09: Political Transitions

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Transition: end of the “classic” Florentine republic

Machiavelli writes, lives amidst this era

New stability: mid 16th c

How (and why) should we follow a complicated and messy political story?

• multigenerational story
• many participants: many individuals, many states
• Alliances change quickly
• many different goals that may change as the situation changes

1494

From Lodi to Wars of Italy

“Italian League” treaty at Lodi, 1454.
recognize status quo, not to wage war, declare peace, or enter into alliances without others; military support; 25 years, renewable
“big 5”   Florence, Venice, Rome, Milan, Naples
Little infrastructure
weakness after 1490

Big 5 and their situations ca 1494:

Kingdom of Naples (with Sicily); “Regno”

•  Aragonese; Angevins before 1435
• End of Aragonese line

Papal States

•    Rome de facto run by popes; regional representatives to subject cities
•     Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia)   1492-1503

Venice

•        stable oligarchy
•       threats from Turkish expansion

Milan

Signorial government under Sforza, then Visconti
 1500

French Invasion  1494

Rise of European Kingdoms; outsize city-states

•   Instability in Milan
  • Child heir (Gian Galeazzo Sforza) with guardian (Ludovico il Moro); G-G  now adult
•    Charles VIII’s  army Sept. 1494: to Naples
• Pope Alexander VI organizes “Holy League”
  Papacy, Venice, Milan, Emperor Maximilian, K of Aragon

Second Wave:

Louis XII of France (1498-1515)

• 1499 Renews claims on Milan
• negotiates for Regno with Alexander VI

Julius II   (1503-13) (Raphael, portrait,1511. London, Nat’l Gallery)

• 1505-06 campaign to recover old papal lands
  1508 League of Cambrai. (against Venice): Rome, France, HRE, Mantua, Ferrara, Aragon (until 1509) Battle of Agnadello

Future Charles V (King of Spain 1516; HRE 1519

land route between Spain, Regno

1512 Medici return to Florence

Events in Florence

Map: Florence and contado 1494

1492: death of Lorenzo de’ Medici dies. Son Piero “succeeds”
1494: Piero negotiates badly with French
1494-1512 republican government

• Piero Soderini Gonfaloniere for Life 1502-12
• Great Council, ca 3000 members
• Savonarola
• Alliance with French
• Ottimati
• Piagnoni vs Arrabbiati; Savonarola burned 1498
• 1512 Papacy, Habsburgs agree to restore Medici in return for support: siege

1513 Giovanni di Lorenzo elected as Leo X (d. 1521)

Cousin Giulio made Archbishop of Florence, cardinal

1523-34 Giulio elected Clement VII (1523–34). We will return to them

Third Wave: Francis I and Charles V

1515 French retake Milan
1516 Charles inherits Spanish crown, 1519 HRE
1525: French lose to Imperial forces

Milan: Francesco Sforza under Hapsburgs 1525-35; then viceroy under Charles V

(Titian and shop:  Francesco II Sforza)

1527 Sack of  Rome
–In Florence: Medici rule overturned, republic 1527-30
1530  siege by Spanish Habsburg army, Medici returned (Duke Alessandro, 1530-37)
1529 treaties (Barcelona, Cambrai):
Spanish:    Naples,   Milan
1552 Cosimo I takes Siena  1554-55
1559 Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis
From this point, a period of relative stability

Some features of transition:

• Florence’s political context is now Europe-wide
• Florentines are no longer the sole decision-makers about the city’s future from 1512 onward
• big families (especially Medici) need to build their fortunes across Europe
• Local Florentines remain divided on the best type of government