The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0087/00874.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 23KB | 351 lines

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$Title{History Of Europe During The Middle Ages
Part XIII}
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$Author{Hallam, Henry}
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$Subject{duke
florence
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king
medici
milan
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war
albizi}
$Date{}
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Title:       History Of Europe During The Middle Ages
Book:        Book III: The History Of Italy
Author:      Hallam, Henry

Part XIII

     In the first year of Alfonso's Neapolitan war he was defeated and taken
prisoner by a fleet of the Genoese, who, as constant enemies of the Catalans
in all the naval warfare of the Mediterranean, had willingly lent their aid to
the Angevin party.  Genoa was at this time subject to Filippo Maria, Duke of
Milan, and her royal captive was transmitted to his court. But here the
brilliant graces of Alfonso's character won over his conqueror, who had no
reason to consider the war as his own concern.  The king persuaded him, on the
contrary, that a strict alliance with an Aragonese dynasty in Naples against
the pretensions of any French claimant would be the true policy and best
security of Milan.  That city, which he had entered as a prisoner, he left as
a friend and ally.  From this time Filippo Maria Visconti and Alfonso were
firmly united in their Italian politics, and formed one weight of the balance
which the republics of Venice and Florence kept in equipoise.  After the
succession of Sforza to the duchy of Milan the same alliance was generally
preserved.  Sforza had still more powerful reasons than his predecessor for
excluding the French from Italy, his own title being contested by the Duke of
Orleans, who derived a claim from his mother Valentine, a daughter of Gian
Galeazzo Visconti.  But the two republics were no longer disposed towards war.
Florence had spent a great deal without any advantage in her contest with
Filippo Maria; ^a and the new Duke of Milan had been the constant personal
friend of Cosmo de' Medici, who altogether influenced that republic.  At
Venice, indeed, he had been regarded with very different sentiments; the
senate had prolonged their war against Milan with redoubled animosity after
his elevation, deeming him a not less ambitious and formidable neighbor than
the Visconti.  But they were deceived in the character of Sforza. Conscious
that he had reached an eminence beyond his early hopes, he had no care but to
secure for his family the possession of Milan, without disturbing the balance
of Lombardy.  No one better knew than Sforza the faithless temper and
destructive politics of the condottieri, whose interest was placed in the
oscillations of interminable war, and whose defection might shake the
stability of any government.  Without peace it was impossible to break that
ruinous system, and accustom states to rely upon their natural resources.
Venice had little reason to expect further conquests in Lombardy; and if her
ambition had aspired the hope of them, she was summoned by a stronger call,
that of self-preservation, to defend her numerous and dispersed possessions in
the Levant against the arms of Mahomet II.  All Italy, indeed, felt the peril
that impended from that side; and these various motions occasioned a quadruple
league in 1455, between the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and the two
republics, for the preservation of peace in Italy.  One object of this
alliance, and the prevailing object with Alfonso, was the implied guarantee of
his succession in the kingdom of Naples to his illegitimate son Ferdinand.  He
had no lawful issue; and there seemed no reason why an acquisition of his own
valor should pass against his will to collateral heirs.  The pope, as feudal
superior of the kingdom, and the Neapolitan parliament, the sole competent
tribunal, confirmed the inheritance of Ferdinand. ^b Whatever may be thought
of the claims subsisting in the house of Anjou, there can be no question that
the reigning family of Aragon were legitimately excluded from the throne of
Naples, though force and treachery enabled them ultimately to obtain it.

[Footnote a: The war ending with the peace of Ferrara, in 1428, is said to
have cost the republic of Florence 3,500,000 florins.  Ammirato, p. 1043.]

[Footnote b: Giannone, l. xxvi. c. 2.]

     Alfonso, surnamed the Magnanimous, was by far the most accomplished
sovereign whom the fifteenth century produced.  The virtues of chivalry were
combined in him with the patronage of letters, and with more than their
patronage, a real enthusiasm for learning, seldom found in a king, and
especially in one so active and ambitious. ^c This devotion to literature was,
among the Italians of that age, almost as sure a passport to general
admiration as his more chivalrous perfection.  Magnificence in architecture
and the pageantry of a splendid court gave fresh lustre to his reign.  The
Neapolitans perceived with grateful pride that he lived almost entirely among
them, in preference to his patrimonial kingdom, and forgave the heavy taxes
which faults nearly allied to his virtues, profuseness and ambition, compelled
him to impose. ^d But they remarked a very different character in his son.
Ferdinand was as dark and vindictive as his father was affable and generous.
The barons, who had many opportunities of ascertaining his disposition, began,
immediately upon Alfonso's death, to cabal against his succession, turning
their eyes first to the legitimate branch of the family, and, on finding that
prospect not favorable, to John, titular Duke of Calabria, son of Regnier of
Anjou, who survived to protest against the revolution that had dethroned him.
[A.D. 1461.] John was easily prevailed upon to undertake an invasion of
Naples.  Notwithstanding the treaty concluded in 1455, Florence assisted him
with money, and Venice at least with her wishes; but Sforza remained unshaken
in that alliance with Ferdinand which his clear-sighted policy discerned to be
the best safeguard for his own dynasty.  A large proportion of the Neapolitan
nobility, including Orsini, Prince of Tarento, the most powerful vassal of the
crown, raised the banner of Anjou, which was sustained also by the youngest
Piccinino, the last of the great condottieri, under whose command the veterans
of former warfare rejoiced to serve.  But John underwent the fate that had
always attended his family in their long competition for that throne.  After
some brilliant successes, his want of resources, aggravated by the defection
of Genoa, on whose ancient enmity to the house of Aragon he had relied, was
perceived by the barons of his party, who, according to the practice of their
ancestors, returned one by one to the allegiance of Ferdinand.  [A.D. 1464.]

[Footnote c: A story is told, true or false, that his delight in hearing
Quintus Curtius read, without any other medicine, cured the king of an
illness.  See other proofs of his love of letters in Tiraboschi, t. vi. p.
40.]

[Footnote d: Giannone, l. xxvi.]

     The peace of Italy was little disturbed, except by a few domestic
revolutions, for several years after this Neapolitan war. ^e Even the most
short-sighted politicians were sometimes withdrawn from selfish objects by the
appalling progress of the Turks, though there was not energy enough in their
councils to form any concerted plans for their own security.  Venice
maintained a long but ultimately an unsuccessful contest with Mahomet II. for
her maritime acquisitions in Greece and Albania; and it was not till after his
death [A.D. 1481] relieved Italy from its immediate terror that the ambitious
republic endeavored to extend its territories by encroaching on the house of
Este.  Nor had Milan shown much disposition towards aggrandizement.  Francesco
Sforza had been succeeded, such is the condition of despotic governments, by
his son Galeazzo, a tyrant more execrable than the worst of the Visconti.  His
extreme cruelties, and the insolence of a debauchery that gloried in the
public dishonor of families, excited a few daring spirits to assassinate him.
[A.D. 1476.] The Milanese profited by a tyrannicide the perpetrators of which
th