The Rise of

1. Rise of the COMMUNE in Italy, 1000-1300 The Rise of Detail of “The Effects of Good Government,” a fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (c. 1290-1348). In the Palazzo pubblico, Siena.

2. The story of Italy in the 11th and 12th centuries was one of “political wreckage and confused authority” (Lauro Martines). In theory, central and northern Italy in the 11th century formed a single “Italic” or “Lombard” kingdom with its capital at Pavia. The Lombards were a Germanic tribe that dominated this region in the period 568-774. They were later conquered by the Franks. In Frankish conquest in the 8th c. linked the Lombard region to the Holy Roman Empire. Great German nobles formally elected one of their number King of Germany. The title of Emperor was formally conferred by the Pope, a tradition that dated to the coronation of Charlemagne as “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III in 800. The Emperor also received the “Lombard crown” at Pavia, and with it – technically, at least – lordship over northern and central Italy.

4. Italy ca. 1050

5. In reality, the Holy Roman Emperor (HRE) had very limited power in Italy. In the period later Middle Ages, imperial armies would frequently march into Italy in attempts to make good the HRE’s claims to authority there. Why was imperial power so weak in Italy? -- geography, i.e., the formidable obstacle of the Alps -- disunity and fragmentation in Germany -- after 1050, bitter and enduring conflict with the papacy In the 10th and early 11th centuries, real power rested in the hands of local lords, both feudal and ecclesiastical (i.e., bishops). Lords of great regions were forced to delegate authority to numerous vassals (subordinates). The countryside swarmed with petty castle-holders and their armed bands.

6. The INVESTITURE CONFLICT (1075-1122) A decades-long struggle between Emperor and Pope over authority in Latin Christendom. The I.C. culminated a movement of reform within the Church that aimed to eliminate all lay control over the Church. The conflict began with the disagreement between Gregory VII, a reform-minded pope, and HRE Henry IV, over the lay investiture of bishops. Investiture = formally granting a Church office Bishops traditionally had civil or temporal powers, and their offices came with large land holdings; this is why Henry wanted to choose the men who would be bishops in his domain. Gregory claimed that, as Pope, he was not only the supreme spiritual authority in Christendom; he was the chief temporal authority as well.

7. A war of words raged between Henry’s and Gregory’s courts on the respective powers of Pope and Emperor. The disagreement precipitated a civil war in Germany, and later, an imperial march toward Rome. Gregory VII died a refugee in southern Italy, which had been recently been captured by the Normans (who were papal allies). The I.C. served only to weaken the Empire’s already feeble grasp on the Italic kingdom. Local feudal lords could increase their power by supporting papal claims – or better, play papal authority against imperial authority as expedient.

8. COMMUNES EMERGE 1080-1138 In the Italic Kingdom, imperial-royal authority was DIVIDED into seven MARQUISATES at the start of the 11th c. These further divided into COUNTIES. An example of the general situation: The countryside around PISA was under the immediate rule of a hereditary VISCOUNT. The Viscount was supposed to represent an overlord based in LUCCA – namely, the Marquis of Tuscany. The marquis of Tuscany was himself an official of the Empire – holding his title as vassal of the Italic Kingdom, the crown of which belonged to the Empire. In reality, the marquis had little authority over Tuscany as a whole. In 1052, the bishops of Arezzo and Volterra, for example, were the primary governors of their respective cities. Real authority was local, whether exercised by marquis, count, viscount, bishop – or any one of number of other titled nobles.

9. Meanwhile, the new commercial economy brought rapid urbanization. Those who left the countryside were not just the poor and landless looking for work; they included men of property – nobles and families descended from nobility, or from imperial or ecclesiastical officials. L. Martines: “In Upper Italy the quest for local urban autonomy became irresistible, and a large part of the nobility moved into the urban centers to reside and to pursue political ambitions, while retaining large estates in the countryside.” As cities developed, their more prosperous residents acquired prestige – while not nobles themselves, they aspired to the status and leisured life of the old nobility – and intermarried with them. L. Martines remarks: “At Pisa and Genoa the descendants of counts and viscounts turned to shipbuilding, maritime trade, banking, and marine insurance, while yet clinging to more than the vestigial exercise of arms.” This intermarriage produced an upper class or patriciate – a combination of titled nobility and rich burghers -- that dominated urban politics in the 11th and 12th centuries.

10. These urban patriciates formed communes to protect their interests against established authorities. And what is a COMMUNE? A “sworn association of free men collectively holding some public authority” (L. Martines). Medieval and Renaissance Italian communes in the beginning were sworn associations of important urban residents: noblemen, major landowners, descendents of royal and episcopal officials, and some rich traders. Bound together by an oath, the associates (i.e., the members of the commune) aimed to control the political life of the city. The program of the commune was to seize public authority – by negotiation, trickery, or violence.

11. Prominent early communes, with dates of earliest known evidence of formal incorporation: Pisa 1080s Lucca 1080s Milan 1081 Parma 1081 Pavia 1084 Arezzo 1098 Genoa 1099 Pistoia 1105 Verona 1107 Bologna 1123 Siena 1125 Florence 1138 Notice that Florence was a relative latecomer to communal revolt, as she was to the commercial revolution.

12. How communes emerged varied from city to city. SIENA – Wealthy merchants and urban nobility battled the feudal lords of the surrounding countryside. PISA – The commune – an association of “shipowners, captains, and merchants, most of whom were of noble lineage or from families of big landowners” -- stole authority from an hereditary viscount (representative of the marquis of Tuscany). Genoa – A process of stealing authority from a regional lord culminated in 1099 with the union of seven entrepreneurial associations (compagne – “companies”) into one umbrella compagna – which was to include all men of Genoa as members, and the leaders of which were to form the government of Genoa.

13. The last feudal lord to govern pre-communal Florence was Countess Matilda of Tuscany (d. 1115). “In Tuscany, Countess Matilda fervently supported the papal cause against the German emperors, but in so doing she undermined her own authority, which derived from imperial power. The main victors in this struggle were the Italian towns, because they exploited the divisions between their temporal and spiritual rulers to establish their political independence.” (G. Brucker) After her death, a commune formed, and the expansion of Florentine rule under its authority encountered no serious opposition for decades. A military garrison of Tuscan imperial lieutenants could do practically nothing to stop the expanding reach of the Florentine commune – both its assumption of government within the city, and its increasing dominance of the surrounding countryside and smaller towns (the contado). Fgsdgsgs

14. As communes sought greater public authority, they came into frequent conflict with older, more established authorities: -- the local bishop (a bishop often had strong claims to lordship over the city housing his cathedral or headquarters) -- the resident or neighboring marquis or viscount -- or the crown of Italy itself (which is practically to say the Emperor)

15. An Emperor confronts the urban independence movement: FREDERICK I BARBAROSSA (r. 1152-1190) F. B. was a ambitious emperor who wanted to restore imperial power in Italy. He asserted direct imperial control of Italy at a Diet of German princes in 1158. This was prelude to his invasion of Italy in the 1160s. For protection, the major communes of N. Italy formed the LOMBARD LEAGUE, a military alliance, in 1167 (with – no surprise -- papal blessing). A major victory at for the L.L. at Legnano in 1176 led ultimately to F. B.’s failure to crush the communal movement.

16. F. B.’s Italian campaign ended with the PEACE of CONSTANCE, 1183 The Peace affirmed the HRE’s lordship over N. Italy. BUT it also confirmed that towns had certain rights: -- to hold local elections -- to be governed by local councils -- to extend communal control over surrounding lands -- to form bodies of townsmen to collect taxes, administer justice, and form defensive militias The L.L. reformed several times in succeeding decades. It was instrumental in defending urban self-government against F.B.’s grandson, HRE Frederick II (who was also King of Sicily), who campaigned for his “regalian rights” in northern Italy between 1225 and 1250.

17. Communes in the Thirteenth Century New offices: foreign podesta instead of native consuls; legislative councils replace the parlamentum The problem of factions: Guelphs (pro-papacy) vs. Ghibellines (pro-empire) Class tensions: magnates vs. popolo Florence develops into a Guelph republic by and for commercial elites. Noble violence – bad for business -- begins to be curtailed by legislation; battle towers ordered to be cut down or shortened. Florentine ORDINANCES of JUSTICE (1293 and 1295) –  Excluded members of magnate families from all high offices in the communal government of Florence.  Magnates required to post bond for good behavior; held responsible for the actions of their kin.