The period of anarchy ended in 962, when Otho the Great (q.v.), after obtaining possession of Northern Italy and the Lombard crown, was crowned Emperor. This marked the establish ment of the 'Holy Roman Empire of the Ger man Nation' (see HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE), and until the end of the Middle Ages the Emperor theoretically ruled over Italy, though the Impe rial authority was 'completely set aside by the beginning of the fourteenth century. For a long time the emperors came to Rome to be crowned by the Pope. and until that had been done their title was not considered to be complete. Mean while the south of Italy was still in the posses sion of the Byzantines. whom the Germans were unable to oust. until finally in the eleventh cen tury they were driven out by the Normans. who in 1127 united their conquests in Italy with Sici ly, which they had wrested from the Saracens. (See SARACENS ; NORM ANS ; GUISCARD, ROBERT.) In the time of the Emperor Henry IV. (1056 1106) the Papacy had heeome strong and power ful again, and the great investiture strugele broke out. the Papacy finding an indomitable champion in Gregory VII. See INVESTITURE.
Simultaneously with the increasing power of the popes a great barrier to the continued rule of the Germans was being erected in the rising city States. In Italy the feudal system had never attained the high development so charac teristic of France and Germany, which was due, to a great extent, to the survival of Roman tra ditions and the many cities in Italy. for feudal ism was chiefly rural, not urban. The cities of Lombardy defied the power of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, of the House of Hohen staufen, who waged bloody wars with them to no purpose. In 1167 the Lombard League (q.v.) was formed. In 1176 Frederick was vanquished at Legnano, and in 1183, in the Peace of Con stance, the cities secured the recognition of their liberties. A last attempt to crush both the Papacy and its allies was made by Frederick 11., the last great ruler of the House of Ho henstaufen (1215-50), but, though he controlled Naples and Sicily, as well as the Empire, even his great ability was unable to change the state of affairs. Italy itself was rent by the struggles between the opponents and the partisans of Impe rial rule, known respectively as Guelphs and Ghibellines (q.v.). names which continued to be the designation of fiercely contending parties long after the emperors had lost their hold on the country.
In the second half of the thirteenth century a new foreign power came to play an important rile in Italian affairs. Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX. of France, summoned by the Pope to aid him against the Hohenstaufen, undertook the conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples (the Two Sicilies), and overthrew Man fred, the son of Frederick II., in 1266. Conrad in, the last of the Hohenstaufen, was defeated in an attempt to recover the Kingdom in 126S and put to death. But in 1282 (see SICILIAN VESPERS) Sicily rose against the French and placed itself under the power of Aragon.
In the North, the cities, having secured inde pendence from the central authority, entered into contests with the nobles, who claimed authority over them. Gradually the various nobles were
defeated, compelled to abandon their castles in the country. and to live in the cities. By com merce the cities had grown very wealthy, and had established oligarchical governments, which were tending to become democratic. Venice by her share in the fourth Crusade had secured extensive possessions in the East. (See BYZAN TINE EMPIRE: DANDOLO.) Pisa. Genoa, :Nlilan and Florence had acquired great power. In 1276 the Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg recognized the Papal States, which included Emilia, Romagna. the Illarch of Ancona, the Patrimony of Saint Peter. and the Campagna of Rome. In 1284-90 the naval power of Pisa was destroyed by Genoa. Before this Genoa had engaged in a fierce strug gle for ascendency with her rival, Venice, which finally ended in favor of Venice toward the close of the next century. In every city of North ern and Central Italy the population was di vided into Guelphs and Ghibellines. In a gen eral way the former represented the progres sive party: the latter, the conservative. In the cities civil strife was incessant, and the triumph of either party frequently resulted in the expulsion of the hostile faction from the city. Often the exiles attempted to regain power with the aid of other cities, and city warred against city, producing throughout the later Middle Ages a shifting succession of alliances, conquests, and temporary truces. This condition of affairs was inimical to commerce and manu facturing, which were the chief interests of the citizens in the north. In the cities the Podesta (q.v.), who had been created as an arbitrator between the different parties, had proved ineffi cient, and now became mainly a judicial officer. His place as head of the city was taken by a 'captain of the people,' representing the dominant party. As military skill NV 11S essential in this position. it was held usually by a noble. The people desirous of peace, acquiesced in the estab lishment of a strong power. Hence there arose in almost every city a 'despot,' or absolute ruler, an office which in many eases came to be heredi tary in some noble family—with the Scalas at Verona, the House of Este at Ferrara, the Mala testa,: at Rimini, the Visconti and later the Sforzas at Milan. This period has been called fittingly 'the age of the despots.' Under their rule the arts prospered, literature flourished, life became more luxurious. wealth greater. But the people, who had fought so valiantly in the past, became unwarlike, and the cities placed their re liance in mercenary troops. (See CONDOTTIERI. ) Gradually the smaller cities passed under the influence of the stronger States. By the middle of the fifteenth century Italy had reached a posi tion of great prosperity and comparative tran quillity. She was in the van of European calm tries in all that pertained to culture, having led the way in the great revival of the arts and letters. (See RENAIssANCE.) Tuscany, which had produced Dante and Giotto, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, was preiiminent in this revival. Amid all this splendor began a terrible period of foreign aggression in 1494.