The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0086/00865.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 23KB | 352 lines

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$Title{History Of Europe During The Middle Ages
Part IV}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Hallam, Henry}
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$Subject{cities
frederic
italy
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milan
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history
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$Date{}
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Title:       History Of Europe During The Middle Ages
Book:        Book III: The History Of Italy
Author:      Hallam, Henry

Part IV

     A new generation had risen up in Lombardy since the peace of Constance,
and the prerogatives reserved by that treaty to the empire were so seldom
called into action, that few cities were disposed to recollect their
existence.  They denominated themselves Guelfs or Ghibelins, according to
habit, and out of their mutual opposition, but without much reference to the
empire.  Those however of the former party, and especially Milan, retained
their antipathy to the house of Suabia.  Though Frederic II. was entitled, as
far as established usage can create a right, to the sovereignty of Italy, the
Milanese would never acknowledge him, nor permit his coronation at Monza,
according to ancient ceremony, with the iron crown of the Lombard kings.  The
pope fomented, to the utmost of his power, this disaffected spirit, and
encouraged the Lombard cities to renew their former league.  This, although
conformable to a provision in the treaty of Constance, was manifestly hostile
to Frederic, and may be considered as the commencement of a second contest
between the republican cities of Lombardy and the empire.  But there was a
striking difference between this and the former confederacy against Frederic
Barbarossa.  In the league of 1167, almost every city, forgetting all smaller
animosities in the great cause of defending the national privileges,
contributed its share of exertion to sustain that perilous conflict; and this
transient unanimity in a people so distracted by internal faction as the
Lombards is the surest witness to the justice of their undertaking.  Sixty
years afterwards, their war against the second Frederic had less of
provocation and less of public spirit.  It was in fact a party struggle of
Guelf and Ghibelin cities, to which the names of the church and the empire
gave more of dignity and consistence.

     The republics of Italy in the thirteenth century were so numerous and
independent, and their revolutions so frequent, that it is a difficult matter
to avoid confusion in following their history.  It will give more arrangement
to our ideas, and at the same time illustrate the changes that took place in
these little states, if we consider them as divided into four clusters or
constellations, not indeed unconnected one with another, yet each having its
own centre of motion and its own boundaries.  The first of these we may
suppose formed of the cities in central Lombardy, between the Sessia and the
Adige, the Alps and the Ligurian mountains; it comprehends Milan, Cremona,
Pavia, Brescia, Bergamo, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua, Lodi, Alessandria, and
several others less distinguished.  These were the original seats of Italian
liberty, the great movers in the wars of the elder Frederic.  Milan was at the
head of this cluster of cities, and her influence gave an ascendency to the
Guelf party; she had, since the treaty of Constance, rendered Lodi and Pavia
almost her subjects, and was in strict union with Brescia and Piacenza.
Parma, however, and Cremona, were unshaken defenders of the empire.  In the
second class we may place the cities of the march of Verona, between the Adige
and the frontiers of Germany.  Of these there were but four worth mentioning:
Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso.  The citizens of all the four were
inclined to the Guelf interests; but a powerful body of rural nobility, who
had never been compelled, like those upon the Upper Po, to quit their
fortresses in the hilly country, or reside within the walls, attached
themselves to the opposite denomination. ^v Some of them obtained very great
authority in the civil feuds of these four republics; and especially two
brothers, Eccelin and Alberic da Romano, of a rich and distinguished family,
known for its devotion to the empire.  By extraordinary vigor and decision of
character, by dissimulation and breach of oaths, by the intimidating effects
of almost unparalleled cruelty, Eccelin da Romano became after some years the
absolute master of three cities, Padua, Verona, and Vicenza; and the Guelf
party, in consequence, was entirely subverted beyond the Adige, during the
continuance of his tyranny. ^w Another cluster was composed of the cities in
Romagna; Bologna, Imola, Faenza, Ferrara, and several others.  Of these,
Bologna was far the most powerful, and, as no city was more steadily for the
interests of the church, the Guelfs usually predominated in this class; to
which also the influence of the house of Este not a little contributed.
Modena, though not geographically within the limits of this division, may be
classed along with it from her constant wars with Bologna.  A fourth class
will comprehend the whole of Tuscany, separated almost entirely from the
politics of Lombardy and Romagna.  Florence headed the Guelf cities in this
province, Pisa the Ghibelin.  The Tuscan union was formed, as has been said
above, by Innocent III., and was strongly inclined to the popes; but gradually
the Ghibelin party acquired its share of influence; and the cities of Siena,
Arezzo, and Lucca shifted their policy, according to external circumstances or
the fluctuations of their internal factions.  The petty cities in the region
of Spoleto and Ancona hardly perhaps deserve the name of republics; and Genoa
does not readily fall into any of our four classes, unless her wars with Pisa
may be thought to connect her with Tuscany. ^x

[Footnote v: Sismondi, t. ii. p. 222.]

[Footnote w: The cruelties of Eccelin excited universal horror in an age when
inhumanity towards enemies was as common as fear and revenge could make it.
It was an usual trick of beggars, all over Italy, to pretend that they had
been deprived of their eyes or limbs by the Veronese tyrant. There is hardly
an instance in European history of so sanguinary a government subsisting for
more than twenty years.  The crimes of Eccelin are remarkably well
authenticated by the testimony of several contemporary writers, who enter into
great details.  Most of these are found in the seventh volume of Scriptores
Rerum Italicarum.  Sismondi, t. iii. pp. 33, III, 203, is more full than any
of the moderns.]

[Footnote x: I have taken no notice of Piedmont in this division.  The history
of that country seems to be less elucidated by ancient or modern writers than
that of other parts of Italy.  It was at this time divided between the counts
of Savoy and marquises of Montferrat.  But Asti, Chieri, and Turin, especially
the two former, appear to have had a republican form of government.  They
were, however, not absolutely independent.  The only Piedmontese city that can
properly be considered as a separate state, in the thirteenth century, was
Vercelli; and even there the bishop seems to have possessed a sort of temporal
sovereignty.  Denina, author of the Rivoluzioni d'Italia, first printed in
1769, lived to publish in his old age a history of western Italy, of Piedmont,
from which I have gleaned a few facts. - Istoria dell' Italia Occidentale,
Torino, 1809, 6 vols., 8vo.]

     After several years of transient hostility and precarious truce, the
Guelf cities of Lombardy engaged in a regular and protracted war with Frederic
II., or more properly with their Ghibelin adversaries.  Few events of this
contest deserve particular notive.  Neither party ever obtained such decisive
advantages as had alternately belonged to Frederic Barbarossa and the Lombard
confederacy, during the war of the preceding century.  A defeat of the
Milanese by the emperor, at Corte Nuova, in 1237, was balanced by his
unsuccessful siege at Brescia the next year.  The Pisans assisted Frederic to
gain a great naval victory over the Genoese fleet, in 1241; but he was obliged
to rise from the