W. C. Hazlitt,
History of the Venetian Republic,
chapter 21 (volume 3).
A. M. F. Robinson,
The End of the Middle Ages,
pages 340-367.
ITALY: A. D. 1409.
The Council of Pisa.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1377-1417.
ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447.
Renewed civil war in Naples.
Defeat of the Angevins by Alfonso of Aragon and Sicily.
Reconquest of Lombardy by Filippo Maria Visconti, and his
wars with Florence, Venice and Naples.
On the death of Ladislaus, king of Naples (1414), "his sister,
Joan II., widow of the son of the duke of Austria, succeeded
him. She was 40 years of age; and, like her brother, abandoned
to the most unrestrained libertinism. She left the government
of her kingdom to her lovers, who disputed power by arms: they
called into her service, or into that of her second husband,
or of the rival princes whom she in turn adopted, the two
armies of Sforza and Braccio [the two great mercenary captains
of that time]. The consequence was the ruin of the kingdom of
Naples, which ceased to menace the rest of Italy. The moment
Ladislaus disappeared, a new enemy arose to disturb the
Florentines—Filippo Maria Visconti [duke of Milan, second son
of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and successor to his elder brother
Gian Maria, on the assassination of the latter, in 1412]. …
Filippo … married the widow of Facino Cane, the powerful
condottiere who had retained Gian Maria in 'his dependence,
and who died the same day that Gian Maria was assassinated. By
this sudden marriage he secured the army of Facino Cane,—
which was, in fact, master of the greater part of the
Milanese: with its aid he undertook, without delay, to recover
the rest of his states from the hands of those tyrants who had
divided amongst them the dominions of his father. … During
the first year of his reign, which was to decide his existence
as prince or subject, he fought with determined courage; but
from that time, though he continually made war, he never
showed himself to his armies. … In the battle of Monza, by
which he acquired his brother's inheritance, and the only
battle in which he was ever present, he remarked the brilliant
courage of Francesco Carmagnola, a Piedmontese soldier of
fortune, and immediately gave him a command. Carmagnola soon
justified the duke's choice by the most distinguished talents
for war, the most brilliant victories, and the most noble
character. Francesco Carmagnola was, after a few years, placed
at the head of the duke's armies; and, from the year 1412 to
that of 1422, successively attacked all the tyrants who had
divided the heritage of Gian Galeazzo, and brought those small
states again under the dominion of the duke of Milan. Even the
republic of Genoa submitted to him, in 1421, on the same
conditions as those on which it had before submitted to the
king of France,—reserving all its liberties; and granting the
duke's lieutenant, who was Carmagnola himself, only those
prerogatives which the constitution yielded to the doge. As
soon as Filippo Maria had accomplished the conquest of
Lombardy, he resumed the projects of his father against
Romagna and Tuscany. He … renewed his intrigues against the
republic of Florence, and combined them with those which he at
the same time carried on in the kingdom of Naples. Joan, who
had sent back to France her second husband, Jaques, count de
la Marche, and who had no children, was persuaded, in 1420, by
one of her lovers, to adopt Alphonso the Magnanimous, king of
Aragon and Sicily, to whom she intrusted some of the
fortresses of Naples. She revoked this adoption in 1423; and
substituted in his place Louis III. of Anjou, son of Louis II.
The former put himself at the head of the ancient party of
Durazzo; the latter, of that of Anjou.
{1829}
The consequence was a civil war, in which the two great
captains, Sforza and Braccio, were opposed to each other, and
acquired new titles to glory. The duke of Milan made alliance
with Joan II. and Louis III. of Anjou: Sforza, named great
constable of the kingdom, was their general. The Florentines
remained constant to Braccio, whom Alphonso had made governor
of the Abruzzi; and who had seized, at the same time, the
signoria of Perugia, his native city. … But Sforza and
Braccio both perished, as Italy awaited with anxiety the
result of the struggle about to be commenced. Sforza was
drowned at the passage of the Pescara, on the 4th of January,
1424; Braccio was mortally wounded at the battle of Aquila, on
the 2d of June of the same year. Francesco, son of the former,
succeeded to his father's name and the command of his army,
both of which he was destined to render still more
illustrious. The son of Braccio, on the contrary, lost the
sovereignty of Perugia, which resumed its freedom on the 29th
of July of the same year; and the remnant of the army formed
by this great captain elected for his chief his most able
lieutenant, Nicolo Piccinino. This was the moment which
Filippo Maria chose to push on his army to Romagna, and
vigorously attack the Florentines. … The Florentines, having
no tried general at the heart of their troops, experienced,
from the 6th of September, 1423, to the 17th of October, 1425,
no less than six successive defeats, either in Liguria or
Romagna [at Forli, 1423, Zagonara, 1424, Lamone, Rapallo,
Anghiari and Faggiola, 1425]. Undismayed by defeat, they
reassembled their army for the seventh time: the patriotism of
their rich merchants made up for the penury of their exhausted
treasury. They, at the same time, sent their most
distinguished statesmen as ambassadors to Venice, to represent
to that republic that, if it did not join them while they
still stood, the liberty of Italy was lost forever. … An
illustrious fugitive, Francesco Carmagnola, who arrived about
this time at Venice, accomplished what Florence had nearly
failed in, by discovering to the Venetians the project of the
duke of Milan to subjugate them." Carmagnola had been
disgraced and discharged from employment by Filippo Maria,
whose jealousy was alarmed by his great reputation, and he now
took service against his late patron. "A league, formed
between Florence and Venice, was successively joined by the
marquis of Ferrara, the lord of Mantua, the Siennese, the duke
Amadeus VIII. of Savoy, and the king Alphonso of Naples, who
jointly declared war against Filippo Maria Visconti, on the
27th of January, 1426. … The good fortune of Carmagnola in
war still attended him in the campaign of 1426. He was as
successful against the duke of Milan as he had been for him:
he took from him the city and whole province of Brescia. The
duke ceded this conquest to the Venetians by treaty on the
30th of December; but he employed the winter in assembling his
forces; and in the beginning of spring renewed the war." An
indecisive engagement occurred at Casalsecco, July 12, 1427,
and on the 11th of October following, in a marsh near Macalo,
Carmagnola completely defeated the Milanese army commanded by
Carlo Malatesta. A new peace was signed on the 18th of April,
1428; but war recommenced in the latter part of 1430. Fortune
now abandoned Carmagnola. He suffered a surprise and defeat at
Soncino, May 17, 1431, and the suspicious senate of Venice
caused him to be arrested, tortured and put to death. "During
the remainder of the reign of Filippo Maria he was habitually
at war with the two republics of Venice and Florence. He …
almost always lost ground by his distrust of his own generals,
his versatility, his taste for contradictory intrigues, his
eagerness to sign peace every year, and to recommence
hostilities a few weeks afterwards." In 1441, on making peace
with the two republics, he granted his daughter Bianca in
marriage to their general, Francesco Sforza, with two
lordships for her dowry. But he was soon intriguing against
his son-in-law, soon at war again with Florence and Venice,
and Sforza was again in the service of the latter. But in 1447
he made offers of reconciliation which were accepted, and
Sforza was on his way to Milan when news came to him of the
death of the duke, which occurred August 13. "The war of
Lombardy was complicated by its connexion with another war
which at the same time ravaged the kingdom of Naples. The
queen, Joan II., had died there, on the 2d of February, 1435;
three months after the death of her adopted son, Louis III. of
Anjou: by her will she had substituted for that prince his
brother René, duke of Lorraine. But Alphonso, king of Aragon
and Sicily, whom she had primarily adopted, … claimed the
succession, on the ground of this first adoption, as well as
of the ancient rights of Manfred, to whom he had succeeded in
the female line. The kingdom of Naples was divided between the
parties of Aragon and Anjou. The Genoese, who had voluntarily
ranged themselves under the protection of the duke of Milan,
offered their assistance to the duke of Anjou. … On the 5th
of August, 1435, their fleet met that of Alphonso, before the
island of Ponza. They defeated it in a great battle, in which
Alphonso had been made prisoner." Delivered to the duke of
Milan, Alphonso soon convinced the latter that his alliance
with the French interest at Naples was a mistake and a danger
to him, and was set at liberty, with promises of aid. The
Genoese were indignant at this and drove the Milanese garrison
from their city, in December, 1435, recovering their freedom.
"Alphonso, seconded by the duke of Milan, recommenced the war
against René of Anjou with greater advantage. On the 2d of
June, 1442, he took from him the city of Naples; from that
time peace was re-established in that kingdom, and Alphonso
… established himself amidst a people which he had
conquered, but whose hearts he gained; and returned no more
either to Sicily or Aragon. He died at Naples, on the 27th of
June, 1458."
J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapters 9-10.
ALSO IN:
W. P. Urquhart,
Life and Times of Francesco Sforza,
books 3-4 (volume 1).
Mrs. Jameson,
Memoirs of Celebrated Female Sovereigns,
volume 1, chapter 5.
M. A. Hookham,
Life and Times of Margaret of Anjou,
volume 1, introduction and chapter 1.
ITALY: A. D. 1433-1464.
The ascendancy of Cosimo de' Medici at Florence.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1433-1464.
{1830}
ITALY: A. D. 1447-1454.
End of the Visconti in the duchy of Milan.
Disputed succession.
Francesco Sforza in possession.
War of Venice, Naples and other states
against Milan and Florence.
See MILAN: A. D. 1447-1454.
ITALY: A. D. 1447-1480.
The Pontificate of Nicolas V.
Regeneration of the Papacy.
Revival of letters and art.
Threatening advance of the Turks.
Fresh troubles in Naples.
Expulsion of the French from Genoa.
"The failure of the Council of Basel [see PAPACY: A. D.
1431-1448] restored the position of the Papacy, and set it
free from control. The character and ability of Pope Nicolas
[V., 1447-1455] made him respected, and the part which he took
in politics made him rank amongst the great temporal powers in
Italy. From this time onwards to the end of our history we
shall see the Popes the undisputed Princes of Rome, and the
lords of all that part of Italy which they claimed from the
gift of Kings and Emperors, and not least from the will of the
Countess Matilda. Pope Nicolas used this power better than any
of those who came after him, for he used it in the cause of
peace, and to forward learning and artistic taste. He applied
himself to the general pacification of Italy, and brought
about the Peace of Lodi in 1454, which was signed by Venice
and Milan and by King Alfonso. Christendom had great need of
peace, for, in 1453, Constantinople had been taken by the
Infidels and Mahomet the Second was spreading his conquest
over the East of Europe. Before the fall of the city a great
many Greeks had come to Italy, on different missions, and
especially to attend a Council at Florence, where terms of
union were made between the Greek and Latin Churches. Their
coming revived the taste for Greek learning, which had been so
powerfully felt by Petrarca and Boccaccio. Pope Nicolas made
Rome the centre of this literature, and others followed his
example. Theodore of Gaza, George of Trebizond, and many more,
found enlightened patrons in the Pope, the King of Naples,
Cosmo de'Medici, and Federigo, Count of Urbino. The Pope was a
lover and patron of art as well as of literature. He rebuilt
the churches, palaces, and fortifications of Rome and the
Roman States, and formed the scheme of raising a church worthy
of the memory of St. Peter, and left behind him the Vatican
Palace as a worthy residence for the Apostle's successors. The
Papal Library had been scattered during the Captivity and the
Schism, but Pope Nicolas made a large collection of
manuscripts, and thus founded the Library of the Vatican. The
introduction of printing into Italy about this time gave great
strength to the revival of learning. In 1452 the Pope crowned
Frederic the Third Emperor at Rome with great magnificence.
But he was not without danger in his city, for the next year a
wild plot was made against him. A large number of Romans were
displeased at the great power of the Pope. They were headed by
Stefano Porcaro, who declared that he would free the city
which had once been mistress of the world from the yoke of
priests. The rising was to be ushered in by the slaughter of
the Papal Court and the plunder of its treasures. The plot was
discovered, and was punished with great severity. This was the
last and most unworthy of the various attempts of the Romans
to set up self-government. The advance of the Ottoman Turks
during the latter part of the 15th century [see TURKS: A. D.
1451-1481] caused the greatest alarm in Italy. Venice, from
her possessions and her trade in the Levant, was most exposed
to the attacks of the Infidels, and she became the great
champion against them. The learned Æneas Sylvius was chosen
Pope, in 1458, and took the title of Pius the Second. He
caused a crusade to be preached against the Turks, but he died
in 1464, while the forces were gathering. The Venetians were
constantly defeated in the Archipelago, and lost Eubœa,
Lesbos, and other islands [see GREECE: A. D. 1454-1479]. In
1477 a large Turkish army entered Italy by Friuli, defeated
the Venetians, and crossed the Tagliamento. They laid waste
the country as far as the Piave, and their destroying fires
could be seen from the Campanile of St. Mark's. In 1480
Mahomet's great general, Ahmed Keduk, took the strong city of
Otranto, and massacred its inhabitants. This expedition was
secretly favoured by the Venetians to spite the King of
Naples. The danger to all Italy was very great, for the Sultan
eagerly longed to conquer the older Rome, but the death of
Mahomet the Second, and a disputed succession to his throne,
fortunately checked the further advance of the invaders. When
Alfonso, King of Aragon, Naples, and Sicily, died in 1458, he
left Aragon and Sicily, which he had inherited, to his
legitimate son John; but the crown of Naples, which he had won
for himself, he left to Ferdinand, his illegitimate son.
Ferdinand was a cruel and suspicious man, and the barons
invited John of Calabria to come and help them against him.
John of Calabria was the son of Réné, who had been adopted by
Queen Joanna, and who called himself King. He was the French
Governor of Genoa, and so already had a footing in Italy. He
applied to Sforza to help him, but the Duke of Milan was
firmly attached to the Peace of Lodi, and was too justly
fearful of the French power to do so. Lewis the Eleventh, King
of France, was too wise to meddle in Italian politics.
Florence, which was usually on the French side, was now under
the influence of Cosmo de' Medici, and Cosmo was under the
influence of Francesco Sforza, so that the Duke of Calabria
found no allies. The Archbishop of Genoa, Paola Fregoso,
excited the people to drive out the French [see GENOA: A. D.
1458-1464] and the Doge Prospero Adorno, who belonged to their
party. He then defeated King Réné, and the Duke of Calabria
was forced to give up his attempt on Naples [1464]. The new
government of Genoa was so oppressive that the Genoese put
themselves under the protection of Francesco; Lewis the
Eleventh ceded all his rights to him, and the city thus became
part of the Duchy of Milan. The hopes of the French party in
Italy were thus for the present entirely crushed."
W. Hunt,
History of Italy,
chapter 6.
ALSO IN:
M. Creighton,
History of the Papacy,
book 4, chapters 3-4 (volume 2).
W. P. Urquhart,
Life and Times of Francesco Sforza,
book 7 (volume 2).
L. Pastor,
History of the Popes,
volume 2.
ITALY: A. D. 1466-1469.
Florence under the five agents of Piero de' Medici.
See FLORENCE: 1458-1469.
ITALY: A. D. 1469-1492.
The government of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent, at
Florence.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1469-1492.
ITALY: A. D. 1490-1498.
Savonarola at Florence.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1490-1498.
{1831}
ITALY: A. D. 1492-1494.
Charles VIII. of France invited across the Alps to possess
Naples.
The hostile disunion of the Italian states.
With the death of Lorenzo de Medici, which occurred at
Florence in the spring of 1492, "the power vanished which had
hitherto kept Naples and Milan quiet, and which, with subtle
diplomatic skill, had postponed the breach of the peace in
Italy. We find the comparison used, that Florence with Lorenzo
at her head stood like a rocky dam between two stormy seas.
Italy was at that time a free land and independent of foreign
policy. Venice, with her well-established nobles at her head;
Naples under the Aragonese, a branch of the family ruling in
Spain; Milan, with Genoa, under Sforza—all three able powers
by land and sea—counterbalanced each other. Lorenzo ruled
central Italy; the small lords of the Romagna were in his pay,
and the pope was on the best terms of relationship with him.
But in Milan the mischief lay hidden. Ludovico Sforza, the
guardian of his nephew Gian Galeazzo, had completely usurped
the power. He allowed his ward to pine away mentally and
bodily; he was bringing the young prince slowly to death. But
his consort, a Neapolitan princess, saw through the treachery,
and urged her father to change by force their insufferable
position. Sforza could not alone have resisted Naples. No
dependence was to be placed on the friendship of Venice;
Lorenzo mediated as long as he lived, but now, on his death,
Naples was no longer to be restrained. The first thing that
happened was [Piero de Medici's] alliance with this power, and
at the same time Ludovico's appeal for help to France, where a
young and ambitious king had ascended the throne. The death of
Innocent VIII., and the election of Alexander Borgia to the
papacy, completed the confusion which was impending. Long
diplomatic campaigns took place before war actually broke out.
The matter in question was not the interests of nations—of
this there was no thought—nor even the caprices of princes
alone. The nobles of Italy took a passionate concern in these
disputes. The contests of corresponding intrigues were fought
out at the French court. France had been robbed of Naples by
the Aragonese. The exiled Neapolitan barons, French in their
interests, whose possessions the Arngonese had given to their
own adherents, ardently seized the idea of returning
victoriously to their country; the cardinals, hostile to
Borgia—foremost among these stood the Cardinal of San Piero
in Vincula, a nephew of the old Sixtus, and the Cardinal
Ascanio Sforza, Ludovico's brother—urged for war against
Alexander VI.; the Florentine nobles, anticipating Piero's
violent measures, hoped for deliverance through the French,
and advocated the matter at Lyons, where the court was
stationed, and a whole colony of Florentine families had in
time settled. Sforza held out the bait of glory and his just
claims to the old legitimate possession. The Aragonese, on the
other hand, proposed an accommodation. Spain, who would not
forsake her belongings, stood at their side; the pope and
Piero dei Medici adhered to Naples, and the French nobility
were not in favour of an expedition to Italy. Venice remained
neutral; still she might gain by the war, and she did not
dissuade from it; and this opinion, that something was to be
gained, gradually took possession of all parties, even of
those who had at first wished to preserve peace. Spain was a
direct gainer from the first. France ceded to King Ferdinand a
disputed province, on the condition that he would afford no
support to his Neapolitan cousins. Sforza, as lord of Genoa,
wished to have Lucca and Pisa again, with all that belonged to
them; the Visconti had possessed them of old, and he raised
their claims afresh. We have said what were the hopes of Piero
dei Medici [that he should be able to make himself Duke of
Florence]. Pisa hoped to become free. The pope hoped by his
alliance with Naples to make the first step towards the
attainment of the great plans which he cherished for himself
and his sons; he thought one day of dividing Italy among them.
The French hoped to conquer Naples, and then to drive away the
Turks in a vast crusade. As if for a crusade, the king raised
the loan in his own country, which he required for the
campaign. The Venetians hoped to bring the coast cities of the
Adriatic Sea as much as possible under their authority. In the
autumn of 1494, Charles of France placed himself at the head
of his knights and mercenary troops, and crossed the Alps;
whilst his fleet and artillery, the most fearful weapon of the
French, went by sea from Marseilles to Genoa."
H. Grimm,
Life of Michael Angelo,
chapter 3, section 2 (volume 1).
ALSO IN:
T. A. Trollope,
History of the Commonwealth of Florence,
book 8, chapter 5.
ITALY: A. D. 1492-1503.
The Papacy in the hands of the Borgias.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1471-1513.
ITALY: A. D. 1494-1496.
The invasion by Charles VIII.
His triumphant march, his easy conquest of Naples,
and the speedy retreat.
Effects of the expedition on France and Europe.
"On the 1st of March [1494] Charles VIII. made his state entry
into Lyons, to assume the command of the expedition; an
advanced guard under the Scotchman d'Aubigny was already
pushing towards the Neapolitan frontier, and the Duke of
Orleans was at Genoa. The Neapolitans on their side sent the
Prince of Altamura with 30 galleys towards Genoa, while the
Duke of Calabria, an inexperienced youth, entered the
Pontifical States, under the guidance of tried generals. …
The Pope seemed to have lost his head, and no longer knew what
course to adopt. … Charles the VIII., having passed the
Monginevra, entered Asti in the first days of September. He
soon received intelligence that Don Federico and the
Neapolitan fleet had been repulsed with heavy losses before
Porto Venere, and that the Duke of Orleans and his Swiss had
entered Rapallo, sacked the place, and put all the
inhabitants, even the sick in the hospital, to the sword,
thereby striking terror into the Italians, who were
unaccustomed to carry on war in so sanguinary a fashion. On
reaching Piacenza, the king learnt that Gio. Galeazzo, whom he
had recently seen at Pavia, had just died there, poisoned, as
all men said, by the Moor [Lodovico, the usurping uncle of
Gio. Galeazzo the young Duke of Milan, was so called], who,
after celebrating his obsequies at Milan, had entered St.
Ambrogio, at the hour indicated by his astrologer, to
consecrate the investiture already granted to him by
Maximilian, King of the Romans. All this filled the minds of
the French with suspicion, almost with terror; they were
beginning to understand the nature of their closest ally's
good faith.
{1832}
In fact, while Ludovico with one hand collected men and money
for their cause, with the other he wove the threads of a
league intended to drive them from Italy, when the moment
should arrive. … Nevertheless the fortunes of the French
prospered rapidly. The Duke of Calabria, having entered
Romagna, withdrew across the Neapolitan frontier at the first
glimpse of D'Aubigny's forces; and the bulk of the French
army, commanded by the King in person, marched through the
Lunigiana without encountering obstacles of any kind. After
taking Fivizanno, sacking it, and putting to the sword the
hundred soldiers who defended it, and part of the inhabitants,
they pushed on towards Sarzana, through a barren district,
between the mountains and the sea, where the slightest
resistance might have proved fatal to them. But the small
castles, intended for the defence of these valleys, yielded
one after the other, without any attempt to resist the
invaders; and hardly had the siege of Sarzana commenced than
Piero dei Medici arrived, frightened out of his senses,
surrendered at discretion, and even promised to pay 200,000
ducats. But on Piero's return to Florence, on the 8th of
November, he found that the city had risen in revolt, and sent
ambassadors to the French King on its own account to offer him
an honourable reception; but that at the same time it was
making preparations for defence in case of need [see FLORENCE:
A. D. 1490-1498]. So great was the public indignation that
Piero took flight to Venice, where his own ambassador,
Soderini, hardly deigned to look at him, having meanwhile
declared for the republican government just proclaimed in
Florence, where everything had been rapidly changed. The
houses of the Medici and their garden at St. Mark had been
pillaged, exiles had been recalled and acquitted; a price put
on Piero's head and that of his brother, the Cardinal. … The
fabric, so long and so carefully built up by the Medici, was
now suddenly crumbling into dust. On the 17th November Charles
VIII., at the head of his formidable army, rode into Florence
with his lance in rest, believing that that fact sufficed to
make him master of the city. But the Florentines were armed,
they had collected 6,000 soldiers within the walls, and they
knew perfectly well that, from the vantage posts of towers and
houses, they could easily worst an army scattered through the
streets. They therefore repulsed the King's insolent
proposals, and when he threatened to sound his trumpets, Piero
Capponi, tearing up the offered treaty, replied that the
Florentines were more ready to ring their bells. Through this
firmness equitable terms were arranged. The Republic was to
pay 120,000 florins in three quotas; the fortresses, however,
were to be speedily restored to her. On the 28th November the
French left the city, but not without stealing all that
remained of the collection of antiquities in the Medici
Palace. … Nevertheless the citizens were thankful to be
finally delivered alike from old tyrants and new invaders.
Having reached Rome, Charles VIII., in order to have done with
the Pope, who now seemed inclined for resistance, pointed his
guns against the Castle of St. Angelo, and thus matters were
soon settled. … Scarcely encountering any obstacles, Charles
led his army on to Naples." Ferdinand I., or Ferrante, had
died on the 25th of January, 1494, and had been succeeded by
his son Alfonso II, a prince more cruel and more hated than
himself. The latter now renounced the throne in favor of his
son, Ferdinand II., and fled to Sicily. "Ferdinand II., or
Ferrandino, as he was called, after vainly seeking aid from
all, even from the Turk, made a fruitless stand at Monte San
Giovanni, which was taken, destroyed, and all its population
put to the sword. … Naples rebelled in favour of the French,
who marched in on the 22d of February [1495]. The following
day Ferrandino fled to Ischia, then to Messina. And shortly
the ambassadors of the Italian States appeared to offer
congratulations to the conqueror. Now at last the Venetians
were aroused, and having sent their envoys to Milan to know if
Ludovico were disposed to take up arms to drive out the
French, they found him not only ready to do so, but full of
indignation. … He advised that money should be sent to Spain
and to Maximilian, to induce them to attack France; but added
that care must be taken not to call them into Italy; 'since
having already one fever here, we should then have two.' A
league was in fact concluded between the Venetians, Ludovico,
the Pope, Spain and Maximilian. … The Neapolitans, soon
wearied of bad government, had risen in revolt, and Charles
VIII. after a stay of only 50 days in Naples had to make his
departure with excessive haste, before every avenue of retreat
should be cut off, leaving hardly more than 6,000 men in the
kingdom, and taking with him a numerous army, which however
only numbered 10,000 real combatants. On the 6th of July a
pitched battle took place at Fornuovo near the river Taro. The
allies had assembled about 30,000 men, three-fourths of whom
were Venetians, the rest composed of Ludovico's soldiers and a
few Germans sent by Maximilian. … The battle was bloody, and
it was a disputed question which side obtained the victory;
but although the Italians were not repulsed, remaining indeed
masters of the field, the French succeeded in cutting their
way through, which was the chief object they had in view. …
Ludovico, taking advantage of the situation, soon made an
agreement with the French on his own account, without
concerning himself about the Venetians. … The fortunes of
the French now declined rapidly in Italy, and all the more
speedily owing to their bad government in the Neapolitan
kingdom, and their abominable behaviour towards the few
friends who had remained faithful to them. … Ferdinand II.,
with the aid of the Spaniards under Consalvo di Cordova,
advanced triumphantly through Calabria and entered Naples on
the 7th of July, 1496. In a short time all the Neapolitan
fortresses capitulated, and the French who had held them
returned to their own country, more than decimated and in an
altogether deplorable condition. On the 6th of October
Ferdinand II. breathed his last, worn out by the agitation and
fatigues of the war, and was succeeded by his uncle Don
Federico, the fifth King [counting Charles VIII. of France]
who had ascended the Neapolitan throne within the last five
years. … Naples was now in the absolute power of the
Spaniards, who were already maturing their iniquitous designs
upon the kingdom; these, however, were only discovered at a
later period."
P. Villari,
Machiavelli and his Times,
volume 1, chapter 4, section 2.
{1833}
"In spite of its transitory character the invasion of Charles
VIII. … was a great fact in the history of the
Renaissance. It was, to use the pregnant phrase of Michelet,
no less than the revelation of Italy to the nations of the
North. Like a gale sweeping across a forest of trees in
blossom, and bearing their fertilizing pollen, after it has
broken and deflowered their branches, to far distant trees
that hitherto have bloomed in barrenness, the storm of
Charles's army carried far and wide through Europe
thought-dust, imperceptible, but potent to enrich the nations.
The French, alone, says Michelet, understood Italy. … From
the Italians the French communicated to the rest of Europe
what we call the movement of the Renaissance. There is some
truth in this panegyric of Michelet's. The passage of the army
of Charles VIII. marks a turning point in modern history, and
from this epoch dates the diffusion of a spirit of culture
over Europe."
J. A. Symonds,
Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots,
chapter 9.
ALSO IN:
P. Villari,
History of Savonarola and his Times,
book 2, chapters 1-3 (volume 1).
J. Dennistoun,
Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino,
chapters 14-15 (volume 1).
P. de Commines,
Memoirs,
books 7-8.
L. von Ranke,
History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations
from 1494 to 1514,
book 1, chapter 1.
See, also, FRANCE: A. D. 1492-1515.
ITALY: A. D. 1494-1503.
The growing power of Venice and the jealousies excited by it. See
VENICE: A. D. 1494-1503.
ITALY: A. D. 1424-1509.
The French deliverance of Pisa.
The long struggle and the Florentine reconquest.
See PISA: A. D. 1494-1509.
ITALY: A. D. 1499-1500.
Invasion and conquest of the Milanese by Louis XII. of France.
His claim in right of Valentine Visconti.
Charles VIII. died in April, 1498, and was succeeded by Louis
of Orleans, who ascended the throne as Louis XII. On his
coronation, Louis XII. "assumed, besides his title of King of
France, the titles of King of Naples and of Jerusalem, and
Duke of Milan. This was as much as to say that he would pursue
… a warlike and adventurous policy abroad. … By his policy
at home Louis XII. deserved and obtained the name of 'Father
of the People;' by his enterprises and wars abroad he involved
France still more deeply than Charles VIII. had in that mad
course of distant, reckless, and incoherent conquests for
which his successor, Francis I., was destined to pay by
capture at Pavia and by the lamentable treaty of Madrid, in
1526, as the price of his release. … Outside of France,
Milaness (the Milanese district) was Louis XII.'s first
thought, at his accession, and the first object of his desire.
He looked upon it as his patrimony: His grandmother, Valentine
Visconti, widow of that Duke of Orleans who had been
assassinated at Paris in 1407 by order of John the Fearless,
Duke of Burgundy, had been the last to inherit the duchy of
Milan, which the Sforzas, in 1450, had seized. When Charles
VIII. invaded Italy in 1494, 'Now is the time,' said Louis,
'to enforce the rights of Valentine Visconti, my grandmother,
to Milaness.' And he, in fact, asserted them openly, and
proclaimed his intention of vindicating them so soon as he
found the moment propitious. When he became king, his chance
of success was great. The Duke of Milan, Ludovic, the Moor,
had by his sagacity and fertile mind, by his taste for arts
and sciences and the intelligent patronage he bestowed upon
them, by his ability in speaking, and by his facile character,
obtained in Italy a position far beyond his real power. …
Ludovic was, nevertheless, a turbulent rascal and a greedy
tyrant. … He had, moreover, embroiled himself with his
neighbours, the Venetians, who were watching for an
opportunity of aggrandizing themselves at his expense." Louis
XII. promptly concluded a treaty with Venice, which provided
for the making of war in common upon the Duke of Milan, to
recover the patrimony of the king—the Venetians to receive
Cremona and certain forts and territory adjacent as their
share of the expected spoils. "In the month of August, 1499,
the French army, with a strength of from 20,000 to 25,000 men,
of whom 5,000 were Swiss, invaded Milaness. Duke Ludovic
Sforza opposed to it a force pretty near equal in number, but
far less full of confidence and of far less valour. In less
than three weeks the duchy was conquered; in only two cases
was any assault necessary; all the other places were given up
by traitors or surrendered without a show of resistance. The
Venetians had the same success on the eastern frontier of the
duchy. … Louis was at Lyons when he heard of his army's
victory in Milaness and of Ludovic Sforza's flight. He was
eager to go and take possession of his conquest, and, on the
6th of October, 1499, he made his triumphal entry into Milan
amidst cries of 'Hurrah! for France.' He reduced the heavy
imposts established by the Sforzas, revoked the vexatious
game-laws, instituted at Milan a court of justice analogous to
the French parliaments, loaded with favours the scholars and
artists who were the honour of Lombardy, and recrossed the
Alps at the end of some weeks, leaving as governor of Milaness
John James Trivulzio, the valiant Condottiere, who, four years
before, had quitted the service of Ferdinand II., King of
Naples, for that of Charles VIII. Unfortunately Trivulzio was
himself a Milanese and of the faction of the Guelphs. He had
the passions of a partisan and the habits of a man of war; and
he soon became as tyrannical and as much detested in Milaness
as Ludovic the Moor had but lately been. A plot was formed in
favour of the fallen tyrant, who was in Germany expecting it,
and was recruiting, during expectancy, amongst the Germans and
Swiss, in order to take advantage of it. On the 25th of
January, 1500, the insurrection broke out; and two months
later Ludovic Sforza had once more became master of Milaness,
where the French possessed nothing but the castle of Milan.
… Louis XII., so soon as he heard of the Milanese
insurrection, sent into Italy Louis de la Trémoille, the best
of his captains, and the Cardinal d' Amboise, his privy
councillor and his friend. … The campaign did not last long.
The Swiss who had been recruited by Ludovic and those who were
in Louis XII.'s service had no mind to fight one another; and
the former capitulated, surrendered the strong place of
Novara, and promised to evacuate the country on condition of a
safe-conduct for themselves and their booty." Ludovic
attempted flight in disguise, but fell into the hands of the
French and remained in captivity, at the castle of Loches, in
Touraine, during the remainder of his life,—eight years.
"And 'thus was the duchy of Milan, within seven months and a
half, twice conquered by the French,' says John d' Auton in
his 'Chronique,' 'and for the nonce was ended the war in
Lombardy, and the authors thereof were captives and exiles.'"
F. P. Guizot,
Popular History of France,
chapter 27.
ALSO IN:
A. M. F. Robinson,
The End of the Middle Ages:
Valentine Visconti; The French claim to Milan.
E. Walford,
Story of the Chevalier Bayard,
chapters 3-4.
{1834}
ITALY: 15-16th Centuries.
Renaissance.
Intellectual advance and moral decline.
"At the end of the fifteenth century, Italy was the centre of
European civilization: while the other nations were still
plunged in a feudal barbarism which seems almost as far
removed from all our sympathies as is the condition of some
American or Polynesian savages, the Italians appear to us as
possessing habits of thought, a mode of life, political,
social, and literary institutions, not unlike those of to-day;
as men whom we can thoroughly understand, whose ideas and
aims, whose general views, resemble our own in that main,
indefinable characteristic of being modern. They had shaken
off the morbid monastic ways of feeling, they had thrown aside
the crooked scholastic modes of thinking, they had trampled
under foot the feudal institutions of the Middle Ages; no
symbolical mists made them see things vague, strange, and
distorted; their intellectual atmosphere was as clear as our
own, and, if they saw less than we do, what they did see
appeared to them in its true shape and proportions. Almost for
the first time since the ruin of antique civilization; they
could show well-organized, well-defined States; artistically
disciplined armies; rationally devised laws; scientifically
conducted agriculture; and widely extended, intelligently
undertaken commerce. For the first time, also, they showed
regularly built, healthy, and commodious towns; well-drained
fields; and, more important than all, hundreds of miles of
country owned not by feudal lords, but by citizens; cultivated
not by serfs, but by free peasants. While in the rest of
Europe men were floundering among the stagnant ideas and
crumbling institutions of the effete Middle Ages, with but
vague half-consciousness of their own nature, the Italians
walked calmly through a life as well arranged as their great
towns, bold, inquisitive, and sceptical; modern
administrators, modern soldiers, modern politicians, modern
financiers, scholars, and thinkers. Towards the end of the
fifteenth century, Italy seemed to have obtained the
philosophic, literary, and artistic inheritance of Greece; the
administrative, legal, and military inheritance of Rome,
increased threefold by her own strong, original, essentially
modern activities. Yet, at that very time, and almost in
proportion as all these advantages developed, the moral
vitality of the Italians was rapidly decreasing, and a
horrible moral gangrene beginning to spread: liberty was
extinguished; public good faith seemed to be dying out; even
private morality flickered ominously; every free State became
subject to a despot, always unscrupulous and often infamous;
warfare became a mere pretext for the rapine and extortions of
mercenaries; diplomacy grew to be a mere swindle; the
humanists inoculated literature with the filthiest refuse cast
up by antiquity; nay, even civic and family ties were
loosened; assassinations and fratricides began to abound, and
all law, human and divine, to be set at defiance. … The men
of the Renaissance had to pay a heavy price for …
intellectual freedom and self-cognizance, which they not only
enjoyed themselves, but transmitted to the rest of the world;
the price was the loss of all moral standard, of all fixed
public feeling. They had thrown aside all accepted rules and
criteria, they had cast away all faith in traditional
institutions, they had destroyed and could not yet rebuild. In
their instinctive and universal disbelief in all that had been
taught them, they lost all respect for opinion, for rule, for
what had been called right and wrong. Could it be otherwise?
Had they not discovered that what had been called right had
often been unnatural, and what had been called wrong often
natural? Moral teachings, remonstrances, and judgments
belonged to that dogmatism from which they had broken loose;
to those schools and churches where the foolish and the
unnatural had been taught and worshiped; to those priests and
monks who themselves most shamefully violated their teachings.
To profess morality was to be a hypocrite; to reprobate others
was to be narrow-minded. There was so much error mixed up with
truth that truth had to share the discredit of error."
Vernon Lee,
Euphorion,
volume 1, pages 27-29, 47-48.
"The conditions under which the Italians performed their task
in the Renaissance were such as seem at first sight
unfavourable to any great achievement. Yet it is probable
that, the end in view being the stimulation of mental
activity; no better circumstances than they enjoyed could have
been provided. Owing to a series of adverse accidents, and
owing also to their own instinctive preference for local
institutions, they failed to attain the coherence and the
centralised organisation which are necessary to a nation as we
understand that word. Their dismemberment among rival
communities proved a fatal source of political and military
weakness, but it developed all their intellectual energies by
competition to the utmost. At the middle of the fifteenth
century their communes had lost political liberty, and were
ruled by despots. Martial spirit declined. Wars were carried
on by mercenaries; and the people found itself in a state of
practical disarmament, when the neighboring nations quarrelled
for the prize of those rich provinces. At the same time
society underwent a rapid moral deterioration. When
Machiavelli called Italy 'the corruption of the world,' he did
not speak rhetorically. An impure and worldly clergy; an
irreligious, though superstitious, laity; a self-indulgent and
materialistic middle class; an idle aristocracy, excluded from
politics and unused to arms; a public given up to pleasure and
money-getting; a multitude of scholars, devoted to trifles,
and vitiated by studies which clashed with the ideals of
Christianity—from such elements in the nation proceeded a
widely-spread and ever-increasing degeneracy. Public energy,
exhausted by the civil wars and debilitated by the arts of the
tyrants, sank deep and deeper into the lassitude of
acquiescent lethargy. Religion expired in laughter, irony and
licence. Domestic simplicity yielded to vice, whereof the
records are precise and unmistakable. The virile virtues
disappeared. What survived of courage assumed the forms of
ruffianism, ferocity and treasonable daring. Still,
simultaneously with this decline in all the moral qualities
which constitute a powerful people, the Italians brought their
arts and some departments of their literature to a perfection
that can only be paralleled by ancient Greece. The anomaly
implied in this statement is striking; but it is revealed to
us by evidence too overwhelming to be rejected. … It was
through art that the creative instincts of the people found
their true and adequate channel of expression.
{1835}
Paramount over all other manifestations of the epoch,
fundamental beneath all, penetrative to the core of all, is
the artistic impulse. The slowly self-consolidating life of a
great kingdom, concentrating all elements of national
existence by the centripetal force of organic unity, was
wanting. Commonwealths and despotisms, representing a more
imperfect stage of political growth, achieved completion and
decayed. But art survived this disintegration of the medieval
fabric; and in art the Italians found the cohesion denied them
as a nation. While speaking thus of art, it is necessary to
give a wide extension to that word. It must be understood to
include literature. … We are justified in regarding the
literary masterpieces of the sixteenth century as the fullest
and most representative expression of the Italian temperament
at the climax of its growth. The literature of the golden age
implies humanism, implies painting. … It is not only
possible but right to speak of Italy collectively when we
review her work in the Renaissance. Yet it should not be
forgotten that Italy at this time was a federation, presenting
upon a miniature scale the same diversities in her component
parts as the nations of Europe do now. … At the beginning of
such a review, we cannot fail to be struck with the
predominance of Florence. The superiority of the Tuscans was
threefold. In the first place, they determined the development
of art in all its branches. In the second place, they gave a
language to Italy, which, without obliterating the local
dialects, superseded them in literature when the right moment
for intellectual community arrived. That moment, in the third
place, was rendered possible by the humanistic movement, which
began at Florence. … What the Lombards and Venetians
produced in fine art and literature was of a later birth. Yet
the novelists of Lombardy, the Latin lyrists of Garda, the
school of romantic and dramatic poets at Ferrara, the group of
sculptors and painters assembled in Milan by the Sforza
dynasty, the maccaronic Muse of Mantua, the unrivalled
magnificence of painting at Venice, the transient splendour of
the Parmese masters, the wit of Modena, the learning of the
princes of Mirandola and Carpi, must be catalogued among the
most brilliant and characteristic manifestations of Italian
genius. In pure literature Venice contributed but little. …
Her place, as the home of Aldo's Greek press, and as the
refuge for adventurers like Aretino and Folengo, when the rest
of Italy was yielding to reactionary despotism, has to be
commemorated. … The Romans who advanced Italian culture,
were singularly few. The work of Rome was done almost
exclusively by aliens, drawn for the most part from Tuscany
and Lombardy. After Frederick II.'s brilliant reign, the
Sicilians shared but little in the intellectual activity of
the nation."
J. A. Symonds,
Renaissance in Italy: Italian Literature,
chapter 17.
ITALY: A. D. 1501-1504.
Perfidious treaty for the partition of Naples between Louis
XII. of France and Ferdinand of Aragon.
Their joint conquest.
Their quarrel and war.
The French expelled.
The Spaniards in possession.
"In the spring of 1501, the French army was ready to pursue
its march to Naples. King Frederick, alarmed at the storm
which was gathering round his head, had some months before
renewed the propositions formerly made by his father Ferdinand
to Charles VIII.; namely, to acknowledge himself a feudatory
of France, to pay an annual tribute, and to pledge several
maritime towns as security for the fulfilment of these
conditions. Louis, however, would not hear of these liberal
offers, although Ferdinand the Catholic [of Aragon] undertook
to guarantee the payment of the tribute proffered by
Frederick, and strongly remonstrated against the contemplated
expedition of the French King. Ferdinand finding that he could
not divert Louis from his project, proposed to him to divide
Naples between them, and a partition was arranged by a treaty
concluded between the two monarchs at Granada, November 11th,
1500. Naples, the Terra di Lavoro, and the Abruzzi were
assigned to Louis, with the title of King of Naples and
Jerusalem; while Ferdinand was to have Calabria and Apulia
with the title of Duke." This perfidious arrangement was kept
secret, of course, from Frederick. "Meanwhile the forces of
Ferdinand, under Gonsalvo of Cordova [the 'Great Captain,' as
he was styled after his Italian campaign], were admitted as
friends into the Neapolitan fortresses, which they afterwards
held as enemies. Frederick opened to them without suspicion
his ports and towns, and thus became the instrument of his own
ruin. The unhappy Frederick had in vain looked around for
assistance. He had paid the Emperor Maximilian 40,000 ducats
to make a diversion in his favour by attacking Milan, but
Maximilian was detached from the Neapolitan alliance by a
counter bribe, and consented to prolong the truce with France.
Frederick had then had recourse to Sultan Bajazet II., with as
little effect; and this application only served to throw an
odium on his cause. … The French army, which did not exceed
13,000 men, began its march towards Naples about the end of
May, 1501, under the command of Stuart d'Aubigny, with Cæsar
Borgia [son of Pope Alexander VI.] for his lieutenant. When it
arrived before Rome, June 25th, the French and Spanish
ambassadors acquainted the Pope with the treaty of Granada,
and the contemplated partition of Naples, in which the
suzerainty of this kingdom was guaranteed to the Holy See; a
communication which Alexander received with more surprise than
displeasure, and he proceeded at once to invest the Kings of
France and Aragon with the provinces which they respectively
claimed. Attacked in front by the French, in the rear by
Gonsalvo, Frederick did not venture to take the field. He
cantoned his troops in Naples, Averso, and Capua, of which the
last alone made any attempt at defence. It was surprised by
the French while in the act of treating for a capitulation
(July 24th), and was subjected to the most revolting cruelty;
7,000 of the male inhabitants were massacred in the streets;
the women were outraged; and forty of the handsomest reserved
for Borgia's harem at Rome; where they were in readiness to
amuse the Court at the extraordinary and disgusting fete given
at the fourth marriage of Lucretia. Rather than expose his
subjects to the horrors of a useless war, Frederick entered
into negociations with d'Aubigny, with the view of
surrendering himself to Louis XII. … In October, 1501, he
sailed for France with a small squadron, which remained to him.
{1836}
In return for his abandonment of the provinces assigned to the
French King, he was invested with the county of Maine, and a
life pension of 30,000 ducats, on condition that he should not
attempt to quit France; a guard was set over him to enforce
the latter proviso, and this excellent prince died in
captivity in 1504. Meanwhile Gonsalvo of Cordova was
proceeding with the reduction of Calabria and Apulia. … The
Spaniards entered Taranto March 1st, 1502; the other towns of
southern Italy were soon reduced, and the Neapolitan branch of
the House of Aragon fell for ever, after reigning 65 years. In
the autumn of 1501, Louis had entered into negociations with
the Emperor, in order to obtain formal investiture of the
Duchy of Milan. With this view, Louis's daughter Claude, then
only two years of age, was affianced to Charles [afterwards
the Emperor, Charles V.], grandson of Maximilian, the infant
child of the Archduke Philip and Joanna of Aragon. A treaty
was subsequently signed at Trent, October 13th, 1501, by
Maximilian and the Cardinal d'Amboise, to which the Spanish
sovereigns find the Archduke Philip were also parties. By this
instrument Louis engaged, in return for the investiture of
Milan, to recognise the pretensions of the House of Austria to
Hungary and Bohemia, and to second Maximilian in an expedition
which he contemplated against the Turks. It was at this
conference that those schemes against Venice began to be
agitated, which ultimately produced the League of Cambray. The
treaty between Louis and Ferdinand for the partition of Naples
was so loosely drawn, that it seemed purposely intended to
produce the quarrels which occurred." Disputes arose as to the
possession of a couple of provinces, and the Spaniards were
driven out. "In the course of 1502 the Spaniards were deprived
of everything, except Barletta and a few towns on the coast of
Bari. It was in the combats round this place that Bayard, by
his deeds of courage and generosity, won his reputation as the
model of chivalry, and became the idol of the French
soldiery." The crafty and unscrupulous king of Aragon now
amused Louis with the negotiation of a treaty for the
relinquishment of the whole Neapolitan domain to the lately
affianced infants, Charles of Austria and Claude of France,
while he diligently reinforced the "Great Captain." Then
"Gonsalvo suddenly resumed the offensive with extraordinary
vigour and rapidity, and within a week two decisive battles
were fought"—at Seminara, in Calabria, April 21, 1503, and at
Cerignola, near Barletta, April 28. In the last named battle
the French army was dispersed and almost destroyed. On the
14th of May, Gonsalvo entered Naples, and by the end of July
the French had completely evacuated the Neapolitan territory.
The king of France made prompt preparations for vigorous war,
not only in Naples but in Spain itself, sending two armies to
the Pyrenees and one across the Alps. The campaign of the
latter was ruined by Cardinal d'Amboise, who stopped its march
near Rome, to support his candidacy for the papal chair, just
vacated by the death of Alexander VI. Malaria made havoc in
the ranks of the French, and they were badly commanded. They
advanced to the seat of war in October, and forced the passage