HISTORIC BK 



troublesome, nd actually Met out fur Borne, be pat himseli 

 nt ruble army, and, descending from the 



Alps, )r. mbiinl lia<-k hit In-. I the north 



i.-nc retirmj-, 1 ).->. l.-iu, r- t , r.vd, and onoo more draw 

 oh < injM i,, r tV. .in hia Transalpine neat. Doiidoriun WAS 

 Ttlin.wn uitli (.T.MI loss; tin- I'Vaiikiah army marched t 

 iic, uiul it* leader receive<l fn.m tin- Imn.U .f the (.-. 

 I 'ope tin- iiii|MTial crown, with all the sanction that prioathoot 

 in a supercilious ajro could confer. A similar title hod beer 

 granted to Pepiu, but Charlemagne won the first t 

 acquire it to the full extent. Italy paused under FrankU!, 

 <1< minimi, but Borne, with its bishop, obtained special terms; 

 ami tlui l.islmp obtained more special term* utill for himself 

 being raised to the dignity of a temporal aa well as spiritual 

 prince, independently of the li i:ia;i people and of tlio ci:i;>en r 

 who was BuppoKetl to rule over them. Kor ;i century this stata 

 . 1 thing* continued, UK- Popes getting inrrea-r.l \,,,v.,-r :n tin 

 power of the. emperors declined, till the 

 Fat, when the political confusion mentioned in thin u 

 caused the Popes to bo left to their own devices, and tho 

 Mipremacy in Northern Italy to bo disputed among tho uutru;>x 

 i tin- am] 



\Vhen Charles tho Fat, last reigning monarch of tho house 

 of Charlemagne, died, in the year 888, Italy which was included 

 in his empire, was parcelled out among a few nobles who had 

 gradually arrogated to themselves royal powers. They had 

 taken advantage of tho impotence of the last Carlovingian 

 kings to carve out for themselves kingdoms over which they 

 ruled with an authority that admitted of no appeal. They paid 

 nominal obedience to tho French king, but in reality never 

 heeded the least of his commands. Chief among them were the 

 Dukes of Tuscany and Spoleto, the Marquises of Ivrea, Snsa, 

 and Friuli, and the Lord of Benevento. Ten years of inter- 

 necine war and of striving for the mastery ended in the coro- 

 nation of Guy, Duke of Spoleto, not as emperor, but as lord 

 over his brethren in the northern part of Italy. Then came 

 war again, bitter and disastrous ; there was no one to strike in 

 and to restore order with supreme authority, and in tho end 

 there happened what must always happen when co-equals are 

 pitted against one another a third person was called in, who 

 suppressed the wranglers. In the year 962, Otho the Great, 

 Emperor of Germany, was elected by general assent to take 

 the place for which the Frankish monarchs were proved to be 

 inadequate. He received the allegiance of the West, and con- 

 ceding to the Pope something more than he had already 

 acquired, won the support of that prelate, while ho at tho same 

 time assisted to build up the edifice of priestly power that 

 afterwards became so great, overshadowing even the imperial 

 force that made it. Of course the emperor, ruler of so vast a 

 domain as he was called to govern, could not have an equal eye 

 to all his subjects ; he was unable to rule in his elective foreign 

 states as in his own home territory, and there was, moreover, 

 in the former an element of disunion which militated strongly 

 against any idea of universal comprehension. There was in the 

 Italian districts, especially in the cities, a spirit of resistance 

 to German domination quite equal to tLat which has charac- 

 terised Italians in the present day ; there was in tho Italian 

 mind a consciousness of superiority which no amount of brute 

 force . auld overcome ; and there was also a determination to 

 make this consciousness apparent in every possible way. 



Under these circumstances it was that the Italian Republics, 

 so famous in the history of arts, literature, and commerce, 

 sprang into being, and entered upon a career which was more 

 or less glorious, until selfishness asserting itself, and treachery 

 becoming rampant, reduced them into a final state which was 

 worse than the first. " It is impossible," says Mr. Hallam, 

 " to ascertain the time at which the cities of Lombardy began 

 to assume a republican form of government, or to trace with 

 precision tho gradations of their progress." But it may be 

 stated generally that about the end of the tenth century re- 

 publicanism began to find expression in tho cities of Northern 

 Italy. Milan, if not tho earliest, was the first important city 

 which made itself independent. It not only maintained itself 

 against imperial tyranny, but repelled (aa in tho year 991) the 

 insolence of priests by expelling its archbishop. Milan, as the 

 centre of Lombardy, and as the seat of government under the 

 Lombard kings, had a prestige and a vantage point which wore 

 .lacking to the other cities, and when it came to be a question 



of the cities making head againt king, emperor, or pope, Milan 

 was naturally looked to an the leader in the straggle, MM! quite 

 as naturally accepted the port. It WM Milan that, in the year 

 1167, organised the League of Lombard/ against the Emperor 

 Frederic Barbaroitsa, and after suffering enormously from the 

 brutality as much as from the power of his attacks, succeeded 

 in extorting from him, after bis overthrow at the battle at 

 Legnano, the Peace of Constance, whereby the cities in the 

 league were maintained in the enjoyment of all the royal righu, 

 whether within their walls or in their district, which they could 

 claim by usage. Tho right of levying war, of raising fortifier, 

 tions, and of administering justice were specially conferred. 

 together with the right to elect magistrates ; while the emperor 

 was allowed to retain one or two privileges which denoted kit 

 sup. -riority. and was to receive an oath of allegiance from the 

 cities every ten years. But for jealousies which sprang op is> 

 all directions the .Lombard cities might have established once 

 and for ever a federal union which would have defied all external 

 powers whatever. Jealousy, however, entered to a most in- 

 jurious extent, and thu result was a never-ending series of wars 

 and rivalries which on several occasions gave emperor, duke, and 

 count an opportunity, of which they availed themselves, to step 

 in and take revenge for past slight*. 



The great republics, besides the republic of Milan, were 

 those of Genoa, Florence, Pisa, Cremona, Pavia, Parma, Lodi, 

 Alessandria, Verona, Padua, Bologna, Ferrara, and Faenza. 

 Later on, Venice, more famous than any of them, rose into 

 power, but under different circumstances and with different 

 interests. One form of government seems, with slight modifi- 

 cation, to have been general to all the earlier republics. By 

 universal suffrage one or more consuls were elected to preside 

 over tho council of safety, a sort of ministerial committee 

 chosen by the people and charged with the actual government* 

 The consuls wore appointed annually, and were invested with 

 large powers, but were not made absolute except in case of war, 

 when they were in the nature of dictators for the time being. 

 Tho abuse of power by these rulers, or, perhaps, rather the 

 jealousy of natives, who misliked that one family or one man, 

 where all were equal, should be so greatly in the ascendant, 

 led, about the end of the twelfth century, to the institution of 

 podestas, as they were called, that is to say, governors selected 

 from some one of known eminence in Italy ; it might be in tho 

 neighbourhood, it might be at the other end of the peninsula. 

 The podesta acted as general, criminal judge, and preserver of 

 the peace. The proper discharge of the duties of this office 

 required a man of no ordinary power, and demanded above all 

 an upright and clear-minded man. It was manifestly difficult for 

 any native citizen to exercise such power ; the foreign element 

 was found to be most advantageous as avoiding favouritism, and 

 the danger of tyranny on the part of the podesta was avoided 

 by making bis office an elective one, and tenable for a year 

 only. It was the business of the podesta to lead the forces of 

 the republic, to act as general in the field, and as negotiator 

 after the battle. He was more or less absolute. 



It is evident that such a power as this was likely to be 

 abused, and in effect there grew out of it those oppressive 

 dominations by powerful families which caused so much jealousy 

 and so much suffering, and which ended in the ruin of the* 

 republics. As time went on, men were chosen for podestas who 

 bad signalised themselves in some especial manner in respect 

 of some of the special attributes of a dictator, and as war wa 

 one of these, it followed that men were chosen who were skilled 

 in the military art. Such men were the commanders of the 

 mercenary foreign troops who made war a trade, and sold their 

 services to the highest bidder. Once elected to fill a civil and 

 military post, these men filled it in a way wholly military, and 

 established a despotism backed by professional force which no 

 citizen power could withstand ; coups d'ttat followed, and then 

 Hereditary tyranny, till at hut the spirit of freedom which erst 

 prompted the foundation of the little states was entirely crushed 

 under a vulgar and mere soldier ruler. Thus the house of 

 Sforza came to rule for years in Milan, and thus other name* 

 equally well known in Italian history came into notoriety. In 

 some cities the same thing happened at the hands of native 

 citizens, and men* like the Medici at Florence, the Doria of 

 Genoa, the Malateati of Rimini, and, after the downfall of 

 Sforza, the Visconti of Milan, rose into a power, which was not 

 ar short of that enjoyed by princes. Popular government was 



