THE PISANS IN CORSICA.
The legislator Sambucuccio fared as many other legislators have
done. His death was a sudden and severe blow to his enactments. The
seigniors immediately issued from their castles, and spread war and
discord over the land. The people, looking round for help, besought
the Tuscan margrave Malaspina to rescue them, and placed themselves
under his protection. Malaspina landed on the island with a body of
troops, defeated the barons, and restored peace. This happened about
the year 1020, and the Malaspinas appear to have remained rulers of
the Terra del Commune till 1070, while the seigniors bore sway in the
rest of the country. At this time, too, the Pope, who pretended to
derive his rights from the Frankish kings, interfered in the affairs
of the island. It would even seem that he assumed the position of its
feudal superior, and that Malaspina was Count of Corsica by the papal
permission. The Corsican bishoprics furnished him with another means of
establishing his influence in the island. The number of these had in
the course of time increased to six, Aleria, Ajaccio, Accia, Mariana,
Nebbio, and Sagona.
Gregory VII. sent Landulph, Bishop of Pisa, to Corsica, to persuade
the people to put themselves under the power of the Church. This having
been effected, Gregory, and then Urban II., in the year 1098, granted
the perpetual feudal superiority of the island to the bishopric of
Pisa, now raised to an archbishopric. The Pisans, therefore, became
masters of the island, and they maintained a precarious possession of
it, in the face of continual resistance, for nearly a hundred years.
Their government was wise, just, and benevolent, and is eulogized
by all the Corsican historians. They exerted themselves to bring the
country under cultivation, and to improve the natural products of the
soil. They rebuilt towns, erected bridges, made roads, built towers
along the coast, and introduced even art into the island, at least
in so far as regarded church architecture. The best old churches in
Corsica are of Pisan origin, and may be instantly recognised as such
from the elegance of their style. Every two years the republic of Pisa
sent as their representative to the island, a Giudice, or judge, who
governed and administered justice in the name of the city. The communal
arrangements of Sambucuccio were not altered.
Meanwhile, Genoa had been watching with jealous eyes the progress
of Pisan ascendency in the adjacent island, and could not persuade
herself to allow her rival undisputed possession of so advantageous a
station in the Mediterranean, immediately before the gates of Genoa.
Even when Urban II. had made Pisa the metropolitan see of the Corsican
bishops, the Genoese had protested, and they several times compelled
the popes to withdraw the Pisan investiture. At length, in the year
1133, Pope Innocent II. yielded to the urgent solicitations of the
Genoese, and divided the investiture, subordinating to Genoa, now also
made an archbishopric, the Corsican bishops of Mariana, Accia, and
Nebbio, while Pisa retained the bishoprics of Aleria, Ajaccio, and
Sagona. But the Genoese were not satisfied with this; they aimed at
secular supremacy over the whole island. Constantly at war with Pisa,
they seized a favourable opportunity of surprising Bonifazio, when the
inhabitants of the town were celebrating a marriage festival. Honorius
III. was obliged to confirm them in the possession of this important
place in the year 1217. They fortified the impregnable cliff, and made
it the fulcrum of their influence in the island; they granted the city
commercial and other privileges, and induced a great number of Genoese
families to settle there. Bonifazio thus became the first Genoese
colony in Corsica.