4. THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY (14TH TO 16TH CENTURIES). Histori cal Introduction.— Chronologically considered Italian history from 1300 to 1599 may be divided into the Age of the Despots, the Age of Inva sions and the Spanish-Austrian Ascendency, and the beginning of the 14th century witnessed the bitter struggle between Guelfic democracy and faithfulness to the Pope arrayed against Ghibelline aristocracy and loyalty to the em peror. Every Italian city, every hamlet, felt the strife. Every city was divided against itself and there could be no tranquillity until one half of the citizens had driven the other half into exile, while from these battlements floated the banners of the partisans of the empire and from those the banners of the partisans of the Church. Soon the captains on each side, men of noble families experienced in war, took the lead in the struggle and finally became masters of the cities. The Estensi made themselves lords of Ferrara, the Torriani masters of Milan, the Della Scala dynasty arose in Verona and the Malatestas at Rimini. In Tuscany the strongly entrenched Guelf party long held the nobles in check, and for a time the Communes remained free from hereditary masters. 'But wherever they obtained a foothold these tyrants annihilated both parties for the sake of peace and their own advantage. The tyrant won fa vor by leveling. down the classes and favoring the multitude. Italians tiring of the fury of these civil wars gradually settled down and turned to home comforts, arts and literature, cdntent to pay foreign mercenaries and adven turers to do their fighting for them. These mercenary troops hired out to the highest bidder and somethues fought alternately against and in defense of the same city- After 1350 these foreign mercenary soldiers were supplanted by the Italian mercenary, and Alberico da Bar biano, a nobleman of Romagna, formed the first exclusively Italian company. Henceforth Italian battles were fought by Italian paid troops under Italian generals (Condottieri). But these soldiers were not patriotic; they sold their swords for to •nd fought for the highest bickler. Naturally they were not anx ious to die or even to kill in a cause in which they had no interest, and 'battles became almost bloodless and diplomacy and skill were the requisites of victory rather than courage. In trigue and treachery were rife and military vigor ceased to exist in Italy.
Between 1305 and 1447 five great powers were established in the Peninsula: The papacy, the republics of Venice and Florence, the duchy of Milan and the kingdom of Naples. In southern Italy, Joan, the childless wife of four husbands, succeeded her grandfather in the kingdom in 1343'and was murdered in 1382 by Charles of Durazzo— who reigned five years. He wat followed by his son Ladislaus in 1387 and by his daughter Joan II in 1414, and in 1435 Alfonso (called the Magnanimous) com bined for the first time since 1282 the crowns of Sicily and Naples. The 23 years of Alfonso's
reign were the most splendid in South Italian history. The greatness of the Visconti family, dukes of Milan, dates from John, archbishop and lord of Milan, who died in 1354, and after a succession of incompetent and soon assassi nated aspirants for the throne in 1378 Gian Galeazzo, his soh, became duke and the most powerful and richest of the Italian despots. He pushed his dominion to the verge of Venice, subjugated Lombardy and attacked Tuscany, when suddenly he was cut short by the plague in 1402.
After the expulsion of the Duke of Athens in 1343 and the great plague of 1348 the com mon people of Florence rose against the mer chant printes, and the necessities of war and of state soon placed Florence in the power of an oligarchy, headed by the great Albizzi family; Pisa was enslaved and Florence gained access to the sea. But the Medici gradually gathered strength and in 1433 came to open strife with the Albizzi and finally won.
When the popes settled in Avignon they lost their position as Italian rulers, but when Greg ory XI returned to Rome and when Urban VI, elected 1378, put an end to the exile, the popes again became Italian sovereigns.
Martin V (1417-31) and Eugenius IV (1431-47) resided principally in Florence, but Nicholas V before his death in 1455 had firmly established the papacy in its temporal power.
Through the Middle Ages it had been the policy of Venice to refrain from conquest on the Italian mainland, and the first important entrance of Venice into Italian affairs was when in 1336 the republics of Florence and Venice formed an alliance against Mastino della Scala; and-from 1352 to 1381 Venice and Genoa con tested the supremacy of the Mediterranean, when. Venice finally, though after many re verses, was victorious. In 1406 Venice added Verona, Vicenza and Padua to her posses sions, and during the long Dogeship of Fran cesco Foscari (1423-57) attained the height of her .prosperity.
The year 1492, when Lorenzo Medici died, opened for Italy the age of invasions. Soon Spanish, German and French armies hastened to occupy her territory. Each petty Italian potentate strove for his own private advan tage and there was no united resistance to the invaders. Though Rome and Florence rejoiced, the election of Leo X as Pope in 1513 brought no repose to Italy, and in 1527 occurred the famous sack of Rome by German and Spanish soldiers. But there was a great emperor, Charles V, and he in 1529 entered Italy and received the imperial crown in Bologna and achieved the conquest of the entire peninsula, and from 1530 to 1796 Italy ceased to have a history of her own.— En.