The death of Henry VII took the hearts of the Ghibellines away. Pisa, having lost the two million spent on him, and finding itself exposed to the revenge of the Guelphs, believed that it was bleeding the treasury by imposing an agreement on all the goods that entered its port; but the Florentines went straight to that of Telamone, where by moving the other shopkeepers they had to do with them, the last collapse of the trade of Pisa ensued. Exhausted and threatened, she resorted to the usual unfortunate compensation of throwing herself into the arms of others, electing Uguccione della Faggiuola, son of Rinier da Corneto, notorious thief in the Savio Valley as lord.
The people spoke of Uguccione as the soles of these adventurers, with exaggerated tales: that he ate extraordinarily to sustain his extraordinary body, to cover which he wanted extraordinary weapons; that he was sufficient to sustain the impetus of an army or to restore a battle; nothing but with his gaze turned his enemies to flight; yet he was gay, ingenious, of witty spite, of generous courtesy. In reality, by confining his fiefs with the Ghibellines of Tuscany and Romagna, and feeling ambition equal to courage, he had attempted lordship in many parts; in Arezzo he ruled from 1292 to 96, [383]enemy of the Ghibellines, until he was rejected to call Federico di Montefeltro; then he captained Cesena, Forlì, Imola, Faenza, until in the expulsion of Matteo d’Aquasparta. In 1300, when he was seated as Podestà of Gubbio, he excluded the Guelphs from there, but they returned with alternate failures: back as Podestà in Arezzo, he was chased away with the Greens. He was mayor of Genoa when the Pisans called him lord; and he, having hired the German bands that had remained free from the death of Henry, immediately brought devastation to the Lucchese, and threats to the rest of Tuscany.
In this the nobles had lost the desire to give aid to the republic, which in every provision disadvantaged them; the commoners had abandoned arms for trafficking; so that Florence, Lucca, Prato, Pistoja also believed it opportune to seek salvation by giving themselves a master. This submission to a prince had become so fashionable! but the only lasting ones were those of southern Italy.
After the peace of Calatabellota Federico I continued to reign in Sicily with the title of king of Trinacria, in Naples Charles II with the nickname of Giusto. His wife was Maria, the sister of Ladislao IV, king of Hungary; and when he died in green age without succession (1290), Carlo had the title of that kingdom attributed to his son Carlo Martello. Rudolph the emperor, always in eyes to enlarge the house of Austria, had prevented him by conferring that crown on his own son Alberto; when there is another suitor between the two. Andrea II of Hungary in 1235 had married Beatrice of the Marquis d’Aldrovandino d’Este. Bela was soon widowed and pregnant, born to another wife of that king, threw her into prison and to every worst treatment: however, having arrived in Hungary as Frederick II’s ambassadors, she found a way to escape with them, and return to the paternal house. There he gave birth to a child, which was said [384]Stefano, and who married the heiress of the noble Traversari family of Ravenna, then in second marriage Tommasina Morosini from Venice, from whom he fathered a son. This one, named Andrea, nicknamed the Veneto, quelled the Austrians by marrying a daughter, and reigned in Hungary; but dead improled (1301), he was succeeded by Carl’Uberto or Caroberto son of pre-defeated Carlo Martello, for whom the fate of Naples also mingled sadly with those of Hungary, while a daughter of King Charles of Valois brought in dowry uncertain rights on the Eastern Empire to the other son Philip.
When Charles II died, it was disputed whether his nephew Caroberto of Hungary should succeed him (1309); but Robert the second-born, hastened to Avignon, obtained that the pope gave him the investiture of the Kingdom, and confirmed that of Hungary to his nephew; on the contrary, the pope forgave him three hundred thousand gold sequins and fifty thousand silver marks, of which his father was indebted to the Church.
Here begins the long reign of Robert, known as the Good, acclaimed by the writers as a Solomon, because he favored them, attended the lectures of the University, and did not require an opportunity to show off a pedantic eloquence. Extremely skilled in business, and little inclined to war, he tried to bring peace to the cities; without the inflexibility that breaks the obstacles, he had the perseverance that wears them out; he personally did justice, which is a way of injuring it often, but which pleases the people; and many in fact gave themselves spontaneously to his mercy. As long as he lived he was considered head of the Guelph size, and he seemed about to become lord of all of Italy; yet he did not increase the ancestral kingdom by an inch of land. He never interrupted the war against Frederick of Sicily, supported by the Ghibellines and the emperors; and by sending a fleet each year to spoil it, [385]Pope Clement V, not only annulling the sentence of Henry VII against him “by virtue of his unquestionable authority over the Empire and by the right to succeed the emperor on his vacancy” [279] , appointed Robert (1313) imperial vicar of all Italy ; who was also called senator by the Romans, and lord by Ferrara, Parma, Pavia, Bergamo, Alessandria, Florence; to which, adding many fiefs in Piedmont and the county of Provence, he came to be among the most powerful.
Opposite him stood Uguccione, who made Pisa triumph, and induced it to exclude from the judiciary those who did not prove that he and his ancestors had always been a Ghibelline. Because she, a Guelph, opposed Lucca, rich and powerful almost on a par with Florence, and flanked by a nobility accustomed to throwing itself from its castles to take prey on land or on the sea; and she treacherously took it, with German soldiers she tampered with the treasures accumulated by the citizens mainly through usury, and those that the pope had brought from Rome to transfer them to France; and he held it in control. Florence, appalled by his growth, as King Robert sought generals capable of repressing the Ghibellines; but on the day of Montecatino (1315 – 14 June) these prevailed with a serious massacre of the Guelphs, where the children of the two enemy captains also perished,[280] . Roberto gave himself so much around that he induced Pisa and Lucca to peace with Florence, Siena and Pistoja.
Meanwhile Uguccione held the two cities in the military, proud against any suspicion; so that they plotted with Castruccio Castracani degli Interminelli. This one, exiled from his homeland, for ten years he ran the world to venture, acquiring a cry of valor by serving in [386]France, England, Lombardy; he had lent hand to Uguccione in occupying Lucca, then with the discontented he agreed to overthrow it. Uguccione smoked of it (1316), and put him in prison; but while the gallows was waiting for you, the relieved people draw it from it, and raise it to the dominion of Lucca, which reorganized itself as a people. Uguccione rushed with the cavalry from Pisa, but then this too revolted, and he boldly retired to the court of Can Grande, where he met Dante, who addressed his first canticle to him, and who perhaps alluded to him in the veltro he promised liberator of this humble Italy [281]. Castruccio out of gratitude obtained the title of captain and defender of the people of Lucca for ten years, then for life; he fortified a citadel there, superbly named Augusta and embellished like a palace; and accepted the peace offered by King Robert (1320), he was removed captain of the Ghibellines of Tuscany. In so many wars and travels he had learned no less tactics than administration; valiant, perfidious, ungrateful what is required to ascend sublime; to torture and punishment he sent anyone who upset or benefited him; having discovered a plot, he made twenty people propagate, that is, bury them alive with their heads down, and a hundred exiled; with good economy he doubled his income, called around the castellans of Versilia and the Apennines, and by rewarding the value he created a mighty army.
Lucca, however rich and commercial, was too narrow to his aspirations; and still pretending to work for his Municipality, he invaded the Garfagnana and Lunigiana: but Spinetta Malaspina, who owned sixty-four castles, cut off his march, supported [387]by the Florentines. Castruccio rushed on to these, spoiling the valleys of Nievole and the lower Arno, attacked Prato, surprised Pistoja by taking it away from Ermanno de ‘Tedìci, abbot of Pacchiano, who had become tyrant there; and by making greater sums, he drew to himself the bands of fortune which the Florentines had sold.
Touch of shame, Florence calls in flocks the citizens and also the exiles, and gathers the largest army that ever conscripted, and which cost three thousand gold florins a day, over a thousand Florentines who served on horseback at their own expense; and entrusts it to Raimondo Cardona, a Catalan adventurer. But the latter, thinking less quickly of winning than of collecting money by dispensing the rich merchants from the militia, he led them to the unhealthy seawaters of Biéntina, where dull or feverish, they paid to obtain leave. Castruccio wakes and waits, then defeats them in Altopascio (1325 – 13 7bre), takes Cardona and the carroccio, and by sending the territory to the sack he makes up for the war expenses. While he had the right air, he tries to surprise Florence, plunders the villas of the Peretola plain, rich in decorations and art items such as would not be found elsewhere, and right under the walls he makes the palio run mockingly by knights, jockeys and whores. Nor certainly the Florentines escaped servitude, if a Frescobaldi had not distracted her son Guido Tarlati, bishop of Arezzo, from joining his forces with those of the daring venturiero.
«On 10 November Castruccio found himself in Lucca to celebrate the feast of San Martino with great triumph and glory, meeting him with a great procession all those of the city, men and women, like a king; and for the most contempt of the Florentines, the wagon with the bell was made to go ahead, which the Florentines had in the host, covered the oxen with olive trees and the weapon of Florence, and the insignia of the Commune backwards, making there [388]bell, and behind the cart the best prisons in Florence, and Monsignor Raimondo di Cardona, with lit torchetti in his hand to offer to San Martino. And then he gave everyone dinner, which were fifty of the best in Florence, burdening them with incomparable sizes … provided the war “( Villani ).
Giacomo d’Euse Caorsino was teacher (1316) then University Chancellor; then with the brigas and with the money of King Robert, who succeeded Pope John XXII, he had firmly established himself in Avignon, the domain of the King, who therefore regulated it according to his will, and was preparing to annihilate the Ghibellines in Italy; and it really seems that the pope and the king, overcoming the discord of the two emperors elected in Germany, were thinking of taking the whole peninsula from them, and establishing Robert’s sovereignty there. Strong obstacle placed Castruccio in the middle of Italy, Matteo Visconti in the superior, against whom Roberto moved with papal treasures and curses; but those with arms and more negotiations dispersed the threats.
In those days the enterprise of Genoa raised a great deal of noise, which, prosperous from the commerce of the Levant, ignored the inner peace, and never behaved so badly as when peace enjoyed. Its rich did not sit in the warehouses waiting for the buyers, but glided the sea like captains of vessels, accustomed the sailors to respect and obey them; and since sometimes each child of a family commanded a ship, thousands of people found themselves in the pay of a single house, obedient out of habit, out of need, out of gratitude. Therefore, the battles between ‘Doria and Spinola Ghibellines, Grimaldi and Fieschi Guelphs took place big and bloody; the palaces converted into fortresses, they attacked and repulsed them, and man a [389]enemy man, each engaged in a pernicious activity; commoners and nobles saw each other triumphant or expelled; piracy seemed to have been made legal by enemies. The Ghibellines, who prevailed at the arrival of Henry VII (1318), then disbanded by the Guelphs, invoked their spouses of every country, and laid siege to their homeland by sea, while Marco Visconti, valiant son, squeezed it from the Bisagno and Polcevera valleys. Matteo’s. All of Italy took part in the event; and Pisa, Castruccio, Can della Scala, the marquis of Monferrato, the king of Sicily, even the emperor of Constantinople flanked the besiegers, while the Florentines and Bolognesi with arms, the pope and the monitors gave hand to Roberto who defended it. Although he used to leave the business to the generals, he came in person with the fleet, entered the port, and together with the pope he obtained the sovereignty of Genoa, which he contemplated making the center of the operations of the Guelphs in upper Italy; the Ghibellines, the attacks lasted ten months, had to leave, and the Genoese destroyed the palaces and villas, sacked the warehouses, and carried the relics of the Baptist in procession in thanks for the victory. What damage such a long war did to cities all trade, everyone can imagine. The common people, seeing themselves oppressed despite the abbot who represented them, had instituted one What damage such a long war did to cities all trade, everyone can imagine. The common people, seeing themselves oppressed despite the abbot who represented them, had instituted one What damage such a long war did to cities all trade, everyone can imagine. The common people, seeing themselves oppressed despite the abbot who represented them, had instituted oneMotta del popolo , ten captains joining the abbot to force the vicar to do justice; and when he refused, they hit the hammer. Roberto disconnected this league, and held dominion for twelve years, after which two captains of the people were created, with a mayor, besides the abbot.
Meanwhile the Ghibellines had settled in Soncino sul Cremonese, and stopped a league under the captaincy of Can della Scala, renewed hostilities in various districts. John XXII had the Scaligero, Matteo Visconti, Passerino Bonacolsi, the Este family tried for heresy [390]and others; and however they protested of their faith, proclaim the crusade against them. The cardinal legate Del Poggetto, nephew of the pope, bad soldier and bad priest led it; and had the disadvantage, despite the predicted valor of his captain Cardona. The pope, now implicated in supporting the excommunications with arms, then sent the Guelph Philip of Valois, cousin of the king of France, against us, with seven counts, one hundred and twenty Banderese knights, and six hundred men-at-arms: he arrived full of boldness in Mortara. , the major forces and the donations of the Visconti made him capitulate (1320). Deserted by the French, Giovanni turned to the Austrians, and from Frederick the Beautiful he obtained an expedition commanded by his brother Henry of Austria (1321); but this also yielded to the arms themselves.
Matteo Visconti, supported by four brave sons, Galeazzo, Marco, Luchino, Stefano, and by all the Ghibellines, had drawn in his obedience Bergamo, Pavia, Piacenza, Tortona, Alessandria, Vercelli, Cremona, Como; he redeemed for twenty-six thousand florins the treasure of the basilica of Monza, which the Torrians had given as a pledge, and with his own hand placed it there on the altar; he knew the human heart and his own times, and he profited from it; I did not let myself be weakened by the troubles; and although in a new domain, he spared blood, and rather than heroism preferred to arrive at his ends with prudence and simulation. Banned the cross on him as we said, accusing him of heresy, necromancy and other crimes, including that of having hindered the condemnations of the Holy Inquisition, Cardinal Del Poggetto damned him, his children, the proponents of the confiscation of property and the slavery of the person as if they were Saracens; and Pagano della Torre patriarch of Aquileja led the army against the ancient emulators of his house.
Terrified of the excommunication, and seeing the peoples unwilling to suffer it for the ambitions of a family, before [391]to the people gathered in the cathedral he makes a solemn profession of Catholic faith, sends to negotiate with the legate, and since the conditions seemed exorbitant to him, urges his children to return to the womb of the Church, then is reduced to the rectory of Crescenzago near Milan, where he dies ( 1322), leaving the name of an able captain and political right.
Serious blow to the cause. Galeazzo his eldest son, despite the papal threats and the plots of the discontented, had obtained the title of captain general; but having tempted the wife of Versuzio Lando, gentleman of Piacenza, this city was rebelled against him, and behind the others and even Milan, as an enemy of the Church. The main activists were his cousin Lodrisio Visconti and that Francesco da Garbagnate who had been primary in restoring Matteo’s domain, and had received great rewards. With the army of the league, seen by the papal legate and by Cardona, they defeated Marco Visconti, the Ettore de ‘Ghibellini, and penetrated as far as Milan, which they held under siege for two months (1323). Marco earned money for many German bands who militated with the pontiffs, he asked the emperor Lodovico Bavaro for others, and so he enlarged Milan; he killed in his own hand the Garbagnate who fell into his hands at the battle of Vaprio, and made Cardona a prisoner. The enemies held steady for a while in Monza, but then Galeazzo had it, and built a strong castle with frightening prisons, calledthe ovens , with a convex floor and a vault so low that the prisoner could neither stand up nor lie down unless he had barked. – Fortresses and prisons, necessary kits of every tyranny.
The turmoil in Italy was aggravated by the fact that there was no longer either the pope, seated overseas, or the emperor. On the death of Henry VII, Frederick the Beautiful Duke of Austria competed for the crown of Germany, and his cousin Lodovico di Baviera: divided the votes, one pretended to be legitimate [392]because crowned by the archbishop of Cologne, to whom this solemnity was always competed, the other because crowned in Frankfurt like the previous ones: and having no other norms to clarify their right, they resorted to the judgment of God, that is to the battles, with eight years of civil war bleeding the banks of the Rhine and the Danube. Frederick, supported by the nobles, while the other was from the free cities, in Mühldorf on the Inn (1322 – 28 7 October) remained a prisoner while fighting: then Lodovico, having banned public peace in Germany, thought to come and restore imperial rights in Italy.
Pope John had not accepted either of the two contenders, but when the victory proved the Bavaro right, he showed himself willing to recognize him; except that the councilors insinuated to this: “What need does a victorious emperor have of the papal sanction?” He listened to them; and he wanted to get a taste of his authority by sending an order to the papal legate not to molest Milan: but the pope was complacent with this act, who claimed it was up to himself to decide between the two competitors; whereby he declared Italy removed from imperial jurisdiction, so that it could not be incorporated or enfeoffed to the Empire [282] ; at the church of Avignon he had a trial posted(1324), where Bavaro was accused of all the acts that he had duties in the unjust quality of king of the Romans, and ordered him to depose this title. On the other hand Bavaro appealed to a council, calling the pontiff in very unworthy terms, a disturber of peace, scandalous, profaner of the sacraments, heretic; so that this denounced him excommunicated and deposed, forbidden the countries that they had to do with him; and he tried to bring the king of France to the empire.
[393]
Here is Christianity completely split; the Universities of Bologna and Paris disapprove of the pope; jurists and theologians, defending the emperor, hurl rumors unleashed against the pontifical court; the anti-papal doctrines spread, and consciences and peace were disturbed in Germany and Italy. Lodovico went to this, and arrived with a few men in Trento (1327), he joined the main Ghibellines, Marco Visconti, Passerino Bonacolsi, Obizzo d’Este, Guido Tarlati, Can della Scala, and with the ambassadors of Sicily, of Castruccio, de ‘Pisani; from whom, having promised 150,000 gold florins for expenses, she continued her journey to Brescia and Como, bringing to the adverse threats and worries, to the proponents of him the papal interdict. In Milan (May 30) the iron crown was laid by Guido Tarlati and Federico Maggi, interdicted bishops of Arezzo and Brescia: although Galeazzo Visconti suspected of intelligence with the pope, he showed him the face of a friend, and confirmed him as vicar; then all of a sudden he had him arrested with the brothers Luchino and Giovanni (this was a priest; Stefano died the same day) and with his eldest son Azzone, and thrown into the ovens of Monza. The cowardice is more disgusting in the fort: the world believed false the correspondences that he said surprised Galeazzo, and with which he tried to justify this first betrayal, to which many accompanied him, holding Italy as a country to tamper with and deceive. Ours noticed it, and looked at him with distrust even when they favored him out of partisan spirit. although he suspected Galeazzo Visconti of intelligence with the pope, he showed him the face of a friend, and confirmed him as vicar; then all of a sudden he had him arrested with the brothers Luchino and Giovanni (this was a priest; Stefano died the same day) and with his eldest son Azzone, and thrown into the ovens of Monza. The cowardice is more disgusting in the fort: the world believed false the correspondences that he said surprised Galeazzo, and with which he tried to justify this first betrayal, to which many accompanied him, holding Italy as a country to tamper with and deceive. Ours noticed it, and looked at him with distrust even when they favored him out of partisan spirit. although he suspected Galeazzo Visconti of intelligence with the pope, he showed him the face of a friend, and confirmed him as vicar; then all of a sudden he had him arrested with the brothers Luchino and Giovanni (this was a priest; Stefano died the same day) and with his eldest son Azzone, and thrown into the ovens of Monza. The cowardice is more disgusting in the fort: the world believed false the correspondences that he said surprised Galeazzo, and with which he tried to justify this first betrayal, to which many accompanied him, holding Italy as a country to tamper with and deceive. Ours noticed it, and looked at him with distrust even when they favored him out of partisan spirit. and throw in the ovens of Monza. The cowardice is more disgusting in the fort: the world believed false the correspondences that he said surprised Galeazzo, and with which he tried to justify this first betrayal, to which many accompanied him, holding Italy as a country to tamper with and deceive. Ours noticed it, and looked at him with distrust even when they favored him out of partisan spirit. and throw in the ovens of Monza. The cowardice is more disgusting in the fort: the world believed false the correspondences that he said surprised Galeazzo, and with which he tried to justify this first betrayal, to which many accompanied him, holding Italy as a country to tamper with and deceive. Ours noticed it, and looked at him with distrust even when they favored him out of partisan spirit.
A German podestà was placed in Milan (August), and a government of twenty-four citizens presided over by a German, who decreed fifty thousand florins for his trip, followed on by extracting money from the Ghibellines, and flanked by Marco Visconti, attacking his brothers, and by Castruccio, to which advice he abandoned himself with a confidence that does not honor his discernment, because [394]Castruccio only wanted to increase his authority by crossing Italy alongside the emperor.
Pisa, satisfied with favoring the Ghibelline party, which attracted huge expenses, excommunications from the pope, and infidelity from the emperors, offered sixty thousand florins to Lodovico if he did not enter: but Castruccio, who was pining to possess it, persuaded Lodovico to attack it, afterwards the ambassadors were held hostages. The siege lasted for a month, the screams of the populace forced the city to surrender, paying one hundred and fifty thousand florins; and the emperor conferred its sovereignty on his wife, and erected Lucca, Pistoja, Volterra and Lunigiana in favor of Castruccio in duchy (1328).
The Florentines, feeling threatened, asked lord Carlo di Calabria, the only son of King Robert, who came there with a fine army of Provencal and Catalan, and with the flower of the lords of the realm and two hundred armed knights. Therefore, it seems difficult for then to attack Florence and challenge the Duke of Calabria, Lodovico for the Grosseto Maremma [283]beat the march over Rome (gennajo). He found it all upside down; despite the supremacy of Roberto who had been made his perpetual senator, everything spoiled the oligarchs, the Colonna, the Porcello, the Orsini, the Savellis, the Frangipani; and spirits were getting worse and worse against the pope, who left the bride a widow. Sciarra Colonna, who at the announcement of the descent of Lodovico had expelled the nobles and the Guelphs, and had been elected captain of the people with fifty-two delegates of citizens and farmers, having again urged the pontiff to return in vain, presented to the [395]Bavaro an accusation against Giovanni; and Bavaro, always inspired by a crowd of heretics and absent friars who had rushed to him, was summoned by the mayors of Rome, accused of heresy and multiple crimes, and in absentia declare his decay, substituting for him the antipope Fra Pietro Rainalduccio from Corvara with the name of Nicola V; and by this he was crowned (May 12).
“The emperor and his wife, with all his armed people, left on the morning of Santa Maria Maggiore, coming to Santo Pietro, tinkering with four Romans per district, with flags, their horses covered with zendado, and many other foreign people, the streets being all swept, and full of myrtle and laurel, and above each house they stretched and parades the most beautiful jewels and drapes and ornaments that they had in the house. Those who crowned him were Sciarra della Colonna who had been captain of the people, Buccio di Porcello and Orsino degli Orsini were senators, and Pietro da Montenero, knight of Rome, all dressed in gold drapes: and with the sayings, fifty-two of the people crowned him. and the prefect of Rome always going ahead of him, as his title says; and was trained by the aforementioned four captains, senators and knights, and by Jacopo Savelli and Tibaldo di Sant’Eustazio and many other barons of Rome; and still a judge of the law was asked to go before, who had as instructed the order of the empire, and with the said order he guided himself up to the coronation; and finding no defect outside the blessing and confirmation of the pope who was not there, and of the count of the Lateran palace who had ceased to Rome, who according to the order of the empire had to keep him when taking confirmation at the the high altar of Santo Pietro, and to receive the crown when it is drawn, provision was made beforehand to make the said Castruccio Duke of Lucca count. And first with the greatest solicitude he made him a knight, encircling his sword with the and with the said order he guided himself up to the coronation; and finding no defect outside the blessing and confirmation of the pope who was not there, and of the count of the Lateran palace who had ceased to Rome, who according to the order of the empire had to keep him when taking confirmation at the the high altar of Santo Pietro, and to receive the crown when it is drawn, provision was made beforehand to make the said Castruccio Duke of Lucca count. And first with great solicitude he made him a knight, encircling his sword with the and with the said order he guided himself up to the coronation; and finding no defect outside the blessing and confirmation of the pope who was not there, and of the count of the Lateran palace who had ceased to Rome, who according to the order of the empire had to keep him when taking confirmation at the the high altar of Santo Pietro, and to receive the crown when it is drawn, provision was made beforehand to make the said Castruccio Duke of Lucca count. And first with great solicitude he made him a knight, encircling his sword with the and to receive the crown when it was drawn, provision was made beforehand to make the said Castruccio Duke of Lucca count. And first with the greatest solicitude he made him a knight, encircling his sword with the and to receive the crown when it was drawn, provision was made beforehand to make the said Castruccio Duke of Lucca count. And first with great solicitude he made him a knight, encircling his sword with the [396]his hands and giving him the necklace; and many others later made knights of them while touching them with the gold wand; and Castruccio made seven with him. This done, the said Bavaro was consecrated as emperor by schismatics; and in a similar way his woman was crowned as emperor. And when he was crowned, he had three imperial decrees read, the first of the Catholic faith, the second to honor and reverence the cherics, the third to preserve the reasoning of widows and wards: which hypocritical dissimulation pleased the Romans very much. And this done, he had the Mass said; and when the solemnity was completed, they left San Pietro and came to the square of Santa Maria Araceli, where the meal was prepared; and for the very long solemnity, it was evening before they ate, and at night they stayed to sleep in the Capitol ” [284]. Lodovico ruled that the popes could not stay two days outside of Rome without the consent of the Roman people: and the people applauded decrees that had neither sense nor force.
Then he meditated to ride over Naples to punish that king, and to support Frederick of Sicily: but the Ghibellines, either tired of so many burdens and the interdict, or out of natural mobility, failed him. Galeazzo Visconti, at the instances of Marco, who had betrayed him to divide his power, not to see his house humiliated, had recovered his freedom with the expense of twenty-five thousand florins, and passing the offenses with his eyes closed, he followed Lodovico, until he died in Pescia, excommunicated and in the service of others. Castruccio, hearing that the Florentines, while he was pumping in Rome, invaded his dominions, flew to save them, resumed with horrible plunder Pistoja and Pisa which he kept regardless of imperial rights, [397]so that “I found myself on the verge of being feared and reduced, and more adventurous in his exploits than he had been a null lord or Italian tyrant; lord of these cities and of Lunigiana, and of a large part of the Riviera di Levante, and of more than three hundred walled castellas »( Villani ). When he was doing his best he died (1328), and Florence and Tuscany rejoiced with joy, as if they were free from the greatest danger they had ever run.
Deprived of his mandritt and of money, devoid by death of Marsiglio of Padua theologian, his inspirer in the unfortunate controversy with the pope, Lodovico, who had not known but to make himself ridiculous and shameful with the pomp and trials, and with those lavish improperjes. to the popes who alternated with abject submissions, instead of the promised fleet of Frederick of Sicily, hearing the arrival of King Robert’s troops, he got out of Rome more than in pace, pursued with stones by the people on whom he had imposed thirty thousand florins, and who now shouted – Viva santa Chiesa, down Pier di Corvara, death to the Germans », whose dead he unearthed in that meantime, and threw them into the Tiber as excommunicated. When he returned to Pisa, and made new scenes of congresses and depositions there, he found himself insulted by the Florentines right up to the walls: the treachery and violence with which he was smashing money from his most devoted ones ended up defaming him. Oblivious of the services received by Castruccio, after having made his sons pay for the confirmation of dominion, he sold Lucca to Francesco Castracani, a relative and enemy of those, who thus found themselves reduced to the profession of leaders. Many Saxons of his soldiers, not receiving wages, broke their obedience, and tried in vain to surprise Lucca, they huddled on the mountain of Ceruglio which divides the marshy plain of Fucecchio from Lake Bientina, whence dominating the Val di Nievole and the Val d ‘ Arno, they cut off communications relative and enemy of those, who thus found themselves reduced to the profession of leaders. Many Saxons of his soldiers, not receiving wages, broke their obedience, and tried in vain to surprise Lucca, they huddled on the mountain of Ceruglio which divides the marshy plain of Fucecchio from Lake Bientina, whence dominating the Val di Nievole and the Val d ‘ Arno, they cut off communications relative and enemy of those, who thus found themselves reduced to the profession of leaders. Many Saxons of his soldiers, not receiving wages, broke their obedience, and tried in vain to surprise Lucca, they huddled on the mountain of Ceruglio which divides the marshy plain of Fucecchio from Lake Bientina, whence dominating the Val di Nievole and the Val d ‘ Arno, they cut off communications [398]between Lucca and Pisa, and lived on robberies. Marco Visconti sent there to silence them, they took it off the head, and having occupied Lucca, they exhibited it to the highest bidder to compensate themselves for the wages.
When Azzone Visconti succeeded his father, his family was so low that he had to buy from the governor the right to enter Milan from the governor; but there he hastened to recover authority, bought the vicariate from the emperor for twelve thousand florins in hand and one thousand a month as long as he remained in Italy, then soon expelled the governor; and knowing Lodovico on the slip, and wanting to cheat the rest of the payment, he threw himself into the Church, calling himself the pontifical vicar. Even the lords of Este had dealt with the pope; Brescia, given to King Robert, displaced the Ghibellines to whom it was governed. The emperor, whose soldiers deserted to whomever paid them the most, in Lodi the doors were closed in his face: he camped under Milan, but silenced for money, he went beyond the Alps, cursed by the Italians who, thanks to him , for a long time they had had to remain without sacraments, leaving the imperial authority, which he had sold off-the-shelf, debased, and prejudiced his friends more than his enemies. His antipope of him fled into the sea, but discovered in his hiding place, he abjured in the presence of all Pisa: sent to Avignon, he was acquitted there, and ended his life in custody in the papal palace. And all the cities hastened to ask for the Pope’s re-blessing: Lodovico himself proposed several times to obey, as long as his imperial dignity was preserved; but John always denied it, looking at it as expired, and wanting a new election. he abjured in the presence of all of Pisa: sent to Avignon, he was acquitted there, and ended his life in custody in the papal palace. And all the cities hastened to ask for the Pope’s re-blessing: Lodovico himself proposed several times to obey, as long as his imperial dignity was preserved; but John always denied it, looking at it as expired, and wanting a new election. he abjured in the presence of all of Pisa: sent to Avignon, he was acquitted there, and ended his life in custody in the papal palace. And all the cities hastened to ask for the Pope’s re-blessing: Lodovico himself proposed several times to obey, as long as his imperial dignity was preserved; but John always denied it, looking at it as expired, and wanting a new election.
The Guelph and Roberto sides then surmounted in Lombardy; in Romagna the cities, taking advantage of the absence of the popes, stir up a stormy independence; the Polenta family established their dominion in Ravenna, in Rimini [399]the Malatesta, the Montefeltro in Urbino, the Varano in Camerino; twenty other lordships had formed between the Apennines, the Adriatic and the principality of Benevento, barely held back from hour to hour by some papal legate, who with alliances, with arms, seized interdicts, sought to restore the papal authority . Bologna, placed in the heart of Italy, populous, trafficker, proud of its University, disputed the captaincy of the Guelphs with Florence, and remained free, although it was a large sect and division. The Ghibelline lords, victors of the Tuscan Guelphs in Altopascio, gave the Bolognese a memorable defeat in Monteveglio (1328), killing the mayor Malatestino da Rimini and the flower of the citizens: so that the dismayed city gave itself to Cardinal Del Poggetto, who there planted in appearance to protect papal interests,
Meanwhile Charles of Calabria, without regard to the pacts with which Florence had guaranteed her freedom, mined four hundred and fifty thousand gold florins a year instead of the two hundred thousand established; he wanted the right of war and peace, supported by the nobles whom the principality talented better than democracy; she indulged every license in part of him; and by abolishing the laws that suppressed the luxury of women, he added domestic complaints to the public woes. The death which had saved Florence from Henry VII and Castruccio, also survived from Carlo. Free then of herself (1329), she set about reforming the regained freedom of new orders, such that the people did not govern directly and universally, even though no one was excluded from it by general law. Those eligible were sincerely recognized by five judges, representing different interests: [400]part those of the Guelphs, the judges of commerce those of the merchants, the consuls of the arts and of the craftsmen. The four councils were restricted to two, one of three hundred Guelphs and commoners under the captain of the people, the other of plebeian and noblemen under the mayor, renewable every four months.
Then it took on new flower and prominence. Pistoja, redeemed by the Tedìci and the Castracani, joined it in perpetual friendship, welded with reciprocal courtesies, and so did the castles of the delightful Val di Nievole already confederate to each other. Marco Visconti exhibited Lucca, and she abruptly refused it, nor did she let a company of merchants accept it; hence Gherardino Spinola from Genoa bought it. Marco, deprived of that firmness for which only value can succeed in any end, was failing the Ghibelline cause by negotiating with the Florentines; and perhaps he offered to betray Milan to the papal legate; then returned to this city, he began to rise up, so much so that his relatives, among revenge for the offenses they had, including suspicion of new ones, invite him to a banquet, and in the morning he is found with a soga around his neck in the grave.
Dead were all the leaders of the Ghibellines, Castruccio, Gian Galeazzo, Can Grande of illness, Marco Visconti and Passerino of assassination; Azzone Visconti, reconciled with the pontiff, obtained for his uncle Giovanni, made cardinal by the antipope, absolution and the bishopric of Novara; in short, the Ghibelline flag was everywhere in labor. But not even the papacy was in honor: the names of Guelphs and Ghibellines no longer meant affection for one and the other of the two luminaries of the world, but hatred of the opposite; and under them the ephemeral lordships continued to change: omai the only aspiration, to lose one’s freedom.
Giovanni di was in Tyrol at that time [401]Luxemburg, king of Bohemia, son of Henry VII, as chivalrous as his father, and who, ill fitting himself to the Slavic customs, wandered, wary of where there were quarrels to be accommodated or a wedding to be concluded; he reconciled Bavaro with the house of Austria, he also tried to relate it to the pope, but this refused any other condition except that Lodovico should descend from the throne. The Brescians sent to offer their city to this king of peace (1331), as long as he would help them against the exiled Ghibellines, whom Mastin della Scala wanted to put back in the city. “Poor in money and greedy for lordship”, he noticed it, calmed the factions, induced Mastino to desist; and the fame of his fictional exploits, the noble appearance, the eloquence, the generosity, the open and friendly doing fascinated the souls, less suspicious because he did not arm rights, but it was all due to free election. For that usual raving of imitation, the Bergamaschi invited him to lord; and so were Crema, Cremona, Pavia, Vercelli, Novara, Parma, Reggio, Modena; also Lucca, without regret abandoned by Spinola who had never been able to enjoy peace there; even Milan, where Azzone resigned himself to calling himself vicar of him, waiting without jealousy for the sunset of a kingdom that foresaw ephemeral. Everywhere he repatriated the stragglers, took away the garrisons left by the Bavaro, which could only live on looting. But was he working for the pope or for the emperor? no one knew, since making a beautiful face to Guelphs and Ghibellines, all of them were equally subdued, although professing to accept the lordships only to restore order and harmony. the Bergamaschi invited him to lord; and so were Crema, Cremona, Pavia, Vercelli, Novara, Parma, Reggio, Modena; also Lucca, without regret abandoned by Spinola who had never been able to enjoy peace there; even Milan, where Azzone resigned himself to calling himself vicar of him, waiting without jealousy for the sunset of a kingdom that foresaw ephemeral. Everywhere he repatriated the stragglers, took away the garrisons left by the Bavaro, which could only live on looting. But was he working for the pope or for the emperor? no one knew, since making a beautiful face to Guelphs and Ghibellines, all of them were equally subdued, although professing to accept the lordships only to restore order and harmony. the Bergamaschi invited him to lord; and so were Crema, Cremona, Pavia, Vercelli, Novara, Parma, Reggio, Modena; also Lucca, without regret abandoned by Spinola who had never been able to enjoy peace there; even Milan, where Azzone resigned himself to calling himself vicar of him, waiting without jealousy for the sunset of a kingdom that foresaw ephemeral. Everywhere he repatriated the stragglers, took away the garrisons left by the Bavaro, which could only live on looting. But was he working for the pope or for the emperor? no one knew, since making a beautiful face to Guelphs and Ghibellines, all of them were equally subdued, although professing to accept the lordships only to restore order and harmony. without regret abandoned by Spinola who had never been able to enjoy peace there; even Milan, where Azzone resigned himself to calling himself vicar of him, waiting without jealousy for the sunset of a kingdom that foresaw ephemeral. Everywhere he repatriated the stragglers, took away the garrisons left by the Bavaro, which could only live on looting. But was he working for the pope or for the emperor? no one knew, since making a beautiful face to Guelphs and Ghibellines, all of them were equally subdued, although professing to accept the lordships only to restore order and harmony. without regret abandoned by Spinola who had never been able to enjoy peace there; even Milan, where Azzone resigned himself to calling himself vicar of him, waiting without jealousy for the sunset of a kingdom that foresaw ephemeral. Everywhere he repatriated the stragglers, took away the garrisons left by the Bavaro, which could only live on looting. But was he working for the pope or for the emperor? no one knew, since making a beautiful face to Guelphs and Ghibellines, all of them were equally subdued, although professing to accept the lordships only to restore order and harmony. which could only live on plunder. But was he working for the pope or for the emperor? no one knew, since making a beautiful face to Guelphs and Ghibellines, all of them were equally subdued, although professing to accept the lordships only to restore order and harmony. which could only live on plunder. But was he working for the pope or for the emperor? no one knew, since making a beautiful face to Guelphs and Ghibellines, all of them were equally subdued, although professing to accept the lordships only to restore order and harmony.
For what desire to keep everyone good, pontifical or imperial, John took the legate. It took so little for the Italians to take him into suspicion of understanding with him in order to divide up Italy and reduce everyone to servitude. First Florence, which, plus calculator and men [402]passionate about the other cities, having resisted the fashion, it was restricted with the king of Naples; the pope was annoyed at seeing him treating his legate as master, and the Guelphs opposed him; the Ghibellines insulted the Bavaro, who allied himself with the Dukes of Austria and with other lords of his opponents to invade the States of what had shown him to be an intrinsic friend: so that the king of peace, who became the cause of universal war (1332) , he was forced to return to Germany, leaving the dominions of Italy to his son Carlo, recommended to the Dukes of Savoy. But these soon abandoned him; Lombard Ghibellines and Tuscan Guelphs agreed to return the cities to him, and a league was woven in Orzinovi between the Ghibelline lords, the Republic of Florence and King Robert, mutually securing their possessions. Carlo did not put up much resistance,
John had dispelled suspicions in Germany, saved his own dominions, dispersed Austrians and Hungarians; then he returned to reconcile the pope with the emperor, and if his doing was in vain, at least he won back the honor of many tournaments, and arranged a wedding; and obtained from Philip IV of France one hundred thousand florins, he sold one thousand six hundred knights (1333), and with these he reappeared in Italy, where all seemed intent on erasing any memory of his domination, or making their profit. The pope, who wanted to humiliate the Florentines who were opposed to the cardinal legate, favored him: but lacking in money and realizing that he was arousing jealousies on every side, as in principle he had inspired confidence, he proceeded to make money; he sold Parma and Lucca to the Rossi for thirty-five thousand florins, Reggio to the Fogliano, Modena to the Pio, Cremona to Ponzino Ponzone, the Garda Riviera to the Castelbarco, and he went off to France to injure rebellions, to reconcile kinship and peace; until in the battle of Crécy (1346), old and blind, fighting [403]the English who invaded that kingdom forced many knights to tie their horses with his and push forward with their body lost, leading at random, until he fell into the thick of the fray.
Poor kings and emperors, who without soldiers or money suddenly appeared between these gentlemen and these republicans well equipped with both; and showing no other intention than to recover the purse somewhat, they reaped hatred and contempt. That if they received praise in Germany, they who could not read [285], between civilization and Italian refinement they seemed barbarians, among our tyrants’ constitutions. Lodovico the Bavaro sold everything and treacherous; John of Luxemburg was more loyal, but just as vindictive; Charles of Bohemia sold and committed: so I don’t know what Dante wanted when he invoked God’s vengeance on Rudolf of Habsburg and his son Alberto because they left this garden of the Empire deserted, and did not come to restore the restraint of this indomitable fair. ; or Petrarch when Charles directed rhetorical invitations to it. What good did the Italians ever have to hope for from the emperors? which ever by the popes? yet of their distance they continued to whimper; and in the meantime they took advantage of the names of both to side, cloak their ambitions, and storm in a freedom that they neither knew how to establish nor wanted to renounce,
