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| War of Ferrara | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Republic of Venice Papal States(1482) | Duchy of Ferrara Marquisate of Mantua Kingdom of Naples Papal States(1483–1484) | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Roberto Sanseverino | Federico da Montefeltro | ||||||||
TheWar of Ferrara (also known as theSalt War, Italian:Guerra del Sale) was fought in 1482–1484 betweenErcole I d'Este,Duke of Ferrara, and the forces mustered by Ercole's personal nemesis,Pope Sixtus IV and hisVenetian allies. Hostilities ended with the Treaty of Bagnolo, signed on 7 August 1484.
The failure of thePazzi conspiracy againstFlorence in 1480 and the unexpected peace resulting fromLorenzo de' Medici's daring personal diplomacy withFerdinand I of Naples, the Pope's erstwhile champion, was a source of discontent among theVenetians andPope Sixtus IV alike. With theTreaty of Constantinople of 1479, Venice had ended its long conflict with theOttoman Turks, and was freed to turn its whole attention to its role in itsterra firma (mainland) and to the peninsula of Italy more generally.
In addition to the usual minor friction over strongholds along the borders, there was a contest over the commerce insalt, which was reserved for Venice by a commercial pact. Nevertheless,Ferrara, which was ruled byErcole I d'Este, had begun to take control over the saltworks atComacchio. This appeared to be a threat to the mainland interests of the Republic of Venice.
Venice was supported byGirolamo Riario, Lord ofImola andForlì – the nephew of Pope Sixtus – who, having taken possession of the strategic stronghold of Forlì in September 1480, and having received swift papal confirmation, now looked towards Ferrara to extendDella Rovere territory.
The immediatecasus belli at the beginning of 1482 was, as usual, a minor infraction of prerogatives: Venice maintained a representative in Ferrara with the high title ofvisdominio, under whose care lay the Venetian community in Este lands. In 1481, overreaching his mandate by the arrest of a priest for debt, thevisdominio was excommunicated by the vicar of thebishop of Ferrara, and forced out of the city. This was made the excuse for the declaration of war.[1]
In alliance with Venice, besides the papal troops and those of Riario, were contingents supplied by theRepublic of Genoa,William VIII,Marquis of Montferrat, andPier Maria II de' Rossi, Count of San Secondo. Taking Ferrara's side, which was loosely under the command ofFederico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, were troops of Ercole's father-in-lawFerdinand of Naples, led by his sonAlfonso of Calabria, who invaded thePapal States from the south. Ferrara was also supported by troops sent byLudovico il Moro of Milan, and those ofFederico I Gonzaga ofMantua andGiovanni II Bentivoglio ofBologna, lords of two cities threatened by the mainland power of Venice.
Venetian troops led by thecondottieroRoberto Sanseverino[2] attacked Ferrarese territory from the north, brutally sackingAdria, quickly overrunning Comacchio, attackingArgenta at the edge of the saltmarshes, and besiegingFicarolo in May (capitulated 29 June) andRovigo (capitulated 17 August).
Venetian forces crossed thePo River and in November 1482 stood before the walls of Ferrara, where they laid close siege to the city. Sixtus appears to have had a change of heart concerning the season's advances, which now threatened to put Venice in an uncomfortably strong position in mainland northern Italy.
In the Papal States, theColonna family took advantage of disorder, fighting fierce battles against their Della Rovere enemies. The main encounter, however, was the pitchedBattle of Campomorto nearVelletri, 21 August 1482, in which the Neapolitan troops were soundly defeated byRoberto Malatesta, and the duke of Calabria was only just rescued by a contingent of his Turkish soldiers. Some Orsini castles also fell into papal hands, but where battle failed,malaria succeeded: Roberto Malatesta's death in Rome on 10 September largely unravelled Papal successes in theLazio. Sixtus made a separate peace with Naples in a truce of 28 November and a peace treaty was signed on 12 December.
The entreaties of Sixtus towards Venice to cease hostilities were vigorously rebuffed: his threats of excommunication were countered by the withdrawal of the Venetian ambassador, which led to the interdict of Sixtus against Venice in May 1483. Now Sixtus granted free passage to Alfonso and his troops to go to the defence of Ferrara against the pope's recent allies, aided by papal troops underVirginio Orsini. A contingent of Florentine troops also arrived, and the fortunes of Este began to look much better.
In a diversionary manoeuvre, Venice sent Roberto Sanseverino to attack theDuchy of Milan on the pretext of supporting the rights of theVisconti heir. However, this arm of the campaign was itself diverted as Sanseverino's efforts were expended against Alfonso, who was sacking Milanese territories. In September 1483, Alfonso laidsiege to Asola, which fell in eight days.
The war concluded with the Treaty of Bagnolo, signed on 7 August 1484. Ercole ceded the territory ofRovigo in thePolesine, lost at an early stage of the fighting, and the Venetian forces that were occupying Ferrara-owned territory withdrew. Ercole had successfully avoided the absorption ofFerrara, the seat of theEste, into thePapal States.
Sixtus was made more eager to sue for peace by the series of victories by Venetian forces, who seized the opportunity to forward their territorial ambitions and had been hasty to declare war on Ferrara on a minor pretext. Florence, Naples, Mantua, Milan, and Bologna stood by Ferrara. While the papal forces were holding in check the Neapolitans who sought to move north to aid Ferrara, and with the RomanCampagna being harassed by theColonna, and Milan engaged in combat with Genoa, the Venetians had besieged Ferrara into starvation. With the Venetians ready to take over Ferrara, the Pope, fearing his erstwhile allies, suddenly changed sides: he made a treaty with Naples and permitted the Neapolitan army to pass through his territories, giving them the chance to convey supplies to Ferrara and neutralize the siege. At the same time, the Pope excommunicated the Venetians, and now urged all Italy to make war upon them.
The Peace of Bagnolo checked Venetian expansion in theterra firma, ceding to it the town ofRovigo and a broad swath of the fertiledelta of the Po.
Nevertheless, Sixtus was not pleased with the terms reached without consulting him:
The news of it literally killed Sixtus. When the ambassadors declared to him the terms of the treaty he was thrown into a violent rage, and declared the peace to be at once shameful and humiliating. The gout from which he suffered reached his heart, and on the following day— 12 August 1484— he died.
The war was the subject of an anonymous poem entitledLa guerra di Ferrara.[3]
