CENTURIES
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1309-1496 A.D.]]
In the present chapter we shall take up the history of Italy in the
latter part of the fourteenth century and carry it forward to about
the year 1500, with chief reference to the kingdoms of Naples and
Sicily--which become united into the kingdom of the Two Sicilies--in
the south, and the tyranny of the Visconti and Sforza at Milan in the
north. The history of these principalities necessarily involves reference
to most of the states of Italy, as they were constantly embroiled one
with another. But for such incidental references, we shall reserve the
more specific history of the important maritime republics, Venice and
Genoa, and of the chief Tuscan republic, Florence, for separate treatment
in later chapters. During the dominance of the Visconti in Milan in
the latter half of the fourteenth century and the first half of the
fifteenth, this principality dominated northern Italy and was much of
the time in open warfare with Florence. The history of Florence will,
therefore, be given considerable prominence, and our later chapters will
be chiefly directed to the events of the period of the great Medici,
Cosmo and Lorenzo, whose dictatorship in Florence, it will be recalled,
coincides in time with the later events of the present chapter. The
period now under consideration introduces a number of really important
men, including Alfonso the Magnanimous, king of Sicily and Naples.
But the kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the duchy of Milan, important as
they must have seemed to their Italian contemporaries, had no very direct
world-historical influences. They embroiled Italy and kept her in touch
with the nations of the north, to her disadvantage; but their rulers
had no thought beyond self-aggrandisement, and no one of them attained
sufficient influence to bring the entire peninsula under his control.
Despite the picturesqueness of individual characters,[16] therefore, we
shall be justified in dealing with the period somewhat briefly, reserving
larger space for the more important developments that came about through
the influence of the commercial republics.
THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES
[Sidenote: [1309-1326 A.D.]]
On the death of Charles II of Naples (1309) his younger son Robert
succeeded to the crowns of Naples and Provence to which he had no
recognised or inherited right. They belonged to Carobert, the young king
of Hungary, whose father was the elder son of Charles. But Naples was a
papal fief, and Robert, who hastened to Avignon, had little difficulty in
obtaining from Clement V who saw in this energetic vassal a formidable
opponent of the Ghibellines, a sentence setting aside the claims of
his nephew. At the same time he received the government of Ferrara as
viceroy of the pope. Robert was no military genius, but he possessed both
wisdom and address, and at once assumed the Guelf leadership in Italy.
He was a prominent member of the great league formed at Florence against
the designs of Henry VII, and the Tuscan republic went so far in 1312
as to confer a temporary dictatorship upon him, in anticipation of his
assistance in resisting imperial aggression.
But Robert’s ambition was none less than the general sovereignty of
Italy, and to this end he opposed Henry at every step. A Neapolitan
army seized the principal fortresses of Rome in an attempt to prevent
the emperor’s coronation, but the struggle was brought to an unexpected
end the following year (1313) by Henry’s sudden death. It seemed now
as if Robert would realise his dream, but a number of truly remarkable
leaders arose to meet the crisis from the Ghibelline ranks. Against the
talents and energies of Uguccione della Faggiuola, Castruccio Castracani,
Matteo Visconti, and Cane della Scala, whose exploits have been detailed
elsewhere, the Guelfic cause went swiftly to ruin. Robert saw his armies
and his allies repeatedly overcome, and when he passed into Provence in
1318 he had obtained no success but that of raising the Ghibelline siege
of Genoa, for which service that city surrendered its liberties into his
hands for ten years. The plight of the Guelfs became more desperate day
by day, but Robert remained in Provence insensible to their disasters,
and only his greed of dominion roused him to the continued appeals of the
Florentines. His command over that republic had expired in 1321, and now
he promised aid on condition that his son Charles be made its absolute
ruler for ten years. The Florentines stipulated for the preservation of
their liberties and agreed to his terms, and in 1326 the young duke of
Calabria arrived in Tuscany with two thousand men.
[Sidenote: [1285-1345 A.D.]]
During these years the kingdom of Naples saw little of its ruler, and was
exposed to the ambition of the Aragonese rulers of Sicily. The fortunes
of this Spanish house need not detain us. When Pedro I died in 1285,
Aragon and Sicily were separated, and the late king’s second son James I
received Sicily. He remained there but six years when he was called to
the throne of Aragon, and left his younger brother Frederick regent. But
James was faithless to his island subjects, and when his long standing
difficulties with the pope were settled in 1295, he agreed to restore
Sicily to the house of Anjou. Frederick placed himself at once at the
head of the opposition to the transfer and in 1296 was rewarded with
the crown. Frederick II was the restorer of Sicilian independence; and
by 1302 James gave up the attempt of forcing the Sicilians to keep his
perfidious agreement. Robert made several attempts to annex Sicily to his
dominions. The first in 1314 ended in a truce. Frederick, who repulsed
the ambitious monarch several times, died in 1337, and the great love of
his subjects established his feeble son Peter II on the throne. Robert
came again at Frederick’s death and also after that of Peter five years
later, but the independent spirit of the islanders was never overcome;
the projects were renounced and Sicily was left the peaceful possession
of its dynasty. Henceforth it sinks into obscurity until reunited with
Naples in 1435.[a]
The kings of Naples, about the middle of the fourteenth century, had sunk
very low in power and consideration. Robert died on the 19th of January,
1343, at the age of eighty. He had given his granddaughter, Joanna, in
marriage to her cousin Andrew, the son of the king of Hungary. Andrew was
son of the eldest son of Charles II, and had a better right than Robert
himself to the crown of Naples. The latter, whom his nephew regarded as a
usurper, had been desirous of compounding the rights of the two branches
of his family, by marrying Joanna to Andrew, and crowning them together;
but these young people felt towards each other only hatred.[b]
In this baneful sentiment Andrew was encouraged by his Hungarian
attendants, especially by his confessor. Other circumstances added to
the disagreeableness of his situation: he was rude and unpolished; the
Neapolitans, on the contrary, were the most polite people in Europe;
nor could he conceal from himself that he was the ridicule of the
court. He had other motives of discontent; his queen was suspected of
an intrigue with Louis of Tarentum, a prince of the royal family, and
to him, personally, she evidently bore an aversion. That he threatened
one day to be revenged, is certain; that his threats inspired several,
not even excepting Joanna, with fear, is equally undoubted; a plot was
formed for his destruction--whether with her privity, has been disputed
by one or two modern writers; but from her conduct before and after the
tragical event, there is circumstantial evidence enough to implicate her
in the guilt. One night (September 18th, 1345), the court having removed
to a solitary place in the vicinity of Aversa, Andrew was called by the
conspirators from the queen’s bed, under pretence of urgent business of
state, and murdered in the corridor. That she was aware of the plot may
be inferred--first, from her momentary reluctance to allow him to depart;
secondly, from her endeavours to screen the assassins from the pursuit of
justice; thirdly, from her marriage with Louis of Tarentum; and fourthly,
from the extreme care taken by the functionaries whom the pope ordered to
inquire into the murder to prevent the confessions of the tortured from
being heard--in other words, the implication of the queen. Some of the
conspirators were executed; but, as the queen herself and her paramour
escaped, this show of justice did not satisfy Louis, king of Hungary,
who invaded Naples, expelled Joanna, punished some of the suspected
nobles, and received the submission of the kingdom. Thence, however, he
was soon driven by the fearful plague which devasted all Europe in its
course, and which appears to have been more severely felt in Italy than
anywhere else. The sway of the Hungarians was already disagreeable to the
fickle Neapolitans; Joanna was recalled, and a desultory war followed.
Louis returned to the scene; but as his troops, after fulfilling their
usual feudal service, murmured to return, he was compelled to enter
into a truce with Joanna, on the condition that her guilt or innocence
should be left to the decision of the pope at Avignon; that if she were
declared guilty, she would resign the crown, but that, if she were
absolved, she should be allowed to retain it on paying a heavy sum as an
indemnification for the expense of the war.
[Sidenote: [1345-1386 A.D.]]
The decision of one so devoted as Clement VII to the interests of France
could not be doubted. Her complicity in the plot was not denied; but it
was gravely contended that witchcraft had been employed to seduce her;
in the end she was absolved, and the indemnity to King Louis approved.
Her subsequent reign continued to be one of guilt and disgrace. The great
barons were too proud to obey her husband, whose imbecility she herself
despised, and whose bed she dishonoured; the Grand Company of mercenaries
ravaged the kingdom to the very gates of the capital; as both he and the
people were too cowardly to oppose them, their retreat was purchased by
money. After his death, she married a third husband, a prince of the
house of Aragon; and, on his death, a fourth, Otto of Brunswick; but, as
she had issue by none of the four, the heir to the crown was Charles,
duke of Durazzo, the last male of the Neapolitan branch of Anjou, who
was also heir to the throne of Hungary. At the court of the latter
country, Charles had imbibed a feeling of hatred against the queen, whom
he resolved to dethrone--a resolution to which he was impelled by Urban
VI, who could never pardon her devotion to the anti-pope Clement. Her
attempt to exclude him from the succession, by the adoption of the count
of Anjou, and the step of Pope Urban, who, in 1380, declared her deposed
from the Neapolitan throne, and preached a crusade against her, sealed
her fate. The prince advanced to Rome, received the crown from the pope,
and marched on Naples, which, like the rest of that cowardly kingdom,
submitted to him, as it had done to every other invader from the downfall
of the Western Empire. Otto, indeed, made a show of resistance; but his
men abandoned him the moment the engagement commenced, and he fell, like
Joanna, into the hands of the victor. Her death was sudden and violent;
probably it was caused by suffocation with a feather bolster.
He had little reason to rejoice in this barbarity. He had soon to sustain
an invasion of Naples by Louis of Anjou, who, as usual, was joined by
a considerable number of adherents; and, though death rid him of a
formidable rival, he had to support a quarrel with an arrogant pope,
who excommunicated him and his army. During these transactions, Louis
of Hungary died, and the nobles, preferring the rights of his daughter
Maria to those of a distant relative, proclaimed her their sovereign. But
Charles had partisans, who invited him to resume the crown; he hastened
to Buda, forced the queen to abdicate, and was proclaimed in her stead;
but, in the height of his success, he was assassinated by the creatures
of the queen and her mother. This tragical event left Naples under
the regency of his widow, Margarita, during the minority of his son
Ladislaus [or Lancelot], then only ten years of age; and her government
was perpetually exposed to the intrigues of the French faction, which
espoused the interests of a son, equally young, of Louis of Anjou, who
was named after his father.[h]
[Sidenote: [1386-1416 A.D.]]
The reign of Ladislaus, the son and successor of Charles III, presents a
continued scene of perfidy and rapine. Whilst he successfully defended
his Neapolitan crown against the attempts of the duke of Anjou, he seized
for a moment that of Hungary; and availed himself of the great schism and
the absence of the pope from Rome continually to harass and pillage the
Romans. No treaties of amity could restrain his thirst for plunder; he
thrice led his troops to attack the devoted city, seized on the castle of
St. Angelo, and occupied Ostia, Viterbo, and great part of the patrimony
of St. Peter. His ravages were suspended by a premature death; and in
him providence is said to have anticipated a pest which in the next age
became the scourge of European incontinence. Though three times married,
Ladislaus left no legitimate issue. Unbounded in his lust, he forsook his
wives for his more libidinous paramours. Constantia, his first queen,
irreproachable in her fame, was divorced by her inconstant husband;
Maria of Cyprus, the second, died through an effort to stimulate her
own barrenness; and the third, the widow of Orsino, prince of Tarentum,
was espoused for the acquisition of her territories, and abandoned to
neglect and imprisonment immediately after the nuptial ceremonies. He was
succeeded by his sister, Joanna II; but the royal bed of Naples acquired
little purity by the exchange (1414).
[Illustration: NAPLES.--ARCH OF ALFONSO ON THE EXTREME LEFT]
_Joanna II_
[Sidenote: [1416-1420 A.D.]]
Joanna was already the widow of William, son of Leopold II, duke of
Austria, when the death of Ladislaus exalted her to the throne of Naples.
Equally devoid of personal charms and mental delicacy, the princess
scorned the irksome restraints of virtue and of rank. Her lovers were
selected according to her caprice without reference to their station;
and the fortunate possessor of her affections, on her accession to the
crown, was Pandolfello Alopo, whom she raised, from the humble station
of carver, to the office of grand-chamberlain. The irregularities of her
life and the default of an heir to the throne prompted her nobles to
recommend a second marriage; and she fixed upon a prince of the house
of Bourbon, Jacques de la Marche, the fourth in lineal succession from
Robert, youngest son of St. Louis.
But if Joanna flattered herself that in her new husband she was to find
a screen, and not a check to her vices, she was immediately undeceived;
for no sooner was the obscure count exalted into the king of Naples, than
he seized upon Alopo; and in the agonies of the rack the distracted lover
betrayed his intercourse with his mistress. The grand-chamberlain was
publicly beheaded, and the queen herself reduced to personal restraint
of no great severity or duration. The people, indignant at seeing
their queen thus imprisoned by a foreigner, burst into insurrection;
and the king was compelled to seek shelter in the _Castello dell’Ovo_.
His surrender was rewarded by the acknowledgment of his royal title,
and a stipend of 40,000 ducats a year--a sum, says the historian, not
exceeding the incomes of the Neapolitan gentry. The French monarch did
not long enjoy this semblance of royalty. He found himself the sport of
his faithless consort and her minions; his person was again insulted by
imprisonment, and his countrymen were commanded to depart the kingdom.
Having again recovered his liberty, he resolved no longer to be cheated
by the dreams of ambition; and renouncing his adulterous queen and
ungovernable subjects, he privately withdrew from Naples and retired into
France, where he ended his days in the habit of a Franciscan friar (1438).
Amongst the most conspicuous of Joanna’s favourites were Giacomuzzo
Attendolo, surnamed Sforza, and Ser Gianni Caracciolo, both distinguished
for their personal beauty. The former, the son of a peasant of Cotignola
in Romagna, had joined in early life the mercenary troops of Italy; and
after serving with renown under the banners of Ferrara, of Florence,
and of the church, entered the Neapolitan service, and was treated with
distinction by the queen upon her accession to the throne. The jealousy
of the minion Pandolfello Alopo procured the imprisonment of Sforza;
but he was soon reconciled to his rival; and being released from his
dungeon was created by Joanna grand constable of the kingdom. During
the transient reign of Jacques de la Marche he had again languished
in prison; but on his release was restored to his former dignity.
Meanwhile a new favourite was daily gaining unbounded influence over
the susceptible heart of Queen Joanna. Caracciolo, a man of birth and
discretion, and of a handsome and graceful person, was promoted to the
office of grand seneschal; and procured the removal of Sforza from court
upon the honourable employment of checking the ravages of the mercenary
Braccio. But the return of the victorious Sforza and the rivalry of the
two favourites soon filled the city with confusion; and Joanna could only
quiet the murmurs of her people by consenting to the banishment of the
beloved Caracciolo. The place of his exile was, however, too near the
city to prevent his interference in public affairs; and, from the island
of Procida, Ser Gianni continued to exert his influence over his queen
and mistress. He again procured the removal of Sforza for the purpose of
dislodging Braccio from the patrimony of St. Peter; but he took care that
his rival should be so poorly supported by troops that his defeat and
ruin appeared inevitable.
This unfortunate collision between the favourites was destined to produce
the most disastrous consequences, not merely to the kingdom of Naples but
to the whole of Italy. Indignant at the preference shown to Caracciolo,
Sforza abandoned his mistress, and encouraged Louis III the young duke of
Anjou to make good his pretensions to the Neapolitan throne by invading
the kingdom of Joanna. In Naples, a strong spirit existed favourable to
the claims of Louis. The inordinate affection of the queen for Caracciolo
(who was now again restored to her arms) had estranged the nobility from
her cause; and she deemed it prudent to seek the support of some foreign
potentate sufficiently powerful to counteract the designs of her enemies.
She therefore addressed herself to Alfonso V, king of Aragon, whom she
promised to adopt as her successor on the throne of Naples. This offer
being accepted by Alfonso, he set sail for his new inheritance, and
received the formal adoption from the childless Joanna, with the title of
duke of Calabria and possession of the Castel Nuovo. By this judicious
step the queen extricated herself from the pressing danger; Louis of
Anjou was staggered in his hopes, and after a feeble siege of Naples,
yielded to necessity and abandoned his enterprise. Sforza now found means
to seal his pardon, and was received with the utmost cordiality by Joanna
and Alfonso.
[Sidenote: [1420-1435 A.D.]]
The reappearance of his ancient rival at the Neapolitan court could not
fail to awaken the jealous and angry feelings of Caracciolo, who had
already perceived his authority endangered by the adoption of Alfonso.
To sow the seeds of dissension was now his object, and the unbounded
influence which he possessed over Joanna gave the utmost facility to his
sinister designs. He succeeded in persuading the credulous queen that
the Spaniard had resolved at once to usurp the succession, and designed
to dethrone her and carry her by force into Catalonia. Terrified at this
dismal suggestion, Alfonso became an object of distrust to Joanna. She
shut herself up in the Castel Nuovo; and the seizure and imprisonment of
the beloved Ser Gianni filled up the measure of her alarm and horror.
Abjuring all further connection with the king of Aragon she summoned
Sforza to her relief, and revoking her late adoption bestowed the
succession upon Louis of Anjou. The partial defeat of Alfonso and the
consequent exchange of prisoners once more restored Caracciolo to the
queen; but the unhappy kingdom was delivered over to the miseries of
war, the troops of Joanna being led by Sforza, and those of Alfonso by
his rival Braccio. The disorders of his Spanish dominions withdrew the
king for the present from Italy; and, with the exception of the Castel
Nuovo, Joanna was left in quiet possession of the kingdom; but not before
the two generals had perished in this desperate struggle. Sforza, in his
eager attempt to swim the river Pescara, then unusually swollen by the
influx of the sea, fell a sacrifice to his generous endeavour to save his
drowning page; and borne down by the additional weight of his armour he
sank to rise no more. His son Francesco Sforza narrowly escaped a similar
fate, and was destined to attain a glorious and triumphant elevation.
The death of Braccio was more congenial to his tumultuous life; he fell
mortally wounded in a desperate conflict, wherein his forces were utterly
routed.
After the retreat of Alfonso from Naples, Joanna continued to enjoy an
unmolested reign. Age had quenched the fires of lust; the life of her
once-loved Ser Gianni was sacrificed to jealousy and suspicion; and he
was assassinated with the connivance, if not by the command, of his
mistress. Her adopted son Louis expired in 1434, to the great grief
of Joanna and her subjects. She herself survived but a few weeks, and
died in 1435 in the sixty-fifth year of her age and twenty-first of her
reign. With her ended the race of Durazzo. By her will she bequeathed
the kingdom of Naples to René, duke of Anjou, brother of Louis; and the
adopted heir languished in the prison of the duke of Burgundy when he
was apprised of his nomination to the fairest kingdom of the earth. His
wife Isabella assumed the regency in his absence, and took possession of
Naples.
_Alfonso the Magnanimous_
[Sidenote: [1435-1458 A.D.]]
The claims of Alfonso were now again to be urged, and he marched at the
head of an army to enforce his pretensions. A singular misfortune which
befell the king in his progress proved highly beneficial to his cause.
Whilst he laid siege to Gaeta, a fleet from Genoa despatched by order
of Filippo Visconti, the reigning duke of Milan, attacked and defeated
the Spanish armament; and the king, his brother Juan, king of Navarre,
Henry of Aragon, and a host of nobles, were sent prisoners to Milan. By
a remarkable exercise of clemency and moderation, the duke restored his
captives gratuitously to liberty; and even entered into a league with
Alfonso, promising to assist him in the conquest of Naples.
Whilst a new fleet from Spain was again directed against Naples, René
purchased his liberty; and repairing to his new dominions, maintained
a doubtful contest with his rival during four years. In the middle of
the year 1442 the final blow was struck by the entry of Alfonso into
the capital, through the self-same aqueduct which nearly nine hundred
years before had admitted the soldiers of Belisarius. The duke of Anjou,
no longer able to contend with the fortunes of his rival, withdrew
into France; and Alfonso at length obtained from Pope Eugenius IV the
investiture of the kingdom of Naples, which his holiness had previously
conferred upon René. After a pause of eleven years René was induced to
reappear in Italy at the pressing instance of the duke of Milan, who
tempted him to take up arms against Venice, under a promise to afford his
assistance in wresting Naples from the Spaniard. But the French prince,
now advanced in years, soon grew weary of the toils of a campaign, and
readily yielded to the anxiety of his troops to return to their native
regions.
[Illustration: ALFONSO I
(From a painting)]
Alfonso survived this event only five years, and died on the 27th
of June, 1458. His paternal dominions, Aragon and Sicily, vested in
default of legitimate issue in his brother Juan, king of Navarre; but
he bequeathed the kingdom of Naples, his conquest, to his natural son
Ferdinand.[c] Whatever may be thought of the claims subsisting in the
house of Anjou, there can be no question that the reigning family of
Aragon were legitimately excluded from the throne of Naples, though force
and treachery enabled them ultimately to obtain it.
Alfonso, surnamed “the magnanimous,” was by far the most accomplished
sovereign whom the fifteenth century produced. The virtues of chivalry
were combined in him with the patronage of letters, and with more than
their patronage--a real enthusiasm for learning, seldom found in a
king, and especially in one so active and ambitious. This devotion to
literature was, among the Italians of that age, almost as sure a passport
to general admiration as his more chivalrous perfection. Magnificence
in architecture and the pageantry of a splendid court gave fresh lustre
to his reign. The Neapolitans perceived with grateful pride that he
lived almost entirely among them, in preference to his patrimonial
kingdom, and forgave the heavy taxes, which faults nearly allied to his
virtues--profuseness and ambition--compelled him to impose. But they
remarked a very different character in his son. Ferdinand was as dark and
vindictive as his father was affable and generous. The barons, who had
many opportunities of ascertaining his disposition, began, immediately
upon Alfonso’s death, to cabal against his succession, turning their
eyes first to the legitimate branch of the family, and, on finding that
prospect not favourable, to John, titular duke of Calabria, son of
René of Anjou, who survived to protest against the revolution that had
dethroned him.[d]
_Ferdinand_
[Sidenote: [1458-1479 A.D.]]
The duke of Calabria believed that he should be assisted both by
Francesco Sforza--who, before he was duke of Milan, had long fought,
as his father had done before him, for the party of Anjou--and by the
Florentine Republic, which had always been devoted to France. But Sforza
judged that the security and independence of Italy could be maintained
only so long as the kingdom of Naples did not fall into the hands of
France. The French were already masters of Genoa and the gates of Italy;
they would traverse in every direction and hold in fear or subjection
every state in the peninsula, if they should acquire the sovereignty of
Naples. For these reasons Sforza resisted all his friends, dependents,
and even his wife, who vehemently solicited him for the house of Anjou;
he also brought Cosmo de’ Medici over to his opinion, and thus prevented
the republic of Florence from seconding a party towards which it found
itself strongly inclined. The duke of Calabria, who had entered Naples in
1459, had begun successfully; but, receiving no assistance from abroad,
he soon wearied and exhausted the people, who alone had to furnish him
with supplies. He lost, one after the other, all the provinces which had
declared for him, and was finally, in 1464, constrained to abandon the
kingdom.
Ferdinand, to strengthen himself, kept in dungeons or put to death all
the feudatories who had shown any favour to his rival; above all, he
resolved to be rid of the greatest captain that still remained in Italy,
Jacopo Piccinino, the son of Niccolo, and head of what was still called
the militia, or school of Braccio. He sent to Milan, whither Piccinino,
who had served the party of Anjou, had retired, and where he had married
a daughter of Sforza, to invite him to enter his service, promising
him the highest dignities in his kingdom. He gave the most formal
engagements for his safety to Sforza, as well as to Jacopo himself. He
received him with honours, such as he would not have lavished on the
greatest sovereign. After having entertained him twenty-seven days in
one perpetual festival, he found means to separate him from his most
trusty officers, caused him to be arrested in his own palace, and to be
immediately strangled. This happened on the 24th of June, 1465.[e]
Once firmly established on the throne of Naples, Ferdinand continued to
hold his position and to render it more and more secure throughout the
period of his life, which terminated in 1494. He was little respected,
but he made himself pretty generally feared and was accounted the most
astute politician of his time. In alliance with Pope Sixtus IV he made
war against Milan and Florence, and in 1479 the allied forces had
reduced Lorenzo de’ Medici to such an extremity that the great Florentine
was constrained to visit Naples in the hope of conciliating his enemy.
Lorenzo frankly acknowledged the danger in which he found himself, but
he made a shrewd political move in pointing out that he was not without
resources, inasmuch as it was open to him to invite the French into
Italy. He admitted that the coming of these outsiders could only benefit
him through injuring his enemies, but as a last resource he professed
himself ready to adopt this expedient. He strongly represented, however,
that he much preferred to enter into an arrangement with Ferdinand
instead of opening up their country to the incursions of what the
Italians were pleased to call barbarians. Ferdinand was fully alive to
his danger, and was prepared to listen to terms.[a]
[Sidenote: [1479-1494 A.D.]]
Finally, Lorenzo offered him an indemnity in the republic of Siena, which
the duke of Calabria, son of the king, already coveted. That state had
made alliance with the pope and the king of Naples against Florence; had
received, without distrust, the Neapolitan troops within its fortresses;
and had repeatedly had recourse to the duke of Calabria to terminate, by
his mediation, the continually renewed dissensions between the different
orders of the republic. The duke of Calabria, instead of reconciling
them, kept up their discord; and, by alternately granting succour to
each party, was become the supreme arbitrator of Siena. Lorenzo de’
Medici promised to offer no obstacle to the transferring of that state
in sovereignty to the duke of Calabria. On this condition, he signed his
treaty with the king of Naples on the 6th of May, 1480. The republic
of Siena would have been lost, and the Neapolitans, masters of so
important a place in Tuscany, would soon have subjugated the rest, when
an unexpected event saved Lorenzo de’ Medici from the consequences of his
impudent offer. Muhammed II charged his grand vizir, Akhmet Giedik, to
attempt a landing in Italy, which the latter effected, and made himself
master of Otranto on the 28th of July, 1480. Ferdinand, struck with
terror, immediately recalled the duke of Calabria, with his army, to
defend his own states.
The Turks had no sooner been driven from Otranto by Alfonso, the eldest
son of the king of Naples, on the 10th of August, 1481, than Sixtus
excited a new war in Italy. His object was to aggrandise his nephew,
Girolamo Riario, for whom he was desirous of forming a great principality
in Romagna. With that view, he proposed to the Venetians to divide with
him the states of the duke of Ferrara; but a league was formed, in 1482,
by the king of Naples, the duke of Milan, and the Florentines, to defend
the dukedom. The year following, Sixtus IV, fearing that he should not
obtain for his nephew the best part of the spoils of the duke of Ferrara,
changed sides, and excommunicated the Venetians, intending to take from
them the provinces which he destined for Girolamo Riario. The new allies,
without consulting him, soon afterwards made peace with the Venetians, at
Bagnolo, on the 7th of August, 1484.[e]
Ferdinand had reason to desire peace rather than war, and his influence
was valuable in maintaining a state of relative tranquillity in Italy
throughout most of the later years of his reign. But his oppressive
taxation led to a momentous event in the history of Italy. The Neapolitan
nobles rebelled against their burdens and again aroused the dormant
Angevin claim to activity. René II neglected his opportunity, but
after Ferdinand, in 1492, had strengthened himself by an alliance with
Piero de’ Medici, the jealous Lodovico Sforza appealed to the King of
France. Ferdinand died in 1494, a few months before Charles VIII invaded
Italy.[a]
THE TYRANTS OF LOMBARDY
[Sidenote: [1152-1300 A.D.]]
While imperial power was declining in Italy, the free cities that had
resisted it in the days of its might were gradually falling under the
dominion of feudal tyrannies which rose upon the ruin of their republican
institutions. The slow operation of unnoticed causes had insensibly led
to the subversion of the liberties of communities once so powerful and
free. In one important respect, the Italian municipalities differed
essentially from those of other countries. They included in the roll of
their citizens the nobility of the district in which they were situated.
This, while it seemed to add, and did in fact add to the splendour of the
cities, was yet one of the principal elements of their decay.
The great territorial lords of northern Italy were compelled to seek the
protection and friendship of these powerful communities, and frequently
submitted to their rule. Many of them were bound to reside for a certain
portion of each year within the walls of the city whose citizenship
they had sought or been compelled to accept. Otho Frigisensis[i] (Otto
of Freising), the historian of the reign of Frederick I, complains:
“The cities so much affect liberty, and are so solicitous to avoid
the insolence of power, that almost all of them have thrown off every
other authority and are governed by their own magistrates, insomuch
that all that country is now filled with free cities, most of which
have compelled the bishops to reside within their walls, and there is
scarcely any nobleman, how great soever he may be, who is not subject
to the laws and government of some city.” Elsewhere the same writer
observes that the marquis of Montferrat was almost the only baron who had
preserved his independence, and had not become subject to the laws of any
city. The cities of Italy had been free before the institution of the
feudal lordships, and were not, as in other places, dependent upon the
privileges which it might suit the convenience of a baron to tolerate, or
a monarch to create.
[Illustration: AN ITALIAN BARON, FIFTEENTH CENTURY]
This admission of a territorial aristocracy into the association of
the burghers, if at first it gave strength and elevation to these
communities, subjected them on the other hand to the danger of falling
under aristocratic influence. The great nobles built palaces in these
towns; these palaces became feudal fortresses in the centre of the
cities. Attended by armed retainers from their estates, they fortified
their mansions, and in many instances commanded the city by these
military strongholds. The citizens not only tolerated but encouraged
this for the sake of the strength which the retainers of these noblemen
brought to their military force. In the wars in which they were
frequently engaged with each other, it was of no small importance to one
of these cities to command the vassals of a great lord. By the presence
of such an aristocracy, sharing in all the councils of the community,
the very principle of republican equality was insensibly destroyed. The
nobleman who dwelt in his feudal castle frowning over the streets of the
city, who was master of no inconsiderable portion of their army, and
who brought into their assembly the influence both of wealth and power,
was very likely to become, when any emergency gave the opportunity, the
protector instead of the protected--the master instead of the subject of
the state.
[Sidenote: [1300-1531 A.D.]]
As the cities fell under the rule of princes, the number of these princes
was speedily reduced. The lords of the more powerful brought those of the
weaker under their sway. The dominion, at first confined to a city, soon
included districts containing many cities within their limits. The duchy
of Milan, erected by the emperor in favour of the Visconti, represented
a sovereignty extending over the whole of the Milanese. Alessandro
Medici, duke of Florence, soon merged that title in the higher one, which
conferred on him the grand duchy of the Tuscan states.
_Companies of Adventure_
With the subjection of the cities to tyrants the habit became general
of employing mercenary troops. Afraid of trusting to the militia of the
citizens, these petty lords employed bands of hirelings, who, under the
name of “companies of adventure,” sold their swords and services to
anyone who would pay them. The emperors, on their visits, were in the
habit of bringing in their train German guards, who frequently were not
required to return with their master to their native land. These men
were too glad to accept any service which retained them in the wealthy
country and luxuriant climate to which they had come. The citizens even
of the free cities were flattered by the strange argument which found a
justification for the employment of mercenaries, in the philosophical
reflection that the citizen who thus escaped military service was, in his
attention to his proper business, contributing far more to the wealth
and therefore to the greatness of the community than he could do in the
profession of arms. The argument was specious. It would have been true
if public spirit and patriotism formed no part of the possessions of the
state. With this fatal habit of substituting mercenaries for the national
militia passed away the greatness of the Italian cities. Milan had far
degenerated from the days of Legnano when the mercenary ferocity of
hirelings was substituted for the enthusiasm of her own free youth; and,
under her once proud banners, the “company of adventurers” took the place
of the “company of death.”[f]
The Visconti and Della Scalas had sent for many of these companies to
Germany, believing that these men--who did not understand the language
of the country, who were bound to it by no affection, and who were
accessible to no political passion--would be their best defenders.
They proved ready to execute the most barbarous orders, and for their
recompense demanded only the enjoyments of an intemperate sensuality.
But the Lombard tyrants were deceived in believing the German soldier
would never covet power for himself, and would continue to abuse the
right of the stronger for the advantage of others only. These adventurers
soon discovered that it would be better to make war and pillage the
people for their own profit, without dividing the spoil with a master.
Some men of high rank, who had served in Italy as _condottieri_ (hired
captains), proposed to their soldiers to follow them, make war on the
whole world, and divide the booty among themselves. The first company,
formed by an Italian noble at the moment that the Visconti dismissed
their soldiers, having made peace with their adversaries, made an
attack suddenly on Milan, in the hope of plundering that great city,
but was almost annihilated in a battle, fought at Parabiago, on the
20th of February, 1339. A German duke, known only by his Christian
name of Werner, and the inscription he wore on his breast of “enemy
of God, of pity, and of mercy,” formed, in 1343, another association,
which maintained itself for a long time under the name of “the Great
Company.” It in turns entered the service of princes, and, when they
made peace, carried on its ravages and plunderings for its own profit.
The duke Werner and his successors--the count Lando, a German, and the
friar Moriale, knight of St. John--devastated Italy from Montferrat to
the extremity of the kingdom of Naples. They raised contributions, by
threatening to burn houses and harvests or by putting the prisoners whom
they took to the most horrible tortures. The provinces of Apulia were,
above all, abandoned to their devastations; and the king and queen of
Naples made not a single effort to protect their people.
[Sidenote: [1339-1359 A.D.]]
There now remained no more than six independent princes in Lombardy.
The Visconti, lords of Milan, had usurped all the central part of that
province; the western part was held by the marquis of Montferrat, and
the eastern by the Della Scalas, lords of Verona, Carrara of Padua, Este
of Ferrara, and Gonzaga of Mantua. These weaker princes felt themselves
in danger, and made a league against the Visconti, taking into their
service the Great Company; but, deceived and pillaged by it, they
suffered greater evils than they inflicted on their enemies. When at last
the money of the league was exhausted, and it could no longer pay the
company, this band of robbers entered into the service of the republic
of Siena, to be let loose on that of Perugia, of which the Sienese had
conceived a deep jealousy. But the Florentines would not consent to
their entering Tuscany, where their depredations had been already felt.
They shut all the passes of the Apennines; they armed the mountaineers;
they made these adventurers experience a first defeat at the passage of
Scalella, on the 24th of July, 1358, and obliged them to fall back on
Romagna. The legate Albornoz, to deliver himself from such guests, made
them enter Perugia the year following. Never had the company been so
brilliant and so formidable; it levied contributions on Siena, as well
as Perugia; but vengeance and cupidity alike excited them against the
Florentines. They determined on pillaging those rich merchants, whom they
considered far from warlike, or forcing them to ransom themselves.
The marquis of Montferrat, desirous of taking the company into his
service, pressed the republic of Florence, by his ambassadors, to do
what the greatest potentates had always done--pay the banditti to be rid
of them. He offered himself for mediator and guarantee, and promised
a prompt and cheap deliverance; but the Florentine Republic protested
it would not submit to anything so base; it assembled an army purely
Italian, placing it under the command of an Italian captain, who was
ordered to advance to the frontier and offer battle to the company. The
robbers gave way in proportion to the firmness of the republic; they made
the tour of the Florentine frontier by Siena, Pisa, and Lucca, always
threatening, yet never daring to violate it. On the 12th of July, 1359,
they sent the Florentine commander a challenge to battle, and afterwards
failed to keep the rendezvous which they had given. They escaped at
last from Tuscany, without having fought, and divided themselves in the
service of different princes, humbled indeed, but too much accustomed to
this disorderly life not to be anxious to begin it anew.
_Florence Menaced by the Visconti_
[Sidenote: [1328-1352 A.D.]]
The republic of Florence was continually occupied, since the expulsion
of the duke of Athens, in guarding against the ambition of the Visconti,
which threatened the subjugation of all Italy. Azzo Visconti, the son of
that Galeazzo who had been so treacherously used by Ludwig of Bavaria,
had, in 1328, purchased the city of Milan from that emperor, and soon
afterwards found himself master of ten other cities of Lombardy; but
he died suddenly, in the height of his prosperity, the 16th of August,
1339. As he left no children, his uncle Lucchino succeeded him in the
sovereignty. Lucchino was false and ferocious, but clever, and possessed
in war the hereditary talent of the Visconti. He was called a lover
of justice, probably because he punished criminals with an excess of
cruelty, and maintained by terror a perfect police in his states. He
died, poisoned by his wife, on the 23rd of January, 1349. His brother
John, archbishop of Milan, succeeded him in power. The latter found
himself master of sixteen of the largest cities in Lombardy--cities
which, in the preceding century, had been so many free and flourishing
republics. His ambition continually aspired to more extensive conquests;
and, on the 16th of October, 1350, he engaged the brothers Pepoli to cede
to him Bologna.
[Illustration: BENITIER, SIENA CATHEDRAL]
These nobles, who had usurped the sovereignty of their country, were
at this time engaged in a quarrel with the legate, Gil Albornoz, who
asserted that Bologna belonged to the holy see. The archbishop was
already treated by the pope as an enemy, and preferred exciting still
further his wrath, to the renunciation of so important an acquisition.
When Clement VI summoned him to come and justify himself at the court
of Avignon, he answered that he would present himself there at the head
of twelve thousand cavalry and six thousand infantry. The pope, in his
alarm, ceded to him the fief of Bologna, on the 5th of May, 1352, on
condition of receiving from him an annual tribute of 12,000 florins.
Florence saw with terror this city, which had so long been her most
powerful and faithful ally, the Guelf city of letters, commerce, and
liberty, thus pass under the yoke of a tyrant, who had designs upon her
liberty also; who laid snares around her; who formed alliances against
her with all the petty tyrants of Romagna, and all the Ghibelline lords
of the Apennines. She was at peace with him, it was true; but she well
knew that the Visconti neither believed themselves bound by any treaty,
nor kept any pledge.
The number of free cities continually diminished. Pisa was still free,
but had, from attachment to the Ghibelline party, made alliance with the
Visconti. Siena and Perugia were free also, but weak and jealous; they
were incessantly disturbed by internal dissensions. The Florentines could
not reckon on them. The archbishop of Milan suddenly ordered, towards
the end of the summer, 1351, Giovanni Visconti da Oleggio, his lieutenant
at Bologna, to push into Tuscany at the head of a formidable army,
without any declaration of war. The republic had no ally, and but slight
reliance on the mercenaries in its service; but the Florentines, who
showed little bravery in the open field, defended themselves obstinately
behind walls; and the great village of Scarperia, in the Mugello,
although so ill fortified that the walls of many of the houses served
instead of a surrounding wall, and having a garrison only of two hundred
cuirassiers and three hundred infantry, stopped the Milanese general
sixty-one days. He was at last obliged, on the 16th of October, to retire
to Bologna.
[Sidenote: [1351-1356 A.D.]]
The republics of Venice and Genoa were, it might have been thought, the
natural allies to whom the Florentines should have had recourse for their
common defence. Their interests were the same; and the Visconti had
resolved not to suffer any free state to subsist in Italy, lest their
subjects should learn that there was a better government than their own.
Unhappily, these two republics, irritated by commercial quarrels in the
East, were then engaged in an obstinate war with each other.
Genoa had sacrificed her liberty to her thirst of vengeance; for although
the republic had not conferred the signoria on the archbishop Visconti
without imposing conditions, it soon experienced that oaths are not
binding on a prelate and a tyrant. The freedom of Venice also was in the
utmost danger from the consequences of the same war.
Though the war of the maritime republics might have deprived Florence of
the aid of Venice or Genoa, it had at least diverted the attention of
Giovanni Visconti, made him direct his exertions elsewhere, and procured
some repose to Tuscany. He died on the 5th of October, 1354, before he
could renew his attacks; and his three nephews, the sons of his brother
Stephen, agreed to succeed him in common. The eldest, who showed less
talent for government and more sensuality and vice than his brothers,
was poisoned by them the year following. The two survivors, Barnabò and
Galeazzo, divided Lombardy between them, preserving an equal right on
Milan and in the government. Their relative, Visconti da’ Oleggio, who
was their lieutenant at Bologna, made himself independent in that city
nearly about the same time that the Genoese, indignant at seeing all
their conventions violated, rose in insurrection on the 15th of November,
1356, drove out the Milanese garrison, and again set themselves free.
_Charles IV in Italy_
The entry of Charles IV into Tuscany formed also a favourable diversion,
by suspending the projects of the Visconti against the Florentines; but
it cost them one hundred thousand florins, which they agreed to pay
Charles by treaty on the 12th of March, 1355, to purchase his rights on
their city, and to obtain his engagement that he should nowhere enter
the Florentine territory. The republics of Pisa and Siena, who received
him within their walls, paid still dearer for the hospitality which they
granted him. The emperor encouraged the malcontents in both cities; he
aided them to overthrow the existing governments; he hoped by so doing
to make these republics little principalities, which he intended to
bestow as an appanage on his brother, the patriarch of Aquileia; but
after having caused the ruin of his partisans, after having ordered or
permitted the execution of the former magistrates, who were innocent of
any crime, insurrections of the people forced him to quit both cities,
without retaining the smallest influence in either. After he had quitted
Italy, the Visconti were engaged in the war to which we have already
alluded, against the marquises of Este, of Montferrat, Della Scala,
Gonzaga, and Carrara. The siege of Pavia and the ravages of the Great
Company exhausted their resources, but did not make them abandon their
projects on Tuscany. The influence which they retained in the republic
of Pisa, as chiefs of the Ghibelline party, seemed to facilitate their
schemes.
[Sidenote: [1342-1364 A.D.]]
Pisa, in losing its maritime power and its possessions in Sardinia,
had not lost its warlike character; it was still the state in Italy
where the citizens were best exercised in the use of arms, and evinced
the most bravery. It had given proofs of it in conquering, under the
eye of the Florentines, the city of Lucca, which it still retained.
Nevertheless, since the peace made by the duke of Athens on the 14th of
October, 1342, commercial interests had reconciled the two republics.
The Florentines had obtained a complete enfranchisement from all imposts
in the port of Pisa; they had established there their counting-houses,
and attracted thither a rich trade. From that time the democratic party
predominated in the Pisan Republic; at its head was a rich merchant,
named Francesco Gambacorta, who attached himself to the Florentines, and
to the maintenance of peace. His party was called that of the Bergolini;
while that of the great Ghibelline families attached to the counts of
la Gherardesca, who despised commerce and excited war, was called the
Raspanti party. The Visconti sought the alliance of the latter; the
moment did not appear to them yet arrived in which they could assume to
themselves the dominion over all Tuscany. It was sufficient for their
present views to exhaust the Florentine Republic by a war, which would
disturb its commerce; to weaken the spirit of liberty and energy in
the Pisans, by subduing them to the power of the aristocracy, in the
hope that when once they had ceased to be free, and had submitted to
a domestic tyrant, they would soon prefer a great to a little prince,
and throw themselves into his arms. The revolution, which in 1355 had
favoured the emperor in restoring power to the Raspanti, facilitated this
project.
In pursuance of this view, the party of the Raspanti, at the suggestion
of the Visconti, in 1357, began to disturb the Florentines in the
enjoyment of the franchises secured to them at Pisa by the treaty of
peace. The Florentines, guessing the project of the Lombard tyrant,
instead of defending their right by arms, resolved on braving an
unwholesome climate, and submitting to the inconvenience of longer and
worse roads, transported all their counting-houses to Telamone, a port
in the Maremma of Siena. They persisted till 1361 in despising all the
insults of the Pisans, as well as in rejecting all their offers of
reconciliation; at length, animosity increasing on both sides, the war
broke out, in 1362. The Visconti supplied the Pisans with soldiers.
France during this period had been laid waste by the war with the
English; and as the sovereigns were rarely in a state to pay their
troops, there had been formed, as in Italy, companies of adventurers,
English, Gascon, and French, who lived at the cost of the country,
plundering it with the utmost barbarity. The Peace of Bretigny permitted
several of these companies to pass into Italy; they carried with them the
plague, which made not less ravages in 1361 than it had done in 1348. The
English company commanded by John Hawkwood, an adventurer, who rendered
himself celebrated in Italy was sent to the Pisans by Barnabò Visconti.
After various successes, the two republics, at last exhausted by the
plague and by the rapacity and want of discipline of the adventurers
whom they had taken into pay, made peace on the 17th of August, 1364.
But the purpose of the Visconti was not the less attained. The Pisans,
having exhausted their resources, were at a loss to make the last payment
of thirty thousand florins to their army; they were reduced to accept
the offer made them by Giovanni Agnello, one of their fellow-citizens,
of advancing that sum, on condition of being named doge of Pisa. The
money had for this purpose been secretly advanced by Barnabò Visconti,
to whom Agnello had pledged his word never to consider himself more than
his lieutenant at Pisa. Thus the field fertilised by liberty became
continually more circumscribed; and Florence, always threatened by the
tyrants of Lombardy, saw around her those only who had alienated their
liberty, and who had no longer any sentiment in common with the republic.
[Sidenote: [1364-1367 A.D.]]
The chief magistrates of the Florentine Republic could not conceal from
themselves the danger which now menaced the liberty of Italy. They found
themselves closed in, blockaded as it were, by the tyrants, who daily
made some new progress. The two brothers Visconti, masters of Lombardy,
had at their disposal immense wealth and numerous armies; and their
ambition was insatiable. They were allied, by marriage, to the two houses
of France and England; their intrigues extended throughout Italy, and
every tyrant was under their protection. At the same time, their own
subjects trembled under frightful cruelties. They shamelessly published
an edict, by which the execution of state criminals was prolonged to the
period of forty days. In it the particular tortures to be inflicted, day
by day, were detailed, and the members to be mutilated designated, before
death was reached. On the other hand, their finances were in good order;
they liberally recompensed their partisans, and won over traitors in
every state inimical to them. They pensioned the captain of every company
of adventurers, on condition that he engaged to return to their service
whenever called upon. Meanwhile these captains with their soldiers
overran, plundered, and exhausted Italy during the intervals of peace;
reducing the country to such a state as to be incapable of resisting any
new attack. All the Ghibellines, all the nobles who had preserved their
independence in the Apennines, were allied to the Visconti. The march of
these usurpers was slow, but it seemed sure. The moment was foreseen to
approach when Tuscany would be theirs, as well as Lombardy; particularly
as Florence had no aid to expect either from Genoa or Venice. These two
maritime republics appeared to have withdrawn themselves from Italy,
and to place their whole existence in distant regions explored by their
commerce.
[Illustration: A FLORENTINE, FOURTEENTH CENTURY]
For a moment, the few Italian states still free were led to believe that
the succour now so necessary to enable them to resist the Visconti would
arrive both from France and Germany. The pope and the emperor announced
their determination to deliver the country, over which they assumed a
supreme right, from every other yoke. Urban V, moved by the complaints
of the Christian world, declared that his duty as bishop of Rome was to
return and live there; and Charles IV protested that he would deliver
his Roman Empire from the devastations of the adventurers, and from the
usurpations of the Lombard tyrants. In 1367, Urban returned to Italy;
and the same year formed a league with the emperor, the king of Hungary,
the lords of Padua, Ferrara, and Mantua, and with the queen of Naples,
against the Visconti. But when Charles entered Italy, on the 5th of May,
1368, he thought only of profiting by the terror with which he inspired
the Visconti, to obtain from them large sums of money; in return for
which he granted them peace. He afterwards continued his march through
the peninsula, with no other object than that of collecting money.
[Sidenote: [1367-1370 A.D.]]
His presence, however, caused some changes favourable to liberty. A
festival was prepared for him at Lucca, on the 7th of September; on which
day he intended confirming, by his investiture, the sovereignty of the
doge Giovanni Agnello over Pisa and Lucca. But the stage on which Agnello
had mounted gave way, and in the fall he broke his leg. The Pisans
profited by this accident to recover their freedom, and the emperor kept
Lucca for himself. At Siena he favoured a revolution which overthrew
the ruling aristocracy; intending, on his return to that city, after a
devotional visit to Rome, to take advantage of the disturbance, and get
himself appointed to the signoria; but a sedition against him broke forth
on the 18th of January, 1369. Barricades were raised on all sides; his
guards were separated from him, and disarmed; his palace was broken into.
No attempt, indeed, was made on his person; but he was left alone several
hours in the public square, addressing himself in turn to the armed
troops which closed the entrance of every street, and which, immovable
and silent, remained insensible to all his entreaties. It was not till
he began to suffer from hunger that his equipages were restored to him,
and he was permitted to leave the town. He returned to Lucca, where he
had already lived, in the time of his father, as prince royal of Bohemia.
The Lucchese were attached to him, and placed in him their last hope to
be delivered from a foreign yoke, which had weighed upon them since the
year 1314. They declared themselves ready to make the greatest sacrifices
for the recovery of their freedom; and they at the same time testified to
him so much confidence and affection as to touch his heart. By a diploma,
on the 6th of April, 1369, Charles restored them to liberty, and granted
them various privileges; but, on quitting their city, he left in it a
German garrison, with orders not to evacuate that town till the Lucchese
had paid the price of their liberty. It was not till the month of April,
1370, and not without the aid of Florence and their other allies, that
they could acquit the enormous sum of three hundred thousand florins, the
price of the re-establishment of their republic. The Guelf exiles were
then immediately recalled; a close alliance was contracted with Florence;
and the signoria, composed of a gonfalonier and ten _anziani_, to be
changed every two months, was reconstituted.
Urban V, on his arrival in Italy, endeavoured also to oppose the
usurpations of the Visconti, who had just taken possession of San
Miniato, in Tuscany, and who, even in the states of the church, were
rendering themselves more powerful than the pope himself. Of the two
brothers, Barnabò Visconti was more troublesome to him, by his intrigues.
Urban had recourse to a bull of excommunication, and sent two legates
to bear it to him; but Barnabò forced these two legates to eat, in his
presence, the parchment on which the bull was written, together with the
leaden seals and silken strings. The pope, frightened at the thought of
combating men who seemed to hold religion in no respect, and wearied,
moreover, with his ill-success, was glad to return to the repose of
Avignon, where he arrived in the month of September, 1370, and died the
November following.
_The “War of Liberation”_
[Sidenote: [1370-1377 A.D.]]
Gregory XI, who succeeded him, was ambitious, covetous, and false.
He joined the Florentines in their war against the Visconti; but the
legates, to whom he had entrusted the government of the ecclesiastical
states, and who had rendered themselves odious by their rapacity and
immorality, formed the project of seizing for themselves Tuscany, which
they had engaged to defend. All the troops of the Florentines had been
placed at their disposal, for the purpose of carrying the war into
Lombardy. The cardinal legate, who commanded the combined army, resided
at Bologna; the church having rescued that city from the grasp of
Visconti da Oleggio, on the 31st of March, 1360. He signed a truce with
Barnabò Visconti, in the month of June, 1375; and, before the Florentines
could recall their soldiers, sent John Hawkwood with a formidable army to
surprise Florence. The Florentines, indignant at such a shameless want
of good faith on the part of the church, whose most faithful allies they
had always been, vowed vengeance on the see of Rome. They determined to
rouse the spirit of liberty in every city belonging to it, and drive out
the French legates--more odious and perfidious than the most abhorred of
the Italian tyrants. They, in the month of June, 1375, without placing
any confidence in Barnabò Visconti, made an alliance with him against the
priests, who had just deceived them under the faith of the most solemn
oaths. They admitted the republics of Siena, Lucca, and Pisa into this
league; they formed a commission of eight persons, to direct the military
department, called “the eight of war”; they assembled a numerous army,
and gave it colours, on which was inscribed, in golden letters, the word,
“Liberty!” This army entered the states of the church, proclaiming that
the Florentines demanded nothing for themselves--that not only would they
make no conquests, but would accept dominion over no people who might
offer themselves; they were desirous only of universal liberty, and would
assist the oppressed with all their power, solicitous for the recovery of
their freedom.
The army of liberty carried revolution into all the states of the
church with an inconceivable rapidity; eighty cities and towns, in ten
days, threw off the yoke of the legates. The greater number constituted
themselves republics; a few recalled the ancient families of princes,
who had been exiled by Gil Albornoz, and to whom they were attached
by hereditary affection. Bologna did not accomplish her revolution
before the 20th of March, 1376. This ancient republic, in recovering
its liberty, vowed fidelity to the Florentines, to whom it owed the
restoration of its freedom. The legates, beside themselves with rage,
endeavoured to restrain the people by terror. John Hawkwood, on the 29th
of March, 1376, delivered up Faenza to a frightful military execution;
four thousand persons were put to death, property pillaged, and women
violated. The pope, not satisfied with such rigour, sent Robert of
Geneva, another cardinal legate, into Italy, with a Breton company of
adventurers, considered as the most ferocious of all those trained to
plunder by the wars of France. The new legate treated Cesena, on the 1st
of February, 1377, with still greater barbarity. He was heard to call out
during the massacre, “I will have more blood--kill all--blood, blood!”
Gregory XI at last felt the necessity of returning to Italy, to appease
the universal revolt. He entered Rome on the 17th of January, 1377;
although the Florentines, who had sent the standard of liberty to the
senators and bannerets of Rome, and had made alliance with the Romans,
expostulated on the danger they incurred if they admitted the pontiff
within their walls.
[Sidenote: [1377-1378 A.D.]]
The two parties, however, began to be equally weary of the war. Some of
the cities enfranchised by the Florentines were already detached from the
league. The Bolognese had made, on the 21st of August, 1377, a separate
peace with the pope, who had agreed to acknowledge their republic.
Barnabò Visconti carried on with the holy see secret negotiations, in
which he offered to sacrifice to the church, his ally, the republic of
Florence. This republic was then pressed for its consent to the opening
of a congress for restoring peace to Italy, to be held at Sarzana, in the
beginning of the year 1378; the presidency of the congress was given to
Barnabò Visconti. The conference had scarcely opened when the Florentines
perceived, with more indignation than surprise, that the Lombard tyrant,
who had fought in concert with them, intended that they should pay to
him and to the pope the whole expenses of the war. The negotiations took
the most alarming turn, when the unexpected news arrived of the death
of Gregory XI, on the 27th of March, 1378; and the congress separated
without coming to any decision. The year which now opened was destined
to bring with it the most important revolutions throughout Italy. Amidst
those convulsions the Peace of Florence with the court of Rome, weakened
by the great western schism, was not difficult to accomplish.
_The Papal Schism_
The pontifical chair had been transferred to France since the year 1305.
Its exile from Italy lasted seventy-three years. The Christian world,
France excepted, had considered it a scandal; but the French kings
hoped by it to retain the popes in their dependence; and the French
cardinals, who formed more than three-fourths of the Sacred College,
seemed determined to preserve the pontifical power in their nation. They
were, however, thwarted in this intention by the death of Gregory XI at
Rome; for the conclave must always assemble where the last pontiff dies.
The clamour of the Romans and the manifestation of opinion throughout
Christendom were not without influence on the conclave. On the 8th of
April, 1378, it elected--not, indeed, a Roman, whom the people demanded,
but an Italian--Bartolommeo Prignani; who, having lived long in France,
seemed formed to conciliate the prejudices of both parties. He was
considered learned and pious. The cardinals had not, however, calculated
on the development of the passions which a sudden elevation sometimes
gives; or on the degree of impatience, arrogance, and irritability of
which man is capable, in his unexpected capacity of master, though in an
inferior situation he had appeared gentle and modest. The new pope, who
took the name of Urban VI, became so violent and despotic, so confident
of himself, and so contemptuous of others, that he soon quarrelled with
all his cardinals. They left him; assembled again at Fondi; and, on
the 9th of August, declared the holy see vacant; asserting that their
previous election was null, having been forced by their terror of the
Romans.
Consequently, on the 20th of September, they elected another pope. Their
choice, no better than the former, fell on Robert, cardinal of Geneva,
who had presided at the massacre of Cesena; he took the name of Clement
VII. He was protected by Queen Joanna, with whom Urban had already
quarrelled. Clement established his court at Naples; but an insurrection
of the people made him quit it the year following, and determined him on
returning, with his cardinals, to Avignon. Urban VI, meanwhile, deposed
as schismatics all the cardinals who had elected Clement, and replaced
them by a new and more numerous college; but he agreed no better with
these than with their predecessors. He accused them of a conspiracy
against him; he caused many to be put to the torture in his presence
and while he recited his breviary; he ordered others to be thrown into
the sea in sacks and drowned; he quarrelled with the Romans and the new
sovereign of Naples, whom he had himself named; he paraded his incapacity
and rage through all Italy; and finally took refuge at Genoa, where he
died, on the 9th of November, 1389. The cardinals who acknowledged him
named a successor on his death, as the French cardinals did afterwards
on the death of Clement VII, which took place on the 16th of September,
1394. The church thus found itself divided between two popes and two
colleges of cardinals, who reciprocally anathematised each other. Whilst
the Catholic faith was thus shaken, the temporal sovereignty of the
pope, founded by the conquests of the cardinal Albornoz, was overthrown.
Several of the cities enfranchised by the Florentines in the war of
liberty, preserved their republican government; but the greater number,
particularly in Romagna, fell again under the yoke of petty tyrants.
[Illustration: AN ITALIAN SOLDIER, FOURTEENTH CENTURY]
[Sidenote: [1378-1394 A.D.]]
The terror in which the house of Visconti had held Florence and the
other Italian republics began somewhat to subside. Barnabò, grown old,
had divided the cities of his dominions among his numerous children. His
brother, Galeazzo, had died on the 4th of August, 1378, and been replaced
by his son, Gian Galeazzo, called count de Virtù, from a county in
Champagne, given him by Charles V, whose sister he had married. Barnabò
would willingly have deprived his nephew of his paternal inheritance, to
divide it among his children. Gian Galeazzo, who had already discovered
several plots directed against him, uttered no complaint, but shut
himself up in his castle of Pavia, where he had fixed his residence.
He doubled his guard, and took pains to display his belief that he was
surrounded by assassins. He affected, at the same time, the highest
devotion; he was always at prayers, a rosary in his hand, and surrounded
with monks; he talked only of pilgrimages and expiatory ceremonies. His
uncle regarded him as pusillanimous, and unworthy of reigning. In the
beginning of May, 1385, Gian Galeazzo sent to Barnabò to say that he had
made a vow of pilgrimage to our Lady of Varese, near the Lago Maggiore,
and that he should be glad to see him on his passage. Barnabò agreed to
meet him at a short distance from Milan, accompanied by his two sons.
Gian Galeazzo arrived, surrounded, as was his custom, by a numerous
guard. He affected to be alarmed at every sudden motion made near him. On
meeting his uncle, however, on the 6th of May, he hastily dismounted,
and respectfully embraced him; but, while he held him in his arms, he
said in German to his guards, “Strike!” The Germans, seizing Barnabò,
disarmed and dragged him, with his two sons, to some distance from his
nephew. Gian Galeazzo made several vain attempts to poison his uncle in
the prison into which he had thrown him; but Barnabò, suspicious of all
the nourishment offered him, was on his guard, and did not sink under
these repeated efforts till the 18th of December of the same year.
_Gian Galeazzo Visconti_
[Sidenote: [1385-1386 A.D.]]
All Lombardy submitted, without difficulty, to Gian Galeazzo. His uncle
had never inspired one human being with either esteem or affection. The
nephew had no better title to these sentiments. False and pitiless, he
joined to immeasurable ambition a genius for enterprise, and to immovable
constancy a personal timidity which he did not endeavour to conceal. The
least unexpected motion near him threw him into a paroxysm of nervous
terror. No prince employed so many soldiers to guard his palace, or took
such multiplied precautions of distrust. He seemed to acknowledge himself
the enemy of the whole world. But the vices of tyranny had not weakened
his ability. He employed his immense wealth, without prodigality;
his finances were always flourishing; his cities well garrisoned and
victualled; his army well paid; all the captains of adventure scattered
throughout Italy received pensions from him, and were ready to return
to his service whenever called upon. He encouraged the warriors of the
new Italian school; he well knew how to distinguish, reward, and win
their attachment. Many young Italians, in order to train themselves to
arms, had, from about the middle of this century, engaged in the German,
English, and French troops which inundated Italy; and they soon proved
that Italian valour, directed by the reflection and intelligence of
a highly civilised nation, who carried their arms as well as tactics
to perfection, had greatly the advantage over the brute courage of
barbarians.
Alberic, count of Barbiano, a Romagnole noble, and an ancestor of the
princes Belgiojoso, of Milan, formed a company, under the name of St.
George, into which he admitted Italians only, and which, in 1378, he
placed in the service of Urban VI. This company defeated, at Ponte Molle,
that of the Bretons, attached to Clement VII, and regarded as the most
formidable of the foreign troops. From that time, the company of St.
George was the true school of military science in Italy. Young men of
courage, talent, or ambition flocked into it from all parts; and all the
captains who, twenty years later, attained such high renown, gloried in
having served in that company.
Gian Galeazzo was no sooner firmly established on the throne of Milan,
than he resumed his project of subjugating the rest of Italy; the two
principalities of the Della Scala at Verona, and of the Carrara at
Padua, were the first to tempt his ambition. The house of La Scala
had produced, in the beginning of the century, some great captains
and able politicians; but their successors had been effeminate and
vicious--princes who hardly ever attained power without getting rid of
their brothers by poison or the dagger. The house of Carrara, on the
contrary, which gloried in being attached to the Guelf party, produced
princes who might have passed for virtuous, in comparison with the
other tyrants of Italy. Francesco da Carrara, who then reigned, his
son, and grandson were men of courage, endued with great capacities,
and who knew how to gain the affection of their subjects. The republic
of Venice never pardoned Carrara his having made alliance against her
with the Genoese and the king of Hungary. After the death of the last
named, Venice engaged Antonio della Scala to attack Padua, offering him
subsidies to aid him in the conquest of that state. Carrara did all in
his power to be reconciled to the prince, his neighbour, whom, in 1386,
he repeatedly vanquished; as well as with the republic--always ready
to repair the losses sustained by the lord of Verona. Unable to obtain
peace, he was at last reduced to accept the proffered alliance of Gian
Galeazzo Visconti, who took Verona on the 18th of October, 1387. Instead
of restoring to Carrara the city of Vicenza, as he had promised, he
immediately offered his assistance to the Venetians against Padua; that
republic was imprudent enough to accept the offer. Padua, long besieged,
was given up to Visconti on the 23rd of November, 1388. A few days
afterwards, Treviso was surrendered to him; so that the frontiers of the
lord of Milan’s dominions extended even to the edge of the Lagune. He had
no sooner planted his standard there, than he menaced Venice, which had
so unwisely facilitated his conquests.
[Sidenote: [1386-1390 A.D.]]
All the rest of Lombardy was dependent on the lord of Milan. The marquis
of Montferrat was brought up at the court of Galeazzo, who governed his
states as guardian of this young prince. Albert, marquis d’Este, had,
on the 26th of March, 1388, succeeded his brother in the sovereignty of
Ferrara, to the prejudice of his nephew Obizzo, whom he caused to be
beheaded with his mother. He put to death by various revolting executions
almost all his relations, at the suggestion of Gian Galeazzo, whose
object was, by rendering him thus odious to the people, to make the lord
of Ferrara feel that he had no other support than in him. According to
the same infernal policy Gian Galeazzo accused the wife of the lord of
Mantua, daughter of Barnabò, and his own cousin and sister-in-law, of
a criminal intercourse with her husband’s secretary. He forged letters
by which he made her appear guilty, concealed them in her apartment,
and afterwards pointed out where they were to be found to Francesco da
Gonzaga, who, in a paroxysm of rage, caused her to be beheaded, and the
secretary to be tortured, and afterwards put to death, in 1390; it was
not till after many years that he discovered the truth. Thus all the
princes of Lombardy were either subdued or in discredit for the crimes
which Visconti had made them commit, and by which he held them in his
dependence; he then began to turn his attention towards Tuscany. In
the years 1388 and 1389, the Florentines were repeatedly alarmed by
his attempts to take possession of Siena, Pisa, Bologna, San Miniato,
Cortona, and Perugia; not one attempt had yet succeeded; but Florence
saw her growing danger, and was well aware that the tyrant had not yet
attacked her, only because he reserved her for his last conquest.
The arrival at Florence of Francesco II of Carrara, who came to offer his
services and his hatred of Gian Galeazzo to the republic, determined the
Florentines to have recourse to arms. The lord of Milan, in receiving the
capitulation of Padua, had promised to give in compensation some other
sovereignty to the house of Carrara; but he had either poisoned Francesco
I, or suffered him to perish in prison. Several attempts had been made
to assassinate Francesco II in the province of Asti, whither he had been
exiled. In spite of many dangers, he at last escaped, and fled into
Tuscany, taking his wife, then indisposed, with him. He left her there,
and passed into Germany, in the hopes of exciting new enemies against
Gian Galeazzo; while the Florentines made alliance with the Bolognese
against the lord of Milan, and placed their army under the command of
John Hawkwood, who ever afterwards remained in their service. Carrara,
seconded by the duke of Bavaria, the son-in-law of Barnabò, whose death
the duke was desirous of avenging, re-entered Padua on the 14th of June,
1390, by the bed of the Brenta, and was received with enthusiasm by the
inhabitants, who regarded him more as a fellow-citizen than a master. He
recovered possession of the whole inheritance of his ancestors.
[Sidenote: [1390-1391 A.D.]]
The extensive commerce of the Florentines had accustomed them to include
all Europe in their negotiations; and, as they liberally applied their
wealth to the defence of their liberty, they easily found allies
abroad. After having called the duke of Bavaria from Germany, in 1390,
they, in the year following sent to France for the count d’Armagnac
with a formidable army; but the Germans as well as the French found,
with astonishment, that they could no longer cope with the new Italian
militia, which had substituted military science for the routine of the
transalpine soldier. Armagnac was vanquished and taken prisoner, on the
25th of July, 1391, by Jacopo del Verme, and died a few days afterwards.
John Hawkwood, who, in the hope of joining him, had advanced far into
Lombardy with the Florentine army, was placed in the most imminent
peril.[e] He was in the heart of an enemy’s country; before him were the
whole forces of Milan, victorious and now far superior in numbers, which
approached to overpower him, and, in his rear, were three great rivers
which he could not hope to pass with impunity in their presence. But the
confidence which he felt in the resources of his own genius in no degree
abandoned him. After remaining inactive behind his entrenchments, as if
paralysed by terror, until the Milanese, their temerity and carelessness
increasing as he tamely received their insults, were thrown off their
guard, he suddenly fell upon them with so much impetuosity that he routed
them and captured twelve hundred horse. Having thus gained his object
of inspiring his enemy with respect, and deterring him from too close a
pursuit, Hawkwood commenced a masterly retreat, and had repassed both the
Oglio and Mincio before a single trooper of Gian Galeazzo dared appear on
their banks.
But he had yet the rapid Adige to cross, and the difficulty was the
greater as the enemy had already fortified themselves on the dykes,
which confine the waters of that river to its bed. The Lombard plains
are almost everywhere on a lower level than that of the streams which
intersect them, and are only preserved from continual inundations by
artificial embankments, between which the impetuous torrents that descend
from the melting of Alpine snows are securely conducted to the sea.
But when these dykes are burst or cut, the adjacent plains are at once
flooded. Hawkwood, on reaching the range of low land which is known as
the Veronese valley, found the Adige, the Po, and the Polesino before him
on the north, the south, and the west, and Jacopo del Verme hanging on
his rear; and in this situation the enemy suddenly cut the dykes of the
Adige, and let the river loose from its bed upon him. The lower ground
about the Florentine camp was at once inundated. As far as the eye could
stretch, the country, in every direction but one, was converted into a
vast lake of hourly increasing depth; the waters even menaced the rising
spot on which the army lay; provisions began to fail; and Jacopo del
Verme, his whole force guarding the only outlet, sent by a trumpet a fox
enclosed in a cage to the English captain. Hawkwood received the taunting
present with dry composure, and bade the messenger tell his general that
his fox appeared nothing sad, and doubtless knew by what door he would
quit his cage.
[Sidenote: [1391-1402 A.D.]]
A leader of less courageous enterprise and skilful resource than Hawkwood
might have despaired of bursting from the toils; but the wily veteran
knew both how to inspire his troops with unlimited confidence in his
guidance, and to avail himself of their devotion. Leaving his tents
standing, he silently and boldly led his cavalry before daylight into
the inundated plain towards the Adige; and, with the waters already at
the horses’ girths, marched the whole of the same day and the following
night beside the dykes of that river, until he found a spot where its bed
had been left dry by the escape of the waters; and crossing it at length
gave repose to his wearied troops on the Paduan frontiers. Part of his
infantry had perished, and he had lost many men and horses in the mud,
and in canals and ditches--the danger of which could not be distinguished
amidst the general inundation; but the army of the league was saved, and
Jacopo del Verme dared not pursue its hazardous retreat.[i]
After this campaign, the republic, feeling the want of repose, made peace
with Galeazzo, on the 28th of January, 1392, well knowing that it could
place no trust in him, and that this treaty was no security against his
intrigues and treachery.
These expectations were not belied; for one plot followed another in
rapid succession. The Florentines about this time reckoned on the
friendship of the Pisans, who had placed at the head of their republic
Pietro Gambacorta, a rich merchant, formerly an exile at Florence, and
warmly attached to peace and liberty; but he was old, and had for his
secretary Jacopo Appiano, the friend of his childhood, who was nearly
of his own age. Yet Galeazzo found means to seduce the secretary; he
instigated him to the assassination of Gambacorta and his children, on
the 21st of October, 1392. Appiano, seconded by the satellites furnished
him by the duke of Milan, made himself master of Pisa; but after his
death his son, who could with difficulty maintain himself there, sold the
city to Gian Galeazzo, in the month of February, 1399, reserving only the
principality of Piombino, which he transmitted to his descendants. At
Perugia, Pandolfo Baglione, chief of the noble and Ghibelline party, had,
in 1390, put himself under the protection of Gian Galeazzo, who aided him
in changing the limited authority conferred on him into a tyranny; but
three years afterwards he was assassinated, and the republic of Perugia,
distracted by the convulsions of opposing factions, was compelled to
yield itself up to Gian Galeazzo, on the 21st of January, 1400.
The Germans observed with jealousy the continually increasing greatness
of Visconti, which appeared to them to annihilate the rights of the
empire, and dry up the sources of tribute, on a partition of which they
always reckoned. They pressed Wenceslaus to make war on Gian Galeazzo.
But that indolent and sensual monarch, after some threats, gave it to be
understood that for money he would willingly sanction the usurpations of
Gian Galeazzo; and, in fact, on the 1st of May, 1395, he granted him, for
the sum of 100,000 florins, a diploma which installed him duke of Milan
and count of Pavia, comprehending in this investiture twenty-six cities
and their territory, as far as the Lagune of Venice. These were the same
cities which, more than three centuries before, had signed the glorious
league of Lombardy. The duchy of Milan, according to the imperial bull,
was to pass solely to the legitimate male heir of Gian Galeazzo. This
concession of Wenceslaus caused great discontent in Germany; it was
one of the grievances for which the diet of the empire, on the 20th of
August, 1400, deposed the emperor, and appointed Robert elector palatine
in his stead. Robert concluded a treaty of subsidy with the Florentines,
or rather entered into their pay, to oppose Gian Galeazzo; but when,
on the 21st of October, 1401, he met the Milanese troops, commanded by
Jacopo del Verme, not far from Brescia, he experienced, to his surprise
and discomfiture, how much the German cavalry were inferior to the
Italian. He was saved from a complete defeat only by Jacopo da Carrara,
who led a body of Italian cavalry to his aid. Robert found it necessary
to retreat, with disgrace, into Germany, after having received from the
Florentines an immense sum of money.
Gian Galeazzo Visconti continued his course of usurpation. In 1397, he
attacked, at the same time, Francesco da Gonzaga at Mantua, and the
Florentines, without any previous declaration of war. After having
ravaged Tuscany and the Mantuan territory, he consented, on the 11th of
May, 1398, to sign, under the guarantee of Venice, a truce of ten years,
during which period he was to undertake nothing against Tuscany. That,
however, did not prevent him, in 1399, from taking under his protection
the counts of Poppi and Ubertini, in the Apennines; or from engaging the
republic of Siena to surrender itself to him, on the 11th of November in
the same year.[e]
In Gian Galeazzo that passion for the colossal which was common to most
of the despots shows itself on the largest scale. He undertook, at the
cost of 300,000 gold florins, the construction of gigantic dykes, to
divert in case of need the Mincio from Mantua and the Brenta from Padua,
and thus to render these cities defenceless. It is not impossible,
indeed, that he thought of draining away the lagunes of Venice. He
founded that most wonderful of all convents, the Certosa of Pavia, and
the cathedral of Milan, “which exceeds in size and splendour all the
churches of Christendom.” The palace in Pavia, which his father Galeazzo
began and which he himself finished, was probably by far the most
magnificent of the princely dwellings of Europe. There he transferred
his famous library, and the great collection of relics of the saints, in
which he placed a peculiar faith. His whole territories are said to have
paid him in a single year, besides the regular contribution of 1,200,000
gold florins, no less than 800,000 more in extraordinary subsidies.[g]
The plague broke out anew in Tuscany, and deprived the free states of
all their remaining vigour. The magistrates, on whose prudence and
courage they relied, in a few days sank under the contagion, and left
free scope to the poorest intriguer. This happened at Lucca to the Guelf
house of Guinigi, which had produced many distinguished citizens, all
employed in the first magistracies. They perished under this disease
nearly about the same time. A young man of their family, named Paulo
Guinigi, undistinguished either for talent or character, profited by this
calamity, on the 14th of October, 1400, to usurp the sovereignty. He
immediately abjured the Guelf party, in which he had been brought up, and
placed himself under the protection of Gian Galeazzo. At Bologna, also,
the chief magistrates of the republic were in like manner swept away by
the plague.
Giovanni Bentivoglio, descended from a natural son of that king Enzio so
long prisoner at Bologna, took advantage of the state of languor into
which the republic had fallen, to get himself proclaimed sovereign lord,
on the 27th of February, 1401. He at first thought of putting himself
under the protection of the duke of Milan; but Gian Galeazzo, coveting
the possession of Bologna, instead of amicably receiving, attacked him
the year following. Bentivoglio was defeated at Casalecchio, on the
26th of June, 1402. His capital was taken the next day by the Milanese
general, he himself made prisoner, and two days afterwards put to death.
Another general of Galeazzo, in May, 1400, took possession of Assisi; the
liberty of Genoa, Perugia, Siena, Pisa, Lucca, and Bologna had, one after
the other, fallen a sacrifice to the usurper. The Cancellieri, in the
mountains of Pistoia, the Ubaldini, in those of the Mugello, had given
themselves up to the duke of Milan. The Florentines, having no longer
communications with the sea, across the territories of Siena, Pisa,
Lucca, and Bologna, saw the sources of their wealth and commerce dry up.
Never had the republic been in more imminent danger; when the plague,
which had so powerfully augmented its calamities, came to its aid. Gian
Galeazzo Visconti was seized with it at his castle of Marignano, in which
he had shut himself up, to be, as he hoped, secure from all communication
with man. He was carried off by the pestilence, on the 3rd of September,
1402.[e]
[Sidenote: [1402-1412 A.D.]]
By his will he divided the greater portion of his dominions between his
two legitimate sons; to the elder, Gian Maria, he bequeathed the duchy
of Milan; to the second, Filippo Maria, the county of Pavia; but Pisa,
Sarzana, and Crema were bestowed on his favourite bastard, Gabriello
Visconti.
[Illustration: TORCH HOLDER, PALAZZO STROZZI, FLORENCE]
As the heir to the duchy had barely attained the age of fourteen, his
father entrusted the government to his widow Caterina, to Francesco da
Gonzaga, and to the principal commanders of his forces. But as these
soldiers of fortune were interested only in their own advancement, the
utmost confusion prevailed in Milan, and the duchess and her son were
compelled to seek security in the citadel. The long-forgotten names of
Guelf and Ghibelline again resounded through Lombardy; and in a short
space of time the duchy was stripped of all its dependent cities. Some,
indeed, maintained a nominal submission; but the rulers were too intent
on their own interest to be relied on; and the pontifical army had
little difficulty in procuring the restitution of Bologna and Perugia
to the pope. Siena revolted from the ducal vicar; Cremona gave herself
to Ugolino Cavalcabò; Parma and Reggio were seized by the condottiere
Ottobuono de’ Terzi; Brescia, by another adventurer, Pandolfo Malatesta.
Vercelli, Novara, and other towns in Piedmont fell into the hands of
the marquises of Montferrat and Saluzzo. Verona, after an obstinate
resistance, surrendered to Francesco da Carrara; and Vicenza escaped
his power by being ceded, together with Feltre and Belluno, to the
Venetians. Besides these heavy losses, domestic strife aggravated the
misfortunes of Milan; and a fierce quarrel between the duchess and her
son was terminated by her imprisonment and death. In the meantime the
flame spread to Pavia, and the young count Filippo was consigned to a
dungeon. The dominion of the bastard Gabriello over Pisa and Sarzana was
of brief duration; and he was compelled to sell the former city to the
Florentines, to the great indignation of her citizens.
[Sidenote: [1412-1432 A.D.]]
Amidst these disasters, the young duke, now fast attaining his majority,
evinced a fierceness and brutality of disposition which detached from
him the last remnant of his adherents. Amongst his favourite diversions
was the pastime of beholding his well-trained bloodhounds lacerate the
limbs of those subjects who incurred his displeasure; and his repeated
barbarities grew past endurance. At length a conspiracy was set on
foot for his destruction; and during mass in the church of St. Gothard
he was despatched by two blows. After his murder a struggle prevailed
between his brother Filippo Maria and Astorre, the natural son of Barnabò
Visconti, whose intrepidity caused him to be styled “the soldier without
fear.” His efforts, however, to supplant the legitimate heir were
unavailing; whilst defending the citadel of Monza his leg was shattered
by a stone; and his death, which immediately ensued, left Filippo Maria
in undisputed possession of the poor remains of his father’s once
extensive dukedom (1412).
_Filippo Maria Visconti_
It was the good fortune of the new duke to retain amongst his commanders
Francesco Bussone, surnamed Carmagnola; and by the skill and prowess of
this renowned general many of the lost territories of Milan were rapidly
recaptured. Bergamo, Piacenza, Como, and Lodi were again annexed to the
duchy; Cremona, Parma, Brescia, Crema, and Asti once more submitted;
and Genoa yielded to the arms of Carmagnola. These signal services were
rewarded by the duke with wealth and honours; who united the meritorious
warrior to one of his natural daughters, and even adopted him as his
successor in the dukedom, by the name of Francesco Visconti.
His well-earned trophies, however, were not long to be worn by the
gallant Carmagnola. Every day proved to him that, having reached the
highest point in his sovereign’s favour, the fickleness or jealousy of
the duke forbade him to look for a continuance of his regard. Without
being able to ascertain the cause of his disgrace, he found himself
deprived of his command, and even excluded from the ducal presence; and
he indignantly quitted the court of Milan, denouncing vengeance on the
ungrateful Filippo. As Venice was now in league with Florence and some
less considerable states, in order to check the increasing power of the
duke, Carmagnola offered his services to the Venetian government, and was
entrusted with the command of the allied army. The capture of Brescia and
other considerable cities soon reduced the duke to alarming extremities,
and he was happy to purchase a respite from this ruinous warfare by
ceding Bergamo and great part of the Cremonese to Venice. But the good
fortune of Carmagnola forsook him in a new campaign against his former
master; he received a complete overthrow by the Milanese troops under
Niccolo Piccinino, a defeat which was rendered doubly disastrous by its
mainly contributing to the discomfiture of the Venetian fleet two days
afterwards. Whilst the Venetian galleys were attacked in the Po by those
of Milan, the defeated general, encamped on the neighbouring shore, was
repeatedly summoned to the assistance of his naval colleague. But though
Carmagnola was still at the head of a considerable armament he made no
effort to accede to the call; and under the eyes of the troops of Venice
their fleet was entirely destroyed, with the loss of eight thousand
prisoners (1431).
After a short peace, the restless and ambitious spirit of the duke of
Milan again agitated Italy; and the papal dominions, as well as those of
Florence, were the objects of his rapacity. After ravaging Romagna and
defeating the Florentines at Anghiera, the Milanese general Piccinino
was recalled into Lombardy once more to the attack of Venice. But besides
her trusty general Gattamelata, the republic had secured the services of
Francesco Sforza, son of Giacomuzzo, the favourite of Joanna II, queen
of Naples. Francesco, endowed with the military talents of his father,
after leading the forces of the duke of Milan, saw reason to abandon his
patron, and devoted himself to the service of Venice. He was now opposed
to Piccinino, his former companion in arms, and the annals of Italy are
swelled with the splendid exploits of these great commanders. But the
genius of Sforza, if not superior to, was at least more fortunate than
that of his rival; and his glory was completed by a triumphant campaign,
in which he discomfited Piccinino and rescued Verona and Brescia from
the hands of Filippo. During a short interval of peace the duke of Milan
diligently laboured to recover the friendship of Sforza, who was won over
by the offer of Cremona and the hand of Bianca, the natural daughter of
Filippo. But the latter years of this inconstant prince were spent in
turmoil and distraction, and his new son-in-law became the object of his
bitterest persecution. Again reconciled to the duke, and again exposed to
his malice, Sforza still had good reason for preserving his connection
with Milan, since Filippo had no legitimate issue, and his marriage with
Bianca encouraged hopes of his succession to the duchy. At the close of
his life the duke again invoked the aid of Sforza against the Venetians,
and immediately afterwards terminated his tumultuous reign.
With him ended the dynasty of the Visconti in Milan. Without possessing
the personal courage which distinguished many of his family, Filippo
Maria Visconti was endowed with no common share of that keenness and
subtlety which are frequently more efficacious than wisdom and valour. He
has been praised for the clemency and generosity with which he treated
his prisoners--no inconsiderable merit in an age full of perfidy and
cruelty, when, the gates of the prison once closed upon the captive,
his fate remained matter of doubt and secrecy. We have already seen his
extraordinary moderation, when Alfonso of Aragon and his noble companions
were led prisoners to Milan; nor are there wanting other examples of the
magnanimous conduct of Filippo. But a dark stain rests upon his fame,
from his unfeeling treatment of his duchess Beatrice, whose alliance
and ample fortune had rendered him the most signal service, when in the
outset of his reign he was beset by poverty and threatened with expulsion
from his paternal inheritance. An improbable accusation of adultery with
one of his domestics stretched the devoted victims on the rack; and
condemned by the ravings of her imputed paramour the duchess suffered an
ignominious death. In the last moments of her life Beatrice maintained
a calmness which can seldom be commanded by guilt, and died with such
solemn assertions of her innocence as seem to have convinced all save her
obdurate husband (1418).
_The House of Sforza_
[Sidenote: [1432-1447 A.D.]]
Though the Milanese had long acquiesced in the hereditary succession
of the Visconti, Sforza beheld his hopes endangered by the spirit of
liberty which now prevailed in Milan. The late duke left no less than
four wills, each constituting a different successor, and bequeathing
the duchy according to the momentary dictates of his capricious temper.
By one of these, Bianca, the wife of Sforza, was declared his heir; but
the people rejected this attempt to dispose of them and the state, and
with loud shouts of “liberty!” opposed the pretensions of Francesco.
Despairing of present success, Sforza wisely resolved to temporise,
and his views were soon favoured by the proceedings of Venice. Anxious
to enrich herself with the spoils of Milan, that republic immediately
commenced aggressions on the Milanese territory, and Sforza was called
upon by the citizens to lead their army against the invaders. But while
Sforza affected to defend the interests of Milan, he secretly negotiated
with Venice; and at length, renouncing his allegiance to the Milanese,
attacked their domains, and with the aid of the Venetians carried his
conquests to the very gates of the city. In the height of his success
Sforza found his prospects endangered by the perfidious policy of his
ally. The senate, alarmed at his approaching power, now thought fit to
intimate the necessity of suffering Milan to remain free under its new
republican government, and even entered into a treaty with the Milanese
for the preservation of their liberty and territory. The genius of
Sforza triumphed in this emergency; he baffled the confederate hostility
of Venice and Milan; and by a strict blockade of the city reduced the
citizens to the last stage of famine. Within the walls a considerable
party was ready to surrender into his hands; and the populace, maddened
by hunger, anxiously besought their rulers to capitulate. An insurrection
of a few plebeians drove the regents from the palace; and Sforza was
received into the city with a burst of enthusiasm which saluted him by
the title of duke of Milan.
[Sidenote: [1447-1476 A.D.]]
For four years Sforza encountered the enmity of Venice, until the
Peace of Lodi in 1454 put an end to their languid warfare. He governed
Milan during sixteen years with prudence and moderation; and, already
possessed of a splendid territory, he wisely abstained from risking his
possessions by any wanton aggression upon the other states. He availed
himself, however, of the internal commotions of Genoa, who in 1435 had
revolted from Filippo Visconti, and now again placed herself under the
dominion of Milan. He maintained the respect of the Italian, as well as
foreign powers; rendered himself generally acceptable to his people;
and peaceably transmitted his duchy to his posterity. In that age of
treachery and perfidy, the means by which he had obtained his power left
no stigma on his reputation; it was sufficient that his bad faith and
dissimulation had been crowned with success.
[Illustration: COURT COSTUME OF A YOUNG ITALIAN NOBLEMAN, FIFTEENTH
CENTURY]
On the death of Francesco Sforza, in 1466, he was succeeded by his eldest
son Galeazzo Maria, a compound of ambition, lust, and cruelty. Contrary
to the wishes of her brother Amadeus IX, duke of Savoy, he had espoused
Bona, daughter of Duke Louis, and sister of Charlotte married to Louis
XI, king of France. But the nuptial tie placed no restraint on his
disorderly life; the dwellings of his subjects were perpetually invaded
by his illicit passions, and the honour of many noble families was
violated by his amours. His savage disposition made him no less odious;
and he delighted in aggravating the punishment of death by wanton and
refined tortures. At length three young men of noble birth united in the
design of destroying the tyrant. Carlo Visconti, Girolamo Olgiato, and
Andrea Lampugnano had been educated under the same master, and imbibed,
with the love of liberty, the dangerous lesson that the assassination
of a tyrant confers immortal fame. Their patriotism, however, was not
unmixed with personal motives, for all had been privately injured by
the object of their vengeance. The bloody deed was accomplished on
the festival of St. Stephen; Galeazzo fell beneath the daggers of
the conspirators, as he entered the church of the Martyr between the
ambassadors of Mantua and Ferrara. In the general confusion Olgiato
effected his escape; but the other two were instantly put to death by the
multitude. Nor did Olgiato long elude the pursuit of justice. His father,
in horror at his guilt, refused him admission within his doors; and after
a short concealment in the house of a friend he was dragged to execution,
and died exulting in his ill-gained immortality.
The conspirators had believed that Milan would approve their murderous
act, and rejoice in her liberation. But an indolent submission possessed
the minds of the people, and the vices of their oppressor appear to have
been forgotten in the emotions produced by his miserable fate. The young
son of the murdered duke was quietly acknowledged as his successor; and
as Gian Galeazzo Maria had only attained his eighth year, his mother,
Bona of Savoy, was recognised as regent during his minority. Aided by
her minister and favourite, Cecco Simonetta, the duchess soon found
herself sufficiently strong to counteract the sinister machinations of
her husband’s brothers, who were anxious to wrest the government out of
her hands. Sforzino, duke of Bari, Lodovico Sforza, surnamed Il Moro,
the Moor, Ottaviano, and the cardinal Ascanio were compelled to quit
Milan--the first being banished to his duchy, the second to Pisa, and
the cardinal to Perugia; whilst Ottaviano, in attempting his escape, was
drowned in the river Adda.[c]
FOOTNOTES
[16] It will be of aid to have a list of the kings of Naples and Sicily,
and of the tyrants of Milan, presented here as a guide to the text.
KINGS OF NAPLES AND SICILY (1309-1496 A.D.).--Naples (House of Anjou);
1309, Robert (The Wise); 1343, Joanna I; 1382, Charles III; 1386,
Ladislaus; 1414, Joanna II.
Sicily (House of Aragon); 1337, Pedro II, king of Sicily; 1342, Louis;
1355, Frederick III; 1377, Maria; 1402, Martin I, king of Aragon; 1409,
Martin II, king of Aragon; 1412, Ferdinand, king of Aragon; 1416, Alfonso
I, king of Aragon.
Naples and Sicily (House of Aragon); 1435, Alfonso I, king of Aragon;
1458, Ferdinand I, king of the Two Sicilies; 1494, Alfonso II; 1495,
Ferdinand II; 1496, Frederick II.
TYRANTS AND DUKES OF MILAN (1295-1494 A.D.).--1295, Matteo Visconti, lord
of Milan; 1322, Galeazzo Visconti; 1328, Azzo Visconti; 1339, Lucchino
Visconti; 1349, Giovanni Visconti; 1354, Matteo II, Barnabò, Galeazzo II;
1378, Gian Galeazzo, Barnabò Visconti; 1385, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, duke
of Milan in 1395; 1402, Gian Maria Visconti, duke; 1412, Filippo Maria
Visconti, duke; 1447, Francesco Sforza, duke from 1450; 1466, Galeazzo
Maria Sforza, duke; 1476, Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke; 1494,
Lodovico Maria Sforza, duke.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: WEST DOOR BAPTISTRY, PISA]