ITALY. 



353 



HUtnrr. by an attempt of the nobles, to obtam a share in the 

 '*"^Y" / government, but without success. In the mean time, 

 the rest of Tuscany was annoyed by a body of 2000 

 di&banded mercenaries, which had been in the service 

 of Pisa, who, beaded by a German, styling himself 

 duke Guarniari, laid waste and plundered the whole 

 country. The (mailer states were glad to get rid of 

 this " great company," as it was called, by the pay- 

 ment of a contribution ; and at last, having pillaged 

 the mot fertile parts of Romagna and Lombardy, they 

 retired to Germany loaded with booty. The impunity 

 with which these banditti escaped, held out encourage- 

 meat to similar adventurers, whom we shall afterwards 

 find aotiag a considerable pan in the affairs of Italy. 



The kingdom of Naples was now destined again to 

 A. D. 1313. be the accne of war. On the death of king Robert, 

 who had arrived at the advanced age of eighty, he was 

 succeeded by his grand- daughter Jane, or Joan, who 

 was) married to her cousin Andrew, second son of Cari- 

 bert, king of Hungary. But the criminal passion of 

 the queen for his cousin Louis, prince of Taren'.o, on 

 thai one side, ahd the jealousy, violent temper, and am- 

 bition of Andrew, on the other, rendered this union 

 unhappy. At length the party attached to Jane, de- 

 termined to dispatch the king ; and, with the know- 

 ledge and participation of the queen, toon carried their 

 A. D. 13< j. designs into execution in a very barbarous manner. 

 This atrocious act, which could not be concealed, exci- 

 ted general indignation in the kingdom; and the pope, 

 Clement VI. immediately insisted on the punishment 

 of the principal conspirators ; and Louii, king of Hun- 

 gary, brother to the deceased, openly accusing Jane as 

 on accomplice, and asserting his own rights to the 

 kingdom, prepared to maintain them by a powerful ar- 

 my. At this period, the emperor, Louis of Bavaria, 

 died, and was tucreeded by Charles IV. son of John, 

 king of Bohemia, who had been slain at the battle of 

 Crecy : a prince whom the pope had set up in opposi- 

 tion to Louis some time before his death. This year 

 was also distinguished by the abort-lived revolution at 

 Home, under Colas de Rienao ; and by a general famine 



followed by pestilence, 



lain|i 



throughout Europe, which was 

 which, first appearing in Turk 

 of the three following yean through eve 



which, first appearing in Turkey, spread in the course 



e following yean through every c 

 the continent, from whence it passed to Britain, and 



country of 



even to Iceland. In Italy its ravages were tremen- 

 dous. In the city and territory of Florence alone, Boc- 

 cace estimates the number of deaths at 100,000 ; and 

 at Pisa, oat of every ten persons, seven fell victims to 

 the contagion. This dreadful scourge occasioned a 

 temporary ceasstion of war in the north of Italy. In 

 the south, it compelled the king of Hungary to eva- 

 cuate the kingdom of Naples, from which queen Jane 

 and her second husband, I xmis of Tarento, had fled to 

 Provence. Hie retreat enabled them to return ; and, on 

 hk second invasion, Jane, having obtained from him a 

 trace, agreed to have her conduct investigated by the 

 pope. The derision of the court of Avignon was in 

 her favour: The pope acknowledged Louii of Tarento 

 king of Naples, but ordained 3OO.OOO florin* to be paid 

 to the king of Hungary, to defray the expences of the 

 war. But that monarch declared, that he did not make 

 war for mon*7, but to avenge the death of his brother ; 

 and safered the queen to be reinstated, without <ic- 

 Ottmnng the subsidy. 



The ji i-ture which Italy presents, for a series of years 

 after this period, is truly deplorable. In Lorobardy, all 

 the rnuller states were falling, one by one, a prey to 



VOL. \M. fART I. 



the tyranny of the Visconti. That fan-.ily was now re- History.^ 

 presented by Barnabas and Galeazzo, who, having poi- W "Y"*' 

 soned their elder brother Matthew, divided between 

 them their dominions ; and exercised throughout Lom- 

 bardy, on their subjects and their enemies, cruelties 

 equal to, if not surpassing, those of Eccelino Romano. 

 In Tuscany, the rivalship of Florence and Pisa, of 

 Sienna and Perugia, kept alive constant warfare ; and 

 the bands of adventurers employed in their wars, spent 

 the short intervals of tranquillity in oppressing the 

 smaller states, and plundering the peasantry. Naples 

 waa overrun by bands of the same description, whose 

 depredations, the feeble and dissolute government of 

 that kingdom was unable to repress. In Romagna, 

 the troops of Innocent VI. had succeeded in executing 

 the designs of his predecessors, and subjected to his im- 

 mediate sway all the free cities and independent nobles. 

 Bologna was the last that surrendered, being also at. 

 ticked by the army of Barnabas Visconti. That lord 

 immediately declared war against the pope, but was at 

 > pulsed by the troops of the king of Hungary, his 

 ally. Barnabas, however, having joined the Piuins, en- 

 gaged in his service a band of English adventurers, com- 

 manded by John Hawkwood, and proceeded against 

 Florence. His new auxiliaries had introduced with 

 them what was more fatal than the arms of Visconti, 

 the jilague, which again commenced its ravages in Flo- 

 rence, and obliged its citizens to remain spectators of 

 the devastations occasioned by the combined armies, 

 with whom their general Malatesti had a treasonable 

 connection. At length, the Visconti having concluded 

 a separate treaty with the pope, the example waa fol- 

 lowed by Pisa and Florence, and a few yean of tran- A. D. 1364. 

 quillity were given to Tuscany. 



On the death of pope Innocent, Urban V. had re- 

 turned to Rome, aware that his presence was necessary 

 in Italy to check the power of the Visconti ; who, be- 

 ing now allied by marriage to the kings of France and 

 England, set no bounds to their ambition. For this charlw IV. 

 purpose, at his desire, the emperor Charles IV. entered TUIU Italy. 

 Italy with a powerful army ; but the Visconti, aware of 

 his avarice, procured a peace by the advance of a sum 

 of money. His other transactions in Italy were of 

 a similar nature : for money he granted a peace to the 

 Pisans and Florentines ; and, for a similar reason, li- 

 berty to the city of Lucca. Having attempted to in- 

 terfere in the affaire of Sienna, his troops were defeat. 

 ed, and he himself obliged to secure his safety by flight. 

 His return to Germany was soon followed by that of 

 the pope to Avignon, after venting his wrath by ex- 

 communicating Barnabas Visconti : a sentence which 

 that tyrant so much disregarded, that he forced the le- 

 gates actually to swallow the bulls which they had pre- 

 sented to him. 



On the death of Urban, Gregory XI. recommended 

 war; but the Florentines, distrusting him, concluded 

 an alliance with Visconti. The st-ites of the church 

 again rebelled, and Gregory was obliged to visit Italy, 

 having first condemned the Florentines. But these re- 

 publicans, despising the interdict, continued the war, 

 having engaged in their service Hawkwood and the 

 English condottieri. At length, Bologna having de- 

 tached itself from the league, and niadf a separate trea- 

 ty with the pope, a congress met at Sarzana to nego- 

 ciate a general peace. It was, however, suddenly dis- 

 solved by the death of Gregory an event which pro- A. D. 137S. 

 duced important changes in the state of Italy. 

 A* there was a majority of Limousin cardinals in the 



