1 / 38

Florence and the War of the Eight Saints

Florence and the War of the Eight Saints. The famous Catena (“Chain”) map of Florence, c. 1471-82. Elite and Popolo: The Florentine “Dialogue of Power”.

bernad
Télécharger la présentation

Florence and the War of the Eight Saints

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Florence and the War of the Eight Saints The famous Catena (“Chain”) map of Florence, c. 1471-82.

  2. Elite and Popolo: The Florentine “Dialogue of Power” – The political development of the Florentine republic in the period 1200-1382 can be characterized as a negotiation between two classes of free men who made up the ranks of Florence's guilds – The ELITE – the wealthiest merchant and banking families, some with ties to old feudal traditions – The POPOLO (“People”) – a range of men, from wealthy traders to humble artisans and shopkeepers – “Popular” governments briefly held power only four times (1250-50; 1293; 1343-8; 1278-82); yet republican institutions created by the popolo held firm and transformed the values of the elite

  3. The Guild Confederation of Florence (after 1293): 7 MAJOR GUILDS, 14 MINOR GUILDS The major guilds: 1. Calimala (cloth refiners) 2. Lana (woolen cloth manufacturers) 3. Cambio (money changers) 4. Judges and notaries 5. Por Santa Maria (Silk manufacturers, gold and luxury cloth traders) 6. Physicians and druggists 7. Furriers The minor guilds were mostly shopkeepers and artisans; e.g., winesellers and blacksmiths.

  4. Elite Dominance 1310-40 – this 30-year period the "golden age of the merchant-banking elite" -- Florentine historian John Najemy: "the generation in which the great companies made huge fortunes and controlled both domestic politics and foreign policy without much opposition from the popolo" – elite suppressed its old "addiction" to violence and factionalism, and co-opted the institutions of the popolo – the elite "gradual[ly] adopted... a collective identity defined by its commercial activities an an ethos of prudence, calculation and profit" (Najemy)

  5. Elite Dominance 1310-40 – real power was in the hands of several dozen elite families – the key to power was to control the guilds: guild membership was a requirement for public office in the commune; a guild confederation admitted some occupations to power and excluded others – the elite also shaped the commune's complex electoral processes to its benefit – Florence's chief governing body were the nine "priors of the guilds" -- priors sat for two-month terms – the electoral system worked to give elites a greater share of highoffice more often than to men of the popolo – republican institutions -- the guilds, guild confederation, the priorate and other councils of elected officials, were adopted by the elite who once opposed them

  6. Crisis of the 1340s – In the 1330s, the Tuscan city of Lucca belonged to MASTINO della SCALA, signore of Verona – The Florentines took Mastino's foothold in Tuscany as a threat; they made an alliance with Venice against him – 1336-8: War against Mastino; to pay for it, the Florentine govt. relied on loans, esp. FORCED LOANS – But receipts from sales taxes, fees, and tolls were dropping; the economy was in recession – This was a serious loss, since there were no direct taxes on property or income

  7. Crisis of the 1340s: Bank Failures – worse, Florence's two biggest banks, the BARDI and PERUZZI, were dangerously overextended – Florentine companies wanted a monopoly on WOOL EXPORTS from England; so Florentine banks lent generously to EDWARD III in return for trade concessions – Edward needed the loans to pay for his campaigns in France – Florentine banks lent Edward far more than Florence itself was worth or could make in years... ...and Edward couldn't pay them back; he defaulted on his loans, and the Florentine banks collapsed; foreign investors panicked and rushed to withdraw their assets

  8. Walter of Brienne – the elite were desperate for a strong hand to enact drastic (and very unpopular) policies that they thought would save their businesses – 1342: they gave the French knight WALTER of BRIENNE extensive political and military powers – Sept 1342: Brienne compelled the Florentine govt. to declare him signore for life -- but he lasted only ten months – Brienne did much to get Florence's fiscal house in order - but in doing so, he alienated the elite that had invited him in the first place

  9. Popular Government, 1343-8 – when he began to lose the elite's support, Brienne turned to the popolo: – he allowed the DYERS to form their own guild, and released them from subordination to the LANA (WOOL) guild -- he reduced the jurisdiction and the powers of the LANA guild over workers in the wool cloth industry – Brienne was expelled, but during 1343-8, a popular govt. ruled; it managed the city's fiscal crisis, creating a funded public debt called the MONTE, which Florence's financial liabilities into an investment opportunity

  10. Summer 1348: The Black Death About half of the city's population of ~100,000 died. The popular government fell.

  11. Elite Recovery, 1350-70 – Elite power after the Black Death was aided by revival of the PARTE GUELFA (“Guelf Party”), an organization (with its own officers, treasury, and militia) that was part of the Florentine constitution – The Guelfs and Ghibellines in the 13th c. had been opposing factions among the elite, not just in Florence, but everywhere in N. Italy – Guelf families claimed to stand for the papacy; Ghibellines for the Empire – After a brief period of Ghibelline rule in Florence, 1260-7, the Guelf faction expelled the elite Ghibelline families – Florence remained thereafter a Guelf city, even as disruptive elite factional violence continued though the end of the 13th c. (between different groups of Guelfs)

  12. The Parte Guelfa – “new men” had risen into the ranks of the elite after the 1340s, and wealthy non-elite guildsmen pushed for greater representation – the Parte Guelfa accused “new men” of being foreign immigrants and secret Ghibellines – it promoted the idea that long-established Florentine families with a prominent Guelf identity were the most patriotic and trustworthy citizens – still the elite did not control the Florentine state as much as before the 1340s – factions formed around powerful families, but the violence they generated was limited; it did not threaten to tear apart the city as it had in the 13th c.

  13. After 1370: Increasing Class Tensions – after 1370, factional conflict declined, allowing for a resurgence of the popolo – conflict between elite and non-elite members of the seven major guilds intensified

  14. Tensions in the Wool Industry – Between elite and non-elite guildsmen were especially acute in the LANA (Wool) guild – the two argued over production levels and labor costs; rising labor costs threanted the smaller firms of non-elite woolen cloth producers – the non-elites' solution: production quotas, which had already begun in 1349 – Non-elite woolmen seized control of the Lana guild to impose restrictions on production and on the ability of workers to change jobs

  15. Florence in 1370: Still Guelfist – For all of Florence's crises and internal tensions, Florence's identity from 1267 to 1370 remained solidly Guelfist, pro-papal, and pro-French – "Guelfism and loyalty to the Church were at the center of Florence's self-image" – Among the pope's bankers, Florentines had always been the most important since the 1260s – With the papacy at Avignon (1305-78) and dominated by France, pro-papal policy was by extension, pro-French – It was also pro-Angevin; Florentine merchants had extensive land holdings and trading privileges in the Kingdom of Naples, from which Florence imported and exported grain

  16. The Avignon Papacy and Its Authority in Italy – after the move to Avignon, the papacy lost much control over its territories in central Italy, even of Rome itself, sometimes to the violent Roman nobility, sometimes to popular govts. – 1353: INNOCENT VI appointed the Spanish cardinal EGIDIO ALBORNOZ as LEGATE to reconstitute papal authority in Italy – Albornoz patiently brought many cities back under papal rule; but this brought tensions along borders with Tuscany and Florentine territory – By 1370, some Florentines regarded the papacy's renewed political presence as a security threat, suspecting that the Church wanted to assert papal rule over Florence's own subject cities

  17. Hawkwood's Raid on Tuscany, 1375 – Spring 1375: GREGORY XI ended a fruitless war against Visconti Milan – Hawkwood had served the pope since 1372; in 1375, apparently released from his papal contract, he bickered with the pope over back pay – He also launched a raid on Tuscany with a large and frightening force of Italian and foreign mercenaries – July 1375: The Florentine govt. made a hard, historic, controversial decision: It joined an anti-papal military alliance with MILAN (a traditionally GHIBELLINE city)

  18. How much money in all did Hawkwood get from Tuscany? – In his great raid on Tuscany, Hawkwood extorted bribes from Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Arezzo. – Florence paid the most, hoping to win Hawkwood's service. Ambassadors from all the major powers of Italy courted him. – Documentary evidence shows the total extorted from Tuscany to be 215,500 florins. – How much was this? - 5x the operating capital of FRANCESCO DATINI, merchant of PRATO, and one of the wealthiest Italian businessmen of his time - 3x the operating capital of the MEDICI BANK of the 15th c. - greater than the combined yearly revenue of LUCCA and SIENA put together

  19. How to pay? – Hawkwood's raid on Tuscany pushed Florence decisively to make war on its historic ally, the papacy, in alliance with Milan and other Italian secular powers – The problem: How to pay for Hawkwood's bribe, and for the war. – A committee of Eight – later called the “Eight Saints” was commissioned to find a way to pay for the bribe

  20. Make the Clergy Pay – Solution: A FORCED LOAN on the clergy of Florence – the bishop of Florence, the monasteries, and other Church institutions had extensive landed wealth – and all of it was targeted by the 8 Saints for appropriation by the government to meet security expenses

  21. The Otto di Balia – another committee of eight, the “Eight of War” constituted a wartime government – the Balia first worked to "systematically undermine Albornoz's two decades of work by dispatching Florentine agents to foment rebellion in forty cities of the papal states, incl. Bologna, Perugia, Orvieto, and Viterbo"(Najemy)

  22. A Key Weapon: Republican Ideology – Florentine chancellor and humanist COLUCCIO SALUTATI wrote eloquent public letters urging cities "to throw the 'tyranny' of a corrupt papacy in favor of the 'liberty' of free cities"(Najemy) – Salutati linked the liberty of Florentine guildsmen to the republicanism of ancient Rome – he denied that papal rule was legitimate, because it was a monarchy, and monarchy could never reflect the will of the people – fortunate cities were those ruled by "merchants and guildsmen, who naturally love liberty and are more gravely oppressed by the pain of subjection", who "love equality among citizens, and do not glory in the nobility of family or blood" – one of the first acts of the Otto di balia was to commission a special flag emblazoned with the word “LIBERTA” (Liberty) and send it to all the allied cities

  23. A Key Papal Weapon: Interdict – March 1376: Gregory declared Florence under interdict: all religious services prohibited, all Florentines throughout Europe subject to arrest and confiscation of goods – In response, Florentines created their own forms of religious devotion, often centered on lay religious associations called confraternities (e.g., laudesi [“praise”] societies, flagellant societies) – Florence also welcomed radical Franciscan friars marked as heretics by the papacy

  24. Confiscation of Church Property – to pay war expenses, the Florentine govt. by the end of 1376 began to confiscate and sell local Church property – a special committee apppointed to take a census of all Church property and commence selling it – This property seizure and liquidation was “the largest and most systematic disendowment of any territorial church before the Reformation" (Najemy)

  25. Hawkwood Joins The Allies APR 1377 – Hawkwood, after half-hearted operations for Gregory in the Romagna, less aimed at battlefield victory (or even glory) than at the acquisition of real estate, signs a contract with the allies –He and his men were offered (and accepted) double their salaries (already inflated well above market rates) for the first two months of service – the Florentine commander Rodoflo Varano was sufficiently jealous of this as to quit and join the papal forces

  26. The Parte Guelfa and its Campaign against New Men 1377: The Parte Guelfa intensified its assault on “new men”; it detested the war, so it targeted also the war government and its supporters. -- This campaign was led by a pro-papal elite, some old magnate houses, and a faction of elite families centered around the ALBIZZI clan. -- The Parte “warned” 90+ citizens in Fall ’77- Spr. ’78 – driving some from office, depriving others of eligibility, most of them new men. -- It made scores of secret denunciations of alleged Ghibellines; these accusations involved the actions of a distant ancestor, or angry words spoken against the Parte, or generic harm threatened to the Guelf cause. -- Florence, strained by the expenses of war, was now riven with partisan and class antagonisms.

  27. Peace Talks; Death of Gregory – The war, fought mostly in papal territory, brought little gains to either side, and great expense – Peace negotiations began by Fall 1377; Bernabo Visconti was especially anxious to conclude the war with the papacy so as to attack the territory around Verona, where he saw a chance for Visconti conquest – MAR 1378 During major peace negotiations at Sarzana, Gregory XI died; an accord would be reached in July, for by then the papacy had its own troubles (the GREAT WESTERN SCHISM)... ...and so did Florence

  28. Florence: Revolutions of 1378 -- A mass of social and political tensions were exacerbated by the strain of the War of the Eight Saints. -- Result: A series of revolutions at the conclusion of the war: JUNE to mid-JULY: Guildsmen seized the govt. and re-establish the commune as a guild republic, striking back at campaigns by the elite and the Parte Guelfa to suppress “new men.” JULY-AUGUST: A workers’ movement created first one, then three guilds that joined the guild federation. Late AUGUST: Unskilled textile workers called the CIOMPI(“People of God”) made their own revolution, and were brutally crushed by the expanded guild federation. The Revolt of the Ciompi is the most famous and best known of the Italian workers’ revolts of the late Trecento.

  29. Heirs of the 13th-c. popolo: Skilled Workers and Artisans of the 14th c. -- Communal memory was long; the 13th-c. struggle for political representation by merchants, based on the right of association had not been forgotten by those who did not yet enjoy it: the skilled workers and craftsmen. -- In the period 1369-1411, there were revolts by artisans and skilled workers in LUCCA – 1369 SIENA – 1371 PERUGIA – 1370, 1371, 1375 FLORENCE – 1378 BOLOGNA – 1411 -- Unlike the popolo of the 13th c., however, the humble men who staged these revolts “did not dispose of substantial properties and business interests. A few had small shops and a house or two at best; many had far less; and others owned not even their proper tools.”(L. Martines, Power & Imagination)

  30. June-July 1378: The Guild Community Rises -- The priorate elected for May-June 1378 was sympathetic the grievances of non-elite members of the guild community; it indicated a desire to reassert to reassert the guild confederation as the foundation of the republic JUNE 21: Members of the 21 guilds assembled to protest the Parte. JUNE 22: Crowds of guildsmen and workers burned the houses of Parte leaders. The government approved a balia (emergency committee), made up of representatives from the 21 guilds; it immediately declared Parte leaders barred from office and restored office-holding rights to warned “Ghibellines” JULY 9-10: The balia transferred power to a revolutionary council of guildsmen, which swiftly passed reforms designed to cripple the Parte Guelfa and base government firmly on the membership and interests of the guild community

  31. Enter the Workers MID-JULY: There emerged the workers and artisans, whose meetings and associations were still illegal. -- The revolutionary council“was caught in the contradiction of denying workers the same right of guild association on which it based its own claim to authority.” (Najemy) -- Word reached the govt. of at least two secret workers’ meetings of workers in which oaths had been exchanged. They were forming guilds against the law.

  32. The Workers’ Revolution: July 20-21, 1378 -- Workers and minor guildsmen staged protests in front of government offices -- Representatives of the “popolo minuto” presented petitions to the govt. demanding a guild for “the men of the popolo minuto” with consuls enjoying the same jurisdiction, authority, and power that was vested in the consuls of the 21 established guilds. – Men from the new guild were to hold one quarter of the highest elected offices – They also demanded reforms that reduced the power of the Lana guild over workers in the woolen cloth industry, and increase the tax burden of the rich – Meanwhile events unfolded in the streets...

  33. July 21: Direct Action -- Dissatisfied with poor representation in goverment, the minor guilds allied with the new workers’ guild. -- 7000 workers and guildsmen from all guilds – except the Lana – marched to the palace of the podesta (the highest security office in the republic). -- Many broke in to destroy records of investigations and convictions of workers.

  34. July 21 -- A small band went up the tower to unfurl the flag of the blacksmiths’ guild, which featured a pair of tongs. -- Tongs were a symbol of the application of force against a determined opposition. -- From the windows they hung the flags of all the guilds (except the Wool Guild) and the Standard of Justice, flag of the popolo of 1293 and official symbol of govt., with its red cross on a white field. -- The flags announced the revolution as the work of the whole guild community, (minus the hated Wool Guild). Najemy: “It was the high tide of the guild republic, now expanded to include workers and artisans.” Symbol of the Arte dei Fabbri on the Church of Orsanmichele

  35. Michele di Lando JULY 22:The crowd moved from the podesta’s palace to the priors’ palace and demanded the incumbent priorate’s resignation. MICHELE di LANDO, a syndic of the popolo minuto, former corporal in the communal army and “variously described as a comber, carder, and supervisor of textile workers, entereed the palace with the Standard of Justice and declared himself… Standardbearer of J.” -- This move had almost certainly been pre-arranged with guild syndics. -- Michele and syndics appointed new priors. A statue of M. di L. in the Mercato nuovo, Florence.

  36. One Guild Becomes Three • -- Around this time the revolutionary govt. divided the workers’ guild into THREE NEW GUILDS: • Dyers, washers, carders, and other skilled craftsmen of the woolen cloth industry. • Shirtmakers, tailors, stockingmakers, and others in the clothing trades. • Unskilled textile workers, called CIOMPI (“People of God”); i.e., sorters, shearers, beaters. This group also included weavers. One chronicler estimated that the third guild represented 9000 workers, and all three new guilds a total of 13,000. Even if the total number was only 10,000, this meant that, counting the 4-5000 in the existing guilds, “just about every male of working age was a guildsman in the remarkable summer of 1378.”

  37. End of August: The Ciompi Break Ranks -- The ciompi broke away from the rest of the guild community to stage their own revolution at the end of August 1378. -- They elected a committee of “eight saints”, two from each quarter of the city. This body claimed city-wide authority. AUG 30: Two Ciompi went to the priors’ palace demanding veto power for the Eight over all communal legislation; MICHELE di LANDO had them arrested. AUG 31: Michele rode out of the palace with the Standard of Justice. He cleared the piazza of a militia of the three new guilds, and let the older guilds occupy the space. The workers’ militia then returned.

  38. The Ciompi Crushed -- The Ciompi militia arrived last, under their own flag of the angel. They refused to surrender to the 23 guilds, and a battle followed for control of the piazza. -- The Ciompi were crushed: six killed, 20 wounded, others chased into hiding or exile. SEPT 1: A large gathering of citizens (a “parlamento”) assembled in the piazza and approved the dissolution of the Ciompi guild, and their removal from the priorate and elections. Najemy notes: “[F]or the next three and a half years the priorate continued to be dominated by minor guildsmen and non-elite major guildsmen, among them hatmakers, stockingmakers, retail cloth dealers, furriers, goldsmiths, glassmakers, and the like.” This would be the commune’s last and most liberal guild government. In Jan. 1382, the Wool Guild would stage a successful counter-revolution, and a new era of republican oligarchy would begin.

More Related