BOOK THE FIRST.CHAPTER
XVII.
1326 - 1329.
Until the
Dictator’s arrival Florence gave the chief command of her army to Pierre de
Narsi a French knight of exalted rank who was made prisoner at Altopascio: he
had just been ransomed, and smarting under the indignity of Castruccio’s
triumph sought revenge and distinction ere he was compelled to relinquish his
brief and hazardous dignity. Not being able to save Montemurlo which after a
courageous resistance, honourably capitulated on the 8th of January, he exerted
himself less worthily by trying to raise insurrections at Signa and Carmignano,
and even attempting the life of Castruccio. His emissaries were three
constables or colonels of the Lucchese army who with six private soldiers, all
foreigners, undertook the murder, but this wary chief was never dormant and
fortunately detected them.
After some
hesitation through fear of a mutiny amongst the Transalpine troops, Castruccio
resolved at every risk to maintain the discipline of his army and show the
mercenaries by a severe example that they were not exempted from the penalty of
insubordination any more than Italian soldiers. Going forth therefore on
horseback in complete armour, and surrounded by his native battalions he from a
piece of rising ground and with dark and threatening aspect addressed the
assembled army.
After a full
exposition of the conspiracy, he dwelt on the disgrace that any single
individual might bring on the character of a whole nation if his countrymen
neither joined in his condemnation nor sympathised with the military feelings
of their chief. “He did not then speak to them,” he added, “as a Prince, but in
the more exalted character of their general, who despising personal vengeance
was resolved to preserve the army by a rigid adherence to all the strictness
even of Roman discipline.” Then sternly commanding the prisoners to be brought
forth and their heads to be struck off as they stood; which was done with a
single blow of the sword; he calmly dismissed the troops and resumed his usual
occupations. This unexpected intelligence and the sudden execution of justice
on culprits who were previously unknown, together with surprise, fear, and
habitual respect for Castruccio, all conspired to prevent any instantaneous
burst of feeling from the foreign companies: but the French soon began to
murmur, wherefore to stop this disorder the greater part of them were boldly
dismissed even in presence of the enemy.
Pierre de Narsi
did not for this discontinue his machinations, and Castruccio to show his
contempt of him, marched to Signa with only seven hundred horse and two
thousand footmen, crossed the Arno, ravaged the Val di Pesa and destroyed Torri;
a few days after he burst into the Val di Greve devastated the country round
San Casciano, burned that town, and then returned unmolested to Signa in spite
of the Florentine general and all his forces. Again on the 25th of February
assembling eight hundred cavalry and three thousand infantry he once more
advanced to Peretola and anew insulted Florence; then
reoccupying Signa ordered its immediate evacuation and destruction, as he could
spare neither the men nor money necessary for its defence even had he any hope
of maintaining a place only seven miles from the capital against the powerful
armament of the Duke of Calabria. But while thus employed he conceived the bold
and barbarous notion of drowning the vast plain of Florence by stopping the Arno’s
course with a huge embankment across the rocky strait of the Golfolina, ten
miles from the metropolis.
No man hardy or
wicked enough to attempt this could be found; the engineers told him that the
fall of ground from Florence to the Golfolina amounting to about two hundred
and eighty-eight feet would render such an undertaking impossible and he
therefore relinquished this cruel and extravagant notion. After breaking down
the bridge of Signa he retired to Carmignano which he garrisoned with the
exiles of the former place and Florence, intending to make it the centre of all
future operations and principal seat of war. From this point he crossed Monte
Albano devastated all the country about Vinci, Cerreto-Guidi, mid Vettolino; took Petrojo near
Empoli. crossed the Arno, threatened Empoli itself and committed every possible
mischief ere the superior power of Naples compelled him to desist.
As war still
detained the Duke of Calabria in Sicily he despatched four hundred horse to
Florence under his Vicar Walter de Brienne titular Duke of Athens, a man whose
family had been expelled from Greece and his father killed by the great company
of Catalans in 1311: being closely connected with the royal family the people,
although disappointed, were willing to receive him, and on the expectation of
this reenforcement sent some troops to their friends
in Romagna and Lombardy where Faenza and Forli, Milan and Brescia still
continued at war.
In the
Florentine state Pierre di Narsi still endeavoured to maintain a miserable
warfare of intrigue and treachery against a man in every way his superior; a
conspiracy, real or fictitious on the part of some of Castruccio’s officers,
was managed by Pierre to gain possession of Carmignano; but on attempting to
effect this with a strong detachment from Prato he fell into an ambuscade and
was taken prisoner with almost all his followers after a severe conflict. This
disaster filled Florence with dismay, and when the next messenger brought
intelligence of their general s decapitation in the market-place of Pistoia,
they felt that misfortune had not yet done with them: but the immediate arrival
of Walter de Brienne; the Pope’s appointment of King Robert as Imperial Vicar
of Italy; the excommunication of the Bishop of Arezzo; the assurance of Charles
of Calabria’s near approach, and the defensive movements of Castruccio in
consequence; all helped to maintain the public spirit.
Soon after
Walter’s appearance the proper time had arrived for a new Scrutiny whereupon he
immediately endeavoured to prove that according to the contract his master was
entitled to appoint all the magistracies of Florence, a prerogative which be
forthwith began to exercise by cancelling even the previous nominations; but in
other respects he governed discreetly, became exceedingly popular, and
altogether acted a wily and sagacious part in direct opposition to his natural
character!.
Four hundred
additional cavalry soon after came from Provence followed by the Pope’s legate
as a pacificator, and Castruccio seeing this dangerous combination of spiritual
and temporal power arrayed against him, endeavoured to gain time for
preparation: to this end he declared in a written address to the legate that
“although so highly favoured by fortune he had never trusted to die continuance
of her support or allowed himself to be blinded by success, and therefore was
ready to make peace with Florence if she would be content to remain within her
just limits and no longer intermeddle with the affairs of others; that she
ought by that time to have learned the danger of molesting people in their own
home, for God who never suffered men to indulge long in pride had already shown
her how he abhorred the arrogance of those who allowed themselves to be
flattered by a too favourable contemplation of their individual power”. This
advance gave some hopes to the legate; but now the expectations of Florence
again began to rise; Castruccio himself was anything but sincere; Charles of
Calabria had already reached Siena; and this negotiation was consequently
discontinued.
The houses of
Tolomei and Salembeni had long kept that city in confusion, and Florence being
apprehensive of complete ruin to the Guelphic faction there, implored the Duke
as he hoped for permanent success to remain and tranquillise the town by a
confirmation of their power. Charles, who probably would not at any rate have
departed without securing something for himself, willingly took this advice;
remained eighteen days at Siena, reestablished peace in the city; demanded the
perpetual lordship of the republic, which after some tumults he secured for
five years with somewhat less authority than at Florence, and finally charged
the latter sixteen thousand florins for thus carrying her wishes into
execution.
On the 30th of
July he entered Florence followed by eleven hundred men-at-arms one hundred of
whom were knights of the Golden Spur. He was lodged in the podesta’s palace
from whence the seat of justice was purposely, perhaps derisively removed, and
formally acknowledged as lord of the Florentine republic. It was the mark of
misfortune, the stigma of disgrace; yet it excited the admiration of Italy; for
Italy beheld the Florentine people, masters only of a small and not a very
fruitful territory, after their repeated misfortunes, after so many defeats,
such reverses and so much treasure lost; nay at the very moment when they
seemed to totter on the very brink of ruin, suddenly rise in their strength and
like a giant refreshed with wine, by the power of their own resources as it
were command the sendee of so great a prince, and an
army such as had never before been seen in Florence.
There were no
less than two thousand men-at-arms assembled most of them belonging to the
highest ranks of society, independent of the Cardinal Legate’s court and
followers which were far from trifling; and without reckoning the Florentine
chivalry or a single knight of the Guelphic confederacy. So vast a development
of national resources was the more remarkable because at this very time the
ancient bank of the Scali and Amieri which had
already endured for a hundred and twenty years with undiminished reputation,
failed for the enormous sum of 400,000 florins which being for the most part
due in the city of Florence shook the republic to its centre and, excepting
bloodshed, was considered equally ruinous with the battle of Altopascio itself.
The several
contingents of the Guelphic league were afterwards summoned, and increased this
fine army to three thousand four hundred and fifty men-at-arms besides the
Florentine Cavallate, never less than five hundred men,
and a selection of some of the best and bravest infantry in Tuscany. Sixty
thousand florins were immediately raised by a partial and extraordinary tax on
the richest citizens and every diligence was used by the Florentines to insure
success: yet this great army remained entirely passive and they had the
mortification to see their time and treasure idly wasted by him to whom they
had surrendered their liberties in the expectation of a very different result.
Many reasons
were given for this delay; but Villani a citizen of rank and reputation and an
eyewitness of what he relates, believes it to have been because Castruccio
amused the Pope’s legate with false negotiations and employed the time in
augmenting his forces from all the Ghibeline states of Lombardy and Tuscany,
until he became not only fearless of attack himself but prepared to resume the
offensive. If the duke had made no delay either at Siena or Florence he might
have marched to Lucca while Castruccio’s army was weak and he on a sick-bed;
but Charles of Calabria was no general, and more adapted to augment the
authority with which he was already invested within than to free his
constituents from their formidable enemy without.
He demanded the
power of appointing every public officer from the priors downward both within
and without the city; of making peace or war; of restoring rebels and exiles
even in opposition to the laws, and finally of renewing his authority for ten
years from the first of September 1326. The people became alarmed, and the more
so because he was supported by the nobles who eagerly proposed to invest him
with absolute sovereignty for an unlimited period; not from any love to the
prince but from hatred to the people and their ordinances of justice which they
were determined if possible to destroy. Charles was however wise enough to take
good counsel and still hold to those from whom he had received what he already
possessed; the citizens acquiesced in his demands and the aristocracy was
baffled. Seeing that nothing was to be expected from him the Florentines
contented themselves with fortifying Signa and the opposite town of Gangalandi
in order to protect the agricultural labourers, and then quietly awaited the movements
of both their masters. Castruccio had already driven Spinetto Malespini from his dominions in Lunigiana and
compelled him to take refuge with the protector of all unfortunate exiles, Cane
della Scala; but the Duke of Calabria tempted him once more to try his fortune
by the invasion of that province while he with the Florentine army marched on
Pistoia. Both these plans were executed and with more hope of success because
the towns of Mammiano and Gavignana in the mountain of Pistoia had just revolted. Castruccio was not much alarmed,
and though very ill reduced both places in the middle of a severe winter,
baffled the Florentine army which attempted in vain to relieve them and finally
compelled it to return in disgrace to the capital: then turning suddenly on Spinetto once more drove him into exile.
Thus failed the
first dilatory attempt of this brilliant army, and Florence became more
desponding than ever: those that formerly used to tremble at the formidable
name of Uguccione now acknowledged that he was only a sudden and startling
noise, but that Castruccio was the thunderbolt itself which bad stricken and
consumed their country. The citizens were now utterly distracted and knew not
where to turn, such was the confusion and so great the waste of men money and
credit occasioned by his uncommon abilities and continual success; for in the
midst of all Castruccio’s good fortune he had never, it was said, committed a
rash or hazardous act; every event was calculated, few mistakes made, and
victory attended him as his shadow.
To prevent the
people of Lunigiana from revolting he destroyed all their fenced towns and
augmented his army with the garrisons, the works of Montale near Pistoia were
dismantled and Montefalcone shared the same fate; for
he used to say that “those strongholds were the best, which could make long
marches and keep themselves near or distant according as they were wanted.” The
awe which his character impressed on the Guelphic lords of Italy caused Robert
to be blamed for opposing the inexperience of his son to the power of so
accomplished a general and exposing the descendant of a line of illustrious
princes to the disgrace of being killed, defeated, or made prisoner by a simple
gentleman of Lucca. Such was the “form and pressure of the time”! In
consequence of this as was supposed, Charles had instructions to tell the
Florentines that unless they would consent to take eight hundred of his foreign
cavalry into the pay of the confederacy he must return to Naples. This
unexpected demand and infringement of every compact, after all their exertions,
astonished the citizens; but there was no help and 30,000 florins were added to
the 450,000 they had already thrown away upon the Duke of Calabria, because few
of the allies would submit to the extortion; yet this was not all, and as if to
deride their weakness, he at the capricious request of the duchess repealed
some of their sumptuary laws, the solemn decrees of the state, to which the
citizens held with extreme tenacity, and they had the mortification to see
their wives and daughters in the midst of the country’s misery when they should
rather have been clothed in mourning for her slaughtered citizens, puffed up
with such excess of vanity as to adorn their heads, says Villani, with “long
tresses of white and yellow silk instead of hair, which they wore in front:
this decoration because it displeased the Floren tines as immodest and
unnatural, they had already taken from the females and had made laws against it
and other disorderly ornaments; but thus the inordinate appetite of women
overcame the good sense of men”.
The Lombard
Ghibelines seeing so formidable a display of Guelphic power together with the
more intimate union between the church and Naples; in spite of Castruccio’s
success could not help feeling that their cause was in jeopardy and therefore
determined to support it by the imperial power: Parma and Bologna had already
given themselves to Rome, the Bishop of Arezzo was excommunicated and deposed;
and besides Florence and Siena, San Miniato, Colle, San Gimignato and Prato had made Charles their lord, the last even in perpetuity. This great
extension of power gave the house of Anjou command over the greater part of
Italy and therefore no time was lost in despatching an embassy to implore the
“Bavarian,” (as Louis was called by those who did not wish to be anathematised)
to meet the Italian Ghibelines or their ambassadors at Trent for the purpose of
considering the best means of exalting the imperial dignity.
Until the year
1322 Louis of Bavaria had been so occupied in struggling for the crown with his
rival Frederic of Austria that he had no leisure to meddle with the Peninsula;
but the decisive battle of Muhldorf in which four thousand men-at-arms were
killed in repeated charges on the field, and Frederic of Austria made prisoner,
left him at liberty to employ himself in foreign politics and turn his
attention towards Italy. Pope John XXII whom he informed of the victory at
Muhldorf, not having before decided on the candidate he meant to support,
received the letter of Louis as his friend, and promised to aid him in the
consummation of peace; but when the pontiff heard of the assistance afforded to
his worst enemy the excommunicated Galeazzo Visconti in 1323 and of the
Bavarian’s having compelled Raimond of Cardona the papal general to raise the
siege of Milan, his anger exceeded all bounds. He insisted that as pope he was
the only legitimate ruler of the empire during a vacancy, the only judge
between two competitors; and until his decision was known no king of the Romans
could exist: it was, he said, a grave offence against God, and a palpable
contempt of the church to have exercised the powers of royalty without its
sanction and protected its enemies, especially Galeazzo Visconti and his
brothers who had been declared heretics by the definitive sentence of a
competent tribunal. Louis was therefore excommunicated, and again more solemnly
in March 1324 when he was also declared incapable of ever ascending the imperial
throne. Frederic while in prison had been visited by Louis and treated with so
much and such unusual generosity that he acknowledged him as emperor and was
immediately liberated, ever after remaining his ally and intimate friend.
Germany was then pacified, the popes intrigues there were all baffled and the
emperor prepared to visit Italy, to confirm his imperial dignity by a public
coronation, and revenge himself on the pontiff.
In this
disposition an invitation from the Italian Ghibelines was peculiarly
well-timed, especially as Louis, weakened by long wars remained without money,
and Italy was always considered as an inexhaustible mine of treasure by
Transalpine nations, fie therefore repaired to Trent about the middle of
February where he was met by Azzo and Marco Visconti of Milan Cane della Scala
of Verona, Passerini Buonacossi of Mantua, Renaldo
Marquis of Este, the Bishop of Arezzo, and ambassadors from Frederic of Sicily
Castruccio Castracani, the exiles of Genoa and all the other Ghibelines. Here
the pope was declared heretical by a considerable body of the clergy and
solemnly excommunicated, ridiculed, and defied: the imputation was not new, for
this ambitious and mercenary pontiff was a zealous asserter of his own
infallibility, wished to dictate absolutely to the church and had made enemies
of large bodies of the clergy; amongst others of the Franciscan or minor friars
who insisted on Christ’s poverty and therefore, folio wing his example,
condemned all property in churchmen as preposterous and unbecoming. These monks
had been bold enough to denounce John as heretical and excommunicated, upon
which he burned some of them and deprived others of the little they possessed conforming
to their own maxims: other causes had made other enemies amongst the secular
clergy; so that Louis found himself zealously supported by a powerful body even
in the church, and it was unanimously declared that as Christ had no property
all priests who had were enemies to his sacred poverty.
In Tuscany the
war now became somewhat more active, Pistoia was attacked with partial success,
but Charles uneasy at the Bavarian’s progress sent an embassy to Avignon and
implored Pope John in concert with the Florentines to publish a crusade against
him and restore the Bolognese and Ferrarese exiles, or he might expect worse
consequences than in the threatening days of Henry the Seventh. Meanwhile new
taxes sprang up to meet new dangers, and 80,000 florins were raised by an
impost called the “Estimo” on real and
personal property and even annual incomes, the amount of which being ascertained
by secret testimony from seven neighbours was accompanied by considerable abuse
and injustice, and yet all was borne, not only with patience but cheerfulness.
A desire to
court the supreme authority, the perilous aspect of affairs, the hope of find
victory, the encouraging remembrance of past dangers, such as Uguccione’s
sudden fall at the moment of his most exalted hopes; their own profound despair
and the Emperor Henry’s unexpected death when all around was dark; these were
the thoughts that buoyed up Florence and induced the people to hope for some
similar ending to their present conflict with Louis and Castruccio, although as
yet but in its infancy.
Some
consolation was also drawn from the old boast of republicans, that while lords
and kings and emperors died, they themselves were in a manner eternal: because
all the good or evil when concentrated in one man, vanished with him; but the
welfare of republics was rarely affected by the decease of any single member of
the commonwealth. Such reflections spread rapidly; “Why should we,” it was
asked, “display less virtue, less resolution than our fathers who with firm and
constant minds repelled such dangers? The times call for exertion, let us arise
and show ourselves equal to the occasion!”
In this
awakened spirit they not only gave liberally but celebrated the birth of their
masters son with unusual splendour, as if in profound peace and prosperity: the
infant’s death about eight days after, was caught at by the superstitious to
augur as brief a period for any rejoicings at the success of Florence; and
subsequent events confirmed the general credulity.
Pisa although
she had sent an embassy to Louis was but little disposed to receive him in
Tuscany; the party that governed were bitter foes to Castruccio, and although
Ghibeline, inclined rather to Robert and the pope than to an excommunicated
emperor whose friendship or enmity promised to be equally ruinous. When the
news of his coronation at Milan was known in Pisa some Florentine exiles
assisted by a part of the populace made great rejoicing and even paraded the
streets crying out “Death to King Robert, the Pope and the Florentines, and
long live the Emperor.” Upon which the seignory expelled them and all other
exiles, and even the German cavalry, whom they had previously dismounted,
besides a certain set of nobles suspected of partiality to Castruccio and the
emperor.
This jealousy
of Castruccio was not confined to Pisa; his iron sceptre weighed heavily on
Lucca, and both Charles and the Florentines unequal in the field clutched at
the chance of destroying him by secret treason: the potent family of Quartigiani,
the most active in his exaltation, either weary of servitude or perhaps urged
by the vanity of pulling down an idol they had themselves erected, but
certainly stimulated by Florentine ducats, undertook to organise a conspiracy
that would over whelm Castruccio in the midst of his greatness. It was agreed
that a powerful army should assault Pistoia and force him from Lucca to its
defence; the conspirators were to seize this occasion for displaying the
banners of King Robert and the church, which had been sent to them from
Florence, and simultaneously call upon the people to rise and get possession of
a gate, while by preconcerted signals, the garrison of Fucecchio with all the
troops in the Vai d’Arno would hurry to their assistance and occupy Lucca
without sending a single man from the camp before Pistoia.
This scheme was
well laid and would have succeeded but for one of those accidents that so
frequently ruin the best-imagined enterprises: some trifling delay of the
Florentine army allowed a pause between the final arrangement and execution of
the plot and the conspirators had time to reflect. One of the Quartigiani
either from remorse or being unable to endure a state of anxious suspense went
and revealed all to Castruccio : in a moment every gate of Lucca was closed and
guarded; twenty-two of that family were instantly arrested, many other citizens
imprisoned, houses were searched, the banners found, and every evidence of
conspiracy rendered clear and palpable. Messer Guerruccio Quartigiani the chief conspirator and three of his sons were immediately hung
with the reversed banners of the pope and king suspended over them, while
others suffered a more cruel and then a not unusual punishment, under the name
of “Propagginare” or “ Piantare”
that is to say, being planted in the ground like vines; or buried alive with
their heads downward and their feet in the air, a sort of execution which Dante
had probably witnessed and retained in mind when he was inventing a punishment
for those guilty of simony
From out the
mouth of every hole emerg'd
A sinner’s feet
and legs, high as the calf;
Nought else was
seen ; the rest all hid within.
Both soles were
burning of each culprit there,
Which made the tortur’d joints so strongly writhe
That cords they
would have snapt, and twisted withs.
As fire is
wont, with unctuous matter fed,
To run along
the surface it hath caught,
So there from
heel to toe quick play’d the flame.
The remainder
of the Quartigiani family of which there were a hundred men able to carry arms,
were declared rebels and expelled from the city and territory of Lucca.
This was
considered a just judgment of God, because that very race, originally Guelphs,
had betrayed their party and were the first to surrender national liberty to
the very man now chosen as the instrument of their punishment for a second
treason: but in tracing the ramifications of this plot Castruccio found so many
citizens implicated that he prudently refrained from any further investigation.
The duke, the
legate, and the Florentines, equally baffled in open war and secret conspiracy,
revenged themselves by another excommunication of Louis and Castruccio with all
their adherents, which was solemnly pronounced on the great festival of the
patron saint of Florence by Cardinal Orsini; and immediately afterwards a noble
army of five-and-twenty hundred horse and twelve thousand infantry under Count
Novello encamped at Signa for three days on purpose to perplex the enemy: but
suddenly quitting this they moved on Fucecchio and, crossing the Gusciana by a
bridge of boats previously prepared, appeared before Santa Maria a Monte.
This was the
strongest fortress in Tuscany but at that time somewhat weakened, because
Castruccio had withdrawn a part of its garrison to strengthen Carmignano the
supposed object of attack, and had left but five hundred veterans with the
people’s aid to defend it: this place was inclosed in
a treble rampart and the citizens were accustomed to fighting from its having
been made one of the centres of that devastating warfare with which Castruccio
so often tormented the Florentines. But the latter were more especially
exasperated against the people of Santa Maria because on Castruccio’s first
success, from having been thoroughly Guelph they changed sides and delivered up
all the Lucchese exiles to his mercy: they were therefore immediately summoned
to surrender under the penalty of an indiscriminate massacre but remained true
to their chief and resolved to stand the hazard of a siege.
No time was
lost, for Count Novello commanded the assault to be given with the greatest
ferocity “to show the world that a royal army composed of such nobility was not
to be baffled and derided by five hundred peasantry inclosed in a fortress which though strong was not impregnable.” “If the campaign,” he
is made to say, “if the campaign should begin successfully the pride of
Castruccio may be repressed and therefore a great obstacle at once be opposed
to the Bavarians’ passage into Tuscany, this would liberate Naples from danger
and secure the tranquillity of Rome, already in disorder at the mere
expectation of his arrival. Are you not aware, O soldiers ” he added “that our
master Robert has already despatched a fleet of seventy galleys against
Frederic of Aragon; not so much from ancient enmity as because that false king
has favoured the coming of this false emperor? Are there not seven Genoese
galleys in the Tiber’s mouth cutting off every supply from Rome, which has
dared to become the ally of an excommunicated man; and the prince of the Morea,
if he have not yet entered that city, has at least ravaged all the territory of
Orvieto and captured numerous fortresses. Is not the town of Rieti already
occupied by the Duke of Athens? Has not Ostia ceased to resist, and do we not
every moment expect the news of its surrender? And all these labours are
undertaken only to hinder everything becoming a prey to this barbarian who more
eager for money than glory has already expelled his hosts the Visconti from
their dominions; worthy nevertheless of a severer punishment as the great
disturbers of Italian tranquillity. With such examples it also becomes us in
Tuscany to do something of renown that will lower the pride of Castruccio, the
potent minister of this German, and now rendered insupportable by the
immoderate favours of fortune. He boasts of our having been already a whole
year in Florence and accomplished nothing; of his having at one time amused us
with the hope’s of peace, at another made us ridiculous even to ourselves, by
unravelling all our intrigues and conspiracies against him; of our miserable
failure at Mammiano and Gavignana;
of Malespini’s feeble attempt and disgraceful flight, and with our being
inferior to him in everything but priestly excommunications. But that which
should make us blush even to think of, he has had the audacity to declare that
he expects yet once more to return triumphant to Lucca with our young prince in
bonds before him holding a lighted torch for an offering at the shrine of Saint
Martin, as Raimond of Cardona was compelled to do two years ago! Now is not
this arrogance enough to make us trample on it with all that fiery indignation
that is wont to fill the breast of noble-minded men, when Castruccio! (to what
a pass are human things arrived?) Castruccio! a poor dependent of Uguccione
della Faggiola, dares to hope that he can lead away bound to his chariot wheels
the son of King Robert! the nobility of Naples! and with them the city and
people of Florence! We do not now combat with either Lucca or Pistoia, nor have
we before us this tremendous captain; but what is there that will prove too
great for this man's pride if we are not found good enough to capture one of
his fortresses, when even now amongst his other boasts he vaunts of not having
left Florence a foot beyond her walls. I know that any man who regards his own
honour would rather die than survive the disgrace of being beaten by this
fortress, and for myself I am resolved either to leave my bones before yonder
ramparts or lodge this evening in the town. If you are of my mind victory is
secure; because to resolute men all things are attainable: but I already see
the just anger that moves you against this tyrant, and believing that deeds and
not words are the proper answer to your general’s appeal, you hold that to be
lost time which is not employed in combat. Our horses are now of no service as our
camp is safe; dismount therefore and instead of wasting time in useless words I
will show you what is to be done by my own example.”
Scarcely had he
finished speaking and given the signal of assault when the sharpest conflict
that had for many years been known in Tuscany began : the attack was bold and
sudden and the defence desperate: the battering engines were soon in position:
battalions of Genoese cross-bowmen shot so strong and thickly that not a man
could show himself on the walls without being killed or wounded: the dismounted
knights in heavy armour, each with his shield, advanced in solid order and
placed the ladders under a crossing shower of stones and arrows; the infantry
with lighter arms and worse protected, rivalled them in courage and the assault
soon became general. Doubtful and fierce too it remained until a young squire
of Provence seizing a projecting stone, with one bold spring got footing on the
top; waving his master’s pennon: instantly a loud shout echoed through the
ranks and in a few minutes a long line of banners fluttered on the solid
battlements: without a pause the whole mass swept forward to the second wall
and dashing over it like a wave plunged fiercely into the town driving all that
could escape, in terror to the citadel: nothing withstood the soldiers’ fury,
and man woman and child were indiscriminately slaughtered. Many endeavoured to
conceal themselves, but the jealousy of different nations, rivals in courage and
strong in enmity, Italian and Transalpine troops, made each set fire to the
town lest the other should monopolise the plunder, so those that the sword
missed the fire consumed; and if by chance some frantic wretches rushed in
terror from the flames they were instantly hacked to pieces by a disappointed
and maddened soldiery. A third inclosure formed the
citadel, but the troops were too much exhausted for an immediate assault, and
the remaining citizens, despairing of relief from their general, who was at Vivinaio with an inferior force, in a short time
surrendered themselves to the Florentines.
After a rest of
eight days Count Novello recrossed the Gusciano and halted for two more at
Fucecchio to observe Castruccio’s movements, but seeing that he did not stir,
the Florentines again passed the river, advanced to Cerruglio,
and for three successive days defied him to battle: the Lucchese chief who had
only eight hundred horse and ten thousand foot, being in daily expectation of
the emperor’s arrival at Pontremoli was content to remain on the defensive. The
same expectation prevented the Florentines from marching direct on Lucca,
therefore crossing Montalbano between Signa and Carmignano they suddenly
attacked Artimino which Castruccio had fortified so
strongly as to apprehend no danger in that quarter. But flushed with his late
victory Novello at once gave the assault which was renewed for three days
successively; the last battle continuing without intermission from noon until
night-fall; when all the palisades and one of the gates being burned, the
garrison, with the fate of Santa Maria before their eyes, surrendered on the
twenty-seventh of August. Count Novello wished to proceed and carry Tizzana and Carmignano in the same manner, but Louis being
now close to Pontremoli he and his troops were ordered back to Florence.
It was now
about thirteen months since the Duke of Calabria had entered that city with the
finest army that its vast resources had ever produced, and 500,000 florins had
been expended on him by the community; yet, saving the capture of Santa Maria
and Artimino, nothing had been done; wherefore the
people became justly discontented, though compelled to suppress their
ill-humour from a sense of present danger and the threatening progress of the
emperor.
Louis was
crowned at Milan on the thirty-first of May by the excommunicated Aretine prelate; the archbishop of Milan having refused to
perform this office; but whether from a delay in the promised supplies
accompanied by an insolent message from Galeazzo Visconti, as Villani avers; or
from the complaints of Marco, Lodrisio, and Azzo
Visconti against Galeazzo’s tyranny; or from suspicion of an attempt to poison
the emperor, as the sudden death of Stephano Visconti after tasting his drink,
led others to suppose; it is certain that on the twentieth of July Galeazzo’s
brothers Luchino and Giovanni and his son Azzo, were arrested along with that
prince himself and closely imprisoned; the strong castle of Monza being given
up to Louis as the price of the latter’s safety. This revolution was effected
at the public council of Milan after Visconti’s German troops had been seduced;
an imperial vicar and twenty-four citizens were immediately appointed to govern
the city thus suddenly restored to apparent independence, and 50,000 florins
were granted to the emperor. This decided conduct pleased the Milanese and
Guelphs as much as it alarmed the other Lombards, because it was Visconti
himself that had brought Louis into Italy and he was the first to experience
that monarch’s ingratitude.
A diet
afterwards assembled near Brescia where several new bishops were created and
about 200,000 florins collected from the Ghibeline states of Lombardy; Louis
then crossed the Po near Cremona and with two thousand men-at-arms marched
through Parma, passed the mountains without any opposition from the papal
troops stationed in those parts, and halted at Pontremoli on the first of
September 1327. Here he was received by Castruccio but refused to sojourn at
Lucca until Pisa which had determined to shut her gates upon him had been
reduced to reason.
This city,
which had found the friendship of Henry as ruinous as the enmity of Louis
seemed likely to prove; was confirmed in her resistance by a terror of
Castruccio’s arts and influence, and the certainty of his being as ready to
purchase her liberties, as the Bavarian if once in possession, would be willing
to sell them. The Bishop of Arezzo apprehensive that Pisa would be forced into
the arms of Florence persuaded the citizens to send ambassadors to Louis at Ripafratta and engaging his word for their safe return; but
after much dispute nothing was agreed upon, both parties being dissatisfied,
and the ambassadors were arrested by orders from Castruccio as they returned to
Pisa. The prelate indignant at this perfidy bearded the latter in presence of
Louis himself, who evidently leaning to the Lucchese chief and probably a party
in the act, allowed of an indecent altercation and high words between these
proud and privileged seigniors. The result was a continued detention of the
envoys, the bishop’s withdrawal from the imperial camp, and finally his death a
few days after, while on his road to Arezzo where his brother Piero Saccone of
Pietramala a bitter enemy of Florence, immediately succeeded to power.
Louis followed
up this treacherous act by a close and rigorous investment of Pisa on both
banks of the Arno, even before the people knew of their ambassadors’ detention,
while the exiles maintained a partisan warfare, scoured the whole Contado, captured town after town, and finally cut off all
further succours by mastering Porto Pisano. Arms and money were supplied from
Florence; for such was the condition of Pisa that the government feared even in
this crisis to levy a new tax lest the populace should rise in rebellion. The
siege lasted a month and the city might have baffled Louis; but fresh discord,
the curse of these licentious republics, caused it to be surrendered on
condition that neither their own exiles, nor Castruccio, nor any of his people
should be admitted into the town; that their form of government should remain
inviolate and 60,000 florins be paid into the imperial treasury. On the
eleventh of October Louis entered Pisa, and three days after the citizens of
their own accord but principally through fear of the populace, destroyed the
capitulation and admitted both Castruccio and the exiles while they threw
themselves and their country on the emperor’s mercy. Justice was well
administered, but dearly purchased by a contribution of 160,000 florins;
enormous at any time, but peculiarly so at a moment when the Sardinian war and
final loss of that province had reduced the whole community to the verge of
ruin; and when only a few days before, 5000 florins could not be demanded,
without the danger of revolution; so badly governed, or so short-sighted and
capricious were the people.
After the
settlement of Pisa Louis and Castruccio repaired to Lucca where the more
powerful spirit of the latter was made manifest in its immediate ascendancy and
influence over his guest whose splendid reception Castruccio followed up by a
present of 50,000 florins; both chiefs then proceeded to Pistoia from whose
heights Castruccio pointed out the plain and towers of Florence and showed the
easy access which the possession of the one gave him to the territory of the
other.
Returning to
Lucca for the feast of Saint Martin, the emperor took that opportunity of
publicly placing on the head of Castruccio the ducal circle investing him with
the states of Lucca, Pistoia, Volterra and the bishopric of Luni,
conferring on him the privilege of quartering the royal arms of Bavaria with
his own, besides an unscrupulous donation of the Pisan towns of Serrezzano, Rotina, Montecalvole, and Pietra
Cassa. The ceremony of receiving the ducal coronet from an emperor's hands,
Castruccio’s great power talents and influence, and the universal feeling that
this title would not long continue vain and empty, but become in substance as
in name the first dukedom in Italy since the time of the ancient Lombards,
altogether imparted a solemn and imposing character to the transaction which
increased the apprehensions of every Italian Guelph; nor was the Ghibeline Pisa
less anxious or discontented to see four of her walled towns quietly made over
to Castruccio as a coronation gift; an earnest, as it seemed to be, of her own
destiny.
The Duke of
Calabria knowing that Castruccio was unwillingly compelled to follow Louis, who
resumed his march towards Rome on the fifteenth of December, also prepared to
quit Florence, leaving Philip Sanguineto with a
thousand men-at- arms as his vicar. At a public feast he took leave of the
Florentines, promising to return when the kingdom of Naples should be safe, and
departed on the twenty-seventh of December, the same day that Castruccio by
another road marched from Lucca to join the imperialists.
Charles
governed despotically like every ruler of that age : for liberty then consisted
in the privilege of being eligible to govern and choose governors, rather than
in being governed well; and although in doing so he tyrannically condemned a
citizen of rank who with as much reason as insolence opposed the grant of a
subsidy to King Robert, thereby proving that freedom no longer existed in
Florence; yet he made himself a favourite with the citizens by great personal
urbanity and his endeavours to reconcile private feuds; together with
considerable liberality and a generally impartial administration of justice. On
the other hand he was unpopular from his inactive unwarlike character, and the
excessive cost of his maintenance: this, according to Villani who was employed
in auditing the accounts, amounted in nine months to 900,000 florins; but as
the greater part was circulated within the town; although a highly-taxed people
necessarily worked twice for the same money; it was still accompanied by great
activity and some outward appearance of prosperity.
The emperor’s
arrival at Viterbo was immediately felt in Rome, where a contest had previously
arisen between Stefano D Colonna seconded by Napoleone Orsini, who adhered to
King Robert; and his own brother Sciarra Colonna, Jacobo Savelli, and Tebaldo di Santa Stazio, captains
of the people: the two first had been expelled; for Castruccio’s arts and
Ghibeline ducats had been long at work in that factious city which the pontiff’s
absence at Avignon left in a state of continual agitation. It was generally
governed by an oligarchy headed by the pope's ministers and those of the king
of Naples; by the Colonni, Savelli and Orsini; with
occasional bursts of the most furious democracy: the senator administered
justice; a council of fifty-two members nominally formed the government and was
presided by the prefect of Rome; two or three captains of the people along with
the senator being elected by the popular voice. The Ghibeline chiefs sent
privately to Louis, desiring that no heed should be given to the Roman ambassadors,
who wished to settle the terms on which he was to be received, but that he
should march directly to Rome: with this hint Castruccio, who was appointed to
answer the embassy, immediately ordered the trumpets to sound to horse, saying
courteously “This is the Emperors answer.” These messengers were detained, and
Louis suddenly appearing before the city surprised the disaffected, confirmed
the doubtful, and gave spirit to his adherents. He was crowned on the sixteenth
of January 1328.
During these
transactions Benedetto da Orvieto the Duke of Calabria’s judicial vicar arrived
at Florence where the citizens still found resources to complete the walls
south of the Arno and erect the present Roman gate so as to secure that quarter
of the town, which had been endangered by Castruccio’s late inroads on the Val
di Greve. Neither was the duke’s lieutenant Philip Sanguineto inclined to sleep : by means of two Guelphic citizens of Pistoia friends of
Simone della Tosa and well acquainted with the weak points of that city a plan
was laid to surprise it and successfully executed. Having accurate measures of
the walls and ditches Sanguineto with six hundred
men-at-arms, the two Pistoians, and Simone della Tosa, but no other Florentine,
repaired by night to Prato: he was there joined by two thousand infantry with
the requisite besieging engines, ladders, and bridges, and continuing his march
arrived under the weakest point of the Pistoian capital before daylight The ditch was frozen hard enough to allow one man in
armour to pass at a time, and thus a hundred men-at arms gained the ramparts
unperceived until the officer of the night visited the guards with his patrol:
a short conflict then took place, the officer and patrol were put to death, but
an alarm was given; the garrison was immediately under arms and the whole city
in confusion. During this time bridges had been thrown over the ditch and
engines set to work at the wall which with the assistance of some friends
within was perforated sufficiently to allow of a man-at-arms leading his horse
through: the assailants were soon united and an obstinate conflict followed
with various success until broad daylight, when the Florentines succeeded in
overcoming all opposition, and then driving their enemy from the strong but as
yet unfinished citadel, continued the plunder of Pistoia for eight successive
days. This event was known at Rome only three days afterwards and raised
Castruccio’s anger against Louis for compelling him to leave Tuscany : he
instantly set off with five hundred horse and a thousand crossbow-men, and
taking the Maremma road pushed eagerly forward with only twelve followers;
after some days travelling through a very dangerous country Castruccio reached
Pisa on the ninth of February where he soon contrived by intrigue and influence
to acquire supreme authority; a tolerable compensation for the loss of Pistoia.
Nor was
Castruccio’s departure of trifling consequence to Louis, who acting almost
entirely by his councils had made him a knight and count of the Lateran palace,
and senator of Rome, besides a reinvestment of the dukedom of Lucca, while all
the Romans, and even the imperial court itself, paid him greater respect than
was generally offered to the emperor. It is related that while at Rome he
publicly wore a crimson velvet mantle, on the breast of which was embroidered
in golden characters “E' quello che Iddio vuole”
and on the back “E si sarà quello che Iddio vorrá”, and thus says
Viliam he himself foretold the future judgment of the Deity
Castruccio
alone was more dreaded by King Robert than the Bavarian and all his army; the
latter indeed was more formidable to his friends than his enemies, and as he
was principally indebted to that chief for his success, so did all prudent
conduct depart with him; for although Louis had a well-appointed army ready,
and an almost certain prospect of success, one abortive attempt alone was made
on Naples and nothing besides accomplished. Delay, idleness, and disorder
ruined the troops, and after losing Ostia the whole enterprise broke down into
quarrels and tumults, with pompous, unjust, and cruel legislation; pope-making,
and reciprocal coronations between the two potentates. Want of money also
compelled him to arbitrary and ungrateful acts; Salvestro Gatti lord of Viterbo, the first who had opened his gates to Louis, was deposed
and tortured for his treasure, and a severe contribution afterwards levied on
the Roman people; he was therefore despised for his poverty, detested for his
perfidy, loathed for his ingratitude, and subsequently held up as a beacon and
a memorial by Petrarca in his beautiful address to Italy.
While
Castruccio was steadying himself in the government of Pisa Sanguineto and the Florentines were in high disputation about putting their recent
conquest into a proper state of defence, the former insisting that he had done
his part in capturing the town while the citizens maintained that the Duke was
bound to discharge such expenses from his salary. The altercation continued and
Pistoia remained unvictualled; but the Florentines
having gained some trifling advantages grew as careless and confident as if
fortune had never left their arms, while Castruccio hurried on his preparations
for recapturing the neglected place. Nevertheless the Pisans and even his
former adherents now disliking his arbitrary sway offered their city to Louis;
he fearful of alienating Castruccio referred them to the Empress by whom it was
accepted and her vicar immediately despatched to take the reins of government
Castruccio was not thus to be despoiled; he received the officer respectfully,
but scoured the city with his horsemen in the manner of the age as a mark of
sovereignty; then dismissed the imperial lieutenant loaded with gifts and
caused himself to be elected and proclaimed absolute Lord of Pisa for two
years.
Thus master of
new and abundant resources he lost no time in profiting by the disputes at
Florence, and immediately invested Pistoia with a thousand men-at-arms and
numerous infantry: the place was strong, encompassed by a double ditch and
defended by Simone della Tosa with a sufficient garrison besides many Guelphic
citizens. Thero was a protecting force at Prato only ten miles off and within
sight of its signals, so that if the town had been well provisioned it might
have withstood all Castruccio’s efforts until sickness compelled him to
retreat. This chief, who had remained at Pisa to complete his preparations,
joined the army on the 30th of May bringing strong reinforcements, and
surrounded the town with a palisaded ditch and lines of circumvallation. Here
he resolved to remain; nor did all the Florentine stratagems succeed in turning
him from his purpose, not even when they collected a formidable array of
six-and-twenty hundred men-at-arms and for three days successively defied him
to battle, which he constantly pretended to accept, while he only strengthened
his camp with additional trenches, fresh palisades, and wide-branching abbatis.
Seeing no
chance of provoking him the allies changed their position, and attacked the
strongest point of his intrenchments with as little skill as success instead of
cutting off his supplies by Serravalle, which he would have been unable to
prevent without a battle.
Sanguineto fell sick and
had moreover quarrelled with some of the confederate chiefs, so that he deemed
it best to retire and make a diversion elsewhere, leaving a strong convoy at
Prato ready to succour the place when a fair occasion offered. On the 28th of
July after delivering another formal challenge which Castruccio was too
sagacious to accept, the confederated army drew off towards Prato and thence
marched in two divisions, one by Signa and the Gusciana to threaten Lucca, the
other by the left bank of the Arno, which destroyed Pontadera and carried the rampart and Fosso Arnonico by
storm. This was a great canal and breastwork excavated and fortified with
towers by the Pisans in 1176, both as a national bulwark and an outlet for the
superfluous waters of the Arao, of which river some have supposed it to be one
of the three branches mentioned by Strabo. Thus was opened all the Pisan
territory : San Casciano and Sansavino soon fell and
Pisa saw her self insulted at her very gates with perfect impunity. Castruccio
nevertheless remained immoveable; he calculated on starvation and the moral
effect of seeing a superior army retire without accomplishing anything, and
accordingly on the 3rd of August Pistoia surrendered to sixteen hundred
men-at-arms and the usual force of infantry, in face of an army of nearly
double these numbers.
Thus victorious
he returned in triumph to Lucca more powerful more dreaded, and more formidable
than before: none of his important enterprises ever failed and Italy had not
beheld such a captain for centuries. Lord of Pisa, Lucca, Lunigiana, and much
of the eastern Riviera of Genoa; and master of three hundred walled towns, he
was either courted or dreaded by every Italian prince from the Emperor
downwards, but Florence was in terror at his very name; and Galeazzo Visconti
the once powerful lord of half Lombardy; who had been released by the Emperor
in the preceding March at Castruccio’s intercession ; now served under his
standard as a private individual. Visconte soon after expired at Pescia from
the effects of a fever engendered by the labours of the Pistoian siege, and it was fatal to more than him; even Castruccio’s hour drew near; for
the same fever, the consequence of his personal fatigues, was rapidly consuming
him also. He feared the emperor’s resentment for the usurpation of Pisa and
would have made peace with Florence, but was too much mistrusted and therefore
failed: the malady increased, he informed those about him that he was going to
the and that his death would be the signal for great revolutions; then taking
the necessary precautions to insure his three sons the quiet succession of his
three great cities, and charging them to conceal his death until they were
secure, he expired on the 3rd of September 1328 in the forty-seventh year of
his age and the twelfth of his rule over Lucca. Tegrimi his biographer says that Castruccio was a cruel avenger of his own wrongs; but
as personal vengeance never justifiable assumes in princes a more sharp and
bitter aspect, it would be difficult to say whether his conduct to his subjects
merited the name of severity or cruelty. With the soldiers he was universally
popular, and in speaking to them his eloquence and grace of manner and diction
were wonderfully adapted as well to his own dignity as to the mind and feelings
of his audience. He would often calm a tumultuous soldiery by simply calling
them sons, fathers and brothers, and no army ever mutinied under his command.
He was first in every danger, first to seize the ladder and mount the wall;
first to swim across a river when swelled to a torrent; first in every individual
act of skill and courage, as he was first in talent and command; and he gained
the hearts of soldiers by his agreeable familiarity with the meanest amongst
them. His great reputation as a warrior secured his ascendancy in field and
council; and such was his soldiers’ confidence that often by his mere name and
appearance the fortune of battle was restored, fugitives arrested, and the foe
defeated. His arrival alone was frequently sufficient to force an enemy from
fortified places or insure their immediate surrender. Whatever were his individual
sentiments he always consulted his council, composed of the ablest men of
Lucca, and more especially of those most learned in history: but when it was a
pure question of war he sought the opinion of old military men well acquainted
with the seat of intended hostilities. Uneducated himself he yet delighted in
the company and conversation of literary men: he improved and maintained the
roads and bridges of his state, had numerous spies, amongst them many women, in
all parts of the world, and was popularly said to have the wings of an eagle.
“This
Castruccio was in person tall, dexterous, and hand some; finely made, not
bulky, and of a fair complexion rather inclining to paleness; his hair was
light and straight and he bore a very gracious aspect. He was a valorous and
magnanimous tyrant, wise and sagacious, of an anxious and laborious mind and
possessing great military talents; was extremely prudent in war and successful
in his undertakings. He was much feared and reverenced and in his time
performed many great and remarkable actions. He was a scourge to his
fellow-citizens, to the Pisans, the Pistoians, the Florentines and all Tuscany,
during the fifteen (twelve?) years in which he held the sovereignty of Lucca.
He was very cruel in executing and torturing men, ungrateful for good offices
rendered to him in his necessities, partial to new people and vain of the high
station to which he had mounted, so that he believed himself lord of Florence
and king of Tuscany”.
The historian
Giovanni Villani who gives this character of Castruccio did not escape the
common weakness of his time, a superstitious belief in the powers of judicial
astrology; and the following anecdote curious in itself when vouched for by so
respectable an authority was admirably calculated to confirm it.
“About this
death of Castruccio,” he continues, “it falls to our (the author’s) lot, to
make mention of a case that occurred. We being in extreme disquiet at his
persecution of our community which appeared to us almost impossible:
complaining of it in our letter to Master Dionysius dal Borgo a San Sepolcro our affectionate friend of the order of Saint
Augustine professor of divinity and philosophy at Paris, praying that he would
inform me when our misfortunes would cease. He answered me shortly after by letter
and said, “I see Castruccio dead, and al the end of the war you will have the
lordship of Lucca from the hands of one who bears the coat of arms red and
black, with great vexation, expense, and shame to your community”. We had the
said letter from Paris at the time when Castruccio had reconquered Pistoia as
already narrated, and writing again to the professor how Castruccio was in
greater pomp and state than ever, he immediately replied, “I reaffirm that
which I wrote to you in my other letter, and if God has not altered his
judgment and the course of the heavens, I see Castruccio dead and buried. And
as I had this letter I showed it to my fellow priors who were then of that
college a few days after Castruccio’s death; and in all its parts the judgment
of Master Dionysius was a prophecy”.
The news of
Castruccio’s death was scarcely believed by the Florentines, so great and
sudden was their feeling of relief from the most imminent danger to which the
community had ever been exposed: joy and confidence once more returned, for
without Castruccio they did not fear the emperor, whose avarice and tyranny
were hourly increasing the number of his enemies. Having exasperated the Romans
so much as to endanger his own safety Louis quitted Rome on the fourth of
August amidst u storm of insult and indignity, with every offensive expression
of public hatred, even to the tearing of his dead countrymen’s bodies from
their graves and contemptuously plunging them into the Tiber: the same night
Stefano Colonna and the Orsini were joyfully welcomed, the pope again became
popular and the Guelphic banner once more predominant. The emperor marched to
Viterbo and Todi whence he plundered the surrounding country and Romagna even
to the gates of Imola, his progress being marked by tyranny perfidy and
cruelty; here incited by the Ghibeline exiles of Tuscany and other places, he
resolved to proceed by Arezzo against Florence while Castruccio should invest
it on the west, and the Ubaldini with the imperial troops of Romagna raise the
standard of rebellion in the Mugello; so that the city as yet unprovided,
surrounded on every side, and the harvests not secured, must have soon
surrendered. When once master of Florence, all Tuscany and Lombardy were at his
feet and the kingdom of Naples would afterwards have become an easy conquest:
had Castruccio lived this project might have been carried out, and Florence
dreading the worst strained every nerve to repel the threatened danger.
The fortresses
of Upper Val d’Arno were immediately supplied; men, horses, arms, victuals and
commanders were despatched in every direction; Prato, Signa, and all the fenced
towns in the lower valley were similarly reenforced; all provisions from the
open country were ordered into walled places; the confederacy was summoned in
every quarter; strict watch and ward were maintained in the capital, and every
weaker point of its defences strengthened. Charles of Calabria was peremptorily
recalled on pain of forfeiting his salary, but unwilling to venture his person
between Castruccio and the Bavarian he sent his kinsman Count Beltram dal Balzo with four hundred horse in his stead; the latter
came, but the storm had already past; Castruccio was no more. Louis also
hearing of Don Pedro of Aragon’s arrival with the Sicilian fleet at Corneto,
marched from Todi to join him and entirely renounced the enterprise.
The removal of
this heavy weight gave full play to the natural elasticity of Florentine
spirit; profiting by the general relaxation consequent upon Castruccio’s death
Carmignano was immediately invested and after an obstinate resistance
surrendered on the sixteenth of September, but the citadel eight days after. In
the meantime the united forces of Louis and Don Pedro had captured Talamone, besieged Grosseto and endeavoured to annihilate
the foreign trade of Florence and Siena which the war with Pisa had driven back
into these channels. While thus occupied, intelligence of Castruccio’s death
and the occupation of Pisa by his sons reached the emperor and hurried him
forward from Grosseto towards that city where he was received as a liberator
just three days before the fall of Carmignano.
Already
incensed against Castruccio, and fearless of the dead lion he determined to
keep no terms with that chiefs sons, and became still more excited when he was
informed of the negotiation began by him with Florence which it suited him to
consider as an act of treason in the deceased duke; he therefore resolved to
drive the family from Lucca yet was turned from his intention for the moment by
the gifts and entreaties of their mother: but the people soon rose in revolt
and gave him a fair opportunity of interference. Haring quelled the
insurrection he established a governor over the town who soon intermarrying
with the Interminelli replaced Castruccio’s sons in
their former position, upon this Louis returned in anger displaced his
lieutenant and depriving the three Interminelli of
the dukedom banished both them and their mother to Pontremoli.
Immediately
after this eight hundred of his best cavalry with their officers, besides many
gentlemen, reduced from poverty to serve on foot, all mutinied for want of pay
and quitted the army in a body: failing in a sudden attack on Lucca they
plundered its suburbs, marched to the Val-di-nievole,
ravaged that country, and finally establishing themselves in the strong
position of Cerruglio between Vivinaia and Monte
Carlo they levied contributions on the neighbouring district and offered
themselves on high conditions to the Florentines : although unsuccessful in
this they managed to extract a pan of their arrears from Louis and detained his
envoy Marco Visconti until the whole should be satisfied.
This mutiny was
the cause of important events in the subsequent transactions of Florence which
was now freed from foreign rule by the unexpected death of Charles Duke of
Calabria. It occurred on the ninth of November, and divided the community
between joy and sorrow: he was an only son, left no male heirs; and the
succession became doubtful; the Guelphic party therefore lamented his loss as
the probable dissolution of their ancient and unbroken alliance with the house
of Anjou; but the generality rejoiced at their recovered independence and
sudden relief from so costly a government, at the very moment when by the death
of Castruccio his assistance was no longer wanted. Nor was the Duke of Calabria
either from his tastes or natural abilities a sort of leader in any way adapted
to the conduct of Florentine affairs in so dangerous circumstances,
notwithstanding his personal popularity and exemplary administration of
justice: a stranger’s rule too began to press as heavy on the mind as it did on
the puree of the people; and the mercenary and encroaching conduct of his
officers would have soon brought things to a crisis if death had not quietly
dissolved the tie.
It has been remarked
that Florence was more frequently beholden to death than to her own wisdom for
salvation; and assuredly at this epoch, as in the time of Henry the Seventh,
she was not only delivered from almost certain bondage to a foreign master but
relieved of an incubus on her liberty and finances that was in itself
sufficient to oppress all public virtue and accustom the people to the dangers
of absolute monarchy.
The moment that
Charles’s death became known they as usual applied themselves to the task of
remodelling their constitution in such fashion as to allow every citizen of
good Guelphic principles and acknowledged respectability to participate in its
public employments. This was supposed to be accomplished in the following
manner. The gonfalonier and six priors with two coadjutors from each Sesto were
ordered by the people, assembled in full Parliament, to return a list of all
the Guelphic citizens, not noble and under thirty years of age, whom they
considered worthy of being elected to the office of prior: similar returns were
to be made by the nineteen gonfaloniers of companies with two coadjutors for
each; by the captains of the party Guelph and their council; and by the five
chief officers of commerce assisted by two consuls from each of the seven
superior trades. These lists were then united in one, which was laid before a
new council composed of the gonfalonier and priors, the twelve goodmen, the
nineteen gonfaloniers of companies; two consuls from the twelve superior trades
balloted for by the priors alone; with six coadjutors from each Sesto, selected
by the goodmen and priors combined, making altogether a board of ninety-eight
persons : these voted by secret ballot for or against each name as it was read
aloud, and that which was approved of by sixty-eight black beans or votes, was
immediately inserted in the list of future priors. These names written on small
schedules, were afterwards placed in six purses, one for each Sesto, which
being secured in a strong box with three distinct keys the latter with the box
itself were given in joint charge to the Captain of the People, the guardian of
the Franciscan friars and the monks of Settimo. Three days before the priors
left office the council was again assembled and the names of the new seignory
drawn by lot, the same person being ineligible to a like office for two years:
but if a father, son, or brother of the elected were drawn they were ineligible
for one year only, and more distant relations for six months after their
kinsman had left office.
This reform was
first confirmed by the regular councils, and afterwards by the whole of the
people assembled in parliament before the public palace, where it was much
discussed and severe penalties were denounced against violators. These
transactions finished on the eleventh of December and the same scrutiny was to
be repeated every two years from the following month when all those names which
remained in the purses were to be left untouched while the schedules of those
who had served were removed to another bag until each had had his turn of
public employment.
The college of
Good Men whose office lasted double the time of the priors was similarly
chosen; that of the gonfaloniers of companies followed the same forms, their
period of office being reduced like that of the Buonomini from six to four months, but they were eligible at twenty-five years of age,
and each of the twelve superior trades also elected their consuls in the same
manner. The ancient assemblies of “The Hundred”, “The Credenza” “The Ninety”,
and “The General Council” were now abolished and another called the “Council of
the People” composed of three hundred approved Guelphic citizens, was
substituted: also a second called the Common Council, over which the Podestà
presided, and where the nobles and popolani were mingled to the number of two hundred and fifty approved citizens, both
renewed every four instead of six months in order to give each citizen a seat
in rotation.
No deliberation
of the seignory was valid until first confirmed in the “Consiglio del Popolo”
where the Captain of the People presided; and afterwards in that of the Podestà.
In this manner was the Florentine constitution reformed, and shortly after, to
avoid canvassing for votes with other interested solicitations and pernicious
exchanges of favour at the public expense, the foreign Podestas were selected
in a similar manner from amongst those Italians who were considered most worthy
by the suffrages of the Florentine people; schedules with all their names being
kept safely inclosed in purses as above described.
This reform was
universally popular and for a long time produced general tranquillity, first
because the uncontrolled election of their magistrates, in which for the most
part consisted their liberty, returned to the people from the hands of a
foreign master; and secondly because the prepotency and ambition of individual citizens in earlier periods, made the public good
subservient to their own personal exaltation and involved the commonwealth in
unnecessary wars papal anathemas and internal divisions. By the new
constitution on the contrary, the various public interests were represented in
a succession of initiative, deliberative, and legislative councils, each
particular interest choosing its own set of approved citizens but subject to
the check and sanction of all the rest, and ineligible without it: but whether
the mere plebeians who belonged to the different trades were really
represented, and felt that they were so; or whether they only benefited by the
personal honesty and wise administration of the new magistrates, until
corruption again crept in, will be seen in the course of this history.
The
inconvenience of a general assembly of the people as a deliberative body had
been long felt and must ever prove an absurdity; for unless reason fall on it
like a shower of rain the real opinion of a multitude can never be collected
during the few hours set apart for such meetings: this reformation was
therefore a considerable step in constitutional government and had it been
maintained in pristine honesty would have long preserved the republic. But good
laws and constitutions are the consequence not the cause of an increasing
public virtue and general necessity; they are the means of preserving the
former, not of creating it; the salt, not the viand whose natural tendence to
decay will finally overcome its keeper. The misery of nations proceeds less
from the form of government than the vicious mode of its administration and the
mural character of the people, which act and react upon each other; and if free
communities have in general most chance of happiness, it is because, without
any great preponderating power, each individual feels the necessity of
sacrificing something to the interest or prejudice of his neighbour. When
preponderating powers once enter a free state, whether they be united
mercantile bodies, a potent nobility, or a combination of moneyed wealth; the
general balance is disturbed, justice and freedom vacillate, public morals
sink, and liberty sooner or later will pass to other climes.
Cotemporary
Monarchs.—England : Edward II until 1327, Edward III, —Scotland: Robert
Bruce.—France: Charles IV (the Fair) until 1328, Philip VI of Valois.—Aragon :
Jacop II till 1327, Alfonso IV.—Castile and Leon : Alfonso XI.—Portugal :
Alfonso IV.—Pope : John XXII.—German Emperor: Louis of Bavaria.—Naples: Robert
(the Good).—Sicily: Frederic II. of Aragon.—Greek. Empire : Andronicus Pakeologus till 1328, Andronicns the younger.—Ottoman Empire: Orkhan.
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