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ITALY (HISTORY.) 



Kizelin tlu Romano, under the pretence of favouring 

 the Ghibelines, established, by every kind of violence, 

 his own power in Padua, Veronn, Vicenza, and the 

 neighbourhood. The papal court succeeded in 

 seducing the Pisanese family of the Visconti of Gal- 

 luni in Sardinia, from the republic, and rendering 

 them its vassals, notwithstanding the resistance of 

 the republic, and especially of the counts of Gherar- 

 desca. Thence Pisa, too, was divided into Ghibelines 

 (Conti) and Guelfs (Visconti). Frederic, however, 

 married his natural son, Enzius, to a Visconti, and 

 gave him the title of king of Sardinia. The plan of 

 Gregory IX., to depose Frederic, was successfully 

 executed by Innocent IV., in the council of Lyons 

 (1245). This completely weakened the Ghibeline 

 party, which was already nearly undermined by the 

 intrigues of the mendicant orders. The faithful 

 I'ai in;i revolted ; the triumph of the Ghibelines in 

 Florence (1248) lasted only two years ; and their 

 second victory, after the battle of Monte Aperto 

 (1260), gave them the ascendency but six years. The 

 Bolognese united all the cities of Italy in a Guelf 

 league, and, in the battle of the Panaro (1249), took 

 Enzius prisoner, whom they never released. In the 

 Trevisan Mark alone, the Ghibelines possessed the 

 supremacy, by means of Ezzelin, till he fell before a 

 crusade of all the Guelfs against him (1255). But 

 these contests were fatal to liberty ; the house Delia 

 Scala followed that of Romano in the dominion, and 

 Milan itself, with a great part of Lombardy, found 

 masters in the house Delia Torre. Tyrants every 

 where arose ; the maritime republics and the re- 

 public of Tuscany alone remained free. 



Sixth Period From the Fall of the Hohenstaufen 

 to the Formation of the modern States. In this 

 period, different princes attempted to usurp the 

 sovereignty of Italy. 1. The Princes of Anjou. 

 After Charles I. of Aiijou had become, by the 

 favour of the pope, king of Naples, senator of Rome, 

 papal vicar in Tuscany, and had directed his ambi- 

 tion to the throne of Italy (a policy in which his suc- 

 cessors persevered), the names of Guelfs and Ghibe- 

 lines acquired a new signification. The former de- 

 noted Hie friends, the latter the enemies, of the 

 French. To these factions were added, in the re- 

 publics, the parties of the nobility and the people, the 

 latter of which was almost universally victorious. 

 The honest exertions of the noble Gregory X. (who 

 died 1276) to establish peace, were of no avail ; 

 those of Nicolas III., who feared the preponderance 

 of Charles, were more efficient ; but Martin IV. 

 (1280), servilely devoted to Charles, destroyed every 

 thing which had been effected, and persecuted the 

 Ghibelines with new animosity. A different interest 

 that of trade and navigation impelled the mari- 

 time republics to mutual wars. The Genoese assisted 

 Michael Palaeologus (1261) to recover Constantin- 

 ople from the Venetians, and received in return 

 Chios ; at Meloria, they annihilated (1284) the navy 

 of the Pisans, and completed their dominion of the 

 sea by a victory over the Venetians at Curzola (1 298). 

 Florence rendered its democracy complete by the 

 banishment of all the nobles (1282), and strengthened 

 the Guelf party by wise measures ; but a new 

 schism, caused by the insignificant Pistoia, soon 

 divided the Guelfs in Florence and all Tuscany into 

 two factions the Neri (Black) and Bianchi (White) 

 (1300). The latter were almost all expelled by the 

 intrigues of Boniface VIII., and joined the Ghibelines 

 (1302). In Lombardy, freedom seemed to have ex- 

 pired, when the people, weary of the everlasting 

 feuds of their tyrants, rose in most of the cities, and 

 expelled them (13026), including the Visconti, 

 who had supplanted the Delia Torre (1277) in the 

 government of Milan. 2. The Germans and the 



Delia Scala. Henry VII., the first emperor v.-fro 

 had appeared in Italy for sixty years (1310), re- 

 stored the princes to their cities, and found general 

 submission to his requisitions, peace among the par- 

 ties, and homage to the empire. Florence alone 

 undertook the glorious part which she so nobly 

 sustained for two centuries, as the guardian of Italian 

 freedom, chose Robert of Naples, the enemy of 

 Henry, her protector for five years, and remained 

 free while Italy swarmed with tyrants. The Ghibeline 

 Pisa received a master after the death of Henry, in 

 Uguccione della Faggiuola (1314). After his expul- 

 sion, Lucca, which he also ruled, received another 

 lord in Castruccio Castracani (1316); Padua fell (1318) 

 to the house of Carrara; Alexandria, Tortona, 

 (1315) and Cremona, (1322) to theViscontiof Milan; 

 Mantua (governed, since 1275, by the Bonacossi), 

 devolved, by inheritance, to the Gonzagas (1328) ; in 

 Ferrara, the long-contested dominion of the Este was 

 established (1317); and Ravenna was governed, from 

 1273, by the Polenta. In the other cities, the same 

 tyranny existed, but frequently changing from family 

 to family, and therefore more oppressive. These petty 

 princes, especially Della Scala, Matteo Visconti, and 

 Castruccio, were a counterpoise to the ambitious views 

 of Robert of Naples, appointed by Clement V. im- 

 perial vicar in Italy. Robert, however, acquired for 

 his son, Charles of Calabria, the government of Flo- 

 rence and Sienna, which he retained till his death 

 (1328.) Louis of Bavaria, who came to Italy (1327) 

 to reduce the Anjous and the Guelfs, became himself 

 at variance with the Ghibelines whom he alienated by 

 his caprice and perfidy ; and the character of John 

 XXII. so cooled the zeal of the Guelts, that both 

 parties, recognising the common interest of liberty, 

 became somewhat more friendly. The amiable atl- 

 venturer John, king of Bohemia, suddenly entered 

 Italy (1330). Invited by the inhabitants of Brescia, 

 favoured by the pope, elected lord of Lucca, every 

 where acting the part of a mediator and peacemaker, 

 he would have succeeded in establishing the power 

 at which he aimed, had he not been opposed by the 

 Florentines. On his second expedition to Italy 

 (1333), Azzo Visconti, Mastino della Scala, and 

 Robert of Naples, united against him and his ally, 

 the papal legate Bertrand of Poiet, who aspired to 

 the dominion of Bologna. After the downfall of both 

 (1334), when the Pepoli began to rule in Bologna, 

 Mastino della Scala, master of half Lombardy and of 

 Lucca, began to menace the freedom of Lombardy. 

 Florence led the opposition against him, and excited 

 a war of the league, in which it gained nothing but 

 the security of its liberty. After the baffled Mastino 

 had sold Lucca to the Florentines, the Pisans arose, 

 and conquered it for themselves (1342). In Rome, 

 torn by aristocrats, Cola Rienzi (1347) sought to re- 

 store order and tranquillity ; he was appointed tribune 

 of the people, but was forced after seven months, to 

 yield to the nobility. Having returned, after seven 

 years of banishment, with the legate cardinal Albor- 

 noz (1354), he ruled again a short time, when he was 

 murdered in an insurrection. The Genoese, tired of 

 the perpetual disputes of the Ghibeline Spinolas and 

 Dorias with the Guelf Grimaldi and Fieschi, banished 

 all these families in 1339, and made Simon Boccan- 

 egra their tirst doge. In Pisa, the Ghibelines, the 

 council of the, captain-general, Ricciani della Gher- 

 ardesca, separated into two new parties, Bergolini 

 and Raspanli, of whom the former under Andrea 

 Gambacorti, expelled the latter (1348). About this 

 time, Italy suffered by a terrible famine (1347) and a 

 still more terrible pestilence (1348), which swept 

 away two thirds of the population. No less terrible 

 was the scourge of the bands (banditti), or lar>e 

 companies of soldiers, who, after every peace, <:oiv- 



