_The Last Days of the Republic_
Fabio di Pandolfo Petrucci had been expelled from Siena in September
1524, by a temporary alliance of all factions in the State. Of the three
chief leaders in the revolution, Giovanni Martinozzi belonged to the
Monte de' Nove, Giovanni Battista Piccolomini to the Gentiluomini, while
Mario Bandini was a grandson of Andrea Todeschini Piccolomini and
therefore associated to the Monte del Popolo. Mario, who was a young man
of about twenty-three, was at the head of the _Libertini_, an
association of the most ardent republicans in Siena, who had sworn
relentless and perpetual enmity to all who should attempt anything
against the liberties of the Republic.
There were solemn religious processions, with the "Madonna delle Grazie"
carried through the city in thanksgiving for the liberation of Siena
from tyranny. But the Noveschi were by no means prepared to relinquish
their prepotency. They rallied round Alessandro Bichi, who, with the
favour of Pope Clement VII. and the Florentines, backed by the authority
of the French who, under the Duke of Albany, were marching through
Tuscany against the imperial forces in Naples, assumed the position from
which the Petrucci had fallen. The three Monti were reduced to one, the
_Monte de' Nobili Reggenti_, and the power of the Balìa was vested in a
select committee of sixteen, of which Alessandro was the recognised
head. By common consent of contemporary writers, he was an able and
high-minded man, with no blot upon his character--save this fatal
usurpation of his country's liberties. At the suggestion of the Medicean
rulers of Florence and with financial aid from them, he was beginning to
build a fortress or citadel on the hill of San Domenico to secure his
hold, when the Battle of Pavia (February 1525) overthrew the power of
France and made the Emperor, Charles V., arbiter of the destinies of
Italy. The Libertini, headed by Mario Bandini and Girolamo Severini, saw
that the time had come to deliver the Republic. Both parties entered
into negotiations with the Emperor, through his vicar in Lombardy and
his ambassador in Rome; Charles took Siena under his protection for the
sum of 15,000 ducats. The appearance of the imperial commissaries in
Siena gave the occasion for the rising. On April 6th, 1525, while
Alessandro Bichi was counting out the money to them in the palace of the
Archbishop, a band of Libertini headed by Giovanni Battista Fantozzo
burst in and stabbed him to death. In the meanwhile the populace had
risen throughout the city at the call of Mario Bandini, while the Mangia
Tower rang out the alarm. The mercenaries of the guard of the Piazza
held the openings to the Terzo di San Martino for the Noveschi, with
artillery, but appear to have made little real resistance; comparatively
few persons had been killed on either side, when evening saw the
Libertini masters of the situation. The body of Alessandro was quietly
conveyed to Sant' Agostino and buried there.
The next day, the General Council of the Campana annulled all that had
been done in Siena since the passage of the Duke of Albany, dissolved
the _Monte de' Nobili Reggenti_, created a new Collegio di Balìa,
divided the government equally between the three Monti (the Dodicini,
who had by this time lost all importance, being included in the Monte
del Popolo), and appointed a magistracy of fifteen, afterwards
twenty-one, _Conservatori di Libertà_. Alessandro's son Antonio Maria
Bichi, Giovanni Martinozzi, Lattanzio Petrucci and a number of other
Noveschi left the city, and were put under bounds. Siena was once more a
free Republic under the protection of the Emperor.
[Illustration: _A suburban chapel._]
It was not hard for these Noveschi to gain the ear of Clement VII. and
the aid of the Florentines. The Medicean Pontiff looked with jealous
eyes upon the fair dominion of the Republic, and early in 1526 he
declared war against Siena, with the professed object of restoring these
exiled citizens to their country. The Balìa hired soldiers under Giulio
Colonna and others, and prepared for a stout resistance. Two
conspiracies were discovered to betray Siena to the Pope, and for his
share in one of them Luzio Aringhieri--bastard son of that Messer
Alberto whose glory is writ large upon the Duomo--was beheaded in front
of the Palazzo. Then Andrea Doria with the papal fleet seized Talamone,
while the Sienese contado was simultaneously invaded by the pontifical
army under Count Virginio dell' Anguillara and Count Lodovico of
Pitigliano, and the Florentine army under their commissary, Roberto
Pucci. Attempts to capture Montalcino and Montereggioni having failed,
the two armies united before the walls of Siena itself, their main force
taking up its position outside the Porta Camollia. Realising too late
that the Pope had not made all these warlike preparations for their
benefit, but was meditating the complete subjugation of the Republic,
the leaders of the _fuorusciti_--Aldello Placidi and Giovanni
Martinozzi--left the pontifical camp and went back, one to Rome, the
other to Florence, rather then witness the ruin of their native land.
While the papal artillery thundered away unceasingly from the side of
Camollia, the Balìa elected seven deputies to direct solemn processions
with prayers and litanies, and decreed the renewal of the donation of
Siena to the Madonna. A devout lady whom the citizens held to be endowed
with prophetic spirit, Margherita Bichi, the widow of Francesco
Buonsignori, declared that it was the Blessed Virgin's will that the
feast of her Immaculate Conception--which, it may be remembered, had not
yet been proclaimed an article of faith--should ever after be solemnly
celebrated in this her chosen city, "and further that Mary Immaculate
willed that next Sunday all the Magistrates in whose hands was the
lordship of the city should go to the Cathedral, having confessed and
communicated, to that Image to which at other times they had presented
themselves, and there they should have the Mass of the Immaculate
Conception celebrated and then should confirm and renew the donation of
the city to its true Patroness."[112] On the day appointed the Priors
and Captain of the People, followed by the members of the Balìa and the
Nine of the Guard with all the other officials, assembled at the
Palazzo and, preceded by a great banner upon which was depicted the
Assumption, moved in procession to the Duomo. There--after the votive
Mass of the Immaculate Conception had been sung--the Prior of the
Concistoro, stepping up to the altar, solemnly, in the name of the
Republic, renewed the donation and surrendered the keys of the gates to
the officiating priest, the canon Giovanni Pecci, who formally accepted
and then gave them back.
Meanwhile the papal bombardment continued day after day, answered back
by the artillery of the Sienese. The Portone beyond the gate of Camollia
was a heap of ruins, but the guns had been badly placed and did little
further harm to the walls; the Sienese, under Enea Sacchini, had made a
number of successful sorties, and the pontifical generals were not
prepared to venture upon a general assault. An attempt at intervention
by an imperial agent, Don Hugo de Moncada, failed. Then on July 25th,
the feast of St James and St Christopher, the forces of the Republic,
under Giulio Colonna and Giovanni Maria Pini, suddenly issued out of the
Porta Camollia and fell upon the enemy, while a smaller body of horse
and foot sallied out of the Porta Fontebranda, drove the irregular
cavalry of the Conte dell' Anguillara in headlong flight before them and
took the "blind Papal Florentines," _quei Papal Fiorentini ciechi_ (as
the people sang of them), in the flank. Seized by a sudden panic, the
whole army broke and fled in hopeless confusion, leaving their camp and
artillery--the latter captured by Mario Bandini at the head of a band of
young Libertini. Anguillara, the pontifical general, "a very fat man and
with little foresight in war," as a contemporary calls him, led the rout
half dressed; while the Florentine commissary, Roberto Pucci, after some
better show of valour, made the best of his way to Poggibonsi. As for
the rank and file, pursued for only one mile, they ran for ten. The
Sienese re-entered the city in triumph, with the captured guns and
banners; three days of thanksgiving and festivity followed, and votive
pictures in San Martino and the little oratory in Salicotto still tell
the tale. "You know," wrote Francesco Vettori to Machiavelli, "that I
unwillingly allow myself to believe anything supernatural; but this
defeat seems to me to have been as extraordinary--I will not say
miraculous--as anything that has happened in war from 1494 to now; and
it seems to me like certain histories that I have read in the Bible,
when a terror entered into men so that they fled and knew not from
whom."[113]
With the imperialists ravening like hell-hounds in Rome and Florence in
revolt against the Medici, Pope Clement soon had his hands too full of
more deadly business to interfere with Siena. But the Sienese returned
to their mad factions. Some of the _fuorusciti_ under Giovanni
Martinozzi harried the Valdichiana, and Francesco Petrucci made a
temporary reappearance upon the scenes, threatening Massa. Within the
city the Popolani, led by the Libertini, were attempting to keep down
the Noveschi. In July 1527--practically on the anniversary of the great
victory of the past year--there was a sanguinary tumult, in which the
populace sacked the houses of the leading Noveschi, murdered the
younger Pietro Borghesi and a number of others in cold blood. The Monte
de' Nove was deprived of any share in the government and annulled, the
old Monte de' Riformatori being revived in its stead, and the government
was divided between the three Monti--Popolani, Gentiluomini (with
Dodicini), Riformatori. Some of the Noveschi were incorporated into the
two latter Monti, but the greater part--the Petrucci, Borghesi, Bichi,
Placidi, Bellanti, Bulgarini, and the like--was "for ever" admonished
and excluded. A number of them were declared rebels and their goods
confiscated. Thus permanently ended the supremacy of the Monte de' Nove
in the Republic of Siena, the State remaining in the hands of the
Popolani and Riformatori. Several of the leaders of the Noveschi were
given offices in the Papal States, Aldello Placidi being made Senator of
Rome and Fabio Petrucci Governor of Spoleto.
Alfonso Piccolomini d'Aragona, Duke of Amalfi, a grand-nephew of Pius
III., who was a _persona gratissima_ with the people, was now appointed
Captain-General of the forces of the Republic. Siena threw herself into
the arms of the Caesarian Majesty of the Emperor and the Catholic
Majesty of Spain, combined in the person of Charles V. The Emperor--to
whom Siena was the key of Tuscany--sent a garrison of Spanish soldiers,
with a series of vicars or governors, beginning with Don Lopez de Soria,
who reformed the government again and readmitted the Noveschi, headed by
Francesco Petrucci. These, however, no longer held their old position,
and were only allowed a fourth part of the Balìa. There were furious
tumults again in 1530, when Francesco Petrucci and Giovanni Maria Pini
(the hero of the victory at the Porta Camollia) led the Noveschi, and
Mario Bandini, as usual, headed the popular opposition, which readily
got the upper hand. In one of these Giovanni Martinozzi was killed. An
imperial army under the command of the overbearing young Ferrante
Gonzaga threatened the city in consequence; Ferrante arrested Mario
Bandini, who had come out to confer with him on behalf of the Popolani
and Riformatori, but he was unable to reform the government in the
favour of the Noveschi. His successor, the popular Marchese del Vasto,
succeeded in effecting a compromise.
[Illustration: _Banner-holder in the Piazza Postierla_]
Trouble of another kind arose in 1535. A number of artisans and small
shopkeepers, butchers, tailors, and the like, with other restless
spirits among the lower orders, formed themselves into an association
known as the Bardotti. There were a few more or less educated men among
them, who fired their imaginations by reading Livy and Machiavelli, and
at last they attempted a revolution, demanding tribunes after the old
Roman model. The thing was a ludicrous failure, and Mario Bandini, upon
whose support they relied, told them plainly to go back to their shops,
and let affairs of State alone. It was on this occasion that the painter
Pacchiarotti, who had posed as one of their leaders in the secret
conventicles of the wine cellars, was so terrified that he hid himself
in the vaults under the Osservanza, and even climbed into a tomb and lay
by a corpse for security.
In April 1536 the Emperor himself came to Siena for a few days, and had
a superb reception from the city, whose babes unborn were said to lisp
the name of Caesar. These babes were destined to be disillusioned before
they grew up to manhood. There were more tumults in 1539 between the
Noveschi and the democratic orders, and Francesco Petrucci was again
declared a rebel. The Duke of Amalfi was dismissed in 1541, and the
Emperor sent two ministers, Monsignor Perrenot de Granvelle and
Francesco Sfondrato of Cremona (both of them afterwards cardinals) to
rule the city in his name. They reduced the Balìa to forty, dividing it
equally between the four Monti, and reformed the State thoroughly and
equitably, so that "for about two years the city lived better and more
peacefully than it had done in any time past."[114] Then a change came.
They were succeeded by Don Juan de Luna, a Spaniard, in 1543, who openly
favoured the Noveschi, with whose aid, he imagined, he might rule Siena
for himself under the Crown of Spain. He attempted to make a matrimonial
alliance with the Piccolomini by offering one of his daughters to
Giacomo di Antonio Maria; but his overtures were scornfully rejected.
The Noveschi plotted to fall upon the people, to butcher their leaders
at a bull-fight. That failing, in February 1546, trusting in Don Juan
and his soldiers, they rose in arms, headed by Bartolommeo Petrucci,
shouting "Imperio e Nove! Imperio e Nove!" But all the orders united
against them, and they were repulsed, a number of them being slaughtered
by the infuriated populace. Don Juan and his Spaniards evacuated the
city, and the few Noveschi who had not fled were again deprived of the
government, which was placed for three months in the hands of a
committee of ten--three from each of the other Monti and the Captain of
the People--to have the authority of the Balìa. The Archbishop Francesco
Bandini, who was as much a peacemaker as his brother Mario was a
firebrand, and Marcantonio Amerighi, were sent as ambassadors to explain
to the Emperor what had happened. In this and the following year there
were processions and festivities of all kinds in the Campo and
throughout Siena, "the city being all joyous, thinking that they had
conquered, and imagining that never again would any one molest it."[115]
But in 1548, at the instigation of the exiled Noveschi, a famous
personage came to represent the Emperor in Siena: Diego Hurtado de
Mendoza, scholar, soldier, politician, the future author of the _Guerra
de Granada_. He restored the Noveschi, reorganised the Balìa and the
Signoria, and quartered Spanish soldiers in San Domenico, San Francesco,
Sant'Agostino, and the Servi. He ruled the Republic in the most despotic
fashion; he had brought with him a number of blank sheets of paper with
the Emperor's signature, and whenever he wanted anything from the Balìa
or the Senate, he simply filled up one of these, and declared it was the
will of Caesar. By his orders all the arms and weapons in Siena, both
public and private, were collected in San Domenico, and all the
artillery placed in its piazza by the side of the Campanile. The Balìa
trembled before him, and instantly granted all that he demanded. He was,
wrote a satirical poet of the epoch, "a foe to all Italy, to Heaven and
to the World, and thought to make himself in Siena second to God."[116]
A certain Tommaso Politi sent a letter to the Balìa, warning them that
they were throwing away the liberties of their country; the servile
Collegio handed over the letter to Don Diego, and the unfortunate writer
was beheaded.
At last Don Diego announced that the Catholic Majesty intended to build
a citadel at the walls of Siena, and that the Sienese themselves would
have to supply what was necessary. At this, the unmistakable death-note
to their liberties, even the servile Balìa was terrified, while a cry of
dismay and horror rose from all the people, high and low; certain of the
Noveschi alone were secretly favouring the project. The Concistoro
decided to appeal simultaneously to Caesar and to the Blessed Virgin.
Girolamo di Lattanzio Tolomei, and after him the historian Orlando
Malavolti (the latter with a petition signed by more than a thousand
citizens), were sent to the Emperor; while in Siena itself, Lelio
Tolomei (Girolamo's brother) delivered a passionate harangue to the
Senate, and a solemn vow was made to the Madonna to marry every year, so
long as the liberty of the Republic lasted, fifty poor maidens at the
expense of the State, with a dowry of twenty-five gold florins each, and
it was decided once more to renew the donation of Siena to her. This was
in November 1550. On the Sunday after the decision had been taken, the
Signori, headed by the Captain of the People, went in procession to the
Duomo with the fifty maidens and the keys of the city. A solemn Mass of
the Holy Spirit was sung, the Signori and others communicated, and then
the Captain, Claudio Zuccantini, made "a most beauteous prayer," in this
wise:--
"If ever in times past, Immaculate Mother of God, our Patroness and
Advocate, with compassionate prayers thou hast moved the mercy of thine
only-begotten Son towards this thy most devout city, may it please thee
to-day, more than ever before, to do so. For albeit thou hast saved it
many times from various accidents and fearful wars, as from that of
Montaperti and this other last of Camollia, never has there hung over it
an affliction equal to this of to-day, when its only benefactor and
protector, Charles V., desires to make in it a Castle. We cannot--and
would not--resist him with any other means, save by thy welcome
intercession with thy beloved Son, that He may infuse into him a more
benign spirit towards this his most devoted city, especially as it has
never sinned against his Majesty nor against the Sacred Empire.
"Take from him, in pity, such a thought, which befits not our sincere
faith, and which brings with it the destruction of our honour, our
dignity, our dear liberty, preserved until to-day under thy great
guardianship and loving protection.
"Behold, most sacred Virgin, present before thee the hearts, the souls
of thy Sienese people, repentant for all their past errors, kneeling and
prostrate before thy throne to beg mercy and deliverance from the
projected Castle. And I, as the least of all and thy servant, in the
name of the Republic, by decree of the most ample Senate, make to thee a
perpetual vow that--so long as, by thy intercession, our dear and sweet
liberty shall last--fifty poor little maidens shall every year be
married at the public expense, with a dowry for each of twenty-five
florins, to thy greater glory and honour. Further, I consecrate to thee
the city: I present to thee anew the keys, which were restored to us
before, as to Her who is the safest and the most potent to guard them.
"Open with them the heart of Caesar, removing from it his unnecessary
design. Dispose him rather to preserve us for those devout and faithful
subjects that we have been and ever shall be, to his Caesarian Majesty
and to the Sacred Empire. Lastly, take away from this most devoted
People every memory of private injuries, and unite it with eternal peace
and concord; to the end that, thus pacific and united, it may be able
to serve God and thyself and his Caesarian Majesty, and to rejoice
without end in our cherished liberty."[117]
But the Emperor, to whom the possession of Siena was invaluable and who
(since the fortresses of Livorno and Florence had been consigned to Duke
Cosimo) had no other strong place in Tuscany, was resolute. He answered
Malavolti graciously, assuring him that it was not to take away, but to
maintain the liberty of Siena and to secure good government, that he was
having this fortress built; but when, a little later on, more
ambassadors arrived, "in mourning robes, as though in anticipation of
the loss of their liberty," he answered shortly that his imperial orders
had been given, and refused to listen to any further representations on
the subject. "We must drink this bitter chalice," wrote Girolamo
Tolomei, "and swallow this red-hot trivet."
In the meanwhile, the foundations of the citadel had
[Illustration: _An old Fanale in the Piazza San Giusto_]
been laid on the Poggio di San Prospero, the site of the present Lizza,
though the architect Peloro had, according to Sozzini, "made the design
of such greatness for the benefit of his city, that his Catholic Majesty
would not finish it in thirty years." Dressed in red cloth, Don Diego
came every day that he was in Siena to hurry on the work. But a weird
figure rose up in the midst of it. The hermit Brandano had wandered
through Italy preaching repentance, clothed in sackcloth with a halter
round his neck, a Crucifix in one hand and a death's-head in the other.
On the eve of the sack of Rome he had appeared in the Eternal City,
foretelling the scourge, denouncing Pope Clement and his cardinals.
Beaten and imprisoned, he had next gone as a pilgrim to our Lady's
shrines in Spain, where he had been thrown into the dungeons of the
Inquisition. Now he suddenly stood out on the hill-side, watching the
builders at their work, chanting aloud in weird wailing tones the text
of the psalm: _Nisi Dominus aedificaverit domum_, "Except the Lord build
the house, they labour in vain that build it"; and then, when men
stopped to listen, he cried again in a louder tone: _Nisi Dominus
custodierit civitatem_, "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman
waketh but in vain." Driven off the works, he returned again and again,
declaring that he spoke by the will of God. Diego sent him to the
galleys, but the Spanish commander at Port'Ercole found no cause in him
and sent him back to Siena. Here he designed what Sozzini calls _un
bellissimo e notabil colpo_, and hurled two huge stones at the head of a
red-coated Spaniard, fondly imagining that he was the hated Diego.
Arrested and brought before the governor, he calmly avowed his attempt
to kill him for the sake of his fellow-citizens. Either an unwonted
access of magnanimity or superstitious fear made the Spaniard spare his
life, and he was merely banished from Siena on pain of death, the guards
at the gates being bidden never to let him enter the city again.
But other aids than supernatural were preparing. A number of Sienese
gentlemen and artisans alike left the city and their business, staying
in their villas or in the contado rather than see this hideous monument
of servitude rising higher day by day. Two of these, Girolamo and Lelio
Tolomei, died suddenly--men whispered Spanish poison. An extensive
conspiracy was concocted--in Rome, Ferrara, and Venice--for the
liberation of Siena. A certain Giovanni Maria Benedetti, a man of humble
birth in the service of the Cardinal de Tournon, and Amerigo Amerighi, a
member of the Balìa, were the connecting links between the Sienese, on
the one hand, and the agents of the Most Christian King and the
cardinals of the French faction, on the other. But so many persons,
Sienese and foreigners, were implicated that it was held a special
miracle of the Madonna's that the plot was not discovered long before
the time came to put it into effect.
Don Diego was absent from Siena, and a certain Don Franzese de Avila--a
very gracious young man who, alone of his nation, had ingratiated
himself with the Sienese by what Sozzini calls his young-lady-like
manners, _chè veramente era come una donzella_, ruled in his place;
when, on the evening of July 26th, 1552, a force of French and Italians,
led by Enea Piccolomini delle Papesse,[118] arrived at a little distance
from the Porta Romana. Some warning had reached the Spaniards and some
sort of preparation been made; but it was not until the following
morning that the alarm was shouted from the Mangia Tower. When evening
came, the people rose in mass, shouting for France and Liberty; the very
women hurled stones upon the heads of the Spaniards, as they sullenly
retreated towards San Domenico and the Citadel, leaving the Campo in the
charge of the Florentine soldiers that Duke Cosimo had sent to their
aid. Such was the flaming of the torches and the glow of lights in the
windows, that "through all the city one walked as though the sun had
risen." While the Sienese within threw open the Porta Tufi, the rest of
the French, led by Enea Piccolomini, fired the Porta Romana; "and they
entered into Siena with such great impetus and with such great noise,
that it was heard many miles away. All that night they fought together;
for the Spaniards, with the support of the Florentines, had fortified
themselves in San Domenico and in Camollia, having the Citadel at their
shoulders. This combat lasted all the night and till the twentieth hour
of the following day, which was Thursday the 28th of July; in which hour
those of the city, making every effort, captured San Domenico, where the
Spaniards thought themselves right strong and safe. And by reason of
this loss, the latter abandoned also that part of the city which they
held, and they all retreated to the fortress. In which retreat many
Spaniards and Florentines were killed; and so, by the grace of God, all
the city was free."[119]
Two Sienese, Giovanni Andrea Bonizzelli and Giovanni Battista Cappanna,
who had served the Spaniards as commissaries, attempted to escape from
the city; they were brutally done to death, the one by the contadini
into whose hands he had fallen, the other brought back as a prisoner to
be hurled out of a window of the Sala di Balìa. At the beginning of
August, at the intervention of the Duke of Florence, the Citadel
capitulated; the Spaniards and Florentines were allowed to march out
with their arms and baggage, and retire unmolested to Florence. The
young-lady-like _maestro di campo_, Don Franzese, shed tears when he
found Messer Ottavio Sozzini and a number of young Sienese gentlemen
waiting in the Prato di Camollia to bid him farewell. "You brave
Sienese," he said, "have made a most beautiful stroke; but for the
future be wise, for you have offended too great a man."
Lansac, the French representative, at once entered the Citadel and
summoned the Signoria. They came in procession with a banner of Our Lady
in front of them, with all the other magistrates and officials
following, crowned with garlands of olive, while all the clergy and a
multitude of people came after, with men bearing spades, pickaxes and
the like: "it seemed that each one was going to a wedding." In the name
of the Most Christian King, Lansac formally made over the Citadel to the
Republic--the notary of the Concistoro, Ser Luca Salvini, drawing up the
instrument in strict legal form. Let Sozzini, who was present, describe
the scene: "When the deed had been drawn up in valid form, the Captain
of the People first and then the most illustrious Signori, with
pickaxes and other instruments began to destroy the said Citadel; and
all the people shouted, with tears of joy in their eyes: 'Liberty,
Liberty!' 'France, France!' 'Victory, Victory!' Now whoso had seen the
great multitude of gentlemen and shopkeepers, who raced to come first to
the destruction of the Citadel, certainly would have been astounded;
seeing that, in the space of one hour, more was destroyed facing the
city than would have been built in four months. When the Signoria and
the procession departed to return to the Palace, many gentlemen and
shopkeepers remained to continue the destruction, and continually fresh
folk arrived there."[120]
Siena was now under the protection of France, with a French garrison.
The people were in a fever of delight. Sonnet after sonnet, abusing the
Spaniards and extolling the French, satirising the Catholic Majesty and
praising the Most Christian, appeared on the Loggia di Mercanzia. With
no thought or talk of war, the Sienese gave themselves up to sport and
pleasure. The Balìa was abolished, or rather combined with the
Concistoro in one chief magistracy composed of the Signoria and twenty
others elected by the Senate; the two councils (the General Council of
the Campana, or Senate, and the Council of the People) were reduced to
one; the Monti were nominally annulled, or united in one body of the
"Cittadini Reggenti della Città di Siena." In November the Cardinal of
Ferrara, Ippolito d'Este the younger, with a goodly guard of Swiss, came
as lieutenant of the King of France, received by the government with the
utmost honour, and welcomed by the people, says Malavolti, _con
incredibile allegrezza_. Hearing that the Emperor was massing troops in
the Kingdom of Naples to come against Siena, the Cardinal had new forts
built outside the Porta Camollia. The men of the contrade came to work
upon them, "always gladly to the sound of drums and trumpets," while one
of the Cardinal's guard played on the flute, so sweetly "that every one
stayed to listen to it as a thing most rare." But wiser folk shook their
heads, noticing that the forts were being designed in such a way that
they would serve equally to bombard the city, "from which thing many
took a right sinister impression."[121] And again the strange weird
figure of Brandano appeared, wandering up and down the streets, gazing
upon the new fortifications, singing in a quaint doggerel of his own:
"Little good, O Cardinal, may'st thou bring us! Siena, Siena, the
physician will come who will cure thee of thy madness."[122]
The first attempt of the powers of Spain and the Empire to avenge their
discomfiture failed signally. At the beginning of 1553, a great army of
Germans, Spaniards and Italians under Don Garcia de Toledo (the
brother-in-law of Duke Cosimo) invaded the dominion of the Republic,
occupied the Valdichiana, took Pienza, and captured Monticchiello after
a heroic defence in which the garrison of the little castle, commanded
by Adriano Baglioni, only surrendered when all the powder for the
arquebuses was spent and they were reduced to fighting with stones. In
the Maremma, Cornelio Bentivoglio sallied out of Grosseto and routed the
imperial reinforcements that had landed at Piombino from Sicily. In the
latter part of March the invading army laid siege to Montalcino, which
Giordano Orsini
[Illustration: VIA DEI TERMINI]
at the head of two thousand infantry defended for the Republic, with the
utmost valour and heroically supported by the inhabitants, for more than
two months. On the night of the 14th of June, the Sienese saw great
fires blazing round Montalcino, and on the morning of the 15th heavy
clouds of smoke still hung over it. The appearance of the French and
Turkish fleets off the shores of Italy had forced Don Garcia to raise
the siege; he had burned his lodgings, and was about to hurry southwards
for the defence of Naples. "Now," writes the diarist of Montalcino,
"whoso this morning had seen our afflicted city in such great gladness
and triumph, would have made the hardest heart grow tender. When the
bells had ceased ringing, Masses have been celebrated and there has been
a devout procession around the piazza, with such great contrition; all
injuries have been forgiven, men have gone to embrace one another and to
give the kiss of peace; always thanking God and the Most Holy Virgin,
our protectress, that in their pity and mercy they have deigned to
deliver us from so great a disaster."[123]
In the meanwhile, through the intrigues of Cosimo, who was only biding
his time for the Marzocco and the Lupa to be bound together in his
golden chain, a conspiracy had been formed in Siena, to admit the
Florentines through the Porta Ovile and expel the French. It was
discovered; the three principal conspirators, Giulio Salvi, Captain of
the People, his brother Ottaviano, Proposto of the Duomo, and the canon
Gismondo Vignali, were beheaded in the cortile of the Captain of
Justice--the two priests having been degraded in the Sala del Consiglio
on the previous day. But the Sienese factions continued, even in the
face of the imminent danger. The French agents themselves were divided,
Monsieur de Termes taking one side, the Cardinal of Ferrara the other.
"And always as many of them as were sent to us from the King, up to the
last, behaved in this fashion, as though the discords of the city of
Siena were like to a contagious illness, so that whoever came near them
was obliged to take part in them."[124]
The breathing space was but short. With the new year, 1554, the tempest
burst upon Siena. Piero Strozzi, the deadliest enemy of the Duke of
Florence, came to the city as vicar-general of the Most Christian
King--in spite of Orlando Malavolti, then one of the Eight of War, who
urged that he should not be received without an express order from
France, as it would give an excuse to the Duke to declare war, being a
breach of one of the conditions, which stipulated that the Sienese
should not shelter Florentine _fuorusciti_. In his history, Malavolti
remarks upon the analogies between this last war of Siena and that
ancient one of Montaperti, both begun by the Florentines on the pretext
that the Sienese had broken treaties by receiving their exiles; and he
declares bitterly that Strozzi, unlike Giordano, "had intentions quite
other than the defence and salvation of the city of Siena," that he had
sent away a number of the soldiers, and left unprotected the forts
outside Porta Camollia. Similarly, Sozzini declares that Piero's coming
was held to be the ruin of Siena, since it brought the Duke of Florence
into the field, without whom the Caesarian Majesty could have done them
little harm.[125] But these are mere words; Strozzi or no Strozzi,
Cosimo and Charles were equally bent upon the subjugation, complete and
final, of Siena.
The armies of the Emperor and the Duke of Florence entered the dominions
of the Republic, under the command of the last and most formidable of
the condottieri, Gian Giacomo de' Medici, Marchese di Marignano. The
sudden capture, on the night of January 26th, 1554, of the forts outside
the Porta Camollia began that last tremendous war of the Sienese, that
siege--no less heroic and more prolonged than that of Florence
twenty-four years before--in which the last great Republic of the Middle
Ages died a giant's death. The war lasted till the April of the
following year, both round the city and in the contado, and was most
ruthless in its character. For ten miles around, the once smiling
country became a desolate, fire-stained and blood-soaked wilderness--a
few trees being left standing, merely that the Spaniards might hang the
hapless contadini who attempted to bring supplies through their lines to
the starving people in the beleaguered city. The earlier engagements
mostly resulted in favour of the Sienese with their French allies and
German mercenaries. At first they had so many prisoners in their hands
that, when the Marchese di Marignano raised a gallows on the captured
forts, they raised another on the citadel, and threatened to hang ten of
their prisoners for every one that the imperialists executed--a threat
averted by the intervention of the Spanish soldiers themselves, who sent
a message to Strozzi that they would force their own general to act _a
buona guerra_; which, alas! was held only to apply to combatants, and
not always even to them.
At the beginning of June the Cardinal of Ferrara, tardily obeying the
summons of the King, left the city, and went home with a safe conduct;
French and Swiss reinforcements arrived under the command of Blaise de
Montluc, afterwards Marshal of France, who came to take charge of the
city that Strozzi might have a free hand elsewhere. There had been some
question as to the safety of sending this dashing Gascon to Siena; his
enemies assured the king that he was (to use his own phrase) _un des
plus coleres hommes du monde, et le plus bisarre_, and that, "considered
the humours of the Sienese, it would be fire against fire." As it turned
out, his dauntless heroism, his never failing high spirits (even when
he lay at the point of death), his amazing harangues (for he prided
himself upon his Italian, and had got up some Sienese history to serve
his need), chimed in precisely with the temper of the people, and the
name of the gallant Gascon general is ever to be linked with that of the
glorious Italian republic, whose liberties he was to defend. The third
book of his _Commentaires_, taken with the _Diario_ of Alessandro
Sozzini, lets us follow every phase of the siege. He found, he tells us,
that "the Sienese were stark mad of fighting, and I do believe, fighting
for their liberty, would have played the devils." The heroic devotion of
the ladies of the city--to whose prayers he professed to owe his
recovery from sickness--especially moved his enthusiasm:--
"It shall never be, you Ladies of Siena, that I will not immortalise
your names so long as the Book of Montluc shall live; for in truth you
are worthy of immortal praise, if ever women were. At the beginning of
the noble resolution these people took to defend their liberty, all the
ladies of Siena divided themselves into three squadrons; the first led
by Signora Forteguerra, who was herself clad in violet, as also those of
her train, her attire being cut in the fashion of a Nymph, short, and
discovering her buskins; the second was the Signora Piccolomini, attired
in carnation satin, and her troop in the same livery; the third was the
Signora Livia Fausta, apparelled all in white, as also her train, with
her white ensign. In their ensigns they had very fine devices, which I
would give a good deal I could remember. These three squadrons consisted
of three thousand ladies, gentlewomen and citizens; their arms were
picks, shovels, baskets and bavins; and in this equipage they made their
muster, and went to begin the fortifications. Monsieur de Termes, who
has often told me this story (for I was not then arrived at Siena), has
assured me that in his life he never saw so fine a sight. I have since
seen their ensigns, and they had composed a song to the honour of
France, for which I wish I had given the best horse I have that I might
insert it here."[126]
This first comparatively bright and hopeful phase of the struggle ended
with the summer. Piero Strozzi with the flower of the French army
retreated from the city, hoping to make a diversion, to unite with
reinforcements that he expected, to carry the war into Florentine
territory. At the beginning of August he came to a pitched battle with
Marignano's forces, on the hills of Scannagalli near Marciano in the
Valdichiana. Over his army, together with the golden lilies of France,
there floated a green banner with the Dantesque text: _Libertà vo
cercando_, "I go seeking Liberty." Under a blazing sun, Swiss and
Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans and Italians, dashed together in a
terrible melée; but the victory on the part of Spain and the Empire was
complete and crushing. Four thousand men of Strozzi's army are said to
have been killed. The hospitals of Siena were filled to overflowing with
the wounded, who made their way in from the scene of disaster; while the
rest limped slowly along the streets or lay about in the squares,
utterly broken in spirit, wailing for aid. No one who beheld this
piteous spectacle, says Sozzini, "could have possibly kept back his
tears, even if he had had a heart of hardest stone." It was said that
the defeat had been caused by the treachery of a French ancient--though
Montluc will not assert this--and Strozzi, while he lay helpless with
his wounds at Montalcino, got the man into his hands, extorted a
confession by torture, and executed him together with one of his own
officers to whom he ascribed his overthrow.
The doom of Siena was now sealed. The imperialists drew their lines
closer and closer round the city, while the heroism of Montluc and of
the Sienese themselves prolonged the resistance for eight months. There
were the usual attempts to storm Heaven on behalf of the Republic. The
"Madonna delle Grazie" was carried through the city preceded by three
hundred little girls, white-robed and barefooted, crying: _Christe audi
nos!_ And then procession was made with the wooden Crucifix of the
Duomo, said to have been that carried by the victors of Montaperti, with
all the children of the Spedale and a thousand young maidens of the city
walking in front, followed by the Disciplinati of Our Lady, all the
friars and clergy, and, after the Crucifix, a great multitude of men and
women. Then it was decreed that the "useless mouths," _le bocche
disutili_, should be expelled from the city; and these sweet voices of
the children grew silent. Four officials specially appointed, the
_Quattro sopra le bocche disutili_, on September 22nd at nightfall,
drove out more than a thousand men, women and children, weeping with
sorrow and terror. Then Piero Strozzi, who had temporarily returned to
Siena with the Archbishop and others, bade the Rector of the Spedale
expel 700 more, in order that the soldiers might make use of the supply
of grain that the Spedale possessed, an escort being promised to guard
them out of danger. On October 5th, 250 little children, from six to ten
years old, mostly in litters, with a number of men and women, passed out
of the Porta Fontebranda, escorted by four companies of soldiers. They
fell into an ambuscade, a number of them were slaughtered and the rest
driven back towards the city. "And next morning they were all outside
Porta Fontebranda (at the place where the annual market of the pigs is
held), all lying on the ground with the greatest cries and lamentations.
It was the most pitiful sight to see these little despoiled children,
wounded and beaten, lying on the ground, and would
[Illustration: PORTA OVILE]
have made a Nero weep. And I would have payed twenty-five scudi not to
have seen them; for, for three days, I could neither eat nor drink
anything that did me good."[127] The Rector of the Spedale resigned his
post, rather than be a party to any further cruelty of this kind. A few
weeks later, a number of the elder children, from ten to fifteen years
old, were sent out openly in the daytime without any escort, under the
impression that the enemy would let them pass. They went out by the
Porta Pispini, _tutti piangendo_, and came back at midday, stripped to
their shirts, "and returning to the Spedale two and two, as in
procession, they moved the folk to such compassion that many wept."[128]
Presently they were reduced to wandering through the city, knocking at
the doors of those who had been wealthy, begging for a morsel of bread.
But all this was mercy itself, compared to the fate of the _bocche
disutili_ later, and compared to what was done elsewhere. At Turrita, in
the contado, a band of Germans in the Florentine pay crucified an old
woman, under circumstances of appalling atrocity, for cursing the Duke
of Florence and for crying _Lupa, Lupa_, when they bade her shout
_Duca_.
Piero Strozzi now left Siena to its fate, in a vain hope of collecting
reinforcements elsewhere. The Archbishop Francesco Bandini, Enea
Piccolomini and others broke through the Spanish lines, and escaped to
Montalcino. Montluc was made Dictator. Too long would it take to tell
here in full detail the whole story of protracted heroism; the incessant
bombardment; the assaults repulsed time after time; the gallant sallies
of the besieged; the games that they still played at intervals in the
Campo--interrupted by the sudden call to arms--at one of which, a
vigorous _giuoco delle pugna_, Montluc wept for mingled joy and pity at
their valour. The ladies of Siena--now laying aside the sportive spirit
and gay dresses in which they had at first worked--laboured again on the
fortifications, and in destroying the buildings, where these encumbered
the movements of the soldiers; especially at the Porta Ovile, which had
become the most dangerous place in the city, since the Marchese had
planted artillery upon the hill between it and the Osservanza. At last
the brave German mercenaries of France grew impatient at the lack of
bread and wine, and Montluc sent them out of the city, to join the
flying army that Strozzi was supposed to be raising. Once more all the
_bocche disutili_ were expelled--but this time there was no mercy shown
them by friend or foe.
"The list of these useless mouths," writes Montluc, "I do assure you
amounted to four thousand and four hundred people, or more, which of all
the miseries and desolations that I have ever seen was the greatest my
eyes ever yet beheld, or that I believe I shall ever see again; for the
master was thereby necessitated to part with his servant, who had served
him long, the mistress with her maid, besides an infinite number of poor
people, who only lived by the sweat of their brows; which weeping and
desolation continued for three days together; and these poor wretches
were to go through the Enemy, who still beat them back again towards the
City, the whole camp continuing night and day in arms to that only end;
so that they drove them up to the very foot of the walls, that they
might the sooner consume the little bread we had left, and to see if the
City out of compassion to those miserable creatures would revolt. But
that prevailed nothing, though they lay eight days in this condition,
where they had nothing to eat but herbs and grass, and above the one
half of them perished, for the Enemy killed them, and very few escaped
away. There were a great many maids and handsome women, indeed, who
found means to escape, the Spaniards by night stealing them into their
quarters, for their own provision; but it was unknown to the Marquis,
for it had otherwise been death; and some strong and vigorous men also
forced their way, and escaped by night. But all those did not amount to
the fourth part, and all the rest miserably perished."
Even more horrible is the description given by Scipione Bargagli of the
fate of these hapless victims, inclosed between the walls of their
countrymen and the trenches of the foe, their bodies devoured by the
birds and starving dogs, who frequently returned to the city with the
skulls or bones.[129]
Treachery failed to induce a surrender, but the agony of the city had
become unendurable. When March came, there was not a drop of wine left
in Siena; all the horses but two, all the mules and asses and rats, had
been eaten; it was necessary to make costly sallies in order that the
women and children might pick grass and herbs outside the walls. The
ladies could no longer be recognised by their features. People fell dead
in the streets, and the trenches were brought up to the very gates. But
the imperial army had begun to suffer too, and there was nothing on the
ground for the horses to eat, from Montalcino to Siena and from Siena to
Florence.
An appeal to the Pope failed. Although Julius III. was Sienese on his
mother's side, he coldly recommended an unconditional surrender to the
Caesarian Majesty. Once more the city was solemnly offered up to the
Madonna; there were wild, useless appeals to Venice and the Duke of
Ferrara to interpose. Then, no help being forthcoming from heaven or
earth, the starving Sienese capitulated to the Emperor through the Duke
of Florence, in April 1555. On April 21st the French marched out of the
Porta Romana, Montluc receiving a well-deserved ovation from the enemy.
With them went a number of Florentine exiles and others, "exiles and
rebels to the State of the Emperor, the King of England (who was King
Philip) and the Duke of Florence"; for Montluc had insisted upon a
clause in their favour being inserted into the capitulation, and the
Marchese di Marignano himself had no desire of glutting the Medicean
headsman with more blood. With them went a number of Sienese headed by
Mario Bandini (the last Captain of the People in free Siena), Fabio
Spannocchi, who was one of the Priors, and Giulio Vieri, one of the
three Gonfalonieri. These were about 800 in all, men, women and
children; the old women and some of the children went on carriage mules,
which Marignano had provided at Montluc's request, the rest tramping
wearily on foot. The Spaniards had some pity, and succoured them with
food on the way. "I had seen a sad parting," writes Montluc, "at the
turning out the useless mouths; but I saw as sad a one at the separation
of those who went out with us and those who remained behind. In my life
I never saw so sad a farewell; so that although our soldiers had in
their own persons suffered to the last extremes, yet did they infinitely
regret this woful parting, and that they had not the power to defend the
liberty of these people, and I more than all the rest, who could not
without tears behold this misery and desolation of a people, who had
manifested themselves so devout for the conservation of their liberty
and honour."
Then, suddenly, all the bells of the churches and towers began to ring.
The imperialists--Spaniards, Italians, Germans--marched in by the same
gate. They entered quietly and in an orderly fashion, but made a great
shouting and uproar when they reached the Campo. Surrounded by a
splendidly equipped guard of German halberdiers, the Marchese di
Marignano rode to the Duomo and had the Mass of the Holy Spirit solemnly
sung. But the choristers broke down in sobs and tears, and the
lamentations of the people drowned the music. Vast supplies of
provisions, brought from Florence, appeared in the Campo; white bread
and wine, grain, fresh and salt meat, and eggs. The starving Sienese,
rushing to buy, instantly swept the piazza clear of these provisions,
like the advent of a sudden whirlwind.
For some while the ultimate fate of the once mighty Republic hung in
doubt. Cosimo had conquered as the lieutenant of the Emperor, and the
latter first invested his own son, Philip II. of Spain, with Siena and
its dominion as a vacant fief of the Empire. Philip ruled it for two
years by means of the tyrannical Cardinal of Burgos, who, in defiance of
the articles of the capitulation, began to build a fortress and filled
the prisons with suspected persons. There was even some talk of ceding
the Sienese State to Pope Paul IV., that he might invest his nephews,
the Caraffa, with it. But at length Cosimo de' Medici had his will, and
in July 1557, he obtained from Philip the investiture of Siena, its city
and dominion, to be held as a fief from the King of Spain. But the
Spanish monarch reserved to himself the seaboard of the late
Republic--including Talamone, Orbetello, Port' Ercole and Porto Santo
Stefano--which henceforth, until the eighteenth century, formed what
were known as the Spanish Praesidia.[130]
But Montalcino still held out under French protection. Mario Bandini had
carried off the public seals; and, although he sent these back after he
had copied them, the Sienese in Montalcino, declaring that _ubi cives,
ibi patria_, still represented the old Republic of Siena, coined money,
and for some time kept a large portion of the Sienese State in obedience
to them and France. Mario Bandini died there in 1558; that other hero of
the last days of the Republic, Enea Piccolomini, had died a month before
the capitulation of Siena itself. At length, the treaty of Câteau
Cambresis, which decided the fate of Italy, decided the destinies of
Montalcino as well. The heroic little Republic sent two ambassadors to
Cambresis, Bernardino Buoninsegni and Annibale Buonsignori, pleading
either for liberty or for the rule of France. That failing, they
capitulated in August 1559, to Spain and Cosimo upon honourable terms,
and the Republic of Siena was a thing of the past.
[Illustration: _Remains of a Mural Tower_]
In 1561 Cosimo, Duke of Florence and Siena (he did not become Grand Duke
until 1570), made his triumphant entry into Siena. Henceforth he ruled
the city by means of a lieutenant-general and a Balìa appointed by
himself; the other forms of republican government were preserved, as the
Duke was anxious to attract back to Siena those whom Spanish brutality
had driven away, but with hardly the shadow of any political authority.
The great grand-ducal citadel of Santa Barbara, now that most pleasant
of lounging-places at sunset, tells its own story.
Deprived of liberty and independence, without even the showy
compensation of the presence of a Court, Siena became a kind of
glorified provincial city. The energies of nobles and people alike
manifested themselves in the numerous academies for which the Sienese
were always famous, in the wild sports of the contrade, in the social
and literary gatherings, _veglie_ and _trattenimenti_, which became
proverbial throughout Italy.
For the rest, Siena followed the fortunes of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany,
and shared in the great national awakening of Italy that our own days
have seen.