ITALY:
Ancient.
Early Italians.
"It was not till the close of the Republic, or rather the
beginning of the Empire, that the name of Italy was employed,
as we now employ it, to designate the whole Peninsula, from
the Alps to the Straits of Messina.
See ROME: B. C. 275.
The term Italia, borrowed from the name of a primæval tribe
who occupied the southern portion of the land, was gradually
adopted as a generic title in the same obscure manner in which
most of the countries of Europe, or (we may say) the
Continents of the world, have received their appellations. In
the remotest times the name only included Lower Calabria: from
these narrow limits it gradually spread upwards, till about
the time of the Punic Wars, its northern boundary ascended the
little river Rubicon (between Umbria and Cisalpine Gaul), then
followed the ridge of the Appennines westward to the source of
the Macra, and was carried down the bed of that small stream
to the Gulf of Genoa. When we speak of Italy, therefore, in
the Roman sense of the word, we must dismiss from our thoughts
all that fertile country which was at Rome entitled the
provincial district of Gallia Cisalpina, and Liguria."
H. G. Liddell,
History of Rome,
introduction, section. 2.
"Philological research teaches us to distinguish three
primitive Italian stocks, the Iapygian, the Etruscan, and that
which we shall call the Italian. The last is divided into two
main branches,—the Latin branch, and that to which the
dialects of the Umbri, Marsi, Volsci and Samnites belong. As
to the Iapygian stock, we have but little information.
{1805}
At the southeastern extremity of Italy, in the Messapian or
Calabrian peninsula, inscriptions in a peculiar extinct
language have been found in considerable numbers; undoubtedly
remains of the dialect of the Iapygians, who are very
distinctly pronounced by tradition also to have been different
from the Latin and Samnite stocks. … With the recognition of
… a general family relationship or peculiar affinity between
the Iapygians and Hellenes (a recognition, however, which by
no means goes so far as to warrant our taking the Iapygian
language to be a rude dialect of Greek), investigation must
rest content. … The middle of the peninsula was inhabited,
as far back as reliable tradition reaches, by two peoples or
rather two branches of the same people, whose position in the
Indo-Germanic family admits of being determined with greater
precision than that of the Iapygian nation. We may with
propriety call this people the Italian, since upon it rests
the historical significance of the peninsula. It is divided
into the two branch-stocks of the Latins and the Umbrians; the
latter including their southern off-shoots, the Marsians and
Samnites, and the colonies sent forth by the Samnites in
historical times. … These examples [philological examples,
given in the work, but omitted from this quotation], selected
from a great abundance of analogous phenomena, suffice to
establish the individuality of the Italian stock as
distinguished from the other members of the Indo-Germanic
family, and at the same time show it to be linguistically the
nearest relative, as it is geographically the next neighbour,
of the Greek. The Greek and the Italian are brothers; the
Celt, the German and the Slavonian are their cousins. …
Among the languages of the Italian stock, again, the Latin
stands in marked contrast with the Umbro-Samnite dialects. It
is true that of these only two, the Umbrian and the Samnite or
Oscan, are in some degree known to us. … A conjoint view,
however, of the facts of language and of history leaves no
doubt that all these dialects belonged to the Umbro-Samnite
branch of the great Italian stock. … It may … be regarded
as certain that the Italians, like the Indians, migrated into
their peninsula from the north. The advance of the
Umbro-Sabellian stock along the central mountain-ridge of
Italy, in a direction from north to south, can still be
clearly traced; indeed its last phases belong to purely
historical times. Less is known regarding the route which the
Latin migration followed. Probably it proceeded in a similar
direction along the west coast, long, in all likelihood,
before the first Sabellian stocks began to move."
T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 1, chapters 2-3.
See, also,
ETRUSCANS; LATIUM; SABINES; SAMNITES;
UMBRIANS; MAGNA GRÆCIA;
also, ROME: B. C. 343-290, and 339-338.
"In the February number of the 'Civiltà Cattolica,' Padre de
Cara pleads for a national effort on the part of Italian
archaeologists to solve the question of the origin of their
country's civilisation by the systematic exploration and
excavation of Pelasgic Italy. … In a series of articles,
extending over several years, the learned father has contended
for the identity of the Hittites and Proto-Pelasgians on
archaeological, etymological, and historical grounds; and he
here repeats that, if 'Italic' means Aryan, then it is among
the peoples speaking Oscan, Umbrian, Latin, and other dialects
of the Indo-European family that the parentage of Italian
civilisation must be sought; but that 'Italy' meant in the
first place the country of the Hittites (Hethei), and hence of
the Pelasgians, and that name and civilisation are alike
Pelasgic. Those who hold it to have been Aryan have not only
the testimony of Greek and Roman writers against them, but
also the facts that there were Pelasgians in Italy whose stone
constructions are standing to this day, and that the Etruscan
language and culture had no Aryan affinities. The writer
further points out that the walls of Pelasgic cities, whether
in Italy, Greece, or Asia Minor, all resemble each other, and
that the origin of Greek civilisation was also Pelasgian. In
Greece, as in Italy, the Aryans followed centuries after the
Hittite-Pelasgians, and Aryan Greece carried the arts of
Pelasgic Greece to perfection. He believes that, of two
migratory bands of Hittites, one invaded Greece and the other
Italy, about the same time. He also draws attention to the
coincidence that it is not very long since Greece, like Italy
at the present time, could date its civilisation no further
back than 700 or 800 B. C. Schliemann recovered centuries for
Greece, but 'Italy still remains imprisoned in the iron circle
of the seventh century.' To break it, she must follow
Schliemann's plan; and as he had steady faith in the
excavation of the Pelasgic cities and cemeteries of Greece, so
will like faith and conduct on the part of Italian
archaeologists let in light upon this once dark problem."
Academy,
March 31, 1894, page 273.
ITALY:
Under the dominion of Rome.
See ROME.
ITALY:
Invasions Repelled by Rome.
See ROME: B. C. 390-347, 282-275; PUNIC WARS;
CIMBRI AND TEUTONES; ALEMANNI; and RADAGAISUS.
ITALY: A. D. 400-410.
Alaric's invasions.
See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 400-403;
and ROME: A. D. 408-410.
ITALY: A. D. 452.
Attila's invasion.
The origin of Venice.
See HUNS: A. D. 452; and VENICE: A. D. 452.
ITALY: A. D. 476-553.
The fall of the Western Roman Empire.
The Ostrogothic kingdom of Theodoric, and its fall.
Recovery of Italy by Justinian.
See ROME: A. D. 455-476, to 535-553.
ITALY: A. D. 539-553.
Frank invasions.
See FRANKS: A. D. 539-553.
ITALY: A. D. 554-800.
Rule of the Exarchs of Ravenna.
See ROME: A. D. 554-800;
and PAPACY: A. D. 728-774.
ITALY: A. D. 568-800.
Lombard conquests and kingdom.
Rise of the Papal power at Rome.
Alliance of the Papacy with the sovereigns of the Franks.
Revival of the Roman Empire under Charlemagne.
"Since the invasion of Alboin, Italy had groaned under a
complication of evils. The Lombards who had entered along with
that chief in A. D. 568 [see LOMBARDS: A. D. 568-573, and
after] had settled in considerable numbers in the valley of
the Po, and founded the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento,
leaving the rest of the country to be governed by the exarch
of Ravenna as viceroy of the Eastern crown. This subjection
was, however, little better than nominal. Although too few to
occupy the whole peninsula, the invaders were yet strong
enough to harass every part of it by inroads which met with no
resistance from a population unused to arms, and without the
spirit to use them in self-defence. … Tormented by their
repeated attacks, Rome sought help in vain from Byzantium,
whose forces, scarce able to repel from their walls the Avars
and Saracens, could give no support to the distant exarch of
Ravenna.
{1806}
The Popes were the Emperor's subjects; they it waited his
confirmation, like other bishops; they had more than once been
the victims of his anger. But as the city became more
accustomed in independence, and the Pope rose to a
predominance, real if not yet legal [see ROME: A. D. 590-640,
and PAPACY: A. D. 728-774], his tone grew bolder than that of
the Eastern patriarchs. In the controversies that had raged in
the Church, he had had the wisdom or good fortune to espouse
(though not always from the first) the orthodox side: it was
now by another quarrel of religion that his deliverance from
an unwelcome yoke was accomplished. The Emperor Leo, born
among the Isaurian mountains, where a purer faith may yet have
lingered, and stung by the Mohammedan taunt of idolatry,
determined to abolish the worship of images, which seemed fast
obscuring the more spiritual part of Christianity. An attempt
sufficient to cause tumults among the submissive Greeks,
excited in Italy a fiercer commotion. The populace rose with
one heart in defence of what had become to them more than a
symbol: the exarch was slain: the Pope, though unwilling to
sever himself from the lawful head and protector of the
Church, must yet excommunicate the prince whom he could not
reclaim from so hateful a heresy.
See ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY.
Liudprand, king of the Lombards, improved his opportunity:
falling on the exarchate as the champion of images, on Rome as
the minister of the Greek Emperor, he overran the one, and all
but succeeded in capturing the other. The Pope escaped for the
moment, but saw his peril: placed between a heretic and a
robber, he turned his gaze beyond the Alps, to a Catholic
chief who had just achieved a signal deliverance for
Christendom on the field of Poitiers. Gregory II. had already
opened communications with Charles Martel, mayor of the
palace, and virtual ruler of the Frankish realm. As the crisis
becomes more pressing, Gregory III. finds in the same quarter
his only hope, and appeals to him in urgent letters, to haste
to the succour of Holy Church. … Charles died before he
could obey the call; but his son Pipin (surnamed the Short)
made good use of the new friendship with Rome. He was the
third of his family who had ruled the Franks with a monarch's
full power [see FRANKS: A. D. 511-752]: it seemed time to
abolish the pageant of Merovingian royalty; yet a departure
from the ancient line might shock the feelings of the people.
A course was taken whose dangers no one then foresaw: the Holy
See, now for the first time invoked as an international power,
pronounced the deposition of Childric, and gave to the royal
office of his successor Pipin a sanctity hitherto unknown. …
The compact between the chair of Peter and the Teutonic throne
was hardly sealed, when the latter was summoned to discharge
its share of the duties. Twice did Aistulf the Lombard assail
Rome, twice did Pipin descend to the rescue: the second time
at the bidding of a letter written in the name of St. Peter
himself. Aistulf could make no resistance; and the Frank
bestowed on the Papal chair all that belonged to the exarchate
in North Italy, receiving as the meed of his services the
title of Patrician [754]. … When on Pipin's death the
restless Lombards again took up arms and menaced the
possessions of the Church, Pipin's son Charles or Charlemagne
swept down like a whirlwind from the Alps at the call of Pope
Hadrian, seized king Desiderius in his capital, assumed
himself the Lombard crown, and made northern Italy
thenceforward an integral part of the Frankish empire [see
GERMANY: A. D. 68-800]. … For the next twenty-four years
Italy remained quiet. The government of Rome was carried on in
the name of the Patrician Charles, although it does not appear
that he sent thither any official representative; while at the
same time both the city and the exarchate continued to admit
the nominal supremacy of the Eastern Emperor, employing the
years of his reign to date documents."
J. Bryce,
The Holy Roman Empire,
chapter 4.
"Thus, by German hands, the internal ascendancy of the German
race in Italy, which had lasted, first under the Goths, and
then under the Lombards, for 281 years, was finally broken. A
German was still king over Italy, as for ages Germans were
still to be. But Roman and native influence reconquered its
supremacy in Italy, under the management and leadership of the
bishops of Rome. The Lombards, already becoming Italianized,
melted into provincial Italians. The Teutonic language
disappeared, leaving a number of words to Italian dialects,
and a number of names to Italian families. The last king of
the Lombards bore an Italian name, Desiderius. The latest of
Italian national heroes bears the Bavarian and Lombard name of
Garibaldi. But the overthrow of the Lombards, and the gift of
provinces and cities to St. Peter had even more eventful
results. The alliance between the king of the Franks and the
bishop of Rome had become one of the closest kind. … The
German king and the Italian pope found themselves together at
the head of the modern world of the West. But the fascination
of the name of Rome still, as it had done for centuries, held
sway over the Teutonic mind. … It was not unnatural that the
idea should recommend itself, both to the king and the pope,
of reviving in the West, in close connexion with the Roman
primacy, that great name which still filled the imagination of
the world, and which in Roman judgments, Greek Byzantium had
wrongfully stolen away—the name of Cæsar Augustus, the claim
to govern the world. There was a longing in the West for the
restoration of the name and authority, 'lest,' as the
contemporary writers express it, 'the heathen should mock at
the Christian if the name of Emperor had ceased among them.'
And at this moment, the government at Constantinople was in
the hands of a woman, the Empress Irene. Charles's services to
the pope were recompensed, and his victorious career of more
than thirty years crowned, by the restoration at Rome, in his
person, of the Roman empire and the imperial dignity. The same
authority which had made him 'patrician,' and consecrated him
king, now created him Emperor of the Romans. On Christmas day,
800, when Charles came to pay his devotions before the altar
of St. Peter's, Pope Leo III.—without Charles's knowledge or
wish, so Charles declared to his biographer, Einhard, and, it
may be, prematurely, as regards Charles's own feeling—placed
a golden crown on his head, while all the people shouted, 'to
Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned of God, the great
and peace-giving Emperor of the Romans, life and victory.' …
{1807}
Thus a new power arose in Europe, new in reality and in its
relations to society, though old in name. It was formally but
the carrying on the line of the successors of Augustus and
Constantine. But substantially it was something very
different. Its authors could little foresee its destinies; but
it was to last, in some sort the political centre of the world
which was to be, for 1,000 years. And the Roman Church, which
had done such great things, which had consecrated the new and
mighty kings of the Franks, and had created for the mightiest
of them the imperial claim to universal dominion, rose with
them to a new attitude in the world. … The coronation of
Charles at Rome, in the face of an imperial line at
Constantinople, finally determined, though it did not at once
accomplish, the separation of East and West, of Greek and
Latin Christianity. This separation had long been impending,
perhaps, becoming inevitable. … One Roman empire was still
the only received theory. But one Roman empire, with its seat
in the West, or one Roman empire, governed in partnership by
two emperors of East and West, had become impossible in fact.
The theory of its unity continued for ages; but whether the
true successor of Augustus and Theodosius sat at
Constantinople, or somewhere in the West, remained in dispute,
till the dispute was ended by the extinction of the Eastern
empire by the Turks on May 29, 1453."
R. W. Church,
The Beginning of the Middle Ages,
chapter 7.
See, also, FRANKS: A. D. 768-814.
ITALY: A. D. 685-1014.
The founding of the duchy of Tuscany.
See TUSCANY: A. D. 685-1115.
ITALY: A. D. 781.
Erected into a separate kingdom by Charlemagne.
In the year 781 Charlemagne erected Italy and Aquitaine into
two separate kingdoms, placing his infant sons Pipin and
Ludwig on the thrones.
P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
chapter 16.
ITALY: (Southern): A. D. 800-1016.
Conflict of Greeks, Saracens and Franks.
"The southern provinces [of Italy], which now compose the
kingdom of Naples, were subject, for the most part [in the 8th
and 9th centuries], to the Lombard dukes and princes of
Beneventum—so powerful in war that they checked for a moment
the genius of Charlemagne—so liberal in peace that they
maintained in their capital an academy of thirty-two
philosophers and grammarians. The division of this flourishing
state produced the rival principalities of Benevento, Salerno,
and Capua; and the thoughtless ambition or revenge of the
competitors invited the Saracens to the ruin of their common
inheritance. During a calamitous period of two hundred years,
Italy was exposed to a repetition of wounds which the invaders
were not capable of healing by the union and tranquillity of a
perfect conquest. Their frequent and almost annual squadrons
issued from the port of Palermo and were entertained with too
much indulgence by the Christians of Naples: the more
formidable fleets were prepared on the African coasts. … A
colony of Saracens had been planted at Bari, which commands
the entrance of the Adriatic Gulf; and their impartial
depredations provoked the resentment and conciliated the union
of the two emperors. An offensive alliance was concluded
between Basil the Macedonian [of the Byzantine Empire], the
first of his race, and Lewis, the great grandson of
Charlemagne; and each party Supplied the deficiencies of his
associate. … The fortress of Bari was invested by the
infantry of the Franks and by the cavalry and galleys of the
Greeks; and, after a defence of four years, the Arabian emir
submitted [A. D. 871] to the clemency of Lewis, who commanded
in person the operations of the siege. This important conquest
had been achieved by the concord of the East and West; but
their recent amity was soon embittered by the mutual
complaints of jealousy and pride. … Whoever might deserve
the honour, the Greek emperors, Basil and his son Leo, secured
the advantage of the reduction of Bari. The Italians of Apulia
and Calabria were persuaded or compelled to acknowledge their
supremacy, and an ideal line from Mount Garganus to the Bay of
Salerno leaves the far greater part of the [modern] kingdom of
Naples under the dominion of the Eastern empire. Beyond that
line the dukes or republics of Amalfi and Naples, who had
never forfeited their voluntary allegiance, rejoiced in the
neighbourhood of their lawful sovereign; and Amalfi was
enriched by supplying Europe with the produce and manufactures
of Asia. But the Lombard princes of Benevento, Salerno, and
Capua, were reluctantly torn from the communion of the Latin
world, and too often violated their oaths of servitude and
tribute. The city of Bari rose to dignity and wealth as the
metropolis of the new theme or province of Lombardy; the title
of Patrician, and afterwards the singular name of Catapan, was
assigned to the supreme governor. … As long as the sceptre
was disputed by the princes of Italy, their efforts were
feeble and adverse; and the Greeks resisted or eluded the
forces of Germany which descended from the Alps under the
imperial standard of the Othos. The first and greatest of
those Saxon princes was compelled to relinquish the siege of
Bari: the second, after the loss of his stoutest bishops and
barons, escaped with honour from the bloody field of Crotona
(A. D. 983). On that day the scale of war was turned against
the Franks by the valour of the Saracens. … The Caliph of
Egypt had transported 40,000 Moslems to the aid of his
Christian ally. The successors of Basil amused themselves with
the belief that the conquest of Lombardy had been achieved,
and was still preserved, by the justice of their laws, the
virtues of their ministers, and the gratitude of a people whom
they had rescued from anarchy and oppression. A series of
rebellions might dart a ray of truth into the palace of
Constantinople; and the illusions of flattery were dispelled
by the easy and rapid success of the Norman adventurers."
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 56.
ITALY: A. D. 803-810.
Charlemagne's boundary treaties with the Byzantine Emperor.
Attempts of Pipin against the Venetians.
The founding of Modern Venice.
See VENICE: A. D. 697-810.
ITALY: A. D. 810-961.
Spread of Venetian commerce and naval prowess.
See VENICE: A. D. 810-961.
{1808}
ITALY: A. D. 843-951.
In the breaking up of Charlemagne's Empire.
The founding of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the partition of Charlemagne's Empire among his three
grandsons, by the treaty of Verdun, A. D. 843, Italy, together
with the new kingdom called Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was
assigned to the elder, Lothar, who bore the title of Emperor.
Lothar, who died in 855, redivided his dominions among three
sons, and Lorraine, separated from Italy, was soon dismembered
and shared between Germany and France. The Italian kingdom
fell to Louis or Ludwig II., who was crowned Emperor, and on
his death without issue, A. D. 875, it was seized, together
with the imperial title, by the French Carlovingian king,
Charles the Bald. Two years afterwards he died, and Italy,
together with the imperial crown, was acquired by the last
legitimate survivor of the German Carlovingian line, Charles
the Fat, who died in 888. "At that memorable era (A. D. 888)
the four kingdoms which this prince [Charles the Fat] had
united fell asunder: West France, where Odo or Eudes [Duke of
Paris, ancestor of the royal line of Capet] then began to
reign, was never again united to Germany; East France
(Germany) chose Arnulf; Burgundy split up into two
principalities, in one of which (Transjurane) Rudolf
proclaimed himself king, while the other (Cisjurune with
Provence) submitted to Boso; while Italy was divided between
the parties of Berengar of Friuli and Guido of Spoleto. The
former was chosen king by the estates of Lombardy; the latter,
and on his speedy death his son Lambert, was crowned Emperor
by the Pope. Arnulf's [the German king's] descent chased them
away and vindicated the claims of the Franks, but on his
flight Italy and the anti-German faction at Rome became again
free. Berengar was made king of Italy, and afterwards Emperor.
Lewis of Burgundy, son of Boso, renounced his fealty to
Arnulf, and procured the imperial dignity, whose vain title he
retained through years of misery and exile, till A. D. 928.
None of these Emperors were strong enough to rule well even in
Italy; beyond it they were not so much as recognized. … In
A. D. 924 died Berengar, the last of these phantom Emperors.
After him Hugh of Burgundy and Lothar his son reigned as kings
of Italy, if puppets in the hands of a riotous aristocracy can
be so called. Rome was meanwhile ruled by the consul or
senator Alberic [called variously senator, consul, patrician,
and prince of the Romans], who had renewed her never quite
extinct republican institutions, and in the degradation of the
papacy was almost absolute in the city." Affairs in Italy were
at this stage when Otto or Otho, the vigorous and chivalrous
German king of the new line, came in 951 to re-establish and
reconstitute the Roman Empire of Charlemagne and to make it a
lasting entity in European politics—the "Holy Roman Empire"
of modern history.
J. Bryce,
The Holy Roman Empire,
chapter 6.
See GERMANY: A. D. 936-973.
ALSO IN:
F. Guizot,
History of Civilization,
lecture 24.
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 49.
See, also,
ROME: A. D. 903-964;
and ROMAN EMPIRE, THE HOLY: A. D. 963.
ITALY: A. D. 900-924.
Ravaged by the Hungarians.
"The vicinity of Italy had tempted their early inroads; but
from their camp on the Brenta they beheld with some terror the
apparent strength and populousness of the new-discovered
country. They requested leave to retire; their request was
proudly rejected by the Italian king; and the lives of 20,000
Christians paid the forfeit of his obstinacy and rashness.
Among the cities of the West the royal Pavia was conspicuous
in fame and splendour; and the pre-eminence of Rome itself was
only derived from the relies of the apostles. The Hungarians
appeared; Pavia was in flames; forty-three churches were
consumed; and, after the massacre of the people, they spared
about 200 wretches who had gathered some bushels of gold and
silver (a vague exaggeration) from the smoking ruins of their
country. In these annual excursions from the Alps to the
neighbourhood of Rome and Capua, the churches that yet escaped
resounded with a fearful litany: 'Oh! save and deliver us from
the arrows of the Hungarians!' But the saints were deaf or
inexorable; and the torrent rolled forward, till it was
stopped by the extreme land of Calabria."
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 55.
ITALY: A. D. 961-1039.
Subjection to Germany.
"Otho I., his son Otho II., and his grandson Otho III., were
successively acknowledged emperors and kings of Italy, from
961 to 1002. When this branch of the house of Saxony became
extinct, Henry II. of Bavaria, and Conrad the Salic of
Franconia, filled the throne from 1004 to 1039. During this
period of nearly eighty years, the German emperors twelve
times entered Italy at the head of their armies, which they
always drew up in the plains of Roncaglia near Placentia;
there they held the states of Lombardy, received homage from
their Italian feudatories, caused the rents due to be paid,
and promulgated laws for the government of Italy. A foreign
sovereign, however, almost always absent, known only by his
incursions at the head of a barbarous army, could not
efficaciously govern a country which he hardly knew, and where
his yoke was detested. … The emperors were too happy to
acknowledge the local authorities, whatever they were,
whenever they could obtain from them their pecuniary dues:
sometimes they were dukes or marquises, whose dignities had
survived the disasters of various invasions and of civil wars;
sometimes the archbishops and bishops of great cities, whom
Charlemagne and his successors had frequently invested with
duchies and counties escheated to the crown, reckoning that
lords elected for life would remain more dependent than
hereditary lords; sometimes, finally, they were the
magistrates themselves, who, although elected by the people,
received from the monarch the title of imperial vicars, and
took part with the nobles and prelates in the Plaids
(placita), or diets of Roncaglia. After a stay of some months,
the emperor returned with his army into Germany; the nobles
retired to their castles, the prelates and magistrates to
their cities: neither of these last acknowledged a superior
authority to their own, nor reckoned on any other force than
what they could themselves employ to assert what they called
their rights. Opposite interests could not fail to produce
collision, and the war was universal."
J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapter 1.
{1809}
During the reign of Henry II. (A. D. 1002-1024), against whom
a rival king of Italy was set up by the Italians, "there was
hardly any recognised government, and the Lombards became more
and more accustomed, through necessity, to protect themselves,
and to provide for their own internal police. Meanwhile the
German nation had become odious to the Italians. The rude
soldiery, insolent and addicted to intoxication, were engaged
in frequent disputes with the citizens, wherein the latter, as
is usual in similar cases, were exposed first to the summary
vengeance of the troops, and afterwards to penal chastisement
for sedition. In one of these tumults, at the entry of Henry
II. in 1004, the city of Pavia was burned to the ground, which
inspired its inhabitants with a constant animosity against
that emperor. Upon his death, in 1024, the Italians were
disposed to break once more their connexion with Germany,
which had elected as sovereign Conrad duke of Franconia. They
offered their crown to Robert king of France and to William
duke of Guienne." But neither of these princes would accept
the troublesome diadem; and, in the end, the archbishop of
Milan and other Lombard lords "repaired to Constance and
tendered the crown to Conrad, which he was already disposed to
claim as a sort of dependency upon Germany. It does not appear
that either Conrad or his successors were ever regularly
elected to reign over Italy; but whether this ceremony took
place or not, we may certainly date from that time the
subjection of Italy to the Germanic body. It became an
unquestionable maxim, that the votes of a few German princes
conferred a right to the sovereignty of a country which had
never been conquered, and which had never formally recognised
this superiority."
H. Hallam,
The Middle Ages,
chapter 3, part 1 (volume 1).
"The Italian Kingdom of the Karlings, the kingdom which was
reunited to Germany under Otto the Great, was … a
continuation of the old Lombard kingdom. It consisted of that
kingdom, enlarged by the Italian lands which fell off from the
Eastern Empire in the eighth century; that is by the Exarchate
and the adjoining Pentapolis, and the immediate territory of
Rome itself."
E. A. Freeman,
Historical Geography of Europe,
chapter 8, section 3.
ITALY: (Southern): A. D. 1000-1090.
Conquests and settlement of the Normans.
"A pilgrimage first took the Normans to Southern Italy, where
they were to found a kingdom. Here there were, if I may so
speak, three wrecks, three ruins of nations—Lombards in the
mountains, Greeks in the ports, Sicilian and African Saracens
rambling over the coasts. About the year 1000, some Norman
pilgrims assist the inhabitants of Salerno to drive out a
party of Arabs, who were holding them to ransom. Being well
paid for the service, these Normans attract others of their
countrymen hither. A Greek of Bari, named Melo or Meles, takes
them into pay to free his city from the Greeks of Byzantium.
Next they are settled by the Greek republic of Naples at the
fort of Aversa, which lay between that city and her enemies,
the Lombards of Capua (A. D. 1026). Finally, the sons of a
poor gentleman of the Cotentin, Tancred of Hauteville, seek
their fortune here. Tancred had twelve children; seven by the
same mother. It was during William's [the Conqueror's]
minority, when numbers of the barons endeavoured to withdraw
themselves from the Bastard's yoke, that these sons of
Tancred's directed their steps towards Italy, where it was
said that a simple Norman knight had become count of Aversa.
They set off penniless, and defrayed the expenses of their
journey by the sword (A. D. 1037?). The Byzantine governor, or
Katapan, engaged their services, and led them against the
Arabs. But their countrymen beginning to flock to them, they
no sooner saw themselves strong enough than they turned
against their paymasters, seized Apulia [A. D. 1042], and
divided it into twelve countships. This republic of
Condottieri held its assemblies at Melphi. The Greeks
endeavoured to defend themselves, but fruitlessly. They
collected an army of 60,000 Italians; to be routed by the
Normans, who amounted to several hundreds of well-armed men.
The Byzantines then summoned their enemies, the Germans, to
their aid; and the two empires, of the East and West,
confederated against the sons of the gentleman of Coutances.
The all-powerful emperor, Henry the Black (Henry III.),
charged Leo IX., who had been nominated pope by him, and who
was a German and kin to the imperial family, to exterminate
these brigands. The pope led some Germans and a swarm of
Italians against them [1053]; but the latter took to flight at
the very beginning of the battle, and left the warlike pontiff
in the hands of the enemy. Too wary to ill-treat him, the
Normans piously cast themselves at their prisoner's feet, and
compelled him to grant them, as a fief of the Church, all that
they had taken or might take possession of in Apulia,
Calabria, and on the other side of the strait; so that, in
spite of himself, the pope became the suzerain of the kingdom
of the Two Sicilies (A. D. 1052-1053)."
J. Michelet,
History of France,
book 4, chapter 2.
The two elder of the sons of Tancred were now dead, and the
third son, Humphrey, died not long after. A fourth brother,
Robert, surnamed Guiscard, who had lately arrived from
Normandy with reinforcements, then established himself (A. D.
1057) with some difficulty in the leadership and succession.
"He accomplished the reduction of almost all the country which
composes the present kingdom of Naples, and, extinguishing the
long dominion of the Beneventine Lombards and of the eastern
empire in Italy [see BENEVENTUM, and AMALFI], finally received
from Pope Nicholas II. the confirmation of the titles which he
had assumed, of duke of Calabria and Apulia [A. D. 1080]. …
While Robert Guiscard was perfecting his dominion on the
continent, his younger brother Roger engaged in the
astonishing design of conquering the large and beautiful
island of Sicily from the Saracens with a few Norman
volunteers. An air of romantic extravagance breathes over all
the enterprises of the Normans in Italy; and, even if we
discard the incredible tales which the legends and chronicles
of the times have preserved of the valour and corporeal
strength of these northern warriors, enough will remain in the
authentic results of their expeditions to stagger the reason
and warm the imagination with attractive visions of chivalrous
achievement. … We are assured that 300 Christian knights
were the greatest number which Roger could for many years
bring into the field; and that 136 routed a prodigious host of
Saracens at the battle of Ceramio. … But the Saracens were
embroiled in internal discord, and their island was broken up
into numerous petty states; we may, therefore, attribute to
their dissensions a great part of the success which the
chroniclers of the Normans have assigned to their good swords
alone. Roger had, however, embarked in an arduous and
laborious undertaking, which it required the unbending
perseverance and patient valour of thirty years [A. D.
1060-1090] to accomplish. … At length, all Sicily bowed to
his sway; Norman barons were infeuded over its surface; and
Roger, with the title of great count, held the island as a
fief of his brother's duchy."
G. Proctor,
History of Italy,
chapter 2, part 2.
ALSO IN:
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 56.
J. W. Barlow,
Short History of the Normans in South Europe,
chapters 1-7.
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ITALY: A. D. 1056-1122.
Beginning of the conflict of the Popes with the Emperors.
Hildebrand and Henry IV.
The War of Investitures.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1056-1122;
and GERMANY: A. D. 973-1122.
ITALY: A. D. 1056-1152.
The rise of the republican cities.
"The war of investitures, which lasted more than sixty years,
accomplished the dissolution of every tie between the
different members of the kingdom of Italy. Civil wars have at
least this advantage,—that they force the rulers of the
people to consult the wishes of their subjects, oblige them to
gain affections which constitute their strength, and to
compensate, by the granting of new privileges, the services
which they require. The prelates, nobles, and cities of Italy
obeyed, some the emperor, others the pope; not from a blind
fear, but from choice, from affection, from conscience,
according as the political or religious sentiment was
predominant in each. The war was general, but everywhere waged
with the national forces. Every city armed its militia, which,
headed by the magistrates, attacked the neighbouring nobles or
towns of a contrary party. While each city imagined it was
fighting either for the pope or the emperor, it was habitually
impelled exclusively by its own sentiments: every town
considered itself as a whole, as an independent state, which
had its own allies and enemies; each citizen felt an ardent
patriotism, not for the kingdom of Italy, or for the empire,
but for his own city. At the period when either kings or
emperors had granted to towns the right of raising
fortifications, that of assembling the citizens at the sound
of a great bell, to concert together the means of their common
defence, had been also conceded. This meeting of all the men
of the state capable of bearing arms was called a parliament.
It assembled in the great square, and elected annually two
consuls, charged with the administration of justice at home,
and the command of the army abroad. … The parliament, which
named the consuls, appointed also a secret council, called a
Consilio di Credenza, to assist the government, composed of a
few members taken from each division; besides a grand council
of the people, who prepared the decisions to be submitted to
the parliament. … As industry had rapidly increased, and had
preceded luxury,—as domestic life was sober, and the produce
of labour considerable,—wealth had greatly augmented. The
citizens allowed themselves no other use of their riches than
that of defending or embellishing their country. It was from
the year 900 to the year 1200 that the most prodigious works
were undertaken and accomplished by the towns of Italy. …
These three regenerating centuries gave an impulse to
architecture, which soon awakened the other fine arts. The
republican spirit which now fermented in every city, and gave
to each of them constitutions so wise, magistrates so zealous,
and citizens so patriotic, and so capable of great
achievements, had found in Italy itself the models which had
contributed to its formation. The war of investitures had
given wing to this universal spirit of liberty and patriotism
in all the municipalities of Lombardy, in Piedmont, Venetia,
Romagna, and Tuscany. But there existed already in Italy other
free cities. … Venice, … Ravenna, … Genoa, … Pisa, …
Rome, Gaëta, Naples, Amalfi, Bari, were either never conquered
by the Lombards, or in subjection too short a time to have
lost their ancient walls, and the habit of guarding them.
These cities served as the refuge of Roman civilization. …
Those cities which had accumulated the most wealth, whose
walls inclosed the greatest population, attempted, from the
first half of the twelfth century, to secure by force of arms
the obedience of such of the neighbouring towns as did not
appear sufficiently strong to resist them, … to force them
in to a perpetual alliance, so as to share their good or evil
fortune, and always place their armed force under the standard
of the dominant city. … Two great towns in the plains of
Lombardy surpassed every other in power and wealth: Milan,
which habitually directed the party of the church; and Pavia,
which directed that of the empire. Both towns, however, seem
to have changed parties during the reigns of Lothario III. and
Conrad II., who, from the year 1125 to 1152 placed in
opposition the two houses of Guelphs and Ghibelines in
Germany. … Among the towns of Piedmont, Turin took the lead,
and disputed the authority of the counts of Savoy, who called
themselves imperial vicars in that country. … The family of
the Veronese marquises, … who from the time of the Lombard
kings had to defend the frontier against the Germans, were
extinct; and the great cities of Verona, Padua, Vicenza,
Treviso, and Mantua, nearly equal in power, maintained their
independence. Bologna held the first rank among the towns
south of the Po. … Tuscany, which had also had its powerful
marquises, saw their family become extinct with the countess
Matilda, the contemporary and friend of Gregory VII. Florence
had since risen in power, destroyed Fiesole, and … was
considered the head of the Tuscan league; and the more so that
Pisa at this period thought only of her maritime expeditions.
… Such was the state of Italy, when the Germanic diet,
assembled at Frankfort in 1152, conferred the crown on
Frederick Barbarossa, duke of Swabia, and of the house of
Hohenstaufen."
J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapters 1-2.
ALSO IN:
E. A. Freeman,
Historical Geography of Europe,
chapter 8, section 3.
W. K. Williams,
The Communes of Lombardy
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, 9th series, 5-6).
H. Hallam,
The Middle Ages,
chapter 3, part 1 (volume 1).
Europe during the Middle Ages
(Lardner's Cabinet Cyclop.,
volume 1, chapter 1).
See, also,
FLORENCE: 12TH CENTURY.
ITALY: A. D. 1063.
Birth of Pisan architecture.
See PISA: A. D. 1063-1293.
ITALY: A. D. 1077-1102.
Countess Matilda's donation to the Holy See.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1077-1102.
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ITALY: (Southern): A. D. 1081-1194.
Robert Guiscard's invasions of the Eastern Empire.
Union of Sicily with Apulia, and creation of the Kingdom of
the Two Sicilies, or Naples.
"The success of his brother [Roger, in Sicily—see above:
A. D. 1000-1090] furnished another spur to the ambition of
Robert Guiscard. Taking advantage of a dynastic revolution at
Constantinople, he and his son Bohemund commenced a series of
invasions of the Eastern Empire [see BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D.
1081-1085] which only ended with his death. These, though
unsuccessful in their ultimate result, were influential causes
of the first crusade, and deeply affected the relations of East
and West for years to come. Meanwhile in Sicily Roger had been
succeeded by his son [Roger II.], and, in 1127, this heir of
the destinies of his race added the dukedom of Apulia to that
of Sicily, obtained from Pope Anacletus the title of king, and
finally established the Norman kingdom of Naples [also called
the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]. His character is thus
described by a contemporary chronicler: 'He was a lover of
justice and most severe avenger of crime. He abhorred lying;
did everything by rule, and never promised what he did not
mean to perform. He never persecuted his private enemies; and
in war endeavoured on all occasions to gain his point without
shedding of blood. Justice and peace were universally observed
throughout his dominions.' During his reign the intercourse
between England and Sicily was close. The government was
organized on principles very similar to that of England. …
Under his wise rule and that of his immediate successors, the
south of Italy and Sicily enjoyed a transient gleam of
prosperity and happiness. Their equal and tolerant government,
far surpassing anything at that day in Europe, enabled the
Saracen, the Greek, and the Italian to live together in
harmony elsewhere unknown. Trade and industry flourished, the
manufacture of silk enriched the inhabitants, and the kingdom
of Naples was at peace until she was crushed under the iron
heel of a Teutonic conqueror."
A. H. Johnson,
The Normans in Europe,
chapter 6.
ALSO IN:
E. A. Freeman,
The Normans at Palermo
(Historical Essays, 3d series).
J. W. Barlow,
Short History of the Normans in South Europe,
chapters 8-11.
ITALY: A. D. 1096-1102.
The First Crusades.
See CRUSADES: A. D. 1096-1099; and 1101-1102.
ITALY: A. D. 1138.
The accession of the Hohenstaufens to the Imperial throne, and
the origin, in Germany, of the Guelf and Ghibelline factions.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1138-1268.
ITALY: A. D. 1154-1162.
The first and second expeditions of Frederick Barbarossa.
Frederick I., the second of the emperors of the Hohenstaufen
line, called by the Italians Frederick Barbarossa (Red beard),
was elected king at Frankfort in March, 1152. In October,
1154, he crossed the Alps and entered Italy with a strong
German army, having two purposes in view:
1. To receive the imperial crown, from the hands of the Pope,
and to place on his own head, at Pavia, the iron crown of
Lombardy or Italy.
2. To reduce to order and submission the rising city-republics
of Lombardy and Tuscany, which had been growing rapidly in
independence and power during the last four troubled imperial
reigns.
At Roncaglia, he held the diet of the kingdom, and listened to
many complaints, especially against Milan, which had undoubtedly
oppressed the weaker towns of its neighbourhood and abused its
strength. Then he moved through the country, making a personal
inspection of affairs, and giving a taste of his temper by
burning the villages which failed to supply provisions to his
troops with satisfactory promptitude. At Tortona he ordered
the inhabitants to renounce their alliance with the Milanese.
They refused, and endured in the upper portion of the city a
siege of two months. Forced by want of water to surrender, at
last, they were permitted to go free, but their town was
sacked and burned. Asti, Chieri, Rosate, and other places of
more or less importance, were destroyed. Frederick did not
venture yet to attack Milan, but proceeded to Rome, demanding
the imperial crown. The pope (Adrian IV.) and the Romans were
alike distrustful of him, and he was not permitted to bring
his army into the city. After no little wrangling over
ceremonious details, and after being compelled to lead the
horse and to hold the stirrup of the haughty pontiff,
Barbarossa was finally crowned at St. Peter's, in the Vatican
suburb. The Romans attempted to interrupt the coronation, and
a terrible tumult occurred in which a thousand of the citizens
were slain. But the Germans made no attempt to take possession
of the city. On the contrary, they withdrew with haste, and
the emperor led his army back to Germany, burning Spoleto on
the way, because it failed in submissiveness, and marking a
wide track of ruin and desolation through Italy as he went.
This was in the summer of 1155. Three years passed, during
which the Italian cities grew more determined in their
independence, the emperor and his German subjects more bitter
in hostility to them, and the pope and the emperor more
antagonistic in their ambitions. In 1158 Frederick led a
second expedition into Italy, especially determined to make an
end of the contumacy of Milan. He began operations by creating
a desert of blackened country around the offending city, being
resolved to reduce it by famine. Mediators, however, appeared,
who brought about a treaty of pacification, which interrupted
hostilities for a few weeks. Then the Milanese found occasion
to accuse the emperor of a treacherous violation of the terms
of the treaty and again took up arms. The war was now to the
death. But, before settling to the siege of Milan, Frederick
gave himself the pleasure, first, of reducing the lesser city
of Crema, which continued to be faithful among the allies of
the Milanese. He held some children of the town in his hands,
as hostages, and he bound them to the towers which he moved
against the walls, compelling the wretched citizens to kill
their own offspring in the act of their self-defense. By such
atrocities as this, Crema was taken, at the end of seven
months, and destroyed. Then Milan was assailed and
beleaguered, harassed and blockaded, until, at the beginning
of March, 1162, the starved inhabitants gave up their town.
Frederick ordered the doomed city "to be completely evacuated,
so that there should not be left in it a single living being.
On the 25th of March, he summoned the militias of the rival
and Ghibeline cities, and gave them orders to rase to the
earth the houses as well as the walls of the town, so as not
to leave one stone upon another. Those of the inhabitants of
Milan whom their poverty, labour and industry attached to the
soil, were divided into four open villages, built at a
distance of at least two miles from the walls of their former
city. Others sought hospitality in the neighbouring towns of
Italy. …
{1812}
Their sufferings, the extent of their sacrifices, the
recollection of their valour, and the example of their noble
sentiments, made proselytes to the cause of liberty in every
city into which they were received." Meantime Frederick
Barbarossa returned to Germany, with his fame as a puissant
monarch much augmented.
J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapter 2.
ALSO IN:
U. Balzani,
The Popes and the Hohenstaufen,
chapters 3-5.
G. B. Testa,
History of the War of Frederick I.
against the Communes of Lombardy,
books 1-6.
E. A. Freeman,
Frederick the First, King of Italy
(Historical Essays, 1st series).
ITALY: A. D. 1163-1164.
Third visitation of Frederick Barbarossa.
The rival Popes.
Frederick Barbarossa entered Italy for the third time in 1163,
without an army, but imposingly escorted by his German nobles.
He imagined that the country had been terrorized sufficiently
by the savage measures of his previous visitation to need no
more military repression. But he found the Lombard cities
undismayed in the assertion of their rights, and drawing
together in unions which had never been possible among them
before. The hostility of his relations with the Papacy and
with the greater part of the Church gave encouragement to
political revolt. His quarrel with Pope Hadrian had been ended
by the death of the latter, in 1159, but only to give rise to
new and more disturbing contentions. It had grown so bitter
before Hadrian died that the Pope had allied himself by treaty
with Milan, Crema, and other cities resisting Frederick, and
had promised to excommunicate the emperor within forty days.
Sudden death frustrated the combination. At the election of
Hadrian's successor there was a struggle of factions, each
determined to put its representative in the papal chair, and
each claiming success. Two rival popes were proclaimed and
consecrated, one under the name of Alexander III., the other
as Victor IV. Frederick recognized the latter, who made
himself the emperor's creature. The greater part of
Christendom soon gave its recognition to the former, although
he had been driven to take refuge in France. Pope Alexander
excommunicated Frederick and Frederick's pope, and Pope Victor
retorted like anathemas. Whether the curses of Alexander were
more effectual, or for other reasons, the authority of Victor
dwindled, and he himself presently died (April 1164), while
Frederick was making his third inspection of affairs in Italy.
The emperor found it impossible to execute his unbending will
without an army. Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso held a
congress and openly associated themselves for common defense.
Frederick attempted to make use of the militia forces of
Pavia, Cremona, and other Ghibelline towns against them; but
he found even these citizen-soldiers so mutinous with
disaffection that he dared not pursue the undertaking. He
returned to Germany for an army more in sympathy with his
obstinate designs against Italian liberty.
U. Balzani,
The Popes and the Hohenstaufen,
chapters 4-5.
ALSO IN:
H. H. Milman,
History of Latin Christianity,
book 8, chapters 7-8.
G. B. Testa,
History of the War of Frederick I. against
the Communes of Lombardy,
book 7.
ITALY: A. D. 1166-1167.
The fourth expedition of Frederick Barbarossa.
The League of Lombardy.
"When Frederick, in the month of October, 1166, descended the
mountains of the Grisons to enter Italy [for the fourth time]
by the territory of Brescia, he marched his army directly to
Lodi, without permitting any act of hostility on the way. At