09: Political Transitions
1490s and political transition
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
![Italy 1494](https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~moyer/coursepages/hist230-florence/data/Images/ital1494.jpg)
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