"The death of the Emperor Frederic II., in 1250, had been

followed in less than four years by that of his son and

successor Conrad IV., from whose son Conradin, at that time an

infant, the Crown of the Two Sicilies was usurped by his uncle

Manfred, a natural child of the deceased Frederic. The hatred

of the See of Rome, notwithstanding the frequent changes which

had occurred in the Papal Chair, still pursued the Line of

Hohenstauffen, even in this illegitimate branch, and it was

transmitted as an hereditary possession from Innocent IV.

through Alexander IV. and Urban IV., to Clement IV.

Interference in Germany itself was forbidden by the

independence of the Electoral Princes: and when it was found

impossible to obtain the nomination of an Emperor decidedly in

the Guelph interest, Alexander contented himself by

endeavouring to separate the Throne of the Two Sicilies from

that of Germany, and to establish upon the former a Feudatory,

and therefore a Champion, of the Church. Various alliances for

this purpose were projected by Alexander, and by his

successors who adopted a similar policy; and the Crown, which

was in truth to be conquered from Manfred, was offered as an

investiture which Rome had a full right to bestow." After long

negotiations with Henry III. of England, who coveted the

Sicilian prize for his second son, Edmund, and who paid large

sums to the papal treasury by way of earnest money, but who

showed little ability to oust the possessor, Pope Urban, at

length, closed a bargain with that ambitious speculator in

royal claims and titles, Charles of Anjou, brother of St.

Louis, king of France. The honesty of Louis was somewhat

troubled by the unscrupulous transaction; but his conscience

submitted itself to the instructions of the Holy Father, and

he permitted his brother to embark in the evil enterprise.

"Charles, accordingly, having first accepted the Senator-ship

of Rome, with which high magistracy he was invested by her

citizens, negotiated with the Holy See, most ably and much to

his advantage, for the loftier dignity of Kingship. In little

more than a month after he had received his Crown from the

hands of Clement IV., who had become Pope, he totally defeated

and killed his opponent Manfred, in the battle of Grandella

[near Benevento, February, 1266].

{1819}

Conradin, who had now arrived at years of discretion, was

still his rival; but the capture of the young Prince at

Tagliacozzo [1268], and his speedy committal to the

executioner, confirmed Charles of Anjou in his Kingdom, at the

everlasting ex-pense of his good name. Few incidents in

History are more calculated to awaken just indignation than

the untimely end of the brave, wronged, and gallant Conradin.

Charles of Anjou thus founded the first dynasty of his House

which reigned over the Sicilies. The pretensions which Aragon

afterwards advanced to the Crown of that Kingdom rested on a

marriage between Pedro, the eldest son of King James, and

Constance, a daughter of Manfred."

_E. Smedley,

History of France,

part 1, chapter 6._

ALSO IN:

_J. Michelet,

History of France,

book 4, chapter 8._

_H. H. Milman,

History of Latin Christianity,

book 11, chapter 3 (volume 5)._

_Mrs. W. Busk,

Mediæval Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Crusaders,

book 5 (volume 4)._

ITALY: A. D. 1250-1293.

Development of the popular Constitution of the Florentine

Commonwealth.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1250-1293.

ITALY: A. D. 1250-1520.

The Age of the Despots.

The rise of Principalities.

"From the death of Frederick the Second [A. D. 1250] … all

practical power of an imperial kingdom in Italy may be said to

have passed away. Presently begins the gradual change of the

commonwealths into tyrannies, and the grouping together of

many of them into larger states. We also see the beginning of

more definite claims of temporal dominion on behalf of the

Popes. In the course of the 300 years between Frederick the

Second and Charles the Fifth, these processes gradually

changed the face of the Italian kingdom. It became in the end

a collection of principalities, broken only by the survival of

a few oligarchic commonwealths and by the anomalous dominion

of Venice on the mainland. Between Frederick the Second and

Charles the Fifth, we may look on the Empire as practically in

abeyance in Italy. The coming of an Emperor always caused a

great stir for the time, but it was only for the time. After

the grant of Rudolf of Habsburg to the Popes, a distinction

was drawn between Imperial and papal territory in Italy. While

certain princes and commonwealths still acknowledged at least

the nominal superiority of the Emperor, others were now held

to stand in the same relation of vassalage to the Pope."

_E. A. Freeman,

Historical Geography of Europe,

chapter 8, section 3._

"During the 14th and 15th centuries we find, roughly speaking,

six sorts of despots in Italian cities. Of these the First

class, which is a very small one, had a dynastic or hereditary

right accruing from long seignorial possession, of their

several districts. The most eminent are the houses of

Montferrat and Savoy, the Marquises of Ferrara, the Princes of

Urbino. … The Second class comprise those nobles who

obtained the title of Vicars of the Empire, and built an

illegal power upon the basis of imperial right in Lombardy. Of

these, the Della Scala and Visconti families are illustrious

instances. … The Third class is important. Nobles charged

with military or judicial power, as Capitani or Podestas, by

the free burghs, used their authority to enslave the cities

they were chosen to administer. It was thus that almost all

the numerous tyrants of Lombardy, Carraresi at Padua, Gonzaghi

at Mantua, Rossi and Correggi at Parma, Torrensi and Visconti

at Milan, Scotti at Piacenza, and so forth, erected their

despotic dynasties. … In the Fourth class we find the

principle of force still more openly at work. To it may be

assigned those Condottieri who made a prey of cities at their

pleasure. The illustrious Uguccione della Faggiuola, who

neglected to follow up his victory over the Guelfs at Monte

Catini, in order that he might cement his power in Lucca and

Pisa, is an early instance of this kind of tyrant. His

successor, Castruccio Castracane, the hero of Machiavelli's

romance, is another. But it was not until the first half of

the 15th century that professional Condottieri became powerful

enough to found such kingdoms as that, for example, of

Francesco Sforza at Milan. The Fifth class includes the

nephews or sons of Popes. The Riario principality of Forli,

the Della Rovere of Urbino, the Borgia of Romagna, the Farnese

of Parma, form a distinct species of despotisms; but all these

are of a comparatively late origin. Until the papacy of Sixtus

IV. and Innocent VIII. the Popes had not bethought them of

providing in this way for their relatives. … There remains

the Sixth and last class of despots to be mentioned. This

again is large and of the first importance. Citizens of

eminence, like the Medici at Florence, the Bentivogli at

Bologna, the Baglioni of Perugia, the Gambacorti of Pisa, like

Pandolfo Petrucci in Siena (1502), Romeo Pepoli, the usurer of

Bologna (1323), the plebeian Alticlinio and Agolanti of Padua

(1313), acquired more than their due weight in the conduct of

affairs, and gradually tended to tyranny. In most of these

cases great wealth was the original source of despotic

ascendancy. It was not uncommon to buy cities together with

their Signory. … But personal qualities and nobility of

blood might also produce despots of the Sixth class."

_J. A. Symonds,

Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots,

chapter 2._

ITALY: A. D. 1261-1264.

The supplanting of the Venetians by the Genoese at

Constantinople and in the Black Sea.

War between the Republics.

See GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299.

ITALY: A. D. 1273-1291.

Indifference of Rodolph of Hapsburg to his Italian dominions.

His neglect to claim the imperial crown.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1273-1308.

ITALY: A. D. 1277-1447.

Tyranny of the Visconti at Milan.

Their domination in Lombardy and their fall.

See MILAN: A. D. 1277-1447.

ITALY: A. D. 1282-1293.

War between Genoa and Pisa.

Battle of Meloria.

War of Florence and Lucca against Pisa.

See PISA: A. D. 1063-1293.

ITALY: (Southern): A. D. 1282-1300.

The Sicilian Vespers.

Severance of the Two Sicilies.

End of the House of Anjou in the insular kingdom.

"Peter, King of Aragon, had married Constance, the daughter of

Manfred, and laid claim to the kingdom of Sicily in her right.

He sent for help to Michael Palaiologos, the restorer of the

Eastern Empire. The Emperor agreed to his proposals, for his

Empire was threatened by Charles of Anjou. These negotiations

were, it is said, carried on through Giovanni di Procida, a

Sicilian exile, who, as the story goes, had suffered cruel

wrongs from the French. Charles knew something of the plans of

the allies, and both parties were preparing for war, but

affairs were brought to a crisis by a chance occurrence.

{1820}

On March 30, 1282, a brutal insult was offered by a French

soldier to a bride in the presence of her friends and

neighbours outside the walls of Palermo, and the smothered

hatred of the people broke out into open violence. The cry

'Death to the French' was raised, and all who belonged to that

nation in Palermo were slain without mercy. This massacre,

which is called 'The Sicilian Vespers,' spread through the

whole island; the yoke of the oppressor was broken and the

land was delivered. Charles laid siege to Messina, but he was

forced to retire by Peter of Aragon, who landed and was

received as King. Pope Martin in vain excommunicated the

rebels and their allies, and, in 1284, Charles received a

great blow, for his son was defeated and taken prisoner by

Roger of Loria, the Admiral of the Catalan fleet. Charles of

Anjou died in 1286, and two years later his son, also called

Charles, ransomed himself from prison."

_W. Hunt,

History of Italy,

chapter 4._

Charles of Anjou "died of grief, leaving his son, the prince

of Salerno, a prisoner, and Martin followed him, before he

could proclaim a general crusade against the invader of the

apostolic fief. Pedro, having enjoyed his two crowns to the

day of his death, left them to his sons, Alphonso and James

respectively, and both were excommunicated by Honorius IV. for

their accession. The prince of Salerno, obtaining his release

by the mediation of Edward of England, was absolved by

Nicholas IV. from the conditions to which he had sworn, and

crowned at Rome king of Apulia (i. e., Naples) and Sicily, A.

D. 1289. His hopes of regaining the island were constantly

disappointed. James, having succeeded to the crown of Arragon

by the death of Alphonso, was persuaded to resign Sicily to

Charles on condition of receiving his daughter in marriage,

with an ample dowry. Boniface VIII. also graciously gave him

leave to conquer the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, from the

republics of Pisa and Genoa. The Sicilians, however, declining

to be so bartered, bestowed their crown on James's brother

Frederic [1295]; and though James contributed his fleet to

reduce him, he retained the island throne [1300], while

Charles and the pope were obliged to rest content with the

continental kingdom. Their only satisfaction was to persist in

calling Naples by the name of Sicily, and to stigmatise their

rival as king of 'Trinacria.'"

_G. Trevor,

Rome: from the Fall of the Western Empire,

page 240._

ALSO IN:

_S. A. Dunham,

History of Spain and Portugal,

book 3, section 2, chapter 4._

ITALY: A. D. 1294-1299.

War between Venice and Genoa.

See GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299.

ITALY: A. D. 1297-1319.

The perfected aristocratic Constitution of Venice.

See VENICE: A. D. 1032-1319.

ITALY: A. D. 1300-1313.

New factions of Florence and Tuscany.

Bianchi and Neri.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1295-1300, and 1301-1313.

ITALY: 14th Century.

The Renaissance in its beginning.

"It was not the revival of antiquity alone, but its union with

the genius of the Italian people, which achieved the conquest

of the Western world. … The civilisation of Greece and Rome,

which, ever since the fourteenth century, obtained so powerful

a hold on Italian life, as the source and basis of culture, as

the object and ideal of existence, partly also as an avowed

reaction against preceding tendencies—this civilisation had

long been exerting a partial influence on mediæval Europe,

even beyond the boundaries of Italy. The culture of which

Charles the Great was a representative was, in face of the

barbarism of the seventh and eighth centuries, essentially a

Renaissance, and could appear under no other form. … But the

resuscitation of antiquity took a different form in Italy from

that which it assumed in the North. The wave of barbarism had

scarcely gone by before the people, in whom the former life

was but half effaced, showed a consciousness of its past and a

wish to reproduce it. Elsewhere in Europe men deliberately and

with reflection borrowed this or the other element of

classical civilisation; in Italy the sympathies both of the

learned and of the people were naturally engaged on the side

of antiquity as a whole, which stood to them as a symbol of

past greatness. The Latin language, too, was easy to an

Italian, and the numerous monuments and documents in which the

country abounded facilitated a return to the past. With this

tendency other elements—the popular character which time had

now greatly modified, the political institutions imported by

the Lombards from Germany, chivalry and other northern forms

of civilisation, and the influence of religion and the

Church—combined to produce the modern Italian spirit, which

was destined to serve as a model and ideal for the whole

western world. How antiquity began to work in plastic art, as

soon as the flood of barbarism had subsided, is clearly shown

in the Tuscan buildings of the twelfth and in the sculptures

of the thirteenth centuries. … But the great and general

enthusiasm of the Italians for classical antiquity did not

display itself before the fourteenth century. For this a

development of civic life was required, which took place only

in Italy, and there not till then. It was needful that noble

and burgher should first learn to dwell together on equal

terms, and that a social world should arise which felt the

want of culture, and had the leisure and the means to obtain

it. But culture, as soon as it freed itself from the fantastic

bonds of the Middle Ages, could not at once and without help

find its way to the understanding of the physical and

intellectual world. It needed a guide, and found one in the

ancient civilisation, with its wealth of truth and knowledge

in every spiritual interest. Both the form and the substance

of this civilisation were adopted with admiring gratitude; it

became the chief part of the culture of the age."

_J. Burckhardt,

The Renaissance in Italy,

part 3, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:

_J. A. Symonds,

Renaissance in Italy: Age of the Despots,

chapter 1._

See RENAISSANCE.

ITALY: A. D. 1305-1309.

Removal of the Papal Court to Lyons and then to Avignon.

The "Babylonish Captivity."

See PAPACY: A. D. 1294-1348.

ITALY: A. D. 1310-1313.

Visitation of the Emperor Henry VII.

Hostility of Florence and siege of the city.

Repulse from Rome.

The Emperor's death.

"No Emperor had come into Italy since the death of Frederic

II. [1250]. Neither Rudolf nor his two successors [see

GERMANY: A. D. 1273-1308] had been crowned Emperor, but on the

death of Albert of Austria, the King of the Romans, in 1308,

the electors chose Henry, Count of Luxemburg [Henry VII.]. In

1310 he entered Italy with a small German army. Unlike most of

these Imperial expeditions, this was approved of by the Pope.

{1821}

The French King Philip IV. was really master of Pope Clement

V., who did not live in Italy, but sometimes within the French

kingdom, or in the English territory of Bordeaux, or in

Avignon, a city of the Empire. But Clement did not like

bearing the French yoke, and was fearful lest some one of

greater talents than Charles of Valois should make an attempt

on Italy, and make it impossible for the Pope to get free from

the power of the French. He therefore favoured the expedition

of King Henry, and hoped that it would revive the Ghibelin

party and counteract the influence of the Guelfs, who were on

the side of France. Dante tells us the feelings which were

roused by the coming of the King. He seemed to come as God's

vicegerent, to change the fortunes of men and bring the exiled

home; by the majesty of his presence to bring the peace for

which the banished poet longed, and to administer to all men

justice; judgment and equity. Henry was worthy of these high

hopes; for he was wise, just, and gracious, courageous in

fight and honourable in council: but the task was too hard for

him. At first all seemed to go well with him. The Ghibelins

were ready to receive him as their natural lord; the Guelfs

were inclined towards him by the Pope. In Milan the chief

power was in the hands of Guido della Torre, the descendant of

Pagano della Torre, who had done good service to the city

after the battle of Corte Nuova. He was a strong Guelf, and

was at the head of a large number of troops; for he was very

rich. His great enemy was the Ghibelin Matteo Visconti, who

continually struggled with Guido for the mastery. The king was

willingly received by the Milanese, and Guido was not

behindhand in bidding him welcome. While he was at Milan, on

Christmas Day, 1310, he was crowned with the iron crown of the

Italian kingdom, which was made of steel in the shape of

laurel leaves, and studded with gems. He made both parties

enter into an outward reconciliation, and the chiefs of both

vied with one another in making him large presents. The King's

need of money soon tired out the Milanese, and an insurrection

was made in which both Matteo and Guido joined; but Matteo

betrayed his rival, and Guido and all the Guelfs were driven

out of Milan, which henceforth remained in the power of the

Ghibelin Visconti [see MILAN: A. D. 1277-1447]. The King's

demands for money made him unpopular, and each city, as he

left it, rose against him. Pisa, and the other Tuscan enemies

of Florence, received him with joy. But the great Guelfic city

shut her gates against him, and made alliance with Robert, the

Angevin King of Naples, the grandson of Charles of Anjou, and

afterwards gave him [Robert] the signoria. Rome received a

garrison from Naples, and the Imperial coronation had to be

performed in the Church of St. John Lateran,"—Henry being

repulsed in an attempt to force his entrance to the quarter of

the Vatican.

_W. Hunt,

History of Italy,

chapter 4._

"The city [of Rome] was divided in feeling, and the emperor's

position so precarious that he retired to Tivoli at the end of

August, and moved towards Tuscany, ravaging the Perugian

territory on his way, being determined to bring Florence and

all her allies to submission." By rapid movements he reached

Florence and invested the city before his intentions were

understood. "A sudden assault would probably have carried the

city, for the inhabitants were taken by surprise, were in a

state of consternation, and could scarcely believe that the

emperor was there in person: their natural energy soon

returned, the Gonfaloniers assembled their companies, the

whole population armed themselves, even to the bishop and

clergy; a camp was formed within the walls, the outer ditch

palisaded, the gates closed, and thus for two days they

remained hourly expecting an assault. At last their cavalry

[which had been cut off by the emperor's movement] were seen

returning by various ways and in small detachments; succours

also poured in from Lucca, Prato, Pistoia, Volterra, Colle,

and San Gimignano; and even Bologna, Rimini, Ravenna, Faenza,

Cesina, Agobbio, Città di Castello with several other places

rendered their assistance: indeed so great and extensive was

Florentine influence and so rapid the communication, that

within eight days after the investment 4,000 men at arms and

innumerable infantry were assembled at Florence! As this was

about double the imperial cavalry and four times its infantry,

the city gates were thrown open and business proceeded as

usual, except through that entrance immediately opposite to

the enemy. For two and forty days did the emperor remain

within a mile of Florence, ravaging all the country, but

making no impression on the town; after which he raised the

siege and moved to San Casciano, eight miles south." Later,

the Imperialist army was withdrawn to Poggibonzi, and in

March, 1313, it was moved to Pisa, to prepare for a new

campaign. "The Florentines had thus from the first, without

much military skill or enterprise, proved themselves the

boldest and bitterest enemies of Henry; their opposition had

never ceased; by letters, promises, and money, they corrupted

all Lombardy. … Yet party quarrels did not cease. … The

emperor now turned all his energies to the conquest of Naples,

as the first step towards that of Italy itself. For this he

formed a league with Sicily and Genoa; assembled troops from

Germany and Lombardy; filled his treasury in various ways, and

soon found himself at the head of 2,500 German cavalry and

1,500 Italian men-at-arms, besides a Genoese fleet of 70

galleys under Lamba Doria and 50 more supplied by the King of

Sicily, who with 1,000 men-at-arms had already invaded

Calabria by capturing Reggio and other places." On the 5th of

August, the emperor left Pisa upon his expedition against

Naples; on the 24th of the same month he died at Buonconvento

—not without suspicions of poison, although his illness began

before his departure from Pisa. "The intelligence of this

event spread joy and consternation amongst his friends and

enemies; the army soon separated, and his own immediate

followers with the Pisan auxiliaries carried his body back to

Pisa where it was magnificently interred."

_H. E. Napier,

Florentine History,

book 1, chapter 15 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:

_T. A. Trollope,

History of the Commonwealth of Florence,

book 2, chapter 7 (volume 1)._

ITALY: A. D. 1312-1338.

The rising power and the reverses of the Scaligeri of Verona.

Mastino's war with Florence and Venice.

See VERONA: A. D. 1260-1338:

{1822}

ITALY: A. D. 1313-1330.

Guelf leadership of King Robert of Naples.

Wars of Pisa and Florence.

The rise and threatening power of Castruccio Castracani.

Siege of Genoa.

Visit of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria.

Subjection and deliverance of Pisa.

"While the unexpected death of Henry VII. deprived the

Ghibelin party of its leader, and long wars between rival

candidates for the succession to the German throne placed the

imperial authority over Italy in abeyance [see GERMANY: A. D.

1314-1347], Robert, king of Naples, the chief of the Guelf

party, the possessor of Provence, and the favourite of the

church, began to aspire to the general sovereignty of Italy.

He had succeeded to the crowns of Naples and Provence on the

death of his father, Charles II., in opposition to the

recognized laws of inheritance (A. D. 1309). His elder

brother, Charles Martel, by his marriage with the heiress of

Hungary, had been called to the throne of that kingdom, and

had died before his father. His son, Carobert, the reigning

king of Hungary, on the death of his grandfather, Charles II.,

asserted his just rights to all the dominions of that monarch;

but Robert, hastening to Avignon, whither Clement V. had now

removed his court, obtained from the pope, as feudal superior

of the royal fief of Naples, a sentence which set aside the

claims of his nephew in his own favour. The king of Hungary

did not seriously attempt to oppose this decision, and Robert,

a prince of wisdom and address, though devoid of military

talents, soon extended his ambitious views beyond the kingdom

over which he reigned undisturbed." The death of Henry VII.

"left him every opportunity both to attempt the subjugation of

the Ghibelin states, and to convert his alliance with the

Guelfs into the relation of sovereign and subject. … It was

in Tuscany that the storm first broke over the Ghibelins after

the loss of their imperial chief, and that the first ray of

success unexpectedly beamed on their cause. Florence and the

other Guelf cities of the province were no sooner delivered

from the fear of Henry VII. than they prepared to wreak their

vengeance against Pisa for the succours which she had

furnished to the emperor. But that republic, in consternation

at her danger, had taken into pay 1,000 German cavalry, the

only part of the imperial army which could be prevailed upon

to remain in Italy, and had chosen for her general Uguccione

della Faggiuola, a celebrated Ghibelin captain. The ability of

this commander, and the confidence with which he inspired the

Pisans, turned the tide of fortune. … The vigour of his arms

reduced the Guelf people of Lucca to sue for peace; they were

compelled to restore their Ghibelin exiles; and then

Uguccione, fomenting the dissensions which were thus created

within the walls, easily subjected one of the most wealthy and

flourishing cities of Tuscany to his sword (A. D. 1314). The

loss of so valuable an ally as Lucca alarmed the Florentines,

and the whole Guelf party. … King Robert sent two of his

brothers into Tuscany with a body of gens-d'armerie; the

Florentines and all the Tuscan Guelfs uniting their forces to

this succour formed a large army; and the confederates

advanced to relieve the castle of Montecatini which Uguccione

was besieging." The Ghibelin commander had a much smaller

force to resist them with; but he gained, notwithstanding, "a

memorable victory, near Montecatini, in which both a brother

and a nephew of the king of Naples were numbered with the

slain (A. D. 1315). This triumph rendered Uguccione more

formidable than ever; but his tyranny became insupportable

both to the Pisans and Lucchese, and a conspiracy was formed

in concert in both cities. … Excluded from both places and

deserted by his troops, he retired to the court of the Scala

at Verona (A. D. 1316). So Pisa recovered her liberty, but

Lucca was less fortunate or wise, for her citizens only

transferred the power which Uguccione had usurped to the chief

of the Ghibelins. Castruccio Castracani degl' Interminelli,

one of the most celebrated names in Italian history. This

extraordinary man … had early in life shared the common fate

of exile with the White Guelfs or Ghibelins of Lucca. Passing

ten years of banishment in England, France, and the Ghibelin

cities of Lombardy, he had served a long apprenticeship to

arms under the best generals of the age. … He had no sooner

returned to Lucca with the Ghibelin exiles, who were restored

by the terms of the peace with Pisa, than he became the first

citizen of the state. His skill and courage mainly contributed

to the subsequent victory of Montecatini, and endeared him to

the Lucchese; his influence and intrigues excited the

jealousy of Uguccione, and caused his imprisonment; and the

insurrection which delivered Lucca from that chief, liberated

Castruccio from chains and impending death to sovereign

command. Chosen annual captain of the people at three

successive, elections, he at length demanded and obtained the

suffrages of the senate and citizens for his elevation to the

dignity of signor (A. D. 1320): … Under his government Lucca

enjoyed repose for some years. … During these transactions

in Tuscany, the Lombard plains were still desolated by

incessant and unsparing warfare. The efforts of the Neapolitan

king were mainly directed to crush Matteo Visconti [see MILAN:

A. D. 1277-1447] and the Ghibelins in this part of Italy;" but

the power of the latter was continually spreading. "In this

prosperous state of the Ghibelin interests the domestic feuds

of Genoa attracted the tide of war to her gates. The ambitious

rivalry of her four great families, of the Grimaldi, the

Fieschi, the Spinola, and the Doria, had long agitated the

bosom of the republic; and at the period before us the two

former, who headed the Guelf party, had, after various

convulsions, gained possession of the government. The Spinola

and Doria, retiring from the city, fortified themselves in the

smaller towns of the Genoese territory, and immediately

invited the Ghibelin chiefs of Lombardy to their aid. The

lords of Milan and Verona promptly complied with the demand,

… and laid siege to the capital. The rulers of Genoa could

then resort in their terror to no other protection than that

of the Neapolitan king. Robert, conscious of the importance of

preserving the republic from subjection to his enemies,

hastened by sea to its defence, and obtained the absolute

cession of the Genoese liberties into his hands for ten years

as the price of his services. … After the possession of the

suburbs and outworks of Genoa had been obstinately contested

during ten months, the Ghibelins were compelled to raise the

siege. But Robert had scarcely quitted the city to pass into

Provence, when the exiles with aid from Lombardy again

approached Genoa, and during four years continued a war of

posts in its vicinity.

{1823}

But neither the Lombard signors nor Robert engaged in this

fruitless contest, and Lombardy again became the great theatre

of warfare." But the power which Matteo Visconti was steadily

building at Milan, for his family, could not be shaken, even

though an invasion from France (1320), and a second from

Germany (1322), was brought about through papal influence. At

the same time Castruccio Castracani, having consolidated his

despotism at Lucca, was making war upon the Florentines. When,

in 1325, he succeeded in gaining possession of the Guelf city

of Pistoia, "this acquisition, which was highly dangerous to

Florence, produced such alarm in that republic that she called

out her whole native force for the more vigorous prosecution

of the war." Castruccio was heavily outnumbered in the

campaign, but he gained, nevertheless, a great victory over

the Florentines near the castle of Altopascio (November 23,

1325). "The whole Florentine territory was ravaged and

plundered, and the conqueror carried his insults to the gates

of the capital. … In the ruin which threatened the Guelf

party in Tuscany, the Florentines had recourse to King Robert

of Naples, with entreaties for aid," which he brought to them

in 1326, but only on the condition "that his absolute command

over the republic, which had expired in 1321, should be

renewed for ten years in favour of his son Charles, duke of

Calabria." But now a new danger to the Guelf interests

appeared, in the approach of the emperor, Louis IV. of

Bavaria. "After a long contest for the crown of Henry VII.,

Louis of Bavaria had triumphed over his rival, Frederic of

Austria, and taken him prisoner at the sanguinary battle of

Muhldorf, in 1322. Having since passed five years in

confirming his authority in Germany, Louis was now tempted by

ambition and cupidity to undertake an expedition into Italy

(A. D. 1327)." Halting for some time at Milan, where he

received the iron crown of Lombardy, and where he deposed and

imprisoned Galeazzo Visconti, he proceeded into Tuscany "on

his march to Rome, where he intended to receive the imperial

crown. He was welcomed with joy by the signor of Lucca, and

the superior genius of Castruccio at once acquired the entire

ascendant over the weaker mind of Louis. Against the united

forces of the emperor and of Castruccio, the duke of Calabria

and his Guelf army cautiously maintained themselves on the

defensive; but the passage of Louis through Tuscany was

attended with disastrous consequences to the most famous

Ghibelin city of that province." Pisa, notwithstanding the

long fidelity of that republic to the Ghibelin cause, was

sacrificed by the emperor to the covetous ambition of

Castruccio. The forces of the two were joined in a siege to

which the unfortunate city submitted after a month. "She thus

fell in reality into the hands of Castruccio, who shortly

established his absolute authority over her capital and

territory. After extorting a heavy contribution from the

Pisans, and rewarding the services of Castruccio by erecting

the state of Lucca into an imperial duchy in his favour, the

rapacious emperor pursued his march to Rome. There he consumed

in the frivolous ceremony of his coronation [January 17,

1328], and in the vain endeavour to establish an antipope, the

time which he might have employed, with the forces at his

command, and in conjunction with Frederic, king of Sicily, in

crushing for ever the power of Robert of Naples and of all the

Guelfs of Italy who depended on that monarch." In August of

the same year Castruccio, who "had now attained an elevation

which seemed to threaten … the total subjugation of all

Italy," died suddenly of a fever. "Florence breathed again

from impending oppression, Pisa recovered her freedom, and

Lucca sank from ephemeral splendour into lasting obscurity. By

the death of Castruccio the emperor had lost his best

counsellor and firmest support, and he soon ceased to be

formidable to the Guelfs. … Hastily returning into Tuscany,

he plundered the infant orphans of Castruccio of their

inheritance to sell Lucca to a new signor, and to impose

ruinous contributions upon the Pisans, before his return into

Lombardy delivered them from tyranny. … The first proceeding

of Louis in Lombardy had been to ruin the Visconti, and to

drain their states of money: almost his last act in the

province was to make the restoration of this family to power a

new source of profit." In 1330 the emperor returned to

Germany, recalled by troubles in that part of his dominions.

_G. Procter,

History of Italy,

chapter 4, part 2._

ALSO IN:

_N. Machiavelli,

The Florentine Histories,

book 2._

_H. E. Napier,

Florentine History,

book 1, chapters 15-18 (volume 1)._

ITALY: A. D. 1314-1327.

The election and contest of rival emperors, Louis of Bavaria

and Frederick of Austria.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1314-1347.

ITALY: A. D. 1341-1343.

Defeat of the Florentines by the Pisans, before Lucca.

Brief tyranny of the Duke of Athens at Florence.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1341-1343.

ITALY: (Southern): A. D. 1343-1389.

Troubled reign of Joanna I. in Naples.

Murder of her husband, Andrew of Hungary.

Political effects of the great Schism in the Church.

The war of Charles of Durazzo and Louis of Anjou.

Violent course of Pope Urban VI.

"In Naples itself the house of Anjou fell into disunion.

Charles II. of Naples gained by marriage the dowry of Hungary

[see HUNGARY: A. D. 1301-1342], which passed to his eldest son

Charles Martel, while his second son, Robert, ruled in Naples.

But Robert survived his only son, and left as heiress of the

kingdom [1343] his grand-daughter Giovanna [better known as

Joan, or Joanna]. The attempt to give stability to the rule of

a female by marriage with her cousin, Andrew of Hungary, only

aroused the jealousy of the Neapolitan nobles and raised up a

strong party in opposition to Hungarian influence. Charles II.

of Naples, Giovanna's great-grand-father, had left many sons

and daughters, whose descendants of the great houses of

Durazzo and Tarento, like those of the sons of Edward III. in

England, hoped to exercise the royal power. When, in 1845,

Pope Clement VI. was on the point of recognising Andrew as

King of Naples, a conspiracy was formed against him, and he

was murdered, with the connivance, as it was currently

believed, of the Queen. Hereon the feuds in the kingdom blazed

forth more violently than before; the party of Durazzo ranged

itself against that of Tarento, and demanded punishment of the

murderers; Giovanna I., to protect herself, married Lewis of

Tarento in 1347. King Lewis of Hungary, aided by the party of

Durazzo, entered Naples to avenge his brother's death, and for

a while all was confusion. On the death of Lewis of Tarento

(1362), Giovanna I. married James, King of Majorca, and on his

death (1374), Otto, Duke of Brunswick.

{1824}

Giovanna I. was childless, and the slight lull which in the

last years had come over the war of factions in Naples was

only owing to the fact that all were preparing for the

inevitable conflict which her death would bring." Neapolitan

affairs were at this stage when the great schism occurred (see

PAPACY; A. D. 1377-1417), which enthroned two rival popes, one

(Urban VI.) at Rome, and one (Clement VII.) at Avignon. Queen

Giovanna had inclined first to Urban, but was repelled, and

gave her adhesion to Clement. Thereupon, Urban, on the 21st of

April, 1380, "declared her deposed from her throne as a

heretic, schismatic, and traitor to the Pope. He looked for

help in carrying out his decree to King Lewis of Hungary, who

had for a time laid aside his desire for vengeance against

Giovanna, but was ready to resume his plans of aggrandisement

when a favourable opportunity offered. … Lewis was not

himself disposed to leave his kingdom; but he had at his court

the son of his relative, Lewis of Durazzo, whom he had put to

death in his Neapolitan campaign for complicity in Andrew's

murder. Yet he felt compassion for his young son Charles,

brought him to Hungary, and educated him at his court. As

Giovanna was childless, Charles of Durazzo, or Carlo della

Pace, as he was called in Italy, had a strong claim to the

Neapolitan throne at her death." Charles of Durazzo was

accordingly furnished with Hungarian troops for an expedition

against Naples, and reached Rome in November, 1380. "Clement

VII. on his side bestirred himself in behalf of his ally

Giovanna, and for this purpose could count on the help of

France. Failing the house of Durazzo, the house of Valois

could put forward a claim to the Neapolitan throne, as being

descended from the daughter of Charles II. The helpless

Giovanna I. in her need adopted as her heir and successor

Louis, Duke of Anjou, brother of the French king, and called

him to her aid. Clement VII. hastened to confer on Louis

everything that he could; he even formed the States of the

Church into a kingdom of Adria, and bestowed them on Louis;

only Rome itself, and the adjacent lands in Tuscany, Campania

Maritima, and Sabina were reserved for the Pope. The

Avignonese pretender was resolved to show how little he cared

for Italy or for the old traditions of the Italian greatness

of his office. Charles of Durazzo was first in the field, for

Louis of Anjou was detained in France by the death of Charles

V. in September, 1380. The accession of Charles VI. at the age

of twelve threw the government of the kingdom upon the Council

of Regency, of which Louis of Anjou was the chief member. He

used his position to gratify his chief failing, avarice, and

gathered large sums of money for his Neapolitan campaign.

Meanwhile Charles of Durazzo was in Rome, where Urban VI.

equipped him for his undertaking." In June, 1381, Charles

marched against Naples, defeated Otto, the husband of

Giovanna, at San Germano, and had the gates of Naples opened

to him by a rising within the city on the 16th of July.

Giovanna took refuge in the Castel Nuovo, but surrendered it

on the 26th of August. After nine months of captivity, the

unfortunate queen was "strangled in her prison on May 12,

1382, and her corpse was exposed for six days before burial

that the certainty of her death might be known to all.

Thenceforth the question between Charles III. and Louis was

not complicated by any considerations of Giovanna's rights. It

was a struggle of two dynasties for the Neapolitan crown, a

struggle which was to continue for the next century. Crowned

King of Naples by Clement VII., Louis of Anjou quitted Avignon

at the end of May, accompanied by a brilliant array of French

barons and knights. He hastened through North Italy, and

disappointed the hopes of the fervent partisans of Clement

VII. by pursuing his course over Aquila, through the Abruzzi,

and refusing to turn aside to Rome, which, they said, he might

have occupied, seized Urban VI., and so ended the Schism. When

he entered the territory of Naples he soon received large

accessions to his forces from discontented barons, while 22

galleys from Provence occupied Ischia and threatened Naples."

Charles, having inferior forces, could not meet his adversary

in the field, but showed great tactical skill, acting on the

defensive, "cutting off supplies, and harassing his enemy by

unexpected sallies. The French troops perished miserably from

the effects of the climate; … Louis saw his splendid army

rapidly dwindling away." But quarrels now arose between

Charles and Pope Urban; the latter went to Naples to interfere

in affairs; the King made him practically a prisoner and

extorted from him agreements which were not to his liking. But

Urban, on the 1st of January, 1384, "proclaimed a crusade

against Louis as a heretic and schismatic, and Charles

unfurled the banner of the Cross." In May the Pope withdrew

from Naples to Nocera, and there began a series of

interferences which convinced Charles "that Urban was a more

serious adversary than Louis." With the summer came attacks of

the plague upon both armies; but that of Louis suffered most,

and Louis himself died, in September, bequeathing his claims

on Naples to his eldest son. "On the death of Louis the

remnant of his army dispersed, and Charles was free from one

antagonist. … War was now declared between the Pope and the

King. … Charles found adherents amongst Urban's Cardinals."

Urban discovered the plots of the latter and threw six of them

into a dungeon, where he tortured them with brutality. Charles

attacked Nocera and took the town, but the castle in which the

Pope had fortified himself resisted a long siege. "Three or

four times a day the dauntless Pope appeared at a window, and

with bell and torch cursed and excommunicated the besieging

army." In August, 1385, Urban was rescued by some of his

partisans, who broke through the camp of the besiegers and

carried him off, still clinging to his captive cardinals, all

but one of whom he subsequently put to death. He made his way

to Trani and was there met by Genoese galleys which conveyed

him and his party to Genoa. He resided in Genoa rather more

than a year, very much to the discomfort and expense of the

Genoese, and then, after much difficulty, found shelter at

Lucca until September, 1387. Meantime Charles III. had left

Naples, returning to Hungary to head a revolt against the

widowed queen and young daughter of Lewis, who died in 1382.

There he was assassinated in February, 1386. "The death of

Charles III. again plunged the kingdom of Naples into

confusion. The Angevin party, which had been powerless against

Charles, raised against his son Ladislas, a boy of twelve

years old, the claims of Louis II. of Anjou.

{1825}

The exactions of the Queen Regent Margaret awoke

dissatisfaction, and led to the appointment in Naples of a new

civic magistracy, called the Otto di Buono Stato, who were at

variance with Margaret. The Angevins rallied under Tommaso of

Sanseverino, and were reinforced by the arrival of Otto of

Brunswick. The cause of Louis was still identified with that

of Clement VII., who, in May 1385, had solemnly invested him

with the kingdom of Naples. Urban VI., however, refused to

recognise the claims of the son of Charles, though Margaret

tried to propitiate him … and though Florence warmly

supported her prayers for help." The Pope continued obstinate

in this refusal until his death. He declared that the kingdom

of Naples had lapsed to the Holy See, and he tried to gather

money and troops for an expedition to secure it. As a means to

that end, he ordered that the year 1390 should be a year of

jubilee—a decade before the end of the century. It was his

last desperate measure to obtain money. On the 15th of October

1389 he died and one of the most disastrous pontificates in

the history of the Papacy came to an end.

_M. Creighton,

History of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation,

book 1, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:

_Historical Life of Joanna of Sicily._

_Mrs. Jameson,

Memoirs of Celebrated Female Sovereigns,

volume 1, chapter 4._

_St. C. Baddeley,

Charles III. of Naples and Urban VI._

ITALY: A. D. 1343-1393.

The "Free Companies."

Their depredations and the wars employing them.

The Great Company.

The Company of Sir John Hawkwood.

"The practice of hiring troops to fight the battles of the

Commonwealth [of Florence—but in other Italian states no

less] had for some time past been continually on the increase.

… The demand for these mercenary troops,—a demand which …

preferred strangers from beyond the Alps,—had filled Italy

with bands of free lances, ready to take service with any

tyrant, or any free city that was willing to pay them. They

passed from one service to another, and from one side of a

quarrel to the other, with the utmost indifference and

impartiality. But from this manner of life to setting up for

themselves and warring for their own behoof there was but one

step. And no prudent man could have doubted that this step

would ere long be taken. Every circumstance of the age and

country combined to invite and facilitate it. … Already,

immediately after the fall of the Duke of Athens [at Florence,

1343], a German adventurer, one Werner, known in Italian

history as the Duke Guarnieri, had induced a large number of

the hired troops, who were then 'unattached' in Italy, mainly

those dismissed at that time from the service of Pisa, to form

themselves into an independent company and recognize him as

their leader. With equal effrontery and accuracy this ruffian

styled himself 'The enemy of God, of Pity, and of Mercy.' …

This gang of bandits numbered more than 2,000 horsemen. Their

first exploit was to threaten the city of Siena. Advancing

through the Sienese territory towards the city, plundering,

killing, and burning indiscriminately as they went, they

inspired so sudden and universal a terror that the city was

glad to buy them off with a sum of 12,000 florins. From the

Sienese territory they passed to that of Arezzo, and thence to

the district around Perugia; and then turning towards the

Adriatic, overran Romagna, and the Rimini country, then

governed by the Malatesat family. It is difficult adequately

to describe, or even to conceive the sufferings, the

destruction, the panic, the horror, which marked the track of

such a body of miscreants." Finally, by the skilful management

of the Lord of Bologna, the company was bought up and sent

across the Alps, out of Italy, in detachments. "The relief was

obtained in a manner which was sure to operate as an

encouragement to the formation of other similar bands. And

now, after the proclamation of the peace between Florence and

the Visconti, on the 1st of April, 1353, … the experiment

which had answered so well in the hands of the German 'Enemy

to God and to Mercy,' was repeated on a larger scale by a

French Knight Hospitaller of the name of Montreal, known in

Italian history as Frà Moriale. … Being out of place, it

occurred to him to collect all the fighting men in Italy who

were similarly circumstanced, and form an independent company

after the example of Guarnieri, with the avowed purpose of

living by plunder and brigandage. He was so successful that he

collected in a very short time 1,500 men-at-arms and 2,000

foot soldiers; who were subsequently increased to 5,000

cavaliers and 7,000 infantry; and this band was known as 'the

Great Company.'" There was an attempt made, at first, to

combine Florence, Siena and Perugia, with the Romagna, in

resistance to the marauders; but it failed. "The result was

that the Florentines were obliged to buy off the terrible Frà

Moriale with a bribe of 28,000 florins, and Pisa with one of

16,000. … The chief … after Frà Moriale himself, was one

Conrad, Count of Lando; and under him the Company marched

towards Lombardy in search of fresh booty, while Moriale

himself, remaining temporarily behind, went to Rome to confer

privately, as it was believed, with the Colonna chiefs,

respecting a project of employing his band against Rienzi, the

tribune. But whether such was the object of his journey to

Rome or not, it was fatal to the brigand chief. For Rienzi no

sooner knew that the notorious Frà Moriale was within his

jurisdiction than he arrested him, and summarily ordered him

to execution as a common malefactor. The death of the chief,

however, did not put an end to 'the Great Company'; for Conrad

of Lando remained, and succeeded to the command of it." From

1356 to 1359, Italy in different parts was preyed upon by 'the

Great Company,' sometimes in the service of the league of the

lesser Lombard princes against the Visconti of Milan, and once

in the employ of Siena against Perugia; but generally

marauding on their own account, independently. Florence,

alone, stood out in resistance to their exactions, and finally

sent into the field against them 2,000 men-at-arms, all tried

troops, 500 Hungarians: and 2,500 cross-bowmen, besides the

native troops of the city. Subsequently the Florentine forces

were joined by others from Milan, Padua, and elsewhere. The

bandits marched all around the Florentine frontier, with much

bluster, making great threats, but constantly evading an

engagement. At length, on the 20th of July, 1359, the two

armies were in such a position that "it was thought in the

Florentine camp that a decisive battle would be fought on the

morrow. But when that July morning dawned, Lando and his

bandit host were already in full march northwards towards

Genoa, with a precipitation that had all the appearance of

flight. … 'The Great Company never again dared to show its

face in Tuscany.'"

_T. A. Trollope,

History of the Commonwealth of Florence,

book 3, chapter 6 (volume 2)._

{1826}

"Another company, consisting principally of Englishmen [lately

turned loose in France by the Peace of Bretigny, 1360, which

terminated the invasion of Edward III.], was brought into

Italy at a somewhat later period by the Marquis of Montferrat.

… About the same time another, composed principally of

Germans, and commanded by Amichino Baumgarten, was raised by

Galeazzo Visconti, and afterwards employed by the Pisans.

Another, entitled that of St. George, was formed by Ambrose,

the natural son of Bernabos Visconti, and let loose by him on

the territories of Perugia and Sienna. Thus, at the end of the

14th century, Italy was devastated at one and the same time by

these four companies of adventurers, or, as they might more

justly be called, professional robbers. … Of all these

companies, the military reputation of the English was

undoubtedly the greatest—a circumstance which may be

ascribed, in some degree, to the physical superiority of the

men, but still more to the talents of Sir John Hawkwood, by

whom they were commanded."

_W. P. Urquhart,

Life and Times of Francesco Sforza,

book 2, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

One of the marauding companies left in France after the Peace

of Bretigny, and which afflicted that wretched country so

sorely (see FRANCE: A. D. 1360-1380), was called the White

Company, and Sir John Hawkwood was one of its commanders. "The

White Company crossed into Lombardy, under the command of one

Albaret, and took service under the Marquis of Montferrat,

then at war with the Duke of Milan. Hawkwood [called Giovanni

Aguto by the Italians] entered the Pisan service, and next

year, when the marquis, being unable to maintain his English

troops, disbanded them, the Pisans engaged them, and gave

Hawkwood the command." Hawkwood and his company served Pisa,

in war with Florence, until 1364, when they experienced a

great defeat, which led to peace and their discharge. During

the next three years they lived as independent freebooters,

the territories of Siena suffering most from their

depredations. Then they took service with Bernabo Visconti,

Lord of Milan, making war for him on Florence and its allies;

but very soon their arms were turned against Milan, and they

were fighting in the pay of Florence and the Pope. "Within the

next five years he changed sides twice. He served Galeazzo

Visconti against the Papal States; and then, brought back to

fight for Holy Church, defeated his late employer in two

pitched battles." After this, when the league against an

aggressive and ambitious pontiff extended, and Florence,

Bologna and other cities joined Milan, Hawkwood took money

from both at the same time, and cheated both, preliminarily to

fighting each in turn. While serving the Pope his ruffians

wantonly destroyed the captured town of Casena, massacring

between 4,000 and 5,000 people, women and children included.

In 1378, when Gregory XI. died, peace followed, and Hawkwood's

company resumed its old freebooting. In 1381 he was engaged in

the Neapolitan civil war. In 1387 he seems to have become

permanently engaged in the service of Florence against the

Duke of Milan. "In 1391, Florence concluded a general peace

with all her enemies. Her foreign auxiliaries were dismissed,

with the exception or Sir John Hawkwood and 1,000 men.

Hawkwood henceforth remained in her service till his death,

which took place on the 6th of March, 1393. He was buried at

the public expense, as a valiant servant of the State."

_Sir John Hawkwood

(Bentley's Miscellany,

volume 54, pages 284-291)._

ALSO IN:

_O. Browning,

Guelphs and Ghibellines,

chapter 12. _

ITALY: A. D. 1347-1354.

Rienzi's Revolution at Rome.

See ROME: A. D. 1347-1354.

ITALY: A. D. 1348-1355.

War of Genoa against Venice, the Greeks and Aragonese.

See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1348-1355.

ITALY: A. D. 1352-1378.

Subjugation and revolt of the States of the Church.

War of the Pope with Florence.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1352-1378.

ITALY: A. D. 1378-1427.

The democratizing of Florence.

Tumult of the Ciompi.

First appearance of the Medici.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1378-1427.

ITALY: A. D. 1379-1381.

Final triumph of Venice over Genoa in the War of Chioggia.

See VENICE: A. D. 1379-1381.

ITALY: (Southern): A. D. 1386-1414.

Renewed Civil War in Naples.

Defeat of the Angevins and triumph of Ladislas.

His ambitious career.

His capture and recapture of Rome.

"The death of Charles III. involved the kingdom of Naples in

the most ruinous anarchy; and delivered it for many years a

prey to all the disorders of a long minority and a disputed

throne. Charles had left two children, Ladislaus, a boy of ten

years old, and a daughter, Joanna; and his widow Margaret

acted as regent for her son. On the other hand, the

Sanseverini and other baronial families, rallying the Angevin

party, proclaimed the young son of the late duke of Anjou

king,—also under the guardianship of his mother, Maria,—by

the title of Louis II. Thus Naples was disturbed by the rival

pretensions of two boys, placed beneath the guidance of

ambitious and intriguing mothers, and severally protected by

two popes, who excommunicated each other, and laboured to

crush the minors whom they respectively opposed, only that

they might establish their own authority over the party which

they supported. … For several years the Angevin party seemed

to maintain the ascendancy. Louis II. was withheld in Provence

from the scene of danger by his mother; but the barons who had

raised his standard, forcing Margaret of Durazzo and the

adherents of her son to retire to Greta, possessed themselves

of the capital and great part of the kingdom. When Louis II.,

therefore, was at length suffered by his mother to appear at

Naples, attended by a powerful fleet and a numerous train of

the warlike nobles of France (A. D. 1390), he disembarked at

the capital amidst the acclamations of his people, and would

probably have overpowered the party of Durazzo with ease, if,

as he advanced towards manhood, he had displayed any energy of

character. But he proved very unequal, by his indolence and

love of pleasure, to contend with the son of Charles III.

Educated in the midst of alarms and danger, and surrounded

from his infancy by civil wars and conspiracies, Ladislaus had

early been exercised in courageous enterprise, and trained to

intrigue and dissimulation.

{1827}

At the age of 16, his mother Margaret committed him to the

barons of her party to make his first essay in arms; and from

this period he was ever at the head of his troops. … A

fortunate marriage, which his mother had effected for him with

Constance di Clermont, the heiress of the most opulent noble

of Sicily, increased his resources by an immense dowry; and

while he made an able use of these riches [meanly and

heartlessly divorcing the wife who brought them to him, when

they had been spent], the new Italian pope, Boniface IX., the

successor of Urban VI., recognized him for the legitimate son

and vassal of the church, because Louis was supported by the

Avignon pontiff. This decision gained him many partizans; …

his talents and valour hourly advanced his success; and at

last the Sanseverini and all the barons of the Angevin party,

following the tide of fortune, went over to his standards, and

opened to him the gates of Naples (A. D. 1399). Louis …

retired by sea to his Provençal dominions, and finally

abandoned the kingdom of Naples. Ladislaus, having thus

triumphed over his sluggish antagonist, had leisure to

consolidate his stern authority over the licentious and

turbulent feudal aristocracy of his kingdom. … He …

crushed the Sanseverini and other great families, whose power

might make them dangerous; and having rooted out the seeds of

all resistance to his sway in his own dominions, he prepared

to direct his vigorous ambition to schemes of foreign

conquest."

_G. Procter,

History of Italy,

chapter 5, part 3._

Until the death of Pope Boniface IX., Ladislas supported that

pontiff through the hard struggle in which he crushed the

rebellious Colonna and made himself master of the city of

Rome. But when Boniface died, in 1404, the Neapolitan king

began to scheme for bringing the ancient capital and the

possessions of the Church under his own control. "His plan was

to set the Pope [the newly elected Innocent, VII.] and the

Roman people against one another, and by helping now one and

now the other to get them both into his power. … He trusted

that the rebellious Romans would drive the Pope from the city,

and would then be compelled to submit to himself." He had

entered Rome, four days after the papal election, ostensibly

as a mediator between the rival factions, and between the Pope

and the Roman people; and he was easily able to bring about an

arrangement which gave him every opportunity for interference

and for turning circumstances to his own advantage. Events

soon followed as he had expected them, and as he helped,

through his agents, to guide them. The turbulence of the

people increased, until, in 1405, the Pope was driven to

flight. "No sooner had the Pope left Rome than Giovanni

Colonna, at the head of his troops, burst into the Vatican,

where he took up his quarters. … The Vatican was sacked;

even the Papal archives were pillaged, and Bulls, letters and

registers were scattered about the streets. Many of these were

afterwards restored, but the loss of historic documents must

have been great." Ladislas now thought his time for seizing

Rome was come; but when he sent 5,000 horse to join the

Colonna, the Romans took alarm, repelled the Neapolitan

troops, and called back the Pope, who returned in January,

1406, but who died in the following November. Under the next

Pope, Gregory XII., there were negotiations with Avignon for

the ending of the great schism; and all the craft of Ladislas

was exerted to defeat that purpose; because a reunion of

western Christendom would not be favorable to his designs. At

last, a conference of the rival popes was arranged, to take

place at Savona, near Genoa, and in August, 1407, Gregory XII.

left Rome, moving slowly northwards, but finding reasons,

equally with his competitor, for never presenting himself at

the appointed meeting-place. In his absence the disorders of

Rome increased, and when Ladislas, in April, 1408; appeared

before the city with an army of 12,000 horse and as many foot,

it was surrendered to him without resistance. "The craft of

Ladislas had gained its end, and the temporal power of the

Papacy had passed into his hands. … So utterly had the

prestige of Rome, the memories of her glories, passed away

from men's minds, that her sister republic of Florence could

send and congratulate Ladislas on the triumphal victory which

God and his own manhood had given him in the city of Rome."

When, in 1408, the disgusted cardinals of both papal courts

joined in calling a general Council of the Church, to meet at

Pisa the following year, Ladislas threatened to prevent it. By

this time "Gregory had sank to the lowest pitch of

degradation: he sold to Ladislas for the small sum of 25,000

florins the entire States of the Church, and even Rome itself.

After this bargain Ladislas set out for Rome, intending to

proceed into Tuscany and break up the Council." Early in

April, 1409, he marched northwards and threatened Siena. But

Florence had now undertaken the defense of the Council, and

resisted him so effectually that the meeting at Pisa was

undisturbed. The immediate result of the Council was the

election of a third claimant of the Papacy, Alexander V. (see

PAPACY: A. D. 1377-1417). Around the new Pope a league was now

formed which embraced Florence, Siena, and Louis of Anjou,

whose claim upon Naples was revived. The league made an

attempt on Rome in the autumn of 1409, and failed; but the

following January the Neapolitans were expelled and the city

was occupied by the papal forces. In May, 1410, Alexander V.

died, and was succeeded by Baldassare Cossa, who took the name

of John XXIII. The new Pope hastened to identify his cause

with Louis of Anjou, and succeeded, by his energy, in putting

into the field an army which comprised the four chief

"condottieri" in Italy, with their veteran followers. Ladislas

was attacked and routed completely at Rocca Secca, on the 19th

of May, 1411. But the worthlessness of Louis and the mercenary

character of his generals made the victory of no effect.

Ladislas bought over the best of the troops and their leaders,

and before the end of summer Louis was back in Provence, again

abandoning his Neapolitan claims. Ladislas made peace, first,

with Florence, by selling Cortona to that city, and then with

the Pope, who recognized him as king, not only of Naples, but

of Sicily as well. But Ladislas was only gaining time by these

treaties. In June, 1413, he drove the Pope from Rome, and his

troops again occupied the city. He seemed to be now well

prepared for realizing his ambition to found an extended

Italian kingdom; but his career was cut short by a mortal

disease, which ended his life on the 6th of August, 1414.

_M. Creighton,

History of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation,

book 1, chapters 3-8 (volume 1)._

{1828}

ITALY: A. D. 1390-1402.

Resistance of Florence to the spreading tyranny of the Duke of

Milan.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1390-1402.

ITALY: A. D. 1391-1451.

Extension of the Italian dominions of the House of Savoy.

See SAVOY: 11TH-15TH CENTURIES.

ITALY: A. D. 1396-1409.

The sovereignty of Genoa yielded to the King of France.

See GENOA: A. D. 1381-1422.

ITALY: A. D. 1402-1406.

The crumbling of the Visconti dominion.

Aggrandizement of Venice.

Florentine purchase and conquest of Pisa.

Decline of that city.

"The little states of Romagna, which had for the most part

been conquered by Gian-Galeazzo [Visconti, Duke of Milan],

were at his death [1402] overrun by the Count of Barbiano, who

with his famous company entered the service of Pope Boniface

IX. … The Count of Savoy, the Marquess of Montferrat, and

the lords of Padua, Ferrara, and Mantua, were the only

independent Sovereigns in North Italy in 1402. Of these

Francesco, lord of Padua, was soon to fall. On the death of

Gian-Galeazzo he seized on Verona. Venice would not allow her

old enemy to gain this advantage, and made alliance with

Francesco di Gonzaga, lord of Mantua, and with his help took

Verona, and closely besieged Padua. After a gallant resistance

Francesco da Carrara was forced to yield, and he and his two

sons were taken prisoners to Venice, and were there strangled

by order of the Council of Ten. This war gave the Venetians

great power on the mainland. They reconquered Treviso, and

gained Feltro, Verona [1405], Vicenza, and Padua [1405], and

from this time Venice became an Italian power. In Tuscany, the

death of her great enemy delivered Florence from her distress,

and Siena, which now regained her liberty, placed herself

under her protection. Pisa [which had been betrayed to

Gian-Galeazzo in 1399] had been left to Gabriello Visconti, a

bastard son of the late Duke. He put himself under the

protection of Jean Boucicault, who governed Genoa for Charles

VI., King of France, and with his consent he sold Pisa to the

Florentines. The Pisans resisted this sacrifice of their

freedom, and the war lasted a year, but in 1406 the city was

forced to surrender. Many of the people left their homes; for,

though Florence acted fairly towards her old enemy and new

subject, yet the Pisans could not bear the yoke, and the

greatness of the city, its trade and its wealth, vanished

away."

_W. Hunt,

History of Italy,

chapter 6._

"From that day to this it [Pisa] has never recovered,—not its

former greatness, wealth, and energy,—but even sufficient

vitality to arrest it on the downward course. … Of the two

great political tendencies which were then disputing the world

between them it made itself the champion and the symbol of the

losing one. Pisa went down in the world together with the

feudalism and Ghibellinism with which it was identified."

_T. A. Trollope,

History of the Commonwealth of Florence,

book 4, chapter 6 (volume 2)._

_The City in the Sea,

chapter 16._

ALSO IN:

_W. C. Hazlitt,

History of the Venetian Republic,

chapter 21 (volume 3)._

_A. M. F. Robinson,

The End of the Middle Ages,

pages 340-367._

ITALY: A. D. 1409.

The Council of Pisa.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1377-1417.

ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447.

Renewed civil war in Naples.

Defeat of the Angevins by Alfonso of Aragon and Sicily.

Reconquest of Lombardy by Filippo Maria Visconti, and his

wars with Florence, Venice and Naples.

On the death of Ladislaus, king of Naples (1414), "his sister,

Joan II., widow of the son of the duke of Austria, succeeded

him. She was 40 years of age; and, like her brother, abandoned

to the most unrestrained libertinism. She left the government

of her kingdom to her lovers, who disputed power by arms: they

called into her service, or into that of her second husband,

or of the rival princes whom she in turn adopted, the two

armies of Sforza and Braccio [the two great mercenary captains

of that time]. The consequence was the ruin of the kingdom of

Naples, which ceased to menace the rest of Italy. The moment

Ladislaus disappeared, a new enemy arose to disturb the

Florentines—Filippo Maria Visconti [duke of Milan, second son

of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and successor to his elder brother

Gian Maria, on the assassination of the latter, in 1412]. …

Filippo … married the widow of Facino Cane, the powerful

condottiere who had retained Gian Maria in 'his dependence,

and who died the same day that Gian Maria was assassinated. By

this sudden marriage he secured the army of Facino Cane,—

which was, in fact, master of the greater part of the

Milanese: with its aid he undertook, without delay, to recover

the rest of his states from the hands of those tyrants who had

divided amongst them the dominions of his father. … During

the first year of his reign, which was to decide his existence

as prince or subject, he fought with determined courage; but

from that time, though he continually made war, he never

showed himself to his armies. … In the battle of Monza, by

which he acquired his brother's inheritance, and the only

battle in which he was ever present, he remarked the brilliant

courage of Francesco Carmagnola, a Piedmontese soldier of

fortune, and immediately gave him a command. Carmagnola soon

justified the duke's choice by the most distinguished talents

for war, the most brilliant victories, and the most noble

character. Francesco Carmagnola was, after a few years, placed

at the head of the duke's armies; and, from the year 1412 to

that of 1422, successively attacked all the tyrants who had

divided the heritage of Gian Galeazzo, and brought those small

states again under the dominion of the duke of Milan. Even the

republic of Genoa submitted to him, in 1421, on the same

conditions as those on which it had before submitted to the

king of France,—reserving all its liberties; and granting the

duke's lieutenant, who was Carmagnola himself, only those

prerogatives which the constitution yielded to the doge. As

soon as Filippo Maria had accomplished the conquest of

Lombardy, he resumed the projects of his father against

Romagna and Tuscany. He … renewed his intrigues against the

republic of Florence, and combined them with those which he at

the same time carried on in the kingdom of Naples. Joan, who

had sent back to France her second husband, Jaques, count de

la Marche, and who had no children, was persuaded, in 1420, by

one of her lovers, to adopt Alphonso the Magnanimous, king of

Aragon and Sicily, to whom she intrusted some of the

fortresses of Naples. She revoked this adoption in 1423; and

substituted in his place Louis III. of Anjou, son of Louis II.

The former put himself at the head of the ancient party of

Durazzo; the latter, of that of Anjou.

{1829}

The consequence was a civil war, in which the two great

captains, Sforza and Braccio, were opposed to each other, and

acquired new titles to glory. The duke of Milan made alliance

with Joan II. and Louis III. of Anjou: Sforza, named great

constable of the kingdom, was their general. The Florentines

remained constant to Braccio, whom Alphonso had made governor

of the Abruzzi; and who had seized, at the same time, the

signoria of Perugia, his native city. … But Sforza and

Braccio both perished, as Italy awaited with anxiety the

result of the struggle about to be commenced. Sforza was

drowned at the passage of the Pescara, on the 4th of January,

1424; Braccio was mortally wounded at the battle of Aquila, on

the 2d of June of the same year. Francesco, son of the former,

succeeded to his father's name and the command of his army,

both of which he was destined to render still more

illustrious. The son of Braccio, on the contrary, lost the

sovereignty of Perugia, which resumed its freedom on the 29th

of July of the same year; and the remnant of the army formed

by this great captain elected for his chief his most able

lieutenant, Nicolo Piccinino. This was the moment which

Filippo Maria chose to push on his army to Romagna, and

vigorously attack the Florentines. … The Florentines, having

no tried general at the heart of their troops, experienced,

from the 6th of September, 1423, to the 17th of October, 1425,

no less than six successive defeats, either in Liguria or

Romagna [at Forli, 1423, Zagonara, 1424, Lamone, Rapallo,

Anghiari and Faggiola, 1425]. Undismayed by defeat, they

reassembled their army for the seventh time: the patriotism of

their rich merchants made up for the penury of their exhausted

treasury. They, at the same time, sent their most

distinguished statesmen as ambassadors to Venice, to represent

to that republic that, if it did not join them while they

still stood, the liberty of Italy was lost forever. … An

illustrious fugitive, Francesco Carmagnola, who arrived about

this time at Venice, accomplished what Florence had nearly

failed in, by discovering to the Venetians the project of the

duke of Milan to subjugate them." Carmagnola had been

disgraced and discharged from employment by Filippo Maria,

whose jealousy was alarmed by his great reputation, and he now

took service against his late patron. "A league, formed

between Florence and Venice, was successively joined by the

marquis of Ferrara, the lord of Mantua, the Siennese, the duke

Amadeus VIII. of Savoy, and the king Alphonso of Naples, who

jointly declared war against Filippo Maria Visconti, on the

27th of January, 1426. … The good fortune of Carmagnola in

war still attended him in the campaign of 1426. He was as

successful against the duke of Milan as he had been for him:

he took from him the city and whole province of Brescia. The

duke ceded this conquest to the Venetians by treaty on the

30th of December; but he employed the winter in assembling his

forces; and in the beginning of spring renewed the war." An

indecisive engagement occurred at Casalsecco, July 12, 1427,

and on the 11th of October following, in a marsh near Macalo,

Carmagnola completely defeated the Milanese army commanded by

Carlo Malatesta. A new peace was signed on the 18th of April,

1428; but war recommenced in the latter part of 1430. Fortune

now abandoned Carmagnola. He suffered a surprise and defeat at

Soncino, May 17, 1431, and the suspicious senate of Venice

caused him to be arrested, tortured and put to death. "During

the remainder of the reign of Filippo Maria he was habitually

at war with the two republics of Venice and Florence. He …

almost always lost ground by his distrust of his own generals,

his versatility, his taste for contradictory intrigues, his

eagerness to sign peace every year, and to recommence

hostilities a few weeks afterwards." In 1441, on making peace

with the two republics, he granted his daughter Bianca in

marriage to their general, Francesco Sforza, with two

lordships for her dowry. But he was soon intriguing against

his son-in-law, soon at war again with Florence and Venice,

and Sforza was again in the service of the latter. But in 1447

he made offers of reconciliation which were accepted, and

Sforza was on his way to Milan when news came to him of the

death of the duke, which occurred August 13. "The war of

Lombardy was complicated by its connexion with another war

which at the same time ravaged the kingdom of Naples. The

queen, Joan II., had died there, on the 2d of February, 1435;

three months after the death of her adopted son, Louis III. of

Anjou: by her will she had substituted for that prince his

brother René, duke of Lorraine. But Alphonso, king of Aragon

and Sicily, whom she had primarily adopted, … claimed the

succession, on the ground of this first adoption, as well as

of the ancient rights of Manfred, to whom he had succeeded in

the female line. The kingdom of Naples was divided between the

parties of Aragon and Anjou. The Genoese, who had voluntarily

ranged themselves under the protection of the duke of Milan,

offered their assistance to the duke of Anjou. … On the 5th

of August, 1435, their fleet met that of Alphonso, before the

island of Ponza. They defeated it in a great battle, in which

Alphonso had been made prisoner." Delivered to the duke of

Milan, Alphonso soon convinced the latter that his alliance

with the French interest at Naples was a mistake and a danger

to him, and was set at liberty, with promises of aid. The

Genoese were indignant at this and drove the Milanese garrison

from their city, in December, 1435, recovering their freedom.

"Alphonso, seconded by the duke of Milan, recommenced the war

against René of Anjou with greater advantage. On the 2d of

June, 1442, he took from him the city of Naples; from that

time peace was re-established in that kingdom, and Alphonso

… established himself amidst a people which he had

conquered, but whose hearts he gained; and returned no more

either to Sicily or Aragon. He died at Naples, on the 27th of

June, 1458."

_J. C. L. de Sismondi,

History of the Italian Republics,

chapters 9-10._

ALSO IN:

_W. P. Urquhart,

Life and Times of Francesco Sforza,

books 3-4 (volume 1)._

_Mrs. Jameson,

Memoirs of Celebrated Female Sovereigns,

volume 1, chapter 5._

_M. A. Hookham,

Life and Times of Margaret of Anjou,

volume 1, introduction and chapter 1._

ITALY: A. D. 1433-1464.

The ascendancy of Cosimo de' Medici at Florence.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1433-1464.

{1830}

ITALY: A. D. 1447-1454.

End of the Visconti in the duchy of Milan.

Disputed succession.

Francesco Sforza in possession.

War of Venice, Naples and other states

against Milan and Florence.

See MILAN: A. D. 1447-1454.

ITALY: A. D. 1447-1480.

The Pontificate of Nicolas V.

Regeneration of the Papacy.

Revival of letters and art.

Threatening advance of the Turks.

Fresh troubles in Naples.

Expulsion of the French from Genoa.

"The failure of the Council of Basel [see PAPACY: A. D.

1431-1448] restored the position of the Papacy, and set it

free from control. The character and ability of Pope Nicolas

[V., 1447-1455] made him respected, and the part which he took

in politics made him rank amongst the great temporal powers in

Italy. From this time onwards to the end of our history we

shall see the Popes the undisputed Princes of Rome, and the

lords of all that part of Italy which they claimed from the

gift of Kings and Emperors, and not least from the will of the

Countess Matilda. Pope Nicolas used this power better than any

of those who came after him, for he used it in the cause of

peace, and to forward learning and artistic taste. He applied

himself to the general pacification of Italy, and brought

about the Peace of Lodi in 1454, which was signed by Venice

and Milan and by King Alfonso. Christendom had great need of

peace, for, in 1453, Constantinople had been taken by the

Infidels and Mahomet the Second was spreading his conquest

over the East of Europe. Before the fall of the city a great

many Greeks had come to Italy, on different missions, and

especially to attend a Council at Florence, where terms of

union were made between the Greek and Latin Churches. Their

coming revived the taste for Greek learning, which had been so

powerfully felt by Petrarca and Boccaccio. Pope Nicolas made

Rome the centre of this literature, and others followed his

example. Theodore of Gaza, George of Trebizond, and many more,

found enlightened patrons in the Pope, the King of Naples,

Cosmo de'Medici, and Federigo, Count of Urbino. The Pope was a

lover and patron of art as well as of literature. He rebuilt

the churches, palaces, and fortifications of Rome and the

Roman States, and formed the scheme of raising a church worthy

of the memory of St. Peter, and left behind him the Vatican

Palace as a worthy residence for the Apostle's successors. The

Papal Library had been scattered during the Captivity and the

Schism, but Pope Nicolas made a large collection of

manuscripts, and thus founded the Library of the Vatican. The

introduction of printing into Italy about this time gave great

strength to the revival of learning. In 1452 the Pope crowned

Frederic the Third Emperor at Rome with great magnificence.

But he was not without danger in his city, for the next year a

wild plot was made against him. A large number of Romans were

displeased at the great power of the Pope. They were headed by

Stefano Porcaro, who declared that he would free the city

which had once been mistress of the world from the yoke of

priests. The rising was to be ushered in by the slaughter of

the Papal Court and the plunder of its treasures. The plot was

discovered, and was punished with great severity. This was the

last and most unworthy of the various attempts of the Romans

to set up self-government. The advance of the Ottoman Turks

during the latter part of the 15th century [see TURKS: A. D.

1451-1481] caused the greatest alarm in Italy. Venice, from

her possessions and her trade in the Levant, was most exposed

to the attacks of the Infidels, and she became the great

champion against them. The learned Æneas Sylvius was chosen

Pope, in 1458, and took the title of Pius the Second. He

caused a crusade to be preached against the Turks, but he died

in 1464, while the forces were gathering. The Venetians were

constantly defeated in the Archipelago, and lost Eubœa,

Lesbos, and other islands [see GREECE: A. D. 1454-1479]. In

1477 a large Turkish army entered Italy by Friuli, defeated

the Venetians, and crossed the Tagliamento. They laid waste

the country as far as the Piave, and their destroying fires

could be seen from the Campanile of St. Mark's. In 1480

Mahomet's great general, Ahmed Keduk, took the strong city of

Otranto, and massacred its inhabitants. This expedition was

secretly favoured by the Venetians to spite the King of

Naples. The danger to all Italy was very great, for the Sultan

eagerly longed to conquer the older Rome, but the death of

Mahomet the Second, and a disputed succession to his throne,

fortunately checked the further advance of the invaders. When

Alfonso, King of Aragon, Naples, and Sicily, died in 1458, he

left Aragon and Sicily, which he had inherited, to his

legitimate son John; but the crown of Naples, which he had won

for himself, he left to Ferdinand, his illegitimate son.

Ferdinand was a cruel and suspicious man, and the barons

invited John of Calabria to come and help them against him.

John of Calabria was the son of Réné, who had been adopted by

Queen Joanna, and who called himself King. He was the French

Governor of Genoa, and so already had a footing in Italy. He

applied to Sforza to help him, but the Duke of Milan was

firmly attached to the Peace of Lodi, and was too justly

fearful of the French power to do so. Lewis the Eleventh, King

of France, was too wise to meddle in Italian politics.

Florence, which was usually on the French side, was now under

the influence of Cosmo de' Medici, and Cosmo was under the

influence of Francesco Sforza, so that the Duke of Calabria

found no allies. The Archbishop of Genoa, Paola Fregoso,

excited the people to drive out the French [see GENOA: A. D.

1458-1464] and the Doge Prospero Adorno, who belonged to their

party. He then defeated King Réné, and the Duke of Calabria

was forced to give up his attempt on Naples [1464]. The new

government of Genoa was so oppressive that the Genoese put

themselves under the protection of Francesco; Lewis the

Eleventh ceded all his rights to him, and the city thus became

part of the Duchy of Milan. The hopes of the French party in

Italy were thus for the present entirely crushed."

_W. Hunt,

History of Italy,

chapter 6._

ALSO IN:

_M. Creighton,

History of the Papacy,

book 4, chapters 3-4 (volume 2)._

_W. P. Urquhart,

Life and Times of Francesco Sforza,

book 7 (volume 2)._

_L. Pastor,

History of the Popes,

volume 2._

ITALY: A. D. 1466-1469.

Florence under the five agents of Piero de' Medici.

See FLORENCE: 1458-1469.

ITALY: A. D. 1469-1492.

The government of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent, at

Florence.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1469-1492.

ITALY: A. D. 1490-1498.

Savonarola at Florence.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1490-1498.

{1831}

ITALY: A. D. 1492-1494.

Charles VIII. of France invited across the Alps to possess

Naples.

The hostile disunion of the Italian states.

With the death of Lorenzo de Medici, which occurred at

Florence in the spring of 1492, "the power vanished which had

hitherto kept Naples and Milan quiet, and which, with subtle

diplomatic skill, had postponed the breach of the peace in

Italy. We find the comparison used, that Florence with Lorenzo

at her head stood like a rocky dam between two stormy seas.

Italy was at that time a free land and independent of foreign

policy. Venice, with her well-established nobles at her head;

Naples under the Aragonese, a branch of the family ruling in

Spain; Milan, with Genoa, under Sforza—all three able powers

by land and sea—counterbalanced each other. Lorenzo ruled

central Italy; the small lords of the Romagna were in his pay,

and the pope was on the best terms of relationship with him.

But in Milan the mischief lay hidden. Ludovico Sforza, the

guardian of his nephew Gian Galeazzo, had completely usurped

the power. He allowed his ward to pine away mentally and

bodily; he was bringing the young prince slowly to death. But

his consort, a Neapolitan princess, saw through the treachery,

and urged her father to change by force their insufferable

position. Sforza could not alone have resisted Naples. No

dependence was to be placed on the friendship of Venice;

Lorenzo mediated as long as he lived, but now, on his death,

Naples was no longer to be restrained. The first thing that

happened was [Piero de Medici's] alliance with this power, and

at the same time Ludovico's appeal for help to France, where a

young and ambitious king had ascended the throne. The death of

Innocent VIII., and the election of Alexander Borgia to the

papacy, completed the confusion which was impending. Long

diplomatic campaigns took place before war actually broke out.

The matter in question was not the interests of nations—of

this there was no thought—nor even the caprices of princes

alone. The nobles of Italy took a passionate concern in these

disputes. The contests of corresponding intrigues were fought

out at the French court. France had been robbed of Naples by

the Aragonese. The exiled Neapolitan barons, French in their

interests, whose possessions the Arngonese had given to their

own adherents, ardently seized the idea of returning

victoriously to their country; the cardinals, hostile to

Borgia—foremost among these stood the Cardinal of San Piero

in Vincula, a nephew of the old Sixtus, and the Cardinal

Ascanio Sforza, Ludovico's brother—urged for war against

Alexander VI.; the Florentine nobles, anticipating Piero's

violent measures, hoped for deliverance through the French,

and advocated the matter at Lyons, where the court was

stationed, and a whole colony of Florentine families had in

time settled. Sforza held out the bait of glory and his just

claims to the old legitimate possession. The Aragonese, on the

other hand, proposed an accommodation. Spain, who would not

forsake her belongings, stood at their side; the pope and

Piero dei Medici adhered to Naples, and the French nobility

were not in favour of an expedition to Italy. Venice remained

neutral; still she might gain by the war, and she did not

dissuade from it; and this opinion, that something was to be

gained, gradually took possession of all parties, even of

those who had at first wished to preserve peace. Spain was a

direct gainer from the first. France ceded to King Ferdinand a

disputed province, on the condition that he would afford no

support to his Neapolitan cousins. Sforza, as lord of Genoa,

wished to have Lucca and Pisa again, with all that belonged to

them; the Visconti had possessed them of old, and he raised

their claims afresh. We have said what were the hopes of Piero

dei Medici [that he should be able to make himself Duke of

Florence]. Pisa hoped to become free. The pope hoped by his

alliance with Naples to make the first step towards the

attainment of the great plans which he cherished for himself

and his sons; he thought one day of dividing Italy among them.

The French hoped to conquer Naples, and then to drive away the

Turks in a vast crusade. As if for a crusade, the king raised

the loan in his own country, which he required for the

campaign. The Venetians hoped to bring the coast cities of the

Adriatic Sea as much as possible under their authority. In the

autumn of 1494, Charles of France placed himself at the head

of his knights and mercenary troops, and crossed the Alps;

whilst his fleet and artillery, the most fearful weapon of the

French, went by sea from Marseilles to Genoa."

_H. Grimm,

Life of Michael Angelo,

chapter 3, section 2 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:

_T. A. Trollope,

History of the Commonwealth of Florence,

book 8, chapter 5._

ITALY: A. D. 1492-1503.

The Papacy in the hands of the Borgias.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1471-1513.

ITALY: A. D. 1494-1496.

The invasion by Charles VIII.

His triumphant march, his easy conquest of Naples,

and the speedy retreat.

Effects of the expedition on France and Europe.

"On the 1st of March [1494] Charles VIII. made his state entry

into Lyons, to assume the command of the expedition; an

advanced guard under the Scotchman d'Aubigny was already

pushing towards the Neapolitan frontier, and the Duke of

Orleans was at Genoa. The Neapolitans on their side sent the

Prince of Altamura with 30 galleys towards Genoa, while the

Duke of Calabria, an inexperienced youth, entered the

Pontifical States, under the guidance of tried generals. …

The Pope seemed to have lost his head, and no longer knew what

course to adopt. … Charles the VIII., having passed the

Monginevra, entered Asti in the first days of September. He

soon received intelligence that Don Federico and the

Neapolitan fleet had been repulsed with heavy losses before

Porto Venere, and that the Duke of Orleans and his Swiss had

entered Rapallo, sacked the place, and put all the

inhabitants, even the sick in the hospital, to the sword,

thereby striking terror into the Italians, who were

unaccustomed to carry on war in so sanguinary a fashion. On

reaching Piacenza, the king learnt that Gio. Galeazzo, whom he

had recently seen at Pavia, had just died there, poisoned, as

all men said, by the Moor [Lodovico, the usurping uncle of

Gio. Galeazzo the young Duke of Milan, was so called], who,

after celebrating his obsequies at Milan, had entered St.

Ambrogio, at the hour indicated by his astrologer, to

consecrate the investiture already granted to him by

Maximilian, King of the Romans. All this filled the minds of

the French with suspicion, almost with terror; they were

beginning to understand the nature of their closest ally's

good faith.

{1832}

In fact, while Ludovico with one hand collected men and money

for their cause, with the other he wove the threads of a

league intended to drive them from Italy, when the moment

should arrive. … Nevertheless the fortunes of the French

prospered rapidly. The Duke of Calabria, having entered

Romagna, withdrew across the Neapolitan frontier at the first

glimpse of D'Aubigny's forces; and the bulk of the French

army, commanded by the King in person, marched through the

Lunigiana without encountering obstacles of any kind. After

taking Fivizanno, sacking it, and putting to the sword the

hundred soldiers who defended it, and part of the inhabitants,

they pushed on towards Sarzana, through a barren district,

between the mountains and the sea, where the slightest

resistance might have proved fatal to them. But the small

castles, intended for the defence of these valleys, yielded

one after the other, without any attempt to resist the

invaders; and hardly had the siege of Sarzana commenced than

Piero dei Medici arrived, frightened out of his senses,

surrendered at discretion, and even promised to pay 200,000

ducats. But on Piero's return to Florence, on the 8th of

November, he found that the city had risen in revolt, and sent

ambassadors to the French King on its own account to offer him

an honourable reception; but that at the same time it was

making preparations for defence in case of need [see FLORENCE:

A. D. 1490-1498]. So great was the public indignation that

Piero took flight to Venice, where his own ambassador,

Soderini, hardly deigned to look at him, having meanwhile

declared for the republican government just proclaimed in

Florence, where everything had been rapidly changed. The

houses of the Medici and their garden at St. Mark had been

pillaged, exiles had been recalled and acquitted; a price put

on Piero's head and that of his brother, the Cardinal. … The

fabric, so long and so carefully built up by the Medici, was

now suddenly crumbling into dust. On the 17th November Charles

VIII., at the head of his formidable army, rode into Florence

with his lance in rest, believing that that fact sufficed to

make him master of the city. But the Florentines were armed,

they had collected 6,000 soldiers within the walls, and they

knew perfectly well that, from the vantage posts of towers and

houses, they could easily worst an army scattered through the

streets. They therefore repulsed the King's insolent

proposals, and when he threatened to sound his trumpets, Piero

Capponi, tearing up the offered treaty, replied that the

Florentines were more ready to ring their bells. Through this

firmness equitable terms were arranged. The Republic was to

pay 120,000 florins in three quotas; the fortresses, however,

were to be speedily restored to her. On the 28th November the

French left the city, but not without stealing all that

remained of the collection of antiquities in the Medici

Palace. … Nevertheless the citizens were thankful to be

finally delivered alike from old tyrants and new invaders.

Having reached Rome, Charles VIII., in order to have done with

the Pope, who now seemed inclined for resistance, pointed his

guns against the Castle of St. Angelo, and thus matters were

soon settled. … Scarcely encountering any obstacles, Charles

led his army on to Naples." Ferdinand I., or Ferrante, had

died on the 25th of January, 1494, and had been succeeded by

his son Alfonso II, a prince more cruel and more hated than

himself. The latter now renounced the throne in favor of his

son, Ferdinand II., and fled to Sicily. "Ferdinand II., or

Ferrandino, as he was called, after vainly seeking aid from

all, even from the Turk, made a fruitless stand at Monte San

Giovanni, which was taken, destroyed, and all its population

put to the sword. … Naples rebelled in favour of the French,

who marched in on the 22d of February [1495]. The following

day Ferrandino fled to Ischia, then to Messina. And shortly

the ambassadors of the Italian States appeared to offer

congratulations to the conqueror. Now at last the Venetians

were aroused, and having sent their envoys to Milan to know if

Ludovico were disposed to take up arms to drive out the

French, they found him not only ready to do so, but full of

indignation. … He advised that money should be sent to Spain

and to Maximilian, to induce them to attack France; but added

that care must be taken not to call them into Italy; 'since

having already one fever here, we should then have two.' A

league was in fact concluded between the Venetians, Ludovico,

the Pope, Spain and Maximilian. … The Neapolitans, soon

wearied of bad government, had risen in revolt, and Charles

VIII. after a stay of only 50 days in Naples had to make his

departure with excessive haste, before every avenue of retreat

should be cut off, leaving hardly more than 6,000 men in the

kingdom, and taking with him a numerous army, which however

only numbered 10,000 real combatants. On the 6th of July a

pitched battle took place at Fornuovo near the river Taro. The

allies had assembled about 30,000 men, three-fourths of whom

were Venetians, the rest composed of Ludovico's soldiers and a

few Germans sent by Maximilian. … The battle was bloody, and

it was a disputed question which side obtained the victory;

but although the Italians were not repulsed, remaining indeed

masters of the field, the French succeeded in cutting their

way through, which was the chief object they had in view. …

Ludovico, taking advantage of the situation, soon made an

agreement with the French on his own account, without

concerning himself about the Venetians. … The fortunes of

the French now declined rapidly in Italy, and all the more

speedily owing to their bad government in the Neapolitan

kingdom, and their abominable behaviour towards the few

friends who had remained faithful to them. … Ferdinand II.,

with the aid of the Spaniards under Consalvo di Cordova,

advanced triumphantly through Calabria and entered Naples on

the 7th of July, 1496. In a short time all the Neapolitan

fortresses capitulated, and the French who had held them

returned to their own country, more than decimated and in an

altogether deplorable condition. On the 6th of October

Ferdinand II. breathed his last, worn out by the agitation and

fatigues of the war, and was succeeded by his uncle Don

Federico, the fifth King [counting Charles VIII. of France]

who had ascended the Neapolitan throne within the last five

years. … Naples was now in the absolute power of the

Spaniards, who were already maturing their iniquitous designs

upon the kingdom; these, however, were only discovered at a

later period."

_P. Villari,

Machiavelli and his Times,

volume 1, chapter 4, section 2._

{1833}

"In spite of its transitory character the invasion of Charles

VIII. … was a great fact in the history of the

Renaissance. It was, to use the pregnant phrase of Michelet,

no less than the revelation of Italy to the nations of the

North. Like a gale sweeping across a forest of trees in

blossom, and bearing their fertilizing pollen, after it has

broken and deflowered their branches, to far distant trees

that hitherto have bloomed in barrenness, the storm of

Charles's army carried far and wide through Europe

thought-dust, imperceptible, but potent to enrich the nations.

The French, alone, says Michelet, understood Italy. … From

the Italians the French communicated to the rest of Europe

what we call the movement of the Renaissance. There is some

truth in this panegyric of Michelet's. The passage of the army

of Charles VIII. marks a turning point in modern history, and

from this epoch dates the diffusion of a spirit of culture

over Europe."

_J. A. Symonds,

Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots,

chapter 9._

ALSO IN:

_P. Villari,

History of Savonarola and his Times,

book 2, chapters 1-3 (volume 1)._

_J. Dennistoun,

Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino,

chapters 14-15 (volume 1)._

_P. de Commines,

Memoirs,

books 7-8._

_L. von Ranke,

History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations

from 1494 to 1514,

book 1, chapter 1._

See, also, FRANCE: A. D. 1492-1515.

ITALY: A. D. 1494-1503.

The growing power of Venice and the jealousies excited by it. See