Lombardy

Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99...

A word derived fromLongobardia and used during theMiddle Ages to designate the country ruled over by the Longobards, which varied in extent with the varying fortunes of that race inItaly. During their greatest power it included NorthernItaly, part of CentralItaly, and nearly all SouthernItaly excepting only Calabria (inaccessible because of its mountainous character), and a narrow strip of land along the west coast including the cities ofNaples,Gaeta,Amalfi, andTerracina. Geographically it was divided into eight regions:-Austria, to the north-east; Neustria, to the northwest; Flaminia and a portion of Emilia; Lombard Tuscia; the Duchy ofSpoleto; the Duchies ofBenevento andSalerno; Istria; the Exarchate ofRavenna, and the Pentapolis, a late conquest which did not remain long in the hands of the Longobards. Sometimes the country was divided into Greater Lombardy, including Northern, or Transtiberine,Italy with Pavia as its capital, and Lesser Lombardy, or CistiberineItaly, namely the Duchies ofBenevento andSpoleto. In the ninth century the name Lombardy was synonymous withItaly. Politically the country was divided into thirty-six duchies, of which weknow with anycertainty the names of only a few; these are: Pavia,Milan,Brescia,Bergamo,Verona,Vicenza,Treviso, Friuli,Trent, Istria,Asti,Turin,Parma,Piacenza, Chiusi,Reggio,Lucca,Florence,Fermo,Rimini,Spoleto, andBenevento. After the kingdom had passed into the hands of theFranks and the frontier duchies had asserted their independence, and new principalities had been set up, e.g. theVenetian territory in the east,Piedmont in the west, theStates of the Church in the south, the old name shrank until it came to signify that extent of country comprised more or less within the Duchy ofMilan, bordered on the north by theSwiss cantons; on the west by the River Ticino and Lake Maggiore, which separate it fromPiedmont; on the south by the river Po, which separates it from Emilia; and east by on the River Mincio and Lake Garda, which separate it from theVenetian territory. These are its boundaries at the present time.

Actually, Lombardy is one of the thirteen regions into whichItaly is divided and it contains eight provinces: Bergamo,Brescia,Como,Cremona,Mantua,Milan,Pavia, Sondrio. It is the most populous province ofItaly, with 4,300,000 inhabitants and an area of 8973 sq. miles. The wealth of the country consists in the fertility of the soil, which in the main lies within the basin of the Po valley. Only on its northern reaches is it conterminous with the Alpine chain, where Bernese Alps keep watch over the Provinces of Sondrio and Bergamo, and advance among the wooded valleys of Camonica, Seriana, Brembara, and Valtellina. In these mountains many streams have their sources, the principal ones being the Ticino, the Olono, the Adda, the Oglio, and the Mincio, all tributaries of the Po on its left bank; while the Trebbia, fed from the Appennines, flows in on the right bank. Several of these rivers during their long course spread out into lakes famous for the beauty of their shores, rich in vegetation, and bordered by picturesque villages and lovely villas, the favourite summer haunts of the great and the wealthy. Such for instance is Lake Maggiore, or Verbano, formed by the Ticino; Lake Como, or Lario, formed by the Adda; Lake Isco formed by the Aglio; Lake Garda, or Benaco, from which the Mincio flows. Other similar lakes like Lake Varese and those nestling among the gentle slopes of the Brianza have won for this strip of Lombardy the name of "Garden ofItaly".

The climate of Lombardy varies with its elevation; it is cold in the mountain districts, warm in the plains. AtMilan, the mean annual temperature is 55° F. The chief products are grain, maize, rice. The pasture lands are many and the flocks numerous. Ever since the fifteenth century the greater part of Lombardy has been artificially irrigated. Innumerable canals branch off from the rivers and carry their waters over the fields on a gentle slope, so skilfully arranged that a thin sheet of water can be made to pass lightly over the surface, fertilizing the soil so that as many as seven crops of hay are taken in one year. Several of these canals, e.g., the Naviglio Grande (known also as the Ticinello, because it flows from the Ticino), the Naviglio della Martesana (so called from the district it passes through), are navigable by means of locks or planes which overcome the differences of level of the country they pass through. The mean annual crop of rice from 1900 to 1905 was 4,615,000 quintals (a quintal is about 220 lbs.). Milk is so plentiful that butter and cheese are among the chief exports: about 230,000 quintals of cheese, and 90,000 of butter are produced annually. The more famous cheeses are the Grana (wrongly called Parmigiano or Parmesan), Gorgonzola, and Stracchini.

With the introduction of the mulberry-tree during theMiddle Ages the feeding of silkworms began and has gone on prospering, so that it now forms one of the staple sources of income, the average output per annum being about 15,000,000 kilos of cocoons. The silk is woven on the spot and gives employment (according to statistics for 1906) to 126,000persons of both sexes who work 1,400,000 spindles for straight and twisted silk, feeding 16,000 looms that turn out 10,000,000 kilos of grey or unbleached silk. There are moreover in activity 36,000 looms, and 900,000 spindles for cotton and 10,000 looms for flax, hemp, jute, etc. Other industries are moulding wood and iron for machinery, carriage-building, railway works, furniture making, bleaching works, tailoring establishments, and printing. The country does not boast of great mineral wealth although there are iron pyrites and copper pyrites in the valleys ofBergamo andBrescia; zincblende and carbonate of zinc in Val Seriana; lignite in the same valley; and peat in the Varese valley and along Lake Garda. There are rich granite quarries at San Fedelino, porphyry in Val Ganna, black marble at Varenna, and limestone at Botticino. There are mineral springs at Trescorre, San Pellegrino, Salice, Bormio, etc. The growth of trade soon caused the need of means of rapid communication to be felt, and besides the public highways, there are about 850,000 miles of splendid roads in Lombardy, railways were soon opened, that fromMilan to Monza in 1840 being the second inItaly. At present a network of 1,115,000 miles of railway lines and more than 600,000 miles of steam-tramways cover the surface of Lombardy.

Religious division

In itsecclesiastical divisions Lombardy naturally exhibits the influence of its civil history. When the Longobards swarmed down from the Alps the peoples in that region had long been evangelized and theChurch had ahierarchy in the chief cities. Among theseMilan is certainly the most ancient of all NorthernItaly; Aquileia comes next; thenVerona andBrescia and the other sees that sprang up rapidly after peace had been given to theChurch by Constantine.Milan was themetropolitansee of the region and itsbishop took the title ofarchbishop as early as the middle of the eighth century. Within thisjurisdiction were Alba,Alessandria,Asti,Turin,Tortona,Vercelli,Vigevano,Casale,Acqui,Savona,Ventimiglia,Genoa,Novara,Cremona,Como,Bergamo,Brescia, Lodi. It isdoubtful whether Pavia belonged toMilan in ancient times, but from a very remote date until the beginning of the nineteenth century it depended directly on theHoly See. In the seventh century Como was separated fromMilan and became subject to Aquileia but was joined toMilan when the Patriarchate ofAquileia was suppressed. Thejurisdiction ofMilan was gradually restricted.Genoa became an archdiocese in 1133 with Savona,Ventimiglia, and Tortona as suffragansees. Likewise, in 1515Turin became an archdiocese with Asti,Albi, andAcqui as suffragans. Finally,Vercelli in 1817 was made an archdiocese withAlessandria,Casale,Vigevano, andNovara as suffragans. At the present time Lombardy is divided into ninedioceses: Bergamo,Brescia,Como,Pavia,Cremona,Crema,Lodi,Mantua, underMilan asmetropolitan. A noteworthy peculiarity in the liturgy is the special rite in use throughout all theDiocese of Milan with the exception of a fewparishes, a rite that goes back to very primitive times, and known as the Ambrosian Rite.

History

When the Longobards are first mentioned by Latin historians they are described as the fiercest of the German barbarians (Velleius Paterculus) while Tacitus praises them for their intrepidity. It would seem their original name was Winnili, and that they were called Longobards from the length of thebeards they wore. It is quitetrue that in German mythology the name Longobard (longbärtr) was given to Odin, their chief god. We first meet them along the Elbe near the Baltic; according to Bluhime they came from Jutland. The "Longobard Chronicle" that precedes the edict of King Rotari (636) says "origo gentis nostræ Scandanan", i.e., the North. Their quarrels with theVandals were of ancient date; afterwards they took possession of the lands of the Heruli when these tribes poured intoItaly under Odoacer. Emperor Justinian gave them lands in Pannonia and Noricum on condition that they would not molest the Empire and that they would assist in thewars against the Gepidæ. They did makewar against the Gepidæ, and under Alboin, who wanted to carry off Rosamunda, daughter of Cunimund, King of the Gepidæ, they succeeded with the help of the Avars in completely routing them. Alboin slew Cunimund, and as was the custom of his race, fashioned a drinking cup from the king's skull. Then, gathering together all the barbarians he could muster, Saxons, Suevi,Ostrogoths, the remnant of the Gepidæ, Saramati, Bulgars, and Thuringians, he set out from Pannonia towardsItaly on 1 April, 568. Ill-defended, and torn by the rivalries of the Greek leaders or generals,Italy fell an easy prey. Alboin met with no resistance either in Friuli or in Veneta; he advanced as far as the Adda, taking possession of all the towns on his way, with the exception of Padua,Mantua, and Monselice. Many of the inhabitants fled for refuge to the islands in the lagoons. The following year, finding none to bar his progress, he pushed forward, occupiedMilan, and invaded Liguria meeting resistance only inPavia andCremona. The inhabitants fled, even as far asGenoa. Pavia held out for three years, then fell, and became the capital of Alboin's short-lived kingdom. Rosamunda, whom the barbarian forced to drink out of her father's skull, in revenge had him assassinated, and then fled with her accomplices toRavenna. The Longobards chose as his successor Clefi, chief of the troops which had remained atBergamo; he was more cruel even than Alboin in oppressing the conquered, driving them from their lands and putting them to death under any pretext. During all this time theexarch, Longinus, sent from Constantinople to replace Narses, had been unable to defendItaly, and shut himself up inRavenna leaving the people to their cruel fate. The Longobard invasion ofItaly, the last stage in the Germanic invasion of the West, marks the end of the Roman world and the beginning of a new historical epoch, which was to bring about deep changes in the social life of those peoples, who, hitherto, under the domination of Heruli andGoths, had indeed changed their masters but not their customs or their manner of life.

With the new conquerors it was quite otherwise. At their head was a king usually chosen by the chiefs of the tribe nearly always from the stock of the samefamily. He was the civil and military head of the nation, but his power was shared with the leaders (heerzoge) chosen by him for life, one for each territorial division, and subject to himde jure, thoughde facto independent and even hereditary, as was the case in Friuli,Spoleto, andBeneventum. Those nearer at hand, however, found it more difficult to escape his authority, but outbreaks were not infrequent and were the cause of weakness and decay from within. Viceroys pure and simple were thegastaldi nominated and dismissed by the king, administering his possessions and representing him in the various territories to which they were appointed. On the other hand thegasindi were part of his household and members of his Court. By playing off the one against the other, and by increasing their power the royal authority was augmented and the throne consolidated. Then again the dukes had theirgasindi andskuldahis to assist them, and among those nobles and favourites the conquered lands were distributed. Whether these lands were part of the imperial domain or belonged to privateindividuals who had been slain or who fled, they were parcelled out in fiefs or given away in freehold. The conquered became tributary, and had to pay thirds of all fruits and in most cases they seem to have been reduced to the state ofaldii, or villains, who passed from owner to owner with the land. Only one citizenship was recognized, the Longobardic, and all had to belong to it, the barbarian auxiliaries, the Romans who remained freemen, and later thepriests and theguargangi, or strangers who came to settle in Longobard territory. The quality of being a freeman (frei) was inseparable from that of soldier (heermann: exercitalis) and the nation itself in the royal edicts is styled theexercitus. We can form anidea of the social and legal condition of the conquered peoples from thewieder-geld, or fine imposed for amurder or any damage done by one inhabitant to another. The fine was always increased when a Longobard was the injured party. The Roman was cut off from all government positions and was always looked upon as an inferior. Among the list of offices and honours, and even in the public documents of the Longobards, there never once appears the name of an Italian inhabitant. The main consequence of this antagonism was that the two peoples remained politically apart. In spite of the heavy disadvantages under which they laboured it must not be imagined that the conquered were civilly dead. The Longobards numbered hardly more than 130,000souls without a code oflaws and without unity of governing methods to oppose to those already in existence, and which it was only natural they should go on using in their dealings with theItalians on all points not foreseen by their own barbarian customs. That this was the case is seen from the fact that hardly had the oppression come to an end when we find the Romanmunicipium once more arising and thriving in thecomune. But the preservation of the traditions ofRome was due to another cause-religion. The Longobards at the time of the invasion were for the most partpagan; a few had imbibedArianism, and hence their ferocity againstpriests andmonks whom theyput to death. They destroyed churches andmonasteries; they hunted and killed many of the faithful who would not becomepagan; they laid waste theirproperty, and seizedCatholic places of worship, to hand them over to theArians. The holy pontiff,Gregory the Great, does not cease to lament the desolation caused by the Longobard slaughter throughoutItaly. Slowly however the light offaith made way among them and theChurch won their respect and obedience. This meant protection for the conquered. Gradually theChurch's constitution and customs spread among the barbarians theideas of Roman civilization, until at last, in defence of her own liberty and that of the people which the Longobards continued to imperil, she was forced to call in the aid of theFranks, and thus change the fate ofItaly. occurred This occurred only after two centuries of Longobardic domination. The succession of the Longobard kings is as follows:-Alboin from 561; Clefi, 573; interregnum, 575; Autari from 584; Agilulf, 591; Adaloald, 615; Ariovald, 625; Rothari, 636; Rodoald, 652; Aribert, 653; Gondibert and Pertarit, 661; Grimoald, 662; Garibald, 671; Pertarit (a second time), 671; Cunibert (as co-ruler), 678; Cunibert (alone),686; Luitpert, 700; Regimbert, .701; Aribert., 701; Ausprand, 702; Liutprand, 712; Hildebrand, 744; Ratchis, 744;Astulf, 749; Desiderius, 756 till 774. In this list of kings prime importance attaches to the civil and religious influence of Queen Theodolinda, aFrank by birth, aCatholic infaith, the wife of Autari and afterwards of Agilulf whom she won over from barbarism andconverted toChristianity. To her is due the foundation of manychurches andmonasteries, among others St. John's at Monza, where the iron crown was kept and protection granted to the Irishman, St. Columbanus, founder ofBobbio and apostle of thereligious life inGaul, Britain,Switzerland, andItaly. Agilulf had much trouble with his dukes; who had grown haughty in their independence, and were perhaps angered at hisconversion to the religion of the conquered.

The son of Adaloald was deposed and his place taken by anArian, Ariovald, Duke ofTurin. Rothari was also anArian; during his reign the first Lombard code was published. With much carnage and devastation he overthrewGenoa and conquered the Ligurian coast. For sixty years following Rothari and until the time of Liutprand intenseanarchy prevailed. During this period control was in the hands of Grimoald, Duke ofBeneventum, converted through thezeal of Saint Barbatus,bishop of that town. Grimoald enlarged Rotari's code by the addition oflaws concerning prescription and voting, in which the influence ofRoman law is manifest, as suchideas were altogether foreign to Teutonic legislation. Liutprand finally overcame thisanarchy. He was the greatest and perhaps the best of the Lombard princes. His legislation bears increasing traces ofChristian and Roman influences. He totally suppressedpaganism, introduced the right of sanctuary in churches, and forbade marriage among blood relations, etc. He was more or less mixed up in the politics of the Greek Empire againstRome; but his moderation was most praiseworthy, and his quarrel was never against thepope as head of theChurch, but as head of the government ofRome.

Liutprand and his successor Rachis were sincere andpiousCatholics; Rachis even renounced the throne in favour of his brotherAstulf and retired as amonk toMonte Cassino. ButAstulf was of a different stamp; he seized the exarchate and the Pentapolis, and invaded the Duchy ofRome, whereupon thepopes were constrained to seek aid for themselves and for the people who looked to them for protection. Constantinople was appealed to in vain; then thepopes turned to theFranks. King Pepin went down intoItaly and laid siege to Pavia;Astulf came to terms, but hardly had Pepin retired beforeAstulf was trying once more acoup de main againstRome (755) he besieged the city for two months, puttingmonks and farm-hands to death until Pepin returned once more (756) and again laid siege toPavia, forcing theperjured king to pay tribute toRome and to restore the territory he had invaded. His death forestalled furtherperjury, but the struggle was continued by his successor Desiderius, who placed morefaith in diplomacy than arms, and sought to win the goodgraces ofCharlemagne, Pepin's successor, by giving him in marriage his daughter Desiderata. When she was sent back to him he declaredwar on thepope, seized Comanchio, and hastened towardsRavenna andRome.Charlemagne, seeing the evident dishonesty of the Longobards, went down intoItaly, captured Chiusi, and besieged Desiderius inPavia and his son inVerona. Pavia fell after a ten months' siege, Desiderius was sent toFrance where he was shut up in amonastery, but his son succeeded in making good his escape to Constantinople. Thus ended the Longobard Kingdom in 774. Barbarous and daring by nature, their government always remained barbarous, even afterChristianity had taught their rulers some gentleness.

Treacherous and overbearing towards those they conquered the fierce warrior Longobards never united with theItalians until both had to bear together a common yoke. Thepopes did all they could to prevent their domination so as to rescue what remained of liberty and the culture ofRome; to them it is due that in this periodItaly did not utterly perish.Charlemagne took the crown and the title of King of the Longobards, and later at the division of his empire he assigned their kingdom to his eldest son, Pepin. In the constitutions he drew up each nation or people was left the use of its ownlaws; gradually the duchies were divided into countships, the counts being vassals iof the king, and having in turn valvassori (vassi-vassorum) who looked up to them as liege-lords, while ranking over all were themissi dominici who in the king's name saw to it thatjustice was meted out to everyone. Such was thefeudalhierarchy. The government of the towers was in the hands of the local count, who exercised it through his representatives, to whom were added laterscabini, or assessors, chosen from among the more worthy citizens. The old Lombard law, set down originally in the edict of King Rothari (636) and enlarged under later kings, was later known as the "Liber Langobardorum" or "Liber Papiensis", and eventually as "Lombarda" (Lex) was taught and commented at Bologna. Thebishops ranked as vassals of the king, by reason of the church fiefs (weichbild) they held from him, but they were exempt from any other subjection.

For two centuries Lombardy followed the fortunes of theCarlovingian Empire, and eventually under Otho (964) it fell under the direct sway of the Saxon emperors. The Lombard Duchy ofBeneventum, after various divisions, was conquered by the Normans in the eleventh century, while the city ofBeneventum passed (1051-52) underpapal sway. During this long lapse of time, however, and throughout all the struggles that marked that epoch, the sap of a new life was working in the cities of Lombardy, destined before long to take their fitting place in the story ofItaly. Two main forces were at work; one the prerogative ofhonour that by universal consent thebishops enjoyed over thelaity. When fiefs began to become hereditary infamilies it was to the emperor's interest to increase the number ofecclesiastical lords, seeing that they could not assert independence and that the imperial authority had some weight in the selection of their successors. The other cause was frequency ofimmunities and franchises. In the long struggle between theChurch and the Empire concerning investitures, and during the disputed elections ofpopes andbishops, the opposing parties were liberal in concessions to win over the various towns to their side, and the towns were not slow in claiming payment for the obedience and loyalty they rendered to a master sometimes absent and oftendoubtful. At times too, the emperors, detained by affairs inGermany, did not concern themselves withItaly, and the cities drew up their own code oflaws without, however, shaking off the imperial yoke; the emperors, either throughlove or necessity, when they could not do otherwise, remained satisfied. Thus the cities multiplied their privileges and their population increased with the privileges on account of the security they afforded over the less protected country. In this way thecomune took the place of the countship of thefeudal lord. It is only tootrue that the communes made bad use of their early liberty, and of their budding civil and commercial life, wagingwar against one another through sheergreed of power, until they mutually destroyed their power.

The part played byMilan in these troubles was the most important of all. Its conflicts with Como,Pavia, and Lodi furnished pretext for the intervention ofFrederick I who led two expeditions intoItaly. The first brought about the destruction ofAsti, Chieri, and Tortona; in the secondMilan itself was besieged, forced to surrender and to renounce its claims over Lodi and Como, and to submit the names of its consuls for approval to the emperor, to whom they had to take anoath of fealty. In the Diet of Roncaglia (1158) Frederick constrained the Bolognese jurisconsults to acknowledge his supreme authority over the empire. This autocracy which destroyed the constitutions of the communes rallied the towns of Lombardy for a life and death struggle:Milan was again besieged, razed to the ground, and its inhabitants dispersed throughout the neighbouring villages (1161). But while Frederick persisted in makingwar onRome, and creatingantipopes,Verona,Vicenza, and Padua in 1163 formed what is known as the League ofVenice, and in 1167 the Lombard League, or the League of Pontida, was set on foot between Bergamo,Brescia,Cremona, and Mantua to oppose the inroads ofGermany and to defend their own civil and religious liberties, as well as to assert their loyalty to the legitimatepope.Milan was rebuilt and in 1168,Alessandria (called afterAlexander III) was founded in opposition toPavia, which persistently sided with the emperor. Finally in 1176 at Legnano, theMilanese assisted by theBrescians, Novarese, Vercellese, and Piacentians, defeated the imperial troops; and Frederick was glad to make peace with thepope and the Lombards. AtVenice a truce of six years was concluded, and confirmed by the Treaty of Constance (1183), which recognized the franchises of the communes, their right to free election of consuls, to administerjustice according to their ownlaws and to assess taxes, so that they came to be as it were vassal states, which recognized the supreme overlordship of the emperor. Once the struggle for freedom was over, the communes began once more their unfortunate rivalries, and they found only too ready an occasion in the endless struggles betweenGuelphs and Ghibellines.Milan,Brescia, and nearly all the communes in which the burghers held control, were on theGuelph side; those wherein the nobles and the classes privileged by the emperors had the upper hand, like Pavia andCremona, declared for theGhibellines. From these civil dissensions a few changes in the constitution of the communes arose, the principal one being the creation of the podesta, or chief magistrate, necessitated by the urgency of putting an end to the dispute arising from the political and judicial powers exercised by the consuls.

The podesta was elected by the general assembly of the people, and had to be a foreigner, that is, a citizen from some other commune; he belonged to the same political colour and had to be of knightlyfamily. He sat in judgment in all criminal cases, saw that sentences were carried out, commanded the army, and declaredwar or peace. Hence arose the prominence of certainfamilies, especially when the same citizen was chosen by more than one town, and this led to dictatorships which gave rise to thesignorias, to be found in the towns of Lombardy and elsewhere. The league of the communes was a thorn for the empire and in 1220Frederick II tried once more to break it and to conquer theGuelph republics of Lombardy. To prevent assault, when Frederick came in 1225 to hold a diet atCremona, the cities of Lombardy formed another league at San Zeno di Mosio in the neighbourhood ofMantua. The emperor placed the confederate towns under a ban, and with the help of aSaracen army, which he brought fromSicily, and of the troops of theGhibelline cities, despite the interposition ofHonorius III andGregory IX, he laid waste the country of the League, and in 1247 defeated it at Cortenova. But his victory was of small avail. In vain did he besiegeBrescia;Genoa andVenice rallied to the League, which had its revenge atParma and elsewhere, until Frederick diedexcommunicated in 1250, and the Lombards could draw breath. In the period that follows we find the more powerfulfamilies quartering themselves in the various cities. The Torriani and the Visconti atMilan; the San Bonifacios and the Scaligers atVerona; the Vitali and the Rusconi atComo; the Este atFerrara; the Bonaccolsi atMantua; the Correggeschi atParma, etc.

Among these the Visconti quickly became the most powerful and for two centuries were lords of Lombardy. At first they sought to have themselves appointed imperial vicars whenever the emperors were formidable or were coming intoItaly, as did Henry VII and Louis theBavarian; but afterwards they cared little for the emperor and acted as though independent lords. Matthew I, styled the Great, was created lord in perpetuity in 1295, had himself made count in 1311, placed himself at the head of theGhibellines and added to his dominions Pavia,Bergamo,Piacenza, andTortona. Seventy years later Gian Galeazzo ruled over the whole of Lombardy includingParma and Riggio, to which he addedVerona andVicenza which he took from the Scaligers, and Bologna,Siena, andPisa, and then he purchased from the Emperor Wenceslaus the title of duke. He gave his daughter, Valentina, in marriage to Louis I, Duke ofOrléans, brother of Charles VI ofFrance, and as a dowry he gave her the cities ofAsti and Cherasco, which later formed the basis of the pretensions ofFrance torights over the country aroundMilan. At the death of Filippo-Maria in 1447 without heirs other than a daughter, married to Sforza, a condottiere of mercenary troops, of whom there were many inItaly, Sforza succeeded him in 1450 and thus began a new dynasty that lasted nearly a century. About this timeFrance began to assert its claims. Louis XII andFrancis I occupied the duchy, driving out Ludovico il Moro and Maximilian his son.Emperor Charles V drove backFrance at the battle of Pavia, and restoredMilan to the Sforzas, but only for a short time, asFrancis, the last son of Ludovico, died without issue in 1535. Then the duchy became a fief ofSpain, and as such it remained till 1706 when it passed toAustria, which took possession of it during the War of Succession, at the death of Charles II. A few years later the death of Emperor Charles VI ofAustria reopened the War of Succession, andMilan fell into. the hands of theSpaniards (1745); at the peace of 1748 it was given back toAustria, which held it until the outbreak of theFrench Revolution, whenBonaparte established there the Cisalpine Republic and later theKingdom of Italy. At the fall ofNapoleon it went back toAustria and together with the territory of theVenetian Republic it made up what was known as the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom. Thewars ofPiedmont, allied withFrance in 1859 and withPrussia in 1866, took away Lombardy andVenice fromAustria, and helped to make the presentKingdom of Italy.

CONTACT US |ADVERTISE WITH NEW ADVENT