CHAPTER V. THE FREE CITIES AND THE EMPIRE

[Sidenote: [1300-1350 A.D.]]

From the middle of the twelfth century we have seen nearly all the towns

of northern Italy shake off the imperial yoke. Towards the end of the

thirteenth the emperor Rudolf, instead of disputing their independence,

offered to sell it to them for money. In the franchised communes there

could no longer be any pretension to enslave fellow-citizens, but one

could be made of governing them. Riches became a title for taking part in

authority, by reason of the greater interest which the rich had in the

preservation and order of society. It may be seen that a right derived

from wealth is less extended than one derived from landed property. But

in towns there could hardly be landed property properly so called. One

could occupy a house, but not have those lands which, by their extent,

position, and the number of men cultivating them, give power to their

possessor.

Moreover, the privileged classes in towns distinguished themselves from

those in the country by the moderation of their pretensions. The latter

were always seen on horseback, clothed in armour, helmets on their

heads, and bearing arms whose use they reserved to themselves. They

always recalled the fact that their right was founded on their force and

valiance. In towns this apparel could have no use; riches would bring

clients, and seduction gain friends. Little by little the exercise of

authority, in so far as it was prolonged, happy, and met with favour,

became a right to new marks of confidence, these being the supposed debt

of those governed to those governing, and also supposed in the latter an

increase of experience, a transmission of knowledge, of good rules, and a

just ambition to make a name illustrious.

[Sidenote: [1300-1350 A.D.]]

The success of some lords had excited the ambition of all. But in the

large towns the mass of the population opposed a strong resistance to

them. Milan obliged its patricians to be content with a part of the

magistrature. After having excited general indignation by taking every

office, the Milanese nobles saw themselves reduced to signing a treaty

with the plebeians by which the latter were admitted to an equal share

in all public functions, from an ambassador’s charge to that of public

trumpeter. The prouder ones retired to their castles and revenged

themselves for their nullity by devastating the country. But even

these devastations augmented the strength of the towns--that is, their

population. The inhabitants, dispersed in a country open to ravages from

the lords, ran to seek shelter for their families or goods in a walled

city. Lordly feudal tyranny peopled the towns where so much resentment

fermented against it and where increased industry and riches finally

furnished the people the means of crushing these small tyrants.

When the translation of the holy see to Avignon left Rome to herself,

the tocsin of the Capitol obliged the barons to leave their fortified

retreats to come and humiliate themselves before the popular tribune, and

history shows us the Savelli, Frangipani, Colonna, and Orsini, standing

with bare heads, in a submissive attitude, subscribing tremblingly to

an oath of fidelity to the “law of good estate” in the hands of an

innkeeper. Their palaces were no longer their refuges, their excess had

no more the privilege of impunity. An attempt to revolt forced them to

hear their condemnation as though they were the lowest criminals and to

receive the pardon more humiliating still. In the greater part of the

republics where war demanded a leader, but where abuse of power had made

all the native nobles hateful, the rival factions called on a foreign

magistrate to govern Rome, demanded a head from Bologna and Venice

furnished one to Padua, Pisa, and Milan.

[Illustration: SAN MARCO, VENICE]

In those states where an unfertile soil tempted but a small part of

the population to agriculture, and offered no great means of power

to territorial lords, these latter saw their influence decrease in

proportion as other fortunes rose by means of commerce. They had,

however, to maintain themselves, the resources of the military service

and, above all, the faction. This was the condition of the nobles of

Genoa, Pisa, and Florence. When they tried violently to reseize the

power, they were suppressed and punished. Their fortresses were razed,

and hatred against them was carried to an injustice by depriving them of

rights which were common to all.

[Illustration: A DOGE OF VENICE]

It was in these commercial towns that the citizens, rapidly enriched by

fortunate enterprise, began to compare themselves with those ancient

possessors of privileges and to claim a share. A nobility sprang up of

quite different origin from the first, which disputed its authority,

but was disposed, like the other, to retain and abuse it. It is seen

that the influence of the privileged classes was modified according to

circumstances. Lords established in Italy by right of conquest ceased at

the time of the invasion of the Goths and other foreigners to be rulers,

and were no more than powerful vassals when regular monarchies arose.

When the commons were freed from the domination of the emperors, the

feudal lords retained their power where they had sufficient land to

preserve their pre-eminence. They shared or lost it from that or other

causes, particularly from commerce, which brought other means of power to

life which rivalled theirs. When these two kinds of nobles ceased to be

rivals, they agreed in order to rule. The hatred of the people against

the nobles hurried towns under the yoke of some of these powerful men,

who had made it believed that they sincerely took the popular side. That

is what cost the republic of Milan her proud liberty. In Genoa some

ambitious nobles took the same means to preserve influence. The Dorias

and Spinolas contracted an alliance with the people, and aided with

feigned zeal in the introduction of democratic forms into the government.

Other republics fell into an excess of distrust. Injustice nourished

hatreds and deprived the state of its most illustrious citizens.[b]

AN EMPEROR ONCE MORE IN ITALY

On the 25th of November, 1308, the diet of Germany named Henry VII of

Luxemburg 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 Fredericks. From the death

of the second Frederick, fifty-eight years had passed since she had

seen an emperor. Rudolf of Habsburg, Adolphus of Nassau, and Albert of

Austria had too much to do in Germany to occupy themselves 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; but

he was neither rich nor powerful. He secured to his son, by marriage,

the crown of Bohemia, which had excited some jealousy among the Germans;

and he believed it would be expedient, in order to avoid all quarrel in

the empire, to quit it for some time. To flatter the national vanity, he

determined on an expedition to Italy.

Henry, himself a Belgian, had no power but in Belgium and the provinces

adjoining France. From Luxemburg 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 were Belgians, Franc-Comtois,

or Savoyards. This force would have been wholly insufficient to subdue

Italy; but Henry VII presented himself there as the supporter of just

rights, of order, and, to a certain degree, of liberty.

[Illustration: CORNER OF CHURCH OF SAN GIOVANNI, VENICE]

[Sidenote: [1295-1311 A.D.]]

The lords of all Lombardy 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 magistrates. Philippone di Langusco, at Pavia; Simon da

Colobiano, at Vercelli; William Brusato, at Novara; Antonio Fisiraga, at

Lodi, in obedience to this intimation, laid down the sovereign power. At

the same time, Henry everywhere recalled the exiles, without distinction

of party; at Como and Mantua, the Ghibellines; at Brescia and Piacenza,

the Guelfs; 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 Ghibelline captain in Italy, the best soldier, the

best politician, and the person whose services and attachment the emperor

most valued. The rich and populous city of Milan required also to be

treated with address and consideration. The archbishop Otto 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 Lombardy; at the same time he strengthened 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 Lombardy. A league to give the preponderance to the Guelf party in

this province was formed by Alberto Scotto, lord of Piacenza, and by

Ghiberto da Correggio, lord of Parma; they forced the Visconti 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

Guelfs. Matteo Visconti and the Ghibellines 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 city a gratuity for his

army of one hundred thousand florins. Till then the Italians had seen in

the monarch only a just and impartial pacificator; but when he demanded

money, the different parties united against him.

MILAN SEDITIONS; GENOA AND VENICE AT WAR

[Sidenote: [1311-1312 A.D.]]

A violent sedition broke forth at Milan. The Della Torres and the Guelfs

were forced to leave that city. Matteo Visconti and the Ghibellines

were recalled, and the former restored to absolute power. The Guelfs,

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 that 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 Kaffa in the Black Sea, military and

mercantile colonies, which made themselves respected for their valour,

at the same time that they carried on the richest commerce of the

Mediterranean. Several islands in the Archipelago, amongst others that

of Chios, had passed in sovereignty to Genoese families. 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 rencounter 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 Venetian commander

Andrea Dandolo at Corzuola or Corcyra the Black, at the extremity of

the Adriatic Gulf, burned sixty-six of his galleys, and took eighteen,

which he brought into the port of Genoa, with seven thousand 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

Tuscany (called by the Italians Le Riviere di Genoa, because the foot

of these mountains forms the shore of the sea), were covered with the

castles of the Ligurian 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,

Ghibellines; the Grimaldi and the Fieschi, Guelfs. These nobles, incensed

against each other by hereditary enmity, had disturbed the state by so

many outrages that the people adopted, with respect 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.

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 disturbances which the nobles excited, they had recourse to

foreigners to subdue them to the common law. The people were in a state

of irritation against the Ligurian nobles, 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 podesta, and then the abbate or defender of the people,

and afterwards demanded of the city a gift of sixty thousand 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 fermentation of increasing danger manifested itself; and

Henry was happy to quit Genoa in safety, on the 16th of February, 1312,

on board a Pisan fleet, which transported him with about fifteen hundred

cavalry to Tuscany.[12]

[Illustration: CHURCH OF ST. TOMMASO, GENOA]

HENRY’S CORONATION AND SUDDEN DEATH

[Sidenote: [1312-1313 A.D.]]

Henry VII when he entered Italy, was impartial between the Guelfs and

Ghibellines. He owed his election to the influence of the popes, and

he was accompanied 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 Guelf cities. He had no hereditary affection for

the Ghibellines, the zealous partisans of a family long extinct. He

endeavoured, accordingly, to hold the balance fairly between the two

parties, and to reconcile them wherever 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 Ghibellines, or the terror and hatred of the Guelfs. 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 Guelf party, already testified an open distrust of him; and

Florence, which by its prudence, ability, wealth, and courage was the

real director of that party, took arms to resist him, refused audience to

his ambassadors, raised all the Guelfs 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 Ghibelline

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 sixty

thousand 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 six hundred

crossbowmen, 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 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

Ghibellines 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 despised;

but no people carried civil courage and firmness in misfortune further.

Their army was soon infinitely 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, but they would not drive

them out of their territory by giving battle; they preferred bearing

patiently their depredations, 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 giving 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 solicited from his brother, the archbishop of Trèves, a

German reinforcement, which he obtained in the following month of July.

On the 5th of August, 1313, Henry VII departed from Pisa, commanding

twenty-five hundred ultramontane and fifteen hundred Italian cavalry,

with a proportionate number of infantry. He began his march towards Rome,

having been informed that Robert, called by the Florentines to their

aid, advanced with all the forces of the Guelf party to oppose him. The

declining military reputation of the Neapolitans inspired the Germans

with little fear, and Robert had but a small number of French cavalry to

give courage to his army; but the priests and monks, animated with zeal

in defence of the ancient Guelf party and the independence of the church,

seconded him with their prayers, and the report soon spread that they had

seconded him in another manner and in their own way. The emperor took

the road of San Miniato to Castel Fiorentino, arrived at Buon Convento,

twelve miles beyond Siena, 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 by a malady which he

concealed. A carbuncle had manifested itself below the knee; and a cold

bath, which he took to calm the burning irritation, perhaps occasioned

his sudden and unexpected death.

RIVAL EMPERORS; ECCLESIASTICAL DISSENSIONS

[Sidenote: [1313-1322 A.D.]]

The electors of the empire were not convoked at Frankfort to name a

successor to Henry VII till ten months after his death. Ten, instead of

seven princes presented 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, Ludwig 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

Mühldorf.

The church abstained, while the civil war lasted, from pronouncing

between the two pretenders to the empire. 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 cardinals

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, exiled from Italy. He was an intriguer,

notoriously profligate, scandalously avaricious; he fancied himself,

however, a philosopher, and took a part in the quarrel 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 heretics, 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 interregnum,

during which he asserted all the rights of the emperors devolved on the

holy see. He charged Cardinal Bertrand to exercise those rights as legate

in Lombardy, crush the Ghibellines, support the Guelfs, but above all,

subdue both to the authority of the church and its legate.

The cardinal Bertrand de Poiet launched his excommunications 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 Ghibelline chiefs. Visconti made himself

beloved by the Milanese, whom he had always treated with consideration.

Without being virtuous, he had preserved his reputation unstained by

crime. His mind was enlightened. To a perfect knowledge of mankind, he

added quick-sightedness, prompt decision, and a certain military glory,

heightened by that of four sons, his faithful lieutenants, who were all

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 Guelfs, took possession of

Pavia, Tortona, and Alessandria. He besieged, in concert with the Genoese

Ghibellines, Robert king of Naples, who had shut himself up in Genoa,

desirous of making that city the fortress of the Guelfs of Lombardy.

Visconti compelled the retreat of Philip of 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

one 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 Ghibellines, who defended in Italy the interests of whoever of the

two remained conqueror. But, after having made war against the church

party twenty years, without 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 22nd 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 proclaimed 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 Milan.

The two parties of the Guelfs and Ghibellines, since the death of Henry

VII, no longer nearly balanced each other in virtue, talents, and

patriotism. In the beginning of their struggle, there were almost as many

republics on one side as the other; and sentiments as 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 Ghibellines

had become that of tyranny--of the Guelfs that of liberty. The former

displayed those great military and political talents which personal

ambition usually develops. In the second were to be found, almost

exclusively, patriotism, and the heroism which sacrifices to it every

personal interest. The republic of Pisa alone, in Italy, united the love

of liberty with the sentiments of the Ghibelline 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, exhausted

by the prodigious efforts which she had made to serve him, was true to

herself, when all the Guelfs of Tuscany rose at once, on the death of

Henry, to avenge on her the terror which that monarch had inspired. She

gave the command of her militia to Uguccione 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 Guelfs. They took Lucca, on

the 14th of June, 1314, while the Lucchese Guelfs and Ghibellines were

engaged in battle in the streets of that city; and, on the 29th of

August of the same year, they defeated, at Montecatini, the Florentines,

commanded by two princes of the house of Naples, and seconded by all the

Guelfs 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 states, 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 Ghibelline 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.[d]

The Pisans put Uguccione’s partisans to death, and gave the government

to Count Gaddo della Gherardesca. This news arrived at Lucca when the

Lucchese were tumultuously demanding the liberty of Castruccio. Uguccione

not daring to oppose the general wish, Castruccio was taken from prison

and presented to the public loaded with chains. At this spectacle the

people grew still more furious; Uguccione was obliged to fly; and the

chains being taken off Castruccio, the latter, by a rare good fortune,

was declared lord of Lucca on the very day which had been destined for

his death.[e]

CASTRUCCIO CASTRACANI

Castruccio was the scion of a Ghibelline stock, and was devoted to the

Ghibelline cause; for four years successively he was freely elected

to command the Lucchese with almost sovereign power. He knew men and

how to govern them; knew what enmities to despise or punish, and what

friendships to win and retain. As a daring soldier and skilful general

he was beloved by the troops, for he was not blind to merit and knew how

to reward it, but cared little about the morality of his followers if

they only did their duty and quietly submitted to the rigid discipline

that he established and enforced. No man was more beloved by the people

or more generally popular with every class of citizen; they admired his

talents and were proud of his fame. In 1320 he felt so confident of his

position in the public mind that he ventured to expel the Avocati, who

with about 180 great Guelfic families now bid adieu to their country, and

then boldly demanded the supreme authority; out of 210 senators there

was but one voice against him, and the people unanimously confirmed this

election. He was therefore a legitimate ruler. His economical management

of the public revenue was exemplary and productive; he had amassed great

treasure, and his system of military honours and rewards heightened and

improved the warlike spirit of the people until it had acquired a more

professional character. All the neighbouring predaceous chiefs were

allured to his standard by the hope of future conquests, and rough and

unscrupulous as they were he made them all bend to his discipline.

Thus prepared on every hand to begin that career of ambition to which

he felt himself more than equal, Matteo Visconti’s proposal was warmly

received, and Philip of Valois’ expedition with the ready assistance

of the Guelfic league were together considered an infringement of the

general peace, or at least a sufficient excuse for retaliation on the

part of the Ghibellines. Uguccione Faggiuola was dead, a circumstance

that heightened the anxiety of both Castruccio and the Florentines,

particularly the latter, whose dread of this veteran chief, blinding them

as it did to the dangerous ambition of his successor, had never ceased

since the disaster of Montecatini.

[Sidenote: [1320-1321 A.D.]]

Such was the state of affairs in April, 1320, when Castruccio Castracani

with some Pisan auxiliaries suddenly occupying Cappiano, Montefalcone,

and the bridges of the Gusciano, broke into the Florentine territory

carrying death and devastation as far as Cerreto Guidi, Vinci, and

Empoli; then, getting possession of Santa Maria a Monte by treachery,

returned in triumph to Lucca. Afterwards, invading Lunigiana and

Garfagnana, he dispossessed Spinetto Malespina of several places

necessary for his own military operations and then marched with all his

force to aid the siege of Genoa. This city still maintained a fierce and

bloody struggle with its own exiles and the Lombard Ghibellines; war

raged not only round the walls but throughout the whole Riviera, or coast

district; it extended to Sicily and Naples and involved even more distant

countries in its action, so that the siege of Troy itself, as Villani[d]

asserts, was hardly equal to it for heroic deeds, marvellous exploits,

and hard-fought battles by land and water, without any cessation either

in summer or winter.

The Florentines determined to prevent a junction that would probably

have settled the fate of Genoa, therefore made a powerful diversion in

the Lucchese states which compelled Castruccio to return ere he had

joined the besiegers; avoiding an action they retreated to the frontier

at Fucecchio while the enemy halted in front of Cappiano, both armies

remaining nearly inactive until the advancing season drove them into

winter quarters. To make amends for this inglorious campaign, more

vigorous measures were pursued and an alliance was concluded with the

marquis Spinetto Malespina, who, although a Ghibelline, had been too

much injured by Castruccio on account of his friendship for Uguccione

not to seize the first opportunity of revenge. Florentine troops were

despatched to his aid, yet Castruccio was not apprehensive of anything in

that quarter, but prepared with the help of a powerful body of Lombard

Ghibellines for a more serious struggle on the side of Florence and soon

marched to raise the siege of Monte Vettolini at the head of sixteen

hundred men-at-arms. The Florentines, having only half that number,

immediately retired and allowed him to devastate their territory with

impunity for the last twenty days of June, after which he retired to

chastise the Malespini in Lunigiana.

Discontent ran high in Florence and the retiring seigniory were much

censured for their feeble conduct; the Agubbio faction was still

powerful, and probably the inconvenience of a fluctuating administration

was beginning to be felt, as the foreign affairs with a more complex

character embraced a wider circle; to remedy this, twelve counsellors,

two for each sesto under the denomination of “Buonuomini” were added to

the new seigniory, but to continue six months in office instead of two,

and without whose sanction nothing important could be undertaken. To

check also the increasing intimacy, and consequent favouritism between

citizens and foreign officers of state, which led to great abuse, it

was decreed that no stranger who brought a kinsman in his suite could

have a place in the commonwealth, and that until ten years from his

resignation of office he could not be re-elected. Some taxes were then

reduced, the gold and silver currency reformed, and preparations made

for a fresh campaign. Azzo of Brescia was appointed captain-general; one

hundred and sixteen knights and one hundred and sixty mounted crossbowmen

were enlisted and under the command of Jacopo da Fontana soon checked

Castruccio’s incursions so as to protect the line of the Gusciana. But

Philip of Valois’ expedition had in the meanwhile failed, and in Lombardy

the Tuscans were defeated at Bardo in the Val-di-Taro, their captain

the marquis of Cavalcabò was killed, Cremona recaptured, and Visconti

everywhere victorious.

[Sidenote: [1321-1323 A.D.]]

In Florence one of the first public measures in 1321 was to complete

the whole circuit of public walls and strengthen it by flanking towers

fifty-five feet high at regular intervals of more than one hundred

and eighty feet apart; a work that was doubtless accelerated by their

apprehension of Castruccio, which had now taken a more alarming character

from some recent proceedings at Pistoia.

This ever-vexed city, harassed by external war and inward troubles,

finally elected the abbate da Pacciana de’ Tedici, a tool of Castruccio,

as their ruler; he was a weak intriguing man who, catching at a popular

opinion, was suddenly floated into power by the stormy multitude without

ballast enough to steady him. Castruccio made good use of him, and a

truce was suddenly concluded with that leader against all the influence

of Florence, by which, according to Villani[d] (though unnoticed by the

anonymous author of the _Istorie Pistolese_),[f] an annual tribute of

three thousand florins was to be paid by Pistoia. The dread of Castruccio

was rapidly and generally spreading.

FLORENCE MENACED

He fortified Lucca, and prepared to invade Florentine territory. The

Florentines sent a strong detachment of troops into Lombardy on condition

that in the following summer the Genoese and other Guelfic powers were to

attack Lucca on every side and annihilate the rising power of Castruccio.

Scarcely had an army been assembled for this purpose, when intelligence

arrived that their principal condottiere, Jacopo di Fontanabuona, had

passed over with all his following to the enemy; he had been commissioned

to make himself master of Buggiano and other places by treachery, but

failed, and soon after joined Castruccio with two hundred men-at-arms.

Castruccio with this reinforcement and the possession of his enemy’s

secrets crossed the Gusciano on the 13th of June, 1323, attacked

Fucecchio and other places, ravaged the surrounding country, then passed

the Arno, devastated the territory of San Miniato and Montepopoli with

all the vale of Elsa, and marched quietly back to Lucca. On July 1st he

suddenly reappeared in front of Prato, only ten miles from the capital,

with six hundred men-at-arms and four thousand infantry; the citizens

sent in terror to Florence for help, but paralysed by Fontanabuona’s

treachery she was nearly destitute of regular troops. The citizens

however had not quite forgotten the use of arms, and their spirit was

still high; the shops were immediately closed, a candle was placed at the

Prato gate, and every individual liable to serve summoned to the ranks

ere it burned out, under the penalty of losing a limb; a proclamation

being issued to announce that all exiles who instantly joined the

army would be pardoned and restored to their country. By these prompt

measures, twenty-five hundred men-at-arms and twenty thousand infantry

were in the field round Prato on the 2nd of July, only one day after

Castruccio’s appearance, four thousand of whom were exiles!

[Sidenote: [1323-1324 A.D.]]

Castruccio’s rash advance with so small a force might have ended

disastrously if the Florentines had been well commanded; but he retired

in the night and made an unmolested retreat to Serravalle, the discord

in the Florentine camp, an offset from civil dissension, having saved

him. Thus ended this singular campaign in which the army scarcely saw

an enemy, but which brought back danger and revolution to the state.

The Florentines now added three subalterns (_pennoniere_) to each urban

company, so that the whole force became infinitely more flexible and

divisible and better adapted to real service.

He soon recommenced his successful incursions, but was generally too

weak to oppose the united strength of Florence; the moral effect of his

character was however very imposing in both states and nothing was too

daring either for his arms or conscience. His Ghibelline allies the

Pisans were deeply engaged in war with the king of Aragon for the defence

of Sardinia, which offered him a favourable occasion as he thought

of becoming their master; the conspiracy was however discovered; the

conspirator Betto or Benedetto Malepra de’ Lanfranchi with many others

lost his head; all friendship or alliance with Lucca was renounced by

Pisa, and 10,000 golden florins were offered for the head of Castruccio.

About two months afterwards he suddenly left his capital at the head of

a small detachment on the 19th of December, and by the treachery of an

inhabitant of Fucecchio was admitted at night into the town during a

deluge of rain, which at first concealed his aggression; the subsequent

struggle was fierce and bloody; a great part of the place was taken,

but alarm fires on the towers brought strong reinforcements from the

neighbouring garrisons; Castruccio held on with desperate resolution

against an overwhelming force of soldiers and citizens until, wounded,

fatigued, and hopeless of success, he sullenly retired with the loss of

banners and horses, but still unmolested; for the glory of repulsing him

was deemed sufficient, and the habitual dread of his prowess left no

appetite for a second encounter.

[Illustration: SAN MINIATO, FLORENCE]

Nothing of importance occurred between Castruccio and the Florentines in

the following year, for the former was busy with his intrigues against

Pisa and Pistoia, and the latter employed reducing some petty chieftains

in the Mugello, but still more seriously on the side of Arezzo where

the bishop was rapidly gaining ground against the Guelfs. Five hundred

men-at-arms were engaged in France, and other preparations making for the

day of battle which the Florentines foresaw must come before Castruccio

could be arrested in the rapid course of his ambition; a new confederacy

was therefore formed in March between Florence, Bologna, Siena, Perugia,

Orvieto, and Agubbio; with other communities and Guelfic lords, for the

recovery of Città di Castello, which was to be effected by a combined

army of three thousand men-at-arms levied for three years, a great part

of which was maintained by the Florentines.

[Sidenote: [1324-1325 A.D.]]

Castruccio meanwhile had moved towards the Pistoian Mountains, and

repairing the castle of Brandelli, whence there was a view of both

Pistoia and Florence, called it Bellosguardo and gazed with a longing

eye on either city. One was only his own in perspective, the other

was almost in his grasp; and Filippo Tedici, who had driven his uncle

from the government of Pistoia, and was in treaty with Castruccio and

Florence, pretending the greatest alarm, demanded assistance of the

latter, with whose aid he hoped to better his bargain. A body of troops

was directly sent under command of the podesta, but discovering his

object, this officer returned in disgust; upon which he made his terms

with Castruccio, and Pistoia was suffered for a while to exist as an

independent state. Florence had attempted to gain it by treachery but

failed, and Castruccio, tired of Filippo’s intrigues, offered him 10,000

florins and his daughter Dialta in marriage for immediate possession of

the city. This secured Filippo, who before daylight on the 5th of May,

1325, opened a gate to the Lucchese general; but the latter distrusting

his ally would not enter until he had actually unhinged it, and then took

possession of the place in the manner of the time by scouring the streets

at the head of his cavalry and trampling upon all that came in his way.

The fall of Pistoia was an event of great importance; equally distant

from Florence and Lucca and on the confines of both, it formed a

rallying-point for the armies of either, and its friendship or enmity had

considerable influence on every operation of the war; hence the eagerness

of Florence at all times to preserve her authority there, and hence the

general consternation when intelligence of its capture arrived at the

capital.

THE FLORENTINE ARMY UNDER RAYMOND OF CARDONA

She might have bought it for the same price or even less than Castruccio,

because Filippo felt himself too insecure not to make both friends and

money by the sacrifice of his country; but failing, either from want of

skill or perhaps dishonesty in her agents, she repeated her attempts to

surprise the place, thus forcing him into the arms of Castruccio, and

he poisoned his own wife to complete the union. Rumours of this event

reached Florence while the magistrates were engaged in public festivities

on the occasion of two foreign officers of state being dubbed knights by

the republic, and the banquet was going on in the church of San Piero

Scheraggio when the news was confirmed. In a moment the whole assembly

fell into confusion, the tables were overturned, and every man was

immediately armed and in his saddle; believing that a part of the town

might still hold out, a rapid march was made as far as Prato, where

hearing the whole truth they returned dejected and mortified to Florence.

The following day brought some consolation in the arrival of Raymond of

Cardona, who had been sent in the preceding November from Milan on a

mission to Rome; he had promised to return, but was absolved by the pope

and sent instantly to Florence as commander-in-chief of the republican

forces. His presence gave new spirit to the people, which was increased

by the capture of Artimino on the 22nd of May.

One of the finest armies ever assembled by the republic soon took the

field at the enormous expense of 3000 florins a day; the city bells

tolled as a declaration of war; the public standard waved over San Piero

a Monticelli; the _soldati_ or mercenary troops first moved to Prato,

and the _cavallate_ with all the mass of civic infantry joined them on

the following morning. One of the city bells which had been captured at

Montale broke while in the act of sounding; three weeks before there had

been a violent earthquake in Florence, and the following evening a broad

stream of fiery vapour flared over the city. All these circumstances were

dwelt upon with anxious and gloomy foreboding by numbers of citizens

over whose mind the talents and success of Castruccio had gained a

superstitious ascendency. The cavalry consisted of 500 gentlemen of the

highest rank in Florence under the name _cavallate_ or men-at-arms on

horseback, all magnificently equipped and a hundred of them mounted on

_destrieri_, the largest and finest war-horses of the time and which few

could afford to purchase; none cost less than 150 golden florins [nearly

£200 or $1000], yet there were 300 of these, natives and strangers,

in the Florentine army. Besides the cavallate there were 1500 foreign

cavalry in the pay of Florence, of whom 800 were French and German

gentlemen of the highest rank and distinction; the general-in-chief,

Raymond of Cardona, a Spanish condottiere, and his lieutenant, Borneo of

Burgundy, were followed by a troop of 230 Catalan and Burgundian cavalry,

and lastly there were 450 Gascons, French, Flemings, Italians, and men of

Provence picked with great care from the veteran companies of Masnadieri,

and all experienced soldiers. Fifteen thousand well-appointed infantry,

between citizens and rural troops, completed the personal force of this

fine army, and 800 canvas pavilions and other great tents, with 6000

_ronzini_ and baggage horses attended its movements.

[Illustration: THE PITTI PALACE, FLORENCE]

With the exception of 200 Sienese cavalry no allies had yet joined,

but hostilities commenced on the 17th of June by devastating the

Pistoian territory up to the gates of the capital, capturing many small

places, insulting Castruccio, who was in that city, by running for the

Palio under its walls, and sending him repeated challenges to battle.

Castruccio dryly answered that it was not the right time, and the

Florentines marched directly to besiege Tizzano, a strong town about

seven miles from Pistoia on the road to Florence; there every preparation

was apparently made for a regular siege, while Cardona on the 9th of July

sent his lieutenant Borneo with 500 picked men towards Fucecchio; and to

engage Castruccio’s attention a strong detachment was at the same time

directed to alarm Pistoia and the surrounding country. Borneo was joined

at Fucecchio by 150 Lucchese exiles and a numerous infantry, besides

some reinforcements from the garrisons in Val d’Arno. Carrying with him

a pontoon bridge, apparently the first noticed by the early historians

of these campaigns, he threw it silently over the Gusciana at Rosaiuolo

during the night, and the whole division crossed that river without being

perceived by the garrisons at the bridge of Cappiano or Montefalcone,

scarcely a mile above and below the point of passage.

RAYMOND TEMPORISES

On hearing this, Raymond suddenly quitted Tizzano, passed the lofty range

of Monte Albano, and by night-fall had joined his detachment and invested

the fortified bridge and fortress of Cappiano. This was an unexpected

stroke for the Lucchese general, who believed himself safe in that

quarter, and would appear to have doubted the possibility of so sudden a

passage of the Gusciana by any soldiers; so that this operation increased

the fame of Cardona, the confidence of the league, and the spirit of the

Florentines. His frontier line being thus broken, Castruccio immediately

quitted Pistoia, and entering the Val di Nievole threw his army in

position amongst the hills above Vivinaia, which he endeavoured to

strengthen while he pressed for the co-operation of all his friends; Pisa

disregarded this summons in consequence of his recent treachery; but from

Lucca, Arezzo, La Marca, Romagna, and the Maremma he assembled thirteen

hundred men-at-arms and a numerous infantry, with which he reinforced all

his positions from Vivinaia to Porcari, strengthening the latter with

additional works and troops to secure his communications with Lucca; and

finally cut a trench from the hills to the marsh of Bientina which was

guarded with the utmost solicitude.

The bridge of Cappiano was taken by Cardona on the 13th of July; the town

itself next fell; two days after, Montefalcone was summoned and reduced

in eight days, and thus the whole line of the Gusciana was cleared of the

enemy. This rapid success brought numerous reinforcements from Siena,

Perugia, Bologna, Agubbio, Grosseto, Montepulciano, Chiusi, Colle, San

Gimignano, Volterra, San Miniato, Faenza, Imola, Count Battifolle, and

the exiles from Lucca and Pistoia; all eager to assist in overwhelming

this formidable chieftain; so that the army had already swelled to 3454

men-at-arms and a proportionate number of infantry. With this immense

force Cardona advanced, and on the 3rd of August invested the strong

fortress of Altopascio, which crowns a hill rising from the marshes north

of the Bientina Lake; the place, although impregnable to an assault, was

so damaged by the battering engines and so poisoned by heat, sickness,

and the horrid stench of filthy matter which it was then usual to cast

into besieged towns, that on hearing of the discomfiture of a Lucchese

detachment sent from Pistoia to make a diversion towards Florence it

immediately surrendered.

The capture of this place was succeeded by doubts, discussion, and

delay; the troops had become sickly from heats and malaria, and the

army proportionably reduced; discontent and intrigues were plentiful,

and Castruccio, quick in the use of corruption, seized the favourable

moment to bribe two Frenchmen of high rank, but was detected and baffled.

Cardona himself, although proof against Castruccio’s temptations,

was false and ambitious; he had seen Florence in periods of distress

repeatedly surrender her liberties, and determined by getting her into

difficulties to try if he also could not become her master; the fall of

Altopascio elated him, his pockets were filled and his camp emptied by

the bribes of rich citizens who, tired of a long campaign and alarmed

at increasing sickness, cheerfully exchanged their money for leave of

absence and the pleasures of the capital. The cavalry, being generally

composed of these, was reduced along with the rest of the army to almost

half its original number, and Cardona wished this; for his thoughts ran

high, and hence his delays, discussions, and repeated demands to be

invested with the same power in the city that he already exercised in

the army; in order, as he said, to insure the necessary obedience. But

finding that the government would not listen to his request, he lay idle

amongst the Bientina marshes while Castruccio, with the eyes and activity

of a lynx, strained every nerve to catch him in his toils, and succeeded;

so that he who at first neglected the means of victory through bad faith,

was at last through incapacity unable to save himself from destruction.

Dissension arose both in the camp and city about the propriety of

withdrawing the army to a more healthy quarter or boldly pushing on to

Lucca; the most cautious advised the former course from a suspicion of

the general’s views and the state of the troops; but their opponents

prevailed both in camp and council, some of them even favouring Cardona’s

wildest speculations. It was therefore resolved to advance towards Lucca;

but instead of cutting through the enemy’s position while he was weak, by

a direct movement, as might have been effected, a bad unhealthy post was

occupied on the edge of the Sesto marsh, which decimated the troops while

it still more augmented the gains of the general.

A BRILLIANT SKIRMISH

Castruccio did not fail to profit by this delay, although his army also

had decreased from want of funds and sickness, and therefore could not

long maintain its position without reinforcements, but he discovered

in that of the enemy the seeds of certain victory. By reason, money,

and promises he had already prevailed on Galeazzo Visconti to send his

son with eight hundred horse into Tuscany; and with two hundred more

from Passerino, lord of Mantua and Modena, he hoped soon to recover his

ascendency; in the meanwhile his situation was very precarious, for

Cardona by a vigorous effort might have cut his line of communication;

the latter, now sensible of his errors and probably urged by the general

discontent, had actually detached a hundred men-at-arms and a body of

pioneers to clear a passage over the mountain. Castruccio’s outposts

soon checked their progress and were followed by a stronger body then

descending the hill in order of battle; skirmishing began, and voluntary

reinforcements pushed out unordered from the Florentine camp below. It

was entirely an encounter of cavalry; the green slopes of the hills

were covered with armed and plumed knights, the whole scene resembled

a tournament rather than a real battle and the effect is described

as beautiful. Each party was broken four different times and each

reuniting in compact order returned unconquered to the charge; many

lances were shivered, many gentlemen unhorsed, and arms and wounded and

expiring men lay scattered on the mountain side. The Florentines with

only half its numbers for three hours sustained and repulsed the charges

of Castruccio’s chivalry, and might have finally prevailed if they had

been well supported; but Cardona in complete order of battle looked on

inactively, his troops cooped up in a narrow angle of the plain below

whence they could not move without incurring danger. This did not escape

Castruccio who therefore pushed boldly on with augmenting numbers and,

though unhorsed by a German knight, wounded, and some of his bravest

followers slain, by night-fall had succeeded in driving the enemy back to

their entrenchments in face of a much superior army.

Forty men-at-arms were either killed or taken on the side of Florence,

and many wounded, but all in front; for the Florentines did not turn,

but battled proudly and retreated sullenly, more angry with their own

commander than with the enemy; they made no prisoners but must have smote

well in the conflict, for no less than a hundred of their opponents’

horses had galloped to the plain with empty saddles from the field of

battle.

THE BATTLE OF ALTOPASCIO

The trumpets of either host answered each other in defiance until after

dark, and neither choosing to own a defeat both remained under arms long

after night set in; but the Florentines lost their spirit from that day’s

fight and no longer trusted either in the faith or talents of their

general. Castruccio, being anxious to keep the Spaniard in his difficult

position, directed the governors of several towns in the Val di Nievole

to entangle him in a fictitious intrigue with the expectation of their

surrender, and Cardona, thus duped, notwithstanding every warning, chose

to continue in this state of vain inactivity.

On hearing of Azzo Visconti’s arrival at Lucca with eight hundred

men-at-arms he took fright and hastily retreated to Altopascio, whilst

Castruccio, apprehensive of his escape, hurried back to the capital

to accelerate the march of the Lombards. Visconti was so unwilling to

proceed without repose or money that it required all the influence of

Castruccio’s wife, seconded by the blandishments of the most beautiful

women in Lucca and the payment of 6000 florins, to gain his promise of

marching on the following morning; Castruccio then departed, leaving

to the women the care of keeping the young Milanese chieftain to his

engagement. On the morning of the 23rd of November the allied army

paraded ostentatiously in front of Castruccio’s position, with flying

colours and sound of many trumpets, daring him as it were to battle,

and the latter fearful of losing such a moment sent out some troops to

amuse them with a prospect of victory while he kept his main body in

hand awaiting the junction of Visconti. This was completed at nine in

the morning, when Castruccio was seen once more descending from the

hills with three-and-twenty hundred men-at-arms in majestic movement

towards the plain, while the greater part of his infantry remained in the

mountain and took no part in the events of this day. An advanced squadron

of 150 French and Italian gentlemen began the fight by a bold charge

directly through Visconti’s line; but the second line or main body of

Feditori, consisting of seven hundred horsemen under Borneo of Burgundy

who had been corrupted by Azzo or Castruccio, turned when it was time to

charge and fled from the encounter. The whole army, whose confidence was

already shaken, were confounded and some others began to fly; but had

Raymond promptly moved forward to the support of his first line which

had charged so effectively, the battle might still have been maintained

on equal terms; instead of which he remained motionless and added to the

general consternation.

[Illustration: ITALIAN SOLDIER OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY]

Presently the main body of cavalry, scarcely tarrying to exchange

a single lance-thrust, hurried off in universal confusion, leaving

everything to the infantry who still maintained their ground with

undaunted courage; but neither their arms nor discipline was calculated

to stand alone against such masses of man and steel as came successively

upon them, and after an obstinate resistance they also were discomfited.

The battle lasted but a short time, few were killed in the fight but

many in the pursuit, for Castruccio instantly sent on a detachment to

Cappiano, took possession of the bridge which had already been abandoned,

and cut off all direct means of escape. The slaughter was therefore

considerable but uncertain; the prisoners, amongst whom were Raymond of

Cardona and his son, were numerous; the carroccio, the martinella, with

all the public standards, banners, and baggage of the army, were taken;

Cappiano and Montefalcone soon capitulated, and Altopascio not many days

after. Thus did the tide of fortune turn and bear forward Castruccio to

prouder hopes and higher dignities. On the 27th of September his whole

army assembled at Pistoia and was reinforced by that garrison, while

Castruccio in all the confidence of victory dismantled the bridge and

forts of Cappiano and Montefalcone, and secure in the possession of

Pistoia left the rest of his frontier open to the Florentines, whose

territory he ravaged for nearly seven weeks without interruption. Policy

and necessity dictated this course, for his funds were exhausted, Azzo

Visconti was still unsatisfied, and the army in arrears of pay; so that

nothing but the plunder of Florentine citizens could supply his present

necessities. Carmignano was his first conquest; he then marched to

Lecore, to Signa, Campi, Brozzi, and Guaracchi; all were captured or fell

a prey to flames and plunder; Peretola, within two miles of Florence,

became for a while his headquarters, while from the Arno to the mountains

he ravaged all the plain, a plain covered, then as now, but more richly,

with magnificent villas and beautiful gardens, the delight of the

citizens and the admiration of the world. All was destroyed. The wealth

was plundered, the monuments of then reviving art were carried away and

reserved for the conqueror’s triumph. Games were celebrated and races run

on the very spot time out of mind reserved by the Florentines for their

public spectacles. A course of horsemen began the sports; that of footmen

followed; and afterwards, to make the insult still more disgusting,

a bevy of common prostitutes ran together in mockery, deriding the

impotence of the Florentines, not one of whom had the courage to come

forth and check these insulting spectacles. Yet the city was full of

troops, and thousands had escaped from the fight, but the star of

Castruccio shed its influence over them; their spirit was subdued, their

courage wasted, and distrust of those great families whose kinsmen were

prisoners to Castruccio, lest they should treat with him secretly,

completely distracted their judgment. After another course of devastation

the invaders reassembled on the 26th of October and repeated their

insults to please Azzo Visconti, who thus revenged a similar proceeding

of the Florentine auxiliaries, not long before, under the walls of Milan.

Castruccio next occupied Signa, as it gave him command of the Arno at

this point with a free entrance into the Val di Pesa and all the southern

country; he therefore reinforced and strengthened it, coined silver money

there with the imperial image as an act of high sovereignty, and passed

them current under the name of _Castruccini_.

CASTRUCCIO ADDS INSULT TO INJURY

Florence was during this time in a painful state of suspicion and dismay;

all the prisoners’ kinsmen were regarded with distrust and deprived

of office both within and without the city; half the Contado was a

desert, its starving inhabitants huddled together in the capital where

a wide-spreading mortality was the natural consequence. Deaths were so

frequent that the public crier, whose business it was to proclaim the

decease of a citizen according to ancient custom, was prohibited from

exercising his calling during the continuance of the malady. Every

precaution was adopted to secure the city; the walls were strengthened,

San Miniato a Monte was fortified, and even the citadel of Fiesole

repaired from mere apprehension of Castruccio, who threatened to restore

it and beleaguer Florence; and this he probably would have done had not

the bishop of Arezzo and the Ubaldini from incipient jealousy refused

to lend their assistance. Fearful of internal war, all exiles but the

regular _Escettati_ of 1311 were restored to their country on payment

of a trifling impost; assistance was demanded from King Robert and the

allies, but with little success, for through terror of Castruccio only

Colle and San Miniato Tedesco answered the call. King Robert afterwards

sent some trifling aid; but still Florence did not despair, and a bold

attempt was made to cut off Castruccio’s whole army in a pass of the Val

di Marina near Calenzano. New taxes were imposed to the annual amount of

180,000 florins beyond the ordinary revenue; levies were made in Mantua

and in Germany; Monte Buoni and other important posts were fortified to

protect the district; yet in the middle of all this danger two hundred

cavalry were magnanimously despatched to Bologna, which was sorely

pressed, and its army soon after defeated at Monteveglio by Passerino

lord of Mantua, with the assistance of Azzo Visconti and his followers,

fresh from their Tuscan victories.

But this Milanese chief, ere he finally quitted Tuscany, offered a

parting insult to Florence by holding public games in the very bed of the

Arno. He then returned with 25,000 florins as his share of the general

plunder, while Castruccio, loaded with prisoners and booty, resolved to

enter his capital in triumph like a Roman conqueror.

The fame of this event attracted a crowd of spectators from all parts

of Italy, eager to witness the revival of an ancient ceremony but more

eager to behold a hero whose reputation had already become familiar

to the world. On the 10th of November, being the festival of St.

Martin, Castruccio made this triumphal entry into Lucca; not in a car,

but on a magnificent courser, and at some distance from the gates a

solemn procession of the clergy, nobility, and almost all the women of

exalted rank in the city received him like a royal personage. At the

head of his procession were the prisoners of least note with uncovered

heads, and arms crossed upon the breast, stooping as it were in humble

supplication for the mercy of their emperor; next came the Florentine

carroccio rolling heavily along, drawn by the same oxen and decked with

the same trappings they had borne in the field, and overhung by the

reversed and now degraded standard of that republic. Then followed other

Florentine banners, those of the Guelf party and the kings of Naples,

with flags and pennons of inferior note, and various communities, all

trailing in the dirt and as it were sweeping the path of the conqueror.

Immediately after this mortifying spectacle walked the same chiefs who

had so often borne these flags to victory. Here Raymond of Cardona also

had full leisure to contemplate the effects of his own dishonesty; and

the gallant Urlimbach, a German knight who had unhorsed Castruccio,

could also muse on the instability of fortune, as despoiled of arms and

spurs he swelled the train of the victor. A multitude of noble captives

followed in this insulting procession, which was closed by Castruccio

and his legions in all the pride and insolence of victory. But nothing

mortified the prisoners so much as being compelled to bear large waxen

torches as offerings to St. Martin, the tutelar saint of Lucca and dear

to her troops because of the Bacchanalian license usual at his festival

on pretence of tasting the various flavours of the new-made wines, and

because the saint himself had once been a soldier.

FLORENCE IN DESPAIR CALLS ON THE DUKE OF CALABRIA

Thus bearded at their very gates, insulted, ridiculed, the country a

desert, Signa occupied by the enemy, Prato at his mercy, Montemurlo still

unsuccoured and ready to fall, the Bolognese army, their only bulwark

against Lombardy, defeated, their best chieftains prisoners, their army

diminished, their expenses increased, their allies daunted, death raging

within the city and destruction without, all things adverse to them, and

fortune courting their enemies--under such a pressure the people at last

gave way, and despair once more compelled them to a temporary surrender

of their independence. Charles duke of Calabria was therefore, and

perhaps not unexpectedly, offered the lordship of Florence for ten years

on certain conditions.

It was decreed that the prince should remain for thirty months

consecutively within the Florentine state, or at war in the enemy’s

dominions, and the three succeeding summer months in addition should

hostilities continue. That in time of war he was to maintain one thousand

transalpine cavalry and have an annual allowance from the republic of

200,000 golden florins; half that sum in peace, with the obligation of

maintaining only 450 men-at-arms. If in time of peace the duke wished

to be absent, he was bound to appoint a lieutenant of the blood royal

or of some other great and powerful family; also to nominate a vicar

for the administration of justice, who was not to alter any part of

the government, but on the contrary defend and maintain the priors and

gonfalonier, the executor of the ordinances of justice, and the sixteen

chiefs of companies. This decree, which passed on the 23rd of December,

1325, was despatched with a solemn embassy to Naples and finished the

transactions of that unfortunate year, which began so brightly for the

Florentines.

[Sidenote: [1325-1326 A.D.]]

Until the dictator’s arrival Florence gave the chief command of her

army to Pierre de Narsi, a French knight of exalted rank who was made

prisoner at Altopascio; he had just been ransomed, and smarting under the

indignity of Castruccio’s triumph sought revenge and distinction ere he

was compelled to relinquish his brief and hazardous dignity. Not being

able to save Montemurlo which, after a courageous resistance, honourably

capitulated on the 8th of January, he exerted himself less worthily

by trying to raise insurrections at Signa and Carmignano, and even

attempting the life of Castruccio. But his effort came to nothing.

CHARLES AND HIS ARMY

[Illustration: A FLORENTINE CITIZEN OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY]

The duke of Calabria was detained for some months, but on the 30th of

July he entered Florence followed by eleven hundred men-at-arms, one

hundred of whom were knights of the Golden Spur. He was lodged in the

podesta’s palace from whence the seat of justice was purposely, perhaps

derisively removed, and formally acknowledged as lord of the Florentine

Republic. It was the mark of misfortune, the stigma of disgrace; yet it

excited the admiration of Italy; for Italy beheld the Florentine people,

masters only of a small and not a very fruitful territory, after their

repeated misfortunes, after so many defeats, such reverses and so much

treasure lost--nay, at the very moment when they seemed to totter on the

very brink of ruin, suddenly rise in their strength and like a giant

refreshed with wine, by the power of their own resources as it were,

command the service of so great a prince, and an army such as had never

before been seen in Florence!

There were no less than two thousand men-at-arms assembled, most of them

belonging to the highest ranks of society, independent of the cardinal

legate’s court and followers which were far from trifling; and without

reckoning the Florentine chivalry or a single knight of the Guelfic

confederacy. So vast a development of national resources was the more

remarkable because at this very time the ancient bank of the Scali

and Amieri, which had already endured for 120 years with undiminished

reputation, failed for the enormous sum of 400,000 florins, which being

for the most part due in the city of Florence shook the republic to its

centre and, excepting bloodshed, was considered equally ruinous with the

battle of Altopascio itself.

The several contingents of the Guelfic league were afterwards summoned,

and increased this fine army to 3450 men-at-arms besides the Florentine

_cavallate_, never less than five hundred men, and a selection of some of

the best and bravest infantry in Tuscany. Sixty thousand florins were

immediately raised by a partial and extraordinary tax on the richest

citizens, and every diligence was used by the Florentines to insure

success; yet this great army remained entirely passive, and they had

the mortification to see their time and treasure idly wasted by him to

whom they had surrendered their liberties in the expectation of a very

different result. Seeing that nothing was to be expected from him, the

Florentines contented themselves with fortifying Signa and the opposite

town of Gangalandi in order to protect the agricultural labourers, and

then quietly awaited the movements of both their masters. Castruccio

had already driven Spinetto Malaspina from his dominions in Lunigiana

and compelled him to take refuge with the protector of all unfortunate

exiles, Cane della Scala; but the duke of Calabria tempted him once more

to try his fortune by the invasion of that province while he with the

Florentine army marched on Pistoia. Both these plans were executed and

with more hope of success because the towns of Mammiano and Gavignana

in the mountain of Pistoia had just revolted. Castruccio was not much

alarmed, and though very ill, reduced both places in the middle of a

severe winter, baffled the Florentine army which attempted in vain to

relieve them, and finally compelled it to return in disgrace to the

capital; then turning suddenly on Spinetto, once more drove him into

exile.

Thus failed the first dilatory attempt of this brilliant army, and

Florence became more desponding than ever; those that formerly used

to tremble at the formidable name of Uguccione now acknowledged that

he was only a sudden and startling noise, but that Castruccio was the

thunderbolt itself which had stricken and consumed their country. The

citizens were now utterly distracted and knew not where to turn, such was

the confusion and so great the waste of men, money, and credit occasioned

by his uncommon abilities and continual success; for in the midst of all

Castruccio’s good fortune he had never, it was said, committed a rash or

hazardous act; every event was calculated, few mistakes made, and victory

attended him as his shadow.

To prevent the people of Lunigiana from revolting he destroyed all their

fenced towns and augmented his army with the garrisons; the works of

Montale near Pistoia were dismantled, and Montefalcone shared the same

fate; for he used to say that those strongholds were the best which

could make long marches and keep themselves near or distant according as

they were wanted. The awe which his character impressed on the Guelfic

lords of Italy caused Robert to be blamed for opposing the inexperience

of his son to the power of so accomplished a general and exposing the

descendant of a line of illustrious princes to the disgrace of being

killed, defeated, or made prisoner by a simple gentleman of Lucca. Such

was the “form and pressure of the time”! In consequence of this, as was

supposed, Charles had instructions to tell the Florentines that unless

they would consent to take eight hundred of his foreign cavalry into the

pay of the confederacy he must return to Naples. This unexpected demand

and infringement of every compact, after all their exertions, astonished

the citizens; but there was no help and 30,000 florins were added to the

450,000 they had already thrown away upon the duke of Calabria, because

few of the allies would submit to the extortion. Yet this was not all,

and, as if to deride their weakness, he at the capricious request of the

duchess repealed some of their sumptuary laws, the solemn decrees of the

state, to which the citizens held with extreme tenacity; and they had

the mortification to see their wives and daughters in the midst of the

country’s misery, when they should rather have been clothed in mourning

for her slaughtered citizens, puffed up with such excess of vanity as

to adorn their heads, says Villani,[d] with “long tresses of white and

yellow silk instead of hair, which they wore in front; this decoration,

because it displeased the Florentines as immodest and unnatural, they had

already taken from the females and had made laws against it and other

disorderly ornaments; but thus the inordinate appetite of women overcame

the good sense of men.”

THE GHIBELLINES CALL ON LUDWIG OF BAVARIA

[Sidenote: [1322-1327 A.D.]]

The Lombard Ghibellines, seeing so formidable a display of Guelfic power

together with the more intimate union between the church and Naples, in

spite of Castruccio’s success could not help feeling that their cause

was in jeopardy, and therefore determined to support it by the imperial

power; Parma and Bologna had already given themselves to Rome, the bishop

of Arezzo was excommunicated and deposed; and besides Florence and Siena,

San Miniato, Colle, San Gimignato, and Prato had made Charles their lord,

the last even in perpetuity. This great extension of power gave the house

of Anjou command over the greater part of Italy, and therefore no time

was lost in despatching an embassy to implore the “Bavarian” (as Ludwig

was called by those who did not wish to be anathematised) to meet the

Italian Ghibellines or their ambassadors at Trent for the purpose of

considering the best means of exalting the imperial dignity.

[Illustration: A FLORENTINE OF THE UPPER CLASSES, FOURTEENTH CENTURY]

Until the year 1322 Ludwig of Bavaria had been so occupied in struggling

for the crown with his rival Frederick of Austria that he had no leisure

to meddle with the peninsula; but the decisive battle of Mühldorf, in

which four thousand men-at-arms were killed in repeated charges on the

field, and Frederick of Austria was made prisoner, left him at liberty to

employ himself in foreign politics and turn his attention towards Italy.

Pope John XXII, whom he informed of the victory at Mühldorf, not having

before decided on the candidate he meant to support, received the letter

of Ludwig as his friend, and promised to aid him in the consummation

of peace; but when the pontiff heard of the assistance afforded to his

worst enemy, the excommunicated Galeazzo Visconti, in 1323, and of the

Bavarian’s having compelled Raymond of Cardona, the papal general, to

raise the siege of Milan, his anger exceeded all bounds. He insisted that

as pope he was the only legitimate ruler of the empire during a vacancy,

the only judge between two competitors; and until his decision was known

no king of the Romans could exist; it was, he said, a grave offence

against God, and a palpable contempt of the church to have exercised

the powers of royalty without its sanction, and protected its enemies,

especially Galeazzo Visconti and his brothers who had been declared

heretics by the definitive sentence of a competent tribunal. Ludwig was

therefore excommunicated, and again more solemnly in March, 1324, when

he was also declared incapable of ever ascending the imperial throne.

Frederick while in prison had been visited by Ludwig and treated with so

much and such unusual generosity that he acknowledged him as emperor and

was immediately liberated, ever after remaining his ally and intimate

friend. Germany was then pacified, the pope’s intrigues there were all

baffled, and the emperor prepared to visit Italy, to confirm his imperial

dignity by a public coronation, and revenge himself on the pontiff.

In this disposition an invitation from the Italian Ghibellines

was peculiarly well-timed, especially as Ludwig, weakened by long

wars, remained without money, and Italy was always considered as an

inexhaustible mine of treasure by transalpine nations. He therefore

repaired to Trent about the middle of February where he was met by Azzo

and Marco Visconti of Milan, Cane della Scala of Verona, Passerino

Buonacossi of Mantua, Renaldo marquis of Este, the bishop of Arezzo,

and ambassadors from Frederick of Sicily, Castruccio Castracani, the

exiles of Genoa and all the other Ghibellines. Here the pope was

declared heretical by a considerable body of the clergy and solemnly

excommunicated, ridiculed, and defied; the imputation was not new, for

this ambitious and mercenary pontiff was a zealous asserter of his

own infallibility, wished to dictate absolutely to the church, and

had made enemies of large bodies of the clergy--amongst others, of

the Franciscan or minor friars, who insisted on Christ’s poverty and

therefore, following his example, condemned all property in churchmen as

preposterous and unbecoming. These monks had been bold enough to denounce

John as heretical and excommunicated, upon which he burned some of them

and deprived others of the little they possessed conforming to their own

maxims; other causes had made other enemies amongst the secular clergy;

so that Ludwig found himself zealously supported by a powerful body even

in the church, and it was unanimously declared that as Christ had no

property all priests who had were enemies to his sacred poverty.

SUCCESSES OF COUNT NOVELLO

A conspiracy against the life of Castruccio failing in its purpose,

another excommunication of Ludwig and Castruccio, with all their

adherents, was solemnly pronounced on the great festival of the patron

saint of Florence by Cardinal Orsini; and immediately afterwards a noble

army of twenty-five hundred horse and twelve thousand infantry under

Count Novello encamped at Signa for three days on purpose to perplex the

enemy; but suddenly quitting this, they moved on Fucecchio and, crossing

the Gusciana by a bridge of boats previously prepared, appeared before

Santa Maria a Monte.

This was the strongest fortress in Tuscany, but at that time somewhat

weakened, because Castruccio had withdrawn a part of its garrison to

strengthen Carmignano, the supposed object of attack, and had left

but five hundred veterans with the people’s aid to defend it. Novello

stormed and took this fortress and gave its people over to indiscriminate

slaughter. He then attacked Artimino, which Castruccio had fortified so

strongly as to apprehend no danger in that quarter. But flushed with his

late victory, Novello at once gave the assault which was renewed for

three days successively, the last battle continuing without intermission

from noon until night-fall; when, all the palisades and one of the gates

being burned, the garrison, with the fate of Santa Maria before their

eyes, surrendered on the 27th of August. Count Novello wished to proceed

and carry Tizzano and Carmignano in the same manner, but Ludwig being now

close to Pontremoli, he and his troops were ordered back to Florence.

It was now about thirteen months since the duke of Calabria had entered

that city with the finest army that its vast resources had ever produced,

and 500,000 florins had been expended on him by the community; yet,

saving the capture of Santa Maria and Artimino, nothing had been done;

wherefore the people became justly discontented, though compelled

to suppress their ill-humour from a sense of present danger and the

threatening progress of the emperor.

LUDWIG COMES TO ITALY

Ludwig was crowned at Milan on the 31st of May by the excommunicated

Aretine prelate, the archbishop of Milan having refused to perform this

office; but whether from a delay in the promised supplies accompanied by

an insolent message from Galeazzo Visconti, as Villani avers, or from

the complaints of Marco, Lodrisio, and Azzo Visconti against Galeazzo’s

tyranny, or from suspicion of an attempt to poison the emperor,--as the

sudden death of Stefano Visconti after tasting his drink, led others to

suppose,--it is certain that on the 20th of July Galeazzo’s brothers,

Lucchino and Giovanni, and his son Azzo were arrested along with that

prince himself, and closely imprisoned; the strong castle of Monza being

given up to Ludwig as the price of the latter’s safety. This revolution

was effected at the public council of Milan after Visconti’s German

troops had been seduced; an imperial vicar and twenty-four citizens

were immediately appointed to govern the city thus suddenly restored

to apparent independence, and 50,000 florins were granted to the

emperor. This decided conduct pleased the Milanese and Guelfs as much

as it alarmed the other Lombards, because it was Visconti himself that

had brought Ludwig into Italy and he was the first to experience that

monarch’s ingratitude.

[Illustration: A TUSCAN OFFICER]

A diet afterwards assembled near Brescia where several new bishops were

created and about 200,000 florins collected from the Ghibelline states

of Lombardy; Ludwig then crossed the Po near Cremona, and with two

thousand men-at-arms marched through Parma, passed the mountains without

any opposition from the papal troops stationed in those parts, and

halted at Pontremoli on the 1st of September, 1327. Here he was received

by Castruccio, but refused to sojourn at Lucca until Pisa, which had

determined to shut her gates upon him, had been reduced. This city was at

once invested. The siege lasted a month, and the city might have baffled

Ludwig, but fresh discord, the curse of these licentious republics,

caused it to be surrendered on condition that neither their own exiles,

nor Castruccio, nor any of his people should be admitted into the town;

that their form of government should remain inviolate, and 60,000 florins

be paid into the imperial treasury. On the 11th of October Ludwig entered

Pisa, and three days after, the citizens, of their own accord but

principally through fear of the populace, destroyed the capitulation and

admitted both Castruccio and the exiles, while they threw themselves and

their country on the emperor’s mercy. Justice was well administered, but

dearly purchased by a contribution of 160,000 florins--enormous at any

time, but peculiarly so at a moment when the Sardinian War and final loss

of that province had reduced the whole community to the verge of ruin,

and when, only a few days before, 5000 florins could not be demanded

without the danger of revolution; so badly governed, or so short-sighted

and capricious were the people.

CASTRUCCIO GOES TO ROME

After the settlement of Pisa, Ludwig and Castruccio repaired to Lucca,

where the more powerful spirit of the latter was made manifest in its

immediate ascendency and influence over his guest, whose splendid

reception Castruccio followed up by a present of 50,000 florins; both

chiefs then proceeded to Pistoia, from whose heights Castruccio pointed

out the plain and towers of Florence, and showed the easy access which

the possession of the one gave him to the territory of the other.

Returning to Lucca for the feast of St. Martin, the emperor took that

opportunity of publicly placing on the head of Castruccio the ducal

circle, investing him with the states of Lucca, Pistoia, Volterra, and

the bishopric of Luni, conferring on him the privilege of quartering the

royal arms of Bavaria with his own, besides an unscrupulous donation of

the Pisan towns of Serrezzano, Rotina, Montecalvole, and Pietra Cassa.

The ceremony of receiving the ducal coronet from an emperor’s hands,

Castruccio’s great power, talents, and influence, and the universal

feeling that this title would not long continue vain and empty, but

become in substance as in name the first dukedom in Italy since the

time of the ancient Lombards, altogether imparted a solemn and imposing

character to the transaction which increased the apprehensions of every

Italian Guelf; nor was the Ghibelline Pisa less anxious or discontented

to see four of her walled towns quietly made over to Castruccio as a

coronation gift--an earnest, as it seemed to be, of her own destiny.

The duke of Calabria, knowing that Castruccio was unwillingly compelled

to follow Ludwig, who resumed his march towards Rome on the 15th of

December, also prepared to quit Florence, leaving Philip Sanguineto with

a thousand men-at-arms as his vicar. At a public feast he took leave of

the Florentines, promising to return when the kingdom of Naples should be

safe, and departed on the 27th of December, the same day that Castruccio

by another road marched from Lucca to join the imperialists.

[Sidenote: [1327-1328 A.D.]]

Charles governed despotically, like every ruler of that age; for liberty

then consisted in the privilege of being eligible to govern and choose

governors, rather than in being governed well; and although in doing

so he tyrannically condemned a citizen of rank who with as much reason

as insolence opposed the grant of a subsidy to King Robert, thereby

proving that freedom no longer existed in Florence, yet he made himself a

favourite with the citizens by great personal urbanity and his endeavours

to reconcile private feuds, together with considerable liberality and a

generally impartial administration of justice. On the other hand, he

was unpopular from his inactive, unwarlike character, and the excessive

cost of his maintenance; this, according to Villani, who was employed in

auditing the accounts, amounted in nine months to 900,000 florins; but

as the greater part was circulated within the town, although a highly

taxed people necessarily worked twice for the same money, it was still

accompanied by great activity and some outward appearance of prosperity.

[Illustration: MARBLE BOOK HOLDER FROM PISTOIA (1250 A.D.)]

The emperor’s arrival at Viterbo was immediately felt in Rome, where

a contest had previously arisen between Stefano Colonna seconded by

Napoleone Orsini, who adhered to King Robert; and his own brother Sciarra

Colonna, Jacobo Savelli, and Tebaldo di Santa Stazio, captains of the

people; the first two had been expelled; for Castruccio’s arts and

Ghibelline ducats had been long at work in that factious city which the

pontiff’s absence at Avignon left in a state of continual agitation. It

was generally governed by an oligarchy headed by the pope’s ministers

and those of the king of Naples; by the Colonnas, Savelli, and Orsini;

with occasional bursts of the most furious democracy; the senator

administered justice; a council of fifty-two members nominally formed

the government and was presided over by the prefect of Rome, two or

three captains of the people along with the senator being elected by the

popular voice. The Ghibelline chiefs sent privately to Ludwig, desiring

that no heed should be given to the Roman ambassadors, who wished to

settle the terms on which he was to be received, but that he should

march directly to Rome; with this hint Castruccio, who was appointed to

answer the embassy, immediately ordered the trumpets to sound to horse,

saying courteously,“This is the emperor’s answer.” These messengers were

detained, and Ludwig, suddenly appearing before the city, surprised the

disaffected, confirmed the doubtful, and gave spirit to his adherents. He

was crowned on the 16th of January, 1328.

During these transactions Benedetto da Orvieto, the duke of Calabria’s

judicial vicar, arrived at Florence, where the citizens still found

resources to complete the walls south of the Arno and erect the present

Roman gate so as to secure that quarter of the town, which had been

endangered by Castruccio’s late inroads on the Val di Greve. Neither

was the duke’s lieutenant Philip Sanguineto inclined to sleep; by means

of two Guelfic citizens of Pistoia, friends of Simone della Tosa, well

acquainted with the weak points of that city, a plan was laid to surprise

it and successfully executed. Having accurate measures of the walls and

ditches, Sanguineto, with six hundred men-at-arms, the two Pistoians, and

Simone della Tosa, but no other Florentine, repaired by night to Prato;

he was there joined by two thousand infantry with the requisite besieging

engines, ladders, and bridges, and continuing his march arrived under

the weakest point of the Pistoian capital before daylight. The ditch was

frozen hard enough to allow one man in armour to pass at a time, and thus

a hundred men-at-arms gained the ramparts, unperceived until the officer

of the night visited the guards with his patrol; a short conflict then

took place, the officer and patrol were put to death; but an alarm was

given, the garrison was immediately under arms, and the whole city in

confusion.