVE LUSTRE TO THE PRE.
CEDING PERIOD. THE REPUBLIC OF FLORENCE ENSLAVED BT
THE MEDICI WAR OF THE VENETIANS AGAINST THE TURES.
CONQUEST OF CYPRUS.
The generatíon vrhich witnessed the taking of Con¬
stantinople by the Turks^ was absorbed by the danger
with which this terrible calamity menaced Italy. That
country saw on its confines the dominion of the Turks ;
the banner of the crescent fioated over the whole eastern
coast of the Adriatic; from the extremity of the
Morea to the rugged mountains of Bosnia. Italy was
alarmed every year by the conquest and destruction
of some Christian kingdom, or by the taking and
sacking of some fiourishing city. It became filled
with emigrants, from the palaces or convents of the
whole eastern world. These emigrants were still full
of the recollections of a civilisation nqt inferior to that
of Italy herself. They felt the same ardour for ancient
literature and science ; they were equally habituated to
the luxuries and charms of life ; while, at thasame timc^
they had escaped from scenes of desolation, massacre,
and martyrdom, which their imagination vividly retraced
as boing about to be repeated in the country which gave
them hospitality. On this plea, they implored pity and
aid from those to whom they exposed their wretched¬
ness ; and their benefactors themselves felt that the
hour of Italy was near when the knell of Greece had
tolled.
The Turks arrived in Europe with an organisation
wholly military, that seemed to ensure them a continu¬
ation of new conquests. Still intoxicated with the re¬
ligious fanaticism of their prophet, which had been
revived by communicating it to a new nation and
145S. TUB TCBK8 THREATEN ITALY. 241
monardiyj they believed that they secured their salva¬
tion by die destruction of infidels. Always ¡«^essors,
they marched to battle to gain heaven radier than the
riches of the earth. The Turkish horseman was un.
equalled in the use of his scimitar, and in the precision
with which he managed his horse ; which, running at
full speed, stopped, turned, and returned, with a docility
which the Latin cavalry could never attain. The new
militia of the janissaries was, at the same time, the best
infantry in Europe ; the most steady and the most in¬
trepid ; the only Ásciplined force at a period when
there were no troops of the line in the west. Finally,
the artillery of the TurEs was more numerous, and
better served, than that of the western nations. Industry
was not annihilated in the countries which they had
conquered : they knew how to profit by the arts which
had been carried to perfection in those countries ; and
thus united the knowledge of civilised people with the
courage of barbarians. The report soon spread at
Rome, that the same Mahomet who had conquered
Constantinople, had vowed to enter also as conqueror
the ancient capital of the world, in order to destroy
there what he called the idolatry of the Christians.
The fears of Italy were augmented by the conscious¬
ness of the want of great leaders. During the first
quarter of the century after the taking of Constantinople,
all those who had directed with so much glory the
powerful states of that country had disappeared, one
after the other, without being any where replaced by
successors worthy of them. No great name any longer
inspired confidence; no great character undertook the
direction of government ; no generous sentiment ani¬
ma^ the people, who passed alternately from fear to
languor ; and the country, which had till then pre¬
sented a scene glowing with so much life, exhibits a
continual conflict of selfish interests, to the entire ex¬
clusion of every nobler passion.
The first among the eminent men who quitted the
scene in Italy was the old doge, Francesco Foscari.
B
242 HI8T0RT OF THE ITALIAE BEPOBIICS. 145&
He had directed the republic of Vraiice for the space of
thirty.four years ; and, by communicating his ambition
to his fellow-citizensj had excited them to the conquest
of a part of Lombardy. The council of ten did not,
it appears^ pardon Foscari an influence and glory whidi
had changed the spirit of the republic^ and had drawn
it into the whirlpool of Italian politics, of which till then
it had kept clear. The jealous aristocracy of Venice
could not endure that the chief o£ the state should
acquire the respect and affection of the people ; he was
made to expiate by domestic grief the lustre attached to
his name. Jaeopo Foscari, the son of the doge, was
accused, in 1445, of having received money from the
duke of Milan. The informer was a Florentine exile
of bad repute : nevertheless, as it was the rule of Venice
to act upon every suspicion, however slight, in matters
concerning the safety of the state, the son of the doge
was put to the torture. His sufferings forced from him
an avowal ; and he was condemned to exile. A con¬
fession thus extorted leaves the guilt of the accused
uncertain, while the barbarous means by which such evi¬
dence is obtained places beyond doubt the criminality of
the judges. Jacopo Foscari was, probably, as guildess
on this occasion as he was five years later, when he was
again tortured and condemned. One of the judges who
presided at his first trial was assassinated in 1450, and
it was suspected that the murderer was an emissary of
Jacopo. Jacopo was accordingly declared guilty, and
the period of his exile prolonged. His innocence, how¬
ever, was soon afterwards proved, the assassination hav¬
ing been acknowledged by another person, who declared
that Jacopo had no share in the murder. On receiving
the news of this disdosure, the son of the doge, in
exile at Canea, entreated his judges to allow him to
return to Venice. He preserved for a country, where
he had twice been put to the torture, and twice branded
with infamy, the passionate attachment so characterisfie
of the Venetians. He had only one wish, one hope,—
that of carrying back to Venice his bones broken by
1457.
DEPOSITION OF F090AIU.
24S
file executioner^ and dying beside his aged father^ his
mother, his mfe, and children, on the spot which had
given him birth. Unable to soften his judges, he wrote
to beg the duke of Milan to intercede for him : the
letter was intercepted, and transferred to the council of
ten. He declared, that this was what he expected ;
that he wished to awaken fresh suspicion, as the only
means of being restored to home. He was brought
back to Venice as he desired. His third criminal pro>
secution began, like the two others, with torture ; and it
was at this terrible price that he purchased the happiness
of once more embracing his parents, wife, and children.
He was again sent back to die at Canea. Fifteen months
afterwards, on the 23d of October, 1457, his father
was deposed from his functions of doge, on the ground
of incapacity from extreme age. The old man died
while listening to the tolling of the bell for the inaugur«
ation of his successor. No one who succeeded to the
ducal throne ever ventured, from that time, to provoke
tile jealousy of the aristocracy:.
The next great man whom Italy lost, after the doge
Foscari, was Alphonso of Aragon, king of Naples : he
died on the 27th of June, 1458, in the sixty-fourth year
of his age. He had constantly inhabited Italy, or the
adjoining isles, since the year 1420, when he was adopted
by queen Joan II., and became completely Italian. He
proved it by his zeal for reviving literature ; by the pro¬
tection which he granted to men of letters ; by his ad¬
miration of the ancients. He deserved the title of
Mt^animous, which had been given him by his people.
No sovereign of Naples had been so much beloved, or
had done so much good to that fine country. Alphonso
left to his brother John, king of Navarre, his kingdoms
of Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, Sardinia, the Balearic
Isles, and Sicily. But he regarded the kingdom of
Naples, which he had conquered, as bel(mging im¬
mediately to himself ; and he left it to Ferdinand, the
offiipring of his love. The queen, wife of Alphonso,
bdieved that this son was bom of Marguerite de Hijar^
B 2
244 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN BEFUBUOB. 1458.
and put her to death by smothering. The victim was
said to have sacrificed her reputation to save that of a
more illustrious person. Alphonso never forgave hit
wife this atrocity ; he did not punish her^ but he bade her
an eternal adieu. He sent her back to Spain, whither
he vowed never to return. He l^timatised Ferdinand *
and caused him to be acknowledged his successor by
the three orders of the Neapolitan nation assembled in
parliament, and by the pope, lord paramount of the
kingdom. Ferdinand had scarcely mounted the throne
before he showed he in no ways merited the predilectioB
of his father. He was avaricious, cruel, and perfidions.
He soon alienated all the Neapolitan barons ; and his
long reign was passed in repressing the conspiracies of
his vassals. These last called to their aid John, dnke
of Calabria, the son of René of Anjou, who had been
formerly the competitor of Alphonso. The duke of
Calabria, in his enterprise to place his father on the
throne of Naples, believed that he should be assisted
both by Francesco Sforza,—who, before he was duke of
Milan, had long fought, as his father had done before
him, for the party of Anjou,—and by the Florentine re«
public, which had always been devoted to France.. But
Sforza judged that the security and independence of
Italy could be maintained only so long as die kingdom
of Naples did not fall into the hands of France. The
French were already masters of Genoa and the gates of
Italy:, they would traverse in every direction, and hdd
in fear or subjection every state in the peninsula, if they
should acquire the sovereignty of Naples. For these
reasons Sforza resisted all his friends, dependants, and
even his wife, who vehemently solicited him for the home
of . Anjou : he also brought Cosmo de' Medici over to his
opinion ; and thus prevented the rqiublic of Florence
from seconjiing.a party towards which it found itself
strongly indined. The duke of Calabria, who had entered
Naples in 1459, had begun successfully ; but, receiving^
no assistance from abroad, he soon wearied and ex¬
hausted the people, who alone had to furnish him with
1458. FKtlDlNÂNO^ KINQ OF NAPLES.
245
supplies. He lost, one after the other, all the provinces
wluch had declared for him; and vras finally, in 1464,
constrained to abandon the kingdom.
Ferdinand, to strengthen himself, kept in dungeons,
or put to death, all the feudatories who had shown any
favour to his rival : above all, he resolved to be rid of
the greatest captain that stiU remained in Italy, Jacopo
Ficcinino, the son of Nicolo,- and head of what was
still called the militia, or school of Braccio. He sent
to Milan, whither Piccinino, who had served the party
of Anjou, had retired, and where he had married a
daughter of Sforza, to invite him to enter his service,
promising him the highest dignities in his kingdom.
He gave the most formal eng^eroents for his safety
to Sforza, as well as to Jacopo himself. He received
him with honours, such as he would not have lavished
on the greatest sovereign. After having entertained
him twenty-seven days in one perpetual festival, he
Sound means to separate him from his most trusty
officers, caused him to he arrested in his own palace;
and to he immediately strangled. This happened on
the 24th of June, 1465.
A few months after the duke of Calabria had quitted
the kingdom of Naples, the great citizen, Cosmo de' Me¬
dici) who governed Florence, died, in his seventy-fifth
year, on the 1st of August, 1464. It was then thirty
years since he had been recalled to his country, by the
same revolution that had banished the Alhizzi. By his
authority during that long space of time, he had com¬
pletely allayed fire fermentation which formerly agitated
that republic. The constitution had not apparently
changed: the executive power was still entrusted to
a gonfalonier and eight priori; who, during the two
months they were in office, did not quit the public
palace. The judicial power was still exerdsed by two
or three rectors, aliens to the state, who, under the titles
of Captain of the people, of Podestà, and of Bargello, were
invested with unlimited power over the lives of the citi¬
zens. They were chosen each year from some friendly
B 3
246 HIgTORT OF THE ITAUAN BEPUBUC8. 145S.
dty ; tliey arrived with their jodget, fla^esAtii, and all
their oificers of justice ; they received a munificent salatyr
hut, on leaving they were obliged to render an a»*
count of their administration before a syndicate cbaiged
with the examination of their conduct. Finally, the laws
eould not be executed without the triple sanctimi of the
eoll^e, of the council of the people, and of the common
council. But the Florentines had in vain preserved aB
this outward scaffdiding of popular power. Inequality
took birth from the immeasurable progress of wealth ; and
the citizens felt the distance between individuals amo^
them too enormous to retain the senthnent of equity
even in their political rights. The revenues of many
Florentine citizens surpassed those of the greatest mon¬
archical princes. Th^ palaces, which are to this day
the olject of our admiration, already disfdayed all the
prodigies of art ; at the same time that they presented,
with the crowd of servants who filled them, Ôie aspect
of fortresses, within which public justice dared not
penetrate. Artisans no longer chnmed any participa¬
tion in political power ; and even citizens of easy fortuno
no longer felt themselves independent. . They knew that
the credit and protection of their richer fellow-citizens had
become necessary to the prosperity of their industry.
It was in consequence of this great inequality tfiat a
close aristocracy possessed itself of the whole directioft
of the state. It admowle^ed as chiefs Cosmo de*
Medici, the richest of riie Italians, and Neri Capponi,
the ablest statesman of Florence. The former made
the most liberal use of his fortune: he built palaces,
churches, and hospitals on all sides. He was profuse
of gifts, loans, and his credit to the poorest of the
citizens. He granted pensions to the learned, and to
artists. He collected manuscripts from the Levant and
all parts of Europe, and had them copied. Men cde-
brated his taste and acquirements. Without having
written any thing himself, he passed for a man of letters;
and the revival of the Platonic philosophy was attributed
to hhn, in consequence of the translations made by lu»
1458. liAST YBABS OF COSMO DB' HEDICI. 24?
direction. While Cosmo tie' Medici thus fixed the
public attention by his private lifcj, Neri Capponi gained
the sufiragea of the people by his public conduct.
Charged^ as ambassador, with every difficult negoti¬
ation, — in tvar, with every hazardous enterprise, —r he
participated in all the brilliant successes of the Floren¬
tines, as well during the domination of the Albizzi as
during that of the Medici. From the year 1434 to
1455, ip which Neri Capponi died, these two chiefs of
the republic had six times assembled the parliament to
make a balia ; and, availing them^ves of its authority,
which was alx>ve the law, they obtained the exile of all
tiieir enemies, and filled the ballotting purses of the
magistracy with the names of their own partisans, to
the exclusion of all others. It appears that all the efforts
of their administration were directed towards calming the
passions of the public, and maintaining peace without^,
as well as repose within, the state. They had, in fact,
succeeded in. preventing Florence from being troubled
with new factions, or engaged in new wars j but they
drew on the republic all the evils attepding an aristocratic
government. Medici and Capponi bad not been able to
find men who would sacrifice the liberties of their country
without allowing them to gratify their baser passions.
These two heads of the republic, therefore, suffered their
subordinate agents to divide among themselves all the
little governments of the subject cities, and every lucra>
tive employment ; and these men, not. satisfied with this
first injustice, made unequal partitions of the taxes, in.
creasing them on the poor, lowering them on the rich, and
exempting themselves. At last they began to sell their
protection, as well with respect to the tribunals as the
councils : favour silenced justice ; and, in the midst of
peace and apparent prosperity, the Florentines felt their
republic, undermined by secret corruption, hastening to
ruin.
When Neri Capponi died the council refused to call
a new parliament to replace the balia, whose power ex.
pired on the 1st of July, 1455. It was the aristocracy
R 4
248 BimOBT OF THE ITALIAN BEPUBLIC8. 1458.
itself, comprehending all die creatures of Cosmo de'
Medici, that, from jealousy of his domination, wished to
return to the dominion of the laws. The whole rqmUie
was rgoiced, as if liberty had been regained. The dee^
tion of the signoiia was again made fairly by lot,—the
catasto was revised,—die contributions were again e^oi-
tably apportioned,—the tribunals ceased to listen to the
recommendations of those who, till then, had made a
traffic of distributive justice. The aristocracy, seeing
that clients no longer flocked to their houses wiÀ hands
fuU, began to perceive that their jealousy of Cosmo do*
Medici had only injured themselves. Cosmo, with his
immense fortune, was just as mudi respected as before;
the people were intoxicated with joy to find themselves
again free; but the aristocracy felt themselves weak
and abandoned. They endeavoured to convoke a par¬
liament without Cosmo ; but he baffled thdr efforts, the
longer to enjoy their humiliation. He b^an to fear,
however, that the Florentines might once more acquire
a taste,for liberty ; and when Lucas Pitti, rich, power-
fill, and bold, was named gonfalonier, in July, 1458,
he agreed widi him to reimpose the yoke on the Flo.
rentines. Pitti assembled the parliament ; but not till
he had filled all the avenues of the public square with
soldiers or armed peasants. The people, menaced and
trembling within this circle, consented to name a new
balia, more violent and tyrannical flian any of the pre¬
ceding. It was composed of 352 persons, to v^om
was ddegated all the power of the republic. They
exiled a great number of the citizens who had shown
the most attachment to liberty, and they even put some
to death.
Cosmo de' Medici was at this period sixty-nine years
of age; he reckoned that his two sons, now in the
prime of life, would support his dedining years : but
Pietro, the ddest, was absolutely incapacitated by he¬
reditary gout. He could neither walk nor ride, but was
carried about in an arm-chdr : he was, besides, undis¬
tinguished by intellect or force of character. Giovanni,
1464.
PläTRO DB' BIEDIOI.
349
the aeoond, was endued with much more talent : it was
on him that Cosmo had placed the hopes of his house ;
but he died, in the month of November of the year
146s. Lucas Pitti, rising to the eminence from which
they feQ, looked on himself henceforth as the only chief
of the state. It was about this time that he undertook
the building of that magnificent palace which now forms
the residence of the grand dukes. The republican equal.
Ity was not only offended by the splendour of this regal
dwelling ; but the construction of it afforded Pitti an
occasion for marking his contempt of liberty and the
laws. He made of this building an asylum for all fugi.
tives from justice, whom no public officer dared pursue
when once he took part in the labour. At the same time
individuals, as well as communities, who would obtain
some favour from the republic, knew that the only
means of being heard was to offer Lucas Pitti some
precious wood or marble to be employed in the con¬
struction of his palace.
When Cosmo de' Medici died, at his country house of
Careggi, on the 1st of August, 146"4, Lucas Pitti felt
himself released from the control imposed by the
virtue and moderation of that great citizen ; on whose
tomb the signoria inscribed, in the following year, the
tide of " Father of his Country." His son, Pietro de*
Medici, then forty-eight years of age, supposed that he
should succeed to the administration of the republic, as
he had succeeded to the wealth of his father, by he¬
reditary right: but the state of his health did not
admit of his attending regularly to business, or of his
inspiring his rivals with much fear. To diminish the
weight of affairs which oppressed him, he resolved on
withdrawing a part of his immense fortune from com¬
merce ; recalling all his loans made in partnership with
other merchants ; and laying out this money in land.
But this unexpected demand of consideraÑe capital
occasioned a fatal shock to the commerce of Florence ;
at the same time that it alienated all the debtors of the
house of Medici, and deprived it of much of its popu-
250 Hurro&ir of the it alian mEPVBLicg. 1466.
laritjr. The death of Sforza álao, which tooh ^aee on
the 8th of March, 1466, deprived the Medicean party
of its firmest support abroad. Francesco Sforza, whedber
as condottiere or duke of Milan, had always been the
devoted friend of Cosmo. His son, Galeazzo Sforzl^
who succeeded him, declared his resolution of peraistil^
in the same alliance; but the talents, the character, and,
above all, the glory of his father, were not to be found
in him. Galeazzo seemed to bdheve that the supreme
power whidi he inherited brought him the right of
indulging every pleasure—of abandoning himsdf to
every vice without restraint. He dissipated by his
ostentation the finances of the duchy of Milan ; be
stained by his libertinism the honour of almost all the
noble families ; and he alienated the people by his
cruelty.
The friends of liberty at Florence soon percdved that
Lucas Pitti and Fietro de' Medici no longer agreed toge*
ther ; and they recovered courage when the latter pro*
posed to the council the calling of a parliament, in rader
to renew the balia, the power of which expired on the
1st of September, 1465 : his proposition was rejected.
The magistracy began again to te drawn by lot from
among the members of the party victorious in 1434.
This return of liberty, however, was but of short dura¬
tion. Pitti and Medici were reconciled : they agreed to
call a parliament, and to direct it in concert ; to intimi¬
date it, they surrounded it with foreign troops. But
Medici, on tlie nomination of the balia, on the 2d of Sep¬
tember, 1466, foupd means of admitting his own parti¬
sans only, and excluding all those of Lucas Pitti. The
citizens who had shown any zeal for liberty were all ex¬
iled ; several were subjected to enormous fines. Five
commissioners, called acc(^piatori, were charged to open,
every two months, the purse from which the signmie
were to be drawn, and choose from thence the names of
the gonfalonier and eight priori, who were to enter office.
These magistrates were so dependent on Pietro de' Me¬
dici, that the gonfalonier went firequently to his palace to
1466.
FLORENTUfE EUI6RANT8.
£51
táke his orda» ; and afterwards published them as the
result of his deliberations with his colleagues, whom he
had not even consulted. Lucas Pitti ruined himself in
building his palace. His talents were judged to bear no
proportion to his ambition : the friends of liberty, as
well as those of Medici, equally detested him ; and he
remained deprived of all power in a city which he had
so largely contributed to enslave.
Italy became filled with Florentine emigrants : every
revolution, even every convocation of parliament, was
followed by the exile of many citizens. The party of
the Albizzi had been exiled in 1434 ; but the Alberti,
who had vanquished it, were, in their turn, banished in
1466 ; and among the members of both parties were to
be found almost all the historical names of Florence, —•
those names which Europe had leariaed to retq>ect, either
for immense credit in commerce, or for the lustre which
literature and the arts shed on all belonging to that
renowned city. Italy was astonished at the exile of so
many illustrious persons. At Florence, the citizens who
escaped proscription trembled to see despotism esta¬
blished in their republic ; but the lower orders were in
general contented, and made no attempt to second Barto¬
lomen Coleoni, when he entered Tuscany, in 1467, at
the head of the Florentine emigrants, who had talren
him into their pay. Commerce prospered; manufac.»
tures were carried on with great activity ; high wages
supported in comfort all who lived by their labour ; and
the Medici entertained them with shows and festivals,
keeping them in a sort of perpetual cXmival, amidst
which the people soon lost all thought of liberty.
Pietro de' Medici was always in too bad a state of
health to exercise in person the sovereignty he had
usurped over his coimtry : he left it to five or six citizens,
who reigned in his name. Tomaso Soderini, Andrea de'
Fazzi, Luigi Guicciardini, Matteo Palmieri, and Pietro
Minerbetti, were the real chiefs of the state. They not
only transacted all businesa, but appropriated to them-
fdves all the profit ; they sold their influence and credit;
252 HISTORY OF THE ITAMAN BEFUBUCS. 14ß6.
they gratified their cupidity or their vengeance: bgf
they took care not to act in their own names, or t»
pledge their own responsibility ; they left that to the
house of Medici. Pietro, during the latter months of
his life, perceived the disorder and corruption of his
agents. He was afflicted to see his memory thus staine^
and he addressed them the severest r^rimands; be
even entered into correspondence with the emigrants,
whom he thought of recalling, when he died, on the 2d
of December, 14<69. His two sons, Lorenzo and Ginli-
ano, the elder of whom was not twenty-one years of
age, were presented by Tomaso Sodetini to the foreign
ambassadors, to the magistrates, and to the first citizens
of the ruling factioA ; which last he warned^ that the
only means of maintaining the influence of their party
was to preserve the respect of all for its chiefs. But
the two young Medici, given up to all the pleasures of
their age, had yet no ambition. The power of the state
remained in the hands of the five dtizens who had
exercised it under Pietro.
While the republic of Florence thus lost its liberty,
that of Bologna fell equally under the domination of thç
family of Bentivoglio. Its subjugation was still more
disgraceful. No lustre whatever was attached to the
name of Giovanni II. (Bentivoglio), who governed diat
state from 1462 to 1508. Having been left an infant
by his father Annibal, killed in 1445, he was brought up
by the ille^timate son of one of his relations, whom
Cosmo de' Medici had discovered at Florence; and
received from him, as a paternal inheritance, the sove¬
reignty of his country. The republics of Sienna and
Lucca, taking advanti^e of peace, had sunk into pro¬
found and obscure tranquillity : that o£ Genoa, wearied
with internal convulsions, which followed each other
incessantly, had lost all influence over the rest of Italy;
continually oppressed by faction, it no longer preserved
even the recollection of liberty. In 1458, it had sid»>
mitted'to the Idng of France, then Charles VII.; and
Jcdin of Apjou, duke of Calabria, had come to exerdaei
t46â. POLIO r OF VENICE IN THE EAST. 253
the functions of governor in the king's name. He
made it, at the same time, his fortress, from whence
to attadc the kingdom of Naples. But this war had.
worn out the patience of the G^oese : they rose against
the French ; and, on the 17th of July, 1461, destroyed
the army sent to subdue them by René of Aiijou.
The Genoese had no sooner thrown off a foreign yoke,
than they became divided into two factions, — the
Adorni and the Fregosi : both had, at different times,
and more than once, given them a doge. The more
violent and tyrannical of these factious magistrates was
Paolo Fregoso, also archbishop of Genoa, who had re¬
turned to his country, in 1462, as chief of banditti ;
and left it again, two years afterwards, as chief of a
band of pirates. The Genoese, disgusted with their
independence, which was disgraced by so many crimes
and disturbances, had, on the 13th of April, 1464,
yielded to Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan ; and after¬
wards remained subject to his son Galeazzo.
The Venetians alone, at this epoch, preserved in ho¬
nour the name of republic in Italy; but it was a
republic without liberty. Their internal policy remains
in the shade: their efforts for the defence of Italy
against the Turks is all that is consigned to history.
These efforts would have been more glorious, if ihey
had better known how to govern their eastern subjects.
Their possessions on the Illyrian coast, up to the extre¬
mity of Greece, were so extensive,—they comprehended
countries the productions of which were so rich, the po¬
sitions of which were so strong ; of which one part of the
population were so brave, the other so industrious ; that
if the Venetians had frankly put themselves at the head
of the Illyrian nation,—if they had governed them only
with as much equity, with a protection as intelligent, as
that with which they governed their conquered provinces
in Lombardy, they would have founded an imperishable
empire, in which civilisation would not have been lost :
bat the Venetians always regarded these establishments
beyond Italy as the Spaniards, English, and Dutch, at a
25é HISTORY OF THÉ ITALIAN BEPIJBLICS. 1468»
later period, have regarded tíieir poeseiriomi in die tw0
Indies. They not only did not allow the inhabitanti
die enjoyment of political rights, but they denied thera
those of humanity : if they allowed that Áey were men,
they at least never permitted them to forget that they
were considered as an inferior race to the Italian. In¬
stead of turning to account the superior intetHgenee and
industry of the Greeks, they were determined to see in
them no other qualities than those of cunning and per.
fidy ; and they appropriated to themselves, at the expense
of the natives, and in their own towns, the monopoly of
commerce. The Albanians and Illyiians, voy different
from the Greeks, were impatient of control, and de¬
spised the restraints of regular industry ; but they
were energetic and brave. The republic would have
found in them its best soldiers and sailors, if it had
received them into its armies and navies on an equal
footing; but it persisted in considering them only as
savages, to whom it yielded no confidence, always re¬
stricting them to the lowest ranks in the army ; and,
when at last it consented to raise among them the 1^^
cavalry of the Stradiots, they were destined more to
over-run and ravage than to defend the country.
The Venetians sent an ambassador to Mahomet II.
immediately after the taking of Constantinople, to redeem
those of their countrymen who had been made captive
in the capital of the Greek empire. On the 18th of
April, 1454, this ambassador signed a (areaty of peace
and good neighbourhood with the sultan, by virtue of
which the republic was to support at Constantino|^, as
in the lime of the Greek empire, a haik, who was to
be at the same time its ambassador there, and the judge
of all the Venetian subjects in the Levant. Mahomet IL
took advantage of this peace to subdue successively
the Illyrian or Greek princes whose independence had
survived the fall of Constantinople. In 1458, he con¬
quered the kingdoms of Rascia and of Servia ; in the same
year he over-ran the duchy of Athens, causing the last
duke, Francesco Acciaiuolo, a Florentine, to be strangled.
1463.
TVRKI8H WAR.
In 14^0, he despoiled the two Faleologi, brothers of
the last emperor, bearing the title of despots of the
Morea. In 1462, he conquered Sinope, Cerasus, and
Trebisond, little Greek states which maintained their
independence on the borders of the Euxine sea. In
1463, he subdued Wallachia and Moldavia, afterwards
the kingdom of Bosnia, and the bannat of Sclavonia.
During the same year, the war again broke out in the
Morea, between the Venetians and Turks. The former
had possessed, for a long period, several strong places in
the peninsula, Coron, Modon, Argos, and Napoli di Mal-
vagia. The commandant of Coron had received within
his fortress a slave, who had stolen the treasury chest of
the Turkish commander at Athens, and had divided the
money with him : he refused to surrender the culprit,
under the pretence of his having turned Christian. The
Turks immediately commenced hostilities. Luigi Lore-
dano, captain general of the Venetians, excited to revolt
the Greeks of the Pdoponnesus, and undertook jointly
with them to defend the isthmus of Corinth; but he
suffered himself to be driven out of it the following
year. He abandoned the Greeks who had joined him :
they were all massacred, while he returned to seek refuge
in his fortresses.
The Venetians, notwithstanding this check, used their
endeavours to form a powerful league against the Mus¬
sulmans. On the 12th of September, 1463, they coh^
duded an alliance with Matthias Corvinus the liberator of
Hungary : they reckoned on the powerful assistance of
a crusa^ which the duke of Burgundy had promised to
lead against the infidels, and which the pope Pius II. had
caused to be preached in all the Latin countries. But
when the pope visited the army, which he had ordered
to assemble at Ancona, he found only a disorderly and
cowardly troop, greedy of gain, clamorous for money
and arms, on receiving which they immediately deserted.
Pius II. himself, worn down by illness, expired at An¬
cona, on the 14th of August, 1464. The few remaining
nuaaders immediately dispersed ; the pope had engage4
356 HI8T0BY OF TBE ITAXIAN BEPUBLlCg. 1466.
the valiant George Castriot, sumamed Scanderbeg; en
the occañon of this crusade, to break the treaty of
peace which he had made wiÁi the Tarka, after twentjr
years of victories gained over them, from 1442 to 1468.
Abandoned alone to those enemies whom he had so loag
braved, he lost, in 1465, nearly the whole of Ejarus,
which he had excited to insurrection a^dnst the Tmks:
he himself died on the 17th of January, 1466, in the
Venetian town, of Alessio, to which he had been driven
to take refuge. Matthias Corvinos alone remained to
the Venetians : by combating the Turks in Hungary, ha
prevented them from concentrating thdr forces agmu*
the. republic ; but the pope, Paul XL, who had suo-
ceeded Pius II., feared the reformers of Bohemia still
more than the Mussulmans. He »igaged Matthias Cor«
vinus to turn his arms against the king of Bohemia, and
depose him for having tolerated the Hussites. The
Turks took advantage of the absence of this formidaHe
antagonist to invade Croatia, in 1469, and to massacre
almost all the inhabitants. The year foUowmg thfqr,
for the first time, equipped a fleet, with which th^
drove tiut of the Venetians out of the Grecian seas ;
attacked Eubœa, which belonged to the repubhc ; took
Negropont by assault, on the 12th of July, 1470, aiad
put all the inhabitants to the sword.
The Venetians, whose commerce extended through
the known world, now attempted to find aUies against
Mahomet in the distant riions of Asia, situated to the
east of Turkey. Their ambassadors, on this occasioD,
have written relations of their travels, which have beea
handed down to us ; and they, for the first time, revealed
the eastern world to the Latins. Hassan B^, or Has*
sun Cassan, who had conquered Persia from the desoadr
ants of Timour, in the year 1468, then threatened the
Turkish empire. He had married a Greek prince of
Trebisond : the Venetians sent to him as ambassador a
relation of that princess, named Catterino Zeno, who^
on his way to him, traversed with infinite dang» Cara«
mania, the little ^menia, and the country of the Curds.
1472. THE VENETIAXS SUBDUE CYBBUS. 257
This route was soon shot by the Turks against other
Venetians disposed to follow him : and Josaphat Bar.
baroj Ambrosio Contarinij and others whom the republic
successively sent to Hussun Cassan, attempted alter-
iMtely either to join the caravans of the Mamelukes in
Egypt, and traverse with them Syria up to die Persian
Gulf ; or to strive by Germany and Poland at the
Bkck Sea, and frcnu thence enter Persia by Georgia
and Mingrelia. When Contarini wanted to return to
Europe, he was cut off" firom both these routes by the
Turks, and obliged to venture along the whole length
of the Caspian See, to pass the gates of Derbend^ and
reach Poland by Astracán and Muscovy; But these
tsravek, wonderful for the fifteenth century, and giving
a great impulse to geography, were of litde advantage
in the war: the communications were too slow and
uncertain to admit the possibility of any concert in
action between the Persians and Venetians. Their
efiTorts to meet had no other effect than the ruin and
pillage of several Greek cities of Asia. In 1472, Pietro
Mocenigo laid waste Caria and the Isle of Cos ; he
pillaged Sátalia, Pamphylia, Smyrna, and Ionia. The
following year he burnt Myra in Lycia, every where
seeking news of Hussun Cassan, of whose defeat, near
Trebisond, he at last. heard. These two campaigns
were stained with atrocious cruelties inflicted on the
Greek Christians, subjects of the Turks^ whom the
Venetians pretended to deliver.
At this period the Venetián admiral was diverted
from the war against the Turkey by the part which he
took in the civü wars that for twelve yeàrs desolated
the island of Cyprus. James III. de Lusignáti,-king
of Cyprus, at his death in 145^^ left only one legi¬
timate child—a daughter—who. In. the following year,
married Louis, the second son of the duke of Savoy :
he had also a natural son named James, who, with
the aid of the sondan of Egypt, whose vassal he ac¬
knowledged himself to be, seized the crown from his
sister and the duke. James de Lusign'an was repeatedly
s
258 BISTORT OF TBE ITAhÎÀM REFUBtíiQB. 1474r
called upon to defend himself e^^einit his sister, to do
which he stood in great need of money. A ii«2i Vene-
tisn merchant gave him his daughter Catcrina Comoro
in marriage, with a dower of 100,000 ducats. To
render this simple citizen s dmighter worthy a royal
sUiance, the republic adopted C^terma Cornaro, und
pronounced her daughter of Saint Mark. The mairiage
was celebrated in 1471 î and on the 6th of June, 1478,
James de Lusignan died, leaving his wife jñeeptmtL
The republic hastened to prodaim itself gaarthan of its
adopted danghter, and o£ the ehUd die mig^ bear. Tlds
didd died in a year after its birth ; and the repuUie
again proclaimed that Caterina Comaro inherited from
her son, and that the republic, in its turn, ^nld
inherit from its daughter : r^arding itself as eternal,
it was sore of surviving Caterina, bnt it was not equally
certain that she might not marry again, and have other
children. To secure dieir guardianship, the Venetians
had garrisoned all the 'cities of the island, since the
year 1473 ; but this precarious possesion did not sa¬
tisfy them. Inl48§, they engaged the queen Caterina
Cornaro to abdicate, and to retire to Asdo in the Tren
visan. It was thus the Venetian republic gained the
kingdom of Cyprus, the crown of which it united with
those of Candia-and äie -Morea. The isle of Cyprus,
rich, in wine, com, oil, and copper, was the most im¬
portant of the three.
The Turks vainly besieged Scutari in the yesar 1474,
and Llanto the year following ; but in the same yeur
(1475) Mahomet II. took and mined the rityof Caflh,
the flom-ishing colony of the Genoese, in the Crimea.
The Turks, aftmvards masters of Bosnia, b^an, in
1477 and 1478, to threaten the states of the Terra Firma
of the Venetians« .IJ^hey passed the Isonzo, and even
the Tagliamento ; th^ -laid waste the fortüe conntries
of the patriarchate of Aquika and of Priuli ; diey
massacred the people, or led them aw^ captive ; and
thus 'begtm to make the Italians experience Ôie horraia
of those wars of barbarians whieh depopulated befare
A«E 6F 00KSP1RA01X8.
dley enálaved the Eastern Empire. On the 15th ot
June, 1479, they took Croia, which had been the
capital of ^canderb^, and massacred the inhabiCants,
in contempt of a capitulation. They afterwards renewed
the mege of Scutari. The republic of Venice, aban.
turned, by all Christoidom, exhausted by long exertions,
and fearing soon-to see the Turkish armies enter Lom^
hardy, accounted itself fortunate in purchasing peace by
giving <up to the Mussulmans Scutàri, together with
several fortresses which it possessed in lUyiia and the
Morea. Sudl were the conditions on which peace was
signed between the sUltan and the r^ublic, On the 26th
•f January, 14i79'
CHAP. XII.
raSQUKNCT OF COKSriRACIXS. 1—XHE RESOURCE OF THE
ITAUA.N PATRIOTS. THEIR ILL SUCCESS- CONSPIRACY OF
THE FAZZI. THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORENZO DB* MEDICI.—^
HIS DEATH.
IxAiiT had reached the fatal period at which liberty can
no longer be paved by a noble resistance, or recovered
by open force. There remained only the dangerous
and, most commonly, the fatal resource of conspiracy.
$0 long as habits of liberty are preserved amongst a
whole people; so long as every class has an equal
horror of slavery ; a sudden explosion of the sentiment
fills every heart suffices to accomplish a revo¬
lution— to render vain the efforts of usurpers, or to
overthrow a recent tyranny, though at the moment ic
may have succeeded in establishing itself. The despot,
even when he has silenced by terrcHr the people whom
bias oppressed and disarmed, always feels at war with
dum ; 'he has too mueh to fear firom every class, to
hope, vtith any «hance of success, to attach any of them
a 2
26o BISTOBT OF THE ITALIAN BEPUBLICS. 1474.
to his cause. But when absolute power has been esta¬
blished long enough for the violence of its first origin
to be forgotten ; when the majority of the men in the
prime of hfe have been bom under its yoke, and have
never known a better state ; the usurper finds himsdf
supported by the inert part of the nation — by those
whoj incapaÚe of thinking, or of investigating for them¬
selves, must be contented with borrowed ideas, and with
blindly assenting, to every, doctrine which the govern¬
ment may promulge. With Üie loss of liberty is lost
also that free and animated intercourse which warms
the soul, and diffuses noble sentiments even among
classes unenlightened by the knowledge of the past, or
by the experience of foreign nations. In slavish coun¬
tries, the prince alone speaks, amidst universal silence :
he dictates the proclamations of authorities, the sen¬
tences of the tribunals; he even inspires the language
to be uttered from the pulpit or the confessional : be¬
cause the disposal of the revenue is at his will, he
appears as a dispensing providence ; and makes the
people believe he gives all that he does not take fivm
them. The indigent are grateful to him for the pnbUc
charities ; the labourer, for the justice and police which
protect his property. The populace of towns applaud
the rigour which falls on the higher classes. The
national pride takes offence at the foreigner who ex¬
presses his pity for an unhappy and ill-govemed people ;
and the vanity of the vulgar is interested in the suppmrt
of what exists. If any memory of the period of hb«]^
is preserved amongst the ignorant classes, it only refers
to unhappiness and pain. They have heard of the
efforts, the sacrifices, made by their, fathers in defence
of the people's rights ; but tiiey see only the evils of
the struggle, while the result, because it is not of a
material nature, escapes their imagination. They con¬
clude that bread was as dear, and labour as painful, in
the days of liberty, as in their times ; and to ^ pri-
vations they endure were then added dangers and vioh
lent catastrophes, of which fathers transmitted to their
1474. THE POPULACE ATTACHED TO TYRANTS. 261
children some terrible details. Slavery, it is said, so
debases man as to make him loVe it ; and experience
confirms the maxim. NAtions every where appear at¬
tached each to its government in proportion to its im¬
perfections ; what is most vicious in institutions is every
where most liked ; and the most obstinate resistance is
that which the people oppose to their moral advance¬
ment.
Such, in particular, was the state of Italy towards the
end of the fifteenth century. The lower orders in the
cities of Lombardy preserved no other memory of the
period of liberty than that impressed on the imagination
by some ruin, which their forefathers pointed out 'as
monuments of ancient battles or of ancient violence.
The peasantry, having never enjoyed any political rights,
feared nothing but the scourge of war ; and prized a
government in proportion only to its pacific disposition.
Galeazzo Sforza, the more to excite the attachment of
the people, moved more b'y the senses than by reflection,'
surrounded himself with die magnificence of the richest'
monarch. The Milanese people were grateful to him
for the spectacle, without considering that they paid for
it themselves. The Medici, whose authority at Florence'
was more recent, endeavoured still more to render them¬
selves popular, by keeping their fellow-citizens in a state
of continual festivity ; the expense of which, at least in
part, was supplied from their own patrimony. The
sovereigns of the other states of Italy, also, in various
ways succeeded in gaining the affection of the peasantry
and of- the poptilacie of towns. The protection against the
law extended to the guilty was one of the great means
of seduction. The law threatened criminals with the
most terrible punishment : prosëcutions hegan with tor¬
ture, and ended with the wheel. Nevertheless every
village festival produced a murder ; and those who
committed it were exactly the sort of determined men
whom the tyrant most desired to have about him. By
shielding them from justice, he obtained from them and
thoir families a grateflil attachment^ proportioned to thS'
s 3
96^ BISTORT OF THE ITALIAN BEFTMJOSk 1474.
erud^ of the punidiiiiient which fhef escaped. These
mm, the most dángerous leaders of a rahUe, were
therefore all devoted to the prince; and a call to the
overthrow of his tyranny found no response either in
the towns or in the country. On the other handy ril
those who had any elevation of soul— who knew what
their country had been^ and what it had become—who
could compare the servitude at home with the liberty
abroad^-^tdl those whom philos(^hy adi^tened on the
inëreasmg moral degradation of men sutgect to absolnte
poWer,—could not resign themsdves to tlm lorn of liberty^»
which they knew would be followed by the loss of vir¬
tue. They would willingly have resisted ; but soMiersy
paid with their own money, shielded the tyrant within
walls whkh their fathers had raised to protect theíF
freedom. Social organisation, founded for the common
good, was directed by an usurping hand for the oppres-
sion of all. The ri^t of the tribunals to punish, and
that of the prince to pardon, were exercised in conceit
only to provide resolute assasrins for the latter. ABiaiieen
ooñtiracted in the name of the country established a mutual
guarantee of the usurpers against t^ peofde. No power
existed which could be invoked by the eiil%htcped dtizeni
though he had been assured that all endued with intd«
Hgence and virtue were on his side — that the whole of
the wealthy part of the nation desired liberty—he knew
thàt the tyrant could arm against it Üié whole ignorami
and brutid mass of the people. It was resentment for
the triumph of injustice and farutahty—for the oppres«
sion exercised by men governed only by the senses over
all riiose actuated by the noUar sentiments of the 8ou],~
that BO ñ-equently in this century obliged the latter to
resort to conspiracy. The study of the works of the
ancients, also, then pursued with so much ardour, con¬
ciliated universal approbation, dmost admiration, for
ooni^irators. Harmodius, Timdeon, Brutua, who with
the dagger had restored liberty to Athena, Corinth, and
Rome, were pointed out to youthful pupils as the avtegen
of abused law and justice-.^ as the saviours of humairityi
I4T0í
«URPniW OP FHATO.
S63
rnunlor, oa the other hftod, was so Gomwon, even men oí
honour felt so little scnipul0tts> respecting it» thai con»
i^rators were never stopped by any repngnance to shed
bipod : not only every prince and notde» but every ma*
gistrate and citizen» throughout Ëur^e» was ready to
kill» in order to defend the smallest right» to overcome
any obstacle^ to ins^e fear, to ^ve proof of energy» or
to Uot otd an offence. T^oever kept servants» de¬
manded above all that ihey should be baave» and that
they should wear arms ibr the execution of any san¬
guinary order in case of need. It was because murders
were generally committed by them» that domestic service
did not degrade. Persons well bom placed dieir children
with nobles» as pages» footmen» and grooms», because
they carried a sword» and their service was ennobled by
the chance of spilling blood>
. So fer feom experiencing the repugnance we now feel
to assassination as a means of delivering our country,
men of the fifteenth century perceived honour in a
murder, virtue in the sacrifice, and historic grandeur
in conspiracy. Panger alone stopped them; hut that
danger must be terrible. Tyrants, feeling themsdiveB at
war with the universe, were always on their guard ; and
as they owed their safety only to terror, the punishment
which they inflicted, if victorious, was extreme in its
atrodty. Yet these terrors did not discourage the ene*
mies of the existing qr^» whether royalist or republtcaiu
Never had there been more frequent or more daring
Cimspirades than in this century. The ill success of
some, never deterred others from immediately treading
in their steps.
The first plot was directed against the Medici. Ber>*
murdo Nardi, one of the FlozenUne dtisens> who had
been exiled from his country in the time of Pietro de'
Medid» accompanied by about a hundred of his par¬
tisans, surprised the gate of Prato, on the 6th of April,
1Í70. He made himself master of the public palace,
and arrested the Florentine podestà ; he took pcesesamn
of the citadd; and afterwards, traversing the streets,
s 4
264» HISTORY OP TBE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1476«
calM the people to join him, and fight for liberty. He
intended to make this small town the strong hold of the
repnUican party^ whence to begin his attack on the
Medici. But although he had succeeded by surprise in
making himself master of the town, the inhabitants
remained deaf to his voice, and not one answered his
call, — not one detested tyranny sufficiently to combat
it, at the peril of the last extremity of human sufiering.
The friends of the government, seeing that Nardi re¬
mained alone, at last took arms, attacked him on all
sides, and soon overpowered him by numbers. Nardi
was made prisoner, led to Florence, and there beheaded
with six of his accomfdices ; twelve others were hanged'
at Prato.
The conspiracy, which broke out at Ferrara on the
1st of September, 1476, was directed by a monarchical
party. The ht>U8e of Este, sovereign of Ferrara, Mo-
dena, and Reggio, had successively for its chiefs two
natural sons of Nicholas III.;—Lionel, who reigned from
1441 to 1450; and Borso, who reigned from 1450 to
1470.- It was not till after the deathof the latter, that their
brother, Hercules I., legitimately bom in marriage, suc¬
ceeded to an inheritance which had been strengthened
and augmented under the reigns of the two bastards. It
was Borso, in fact, who had caused an authority which
his ancestors held from the people, to be sanctioned by-
the heads of the empire and the church. Frederic III.
had named him duke of Modena and Reggio, and
Paul II. duke of Ferrara. Borso had no children ; but
Lionel left a son, named Nicolo,' who, when Hercules
took possession of the sovereignty, sought refuge at
Mantual Of all the princes of the house of Este,
Lionel and Borso had been the most bdoved by thdr
subjects. The gentleness of their dispositions, their
generosity, talents, activity, and love of letters, had
won every heart. Those who, for thirty years, had
served these two princes, made it a point of duty to
transmit their crown to the son of Lionel, and r^gaidcd
the succession of Hercules as an usurpation. They
1476.
CONSPISAOY AT MILAN.
265
plotted to establish the rights of one whom they. con.
ridered the legitimate heir of the throne. On the Ist
of September, 1476, they introduced Nicolo d'£ste,
with 600 infantry, into Ferrara, and, immediately dis¬
persing themselves through the streets, called upon the
people to take arms for the son of their benefactor.
But the people were indifièrent between their masters,
and would not incur the risk of punishment by de-
daring for either in preference to tlie other : instead of
flocking to their call, they fled, and shut themselves up
in their houses. The satellites of Hercules, who, for a
moment, had believed the revolution accomplished, re¬
covered courage, and attacked and vanquished Nicolo,
who, with one of his cousins, was immediately beheaded :
twenty-five of his accomplices were hanged.
Girolamo Gentile, the same year, organised a con¬
spiracy at Genoa to throw off* the yoke of the duke of
Milan : it failed in like manner, because the people
hesitated to join him, though he had already made himself
master of the gates. Notwithstanding these fatal ex¬
amples, another conspiracy was formed the same year, at
Milan, against Galeazzo Sforza, whose yoke became insup¬
portable to all who had any elevation of soul. There was
no crime of which that false and ferocious man was not be¬
lieved to be capable. Among other crimes, he was accused
of having poisoned his mother. It was remarked of
him, that, enjoying the spectacle of astonishment and
despair, he always preferred to strike the most suddenly
and cruelly those whom he had given most reason to
rely on his friendship. Not satisfied with making the
most distinguished women of his states the victims of
his: seduction or his violence, he took pleasure in pub¬
lishing their shame — in exposing it to their brothers
or husbands. He not unfrequently gave them up to
prostitution. His extravagant pomp exhausted his fi¬
nances, which he afterwards recruited by the most cruel
extortion on the people. He took pleasure in inventing
new and most atrocious forms of capital punishment ;
even diat of burying his victims alive was not the most
266 HUTORT OF THB ITAIilAN REFVBI.IC8.
crud. At kstj three young nol^, of families who hod
eowsgooody resisted the usurpation of Francesco Slon^
and who had themselves experienced the oQd
outrages of his son^ resolved to deliver their country
frcta this monster ; not doubting that, when he had
fallen, the Milanese would joyfully unite in suhstitntiag
a free government for a tyranny. Girolamo Olgiotj»
Carlo Visconti, and Andrea Jiiampugnani, resrived, ú
concert, to trust only to themselves, without
one ntlmr person into their secret. Thdr enthuaiasn had
been excited by the lessons of their literary instructor,
Ctdas di Moataiu>, who continually set before them the
grandeur of the ancient republics, and the ^ory of those
yrho bad delivered them from tyranny. Determined on
killing the duke, they l<mg exercised themsrives in the
handling of the dagger, to be more sure of striking
him^ each in the precise part of the tyrant s body as¬
signed to him. Anim^ed with a religious zeal, q«H le«
ardent than their republican enthusiasm, they prepared
th«nselves by inrayer, by vows to 3t> Stq>lien, and bf
the assistance of the mass, for die act which they were
about to fteribrin. They made choice of the 26th of
December, 1.476, St Stephen's day,, on which they knew
that the duke Galeazzo would go in state to the church
of the saint They waited for him in that church ; and
when they saw him advance between the ambassadors
of Ferrara and Mantua, they respectfully approached
him, their caps in hand.. Feigning to ke^ off tbn
crowdi, they siuTounded him, and struck him all at the
same instant, in the midst of his. guards and courtiers.
Galeazzo Sforza fell dead under their weapons ; and the
crowd which filled (he church saw the tumult, and
heard the cries, without comprdliendmg the cause.
The three conspirators endeavoured to escape from
the church, to call the people to arms and Ub^y ; but
die first sentiments which they encountered were asto«
nishment and terror. The guards of the duke drew their
swords only to avenge him. Lampugnani, in attempt¬
ing to avoid them, got entangled in the tisina of the
1478* eoirspiBAOT OF TRB PAZZT. íSf
kneeling women^ was tlifown down, and Idlled hy an
Mfolre of Galeazzo : s feiv stepd from hlm, Viaconti
aho was put to deadi bf tile gtrnrds. Bat Olgñti had
the KÙsfOTtune to escape, in this first moment, from ait
who pursued hiln; and, running through the streets,
called loudly to arms and liberty : not one pérson
answered the call. He afterwards songht to conceal
himself ; but was discorered, seized, and put to the most
excruciating torture. In the interval between that in¬
fliction and his death, he wrote or dictated the naitative
demanded of him, and which has been handed down
to us. It is composed in a strmn of the noldest enthu*
ñasm, with a deep religious feeling, with an ardent, love
of fiberty, and with the firm persuasion that he bad
performed a good action. He was again delivered to the
executioner, to have his flesh torn with red-hot pincers.
At the time of his martyrdmn, be was only twenty«
two yKU-s of age.
Tte conspiracy of the Pazzi at Florence speedily fiolU
lowed that of Olgiati at Milan. Andrea de' Paazi/ one
of the five aceoppiatori, who had exercised such great
power under Pietro de' Medici, was dead ; but had kfl
three sons, and several grandsons. One of these last had
married a sister of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici.
Their fortune was immense : it was engaged in com«
merce, which they carried on with great success. They con.
âdered that they had a right to be reckoned among those
who held the first rank in their country ; bat Lorenzo
and Giuliano de' Medici, on arriving at man's estate, en.
deavonred to recover all the authority whidi their father
had suffered to escape from his hand : they, in partieu.
lar, evinced an extreme jealousy of all those who, in his
time, had administered the republic ; and although the
family of the Pazzi then reckoned nine citizens, who, by
their age, rank, and talents, were formed to sit in the
rignoria, the Medici did not permit one of them to be
edled to it. One of the Pazzi had married the only
driighter of Giovanni Borromeo, the richest citizen of
Florence, to whose inheritance he was destined to sue«
268 HISTORY OF THE ITAUAN REPUBLICS. 1478'
ceed ; but, at the moment of Borromeo'a death, the Me¬
dici caused a law to be passed, by which the male issue
in the collateral line were called to inherit, in preference
to daughters ; and they thus deprived Giovanni: de'
Pazzi of a fortune which he had looked upon as already
his. Francesco de' Pazzi, his brother, whose temper
was hot and impetuous, unable to endure such injnstiee,
quitted Tlorence, to establish himself at Rome. There
die pope, Sixtus IV., made him his banker, and soon
gave him his whole confidence.
Sixtus IV. was of the house of Rovere, a plebeian
family of Sayona, in the statfes of Genoa. His election
to the holy see was tainted with simony ; and he was
charged with the most dissolute morals. He had four
nephews, whom he had loaded with all the church had to
give. He introduced two—Giuliano della Rovere, the
son of his brother, and Pietro Riario, his sister's son —
into the sacred college. He intended making princes of
the two others, who were secular. He married Leonardo
della Rovere to a natural daughter of Ferdinand : he
made him prefect of Rome and duke of Sora. Girolamo
Riario he married to a natural daughter of Galeazzo
Sforza, duke of Milan ; after which he purdiased for
him the city and principality of Iraola, to which he
purposed to add some principalities of Romagna. This
dilapidation of the patrimony of the church, to a^ran-
dise the nephews of the pope, was one of the most scan*
dalouB examples of what was afterwards called the
nepotism of the court of Rome. But although Sixtus IV.
was a corrupt man, he was not destitute of talents, nor
even of a certain elevation of sentiment. He had at
heart the support of the independence of Italy ; and he
believed it could be maintained only by republican forms
of government, and with the aid of liberty, the value
of which he had learned to appreciate at Genoa. He
found himself constantly thwarted in his politics by the
Medici, whether pursuing no higher object than the
elevation of his nephews, or following a nobler one, he
endeavoured to engage all the states of Italy to join in
1478« GIULIANO DE' MEDICI SILLED. &6Q
a common league for its defence. Tbis jcontinual oppo¬
sition soon engendered hatred ; and Girolamo Riario
and Francesco Pazzi laboured to render it more violent.
Sixtus IV. finally promised all the pontifical forces to
second a conspiracy, the object of which was to restore
liberty to Florence by killing the two brothers Medici.
The approbation of the pope alone determined Jacopo
de' Pazzi, the eldest of the family, and the uncle of
Francesco, to take part in a plot so dangerous.
The Pazzi would not run the risk of being abandoned,
as the conspirators of Milan had been, after the execu¬
tion of the plot, because no one knew their intentions,
or were prepared to second them., Accordingly, they
admitted vast numbers into their secret : amongst others,
Francesco Salviati, whom the pope had named archbishop
of Pisa ; but the Medici had refused to let him take pos¬
session of his see. It was necessary for tlie success of
the conspiracy, that the two Medici should be struck at
the same moment ; for if one survived, he would iiw
stantly be the avenger of the other. It was further
advisable that some of the coiispirators should occupy
the public pal^e, and intimidate the signoria, white
pthors called the people to liberty : four troops, to act
simultaneously, were accordingly requisite. It was
judged indispensable, ako, that the two brothers should
.be in the same place, in order that the conspirators
might stab them at the same moment. Raphael Riario,
a son of the pope's nephew, a young man of eighteen
years, whom the pope had just made a cardinal, and sent
to Pisa, gave occasion, on his passage through Florence,
to many entertainments; in one of which,' it was
hoped, tlie brothers might be found together. But
Giuliano was neither at the féte given by Jacopo de' Pazzi
to the young cardinal at Montughi, nor at that which Xio-
renzo de' Medici gave at Fiosote* The conspirators were,
on both days,, ready. The archbishop Salviati, with Ja¬
copo, son of the historian Poggio. BrattotdUni, and a
numerous troop of conspirators, were to make them¬
selves masters of the palaee, and force tiie signoria to
S7d BISTORT OF THR ITAI.1AN RXPVBUCS. 1476«
apinRve the revolntioii ; others, wiéi Jacopo de' Tlaá,
were to raise the people. Francesco Pazzi and Bernardo
Bandini undertook to kill Giuhano, who, timid and
tuspidous, generally wore a cuirass under his robe ; and
Gian Battista da Montesecoo, the captain of a troop
of adventurers, was appointed to despatch Lorenzo.
The absence of Giuliano on diese two occasions obliged
the conspirators to defer the execution of their project
to a religious ceremony that was to take place in the cs>
thedral, and at whidi die two brothers must indispens¬
ably be' present. It was ^eed that the assassins should
StrUce them as they knelt, at the moment that the priesl^
in performing mass, raised the host, and they, with att
present, bowed down tbeir heads. But Gian Battístn da
Montesecco declared, diat though hehad-qndertaken with
peasure to kill Lorenzo at a festÍTal—for he was accus¬
tomed to murder — he could not ofier the compirators
his assistance in a church, for he was not accustomed to
sacrilege. All the others then refused to commit what
began to appear to them an irreligious act ; so that they
were forced to have recourse to two priests, Antonio da
Vblterra and Stefano di Bagnone, who, accustomed to
live in churches, and perform themselves all the offices,
f(dt neith» respeet nor fear for sacred things. This
caused the ruin of all.
Every one was at his post when the Medici entered the
temple, on the 26th of April, 1478: the brothers to(^
dieir places at some distanee from each other. The
mass b^an : at the moment of the elevation of the host^
Antonio da Voltora put his hand on the left shoulder
Lwenzo, the better to secure the Mow he was to strike
on-the right side. The toudi, howevw, made Lorenzo
start up, and with his arm enveloped in his doidc, he
parried the Uow ; he drew his sword, as did bis two
esquires, and the priests fled. At the same instant
Giuliano had'been kUkd by Beniardo Bandini. Fran¬
cesco de' Pazzi, intending ako to strike him, deeply
wounded himself in the thigh; Bandini immediatdy ran
towards Lorenzo, who escaped fsom him, and shut him-
11l>7^ desmccnoñ oc the cazzi. s7i
idf up in the sacristy. Seeing the people in a state of
tnnnilt, and despairing of snccess, Buidini immediately
left Florence, and did not think himself safe till he bad
reached Constantinople. Salviati, meanwhile, also failed
at the palace Of the signoria : he had concealed his fol¬
lowers' near the entry, the door of which shut with a
qiring lock, which Ids satellites were unable to open,
when they were to rejoin him. He afterwards preséíited
himself to the gonfalonier, but his troubled look and em¬
barrassed language so excited suspicion, that, without lis¬
tening to him, the gonfalonier sprang to the doOr, seized
by the hair Jacopo Bracciolini, who was concealed
behind it, delivered him to his sergeants, and was soon
master of the other conspirators in the palace ; he had
dtem all instantly put to death, either by the dagger, or
by precipitating them alive from the windows ; to the
frames of which he hung archbishop Sahdati, with two
of his cousins and Jacopo Bracciolini. The two priests,
who had failed in their attempt to kill Lorenzo, were
pursued and cut to jnèces by the -friends of the Medici :
lastly, Jacopo de' nzzi, who had put himself at the
head of the troop of conspirators, whose part it was
to summon the people to liberty throu^ the streets,
lost all courage, seeing that no one answered his call.
He left the city by the Romagna gate ; hut had not pro^
oeeded 'far before he was stopped by a party of peasants,
and brought back. In the mean time the friends of thé
Medici had called the populace to vengeance ; and to this
cry, at least, they were not slow in answering : Fran¬
cesco, Riháldo, and Jacopo de' Pazzi were hung at the
windows of the palace, beside the archbishop; ^ those
who had any relation of blood or connection of friendship
with them—all those who had shown any opposition to
the government—were torn from their houses, dragged
through the streets, and put to death. More than seventy
citizens were torn to pieces by the mob, in these first
days. Lmenzo de' Medici afterwards exerted all his ac¬
tivity to obtain the surrender of those who had sought
refuge abroad : even Bernardo Bandini was sent back by
272 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN BEFUBL1C8. 1478.
Mahomet II. from Constantinqde. The executioner
did not rest till 200 Florentines had perished in con¬
sequence of the conspiracy of the Pazzi.
The ill success of the conspiracy of the Pazzi
strengthened, as always happens, the government against
which it was directed. The Medici had been content
till then to be the first citizens of Florence : from that
time Lorenzo looked upon himself as the prince of the
city ; and his friends, in speaking of him, sometimes
employed that title. In addressing him, the epithet of
"most magnificent lord" was habitually employed. It
was the mode of addressing the condottieri, and the
petty princes who had no other title. Lorenzo affected
in his habits of life an unbounded liberality, pomp, and
splendour, which he believed necessary to make up fm
the real rank which he wanted. The Magnificent,
his title of honour, is become, not without reason, his
surname with posterity. On the failure of the con¬
spiracy, he was menaced by all Italy at once. The
pope fulminated a bull against him on the 1st of June,
1478, for having hanged an archbishop. He demanded
that Lorenzo de' Medici, the gonfalonier, the priori, and
the balia of eight, should be given up to him, to be
punished according to the enormity of their crime. At
the same time he published a league, which he had
formed against them with Ferdinand of Naples and the
republic of Sienna. He gave the command of the army
of the league to Frederic da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino,
and ordered him to advance into Tuscany. Lorenzo de'
Medici, who was no soldier, did not join the army raised
to defend him ; he was obliged to confide the command
of it to Hercules d'Este, duke of Ferrara, who entered
the service of the Florentines, but who soon gave them
room to think that there existed a secret understanding
between him and the enemy. The duchess Bonne of
Savoy, the widow of Galeazzo Sforza, regent of Milan,
was the only ally on whom Lorenzo could reckon.
But the king of Naples, to prevent her from sending
troops into Tuscany, undertook to raise enemies against
Í479. »mowiNo DAJxüEH or IíOki!:mzo. gyS
her at home. He began by offering aid to the Genoese,
who, wearied of the yoke under which they had volun¬
tarily placed themselves, rose and threw it off in the
month of August, 1478. Having recovered their free-
dotíi, they restored the title of doge to Prosper Adorno,
who had previously bomeTl.
Sixtus IV. in the moñüi of January, 1479, succeeded
in engaging the Swiss of the canton of Uri, to declare war
against the duchess of Milan. These formidable moun¬
taineers obtained a victory, at Giornico, over the best
Italian troops, to the astonishment, almost more than
alarm, of the latter; who were made, for the first time,
to appreciate the corporal strength and unconquerable
courage of a race tiU then unknown to them. On the 7th
of September, 1479, the Florentine army was defeated
at Poggio Imperiale, by the duke of Calabria, who had
there joined his forces with those of the duke of Urbino.
Almost at the same time the brothers of Galeazzo Sforza,
whom the duchess regent had exiled from Milan, re¬
entered at the head of their partisans, and accomplished
a revolution in that city. They deprived the duchess of
the r^ency; they punished her ministers and favourites
with death, for having, as they said, abandoned the true
^terests of the state, and of the house of Sforza. They
declared her son, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, of full age,
though not more than twdve years old ; and the eldest
brother, Ludovico, sumamed the Moor, undertook the
direction of affairs ; from that time he was in fact the
sovereign of Milan.
The situation of Lorenzo de' Medici became critical :
he found himself, without allies, attacked by all the
forces of Italy. His enemies had successively ravaged
the provinces of the Florentine states, and were already
masters of his strongest fortresses. Even his fnends at
Florence began to- tire of a war which the pope and the
king of Naples declared they made only against him;
The people, whose attachment was founded on his pro-
iigality and his public entertainments, showed, when his
prosperity declined, that they were ready, to . abandon
T
274^ HlSTWe* W THE ITAXiIAK tuurvmiicg. 147^
him. He fdt the full extent of his danger when he wae
informed by the duke of Ürhino^ the general of Ibe
enemy's army, that, among his adrersaries, the king of
Naples and Ludovic the Moor were disposed to be reom*
died to him- The dukes of Ürbíno and Cslalsria ha^
not suffident authority to make peace with him ; hut
they strongly advised him to go iu person to Naples, and
foey fumidied him with a Net^UtiOi galley at Leghorn
to convey hin». It was not without fear that Lorenao
put himself into the hands of anch an enemy as
Ferdinand, who had so often shown himself cruel and
perfidious. He departed, however> from Florence, cm
the 5th of December, 1479; and was recdved at
Naples with, more friendship and respect -than he had
ventured to hope. He frankly acknowledged to Ferdi<
nand his danger ; but he explained to him also his
resources. Italy abandoned him ; but he placed bis hope
in France. Louis XI. and René II. d^e of Lorrain
both pretended to inherit the right of the Angevins to
the kingdom of Naples : they offered thdr dlian^, and
promised to send troops to Tuscany. Lorenzo endea¬
voured to convince Ferdinand of all thedmiger he incurred
by the introduction of the French into Italy. He ac¬
knowledged that, for himself, he should derive no other
advantage than that of injuring his enemies. He strongly
rqiresaited how preferable it would be for both, to seek
an. arrangement, between themselves, instead of cqpaiing
their country to the incursion, of harbatiaDs ; and, finally,
he offered him an indemnity in the republic of Sii^aai^
which the duke of Calabria, son of die king, already
coveted. That state had made ^ance with the pc^ aaa
the king of Naples against Florence ; hadreeeived, without
distrust, the Neapolitan troops within its fortresses ; and
had repeate^y had recourse to the duke of Calabria to
terminate, by his mediation, the contisua&y ienewe<|
dissensions h^ween the different orders oi the repnUlcj
The duke of Calabria, instead of reconcilmg them, kepi
up their discord ; an^ by altematdy granting succoui
to each party^ was become the supreme arbitrator o£ Si-
1480. THE TURKS SURPRISE OTRANTO.
enna. Lorenzo de' Medici promised to offer no obstacle
to the transferring of tLiat state in sovereignty to the
duke of Calabria. On this condition, he signed his
treaty with the king of Naples on the 6th of May, 1480.
The republic of Sienna would have beœ lost, and the
Neapolitans, masters of so important a place in Tuscany,
would soon have subjugated the rest, when an unex¬
pected event saved Lorenzo de' Medici from the conse¬
quences of his imprudent offer. Mahomet II. charged
his grand vizier, Achmet Giedik, to attempt a landing in
Italy, which the latter .ef^ted, and made himself master
of Otranto on the 28th of July, 1480. Ferdinand,
struck with terror, immediately recalled the duke of Ca¬
labria, with his army, to defend his own states.
Lorenzo de' Medici, on his return from Naples to
Florence, rendered still more oppressive the yoke which
he had imposed on his country. He determined, above
all, to efface from his authority the revolutionary, and con¬
sequently transitory, character which it still retained;, at
die same time to obUterate the memory of the sovereignty
of the people, maintained by the periodical assembling of
parliaments. He called one, however, on the 12th of
April, 1480, which he purposed should be the last. He
made that parliament create a balia ; destined, likewise, to
despoil itself for ever of a power which those extraordinary
commissioners had, in fact, constantly abused. The balia
transferred to a new council of seventy members the
absolute power which had been delegated to them by the
florentine people. That council, henceforth, was to form
a permanent part of the constituted authorities. It was
dharged to exercise a generid scrutiny, and to dioose
only those among the Florentine citizens who were qua«
Med for the magistracies. They were afterwards to di&>
tribute their names in the different elective purses of the
tignoria. They were to make a new divmon of the
taxes ; to re-establish an equilibrium in thé finances, or
lather, to employ the money of the state in acquitting the
debts of the Medici, whose immense fortune was de>
ranged, not only by Üie magnificence of Lorenzo, but l^
T 2
37^ R18T0BT or THB ITAUAIT BXPCBUOB 1492.
the profuskm and diaorder of his deiica, who canied oa-
hii commerce with the pomp and extraraganoe which
they thought suitaUe to a prince.
It was not till the Sd of December, 1480, that the
pope, Kxtns IV., reconciled the repoUic of Florence to
the church. He yielded then only to the terror which
the conquest of Otranto by the Turks had
Although he had shown talent, and some elerated views
for the defence of the independence of Italy, his
want of all principle, his impetuosity of daracter, and
his blind partiality to his nephews, rendered him one of
the worst popes that ever governed the cburdi.
The Turks had no sooner been driven from Otranto,
by Alphonso, the eldest son of die Idng of Nqdss, aa
the 10th of August, 1481, than Sixtus exdted a new war
in Italy. His olrject was to i^grandise his nephew,
Girolamo Riario, for whom he was desirous of forming a
great principality in Romagna. With that view, he pro¬
posed to the Venetians to divide with him the states of thi
duke of Ferrara ; but a league was formed in 1482, by
the king of Naples, the duke of Milan, and the Floren¬
tines, to defend the dukedom. The year following,
Sixtus IV., fearing that he should not obtain for his ne¬
phew the best part of the spoila of the duke of Ferrara,
changed sides, and excommunicated the Venetians, in¬
tending to take from them the provinces which he des¬
tined for Girolamo Riario. The pew allies, without
consulting Mm, soon afterwards made peace with the
Venetians, at Bagndo, on the 7th of August, 1484.
This news threw him into a fit of goot, wMch, falling
inward, destroyed him, on the 13th of August follow¬
ing. . Innocent VIII., who succeeded him, was quite as
corrupt as his predecessmr ; but endued with far less
talent and energy. After ^ving, in the bqMMng of
his pontificate, made war without any reasonable motive
against Ferdinand and the Florentines, be made peace
with them on the 11th of August, I486. He married
his son, Franceschetto Cibo, to a daughter Loren so
de* Medici ; and this alliance afterward procured to Us
(4'82. ADMINIITRATION OW LORENZO.
277
posterity the duchy of Massa-Carrara. In 1489« he gave
a cardinal's hat to Giovanni« son of Lorenzo de' Medici,
afterwards Leo X. By the venality of distributive justice,
by monopoly, and by the ignorance and carelessness o(
the administration, he brought Rome into a state of po.
verty and spoliation hitherto unexampled. He died at
last, on the 25th of July, 1492, the most despised,
but not. the most detested, of the popes who had yet
filled the chair of St. Peter.
Lorenzo de' Medici, his friend and counsellor, has
been ranked among the number of great men ; and, in
fact, he had some right to the gratitude of posterity,
for the constant protection he afforded letters and the
arts, and the impulse which he gave to them himself, as
a poet and a man of taste. He gained the affection of
the literary society which he assembled round him, as
much by the charm of his character as by his liberality.
But it is not as a statesman that he can pretend to
glory. He was a bad citizen of Florence, as well as a
bad Italian : he degraded the character of the Flo¬
rentines, destroyed their energy, ravished from them
their liberty, and soon further exposed them to the loss
of their independence. Fearing the example and con¬
tagion of liberty in the rest of Italy, he preferred
alliance with the sovereigns who were most odious,—
with Ferdinand king of Naples, with Galeazzo Sforza,
with his widow, afterwards with Ludovic the Moor ;
and lastly, with pope Innocent VIII. At the same
time he joined in every intrigue against the repub¬
lics of Sienna, Lucca, and Genoa. He was suspected
also of having favoured conspiracies against two petty
princes of Romsgna, his enemies. Girolamo Riario,
whom Sixtus IV. had made sovereign of Forli and
I mola, and who had been the chief promoter of the
Pazzi conspiracy, was stabbed in his own palace by three
captains of his guard, on the 14th of April, 1488.
Catherine Sforza, his widow, and the natural daughter
of the duke Galeazzo, preserved, however, the prin«
cipality for her son Octavian. She married, not long
T á
278 HirroRY of thb it^liait repubucs. ! }'89«
afterwards, Giovanni de' Medici, the grandfather of the
first grand duke of Tuscany. It was she who gave her
name, afterwards so sadly memorable, to her godchild
Catherine de' Medid. Galeotto Manfredi, lord of
Faenaa, was stabbed by his wife on the Slst of May
following, as he was about to sell his little prindpaHty
to the Venetians, and Faenza remained to h¿ son Astor
de' Manfredi, under the protection of Lorenzo de' Me¬
dia.
The house of Medid had encouraged, at Florence,
the taste for pleasure and luxury, as a means of confirm-
ing its power ; but this corruption of morals b^n to
produce a reaction. All the young men, who had
abandoned themselves with enthusiasm to the study
of the arts and of letters, who rendered a sort of
worship to andent literature, who studied the Grecian
philosc^y, and were accused of preferring even the
religion of the andent Romans to that of the diurch,
were, at the same time, devotedly attached to the
Medici. This feeling they shared with all the liber¬
tines,—all those who thought only of sensual pleasure,
and who sacrificed to it the libnty of thdr country :
but those of graver morals, and of a deeper religions
conviction, — those who regarded the progress of cor¬
ruption as certain to draw down the vengeance of
Heaven on Florence,—^joined to compunctious peni¬
tence a love of andent liberty, and a detestation of o
tyranny founded on the triumph of vice. They were
called piagnoiti (the weepers). Girolamo Savonarola, a
Dominican monk of Ferrara, and an eloquent orator,
had preached to them a double reform, religious and
political ; for he had himself embraced with equal en.
thusiasm the cause of piety and that of liberty. He
arrived on foot at Florence, in the year 1489>
lodged in the convent of St. Mark. He began im¬
mediately to preach there, with a profound conviction
on his own part, and with a talent equal to his courage,
against the scandalous abuses introduced into the church
;<€ Rome, and against the criminal usurpations in the
i492- DRATH OP LOUENZO DR* HEDICl. 279
«ate, which had deprived the citizen of his just rights
The partisans of the double reform soon reckoned in
tills flock the most respectable citizens of Florence.
In the beginning of the year 1492, Lorenzo de' Me¬
dici was attacketl by a slow fever, joined to the gout,
hereditary in his family : he retired to his country
house of Careggi, where, being sensible of his danger, he
sent for Girolamo Savonarola, who, till then, had refused
to visit him, or to show him any deference ; but it was
from him that Lorenzo, struck with his reputation for
sanctity and eloquence, desired, in dying, to receive
absolution. Savonarola refused him neither his con.
solation nor bis exhortations ; but he declared that he
could not absolve him from his sins till he proved his
repentance by reparation, to the utmost of his power.
He should forgive his enemies; restore all that he
had usurped- : lastly, give back to his country the
liberty of which he had despoiled it. Lorenzo de' Me¬
dici would not consent to such a reparation ; he accord¬
ingly did not obtain the absolution on which he set a
high price, and died, still possessing the sovereignty be
had usurped, on the 8th of April, 1492, in his forty-
fourth year.
CHAP. XIII.
INVASION OP ITALY BY CHARLES VIII. —YIETBO SON OP LORENZO
DE* UEDICI DRIVEN FROM Pl.OHES'CF. — REVOLT AND WAS OP
PISA. THE POMTICAL AND RELIGIOUS REFORM OP SAVONAROLA
AT PLORENCE HIS DEATH.
The period was at length arrived, when Italy which
had restored intellectual light to Europe, reconciled
civil order with liberty, recalled youth to the study of
laws and of philosophy, created the taste for poetry
und the flne arts, revived the science and literature
T 4
2S0 UmOKY vP THE ITAIJAN HKTVBUcS. 149^
of antiquity, given prosperity to commerce, manufac.
tores, and agriculture, — was destined to become the
prey of those very barbarians whom she was leading
to civilisation. Her independence must necessarily
perish with her liberty, which was hitherto the
source of her grandeur and power. In a country
covered with republics three centuries before, there re¬
mained but four at the death of Lorenzo de' Medici ;
and in those, although the word ** liberty" was still
inscribed on dieir banners, that principle of life had dia.
appeared from their institutions. Florence, already go¬
verned for three generations by the family of the Medio,
corrupted by their licentiousness, and rendered venal by
their wealth, had been taught by them to fear and to
nl)ey. Venice with its jealous aristocracy. Sienna and
Lucca each governed by a single caste of citizens, if
still republics, had no longer popular governments or
republican energy. Neither in those four cities, nor in
Genoa, which had surrendered its liberty to the Sforzas,
nor in Bologna, which yielded to the Bentixoglios, nor
in any of the monarchiñl states, was there to be fouml
throughout Italy that power of a people whose every
individual will tends to the public weal, whose efforts are
all combined for the public benefit and the common
safety. The princes of that country could appeal only
to order and the obedience of the subject, not to the
enthusiasm of the citizen, for the protection of ItaUan
independence and of their own.
Immense wealth, coveted by the rest of Europe, was,
it is true, always accumulating in absolute monarchies,
as well as in republics; but if, on the one hand, it
furnished the pay of powerful armies, on the other, it
augmented the danger of Italy, by exciting the cupidity
of its neighbours. The number of national soldiers was
very considerable ; their profession was that which le«l
the most rapidly to distinction and fortune. Engaged
only for the duration of hostilities, and at liberty to
retire every month ; instead of spending their lives in
tlic indolence of garrisons or abandoning the freeiloni
1402. OBnmAL MILBNBM IN ITALIAN WABFABE. 281
of tiieir will, thejr poned impidly fnnn one Mrrioe to
•Bother, oeeldng only war, and never becoming enerv¬
ated by idleneu. The horsea and wmour of the Italian
men at arms were reckoned niperior to Uioae of the traaa-
alpine nations against which they had measured them-
selvea in France, during "the war mT the public weaL" The
Italian captains had made war a adence, every branch
of which diey diorou|^y knew. It was never suspected
for a moment that the soldier should be wanting in
courage ; but the general mildness of manners, and the
progress of dvilisation, had accustomed the Italians to
make war with sentiments of honour and humanity
towards the vanquidied. Ever ready to give quarter,
they did not strike a fallen enemy. Often, after having
taken from him his horse and armour, Aey set him
free ; at least, they never demanded a ransom so enor¬
mous as to ruin him. Horsemen who went to battle
clad in steal, were rarely killed or wounded, so long as
they kept their saddles. Once unhorsed, they surren¬
dered. The battle, therefore, never became murderous.
The courage of &e Italian soldiers, which had accom¬
modated itself to this milder warfare, suddenly gave way
before the new dangers and ferocity of barbarian enemies.
They became terror-struck when they perceived that
the French caused dismounted horsemen to be put to
death by their valets, or made prisoners only to extort
from them, under the name of ransom, all they pos¬
sessed. The Italian cavalry, equal in courage, and
superior in military science, to the French, was for some
time unable to make head against an enemy whose
ferodty disturbed their imaginations.
While Italy had lost a part of the advantages which,
in the preceding century, had constituted her security,
the transalpine nations had suddenly acquired a power
which destroyed the ancient equilibrium. Up to the
dose of the fifteenth century, wars were mudi fewer
between nation and nation than between French, Germans^
or Spaniards among themsdves. Even the war between
the English and the Frendi, which desolated France for
282 nstobt or the rrauaif HarimuoiL 1492.
more Úum • century, tipnmg not from enmity between
two lÍTal netioDf, bot from the dreomttancc that the
IdngB of Engend were Freodi princes, bereditàry soto*
Ttí^s of Normandy, Pmtoii« and Goienne. Charlea VIL
at last forced the English back beyond sea, and re.
united to the monarchy proTioees which hsd been
detached from it for centuries. Loois XI. ranquiahed
the dukes and peers of France who had disputed hia
authority ; he homUed the house of Burgundy, which
had be^n to have interests foreign to France. His
young successor and son, Charles VIII., on coming of
age, found himself the roaster of a vast kingdom in a
state of complete obedience, a brilliant army, and large
revenues; but was weak enough to think that there
was no glory to be obtained unless in distant and cluTal-
rous «xpeditions. The diffih-ent monarchies of Spain,
which bad .long been rivals, were united by the mar¬
riage of Ferdinand of Aragon hith Isabella of Coatile,
and by the conquest which they jointly made of the
Moorish kingdom of Granada. Spain, forming fm* the
first time one great power began to exercise an in¬
fluence which she had never ^ then claimed. The
emperor Maximilian, after having united the Low Coun¬
tries and the county of Burgundy, his wife's inheritance,
to the statesof Austria, which he inherited from hia father,
asserted his right to exerdse over the whole of Germany
the imperial authority which had eacaped from the hands
of his predecessors. Lastly, the Swiss, rendered illustrious
by their victories over Charles the Bold, had begun, but
since his death only, to make a traffic of their lives, and
enter the service of foreign nations. At the same lime,
the empire of the Turks extended along the whole shore
of the Adriatic, and menaced at once Venice and the
kingdom of Naples. Italy was surrounded on all sides
by powers which had suddenly become gigantic, and of
which not one had, half a century before, given her
uneasiness.
Franpe was the first to carry abroad an áctírity un-
empbyed at home, and to maàe Italy fad the change
1494. CHAULV8 nil. llfVADES ITALY. 285
whidi had taken piUoe in die politics of Europe. Its
Idng, Charles VIII., daimed die inheritanoe of all the
rights of the second house of Anjou on the kingdom of
Nafdea. Those rights, founded on the adoption of Louis I.
of Anjou by Joan I., had new been acknowledged by the
people, or confirmed by possessioB. For the space of a
hundred and ten years, Lonis I., II., and III., and René,
the brother of the last, made frequent but unsuccesafid
attempts, to mount the throne of Naples. The brother
and the daughter of René, Charles bf Maine and Mar¬
garet of Anjou, at last either ceded or sold those rights
to Louis XI. His son, Charles VIII., as soon as he was
of age, determined on asserting them. Eager for glory,
in proportion as his weak frame, and still weaker intel¬
lect, incapacitated him for acquiring it, he, at the age
of twenty-four, resolved on treading in the footsteps of
Charlemagne and his paladins ; and undertook the con¬
quest of N^)les as the first exploit that was to lead to
the conquest of Constantinople and the deliverance of
the holy sepulchre.
Charles VIII. entered Italy in the month of August,
1494, with S600 men at arms or heavy cavalry;
20,000 infantry, Gascons, Bretons, and French ; 8000
Swiss, and a formidable train of artillery. This las*,
arm had received in France, during the wars of
Charles VIL, a degree of pferfection yet unknown to the
rest of Europe. The states of Upper Italy were favour¬
able to the expedition of the French. The duchess of
Savoy and the marchioness of Montferrat, regents for
their sons, who were under age, opened the passages of
the Alps to Charles VIII. Ludovic the Moor, r^nt of
the duchy of Milan, recently alarmed at the demand
made on him by the king of Naples, to give up the
regency to his nephew Gian Galeaeso, then of full age,
and married to a Neapolitan princess, had himself called
the French into Italy ; and, to facilitate their conquest
of the kingdom of Naples, opened to them all the for¬
tresses of Genoa which were d^endent on him. The
republic of Venice intended to remain neutral, reposing
S84 BiBTOBT OF Tiu: ITÀX.IÀM uawuwutM. 1404.
in its own strengdi, and made the duke of Ferrara and
the marqnia of Mantua, ita neighboora, adopt die Mme
poliej; bat aouthern Italy formed ibr ita defence a
league, eomjnriiending the Tnacan república, the atatea
of the church, and the Idngdom of Naples.
At Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici left three aoBs; of
trhom Pietro II., at the age of twenty-one was named
diief of the republic. His grandfather, Ketro I.,
son of Cosmo, oppressed with infirmities and prema¬
ture old age, had shown little talent, and no capacity
for the goTemment of a state. Pietro II., on the con¬
trary, was remarkable for his bodily vigour and addreu ;
but he thought only of shining at feativalB, tilts, and
tournaments. It was said that he had given proofs of
talent in his literary studies, that he spoke with grace
and dignity ; but in his public career he proved
himself arrogant, presumptuous, and passionate. He
determined on governing die Florentines as a master,
without disguinng the yoke which he imposed on them :
not deigning to trouble himself with busineM, he trans¬
mitted his orders by his secretary, or some one of his
household, to the magistrates. Pietro de' Medici re¬
mained faithful to the treaty which his father had made
with Ferdinand king of Naples, and engaged to refuse
the Frmich a free passage, if they attempted to enter
southern Italy by Tuscany. The republics of Sienna and
Lucca, too feeble to ad(^ an independent policy, pro¬
mised to follow die impulse given by Medici. In the states
of the church, Roderic Bor ¿a had succeeded to Innocent
VIII., on the 11th of Augost, 1492, under the name of
Alexander,VI. He was the richest of the cardinals, and
at the same time the most depraved in morals, and the
most perfidious as a politician. The marriage of one of
his sons (for he had several) with a natural daughter of
Alphonse son of Ferdinand, had put the seal to his alli¬
ance with the reigning house of Naples. That house
then appeared at the summit of prosperity. Ferdinand,
though seventy years of age, was still vigarous : he was
pch ; he had triumphed over aU hit enemies ; he pawed
1494. METRO DR* MEDICI MEETg TBE RMEKOM. 285
for the most able politidan in Italj. Hit two sona,
Alphonao and Frederick, and his grandson, Ferdinand,
were reputed akilfdl warriors : they had an army
and a numeroua fleet under their orders. However,
Ferdinand dreaded a war with France, and he had
Just opened negotiations to avoid it when he died
suddenly, on the 25th of January, 1494. His son,
Alphonso II., succeeded him ; while Frederick took the
command of the fleet, and the young Ferdinand that of
the army, destined to defend Romagna against the
French.
It was by Pontremoli and the Lunigiana that
Charles VIII., according to the advice of Ludovic the
Moor, resolved to conduct his army into Southern Italy.
This road, traversing the Apennines from Auma to
PontremoU, over poor pasture lands, and descending
through olive groves to the sea, the shore of which it
follows at the foot of the mountains, was not without
danger. The country produces little grain of any Idnd.
Corn was brought from abroad, at a great expense, in ex¬
change for oil. The narrow space between the sea and
die mountains was defended by a chain of fortresses,
which might long stop the army on a coast where it
would have experienced at the same time famine and
the pestilential fever of Pietra-Santa. Pietro de' Medici,
upon learning that the French were arrived at Sarxana,
and perceiving the fermentation which the news of their
approach excited at Florence, resolved to imitate that act
of his father which he had heard the most praised •>~hir
visit to Ferdinand at Naples. He departed to meet
Charles VIII. On his road he traversed a field of
battle, where 300 Florentine soldiers had been cut to
pieces by the French, who had refused to give quarter to
a single one. Seised with terror, on being introduced to
Charles, he, on the first summons, caused the fortresses
of Sarzana and Sarzanello to be immediately surrendered.
He afterwards gave up tliose of Librafiratta, Pisa, and
L^hom i consenting that Charles should garrison and
keep them until his return from Italy, or until peace was
286 BttlOBT or TBE ITAUAK BMPVWblCI. 1404.
signod ; and thus ettabliaihing the kiiig of Fnnee ia
the iMart of Tuscany. It was eoafera(y){to the wish
of the Florentines that Medici had canpi¿HÍ in hoo'
tilities against the Frendi, for whom they entertained
an hereditary attachment ; but the candnet of the diirf
of the state, who, after having drawn them into a war,
ddivared their fortresses, without authority, into the
hands of the enemy whom he had proTokcd, appcamd as
dú^aceful as it was criminal.
jñetro de' Medici, after this act of weakness, quitted
Charles, to return in haste to Florence, where he arrived
on the 8th of Novmnber, 1494. On his preparing, the
next day, to visit the signoria, he found guards at the
door of the palace, who refused him admittance. Asto¬
nished at this opposition, he returned home, to put him¬
self under the protection of his brother-in-law, Paolo
Orsini, a Roman noble, whom he had taken, with a
troop of cavalry, into the pay of the repuMlc. Suppmted
by Orsini, the three brothers Medici raf^y traversed the
streets, repeating the war cry of their fimdly,—" Palle!
PaUe ¡"—-without ex citing a single movement of the po¬
pulace, upon whom they reckoned, m their fhvour. The
frimids of liberty, the Piagnmii, on the other hand, ex.
cited by the exhortations of Savonarola, aesemUed, and
took arms. Their number continually increased. The
Meihci, terrified, left the city by the gate of San GaDo ;
traversed the Apennines ; retired firat to Bologna, then to
Venice ; and thus lost, without a straggle, a sovereignty
which Áeir family had already mrweiaed sixty years.
The same day, the 19th of November, 1494, on
which the Medici were driven out Florame, the Flo«
rentines were driven out of Pisa. This latter dty, whidi
had been eighty-seven years under the dominion of her
andent rival, could not habituate herself to a state of sub¬
jection. Pisa bad successively lost all that gave her proa-
pcdtyor made her illustrioua. She no longer had ahipping;,
CQnpnèrce, or wealth ; the population diminished ; agii*
culture was n^lected throughout the Pisan terdtory ;
stagnant wata: began to in%t the air; every profcsdon
I4QÍ. INSl'RRECTIONK IM FLiOltK.vCE ARO MISA. %B7
«íhicb led to dutinction waa abat.doned. There were
no men of acience or lettera, no artista ; there remained
onijr aoldiera ; but with them, courage and the military
spirit survived at Pisa in all their ancient splendour.
Every noble served in the companies of adventure ; every
citizen anil peasant exercised himself in arms, and on
every occasion evinced a bravery which was beginning
to be rare in Italy, and which commindeil the respect
of the French. Charles VIII., on receiving from Pietro
de' Medici the fortresses of Librafratta, Pisa, and Leghorn,
in the Pisan states, engaged to preserve to the Florentines
the countries within the range of these fortresses, and to
restore them at the conclusion of the war. But Charles
had very confused notions of the rights of a country
into which he carried war, and was by no means scru¬
pulous as to keeping his word. When a deputation of
Pisans represented to him the tyranny under which
they groaned, and soliciteil from him the liberty of their
country ; he granted their request without hesitation,
without even suspecting that he disposeil of what was
not his, or that he broke his word to the Florentine»:
he equally forgot every other engagement with üiem.
Upon entering Florence, on the 17th of November, at
the head of his army, he regarded himself as a con¬
queror, and therefore as dispensed from every promise
which he had made to Pietro de' Medici, — he hesitateu
only between restoring his conquest to Pietro, or retain¬
ing it himself. The magistrates in vain represented to
him that he was tlie guest of the nation, and not its
master : that the gates had been opened to him as a
mark of respect, not from any fear; that the Floren,
tines were far from feeling themselv» conquered, whilst
the palaces of Florence were occupied not only by the
citizens but by the soldiers of the republic. Charles
still insisted on disgraceful conditions, which his secre¬
tary read as his ultimatum. Pietro Capponi suddenly
snatched the paper from the secretary's hand, and tearing
it, exclaimed, "Well, if it be thus, sound your trumpets,
and we will ring our bells ! " This energetic movemtur
fSS IIISTORY OP THE ITAUAJT RBrüBUOt. 1495.
lUunted the French : Charles declareii hiniself *i«ninn
with the scbsidy offered by the repuUic, and engage«!
on his part to restore as soon as he had accooipUabdi
the conquest of Naples, or signed peace, or even eon.
eented to a long truce, all the fortresses which had bftn
delivered to him by MedicL Charles after this am-
vention departed from Florence, by the mad to Sienna,
on the 28th of November. The Neapoliun army
evacuated Komagna, the patrimony of St. Peter, and
Rome, in succession, as he advanced. He entered
Rome on the 31st of December, without fighting a
blow. The first resistance which he encountered
was on the frontiers of the kingdom of Naples ; and
having there taken by assault two small towns, he mat-
sacred the inhabitants. This instance of ferocity struck
Alphonso II. with such terror, that he abdicated the
crown in favour of his son, Ferdinand II., and retired
with his treasure into Sicily. Ferdinand occupied
Capua with his whole army, intending to defend
the passage of the Vulturno. He left that dty to
appease a sedition which had broken out at Naples;
Capua, during his absence, was given up throuj^ fear
to tne French, and he was himself forced, on t^ 21st
of F ebruary, to embark for Ischia. All the barons, his
vassals, all the provincial cities, sent depuutions to
Charles; and the whole kingdom of Naples was conquered
without a single battle in its defence. The powers of
the north of Italy regarded these important conquests
with a jealous eye : they, moreover, were already dis.
gusted by the insolence of the French, who had b^un to
conduct themselves as masters throughout tlie whole
peninsula. The duke of Orleans, who had been left
by Cbarles at Asti, already declared his pretensions to
the duchy of Milan, as heir to his grandmother, Valen¬
tina Visconti. Ludovico Sforaa, upon this, contracted
nlliances with the Venetians, the pope, the king of Spain,
and the emperor Maximilian, for maintaining tlie inde.
pendence of Italy ; and the dnke of Milan and the Vene*
14^.
BATTLE or VOBirorO.
S89
titn« asiembled near Parma a powOTfid armj, under
the command of the marquia of Mantua.
Charlea VIII. had paaaed three montha at Naples in
feasta and toumamenta, while hia lieutenanta wo'e aub»
duing and diaorganiaing the prorincea. The newa of
what waa paaaing in northern Italy determined him on
returning to France with the half of hia amy. He de¬
parted from Naplea, on the 20th of May, 149^» and
paaaed peaceably through Rome, whilst the pope shut
himself up in the castle of St. Angelo. From Sienna
he went to Pisa, and thence to Pontremoli, where he
entered the Apennines. Gonxaga, marquia of Mantua,
awaited him at Fomovo, on the other aide of that chain
of mountains. Charles passed the Taro, with the hope
of avoiding him ; but waa attacked on its borders by the
Italians, on the 6th of July. He waa at the time in fuU
march ; the divisions of hia army were scattered, and at
some distance from each other. For some time hia
danger waa imminent; but the impetuosity of the Frendi,
and the obstinate valour of the Swiss, repaired the
fault of their generaL A great number of the Italian
men at ama were thrown in the charges of the French
cavalry, many others were brought down by the Swiss
halberta, and all were instantly put to death by the
servants of the amy. Gonaaga left S500 dead on the
field, and Charles continued Iiis retreat. On hia arrival
at Aati, he entered into treaty with Ludovico Sforza,
for the deliverance of the duke of Orieana, whom Sforza
besieged at Novara. He disbanded 20,000 Swia^
who were brought to him irom the mountains, but to
whose hands he would not venUire to confide himself.
On the £2d of October, 1495» he repassed the Alps^
after having ravaged all Italy with the violence and
rapidity of a hurricane. He had left his relatiTe, Gil¬
bert de Montpenaier, viceroy at N^tles, with the half of
his amy ; but the people, alre«iy wearied with his yoke^
recalled Ferdinand II. The French, after amny battles^
BttOOBSslTely bat their conqueats, and were at length
forced to capitubte at Atella, on the 2Sd of July, 149&
V
290 HISTOBT (KT THB ITAUAH REPtTBLlCS. 1496.
The inrasion of the French not only ipt—d terror
from one extremity of Italy to the other, hot ehanfped
the whole pdiey of that country, by rendering it de¬
pendent lipon t^ of the transa]|ñne nation*. While
Charle* Vlll. pretended to be the legitimate heir of the
Idngdom of Naplea, the duke of Orleana, who aneceedod
him under the name of Louis called himsdf heir
to the duchy of Milan. Maximilian, ambitious as he
was inconsistent, claimed in the states of Italy preroga¬
tives to which no emperor had pretended since the death
of Frederick II. in 1250. The Swiss had leamt, at dK
same time, that at the foot of their mountains there lay
xich and feeble cities which they ni%ht pillage, and a
delicious climate, which o&red all die enjoyments of
life ; they saw neighbouring monarcha ready to pay
them for exercising there their brigandage. Finally,
Ferdinand and Isabdla, monarchs of Aragon and Caa-
.tik, announced their intention of defending the bastard
.Iwanch of the house of Aragon, which reigned at Naples.
But, already masters of Sicily, they purposed passing the
strait and were secretly in treaty with Charles Vlll.,
to divide with him the spoils of the relative whom they
pretended to defend. Amidst these different pretensions
and intrigues, in which Italian interests had no longer
any share, the spirit of liberty revived in Tuscany once
more, but only to exhaust itself in a new strug^e be¬
tween the Florentines and Pisans. The French garri¬
sons which Charles had left in Pisa and Librafratta,
instead of delivering them to the Florentines, according
to his order, had given them up to the Pisans thenu
selves on the 1st of January, 1496. The allies, who
had fou^t Charles at Fomovo, reproached the Floren«-
tines with their attachment to that monarch, and took
part against them with the Pisans. Ludovioo Sfona,
and the Venetians, sent reinforcements to the latter, and
the emperor Maximilian himself brought them aid.
Thus, the only Italians who had at hoart the honour
and independence of Italy, exhausted themselves in
unequal struggles and in fruitless attempts.
X4I95. thb qrbat COVVCO- at F<X)RBNtni.
At the moment when Florence expelled the Medid,
dut xepublic wm bandied between Âree difièrent par¬
ties. The first was that of the enthusiasts, directed bj
Oirolarao Savonarola; who promiaed the miraculous pro¬
tection of the Divinity for Uie reform of the church and
die establishment of Uberty. These demanded a demo¬
cratic constitution, •—they were called the Piaçnoni.
The second consisted of men who had shared power
with the Medici, but who had separated from them ;
who wished to possess alone the powers and profita of
government, and who endeavoured to amuse the people
by dissipations and pleasures, in order to establish at
t^r ease an aristocracy, — these were called the Arab-
biati. The third party was composed of men who
remained faithful to the Medici, but not daring to de¬
clare themselves, lived in retirement,—they were called
Bigi. These three parties were so equally balanced in the
balia named by the parliament, on the 2d of December,
1494, that it soon became impossible to carry on the
government. Girolamo Savonarola took advantage of this
state of afikirs to urge that the people had never dele¬
gated their power to a balia which did not abuse the
trust. " The people," he said, " would do much better
to reserve this power to themselves, and exercise it by a
oonncil, into which all the citizens should be admittñi."
His proposition was agreed to: more than 1800 Flo-
lentines furnished proof that either they, their fathers, or
■their grandfathers, had sat in the magistracy; they were
consequently acknowledged citizens, and admitted to
sit in the genoral council. This council was declared
sovereign, on the 1st of July, 1495 ; it was invested
with the election of magistrates, hitherto chosen by
lot, and a general amnesty was proclaimed, to bury in
obhvion all the ancient dissensions of the Florentine
•■public.
So important a modification of the constitution seemed
to promise this republic a happier futurity. The friar
Savonarola, who had exercised such influence in the
coimoil, evincad at the same time an ardent love of
o 2
292 HWTOBT OF THO ITAUAIV BEPVMME. 140^
mankind, deep reqiect fer the r^ia of all, great anai«
hility, and an elerated mind. Tboog^ a aeakaia xa»
former of the church, and in thia rcqpect a precuraor of
Luther, who waa deatined to b^n hia miaaion twenty
yeara later, he did not quit the pale of oithodasy ; he
did not assume the ri^t of examming doctrüie; bo
limited his efforts to the restoration of dfaMapUne, the
reformation of the morals of the deigy, and the reeaB
of priests, as well as other dtiaena, to thepraetkeof the
goqtcl precqita: hot his aealwaa mixed with enthusiasm;
he beliered himself under the immediate in^nration of
Providence ; he took his own impulaea for prophetic
revelations, by which he directed the politics of his dia-
dples, the Fiagnoni. He had predicted to the Floren¬
tines the coming of the French into Italy ; he had
represented to them Charles VIIJ. as an instrument
by which the Divinity designed to chastise the crimes of
the nation ; he had counadled tiiem to remain faith¬
ful to their alliance with that king, the inatramant of
Providence, even though his conduct, especially iu
reference to the affairs of Pisa, had been highly cuIpaUei
This alliance however ranged the Florentinea among
the enemies of pope Alexander VL, one ot the foundera
of the league which had driven the French out of Italy ;
he accused them of being traitors to the- church and tm
their country for their attachment to a fordgn prinsa.
Alexander, e^uUy offended by the prqjecta of reform
and by the politics of Savonarda, denounced him to the
church as a heretic, and interdicted hum from preaching.
The monk at first obeyed; and procured the appointf
ment of his friend and diacre the Dominican friar,
Buonvicino of Pescia, as his successor in the church
of 8l Mark ; but on Chriatmaa-duy, 1497, he declared
from the pulpit that God had revealed to him, that he
ought not to aubmit to a corrupt tribunal; he then
opmly took the sacrament witii the monks of St. Ifarfc,
and afterwards continued to preach. In ihe coarse of
his BomoDs, he more than once held up to wprahaticm
the scandalous conduct of the pope, whom the pnkiie
t498. ORDEAL PRBPABBD FOB lATOlfABOLA. 293
voiee accused of everj Tice and every crime to be ex¬
pected in a libertine so depraved,— a man so ambitious,
parfldious, and cruel, a monarch and a priest intoxi¬
cated with absolute power.
' In the mean time, the rivalry encouraged by the court
of Rome between the religious orders soon procured the
pope champions eager to combat Savonarola : he was
á Dominican, — the general of the Augustines ; that
Older whence Martin Luther was soon to issue. Friar
Mariano di Ghinazzano signalised himself by his zeal in
opposing Savonarola. He presented to the pope, friar
Rancis of Apulia, of the oñder of minor observan tines,
who was sent to Florence to preach against the Floren¬
line monk, in the church of Santa Croce. This preacher
declared to his audience that he knew Savonarola pre¬
tended to support his doctrine by a miracle. " For
me," said he, "I am a sinner; I have not the pre¬
sumption to perform miracles, nevertheless, let a fire
be Hgbted, and I am ready to enter it with him. I am
certain of perishing, but Christian charity teaches me
not to withhold my life, if, in sacrificing it, I might
precipitate into hell a heresiarch, who has already drawn
into it so many souls."
This strange proposition was rejected by Savonarola ;
but his friend and disciple, friar Dominic Buonvidnp^
eagerly accepted it. Francis of Apulia declared that he
imuld risk Ids life against Savonarola only. Meanwhile,
a orowd of monks, of the Dominican and Franciscan
orders, rivalled each other in their ofièrs to prove by the
ordeal of file, on one side the truth, on die other the false¬
hood, of the new doctrine. Enthusiasm spread beyond
the two convents ; many priests and seculars, and even
women and children, more especially on the side of
Savonarola, eamesdy requested to be admitted to the
proof. The pope warmly testified his gratitude to the
Franciscans for their devotion. The signoria of Flo¬
rence consented that two monks only should devote
Aemselycs for their respective orders, and directed the
fále to be prepared. The whole pt^uladon of the town
V S
HisTMtY or VBB nAi<iAK BsrvBLiGB. 1496:
ondi country, to which o tignal miracle was promiMd,'
received the announcement with tranaporta of joy. On
4lBl7th of April, 1498, a acaffold, dreadAd to look od,
was erected in the public aquare of Floronce : two pilea of
huge pieces of wood, mixed with faggots and broom, which
should quicUy take fire, extended eadi eighty feet long,
four feet thick, and five feet high ; they were separated
by a narrow space of two fee^ to serve as a passage by
which the two priests were to enter, and pass the wbofe
length of the piles during the fire. Every window was
Aill ; every roof was covered with spectators ; almost
the whole population of the republic was collected round
the place. The portico called the Loggia de' Lanzi,
divided in two by a partition, was assigned to the two
orders of monks. The Dominicans arrived at their
station chanting canticles, and beating the ludy sacra¬
ment. The Franciscans immediatdy declared that
they would not permit the host to be carried amidst
flames. They insisted that the friar Bnonvicino should
enter the fire, as their own champion was prepared to
do, without this divine safeguard. The Dominicans an¬
swered, that they would not separate themsdves from
their God at the moment when they implorad his aid."
The dispute .upon this pmnt grew warm. Several hours
passed away. The multitude, which had waited long,
and begun to fed hunger and thirst, lost patience;
a dduge of rain suddenly fell upon die dty, and do>
scended in torrents from die roofs of the houses,—afl
present were drenched. The piles were so wet thai
they could no longer be lighted ; and the crowd, disap¬
pointed of a mirade so impatimidy looked for, separated,
with the notion of having been unworthily trifled with.
Savonarola lost all his credit ; he was henceforth rather
looked on as an impostor. Next day his convent was
besieged by the Arabbiati, eager to profit by the incon¬
stancy of the multitude ; he was arrestad with hia two
friends, Domenico Buonvidno, and BUvcstfo Marrufll,
and led to prison. The Piagnoni, his partisans, were
exposed to every outrage from the popalaae, — two of
1498. gVPPUCB OF 8AVONABOLA. 299
them were killed ; their rival« And old enemies ex^
<dting the general ferment for their destruction. Even
in the signoria, the nuyority was against them ; and
yielded to the pressing demands of the pope. The
three imprisoned monks were sulgected to a criminal
prosecution. Alexander VI. despatched judges from
Borne, with orders to condemn the accused to death.
Conformably with the laws of the church, the trial
opened with the torture. Savonarola was too weak,
and nervous to support it : he avowed in his agony all
that was imputed to him ; and, with his two disdples,
was condemned to death. The three monks were burnt
alive, on the 23d of May, 1498, in the same square
^here, six weeks before, a pile had heen raised to pre¬
pare them a triumph.
CHAP. XIV.
THE FSEHCH MASTERS OF MILAN AND OENOA, AND THE SFANIARDS
OF NAPLES. —THE GONFALONIER SODERINI AT FLORENCE.
UAGDE or CAMBRAI AGAINST VENICE. THE MEDICI R>--
ESTABLISHED AT FLORENCE.
The expedition of Charles VIII. ag^nst Naples had
directed towards Italy the attention of all the western
powers. The transalpine nations had learnt that they
were strong enough to act as masters, and if they pleased
as robbers, in this the richest and most civilised country
of tiie earth. All the powers on the confines hencefbrtit
aspired to suhject some part of Italy to their domi¬
nion. They coveted their share of tribute from a land
80 fruitful of impost, from those cities in which indus¬
try employed such numbers, and accumulated so much,
capital. Cupidity put arms in their hands, and smo¬
thered every generous feeling. The commanders were
V 4
S96 HI8T0K7 OF *HB tTAtlAIT BEPÜBMCS. 149^*
rapacious ; the soldiers thought only of pillage. Thoy
regarded the Italians as a race abandoned to their ex¬
tortions^ and vied with each other in the barbarous'
methods which they invented for extorting money from
the vanquished; until at last they completely destroyed^
the prosperity which had provoked their envy.
Charles VIII. died at Amboise; on the 7th of April;
1498; the day destined at Florence for the trial by fire
of the doctrine of Savonarola. Louis XII.; who suc¬
ceeded that monarch; claimed; as grandson of Valentina
Visconti; to be the legitimate heir to the duchy of Milan,
although; acéording to the law acknowledged by all Italy,
änd confirmed by the imperial investiture granted to the
father of Valentina, females were excluded from dl share
in the succession. This monarcl^ at his coronation, took*
with the title of king of France Áose of duke of ' Milan
and king of Naples and Jerusalem. It was to the
duchy of Milan that he seemed particularly attached,
apparently as having been the object of his ambition
before he came to the throne. He preserved during
his whole reign, as if he were simply duke of Milan, a
feudal respect for the emperor as lord paramount, which
was as fatal to France as to Italy.
After having thus announced to the world his pre¬
tensions to the duchy of Milan, Louis hastened to seciñre
his possession of it by arms. He easily separated his
antagonist, Ludovico Sforaa, from all his allies. The
emperor Maximilian had married the niece of Ludovico,
to whom he had granted the investiture of his duchy ;
but Maximilian foigot, with extreme levity, his pro¬
mises and alliances. A new ambition, a supposed
offence, even a whim, sufficed to make him abandon his
most matured projects. The Swiss had just then ex-
dted his resentment ; and to attack them the more effec¬
tually, he signed witii Louis XII. a truce, in which
Ludovico Sforza was not included, and was therefore
abandoned to his enemy. The Venetians were interested
still more than the emperor in defending Ludovico, but
were incensed agunst him ; t^ey accused him of having
1499* VAR OF VENICE AGAINST THE TURKS. 297
deceived them, as well in the war a^nst Charles VIII.
as in that for the defence of Pisa. They suspected him
of ha^ng suggested to Maximilian the claims which he
had just made on all their conquests in Lombardy, as
having previously appertained to the empire. They
were obliged, moreover, to reserve all their resources
to resist the most formidable of their enemies. Baja-
aet II. had just declared war against them. Bands of
robbers continually descended from the mountains of
Turkish Albania to lay waste Venetian Dalmatia. The
Turkish pachas offered their support to every traitor
who attempted to take from the Venetians any of their
stations in the Levant. Corfu very nearly fell into the
hands of the Turks : at length hostilities openly began.
The Turks attacked Zara ; all the Venetian merchante
established at Constantinople were put into irons, and
Scander Bashaw, sangiak of Bosnia, passed tbe Isonzo on
the 29th of September, 1499i with 7000 Turkish ca¬
valry. He ravaged all the rich country which extends
from that river to the Tagliamento, at the extremity of
the Adriatic, and spread terror up to the lagune which
surround Venice. Invaded by an enemy so formidable,
against whom they were destined to support, for seven
years, a relentless war, the Venetians would not expose
themselves to the danger of maintaining another war
gainst the French. On the 15th of April, 1499j
signed, at Blois, with Louis, a treaty, by which they
contracted an alliance against Ludovico Sforza, and
abandoned the conquest of the Milanese to the king of
France, reserving to themselves Cremona and the Ghiara
d'Adda.
Ludovico Sforzo found no allies in any other part of
Italy. Since the execution of Savonarola at Florence,
the faction of the Arabbiati had succeeded that of the
Piagnoni in the administration, without changing its
pdicy. The republic continued to guard against the
intrigues of the Medici, who entered into an alliance
with every enemy of their country, in order to bring it
back under their yoke. Florence continued her eflfortî^
29B' HISTORY OF TBK ITALIAN BEPOBIiICR 1499-
to subdue Pisa; but, fearing, to excite the jealoiugr
tl^e kings of France and Spain, did not assemble for
that purpose either a numerous army or a great train of
artillery. She contented herself with ravaging the Pisan
territory every year, in order to reduce that city by
famine. Even these expeditions were suspended when
those powerful monarchs found it convenient to make
a show of peace. The cities of Sienna, Lucca, and
Genoa, actuated by their jealousy of Florence, sent
succour to Pisa. Pope Alexander VI., who had been
always the enemy of Charles VIII., now entered into
an lüliance with Louis XII.; but on condition that
Cwsar Borgia, son of Alexander, should be made duke
of Valentinois in France and of Bnmagna in Italy,—
the French king assisting him against the petty princes,
feudatories of the holy see, who were masters of that
province. The Idng of Naples, Frederick, who had
succeeded his nephew Ferdinand on the 7th of S^
tember, 1496, was well aware that he should, in hin
turn, be attacked by France ; but «Ithoug^ he merited,
by his talents and virtues, the confidence of his subjects;,
he had great difficulty in r^estaldishing some order in
his kingdom, which was ruined by war, and had neither
an army nor an exchequer to succour his natural ally,
the duke of Milan.
A powerful French army, commanded by the sires De
Ligny and D'Aubigny, passed the Alps in the mtmth
of August, 1499« On the ISth of that month th^
attacked and took by assault the two petty fortresses
of Arazzo and Annone, on the borders of Âe Tañare
putting the garrisons, and almost all the inhabitants,
to the sword. This ferocious proceeding spread terror
among the troops of Ludovico Sforsa. His army, the
command of which he had given to Galeazzo San Seve¬
rine, dispersed ; and the duke, not v»ituring to remain at
Milan, sought for himself, his children, and his treasure,
refuge in Germany, with the emperor Maximilian-.
Loi^XII., who arrived afterwards in Italy, made hia
entiy into tiie fmsaken- capital of Ludovico on the 2d of
1499' MILAN- OONQVEBED BY THE FBENCH. 299
October. The trembling people, wishing to conciliate
thâr new master, saluted him with the title of duke of
Milan, and »pressed their joy in receiving him as theiit
sovereign. The rest of Loml^rdy -also submitted with¬
out resistance; and Genoa, which had placed itself
under the protection of the duke of MUan, passed over
to that of the king of France. Louis returned to Lyons
before the end of the year : the fugitive hopes which
he had excited already gave way to hatred. The in¬
solente of the French,—-their violation of all natioiial
institutions, their contempt of Italian manners,—the
accumulation of taxes, and the irregularities in the
administration, rendered their yoke insupportable. Lu-
dovico Sforza was informed of the general ferment, and
of the desire of his subjects for his return. He was
on the Swiss frontier, -with a considerable treasure : a
brave but disorderly crowd of yoimg men, ready to
serve any one for pay, joined him. In a few days
500 cavalry and 8000 infantry assembled under his
banner ; and, in the month of February, 1500, he
entered Lombardy at their head. Como, Milan, Parma,
and Pavia immediately opened their gates to him : he
next besieged Novara, which capitulated. Louis, mean¬
while, displayed the greatest activity in suppressing the
rebellion : his general, Louis de la Tremouille, arrived
before Novara, in the beginning of April, -with an mmy
in which were reckoned 10,000 Swiss. The men
that nation in the two hostile camps, opposed to each
other for hire, hesitated, parleyed, and finally took a re¬
solution more fatal to their honour than a battle between
fellow countrymen could have been. Those within
Novara not only consented to withdraw themselves, but
to give up to the French the Italian men at arms with
whom they were incorporated, and who were imme¬
diately put to the sword or drowned in the river.
They permitted La Tremouille to arrest in their ranks
Lodovico Sforza, and the two brothers San Severine,
who attempted to escape in disguise. They received
from the French the wages thus basely won, and
SOO BHTORY OF THE ITALIAN BEFOWJMMk 1501*
afterwards^ rendered reckless by the sense of their
infamy, they in their retreat seized Belinzona, which
they ever after retained. Thus, even the weakest of the
nd^bours of Italy would have their share in her con¬
quest. Ludovico Sforza was conducted into France^
and there condemned to a severe captivity, which, ten
years afterwards, ended with his life. The Milanese
remained subject to the king of France from this period;
to the month of Jime, 1512.
The facility with which Louis had conquered the
dochy of Milan, must have led him to expect that he
should not meet with much more resistance from ^
kingdom of Naples. Frederick also, sensible of diis, de¬
manded peace ; and, to obtain it, offered to hold his
kingdom in fief, as tributary to France. He reckoned,
however, on the support of Ferdinand the Catholic, Im
kinsman and neighbour, who had promised him pow«r-
^ aid, and had given him a pledge of the future by
sending into Sicily his best general, Gonzalvo di Cor¬
dova, with sixty vessels and 8000 chosen infimtry; ' BiB
Ferdinand had previously proposed to Louis a secret un¬
derstanding, to divide between them the spoils of the
nnhsppy Frederick. While the French entered on the
north to conquer the kingdom of Naples, he proposed
that the Spaniards should enter on the south to defend
it ; and that, on meeting, they, instead of giving batti^
should shake hands on the partition of the kingdom,—
each remaining master of one half. This was the tnsis
of the treaty of Grenada, signed on the 11th of Novem¬
ber, 1500. In the summer of 1501, the perfidivus
stmipact was executed by the two greatest monanhs of
Europe.
The French army arrived at Rome on the 25th of
June ; at the same time that the army of Gonzalvo (fi
Cordova landed in Calabria. The former, from the mo¬
ment they passed the frontier, treated the Neapolitans as
rebels, and hanged the soldiers who surrendered to them^
Arrived before Capua, fbey entered that city while the
magistrates were Siglfing the capitulation, and massacred
1502. THE FRENCH AND SPANIARDS IN NAPLES. 301
7000 of the ;inhabitant8. The treachery of Ferdinand
inspired the unhappy Frederick with still more aversion
than the ferocity of the French. Having retired to the
island of Ischia, he surrendered to Louis, and was sent to
France, where he died, in a captivity by no means rigor«
006, three years afterwards. The Spaniards and Fi^ench
advanced towards each other, without encountering any
resistance. They met on the limits which t^ie treaty of
Grenada had respectively assigned to them ; but the mo¬
ment the conquest was terminated, jealousy appeared.
The duke de Nemours and Gonzalvo di Cordova disputed
upon the division of the kingdom : each claimed for his
master some province not named in the treaty. Hostilities
M last began between them on the ipth of June, 1502,
«t Atripalda. Louis, while the negotiation was pending^
ddayed sending reinforcements to his general. After a
struggle, not without ^ory, and in which La Palisse and
Bayard first distinguished themselves, D'Aubigny was
defeated at Seminara on the 2 Ist of April, and Nemours
at Cerignola on the 28th of the same month, 1503.
The French army was entirely destroyed, and the
kingdom of Naples lost to Louis XII. Louis had sent
off, during the same campaign, a more powerful army
than the first, to recover it ; but, on arriving near Some,
news was received of the death of Alexander VI., which
took place on the 18th of August, 1503. The cardinal
d'Amboise, prime minister of Louis, detained the army
there to support his intrigues in the conclave : when it
renewed its march, in the month of October, the rainy
season had commenced. Gonzalvo di Cordova had taken
his position on the Garig^ano, the passage of which he
defended, amidst inundated plains, with a constancy and
patience characteristic of the Spanish infantry. During
more than two months the French sufiTered or perished
in the marshes: a pestilential malady carried off the
flower of the army, and damped the courage and confi¬
dence of the remainder. Gonzalvo, having at last passed
the river hhnself, on the 27th of December, attacked
and completely dátroyed the French army. On the 1st
S02 BISTORT OF THE ITALIAN BEPUBLIOi. 1504.
of Jannary, 1504, Gaëta surraidered to him ; and the
■whole kingdom of Naples was now, like Sidljr, but a
Spanish possession.
Thus the greater part of Italy had already fallen
under the yoke of the nations which the Italians deno¬
minated Imrbarian. The French were masters of the
Milanese and of the whole of Liguria; the Spaniards of the
Two Sicilies ; even the Swiss had made some small omi-
quests along the Lago Mi^giore ; and this was the mo¬
ment in which Louis XII. called the Germans also into
Italy. On the 22d of September <rf the same year in
which he lost Gaëta, his last hcdd in the kingdom of
•Naples, he signed the treaty of Blois, by wMch he
divided with Maximilian the repuUic of Venice, as be
had divided with Ferdinand the kingdom of Naples.
Experience ought to have taught him that Maximilian,
like Ferdinand, would reserve for himself the conquests
made in common. The future ought to have alarmed
him ; for Charles, the grandson and heir of Maximilian
of Austria, and of Ferdinand of Aragon, of Mary of
Burgundy, and of Isabella of CastOle, was already
horn. It was foreseen that he would unite under
his sceptre the greatest monarchies in Europe; and
Louis, instead of guarding against his future greatness,
had promised to give him his daughter in marriage. It
was the thoughtlessness of Maximilian, and not the pru¬
dence of Louis, that delayed, during four years, the
execution of the treaty of Blois.
During this interval, Genoa—which had never ceased
to consider' herself a republic, although the sighoria had
been conferred first on Ludovico Sforza, and next on
Louis XII. as duke of Milan—learned frmn experience
that a foreign monarch was incapaUe of compr^oiding
éither her laws or liberty. According to the capitulatioB,
one half of the magistrates of €knoa should be neUe,
the other half plebeian. They were to be chosen by the
sufih^es of their feUow-citizens ; they w»e to retain
the government of the whole of Liguria, and the admi¬
nistration of their own finances, wiäi the reservation of
1507- OiSSAR BOROIA IK ROMAONA. SOS
R fixed sum payable yearly to the king of France. But
the French could never comprehend that nobles were on
an equality with villains; tbát a king was bound by
conditions imposed by his subjects ; or that money
could be refused to him who had force. All the capitu¬
lations of Genoa were successively violated ; while the
Genoese nobles ranged themselves on the side of a king
against their country : they were known to carry inso¬
lently about them a dagger, on which was inscribed,
" Chastise villains so impatient were they to separate
themselves from the people, even by meanness and assas¬
sination. That people could not support the double yojce
of a foreign master and of nobles who betrayed their
country. On the 7th of February, 1507, they revolted,
drove out the French, proclaimed the republic, and
named a new doge ; but time failed them to organise
their defence. On the 3d of April, Louis advanced
from Grenoble with a powerful army. He soon arrived
before Genoa : the newly-raised militia, unable to with¬
stand veteran troops, were defeated. Louis entered
Genoa on the 29th of April ; and immediately sent the
doge and the greater number of the generous citizens,
who had signalised themselves in the defence of their
country, to the scaffold.
Independent Italy now comprised only the states of
the Church, Tuscany, and the republic of Venice ; and
even these provinces were pressed by the transalpine na¬
tions on every side. The Spaniards and French alter¬
nately spread terror through Tuscany and the states of the
church ; the Germans and Turks held in awe the territories
of Venice. The states of the church were at the same
time a prey to the intrigues of the detestable Alexander,
and his son Caesar Borgia. More murders, more assassin¬
ations, more glaring acts of perfidy, were committed
within a short space, than during the annals of the most
depraved monarchies. Caesar Borgia, whom his father
created duke of Romagna in 1501, had previously de¬
spoiled and put to death the petty princes who reigned at
Peaaro, Rimini, Forli, and Faenza. He had, in like
soi HISTOBV OF THE ITAIXAV BEPTTBLICS. 1503.
manner, poaeeseed himself of Piombino in Tnaaaty, die
di^chy of Urbino, mid the little principalities of Osme-
rino and SenegaUia. He bad caused to be strained m
this last city, on the Slst of Deeembm', 1502, four
tyrants of the states of the church, who followed die
trade of condottieri. These princes had smrred in his
pfty, and, alarmed by his intrigues, had taken arms
agûnst him ; but, seduced by bis artifices, they placed
themselves voluntarily in his power. Ctesar fimgia had
made himself master of Città do CasteUi, and of Peru¬
gia ; and was menacing Bol(^a, Sienna, and Fknmice,
when, on the 18th of August, 1503, he and his fadier
drank, by mistake, a poison which they had prepared for
one of their guests. His father died of it, and Bcngia
himself was in extreme danger. In thirteen months he
lost aU his sovereignties, the fruits of so many crimes.
Attacked in turn by pope Julius II., who had succeeded
his father, and by Gonzalvo di Cordova, he was at last
sent into Spain, where he died in battle, more hononrabty
than he deserved.
In Tuscany, the republic of JRorence found itsdf sur¬
rounded with enemies. The Medici, continuing exiles,
had entered into alliances with all the tyrants in tiie pmw
tifical states : they took part in every plot against tbeir
country ; at the same time, they sought the ñiendtiúp of
the king of France, who was more disposed to favour a
prince than a republic. Pietro de' Medici had accompa¬
nied the army sent, in 1503, agdnst the kingdma of
Naples, and lost his life at the defeat of the Giariglisaio.
His death did not deliver Florence from the apprdien-
sion which he had inspired. His brothers CÛovsnai
and Giuliano carried on their intrigues against tiisir
country. The war with Pisa, too, whidi stiU lasted,
exhausted the finances of Florence. The Pians had look
their commerce and manufactures ; th^ saw their haiw
vests, each year, destroyed by the Flarentines: bat
they opposed to all these disasters a constancy and cou¬
rage not to he subdued. The French, Geraoaiu^ and
Spaniards, in turn sent them succour ; not from takmg
IfiOi.
CM>NFALOMEB FOR UFE.
309
any interest in their cause, but with the view of profit-^
ing by the struggle which they protracted. Buoca and
^enna also, jealous of the Florentines, secretiy assisted
dte Flsans ; but only so far as they could do it without
compromifdng themselves with neighbours whom they
feared. Lucca fell, by degrees, into the hands of a
narrow oligarchy. Sienna sufiered itself to be enslaved
by Pandolfo Petiucci, a citizen, whom it had named
ceptain of the guard, and who commanded obedience,
widiout departing from the manners and habits of re¬
publican equality.
In the new position of Italy, continually menaced by
absolute princes, whose deliberations were secret, and
¥^0 united perfidy with force, the Florentines became
sensible that their government could not act with the
requisite discretion and secrecy, while it continued
to be changed every two months. Their allies even
complained that no secret could be confided to them,
without becoming known, at the same time, to the whole
republic. They accordingly judged it necessary to place
at the head of the state a single magistrate, who should
be present at every council, and who should be the
d^ositary of every communication requiring secrecy.
This chief, who was to retain the name of gonfalonier,
was dected, like the doge of Venice, for life ; he was
to. be lodged in the palace, and to have a salary of
100 Amins a month. The law which created a gon-
fatunier for life was voted on the l6th of August, 1502 ;
but it^ was not till the 22d of September [following that
the ^and council chose Pietro Soderini to fill that ofiice.
He. was a man universally respected; of mature age,
without ambition, without children ; and the republic
neyer had reason to repent its choice. The rq>ublic, at
the same time, introduced the authority of a single man
into.the administration, and suppressed it in the tri-
bignels. A law of the 15th of April,. 1502, abolished
th&. offices of podesta- and of captain of justice, and
supplied their places by the ruota ; a tribunal composed
of five judges, of whom four must agree in passipg
z
S06 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAK RBFÜBHICS. ISOSl
sentence ; each^ in his tum, was to W presuletit of the
tribunal for six months, lilis rotation caused-Ae name
of ruota to be given to the supreme courts of law at
Rome and Florence.
The most important service expected from Soderiai
was that of subjecting Pisa anew to the Flmentine re¬
public : he did not accompUsfa this until 1509. That
áty had long been reducai to the last extremity: the
inhabitants^ thinned by war and famine^ had no longer
any hope of holding out ; hut Louis XII. and Ferdi¬
nand of Aragon announced to the Florentines that tiiey
must be paid for the conquest which Florence was on
the point of making. Pisa had been defended by them
since 1507) hut only to prevent its snrrendmng before
the amount demanded was agreed on : it was at length
fixed at 100^000 florins to be paid to the king of
France) and 50)000 to the king of Aragon. This treaty
was signed on the ISth of March; and on the 8^
of JunC) 1509) PisS) which had crueUy suffered firom
famine) ' opened its gates to the Florentine army : the
occupying army was preceded by convoys of provisions)
which the soldiers themselves distributed to tl^ citizens.
-The tignoria of Florence abolished all the confiscations
proneunoed agamst the ^sans since the year 1494;
they restored to them idl their property and fnivileges.
They tried, in every way) to eondliate and attaiA that
proud people ; but notiiing could overcome &eir deep
Tesentmènt) and their regret for the loss of thdr inde¬
pendence. Almost every family) which had preserved any
fortune) emigrated ; and the population already so reduced
by war, was still further diminidied after the peace.
The republic of Venice was condemned, the war
which it had to support agamst the Tuiidah empare,
from 1499 to 1508, to make no effbrt for maintaining
the independence of Itidy against France and Aragim.
It had solicited the aid of all Christendom, as if for a
hcdy war, against Bqjazet II. ; and, in fact, allomately
received assistance frmn the kings of France, Aragon,
and Portugal, and from the pope : but these akls, limited
J«03.
VENETIANS IN ROMASNA.
307
to short services on great occasions^ were of little real
efficacy. They aggravated the misery of the Greeks
among whom the war was carried on, caused little in¬
jury to the Turks, and were of but little service to the
Venetians. The Mussulmans had made progress in
naval discipline; the Venetian fleet could no longer
cope with theirs ; and Antonio Grimani, its commander,
till then considered the most fortunate of the citizens
of Venice, already father of a cardinal, and destined,
kmg after, to be the doge of the republic, was, on his
return to his country, loaded with irons. Lepanto,
Pylos, Modon, and Coron, were successively conquered
from the Venetians by the Turks ; the former were
glad at last to accept a peace negotiated by Andrea
Gritti, one of their fellow-citizens, a captive at Con¬
stantinople. By this peace they renounced all title to
the places which they had lost in the Peloponnesus, and
restored to Bajazet the island of Santa Maura, which
they had, on their side, conquered from the Turks. This
peace was signed in the month of November, 1503.
The period in which the republic of Venice was
delivered from the terror of the Turks was also that of
the death of Alexander VI., and of the ruin of his son
Cesar Borgia. The opportunity appeared to the si-
gnoria favourable for extending its possessions in Ro-
magna. That province had been long the object of its
amUtion. Venice had acquired by treachery, on the
24th of February, 1441, the principality of Ravenna,
governed for l66 years by the house of Polenta. In
1463, it had purchased Cervia, with its salt marshes,,
¿rom Malatesta IV., one of the princes of Rimini ; upmt
the death of Cteaar Borgia, it took possession of Faenza,
the principality of Manfred ; of Rimini, the prindpality
of Malatesta; and of several fortresses. Imola and
Forli, governed by the Alidosi and the Ordelaffi, alone
remained to be subdued, in order tc make Venice mis¬
tress of the whole of Romagna. The Venetians oflered
the pope the same submissitm, the same annual tributCj»
for which those petty princes, were acknowlei^ed pon-
X 2
308 HISTORY OF THE ITALXAN BEFÜBLICS. 150&
tiâeil vicars. But Julias II., who had succeeded Borgia,
although violent and irascible, had a strong sense of liia
duty as a pontiff and as an Italian. He was determined
on preserving the states of the church intact for his suc¬
cessors. He Tcgected all nepotism, all a^randiaement
of his family ; and would have accused himself of un¬
pardonable weakness, if he suffered others to usurp what
he refused to give his family. He haughtily exacted
the restitution of all that the Venetians possessed in the
states of the church ; and as he could not obtain it from
them, he consented to receive it from the hands of Louis
and Maximilian, who combined to despoil the repnblie.
He, however, communicated to the Venetians die pro¬
jects formed against them, and it was not till they
appeared resolved to restore him nothing, that he con¬
cluded his compact with their enemies.
The league against Venice, signed at Cambray, on
the 10th of December, 1508, by Margaret of Austria,
daughter of Maximilian, and the cardinal d'Amboise,
prime minister of Louis, was only the completion of the
secret treaty of Blois, of the S2d of September, 1504.
No offence had been given, to justify this perfidious
compact. Maximilian, who detested Louis, had the
same year endeavoured to attack him in the Milanese ;
but the Venetians refused him a passage; and after
three months' hostilities, the treaty between the em.
peror and the republic was renewed, on the 7th of June,
1508. Louis XII., whom the Venetians defended, and
Maximilian, with whom they were reconciled, had no
other complaint against them than that they had no king,
and that dieir subjects thus exdted the envy of those
who had. The two monarchs agreed to divide between
them all the terra firma of the Venetians, to abandon
to Ferdinand all their fortresses in ApuUa, to the pope
the lordships in Romagna, to the booses of Este and
Cronzaga the small districts near the Po; and thus to give
all an interest in the destruction of the only state suffi¬
ciently strong to maintun the independence of Italy.
France was the first to declare war against the re-
fsog.
BATTLE OF AIONADEL.
309
public of Venice, in the month of January, 1509. Hos¬
tilities commenced on the 15th of April; on the 27th
of the same month, the pope excommunicated the doge
and the republic. The Venetians had assembled an
army of 42,000 men, under the command of the im¬
petuous Bartolomeo d'Alviano and the cautious Piti-
gliano. The disagreement between these two chiefs,
both able generals, caused the loss of the battle of Ai¬
gnadel, fought, on the 14th of May, 1509, with the
French, who did not exceed 30,000. Half only, or
less, of the Venetian army was engaged ; but that part
foiight heroically, and perished without falling back
one step. After this discomfiture, Bergamo, Brescia,
Crema, and Cremona, hastily surrendered to the con¬
querors, who planted their banners on the border of
Qhiaradadda, die limits assigned by the treaty of par¬
tition. Louis signalised this rapid conquest by atrocious
crueldes: he caused the Venetian governors of Cara-
vaggio and of Peschiera to be hanged, and the garri¬
sons and inhabitants to be put to the sword ; he ruined,
by enormous ransoms, all the Venetian nobles who fell
into his hands; seeking to vindicate to himself his unjust
attack by the hatred which he studied to excite.
The French suspended their operations from the 3Ist
of May ; but the emperor, the pope, the duke of Fer¬
rara, the marquis of Mantua, and Ferdinand of Aragon
profited by the disasters of the republic to invade its
provinces on all sides at once. The senate, in the impos¬
sibility of making head against so many enemies, took
the generous resolution of releasing all its subjects
from their oath of fidelity, and permitting them to treat
with the enemy, since it was no longer in its power
to defend them. In letting them feel the weight of a
fiirdgn yoke, the senate knew that it only rendered more
dear the paternal authority of the republic ; and, in fact,
ftflse citizens who had eagerly opened their gates to the
French, Germans, and Spaniards, soon contrasted, in
despair, their tyranny with the just and equal power
which they had not had the courage to defend. The
z 3
31Ö HISTORY OP THB ITALIAN BEPITBLICS. TSOd^
Geíúiaiii, ábove all, no sooner entered the Venetian atic%
than they plunged into the most bmtal debandiery;
oflfendiiig public decency, and exercising their cruelty «id
rapacity on all those who came within dieir reach. Not>
withstanding this, the native nobles joined them. They
were eager to substitute monarchy for republican equality
and freedom ; but their insolence only a^avated die
hatred which the Germans inspired. The army of the
r^ublic had taken refuge at Mestre, on the borders of
the Lagune, when suddenly the citizen evinced a cou¬
rage which the soldier no longer possessed. Treviso, in
the month of June, and Padua on the 17th of July,
drove out the imperialists; and the banners pi St
Mark, which had hitherto constantly retreated, began
once again to advance.
The war of the league of Cambray showed the Ita¬
lians, for the fifst time, what formidable ftn-ces the
transalpine nations could bring against them. MaxiraL
lian «rived to bèsiege Padua in the month of Septenw
her, 1509- He had in his army Germans, Swi«,
French,-^ani«ds, Savoyards ; troops of the pope, of
the marquis of Mantua, and of the duke of Modena ; in
aU more, than 100,000 men, with 100 pieces of cannon.
He Was, notwithstanding, obliged to raise the si^, on
the Sd of October, after many encounters, supported on
each side -with equal valour. But these barbarians, who
came to dispute with the Italiims the sovereignty of theip
flountry, did not need success to prove their ferocity.
After having taken from the poor peasant, or the captivi^
all that he possessed, they put him to the torture to
discover hidden treasure, or to extort ransom firtm the
compassion of friends. In this abuse of brute force,
thé Genhans showed tfaanselves the most savage, the
Spaniards the most coldly ferocious. Both were mese
odious than the Frènch ; althougii the last mentioned had
bands called flayers (éówcheiurs), formed in the £n^ish
wars, and long trained to grind the people.
Pope Julhis II. soon bëgaii to hate his accompBcea ia
die league of Cambray. Vident land irasdUe, he-had
I^IOL JULIUS II» INTENT ON LIBERATINO ITALY. 311
often shown in his fits of passion that he eould be as
cruel as the worst of them. But he had the soul of an
Italian. He could not brook the humiliation of his
country, and its being enslaved by those whom he called
barbarians. Having recovered the cities of Bomagna, the
ailgect of his quarrel with the Venetians, he began to
mi^e advances to them. At the end of the first cam¬
paign, he entered into negotiations; and on the 2Ist of
February, 1510, granted them absolution. He was
aware that he could never drive the barbarians out of
Italy but by arming them against each other ; and as
the French were those whom he most feared, he had
recourse to the Germans. It was necessary to begin
with reconciling the Venetians to the emperor; but
Maximilian, always ready to undertake every thing, and
incapable of bringing any thing to a conclusion, would
not relax in a single artide of what he called his righl»<i
As emperor, he considered himsdf monarch of all Italy |'
and aldiough he was always stopped on its frontier, he
refused to renounce the smallest part of what he had
purposed conquering. He asserted that the whole Ve¬
netian territory had been usurped from the empire ; and
before granting peace to the repuUic, demanded almost
its annihilation.
Its was with the aid of the Swiss that the pope de¬
signed to liberate Italy. He admired the valour and'
piety of that warlike peo{de: he saw, with pleasure,
that cupidity had become their ruling passion. The
Italians, who needed the defence of the Swiss, were rich
enou^ to pay them ; and a wise policy conspired
for once with avarice ; for the Swiss' republics could
not be safe if liberty were not re-established: in Italy.
Louis XII., by his prejudice in favour of nobility, had
offended those proud mountaineers, whom, even in lus
own army, he considered only as revolted, peasants.
Julius II. employed the bishop of Sion,. whom he after¬
wards made cardnal, to irritate them still more against
France. In the course of the summer of 1510, the
French, according to the phut which Julius had formed^
X 4
312 BISTOBT OF THE ITALIAN BEFinra/ICS. 1511.
Mrere attacked in the Milanese by the Swiss, in Genoa by
the 'Genoese emigrants, at Modena by the pontifioal
troops, and at Verona by the Venetians ; but, notwith^
standing the profound secrecy in which the pope en-
Feloped his negotiations and intrigues, he could not
succeed, as he had hoped> in surprising the French every
where at the same time. The four attacks were made
successively, and repulsed. The sire de ChaamoDf^
lieutenant of Louis in Lombardy, determined to avenge
himself by besieging the pope in Bok^no, in the month
of October. Julius feigned a deáre to parchase peace
at any price ; but, while n^tiating, he caused troops to
advance ; and, on finding ihimself the stronger, suddenly
changed his language, used threats, and made Chaumont
retire. When Chaumont had placed his troops in winter
quarters, the pope, during the greatest severity of the sea¬
son, attacked the small state of Mirándola, whidi had
put itself under-the protection of France; and entered
its capita] by a brmh, on the 20th of January, 1511.
The pope's'trooin, commanded by the dnbe of Ur-
Inno, : experienced in the following campaign a signal
defeat at Casalecchio, on the 2l6t of May, 1511. It was
called " the day of the ass-drivers," because the French
knights returned driving asses before them loaded with
booty. The loss of Bologna followed; but Julius II.
was not discouraged. His l^tes labmired, thrao^iout
Europe, to raise .enemies against France. They at last
accomplished a league, which was signed on the 5th of
October, and which was called Holy,. because it was
headed by the pope. It comprehended the kings of Spain
and England, the Swiss, and the VenetiaiB. Louis XII..,
to oppose an ecclesiastical authority to that of the pontiffi^
convoked, in concert with Maxinoilian, whom he om.
tihued to consider his ally an œcummiical counciL A fiew
cardinals, who had separated from the pope,, dothed it
with their audionty ;. and Florence dared not refuse to
the two greatest monarchs of Europe the of Pisa for
its. place of meeting, although the whole pc^pulation be*
held with dread this commencement of a new sdiisra.
fÔ13. VICTORY AND DEATH OF KEHOURS. SIS
A powerful Spanish army meanwhile advanced from
Naples, to the aid of the pope, under the command of
Raymond de Cardona ; and laid siege to Bologna on the
of January, 1512. The French had driven to
ilespair, by their extortions, the people of the provinces
which they had seized from Venice. On the 3d of Fe¬
bruary, Brescia revolted against thena Gaston de Foix,
duc de Nemours, and nephew of Louis XII., had, at the
age of twenty-two, been just placed at the head of the
French army. With a rapidity ever memorable, he in
turn successfully opposed his two enemies. Having,
en the 5th of February, entered Bologna, he forced the
Spaniards to raise the siege, and make a precipitate re¬
treat through Romagna. He instantly returned to attack
the Venetians, and on his road defeated one of their
armies. He retook Brescia by assault, on the 19th of
February, and punished that unhappy city by a frightful
massacre of its inhabitants; but pillage disorganised
and corrupted his army, and six weeks elapsed before he
could return to Romagna, to oppose the armies of Spain
and of the pope, which had again advanced. He forced
diem to give battle, near Ravenna, on Easter Simday,
the 11th of April, 1512. It was the most murderous
battle that Italy had yet seen : nearly 20,000 dead
covered the plain on which it was fought. Gaston de
Foix, was, for the last time, victorious. The formidable
Spanish infantry slowly retreated, without permitting itself
to be broken in any part. Gaston, furious at its escaping
him, made one last effort against it, and was killed.
The death of Gaston proved the signal of the defeat
of the French in Italy. The ministers of Louis thought
they m^t, after the battle of Ravenna, safely dismiss a
part of-their army j but Maximilian, betraying all his
engagements, abandoned the French to their enemies.
Without consenting to make peace with Venice, he gave
passage through his territory to 20,000 Swiss, who
were to join the Venetian army, in order to attack the
French. He, at the same time, recalled aU the Germans
who had enlisted tmder the banner of France. Ferdi-
814 HX8T0RT OF THE IT ALIAN REPUBUOB. 151%
nand of Aragon and Henry VIII. of Eitg^d alniott
simultaneously attacked Louis, who« to defraid himself;
was obliged to recall his troops from Italy. In the be*
ginning of June, they evacuated the Milanese ; of which
the Swiss took possession, in the name of Maximiliaa
Sforza, son of Louis the Moor. On the 29th of the
same month, a rev<dution drove the Frendh out of
noa ; and the republic and a new doge were again p«H
claimed. The possessions of France were soon reduced
to a few small fortresses in that Italy which the French
thought they had subdued. But the Italians did not
cover their liberty by the defeat of only one of their oppres>
sors. From the yolce of France, they passed under that ot
the Swiss, the Spaniards, and the Germans ; and the kst
they endured always seemed the most galling. To add
to their humiliation, the victory of the Hofy League,
enslaved the last and only republic truly free in Italy.
Florence was connected with France by a treaty con¬
cluded in concert with Ferdinand the Catholic. The.
republic continued to observe it scrupuloualy, even after.
Ferdinand had disengaged himself firent ih Florence
had fulfilled towards all the belligereai powers the dutka
of good neighbourhood and neutrality, and had givcft.
offence to none : but the league, which .had just diivn
the French out of Italy, was alr^idy divided in intarest,
and undecided on the plan which it should pursue. It
was agreed only on one point, that of obtainii^ money.;
The Swiss Kved at discretion in Lombardy, and fcviedi
in it the most ruinous contributions: the SpafiiwidanQf
Raymond de Cardona insisted also on havii^ a province
abandoned to their inexorable avidity ; Tuscany wâs^
rich and not warlike. The victorious powers who had
assembled in congress at Mantua proposed to the Floren«
tines to buy themselves off with a contribution ; but die'
Medici, who presented themselves at this congress, asked
to be restored to their country, asserting that they could'
MCtract much more money Iqr force, for die use of Áe Wy
league, than a repubEcan government could obtain from
the people by gentler means. Raymond de Caidtma readily;
1512. FLORENCE ENSLAVES BY THE MEDICI. ¿15
believed them, and in the month of August, 1512,
accompanied them across the Apennines, with 5000
Spanish infantry as inaccessible to pity as to fear. Ray»
mond sent forward to tell the Florentines, that if they
would preserve their liberty, they must recall the Medici,
displace the gonfalonier ^derini, and pay the Spanish
army 40,000 florins. He arrived at the same time before
the small town of Prato, which shut its gates against
him : it was well fortified, but defended only by the'
ardinanea, or country militia. On the 30th of August,
the Spaniards made a breach in the wall, which these
peasants basely abandoned. The city was taken by as¬
sault ; the militia, which would have incurred less danger
in fighting valiantly, were put to the sword : 5000
citizens were afterwards massacred, and others, divided
among the victors, were put to lingering tortures, either
to force them to discover where they had concealed their
treasure, or to oblige their kinsmen to ransom them out
of pit/; the Spaniards having already pillaged all they
could discover in holy as well as profane places.
The terror caused «t Florence, by the news of the
massacre of Prato, produced next day a revolution. A
company of young nobles, belon^g to the most ilhis-^
trious families, who, under the title of Society of the
Garden Ruccellai, were noted for their love of the arts,
of luxury and pleasure, took possession, on the 31st of
August, of the public palace ; they favoured the escape'
of Soderini, and sent to tell Raymond de Cardona that:
they were ready to accept the conditions which he
ofiered. But all treaties with tyrants are deceptions.
Giuliano de' Medici, the third son of Lorenzo, whose
character was gentle and conciliatory, entered Florence'
on the 2"d of September, and consented to leave many of
the liberties of the republic untouched. His brother, the
egrfiiwal Giovanni, afterwards Leo X. who did not enter
till the 14th of the same month, forced the signoria toi
call a parliament on the l6th. In this pretended as¬
sembly of the sovereign people, few were admitted
except strangers and soldiers : all the laws enacted since
3l6 HISTOBT OF THE ITALIAH BEFVBLICiri. 1512.
the expulsion of the Medici in 1494 were abolished.
A bolia, composed only of the creatures of that fiunOj^
was invested with the sovereignty of the republic. TUs
balia showed itself abjectly subservient to the cardinal
Giovanni de' Medici, his brother Giuliano, and their
nephew Lorenzo, who now returned to Florence after
eighteen years of exile, during which they had lost every
republican habit, and all sympathy wiài their feUow*
citizens. None of them had legitimate children ; but
they brought back with them three bastards,— GiuBo^
afterwards Clement VII., IppoHto, and Alessandro,
—who had all a fatal influence on the destiny of their
country. Their fortune, formerly colossal, was dissipated
in their long exile ; and their first care, on returning to
Florence, was to raise money for themselves, as well as
for the Spaniards, who had re-established their tyranny.
CHAP. XV.
CAI.AMITIE8 WITH WHICH THK FKKHCH, SPAHIAKDS, AHO GKS-
HAHS OVERWHELMED ITALT. — PILLAGE AMD RUIN OF THE
GREATEST CITIES. — OPPRESSION OF THE ITALIAN NATION, AND
LOSS OF ITS INDEPENDENCE.
The three destructive wars comprised in the last chap¬
ter—viz. that of the French and Swiss in the Milanese^
that of the French and Spaniards in the kingdom of
Naples, that of the French, Spaniardi^ Germans, and
Swiss, in the states of Venice,—robbed Italy of her in¬
dependence. The country to which Europe was indebted
fbr its progress in every art and science, which had im¬
parted to other nations the medical science of Salerno,
the jurisprudence of Bologna, the theology of Rome^
iflie philosophy, poetry, and fine arts of fWence, the
tactics and strategy of the Bracceschi and Sforzeschi
schools, the commerce mid banks of the Lombards, the
process of irrigation, the scientific cultivation bodi of
161S.
AOOXT OF ITALF.
317
hills and plains,—that country now belonged no more to
its own inhabitants ! The struggle between the trans¬
alpine nations continued, with no other object than that
of determining to which of them Italy should belong ;
and bequeathed nothing to that nation but long-enduring,
hopeless agonies. Julius II. in vain congratulated him¬
self on having expelled the French, who had first im¬
posed a foreign yoke on Italy ; he vowed in vain that
he would never rest till he had also driven out all the
barbarians ; but he deceived himself in his calculations :
he did not drive out the barbarians, he only made them
give way to other barbarians ; and the new comers were
ever the most oppressive and cruel. However, this pro¬
ject of national liberation, which the pope alone could
still eiitertain in Italy with any prospect of success, was
soon abandoned. Eight months after the expulsion of
the French from the Milanese, and five months after
the re-establishment of the Medici at Florence, Julius II.,
on the 21st of February, 1513, sank under an infiam-
matory disease. On the 11th of March, Giovanni de'
Medici succeeded him, under the name of Leo X. ;
eleven months after the latter had been made prisoner
by the French at the battle of Ravenna, and six months
after the Spanish arms had given him the sovereignty
of his country, Florence.
It has been the singular good fortune of Leo X. to
have his name associated with the most brilliant epoch
of letters and the arts since their revival. He has thus
shared the glory of aU the poets, philosophers, artists,
men of learning and science, his contemporaries. He
has been held up to posterity as one who formed and
raised to eminence men who were in fact his eldra's, and
who had attained celebrity before the epoch of his powei*.
His merit consisted in showering his liberality on those
whose works and whose fame had already deserved it.
His reign, on the other hand, which lasted nine years,
was marked by fearful calamities, which hastened the de¬
struction of those arts dnd sciences to which alone the
age of Leo owes its splendour. The misfortunes which
Ü18 BISTORT OF THE ITALLAfT KEPUBIilCS. 151S.
be drew down on his successor were still ntore dreadful.
The pope was himself a man of pleasure, easj, care¬
less, prodigal ; who expended in sumptuous feasts the
immense treasures accumulated by his predecessor. He
.had the taste to adorn his palace with the finest works
nf antiquity, and the sense to enjoy the society of phi¬
losophers and poets ; hut he had never the deration of
soul to comprehend his duties, or to consult his con¬
science. His indecent conversation and licentioos con¬
duct scandalised the church ; his prodigality kd him
to encourage the shameful traffic in indulgences, which
gave rise to the schism of Luther ; his thoughtlessness
and indifference to human suffering made him light np
wars the most ruinous, and which he was. ntteiiy us¬
able to carry on ; he never thought of securing the in¬
dependence of Italy, or of expelling the harhaiians : it
was simply for the i^grandisement of his family, that
he contracted or abandoned aUiances with the trans¬
alpine nations : he succeeded, indeed, in procuring that
bis brother Giuliano should he named due de Nemours,
-and he created his nephew duke of Urhino; hut he
endeavoured also to erect for the forma: a new state,
composed of the districts of Parma, Placentia, Re^;io,
and Modoia ; for the latter, another, consisting of the
several petty principalities which still maintained them¬
selves in the states of the church. His tortuous policy
to accomplish the first object, his perfidy and cruelty th
attain the second, deserved to he much more severely
branded by historians.
The sovereign pontiff and the republic of Venice
were the only powers in Italy that still preserved some
shadow of independence. JuUus II. had succeeded in
uniting Romagna, the March, the patrimony and cam-
pagna of Rome, to the holy see. Amongst all the vas¬
sals of the church, he had spared only his own n^ihew,
Gian Maria della Rovere, duke of Urhino. On the de¬
feat of the French, he further seised Parma anu Pla¬
centia, which he detached frotn the Milanese, without
tiaving the remotest title to their possesiáiHi, as he also
151S.
POWER or LEO X.
319
took Modena from the duke of Ferrara, whom he de¬
tested. Leo X. found the holy see in possession of all
these states, and was at the same time himself all-power¬
ful at Florence. Even the moment of his elevation to
the pontificate was marked by an event, which showed
that every vestige of liberty had disappeared from that
republic. The partisans of the Medici pretended to
have discovered at Florence » conspiracy, of which they
produced no other proofs than some imprudent speeches,
and some wishes uttered for liberty. The most illustrious
citizens were, nevertheless, arrested ; and Machiavelli,
with several others, were put to the torture. Pietro
Boscoh and Agostino Capponi were beheaded ; and
those who were called their accomplices exiled. The
two republics of Sienna and Lucca were in a state of
trembling subjection to the pontiff ; so that all central
■Italy, peopled with about 4,000,000 inhabitants, was
dependent on him : but the court of Rome, since it had
ceased to respect the ancient municipal liberties, never
extended its authority over a new province without
ruining its populaticm and resources. Law and order
seemed incompatible with tbe government of priests :
the laws gave way to intrigue and favour ; commerce
gave way to monopoly. Justice deserted the tribunals,
foresight the councils, and valour the armies. It was
prov^bially said, that the arms of the church had no
edge. The great name of pope still moved Europe at a
distance, but it brought no real force to the allies whom
he adopted.
The republic of Venice, with a smaller territory, and
a far less numerous population, was in reality much
more powerful than the church. Venetian subjects, if
diey did not enjoy liberty, had at least a government
which maintained justice, order, and the law ; their
material prosperity was judiciously protected. They in
return were contented, and proved themselves devotedly
attached to their government ; but the wars raised by
the le^e of Cambray overwhdmed that republic with
Cilainity. The city of Venice, secure amidst the waters.
320 BISTORT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. ISlSi
alone escaped the invasion of the barbaiians; tbou^even
there, the richest quarters had been laid waste bj an acci¬
dental fire. The country and the provincial towns expo-
rienced in turn the ferocity of the French, Swiss, Gemuiu^
and Spaniards. Three centuries uid a h^f had eb^Med
since this same Veronese inarch, the cradle of the Lom¬
bard league, had repelled the invasion of Frederick
Barbarossa. But while the world boasted a continuai
progress, since that period, in civilisation, — while phi¬
losophy and justice had better defined the rights of men,
— while the arts, literature, and poetry, had qnickened
the feelings, and rendered man more susceptible of pain¬
ful impresûons,—war was made with a ferocity at which
men in an age of the darkest barbarism would have
blushed. The massacre of all the inhabitants of a town
taken by assault, the execution of whole garrisons which
had surrendered at discretion, the giving up of prisoners
to the conquering soldiers in order to be tortured into the
confession of hidden treasure, became the common prac¬
tice of war in the armies of Louis XII., Ferdinand, and
Maximilian. Kings were haughty in proportion to their
power ; they considered themselves at so much the greater
distance a^ve human nature : they were the more <¡í-
fended at all resistance, the more incapaUe of compaaaion
for sufferings which they did not see or did not compre¬
hend. The misery whidi they caused presented its^ to
them more as an abstraction ; they r^;arded masses, not
individuals ; they justified their cruelties by the name of
offended majesty; they quieted remorse by conddeiing
themselves, not as men, but as scouiges in the hand of
God. Three centuries have elapsed, and civilisation has
not ceased to march forward ; the voice of humani^ has
continued to become more and more powerful ; no one
now dares to believe himself great enough to he
from humanity ; nevertheless, those who would «hrink
with horror from witnessing the putting to death of an
individual, do not hesitate to condemn whole nations to
execution. The crimes which remain for us to relate»
do not merit more execration than those of which we
THE FRENCH AGAIN REPULSED. 321
are ourselves the witnesses at this day. Kings^ in their
detestation of freedom, let loose upon unhappy Italy, in
the sixteenth century, famine, war, and pestilence ; as,
from the same motive in our time, they have loosed
upon heroic Poland, famine, war, and the cholera.
• Louis XII., after having lost the Milanese, through
his infatuated ambition to reconquer the small province
of the Cremonese, which he had himself ceded to the
republic of Venice, felt anew the desire of being recon¬
ciled with that republic, his first ally in Italy. The
Venetians, who knew that without their money, artillery,
and cavalry, the Swiss could never have f^ced the French,
much less have driven them out of Italy, saw that
their allies did not appreciate their efforts and sacrifices.
Maximilian, who in joining never granted them peace,
but only a truce, re-asserted his claims on Verona and
Vicenza, and would not consent to allow the Vene¬
tians any states in Terra Firma but such as they pur¬
chased from him at an enormous price. The pope, to
enforce the demands of Maximilian, threatened the Ve¬
netians with excommunication ; and their danger after
victory appeared as great as after defeat. Andrea Gritti,
one of their senators,— made prisoner after the battle of
Aignadel, and the same who, during his captivity at
Com^ntinople, had signed the peace of his country with
the Turks,— again took advantage of his captivity in
France to negotiate vdth Louis. He reconciled the re¬
public with that monarch, who had been the first to
attack it ; and a treaty of alliance was signed at Blois,
on the 24th of March, 1513. This was, however, a
source of new calamity to Venice. A French army,
commanded by La Tremouille, entered the Milanese,
and on its approach the Germans and Spaniards retired.
The Swiss, who gloried in having re-established Maxi¬
milian Sforza on the throne of his ancestors, were, how¬
ever, resolved not to abandon him. They descended
from their mountains in numerous bodies, on the 6th of
June, 1513; attacked La Tremouille at the Riotta, near
Novara ; defeated him, and drove him back with all the
T
SSZ HISTOBT «r TBK ITA1.IAB BBFVBUCS. 15151
Frencb forces beyrad the A^. The Spaniards and the
soldiers of Leo X. next attacked the Venetiana witkont
|uiy proTocation : they were at peace with the rcfadilic^
but they invaded its territory in the name of their ally
Maximilian. They occupied the Paduan state, the Ve¬
ronese, and that of Vicenza, from the ISth of /une till
the end of autumn. It was during this invaaÍM the
Spaniards disidayed that heartless cruelty which rendered
them the horror of Italy ; that cmpidity which imiUiplied
torture, and which invented sul^ngs more and more
atrocious, to extort g^d from their priacmera. The
Germans in thç next csunpai^, over-ran the Venetian
provinces ; and notwithstanding the savage cruelties and
numerous crimes of which the country had ¿ost been
the theatre, yet the German commander found means to
signalise himself by his ferocity.
. Francis I. succeeded Louis XII. cm die 1st of
January, 1515 ; on the 27th of June he renewed his
predecessor's treaty of alliance with Venice ; and on the
15th of August entered the plains of Lombardy, by the
marquisate of Saluzzo, with a powerful army. He met
but little resistance in the provinces south of the Po,
but the Swiss meanwhile arrived in great force to defend
Maximilian Sforza, whom, since they had reseated him
on the throne, they r^arded as thdr vassaL Franc»
in vain endeavoured to negotiate vñth thou ; they would
not listen to the voiee of their eommanders ; democracy
had passed from their iandsgemeindt into their anaie^
popular orators roused their pasaions ; and on the 13th
of September they impetuously left Milan to attach
Francis I. at Marignano. Deep ditches lined with
soldiers bordered the causeway by which they advanced ;
their commanders wished by some manœuvre to get
clear of them, or make the enemy change his position ;
but the Swiss, despising all the arts of war, expected to
command success by mere intrepidity and bo^y strengdi.
They marched to the batt»'y in full frcmt ; they repulsed
the charge of the knights with their halberds, and threw
themselves with fury into the ditches which barred their
1515. BA.TTLB O» UAftIONANO, 825
road. Some rudied on to the very mouths of the cannoir,
arbich guarded the king, and thwe fell. Night closed
on the combatuita ; and the two armies mingled together
fought on for four hours longer by moonlight. Com"
jdete darkness at length forced them to rest on their
arms ; but the king's trumpet continudly sounded, to
indicate to the bivouac where he was to be found; while
the two famous horns of Uri and Unterwaiden called
the Swiss together. The battle was renewed on the
14»th at daybreak: the unrelenting obstinacy was the
same ; but the French had taken advantage of the night
to collect and fortify themselves. Marshal Trividzio,
who had been present, at eighteen pitched battles, de¬
clared that every other seemed to hira children's play in
ooflsparison with this " battle of giants," as he ealled it :
20,(X)0 dead already covered the ground ; of these two-
thirds were Swiss. When the Swiss despaired of victory
they retreated slowly,—but menacing and terriUe. The
French did. not dare to pursue them.
This horrible butchery, however, hastened the con-
dusion of the wars whidi arose from the league of
Cambray. The Swiss were not suflBciently powerful to
maintain their sway in Lombardy : eight of their can¬
tons, on the 7th of November, signed, at Geneva, a treaty
of ^œace with Francis I., who compensated, with con¬
siderable sums of money, all the claims which they
consented to abandon. On the 29th of November, the
other cantons acceded to this pacification, which took
the name of " Paix peipétuelle," and France recovered
the right of raising such infantry as she needed among
the Swiss. Raymond de Cardona, alarmed at the retreat
of the Swiss, evacuated Lombardy with the Spanish
troops. The Fr^ch zecovered possession of the whole
duchy of Milan. Maximilian Sforza abdicated the
sewreignty for a revenue of 30,000 crowns secured
to him in France. Leo X., ranging himself on the side
of the victoie, signed, at Viterbo, on the 13th of October,
a Izcaty, by which he restored Parma and Placentia to
the French. In a conference held with Francis at Bo-«
y 2
S24 HISTOBT OF THE ITALIAN BEPUBLICS. 15l6l
logna^ between the 10th and 15th of the following De¬
cember, Leo induced that monarch to sacrifice the liber¬
ties of the Gallican church by the concordat, to renotmce
the protection he had hitherto extended to the Floren¬
tines and to the duke of Urbino, although the former
had always remained faithful to France. The pope
seized the states of the duke of Urbino, and conferred
them on his nephew, Lorenzo II. de' Medici. Amidst
these transactions, Ferdinand the Catholic died, on the
15th of January, 1516, and his grandson Charles suc¬
ceeded to his Spanish kingdoms. On the 13 th of August
following, Charles signed, at Noyon, a treaty, by which
Francis ceded to him all his right to the idngdom of
Naples as the dower of a newborn daughter, whom he
promised to Charles in marriage. From that time
Maximilian remained singly at war with the republic
of Venice and with France. During.the campaign of
1516, his German army continued to commit the most
enormous crimes in the Veronese march ; but Maximilian
had never money enough to carry on the war without
the subsidies of his allies : remaining alone, he conld no
longer hope to be successful. On the 14th of De¬
cember he consented to accede to the treaty of Noyon ;
he evacuated Verona, which he had till then occni«ed,
and the Venetians were once more put by the French
in possession of all the states of which die league of
Cambray had proposed the partition : but their wealth
was annihilated, Üieir population reduced to one half,
their constitution itself shaken, and th^ were never
after in a state to make those efibrts for the defence of
the independence of Italy, whidi might have been ex¬
pected from them before this devastating war.
Had Italy been allowed to repose after so many dis¬
asters, she might stiU have recovered her strength and
population ; and when the struggle should have recom¬
menced with the transalpine nations, she would have
been found prepared for battle ; but (he heartless levity
and.funbition of Leo did not ^ve her time. While
thé family of the Medici was becoming extinct around
1519.
CHARLES THE FIFTH.
S25
him, he dreamt only of investing it with new dignities ;
he refused the Florentines permission to re-establish
tíieir republic, and offered his alliance to whatever
foreign monarch would aid him in founding on its
ruins a principality for the bastard Medici. His third
brother Giuliano due de Nemours, whom he had at first
charged with the government of Florence, died on the
17th of March, 15l6. Lorenzo II., son of his eldest
brother Pietro, whom he had made duke of Urhino, and
whom he sent to command at Florence after Giuliano
rendered himself odious there by his pride and by
his contemptible incapacity — he too died only three
years añerwards, on the'28th of April, 1519. Leo sup¬
plied his place by cardinal GiuUo de' Medici, afterwards
Clement VII. This prelate was the natural son of the
first Giuliano killed in the Pazzi conspiracy of 1478.
He was considered the most able of the pope's ministers,
and the most moderate of his lieutenants. Giuliano II.
had also left an illegitimate son, Ippolito, afterwards
cardinal; and Lorenzo II. had a legitimate daughter,
Catherine, afterwards queen of France, and an ille¬
gitimate son, Alexander, destined to be the future
tyrant of Florence. Leo, whether desirous of esta.,
bhshing these descendants, or carried away by the
restlessness and levity of his character, sighed only
for war.
The emperor Maximilian died on the 19th of Ja¬
nuary, 1519i leaving his hereditary states of Austria to
his grandson Charles, already sovereign of all Spain, of
the Two Sicilies, of the Low Countries, and of the county
of Burgundy. Charles and Francis both presented
themselves as candidates for the imperial crown ; the
electors gave it to the former, on the 28th of June, 1519 î
he was from that period named Charles V. Italy, indeed
the whole of Europe, was endangered by the immeasur¬
able growth of this young monarch's power. The states
of the church, over which he domineered by means of
his kingdom of the Two Sicilies, could not hope to
preserve any independence but through an alliance
Y 3
S26 BISTORT or THE ITABIAE REPUBLICS. 15S2f.
with France. Leo at first dxHight so, and ägßitä
the preliminary articles of a league wHh Francis ; but,
suddenly changing sides, he invited Charles V. to
join him in driving the French out of Itdy. A secret
treaty was signed between him and the emperor, on the
8th of May, 1521. By this the dndy ef Milan was to
he restored to Francesco Sforza, the second son of Louis
the Moor. Parma, Placentia, and Ferrara were to be
imited to the holy see: a dneby in the kingdcHB of
Kaples was to be secured to the bastard Alexander de'
Medici. The pope united his army to that of the
emperor in the kingdom of Naples ; die command of it
was given jointly to Prospero Colonna md die raarqnia
Pescara: war was declared on the 1st of Angnat, and
the imperial and pontifical troops entered MUan on the
I9& of November : but in the midst of the joy of this
first success, Leo X. died unexpectedly, on ^ Ist of
December, 1521.
Death opportunely delivered Leo from the dangers and
anxieties into which he had thoughdessly precipitated
himself. His finances were exhausted ; Ûs prodigality
had deprived him of every resource; and he had no
means of carrying on a war which he had only just begun.
He left his successors in a state of distress which was
upjusdy attributed to them, and which rendered them
odious to the people ; for the war into which he had
plunged them, without any reasonable motive, was the
most disastrous of all those which had yet afflicted un¬
happy Italy. There remained no power truly Italian
that could take any part in it for her defence. Venice
was so exhausted by the war of the league of Carabray,
that she was forced to limit her efforts to the mainte^
nance of her neutrality, and was hardly powerful enough
to make even her neutral position respected. Florence
remained subject to the cardinal Giulio de' Medici. The
republics of Sienna and Lucca were tremblingly prepared
to obey the strongest : all the rest depended on t^ trann*
alpine power ; for an unexpected election, on ihe 9th
of January, 1522, had given a Flemiah successor to
1522.
OPPRESSION OP XTA1.Y.
Leo X., under the name of Adrian VI. This person had
been the preceptor of Charles V., and had never seen
Italy, where he was r^rded as a barbarian. The king«
dom of Naples was governed and plundered by the Spa^
Ikiards. After the French had lost the duchy of Milan,
Francesco ^orsa, who had been brought back the
imperialists, possessed only the name of sovereign. He
had never been for a moment independent; he had
never been able to protect his subjects from the tyranny
of the Spanish and German soldiers, who were his
guards. Finally, the marquis de Montferrat and the
duke of Savoy had allowed the French to become mas¬
ters in their states, and had no power to refuse them
passage to ravage oppressed Italy anew.
The marshal Lautrec, whom Francis I. bad charged to
defend the Milanese, and who stiU occupied the greater
part of the tmitory, was forced by the Swiss, who formed
the sinews of his army, to attack the imperialists on the
29th of April, 1522, at Bicocca. Prospero Colonna had
taken up a strong position about three or four miles
from Milan, on die road to Monza: he valued himself on
making a defensive war, — on being successful, without
giving battle. The Swiss attacked him in front, throw-
mg thmnselves, without listening to the voice of their
commander, into a hollow way which covered him, and
where they perished, without die pomibility of resistance.
After having performed prodigies of valour, the re¬
mainder were repulsed with dreadful loss. In spite of die
remonstrances of Lautrec, they immediately departed for
their mountains ; and he for his court, to justify him^
self. Lescuns, his successor in the command, suffered
the imperialists to surprise and pillage Lodi ; and was
at last forced to capitulate at Cremona on the 6th of
May, and evacuate the rest of Lombardy. Genoa was
not comprehended in the capitulation, and remained still
in possession of the French ; but, on the 30th of May,
that city also was surprised by the Spaniards, and pillaged
with all the farocity which signalisel that nation. It was
one of the largest depots of commerce in the west, and
Y 4
528 HI8T0B7 OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1525.
the rain of so opulent a town shook the fortnne of every
merchant in Europe. The general of Charles then,
judging Lombardy too much exhausted to support his
armies, led them to live kt discretion in the provinces of
his ally, the pope. They raised among the states stQl
calling themselves independent, enormous subsidies to pay
the soldiers, for which purpose Charles never sent money.
The plague, breaking out at the same time at Rome and
Fhn^ce, added to the calamities of Italy so much the
more that Adrian VI. abolished, as pagan superstition or
acts of revolt against Providence, all the sanitary measures
of police which had been invented to stop the spread of
contagion. The pope died on the 14th of September,
1525 ; and the Romans,' who held him in horror, crowned
his physician with laurel, as the saviour of his country.
The death of Adrian, however, saved no one. The
cardinal Giulio de' Medici was chosen his successor, on
the 18th of November, under the name of Clement VII.
This man had passed for an able minister under his
cousin Leo X., because prosperity still endured, and the
pontifical treasury was not exhausted ; but when he had
to struggle with a distress which he, however, had not
caused, his ignorance in finance and administration, his
sordid avarice, his pusillanimity, his imprudence, his
sudden and ill considered resolutions, his long inde¬
cisions, made him alike odious and contemptible. He
was not strong enough to resist the tide of adversity. He
found himself, without money and without soldiers, en¬
gaged in a war without an object : he was incapable of
commandu^, and nowhere found obedience.
The French were not disposed to abandon their title
to Lombardy, the possession of which they had just lost.
Before the end of the campaign, Francis sent thither
another army,- commanded by his favourite, die admiral
Bonnivet. This admiral entered Italy by Piedmont;
passed the Ticino on the 14th of September, 1525;
and marched on Milan. But Prospero Colonna, who
had chosen, among die great men of antiquity, Fabius
Cunctator for his model, was admirable in the art of stop-
1525.
BATTLE OF PAVIA.
329
ping an army, of fatiguing it by slight checks, and at
last forcing it to retreat without giving battle. Bonnivet,
who maintained himself on the borders of Lombardy,
was forced, in the month of May follovring, to open
himself a passage to France by Ivrea and Mont St.
Bernard. The chevalier Bayard was killed while pro¬
tecting the retreat of Bonnivet, in the rear-guard. The
imperialists had been joined, the preceding year, by
a deserter of high importance, the constable Bourbon,
one of the first princes of the Úood in France, who was
accompanied by many nobles. Charles V. put him,
jointly with Pescara, at the head of his army, and sent
him into Provence in the month of July ; but after
having besieged Marseilles, he was soon constrained to
retreat. Francis I., who had assembled a powerful
army, again entered Lombardy, and made himself mas¬
ter of Milan : he next laid siege to Pavia, on the 28th of
October. Some time was necessary for the imperialists
to re-assemble their army, which the campaign of Pro¬
vence had disorganised. At length it approached Pavia,
which had resisted through the whole winter. The king
of France was pressed by all his captains to raise the siege,
and to march against the enemy ; but he refused, de¬
claring that itwould be a compromise of the royal dignity,
and foolishly remained within his lines. He was attacked
by Pescara on the 24th of February, 1525 ; and, after
a murderous battle, made prisoner.
For several months, while Francis I. was besieging
Pavia, he appeared the strongest power in Italy ; and
the pope and Venetians, alarmed at his proximity, had
treated with, him anew, and pledged themselves to re¬
main neutral. The imperial generals, after their vic¬
tory, declared that these treaties with the French were
offences against their master, for which they should
demand satisfaction. Always without money, and
pressed by the avidity of their soldiers, they sought
<mly to discover offenders, as a pretence to raise contri¬
butions, and to let their troops live at free quarters.
The pope and the Venetians were at first disposed
SSO BISTORT or THE ITAUAR BEFUBLICS. 1535.
to join in a league for resisting these exactions ; and
tbejr offered Louisa of Savoy, regent of France, their ud
to set her son Francis at Hboty. But Clement VIL had
not sufficient courage to sign this league: he preferred re¬
turning again to the alliance of the emperor and the duke
of Milan, for which he paid a considerable sum. As soon
as the imperial generala had received the money, they
refused to execute the treaty which they had ma^ witii
him, and the pope was obliged to go btMsk to the Vene¬
tians and Louisa of Savoy. Meanwhile Jerome Morone,
chancellor of the duke of Milan, an old man r^arded
as the most able politician of his time, made overtures,
which revived the hope of arming all Italy for her inde¬
pendence. Francesco Sforza found himself, treated by
the Germans and Spaniards with the greatest indignity
in his own palace : his subjects were exposed to every
kind of insult from an unbridled soldiery ; and when he
endeavoured to protect them, the officers took pleasure in
making him witness aggravations of injustice and out¬
rage. The man, however, who made the German yoke
press most severely on him was the marquis Pescara, aa
Italian, but descended from the Catalonian house of
Avalos, establi^ed in the kingdom of Naples for more
than a century. He manifested a sort of vanity in
associatii^ himself with the Spaniards : he commanded
their infantry ; he adopted the manners as wdl as pride
of that nation. Morone, nevertheless, did not despair of
awakening his patriotism, by exciting his ambition.
The kingdom of Naples, which bad flourished under the
bastard branch of the house of Aragon when the family
of Avalos first entered it, had sunk, since it had been
united to Spain, into a state of the most grievous opprea-
sion. Morone determined on offering Pescara the crown
of Naples, if he would join his efforts to those of all the
other Italians, for the deliverance of his country. Suc¬
cess depended on him : he could distribute the imperial
troops, which he commanded, in such a manner as that
they could oppose no resistance. The duke of Milan
had been warned that Charles V. intended taking his
1525.
TREASONS OF PESCARA.
SSI
duchy from him, to confer it on his brother Ferdinand
of Austria. The kingdom of Naples and the duchy oi
Milan were ready to pass over from the emperor's party
to that of France, provided the French king would
renounce all his claims to both, acknowledge Pescara
king of Naples, Francesco Sforza duke of Milan ; and
restore to Italy her independence, after having ddlvcred
her from her enemies.
This negotiation was at first successful : each of the
governments to which the proposition of concurring in the
independence of Italy was addressed, seemed to agree to it.
France renounced all pretensions to Lombardy and the
Two Sicilies ; Switzerland promised to protect, on its
tide, the land of ancient liberty, and to furnish it with
soldiers; HenryVIII. of England promised money;
Pescara coveted the crown, and Sforza was impatient to
throw off a yoke which had become insupportable to him ;
but, unhappily the negotiation was entrusted to too
many cabinets, all jealous, perfidious, and eager to ob¬
tain advantages for themselves by sacrificing their allies.
Clement was desirous of obtaining from the emperor a
more advantageous treaty, by threatening him with
France ; the queen regent of France endeavoured to
engage Charles to relax his rigour towards her son, by
threatening him with Italy; Pescara, reserving the choice
of eidier betraying his master or his allies, as should
prove most profitable to him, had warned Charles that
he was engaged in a plot which he would reveal as soon
as he had every clue to it. The duchess of Alençon,
sister of Francis, sent by her mother to negotiate at
Madrid, spoke still more clearly. She offered Charles
to abandon Italy, the project respecting which she dis¬
closed, provided the emperor, in restoring her brother
to liberty, would renounce his purpose of making him
purchase it at the price of one of the provinces of France.
Pescara, finding that his court knew more than he had
told, determined on adopting the part of provocative agent
instead of rebel ; he had only to choose between them.
On the 14th of October, 1525, he invited Morone to a
332 HISTORY OF THB ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1526.
last conference in the castle of Novara. After having
made him explain all his projects anew^ vrhile Spanish
ofEcers hid behind the arras heard them, he caused
him to he arrested, seized all the fortresses in the state
of Milan, and laid siege to the castle, in which the duke
had shut himself up. He denounced to the emperor as
traitors, the pope, and all the other Italians his accom¬
plices ; but while he played this odious part, he was
attacked by a slow disease, of which he died on the
30th of November, 1525, at the age of thirty-six, ab¬
horred by all Italy.
Charles, abusing the advantages which he had ob¬
tained, imposed on Francis the treaty of Madrid, signed
on the 14th of January, 1526 ; by which the latter
abandoned Italy and the duchy of Burgundy. He was
set at liberty on the 18th of March following; and
almost immediately declared to the Italians, that ^ did
not regard himself hound by a treaty extorted from him
by force. On the 22d of May, he signed a league for
the liberty of Italy with Clement VII., the Venetians,
and Francesco Sforza, but still did not abandon the
policy of his mother : instead of thinking in earnest
of restoring Italian independence, and thus securing
the equilibrium of Europe, he had only one purpose,
—that of alarming Charles with the Italians ; and was
ready to sacrifice them as soon as the emperor should
abandon Burgundy. At the same time, his supineness,
love of pleasure, distrust of his fortune, and repugnance
to violate the treaty of Madrid, hindered him from ful¬
filling qny of ^e engagements which he had contracted
towards the Italians ; he sent them neither money,
French cavalry, nor Swiss forces. Charles, on the other
hand, sent no supplies to pay his armies to Antonio
de Leyva, the constable Bourbon, and Hugo de Mon-
çada, their commanders. These troops were therefore
obliged to live at free quarters, and the oppression of
the whole country was still more dreadful than it had
ever yet been.
The defection of the duke of Milan, in particular, gave
1526.
OPPRESSION OF MILAN.
S33
a pretence to Antonio de Leyva to treat the wretched
Milanese with redoubled rigour^ as if they could he
responsible for what Leyva called the treachery of their
master. The Spanish army was quartered on the citi¬
zens of Milan ; and diere was not a soldier who did not
make his host a prisoner, keeping him bound at the
foot of the bed, or in the cellar, for the purpose of
having him daily at hand, to force him, by blows or
fresh torture, to satisfy some new caprice. As soon as
one wretched person died under his sufferings, or broke
his bonds and ended his sufferings by voluntarily
death, either precipitating himself through a window or
into a well, the Spaniard passed into another house to
recommence on its proprietor the same torture. The
Venetians and the pope had united their forces, under
the command of the duke of Urbino, who, exaggerating
the tactics of Prospero Colonna, was ambitious of no
other success in war than that of avoiding battle. He
announced to the senate of Venice, that he would not
approach Milan till the French and Swiss, whose sup¬
port he had been promised, joined him. His inaction,
while witnessing so many horrors, reduced the Italians
to despair. Sforza, who had been nine months blockaded
in the castle of Milan, and who always hoped to be de¬
livered by the duke of Urbino, whose colours were in
sight, supported the last extremity of hunger before he
surrendered to the Spaniards, on the 24th of July, 1526.
The pope, meanwhile, was far from suspecting himself
in any danger ; hut his personal enemy. Pompeo Colonna,
took advantage of the name of the imperial party to
raise in the papal state 8000 armed peasants, with
whom, on the 20th of September, he surprised ■ the
Vatican, pillaged the palace, as well as the temple of
St. Peter, and constrained the pope to abjure the alliance
of France and Venice. About the same time, George de
Frondsberg, a German condottiere, entered Lombardy
with 13,000 adventurers, whom he had engaged to fol»-
low him, and serve the emperor without pay, contenting
themselves with the pillage of that unhappy country.
834 history or the itauan kepvbucs. 1527»
The constaUe Bourbon, to whom Charles had giren
the chief command of his forces in Italy, determined to
take advantage of this new army, and unite it to that
for which at Milan he had now no further occanon ;
but it was not without great difficulty that he could
persuade the Spaniards, to quit that city where they
enjoyed the savage pleasure of inflicting torture on their
hosts. At length, however, he succeeded in leading
them to Pavia. On the 30th of January, 1597, he
joined Frundsberg, who died soon after of apo^exy.
Bourbon now remained alone charged with the com¬
mand of this formidable army, already exceeding 25,000
men, and continually joined on its route by disbanded
soldiers and brigands intent on pillage. The constaUe
had neither money, equipments, nor artillery, and very
few cavalry; every town shut its gates on his ap¬
proach, and he was often on thé point of wanting jho.
visions. He took the road of southern Italy, and
entered Tuscany, still uncertain whether he shofdd
pilli^e Florence or Rome. The marquis of Saluzzo,
with a small army, retreated before him ; tiie duke oi
Urbino followed in his rear, but always keeping out of
reach of battU. At last. Bourbon took the road to Roaoe,
by the valley of the Tiber. On the 5th of May, 1527,
he arrived before the capital of Christendom. Clement,
long alarmed at his march, had, on the 15th of Marcdi,
signed a truce of eight months with the viceroy of
Naples, and dismissed his troops, never ima^ning that
one of the emperor's lieutenants would not reflect the
engagements of the other. On the approach of Bour¬
bon, however, the walls of Rome were again mounted
with engines of war. The next day, the 6th of May,
this renegade prince led his troops to the assault of the
dty. ELe was killed near the Jameulum, while mount¬
ing the first scaling ladd^. His fall did not stop the
terrific band of robbers which he led. The victorious
army scaled the walls, which were ill defended ; and
spread terror through the quarters of the Borgo, Vati-
1597.
SACK OF ROME.
«,«5
tun, and Trastevere. In a few hours they were masters
of the whole city, Clement having neglected to destroy
the bridges on the 'i'iber.
The capital of Christendom was then abandoned to a
pillage unparalleled in the most calamitous period — that
of die first triumph of barbarism over civilisation :
neither Alaric the Goth nor Genseric the Vandal had
treated it with like ferocity. Not only was all that
could be seized in every house and every shop carried
off, but the peasants of the fiefs of Colonna took pos¬
session of the heavy furniture which did not tempt the
cupidity of the soldier. From the day on which these
barbarians entered the city all personal protection was
withdrawn ; women were abandoned to the outrages
of the victors ; and sanctuaries, enriched by the vene¬
ration of Christendom for twelve centuries, were d"-
voted to spoliation. The squares before the churches
were strewed with the ornaments of the altar, relics,
and other sacred things, which the soldiers threw into
the street after having torn off the gold and silver
which adorned them. Men, women, and children were
seized, whenever their captors could flatter themselves
that they had concealed some treasure, or that there was
any one sufficiently interested for them to pay their
vansom.- Every house resounded with the cries and
lamentations of wretched persons thus subjected to the
torture; and this dreadful state of crime and agony
lasted not merely days, but was prolonged for more than
nine months: it was not till the 17th of February, J 528,
that the prince of Orange, one of the French lords who
had accompanied Bourbon in his rebellion, finally with¬
drew from Rome all of this army that vice and disease had
spared. The Germans, indeed, after the first few days, had
sheathed their swords, to plunge into drunkenness and the
most brutal debauchery ; but the Spaniards, up to the
last hour of their stay in Rome, indefatigable in their
rold-blooded cruelty, continued to invent fresh torture to
extort new ransoms fropi all who fell into their hands ;
even the plague, the consequence of so much sutfering,
836 JIRTOBY or TBE ITAlotAN REPUB1.1CS. 162^.
moral and physical, which broke out amidst all these
horrors, did not make the rapacious Spaniard loose his
prey.
The struggle between the Italians, feebly seconded by
the French, and the generals of Charles V., was prolonged
yet more than two years after the sack of Rome; but it
only added to the desolation of Italy, and destroyed
alike in all the Italian provinces the last remains of
prosperity. On the 18th of August, 1527. Henry VIII.
of England and Francis I. contracted the treaty of
Amiens, for the deliverance, as the two sovereigns an¬
nounced, of the pope. A powerful French army, com¬
manded by Lau.trec, entered Italy in the same month,
by tlie province of Alexandria. They surprised Pavia on
the 1st of October, and during eight days barbarously
pillaged that great city, under pretence of avenging tne
defeat of their king under its walls. After this success,
Lautrec, instead of completing the conquest of Lom-
bardy, directed his march towards the south ; renewed
the alliance of France with the duke of Ferrara, to
whose son was given in marriage a daughter of Louis
XII., sister of the queen of France. He secured the
friendship of the Florentine republic, which, on the
17th of die preceding May, had taken advantage of the
distress and captivity of the pope, to recover its liberty,
and to re-establish its government in the same form in
which it stood in 1512. The pope, learning tliat
Lautrec had arrived at Orvieto, escaped from the castle
of St. Angelo on the 9th of December, and took refuge
in the French camp. The Spaniard Alarcon had de¬
tained him captive, with thirteen cardinals, during six
months, in that fortress ; and, though the plague had
broken out there, he did not relax in his severity. After
having received 400,000 ducats for his ransom, instead
of releasing him, as he had engaged to do the next day,
it is probable that he suffered him to escspe, lest his
own soldiers should arrest him in order to extort a second
ransom.
Lautrec passed the Tronto to enter the Abruaai with
1528.
LAUTREC AT NAPLES.
337
his powerful army on the 10th of February, 1528.
The banditti whom Charles V. called his soldiers, whom
he never paid, and who showed no disposition to obe¬
dience, were cantoned at Milan, Rome, and the principal
cities in Italy: they divided their time between de¬
bauchery and the infliction of torture on their hosts ;
their officers were unable to induce them to leave the towns
and advance towards the enemy. The people in the
excess of suflfering, met every change with eagerness, and
received Lautrec as a deliverer. He would probably have
obtained complete success, if Francis had not just at this
moment withheld the monthly advance of money which
he had promised. That monarch, identifying his pride
of royalty with prodigality, exhausted his finances in
pleasures and entertaihments ; his want of economy drew
on him all his disasters. Lautrec, on his side, although
he had many qualities of a good general, was harsh,
proud, and obstinate : he piqued himself on doing always
the opposite of what he was counselled. Disregard¬
ing the national peculiarities of the French, he at¬
tempted in war to discipline them in slow and regular
movements. He lost valuable time in Apulia, where he
took and sacked Melfi, on the 23d of March, with a
barbarity worthy of his adversaries, the Spaniards : he
did not arrive till the 1st of May before Naples. The
prince of Orange had just entered that city with the army
which had sacked Rome, but of which the greater part
had been carried oflP by a dreadful mortality, the con¬
sequence and punishment of its vices and crimes.
Instead of vigorously attacking them, Lautrec, in spite
of the warm remonstrances of his officers, persisted in
reducing Naples by blockade ; thus exposing his army
to the influence of a destructive climate. The imperial
fleet was destroyed, on the 28th of May, in the gulf
of Salerno, by Filippino Doria, who was in the pay of
France. The inhabitants of Naples experienced the
most cruel privations, and sickness soon made great
havoc amongst them : but a malady not less fatal broke
out at the same time in the French camp. The ol-
z
S8S HUTOBT OF THB IT AILLAIT REPUBLICS. 16Í8.
dien, under a binning sun, surrounded widi putrid
water, condemned to every l^d of privatien, haraied
by the light cavalry of the enemy, infinitely superior to
thein, sank, one after the other,. under pestflentill
feven. In the middle of June, the French reckoned
in their camp 25,000 men ; by the 2d of August there
did not remrin 4000 fit for service. At this period aU
the springs were dry, and the troops began to suffer
from hunger and thirst. Lautrec, ill as he was, had
till then supported the army by his courage and in*
vincible obstinacy ; but, worn out at last, he esjóred
in the night of the 15th of August:—almost all the
other officers died in like manner. The marquis de
Saluces, on whom the command of the army devolved,
felt the necessity of a retreat, but knew not how to
secure it in presence of such a superior force. He tried
to escape from the imperialists, by taking advantage of
a tremendous storm, in the night of the 29th of Angustí
but was soon pursued, and overtaken at Aversa, where,
on the 30th, he was forced to capitulate. The maga¬
zines and hospitals at Capua were, at the same time, given
up to the Spaniards. The prisoners and the sick were
crowded together in the stables of the Mi^dalen, where
contagion acquired new force. The Spaniards foresaw
it, and watched with indifference the ^ny and death
of all ; for nearly all of that brilliant army perished— a
few invalids only ever returned to France.
During the same campaign* another French army,
conducted by François de Bourbon, count de St. Pol,
had entered Lombardy, at the moment when Henry
duke of Brunswick led thither a German army. Henry,
finding nothing more- to pillage, announced that his
mission was to punish a rebellious nation, and put to the
sword all the inhabitants of the villages through which
he passed. Milan was at once a prey to famine and the
plague, aggravated by the cupidity and cold-blooded
fbrodty of Leyva, who still commanded the Spanish
garrison. Leyva seized all the provisions brought in
from the country ; and, to profit by the general misery.
1529.
ANDREA DOBIA.
859
resdd them at an enormous price. Genoa had remained
a|}l\ject to the French, and was little less oppressed;
none of its repuhlican institutions were any longer, re¬
acted : but a great admiral still rendered it illustrious.
Andrea Doria had collected a fleet, on board of which
he summoned all the enterprising spirits of Liguria:
his nephew Filippino, who had just gained a victory
over the imperialists, was his lieutenant. The Dorias
demanded the restoration of liberty to their country as
the price of their services : unable to obtain it from the
French, they passed over to the imperialists. As¬
sured by the promises of Charles, they presented
themselves, on the 12 th of September, before Genoa,
excited their countrymen to revolt, and constrained the
French to evacuate the town : they made themselves
masters of Savona on the 21st of October, and a few
days afterwards of Castelletto. Doria then proclaimed
the republic, and re-established once more the freedom of
Genoa, at the moment when all freedom was near its
end in Italy. The winter passed in suffering and in¬
action. The following year, Antonio de Leyva sur¬
prised the count de St. Pol at Landriano, on the 21st of
June, 1529, and made him prisoner, with all the prin¬
cipal oflicers of the French army. The rest dispersed or
returned to France. This was the last military incident
in this dreadful war.
Peace was ardently desired on all sides; negotiations
were actively carried on ; but every potentate sought to
deceive his ally in order to obtain tetter conditions from
his adversary. Margaret of Austria, the sister of the
emperor's father, and Louisa of Savoy, the mother of
the king of France, met at Cambray ; and in confermce,
to ' which no witnesses were admitted, arranged what
was called " Le traité des dames." Clement VII. had
at the same time a nuncio at Barcelona, who negotiated
with the emperor. The latter was impatient to arrange
the affairs of Italy, in order to pass into Germany. Not
only had Soliman invaded Austria, and, on the ISth of
September, arrived under the walls of Vienna, but the
S40 HI8T0R7 OF THE ITAJLIAN BEPUBUC8. 1529.
reformation of Luther excited in all the north of Ger¬
many a continually increasing ferment. On the 20th
of Jane, 1529« Charles signed at Barcelona a treaty of
perpetual alliance with the pope : by it he engaged to
sacrifice the repnUic of Florence to die pope's vengeance,
and to place in the service of Clement, in order to ae>
complidi it, all the brigands who had previoody de.
vastated Itdy. Florence was to be given in soverrignty
to the bastard Alexander de' Medici, who was to marry an
illegitimate daughter of Charles V. On the 5th of August
follpwing, Louis and Margaret ngned the treaty of
Cambray, by which France abandoned, without reserve,
all its Italian allies to the caprices of Charles; who, on
his side, renounced Burgundy, and restored to Francis
his two sons, who had been retained as hostages. Charles
arrived at Genoa, on hoard the fieet of Andrea Doria, on
the 12th of August. The pope awaited him at Bologna^
into which he made his entry on the 5th of November.
He summoned thither all the princes of Italy, or their
deputies, and treated them with more moderation than
might have been expected after the shameful abandon¬
ment of them by France. As he knew the health of
Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, to be in a declining
state, which promised but few years of life, he granted
him the restitution of his duchy for the sum of 900,000
ducats, which Sforza was to pay at difièrent terms :
they had not all fallen due when that prince died, on
the 24th of October, 1535, without issue, and his estates
escheated to the emperor. On the 23d of December,
1529, Charles granted peace to the Venetians ; who
restored him only some places in Apulia, and gave
up Ravenna and Cervia to the pope. On the 20th
of March, Alphonso d'Este also signed a treaty, by
which he referred Ids differences with the pope to the
arbitration of the emperor. Charles did not pronounce
on them till the following year. He conferred on Al¬
phonso the possession of Modena, Reggio, and Rubbiera,
as fiefs of the empire ; and he made the pope give him
the investiture of Ferrara. On the 25th of March,
1530. pbaoe and slavery of italy. 341
1530j a diploma of the emperor ndsed the marquisate of
Mantua to a duchy^ in favour of Frederick de Gon«
aaga. The duke of Savoy and the marquis de Mont-
ferrat, till then protected by France, arrived at Bologna,
to place themselves under the protection of the emperor.
The duke of Urbino was recommended to him by the
Venetians, and obtained some promises of favour. The
republics of Genoa, Sienna, and Lucca had permission
to vegetate under the imperial protection ; and Charles,
having received from the pope, at Bologna, on the 22d
of February and 24th of March, the two crowns of
Lombardy and of the empire, departed in the beginning
of April for Germany, in order to escape witnessing the
odious service in which he consented that his troops
should be employed against Florence.
CHAP. XVI.
OPPRESSION OP ITALY DURING THE THREE LAST CENTURIES.
SUCCESSIVE FALL OF ALL HER REPUBLICS. — HER LAST CON¬
VULSIONS.
The evil destiny of Italy was accomplished. CharlesVIII.,
when he first invaded that country, opened its gates to
all the transalpine nations : from that period Italy was
ravaged, during thirty-six years, by Germans, French,
Spaniards, Swiss, and even Turks. They inflicted on
her calamities beyond example in history; calamities so
much the more keenly felt, as the sufferers were more
civilised, and the author s more barbarous. The French
invasion ended in giving to the greatest enemies of France
the dominion of that country, so rich, so industrious,
and of which the possession was sought ardently by all.
Never would the house of Austria have achieved the
conquest of Italy, if Charles VIII., Louis XII., and
Francis I. had not previously destroyed the wealth and
z 3
342 HIgTOBV OF THE ITALIAN REP1TBLICS. 1527>
military organisation of the nation ; if they had not
themselves introduced the Spaniards into the kingdom
of Naples, and the Germans into the states of Venice ;
forgetting that both must soon after besntgect to CharlesV.
The independence of Italy would have been benedcial
to France : the rapacious and improvident policy which
made France seek subjects where it should only have
sought allies, was the origin of a long train of disasters
to the French.
A period of three centuries of weakness, humili¬
ation, and sufibring, in Italy, began in the year
1530 : from that time she was always oppressed by fo¬
reigners, and enervated and corrupted by her masters.
These last reproached her with the vices of which they
were themselves the authors. After having reduced her
to the impossibility of resisting, they accused her of
cowardice when she submitted, and of rebellion when
she made efforts to vindicate herself. Tlie Italians,
during this long period of slavery, were agitated with
the desire of becoming once more a nation : as, however,
they had lost the direction of their own affidrs, they
ceased to have any history which could be called dieirs ;
their misfortunes have become but episodes in the his¬
tories of other nations. We should not, however, look
upon the task which we have imposed on ourselves as
concluded, if we did not distinguish, amidst this general
subjugation, the particular calamities which closed the
existence of the republics which still remained inde¬
pendent after the coronation of Charles V.
The Florentines, who, from 1512, had been victims
of all the faults of Leo X. and Clement VII.,—who had
been drawn into all the oscillations of their pdicy, and
called upon to make prodigious sacrifices of money fbr
projects with which they had not even been made ac¬
quainted, — were taught under these popes to detest die
yoke of the Medici. When the constable Bourbon ap¬
proached their walls in his march to Rome, on the 26'th
of April, 1627, they were on the point of recovering
their liberty : the cardinal de Cortona, who commanded
1528. IiAgT STRUOOLE OP FLiORENCE. 343
for the pope at Florence, had distributed arms among
the citizens for their defence ; and they determined to
ennploy them for their liberation : but the terror which
Ais army of brigands inspired did Ae cardinal the ser¬
vice of repressing insurrection. When, however, they
heard soon after of the taking of Rome, and of Ae cap¬
tivity of Ae pope, all Ae most notable citizens presented
Aemselves in Aeir civic dress to Ae cardinal de Cor-
tona; declared firmly, but with calmness, that they were
henceforth free ; and compelled him, with the two bas¬
tard Medici whom he brought up, to quit Ae dty. It
was on Ae 17th of May, 1527i that the lieutenant of
Clement obeyed ; and Ae constitution, such as it existed
in 1512, wiA its grand council, was restored without
diange, except that the office of gonfalonier was declared
annual. The first person invested wiA this charge was
Nicolo Capponi, a man enAusiastic in religion, and mo¬
derate in politics : he was the son of Pietro Capponi,
who had braved Charles VIII. In 1529, he was suc¬
ceeded by Baldassare Carducci, whose character was more
energetic, and opinions more democratic. Carducci was
succeeded, in 1530, by Raffaele Girolami, who witnessed
Ae end of the republic.
Florence, during the whole period of its glory and
power, had neglected the arts of war : it reckoned for
its defence on the adventurers whom its wealA could
summon from all parts to its service ; and set but little
value on a courage which men, without any other virtue,
were so e^er to sell to the highest bidder. Since the
transalpine nations had begun to subdue Italy to their
tyranny, these hireling arms sufficed no longer for the
public safety. Statesmen began to see Ae necessity of
giving Ae republic a protection wiAin itself. Macchi-
avelli, who died on the 22d of June, 1527, six weeks
after the restoration of the popular government, had been
long engi^ed in persuading his fellow citizens of Ae
necessity of awakening a military spirit in the people :
it was he who caused the country militia, named tordi-
•nanza, to be formed into regiments. A body of mer-
z 4
844ê history of the Italian bepublicr. lâsç-
cenaiies, organised by Giovanni de' Medid, a distant
kinsman of the popes, served at the time as a militsry
school for the Tuscans, among whom alone the corps had
been raised : it acquired a high reputatíon under the
name of bande nere. No infantry equalled it in courage
and intelligence. Five thousand of these warriors served
under Lautrec in the kingdom of Naples, where they
almost all perished. When, towards the end of the year
1528, the Florentines perceived that their situation be¬
came more and more critical, they formed, among those
who enjoyed the greatest privileges in thdr country, two
bodies of militia, which displayed the utmost valour for
its defence. The first, consisting of 800 young men of
noble families, undertook the guard of the palace, and
the support of the constitution j the sectmd, of 4000
soldiers drawn only from among families having a ri^it
to sit in the council-general, were called the dvic militia:
both soon found opportunities of proving that genmusity
and patriotism suffice to create, in a very short period,
the best soldiers. The illustrious Michael Angelo was
charged to superintend the fortifications of Florence :
they were completed in the month of April, 1529.
Lastly, the ten commissioners of war chose for the com¬
mand of the city Malatesta Ba^oni of Perugia, who
was recommended to them as much for his hatred of the
Medici, who had unjustly put his father to death, as for
his reputation for valour and military talent.
Clement VII. sent against Florence, his native country,
that very prince of Orange, the successor of Bourbon,
who had made him prisoner at Rome ; and with him that
very army of robbers which had overwhelmed the hdy
see, and its subjects, with misery and every outrage. Thk
army entered Tuscany in the month of September^ 1529,
and took possession of Cortmia, Arezao, and all the
upper Val d'Arno. On the 14th of October the prmce
of Orange encamped in the plain of Ripoli, at the foot of
the walls of Florence ; and, towards the end of December,
Ferdinand de Gonzaga led on the right bank of the
A^o another imperial army, composed of 20,000 Spai-
1530.
FRANCESCO FEBRUCCI.
34*5
niards and Germans, which occupied without resistance
Pistoia and Prato. Notwithstanding the immense su*
periority of their forces, the imperialists did not attempt
to make a breach in the walls of Florence ; they resolved
to make themselves masters of the city by blockade^
The Florentines, on the contrary, animated by preachers
who inherited the zeal of Savonarola, and who united
liberty with religion as an object of their worship, were
eager for battle ; they made frequent attacks on the whole
line of their enemies, led in turns by Malatesta Baglioni
and Stefano Colonna. They made nightly sallies, covered
with white shirts to distinguish each other in the dark,
and successively surprised the posts of the imperialists :
but the slight advantages, thus obtained, could not dis'-
guise the growing danger of the republic. France had
abandoned them to their enemies ; there remained not
one ally either in Italy or the rest of Europe ; while
the army of the pope and emperor comprehended all the
survivors of diose soldiers who had so long been the
terror of Italy by their courage and ferocity, and whose
warlike ardour was now redoubled by the hope of the
approaching pillage of the richest city in the West.
The Florentines had one solitary chance of deliverance.
Francesco Ferrucci, one of their citizens, who had learned
the art of war in the bande nere, and joined to a mind
full of resources an unconquerable intrepidity and an
ardent patriotism, was not shut up within the walls of
Florence : he had been named commissary-general, with
unlimited power over all that remained without the
capitaL Ferrucci was at first engaged in conveying
provisions from Empoli to Florence : he afterwards took
Volterra from the imperialists; and, having formed a
small army, proposed to the signoria to seduce all the
adventurers and brigands from the imperial army, by
promising them another piUage of the pontifical court,
and succeeding in that, to march at their head on Rome,
frighten Clement, and force him to grant peace to their
country. The signoria rejected this plan as too daring*
Ferrucci then formed a second, which was little less bold*
346 HISTOBT OF THE ITAUAH BBFUBUCS. 1550.
He departed from Volterra, made the tour of Tuscany,
Frhich the imperial troops traversed in every direction,
collected at Leghorn, Pisa, the Val di Nievole, and in the
mountains of Pistoia, every soldier, every man xH courage,
still devoted to the repubUc ; and, after having thus in¬
creased his army, he intended to fall on the imperial
canap before Florence and force the prince of Orange,
vrho began to feel the want of money, , to raise the siege.
Ferrucd, with an intrepidity equal to his skill, led his
little troop, from the 14th of July to the 2d of August,
1550, through numerous bodies of imperialists, who
preceded, followed, and surrounded him on all sides,
as far as Gavinana, four miles from San Marcello, in
the mountains of Pistoia. He entered that vill^ about
mid.day, on the 2d of August, with 5000 infantry
and 500 cavalry. The prince of Orange, at the same
time, entered by another gate, with a part of the army
which besieged Florence. The different corps, whidi
had on every side harassed Ferrucci in his march,
poured in upon him from all quarters : the battle in¬
stantly began, and was fought with rdentless fiiry within
the walls of Gavinana. Philibert de Challón, prince of
Orange, in whom that house became extinct, was killed
by a double shot, and his corps put to flight; but
other bands of. imperialists successively arrived, and
continually renewed the attack on a small force ex¬
hausted with fatigue: 2000 Florentines were already
stretched on the field of battle ; when Ferrucci, pierced
with several mortal wounds, was borne bleed^g to
the presence of his personal enemy, Fabrizio Maramaldi,
a Calabrese, who commandèd the light cavalry of the
emperor. The Calabrese stabbed him several times in
his rage; while Ferrucci calmly said, " Thou wouldst
kill a dead man ! " The republic perished with him.
When news of the disaster at Gavinana reached Flo¬
rence, the consternation was extreme. Baglioni, who
for some days had been in treaty with the {uince of
Orange, and who was accused of having given him notice
of the project of Ferrucci, declared that a longer resistance
CAPITULATION OP FLORENCE. S47
was impossible, and that he was determined to save an
imprudent city, which seemed hent upon its own ruin.
On the 8 th of Ai^st he opened the bastion, in which
he was stationed, to an imperial captain, and planted his
artillery so as to command the town. The citizens, in
consternation, abandoned the defence of the walls, to
employ themselves in concealing their valuable effects in
the churches ; and the signoria acquainted Ferdinand de
Gonzaga, who had succeeded the prince of Orange in the
command of the army, that they were ready to capitulate.
The terms granted on the 12th of August, 1580, were
less rigorous than the Florentines might have appre¬
hended. They were to pay a gratuity of 80,000 crowns
to the army which besieged them, and to recall the Me¬
dici. In return, a complete amnesty was to be granted
to all who had acted against that family, the pope, or the
emperor. But Clement had no intention to observe any
of the engagements contracted in his name. On the
20th of August, he caused the parliament, in the name
of the sovereign people, to create a balia, which was to
execute the vengeance of which he would not himself
take the responsibility : he subjected to the torture, and
afterwards punished with exile or death, by means of tbis
balia, all the patriots who had signalised themselves by
their zeal for liberty. In the first month 150 illustrious
citizens were banished ; before tbe end of the year there
were more than 1000 sufferers : every Florentine family,
even among those most devoted to the Medici, had some
one member among the proscribed.
Alexander, the bastard Medici, whom Clement had
appointed chief of the Florentine republic in preference
to his cousin Hyppolito, did not return to his country tUl
the 5th of July, 1531 : he was the bearer'of a rescript
from the emperor, which gave Florence a constitution
nearly monarchical ; but, so far from confining himself
within the limits traced, Alexander oppressed the people
with the most grievous tyranny. Cruelty, debauchery,
and extortion marked him for public hatred. On the
10th of August, 1535, he caused to be poisoned his
S48 H18T0RT OF THB ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 1554.
cousin, the cardiñal Ippolito, who undertook the de¬
fence of his feUow-countrymen against him. He at last,
on the 6th of January, 1537, was himself assassinated by
his kinsman and companion in licentiousness, LorenrinO
de' Medici.
But the death of Alexander did not restore freedom
to his country. The agents of his tyranny, the most
able but also the most odious of whom was die historian
Guicciardini, needed a prince for their protector. They
tnade choice of Cosmo de' Medici, a youngman of nineteen,
descended in the fourth generation from Lorenzo, the
brother of the former Cosmo. On the 9th of January,
1537, they proclaimed him duke of Florence, hoping to
guide him henceforth at their pleasure ; but they were
deceiyed. This man, fdlse, cold-blooded, and ferocious,
who had all the vices of Filippo II., and who shrank from
no crime, soon got rid of his counsellors, as well as of his
adrersaries. Cosmo I., in 1569, obtained from the pope
Pius V. the tide of grand duke of Tuscany ; a tide that
the emperor would not then acknowledge, though he
afterwards, in 1575, granted it to the son of Cosmo.
Seven grand dukes of that family reigned successively at
Florence. The last, Gian Gastone, died on the 9th of
July, 1737.
It was Cosmo I. who abolished the name of republic
at Sienna, as he had done at Florence. That dty, so
long faithful to the Ghibeline party, had evinced the
same devotion to the emperor in the wars of the begin¬
ning of the century. Charles V. took advantage of it to
introduce into Sienna a Spanish garrison, destined to
overawe Tuscany and the court of Rome ; but the
Spaniards showed there, as every where else, the charac¬
teristic pride, cupidity, and ferocity which had rendered
them universally odious. On the 11th of August, 1558,
the Siennese, unable to bear with them any longer, rose
against them, drove them out, and introduced a French
garrison in their stead. Cosmo pledged himself to remain
neutral in the war lighted up anew between the French
and the imperialists : he, nevertheless, on the 87th of
1555.
CONQUEST OF SIENNA.
349
January, 1554, attacked, without any declaration of war,
the Siennese, whose city he hoped to take by surprise.
Having failed in this attack, he gave the command of his
army to the ferocious marquis de Marignano, who un¬
dertook to reduce it by famine. The first act of Marig¬
nano was to massacre without mercy all the women,
children, aged, and sick, whom the Siennese, beginning
to feel the want of provisions, had sent out of the town :
every peasant discovered carrying provisions into Sienna
was immediately hung before its gates. The villages and
fortresses of the Siennese, for the most part, attempted
to remain faitliful to the republic ; but in all those which
held out until the cannon was planted against their walls,
the inhabitants were inhumanly put to death. It was then
that the edge of the sword or famine destroyed the rustic
population, particularly that of the coast of Maremma,
covered with forests at this day. The Maremmane fever
overran that desolate district; and those who at the peace
returned there to reap the inheritance of the victims of
Marignano, soon feÙ themselves the victims of that
disease. The city of Sienna at last capitulated, on
the 2d of April, 1555; and its capitulation was not
better respected than that of Florence. Death and exile
were the lot of those generous citizens to whom an
amnesty had been promised. The Spaniards retained
possession of Sienna for two years ; and did not sûrren-
der it to the duke of Florence until the 19th of July,
1557.
After the subjugation of Sienna, there remained in
Italy only three republics, Lucca, Genoa, and Venice,
unless it may be permitted to reckon San Marino, a free
village, situated on the summit of a mountain of Ro-
magna, which has alike escaped both usurpation and
history until our own time.
In 1546, Lucca had a gonfalonier, named Francesco
Burlamachi, who formed the bold project of restoring
liberty to all the republics of Tuscany. The militia of
Lucca, in number only 2000, were to be reviewed by
bim on a given day, after which he was to lead them
S50 HUTOBT or THE ITAUAN BEFVBUCg. 1546.
Buddeoly across the mountains to Pisa, in order to roiM
that warlike dty to revolt: detachments were, at tbe
same time, to be sent to excite similar insurrections at
Pescia, Pistoia, Florence, Bologna, Sienna, and Perugia.
Popular governments were every where to be organised^
and the different towns were to form one confederation.
Charles V., then engaged in Germany in combating
the league of Smalkalde, was supposed not to be in a
situation to defend Italy. But the spies of Cosmo dis¬
covered the plot. The duke of Florence demanded the
punishment of the conspirators from the magistrates of
Lucca; who, trembling at the emperor's displeasure,
delivered Burlamachi to the lieutenant of Charles at
Milan. The first magistrate of a republic, calling itself
still free, was tortured, and afterwards beheaded, by order
of & foreign governor. From that period Lucca was
ruled by a narrow aristocracy, called in derision s tignori
del cerchioHnos because the magistracies passed among
them from one to the other in rotation as in a circle.
The Martiniana law, proposed on the 9th of November,
1556, by the gonfalonier Martin Bemardini, excluded
from office every man who was not descended from fa¬
milies which had an hereditary share in the sovereignty
of the republic : of those there were not, in the year
1600, more than I68; and at the last enumeration,
made in 1797, there more than 88. They were,
nevertheless, to furnish a signoria, composed of a gon¬
falonier, nine anziani, a senate of thir^-six members,
and a grand council of ninety. This jealous aristocracy,
hated by the people, could not maintain itself from the
moment it came in contact with the French of the revo¬
lution. These last took possession of Tuscany, on the
15th of October, 1800 ; on the 25th of December, 1801,
the Lucchese gave themselves a representative constitu¬
tion; and on the 4th of June, 1805, they demanded of
Napoleon a sovereign of his family.* His sister, the
princess £lise, was, on the 23d of June following;,
invested with the principality of Lueca, but with
laws which secured to the citizens and people more
1547.
CONSPIRACY OF FIESCHI.
351
6^UBlit3r and freedom than they had for a long period
enjoyed.
Andrea Doria restored the name of republic to Genoa,
his native country, but with it he restored neither liberty
nor independence. He constituted for the government
of the republic a narrow aristocracy, which he continued
to rule with his nephew Giannettino. He, at the same
time, attached his country to the house of Austria, with
a submission which the greater number of Genoese felt
as the deepest humiliation. It was to throw off the
double yoke of the Spaniards and of Doria that Gian
Luigi de' Fieschi formed a conspiracy, celebrated alike in
history and poetry. Fieschi brought down the vassals
of his vast fiefs in the mountains ; he had roused and
infiamed the partisans of ancient freedom : he combined
with all these the restless spirits which desired only
confusion and a change. In fine, he secured the aid of
France ; and on the 2d of January, 1547, seized the
port, fleet, and gates of the city. Giannettino Doria
was killed as he endeavoured to appease the sedition.
The aged Doria fled ; the revolution was accomplished :
but Gian Luigi de' Fieschi, who should, direct its course,
was nowhere to be found. In passing from one gaUey
to another, he had fallen unperceived into the sea, and,
being loaded with heavy armour, was drowned. His com¬
panions, without a chief, knew no longer what was to
he done. Though victors, they already treated with the
signoria as if vanquished ; and contented themselves
with the promise of an amnesty. The Dorias did not
observe this pledge; all the conspirators whom they could
seize were executed. It was not till after the death of
Andrea Doria, which took place only on the 25th of
November, 1560, that the Genoese limited, though in a
small degree, the rights of the aristocracy ; they admit¬
ted, on the 17th of March, 1576, a body of new nobles
into the government. They also preserved, with jea¬
lousy, the little that remained of their independence.
The court of Spain repeatedly endeavoured to suppress
the name of republic, and to overawe them by a
S52 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. l684.
citadel ; but they twice defeated its attempts, in 1548
and 1571.
The aiistociacy of Genoa was again, in 1698, endan¬
gered by a conspiracy. The families inscribed on the
golden book, and having the right to sit in cimncil,
including the new as well as ancient nobility, did not
exceed in number 170 ; but there were in Liguria at
least 450 families equally noble, decorated with titles,
possessing fiefs, prelacies, commanderies, and hereiiitary
wealth, who were excluded from all share in the govern^
ment. Julius Cesar Vachero persuaded these to aid him
in seizing a sovereignty from which they thought them¬
selves unjustly excluded. Vachero was a merchant of
immense wealth, who had adopted the Spanish manners,
then predominmt in Italy. His palace was always
filled with bravos ; he never walked out without having
numbers in his train ; whoever offended him immediatdy
fell under the dagger of the assassin, who escaped from
justice by intimidating the judges or witnesses with fredi
crimes. All the families not* inscribed on the golden
book promised to unite their bravos to those of Vachero.
On the Ist of April, 1628, they were to make a joint
attack upon the public palace, massacre all the ancient
nobility, and new-model the government, under the
protection of the duke of Savoy : but the plot was dis¬
covered the evening preceding that destined for its exe¬
cution. Vachero and several of bis accomplices were
arrested and executed.
The Genoese in the same century experienced a great
calamity. On the 18th of May, l684, their capital was
bombarded by the fieet of Louis XIV. ; who felt his
royal dignity offended by so small a people daring to
resist his will. He denMtnded the establishment of a
depot at Savons, to provision with salt and ammunition
of war his fortress of Cifsal de Montferrat. The senate
of Genoa refused their consent to tui estabUshment alike
contrary to their neutrahty and independice. The
mtuquess de Si^elay ptmished them, by poming on
this city 14,000 bombs in three days: the puUic palace
17S0. AVSTRIANS DRIVEN FROM GENOA. 353
was more than half destroyed; and the whole town
would have been ruined« if the doge had not consented
to proceed to Paris With four senators to make his
apology to the king.
Dignity and grandeur still characterised the doge« even
in his humiliation : but this proud« and perhaps noble«
merit was all that remained to the Genoese mstocracy ; it
became more and more narrow and exclusive. It adopted
the manners of the Spaniards« under whose protection it
had risen. The Genoese nobles, like the grandees of
Spain« always kept a band of assassins in their pay ; and
it was by Óie dagger alone that they sought to make
'themsdves feared or respected. The sovereign nobility,
prodigal and voracious« created by their pomp wants
beyond their resources: accordingly« they stooped to
tile most disgraceful depredations to obtain money. The
state could make no contract without being robbed ; it
was cheated in tiie victualling of fortresses« and of the
navy« and in ihe payment of troops; every place was
was an object of side« and justice was venal in die tri¬
bunals. The subjects of (he eastern and western coasts«
called the two Riviere, and of Ckirsica« frequently re¬
volted in order to tiirow off a yoke which had become
odious to them. In the eighteenth century« the Cor.
sicans redoubled their efforts to rid themselves of the
tyranny of G^noa. From the year 1730 to the 15th of
May, 1768« Corsica maintained an obstinate war agmnst
the r^uUic; which esteemed itself fortunate in prevail¬
ing on France to accept all its rights to that island in
payment of a debt contracted widi the French few the
purpose of subduing its revolted subjects.
But the spirit of the ancient Italian republicans, was
not extinguished among the people of Genoa as among
the 'nobles. The two branches of the house of Austria
in Spain and Germany had become extinct ; and, in
the war of the Austrian succession« the Genoese had
alliance with the house of Bourbon, which dis¬
puted with Maria Theresa the inheritance of her father
Charles VI. In -this war the French, united with the
A A
354t HISTOST OF THE ITAUAH BEFUBUCS. 1746'.
Spaniards/ were defeated and driv^ out of Xombaidj.
The Austrians appeared before G^oa ; and the senate,
which dared not arm the population, opened their gates
to them, on the 6th of September, 1746. The Aus¬
trians abused, as they have ever d(me, the favours of
fortune. They exacted from G^noa a contribution of
.9,000,000 of florins of the empire, a sum which that
city was not in a condition to pay. They seized all the
money at the bank, all the phite of the churches, and
even the property of individuals. They emptied the
arsenals ; and destined the artillery of Genoa to be em¬
ployed in an attack which they meditated against Pro¬
vence. They made the Genoese themselves draw the
cannon of which they robbed them ; and expecting to
find in the Italians Austrian baseness and servüity, they
urged' them in their labour with blows. A heavy
mortar had stuck fast amidst the ruins of a narrow
street, and a German seijeant raised his cane on a
Genoese to make him draw with more force; the latter,
seizing a stone, threw it at the head of the Austrian.
The people /collected, calling out, nut " to arms!" for
they had none, but to attack the Austrians with stones.
The Grenoese from every window showered on them the
stones of walls which they demolished, or the tiles of
houses which they unroofed. In those narrow and
winding streets the soldiers could find no shelter. Th^
could present themselves in no imposing masses. They
fired on their assailants; and more than one house was fuÜ
of dead: but as they could not see the fall of those whom
they struck, they did were not cheered by their success.
Meanwhile the- streets were soon covered with Austrian
dead. The Austrians tried in vain to set fire to houses,
in the construction of which there happened to be but few
combustible materials. Terror at length seized them :
they fled from the city. It was the 5th of December,!746.
The populace whidi had expelled them lost no time in
lining the ramparts and gates with cannon. The mar¬
quess Botta Adorno, general of the Austrians, had esta¬
blished in Genoa all his magazines, with his park of
1805. GENOA UNITED WITH FRANCE. 355
artillery. The revolt which drove him out deprived
him both of arms and provisions; and in the barren
mountains which surround Genoa nothing was to be
procured : he was accordingly, on the 10th of December,
obliged to repass the Apennines. The peace of Aix-Ia-
Chapelle, concluded two years afterwards, on the 18th of
December, 1748, secured to the republic of Genoa the
integrity of its territory, under the protection of France.
The expulsion of the Austrians was the last glorious
event in the history of Genoa, as well as the last display
of energy by the Italian nation, till the universal convul¬
sion caused by the revolution of France. In the years
1794 and 1795, the senate of Genoa availed itself of
the importance of its position to preserve its neutrality :
its inclinations, however, sometimes prevailed over its
interest, and not mifrequently exposed the French to
outrages. These last postponed their demand of repar^
ation, till the victory of Monte Notte, gained by Bona¬
parte over the Piedmontese and Austrians, on the 11th
of April, 1796> placed Genoa at their discretion. From
that time the partisans of democracy began to daim as
a right that all the inhabitants of Liguria should par¬
ticipate in the sovereignty. The nobles, seconded by
the clergy, had a numerous party on their side among
the people. On the 22d of May, 1797, they resorted to
arms ; and 10,000 of the lowest class, collected by the cry
of Viva Maria! for a moment triumphed over the friends
of liberty. But this event itself furnished Bonaparte with
an opportunity of interfering: he supported the rights
of the nation against the aristocracy, and made the de¬
puties of the senate sign, on the 6th of June, 1797, the
convention of Monte Bello, which obliged the Genoese
to adopt the name of the Ligurian republic ; the inha¬
bitants of Liguria being all admitted to a share in the
sovereignty. The constitution of this republic was pro¬
claimed on the 14th of June, 1797; it was modified on
the 26th of June, 1802; and abolished on the 8th of
October, 1805, by the union of the state of Genoa to
France. Bonaparte had engaged the members of the
A A 2
356 HISTORY OF THE ITAI.IAir REPHRLICS. iGlS.
gOTèmment themselTes to make the demand, on the 4th
a( June, 1805.
We have now to speak onlj of the decline and fall
pf the repiiblic of Vehice, the state in Italy vthose exist*
ence was of longest duration. As this republic was Ae
most powerful, die most wealthy, and the most wisdy
administered of all the Italian states, it appeared, even
after the year 1530, when all Italy fell under the yoke
of Charles Y., to have preserved some vigour and inde¬
pendence. But the signoria of Venice did not share in
the illusion which it created alwoad : it fdt the nation's
weakness and danger, and knew too well that the vital
priiidplé was gone.
The whole of the l6th century was employed by the
Venetians ih repairing the disasters of the leágne o£
Cambrai. They had to rebuild all the walls of their
city ; to recover their reduced population ; to re-esta¬
blish their manufactures and agriculture, and to liquidate
the enormous debt with which they were loaded ; bo-
sides being always menaced by the Turks, against wb(An
they had to support two disastrous wars : one from
1537 to 1540, which cost them their islands iñ the
Archipeh^o, and their last fortresses in the Morea ; the
otha from 1570 to 1573, which deprived them of the
isle of Cyprus. They appeared' in some degree sacred
to the western people, who regarded.them as their de¬
fenders against the. infidels ; they were moreover united
by an identity of interests to the Roman empire, — like
them, ménaced by the Mussulmans : they, consequently,
drew closer their alliance with the house of Austria, and
imder that pretext withdrew themselves from every
other participation in the general affairs of Europe.
But in the beginning of the seventeenth century the
Mussulman empire no longer inspired so much terror.
The yoke of Spain continued to grow more insupport¬
able to Italy; while the developement of the protestant
party in Europe showed some prospect of throwing it
off. The policy of the Venetian republic was, in fact,
cohstandy to throw ofi^ the yoke of the house of
1618.
CONSPIRAOV OF BGDHAR.
857
Austria. But knowiug its own weakness^ and justlj
nispicibus of alKes who would abandon after compro¬
mising them, the Venetians contented themselves with
giving succour to those whom they considered the de.
fenders of European liberty, without openly making
themselves a party in their leagues.
Venice was the first to acknowledge Henry IV., re¬
jected by the catholic powers, and to negotiate his
reconciliation with the pope. In l6'17, it made alliance
with the Dutch. During the thirty years' war, it gave
succour to the protestants of Germany, to Bethlem
Gahor, and to Ragotsld, in Hungary. It supported the
duke of Savoy against Üie king of Spain, and the pro¬
testant Orisons against the catholics of tliat canton^
At this period, when the republic was come almost to
open hostility with the court of Spain, Philip III.
was rq>resented in Italy by three powerful noblemen,
ambitious, intriguing, and faithless—Don Pedro de To¬
ledo, governor of Milan ; the duke d'Ossuna, viceroy of
Nafdes; and the marquis de Bedmar, ambassador at
Venice. In I6I8, a project was formed between these
three lords to destroy a republic which stood in the way
of their ambition, and wMch had always thwarted the
^terprises of Spain. Some French adventurers, who
h^ signalised themselves in the armies and fleets of the
republic, of whom the most illustrious were the corsair
Jaiques Pierre and Jaifier, dissatisfied with the rewards
which they had obtained, offered their services to the
waiquis de Bedmar. The marquis encouraged them
to enlist in their service the assasáns, bravos, and
robbers who, under the Spanish rule, always formed a
part of the household of men of quality. It was agreed
that, at a given signal, they should massacre the doge,
senators, and nobles ; that the city should afterwards
be abandoned to their pillage ; and that a general fire
should veil their crimes. On the other side, it appears
that Jaques Pierre gave early notice of this plot to the
senate; that he carried it on by its order ; that the
senate made use of it to hide its secret intelligence with
A A 8
358 HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. l674.
the duke d'Ossuna^ with whom a projeet was entered into
of nearly the same nature with that which had been
proposed in the preceding century by Morone to Pea.
cara. It was intended, with the aid of the senate, to
re-establish the independence of all Italy, by drivkig the
Spaniards out of Lombardy, and giving Ossuna the
crown of Naples. Fresh disclosures of Antoine Jaf-
fier apparently discovered to the Council of Ten that
the conspirators preferred the pillage of Venice to the
doubtful chances of a revolt at Naplra ; and that the in¬
formation which they had given of their plot was destined
only to deceive the vigilance of the state inquisitors. The
republic, howevtr, had embarked itself in intrigues which
could not bear the light. On a certain morning, the
inhabitants of Venh^e saw with horror the bodies of
Jaques Piene, Regnault, Boulant, and several others,
hanging in the square of St. Mark. One hundred and
sixty others were, it was affirmed, drowned in the grand
canal; among them was Jaffier. No motive was as.
signed for these executions ; no explanation was given
to the public ; no recrimination was addressed to the
court of Spain. The Council of Ten desired, above all,
the silence of terror ; and the romantic history of thw>
conspiracy, published by St. Real in 1674, and the tragedy
of ^'Venice Preserved," by Otway, in 1682, were the only
public documents of this catastrophe for a long time.
The Venetians were afterwards forced by the attacks
of the Turks to make advances to the house of Austria
the enemy of their enemies. On the 23d of June,
1645, the sultan Ibrahim unexpectedly attacked the isle
of Candia. The war which thus began was the longest and
most ruinous that the republic had yet sustained against
the Ottoman empire : it lasted twenty-five years. The
Venetians displayed obstinate valour in defence of Can¬
dia. Courageous adventurers arrived from every part
of the west to fight under tlierr banner, as in a holy war.
Their fleet twice destroyed that of the Mussulmans;
but the forces of the republic were too disproportioned
to those of the Turkish empire. Cai^ia was ibroed to
1714.
LOSS OF THE KOREA.
359
surrender on the 6th of September, 1669 ; aud the
senate of that colony, the reflected image of the repub¬
lic, returned into the grand council of Venice, which had
f[iven it birth : peace followed this capitulation.
A second war between the Venetians and the Porte
"was, before the end of the century, crowned with more
success. The republic engaged in it, in 1682, in con¬
cert with the emperor Leopold and John Sobieski, king
of Poland. It conquered the Morea, Egina, Santa
Maura, and several fortresses in Dalmatia, which were
secured to it by the treaty of Carlowitz, signed on the
26th of January, 1699 : hut the Turks could not sufibr
so feeble an enemy to take from them one of their finest
provinces. They might soon visibly convince themselves
that the Venetians were no longer in a state to make a
last eflfort to protect their conquests : the supreme power
was concentrated in an oligarchy becoming daily more
distracted. Half the nobility admitted to the grand council
were reduced to the most extreme poverty. They lived
on the bounty of the great, to whom they sold their
suffrages. The families from among whom alone was
selected the Council of Ten made every other tremble and
obey. They regarded the state as a prey to be divided
amongst themselves. Justice was venal; the finances
dilapidated ; the fortifications falling into ruin ; the ef¬
fective force of the army did not amount to one half of
what appeared on the roU : every thing was to theVenetian
noble an object of embezzlement and robbery. The
oppression of the distant provinces was so great, that
the eastern Christian subjects of the republic regretted
the dominion of the Ottomans. The sultan, Achmet III.,
informed of this universal disorganisation, sent his army,
on the 20th of June, 1714, into the Morea; and in a
month conquered that peninsula,' covered with fortresses,
of which not one made any resistance. On the 27th of
Jnne, 1718, the republic abandoned, under the peace of
Passarowitz, all its claims on the Morea. From that
period it had no fiirther war with the Turks.
' The republic abstained, with the same timidity, from
A A 4
HISTOBT OF TH« XTAUAN REPUBUC8. 1792.
taking anj part in die war of the axooeaaioB, either in
Spain or Anatria, in the quadruple alliance, or ka that
of the dection,of Pdand, which diatnrbed Italy durii^
the first half of the á^teenth century. It could not
even make ita neutrality respected. Its territory, always
open to every belligerent power, was often the theatre of
their most o^tinate warfare. Venice^ with fi,000,000
of subjects, 14,000 tro<q)8 of the Une (<^ which one htdf
was composed of excellent Sclavonian aoldiera), fewetwe
vess^ of war, and the means of anning 50,000 men,
was incapable of making herself respected, or of prateel»
ing her subjects, either by sea or land. Her debt, even
in the bosom of peace, was always increasing ; her
manufacturée always in decay; her territory was infested
with robbers ; every city was divided into faetians,
which the senate encouraged, in ordar to weaken its
aukjecta. A auspieious and cruel government, whú^
maintained itsdf only by the vigilance of apia^ which
had promoted iramoraUty to enervate the peojde, which
made the most profound secrecy its only aaf^nard, ■*»*
which did not tolerate even a question on public affiae^
which deprived the accused of every protection before
the tribunals,—which acknowledged no other limit to tfie
right of punishing by the dag^, by poison, or by the
axe of the mcecutionm-, than that of the terror of its
rulm;—a government such as this became exeaatedlqr
ita Bttbjects. It stained with the most odious tyranny
the very name of repuhUc.
The French revolution appeared to the Venetian aria,
tocracy an ^emy destined to destroy it: of all the
gQV.ernments.which divided Europe, the Voiatian was the
most opposite in principle to that of the French ; never-
th^ess, the senate refused, to enter into the coalitian
against France» in 1792. Any display of force would
have augmented its expenses, and dimhoished the spoOs
of pcovinces which the patricians divided amongst them«
tmlyea. The same parsimony, the same sacrifice of the
pubUc to private interesta, hindered Venice, when the
TMtoariM .^E Bonaparte opened Lombardy to him, in
1797. VENICB ATTACKS THE FRENQH. S6l
April, 1796» from augmenting her army or prorisiotihg
her fortresses in order to protect her toritoiy from the
two bellig^nt powers. The government, adopting a
vacillating policy between the two parties, and awaiting
events, laid aside its arms : this soon brought war into
the states of the republic. The Austrians, always the
first to violate neutral ground, traversed tiiem in every
direction: Beaulieu occupied Peschiera and Verona;
Wurmser threw himself into Bassano, and passed through
Vicenza and Padua ; Alvinzi and the archduke Charles
occupied Friuli and Palma Nova, up to the eastern
limits of the republic. Napolecm successively drove the
Austrians from each of these provinces; but, as the
French occupied them, the spirit of reform in the tri.
bunals and the laws, the spirit of publicity and equidity>
an impatience of every yoke,—tiie spirit, in short, of
the IVench,—'manifested itself, and the republic was at
last made to understand how much it was detested by all
those who had the least elevation of soul or cultivation
of mind.
Others, it is true, of the lowest class, (day-labourers in
towns, and peasants in the country,) completely under the
influence of priests, comprehending only what exists,
fearing all change, and still deeply excited by the name
of St. Mark, regarded France and every thing French
with horror. The senate, relying on this party, whose
fanaticism it excited, and hearing that Napoleon had
passed the Piove on Us march to Germany, on the 11th
of March, 1797, gave orders to arrest at Bergamo
fourteen of the principal inhabitants, who had de¬
clared themselves the most earnest in favour of the
new doctrines. The patriots, warned in time, arrested
the proveditor himself, raised tiie standard of revolt,
and proclaimed the liberty of Bei^^amo: a few days
afterwards, a similar revolution broke- out at Brescia.
Bonaparte had just defeated the archduke Charles at
the Tagliamento, and was marching on Vienna. An
Austrian column, commanded by Laudon, had meanwhile
penetBated by the Tyrol into Italy; which he inundated
362 HI8T0BT OP THE ITALIAN BEPUBLIC8. 1797-
with proclamatiom, announcing the defeat and deatrnction
of the French army, and inviting the Italiana to take
arms to crush ita ñ4;itive remaina. The aenate, feeling
that ita poaition became daily more critical, believed the
moment come for throwing off the mask and joining the
Austrians. Emili, the proveditor of Verona, after having
eonferréd with Laudon, ordered the tocsin to he rung, on
the 17th of April, throughout the whole province; and
joining 30,000 insurgents to 3000 soldiers, whom he
commanded, every where attacked the French, massacred
all those within his reach, and suffered the infuriated
people to murder 400 sick in the hospitals. The next
day preliminaries of peace between Austria and the
French republic were signed at Leohen ; and, on the 3d
of May, 1797, Bonaparte, informed of the insurrection
which had been organised in the rear of his army, and
of the massacre of his sick, declared war against Venice
from Palma Nova. The oligarchy, in consternation,
implored the court of Vienna, which had drawn it
into this imprudent attack, to include Venice in the
suspension of arms and the negotiations for peace ; but
Austria refused all assistance : she had her own views on
her ally, and Venice fell. The French general Baraguai
d'Hilliers entered the city on the l6di of- May, and
planted imopposed the tricolour banner on St. Mark. The
n^tiations for peace, however, continued. Austria, be¬
ginning to recover from her panic, disputed the concessions
demanded, and asked compensation out of the states of
her ally. Hostilities were on the point of recommencing ;
but France did not yet find herself strong enough to
liberate aU Italy. On the 17th of October, 1797,
Napoleon signed the treaty of Campo Formio, by which
he secured the liberty of one half of the Venetian ter¬
ritory -up to the Adige, which was united to the Cisalpine
rqmblic. The Ionian isles were, at the same time,
united to France. Austria, on her side, took possession
of Venice and the remainder of the Venetian states. The
loss of liberty sustained by that part of the republic was,
however, of no long duration: at the exjoiation of
1805.
REOBNEBATION Of ITALY.
363
eighteen months the war was renewed ; and, after the
French had made themselves masters of Vienna, they
obliged Austria to restore Venice and all her territory to
the kingdom of Italy, under tlie treaty of Presburg,
signed on the 26th of December, 1805.
It was thus that the invasion of the French, at the
end of the eighteenth century, restored to Italy all the
advantages of which their invasion at the end of the
fifteenth had deprived her. When Charles VI11. en¬
tered Naples with his victorious army, on the 22d of
February, 1495, and overthrew the ancient system of
Italian politics, he gave the signal for aU the calamities
which afterwards precipitated the peninsula under the
yoke of the transalpine nations. The Italians continued
to regard themselves as the first people in Europe, but
they had almost every where lost iheir liberty: of
the five republics which they could still reckon, four
were narrow aristocracies, l^en Napoleon. Bonaparte
was appointed to the command of the French army in
Italy, on the 2Sd of February, 179^, he began to effect
a regeneration which gave to the Italian nation more
liberty than it had lost. It is the participation of
numbers in the government, and not the name of re¬
public as opposed to monarchy, that constitutes liberty :
it is, above all, the reign of the laws; publicity in the
administration, as well as the tribunals ; equality; the
removal of all shackles on thought, on education, and on
religion. Five millions and a half of inhabitants in the
kingdom of Italy were put in possession of a constitution
which secured to them all these advantages, with a par¬
ticipation in the legislature and in the vote of taxes.
They had recovered the glorious name of Italians ; they
had a national army, the bravery of which rendered it
(h^y more illustrious. Six millions and a half in¬
habitants of the kingdom of Naples received institutions
less advanced, it is true ; but even there the law had
succeeded arbitrary power ; public and oral evidence had
succeeded secret information and the torture ; equality, the
feudal system ; education, instead of retrograding, had
364 BlgTOBT OF THB ITAVlAït BBFVBUC«. 1805.
been rendered progressive^ and thought, as wdl as religjÍQiu
conscience, had recovered freedom : finally, 2,000,000
of Piedmontese, 500,000 Genoese, 500,000 Parmesaiu^
and 2,500,000 Tuscans and Romans,—in all, 5,500,000
Italians,—were temporarily united to France. They par¬
took of all the piivileges of the conquerors : they became
with them accustomed to the dominion of the law, to
freedom of thought, and to military virtue,—secure that
at no very distant period, when their political education
should be accomplished, they would again be incorporated
in that Italy to the future liberty and glory of which
they now directed their every thought.
Such was the work which the French accomplished
by twenty years of victory : it was doubtless incomplete,
and left much to be desired ; but it possessed in itself
the principle of greater advancement: it promised to
revive Italy, liberty, virtue, and glory. It has been the
work of the coalition to destroy all; to place Italy again
under the galling yoke of Austria ; to take from her,
with political liberty, civil and religious freedom, and
even freedom of thought ; to corrupt her morals ; and
to heap upon her the utmost degree of humiliaticm.
Italy is unanimous in abhorring this ignominious yoke :
Italy, to break it, has done all that coiild be expected of
her. In a struggle between an established government
and a nation, the former has all the advantages : it has in
its favour rapidity of communication, certainty of in¬
formation, soldiers, arsenals, fortresses, and finances.
The people have only their unarmed hands and their
masses unaccustomed to act together: nevertheless, in
every struggle during these fifteen years in Italy, between
die nation and its oppressors, the victory has remained
with the people. At Naples, in SicOy, in Piedmont, in
the states of the church, at Modena and Parma, unarmed
masses have seized the arms of the soldiers ; men chosen
by the peo^e have taken the places of the despots in their
palaces, llie Italians, every where victorious over their
own tyrants, have, it is true, been every where forced
back under die yoke with redoubled cruelty by the let^e
1805.
PROSPECTS OF ITALT.
365
of foreign despots. Attacked before they could have
given themselves a government or formed a treasury,,
arsenals, or an army, by the sovereign of another nation,
who reckons not less than 30,000,000 of subjects, they
did not attempt a hopeless resistance, which would have
deprived them of every chance for the future. Let those
who demand more of them begin by doing as much
themselves.
Italy is crushed; but her heart still beats with the love
of liberty, virtue, and glory : she is chained and covered
with blood ; but she still knows her strength and her
future destiny : she is insulted by those for whom she
has opened the way to every improvement ; but she feels
that she is formed to take the lead again : and Europe
will know no repose till the nation which, in the dark
ages, lighted the torch of civilisation with that of liberty,
shall be enabled herself to enjoy the light which she
created.
INDEX.
A.
Achmbt Giedik, grand viiier to
Mahomet II., 275.
Achmet III., pope, 359.
Adolphua of Nassau, 105.
Adrian IV., pope, 42.
Adrian VI., pope, 327. Death of,
328.
Agostîno Capponi, 319.
Aignadel, battle of, 309.
Aix-la-Chapelle, peace of, 355.
Alberic, governor of Treviso, 88.
AUiert of Austria, 105.
Albert, marquis d'Este, succeeds
his brother in the sovereignty of
Ferrara, to the prejudice of his
nephew Dbixao, whom he caused
to be beheaded with his mother,
192.
Alberto Scotto, lord of Flacentia,
124.
Albornoz, cardinal, 159.
Alençon, duchess of, 331.
Alexander III., pope, 43. Con¬
tracts an alliance with William
the Norman, king of the Two Si¬
cilies ; and arms the whole of
southern Italy against Frederick
Barbarossa, 44. Escapes from
Rome; after his escape the Ro.
mans take the oath of hdelity to
Frederick Barbarossa, 46. Ar¬
rives in Venice to open negotia¬
tions with the emperor, 51.
Alexander IV., pope, 94.
Alexander V., pope, 212.
Alexander VI., pope, 284. De¬
nounces Savonarola as a heretic,
and prohibits him from preach¬
ing, 292. Despatches judges from
Rome with orders to condemn
Savonarola, with his two friends,
to death, 295. Enters into an
alliance with Louis XII. of
France, 29a Death of, 30t
Alexander de'Medici, receives a re¬
script from the emperor, which
gave to Florence a constitution
nearly monarchical, 347. Death
of, 34a
Alexandria, a city founded by the
league of Lombardy In honour of
pope Alexander, 46.
Alpnonso the Magnanimous, king
of Aragon, 214. Death of, 230.
Alphonso II. of Naples, abdicates
in favour of his son, 288.
Alphonso d'Este, 340.
Amalfi, illustrious for the found¬
ation in the Holy Land of the
hospital and military order of
St John of Jerusalem, for the
invention of the compass, and
the preservation of the conduits
of Justinian, surrendered to the
Normans in 1131, 28.
Ambrosio Contarini, 257.
Amedeus VIII., duke of Savoy,
216.
Amiens, the treaty of, 336.
Ancona, marquis of, 62.
Andrea Dándolo, doge of Venice,
62.
Andrea di Pisa, 108.'
Andrea de Pazzi, 251.
Andrea Lampugnani, 266.
Andrea Gutti, 3Cn.
Andrea Doria, proclaims the repub¬
lic, and re-establishes once more
the freedom of Genoa, 339. Death
of, 351.
Angelo, Michael, 344. -
Annibal Bentivoglio, 232.
Antoine Jafher, 358.
Antonio Fisiraga, 123.
Antonio da Volterra, 270.
Antonio Grimani, 307.
Antonio Trivulzio, 230.
Antonio de Leyva, 332. Surprises
the Count St Pol at Landriano,
and makes him prisoner, with all
the prin cipal officers of the Fi-ench
army, 339.
Antoniotto Adomi, doge of Genoa,
confers on Charles VI. of France
the signoria of Genoa, 187.
AquUa, the battle of, 215.
Armagnac, count.de, 193.
Arnold of Brescia, an eloquent
monk, the disciple of Abelard,
preaches a twofold reform in the
religious and political orders ;
driven out oí Italy by Pope Inno-
368
eentll.; recalled to Bone; burnt
alive before the gate of the caatle
of St. Angelo in 1155, 33.
Altar de* Manfredi, Ï7K.
Alio Viaconti, lord of Milai^ cedei
the gorernment to John of Bohe¬
mia, taking henceforth the title
of hii Ticar only, 142L Death of.
B.
Bijaaet IL, dedarei war againit
Venice, £97.
Baidauar Carducd, 343.
Baldinaocio degU Adimari, 149.
Baldwin, count of Viandera named
by the cruiadera emperor of Con-
itantinopie, (&
Balearic lile^ the, oónquerad by
the I^sans from the Sûacena in
1113, sa
B azbiano, count of, forms a military
eomnny under the name of
St. Gamige^ into which he ad.
adtted Italians onlv, 190,
Barnabas Visconti, 168. Fones the
two legates of the pope to eat the
parchmetot, together with the
leadhn seáis and silken strings, on
which the bull of excommunica¬
tion against him was written, 174.
Carries on secret negotiations
Witt» the holy see ; oflbi« to sacii.
Bee to the church the republic of
Florence, 176. Divides his do¬
minions amongst his children;
thrown into prison by bis nephes^
Gian Oaleazzo, 189. Death of,
isa
Bartolomeo Coléoni, SS7.
Bartolomeo d'Alviano, 3QSL
Bayard the chevalier, 3S9.
Beatrice, wife of Charles of Apjou,
leads an army of 30,000 men
through Lombardy, to ^ her
husband in his entry into Sicily,
95.
Bedmar, marquis de, 367.
Benedetto, Alberti, placed at the
head of the republic of Florence,
186. Exiled foom Florence, 187.
Benedict XI., pope, endeavours to
reconcile the Blanchi and the
Neri'; hisdeatli, 117.
Benedict XIL, pope, 145. His cha-
meter, 156.
Benedict XIII., pope, besieged in
his palace at Avignon 1^ the
troops of the king of France ; de-
■IhM himself ready to abdicate ;
deposed^ tire oecumenical coun¬
cil at nia; retires to Rimini,
906.
Bcnevento founded by a Lombard
chief, 96L Divided into Oree
principalities, 27.
Beno de Oazzadini, 8L
Benurdo Guadagni gonCslonier of
Florence, 935.
Bernardo Nardi snrpriaes the gate
of the Prato, makes bimaelf maa-
ter of the public palace, arrests
the Florentine podesta,9fil. Taken
prisoner by the governor, and be-
iieaded with six of his aoeom-
plices, 264.
Bernardo Bandini, 270l
Bertrand de FOiet, cardinal, 130.
145
Bianca, daughter of the diAe af
Milan; marriagewHh Ftan-
cesco Sforaa, 2^.
Biancbi and Neri, the factii«
11.5
Blandmte, count de, oUbrs himself
as a mediator between the Bfi-
lanese and Frederick Baitamma ;
obtains terms not unfavouraUeto
the Milanese, SB.
Boeca degli Abati, 86.
Boccaccio, character of Ids wiltiBp,
153.
Boccanegra, doge of Genoa, 14&
Boiogiu, flouririiing state hs.the
time of the Roman enqdr^ 7. Ke-
public of, 1431
Boniface VIIL, pope, his chsmeter,
106. Endeavonrs to augment the
power of the Guelphs ; ariestcd
by Philip le Bei in his palace of
Anagni, and died a few weeka aC.
terwards of rage and humibation,
107.
Bon^use lX.,pope, 208.
Bonne, duchess of Savoy, regent of
Milsin, 272. Deprived of the re¬
gency, 273.
Bonnivet, admiral, 328.
Boiso, duke of Ferrara, 664
Botta, Ademo, marquas, SBk
fioucicatilt, marshal, 206.
Bourbon, the consfohle de, jcins
the imperialist^ 329L BeoeiveB
from Charles V. the of
his forces m Italy, 334 ffis
death, 334
Braccio da Montone, plaeed by the
Florentines at tiie bead of their
army, 211. Made ginii mm nf
Abruixi by Alphonso, kiuR nf
Aragon: mortmly wnnndan In
the battle of Aquila, 21&
Brancaleone d'Andolor a Bolngiicje
noble, called by the Romans to
the government of their republic
with the title of semtor, 81.
Establishes, by tenw, sennrity in
the streets of Rom& 82.
Bmtoia, the liage 0^ m
BuottTioíno, « Dominican Mnir, a
ftiend and diaciple of Savonarola,
Condemned to death : burnt
aUve on toe 23d of May 1496, 294.
Buoso da Doara, 94.
C.
Can'Grande dellaScala, 123. Death
of, 139.
Cambray, the league of, 308.
Campo Formio, the treaty of, 362.
Cantocuzene, the emperor, 166.
Capua, flourishing state of, in the
'•time of the Roman empire. 7.
Cario Zeno, 181.
Carlo Visconti, 26R
Caitruccio Castracani, a Ghibeline
noble, thrown into a dungeon by
UguccionedàFaggiuola,132. De-
Evered by the insurgents, and
f reclaimed Lord of Lucca, 133.
Bs character and person, 134.
Makes war with Florence ; re.
turns to Lucca with triumphal
pomp, 136. Intercedes with Louis
of Bavaria for the liberation of
Gideaazo Visconti, 137. Accom¬
panies Louis of Bavaria to Rome;
inade senator of that city ; carries
toe imperial sword at the corona,
tion, 138. Death of, 139.
Cateiina Cornaro, 238.
Catherine Visconti, duchess of
Milan, 200. Her death, 201.
Catherine'Sfbrza, 277. Marriage of,
with Giovanni de' Medici, 278.
Catterino Zeno, 236.
Cesar Borgia, son of Pope Alex-
' ander VI., S96. Created duke of
itomagna, 303. Death of, 304.
Celestine V., pope, 106.
Charles, king of the Franks, re¬
ceives from the pope the name of
Charlemagne, or Charles the
Great ; death of, 12:
Cfawles, count of Anjou, receives
the crown of Siciiy nom the
pope ; riected senator by the Ro¬
man repubEc, 95. Enters Naples
at the head of 30,000 men, 96.
Receives from the Florentines
the signoria of Florence for ten
years, 97. Named imperial vicar
in luly during the interregnum
of the empire, 98. Summoned by
St. Louis to join the crusade, 99.
Obliged by the pope to renounce
the title of vicar imperial and
senator of Rome, 100. Deprived
of the crown of Sicily, 103.
Death of, 104.
Cbarlñ II., of Naples, 104. His
character and death, 105.
X, 369
Chulea de Valois, 116.
Charles IV.,of Bohemia, 158. Called
by the pope king of the priefte,
159. Enters Tuscany : encourages
the malecontents of toe republics
of Pisa and Sienna to overthrow
the existiim government, 168.
Returns to Lucca, 173. Récrives
fh>m the doge toe signoria 01
Genoa, 187.
Charles da Durazao, 179.
Charles VI., of France, 179.
Charles VII„ of France, 257.
Charles VIll., of France, 282. In¬
vades Italy ; enters Florence. 287.
Declares himself content with the
subsidy offered by the republic ;
departs from Florence ; enters
Rome, 288. Returns to France ;
death of, 289.
Charles V., of Germany, 324. Signs
at Barcelona a treaty of perpetual
alliance with the pope, 340. Re¬
ceives ftom toe pope at Bologna,
toe two crowns of Lombardy, and
the empire, 341.
Charles, of Austria, 361.
Christian, archbishop of Mentz, 47.
Clement IV., pope, 95. Death of,
98.
Clement V., pope, 117. Death of,
129.
Clement VI., pope, 159. Cedes toe
fief of Bologna to the archbishop
of Milan, on condition of receiv¬
ing from him an annual tribute
of 12/)00 florins, 165.
Clement VII., pope, 208. His cha¬
racter, 328.
Cola di Rienzo, re-establishes a re¬
publican government at Rome,
154. His character, 1551 Ap¬
pointed by toe Romans the pope's
vicar, 15f\ Death of, 157.
Conrad, the Salic, of Franconia,
filled the throne of Italy from
1004 to 1039, 16- Puts an end to
the war between the cities and
the nobles, by a constitution which
is considered the basis of feudal
l&w 17»
Conrad III., of Germany, S3.
Conrad IV., of Germany, 80.
Conrad V., of Germany, 80.
Conradin, son of Conrad V., of Ger¬
many, disputes the crown of Sicily
with Charles of Anjou, 96. Taken
prisoner by him after the battle
of Tagliacozza, and beheaded in
the market-place at Naples, 98.
Censilio di Credenza, a secret coun¬
cil appointed by the parliament of
Milan to assist the government,22.
Constance, peace of, 52.
Constance, sole heiress of the Ner.
B B
S70
HTDEX.
man kinn ; marriace ot, with
Henry VL, emperor ot Oennany,
Cooftantinople, taken tiy the Turka
inl459,2R
Oomw äe' Medi^ 9Stk Hia lore
of literature, S&k Condemned
to exile by the balSa of Florence,
S26. Recalled Arom exile, 9S7.
Seeka to became prince of Flo.
rence, S5S. Becomea d^y more
powerflil at Florence, £35. Death
of, 215.
Coamo de' Medici, duke of Flo¬
rence, 318.
Crema, aiege, of, 40.
D.
Diümbert, archbishop, 29.
Dante, 108. Exiled bom hia coun¬
try, 117.
Dino Compagni,Rie historian, 116.
E.
Fkxelino II. of Romagna, 67.
Eccelino III. of Romaraa, placed
by Frederick IL at the head of
the Ghibeline part]^ 68. Named
by the members of the republic
captain of the people OR Ob¬
tains firom Frederick IL the ex-
cluûve government of the Ve¬
ronese marches, 74. Hia Ca¬
rácter, 89. Hia death, 90.
Egidio, Albornos, 157.
iäiae, princesa, sister of Napoleon
Bonaparte, invested with the prin¬
cipality of Lucca, 350.
Este, mas^s d', 71. Joins the
party of Beatrice, wife of Charles
of Anjoik97.
Eugeniua Iv., pope, 2S7.
Fabrizio Maramaldi, 346.
Facino Cane, 201.
Farinata degH Ubertí, joins Man¬
fred, king of the Two Sicilies, 85.
Repels with indignation the pro^
positions of the ambassadors of
naa and Sienna, 87. Immortal¬
ised I7 Dante as the saviour of
Florence, 88.
Ferdinand I. of Naples, his cha.
rwter, 244. Signs a treaty with
Lorenso de' Medici, £75. Death
<4285.
Fnalhud IL of Naples, 288.
FeidiBand of Aragon,
with IsCeDaofCariili^S8R
FercUnaiid the CathoHc, 300L His
treachery, 30L
Ferdinand of Austria, SSL
Ferdinand de Oonzaga, 34il
Filippo Maria, count of Favia, 200.
Filippo Maria Visconti, third duke
of Milai^ bis character, 2131 Ac.
complidiea the ccstow** of Lom.
bor^, 214 Makes aUianoe with
Joan 11. ofNiyles^andLmAPL
ofAiqo^215. Death oi;£aR
Fllippino Doria, S37.
Florence, the rnidiHco^ itsjndoial
institutions, » The constitution
of, 135. sute of, in 1432, £201
Fornovo^ battle at, £89.
Francesco Gambaoccta, 169L
Francescoda Gonzaga, Msd of Man¬
tua, in a paro.xvsm of rage and
jealousy, causes Bis wife to be be¬
headed, 19SL
Francesco da Carrara, lord of IMva,
179. Aco«^ the proMaed aL
liance of Gian Oaleaazo Visconti,
191. Re-cstahlished in the 4o-
vereignty of Padua in ISOIV SDSL
Carries on a war with Venice
with the utmost valour, 201
Thrown into prison and straimled,
with his two sons, by «der of the
Council of Ten, 205.
Fl^ncesco Caimaraola, a Ked-
montese soldier, plac^ by the
duke of Milan at the heed of his
armies, 214 Excites the jealousy
of the duke by the tniuence he
obtrined over the soldiers, 216L
Basely deceived by the Venetians^
and executed brtween the tsro
columns on the square of St
hUrk, in 1432,219.
Fkanceschettoubo^sonof pope In¬
nocent VIIL, £7&
Francesco Acdaiiudo duke of
Athens, 254
Francesco Foseari doge ot Venice,
216. His warUke amotion, 231.
Deposed in 1458, and died while
listening to the tolUng of the bell
for the inauguraron vS his suc¬
cessor, 243.
Francesco Ftocinin^227.
Francetcode'FaaaLieS. FUneisee,
RinaMok and Jactmo, execqidoB
0^271.
Francesco Salviati archbishqp of
Fisa, 269. Execution of, 271.
Francesco Ferrucci, 345. Death-of,
346.
Francesco Burlamachi gon&loneT
of Lucca, 319. Beheaded by
order of the emperor Charlee V.,
36a
I^ceccoSflwuiuocMdihla fMher '
» the command of his army, 315.
Forms an intimate friendship
with Cosmo de' Medici, SS7. En.
ters with his army the serrice of
the republic of Milan, SSI. His
perfidy, SSSL Gains a great and
last victory over the Venetians at
Caravaggio,834i. Proclaimed duke
of Milan, S35. Death, of, S50.
Francis II. of Carrara, 195.
Francis of Apulia, a friar sent to
Florence by the pope to preach
_against Savonarola, S93.
Francis I. of France renews the
treaty of alliance with Venice,
3SS. Si^s a treaty of peace with
the Swiss, which took the name
of " pçrpetuelle," En¬
ters Lombardy, makes himself
master of Milan, 329. Contracts
the treaty of Amiens with Henry
VIU.of!bigland,336L
François de Bourbon enters Lorn,
bardy with a French army, 338.
Frederick Barbarossa, duke of Swa-
tda, receives the crown of Italy
flrom the Germanic diet assembled
at Frankfort, 33. Enters Italy
with a powerful German army,
Si. Plunders and bums the towns
of Chieri and Astí, 35. Crowned
at Rome by pope Adrian IV. 3&
Summons his vassals at the feast
of Pentecost, 1158, to compel
the submission of Italy, 37, Or.
ders the people of Lodi to rebuild
thar town, 38. Sijpsa treaty with
the Milsmese. 8B Assembles a
new diet of the kingdom of Italy
at Bologna, and places Milan
under the ban of the empire, 39.
Raises the siege of Crema; his
cruel treatment of the inhabit,
ants, 40. Raises the siege of
Milan, 41. Returns to his Ger.
man dominions, 43. Re-enters
Italy, 43. Returns to Germany
to levy an army ; marches to.
wards Rome, 4i Deibats the
Romans with great slaughter, and
makes himself master of the
Leonine city, 45. Leaves Rome,
46. Obliged to suspend for five
yernv his efforts to subdue Italy,
47. Re-enters Italy at the head
of a fbrmidable army, 49. Medi¬
tates a new attack on Milan, 50.
Determines to think seriously of
peace ; opens new negotiations
with uie pope, 51. Concludes a
truce of six ysssrs with the Lom.
bards: signs the peace of Con-
stance, 52. Places himself at the
head of the third crusade which
c. 371
he led into the East by land, and
died the 10th of June, 1190, of a
stroke of apoplexy, 55.
Frederick it of Germany, 50.
Crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, by
the German Ghibelines, king of
the Romans and Germuis, 601
Receives from the pope the crown
of the empire ; his iove of litera-
ture; founds schools and univer.
sities. 65. Accused of having
written a book against the three
revelations of Moses, Jesus, and
Mahomet, entitled " De Tribus
Impostoribus marriage of, witli
Yolanda de Lusignan; excom-
municated by the pope, 66. Reu
establishes his power m southern
Italy, 68. Obliged to employ two
years in settling his ankirs in
Germany ; returns to Italy with
3000 German cavalry, 69 Raises
the siege of Brescia, 70. Excom.
municated a second time by the
pope, 71. Solicits to be reconciled
to the church ; refiued by the pope
and declared an enemy ot re-
ligion,72. Opposes all his strength
of soul against the sentence pro.
nounced against him by the coun-
cil of Lyons, 73. Becomes sus-
picious and cruel ; confides Ger.
many to his son Conrad, 74. Re.
sumes his arms at a moment when
he was least disposed, 75. Raises
the siege of Parma, 76. Death
of, 78.
Frederick, illeñtimate son of Fre.
derick IL, called ,by him king of
Anüoch, 75.
Frederick III. of Austria, van.
quished by Louis of Bavaria and
made prisoner at Muhldorf, 139
Refiises to acknowledge Fran,
cesco Sforza, duke of Milan, 336.
Frederick da Montefeltro, duke of
Urbino, 272.
Frederick, king of Naples, 398
Death of, 301.
French revolution of 1792,360.
G.
Gabriel Maria Visconti, 206. Exe.
cution of, 307.
Gabrlno Fondola, 201.
Galeazzo Visconti, lord of Milan,
131. Deprived of his sovereignty
and cast into a dungMn together
with his sons and nis two bro¬
thers by Louis of Bavaria; li-
berated at - the intercession of
Castmccio, 137.
Galeano Sforza, 250. His charac.
B B 2
372 n
ter,S65. AsMÉriniited while pro.
ceeding |0 the church of at Ste.
phen in 147^ aR&
Onleuio 8bd Sererino, S9S.
Galeoltp, Manfredi, lord of Faensa,
27&
Gaiton de Fois, duke of Nemours,
SIS.
Geub, the, invade Italjr, and oom-
Sete the destruction of the Lorn,
ird monarchy, tl.
Gaultier de Briende, duke of
Athena, H7. His character, 149.
George Caatriot, 2S6.
George de Frundsbeig, 333. Death
of, 334.
Ghibelinea, the; consinracy of, to
recover their power in Florence,
85> Enter Florence, and imme.
diatety abolish the i^ular go¬
vernment, 87. Obtain the as¬
cendency in Lombardy, 94.
Gbiberto da Correggio, lord of
Parma, 124.
Giacomo del Verme, 193.
Gian Maria Visconti, duke of Mi¬
lan, 900. Hia ferocious charac¬
ter, 90L Assassinated hy some
Milanese nobles on the 16th of
May 1442,902.
Glan Battista da Montesecco, 270.
Gian Luigi de Fieachi, S51.
Giannettino Doria, SSL
Giano della Bella, 113:
Gilbert de Montpensier, viceroy of
Naples, 289.
Ginu Capponi, 208.
Giorgio Scali, execution of, 186.
Gitffgio Lampugnani, 23a
Giotti revives the art of painting in
Italy, 108.
Giovanni VUlani, 108.
Giovan di Galiura, chief of the
Guelnha of Pisa and Sardinia,
111.
Giovanni Agneiio, 170.
Giovanni da Vignati, 201.
Giovanni Bentivoglio, death of, 19&
Giovanni Gambacorta, 907.
Giovanni de" Medici, ffi4- 249. Re¬
ceives a cardinal's hat from the
pope, 277.
Giovanni Borromao, 967.
Giovanni de' Pazzi, 268.
GirolanM' Gentile, 263.
Girolamo Olgiati, 966. Put to the
torture for the murder of Ga-
leafto-SRirai^ 267.
Girolamo Riario, 2ti&
Ghmlnno Savonarola, a Dominican
numk-sif Ferrara, and eloquent
orator; preaches a double reform,
religious and political, at Flo¬
rence, 278. Sent for by Loreneo
de' Medici when he was dying ;
refuaet to give him Mtidutioir,
279. Promisee tbe rairaculoua
protection of Bte Divinity, fcr
the reform of the church, 291-
Limits his eflbrtf to the restor¬
ation of discipline; the reform¬
ation of the morals of tbe dern ;
and the recall of priests to tae
practice of the Gospel precepts,
2991 Denounced as a beretieby
the pope, and interdicted ftonr
preaching, 299. Holds up to
Îiublic remotmtion the scanda.
ous conduct of the pope, 293-
Condemned to death by the
judges despatched by tbe pope;
and burnt alive, on the 23d of
May, 1498, 29Sl
Giuliano dd Medici, 252. Death
of, 270.
Guiliano della Rovere, 268. *
Gonzaga, marquis of Mantua, 289.
Gonzalvo di Cordova, 300.
Grandeihu battle of, 96i
Gregory DC., pope, 66- Convokee
a ottficil at Rome of all tbe pre-
lates of Cbristendom, 71. Deidh
of, 72
Gregory X., pope, 9ft
Gregory XI., ^vb, his character,
174. His death, 176:
Gregory XII., pope, 206. Deposed
by the «ecumenical council at
P isa ; retires to Aragon, 202
Grenada, treaty of,SOa
Guelpha and Ghibelines, union of
the, 45.
Guido Novella, 97.
Guido de Montefeltro, 101.
Guido della Torre, governor af
Venice, 124.
Guiacardo Pietro Santa, pod está of
Florence, 84.
GuUelmo della Scala, 204.
H.
Harmodius, 262
Hassan Beg, 256.
Henry II. of Bavaria, 16.
Henry III. of Italy, 17. Obligee
tbe people to renounce the ñ|pt
they had in thoeleetioD of pq^
18.
Henry IV. of Italy, compelled by
Hildebrand to do penance before
him in the open court of (lanosa,
20;
Henry V. of Italy, 21.
Henry VI., emperor of Germany,
marriage of, with Constance, sole
heirem of the Nonnan kings, 54>
. iRsdeBBi,6&
INDEX.
373
Henry, prince, ten of Frederick II.,
68. Death
Henry III, of Eneland, 95¡
Henry VII. of Luxembourg, his
character, ISl. Crowned in the
«hurch of St Ambrose, ISA Re.
ceives the golden crown of the
empire from the hands of the
Mpe's legate, in the church of St.
John de Istteran, 137. Death of,
128.
HenryVIII.ofEng1and,3IA Con¬
tracts the treaty of Amiens with
Francis I. of France, for the de.
liverance of the pope, 336.
Henry, duxe.of Brunswick, 338.
Hensius, illegitimate son of Frede¬
rick II., called by him king of
Sardinia, and Imperial vicar in
Lombardy, 73. Taken prisoner
by the Bolognese, and confined in
the palace of the podestk for life,
Hercules L duke of Ferrara, 264.
Heribert, archbishop of UtlaiK in-
vents a car in imitation of the
' ark of alliance, aiiif 'causes it to be
adopted in Milan, 23.
Hildebrand, bom at Soano in Tub.
cany; sent by his convent to
p^ue his studies at Cluny, in
France ; undertakes to reform the
•church, 19i Prohibits the priests
' from marrying : concentrates all
the power of the church in the
pope, SO. Ascends the papal chair
in lOT.t, taking the name of Gre-
gory Vll., 21.
Honorios III., pope, 64.
Honorius IV., po^, 105.
Hugo de Monçada, 332.
Ibrahim, sultan, 3%
Innocent II., pope, 33.
kmocent IIL, pope, his character';
founds the two mendicant orders
of Franciscans and Dominicans,
and confides to them the fearful
powers of the inquisition, which
.ee instituted, 61. Ifouses the
fanatics of France to exterminate
the Albigenses, 63. Death of, 64.
Innocent IV., pope, 72. Opens in
the convent of St Just, at Lyons,
tte. council of the universal
church ; obtains from them a sen-
fence of excommunication against
Frederick 11., 73. Sends the car.
dinal Octavian degli Ubaldini to
the Guelph dries, to engage them
to pursue their victory,and puninh
the imperial party for their revolt
against rite church, 77. Enters
Milan on the death of Frederick
II. withdlthepompot atriumph,
81.
Innocent VI., pope, 157. Death of,
160.
Innocent VIL, pope, 208.
Innocent VIII., pope, 276.
Innoceneio Cotta, ¿10.
laabella of Castile, marriage of,
with Ferdinand of Aragon, 282.
Istria and Dalmatia make alliance
with Venice, 26.
Italy, state of, in the middle ages, 1.
Invaded by the French, German,
and Spanish nations, 4. Popula,
tion of, at the fall of the Roman
empire in the fifth century, 7.
Prosperous state of, during the
entire ages of Trajan and the
Antonines, 9. Invaded by barba,
rians, 10. Invaded by the Ostro¬
goths, under Tbeodoric, 10. In.
vaded by the Gauls, 11. State of,
from the fall of the ancient Ro¬
man empire to the passing over
of the revived empire to the
Germans, 13. Government of,
towards the beginning of the
twelfth century, 30. Review of,
from the invasion of Otho the
Great to the death of Frederick,
78. Progress of the arts, sciences,
and literature in, 1(J8. Revival
of letters in, 1.51. State of the
church in tlie fifteenth century,
199. Threatened by the Turks,
241. Invaded by Charles VIIL
of France, 203.
Jacomo Piccinino, 227.
Jacopo de' Bussolari, re-establishes
a republican government at Pa.
via, 154. His character, 157. His
death, 158
Jacopo Appiano, 194.
Jacopo Foscari, son of the doge of
Venice, 242. Death of, 243.
Jacopo Piccinino, 245.
Jacopo de'Pazzi, 268. Execution of,
271.
Jacopo Bracciolini, execution of,
27!.
James II. of Aragon, 133.
James III. de Lusignan, king of
Cyprus, 2Î7.
James de Lusignan, ton of the
former, 257.
Jaques, count de la Marche, 2IA
Jaques Pierre, 357.
Jerome Moroné, chancellor of the
duke of Milan, 330.
B B 3
374 IN
Joan, wife of Andrew king of Hun-
ga^, comenta to the murder of
net buiband, and marriea her
oouiin Louii, the inatigator of
the murder, IdQ. Protect! pope
Clement Vil., 177. Excommu¬
nicated and dcpoaed br pope Ur.
ban VI., 178. Surrendera beraeif
to Charles of Ouraaso, who causea
her to be amotfaeted under a fea¬
ther bed,17a
Joan XL, queen of Naples ; her cha¬
racter, Sia Her death, SS9.
John da Frocida,10S. Visita In dia-
guiae the Two Sicilies, tore-ani¬
mate the seal of the Ghibelinea,
103.
John XXIL, pope, IS^t His profli¬
gate character, 130. Death of,
1«.
John, king of Bohemia, 141.
John, archbishop of MUan, suc¬
ceeds Luchino in the aorereignty
of Milan, 161. Receives from the
po|m the fief of Bologna, on con¬
dition of his paying him an an¬
nual tribute of IfiJXX) florins, 165.
Death of, 16a
John Visconti da' Oleggio, 165.
John Hawkwood, 17a
John XXIIl., pope, dowsed by the
council of Constance, SISL
John, king of Navarre, 343.
John, duke of Calabria, 311
John Sobieski, king of Poland, 359.
Josaphat Barban», 357.
Julius II., pope, 304. His charac¬
terises. Accomplishes a leairae
against France, which was called
Holy, 313 Death of, 317.
Julius Cesar Vachero, execution
of, 353.
L.
Ladislaus king of Naples, takes
possession of nearly all the states
of the church, 309. Character of,
310. Death of, 313.
Lamba Doria, 135.
Lando, count, 163.
Lautrec, marshal, persists in reduc-
. ing Naples by Uockade, 337. His
death, 338.
Leo IlL, pope, 18.
Leo dà Peiego, a Dominican Briar,
67.
Leo X, pope; his reign and cha¬
racter, 318. Signs a treaty, by
which he restores Parma and
Flacentia to the French, 333. In¬
duces Francis L of France to sa.
orifice the liberties of the Gallican
chureb^M RefUses permission
to the florenUoes to re-establish
their rawblie, 33Sk Death et,
336.
Leonardo della Hovere, 368.
Leopold, emperon 3561
Liond, duke of Ferrara, 961
Lombards, the, invade Italy, and
destroy the monarchy of Uie Oa.
trogoths, 10. Found a c^ fat
northern Italy, of which revla
was the caqiital, and in southern
Italy the duchy of Benevento, 11.
Conquer the exarchate of Bn.
TMinaand thePentapoBa, and de¬
mand that these provinces should
be restored to Rome, 13.
Lombardy, the league oí, 4&
Lorenzo Ridoifl, 3161
Lorenzo de' Medid, 353 Aban-
doned by ItaW, places his hopee
in France, 371 Signs a treaty
with the king of Naples, 3751 iHs
administratlcsi, 377. His death,
979.
Louis IV. of Bavaria, successor of
Henry VIL, emperor of Gea-
many, 1S9L Receives the inn
crown at Milan, 137. Proceads
to Rome ; crowned in the Vati.
can, 138. Returns to Germany,
carrying with him the cootesupt
and detestation of the Italians,
m
Louis, king of Hungary, called the
Great, 160. Deatn^of, 179L
Louis of Tarento, 163
Louis IL of Anjou, disputes the
tbnme of Naples with TaiBslawik
310.
Louis IIL of Anjou, 311
Louis XL of France, S33L Aiiivei
in Italy, 89R Enters Milan, sa.
luted by the people as duke of
Milan, 399.
Louis XlL of France, sigm the
treaty OF Bids, 303 Coovakes,
in concert with Maximilian, an'
œcumenical council against the
pope, 313. Attacked by Heuiy-
VlII. of England; obligedtoih-
call his troops flrom Italy, 311.
Lonia XIV. or F>ance, SSL
Louis de la Tremouille, 990l
Louisa of Savoy, regent oi Fknee^
330. ■'
Lucas Pitti, gonfeloner of Flo¬
rence^ S4& Builds the magnifi¬
cent ^lace which now forms the
residence of the grand dukes;
343
. Luchino Visconti, 161
Ludan Doria, 180i
Lttdovioo Sforaa, sumamed the
Moar,873L Made regent of Üie
duchy of Milan, 383. Contracts
alliances with the Venetians, the
IMDEX
Ä75
pope, the kbig of Spain, and Max¬
imilian, S8& His death, 300.
Luigi Guicciardini, 251.
Luigi Loredauo, 255.
M.
Macchiavdli, death of, 313.
Margaret Austria signs the league
of Cambray, 308.
Mahomet II. signs a treaty of peace
with the Venetian ambassador,
251. Charges his grand visier
Aebmet Giedik to attempt a land,
ing in Italy, which he emcts, and
makes himself master of Otranto,
975.
Malstesta 1one of the princes of
Rimini, 307.
Malatesta Baglioni, Sil.
Manfted, natural son of Frederick
11., recovers the kingdom of Italy
fhim pope innocent 80. Killed
on the field of battle in the plain
of Grandella, near Benevento, 96.
Maria Theresa of Austria, 353.
Margaret of Anjou, 283.'
Mariano di Ghinassano, a friar, sig¬
nalises himself by his seal in op¬
posing Savonarola, 293.
Marino Faliero elected successor
to Andrea Dándolo in the ducal
chair of Venice, 167. Arrested
by the Council of Ten, and be¬
headed, 168.
Martin IV., pope, excommunicates
Midiael Faleolmus, the Greek
emperor, 102: Death of, 105.
Martin della Torre, elected podesâ
of Milan in 1256, 92.
Martin Bemardini, gonfaloner of
Lucciu 350.
Martin Luther, 298.
Mastino della Scala succeeds in ob¬
taining the surrender of Lucca to
himself, 144.
Matthias Corvinos, the liberator of
Hungary, 255. Engaged by pope
Pius IL, to turn his arms gainst
the king of Bohemia, 256
Matilda, countess, 32.
Matteo Visconti exiled by the lords
of Piacentia and Parma ; recalled
by Henry IL, and restored to
absolute power, 124. His cha¬
racter; in his war with the
Iximbard Guelphs takes pos-
sesssion of Pavia, Tortona, and
Alexandria, ISO. Compels Phi-
Kp de Valois to retreat from Italy ;
Abdicates in favour of his son Ga-
leaxzo; dies on the 22d of June,
1322,131.
Matteo Palmieri, 251.
Maximilian, emper of Germany,
signs a truce with Louis XII. of
France, 296. Raises the siege of
Padua, SIOl Abandons the French
to theirenemies, 313. Asserts his
rights on Verona and Vicenxa,
321. Death of, 325.
Maximilian Sforsa re-established
on the throne of his ancestors,
321. Abdicates the sovereignty
for a revenue of 30,000 crowns,
secured to him in France, 323.
Meloria, the battle of, 110.
Michael Angelo, 108.
Michael Paleolo^s, the Greek em¬
peror, 102.
Michele Lando, a carder of wool,
proclaimed gonlkloner of Flo.
rence, 185. His government;
exiled ftom Florence, 187.
Milan, flourishing state of, in the
time of the Roman empire, 7.
Rased the town of Lodi, and
obliged the^town of Como to de¬
stroy its fortifications, 32 Siege
of, 40. The town of, rased to the
ground by order of Frederick Bar.
barossa, 40. Rebuilt, 45. TheNa-
viglio Grande of, b^n in 1179 :
resumed in 1257rand terminated
in a few years after, 107. Re¬
vival of the republic of, 230, Con¬
quered by the Ftench, 229.
Montferrat, marquis de, 157.
Monza, the battle of, 214.
N.
Hapoleon della Torre, chief of the
republic of Milan, taken prisoner
by Otho Visconti, archbishop of
Milan, 101.
Napoleon Bonaparte gains the vic¬
tory of MonteNotte over the Pied-
montese and Austrians; obliges
the Genoese to adopt the name of
theLigurianrepublic,355. Defeats
the archduke Charles at TagUa-
mento,361. Declares .war against
Venice, signs the' treaty of
Campo Formio, 362:
Neri Capponi, 247.
Nicholas 111., pope, undertakes to
humble Charles of Anjou, and to
support the Ghibeline party :
exacts fkom him that he should
renounce the title of vicar of
imperial, and resign the title of
senator of Rome, 100. Sends a
legate to Romagna to compel
Bologna and all the Guelph re¬
publics to recall the GhibeUneirj
and establish peace throughout
376 INI
the prorince, 101. Death of,
108.
Níchola» IV., pope, 102.
Nicholas v., pope, his seal for the
progress of ancient literature ;
nis character, 938.
Nicolo P'Sani, 16&
Nicolo Piccinino succeeds Braccio
in command of the Florentine
army, 215.
Nicolo d'Este, 285.
Nicolo Capponi, 318
O.
Octavian de Ubaldini, cardinal, sent
as legate by thepope to theGuelph
cities to engage them to punish
the impérial party for their revolt
against the church, 77.
Odoacer, of the nation of Heruli,
chief of the mercenaries who
served in Italy, deposes the em¬
peror ; takes himself the title of
king ; distributes amongst his
soldiers one third of the laud in
the moct fertile province^ 10.
Orleans, duke of, in the name of
his mother, advances pretmuions
to the duchy of Milan, 1^
Ossuno, duke, viceroy of Naples,
357.
Ostrogoths, the, invade Ttal|r, under
the command of Theodoric, 10.
Otho 1. of Saxony, king of Ger.
many, forces Berenger IT., in
951, who then resigned, to ac¬
knowledge himself his vassal;
enters Italy a second time ;
crowned at Rome, with the title
of emperor ; sends Berenger to
end his days in a fortress in Italy,
18
Otho Tl., 15.
Otho III., 15.
Otho IV., duke of Bavaria and
Saxony, named king of the
Romans by the Guelphs, 59.
Crowned anew by the Germans ;
passes into Italy to receive iïom
the pope the golden crown of
the empire ; death of, 60.
Otho Visconti, archbishop of
Milan, lui.
P.
Puan della Torre, the lord of
Valsassina, 70.
Paganino Doria, a Genoese admiral,
168
Fandolpho Malatesta, 201.
Fandolib Petrucci, SOS.
Farabiago, the battle of, 162.
Parma, of, 78
Paul II., pope, 236.
Paulus It., po^, 258
Paulo Guinigi usurps the sove¬
reignty of I.ucca, 1P8 Deposed
and sent prisoner to Milan, 218
Paulo Fregosa, archbishopof Genoa,
258
Pedro of Aragon, don, the crown
of Sicily transferred from Charles
of Anjou to^ 108
Pelavicini, the marquis, .830.
Pescara, marquis, 330. His death,
332.
Peter IV. of Aragon, 168
Petrarch, character of his writings,
158
Petrarco del Ancisa, the father of
Petrarch, 117.
Philibert de Challón, prince of
Orange, 348.
Philip I., duke of Swabia, named
king of the Romans by the Ghi-
belines, 59.
Philip Ugoni of Brescia, podeath of
Bologna, 77.
Philip le Bel accused of poisoning
Pope Benedict XL ; succeeds by
ft-aud in getting a FrenebmaD
elected Mq>e, 117.
Philip III. of Spain, 357.
Philippone di ungiisco, HQ.
Pietro delle Vigne, private secre¬
tary to Frederick IL, conspires
against his master, 74
Pietro Gradenigo, elected dogs Sf
Venice by a grand council, and
carried a decree on the 2ttb sf
February, 1997. famous in the
history of Venice under the name
of serrata del maggior consigjio,
120.
Pietro Doria, 180.
Pietro Gamliacorta placed by the
Pisans at the bead of their re¬
public, 194
Pietro de Lana, 201
Pietro de' Medici, 248. Death of,
252.
Pietro Minerbetti, 251.
Pietro Mocenigo, 257.
Pietro Riario, 2w
Pietro 11., named chief of the re¬
public of Florence; his chtiacter,
SM. Learning that the French
were arrived at Sanana, departs
to meet Charles VIIL; surrenden
the fortresses of Sanana and Sar-
aanello, 288 Refused adwt-
tance into the signoria; leaves
the city with his brotbcn by the
gate of San Gallo, and lossa with¬
out a struggle a sovereignty
which their lamily had exercised
■ixty years, 286.
Fietro Capponi, S87.
Pietro Souenni, created gonfaloner
of Venice for life: hia character,
306.
Pietro Boscoli, 319.
Pita, tlie republic of, compelled to
lurrender to the Normans, 28.
The first to make known to the
world the riches and power which
a small state might luiquire by
the aid of commerce and liberty,
109. Introduces into Tuscany
the arts that ennoble wealth, 110.
Unites the love of liberty with
the sentiments ofGhibeline party;
gives the command of her militia
to Uguccione dà Kaggiuola ; revo¬
lution of, 1.32.169.
Pius II., causes a crusade to be
preached in all the Latin coun¬
tries ; death of, 253.
Poggio Bracciolini, the historian,
969.
Pompeo Colonna raises in the papal
state 8000 armed peasants ; sur¬
prises the Vatican: pillages the
palace ; constrains the pope to ab¬
jure the alliance of Prance and
Venice, 333.
Pontlda, the convent of, 45.
K.
Raphael Riario, 269.
Ravenna conquered by the Lom-
l>ards. 24.
Raymond de Cardona, 131.
René II., duke of Lorraine, 274.
iUchard,earlofComwall,80. Death
of, 99.
Rinaldo degU Albizzi summons
Cosmo de' Medici to appear before
the gonfaloner of Florence, 225.
Suimnoned to appear before Do-
nati, president of the signoria,226.
Condemned to exile, l^ks
an asylum with Filippo Maria
duke of Milan ; presses him to
make war on Florence, 227.
Robert, king of Naples, assumes
the part of champion of the
Guelph party, 126. Agrees to aid
the Florentines, on condition that
they would confer the signoria
en his son the duke of Calabria,
13a Death of, 16i).
Robert of Geneva, acardinal legate,
sent by the pope with a Breton
company of adventurers intoltaly,
176. Elected pope, takes the name
of Clement VII, 177. Establishes
his court at Naples ; his death,
178.
Robert appointed elector palatine
X. 377
of Germany on the deposition of
Wenceslaus, 195.
Roccasecca, the battle of, 212.
Rudolph of Hapiburg, founder of
tire house of Austrii^ elected
king 01 Germany, 99. Persuaded
by the pope to confirm the char¬
ters of Louis the Debonaire and
Othol., lJU.
Roger, king of the Two Sicilies, be¬
sieges Naples, 28.
Rome, population of in the fifth
Century, 7. Becomes again the
capital of the empire, 18. A re¬
public constituted at, 62. Sack
of, 335.
S.
Saint Peter Martyr, 67.
S.iint Louis, 99.
Salvestro de' Medici, made con.
faloner of Florence by lot, 183.
Passes a law to suspend the pro¬
ceedings called admonition which
Albizzi directed against theparty,
18<k
Salvestro de' Gath, lord of Viterbo,
arrested by Louis of Bavaria, and
put to the torture, to force him
to reveal the place where he had
his concealed treasure, 1S9l
Saluces, marquis de, 338.
San Bonifacio, count di, 71. Joins
the party of Beatrice, wife of
Charles of Anjou, 97.
Santi Cáscese, received as the head
of the Bolognese republic, 232.
Saracens, the, establish colonies in
Sicily, 27
Sardinia, attacked by the Pisans in
the year 1017 ; completely, coru
quered in 1050, 29.
Scander bashaw, sangiak of Bos¬
nia, 297.
Sforza Attendolo, a peasant of Co-
tignola iiiRomagna, distinguished
for prodigious strength of body
and undaunted courage ; equally
distinguished in military tactics,
211. Makes himself master tn
Rome, 212. Drowned at the pas¬
sage of the Pescara, 215.
Silvestre MarruHi, arrested ; led to
prison, 294. Condemned to death
by the judges ; despatched from
Rome by the pope ; burned alive
on the 2'ld of May 1498, 295.
Sixtus IV., pope, his dissolute cha¬
racter, 268. Promises all the pon.
tifical forces to restore liberty to
Florence by killing the two bro¬
thers Medici, 269. Fulminates a
bull against Lorenzo de' Medici,
for having hanged the archbishop
378
IKDEX.
of Píh, 272, Engam the SwUi
of the canton of Un to declare
war auinit the ducheu of Milan,
97& Racontilaa the republic of
Blotence to the church ; excom>
miinieatei the Venctianc : hie
deilli,S7&
SoHman inradea Auatria, 339.
&(deto, duke of, 62.
«e^en IL, pojm conféra on the
princea of the ramka the dignity
OfpatricUna, 18.
Stephane Foreari, a Roman noble,
238. Exiled at Bologna by the
pope, and afterwarda hanged firom
the battlementa of the caatle of
si Angelo, 239.
Stefano di Bagnone, 270.
T.
Taddeo de Fepoli takea poaaeaaion
of the Bovereigntf of BoloMa ;
maker alhance witb the Ghibe-
Unea, 145.
Tagliacozxa, battle of, 98.
TMdoro Boañ, 230,
Theodoric, 10.
Timoleon, 262.
T(dedo, Don Pedro de, goremor of
Milan, 357.
Tomaao degll Albiaai, 224.
Tomaao Soderini, 251.
TOrtona, siege of, 35.
Trivulzio, marshal, 3231
U.
Ugolino Buoadieiino de Sinnoncli,
73.
UgoUno, connt, named by the
Fiaaiw caatidn general for ten
years, 111. Death of, 112.
Ugucdanedh EaggAuda, 132.
Iftban iV., pope, 94
Urban V., pope, 172L His death,
174
Urtmn VL, pope, 177.
Urtmn VIL, pope, irá.
V.
Valentino Viaeonti, 230.
Venice, the doge of, takea the title
of duke of Venice and Dafanatia,
2&
Venetian republic founded l>y the
inhaUtants of Upper Italy, lOl
Verona, flourishing state oí, in the
time of the Roman empire, 7.
lector 111., pope, 43. De^ of,
44.
Vieri de Cerchi, 116.
Vittelleschi, the patriarchy prime
minister to pope Eugemna IV.,
237.
Vittor Fiaani, 180.
W.
Wencealana succeeds his father.
Charlea IV. emperor of Ger¬
many, 179. Installed duke of
Milan and count of Faria, 195.
William the Norman, king of the
Two Sicilies, contracts an alliance
with pope Alexander IIL, and
arms tne whole of southern Italy
against Frederick Barbarossa, 44.
William Brusato, 123.
Winsberg, battle of, 81.
Worms, the diet of, 21.
Y.
Yolanda de Lusignan, heiress of the
kingdom of Jerusalem, marriage
of, with Frederick 11., 66.
THE END.
Londox:
Printed by A. & R. %iotiiawoode,
New-Street-Square.