During the pontificate of Benedict XII. the successor of John XXII. the rising power of Florence is the chief ob ject worthy attention. Having obtained, in addition to their former allies, the assistance of the republic of Venice, they succeeded in humbling Mastino della Scala of Verona, who had made himself master of Lucca ; and soon after purchased from him that city, of which, however, the Pi sans contrived to gain possession, and defeated the Floren tines. Walter de BrIcline, titular duke of Athens, the ge neral of the troops or Florence, had, by his intrigues, per suaded the people to appoint him lord of the city ; and, desirous to make himself completely sovereign, betrayed the interests of the state, by making peace with the Pisans, and giving up all claims on Lucca. His power, however, was not of lung continuance ; the citizens rose in a body, and, having put to death the ministers who had been the tools of his tyranny, forced him to take refuge in his palace, from which he fled privately on the 26th of July, 1343: a day, whose anniversary continued to be held sacred at Flo rence.
The expulsion of the duke of Athens was followed by an attempt of the nobles to obtain a share in the govern ment, but without success. In the mean time, the rest of Tuscany was annoyed by a body of 2000 disbanded mer cenaries, which had been in the service of Pisa, who, head ed by a German, styling himself duke Guarniari, laid waste and plundered the whole country. The smaller states were glad to get rid of this " great company," as it was called, by the payment of a contibution ; and at last, having pil laged the most fertile parts of Romagna and Lombardy, they retired to Germany loaded with booty. The impunity with which these banditti escaped held out encouragement to similar adventurers, whom we shall afterwards find act ing a considerable part in the affairs of Italy.
The kingdom of Naples was now destined again to be the scene of war. On the death of king Robert, who had arrived at the advanced age of eighty, he was succeeded by his grand-daughter Jane, or Joan, who was married to her cousin Andrew, second son of Caribert king of Hungary. But the criminal passion of the queen for his cousin Louis, prince of Tarento, on the one side, and the jealousy, violent temper, and ambition of Andrew, on the other, rendered this union unhappy. At length the party attached to Jane determined to dispatch the king ; and, with the knowledge and participation of the queen, soon carried their designs into execution in a very barbarous manner. This atro cious act, which could not be concealed, excited general indignation in the kingdom ; and the pope, Clement VI. immediately insisted on the punishment of the principal conspirators ; and Louis, king of Hungary, brother to the deceased, openly accusing Jane as an accomplice, and as serting his own rights to the kingdom, prepared tct- main tain them by a powerful army. At this period, the empe ror, Louis of Bavaria, died, and was succeeded by Charles IV. son of John, king of Bohemia, who had been slain at the battle of Crecy : a prince whom the pope had set up in opposition to Louis some time before his death. This year was also distinguished by the short-lived revolution at Rome, under Colas de Rienzo ; and by a general famine throughout Europe, which was followed by pestilence, which, first appearing in Turkey, spread in the course of the three following years through every country of the con tinent, from whence it passed to Britain, and even to Ice land. In Italy its ravages were tremendous. In the city
and territory of Florence alone, Boccace estimates the number of deaths at 100,000 ; and at Pisa, out of every ten persons, seven fell victims to the contagion. This dread ful scourge occasioned a temporary cessation of war in the north of Italy. In the south, it compelled the king of Hun gary to evacuate the kingdom of Naples, from which queen Jane and her second husband, Louis of Tarento, had fled to Provence. His retreat enabled them to return ; and, on his second invasion, Jane, having obtained from him a truce, agreed to have her conduct investigated by the pope. -The decision of the court of Avignon was in her favour : The pope acknowledged Louis of ,Tarento king of Naples, but ordained 300,000 florins to be paid to the king of Hungary, to defray the expences of the war. But that monarch de clared, that he did not make war for money, but to avenge the death of his brother ; and suffered the queen to be re instated, without demanding the subsidy.
The picture which Italy presents, for a series of years after this period, is truly deplorable. In Lombardy, all the smaller states were falling, one by one, a prey to the tyran ry of the Visconti. That family was now represented by Barnabas and Galeazzo, who, having poisoned their elder brother Matthew, divided between them their dominions ; and exercised throughout Lombardy, on their subjects and their enemies, cruelties equal to, if not surpassing, those of Eccelino Romano. In Tuscany, the rivalship of Florence and Pisa, of Sienna and Perugia, kept alive constant war fare ; and the bands of adventurers employed in their wars spent the short intervals of tranquillity in oppressing the smaller states, and plundering the peasantry. Naples was overrun by bands of the same description, whose depreda tions the feeble and dissolute government of that kingdom was unable to repress. In Romagna, the troops of Inno cent VI. had succeeded in executing the designs of his pre decessors, and subjected to his immediate sway all the free cities and independent nobles. Bologna was the last that surrendered, being also attacked by the army of Barnabas Visconti. That lord immediately declared war against the pope, but was at first repulsed by the troops of the king of Hungary, his ally. Barnabas, however, having joined the Pisans, engaged in his service a band of English adventur ers, commanded by John Hawkwood, and proceeded against Florence. His new auxiliaries had introduced with them what was more fatal than the arms of Visconti, the plague, which again commenced its ravages in Florence, and oblig ed its citizens to remain spectators of the devastations occa sioned by the combined armies, with whom their general Malatesti had a treasonable connection. At length, the Visconti, having concluded a seperate treaty with the pope, the example was followed by Pisa and Florence, and a few years of tranquillity were given to Tuscany.