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ITALY (HISTORY.) 



Max. Sforza, who had reacquired Milan (1512), 

 relinquished it without reserve to Francis I. (1515); 

 hut the emperor diaries V. assumed it as a reverted 

 fief of the empire, and conferred it on Francesco 

 Sforza, brother of Maximilian (1520.) This was the 

 cause of violent wars, in which the efforts of Francis 

 were always unsuccessful. He was taken prisoner 

 at Pavia (1525), and, with his other claims, was 

 compelled to renounce those on Milan, which 

 remained to Sforza, and, after his death (1540), was 

 granted by Charles V. to his son Philip. The 

 Medicean popes, Leo X. (1513) and Clement VII. 

 (1523), were bent, for the most part, on the aggran- 

 dizement of their family. Charles V. to whom all 

 Italy submitted after the battle of Pavia, frustrated 

 indeed the attempts of Clement VII. to weaken his 

 power, and conquered and pillaged Rome (1527); 

 but, being reconciled with the pope, he raised 

 (1530) the Medici to princely authority. Florence, 

 incensed at the foolish conduct of Pietro towards 

 France, had banished the Medici in 1494, but 

 recalled them in 1512, and was now compelled to 

 take a station among the principalities, under duke 

 Alexander I de' Medici. Italian policy, of which 

 Florence had hitherto been the soul, from this period, 

 is destitute of a common spirit, and the history of 

 Italy is therefore destitute of a central point. 



Seventh period. Mutations of the Italian States 

 down to the French Revolution. After the extinc- 

 tion of the male branch of the marquises of Mont- 

 ferrat, Charles V. gave this country to the Gonzaga 

 of Mantua (1536). Maximilian II., subsequently 

 (1573) raised Montferrat to a duchy. The Floren- 

 tines failed (1537) in a new attempt to emancipate 

 themselves, after the murder of duke Alexander. 

 Cosmo I. succeeded him in the government, by the 

 influence of Charles V. Parma and Piacenza, which 

 Julius II. had conquered for the papal see, Paul III. 

 erected into a duchy (1545), which he gave to his 

 natural son, Peter Alois Farnese, whose son Ottavio 

 obtained the imperial investiture in 1556. Genoa 

 (see Genoa), subject to the French since 1499, found 

 a deliverer in Andrew Doria (1528). He founded the 

 aristocracy, and the conspiracy of Fiesco (1547) failed 

 to subvert him. In 1553, besides Milan, Charles V. 

 conferred Naples also on his son Philip II. By the 

 peace of Chateau-Cambresis (1559), Philip II. and 

 Henry II. of France, renounced all their claims 

 to Piedmont, which was restored to its rightful 

 sovereign, duke Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, the 

 brave Spanish general. The legitimate male line of 

 the house of Este became extinct in 1597, when the 

 illegimate Caesaro of Este obtained Modena and 

 Reggio from the empire, and Ferrara was confiscated 

 as a reverted fief by the holy see. In the second 

 half of the sixteenth century, the prosperity of Italy 

 was increased by a long peace, as much as the loss 

 of its commerce allowed, Henry IV. of France 

 having, by the treaty of Lyons, ceded Saluzzo, the 

 last French possession in Italy, to Savoy. The 

 tranquillity continued till the contest for the succes- 

 sion of Mantua and Montferrat, after the extinction 

 of the Gonzaga family (1627). Misfortunes in Ger- 

 many compelled Ferdinand II. to confer both coun- 

 tries (1631), as a fief on Charles of Nevers, the 

 protege of France, whose family remained in posses- 

 sion till the war of Spanish succession. In the peace of 

 Chierasco (1 631), Richelieu's diplomacy acquired also 

 Pignerol and Casale strong points of support, in 

 case of new invasions of Italy, though he had to re- 

 linquish the latter (1637). By the extinction of the 

 house Delia Rovera, the duchy of Urbino, with which 

 Julius II. had invested it, devolved, in 1631, to the 

 papal see. In the second half of tne seventeenth 

 century, the peace of Italy was not interrupted, ex- 



cepting by the attempts of Louis XIV. on Savoy and 

 Piedmont, und appeared to be secured for a long time, 

 by the treaty of neutrality at Turin (1696), when the 

 war of Spanish succession broke out. Austria con- 

 quered Milan, Mantua, and Montferrat (1706), re- 

 tained the two first (Mantua was forfeited by the 

 felony of the duke), and gave the latter to Savoy. 

 In the peace of Utrecht (1714), Austria obtained, 

 moreover, Sardinia and Naples ; Savoy obtained 

 Sicily, which it exchanged with Austria for Sardinia, 

 from which it assumed the royal title. Mont Genievre 

 was made the boundary betweeen France and Italy. 

 The house of Farnese becoming extinct in 1731, the 

 Spanish Infant Charles obtained Parma and Piacenza. 

 In the war for the Polish throne, of 1733, Charles 

 Emmanuel of Savoy, in alliance with France and 

 Spain, conquered the Milanese territory, and received 

 therefrom, in the peace of Vienna (1738), Novaraand 

 Tortona. Charles, Infant of Spain, became king of 

 the two Sicilies, and ceded Parma and Piacenza to 

 Austria. The Medici of Florence, entitled, since 

 1575, grand-dukes of Tuscany, became extinct in 

 1737. Francis Stephen, duke of Lorraine, now re- 

 ceived Tuscany by the preliminaries of Vienna, and, 

 becoming emperor in 1745, made it the appanage of 

 the younger line of the Austro-Lorraine house. In 

 the war of Austrian succession, the Spaniards con- 

 quered Milan (1745), but were expelled thence by 

 Charles Emmanuel, to whom Maria Theresa ceded, 

 in reward, some Milanese districts, viz. all of Vige- 

 vanasco and Bobbio, and part of Anghiera and Pavese. 

 Massa and Carrara fell to Modena, in 1743, by right 

 of inheritance. The Spanish Infant, don Phifip, 

 conquered Parma and Piacenza in his own name, lost 

 them, and obtained them again as a hereditary duchy, 

 by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). Thus, in 

 the eighteenth century, the houses of Lorraine, 

 Bourbon, and Savoy possessed all Italy, with the ex- 

 ception of the ecclesiastical territories, Modena and 

 the lepublics, which, like a superannuated man, be- 

 held with apathy operations in which they had no 

 share. A quiet of forty years ushered in their down- 

 fall. 



Eighth Period. From the French Revolution to 

 the present Time. In September, 1792, the French 

 troops first penetrated into Savoy, and planted the 

 tree of liberty. Though expelled for some time, in 

 1793, by the Piedmontese and Austrians, they held it 

 at the end of the year. The National Convention 

 had already declared war against Naples, in February, 

 1793. In April, 1794, the French advanced into the 

 Piedmontese and Genoese territories, but were expel- 

 led from Italy in July, 1795, by the Austrians, Sar- 

 dinians, and Neapolitans. In 1796, Napoleon Bona- 

 parte received the chief command of the French 

 army in Italy. He forced the king of Sardinia to 

 conclude a treaty of peace, by which the latter was 

 obliged to cede Nizza (Nice) and Savoy to France ; 

 conquered Austrian Lombardy, with the exception of 

 Mantua ; put the duke of Parma and the pope under 

 contribution ; and struck such consternation into the 

 kiiig of Naples, that he begged for peace. After 

 Mantua had also fallen, in 1797, Bonaparte formed 

 of Milan, Mantua, the portion of Parma north of the 

 Po, and Modena, the Cisalpine republic. (See Cis- 

 alpine Republic.) France likewise made war on the 

 pope, and annexed Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna 

 to the Cisalpine republic (1797), by the peace of 

 Tolentino. The French then advanced towards 

 Rome, overthrew the ecclesiastical government, and 

 erected a Roman republic (1798). In Genoa, Bona- 

 parte occasioned a revolution, by which a democratic 

 republic was formed after the model of the French, 

 under the name of the Ligurian republic. The French 

 had, meanwhile, penetrated into Austria, through the 



