_The Condottieri and the Rise of the Nobles_
"The confusion, exhaustion, and demoralisation engendered by these
conflicts determined the advent of Despots.... The Despot delivered
the industrial classes from the tyranny and anarchy of faction,
substituting a reign of personal terrorism that weighed more
heavily upon the nobles than upon the artizans and peasants.... He
accumulated in his despotic individuality the privileges previously
acquired by centuries of consuls, _podestàs_, and captains of the
people."--See "Age of the Despots," J. A. SYMONDS.
Deep gloom closed in upon Perugia towards the end of the fourteenth
century. The breach between the nobles and the people continued to
widen. Sometimes one party was driven out of the city, sometimes
another. Now and again both parties were recalled, and a compact of
peace arranged by an arbitrary person from outside. But this last
arrangement produced an even more terrible state of affairs, and crime
and bloodshed were the inevitable result. We read of deaths by hundreds
and not tens--cruel and indescribable deaths, which make one
shudder--and already in the thick of the strife the names of Oddi and of
Baglioni are stamped upon the records.
One of the strangest points in the history of the city at this time was
the fashion in which these feuds between the rival factions were met by
them. Whichever party was weakest retired for the time to the country,
leaving the city to their rival till time should favour their own
cause.[14]
Bonazzi gives an almost extravagant account of the boorish manner of the
exiled nobles' lives. Down in the open country they hunted the abundant
wild boar and devoured his flesh when they came home at night. They
slept in dark and cavernous halls, and were out at dawn across the
fields and forests, killing, hunting, fighting, according to the order
of the day. Yet, although they were banished from the walls of their
native town, they continued to molest and to disturb the citizens, and
whenever the opportunity occurred, in they came again, sometimes openly,
sometimes after the manner of thieves. We read of their entering the
city at night across the roofs, robbing the cellars and granaries, and
murdering such citizens as ventured to interfere.
Sometimes the order was reversed: the nobles got possession of the town,
and the people were forced into the country. The terrible unrest of such
a state of things may easily be imagined, and, added to these great
evils, or, probably, produced by them, came the devastating plagues
which ravaged the cities of Italy at the end of the fourteenth century,
and the almost equal scourge of mercenary soldiers and private bands of
foreign adventurers, who roamed through the rich, ill-governed towns and
villages fighting for one family or another, or else engaged in
pillaging upon their own account.[15]
In all these quarrels, in all this turmoil and confusion, whichever
party happened to be uppermost, the person to appeal to was the Pope,
and endless were the messages sent down from Rome. At last, in 1392,
both sides seemed to have wearied for the moment of the incessant strife
(the nobles at this time were masters of the city, the _Raspanti_ were
away in exile), and when the Pope, Boniface IX., appeared in person, he
was received with enthusiasm. We hear that the _Priori_ and the
treasurers of the city robed themselves in beautiful new scarlet
mantles, the "companies" of the different gates danced through the
streets with unmitigated joy, and the people went forth in crowds to
meet him. But the breach between the factions was too wide, the
situation too complicated for a Pope, who arrived merely in the
character of a peacemaker, to grapple with successfully. The presence of
Boniface brought no peace, and he retired into the monastery of S.
Pietro, which he hastily converted into a fortress, demolishing its
tower in his eagerness to secure his own personal safety; and there, as
he nervously wondered what next he had better do, he heard the cries of
"Down with the _Raspanti_!" answered by "Death to the nobles!" borne in
upon the breeze.
Finally, in a manner peculiar to the Perugians, they met together in
council to dictate the action of the person they had called in to act
for them, and it was settled that the Pope should have full power as
arbitrator of peace between themselves and the _Raspanti_. The Pope did
exactly as he was asked. He recalled the _Raspanti_, and they entered
the city on the 17th October 1393, not merely as a body, but headed by
a powerful personality--Biordo Michelotti, one of Perugia's greatest
citizens, and the first of the _condottieri_ who ever got rule in the
city.
Exiled in early youth from his native town, Biordo Michelotti had chosen
the career of a _condottiere_, and roamed through the length and breadth
of Italy, fighting the battles of different princes. Some say he had
fought for the French king against the English. He was essentially a
captain of adventure. His manner was kindly, he was brave, honest,
frank, and popular among the people wherever he happened to go. Beloved
all over Umbria, many of the towns which directly opposed Perugia's
tyrannical rule had submitted to that of Biordo. All these successes did
not, however, satisfy the man in him, for the ruling ambition of his
life was to get the dominion over his native city, and events were now
combining to procure for him his heart's desire. The _Raspanti_ rallied
round him in their exile, and he became their leader, and the champion
of their liberty. The nobles, seeing the power of his popularity,
offered him bribes to keep out of their way. But Biordo lay low in his
fortress at Deruta, and when the Pope's offers of peace arrived he
hailed them with delight. A month later he entered Perugia at the head
of about 2000 _Raspanti_, who had been exiled from their homes for
years. They at once visited the Pope in token of homage and gratitude,
and their new lease of power within the city was opened by the
re-election of the priors, who were chosen half from the burgher faction
and half from the nobility. By this means it was hoped that a lasting
reconciliation might be made and an evenly balanced government
established. Yet such seemed impossible. Peace endured for the space of
one short month, and at the very first opportunity--on the occasion of
Biordo's absence from the city--the smouldering fires of party feuds
burst out in flames as rampant as before. One of the _Raspanti_ was
murdered by the nobles, and, just as the _Podestà_ was preparing to pass
sentence on the assassin, Pandolfo dei Baglioni, "that Perugian Satan,"
as Bonazzi calls him, interfered on behalf of the criminal.[16]
Whereupon the _Raspanti_ vowed vengeance, assassinated Pandolfo and
Pellini Baglioni on their own threshold, and murdered sixty of their
clan. The Ranieri, another noble family, with their friends, took refuge
in the strong Ranieri tower, where they were forced to go without food
for three days. At last the people dragged them before the _Podestà_,
but as he refused to execute them, the unhappy noblemen were conveyed
back to their tower, where they were finally butchered, and their bodies
thrown out of the windows.
Horrified by these fresh atrocities, and again in search of peace, the
Pope loaded his mules and retired with his Cardinals to Assisi. The
tumults were just subsiding when Biordo Michelotti returned, and this
time he took absolute possession of the city. He met with no sort of
opposition. The ring-leader of the nobles, Pandolfo Baglioni, was dead,
and the Pope for the minute encouraged the attempt towards peace. Biordo
used his power well, and every year his fame and honours increased. To
the delight of the Perugians, he succeeded to the command of Sir John
Hawkwood over the Florentine forces, and everywhere he pushed the
interests of the town, wisely concluding a treaty with Gian Galeazzo
Visconti, the powerful lord of Milan (1395).
The Pope, in the meantime, began to regret the encouragement he had
given to this very popular hero. His jealousy was roused, and he hired
a _condottiere_ for a month, in order to fight the Perugians. The
hostilities, however, ended with the month, and nothing was accomplished
beyond a demonstration of the Pontiff's jealousy. But there was someone
else beside the Pope who witnessed the honours paid to Biordo with a
jealous hatred, and this was the Abbot of S. Pietro. "The wicked Abbot,"
as the people called him, belonged to the noble family of the
Guidalotti, and he probably felt that the power of his family was too
much overshadowed by Michelotti. He had fresh cause to murmur,
therefore, when Biordo married Bertolda Orsini of Rome, and the Lords of
Urbino, Camerino, San Severo, Gubbio, and other towns came up to offer
the happy pair rich presents, and to wish the bride-groom well. Biordo's
marriage was a splendid pageant. The city decked herself magnificently
to do him honour, and all the people of the country round sent offerings
of grain, and wine, and eggs, and cheese, everything which their small
farms produced, to show their leader how they loved him.
The Abbot sat at his window, and with no kindly eye he watched the entry
of the young bride, close by the monastery walls. Madonna Contessa
Orsini came in escorted by the Florentine and Venetian ambassadors. Her
dress was made of cloth of gold, she wore a garland of wild asparagus
around her head, and jewels sparkled in her hair. The Abbot noted all
these things, he saw the women of Perugia running out to meet her, he
saw them throw flowers in her path, and then he returned to his cell to
brood upon his horrid plans of vengeance. For he had determined to place
the town once more beneath the sway of the Church, and in this way to
gain for himself a Cardinal's hat, as it was probably the Pope himself
who urged him to the deed.
[Illustration: VIA DELLE STALLE]
On Sunday, in the month of March 1398, while the citizens were attending
a sermon at S. Lorenzo, the Abbot arrived on horseback at the Guidalotti
palace on Colle Landone, to collect his fellow-conspirators, and some
twenty of them proceeded to Biordo's house on Porta Sole. Word was sent
up to Michelotti that there was important news for him, and he,
suspecting nothing, hurried down to meet the Abbot with a courteous
greeting. The Abbot stepped forward, took his hand, and kissed Biordo,
at which sign the rest of the conspirators fell upon their victim and
stabbed him with their poisoned daggers, hitting him such grievous blows
that soon he lay weltering in a pool of blood. The conspirators had
first intended openly to announce the deed in the piazza, but their
courage failed them and the Abbot merely muttered the news to the
passers-by as he slunk away to S. Pietro with a few companions. Two of
the braver of the assassins, however, stayed behind and, coming into the
piazza, cried: "We have slain the tyrant." The citizens, who were at
mass, rose with one accord from their devotions, to avenge the death of
their beloved leader, and leaving the preacher to continue his sermon to
an empty church, they hurried to arms. The Abbot meanwhile hastened from
his monastery at S. Pietro to a still safer refuge at Casalina. As he
fled he looked back upon the city whose hero he had murdered, and he saw
the flames and smoke break out from the palace of those same Guidalotti
he had hoped to benefit, whilst the news of the death of his old father
and many of his family in the carnage of that day was brought to him as
a sorry consolation for his crime.
Biordo's blood was gathered together by the citizens and put into a
little silver basin, and above it they placed the banner of Perugia with
the white griffin upon a crimson field; and as one chronicler informs
us, a heart of stone must have melted at the sight of it.
Thus perished the first of that extraordinary series of men who took
upon themselves the terrible task of governing single-handed the city of
Perugia. Nearly all died by violence, but the violence done to Biordo
was a cruel wrong. A short interval follows, and then the greatest name,
perhaps, of all the city's chronicles comes up upon the scene, namely,
that of Braccio Fortebraccio di Montone.
* * * * *
The Perugians suspected the ungracious part that the Pope had played in
the murder of their leader, and the suspicion made them restless and
dissatisfied. It was probably owing to this that they fell a prey to the
cunning wiles of the Duke of Milan.
Gian Galeazzo had ingratiated himself with the citizens some time
previously by giving them grain during a time of famine, and he now came
forward to reap the benefit of his charity by getting himself accepted
as Lord of Perugia, which would facilitate his designs on Tuscany.
Perugia's connection with Milan, however, only lasted four years. On
Gian Galeazzo's death, in 1402, the Duchess of Milan made peace with
Boniface IX., and restored Bologna, Perugia, and Assisi to the Church.
The Perugians submitted to the Pope (they seem not to have been
consulted in the matter of the donation), but with the strict
understanding that the exiled nobles should keep at least twenty miles
distant from the city. Boniface agreed to this arrangement. Other popes
before him had tried to patch up peace between the parties, but he had
not the courage to attempt such difficult experiments. It remained for
Braccio Fortebraccio to tear through the tangled network of Perugian
politics, to unite within himself the powers of both parties, and as the
city's despot to raise it to "unprecedented glory."
Braccio Fortebraccio was born at Montone in 1368. He was the son of Oddo
Fortebraccio, Lord of Montone, and of Jacoma Montemelini, his wife, of a
noble Perugian family. During his youth the _Raspanti_ were dominant in
the city, and the boy grew up as an exile. He had only his sword and an
immense ambition with which to force his way to future power. It was at
that time the fashion for young noblemen to win fame for themselves by
the life or trade of the _condottieri_. Braccio therefore joined the
famous Italian company of S. George, led by Alberigo di Barbiano, whose
advent crushed the foreign captains of adventure whose lawless
mercenaries had sent terror throughout the rich plains and villages of
Italy during the fourteenth century.
In the tents of Alberigo, Braccio di Montone and Sforza Attendolo[17]
learned together the science of warfare. Thence they two went forth to
fight the battles of princes, kings, and popes; to create two separate
methods of combat, and to fill all Italy with tales of their great
valour and their rivalry. Braccio's ambition grew with his success, and
he soon aspired to acquiring the whole of Italy. His first step towards
this very large design was the capture of his native city of Perugia.
But as he represented the party of the nobles, the _Raspanti_ manfully
resisted any efforts he made to approach them. "It is better even to
submit to foreign rule than to make peace with the nobles," they said;
and thus it came about that they gave themselves over to Ladislaus, King
of Naples, and remained for some six years in connection with the
kingdom of Naples. When Ladislaus died in 1414, the Perugians were
seized with terror, but the nobles saw their opportunity, and all things
seemed to favour the scheme of Fortebraccio.
Braccio had joined the service of Pope John XXIII., and by him had been
made governor of Bologna; but when the Pope was deposed by the Council
of Constance, Braccio's allegiance ended, and he at once sold the
Bolognese their liberty, and with the 82,000 florins which he gained by
this transaction he collected a strong army, the exiled nobles flocked
to his standard, and they marched at once upon Perugia.
At the news of Braccio's approach terror and consternation spread
through the city. The gateways were built up, and the magistrates
forbade anyone to leave the town. But the Perugians, "being the most
warlike of the people of Italy," as Sismondi says, could not resist so
grand a chance of fighting, and seeing Braccio's men clustering around
the city's walls, they jumped down from the ramparts into their midst,
and took the soldiers unawares by the suddenness of their attack. This
was no real battle, but tumults of the sort were the order of the day.
In the dead of night men would rush in panic into the piazza, not
knowing what had brought them there, and only conscious of one fact:
their desire to make a fierce stand for their liberty. Braccio made a
fruitless effort to penetrate into the heart of the city, and was driven
back ignominiously. The women threw down stones and boiling water on the
assailants, whilst they goaded their own men to fight, crying aloud,
"Now is your time to wound the enemy,--at him with your swords your
teeth and nails!"
At last the Perugians called in the help of Carlo Malatesta, Lord of
Rimini, and on the 15th of July 1416, the two armies met between the
Tiber and Sant' Egideo on the road to Assisi. The greatest generals of
Italy and her best soldiers, says Sismondi, took part in the fierce
fighting of that day. The parties closed in deadly conflict; for seven
hours they fought beneath the burning sun, and the heat was increased by
the dense dust that filled the air. "Most dolorous were the sighs which
were heard to issue from the helmets," says Fabretti. Braccio was a wise
general. He had carefully prepared beforehand countless jars of water
for the refreshment of his men and horses after each skirmish, and this
in the end was the cause of his victory. The Tiber was flowing five
hundred paces from Malatesta's soldiers, and they finally could bear the
terrible thirst no longer but hurried down to drink. Braccio seized upon
this moment in which to swoop upon the enemy with all his force. The day
was won. Carlo Malatesta and his young nephew Galeazzo Malatesta, were
taken prisoners, and it "was strange to note that the humblest of
Braccio's soldiers were driving prisoners before them like a herd of
cattle."[18]
* * * * *
When the Perugians heard of the defeat they immediately sent ambassadors
to offer the government of their city to Braccio. They seem after all
their previous fighting, to have at once submitted to their fate, which
as it turned out, was an excellent piece of good fortune for them. They
made preparations to welcome their new despot in a manner worthy of the
man. Fine carpets, brocades, and long gold chains, were hung from the
palace windows, flowers lay thick upon the pavement from S. Pietro to S.
Lorenzo, whilst elegant gold and silver vases were placed in the windows
of the Palazzo Pubblico. "Evviva Braccio, Signore di Perugia," they
shouted as he entered, and thus the die was cast.
Anxious to conciliate both parties in the city, Braccio assumed the
attitude of Father of his Country and succeeded in inspiring the people
with an unusual sense of admiration. Master of all Umbria and Prince of
Capua, many towns acknowledged his dominion, and even Rome was forced to
accept him at one period as her lord. It is, therefore, scarcely to be
wondered at that Perugians have never ceased to lament that Braccio died
before accomplishing his vast designs for conquering all Italy, for they
feel that they only just missed the chance of rivalling the glory of
imperial Rome.
There are infinite records concerning the personality of this
extraordinary man.
"He was of medium stature," says Campano, "with a long face and
highly coloured, which imparted great majesty to his appearance.
His eyes were not black, but very brilliant; they sparkled with
fun, yet with a certain gravity. His figure was partly deformed and
scarred by wounds. Whether grave or gay he was always high bred, so
that his very enemies confessed that among any number of persons he
would always be recognised as leader and chief."
In the following lines Campano sums up his character:--
"Braccio was grave and kindly of speech, without artifice or
trickery, a gift of nature rather than acquired, though improved by
some study. None could soothe an angry person with more grace than
Braccio, none could exhort and inflame his followers with more
vehemence and ardour to the combat. He was beloved by his soldiers,
being neither haughty nor rough spoken, and he united military
severity with a certain civil modesty and a courtier-like manner."
One of the most delightful traits of Braccio's character was an intense
hatred of idleness, and city-loafers he nicknamed "_I consumatori della
piazza_" (wearers out of the pavement of the public square). He
encouraged the Perugians to play as well as fight, and it was he who
revived the ancient game of the "Battle of the Stones." His soldiers
would often join in the sport, and great was the joy of the citizens
when the latter were vanquished. Braccio himself was not allowed to
play; he would watch the game from an upper window, and much as he often
desired to join, his companions prevented him, for it seldom happened
that less than twelve men lay killed or wounded at the end of the day.
This extraordinary and barbarous game deserves an account in any history
of Perugia. It dates back to Roman times, and the credit of playing the
"fiercest game in Italy" belonged to Perugia alone, and was believed to
be the reason why her people were "of such commanding mould both in
spirit and in body." Even the children joined during the first two
hours, so as to make them strong and warlike from their infancy.
On the Sundays and feast-days of March, April, and May, and into the
middle of June, the citizens met in the Campo di Battaglia, on the road
to Monte Luce, and there formed themselves into two parties, one
remaining on the level of the square, the other just below. Till
nightfall each party fought to drive the other off the ground, and
whichever side managed to gain the middle of the square, carried off the
palm of victory. This wonderful "game" must have looked like a miniature
battle of a somewhat prehistoric kind; for the combatants were all
swathed about the neck, their legs encased in thick leather stockings,
stuffed with deer's hair and protected by greaves; thickly padded round
the body under their cuirasses, their feet in shoes of linen cloth
wrapped three times round and stuffed again with the hair of deer. The
warlike youths and men wore on the top of everything else a helmet which
projected forward in the shape of a sparrow-hawk's head, and thus
protected, they were able to watch the stones flying about their heads
without being blinded. They were called the "_Armati_," and were led to
combat by "Hurlers" (_lanciatori_), who wore a lighter apparel, and
threw the stones with extraordinary ability, thereby exciting the
citizens to combat. Old men sat at their windows watching the fight with
breathless interest. If they saw that their side was losing, they would
sometimes tear off coat and mantle, hurry downstairs, and utterly
regardless of their age, fling themselves into the thick of the fight.
"It was a very beautiful spectacle," exclaims Campano, "to witness the
fall, first of this one, then of that, as they were wounded and tumbled
to the ground, whilst others, protected by a shield, hurled themselves
upon their adversaries with the weight of their entire bodies, diving
in and out among the crowd and dealing blows upon their eyes and faces
with shield and sword and buckler."
To us it seems strange that at a time when the feuds of centuries lay
smouldering and ready to burst out at the smallest provocation, no
rancour, no ill-will, seemed to be harboured by the relations of the men
who fell dead or wounded in one of these terrible "games."
Besides encouraging sports, fighting wars, and arranging civil matters,
Braccio had a passion for building. He rebuilt the city walls in many
places. He added the loggia to the front of the Cathedral, that the
citizens might have a pleasant shelter in the square in which to discuss
and settle their affairs, and it was he who conceived a rather novel and
practical piece of engineering by bolstering up the houses of the Piazza
Sopramuro with strong walls from beneath.[19] The vanity of the
Perugians was immensely flattered by all the great doings of their new
leader, and their pride knew no bounds when, on the Feast of S.
Ercolano, the neighbouring towns sent in their banners with
extraordinary pomp in token of their absolute subjection to the city's
rule. So delighted indeed were the people, that they at once sent a
message to the Pope to ask him to confirm Braccio's dominion in Perugia.
The request was met in stony silence. The Papal See was jealous of
Braccio Fortebraccio, yet it could not do without him, and so, for the
time, it smothered its wrath and mortification. Martin V. was in need of
Braccio's sword to help in regaining the lost possessions of the Church,
and he sent for him to Florence to sign the necessary agreements. The
visit was disastrous, for even the Florentine street boys exulted in
the popularity of the hero:
"Braccio valente
Vince ogni gente
Papa Martino
Non val un quattrino"
they sang in high, shrill voices below the windows of His Holiness. The
insult stung and rankled.
"Papa Martino non val un quattrino," muttered the Pope in a miserable
voice as he paced up and down, complaining to his secretary.
* * * * *
In 1423 Braccio had reached the height of his power, but his ambition
soared still higher, and at this turn in his life his character seems to
have undergone a change. His vast plans for conquering Italy had
unhinged him, and he became cruel where formerly he had been kind, and
deaf to the counsels of his friends. The simplest and the quietest of
his days had been spent at Perugia, where his memory still lingers like
the aureole around some conquering saint. But looking out across the
plains and mountains of Umbria and towards the Marches which were
already his, Braccio dreamed his mighty dream: that of becoming king of
a united Italy. Aquila alone resisted his power, and in the year 1423,
he set out for his last venture. It is said that before he started he
left to the care of his wife, Nicolina da Varano, a little casket, with
the injunction that she should not open it until after his death, or his
return home. When Braccio died Nicolina opened the casket and she found
inside a black veil and a sceptre. It was thus the dead man told his
wife that the battle of Aquila decided whether she should be a powerful
queen or an unhappy widow.
The siege of Aquila lasted for a whole year, and finally, in May 1424, a
decisive battle took place in the plain below the town, between Braccio
and Caldora, who came to fight him in the name of Martin V. It was a
great fight, and it ended in a tragic manner: Braccio, the beloved of
the Perugians, got his death-wound at the hands of a Perugian citizen, a
_Raspante_, who had never forgiven the return of the nobles to Perugia.
Caldora tended Braccio during his last hours with every possible care.
The doctors hoped to save him, they said that the wounds in his head and
throat were curable, but Braccio wished to die; he was determined not to
survive his defeat. He refused all nourishment and during the three days
that he lingered, he never spoke a single word. His dream had faded, and
his courage gone.[20]
In the papal circle there was great rejoicing at the news of Braccio's
death, for Martin V. knew well that Umbria was once again his own. The
Pope indeed was small-minded enough to harbour his enmity to the very
last. Instead of allowing the fallen captain to be quietly buried, he
had him placed in unconsecrated ground outside the walls of Rome. The
bones of the great Braccio had but a troubled career. They were brought
to Perugia by Niccolò Fortebraccio, and deposited for a while in the
Church of S. Costanzo, where they were met by the municipality and the
whole city and then carried in triumphal procession to the Church of S.
Francesco al Prato. All the shops were closed as the bones passed up the
streets, no bells were rung, horses and men were draped in black. In
this century, by a piece of rather questionable taste the bones of the
hero were once more taken from their Church, and may now be stared at,
like the bones of the Etruscan ladies, under a bit of glass in the
museum of the University. Under them are written in Latin the following
lines: "O you who pass by, stay and weep. I, born in Perugia, was
received in Montone as an exile. Mars subjected to me my native land of
Umbria, and Capua too. Rome obeyed me, the world was the spectator and
Italy the stage. But Aquila mocked my fall, wherefore my weeping country
locked me into this small urn. Ah! Mars raised me up, Mors brought me
low. Therefore pass on."
The news of Braccio's death caused the utmost consternation in Perugia.
If the great captain had saved the town at a critical point, he may also
be said to have created a situation which was perhaps a still more
critical one for her citizens. Braccio was a noble. With his advent in
Perugia the party of the nobles had returned. Terrible things were in
store for the city. For a little while, and partly through the efforts
of a rather complicated personality, they were postponed, but the time
of terror was at hand.
When Braccio died at Aquila, the Perugians prepared to defend themselves
they knew not well from what. "Each man," says Graziani, "furnished
himself with flour, the ditches and walls were repaired both of the city
and the territory around it, and every one left the open country and
took refuge in fortresses and city palaces." Two courses lay open to
them, and of the two they selected that which seemed least evil. They
submitted themselves once more to the power of the Pope; and on July
29th, 1424, the delighted Martin entered Perugia as its acknowledged
lord and ruler.
Like many famous people of that day Martin had studied at the Perugian
University, and perhaps he had preserved an affection for the city which
he had known in his youth. Anyhow, the terms of peace which he concluded
with the citizens were very mild, and as usual, all the privileges
obtained from Innocent III. were preserved. But this time it was through
the _nobles_ that the Pope had been called into the city. The thin end
of the wedge was surely and irretrievably driven in, and the power of
the nobles was as a matter of fact secure. The Pope himself fostered the
growing power, and amongst others, who on the occasion of his advent
received rich possessions from him, was Malatesta Baglioni. Martin
handed Spello over to his rule, and thus helped to enrich a family whose
members were for a period to wrest the power from the Church itself, and
to set the town ablaze with crime and bloodshed.
* * * * *
The nobles remained at the head of affairs, but, as we have said, there
was one strong personality--a Perugian citizen, Niccolò Piccinino--who
made a last effort, as Braccio Fortebraccio and Michelotti had done
before him, to become that strange creation of the day: a _condottiere_
despot.
Niccolò Piccinino was a follower of Braccio di Montone, and his name
remains stamped on the pages of history for successfully leading the
Braccian troops to battle, and following out the famous tactics of his
master. For twenty years Piccinino maintained a constant rivalry with
Francesco Sforza, as Braccio Fortebraccio had done before him with
Attendolo Sforza, the ancestor of a line of dukes. The ancestry of
Niccolò is both humble and obscure.[21] Some tell us he was the son of a
Perugian butcher, others say, of a peasant from Calisciana near the
city, but it is difficult to get any satisfactory information about him;
he was practically little beyond an adventurer. As quite a boy he left
his home in the Umbrian hills, and started out to seek his fortune
amongst the captains of adventure in the north. Later in life his career
became closely linked with that of Fortebraccio, who loved him because
of his bravery and enthusiasm for the soldier's career. Nature had not
fitted Niccolò for the camp. His health was bad, he was paralysed in one
leg and had to be lifted on to his horse, and because of his miniature
figure he got the nickname of "Piccinino" (the Tiny One); but the small
body contained an undaunted spirit, and his tactics in the field were
quick and decisive. He never knew when he was beaten, but would turn to
strike again while the enemy were boasting of their victory. On one
occasion Piccinino crept into a sack and had himself carried across the
battlefield on a man's shoulder. The enemy (probably Francesco Sforza)
imagined him to be at that moment in an opposite direction, and the
sudden appearance of Piccinino's head from out of the sack, his piercing
eyes gazing at them over his carrier's back, caused general
consternation among the soldiers. Whether this strange manoeuvre won
the day history does not record.
In 1440 Piccinino made a desperate effort to win for himself the
government of Perugia, but Papal power was too deeply rooted in the
city, and he had to rest content with the title of _Gonfaloniere of the
Holy Church_--Supreme Magistrate of the City but acting in the Pope's
name.
Perugia had a terrible time under this ecclesiastical and military yoke.
Three masters pulled her different
[Illustration: NICCOLÒ PICCININO]
ways: Piccinino, the Pope, and the nobles, and each of these three
imposed taxes for their different uses. Piccinino's is an unsatisfactory
career. It is that of a man pouring old wine into new bottles; the trade
of the _condottiere_ ruler was practically dead. The Pope's tactics were
unsatisfactory also. He tried to conciliate two parties. He encouraged
and patronised the nobles and pandered to the populace by encouraging
all kinds of extravagant superstition. There is a horrid tale about the
burning of a witch at this time; and religious processions assumed such
monstrous length that the streets could hardly hold them, and we read
that the leading men got entangled in the tail of the procession which
had not been able to leave the piazza before those who had left it long
ago returned to the starting-point. Passion-preaching, too, became the
fashion, accompanied by grotesque miracle-plays in which a barber from
S. Angelo represented our Saviour; and all those things only served to
increase the morbid passions of the people. In this complicated
situation the nobles came off best, and their power grew and
strengthened rapidly; but the power was evil. As for the attitude
assumed by the former rulers of the city, it is difficult to judge. A
sort of stupor seems to have fallen on the hitherto vigilant _Priori_. A
feeble effort was made in 1444 to drive out the tormentors by payment of
a large sum of money to mercenary soldiers, but these only took the pay
and continued to enjoy themselves at the expense of the town.
Hitherto, at least, the nobles had been one party, fighting for one
cause. But now that the cause was won, now that their own supremacy had
been attained, they began to fight amongst themselves. They hated each
other with a mortal hatred. We no longer hear of fights between nobles
and burghers, but of passionate blood-feuds between the nobles
themselves: between the Oddi, Corgna, Staffa, Arciprete, Baglioni, and
others, and next we read of cousins murdering each other for the sake of
mere ambition. The slightest pretext is seized upon for a skirmish
between the men who, through centuries, had stood together in opposition
to the outside world. A hundred instances are given of their quarrels at
this period. The Della Corgna by way of an example, are one day
preparing to enhance the solemnity of a feast-day by decorating the Arco
dei Priori with box and laurel boughs, and are interrupted in their
pious labours by the Degli Oddi, who begin to pull down the decorations.
There is some dispute about precedence, in their quarter of the
city--some trifling question as to which family has most right to manage
the local festival, a bitter fight ensues, and the whole town is in a
tumult.
Again on another occasion, one of Ridolfo Baglioni's bastard sons wounds
a certain Naldino da Corciano, a friend of the Degli Oddi, and Naldino
hurries off to show his bleeding face to his allies. The Oddi, mad with
fury, rush all armed to the piazza, striking at every Baglioni adherent
whom they meet upon their way. The Baglioni are not slow to appear, as
ready for the fight as anybody. The shops are closed, the citizens arm
themselves, a procession wending its way to the Duomo is thrown into
utter disorder, and even the women thrust their heads out of the windows
and throw down jugs and tiles and pitchers into the street below. The
Bishop, the _Priori_, and the learned doctors of the law leave their
houses and exhort the nobles to lay down their arms; and after a while a
truce is obtained, and the hubbub for the time subsides.
Such scenes as these were of almost daily occurrence in the city, and it
was in vain that the Pope, both by foul means and by fair, attempted to
calm the frantic passions of the rivals.[22] It was in vain that S.
Bernardino, carrying his crucifix before him, came to preach of
brotherly love and unity, in vain the Blessed Colomba uttered mysterious
warnings. It was too late either for Pope or Saint to check so strong a
flood as the ambition of men like the Oddi and the Baglioni. All over
Italy at this period the character of individual families had grown too
strong for outer influences to crush it, and the heads of the Guelph
families were everywhere attempting to form themselves into ruling
princes. In the case of this struggle at Perugia the most successful of
the combatants were the Oddi and the Baglioni. The struggle between
them was a struggle unto death. Now one was driven from the city gates,
and now another; but finally, in 1488, the Oddi were ousted altogether,
and from that minute until the time when the great Farnese Pope came
down with guns and stones and every implement of war as well as curses,
to quell them, the members of the Baglioni family became the dominant
faction of the city. They left their country houses for ever. They fixed
their mighty eyries on the south side of the city, about where the
modern Prefettura stands to-day; from thence they dominated all the
town, and there they lived their wild ill-regulated lives, mingling the
most exquisite luxury with cruel vice. They were a splendid and a
beautiful race of men, and Italy rang with their great names, but their
rule was horrible.
"As I do not wish to swerve from the pure truth," says Matarazzo, who
himself adored them, "I say that from the day the Oddi were expelled our
city went from bad to worse. All the young men followed the trade of
arms. Their lives were disorderly; and every day divers excesses were
divulged, and the city had lost all reason and justice. Every man
administered right unto himself, _propriâ autoritate et manu regiâ_.
Meanwhile the Pope sent many legates, in order that the city might be
brought to order; but all who came returned in dread of being hewn in
pieces; for they threatened to throw some from the windows of the
palace, so that no cardinal or other legate durst approach Perugia,
unless he were a friend of the Baglioni. And the city was brought to
such misery that the most wrongous men were most prized; and those who
had slain two or three men walked as they listed through the palace, and
went with sword or poniard to speak to the podestà and other
magistrates. Moreover, every man of worth was downtrodden by _bravi_
whom the nobles favoured; nor could a citizen call his property his own.
The nobles robbed first one and then another of their goods and land.
All offices were sold or else suppressed; and taxes and extortions were
so grievous that every one cried out. And if a man were in prison for
his head, he had no reason to fear death, provided he had some interest
with a noble."
[Illustration: PALAZZO PUBBLICO]