 CHAPTER IX. In order to preserve something like a chronological order in this narrative, we must now turn our attention to the affairs of Naples and Rome, especially in connection with two very striking personalities, Joanna of Naples and Cola de Rienzi. Charles Duke of Calabria, who died in 1328, fifteen years before his father, Robert of Naples, left two daughters, Joanna and Maria. They were betrothed at a very early age to their two cousins, Louis and Andrew, princes of Hungary. These were the sons of Caroberto, or Charles Robert, King of Hungary, who was son of Charles Martel, King of Hungary, elder brother of Robert, King of Naples, both being sons of Charles II, and grandsons of the original Charles of Anjou. Louis betrothed to Maria, afterwards became Louis the Great, King of Hungary, and does not now concern us. Andrew betrothed to Joanna was brought to Naples to be educated in 1322, being then seven years old, his future bride being two years younger. On January 16, 1343, King Robert died at the age of eighty. He had been deeply affected by the death of his son Charles, and since that event had shown little energy for affairs. The crown passed to his granddaughter Joanna, then sixteen years of age, whilst her husband, Andrew, a thorough Hungarian in birth and habits of living, was only eighteen. The court soon became the scene of the most appalling horrors, and to understand them we must enter into complicated details of family history. Besides Charles Martel of Hungary, Robert of Naples had two brothers, Philip, Prince of Tarentum, and John, Duke of Durazzo. The second wife of Philip was Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles of Valois, and Empress of Constantinople. Philip had died some ten years before, and Catherine's eldest son was Louis of Tarentum. This lady was the evil genius of Joanna. She urged her on to wicked courses, and did her best to sow dissension between her husband and herself, in the hope of advancing her own son Louis to the succession. The young Andrew did not like to be in an inferior position to his wife. He had, in his own person, some claims to the throne of Naples, as his grandfather Charles Martel was elder brother to Robert, and the male line of Robert was now extinct. He therefore claimed to be crowned king by the side of his wife, and he attempted to get the Pope Clement VI to confirm his pretensions. In fact, Clement acknowledged Andrew and Joanna as legitimate sovereigns of Sicily in January 1344, and sent Cardinal Emerich to govern the kingdom. Joanna did homage to the Cardinal in the Church of Chiara, and confirmed the agreements entered into by the founder of her line. Still, the adherents of Andrew formed an Hungarian party in the court, in opposition to the Neapolitan party. The Hungarian party was strengthened by the visit of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary, the mother of Andrew, and by the marriage of Maria, Joanna's sister, who had been betrothed to Louis of Hungary, to Charles, son of John of Dorotso. The Dorotso princes took the Hungarian side in the dispute, and the Torrento princes the Neapolitan. Andrew fell by his own folly. He anticipated the certainty of victory, and he bore in his shield the device of an axe and a block to intimate the vengeance which he intended to take upon his enemies. Catherine of Valois was greatly assisted in her intrigues against Andrew by a Florentine Nicolo Aciacciuoli, a man of about thirty-five years of age who had come to Naples on matters of business, but was now devoted to the family of Torrento. Andrew was lured to a versa by the conspirators under pretense of a hunting party. He and Joanna were sleeping together in the convent of Murano on the night of September 18, 1345, when the assassins summoned him from the room in haste. He was seized, but extricated himself, and attempted to return to his bedchamber for arms, but the door had been locked behind him. He defended himself for a long time and cried for help, but at length a cord was thrown round his neck, and he was strangled and hung from the balcony of the wall over a garden. A Hungarian maid who heard his cries came just too late to save him, but she roused the monks of the convent, who placed the king's body in their church, once it was afterwards removed to Naples by the help of Charles of Dorazzo. The queen remained quietly in bed, and did nothing to prevent the murder. Just a year afterwards she married her cousin, Louis of Torrento. Louis, king of Hungary, Andrew's brother, prepared to avenge his fate, and wrote to Joanna in the language of his country, Johannes inordinata vita priterita ambitiosa continuato potestatis regii neglecta vindicta et excusatio subsecuta te viri tui neckis arguunt conschiam et fuise pariti cipem. Joanna, the disorders of your past life, your ambitious continuance of the royal authority after marriage, your slackness in exacting vengeance, and the excuses you have made for yourself, all prove that you were an accomplice and a participator in your husband's murder. Towards the end of 1345, Joanna bore a son, Charles. Louis recognized it as the legitimate offspring of his brother, and demanded that it should be brought up in Hungary. At the same time he asserted his own claim to the throne of Naples, and prepared to support it by force of arms. The fortunes and the issue of his enterprise we must defer for the present. The condition of Rome during the absence of the Pope of Avignon had been deplorable. It was torn asunder by factions in which the great families of the colonas and the Orsini played the principal part. The people of Rome were represented by the Capirioni, the heads of the seven Rioni Regiones, or wards into which the city was divided. At the head of them stood the prefect, and over both people and nobles was the senator of Rome, who was appointed by the Pope. This office was held for a long time by King Robert of Naples. Pope succeeded Pope, but there was no improvement in the state of things. In 1316 Clement V was succeeded by John XXII. In 1334 John XXII by Benedict XII. In 1342 Clement VI was elected, and in 1352 Innocent VI. At each election the Pope was vainly asked by his Roman subjects to leave France and return again to his desolate and widowed city. The historian may wonder that Rome had not before this time proclaimed itself a republic, and thrown off the yoke of the nobles, of the Pope, and of his foreign representatives. At last a man arose who was able to give effect to aspirations of this kind, Niccolò di Lorenzo, generally called Cola di Lorenzo, the son of a tavernkeeper and a female water carrier, was one of the deputations sent to Avignon in 1342 to congratulate Clement VI on his election to the Papal Sea. Although the poet Petrarch was one of the party, Cola was put forward to speak, and he described the desolation of the city and the robberies of the Roman nobles in such eloquent and elegant Latin that Clement was astonished. Clement was struck by the ability of the young man. He appointed him apostolic notary, and ordered him to proclaim a jubilee in 1350, similar to that which Boniface had proclaimed fifty years before. Rienzi had studied as a youth the authors of antiquity, especially those that dwelt on the glories of the Roman Republic, Livy, Seneca, Cicero, and Valerius Maximus. He saw clearly the presence of present evils, but he was less acute in discerning the necessary means of reformation. However, by his enthusiasm and eloquence, he got together a number of followers, and made them swear upon the Gospels that they would give their help in the establishment of Roman liberty. On May 30, 1347, he took advantage of the absence of Stefano Colonna from the city to summon the people to the capital, and to make them an address. Raimundo, bishop of Orvieto the papal vicar, was at his side. Three banners floated before him, that of Rome signifying liberty, St. Paul signifying justice, and St. Peter signifying concord and peace. He proclaimed a new constitution, the chief object of which was to secure the people against the tyranny of the nobles. Each Rhione was to have a guard of twenty-five cavalry and a hundred infantry. The bridges and gates of the town were to be fortified. The nobles were to destroy their castles. Public granaries were to be erected, alms collected for the poor. A better justice administered to the people. These ordinances were received with enthusiasm, and Rienzi, as we shall now call him, was invested with the title of Tribune, and with supreme authority to carry them out. Stefano Colonna hastened back, but was prevented from entering Rome, and took refuge at Palestrina. The rest of the nobles were driven out. Rienzi then proceeded to pacify the country, and gradually one by one the nobles came in and took the oath upon the Gospels to cooperate in the preservation of the Buono Stato. Rienzi sent ambassadors to the Pope Adavignon to inform him of what was being done, and the poet Petrarch strongly supported him. The roads were free from brigands, the Catholic world was invited to the Jubilee of 1350. The Tribune further sent missions to the towns of Lombardi, of Campania, of Romagna, of Tuscany, to the Doge of Venice, the Lords of Milan, and Ferrara. The Prince of Naples, the King of Hungary, to the Pope and the two rival claimants to the imperial throne, to announce the establishment of order, and to summon them to a general Congress at Rome to discuss the affairs of Europe. His messages were generally well received, and thirteen towns sent ambassadors to Rome. But his head was not strong enough to stand such an elevation. He gave himself up to all kinds of extravagances, and assumed the heirs and honors of royal state. The readiness with which nearly all the towns and princes of Italy accepted his authority is only another instance of what has been before remarked, the eagerness to clutch at any relief from the weariness of political disappointment. At length the absurdities of the Tribune culminated in the ceremony of August 1st, when he had himself proclaimed with a wonderful ritual, candidate of the Holy Ghost. He spent large sums on personal luxuries and had the arrogance to summon the Pope and the rival emperors to his Tribunal. He prepared to execute all the refractory nobles, and then solemnly forgave them. These nobles, as soon as they were free, betook themselves to their castles and prepared for war. The Colonna and Orsini, ancestral enemies, were united in common opposition to their common enemy. The Colonna were repulsed in a hasty attack on the city, Colo was more related than ever, and took no pains to follow up the advantage he had gained. The Orsini were pressing upon Rome from the north. At length the legate of Clement VI, Bertin de Dre, arrived in Rome and declared against the Tribune. Count Petrino of Altamura, a partisan of King Andrew of Naples who was living in Rome, took the same side. Rienzi in vain tried to rouse the people to arms. He summoned them to the capital, but his eloquence and tears had no effect. At length he said, After having governed you for seven months, I am about to lay down my authority. He traversed Rome on horseback, as if in triumph, and shut himself up with his wife in the castle of St. Angelo. The barons did not dare to enter Rome until three days had elapsed. Eventually Rienzi escaped into the Neapolitan territory, and Rome returned to its previous condition of anarchy. The middle of the fourteenth century, which we have now reached, marks an epoch of change in the history of Italy. It is the time of the ravages of that terrible plague, which was known in England under the name of the Black Death. All students of English history are familiar with its importance in the economic history of our own country, yet the precise character of the changes which it brought is still a matter of dispute. Bishop Stubbs says of it, One thing ascribed to it is that it caused nearly all the social changes which took place in England down to the Reformation, the depopulation of towns, the relaxation of the bonds of moral and social law, the solution of the continuity of national development caused by a sort of disintegration in society generally. Another view would regard it as an example of the social law, according to which a period of pestilence and distress results in an expansion of national life and energy and is followed by an increase after a certain time in national prosperity. Perhaps like the effects of a cold and bracing climate, the results varied with the inherent power of reaction possessed by the individual organism. We have not the means of determining what were the precise effects of this calamity on Italy. We do not know enough of the economical conditions of the peninsula before and after the catastrophe. But we have records of the terrible ravages which the disease caused, and in the dreary annals of the next hundred years we shall not be wrong in referring the helplessness of the Italian nation to this cause more than to any other. The plague, supposed to have been brought to Italy from the Levant by Genoese galleys in 1347, appeared in that year in certain parts of Tuscany, the Romagna and Provence. Checked by the cold of winter it broke out in the following spring, and in 1348 desolated the whole of Italy except Milan and Piedmont. At Florence the plague destroyed three-fifths of the population, including the celebrated historian Giovanni Vellani. At Pisa it carried off seven-tenths. At Siena there died in four months eighty-thousand persons. The town of Trapani became entirely deserted. Every one of the inhabitants died. Genoa lost forty-thousand, Naples sixty-thousand, Sicily nine-hundred and thirty-thousand souls. All Europe was laid waste, accepting the low countries which escaped in some remarkable manner. We must now proceed to relate the expedition of Louis of Hungary into Italy, undertaken to avenge the murder of his brother Andrew. Before setting out he attempted to gain possession of the port of Zara in Dalmatia, with the intention of using it as a base of operations for the conquest of Apulia. The people of Zara readily submitted to him, as he came to them with an army of Hungarians and Bosnians, but the Venetians offered a vigorous resistance and he was compelled to desist from the enterprise. He did not, however, give up his design. He set out from Pest on November 3rd, 1347, and passed by the head of the Adriatic to Udine. At Padua he was received by Giacomo de Carrara, at Vicenza by Alberto de la Scala, at Verona by Martino, at Madana by Obizodesti, at Bologna by Giacomo Pepoli. In the Romagna he was welcomed by the principal lords, the Ordalafi, the Malatesta, the Polenta and the Ubaldini. Being by Urbino and Foligno he reached Aquila on Christmas Eve. At Foligno he was met by the papal legate, Cardinal Bertrand, who forbade him to proceed any further, but he replied that he came by the will of God and paid no further attention. His troops took possession of Solmona, Venafro, Tiano, and San Germano. Louis of Tarentum assembled an army at Capua to guard the passage of the Volturno, as he was defeated and Louis entered Benevento. Joanna assembled the representatives of what remained to her of her possessions and announced her intention of retiring from the kingdom on January 15, 1341. She set sail with three galleys and reached Narban and afterwards Marseille. Louis and Ajajuli found a refuge in Tuscany. Charles of Dorotso, who had married the Princess Maria, who had been originally betrothed to Louis, had on the first news of the King of Hungary's advance given some support to his sister-in-law Joanna, but he now hastened to Aversa to make his submission to the conqueror. He was accompanied by his brother and by Philip of Tarentum, Louis's own brother. He was treacherously murdered by Louis on the very balcony from which Andrew had been hung. There is no reason to believe that Charles was privy to Andrew's death, although it is possible that Louis believed him guilty and was also anxious to punish him from having married his betrothed bride. The rest of the princes were seized and sent to Hungary. The fickle Neapolitan mob plundered the palaces of the captured princes and from Moriali himself, who was devoted body and soul to Dorotso, took his share in the loot. Maria the widow of Charles escaped to Provence with her two daughters. Louis now made a triumphal entry into Naples and received the homage of the barons, claiming the kingdom as his own by right of inheritance. In May 1348 he sailed back to Hungary and shortly afterwards sent Stephen of Transylvania to Italy as his lieutenant. Three months later Joanna and her husband, to whom Clement VI had given the empty title of King of Jerusalem, returned to Naples. A lingering war went on between Joanna and the Hungarians, conducted chiefly by mercenaries, commanded on either side by German leaders. The general of the King of Hungary was Conrad Wulfat, that of Joanna Verna von Uslingen, one called an Italian Lupo or Guilfort, the other Guaniaeri. In 1350 the German mercenaries were eventually bought off. Urslingen returned to Germany with his plunder. Wulfat and Fra Moriali remained in the kingdom. Many of their soldiers took service with the different houses of Italy and went to Swell, those companies of Condotieri, which were the pest of that country in the times which immediately succeeded. King Louis returned to Italy in July 1390. He had with him 15,000 Hungarians, 8,000 Germans, and 4,000 Lombards, which afterwards were more than doubled. There was some talk of a duel between the two kings but the conditions could not be arranged. He devoted himself to the Siege of Aversa and not being able to take it could not remain any longer absent from his kingdom. The war came finally to an end in 1352. A treaty was made between Louis and Joanna and confirmed by the Pope, the terms of which are somewhat difficult to ascertain. Apparently Louis only surrendered his title to Joanna on the condition that she should be declared innocent of the murder of Andrew. Joanna was declared innocent by the Pope. We must now direct our attention to the rivalry between Genoa and Venice, which resulted in the triumph of the Queen of the Adriatic. We have already seen how the navy of Pisa was destroyed by Genoa at the Battle of Meloria. Genoa and Venice possessed at this time the most important navies in the Mediterranean, and the commerce of the world was principally carried on in the Mediterranean Sea. The third Mediterranean power of this age was that of the Catalan's, then subject to the Kingdom of Atahon. The most important navy in the north of Europe was that of the Hanse towns. The commerce of Venice and Genoa had spread like that of the Greeks and the Phoenicians into the recesses of the Black Sea and refined the factories and forts of the two rivals in close proximity. The town of Kafa in the Crimea was founded by the Genoese in the middle of the 13th century. They lost it in 1308 and purchased it again from the Tartars ten years afterwards, making it the seat of a missionary bishopric. Tana on the Don was another commercial center. The Genoese founded a colony here in 1330. It was the center of an immense trade, extending even as far as China. Sinope on the northern coast of the Black Sea was another important center, as also was Trebizond, the seat of an offshoot of the Greek empire and the chief port of communication with Armenia. This town was almost entirely in the hands of Venice, there being a very close communication, commercial and ecclesiastical between Venice and Armenia, of which the Armenian convent of San Lazaro is a relic at the present day. The two rival powers were naturally strongly represented at Constantinople. The quarter of the Venetians in that city was protected by walls and their private harbor protected by palisades. On the other hand, the emperor Michael Paleologus had given to the Genoese in absolute sovereignty the suburb of Para or Galata, opposite to Constantinople. The town was surrounded by a triple circle of walls, and its magnificence nearly equaled that of Constantinople itself. The Greek empire was tottering toward its fall, and the Turks were already appearing on the eastern horizon. Andronicus Paleologus III, on his death in 1328, had left a widow, Anne of Savoy, and a son, John V, whom he committed to the care of John Contacusinus, marshal of the palace. There was a natural rivalry between the guardian and the mother. The Genoese took the side of the empress Anne, and the quarrel was appeased in 1347 by the coronation on the same day of the three empresses and the two emperors, Contacusinus having been elevated to the imperial title. But the peace was of short duration. The Genoese seized the island of Chias. They also seized and fortified the summit of the hill of Para, against the wish of the emperor Contacusinus. In consequence of these affronts, he declared war against them. In the spring of 1349, a hard battle was fought between the Genoese and the Greeks, just off the Prenkippo Islands, and in this time the Greeks were defeated. The Genoese did not pursue their advantage, but made an honorable but short-lived peace. Just at this time, a war with the Tartars of the Crimea stimulated the Venetians to rebel against the monopoly of commerce possessed by the Genoese in that peninsula. They determined to found an Emporium at Tana to balance the rival station at Kaffa. Marco Ruzini was sent for that purpose with a force of 25 galleys. On the way, he met with 10 galleys commanded by Marco Morocini. The United Fleets attacked 14 Genoese galleys in the harbor of Caristus in the Negroponte or Ubia, and captured 10 of them. The Venetians were now joined by two useful allies, King Peter IV of the Varahon and John Cantacuzinas, Emperor of Constantinople. In the meantime, the four Genoese galleys which had escaped at Negroponte, joining with five others which had come from Tias, attacked Candia, which was of a Nician possession, and liberated their countrymen who had been conveyed there as prisoners. In 1351 Ruzini was replaced by Niccolo Pisani. He made a violent but unsuccessful attack on Perra, but was recalled by the news of a Genoese expedition to the Negroponte. The Genoese succeeded in enclosing him with a fleet of 66 galleys under Paganino Doria, and he was compelled to sink his ships and to escape by land. The next year witnessed a still more terrible conflict, a fleet of 30 galleys under Pancrazio Giustiniani, and of 22 Catalan galleys under Ponce di Santa Paz, under the supreme command of Niccolo Pisani, attempted to force the entrance to the phosphorus on February 13, 1352. The battle continued during the whole of a very stormy day and night, and the loss on both sides was enormous. The Venetians, however, were decidedly the greatest sufferers, and they retired from the contest for a season. The Genoese now compelled Cantacuzinos to sign a treaty on May 6, 1352, which gave them the sole right to trade at Constantinople, and engaged to exclude the Venetians in the Catalan. The defeat of the Venetians in the Bosphorus was soon repaired in the Mediterranean. Pisani, the Venetian admiral, succeeded in affecting a union with a Catalan fleet of 40 galleys. Grimaldi of Genoa came out to meet them with a fleet of 52 galleys. The battle took place at Loiera, in the northern part of the island of Sardinia, on August 28, 1353. The Venetians contrived to conceal their superiority of numbers, a common device both in naval and military warfare in the Middle Ages, and the Genoese were entirely defeated. Ninety galleys were taken, with 3,500 prisoners, and 2,400 Genoese perished in the fight. End of Section 12. Section 13 of Guelphs and Givalines by Oscar Browning. This Librivox recording is in the public domain, recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 10 The Black Death, Louis of Hungary, Genoa and Venice, Marino Faliero, Part 2 Genoa was at this time suffering severely from famine, and she saw no other sign of safety than to submit herself to the hands of the Visconti family, the Archbishop Giovanni of Milan. The spinola of the Givaline faction, who possessed the passes of the Apennines leading into the Lombard Plain, had long been in correspondence with the Visconti. The territory of that house extended from Alisandria on the west to Lunigiana on the southeast. Giovanni was the patron of all the best culture of his time. He was an intimate friend of the poet Petrarch, and he appointed a committee of six, two theologians, two men of science, and two men of letters to write a commentary on the Divina Comedia. It was perhaps well for the freedom of Italy that the tyrants of the Lombard Plain lived in constant jealousy of each other. The rise of the Visconti rendered all powerful by the acquisition of Genoa, roused the Carrara of Padua, the Delascala of Verona, the Este of Verara, the Gonzagi of Mantua, and the Montfredi of Fienza to join Venice against them. They all looked to the assistance of the Emperor Charles IV of Bohemia, who was preparing to march into Italy. Giovanni Visconti sent Gugliano Palavaccini to Genoa as his representative. The representatives of Genoa took the oath of fidelity at Milan in February 1354. This arrangement, however, did not last long. In November 1355 the nobles were driven out, and the doge of Genoa, Simone Bocanera, restored. The doge of Venice, Andrea Dandolo, died in September 1354. He had governed the Republic for twelve years with remarkable wisdom and moderation. He was succeeded by Marino Faliero, who has left a name of Sinister Omen in the long line of Venetian sovereigns. Faliero was a man of great wealth, and was at this time seventy-six years of age. He heard of his election at Verona as he was returning from an embassy to the Court of Avignon. He entered in Triumph on October 15. The first weeks of his dukedom were signalized by disaster. After a vain attempt on the part of the Visconti to make peace, the Genoese braced themselves for a new effort. They placed thirty-three galleys under the command of Paganino Doria. The Venetians met them with thirty-five galleys under Niccolo Pisani. The loss of the town of Parenza, and terror lest the Genoese should attack the capital, had caused the death of Dandolo. Pisano was recalled, but on his way home he put into the harbor of Porto Lungo on the coast of Laconia. Here almost on the very spot where a crushing blow had been inflicted by the Athenians upon the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War, Doria pursued him, and on November 3 succeeded in bringing on a battle which resulted in the entire defeat of the Venetians. Doria returned in Triumph to Genoa, bringing with him the Venetian Admiral with all his fleet and six thousand eight hundred and seventy prisoners. The defeat of Grimaldi at Loyera was amply revenge. The result of this battle was first a suspension of arms and then a definite peace. The main conditions were that the Genoese and Venetians were to restore each other's prisoners, and the Venetians were not to sail to Rome for three years. Also that no Genoese ship was to pass into the Adriatic, and no Venetians ship to pass between Porto Pisano and Marseille. As a guarantee for the observance of the conditions, Venice and Genoa were each to deposit a hundred thousand gold florins in Siena, Pisa, Florence, or Perugia. The treaty was dated June 1, 1355. Before this treaty was concluded, a terrible conspiracy had been detected and punished at Venice. The conspiracy of Marino Faliero, may or may not have had a romantic origin, it is certain that its real cause lay in the fundamental character of Venetian institutions. We have seen how the government of the Republic came gradually to be confined to a close oligarchy, how the Great Council usurped the power which belonged to the people on one side and to the doge on the other, how the Great Council itself was confined to a comparatively few families, and how the power of the Great Council was circumscribed by the creation of a political inquisition in the shape of the Council of Ten. Lord Beckinsfield is believed to have invented the term Our Venetian Constitution in speaking of the English Government, meaning to imply that the Parliament or the Chambers, as perhaps you would have called them, have curtailed the authority of the sovereign and absorbed the political influence of the people, and that the Parliament itself has fallen into the hands of certain privileged families, namely the Whig families of the Revolution of 1688. It is not certain what Anne Folliero had in view. The idea has been generally accepted, founded on the evidence of Matteo Vellani, that he desired to establish a popular government. Recent writers have thought it more probable that he wished to establish a despotism similar to those existing in the other towns of Italy. Certain it is that he wished to overthrow the exclusive authority of the nobles. One of his principal accomplices was Bertuccio Isdrayeli, a distinguished sailor and a man of the people. It may be that the recent war against Genoa had given an impulse to democracy. Just as at Athens the democratic sailors took a position of greater influence when the fleet had been brought into prominence. On the other hand, the doge was connected with the most aristocratic families of Venice, the Republic was now extending its empire on terra firma, and had to fear the rivalry of the tyrants of the Lombard plain, the Este, Gonzaghi, Scaligeri, and Visconti. It might be the most patriotic course in the pressing dangers of the state to consolidate power into a single hand. Both views are indeed reconcilable. We see in the Republic of Holland that the people were always ready to support the authority of the stockholders against the oligarchy of the rich merchants. Faliero might believe that he was acting a patriotic part, and that in shaking off the thralldom of the nobles he was not only true to the history of his country, but was taking the best course to preserve it from imminent danger. These questions will probably never be settled for the volume of the archives of the Council of Ten, which is said to have contained the full account of Faliero's crime has been lost beyond recovery. However this may be, a rising was planned for April 15, 1355. The signal for action was to be the sound of the great bell of St. Mark's, which was never rung except by the express order of the doge. A cry was to be raised that the fleet of Genoa was before the town. The nobles were to be cut down as they entered the square of St. Mark. Amidst chouts of Viva il Popolo, Marino Faliero was to be proclaimed Princepe. The plot was revealed the day before that fixed for its execution by one Bertrando of Bergamo, who was not in the conspiracy, but had been ordered to execute some minor portion of the plan. He told what he knew to Nicolò Leone, one of the Council of Ten, who immediately informed the doge. There was no suspicion that the doge himself was concerned in the plot, but Faliero showed very little presence of mind. He disputed some of the evidence, said that he already knew about parts of it, and gradually inspired Leone with a suspicion which he did not before possess. The conspirators were arrested in their houses, and guards were posted to prevent the ringing of the great bell of St. Mark. The conspirators, when put to the torture, all accused the doge of complicity in the scheme, and he did not deny his guilt. The Council of Ten did not dare to try him by themselves, but summoned twenty nobles to act with them, forming a body which was afterwards made permanent under the name of Junta Orzanta. Faliero was condemned to death and was executed on April 17, 1345, in the courtyard of the palace. The gates communicating with the square of St. Mark were closed for fear of a rising among the people. But immediately after the execution, one of the Council of Ten appeared on the balcony of the palace, holding the blood-stained sword which had done its work. The gates were thrown open, and the people saw the head of the traitor rolling in its blood. In the great hall of the Ducal Palace, where the portraits of the long line of doges form a cornice under the roof, there is a single gap. A black curtain covers the space where a portrait should be, and on it is written, Lucas Marina Faliere, De Capitati pro Criminibus, such as the story of the victim whom Byron has immortalized. Whatever judgment we pass upon his enterprise, its failure had the effect of riveting more closely on doge and people the fetters of a narrow and suspicious oligarchy. He rarely succeeds, and is never justified, except by success. Part 1 We must now retrace our steps a little to the year 1350, in which Giovanni Visconti, Archbishop of Milan, had succeeded to the power and possessions of that house. Matteo Visconti, the founder of the greatness of the family, had left four sons, Galliazzo, Lucchino, Giovanni, and Stefano. Also left a son, Atzone, who was lord of Milan from 1328 to 1339. After Atzone's death, Galliazzo's brothers followed in succession, Lucchino, reigning from 1339 to 1349, and Giovanni, the Archbishop, from 1349 to 1354. Stefano, the fourth brother, had died in 1329 before the death of Galliazzo. Stefano left three sons, Matteo, Bernabeau, and Galliazzo. And amongst them, after the death of the Archbishop, the great inheritance of the Visconti was divided. The Visconti now took the place of the Della Scala, as by far the most powerful of all the houses of the Lombard plain. Giovanni held the lordship of sixteen flourishing Italian towns, Milan, Baudi, Piacenza, Borgo, Sandonino, Parma, Crema, Brescia, Bergamo, Novara, Como, Vericelli, Alba, the town in which Lionel Luc of Clarence died, Alessandria, Tortona, Pontremole, and Asti. Not content with this dominion, he did his best to increase his possessions. Bologna, once the property of the Holy See, was governed at this time by the family of Pepoli, who had been placed in that position by the Guelph party in the town. They were induced to sell Bologna to the Ghiblian Archbishop Giovanni Visconti for the sum of two hundred thousand florins, reserving to themselves the possession of certain castles. The Bolognese were indignant at thus being transferred, and they exclaimed in their dialect, Noi non volem o essere venci. We will not be sold. The Pope, Clement VI, threatened the Archbishop with excommunication. He also summoned him to Avignon to answer for his offence, but he contrived to escape by an original device. He sent one of his secretaries to Avignon to make preparations for his arrival. The secretary began to hire all the vacant houses in the town and in the neighborhood, and to provide everything for the provisioning and lodging of his master. The Pope began to be alarmed and inquired what sweet the Archbishop was intending to bring with him. The secretary replied that he had been ordered to find lodgings for twelve thousand horsemen and six thousand footmen, besides the Milanese noblemen who were to accompany their lord. He had already spent, he said, forty thousand florins in preparation. The Pope preferred the room of such a visitor to his company, dispensed with his attendants, and accorded him the investiture of the thief of Bologna for the sum of a hundred thousand florins. The possession of Bologna naturally brought the Archbishop into conflict with the Florentines, who notwithstanding their internal feuds and dissensions were the steady and persistent friends of the Guelph cause and of liberty. In modern days the railway from Bologna to Florence, following as railways generally do the main lines of ancient communication, crosses the Apennines by the pass of La Portetta and comes down upon Pistoia. It then runs up the valley of the Arno and reaches Florence through the town of Prato. When the Florentines had driven out the Duke of Athens after a severe struggle, the cities which had been subject to them renounced their allegiance to the mother state, and both Pistoia and Prato ceased to belong to them. Prato they again acquired by purchasing the rights which Joanna of Naples was supposed to possess over it through her father the Duke of Calabria. Pistoia they estranged by attempting to seize it by a coup de main. The Archbishop, who had made an alliance with the little gibbaline lords who surrounded in different directions, now sent an army to attack Pistoia under the command of Giovanni Visconti d'Olegio. The Florentines had just time to throw a garrison into the town. Olegio was unable to take it and contented himself with laying siege to the castle of Scarparia in the Mugello. After the retreat of Olegio in the autumn of 1351 the Florentines formed a close league with the cities of Arezzo, Perugia and Siena, thus forming what in modern phraseology might be called a strong quadrilateral for the defense of Guelphic interests. The allies first applied for assistance to the Pope, who was the natural defender of the Guelphs, but Clement VI, as we have seen, had already made his peace with the Archbishop and confirmed him in the possession of Bologna. They then in despair but took themselves to the Emperor Charles IV, although it was strange that a Guelphic League should call upon an Emperor to defend them against a Ghiblien Confederacy supported by a Pope. Charles IV was the son of John King of Bohemia, of whom we have already heard so much, and therefore the grandson of the great Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg. He had been elected by a portion of the electors in 1346 by the influence of Pope Clement VI, who declared Ludwig of Bavaria incapable of reigning. He was not at first generally recognized in Europe and was satirized by the ignoble name of Pfaffenkeiser, the Emperor of the Priests. His father John was, as we know, killed at the Battle of Caesae on August 26, 1346, upon which Charles became King of Bohemia. The rival Emperor Ludwig died on October 11, 1347, and after the Anti-Papal Party had in vain tried to discover a candidate to represent them in the person of Edward III of England and others, Charles was generally received as Emperor. He is considered to have been a very good King of Bohemia, but is accused of sacrificing the general interests of his empire to the special interests of that particular province. Charles did not at that time accept the invitation of the Guelphic allies, but the Archbishop was not unwilling to make peace, and he was probably incited to take this course by the death of Pope Clement VI and the accession of Innocent VI. He therefore concluded the Treaty of Sarazana in the spring of 1353 on the basis of the status quo, that is, the mutual restoration of all conquests. Another reason for making peace lay in the acquisition of Genoa, which we have already mentioned, and the consequent embroilment of the Visconte with Venice. Three events now claim our attention which are closely connected with each other. The Enterprise of the Condotieri Chief, Fra Moriale, at the head of his mercenary troops, the Mission of Cardinal Abernoth to Italy, on behalf of the Pope, and the Return of Cola di Rienzi to Rome. Fra Moriale, more properly, Fra Montreale di Albano, was a Provençal Nobleman by birth and a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem. He had been, as has been already mentioned, in the service of Charles of Dorazzo and of Louis, King of Hungary, and after his departure had remained in Italy and got together a company of adventurers who were no better than a band of organized brigands. His first exploit was undertaken against the Malatesta of Rimini, who were partisans of Queen Joanna. Malatesta, after vainly invoking the aid of the Guelph Quadrilateral, was obliged to buy him off. His service from all parts of Italy joined his standard, and he also received reinforcements from Germany. The few Allied Guelphs that he attempted to oppose him, but he sowed dissension amongst them, and the people of Perugia were the first to make peace with him. The Sienese did the same and persuaded him to leave the territory unscathed by the gift of sixteen thousand Florence. Pisa and Florence made a certain resistance, but they soon found it more convenient to follow the example of the other republics. In July 1354 they made a treaty with him by which in consideration of a large payment they secured immunity against attack for two years. Fra Moriale led his troops in the Lombardy, where they were engaged to help Count Lando, a German, who was fighting in the service of Venice against the Archbishop Giovanni Visconti. We shall follow the exploits of Lando before the close of this chapter. Cardinal Egidius Albernoth was a connection of the royal family of Castile. He had been made Archbishop of Toledo in early youth, and had fought valiantly against the Moors. After the death of Alfonso XI, he putook himself to the papal court and was made a cardinal by Clement VI. Innocent VI now chose him as the fittest person to rescue Italy from the condition of misery into which it had fallen, and to re-establish the authority of the Pope at Rome. Albonnoth was well-received by Giovanni Visconti et Milan and entered Florence in October 1353. He was accompanied on his journey by Cola di Rienzi, who now reappears on the scene. We have already narrated how Rienzi escaped from Rome in December 1347. He first sought refuge in the Neapolitan territory at the court of King Louis of Hungary, but when that monarch suddenly quitted Italy, the tribune went to Genoa to place himself under the protection of the Emperor Charles IV. The Emperor, who did not inherit the chivalrous spirit of his father John, delivered up Rienzi to the Pope at Avignon, where he was imprisoned. The friendship of Petrarch probably saved him from death, and Innocent VI thought that he might be of use as a co-agitor to Cardinal Albonnoth in his mission to Rome. The states of the Church were at this time occupied by a number of petty tyrants who established themselves in the different towns, whilst the Colonna and the Orsini contended for the possession of the capital itself. The first important duty which fell upon the Cardinal was to crush Giovanni, called Il Prefetto di Vico, who occupied a castle on the slopes of the Monte Cimino and was lured of Viterbo, Orvieto, and many other towns. He engaged in the siege of Viterbo and received the submission of Vico with the approbation of the Roman populace, who put to death Francesco Bonorotti, whom they had elected tribune in imitation of Rienzi. Albonnoth now dispatched Rienzi to Rome, giving him the title of senator. He entered the city on August 1st, 1354, under triumphal arches. He made an eloquent oration to the people in the capital, formed his government, made the brethren of Fra Moriale captains of his troops, announced his elevation to Florence, and received ambassadors from the surrounding towns. But Rienzi had no soldiers nor money with which to accomplish his difficult task. He was much changed in appearance since the time of his early triumphs. He drank too much and had grown very fat. His face was spotted like a peacock and his eyes shone with a feverish fire. The Colonna took refuge in Palestrina, the Orsini and Marino, whilst Rienzi was engaged in the siege of Palestrina. Fra Moriale came to Rome, counting on the influence of his two brothers with Rienzi, and thinking the occasion promising for plunder. Rienzi threw him into prison together with his brothers, and he was executed on August 29th. Rienzi had at first been received with a certain enthusiasm, and there seemed to be a hope of his being able to restore the papal authority. But his popularity was shattered against the rock which had proved fatal to so many who had attempted to establish their power in Italy. The Italian people were ready to treat with everything but taxes. Rienzi was obliged to raise the salt tax, and to put a new tax upon wine. The consequence of this was that in September 1354 a tumult broke out in the streets of Rome. The people assembled before the castle of St. Angelo and in the piazza Colonna, marching together to the capital they cried, Mora lo traditore cola di Rienzo, Mora lo traditore che ha fatto la Gabella. Death to the traitor Rienzi, death to the traitor who has imposed the tax on salt. Rienzi attempted to address the crowd, but the rioters knew too well the power of his eloquence. Stones and arrows were thrown at him as he stood in his senatorial robes with the banner of the people in his hand. The mob set fire to the palace, Rienzi escaped to the upper stories, and there blackened his face, changed his clothes, and attempted to escape. The gold chains which still encircled his arms betrayed his identity, he then boldly avowed who he was. For nearly an hour he stood facing the mob clad half in the garb of royalty and half in the rags of a barber's boy. Still all hesitated to lay a hand upon him until Ceccio del Vecchio thrust his sword into his belly. His head was then cut off, his body dragged about the streets. On the third day the Colonna had his corpse carried to the Campo d'Augusto where it was burned by Jews on a heap of dry thistles. CHAPTER XI. Just at this time the Emperor Charles IV began the expedition into Italy which he had been previously invited to undertake. He had been at first solicited by the towns of the Guelph quadrilateral. He was now approached, with more success, by the Confederacy which had formed itself under the supremacy of Venice to resist the overwhelming power of the Visconti. This league comprised the chief princes of the Lombard Plain, the best day of Ferrara, the Gonzagi of Mantua, the Carrara of Pagua, the Delascala of Verona, always ready to turn against any of their number who threatened a dangerous preponderance. The Florentines refused to join the league considering themselves bound by the Treaty of Sarzana. Genoa, as has been already stated, was in the possession of the Visconti. Just at this critical moment Giovanni del Visconti, Archbishop of Milan, died on October 5, 1354. On Friday evening, October 3, 1354 there appeared on his forehead, just above the eyebrow, a little boil or pimple of which he took but little notice. On Saturday evening the 4th of the same month he had it cut and as it was cut the Archbishop fell down dead, thus says Matteo Vilani. The Archbishop's inheritance was divided among his three nephews, Matteo received Bologna, Parma, Babio, Piacenza and Lodi, Bernabó, Bergamo, Brescia, Crema and Cromona, Galeazzo, Como, Novara, Vercelli, Asti, Alba, Alessandria and Tortona. Milan and Genoa were held in common by the three brothers. Matteo, who was of an easygoing and quiet temper, took the part of a sleeping partner. Bernabó had charge of military affairs and Galeazzo of the interior. Matteo died in the following year, 1355 upon which Lodi and Parma were given to Bernabó, Piacenza and Babio to Galeazzo. Bologna, although ostensibly belonging to Bernabó, was practically made over to Giovanni da Olegio, who had been sent there by the Archbishop. The Emperor, who arrived in Italy soon after the Archbishop's death, was sumptuously received by the Visconti, although he came at the invitation of the Venetians. He was entertained first in Pagiava and Mantua by the Carrara of Angonzagi. A splendid embassy was sent to invite him to Milan, offering him a present of two hundred thousand gold florins. In return for this, he endeavored to make peace between the Visconti and the League, but he only succeeded in concluding a truce. On January 4, 1355, he made his triumphal entry into Milan and was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy on January 6 in the Church of Sant'Ambrogio. On January 12, he set out for Tuscany and entered Pisa on January 18. There he was received with very different feelings. The Pesans greeted him with enthusiasm. They had not forgotten their relations with his grandfather Henry VII. The Emperor remained in Pisa for two months. It has been mentioned above that the town of Luca had been placed under the government of Charles during the expedition of his father, John of Bohemia, into Italy. During this time he had built a castle of Monte Carlo to defend the city against the Florentines. The people of Luca were now eager to show their attachment, but Charles was afraid of offending Pisa by treating Luca with too much favor. Indeed, he confirmed the authority of Pisa over it. The cities of the Guelph League, Arezzo, Perugia, Siena, and Florence, were doubtful how they should conduct themselves. Perugia determined to act separately as being a fief of the Church and not of the Empire. Florence and Siena sent a joint embassy. But whereas the Florentines were careful and guarded in their language and did nothing which acknowledged the sovereignty of Charles or which cast a doubt upon their own independence, the Sienes at once admitted their position of dependence to the Empire. Florence received the reward of her bold conduct. On payment of one hundred thousand Florence she obtained full recognition as a free imperial city and was relieved from every condemnation which during a number of years had been launched against her by a succession of imperial vickers. Arezzo, terrified by its tyrants the Tartillatti, followed at first the example of Florence. But at last submitted to the Emperor. The smaller towns such as Pistoa and San Miniatto did the same and the petty tyrants of the neighborhood hastened to join his standard. Passing through Siena, Charles arrived in Rome where in accordance to his agreement with the Pope he only spent a single night. He was crowned in St. Peter's on Easter Day, April 5, by the Cardinal Archbishop of Ostia and by the Profetto Rivico, who had been deprived of his possessions by Cardinal Albornoth. At the end of May Charles left Italy for Germany. He had failed in all his projects and the issue of his expedition created in Italy a feeling of contempt for the Empire which was never obliterated. Wherever the Emperor passed he gave the signal for tumult on disorders which he was unable to appease. When he arrived at Siena, the government of the Nine, a close oligarchy of merchants had been overthrown and its place was taken by a popular oligarchy of twelve which was just as tyrannical. On his return he left his brother the Archbishop of Aquileia to command the town, but his back was no sooner turned than his brother was expelled and the government overthrown. Similarly at Pisa he attempted to appease the factions which tore the town in Sunder, but on his return the generals broke out with greater violence and executed Gamba Corta, who had been one of the first to welcome him into Italy. Luca which had hailed him as the liverer had to condemn him as a destroyer. He slunk back through Lombardy without attendance and without honors as his brilliant German suite had left him after the coronation at Rome. The Visconti could afford to despise him and made a great favor of giving him leave to spend a night in their city of Verona. Once more the attempt to bring rest and peace to Italy from beyond the Alps had entirely failed. The close of the year 1355 was marked by the devastation of the Kingdom of Naples by the great company, as it was called, an army of mercenaries commanded by Count Lando of whom the notorious Fra Moriale had been an officer, and also by the successes of Cardinal Albonoth in the marches. The great company, a band of robbers and assassins, ready to do the bidding of anyone who would pay them, had marched into the dominions of Queen Joanna to satisfy a private vengeance. They devastated Catalonia, Apulia, and the Tierra di Lavoro, while the troops of Acha Julo, the Marshal of the Kingdom, contrived to collect for its defense, being disgusted by want of pay, went to swell the ranks of the company. The operations of Cardinal Albonoth were directed first against the Malatesta, lords of Rimini, and when they were reduced to submission against the Ordelafi, lords of Fort Li. The neighboring towns were attacked, Fort Li and Fienza were taken. Cisena held out for a long time under Martzia or Cha, the wife of Francesco Ordelafi, but was at last subdued. In these operations, Albonoth had to contend against the forces of the great company which had been driven out of Naples by the exertions of Louis of Tarentum, and was assisting the petty tyrants of the north to maintain their power. It is unfortunate that the confusion of Italian affairs at this time makes it difficult or indeed impossible to find a single thread to guide us through the labyrinth. We are compelled to pass from town to town, and the disorder which is generated in our own minds is only typical of the confusion of the political events which we are seeking to unravel. Chronology compels us to say a few words about Venice and Milan. We left Venice at the death of Marino Faliero, and the peace concluded immediately afterwards with Genoa and Milan. Faliero was succeeded as doge by Giovanni Gradanigo, who soon found himself at war with the King of Hungary. The Venetians claimed to be the masters of the Adriatic. No ships of war but their own were allowed to enter it. On the other hand, it was understood that any ship of their allies was to be safe from attack while traversing it. Louis of Hungary, who had long sought a pretext for conquests in Dalmatia, found one by the attack of a Hungarian ship by a Sicilian vessel in Venetian waters. Venice took several towns of the terra firma. Cuneliano fell by treachery, Saravale and Mestre submitted, Spalattro and Zara were lost. Turkish pirates appeared on the coast. Kratl rose in insurrection. Peace was eventually made in February 1358. Venice got back her towns in the neighborhood of Treviso, but the whole of the Dalmatian coast had to be surrendered to the King of Hungary. In the meantime, the war against the Visconti had begun again. The members of the old Venetian League, the Este, Gonzagi, Carrara and Dela Scala, joined themselves with the Marquis of Montferrat, a member of the House of Palaeologus of Constantinople. The Emperor Charles IV also assisted them, and Giovanni da Legio, Lord of Bologna. The League conquered Asti, but a more serious loss to the Milanese was Pavia, which declared itself independent, and could not be taken by Galliazzo Visconti, even with a force of forty thousand soldiers. The League summoned the great company to their aid. Milan would have been entirely lost if their enemies had been of one mind. The mercenaries turned their attention to plunder, and the Visconti had time to recover themselves. Some of their enemies fell away from the common standard, others deserted to join the mercenaries, who were in the pay of the Milanese. At last the Visconti won a decisive victory in a pitched battle near Casorata, in which all the captains of the League were taken prisoners, except Lando himself. This victory, however, was more than compensated for by the loss of Genoa. Being by the disasters of its masters, the city was able to declare its independence, and recalled Simon Bocanera, the former doge. The war dragged on till 1358. The Visconti had lost Asti, Novara, Como, Pavia, and Genoa, but their adversaries could not depend on the allegiance of their German mercenaries, so that eventually by the good offices of Filtrino Gonzaga, peace was arranged between the Visconti and the other princes of Lombardy. But the Marquess of Montferrat still kept tight hold of Asti, and Pavia refused to surrender its independence, so against these two powers the war still continued. End of Section 15 Chapter 12 The Mercenaries, Perugia and Siena, Florence and Pisa, Urban V, Charles IV, and Gregory XI. The period of which we are now treating is one in which an important part was played by the various bodies of mercenary soldiers who under different names traversed Italy in all directions fighting, plundering, betraying, stimulating war for the sake of gain, sparing each other in battle, and carving out thrones and dominions for themselves in the universal confusion. It is to the credit of Florence that she was the first to oppose a bold front to the great company, and to check the devastations of that band of robbers. At the same time her internal condition was far from satisfactory. The city was torn in two by the factions of the Ricci and the Albizzi, and the government had got into the hands of young and inexperienced men. The deviato or prohibition had been established to prevent two persons of the same name from holding certain offices together at the same time. It was a precaution against the undue preponderance of family influence in the administration, but it acted very unequally. The older families had many branches and wide connections, and they found themselves by this rule excluded to a great extent from office. The younger families on the contrary were called by a greater variety of names, and therefore related branches were able to share in the government together. The tendency of this was to exclude unjustly the most powerful Guelph families, and to admit those whose principles were less certain and less pure. Also there was a tendency to exclude a large number of citizens from office which grew up in the following manner. The capitani di parte Guelpha had been instituted in 1269 for the purpose of administering the property of the exiled gibbalines. As this gave them the disposal of a large sum of money, they gradually acquired very considerable power. In the beginning of 1352 they got a law passed by which anyone who had held an office should, on being convicted of gibbalinism, be punished in any manner the scenery might determine, but with not less than a fine of five hundred silver florins, and besides this he should be declared incapable of holding office for life. The accusation was to be proved by the testimony of six witnesses and the judges were to be the captains of the parte Guelpha and the consuls of the arts. This law was afterwards modified. Two populani were added to the capitani di parte Guelpha, which previously consisted only of two representatives of the grande and two of the populograsso, and it was enacted that if by a majority of two-thirds they should decide that anyone was tainted with gibbalinism, he was to be warned or admonished not to take office and so to expose himself to the penalties of the law. Thus there grew up in the state a class of amoniti, as they were called, excluded from public affairs which were a constant center of dissatisfaction and discontent. About this time war broke out between Perugia and Siena, two cities of the Guelphic quadrilateral. Perugia, as has been mentioned, was a thief of the church and not of the empire, and by being withdrawn and some degree from the struggles of the time it had become very rich and prosperous. With a natural desire to extend its power it attempted the reduction of Cortona and all the Truscan city perched on a precipitous cliff. Cortona placed itself under the protection of Siena. The Florentines declined to assist Cortona, but charged the Perugians to desist from their unjust encroachments. The Sienes took strange measures. In March 1358 they hired a German condottiere named Baumgarten with 12,000 men. The Perugians were compelled to raise the siege of Cortona, but they returned to the struggle again with larger forces, and on April 10th defeated the Sienes at Torita and took Baumgarten prisoner. The Florentines tried to make peace between these two old allies, but the Sienes were determined to wipe out the disgrace of Torita. They applied for assistance to the Visconte of Milan, to the Profetto of Vico, and finally to Count Lando and his great company. Lando was now in the Romagna, and he asked permission to pass through the territory of Florence. He was allowed to take a path through the Apennines, on condition of entirely avoiding the plain of Tuscany. He retained in custody to Florentine envoys as a guarantee of safety. His intention was to pass through the Val di Lamone to Bibiana in the Casantino, but his mercenary soldiers were difficult to keep in order. In spite of every precaution they plundered and burned two villages. The peasants determined upon vengeance. The mercenary army had to pass through a narrow gorge called Biforco o le Scalette. The slopes of the hills were occupied by mountaineers. The vanguard in which were the two Florentine envoys were allowed to pass without hindrance. But Lando, with the main body, found himself stopped. At a given signal, an avalanche of rock was let loose from the upper slopes. The horses were terrified and carried down into the torrents. Lando was wounded in the head. At this moment Count Burkart, with the rear guard, entered the pass when a falling rock carried both horse and rider into the abyss below. The great company was cut to pieces. Lando was taken prisoner but was released on payment of a ransom. In the meantime the vanguard had fortified itself in the castle of Di Comano in the Val di Sieve. The Florentines went to attack it, but the envoys, finding their lives in danger, instead of sacrificing themselves for the good of their country, helped to secure the retreat of the mercenaries to Tivoli and the Romagna. Thus, an opportunity was lost of ridding themselves of this pest, and the great company cherished an undying hatred against the Florentines. Soon after this, peace was made between Perugia and Siena on equitable terms. General Albonoth, who had been recalled to Avignon, returned to Italy at the close of 1358. In the beginning of the following year he signed a treaty with the great company, which provided that it should not attack the state of the church or the territory of Florence on the payment of 45,000 Florens by the one and 80,000 by the other. The Florentines repudiated this agreement with the utmost indignation. They were not sunk so low as to bargain for their safety with a band of brigands. It is greatly to the credit of Florence that she was the first to oppose a manly resistance to this extortion, and to renounce a system of cowardly temporizing which had proved the destruction of the Roman Empire. Lando, reinforced by the troops of Baumgarten and by nearly all the foreign adventurers, who were then in Italy, stronger in numbers than ever, was now invited to take service with the Marquis of Montferrat against the Visconti. He was at this time in the territory of Perugia which had granted him a free passage. Siena and Pisa had done the same, and Lando hoped to terrify the government of Florence. The Florentines, however, strengthened by a number of allies who seized an opportunity of declaring against a common scourge, placed Pandolfo Malatesta at their head and determined to defend their frontiers. The company passed from the territory of Siena to that of Pisa and then to that of Luca, always skirting the boundaries of Florence. At last, the two armies came face to face in July 1359 near Monte Cattini between Pistoia and Pescia. Lando challenged Pandolfo to battle, sending him a glove stained with blood. The challenge was willingly accepted, but the German was afraid to risk an engagement. He set fire to his camp and marched in haste to Genoa. Malatesta returned to Florence in triumph. The Florentines sent a force of a thousand men to Bernabeu Visconti to help him against the mercenaries, but Lando soon left the service of Montferrat for that of Bernabeu himself, so that the Florentines and the Germans found themselves fighting on the same side. This succession to the power of the Visconti enabled them to reduce Pavia. If we followed the strict chronological order of events, we should now give an account of the contention between the Visconti and the Pope, which occupied the years 1360 to 1361. But it will probably be more convenient to defer this for the present and to pass on to the war between Florence and Pisa, which broke out in 1362. The quarrel had begun in 1356 about a question of trade. Florence was now, next to Venice, the greatest commercial city of Italy. The natural road for its traffic was through Pisa, and this traffic was the source of wealth to both communities. The Florentines had always enjoyed the right of free entry to the port of Pisa. But in June 1356, the Peasans imposed a pirate tax on the ground of the expense of keeping down the pirates. This the Florentines resisted, and in November, they broke off their commercial relations with Pisa and determined that in future their commerce should pass through the harbor of Talamone in Morema, which belonged to the Sienese. Talamone is familiar to students of the Divina Comedia, as a place where the people of Siena had spent a great deal of money without result. The modern port of Florence, Livorno or Leghorn, owes its formation to the dukes of the House of Medici. This change was a terrible loss to Pisa. Not only did the Florentines leave the city, but also the merchants of many nations whom the Florentines had attracted thither. The Peasans tried to prevent ships from sailing to Talamone by force, but in the end they were obliged to succumb. This attempt to force trade out of its natural channel brought advantage to nobody. Revolutions broke out at Pisa, Florence and Perugia, and added to the universal confusion and distress. In 1361 the Florentines became masters of Volterra, a strong hill-town which the Peasans had always coveted for themselves. At length their growing discontent burst into flame and war was declared between the two cities. Success everywhere attended the Florentines. They not only pressed the Peasans by land, but with the help of the Genoese and Neapolitans attacked them by sea. Since the defeat of Maloria the maritime power of the Peasans had almost ceased to exist, so that they could offer little or no resistance. The Florentines captured the island of Gileo in the Tuscan Archipelago. They even attacked the very port of Pisa and took away the iron chains which defended it. These chains long hung over the gate of the Baptistry at Florence until they were restored when both towns became part of a united Italy. The Peasans in despair turned for help to Bernabeu Visconti of Milan, himself hard-pressed by a crowd of enemies. He sent to their assistance the white or English company of mercenaries of whose fortunes we must now give some account. This company was now commanded by a German, Albert Stertz. They were called the English Company, either because the company was largely composed of Englishmen, or because they had been in the pay of Edward III in France, or because they had adopted the English methods of discipline and accoutrement. The south of France was at this time almost in as bad a condition as Italy. The soldiers set free by the Pisa Bretigny in 1360 were ravaging the country in all directions. The white company had passed into Italy in 1360 to avoid the plague which was then raging in Provence, and the Marquess of Montferrat was very glad of its assistance to help them against the Visconti. With the usual infidelity of their kind, the company passed over to the side of the Visconti against whom it was engaged to fight. Bernabeau was soon tired of these troublesome allies, and by sending them to assist the peasants, he rid himself of a disagreeable burden and was able to defend his friends at a cheap rate. CHAPTER XII The English Company Arrived at Pisa on July 18, 1363. It consisted of 2,500 horsemen and 2,000 foot. Philippo Vallani informs us that their cavalry was reckoned by lances. Each lance consisting of three horsemen bound together by strict ties of association. They used their horses to transport them to the place of conflict, but they usually fought on foot. They were covered with impenetrable armor. They wore a sword and a dagger at their side. Two men supported the huge lances as they advanced and serried phalanx with loud cries. Each horseman was attended by one or two pages, whose business it was to polish their master's armor until it shone like a mirror. This was the first time that horsemen had been seen in Italy to fight on foot. They cared nothing for the cold of winter and did not go into winter quarters. For the assault of walls they carried with them short ladders of not more than three rungs each, which could be securely fastened together. In this way they could reach the summit of the highest wall, whilst the ladder never overtopped the parapet so as to be thrown down into the ditch. In the spring of 1364 the Visconti made peace with their enemies, as we shall see later on, and Galliazzo was able to send to the Pisons the German company of Baumgarten, consisting of 3,000 cuirassier or barbouti, so that the Pisons had a larger army at their disposal than any prince in Italy had ever had before. They now hoped to make an advantageous peace with the Florentines, but they in their turn called in the De La Stella, or Star Company, of mercenaries from Provence. This company, however, being bribed by the Visconti, never arrived. The Pisons gave the command of their troops to a famous Englishman called in the Italian history Zacuto Oragudo, but as we are also told that his name signified Falcone in Bosco, or Hawk in the Wood, we may infer that his name was John Hawkwood. He was born in Sybil Headington, in Essex, where the tower of the church built by him still shows the emblem of a Hawk in the Wood, and a hospital endowed by his will in order to atone for any sins he may have committed in his eventful life still exists. His tomb is also to be seen in Sybil Headington Church, enriched by armorial bearings. He had gained a considerable reputation in the French wars, and had a good reputation for honesty, although Filippo Vellani says of him that he was a great master of war, but, like most of his trade, as cunning as a fox. Also Graziani, another Florentine chronicler, says of him, he endured under arms longer than anyone ever endured, for he endured sixty years, and he well knew how to manage that there should be little peace in Italy in his time, and every land was, as it were, tributary to him, and woe to those men and people who trust too much to men of that stamp, for men in communes and all cities live and increase by peace. But these men live and increase by war, which is the undoing of cities, for they fight and become of not. In them is neither love nor faith. He spent the greater part of his life in the service of Florence, and the Florentines after his death painted his effigy on horseback on the walls of Our Lady of the Flower. Under the command of Hawkwood, who had with him a considerable number of English soldiers, the two companies marched up to the walls of Florence and ravaged its territories, and even danced round their watchfires on the top of the hill of Fiesoli, so that they could be seen by the whole city. After this, Hawkwood devastated the territory of Arezzo Cortona and Siena, and returned to Pisa by the way of the Valdelsa. The Florentines succeeded in corrupting the greater part of these mercenaries, so that they deserted the service of Pisa, except John Hawkwood, who remained with twelve hundred Englishmen. He was beaten by the Florentines in a battle near Cacina in the neighborhood of Pisa. The Pesans now changed their government, electing Giovanni Danilo, one of their citizens, as doge. He was supported by the party of the Raspante, and by Berna Bovisconti, and he had secured the adhesion of Hawkwood by a large sum of money. He was inaugurated on August 13, 1364, and a fortnight later, peace was concluded between Florence and Pisa by the good office of Pope Urban V, the successor of Innocent VI. The Florentines were restored to all their ancient privileges in the port of Pisa, the castle of Pietra Buona was given up to them, and the Pesans agreed to pay the Florentines a hundred thousand gold florens in ten years, ten thousand each year in a golden cup on the eve of the feast of St. John. The events which next engage our attention are the temporary return of Pope Urban V to Rome, and the second expedition of the Emperor Charles IV into Italy. And the sixth had died on September 12, 1362. His successor was the sixth pope who had reigned at Avignon since Clement V transported the sea to France in 1305. The pope had bought the sovereignty of Avignon from Queen Joanna of Naples, and it continued with the county of Venezia as part of the papal possessions till it was incorporated with France at the beginning of the French Revolution. It is not necessary to dwell on the corruption of the papal court or the contempt with which it was treated by Italians. The long war between the Pope and the Visconti and the frequent excommunications launched against the family did not prevent them from holding the supremacy of northern Italy and contracting alliances with the noblest families of Europe. But Avignon had ceased to be a safe residence. The conclusion of the piece de Prattigny had left the country a prey to a hordes of mercenaries. The Jacquerie, the rising among the peasantry, also contributed to render it insecure. Urban made a virtue of necessity, and in 1365 arranged with Charles IV his return to the holy city. At the same time higher motives were not altogether absent. Italy was now devastated by four companies and mercenaries, the German company of Baumgarten, the English company of Hockwood, the company of the Starr, which the Florentines had invited from Provence, and the company of St. George, which one of the Visconti had taken into his pay. The Pope formed the idea of liberating Italy from this scourge by turning all the mercenaries against the Turks, whose advance was becoming formidable. Urban wished to hold a Congress at Bologna to concert measures for the execution of this plan. We find St. Catherine of Siena, one of the most interesting personalities of the Middle Ages, strongly in favor of this crusade. She wrote to John Hockwood, perhaps in 1360, O dearest and sweetest brother in Christ Jesus, it would be a great thing if you could turn your attention a little towards yourself and consider what troubles and fatigues you have endured in the service and pay of the devil. Now my soul desires that you should take the pay and the cross of Christ crucified, together with all your followers and companions, so that you may be a company of Christ to go against the infiddle dogs who spurn our holy place, where our first great truth reposed and endured death and pains for us. It is some credit to Hockwood that St. Catherine should have written to him thus. Indeed she implies in the letter that he had already promised to undertake the enterprise. St. Catherine Bernacosa was born at Siena in 1347. She entered the order of the female Dominicans in 1362, and lived a retired life of prayer and meditation till 1368, when she began to take an interest in public affairs. She died at Siena in 1380 in the order of Sanctity. Her memoirs were written by her confessor Fra Rai Mundo of Capua. The poet Petrarch addressed the pope in language not less eloquent than that of St. Catherine, urging him to quit Avignon, which was the seat of every vice and iniquity, and to take himself to Rome, where he would find himself in the company of Peter, of Paul, of Stefano, of Lorenzo, of Sylvester, of Gregory, of Jerome, of Agnes, of Satilia, and of many thousands and thousands of saints who confess the faith of Christ and subsequently lay down their life for it. The pope and the emperor had engaged to meet together in Italy in May 1366, but the emperor found himself obliged to put off his journey for a year. The pope, leaving Avignon on April 30, 1367, embarked at Marseille on vessels furnished by Queen Joanna, Venice, and Pisa, and after a few days sojourn at Genoa landed at Coronetto on June 4, not far from the port of Civita Vecchia, which was then in the hands of Francesco Davico. Here he was received by Cardinal Albonoth, who was able to assure him that during the 14 years tenure of his office as legate, he had reduced the whole of the territory of St. Peter to obedience. On his arrival in Italy, Albonoth had found only two castles which acknowledged the authority of the pope, Montefiascone and Montefalco. Now the pope was obeyed by all the towns of Ravenna, of the Marches, of Umbria, and of the old Patrimoni. The cardinal presented the pope with a wagon full of the keys of towns and castles. Now, just when his work was completed, he died on August 24, 1367. His last act was to organize a new league against the Visconti, consisting of the emperor, the pope, the king of Hungary, the lords of Padua, Ferrara, and Mantua, and strange to say, of Joanna, Queen of Naples. Albonoth was also a great law giver. The Aegean constitutions promulgated by him in a parliament of the Marches in 1357 were recognized by Sixtus IV and were current in the states of the church till 1816. The emperor Charles IV arrived at Coneliano in May 1368 and reached Padua on the 17th of that month. He was accompanied by a large army, but he does not appear in this second journey to have improved the bad reputation which he left by his first expedition. His first exploit was to make peace with the Visconti, whom all Italy and even Europe was eager to attack. Luca, as we know, had always felt an affection for him. It was at this time subject, governed as we have said above by Doge Agnolo, Agnolo in return for recognition surrendered Luca to Charles, and the emperor committed it to Markvalt, bishop of Augsburg, and patriarch of Aquileia. Agnolo was accidentally wounded at Luca, and the peasants took the opportunity of deposing him crying, Viva lo imperatore and muoio lo dojo. At Siena Charles found new troubles. On Charles's previous visit the oligarchy of the nine had been supplanted by a new democratic oligarchy of twelve. The nine had now risen against the twelve and were anxious to establish a government in which the grandi should have the largest share. The emperor offered to make peace, and effected a compromise which was for a time successful. Having offended the pope by the peace he had made with the Visconti, he now attempted to ingratiate himself with him. He arrived at Rome before Urban V reached it, met him at the Porta Colina on October 21st, and led his horse by the bridle to the palace of the Vatican. On November 1st Urban crowned the Empress Elizabeth in St. Peter's. This complacence only served to lower the emperor in the eyes of the Romans. On his return to Siena he was attacked by the parties whom he had endeavored to reconcile, was shut up in a palace with nothing to eat, and was reduced to such a state of misery and terror that he granted everything he was asked. Escaping from Siena with his bare life he was afraid to enter Pisa, lest a worse fate should befall him, the town being torn asunder by factions, he therefore went straight to the friendly city of Lucca which he restored to his independence on the payment of 200,000 florins. Thus Lucca regained, in April 1370, the freedom which he had lost in June 14, 1314, by submitting to Ugucione della Faggula. Charles on his way back to Germany thought of nothing but amassing money. He exacted it on one pretext or another from Pisa, from Florence, and from other sources, and he used this treasure to beautify his city of Prague, especially in building the bridge which still exists across the Moldau. In the meantime, Pope Urban V added to the luster of a victory over the Emperor of the West the submission of the Emperor of the East. John Palaiologus came to Rome in 1369 to implore the aid of Christendom against the Turks, who under Amorath were threatening Constantinople. He recognized the Pope's supremacy, abjured his heresies, and accepted the doctrines of the Catholic faith. The document, drawn up in Greek and Latin, was sent to all Catholic churches. He too held the Pope's bridle as he wrote in procession to the Vatican. He obtained in return empty bowls and promises, but was arrested on his return at Venice for debt. It is a strange episode in the history of the widowed city that she should have seen in two years the two great potentates of the world in submission to the spiritual power whose yoke she herself had so long rejected. Urban had the further success of reducing prerogative obedience and rousing Florence against the Visconti. The war between France and England, which had for a time been suspended by the Peace of Bretigny, now broke out again. Urban yielded to the persuasions of the French Cardinals who persuaded him that his presence was required in the North in order to reconcile the combatants. He embarked at Coronetto on September 5th, 1370, and on the 24th of the same month was received with exultation at Avignon. He never however recovered from the fatigue of the journey and died on December 19th. The papal sea was filled before the close of the year by the election of Pierre Rojet de Beaufort who took the name of Gregory XI. He asked St. Catherine of Siena to pray for him and for the church, a demand which gave her great pleasure and hope for the future. The new Pope shortly found himself in violent conflict with the Visconti and the war began to go against them owing to the defection of John Hawkwood, who being dismissed by the tyrant of Milan took refuge with the legate of the Pope. A truce was concluded at Bologna, June 4th, 1375, after which Hawkwood left the service of the church and marched his company into Tuscany. This with other reasons produced a violent change in the political relations of Florence. The provinces of Bologna and Perugia were governed for the Pope by French legates who exhibited the lust and avarice which so often tended to rouse Italians to rebel against French domination. There were disputes about corn and soreness about the tardy assistance given to the Pope in his war against the Visconti. St. Catherine in vain tried to maintain a peace between Florence and the Holy Sea. Hawkwood was bought off by a large payment of money and new offices were appointed at Florence called the Otto di Ghedra or the Eight of War. The Florentines determined to strengthen the rebellion which had broken out against the papal government and to seek the alliance of the Visconti. They chose Libertà as the device for their standard. There was a general rising in all the states of the church, eighty towns threw off their allegiance in three days. The Pope replied by placing Florence under an interdict and confiscating the property of Florentine merchants, a sentence which was taken full advantage of by the creditors of Florence and France and England. The Florentines continued their struggle with such eager enthusiasm that the Otto di Ghedra were known by the name of the Otto Santi, the Eight Saints. Bologna threw off the papal yoke and the banner of liberty was sent to Rome. When Catherine did all she could to bring about peace, she went to Florence and persuaded the government to send ambassadors to Avignon. She then repaired dither herself and was well received by the Pope. Although she failed in reconciling the combatants, she succeeded in persuading Gregory XI that the one hope of recovering the dominions of the church lay in his personal presence in Italy. The Pope left Avignon on September 13, 1376, embarked at Marseille and on January 17, 1377 landed at the Basilica of St. Paul. The Babylonish captivity was at an end. End of Section 17 Section 18 of Guelphs and Ghibliens by Oscar Browning. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 13 The Visconti, The Great Schism, Revolution of the Chompe at Florence. Part 1 In describing the events above narrated, we have omitted this special history of the Visconti family, Lords of Milan. To this we must now give our attention. We have seen how the Archbishop of Milan, Giovanni, was succeeded by his three nephews, Matteo, Galeazzo, and Bernabeau. How Matteo died and his possessions were divided amongst his brothers. For the twenty years to ring which they were the principal lords of the Lombard Plain, they maintained an almost unceasing war with the tyrants of Arona, Montua, and Padua, and what is more important with the Pope and his legates. After the strength of their rivals, nor the violence of ecclesiastical censurers, were sufficient to overthrow them, and their most brilliant period was yet to come. The year 1356 found them at war with the League, headed by the Marquis of Montferrat, and supported by the mercenaries of Lando. The victory of Casorate gave a decisive victory to the Visconti. The loss of Genoa turned the scale in favour of their enemies, and their position was rendered worse by the ability of the Pope's legate Cardinal Albonoth. At last peace was made in 1358. The Visconti surrendered Asti and Novi to Montferrat, and they were unable to recover Pavia. This town, however, came into the possession of Galeazzo in the following year. The war with the Pope still continued, the chief struggle being for the possession of Bologna. This had been occupied, as we have seen above, by Giovanni Dolegio, a relation of the Visconti. Olegio was persuaded to exchange this for the Marquisate of Fermo, and took possession of Bologna for the Pope. In 1360 the house of Visconti received additional splendour by an alliance with the Royal House of France. John Galeazzo, son of Galeazzo, married Isabel Avaloix, daughter of King John. His wife brought to him as part of her dowry the county of Vertu in Champagne, so that he was called Conte di Virtu, Comes Virtutum, half an honour and half a jest. In the following year Bernabo made peace with the Pope and surrendered all hope of recovering Bologna. The struggle with the Marquis of Montferrat for Pavia still continued, and the Marquis, as has been mentioned, invited the white company of English mercenaries from Provence to assist him. This proved as great a scourge to the west of Lombardy, as the Hungarians of King Louis had shown themselves to the east. They also brought the plague with them, and seventy-nine thousand inhabitants of Milan died of it. A story found in the chronicles of this period throws light on the relations between the Visconti and the Pope. In 1361 envoys were sent to Bernabo from Innocent VI with a papal letter. Bernabo met the messengers at a bridge over the river Lombardy. Bernabo took the letter and read it, and with a stern countenance asked whether they would rather eat or drink. They looked at the rushing river and said that they would prefer to eat, upon which Bernabo made them eat up the whole brief, parchment, silk, and leaden seal. To wash out this insult, Innocent VI in 1362 got together another league comprising the Carrara, de la Scala, and Gonzagi. The contest raged chiefly around Brescia. Pope Urban V, who succeeded to the Papal Sea in the following year, was one of the ambassadors who had been made to eat the brief, and after a fruitless attempt at peace he launched a fresh ban against Bernabo in March 1363. The Visconti struggled stubbornly against tremendous odds, and after several defeats ended by concluding peace on more favorable terms than they could have expected by the mediation of the kings of France and Hungary. The treaty was published on March 3, 1364. Bernabo resigned all claim whatever to Bologna, the rest of his relations to the league remained in statu quo. Galliazzo on his part gave up Asti to Montferrat, but retained Pavia, Alba, and Novara. The cessation of external war gave the Visconti leisure to turn their attention to their private affairs. It is almost impossible to imagine the tyranny with which Milan was governed. A decree of Galliazzo's extant in which he gave directions for the torturing and killing of his enemies. The process is to last exactly forty-one days. For the first fourteen days they are to be tortured with stripes and nausea strings, every alternate day being one of rest in order to prolong the agony. On the fifteenth day the soles of their feet are to be skinned and they are to be made to walk on peas. On the nineteenth day they are to ride the wooden horse. On the twenty-third day one eye is to be taken out. On the twenty-fifth day the nose is to be cut off. On the thirty-first day one foot is to be cut off. On the thirty-third the other. Tortures still more disgusting and revolting follow till it last. On the forty-first day they are broken on the wheel. Bernabeau was especially fond of boar-hunting and kept five thousand hounds, having erected large kennels in Milan. As there was not room for all of them in this place, many had to be boarded out in the neighborhood. They were inspected once a fortnight by an officer called Uffizodicani. If the dogs were to lean, the keepers of them were punished. If they were too fat they were punished also. If one of them died the keeper lost all his property. No one was allowed to keep dogs except Bernabeau, and the game laws were enforced with the most terrible penalties. Bernabeau gradually became more cruel as he grew older, but the administration of his kingdom shows great ability. We might as a contrast to these horrors, give an account of the splendor of the feasts and banquets which we find side by side with these incredible horrors. No disgust at the inhumanity of the court and government of the visconti seems to have prevented them from being accepted as welcome friends to sovereign princes. In 1365 Bernabeau married his daughter Verdei to Leopold, Duke of Austria. In 1368 Fiorlante de le visconti, daughter of Galliazzo, was married to Lionel, Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III of England. She received the town of Alba for her dowry, and it was there that the Duke of Clarence died. In 1368 at the birth of Valentina, the daughter of John Galliazzo, who afterwards became Duchess of Orléans, festivities which lasted many days were attended by Amadeo of Savoy, Niccolò of Este, and Malatesta of Rimini. It may be asked how the visconti managed to obtain such undisputed power in the city which preserved at least the tradition of popular government. It was much in the same way that the early emperors of Rome consolidated their authority, by grasping powers which were in their origin democratic, transforming them into a despotism and throwing all other offices into the shade. The usual heads of the government in an Italian town were the Capitano del Popolo and the Podestà. One invested with executive, the other with judicial authority. The power of one of these magistrates varied inversely with that of the other. When party spirit ran high, and one party largely predominated, the Capitano, as the head of the victorious party, would naturally be supreme, being only controlled by the principal members of the party which he led. The post of Capitano del Popolo might be taken by two other officers. Either the town, weary of the perpetual dissensions of party, might submit themselves to a signore whose authority was defined by a concordat, differing in different cases, or the emperor might call into being a claim long dormant, but never dead, and appoint an imperial vicar. When the citizens ceased to fight for themselves and employed mercenaries, the hiring of these troops gave opportunity to the signore to amass a large fortune. A further step was taken when several towns chose the same signore. He was more independent of each of them. The property of traders was confiscated for his private purse, his conquests were made as much for himself as the towns he ruled over. Some districts were made entirely subject to military rule, a fiscous or private purse of the princes grew up beside the irraria more public treasury of the state. Thus the popular supremacy was changed into a military despotism. Still the Republican forces did not cease altogether to exist, and they were always ready to start into life, when the overmastering force which kept them down should be removed. We have already related how in 1367, Urban V returned for a short time to Rome and met there the two emperors of the East and the West. He also formed a powerful league which was at first directed against the bands of mercenary soldiers, the compagnie de l'aventura, who were devastating the land, but was afterwards used to crush the Visconti. The Florentines and the Della Scala refused to join this confederacy. The Visconti took care to ally themselves with the House of Bavaria and the Royal House of England, and this last alliance secured to them the assistance of John Hawkwood. The war broke out in 1368 and lasted only a few months. It was principally concentrated round Mantua, and was put an end to by the weakness of the emperor Charles. About this time the union between the two brothers had become weakened, Galeazzo went to live in Pavia, while Bernabeau remained in Milan. Another short war in which the Florentines took part with the league broke out in 1369, but came to an end in November 1370. The events which led to the restoration of the seat of the papacy to Italy brought a change in the position of the Visconti. Gregory XI began by excommunicating the tyrants of Milan as his predecessor had done, and found no difficulty in stirring up against them the jealousy and vengeance of their neighbors and rivals. But a great alteration took place, when Florence, as has been already related, put herself at the head of a general rising against the papal power in Italy. She did not hesitate to call Bernabeau Visconti to her assistance. Galeazzo had, in 1375, made over the greater part of his dominions to his son, John Galeazzo, the Conte di Virtu. He himself took no part in the Anti-Papal League, but, on the contrary, made peace with the Pope and sent him money. Gregory, being anxious to settle in Italy, was desirous for peace. He arranged a marriage between the Marquis of Montferrat and Violante, the widow of the Duke of Clarence. Therefore when Galeazzo died in 1378, he was able to leave his son John Galeazzo at peace with all the world. We shall return again to the closing years of Bernabeau, who died in 1385. Notwithstanding the inhuman and almost incredible cruelties of Galeazzo Visconti, he was a great patron of literature in the arts. He founded a university of Pavia in 1361. He summoned to his side the great teachers of Europe, and Petrarch the poet, the incarnation of the highest culture of his time, was admitted to an equal footing with the princes of the blood. The creation of the Ciertosa of Pavia, the most beautiful of all Carthusian monasteries, is the proof of his consummate taste, even if it should rather be regarded as a monument to his remorse. End of section 18