SIR 



ITALY. 



Ctanftei in 

 the art of 



Hi.inrr. a ;i(i nnnly eloquence of Faririata I'bcrti was successful 

 -Y ' i,, altering their rr.olution ; nnd he, who had been the 

 chief C.IIIM- (.('the fnt.il defeat of Arbia, had now the 

 honour of being the sole defender and the saviour of 

 his country. 



While these contests occupied the Tuscan states, the 

 republics of Lombardy were, one after another, sinking 

 into a state of vassalnure, a;id in many of them a few 

 private gentlemen h-ul achieved that victory over their 

 independence, which the princes of Suabia had so of- 

 ten in vain attempted to gain. This was, no doubt, in 

 part owing to the imperfect nature of their civil con- 

 stitution ; but what contributed chiefly to the elevation 

 of the nobles, and the decay of the republican spirit, 

 was the great change which had taken place in the mi- 

 litary system during the last Century. At the period 

 when the Lombard cities were struggling for their li- 

 berties, the armies of the emperor, were, for the most 

 part, composed of infantry, and the nobles, on horse- 

 back, acted as a kind of light cavalry. To such troops 

 the citizens could easily oppose a body of light cavalry 

 equally effective, while their hardy burghers, animated 

 with the ardour of liberty, were more than a match for 

 the half armed and half disciplined serfs of whom the 

 German infantry principally consisted. A very great 

 change had now taken place ; the chief strength of an 

 army now consisted in a heavy armed cavalry, consist- 

 ing almost entirely of gentlemen, from their youth 

 trained up to the use of these weighty habiliments of 

 war. The rider was covered from head to foot with 

 massy plates or rings of steel, protected with a buckler, 

 and armed with a lance of such a length as to keep at 

 a distance the swords of the infantry. The front of the 

 horse, who, to support such a weight, required to be of 

 a heavy and powerful breed, was equally secured. 

 Against a charge from a body of cavalry of this descrip- 

 tion, no body of infantry, before the general use of fire- 

 arms, could possibly stand. A few hundred knights 

 thus armed, could cut their way through the largest 

 bodies of infantry ; numbers were unavailing ; and no- 

 thing but a troop armed like themselves could check 

 their progress. To endure the weight, and acquire 

 the full use of arms of this description, was impossible 

 without early training and continual exercise. From 

 this circumstance, the nobles, constantly accustomed to 

 field sports and manly exercises, soon acquired a de- 

 cided advantage over the citizens, whose habits dis- 

 qualified them from a service of this kind. The con- 

 sequence of this change afterwards, was to force the 

 republics to hire a body of mercenaries for their de- 

 fence, and the frequency of the wars soon occasioned a 

 race of men, whose sole occupation was war, and whose 

 swords were at the service of those who could pay best, 

 or held out the most favourable expectations of plun- 

 der. The very means used, however, for defence against 

 the nobles, frequently occasioned the enslaving of a 

 state ; and the popular leader, after overcoming the 

 nobles, not unfrequently made use of the same merce- 

 nary troops to secure to himself despotic authority. At 

 Milan, the sovereign power fell into the hands of Mar- 

 tino della Torre, who also became lord of Lodi and 

 Novara; and from his humanity and prudence, the 

 same authority continued in his family ; and his suc- 

 cessor, Philip della Torre, added to these cities Como 

 and Bergamo. But a powerful rival to this family was 

 raised up by the pope in the person of Otho Visconti, 

 archbishop of Milan, who, siding with the nobles, pro- 

 ved a powerful check to the ambitious designs of 

 Philip. 



Alexander IV. was now dead, and Urban IV. his Hi;to>-y. 



successor, a man of talents, feegan, with zeal, to carry -~~ ' 



into effect the designs of Innocent IV. against Manfred A- D -. 12(ll> 

 and the house of Suabia. He first attempted, but with- 

 out success, to put a stop to the marriage of Constance, 

 daughter of Manfred, with Peter, son oi' James, king of 

 Arragon. Having then persuaded Edmund, son of 

 Henry III. of England, to renounce the investiture 

 of Naples, formerly bestowed on him by Innocent, 

 he immediately offered the crown to Charles count of 

 Anjou and Provence, brother to St. Louis. This prince, 

 whose talents and courage eminently qualified him for 

 such an undertaking, accepted the gift, and prepared 

 to collect an army to attack Manfred. His power was 

 greatly increased by the alliance of Philip della Torre, 

 and an army of Tuscan exiles of the Guelph party, 

 who kept in check theGhibelines in Lombardy. During 

 these warlike preparations Urban IV. died, and his A. D. 126i. 

 successor, Clement IV. who was a Frenchman, was 

 even now devoted to the interests of the court of An- 

 jou, and gave immediate proof of his attachment, by Expedition 

 appointing him senator of Rome. Charles immediately of Charles 

 proceeded by sea, and escaping the fleet of Manfred f Anjou. j 

 with difficulty, arrived at Rome ; and, taking an oath 

 to obey the conditions, and pay the tribute imposed by 

 the pontiff, was solemnly invested with the crown of 

 the two Sicilies. In the mean time, his army, under 

 the command of his wife Beatrice of Provence, his ne- 

 phew Robert de Bethune, and Count Guy de Montfort, 

 son of the famous Simon Earl of Leicester, crossed 

 Mount Cenis, and passing through the Milanese, con- 

 ducted by Napoleon della Torre, was received into the 

 territories of Mantua and Ferrara by the Count San 

 Bonifazio and Obizzo, grandson of the last Azzo of 

 Este ; having defeated the troops of the Marquess Pel- 

 lavicino at Capriolo. At Ferrara they were joined by 

 400 Florentine exiles and -tOOO Bolognese ; and Charles 

 putting himself at their head, entered Apulia by the 

 way of Ferentino. He was met near Benevento by the 

 army of Manfred ; but the degenerate Apulians were Death of 

 unable to stand the repeated and impetuous charges of Manfred, 

 the French, and even the Germans having given way, a 

 total route ensued, and Manfred himself was slain while 26th Feb. 

 in vain endeavouring to rally his troops. The conqueror 1266. 

 refused to allow to his body the Christian rites .of se- 

 pulture ; but the French soldiers, more generous than 

 their leader, having buried him near the bridge of Be- 

 nevento, raised a rude pile over his grave, to which 

 each soldier carried a stone, a monument, equally ho- 

 nourable to the dead and the living. But the cruelty of 

 Charles was not confined to this insult ; on his entry 

 into Benevento, he put to death Count Giordano Lan- 

 cia, Peter UJ>erti, and many other adherents of the 

 late king : and, a few days after, having seized Queen 

 Sybilla, and the two children of Manfred, 'with his sis- 

 ter, while attempting to escape into Greece, they, top, 

 became victims to his barbarity, and were murdered in 

 prison. Such was the commencement of the reign of 

 Charles of Anjou. Every corner of the kingdom was 

 subjected to the rapine and cruelty of the French, and 

 the extortions of the king, and even the papal party 

 regretted the exchange they had made of the mild anil 

 paternal sceptre of Manfred, for the bloody sword of 

 Charles. 



The French victories in the south of Italy, proved of 

 essential advantage to the Guelph party in Tuscany. 

 Count Guido Novello, who commanded the troops of 

 Manfred in Florence, was at last obliged to evacuate 

 that city ; and the Guelphs having chosen Charles of 



