low, at home and in the field, a feudal su-eral or even subservient to more enlar perior and his family, easily transferred ged principles, it is still indispensable to the same allegiance to the monarch. It the tranquillity and permanence of every was a very powerful feeling, which could monarchy. In a moral view, loyalty has make the bravest men put up with slights and ill treatment at the hands of their sovereign; or call forth all the energies of disinterested exertion for one whom they never saw, and in whose character there was nothing to esteem. In ages when the rights of the community were unfelt, this sentiment was one great preservative of society; and, though collat scarcely perhaps less tendency to refine and elevate the heart than patriotism itself; and holds a middle place in the scale of human motives, as they ascend from the grosser inducements of self-interest, to the furtherance of general happiness and conformity to the purposes of infinite Wisdom. CHAPTER III. THE HISTORY OF ITALY, FROM THE EXTINCTION OF THE CARLOVINGIAN EMPERORS TO THE INVASION OF NAPLES BY CHARLES VIII. PART I. State of Italy after the death of Charles the Fat. among a few powerful vassals, hereditary of these were the dukes of Spoleto and governors of provinces. The principal Coronation of Otho the Great.-State of Rome. -Conrad II-Union of the Kingdom of Italy with the Empire.-Establishment of the Nor- skeleton devoid of juices; and besides its intoleramans in Naples and Sicily.-Roger Guiscard.-ble aridity, it labours under that confusion which a Rise of the Lombard Cities.-They gradually merely chronological arrangement of concurrent become more independent of the Empire.-Their and independent events must always produce. 2. Internal Wars. Frederick Barbarossa. - De- The dissertations on Italian Antiquities, by the struction of Milan.-Lombard League.-Battle same writer, may be considered either as one or of Legnano.-Peace of Constance.-Temporal two works. In Latin, they form six volumes in Principality of the Popes.-Guelf and Ghibelin folio, enriched with a great number of original docFactions. Otho IV.-Frederick II.-Arrange-uments. In Italian, they are freely translated by ment of the Italian Republics.-Second Lombard Muratori himself, abridged, no doubt, and without War.-Extinction of the House of Swabia.— most of the original instruments, but well furnishCauses of the Success of Lombard Republics.-ed with quotations, and abundantly sufficient for Their prosperity-and Forms of Government.- most purposes. They form three volumes in quar. Contentions between the Nobility and People. -Civil Wars.-Story of Giovanni di Vicenza.* Ar the death of Charles the Fat in 888, that part of Italy which acState of Italy at the end of knowledged the supremacy of the western empire was divided, like France and Germany, the ninth century, * The authorities upon which this chapter is founded, and which do not always appear at the foot of the page, are chiefly the following. 1. Muratori's Annals of Italy (twelve volumes in 4to. or eighteen in 8vo.) comprehend a summary of its history from the beginning of the Christian era to the peace of Aix la Chapelle. The volumes relating to the middle ages, into which he has digested the original writers contained in his great collection, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, are by much the best; and of these, the part which extends from the seventh or eighth to the end of the twelfth century, is the fullest and most useful. Muratori's accuracy is in general almost implicitly to be trusted, and his plain integrity speaks in all his writings; but his mind was not philosophical enough to discriminate the wheat from the chaff, and his habits of life induced him to annex an imaginary importance to the dates of diplomas and other inconsiderable matters. His narrative presents a mere to. I have in general quoted only the number of Tuscany, the marquises of Ivrea, Susa, and Friuli. The great Lombard dutchy of Benevento, which had stood against the arms of Charlemagne, and comprised more than half the present kingdom of Naples, had now fallen into decay, and was straitened by the Greeks in Apulia, and by the principalities of Capua and Salerno, which had been severed from its own territory, on the opposite coast.* And in the Though princes of the Carlovinfirst part of gian line continued to reign in the tenth. France, their character was too little distinguished to challenge the obedience of Italy, already separated by family partitions from the Transalpine nations; and the only contest was among her native chiefs. One of these, Berenger, originally Marquis of Friuli, or the March of Treviso, reigned for thirty-six years, but with continually disputed pretensions; and, after his death, the calamities of Italy were sometimes aggravated by tyranny, and sometimes by intestine ion of M. Sismondi in this respect more strongly than by saying that his work has almost superseded the annals of Muratori; I mean from the twelfth century, before which period his labour hardly begins. Though doubtless not more accurate than Muratori, he has consulted a much more extensive list of authors; and, considered as a register of facts alone, his history is incomparably more useful. These are combined in so skilful a manner, as to diminish, in a great degree, that inevitable confusion which arises from frequency of transition and want of general unity. It is much to be regretted, that from too redundant details of unnecessary circumstances, and sometimes, if I may take the liberty of saying so, from unnecessary reflections, M. Sismondi has run into a prolixity which will probably intimidate the languid students of our age. It is the more to be regretted, because the History of Italian Republics is calculated to produce a good far more important than storing the memory with historical facts, that of communicating to the reader's bosom some sparks of the dignified philosophy, the love for truth and virtue, which live along its eloquent pages. 6. To Muratori's collection of original writers, the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, in twenty-four volumes in folio, I have paid considerable attention; perhaps there is no volume of it which I have not more or less consulted. But, after the annals of the same writer, and the work of M. Sismondi, I have not thought myself bound to repeat a laborious search into all the authorities upon which those writers depend. The utility, for the most part, of perusing original and contemporary authors, consists less in ascertaining mere facts, than in acquiring that insight into the spirit and temper of their times, which it is utterly impracticable for any compiler to impart. It would be impossible for me to distinguish what information I have derived from these higher sources; in cases, therefore, where no particular authority is named, I would refer to the writings of Muratori and Sismondi, especially the latter, as the substratum of the following chapter.. + Giannone, Istoria Civile di Napoli, 1. vii. Sismondi, Hist. des Républiques Italiennes, t. i., p. 244. war. The Hungarians desolated Lombardy; the southern coasts were infested by the Saracens, now masters of Sicily. Plunged in an abyss, from which she saw no other means of extricating herself, Italy lost sight of her favourite independence, and called in the assistance of Otho the First, king of Germany. Little opposition was made to this powerful monarch. Berenger II., the reigning sovereign of Italy, submitted to hold the kingdom of him as a fief. But some years afterward, new disturbances ari- Otho the sing, Otho descended from the Great. Alps a second time [A. D. 961], deposed Berenger, and received at the hands of Pope John XII. the imperial dignity, which had been suspended for nearly forty years. Every ancient prejudice, every recollection, whether of Augustus or of Charlemagne, had led the Italians to annex the notion of sovereignty to the name of Roman emperor; nor were Otho, or his two immediate descendants, by any means inclined to waive these supposed prerogatives, which they were well able to enforce. Most of the Lombard princes acquiesced without apparent repugnance in the new German government, which was conducted by Otho the Great with much prudence and vigour, and occasionally with severity. The citizens of Lombardy were still better satisfied with a change, that ensured a more tranquil and regular administration than they had experienced under the preceding kings. But in one, and that the chief of Italian cities, very different sentiments were prevalent. We find, indeed, a con- Internal siderable obscurity spread over the state of internal history of Rome, during Rome. the long period from the recovery of Italy by Belisarius to the end of the eleventh century. The popes appear to have possessed some measure of temporal power, even while the city was professedly governed by the exarchs of Ravenna, in the name of the eastern empire. This power became more extensive after her separation from Constantinople. It was, however, subordinate to the undeniable sovereignty of the new imperial family, who were supposed to enter upon all the rights of their predecessors. There was always an imperial officer, or prefect, in that city, to render criminal justice; an oath of allegiance to the emperor was taken by the people; and upon any irregular election of a pope, a circumstance by no means unusual, the emperors held Muratori, A. D. 951. Denina, Rivoluzioni d'Italia, l. ix., c. 6. themselves entitled to interpose. But the spirit and even the institutions of the Romans were republican. Amid the darkness of the tenth century, which no contemporary historian dissipates, we faintly distinguish the awful names of senate, consuls, and tribunes, the domestic magistracy of Rome. These shadows of past glory strike us at first with surprise; yet there is no improbability in the supposition, that a city so renowned and populous, and so happily sheltered from the usurpation of the Lombards, might have preserved, or might afterward establish, a kind of municipal government, which it would be natural to dignify with those august titles of antiquity.' During that anarchy which ensued upon the fall of the Carlovingian dynasty, the Romans acquired an independence which they did not deserve. The city became a prey to the most terrible disorders; the papal chair was sought for at best by bribery, or controlling influence, often by violence and assassination; it was filled by such men as naturally rise by such means, whose sway was precarious, and generally ended either in their murder or degradation. For many years the supreme pontiffs were forced upon the church by two women of high rank, but infamous reputation, Theodora and her daughter Marozia. The kings of Italy, whose election in a diet of Lombard princes and bishops at Roncaglia was not conceived to convey any pretension to the sovereignty of Rome, could never obtain any decided influence in papal elections, which were the object of struggling factions among the resident nobility. In this temper of the Romans, they were ill disposed to resume habits of obedience to a foreign sovereign. The next year after Otho's coronation [A. D. 972], they rebelled, the pope at their head; but were of course subdued without difficulty. The same republican spirit broke out whenever the emperors were absent in Germany, especially during the minority of Otho III., and directed itself against the temporal superiority of the pope. But when that emperor attained manhood, he besieged and took the city, crushing all resistance by measures of severity; and especially by the execution of the consul Crescentius, a leader of the popular faction, to whose instigation the tumultuous license of Rome was principally ascribed.t Muratori, A. D. 967, 987, 1015, 1087. mondi, t. i., p. 155. SisSismondi, t. i., p. 164, makes a patriot hero of Crescentius. But we know so little of the man At the death of Otho III. without children, in 1002, the compact be- Henry H. tween Italy and the emperors and Ardoin. of the house of Saxony was determined. Her engagement of fidelity was certainly not applicable to every sovereign whom the princes of Germany might raise to their throne. Accordingly Ardoin, marquis of Ivrea, was elected king of Italy. But a German party existed among the Lombard princes and bishops, to which his insolent demeanour soon gave a pretext for inviting Henry II., the new king of Germany, collaterally related to their late sovereign. Ardoin was deserted by most of the Italians, but retained his former subjects in Piedmont, and disputed the crown for many years with Henry, who passed very little time in Italy. During this period there was hardly any recognised government; and the Lombards became more and more accustomed, through necessity, to protect themselves, and to provide for their own internal police. Meanwhile the German nation had become odious to the Italians. The rude soldiery, insolent and addicted to intoxication, were engaged in frequent disputes with the citizens, wherein the latter, as is usual in similar cases, were exposed first to the summary vengeance of the troops, and afterward to penal chastisement for sedition.* In one of these tumults, at the entry of Henry II., in 1004, the city of Pavia was burnt to the ground, which inspired its inhabitants with a constant animosity against that emperor. Upon his death in 1024, the Italians were disposed to break once more their connexion with Germany, which had elected as sovereign Conrad, duke of Franconia. They offered their crown to Robert, king of France, and to William, duke of Guienne; but neither of them was imprudent enough to involve himself in the difficult and faithless politics of Italy. It may surprise us that no candidate appeared from among her native princes. But it had been the dexterous policy of the Othos to weaken the great Italian fiefs, which were still rather considered as hereditary governments than as absolute patrimonies, by separating districts from their jurisdiction, under inferior marquises and rural counts.f The bishops were incapable of becoming competitors, and generally attached to or the times, that it seems better to follow the common tenour of history, without vouching for the accuracy of its representations. * Muratori, A. D. 1027, 1037. t Denina, 1. ix., c. 11. Muratori, Antiq. Ital, Dissert. 8. Annali d'Italia, A. D. 989. Greek prov The southern provinces of Italy, in the beginning of the eleventh century, were chiefly subject to inces of the Greek empire, which had southern latterly recovered part of its Italy. the German party. The cities already | cities of Lombardy. The first of these possessed material influence, but were will find a more appropriate place in a disunited by mutual jealousies. [A. D. subsequent chapter, where I shall trace 1024.] Since ancient prejudices, there- the progress of ecclesiastical power. But Election of fore, precluded a federate league it produced a long and almost incessant Conrad II. of independent principalities and state of disturbance in Italy; and should republics, for which perhaps the actual be mentioned at present as one of the condition of Italy unfitted her, Eribert, main causes which excited in that counarchbishop of Milan, accompanied by try a systematic opposition to the imsome other chief men of Lombardy, re- perial authority. paired to Constance, and tendered the crown to Conrad, which he was already disposed to claim as a sort of dependance upon Germany. It does not appear that either Conrad or his successors were ever regularly elected to reign over It-losses, and exhibited some ambition and aly; but whether this ceremony took place or not, we may certainly date from that time the subjection of Italy to the Germanic body. It became an unquestionable maxim, that the votes of a few German princes conferred a right to the sovereignty of a country which had never been conquered, and which had never formally recognised this superiority. But it was an equally fundamental rule, that the elected king of Germany could not assume the title of Roman emperor, until his coronation by the pope. The middle appellation of King of the Romans was invented as a sort of approximation to the imperial dignity. But it was not till the reign of Maximilian that the actual coronation at Rome was dispensed with, and the title of emperor taken immediately after the election. The period between Conrad of Franconia and Frederick Barbarossa, or from about the middle of the eleventh to that of the twelfth century, is marked by three great events in Italian history; the struggle between the empire and the papacy for ecclesiastical investitures, the establishment of the Norman kingdom in Naples, and the formation of distinct and nearly independent republic among the * Muratori, A. D. 1026. It is said afterward, p. 367, that he was a Romanis ad Imperatorem electus. The people of Rome therefore preserved their nominal right of concurring in the election of an emperor. Muratori, in another place, A. D. 1040, supposes that Henry III. was chosen king of Italy, though he allows that no proof of it exists; and there seems no reason for the supposition. Gunther, the poet of Frederick Barbarossa, expresses this not inelegantly : Romani gloria regni Nos penes est; quemcunque sibi Germania regem Gunther, Ligurinus ap. Struvium Corpus Hist. Yet it appears from Otho of Frisingen, an unques- enterprise, though without any intrinsic vigour. They were governed by a lieutenant, styled Catapan,* who resided at Bari in Apulia. On the Mediterranean coast, three dutchies, or rather republics, of Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi, had for several ages preserved their connexion with the Greek empire, and acknowledged its nominal sovereignty. The Lombard principalities of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua, had much declined from their ancient splendour. The Greeks were, however, not likely to attempt any further conquests: the court of Constantinople had relapsed into its usual indolence; nor had they much right to boast of successes, rather due to the Saracen auxiliaries, whom they hired from Sicily. No momentous revolution apparently threatened the south of Italy, and least of all could it be anticipated from what quarter the storm was about to gather. Aversa. The followers of Rollo, who rested from plunder and piracy in the Settlement quiet possession of Normandy, of the Norbecame devout professors of the mans at Christian faith, and particularly addicted to the custom of pilgrimage, which gratified their curiosity and spirit of adventure. In small bodies, well armed, on account of the lawless character of the countries through which they passed, the Norman pilgrims visited the shrines of Italy and even the Holy Land. Some of these, very early in the eleventh century, were engaged by a Lombard prince of Salerno against the Saracens, who had invaded his territory; and through that superiority of valour, and perhaps of corporal strength, which this singular people seem to have possessed above all other Europeans, they made surprising havoc among the enemy. This exploit led to fresh engage *Catapanus, from Karà rav, one employed in the general administration of affairs. + Giannone, t. ii., p. 7 [edit. 1753]. I should ob ments, and these engagements drew new adventurers from Normandy; they founded the little city of Aversa near Capua, and were employed by the Greeks against the Saracens of Sicily. But, though performing splendid services in this war, they were ill repaid by their ungrateful employers; and being by no means of a temper to bear with injury, they revenged themselves by a sudden invasion of Apulia. This province was speedily subdued, and divided among twelve Norman Conquests counts [A. D. 1042]; but soon afof Robert terward Robert Guiscard, one of Guiscard. twelve brothers, many of whom were renowned in these Italian wars, acquired the sovereignty; and adding Calabria to his conquests [A. D. 1057], put an end to the long dominion of the Eastern emperors in Italy.* He reduced the principalities of Salerno and Benevento, in the latter instance sharing the spoil with the pope, who took the city to himself, while Robert retained the territory. His conquests in Greece, which he invaded with the magnificent design of overthrowing the Eastern empire, were at least equally splendid, though less durable. [A. D. 1061.] Roger, his younger brother, undertook meanwhile the romantic enterprise, as it appeared, of conquering the Island of Sicily, with a small body of Norman volunteers. But the Saracens were broken into petty states, and discouraged by the bad success of their brethren in Spain and Sardinia. After many years of war, Roger became sole master of Sicily, and took the title of count. The son of this prince, upon the extinction of Robert Guiscard's posterity, united the two Norman sovereignties, and subjugating the free republics of Naples and Amalfi, and the principality of Capua [A. D. 1127], established a boundary which has hardly been changed since his time.t The first successes of these Norman Papal inves- leaders were viewed unfavouratitures of bly by the popes. Leo IX. Naples. marched in person against Robert Guiscard with an army of German serve, that St. Marc, a more critical writer in examination of facts than Giannone, treats this first adventure of the Normans as unauthenticated. -Abrégé Chronologique, p. 990. The final blow was given to the Greek domination over Italy by the capture of Bari, in 1071, after a siege of four years. It had for some time been confined to this single city.-Muratori, St. Marc. †M. Sismondi has excelled himself in describing the conquest of Amalfi and Naples by Roger Guiscard (t. i., c. 4); warming his imagination with visions of liberty and virtue in those obscure republics, which no real history survives to dispel. mercenaries, but was beaten and made prisoner in this unwise enterprise, the scandal of which nothing but good fortune could have lightened. He fell, however, into the hands of a devout people, who implored his absolution for the crime of defending themselves; and whether through gratitude, or as the price of his liberation, invested them with their recent conquests in Apulia as fiefs of the Holy See. This investiture was repeated and enlarged, as the popes, especially in their contention with Henry IV. and Henry V., found the advantage of using the Normans as faithful auxiliaries. Finally, Innocent II., in 1139, conferred upon Roger the title of King of Sicily. It is difficult to understand by what pretence these countries could be claimed by the see of Rome in sovereignty, unless by virtue of the pretended donation of Constantine, or that of Louis the Debonair, which is hardly less suspicious;* and, least of all, how Innocent II. could surrender the liberties of the city of Naples, whether that was considered as an independent republic, or as a portion of the Greek empire. But the Normans, who had no title but their swords, were naturally glad to give an appearance of legitimacy to their conquest; and the kingdom of Naples, even in the hands of the most powerful princes in Europe, never ceased to pay a feudal acknowledgment to the chair of St. Peter. The revolutions which time brought forth on the opposite side of Italy were still more interesting. Under the Lombard and French princes, every Progress of city with its adjacent district was the Lomsubject to the government and bard cities. jurisdiction of a count, who was himself subordinate to the duke or marquis of the province. From these counties it was the practice of the first German emperors to dismember particular towns or tracts of country, granting them upon a feudal tenure to rural lords, by many of whom also the same title was assumed. Thus by degrees the authority of the original officers was confined almost to the walls of their own cities; and in many cases the bishops obtained a grant of the temporal government, and exercised the functions which had belonged to the count. * Muratori presumes to suppose, that the interpolated, if not spurious, grants of Louis the Debonair, Otho I., and Henry II., to the see of Rome, were promulgated about the time of the first concessions to the Normans, in order to give the popes a colourable pretext to dispose of the southern provinces of Italy. A. D 1059. + Muratori, Antiquit. Italiæ, Dissert. 8. Annali d'Italia, A. D. 989. Antichita Estensi, p. 26 |