ITALY (HISTORY.) 



163 



had established themselves in Calabria and Apulia. 

 Allies sometimes of the Lombards, sometimes of the 

 republics, sometimes of the Greeks against each other 

 and against the Saracens, they constantly became 

 more powerful by petty wars. The great prepara- 

 tions of Leo IX. for their expulsion terminated in 

 his defeat and capture (1053). On the other hand, 

 Nicolas II. united with the Norman princes, and, in 

 1059, invested Robert Guiscard with all the terri- 

 tories conquered by him in Lower Italy. From that 

 time, the pope, in his conflicts with the imperial 

 power, relied on the support of his faithful vassal, 

 the duke of Apulia and Calabria, to which Sicily was 

 soon added. While the small states of the south were 

 thus united into one large one, the kingdom in the 

 north was dissolving into smaller states. The Lom- 

 bard cities were laying the foundation of their future 

 importance. Venice, Genoa and Pisa were already 

 powerful. The Pisanese, who, in 980, had given to 

 Otho II. efficient aid against the Greeks in Lower 

 Italy, and, in 1005, boldly attacked the Saracens 

 there, ventured, in connexion with the Genoese (no 

 less warlike and skilled in navigation), to assail the 

 infidels in their own territory, and twice conquered 

 Sardinia (1017 and 1050), which they divided into 

 several large fiefs, and distributed them among their 

 principal citizens. 



Fifth Period From Gregory Vll. to the Fall of 

 the Hohenstaufen. Struggles of the Popes and 

 Republics with the Emperors. Gregory VII. humbled 

 Henry IV. in 1077. Urban II. instigated the 

 emperor's own sons against their father. Con- 

 rad, the eldest, was crowned king of Italy in 1093, 

 after whose death (1101) Henry, the second son, 

 succeeded in deposing his father from the imperial 

 throne. Henry V., the creature of the pope, soon 

 became his opponent ; but, after a severe conflict, 

 concluded with him the concordate of Worms (1122). 

 A main point, which remained unsettled, gave rise 

 to new difficulties in the twelfth and thirteenth 

 centuries the estate of Matilda, marchioness of 

 Tuscany, who (died 1115), by a will, the validity of 

 which was disputed by the emperor, bequeathed all 

 her property to the papal see. Meanwhile, in the 

 south, the Norman state (1 130), under Roger I., was 

 formed into a kingdom, from the ruins of republican 

 liberty and of the Greek and Lombard dominion. 

 (See Sicilies, the Two.) In the small republics of the 

 north of Italy, the government was, in most cases, 

 divided between the consuls, the lesser council 

 (credenza), the great council, and the popular assem- 

 bly (parlumento). Petty feuds developed their youth- 

 ful energies. Such were those that terminated with 

 the destruction of Lodi by Milan (1111), and the ten 

 years' siege of Como by the forces of all the Lombard 

 cities (1118 1128). The subjugation of this city 

 rendered Milan the first power in Lombardy, and 

 most of the neighbouring cities were her allies. 

 Others formed a counter alliance with her antagonist, 

 Pavia. Disputes between Milan and Cremona were 

 the occasion of the first war between the two unions 

 (1129), to which the contest of Lothaire IL and Con- 

 rad of Hohenstaufen for the crown, soon gave another 

 direction. This was the origin of the Ghibelines 

 (favoureis of the emperor) and the Guelfs (the adhe- 

 rents of the family of Guelfs (q. v. ), and, in general, 

 the party of the popes). In Rome, the love of 

 liberty, restrained by Gregory VII., rose in propor- 

 tion as his successors ruled with less energy. The 

 schisms between Gelasius II. and Gregory VIII., 

 Innocent II. and AnacletusIL, renewed the hopes of 

 the Romans. Arnold of Brescia, formerly proscribed 

 (1139) for his violent attacks against the luxury of 

 the clergy in that country, was their leader (1146). 

 After eight years, Adrian i\' succeeded in effecting 



his execution. Frederic I. of Hohenstaufen (called 

 Barbarossa) crossed the Alps six times, in order to 

 defend his possessions in Italy against the republi- 

 canism of the Lombard cities. Embracing the cause 

 of Pavia as the weaker, he devastated (1154) the 

 territory of Milan, destroyed Tortona, and was 

 crowned in Pavia and Rome. In 1158, he reduced 

 Milan, demolished the fortifications of Piacenza, an! 

 held a diet at Roncaglia, where he extended the 

 imperial prerogatives conformably with the Justinian 

 code, gave the cities chief magistrates (podestd), and 

 proclaimed a general peace. His rigour having 

 excited a new rebellion, he reduced Crema to ashes 

 (1160), compelled Milan to submission, and, having 

 driven out all the inhabitants, demolished the forti- 

 fications (1 1 62). Nothing, however, but the terror of 

 his arms upheld his power. When the emperor 

 entered Italy (1163) without an army, the cities con- 

 cluded a union for maintaining their freedom, which 

 in 1167, was converted into the Lombard confeder- 

 acy. The confederates restored Milan, and, to hold 

 in check the Ghibeline city of Pavia, built a new city, 

 called, in honour of the pope, Alessandria. Neither 

 Frederic's governor, Christian, archbishop of Mentz, 

 nor he himself, could effect any thing against the 

 confederacy ; the former failed before Ancona (1 174), 

 with all the power of Ghibeline Tuscany ; and the 

 latter, with the Germans, before Alessandria (1175). 

 He was also defeated by Milan, at Legnano in 1176. 

 He then concludeda concordate with Alexander 1 1 1., 

 and a truce with the cities (1176), at Venice, and a 

 peace, which secured their independence, at Con- 

 stance (1183). The republics retained the podestd 

 (foreign noblemen, now elected by themselves) as 

 judges and generals. As formerly, all were to take 

 the oath of fealty and allegiance to the emperor. 

 But, instead of strengthening their league into a per- 

 manent confederacy (the only safety for Italy), they 

 were soon split into new factions, when the designs 

 of the Hohenstaufen on the throne of Sicily drew 

 Frederic and Henry VI (V) from Lombardy. The 

 defeat of the united forces of almost all Lombardy, 

 on the Oglio, by the inhabitants of Brescia, though 

 inferior in numbers, is celebrated under the name of 

 La mala morte (1197). Among the nobles, the Da 

 Romano were the chiefs of the Ghibelines, and the 

 marquises of Este of the Guelfs. During the minority 

 of Frederic II., and the disputes for the succession 

 to the German throne, Innocent III. (Frederic's 

 guardian) succeeded in re-establishing the secular 

 authority of the holy see in Rome and the surround- 

 ing country, and in enforcing its claims to the dona- 

 tions of Charlemagne and Matilda. He also brought 

 over almost all Tuscany, except Pisa, to the party 

 of the Guelfs (1197). A blind hereditary hatred, 

 rather than a zeal for the cause, inspired the parties; 

 for when a Guelf (Otho IV.) ascended the imperial 

 throne, the Guelfs became his party, and the Ghibe- 

 lines the pope's ; but the reversion of the imperial 

 crown to the house of Hohenstaufen, in the person 

 of Frederic II., soon restored the ancient relations 

 (1212). In Florence, this party spirit gave pretence 

 and aliment (1215) to the disputes of the Buondel- 

 monti and Donati with the Uberti and Amidei, 

 originating in private causes ; and most cities were 

 thus internally divided into Guelfs and Ghibelines. 

 The Guelf cities of Lombardy renewed the Lombard 

 confederacy, in 1226. The Dominican, John of 

 Vicenza, attacked these civil wars. The assembly at 

 Paquara (1233) seemed to crown his exertions with 

 success : but his attempt to obtain secular power in 

 Vicenza occasioned his fell. After the emperor had 

 returned from his crusade (1230), he waged war. 

 with varying success, against the cities and against 

 Gregory IX, heedless of the excommunication, while 



