THE 
 
 HISTORY OF ITALY, 
 
 THE ABDICATION OF NAPOLEON I., 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTORY REFERENCES TO THAT OF EARLIER TIMES. 
 
 BY 
 
 ISAAC BUTT, 
 
 FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1860.
 
 LONDON: 
 BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WI11TEFRIAHS.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction Napoleon's Abdication an epoch in Italian History 
 Effect of revolutionary wars Reconstruction of Social System of 
 Italy Not successfully accomplished by the Congress of Vienna 
 Difficulties of writing Italian History since that period Necessity 
 of acquaintance with the previous history of that country Also 
 with the previous history of each state Plan adopted in this 
 volume Statement of its general outline Abdication of Napoleon 
 Treaty between Napoleon and the Emperors of Russia and Austria 
 and King of Prussia Refusal of England to become a party Memo- 
 randum of Lord Castlereagh Qualified accession of the English 
 Government Division of Italy at the period of the Abdication 
 Kingdom of Italy Italian Departments of French Empire Murat 
 King of Naples Sicily and Sardinia continue in possession of their 
 former Sovereigns Restoration of Louis XVIII. Treaty of Paris 
 Renunciation by France of the Conquests of Napoleon Right of the 
 Allied Powers over the Territories thus renounced Stipulations 
 as to Italy contained in Treaty of Paris Divisions of Italy by Treaty 
 of Aix-la-Chapelle Changed by Napoleon All the Italian Conti- 
 nent under French Dominion Provision of the Treaty of Paris for 
 future Congress Hopes excited among the Italians Secret Articles 
 of Treaty of Paris Many Italian Questions disposed of at Paris 
 Return of Italian Sovereigns 1 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Retrospect of Italian History Principal Features The Power of the 
 Popes Of the German Emperors Want of Italian Unity Foreign 
 Interference and Invasion Rise and Fall of the Italian Republics 
 Origin of the German Empire hi Italy Fall of the Roman Empire 
 of the West Odoacer- Theodoric The Lombard Kingdom Its 
 Iron Crown Political position of Italy Rome and Central Italy 
 still subject to the Byzantine Emperors Their Revolt Leo tho 
 Iconoclast Popular and Papal resistance to his Decrees Aistolph, 
 King of the Lombards, seizes Ravenna Resisted by the Pope The
 
 iv CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Pope appeals to Pepin Visit of Pepin to Italy He conquers the 
 Exarchate " Donation of Pepin" Appointed Patrician of Rome 
 Charlemagne He overthrows tho Lombard King Crowns himself 
 as King of Italy with the Iron Crown Elected Patrician and Consul 
 of Rome Crowned by the Pope Emperor of the West Extinction 
 of the Carlovingian Dynasty Tho German Nations elect a King 
 Native Kings of Italy Some of them crowned as Emperors of 
 the West Disordered state of Italy Otho the Great, King of 
 Germany, is elected King of Italy He is crowned Emperor by the 
 Pope Rule of the Saxon line of Emperors Attempts to elect 
 native Kings Conrad the Salic invited to assume the Italian 
 Crown Dependence of Italy upon Germany established Reflec- 
 tions on the Imperial Power Territorial extent of its dominion 
 in' Italy Imperial Prerogative Early relations of the Empire to 
 the Papacy The first struggle of Imperial power Popular Election 
 of Bishops The Pope elected by the Roman People Scandals 
 and Abuses in Pontifical Elections Right of nominating the Pontiff 
 conceded to Otho the Great Resistance of the Roman People and 
 Municipality Constant contests and revolts Successive Emperors 
 assert the right by force Treacherous Execution of the Consul 
 Crescentius by Otho III. Right of Popular Election re-asserted 
 Renewal of the former scandals Deposition of three rival Popes 
 by the Emperor Henry III. Right of Nomination is conceded to 
 him, and exercised during his reign without dispute Reflections 
 on the struggle General abrogation of the Popular Election of 
 bishops Extent and Importance of the Change 27 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 The War of Investitures Hildebrand Death of Henry III. Accession 
 of Henry IV. Effects of the War of Investitures Prevalence of 
 Simony in the Church Third Council of Lateran Election of 
 Pope vested in the Cardinals That of Bishops in the Chapters 
 
 ' Decree of Pope Nicholas against Lay Investitures Question of 
 Investitures started Feelings engaged on both sides Election of 
 Hildebrand to the Papal Throne Great contest for supremacy 
 between Papal and Imperial power Reflections Summons to the 
 Emperor to appear at Rome Henry convenes the German prelates 
 at Worms They pass a resolution deposing the Pope Henry's 
 letter to Hildebrand The Pope and his Council excommunicate 
 Henry German princes assemble at Tribur Henry obliged to ask 
 reconciliation with the Pope Pope at Canosa Humiliation of the 
 Emperor Strange scene at the Sacrament Revulsion of feeling in 
 favour of Henry Rebellion of Rudolph Rudolph supported by 
 the Pope Second excommunication of Henry Deposition of the 
 Pope by the German and Lombard prelates Guibert, Archbishop 
 of Milan, appointed Pope Henry invades and takes Rome En-
 
 CONTENTS. v 
 
 VAGE 
 
 thronement of the anti-Pope Coronation of Henry Gregory be- 
 sieged in the Castle of St. Angelo Relieved by Roger Quiscard 
 Henry compelled to retire The troops of Quiscard pillage Rome 
 Flight of the Pope His death Condemnation of the contest 
 Rebellion of his sons against Henry His death Henry V. Hia 
 treatment of the Pope Renewal of the Contest Concordat of 
 Worms End of the War of Investitures . . . . .77 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Republics of Italy The free Cities the Representatives of the Muni- 
 cipal Institutions of the Roman System Greatness of these Cities 
 Accession of the Emperor Frederick I. His Diet at Roncaglia 
 Submission of Milan Its second Revolt It is levelled to the 
 Ground Origin of the Lombard League Frederick marches on 
 Rome Return of his Army Building of Alexandria Contest of 
 Frederick with the Lombard League Battle of Legnano Acquisi- 
 tion of Sicily by Marriage The Emperor Henry VI. His Son 
 Frederick a Ward of the Pope Assumes the Imperial Crown 
 as Frederick II. His quarrel with the Church His Excommunica- 
 tion and his Crusade in the Holy Land Manifestoes of the Pope 
 and the Emperor Attempted Council by the Pope Seizure of the 
 Bishops by the Pisan Fleet Death of the Pope Council of Lyons 
 Excommunication of Henry His Death Early Death of his Son 
 Conrad Manfred King of Sicily Conquest of Naples by Charles 
 of Anjou Conradin Son of Conrad claims the Crown, his defeat and 
 execution The Sicilian Vespers Effects of the Papal enmity to 
 Frederick II. and his family Reflections 123 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 Fall of the Italian Republics The triumph of Feudalism Secession of 
 the Pope to Avignon Rudolph of Hapsburgh His renunciation 
 of Sovereignty over Rome Grant of Romagna to the Popes 
 Henry VII. Louis of Bavaria Charles IV. Wenceslaus Causes 
 of the fall of the Republics Employment of mercenary troops 
 Companies of Adventure Invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. 
 Demoralisation of Italy Louis XII. Francis I. The Emperor 
 Charles V. Sack of Rome by the Constable Bourbon Siege of 
 Naples Andrew Doria and Genoa Florence Parma Piedmont 
 Peace of Chateau Cambresis State of Italy after its subjugation 
 by Charles V. Decline of Papal Power Wars of the Spanish 
 Succession Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of the Quadruple Alliance 
 Of Vienna Of Aix-la-Chapelle . . > '"' .174 
 
 List of Emperors of the West . ..... , . . . 226 
 
 Tabular statement of Divisions of Italy as settled by Treaty of Aix la 
 
 Chapelle 229 
 
 Of events connected with progress of French dominion in Italy . . 281
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Return of Victor Emanuel, King of Sardinia, to Turin Sovereigns of the 
 House of Savoy Humbert the White-handed Early acquisitions 
 of territory Cuneo and Nice Amadeus VIII. the first Duke of 
 Savoy Piedmont created into a principality Wars of Charles V. 
 Piedmont ravaged Emanuel Philibert Transfer of govern- 
 ment from Chambery to Turin Character of the princes Abdica- 
 tion of the first king Election of Amadeus, the first duke, to the 
 Papal chair Savoy in the French revolution Invasion by France 
 Cession of Piedmont and flight of the king Turin retaken by 
 Suwarrow Recall of the king Opposition of Austria Austria 
 demands Piedmont for herself Battle of Marengo Abdication of 
 Charles Emanuel Return of Victor Emanuel in 1814 His re- 
 actionary policy " Viglietti reali" Embassy to the Pope Demand 
 of tribute to Rome Representations of Sardinian ministers to Lord 
 Castlereagh Efforts to obtain additional territory Annexation 
 of Genoa Description of Genoa Andrew Doria Expulsion of the 
 Austrians in 1745 Landing of Lord William Beutinck at Spe/zia 
 Preparations for assault on Genoa Capitulation of the French 
 Proclamation of Lord William Bentinck Act of Annexation 
 Letter of Lord Castlereagh Indignation in Genoa Progress of the 
 House of Savoy Reflections 234 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Naples and Sicily Condition under Spanish rule, insurrections against 
 it Charles Bourbon He confers the crown upon his third sou 
 Ferdinand Long and eventful reign of Ferdinand His neglected 
 education His early pursuits Marriage with Caroline of Austria 
 French revolution League of Italian sovereigns proposed by 
 Naples Treaty with France Severities practised at Naples Lady 
 Hamilton Lord Nelson's visit to Naples King of Naples joins 
 coalition against France Letter to Sardinian minister Neapolitan 
 troops occupy Rome Invitation to the Pope to return Ferdinand's 
 flight from Rome Change of dresses with the Duke of Ascoli 
 Retaking of Rome by the French Championnet invades the Neapo- 
 litan territory Proclamation of the king Desperate resistance of 
 the peasantry to the French Flight of the king to Sicily on 
 board Lord Nelson's ship Remonstrances of the people The 
 French enter Naples Resistance of the Lazzaroni St. Januarius 
 Parthenopean republic proclaimed 29G
 
 CONTENTS. vii 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fall of the Parthenopean republic Surrender of Naples to Cardinal 
 Ruffo Disavowal of its terms by the king Arrival of Nelson's 
 fleet at Naples Cruelties inflicted on the people Execution of 
 Carraccioli Arrival of the kiug Issue of new ordinances New 
 and special tribunals Military courts Sanguinary executions 
 New treaty with France Appeal of Queen Caroline to the Emperor 
 Paul Peace of Amiens Return of the king and queen to Naples 
 Second treaty with France Its violation Lauding of English 
 and Russian troops at Naples Co-operation of the Neapolitan 
 government March of Joseph Buonaparte on Naples Retirement 
 of the Russian troops Withdrawal of the English to Sicily Second 
 flight of the royal family Joseph Buonaparte proclaimed king of 
 Naples He is succeeded by Murat 327 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Retreat of the Royal Family of Naples to Sicily Connexion of Sicily 
 with England Constitution of Sicily Its early History Her first 
 Parliaments Laws of Frederick II. Enfranchisement of the Com- 
 mons Parliamentary Privileges Exclusive right of Taxation not 
 confined to Commons Right of Investiture Parliamentary Privi- 
 leges always respected Charles V. Treaty of Utrecht Distinct 
 system of Sicilian Jurisprudence Parliaments Their defects 
 Their achievements Defects in the Laws Feudal Tribunals Cap- 
 tains of Justice Sicilian Corn Laws Their effects on Agriculture 
 Sicily in 1810 Attempt of Ferdinand to destroy the Constitu- 
 tion in 1799 English occupation in 1806 351 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 English occupation of Sicily Sir John Stuart Descent on Calabria 
 Battle of Maida General Fox Sir John Moore Atrocities com- 
 mitted Laws of Murat to suppress them Fearful Cruelties 
 General Manhes Sir Sydney Smith Escape of Naples Taking of 
 Capri Intrigues of Queen Caroline Attempted Invasion of Sicily 
 Repulsed by Sir John Stuart Retirement of Sir John Stuart 
 Duke of Kent solicits to be appointed in his place Lord William 
 Bentinck Violent proceedings of the Sicilian Court Cruelties at 
 Messina Illegal Taxation Parliamentary Protest Arrest of the 
 five Barons Lord William Bentinck's visit to England He returns 
 with fuller powers Compels the King to appoint the Duke of 
 Calabria Vicar-General Release of the Barons A Liberal Ministry 
 Parliament of 1812 Settlement of the Constitution Abolition
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 of feudal rights Despatch of Lord Castlereagh Conduct of the 
 Queen Violent attempt of the King to resume his authority 
 The Queen compelled to leave the Island Lord William Bentinck 
 leaves for Spain Ministerial dissensions Parliamentary plots 
 Return of Bentinck Dissolution of Parliament New Elections 
 Triumph of the constitutional party Second absence of Lord 
 William Bentinck Reactionary intrigues The King resumes his 
 authority Final retirement of Bentinck Mr. A'Court his suc- 
 cessor William the Good and William the Bad Royal intrigues 
 against the Constitution Proposal to change it Dissolution of 
 Parliament King returns to Naples Hia Proclamations . . 369 
 
 Note on the Sicilian Constitution of 1812 417 
 
 Note to Chapter VIII. on events connected with the Neapolitan resto- 
 ration of 1799 423 
 
 I. Conduct of Lord Nelson 423 
 
 II. Cruelties of the restored government 451 
 
 Note. Bravery of the populace in their resistance to the French . . 470
 
 ALPHABETICAL AND ANALYTICAL TABLE OF 
 PEINCIPAL MATTEES CONTAINED IN PIEST 
 AND SECOND YOLUMES. 
 
 A. 
 
 ABDICATION . . Treaty for Napoleon's, April 11, 1814. 
 
 Achaia . . Princes of 
 
 A' Court, Mr. William Succeeds Lord William Bentinck at 
 Palermo 
 
 , , His policy 
 
 Acton, Sir John . Minister of Ferdinand of Naples . 
 Adelaide . . . (of Susa) brings Piedmont by marriage 
 to House of Savoy 
 
 ,, Gives Henry IV. a passage over the Alps 
 
 ,, Mother of his empress 
 
 Adige . . . River described . .... 
 Adrian IV. . . (Pope.) His pontificate . . . 
 
 ,, The only English Pope 
 
 Aglie, Count . His state paper presented to Lord 
 Castlereagh .... 
 
 
 
 ,, His interview with him . . . 
 
 ,, In Lombardy ..... 
 
 Agnes . . . (Empress.) Mother and Guardian of 
 Henry IV. .... 
 
 , , Present at his excommunication . . 
 
 ,, Sanctions election of Cadelaus, antipope 
 
 Aignan, St., Count An Austrian spy in Lomlardy . . 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle . Treaty of 
 
 
 
 Ajaccio . . Murat embarks from 
 
 Alberoni, Cardinal His ambitious projects for the Spanish 
 
 Bourbons . . . 
 
 ,, Attempts to destroy the independence 
 
 of San Marino .... 
 Alboin . . Establishes the Lombard kingdom in 
 
 Italy . "."' . "* ;"*V .' 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 15. 
 239. 
 
 405. 
 406. 
 307, 314, 334. 
 
 239. 
 110. 
 110. 
 493. 
 133. 
 168. 
 133. 
 
 275. 
 
 389, 531. 
 276. 
 531. 
 
 108. 
 98. 
 119. 
 219. 
 488. 
 448. 
 
 n. 
 
 216. 
 479. 
 35, 126. 
 
 i
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Albornoz, Cardinal Sent as Legate to Romagna . . 11. 203. 
 
 ,, His conquests 220. 
 
 Alessandria . . Built by the Lombard League ; named 
 
 after Alexander III. . . . i. 138. 
 
 Alexander . . Emperor of Russia . . . . ,, 13. 
 ,, Opposed to restoration of Bourbons at 
 
 Naples n. 371. 
 
 ,, Writes autograph letter to Murat . . ,, 27. 
 
 ,, Counsels moderation to Austria . . ,,124. 
 
 ,, His friendship for Eugene Beauharnais ,, 66, 81. 
 
 ,, Author of the Holy Alliance . . ,, 522. 
 
 ,, His plan for settlement of Italy in 1805 i. 276 note. 
 
 ,, Proposal for giving Northern Italy to 
 
 King of Sardinia . . . , , fb. 
 
 M And taking away from him Savoy . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Plan of Italian Confederation . . ,, 277. 
 Alexander II. . (Pope.) Predecessor of Hildebrand, 
 
 opposed by Cadelaua . . . ,, 96. 
 
 ,, His funeral, A.D. 1073 . . . ,, 97. 
 
 Alexander III. . (Pope.) His disputed election . . i. 136. 
 
 ,, Obliged to fly into France . . . ,,137. 
 
 ,, Identifies his cause with the struggle 
 
 for Italian independence . . II. 170. 
 
 ,, His history and character . . . ,, 171. 
 
 Alexander V. . . (Pope.) Elected by Council of Pisa . i. 182. 
 
 Alexander VI. . (Pope.) Borgia, his pontificate . . n. 228. 
 
 i. 192. 
 
 Allodial lands . As distinguished from feudal . . n. 196. 
 
 Amadeus VIII. . Obtains from the Emperor Sigismund 
 
 creation of Duchy of Savoy . . i. 240. 
 ,, Forms his Italian possessions into prin- 
 cipality of Piedmont . . ,, Ib. 
 ,, Forms plan of uniting Milan with 
 
 Piedmont ,, 293. 
 
 ,, His abdication ....,, 253. 
 
 ,, Afterward! elected Pope, as Felix V. . ,, 254. 
 
 Amalfi . . Ancient republic . - '. . . i. 128. 
 
 M Destroyed by Pisan fleet . . . ,, 59. 
 
 ,, Subject to Byzantine emperors . ,, 36. 
 
 Ambrose, St. . Elected Archbishop of Milan by the 
 
 people . . ;'"' ,, 64. 
 
 Amherst> Lord . English Ambassador at Palermo . ,,379. 
 Aocona : . Granted by Eugenius IV. to Francesco 
 
 Sforza "; - . . . . ii. 214. 
 
 M Ita vicissitudes ."' . ' . ' . ,, 239. 
 
 > Loses its free constitution in 1532 . . ,, Ib.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 xi 
 
 Angelo, Michael . Plans tomb of Pope Julius II. . . 
 
 Angelo, St. . . Castle of, the fortress of the Cenci . 
 
 ,, Description of, in 962 . . . . 
 
 Antale, Marquis Cruelly punishes the revolutionists'at 
 
 Messina ..... 
 
 Apostolic Constitutions. Canons attributed to the Apostles . 
 Apulia . . . Robert Guiscard, Duke of . . 
 Armistice . . Powers of Generals as to . . . 
 Arnold of Brescia . His theories ..... 
 ,, Inveighs against the wealth of the 
 
 clergy . . . . 
 M Silenced from preaching, and banished 
 
 from Italy . . . 
 
 ,, His residence at Rome . . . 
 
 ,, His surrender by Frederick and execution 
 
 Arragon . . House of, called to the throne of Sicily 
 Art in Italy . . Not due to its tyrants . . 
 Artois, Count of . Married to daughter of King of Savoy . 
 Ascoli, Duke of . Companion of Ferdinand in flight from 
 Rome ..... 
 Astolph . . King of the Lombards seizes the 
 
 Exarchate . . . 
 
 ,, Compelled by Pepin to restore it . 
 
 Athens, Duke of . Lord of Florence ..... 
 
 Attila . . . His invasion ; its character . . 
 
 Audoin . . Marquis of Ivrea . . . . 
 
 Elected King of Italy (1002) . . 
 
 , , Compelled to yield to Henry of Bavaria, 
 
 and retires to a monastery . 
 
 Augusta, Princess . Wife of Eugene Beauharnais . . 
 
 ,, Her Court ..... 
 
 Austria . . . Extent of her provinces in Italy before 
 
 the French Revolution . . 
 
 ,, First obtains territory in Italy after the 
 
 wars of the Spanish Succession . 
 
 , , Claims the cession to her of Piedmont 
 
 in 1799 ..... 
 
 ,, Her rule re-established in Lombardy 
 
 in 1814 ..... 
 
 Her pretensions in 1814 . 
 
 ,, Acquires vast increase of territory by 
 
 Treaty of Vienna . . . . 
 
 ,, Signs a treaty with Murat, recognising 
 
 him as King of Naples . . 
 
 ,, Her preponderance in Italy . . . 
 
 ,, Her commanding military position . 
 
 232. 
 147. 
 148. 
 
 385, 387. 
 
 253. 
 
 59. 
 
 160. 
 165. 
 
 166. 
 167. 
 168. 
 169. 
 205. 
 255. 
 
 44. 
 
 45. 
 334. 
 125. 
 237. 
 
 53. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 58, 52. 
 67. 
 
 4S6. 
 486. 
 261, 262, 263. 
 
 117. 
 95,96,97,106. 
 
 490,532. 
 
 837. 
 
 485, 491, 504, 
 531, 532. 
 491,494,495. 
 b 2
 
 xii 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Austria . . Acquires the right of garrisoning 
 
 Ferrara and Commacliio . . II. 495. 
 
 ,, Enters into a secret treaty with Naples ,, 495. 
 
 ',, Her designs on the Legations . . ,, 499. 
 
 ,, Demands Alsace and Lorraine . . ,, 21. 
 
 ,, Befuses to violate her engagement with 
 
 Murat , 383. 
 
 ,, Influence of, in the election of the Pope ,, 533. 
 Austria, Emperor of Title assumed by Francis in 1806 . ,, 108. 
 Refuses to revive the Empire of Ger- 
 many in 1815 . . . . 498. 
 
 Avignon . . Becomes the residence of the Popes . i. 181. 
 ,, Purchased in 1305 by Clement VI., 
 
 from Johanna II. of Naples . II. 500. 
 ,, Seized by the French Government 
 
 in 1791 ,76. 
 
 Ceded by Pope by treaty of Tolentino . 267. 
 Guaranteed to France by treaties of 
 
 Paris and of Vienna . . . H. 305 501. 
 
 Protest of Consalvi . 305,500. 
 
 Azeglio, Marquis d' Sardinian ambassador to Pope, 1814 . i. 273. 
 
 ,, Resigns from conscientious motives . , , 274. 
 
 His son becomes a Jesuit . . . n. 308. 
 
 B. 
 
 BALUZE 
 Bannerets 
 Baronius, Cardinal 
 
 Basle 
 
 His collection of forms of excommunication n. 
 Government by, in Rome . 
 His observations on Papal scandals . I. 
 Draws from them an argument of 
 divine origin of Papal power . ,, 
 
 . Council of, elect Duke of Savoy as 
 Pope ,,. . . 
 
 Bathurst, Lord . His despatch relative to Genoa . , 
 
 Bavaria, King of . His proposals to Eugene Beauharnais 
 
 Bayonne . . Statute of Constitution for Naples 
 
 Beauharnais, Eugene Viceroy of Italy . ..>..- . 
 
 Marries Princess of Bavaria . . . 
 
 ,, His administration .... 
 
 His Court . : - ; . . . 
 
 Rejects the proposal of the allies to 
 
 desert Napoleon 
 ,, Defeats the Austrians on the Mincio . 
 
 ii. 
 
 338. 
 
 178. 
 
 67. 
 
 76. 
 248. 
 
 254. 
 290. 
 
 56. 
 
 47. 
 
 52. 
 7J. 
 
 63, 
 
 67. 
 
 57. 
 25. 
 
 54.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. xiii 
 
 Beauhamais, Eugene Concludes convention of Schiarrino 
 
 Rizzino . . . ir. 37. 
 
 ,, Prepares proclamation declaring him- 
 
 self King . . . . 77. 
 
 ,, Surrenders Kingdom of Italy to the 
 
 Austrians . . . ,, 78. 
 
 ,, Indignation of army . ". 79. 
 
 ,, Leaves Mantua secretly and escapes 
 
 through Tyrol to Munich . . ,, 76. 
 
 ,, Provided for at Congress of Vienna . ,, 81. 
 
 ,, Created Prince of Eichstadt and Duke 
 
 of Leuchtenburg . . ,, 76. 
 
 ,, Charges against him by Marshal 
 Marmont, in his recently published 
 memoirs ,, 82 87. 
 
 ,, Examination of their truth . . , , 75. 
 
 ,, His letter to Napoleon . . . . ,, 82. 
 
 ,, His death . . . . , , 81. 
 
 ,, His family ,, 76. 
 
 Belisarius . . Reconquers Italy . . . i. 35. 
 
 Bellegarde, Marshal Concludes an armistice with Eugene 
 
 Occupies Milan . . . . n. 79. 
 
 ,, Issues a proclamation to the people of 
 
 Lombardy . . . 115. 
 
 ,, Publishes the emperor's patent . . ,, 125. 
 
 Belmonte, Prince . Heads the Sicilian barons in their 
 
 opposition to the king . . r. 388. 
 
 ,, Imprisoned, with four other barons, by 
 
 the queen ,, 889. 
 
 ,, . . .Released and placed at the head of the 
 
 administration . . . ,, 393. 
 
 i, His ministry overturned . . . ,, 400. 
 
 Benevento, Duchy of, Lombard ... . . . ,, 36. 
 
 ,, Conquered by Normans . . ,, 58. 
 
 ,, Given by Charlemagne to Pope . . n. 193. 
 
 Bentinck, Lord Win. Arrives at Palermo as British Envoy . i. 384, 390. 
 
 ,, Departs for London . . . ,, 391. 
 
 ,, Returns as plenipotentiary and gene- 
 
 ralissimo of the British forces . , , 76. 
 
 ,, Obliges the king to resign his power 
 into the hands of the hereditary 
 prince ,, 392, 
 
 ,, Appointed generalissimo of the Sicilian 
 
 army ,, 393. 
 
 i, Defeats the king's attempt to resume 
 
 - . his power . ....,, 397. 
 
 ,, Departs for Spain i*ii -'-. . . ,, 399.
 
 rir ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Bentinck, Lord Wm. His despatch to Lord Castlereagh from 
 
 Tarragona on Sicilian affairs . n. 399. 
 
 His Sicilian policy . . . . 390, 395, 398. 
 
 ,, Leaves Sicily . . . . . ,, 410. 
 
 Lands at Spezzia ,, 285. 
 
 His proclamation to the Italians . Ib. 
 
 Forces the French in Genoato capitulate 287. 
 
 ,, Proclamation restoring republic of Genoa 288. 
 
 ,, His interview with Murat . . ,, 33. 
 
 ,, His opinion of Murat . . ,, 41. 
 
 ,, Proposal to unite Sicily to England . I. 410. 
 
 ,, His motion in House of Commons. ,, 415. 
 
 Bentivoglio, Giovanni Usurps the government of Bologna . ii. 222. 
 
 Berengar . . . Of Tours, protected by Hildebrand . i. 118. 
 
 Berenger . . King of Italy and Emperor . ,, 51. 
 
 Grandson of the Emperor, flies for pro- 
 tection to Otho . . . . I. 52. 
 
 Receives kingdom of Italy as his fief . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Deposed by Otho ....,, Tb. 
 
 Bishops . . . Popular election of . . . . I. 63, 73, 75. 
 
 ,, n. 252, 253, 254. 
 
 ,, Guaranteed by Charlemagne . i. 64. 
 
 Bl&cas, Count de . Fabricates letters . . . . n. 385. 
 
 Black wood's Maga- 1 
 
 f Its defence of Nelson . i. 425. 
 zme . . J 
 
 Bologna . . Its history . . . . . . n. 215, et teq. 
 
 ,, Its Lords, the Pepoli, and Bentivoglii . ,, Ib. 
 Submits to the arbitration of 
 
 Nicholas HI. 204. 
 
 ,, Acknowledges the sovereignty of the 
 
 Holy See , 204. 
 
 Its revolutions . . . . . 219, 221, J222, 
 
 224, 225. ' 
 ,, Charters granted to it by Gregory XL, 
 
 Martin IV., and Nicholas V. . 214, 222,*223. 
 
 ,, Its celebrated university ,, 216. 
 ,, Held by the Visconti as a fief of the 
 
 Holy See . . , * . 220. 
 Governed by a senate of 40 under the 
 
 Pope rv . .V - .:.{ . . 225. 
 ,, Its independent privileges under the 
 
 Popes . . .' v- . . 225, 226. 
 
 Its Statue of Pope Julius H , 231. 
 
 ,, Claims its privileges from Congress of 
 
 Vienna . . . . ,, 510. 
 
 ,, From the Pope after his restoration ,, 311.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Bologna . . Joins Second Lombard League . . I. 148. 
 
 Boniface VIII. . Imprisoned by the Colonna and the 
 
 French > . . . . . it. 149. 
 
 Borgia, Caesar . . Son of Pope Alexander VI. . I. 192. 
 
 ,, Obtains grant of Romagna . . n. 228. 
 
 ,, His conquests in Romagna . . . ,, 229. 
 
 ,, His crimes Ib. 
 
 ,, Created Duke of Valentinoia . . . ,, 230. 
 
 ,, His fall ,, Ib. 
 
 Bourbon, Charles . See Charles 
 
 (Constable), sack of Rome by . .1. 170, 197. 
 
 Brancaleone . . Senator of Rome u. 1 74 . 
 
 ,, His just severities . . . . ,, 175. 
 
 Bretons, Company of Employed under Robert of Geneva in 
 
 reducing Papal States . . . ,, 210. 
 
 ,, Their atrocities . . . . ,, 211. 
 
 Briefs Papal . . As distinguished from Bulls . . . ,,270. 
 
 Brigands . . . In Calabria. I. 374, 457. 
 
 Encouraged by Queen Caroline . ,, 375. 
 
 By Sir Sidney Smith . . . . ,, 377. 
 
 ,, Laws of Murat against . . ,, 376. 
 
 Brune, Marshal . His murder at Avignon . . . ,, 437, 439. 
 
 Bulls Papal . . As differing from Briefs . . .II. 276. 
 
 Buonaparte . . See Caroline, Eliza, Joseph, Lucien, 
 Napoleon, Pauline. 
 
 c. . 
 
 CALABKIA . . British troops land in, under Sir J. 
 
 Stuart i. 371. 
 
 ,, Lawless banditti in, paid by Queen 
 
 Caroline 375,^876, 457. 
 
 Cambray . . . Peace of (Traite* des Dames) A.D. 1509 ,, 200. 
 
 ,, League of, against Venice ,, 195. 
 
 n. 231. 
 
 Campanella, Fra . Excites revolt in Calabria . . . i. 298. 
 
 Campagna . . Of Rome II. 226. 
 
 Campbell, Captain Naples surrendered to . . . . ,,420. 
 
 ,, Gives protection to Queen Caroline . ,, 426. 
 Campo Chiaro, ) Representative of Murat at Congress of 
 
 Duke di . $ Vienna 377. 
 
 Campo-Formio . Treaty of . .....,, 489. 
 
 Canning, Mr. . Frees the foreign policy of England 
 from the influence of the Holy 
 
 Alliance . . 630.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Canning, Mr . . His opinion of Metternich . V . II. 530. 
 
 Canosa . . Henry, at the castle of . .1. 111. 
 
 ,, Seat by Ferdinand to see that Marat 
 
 was executed . . . . 11. 459. 
 
 Capponi, Nicholas . Proposes the Saviour as king . . ,, 335. 
 
 Capponi, Pietro . Defies Charles VIII. to commence a 
 
 combat in Florence . . ,, 533. 
 
 Capri . . . Taken by Sir S. Smith . . . I. 379. 
 
 Captain of Justice . In Sicily . . ,, 360. 
 
 Caraccioli . . His execution ,, 337. 
 
 ,, Appearance of his body . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Carascosa . . General under Murat . . . . 11. 299, 422. 
 
 Meets Pope at Reggio . . . 299. 
 
 Carbonari . . Secret society of '"- . . . ,, 56. 
 
 Treacherous execution of their chief by 
 
 Murat' s officials . . .,,/&. 
 
 Cardinal . . Original meaning of the term . . n. 258. 
 
 Cardinals. . . (College of), its present constitution . , , 261. 
 
 Cariati, Prince . Minister of Murat . . . ,, 420. 
 
 Negotiates surrender of Naples . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Represents Murat at Congress . . ,, 377. 
 Carlovingian . . (Dynasty.) Its extinction . I. 50. 
 Carignan, House of Attempt to exclude them from Sardi- 
 nian succession . ,, 373, 376. 
 Caroline . . . (Princess of Wales) ^ ..'', . . II. 48. 
 
 Visits Naples, 1814 . . . . Ib. 
 
 Attentions of Neapolitan court to . . ,, 49. 
 
 FSte to Murat ,, 48. 
 
 ,, Accusation founded on it . . . ,,76. 
 
 Caroline Murat . Arrives in Naples as Queen . . . i, 350. 
 
 ,, Left regent on departure of Murat . n. 424. 
 
 ,, Saves Naples from pillage ^rV it Ib. 
 
 ,, Surrenders Naples . . . . ,, 420. 
 
 Takes refuge in British fleet . .. * . 426. 
 
 ,, Witnesses rejoicings for restoration of 
 
 the Bourbons . . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Is conveyed to Trieste ,, 427. 
 
 ,, Is deprived of her property . . . ,, 428 
 
 Residence at Trieste ....,, 469. 
 
 M Her family , 470. 
 
 ,, Obtains pension from France . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Her death It. 
 
 Caroline of Naples . Her marriage with Ferdinand I. . i. 306. 
 
 ,, Her character . . . . . 306,310, 380. 
 
 ,, Journey to St. Petersburg to obtain 
 
 intercession of Paul . . ,, 344. 
 
 ,, Her conduct in 1799 . . . . 332.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Carolina of Naples . Letters of friendship to Napoleon while 
 . plotting against him . 
 
 , , Attempts to prevent the British landing 
 
 . .in Sicily . ... 
 
 , , Appeals to Russia against British in- 
 
 fluence ..... 
 
 , , Vehemently urges an expedition against 
 . . Naples. * 
 
 , , Renews her intrigues with Napoleon . 
 
 ,, Encourages the invasion of Sicily by 
 Murat 
 
 ,, Her employment of spies . . . 
 
 , , Levies taxes without authority of par- 
 
 liament ..... 
 
 , , Imprisons the five Sicilian Barons 
 
 , , Baffled by Lord William Bentinck, and 
 
 retires to Castelvetrano 
 
 ,, Desperate attempt to recover her 
 
 power . . . . 
 
 , , Horrible charges made against her 
 
 ,, Compelled to leave Sicily 
 
 ,, Temporary residence at Zante . - . 
 
 ,, Proceeds by sea to Odessa . . . 
 
 ,, Arrives at Vienna .... 
 
 , , Her death 
 
 n 
 
 , , Disrespect to her memory at Vienna . 
 
 -i-. , and by her husband Ferdinand . 
 
 ,, Court of Murat goes into mourning 
 
 for her 
 
 , , Reflections on her character . 
 
 Carrar . . See Massa. 
 
 Carroccio . . . Sacred Car . . . .* . 
 
 Casa Lanza . . Convention of . 
 
 t'astelnuovo, Baron Proposes abolition of entails in Sicily . 
 
 Castlcreagh, Lord . His despatch to General Dalrymple . 
 
 , , To Lord W. Bentinck, concerning the 
 
 Queen of Naples 
 
 ,, To Prince Belinonte, approving of his 
 
 . measures ..... 
 
 ,, To Lord W. Bentinck in relation to 
 
 Genoa 
 
 His interview with the Italian dele- 
 
 x. 346. 
 
 370. 
 
 372. 
 
 373. 
 
 381. 
 
 ., n- 
 
 387. 
 
 388. 
 389. 
 
 Objects to be bound by majority at 
 Congress of Vienna . . . 
 
 897. 
 
 76. 
 
 398. 
 
 399. 
 
 ii. 369. 
 
 370. 
 
 76. 
 
 371. 
 
 I. 399. 
 
 n. 372. 
 
 76. 
 
 Ib. 
 373. 
 
 i. 130. 
 
 n. 452. 
 
 423. 
 
 i. 399. 
 
 291. 
 
 395. 
 
 399. 
 
 290, 291. 
 
 n. 91, 93. 
 
 365.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Cathari 
 Catharine, St. 
 
 Sienna 
 Celestine II. . 
 
 Celestine III. . 
 Ccsena 
 
 el 
 
 Castlereagh, Lord . Communication in 1815 to Murat's 
 
 envoy II. 386. 
 
 , , His statement to Count Agli^ as to con- 
 duct of Sardinian King . . i. 278. 
 
 ,, To Lord Wm. Bentinck, reproving pro- 
 
 ,, clamation of Sicilian Prin'-e . II. 35. 
 
 ,, Refuses to sign treaty of llth April, 
 
 1814 . . * . . . . I. 15. 
 
 ,, His act of accession to ditto . ,, 16. 
 
 A sect of heretics, persecuted . 173. 
 
 ! Intreats the return of the Pope to Borne n. 213, 259. 
 
 (Pope.) The last Pope whose election 
 
 was influenced by the people . ,, 155. 
 
 (Pope.) His accession . . . ,,173. 
 
 Massacre of . . . . . ,, 211. 
 
 Murat attacks Austrians at . . . ,,411. 
 Purchased by Counts of Savoy, A.D. 
 
 1232 ....'. . . I. 238. 
 
 ,, Made seat of government, A.D. 1295 . ,, Jb. 
 
 Charlemagne . . Crowns himself at Milan . . . ,, 48. 
 ,, Crowned at Home as Emperor of the 
 
 West , Ib. 
 
 ,, His gifts to the Holy See . . . ir. 193. 
 ,, New empire of the West established in 
 
 his person . . . i. 49. 
 
 Recognised by Byzantine Caesars . ,, 56. 
 
 Destroys Lombard dynasty . ,, 47. 
 
 ,, Compels abdication of Desiderius . . ,, 48. 
 
 Charles of Anjou . Eeceives kingdom of Naples from the 
 
 Pope 163. 
 
 ,, Defeats Conradin, whom he puts to 
 
 death . . . . ,, 166. 
 
 ,, Senator of Rome . . . 11. 175. 
 
 Charles the Bald . Form of his coronation . . . ,, 142. 
 
 Charles Bourbon . (Don Carlos.) Duke of Parma . . 1. 217. 
 
 Conquers Sicily and Naples . . . ,, 218. 
 
 ,, Proclaimed king, 1734 . 218, 299. 
 Title acknowledged by treaty of Aix- 
 
 la-Chapelle . . . . ,,219. 
 
 ,, Called to the throne of Spain . . ,,299. 
 
 ,, Installs his infant son Ferdinand as 
 
 king 300. 
 
 Charles Emanuel . (King of Sardinia.) Surrenders Pied- 
 mont to the French . . . ,, 258. 
 ,, His chivalrous conduct on leaving Turin ,, 259. 
 ,, Escapes to Cagliari in Sardinia . . 259.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Charles Emanuel . His letter to Lord Nelson ... . I. 
 
 ,, Eefuses separate peace without his allies ,, 
 
 , , Returns to Leghorn ; stopped there by 
 
 the conduct of Austria . ,, 
 
 ,, Retires to Naples ; abdicates; dies . 
 
 , , Professed as a Jesuit . . . 
 
 Charles le Gros . Deposed . . . . r. 
 
 Charles II. of Spain Last of the Spanish House of Hapsburgh , , 
 
 ,, His will , ; . . ,, 
 
 Charles IV. . 
 
 260. 
 261. 
 
 Ib. 
 266. 
 266. 
 50. 
 213. 
 
 n. 
 
 144. 
 
 201. 
 
 196. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 199. 
 
 200. 
 
 201. 
 
 192. 
 
 203. 
 378. 
 258. 
 433. 
 340. 
 50. 
 270. 
 
 59. 
 
 (Emperor.) [Renounces all claim to 
 
 Sovereignty in Rome . . .11. 
 
 Charles V. . . (Emperor.) Crowned at Bologna . i. 
 
 ,, Elected emperor, 1519 . ,, 
 
 ,, Unites Germany and Spain . ,, 
 
 ,, Defeats Francis I. . . . . ,, 
 ,, His wars in Italy ....,, 
 
 ,, His settlement of Italy . . . ,, 
 
 ^FrSce VII . L f } Leads an army into Italy in 1494 . 
 
 Chateau-Cambresis. Peace of ,, 
 
 Chaumont . . Treaty of II. 
 
 Cherasco . . . Peace of i. 
 
 Chinea . . . Tribute from Naples to the Pope . u. 
 
 Cirillo . . . His execution at Naples in 1799 . i. 
 
 Cisalpine Republic. Formed n. 
 
 Civita-Vecchia . Garrisoned by English troops . ,, 
 Civitella . . Battle of, Pope Leo IX. taken prisoner 
 
 A.D. 1053 i. 
 
 Clement III. . . (Pope.) Obtains the restitution of St. 
 
 Peter's to the Church . . . n. 
 Clement VII. . (Pope.) Imprisoned by the Emperor 
 
 Charles V. . i. 
 ,, Restores his relatives, the Medici, to 
 
 Florence ir. 
 
 Clergy . . . Wealth of the, assailed . . . , , 
 Cobentzel, Count . His letter to Count Panin, claiming 
 
 the Legations for Austria . . I. 
 
 Colletta . . . One of Murat's generals . . . n. 
 
 ,, His History of Naples . . ,, 
 
 ,, Negotiates convention of Casa Lanza . ,, 
 
 ,, Signs convention of Casa Lanza . . ,, 
 
 Cologne . . Diet at ; ;. .. v . : .- i .*; --it,*.. . i. 
 
 Colonna . . Great Roman family . . n. 
 
 , , Leaders of the Ghibelines in the Papal 
 
 States . -'; ; *. -. . . ,, 226. 
 Count, brings Murat intelligence of 
 
 Napoleon'i leaving Elba . . ,,404. 
 
 172. 
 184. 
 
 337. 
 162, 163. 
 
 263. 
 420. 
 417. 
 424. 
 422. 
 180. 
 148, 149.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Commachio . . Bight of garrisoning, conferred on 
 
 Austria _ .* . . 11. 494. 
 
 Companies . . Of adventure . ...-. . i. 190. 
 
 n. 207. 
 
 Company . . . Of Death . ,. . ^. - . . . i. 139. 
 
 Condottieri . . The Free Companies . . . ,,191. 
 
 n. 207,209. 
 
 Confalonieri . . Heads the National party at Milan . ,, 70. 
 ,, Placed at the head of the deputation to 
 
 Paris . . . . . . 76. 
 
 ,, His interview with the allied sovereigns ,, 90. 
 ,, ,, with Lords Castlereagh 
 
 and Aherdeen . . . ,, 91. 
 
 Congress . . Powers and functions of a ... ,, 362, 512,513. 
 
 Congress of . . Laybach . . ' . . . n. 362. 
 
 ,, Verona . . .'".' . . ,, 363,518, 529. 
 
 ,, Vienna . ." -. -. . . 48. 
 
 ,, originated in treaty of Paris . . ,, 360. 
 
 ,, arrangements of business . ,, 365. 
 
 dissensions in . . . . ,, 471. 
 
 ,, secret treaty between France . ,, /&. 
 ,, Austria and England . ,, 472. 
 ,, signed in Lord Castlereagh's bed- 
 room . . " . . . ,, 76. 
 
 close of ,, 473. 
 
 Congresses . . Mode of proceeding at Chief European n. 362, 363. 
 Conrad the Salic . Makes Crown of Italy appendant on 
 
 that of Germany . . i. 64, 55. 
 
 ,, Duke of Franconia . . . ,,54. 
 
 Conrad IIL . . Invited to Rome by the Senate . . n. 156. 
 
 Conrad IV. . . Son of Frederick II. . . . . i. 162. 
 
 ,, His early death . . . ,, 76. 
 Conradin . . Leads an army to recover his kingdom 
 
 of Naples I. 165. 
 
 Defeated at Tagliacozzo, and put to 
 
 death ,, 166. 
 
 Consalvi, Cardinal His character and policy . . . n. 173. 
 
 ,, Secretary to Conclave at Venice, 1800 ,, 271. 
 
 ,, His jealousy of Austria . . ,, 106. 
 
 ,, His high talents as a diplomatist . . ,, 272, 274. 
 Visits Paris in 1802, and negotiates the 
 
 Concordat ''.:.". . . ,, 274. 
 ,, Dissuades Pius VII. from proceeding to 
 
 . Paris to crown Napoleon . . ,, 275. 
 ,, Urges the Pope's claims at Paris and 
 
 London in 1814. . 303.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Consalvi 
 
 Constance 
 
 Constance 
 
 Constant, Benjamin 
 Constantino . . 
 
 i 
 
 Corsica , . 
 
 Craig, Sir James . 
 
 Crescentius 
 
 H 
 
 Crespi . 
 Crimea 
 
 Crusades, The 
 Cuneo 
 
 Submits an able state paper to the 
 
 Allies on the rights of the Pope . II. 304. 
 
 Friend and correspondent of George IV. ,, 272. 
 
 Entertained at Carlton House . . 303, 304. 
 
 Admitted to deliberations of Congress 
 
 at request of George IV. . . ,, 867. 
 
 (Empress.) Heiress of Norman kings I. 141. 
 
 Brings Sicily and Naples to House of 
 
 Hohenstauffen . . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Peace of, the charter of the liberties of 
 
 Lombardy ..... I. 141. 
 
 Diet of, recognises the liberty of the 
 
 Italian cities . . . . ,,140. 
 
 Council of, ends the schism of the West II. 181. 
 
 Employed to write documents for Murat , , 380. 
 
 Donation of ... . . 138, 139, 140. 
 
 A manifest forgery . . . . ,, 140, 190. 
 
 Granted to Pope by charter of Louis 
 
 Debonaire . . . . ,,193. 
 
 Murat flies to . . . . ,, 446. 
 
 His letter on the perfidy of King Fer- 
 dinand i. 347. 
 
 Heads an English expedition to Naples ,, 346. 
 
 Occupies the ports of Sicily . . . ,, 348. 
 
 The Consul ,,72. 
 
 Treacherously killed by Otho . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Peace of .. . t, v . .= . ,, 202. 
 
 Possessions of Genoa in . . . ,, 279. 
 
 Their spirit and ruling impulses . . n. 161. 
 
 Voluntarily attaches itself to Savoy . i. 240, 248. 
 
 D. 
 
 DALRYMPLB, General Gives up Genoa to Sardinian king 
 Dante, Alighieri . (Divina Commedia.) Describes the 
 declining days of Italian freedom 
 
 ,, Driven from Florence. Sentenced to 
 death 
 
 ,, His treatise de Monarchia . . . 
 
 ,, Dies at Verona . . .. ; . .. . v 
 
 D'Enghien . . Execution of . ....-, 
 
 , , Murat's denial of connection with 
 
 , , Statement of Lamartine 
 
 Desiderius . . Last of the Lombard kings . . . 
 
 ,, Charlemagne married to daughter 
 
 291. 
 
 205. 
 
 204. 
 
 ii. 334. 
 
 i. 205. 
 
 n. 457. 
 
 458. 
 
 463. 
 
 i. 47. 
 
 , Ib.
 
 xxii 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Doria, Andrea . In naval service of France . . i. 200. 
 
 ,, Transfers himself to that of Charles V. ,, Ib. 
 , , Refuses the offered sovereignty of Genoa, 
 
 his native city ....,, 281. 
 
 ,, Secures its independence . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Drummond, Mr. . Minister of England at Palermo . . ,, 373. 
 Dumourier, General Advises the occupation of Sicily by 
 
 the British . . . , 371. 
 
 E. 
 
 ECCELINO 
 Eichstadt 
 Elba, island of . 
 
 Election . 
 
 Eliza, Princess 
 
 Emanuel Philibert 
 
 Emperors of the 
 Holy Roman 
 Empire . . . 
 
 Empire (Holy Ro- 
 man) of the West 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 Principality of Eugene Beauharnais . 
 
 n. 
 
 81. 
 
 Granted by Charter of Lewis to the 
 
 
 
 Popes . . . . " .' 
 
 
 
 193. 
 
 Ceded to Napoleon on his abdication . 
 
 i. 
 
 13. 
 
 
 
 63 88. 
 
 ii 
 
 M 
 
 n. 
 
 252, 253. 
 
 Of Popes . . . . . 
 
 i. 
 
 65, 73, 75. 
 
 
 
 n. 
 
 254, 255, 256. 
 
 Sister of Napoleon . . . 
 
 ii 
 
 335. 
 
 Her government at Florence . . . 
 
 i> 
 
 355. 
 
 Visits Naples in 1814 
 
 i 
 
 403. 
 
 Ear letter complaining of Murat . . 
 
 >i 
 
 385. 
 
 Duke of Savoy . ' . 
 
 i. 
 
 241. 
 
 Deprived of his dominions . . . 
 
 M 
 
 Ib. 
 
 
 
 242. 
 
 Moves seat of government to Turin 
 
 ii 
 
 243. 
 
 
 
 244. 
 
 List of 
 
 it 
 n 
 
 226. 
 
 Their triple coronation 
 
 ii 
 
 57. 
 
 Not to assume title until crowned by 
 
 the Pope ,, 55. 
 
 (Austrian.) Establishment of, in 1804 u. 108. 
 
 France and Russia assume the imperial 
 
 name . . . . ,. Ib. 
 
 Establishment under Charlemagne . 
 
 i. 47. 
 
 Dissolution in 1806 . . . . II. 108. 
 Transferred from Byzantine Caesars to 
 
 Charlemagne . . . . I. 56. 
 Emperors legitimate successors of 
 
 Augustus .....,, Ib. 
 
 Attached to Kingdom of Italy . . ,, 58.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Empire (Holy Ro-~| 
 m an)oftheWest; Longcontinuanceoftheempire ' ' 49 ' 
 
 ,, Followed the crown of Italy, when 
 
 made appendant by Conrad the 
 Salic on the German . . . ,, 64, 55. 
 
 ,, Kings of Germany and Italy Emperors 
 of Rome, three distinct sove- 
 reignties ,, 58. 
 
 ,, Coronation by Pope essential to the 
 
 latter title ,, 55. 
 
 , , This ceremony represented the election 
 
 of the Roman people . . ,, 49. 
 
 , , Powers of emperors within Kingdom of 
 
 Italy 140, 160. 
 
 in the city of Rome . . . , , 62. 
 
 ,, Territorial limits of their dominions . ,, 58. 
 
 ,, Imperial prerogatives . . ,, 60, 61. 
 
 ,, Its final destruction in 1806 . . n. 109. 
 
 ,, Attempt to identify it with new Aus- 
 
 trian empire . . . . ,, 110, 111. 
 
 , , Contests between it and the Papacy . i. 73, 80 105. 
 
 ,, Struggles with the Italian republics . ,, 134, 140. 
 
 ,, Effect of Imperial power on Italian 
 
 history ,, 50. 
 
 ,, Its virtual overthrow in the fall of the 
 
 House of Hohenstauffen . ,, 167,170. 
 
 ,, Surrender by Rudolph of all power in 
 
 Rome ,, 168. 
 
 , , Abandonment of ceremony of coronation 
 
 by the Pope ,, 207. 
 
 ,, Total change thus effected . . .II. 200. 
 
 ,, Empire declared independent of Papacy I. 56. 
 
 ,, Title of emperor taken without corona- 
 
 tion by Pope . . . . . ,, 56. 
 
 ,, Control over election of Popes . ,, 63, 65, 75. 
 
 , , Difference between the exercise of Papal 
 
 and Imperial power over their fiefs II. 242. 
 
 ,, Distant sovereignty of the emperors 
 
 created the independence of local 
 powers ....... . . . I. 61 131. 
 
 ,, Long contest with Popes for possessions 
 
 of Countess Matilda . . .II. 196. 
 
 ,, Renunciation of right by Rudolph . . ,, 201. 
 
 ,, Interregnum of the Empire . . I. 177, 178. 
 
 ,, Effect of the struggle . . . . ,,177. 
 
 England . . . Duke of Modena heir by descent to 
 
 crown of- XI. 374, 362.
 
 xxiv ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Ernulph . . . Bishop of Rochester, curse of . .n. 319. 
 
 Este . . . House of . . . . . ,, 326. 
 
 Dukes of Ferrara **"> . ,, 215,239. 
 ,, Ferrara lapses to the Pope, on 
 
 extinction of legitimate line . ,, 239, 484. 
 ,, Modena preserved by illegitimat 
 
 branch ,, 239. 
 
 ,, Ercole, last Duke of Modena of that 
 
 line. . . - . , ,, 484. 
 
 Etruria . . . Ancient Etruria its civilisation . . ,,376. 
 ,, Kingdom of Etruria founded by Na- 
 poleon 353, 484. 
 
 ,, Don Louis, King of . . . ,, Ib. 
 ,, Maria Louisa, Queen of . . . n. 354. 
 ,, her deposition and imprison- 
 ment . . . M 355. 
 ,, Claim of Kingdom for the son of Don 
 
 Louis at Congress of Vienna . . ,, 376. 
 Eugene Beauharnais Viceroy of Italy (see Beauharnais). 
 
 Eugenius III. . . (Pope.) His election . . " . ,, 156. 
 ,, Recognises the Senate and nominates 
 
 the Prefect . . 4 -+ . 157. 
 
 Eugenius IV. . (Pope.) His pontificate . . ,, 182. 
 
 Euphemia . . Bay of St., Landing of Murat . . n. 449. 
 Exarch . . . Bepresentative of Emperors in Central 
 
 Italy i. 36. 
 
 ,, Driven from Ravenna . . ,, 38. 
 
 ,, Confirmed the election of Pope . . ,, 41. 
 
 ,, Killed in a tumult . . ' . ,, 76. 
 
 Exarchate of Ravenna Its limits . . . . . . 11. 192. 
 
 Seized by Luitprand *. . . I. ',42. 
 
 Restored to Rome . . . . 43. 
 
 Retaken by Astolph . . . ,, 44. 
 
 ,, Recovered by Pepin . . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Conferred by Pepin on the Pope. . i. 47. 
 
 n. 191. 
 
 Excommunication . Note on . . . . . ,, 316. 
 
 M List of Sovereigns excommunicated . ,, 321. 
 
 ,, Forms of, collected by Baluze . . ,,318. 
 
 ,, The greater ; consequence of . . . ,, 279,286. 
 
 ,, Denunciation by name essential . . ,, 281,283. 
 
 ,, Growth of the power , 288. 
 
 Its abuse. . . ' . . 290. 
 Exmouth. . . (Lord.) Naval commander in Medi- 
 terranean . . . .11. 443. 
 
 ,, Murat's application to him at Toulon . ,, 438. 
 Offers Murat protection . .../.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. xx , 
 
 P. 
 
 FAKINI, Signer . Vouches for authenticity of alleged 
 
 Treaty of Prague . . .11. 96. 
 
 a History of Roman States . . . ,, 316. 
 i, Gladstone's, Right Hon. William E., 
 
 opinion of . . . ff>. 
 Farnese . . Erection of Duchy of Parma in the 
 
 family of . , ''" ' . . ,, 240. 
 
 ,, Extinction of male line "';'' . . ,, 502. 
 
 ,, Elizabeth, Queen of Spain . . . i. 215. 
 
 ,, her ambitious deman ds . . . ,, 218. 
 ,, obtains Naples for her eldest and 
 
 Parma for her second son . ,, 217, 218, 219. 
 
 M claims the reversion of Tuscany . ,, 215. 
 
 Favignano . . Island of its dungeons . ,, 239. 
 Felix V. . . (Pope.) See Amadeus. 
 Ferdinand I. & IV. Receives the kingdom from his father, 
 
 Don Carlos ... . ,, 257. 
 
 ,, His character and habits . . . ,, 303, et seq. 
 ,, Marries Caroline, daughter of Maria 
 
 Theresa ,, 306. 
 
 His visit to Vienna in 1790 . . . ,, 310. 
 ,, Proposals for an Italian league against 
 
 France ,, 311. 
 
 , , Compelled by French fleet to form a 
 
 treaty with France . . . ,,315. 
 
 ,, Secret treaty with Russia against France ,, 76. 
 
 ,, Leads his army into Rome . . ,,318. 
 
 ,, Disgraceful flight from that city . . ,, 319. 
 , , His flight from Naples, and arrival at 
 
 Palermo, Christmas 1799 . . ,, 322. 
 
 ,, His return to Naples after its reconquest ,, 343. 
 
 ,, His cruelties . "." . : . . ,, 343, et seq. 
 
 ,, His second flight to Palermo . . ,,348. 
 
 ,, His long residence in Sicily (see Sicily) ,, 348. 
 ,, Resigns his power to his son as Vicar 
 
 General i'"'' : . ' . . . ,, 392. 
 
 ,, Resumes the Royal authority . ,, 403, 404. 
 , , Opens session of parliament . . . , , 405. 
 ,, His second marriage .' " ; . . n. 372. 
 ,, Is restored to Kingdom of Naples . ,, 383. 
 His proclamation on leaving Sicily . i. 407. 
 . ii. 430. 
 ,, Promises the Neapolitans a free consti- 
 tution . . , . . . i. 407. 
 . n. 431. 
 VOL. i. e
 
 xxvi 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Ferdinand I. & IV. 
 
 Ferdinand 
 
 Triumphant entry into Naples . . n. 431. 
 Enters into a secret treaty with Austria 495. 
 Assumes the title of King of the Two 
 
 Sicilies. . . ., . . ,, 510. 
 Destroys the Sicilian Constitution . ,, 512. 
 (Grand Duke of Tuscany.) Succeeds his 
 
 Ferdinand II. 
 Ferrara . 
 
 Fesch, Cardinal 
 
 father Leopold . . . . 
 Refuses to join coalition against France 
 Obliged to cede Tuscany to Duke of 
 
 Parma, receiving Brisgau in 
 
 exchange . . . . , j 
 Recovers his dominions in 1814 . . 
 His threats against the Papal legate . 
 A member of the Lombard League 
 Submits to the House of Este ' . . 
 
 >i 
 
 Seized by the Venetians . .'> 
 Lapses to the Pope on the death of 
 
 Duke Alphonso, 1598 . . 
 Ercole, Duke of, excommunicated . 
 Right of garrison ceded to Austria by 
 
 treaty of Vienna 
 
 Papal protest against this . . . 
 Napoleon's uncle at Naples . . 
 
 Feudal Constitutions Of Conrad the Salic 
 
 351. 
 352. 
 
 353. 
 
 350. 
 
 i. 209. 
 
 n. 241. 
 
 i. 173. 
 
 n. 241, 215. 
 
 230. 
 
 239. 
 323. 
 
 494. 
 500. 
 227. 
 55. 
 
 Florence 
 
 Foderurn 
 
 I. 
 
 Its early history . . . .II. 326. 
 
 Its great men ,, Ib. 
 
 Heads the Tuscan league . . ,, 827. 
 
 Defeats the Great Company . . . i. 191. 
 
 Its prosperity and greatness ,. . . . , n. 328. 
 
 Its trade guilds . ( . .. . . ,, 329. 
 
 Struggles of Guelphs and Ghibelines in ,, 331,334. 
 
 Law excluding nobles from political 
 
 interference ,, 322. 
 
 Its last struggle for freedom .. . ;j 337. 
 
 Conquers Tuscany . . . ,, 331. 
 
 Allied with Popes against emperors . , , 322. 
 
 Opposes Papal power in Tuscany . . ,, 333. 
 
 Long preservation of its freedom . ,, 334. 
 
 Elects the Saviour as King . . . ,, 335. 
 
 Frequently excommunicated . . ,, 328. 
 
 Submits to the ascendancy of the Medici ,, 335. 
 
 Alessandro de' Medici appointed Duke , , 837. 
 
 Senate of, sanction grant of the sove- 
 reignty to Don Carlos . . . ,,841. 
 
 See Tuscany. 
 
 Right of the Emperors to . . . ,, 169.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Fonseca 
 
 Fontainebleau 
 
 (Eleanor Pimental) her execution 
 
 Imprisonment of Pius VII. . l ".:'. 
 
 , , His departure from . ' ' ' : . . 
 
 Foote, Captain . Signs on behalf of England the capitu- 
 lation of Naples ; . . . . . , . > 
 
 ,, His published vindication . . . 
 
 Forbes, Lord . . With Sir John Stuart in Sicily . 
 
 Fossalta . . Battle of 
 
 Fossombroni . . Minister of Tuscany . ,.. . 
 Pouche" ; v f . (Duke of Otranto) His character . . 
 
 ,, Visits Naples in December, 1813 , 
 
 , , Interview with Murat at Reggio 
 
 ,, Murat writes to him from his conceal- 
 
 ment . . . . . 
 
 ,, His letter to Murat at Toulon . 
 
 ,, Obtains payment of salary from Murat. 
 
 ,, Governor of Rome ... . . . 
 
 , , Surrenders the Papal States to Murat . 
 
 Fox, General . British Commander in Sicily 
 Fox, Rt. Hon. C. J. Speech on Neapolitan atrocities 
 Francis, D. of Lorraine Marries Maria Teresa . . 
 
 ,, Obtains the Grand Duchy of Tuscany 
 
 ,, Elected Emperor .... 
 
 ,, His death . ...., . . 
 
 Francis I. . . (King of France) Invades Italy . . i 
 
 ,, Disputes the Imperial crown with 
 Charles V 
 
 , , Taken prisoner at battle of Pavia $ ; 
 
 Francis II. Emperor Resigns the crown of Germany . ; ." 
 
 , , Assumes the title of Emperor of Austria 
 
 ,, Refuses to take title of King of Italy . 
 
 ,, Opposes the restoration of the German 
 
 Empire at Congress of Vienna . 
 
 ,, His insulting reply to delegates of 
 
 kingdom of Italy 
 
 ,, His determination to suppress Italian 
 nationality 
 
 ,, Writes autograph letter to Murat, as- 
 
 suring him of his alliance . - ; . 
 
 ,, Grants an asylum to Caroline Murat . 
 
 , , Offers it to Murat himself. (See Austria) 
 
 Frangipanni . . Great family at Rome . . . 
 
 ,, Support Pope against senate . . . 
 
 ,, The Colosseum their stronghold. 'I 
 
 Frankfort . . Emperors crowned at ... 
 Frederick Barbarossa Seizes Arnold of Brescia . 
 
 i. 340. 
 
 n. 530. 
 
 293. 
 
 297. 
 
 i. 329. 
 
 333, 418, 419. 
 
 ,, 387. 
 
 161. 
 
 n. 352356. 
 20. 
 15. 
 20. 
 
 443. 
 
 436. 
 20. 
 22. 
 24. 
 
 i. 273. 
 
 342. 
 
 218. 
 
 It>. 
 
 n. 342. 
 
 343. 
 
 195. 
 
 196. 
 
 76. 
 
 109. 
 
 108. 
 
 126. 
 
 498. 
 90. 
 
 116, 117. 
 
 388. 
 
 469. 
 
 i, 448. 
 
 157. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 148. 
 
 i. 57. 
 
 n. 168. 
 
 c 2
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Frederick Barbarossa. Surrenders him to the Papal legates . 
 ,, Elected emperor .... 
 
 , , Visits Italy and holds diet at Roncaglia 
 
 ,, Coronation at Rome . . . 
 
 , , Disputes with Adrian IV. 
 
 ,, Reduces Milan to subjection . 
 
 ,, Razes Milan to the ground 
 
 ,, Lombard League formed against him . 
 
 ,, Takes part with Victor against Pope 
 
 Alexander III . .... 
 
 > M 
 
 ,, Drives Alexander from Rome 
 
 War with the Lombard League . 
 Defeated at Legnano . . . . 
 Reconciled to Pope at Venice 
 True account of the truce at Venice 
 Consents to Peace of Constance . . 
 Dies a Crusader in the Holy Land 
 His birth, pupilage, and contest for 
 
 the imperial crown 
 Coronation by Honorius 
 His first excommunication 
 Goes to the Holy Land is crowned 
 
 King of Jerusalem 
 
 Reconciliation with the Pope . . 
 
 Defeats the Lombard Guelphs . . 
 Contest with Pope Gregory . . . 
 Proclamations of Emperor and Pope . 
 Leads Saracens troops against Rome . 
 Prevents the Council of Lateran 
 Excommunicated at Council of Lyons 
 
 by Innocent IV. 
 
 Frederick II. 
 
 Freemasons 
 French 
 
 Friuli 
 
 Implores the mediation of St. Louis . 
 Dies at Fiorentino . . . . 
 His character and legislation 
 Accusations of infidelity . . . 
 Societies of, in Lombardy . 
 Dominion in Italy . . . . 
 Table of events connected with . 
 
 Effect of 
 
 Invasion began with Charles of Anjou, 
 
 1284 
 
 Berenger, Duke of ... 
 
 n. 169. 
 
 i. 122. 
 
 133. 
 
 n. 167. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 i. 133. 
 
 135. 
 
 137. 
 
 n. 170. 
 
 i. 137. 
 
 n. 170. 
 
 i. 139. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 140. 
 
 n. 171. 
 
 i. 140. 
 
 141. 
 
 142. 
 
 144. 
 
 146. 
 
 147. 
 
 148. 
 
 149. 
 
 149-155. 
 
 150, 155. 
 
 155. 
 
 157. 
 
 159. 
 
 ii 321. 
 
 i. 161. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 161, 172. 
 
 153. 
 
 n. 113. 
 i. 22, 23. 
 
 231. 
 
 224. 
 
 169. 
 
 50, 51, 80.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 GALLO, Duke Del 
 
 Genoa . 
 
 Geremei and 
 
 Lambertazzi 
 Germanic 
 
 Germany . 
 
 Ghibelines and 
 Guelphs . 
 
 G. 
 
 Minister of Murat, signs armistice with. 
 
 England . - . . . 
 Negotiates convention of Casa Lanza . 
 Its situation, description, and greatness 
 Sack of, by the Spaniards . . . 
 Andrew Doria obtains its liberties 
 
 from Charles V. . . 
 
 Expulsion of Austrians in 1745 . ' . 
 Formed into the Ligurian Republic 
 Surrender to Lord William Bentinck . 
 Old Constitution restored . 
 Annexed to Sardinia by Treaty of Paris 
 Protest at the Congress . . . 
 King of Sardinia assumes the title of 
 
 That of King refused . . . . 
 Given over by General Dalrymple to 
 
 Sardinian troops V," *H 
 Discussion in British. Parliament on its 
 
 annexation . . ,<., !;.'.. 
 Rivals at Bologna .... 
 Tragic incident in their quarrels . . 
 Confederation as established at Con- 
 
 gress of Vienna -*-;i ' 
 Kings of Germany assume of right the 
 
 Crown of Italy .... 
 
 r Origin of the names . . ~",\ . 
 
 Deadliness of their hatred . *!!. 
 
 
 
 In the cities of Romagna . - ; <-.:!, 
 
 In Florence . . . . 
 
 Effects of their quarrels . . . 
 
 ir. 18. 
 
 421. 
 
 i. 276, 280. 
 
 197. 
 
 200. 
 
 ,, 282. 
 
 285. 
 
 287. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 25. 
 
 ii. 373. 
 
 76. 
 76. 
 
 i. 292. 
 
 76. 
 ii. 217. 
 76. 
 
 518. 
 
 55. 
 i. 127. 
 
 82, 144, 177. 
 186, 187. 
 n. 206, 229, 242. 
 331, 334. 
 i. 187. 
 
 Gladstone, Right 
 Hon. Wm. E. . 
 Gonfaloniere .. - 
 
 Gonzaga 
 
 Grandella 
 Granili . 
 
 1 His translation of Farini's Roman State u. 316. 
 Office of, in Italian cities 
 
 Preserved at San Marino . . ; .. 
 
 The, Lords of Mantua . ... 
 
 ,, Guastalla . . . -. 
 
 Forfeit Mantua by rebellion to 
 
 Charles VI 
 
 Battle of 
 
 The, Prisons of .... 
 
 223. 
 
 i. 130. 
 
 ir. 481. 
 
 i. 201. 
 
 484. 
 
 n. 488. 
 
 i. 164. 
 
 , 335.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Gregory the Great 
 Gregory II. . . 
 
 Gregory VII. 
 Gregory IX. . . 
 
 
 Gregory X. . 
 
 Gregory XI. 
 Grenville, Lord 
 
 Guibert . 
 Guilds of Trade 
 
 Guiscard, Roger 
 Bobert 
 
 (Pope) 
 
 (Pope). Resists the iconoclast decrees 
 
 of Leo the Isaurian . . ' . 
 See Hildebrand. 
 
 (Pope). Disputes with Frederick II. 
 His death ". - . . . . 
 (Pope.) His glorious pontificate . . 
 Compels Rudolph to renounce all power 
 
 at Rome . 
 
 n. 142. 
 
 i. 38. 
 
 146,158. 
 
 158. 
 
 n. 176. 
 
 i. 177, 178, 179. 
 
 H. 176. 
 
 213. 
 
 (Pope). Returns to Rome from Avignon 
 
 Letter to Lord Minto, on Austrian 
 
 claims in 1799 . . : . . I. 261. 
 
 Duchy lapse and disposal of . . n. 484. 
 
 (See Ghibelines). 
 
 House of . . . , f - . . ,, 485. 
 
 Henry Guelph, Duke of Bavaria, dis- 
 putes crown with Conrad III. . I. 121. 
 
 Otho crowned Emperor by Innocent II. 143. 
 deposed at instance of Innocent by 
 
 Frederick H. . 144. 
 
 Archbishop of Ravenna elected anti-Pope ,, 116. 
 
 Their origin . . . . . 129. 
 
 In Florence . . . . : ^i Ib. 
 
 H. 329. 
 
 Conquers Sicily I. 59. 
 
 Founds the Norman dynasty in South- 
 ern Italy Ib. 
 
 Takes Pope Leo IX. prisoner in battle, 
 and receives from him investiture 
 of bis dominions . . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Rescues Hildebrand and Rome from the 
 
 army of Henry IV. . . . ,, 116. 
 
 His troops pillage and burn Rome . . ,, 117. 
 
 H. 
 
 HAMILTON, Sir Win. Ambassador at Naples ."" . . ,, 315. 
 
 (Lady). His wife . ', . . Ib. 
 
 ,, Her influence with the Queen . . ,,316. 
 
 With Lord Nelson . ' . . ; : . n. 437. 
 
 ,, Her interference in public affairs . 76. 
 
 ,, Present at the execution of Caraccioli . ,, Ib. 
 
 Hapsburgh, House of Origin and rise of . . . . i. 251. 
 
 ,, Spanish Branch of ... . . ,, 297. 
 
 Its extinction with Charles II. . , 213.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Hapsburgh . ". 
 Hawkwood, Sir John 
 
 
 
 Hcnsius 
 
 n 
 
 Henry III. " f . J . 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 Henry IV. .: 
 
 Male line extinct with Emperor 
 Charles VI. >'; - f.'>-- f 5 
 Captain of English Company of Adven- 
 ture 
 
 In pay of the Papal Government 
 King of Sardinia, son of Frederick II. 
 
 Taken prisoner by Bolognese at Battle 
 of Fossalta . , ^ . "- ..-. . 
 
 (Emperor.) His election. . . ". 
 
 Deposes three rival Popes . 'j v -i 
 
 Acquires right of nominating Pope . . 
 
 (Emperor.) Succeeds his father while 
 an infant ..... 
 
 His contest with Hildebrand 
 
 His humiliation at Canosa 
 
 Excommunicated a second time 
 
 Besieges Hildebrand in St. Angelo 
 
 Siege raised by Guiscard . 
 
 Rebellion of his sons . . . 
 
 Horrible accusation by his empress 
 
 His death . . . '.! i-'ll. 
 
 See Hildebrand. 
 
 Excommunicated at Council of Lateran 
 
 Perilous passage over the Alps 
 
 Deposed at diet of Tribur 
 
 (Emperor.) Rebellion against his father 
 
 Crowned by Paschal II., imprisons the 
 Pope, and is excommunicated 
 
 Ends war of investiture by Concordat 
 
 of Worms . . . . . 
 
 (Emperor.) Son of Frederick Bar- 
 
 i. 219. 
 
 191. 
 
 ii. 209. 
 
 i. 161. 
 
 161. 
 
 53. 
 
 71. 
 
 71. 
 
 Henry V. 
 
 Henry VI. 
 
 ,, Marries Constance, heiress of the Two 
 
 Sicilies if- 1 ''' '''.' 
 ',, Crushes rebellion of Tancred 
 
 His atrocious cruelties in Sicily . . 
 
 Is excommunicated .... 
 
 ,, His death, leaving his infant son 
 
 Frederick II. to the wardship of 
 
 the Pope . . . . . 
 
 Henry VII. . . Of Luxemburgh, Emperor 
 
 His sudden death attributed to poison. 
 
 ,, Admiration of Dante for . . 
 
 Henry VIII. . . (Of England.) Joined in league against 
 
 Charles V. to liberate the Pope . 
 
 Hetzendorf, Castle of Place of Death of Caroline of Naples . 
 Hildebrand . . His early life 
 
 80. 
 
 74, 119. 
 111. 
 115. 
 H7. 
 117. 
 119. 
 
 108. 
 
 110. 
 
 109. 
 
 119. 
 
 120. 
 
 121. 
 
 141. 
 
 76. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 142. 
 
 n. 
 
 183. 
 
 76. 
 
 n. 161. 
 
 i. 198. 
 
 n. 371. 
 
 r. 83, 84.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Hildebrand 
 
 Hobenstauffen . . 
 Holy Alliance 
 Holy League 1st . 
 2nd . 
 
 Homer, F. . . 
 Hugo, Cardinal 
 Hugo, Count of Pro- 
 vence 
 
 
 
 Humbert . , . . 
 H urn bold t, Prussian 
 Minister . 
 
 Decree against investitures . . . I. 87. 
 
 Election as Pope . . . . ,, 98. 
 Summons Henry IV. to Council of 
 
 Lateran ,, 106. 
 
 Deposed by Henry and the German 
 
 Bishops ,, 107. 
 
 Solemnly excommunicates Henry . . ,, 108. 
 
 n. 319. 
 
 Humiliation of Henry at Canosa . i. 111. 
 
 His sacramental challenge to Henry . ,, 113. 
 
 Elcommunicates Henry a second time. ,, 114. 
 
 Sends crown to Rudolph . . . ,, 115. 
 Besieged for three years by Henry in 
 
 Rome . ' '. .... -/', ,, 116. 
 Henry enters Rome Hildebrand flies 
 
 to St. Angelo . . . . ,, 117. 
 
 Relieved by Roger Guiscard . . Ib. 
 Flies from the scenes of pillage at 
 
 Rome . ..';.' . . . , rb. 
 
 Dies at Salerno. His death-bed . ., 118. 
 
 His character . ,. . , , 96. 
 
 His tolerance . . . . ,, 118. 
 
 His hatred of Simony . . . . ,,112. 
 His superstitious belief in omens and 
 
 visions . :. .' '. -v :;-... ,, 116. 
 
 House of . .. ; . . -..' V . 81, 122, 169. 
 
 Treaty, of . . : 5 . . . . . ,, 622. 
 
 Formed by Pope Julius II. . . n. 195. 
 
 ,, Pope Clement VII. . . ,,197. 
 
 Speech in House of Commons . ,, 383. 
 
 Adulator and slanderer of Hildebrand i. 106. 
 
 King of Italy ,,51. 
 
 Husband of Theodora * : ..^. . 69. 
 
 The White-handed , 239. 
 
 f His reply to the Italian deputies . . u. 90. 
 
 I. 
 
 IOOKOCLAOT . . Revolt of Rome against decrees of . i. 37. 
 
 ,, Leo the Byzantine Emperor . ,, 76. 
 
 ,, Controversy, effects of . . . . ,, 49. 
 
 Imilda . . . And her lover, story of . . . n. 217. 
 
 Imola . ' V ' . Member of Tuscan League . ,, 241. 
 
 ,, Seized by Venice .' "V-'. ' . ,, 230.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 Imperial Power 
 Innocent II. 
 
 Innocent III. 
 
 Innocent IV. 
 
 Innocent VI. 
 Inquisition 
 
 Italian History 
 
 Italian Republics 
 
 Italy 
 
 See Empire, Holy Roman. 
 
 ^Pope. ) His pontificate personally 
 
 heads his army .... 
 Taken prisoner by the Normans . . 
 (Pope.) His Pontificate . 
 Establishes the Papal sovereignty in 
 
 the City of Rome . . . . 
 Exacts oath of allegiance from Prefect 
 Obtains the submission of Roinagna 
 Asserts the right of the Papal See to 
 
 extended dominion 
 Quarrels -with Otho, and proposes 
 
 Frederick II. as Emperor . . 
 
 > 
 
 (Pope.) Holds council of Lyons 
 Solemnly excommunicates Frederick 
 
 II 
 
 See Clement V. 
 
 Admitted into the Lombard cities 
 
 Its introduction resisted at Naples f i 
 
 Regulations of Pius VII. . . : 
 
 Peculiar features . . . . 
 
 Imperial power .... 
 
 Papal power . .... 
 
 Republics 
 
 Want of unity 
 
 Exposure to invasions 
 
 Difficulty of 
 
 Includes several distinct histories . 
 In the middle ages .... 
 Traced to the Roman municipalities . 
 Their marvellous progress . ,,-,-. 
 Their privileges established by peace of 
 
 Constance . ' ...., . . 
 Causes of their fall .... 
 Nobles were citizens of ... 
 
 French kingdom of . . . 
 Its formation in 1805 . . . 
 Coronation of Napoleon 
 Eugene Beauharnais Viceroy 
 His administration . . . . 
 Its constitution .... 
 Convention of Schiarrino Rizzino, 15th 
 
 April, 1814 ,!..^ M .'. -, " 
 Proposal by Senate of Eugene Beauharnais 
 
 as King 
 
 Protest of Confalioneri . . 
 
 153. 
 154. 
 142. 
 
 143. 
 144. 
 198. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 143. 
 199. 
 150, 159. 
 
 n. 286. 
 
 173. 
 
 299. 
 306. 
 
 27. 
 
 28. 
 
 27. 
 
 31. 
 
 29. 
 
 4. 
 
 6. 
 31. 
 
 124128. 
 131. 
 
 140. 
 175. 
 185. 
 
 16. 
 
 51. 
 
 53. 
 Ib. 
 
 53, 68. 
 
 51. 
 
 37. 
 
 65. 
 73.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Italy 
 
 Italy 
 
 Italy 
 
 Interdict 
 Investitures 
 Ivrea . 
 
 Violent commotions at Milan . .11. 74. 
 
 Murder of Prina \ . . . 75. 
 
 Electoral colleges declare kingdom in- 
 dependent, and appoint provisional 
 
 regency . . . 76. 
 
 Surrender of Eugene to Austrian army ,, 78. 
 
 Taken possession of by Austrian troops ,, 115. 
 
 Delegates of Senate at Paris . . ,, 89. 
 
 Incorporated with Austrian dominions ,, 115. 
 
 Ancient kingdom of . *--i< . . i. 48. 
 
 Monarchy elective . .. . . ,, 53. 
 
 Diets of . . . . . . 50, 212. 
 
 Native sovereigns of . . . . ,, 53. 
 
 Otho the Great elected . . . ,, 51. 
 
 Crown of, made appendant to Germany 
 
 by Conrad the Salic . -..;'. ,, 55. 
 
 Bight of Kings of, to Empire recognised ,, 51. 
 
 As divided by treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ,, 229. 
 
 by treaty of Vienna ..... . n. 472. 
 
 Italian sovereigns, list of . . . , , 357. 
 
 Its divisions before the days of 
 
 Charlemagne .. - ; , ' . . I. 85. 
 
 To consist of sovereign states according 
 
 to the treaty of Paris ,.,-.-,. , . ,, 26. 
 
 Effect of . . .... ii. 287. 
 
 War of I. 80, 95. 
 
 Sought incorporation with Savoy . , , 248. 
 
 JAHTUBTUS, ST. 
 Jerusalem . . 
 Jesuits 
 
 
 
 John . ' _ . . 
 John XH. (Octavian) 
 John XXIII. .-. 
 
 Jones, Robert 
 Joseph Buonaparte 
 
 Joseph De Maistre. 
 
 J. 
 
 Patron Saint of the Neapolitan Lazzaroni 
 Frederick II. king of . . '. 
 Restoration of, by Pius VII. . . . 
 Previous permission in Russia and Sicily 
 Archduke of Austria, his proclamation 
 (Pope.) His scandals, deposed by Otho 
 (Pope.) Deposed by council of Con- 
 stance for crimes 
 
 Envoy of Murat to Lord Wm. Bentinck 
 Refuses crown of Italian kingdom. 
 Proclaimed King of Naples 
 Transferred to Spain . - . . . 
 Issues Statute of Bayonne 
 Sardinian ambassador at St. Petersburgh 
 Writes letter to Alexander defending 
 the king ". . : '" . . 
 His opinions on the Papal Power . 
 
 325. 
 
 147. 
 
 n. 306. 
 
 307 
 
 6- 
 
 i. 68. 
 
 n. 
 
 99. 
 
 10. 
 61. 
 i. 349. 
 II. 
 n. 47. 
 i. 102. 
 
 n. 289.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Josephine, Empress Her descendants 
 
 Promises of Alexander to 
 
 Julius II. 
 
 Justinian 
 
 (Pope.) His pontificate . 
 His character . . '' , 
 His warlike habits 
 His conquest of Komagna 
 Design for his statue 
 Founder of the Papal States 
 Laws of, effect of publication 
 
 n. 81. 
 
 66. 
 
 ,, 230 et seq. 
 
 235, 236, 237. 
 
 231. 
 
 224. 
 
 232, 233. 
 
 238. 
 
 i. 132. 
 
 K. 
 
 KATAPAN 
 
 Commissioner of Greek emperors . . 
 
 36. 
 
 Kent, Duke of 
 
 His Royal Highness asks for command 
 
 
 
 in Sicily . .... 
 
 384. 
 
 Krudener, Madame 
 
 Designer of Holy Alliance . . . 
 
 n. 522. 
 
 
 L. 
 
 
 LABRADOR . / 
 
 Spanish minister at Congress . 
 
 501. 
 
 Lambei-tazzi . 
 
 Great Ghibeline family at Bologna 
 
 217. 
 
 Lami, Father 
 
 Employed to prove Florentine Inde- 
 
 
 
 pendence . '. ,. '. 
 
 340. 
 
 Latouche, Admiral. 
 
 Brings French fleet to Bay of Naples . 
 
 i. 312. 
 
 Laybach . . . 
 
 Congress of, observations on . . . 
 
 n. 862, 518, 525, 
 
 
 
 529. 
 
 Lazzaroni . 
 
 Of Naples .'".'. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n. 424. 
 
 V 
 
 Their heroic resistance to the French . 
 
 i. 325. 
 
 Lecchi, General . 
 
 Arrested by Austrians at Milan 
 
 II. 121. 
 
 Legations . . 
 
 
 . 137 
 
 
 
 Ceded by Pope Pius by treaty of Tolentino 
 
 )> J-WI . 
 
 267. 
 
 
 
 Claimed by Austria in 1799 
 
 i. 263. 
 
 
 
 in 1814 . . . 
 
 n. 398. 
 
 M 
 
 Part of Kingdom of Italy 
 
 I. 16. 
 
 
 
 Proposal at Congress of Vienna to give 
 
 
 
 them to Prussia or Saxony . . 
 
 n. 499. 
 
 
 
 Restored to the Pope . . . . 
 
 Ib. 
 
 J> 
 
 Statement of Count Cavour at Congress 
 
 
 
 of Paris in 1856 NP^SJ . . 
 
 Ib. 
 
 Leghorn 
 
 Purchased by Florence in 1421 . , 
 
 328. 
 
 > 
 
 Seizure of, by French under Murat . 
 
 352. 
 
 Legnago . 
 
 Fortress of ..... 
 
 493. 
 
 Legnano 
 
 Battle of ...'.. 
 
 i. 139.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Leipsic 
 Leo 
 Leo III. 
 
 M 
 
 Leo IX. 
 LeoX. 
 
 Leopold 
 
 Leopold 
 Leopold I. . 
 
 Leuchtenberg 
 
 Liguriau . 
 Lipona 
 
 Luitprand . 
 Lodi 
 
 Lodi, Duke of 
 
 Lombards 
 
 Lombard . ''. 
 
 Lombardo-Venetian 
 
 kingdom " , " 
 
 Lombardy 
 
 Overthrow of Napoleon at . . II. 13. 
 
 (The Iconoclast.) Byzantine Emperor ,, 37. 
 
 (Pope.) Crowns Charlemagne . . i. 67. 
 
 Elected Patrician . . . . 62. 
 
 (Pope) . , i 59. 
 
 (Pope) n. 337. 
 
 Gives up Modena and Reggio to the 
 
 Duke of Ferrara . . . ,, 238. 
 
 (Prince of Salerno.) Accompanies his 
 
 mother Caroline to Vienna . . ,, 369. 
 
 Remains at the Congress . . . ,,377. 
 
 Enters Naples with the Austrian troops , , 429. 
 
 His proclamation and conduct . . ,, Ib. 
 
 (Emperor.) Claims the Spanish do- 
 minions of Charles II. . . . i. 213. 
 
 Grand Duke of Tuscany . . . n. 343. 
 
 His administration and reforms . ,, 343, 349. 
 
 Agricultural improvements . ,, 345. 
 
 Alleged plan of constitution . , , 351. 
 
 Review of his legislation . . . ,, 349. 
 
 His discouragement of military spirit . ,, 350. 
 
 Elected Emperor . . . , , 351. 
 
 His support of Ricci Bishop of Pistoia. ,, 349. 
 
 (Duke of. ) Title conferred on Eugene 
 
 Beauharnais V "".* . " - ,, 81. 
 
 Republic . . v . . . . i. 285. 
 
 (Countess of.) Title of Caroline Murat n. 427, 428. 
 
 The Lombard King . . . I. 41, 42. 
 
 Oppressed by Milan Complains to 
 
 Frederick Barbarossa . . J . . ,, 132. 
 
 (Melzi) President of the senate of king- 
 dom of Italy ; ... n. 65. 
 
 Proposes Eugene Beauharnais as king ,, 66. 
 
 Invade Italy . '."''; . . i. 35. 
 
 Their kingdom of Italy . . . 36. 
 
 Possessions in the south . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Hatred of the Romans to . . . ,, 39,40. 
 
 Held Arian doctrines . . . ,, 40. 
 
 Seizure by them of Ravenna . . . ,, 45. 
 
 Final conquest by Charlemagne . 47. 
 
 The iron crown of Lombardy . . ,, 36. 
 
 League 135, 148. 
 
 I Establishment of [ ,w -v . . n. 125. 
 
 Communal councils . . . ,, 125 130. 
 
 Its constitution ,, Ib. 
 
 In 1814 .' . -. 113.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Lombardy . . Agents of the English Foreign Office 
 sent privately to ascertain feelings 
 of people ."''';. . . i. 277. 
 Lorraine . . See Francis. 
 
 ,, Charles Duke of, his Political Testa- 
 ment II. 505. 
 
 ,, History of this document . . ,, 506. 
 
 ,, Advises Austria to obtain dominion 
 
 over Italy '' './ ' f\*;'-~ r ' ; : . 507,508. 
 ,, Questioned by Voltaire and Bayle . ,, 506. 
 
 ,, Proofs of it in French Foreign Office 
 
 discovered by Hausonville . . ,, 507. 
 Lothaire . . Emperor crowned by Innocent in 
 church of St. John Lateran. St. 
 Peter's in possession of anti-Pope ,, 153. 
 ,, Gives up the "Patrimony" to the Church ,, 197. 
 
 Louis le Debonnaire Charter of ,, 193, 194. 
 
 Louis of Bavaria . Emperor . . . . I. 134. 
 
 Louis (St. Louis) . King of France His rebuke to Pope 
 
 Gregory X. . . . . ,, 155. 
 
 Louis XII. . . King of France invades Italy . . ,, 194. 
 
 ,, Excommunicated . . . .11. 324. 
 
 Louis XIV. of France Proclaimed King of Sicily . . . I. 298. 
 
 ,, Compels an apology from the Pope . . ,, 209. 
 
 LouisXVIII.of France Restoration of ,, 18. 
 
 Preserved its republican institutions 
 
 till French revolution . . n. 474. 
 Places itself, in 1805, under Pasquale 
 Bacciocchi, husband of Napoleon's 
 sister Eliza, as its prince . . ,, 475. 
 Its new constitution . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Erected, at the Congress of Vienna, 
 
 into a Duchy . . . . ,, 376. 
 Granted to the Duke of Parma during 
 
 life of Empress Maria Louisa . ,, Ib. 
 Colony of Saracens founded by 
 
 Frederick II. *.'.. i. 162. 
 Extermination of . . ,, 165. 
 
 Prince of Canino . . . .11. 314. 
 Treaty of . . .' <'l-; : . . ,, 353. 
 Council of ,i. 159. 
 
 Lucca 
 
 Luceria 
 
 Lucien Buonaparte 
 Luneville . 
 Lyons . 
 
 MACHIAVBLLI . 
 Maceroni, Colonel 
 
 M. 
 
 The Florentine Historian 
 Aide-de-camp of Murat 
 
 u. 334. 
 , 439.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Maceroni 
 
 it 
 
 Macdonald . . 
 Maguire, John 
 Francis . . 
 Mackintosh, Sir Jas. 
 Maida . 
 Manfred . , . 
 
 Manhes, General 
 Mantua . 
 
 Maremmaof Tuscany 
 
 
 
 Marengo 
 
 Marescotti . . 
 Maria Theresa . . 
 
 Marignano 
 Marino, San . 
 
 Marmont 
 
 Marozia 
 Martel, Charles 
 
 Martin V. . . 
 
 Masaniello . . 
 Masdea 
 
 Massa and Carrara, 1 
 Duchies of . J 
 
 Interview with Murat in April, 1815 n. 411. 
 
 Brings him safe conduct at Ajaccio . ,, 466. 
 
 Succeeds Championnet .... 327. 
 
 His work on Rome referred to . . n. 316. 
 
 Speech on Congress of Vienna . ,, 517. 
 
 Battle of, A.D. 1806 . . . . i. 371. 
 Son of Frederick II. His resistance 
 
 in Naples to Charles of Anjou . ,, 162. 
 Defeated and slain at Battle of Gran- 
 
 della, A.D. 1265 ., } .,. , . 164. 
 
 His cruelties in Calabria * .; , . . ,, 376. 
 
 Under the Gonzagas .>.-,. . ,, 192. 
 
 ,, ii. 488. 
 
 Duchy declared forfeited . . . ,, /&. 
 
 Fortress of . ; . 493. 
 
 Described . . . ' . . ,, 344. 
 
 Drainage of, by Leopold . . . ,, 345. 
 
 Battle of, A.D. 1801 . . . . I. 265. 
 
 Imprisoned by Pius VII. . . . n. 213. 
 Daughter of the emperor Charles 
 
 VI. . . . . :. . I. 219. 
 Marries Francis, Duke of Lorraine . ,, 218. 
 Her husband elected emperor . . n. 342. 
 Affiances her three daughters suc- 
 cessively to Ferdinand of Naples . i. 309. 
 Compels .her daughter to visit the vault 
 
 of the Capuchins . ii, ,, 76. 
 
 Battle of, A.D. 1517 - . .>? . 195. 
 
 Republic of. . , : -,< -,i *.,:, . . 128. 
 
 Its origin and history . . . II. 476. 
 
 Attempt on by Cardinal Alberoni . . ,,479. 
 
 Napoleon's address to . . . ,, 480. 
 See Ragusa. 
 
 Nominates the Pope . . , . I. 67. 
 
 Defeats the Saracens at Tours, 732 . 42. 
 
 Ally of Liutprand . . . . ,, 43. 
 
 Pope Gregory implores his aid . . ,, 42. 
 Sends him the keys of St. Peter's 
 
 Sepulchre '..!. . . ,, 43. 
 (Pope) His celebrated decree about 
 
 excommunication . . . . n. 283. 
 
 Insurrection of, at Naples, A.D. 1647 . ,, 297. 
 Priest attending Murat before his 
 
 execution . . . ,, 457. 
 Acquired by Ercole D'Este, Duke of 
 
 Modena, by marriage '\- . ,, 485.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Massena 
 Matilda 
 
 French General surrenders Genoa to 
 
 Lord Keith . .... 
 
 (Countess of Tuscany) . 'i-V'.;V 
 
 Her gift to the Holy See . . . - . i" 
 
 , , Extentof herterritories and their tenure 
 
 , , Her devotion to the Church . . . 
 
 ,, Her attachment to Hildebrand . . 
 
 Maurienne . . (Lord of) Early title of princes of the 
 
 House of Savoy ',;;:..;; *,-*. . . 
 
 Maximilian, Emperor . . .,-? . . ?' v : ;-<.fif i *" 
 Medici, The . . Their rise to power at Florence . . 
 Medici . . . Pietro de', expelled for his cowardly 
 surrender to Charles VIII. . 
 
 
 
 ,, Alessandro forced on the people by Leo 
 
 X. and Charles V. ... 
 , , Appointed hereditary Duke of Florence 
 
 ,, Extinction of the family . . . 
 
 , , Giovanni Gaston, the last of the . 
 
 , , Protest of Cosmo and of Giovanni Gaston 
 
 against the right of the emperor to 
 
 dispose of Tuscany as a lapsed fief 
 
 Medicis, Chevalier Minister of Naples .... 
 , , His long imprisonment ..' 
 
 ,, His trial and acquittal 
 
 ,, Atrocious proposal to put him to the 
 
 torture . . . . 
 
 Meloria . . Pisans attack Genoese fleet conveying 
 
 the bishops at . . 
 
 Messina . . . Insurrection in 1674 .... 
 ,, Cruelties of Marquis Andale in 1811 . 
 
 Metternich . . Opens negotiation with Murat . 
 
 ,, Letter to Lord Castlereagh claiming 
 
 fulfilment of alleged treaty of 
 
 Prague 
 
 ,, Declarations as to Lombardy 
 
 ,, Canning's opinion of v >. '. i . . 
 
 Milan . . (Republic.) Its early history . .'' 
 ,, Kazed to the ground by Frederick I., 
 
 A.D. 1158 .-: *; :->^;l,: t .^T. 
 Rebuilt . . . , . , ii . . 
 
 ,, Company of Death Battle of Legnano 
 
 Its guilds of trade 
 ,, De la Torre appointed captain of the 
 
 people 
 
 , , The Visconti become its Lords . 
 
 I. 285. 
 
 105. 
 
 120. 
 
 II. 195, 327. 
 
 196. 
 
 i. 105. 
 
 n. 195. 
 
 i. 238. 
 
 194. 
 
 335, 336. 
 
 1934 
 
 n. 336. 
 
 337. 
 
 i. 189201. 
 
 n. 338. 
 
 , Ib. 
 
 339. 
 i. 314. 
 Ib. 
 
 158. 
 
 198. 
 
 385. 
 
 n. 13. 
 
 99. 
 
 116. 
 
 530. 
 
 i. 132. 
 
 135. 
 
 138. 
 
 139. 
 
 129. 
 
 173. 
 
 189.
 
 xl 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Milan, Duchy of . Erected for the Visconti 
 
 
 
 ,, Its original extent 
 
 Falls under the Sforzas 
 
 Mincio, River 
 
 Mirandola 
 Modena 
 
 Claimed by Louis XII. and Francis I. 
 In possession of Louis XII. 
 French expelled by Holy League . 
 Sfor/a restored . . . ' ^ 
 
 Proposal to unite it to Savoy 
 Settled by marriage on eldest son of 
 
 Charles Emanuel I. . ' * '/' 
 Lost to Savoy by his death . . . 
 Wars for its succession 
 Seized by Charles V. as a lapsed fief . 
 Investiture granted to his son Philip II. 
 Continues attached to the Spanish 
 
 Crown . . . ' i 
 
 Settled on Austria by treaty of Utrecht 
 Large portions detached by treaty of 
 
 Aix la Chapelle "' 
 Its extent before the French revolution 
 Given up by Austria by treaty of Campo 
 
 Formio . . . " 
 
 Restored by Treaty of Vienna . . 
 
 (Modern City.) Capital of French 
 
 kingdom of Italy . -', 
 
 of Lombardo- Venetian kingdom . 
 State of parties in 1814 . . . 
 Visit of the pretended Count St. Aignan 
 
 And arrest of the patriots on his 
 
 information . . -v . * 
 Disturbances in April, 1814 . - v 
 Narrow escape from pillage . 
 Murder of Prina . . . . 
 
 Described 
 
 Ceded by Leo X. at request of Frances I. 
 
 to Duke of Ferrara 
 Besieged by Pope Julius II. . . . 
 
 History of .; '- *'.* -.4- -* 
 Part of the territories of Countess Ma- 
 tilda .... . . . . . 
 
 Conquered by Julius II. ; restored by 
 
 LeoX. . . . r-U 
 Falls under House of Este . < : i 
 Retained by House of Este when 
 
 Ferrara lapsed ... . . 
 
 189. 
 
 487. 
 
 487. 
 
 487. 
 
 192. 
 
 194. 
 
 195. 
 
 196. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 293. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 Ib. 
 195. 
 196. 
 488. 
 
 487. 
 214. 
 
 488. 
 486. 
 
 489. 
 490. 
 
 67. 
 125. 
 
 65-73. 
 119. 
 
 120. 
 
 74. 
 Ib. 
 
 75. 
 293. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 231. 
 
 239. 
 
 194. 
 
 484. 
 485.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 xli 
 
 Modena 
 
 Modena, Duke of. 
 
 Monaco 
 Mondovi 
 
 Passed by marriage to House of Haps- 
 burgh ..... 
 
 Confirmed to Archduke Ferdinand by 
 Diet of llatisbou . . . 
 
 Surrendered to French by treaty of 
 Campo Formio .... 
 
 Restored by treaty of Vienna to 
 its Austrian Archduke . 
 
 Heir, by descent, from Charles I. to the 
 crown of England 
 
 Excluded by act of settlement . . 
 
 Intrigues to change succession to Sar- 
 dinian crown .... 
 
 Principality of ..." 
 
 Voluntarily unites with Savoy 
 
 Montefeltro, House of Dukes of Urbino . . . 
 Montferrat . . Annexed to Piedmont by treaty of 
 
 Utrecht 
 
 Montgomerie, Lord . In charge of British affairs in Sicily 
 in 1813 ..... 
 Monza . . . Depository of iron crown . 
 Moore, Sir John . British Commander in Sicily 
 ,, His opinion of the queen . 
 
 ,, Wished Sicily to be placed under the 
 
 government of England . . . 
 Murat, Caroline . See Caroline. 
 Murat, Joachim . His character and early history . 
 
 ,, Marries Caroline, Napoleon's sister 
 
 ,, King of Naples .... 
 
 ,, Endeavours to dissuade Napoleon from 
 
 Russian expedition . . . 
 
 , , Commands army in retreat from Moscow 
 
 His sufferings Leaves it at 
 
 Posen Insulting paragraph in 
 
 Moniteur , . - . . 
 
 ,, Angry Correspondence with Napoleon. 
 
 ,, Makes proposals of alliance to Lord 
 
 William Bentinck, January, 
 
 1813 
 
 ,, Suddenly breaks off negotiations and 
 
 joins the French army 
 
 ,, Opens negotiations with Metternich 
 
 Enters into a treaty with Austria 
 against Napoleon, January, 1814 . 
 ,, Armistice with England . 
 
 , , His proclamation against Napoleon 
 
 ,, His movements in 1814 
 
 n. 485. 
 
 ib. 
 
 374. 
 
 375. 
 
 374. 
 
 482. 
 
 I. 248. 
 
 n. 234. 
 
 i. 215. 
 
 399. 
 
 53. 
 
 373. 
 
 i, 374. 
 
 403, 404. 
 
 n. 1. 
 
 5. 
 
 i. 349. 
 
 10. 
 13. 
 
 17. 
 18. 
 
 19, 20. 
 
 20, 35. 
 d
 
 xlii ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Murat, Joachim . Excites the suspicions of his allies and 
 
 his own generals . . ' , . n. 21, 32. 
 
 ,, Occupies all the Papal States and 
 
 Tuscany 24. 
 
 ,, Interview with Lord William Bentinck 
 
 Complains of proclamation of 
 Duke of Calabria . . . . ,, 33. 
 
 ,, Receives written assurances from 
 
 England *. . . . ,, 35. 
 
 ,, Murat engages the French troops 
 
 Drives them beyond the Taro 
 Invests Piacenza . . . . 37. 
 
 ,, Campaign ended by news of Napoleon's 
 
 fall 76. 
 
 ,, Signs convention of Schiarinno Rizzinno ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Reflections on his conduct . . ,, 37 45. 
 
 Returns to Naples His Court enter- 
 
 tains Caroline Princess of Wales . ,, 47 43. 
 
 ,, Discussion on his claims in Congress of 
 
 Vienna 377384. 
 
 ,, Memoranda of his representatives . ,, 381. 
 
 ,, Infamous proposal of Talleyrand re- 
 
 jected by Austria . . . 383. 
 
 , , Demands passage through Lombardy for 
 
 80, 000 men . . . . 384. 
 
 ,, Letters falsified by Count De Blacas . ,, 385. 
 
 ,, Informed by special messenger of Napo- 
 
 leon's leaving Elba . . . ,, 404. 
 
 Sends friendly letters to Austria and 
 
 England 405. 
 
 ,, Determines to declare for Italian inde- 
 
 pendence . . , . . ,, 76. 
 
 ,, Opposed by his Queen and his council . 76. 
 
 ,, His representations to his council . ,, 406. 
 
 His communications with the Italian 
 
 patriots ,, 76. 
 
 ,, Enters the Papal States with his 
 ; army 407. 
 
 ,, Attacks the Austrians at Cesena . . ,, 409. 
 
 ,, Proclamation from Rimini '; . ,, 410. 
 
 Declaration of war by Austria . . ,, 412. 
 
 ,, Is informed by Maceroni that England 
 was prepared to form a treaty with 
 him 411. 
 
 ,, Letters from Lord Wm. Bentinck 
 
 putting an end to armistice . . ,, 415. 
 
 ,, He retreats , 416.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 xliii 
 
 Murat, Joachim . Defeated at Tolentino, May 4th . . 
 
 ,, Enters Naples in disguise, May 18th . 
 
 ,, His last interview with his family . . 
 
 i, Escapes privately from Naples . 
 
 ,i Passes over to the island of Ischia and 
 
 from thence to Frejus . . 'W 
 
 ,, Offers his services to Napoleon, they 
 
 are declined . . , 
 
 After battle of Waterloo takes shelter 
 
 with French garrison in Toulon 
 asks for asylum and passage to 
 England from Lord Exmouth 
 Offered an asylum, but without 
 pledge of his destination . . 
 
 ,, Charters vessel for Havre Attempts 
 
 to embark secretly Misses the 
 appointed place 
 
 , , Conceals himself in the woods Pressed 
 
 by Royalists finds shelter in a 
 cottage His adventures . . 
 
 ,, Escapes in an open boat Reaches 
 Ajaccio 
 
 ,, His reception in Corsica . . . 
 
 ,, Rejects offer of the safe conduct and 
 
 asylum from the Austrian emperor 
 
 ,, Makes a descent at Pizzo . 
 
 ,, His seizure and imprisonment 
 
 ,, His trial and execution . . . 
 
 ,, Denies any share in the assassination of 
 
 the Duke D'Enghien . . . 
 
 ,, Alleged desecration of his remains 
 
 ,, His evil fate 
 
 ii. 417. 
 
 419. 
 
 76. 
 
 421. 
 
 435. 
 
 , 436. 
 
 438. 
 
 441. 
 
 443. 
 
 446. 
 447. 
 
 NAPLES 
 
 N. 
 
 Ancient Roman Republic . i. 36. 
 
 Conquered by Normans, A.D. 1137 . 59. 
 Norman kings held it as fief of the 
 
 Holy See . ' , . . . Ib. 
 Passes by marriage to the House of 
 
 Hohenstauffen ' .' . ' " ', 141. 
 Wrested from them by sentence of the 
 
 Pope . . . ^ 
 
 Offered by Pope Innocent to England . 
 Granted by Popes to Charles of Anjou. 
 Investiture granted by Pope 
 Conquered by Charles . . . . 
 
 171. 
 163. 
 
 163, 164. 
 164. 
 165. 
 d 2
 
 xliT ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Naples . . . Severed from Sicily by Sicilian Vespers i. 169. 
 
 Continues under Angevin Kings . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Loses its parliamentary institutions . ,, 353. 
 Seized by King of Sicily of the House 
 
 of Arragon, A.D. 1441 . . ,,193. 
 ,, Invaded by King of Arragon and 
 
 Louis XII 194. 
 
 Falls under the dominion of Spain . ,, 195. 
 
 ,, Its condition under Spanish Viceroys . ,, 297. 
 ,, Ceded by Peace of Utrecht to Austrian 
 
 branch of the house of Hapsburgh ,, 214. 
 
 ,, Conquered by Don Carlos . . . ,,218. 
 , , Settled on him by treaties of Vienna and 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle < . . . ,, 219. 
 
 ,, Accession of Ferdinand . . ,, 300. 
 
 ,, Invasion of the French , . . ,,324. 
 
 ,, Parthenopsean republic . >,'"- . , 326. 
 
 ,, Restoration of Ferdinand . . . ,,337. 
 
 , , Second invasion of the French . . ,, 348. 
 
 Joseph Buonaparte king . . ,, 349. 
 
 Joachim Mnrat king . - . i . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Second restoration of Ferdinand . . n. 432. 
 
 Napoleon Buonaparte His first Italian campaign . . i. 258. 
 Compels King of Sardinia to treaty 
 
 of alliance with France . . ,, 258. 
 Compels Pope to sign treaty of Tolen- 
 
 tino ii. 267. 
 
 ,, Seizes on Venice . . * ,, 489. 
 
 ,, Establishes Cisalpine Republic . ,, 50. 
 , , Returns to Italy Reconquers Northern 
 
 Italy i 269. 
 
 ,, Battle of Marengo . ,i.: : . . ,, 265. 
 ., Establishes Kingdom of Etruria in 
 
 favour of Don Louis . . .11. 353. 
 
 ,. Proclaims Kingdom of Italy . . . ,, 51. 
 
 ,, Offers crown to Joseph . . . Ib. 
 
 ,, Assumes it himself . . . . ,, 52. 
 
 , , His coronation at Milan . . , , Ib. 
 Appoints Eugene Beauharnais viceroy 
 
 and his successor . . . . ,, 53. 
 
 ,, Erects Lucca into a principality . ,, 475. 
 ,, Proclamations deposing Ferdinand of 
 
 Naples i. 349. 
 
 ,, Confers crown of Naples on Joseph . ,, Ib. 
 
 On Joachim Murat . . . Ib. 
 Incorporates Kingdom of Etruria with 
 
 France 11. 354.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 xlv 
 
 Nelson, Lord 
 
 Nice 
 
 Nicholas III. 
 
 Nicholas V. 
 
 Napoleon Buonaparte Annexes Rome to French empire 
 
 ,, Brings Pope to Fontainebleau . . 
 
 ,, Defeat at Leipsic .... 
 
 ,, Releases Pope Permits him to return 
 
 to Rome ,'" . . ' 'Jr fi v 
 ,, His abdication ..... 
 
 ,, Treaty with Allied Sovereigns 
 
 ,, His retirement to Elba . . . 
 
 ,, Return to France . . . . 
 
 ,, Refuses Murat's aid . . . ' I 
 
 ,, Correspondence with Eugene Beauharnais ,, 
 
 ,, with Murat . '.''. 
 
 ,, His opinion of Murat ' .;. . '" '-: ;: j 
 
 i, His opinion of Sardinian troops ' . , 
 
 ,, Indignation at treachery of Queen of 
 
 Naples 
 
 ,, Spares Court of Naples at intercession 
 
 of Emperor Paul 
 
 ,, His address to San Marino . . . 
 
 At Naples . . .-,,._ . v,- 
 Conveys Royal Family to Sicily . . 
 Annuls the capitulation . ' '$ 
 Examination of his conduct relating to 
 
 this and the details 
 Opinions expressed upon his conduct : 
 ,, by Southey 
 
 ,, by Sir A. Alison 
 
 ,, by Rev. G. V. Har- 
 
 court . 
 
 Defended by Sir H. Nicolas . i 
 , , by Blackwood's Magazine . 
 ,, new facts and documents 
 adduced by them in expla- 
 nation . . . 
 Resolution of Citizens to incorporate 
 themselves with Savoy, A.D. 1388. 
 Siege of Nice in 1453 
 Donna Maufacia . ; ..-.' ... . 
 Occupied by the French . ... 
 (Pope.) One of the Orsini. His pon- 
 tificate 
 
 Restores peace to Romagna . . . 
 (Pope.) One of the Orsini. Grants 
 
 Charter to Bologna 
 
 ,, Execution of Stephen Porcaro for 
 
 treason against .... 
 
 Niepperg . . Austrian General .... 
 
 I. 
 
 23. 
 
 II. 
 
 294. 
 
 t 
 
 295. 
 
 ) ) 
 
 297. 
 
 I. 
 
 13. 
 
 
 
 14. 
 
 
 
 268. 
 
 II. 
 
 472. 
 
 ft 
 
 436. 
 
 )) 
 
 60, 61. 
 
 
 
 7, 8. 
 
 
 
 5, 436. 
 
 I. 
 
 258. 
 
 345. 
 
 345. 
 
 480. 
 
 315, 316. 
 323. 
 331. 
 
 422440. 
 
 422. 
 23. 
 
 24 
 25. 
 
 n. 
 
 424. 
 
 r 
 
 240. 
 241. 
 Ib. 
 257. 
 
 203. 
 204. 
 
 223. 
 
 183. 
 
 422.
 
 xM ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Normans . . . First arrival as Pilgrims at Salerno ; 
 
 repulse the Saracens of Sicily ; 
 
 return with companions ; conquer 
 
 Sicily and the region of Apulia . n. 59. 
 
 Novarese, High . Ceded to Piedmont by treaty of Aix-la- 
 
 Chapelle 245. 
 
 Demanded by Austria at Congress of 
 
 Vienna 278. 
 
 ,, Description of . . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Nugent, Count . Commander of Austrian forces in 
 
 Italy ,,24, 
 
 ,, His proclamation to the Italians . . ,,114. 
 
 ,, His statement to the Congress of the 
 
 events of 1814 . , 384. 
 
 34. 
 
 0. 
 
 ODOACER . . (King of the Heruli). Seizes on Borne . i. 34. 
 ., Extinguishes the separate empire of 
 
 the West Ib. 
 
 ,, Patrician of Rome, subject to Byzan- 
 tine Emperors . . ' . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Orange, Prince of. Commands Papal Army at Florence . ,, 337. 
 
 Orleans, Duke of . (Afterwards Louis Philippe), in Sicily . ,, 390. 
 
 Orsini . . . Great family at Borne . . . n. 226. 
 
 Otho the Great . King of Germany . . . I. 52. 
 
 ,, Invited to assume Italian crown . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Crowned Emperor of Rome . 68. 
 
 ,, Deposes Pope John XII. ,, 69. 
 
 . ,, Compact by which he acquires control 
 
 over Papal election . . . ,, 70. 
 
 ,, Violent contests to enforce such right . 72. 
 
 Otho II. . . Emperor ,, 72. 
 
 Otho IH. " . . (Emperor.) Sanguinary struggles for 
 
 nomination of Pope . . Ib. 
 
 Treacherously executes Crescentius . ,, 73. 
 
 ,, Murdered by the widow of Crescentius. Ib. 
 
 Otho IV. . . . (Emperor.) Quarrel with Innocent III. ,, 144. 
 
 ,, Opposed by Frederick II. . . . ,, 143. 
 
 P. 
 
 PACCA, Cardinal . Publishes the brief of excommunication, 
 
 July, 1810 .... 
 
 ,, Accompanies Pius VII. in his captivity 
 
 n. 277. 
 ,. 293.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 xlvii 
 
 Papal government . Opinions on character of . . 
 
 Papal power . . Its influence on Italian History . . 
 
 ,, Its contest with the Imperial . . 
 
 ,, Effect and character of these contests . 
 
 Greatness of the principles involved . 
 
 ,, Voltaire's testimony . . . 
 
 ,, Supported by alliance with the spirit of 
 
 freedom and nationality . . 
 
 Its decline .. ; . . - V . 
 
 See Popes, Power Temporal, and Rome. 
 
 Papal States . . Geographical description . . 
 
 History of their acquisition . . 
 
 ,, Attempted conquests of by Hector 
 
 Durfort ..... 
 ,, ,, Cardinal Albornoz . 
 
 ,, ,, Robert of Geneva . 
 
 ,, Caesar Borgia . 
 
 Conquest of by Julius II 
 
 ,, Their condition before the days of 
 
 Csesar Borgia . ; . 
 ,, Gradual merging of local and inde- 
 
 pendent powers in the central 
 
 authority ..... 
 
 Paris . . . Treaty of May 30th, 1814 . . . 
 ,, November 20th, 1815 . 
 
 Parliaments . . See Sicily 
 Parma . . . Part of the possessions of Countess 
 
 Matilda ..... 
 Conquered by Julius II. . . - . 
 
 ,, Granted to the Farnese by Paul III. . 
 
 ,, 
 
 ,, Wars on account of . '.'- . . 
 
 , , Erected into Duchy for the Farnese by 
 
 Charles V ..... 
 ,, Declared a lapsed fief of the empire . 
 
 ,, Claimed by Elizabeth Farnese of Spain 
 
 ,, Settled first on Don Carlos, afterwards 
 
 on Don Philip her second son . 
 ,, Surrendered by Don Louis to France in 
 
 exchange for kingdom of Etruria 
 ,, Provision of treaty of Napoleon's ab- 
 
 dication as to . . . . 
 , , Settled at Congress of Vienna on the 
 
 Empress Maria Louisa . . 
 ,, Protest of Spain . . . . . 
 
 n. 315, 316. 
 i. 28. 
 78 121, 
 
 144172. 
 ,, 82, 98, 167, 
 
 172, 175. 
 ,, 98. 
 ,, 83. 
 
 n. 209, 251. 
 i. 208. 
 
 II. 192. 
 ,, 135,189, 208- 
 
 ,, 208. 
 
 76. 
 
 210. 
 
 ,, 229. 
 
 , 231. 
 
 ,, 226. 
 
 ,, 239. 
 i. 17. 
 n. 520. 
 
 483. 
 
 ,, 76. 
 
 484. 
 
 i. 202, 215. 
 
 ,, 202. 
 
 n. 484. 
 ,,76. 
 
 I. 216. 
 
 ,, 219. 
 
 II. 484. 
 
 i. 14. 
 
 n. 502. 
 
 ,, 501.
 
 xlriii 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Parma . . . Government assumed by Austrian 
 
 Emperor in his daughter's name . II. 123. 
 
 Partana, Princess . Second wifeof Ferdinand of Naples . ,, 372. 
 
 Parthenopaean . . Republic . . . . . . I. 326. 
 
 Paschal II. . . (Pope.) Imprisoned by Henry V. . ,, 120. 
 
 ,, Anti-Pope 137. 
 
 Patrician . . Title of Odoacer as Governor of Home ,, 34. 
 
 ,, Representative of Emperors . Ib. 
 
 ,, Office offered to Charles Martel . . ,, 43. 
 
 ,, Pepin elected . ., . . 47. 
 
 ,, Charlemagne elected . . ,, 48. 
 
 ,, Office held by the Emperors . . ,, 180. 
 
 ,, Office revived by senate under 
 
 Eugenius III. . . . . ,,156. 
 
 Appointment of given up by Senate . ,, 157, 172. 
 
 Powers of . . . ... I. 180. 
 
 ,, Leo III. Patrician of Ravenna . ,, 62. 
 
 "Patrimony". . Of St. Peter, meaning of the word . n. 196. 
 
 Paul . . . (Russian Emperor.) Resists claims of 
 
 Austria . ..... . . I. 263. 
 
 ,, Abandons coalition against Napoleon ,, 265. 
 
 ,, Mediates with Napoleon for Naples . ,, 344, 345. 
 
 ,, Restores the Jesuits in Russia . . n. 307. 
 
 Paul III. . . (Pope .) Erects Parma into a Duchy 
 
 for the Farnese . , . . '. . . I. 202, 215. 
 
 Pauline * . Sister of Napoleon, leaves Naples . n. 427. 
 
 Pa via . . . Capital of Lombard Kingdom . . I. 35. 
 
 Battle of , 176. 
 
 Pentapolis . . Attached to the exarchate includes 
 
 March of Ancona . . . n. 192, 193. 
 
 Pepin . . . Applied to for aid by Pope Stephen 
 
 III I. 44. 
 
 ,, Compels restitution from Alstolph . . 45, 46. 
 
 ,, Donation of . ..,..,,. . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Elected Patrician . . . ,, 47. 
 
 Pepoli . . . Lords of Bologna . II. 220. 
 
 ,, Marchioness, daughter of Murat . . ,, 450. 
 
 Pera . . . Colony of, Genoese . . . . i. 279. 
 
 Perugia . . . Loses its free constitution . . .11. 239. 
 
 ,, Member of Tuscan league . . ,, 241. 
 
 Pesaro * . " . Grant of, to the Delia Rovere . . 235. 
 
 ,, Sack of, by Bretons . . . IL 210. 
 
 Peschiera . . Fortress of 493. 
 
 Peter Capponi . . Threatens Charles VIII. with ringing 
 
 the alarum bells . . . . ,, 528. 
 
 Peter's, St. . . Designed by Julius II. . . . 232. 
 
 Philip V. . .Of Spain His Italian claims . . i. 218.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 xlix 
 
 Piaceuza 
 
 Piedmont 
 
 Pignatelli 
 
 
 H 
 
 Pinerolo 
 
 Piuo, General 
 
 
 Piombino 
 
 H 
 
 Pisa . 
 
 United with Parma . - <. . , ; 
 Murat invests ..... 
 Austria acquires right of garrisoning . 
 Acquired by House of Savoy by mar- 
 riage with Adelaide of Susa . 
 Held by Princes of Achaia . . . 
 Lapsed to Amadeus I., Duke of 
 Savoy . . . ; .; j'-t 
 Formed into principality . 
 Prince of, title of heir of House of 
 
 Reduced to ruin in wars of Charles V. 
 Proposal to convert it into a marsh . 
 Eestored by Emanuel Philibert . . 
 Invaded by France . 7 .-. ' 
 Annexed to France . . . . 
 Taken by Suwarrow .... 
 Claimed by Austria . . . . 
 Reconquered by Napoleon . 
 Eestored in 1814 to House of Savoy . 
 Secret article of treaty of Paris 
 Observations of Count D'Aglie" on 
 
 position . . . 
 
 Its weakness against France 
 
 against Austria . . 
 Additions to Free Duchy of Milan by 
 
 treaty of Aix-la Chapelle . . 
 
 
 
 Alone in Italy preserved military spirit 
 and energy . . . . 
 
 Influence of Savoy upon . . . 
 
 Regent at Naples, 1799 . . . 
 
 Burns the ships of war 
 
 In spite of the people surrenders to 
 the French 
 
 Original seat of government of Princi- 
 pality of Piedmont . . . 
 
 Elected commander-in-chief of army 
 of Kingdom of Italy . . . 
 
 Given up to Tuscany 
 
 (Eliza) Princess of . . . . 
 
 One of the three great maritime re- 
 publics . ... , ; , 
 
 Heads Ghibeline cause in Tuscany 
 
 Its privileges guaranteed by Emperor 
 
 Seizes bishops on their way to Council 
 of Lateran . 
 
 H. 484. 
 
 37. 
 
 494. 
 
 i. 239. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 240. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 241. 
 
 242. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 258. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 260. 
 
 261. 
 
 266. 
 
 234. 
 
 25. 
 
 ii. 391. 
 
 392. 
 
 393. 
 
 I. 245. 
 
 H. 488. 
 
 I. 249. 
 
 16. 
 
 324. 
 
 i. 240. 
 
 ii. 75. 
 
 485. 
 
 17. 
 
 i. 279. 
 
 165. 
 
 ii. 328. 
 
 i. 157.
 
 1 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Pisa . . . Supports cause of Conradin . . . i. 165. 
 
 ,, Council of ,, 182. 
 
 Pistoia . . . Eicci Bishop of . . . n. 347. 
 
 Synod of . . . ' . . . 328. 
 
 See Ricci. 
 
 Pitt, Wm. . . His opinion of the policy of strengthen- 
 ing Sardinia . ; > . ' . . i. 276. 
 Pius VI. . . (Pope.) His election . . . . n. 265. 
 
 Signs Treaty of Tolentino ... ,, 267. 
 
 Taken prisoner and removed to Sienna ,, 269. 
 
 ,, Removed to France his death at 
 
 Valence . . . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Pius VII. . . (Pope.) Elected in conclave at Venice ,, 271. 
 
 ,, Crowns Napoleon, July 10th . ,, 275. 
 
 ,, Deposed by Napoleon, July 10th . . ,, 276. 
 
 ,, Issues brief of excommunication . ,, 277. 
 
 ,, Brought away a prisoner from Rome . ,, 293. 
 
 ,, Captivity at Savona . . ; . ,, 76. 
 
 ,, Signs concordat and afterwards retreats , , 294. 
 
 ,, Released by Napoleon . . . . ,, 297. 
 
 ,, Proceeds to Rome . . '". . ,, 291. 
 
 ,, Interview with Murat at Bologna . ,, 301. 
 
 ,, His return to Rome . - v . . ,, 302. 
 
 ,, Revives the order of Jesuits . ,, 807. 
 
 ,, Policy on his restoration . . . ,, 306. 
 
 ,, Leaves Rome on Murat's approach in 
 
 1815 . . . . . 315. 
 
 Pizzo . . . Murat lands at ,, 449. 
 
 ,, Royal honours paid to . . - ,, 461. 
 
 Podesta . . Institution of . . '. . . i . I. 134. 
 
 Poland . . War of Succession . '. . 217. 
 
 Political Economy . Chair of, in University of Naples . . 223. 
 
 ,, Works on, published at Milan . ,, 222,223. 
 
 Popes . . . List of, from days of Charlemagne . . n. 184. 
 
 ,, Election of I. 65. 
 
 ,, In early days elected by people . . li. 253. 
 
 ,, Instance of Cornelius, A. D. 254 . . ,,254. 
 
 ,, Note on, showing changes . . . ,, 251. 
 
 ,, Controlled by Byzantine emperors . I. 41, 65. 
 
 by Charlemagne and his successors , , 66. 
 
 by German emperors . 63. 
 
 Constant struggle between latter and 
 
 Roman people for . . . . ,, 70. 
 
 ,, Nomination conceded to Henry III. . ,, 71. 
 
 ,, Usurped by Roman aristocracy . . ,, 66. 
 
 ,, Theodosia and Marozia . . . 67. 
 
 Scandals that resulted . ,, Ib.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. li 
 
 Popes, election of . Present form of *',- -.* ,.; . u. 262. 
 ,, Veto upon. See Veto. 
 Constitutions and Canons regulating : 
 
 ,, Pope Stephen . . . ,, 255. 
 
 ,, Council of Rome, 863 . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 The Emperor Lambert, 906. . ,', 256. 
 
 ,, Leo IX. i , :,..,, . . Ib. 
 
 Nicholas II , 258. 
 
 Adrian IV 259. 
 
 ,, Attributed also to Innocent II., 
 
 ,, Alexander III., and Celestine II. ,, Ib. 
 
 Alexander III 260. 
 
 ,, Council of Lyons Gregory X. . ,, 261. 
 ,, Remarkable Elections : 
 
 ,, Cornelius, A.D. 254 . . ,, 254. 
 
 ,, Gregory VII. , . . . I. 96. 
 
 Celestine II n. 259. 
 
 ,, Alexander IIL . . . . i. 136. 
 
 Pius VI. . .- . . . n. 265. 
 
 Pius VII. . . . . 271. 
 Popes . Temporal power of : 
 
 Its origin I. 37, 46. 
 
 ii. 137143. 
 M Formerly referred to donation 
 
 of Constant ine . . . ,,138. 
 M Denounced by Arnold of Brescia 
 
 and the Catholic Puritans . ,, 158 164. 
 
 , Arguments in support of . . ,, 149. 
 
 L 254. 
 
 }) Its inviolability asserted . . n. 149. 
 ,, Acquire temporal sovereignty by the 
 
 )} iconoclast controversy . I. 50. 
 )f Acted as representatives of Roman 
 
 Republic . . . . ,, 49. 
 
 n. 142. 
 
 Their constant troubles . . . ,, 245,246, 247. 
 
 M Frequently driven from Rome . . 246. 
 
 ,, Their residence at Avignon . . ,,176. 
 M Become sovereigns of the city of 
 
 Rome . . ' . . . ,, 140184. 
 
 Of the Papal States . . . . ,, 189251. 
 M Power, greater abroad while least at 
 
 home . . " . . . ,, 246. 
 
 ,, Assume power over sovereigns . . I. 95. 
 
 Examination of this . . ' . ,, 100. 
 
 ,, Deposing power . . , . . n. 289. 
 
 See Papal States, Rome, Papal Power.
 
 iii 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Porcaro, Stephen . Executed for treasonable conspiracy 
 
 against Nicholas V. . . . 
 
 Ponza, Island of . Lord Wm. Bentinck meets Murat's 
 
 envoy at 
 
 Prague . . . Alleged treaty of July, 1813, between 
 
 Austria and England . . . 
 
 ,, No record in English Foreign Office . 
 
 ,, Existence affirmed by Farini . . 
 
 Evidence in support of it . 
 
 Prefect of Rome . Appointed by Emperors . . . 
 
 ,, Obliged by Innocent III. to take oath 
 
 of allegiance to Pope . 
 
 ,, Appointment of, assumed by Popes 
 
 ,, Continued for some time to administer 
 
 government in name of Emperors 
 Presburgh . . Peace of, A.D. 1805 . .' . 
 
 n. 182. 
 
 9, 10. 
 
 96. 
 
 100. 
 101. 
 106. 
 
 in. 
 
 489. 
 347. 
 
 Presidii, or Garrison 
 States 
 
 Prina 
 
 Priocca 
 Procida . 
 
 Ceded to Tuscany in 1814 ' _' . ii. 485. 
 
 Originally portion of the Siennese 
 
 territory . . ' . ' . . I. 203. 
 
 Reserved to Spain by treaty of Chateau 
 
 Cambresis . . . . ,, 76. 
 
 Minister of Kingdom of Italy. His 
 
 assassination . . . ,, 75. 
 
 Minister of Sardinian King . . . ,,118. 
 
 Dungeons of . . . ,, 335. 
 
 Q. 
 
 QUADRILATERAL . Fortresses of .".,'". n. 473. 
 
 Quadruple Alliance Treaty of I. 216. 
 
 Quentin, St. . . Battle of, won by Emanuel Philibert . ,, 242. 
 
 R. 
 
 RAGUSA, Duke of . (Marinont) : 
 
 ,, Accusations in his Memoirs against 
 
 Eugene Beauharnais . . . 
 
 ,, Examined and refuted . ... . 
 
 Ravenna ... Battle at, June 25th, A.D. 733 . . 
 
 ,, Capital of Theodoric . . . 
 
 Exarchate of ... . 
 
 ,, Church of, its disputes with Rome . 
 
 ,, Seized by Venetians . . . . 
 
 Limits of Exarchate . ; ' "' . . 
 
 n. 
 
 60. 
 
 61. 
 
 38. 
 
 35. 
 291. 
 134. 
 227. 
 236.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 liii 
 
 Regent . . . Prince, of England (George IV.) . . n. 303. 
 ,, Letter approving of Holy Alliance . 527. 
 Letter approving of Sicilian consti- 
 tution . . . . . ,, 496. 
 
 Desires restoration of German empire . ,, 498. 
 ,, Receives Cardinal Consalvi at Carlton 
 
 House . . . ;, ..' . ,, 303. 
 ,, As a personal favour, requests his 
 
 admission to Congress . . . ,, 367. 
 
 Reggio. . . Battle of . . ' : -<v-'- : . * ,, 27. 
 ,, Claimed by Innocent III. as part of 
 
 Exarchate . . . . . 199. 
 
 Entry of Pius VIL into . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Conquered by Julius II. . . . ,, 238. 
 
 ,, Ceded with Modena by Leo X. . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Ricci . . . (Scipio de) the reforming bishop . . ,, 347. 
 
 ,, Resigns his bishopric . .' . ,, 348. 
 
 ,, Imprisoned as Jacobin . . j, 353. 
 
 ,, Retracts his opinions to Pius VII. . 348. 
 
 Richard . . (Earl of Cornwall) Emperor . . I. 178. 
 
 Rienzi, Cola . . Last of the Tribunes . . . . ,,179. 
 
 The Good Estate . ..... 180. 
 
 Flies from Rome Surrenders to 
 
 Charles IV. Prisoner at Avignon 
 Sent with Papal commission as 
 
 senator to Rome His death . ,, 181. 
 
 Rimini ;-*;. . Murat's proclamations from . ,, 410. 
 ,, Held by the Malatesta in 14th cen- 
 tury . . .; i vo . . ii. 206. 
 ,, Member of Lombard League . . ,,241. 
 Ripaille . . Retirement of Amadeus I. I- 253. 
 Riviere, De (Marquis) Life saved by Murat's interference . 11. 440. 
 ,, Represents royal authority in south of 
 
 France . * - < . . . ,, 440. 
 
 ,, Engaged in pursuit of Murat . ,, 441,442. 
 Robert of Genera . (Cardinal.) Sent by Gregory XI. to 
 
 subdue Romagna . . . . 210. 
 
 ,, Massacre of Cesena . ; i.vi.^J. r,. ,, 211. 
 ,, Opinion of Cardinal Baronius on his 
 
 acts. . . . .. r . . -. ... . ,, 213. 
 
 ,, Elected first of the Avignon Popes in 
 
 the schism of the West . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Roccoromana, Duke of, accompanies Murat in his flight . ,, 440. 
 
 Romagna . . Its limits Origin of name . ,, 134. 
 
 ,, Submits to Innocent III. . . ,, 198. 
 
 ,, Conquered by Julius II. . ,, 230. 
 
 Lawless state of , 193, 206.
 
 lir ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Eomagna . List of independent states in . . n. 205. 
 
 ,, Formed into a duchy for Caesar Borgia 
 
 See Papal States . . . 220. 
 Roman Empire . Holy. See Empire. 
 
 Roman Barons . ,, 147. 
 
 ,, Their lawless violence . . . ,,149,177. 
 
 ,, 140 of their fortresses destroyed by 
 
 Brancaleone .' . . . 148, 175. 
 
 ,, Several executed by Brancaleone . ,, 175. 
 
 ,, Encouraged by Papal legates . . ,, 177. 
 
 ,, Rienzi's description of . ' . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Roman Republic . Meaning of the words . . . . ,, 150. 
 
 Romans . . Title of King of . . ... I. 56. 
 
 Rome . . . City of, seized by Odoacer . . . ,,34. 
 
 ,, Preservation of its republican institu- 
 tions . . '. ' . . ,, 125. 
 
 ,, . n. 150, 250. 
 
 Belief of people in its high destiny . ,, 150. 
 
 Four influences that contended for 
 
 mastery in . ". . . ,,145, 246. 
 
 Ruins of, converted into feudal fortresses ,, 147. 
 
 ,, Constant turbulence of . . . ,, 246. 
 
 Contests with the Othos . ' 'i ; i. 69,70,71. 
 
 ,, Execution of Crescentius . . . ,,72, 73. 
 
 ,, Banishment of magistrates . ,, 72. 
 
 ,, Struggle with imperial power for 
 
 nomination of Pope . . . ,, 69 76. 
 See Election of Popes. 
 
 ,, Besieged by Henry IV. . . . 116. 
 
 ,, Sack of, by Robert Guiscard . . 117. 
 
 ,, Jealousy of neighbouring cities . . ,-, 154. 
 
 ,, Revolt against authority of Innocent II. ,, 155. 
 
 ,, Reconstitut ion of Senate . . ,, Ib, 
 
 ,, Appointment of patrician . . ,, 156. 
 
 ,, Struggles between republic and Popes ,, 150, 158. 
 
 ,, Arnold of Brescia at Rome . . , 166. 
 
 See Arnold. 
 
 ,, Pope Lucius killed in tumult . . ,, 156. 
 
 ,, Charter granted to senate by In- 
 nocent III. . . . ,, 157. 
 
 Popes driven from Rome . . . ,,172. 
 
 ,, Return of Alexander III. in triumph . ,, 171. 
 
 ., Retirement of Popes to Avignon . . i. 99. 
 
 ,, State of Rome during their absence . n. 176. 
 
 ,, Government by bannerets . . . ,,178. 
 
 ,, Tribunitiate of Cola Rienzi . . . ,,179. 
 
 ,, Dwindling away of the city . . ,,178.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. IT 
 
 Rome . . . Return of the Popes "i > .* . . n. 181. 
 
 ,, Triumphal entry of Martin V. . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Sack of Rome by Constable Bourbon 
 
 under Charles V. . . . . I. 197. 
 
 ,, Tranquillity to time of French revo- 
 lution . . , -., i '-.'.."* ii. 184. 
 
 ,, Seizure of, by French . . , ;. . . . ,, 269. 
 
 ,, Roman Republic . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Conquest of, by Napoleon's troops . ,, 270. 
 
 ,, Pius VII. assumes the government . 271. 
 
 ,, Annexation of, to French empire . . ,, 275. 
 
 ,, Surrender to Murat . .. . ,, 24. 
 
 ,, Restoration of Pius VII. . . . ,, 132. 
 
 ,, Papal sovereignty in . . . . ,, 138, et seq. 
 
 ,, Gradual growth of . . . ,, 170. 
 
 ,, Grew up from the natural authority of 
 
 Bishop ,;.. .... .. . . 140,141. 
 
 , , Popes frequently protectors and repre- 
 sentatives of people . . ,, 141, 142. 
 
 ,, Gregory the Great obliged to take the 
 
 lead in secular affairs . . IT. 141. 
 
 ,, His complaint of it . . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Aided by struggles between emperor 
 
 and people of Rome . . 143. 
 
 ,, Necessary consequence of high preten- 
 sions of Popes . . ,, 144. 
 
 ,, And of the emancipation of the See of 
 
 Rome from, German power . , , Ib. 
 
 ,, Struggle against emperors for Italian 
 
 nationality . . . I. 102. 
 
 ,, Growth of, encountered by imperial 
 
 power, by lawlessness of barons, 
 
 and by republican spirit . A n. 145. 
 
 ,, Papacy becomes distinct power . . ,, 146. 
 
 ,, Alienation of Papacy from Municipal 
 
 institutions of Rome . . . ,,152. 
 
 , , Quarrel between Pope and republican 
 
 spirit . . . ,, 150. 
 
 ,, Its first outbreak ....,, 152. 
 
 ,, Long continuance of the struggle . . ,, 158. 
 
 ,, Not ended until the days of Nicholas V. ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Established by Innocent III. . . ,, 173. 
 
 ,, Prefect takes oath of allegiance to 
 
 Pope .... 144. 
 
 ,, Broken down in contests with Frede- 
 rick II 173. 
 
 ,, Senator asserts authority over Pope . ,, 173, 174.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Borne . 
 
 Reduced to a shadow during Pope's 
 absence at Avignon . . . 
 
 Wretched condition of Rome in absence 
 of Pope makes people submit to a 
 return of Papal court . . 
 
 Weakened once more by schism . . 
 
 Revolt against Eugene IV. . 
 
 Final establishment, under Nicholas V. 
 
 Last struggle of republican spirit . . 
 
 Conspiracy of Porcaro . . . 
 
 First execution for treason against 
 
 ,, Previous triumph over Imperial power 
 
 ,, Contest as to extent of imperial pre- 
 
 rogative between Adrian IV. and 
 
 Frederick Barbarossa . . . 
 
 ,, Rudolph of Hapsburgh surrenders all 
 
 claims to sovereignty at Rome, 
 
 A.D. 1276 . . .-'**-* . 
 
 ,, 
 
 ,, Charles IV. binds himself never to 
 
 accept any office at Rome without 
 
 consent of the Popes, A. D. 1346 . 
 
 ,, 
 
 ,, Powers of the barons reduced by 
 
 Brancaleone . . . . 
 
 ,, ,, ,, by Rienzi . 
 
 Roncaglia . . Diets of ...... 
 
 Rosar?. . . Arrested at Milan . . . . 
 
 Rovere, Delia . Line of Dukes of Urbino . --. . 
 Rudolph . . Rebels against Henry IV. . . . 
 
 ,, Sent crown by Hildebrand . . 
 
 His defeat and death . . . . 
 
 Rudolph of Hapsburgh (Emperor) A. D. 1273 . . . 
 
 ,, Refuses to be crowned at Rome . . 
 
 ,, Surrenders all authority in Rome . 
 
 ,, Confirms all former grants to the 
 
 Popes . . ..'.".=. 
 
 ,, Early contest with the House of 
 
 Savoy . ... . . . 
 
 Defeated by Peter of Savoy. . . 
 
 ,, His alleged imprisonment by Peter . 
 
 Ruffo, Cardinal . Commander-in-chief of army of Ferdi- 
 
 nand . . ... . 
 
 ,, Lands in Calabria and forms army of 
 
 Holy Faith ...... 
 
 Takes Naples . ., . , .. .. ; 
 
 n. 176. 
 
 ,, 182. 
 ,,182. 
 ,, 76. 
 182. 
 ,, 183. 
 ,, 76. 
 
 ,, 
 ,, 145. 
 
 ,,169. 
 
 I. 179. 
 ii. 144. 
 
 i. 180. 
 n. 145. 
 
 ,,175. 
 
 ,, 181. 
 
 ,,33, 133. 
 
 ,, 121. 
 
 ,, 225. 
 
 i. 113. 
 
 ,,114. 
 
 ,, 115. 
 
 178, n. 111. 
 
 ,, 76. 
 
 ,, 179. 
 
 n. 202. 
 
 251. 
 ,,251. 
 ,, 76. 
 
 i. 328. 
 
 ,,76. 
 ,, 329.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Ruffo, Cardinal . Protests against violation of capitula- 
 tion i. 333. 
 
 ,, Commanded by Ferdinand to return to 
 
 Palermo . . ". . . . n. 417. 
 
 Russia . . . Re-establishment of Jesuits in . . ,, 307. 
 , , Proposal of, to establish kingdom of 
 
 North Italy under House of Savoy i. 276 7. 
 
 Ivii 
 
 8. 
 
 SABINE DISTEIOT . Part of the Roman territory . . . n. 192. 
 
 Sacra Sindone . . Removed from Chambery to Turin . i. 243. 
 Saluzzo . . Marquisate of, acquired by Savoy, 
 giving Bresse in exchange to 
 
 France . .... ,, 244. 
 
 Sanfelice Luigia . Her execution . '. ""'.' ". . ,, 341. 
 
 Sardinia . . (Island of) described . . ,, 239. 
 
 ,, Its history ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Conquered by Pisa . . ,, 235. 
 
 ,, Annexed to Kingdom of Arragon . ,, Ib. 
 
 , , Granted to Popes by Louis le Debonnaire H. Ib. 
 
 ,, Confirmed by Rudolph of Hapsburg . ,, 202. 
 
 Ceded to Austria by peace of Utrecht i. 235. 
 
 ,, to House of Savoy by that of the 
 
 quadruple alliance . . . ,,217. 
 
 Charles Emanuel retires to . ,, 259. 
 
 ,, Victor Emanuel maintains his autho- 
 rity in ,,18. 
 
 ,, Exempt from French conquest . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, House of Savoy receive title of King . ,, 217. 
 
 ,, Attempt to change succession to crown of n. 374. 
 
 ,, Separate treaty with England . . ,,514. 
 
 ,, Pius VII. claims tribute from . . i. 273. 
 
 ,, Count D'Aglie, minister of (see D'Aglie) n. 368. 
 
 Savona. . . Pope imprisoned at . . . . ,, 293. 
 
 ,, Leaves it for Rome, March 17, 1814 . ,, 298. 
 
 Savonarola . . His career and martyrdom . ,, 342, 343, 344. 
 
 Savoy . . . Value and importance of territory . i. 247. 
 
 ,, Influence on Piedmont . . . ,, 249. 
 
 ,, Seeks incorporation with France . ,, 257. 
 
 ,, Occupied by French troops and annexed 
 
 to the republic . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Claimed by Austria in 1799 . . ,,261. 
 
 ,, Russia proposes to separate it from 
 
 realm of King of Sardinia . . ,, 276. 
 
 Justice of, proverbial expression . ,, 247.
 
 Iviii ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Savoy . . (House of.) Their origin ;'.: .;-=^, . i. 237. 
 
 ,, Traced to Italian kings . .' - . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Lineal descent of for 800 years . . 238. 
 
 ,, Hubert, founder of . . . ,, 239. 
 
 ,, Lords of Maurrienne . . . . ,, 238. 
 
 ,, Acquire Chambery by purchase . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Cunea and Nice, and other districts, by 
 
 voluntary session . . ,, 240. 
 
 Marquisate of Saluzzo by exchange . . ,,244. 
 
 Gradual extension of territory . . 245. 
 
 ,, Acquire Piedmont by marriage . . 239. 
 
 ,, Which reverts from Princes of Achaia 
 
 by lapse . # . v '-..,. ,, Ib. 
 Additions by peace of Utrecht and 
 
 treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle . . 245. 
 
 ,, Frontiers carried to the Ticino . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Difficult to trace the acquisition . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Become Italian princes ,, 240. 
 
 ,, Fix their residence at Turin . . ,, 242. 
 
 ,, Acquire title of Duke < . . ,, 239. 
 
 ,, Acquire Genoa in 1814 . . . ,, 278. 
 
 ,, (King of) See Sicily, Sardinia ....,, 245. 
 
 ,, Personal character of Princes . . ,, 246. 
 
 ,, Their influence in Europe , . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Their courage and address . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Popular sayings respecting . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Their early contests with the House of 
 
 Hapsburg . . . ,, 250. 
 
 ,, Frequency of abdication . . . ,,251. 
 
 ,, Take part in all European wars . ,, 244. 
 
 ,, Despoiled of their dominions . . ,,241. 
 
 ,, Recovers them at Chateau Cambresis ,, 242. 
 
 , , Guardians of Italian independence their 
 
 hereditary policy . . . ,,295. 
 
 ,, Long cherished project to acquire Milan ,, 293. 
 
 ,, Their position since Congress of Vienna ,, 295. 
 
 ,, Their old policy opposed to civil and 
 
 religious liberty . . ,, 235. 
 ,, Destined to be its champion in later 
 
 times ,, 236. 
 
 ,, (Peter of) English Earl of Richmond . . 251. 
 
 ,, Palace of , remnants still continue . ,, 252. 
 
 ,, Expels Rudolph of Hapsburg from 
 
 Geneva ,, 251. 
 
 Schiarrino Rizzino . Convention of ,,37. 
 
 Schism, Great . Of the West 181. 
 
 Senate of Rome . ReconEtituted . . ... . . n. 173.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 liz 
 
 Senator of Rome . His power ..... 
 
 Severoli, Cardinal . His election as Pope negatived by veto 
 
 of Austria . . . . 
 
 ,i His popularity ... . 
 
 Seville. . . Treaty of, 1724 .<.' . 
 Sforza Francesco . Receives investiture of Marquisate of 
 Ancona from Pope . . . 
 
 ,, Acquires Duchy of Milan . 
 
 ,, Extinction of family . . . . 
 
 cily . . . Outlines of its history. A.D. 
 
 ,, In possession of Saracens . 1020 
 
 Conquered by Roger Ghuscard, 
 
 the Norman . . . 1040 
 
 ,, Part of Norman kingdom of 
 
 the two Sicilies . . . 
 
 Passed, by marriage of Con- 
 
 stance, heiress of the Nor- 
 man kings, to the House 
 of Hohenstauffen (see Ho- 
 henstauffen, Frederick II.) 
 
 , > Kingdom of Swo Sicilies granted 
 
 by Pope to Charles of 
 Anjou . ..:*: . 1262 
 
 ,, Conquered by him . .'.- * 1265 
 
 ,, Eevolt of Sicily from Charles . 
 
 ,, Sicilian Vespers . . . 1282 
 
 ,, Separated from Naples, places 
 
 itself under the Arragon 
 kings .... 1282 
 
 , , Continues independent of Naples 
 
 ,i Preserves its parliamentary in- A.D. 
 
 stitutions 
 
 ,, Naples ceded to Sicily . . 1441 
 
 )f Ferdinand, king of Spain, as- 
 
 sumes both crowns . . 1495 
 
 Continues under it for 200 
 
 years . Lin, 'i '*- - . 
 
 ,, Separated in wars of Spanish 
 
 Succession. 
 
 , Ceded by peace of Utrecht to 
 
 House of Savoy . . 1713 
 
 ,, Victor Amadeus, king of 
 
 Sicily .... 1713 
 
 , > Under his government for thir- 
 
 teen years. 
 
 , , Ceded to Austria by treaty of 
 
 quadruple alliance . . 1724 
 
 n. 173. 
 
 264. 
 ,, 534. 
 i. 217. 
 
 214. 
 201,192. 
 
 487. 
 
 59. 
 
 59, 352. 
 Tb. 
 
 143. 
 
 163. 
 164. 
 
 199. 
 
 n>. 
 
 352. 
 
 353. 
 193. 
 
 194. 
 
 297. 
 
 215. 
 
 215. 
 
 Tb. 
 
 216. 
 
 216. 
 
 ' 2
 
 Ix ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Sicily . . . Conquered by Don Carlos . . 1734 i. 218. 
 ,, Confirmed to him by treaty of 
 
 Vienna . ./*; 1735 I. 218. 
 ,, and by that of Aix-la- 
 
 Chapelle . . . 1749 219. 
 ,, Becomes the dominion of the 
 
 Spanish Bourbons . . 1735 ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Reign of Don Carlos . . . 209. 
 
 ,, Accession of Ferdinand . . 1759 ,, 300. 
 
 ,, Continues under authority of 
 
 Ferdinand during French 
 
 revolution . . . . ,, 18. 
 
 State of, under Spanish viceroys ,, 297. 
 
 ,, Eevolt at Messina . . . 1674 ,, 298. 
 
 Eevolt at Palermo . . . 1647 ,, Ib. 
 
 Sicily . . Old constitution and institutions of . . ,, 351. 
 
 ,, Resemblance to those of England . . ,,354. 
 
 ,, Defective in not reserving taxation 
 
 exclusively to Commons . . . ,, 354,356. 
 
 ,, Identity of writs with English . . ,, 356. 
 
 ., Parliament of three chambers . . ,, 354. 
 
 ,, Institutions of Frederick II. . . ,, 353. 
 
 ,, Powers of parliament . . . . ,,355. 
 
 ,, Granted investiture to king . ,, 76. 
 
 ,, Right acknowledged by Charles V. . ,, 356. 
 
 ,, Captains of Justice ....,, 361. 
 
 ,, Corn-law of ,, 361 363. 
 
 ,, Effect on agriculture . . . . ,,364. 
 ,, State of, in 1814 ....,, 365. 
 ,, Provision to secure personal liberty . ,, 389. 
 ,, Parliament preserved national inde- 
 pendence . . \; ; i . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, And independence of church . . . i. 389. 
 
 ' Failed in securing good government . ,, 357. 
 
 Great officers of state /:. . ,, Ib. 
 
 Sicily . Eeformed constitution of, 1812 . . . ,, 417. 
 
 ,, Chambers of clergy and nobles united 
 
 in one . . > ?* . . . ,, 344. 
 
 Plan prepared by Abbe Balsan . ,, 394. 
 
 ,, Representation of the Commons . . ,, 308. 
 
 ,, Qualification of electors . -:' . ,, 418. 
 
 ,, of members . . . ,, 76. 
 
 ,, Commons to originate all taxation . ,, 420. 
 
 ,, Peers not to modify . ' . ,, 76. 
 
 Sicily . English occupation of . . . . . ,, 367, 370. 
 
 ,, History of, during i . . ,, 369 et seq. 
 
 ,, Mr. Drummond, English minister . ,, 373, 379.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. Ixi 
 
 Sicily . , .Sir John Stuart, Sir John Moore, and 
 
 General Fox, military commanders r. 371, 373. 
 
 ,, . Sir Sydney Smith, naval commander . ,, 376. 
 
 ,, Hostility of Queen to English . . ,, 370, 379. 
 
 ,, Attempted invasion by Murat . ,, 382,383. 
 
 ,, Character and conduct of Queen . . ,, 380, 381. 
 
 , , Lord William Bentinck sent as ambas- 
 sador and commander-in chief . ,, 384. 
 
 ,, Cruelties of the court at Messina . ,, 386. 
 
 ,, Disputes of the court with parliament ,, 388. 
 
 ,, Their levying of taxes without author- 
 ity of parliament . . ,, 389. 
 
 ,, Barons' protest, signed by forty-seven . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Five of them arrested . . ,, 75. 
 
 ,, Remonstrance of Lord William Bentinck ,, 390. 
 
 ,, His interference rejected with insult by 
 
 Court 391. 
 
 ,, He goes to England and returns with 
 
 enlarged powers . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Compels king to resign his power to 
 
 his eldest son as vicar-general . ,, 392. 
 
 ,, Is appointed generalissimo of Sicilian 
 
 forces . . . . ,, 393. 
 
 ,, Release of the Barons . . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 , , - . - Ministry formed with one of them at 
 
 its head ,, 393. 
 
 ,, Reform in constitution carried . ,, 394. 
 
 , , Provisions of new law received the royal 
 
 assent . ;; " '. j . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Despatch of Lord Castlereagh relative 
 
 to queen ...... 336. 
 
 , Proofs against her of treasonable con- 
 spiracy . , , *' '.. . . ,, 396. 
 
 ,, Attempt of king to resume his authority ,, 397- 
 
 ,, Defeated by Lord William Bentinck . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Charges against queen . . ,, 398. 
 
 ,, She is compelled to leave Sicily . . Ib. 
 
 ,, Lord William Bentinck leaves Sicily 
 
 for Spain ,, 399. 
 
 ,, 111 effects of his absence . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Dissensions in ministry . . ,, 400. 
 
 M Parliamentary coalition of royalists and 
 
 democrats . . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Tumults in Palermo . . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Palermo placed under martial law . Ib. 
 
 t Resignation of ministers, and appoint- 
 ment of ultra-royalists . . /ft.
 
 Ixu 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Sicily . . . Lord William Bentinck returns and 
 adopts decisive steps 
 
 ,, Ministers recalled and parliament dis- 
 solved 
 
 Efforts of Lord William to influence 
 elections 
 
 ,, Great majority for English party in 
 
 new parliament .... 
 
 ,, Lord William sails for Genoa . . 
 
 ,, Plots of the royalists , . . 
 
 Parliament dissolved on address of the 
 
 House of Peers . . . 
 
 , , Change of policy in England after Napo- 
 
 leon's overthrow * --... 
 
 , , Resumption of authority by king . 
 
 ,, Bentinck replaced by Mr. A' Court 
 
 ,, Parliaments of 1814 and 1815 . . 
 
 ,, Violent scenes in . ... 
 
 ,, Suggestion of changes in government . 
 
 ,, Memorandums published by Mr. A'Court 
 
 ,, Before leaving Sicily, king dissolves 
 
 parliament . . : . . . 
 
 ,, Destruction of Sicilian constitution by 
 
 royal edict, and establishment of 
 absolute power . ^ >^ . 
 
 ,, Despatch of Lord Castlereagh . . . 
 
 Sienna, Republic of Member of Tuscan league . . . 
 
 >f Annexed to Florence by treaty of 
 
 Chateau Cambresis . . . 
 
 Residence of Pius VL . .; .*.'< 
 
 Smith, Sir Sydney. Naval commander in Sicily ..." . 
 
 ,, Encourages brigand insurrection in 
 
 Calabria . .... 
 
 , , Takes Capri . ... . 
 
 ,, Spares Naples .-. ;.:^-, . . . 
 
 , , Appointed vicar- veneral by Ferdi 
 nand 
 
 ,, Letter of Queen Caroline to 
 Sommariva . . Commissary of Austria, takes possession 
 of Milan 
 
 ,, Proclamation taking possession of 
 
 Lombardy in name of allied 
 powers ..... 
 
 Spain . . . Refuses to sign treaty of Vienna . . 
 Spanish Possessions In Italy ~ . . . ,* 
 Spanish Succession War of . . . .. . * . 
 
 Spezzia . . Landing of Lord Wm. Bentinck at 
 
 401. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 402. 
 
 Ib. 
 Ib. 
 403. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 410. 
 
 411. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 412. 
 
 416. 
 
 535. 
 416. 
 
 327. 
 
 203. 
 269. 
 371. 
 
 375. 
 379. 
 Ib. 
 
 372. 
 
 378. 
 
 115. 
 
 79, 115. 
 601. 
 
 486, 487. 
 213. 
 285.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Ixiii 
 
 Speziale . . Chief of the Neapolitan tribunal in 
 
 1799 ..' . . .--' -,'-. -:'.' >''.:. i. 448. 
 
 ,, His atrocities . . . v '''". ,, 449 et aeq, 
 
 Spoleto, Duchy of . Lombard Duchy . t '. '. >?V . n. 192. 
 
 ,, Granted by Charlemagne to Popes . ,, 193. 
 
 ,, In possession of Countess Matilda . . ,, 195. 
 
 ,, Claimed by Honorius as a portion of 
 
 her bequest . . . ,, Ib. 
 ,, Granted by Henry VI. to one of his 
 
 followers . . . c '. ' -'. ,, 198. 
 
 Spoleto, Duke of . Ally of Pope against Liutprand . i. 43. 
 States of the Church See Papal States. 
 Stewart, Sir C. . Letter to Lord Castlereagh as to Murat, 
 
 March, 1815 . . , . ,, 388. 
 
 Stuart, Sir John . Gains victory of Maida . . . ,,371. 
 
 ,, Resigns his command in Sicily . . ,, 383. 
 
 ,, His representations of conduct of Court ,, Ib. 
 
 Suwarrow . . Victories of ,, 260. 
 
 Impeded by Aulic Council . . . ,, 264. 
 
 ,, Crosses the Alps . ."'. ,, Ib. 
 
 Schwarzenburg . (Prince.) Proclamation declaring king 
 of Sardinia restored to his 
 
 dominions . . . ,, 235. 
 
 T. 
 
 TAGLIACOZZO . . Battle of. . . .. . *. 
 
 Talleyrand . . At Congress of Vienna . . . . 
 
 ,, Obtains the admission of France to 
 
 councils of the allies . . r '. 
 
 , , Malignant persecution of Murat . . 
 
 ,, His proposal to disown Murat's title . 
 
 Produces fabricated documents . - 
 
 Tancred . . . His rebellion against Henry VI. - ' v 
 
 Taro, The . . Battle of 
 
 Tanucci . . . Minister of Naples . . . . 
 
 Theodora . . Mother and daughter at Rome . 
 
 Theodoric . . King of the Ostrogoths . . . . 
 
 ,, His wise government . . . 
 
 , , His golden rule of toleration . 
 
 Tivoli . ." . Wars between Tivoli and Rome . 
 
 Tocco, Bernardo . Murat's agent in London . , 
 
 ,, Receives communication from Lord 
 
 Castlereagh on landing of Napoleon 
 
 ,, Delay in transmitting it . .-i-t . 
 
 Tour and Taxis . (Prince of. ) Sent with offers to 
 
 Eugene Beauharnais . . . 
 
 166. 
 365. 
 
 365. 
 377. 
 383. 
 385. 
 141. 
 
 36. 
 300, 306, 307. 
 
 67. 
 
 34. 
 126. 
 
 35 note. 
 154, 241. 
 412. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 75.
 
 Ixiv 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Treaty of 
 
 Trentacapelli 
 Tribur . 
 Trieste 
 
 Tolentino 
 
 
 Turin 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tuscan League 
 
 
 > 
 
 Tuscany 
 
 I. 202. 
 
 203. 
 
 200. 
 
 213. 
 
 216. 
 
 218. 
 
 215. 
 
 217. 
 
 219. 
 
 n. 266. 
 
 51. 
 
 i. 258. 
 
 n. 353. 
 
 I. 266. 
 
 n. 53. 
 
 96. 
 
 Crespi .' v. . . A.D. 1544 
 Chateau Cambresis . A.D. 1560 
 Cambray (Traite des Dames) . 
 Grand Alliance . . . 1700 
 
 Quadruple Alliance . . 1718 
 
 Vienna 1738 
 
 Utrecht 1713 
 
 Seville . . - ... 1724 
 Aix-la-Chapelle . , . 1749 
 Tolentino . . . . 1797 
 
 Campo Formio . . . 1797 
 Cherasco . . . ". 1796 
 
 Luneville . . . . 1801 
 
 Amiens . .. . . . 1801 
 
 Presburg . . " . . . 1805 
 Prague, alleged of, between 
 
 Austria and England . 1813 
 Abdication of Napoleon, 
 
 April 11 ... 
 Paris, May 30 . . , 
 
 Secret, between Austria, France, 
 
 and England, Jan. 3 
 Vienna, June 9 , 
 Austria and Naples, June 12 . 
 Austria and Tuscany, June 12 
 Holy Alliance, September 24 . 
 Paris, November 20 
 Seizes Murat at Pizzo . 
 Diet of German chiefs at 
 Free republic Falls under dominion 
 
 of Venice Places itself under the 
 
 Duke of Carinthia 
 Battle of . . . . 
 Treaty of . . ... S, 
 Made seat of government 
 Occupied by French 
 Retaken by Suwarrow 
 Formed .... 
 
 Cities composing it . . 
 Preserved the independence of 
 
 cany .... 
 
 Its position and antiquity . 
 Marquisate of ... 
 Title of grand-duke of, conferred on 
 Cosmo de' Medici, Duke of Florence, 
 by the Pope . ...... 338. 
 
 Confirmed by emperor . ". . ,, Ib. 
 
 1814 
 
 i. 
 
 14. 
 
 1814 
 
 it 
 
 19. 
 
 1815 
 
 n. 
 
 472. 
 
 1815 
 
 M 
 
 473. 
 
 1815 
 
 ,, 
 
 495. 
 
 1815 
 
 
 
 Ib. 
 
 1815 
 
 M 
 
 Ib. 
 
 1815 
 
 II. 
 
 Ib. 
 
 . 
 
 ,, 
 
 452. 
 
 . . 
 
 I. 
 
 109. 
 
 union 
 rt _ i.\. f. 
 
 
 
 er the 
 
 II. 
 
 487. 
 
 
 > 
 
 417. 
 
 . 
 
 M 
 
 287. 
 
 . . 
 
 I. 
 
 243. 
 
 
 n 
 
 258. 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 260. 
 
 
 n. 
 
 327, 332. 
 
 . 
 
 >i 
 
 327. 
 
 Tus- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 333. 
 
 
 
 
 324, 325, 326. 
 
 . 
 
 M 
 
 326.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Tuscany . . On extinction of family of Medici, 
 
 declared a lapsed fief . , ". . rr. 341. 
 
 ,, Protest of the Pope '. ., . . ,, 342. 
 
 M Conferred on Francis Duke of Lorraine ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, (Duke of). Cosmo de' Medicis . ,, 343. 
 
 , , (Duke of). Giovanni Gaston . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Reign of Leopold the Reformer (see 
 
 Leopold) ., ; ^ .-.; ,.".. . ,, 343. 
 
 ,, Perpetual neutrality declared a funda- 
 mental law of, in 1778 . . ,, 352. 
 
 ,, Occupied by French troops, 1799 . ,, 353. 
 
 ,, Ceded by peace of Luneville to the 
 
 Duke of Parma . . . , , Ib. 
 
 ,, Formed into kingdom of Etruria . . ,, 353. 
 
 ,, Annexed to the empire of France . ,, 355. 
 
 ,, Restored to Ferdinand in 1814 . . ,, 35(5. 
 
 ,, Claim made by Queen of 'Etruria at 
 
 Congress . . . .. . ,, 376.* 
 
 Tuscany, Countess of See Matilda. 
 
 Ixv 
 
 URBINO 
 
 Utrecht 
 
 U. 
 
 Dukes of . . . . . . ,, 234. 
 
 Granted by Julius II. to his nephew, 
 
 Delia Rovere . . . ,, 235. 
 Reverted on death of duke to the Holy 
 
 See '. . . . . . 239. 
 
 Treaty of . . . ' . . i. 214. 
 
 V. 
 
 VALENTIA, Lord . His residence in Sicily . . . . ,, 390. 
 
 Valentino . . Caesar Borgia created Duke of . . ir. 230. 
 
 ,, Title conferred on Prince of Monaco . ,, 482. 
 
 Valteline . . . Wrested by Napoleon from Swiss 
 
 ,, Conferred on Austria in 1814 . ,, 490. 
 
 Vanni . . . His cruelties as inquisitor at Naples . i. 314. 
 
 Venetia . . Given to Austria by Congress of Vienna 
 
 Venice . . . Aggressions of, in Romagna . . II. 227. 
 
 ,, League of Cambray against . ,, 231. 
 
 ,, Frequently excommunicated . . ,, 290. 
 
 ,, Extent of territory before French 
 
 Revolution . . . '/- * 86 - 
 
 , , Seized on by treaty of Campo Formio . i. 489.
 
 Ixvi 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Venice . . . Annexed to Kingdom of Italy by treaty 
 
 of Presburg . . . . n. 489. 
 
 ,, Given to Austria by treaty of Vienna . ,, 490. 
 
 Verona . . . Fortress of . . i . . ,, 493. 
 
 ,, Congress of . ' .' . . . ,, 363,518,529. 
 
 Vescovato, in Corsica . Murat finds shelter in . . ,, 447. 
 
 Veto . . .On papal elections considered . . ,, 264. 
 ,, Exercised by Austria, France, Spain, 
 
 and Portugal . . . . ,, Tb. 
 
 ,, Mode of its exercise . . . ,, Ib. 
 
 Exercised by Austria in 1800 . . 271 264. 
 
 in 1829 . . 264. 
 
 ,, by Spain in 1831 . . . Ib. 
 
 ,, Influence of this power . . ,, 533. 
 
 Victor Amadeus I. King of Sardinia i. 252. 
 
 ,, His abdication and melancholy end . ,, Ib. 
 
 Victor Amadeus III. King of Sardinia . . . . . ,, 255. 
 
 ,, Joins confederation against France . ,, 256. 
 
 ,, Accepts peace of Cherasco . . . Ib. 
 
 His death Ib. 
 
 Victor Emanuel I. Succeeds on abdication of his brother, 
 
 1803 . . . . '. . 266. 
 
 ,, Retires to Sardinia ....,, 267. 
 
 ,, Refuses subsidy from England . . ,, 267. 
 
 ,, Retires to his dominions in 1814 . ,, 234,268. 
 
 His reactionary measures ,, 267 274. 
 Appoints his officials from a list in 
 
 an old almanack . . ,, 269. 
 
 Vienna, Treaty of . June 9, 1815 . . . . . n. 473. 
 
 ,, Divisions of Italy by . . ,, Ib. 
 
 ,, Extinction of republics by . . . 474. 
 ,, Great increase of Austrian territory in 
 
 Italy by 491. 
 
 ,, Extension of Austrian influence by . ,, 485. 
 
 ,, Gives Austria military preponderance ,, 492,493. 
 
 ,, Right of placing garrisons in Ferrara 
 
 and Commachio . . ,, 494. 
 ,, Comparison of Austrian territories in 
 Italy before French revolution, 
 
 with those given by . . 486, 491. 
 
 ,, Consolidates Austrian empire . . ,, 492. 
 
 ,, True nature of . '".".'/ . . . ,, 511. 
 ,, Extent of obligations contracted by 
 
 each power ,, 514. 
 
 ,, Does not contain a general guarantee 
 
 of territories disposed of . . ,, 512. 
 
 Guarantees neutrality of Switzerland . ,, 514.
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 Ixvii 
 
 Vienna 
 
 Viglietti Reali 
 Visconti, The 
 
 General treaty signed by seven powers n. 512. 
 
 Separate acts annexed to, and sanc- 
 tioned by, general treaty . . ,, 366. 
 
 Congress of (see Congress). 
 
 Revived by Victor Emanuel 270. 
 
 Lords of Milan . . . . I. 189. 
 
 Duchy erected by Wenceslaus for them n. 487. 
 
 i. 184. 
 
 Purchase lordship of Bologna from the 
 
 Pepoli ... .n. 220. 
 
 from the Pontiff 
 
 Lords of Bologna - . . . . ,, 298. 
 
 WALES 
 Waldenses 
 
 Wellesley, Marquis 
 Wellington, Duke of 
 
 Worms . 
 
 
 Wenceslaus . 
 
 
 Werner, Duke 
 
 W. 
 
 Princess of Wales. (See Caroline) . 
 
 Persecution by Emanuel Philibert . I. 244. 
 
 Laws of Victor Emanuel against them ,, 272. 
 
 He refuses any relaxations . ,, Ib. 
 
 Supports policy of Lord Wm. Bentinck 
 
 in Sicily . . . . ' . 406. 
 
 Writes his opinion that Murat had 
 done nothing to forfeit the fulfil- 
 ment of the engagements made to 
 him . . . . 380. 
 
 Concordat of . . . . . ,, 120. 
 
 Convention of >, 345. 
 
 (Emperor) Sells charter creating Duchy 
 
 of Milan to Visconti . . . n. 387. 
 
 His deposition . . . . . ,, 76. 
 
 His company of Condottieii . . I. 191. 
 
 Z. 
 
 ZACHARIAS, Pope . Averts invasion of Rome by Liutprand 
 M Visits Pavia, A.D. /43. . . 
 
 Obtains restoration of provinces seized 
 Zucchi, General . Conveys message from Napoleon re- 
 leasing his Italian subjects from 
 their allegiance . . . 
 
 43. 
 76. 
 
 44 
 
 n. 59.
 
 LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
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 Baird, Robert, D.D., Sketches of Protestantism in Italy. London, 1847. 
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 Ixi LIST OP AUTHORITIES. 
 
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 LIST OF AUTHORITIES. Ixxi 
 
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 Milan, 1738. 
 
 Naples, 11301837, par Charles Paya. Paris, 1858. 
 
 ,, Memoires pour servir a 1'histoire des dernie'res revolutions de Naples, 
 recueilles par B. N. ternoin oculaire. Paris, 1803. 
 
 Neander, Dr. Augustus, General history of the Christian Religion and Church. 
 (Bonn's edition), 8 vols, 1852. 
 
 Nelson, Lord, Life, by Clarke and Macarthur. 2 vols, 1809. 
 
 ,, ,, Despatches and Letters, by Sir H. N. Nicolas. 7 vols, 1846. 
 
 ,, ,, Life, by R, Sou they. 
 
 O'Meara's Voice from St. Helena. 2 vols, London, 1822. 
 Orloff, Le Comte Gregoire, Memoires Historiques et Politiques sur la Royaume de 
 
 Naples. 5 vols, Paris, 1819. 
 Otto Phrisingensis, de Gestis Frederici I. ^nobarbi. Argent. 1515. 
 
 Pacca, Cardinal, Memoires sur la Captivite du Pape Pie VII. 2 vols, Paris, 
 1833. Ditto, translated by Sir C. Head. 2 vols, London, 1850. 
 
 Palmeri, Summa della Storia di Sicilia. Palermo, 1850. 
 
 Palmieri, Nicolo, Saggio Storico e Politico sulla Costituzione de Regno di Sicilia. 
 Losanna, 1847. 
 
 Pantaleoni et Lumia, MSmoire Historique sur les Droits Politiques de la Sicile. 
 Paris, 1849. 
 
 Papal Government, The, and the Roman States, collection of documents, edited 
 by Achille Gennarelli, and published by authority. Prato, 1859. 
 
 Paya, Charles, Naples. Paris, 1858. 
 
 Pecchio, G., Saggio Storia sull 'amministrazione Finanziera del Ex-regno d' 
 Italia, dal 1802 al 1814. Lond., 1826. 
 
 Pepe, General William, Memoirs. 3 vols, London, 1846.
 
 LIST OF AUTHORITIES. Ixxiii 
 
 Percival, George, History of Italy. 2 vols, London, 1825. 
 
 Pfeffel, Charles Francis, Nouvelle abre"ge Chronologique de 1'Histoire et du droit 
 public d'Allemagne. Paris, 1766. 
 
 Pignotti, History of Tuscany, translated by J. Browning. 4 vols, London, 
 1823. 
 
 Pistolesi, Storia di Pontificate di Papa Pie VII. 2 vols, Rome, 1825. 
 
 Pius YL, Historical and Philosophical Memoirs of, trans, from the French. 2 vols., 
 London, 1799. 
 
 Political Catholicism, Historical outlines of. London, 1853. 
 
 Pontificale Romanum, Urbani VIII. 
 
 Pradt, de, Du Congrcs de Vienne. London, 1816. 
 
 Puissance temporel des Papes, Essai sur le, 2 vols, Paris, 1828. 
 
 Raguse, Due de, Mdmoires du. 1857. 9 vols, Paris. 
 
 Rainouard, Histoire du droit Municipal. 
 
 Ranke, L., History of the Popes. (Bonn's edition), 3 vols, 1847. 
 
 Recamier, Madame, Souvenirs et Correspondance. 2 vols, Paris, 1859. 
 
 Reumont, Alfred de, the Carafas of Maddaloni, translated from the German. 
 Bohn. 1854. 
 
 Ricci, Scipio de, Memoirs by de Potter, translated by Roscoe. 2 vols, London. 
 
 Riddle, Rev. J. E., History of the Papacy. 2 vols, 1854. 
 
 Rose, Right Hon, George, Diaries and Correspondence. 2 vols. Loud. 1859. 
 
 Sacchinelli, Domenico, Memorie Storiche sulla vita del Cardinale F. Ruffo, &c. 
 Napoli, 1836. 
 
 Savigny, Traite du droit Romain. Paris, 1840. 
 
 Savonarola, Life and Martyrdom of, by R. R. Madden. 2 vols, London, 1853. 
 
 Schoell, M. J. F., Actes du Congres de Vienne, &c. Paris, 1815. 
 
 Sclopis, Frederigo, Delia Relazione Politiche tra la Dinastia di Savoia ed il 
 Governo Britannico, 1240 1815. Torino, 1853. Historiae patriae Monu- 
 menta, Leges Municipales. Turin, 1836. Storia della Legislazione Italiana. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, Life of Napoleon. 9 vols, Edinburgh, 1828. 
 
 Seume's, J. J., General "Works (German). Edited by Adolphe Wagner. Leipsic, 
 
 1857. 
 Seymour, Rev. M. H., A Pilgrimage to Rome. Lond., 1848. 
 
 Sicily and England, a Sketch, with Vouchers and State Papers. Ridgeway, 
 
 London, 1849. 
 
 Simond, L., Tour in Italy and Sicily. London, 1828. 
 Sismondi, Histoire des Repnbliques du Moyen Age. 10 vols, Paris, 1840. 
 
 ,, History of the Italian Republics. (English.) Lond. 1832. 
 Spaldirg, Professor W., Italy and the Italian Islands. 3 vols, Edinburgh, 1841. 
 Swinburne, Henry, Letters from the Courts of France, Naples, &c., 2 vols, 
 
 Lond., 1841. 
 
 Stapleton, Augustus, Life of Canning. London, 1859. 
 Thiers, Histoire du Consulat et de 1'Empire. 17 vols, Paris, 1845 1860. 
 Traite"s, Conventions, &c., concernant L'Autriche et 1'Italie, Recueil de. Paris, 
 
 1859. 
 Troya, C., Storia d'ltalia del medio evo. 2 vols, Firenze, 1847. 
 
 TOL i. /
 
 Ixxiv LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Urquhart, William Pollard, 'M.P., Life of Francesco Sforza. 2 rols, London, 
 
 1852. 
 
 Valentia, Lord, Manuscript Journal of a Residence in Sicily, in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 Vaulabelle, Tenaille de, Histoire des deux Restorations. 8 vols, Paris, 1857. 
 
 Verdeil, A., Histoire du Canton de Vaud. 3 vola, Lausanne, 1849 1852. 
 Vehse, Dr. E. , Memoirs of the Court &c. of Austria. Trans, by Fr. Demmler. 
 2 vols, London, 1856. 
 
 Vulliemin, L., Chillon, Etude Historique. Lausanne, 1851. 
 
 Whiteside, Right. Hon. J., M.P., Italy in the Nineteenth Century. 3 rols, Lond., 
 1848. 
 
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 Republic. 2 vols, Lond., 1801. 
 
 Wiseman, Cardinal, Recollections of the Last Four Popes. London, 1858. 
 Wrighteon, R. Heber, History of Modern Italy. London, 1855.
 
 ERKATA. VOL. I. 
 
 THE reader will be good enough to make the following correc- 
 tions in this volume : 
 
 PAGE 
 
 38 note 4, line 4, for "him," read "his successor Constantino." 
 117 line 12, for "Roger," read "Robert." 
 168 line 12, Ditto. 
 
 181 note 7, line 8, for " Gregory X.," read "Gregory XI." 
 213 line 20, for "direct male descendant of Charles V.," read "direct male 
 
 descendant of the brother of Charles V." 
 
 227 expunge star before Conrad III. He was not crowned by the Pope. 
 260 line 8, for "Victor Emanuel," read "Charles Emanuel." 
 339 for "Faregnano," read " Favignano." 
 343 line 13, for "days," read "weeks."
 
 HISTORY OF ITALY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Introduction Napoleon's Abdication an epoch in Italian History Effect ot 
 revolutionary wars Reconstruction of Social System of Italy Not suc- 
 cessfully accomplished by the Congress of Vienna Difficulties of writing 
 Italian History since that period Necessity of acquaintance with the 
 previous history of that country Also with the previous history of each 
 state Plan adopted in this volume Statement of its general outline 
 Abdication of Napoleon Treaty between Napoleon and the Emperors of 
 Russia and Austria and King of Prussia Refusal of England to become a 
 party Memorandum of Lord Castlereagh Qualified accession of the 
 English Government Division of Italy at the period of the Abdication 
 Kingdom of Italy Italian Departments of French Empire Murat King 
 of Naples Sicily and Sardinia continue in possession of their former 
 Sovereigns Restoration of Louis XVIII. Treaty of Paris Renunciation 
 by France of the Conquests of Napoleon Right of the Allied Powers over 
 the Territories thus renounced Stipulations as to Italy contained in 
 Treaty of Paris Divisions of Italy by Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle Changed 
 by Napoleon All the Italian Continent under French Dominion Pro- 
 vision of the Treaty of Paris for future Congress Hopes excited among 
 the Italians Secret Articles of Treaty of Paris Many Italian Questions 
 disposed of at Paris Return of Italian Sovereigns. 
 
 WITH the great events which marked the European 
 annals of 1814, a new and a memorable era in Italian 
 history commenced. In the beginning of that year 
 the entire continent of Italy was subject to French 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 HISTORY" OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 dominion. All the country north of the Neapolitan 
 frontier was directly governed by Napoleon, either as 
 King of the newly-erected realm of Italy, or as Emperor 
 of France, The throne of Naples was filled by a sove- 
 reign of his creation. In the islands alone were found 
 exceptions to the universality of French ascendancy. 
 Sicily and Sardinia submitted to the rule of their ancient 
 monarchy who, when despoiled of the rest of their 
 territories, still found in their insular possessions a re- 
 treat in which, at least, a remnant of their authority 
 was preserved. 
 
 To Italy, therefore, the fall of Napoleon brought with 
 it the change involved in the overthrow of a dynasty 
 which had established over almost all her territories its 
 sway. But this was not all. The country then emanci- 
 pated from his power was an Italy very different from 
 that into which, eighteen years before, the youthful 
 champion of the revolution had led the invading armies 
 of the French republic. The triumph of those armies, 
 still more the spread of revolutionary principles, had 
 broken up the old political and social system. All the 
 former dynasties had been swept away. The ancient 
 landmarks had been removed. The change in the minds 
 of the people was as great as that in the territorial 
 arrangements of the country. Italy had been conquered, 
 but she had also been revolutionised. New doctrines 
 swayed the convictions, new politics stirred the hopes, 
 and new ideas filled the minds of men. The recon- 
 struction of society was to follow the overthrow of the 
 fallen sovereignty. This was the task to be undertaken 
 by those upon whom devolved the responsibility of
 
 CHAP. L] INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 disposing of those provinces of Italy which were left 
 without a master by the breaking up of the empire of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 That duty, it is true, was to be fulfilled under the 
 control of claims of right which could not be disregarded. 
 It was surrounded with difficulties, and complicated by 
 embarrassments sufficient to prevent the settlement 
 ultimately effected from being that which, perhaps, 
 any of the persons who took part in it desired. The 
 arrangements then adopted were framed with reference 
 to what are termed European considerations : in other 
 words, with the view of reconciling the rivalries, and 
 balancing the interests and the ambitions of great powers. 
 They could scarcely be expected to secure that which 
 ought to have been the first object, the contentment and 
 happiness of the Italian people themselves. Whatever 
 may be said or -thought of the general merits of the 
 treaties of 1815, few persons will be found now, after 
 the experience of the intervening period, to say that the 
 problem of the reconstruction of society in Italy was 
 successfully solved by the labours of the Congress of 
 Vienna. It is still incomplete. It is gradually being 
 accomplished in the struggles, the passions, and the 
 sufferings that are constantly agitating the Italian 
 nation. From whatever cause it has proceeded, the 
 whole life of Italy for the last forty-five years has been 
 one long, though often suppressed, struggle against the 
 arrangements which were imposed at their commence- 
 ment. The history, therefore, of this period is not to 
 be found merely in the records of diplomacy, or the 
 narrative of battles, it is the history of the passions and 
 
 B 2
 
 4 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 sentiments of the nation : of their conflicts with those 
 institutions which the councils of the allied powers 
 established or restored. Difficult it may be even for 
 a writer connected only by sympathy with Italy to 
 trace such a history free from the disturbing influence 
 of the very feelings it records ; still more, perhaps, to 
 avoid oifending the prejudices with which the impartial 
 narrative of truth must unavoidably come into collision. 
 To such an attempt the warning is still applicable 
 which was addressed of old to the adventurous writer 
 who was about to treat of the Italian commotions of the 
 days immediately preceding his own : 
 
 " Periculosse plenum opus alese, 
 Tractas : et incedis per ignes 
 Suppositos cineri doloso." 
 
 These difficulties more or less meet us as inseparable 
 from every delineation of events which the lapse of time 
 has not entirely removed from the passions and interests 
 of the present day. Were they to be deemed insupe- 
 rable, they would deprive each generation of all history 
 of the period upon which we most desire information, 
 and in which our interest is deepest. They are not 
 sufficient to deter from the effort truthfully to explore, 
 and dispassionately to judge, the facts which the Italian 
 movements of the last half-century present. 
 
 Those facts cannot be understood without a reference 
 to the events of the periods that preceded them. In 
 no country in Europe, is the present so completely 
 interwoven with the past. In none have the trans- 
 actions of bygone ages left an impress that is deeper or 
 more distinct. This may possibly be the result ^of the
 
 cn.-,p. i.j INTRODUCTORY. 5 
 
 continued division of the country into separate commu- 
 nities, which has preserved the individuality of the 
 elements of which the nation is composed. In approach- 
 ing the later period of Italian history, we are introduced 
 to the close of a drama, whose plot originates, as its 
 earlier scenes occurred, in times long since gone by. 
 Rightly to estimate the settlement which was attempted 
 in 1815, and the struggles which have followed, we 
 must take into our account the series of causes which 
 for centuries have influenced the destinies and moulded 
 the dispositions of the Italian people. 
 
 A sketch of the principal chains of events, which are 
 thus carried down from the earlier periods of the 
 Italian nation, is, therefore, indispensable as an intro- 
 duction to the relation of the transactions which it is 
 more peculiarly the object of these pages to record. 
 In a brief retrospect of those events, it may be possible, 
 without attempting a complete review, much less a 
 detailed narrative of the incidents which belong to the 
 history of preceding ages, so to present the general 
 outlines of that history, as to bring into prominence 
 those passages in its eventful annals which most aptly 
 illustrate, or most clearly account for, the condition of 
 the country in modern days. 
 
 The history on which we are entering, it will be 
 remembered, is not that of a single power representing 
 a united nation. Italy one as it is by geographical 
 position, by identity of language, and by that similarity 
 of national character, which unmistakably subsists 
 through all local varieties has never attained that unity 
 which in other European countries has consolidated
 
 6 HISTORY OF ITALY [VOL. i. 
 
 into a central government the elements of national 
 strength. Comparing Italy with England, with France, 
 or with Spain it might be said that the age of the 
 heptarchy had not passed away that her present state 
 recals to our minds the days when Castile, Navarre, 
 Aragon, and Catalonia gave titles to kings, whose 
 realms are now incorporated in the monarchy of Spain, 
 or those in which Normandy, Lorraine, Burgundy, and 
 many other provinces of France, were held by chief- 
 tains, who were either independent sovereigns, or 
 owned but a precarious allegiance to the throne. 
 
 The Congress of Vienna left Italy divided into ten 
 nominally independent states. 1 It is with these, or 
 more properly speaking, with seven of them, that its 
 modern history is concerned. 
 
 A reference to the previous vicissitudes of these 
 communities, must of necessity form a part of any 
 attempt to describe the events which have agitated 
 them in recent times. It has been frequently observed 
 as the great inconvenience which meets the student of 
 Italian history, that he is called on not merely to follow 
 one regular series of connected events, but to keep his 
 attention fixed on several courses of contemporaneous 
 movements, as numerous as the principalities and re- 
 publics which present themselves to his view. Even 
 in the more manageable number to which in modern 
 
 1 1, Sardinia; 2, the Austrian States; 3, Parma; 4, Modena; 5, Grand 
 Duchy of Tuscany ; 6, States of the Church ; 7, Duchy of Lucca ; 8, Kingdom 
 of Naples ; 9, Monaco ; 10, San Marino. The Duchy of Lucca, erected for a 
 temporary purpose, ceased, in 1847, to exist as a separate state. Monaco and 
 San Marino were too insignificant to exercise the slightest influence beyond 
 the parochial and municipal boundaries that enclosed them.
 
 CUAP. i.J INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 times they are reduced, some care is still required, that 
 clearness of narration may not be sacrificed to the 
 effort to blend those, which are in truth, in many 
 respects, separate and distinct histories, into one. 
 
 These observations will explain the plan upon which 
 the two volumes, now about to be presented to the 
 attention of the reader, are intended to be framed. In 
 their earlier chapters attention will be called to some of 
 the leading features of the past history of Italy. In this 
 retrospect, those points will be selected which seem to 
 have exercised the most important influence, and to 
 have most contributed to that singular destiny which 
 distinguishes Italy from every country on the face of 
 the globe. Prominent in this retrospect must appear the 
 origin and fall of that strange sovereignty, which Ger- 
 man princes so long exercised over a country to which 
 they were in every respect aliens the growth of that 
 temporal dominion which the See of Rome established 
 over the central provinces of Italy the struggles be- 
 tween Papal and Imperial power which distracted her 
 people with the fierce contentions of civil and religious 
 strife the greatness and the glory of those republics 
 which once illuminated the page of Italian history by 
 the brightness of their freedom and their virtues, to 
 darken it by the degradation of their vices and the 
 gloom of their fall. The liberty and the civilisation 
 which Italy, in the middle ages, communicated to 
 Europe, will be traced to the fragments of the system 
 of ancient Roman institutions, which, broken but not 
 destroyed, survived the lapse of centuries, and preserved 
 the elements of that municipal self-government which
 
 8 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL i. 
 
 still constitutes the only sure guarantee of the perma- 
 nence of freedom. In reviewing these great outlines of 
 the past, the consideration will naturally arise of those 
 causes which have subjected Italy to the constant cala- 
 mities of foreign invasion, of those which throughout 
 the whole period of her history have prevented the 
 creation of any one great Italian power, or any general 
 confederation of her states, and which have left her to 
 our own day to be partitioned and divided into depart- 
 ments arranged with reference to every consideration 
 except a regard to the happiness, and a deference to 
 the wishes, of Italy herself. 
 
 The chapters devoted to this general retrospect will 
 be followed by the relation of the events which are more 
 immediately connected with the settlement of 1815, and 
 the reconstitution of the Italian states. While the narra- 
 tive of those incidents which more peculiarly affect each 
 of these states, will, as far as possible, be kept separate 
 and distinct, it will be prefaced or interwoven by a 
 sketch of so much of the past history as may appear 
 to be connected with, or to throw light upon, the trans- 
 actions that are described. The changes and vicissi- 
 tudes experienced during the wars of the French Revo- 
 lution will, in every case, be fully detailed. To previous 
 history the reference will, in some instances, be fuller 
 than in others. The origin of the House of Savoy will 
 be traced to that which has been called, " the cradle 
 of their dynasty ; " their gradual acquisition of Italian 
 territories will be shown, and the qualities pointed 
 out, both in the people and their sovereigns, which, 
 have given to Piedmont so peculiar and so proud a
 
 CHAP, i.] INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 position in Italian affairs. The long reign of Ferdinand 
 of Naples will be dwelt upon in proportion to the 
 importance of the events which are directly associated 
 with the present condition of the dominion over -which 
 he ruled. The perfidious cruelties which followed his 
 restoration, after the short triumph of French power 
 in 1799 his long exile in Sicily the plots of his queen 
 to free herself from English control the final establish- 
 ment, or rather recognition, of a free constitution, under 
 the protection or coercion of English arms will all be 
 told ; if not with the minuteness which would belong- 
 to a history of that period, yet with a detail sufficiently 
 full to enable the reader to understand the influence 
 which they have exercised upon the subsequent course 
 of Sicilian and Neapolitan affairs. 
 
 The events of the years 1814 and 1815, will occupy 
 what some will perhaps consider a more legitimate 
 space in the pages of this narrative. This will include 
 the successive restorations of the ancient sovereigns, 
 and the policy which on their return each of them pur- 
 sued the deliberations of the allied powers the final 
 determinations of the congress the annexation of Genoa 
 to Piedmont the surrender of Lombardy and Venice 
 to Austrian rule the fall of the kingdom of Italy 
 the efforts of its patriots still to preserve its independence 
 the protests and the struggles of the Genoese against 
 the inevitable destiny to which they were consigned ; 
 and, with a view of the intrigues, the influences, and the 
 dissensions which prevailed among the assembled repre- 
 sentatives of Europe, will constitute the history so far 
 as relates to Italy of the treaties of Vienna.
 
 10 H1STOEY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 The same pages must record the closing fortunes of 
 the chivalrous, but weak and vacillating Murat. They 
 must relate his desertion of his friend and chief his 
 wavering and half-hearted adhesion to his new engage- 
 ments the machinations and plots which were formed 
 in the congress against him the implacable and 
 unwearied animosity which exhausted every artifice of 
 diplomatic skill to accomplish his destruction and his 
 own wild and fatal enterprise against the very power for 
 whose alliance he abandoned the cause of Napoleon. 
 They must trace him from his brilliant throne to scenes 
 of disaster and defeat ; follow him through the miserable 
 wanderings of a houseless and lonely fugitive ; and 
 finally pursue his steps to the prison which he left to 
 meet an untimely, and but for the heroism which 
 ennobled it, an unhonoured death. 
 
 A review of the general result of the arrangements 
 sanctioned by the deliberations of the congress of Vienna 
 will include an examination of the departures which 
 they involved from the political divisions existing before 
 the revolutionary wars. The extinction of the republics 
 of Lucca, Genoa, and Venice, the annexation of Genoa to 
 Piedmont, and the great increase of the Austrian 
 possessions will be considered in relation to the effect 
 these changes have subsequently produced. 
 
 The history of the settlement of 1815 would be 
 incomplete without a statement of those separate trea- 
 ties which contemporaneously established secret rela- 
 tions between Austria and some of the Italian States. 
 The changes which immediately followed the assump- 
 tion of power by the sovereigns recognised by the Con-
 
 CIIAP. i.] INTEODUCTOKY. 1 1 
 
 gress, although not formally sanctioned at its meetings, 
 must still be considered as a portion of the arrange- 
 ments which it made. With a narrative of these 
 changes, and a general view of the consequent position 
 of the country, it is hoped that there may be thus pre- 
 sented to the reader all the information that is requisite 
 for a clear and distinct understanding of the condition 
 of Italy at the close of those transactions which are 
 often, although erroneously, described as the restora- 
 tions of 1815. 
 
 This plan involves the devotion of a larger proportion 
 of these volumes to the review of previous history than 
 probably the reader might expect. This is explained 
 by the observations already made upon the connec- 
 tion between the events of former ages and the 
 aspect which Italy presents at the present day. Some 
 acquaintance with its past is necessary to understand 
 the present, or form any conjecture as to the future of 
 any one of the Italian states. Tuscany still bears the 
 marks of the wise legislation of Leopold the reformer. 
 No one can appreciate the part which Piedmont is now 
 taking in the affairs of Italy, who is not acquainted 
 with the events that have marked its previous career. 
 The Government of Naples is a mystery to those who 
 have not traced, in the occurrences of former days, the 
 origin of that system which, with an unhappy continuity 
 of evil, maintains its existence even now. In no country 
 perhaps, save one, have the traditions and memories of 
 the past taken equal hold upon the hearts and imagi- 
 nations of the people. They turn from their present 
 condition to those days of which their historians have
 
 12 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 written, and their poets have sung ; when the free 
 cities of Italy alone maintained the banner of liberty in 
 Europe ; to those days when, over the darkness of 
 Christendom. Italy threw the light of religion, of litera- 
 ture, of art, of science, and of law. In the minds of a 
 proud and imaginative people, these traditions became 
 passions and hopes, and, when the French revolution 
 " broke up" the political "fountains of the great deep," 
 when it unlocked the sources of human passions, and 
 stirred the depths of human thought, the burning desire 
 to see Italy what it once was, or what an ardent imagi- 
 nation pictures it to have been, with unextinguishable 
 fervour possessed the Italian heart. These sentiments 
 may be the poetry of life they become its reality when 
 they are the actuating motives of great masses of men. 
 Those who are anxious to understand modern Italian 
 history, will not find that the time devoted to the 
 retrospect of the past is thrown away. If in the succeed- 
 ing chapters those topics may not be selected which are 
 the best calculated to supply the illustration that is 
 sought, it will most assuredly be the fault, not of the 
 subject, but of the writer. No excuse for failure can be 
 found in the nature of that subject, nor yet any palliation 
 in the labour and carefulness which that failure may 
 have cost. If, on the other hand, these pages succeed 
 in guiding the reader to a clearer view of the state in 
 which Italy was left by the last of the settlements in 
 which Europe attempted to secure her tranquillity, they 
 will have conduced something to the right understand- 
 ing of questions to which every day is giving deeper 
 importance, and adding more general interest.
 
 CHAP, i.] NAPOLEON'S ABDICATION. 13 
 
 It will be convenient, before entering on these sub- 
 jects, to devote the remainder of the present chapter 
 to a brief statement of the circumstances immediately 
 connected with Napoleon's abdication, and of the poli- 
 tical position of Italy at the time of that event. 
 
 On the 5th of April, 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte 
 signed at Fontainbleau that memorable act of abdica- 
 tion by which " he resigned for himself and his heirs 
 all title to the thrones both of Italy and France." Sur- 
 rendering the gigantic acquisitions which had been 
 made by his genius and his power, the fallen emperor 
 obtained from his conquerors stipulations which still 
 left to him the semblance of his departed greatness. 
 An Italian island was named as the place of his retreat. 
 About eight miles distant from the shores of Tuscany 
 lies the island of Elba, with an area of scarcely one 
 hundred and fifty square miles, and a population 
 not much more than 15,000. By an arrangement, 
 which seemed more like that of romance than of policy, 
 and which was in fact the result of a struggle between 
 the romantic generosity of the Russian emperor and 
 the more cruel, or more cautious suggestions of his 
 allies, this little island was allotted as the sovereignty 
 of a man for whose ambition the world itself had seemed 
 too limited. His pride was gratified by still retaining 
 that imperial title which so strangely contrasted with 
 the extent of the little principality over which he ruled. 
 For the support of his rank an annual charge was
 
 14 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 created in his favour upon the revenues of France. 
 A similar provision was made for his family out of the 
 royal domains of that country, and finally the Italian 
 Duchy of Parma, with its appendages of Placentia and 
 Guastalla, was secured to his empress, and, after her 
 death, to the son whom she had borne to him. 
 
 All these provisions were embodied in a formal treaty 
 which appeared to be executed in defiance of all diplo- 
 matic principle and rule. It was concluded on the llth 
 of April between the abdicated emperor, under the title 
 of " his Majesty the Emperor Napoleon," on the one 
 hand, and the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, 
 on the other. 2 These monarchs not only entered into 
 a treaty with Napoleon as an individual, but by that 
 treaty they disposed of the revenues of France. No one 
 professed to represent the latter country. 3 The three 
 sovereigns guaranteed the fulfilment of the stipulations 
 of the treaty, and entered into an express engagement 
 that they should be adopted by France. This strange 
 proceeding was conducted with a strict adherence to 
 the usual etiquette plenipotentiaries were appointed, 
 and all the formalities of signature and ratification were 
 observed ; as if, in his descent from the Imperial throne, 
 Napoleon carried in his own person the majesty of a 
 sovereign state. 4 
 
 * Annual Register, 1814. State Papers, p. 400. 
 
 3 The protocol of the meeting of the plenipotentiaries of the 10th of April 
 records the refusal of Lord Castlereagh, on the part of Great Britain, to be a 
 party to the treaty, and also the refusal of the provisional government of 
 France to take on themselves any determination relative to a charge on the 
 revenues of France. Recueil dea Traitts concernant L'Aulriche et Italic. Paris, 
 1859, p. 108. 
 
 4 At the time of the execution of this treaty, France was under a provi-
 
 CHAP, i.] TREATY WITH NAPOLEON LORD CASTLEREAGH. 15 
 
 No persuasion could induce the English Minister to 
 become, on behalf of his sovereign, a party to this 
 treaty. The British Government had always with an 
 almost religious scrupulosity refused to recognise 
 Napoleon as Emperor. Were there no other objec- 
 tion, this was decisive. But besides this, England had 
 invariably professed that she had no wish to force 
 any particular form of government upon the French 
 nation. To assent to an agreement by which she^ 
 would bind herself to impose any terms upon the future 
 government would have been inconsistent with this 
 principle. All that could be obtained from Lord Castle- 
 reagh was a memorandum in which he engaged that the 
 assent! of his Britannic Majesty should be given to the 
 treaty so, far as it made a disposition of the island 
 of Elba and the Italian Duchies. This memorandum 
 skilfully avoided all use of the forbidden title, it equally 
 kept clear of any mention of the pledge as to the future 
 conduct of France, and even when assent was promised, 
 it contained the reservation that " the act should be 
 binding on His Britannic Majesty, only with respect to 
 his own acts and not those of any third power/' 5 
 
 Still more cautious was the language of the formal 
 act of accession by which Lord Castlereagh's engage- 
 ment was fulfilled. In this act the treaty was recited 
 as one entered into at Paris by the emperors of Austria 
 
 sional government. On the 3rd of April the senate and legislative council, 
 formally deposed Napoleon, and established a provisional government. The 
 emperor had abdicated on the 5th.- On the 7th the senate determined to 
 recall Lonis XVIII. It was in this state of things that the treaty between 
 Napoleon and the allied sovereigns was concluded. 
 
 5 See the memorandum and the formal act of accession at length, fiecueil 
 des Traites, p. 116.
 
 10 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 and Russia and the King of Prussia, with the object of 
 conceding to " Napoleon Buonaparte/' and his family, 
 the island of Elba, and the duchies of Parma, Placentia, 
 and Guastalla. At the request of his three allies the 
 Prince Regent, on behalf of his Majesty, assented to 
 these dispositions, but expressly declared that he \vas 
 not a party to any of the other stipulations contained 
 in the treaty. 
 
 By the first article of this treaty, Napoleon, who had 
 already abdicated the crowns both of France and Italy, 
 renounced, both for himself and his descendants, and 
 for every member of his family, all right of sovereignty 
 or dominion over the French empire, the kingdom of 
 Italy, and over every other country. 
 
 These acts of abdication and renunciation related 
 only to those portions of the Italian peninsula of which 
 Napoleon had been the sovereign. These were, first, 
 the provinces included in that distinct kingdom of Italy 
 which Napoleon had constituted in 1805, and of which, 
 in the same year, he had assumed "at Milan the iron 
 crown ; secondly, those which had been by successive 
 acts incorporated with the empire of France. 
 
 The kingdom of Italy comprised within its limits all 
 Lombardy, all the Venetian territories, and the Papal 
 provinces which border on the Adriatic. The capital of 
 this kingdom was Milan. It was governed by an execu- 
 tive, in theory at least, separate from that of France. 
 Eugene Beauharnais as prince-viceroy represented the 
 sovereign ; on his marriage with the daughter of the 
 King of Bavaria, he had been formally declared suc- 
 cessor to the crown. The affairs of this kingdom were
 
 CTAP. L] FRENCH DOMINION IN ITALY. 17 
 
 managed by an administration and senate of its own. 
 Except in the union of the crowns, a union which 
 Napoleon had declared he intended to be but tempo- 
 rary, 6 and which was at all events to terminate with 
 his own life, and in a contribution which it was bound 
 to make to imperial expenses, the realm of Italy was 
 supposed to be independent of that of France. 
 
 The rest of Northern and Central Italy was differently 
 circumstanced. It had all been incorporated in the 
 French Empire. Rome and the residue of the States 
 of the Church not included in the kingdom of Italy, 
 Piedmont, Genoa, Tuscany, Lucca, and the lesser 
 duchies were all mere departments of imperial France. 
 The separate principality over which Napoleon's sister, 
 the Princess Eliza, nominally ruled at Florence can 
 hardly be regarded as an exception, or be said to have 
 constituted a government distinct from that of the 
 empire. The entire of the peninsula north of the 
 Neapolitan boundaries was divided between the kingdom 
 of Italy and the Italian departments of the French 
 empire. Over these Napoleon ceased to be sovereign 
 when he abdicated the two crowns. 
 
 The kingdom of Naples had been conferred upon 
 Joachim Murat, who reigned over all the continental 
 territories of the Neapolitan monarchs. Although he 
 claimed the dominion of " the two Sicilies," he had 
 
 8 The third and fourth articles of the constitutional statute of the realm of 
 Italy provided, that as soon as the foreign troops had evacuated the Ionian 
 islands, the island of Malta, and the Neapolitan states, the crown of Italy 
 should be transferred to a son of Napoleon either by birth or adoption that 
 thenceforth the crowns of France and Italy should never bo reunited, and that 
 all future sovereigns of Italy should reside in their own dominions. Moniteur 
 March 19th, 1805. 
 
 VOL. i. o
 
 18 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 
 
 never been afole to extend his rule to the island of 
 Sicily, where his rival Ferdinand had maintained himself 
 in his sovereignty with the aid of British money and 
 under the protection of British arms. 
 
 The King of Sardinia still occupied the island which 
 gave the regal title to his house. To Sardinia or to 
 Sicily the power of Napoleon had not reached. Trafal- 
 gar had annihilated the naval strength of the mighty 
 conqueror. Supreme upon land, he was compelled 
 to acknowledge the sea as the boundary of his power. 
 His " control stopped with its shores." Even the 
 narrow strait which separates Calabria from Sicily, 
 as if the ocean wave possessed some mystic power, 
 was wide enough to mark the barrier which he could 
 not pass. 
 
 Such was the state of Italy when Napoleon signed 
 the treaty of the llth of April. 
 
 That treaty was one contracted with the Emperor 
 altogether in his individual character. It did not pro- 
 fess to bind the states of which he had been sovereign. 
 His resignation of the crown of Italy left the kingdom 
 of Italy untouched ; his abdication of the empire did 
 not take from France the territories which his victories 
 had won. The surrender of those territories must be 
 made by some authority representing the French nation. 
 From the returning Bourbon monarch, the allied powers 
 proceeded to obtain the formal renunciation of those 
 conquests. On one of the latter days of April, Louis 
 XVIII. entered Paris, acknowledged as the King of 
 France. With him, as the legitimate representative 
 of the French nation, was concluded the treaty known
 
 CHAP, i.] TREATY WITH LOUIS XVIII. 19 
 
 as that of Paris, which fixed the future boundaries of 
 his kingdom. 7 
 
 A. sovereign placed upon his throne by the arms of 
 the allies, whose troops still garrisoned his capital, was 
 not likely to offer any very great resistance to the 
 arrangements which those who were at once the con- 
 querors of his country and his own protectors, might 
 impose. Scarcely, indeed, had he been recalled to the 
 throne of his ancestors, when, on the 23rd of April, 8 
 he authorised the signature of a convention, by which 
 all the conquests of France beyond her ancient frontier 
 were resigned. The formal treaty was not signed until 
 the 30th of May. By that treaty France was declared 
 to preserve the integrity of its limits, such as they 
 existed at the period of the 1st of January, 1792, with 
 some " important augmentations/' as they were rather 
 pompously called in the document itself. France re- 
 nounced all claim of sovereignty, possession, and supre- 
 macy over all countries, districts, towns, and places, 
 whatsoever, situated without the frontier which was 
 assigned. In the cautious language of this renunciation, 
 the French king carefully avoided any recognition of 
 the conquests of Napoleon as forming a portion of his 
 French dominions. The restored family refused to ac- 
 knowledge the legality of the power which had governed 
 France in their absence. 
 
 The object of the treaty of the 30th of May, was 
 to settle with Louis XVIII., as the representative of 
 the French nation, the future boundaries of France. 
 Questions, however, had already arisen which made it 
 
 7 Annual Register, 1814. State Papers. 8 Annual Register. State Papers. 
 
 o 2
 
 20 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 necessary for the allied powers to include in its pro- 
 visions, terms regulating their own conduct in the 
 distribution of the territories which France had thus 
 disclaimed. These countries were left by that renun- 
 ciation, " waifs and strays " to be allotted to those who 
 could best establish a right to their possession. Over 
 them the allied powers might assert, and did, in fact, 
 as to some, assert, the right of conquest ; it was the 
 only basis on which several of their subsequent acts 
 could be sustained. But this right was one, the exercise 
 of which must be controlled by many considerations 
 which virtually reduced, or ought to have reduced, it 
 within narrow limits. With many of the sovereigns 
 who had been deprived of their territories, relations of 
 alliance subsisted which would make it difficult to set 
 up against them such a right. It was, perhaps, in 
 any case an ungracious claim to be enforced by those 
 who had taken up arms to rescue Europe from terri- 
 torial changes which they denounced as the usurpa- 
 tions of revolutionary and imperial France. 
 
 In relation to subsequent events, it is of importance 
 to observe, that the acts of Louis XVIII. could only 
 affect those territories which had been incorporated 
 with the dominions of France. Over those which con- 
 stituted the kingdom of Italy, the French monarch 
 neither exercised, nor claimed to exercise, any right. 
 The king of Italy had abdicated its crown ; but by that 
 act he no more destroyed the separate and independent 
 existence of the realm than by the resignation of the im- 
 perial sovereignty he had put an end to that of France. 
 
 As to Italy, the public treaty contained but two
 
 CUM-, i.] STIPULATIONS AS TO ITALY. 21 
 
 stipulations. One was, that " Italy beyond the limits of 
 the countries which should return to Austria should 
 consist of independent states." The other provided for 
 the restoration to its independence of one Italian state, 
 and that one, strange to say, the little principality of 
 Monaco. It was expressly declared by one of the 
 articles of the treaty, that " the principality of Monaco 
 was replaced in the same situation as on the 1st of 
 January, 1792." The treaty further provided that 
 within two months " all the powers who had been 
 engaged on both sides in the war should send plenipo- 
 tentiaries to Vienna, in order to regulate, in a general 
 congress, the arrangements necessary for completing its 
 dispositions." 
 
 In this stipulation of the treaty of Paris originated 
 the Congress of Vienna. The five powers who signed 
 that treaty invited the other states of Europe to send 
 their representatives to a congress, not for the purpose 
 of establishing any new system in the public law of 
 Europe, but for that of consulting as to the arrange- 
 ments requisite to complete the dispositions of the 
 treaty itself. 9 
 
 Many and grave were the questions which were still 
 left open for future consideration. Those affecting 
 general European interests it is not within the object 
 
 9 The first of the secret articles annexed to the Treaty of Paris provided 
 that " the allied powers (that is, Austria, England, Prussia, and Russia) should 
 have the free disposition of the countries which France renounced by the third 
 article of the open treaty; and that the arrangements from which a system of 
 permanent balance of power might result, should be arranged at the congress 
 upon the basis agreed upon by tho allied powers between themselves." Cape- 
 figue : Lea Cent Jours, p. 11.
 
 22 HISTOKY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 of these pages to describe. Those which related to 
 the future settlement of Italy arose out of the changes 
 which French dominion had effected in her states. 
 
 The French revolution found Italy divided according 
 to the settlement which had been adopted at the 
 Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1747. A Bourbon 
 monarch ruled the two kingdoms of Sicily and Naples, 
 or as the continental and island territories were fan- 
 tastically designated, Sicily " di qua del Faro," and, " di 
 1& del Faro." Another Bourbon prince possessed the 
 Duchy of Parma in the North ; Austria held the 
 territories of the Milanese and the Duchy of Mantua, 
 occupying the plain of Lombardy between the Ticino 
 and the Adige. An Archduke of the imperial family 
 ruled over Tuscany with its cluster of extinguished 
 republics. Modena acknowledged as its duke the last 
 representative of the once princely house of Este. The 
 Pope was supreme in Rome, and the priestly rule of the 
 Vatican extended along the shores of the Adriatic from 
 the Tranto to the Po. Piedmont, from the Ticino to the 
 Alpine ranges, was subject to the sway of the Princes of 
 Savoy. Three of the ancient republics still survived : 
 four, if we are to include in the number the almost 
 village sovereignty of San Marino. Lucca maintained 
 her independence. The territory of Genoa included all 
 the shore which extends along the Apennines from 
 the principality of Monaco to Spezzia. Venice held 
 upon her terra firma a sovereignty as extensive as 
 had belonged to her in the proudest days of her 
 greatness. 
 
 In the plenitude of his despotic authority, Napoleon
 
 CHAP. i.J FRENCH DOMINION. 23 
 
 had destroyed all the former order of things. He had 
 trampled down the ancient republics, and obliterated 
 even the names of the most time-honoured principalities. 
 The queenly splendour of Venice had not saved the 
 most glorious of republics from his iron grasp. Lucca 
 had found no safety in those republican institutions, the 
 origin of which is lost in the obscurity of remote 
 antiquity. Imperial Rome herself had attracted no 
 respect to the throne of the vicegerent of Heaven upon 
 earth. French soldiers had entered the Vatican by rude 
 ladders irreverently placed against its sacred walls. 
 The Pontiff, from whose hands Napoleon had received 
 the chrism that gave him the sacred character of an 
 anointed king, was carried away a prisoner under an 
 escort of French dragoons. A few lines had disposed 
 of the destinies of the city of the Caesars ; and an edict, 
 dated from "the camp at Schonbrunn," almost with 
 the imperious brevity of an order of the day, declared 
 in language that at least had not the fault of circum- 
 locution, that ^the States of the Church were annexed 
 to the empire of France." 
 
 In the division of its whole continent between the 
 kingdom of Italy, the departments annexed to the 
 empire, and the southern realm, French dominion 
 was completely established over Italy. No national 
 government was left. In the worst days of foreign 
 invasion, the Pontiff, with better truth, said to the 
 Doge of Venice, " There is nothing Italian left in Italy 
 except my tiara and your ducal hat." Under the 
 dominion of Napoleon, both the tiara and the ducal hat 
 were gone. The Pope was" a prisoner in France, and
 
 24 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Venice was a province of the Emperor's Italian king- 
 dom. The only remnant of Italian nationality, and, 
 placed on the head of a stranger, it could scarcely 
 be said to belong to Italy, was the Lombards' iron 
 crown. 
 
 Such was the condition of Italy with which the 
 sovereigns at Paris, and in the Congress of Vienna, 
 had to deal. 
 
 The language held by the representatives of the 
 allied powers the proclamations in which their generals 
 had appealed to the Italian people had excited in the 
 minds of that people the strongest hopes upon the 
 subject which, of all others, had acquired the deepest 
 hold upon their hearts. An Austrian Archduke had 
 summoned them, in a spirit-stirring proclamation, to 
 aid the allied powers in restoring Italy to the rank she 
 once held among the nations. A British general had 
 landed on their shores, displaying a banner, on which 
 was inscribed the sacred motto of "Italian inde- 
 pendence." 10 The time was come when the people 
 expected these promises to be fulfilled. All they knew 
 of the treaty of Paris gave confidence to their hopes. 
 Italy, except the portion that might revert to Austria, 
 was to consist of sovereign states. If future arrange- 
 ments were left open, that future was full of hope. 
 Questions of the deepest interest and importance to 
 Italy remained to be decided. In what manner was 
 the promised nationality and independence of her states 
 to be secured ? Was Venice to resume her ancient 
 
 * 
 
 10 The Proclamation of the Archduke John of Austria, August 22ud, 1809, 
 of Lord William Ikntiuck on landing at Spezzia, March 14th, 1814.
 
 CUAP. i.] HOPES FROM THE CONGRESS. 25 
 
 independence? Was the newly formed kingdom of Italy 
 to become, in truth, a free and Italian principality ? 
 What provisions were to be made to secure constitutional 
 government from those sovereigns who were to resume 
 their old dominions 1 These were the questions which 
 were everywhere asked with earnestness and hope, 
 and on the allied powers and their approaching delibe- 
 ration the eyes of Italian patriots were fixed. 
 
 While the hopes of Italy were thus turned to the 
 coming congress, some of the questions upon which 
 those hopes had been excited were already disposed of 
 by one of those private arrangements in which diplomacy 
 conceals its transactions. To the treaty, or rather trea- 
 ties, of Paris (for a separate treaty was signed between 
 France and each of the allied powers) were added 
 several secret articles. One of these provided "that the 
 possessions of his Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty 
 should be limited by the Po, the Ticino, and the Lake 
 Maggiore ; that the King of Sardinia should re-enter 
 on the possession of his ancient estates, with the 
 exception of the part of Savoy assured to France ; that 
 he should receive an increase of territory from the 
 states of Genoa ; that the port of Genoa should remain 
 a free port, the powers reserving to themselves to 
 make arrangements on this subject with the King of 
 Sardinia/' 11 
 
 The contemplated congress did not assemble until 
 October. Long before its meeting many more of the 
 questions relating to Italy were disposed of by a 
 
 11 Secret articles. Recueil des Trails, p. 117; Capefigue : Lea Cent Jours, 
 p. 11.
 
 26 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 general, although informal agreement of the allied 
 sovereigns ; and when the diplomacy of Europe assem- 
 bled its proudest representatives in the capital of Aus- 
 tria, several of the Italian princes had already resumed 
 possession of their thrones.
 
 CHAP. IL] THE GERMAN EMPIRE OF THE WEST. 27 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Retrospect of Italian History Principal Features The Power of the Popes 
 Of the German Emperors Want of Italian Unity Foreign Interference 
 and Invasion Rise and Fall of the Italian Republics Origin of the 
 German Empire in Italy Fall of the Roman Empire of the West 
 Odoacer Theodoric The Lombard Kingdom Its Iron Crown Politi- 
 cal position of Italy Rome and Central Italy still subject to the Byzan- 
 tine Emperors Their Revolt Leo the Iconoclast Popular and Papal 
 resistance to his Decrees Aistolph, King of the Lombards, seizes Ra- 
 vennaResisted by the Pope The Pope appeals to Pepin Visit of 
 Pepin to Italy He conquers the Exarchate " Donation of Pepin " 
 Appointed Patrician of Rome Charlemagne He overthrows the Lom- 
 bard King Crowns himself as King of Italy with the Iron Crown- 
 Elected Patrician and Consul of Rome Crowned by the Pope Emperor 
 of the West Extinction of the Carlovingian Dynasty The German 
 Nations elect a King Native Kings of Italy Some of them crowned 
 as Emperors of the West Disordered state of Italy Otho the Great, 
 King of Germany, is elected King of Italy He is crowned Emperor 
 by the Pope Rule of the Saxon line of Emperors Attempts to elect 
 native Kings Conrad the Salic invited to assume the Italian Crown 
 Dependence of Italy upon Germany established Reflections on the 
 Imperial Power Territorial extent of its dominion in Italy Imperial 
 Prerogative Early relations of the Empire to the Papacy The first 
 struggle of Imperial power Popular Election of Bishops The Pope 
 elected by the Roman People Scandals and Abuses in Pontifical Elec- 
 tions Right of nominating the Pontiff conceded to Otho the Great 
 Resistance of the Roman People and Municipality Constant contests and 
 revolts Successive Emperora assert the right by force Treacherous 
 Execution of the Consul Crescentius by Otho III. Right of Popular 
 Election re-asserted Renewal of the former scandals Deposition of 
 three rival Popes by the Emperor Henry III. Right of Nomination ia 
 conceded to him, and exercised during his reign without dispute- Reflec- 
 tions on the struggle General abrogation of the Popular Election of 
 bishops Extent and Importance of the Change. 
 
 IN the retrospect of the history of Italy since the
 
 28 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 fall of the Roman empire, the eye rests at once upon 
 some features which give to that history a character 
 peculiar to itself. 
 
 The existence of the Papal power of necessity exer- 
 cised an important influence upon the whole progress 
 of events in the country where its seat was placed. 
 The Primate of Christendom was the sovereign of an 
 Italian state ; ruling over the city which had long been 
 the capital, not only of Italy, but the world ; claiming 
 at the same time authority over the hearts and con- 
 sciences of all followers of the Saviour, in the name of 
 a commission derived directly from the Most High. 
 To the chair of St. Peter all Christian princes and 
 governors were called on to do homage, and the influ- 
 ence of Rome was felt in every European community. 
 The presence of such a power in the very centre of Italy, 
 might naturally be expected to modify the entire course 
 of national affairs ; and to the existence of the Papal 
 sovereignty we have no difficulty in tracing some at 
 least of the phenomena which present themselves to us 
 in the strange history of this land. 
 
 Next in importance to the Papal power, our atten- 
 tion is attracted to that singular institution by which 
 imperial rights over Italy were conceded to a sovereign, 
 in every sense of the word a foreigner and a stranger. 
 A German chief, without connection with Italy by 
 birth, by residence, or even by possessions, was per- 
 mitted, under the imposing names of King of the 
 Romans and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, to 
 exercise a real, although imperfect, supremacy over the 
 Italian states. This pretension did not rest in its trans-
 
 CHAP, ii.] GERMAN DOMINION. 29 
 
 mission from emperor to emperor upon *any claim of 
 hereditary descent. The dignity was elective, but no 
 Italian had a voice in the election. The chosen chief of 
 the Germanic confederation succeeded to the title, and 
 was supposed to inherit the authority, of the Ca3sars ; 
 and seven Teutonic electors on the banks of the Rhine 
 nominated at their pleasure the sovereign who claimed 
 from Italy the homage and the rights that were due to 
 her supreme Lord. Not the least strange of the inci- 
 dents of this strange sovereignty, was the odd mixture 
 of feudal pretensions with those which were said to 
 have come down from the empire of Rome. The right 
 of investiture was claimed in the name of the Caesars, 
 and the representative of Augustus asserted his title to 
 the possession of the fiefs of the Roman empire by 
 escheat. 
 
 Imperfect as was the rule of these German emperors 
 in Italy, its existence, especially when combined with 
 that of the Papal power, was sufficient to prevent the 
 union of the lesser sovereignties into one monarchy, 
 the process by which national dynasties were formed 
 in almost every other country in Europe. It is probable 
 that even the presence of the Holy See, would have 
 prevented any one Italian prince from acquiring such 
 ascendancy as might have enabled him to attach the 
 rest as lieges of his crown. The paramount rights of 
 the emperor at all times interfered, and Italy continued 
 to be divided into a multitude of states and lordships, 
 and cities without compactness or unity, supplying to 
 her enemies a pretext for the observation that " Italy 
 was a mere geographical designation."
 
 30 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 The remark is an obvious one, that the constitution 
 of these two powers led almost inevitably to foreign 
 interference in Italian affairs. The rule of the German 
 emperors in itself amounted to this ; and the more 
 imperfect their sovereignty, the more did this character 
 belong to it. The most philosophical of Italian his- 
 torians has well observed, that the emperor was scarcely 
 known in Italy except as an enemy. By her connection 
 with the Germanic empire, Italy was drawn into all the 
 quarrels of Europe in which that empire took part ; and 
 in disputing the authority of the German in Italy, the 
 other European powers soon learned to claim possessions 
 within her borders as their own. 
 
 The imperial crown was not limited to any one 
 family or even nation. Its disputes or its possession 
 attracted to Italy the ambitions of all Europe. Francis I. 
 of France made wars in Italy against his successful 
 rival for that dignity. The imperial power of Charles V. 
 annexed to the crown of Spain a dominion over the 
 fairest provinces of Italy, which, under his successors 
 in the Spanish monarchy, proved the worst tyranny 
 that ever afflicted any portion of the Italian soil. 
 
 If the Papal power may be said to have extended 
 in one sense the influence of Italy over Europe, its 
 existence invited, on the other hand, the influence 
 of European powers to Rome. The ecclesiastical 
 chief of Christendom could never be a mere Italian 
 prince. The Christian world had an interest in the 
 direction of his policy, and in the defence of his rights. 
 The " father of the faithful " could scarcely avoid 
 appealing to the protection of his children when his
 
 CHAP, ii.] FOREIGN INVASION. 31 
 
 privileges were assailed. The intrigues of Europe too 
 often gathered round the chair of St. Peter, and the 
 pretexts of many invasions of Italy were found in the 
 assertion of the real or supposed rights of the Papal 
 See. 
 
 When the nations of Europe had become consoli- 
 dated into great military monarchies, their kings soon 
 learned to make use of these opportunities of seizing, 
 for themselves or their families, upon provinces which 
 were among the fairest regions of the earth. No Italian 
 dynasty was strong enough to oppose them : the cir- 
 cumstances of the country prevented any permanent 
 confederation in defence of its rights ; from the close 
 of the fifteenth century we find Italy the scene of wars 
 in which French, German, and Spaniard contended for 
 her spoils, until at last her land was parcelled out 
 among strangers, and, in the list of her sovereigns, we 
 look in vain for even one purely Italian prince. 
 
 Whatever may ha ye been the results of the natural 
 tendency of her constitution in later times, there was a 
 period when, under that constitution, Italy attained to 
 a greatness, a prosperity, and a glory with which no 
 other country in Europe could compare. In the ages 
 which we are accustomed to call dark, at a time when 
 the rest of Europe was struggling to emerge from bar- 
 barism, and enslaved under institutions which made the 
 mass of the people serfs, Italy was great, prosperous, 
 and free. In the middle of the twelfth century all its 
 northern provinces were studded with free republican 
 cities whose grandeur and opulence attested a prosperity 
 in the country which we can scarcely find realised in
 
 32 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 the most favoured nations of modern times. The glories 
 of Venice and Genoa are emblazoned on every page of 
 the history of the middle ages. It was not only in 
 the great national republics that commerce had enriched 
 their people, and taught them the free spirit of inde- 
 pendence. Every district had its city, within whose 
 walls a prosperous and free community dwelt, nominally, 
 indeed, submitting its allegiance to the emperor, but 
 maintaining, at the same time, a real and complete 
 independence. They exercised, over an area more or 
 less extended round their walls, all sovereign rights 
 governed by their own laws electing their own magis- 
 trates and glorying in a form of government which 
 recalled not only the memory, but the reality of the 
 proud freedom which belonged in ancient times to the 
 democracies of Greece and Rome. 
 
 The existence of these numerous and great republics 
 forms the brightest, as their gradual extinction does the 
 most melancholy, chapter in the history of Italian affairs. 
 It requires all the strong confirmation of the indis- 
 putable testimony by which they are supported, to obtain 
 implicit assent to the accounts that have come down to 
 us, of their power, their liberty, and the spirit of their 
 people. In these cities were preserved the elements of 
 freedom from their institutions Christendom was taught 
 the lessons of that municipal self-government which has 
 obtained for the nations of Europe whatever liberty they 
 now enjoy. Over the darkness of its most gloomy 
 period they diffused the light of literature, of science, 
 and of civilisation. It would almost seem that in 
 imparting the sacred flame to Europe, they exhausted
 
 CHAP, ii.] THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. 83 
 
 its sources within themselves. The freedom and the 
 blessings they communicated to other countries, they 
 failed in retaining for their own. From reflecting on 
 the obligations which Europe owed to their influence 
 and example, we turn with equal wonder and regret 
 to the story of their extinction ; and in contemplating 
 the rapidity of decay of those communities in which we 
 might have supposed all the elements of vitality to exist, 
 we are almost disposed to say that the greatest marvel 
 of history would be the grandeur of their power, if its 
 narrative were not followed by the still more surprising 
 record of their fall. 
 
 In the brief outline of Italian history which follows, 
 the reader will find his attention principally directed to 
 these subjects the influence which the Papal power, 
 the rights of the German emperors, and the contests 
 between them, have exercised upon the fortunes of Italy 
 the rise and fall of her republics the want of any 
 centre of unity among the elements of which the nation 
 has been composed and her exposure to those invasions 
 of foreign armies by which the powers of Europe so 
 often devastated, and at last partitioned her soil. 
 
 Few incidents in history supply us with a more 
 striking instance of the power of old names and old 
 associations than that which is to be found iii the long 
 continuance of the title, and, in some degree at least, 
 of the authority of Emperor of the West. After the 
 division of the Roman empire, this title was assigned to
 
 34 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL i. 
 
 the sovereign who, with the rank and authority of 
 Cresar, continued at Rome to rule over the Western 
 provinces. Strange indeed that it should have been 
 borne for centuries, with at least the semblance of 
 legitimate claim, by the chief of a Teutonic confedera- 
 tion ; and that, after the lapse of ages, when its 
 practical authority had long since ceased, and its once 
 high prerogatives been forgotten in disuse, the very 
 name should still command the homage which man 
 involuntarily pays even to the shadow of ancient and 
 prescriptive right. 
 
 In the year 476 the seizure of Home by Odoacer 
 extinguished the separate existence of the Empire of the 
 West. The sovereigns of Constantinople assumed that 
 upon this event the whole empire became reunited 
 under their sway, and such was the power of the mighty 
 name of Caesar that Odoacer was content to govern 
 Italy under their delegation and in nominal subjection 
 to the imperial power. Patrician of Rome was the 
 title under which he ruled the city as the supposed 
 representative of the Byzantine emperor. 1 
 
 Thirteen years later the great Theodoric estab- 
 lished the Italian kingdom of the Ostrogoths. He 
 did so under the authority of an imperial grant. 2 
 
 1 Odoacer was called by his followers King of Italy, but he himself never* 
 assumed that title. On the forced resignation of the last Western Emperor, 
 Aagustulus, the senate of Rome sent a deputation to the Emperor Zeno, 
 desiring that there might be only one Emperor, and praying that Zeno would 
 invest Odoacer with the title of Patrician. Odoacer was King of the Heruli. 
 See Gibbon, chapter 36. 
 
 * Theodoric entered Italy under an express commission from Zeno, who, 
 conferred on him the country, and authorised him to recover it from the 
 usurper Odoacer. After a long and sanguinary conflict the authority was
 
 CHAP. IT.] THE GOTHS AXD LOMBARDS. 35 
 
 During his own reign all the forms of the Roman 
 institutions were rigidly observed, and throughout the 
 sixty-four years of the Ostro-Gothic dynasty the Byzan- 
 tine court asserted in theory a sovereignty over Rome. 
 In the middle of the sixth century that theory became 
 reality by the conquests of Belisarius and Narses. 
 About the year 552, by the victorious lieutenants of 
 the emperor, the rebel kingdom of the successors of 
 Theodoric was subdued. Justinian was acknowledged 
 as sovereign of all Italy and emperor of Rome. The 
 government was delegated to an exarch or imperial 
 lieutenant, who fixed his residence at Ravenna. A 
 prefect, still bearing the title of Patrician, was civil 
 governor of Rome, and under this authority, exercised 
 in the name of the feeble and distant court of 
 Constantinople, Rome itself and the districts round 
 Ravenna remained for more than two centuries. 
 
 Over the rest of Italy the Byzantine emperors 
 retained their recovered dominion for only fifteen years. 
 In 554, Narses had completed the subjugation of the 
 kingdom of the Goths. In 568, the Longobards or 
 Lombards, under Alboin, had fixed the seat of a realm 
 of Italy at Pavia, and wrested from the emperors the 
 greater portion of the Italian soil. 
 
 divided between them. Odoacer was soon after assassinated at a banquet. 
 For the reign of Theodoric, see Gibbon, chapter 39. 
 
 Well would it have been for Italy if all her sovereigns had acted on the 
 maxim of this barbarian and heretic king, " To pretend to a dominion over 
 the conscience is to usurp the prerogative of God. By the very nature of 
 things the power of sovereigns is confined to externargovernment. They have 
 no right of punishment except over those who disturb the public peace of 
 which they are the guardians. The most dangerous heresy is that of a 
 sovereign who separates from himself a part of his subjects because they 
 believe not according to his belief." Letter of Theodoric to the Emperor Justin. 
 
 D 2
 
 3.1 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i 
 
 During the two hundred years that intervened 
 between this period and Charlemagne, the Lombard 
 kings were masters of Italy from the foot of the Alps 
 to a frontier that extended far into the districts which 
 afterwards constituted the Papal States. The kings of 
 this realm were crowned at Monza, with that celebrated 
 crown, the gift of the mother of Constantino to her 
 imperial son. Inside its golden diadem it is encircled 
 by an iron rim which tradition asserts to have been 
 formed of the nails used in the construction of the 
 cross. From the Maritime Alps to the Adriatic the 
 dominion of these sovereigns extended. In all Northern 
 Italy, Venice alone maintained in her island home her 
 independence of their sway, yielding to the Greek 
 emperors what was rather a graceful recognition of 
 ancient sovereignty than a submission to any existing 
 rule. 
 
 In the south, the Lombards succeeded in establishing 
 the Duchy of Benevento, with territories nearly co- 
 extensive with the present kingdom of Naples. The 
 republics of Naples and Amain, with some other 
 towns on the southern coast of Calabria, retained 
 their allegiance to the Byzantine emperor, who was 
 represented at Bari by an officer or commissioner 
 known by the name of Catapan. 3 
 
 In Central Italy the Exarch of Ravenna exercised 
 the authority of his imperial master. Within the city 
 of Rome itself that authority was controlled by, if not 
 divided with, the' growing influence of its bishop. In 
 a city which still retained at least the form of its 
 
 J " KaTa*cu>," Kari ray; General Comtr.i-sioner.
 
 CHAP, ii.] THE ICONOCLASTS. 37 
 
 republican institutions it is very easy to conceive the 
 position of rank and power which naturally devolved 
 upon its Pontiff under the government of emperors 
 residing on the shores of the Bosphorus. Elected by 
 the people dwelling in the midst of them invested by 
 his office with a sacred character, and supported in that 
 office by a clergy whom wealth had not yet seduced 
 from the zealous discharge of their ministrations the 
 bishop of the Roman see gathered round his person the 
 affection and the veneration of the people. Their national 
 feeling was interested in supporting an independent 
 native authority derived from the free suffrages of them- 
 selves. Their pride was equally engaged in maintain- 
 ing the high rank of their bishop as admitted Patriarch 
 of the West. As far as history throws any light upon 
 this period, it would seem that the personal character 
 of the pontiffs was calculated to maintain the influ- 
 ence which their very position almost of necessity gave 
 them. 
 
 Thus matters stood in Italy, when the zeal of the 
 Byzantine emperor against the use of images, involved 
 him in a quarrel with the Pope. 
 
 Leo the Isaurian, better known in history as the 
 Iconoclast, determined to remove from the churches 
 those images which he regarded as receiving from the 
 people a veneration that amounted to idolatry. The 
 consequence was a religious war, which resulted in the 
 complete revolt of Rome from the authority of the 
 Eastern Caesars the overthrow of the Lombard kingdom 
 and ultimately in the establishment of that new empire 
 of the West, which created relations between Italy and
 
 38 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 the Teutonic nation, the influence of which has not yet 
 passed away. 4 
 
 The dates of these transactions are not very accurately 
 fixed. In the closing years of the pontificate o. 
 Gregory II., probably about the year 72 6, 5 Leo issued 
 his edicts against images, the attempt to enforce which 
 provoked the fiercest resistance in Rome. Under the 
 guidance of Gregory, the Roman people set the edicts 
 of the emperor at defiance. Luitprand, the Lombard 
 king, took part with the Pontiff and the images of the 
 saints. He drove the exarch from Ravenna, and after a 
 sanguinary struggle an attempt of the Greek emperors 
 to recover possession of the city was repulsed. 6 
 
 The Lombard king was no doubt influenced in this 
 
 4 When Leo first issued his edicts against the images, it would appear that 
 he acted on the authority vested in the imperial power. It was not until the 
 year 752 that the unanimous decision of three hundred and forty -eight bishops 
 assembled in the council of Constantinople supported him in this course. A 
 few years later that decision was unanimously rescinded by another council at 
 Nicea, in which many of the same bishops took a part. 
 
 Those who wish for information on the history of this controversy, will find 
 it in Dean Mil man's History of Lathi Christianity (vol. ii. ch. 6, 7, 8). It is 
 superfluous to acknowledge the obligations which these pages owe to the rich 
 stores of research and learning contained in that splendid work. 
 
 * The following are the dates of the accessions of the pontiffs and the Lom- 
 bard kings, who were engaged in these transactions. 
 
 POPES. A.D. 
 
 Gregory II. ... . 715 
 
 Gregory III. . . . . 731 
 
 Zacharias .... 741 
 
 Stephen II. . . . .752 
 
 Stephen III. . .... 752 
 
 LOMBARD KINGS. A.D. 
 
 Luitprand . . . . 712 
 Hildebrand . . . .736 
 
 Rachis 744 
 
 Astolph . 749 
 
 Desiderius . . . . 757 
 
 Paul I. . . . . 768 
 
 Adrian I. . ... . 772 
 
 6 On the 26th of June, 733, the army of the emperor attempted a landing 
 at Ravenna. The citizens repelled their attack with such slaughter, that the 
 stream of the Po, which then ran nearer to Ravenna, was choked with corpses. 
 Its waters were red with blood, and for six years the people would not eat of 
 its fish. Muratori, in anno. Gibbon, chap. 49. A second fleet, sent under the
 
 CHAP, ii.] THE LOMBARDS DEFEND THE IMAGES. 39 
 
 course by the anxiety to avail himself of an opportunity 
 of extending his power, and possibly establishing his 
 complete ascendancy over Italy. With the fall of im- 
 perial power, the sovereignty of the Lombards appeared 
 to have no rival to oppose it. The complete recog- 
 nition of that sovereignty seemed almost the natural 
 consequence of the alienation of Rome from the Empire 
 of the East. A residence of nearly two centuries in 
 Italy, during which thirteen princes had successively 
 occupied the throne, had naturalised the Lombard race. 
 Their rule had been wise, generous, and just ; and 
 Italy might have accepted without dishonour a native 
 sovereign, to whom the iron crown of Constantino had 
 been transmitted in direct descent from Alboin, through 
 twelve Italian born kings. 
 
 The animosities of race were not extinct. There is 
 no doubt that the opposition of the Pontiff prevented 
 the establishment of an Italian monarchy under the 
 sceptre of the Lombard king ; but in that opposition the 
 Church only represented the fierce hatred which was 
 borne to the Lombards by the inhabitants of Rome* 
 The enmity was reciprocal. If the haughty dwellers in 
 the imperial city professed to despise the strangers as 
 barbarians, the stern soldiers of the north retaliated by 
 upbraiding them with their sensuality, their falsehood, 
 and their sloth. 7 The Roman hatred of the Longobards 
 
 command of Manes, was dispersed by a storm. Milman, book iv. chap. ix. 
 Stories of miracle were not wanting to represent both events as the interpo- 
 sition of heaven on the behalf of the defenders of the images of the saints. 
 
 7 The Lombard Bishop Luitprand, writing nearly 200 years later, thus vents 
 the hatred and contempt of his nation for the degenerate Romans : 
 
 " Quos (Romanos) nos, Longobardi scilicet, Saxones, Franci, Lotharingi, 
 Bajofirii, Suevi, Burgundioues, tauto dediguamur ut inimicos nostros,
 
 40 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 at last found vent in the popular accusation, which 
 charged them with a national infection of leprosy, a 
 disease, the origin of which, even a pontiff, in strange 
 forgetfulness of Jewish history, did not hesitate to attri- 
 bute to them. 8 Perhaps, in the eyes of pontifical ortho- 
 doxy, a worse taint appeared in the suspicion of those 
 Arian doctrines "which, in common with most of the 
 northern invaders of Italy, they had held. Whatever 
 was the cause of their determined opposition, no pro- 
 fession of the true faith or of devotion could reconcile 
 the pontiffs to Luitp rand's claims. In vain he dutifully 
 offered his cross, his sword, and his armour at the 
 shrine of the Apostles. Even the rule of a distant 
 heretic emperor was preferable to that of a resident 
 Lombard king ; and the very Pope who accepted Luit- 
 prand's aid in resisting the execution of the iconoclast 
 edicts, invoked ihat of the Venetians to replace the 
 exarch in Ravenna. 
 
 Either from loyalty, or from a fear of the ascendancy 
 of the Lombards, Gregory, in his resistance to the 
 iconoclast edicts, was careful not to renounce his alle- 
 giance to the imperial rule. The Roman senate, com- 
 pelled by the popular excitement, proposed the election 
 of a new emperor, and an expedition to Constantinople 
 
 commoti, nil aliud contumeliarum nisi 'llomane!' dicamus ; hoc solo, id 
 cst Romanorum nomine, quidquid iguobilitatis, quidquid timiditatis, quidquid 
 avaiilisB, quidquid luxurkc, quidquid mcndacii, iiiiuio quidquid yitioruin est 
 comprehendentea." 
 
 Tope Stephen, in dissuading Charlemagne from his contemplated marriage 
 with the daughter of Desideriaf, wrote to him, "Hsec proprie diabolica 
 immissio est. Quas est talis disipieutia quod vestra prseclara Francorum 
 gens perfida ac fictentiBBinia Langobardorum gente polluatur, qusein numero 
 gentium ne quaquam imputatur, do cujus natione et leprosorum genus oriri 
 certum est." Capefigup, Life of Charlemagne. Codex Carolinui.
 
 CUAP. ii.] POPULAR REVOLT. 41 
 
 to place him on the throne. The design was prevented 
 by the interposition of the Pope. The fury of the 
 people was excited to the utmost by reports, well or 
 ill-founded, that messengers were sent from Constanti- 
 nople to attempt the life of Gregory. The Duke of 
 Rome fell a victim to the popular passion. The Exarch 
 of Ravenna was killed in a tumult in that city. 9 Oaths 
 were fiercely taken by excited crowds, which bound 
 every man among them to defend their pontiff with 
 their lives. The Pope endeavoured to restrain the 
 violence of the multitude, and some of those who were 
 suspected with reason of having come upon the errand 
 of liis assassination, owed their lives to the interference 
 of the man whose destruction they had been sent to 
 accomplish. He was successful in maintaining, at least 
 the show of allegiance to the Byzantine court. The 
 new exarch who was sent from Constantinople was 
 permitted to reside at Ravenna. Upon the death of 
 Gregory, in 730, the election of his successor was sub- 
 mitted to the imperial representative for approval. 10 
 Several years later, the head of a pretender to the 
 empire was sent to Constantinople as the token of the 
 loyalty of the Roman people. 11 
 
 Luitprand had made the popular commotion the 
 pretext for occupying the provinces that belonged to 
 the empire, and he continued the occupation when the 
 revolt had been successful in its object of defeating the 
 execution of the iconoclast decrees. The seizure of 
 
 a Muratori, in anno 730. 
 
 10 Milman's Latin Christianity, vol. ii. p. 212. 
 
 11 Muratori, in anno.
 
 42 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 these territories was a wrong upon the Roman Republic, 
 the name by which, under all the vicissitudes of its 
 rule, the Roman commonwealth was known. The 
 demand for the restitution to the republic of these 
 territories was made in the name of the emperor, the 
 senate, the people, and the Church. Luitprand retained 
 them in defiance of that demand. 
 
 It needed no great sagacity to see that the extension 
 of their dominion over these provinces made the Lom- 
 bard kings the masters of Italy, and involved the sub- 
 jugation at no distant day of the imperial city to their 
 rule. The struggle was no longer against the power of 
 the Greek emperor, but against those Lombard en- 
 croachments which plainly menaced Rome. The court 
 of Constantinople could offer no protection ; the Roman 
 people were too far enervated from their ancient vigour 
 to defend themselves. Against the dreaded power of 
 the Lombards, the Popes sought in the name of re- 
 ligion aid, which secular influence could never have 
 attracted to Rome. 
 
 The attention of Europe was then turned to Charles 
 Martel, who, at Tours, in 732, had driven back 
 that Mahomedan invasion which threatened to reduce 
 all Christendom beneath the Mussulman sway. So 
 early as 739, some say at an earlier period, 12 appli- 
 cation was made for help against the Lombards to 
 the chieftains of France. In that year, certainly, am- 
 bassadors were sent to Charles Martel, imploring his 
 aid to the Pontiff, the people, and the Church of Rome. 
 With letters which express a terror of Lombard rule 
 
 11 Anastasius. Vita Stephani. Ital. Scriptores, vol. iii.
 
 CHAI\ n] POPE ZACHARIAS. 43 
 
 that is almost indescribable, the keys of the sepulchre 
 of St. Peter were submissively sent to the Frankish 
 hero, and the offices of patrician and consul placed 
 at his disposal on condition that he would rescue the 
 holy city of the Apostle from the menaced tyranny of 
 the Lombard. 13 
 
 Charles Martel and Luitprand were united by bands 
 of the closest alliance. Luitprand had crossed the Alps 
 to aid Charles against the Saracens. According to a 
 usage of the times, Pepin, the heir of the Frankish king, 
 had been with great ceremony accepted as an adopted 
 son of the monarch of Pavia. 14 These considerations 
 may possibly have had their weight, but it was not until 
 many years later that any aid was given to Rome from 
 the side of France. The chief obstacle to the total 
 subjugation of Italy to Luitprand appears to have been 
 found in the hostility of the Lombard Duke of Spoleto, 
 who had always asserted his independence of the king, 
 and from the beginning of the troubles had been the 
 close ally of the Pope and the people of Rome. 15 
 
 When Luitprand actually approached Rome with an 
 invading army, in 741, Pope Zacharias proceeded to 
 his camp, and succeeded in effecting a reconciliation, in 
 which the exarch, the Lombard monarch, and the 
 Church and people of Rome, were all included. Luit- 
 prand, however, still retained possession of the pro- 
 vinces he had seized. The Pope undertook a journey 
 to Pavia in 743, and by the power of his remonstrances 
 
 13 Muratori. Letter of Gregory in Codex Carolinus. 
 
 14 Muratori ad annum 735 ; Paulus Diac., lib. vi. c. 53. 
 
 15 Muraton.
 
 44 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. 
 
 succeeded in inducing the Lombard king to restore 
 two-thirds of these provinces ; the remaining third 
 was retained until the result of an embassy sent to 
 Constantinople should be known. 
 
 From this visit of Zacharias to Pavia a truce subsisted 
 between the Roman and the Lombards for a period of 
 some time. In the days of Pope Stephen II. and King 
 Astolph the quarrel was renewed. Astolph occupied 
 once more the exarchate. An imperial ambassador was 
 sent from Byzantium to join the pontiff and the Roman 
 people, in insisting on its restoration. The Lombard 
 monarch declined, or evaded compliance with the de- 
 mand. A pressing message was sent by Stephen to the 
 emperor, imploring him to send an army to enforce his 
 authority. A reply arrived, announcing that no assist- 
 ance could be expected. Astolph marched his army 
 towards Rome, and Italy seemed destined to fall under 
 the dominion of the Lombard king. 
 
 Letters and embassies to Pepin, the son of Charles 
 Martel, had been already tried in vain. Stephen deter- 
 mined to try the effect of a personal appeal to Astolph 
 at Pavia (A.D. 753). He was received with respect, but 
 his mission was without success. At Pavia the Pontiff 
 met some of the followers of Pepin. Encouraged by 
 their representations, he determined to cross the Alps 
 personally, to solicit from Pepin the assistance which 
 letters and embassies had failed to obtain. 
 
 Continuing his journey northward, he escaped by 
 hard riding the troop which the king had sent to inter- 
 cept his passage. 16 Pepin returned with the Pontiff, at 
 
 Muratori. The King at first, ia the awe of his presence, assented to his
 
 CHAP, ii.] "DONATION OF PEPIN." 45 
 
 the head of an army, and Astolph invested in his royal 
 city of Pavia, was compelled to enter into a compact 
 to give back the usurped provinces to Rome, a compact 
 confirmed by the solemnity of an oath. Hardly, how- 
 ever, had Pepin's army recrossed the Alps, when 
 Astolph forgot both the compact and his oath. The 
 provinces were not restored, and the army of the 
 Lombards advanced to the walls of Rome. 
 
 Pepin was not slow in responding to the appeal made 
 to him by Stephen, in a letter written in the name of 
 St. Peter, promising him everlasting salvation, as the 
 reward of the rescue of Rome. 17 Astolph was forced 
 by the approach of a French army to withdraw his troops 
 from Rome. Pepin now compelled, not merely a pro- 
 mise, but the actual restitution. The great object was 
 attained the Lombard encroachments were driven 
 back the Lombard kingdom was restrained within its 
 ancient limits the Roman territory was free. To 
 
 journey : when he had left him some time, he sent a body of horsemen in 
 pursuit. Had they overtaken Stephen, the whole history of Italy might have 
 assumed a very different form. 
 
 There is no doubt that Pepin was influenced by gratitude to the Pope for 
 the essential service he rendered him in crowning him on his visit king of 
 France an act which gave the sanction of the Church to his acceptance of 
 the invitation given to him by the French people to assume the sovereignty 
 which was nominally possessed by the effete and imbecile race of the Merovin- 
 gian kings. 
 
 J 7 The correspondence of this period between the Popes and the Frankish 
 sovereign is very fully preserved in a collection made, at least in great part, 
 by Charlemagne himself, and which is known as the Codex Carolimis. 
 The Codex Carolinus occupies the 98th volume of Migne's "Patrologiae 
 cursus completus." 
 
 In one of these letters the Pope writes to Pepin in the name of St. Peter, 
 commencing the strange epistle with the words, " Peter, by the will of God 
 the Apostle of Jesus Christ, to Pepin, King of the Franks and Patrician of 
 the Romans."
 
 46 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 whom should the surrender be made \ Pepin had 
 crossed the Alps from motives of religious devotion. 
 It was natural that he should desire to consecrate the 
 result of his expedition by a religious offering, in 
 accordance with the piety of its motive. No one had 
 a better claim to represent the Roman republic than 
 the Pontiff, to whose energy and that of his predeces- 
 sors, the preservation of Rome from the Lombards was 
 due. Throughout all the transactions he had appeared 
 as the chief and the representative of the Roman state. 
 The successor of St. Peter was on every ground the most 
 suitable person to whom the provinces should be recon- 
 veyed. Pepin resolved that it should be so. It was to 
 the deputies of the Pope that the cities of the restored 
 districts were desired to open their gates and formally 
 give up their keys. Not content with the delivery of 
 possession, Pepin insisted on the execution of a formal 
 deed by which the usurped provinces were surrendered. 
 The exarch, who still represented the shadow of im- 
 perial authority, claimed their surrender to himself, but 
 Pepin replied that he had come to show his devotion 
 to St. Peter. A deed by which the territories of the 
 exarchate were restored to St. Peter and his successor, 
 and to the church and republic of Rome, 18 was solemnly 
 deposited by Pepin on the tomb of the Apostle ; and the 
 
 M No record of this deed remains : its existence has been doubted ; but it 
 would appear without reasonable grounds. There seems no valid foundation 
 for questioning the fact, that when he compelled restitution of the usurped 
 territories, he had the surrender made to the Pope. It may, perhaps, be 
 considered certain, that the deed reserved the imperial rights, and that the 
 surrender was made to the Pope as representing the Church and people of 
 Rome ; but it is equally certain that it conferred, and was intended to confer,
 
 CHAP, n] CHARLEMAGNE. 47 
 
 Frankish chieftain, already king of France, returned to 
 his dominions, invested, amid the grateful acclamations 
 of the rescued citizens, -with the dignity of Consul and 
 Patrician of Rome. 19 
 
 Twenty years later (A.D. 775), Charles, the son of 
 Pepin, led once more a French army into Italy to over- 
 throw for ever the dynasty of the Lombards. In oppo- 
 sition to the earnest and vehement remonstrances of the 
 Pope, he had married the daughter of Desiderius, the 
 King of the Lombards. Ambitious views had entered 
 into the considerations which induced this marriage. 
 Desiderius had no son, and his brother, Carloman, 
 having wedded the only remaining daughter, Charles 
 regarded himself as heir to the Italian crown. Not 
 many years after his marriage he divorced his queen. 
 Her indignant father claimed from the Pope the recog- 
 nition of his grandchild, the son of Carloman, as rightful 
 heir of Pepin ; such, it was said, was the origin of a 
 dispute which again made the Lombards menace Rome. 
 Charles hastened into Italy to support the Pontiff in a 
 quarrel which was in reality his own. 
 
 After two years investment of Pavia, he obtained the 
 
 upon the Pontiff all the rights which the Exarch of Ravenna had exercised. It 
 was not only the first establishment of a territorial sovereignty in the Pope, 
 but also the first formal identification of the Roman Church and State. 
 
 19 See the observations on this transaction, post, vol. ii. chap. v. The above 
 account is that which is collected from a careful examination of all the records 
 of the period. Those who may desire to judge for themselves may consult 
 the annals of Muratori, and those of Baronius, from the years 726 to 754 
 the letters in the Codex Carolinus, and the lives of the Popes of the period, 
 collected in Muratori, " Italicarum rerum scriptores," and in Migne's Patrology, 
 vol. 148 among modern writers, Milman's Latin Christianity, and for an 
 able and temperate statement of the views of the Papal Advocates, Miley's 
 History of the Papal States.
 
 48 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 abdication of Desiderius ; and, in the cathedral of Milan, 
 he placed on his own head the iron crown which he had 
 once expected to gain in another right than that of con- 
 quest. He altered none of the laws, he abolished none 
 of the customs, he confiscated none of the fiefs of the 
 Lombard realm : in passing under the dominion of a 
 Frank monarch, the Lombards felt no change. Grants 
 of lands which he contrived to find for some of his 
 Frank followers constituted the only sign that a new 
 dynasty reigned. 
 
 Approaching Home, he was met on the classic slopes 
 of the Aventine by a procession of the magistrates and 
 people, who hailed him by the title of Patrician. In 
 the ceremonies of Passion Week, he walked on the right 
 hand of the Pontiff; the senate renewed for him the 
 office of Consul, and saluted him as Liberator of Rome. 
 Before returning to France he confirmed and extended 
 the grants which his father had already made. 
 
 King of France and Italy and Patrician of Rome, 
 with dominion extending over Germany, Hungary and 
 Spain, Charles ruled territories not unworthy of the 
 old empire. Upon the occasion of one of his visits to 
 Rome, it was determined to revive in his person the 
 almost forgotten dignity of the Emperor of the West. 
 The time was come when all allegiance to the Greek 
 sovereigns might, with safety and advantage, be thrown 
 off ; and on the last year of the century (A.D. 800), at 
 the festival of Christmas, after the celebration of the 
 solemn rites of the day, Pope Leo placed upon his 
 head, in the church of St. Peter, a golden crown, while 
 the people shouted, "Long live Charles Augustus! Long
 
 CHAP, n.] THE IMPERIAL CROWN. 49 
 
 live the Emperor of the Romans ! Long live Charles 
 the Great!" 20 
 
 Thus, in the person of a French, or rather German 
 potentate, was created that new Empire of the West, 
 the claims arising from which occupied the attention 
 of statesmen in discussing the provisions of the treaty 
 of Paris in 1814, more than a thousand years after- 
 wards. Throughout the whole course of those thousand 
 years, Italy has felt the consequences of the act which 
 placed her diadem on the brow of a stranger. The 
 election of a national emperor, or the elevation of the 
 Lombard king, would have given Italy her place among 
 the nations of the earth. One opportunity, at least, of 
 establishing the independence and unity of Italy was 
 lost. 
 
 Strange were the consequences which flowed from the 
 ecclesiastical dispute upon the subject of images. It 
 produced, in the words of the historian of Latin Christi- 
 anity, "the total disruption of the bond between the East 
 and the West, the severance of the Italian province from 
 the Byzantine empire, the great accession of power to 
 the Papacy which took the lead in this revolution, the 
 introduction of the Frankish kings into the politics of 
 
 20 It is said that Charles was unaware of the intention when he went to the 
 Church. The act of the Pope was the result of a council, in which many 
 persons were joined. 
 
 " Visum est ipsi Apostolico Leoni et universis sanctis patribus qui in ipso 
 concilio cum reliquo Christiano populo ipsum Carolum Regem Francorum 
 imperatorem nominare decrevissent ; qui ipsam Romam tenebat, ubi semper 
 Csesares sedere soliti erant seu reliquas sedes quas ipse per Italiam seu 
 Galliam necnon et Germaniam tenebat ; quia Deus omnipotena has omnes sedes 
 in potestatem ejus concessit, ideo justum eis esse videbatur ut ipse cum Dei 
 adjutorio, et universo Christiano populo petente, ipsum nomen haberet." 
 Lambecio. Muratori, in anno 800. 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Italy, and eventually the establishment of the Western 
 empire under Charlemagne." 21 From the part taken 
 by Gregory in that contest, results ensued of which 
 neither he nor any one engaged in the controversy could 
 have dreamed. The defence of the veneration of 
 images led directly to the establishment of a territorial 
 sovereignty in the popes. The donations of Pepin and 
 Charlemagne were the spoils of the defeated iconoclasts. 
 The exarchate of Ravenna might almost be said to have 
 been the reward of the protector of the worship of the 
 saints. We can trace, even to the present generation, 
 effects which followed from the resistance of the pon- 
 tiffs to the edict which commanded the removal of 
 images from the church. 
 
 The Western Empire created or revived in the 
 person of^ Charlemagne, continued in his family until 
 887. In that year a diet of Germany formally deposed 
 his great-grandson Charles, known in history as " the 
 Fat," and the dukes of the five German nations elected 
 one of their own number to be sovereign in his stead. 
 
 Italy, like Germany, emancipated itself from the sway 
 of the degenerate descendants of Charles, who reigned 
 for some time longer in France. Unhappily, however, 
 the succession to its throne was the object of a conflict 
 which involved the country in perpetual dissensions. 
 The dukes of Friuli and Spoleto claimed the crown, 
 each on the strength of an alliance with the royal 
 family of Charlemagne. For thirty-six years Berenger, 
 Duke of Friuli, the first elected king, succeeded in 
 maintaining his title against his rival of the house of 
 
 " Latin Christianity, book iv. chap. viL p. 147.
 
 CHAP, ii.] ITALIAN EMPERORS. 51 
 
 Spoleto, and against other claimants whose pretensions 
 were set up in opposition to his own. It appeared to be 
 acknowledged that the imperial crown of Rome belonged 
 to the successors of Charlemagne in the Italian realm. 
 Berenger was crowned Emperor by the Pope. So were 
 any, even of his competitors, who succeeded in making 
 good a precarious and temporary possession of the throne 
 of Pavia. 22 Once more it seemed that a native dynasty 
 might rule ; but the curse of Italy prevailed. Domestic 
 dissensions ended by inviting foreign interference. 
 
 The period between the extinction of the Carlovin- 
 gian power and the invitation to Otho to assume the 
 Italian crown, was spent in civil war. In 952 the 
 native dynasty yielded to German power, and Otho, the 
 third of the elected Saxon kings of Germany, added to 
 his Teutonic sovereignty the iron crown of the Lom- 
 bards and the imperial diadem of the empire of the 
 West. In the interval, ten native princes had occupied 
 by tenures, more or less lasting, the throne of Italy. 
 Five of them had been crowned as emperors of Rome. 
 
 The invitation to Otho came from the nobility them- 
 selves. Italy was oppressed by evils from which the 
 native dynasty seemed unable to save her. Hugo, 
 Count of Provence, had been elected King of Italy, 
 but his power seemed only capable of oppressing the 
 people whom he could not protect. Cruel to his pwn 
 subjects, he was feeble against their foes. The fierce 
 inroads of the Hungarians ravaged the provinces of 
 Northern Italy. The Saracens, who had seized on the 
 island of Sicily, plundered the south and the west. 
 
 22 See the list of emperors at the end of Chapter V. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 Lombardy was torn by civil dissensions between rival 
 claimants for the throne. Berenger, the grandson and 
 namesake of the emperor, with difficulty escaped from 
 the power of the tyrant, and presenting himself at the 
 court of Otho, invoked his aid. The nation soon joined 
 him in seeking protection against the ravages that were 
 laying waste their country. Otho passed into Italy with 
 an army and deposed Hugo ; assuming the supreme 
 sovereignty, he permitted Berenger to hold from him 
 the kingdom as a fief; ten years afterwards he re- 
 turned, at the earnest solicitations both of the people 
 and the Pope ; deposing his vassal for oppressions that 
 had been made the subject of complaint, he assumed 
 himself the government of the Lombard kingdom, and 
 not long afterwards received at Rome the imperial 
 crown. His descendants who succeeded him in the 
 German sovereignty were without opposition acknow- 
 ledged as kings of Italy and emperors of the West. 
 
 These Saxon emperors ruled Italy with a strong hand. 
 Otho convened a council at Rome which deposed the 
 very pope who had placed the crown upon the emperor's 
 head. Attempts to excite insurrection in the imperial 
 city were punished with merciless severity, and both 
 Rome and the pontiffs were made to feel that in the 
 emperor they had found really a master, and not one 
 to exercise mere nominal control. 
 
 It has been said that Otho the Great was the 
 sovereign who obtained or recovered for the kingdom of 
 Germany the imperial crown ; it was not, however, 
 until seventy years afterwards that the dependence of 
 Italy upon Germany was established. The lords of
 
 CHAP, ii.] OTHO THE GREAT. 53 
 
 Lombardj had elected Otho to be their king. No change 
 was made in the laws of the realm under which hereditary 
 succession was usual, but election by the people, or by 
 the nobility in the name of the people, was a right. 
 Upon each succession the form of election was observed. 
 The election of the Saxon chiefs to the throne of Italy 
 and the empire was made by the Italian people and 
 those of Home ; there was no obligation upon either 
 again to follow the German choice. Upon the death of 
 the last of the Saxon emperors without issue (A.D. 1002) 
 a diet of Lombardy conferred the crown upon Audoin, 
 Marquis of Ivrea. But the jealousies of the feudal lords 
 and of the cities had already formed a strong German 
 party among a people who had learned the fatal prece- 
 dent of settling their disputes by foreign intervention. 
 Two years afterwards a rival diet was held at Roncaglia, 
 under the presidency of the Archbishop of Milan, and 
 at his instance, this diet elected Henry, Duke of 
 Bavaria, whom the Germans had chosen as their chief. 
 Audoin maintained his authority for some time, but 
 finally retired into a monastery, and in 1014 Henry 
 received coronation from the Pope. 
 
 Four times had the Lombards thus elected the King 
 of Germany to their throne, and four times had the 
 object of their choice been acknowledged as Emperor of 
 the West. Although in each instance this had been 
 accomplished by the election of the Italians themselves, 
 the precedents were held sufficient to establish a right. 
 On the death of Henry (A.D. 1024), the national party 
 vainly endeavoured to place a native prince upon the 
 throne. The Archbishop of Milan, accompanied by some
 
 54 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 lay lords, without waiting for a diet, proceeded to 
 Germany to offer the kingdom of Italy to Conrad, 
 Duke of Franconia, the newly elected German king. 
 The archbishop and his companions did not profess to 
 come with any invitation in the name of the Italian 
 people. They pressed him to assume the crown as his 
 right. He did so, accepting it as an appendage to 
 his German sovereignty, and without any attempt at 
 an election in Italy, he was crowned both at Monza 
 and at Rome. 
 
 Thus was established the right of the electors of the 
 German confederation to nominate the Italian king ; or 
 to speak more accurately, thus was the crown of Italy 
 made dependent on that of Germany. With Conrad, and 
 not with Otho, the subjugation of Italy begins. It has 
 been said that the terms of this strange submission were 
 embodied in some formal document or ordinance, every 
 record of which has been long since lost. From that 
 period it became one of the unquestioned maxims of 
 public law, that the mere election of the German diet 
 conferred in itself the title to the Italian as well as to 
 the German crown. 
 
 The impulse of the mind is at first to visit with 
 unqualified condemnation the churchman and his fol- 
 lowers, who interposed to destroy once more the hope of 
 a native dynasty, and to subject their country to that 
 which was now in all respects a foreign yoke. In the view 
 of enlightened patriotism nothing can justify the appeal 
 to foreign domination, always sure in the end to inflict 
 evils worse than any domestic inconveniences which it 
 is invoked to escape. But there is strong reason to
 
 CHAP, ii.] CONRAD THE SALIC. 55 
 
 suspect, that could we know the whole history of the 
 transaction, we would find that it originated in a 
 struggle between the spirit of municipal freedom and 
 feudal power a struggle in which the Church, as usual, 
 sided with the people. Possibly there was mingled with 
 this something of the old animosity of race, and the 
 Roman prelate may have invited, as Pope Gregory did 
 of old, the presence of the foreigner, to prevent the 
 crown from settling on the head of a Lombard. 
 
 One of the earliest acts of Conrad was to hold an 
 assembly at Roncaglia, and promulgate a constitution 
 which long formed the basis of Italian feudal law. Its 
 provisions abridged the powers of the great territorial 
 lords, and extended, in some degree at least, popular 
 privilege, by rendering secure and independent the 
 tenures of their inferior feudatories. 
 
 From the days of Conrad the crown of Italy became 
 " appendant of right " upon that of Germany. In the 
 loss of all traces of the record of the transactions, it is 
 not easy to tell upon what claims of right this preten- 
 sion rested, but it was probably referred to the supposed 
 succession of the German emperor to Charlemagne. All 
 rights that belonged to the crowns of Germany and 
 Italy, were vested in the elect emperor immediately 
 on his election by the German body ; but it was estab- 
 lished as a maxim of law, that he was not to assume 
 the title of emperor of the Holy Roman Empire until 
 he received coronation at the hands of the Pope. In 
 the interval that elapsed between their election and 
 this ceremony, the German sovereigns were at first 
 styled Kings of Italy. In later times the middle term
 
 56 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 of King of the Romans was employed. 23 This etiquette 
 was strictly observed, until the haughty pretensions of 
 the Pontiff obliged the Germanic diet to declare that 
 the right of the emperor to exercise the power and 
 assume the name was complete by their own election. 
 In later times the ceremony of Papal coronation was 
 altogether given up. 24 
 
 Such is the history of the establishment in Italy 
 of that German power which, it has been already 
 observed, perpetuated the name, and in some degree 
 the authority of the emperors of Home. To the period 
 when that dignity was first conferred on Charlemagne, 
 the imperial city had acknowledged the rule of the 
 Cajsars, and the election or appointment of the great 
 chieftain was only a return to the separation between 
 the Eastern and Western divisions of the empire, which 
 had previously existed for many years. The title of 
 Charlemagne to the empire was as legally valid as that 
 of most of his predecessors from the days of Augustus 
 down, and by his imperial " brother " at Constantinople, 
 he was recognised as legitimate Emperor of the West 
 a recognition which was afterwards scornfully refused to 
 the German kings who claimed to be his successors in 
 that dignity. 
 
 u King of the Romans was at one period used to designate the person 
 elected in the lifetime of the emperor as his successor. Among the ancient 
 emperors Caesar had been similarly used. 
 
 M In 1377, in a "comitia" of the German empire, a decree was promulgated 
 under Louis IV., by which the person elected was declared entitled both to 
 exercise the power and bear the name of Emperor, without coronation by the 
 Pope. Goldast's Conttitutivnet ImperMet. 
 
 It does not appear that any one so assumed the title before Ferdinand I. 
 In the days of his successor, Maximilian II., a second decree upon the subject 
 was enacted.
 
 CHAP, ii.] THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 57 
 
 History, perhaps, records nothing more strange than 
 the long continuance of this imperial dynasty in the 
 German sovereignty to which it was transferred. Say 
 what we will of the unsubstantial nature in latter times 
 of the power that followed the imperial title and even 
 this power was by no means so unreal as has been 
 supposed it is impossible that the imagination should 
 not be impressed by the fact, that the dominion of the 
 lords of the Eternal City was represented in the time of 
 men still living ; that in the early days of the nine- 
 teenth century there existed a sovereign, who wore by 
 legal right the crown of Constantino, and proved, 
 through an almost uninterrupted chain of succession, 
 his claim to the dignity and title of Augustus. 
 
 It belongs to other annals to describe the pomp and 
 splendour which attended the majesty of the prince 
 who was elected to fill the first throne of Christendom. 
 The grand officers of his household were electors of the 
 empire, who held the rank of crowned heads. In the 
 ceremony of his coronation, sovereign princes carried 
 his robes, arid waited at his table. In the grand 
 council of his empire sat chieftains who were kings, 
 except in the allegiance which they owed to himself. 
 The monarch of this august sovereignty inaugurated 
 his reign by three distinct ceremonies of coronation. 
 At Frankfort he received the silver crown of Germany ; 
 at Monza or Milan the iron circlet of the Lombards 
 was placed upon his head, and at Rome the Pontiff 
 crowned him with the golden diadem which belonged 
 to the Emperors of the West. 
 
 These crowns represented three separate sovereign-
 
 58 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 ties. As Emperor, or rather King of Germany, he was 
 the head of the Teutonic confederation, and received 
 the homage of those princes, and they were many, 
 who, though not members of that confederation, ac- 
 knowledged the feudal lordship of the chief of the 
 German nations. As King of Italy, he exercised the 
 sovereignty which of old belonged to the Lombard 
 monarchs ; while, as Emperor of Rome, he claimed 
 whatever power and authority descended to the suc- 
 cessor of the Caesars. 
 
 The empire of Otho, like that of Charlemagne, ex- 
 tended no further south than Rome. The Lombard 
 duchy of Benevento maintained its independence of 
 those who had succeeded to the power of the Ij&mbard 
 kings. The island of Sicily was in the hands of the 
 Saracens, and the five republics of the south in the 
 days of the first Otho preserved their allegiance to the 
 Byzantine Ca3sars. 
 
 Before long these southern provinces of the Peninsula 
 fell under the dominion of the Norman adventurers, 
 whom they had first invited to protect their coasts 
 against the inroads of the Sicilian Saracens. The 
 Duchy of Benevento, the Greek republics, with the 
 island of Sicily, all became, in the earlier years of the 1 1th 
 century, the possession of Robert and Roger Guiscard, 
 the bold Norman chiefs. Those cities yielded to them 
 which had never before been subject even to the nominal 
 sway of any master but an Emperor of Rome ; and a 
 kingdom was formed in which the descendants of Guis- 
 card bore sway over the whole of the south. 25 This 
 
 51 The history of the Norman invasion of these provinces is curious, not the
 
 CHAP, ii.] THE NORMANS IN ITALY. 59 
 
 Norman monarchy owned no feudal superior but the 
 Pope. 
 
 less so because it includes the singular origin of the papal claim of feudal 
 right over Naples. 
 
 Iii one of the first years of the llth century a small band of Norman 
 pilgrims visited Salerno on their way back from their pilgrimage to the Holy 
 Land. During the stay of the pious palmers, the Saracens of Sicily appeared 
 before the town with their usual demand for contribution. The Normans 
 were as brave as they were pious ; and placing themselves at the head of the 
 towns-people, drove the haughty invaders to their ships. Gradually pilgrims 
 and emigrants were attracted to settle in the service of the Greeks. A. 
 colony was formed in Aversa, and at last a band of three hundred cavaliers 
 who had followed the Catapan of the empire to accomplish a successful expe- 
 dition into Sicily, but were treated by him with ingratitude, revenged them- 
 selves by exciting their associates to conquer Apulia and divide it among 
 themselves (A.D. 1042). 
 
 The conduct of the Normans did not accord with the sacred character of 
 the appearance of the first of their numbers. They were guilty of the 
 sacrilege of robbing the shrines of the saints, and plundering monasteries of 
 their possessions. Pope Leo IX., who had been elevated to the papacy while 
 still a layman on the nomiuation of his relative Henry III., led in person the 
 army that entered Apulia to redress the wrongs of the Church. His general- 
 ship waa not successful, and the Pope was taken prisoner in a pitched battle in 
 which his troops were utterly routed. The conquerors prostrated themselves 
 before him and implored pardon of all their offences, above all for that of 
 having appeared against him in arms. Struck by their submission their 
 illustrious prisoner granted them absolution, and confirmed this spiritual 
 blessing by the temporal gift of investiture of all the lands which they had 
 conquered or of those which they should afterwards conquer in Southern 
 Italy, on condition that they should hold them as fiefs of the Holy See. The 
 battle of Civitella, in which the Pope was taken prisoner, was fought in 1053. 
 A few years afterwards their chieftain received from the Pope investiture as 
 Duke of Apulia and Calabria, the title under which he ruled his conquests. 
 Robert inscribed on his sword the motto, " Appulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi 
 servit et Afer." 
 
 His younger brother Roger, with a mere handful of Normans successfully 
 attempted the conquest of Sicily, and held it under the title of Count as a fief 
 of his brother's duchy. The conquest of Amain speedily followed. The 
 date of the subjection of Gaieta is unknown. Naples did not yield until the 
 year 1137, when it surrendered although supported by the republic of Pisa, 
 the Emperor, and the Pope. In the same year the Pisan fleet, while it succoured 
 Naples, razed Amalfi to the ground. Two years afterwards the triumphant 
 Norman chief received from the Pope investiture as King of the Two Sicilies, 
 holding his realm as a fief of the Holy See, by the payment of an animal 
 tribute, which, in later years, became that of the white palfrey laden, with six 
 thousand ounces of gold.
 
 60 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL i. 
 
 Within the limits of the kingdom of Italy, the German 
 sovereigns united in their own persons both royal and 
 imperial rights. In the language of the Germanic 
 jurists this kingdom was spoken of as a peculiar of the 
 emperor, as held, not under the authority of the diet, 
 but as a species of appendage to the imperial crown. 
 The revenues which were paid to the emperor formed a 
 portion of the resources that replenished his privy 
 purse. These revenues principally consisted in cus- 
 tomary subsidies from the cities, and the feudal pay- 
 ments which usage had established from the holders of 
 inferior tenures to the supreme feudal lord. The real 
 nature of the supremacy exercised by these monarchs 
 may best be understood by the fact that they had no 
 representative of their sovereignty in their absence ; 
 their own visits were rare. In such a state of things it 
 may well be believed that the royal and imperial pre- 
 rogatives were not very clearly established, or very 
 distinctly defined. In the great contest which finally 
 determined them, Frederick Barbarossa found eminent 
 jurists, and even a national council, to concede to the 
 emperors almost all the attributes of absolute power. 
 But in its ordinary exercise it would appear that this 
 power was scarcely felt. They generally visited Italy 
 to receive coronation, and to accept the homage of their 
 subjects, and returned to their German possessions, 
 leaving the feudal princes and the cities in undisturbed 
 management of their own affairs. The exercise of sove- 
 reignty by the emperors was in their absence confined 
 to its external manifestation the use of their names in 
 all public acts, and the impress of their effigies on the
 
 CHAP. IL] GERMAN EMPERORS. 61 
 
 coins. They occasionally exercised the power of holding 
 national councils, and inquiring into abusas committed 
 by any of their vassals. Every feudal lord and every free 
 city was bound to send a quota to the national militia 
 when the emperor demanded it. On his visits to Italy 
 each city which was honoured by the imperial presence 
 defrayed all his expenses during his stay. 26 The duty 
 of providing lodgings was included in these charges, 
 and by the provident care of the citizens, an imperial 
 palace was built in each principal city ready to accom- 
 modate the emperor and his suite. As one of the 
 imperial prerogatives suspended the authority of all in- 
 ferior jurisdictions during the presence of the emperor, 
 many of the cities obviated this inconvenience by taking 
 care that the site of the palace should be outside the 
 walls. 
 
 Of the events of the century which elapsed, from the 
 coronation of Otho in 950 to the election, in 1054, of 
 Henry IV., history gives but little information ; but 
 there is no reason to doubt that at this period both the 
 feudal lords and the free cities virtually enjoyed the 
 exercise of sovereign rights. During the eighty years 
 that elapsed from Otho to Conrad the Salic, twelve visits 
 were paid by the emperors to Italy. The observation is 
 true, that government is the first necessity of man ; in 
 the absence of the emperors it became, by the mere 
 force of circumstances, vested in those local authorities 
 
 26 In the rather uncouth Latinity of the jurists the Emperor's dues upon 
 his visits to Italy were described as, " parata," " foderum," and " mansiona- 
 ticum." Parata was the cost of repairing the roads and erecting bridges 
 for his passage ; foderum, that of provisions for himself, his retinue, and his 
 guard ; mansionaticum, of their lodging.
 
 62 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 which possessed anything like prescriptive, or posses- 
 sory right. The assemblages of the states held by 
 the emperors upon the plains of Roncaglia, in which 
 laws were promulgated and complaints redressed, in- 
 terfered but little with the ordinary exercise of power. 
 
 Within the kingdom of Italy the emperor exercised 
 the rights of lord paramount over chieftains and 
 municipalities, who administered under him a real and 
 almost independent government of their own. 
 
 Rome had never been included in that kingdom, and 
 over that city or its territory he could only claim the 
 authority whatever it might amount to, which had been 
 transferred from the Byzantine emperors to the imperial 
 crown of Charlemagne. 
 
 In the meagre annals of the tumultuous and dis- 
 turbed condition of Rome, it is not easy, nor is it of 
 importance, to fix with precision the exact nature of the 
 control over civil affairs which the emperors exercised. 
 Nominally at least, they were within the imperial city 
 supreme. When the title of Emperor was conferred upon 
 Charlemagne, Pope Leo was appointed Patrician of the 
 exarchate of Ravenna ; an office which invested him with 
 civil power, but in avowed subordination to the imperial 
 authority. The forms of the Roman republic still survived. 
 A licentious and powerful aristocracy contended for the 
 mastery of civil affairs at Rome. The vigorous rule 
 of Charlemagne, and of his immediate successors, re- 
 pressed these disorders, which the ambitions and the 
 contests of great families produced ; but with the fall 
 of his dynasty, Rome appears to have become the prey 
 of an anarchy and turbulence, in which it would be
 
 CHAP, n.] DISORDERS OF ROME. 63 
 
 difficult to say that any authority, except that of faction, 
 prevailed. 
 
 The real power exercised by the emperors in Rome 
 was the control which they were able to establish over 
 the election of the Pope ; and with the very origin of 
 the German dominion in the person of Otho, began the 
 struggle for this object, which constitutes the first grand 
 contest between Italy and her Teutonic masters. 
 
 There are few matters connected with the ancient 
 institutions of the Christian Church deserving of more 
 attention than the unquestioned fact, that bishops in 
 the early ages, were elected by the people. 27 Such a 
 mode of election impressed upon the whole of the 
 
 17 No subject would better repay a full and an accurate examination. In 
 this incidental notice it is not possible to do more than glance at the considera- 
 tions which it obviously suggests. It is needless, even were it possible, in 
 these pages to adduce authorities to support a position which no writer denies. 
 Charles Butler, one of the most learned and elegant of modern Roman Catholic 
 writers, thus describes the primitive practice : 
 
 " In the early ages of the Church bishops were elected at a congregation of 
 the clergy and laity of the diocese. One or more of the neighbouring bishops 
 presided at the elections : the whole congregation elected, the bishops conse- 
 crated. If, on some occasions, the bishops did not acquiesce in the choice of 
 the congregation, these were con'sidered as extraordinary cases, in which the 
 general rule was infringed. 
 
 " In the reign of Constantino the Great, rank and wealth began to prepon- 
 derate ; the negative power of the bishops, from their exclusive right of conse- 
 cration, and the general influence of the clergy, was more sensibly felt. In 
 process of time the Emperor became lord of the ascendant ; and, by degrees, 
 little attention was paid in the choice of bishops, either to the wishes of the 
 clergy, or to the wishes of the laity. 
 
 "About the llth century, the laity ceased to take a part in them, so that 
 they were considered to belong wholly to the clergy. In the succeeding 
 centuries they were engrossed by that part of the clergy which was attached to 
 the cathedral church of the diocese, which, from this circumstance, was after- 
 wards called its chapter." Works of Charles Butler, vol. ii. p. 60. 
 
 See " Blackstone's Commentariep," vol. i. p. 377. The early authorities of 
 canons and councils are collected in a tract published at Frankfort, in 1645, 
 '/ Tractatus de translatione imperii Romani ad Gerinanos et de electiouc 
 episcoporum."
 
 64 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL.L 
 
 ecclesiastical economy a character very different from 
 that which many persons associate with the idea of a 
 Church. Nor was the right of the laity to choose their 
 own pastors the mere nominal possession of a suffrage 
 rarely exercised, or employed only to record the de- 
 cisions of others. The abuses so frequently and so 
 loudly complained of prove the practical reality of the 
 right. Frequent instances occur in the ecclesiastical 
 annals of bishops elected by the multitude, not in exact 
 accordance with the canonical rules. The tumultuous 
 election of Ambrose, a layman and civil magistrate, to 
 the Archbishopric of Milan is familiar to every reader of 
 the history of the times. The future saint was carried 
 by an assemblage, which in modern days would probably 
 be called a mob, from the chair of the prefect to the 
 episcopal throne in the cathedral. 28 
 
 Charlemagne had solemnly confirmed the popular 
 election of the bishops, prescribed, as his ordinances 
 tell us, by the ancient canons of the Church. 29 The 
 exalted rank of the bishop of the Roman see his 
 primacy over the Church caused no variation in the 
 
 28 Ambrose had been appointed prefect in Lombardy by the Emperor 
 Valentinian. Entering the church when the congregation were assembled, a 
 sudden impulse caused them to appoint him to the vacant bishopric. He fled 
 to his tribunal. In vain he protested that he was unfit for the office, being 
 a layman, and having wholly devoted himself to secular pursuits. If the 
 accounts of the old annalists be true, he adopted many strange methods of 
 convincing them of his unfitness. Their answer to all his efforts to prove 
 himself a sinner was, " We will have you for our bishop. The sin be upon 
 us." Life and Works of St. Ambrose. Migne's Patrology, vol. xiv. Baronius, 
 ad annum 370. 
 
 89 Sacroruui Canonum non ignari, ut in Dei nomine sanctse ecclesise suo 
 
 liberius potiretur honore, adsonsum ordini ecclesiastico prebuimus ut 
 
 scilicet episcopi per electionem cleri et populi secundum statuta canouum de 
 propria diocaesi eligantur." Capitula Car. Mag. Ann. 803.
 
 CHAP, ii.] POPULAR ELECTION OF BISHOPS. 65 
 
 mode of the election by which he was raised to his 
 high office. The Bishop of Rome was chosen by the 
 Roman clergy and people. 30 
 
 Over these elections the emperor exercised, from the 
 days of Constantino, a superintending control. The 
 appointment of the Roman bishop was confirmed even 
 to the last by the exarchs of Ravenna. In the new 
 created empire the same prerogative was preserved." 
 Imperial legates presided at the election. By the 
 authority of the emperor irregular elections could be 
 set aside, and the Pontiff elect only entered on his office 
 when he had received imperial approbation. 
 
 It had been said by German writers that Charlemagne 
 acquired the absolute right of nomination of the pope. 
 The facts of history contradict the assertion. The 
 recommendation of the emperor would have been 
 probably in some instances influential in directing the 
 
 30 Charles Butler thus describes the ancient mode of electing the bishop of 
 Rome : 
 
 " The election of the Bishop of Rome was conducted in the same manner as 
 that of other bishops; but on account of the superior importance of the see, 
 attracted more of the attention of the empsrors than the election of any 
 other bishop. 
 
 "On the division of the empire between the sons of Theodosius I., all that 
 concerned the Bishop of Rome devolved to the Emperor of the West. After 
 Justinian recovered Rome from the Vandals, it fell to the Greek emperor ; 
 and on account of his distance from Rome, his rights on these occasions were 
 exercised in his name first, by the Proconsul of Italy, and afterwards by the 
 Exarch of Ravenna. On the restoration of the Roman Empire of the West in 
 the person of Charlemagne, they devolved on him ; and thus in his time the 
 Roman pontiffs were raised to that dignity by the suffrages of the sacerdotal 
 order, accompanied with the voice of the people ; but after their election; the 
 approbation of the emperor was necessary to their consecration. Less atten- 
 tion was shown to the authority of the emperor in the reigns of the successors 
 of Charlemagne ; and at length it seems to have been wholly disregarded ; 
 but it was regained by Otho the Great, and uninterruptedly and exclusively 
 enjoyed by him and his successors, at least till the time of Gregory VII." 
 Charles Butler's Works, vol. ii. p. 63. 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 66 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 choice of the electors. But over the election itself, 
 neither Charlemagne nor his descendants appear to 
 have exercised any more than a superintending control. 
 
 With the fall of his family that control ceased. The 
 succeeding annals of pontifical elections exhibit, even in 
 the imperfect records that have come down to us, 
 scandals which almost exceed belief. Two unscrupulous 
 factions of the aristocracy contended for the mastery 
 of Rome. The annexation of the exarchate of Ravenna 
 had elevated, or at least converted, the Pontiff into a 
 great feudal potentate, lord of rich territories, to whom 
 counts and marquises did homage for their castles and 
 domains. His high office became a prize that was 
 eagerly sought by the ambitious and the profligate. 
 The right of election was usurped by one or other of 
 the great families whose retainers could succeed for 
 the time in securing by violence possession of the city. 
 Popular election in the proper sense there was none. 
 All liberty at Rome was trampled down by violent 
 factions who no longer respected even its forms. 
 
 When we read the stories that have been transmitted 
 to us of this period, our first impulse is to suppose, 
 or at least hope, that allowance may be made for the 
 possible or probable exaggerations of writers in the 
 interest of the emperors, who were not indisposed to 
 magnify the evils of popular election, some, perhaps, 
 for that tendency which appears natural to men in 
 all ages, to make the most of any irregularities in the 
 ministers of religion. Unhappily accounts, from which 
 no such deductions can be made, relate indisputable 
 facts of riot and disorder sufficient to disgrace the
 
 CHAP, ii.] SCANDALS OF THE POPEDOM THEODOKA. 67 
 
 appointment to the most secular office, shocking when 
 occurring in connection with the sacred ministrations 
 of the Church. The nominations of the pontiffs were 
 carried by violence and blood. The successful candi- 
 date ran the risk of losing his life in the collision 
 which almost certainly ensued. Escaping this danger 
 he still held his sovereignty by a precarious tenure 
 until the fortunes of his opponents were strong enough 
 to drive him from the city, and substitute one of their 
 own partisans in his room. Influences of a still worse 
 and more profligate character determined the elections, 
 which were virtually governed by the dissolute nobility 
 of Rome. Theodora, a woman of noble rank, but who 
 rivals in the annals of Christian Rome the infamy which 
 those of the pagan city attribute to Messalina, acquired 
 influence enough to dispose of the tiara at her pleasure. 
 Her daughters Theodora and Marozia inherited her 
 vices and her power, and an appointment to the chair 
 of St. Peter was more than once bestowed as the 
 reward, or even the purchase, of a favourite paramour. 31 
 Laymen of notorious character were elevated to the 
 Papal throne ; and at last decency was so far forgotten 
 
 31 Those who wish for a more detailed account of the almost indescribable 
 and certainly untranslatable scandals of this wretched period, may consult 
 their records, under the veil of a learned language, in the annals of Cardinal 
 Baronius. This eminent ecclesiastic has adopted as truthful the narrative of 
 contemporaneous churchmen, in which even Protestant writers suspect 
 exaggeration. See Milman's " Latin Christianity," vol. vii. chap. vii. p. 328. 
 
 The deeper the degradation to which the Holy See had fallen, the more 
 clearly ought we to see, writes Barouius, the hand of Providence in its restora- 
 tion. His language rises to the eloquence of indignation in describing the 
 enormities of these times. The Saviour slept while the winds and the 
 storm seemed to every human eye to overwhelm the vessel of the Church. 
 " Dormiebat turn plane alto, ut apparet, sopore Christus in navi, cum hisce 
 flantibus validis veutis navis ipsa fluctibus operiretur. Dormiebat inquarn qui 
 
 F 2
 
 68 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 that when the death of the pontiff occurred too soon for 
 the grandson of Theodosia, who was intended as his 
 successor, all canonical rules were violated in favour 
 of the youthful aspirant and the chair of St. Peter 
 was filled by a boy who had scarcely reached the age 
 of eighteen years. The degradation of the Papal chair 
 was now complete. It was at this very moment that 
 circumstances occurred which invited the German 
 sovereigns to Italy to rescue Rome from evils which 
 seemed to threaten at least in the capital of Christen- 
 dom, religion itself. 
 
 Under the title of John XIL, this boy pontiff was 
 reigning at the time of the accession of Otho the Great. 
 He was one of those who joined in inviting that 
 emperor to Italy, and from his hands Otho received 
 the imperial crown. 32 The profligate pontiff was uncon- 
 
 ista non videre dissimulans sineret sic fieri dum non exsurgeret vindex." 
 Earonitu ad an. 912. 
 
 Those anxious for details must refer to the original itself. One passage of 
 general description must suffice for quotation. 
 
 " Quae tune facies sanctse ecclesise Romanse? Quam foadissima ? quum Rom 
 dominareutur potentissiinae atque sordidissimae meretrices? quarum arbitrio 
 mutarentur sedes, darentur episcopi, et quod auditu horrendum et infandum 
 eat, intruderentur in sedem Petri earum amasii, pseudopontifices, qui non 
 Bint, nisi ad consignanda tanta tempera, in catalogo Romanorum pontificoruui 
 scripti." 
 
 The deepest degradation of the pontifical office he records is when he tells 
 us that Theodora, impatient of the absence of her lover at Ravenna, appointed 
 him to the popedom to bring him nearer to herself. " Theodosia ne amaeii, 
 ducentorum milliarum interpositione, quibus Ravenna sequestratur a Roma, 
 rariasimo concubitu potiretur, Ravennatis archiepiscopatum deserere coeirit 
 Romanumque pontificatum, proh nefas ! usurpare." Such are the plain and 
 homely words in which Bishop Luitprand, quoted by the Cardinal, indignantly 
 records this hideous profanation. 
 
 The credulity and spitefulness of Luitprand disentitle him to the implicit 
 credit which Cardinal Baronius gives to his accounts. 
 
 * The invitation of John to Otho originated in one of the family feuda 
 which disturbed the peace of the pious dispensers of the patronage of the Holy
 
 CHAP, ii.] SCANDALS IN THE PAPACY. 69 
 
 sciously consecrating a power which was to be the just 
 instrument of punishment upon himself. His conduct 
 was such as might have been expected from the cir- 
 cumstances of his elevation. He found his scriptural 
 model in the sons of Eli. The most sacred places were 
 polluted by his licentious crimes. 33 The eyes of all were 
 turned to the imperial authority to correct the evils 
 which were disgracing the Church and the country. 
 Otho once more visited Rome, but this time it was to 
 depose the pope. A council was summoned by whom 
 the sentence of deposition was pronounced, and a nomi- 
 nee of the emperor appointed to the vacant see. 
 
 Instead of correcting its usages by regulating popular 
 election and curbing the power of the disorderly and 
 licentious nobles who had at once usurped and disgraced 
 the authority of the Roman people, Otho took the 
 opportunity of securing a control over the election of 
 the future pontiffs to himself, 34 and a compact was entered 
 into by which it was agreed that no one should be 
 
 See. Hugh of Provence, the tyrant against whom the aid of Otho was invoked, 
 had married Theodora. His insolence provoked the deadly enmity of her 
 son, Alperic, the father of Octavian, as John was then called. Octavian was 
 elevated to the Papal throne in opposition to the faction which supported 
 Hugh. 
 
 33 We must again recur to the obscurity of a learned language, and the 
 testimony of Bishop Luitprand, verified by Cardinal Baronius : " Quod si 
 cuncta taceant, Lateranense palatium, sanctorum quondam hospitium, nunc 
 prostibulum meretricutn, non silebit amicam conjugem Stephanas patris concu- 
 binae sororem. Testis omnium gentium, prater Romanorum, absentia mulierum, 
 quse sanctorum apostolorum limina orandi gratia timant visere, qnum non- 
 nullas ante dies hunc audierint conjuges, viduas, virgines oppressisse." 
 Luitprand, 1. vi. c. 6 ; Muratori, Scriptores Italici, vol. ii. 
 
 34 Several writers have asserted that Otho obtained an ordinance by which 
 he is supposed to have been granted " the right that was conferred upon Charle- 
 magne of choosing his successor, and nominating the Pope." The ordinance 
 is in Qoldast ; but, carefully examined, it does not bear the interpretation put 
 upon it. It only gave the regulation of the elections.
 
 70 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 elected to the pontifical chair -without the previous 
 consent of the emperor to his nomination. 
 
 This was a great change in the Roman institutions, 
 and was not tamely acquiesced in. The violent factions 
 who had contended for the mastery were indignant 
 at being deprived of their spoil, and other and less 
 discreditable feelings contributed to the opposition. 
 The ordinance virtually taking away those privileges 
 which the Roman people had exercised since the days 
 of Constantine, was felt as the complete subjugation of 
 the city of Rome and its church to a foreigner. The 
 elevation of the German who had been appointed by 
 Otho was not calculated to conciliate the Italians. 
 Even John found partisans who forgot his past offences 
 in their zeal for a pontiff of popular and national 
 nomination. They became strong enough to restore 
 him by force, and drive from Rome the imperial 
 nominee ; the immediate contest was ended by the 
 sudden death of John, it is said, in a personal brawl in 
 which his profligate habits involved him. 35 The struggle 
 between imperial appointment and popular election was 
 continued in scenes of violence through the reigns of 
 Otho and his two successors in the Saxon line. 
 
 The Roman annals of the reigns of the Saxon 
 emperors present little more than a succession of 
 rebellions, and the varying fortunes of rival popes. The 
 Saxon line of emperors terminated with Otho III., 
 
 B There were not wanting those who attributed his death to the direct 
 interposition of Satan, who came at last to carry off his prize. 
 
 "Qoadam nocte extra Romam dum ae," writes Luitprand, "cujusdam viri 
 uxore oblectaret, in temporibus adeo a diabolo eat percussus, ut intra dierum 
 octo spatium eodem sit vulnere mortuus." L. vl, c. 11.
 
 CHAP. n.J THREE RIVAL POPES. 71 
 
 perhaps, more properly speaking, with Louis of Bavaria 
 the grandson of Otho in 1024. The right of interference 
 conferred upon Otho, was probably regarded as expiring 
 with his descendants, for under the Franconian line of 
 emperors which succeeded, the uncontrolled privilege 
 of popular election appears to have been reassumed. 
 But unhappily with its restoration the old disorders and 
 scandals revived. Venality was added to the corrupt 
 influences that generally prevailed. In the year 1046 
 when the Emperor Henry III. came to Rome to receive 
 his coronation, he found three rival claimants disputing 
 the possession of the Papal throne. All of them had 
 been guilty of open and unblushing bribery at the 
 election which originated this dispute. The imperial 
 authority summoned a council, which solved the diffi- 
 culty by deposing all three. A pope (Leo VIII.) 
 was appointed on the presentation of the emperor ; 
 and those who had witnessed with grief and indigna- 
 tion the scenes that had once more disgraced the city 
 and the Church, offered no opposition to the ordinance 
 by which the new pontiff conceded to his imperial 
 patron the right of nominating his successors in the 
 Papal chair. 
 
 Thus with difficulty and after many struggles were 
 the Roman people deprived of their right of electing 
 the Pontiff, which perhaps some will consider they 
 forfeited by its abuse. Even during the reigns of 
 the Othos, the imperial nomination did not uninter- 
 ruptedly prevail. In the days of the first of these 
 German sovereigns it was maintained only at the point 
 of the sword and by the repeated exercise of force.
 
 72 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Three times was the first Otho constrained to visit 
 Rome to depose the pope -whom on each vacancy the 
 citizens elected, and to force upon the reluctant clergy 
 and people his own nominee. Upon every occasion 
 the rebellion, as it was termed, of the Romans was 
 severely punished. We can judge of the extent and 
 character of the resistance by the fact that upon the 
 last, the revolt was followed by the banishment from 
 the city of all the magistrates of Rome. 
 
 In the early portion of the reign of his son and 
 successor, imperial attention was too much occupied 
 with the affairs of Germany to leave to Otho II. 
 much leisure for those of Rome. Two successive popes 
 appear to have been elected without imperial interference. 
 In the absence or the delay of the emperor's nomina- 
 tion, the excuse was an easy and a true one that it was 
 absolutely necessary to provide for the immediate 
 discharge of the duties of the see. In the latter years 
 of his reign we find this emperor visiting Rome upon 
 the usual errand of suppressing a revolt against the 
 Pontiff of imperial choice. 
 
 In the days of the third Otho the struggle assumed 
 the form of a contest between imperial power and the 
 constitutional authorities of the city of Rome. When 
 Otho visited Rome in 998, it was to force back his 
 relative (Gregory V.), whom he had nominated to the 
 pontifical chair, and whom the consul, Crescentius, and 
 the citizens had expelled. The city was prepared to 
 resist the imperial troops, and maintain the rival Pope 
 whom they had named. Otho, under pretence of pro- 
 posing terms of accommodation, invited Crescentius to
 
 CHAP, it.] IMPERIAL NOMINATION. 73 
 
 his camp. Having inveigled him into his power, he 
 executed him as a rebel, in base violation of his safe con- 
 duct. By this act of treachery the emperor succeeded 
 in conquering the resistance of the Roman people. Two 
 years after he died at an early age, supposed to have 
 fallen a victim to the just revenge of the widow of the 
 murdered consul. 
 
 "With the death of Otho terminated the Saxon line of 
 emperors, which, for three generations, had held the 
 imperial crown. From Henry of Bavaria, his successor, 
 it passed to the house of Franconia, by the election of 
 Conrad the Salic. The son of Conrad was the monarch 
 to whom, in 1046, Rome surrendered the right of 
 nominating the Pope. 
 
 Thus, from the very first transfer of the imperial 
 crown to the German sovereigns, in the person of the 
 first Otho, had the contest between prerogative and 
 popular privilege, in the appointment of Roman bishops, 
 been constantly carried on. The resistance to the right 
 of imperial nomination was in one sense a struggle for 
 the independence of the Holy See. But it was not the 
 struggle of churchmen to support ecclesiastical power. 
 It was a battle of the people to preserve those privileges 
 which had descended to them from ancient times. 
 However much the right of popular election had been 
 abused, however much men, in the first impulse of 
 indignation at its scandals, might be disposed to accept 
 of any alternative to escape them, it was impossible 
 to expect the community of Rome to continue in 
 contented acquiescence in the nomination by a foreign 
 potentate, of the bishop and great magistrate, whose
 
 74 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 predecessors, from the very first ages of the Christian 
 establishment, had been elected by themselves. The 
 German emperors, whatever influence they may have 
 acquired in the provinces of their kingdom of Lombardy, 
 never succeeded within the walls of Rome in attaching 
 to themselves either loyalty or respect. Compelled to 
 repair to Rome for the purpose of receiving coronation, 
 this visit very frequently resembled more the stealthy 
 entrance of some returning fugitive than the approach 
 of a sovereign to the capital of his dominions. Upon 
 many occasions, when the emperor came attended by 
 his guards, the soldiers were compelled to remain out- 
 side the walls while their master entered the gates to 
 undergo a necessary ceremony, and escape as rapidly 
 as possible from a city in which everything around him 
 reminded him that his advent was looked upon as that 
 of a foe. Meagre as is the information supplied by the 
 historic annals that have come down to us of the century 
 between Otho and Henry IV., it affords indications 
 perfectly sufficient to disclose the true character of the 
 principles involved in the contest that then agitated 
 Rome. It was one between national independence and 
 foreign domination between municipal freedom and 
 monarchical prerogative ; and it is impossible to doubt 
 that the opposition to the imperial claim to nominate 
 the Pontiff, evinced the resistance of Roman patriotism 
 to the subjugation of both the city and the Church to 
 that novel German dynasty, the existence of whose 
 power was felt as imposing the debasing and galling 
 slavery of a foreign yoke. 
 
 The records of this struggle can hardly be said to
 
 CHAP, ii.] CONTEST WITH POPULAR RIGHT. 75 
 
 exist. We cannot tell even the names of many who 
 must have even been once energetic actors in its scenes. 
 The virtues it called into action, the crimes to which it 
 gave rise, have passed into oblivion with the generation 
 that witnessed them, and we know little more than this, 
 that at its close a revolution had been effected more 
 momentous in the history of Christendom than many 
 which have received far more attention from those who 
 record its events. 
 
 The establishment of the imperial right to nominate 
 the Pontiff., was the consummation of a revolution 
 already in other places complete. The popular choice 
 of bishops, solemnly guaranteed as it was by Charle- 
 magne, had been abrogated in some places by a clerical 
 usurpation, which excluded the laity and the general 
 body of the clergy, by confining the election to the 
 chapter of the cathedral ; in others by the seizure of the 
 right of nomination by the sovereign. It is not easy to 
 estimate the consequences of the change. Considering 
 the position occupied by bishops in the middle ages, it 
 was an immense revolution in the political as well as 
 the ecclesiastical institutions of Europe. In the latter 
 it accomplished an exclusion of the laity from Church 
 affairs, which altered the whole character of the ec- 
 clesiastical arrangements, and constituted a hierarchy 
 and priesthood no longer a portion of the people, but 
 their directors and their lords. The effect upon civil 
 relations was at least as great. With the transfer of 
 the right of nominating the bishop from the whole 
 Christian community to monarchs or to clerical corpo- 
 rations, the sympathies of the Church were gradually
 
 76 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 transferred from the masses, and attached to the in- 
 terests and the prejudices of privilege and rank. The 
 people lost their magistrate and their tribune, and it 
 may not perhaps be too much to say that in the over- 
 throw of that which was really the republicanism of 
 the Christian Church, the cause of popular liberty was 
 deprived of its best protector against the encroach- 
 ments of monarchical prerogative, and the poor and 
 the humble of their most effectual support against the 
 oppressions of the wealthy and the great. 
 
 In Rome, the contest was, as has been observed, 
 between patriotism and foreign dominion : even in its 
 scanty records, we have ample proof of the nature of 
 the elements that were arrayed on the side of Italian 
 independence. In the sentence of one emperor who 
 exiled all the magistrates of Rome, and the treacherous 
 execution of a consul by another, we have sufficient to 
 tell us that on the side opposed to imperial supremacy 
 were actively engaged the powers of the municipality 
 of Rome. From the same acts we learn also that in 
 "the darkest period the imperial city maintained at least 
 the form of her ancient constitution, and had her magis- 
 tracy independent both of emperors and popes. 
 
 The religious element scarcely entered into the 
 contest. At no period in Italy, not even in the 
 mournful days of Alexander Borgia, was religious 
 feeling at a lower ebb than at the very time when the 
 first Otho visited Rome. The scenes that disgraced 
 the pontifical elections could never have occurred if 
 public opinion had not been deeply infected with an 
 irreligious taint ; if it had not been so previously, these
 
 CHAP, ii.] NATURE OF THE STRUGGLE. 77 
 
 scenes must have destroyed all vestige of reverence and 
 respect for sacred functions so profaned. There was 
 not much to conduce to the welfare of religion in the 
 quarrels which attended the elevation of each successive 
 pontiff. Bishops placed on their thrones by the sword, 
 were but ineffective teachers of the religion of the cross. 
 We must not wonder if the earnest and pious, amid the 
 tumults of ecclesiastical seditions, and the distractions 
 of rival popes, began to look for the time when emanci- 
 pated from worldly control the Church might fulfil her 
 divine mission of teaching mankind the things that 
 belonged to their eternal peace. 
 
 The great struggle which ensued between the Papal 
 and Imperial power, will not be understood or appreci- 
 ated without remembering the elements engaged, and 
 the principles involved in that which preceded, for the 
 right of nominating the Pope.
 
 78 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL L 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The War of Investitures Hildebrand Death of Heury III. Accession of 
 Henry IV. Effects of the War of Investitures Prevalence of Simony in 
 the Church Third Council of Lateran Election of Pope vested in the 
 Cardinals That of Bishops in the Chapters Decree of Pope Nicholas 
 against Lay Investitures Question of Investitures started Feelings 
 engaged on both sides Election of Hildebrand to the Papal Throne 
 Great contest for supremacy between Papal and Imperial power Reflec- 
 tions Summons to the Emperor to appear at Rome Henry convenes the 
 German prelates at Worms They pass a resolution deposing the Pope 
 Henry's letter to Hildebrand The Pope and his Council excommunicate 
 Henry German princes assemble at Tribur Henry obliged to ask recon- 
 ciliation with the Pope Pope at Canosa Humiliation of the Emperor 
 Strange scene at the Sacrament Revulsion of feeling in favour of Henry 
 Rebellion of Rudolph Rudolph supported by the Pope Second 
 excommunication of Henry Deposition of the Pope by the German and 
 Lombard prelates Guibert, Archbishop of Milan, appointed Pope Henry 
 invades and takes Rome Enthronement of the anti-Pope Coronation of 
 Henry Gregory besieged in the Castle of St. Angelo Relieved by Roger 
 Guiacard Henry compelled to retire The troops of Guiscard pillage 
 Rome Flight of the Pope His death Condemnation of the contest 
 Rebellion of his sons against Henry His death Henry V. His treat- 
 ment of the Pope Renewal of the Contest Concordat of Worms End 
 of the War of Investitures. 
 
 WE have traced in the preceding chapter the pro- 
 gress of that struggle between imperial power and 
 popular privilege, in which successive emperors exerted 
 all their influence to wrest from the Roman citizens the 
 mastery of the Roman See. Under Henry III. this 
 object seemed to be at last accomplished, and to the 
 proud prerogatives which had so strangely devolved 
 upon the monarchs of the Germanic confederation, was
 
 CHAP, in.] THE POPE APPOINTED BY THE EMPEROR. 79 
 
 added the highest of them all, that of nominating the 
 spiritual chief of the Christian world. With the excep- 
 tion of a wild effort on the part of the most disreputable 
 of the three rival popes whom Henry had deposed, to 
 resume the authority he had justly forfeited, no attempt 
 was made to dispute the regulation which referred the 
 choice of the Pontiff to the emperor. Four times in 
 the short space of ten years was Henry called on to 
 exercise this power, and upon each occasion his appoint- 
 ment was quietly accepted. 
 
 The most zealous adherents of ancient right were 
 reconciled to the imperial presentations by the form 
 of an election, in which the clergy and some of the 
 citizens of Rome accepted as their bishop the sove- 
 reign's nominee. 1 
 
 This regulation was not in terms an alteration of the 
 ancient canonical rule. Nominally, the pontiff was still 
 chosen by the clergy and people, subject to that im- 
 perial control and confirmation which the edicts of 
 former times enjoined. The absolute nomination was 
 effected by a rule which obliged the electors to choose 
 the Pontiff of the emperor's recommendation. Already 
 the power and the pretensions of the Papal See were 
 great enough to invest the right of appointing the 
 Pontiff with a grandeur that placed it far above all the 
 ordinary prerogatives of kings. When he had established 
 upon apparently firm grounds that right, Henry might 
 
 1 Bruno, one of the pontiffs recommended in the imperial conge" d'elire 
 did not so easily satisfy his conscience. Arrived at Rome, he assembled the 
 chiefs of the clergy, and, with tears in his eyes, refused to be elected on the 
 imperial letters. He implored of the electors to exercise their franchise. 
 Bruno was elected, and he accepted the dignity with a clear conscience.
 
 80 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 well believe that he had settled imperial authority upon 
 a sure basis. Vain, however, were all the calculations 
 of human foresight against the inexorable progress of 
 events. This very submission of the Papacy, complete 
 as it appeared to be, prepared the way for a contest in 
 which pretensions were put forward higher than had 
 yet been asserted by any of the former occupants of the 
 Papal chair : a contest in which Henry's own son was 
 compelled to humble himself before a haughty and 
 relentless pope, and which terminated only with the 
 virtual overthrow of the imperial power. 
 
 Henry died in 1056, at the comparatively early age 
 of forty. His virtues and his abilities had given him 
 such influence with the Germanic electors, that he had 
 already obtained the appointment of his infant son and 
 namesake as his successor. Henry IV. was but six 
 years old when his father's death placed upon his brow 
 the imperial crown. It is the highest testimony to the 
 authority of his father's name to find the princes of 
 Germany, inconsistently, indeed, with all the principles 
 of their constitution, acknowledging the sovereignty of 
 a boy the only time in the history of the confedera- 
 tion in which the sceptre of Otho was swayed by a 
 minor's hands. 
 
 The long reign of the fourth Henry was almost 
 wholly occupied in that contest with the Papal power, 
 to which history has given the name of the War of 
 Investitures : a contest in which, before its close, prin- 
 ciples were asserted, and pretensions put forward, that 
 wandered far from the cause of the original dispute. 
 That contest was nominally terminated in 1122, but it
 
 CHAP, in.] THE WAR OF INVESTITURES. 81 
 
 bequeathed elements of discord which long survived. 
 It was followed at no long interval of time by the 
 attempt of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa to 
 destroy the privileges of those free cities which had 
 learned resistance to imperial authority in its con- 
 tests with the Pope. The factions of Guelph and Ghi- 
 beline perpetuated the distractions of these conflicts, 
 and in the person of the second Frederick involved once 
 more the empire in a deadly struggle with the Papal See. 
 With the accession of Henry IV. commenced a period 
 during which for two centuries the German monarchy 
 was engaged in an almost unintermitting struggle with 
 municipal freedom, with the power of the Papacy, or 
 with both a contest which ended only with the death 
 of the second Frederick in 1250 : if, indeed, it could be 
 said to have closed thirty years afterwards, when 
 Charles of Anjou was invited to Italy to execute the 
 sentence of the Church upon the heirs of the imperial 
 house of Hohenstauffen, or even at a later period still, 
 when the last representative of these princes expiated 
 on the scaffold the crime of asserting against a usurper 
 his hereditary rights. 
 
 Within that period will be found the events which 
 have exercised upon the fortunes of Italy the deepest 
 and the most permanent influence. The Papal See 
 asserted its loftiest pretentions, and put forward its 
 highest claims to universal power ; the long contest be- 
 tween civil and ecclesiastical supremacy agitated Italy 
 and Germany for years. The free cities of Lombardy 
 formed that illustrious league which vindicated their 
 liberties against all the efforts of imperial might. In
 
 82 HISTORY OP ITALY [VOL. i. 
 
 that interval the glory of the Italian republics reached 
 its highest splendour. Within the same period rose the 
 factions which, under those outlandish names of Guelph 
 and Ghibeline, after convulsing Germany, tore asunder 
 the communities of Italy with the fiercest discord of 
 intestine strife. In the madness and the passions of 
 that strife perished the greatness and the freedom of 
 the proud Italian states. In the crimes which were 
 prompted by the evil spirit of its dissensions were 
 taught those lessons of violence and treachery which 
 familiarised men to deeds of perfidy and blood. 
 Terribly were they put in practice in the usurpation of 
 the tyrants whose acts made the annals of many an 
 Italian state but the gloomy record of the crimes by 
 which power was won, and the enormities by which it 
 was abused. As if to complete the whole cycle of 
 Italy's misfortunes, within the same period a French 
 chieftain was invited to seize by force the possessions of 
 the princely family who had fallen under the ban of 
 the Church. In the conquest of Naples by the armies 
 of the Duke of Anjou was lai<J the foundation of an 
 interference which centuries after desolated Italy with 
 blood. Far beyond the confines of Italy extended in 
 after ages the influence of these memorable contests 
 contests, which in their progress occupied the mind and 
 excited the feelings of those countries which were then 
 the centre of the intelligence of the world. A philo- 
 sopher, not much disposed to exaggerate the effects of 
 anything connected with Christianity, has left us his 
 opinions of the vastness and the extent of the conse- 
 quences they produced. In the struggles between the
 
 CHAP, m.] HILDEBRAND. 83 
 
 Papal and Imperial power, Voltaire saw the clue to all 
 the labyrinths of modern history, and the germs of all 
 the revolutions which up to his day had taken place. 
 
 Very different from effects like these were the views 
 and prospects of those who commenced the movement 
 against the abuses of lay patronage which, in its remote 
 consequences, led to such results. Unjust indeed it 
 would be to deny to the originators of that movement 
 the merit of an earnest and sincere desire to reform 
 the crying evils which afflicted religion and disgraced 
 the Church. 
 
 With the memorable " war of investitures " the 
 energy and genius of Hildebrand have imperishably 
 associated his name. Canonised by the Roman Church 
 in her calendar of saints, viewed by many even of 
 Protestant writers as the rescuer of the Church from 
 evils which threatened to extinguish Christianity itself ; 
 he has been regarded by others as the very evil 
 genius of ecclesiastical tyranny ; he has been described 
 as the contriver of a deep-laid plan to establish over all 
 nations and potentates the despotism of the Papal power; 
 and, in the minds of many, there rises with the very 
 mention of his name the image of a proud and 
 domineering priest, who trampled on the neck of kings, 
 and compelled emperors, barefooted and clothed with 
 sackcloth, to do penance at his feet. 2 
 
 Born in a humble rank of life, this remarkable man 
 was indebted for his education almost to the charity of 
 
 * The materials of the history of the times of Hildebrand are abundant. A 
 large number of his letters are preserved in the 148th volume of Migne's 
 " Patristic Theology." Full and varied information ia contained in the docu- 
 ments relating to him published in the same volume. The writings of his 
 
 G 2
 
 84? HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 the Church. Brought up under the auspices of a rela- 
 tive who was the abbot of a convent at Rome, in his very 
 boyhood he turned himself from choice to habits of 
 asceticism and self-denial. At Cluni, in Burgundy, he 
 embraced the monastic life, and assumed the character 
 and habits of a monk. During his studies in that 
 monastery he acquired the highest reputation, not more 
 for his learning and ability than for his devotion. With- 
 out being admitted to clerical orders, he left the walls 
 of the monastery as a preacher. In this latter capacity 
 he attracted the attention of the emperor, Henry III., 
 who, impressed by the eloquence and piety of his sermons, 
 sought his acquaintance, and, up to the latest hour of 
 his life, was influenced by his advice. 
 
 From the retreat of his convent, to which the voice 
 of his brethren had recalled him as their prior, Hilde- 
 brand accompanied to Rome the Bishop Bruno, whom, 
 in the year 1048, the emperor, in exercise of his right 
 of nomination, elevated to the Papal chair. From this 
 period Hildebrand was the real director of the move- 
 ments of the Papal See. The new pontiff, under the 
 title of Leo IX., administered the affairs of the Papacy 
 under his influence and advice. Upon the death of Leo 
 in 1054, the emperor nominated his successor on the 
 recommendation of the influential monk. Yet, while 
 occupying this position, and acting upon several occa- 
 sions as legate to the Pope, Hildebrand continued still 
 
 friend and associate, Peter Damiani (Migne's " Patrology," vol. cxliv.-cxlv.), 
 tnpply us with much curious information. The proclamations and letters of 
 Henry, and the decrees of the German and Italian bishops will be found at 
 length in Goldast. Among modern writers, Milman's "Latin Christianity,'' 
 and Bowdcn's "Life of Gregory VII.," are perhaps the most complete.
 
 CHAP, in.] SIN OF SIMON MAGUS. 85 
 
 a layman. The minor order of deacon he received 
 several years afterwards to qualify him to fill the Arch- 
 deaconry of Rome. It was after his election as Pontiff 
 that he was ordained a priest. 
 
 The abuses which existed at Rome when the third 
 Henry appeared before its walls, were not confined to 
 the City of the Pontiffs. The corruption of the Church 
 was widely spread, and required stern and vigorous 
 measures for its correction. Ecclesiastical preferments 
 were commonly made the subject of sale, not merely 
 by lay patrons, but by the bishops. Bishops themselves 
 owed frequently their elevation to venal votes. In 
 such a condition of the Church it may well be supposed 
 that the inferior clergy too generally represented the 
 laxity of their superiors. The Emperor Henry appeared 
 to have been guided by a sincere desire to restore the 
 purity and efficiency of the Church. The pontiffs whom 
 he nominated were chosen with some regard to their 
 character and fitness. The emperor, in his capacity of 
 sovereign, set himself earnestly and laboriously to the 
 task of correcting clerical delinquencies, and the ap- 
 peals or rather admonitions which he addressed to the 
 bishops imploring them to aid him in this grand work 
 of reformation, breathe the sentiments of piety which 
 become a Christian king. 3 
 
 It was against the practice of the sale of ecclesiastical 
 benefices, that the chief exertions both of Henry and 
 the pontiffs whom he appointed were directed. The 
 severest laws were passed against a practice, which has 
 been in all ages denounced as the sin of Simon Magus, 
 
 3 Goldast, " Acta et Monumenta Regum."
 
 86 HISTORY OP ITALY. [vou i. 
 
 in that common nomenclature of churchmen, who were 
 not unwilling to place the possession of an ecclesiastical 
 benefice upon a level with the miraculous gifts of the 
 early ages of the Church. The strictest inquiries were 
 instituted by means of Provincial Synods and of Papal 
 Commissions into the existence of this offence ; bishops 
 who confessed their guilt or were convicted of it, were 
 obliged to resign or were deposed ; arid even in the 
 period that intervened before the death of the emperor, 
 a revolution had been effected, which in the restora- 
 tion of clerical discipline and the reformation of clerical 
 manners, went far to restore the Church to the respect 
 and influence it had lost. 
 
 Such was the position of ecclesiastical affairs when 
 the death of the emperor left the authority of his crown 
 to be administered by the Empress Agnes, his widow, 
 during the minority of her infant son. This unprece- 
 dented circumstance, which caused the actual vacancy 
 of the empire, occurred at the very time when that 
 vacancy was calculated to produce the most decisive 
 effect on the relations between the imperial crown and 
 the Church. When the very year after the death of 
 Henry a vacancy occurred by the unexpected death of 
 the Pontiff, Victor II., there was no emperor to exercise 
 the privilege which had been conferred, and not more 
 than five days after the death of Victor, the Roman 
 Church elected his successor. Another year had scarcely 
 passed, when the Papal throne again became vacant. 
 An attempt of the nobles of the rural districts to force 
 a pope upon Rome was resisted by the authority exer- 
 cised in the name of the youthful king, and Nicholas II.
 
 CHAP, in.] POPE ELECTED BY CAKDINALS. 87 
 
 was elected, with the sanction of Agnes and with all 
 the forms of canonical election, to the dignity which 
 his opponent formally renounced. 
 
 In the brief reign of Nicholas, a council assembled 
 at the Lateran on the 13th of April, 1059. One 
 thousand and thirteen prelates obeyed the summons of 
 the Pope. Under the guidance of Hildebrand, this 
 council passed a decree which vested the election of all 
 future pontiffs in the cardinals or Roman clergy, 
 subject to the sanction of the emperor and the consent 
 of the people. 4 Before long even the formal assent of 
 the laity was dispensed with. 
 
 Hildebrand was unquestionably the framer of this 
 decree. Already he was master of the movements of 
 the Romans. His friend, Peter Damiani, jealous of 
 his power, satirised it in lines, in which he expressed 
 in verse what was in plain prose the common sarcasm 
 of Rome : 
 
 " Rite colo papam, sed te prostratus adoro, 
 Tu facis hunc dominum, te facit ille deum." 
 
 Hildebrand the Pope-maker was greater than the 
 Pope. 
 
 His first establishment of the Papal law against 
 investitures has been referred, by some writers, to the 
 same period. Baronius expressly tells us that it was 
 carried by Hildebrand in the first council or synod 
 held under his own Papal rule. 5 He made a show of 
 reviving in its provisions an ancient constitution of 
 
 4 See the observations on pontifical elections at the end of Chap. V. vol. ii 
 
 5 Baronius, vol. xiii., p. 161 ; Dictionary of Councils, Migne. For the other 
 statement, see Perceval's " Italy," vol. i., p. 78.
 
 88 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Adrian. Under the guidance if not under the pontificate 
 of Hildebrand, was also enacted the decree which com- 
 manded the elections of bishops to be made by the 
 chapters. All these decrees were the work of the same 
 master mind ; so was that which enforced the celi- 
 bacy of the clergy. They have been represented as 
 forming one deep plan on the part of their framer, 
 to lay the foundation of a priestly rule over all orders 
 of men. It is not, however, by plans of human contri- 
 vance that institutions which influence the destinies of 
 mankind are formed. The grandest schemes of human 
 ambition generally perish in their conception. In the 
 plans by which the great designs of Providence are 
 carried out, the men who appear to be the most active 
 agents in their completion, are but unconscious instru- 
 ments working out events which they have no power 
 to control. 
 
 In the fierce contest which followed the movements 
 of the zealous monk, attention has been principally 
 directed to the law against investiture, but of far deeper 
 importance and far more lasting consequence was 
 that which accomplished the great revolution of the 
 exclusion of the whole body of the Christian people from 
 that voice in the election of bishops which from the 
 Apostolic age had been their right. In Rome alone 
 was even the semblance of that right preserved, and 
 even there the reservation of the approval of the people, 
 as necessary to confirm the choice of the cardinals, was 
 too vague to produce any practical result. The choice 
 of the Pontiff was virtually conferred upon a close 
 corporation of ecclesiastics, subject to no real control
 
 CHAP, in.] HILDEBRAND'S AUSTERITIES. 89 
 
 except that resulting from the necessity of imperial 
 confirmation. In the case of inferior bishops the usur- 
 pation upon popular right was complete and undisguised. 
 Chapters of cathedrals were exclusively entrusted with 
 that power which in preceding ages had belonged to 
 the whole community of the faithful in each church. 
 
 Hildebrand was unquestionably devoted to the most 
 rigid rules of ecclesiastical discipline, and imbued with 
 the loftiest notions of the Church's rights. The bio- 
 grapher who. said of him that " he was a monk when a 
 boy/' described his character in a sentence which 
 possibly both his friends and his enemies would ac- 
 cept. In the austerities of an ascetic life he recognised 
 the highest virtue of Christianity, and, never having 
 forgiven himself a fault, he had but little of that com- 
 passionate indulgence for human frailty which forms 
 after all one of the elements of the charities of religion. 
 Educated in a deep devotion to the Roman See, he 
 believed that in upholding its rights was to be found 
 the appointed means of redressing the evils arising from 
 that flood of irreligion which was overwhelming the 
 Church. Whatever he did he did earnestly. In the 
 spirit of that enthusiasm or fanaticism, without which 
 no one has ever accomplished really great things, he 
 believed himself commissioned in dreams and visions to 
 effect the restoration of the purity, and the recovery 
 of the independence of the Church. We must not won- 
 der if, bound himself by the obligations of his monastic 
 vows, and regarding every offence against the canons 
 as a transgression of the divine laws, he sternly en- 
 forced upon the clergy those regulations of celibacy
 
 90 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 which the canons had already imposed ; nor can we 
 be surprised at the zeal with which he defended the 
 privileges of that Roman See which his earliest associa- 
 tions had taught him to regard as the representative of 
 the authority of the Christian Church. 
 
 The decrees which were drawn at his instance excluded 
 the laity from their ancient rights, but these rights 
 had already been usurped. In almost all the dioceses 
 within the imperial rule, the custom had been estab- 
 lished of referring upon each vacancy to the emperor, 
 and electing the candidate who was sent back with the 
 crozier and the ring, the form of investiture which 
 authorised the new bishop to enter on the possession 
 of his see. The decree which vested the episcopal nomi- 
 nation in the chapters was directed, not against popular 
 interference, but against royal nomination. 
 
 In Rome itself we have seen that the right of popular 
 election had, from the days of Charlemagne, been 
 with difficulty and precariously asserted. The imperial 
 nomination was hardly ever resisted, except at the 
 cost of an insurrection, and the licentious evils of a 
 choice by the tyrant nobility had made the best friends 
 of popular privilege fly for refuge from, its intolerable 
 scandals to the system of nomination, in which the free 
 opinion of the Roman public had a fairer chance of a 
 representation, however indirect. 
 
 During the reign of the deceased emperor that 
 opinion had really prevailed. Before making his nomi- 
 nations, he had generally taken pains to ascertain the 
 sentiments of the Roman Church. The system had 
 given pontiffs of character and energy to the Church,
 
 CHAP, in.] SUBMISSION OP ROME. 91 
 
 and the result had vindicated the wisdom of the regu- 
 lation which, in the selection of the Pontiff, sought the 
 imperial protection against the venal violence of the 
 great lords who tyrannised in the elections over Rome. 
 
 It was not yet a state of things which could be 
 quite satisfactory to any lover of the independence of 
 the city or of Italy. The nomination of the pontiff by a 
 German emperor was, after all, the enslavement of 
 Rome. A sincere churchman might well tremble for 
 the times when imperial profligacy might bring upon 
 the Church worse, because more irreparable scandals 
 than those which popular election had entailed. The 
 believer in the heaven-commissioned authority of that 
 Church, much more he who accepted as an article of his 
 creed the divine institution of the See of Rome, could 
 scarcely regard with satisfaction its complete de- 
 pendence on an earthly power. On lower grounds, 
 the Roman citizen regretted the loss of a privilege 
 which was associated with the most sacred recollections 
 of Rome. He could not see without discontent the 
 nomination, by a foreign potentate, of the successor of 
 the pontiffs who had in ancient times identified their 
 name with Roman liberty, and whom Rome had tacitly 
 acknowledged, not only as the first citizens, but as the 
 chiefs and protectors of the state. 
 
 We may well believe that feelings such as these 
 agitated in his cloister the breast of the monk whose 
 genius and character had made him, even in the days of 
 Nicholas, the director of the movements of the Vatican. 
 With the example of the evils that had attended the old 
 mode of election, none would have ventured to propose
 
 92 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 a return to it without some provision to secure that the 
 elections should be really free. In the attempt that 
 had been just made, to carry the nomination of a pontiff 
 by the former influences of violence, there was a 
 warning of the absolute necessity of providing some 
 check upon the dangers that seemed inseparable from 
 popular election ; and vast as was the change in its 
 ultimate result, the expedient seemed a natural one to 
 place the elections under clerical control. 
 
 The decree against lay investitures, although framed 
 in the same spirit of clerical exclusiveness, had much 
 to justify it in the circumstances of the times. The 
 evils of venal, or, as it was termed, simoniacal presen- 
 tation to benefices, had originated in the existence of 
 lay patronage. The right of advowson was regarded 
 as a property, or as a source of revenue, and private 
 men did not hesitate to make money of their appoint- 
 ments to livings, as kings did of the bishoprics of which 
 they disposed. Lay patrons were accustomed to sell 
 their presentations to the highest bidder. The profli- 
 gate or the incapable purchased with gold admission 
 to the offices of the Church, The subjection of the 
 Church to the profane power of the laity which was 
 degrading her, was symbolised by the ceremony of 
 investiture, in which her bishops and her abbots 
 accepted from the emperor as their feudal lord the 
 emblems of even their spiritual authority by receiving 
 a sceptre, a crozier, and a ring. 
 
 It was true that this right of investiture had been 
 expressly sanctioned by repeated decrees, which con- 
 ceded it to Charlemagne and his successors, in return
 
 CHAP, in.] DECREE AGAINST LAY INVESTITURES. 93 
 
 for benefits conferred. The advocates of the Papacy 
 reply that it was tolerated in days when lay presenta- 
 tions were purely bestowed suppressed in times when 
 simony had become so common, that lay investiture 
 was almost the badge of unhallowed sale of the offices 
 of the Church. 6 
 
 The sagacity of Hildebrand availed itself of the 
 odium against simony in his attack upon lay investi- 
 tures. There was no necessary connection between 
 the sale of the nomination to an ecclesiastical bene- 
 fice and the form of institution of the nominee, but 
 it was not difficult to identify in the minds of those 
 zealous for the purity of the Church the practice of lay 
 investiture with the simony that attended lay presenta- 
 tions, and the decrees against both were regarded as 
 constituting in reality portions of the legislation directed 
 against the scandals of venal presentations. 
 
 The decrees which solemnly excluded the laity from 
 their ancient privilege of interference in episcopal elec- 
 tions, appear to have been overlooked in the attention 
 which was turned to that which assailed the prerogatives 
 of power. Except in Rome, and some of the Lombard 
 cities, but little attention was paid to this transfer to 
 ecclesiastical corporations of the rights which had been 
 hitherto, at least, shared by the people at large. It 
 was the law against lay investitures, attacking the 
 privileges of the great, which excited the fiercest oppo- 
 sition, and was resented as the most daring encroach- 
 ment upon imperial authority by the ambition of the 
 Church. 
 
 6 Baronius, ad annum 1077.
 
 94 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Whatever haughty pretensions may have been put 
 forward by the pontiffs in the progress of the contest to 
 which that decree gave rise, or whatever be the merits 
 of the controversy itself, a very little reflection will 
 satisfy us that it is incorrect to describe this celebrated 
 decree as in itself an attempt to subject the temporal 
 to the spiritual power. The decree against investitures 
 asserted nothing more than the independence of the 
 spiritual authority of all temporal control. There were 
 put forward for the Church the very same claims of 
 exclusive jurisdiction over the admission to ecclesiastical 
 benefices, the assertion of which by the synod of the 
 Church of Scotland revived in our own country, and in 
 our own day, that contest between ecclesiastical and 
 civil authority which assumed the name of the War of 
 Investitures in the days of Hildebrand and Henry IV. 
 
 In the early ages of Christendom such questions could 
 not arise. The Church had passed many centuries from 
 the Apostolic age before the dignities or the possessions 
 of Christian pastors necessitated any feudal ceremony of 
 investiture to clothe them with the rank or the rights of 
 worldly lords. The title of the bishop was complete by 
 the election of his flock, and the ordination or consecra- 
 tion conferred on him by the proper authorities of the 
 Church. As private individuals endowed churches, and 
 kings gave donations to bishoprics, the founders not un- 
 naturally reserved or assumed the right of presentation 
 to themselves. When the domains attached to the 
 bishoprics and great abbeys were held like other terri- 
 tories by a feudal tenure from the sovereign, investiture 
 became a necessary ceremony in the admission to the
 
 CHAP, in.] HIGH PRETENSIONS OF THE POPES. 95 
 
 priory or the see. This was performed in the case of a 
 bishop by the delivery of a sceptre, a crozier, and a ring. 
 The grant of investiture was very naturally supposed 
 proper to be performed by the donor from whose gift 
 the lands were held. The emperors had been in the 
 habit of giving investiture to bishops, and thus 
 admitting them to the rights of their sees. But the 
 bishop who received this virtually acknowledged a 
 supremacy over the Church ; there was admitted in a 
 lay authority that right of induction to an ecclesiastical 
 office which zealous churchmen contended should of 
 right belong to an ecclesiastical tribunal alone. 
 
 We would have but an imperfect view of the conflict 
 that ensued if we regarded the question of investiture 
 as the real issue involved. This was its popular pre- 
 text : it may have been its originating cause. The 
 true question to be decided was the power of the 
 Church or of the Papal See to enforce its ordinances 
 against sovereigns who disobeyed them. It was reserved 
 for Hildebrand upon the Papal throne to assert for its 
 occupant the right of judging the highest potentates of 
 earth, of summoning kings and emperors before him 
 for transgressions of the Church's law, of excommuni- 
 cating the disobedient monarch, and of pronouncing 
 against him from the tribunal of God's vicegerent the 
 sentence of deposition which not only released his 
 subjects from their allegiance and their oaths, but 
 obliged them on the pain of eternal ruin to withdraw 
 their obedience from the outcast sovereign, loyalty to 
 whom became a crime against their heavenly lord. 
 It was the assertion of these claims, and not the
 
 90 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 dispute about the form of investitures, which convulsed 
 Italy with the strifes to which the struggle between 
 the Pope and the Emperor gave rise. 
 
 The ordinance of Nicholas would probably not have 
 been enacted, or, if enacted, never have been submitted 
 to, had there been an emperor of full age. Even as it 
 was, when on the death of Nicholas the cardinals elected 
 Alexander II., a council at Basle, with the sanction of 
 Agnes, elected Cadelaus, under the title of Honorius II. 
 The point of legality was too plainly with the Romans. 
 It was not necessary to impeach the imperial right to 
 justify an election made while there was no emperor to 
 present. Damiani, sent as a legate by Hildebrand, 
 convinced even the imperial court. The title of Alex- 
 ander was acknowledged, and the anti-pope, after a 
 struggle of four years, fled from the castle of St. Angelo. 
 where he had entrenched himself, and troubled Rome 
 no more. 
 
 The director of the Papacy at last became Pope. 
 Hildebrand was elevated to the Papal throne about 
 the same period when the youthful emperor attained 
 the age which qualified him for the exercise of his 
 imperial rights. In April, 1073, Alexander died. In 
 the church of the Lateran his obsequies were per- 
 formed. The coffin in which were enclosed the mortal 
 remains of the deceased pontiff, had just been lowered 
 to its vault. Dim tapers cast a funereal light along 
 the aisles of the church. A mass of human beino-s 
 
 O 
 
 thronged every part of the edifice, and the mournful 
 chant of the requiem rose in the voices of the bishops, 
 and priests, and monks, which swelled its intonations
 
 CHAP, in.] HILDEBRAND POPE BY ACCLAMATION. 97 
 
 Hildebrand, as Archdeacon of Rome, was leading the 
 service, when suddenly, as if by simultaneous impulse, 
 confused voices from different parts of the building 
 joined in the murmur, " Hildebrand is Pope." Louder 
 and more universal the murmur became. The Arch- 
 deacon rushed to the pulpit, and with an earnestness 
 that does not appear to have been feigned, implored 
 the people to desist. The cry had risen almost to a 
 wild tumultuous shout, in which the clergy joined. The 
 pulpit from which the Archdeacon was forced to descend 
 was occupied by a cardinal, who announced to the 
 people that the clergy were ready to assent to their 
 choice. Cries of " It is the will of St. Peter/ 3 inter- 
 rupted the superfluous panegyric which he was pro- 
 nouncing on the object of this display of popular 
 feeling. While some of the monks closed the vault 
 over the remains of Alexander, Hildebrand was elected, 
 in the words of the official registers, by the unani- 
 mous choice of the cardinal clergy, the deacons, the 
 acolytes and priests, the bishops, monks, and abbots, 
 giving their assent, and vast numbers of the people of 
 both sexes shouting with one acclaim their approval of 
 the choice. 7 Carried at once to St. Peter's, he was 
 arrayed in the pontifical robes, and enthroned in the 
 chair of the Apostle, and before darkness had entirely 
 covered the city, Hildebrand, under the title of Gregory 
 VII., was Pope. 
 
 The constitutions of Nicholas, which Gregory himself 
 
 7 "Sanctse ecclesise Romanse Catholicae cardinales, clerici, acolyti, subdiaconi, 
 diaconi, presbyteri, presentibus venerabilibus episcopia et abbatibus, clericis, et 
 monachis consentientibus, plurimis turbis utriusque sexus et omnis ordinia 
 acclamantibus." Act of Election, Baronius. Anno, 1073. 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 had framed, required the approbation of the emperor 
 to ratify the proceeding. Although Henry had not 
 been crowned, the new pontiff recognised him as in full 
 possession of his imperial rights. He wrote to Henry, 
 informing him of his election ; he excused himself 
 for his enthronement by the statement that it was 
 the act of the people in spite of his own resistance ; he 
 declared his readiness to await the imperial pleasure, 
 and addressed the youthful monarch in terms both of 
 affection and respect. There seems no valid reason for 
 doubting the accounts which represent him as adding to 
 this letter remonstrances upon the irregularities which 
 had already disgraced the life of Henry, and a warning 
 that as Pope, it would become the duty of the writer to 
 visit these offences with the censures and the penalties 
 of the Church. 
 
 This warning did not prevent Henry confirming his 
 appointment, and Gregory VII. occupied the Papal 
 Chair with all the forms and requisites that could give 
 legal validity to his title. 
 
 Almost all the revolutions of history are tame and 
 unimportant beside the mighty contest which ensued 
 a contest which involved all the principles, and affected 
 all the interests that can most deeply agitate, and most 
 powerfully sway the heart of man. A strange and 
 mournful destiny attended on its steps. Hildebrand, 
 under his Papal title of Gregory VII., and the emperor, 
 Henry IV., were the first and chief actors. To both 
 of them the consequences were personally miserable. 
 The great Pope died an exile from his see. The em- 
 peror's long reign of fifty years was, from the hour
 
 CHAP, m.] THE GREAT STRUGGLE. 99 
 
 of his attaining manhood, one scene of wearing strife. 
 Bowed down in his old age by grief, imprisoned by his 
 son, he died of a broken heart. Even the great powers 
 represented in the contest appeared to share in the 
 mysterious penalty it entailed. For seventy years after 
 its final termination, the imperial authority was not 
 heard of in Italian affairs. To the consequences of the 
 struggle we can clearly trace the long exile of the Popes 
 at Avignon that period which Papal writers not 
 inaptly designate as the seventy years of the Baby- 
 lonish captivity. From this directly followed the schism 
 which for fifty years longer distracted the councils of 
 Christendom, and neutralised the influence of the Holy 
 See. Nay more, to the disturbing influences of these 
 causes we can trace the demoralisation of the Popedom 
 itself. The secession to Avignon renewed the vices, 
 with the scandals of ancient times. The records of the 
 Council of Constance, which restored the unity of the 
 Church, are loaded with an indictment against one of 
 the rival Popes, which contain charges of crimes for 
 the perpetration of which a long life would scarcely 
 seem to have afforded time. The healing of the schism 
 did not remove the grave scandals of the Church. 
 Deep indeed must have been the fall of that Church 
 when, seventy years after the restoration, the austere 
 virtue and pure morals of Gregory VII. were replaced 
 by the licentious infamies which have consigned to 
 everlasting shame the memory of the pontificate of 
 Alexander VI. 
 
 Imperfectly would we judge of that great struggle, 
 if we did not admit that high and lofty principle, 
 
 H 2
 
 100 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 and deep and honest feelings, may have engaged men 
 as the partisans on either side. The claim of Gregory 
 rested on a few short and simple propositions. The 
 Christian Church it was asserted had the power of 
 visiting with ecclesiastical censure offences against the 
 divine laws of cutting off from her communion the 
 obstinate and impenitent offender. If this power was 
 conceded over her ordinary members, where was the 
 exemption of the prince from that jurisdiction which 
 if it had any authority at all, represented one that 
 knew no respect of persons ? Was the sovereign to 
 come reeking from the public crimes of profligacy or 
 blood, and demand as of right his admission to that 
 communion from which it was the duty of the priest 
 to drive away his far less guilty subject 1 All 
 claim for the divine institution of the authority of the 
 Church was gone, if those whom men supposed to be 
 entrusted with the awful duty of dispensing holy 
 mysteries had no power to refuse them to the most 
 profligate or the most impious sovereign who might 
 choose to profane them by his presence. But once 
 concede to the Church the same power of excommuni- 
 cating a sovereign, which it was admitted she might 
 exercise in the case of others, and it must, it was 
 argued, follow of necessity that the sentence would bring 
 with it the same consequences. The man judged unfit 
 for the community of the faithful was scarcely qualified 
 to exercise those functions which the incorporation of 
 religion with the civil polity of Christendom seemed 
 inseparably to annex to the office of a Christian king. 
 To sustain the loftiest pretensions of Papal power
 
 CHAP. IIL] IMPERIAL RIGHTS. 101 
 
 it was only necessary to add to these propositions the 
 further one, that the Roman was the governing authority 
 in the Christian Church, and that in the last resort the 
 Pontiff was the supreme judge over all estates and con- 
 ditions of Christian men. Even this was scarcely 
 necessary to sustain the acts of Gregory. He took the 
 precaution of obtaining for them the sanction of those 
 general councils which, from the earliest ages, had 
 been admitted to represent the authority of the Chris- 
 stian Church. 
 
 Against these claims thus resting on traditions which 
 moved the most sacred feelings, the partisans of im- 
 perial power had their appeal to principles of almost 
 equally sacred authority. From the days when Con- 
 stantine had bestowed the questionable gift of earthly 
 power upon the Christian Church, ecclesiastics had 
 endeavoured to show their gratitude perhaps in its 
 double sense of anticipation of future favours, as well 
 as thankfulness for the past by extolling and magni- 
 fying the prerogatives of the imperial station. The 
 Emperor as well as the Pope had been described as a 
 great power in the Christian Church. His right of 
 judging Popes had been frequently exercised with the 
 consent of Christendom. General councils had been 
 held under his direction, in his own presence or that of 
 his representatives, and in reality subject to his control. 
 The consecrated oil which was poured upon his person 
 gave him the sacred character of the Lord's anointed. 
 The divine right of the emperor was as much an article 
 of faith, as that of pontiffs ; and loyalty had its religion, 
 in the eyes of many, more pure and exalted, than that
 
 102 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 which prompted an unreasoning deference to the man- 
 dates of ecclesiastical power. 
 
 As is usual in any great contest, many other con- 
 siderations mingled with, and disturbed the division of 
 parties upon the real question that was involved. Even 
 political opinions and national feelings had their influ- 
 ence in determining men's course. On the side of Henry 
 were ranged the partisans of monarchy and imperial 
 prerogative ; the part of Gregory was taken by many 
 who wished to see that prerogative by any means cur- 
 tailed. In the cause of the pontiff were enlisted those 
 who, from superstition, dreaded the anathemas of the 
 See of Home, as well as those who, in a sincere piety, 
 believed that, against an attempt at her subjugation, 
 they were upholding the independence of the Church. 
 
 To these influences was added in Italy the element of 
 nationality. The Pope represented the Italian, the Em- 
 peror the German authority, and in the struggle for the 
 freedom of the Papacy, there were patriots who re- 
 cognised an effort at the emancipation from foreign 
 influence of an Italian power. 8 Others looked only 
 at the question of investitures in connection with the 
 undeniable scandals that attended a venal patronage, 
 and supported those measures, which seemed calcu- 
 
 8 " There can be no doubt that throughout the whole of these contests the 
 Papal power received a great accession of strength from the national and 
 republican spirit which was ready to support any power against the imperial." 
 Latin Chrittianity, vol, ii. p. 161. 
 
 Count Joseph le Maistre, the pious and amiable philosopher who long repre- 
 sented the Sardinian government at the Russian court, endeavours, in Lia 
 work on the " Temporal Power of the Pope," to show that all the struggles of 
 the Papacy against the Empire involved the principle of Italian independence. 
 A controversialist, in reply, might remind him that the Empire was the 
 creation of the Papacy itself. Le Afaittrt's Pope.
 
 CHAP, in.] MOTIVES IN THE CONTEST. 103 
 
 lated to secure the ministrations of religion from cor- 
 rupting influences. On the side of the Emperor were 
 found many who with an equal anxiety for the Church's 
 purity, desired to keep it free from the dangers of irre- 
 sponsible ecclesiastical control. They could point to 
 the occasions upon which Rome itself had appealed to 
 imperial power to rescue religion from the intolerable 
 evils of pontifical tyranny and vice. In the same ranks 
 were found the advocates of existing right, the sacred- 
 ness of which they invoked against the attempt to re- 
 verse relations which solemn deeds and compacts of the 
 pontiffs had settled. There too were to be found the 
 enlightened opponents of maxims in which they could 
 not but see the foundation of a system that was to sub- 
 ject all classes of the laity to priestly rule. With the 
 advocates perhaps on both sides were joined that 
 numerous class, who, under any circumstances, or in 
 any cause, would be the partisans of the power that 
 could most immediately advance their own interests. 
 
 Whatever may have been the influences which actu- 
 ated many of those who supported the pretensions of 
 the pontiff, in the lofty language of that pontiff himself 
 there was no paltering with any of the inferior motives 
 which attracted men to his cause. In disdain of all 
 earthly consideration, he boldly took his stand upon 
 the supreme right of the apostolic see, and conde- 
 scending to conciliate no worldly prejudices, he com- 
 manded the obedience of Christians in virtue of the 
 allegiance which they owed to their Creator. Yet in 
 Italy the spirit both of liberty and patriotism did 
 contribute powerfully to sustain the cause of the Pope.
 
 104 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 The inordinate character of the Papal pretensions was 
 overlooked in the fact that they were set up against 
 that imperial power of which the municipalities were 
 already growing jealous. The effect of these ele- 
 ments would have been much stronger, if it had not 
 been that in Lombardy, the stronghold of Italian 
 freedom, the other measures of Hildebrand excited 
 great dissatisfaction both among the clergy and lait}'. 
 From the days of St. Ambrose the Lombard Church 
 had enjoyed a very considerable amount of indepen- 
 dence, using its own ritual, and governed by its own 
 synods. The provincial laws of these synods had sanc- 
 tioned, or at least tolerated, the marriage of priests. 9 
 The enforcement of celibacy was unpopular with the 
 clergy, while many of the cities resented the regulation 
 which deprived them of that share in the election of 
 their bishops, which in their case had not yet been 
 reduced to a mere form. This was not all. In Italy 
 itself existed a jealousy of the Papal power which 
 among the clergy in more distant regions was not so 
 strongly felt. The Church of Milan scarcely brooked 
 submission to the Metropolitan of the Imperial city. 
 Ravenna had acquired notoriety by attempts to dispute 
 the supremacy with the See of Rome. In the progress 
 of the contest the imperial cause was supported by a 
 great majority of the Italian prelates. 10 
 
 9 They cited in support of this the authority of St. Ambrose, and 
 of some of their own moat illustrious prelates, " Latin Christianity," vol. iii, 
 book vi. chap. iii. The priests who promulgated the laws against marriage 
 in Milan were roughly handled by the populace. Similar demonstrations took 
 place at Paris. 
 10 Milman's " Latin Christianity," vol. iii. p 189.
 
 CHAP, in.] THE COUNTESS MATILDA. 105 
 
 In spite of this it was in Italy itself that the pontiff 
 found his most powerful support. The Roman princes 
 who had conquered Southern Italy, became probably 
 from the spirit of opposition to the emperor, the de- 
 fenders of the Holy See. It was to an Italian woman 
 that Gregory was indebted for the most influential aid. 
 Among those who most energetically supported his 
 cause was Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, a lady of 
 great possessions, and still greater influence. Admitted 
 to the intimate confidence of Gregory, she sustained his 
 resolution by her unflinching courage. Her masculine 
 energy gave vigour to the cause which she was ever 
 ready to support by the resources of her great domains. 
 She well merited in her lifetime the title of " The 
 Amazon of the Church." Dying, she proved the sin- 
 cerity of her devotion or her fanaticism, by bequeathing 
 all her great possessions to the Holy See. 
 
 It is impossible in these pages to follow in detail the 
 incidents which marked the varying fortunes of the 
 contest, the commencement of which within two years 
 of his elevation Hildebrand provoked. In 1075 he 
 succeeded in passing in a council, or rather synod, in 
 Rome, the celebrated decree which forbade any layman 
 to give investiture of an ecclesiastical benefice, or any 
 priest from receiving it at lay hands, and included in 
 one comprehensive anathema and sentence of excom- 
 munication all who should presume to contravene its 
 provisions. 
 
 This was speedily followed by a summons to the 
 emperor to appear at Rome to answer before the 
 tribunal of the Church for his offences in retaining, as
 
 106 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 his ministers, men who had subjected themselves to the 
 sentence of excommunication, and for having himself 
 given investiture, contrary to the Papal decree. The 
 pastoral admonitions of his spiritual father, which ac- 
 companied the formal citation by the legates, apprised 
 the youthful emperor that before the same tribunal he 
 might be called on to answer for those immoralities of 
 his private life, of which the Pontiff had heard with 
 equal grief and indignation. The citation informed him, 
 that unless he obeyed by appearing before the Roman 
 tribunal on the 22nd of February, on that day the 
 solemn sentence of excommunication would be pro- 
 nounced against him. 
 
 Henry met this audacious summons by convening a 
 council of the prelates of Germany at Worms, on the 
 24th of January. Cardinal Hugo, the very man who, 
 on the evening of his election, had pronounced from the 
 pulpit of the Lateran the fulsome panegyric upon the 
 Archdeacon, came forward now as the supposed repre- 
 sentative of the Roman clergy to supply grounds of 
 canonical accusation against the Pope. He charged 
 him with having obtained his elevation by bribery and 
 violence, and with the guilt of having devoted himself 
 to necromancy and magic arts. In vain did some of 
 the prelates protest against the condemnation of a pon- 
 tiff without proof; in vain did they urge that these 
 charges, if true, were matters, not for a provincial synod, 
 but for a general council. They were answered by the 
 argument that the election of such a pontiff was null 
 and void. Pressed, by the more unanswerable argument 
 that their allegiance to the emperor made it incumbent
 
 CHAP, in.] IMPERIAL DEFIANCE. 107 
 
 on them to concur in the decision of the council, they 
 signed with the rest of the assembled prelates a paper, 
 by which they solemnly abjured all obedience to 
 Hildebrand ; and a resolution was unanimously adopted, 
 by which " the false monk and necromancer " was 
 declared to be no longer Pope. 
 
 If the language of Gregory's missive is open to the 
 charge of being arrogant and haughty, the letter in 
 which the emperor communicated to the Pontiff the 
 decision of the German council, can hardly be said to be 
 deficient in those qualities. " Henry, not by usurpation, 
 but by God's ordinance, King ! to Hildebrand, no longer 
 Pope but the false monk " enumerating his supposed 
 offences, his simony, his pride, his arrogance, his tramp- 
 ling on the rights of bishops and of laymen, the letter 
 proceeded : " Us too, consecrated of God, amenable to 
 no judge but God, who can be deposed for no crime 
 but absolute apostasy, thou hast ventured to assail, 
 despising the words of that true pope St. Peter, * Fear 
 God, honour the king.' Thou that honourest not the 
 king fearest not God. St. Paul had accursed even an 
 angel from heaven who should preach another Gospel. 
 This curse falls upon thee, who teachest this new doc- 
 trine. Thus accursed ! then ; thus condemned by the 
 sentence of all our bishops and our own down ! down ! 
 Leave the Apostolic throne, which thou hast usurped. 
 Let another take the chair of St. Peter, who preaches, 
 not violence and war, but the sound doctrine of the 
 Holy Apostle. I Henry by the grace of God King ! 
 with all the bishops of my realm, say unto thee down, 
 down ! "
 
 108 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. I. 
 
 The third council of Lateran met on the 21st of 
 February, A.D. 1076. One hundred and ten prelates 
 surrounded the pope. The officer of the Pontiff sum- 
 moned aloud in accordance with the citation, the em- 
 peror to appear. The voice of the apparitor a second 
 time repeated the summons, when the messenger of 
 Henry advanced with this haughty and insulting letter, 
 which he delivered as the emperor's answer to the cita- 
 tion. The priest, who presented it, boldly stood in the 
 midst of the assembled fathers, and in the name of the 
 king, his master, commanded them to present them- 
 selves before the emperor on the feast of Pentecost, to 
 receive from him a pope and father ; " for this man/' he 
 added, as he pointed to the Pontiff, who sat unmoved 
 and imperturbable, amid the tumult that agitated the 
 assembly, " this man is no pope, but a ravening wolf." 
 
 Such was the haughty defiance which Henry flung 
 before the Pontiff in the midst of the assembled council. 
 It was met by the sentence of excommunication, by 
 which, with the unanimous consent of the council, in 
 the presence, and it was said, with the acquiescence of 
 his terrified and despairing mother, 11 the emperor was 
 separated from the communion of Christian men. " In 
 the name of St. Peter, in the defence of the Church, 
 and by the authority of God Almighty," the Pontiff 
 " interdicted Henry from the whole realm of Germany 
 and Italy, he absolved all Christians from the oaths 
 which they have sworn, or may swear, to him, and 
 forbade all obedience to him as king." 
 
 The intemperate missive of Henry fell harmless at 
 
 11 The empress had previous to this entered a convent at Rome.
 
 CHAP, in.] DIET OF TRIBTJR. 109 
 
 the feet of the Pope. Far different was the effect of 
 the solemn and dignified sentence of Gregory and the 
 council. The terrors of the excommunication seized 
 on his adherents. The prelates began to desert his 
 cause. His subjects made it a pretext for redressing 
 or avenging the grievances which they had endured. 
 The chiefs of Germany conspired against his rule, and 
 assembled in a diet in October, at Tribur, near Darm- 
 stadt. Their deliberations lasted some time. Negotia- 
 tions were opened between them and the emperor, in 
 which Henry offered large concessions in vain. Finally 
 they resolved that unless within a year from his sen- 
 tence Henry should have been reconciled to the Church, 
 he must forfeit irrevocably his crown ; in the mean time 
 he was to live without the insignia of royal rank, while 
 the Pope was invited to hold a general council at 
 Augsburg finally to settle the affairs of the distracted 
 empire. 
 
 Henry had no alternative but either to go to war with 
 the diet or accept the hard conditions they imposed. 
 The alienation of his subjects produced by his own 
 haughty and imperious conduct, was too general and 
 too complete for him to hazard the crown of Germany 
 upon the issue of a civil war. Moved it is said by the 
 entreaties of his mother, he at last determined to seek 
 reconciliation with the Pope. The real strength of the 
 Pontiff lay in the vices and the crimes of Henry him- 
 self. The diet at Tribur had carefully enumerated the 
 offences which they alleged against him, and which 
 justified them, wholly irrespective of the excommunica- 
 tion, in deposing him from his kingly power. There
 
 110 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 was too manifest truth in the charges. His subjects 
 had but screened themselves behind the Papal autho- 
 rity, to find sanction for a rebellion which his conduct 
 had provoked. 
 
 Christmas was at hand, and the year allotted by the 
 resolution of the diet was drawing to its close. The 
 dukes of Carinthia and Bavaria, his enemies, occupied 
 the provinces through which lay his direct route to 
 Italy. His journey could only be performed through 
 Burgundy and the passes of Savoy, commanded by 
 Adelaide, Marchioness of Susa, the mother of the 
 empress. A winter of unusual severity aggravated the 
 difficulties of that journey. Through ice and snow, 
 along paths from which the snow that had just rolled 
 down in the avalanche was cleared, down steep descents 
 where the glassy surface of the frozen slope appeared 
 to offer no resting-place for the foot of the adventurous 
 wayfarer, Henry, accompanied by his queen and his 
 infant son, with difficulty and danger crossed to the 
 Italian plains ; to learn that already was the Pope on 
 his way to Augsburgh to hold that council to which he 
 had been invited by the resolution of the German diet. 
 
 Gregory, the guest of the faithful Matilda, was 
 awaiting the return of milder weather to continue his 
 journey to the north. Twelve miles from Reggio, on an 
 eminence rising near the first slope of the Apennines, 
 stood her feudal fortress of Canosa. In this mountain 
 stronghold the Countess Matilda was the entertainer 
 of the Pope. Personages of distinction were assembled 
 to do honour to the presence of Gregory. Some of 
 the Italian followers of Henry had already made
 
 CHAP, in.] IMPERIAL HUMILIATION CANOSA. Ill 
 
 their peace -with the Church, but the partisans of the 
 schismatic monarch in Lombardy were still strong. 
 When first the intelligence that Henry had crossed the 
 Alps arrived, it was uncertain whether he came to sub- 
 mit or to make war upon the Pope. A message to the 
 Pontiff soon informed him through Adelaide of Susa, 
 that the humbled emperor was approaching as a sup- 
 pliant to seek a reconciliation with the Church. 
 
 Within the walls, although not under the roof of 
 that mountain fortress, was enacted that memorable 
 scene of royal humiliation which is associated with the 
 character of Hildebrand in the minds of many who 
 are acquainted with him only in the traditions of 
 the degradation to which he subjected the king. 
 The snow lay deep in the highlands round the castle. 
 The wintry winds swept cold and dismal over them 
 on the morning when Henry, attended by a small 
 retinue of followers, reached the gate of Canosa. 
 While his attendants remained outside, the first sove- 
 reign of the Christian world passed, in the light garb 
 of a penitent, bare-footed and bare-headed, through the 
 triple walls to the inner courtyard of the castle and 
 awaited there the summons of the haughty pontiff that 
 was to admit him to his presence. All day long he 
 stood in the shelter of the walls, but without covering 
 between him and the sky. A second and a third day 
 passed over his unsheltered head. Cold and hungry 
 he stood " from morn," not " till dewy eve," but to an 
 evening when icicles froze on the fountains of the 
 court in which he stood. His patience could endure 
 no more. The passionate entreaties of the humbled
 
 112 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. I. 
 
 monarch were conveyed to the Pontiff by the countess 
 and by the Abbot of Cluni, whose intercessions he 
 invoked, and on the fourth day the relenting Gregory 
 permitted him to enter his presence, that he might 
 receive his submission, and admit him to reconciliation 
 with the Church. 
 
 What motives influenced the secret thoughts of the 
 haughty churchman in the infliction of this informal and 
 bitter penance can only be conjectured. Those who 
 will attribute to him none of the frailties of human 
 nature, tell us that it was the discharge of a conscien- 
 tious duty which bound the Pontiff emphatically to 
 mark the triumph of the Church. More earthly emo- 
 tions may be reasonably supposed to have agitated 
 his mind. But one short year before had the arrogant 
 and libellous missive of Henry insulted him before his 
 assembled prelates. There was one injury which the 
 Pontiff found it hard to forgive. The charge of simony 
 had been publicly made. He whose whole life and soul 
 and energies had been devoted, with an almost fanatic 
 zeal, to destroy the accursed practice, had been accused 
 by the emperor of owing his elevation to the crime 
 he abhorred. How- deeply this stung his inmost soul 
 we may gather from the passionate outburst of feeling 
 which, after he had pardoned Henry, not even his 
 engagement in the most solemn service could restrain. 
 The reconciliation was followed by a solemn high mass 
 at which Gregory officiated, in the presence of the 
 emperor and his attendants. In the midst of the 
 celebration of the eucharist the Pontiff paused. As 
 he was about to receive the consecrated elements, he
 
 CHAP, m.] THE SACRAMENTAL CHALLENGE. 113 
 
 turned to the emperor, who knelt near the altar, and, 
 after alluding to the charge of simony which Henry 
 had brought against him, and appealing to his whole 
 life in proof of its falsehood, he laid his hand upon 
 the sacramental symbols and prayed that " God's judg- 
 ment" might that day acquit him if the charges were 
 unjust, might strike him dead if they were true. In pre- 
 sence of the awe-struck congregation he ate the bread 
 and drank from the cup, and stood calm and erect before 
 the altar upon which he placed the chalice. A moment 
 of solemn excitement thrilled every breast. The Pontiff 
 moved slowly from the steps of the altar towards the 
 king he carried the consecrated wafer in his hand, 
 and as he reached it towards him he asked of him, in 
 solemn and measured words, if he was ready to go 
 through the same ordeal to prove himself innocent of 
 the charges which his princes in their diet had pre- 
 ferred. He turned away from the prostrate monarch, 
 who raised no hand to receive the sacred emblem. 
 There was a grand and stern sublimity in the scene. 
 There was a majestic earnestness in the vehement 
 outgushing, even in the most solemn hour of his 
 triumph, of the anguish that had wounded the Pontiff's 
 inmost soul, at the injustice and the falsehood by 
 which he was assailed. 
 
 Whatever excuse may be made for the conduct 
 of Hildebrand in thus humiliating the emperor, it 
 excited feelings which retrieved the fallen fortunes of 
 Henry. There were loud expressions at first of con- 
 tempt for the abject prostration of the monarch who 
 had submitted to the degradation. These, however,
 
 114 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 soon gave way to those of pity for the sovereign, and in- 
 dignation at the remorseless pride of the Pope. Absolved 
 from the sentence of excommunication, Henry was once 
 more the lawful king. The old instincts of loyalty 
 gathered round him. He refused to submit to the coun- 
 cil which the Pontiff was on his way to hold ; in some 
 minor differences as to details he found an excuse for 
 departing from the oath which he had taken to the 
 Pope. Even Gregory was obliged to temporise in the 
 presence of the feeling he had evoked ; and, when the 
 princes of Germany declared Henry, notwithstanding 
 his absolution, to have forfeited his crown, and elected 
 Rudolph in his stead, the Pope at first remained neutral 
 in the contest. 
 
 At last the successes that attended the cause of 
 Henry compelled the Pope to interfere. He demanded 
 from the rival claimants for the throne a submission to 
 the arbitration of the Church. Henry refused to 
 comply. His partisans every where gathered strength. 
 " Fear God and honour the king," became the watch- 
 word of the party who charged Hildebrand with vio- 
 lating the apostolic precept of the first of the popes. 
 All the suppressed hatred of his austere and haughty 
 rule, which had widely diffused itself through all 
 orders of the clergy, began to find expression. The 
 cities of Lombardy, with whom that rule had never been 
 popular, took up arms in Henry's cause, and when, in 
 March 1080, Gregory resorted to a second deposition 
 by a general council, the anathema of the Church 
 appeared to have lost the terrible power which it 
 formerly possessed.
 
 OHAP. in.] RELIGIOUS FERVOUR. 115 
 
 The Pope still further weakened his authority by the 
 rash prediction which he uttered, that within twelve 
 months the presumptuous rebel against the Church 
 would be deposed or dead, if within that year he did 
 not once more submit. A golden crown was sent to 
 Rudolph, with an inscription stating that it was the 
 gift of Peter. 12 Within that year the chosen of the 
 Pontiff fell on the battle-field. The cause of royalty 
 did not want its stories of judgments from heaven upon 
 the opponents of the king. Rudolph's right hand was 
 severed from his arm by the stroke of a sabre. It 
 was universally believed that he held up the bleeding 
 stump and exclaimed that it was a judgment on him, 
 thus to lose the hand with which he had signed the 
 oath of fidelity to his sovereign. " Where, where," he 
 cried in agony, " are those who said they would absolve 
 me from that oath ? " Religious enthusiasm animated 
 the armies of Henry, as completely as it did those of 
 his opponents. St. Peter was on the side of those who 
 did battle for the Lord's anointed in the one camp, 
 as undoubtedly as in the other he was claimed as the 
 champion of the Pope. A religious fervour, that seemed 
 to anticipate the days of England's Puritans gave 
 courage and determination to both. The soldiers of 
 Rudolph went into battle chaunting the eighty-second 
 Psalm. The Te Deum Laudamus, and Kyrie-eleison 
 rose from the night watches of the imperial camp. 
 
 The prelates, meantime, in the imperial interest, had 
 met the second excommunication of their sovereign by 
 a second deposition of the Pope. Nineteen bishops at 
 
 13 Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadoma Rudolpho. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 Mentz had signed a decree, in which they added to the 
 old accusations of simony and necromancy the new charge 
 of heresy : "as an old disciple of the heretic Berengar he 
 had endangered the Apostolic doctrine of the body and 
 blood of Christ/' He was solemnly deposed as "licentious 
 as the preacher of sacrilegious and incendiary doc- 
 trines as possessed of an evil spirit, and the worshipper 
 of divinations and dreams;" 13 and finally, unless on 
 hearing of their judgment, he descended from his throne, 
 the assembled bishops charitably condemned the false 
 pontiff to everlasting perdition. The decree of Mentz, 
 composed in this furious language, was confirmed by 
 thirty Italian prelates, who met at Milan, and at this 
 latter council Guibert, Archbishop of Ravenna, was 
 elected pope. 
 
 Henry marched an army against Rome. For three 
 years the citizens within their walls defied his power, 
 and remained faithful to their pontiff. Wearied at last 
 by the long continuance of the siege, they implored of 
 Gregory to yield. That bold and undaunted spirit still 
 refused. Not even the offer of Henry to give up Gui- 
 bert, to acknowledge Hildebrand as pontiff, and accept 
 
 These charges of divination and necromancy had their origin in the habits 
 of Hildebrand. Like many other great men, he was not exempt from the 
 influence of those feelings to which the wise give the name of superstition. 
 His early belief in visions and dreams has been already mentioned. In his 
 later years he was a student of that judicial astrology which was indeed the 
 general faith of the age. His faith in presages and omens was so strong that 
 he scarcely ever entered on a serious enterprise without consulting them. 
 The story is told of the Synod of the Lateran waiting in solemn silence for 
 half an hour while the Pontiff, in the spirit of the old Roman augurs who 
 bore the same title, was anxiously watching the omens which he could find 
 in a broken egg. Latin Christianity, vol. iii. p. 152 ; see Neander's History of 
 the Christian Religion, vol. vii. (English translation) p. 117.
 
 CH\P. in.] HILDEBRAND BESIEGED. 117 
 
 the imperial crown from his hands, could move the 
 resolution, that was as fearless in the days of adversity 
 as it had been haughty in the days of success. The 
 populace rose in favour of Henry, and the Lateran gate 
 was opened to admit him. Gregory took refuge in the 
 Castle of St. Angelo. The anti-Pope, on the 24th of 
 March, Palm Sunday, was consecrated and enthroned in 
 St. Peter's, and on the following Sunday Henry received 
 from his hands coronation with the imperial crown. 
 
 For six weeks Hildebrand remained beleaguered in 
 the strong and almost impregnable fortress to which he 
 had fled. At the expiration of that period, Roger 
 Guiscard marched to his aid with an army of 30,000 
 men. Before the appearance of this force the emperor 
 was compelled to retire. The Norman chief released 
 the Pontiff from his captivity, and brought him in 
 triumph to the palace of the Lateran. The very next 
 day made the Pope a witness of the horrors of the war 
 he had kindled through Europe. The licentious troopers 
 of Guiscard insisted on treating Rome as a city taken 
 by storm. Massacres and plunder and violations spared 
 neither church nor home nor convent ; nuns were 
 dragged from their cells, priests murdered in their 
 churches by the allies of the Pope. The citizens rose in 
 arms and were overpowering their assailants ; Guiscard 
 gave the fearful order to fire the town ; unable to endure 
 these horrors, the Pope escaped from his palace, and left 
 the pontifical city to return no more. Just one year 
 afterwards he died at Salerno. As he sunk into the 
 stupor of death he uttered the words, " I have loved 
 righteousness and hated iniquity, and therefore I die an
 
 HISTORY OF ITALY. [vor,. r. 
 
 exile/' His ear had closed on all earthly sounds before 
 the priest who was beside him had time to answer that 
 no place was exile to the father of the Christian world. 
 
 Thus died Hildebrand ; thus passed away in scenes 
 of misery and civil war the dreams and ambitions of 
 that proud spirit. Whatever opinion men may form of 
 his character or designs, let us at least remember that 
 no vices stained, and no cruelties disgraced, his life. 
 No edicts of his pontificate authorised persecution for 
 religious opinion. It was a charge against him in his 
 lifetime, it has been made a reproach to him after death, 
 that he tolerated departures from the stern orthodoxy 
 of religious faith. 14 The charge of heresy was founded 
 on the protection he afforded to Berengarius, who 
 would not accept the orthodox version of the dogma of 
 transubstantiation. 15 His religion has been stigmatised 
 as pretence, because in writing to a Mahometan sove- 
 reign he stated his trust that they both worshipped one 
 God, although in different ways, and prayed that his 
 correspondent might have everlasting happiness in 
 Abraham's bosom. 16 
 
 For eleven years more the fevered life of the emperor 
 was made miserable by the anxieties and tortures of the 
 
 14 Neander, vol. vii. p. 125. 
 
 u Berenger of Tours had been frequently condemned for his opinions on the 
 real presence both by Popes and Councils. When summoned before the same 
 Lateran council to which Henry was cited, Gregory dismissed him not only 
 uncondemned, but with letters of recommendation. 
 
 16 " Gregory VII. had all the marks of Antichrist about him, and his.reli- 
 gion was nothing more than a grimace. He wrote a very complacent letter to 
 a Mahomedan prince, in which he says to him ' You and we adore one and 
 the same God, though in a different manner. I wish you everlasting happi- 
 ness in Abraham's bosom.' " Jortln's Rtmarkt on Ecclesiastical History, 
 vol. Hi. p. 129.
 
 CHAP, in.] HENRY'S LATTER DAYS. 119 
 
 contest in which he was engaged. In Germany the 
 flames of eivil war still raged, and Papal influence 
 supported the claims of pretenders to the throne. In 
 Italy rival popes contended for the chair of St. Peter, 
 and the conflict of to-day, in the streets of Rome, had 
 more than once decided the question which of them 
 should say his mass in the Church of the Apostle on 
 the morrow. A miserable evening of his life awaited 
 the unhappy king. Under the influence of hostile 
 priests, his empress publicly brought against him 
 horrible accusations, which, if true, established an 
 insane depravity in him, if untrue, were only to be 
 accounted for by attributing them to the insane hallu- 
 cinations of his accuser. Enemies rose against him in 
 his own children : his two sons were successively 
 engaged in unnatural rebellion against their sovereign 
 and father. His second son, Henry V., deposed him 
 from the imperial throne, and confined him in a 
 prison. History adds to the guilt of his rebellion, the 
 accusation of denying his captive father the common 
 necessaries of life. The emperor escaped from his 
 gaolers, and wandered in Germany in actual want. 
 A wounded spirit soon brought him to the grave. 
 He died at Liege, in 1106, 17 and left to his cruel and 
 almost parricidal son the inheritance of his crown, and 
 strange to say, also, of his quarrel with the Church. 
 That son was as false to the cause of his unnatural 
 alliance as he had been to his filial duties. Presenting 
 
 17 For five years churchmen refused to permit his remains to repose in the 
 Cathedral of Spires a structure which owed its magnificence chiefly to 
 himself.
 
 J20 HISTORY OF ITALY. [vor. i. 
 
 himself as emperor at Rome, he claimed from the 
 astonished Pontiff the recognition of his right of in- 
 vestiture. On its being refused, he led his troops to 
 Rome. Entering the city as a conqueror, he devoted 
 it to pillage, and compelled the captive Pope, Pascal II., 
 to confer on him coronation, and at the same time to 
 cede the privilege of investiture which he claimed. 18 
 Scarcely had the imperial troops left Rome, when one 
 council revoked the privilege, and another excommuni- 
 cated the sacrilegious prince. The death of the 
 Countess Matilda, and her bequest of all her posses- 
 sions to the Holy See, originated a new cause of 
 quarrel. Her lands were seized by the emperor, who 
 entered Rome once more in triumph, and nominated 
 a rival Pope. After another war of investitures, 
 which lasted fifteen years, Europe became weary of 
 a contest in which the symbols of Christian juris- 
 diction had been made the cause of ferocious and 
 sanguinary struggles, and in which all civil, as well as 
 ecclesiastical authority was unsettled. In 1122 a treaty, 
 or concordat, entered into at Worms, ordained, " That 
 for the future the bishops and abbots shall be chosen 
 by the monks and canons, but this election shall be 
 made in presence of the emperor or an ambassador 
 appointed by him for that purpose ; that in the case of 
 a dispute among the electors, the decision shall be left 
 
 18 Attempts had been made to settle the dispute by negociation which 
 seemed at one time to have been brought to a successful issue. Pascal had 
 actually entered the church for the purpose of performing the ceremony of 
 the emperor's coronation, when he and the emperor disagreed on the terms. 
 The emperor's troops detained the Pope a prisoner in the church. The Roman 
 populace rose in armed insurrection to rescue the Pope.
 
 CHAP, m.] CONCORDAT OF WOKMS. 121 
 
 to the emperor, who is to consult with the bishops on 
 that subject. That the bishop, or abbot elect, shall take 
 an oath of allegiance to the emperor, receive from his 
 hands the regalia, and do homage for them. That the 
 emperor shall no longer confer the regalia by the cere- 
 mony of the ring and crozier, which are the ensigns of a 
 spiritual dignity, but by that of the sceptre, as more 
 proper to invest the person elected with the possession 
 of privileges merely temporal." 
 
 Thus was settled the question of investitures, and 
 the mode of election of all inferior bishops. Nothing 
 was determined as to that of the highest dignity of 
 the Church. But before long the nomination of the 
 Pope became vested in the body which represented 
 " the Chapter " of Rome ; and within forty years from 
 the concordat of Worms, the Roman cardinals became 
 exclusively the prince electors of the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 independent alike of popular influence and of imperial 
 control. 19 
 
 Henry died at Utrecht in 1125. His nephew Conrad, 
 Duke of Franconia, made an attempt to seize on the 
 imperial crown. He was crowned at Milan with the 
 iron crown ; but neither the German electors nor the 
 Pope recognised his pretensions, and he was compelled 
 to yield it to Lothaire of Saxony the candidate sup- 
 ported by the Pope. 
 
 On the death of Lothaire in 1137, Conrad, although 
 under excommunication, was elected to the German 
 throne. The partisans of the Papal power unsuccess- 
 fully opposed to him Henry Guelph of Bavaria, the 
 
 19 See vol. ii. p. 251, note on the election of the Popes.
 
 122 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. t 
 
 chief of a great family, illustrious in the annals of the 
 chivalry of Europe. This contest is remarkable, as 
 having given to the partisans of the Pope and the 
 emperor their names of Guelphs and Ghibelines. " Hy 
 Guelph," and " Hy Ghibeline," became the battle-cry of 
 the contending armies. The first obviously the family 
 name, the second derived from the little town of 
 \Vibelung in Franconia the birthplace, or at least the 
 feudal stronghold, of Conrad. 20 
 
 On the death of Conrad in 1152, the choice of the 
 electors fell on his nephew, Frederick Barbarossa, 
 Duke of Suabia, chief of the house of Hohenstauffen. 
 Under this prince we are to follow the imperial power 
 into another and almost equally desperate struggle 
 with the spirit of Italian municipal freedom. Hardly 
 was Frederick Barbarossa seated on the imperial throne 
 when he commenced that war upon the liberties of the 
 Italian republican cities, in which finally they vanquished, 
 by the arms and the energy of freemen, the whole 
 might of the empire exerted for their subjugation under 
 the guidance of one of the ablest, as well as bravest of 
 the German chiefs. 
 
 M Muratori's "Antiquities of the House of Este;" Gibbon's "Antiquities 
 of the House of Brans wick." A writer cited in a note to Muratori, says 
 ' F.ictum est sub Conrado secundo in pugna quam gessit cum Guelpho 
 Bavariae duce. In ea pugna Guelphi auxiliarcs symbolum hoc habuerunt, 
 Hie GuelphhL' li vero qui sub Conrado Csesare pugnabant, 'Hie Guibeling ' 
 claiuarunt, quod Conradus in pago Waublingen nutritus est." 
 
 Conrad was the third of his name who was King of Germany the second 
 who had worn the Italian crown. He never received coronation from the 
 Tope, and by those who are strictly accurate he is not reckoned among the 
 emperors.
 
 CHAP, iv.] ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 123 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Republics of Italy The free Cities the Representatives of the Municipal 
 Institutions of the Roman System Greatness of these Cities Accession 
 of the Emperor Frederick I. His Diet at Roncaglia Submission of 
 Milan Its second Revolt It is levelled to the Ground Origin of the 
 Lombard League Frederick marches on Rome Return of his Army 
 Building of Alexandria Contest of Frederick with the Lombard League 
 Battle of Legnano Acquisition of Sicily by Marriage The Emperor 
 Henry VI. His Son Frederick a Ward of the Pope Assumes the 
 Imperial Crown as Frederick II. His quarrel with the Church His 
 Excommunication and his Crusade in the Holy Land Manifestoes of the 
 Pope and the Emperor Attempted Council by the Pope Seizure of the 
 Bishops by the Pisan Fleet Death of the Pope Council of Lyons 
 Excommunication of Henry His Death Early Death of his Son Conrad 
 Manfred King of Sicily Conquest of Naples by Charles of Anjou 
 Conradin Son of Conrad claims the Crown, his defeat and execution The 
 Sicilian Vespers Effects of the Papal enmity to Frederick II. and his 
 family Reflections. 
 
 IN other parts of Europe, the origin of municipalities 
 has been referred to the period of the tenth or 
 eleventh century. It has been attributed by many 
 writers to the policy of kings, who endeavoured by 
 giving charters to cities, to raise up a check upon 
 the power of the nobles, or to that of nobles who 
 wished to strengthen themselves against kings. In 
 Italy, which supplied to Europe the example of these 
 institutions, we must look farther back to trace them 
 to their source. At a time when the charters of 
 monarchs wre conferring restricted privileges upon the 
 newly created burgher communities of French or
 
 124 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 German towns, the free cities of Italy had already 
 become prosperous and great, and enjoyed an almost 
 sovereign independence by a prescription which could 
 not produce, and did not require, one single charter to 
 support their long acknowledged rights. 
 
 In the republican institutions of the Roman period, 
 we have little difficulty in finding, not merely the germ 
 of the Italian municipalities, but the identical munici- 
 palities themselves. 1 Their free constitutions were not 
 derived from any grants of monarchs, but had descended 
 from the days when they were framed upon the 
 republican model of Rome. The circumstances of Italy 
 under the rule of the German emperors, abundantly 
 account for the power, which at an early age, we find 
 her municipalities able to assume. 
 
 The policy of the Romans had been to give to all 
 the Italian towns the privileges of their citizenship, and 
 to establish in them municipalities formed after the 
 fashion of the institutions at Rome. The village of 
 Ulubraa had its aedile in the days of the Caesars. The 
 larger cities had their civic assembly or curia ; their 
 magistrates were annually elected duumviri or consuls, 
 and at the time of the fall of the Roman empire, these 
 cities with their republican institutions existed in every 
 part of Italy. The rule of the emperors, however 
 arbitrary, had not disturbed, even in Rome itself, the 
 forms of republican government. Rome was to the 
 
 1 In tracing the origin of the Italian republics to the Roman municipalities, 
 reference may be made to Savigny's " History of the Roman Law in the Middle 
 Ages ; " Raiuouard's " Histoire du Droit Municipal ; " Hallam's " History of 
 the Middle Ages," especially the note on "municipal government," vol. i. p. 342, 
 10th edition ; Spalding's " Italy," vol. ii. p. 70, et seq. ; Guizot in his " History 
 of Civilisation" adopts an opposite view; Troya " Storia d'ltalia del medio sevo."
 
 CHAP, iv.] ROMAN INSTITUTION. 125 
 
 last a republic oppressed by a military dictator. 
 Both in the capital and in the cities of the provinces, 
 the institutions of ancient times remained ready to 
 assert their original liberty, whenever the controlling 
 power, that virtually enslaved them, was withdrawn 
 with all the framework of a free sovereignty whenever 
 the opportunity of exercising it arose. 
 
 No mistake could be greater than to suppose that 
 these institutions perished in the ruins of the empire. 
 In Rome itself, where they were most exposed to the 
 influences of destruction, they survived. The earlier 
 invasions of the barbarians swept over Italy with 
 devastation, but they left its civil economy untouched. 
 The ruin they wrought was material, not political. 
 Attila, and Alaric, and Genseric attempted no settle- 
 ment on the lands which they ravaged rather than 
 subdued. They pillaged, and passed on. Plunder, 
 and not conquest, was the object of these visits 
 of the Goths, the Huns, and the Vandals. The 
 city that escaped the flames, had no reason to fear 
 from the army of freebooters, any violent interference 
 with its government or its rights. When Odoacer 
 established, for the first time, a Gothic rule in Italy 
 (A.D. 474), he carefully respected all the forms of the 
 ancient institutions of Rome ; he exercised sovereign 
 power as " the Patrician," or lieutenant of the eastern 
 emperor ; he was invested with that dignity on the 
 petition of the senate, and during the fourteen years of 
 his reign, Roman consuls were regularly elected. 2 
 
 Fourteen years afterwards, the Great Theodoric 
 
 2 Muratori. Gibbon.
 
 126 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 established himself as king. The wise and prudent 
 reign of this "barbarian" gave Italy a peace and 
 prosperity, which, under the rule of civilisation, had 
 long been absent from her plains. He also obeyed all 
 the rules, and observed the forms of Roman juris- 
 prudence. So scrupulous was he in respecting the 
 institutions which he found, that the civil government 
 of Italy, under his administration, was exercised only 
 by Italians. 
 
 Thus far, we find nothing to disturb the continuance, 
 or interfere with the constitution, of the provincial 
 republics of Italy. They were not destroyed in the 
 short-lived restoration of Roman power, by the conquests 
 of Belisarius and Narses, and we cannot doubt the fact 
 of their existence at the time when Alboin established 
 the Lombard rule over northern Italy. 
 
 It was not the policy of the Lombards to destroy the 
 institutions of the conquered people. They were much 
 more disposed to form a partnership with them in their 
 prosperity, their customs, and even their laws. In their 
 history, we find abundant evidence of a state of mixed 
 jurisprudence, resembling that which has prevailed 
 under successive conquerors of India, in which all 
 matters of private right, and the succession of families 
 were regulated, not by the law of locality, but of race. 
 The Lombard brought with him the customs of his 
 tribe, while the Goth and the Roman were permitted to 
 appeal to the laws of those ancestors from whom they 
 had derived their property, as the fittest to prescribe 
 the mode of its enjoyment, and to regulate its descent. 
 
 The meagre records of these ages supply us with no
 
 CHAP, iv.] TRANSMISSION OF ROMAN FREEDOM. 127 
 
 account of the transactions of cities, which probably 
 enjoyed their municipal liberties in an obscure quiet, 
 and had nothing to attract the attention of chroniclers 
 occupied in recording the intrigues and the fortunes of 
 kings. But when we find the same cities that were 
 municipalities under the latter days of the empire, 
 appearing on the page of the history of the Middle 
 Ages with the same republican economy, and even the 
 same Roman names for their magistrates and further- 
 more, with all the evidence of freedom long enjoyed 
 and privileges dating from the past it is impossible to 
 resist the inference, that they preserved their consti- 
 tution from the days of the Caesars. The free cities of 
 Northern Italy, which cast a glorious splendour over the 
 darkness of the Middle Ages, were the fragments of 
 the great Roman system which, in the fall of the 
 empire, was shattered, but not annihilated. The liberties 
 of the Lombard league had descended from the 
 traditions of the city destined to be eternal, even in 
 the transmission to remote posterity of those principles 
 of municipal freedom, which in her own institutions, 
 not all the vicissitudes of her government had been 
 able utterly to destroy. 
 
 This account of the origin of the republican rights 
 and constitution of the Italian cities does not altogether 
 rest upon inference, however reasonable. If we have 
 no municipal records of Milan, Verona, or Padua, to 
 attest the continuity of their franchises, we do know to 
 a certainty, of other Italian republics which trans- 
 mitted their form of government through these very 
 centuries. Rome itself supplies the most striking, and
 
 128 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 at the same time the most decisive example of the 
 preservation of the ancient republican forms. 3 It was 
 in a flight from the first invasion of the Huns that 
 the citizens of Aquileia carried their freedom to the 
 sequestered islands on which Venice afterwards arose. 
 Genoa boasts that behind the shelter of the Apennines 
 she escaped the inroads of the invading hosts. The 
 southern republics of Naples, Gaeta, and Amain, had 
 just yielded to the Norman conquerors when Frederick 
 Barbarossa ascended the imperial throne. Their Roman 
 constitution and Roman privileges existed in the days 
 of Hildebrand.' If we owe nothing else to the marvel- 
 lous preservation of the little republic of San Marino 
 to our own days, it at least enables us to point to 
 one city which was a free municipality in the days of 
 Constantine, and in which, through all the vicissitudes 
 of fifteen centuries, that freedom has beeii still 
 maintained. 4 
 
 The inroads of the Hungarians and the Saracens had 
 the effect of increasing the power and consequence of 
 the northern cities. These cities offered protection to 
 those who fled to them in the troubles that constantly 
 
 8 Qoldast in his " Constitutiones Imperiales," has preserved many docu- 
 ments of the Roman state during the Middle Ages professing to emanate 
 from the senate and Roman peple. We constantly meet with consuls. It is 
 quite certain that at the period of Charlemagne all the forms of the Roman 
 institutions were still preserved. 
 
 Sismondi in his English " History of the Italian Republics," observes, " The 
 ancient courts and municipalities have been retained in all the towns of Italy 
 by their barbarian masters to distribute more equally the burdens imposed by 
 the conquerors and reach individuals more surely." History of Italian Repub- 
 lic*, p. 15. 
 
 4 Mr. Hallam states that the Lombard kings insisted on the demolition of 
 their walls, but that charters permitting them to erect fortificatious were 
 granted to them by Otho I.
 
 CHAP, iv.] THE WALLED TOWNS. 129 
 
 oppressed the country. We may well believe that at 
 an early period they were surrounded with walls. 
 Many of the Lombard cities had their ramparts and 
 their fortresses in the days when the Roman empire 
 was threatened with the first invasions of the Goths 
 from Gaul. The walls of Verona resisted more than 
 one siege, and the poet who describes the repulse of 
 the Goths at Pallentia in the beginning of the fifth 
 century speaks of 
 
 " msenia vindicis Asti." 
 
 Wherever these fortifications had been impaired by 
 the inroads of time, or broken down by the jealousy of 
 the sovereigns, the contests and troubles that followed 
 the termination of the Carlovingian dynasty insured 
 their re-erection, and long before the time of the 
 accession of Otho to the empire, the kingdom of Italy 
 was covered with walled towns. 
 
 To the dangers of the same tumultuous times they 
 owed the privilege, or the practice, of convening their 
 citizens as an organised force by the sound of a bell. 
 Their city companies 5 constituted an armed civic militia, 
 always ready to assemble at the summons of the 
 magistrates of the town. A gonfalonier or standard- 
 
 5 The institution of these guilds or companies has generally been referred 
 to a Teutonic origin. A fuller examination will show that the associations 
 of tradesmen of towns, into companies or mysteries, was, like the whole system 
 of municipalities, of Italian origin. The brotherhoods of the northern nations 
 supplied the model of the feudal orders of knighthood, but city companies 
 existed in Italy before the barbarian invasion. Gibbon tells us that when the 
 preaching of St. Ambrose excited a display of feeling in Milan which dis- 
 pleased the Emperor, the company of merchants and manufacturers of the 
 city was fined 200 pounds of gold, Gibbon, ch. xxvii. vol. iii. In the 13th 
 century Florence had its guilds or trade companies arranged in a system as 
 complete as that of the city companies of London. See post, vol. ii. chap. vii. 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 bearer presided over each quarter of the city, and 
 when his standard was displayed, the inhabitants of 
 that district gathered round it, and followed it to the 
 gate or the rampart which their division was appointed 
 to guard. Each city had a carroccio, or sacred car, 
 drawn by four oxen, splendidly adorned with trappings 
 of scarlet and gold. From the summit of the car the 
 civic banner floated, raised high upon a mast, while 
 beneath its waving folds was borne a life-size figure of 
 the Saviour on the cross. Two platforms gave room, 
 one for a band of martial music, the other for a few of 
 the bravest and best of the soldiers of the state. 
 Round this sacred emblem gathered all the feelings of 
 religious veneration, and of national pride, and as it 
 moved into battle with the civic host, every soldier 
 who guarded it was ready rather than permit it to be 
 profaned by the hands of the enemy, to die in its 
 defence. 
 
 The very system of imperial rule that of a distant 
 and imperfect superintendence over the affairs of the 
 Italian kingdom was in itself the concession of sove- 
 reign power to cities thus provided with an armed 
 militia, electing magistrates whose offices were in- 
 vested with the grandeur of antiquity, and pos- 
 sessing privileges which prescription made sacred. 
 Acknowledging their only superior in a sovereign 
 whose residence was beyond the Alps, who visited 
 Italy but seldom, and left no one to represent him 
 during his absence, these municipal communities exer- 
 cised of necessity all the rights of self-government. 
 The establishment of the imperial rule, whatever else
 
 CHAP, iv.] GREATNESS OF THE CITIES. 131 
 
 might be its consequence, fostered and encouraged the 
 growth of their free power. The visitatorial superin- 
 tendence of the emperors was obliged to accept local 
 authorities as it found them ; and, by the mere force 
 of circumstances, the municipalities that regulated their 
 markets, and elected their local magistrates in the days 
 of Trajan, became the free and practically sovereign 
 republics of those of Frederick and Henry. 
 
 The history of the world supplies no such in- 
 stance of the impulse and power which freedom gives 
 to the energy of man not even in the marvellous pro- 
 gress of Britain and the United States in modern days. 
 Judged by the time in which they flourished, the cir- 
 cumstances in which they were placed, and the appli- 
 ances at their command, the growth of the Italian 
 republics in the Middle Ages throws into the shade all 
 else that we read of the advance of human commu- 
 nities in civilisation and wealth. In days when the 
 skill of man was unaided by those great mechanical 
 discoveries which have multiplied a thousand-fold the 
 power of his arm, these cities supported in comfort a 
 population which almost surpasses belief. In the galleys 
 of the twelfth century a commerce was carried on which 
 raised the merchant princes of Italy to an affluence 
 beyond that of the proudest nobility of other lands. 
 The magnificence of the Venetian nobles exceeded that 
 of kings. Better than this, round each free city a 
 rural district maintained a contented and prosperous 
 population, and within its walls the guilds of artisans 
 supported themselves by their own industry and skill. 
 It was in the midst of constant tumults and commotions 
 
 K 2
 
 132 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 that this extraordinary prosperity prevailed. Occupied 
 in the turmoils of war, they found time and energy to 
 cultivate all the arts of peace. The palaces of their 
 magistrates, and their churches, remain memorials of 
 their architectural splendour and skill. 
 
 The Lombard republics had nearly reached the height 
 of their prosperity at the time when Frederick Barba- 
 rossa determined to subject them to the more rigorous 
 exertion of imperial authority. The Justinian laws 6 had 
 diffused throughout Germany extravagant ideas of the 
 sacredness and extent of the rights which, descended 
 with the title of Caesar. Brave, and also generous and 
 just, Frederick believed it his duty to vindicate the 
 prerogative which he regarded as intrusted to him with 
 his crown. While he abhorred cruelty, he was stern 
 and severe. Unhappily, just as he ascended the throne, 
 complaints of wrong and violence, implored on behalf 
 of injured and oppressed Italians, the interposition 
 ot his controlling power. 
 
 Milan, the first and greatest of the free cities of the 
 Italian kingdom, had given, by her misconduct, just 
 grounds for the interference of the supreme sovereign. 
 The town of Lodi had addressed to the emperor and 
 the diet petitions detailing the oppressions inflicted on 
 them by the haughty Milanese, and Frederick crossed 
 the Alps, and descended with an army into Italy, in- 
 vested with the character of the dispenser of justice, 
 and the redresser of the wrongs of the injured and 
 oppressed. 
 
 6 The Pandects of Justinian bad been adopted as tbe law of Germany about 
 twenty years previously, in the reign of the Emperor Otho.
 
 CHAP. IY.] FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. 133 
 
 In a diet of the kingdom at Roncaglia, complaints 
 from all quarters were preferred against the Milanese. 
 Frederick inflicted punishment upon some of the cities 
 that had shared their guilt ; but, either from policy or 
 weakness, he deferred striking at the principal offender 
 until after his coronation by the Pope. Proceeding to 
 Rome (A.D. 1154) for that purpose, he at first refused to 
 submit to some of the ceremonies of submission which 
 were rigorously exacted by the haughty Englishman, 
 Adrian IV., the only one of his nation who ever occu- 
 pied the Papal chair. At last he consented to hold 
 the stirrup while the Pope mounted, and to guide, 
 for the measured nine paces, the palfrey upon which 
 he rode. Returning .from Rome into Germany, he 
 brought with him to Lombardy (A.D. 1158) an army 
 of 100,000 men, and proceeded to reduce Milan to 
 subjection. The Milanese retired within their walls, 
 but the very extent of the city exposed them to the 
 dangers that resulted from the difficulty of finding food 
 for a great population. The emperor disposed his army 
 so as to cut off their supplies, and famine compelled 
 the citizens to capitulate upon terms that redressed the 
 wrongs of Lodi, but left untouched the freedom and 
 privileges of the Milanese. 
 
 The views of Frederick were not confined to the mere 
 redress of the evils which had first caused his journey 
 across the Alps. He determined to settle the affairs of 
 Italy on such a basis as, by defining the imperial pre- 
 rogatives and strengthening the imperial power, should 
 prevent a recurrence of the disorders which he attri- 
 buted to the licence of unrestrained civic rule.
 
 134 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Assembling a second diet at Roncaglia, he found 
 the nobles of the kingdom, supported by the authority 
 of the most eminent of their jurists, ready to admit 
 the loftiest pretensions of imperial prerogative. Placita, 
 or decrees, were prepared extending the regal rights, 
 and controlling those of the municipalities. 7 Milan 
 resented these proceedings as violating the terms of 
 the capitulation which secured to the city its ancient 
 rights. Frederick replied that these terms had left the 
 legislative power of the diet of the kingdom untouched ; 
 and Milan, placed under the ban of the empire, took up 
 arms in open rebellion. After three years resistance the 
 proud city was compelled to surrender at discretion, 
 and Frederick determined to inflipt on it a chastisement 
 which would teach the rebellious that there was a ter- 
 rible signficance in the ban of the empire. While its 
 inhabitants were spared, the city was literally de- 
 stroyed ; the emperor summoned to its demolition the 
 people of the cities which, in the days of her power, 
 the proud republic had wronged. Pavia, Cremona, 
 Lodi, and Como sent their contingents to execute the 
 revenge to which they were invited. The inhabitants 
 
 were all driven from the city by the imperial troops. 
 
 % 
 
 7 Among the invasions of municipal privilege enacted at this diet, was the 
 establishment of the singular institution of the " podesta." Under this name 
 (the Latin potestas) the emperor appointed in each city, an officer who was 
 in fact the judge of the city court, and took all judical power out of the hands 
 of the popular magistracy. He is sometimes called mayor, hut his functions 
 appear, at least in their origin, to have more nearly resembled those of recorder. 
 The institution was preserved when the cities recovered their independence ; 
 in almost all the Italian cities a judge under this name was elected. He held 
 his office for a limited period. The qualification was that he should be a 
 doctor of laws and a stranger to the city. The last regulation was preserved 
 from those established by Frederick.
 
 CHAP, iv.] THE DOOM OF MILAN. 135 
 
 When they had left it, every house was levelled to the 
 ground ; the churches, which alone were left standing, 
 raised their towers over a desolate waste of prostrate 
 habitations. Those towers, and a heap of shapeless 
 ruins, alone marked where Milan lately stood (A.D. 
 1162). 8 
 
 The extinction of a great Italian city, second only in 
 civil and ecclesiastical rank to imperial and pontifical 
 Rome, arrayed against Frederick the best feelings even 
 of his own supporters. Both clergy and laity remem- 
 bered that in that very city St. Ambrose had repelled 
 from the door of its cathedral the emperor Theodosius, 
 because his hands were stained with blood. The home- 
 less Milanese, admitted to the shelter of the neigh- 
 bouring cities, everywhere excited pity, and kindled 
 indignation. The new laws were soon found to have 
 suppressed the liberties of the kingdom ; and even those 
 who had been the devoted partisans of the emperor, 
 began to swerve in an allegiance which attached them 
 to the oppressor of their native land. Verona, Vicenza, 
 Padua, and Treviso, sent their consuls to meet together 
 and deliberate upon the course to be pursued. These 
 consuls, in the name of their cities, bound themselves 
 to the recovery of their liberties, by a compact ratified 
 by an oath. In that oath, as memorable as that of 
 TJri, was laid the foundation of the Lombard league 
 (A.D. 1167). 
 
 Just as the emperor was entering on the war with 
 
 8 In the spoil of Milan the Archbishop of Cologne carried off the relics of 
 the three kings of the East which are now so gorgeously enshrined in the 
 cathedral of the German town.
 
 136 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL i. 
 
 the free cities, he involved himself in a contest with 
 the privileges of the Church. Adrian IV. died on the 
 4th September, 1159. Immediately before his death he 
 had entered into an alliance with the Milanese, and was 
 preparing, it is said, to bring the terrors of an excom- 
 munication to aid in asserting the civil liberties of the 
 Lombard towns. On his death, the friends of the 
 emperor made a desperate attempt to secure the 
 election of his successor ; a contest ensued of which 
 each party has given us their version. Fourteen 
 cardinals, the majority of the conclave, elected the 
 Cardinal Rolando, who assumed the title of Alex- 
 ander III. Three, according to one account, nine, 
 according to another, gave their votes for the Cardinal 
 Octavian, the friend of the emperor. In either case 
 they were a minority, but they alleged a previous 
 compact by which no one was to be appointed except 
 by a unanimous election. When their opponents pro- 
 ceeded to invest Alexander with the cope, it was forcibly 
 torn from his shoulders, and in the presence of the 
 populace the election was then an open court an 
 unseemly quarrel took place for the fragments of the 
 pontifical attire. Victor such was the title assumed 
 by the candidate of the minority was declared by his 
 partisans to be the rightful pope. An armed band was 
 at hand to support his pretensions. The populace 
 were on the side of Alexander ; the nobles espoused 
 the cause of the imperial nominee. Victor was 
 assailed by the rabble with furious hootings and 
 reproaches, in which the infamies of the last pope, 
 Octavian, were freely associated with his name. Both
 
 CHAP, iv.] TOPE ALEXANDER III. 137 
 
 the rival popes were compelled to leave Rome : each 
 received his consecration outside the walls. 
 
 The emperor assumed the office of arbitrator between 
 them, and summoned the rivals to appear before him 
 in a council at Pavia. Alexander refused to obey 
 the summons. Victor appeared, and succeeded in 
 persuading the partial tribunal that the cardinals who 
 had voted for his opponent had, by their conduct, 
 especially in entering into a secret agreement to elect 
 Rolando, disqualified themselves from taking part 
 in the election, and that, therefore, he had the true 
 majority of legal votes. The emperor withdrew, 
 and left the decision to the ecclesiastics. The council 
 unanimously declared Victor legally elected. Each of 
 the rival popes excommunicated the other. Each in 
 turn obtained possession of the Lateran by force. It 
 ultimately remained in that of Victor, and Alexander 
 was compelled to fly into France. 
 
 The year after the destruction of Milan, Victor died. 
 A council of Pavia elected Paschal III. in his room. 
 In the meantime Alexander had returned from France, 
 and occupied once more the seat of the pontiffs. 
 Frederick marched an army to support the anti-pope. 
 After a bloody resistance the Church of St. Peter was 
 literally carried by storm. The gates of the cathedral 
 were hewn down with axes ; the imperial troops fought 
 their way to the high altar ; and Paschal performed his 
 first pontifical mass in a church that was still almost 
 literally reeking with blood. 
 
 Alexander was forced to fly, but Frederick did not 
 long enjoy his triumph. The fever of the Campagna
 
 138 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 broke out among his troops, and carried off his officers 
 and soldiers with the rapidity of the plague. He hurried 
 northward from the pestilential encampment, but the 
 track of his army was marked by the pits into which 
 they threw their dead. An insignificant town on his 
 march refused a passage to his weakened host, and by 
 devious tracks across the Apennines he led the rem- 
 nants of his army to Pavia. Only four towns sent 
 deputies to the diet which he summoned ; in a rage, he 
 flung down his glove in the assembly, and challenged 
 the rebellious cities to a pitched battle. After spending 
 the winter in Pavia, he crossed by Mont Cenis into 
 Burgundy. The cities of the league prepared to oppose 
 his return by erecting a fortress in a strong position on 
 the line that leads from the passes of the hills. In 
 honour of the Pope, they called it Alessandria. It is 
 still one of the great fortresses of Italy, and all military 
 authorities to this day confirm the judgment with 
 which its site was selected by the engineers of the 
 League. Milan was rebuilt by a union of all the neigh- 
 bouring towns, and in a marvellously short time it rose 
 from its ruins more splendid than before. 
 
 Seven years elapsed before the emperor could per- 
 suade his German subjects to raise another army to 
 support him in what seemed the hopeless attempt of 
 subduing Italy to his rule. In 1174 he once more 
 crossed from Burgundy over Mont Cenis, with a for- 
 midable army. Burning Susa and Asti, he found him- 
 self stopped for four months by the resistance of the 
 heroic defenders of the ramparts which he had con- 
 temptuously called " the mud Alessandria." At last
 
 CHAP, iv.] BATTLE OP LEGNANO. 139 
 
 the advance of the Lombard army compelled him to 
 raise the siege. Unsuccessful negotiations followed, 
 and in May, 1174, reinforced by a second army from 
 Germany, he marched upon Milan at the head of a 
 host which he believed no strength of the Italians was 
 able to resist. 
 
 On the 29th of May, the battle of Italian freedom 
 was fought at the village of Legnano, not quite twenty 
 miles from Milan. Animated by despair, 900 young 
 men, of the first families of the devoted city, had 
 formed themselves into a band, to which they gave the 
 name of " the Company of Death." In the first shock of 
 the battle, the Italians were giving way; the Company 
 of Death knelt down, and solemnly invoking the names 
 of God and St. Ambrose, vowed in the cause of their 
 country to conquer or die. Rising from their knees, 
 they impetuously flung themselves on the advancing 
 Germans. In one wild desperate onslaught they turned 
 the fate of the engagement ; their wavering country- 
 men, animated by their sacred enthusiasm, followed 
 them to the charge. The imperial forces were driven 
 in utter rout from the field. Frederick saved himself 
 by flight, and after wandering some days in disguise, 
 with difficulty reached Pavia, where he found his 
 friends and his empress already mourning his death. 
 
 Such was the battle of Legnano, in which imperial 
 force had, for the first time, been brought in contact 
 with the free militia of Italy. It was followed by a 
 truce of six years, negotiated through the mediation of 
 the Pope. The representatives of the emperor and 
 those of the free cities met before the Pontiff in front
 
 HO HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 of the vestibule of St. Mark, in the neutral city of 
 Venice, and submitted their rights to be adjusted by 
 the suggestions of a species of arbitration, in "which both 
 parties advanced the proofs by which they supported 
 their respective claims, although without any binding 
 authority in the arbitrator to decide. It was arranged 
 that the truce, during which Frederick bound himself not 
 to interfere with the privileges of the cities, should last 
 until the 1st of August, 1183. In the summer of that 
 year, a diet of the German empire was held at Con- 
 stance, at which the rights asserted by the cities were 
 fully conceded, not only to those of the League, but to 
 all Italian towns. They were confirmed in the right of 
 electing their own magistrates, of exercising all civil 
 and criminal jurisdiction within their walls, and even 
 in the mischievous prerogative of private war. The 
 Lombard league was recognised, and its continuance 
 authorised for twenty years ; on the other hand, the 
 cities bound themselves to maintain the integrity of 
 imperial rights, rights which, after such concessions, 
 imposed no very violent or intolerable yoke. 
 
 The emperor survived the peace of Constance seven 
 years. He visited Italy with his son, and taking up 
 his residence at Milan, conciliated the affections of the 
 Lombards, whom he treated in a manner that showed 
 his anxiety to obliterate all memory of the fierce 
 quarrels in which they had been engaged. He acquiesced 
 sincerely, and to all appearance, cheerfully in the pri- 
 vileges the municipalities had obtained, and neither in 
 his lifetime, nor in the reign of any of his family, was 
 any attempt made in the slightest degree to interfere
 
 CHAP. iv.J HENRY T. 
 
 with the liberties, of which the peace of Constance was 
 the charter. His power in Italy was strengthened by 
 the marriage of his son Henry, with Constance, the 
 heiress of the Norman kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 
 By this marriage Henry united in his own person, the 
 succession to the imperial crown and that of Lombardy 
 with the splendid inheritance of his affianced bride. 
 Strange to say this alliance, which seemed destined to 
 consolidate and perpetuate the Italian power of the 
 family of Suabia, was the origin of their ruin. 
 
 Frederick ended his days a champion for Christendom 
 in the Holy Land. The conquest of Jerusalem by 
 Saladin roused the chivalry of Europe to recover the 
 Holy Sepulchre from the infidel. The emperor was the 
 chief of the third crusade ; he died in Asia Minor, as 
 he was leading the Christian host to the Holy City 
 either drowned in crossing the little river Alef, or, as 
 others say, of an illness caused by the excessive cold 
 of the waters of that stream. 
 
 His son Henry reigned as emperor for eleven years. 
 They were generally years of peace between the emperor, 
 the cities, and the Church. Opposed in his succession to 
 the Sicilian crown by Tancred, a branch of the family 
 of the Norman kings, he easily established the authority 
 which he claimed in right of his wife. It was after 
 the establishment of his authority in undisputed peace, 
 that upon the allegation of a treasonable conspiracy, 
 real or pretended, he commenced in Sicily a course of 
 cruelty which made his memory detested. Prelates of 
 the Church, nobles of the highest rank, were executed 
 with tortures of the most revolting atrocity. Blinding
 
 ]42 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 and mutilations were inflicted upon those to -whom his 
 mercy was extended. The bodies of his rival and his 
 son were dragged from their graves. In vain the Pontiff 
 directed against him the censures of the Church, which 
 had often been pronounced for less righteous cause. In 
 vain his empress attempted to mitigate the sanguinary 
 enormities which were perpetrated upon her subjects. 
 In the very midst of these horrors she gave birth, at 
 Palermo, to that son, who as Frederick II. was destined 
 to maintain the last struggle with the Papal power. The 
 Nemesis, which avenges great crimes, might be said 
 to have remembered the dark deeds of Henry, when 
 fifty years afterwards his great-grandson fell by a fate 
 as cruel, in seeking to recover the kingdom upon 
 which those cruelties were inflicted. 
 
 Henry died at Naples in 1197, three years after the 
 birth of his son, who received the name of Frederick. 
 The Neapolitan kingdom had long been held as a 
 fief of the Holy See, and by the feudal law the Pontiff 
 became the guardian of the heir. Innocent III., who 
 then swayed the pontifical sceptre, received with the 
 guardianship the management of Naples and Sicily, the 
 kingdoms which were the inheritance of the infant 
 Frederick. 
 
 In the life of the prince, who was thus left at the age 
 of four years, the ward of the Pontiff, occurred the last 
 scenes of the struggle between Papal and imperial 
 power ; and in the strange vicissitudes that attended 
 his fortunes, we trace the downfall of imperial authority 
 in Italy. 
 
 Frederick II. appeared born to a brilliant destiny.
 
 CHAP, iv.] OTHO THE GUELPH. 143 
 
 In his early years there was the prospect that under 
 his sceptre Italy might be united into a great and 
 powerful kingdom. The acquisition of the Sicilian 
 realm had already attracted his family to an Italian 
 residence. Their German influence promised them still 
 the succession to the imperial crown, and when that 
 crown was actually placed upon the head of the youth- 
 ful prince an Italian by birth and education, the 
 heir of the Norman princes Italian patriotism might 
 well be excused for the belief that the time was come 
 when its country was to be once more the seat of the 
 Empire of the West, and Germany was to receive her 
 laws from Milan or from Rome. 
 
 On the death of Henry V. two candidates offered 
 themselves for the imperial throne. Philip, the brother 
 of the late emperor, was during the minority of his 
 nephew, the chief of the Ghibelines. His competitor was 
 Otho, Duke of Bavaria, the head of the family of Guelph. 
 Eleven years of civil strife were ended by the assasr 
 sination of Philip in a private quarrel; and both parties, 
 weary of war, acquiesced in the sovereignty of the 
 Guelph. 
 
 In 1209 Otho was crowned by Innocent at Rome. 
 The chief of the Guelphs proved himself as tenacious 
 of the rights of the imperial prerogative, as any of 
 the Ghibeline emperors, ' against whose pretensions 
 his family had contended. The pope determined to 
 punish his obstinacy by setting up against him his 
 youthful ward. The hereditary chief of the Ghibelines 
 was sent into Germany as the Papal candidate for the 
 throne. The friends of his family assembled to receive
 
 144 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 him, and crowned him king of the Germans at Aix-Ia- 
 Chapelle. For six years he maintained the contest in 
 Germany with his rival. The death of Otho in 1218 
 left him in indisputed possession of the empire. 
 
 The contest of Guelphs and Ghibelines had become 
 one of factions and families not of principles. The 
 support of the Church did not carry to the standard 
 of Frederick a single Guelph. His opponent's asser- 
 tion of imperial prerogative did not bring to him the 
 slightest Ghibeline aid. Milan, devotedly attached as 
 it was to the prerogatives of the Papal See, had re- 
 fused to obey the Pope's command to permit Frederick's 
 coronation with the iron crown, and had braved the 
 sentence of excommunication in preference to yielding. 
 There could be no stronger proof that the principles 
 involved in the quarrel were altogether forgotten in 
 the animosities to which they gave rise. The Ghibe- 
 lines supported the House of Hohenstauffen in its 
 alliance with the Papal See. The Guelphs adhered to 
 Bavaria even when placed under the ban of the 
 Church. 
 
 When Frederick returned into Italy, his guardian 
 had been dead for more than two years. Honorius, 
 the reigning pontiff, performed the ceremony of coro- 
 nation ; but it soon became evident that with the death 
 of his protector, the emperor had lost the friendship of 
 Rome. 
 
 After the death of Innocent, successive pontiffs perse- 
 cuted with implacable hatred the prince who was placed 
 by one of their own number upon the imperial throne. 
 Attempts have been made to refer that hatred to the
 
 CHAP, iv.] PAPAL HATRED OF FREDERICK. 145 
 
 partisan enmity of pontiffs who, imbued with all the 
 prejudices of the Guelph faction, saw their natural 
 enemy in the chief of the Ghibelines. It has been 
 attributed to the far-seeing policy of guarding against 
 the danger to Papal influence which would result from 
 the greatness of a power that, commanding both Naples 
 and Lombardy, added to the might of these realms 
 the weight and the dignity of the imperial crown. 
 The advocates of the Papal Court refer it to the un- 
 Christian character of the emperor himself. If their 
 charges be true, the ward of the Pontiff had made but 
 little progress in Christian principles under the tuition 
 of the head of the Church. The pupil of Innocent was 
 accused of the authorship of a tract in which, under the 
 title " De Tribus Impostoribus," our Saviour, Moses and 
 Mahomet are classed together. His encouragement of 
 his Saracen subjects was said to proceed from his infi- 
 delity, and his hesitation in joining the Crusades to his 
 disbelief in the Cross for which he was called on to 
 fight. It would seem that the charge of infidelity 
 rested mainly on some expressions in which the doc- 
 trine of transubstantiation was perhaps irreverently 
 questioned. No person asserted that he had ever seen 
 the book attributed to the emperor who was thus 
 accused of the scepticism,, which in later times was 
 the reproach of his Prussian namesake. The emperor 
 himself, in a solemn address to all the nations of 
 Christendom, emphatically denied the charge. 
 
 Whether the enmity of the Holy See originated in the 
 prejudices of faction, the dictates of policy, or the 
 just sentiments of offended piety, certain it is that
 
 146 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Frederick was the object of a hatred which in less 
 exalted bosoms would have been called malignant 
 which no pity softened, and no submission could ap- 
 pease. The dislike of the heads of the Church pursued 
 him beyond the grave it extended to his children's 
 children, and was only appeased by the actual extermi- 
 nation of his race. 
 
 Before his coronation in 1226, Innocent had obtained 
 from Frederick a pledge that he would undertake the 
 deliverance of the Holy Land. Seven years afterwards 
 that pledge was still unperformed. In the interim the 
 Pope had arranged for him a marriage with the daughter 
 of the nominal King of Jerusalem, and the rights of her 
 father's titular sovereignty had been assigned to him. 
 As he was on the point at last of embarking, an illness 
 delayed him, and Gregory IX., who had succeeded to 
 the Papal See, pronounced against him a sentence 
 of excommunication for the supposed violation of his 
 promise. 
 
 Frederick replied to the excommunication by a mani- 
 festo in which he called upon all the princes of Chris- 
 tendom to make common cause against the usurpation 
 attempted upon their authority by the Pope. His 
 popularity and his influence were sufficient with the 
 clergy of his own realm of Naples to make the excom- 
 munication almost powerless ; and Frederick, without 
 seeking reconciliation with Gregory, proceeded in the 
 next year to Palestine, and placed himself at the head 
 of a new crusade. His presumption in doing so, while 
 still under the sentence, was a new act of rebellion 
 against the Church. His associates in the crusade were
 
 CHAP iv.] KING OF JERUSALEM. 147 
 
 excited by the missives of Gregory to thwart his move- 
 ments ; and the Pope attacked his Italian dominions 
 while their absent sovereign was fighting the battles of 
 the cross. 
 
 Against all these difficulties the address and valour 
 of Frederick in some degree prevailed. If these dis- 
 sensions had not disturbed his enterprise, it is probable 
 that he would have succeeded in driving the infidels 
 from the Holy Land. 9 In danger from the desertion of 
 his brother crusaders, and assailed in his dominions at 
 home, he yet compelled the Saracens to cede to him 
 the Holy City. No priest would consent to place the 
 diadem of David upon the head of the ecclesiastical 
 outlaw, and his own hands crowned Frederick King of 
 Jerusalem. Within two years from his departure he 
 returned, if not victorious, at least successful, from 
 his crusade. 
 
 Scarcely had he landed in his own domains, when 
 the invading armies of the Pontiff fled at his approach. 
 Frederick marched his army against Rome. His 
 advance to the city was an ovation. The King of 
 Jerusalem was everywhere welcomed as the successful 
 champion of Christendom. The ban of the Papal 
 anathema was forgotten in the glories of the hero, 
 who had won from the infidels the sepulchre of the 
 
 9 "If the pope had not hated Frederick worse than his Holiness hated the 
 Saracens, and thereby caused his return to Europe, there is every probability 
 that the emperor would have brought matters to an issue triumphantly." 
 Mitt's History of the Crusades, vol ii. p. 201 . 
 
 " Verisimile videtur quod si tune imperator cum gratia et pace Rornanse 
 ecclesite transisset, longe melius et efficacius prosperatum fuisset negotium 
 teiTse sanctaj." Ricardua de S. Germa.no. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 Saviour. No national feeling interfered Avith the 
 tribute which was paid to the soldier of the Cross. 
 For the first time since the days of the barbarians, 
 Rome saw an Italian born prince approach her walls 
 as the wearer of her imperial crown. Never before 
 had a sovereign of Germany, since the days of Charle- 
 magne, passed within those walls with the enthusiasm 
 of the people. In spite of all the opposition of the 
 Pontiff, the senate and the people met Frederick on 
 his way, with an invitation to him to enter the city. 
 The haughty Pope was obliged to yield, and a treaty 
 of peace, entered into in the year 1230, was supposed 
 to have settled all differences between the Emperor 
 and the Church. 
 
 In the absence of the emperor the Guelph cities of 
 Lombardy had been induced by the Pope to renew their 
 old confederation, and associate themselves once more in 
 the Lombard league, of which the object was now 
 declared to be the maintenance of the rights and inde- 
 pendence of the Holy See. They were joined by the 
 cities of Piedmont and the republic of Bologna. When 
 Frederick approached Rome with his army they sent 
 succour to Gregory. Having settled his differences 
 with the Pontiff, the emperor determined to break up 
 this formidable alliance, and reduce Lombardy to its 
 obedience to the imperial crown. 
 
 Called into Germany to/suppress the revolt of his own 
 son a pious duty to which that son had been insti- 
 gated by the Church Frederick easily enforced sub- 
 mission, and returned into Italy to place himself at the 
 head of the imperialists. A fierce war raged for six
 
 CHAP, iv.] THIUMPH OF FREDERICK. 149 
 
 years. After varying vicissitudes that war resulted in 
 the triumph of the Grhibelines. Padua and Vicenza fell 
 before the arms of Eccelino, the imperial lieutenant ; 
 Turin, Vercelli, and Asti were compelled to choose 
 their civic rulers from the imperial party. On the 27th 
 of November, 1237, the emperor in person achieved 
 a complete victory over the forces of the league at 
 Cortenuova. The consuls of the Milanese who led 
 these forces were out-generalled by the skill of the 
 emperor. The confederates lost 10,000 men, and the 
 carroccio of the city of Milan fell into the hands of the 
 imperial victor. It was sent a solemn offering to Rome, 
 perhaps as a significant hint to the Pontiff of the triumph 
 of Frederick's power. 
 
 Almost all Northern Italy had yielded to his arms. 
 Milan, Placentia, Brescia, and Bologna were the only 
 cities that adhered to the league. They did so only 
 from the unwise severity of the emperor, who refused 
 all terms of reasonable submission, and left them, in 
 the words of the Milanese, only the alternative, either 
 to die on the battle-field or perish by the halter. 
 
 For eleven years the hollow peace had been main- 
 tained between the Emperor and the Papal See. Causes 
 of complaint were found to exist on both sides. The 
 Pope had in secret encouraged the resistance of the 
 Lombards. Frederick was accused of fomenting revolts 
 in the Roman city, and even in the College of Cardinals 
 against the Pope. In the close of the year 1238 war 
 between them was again openly proclaimed. Gregory, 
 by dexterous representations of the danger with which 
 the overwhelming power of Frederick threatened their
 
 150 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 maritime supremacy, induced Genoa and Venice to 
 enter into an alliance with the cities that still remained 
 faithful to the league. Relying on these slender re- 
 sources, the undaunted old man prepared for the 
 struggle in which he was to do battle against terrible 
 odds for that supremacy of the Papacy which his pre- 
 decessors since Hildebrand had not ceased to assert. 
 
 Gregory is said at this period to have reached almost 
 the patriarchal age of 100 years. This may be an 
 exaggeration, but his years were certainly far enough 
 advanced to make us regard with wonder the fire and 
 the energy which he displayed. In March, 1239, he 
 pronounced the sentence of excommunication against 
 Frederick in the Church of St. Peter. The anathema 
 was loaded with those terrible imprecations with which 
 the ritual of Rome now accompanied the sentence, 
 and was uttered with those formalities which had not 
 been used in the severe simplicity of the more dignified 
 sentences in which Hildebrand had pronounced in 
 former days the judgment of the Church. There 
 followed then a war of proclamations between Gre- 
 gory and Frederick, in which both parties appealed 
 to public opinion, with an elaborate argument which 
 abundantly proves that both dreaded and reverenced 
 the tribunal which they took so much pains to convince. 
 In bold invective, in that peculiar species of reasoning 
 which suits an appeal to men already accepting foregone 
 conclusions, and in that rapid and earnest eloquence 
 which kindles the feelings and carries away the judg- 
 ment, the documents issued upon either side are not 
 deficient in rough but vigorous strength. The vindi-
 
 CHAP, iv.] HIS MANIFESTO AGAINST THE POPE. 151 
 
 cation of the emperor, in which he proved that the 
 charges upon which the excommunication professed to 
 be grounded, were the mere repetition of accusations 
 long since disposed of, carried conviction even to the 
 minds of those who supported the Pope. The real 
 cause of the hostility of Gregory he dare not avow 
 his dread of the growing strength of a prince whose 
 independence of thought he feared. 
 
 Frederick was not scrupulous in the terms in which 
 he designated his opponent. John Knox or Luther 
 could scarcely have employed the language of scriptural 
 invective with more force. Every nation, every monarch 
 in Christendom was appealed to to give righteous judg- 
 ment. In succesive manifestos, the clergy, the Roman 
 people, the kings and governors of the world, were 
 called on to interfere. " Sit in judgment, ye princes ; 
 ye people, take cognisance of our cause ; let judgment 
 go forth from the face of the Lord, and your eyes 
 behold equity." " Wickedness had gone forth from the 
 elders of Babylon, and justice was turned into worm- 
 wood." The Pontiff was accused of duplicity, of foment- 
 ing rebellion against the emperor, while he professed to 
 be his friend ; of defeating by his conduct the complete 
 triumph in Palestine of the last crusade. The avarice, 
 the ambition, the worldly pride of the haughty church- 
 man were contrasted with the poverty and the humility 
 of the Apostles. The Pope was said to sit in his court 
 " like a merchant, weighing out dispensations for gold, 
 himself signing, writing the bulls, perhaps counting the 
 money." "Ye kings and princes of the earth," con- 
 tinued the imperial manifesto, " lament not for us, but
 
 152 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL i. 
 
 for the Church : her whole head is sick, her whole 
 heart is faint ; her prince is a roaring lion ; in the 
 midst of her sits a frantic prophet ; a man of falsehood, 
 a polluted priest." " The first pope, the Apostle Peter, 
 had said to the lame man, ' Silver and gold I have 
 none.' His successor, when he saw his heaps of gold 
 begin to dwindle, began to limp with the lame man, 
 begging for the goods of this world. Having nothing, 
 but possessing all things, he was for ever seeking what 
 he might devour, and swallow up ; the whole world 
 could not glut the rapacity of his maw/' The Church 
 was called on to bewail that " her chief shepherd was 
 become a ravening wolf, eating the fatlings of the flock, 
 no more binding up the broken, nor bringing the 
 wanderer home to the fold." The pope was himself 
 reminded that the Apostle had said of the power of 
 kings, that " all power was from God, and that he who 
 resisted the power, resisted the ordinance of God;" and 
 he was commanded " to receive into the bosom of the 
 Church his elder son, who incessantly and without 
 guile demands pardon : " in the event of refusal he was 
 threatened with " the vengeance of the strong lion who 
 would pluck up and destroy the horns of the proud." 
 Nay, the emperor did not hesitate to find a strange 
 parallel for the conduct of the Roman ecclesiastics. 
 " The Chief Priests and the Pharisees have met in 
 council against their Lord, against the Roman em- 
 peror." 
 
 The Pope replied with an equal vehemence and an 
 equally prodigal use of Bible language and imagery to 
 this fierce Philippic. The emperor was described as "the
 
 CHAP, iv.] REPLY OF THE POPE. 153 
 
 beast in the Apocalyptic vision rising out of the sea, with 
 his name blasphemy, with the feet of a bear, the moutli 
 of the lion, and the mottled limbs of the panther." 
 " He opened his mouth to blaspheme the name of God, 
 he shot his poisoned arrow against the tabernacle ; he 
 set up against the Church the battering rams of the 
 Ishmaelite." From this extraordinary opening the Pope 
 proceeded to denounce the statements of Frederick 
 against himself as false. He recriminated by accusations 
 in which charges of oppression of his subjects betrayal 
 of the Christian cause infidelity all were heaped upon 
 him by the pen of the father of the faithful. The pity 
 of Europe was invoked for the miserable condition of the 
 Sicilians, who were reduced to live in miserable hovels, 
 who, lying on straw, and with rags scarcely sufficient 
 to cover their nakedness, sustained life upon the coarsest 
 millet bread. The black indictment closed with the 
 impeachment of Frederick as the writer of the blasphe- 
 mous production, in which he had maintained that " the 
 world had been deceived by three impostors, Jesus, 
 Moses and Mahomet : two died in honour, the third 
 was hanged on a tree. Even more/' such were the 
 words of the Pope, " he had asserted distinctly and 
 loudly that they were fools who aver that God, the 
 Omnipotent Creator of the world, was born of a 
 virgin." 
 
 The charge of blasphemy which had been already 
 circulated industriously in private tales, when thus 
 solemnly made by the Pontiff, the emperor felt it 
 necessary as solemnly to deny. His next proclamation 
 contained a distinct profession of the orthodox Christian
 
 151 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 f a ith an expression of the deepest respect for Moses, _ 
 and a declaration of the unalterable belief of the emperor 
 that the body of Mahomet was suspended in the air, 
 possessed by devils, while his soul was undergoing 
 torment in hell. Determined not to be put down by 
 the reference to the visions of St. John, the emperor, 
 in this manifesto, described the Pope as the beast of 
 whom it was written " there went out another beast 
 that was red, and power was given to him to take 
 peace from the earth." " If/' continued the imperial 
 expounder of prophecy, " we rightly interpret the 
 words, he is the great anti-Christ who has deceived 
 the whole world the anti-Christ of whom he has de- 
 clared us the forerunner. He is a second Balaam, 
 hired by money to curse us, the prince of the princes 
 of darkness who have abused the prophecies. He is 
 the angel who issued from the abyss, having the vials 
 full of wormwood to waste earth and heaven." The 
 bishops were reminded that God had created two 
 great lights for the guidance of mankind, the Empire 
 and the Church ; and Frederick once more declared 
 his determination to maintain to the last against Papal 
 usurpation the rights and the authority which he held 
 by direct delegation from God. 10 
 
 Throughout Christendom these proclamations agitated 
 the public mind. The writers in the Papal interest, by 
 their lamentations of the desertions from the cause of the 
 
 10 Milman's " Latin Christianity." The manifestos of the Pope will be found 
 in Migne's " Patrology." Those of the emperors iu Goldast. The pages of the 
 latter writer are full of official documents of the German empire, which 
 prove that, the language of Frederick, strong as it is, is not unparalleled in 
 the manifestoes of his successors.
 
 CHAP, iv.] FREDERICK MARCHES TO ROME. 155 
 
 pontiff, confess that public opinion was with Frederick. 
 But the severest discouragement which Gregory met 
 with was from the King of France, the sovereign 
 whose piety procured for him the epithet of Saint. The 
 Pope attempted to purchase the support of St. Louis, by 
 an offer to revive in the person of Robert, brother of 
 the French king, the empire of Charlemagne. The offer 
 was answered by a severe rebuke of the " pride and 
 audacity of the Pope, who thus presumed to depose and 
 disinherit a king who has no superior nor even equal 
 among Christians." The attempt to seduce the German 
 powers from their allegiance was not more successful. 
 Several of them in succession refused the perilous 
 honours of a rebel crown. Frederick advanced with a 
 great army against Rome, avowing his determination 
 to enforce his royal power against the person of the 
 Pope himself. In some of his battalions he had provided 
 himself with soldiers who were not to be awed by the 
 terrors of the Papal See. Bringing from Sicily the 
 Saracens who had still maintained the faith of Islam in 
 its mountain retreats, he had settled military colonies 
 of these infidels on the southern shores of Calabria. 
 Ten thousand of the believers in the prophet entered the 
 Papal territories under the standard of the champion of 
 the Cross. 
 
 Already had the Pontiff found the advantage of these 
 new and numerous orders which the policy of Innocent 
 had once condemned. Everywhere the friars practised 
 on the fanaticism of the people, and inflamed the 
 passions of the multitude. A new crusade was preached 
 in the name of the Pope, in which Christians were
 
 156 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 summoned to take up arms against Frederick as the 
 enemy of the faith. Its volunteers appeared in the 
 battalions of the league, wearing the sacred symbol 
 which had distinguished the warriors who had engaged 
 in the Holy War. Frederick met this proceeding by an 
 order, sternly enforced, that every prisoner who should 
 be found wearing the cross should at once be executed 
 as a marauder. 
 
 Struck perhaps by some secret feeling of awe- 
 like that which is said, under similar circumstances, 
 to have influenced one of the barbarian invaders 
 Frederick stayed his march upon Rome, and turning 
 aside at Apuleia, attempted to bring about a recon- 
 ciliation with the Pope. 
 
 The hesitation of the emperor may have proceeded 
 from the sincerity of that feeling, which in his address 
 to the princes of Germany, he professed. He it was, 
 he said, who " had the deepest interest in restoring peace 
 to distracted Christendom." While any hope of accom- 
 modation prevailed he was unwilling to drive matters to 
 the last extremity of force. The Pope on his part 
 found himself compelled to resort to the measure long 
 demanded by Frederick's partisans, and convened a 
 general council. That council he summoned to meet in 
 the Lateran, in May (A.D. 1241). In the distribution 
 of summonses which were issued, the bishops who had 
 made themselves conspicuous on the imperial side were 
 omitted those who were the foremost partisans of the 
 Papacy were invited. The emperor positively refused 
 to permit the meeting of a council without his authority. 
 He protested against the constitution of the council,
 
 CHAP, iv.] COUNCIL IS CONVENED. 157 
 
 and the proposed place of its meeting. He denied that a 
 fair judgment could be obtained from a synod appointed 
 to assemble in the palace of his adversary, and to which 
 only the prelates known to be hostile to him would be 
 summoned. An imperial letter apprised every sove- 
 reign in Europe of his purpose. He inveighed against 
 the Pope for inviting not only hostile ecclesiastics, 
 but summoning three temporal lords, who were in open 
 enmity with him. " This council," he said, " was con- 
 vened not for peace but for war," and he warned the 
 prelates of the dangers which must attend their journey 
 to Rome. 
 
 Gregory persevered. He was supported by the 
 clergy of Britain and France. In England the Church 
 had latterly supported the cause of the Pontiff out of 
 opposition to the reigning sovereign, Henry III. The 
 French King had himself suggested the assembling of 
 a council. Several English prelates were brought from 
 Britain by the Papal legate. The French bishops set 
 out in considerable numbers to obey the summons of 
 the Pope. Assembling at Genoa, they prepared to 
 pass by sea to Rome, so as to avoid the dangers of a 
 journey through a country occupied by the imperial 
 troops. Genoa, in the pride of her maritime power, 
 had prepared to convey the fathers of the Church 
 to Ostia, with all the splendour of naval pomp. A 
 gallant fleet, with a convoy more for honour than for 
 security, bore the prelates over the tranquil waters 
 of the Ligurian sea. But at Ostia that fleet was 
 never to arrive. A sacrilegious plan had been formed 
 to rob the vessels of their precious freight. Apprised
 
 158 HISTORY OP ITALY. [vor. i. 
 
 by secret information from Genoa of their intended 
 departure, the admiral of the Pisan fleet appeared 
 off the island of Meloria. The Genoese ships were 
 called on to surrender the bishops. On their refusal 
 they were attacked, and encumbered by their episcopal 
 cargo, they were obliged to yield. Nineteen vessels 
 were brought as captured prizes into the Pisan port. 
 The bishops were handed over to the magistrates 
 of the republic, by whom they were treated with a 
 strange compound of severity and respect. The chap- 
 ter-house of the cathedral was made their prison, and 
 by a delicate attention of the chiefs of the republic, 
 the venerable prisoners were bound with silver chains. 
 The mariners who had effected this singular capture 
 did not feel themselves called on to forego the prize- 
 money which fell to their lot from the seizure of the 
 travelling store of the bishops. The quantity of coin 
 that was taken was so great, that in its distribution 
 the gold pieces were measured out in a wooden vessel 
 to those entitled to share. A portion of the treasure 
 that was seized was the contribution of the English to 
 the Pope's expenses in waging his holy war. 
 
 By this daring act the intended council of Lateran 
 was prevented. The effect of the disappointment was 
 so severely felt by the Pontiff, that his death in four 
 months afterwards was generally attributed to mortifi- 
 cation at his defeat. 
 
 Two years elapsed before the conclave of cardinals 
 agreed on his successor. It was not until the 24th of 
 June, 1243, that a cardinal of the noble Genoese 
 house of Fieschi ascended the Papal chair under the
 
 iv.] COUNCIL OP LYONS EXCOMMUNICATION. 159 
 
 title of Innocent IV. Allied to many powerful Guelph 
 families indignant as a Genoese at the humiliation of 
 the flag of the republic the new pontiff inexorably 
 rejected all the overtures of Frederick for a reconcilia- 
 tion, and determined to pursue him with a war of 
 extermination, as the enemy of the Christian Church 
 and faith. 
 
 Passing secretly from Rome to Genoa, the Pontiff 
 convoked a general council, which he summoned to 
 meet at Lyons. He still observed the rule that general 
 councils should assemble within the limits of the empire : 
 one half of Lyons was situated in Burgundy, and the 
 other half in France. In Lyons, however, the delibera- 
 tions of the fathers were free from all imperial control. 
 After a sitting of three weeks, the council, on the 17th 
 of July, 1245, decreed that for his crimes and iniqui- 
 ties God had rejected Frederick, and would not suffer 
 him to reign. His subjects were not only released from 
 their allegiance, but were forbidden, on pain of excom- 
 munication, to obey him. The electors of the empire 
 were invited to name his successor, while to the Pope 
 was reserved the nomination of the new sovereign of 
 the Sicilian realm. 
 
 Frederick had in his heart a superstitious dread of 
 this sentence of excommunication, when pronounced 
 not by the Pope, but by a general council of the 
 Church. The very manner in which he braved it be- 
 trayed the effect it had produced. Arrayed in his robes, 
 he called his adherents around him, and placing the 
 imperial crown upon his head, he declared that he knew 
 how both to wear and to defend it. This exhibition
 
 160 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL i. 
 
 of tragic heroism excited the enthusiasm of his friends, 
 but it failed to maintain his own sinking heart. For 
 five years he continued the conflict, at first, with a 
 triumphant success that seemed to defy the anathema 
 of the council. His own fears first betrayed themselves 
 in the cruelties which he inflicted upon the enemies who 
 were placed by victory in his power. These cruelties 
 alienated from him many who were not shaken by the 
 censures of the Church. They gave occasion to his 
 enemies to justify all the allegations that had been 
 made of his previous crimes. The monks of the mendi- 
 cant orders preached everywhere against him. In the 
 ears of the terrified penitent in their discourses on the 
 highway by the bedside of the dying they taught 
 the duty of opposing the arch-enemy of the Church. 
 Frederick himself had supplied materials for their 
 invectives by appointing Eccelino 11 as his lieutenant in 
 Lombardy ; and the atrocities of that cruel chief were 
 not unnaturally treated as the crimes of the emperor 
 
 11 The crimes imputed to this monster would be pronounced incredible if 
 they did not rest on testimony that compels belief. He delighted in cruelty 
 for its own sake. When the dungeons of Padua were thrown open on his fall, 
 " among the miserable captives, many of whom had been mutilated by torture, 
 were found aged persons of both sexes, and delicate young females, all bowed 
 down with privation and suffering ; but it was at the appearance of crowds of 
 helpless children whom the fiend had deprived of their eyes, that horror and 
 pity most agitated the shuddering spectators." PercivaFt Italy, Chapter iii. 
 part 2. 
 
 " In the single town of Padua there were eight prisons always full, notwith- 
 standing the incessant toil of the executioner to empty them. Two of these 
 contained each three hundred prisoners." Sismondi. 
 
 This monster was hereditary lord of Bassano. He was named captain of 
 the people in several of the towns in the March of Treviso. Pope Alexander 
 preached a crusade against him as the enemy of mankind. At last both 
 Quelphs and Ghibelines united in a compact, ratified by an oath, to destroy 
 him. Muratoriann. 1255, 1259. 
 
 " It appears certain," writes Lord Brougham, " that Ezzelino exceeded in
 
 CHAP, iv] PROSTRATION OF FREDERICK. 161 
 
 himself. The patriotism of the Italians was appealed 
 to against the man who was employing his Saracen 
 and German troopers to trample on the liberties of their 
 nation and their Church. Conspiracies were formed 
 against him in his own court and camp, and the 
 emperor endured the bitterness which all falling men 
 must bear of seeing those who owed all to his favour 
 the readiest to join in the plots for his ruin. His 
 trusted secretary was detected in an attempt to carry 
 him off by poison. The intelligence of the total defeat 
 of the Ghibeline troops at Fossalta, on the 26th of 
 May, 1249, in an engagement in which his natural son 
 Hensius was taken prisoner, completed his prostration. 
 Worn out by the conflict which for twenty years he 
 had heroically sustained, his energies both of mind and 
 body at last gave way. He implored the interposition 
 of St. Louis and offered to submit to any penance the 
 Church would impose. He promised to follow Louis, 
 who was then in the island of Cyprus, to the Holy 
 Land ; and volunteered an engagement to end his days 
 in Asia, and never more trouble his enemies by his 
 presence in Europe. He secured the good offices of 
 Louis, but before they had time to produce any effect, 
 the emperor died at the castle of Fiorentino, in the 
 kingdom of Naples to whose affairs the last years of 
 his life had been devoted. To his wise and enlightened 
 legislation we shall see hereafter that Sicily owed the 
 
 the cruelty of his ferocious reign all the atrocities of the other tyrants whose 
 history has reached us either in ancient or modern times." Political Philo- 
 sophy, part ii. p. 300. 
 
 In the passage immediately following the last extract will be found the most 
 condensed and graphic account of the atrocities thus stigmatised. 
 
 VOL. L M
 
 162 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 existence of that popular element in her constitution, 
 which was maintained until the destruction of that 
 constitution in 1816. 12 
 
 Conrad, the son of Frederick, succeeded his father 
 in the imperial crown. He followed him to the grave 
 in four years. His short reign was occupied in sup- 
 pressing an insurrection in his Neapolitan territories 
 the result of the efforts of the Church. Manfred, 
 Prince of Tarento, one of the many natural children of 
 Frederick, had, in the absence of Conrad, maintained 
 his authority with fidelity and courage. The arrival of 
 the emperor with an army from Germany, was instantly 
 followed by the complete submission of the kingdom. 
 Conrad was peaceably established in his dominions, and 
 another long and fierce contest appeared to be prepar- 
 ing for the Pontiff, when, by the death of the emperor 
 at the early age of twenty-six (A.D. 1254), the chieftain- 
 ship of the House of Hohenstauffen once more devolved 
 upon a child. Conradin, the infant son of Conrad, 
 remained in Germany ; while, in his Sicilian kingdom, 
 Manfred nobly continued to defend the rights of the 
 family, of whose name his actions proved him more 
 worthy than his birth. 
 
 Upon the death of Conrad, Innocent believed himself 
 strong enough to wrest, by his unaided power, the 
 sceptre of Sicily from the feeble hand of an infant. He 
 
 12 A full account of his legislation will be found in Lord Brougham's 
 " Political Philosophy," part i. p. 600. 
 
 In 1231, he made a digest of all the laws of the realm and published them 
 under the title of Institutions. 
 
 "His long reign of fifty years," says Lord Brougham, " was spent in repress- 
 ing the Baronial usurpations, and establishing regular and wholesome govern- 
 ment over the country." Political Philotopky.
 
 CHAP, iv.] MANPKED IN SICILY. 163 
 
 broke off the negotiations on which he had previously 
 entered to find a monarch for that kingdom at the courts 
 either of England or of France. The Papal army entered 
 the Neapolitan kingdom, and Manfred was compelled 
 to take refuge among the Saracens, whom his father 
 had established at Luceria. Here he gathered round 
 him the adherents of his family, and was strong enough 
 to drive the Papal troops behind the fortifications of 
 Naples. At this critical juncture the death of Inno- 
 cent disconcerted the councils, and dispirited the 
 movements of the Papacy; within two years the 
 entire kingdom acknowledged the sovereignty of its 
 youthful heir. 
 
 It may, perhaps, have been a matter of necessity for 
 Manfred to strengthen his power by assuming the 
 title of king. The German guardians of Conradin were 
 obliged formally to accede to the compromise by which 
 the crown was secured to him for life, while the 
 reversion was settled on his nephew. 
 
 The vigour and genius of Manfred not only established 
 his authority in the south, but was rapidly restoring in 
 Lombardy that Ghibeline ascendancy which, in the 
 days of Frederick, had proved so formidable to the 
 Holy See. The attention of the Papal Court was once 
 more turned to the necessity of granting the Sicilian 
 kingdom to a prince strong enough to assert the title of 
 the donor by his sword, and Pope Urban renewed the 
 offer made by Innocent of the Sicilian crown to Charies, 
 Count of Anjou, the brother of St. Louis, whose marriage 
 with the heiress of Provence had placed at his disposal 
 the wealth and resources of that rich domain. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i 
 
 Pressed by his ambitious countess, who pawned her 
 jewels to find money for the enterprise, Charles accepted 
 the offer, and' entered Italy with an army which Urban 
 did not hesitate to recruit by preaching a crusade 
 against Manfred, in the name of the faith. Passing 
 through Rome, he did homage for the kingdom of 
 Naples to the pope, and receiving from him formal 
 investiture, agreed to hold it as a fief of the Holy See, 
 and to pay the annual service of a white palfrey laden 
 with 3000 ounces of gold. In 1265 Charles entered 
 the territory of Naples ; and Manfred, meeting his 
 opponent, staked all upon the result of a single engage- 
 ment. Long and obstinately was the battle maintained 
 by the German cavalry, who had fought with Frederick, 
 the Lombards, the Tuscan Ghibelines, and the Sara- 
 cens, against the chivalry of France. The outlandish 
 cries of " Hy Gibeline," and " Hy Swabia/' were heard 
 from the fierce charge of the German squadrons above 
 the din and the tumult of the fight. When the com- 
 batants towards the close of the day were exhausted, 
 Manfred led his reserve of Neapolitans and Saracens 
 upon the wearied French. In the moment that ought to 
 have been that of victory, the Neapolitan barons turned 
 and fled. The panic became general, and Manfred in 
 vain endeavoured to retrieve the fortune of the day by 
 rushing into the thickest of the fight. He met the 
 death of a hero, but his fall completed the ruin of his 
 followers, and the French remained masters of the field. 
 
 The new King of the Sicilies revenged with remorse- 
 less severity that resistance of the people which he 
 branded as rebellion to their lawful king. Manfred's
 
 CHAP, iv.] CHARLES OF ANJOU. 165 
 
 widow and daughters were not saved by their sex 
 from ending their days in a dungeon. A licence for 
 indiscriminate pillage and murder rewarded the exer- 
 tions of the French troops. The Saracen colonies of 
 Frederick were exterminated in a general massacre of 
 the infidels, of whom not one was left alive. The axe 
 and the gibbet unsparingly wreaked the vengeance of 
 the conqueror upon those who had committed the 
 treason of questioning the validity of the title conferred 
 by the Pope. But one retributive justice marked the 
 whole of those atrocious proceedings. The executions 
 included many of those who, at the fatal battle of 
 Grandella, had basely deserted their sovereign in a 
 craven flight. 
 
 Charles had still to fight another battle for his 
 usurped dominion. The youthful Conradin inherited 
 the spirit and bravery of his race. When scarcely 
 nineteen years of age, he appeared at Verona with 
 10,000 men ready to assert his claim to the inherit- 
 ance of his fathers. The old friends of his family 
 gathered round him. The republic of Pisa, faithful 
 to her Ghibeline traditions, placed its resources at his 
 disposal. Sienna was equally true to her party. 
 In the absence of the pontiff at Viterbo, Rome opened 
 to him her gates. 13 and, fall of hope and confidence, the 
 youthful heir of Hohenstauffen led his followers through 
 the defiles of the Apennines to win with his father's 
 sword the restoration of his father's crown. 
 
 13 Nothing perhaps can more mark the national feeling which animated 
 the Roman support of papal pretensions, than the fact that the populace of 
 that city who had always sided with the popes against the German emperors
 
 166 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 It was the last struggle of the Ghibelines. Victory 
 once more declared on the side of Charles. In a 
 fiercely-contested, and long doubtful engagement on 
 the plains of Tagliacozzo, on the 23rd of August, 1268, 
 a well-devised stratagem gave Charles the advantage 
 over the fiery impetuosity of his youthful foe. Flying 
 from the battle field, the young prince was just on the 
 point of escaping into Sicily when he was recognised 
 and made prisoner. His youth, his misfortunes, his 
 illustrious descent, and the justice of the cause for which 
 he fought, could not move to pity or generosity the 
 heart of Charles. The descendant of emperors was 
 subjected to the insults of a mock trial, and beheaded 
 as a rebel in the public square of Naples. The inci- 
 dents of his dentil were remarkable. Even in a packed 
 tribunal, but one judge was found daring enough to 
 pronounce the sentence of death. The rest preserved a 
 solemn silence. On the vote of this single individual 
 Charles declared the punishment of death to be the 
 sentence of the court. It is said that, on the day of 
 the execution, when the sentence was read by the 
 judge who had debased himself to be the instrument of 
 the king's vengeance, a relative of Charles struck him 
 down with his sword, upbraiding him with the injustice 
 of the sentence he had pronounced. 14 All did not save 
 
 upon every occasion took part with Frederick II. and his descendants, who 
 were regarded as Italian princes. 
 
 14 " Fu letta la feral sentenza da Roberto da Bari giudice, al quale, Be 
 crediamo a Giovanni Villani finita che fu la lettura, Roberto figliuolo de conte 
 del Fiandra, genero del re Carlo, diede d'uno stocco nel petto, dicendo che a lui 
 non eralecito di sentenziare a morte si grande et gentil signore ; del qual colpo 
 colui cadde'morto, present! il re, e non ne fatta parola." Muratori, Annali 
 If Italia, anno 1268. Sitmondi, v. il, p. 463. Giaunone, 1. xix., c. 4.
 
 CHAP, iv] THE LAST HEIR OF HOHENSTAUFFEN. 167 
 
 the youthful Conradin from death. The execution took 
 place in presence of Charles and his court. 
 
 His deportment on the scaffold was worthy of his 
 race. Unnerved for a moment by the suppressed cry 
 of pity from the breasts of the multitude, who remem- 
 bered his father and commiserated his youth, he burst 
 into one touching sob of agony, not for himself but for 
 his mother " My mother, my mother ! dreadful will 
 be thy grief ! " Regaining his firmness, he bowed his 
 head upon the block, and, as he stooped to the stroke of 
 the headsman, he flung down his glove in token that he 
 died defying his oppressor, and in the hope that some 
 one lived who would yet revenge his wrongs. 
 
 This cruel and unmanly murder was followed by the 
 execution of all the most distinguished of his followers. 
 German princes, nobles of Lombardy, citizens of free 
 cities, expiated with their lives the imaginary guilt of 
 treason to a prince to whom they owed no allegiance. 
 As more fugitives from the battle field were seized 
 new executions made the scaffold of Conradin reek 
 with fresh blood of the noble and the brave. Charles 
 thought his throne could only be secure when his 
 youthful competitor and all his valiant comrades alike 
 lay weltering in their blood. 
 
 Thus perished the last heir of the once mighty house 
 of Hohenstauffen and thus was finally consummated in 
 their destruction the Papal vengeance that had so unre- 
 lentingly pursued the accomplished and chivalrous 
 Frederick. 
 
 The fall of the Sicilian dynasty of this princely 
 family was not only a signal triumph, but a great
 
 163 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. I. 
 
 advantage to the Papal power. In the early period of 
 its contests with the empire, the alliance of the Norman 
 monarchs had been of inestimable value to the see of 
 Rome. It was this alliance which enabled Hildebrand 
 and his successors to maintain themselves against the 
 might of Henry IV. When in 1084 the emperor 
 had invested the dauntless pontiff in the Castle of St. 
 Angelo when the pope of imperial nomination was in 
 the undisturbed possession of St. Peter's the surrender 
 of Hildebrand would have completed the subjection of 
 Rome to imperial power. It will be remembered that 
 at the last hour it was the army of Roger Guiscard that 
 rescued Gregory and Rome from the German troops. 
 
 On the other hand, we have seen that the union of 
 the Two Sicilies with the imperial crown was a combi- 
 nation of power which constituted a formidable danger 
 to the independence which the pontiffs claimed. In 
 breaking up that combination a great peril was removed, 
 and the sentence by which, in the council of Lyons, 
 Innocent deposed Frederick from the Sicilian throne, 
 achieved a political result which must have been in the 
 Papal councils a high object of state policy. 
 
 Yet the conduct of those who took part in these 
 movements was, at all events in the first instance, unpre- 
 meditated. The alliance between Rome and the Normans 
 was accomplished by a German pope, the relative of 
 the emperor, who marched against the latter at the head 
 of his army to punish them for their outrages upon the 
 Church. His defeat and seizure led the way to their 
 submission. It was a pontiff that urged Frederick II. 
 to leave his Sicilian realms, to win the imperial crown ;
 
 CHAP, iv.] SICILIAN VESPERS. 
 
 and passion, not policy, appears to have instigated the 
 commencement of the quarrel which ensued. 
 
 The ultimate triumph of the pontiffs over the family 
 of Frederick was effected only by entailing on Italy 
 the evils of French dominion. Under the extortions 
 and cruelties of their Angevin tyrant the Neapolitans 
 bitterly cursed the sentence that had transferred them 
 from the rule of the imperial house. But for other 
 generations was reserved the full measure of the evils 
 the precedent entailed ; the desolating wars of Louis 
 XII. and Francis I. had their origin in the invitation 
 that summoned Charles of Anjou and those marauders 
 whom a Pope did not hesitate to sanctify with the 
 name of crusaders to execute upon the schismatic 
 house of Hohenstauffen the sentence of the Church. 
 
 The evil did not end with the introduction of the 
 French. By a strange destiny the extinction of the 
 house of Hohenstauffen first laid in Italy the foundation 
 of a Spanish power. The enervated Neapolitans en- 
 dured the cruelties of their new lords. In Sicily the 
 sterner spirit of the hardy islanders inflicted on their 
 oppressors a terrible retribution. The Sicilian Vespers 
 (A.D. 1282) executed the vengeance and accomplished 
 the deliverance of an outraged people ; and, upon the 
 faith of an alliance with the family of Manfred, the 
 princes of the house of Arragon were invited by the 
 emancipated nation to ascend the Sicilian throne. 15 
 
 Two hundred and fifty years afterwards Italy was 
 
 15 For the history of the Sicilian Vespers and the consequent revolution, 
 see Amari's " History of the Sicilian Vespers," or the translation by Lord Ellea-
 
 170 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 desolated by the French and Spanish armies, still 
 warring for the very inheritance of which the last heir 
 of Barbarossa was despoiled ; and on his way to the 
 battle fields of the Neapolitan kingdom, a prince of 
 France, who had deserted to the armies of Spain, led 
 the assault on Rome which consigned a Pope to prison, 
 and gave up the city to a pillage the horrors of which 
 made the ravages of the Goths and Vandals seem 
 merciful and just. 16 
 
 With the death of Conradin terminated the long 
 struggle between the imperial and papal powers. The 
 Church had come triumphant, although exhausted and 
 demoralised, from the contest. The independence of 
 the Holy See had been vindicated by the complete 
 exclusion of the emperors from interference in the 
 nomination of the Popes. But, in the two centuries 
 through which the struggle lasted, principles and 
 parties had assumed a form very different from that 
 in which they appeared at its commencement. The 
 early contests in which the people and senate of Rome 
 did battle against the imperial prerogative for the 
 popular election of their bishop were forgotten, and the 
 rights of the Pope were no longer identified with the 
 liberties of Rome. 
 
 In the haughty pretensions put forward by the 
 Church, the subjects of the dispute are lost sight of 
 The question of investitures is merged in that of the 
 pretensions put forward in the course of the contest to 
 
 mere, Qiannone's " Historia Civile Del Regno," Percival's " Italy," ch. iv. part 
 " Muratori," anno 1282. 
 
 16 The sack of Rome by the Constable Bourbon. See post, ch. v.
 
 CHAP, iv.] PAPAL PRETENSIONS. 171 
 
 which that question gave rise. We do not think of 
 Hildebrand as the pious monk in his cell, devising 
 plans for the reformation of the Church, and honestly 
 believing it the duty of a Christian to free the spiritual 
 authority from temporal control ; we see only Gregory 
 VII., the haughty high priest, compelling an emperor to 
 stand shivering in the courts of the castle. The merits 
 or demerits of the contest are forgotten in the amazing 
 spectacle of the imperial penance. The right of elect- 
 ing the pontiff becomes insignificant compared with the 
 power assumed for that pontiff of summoning monarchs 
 to his tribunal, deposing them from their thrones, and 
 actually imposing disobedience as a religious duty on 
 their subjects. 
 
 In the case of Frederick II., the See of Rome had 
 reduced the assertion of this right to practice. The 
 sentence of the Church had been executed. The realms 
 of Sicily had been taken from the family whom the 
 decree of the council had deposed, and the forfeited 
 kingdom had been absolutely disposed of by the 
 donation of the Pope. The grandson of Frederick had 
 borne the penalty of his sentence, and the churchman 
 who claimed to be the divine Vicegerent, boasted that 
 in the execution of his decree the sins of the father had 
 been visited on the third generation of his foes. 
 
 There are those who believe that by the Papal 
 hostility to Frederick, Italy lost the opportunity of 
 becoming a great and a united nation. Frederick, like 
 his grandfather, had cheerfully recognised the privileges 
 of the Lombard cities. In spite of the factions of Guelphs 
 and Ghibelines which distracted their councils, it is
 
 172 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 probable he would have attached to his throne the affec- 
 tion and allegiance of those whose freedom he was ready 
 to secure. His birth, his education, and his tastes, all 
 attracted him to Italy in preference to the far less 
 cultivated region of a German court. The munificent 
 patron of science and learning, even in his distracted 
 reign, he was able to gather round him men of genius, 
 to give an impulse to letters, and to found universities 
 and schools, which became famous as the seats, not only 
 of learning, but of literature and art. 17 Encouraged, 
 instead of thwarted, by the pontiff, he might have 
 been in the greatest of the characteristics of the great 
 emperor, an Italian Charlemagne. 
 
 What Frederick might have been is matter of 
 speculation. Unhappily we know the effects which this 
 long and fierce contest produced upon those republican 
 cities whose example had taught liberty to Europe. 
 In the flames which were kindled by the evil passions 
 of that contest, their republican virtues, their public 
 spirit, and the energies of their freedom were con- 
 sumed. In the last years of the reign of Frederick, 
 we mark the unequivocal indications of their fall. On 
 
 W Among the charges brought against him by the pope was that of under- 
 mining the true faith by opening universities and schools. Sismondi, vol. ii., 
 p. 282, quotes two characters of Frederick, one by Villani, and the other by 
 Jansalli. " The emperor," says the latter, " opened schools in his realm for 
 the liberal arts, and for all sciences. He invited professors from all parts of 
 the world, and offered them liberal recompenses. Not content with appro- 
 priating to them a salary, he paid out of his own purse pensions to the poorer 
 students, so that no person of any condition might be driven from the study 
 of philosophy by want" Villani, the Guelph writer, describes him as well 
 acquainted with Latin, Italian, German, French, Greek, and Arabic abounding 
 in virtues and generosity, but addicted to sensual pleasures, aud a disbeliever 
 iu R future state.
 
 CHAP, iv.] DEGENEEACY OF THE CITIES BEGINS. 173 
 
 the formation of the second Lombard league, the cities 
 reluctantly agreed to admit the tribunal of the inqui- 
 sition within their walls. They did so to secure the 
 patronage of the pontiff, who haughtily told them that 
 lie never could regard as allies those who were so 
 indulgent to the enemies of the Church ; in one city 
 alone, sixty persons who belonged to the sect or asso- 
 ciation of heretics, known as " Cathari," were burned at 
 the stake. They were as ready to surrender their civil 
 as they were their religious liberty to secure the triumph 
 of the cause they had espoused. To ensure the 
 co-operation of the powerful lord of D'Este, Ferrara 
 had set the fatal precedent of appointing him captain 
 of the people, an office which soon made him absolute 
 master of the state. In other cities the example was 
 followed. Milan, in gratitude for the protection afforded 
 to her troops when flying from the field of Cortenuova, 
 named Delia Torre, the chief of Vallasina, as the lord 
 of the city. A few years later, many of the other 
 republics of Lombardy placed themselves under the 
 same chief. The relations of the previous centuries 
 were reversed ; the feudal lords then submitted to the 
 protection of the cities, the cities now sought the pro- 
 tection of the feudal lords.
 
 174 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Fall of the Italian Republics The triumph of Feudalism Secession of the 
 Pope to Avignon Rudolph of Hapsburgh His renunciation of Sovereignty 
 over Rome Grant of Romagna to the Popes Henry VII. Louis of 
 Bavaria Charles IV. Wenceslaus Causes of the fall of the Republics 
 Employment of mercenary troops Companies of Adventure Invasion of 
 Italy by Charles VIII. Demoralisation of Italy Louis XII. Francis I. 
 The Emperor Charles V. Sack of Rome by the Constable Bourbon 
 Siege of Naples Andrew Doria and Genoa Florence Parma Pied- 
 mont Peace of Chateau Cambresis State of Italy after its subjugation 
 by Charles V. Decline of Papal Power Wars of the Spanish Succession 
 Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of the Quadruple Alliance Of Vienna Of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 
 WE have now followed the imperial power through 
 the four great struggles, in one or other of which, from 
 the days of Otho, it had been almost incessantly 
 engaged ; first, with the municipal freedom of Rome for 
 the right of nominating the pontiff; second, with the 
 Papacy, upon the subject of investiture ; third, with the 
 republics of Northern Italy in the assertion of the royal 
 prerogative against civic privilege ; and, lastly, with 
 the Papal See, in that contest in which the conflict 
 plainly and avowedly was between the supremacy of 
 the sovereign and the lordship claimed over mankind 
 by the occupants of the Papal chair.
 
 CHAP, v] TRIUMPH OF FEUDALISM. 175 
 
 It was impossible for these mighty conflicts to pass 
 away without leaving deep traces of their influence 
 upon the land which had been their scene. The strife 
 was one that agitated far-off countries, and affected, in 
 its consequences, the interests of distant nations. But 
 it was in Italy that the battle was actually fought. 
 There it was that human thought and energy were 
 summoned to their utmost exertions in these contests 
 which involved the loftiest principles and stirred the 
 deepest feelings of the intellect and of the heart. There 
 they evoked the highest displays of virtue, and there 
 the passions they created, led men to the darkest 
 crimes. To the excitement of intellect and energy which 
 these struggles occasioned, we may, in all probability 
 trace, at least in part, the progress of Italy during 
 the Middle Ages in freedom, in commerce, in litera- 
 ture, in all that depends for success upon the impulse 
 given to the intellectual powers and the enterprise 
 of man. 
 
 Not many years after the events recorded in the last 
 chapter, the free cities fell. Republics became princi- 
 palities, and dukes and marquises held sway where 
 once a fierce democracy had ruled. 
 
 The fall of the Italian republics was a revolution, in 
 which feudalism trampled on those principles of repub- 
 lican freedom which had descended in the institutions 
 of ancient Rome. That revolution was not accomplished 
 by any external force or violent convulsion. It was a 
 gradual and a slow one. In the proud days of the 
 Lombard league, that municipal freedom which had 
 already vanquished the feudal lords, maintained itself
 
 176 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 against the aggressions of imperial power. Every- 
 thing then seemed to promise a long existence to the 
 liberties of the free Italian states. With privileges 
 conferred by law commanding armies the enrolment 
 of which was sanctioned by imperial consent with 
 the proud recollections of their contest and their 
 triumph and with a confederation strong enough to 
 resist any force by which they might be assailed, 
 the republics of the Lombard league might well 
 believe that their freedom had been placed upon a 
 secure foundation. 
 
 Within 200 years from the peace of Constance, these 
 liberties were gone, and the despotic rule of lordly 
 tyrants was substituted for the free government, the 
 continuance of which, the conditions of that peace had, 
 to all appearance, so effectually guaranteed. 
 
 If, in the fall of the Lombard republics, we may 
 thus see the principles of feudalism achieving that 
 triumph over old Roman freedom, which neither the 
 ascendancy of the Goths, the invasion of the Lombards, 
 nor the empire of the Franks or the Germans had 
 been able to effect ; we can hardly avoid noticing that 
 in the government of the Church, a revolution had 
 been almost silently accomplished, as completely sub- 
 verting popular rights which had descended from the 
 earliest days of Christian Rome. In the destruction ot 
 the right of popular election of bishops, the victory of 
 ecclesiastical feudalism had been achieved, and the 
 foundation laid of a system which was to convert the 
 government of the Church into a feudal monarchy, of 
 which the pontiff was to be the supreme lord.
 
 CHAP, v.] CONTINUANCE OF FEUDS. 177 
 
 Allusion has already been made to some of the 
 causes which led to the destruction of republican free- 
 dom in the towns. In these chapters it would not be 
 possible, even were it desirable, to follow the mazes 
 of their history through the " labyrinth of details," in 
 which we become involved as we trace the annals of 
 each principality or city. It is sufficient to state 
 the general outline of those causes which gradually 
 destroyed their liberties, and left only five republics 
 at the close of the fifteenth century, the survivors of 
 all those which had been once so thickly scattered, the 
 fortresses of freedom, over the land. 
 
 The final overthrow of the House of Hohenstauffen 
 did not end the feuds which had distracted Italy in 
 the opposing names of emperor and pope. The factions 
 of Guelphs and Ghibelines still continued their wars 
 between cities, and their cruel strifes in each munici- 
 pality. At no period did these dissensions more fiercely 
 rage than in the interval during which emperors never 
 appeared in Italy, and in which the policy of the Papal 
 Court was exerted to conciliate differences, which had 
 no longer even the pretext of a public principle to 
 justify them. 
 
 Before tracing its influence upon Italian freedom, 
 we must glance at the effect which the struggle re- 
 corded in the last chapter produced upon the imperial 
 power. 
 
 It was followed by that which has been generally 
 termed the interregnum of the empire. From the death 
 of Conrad, in 1254, to the election of Rudolph, the 
 founder of the dynasty of Hapsburgh in 1273, the crown
 
 178 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 of Germany had been nominally claimed by William of 
 Holland, and by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, son of 
 the English king John. The latter, after passing two 
 years in Germany, declared himself unable to maintain 
 the cost of the imperial dignity, and contented himself 
 with enjoying the honours of his nominal rank in London 
 or Paris. It is not matter of surprise that German princes 
 should have had but little ambition for an elevation that 
 seemed to bring with it a fatal destiny. The bravest 
 and best* of their chieftains had wasted the years of 
 their lives in the miserable anxieties of a wearing strife. 
 Their noblest families had fallen before the mysterious 
 power which had established itself in the capital of 
 Italy, and issued from Rome its ban, more terrible than 
 that of the empire. When Rudolph accepted the 
 imperial crown, it was with the fixed determination to 
 let Italy alone. The superstitious shrinking from a 
 contest in which so many of his predecessors had 
 suffered, is manifest in his recorded declaration to 
 the "German diet, " Italy has already consumed too 
 many German kings. I will not go to Rome. I am 
 king I am emperor without it. I will serve the 
 commonwealth as effectually without being crowned at 
 Rome." 1 
 
 In such a state of feeling imperial power was not 
 likely to dispute with the Popes the local sovereignty 
 of Rome. Innocent III. had already taken advantage 
 of Frederick's minority to compel the prefects and 
 
 1 " Multos Alemannarum reges Italia consumpit. Non ibo Romam Rex sum 
 Imperator sum nee minus pro utilitate reipublicae me facturum coufido 
 quam si lionise fuissein coronatus." Qvldasli Conetitutiones, voL L p. 311.
 
 CHAP, v.] RUDOLPH OP HAPSBURGH. 179 
 
 officers of the city to forego the oath of allegiance 
 to the emperor, and take one to himself. Rudolph 
 formally renounced all sovereignty in Rome, and the 
 ambassadors who brought this renunciation, confirmed 
 it by an oath which they were authorised to take in 
 his name. 2 
 
 More than this. He sent a formal deed in which he 
 resigned all pretensions to the territories claimed by 
 the Church, the exarchate of Ravenna, and the long 
 disputed donations of the Countess Matilda. Uninten- 
 tionally, as is said by some, he surrendered -in this 
 deed territories belonging to the kingdom of Italy, to 
 which the Papal See could show no title. His 
 grant comprised all those districts which now form 
 the States of the Church. Soon after the grant was 
 conferred, officers were appointed to collect some 
 tributes in these provinces ; they were met by the 
 deed by which they were made the property of the 
 Papal See. 3 
 
 Until Henry VII. in 1310 appeared at Rome, after 
 the retirement of the Pope to Avignon, no German 
 prince presented himself in Italy to receive coronation 
 either with the golden or the iron crown. When the 
 emperors once more appeared upon the scene of Italian 
 politics, the Pontiffs determined effectually to exclude 
 them from all interference with the sovereignty of 
 Rome. Louis of Bavaria was engaged in a dispute 
 with the Papal power, and his successor, Charles IV., 
 on his accession, was glad to purchase peace by 
 
 2 Pfeffel's " Histoire et Droit public D'Allemagne," vol. i. p. 424. 
 
 3 See post, vol. ii. chap. v. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 consenting to an oath 4 that he would accept no office in 
 Rome without the consent of the Pope. 5 
 
 The imperial power, on the other hand, was declared 
 independent even of that nominal connection with the 
 See of Rome which had been hitherto maintained. In 
 1388 a diet at Cologne, under Louis IV., ordained 
 that it was high treason to assert that the title of the 
 emperor was not complete by election, or that he 
 required either confirmation or coronation by the Pope, 
 and that from the moment of his election he was 
 entitled to be, and to be called, Emperor. 6 
 
 In the accession of a French prince to the Sicilian 
 throne of Frederick, the Papal power had achieved, as 
 we have seen, a great triumph, both for its policy and 
 its pride. Yet the alliance of the Popes with the 
 princes of Anjou, was not without its disastrous influ- 
 ence on the fortunes of the Papacy itself. The ambition 
 that had brought the brother of the French king to 
 Naples, still urged him on to higher aims. " Senator" 
 of Rome such was the title, now substituted for 
 that of patrician he aspired to be its master. He 
 
 4 The exaction of this oath and' the importance attached to it, will be under- 
 stood by recollecting the real character of the Roman constitution. By the 
 election of the senate and people to the office of patrician or consul, the 
 emperor might at any time have been invested with a legal power in Rome. 
 It is said that it was only by virtue of an appointment as patrician that the 
 early emperors interfered in the election of Popes. 
 
 * Charles at the same time confirmed the alienation of Avignon to the 
 Popes. It had been purchased from the Countess of Provence, and as Provence 
 was a fief of the empire, the purchase required confirmation. The emperor 
 bound himself not to return to Italy without the Pope's consent. PjeffelFs 
 Hist'/ire et Droit Public D'Allemagne, vol. i. p. 521. 
 
 6 Goldatt, vol. i. p. 336. The kings of Germany did not act on this by 
 assuming the title of emperor without coronation until the d;iys of Ferdi- 
 nand I. In the reign of his successor Maximilian, it was formally sanctioned 
 by another constitution of the diet
 
 CHAP, v.] THE GEEAT SCHISM OF THE WEST. 181 
 
 attempted to retain the title and the power of Vicar 
 of the Empire, even after Rudolph had been elected 
 emperor, at the instance of the Pope ; and before the 
 outbreak of the Sicilian Vespers, with difficulty the Pon- 
 tiffs had succeeded in curbing the influence of Charles, 
 an influence which plainly aimed at the sovereignty of 
 Italy, and the virtual subjugation of Rome. 
 
 In these struggles, although the ambitious projects 
 of Charles were defeated, a result ensued which was 
 altogether unexpected. By the nomination of cardinals, 
 which Charles was able to accomplish, the influence of 
 the French in the conclave was secured ; it was exercised 
 under the control of the French kings. This led in the 
 year 1305 to the transfer of the Papal residence, first 
 to Lyons and then to Avignon, and when after seventy 
 years an attempt was made to restore to the pontifical 
 city the presence of the Pontiff, the same influence 
 created that schism, which for thirty years after, still 
 kept a Pope at Avignon, to dispute with another at 
 Rome the. spiritual supremacy over the Christian 
 World. 7 
 
 7 In 1305, upon the death of Benedict XI., the Archbishop of Bourdeaux 
 was elected Pope. Entirely under the control of Philip, King of France, the 
 new Pontiff, who assumed the title of Clement V., summoned the cardinals to 
 attend his coronation at Lyons, and fixed the Papal residence at Avignon. 
 
 Avignon was in the county of Provence, within the kingdom of Burgundy, 
 and therefore within the nominal limits of the empire. 
 
 The pontifical residence continued without dispute at Avignon until the 
 death of Gregory X., in 1378. This Pontiff died during a visit to Rome; 
 according to the rule of the Roman Church, the conclave for the election 
 of his successor assembles at the place where the Pontiff happens to die, and, 
 on his death, violent commotions at Rome attended the election of his suc- 
 cessor. The Roman populace insisted on the election of an Italian Pope, 
 and, under their influence, Urban VI. was unanimously elected. Some 
 months after the election the cardinals in the French interest, who formed
 
 182 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 When Henry VII. entered Italy in 1310, the revolu- 
 tion, which was placing the country under the dominion 
 of a number of despotic powers, was already far 
 advanced. While the forms and names of their ancient 
 government were still maintained, almost all the cities 
 of Lombardy were submitting to some signer or lord, 
 whom one or other of the factions invested for their 
 own purpose with dictatorial power. The Pontiff had 
 fixed his residence in France, and Henry received coro- 
 nation from the hands of legates sent to Rome for 
 
 the majority of the council, retired to Anagni, and declared that their votes 
 had been given under compulsion. They elected Clement VII., declaring the 
 election of Urban void. Clement fixed his court at Avignon, while Urban 
 continued to exercise his Papal functions at Rome. A college of cardinals 
 and all the forms of pontifical election were maintained at each place for thirty 
 years. 
 
 In 1409, a general council was called at Pisa by the cardinals of both 
 parties. This council only made matters worse by pronouncing the deposition 
 of both Popes, and electing a third Pope under the title of Alexander V. in 
 his room. 
 
 Although Alexander was acknowledged through the greater part of Chris- 
 tendom, each of the other Popes had still their adherents, aud the Christian 
 world witnessed the scandal of three rival pontiffs all claiming to be its 
 rightful chief. 
 
 A few years later, under the influence of the emperor Sigismund, another 
 council was assembled at Constance. The Pisan Pope had already a successor 
 in the person of John XXIII. This prelate, said to have been a pirate in 
 early youth, was solemnly deposed upon charges, of depravity and crime. The 
 Roman pontiff abdicated at the request of the council. His rival of Avignon 
 was deposed. And, on the llth of November, 1417, unity was restored 
 to the Church by the election of Martin V., who restored its episcopate to 
 Rome. 
 
 Other questions agitated the council, and led it to a quarrel with the Pope, 
 Eugenius IV. This resulted in a decree for big deposition, and the elec- 
 tion of Amadeus, the ex-Duke of Savoy. (See next chapter.) This schism 
 was neither very general nor very lasting. After ten years Amadeus resigned 
 his tiara, and the election of Nicholas V. gave to the torn and distracted 
 Church another undisputed Pope. 
 
 For the history of " the great schism of the West," see Riddle's " History of 
 the Papacy," Milman's " Latin Christianity," Muratori, ad annos, and Sismondi, 
 vol. v. p. 371.
 
 CHAP v.] HENRY OF LUXEMBTJRGH. lS3 
 
 that purpose by the Pope. We find a curious illustration 
 of the state of Italy in the fact (by no means singular 
 in the history of imperial visits), that while the emperor 
 himself was admitted to receive the golden crown in 
 the Church of St. John Lateran, the gates of the city 
 were closed against his followers, and not a single 
 one of his soldiers was admitted within the walls. 
 
 Henry came into Italy to restore the imperial 
 authority, and to suppress the disorders into which the 
 battles of factions had plunged every city and district 
 in the north. Perfectly impartial between Guelphs 
 and Ghibelines, he compelled each city to recall the 
 exiles whom either of the factions had banished. He 
 forced their petty tyrants to lay down the authority 
 they had usurped, and placed in their stead imperial 
 vicars, to govern in concert with the magistrates of the 
 towns. The Guelph faction was not however prepared 
 to surrender without a struggle, the ascendancy which 
 in the absence of imperial support to their opponents, 
 it had gained. 
 
 The Guelph cities of Tuscany under the guidance of 
 Florence rose against him. The early death of Henry 
 on the 24th of August, 1313, prevented the contest 
 which was impending, and left the Guelphs once more 
 to revive the wars of faction, by renewing that perse- 
 cution of their opponents which Henry had endeavoured 
 to terminate. Reports were circulated and believed 
 that his opponents had contrived to have the emperor 
 carried off by the sacrilege of a monk, who mixed a 
 deadly poison with the sacrament he administered. 8 
 
 8 Muratori, ad armuui he disbelieves the story.
 
 184 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 A disputed succession to the empire made practically 
 an interregumn of ten years. "When Louis of Bavaria 
 entered Italy, in 1327, it was rather to extort treasure 
 from his Ghibeline supporters, than to restore peace to 
 the distracted country. He attempted the establishment 
 of a cruel despotism over all. He arrayed once more on 
 the side of the Guelphs whatever sympathies for liberty 
 survived. After betraying all his friends, and dis- 
 organising the supporters of imperial rule, he left Italy 
 within two years. 
 
 The visit of his successor, Charles IV., tended still 
 more to degrade and weaken the imperial authority ; a 
 visit only remarkable for having restored to the republic 
 of Lucca the independence of which Florence by con- 
 quest had deprived it. His son, the feeble and merce- 
 nary Wenceslaus, interfered only in the affairs of Italy 
 by the grant of 1395, which erected the Milanese terri- 
 tories into a duchy, in favour of the family of the 
 Visconti. 9 So completely had Lombard liberty been 
 destroyed, that the district contained in this grant a 
 district which Visconti was to hold as a fief of the 
 empire included all the cities which had once formed 
 the Lombard league. 
 
 While imperial power was thus declining in Italy, 
 the free cities that had resisted it in the days of its 
 might, were gradually falling under the dominion of 
 feudal tyrannies which arose upon the ruin of their 
 republican institutions. The slow operation of un- 
 
 9 The sale of this charter to the Visconti was one of the charges upon which 
 the German diet deposed Wenceslaus. The act of deposition is preserved by 
 Ooldast. Imperial Constitutions, vol. L p. 379.
 
 CHAP, v.] THE NOBLES ENROLLED AS CITIZENS. 1H5 
 
 noticed causes had insensibly led to the subversion 
 of the liberties of communities once so powerful and 
 free. 
 
 In one important respect, the Italian municipalities 
 differed essentially from those of other countries. They 
 included in the roll of their citizens the nobility of 
 the district in which they were situated. This, while 
 it seemed to add, and did in fact, add to the splendour 
 of the cities, was yet one of the principal elements 
 of their decay. 
 
 The great territorial lords of Northern Italy were 
 compelled to seek the protection and friendship of these 
 powerful communities, and frequently submitted to their 
 rule. Many of them were bound to reside for a certain 
 portion of each year within the walls of the city whose 
 citizenship they had sought or been compelled to 
 accept. An historian of the reign of Frederick L, com- 
 plains " The cities so much affect liberty, and are so 
 solicitous to avoid the insolence of power, that almost 
 all of them have thrown off every other authority and 
 are governed by their own magistrates, insomuch that 
 all that country is now filled with free cities, most 
 of which have compelled the bishops to reside within 
 their walls, and there is scarcely any nobleman, how 
 great soever he may be, who is not subject to the laws 
 and government of some city." 10 
 
 Elsewhere the same writer observes, that the Marquis 
 of Montferrat was almost the only baron who had 
 preserved his independence, and had not become subject 
 to the laws of any city. The cities of Italy had been 
 
 10 Otho Frigiaenais.
 
 186 HISTORY OP ITALY. VOL. r. 
 
 free before the institution of the feudal lordships, and 
 were not, as in other places, dependent upon the 
 privileges which it might suit the convenience of a 
 baron to tolerate, or a monarch to create. 
 
 This admission of a territorial aristocracy into the 
 association of the burghers, if at first it gave strength 
 and elevation to these communities, subjected them on 
 the other hand to the danger of falling under aristo- 
 cratic influence. The great nobles built palaces in these 
 towns : these palaces became feudal fortresses in the 
 centre of the cities. Attended by armed retainers 
 from their ^estates, they fortified their mansions, and in 
 many instances commanded the city by these military 
 strongholds. The citizens not only tolerated but 
 encouraged this for the sake of the strength which the 
 retainers of these noblemen brought to their military 
 force. In the wars in which they were frequently 
 engaged with each other, it was of no small importance 
 to one of these cities to command the vassals of a great 
 lord. By the presence of such an aristocracy, sharing in 
 all the councils of the community, the very principle of 
 republican equality was insensibly destroyed. The 
 nobleman who dwelt in his feudal castle frowning over 
 the streets of the city who was master of no incon- 
 siderable portion of their army and who brought into 
 their assembly the influence both of wealth and power, 
 was very likely to become, when any emergency gave 
 the opportunity, the protector instead of the protected 
 the master instead of the subject of the state. 
 
 It is to the evil passions evoked by the contests of 
 Guelphs and Ghibelines that we may directly trace
 
 CHAP, v.] FIERCE DISCORDS. 187 
 
 the ruin of the once great and free Italian cities. The 
 discords of the parties calling themselves by these 
 strange designations, survived the principles involved in 
 the original dispute. In process of time they represented 
 little more than the animosities to which the contest 
 had given rise. There had been a Guelph emperor and 
 a Ghibeline pope. It is scarcely possible to describe 
 the intensity of the hatred that prevailed between the 
 factions who ranged themselves under the rival banners. 
 The cry of Guelph or Ghibeline was an easy appeal to 
 the passions of those who, without troubling them- 
 selves with nice distinctions, were glad to find a com- 
 pendious political creed in loyalty to a faction, and a 
 substitute for principle in attachment to a name. 
 These watchwords arrayed city against city, and in- 
 flamed their old jealousies by the excitement of a new 
 and a more rancorous rage. They did more, they 
 separated many of the cities into two hostile and irre- 
 concileable camps. Religion and loyalty, the two most 
 powerful passions that influence men in public affairs, 
 were supposed to be the animating principles upon 
 either side. The Ghibelines hated the Guelphs with the 
 hatred which loyal subjects bear to the enemies of the 
 sovereign. The Guelphs retaliated with the malignity 
 with which pious Christians were taught to regard the 
 enemies of their faith. In vain both popes and emperors 
 attempted to reconcile these differences, and mitigate 
 their feuds. The loyalty of the Ghibelines did not 
 embrace obedience to the emperor when he commanded 
 them to forego their vengeance on the Guelphs. The 
 devotion of the Guelphs to the Church was too
 
 188 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 powerful to permit them to attend to the Pope's com- 
 mands, when they counselled forbearance to his Ghibe- 
 line foes. The war was literally one of life and death. 
 The ascendancy of one faction in a city was generally 
 followed by the exile of the other. Confiscation, and 
 even death, not unfrequently awaited the chiefs of the 
 defeated party. In these civil commotions, the first law 
 of nature came to the aid of the rancour and passions 
 of contending factions. To preserve themselves, they 
 must trample on their foes. To crush their antagonists 
 became an object to which everything else must be 
 sacrificed honour, virtue, even public liberty itself. 
 The surrender of the lordship of a city to a nobleman 
 or to an adventurous brigand, was not too dear a price 
 for the defeated party to pay for the suppression of an 
 ascendancy under which their native city became no 
 place for them to dwell. 
 
 For the satisfaction of the taste which was thus 
 acquired for civil strife, the public feuds were in- 
 sufficient. In some cities the Guelphs, when they 
 became too strong for opposition, could only gratify 
 their passion for discord by dividing themselves into 
 two subordinate factions, under the names of Black and 
 White Guelphs. In others the deadly quarrels were 
 kept up between two rival families, whose hatreds mar- 
 shalled the whole community into hostile camps. The 
 genius of Shakspeare has pourtrayed in the feuds of the 
 Montagues and the Capulets a scene from actual life. 
 Similar scenes were realised in many an Italian town. 
 There was no form or variety of civil discord religious, 
 political, personal, or genealogical which did not dis-
 
 CHAP, v.] CITIES FALL UNDER THE DOMINION OP LORDS. 189 
 
 tract the communities that passed an existence of per- 
 petual and unintermittent strife upon the Italian soil. 
 
 In such a state of things, the assumption of power 
 over a city became comparatively easy to the great 
 lord who, resident within its walls, was naturally the 
 leader of one or other of- the contending factions. The 
 safety of the party very often required a dictatorship 
 in their chief. It was, at all events, the safest and the 
 easiest method of keeping down their foes. To these 
 two causes, to the violence of faction, and to the admis- 
 sion of the great feudal lords to the citizenship, we can 
 directly trace the transactions by which many of the 
 cities surrendered their independence. To meet the 
 influence of an opposing chieftain in Milan, the Pope sent 
 as its archbishop a member of the powerful family of 
 Visconti. Its prelate soon became its lord. 
 
 As the cities fell under the rule of princes, the 
 number of these princes was speedily reduced. The 
 lords of the more powerful brought those of the weaker 
 under their sway. The dominion at first confined to 
 a city, soon included districts containing many cities 
 within their limits. The Duchy of Milan, erected by 
 the emperor in favour of the Visconti, represented a 
 sovereignty extending over the whole of the Milanese. 
 Alessandro Medici, Duke of Florence, soon merged that 
 title in the higher one, which conferred on him the 
 Grand Duchy of the Tuscan states. 
 
 With the subjection of the cities to tyrants 11 the habit 
 became general of employing mercenary troops. Afraid 
 
 11 The Greek rvpavvos. No other word expresses the position of the 
 siguor, or lord, who usurped the government of a free city in Italy as in Greece.
 
 190 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 of trusting to the militia of the citizens, these petty 
 lords employed bands of hirelings, who, under the name 
 of Companies of Adventure, sold their swords and ser- 
 vices to any one who would pay them. The emperors, 
 on their visits, were in the habit of bringing in their 
 train German guards, who frequently were not required 
 to return with their master to their native land. These 
 men were too glad to accept any service which retained 
 them in the wealthy country and luxuriant climate to 
 which they had come. The citizens even of the free cities 
 were flattered by the strange argument which found a 
 justification for the employment of mercenaries, in the 
 philosophical reflection, that the citizen who thus escaped 
 military service was, in his attention to his proper busi- 
 ness, contributing far more to the wealth, and therefore 
 to the greatness of the community, than he could do 
 in the professsion of arms. The argument was specious. 
 It would have been true if public spirit and patriotism 
 formed no part of the possessions of the state. With 
 this fatal habit of substituting mercenaries for the 
 national militia, passed away the greatness of the 
 Italian cities. Milan had far degenerated from the 
 days of Legnano when the mercenary ferocity of hire- 
 lings was substituted for the enthusiasm of her own 
 free youth; and, under her once proud banners, the 
 " Company of Adventurers," took the place of the 
 " Company of Death." 
 
 The employment of these mercenaries soon led to 
 evils of the most aggravated kind. Bands of adven- 
 turers were formed in Germany, and came into Italy 
 in regular military array. Subsisting by the pay of
 
 CHAP, v.] THE CONDOTTIERI. 191 
 
 their profession, -when their services were not required 
 by any of the lords or cities, they supported themselves 
 by contributions levied on the inhabitants. Travelling 
 through the country from district to district, the smaller 
 companies exacted their black mail from individuals, 
 the greater ones did not hesitate to demand it from 
 cities. One of these predatory armies was dispersed in 
 a pitched battle fought with them by the Milanese, in 
 defence of their menaced city. Another, known as the 
 Great Company, under the command of a German 
 duke, was broken up in an unsuccessful foray upon Flo- 
 rence. 12 Generally, however, they were more prudent 
 in selecting the objects of their attack ; and, from one 
 extremity to another, Italy was plundered and ravaged 
 by these predatory bands. The intervals of respite 
 from internal war were of course the periods at which the 
 country was harassed by those who were thrown out of 
 employment by its cessation, and were obliged to make 
 war upon their own account. 
 
 Worse than all was the demoralisation that followed 
 such a state of society. It was one in which the wild 
 passions of barbarism were mingled with the luxuries 
 and vices of opulence and civilisation. Power gained by 
 violence or treachery was used with cruelty, and men 
 
 12 The most celebrated of these companies was the White, or English com- 
 pany, commanded by Sir John Hawkwood, an adventurer of low extraction, 
 knighted by Edward III. for his bravery in the war with France. The " Great 
 Company " was under the command of Werner, who wore a breastplate with 
 the inscription, " Euemy to God, to pity and to mercy ! " Spalding's "Italy," 
 vol. ii.p. 150 ; Hallarn, vol. i. p. 499 ; Stow's Chronicle (Richard II.), pp. 308, 
 309. Miley's " History of the Papal States," vol. iii. p. 361, contains a very full 
 and interesting account of the Condottieri. Ferrari, " Histoire des Revolutions 
 de L'ltalie," vol. iii. p. 443. Deimistouu's " Dukes of Urbino," vol. i. p. 319.
 
 192 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 became accustomed to the ascendancy of successful 
 crime. Tyrants, who usurped the government, main- 
 tained themselves in its possession by all the instru- 
 ments of arbitrary rule. Their private vices were as 
 infamous as their public crimes. A cruelty, as ferocious 
 as that of the wildest savages, while it did not brook 
 the restraints, availed itself of the artifices of civilised 
 life. Poisonings and assassinations carried off the ene- 
 mies whom force could not destroy. The horror of 
 these crimes was lost in the frequency of their repetition. 
 The Church did not escape the demoralisation of the 
 age, and, under Borgia and his execrable son, the 
 chambers of the Vatican were polluted by infamies, 
 and desecrated by horrors, the records of which the 
 honour of Christianity and that of human nature alike 
 command us to cover with a veil. 
 
 It was in the hateful pontificate of Borgia that 
 Charles VIII. of France led, in 1494, his French army 
 to claim the Neapolitan possessions of the house of 
 Anjou. In the two hundred and fifty years which had 
 passed since Charles of Anjou had first come to seize 
 those territories, Italy had been altogether changed. 
 The republics of Lombardy were gone. After the 
 extinction of the family of the Visconti, Milan and the 
 district of the Milanese made a short-lived attempt to 
 recover its ancient liberty, but only to fall, after a brief 
 interval, under the rule of the Sforza. The Marquisate of 
 Mantua, under the Gonzaga, occupied a portion of Lom- 
 bardy to the west of the Adige. The Venetians had ex- 
 tended their territory to the eastern banks of that river. 
 Padua, Verona, Brescia, and all the cities between the
 
 CHAP, v.] INVASION OF CHARLES VIII. 193 
 
 Adige and the sea, had been subjected to the Queen of 
 the Adriatic. Bologna was ruled by the family of 
 Bentivoglio. The great house of D'Este governed 
 Ferrara and Modena. 13 All the cities of Tuscany, with 
 the exception of Sienna and Lucca, had fallen under 
 the dominion of Florence. That city, still under the 
 name and form of a republic, was virtually governed by 
 the Medici. Even Genoa had accepted the protection 
 of the Duke of Milan as her prince. Venice, Lucca, 
 and Sienna alone maintained the reality of republican 
 government in Italy. 
 
 In the year 1441, the kingdom of Naples had been 
 united to the Sicilian realm of the King of Arragon. 
 Charles claimed, under a title not necessary to trace, 
 the right to the throne which was transmitted through 
 the house of Anjou. Entering Italy in the month of 
 August, 1494, he overran the whole country without 
 opposition. The Florentines had prepared for resis- 
 tance, but their cowardly chief, Pietro de' Medici, was 
 seized with terror at the approach of the French, and, 
 proceeding to meet Charles, surrendered to him seve- 
 ral fortresses of Tuscany. On returning to Florence, 
 
 13 It must be remembered that the grant of Romagna and the other pro- 
 vinces to the Pontiffs did not interfere with the lordship or sovereignty of 
 those princes who had held their territories as fiefs of the empire, or of the 
 kingdom of Italy. They continued still to hold them under the Pope. The 
 Holy See was substituted for the emperor as lord paramount of these domains. 
 
 The free cities were left in the same position as they had been before. The 
 rights of the Pope over Bologna were no greater than those of the emperor 
 had been. 
 
 The conquest of Romagna, that is, the extinction of its princes and the 
 subjugation of its free cities, was achieved at different periods in great measure 
 by the infamous Ctesar Borgia, under circumstances that darken the annals iu 
 which these events are recorded. See post, vol. ii. chap. v. 
 
 VOL. I. o
 
 1 04 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i 
 
 he found guards placed before his palace who refused 
 him admission. From the indignant voice of the people, 
 enraged at the baseness of the surrender, he fled in 
 consternation. Still the gates of Florence were opened 
 to Charles, as were those of Rome. The Neapoli- 
 tan kingdom surrendered without a blow. Its king, 
 Alphonso, fled to Sicily, and Charles was acknowledged 
 as sovereign. 
 
 His rapid success alarmed the Northern States for 
 their independence. The Duke of Orleans, whom he 
 had left in Lombardy, alienated the Duke of Milan by 
 himself advancing claims, as the heir of the Visconti, 
 to the Milanese. An alliance was formed against the 
 French, which was joined by the Venetians, the Pope 
 and the Duke of Milan, and protected by the Emperor 
 Maximilian, and the King of Arragon. now assuming the 
 title of King of Spain. Charles was forced to make his 
 way back into France, and, immediately after his depar- 
 ture, a Spanish army invaded and reconquered Naples. 
 
 Charles VIII. died on his return to France. His 
 distant relative, the Duke of Orleans, under the title of 
 Louis XIL, ascended the throne. Louis was not slow 
 in asserting his Italian claims. On his accession he 
 assumed the titles of King of the two Sicilies and Duke 
 of Milan. Marching with an army into Lombardy, he 
 made himself master of the Milanese Duchy. By an 
 unprincipled bargain with Ferdinand, King of Spain, he 
 agreed to seize jointly with him the kingdom of Naples 
 and then partition it between them. Ferdinand, how- 
 ever, did not respect the good faith which is pro- 
 verbially said to belong to such transactions, and, after
 
 CHAP, v.] FRANCIS I. 195 
 
 unsuccessful attempts to enforce his bargain, Louis was 
 obliged to leave the two Sicilies in the undisputed pos- 
 session of the Spanish crown. 
 
 Thus was accomplished the annexation of Naples to 
 Spain, which for two centuries subjected that kingdom 
 to the oppression of successive Spanish viceroys, many 
 of whom appeared to regard plunder and extortion as 
 the only duty of a delegated government. 
 
 In the north of Italy, the French king was compelled 
 to maintain his right to the Milanese duchy by constant 
 wars. After joining in the league of Cambray against 
 Venice a confederation which brought that republic to 
 the brink of ruin Louis was himself the object of a 
 new combination, formed by Pope Julius II., called the 
 Holy League, of which the real object was to drive all 
 foreigners, or, as the Pope still called them, barbarians, 
 out of Italy. This was followed by the expulsion of 
 the French from Milan, and the restoration of the duchy 
 to the family of Sforza. Against an effort of Louis to 
 resume his conquest, Milan was protected by the 
 bravery of the Swiss mercenaries whom Sforza had 
 employed. The invading French sustained a signal 
 defeat, which no effort was made to avenge in the life- 
 time of Louis, who died in 1515. 
 
 His successor, Francis I., immediately on his accession 
 attempted, and with success, to retrieve the disasters 
 and disgrace of the French arms. The terrible battle 
 of Marignano annihilated the bands of the heroic Swiss, 
 and made Francis master of Milan. The only result was, 
 however, to provoke a war, which ended in leaving the 
 French without an acre of territory in Italy, and 
 
 o 2
 
 ]96 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 subjecting the Peninsula to the dominion of the power 
 which of all they most hated. 
 
 Four years after the accession of Francis, the death 
 of the Emperor Maximilian placed his grandson Charles 
 in possession of the hereditary dominions of the house 
 of Hapsburgh. Through his mother he had already 
 inherited the vast possessions of the King of Spain. 
 Master of the Netherlands, of Spain, of the Two 
 Sicilies, and of the German possessions of his family, 
 he was by far the most powerful monarch in Europe. 
 Francis was his competitor for the imperial crown. On 
 the 28th of June, 1519, the diet at Frankfort elevated 
 the King of Spain to that dignity, and henceforth he 
 is known in history as the Emperor Charles V. 
 
 To other narratives belongs the detailed account of 
 the contests which for the next eleven years desolated 
 Italy. The politics of that country were no longer 
 regulated by the interests of any of her states, but by 
 those of European combinations. The struggle on the 
 soil of Italy was to determine whether French, or Ger- 
 mans, or Spaniards should prevail. 
 
 Charles was not slow in assailing in Italy the power 
 of the French king. On the 19th of November, 1521, 
 his troops entered Milan, and a Sforza assumed once 
 more the title of its duke. In 1525, at the battle of 
 Pavia, Francis was made prisoner. Released upon 
 terms which he violated, the French king attempted 
 once more to dispute the power of the emperor in 
 Italy. A second holy league had been formed under 
 the presidency of the Pontiff, Clement VIL, to resist 
 the ascendancy of Charles. On the 5th of May, 1527,
 
 CHAP, v.] THE SACK OF ROME. 197 
 
 the Constable Bourbon, a renegade from the cause 
 of his native country, led to Rome an army of Ger- 
 mans and Spaniards whom want of pay and of a com- 
 missariat had converted into brigands, subsisting on 
 the plunder of the countries through which they passed. 
 The Pope was seized and detained as a captive ; Rome 
 was abandoned to a pillage, in which neither the sanctity 
 of homes, nor the sacredness of churches, was spared. 
 For nine months a brutal soldiery were permitted to 
 continue their excesses unchecked. The plunder of pri- 
 vate houses was not sufficient to satisfy their cupidity ; 
 the ornaments were torn from the sanctuaries of the 
 churches and the shrines of the saints. Torture was 
 used to extract from the citizens the supposed secret 
 of their concealed treasures. Those horrors, which, 
 when tolerated even in the first moment of inflamed 
 passion, are the ineffable disgrace of civilised war, were 
 systematised and pursued at Rome with the deliberate 
 and cold-blooded atrocity that continued them for 
 nearly a year. 14 
 
 Genoa, a few years before, had been subjected to a 
 treatment almost as detestable. The city was given up 
 to be plundered by the Spanish troops. The mansions 
 and stores of her merchant princes were rifled of all 
 that they contained ; and it gives us some idea, both 
 of the extent of Genoese commerce, and of the ravages 
 
 14 The Constable Bourbon was killed in the assault. His memory is there- 
 fore not answerable for these atrocities. Charles V., while the Pope was kept 
 in captivity by his own generals, desired prayers to be offered up in all the 
 Spanish churches for the release of the holy father. 
 
 For the history of this period see Muratori, anno 1527, Guiccardini 
 books xiv. and xviii.
 
 198 HISTOEY OF ITALY. . [VOL. i. 
 
 of the soldiery, to find that the ruin of so many of the 
 Genoese merchants gave a shock to mercantile credit 
 throughout Europe. At Genoa there were no German 
 troops ; the work of plunder had been done by the 
 Spaniards. At Rome, where both armies united, the 
 profligate drunkenness and debauchery of the German 
 soldiers was, by the suffering Romans, favourably con- 
 trasted with the atrocious cruelties committed by those 
 of Spain. 
 
 Rome was not the only city in which these continued 
 scenes of ruthless military license were enacted. Its 
 pillage was undertaken, not from political motive, 
 but to satisfy a soldiery for whose pay, or susten- 
 ance, no provision had been made. The same neces- 
 sity existed wherever the troops of Charles were 
 placed. They were supported by a permission to billet 
 themselves on the inhabitants of the town ; and the 
 house that received one of them as an inmate, was 
 subjected to every indignity that might be prompted 
 by the passions or the avarice of its guest. Without the 
 means of paying them their officers, even if they had the 
 will, had not the power to control them. The wages of 
 the soldiery consisted in a licence to plunder, and they 
 insisted on availing themselves of that licence almost in 
 any manner they chose. Great part of Italy was given up 
 to the passions of an undisciplined and licentious host. 
 
 In 1527, Henry VIII. of England and .Francis I. of 
 France entered into an alliance, in which they were 
 joined by the republics of Venice and Florence, the 
 Pukes of Ferrara and Mantua ; its object was stated 
 to be the deliverance of the Pope. A magnificent
 
 CHAP, v.] SIEGE OF NAPLES. 199 
 
 French army, under the command of Lautrec, entered 
 Italy. The Pope effected his escape from the Castle of 
 St. Angelo, where he had been kept a prisoner, and 
 joined the French camp. The only effect of the arrival 
 of the French was to add to the sufferings of the unhappy 
 country. The demoralised banditti of German and Span- 
 ish troops could offer no opposition to the march of that 
 army. Yet the sack of Parma in the north, and of Amalfi 
 in the south, were retaliations for Spanish cruelties, which 
 gave but little satisfaction to the Italians, who were suc- 
 cessively the victims of the rival atrocities of both con- 
 tending parties. Lautrec finally attempted to force the 
 surrender of Naples by a blockade. Famine and pestilence 
 committed their havoc among the wretched inhabitants 
 of the beleaguered city. The latter inflicted still more 
 terrible ravages on the besiegers. On the 20th of June, 
 the French army numbered 25,000 men ; on the 2nd 
 of August, but 4000 fit for service could be mustered in 
 the ranks. Lautrec, their general, whose obstinacy led 
 to the miseries of this ill-omened expedition, fell himself 
 a victim to the malignant disease which had destroyed 
 his troops. The general who succeeded him, attempted 
 to escape under shelter of a storm. His soldiers were 
 too weak even to fly, and, pursued by an enemy almost 
 as wretched as themselves, they were compelled to 
 capitulate, and surrender to the Spanish the privilege 
 of thrusting into crowded hospitals men stricken with 
 disease and death. The French army literally perished ; 
 and of that once brilliant host, a few miserable invalids 
 alone returned to France. 
 
 Another French army had entered Lombardy. On 

 
 200 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 the 21st of June, 1529, it was surprised by the Spanish 
 commander, and its general and many of its officers made 
 prisoners. It was time for this dreadful war to cease ; 
 in desolated and bleeding Italy there was but little 
 worth contending for. Two women met at Cambray, 
 and determined that it should end. Margaret of 
 Austria, the aunt of Charles, and Louisa of Savoy, the 
 mother of Francis, arranged the terms of a peace. 
 The Turks were at the walls of Vienna, and Luther had 
 already shaken Christendom by the rapid progress of 
 the Reformation. The emperor was anxious to hasten 
 back to Germany, and gave his assent to the " traite 
 des dames/' France formally renounced all interference 
 in Italy, and left the triumphant emperor to deal with 
 the country as he pleased. Charles had already made 
 a treaty of peace with the Pope, in which the pontiff 
 was content to receive as compensation for all he had 
 suffered, the privilege of restoring his relatives, the 
 Medici, to the sovereignty of Florence. 
 
 Genoa alone regained her liberties at the close of 
 this disastrous period. Her great citizen, Andrea 
 Doria, had been in alliance with the French king ; he 
 had commanded the naval forces of Francis, to which 
 he added some galleys of his own. Leaving the 
 service of France without dishonour, he went over to 
 that of Charles, when his accession exercised a power- 
 ful influence on the fortunes of the war. In gratitude, 
 the emperor offered him the sovereignty of Genoa, 
 with the title of its duke. The illustrious patriot 
 asked and obtained instead, the restoration of the inde- 
 pendence and freedom of his native city.
 
 CHAP, v.] CORONATION OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. 201 
 
 The emperor landed at Genoa from the fleet of 
 Doria on the 12th of August. Proceeding to Bologna 
 in November, he summoned before him the princes of 
 Italy, whose fate as a conqueror he had the power to 
 decide. It may have been the state of Germany, that 
 imposed on him the moderation which he displayed. 
 To Sforza was granted, for a sum of money, the 
 investiture of the Duchy of Milan, as a fief of the 
 empire. Modena was confirmed to the chief of the 
 house of Este. The Venetians held their acquisitions 
 in the terra-firma, and Genoa, Lucca, and Sienna, 
 were permitted to retain their republican governments. 
 Gonzaga was left in possession of Mantua, with his title 
 raised from that of marquis to that of duke. 
 
 Early in the following year Pope Clement placed 
 upon the head of Charles the crowns of Lombardy 
 and Rome. The assumption of these crowns was but an 
 idle ceremonial to one who was master of Italy without 
 either. The ceremony was performed at Bologna by 
 the very pontiff who had attempted to form the league 
 of Italian independence. 
 
 Florence made a vain but heroic attempt to resist 
 the imposition of the tyranny which had been bargained 
 for by the Pope. Alessandro Medici, whose memory 
 almost equals in vice and crime the worst of Italian 
 tyrants, was forced upon the citizens by the Papal and 
 Imperial arms. In the following year he entered 
 Florence with a rescript from the emperor, fixing its 
 constitution, and took the title of its duke. 
 
 Italy was not yet destined to be free from the 
 miseries which French and Spanish contests inflicted
 
 202 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 on her people. The Duke of Milan died in 1535. 
 The emperor claimed the duchy as reverting to the 
 imperial crown on the death of his feudatory without 
 heirs. Francis alleged that it was his by inheritance, 
 and that he had only given up his rights during the life 
 of the reigning duke. After nine years' war, the peace 
 of Crespi left the emperor in possession of Milan. In 
 the interim the French king had used the opportunity 
 to seize on a large proportion of the Italian possessions 
 of his relative, the Duke of Savoy. 
 
 Once more the flames of war between France and 
 Spain were kindled by an attempt of the emperor to 
 deprive of his dominions, the newly created Duke of 
 Parma. 
 
 Pope Paul III. had severed the territories of Parma 
 and Placentia from the possessions of the Church. The 
 College of Cardinals had sanctioned the alienation in 
 favour of the natural son of the Pontiff. The emperor 
 was induced to sanction the assumption of the territorial 
 title of duke. An attempt on the part of the succeed- 
 ing Pontiff and the emperor to resume this grant, 
 led to an appeal from the young Duke of Parma to the 
 protection of France. 
 
 Before this contest closed, the Emperor Charles had 
 abdicated his crown, and the imbecile, but cruel fanatic 
 Philip II., succeeded to his Italian dominions. Strange 
 to say, the Pope was the great opponent of that most 
 bigoted and blindest of the devotees of the power of the 
 Church. The Pontiff appealed to Henry II. of France, 
 to join him in a league to drive the Spanish power out 
 of Italy. The Duke of Guise crossed the Alps with
 
 CHAP, v.] PIEDMONT. CHATEAU CAMBRESIS. 203 
 
 20,000 men, and marched without resistance to Rome. 
 Entering the territory of Naples, he was met by the 
 Duke of Alva with an equal army, but before any 
 engagement took place, the victory of the Spaniards at 
 St. Quentin recalled the Duke to protect the frontiers 
 of France. In three years afterwards, the treaty of 
 Chateau Cambresis at last gave peace to Italy. It 
 made little alteration in the position of the Italian 
 states, with the exception of extinguishing one more 
 republic, by assigning Sienna to the Duke of Florence. 
 The King of Spain reserved for himself from the 
 territories of the extinct republic, a small maritime 
 district called the "State of the Garrisons," which 
 remained attached to the kingdom of Naples, up to the 
 period of the French revolution. 
 
 It was during these wars that Piedmont endured the 
 terrible evil of the successive occupations of hostile 
 armies. Nearly related to both the contending monarchs, 
 the unhappy Duke of Savoy was alternately robbed 
 of his possessions by each. Nothing was left to him 
 at one period except the county of Nice, and so com- 
 plete was the desolation of the plain of Piedmont, 
 that Charles V. had contemplated turning over it the 
 waters of the Po and the Ticino, so as to place an 
 impassable and pestilential marsh between Italy and 
 French arms. 
 
 The peace of Chateau Cambresis, almost all Italian 
 writers concur, in fixing, as the period of the sub- 
 jugation of their country to foreign rule. It completed, 
 indeed, the extinction of its liberties. We are no more 
 to meet with the fierce struggles for popular freedom^
 
 204 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 nor even the determined contests for principles of public 
 right, which marked the earlier days of Italy. The 
 revolts against fiscal oppression, which once or twice 
 disturbed the despotism of Spain at Naples or Palermo, 
 hardly rise to the dignity of insurrections in the cause of 
 freedom ; and during two centuries the nation appeared 
 to sink down into an inglorious and tame acquiescence 
 in the tyranny by which it was oppressed. 
 
 That tyranny was not, however, altogether foreign. 
 In the southern portion of the Peninsula, in the fairest 
 province of the north, at Naples, and at Milan, the 
 blight of Spanish oppression withered the energies of 
 the people. But in other parts of Italy, Italian princes 
 reigned, who inherited the vices without the energy 
 of their families. The Italians, in this long interval of 
 degradation, paid the penalty of the crimes of the 
 preceding age. 
 
 The greatness, even in one sense the glory, of these 
 cities had not ceased with the destruction of their 
 liberties. The impulse given to human energies by 
 free institutions survived the institutions themselves ; 
 and while Italy was sinking into slavery, it preserved 
 for a time its ascendancy, not only in material greatness, 
 but in literature, in science, and in art. With the 
 extinction of free government, intellect and genius ap- 
 peared to seek new channels for their exercise, instead of 
 the closed one of a political career. Republican freedom 
 in Tuscany existed for years after liberty was extin- 
 guished in Lombardy,but even Florence might be said to 
 have outlived her free and happy days at the time when 
 Dante was driven from her walls by a sentence that
 
 CHAP, v.] ITALY GIVES LITERATURE TO EUROPE. 205 
 
 condemned him to the flames. He died at Verona, 
 under the protection of its lord. The " Divina Com- 
 media" peoples its lowest hell with flatterers, tyrants, 
 and traitors the characters of the falling age of Italy. 
 Petrarch and Boccaccio were of still later years. Tasso 
 wrote his immortal poem in the dungeon in which the 
 tyrant of Ferrara had confined him. 
 
 It was in the days of the decline of Italian freedom 
 that Europe owed to Italy the restoration of ancient 
 learning. Petrarch and Boccaccio gave the first impulse 
 to the movement ; nearly a century later the fugitives 
 who escaped from the fall of Constantinople, brought 
 to the schools and universities, with which Italy 
 abounded, the taste for the writings and language of 
 ancient Greece. Thus, as her liberties were passing 
 away, Italy held out the lamp of learning to Europe. 
 It is false to say that she owed this in any sense to 
 the voluptuous and vicious lords who ruled her cities 
 and her lands. Her literature breathes the energies 
 and the impulses of freedom ; her schools and her 
 universities were the creation of her earlier and nobler 
 age ; and Florence, where the forms of freedom longest 
 survived, produced in the very last years of her liberties 
 the most illustrious of those whose genius made Italian 
 literature and learning the source from which other 
 countries drew their inspiration. 
 
 The revival of art we must also trace back to the 
 spirit that originated in free institutions, although the 
 effect was manifested in the period of their decline. 
 Architecture, indeed, produced many of its noblest 
 temples in the palmy days of Italian freedom. Painting
 
 206 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 and sculpture, which are supposed especially to de- 
 pend upon the patronage of courts, have always best 
 flourished in nations which had at least the memories 
 and the aspirations of freedom. It is in the cities which 
 still preserved the forms of republican government, that 
 we find the greatest of the names which are associated 
 with their revival. 
 
 It must still be admitted that the glory of Italy, as 
 the teacher of Europe in learning, in literature, and 
 in art, marked the period of her political and social 
 decline. That glory would, after all, ill-compensate for 
 the miseries and degradation that were at the same 
 time attending her fall. Voluptuous and licentious 
 races of sovereigns ruled in most of her states. In the 
 15th century the corruption of Italian manners was 
 extreme. The example of their rulers had demoralised 
 the upper classes. These were the days of the assas- 
 sinations and the poisonings which have been, with 
 such cruel injustice, attributed to all generations of 
 Italians. 
 
 The virtual subjection of Italy, to Charles V., sup- 
 pressed for ever the factions that had ruined the cause 
 of its freedom. But their extinction could not restore the 
 liberty and the virtues they had destroyed. From the 
 peace of Chateau Cambresis to the war of the Spanish 
 Succession, nearly two centuries passed over Italy, 
 during which, in Savoy and Venice alone, were there 
 any manifestations of manliness or strength. 
 
 The dominion of Spain had its effect even in those 
 parts of Italy to -which it did not directly extend. The 
 foreign nobles, who represented the sovereigns of
 
 CHAP, v.] INFLUENCE OF SPAIN. 
 
 Madrid, imported into Italy the sentiments and the 
 maxims of Castilian pride. Trade and commerce, which 
 hitherto had been held honourable employments not 
 derogatory to the dignity of princes, began, according 
 to the ignorant prejudices of the Spanish nobility, to 
 be looked upon with disdain. The younger sons of 
 Italian families of distinction no longer condescended to 
 seek useful occupation in mercantile pursuits. They 
 gradually grew up into an idle and privileged class, 
 without property sufficient to maintain their rank, 
 and with a rank too high to permit them usefully to 
 earn their bread. To the existence of such a class, 
 arising from the importation of the Spanish presump- 
 tion of birth, well-informed writers have not hesitated 
 to trace the depravity of domestic manners which at 
 last recognised as a social institution, the usage which 
 gave to every married lady the strange privilege of her 
 " cavalier serviente." 
 
 During this period imperial power had become a 
 mere name. Charles V. was the last German emperor 
 who thought it worth his while to ask coronation either 
 at Milan or at Rome. Disputes with the Pope as to 
 some of the forms are stated to have led to the aban- 
 donment of the practice. But in truth the neglect of 
 the form was the most emphatic proof that the reality 
 was gone. Every German emperor still called himself 
 elected King of the Romans, but he exercised no 
 authority in Rome. The Papal See had long been 
 independent of imperial control. The magistrates of 
 Rome continued to take the oath of fidelity to the Pope, 
 and not to the emperor. From the days of Rudolph
 
 208 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 the Pontiff was, to all intents, the independent sovereign 
 of the Roman States. 
 
 In other parts of Italy, the authority of the emperor 
 was reduced to the barest assertion of a feudal right, 
 which was little more than reversionary in its nature. 
 The attempt to dispose of Mantua, as a lapsed fief, by 
 Ferdinand, in 1627, led only to a signal failure. The 
 privilege of recognising changes in the titles of the 
 princes, was the only right of sovereignty which was left 
 to the prerogative of imperial power. 
 
 The authority of the Papacy had also fallen. It was 
 not alone that the Reformation had detached from it a 
 large portion of Europe. The personal character of the 
 Popes partook, perhaps in a lesser degree, of the general 
 deterioration of the Italian princes. The successors 
 of Leo X. were weak and luxurious, although not 
 vicious princes. Their authority was lowered in the 
 minds of the people. A polite and indolent scepticism 
 had spread its poison throughout society. The clergy 
 had not escaped the contagion of the general demo- 
 ralisation. More than all this, the Papal power was no 
 longer the advocate of popular rights it was not, as 
 of yore, supported by that fierce spirit of municipal 
 freedom which had been, in its early struggles, the 
 source of its real strength. The days had long passed, 
 when the popular election of the Pontiffs made, in 
 truth, a struggle for Papal privilege, a contest for the 
 rights of the Roman democracy in the person of one 
 who, though consecrated to a sacred office, was still an 
 elected magistrate of the People. The progress of the 
 Reformed doctrines had increased the alienation from
 
 CHAP, v.] DECLINE OF PAPAL POWER. 209 
 
 popular sympathies, which began with the election of 
 the Popes by a close clerical conclave. Those doctrines 
 had become identified with the cause of free opinion, 
 and of liberty itself. In invoking against them the 
 aid of the secular power, the Church appealed to the 
 despotism of kings. Princes interfered to suppress 
 Protestantism, not from zeal for Roman orthodoxy, but 
 because dissent from the established religion of the 
 country was an offence against their own supreme 
 power. The position of the Pontiffs was reversed since 
 the days when Hildebrand did battle for the rights of 
 the Church. The Church was now the ally of kings. 
 In that alliance it submitted to a slavery, to which their 
 enmity had never reduced it. The successor of the 
 Pontiffs, who had hurled at emperors their haughty 
 missives of excommunication, was compelled, for the 
 first time in the history of the Papacy, to send an 
 ambassador to offer an apology to an earthly king. 
 Louis XIV. had insisted on a Pope submitting to this 
 humiliation. 15 Even before the days of Charles V., Fer- 
 dinand, the Spanish monarch who bore pre-eminently 
 the title of the Catholic King who would have tortured 
 and burned any of his subjects who dared to doubt the 
 smallest particle of the Church's creed threatened 
 to hang the Pope's messenger who brought a Papal bull 
 into Naples without his leave. 16 The Roman Church 
 was already made to feel that dependence upon princes 
 
 15 James's Life of Louis XIV., vol. ii. p. 125. 
 
 lf> In the year 1508, Ferdinand II. thus wrote to his viceroy at Naples upon 
 hearing that a Papal messenger had brought a bull into that kingdom without 
 royal permission : 
 
 " We are equally surprised and displeased with you that you likewise have
 
 2 1 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 which many years after was complete ; when, at the 
 bidding of European potentates, she elected a Pope for 
 the express purpose of destroying that Order, the pro- 
 fessors of which had been the most zealous and the 
 most efficient supporters of the loftiest pretensions of 
 the Papal See. 
 
 Throughout all Italy, when once the spread of Pro- 
 testantism was effectually suppressed by the high hand 
 of persecution, when imperial power had finally aban- 
 doned its claims upon Rome, and Italy had sunk in 
 indolent acquiescence under the sovereignties which had 
 finally established themselves upon the ruins of her 
 freedom, there was scarcely a public question or a 
 public principle to trouble the luxurious repose of 
 human thought. Religion had degenerated into for- 
 malities, which, in the hands of a clergy not very 
 austere in their own manners, imposed but little control 
 upon the laity. Open dissent from the established 
 creeds was suppressed by a strong and a vigorous 
 severity, but everything was tolerated that kept within 
 the limits of a decent adherence to ceremonies and 
 forms. The bold crimes of preceding centuries gave 
 way to a lazy profligacy, that seemed destitute of 
 
 not resorted to violent means, and sent to the gallows the messenger who 
 presented you that brief. * * * 
 
 * * * " You must use all possible diligence to seize the messenger if he 
 be still in the same kingdom ; if you can get hold of him, he must retract the 
 presentation which he made you of the brief, and renounce it by a formal act, 
 after which you will have him immediately hanged." Letter of Ferdinand II. 
 to the Neapolitan Deputy, May 22nd, 1508. 
 
 The history of the severe laws passed in almost every country in Europe 
 upon this subject laws breathing in their language but little respect for the 
 pretensions of the Holy See will be found in a Report of the Committee 
 of the House of Commons in 1816. Parliamentary Papers, 1816.
 
 CHAP, v.] DEGENERACY OF ITALIAN PRINCES. 211 
 
 energy enough for the production even of startling guilt. 
 The subjects had not either virtue or spirit enough to 
 be shocked by the vices of their rulers. Mantua was 
 content to be fleeced by. taxation to support the 
 pleasures of a prince, who spent his time at the car- 
 nivals and in the dissipations of Venice, and whose con- 
 duct provoked the not very censorious rulers of the 
 republic to forbid, by a special law, any of the nobility 
 associating with him. Florence submitted to a suc- 
 cession of weak and profligate Medici, whose vices were 
 not redeemed by the patronage which they extended 
 to art. The sovereignties that had been, in most 
 instances, won by crime, appeared to be destined to 
 perish by vice ; and in the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century, we find more than one reigning Italian family 
 dying out, of inanition, from the combined effects of 
 debauchery and sloth. 
 
 Such were the eifects which civil discord and foreign 
 
 o 
 
 invasion had produced upon the social condition of the 
 country. Comparing the progress of Italy with that of 
 other countries, it is impossible not to see that the evils 
 of this wretched period are to be traced to the want of 
 unity in its states. The nominal headship of the German 
 monarchs was powerful enough to prevent any real con- 
 solidation of the Italian states. The influence of tbePapal 
 power was always sufficient to neutralise the reality 
 of the imperial control. In almost all other countries 
 the process had been going on of uniting into one 
 monarchy the divided elements of national strength. 
 England had long since moulded her heptarchy into 
 one kingdom. Castile, and Navarre, and Aragon, had 
 
 p 2
 
 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 merged in the great dominion of Spain. France had 
 united Normandy and Aquitaine and her other provinces, 
 under one crown. In Germany separate states con- 
 tinued to exist, but they we.re united under a national 
 confederation that bound them into one. In Italy alone 
 there was neither monarchy or confederation. The 
 diets of Roncaglia had long since been abandoned 
 by the Teutonic princes, who made the decrees of the 
 German assembly binding on Italy. The combination 
 of the Lombard league had been dissolved, and every 
 attempt to form a new confederation had failed. While 
 the natural process which seemed frequently on the 
 point of accomplishing in Italy, as in other countries, the 
 consolidation into one central dynasty of the elements 
 of national strength, had been as frequently interrupted 
 by the operation of the peculiar circumstances in which 
 the country was placed. 
 
 From the peace of Chateau Cambresis, there is nothing 
 deserving of notice in Italian history which will not better 
 find its place in the sketch of the particular state in which 
 the few incidents that are worthy of record occurred. 
 At the close of the 18th century the French revolution 
 broke up the system under which Italy had groaned, 
 involved her again in the general struggle of a Euro- 
 pean war, and finally made her soil the subject of a 
 disposition in which the general consent of Europe 
 attempted by a new territorial distribution to provide 
 for her security and peace. 
 
 Although the war of the Spanish Succession, and the
 
 CHAP, v.] WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 213 
 
 contests to which it led, are familiar to every student of 
 European history, the influence which the arrangements 
 consequent upon them exercised upon Italy, will excuse, 
 perhaps make necessary, a very brief statement of their 
 origin and result. 
 
 Charles II. of Spain, the descendant of the eldest 
 branch of the House of Hapsburgh, died without issue, 
 on the 1st of November, 1700. By his will he left his 
 dominion to his grandson Philip, the second son of 
 the dauphin of France. Tempted by the splendour of 
 the bequest, Louis XIV. deserted an alliance which he 
 had previously formed, which laid down very different 
 rules for the succession to the vast territories of Spain. 
 His grandson, under the title of Philip V., assumed the 
 crown of that magnificent empire which included Spain 
 and her colonies in America the Netherlands, the two 
 Sicilies, and the Duchy of Milan. 
 
 The Emperor Leopold disputed the claim of Philip 
 to these dominions. The title of the emperor consisted 
 in his being the direct male descendant of Charles V. 
 European statesmen adopting the theory of the balance 
 of power, said by some to have been borrowed from the 
 policy of the Italian states, 17 saw danger to the liberties 
 of Europe in the possible union of these great domini- 
 ons with the crown of France. To oppose the preten- 
 sions of Philip, was formed that confederation known 
 in history as the Grand Alliance in which England, 
 
 17 The republic of Florence is said to have the merit of devising the political 
 theory of the balance of power. Sismondi, Italian Republics. 
 
 Lord Brougham correctly observes that the policy is of much older date. 
 It originated with the republics of Greece. Political Philosophy.
 
 214 HISTORY OF ITALY. ( [VOL. i. 
 
 Holland, and Germany, combined against France and 
 Spain. 18 
 
 In the Netherlands and Germany, the scenes of those 
 campaigns in which Marlborough won his immortal 
 laurels, occurred the chief events of the war that fol- 
 lowed ; but Northern Italy was also the battle-ground 
 of contending armies. Piedmont, as usual in later time, 
 bore the brunt of their encounter. Victor Amadeus, 
 Duke of Savoy, allied by family ties to the Bourbons, at 
 first espoused their cause. Subsequently he joined that 
 of the Grand Alliance. His territory was occupied by 
 the French. He was himself invested in his capital 
 by a formidable army. Turin was on the point of 
 falling when, by a strange coincidence, a prince of 
 Savoy led the imperial troops to its rescue. Prince 
 Eugene, who had risen in the service of Austria to 
 command, was at the head of the army that relieved 
 his beleaguered relative in Turin. 
 
 After disturbing Europe for thirteen years, the war 
 of the Spanish Succession was ended by the treaty of 
 Utrecht, an event perhaps more memorable in English 
 history than even in that of Europe at large. 19 
 
 By the provisions of this treaty, the Italian possessions 
 of the Spanish monarchy, were annexed to the Austrian 
 territories. The Duchy of Mantua had been declared 
 forfeited by the rebellion of its duke against the em- 
 peror. Charles VI., the Archduke of Austria, who had 
 
 13 Martens' " Collection des Traitfs de paix" " Recueil des TraiteV 
 19 Treaty of Utrecht, March 5th, 1713; Martens; Koch etSchoell. ffittoire 
 det Traitte de paix. The emperor and the King of Spain were not parties to this 
 treaty, but gave their assent to its main provisions by a treaty entered into at 
 Rastadt in the following year.
 
 CHAP, v.] TREATY OF UTRECHT. 2 1 5 
 
 succeeded his brother Joseph in the imperial crown, 
 was by this treaty awarded the province of Naples, the 
 garrison districts in Tuscany, and the duchies of Mantua 
 and Milan. Of these latter he ceded a portion to the 
 Duke of Savoy, who thus acquired the district which 
 once formed the Marquisate of Montferrat, and por- 
 tions of the Milanese duchy which extended the frontier 
 of Piedmont to the Ticino. The most brilliant, if not 
 the most important, acquisition of Victor Amadeus, was 
 that of the island of Sicily, of which he assumed the 
 government, with the title of its king. 
 
 The peace which it promised did not last. Philip, 
 King of Spain, was by this arrangement excluded from 
 Italy. Philip had been first married to a daughter of 
 Victor Amadeus. His second wife was Elizabeth Far- 
 nese, a lady of the Italian family, for whom the Duchy 
 of Parma had been created by the Pope. 20 The crown 
 of Spain was settled on her step-son. For her own 
 child the ambitious queen desired the honours of a 
 crown. Cardinal Alberoni, a reckless and ambitious 
 ecclesiastic, was the minister of the Spanish court. 
 Under his advice and instigated by the queen, Philip 
 claimed the possessions in Italy, which in the days of 
 
 20 Parma and Placentia had been the possessions of the Holy See. In 3545, 
 Pope Paul III., a pontiff of the noble family of the Farnese, formally obtained 
 from the consistory an assent to the alienation of these territories in favour of 
 his son, Peter Luigi Farnese. 
 
 The emperor assented to the erection of these provinces into a Duchy, and 
 the descendants of Peter Luigi were Dukes of Parma until the extinction of 
 the direct line of the family in 1734. 
 
 " Paul III. was the last of those ambitious pontiffs who devoted the in- 
 trigues of the Roman court to the elevation of their relations to sovereign 
 power, and who were suffered to dismember the States of the Church in 
 favour of their own families." Perceval, chap. ix.
 
 216 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 his grandfather had belonged to the Spanish crown. 
 When his title to that crown was admitted, he de- 
 nied the right of the other powers of Europe to 
 alienate from it its possessions. This was not all : in 
 right of his queen he claimed the duchies of Parma and 
 of Tuscany. She determined to recover for him all the 
 Italian possessions of the Spanish crown, and to add to 
 them the duchies of Parma and Tuscany. The Duke 
 of Parma was old and childless. The extinction of 
 the reigning line of the Medici was near. Cosmo di 
 Medici, the reigning sovereign, was old. His only son, 
 Jean Gaston, was not likely to leave heirs. To Parma 
 Elizabeth advanced her claims as heiress of the family 
 of Farnese ; to Tuscany she asserted a more question- 
 able title in right of a descent from the family of Medici. 
 These duchies she demanded for her son, Don Carlos, 
 n whose behalf she was ready to waive her own claims. 
 The success of these demands would have given to 
 the Spanish monarchy even greater power than it had 
 before enjoyed. To Naples, Sicily, and Milan, would 
 have been added the territories of Parma and Tuscany. 
 All Europe denounced the ambitious projects of Albe- 
 roni as entirely inconsistent with that balance of powe.r, 
 which it had then become a political superstition to 
 uphold. Philip's French relatives were determined in 
 opposition to his claims ; and to resist them the quad- 
 ruple alliance was formed between Holland, England, 
 France, and the emperor. 21 The parties to this alliance 
 offered to the Spanish Bourbons that the emperor 
 should settle on Don Carlos the reversion to the duchies 
 
 21 Martens.
 
 CHAP, v.] QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE. 217 
 
 of Parma and Tuscany on their lapsing to him by the 
 failure of the reigning families without heirs. These 
 proposals were rejected, 22 and it was not until the Spanish 
 court found the combination of four powerful monarchs 
 too strong for them, that they reluctantly acceded to 
 the terms of the Quadruple Alliance, and accepted 
 for Don Carlos the promised reversion of Parma and 
 Tuscany. 
 
 To induce the emperor to accede to this arrangement 
 the Duke of Savoy was compelled to surrender to him his 
 newly-acquired kingdom of Sicily, receiving instead 
 the island of Sardinia with its- kingly title. It is as 
 kings of Sardinia that the princes of Savoy have since 
 been known in European history. 
 
 The treaty of the quadruple alliance was thus the 
 second by which at this period the European powers 
 attempted to arrange the affairs of Italy. This treaty 
 left the house of Austria in possession of Sicily and 
 Naples. It was assented to by Spain in 1 720. Euro- 
 pean complications unconnected with Italy produced 
 new wars and a new treaty ; and the treaty of Seville 
 in 1724, followed by one entered into at Vienna two 
 years later, confirmed Don Carlos in the duchy of 
 Parma, of which, on the death of the last of the Farnese 
 in 1734, he entered into possession. 
 
 A dispute as to the election of a king of Poland gave 
 the Spanish court an opportunity of once more at- 
 tempting the resumption of the Neapolitan dominions. 
 Don Carlos, the second son of Philip and Elizabeth, 
 was now just grown to man's estate. His father placed 
 
 22 Post, vol. ii. chap. xvii.
 
 218 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 in his hand the sword which he himself had received 
 from Louis XIV. Don Carlos was but seventeen years 
 old when he took possession of his sovereignty of Parma. 
 In the same year he was called from it to invade the 
 Sicilian dominions of Austria. He conquered in succes- 
 sion the continental territories, and the island of Sicily ; 
 and on the 15th of June, 1734, he was proclaimed as 
 King of the Two Sicilies. 
 
 The war of the Polish Succession was ended in the 
 following year by a peace, the preliminaries of which 
 were signed at Vienna. 23 In this treaty an entirely new 
 arrangement of Italian affairs was introduced. The 
 rights of Don Carlos to the kingdoms of Naples and 
 Sicily were recognised. Parma was surrendered to the 
 emperor ; and, lastly, the duchy of Tuscany was dis- 
 posed of to a new claimant for the honours of an 
 Italian prince. 
 
 Francis, Duke of Lorraine, had married Maria 
 Theresa, the only daughter of the Emperor Charles VI. 
 In the arrangement by which the Polish dispute was 
 compromised, Stanislaus, one of the competitors for the 
 crown of Poland received the duchy of Lorraine for his 
 life. For the surrender of his hereditary estates, which 
 were finally to revert to France, the husband of Maria 
 Theresa was compensated by receiving the rever- 
 sion of the grand-duchy of Tuscany. A stipulation 
 was annexed that no descendant of his, who should 
 succeed to the hereditary possessions of the House of 
 Austria, should at the same time rule over the Tuscan 
 States. 
 
 23 Martens. " Becueil des Traitds."
 
 CHAP, v.] TEEATY OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 219 
 
 A new cause of contention soon arose. Charles VI. 
 died in October, 1740. In his person the male line of 
 the great House of Hapsburgh became extinct. In his 
 lifetime he had ordained a Pragmatic Sanction or family 
 law, by which all his hereditary possessions were settled 
 on his daughter. To this arrangement he had obtained 
 the consent of the powers who had been parties to the 
 Treaty of Seville. Yet soon after his death his daughter 
 found herself assailed in her possessions by a formidable 
 coalition. A fourth war ensued, which was ended in 
 1749 by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. 24 
 
 This treaty confirmed the previous arrangements in 
 relation to Sicily, Naples, and Tuscany. The duchy 
 of Parma was settled on Don Philip, a younger son of 
 Elizabeth Farnese ; and the restless ambition of the 
 Queen of Spain was at last satisfied by seeing her 
 eldest son upon the throne of Sicily and Naples, her 
 younger child enjoying the hereditary possessions of 
 her own family, 
 
 Thus, in the course of these contests, we find four 
 successive treaties disposing of the provinces of Italy in 
 four different ways. Each of them was less favourable 
 to Austria than its predecessor. By the first all the 
 Italian possessions of the Spanish monarchy were 
 settled on the German descendants of Charles V. ; the 
 second still preserved this arrangement, but gave to 
 the descendants of the Queen of Spain the reversions of 
 Parma and Tuscany, of which otherwise the emperor 
 would have had the disposal. The third took from 
 Austria the magnificent possessions of Sicily and Naples, 
 
 24 Martens.
 
 220 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 returning to her only the duchy of Parma. The fourth 
 and last disposed even of this, and left nothing to 
 Austria in Italy except the duchies of Milan and 
 Mantua. Although the grand-duchy of Tuscany was 
 settled on the family of Hapsburgh Lorraine, every pre- 
 caution was taken to prevent that province from being 
 united with the German possessions of their house. 
 
 The arrangements of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 
 continued, up to the period of the French Revolution, 
 undisturbed. 
 
 Those arrangements, although the result of a com- 
 promise of the interests and ambitions of rival states- 
 men, were not, considering the previous state of Italy, 
 unfavourable to the cause of Italian independence. 
 Piedmont, already recognised as the protector of Italian 
 nationality, gained not only in rank, but in substantial 
 territory, by the acquisition of the island of Sardinia, 
 still more by that of the High Novarese, and by extend- 
 ing her frontier to the Ticino. Naples, and Sicily, 
 were released from the tyranny of viceroys, and placed 
 under a resident king, with a stipulation, to secure their 
 future independence, that they never should be united 
 to the Spanish crown. The Austrian possessions were 
 limited to a portion of the Milanese, and the duchy of 
 Mantua. These possessions were isolated. Switzer- 
 land and Venice interposed their territories between 
 the Italian and the Tyrolese dominions of the arch- 
 ducal house. Three of the antient republics, Genoa, 
 Lucca, and Venice, were still preserved. Parma, 
 although passing to a prince of foreign family, was con- 
 ferred upon him as the representative and heir of the
 
 CHAP, v.] ITALY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 22] 
 
 Italian owners of that principality. Tuscany alone was 
 avowedly transferred to a stranger, but this was done 
 under colour at least of a long-admitted imperial right, 
 and an effort was made to secure in future to the grand- 
 duchy an Italian prince, by the stipulation that it never 
 should be held by the successor to the hereditary pos- 
 sessions of the Archdukes of Austria. 
 
 In the forty-five years which elapsed between the 
 treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and the French revolution, 
 Italy enjoyed a perfect and an uninterrupted peace. 
 In some, at least, of its principalities its progress in 
 prosperity and in legislation was rapid. Naples and 
 Sicily, under the government of Charles III., and, sub- 
 sequently, under the regency of his minister, Tanucci, 
 were ruled with energy and prudence. Tuscany pros- 
 pered under the sway of the princes of Lorraine. Milan 
 and Mantua were mildly governed by the Austrian 
 court ; and Lombardy rose from the misery to which 
 the exactions of Spanish viceroys had reduced even 
 the great resources of that rich and fertile province. 
 In the other Italian States at least no change had taken 
 place for the worse. Industry everywhere flourished 
 under the presence of the most essential of all blessings 
 peace. 
 
 During these years of peace and prosperity, the 
 minds of men in Italy and elsewhere, were preparing 
 for that great revolution which was so soon to convulse 
 Europe. The licentious scepticism of the preceding 
 century had been confirmed by, or rather given place 
 to, the intellectual infidelity of the philosophers of 
 France. Sovereigns, who did not foresee the effect
 
 -222 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 upon themselves, made a fashion of encouraging in 
 reference to religion the latitudinarian opinions of Vol- 
 taire. There was neither zeal nor energy in the clergy 
 to counteract the prevailing irreligion of the age. The 
 opinions of the encyclopedists had made their way 
 across the Alps, and Italy had imbibed those specula- 
 tive doctrines, which in undermining the authority of 
 revelation, shook that of all social institutions. 
 
 Causes of a different nature were producing in Italy 
 another class of effects. The history and literature of 
 their own country were become the study of Italians. 
 The elaborate work of Muratori had placed within 
 access of all readers the knowledge of their country's 
 annals. "Works on political economy, and on the 
 philosophy of politics, discussed questions relating to 
 the very foundation of government, as well as the 
 practical administration of the resources of a state. 
 Dramatic literature and dramatic representations 
 began to be revived. Whatever be its merits or its 
 defects in other respects, the politics of the stage must 
 always be on the side of freedom. The tragedies of 
 Alfieri were received with an enthusiasm to which their 
 dramatic merits scarcely entitled them. Dante was 
 read for his political lessons even more than for his 
 matchless poetry. But the questions of politics and 
 political jurisprudence were those which had taken hold 
 of the Italian mind. The number of works upon these 
 subjects which issued from the Italian press within the 
 fifty years before the French revolution, almost surpasses 
 belief. Essays on the corn laws, printed at Milan about 
 the year 1780, anticipated many, if not all, of the
 
 CHAP, v.] TEAINING OF THE NATIONAL MIND. 
 
 arguments in favour of free trade. A chair of political 
 economy . was instituted in the University of Naples at 
 least seventy years before a British university tolerated 
 such an innovation ; and by many of the Italian jurists 
 the principles of government were examined with an 
 ability and a boldness that would have done honour to 
 Blackstone or to Locke. 
 
 While inquiries and discussions of this nature directed 
 the thoughts of the Italians to principles of liberty 
 their history, their literature, and their drama all carried 
 them back to the past greatness and freedom of their 
 own country. There was thus formed in Italy that 
 which may be termed a national mind, trained to the 
 discussion of political questions, and educated in feelings 
 of patriotic attachment to their native land. To the 
 teaching of the years of the latter half of the last cen- 
 tury we trace the implanting, or rather revival, of that 
 irresistible passion for freedom and independence which 
 has ever since marked the character of the Italian 
 people. 
 
 Such had been the silent and unobserved progress of 
 political knowledge and feeling in Italy, when the inva- 
 sion of revolutionary France burst like a tornado on its 
 plains. What might have been the effect had Italy 
 been left to work out her own regeneration, it is not 
 possible to tell. It may be said with certainty, that 
 the cause of liberty would not have been stained 
 by crimes like those, the commission of which in France 
 flung back the march of human freedom for half a 
 century at least. Her destiny was otherwise arranged. 
 Italy was once more to be the battle-field of contending
 
 22-i HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 European powers. The armies of France and Austria 
 met upon her plains. Within less than ten years from 
 the entry of the armies of the republic, all Italy was 
 divided, as we have seen, between the provinces of the 
 French empire a kingdom in the north, which bearing 
 the name of Italian, was really another great depart- 
 ment of France and a realm in the south, whose 
 sovereign ruled it as the nominee and delegate of the 
 great conqueror, who had thus reduced the entire 
 Peninsula to subjection to himself. 
 
 This was not accomplished without producing upon 
 the Italian character effects which have been justly 
 described as a revolution. The campaigns of Napoleon 
 inflamed the people with the passion for military glory. 
 The principles of the French republic stimulated that 
 desire for freedom and independence, which the course 
 of Italian thought had already created. In the first 
 few years of the revolutionary war the change was 
 visible in all those external indications which mark the 
 habits of a nation. The military dress became the 
 fashion, replacing the former graceful but effeminate 
 costume. Instead of dangling at the feet of ladies, 
 young men spent their mornings in the riding schools 
 their afternoons with a drilling master. The playthings 
 of childhood were no longer baby-houses and shows 
 but files of tiny soldiers ; with which infant generals 
 amused themselves in representing the evolutions of 
 Austrians and French. Even the street shows exhibited 
 the alteration in the national mind. The street melo- 
 drama, the Italian Punch and Judy, of the eighteenth 
 century, represented a tame but witty Italian beaten by
 
 CHAP, v.] CHANGE OF FEELING. 225 
 
 a very large and very tyrannical captain, either Austrian 
 or French, whose blows he retaliated by repartee. This 
 once popular representation was no longer tolerated in 
 the streets, and the itinerant showmen were compelled 
 to reverse the old plot of their simple drama, and make 
 the Italian defeat the foreigner in blows and bravery as 
 completely as he had always done in wit. 23 
 
 The popular ballads and music marked the change of 
 feeling in the same way. The song of the troubadour 
 gave way to patriotic hymns, and for the soft notes of 
 the melody that breathed of love were now substituted 
 the inspiring strains of martial airs. 
 
 With the ad vent of the French revolution, it appeared 
 as if Italy awoke from a luxurious and enervating repose. 
 The earlier triumphs of the republican armies had 
 kindled fierce passions and excited lofty hopes. Liberty 
 and independence became sacred watchwords to men 
 who felt at last that they had a country destined to be 
 free. Much as subsequent events may have disappointed 
 these feelings, that disappointment was not able alto- 
 gether to extinguish the enthusiasm which the excite- 
 ment of those early days had kindled. 
 
 From this rapid and imperfect sketch of that early 
 history upon which volumes might be, and have been, 
 written, without exhausting the interest of its materials, 
 we must turn to the task of tracing the fortunes of the 
 
 , 23 Memoirs of Napoleon.
 
 226 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 Italian States, which the settlement of 1814 restored to 
 the former rulers of the land. 
 
 Our attention is first directed to that Principality of 
 Piedmont whose sovereigns appear destined to bear the 
 most distinguished and important part in the future 
 history of the Italian race. 
 
 EMPEEOES OF THE WEST, 
 
 FROM THE DAYS OF CHARLEMAGNE. 
 
 Those marked thus * received coronation from the Pope. 
 
 CAELOVINGIAN EAOE. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 *Charlemagne . . "-V 1 . . >f 800 
 
 *Louis I. . . it'Jffii ' - 813 
 
 *Lothaire . ^ . *, , , . . 817 
 
 *Louis II. . . ' , ... 850 
 
 Charles II. . -^ ; >! . ; ; ,' 876 
 
 *Charles Le Gros . \ *v- 880 
 
 Deposition of Charles, and separation 
 
 of Italy and Germany . . . 888 
 
 Followed by a period generally called the Interregnum of the 
 Empire, in which three sovereigns often claimed the throne of 
 Italy, while not unfrequently two of them claimed to be emperors, 
 each of the rival candidates for the imperial dignity, having 
 received coronation from the Pope. 
 
 KINGS OF ITALY. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 *Berengarius I. 1 . . . . 888 
 
 Guide 1 889 
 
 Lambert > ..... 892 
 
 Arnolphi . .* ; ,; ; ' .. . . 896 
 
 *Louis III. 1 ^ .....-.*.,.., . 901 
 
 1 Muratori is followed in thus arranging the reigns of contemporaneous
 
 CHAP, v.] EMPERORS OF THE WEST. 227 
 
 KINGS OF ITALY (continued). 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Eodolph . * -, '< . . . 921 
 
 Hugo of Provence .... 926 
 
 Lothaire . . . . . . 931 
 
 Berengarius II. . .'!*-.',; 950 
 
 Adalbert 950 
 
 BEUNION OF GERMANY AND ITALY. 
 
 SAXON LINE. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 *0tho I. . . , . , ..., ..... . . 952 
 
 *OthoII. . . / , . . 973 
 
 *OthoIII '. 983 
 
 Henry II 1024 
 
 FBANCONIAN LINE. 
 
 *Conrad II. (the Salic) . ..... , 1024 
 
 *Henry III. . .. ... . . 1039 
 
 *Henry IV. t , , , , 1056 
 
 *Henry V. . .. : * ' ,\] . . 1106 
 
 *Lothaire .... :.v: ; . 1125 
 
 HOUSE OP HOHENSTATTFFEN. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 *ConradIII 1138 
 
 Frederick I. (Barbarossa) . . . 1155 
 
 *HenryVL ..... 1191 
 
 *OthoIV 1200 
 
 *FrederickII 1220 
 
 Conrad IV 1250 
 
 and rival sovereigns. While his four competitors, Guido, Lambert, Arnolph, 
 and Louis, successively obtained coronation from Popes, Berenger maintained 
 himself as King of Italy against them. In 915 Louis, the last of his rivals, was 
 deposed and Berenger crowned emperor at Rome. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 
 
 HISTORY OF ITALY. [L. 
 
 INTEEEEGNTJM. 
 
 WiUiam of Holland . 1254 
 
 Eichard Earl of Cornwall . . . 1257 
 
 Eudolph of Hapsburgh .!? . . 
 
 Adolphus of Nassau 1292 
 
 Albert of Austria . 1298 
 
 *HenryVIL . . ... - 1308 
 
 Louis IV 
 
 *CharlesIV. . . ... 1346 
 
 Wenceslaus . . .-*'.. 1378 
 
 Eobert 1400 
 
 Sigismund . . " 141 
 
 HOUSE OP HA.PSBURGH. 
 
 Albert II. . . ..' 1438 
 
 Frederick ni. . :!; I 440 
 
 Maximilian ... 1493 
 
 *CharlesV. . v 1519 
 
 Ferdinand I. . 1558 
 
 Maximilian II. . 1564 
 
 Eodolphll. . 1576 
 
 Matthias ... 1612 
 
 Ferdinand II 1619 
 
 Ferdinand III. . - 1637 
 
 Leopold I. . . 1658 
 
 Joseph I. . . ^ - U -- . . 1705 
 Charles VI. . . . . ,, . 1711 
 
 Charles VII. T' . . 1742 
 
 HOUSE OF LOBEAIKE. 
 
 Francis I. . . . 1745 
 
 Joseph II. \ . . 1765 
 
 Leopold II 1790 
 
 Francis II. . 1792 
 
 Abdication of Francis . . . 1806
 
 CHAP, v.] EMPERORS OP THE WEST. 229 
 
 TABULAR STATEMENT (N"o. I.) 
 
 Of the Divisions of Italy as settled after the Peace of Aix-la- 
 Ohapelle. 17. 
 
 According to the arrangements sanctioned by that treaty, and 
 which continued undisturbed to the period of the French Revo- 
 lution, Italy was divided into twelve political divisions. 
 
 I. 
 
 Piedmont, or the Italian possessions of the King of Sardinia. 
 They were extended by that treaty to the banks of the Ticino, 
 thus gaining a portion of the Milanese Duchy which had pre- 
 viously belonged to the house of Hapsburgh. Sardinia acquired 
 also the district of the High Novarese. Her frontier to the 
 east was the same as it was afterwards left by the treaty of 1815. 
 
 II. 
 
 The republic of Genoa, whose territories extended along the 
 gulf that bears its name, from the principality of Monaco close 
 to the county of Nice to Spezzia on the south, occupying the 
 narrow tract of land which lies between the mountains and 
 the sea. 
 
 III. 
 
 The small, but independent principality of Monaco, occupying 
 a promontory on the west of the Genoese territories. 
 
 IV. 
 
 A portion of the Duchy of Milan and the Duchy of Mantua 
 constituted the Italian provinces of the House of Austria. These 
 possessions consisted of little more than a narrow tract extending 
 from the southern point of the Lake of Como along the Sardinian 
 frontier, and thence along the northern bank of the Po, to a point 
 a few miles east of the fortress of Mantua. They extended a very 
 few miles to the northwest of Milan. Of the districts which after- 
 wards formed the largest portion of Austrian Lombardy, lying
 
 230 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL t, 
 
 between Milan and the Alps and the Mincio, the Valteline was 
 a part of the Swiss confederation Bergamo and Brescia were 
 Venetian territories. 
 
 The small portion of Italian territory thus left in the possession 
 of Austria was isolated from the rest of the Austrian dominions, 
 being surrounded on all sides by the lands of independent States. 
 
 V. 
 
 The republic of Venice. The territories of the republic in- 
 cluded all the provinces of Venetia, together with Brescia and 
 Bergamo in Lombardy. The possessions of the republic extended 
 from the river Adda and the western shore of the Lake of Como 
 to the Adriatic. The Austrian possessions interposed on the 
 south between her territories and the Po. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Duchy of Parma conferred upon a younger branch of 
 the Spanish Bourbons. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Duchy of Modena still remaining in the possession of the 
 last representative of the House of Este, By marriage to his only 
 daughter the sovereignty passed to an Austrian arch-duke. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The republic of Lucca. The population of the districts be- 
 longing to this republic amounted to about 178,000. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The Grand Duchy of Tuscany. 
 
 X. 
 
 The States of the Church. 
 
 XI. 
 
 The Eepublic of San Marino.
 
 CHAP, v.] EMPEKORS OF THE WEST. 231 
 
 XII. 
 
 The kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. 
 
 TA.BTJLAB STATEMENT No. II. 
 
 Principal events connected with the progress of French dominion in 
 Italy during the Revolutionary Wars. 
 
 1792. September 21. Savoy invested by the armies of the 
 republic. 
 
 November 27. Savoy incorporated with France ; Nice and 
 Monaco incorporated with France. 
 
 1796. Napoleon's first Italian campaign. 
 
 May 15. King of Sardinia compelled to sign a treaty of 
 alliance with France. Nice, Savoy, and Western 
 Piedmont, formally ceded to France. 
 
 1797. February 15 Treaty of Tolentino between France and 
 the Pope by which the Pope formally ceded Bologna, 
 Ferrara, and the entire of Eomagna. 
 
 April. Ligurian republic established at Genoa. 
 
 April 18. Preliminary articles of peace concluded at 
 Leoben between France and Austria, by which it was 
 arranged that the territories of the Venetian terra- 
 firma should be ceded to Austria. Venice being 
 indemnified by receiving the Roman Legations. 
 
 June 26. Leghorn seized by Murat. 
 
 June 27. Establishment of the Cisalpine Eepublic, in- 
 cluding in its territories, Lombardy, Modena, and 
 Bologna.
 
 232 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 October 17. Treaty of Campo Formio, by which Venice 
 and part of her States were given over to Austria ; 
 all the Eomagnese and the Venetian territory to the 
 Adige annexed to the 'dominions of the Cisalpine 
 republic. 
 
 1798. February 10. Capture of Eome. The Pope carried 
 
 prisoner. 
 
 Establishment of the Eoman Republic. 
 
 1799. January 23. Naples seized. Proclamation of the Parthe- 
 
 nopean republic. 
 
 Eeverses of the French arms. Victories of Suwarrow in 
 Northern Italy. Eestoration of Ferdinand in Naples. 
 Eome occupied by Neapolitan troops. Turin occupied 
 by Eussian troops. 
 
 1800. June 5. Surrender of Genoa to Lord Keith and the 
 
 Austrians. 
 
 June 14. Battle of Marengo. 
 
 Eeconquest by Napoleon of Northern Italy. 
 
 Eeorganisation of Cisalpine and Ligurian republics. 
 
 1800. February 9. Treaty of Luneville. The Grand Duke 
 
 ceded Tuscany to the Duke of Parma. 
 
 1801. Kingdom of Etruria established. Don Louis appointed 
 
 . king. 
 
 1805. March 17. Kingdom of Italy proclaimed. Eugene 
 Beauharnais viceroy. 
 
 May 26. Coronation of Napoleon at Milan. 
 
 June 26. Lucca erected into a principality under Napo- 
 leon's sister Eliza.
 
 CHAP, v.] EMPERORS OF THE WEST. 
 
 1805. June 9. Incorporation of the Ligurian Republic with 
 France. 
 
 1805. December 27. Peace of Presburg. Venetian territories 
 
 added to the kingdom of Italy. All the French 
 occupations in Italy recognised. 
 
 October. Ancona occupied by French troops. 
 
 December 26. Proclamation of Napoleon from Presburg 
 declaring that the dynasty of Naples had ceased to 
 reign. 
 
 1806. February 14. Seizure of Naples by the French. 
 
 March 31. Joseph Buonaparte proclaimed King of 
 Naples. 
 
 1807. December 10. Kingdom of Etruria incorporated with 
 
 France. 
 
 1808. Rome occupied by the French army under General Miollis. 
 
 April 2. The Papal States of Ancona, Urbino, Macerata 
 and Camerina annexed to the kingdom of Italy. 
 
 July 15. Joachim Murat proclaimed King of Naples. 
 
 1809. May 17. Edict from Schonbrunn annexing the States of 
 
 the Church to the French empire. Rome declared an 
 imperial and free city. 
 
 July 5. Pope seized and carried a prisoner into France. 
 
 1809. October 14. Treaty of peace at Vienna between Austria 
 and France.
 
 234 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Return of Victor Emanuel, King of Sardinia, to Turin Sovereigns of the House 
 of Savoy Humbert the White-handed Early acquisitions of territory 
 Cuneo and Nice Amadous VIII. the first Duke of Savoy Piedmont 
 created into a principality Wars of Charles V. Piedmont ravaged 
 Emanuel Philibert Transfer of government from Chambery to Turin 
 Character of the princes Abdication of the first king Election of 
 Amadeus, the first duke, to the Papal chair Savoy hi the French revo- 
 lution Invasion by France Cession of Piedmont and flight of the king 
 Turin retaken by Suwarrow Recall of the king Opposition of Austria 
 Austria demands Piedmont for herself Battle of Marengo Abdication 
 of Charles Emanuel Return of Victor Emanuel in 181 4 His reactionary 
 policy " Viglietti reali" Embassy to the Pope Demand of tribute 
 to Rome Representations of Sardinian ministers to Lord Castlereagh 
 Efforts to obtain additional territory Annexation of Genoa Descrip- 
 tion of Genoa Andrew Doria Expulsion of the Austrians in 1745 
 Landing of Lord William Ben thick at Spezzia Preparations for assault 
 on Genoa Capitulation of the French Proclamation of Lord William 
 Bentinck Act of Annexation Letter of Lord Castlereagh Indignation 
 in Genoa Progress of the House of Savoy Reflections. 
 
 SCARCELY were the Italian provinces which had been 
 subject to Napoleon's rule placed at the disposal 
 of the alh'ed sovereigns, when they invited Victor 
 Emanuel, King of Sardinia, to assume the government 
 of the territories which had belonged to his fathers. 
 This prince, on the abdication of his brother in 1803, 
 received from him the almost barren honours of his 
 crown. In the latter years of Napoleon's power he 
 had, as has been already said, resided in the island 
 which alone of all his dominions remained under his
 
 CHAP, vi.] RESTORATION OP VICTOR EMANUEL. 235 
 
 sway. 1 Piedmont was a portion of the empire of 
 France. Yet without waiting for the formal cession of 
 the country by any representative of the French nation, 
 the sovereigns exercised their right of conquest by 
 restoring it to the rule of its legitimate king. On the 
 25th of April a proclamation from the Austrian general 
 announced to the Piedmontese the restoration of their 
 ancient dynasty. On the 12th of May Victor Emanuel 
 landed at Genoa, on the 20th he made his public and 
 triumphant entry into Turin. He was the first of the 
 Italian princes recalled by the downfall of Napoleon, 
 who assumed in his capital the government of his 
 States. 2 
 
 There was but little hi the ancient traditions of 
 the House of Savoy to lead to the expectation that it 
 would fill the place in Italian affairs which in recent 
 years it has assumed. In none of the Italian princi- 
 palities were the maxims of arbitrary government 
 more firmly established. In none was complete 
 devotion to ecclesiastical authority more incorporated 
 with the policy of the state. The feudal principles of 
 the monarchy of Savoy were not the less powerful 
 because by successive sovereigns they were administered 
 
 1 The island of Sardinia, about one hundred and sixty miles in length and 
 sixty in breadth, contains a population of little more than half a million of 
 inhabitants. After the fall of the Roman Empire it was in the possession of the 
 Saracens. In 1020 it was conquered by the Pisans. In 1325 it was wrested 
 from the Republic of Pisa by the King of Arragon, and continued under 
 Spanish dominion until the peace of Utrecht in 1714. By the treaty of 
 Utrecht it was ceded to Austria, the Duke of Savoy receiving Sicily with the 
 title of its king. In 1720 Sardinia, in exchange for Sicily, passed under the 
 dominion of the princes of Savoy. 
 
 * The Pope returned to his dominions in March. He remained at Imola, 
 and did not actually enter Rome until the 24th of May.
 
 236 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 in a spirit of chivalrous generosity. Except for offences 
 against the Church, no cruel rigours disgraced the rule 
 of the princes of this House. In the persecutions of 
 heretics they too faithfully represented the super- 
 stitions and the bigotry of the people ; and only added 
 a species of religious veneration to the loyalty which 
 attached their subjects to the descendants of an 
 illustrious and ancient family. Of all the States of 
 Italy, Piedmont was the last in which any one would 
 have looked for the establishment of representative 
 institutions and constitutional monarchy, or expected 
 the cause of civil and religious liberty to find a shelter 
 and a home. 3 
 
 Looking back to remote history, we may say that the 
 fortune was equally strange which has called them to 
 be the defenders of Italian independence. In the 
 earlier struggles for that independence we scarcely 
 meet with their name. When we do so it is as assisting 
 the emperors by giving them a passage through their 
 Alpine territories. At the time when the Lombard 
 league was doing battle against the imperial might of 
 Frederick Barbarossa, the Princes of Savoy were silently 
 consolidating their strength upon their Alpine hills ; and 
 if at the battle of Legnano any one had predicted that 
 the time would come when the armies of Italian inde- 
 pendence would be led across that very battle-field by 
 the descendant of the Count of Savoy who had just 
 
 3 After the events that have occurred in the interval, we read with some 
 curiosity the expressions of dislike to the House of Savoy in which all liberal 
 writers of the period of the Restoration indulge. They all speak with the 
 strongest indignation on the subject of any proposal to add to the influence 
 or power of the Sardinian State.
 
 CHAP, vi.] ORIGIN OF THE FAMILY. 237 
 
 given passage to Frederick's German troops 4 the pro- 
 phecy would have seemed wild enough, without the 
 addition that the princes of that House should centre 
 all the hopes of Italian patriotism in themselves, and 
 maintain the cause of Italian freedom when all the 
 republics that were then so nobly contending for it had 
 passed away. 
 
 Yet a more careful review of the history of the House 
 of Savoy will show, that events had in reality been 
 preparing both its princes and their people to fulfil in 
 later times a destiny, with which the future fate of 
 Italian liberty seems linked. The part which the 
 Princes of Savoy have taken in Italian affairs has 
 therefore invested with an interest disproportionate to 
 their historic importance, the facts connected with the 
 infancy of their race. 
 
 The general concurrence of genealogists had been in 
 the habit of referring this family to a Saxon origin. 
 More recent researches of Swiss and Italian antiquaries 
 appear to have succeeded in establishing a pedigree 
 which traces them to an Italian stock. We may accept 
 as accurate the statement which deduces the descent of 
 the lords of Maurienne from some of those princes who 
 after the fall of the Carlovingian dynasty, asserted their 
 right to the title of Italian kings. 5 It reconciles facts in 
 their early history, which upon any other hypothesis it 
 is not easy to understand. But whatever was the origin 
 
 4 Muratori " Annali D'ltalia," Anno 1168. 
 
 5 Cibrario, in his "Storia della Monarchia de Savoia," has produced 
 elaborate proofs of the descent of Humbert from the Marquis of Ivrea 
 through Adalbert and Guido, kings of Italy. Litta, " Famiglie Celebri D' 
 Italia," " Foreign Quarterly Review." vol. xxviii. p. 362.
 
 238 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 of the founders of the House of Savoy, the district that 
 gave them their title was their home in the days of 
 their first appearance in authentic records. Their most 
 ancient possessions were fiefs of the kingdom of Bur- 
 gundy, and their earliest triumphs were achieved by 
 the shores of Lake Leman and on the banks of the 
 Rhone. 6 
 
 Before William the Norman ascended the throne of 
 England they were lords of Maurienne. Chambery 
 had been added by purchase to their possessions at a 
 period 7 scarcely early enough to justify the expression 
 that it is the cradle of their race. Even at that remote 
 period they were masters of districts on the southern 
 slopes of the Alps, and their descendants can assert 
 their claim to be enrolled as Italian princes in right of 
 possessions, which have come down to them by an 
 unbroken chain of succession for more than eight hun- 
 dred years. 
 
 From the small possessions of Susa and Aosta succes- 
 sive acquisitions of territory extended their dominion 
 over the best portions of Northern Italy. At the period 
 of the French revolution, they had subjected by slow 
 and gradual acquisitions all its districts to the west of 
 the Ticino to their sway. 
 
 6 For the history of the house of Savoy see Denina " Istoria dell' Italia 
 Occidentale," Qallenga's " History of Piedmont," Litta " Famiglie Celebri di 
 Italia," Cibrario " Storia della Monarchia di Savoia," Costa de Beauregard 
 " Mdmoircs Historiques sur La Maison royale de Savoye." 
 
 7 Thomas I. bought Chambery, on the 15th of May, 1232, for 32,000 solidi, 
 in our money about 3660Z., from Berlion, its viscount. The castle was ceded 
 to Amadous V., in 1295, by the Lords de la Rochette, and it was only then 
 that Amadeus removed thither the seat of government, which had previously 
 been at Aiguebelle." Qattenga, vol. i. p. 252.
 
 CHAP, vi.] HUMBERT THE WHITE-HANDED. 239 
 
 Authentic history traces the hereditary line of the 
 present occupant of the Sardinian throne to Humbert 
 the White-handed, who lived in the early part of the 
 eleventh century. In a contest for the succession of 
 the crown of Burgundy, his command of the passes of 
 the Alps enabled him to render to the emperor, Conrad 
 the Salic, important services, acknowledged by grants 
 and dignities which may be said to have established 
 the power and founded the greatness of the House of 
 Savoy. 
 
 About the same period, a marriage of one of the 
 family with Adelaide, the heiress of the Counts of 
 Turin, brought to the Lords of Savoy extensive do- 
 minions in Piedmont. They would seem to have been 
 allotted to a younger branch of the family, who, bear- 
 ing the title of Princes of Achaia, retained possession 
 of more or less of the inheritance of Adelaide, doing 
 homage for these territories to the Counts of Savoy. 
 Nearly four centuries after Humbert, the line of Achaia 
 became extinct; and in 1418, Amadeus, the first 
 Duke of Savoy, had no difficulty in obtaining from the 
 Emperor Sigismund the recognition of his title to 
 succeed them by inheritance, or more properly by 
 escheat. 
 
 In the interval which elapsed between Humbert and 
 Amadeus, the power of the House of Savoy had been 
 built up by a succession of bold but prudent princes. 
 Before the addition acquired by the lapse of the fiefs of 
 the Princes of Achaia, their possessions had extended 
 far on the southern side of the Alps in some instances 
 by conquest, in others, and by much the more numerous,
 
 210 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 by voluntary cessions of the districts which were in- 
 corporated with their dominions. In 1382, Cuneo, at- 
 tracted by the wise institutions of Count Amadeus VIL, 
 had placed itself under the protection of his rule, to 
 escape the perpetual quarrels in which it was involved 
 with the Counts of Anjou. Six years later the free 
 city of Nice, by the unanimous resolution of its people, 
 desired for itself and its territory incorporation with 
 the Italian possessions of Savoy. By this latter addition, 
 Savoy, hitherto separated from the ocean, acquired, with 
 the rich possessions of the county of Nice, the dignity 
 and importance of a maritime State. 
 
 The reign of Amadeus is a memorable epoch in the 
 history of his dynasty. In 1416 he procured from 
 Sigismund the creation of Savoy into a duchy. A 
 few years afterwards, he added to his new ducal title 
 the honours of an Italian prince. When the possessions 
 of the Princes of Achaia had lapsed, he constituted the 
 entire of his Cisalpine territories, as they- must be 
 called in Italian annals, into a principality of Piedmont. 
 Assuming himself the title of its count, he reserved 
 that of prince for his eldest son establishing for the 
 Italian principality a separate government, of which 
 he fixed the seat at Pinerolo on the southern side of 
 the Alps. 
 
 From this period the sovereigns of Savoy were 
 Italian princes. It was not, however, until many years 
 afterwards that their power in Northern Italy was con- 
 solidated into a compact dominion. For nearly a cen- 
 tury after the reign of Amadeus, the marquisate of 
 Saluzzo interposed its territory in the very heart of the
 
 CHAP, vi.] SIEGE OF NICE. 
 
 Piedmontese domains. The district of Alessandria 
 belonged to the lords of Milan ; and many of the cities 
 acknowledged but a doubtful feudal superiority in the 
 chiefs of the new principality. 
 
 In the wars between the Emperor Charles V., and 
 the French monarch, Piedmont was reduced to ruin. 
 The ill-fated Duke of Savoy was related to both of the 
 contending parties, and both appeared resolved to visit 
 his territories with the worst calamities of war. For 
 twenty-five years Piedmont was occupied by hostile 
 troops. Its sovereign, by successive acts of aggression, 
 was stripped of all his possessions, except Nice. The 
 retention of this he owed to the heroic valour of its 
 people, who defeated the attempts of the invaders in 
 a resistance which bears comparison with the most 
 heroic defences of ancient or modern times. 8 When 
 Charles III. died, he left little to his son and successor, 
 Emanuel Philibert, except the ducal title and his 
 sword. On that sword the young prince inscribed the 
 motto " Spoliatis arma supersunt." At the age of 
 twenty-five he was entrusted with the command of the 
 
 8 Nice, in the siege of 1453, was assaulted by the combined forces of the 
 French and Turks, Compelled to abandon the town, the citizens retreated to 
 the citadel, and bravely defended themselves until they were relieved, and 
 their assailants compelled to retire, by the arrival of the Duke of Savoy with 
 a strong army. 
 
 In the early days of the siege the Turks had actually mounted the rampart 
 and planted on them the crescent. A woman headed the people, who 
 rushed to the spot. With her own hand this Amazon struck down the standard 
 of the infidel. She does not appear to have added the feminine graces of beauty 
 to the virtue of bravery, at least if we trust the name by which she was 
 known, " Donna Maufacia," Dame Uglyface. The people of Nice erected to 
 her a statue on the pedestal was inscribed : 
 
 " Nicacna Amazon irruentibus Turcis occurrit 
 Exetnptoque vexillu triumphum ineruit." 
 VOL. i. R
 
 242 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Spanish armies in the Netherlands. The victory of St. 
 Quentin was won by his bravery and skill, and in 1559 
 the peace of Chateau Cambresis restored to him the 
 inheritance of his fathers. 
 
 Wise and energetic in peace as he had been brave 
 and adventurous in war, Emanuel repaired by his 
 prudence the ravages which the occupation of hostile 
 armies had inflicted on Piedmont. We have said that 
 these ravages reduced the country to such a state, that 
 Charles V., as he looked over a wide waste without 
 human habitations, actually proposed to turn on it the 
 waters of the Ticino and the Po, and form a desolate 
 swamp as a barrier between his own Italian possessions 
 and invasions from the side of France. In twenty 
 years Emanuel Philibert made Piedmont once more 
 prosperous and great. The plains which that savage 
 purpose had doomed to perpetual sterility were 
 covered with teeming crops, the produce of the 
 cultivation of an industrious people, and agriculture 
 and manufactures flourished in the districts which the 
 destructive storm of foreign invasion had left a howling 
 wilderness. 
 
 Some time elapsed before negociations finally restored 
 to him the cities and fortresses of which France or 
 Spain had kept possession at the close of the war. 
 When restored to his entire dominions Emanuel Phili- 
 bert completed the Italian nationality of the dynasty 
 of Savoy by the removal of the ducal residence from 
 Chambery to Turin. In the early ages of their history 
 the princes of Savoy had been identified with France, 
 not with Italy ; still their feudal claims over districts
 
 CHAP, vi.] SEAT OF GOVERNMENT MOVED TO TURIN. 243 
 
 in the latter country, probably the traditions of their 
 Italian descent, had always directed their attention 
 towards it. As their dominions in Italy extended, their 
 sympathies gradually moved with their frontier to the 
 south, and long before the peace of Chateau Cambresis 
 their ambition had pointed to the union of Northern 
 Italy into one kingdom under themselves. Emanuel 
 Philibert had but little reason to remember with plea- 
 sure the alliance of his family with the French court. 
 Despoiled of his dominions by his French relations, he 
 had won them back by the sword, which he drew in the 
 service of the Spanish king. No tie of birth, no recol- 
 lection of childhood or of youth, attached him to the 
 mountain home of his ancestors. His early days had 
 been passed in warring for his father's rights in Pied- 
 mont, or in the camps of Germany or the Low Countries. 
 All his recollections of bravery or loyalty, exerted in 
 defence of his family, were associated with Italy. Many 
 of the nobility of Savoy had deserted their fallen monarch 
 and attached themselves to the French king. We can 
 easily understand the feelings which influenced Emanuel 
 in the declaration that he would live and die an Italian 
 prince, a declaration which he fulfilled by moving the 
 seat of government from the northern home of his 
 family to Turin. 9 (A.D. 1562.) 
 
 9 The Savoyards, as may be believed, were indignant at the transfer. 
 In the minds of the superstitious, the loss was more severely felt, because 
 with the court was transferred that sacred relic the Sacra Sindone which, 
 for more than one hundred and fifty years, had been religiously enshrined at 
 Chambery. Believed to be the actual winding-sheet of our Saviour, this precious 
 possession was brought to Turin to accommodate the feebleness and age of 
 St. Charles Borromeo, the good Archbishop of Milan, who had left his home on 
 a pilgrimage to that holy relic ; the king was anxious to spare him the fatigue- 
 
 B 2
 
 244 HISTORY OF ITALY. [-VOL. i. 
 
 la the reign of his son and successor, the marquisate 
 of Saluzzo was added to the Piedmontese possessions. 
 In the vicissitudes of the wars of Charles V. it had 
 fallen under the dominion of France. Henry of 
 Navarre ceded it to Savoy in return for the districts of 
 Bresse. It is true it was the exchange of rich and 
 fruitful lands for a wild and barren tract. The Duke 
 of Savoy was said to have given up as many gentlemen 
 on the north as he obtained peasants on the south of the 
 Alps. Nevertheless the exchange was a great advan- 
 tage to Savoy. It consolidated its Italian territories ; 
 by the cession of Saluzzo the passes of the Alps 
 were closed against France, and the princes of Savoy 
 once more held the keys of every gate in the moun- 
 tain barrier which separates the plains of Lombardy 
 from those of the Rhone. 10 
 
 From the peace of Chateau Cambresis to that of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, the princes of Savoy were engaged 
 in almost all the wars that disturbed in that interval 
 the peace of Europe. Under many vicissitudes, and 
 
 of a journey across the Alps. Carlo Borromeo was saved the journey, but the 
 Sacra Sindone never found its way back to its former shrine. 
 
 10 Emanuel Philibert was a prince of stern and overbearing character. Of 
 weakly constitution in infancy and childhood, he grew up with a gloomy 
 moroseness which not unfrequently belongs to those who are prevented from 
 taking part in the exercises and sports of boyhood. 
 
 He appears to have been influenced by a deep spirit of devotion. The 
 evening before the battle of St Quentin he spent in a ruined oratory, where 
 he was accidentally discovered in solitary prayer. It was at one time proposed 
 that he should form a matrimonial alliance with Elizabeth, afterwards Queen 
 of England. No persuasion could induce the Savoyard to assent to seek the 
 hand of a princess of whose attachment to the Church there were doubts. 
 
 Unhappily his memory is stained by the persecutions of his Protestant 
 subjects, for which perhaps we may find a palliation in remembering the spirit 
 of the age in which he lived.
 
 CHAP, vi.] EXTENSION OF TERRITORY. 245 
 
 with varying fortunes, their power still steadily pro- 
 gressed ; and when the provisions adopted at Aix-la- 
 Chapelle finally restored peace to Europe, they were 
 left, as we have seen, in possession of a frontier in 
 Piedmont, advanced to the banks of the Ticino ; the dis- 
 trict of the High Novarese was added to their possessions, 
 and the island of Sardinia brought to them with its 
 sovereignty the kingly title under which they have since 
 been known in history. n 
 
 Thus gradually had the Italian territories of the 
 House of Savoy been extended from their original 
 fortresses on the summit of the Alpine passes over all 
 the plains and valleys of Piedmont. 12 Under circum- 
 stances apparently the most adverse, a power had been 
 built up by the valour and address of their princes. 
 If we do not attribute to the princes of Savoy all that 
 some of their admirers have claimed for them, it must 
 
 11 These acquisitions were the result of many engagements entered into with 
 the princes of the House of Savoy, during the vicissitudes of these long and 
 eventful wars. Some of them were stipulated for in the Convention of 
 Worms in 1742, in which Charles Emanuel gave his adherence to the imperial 
 cause, with the prudent proviso, that on giving three months' notice he should 
 be at liberty to change sides. Montferrat had been for some time attached 
 to the Duchy of Mantua. The High Novarese, with Alexandria and the other 
 districts to the west of the Ticino, formed part of that of Milan. Both these 
 duchies were seized by the emperor in his imperial right. His title to Milan 
 was that of escheat on the extinction of the family of the Visconti. Mantua 
 had been declared forfeited by the last of the Qonzaga for the crime of 
 rebellion against the emperor. The right of the empire over the districts 
 west of the Ticino was ceded to Savoy. The marquisate of Finale was at tie 
 same time annexed by the gift of Maria Theresa. 
 
 12 The history of the acquisitions of the house of Savoy is occasionally 
 involved in confusion by the frequent instances of territories taken and 
 retaken in the vicissitudes of the many wars in which they were engaged. 
 Other sources of obscurity exist. With all his unrivalled learning and research, 
 Muratori tells us that the means by which the Counts of Savoy were able to 
 supersede the great feudatories of Ivrea and Susa have baffled his research,
 
 246 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 be admitted that unflinching courage, undeviating adhe- 
 rence to their word, and a bold and manly spirit of 
 enterprise, appear to have descended as hereditary 
 virtues through the princes of this race, and those who 
 believe in the transmission of certain attributes with 
 blood, may find a confirmation of their theory in observ- 
 ing in the princes of this family of our own day the 
 very same traits of character which in remote genera- 
 tions won for their ancestors influence and respect. 
 
 The old saying of their own country records the 
 common superstition, that seven generations of the 
 House of Savoy must pass untainted by the production 
 of a coward or a fool. Without minutely testing its truth, 
 it is enough to say that these traditional aphorisms, 
 which thus pithily express popular belief, supply, in 
 their general existence, some evidence of their truth. 
 They are testimonies to character which no adulation 
 of courtiers can create. There is more of exaggeration 
 in another of these sayings, which tells us that this 
 family have supplied more blameless knights to the 
 true annals of chivalry than have been invented in the 
 fictions of its romance. Nearer perhaps to the truth is 
 that which accords to them the more worldly praise of 
 always having the courage promptly, and therefore- 
 successfully, to meet the spirit, and accommodate them- 
 selves to the exigencies of their age. Few countries in 
 Europe have not felt their influence. In England, in the 
 days of Henry III., that influence was matter of national 
 complaint. A prince of Savoy held the earldom of 
 Richmond. To recent times the palace of the Savoy, 
 the residence of this earl, survived, as a memorial of
 
 CHAP vi.] JANITORS OF THE ALPS. 247 
 
 the esteem in which the Savoyards had once been held. 
 Its last buildings were removed to make way for 
 Waterloo Bridge, but the royal chapel still stands, and 
 the curious explorer can still trace in the vicinity the 
 crumbling remnants of a wall that once formed part of 
 the mansion of " Peter of Savoy." 
 
 Their early possession of the passages of the Alps 
 gave them an importance far beyond that which be- 
 longed to the extent or resources of their state. When 
 Conrad confirmed to them those mountain districts, no 
 fitter gift could have been conferred upon a bold and 
 adventurous race. Wild and barren as were the glens 
 of Maurienne, they were, to the warlike counts, a richer 
 heritage than the fruitful plain ; there were trained in 
 those rocky uplands a rugged race of warriors marked 
 by the bravery and fidelity that peculiarly belong to the 
 dwellers in the hills ; in these highland fastnesses were 
 impenetrable retreats; and in the command of the defiles, 
 which were then the only approaches from Northern 
 Europe to Italy, the princes of these regions held a 
 position of power acknowledged in the title which they 
 bore in the middle ages of " Janitors of the Alps." 
 
 It must, however, have been confidence in their per- 
 sonal qualities which attracted those voluntary cessions 
 of territory which so repeatedly mark the progress of 
 their acquisitions. There was a period in the history 
 of Europe when " Justice de Savoie " was used as a 
 proverbial synonym for an administration of the law 
 that was both upright and prompt, and to the fame of 
 the wisdom and equity of her early princes Savoy is 
 indebted for many of the territories the inhabitants of
 
 248 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 which, centuries ago, sought as a favour the privilege of 
 submission to her rule. 13 
 
 To the same cause must be attributed the remark- 
 able fact, that districts thus added by shreds and 
 patches yet rapidly coalesced into an harmonious and 
 united commonwealth. Their union has stood the severest 
 test, that of representation in a free popular assembly. 
 Even since the Congress of Vienna one of the wisest 
 Sardinian statesmen assured Prince Metternich of the 
 impossibility of ever adopting representative govern- 
 ment in the Sardinian States by pointing to the frag- 
 mentary additions which had been made from time 
 to time to their gradually enlarging boundaries, as 
 sufficient to ensure that the meeting of their represen- 
 tatives in one assembly would be instantly followed by 
 a national disruption. 
 
 The appearance of Savoy in the field of Italian 
 politics introduced into those politics an element which 
 existed only in that State. In no other part of Italy 
 was there anything like feudal attachment to a 
 sovereign. Loyalty in its highest and best sense was 
 throughout the rest of Italy unknown. The spirit 
 of military chivalry even in the form in which it 
 had prevailed in the free cities of Italy had become 
 extinct. The luxurious nobles and merchants were 
 content to defend themselves with mercenary arms. 
 
 13 Not only Nice and Cuneo, but Chieri, Savigliano, Ivrea, and Mondovi, were 
 numbered among the cities who sought good government aud protection by 
 soliciting incorporation with the dominions of Savoy. GaUenga, vol. ii. p. 163. 
 
 Pi is said by some historians that, when the possessions of the House of 
 Achaia lapsed to Amadous VIII., he left it to the free choice of each city 
 whether it would become independent or be united to his states. GaUenga, 
 vol. ii. p. 162 ; Gvichenon, Maison Rayale de Savoie, vol. ii. p. 34.
 
 CHAP, vi.] INFLUENCE OP SAVOY ON PIEDMONT. 249 
 
 Piedmont, taught by its Savoyard fellow-subjects, was 
 at the same period one great feudal camp. If Piedmont 
 was separated from the early struggles of Italy, its 
 isolation saved it from the fate in which those struggles 
 exhausted the energies of the states engaged in them. 
 If Turin and Vercelli, and Asti, and the cities of 
 Western Lombardy, never attained the freedom or 
 the greatness of the proud republics of the eastern 
 league, yet neither were they torn in the dissensions nor 
 involved in the crimes and degradations which marked 
 their fall. The observation is true that Piedmont rose 
 to power and influence in Italy as the freedom of 
 Italy fell. But it was the infusion into the enervated 
 and prostrate country of the elements of a new energy. 
 It was the descent into the plains of a spirit that had 
 been nursed amid the storms and grandeur of a 
 mountain home. 
 
 To the effect produced by such influences Napoleon 
 bore the most signal testimony, when he urged on 
 the French directory an alliance with the Sardinian 
 monarch, by the emphatic statement that one of his 
 regiments was worth all the levies of the Cisalpine 
 republic. 14 In the degenerate days of Italy, military 
 spirit and energy was preserved in Piedmont alone. 
 Acute observers of national character have unhesi- 
 tatingly given their opinion that the Piedmontese have 
 been elevated by the mixture of many of the qualities 
 of the Savoyard. Their intercourse with their trans- 
 Alpine fellow subjects has grafted on the genius of 
 the Italians the hardihood and boldness of the free 
 
 14 Letters of Napoleon to the French Directory, May 10th, 1799.
 
 250 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL i. 
 
 mountaineer, and at the same time imparted in the 
 mixed qualities of the Savoyards something of the 
 chivalry and energy of the French. The chieftains as 
 well as the people owe much to the teaching of their 
 early home : the training of the feudal stronghold and 
 the mountain fastness still tempers the character of 
 those who by their proudest title are Princes of Savoy, 
 and the rugged virtues of Chillon and Chambery have 
 not been forgotten in the palaces of Piedmont and 
 Turin. 
 
 Those who accept the lesson which v all history 
 teaches, and are accustomed to trace in the early 
 events of nations and dynasties the evidences of a 
 design that fits them for the part they are afterwards 
 to perform, may perhaps in the incidents that have 
 marked the origin and progress of the power of the 
 House of Savoy in their gradual acquisition of Italian 
 territory in their preservation of the spirit of loyalty 
 and military chivalry in their very isolation from the 
 early struggles of Italian freedom in their consequent 
 exemption from Italian crimes, discern a long course of 
 preparation which has qualified their dynasty for the 
 position of defender of Italian independence which it 
 has assumed. 
 
 It may seem fanciful to point to the fact, that at the 
 same time and under circumstances not altogether 
 dissimilar, two dynasties were rising among the 
 fastnesses of the Alps which were yet to represent 
 opposing principles upon the fields of Italy. In the 
 fortress of Chambery the princes of Savoy were 
 gradually acquiring near the banks of the Rhone that
 
 CHAP, vi.] PERSONAL CHARACTERS OF PRINCES. 251 
 
 fame and power, which were qualifying their race to be 
 the champion of Italian independence. From another 
 mountain fastness at the far extremity of the Alpine 
 range, and near the waters of the Rhine, the chieftains 
 of Hapsburgh were increasing their territories, and 
 acquiring the influence which led in after ages to their 
 representing in Italy the ascendancy of German power. 
 In the early days of the history of these families the 
 rival chieftains met in a struggle which the Counts 
 of Savoy maintained against Rudolph for the freedom 
 of the Swiss States. 15 Beneath the battlements of 
 Chillon, the chiefs of dynasties, already become rivals, 
 sustained the conflict which after the lapse of centu- 
 ries their descendants renewed upon the Lombard 
 plains. 
 
 In looking back upon the personal history of the 
 Princes of Savoy, we are struck with the frequency 
 with which we meet with voluntary resignations of 
 their sovereign state. It seemed peculiarly the lot of 
 those who added to the dignity and the influence of 
 this house. Amadeus who elevated Savoy to a duchy, 
 and formed the principality of Piedmont, retired in the 
 very height of his power and in the full vigour of his 
 manhood to a solitude at Ripaille. The first king of 
 
 15 Peter of Savoy, the English Earl of Richmond, returned to Savoy about 
 1264, and found the country round Geneva in possession of the armies of the 
 Count of Hapsburgh. In a gallant surprise he defeated the invaders, and 
 received the Savoy dominions which had devolved on him by the death of hia 
 nephew in his absence. It has been said by some writers that Rudolph him- 
 self was made prisoner (Cibrario, lib. iii. cap. 2; Verdeil, "Histoiredu Canton 
 de Vaud," 1 173 ) ; but there seems no adequate foundation for the 
 assertion. The prisoner was most probably a general of high rank. Vul- 
 liemiu, Chillon, pp. 106, 312; Gallenga, vol. i. p. 290.
 
 252 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 the family followed the example of its first duke, and 
 of eight sovereigns who in a hundred and twenty years 
 have borne the regal crown of Sardinia, four have 
 abdicated the sovereignty. 
 
 We may perhaps be permitted to pause for a few 
 moments in reflecting on the destiny which thus seemed 
 to deprive two of the greatest of this line of princes of 
 the full share of the honours and advantages which they 
 had gained for their family. Victor Amadeus the first 
 king of Sardinia abdicated his throne in 1 730. Per- 
 sisting in this step in opposition to the earnest 
 entreaties of his son he repented of it within a 
 year after it had been irrevocably taken. Demanding 
 from his son the restoration of his royal authority, he 
 was met by a peremptory refusal. He attempted to 
 assert the kingly power, but was by his own son placed 
 in arrest ; soldiers seized him in his chamber as he slept, 
 and conveyed him amid the ill-suppressed murmurs of 
 the troops that escorted the carriage, to the castle of 
 Rivoli. The paroxysms of fury into which the old 
 man burst have left room for the doubt whether his 
 imprisonment is to be regarded as that of a lunatic or 
 a rebel. The broken slab of a marble table is still 
 shown at Rivoli, which the aged monarch in one of his 
 fits of baffled rage is said to have broken with a blow 
 of his clenched hand. In thirteen months of that 
 captivity the energies of life were exhausted. Thus 
 died " the ablest, the most noble, and the most 
 ambitious sovereign of his age." 16 "A sad termination/' 
 
 u Siamondi, " Histoire dea FrancaU," 16 373; Caesare Balbo, "Storia 
 D'ltalia," 320 ; Muratori, "Annals," anno 1731 ; Costade Beauregard, 3 151.
 
 CHAP, vi.] POPE AMADEUS. 253 
 
 writes Balbo, " of one of the longest, greatest, happiest, 
 reigns for Piedmont." 
 
 Less sad, although perhaps more singular, was the 
 fate of the first duke. Amadeus retired from his 
 sovereignty in the full vigour of his intellect. Resign- 
 ing his ducal authority to his son, he retired to a 
 hermitage upon the shores of the Lake of Geneva. He 
 had governed his people with prudence and wisdom, 
 and such was the influence of his character that he 
 had been frequently chosen as an arbitrator to settle 
 disputes that seemed to threaten the tranquillity of 
 France or even of Europe ; his mediation was sub- 
 mitted to by contending sovereigns and states. In his 
 fifty-first year he voluntarily left this high position 
 to live in a frugal, although by no means ascetic retire- 
 ment, in the midst of the magnificent solitudes which 
 surrounded his retreat. 
 
 From his hermitage he was called to the honours 
 of a Papal chair. The general schism which had long 
 distracted the Christian world with the spectacle of two, 
 or even three, rival Popes, had been supposed to be 
 permanently closed at the Council of Constance. It 
 was revived at that of Basle in 1439. Involved in 
 violent disputes with the Pope Eugenius IV., that 
 council asserted the supremacy of a general council 
 over the Pontiff, and proceeded to the extreme step of 
 deposing Eugenius. The Pope, as might be expected, 
 denied their authority, but this did not prevent the 
 assembled fathers from electing a successor in his 
 room. In want of a Pope of ability and influence they 
 cast their eyes upon Amadeus, and formed the strange
 
 254' HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 resolution of inviting him to accept the doubtful honour 
 of a disputed election to the Papal throne (November 
 1432). It was true that he was a layman, a widower, 
 and the father of a large family of sous and daughters. 17 
 All these things constituted no legal disqualification, and 
 after some real or feigned reluctance Amadeus accepted 
 the proffered dignity. In three days he received all the 
 orders of the Church ; ordained a priest in one day, he 
 was instituted a bishop on the next. His family were 
 present at his reception of orders, and three of his 
 sons, one o them the Duke of Savoy, attended at the 
 celebration of his first mass. 
 
 For ten years after his solemn enthronement at 
 Basle, under the title of Felix V., he continued to 
 discharge the functions of Pope, or, as his enemies 
 would say, anti-Pope. 18 Yet his authority was acknow- 
 ledged by a large proportion of the Christian world. 
 He received it from a council regularly convened, and 
 when to give peace to the Church he laid down that 
 authority, and joined with the members of his council 
 in the election of one who would thus become undoubted 
 Pope, he was invested with the rank of cardinal, and 
 assigned the bishopric of Geneva with pontifical juris- 
 
 1 1 One of the speakers at the council, who advocated the appointment of 
 Amadeus, declared his opinion, that there was a great advantage in electing a 
 Pope with sons who would be ready to interpose with their protection in his 
 behalf. The same speaker urged strongly on the fathers the absolute necessity 
 of electing a Pope who could bring to his office the support of temporal power. 
 " I had once," said this speaker, " a strong objection to the union of the 
 secular with the spiritual power. I have lived to 'see my error. A Pope 
 without temporal power to make him independent, would only be the slave 
 of kings." 
 
 18 Riddle's "History of the Papacy," 2 369; Qallenga, vol. i. p. 239; 
 Munodeub Amadous PaciQcus.
 
 CHAP, vi.] THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 255 
 
 diction. 19 When a few years afterwards he died at his 
 cathedral, Pope Nicholas pronounced a high eulogium 
 upon his piety and zeal. It is a strange episode in 
 the history of Savoy, as it is in that of Christendom, 
 which records the placing of the tiara upon the head 
 of one who had worn the ducal crown, and reckons a 
 Pope among the lineal ancestors of the present King of 
 Sardinia. 20 
 
 After the abdication of Amadeus the sovereignty of 
 Savoy was transmitted through ten successive dukes, 
 until, in 1713, that title was merged in the higher one 
 of king. The third sovereign with a royal title, was 
 Victor Amadeus, who at the commencement of the 
 French revolution occupied the throne. 
 
 The daughter of Victor Amadeus was married to 
 the Count of Artois, brother of the unfortunate 
 Louis XVI. The king's own principles and feelings 
 were all violently opposed to the movements of the revo- 
 lution. In its very commencment the Count of Artois 
 fled from Paris, and took refuge at the court of Turin ; 
 he was accompanied by some, and followed by others, 
 of the emigrant nobility of France. That court, like 
 most of those in Europe, was acquainted with the 
 appeals which Louis XVI. was privately making to the 
 sovereigns, to restore the cause of absolute monarchy 
 in France. Conferences were held at Pavia and 
 
 19 Monodeus, p. 262 ; Guichenon, Preuves, 4 341. 
 
 20 Over a ruined gateway at Ripaille the arms of the Papacy are, or at least 
 till a few years ago were, to be seen. In the days of the French revolution a 
 zealous republican had, by a very slight defacement, converted the tiara 
 into an excellent representation of the cap of liberty. Lord Broughton's 
 Italy.
 
 256 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Mantua, in which efforts were made to form a league 
 of monarchs for the re-establishment of the despotic 
 authority of the French King. 
 
 Whatever was the result of these conferences the 
 King of Sardinia at first refused to be a party to any 
 combination against France. It was not until the 
 summer of 1792, that he lent himself cordially to any 
 project of the kind. He subsequently gave his prompt 
 acquiescence to the proposal made by the court of 
 Naples to form a confederation of Italian States for the 
 purpose of protecting Italy from any invasion on the 
 part of France, a proposal which the apathy of Venice 
 and the cowardice of the Neapolitan government 
 defeated. 21 
 
 In the autumn of 1792 his dominions were the 
 object of French invasion. A proposal of alliance from 
 the French republic was scornfully rejected, and this 
 was followed on the part of the Directory by a declara- 
 tion of war. 23 Even before that declaration the authority 
 of the Sardinian sovereign in his most ancient dominions 
 had been overthrown. The proximity of Savoy to 
 France exposed it more directly to the intrigues of the 
 revolutionary spirit. Jacobin clubs had been esta- 
 blished at Chambery, and disaffection spread through- 
 out the duchy. On the 21st of December, a French 
 army of 20,000 men crossed the frontiers from France. 
 The invasion was preceded a few days by a formal 
 declaration of war, although in a letter to the Swiss 
 republic, and another to the Canton of Berne, dated on 
 
 21 See post, chap. vii. 
 
 ** Animal Register, State Papers, 1792.
 
 CHAP, vi.] INVASION OF SAVOY. 257 
 
 the 10th of October, the king complained that his 
 territories had been invaded without any announcement 
 that hostilities were about to commence. 23 
 
 Under the coercion or the protection of the French 
 troops immediately on their entering the country, a 
 deputation was sent to Paris to ask in the name of the 
 Savoyards for incorporation with the newly formed 
 republic of France. The National Convention assured 
 the deputies that regenerated France was ready to 
 make common cause with all who aspired to shake off 
 the yoke of their old tyrants, and to place themselves 
 under her protection. The proffered junction was 
 accepted on the ground that "the Alps eternally forced 
 Savoy back into the domains of France all efforts to 
 unite it with Piedmont were fruitless." The proud 
 principality which for centuries had blazoned its name 
 among the noblest records of European chivalry, sank 
 down into a portion of the French republic, and became 
 the department of Mont Blanc. 
 
 This was speedily followed by the seizure of the 
 territory of Nice, which with the principality of Monaco, 
 was erected into the department of the Maritime Alps. 
 
 Thus stripped of his most ancient possessions Victor 
 Amadeus with the , aid of a British squadron in the 
 Mediterranean, and the support of subsidies from England, 
 continued for a few years with varying fortunes, to harass 
 the French in their usurped possessions, or resist their 
 attacks upon his Piedmontese or Sardinian dominions. 24 
 
 23 Annual Register, 1792. 
 
 24 The bravery of the Piedmontese troops in this desultory warfare is acknow- 
 ledged by the French historians ; writers, it must be said, not always ready 
 to award the fair share of praise to the opponents of their country. 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 258 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. t 
 
 The triumphant arms of Napoleon forced him in 1796, 
 to accept the alliance which four years before he had 
 scornfully rejected. It was indeed only through the 
 strong exertion of Napoleon's personal influence that 
 the French Directory were then persuaded to consent 
 to the alliance. The genius of their general saw the 
 advantage and power which would result to the cause 
 of France from the co-operation of the Sardinian 
 State. It was then that he wrote to the Directory the 
 opinion that one of the Sardinian regiments was "worth 
 all the armies of the Cisalpine republic." The peace of 
 Cherasco, or as it is generally called Paris, was signed 
 on the 15th of May, 1796. A few months afterwards 
 Victor Amadeus died, leaving to his brother Charles 
 Emanuel a precarious sovereignty which lasted but for 
 two years. 
 
 The Directory, after Napoleon had left Europe for 
 Egypt, were not unwilling to find reasons for a depar- 
 ture from the policy of their general. A revolt against 
 the king's authority was punished by him with a mer- 
 ciless severity, which was as imprudent as it was cruel. 
 The French were placed in the odious position of 
 sanctioning, and even enforcing by their troops, the 
 execution of those whose only crime was the mainte- 
 nance of the principles which were the foundation of 
 the revolutionary government of France. An excuse 
 was soon found for putting an end to a state of things 
 which the Directory could not continue without dis- 
 credit if not without danger ; and on the 4th of Decem- 
 ber, 1798, Charles Emanuel unconditionally surrendered 
 Piedmont to the armies of the Revolution. It was
 
 CHAP, vi.] FRENCH SEIZURE OF PIEDMONT. 259 
 
 intended by the French Directory that the royal family 
 should have been brought in honourable captivity to Paris. 
 Talleyrand desirous of saving the French government the 
 odium of this act, had taken on himself to send an urgent 
 message to hasten their departure. 25 On the 9th of 
 December Charles Emanuel left Turin. With a scru- 
 pulous care, the dictate of a high-minded and chivalrous 
 spirit, he refused to take with him any of the valuables 
 which could be said to belong to the crown. The 
 treasures of the palace, even the jewels that had been 
 the ornament of his person, were left under the protec- 
 tion of seals ; and, at a late hour of the night, amid the 
 falling flakes of a snow-storm, and leaving by torch-light 
 the palace of his fathers, the deposed monarch pro- 
 ceeded to find a shelter, first in Parma, afterwards in 
 Tuscany, and finally escaped to the island which gave 
 him the title of king. He landed at Cagliari on the 
 9th of February. It had been intended by the French. 
 Directory to intercept him on his passage, and carry 
 him a prisoner to Corsica, and an English frigate 
 followed at a distance to protect him from the intended 
 attack of the French privateers. 26 No sooner had he 
 landed in Sardinia than he issued a protest against the 
 violence which had forced his surrender of his Con- 
 tinental States. * 
 
 25 Botta,-vol. iii. p. 138. 
 
 26 " Not content with turning the King of Sardinia out of Piedmont, they 
 intended seizing his person after he left Leghorn by some of their privateers, 
 aud carrying him to Corsica; for, if they could have prevented him, he never 
 would have got to Sardinia." 
 
 " Captain Lewis had been requested to allow his ship to go as if by 
 accident in company with the vessel. For to such a state of degradation 
 is this monarch reduced that he dare not publicly accept the offered protection 
 
 s 2
 
 260 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. I. 
 
 The French' ascendancy in Italy was destined to 
 an early and a complete reverse. In 1799, the very 
 year after the victories of Napoleon, his conquests 
 were wrested from the republic with a rapidity almost 
 as marvellous as that with which they had been 
 achieved. The victories of Suwarrow placed him in 
 possession of Turin ; and by the invitation of the Mus- 
 covite commander, Victor Emanuel left Cagliari in a 
 British man-of-war, and landed at Leghorn to resume 
 the possession of his kingdom. 27 
 
 The progress of the returning monarch was stopped 
 by a transaction as strange as any which the annals 
 of European diplomacy record. The ministers of 
 Austria insisted on the cession of Piedmont to their 
 
 of the British fleet." Letter of Lord Nelson to Lord St. Vincent, 13th, February, 
 1799. Clarice and M' Arthur's Life of Nelson. 
 
 w On the 6th of August (1799) the minister of the King of Sardinia, 
 wrote from Cagliari, to Lord Nelson (then at Palermo) stating, that as 
 Boon as the Piedmontese dominions had been reconquered by the combined 
 Austrian and Russian armies, his Sardinian Majesty had resolved to send 
 some eminent persons belonging to his court to his continental dominions 
 to restore the former order of things, and to reorganise the royal government 
 of his house ; and for this purpose his Majesty requested Lord Nelson to 
 detach two frigates to Cagliari for the safe conveyance of the Commissioners. 
 On the llth of August the King wrote himself to Lord Nelson on the 
 subject :- 
 
 " DEAR ADMIRAL NELSON, I have felt great pleasure from your letter of 
 the first of this month, and I acknowledge myself much obliged to you for 
 your polite attention in offering me a sufficient jjumber of ships for the 
 conveyance of the royal family to my continental dominions. I shall send 
 one of my ministers to concert with you, and I shall be ready to embark as 
 soon as the ships arrive. My brother, the Duke of Aosta, has been obliged 
 to hasten from the island, owing to the loss of Prince Charles, his only son, 
 which has overwhelmed me and the whole kingdom with sorrow. You also, 
 my dear Admiral, will sympathise with me on this unfortunate event. 
 " With an assurance of my esteem and gratitude, I am your true friend, 
 
 " CHARLES EMANCEL." 
 i,, Clarke and M'Arthui's Life, vol. ii. p. 206.
 
 CHAP, vi.] AUSTRIAN CLAIMS. 261 
 
 imperial master. All Italy north of the Po was in- 
 cluded in the claim which they put forward. On the 
 other side of the Alps, they asked for Dauphiny and 
 Savoy. The provinces which the treaty of Tolentino 
 had severed from the Papal States were also demanded 
 as additions to the Austrian domains. 28 
 
 The claim of this enormous acquisition of territory 
 could hardly be expected to meet with an immediate 
 and unhesitating assent. Negotiations ensued, in which 
 the Austrian cabinet threatened, that if their demands 
 were not conceded, they would open with France nego- 
 tiations for a separate treaty of peace. 29 England was 
 asked, not only to accede to these demands, but also to 
 induce or compel the acquiescence of the Sardinian 
 King, and to persuade the King of Naples to with- 
 
 28 " A portion of the correspondence on the subject is published in 
 the commencement of the fifth volume of Lord Castlereagh's despatches. 
 The English cabinet at first regarded the restoration of Charles Emanuel 
 as a matter of course. In June Lord Greuville wrote to Lord Minto, 
 stating the opinion of the English cabinet that, if not already done, no 
 time should be lost in replacing the King of Sardinia hi possession of his 
 dominions. 
 
 " Should the Austrians aim at the recovery of the Novarese," continues 
 this despatch, " this is certainly within their own power, and could not be 
 very strongly objected to by the King of Sardinia if restored by their efforts 
 to the rest of his dominions." " It would, in that instance, be desirable that 
 the hands in which the banner of Italy is placed should in some other mode 
 be strengthened, and any proper arrangement which should open to that 
 power a more extensive communication with the sea-coast would operate 
 favourably to the interests of this country in the Mediterranean." 
 
 In reference to an indemnity from the possessions of Genoa, Lord Grenville 
 in another letter observed, that " there was no motive either of justice or of 
 policy to prevent his Majesty from concurring in a measure for satisfying the 
 pretensions of an ally out of the territories of a power which has for centuries 
 been under the influence of France, and with which his Majesty is at 
 this time engaged in war, the result of repeated insults and provocations 
 offered to his Majesty." 
 
 29 Letter of Lord Minto. Castlereagh Correspondence, p. 6.
 
 262 HISTORY OF ITALY. [voi. T. 
 
 draw the claims which he was making to a portion of 
 the Papal States. 
 
 The cabinet of England temporised with these extra- 
 ordinary claims. Lord Grenville, then the English 
 Secretary, secretly instructed Lord Minto, the British 
 representative at Vienna, that, while England would not 
 view with alarm or dissatisfaction the aggrandisement 
 of Austria, there was difficulty in supporting these 
 pretensions to their full extent. 30 At one time the 
 British minister believed that he had succeeded in 
 inducing Count Thugut to moderate his pretensions 
 upon Piedmont, and to be content with the possession 
 of the High Novarese, the fortress of Alessandria, and 
 the command of the Piedmontese army. This modera- 
 tion was afterwards disclaimed upon the singular plea, 
 that in making these mitigated proposals the Austrian 
 minister had been in jest ! At the very last minute, a 
 claim for Parma and Lucca was put forward, and the 
 imperial cabinet refused to disclaim the intention of an 
 appropriation of the Tuscan States. 31 
 
 From the cabinet of St. Petersburgh, the Austrian 
 proposals met with a much more manly and determined 
 opposition. There is little doubt that it was the con- 
 duct of Austria upon this occasion which alienated the 
 
 80 I have said enough in my former despatch to enable your lordship to 
 prove to M. De Thugut that his Majesty is very far from entertaining any 
 views hostile to the interests of Austria. Much of the reasoning urged to your 
 lordship in support of his plan of obtaining peace in Italy appears to his 
 Majesty's servants to be perfectly well founded in reference not only to the 
 separate interests of this country, but also to the permanent tranquillity of 
 Europe. Nor is the aggrandisement of the House of Austria in itself a point 
 to which this country has been accustomed to look with dissatisfaction or 
 alarm." Lord Grenville to Lord Minto, September 4<A, 1 799. 
 
 81 Letter of Lord Minto, May 1st, 1800.
 
 CHAP, vi], RUSSIAN RESISTANCE. 2G3 
 
 Russian Emperor, and broke up the alliance against 
 France. Paul had joined the coalition of 1798 against 
 France with the avowed object of restoring everything 
 to the state in which it had been before the revolu- 
 tionary war. He had formed an earnest wish for the 
 restoration of the King of Sardinia, and this object 
 the emperor personally regarded with an intensity of 
 feeling that was, perhaps, a symptom of the malady 
 that was affecting his mind. His ministers, who 
 probably did not look upon the aggressive demands of 
 Austria with just the same complacency as England, 
 were not prepared to abandon the rights of the legiti- 
 mate sovereign of Piedmont. Austria, however, was firm 
 in her demands, 32 and finally the foreign minister of 
 the Cabinet of Vienna stated the unalterable resolve of 
 his imperial master never to consent to the restoration 
 of the Sardinian king. 33 
 
 Meanwhile, at Leghorn, Charles Emanuel awaited in 
 astonishment and dismay the result of these singular 
 negotiations. The dispute was settled in a manner 
 which none of the parties would have desired. Buona- 
 parte returned from Egypt, and in the following year 
 the campaign of Marengo restored in Italy the 
 ascendancy of the French arms. 
 
 32 To Count Panin, the Russian minister, Count Cobentzel rested the 
 claims of Austria to retain the Roman Legations upon the right of conquest. 
 
 " How can the surrender of the three legations be demanded ? By the treaty 
 of Tolentino they were annexed 4 to the Cisalpine republic, which we have 
 conquered. They form a just compensation for the expenses of the war. I 
 do not doubt that my court would give up Piedmont to the King of Sardinia. 
 But Alexandria and Tortona having been detached from the Milanese by force 
 of arms, ought now, by the same right, to return to the dominion of Austria." 
 Cantu, Histoiredes Cent Ana, vol. ii. p. 173. 
 
 33 Letter of Lord Minto, May 179U.
 
 264 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Had Suwarrow been permitted at once to pursue the 
 victories by which he had chased the French beyond 
 the crest of the Alps, and march through Savoy with 
 the combined forces of Austria and Russia upon the 
 southern frontiers of the disheartened republic, the 
 future of Europe might in all probability have been 
 very different. But the Aulic council put their peremp- 
 tory veto upon this course. The veteran chief of 
 the Muscovites led his armies over the passes of the 
 St. Gothard to join the Austrian armies at Lucerne. 
 Before he could come to their assistance, they had 
 already been defeated by the French. The only result 
 of this terrible expedition was the deathless fame that 
 associates itself with the conflicts which he maintained 
 almost on the summits of the Alpine chain conflicts in 
 which armies denied along passes hitherto only trodden 
 by the step of the chamois hunter, and men fought 
 their death-struggle on the verge of precipices down 
 which the fallen combatant was precipitated into chasms 
 thousands of feet below. 33 
 
 The conduct of Austria, especially in refusing to 
 assent to the restoration of the king of Sardinia, had 
 given deep and just offence to the Russian emperor. 
 Napoleon dexterously availed himself of this dissatis- 
 faction. In his communications to the court of St. 
 Petersburgh, he dwelt upon the unprincipled ambition 
 which Austria had displayed. He artfully worked on 
 
 33 Near the summit of the pass of St. Gothard, the traveller may read, indi- 
 stinctly visible after sixty years, in which the winds and rains and frosts have 
 been carrying on the process of obliteration, the words which the veteran 
 warrior cut in gigantic characters in the rock " Suwarrow Victor."
 
 CHAP, vi.] MARENGO. 265 
 
 the emperor's pride by representing the studied indig- 
 nity which had been put upon him in countermanding 
 the invitation which Suwarrow had sent to the Sardinian 
 king. In the same communications he stated his own 
 willingness to replace the King of Sardinia, unless com- 
 pensation could be found for him elsewhere. Influenced 
 by these representations and by jealousy of the naval 
 supremacy of England in the Baltic, the Russian em- 
 peror refused to take any further part against France. 
 
 The defection of Russia soon after left Austria to 
 bear alone, or with the assistance of England, the force 
 of Napoleon's attack. The first consul, for Napoleon 
 had now attained that dignity, with marvellous secrecy 
 made his preparations to lead an army across the Alps. 
 In utter ignorance of the armaments that were marshal- 
 ling against them, the Austrian generals remained 
 inactive between the plains of Lombardy and the 
 fortresses of Piedmont. Negotiation between Austria 
 and England still pursued its slow contest for the dis- 
 posal of territories, the possession of which was not yet 
 secure. Within six months the armies of Napoleon 
 burst upon the astonished Austrians from every summit 
 of the Alps, and the victory of Marengo compelled 
 the imperial cabinet to seek in other means the realisa- 
 tion of their schemes of territorial aggrandisement. 
 
 Mortified by disappointment, and stung by the 
 injustice and bad faith with which he considered he 
 had been treated, Charles Emanuel refused to expose 
 his humiliation to his subjects in the island whose 
 hospitable refuge he had left in the triumph of a 
 monarch recovering his ancient domains. He retired
 
 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. t 
 
 to Naples, where he remained until the peace of Amiens 
 recognised on the part of England the annexation of 
 Savoy and Piedmont to France. In these multiplied 
 calamities he had recourse to the usual consolation of 
 the princes of his house. On the 4th of June, 1802, he 
 abdicated all that he retained of sovereignty in favour 
 of his brother, Victor Emanuel I., and devoted himself to 
 the austerities of that religion to which, like most of his 
 family, he was sincerely, if not superstitiously attached. 
 The year after the restoration the ex-king was ad- 
 mitted as one of the earliest novices of the revived Com- 
 pany of the Jesuits at Rome. 34 He lived however long 
 enough to see his brother ascend the throne of Piedmont. 
 He died in 1819, in the profession of the Order, and 
 within the walls of the convent into which he had been 
 received. 
 
 In the interim, Napoleon, after his reconquest of 
 Italy, in fulfilment of his pledge to Paul, made over- 
 tures to Charles Emanuel on the subject of his restora- 
 tion to the throne of his ancestors. 35 Few instances in 
 history exhibit more high and chivalrous honour than 
 is to be found in the answer of the exiled Sardinian 
 king. Notwithstanding the treatment he had received, 
 Charles Emanuel refused to enter on any negotiation 
 to which his allies should not be parties. When all 
 those allies, except England, had made peace with 
 France, he attempted to open the negotiations which 
 at first he had declined, but when he was ready to treat 
 with the first consul, the death of Paul had altered his 
 
 34 Annual Register, 1816, p. 118. 
 
 35 Denina, It Occident, voL v. pp. 281 283.
 
 CHAP, vi.] VICTOR EMANUEL IN SARDINIA. 2(57 
 
 position, and by a consular edict bearing date on the 
 llth of September, 1802, in reality issued at a later 
 period, Piedmont was incorporated with the republic 
 of France. 36 
 
 His brother, Victor Emanuel, in a year or two later 
 returned to the island which gave him the title, and in 
 which, even by the terms of his surrender to France he 
 still retained the authority, of a king. A short time 
 afterwards the English government came to the resolu- 
 tion of maintaining a fleet and an army in the Mediter- 
 ranean, to harass the French power in Italy. Sub- 
 sidies were offered to the Neapolitan and the Sardinian 
 king. Victor Emanuel rejected the assistance with the 
 proud reply : 
 
 " I do not want to become one of your Indian 
 Rajahs." 37 He had rankling in his breast the impres- 
 sion that his brother's cause had been betrayed by 
 England, both in the negotiations with Austria, and in 
 the completion of the peace of Amiens. At all events 
 he refused the subsidy which England offered, and pre- 
 ferred an honourable poverty to a dependence upon 
 the pension of a foreign state. 
 
 Immediately on hearing of the abdication of Napo- 
 leon, Lord William Bentinck, commanding the British 
 forces in Italy, despatched a special messenger to Victor 
 Emanuel, requesting him at once to take possession of 
 
 36 At the negotiations for the peace of Amiens it was proposed to indemnify 
 the King of Sardinia by lands in Greece, to be wrested from Turkey, to which 
 as heir of the princes of Achaia, he could prefer some obsolete claim. Sclopis, 
 Rdazioni, p. 121. 
 
 3? Martini, " Storia di Sardegna," p. 127; Cibrario, " Istituzione," p. 21 Oj 
 Qallenga, vol. iii. p. 302.
 
 268 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 his dominions. There seemed to be in the mind of 
 the English general some apprehensions that Austria 
 might renew her claims of 1799, and he was anxious 
 to anticipate the attempt. No such designs were 
 entertained by the imperial cabinet, or if they were, 
 at least they were abandoned with a good grace. On 
 the 25th of April, Prince Schwartzenberg issued a pro- 
 clamation to the Piedmontese, in which he announced 
 the restoration of their ancient sovereigns. An amnesty 
 was promised for all that was past. Services even in 
 the armies of the French would be only remembered 
 as proofs of the valour of the nation, not as evidence of 
 disloyalty to their legitimate prince. This was not 
 the only instance in which Austria dexterously assumed 
 the position of arbiter of the fate of Italy, and endea- 
 voured to make it appear that even for the favour of 
 an amnesty, the subjects of the restored princes were 
 indebted to the influence of the imperial counsels. 
 
 Victor Emanuel, as has been said, landed at Genoa 
 on the 12th, and entered Turin on the 20th May. By 
 a singular coincidence the vessel that was bearing him 
 home to his dominions, crossed the path of the English 
 frigate " Undaunted," which was carrying Napoleon to 
 Elba. The ships were close enough to enable the 
 attendants of the Sardinian king to distinguish with 
 their glasses the emperor on the deck. The English 
 vessel would of course have saluted the standard of the 
 Sardinian king. To avoid this, he ordered the course 
 of the ship to be changed, and spared his fallen enemy 
 the mortification of such a meeting. 38 
 
 39 Litta, Qollenga, vol. iii. p. 304.
 
 CHAP, vi.] THE RESTORATION. THE OLD ALMANACK. 269 
 
 The proceedings of Victor Emanuel on his return 
 were apparently not calculated to preserve the affection 
 which, on the occasion of his entry into Turin, his 
 people displayed. The very day after that entry he 
 issued a proclamation, by which all the laws of 1770 
 were restored. By this compendious edict all feudal 
 privileges were re-established all old penal laws were 
 revived. All the improvements which the government 
 of the French had introduced in the laws or the adminis- 
 tration, were annulled. The king's own expression was 
 that he desired everything that had passed in his 
 absence to be but as a dream. All ancient offices were 
 revived, and that everything might be at once brought 
 back to its old condition, it is said that one of his 
 courtiers brought the king a court almanack of 1795, 
 and a warrant was at once made out, reappointing to 
 their former situations all those whose names appeared 
 in its lists. The result was, of course, that many persons 
 were reappointed to their offices who had for years 
 been mouldering in their graves. 39 
 
 This edict destroyed the simple and public course 
 of legal trials, established by the Code Napoleon, 
 and substituted for it all the inconveniences of the 
 tribunals of the middle ages. Yet the change was 
 not unpopular at Turin. Upon the first sitting of the 
 restored tribunal, the populace testified their satisfaction 
 by breaking into the archives of the abolished court 
 of appeal, and destroying all the records of its pro- 
 ceedings. They were instigated probably by persons 
 
 59 Cibrario, " Instituzioue dolla Monarehia," p. 211.
 
 270 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 whose interest it was that these records should no 
 longer exist. 
 
 The king was very soon obliged to qualify the indis- 
 criminate restoration of the old laws by an edict, 
 abolishing the use of torture, and repealing that iniqui- 
 tous law which attached the penalty of infamy to the 
 relations of the guilty. But all the barbarous punish- 
 ments of a sanguinary age were still retained ; and in 
 the earlier years after his restoration criminals were 
 actually broken on the wheel. 
 
 The kingly prerogative was restored to all its ancient 
 powers ; among others, to that of the issue of the 
 " Viglietti reali ; " royal letters by which the king, as 
 supreme source of all criminal and civil justice, could 
 direct the arbitrary arrest of any of his subjects 
 or in civil cases suspend the course of justice in the 
 ordinary courts. 
 
 For this latter purpose they were freely used. 
 Debtors, who found favour with the court, were pro- 
 tected from any molestation by those to whom they 
 owed money. Suits upon contracts made during the 
 revolution were, in many cases, prohibited, and the 
 contracts thus virtually annulled. The old laws of 
 Sardinia gave to the king this supreme right of 
 equitable interference with the strict requirements of 
 the law. Upon the same principle on which is founded 
 the jurisdiction of the English Court of Chancery, 
 there was reserved to the sovereign the prerogative of 
 remedying the injustice that might often be done by a 
 strict adherence to the forms of law. The cruel and 
 vindictive creditor might reasonably be restrained by
 
 CHAP, vr] "VIGLIETTI REALI." 271 
 
 royal interference from the unjust exercise of his rights. 
 The successful litigant, who used his legal rights in 
 opposition to the dictates of natural justice, ought 
 in reason to be controlled. " Leges res surdae et 
 immutabiles." The royal authority was permitted to 
 step in and redress those grievances, which must occur 
 under the best regulated system of general rules. 
 
 Left to the personal discretion of the monarch this 
 power was used by Victor Emanuel, in several 
 instances at least, to annul the transactions and deal- 
 ings in private property which had taken place under 
 the hated revolutionary rule. Complaints were made to 
 the allied powers that they amounted to a violation of 
 the provisions of the treaty of Paris. The discontent 
 of the old republicans was increased by the manifest 
 exclusion of those who had been employed under the 
 French government, from their fair share of patronage 
 and promotion, perhaps even more so by the unwise and 
 churlish order which prohibited the use of the decora- 
 tion of the cross of the legion of honour or of the 
 iron crown. This narrow-minded prohibition deprived 
 some of the bravest of those veterans, whose services 
 to France the proclamation of Schwartzenberg had 
 promised should be remembered only as proofs of their 
 valour, of the poor satisfaction of exhibiting the hard- 
 won honours which formed the only recompence for 
 the spent years of their existence, their sufferings, and 
 their wounds. 
 
 In the laws relating to religion, Victor Emanuel 
 inherited all the prejudices of his house. His first act 
 on arriving at Turin was to close the universities ;
 
 272 HISTOKY OP ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 they were not opened until they were placed under 
 the direction of the Jesuits, to whom on their restora- 
 tion the whole control over Piedmontese education was 
 assigned. The laws against heretics were renewed with 
 all their intolerance. Not even the intercession of 
 Lord William Bentinck could obtain for the Protestants 
 of the Waldensian valleys the slightest relaxation in 
 those laws. To them the restoration of the ancient 
 sovereigns brought nothing but oppression. After the 
 perfect freedom and equality which they had enjoyed 
 under the government of France, they found them- 
 selves sent back to those oppressive laws, which barely 
 tolerated their existence within certain districts, and 
 even within those limits could scarcely be said to 
 permit them the free exercise of their religion. 40 
 
 Still further to show his devotion to the Holy See, 
 the king dispatched to the Pope as special ambassador, a 
 nobleman noted for his attachment to the Church. The 
 Marquis D'Azeglio was sent to Rome with a mission 
 which charged him to express to the Pontiff " the great 
 desire which the King of Sardinia entertained to do all 
 in his power to repair the serious injuries which the 
 Catholic religion had suffered both by the toleration 
 granted to other religions, as by the scandal caused to 
 Piedmont by the government of the French, and by 
 that spirit of independence of the Holy Apostolic See 
 which had been spread through the people to the injury 
 of that respect and devotion to the Chair of St. Peter 
 
 40 Under the Code Napoleon the Protestant inhabitants of the Piedmontese 
 valleys enjoyed perfect equality. The old laws of Piedmont confined them to 
 the valleys. They did not permit them to be physicians or advocates. 
 Bairds History of Italian Protestantism.
 
 CHAP, vi.] EMBASSY TO ROME. 273 
 
 which the king himself professed, and which he now 
 wished should also be the profession of his subjects." 
 
 The boon which the marquis was charged to obtain 
 from the Pontiff was the re-establishment of all the 
 ancient Piedmontese bishoprics, the organisation of a 
 plan for the restoration of the monastic orders in their 
 pristine numbers and splendour, and the foundation of 
 two colleges of Jesuits in the territories of the king. 
 
 The court of Rome received these professions with 
 great satisfaction, and took the opportunity of pressing 
 upon the representative of the pious monarch, the duty 
 of acknowledging the feudal supremacy of the Holy 
 See, by payment of the annual tribute of a golden 
 chalice, which it was alleged was the right of the 
 successors of St. Peter. The national pride of the 
 Sardinian king was touched. Ready as he was to pay 
 all spiritual obedience to Rome, he refused to acknow- 
 ledge his kingdom as a fief of its bishop. The demand 
 was followed by long and elaborate arguments between 
 the minister of the Pope and the representative of 
 the king. The concession of the annual homage of 
 this feudal service was in the end peremptorily refused, 
 and in the month of October the Marquis D'Azeglio 
 sought permission to retire from a position in which, 
 he stated, that he found it impossible to reconcile 
 the conflicting claims of loyalty to his sovereign, with 
 that duty of implicit obedience which he owed to the 
 Holy See. 
 
 Before he left Rome, he had manifested his own 
 devotion by a sacrifice far greater than that which was 
 demanded of his king. His eldest son renounced the 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 274 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 honours and the possessions of an illustrious and wealthy 
 family, and was among the first of the novices admitted 
 into the restored Order of Loyola. 
 
 Thus completely, within a few months after his 
 return, had the king restored all the former civil and 
 ecclesiastical state of things. He believed that he 
 could treat the French revolution as if it had never 
 been, and that a few royal ordinances could undo all 
 the lessons of its teaching, and reverse all the changes 
 of sentiment and opinion it had wrought. 
 
 Yet with all these reactionary proceedings, the 
 government of the new king was personally mild. 
 When the minister of the Austrian police handed to 
 Victor Emanuel a list of the persons suspected of 
 Jacobinism and freemasonry such was the odd collo- 
 cation of offences the king thanked him for his 
 trouble, burst into a laugh, and tore up the precious 
 document before his eyes. Arbitrary as was his system, 
 he was far from administering it in a tyrannical or 
 sanguinary spirit, and even those interferences with the 
 course of justice which struck at the security of all 
 private right, provoked no great unpopularity, except 
 with the adherents of the French government, against 
 whom they were generally directed. 
 
 The just complaints of these persons were, however, 
 influential enough to reach the courts of the allied 
 sovereigns, to whom complaints were made of the 
 reactionary system pursued in Piedmont, and Count 
 Joseph Le Maistre, the king's representative at the court 
 of Russia, was obliged to address to Alexander a long 
 memorial in which he endeavoured, not very success-
 
 CHAP, vi.] POLICY OP THE RESTORATION. 275 
 
 fully, to show that his sovereign had really adopted a 
 liberal policy since his restoration to his throne. There 
 is little reason to doubt that the character of his policy 
 had at all events its influence in preventing the success 
 of those representations which his ambassador at Lon- 
 don, the Count D'Aglie, addressed to Lord Castlereagh 
 claiming a larger accession of territory to strengthen 
 the Sardinian State. 
 
 However much we may condemn his policy, great 
 allowance must be made for the position of the king. 
 In the reaction against the tyranny of France, old 
 principles and old opinions had resumed to a great 
 extent their sway. There were many who saw in the 
 marvellous events of the revolution only the lesson that 
 absolute government was essential to public order and 
 the safety of states. The brother of the Princess 
 Lamballe had some excuse for regarding popular license 
 with horror ; and his own and his brother's calamities 
 not unnaturally impressed him with a belief that the 
 first duty of the restored monarchy was to undo all that 
 had been accomplished by the invasion of the legions of 
 France. 
 
 On the whole, it does not appear that the restoration 
 of arbitrary power produced among his own people any 
 very great or very general discontent. The institutions 
 which were destroyed had won no attachment from the 
 Piedmontese. Their destruction was rather looked on 
 with satisfaction as the downfall of a foreign domination, 
 from which the restoration of their national princes, 
 and even of their national laws was a relief. The 
 resumption of an absolute system of rule was marked 
 
 T 2
 
 276 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 by none of those acts of individual oppression which are 
 far more effectual than the establishment or overthrow 
 of any abstract principle of government in exciting 
 discontent. The masses of the Piedmontese people 
 were content to live under any government that left 
 them in quiet ; they rejoiced in the restoration of that 
 ancient line of sovereigns under whom in former times 
 their country had been prosperous and happy. In the 
 breast of the Piedmontese loyalty and a love of their 
 sovereigns was always a stronger passion than the love 
 of freedom, and in the first feeling of joy at the return 
 of their ancient dynasty, they acquiesced in the re- 
 enactment of all the ancient laws and in the restoration 
 of all the former customs which that return appeared of 
 necessity to involve. 
 
 Restored to his hereditary dominions, Victor Emanuel 
 made every effort to press upon the allies the necessity 
 of increasing his power, by assigning to him terri- 
 tories, which would make his kingdom strong enough 
 to be independent. This object was one that had 
 long engaged the thoughts of European statesmen. The 
 Russian emperor had recorded his opinion to that 
 effect. 41 Pitt, in 1805, had drawn up a memorandum, 
 in which he suggested that Genoa should be annexed to 
 the Italian dominions of the King of Sardinia, and 
 Dauphiny added to Savoy. 42 The Count D'Aglie, the 
 
 1)1 Gallenga, vol. iii. p. 303. 
 
 *- " In the combinations prepared by Russia in case of victory, it was 
 intended to constitute a Cisalpine realm formed of Piedmont without Savoy 
 but comprising Genoa, Lombardy, and the Venetian States. The realm to be 
 conferred upon the House of Savoy, as the nucleus of an Independent Italy in 
 the future. In the mean time this State was to be united by an Italian con-
 
 CHAP, vi] CLAIMS FOR ADDITIONAL TERRITORY. 277 
 
 minister of Victor Emanuel at the court of London, 
 pressed strongly on the English cabinet the importance 
 of large additions to the Piedmontese territories. An 
 able and elaborate memoir was placed by this minister 
 in the hands of Lord Castlereagh ; 43 and D'Aglie 
 appears so far to have succeeded in impressing his 
 views on English statesmen, that agents of the foreign 
 office were privately sent to Lombardy, to collect the 
 opinions of the people upon the subject of a union 
 with Piedmont ; M and something like an intimation was 
 given to the Sardinian envoy, that the cession of 
 Lombardy, as far as the Adige, would be proposed by 
 the representatives of England at the congress. 45 
 
 The memorandum of the Sardinian minister pointed 
 out, in plain terms, the danger to the independence of 
 Italy which would result from the preponderance of 
 Austrian power. He urged that the real security for 
 Italian independence, and therefore for European inde- 
 pendence, would be the formation of a kingdom in 
 Northern Italy strong enough to be a barrier against 
 ambitious designs, either on the part of Austria or 
 France. In an interview with the Sardinian minister, 
 Lord Castlereagh appeared convinced by the reasonings 
 of his memoir ; but added, that his chief embarrassment 
 
 federation to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies to the Pope as Grand Chan- 
 cellor of the confederation to the kingdom of Etruria and to the lesser 
 states of Lucca, Ragusa, Malta, and the Ionian Islands. The kings of the Two 
 Sicilies and Piedmont were to be in turns presidents of the confederation ; 
 Savoy, the Valteline, and the Grisons were to form a Swiss Canton." Cantu, 
 Histoire de Cent Ans, vol. ii. p. 342. 
 
 43 See this memoir, at length, post, vol. ii. chap. viii. 
 
 4 Farini, lib. iii. s, 6 ; Gualterio. 
 
 45 Gallenga, vol. iii. p. 304 ; Sclopis, p. 131173.
 
 278 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 arose from the policy pursued on his restoration by 
 the King of Sardinia himself. 46 
 
 These representations of the Sardinian minister were 
 probably influential in preventing the success of the 
 Austrian claims upon the High Novarese. To the 
 west of Lake Maggiore, and running far into the high- 
 lands which lie at the base of the chain of the St. 
 Gothard this district forms the natural protection of 
 the plain of Piedmont. The claims of Austria to the 
 possession of this district were pressed, not only at the 
 Congress of Vienna, but, as we shall see, upon sub- 
 sequent occasions, when the imperial cabinet supposed 
 their demands more likely to meet with support. 
 
 The Sardinian monarch received, however, the most 
 important acquisition ever attached to his domains. By 
 the annexation of the territories of the Genoese 
 republic to those of Piedmont, unquestionably the grand 
 object of strengthening Sardinia was attained. Whether 
 this object justified the allied sovereigns in adopting the 
 arrangement in which sovereign power destroyed the 
 nationality of this ancient republic, is a question upon 
 which the opinion of Europe was divided. It was one 
 that especially concerned England, to whose arms the 
 French troops had surrendered the possession of Genoa, 
 
 48 Lord Castlereagh, after having read Count D' Agile's letter, appeared con- 
 vinced of the advantage that would result to Europe from adding to the 
 territories of the kingdom of Sardinia, and held out expectations that some- 
 thing more than Liguria would be given ; and, at the same time, manifested 
 his vexation at the mode of government adopted by the court of Turin. 
 Parting with the ambassador, he said, " I must confess to you, my lord, that 
 the policy of your king, and the mode of government he haa adopted to his 
 people, places us in great embarrassment." Parini, Storia D'ltalia, voL i. 
 p. 99.
 
 -CHAP, vi.] GENOA. 279 
 
 and whose general had re-established the ancient 
 government ; and had, it was said, impliedly pledged 
 the faith of his nation to the continuance of its freedom. 
 
 Genoa was one of the three great maritime republics 
 of Italy which, for centuries, commanded the commerce 
 of the world, and disputed only with each other the 
 sovereignty of the seas. With Venice and Pisa she had 
 divided the wealth which the Crusades had poured into 
 the ports to whom belonged the carrying trade that 
 attended the transport and commissariat of the arma- 
 ments of Christendom. With these ports she shared, 
 in later years, the gains which belonged to the monopoly 
 of the commerce of the East. Pera, the suburb of Con- 
 stantinople, was a colony of Genoese merchants. She 
 disputed the possession of Tenedos and Cyprus in 
 long and sanguinary wars. Corsica submitted to her 
 dominion, until surrendered to France in 1724. On 
 the far-off shores of Asia, and even on those which 
 bounded the stormy waters of the Euxine, commerce 
 had borne her flag. The Tartar chiefs of Southern 
 Russia only destroyed her colonies in the Crimea, when 
 the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks had made 
 them useless by closing against her navy the passage 
 of the Dardanelles. 
 
 Genoa, like Venice, gave shelter to those who fled 
 from the desolating inroads of the barbarian hordes. 
 The rugged heights of the Apennines isolated the 
 Ligurian city on the western shores almost as completely 
 as the waters of the lagunes did the colony that took 
 refuge in the islands of Rialto. One solitary and diffi- 
 cult defile of the Bochetta was the pass to the shore
 
 280 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 where rose Genoa the Superb. Behind the shelter, and 
 probably the concealment of her mountains, Genoa 
 enjoyed an isolation as complete as that which Venice 
 found among her shoals. 
 
 The site of the city apparently presented few advan- 
 tages except its isolated position, and the magnificent 
 harbour which lay at its base. But Venice and Genoa 
 abundantly prove that the difficulty of access by land, 
 which would be fatal in modern times to a com- 
 mercial city, presented no obstacle to the growth of 
 mercantile greatness in the days when rapidity of 
 transport was not among the requirements of trade. 
 Against the barren heights of the Apennines rose the 
 palaces of those who were literally merchant princes 
 the nobles of a city which knew only the aristocracy 
 of commerce. A great population was soon attracted 
 to the abode of mercantile enterprise and wealth. 
 The city itself bore ample evidences of the prosperity 
 with which merchandise had enriched it. " Genoa the 
 Superb," and the " City 'of Palaces/' were the names by 
 which familiar language expressed the admiration of 
 Italy for the splendour of its mansions, and the beauty of 
 its unrivalled architecture. Even in its altered condition 
 it retains the splendour of the past. Built almost on the 
 last slope of the Apennines, which shelter it from the 
 winds of the north-east, it rises from the very shore of the 
 Tuscan Sea in a succession of noble terraces, on which 
 stand palaces of that pure and dazzling whiteness for 
 which the marble of the district is renowned. Stretch- 
 ing in a crescent along the line of its harbour, Genoa 
 presents to the eye of the visitor a panorama of
 
 CHAP, vi.] ANDREW DOEIA. 281 
 
 grandeur and of beauty with which few cities in the 
 world can compare. 
 
 In its earlier institutions Genoa, like other Italian 
 cities that existed at the first period of the empire, 
 followed the republican liberties of ancient Rome. 
 Charlemagne placed it under the rule of counts. In 
 the year 1096, the citizens asserted their independence, 
 and established a republic which, under many vicis- 
 situdes, with occasional interruptions from foreign 
 interference, may be said to have maintained its exis- 
 tence to the time of the first invasion of Italy by 
 the arms of republican France. 
 
 In the period of the deepest depression of Italy two 
 incidents in the history of Genoa redeem her annals 
 from obscurity, and elevate her character above the 
 low level to which the country had sunk. In the set- 
 tlements of Italian affairs that were accomplished by 
 the treaties of Chateau Cambresis and Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 Genoa preserved her independence. Upon each occa- 
 sion she owed this to the virtue and wisdom of her own 
 sons. First, perhaps, in rank as in time, we must place 
 the lofty patriotism of the great citizen Andrew Doria, 
 when he declined the proffered sovereignty of his 
 country, and obtaining instead the independence of 
 Genoa as the reward of his services to Charles V., lived 
 a private citizen among the people over whom he might 
 have reigned as their prince. 
 
 History records no nobler instance of self-denial 
 than is found in the conduct of this illustrious patriot, 
 who chose the perpetuation of his country's freedom, in 
 preference to securing its hereditary sovereignty for
 
 282 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 himself and his descendants. The glory of that noble 
 sacrifice cannot be marred by any defects which he 
 left in those republican institutions which his influence 
 with the emperor had preserved. Two centuries after- 
 wards, when all spirit and liberty appeared to have 
 passed from the Italian soil the countrymen of Andrew 
 Doria redeemed the darkness of the period by an act 
 of heroism which proved them not unworthy of the 
 inheritance which he had bequeathed to them. In the 
 wars which preceded the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the 
 inhabitants of Genoa had taken part against Austria, 
 chiefly in opposition to Piedmont, whose hostility they 
 feared. In 1745 the reverses of the Bourbonists and 
 the retreat of the French army into Provence, left them 
 exposed to the vengeance of their powerful foes. An 
 overwhelming Austrian and Piedmontese army invaded 
 their city. A British squadron blockaded their port. 
 The senate capitulated or rather surrendered uncon- 
 ditionally to the besieging host. The troops were given 
 up as prisoners of war, and the senate undertook to 
 send the Doge and six of their body to make their 
 submission at the footstool of Maria Theresa. Adorno, 
 the Austrian general, entered Genoa a conqueror with 
 an army of 15,000 men. Their occupation lasted 
 several months. It was marked by more than the 
 usual insolence of conquering troops. Exactions of un- 
 paralleled amount impoverished the citizens the law- 
 less excesses of the soldiery were left unpunished by 
 their superiors. The haughty Genoese were made to 
 feel the bitter humiliation of the vanquished. As is 
 frequently the case an outrage to an individual
 
 CHAP, vi.] EXPULSION OF THE AUSTEIANS. 283 
 
 provoked the people to the redress of their public 
 wrongs. 
 
 One of the Austrian officers struck with his cane a 
 citizen, who happened to be passing in the streets when 
 a gun-carriage broke down, and who refused to comply 
 with the imperious demand which was made upon him 
 to assist the soldiers in its reparation. The sense of 
 freedom was roused at the insult, and the blow was 
 resented by one that left the officer prostrate on the 
 ground. The soldiers attempted to punish the assailant 
 of their superior, but the mob of Genoese retaliated with 
 a shower of stones. The conflict soon became a mortal 
 one, and in a few hours the whole population rushed 
 upon the Austrian soldiers wherever they were to be 
 found. In vain their commanders attempted to bring 
 their discipline to bear. In the narrow streets of the 
 city they were assaulted by all the missiles which rage 
 supplied to the infuriated inmates of the houses along 
 which they passed. Every house and every palace in 
 Genoa was filled with men determined to conquer the 
 insolent invaders or to die. Within twenty-four hours 
 the unprecedented exploit was achieved by which an 
 unconcerted rising of an unarmed populace drove from 
 their city a numerous and disciplined body. The 
 Austrian soldiers left behind them no less than eight 
 thousand of their comrades slain by the people. In 
 their flight they abandoned all their artillery and 
 stores. 
 
 The peasantry of the surrounding district joined in 
 the pursuit, by which the Austrians were driven beyond 
 the mountain barriers of the state. All the munitions
 
 284 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 of war of the enemy had fallen into the hands of this 
 hastily raised army, who thus found two arsenals, that 
 of Genoa and that of its invaders, at their command. 
 The cannon of the Austrians were placed on the ram- 
 parts which already bristled with those of the Genoese. 
 The guns were dragged to the mountain heights, and 
 soon commanded every pass through the defiles, and 
 while the miserable deputies were endeavouring at 
 Vienna to appease imperial wrath, by representing this 
 glorious exploit as the work of the rabble, the liberties 
 and independence of Genoa were achieved. 
 
 All classes now joined in resistance to the invasion 
 of the returning Austrian army, which they well knew 
 would inflict upon their heroic city the vengeance of 
 extermination. The treasured jewels of families in 
 which they had been heirlooms for centuries were 
 eagerly brought by the fair owners as offerings to the 
 national treasury the noblest citizens served as private 
 soldiers on the ramparts and in the fortresses on the 
 hills. As the city became invested, every householder 
 submitted to a voluntary short allowance, that their 
 provisions might last throughout the siege. The 
 besieging troops were repulsed in every attack, and 
 at last a French army arrived again in Italy and com- 
 pelled the Austrians to retire. 
 
 Next year the potentates of Europe recognised the 
 independence of Genoa, in the provisions of the treaty 
 of Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 
 In 1796 the French took advantage of disturbances, 
 excited probably by themselves, in order to establish 
 in Genoa democratic freedom by their arms. A
 
 CHAP, vi.] LIGURIAN REPUBLIC. 285 
 
 republic was formed, including all the territories of 
 the state, and bearing the name of the Ligurian. Its 
 history was the same as that of the other republics, 
 which were indebted for their existence to the revolu- 
 tionary propagandism of France. Framed on the 
 model of the French, it rested on the widest basis of 
 equality and the rights of man. The sovereign people 
 numbered in their citizens not only the inhabitants of 
 the town, but all the population of the province. 
 The republic lasted until 1805, when the senate 
 were compelled to seek incorporation with the newly 
 formed empire of Napoleon, and the department 
 of Liguria was added to the divisions of imperial 
 France. 
 
 It is scarcely worth while to notice the short inter- 
 ruption to the French dominion, which occurred in 
 1799. In that year Massena had flung his army into 
 Genoa ; besieged by an Austrian army and blockaded 
 by an English squadron, under Lord Keith, he was 
 obliged to capitulate. The victory of Marengo and the 
 consequent convention of Montebello very soon restored 
 the French sovereignty. It continued until, in the 
 very last days of Napoleon's power, indeed after that 
 power was at an end in France, Genoa was sur- 
 rendered by the French commander to the British 
 arms. 
 
 On the 29th of March, 1814, Lord William Bentinck 
 landed at Spezzia, with an army of English and Sicilians 
 of about 12,000 men. His banners bore on them the 
 words, almost possessing a magic influence, " Inde- 
 pendence of Italy," and in glowing proclamations he
 
 286 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 called on all Italians to unite with him in achieving 
 the freedom and independence of their native land. 47 
 
 Advancing through the romantic denies of the 
 Apennines, he drove the French from every position 
 they attempted to defend ; and, within a month from 
 his landing at Spezzia, his invading army had occupied 
 the heights immediately above the town. The French 
 garrison were driven within the ramparts. All prepara- 
 tions were made to carry them by cannonade and 
 assault. On the same day the naval squadron of Sir 
 E. Pellew cast anchor in the bay, prepared to second 
 the land attack by a simultaneous bombardment from 
 the sea. Two ships of the line and four gun-brigs had 
 previously accompanied the expedition, and their efforts 
 materially contributed to the dislodgement of the 
 French from their position outside the ramparts. 
 
 4 7 This proclamation has been frequently referred to : 
 
 " Rise ! Italians, rise ! Behold us here to aid you. Behold us here to 
 remove from your necks the iron yoke of Buonaparte. Portugal, Spain, 
 Sicily, Holland, -will declare to you the greatness of England's generosity, the 
 purity of her disinterested zeal. Spain has been freed by her own valour, and 
 by our aid ; both have united in completing a work the noblest among the 
 noble. The French being driven forth from her happy fields, liberty and 
 independence have there fixed their seat. Under the shadow of England has 
 Sicily been screened from the comnTon misfortunes ; through the benevolence 
 of a virtuous prince she has passed from servitude to liberty, and now demon- 
 strates the glory and felicity which a free constitution confers. Holland also 
 struggled for freedom. Will Italy alone remain in bondage? Will Italians 
 alone direct their ensanguined swords against each other, to subject their 
 country to the wiH of a tyrant 1 To you, soldiers of Italy, we especially 
 address our words to you, in whose hands is placed the completion of a 
 generous enterprise. We ask you not to come over to us ; our voices exhort 
 you only to assert your rights, to re-establish your liberties. We will applaud 
 you afar off; we will join you when summoned ; and, if you add your force to 
 ours, Italy may, perhaps, be restored to her ancient destiny ; and perhaps the 
 same fame may be won by her which has been won by Spain." Proclamation 
 of Lord WiUiam Bentinck, March ith, 1814.
 
 CHAP, vi.] SURRENDER OF GENOA. 287 
 
 The evening before the day on which the cannonade 
 was to commence, a deputation of the inhabitants 
 visited Lord William Bentinck, begging of him to post- 
 pone the bombardment for a few days, as the accounts 
 from Paris made it certain that within this time the war 
 would be at an end. The British general replied that 
 these were arguments to be addressed to the French 
 commander and not to him. " It was for the French 
 general to abandon a town he could not defend, and 
 for him to push an advantage which fortune had put 
 within his reach." 48 
 
 In these days of rapid communication, when intelli- 
 gence is carried on the wings and with the speed of 
 the lightning, we are almost startled at the statements 
 which tell us, that while the abdication of Napoleon had 
 been completed at Paris on the 5th, Genoa on the 17th 
 of April was on the point of being laid in ruins to 
 detach it from the empire of France. For nearly a fort- 
 night that empire had ceased to exist. The useless 
 waste of human life was happily spared. The remon- 
 strances of the Genoese with the French commander 
 were effectual. On the following day a capitulation 
 was signed. The French garrison marched out with 
 the honours of war. All the French marine in Genoa, 
 including several ships of war, was surrendered to the 
 English navy. Genoa itself was given up to the com- 
 bined English and Sicilian troops. 
 
 The first act of Lord William Bentinck on entering 
 was to issue a proclamation to the people, in the 
 beginning of which he declared that " it was the 
 
 48 Lord William Bentinck's Despatches, Annual Register, 18 H.
 
 288 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 universal desire of the Genoese nation to return to 
 their ancient government, under which it enjoyed 
 liberty, prosperity, and independence," and also that 
 this desire was conformable to the principles acknow- 
 ledged by the high allied powers to re-establish their 
 ancient rights and privileges." Based upon this state- 
 ment was the announcement that the constitution which 
 existed in Genoa in 1 79 7 was restored, and a provisional 
 government appointed to carry its principles into full 
 effect. 
 
 However this proclamation may have conveyed to the 
 sanguine Genoese in the first transports of their joy, that 
 England was pledged to secure for them their ancient 
 government ; sinister rumours soon reached them that 
 in the informal deliberations which had taken place at 
 Paris, the annexation of their country to Piedmont had 
 been already resolved. Upon the grounds of general 
 policy the expediency of such a step seemed evident 
 enough. Considering the importance of strengthening 
 Sardinia, the annexation of the Genoese territory was 
 a necessity. Extending at the head of the Gulf of 
 Genoa, from Spezzia to Nice, that narrow strip of land 
 cut off from Piedmont for that long distance her sea- 
 board. It might be said to deprive her throughout 
 a great portion of her territory of that access to the 
 ocean which is one of the great elements of national 
 strength. Without the possession of Genoa, Piedmont 
 had only a few miles of coast, and but one seaport, 
 that of Nice. The want of this territory was to Pied- 
 mont more than a loss, it was a danger. In hostile 
 hands Genoa at once exposed Piedmont to invasion,
 
 CHAP, vi.] RESISTANCE OF THE GENOESE. 289 
 
 its occupation by France at any time made of no avail 
 Sardinia's prized command of the passes of the Alps. 
 
 It was not to be expected that considerations like 
 these, however they weighed with the statesmen who 
 were about to deal with the destinies of Europe, would 
 have much influence over the excited feelings of the 
 Genoese. With them the annexation to Piedmont was 
 the subjugation of their country to a foreign yoke a 
 subjugation rendered more galling by the contempt 
 with which these proud republican patricians had long 
 looked down upon the Savoyards and Piedmontese. 
 Every effort was made to arrest their inevitable doom. 
 An envoy was despatched to Paris personally to press 
 their remonstrance both upon the Emperor Alexander 
 and upon Lord Castlereagh. An appeal was made to 
 English faith, supposed to be pledged by the acts of 
 Lord William Bentinck, and a manly and dignified 
 protest to all the powers of Europe, recorded on the 
 part of the still proud republic her denial of their right 
 to give away the freedom and independence which had 
 come down to Genoa by a title more ancient than any 
 of their crowns. 50 
 
 To these general arguments there could only be 
 offered one reply : Genoa had become French by 
 conquest, and by conquest it had passed from Napoleon 
 to the disposal of the allies. The nature of the trans- 
 actions which occurred at the time of the surrender was 
 relied on by the English ministers in the subsequent 
 discussion, as entirely excluding any complaint as to the 
 future disposal of Genoa, and reducing it to the ordinary 
 
 50 Annual Register, 1814, History, p. 85.
 
 290 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 case of a surrender of territory to victorious military 
 force. As to the alleged violation of faith on the part 
 of England, it was replied that, if no compact previous 
 to the surrender could be established, the question 
 of good faith was at an end ; but, giving even the 
 fullest and most stringent effect to declarations made 
 after he was in possession of the town, it was denied 
 that Lord William Bentinck had ever pledged the faith 
 of England, or that he had power to do so. His pro- 
 clamation was alleged to mean nothing more than the 
 establishment of a present arrangement, the permanence 
 of which must depend entirely upon the resolve of others 
 whose deliberations he had no power to control, and 
 whose intentions, even if they could then have been 
 formed, he had not the slightest authority to represent. 51 
 A protocol of the 14th December 1814 recorded the 
 formal determination of the Congress of Vienna that 
 Genoa was henceforth to be incorporated with the 
 Sardinian States. The intelligence was brought to 
 Genoa by the Marquis de Carail, aide-de-camp to the 
 
 51 Whatever may be thought of the transactions relating to Genoa, it appears 
 plain that Lord William Bentinck exceeded his instructions even in the steps 
 which he did take. 
 
 On the 15th of February, 1814, Lord Castlereagh addressed him a despatch, 
 in which, after instructing him that the British cabinet earnestly wished to 
 see both the Grand Dnke of Tuscany and the King of Sardinia restored to their 
 dominions, he continued, " You will studiously abstain from encouraging 
 any measure which might commit the court or the allies with respect to the 
 ultimate disposition of any of the other territories in the north of Italy, the 
 destination of which must remain to be discussed at a peace." Despatch of 
 Lord Catllereagh, Feb. 15, 1814. Parliamentary Paper, 1821. 
 
 On the 28th of December previously, Lord Bathurst had written to him, 
 
 " Provided it be clearly with the concurrence of the inhabitants, you may take 
 possession of Genoa in the name and on the behalf of his Sardinian Majesty." 
 Lord Bathurst' s Despatch. Castlereagh Papers.
 
 CHAP, vi.] LORD CASTLEREAGH'S LETTER, 291 
 
 King of Sardinia, and son of the minister representing 
 Sardinia at the congress. At the same time a letter was 
 delivered from Lord Castlereagh to General Dalrymple, 
 who had succeeded Lord William Bentinck in the 
 command of the British troops. In this letter the 
 general was desired to take all proper steps to hand 
 over Genoa to his Sardinian majesty ; and, for this 
 purpose, to regard his corps as auxiliary to the troops 
 of the king. 
 
 The letter to General Dalrymple attempted to excuse 
 or at least extenuate to the Genoese the apparent 
 severity of the act. " I exceedingly regret," wrote 
 Lord Castlereagh, " as well as do all the ministers, the 
 not being able to preserve to Genoa a separate existence 
 without the risk of weakening the system adopted for 
 Italy, and consequently exposing its safety. But we are 
 persuaded that, by the mode adopted, we have provided 
 much more strongly for the future tranquillity of Genoa 
 and the prosperity of her commerce. The generous dispo- 
 sition of the King of Sardinia, whose ardent desire it is 
 to fulfil as much as possible the wishes of the Genoese, 
 will be to them the most certain pledge of their being 
 placed under the protection of a liberal and paternal 
 government. I have no doubt that, under these circum- 
 stances, the Genoese of every class will receive the 
 decision as a benefit, and will conform to the present 
 arrangements which will conciliate their own interests 
 with those of the rest of Europe." 52 
 
 The people of Genoa received with intense indigna- 
 tion the decree that thus destroyed their independence.. 
 
 52 Annual Register, 1814, History, p. 85. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. t 
 
 The British government was openly accused of perfidy. 
 Genoa was one scene of universal discontent. Resist- 
 ance, however, even if it were thought of, would have 
 been in vain. The authority of the Sardinian monarch 
 was quietly established, and under the terrors of British 
 cannon the standard of Savoy floated on the walls that 
 had once been those of the Genoese republic. 
 
 Early in 1815 this transaction gave rise to debates 
 in both houses of the British parliament. Resolutions 
 strongly condemning the annexation of Genoa to 
 Piedmont were moved in the house of lords by the 
 Marquis of Buckingham, and in the commons by Sir 
 James Mackintosh. In the upper house they were 
 defeated by a majority of 111 to 39, in the lower by 
 171 to 60. 53 The annexation was, of course, formally 
 ratified by the general treaty of Vienna, and the title of 
 Duke of Genoa was added to those already borne by 
 the Sardinian king. 
 
 Thus, after a long interval another step was made in 
 that process of annexation by which the territories of 
 the House of Savoy had been gradually enlarged. 
 Imperceptibly, almost, had those territories expanded 
 from the valleys of Susa and Aosta, until they included 
 all the plains of Piedmont. The treaty of Utrecht 
 had given to Piedmont the long coveted possessions of 
 Alessandria and Montferrat. A century had passed 
 when Genoa, with her dominions, was annexed by the 
 Congress of Vienna. In times more recent, after a 
 second interval of half a century, we have seen another 
 long cherished project carried out. The territory which 
 
 51 Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, 1815.
 
 CHAP, vi.] PROGRESS OP SAVOY. 293 
 
 D' Agile claimed in vain from Lord Castlereagh has been 
 gained by events which no one could have conjectured 
 or foreseen. The project was far older than the days 
 of the Congress of Vienna. Charles Emanuel I. had 
 struggled for it, Henry IV. of France had pointed it 
 out to him as the natural destiny of his race. Amadeus 
 VIII. (A.D. 1434) had formed the plan of uniting Milan 
 with Piedmont, and establishing a kingdom of Northern 
 Italy. 54 The design was abandoned by that ambitious 
 but prudent prince. It was reserved for his descendant 
 four centuries afterwards to carry that project into 
 effect. 
 
 This is not all. Once more we see the offers of 
 voluntary cession from independent states which in the 
 earlier period of their history added to their rising 
 territories Cuneo and Nice. In 1859 we appear to 
 recall the scenes of 1384, and after the lapse of five 
 centuries we find Tuscany seeking the privilege of 
 that incorporation with Piedmont which was long ago 
 asked as a boon by the citizens of Nice. 
 
 Whatever is to be the future destiny of a kingdom 
 whose origin and progress have been marked by so many 
 strange adventures, we cannot but see in the long con- 
 
 64 Philip Maria Visconti, who was Duke of Milan in the beginning of the 
 tenth century, was married to a daughter of Amadeus VIIL, the tenth Duke 
 of Savoy. Philip Maria had no children ; and, in 1434, Amadeus proposed an 
 alliance between Savoy and Milan upon the terms that, on the death of either 
 of the sovereigns without heirs, the other should inherit the dominions of both. 
 
 Instead of acceding to this proposal, Philip Maria threw himself into the 
 arms of Sforza, whose family succeeded that of the Visconti in the lordship of 
 Milan. At a later period, Charles Emanuel I. had nearly accomplished the 
 union of the duchy of Milan to Piedmont. In 1585 he married the sister of 
 Philip II., king of Spain, and as part of her dowry the duchy of Milan was 
 settled on her eldest son. The first-born died in infancy ; the court of Spain 
 denied that they were bound by any agreement in favour of the next.
 
 294 HISTOKY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 tinuance of this dynasty another instance of that which 
 seems the universal law of human affairs a law that 
 regulates small principalities as well as great. Power, 
 to be permanent, must be slow in its growth. Empires 
 that are rapidly constructed are almost as rapidly 
 broken up. It is in slow and gradual acquisition that 
 the foundations of permanence are laid. Rome had not 
 conquered Italy at the end of 500 years. Russia has 
 extended her frontiers with slow but sure advance. 
 The progress both of Savoy and Hapsburgh illustrates 
 in modern times how power by degrees is surely con- 
 solidated and built up. On the other hand, the empire of 
 the great Alexander can hardly be said to have survived 
 himself. That of Charlemagne scarcely outlasted two 
 generations of his descendants, and Napoleon lived to 
 see all his mighty conquests scattered to the winds. 
 
 In the period that has elapsed since the Congress of 
 Vienna, the princes of Savoy have alone among Italian 
 sovereigns maintained the Italian interest. All others 
 represented not Italy, but one or other of the European 
 powers. One Spanish Bourbon had been placed on the 
 throne of the Sicilies. Lucca was assigned as the tem- 
 porary possession of another. At Parma an Austrian 
 archduchess occupied the seat of the Farnese. Tuscany 
 had been handed over to the younger branches of the 
 imperial line of Lorraine. In the archduke who ruled 
 at Modena no one thought of recognising a represen- 
 tative of the House of Este. From the roll of Italian 
 sovereigns the old names of the country had disappeared. 
 The princes of Savoy, alone among them all, could trace 
 a possession in Italy for even one hundred years.
 
 CHAP, vi.] NATIONALITY OF ITS PRINCES. 295 
 
 Among those sovereigns Victor Emanuel stood alone. 
 The inheritor of an independent sovereignty of eight 
 hundred years, was actuated by feelings very different 
 from those of princes, all of whose thrones were more or 
 less connected with the successive invasions of the 
 foreigner. From the days of the treaty of Chateau Cam- 
 bresis, it had become the traditional policy of his family 
 to regard themselves as the guardians of Italy against 
 foreign influence. " I know that these foreigners hate 
 me," said Emanuel Philibert, "but no Italian state, 
 least of all Venice, can be indifferent to my fall." 
 These traditions had descended to Victor Emanuel 
 with his crown. No sympathy for arbitrary power 
 was able to overcome them ; and when free institutions 
 became the symbol of Italian nationality, rather than 
 desert its cause, a sovereign of Piedmont granted them 
 to his people. 
 
 Strange, we have said, would have been the prophecy 
 which would have predicted to the Lombard league, 
 that when every free city in Italy had fallen, a prince 
 of Savoy should alone maintain the cause of her 
 independence. Stranger still is the destiny which 
 ordained that of all the sovereigns whom the abdication 
 of Napoleon restored, but one could justly claim to be 
 an Italian prince, that one deriving the historic title of 
 his family from a principality on the other side of the 
 Alps.
 
 296 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Naples and Sicily Condition under Spanish rule, insurrections against it 
 Charles Bourbon He confers the crown upon his third son Ferdinand 
 Long and eventful reign of Ferdinand His neglected education His 
 early pursuits Marriage with Caroline of Austria French revolution 
 League of Italian sovereigns proposed by Naples Treaty with France 
 Severities practised at Naples Lady Hamilton Lord Nelson's visit to 
 Naples King of Naples joins coalition against France Letter to Sar- 
 dinian minister Neapolitan troops occupy Rome Invitation to the Pope 
 to return Ferdinand's flight from Rome Change of dresses with the 
 Duke of Ascoli Retaking of Rome by the French Championet invades 
 the Neapolitan territory Proclamation of the king Desperate resistance 
 of the peasantry to the French Flight of the king to Sicily on board 
 Lord Nelson's ship Remonstrances of the people The French enter 
 Naples Resistance of the Lazzaroni St. Januarius Parthenopean 
 republic proclaimed. 
 
 No portion of the recent history of Italy presents to 
 us incidents of deeper interest than those which are 
 recorded in the modern annals of the kingdoms of Sicily 
 and Naples. In no Italian state were the vicissitudes of 
 the French revolutionary wars so severely felt, in none 
 has the settlement effected by the Congress of Vienna 
 produced more unsatisfactory results. In none have 
 there been the same struggles on the part of the people 
 to free themselves from the dominion of their rulers. 
 
 Ferdinand I. of Sicily and IV. of Naples, was on the 
 throne of these realms at the commencement of the
 
 CHAP, vii.] FERDINAND I. AND II. 297 
 
 French revolution. In Sicily he maintained his do- 
 minion throughout all the changes and chances of its 
 wars. From Naples he had been driven for a few 
 months in 1799. A second time he was compelled to 
 leave it in 1806, and his exile then lasted for nine 
 years. Upon each occasion he found refuge in Sicily : 
 upon each occasion protected by British arms. 
 
 The Neapolitan people saw in his person reigning 
 over them, the first time for more than two centuries, a 
 sovereign of Italian birth. He was the son and suc- 
 cessor of that Don Carlos, better known in Italian 
 history as Charles Bourbon, who in 1734 had won with 
 his sword the kingdoms which European diplomacy had 
 assigned as the inheritance of the House of Austria. 
 
 For two centuries previously these unhappy kingdoms 
 had been placed under the worst of all possible forms of 
 government, that of the viceroys of a distant despot. 
 Descending from Charles V. to his son, the gloomy and 
 cruel fanatic Philip II., they were visited during his 
 long reign with the evils which the rule of a despot in 
 politics and a bigot in religion was calculated to inflict. 
 Under his successors their state was not improved. 
 Exorbitant taxation reduced the common people to the 
 want of the common necessaries of life. Imposts upon 
 meat and bread compelled them to live upon fruits. It 
 was the attempt to impose a tax upon these latter which 
 provoked that bold insurrection of Massaniello, which the 
 charms of music and the drama have made familiar to the 
 lovers of the stage. Fifty years previously an enthusiast 
 friar had excited the people of Calabria to strike a blow 
 for their freedom. These revolts, like two others which
 
 298 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 were attempted in Sicily were suppressed, 1 and Spanish 
 dominion continued to oppress and waste the fairest 
 provinces of Italy, until the death of the last of that 
 branch of the House of Hapsburgh severed the tie 
 that had so long bound them to the Spanish crown. 2 
 Through the long and gloomy period of that subjuga- 
 
 1 In 1674, the people of Messina, provoked by a violation of their municipal 
 privileges, rose against their Spanish oppressors in an insurrection which was 
 not suppressed for four years. 
 
 The Messinese in this revolt were supported by Louis XIV., who was at 
 Messina proclaimed King of Sicily. After four years struggle he basely and 
 treacherously abandoned the Sicilian insurgents to their fate. The vengeance 
 of the Spaniards inflicted on Messina evils from which it has never since 
 altogether recovered. Giannone; Muratori; PercevaFt Italy, 
 
 In 1647 a scarcity at Palermo had provoked a popular rising, which a 
 mixture of kindness and firmness on the part of the viceroy easily suppressed. 
 Muratori, in anno. 
 
 In the same year the imposition of excessive taxes provoked in Naples the 
 revolt which was headed by the poor fisherman, Tomaso Aniello, better 
 known as Mas? aniello. The best account of Massaniello's insurrection is to be 
 found in Reumont's " History of the Carafas of Maddaloni." See also Giannone. 
 Muratori, in anno, 1647. 
 
 Fifty years before Tomaso, Campanella, a Dominican friar who had incurred, 
 either for heterodoxy, or irregularities of life, the penalties of the Roman 
 inquisition, excited a revolt. Released from their prisons, he preached in 
 Calabria a crusade of civil and religious liberty, in which he found sup- 
 porters in the brothers of his own Order. He is said to have been seven 
 times put to the torture, and to have passed twenty-seven years of his life in 
 prison. Giannone ; Collettas History of Naples ; Perceval's Italy. 
 
 Campanella must have been a man of very superior attainments. Some 
 of his writings have been republished in modern times. He warned his 
 countrymen against the fatal mistake of trusting to foreign aid. 
 
 " Were the Italian relations quite different, no Italian prince ought to rely 
 upon foreign aid, for he who comes does not come for love of us, but to take 
 what we possess, or to dispute with others about it. Foreign aid is at all times 
 an ill advised measure. It is folly in Italian princes to have faith in France, 
 Spain, Germany, or other countries. They should place their reliance only in 
 God, and in union with each other. The old prophets warned the Hebrew 
 kings of it, and even the wicked Macbiavelli is full of this doctrine." Fra 
 Thomaso CampaneUa. Discorsi Politici al principi d' Italia : pubbli da P. Oarsili, 
 Naples, 1848. 
 
 * For the oppression of the Spanish viceroys, see Giannone, and Reumont's 
 " History of the Carafas." The Italian proverb said, that the viceroy "gnawed 
 at Sicily, ate at Naples, and devoured at Milan."
 
 CHAP, vii.] CHARLES BOURBON. 299 
 
 tion the people both of Sicily and Naples successfully 
 resisted the attempt to introduce among them the 
 ferocious tribunal of the Spanish inquisition. So 
 violently was the attempt resisted at Naples, that even 
 the power of the Emperor Charles V. was obliged 
 to give way, and permit his viceroy to retract the 
 hateful decree by which the dreaded tribunal had been 
 set up. 
 
 In the short period during which they had been 
 ruled by the German princes of the House of Haps- 
 burgh, the people of Naples and Sicily found no 
 improvement of their condition. When Charles Bourbon 
 distributed his proclamations, announcing that he had 
 come to free them from the oppression of the Germans, 
 he was received by all classes as their deliverer, and his 
 conquest of the kingdom was hailed as a national 
 triumph. Not the least of his recommendations to 
 popular favour was his pledge that he would never 
 permit the inquisition to be established. 
 
 Charles Bourbon was proclaimed King of Naples on 
 the 15th of June, 1734. He was then but eighteen 
 years of age. For twenty-five years he governed in a 
 reign which was long remembered as one of energy and 
 prudence. After that period the chances of family 
 succession called him to the throne of Spain. Bound 
 by the obligations of treaty not to unite his Italian 
 and Spanish crowns, he appointed as his successor 
 his third son. He had the misfortune of finding in his 
 eldest an imbecile, and his second was therefore destined 
 to succeed him as the wearer of the Spanish crown. 
 On his third son Ferdinand he conferred the crown
 
 300 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 of Sicily and Naples, and on the 6th of October, 
 1759, the youthful prince, a boy of only eight years 
 old, received from his father the solemn investiture of 
 his kingdom. 
 
 The ceremony is described as a remarkable one. 
 Assembling the great officers of state and the barons 
 of the kingdom, Charles transferred all his rights to 
 the boy, whom he presented to them as their king. 
 The deed by which he conferred upon him the kingdom 
 was read. The council of regency was nominated, 
 at the head of which was placed Tanucci, the wise and 
 patriotic minister of the departing king. Charles then 
 turned to the boy, who was now the sovereign of the 
 two kingdoms, solemnly gave him his blessing, and 
 placing in his hand the sword he himself had received 
 from his father, as that father had from Louis XIV., 
 he charged him to use it for the defence of religion and 
 his subjects. " I charge your majesty," he continued, 
 as the wondering eye of the boy dilated at the title, " I 
 charge your majesty, solemnly before God, to love your 
 subjects, to be true to your religion, to do justice and 
 to love mercy." Before the evening sun went down 
 upon the waters, Charles Bourbon on board a vessel 
 of the Spanish fleet, was on his way to take possession 
 of the more important inheritance to which he was 
 called. 
 
 The little child who thus received a father's blessing, 
 as that father placed him on the perilous elevation of 
 a throne, outlived the French revolution. Ascending 
 the throne in 1759, he died in 1825 the longest 
 reign that is recorded of any European king.
 
 CHAP, vn] LONG REIGN OF FERDINAND. 301 
 
 He witnessed three revolutions in his capital, yet 
 saw before his death the most absolute form of 
 despotism restored. When, in 1815, he was recognised 
 as sovereign by the allied powers, he could assert in his 
 own person the title that is derived from an uninter- 
 rupted possession of very nearly sixty years. The 
 interval between the beginning of his reign and its 
 termination, almost exhausted the three-score years 
 and ten of man's allotted life. Few of those who 
 remembered his accession survived to follow him to the 
 grave. Before that grave had closed on him, the early 
 years of his reign were forgotten among the events of 
 the remote history of the past. 
 
 The vicissitudes of his long and eventful reign pos- 
 sess an interest, especially for the English reader, of 
 no ordinary kind. Their memories are associated with 
 those of England's great naval hero. The retreat of 
 the exiled monarch in Sicily was marked by the resto- 
 ration to that island of the powers of a constitution, 
 modelled on that of England. Protected and reno- 
 vated under the influence of the British cabinet, a few 
 years afterwards the freedom of Sicily was, with the 
 acquiescence of that same cabinet, destroyed. 
 
 The closing years of this reign were identified with 
 events of still more general interest. Restored to his 
 dominions, Ferdinand lived to witness another revolu- 
 tion, memorable for having established Neapolitan 
 liberty without violence, outrage, or bloodshed ; still 
 more memorable for having called into action those 
 principles of despotic combination on the part of 
 monarchs, which, had they been persevered in, must
 
 302 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 have crushed all hopes of improvement in the condition 
 of the subjects of states in which absolute form of 
 government prevails. The Neapolitan revolution of 
 1820, and the conferences of Troppau, Laybach, 
 and Verona, connect the name of Ferdinand and of 
 Naples with events of the deepest importance to the 
 progress of liberty in every nation in Europe. 
 
 In Naples itself, his reign is unhappily associated 
 with terrible remembrances. As we read of the revenge 
 of the returning monarch, which has stained his annals 
 deep with the dye of blood, as we find him later 
 in life destroying the constitution which he had solemnly 
 sworn to maintain we involuntarily turn back to that 
 opening scene, when with a father's blessing, he received 
 a father's solemn charge to do justice and love mercy. 
 These certainly were not the qualities which were pre- 
 eminently the characteristics of his reign. 
 
 In his boyhood the king had been singularly unfor- 
 tunate ; an early elevation to the throne was not the 
 only calamity of his infant years. Apprehensions of 
 the mental disease, which had exhibited itself in more 
 than one of his family, made his father adopt the 
 prudent resolution that his infant brain should not be 
 taxed by any forced education. When Charles departed 
 for Spain, the tutors of the boy-king too faithfully adopted 
 the precautions of his parent, and though nominally 
 attended by the first preceptors of the age, the ruler of 
 the Two Sicilies was permitted to grow up in fact 
 without any education at all. 
 
 As Ferdinand advanced to man's estate, the symptoms 
 which his father's watchful eye had detected, began to
 
 CHAP, viz.] ATTACHMENT TO FIELD SPOETS. 303 
 
 manifest themselves, not indeed in mental aberration, 
 but in that weakness of intellect, which when proceeding 
 from physical disease is not inconsistent with a certain 
 amount of cunning and occasional displays of shrewdness. 
 In the hereditary taint of disease, we may perhaps find 
 the origin and the excuse of those extraordinary freaks 
 in which he often appeared in positions not very suitable 
 to the dignity of a king. Some have not hesitated to 
 find in the same melancholy source, if not an excuse, 
 at least a palliation, for those acts of cruelty and 
 treachery which seem inconsistent with a disposition 
 that was not without its mixture of a coarse and rough 
 good-nature. 
 
 It is not easy seriously to relate the incidents which 
 are recorded upon authentic testimony of his habits and 
 pursuits. Passionately attached, to the sports of the 
 field, a taste which he inherited from his father he was 
 ready, to the last hour of his life, to sacrifice any duty 
 or neglect any business for the amusement of the chase, 
 the net, or the gun. Even in middle age we are told 
 of his dancing and shouting with childish glee round 
 the heaps of his slaughtered game. One strong ground 
 of his hostility to the liberal constitution established 
 in Sicily, was the provision which abolished the ancient 
 and most oppressive feudal privileges of the warren and 
 the chase. 
 
 Such incidents we read without indignation. Well 
 would it be for his character if the estimate we 
 form of it, were to be based upon traits like these. 
 Well would it have been for his subjects, if nothing 
 worse could be alleged against his memory than the
 
 304 HISTOEY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 numberless extravagances which are recorded upon 
 testimonies, at once too numerous and too respectable, 
 to permit us to believe the stories that are related of 
 him to be mere caricatures. "When we are gravely told 
 of his resorting to the fish-market to dispose of the 
 produce of a piscatory adventure attended with unusual 
 good-luck, we can scarcely help regarding with surprise 
 and contempt the picture of the sovereign standing in 
 the disguise of a fisherman at his stall imitating the 
 manners, and rivalling the jokes of the denizens of a 
 locality in all countries proverbial for the coarseness 
 of its wit bargaining with every chance customer for 
 the highest price, with a skill which seemed dictated 
 by an avarice for pence and returning to his palace, 
 exulting himself, and congratulated by his courtiers 
 upon the dexterity and success with which he had 
 huxtered the produce of his sports. This was not the 
 only occasion of his appearance on terms of familiarity 
 with the class whom we may well believe to have 
 thronged round the royal stall. Mimicry was his only 
 talent, and he displayed it to the exquisite delight 
 of his attendants, in taking off the manners and accents 
 of the lowest of his people. The king was quite ready 
 to test the genuineness of his imitation by a strict 
 comparison with the original ; and in the streets of 
 Naples the sovereign occasionally went among the 
 rabble, assuming their language and their manners. 
 Upon these occasions the Fescennine license was freely 
 granted and assumed by the monarch in his intercourse 
 with the populace, and as he walked through the 
 admiring Lazzaroni they paid their sovereign the com-
 
 CHAP, vii.] HABITS OP THE KING, 305 
 
 pliment of saying that no one could distinguish him 
 from one of themselves. 
 
 Like some of his prototypes among the Roman 
 emperors, he prided himself upon his strength and skill 
 in athletic exercises ; like them, he was not very choice 
 in selecting his antagonists, and wrestlers and boxers of 
 the same class as those who shared the contests of 
 Commodus, were admitted to the honour of giving an 
 easy victory to the athletic powers of the Neapolitan 
 king. 4 
 
 While perfecting himself in these gracious accom- 
 plishments, he was kept in ignorance of the informa- 
 tion which the commonest education supplied. 5 He 
 could hardly be said to know how to read or write. 
 At the meetings of his council, the use of writing 
 
 4 It is not easy to regard even with the indulgence of contempt, the 
 incident of his old age, which is recorded upon unquestionable authority. In 
 the year 1820, his brother, the ex-king of Spain, died at Naples. During his 
 last illness, Ferdinand left Naples, and retired to Portici, where he devoted 
 himself to the pleasures of the chase. 
 
 One morning, as he was leaving the palace with a hunting party, a messenger 
 reached him with a letter from those in attendance upon his brother. The 
 king left the letter unopened to await his return from the chase. Before he 
 had gone far from the palace, a second messenger brought the intelligence that 
 his brother was dying, and had expressed an earnest wish to see him before 
 his end. Ferdinand asked the advice of his companions. "If," he said, "my 
 brother is so very ill, he will die before I could reach him. If he should 
 recover, he will greatly enjoy the game which we will kill." Upon this 
 affectionate reasoning he determined that the message should not interrupt 
 him in his sport. 
 
 Sir William A'Court was astonished by an invitation to join the royal party 
 in a hunt at Portici, on the very day appointed for the funeral obsequies of 
 the ex-king. The British ambassador excused himself by the necessity of his 
 attendance at an august ceremony. In the church in which the funeral cere- 
 mony was going on, Sir William received a note from the king, desiring him to 
 proceed straight from the church to join the royal party in the field. 
 Colletta's History of Naples. 
 
 5 The instances of his ignorance were almost incredible. Mr. Eustace, who 
 pays royalty the compliment of saying that Ferdinand exactly possessed in
 
 306 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 materials was strictly prohibited. The royal signature 
 to documents of state was attached by means of a 
 stamp, and even after his marriage, he was obliged in 
 the simplest correspondence to employ the good offices 
 of his queen. Affairs of state in his early days he left 
 entirely to his ministers. As long as the management 
 of the country was left in the hands of Tanucci, there 
 was little in the government of Ferdinand of which his 
 subjects could reasonably complain. 
 
 At the early age of eighteen there was formed for 
 him that matrimonial connection which perhaps sub- 
 sequent events justify us in including among the mis- 
 fortunes of his youth. He had been already affianced 
 in succession to two of the daughters of the Empress 
 Maria Theresa, both of whom death had removed. 6 
 Caroline, the next surviving sister, succeeded to the 
 place of those who were gone, and, a very short time 
 after the death of the second of her sisters, she arrived 
 
 iiitellectual capacity the happy medium that is suited for a sovereign, tells us 
 that upon one occasion, when a courtier spoke before him of the power of the 
 Turks, "No wonder they were powerful, since before the birth of our 
 Saviour all men were Turks," was the sage observation of the model king. 
 
 When some one mentioned in his presence the fact that the English had 
 once put their sovereign to death, the king indignantly denounced the story 
 as an invention of the Jacobins, who wished to blacken the character of the 
 English nation. Eustace's Classical Tour in Italy, vol. ii. p. 312. 
 
 6 The death of the elder sister Josepha was attended with melancholy circum- 
 stances. As she was on the point of leaving Naples to be married, her mother 
 insisted that she should perform the devotion of descending to the imperial 
 vault beneath the convent of the Capuchins, and pray beside the coffins of her 
 kindred. The unhappy girl remonstrated against being compelled to visit 
 the chamber in which the body of one of her relatives who had just died of 
 small-pox had been laid. The empress was inflexible ; she accompanied her 
 daughter to the vault, but the poor princess had hardly returned from its 
 infected air when she was seized with the frightful disease to which she fell a 
 victim in a few days. Coxe's History of the House of Awtria; MichieFs Secret 
 History of ike Austrian Qovernment.
 
 CHAP, vii.] CAROLINE OP NAPLES. 307 
 
 in Naples as its elect queen. Her imperial mother 
 was not ignorant of the character of her daughter's 
 future lord ; she had designated the match of the 
 eldest daughter as a sacrifice of her child ; but, with 
 that characteristic piety which always finds a religious 
 motive for every act of worldly ambition, she consoled 
 herself by the reflection, resting upon grounds not very 
 evident, that the sacrifice would be for the good of her 
 soul. 7 
 
 Educated under the austere and rigid rule of her 
 imperial mother, the young Queen of Naples found her- 
 self, when she had hardly grown from girlhood, suddenly 
 transferred to be the centre of the attractions of a bril- 
 liant, but licentious court. High-spirited and proud, 
 she was consigned to a husband whose coarseness dis- 
 gusted her, and whose imbecility and cowardice she 
 must have despised. The terms of her marriage contract 
 contained a singular provision which entitled her to be 
 present at the meetings of the councils of state ; and, 
 after the birth of her son, she asserted her right with a 
 spirit and determination that soon made her mistress 
 of the kingdom. Tanucci, the guardian and guide of 
 her husband's younger years, retired before an inter- 
 ference which he resented as inconsistent with the 
 fundamental laws of the nation ; and, after a few years, 
 his place was filled by Sir John Acton, an English 
 gentleman who had entered the naval service, first of 
 Tuscany, afterwards of Naples, and had the good or 
 
 ' " I regard poor Josepha as a political sacrifice. Provided she does her duty 
 to God and her husband, and secures her salvation, I shall be satisfied even if 
 she ia unhappy." Letter to the Countess Linckenfricd.
 
 308 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i 
 
 bad fortune to attract the favours of the queen. The 
 king became a cipher in state affairs occupied 
 entirely by his darling pursuit of the chase, or in 
 still coarser pleasures, in which the scandal of Naples 
 asserted that he was encouraged by more than the 
 connivance of his accommodating queen. Her own 
 conduct had so completely become the scandal of 
 Europe, that the malignant and profligate court of 
 France, before the revolution, upbraided Marie Antoi- 
 nette with the irregularities of her sister's life. 8 The 
 murmurs of her court did not hesitate to impute to 
 her still darker crimes. In the later years of her life 
 the ill-health of her eldest son was attributed to an 
 attempt on the part of his unnatural mother to remove 
 him by poison. It is condemnation enough of her 
 character to say that such a story could find general 
 belief. Unhappily the memory of the queen has suffi- 
 cient to answer for without burdening it with the 
 additional weight of an unproved accusation of so 
 fearful a crime. In judging even of those offences of 
 which the concurrent testimony of too many witnesses 
 forbids us to entertain a doubt, we must remember 
 the position in which she was placed. There are those 
 who lay upon her all the guilt of the cruel atrocities 
 that disgraced her husband's reign. The Neapolitan 
 people attempted, and attempt to this day, to palliate 
 the conduct of their good-natured monarch by imputing 
 these acts exclusively to his wife. But impartial justice 
 will at least suggest the question, what might she have 
 been if the selfish policy of her mother had not destined 
 
 8 " Edinburgh Review," vol. x. p. 159.
 
 CHAP, vir.] HER CHARACTER. 309 
 
 her for such a husband. And those who have drawn 
 the contrast between the Queen of Naples in the early 
 days of her married life, and the queen of a later day, 
 have, at the same time, given us ground for the charity 
 of believing that, under happier circumstances, Caroline 
 of Naples might have left a very different narrative for 
 history to record, and, although nothing could justify 
 her conduct, there are others who must share the re- 
 sponsibility of her fall. 9 
 
 The outbreak of the French revolution produced 
 a complete change in the character of the queen. At 
 least it brought permanently forward the instincts of 
 cruelty and suspicion which, under a gay exterior, 
 had lurked in that character unperceived. The ill- 
 
 9 A manuscript is deposited in the British Museum, containing a diary 
 written during a residence in Sicily in the years 1811 and 1812. Lord 
 Valentia is the writer of this diary, which contains some curious and authentic 
 information. He thus describes at that period the character and conduct of 
 the queen : 
 
 " The strange accounts that I have received of the queen, have been more 
 than confirmed to me by Lord and Lady Amherst, and the present critical 
 state to which Sicily is reduced may be entirely attributed to her folly and 
 violence of temper ; her vices are by far less detrimental. The king in the 
 government of his country is a perfect cypher, while the queen receives the 
 reports of the ministers, and is as despotic in her little way as the imperial 
 Catharine was over the vast empire of Russia. The misfortunes which had 
 reduced the Court of Naples to the utmost distress most certainly originated 
 in the folly and extravagance of the government . . . Such was the fate of 
 Maria Carolina, the daughter of the illustrious Maria Teresa. When honoured 
 and respected as La belle Reine de Naples, she probably would have recoiled 
 at the picture of a withered hag of sixty indulging in promiscuous debauchery, 
 druuk with opium, and stained with the blood of her subjects. She probably 
 
 then limited her vices to the indulgence of her personal passions 
 
 Irritated by repeated misfortunes, the natural violence of the queen's temper 
 has been increased by the use of opium, of which she now takes six grains in 
 the course of the day, and the scenes to which it leads are sometimes 
 dreadful." Lord Vakntia's Private Journal of the affairs of Sicily, 1811, and 
 1812. Addl. MSS., Brit. Mus., 19, 426. Pp. 29, 31, 36.
 
 310 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 fated Marie Antoinette was her sister, and the cruelties 
 the Queen of France had endured rankled deep in 
 the heart of Caroline. Whatever were her faults the 
 Queen of Naples could not be charged with want of 
 family affection it mingled with her pride it was a 
 part of her education. The stern lessons of her mother 
 had impressed upon her early youth attachment to her 
 illustrious relatives as a part of the religion of her 
 imperial race. The crimes of the Parisians had 
 made her regard the people in every country as the 
 natural enemies of sovereigns ; and she fancied she 
 avenged her sister's death by the cruelties she inflicted 
 on those who held the democratic principles of the 
 French. 
 
 The alliance of Naples and Austria had just been 
 strengthened by the marriage of the two daughters of 
 Ferdinand and Caroline, the eldest with Francis, the 
 heir of the house of Hapsburgh, the other to his next 
 brother, Ferdinand, for whom the grand-duchy of 
 Tuscany was reserved. These marriages were cele- 
 brated at Vienna in 1790. The King and Queen of 
 Naples visited, on the occasion, the court of their im- 
 perial relatives ; and, in that court, the first intelligence 
 reached them of the events which even then began to 
 threaten royal authority in France. 
 
 On their way home from Vienna, they met at the 
 pontifical court the princesses, the aunts of Louis XVI., 
 who had fled from Paris. The exaggerated narrative 
 of these ladies was not calculated to allay the passions 
 which the bare notion of a revolt against kingly govern- 
 ment was sufficient to excite ; and between the policy
 
 CHAP, vii.] SPIES. THE DARK PARLOUR. 311 
 
 of Vienna, and the tales of terror of Rome, both Caroline 
 and her husband returned to Naples in an excitement 
 of agitation and alarm. 
 
 A crusade against learning was not, it may be 
 supposed, very disagreeable to the king. Books and 
 philosophy were believed at Naples, as they were else- 
 where, to be the enemies of religion and order, and to 
 have created the revolution of France. The strictest 
 watch was put upon the circulation of all printed books ; 
 all men of letters were suspected ; their meetings were 
 prohibited, and the movements of each of them en- 
 trusted to the observation of spies. In her terror of the 
 supposed spread of revolutionary principles, the queen 
 encouraged the services of this class, and she even con- 
 descended to meet her secret informers in a room in 
 the palace which was appropriated for this purpose, 
 and which was known as "the dark parlour." The 
 government that once condescends to adopt the em- 
 ployment of spies as a system for the suppression of 
 conspiracies will not long be left without plots. Soon 
 after the return of the court a number of persons were 
 imprisoned in the Neapolitan dungeons sufficient to fill 
 the city with terror and alarm. 10 
 
 The execution of the King of France, still more that 
 of the queen, completed the exasperation of the Nea- 
 politan court. The Neapolitan court refused to receive 
 Makau the French ambassador, and exerted all their 
 influence to engage the Ottoman Porte in a coalition 
 against France. A wise and manly note was addressed 
 to the King of Sardinia and the republic of Venice, 
 
 10 Colletta.
 
 312 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. T. 
 
 proposing an Italian confederation to resist any invasion 
 of Italy by France. "If," said this document, "the 
 Sicilies, Sardinia, and Venice were to form a league 
 for mutual defence, the most high Pontiff would concur 
 in the holy enterprise ; and lesser potentates, whose 
 States are intermediate, voluntarily or on compulsion, 
 will follow the move. This note is intended to prepare, 
 and form a confederation, in which the king of the Two 
 Sicilies, the least exposed to danger, offers himself first 
 in the struggle, and reminds every Italian prince that 
 the hope of escaping singly has ever been the ruin of 
 Italy." ll 
 
 The Sardinian king acceded to the proposal. Venice, 
 with that pusillanimity which was her ruin, refused her 
 assent. A short interval was sufficient to prove that 
 the King of the Sicilies was not the last to be exposed 
 to danger, and certainly not the first in the struggle 
 when it began. 
 
 Hardly had this high-spirited note been issued, when 
 Admiral La Touche led a French fleet, of fourteen sail 
 of the line, into the Bay of Naples ; casting anchor close 
 to the town, he demanded the reception of the French 
 ambassador, and a pledge of the neutrality of Naples. 
 
 The force in readiness was amply sufficient to meet 
 the threatened attack. The council of the king all 
 advised resistance ; the queen suffered for the credulity 
 with which she had listened to the inventions of spies. 
 She declared that she had received information that the 
 kingdom was full of Jacobins ; at this awful announce- 
 ment, the terrified king and council gave way. The 
 
 11 Colletta's History of Naples, book iii, chap. i.
 
 CHAP, vrr.] SEVERITIES OF THE COURT. 313 
 
 French minister was received ; an envoy sent to 
 Paris ; and finally a pledge given of the neutrality of 
 Naples in any war in which France should be engaged ; 
 and thus ended the Italian confederation, of which 
 Naples was to be the head. 
 
 After the terms of peace had been arranged, the 
 French fleet remained for some time in the bay to 
 repair the damages of a storm. The French were now 
 the allies of the Neapolitans, and several of the citizens 
 were in the habit of freely visiting the ships. In their 
 intercourse with the officers, some young enthusiasts of 
 the upper class caught the contagion of the democratic 
 principles of France. They were imprudent enough 
 to make a display of their sympathy ; and a few foolish 
 young men, at a supper, displayed a small emblem 
 of the republican cap of liberty suspended at their 
 breast. These occurrences were magnified into high 
 treason. The queen's terror of the Jacobins became 
 intense. Conspiracies were said to exist. A judicial 
 junta was appointed, to try by the form of a court- 
 martial those accused of disaffection. Scarcely had 
 the French fleet weighed anchor, when numerous 
 arrests filled Naples with terror. The prisoners were 
 carried from their houses in the night to the dungeons 
 of St. Elmo, where their imprisonment was so secret, 
 that their friends believed them to have been destroyed. 
 Some cruel executions followed of youths just entering 
 on man's estate. Numbers were sent to the dungeons 
 for life. No conspiracy against the government was 
 either proved or known to exist ; but communication 
 with the French officers, or even the expression of
 
 314 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 sympathy with the French revolution, was punished 
 with the penalties of high treason. 
 
 This reign of terror lasted from 1792 to 1798. A 
 wretch of the name of Vanni had been appointed as 
 inquisitor to conduct the proceedings, and he played 
 upon the terrors of the queen by representations that 
 the population were almost all disaffected. He reported 
 at one time that he had proofs to convict 20,000 
 persons, and circumstances of suspicion that implicated 
 50,000 more. Nothing was too extravagant to be 
 believed. Acton, emboldened by the credulity with 
 which every accusation was received, brought forward 
 a charge which implicated in the guilt of a treasonable 
 conspiracy the Chevalier Medicis, a late minister of the 
 crown, and some of the first nobility of the kingdom. 
 Upon this accusation twenty-eight persons, including 
 Medicis, were flung into the dungeons, where for four 
 years they were detained without a trial. 
 
 At last, after four years' imprisonment of the 
 accused, the king, moved by the entreaties of several of 
 their female relatives, peremptorily commanded the junta 
 to decide upon their guilt or innocence. The evidence 
 collected wholly failed in establishing any crime, but 
 Vanni insisted that a case of suspicion had been made 
 out, and pressed on the tribunal that Medicis should be 
 put to the torture in order to extort a confession that 
 might make it proof. The other judges indignantly re- 
 fused : Medicis and his associates were declared innocent. 
 When they emerged from their dungeons, with their 
 innocence established, but with the traces of four years 
 miserable imprisonment upon their frames ; still more,
 
 CHAP, vii.] LADY HAMILTON. 315 
 
 when they recounted the sufferings they had endured, the 
 popular indignation became so strong, that Vanni was 
 made the scapegoat of the court. He was dismissed from 
 his employment, and banished from the city in disgrace. 
 The queen was compelled to see her favourite Acton go 
 through the form of a nominal retirement from office. 
 
 While thus persecuting her own subjects, the queen 
 for Caroline was the real government of Naples was 
 pursuing towards the French that course of duplicity 
 which ultimately deprived her of the kingdom. The 
 convention made with the French admiral in 1 792 was 
 very soon followed by a league between Naples and the 
 enemies of the republic. This was succeeded by a 
 formal treaty of alliance with France in 1796. While 
 this treaty was in full force, Nelson, in 1798, on his 
 way to Egypt, obtained shelter and provisions in the 
 harbour of Palermo, and on the 15th of May, 1798, the 
 court of Naples concluded a secret treaty with England, 
 Austria, Russia, and the Porte, by which the King of 
 Naples entered into a confederation against France. 
 
 Sir William Hamilton was at this time the British 
 ambassador at Naples. The name of his wife is much 
 more associated with the history of this period than his 
 own. Refused on her first arrival admission to the 
 Neapolitan court, this lady contrived, by an artifice, to 
 obtain an interview with the queen. 12 The interview led 
 to an intimacy, in which Lady Hamilton acquired 
 a complete ascendancy over her royal friend. This 
 
 12 Attracting the attention of the king, she contrived to inveigle him into 
 writing to her. Having thus gained her object, the designing beauty carried the 
 letter to the queen. It was by this contrivance that she first obtained 
 admission to her presence.
 
 316 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. r . 
 
 ascendancy is said to have materially influenced the 
 policy of the Neapolitan court, and years afterwards, 
 when, left in destitution, the once proud beauty was 
 reduced to the humiliation of asking in vain from the 
 British government her right to a pecuniary reward 
 for the services which, when the wife of the British 
 ambassador, she had rendered repeated applications 
 pressed her claim upon the ground that it was by her 
 personal influence with the Queen of Naples that the 
 fleet of Nelson obtained at Palermo those supplies of 
 provisions which enabled him to proceed to Aboukir 
 without the necessity of returning to Gibraltar. 13 
 
 The first public demonstration of hostility occurred 
 when Lord Nelson returned from the victory of Aboukir. 
 The British fleet anchored in the bay. The admiral was 
 received with the most signal honours. The king pre- 
 sented him with a costly sword. The court accompa- 
 nied him to the theatre in state. The complaints of the 
 French minister of these proceedings were answered by 
 the extraordinary statement that Nelson had threatened 
 to bombard the town if anchorage were refused to his 
 fleet. In a very short time all disguise was thrown 
 aside, and Naples openly proclaimed her adhesion to 
 the coalition against France. 
 
 Immediately afterwards, a proclamation appeared 
 from the king, in which he announced his intention of 
 leading an army into the Roman States, to restore their 
 lawful sovereign to the Roman people, the head of the 
 Church to his see, and to free the Two Sicilies. The 
 same manifesto called on the Roman people to take 
 
 B Letters in the Memoirs of the Right Honourable George Rose.
 
 CHAP, vii] LETTERS OP FERDINAND TO SARDINIA. 317 
 
 part with those who were advancing, not to make war 
 upon Rome, but to restore the authority of their 
 sovereign and the Pope. 
 
 At the same time a letter was dispatched to the 
 ministers of the King of Sardinia, urging upon them to 
 excite a movement among their people which might 
 free the king from the alliance which had been forced 
 upon him by the French. " We are aware," said this 
 letter, " that in the cabinet of the king your master, 
 there are many prudent, not to say timid, ministers, 
 who shrink with horror from the words perjury and 
 assassination, as if the recent treaty between France 
 and Sardinia were entitled to respect. Was it not 
 dictated by the superior force of the conqueror 1 Was 
 it riot accepted only because you were obliged to yield 
 to necessity \ . . . " " How can you, with your king a 
 a prisoner in his own capital, surrounded by hostile 
 bayonets, call it perjury to break promises that were 
 wrung from you by necessity, and disapproved of by 
 your consciences 1 Is it assassination to exterminate 
 your tyrants "?"... " The French battalions, careless 
 and secure, are scattered throughout Piedmont. Eouse 
 the patriotism of the people to enthusiasm and fury ; 
 let every Piedmontese aspire to the honour of trampling 
 down an enemy of his country. These partial massa- 
 crees will be of more advantage to Piedmont than 
 successful battles. Nor will the justice of posterity 
 stigmatise with the hideous name of treachery the 
 energetic deed of a whole people who march over the 
 corpses of their oppressors to liberty." 14 
 
 14 Colletta's History of Naples, Book iii. Chap. iii.
 
 318 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 This letter was addressed to Priocca, the minister of 
 the Sardinian king. It was intercepted by the French, 
 and was used in the attempt to justify the act by which 
 within a few weeks afterwards Charles Emanuel was 
 deprived of his dominions. 
 
 Mack, the Austrian general, was placed at the head 
 of the Neapolitan troops, and under his command they 
 advanced into the Roman states. The French had no 
 - force sufficient to oppose them, and leaving a garrison 
 in the Castle of St Angelo, they evacuated Rome. 
 Ferdinand was sent for to head his army on its entry 
 into the city, and on the 24th of November the King 
 of Naples took possession of Rome. 
 
 A letter was at once dispatched to Pius VL, who 
 was then in the retirement of a Carthusian monastery 
 near Florence. The Pontiff was informed that by the 
 miraculous interposition of St. Januarius the king had 
 triumphantly entered the city of Rome, so lately pro- 
 faned by impious men who "fled terrified at the appear- 
 ance of the Cross and the Neapolitan army ;" the Pontiff 
 was invited to " return, borne like our Lady of Loretto, 
 upon the wings of the cherubim," to " descend into the 
 Vatican and purify it by his holy presence," and lie was 
 especially charged to revisit Ilome in time to celebrate 
 the services of Christmas Day. 
 
 The triumph of the Neapolitan monarch was of short 
 duration. Hardly had he dispatched this letter when 
 intelligence reached him that a French corps had 
 entered the Abruzzi, and that two other divisions were 
 preparing to advance from the north and west towards 
 Rome. Demonstrations in the city itself, in favour of
 
 CHAP, viz.] A ROYAL MASQUERADE. 319 
 
 republican opinion, alarmed Ferdinand for his personal 
 safety, and he returned on the 7th of December to 
 Albano, a village at a short distance from Rome. On 
 the 10th he left Albano in a hurried journey, which 
 deserves in every way to be called a flight. His journey 
 to Naples was the occasion of one of the many incidents 
 in his life which make it charity to hope that his mental 
 imbecility may be their excuse. 
 
 Passing through the Roman territory, the imagina- 
 tion of the feeble king was haunted by the terror of 
 his dreaded enemies the Jacobins, and the fear that 
 they would certainly assassinate him on the way. 
 Under the influence of these alarms he resorted to a 
 characteristic expedient for safety. The Duke of Ascoli, 
 a friend and companion of his boyhood, was his attend- 
 ant ; he insisted on changing dresses with the duke, and 
 that the latter should personate the king. Throughout 
 the journey the duke sat on the right in the carriage, 
 and was compelled to receive with royal condescension 
 the ostentatious homage which was paid him by his 
 sovereign in this singular masquerade. At every 
 stage the king was marked in his obsequiousness, and 
 took care to address his companion by the royal 
 title, often enough and loud enough to direct against 
 him the aim of any regicide that might be lurking in 
 the crowd. 
 
 For the danger to which he asked him to expose 
 himself/ the king consoled his friend by the assurance 
 that a loyal subject could not die more nobly than in 
 sacrificing himself to save his sovereign's life. The 
 loyalty of the duke had perhaps a less chivalrous
 
 320 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 support in his knowledge that the danger of assassi- 
 nation existed only in the terrified imagination of the 
 king. 15 
 
 Hardly had the king returned to Naples, when his 
 army were obliged in a precipitate retreat to abandon 
 Rome to the French, and Championnet, the general 
 of the republican armies, advanced rapidly to the 
 Neapolitan frontier. 
 
 After the lapse of more than one hundred years, the 
 Neapolitan people once more saw an invading army 
 occupy their soil. The resistance which they offered 
 to that army is an incident in their history which must 
 not be forgotten in any reflections to which other portions 
 of it give rise. The Neapolitans have been stigmatised 
 as deficient in courage, and many events in their annals 
 of this century give ground for the imputation. But 
 we must always remember that upon the first occasion 
 upon which the French armies approached their homes, 
 they rose as one man at the summons of their king, 
 and few instances of heroic patriotism among the many 
 occasioned by the revolutionary war exceed the devo- 
 tion and the bravery of the Italian peasants who met 
 in the defiles of the Abruzzi the first onslaught of the 
 French. 16 
 
 A proclamation of the king apprised the people of 
 the invasion, and called on them to take up arms in 
 defence of the Church of God, their sovereign, their 
 altars, and their homes. To give greater effect to the 
 
 15 Colletta, book iii. chap. iii. 
 
 16 The bravery of this resistance has beeu fully acknowledged by the French. 
 Thiers' Histoire de la Revolution Francaise, x. p. 200. Jomini's Guerres de 
 la Revolution, ix. 6770. See Botta, ii. 157. Colletta, book iii. chap. iii.
 
 CHAP, vii.] HEROISM OF THE PEOPLE. 321 
 
 manifesto, it was dated from Rome on the 8th of 
 December, although really issued after the king's return 
 to his own territory. It came to the people as the 
 appeal of their sovereign made to them from the sacred 
 seat of religion, of which he was the defender. 
 
 The whole population rose to arms. The advance of 
 the French armies was stopped by the wild bravery of 
 undisciplined masses that disputed the passage of every 
 defile. An army seemed to the French to have sprung 
 from the earth, without generals, without discipline, 
 without a king. Those very people who, in ranks, 
 commanded by their officers, had fled like sheep almost 
 before the commencement of the encounter, performed 
 prodigies of valour in their own hastily raised compa- 
 nies of volunteers. They retook fortresses from the 
 French. They broke down the bridges on the line of 
 the streams, and seized the guns of the invaders when- 
 ever they had already crossed. If their bravery was 
 stained by the cruelty with which they massacred the 
 stragglers and the wounded of the invading army, it 
 must be remembered that a war of extermination is 
 almost the natural defence of men fighting for their 
 homes. The only successes achieved by the French were 
 against positions held by the regular troops, which were 
 abandoned by the treachery or the cowardice of their 
 leaders. 
 
 It was while this heroic enthusiasm, excited by his 
 own proclamation, was thus defending his fortunes, that 
 the king adopted the resolution of flying from his capital 
 and taking refuge in Sicily. A courier of the king had 
 been murdered by the populace, who mistook him for a 
 
 VOL. i. T
 
 322 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i 
 
 spy of the French, and as they dragged him in triumph 
 before the palace to show their sovereign how they 
 dealt with his enemies, the king was shocked at 
 witnessing the dying agonies of a faithful servant of 
 his own. The terrors of the king saw in this accident 
 a new Jacobin plot. Counselled by the ministers, who 
 had been the agents of the queen's tyrannies, he collected 
 every moveable of value appertaining to the crown. 
 The jewels, the antiquities of the royal museum, the 
 ornaments of the palace, were all secretly packed up. 
 The banks and the treasury were rifled of their coin. 
 In all, the value of about twenty millions of ducats, 
 formed the booty of the departing king. 17 A subter- 
 raneous passage led from an apartment of the palace 
 to the sea side, and through this passage Lady 
 Hamilton managed at night the conveyance of these 
 treasures ; by dexterous artifices she contrived to elude 
 the observation even of the sentries and succeeded in 
 placing them on board a vessel of the British squadron. 18 
 They were followed on the 21st of December by the 
 king and royal family, to the surprise and indignation 
 of all who were not in the secret. A proclamation 
 appeared upon the walls, in which the king announced 
 his departure to Sicily, but stated his determination to 
 return in a short time at the head of a mighty army, 
 which he assured his subjects it was the only object 
 of his visit to Sicily to raise. This pretence of course 
 imposed upon no one. 
 
 Lord Nelson conveyed the royal family in his own 
 ship. Contrary winds detained the vessel for three days. 
 
 l < Colletta. K Memoir of Lady Hamilton. 

 
 CHAP, vii.] FLIGHT OF THE KING. 323 
 
 The people with indignation saw the royal flag of their 
 fugitive monarch floating on the mast of the ship in 
 which he was about to make his escape from the country 
 which every obligation of royalty and manhood called 
 on him to defend. The Archbishop of Naples went on 
 board with an address of his subjects, imploring of the 
 sovereign to return, and pledging themselves to die in 
 his defence. The venerable prelate did not believe it 
 inconsistent with his sacred character to urge on the 
 craven monarch the duty of returning, and placing 
 himself at the head of a nation determined to die in 
 defence of their altars and their homes. Nothing could 
 move the obstinacy of the king, and on the eve of 
 Christmas, he left the Bay of Naples attended by the 
 fleet. 
 
 On the festival of Christmas, the day upon which the 
 king had invited the Pontiff to celebrate mass in St. 
 Peter's, Ferdinand was a fugitive from his throne, 
 tossed on the billows of the sea by a violent tempest. 
 The urgency of his departure from Naples had been 
 too great to permit the delay which the indications 
 of an approaching storm would have made prudent. 
 On the passage the squadron encountered a violent 
 gale, which at one time exposed the vessel of Lord 
 Nelson to considerable danger, but on the 26th the 
 royal family reached Palermo in safety, with the excep- 
 tion of an infant who died on the passage in Lady 
 Hamilton's arms. Perceiving the distress of the British 
 admiral's ship, Carraccioli, the Neapolitan commander, 
 kept company*with her throughout the storm. At con- 
 siderable risk to himself he remained near enough to aid 
 
 T 2
 
 324 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 if any accident occurred, and to give her the benefit of 
 his own experience as they approached the dangerous 
 navigation of the Sicilian coast. 
 
 Even after the ignominious flight of their sovereign 
 his deserted subjects maintained their resistance to the 
 invaders. Pignatelli, the regent whom the king had 
 left in command, was suspected of intending a surrender 
 to the French, and the municipal authorities of Naples 
 denying the right of the king to appoint a regent, 
 insisted that in his absence the supreme authority 
 devolved upon themselves. The regent was firm in 
 maintaining his authority, although there is little doubt 
 that legal right was against it. He set fire to several 
 gun-boats, which had been drawn up for shelter at 
 Pausilippo, and when the fleet returned from Sicily, two 
 Neapolitan sail of the line and three frigates were 
 burned in the bay. 
 
 Proceedings like these prevented any organised 
 opposition to the march of the invading army, 
 which even then a determined opposition might have 
 repelled. Various projects were started by those who 
 regarded the monarchy as left vacant by the flight of 
 the king. They were abandoned as soon as they were 
 proposed, and the regent left to consummate the disgrace 
 of the Neapolitan cause. 
 
 On the 12th of January he concluded a truce 
 with the French, by which he surrendered to their 
 general the fortresses that commanded the town. The 
 rabble of Naples rose in indignation. The prisons were 
 opened to swell the armies of the patriots by their 
 inmates. The regent followed the example of his
 
 CHAP, viz.] ST. JANUAKIUS. 325 
 
 master, and flying to Sicily abandoned Naples to its 
 fate. A new government was formed, and the populace 
 deserted by all their leaders, elected generals of their 
 own. Even against the undisciplined bands of the 
 Lazzaroni, the French achieved a bloody and a hard- 
 fought triumph, and when on the 23rd their army 
 entered Naples, three thousand corpses of its defenders 
 were lying in the streets. The loss of the assailants 
 was severe. 19 
 
 The next day witnessed one of those extraordinary 
 scenes which could not occur perhaps in any other 
 country upon earth. St. Januarius, the patron saint of 
 Naples, and of the Lazzaroni, was the object on the part 
 of the rabble of a superstitious worship, which more 
 resembled the devotions paid by savages to their idols, 
 than the reverence of Christians for the memory of 
 a saint. The miracle of the liquefaction of his blood 
 is well known. Of the impressions entertained of the 
 power of the saint we may form some idea from the 
 fact that the intercession of the Saviour with St. 
 Januarius was frequently implored. 
 
 With this important personage the French general 
 determined to make his peace. On the morning after 
 his entry he sent to request permission to place a guard 
 of honour upon the shrine of the saint, and at the same 
 time he intimated to its guardians, that he would 
 anxiously expect to be honoured by witnessing the 
 miracle of the liquefaction of the blood. 20 The news 
 
 19 The French testimonies to the bravery of this resistance will be found in 
 the note at the end of this volume. 
 
 50 It is said that the messenger politely informed them that the general
 
 826 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 spread through the streets. The French, whom they 
 had expected to see as infidels, were actually worshippers 
 of the saint. The French guard of honour as they 
 moved towards the shrine, repeated the phrase they 
 had been taught in Italian, intelligible enough to the 
 rabble, " All honour to St. Januarius ! " The effect was 
 electric. The very men who had been fighting against 
 them yesterday now clasped their hands. But when 
 the French general appeared with a costly present 
 before the shrine, when the blood in the phial slowly 
 but manifestly liquefied before the people, their wonder 
 and amazement knew no bounds. It was the visible 
 token of the reconciliation of the saint with the new 
 order of things ; " St. Januarius is turned republican/' 
 was the announcement that passed from mouth to 
 mouth. The Lazzaroni were content to follow the 
 example of their saint. 21 
 
 On the following day the Parthenopean republic 
 was proclaimed, and a new government entered on its 
 duties amid rejoicings and festivities which made men 
 wonder where the royalists who had fought so despe- 
 rately for the cause of their sovereign had been found. 
 
 was determined to see blood, but that on their conduct it depended whether 
 it should be the blood of St. Januarius or their own. 
 
 31 Colletta. After the return of the Bourbons a meeting was held of the 
 Lazzaroui, at which, for this act of political tergiversation, St. Januarius was 
 deposed from his office of patron saint, and another elected in his stead. A 
 very short time, however, sufficed to restore their ancient patron to his former 
 authority and respect.
 
 CHAP, vm.] FALL OF THE KEPUBLIC. 827 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Fall of the Parthenopean republic Surrender of Naples to Cardinal Ruffo 
 Disavowal of its terms by the king Arrival of Nelson's fleet at Naples 
 Cruelties inflicted on the people Execution of Carraccioli Arrival of 
 'the king Issue of new ordinances New and special tribunals Military 
 courts Sanguinary executions New treaty with France Appeal of 
 Queen Caroline to the Emperor Paul Peace of Amiens Return of 
 the king and queen to Naples Second treaty with France Its vio- 
 lation Landing of English and Russian troops at Naples Co-operation 
 of the Neapolitan government March of Joseph Buonaparte on Naples 
 Retirement of the Russian troops Withdrawal of the English to 
 Sicily Second flight of the royal family Joseph Buonaparte proclaimed 
 king of Naples He is succeeded by Murat. 
 
 THE existence of the Parthenopean republic was not 
 of long duration ; established in the end of January 
 it fell in the latter days of July. Championnet had 
 scarcely completed the organisation of its institutions, 
 when he was recalled to Rome by the Directory to take 
 his trial for disobedience in not permitting their emissary 
 to execute a decree which confiscated a large amount 
 of Neapolitan property. He was succeeded by General 
 Macdonald, who could only maintain the authority of 
 the new republic by continuing the French occupation 
 of its territories. The conduct of the French Directory 
 in the transactions which gave occasion to Championnet's 
 recall, did not tend to conciliate the affection of the
 
 328 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL i. 
 
 people to the new government. Even in the city of 
 Naples the royalists constituted a powerful party. In 
 the country districts, especially in Calabria, they were 
 by far the majority of the people. 
 
 It might perhaps have been fairly considered that 
 but little allegiance was due to the monarch who had 
 abdicated all the duties of a king. Never was there 
 a case which admitted of a fairer application of the 
 uncontradicted maxim that to the government de facto 
 any citizen may yield obedience without wrong. 1 
 Many no doubt acted on this principle when they 
 accepted office in the administration of the government 
 to which Ferdinand had abandoned Naples. But the 
 spirit of loyalty among the people and their traditional 
 hatred of French invasion was so strong, that throughout 
 the districts of Calabria, and even in Naples, the cause 
 of the fugitive monarch commanded from multitudes 
 an unreasoning attachment which not even his own 
 humiliating conduct had been able to destroy. 
 
 Scarcely had the new government been established 
 at Naples when Cardinal Ruffo, landing with a few 
 royalist troops in Calabria, was able to gather round 
 his standard a motley array of brigands and peasants 
 a force upon which he conferred the somewhat in- 
 congruous title of the Army of the Holy Faith. For 
 some months he maintained his position against all 
 the efforts of the French, and in the guerilla warfare 
 in which the contest was carried on, the conduct of 
 
 1 All jurists agree in this principle, that obedience to the orders or adhe- 
 rence to the cause of a de facto government can never be visited with the 
 penalties of treason. This principle was flagrantly violated in the cruelties 
 which followed the restoration of the Bourbons.
 
 CHAP. TIII.] ADVANCE OF CARDINAL RUFFO. 329 
 
 both sides was distinguished by feats of bravery and 
 disgraced by acts of cruelty. In the month of May 
 the reverses of the French in Northern Italy, obliged 
 their army, which occupied Naples, to withdraw, and 
 on the 7th of that month, General Macdonald led its 
 main body from the Neapolitan dominions, leaving only 
 small garrisons of French still to occupy in the name of 
 the Parthenopean Republic some few of the forts. 
 
 Left to themselves, the feeble directory of that 
 republic can scarcely be said to have offered opposition 
 to the triumphant progress of the Cardinal's arms. 
 Large reinforcements of English, of Sicilians, of 
 Russians, and of Turks, had swelled the army of the 
 royalists to 40,000 men. The garrison at Castelmare 
 surrendered on condition of being allowed to depart for 
 France. In the beginning of June all the Neapolitan 
 kingdom, except the capital and the district immediately 
 around it, had returned to their obedience to the king. 
 
 As the army of Ruffo approached it, Naples, without 
 waiting to be conquered, submitted to the royal authority. 
 The royalists resumed the ascendancy in the town the 
 adherents of the republic were obliged in most parts of 
 the city to hide themselves as rebels ; and when the 
 Cardinal encamped before it, he found the greater 
 portion of the city already under royalist control. 
 
 In some of its quarters the republicans still main- 
 tained a retreat. Barricades were drawn across many 
 of the streets, and behind them the adherents of the 
 republic were ready for a desperate resistance. The 
 castles of Uovo and Nuovo, to the first of which the 
 Directory retired, were in possession of garrisons
 
 330 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 composed partly of French and partly of Parthe- 
 nopean troops. Their guns bore directly on the city, 
 and the entry of the royalist army would have been 
 the signal for an encounter -which would have made 
 Naples a scene of carnage, not improbably left it a 
 heap of ruins. St. Elmo was still in the hands of a 
 French general. The ships of war of the republic, 
 under the command of Caraccioli, were able to oppose, 
 or at least harass the sniall flotilla of the English naval 
 force which was assailing the town ; and in addition to 
 all this, the French fleet from Toulon was hourly 
 expected to arrive to its relief. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that Cardinal 
 Ruffo took the step of conceding to the Neapolitan 
 rebels a capitulation. On the night of the 13th of 
 June an illumination of the city by the royalists was 
 interrupted by a sortie from the castles and a can- 
 nonade. The rejoicings were disturbed by the slaughter 
 of many who were sharing in them. Terrified by the 
 prospect of Naples reduced to ruins, Ruffo granted an 
 armistice, and after considerable delay the terms of a 
 capitulation were finally agreed on. 
 
 The republican garrisons in the castles were to leave 
 them with the honours of war, they were to be per- 
 mitted either to embark for Toulon, or to remain 
 unmolested in their own country as they pleased and 
 the indemnity thus conceded to them was to be 
 extended to all the prisoners which had been taken by 
 the royalist army during the war. 
 
 This capitulation was concluded on the 20th. The 
 formal signature was delayed until the 22nd, when it
 
 CHAP, vin.] LORD NELSON'S FLEET. 331 
 
 was finally signed, not only by Cardinal Ruffo, as 
 viceroy of Ferdinand in the kingdom of Naples, but 
 by Captain Foote, commanding the British naval forces 
 in the bay, and also by the commanders of the Russian 
 and the Turkish troops. 
 
 The whole city of Naples yielded itself peacefully to 
 the royalist authorities, and the viceroy issued a procla- 
 mation in which he praised the paternal clemency of 
 the king, announced a universal amnesty, and declared 
 that the past being forgotten, all true Neapolitans had 
 now no other political care than the anxiety how best they 
 could promote the honour of their country and their king. 
 
 The garrisons of the castles retained possession of 
 them until the vessels could be procured to convey those 
 who wished it to Toulon. Polaccas were obtained with 
 some difficulty, and were moored under the forts in the 
 course of the 23rd. It is confidently said, and there 
 seems no reason to doubt the assertion, that nothing 
 but the prevalence of an unfavourable breeze prevented 
 the embarkation and their sailing on that day. 
 
 On the morning of the 24th, the inhabitants of 
 Naples saw the blue expanse of the water studded in 
 the distance with the white sails of a squadron of war. 
 At first it was supposed to be the French and Spanish 
 fleet, and curses were hurled by the republicans upon 
 those who advised the capitulation when succour was 
 just at hand. It proved to be the fleet of Lord Nelson; 
 and, before evening, the ill-fated city understood the 
 mission on which it came. 2 
 
 2 As to all the transactions connected with the violation of the terms of 
 the capitulation, see the note at the end of this volume.
 
 332 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Early in June, Lord Nelson, at the request of Ferdi- 
 nand, left Naples with his fleet to aid in the reduction 
 of Naples. Intelligence of the movements of the 
 French fleet induced him to return to Palermo, and he 
 cruised off the coast of Sicily until the 21st. On that 
 day the " Foudroyant " was again off Palermo on its 
 way to Naples. Sir William and Lady Hamilton came 
 on board. The queen had already heard of the negoti- 
 ations with the rebels, and Lady Hamilton was earnestly 
 implored to use her influence with the British admiral 
 to prevent any capitulation being carried into effect. 
 A decree was drawn up and signed by Ferdinand, 
 denouncing death to the rebels. " Kings do not treat 
 with their rebel subjects," was the haughty language 
 of this ordinance. A letter from Caroline was conveyed 
 to Lord Nelson, earnestly imploring of him to save 
 the honour of the crown of Naples to protect the 
 dignity of all sovereigns, by disavowing the doctrine 
 that there could be a treaty between traitors and 
 their king. 
 
 It is said that further communications overtook Lord 
 Nelson before he entered the Bay of Naples, informing 
 him more particularly of the completion of the negoti- 
 ation. But when he entered the Bay of Naples he was 
 under the impression that only an armistice had been 
 entered into, but that no formal capitulation had been 
 signed. From the distance he saw the flag of truce 
 flying both from the castles and the " Seahorse/' the 
 ship of Captain Foote, and he immediately made the 
 signal to annul the armistice. His vessel did not cast 
 anchor in the roadstead until four in the afternoon
 
 CHAP. VIIL] CARDINAL RUFFO's PROTEST. 333 
 
 of that day. In the course of the forenoon the 
 Russian commander made some of the Neapolitans 
 embark in the vessels provided for their conveyance to 
 Toulon. 
 
 When Nelson was visited by Captain Foote and in- 
 formed of the terms of the capitulation, he adopted the 
 opinion that they required the royal concurrence that 
 they were put an end to by the appearance of his own 
 fleet before anything had been done to carry them 
 into effect; he issued on the 25th a manifesto to the 
 republicans who still occupied the forts that they must 
 submit unconditionally to their king. It would seem 
 that an excited and angry negotiation followed between 
 the British admiral and the Turkish and Russian com- 
 manders ; who, with Cardinal Ruffo, insisted on carry- 
 ing the conditions into effect. Lord Nelson at last 
 agreed to forbear using any force to prevent the em- 
 barkation of the garrisons as agreed on ; but, without 
 retracting the manifesto which was already published. 
 A few days afterwards he published an ordinance of 
 Ferdinand, by which all the adherents of the so-called 
 republic were declared guilty of treason all were to 
 be tried by a junta of state, who were to punish the 
 principal offenders with death those of lesser guilt 
 with imprisonment or exile, all with confiscation. 
 
 On the 25th Cardinal Ruffo indignantly and vehe- 
 mently protested against the violation of the terms he 
 had granted. He came on board Lord Nelson's ship, 
 and long and earnestly argued with him. Sir William 
 Hamilton acted as interpreter in the interview, and 
 Lord Nelson was at last obliged to employ the eloquence
 
 334 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 of Ladj Hamilton to reply to the remonstrances of the 
 cardinal. The latter urged his part with manliness and 
 determination. He went the length of sayiug that if 
 Lord Nelson cancelled the capitulation he would not 
 direct the troops under his command to fire on the forts 
 which were still in possession of the French. 
 
 The dispute between Lord Nelson and the cardinal 
 proceeded so far, that it was deemed necessary to 
 remove the latter from Naples. An autograph letter 
 of the king commanded his immediate attendance at 
 Palermo, and not very covertly reproached him with 
 his slowness in yielding to the " evangelical " arguments 
 of Lord Nelson. At the same time orders were 
 transmitted both to Lord Nelson and the Neapolitan 
 general of Ferdinand, which plainly implied that, if 
 necessary, the removal of the cardinal was to be 
 accomplished by force. 3 
 
 On the 28th of June Cardinal Ruffo was conveyed 
 to Sicily, and on the same evening the " Seahorse," 
 the frigate which Captain Foote commanded, was 
 despatched on the special service of attending King 
 Ferdinand at Palermo. Armed boats visited the vessels 
 in which the republicans who had come out of the 
 castles had been placed. These vessels had previously 
 been moored under the guns of the British fleet. A 
 few victims selected from the number were brought 
 pinioned in irons, and carried to the dungeons on shore. 
 It was the signal by which the fury of royalist ven- 
 geance was let loose. A base and degraded populace 
 
 8 See the letters published in Sir George Rose's correspondence in the note 
 at the end of this volume.
 
 CHAP, vni.] ATROCITIES OP THE BABBLE. 333 
 
 became its instruments. Reports were circulated 
 that the Jacobins had formed a plot for murdering 
 thirty thousand of the people, and that snares of an 
 infernal construction were prepared, in which the royalists 
 were to be strangled. Nothing was too absurd for the 
 credulity of the Lazzaroni. Bands of ruffians visited 
 the houses of the citizens, and the presence of a hempen 
 cord was sufficient evidence to condemn the ill-fated 
 master to the tender mercies of the miscreants who 
 pursued pillage and murder without remorse. The 
 recognised agents of the government vied with these 
 unsanctioned, but tolerated executioners, in the retri- 
 bution they inflicted without any very careful distinc- 
 tion between the innocent and the guilty, if any indeed 
 could be guilt} r , where the sole crime imputed was 
 adherence to the only lawful government which the 
 king's disgraceful flight had left in Naples. The 
 dungeons of the city and its fortresses were filled with 
 prisoners in a few days ; others were still despatched to 
 the chambers of the Granili and the island of Procida. 
 All these prisons, extensive as they were, were not 
 large enough to contain the victims that were seized. 
 New dungeons were extemporised in vain. At last 
 the captives were flung into the empty public granaries, 
 and left for days without food or change of dress. Men 
 of the highest family and most irreproachable character 
 were thrown into loathsome gaols, from which, after the 
 form of a hurried trial, they were led to a miser- 
 able end. 
 
 Unhappily the truth of this dismal story rests on tes- 
 timony too strong, and too faith-worthy to be doubted.
 
 336 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 The ludicrous, in some instances, mingled with the 
 tragic. Among the buildings assaulted by the royalist 
 Lazzaroni was a hospital, from which some medical 
 students had recklessly displayed the tricolor. It hap- 
 pened to be an hospital in which lunatics were confined. 
 The mob supposed the madness feigned to escape them. 
 The madmen were dragged with the students to the 
 dungeon, into which they were promiscuously thrust. 
 The howlings of one of these maniacs was miserably 
 stopped. The skull of the frenzied wretch as he 
 attempted to escape was cloven by the sabre of the 
 trooper on sentry at the door. 10 
 
 Pre-eminent even amid these horrors the common 
 consent of mankind has placed the fate of the Prince 
 Carracioli, the admiral of the fleet. He had the mis- 
 fortune to provoke the personal enmity of the queen. 
 He had accompanied the royal family in their flight to 
 Sicily, but when a decree was issued by the republic, 
 confiscating the property of those who did not return to 
 the country, he sought and obtained permission from 
 Ferdinand to revisit Naples. The enmity of the queen 
 was founded on an allegation that he had then given 
 his promise not to serve under the republic. In vain 
 he urged that he had been compelled to return to his 
 position as admiral of the fleet. A court-martial was 
 convened on board the British flag-ship, and one hour 
 after he was brought on board, he was placed on his 
 trial. Conviction speedily followed. The sentence was 
 
 10 See for the account of these transactions the histories of Botta, Colletta, 
 and the memoirs of General Pepe. The latter was among the prisoners 
 seized by the royalists, and was himself an eye-witness of the horrors he 
 describes.
 
 CHAP. VIIL] CARACCIOLI. 337 
 
 death. He implored that he might be shot, but the 
 sentence was executed by hanging him from the yard- 
 arm of his own ship ; the body, with the weight of 
 heavy shot attached, was flung coffinless and dis- 
 honoured into the sea. 11 
 
 On the 8th of July the king arrived in the bay. 
 The wretched Neapolitans had looked forward to his 
 coming as likely to mitigate the horrors of which their 
 city was the scene. Shut up in gloomy solitude on 
 board an English man-of-war, he refused admission to all 
 visitors from the shore. The decrees which he issued 
 soon taught the people that the royal presence did not 
 temper the severity of the persecution. One decree 
 formally annulled the capitulation ; another abolished 
 the municipal constitution of the city of Naples, and 
 thus destroyed the last remnant of liberty which existed 
 in the kingdom. The judicial junta already named by 
 Cardinal Ruffo was suspected of being too merciful for 
 the intentions of the court. A new and a more unscrupu- 
 lous one was named by the king. Two edicts were 
 issued for the regulation of the trials of offenders. The 
 first denned the crime of high treason, in terms which 
 
 11 History records no incident more striking than the fact of the body of 
 the unhappy admiral rising to the surface, notwithstanding the immense weight 
 attached to it, and floating on the surface of the waves past the window of 
 the cabin from which the king was looking. The manuscript of Lord Valentia 
 varies a little from the generally received account. The king has been re- 
 presented as asking in terror what does he want, and being answered by 
 one of the bystanders, he comes to demand Christian burial. According 
 to the statement of Lord Valentia, the observation of the king was an 
 unfeeling jest. " Perhaps," said his majesty, "he is coming to beg a free 
 pardon," in allusion probably to petitions of that character which were 
 pressed upon him all day. " No, sire," replied one of his courtiers, "but he is 
 come to ask for Christian burial." z
 
 338 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 subjected to its penalties every one who had in any 
 way assisted the republican government. Its provisions 
 were declaratory, and therefore retrospective, and many 
 persons were executed for acts which at the time of 
 their commission violated no law. Words of disparage- 
 ment applied to the king or royal family were liable to 
 be visited with the penalty of death. An expression of 
 contempt for the king's ignominious flight, used in the 
 previous December, would now be sufficient to subject 
 the speaker to a traitor's doom. The form of proceeding 
 appointed by the second decree was worthy of the 
 code. The secret evidence of spies or informers was 
 declared sufficient to convict. No defence was allowed 
 to the accused except through an officer appointed by the 
 court ; he was not to be allowed the privilege of being 
 confronted with the witnesses against him. Torture 
 was authorised either for the purpose of extorting 
 a confession, or compelling evidence ; no appeal was 
 to be permitted from the sentence, and its execution 
 must take place on the day on which it was pro- 
 nounced. 
 
 This sanguinary form of procedure was not sufficient 
 to satisfy the impatient vengeance of the king. A 
 military commission was at the same time authorised, 
 to which the king might delegate the trial of cases in 
 the city or the provinces. A commission which was to 
 hold its sittings by beat of drum, and try, condemn, 
 and execute, " ad horas et modum belli." 
 
 The judges prepared to execute their commission in 
 the spirit of this code ; the king handed over to them 
 a list of proscribed persons sent from Palermo by the
 
 CHAP, vin.] THE EXECUTIONS AND THE DUNGEONS. 339 
 
 queen. Their mission was avowedly one of extermina- 
 tion of all who held political opinions opposed to those 
 of the court. The decree that appointed them declared 
 the royal determination "to purge the country of the 
 enemies of the altar and the throne." Such were the 
 ordinances which were issued from the cabin of a British 
 ship, and beneath the shelter of the British flag. 
 
 It would far exceed the limits of these pages to 
 describe the horrors of the tribunals the executions 
 that followed, or the terrible miseries of the dungeons 
 to which royal clemency consigned those whose lives 
 were spared. We read of dungeons or caverns, in the 
 island of Faregnano, excavated in the deep recesses of 
 the rock, where no rays of the sun ever penetrate, and 
 a gloomy twilight only makes visible the damp vapours 
 that float, and the noxious animals that crawl in its 
 gloomy recesses. Into this living sepulchre were flung 
 nine of the reprieved prisoners : three of them were 
 the aged Prince of Torella, the Marquis Corletto, and 
 the advocate Poerio. 12 The mind becomes wearied 
 with the sameness of these records of cruelty and crime 
 the story of a government which reduced its annals 
 to be little more than the catalogue of human beings 
 doomed to perish on the scaffold, or to meet a far 
 worse fate in those dungeons, all whose horrors will 
 be known only when the deeds of cruelty that have 
 been done in secret shall be made manifest before 
 angels and men. 
 
 The merciless tribunals of this political inquisition 
 were not slow in executing their bloody task. There were 
 
 12 Colletta, book v. cbap. i. 
 
 z 2
 
 840 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 more than thirty thousand prisoners to be tried. One 
 of the juntas held its sittings in the night. There is 
 nothing to relieve the horror of the scene except the 
 dignity and heroism displayed by the condemned. 
 Hopeless of life, they met the brutal insults of their 
 judges by words of haughty and solemn defiance, boldly 
 uttered by men who knew they were about to die. 
 The executions purged Naples, not of the enemies of the 
 altar and the throne, but of those whose genius added 
 lustre to its professions and its literature, and whose 
 virtues threw a charm over the circles of domestic life. 
 From the list of the sufferers it were easy to frame a 
 long and honoured catalogue of names, distinguished 
 in scholarship, in science and in art. 13 
 
 Neither rank, nor age, nor sex, could find mercy. 
 The grey hairs of men of seventy years were dabbled 
 with their blood. Boys of sixteen or seventeen fell 
 by the hand of the executioner. The priestly, even 
 the episcopal character, was not suffered to shield the 
 ministers and the prelates of religion from the ven- 
 
 13 There is something peculiarly melancholy in finding in the ordinary 
 sources of intelligence such announcements as these : 
 
 "August, 1799. Deaths by the hands of the public executioner, soon after 
 the return of his Neapolitan majesty to Naples. Francisco Bagni, professor of 
 physic; Paschale Baffa, Joseph Logoteta, Francisco Conforti, all three distin- 
 guished literati. Domenico Cirilli, M.D., physician during thirty years to Sir 
 William Hamilton the English ambassador at Naples ; Natale, bishop of Pico ; 
 Marcello Scoti, ecclesiastic. (The above seven persons were members of the 
 Provisional Government of the Neapolitan Republic.) Eleanor Fonseca, a 
 learned lady; Mario Pagano, one of the most elegant modern Italian 
 writers, and who drew up a form of constitution for the intended re- 
 public ; Niool. Pacifico, a distinguished botanist, seventy years old, and 
 captain of the National Guard ; Vine. Troisi, chaplain of the Provisional 
 Government." Gentleman's Magazine for June, 1801, August, 1799. Parti., 
 p. 572.
 
 CHAP, vin.] LUIGIA SANFELICE. 341 
 
 geance of the queen. Priests and bishops suffered on 
 the scaffold, the only crime of one of the former, was 
 that of having acted as chaplain to the republic. To 
 crown the catalogue of horrors, many women suffered 
 among the condemned, 14 and ladies of rank and con- 
 sideration expiated by an ignominious death the crime 
 of having acknowledged in social intercourse the position 
 of the officials of the only government that existed in 
 the land. 15 
 
 No formal records have preserved the names or the 
 numbers of the victims of this terrible assize. It has 
 been computed by competent authority that, including 
 the executions in the provinces, more than four thousand 
 
 11 Among the ladies who suffered was Eleanora Fonseca Piinental. " Une 
 dame Neapolitanne qui s'est d'abord distmguee par des poesies agre"ables et 
 inge'nieuses, et qui s'est ensuite livree a des eludes arides mais importantes 
 pour le bien public. Elle a composee une livre sur un projet de banque 
 nationale, ou il y a des vues tres profondes, qui pourroit inteVesser les hommes 
 les plus instruits dans ces matieres." Memoires Secretes des Coura de I' Italic, 
 vol. i. p. 77. 
 
 15 Far more than the fate of even her accomplished and high-born companions 
 is that of Luigia Sanfelice calculated to excite indignation and pity. During 
 the days of the republic two rival lovers sought the affections of this young girl. 
 One was a royalist, the other, her favourite suitor, an officer in the French 
 army. Her royalist lover confided to her that a plot had been formed for the 
 massacre of the French. She conveyed the information to his rival, and it led 
 to the detection of the conspiracy. 
 
 She was condemned to die as having given assistance to the authorities of 
 the republic. The unhappy girl was about to become a mother, and her 
 execution was respited till she should give birth to her babe. In the mean- 
 time she was removed to Palermo and imprisoned in a dungeon. When her 
 child was born her execution was ordered. About the same time the wife 
 of the heir-apparent presented her husband with his first-born son. The 
 etiquette of the Neapolitan court prescribed that, on such an occasion, 
 the princess should be entitled to any favour she asked of the king ; when 
 visited by her father-in-law the duchess raised the babe, to whose tiny hand 
 she had fastened a card with her petition inscribed upon it, " The Life of 
 Luigia Sanfelice." The king, when he read it, flung the infant down, and 
 rushed in a passion from the room. Luigia Sanfelice was sent back to Naples 
 and executed.
 
 812 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 persons of all ranks and ages, and of both sexes, 
 suffered death under the sentences of these tribunals. 16 
 The fierce passions of the Lazzaroni were permitted 
 to supplement, they could scarcely surpass, the atrocities 
 of the courts ; and in a city occupied by thousands of 
 troops, and on an open place commanded by the guns 
 of a powerful fleet, these wretches assembled in front of 
 the royal palace and actually roasted living men in the 
 flames. Rivalling the demoniac atrocities of the revo- 
 lution in Paris, they are said to have torn the flesh of 
 their victims with their teeth. 17 
 
 Before proceeding to this energetic demonstration of 
 loyalty, they had been permitted to gratify their 
 feelings by dragging prisoners of every age, and of 
 both sexes, through the streets, taunting them with 
 savage insults, and occasionally saving them from the 
 mockery of a trial by dispatching them with their 
 knives. 
 
 The cruelties of the tribunals did not end with the 
 executions. To minor sentences of exile, of imprison- 
 ment, or of confiscation, more than 20,000 persons 
 are said to have been condemned. 18 All evil passions 
 gathered round the sittings of the tribunal on its circuits 
 through the land. Rapacity and revenge prompted 
 denunciations of the creditor, the criminal, or the friend. 
 Servants betrayed their masters members of the same 
 
 16 Spalding's Italy, vol. iii. p. 51. 
 
 17 " It has been said not only that the miserable victims of the rage and 
 cruelties of the fanatics were savagely murdered, but that, in many instances, 
 their flesh was eaten and devoured by the cannibals, who are the advocates 
 and the instruments of social order." Speech of Mr. Fox, February 3rd, 1800. 
 
 18 See the note at the end of this volume.
 
 CHAP, viii.] THE TRIBUNALS. 313 
 
 family appeared in some instances to accuse each other. 
 The most frivolous pretexts sufficed for condemnation. 
 Boys of twelve years of age were imprisoned for having 
 been present at some of the ceremonies of the republic ; 
 women were condemned for having succoured their 
 wounded relatives. Acts not only innocent, but laud- 
 able, became crimes under that comprehensive edict 
 which authorised the judge to find high treason in any 
 act which he could call one of succour or assistance to 
 the republican enemies of the king. 
 
 Such was the inauguration of Ferdinand's restored 
 authority after the expulsion of the French. When, after 
 a few days' stay at Naples, he returned to Palermo, he 
 was received by the people with the honours due to 
 the hero of a successful war. The reception, however, 
 was the expression not of loyalty, but of national 
 animosities, the old feud between the islanders and the 
 dwellers on the continent. The victory and even the 
 cruelties of Ferdinand were the triumphs of Sicily over 
 Naples ; the king whom the islanders had sheltered, 
 had wreaked their vengeance upon the hereditary 
 enemies of their race. 
 
 These atrocities were only ended by the treaty which 
 in 1801 was concluded between Naples and France a 
 treaty in which, to the honour of Napoleon, he stipu- 
 lated for a complete amnesty. " The king's subjects, 
 whether banished, forced to fly, shut up in dungeons, 
 or in concealment for their political opinions, to be 
 restored to their country, to their freedom, and to the 
 enjoyment of their property." 19 
 
 19 Treaty of May 20th, 1801.
 
 344 HISTOBY OP ITALY. [VOL r. 
 
 This treaty with Naples had been obtained from 
 Napoleon entirely by the influence of the Russian 
 emperor Paul. The address and the energy of Caroline 
 had procured the interference of the Autocrat of the 
 North. Neither Ferdinand nor his queen had any wish 
 to remain in Naples to witness the scenes that followed 
 their restoration. The king, it has been already said, 
 returned to Palermo ; Caroline was conveyed in one 
 of Lord Nelson's ships to Leghorn. She waited at 
 Florence the result of the battle of Marengo, 20 and 
 upon receiving the intelligence of Napoleon's victory, 
 she accompanied Lord Nelson and Sir William and 
 Lady Hamilton, as far as Trieste, on her way to 
 Vienna. 21 The peace of Luneville immediately followed, 
 but all her entreaties could not prevail on the Austrian 
 court to insist on the insertion in that treaty of a stipu- 
 lation to protect the kingdom of Naples. 
 
 The queen knew perfectly well that Napoleon medi- 
 tated a summary revenge for the duplicity with which 
 she had acted. Murat was already leading his army to 
 the south, charged with the execution of that revenge. 
 The whole Italian army of France, free from any other 
 antagonist in the peninsula, was ready to crush Naples 
 
 20 She had determined, if victory declared for the Austrian, to return to 
 Naples ; if not, to proceed to Vienna. In the early part of the day the 
 Austrians had won the field of Marengo, which the bravery of Kellermann 
 retrieved. When the first accounts were despatched it was believed that the 
 rout of the French was inevitable. Caroline, after receiving them, retired to 
 rest, desiring that any time at which the intelligence of the decisive defeat of 
 the French should arrive she should be awoke. 
 
 Her order was complied with, but it was only that sha might hear the news 
 of the victory which made Napoleon master of Italy. 
 
 21 See the account of this journey in Lord Nelson's Letters. Sir Harris 
 Nicholas Nelton'* Letters and Despatches.
 
 CHAP. VIIL] NAPLES SAVED BY THE EMPEROR PAUL. 345 
 
 with an overwhelming force. In this extremity she 
 succeeded in obtaining from a stranger the protection 
 which her own relatives refused. An application to 
 Paul from the queen secured his intercession, and 
 Napoleon contemptuously granted terms of peace to 
 Naples, as he took care to express in the official 
 documents, " in consideration of the esteem which the 
 Russian emperor entertained for its king." 
 
 It was not until the peace of Amiens appeared to 
 have restored permanent tranquillity to Europe, that 
 Ferdinand and Caroline ventured to resume their 
 residence in Naples. They did so in the midst of 
 depression and gloom. The spirit of the nation had 
 not yet risen from the effect of the scenes that had 
 followed the last appearance of their sovereign among 
 them. 
 
 The danger she had escaped had not taught wisdom 
 to the queen, nor the generosity of France mitigated 
 the hatred which she bore to everything connected with 
 its name. She entered into plots against the emperor 
 which were betrayed. Her letters to Napoleon, full of 
 friendship and esteem, reached him at the same time 
 with intercepted communications, in which she was 
 intriguing with other powers against him. 
 
 A secret convention with Russia did not probably 
 come to the knowledge of the emperor, but so far was 
 he provoked, that at a levee at Milan he burst before 
 the diplomatic circle into an ungovernable rage; 
 he upbraided the Neapolitan representative with the 
 treachery of his court, and the amazed assembly heard 
 threats and menaces addressed to the minister who
 
 346 H1STOEY OP ITALY. [VOL. I. 
 
 stood there only because he was the representative of 
 a friendly power. 
 
 Napoleon demanded at one time that Caroline should 
 retire from Naples to the Austrian dominions. Subse- 
 quently however he was satisfied with extorting from 
 Naples a new and more solemn treaty, in which 
 Ferdinand once more bound himself to neutrality in 
 the war. This was ratified at Naples on the 21st of 
 September, 1805, and on the ratification the French 
 troops evacuated the portion of the Neapolitan territory 
 which they had for some time occupied. 
 
 The very same day that the ratification was given to 
 the French minister, the Russian envoy received from 
 the queen a written assurance that this treaty should 
 in no respect interfere with the previous engagement 
 with Russia, having been signed merely to evade the 
 threats of France. This memorandum was forwarded 
 to the Russian general at Malta, with a request that he 
 would still carry out his plans of landing at Naples 
 with an allied force. 22 
 
 England had despatched to the Mediterranean an 
 expedition under the command of Sir James Craig. 
 The British general has left on record the feelings with 
 which he received from the Russian commander the 
 communication of the perfidy of the Neapolitan court. 
 His duty, he resolved, was to act with the Russian 
 general, who showed no scruple in availing himself of the 
 treachery of the queen. 23 On the 19th of November, an 
 
 K General Sir Henry Bun burr's Narrative of the Great War. 
 
 28 " the step which hie Sicilian Majesty has thought it 
 
 expedient to adopt in signing a treaty of neutrality with France, under a 
 declaration delivered at the same time to the Russian minister, that he
 
 CHAP, viii.] QUEEN CAROLINE ABANDONED BY FEIENDS. 347 
 
 army of 6000 English and 13,000 Russians, landed at 
 Naples, and a combined squadron of the navies of both 
 nations anchored in the bay. The Neapolitan govern- 
 ment made every preparation for joining to the allied 
 armament its own military force. 
 
 The French ambassador instantly left Naples, indig- 
 nantly remonstrating against this shameless violation of 
 a treaty which had not been two months signed. Never 
 was the retribution of perfidy more prompt or more 
 deserved. Joseph Buonaparte was marching on Naples 
 a force against which the wisest of the allied generals 
 believed it impossible to defend the frontier. Queen 
 Caroline madly urged the Russian General Lacy to 
 oppose the enemy's approach. All difficulty, however, 
 was at an end, when on the 7th of January that general 
 received the commands of his court at once to embark 
 his army for Corfu. A few days more brought the 
 intelligence of the peace of Presburg, and Caroline dis- 
 covered that her imperial relative had not thought 
 of her in its stipulations, and that she was abandoned 
 to the tender mercies of the enemy whom she had 
 
 considered it extorted by force, and, consequently, in no way obligatory on 
 him ; but, on the contrary, that it was his intention to adhere to his 
 prior treaty with Russia." 
 
 " I feel a very great repugnance to stand forth either as directing the public 
 operations of my country on this occasion, or even in my individual capacity, 
 as the supporter of what in its outline, and under the circumstances of a total 
 ignorance of its details, I could not but regard as an act of perfidy ; and had 
 the transaction stood simply on its own bottom, unaccompanied with any 
 other consideration than the consequences to the government with which it 
 originated, I should not have hesitated to decline giving my support or protec- 
 tion to it." 
 
 "... A strict fulfilment of my engagement with the Russian genera 
 appeared to me my first and 'greatest duty." Despatch of Sir James Craig, 
 December 9, 1805.
 
 348 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 now irretrievably exasperated by repeated acts of 
 perfidy and deceit. 
 
 Sir James Craig retired into Sicily, determined, if 
 possible, still to preserve that island from the French. 
 On the 22nd of January, the transports that carried 
 the British troops anchored in the harbour of Messina. 
 It was not for more than a month afterwards that they 
 could obtain the permission of the royal authorities to 
 land. The queen had persuaded the British minister at 
 Naples that she could make terms with the French, 
 and Mr. Eliot objected to the occupation by the British 
 general of the Sicilian ports ; he urged the retirement 
 of the army to Malta. Craig adhered to his instructions 
 to defend Sicily. In spite of the prayers and entreaties 
 of the queen, disregarding her protestations that she 
 was engaged in negotiations with Napoleon, Joseph 
 Buonaparte continued his inexorable march upon Naples. 
 The king, as usual, fled from the scene of danger, 
 embarking on board the only line of battle ship 
 that remained. The queen continued at Naples, in- 
 dulging in the most unmeasured abuse of the Eng- 
 lish, and vainly attempting by negotiations to stop the 
 triumphant progress of the French arms. On the 9th 
 of February, the French army crossed the frontiers, 
 proclaiming the commands of Napoleon, that the king- 
 dom of Naples should be seized as the just penalty of 
 the perfidy of its court. Two days afterwards, the 
 queen followed her husband in his flight, glad to avail 
 herself of the protection in Sicily of the British arms. 
 
 The people of Naples looked with indifference upon 
 the approaching change of dynasty. On the very day
 
 CHAP, viii.] CHANGE OF DYNASTY. 34-9 
 
 on which the queen left Naples without even the form of 
 a government the courts of law continued to sit. The 
 ordinary business of the city was not suspended. The 
 French columns entered in peaceful array. Proclama- 
 tions were distributed in the name of Napoleon, de- 
 claring that his troops had not come to war upon the 
 people of Naples, but to punish the unexampled perfidy 
 of the court. The efforts of the queen to excite any loyal 
 enthusiasm either in the capital or the rural districts 
 had miserably failed. Had the interregnum lasted 
 longer it is possible that the miscreants, who always 
 watched such occasions as the opportunities of pillage, 
 might have been successful in their attempts to excite 
 disorder and tumult. But, two days after the flight 
 of the queen, the city was in the quiet and unopposed 
 possession of the French. 
 
 The seizure of the kingdom was soon followed by the 
 assumption of the crown. On the 3rd of March Joseph 
 issued a decree of Napoleon, by which he was appointed 
 King of Naples. On the same day he was proclaimed, 
 and the authorities of the kingdom took the oath of 
 fidelity to their new liege lord. 
 
 After a short reign of two years Joseph was trans- 
 ferred to the more important, but more doubtful throne 
 of Spain, by one of those marvellous movements of Na- 
 poleon in which dynasties and thrones were tossed to 
 and fro ; and by a decree from Bayonne, dated the 
 15th of July, 1808, the kingdom of Naples was con- 
 ferred upon Joachim Murat, the bravest, the most 
 chivalrous, but, at the same time, the most incompetent 
 and rash of the marshals of the empire.
 
 850 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 On the 6th of September, in the same year, Murat, 
 in a splendid procession, entered Naples as its king. 
 A few weeks afterwards he was joined by his queen, 
 Caroline, the sister of Napoleon. He still occupied the 
 throne of Naples when the chieftain who bestowed it 
 on him had been compelled to surrender that of 
 France.
 
 CHAP, ix.] SICILY. 351 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Retreat of the Royal Family of Naples to Sicily Connexion of Sicily with 
 England Constitution of Sicily Its early History Her first Parliaments 
 Laws of Frederick II. Enfranchisement of the Commons Pai-liamen- 
 tary Privileges Exclusive right of Taxation not confined to Commons 
 Right of Investiture Parliamentary Privileges always respected 
 Charles V. Treaty of Utrecht Distinct system of Sicilian Jurisprudence 
 Parliaments Their defects Their achievements Defects in the Laws 
 Feudal Tribunals Captains of Justice Sicilian Corn Laws Their 
 effects on Agriculture Sicily in 1810 Attempt of Ferdinand to destroy 
 the Constitution in 1799 English occupation in 1806. 
 
 THE second flight of the royal family of Naples to 
 Palermo was followed by a continued residence in Sicily 
 for nine years. During that period the history and 
 politics of the island were closely connected with those 
 of England. A British army occupied the country ; 
 British fleets protected its coasts and under the 
 guidance and direction of the representative of the 
 British sovereign, changes were effected in its internal 
 policy which gave to the people a freedom, which 
 England has been frequently said to have guaranteed. 
 Her acquiescence in the destruction of that freedom, 
 has been imputed as an act of bad faith, which in the 
 minds of many supplies more solid grounds of imputation 
 than those upon which her conduct to Genoa has been 
 impeached.
 
 352 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 With the exception of England, Sicily -was the only 
 European nation which preserved to the time of the 
 French revolution, representative institutions. About 
 the same period Norman princes had ascended the 
 English and the Sicilian thrones. In Sicily, as in 
 England, the Normans found before them the laws and 
 institutions of a Teutonic race, far more favourable to 
 personal liberty than the feudalism which they intro- 
 duced. In both countries the new feudal institutions 
 were blended with the popular system that had pre- 
 viously prevailed. In both, parliaments were the result, 
 assemblies in which the hereditary and the elective 
 principles were combined. 
 
 Sicily had been, it will be remembered, conquered by 
 the Normans from the Saracens, about the year 1040. 
 Under the rule, first of the Norman sovereigns and then 
 of the house of Hohenstauffen, it had been united to 
 Naples, until both fell under the dominion of the 
 Angevin prince, to whom the See of Rome had 
 assigned the realm. The Sicilian Vespers severed the 
 island from the continental realm, and under the rule of 
 the house of Aragon, Sicily long continued independent, 
 while Naples submitted to the sovereignty of the French 
 kings. 
 
 Before the conquest of Charles of Anjou, parliamen- 
 tary institutions had been common to both countries. 
 In the events which followed that conquest the political 
 institutions of Naples and Sicily became wholly different. 
 Charles of Anjou claimed the crown by a title indepen- 
 dent both of parliament and people holding it by a 
 grant from the Pope as its supreme feudal lord. The
 
 CHAP, ix.] SICILIAN PARLIAMENTS. 353 
 
 right of the house of Arragon, although supported on 
 something like hereditary descent, rested in truth upon 
 the election of the parliament and the people. The 
 result was that in Naples parliaments fell rapidly into 
 disuse. In Sicily their privileges and powers were 
 acknowledged and preserved. 
 
 The first parliaments of Sicily were assemblies of the 
 nobles and prelates Norman councils of the nation, 
 to which it would seem the sovereigns were in the habit 
 of summoning persons not belonging to the privileged 
 order, to whom they thought proper to send their writs 
 of invitation as men eminent for learning and wisdom. 1 
 
 This anomalous representation of the commonalty 
 assumed in progress of time the form of a more regular 
 system. To the legislation of the Emperor Frederick II. 
 Sicily was indebted for the establishment of the parlia- 
 mentary power of the commons upon a settled basis. 
 He enfranchised all the towns in the royal domains. 
 All persons who were owners of any property in these 
 domain towns were exempted from feudal jurisdiction ; 
 to become the feudatory of any lord was made a high 
 penal offence in the tenant of domain land. Several 
 cities were enfranchised and invested with the same 
 privileges, although not constituting a portion of the 
 royal domains ; and writs were issued to every 
 
 1 The account of the old Sicilian constitution and laws will be found 
 in Palmieri, "Storia Constituzionale della Sicilia;" Giannoni, " Istoria Civile 
 del Regno di Napoli," "Storia di Napoli;" Gregorio, " Introduczione allo 
 studio del dritto Publico Siciliano ; " Filangieri, " Scienza della Legis- 
 lazione ; " Lord Brougham's " Political Philosophy," vol. i. chap. xvii. See 
 especially Gregorio's " Considerazioni sopra la Storia di Sicilia," as well 
 as the other authorities referred to in the note to Lord Brougham's 17th 
 chapter. 
 
 VOL. I. A A
 
 354 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 enfranchised town, directing to send four deputies 
 to parliament two were summoned from each district 
 and castle. 
 
 At this early period, therefore, was established in 
 Sicily a system very nearly resembling that of the 
 borough and county representation in England. 
 
 The Sicilian parliament consisted of three chambers, 
 the nobles, the clergy, and the commons. The right of 
 taxation and granting money was rigidly reserved to 
 the parliament, but no distinction was made as in the 
 English constitution in favour of the right of the 
 commons exclusively to deal with finance. The clergy 
 and the barons had an equal voice in voting the sup- 
 plies, and to this no doubt we may attribute the fact 
 that the commons in Sicily were never able to assume 
 the position of influence and power which, by means of 
 the command of the national exchequer, they have 
 attained in the parliamentary system of England. 
 
 Those who have studied the growth of popular power 
 in the English parliament, and have seen how entirely 
 it depended upon the right claimed by the commons of 
 exclusive control over taxation, will estimate the vast 
 difference in the effect produced by parliamentary insti- 
 tutions in which the nobility and the clergy shared that 
 control equally with the representatives of the people. 
 
 It made the constitution of the parliament in reality 
 aristocratic. The burgesses had comparatively no 
 influence in competition with the aristocratic orders. 
 The great barons commanded to a very considerable 
 extent the returns from the castles, the districts, and the 
 towns ; so powerful indeed were they in Sicily, that even
 
 CHAP, ix.] THEIE EIGHTS. 355 
 
 when the Spanish viceroys governed the island, each of 
 these received by established usage on assuming his 
 office the significant instructions, " Coi baroni siete 
 tutto, senza di essi siete nulla." 2 
 
 The parliament thus constituted had great and 
 acknowledged powers. No taxes could be imposed 
 upon the people without its consent ; it was bound to 
 meet twice a year, and to sit on each occasion for at 
 least eight days ; to every member was expressly 
 conceded the right of stating any grievance, or bringing 
 forward any complaint of the conduct of any magistrate 
 or official of the crown. New laws were proposed by 
 an edict from the king, but had no validity until they 
 had received the assent of the parliament, or, as the 
 better opinion seems to be, of two of the three estates 
 of which it was composed. 
 
 A right still more important in point of principle 
 exercised by the parliament from the very earliest days, 
 was that of confirming the title of each successive 
 sovereign. It has been said that they elected ; strictly 
 speaking this is not true. All the monarchies of Europe 
 were in one sense elective, the consent of the people 
 was necessary to confirm, and their negative occasionally 
 disturbed the claim of hereditary right ; in no other 
 sense does it appear that the Sicilian monarchy ever 
 was elective. That which at first was the right of con- 
 firmation or even election, assumed at a very early 
 period the form of investiture. Each succeeding 
 monarch submitted to this formal recognition of the 
 
 2 " With the barous you are everything, without them nothing." Wrigld- 
 son'a Italy, p. 94. 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 HISTORY OF ITALY. [vox, i. 
 
 superiority of parliament to the crown. Charles V. in 
 the plenitude of his power, requested from the parlia- 
 ment the investiture of his monarchy in the island. He 
 visited Sicily in person for the purpose of receiving it. 
 Upon the occasion of that visit he opened the session 
 of the Sicilian parliament, and solemnly took the oath 
 to defend its rights and liberties. Succeeding monarchs 
 were content to follow in his steps ; and, in 1735, 
 Charles of Bourbon, received the usual investiture, and 
 throughout his reign scrupulously respected the parlia- 
 mentary privileges and rights. 
 
 The treaty of Utrecht recognised indeed those privi- 
 leges as part of the European public law. In the act 
 which assigned Sicily to the Duke of Savoy, it expressly 
 bound the new sovereign in the name of all the powers 
 to confirm and ratify all the rights of the Sicilian 
 parliament. 
 
 It is impossible not to perceive the close analogy 
 between the nature and early growth of parliamentary 
 institutions in Sicily and England. An examination of 
 the writ issued for the return of deputies to the Sicilian 
 parliament, shows it to be almost identical with that in 
 use for the purpose of commanding the election of 
 burgesses to our own. 3 
 
 In other respects, the analogy between the two 
 institutions of the two countries is even still more 
 striking. The tenures of land were partly feudal under 
 the Norman, partly allodial under the Lombard law. 
 
 3 Lord Brougham baa supplied the form of the Sicilian Writ. It is 
 framed in the most precise analogy with that which directs the return of 
 burgesses to the English parliament.
 
 CHAP, ix.] SICILIAN COURTS. 357 
 
 The first descended by the law of primogeniture, the 
 last were divided among the children in accordance with 
 the German custom, still prevailing in some English 
 counties, of gavelkind. As in England, baronial juris- 
 dictions claimed an extensive share in the administration 
 of justice. The feudal barons, and the lords of the 
 Church, held courts in which they exercised jurisdiction 
 over their vassals or dependencies. The decisions of 
 these courts, in accordance with the principles of the 
 feudal system, were subject to an appeal to the courts 
 of the king as lord paramount and supreme. The great 
 judicial officers of the king were his high chancellor, 
 chief of the magistracy, and president of the council ; 
 his high justiciary almost identical with the great func- 
 tionary of our English jurisprudence in earlier times ; 
 the chamberlain (" camerario ") the chief officer of the 
 king's revenue, exercising as such the judicial authority 
 which was conceded in England " to the chancellor and 
 barons " of the exchequer of the king. 
 
 Notwithstanding this free constitution ; the govern- 
 ment by viceroys, and the long subjection of the people 
 to foreign rule, had produced their natural effect. The 
 preponderance of the barons in the parliament deprived 
 it of the power of the popular element, and conse- 
 quently of the sympathy and interest of the people. 
 The maxim of Spain we have seen was to govern 
 through the barons, and they had therefore little 
 occasion to use the privileges of the parliament against 
 the crown. The result was that both its legislative 
 functions and its higher duties as a committee of 
 grievances fell into disuse. Its prerogatives in taxation
 
 358 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 were respected, and no imposts were levied upon Sicily, 
 except with its consent. Thus, while in point of legal 
 right it continued to exist with powers and privileges 
 which might at any time assert the freedom of the 
 nation, it was practically only an aristocratic conclave 
 in which the barons determined the amount of taxation 
 which they were willing to permit to be levied by the 
 crown. 
 
 It must be admitted that this institution, however it 
 may have protected the independence, and in some 
 sense maintained the freedom of the island, had not 
 been successful in giving to the Sicilians the benefit 
 either of wise laws or of that prosperity to which the 
 natural resources of their country entitled them. 
 Oppressive feudal restrictions and privileges interfered 
 with industry and with the progress of a middle class 
 to wealth and independence. 
 
 These grievances were mitigated, but not altogether 
 removed, by the wise and liberal legislation of Frederick. 
 The parliament of Sicily was never strong enough in 
 the spirit of popular freedom either to get rid of these 
 feudal oppressions or to prevent the evils which the 
 government of viceroys inflicted on the country. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that her parlia- 
 mentary institutions were without their fruit. It was 
 no trifling achievement to have preserved the existence 
 of a parliament, with its essential principle of national 
 sovereignty, against the power of all the foreign dynas- 
 ties by which the island was successively ruled. That 
 institution maintained for ten centuries the right of 
 taxation in the parliament alone it preserved the
 
 CHAP, ix.] PARLIAMENTARY RESULTS. 359 
 
 separate existence of Sicily against all the influences 
 which perpetually tended to its subjugation to the more 
 powerful kingdom on the continent. It compelled the 
 kings of Spain to govern by a separate viceroy, main- 
 tain a separate administration, and respect the essential 
 distinctions of the Sicilian institutions and Sicilian laws. 
 Neither did it altogether fail in maintaining the spirit 
 of civil or even of religious liberty, as far as either, 
 especially the latter, could then be understood. The 
 provisions for securing personal liberty anticipated their 
 adoption in England. The independence of the national 
 Church and bishops was maintained against the en- 
 croachments of the Papal See, and when the bigotry 
 ofthe Spanish monarch attempted to introduce the in- 
 quisition of the ruling country into the dependent 
 island, a popular commotion supported by the barons 
 twice signally defeated the attempt. 4 
 
 When the supreme authority was distant, and the 
 legislative powers of the domestic parliament had fallen 
 into disuse, we cannot expect to find any wise or 
 vigorous effort to correct administrative abuse ; the 
 laws of Sicily were not from time to time adapted to 
 the growing wants of the people. The procedure in 
 the courts of law was in the nineteenth century embar- 
 rassed and complicated, not by the maxims and formali- 
 ties of the tenth, but by the learned confusion in 
 which the mischievous ingenuity of lawyers had in the 
 course of many centuries involved them. The local 
 courts of justice under the appointments of feudal lords,. 
 
 * 
 
 4 Qiannone's "Istoria Civile di Napoli," lib. 32 34 ; Reumont's "History 
 of the Carafas;" Perceval's "Italy," chap. ix. ; Muratori.
 
 360 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i 
 
 exhibited all the forms of abuse which have been 
 known in similar institutions in other countries, and the 
 delays and expense of the superior courts were so great, 
 that many of the Sicilians who made the experiment, 
 found the speedy injustice of the feudal tribunals, a 
 less evil than the slow, and in the end uncertain, 
 justice of the higher courts. 
 
 In other respects the internal administration of the 
 island was embarrassed by antiquated and absurd regu- 
 lations. In the department of that which may be 
 termed preventive justicje, the care of each district was 
 confided to an officer annually appointed by the crown, 
 called Captain of Justice : to him were left entirely 
 the regulations for the suppression of crime. He was 
 personally responsible for the value of all losses sus- 
 tained by an individual through a robbery committed 
 within his district, or, as we would say, bailiwick, between 
 sunrise and sunset. 5 These strict provisions failed en- 
 tirely in their intended effect. The Captain of Justice 
 was obliged to make the provisions for suppression of 
 brigandage at his own cost. It is said that the appoint- 
 ment to this expensive and troublesome office was 
 frequently made the means of punishing an obnoxious 
 individual. A succession of officers, each holding 
 his office for a year, could hardly be expected to 
 establish a permanent system of effective arrange- 
 ments ; the effect of the energy of one was destroyed 
 by the weakness or inattention of his successor. 
 
 Brigandage grew up to be a system, and it was found 
 
 * 
 
 s Botta, vol. iii.
 
 CHAP, ix.j STATE OF SICILY. 361. 
 
 impossible to enforce against the Captain of Justice 
 that remedy against which natural justice revolted. 
 
 The want of any effective local administration was 
 manifest in the entire neglect of the means of internal 
 transit, except in the vicinity of the great towns ; 
 throughout the rest of the country the communications, 
 even in the beginning of the present century, were 
 carried on by narrow and difficult paths, accessible only 
 to pedestrians and mules. 6 The result of this was, that 
 the proprietors were wholly separated from their 
 estates. They lived in the cities, and had no resi- 
 dences in the districts from which they derived their 
 rents. Most of them, indeed, passed their lives without 
 ever seeing their properties. Left to themselves, the 
 peasantry made no improvements in the traditions of 
 ancient times. The plough of the Georgics was the 
 only one in use in 1810, and in that year we find the 
 ox still treading out the corn as he had done in Juda3a 
 in the time of the composition of the Psalms. 7 
 
 As if, however, to destroy every hope of an improved 
 agriculture, a corn-law existed of such a character as to 
 surprise us with the strange ingenuity of its invention : 
 the exportation of corn-grain was prohibited not only 
 from the island, but virtually from one little district 
 to another. The country was divided into districts 
 each extending over a circle of several miles ; in each 
 of these was established a corporation whose members 
 were appointed by the crown. Upon them was thrown 
 
 6 Report on the state of Sicily, in " Lord Castlereagh's Despatches," vol. vi. 
 p. 182. 
 
 7 Report in the Castlereagh Papers.
 
 362 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. T. 
 
 the obligation of supplying the district with bread 
 that is, they had a monopoly of the supply of bread, 
 coupled with the condition that they should find sufficient 
 for the wants of the people for whom they were appointed 
 to provide. 8 
 
 To enable them to fulfil this contract, they had a 
 monopoly of purchase as well as sale ; the farmer in the 
 district was not at liberty to sell to any one else until 
 the corporation had declared that they had sufficient to 
 supply the district with bread. This was virtually to 
 permit them to fix their own price. They did so both 
 in the purchase and the sale. To the lowness of the 
 price which they gave for the corn they had no other 
 limit than that at which the peasant could continue to 
 raise it and the baron to receive his rents. The price 
 at which they sold the bread was raised to the utmost 
 they could extort from the people ; they did not even 
 trouble themselves to provide bakers' shops : in the 
 rural districts persons were obliged to come several 
 miles for the purchase of their loaf. 
 
 The object of this institution was no doubt originally 
 to secure to the people of each district a constant 
 and regular supply of the prime necessary of life to 
 dispose of it direct from the producer to the con- 
 sumer without permitting it to be carried away else- 
 where, or enhanced in its price by the artifices of 
 jobbers. The enormous profits realised by these con- 
 tractors were a fraud upon their intended functions, 
 which were merely those of dispensers of the corn. The 
 rates both of the purchase and the sale were supposed 
 
 8 See Castlereagh Papers, as above.
 
 CHAP, ix.] SICILIAN CORN LAWS. 363 
 
 to be fixed upon an - equitable adjustment of the 
 necessities of the district, and the quantity of the crop. 
 If they were not so, the contractors were liable to severe 
 punishments ; and occasionally when their conduct 
 became very flagrant these punishments were inflicted. 
 Generally, however, they escaped either from the diffi- 
 culty that stood in the way of complaint, or by the 
 employment of well-directed bribes. Such was the 
 practical effect of a system elaborately framed to secure 
 that which has been the object of many English laws 
 a market for the grower and a steady supply of food to 
 the consumer. The most ardent admirers of govern- 
 ment interference in such matters must admit that the 
 principle may be carried too far. Even the evils of 
 " forestalling " and " regrating/' against which our own 
 laws but a few years ago denounced the severest 
 penalties, may be prevented at too dear a cost. In 
 Sicily at least no natural effect of the laws of supply 
 and demand could have been worse than that of the 
 expedient by which the wisdom of government 
 attempted to control them. 
 
 The result was such that in the beginning of the pre- 
 sent century, Sicily which had been once the granary of 
 Rome, produced scarcely sufficient to supply its own 
 people with food. Years of scarcity were of frequent 
 occurrence ; not more than one-third of the country was 
 cultivated, and that with the imperfect agriculture of 
 ancient times ; whole districts lay depopulated and 
 waste. Some of the barons still possessed great for- 
 tunes whose estates lay contiguous to towns, but many 
 of those who owned estates in remote districts were
 
 364 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 reduced to absolute poverty ; living in the cities in the 
 mansions of their ancestors, they were without the means 
 of supplying their daily wants. Beyond the shop- 
 keepers in the towns a middle class was utterly un- 
 known. Commerce there was none ; the whole island 
 scarcely possessed a decked vessel. All that could be 
 called trade was that of the coasters, and a traffic in 
 wine in the hands of a very few English merchants 
 resident in 'the ports. Everything appears to have 
 been done to repress, nothing to develope the resources 
 of a country blessed with magnificent advantages, or to 
 promote the prosperity of a people who only needed 
 encouragement, or rather fair play, to rival in skill, in 
 ingenuity and intelligence, those of any nation upon 
 earth. Nor was education in Sicily very widely diffused. 
 In the year 1810 we find it stated, and there is no 
 reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of the state- 
 ment, that in the whole island there were not more 
 than 1500 persons who could read and write. 9 
 
 Such was Sicily at the period when it became the 
 centre of English movements in the Mediterranean, and 
 the scene of those plots and intrigues by which a vicious 
 and unprincipled court attempted to defeat the efforts 
 of an enlightened and liberal statesman to secure to the 
 island good government and freedom. If the descrip- 
 tion that has been given above does not seem entirely to 
 bear out the glowing accounts that have been made of 
 the happiness and prosperity of Sicily under its old 
 constitution, we must at the same time remember that 
 for these evils its parliament was not responsible. The 
 
 9 Castlereagh Papers.
 
 CHAP, ix.] FIRST ATTEMPT AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION. 365 
 
 very constitution under which it assembled required that 
 all legislative changes should originate with the crown. 
 The system of viceregal government prevented any 
 real improvement in administration, and the want of a 
 vigorous and active popular element in the parliament 
 rendered it powerless to force reforms upon the in- 
 difference of a governor who had no real interest in the 
 prosperity of the island. 
 
 After all, in many respects the condition of Sicily was 
 not worse in point of progress than had been that of 
 many districts which had long enjoyed the full advan- 
 tages of the constitution of Britain. A century ago in 
 England, at a much later period in Scotland and 
 Ireland, there were extensive districts in which the 
 roads were as neglected, in which rules almost as 
 vexatious prevailed in which agriculture was practised 
 after a fashion as primitive and where education was 
 not more general than it appears to have been among 
 the Sicilian people. 
 
 If the parliament of Sicily had not been able to 
 counteract the evils of a misrule for which it was in no 
 case responsible, it had yet maintained under circum- 
 stances of difficulty and trial its own privileges, and 
 had preserved, with all the authority of prescription, 
 and the veneration that belongs to the institutions of 
 remote antiquity, a system which possessed at all events 
 the framework of a free constitution. 
 
 It was reserved for Ferdinand in the very hour when 
 Sicily offered him a shelter in his distress to make an 
 attempt to destroy the privileges of that parliament with 
 which neither the most powerful nor the most tyran-
 
 366 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 nical of his predecessors had ventured to interfere 
 the right of exclusive control over the taxation of the 
 country was the first of those privileges assailed by a 
 needy and unprincipled court. 
 
 The first dispute between privilege and prerogative 
 occurred in 1798. The king of the Two Sicilies 
 was peculiarly circumstanced in relation to his two 
 realms. In Naples even the form of parliamentary 
 institutions had long since disappeared. There the 
 monarch was absolute, while on the other side of the 
 straits his power was controlled by those privileges of 
 parliament which still remained. 
 
 The severity with which Jacobinism was punished in 
 Naples in 1798, extended to Sicily, although in a miti- 
 gated form. We may, however, form an idea of the 
 manner in which the people were treated from the fact 
 that in the official calendar of the island there are 
 recorded sentences of exile for the offence of reading 
 the newspapers with delight. " Pro lectura gazettarum 
 cum nimi& delectatione." 10 It is perhaps to be presumed, 
 although not so stated, that the newspapers were those 
 which recorded the triumphs of the republican arms. 
 Even with this explanation it must be remembered that 
 at that time France and Naples were at peace. 
 
 The unpopularity of these acts induced a reluctance 
 on the part of the parliament to grant supplies. At 
 last the king demanded a perpetual subsidy. Parliament 
 refused. The court of Naples had determined on the 
 step of arresting the dissentients, and levying taxes by 
 the authority of the crown, when the approach of the 
 
 10 Aii^ari, " La Sicile et les Bourbons," p. 16.
 
 CHAP, ix.] ENGLISH OCCUPATION OF SICILY. 367 
 
 French armies to Naples interrupted the design, and 
 flying to Palermo for refuge, and compelled to allow 
 that city to be garrisoned by English troops, the queen, 
 the real director of the government, abandoned, or 
 rather postponed, her attacks upon the liberty of her 
 Sicilian subjects. 11 
 
 From the year 1806 a large military force was main- 
 tained by England in Sicily. Commanded first by Sir 
 James Craig, afterwards by Sir John Stuart ; for a 
 short interval by General Fox, Sir John Moore, and 
 finally by Lord William Bentinck the British troops 
 effectually guarded Sicily from the French. A naval 
 squadron co-operated with the land forces. The fleet 
 was at first under the command of Sir Sidney Smith, 
 then of Lord Collingwood, then of Lord Exmouth. 
 During the greater part of the period, a British diplo- 
 matist of high rank resided at Palermo, and represented 
 his sovereign at the court of the king. 
 
 It was, during the second retirement of the Nea- 
 politan court to Palermo, that the attack was made 
 upon the Sicilian constitution, which finally compelled 
 the British government to interfere with a high hand, 
 when no choice was left them between protecting the 
 rights of the Sicilian parliament, or an appearance in 
 the odious character of supporting by their troops the 
 tyrannical attempt of the court to subvert its acknow- 
 ledged privileges. 
 
 The history of that interference constitutes one of 
 the strangest, and not the least important portions of 
 the modern annals of Italy. To that interference 
 
 11 Amari.
 
 368 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. I. 
 
 many of the Sicilians still attribute the loss of their 
 parliamentary institutions, which surviving all the 
 attacks of their enemies, fell at last from the effects of 
 the ill-omened protection of their friends. By the 
 attempt on the part of England to consolidate and 
 extend Sicilian liberties, these liberties were ultimately 
 destroyed. The story of the residence of the Nea- 
 politan royal family at Palermo, from 1806 to 1815, is 
 little more than the record of the intrigues and devices 
 by which a feeble and worthless court, supported by 
 British money and protected only by British arms, 
 were yet able to baffle all the efforts of England to 
 establish representative government in the island.
 
 ENGLISH OCCUPATION OF SICILY. 369 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 English occupation of Sicily Sir John Stuart Descent on Calabria Battle 
 of Maida General Fox Sir John Moore Atrocities committed Laws of 
 Murat to suppress them Fearful Cruelties General Manhes Sir Sydney 
 Smith Escape of Naples Taking of Capri Intrigues of Queen Caroline 
 Attempted Invasion of Sicily Repulsed by Sir John Stuart Retirement 
 of Sir John Stuart Duke of Kent solicits to be appointed in his place 
 Lord William Bentinck Violent proceedings of the Sicilian Court 
 Cruelties at Messina Illegal Taxation Parliamentary Protest 'Arrest of 
 the five Barons Lord William Bentinck's viot to England He returas 
 with fuller powers Compels the King to appoint the Duke of Calabria 
 Vicar-General Release of the Barons A Liberal Ministry Parliament 
 of 1812 Settlement of the Constitution Abolition of feudal rights 
 Despatch of Lord Castlereagh Conduct of the Queeu Violent attempt 
 of the King to resume his authority The Queen compelled to leave the 
 Island Lord William Bentinck leaves for Spain Ministerial dissensions 
 Parliamentary plots Return of Bentinck Dissolution of Parliament 
 New Elections Triumph of the constitutional party Second absence of 
 Lord William Beutiuck Reactionary intrigues The King resumes hia 
 authority Final retirement of Bentinck Mr. A'Court his successor 
 William the Good and William the Bad Royal intrigues against t.ie 
 Constitution Proposal to change it Dissolution of Parliament King 
 returns to Naples His Proclamations. 
 
 ON the 19th of February 1806, the British troops 
 which had passed over from Naples nearly a month 
 before, were permitted to disembark from their trans- 
 ports and occupy the town and fortress of Messina. 
 Thus began that British occupation of the island which 
 for nine years protected even against their own intrigues 
 with their enemies, the court of the Neapolitan 
 
 VOL. I. B B
 
 370 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Bourbons. The circumstances have been already 
 told under -which the British general felt it his duty 
 to retreat with his army into Sicily, with a view of 
 carrying out those instructions which enjoined him in 
 the last resort to preserve, at all hazards, Sicily, as a 
 post for the British army. Every effort was made by 
 the queen to prevent the landing of the English troops 
 in Sicily. 1 She felt that their presence would defeat 
 the objects of arbitrary power, to the accomplishment 
 of which she was ready to sacrifice every other con- 
 sideration. In these proceedings Caroline was not 
 actuated by any high ambition, but the violence of her 
 temper carried her to make any effort, however despe- 
 rate, to gratify the passions of her ungovernable will. 
 
 From the time of the flight of the royal family to 
 Naples, her violence involved her in frequent disagree- 
 ments with the English, to whose protection neverthe- 
 less she owed her safety, and from whom she was all the 
 time receiving a subsidy which was the principal means 
 of meeting the expenses of the court. 
 
 The preservation of Sicily was considered an object 
 of essential importance by the British cabinet. That 
 island supplied a point from which they could harass 
 their enemy on the Italian continent. So long as a 
 British fleet commanded the Mediterranean and a 
 British force occupied Sicily, ready to make a descent 
 upon any part of the Italian coast, the French were 
 compelled to keep a large body of troops in Italy for 
 its defence. The presence of an English army thus 
 neutralised a much larger number of the troops of their 
 
 1 See ante, chap. ix. General Bimbury's "Narrative," p. 217.
 
 CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF MAIDA. 371 
 
 opponents. The Sicilians understood perfectly well 
 that these circumstances influenced the English cabinet 
 in the protection which they gave them. 2 
 
 The proclamation of Joseph, as King of Naples, 
 excited the utmost rage at the court of Palermo. The 
 queen vehemently urged the invasion of the country. 
 Insurrections in Calabria were disturbing the peace of 
 the new government and these were represented as 
 indications of a universal feeling in favour of the 
 Bourbons. Sir John Stuart took the place of Sir John 
 Craig in command of the British troops. He had been 
 with the British army when the abandonment of the 
 Neapolitan territory had been resolved on, and the 
 reasons which then made it appear impossible to defend 
 that territory, still made it, in his judgment, useless to 
 seize on it only that it might be again abandoned. He 
 was overruled, or rather over-persuaded, by the more 
 sanguine councils of the hero of Acre, and in the 
 summer of 1806, the British troops effected a landing 
 on the Calabrian coast. 
 
 The result was that glorious victory of Maida, in 
 which higher honour was gained than in many 
 conflicts in which far more numerous forces were 
 engaged. Sir John Stuart, with about 5000 English 
 troops, completely defeated a much larger number of 
 French. The result was that the French were succes- 
 sively driven from every post they occupied in Lower 
 Calabria. The people everywhere rose against them. 
 
 2 It would appear that this was originally the plan of the emigrant French 
 general Durnourier. See a most able memoir drawn up by him in Lord 
 Castlereagh's Despatches, vol. viii. p. 256. 
 
 B B 2
 
 372 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 The peasantry formed themselves into guerilla bands. 
 The troops of bandits that infested the forest-covered 
 defiles of the provinces were partisans of the exiled 
 king. The insurrection spread into Upper Calabria. 
 The British admiral, who had been appointed his Vicar- 
 General by the king, moved his ships along the coast, 
 supplying arms and provisions to the insurgents, and 
 occasionally carrying their bands from place to place. 
 All this, however, could not enable Sir John Stuart to 
 retain the country he had won. He soon discovered that 
 his predatory allies were not to be depended on in an 
 engagement with regular troops in the field ; the object 
 of most of them was plunder, and they were just as ready 
 to rob the English as the French. Unable to defend 
 his acquisition against the force which Massena was 
 marching into Calabria, the British general retreated. 
 
 From the very moment of their landing in the island, 
 the queen had regarded with intense hatred the 
 presence of the British troops. She had made applica- 
 tion to the Russian cabinet to send a force into Sicily 
 that might rescue the island from the influence of 
 England, 3 and there is little reason to doubt that so 
 early as the year 1807, and not long after the battle of 
 Maida, she opened through the Spanish court negotia- 
 tions with Napoleon which certainly a few years later 
 assumed a definite and distinct form. 4 
 
 Her feelings of dislike to England were increased by 
 the negotiations which were opened with Napoleon by 
 the ministry of Mr. Fox ; in those negotiations the 
 British minister had proposed terms of peace which 
 
 3 Buubur^'s Narrative. Bunburj-'s Narrative, page 389.
 
 CHAP x.] SIR JOHN MOORE. 
 
 would have left Murat on the throne of Naples. The 
 negotiations were finally broken off by the refusal of 
 England to deprive Ferdinand of the island of Sicily, 
 even with the offer of indemnity elsewhere. 5 It was in 
 defence of the rights of Ferdinand to Sicily that the 
 war continued. This, however, did not atone, in the 
 eyes of the violent Caroline, for the proposal to give up 
 Naples, and her irritation was aggravated by the 
 accident of the appearance in Sicily, as commander of 
 the British forces, of General Fox, the brother of the 
 statesman who had commenced and conducted the 
 obnoxious negotiations with France. On the fall of that 
 ministry, she openly expressed her joy at the prospect 
 of a government in England more likely to sympathise 
 with her own political views. 
 
 General Fox was accompanied to Sicily by Sir John 
 Moore. Both these officers were of higher rank than 
 Sir John Stuart ; the latter returned to England. 
 He was soon followed by General Fox, an(i Sir John 
 Moore remained in command of the troops. 
 
 The two years during which Sir John Moore remained 
 in Sicily, were spent in a constant struggle on his part 
 to resist the plan of the invasion of Naples, which the 
 queen was perseveringly urging. Mr. Drummond, the 
 British minister, who had at first strongly opposed the 
 views of the queen, was induced by her flatteries to 
 take her part. The Russian representative " insisted " 
 on behalf of his imperial master that an expedition 
 should be undertaken against Naples. Lord Castlereagh 
 
 5 Diplomatic Correspondence. Annual Register, 1806. State Papers, 
 pp. 703792. Parliamentary Papers, 1806.
 
 874 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 sent simikr instructions to General Fox, upon the 
 supposition that the Sicilian and English armies together 
 would form an invading force of 20,000 men. 6 The 
 British general, after providing for the garrisons of 
 Sicily, could have sent about 5000. The state of 
 Ferdinand's army was such as to make their co-opera- 
 tion an incumbrance instead of a support. 
 
 The queen's indiscretion revealed the real motive of 
 the vehemence with which she pressed her proposal. It 
 was pointed out to her by General Fox, that although 
 it was possible to take Naples, it was perfectly impos- 
 sible to hold it with the forces which were at his 
 disposal ; he urged that the effect of an attack would 
 be to inflict incalculable evil upon the city which her 
 majesty yet hoped to possess as her capital only to 
 abandon it after a short and not very creditable occu- 
 pation. In one of those ungovernable fits of temper, in 
 which she lost all self-control, she exclaimed in reply : 
 " Give me Naples for twenty-four hours it is all I ask, 
 it will be long enough for vengeance on the rebels." 
 The argument astonished, but did not convince the 
 British general. Sir John Moore did not hesitate to 
 record his opinion that it was indispensable to the peace 
 of Sicily that the queen should be compelled to leave 
 the island for Trieste. 
 
 The attempts to excite insurrections in Calabria, were 
 soon fouud to be little more than licenses for pillage and 
 murder in the name of the British crown. In the first 
 exile of the royal family, Caroline had adopted the 
 system of using the aid of the desperate characters 
 
 p Lord Castlereagh to General Fox, May 21, 1807.
 
 CHAP, x.] THE CALABRIAN BRIGANDS. 375 
 
 who, at all times, infested the wooded regions of 
 Calabria, by taking the bold step of engaging in her 
 service some of the most sanguinary miscreants who had 
 made themselves notorious by their crimes. To one of 
 these men, an escaped convict from the galleys, she 
 had compelled her reluctant husband to subscribe a 
 letter, in which she had styled him the king's dear 
 friend. 7 The same system was now revived, but on a 
 wider Iscale. Persons who called themselves captains 
 of the people, professed to head companies of patriotic 
 insurgents, which were in reality bands of lawless 
 robbers. While villages were devoted to pillage and 
 massacre, under the pretence that their inhabitants were 
 partisans of the French, the houses of the gentry 
 were plundered under colour of the same convenient 
 excuse. As soon as French troops showed themselves, 
 these wretches fled to the shelter of the mountains and 
 woods. They were only formidable to the peaceful 
 inhabitants of the district which they ravaged. 8 
 
 The British generals, apprised of these outrages, were 
 at last compelled peremptorily to discontinue the supply 
 of arms. A detachment of British troops was actually 
 sent across the straits to protect the inhabitants of one 
 district from the lawless violence of these allies of the 
 queen. 
 
 So long as Sir Sidney Smith remained upon the 
 station, he continued, even against the opinion of the 
 generals, to encourage these movements. Arms and 
 provisions were still distributed to almost all who chose 
 
 7 Colletta. 
 
 8 Sir John Stuart to General Fox, August 26, 1806.
 
 876 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 to ask for them. 9 The British ships were crowded with 
 ferocious looking brigands, who were frequently carried 
 long distances along the coast in the flag-ship of the 
 admiral himself. Even then the weapons with which 
 they were supplied, were more frequently used against 
 the inhabitants than against the French. 
 
 After the departure of Sir Sidney Smith the British 
 generals in every way discountenanced the employment 
 of these nefarious allies, but it continued with little 
 intermission throughout the whole residence of the 
 Neapolitan family in Sicily. Calabria has not yet 
 recovered from the devastations which were inflicted 
 upon it by this, which cannot be called, civilised, 
 warfare. A rapacious and ignorant peasantry had 
 been trained to pillage and blood. Murat, in 1810, 
 made a desperate effort to restore peace to the dis- 
 trict, by a law almost more terrible than the evils it 
 suppressed. In that year General Manhes was sent into 
 the province with orders to exterminate the brigands, 
 whose names in each commune were placed in a list. 
 Every person whose name appeared on the list was shot 
 whenever he was found. To prevent any food being 
 conveyed to the fugitives, carrying provisions in the 
 fields was made a crime punishable with death. The 
 slightest succour or even encouragement to one of the 
 proscribed was a capital offence. These merciless laws 
 were relentlessly executed. Peasants who thoughtlessly 
 carried bread in their pockets on their way to a distant 
 field of labour were met by the patrol and shot. 
 
 9 Letter of Sir John Moore to General Fox, August 24, 1 806 Bwnbury't 
 ffarratire.
 
 CHAP, x.j MTJRAT'S SANGUINARY LAWS. 377 
 
 Fathers were executed for giving food to their sons. 
 In one instance the wife of a brigand gave birth to an 
 infant in their concealment in the wood. The un- 
 happy mother crawled from her hiding-place by night 
 and left her new-born babe with a woman who had 
 been her neighbour and her friend. The charitable 
 reception of the infant was succouring a brigand 
 within the meaning of the king's decree, and Manhes 
 directed the humanity of the nurse to be punished with 
 death. Next day a file of grenadiers approached her 
 little cottage and hanged her at her own door. 10 
 
 Retaliations like these did little to humanise the 
 society which was already demoralised by the organisa- 
 tion of brigandage as a profession. The tranquillity of 
 the district was too dearly purchased by acts like those 
 committed in the name of the governors of the land. 
 We involuntarily think of retribution when we remember 
 that the king who issued these decrees met his end within 
 the very districts in which his authority sanctioned 
 these horrors, and was himself shot as a brigand, under 
 one of the very laws which he had himself enacted as 
 a part of this bloodstained and terrible code. 
 
 The hero of Acre had very little notion of the 
 true nature of the warfare he was exciting. In the 
 picturesque robbers who crowded the deck of his vessel 
 he saw the rough but honest defenders of their sovereign 
 patriots, who if they dealt mercilessly with the 
 invader, would die themselves to rid their native soil of 
 
 10 These atrocities are stated on the authority of Colletta, who certainly 
 cannot be supposed inclined to exaggerate the cruelties of a government under 
 which he held office.
 
 878 EISTOEY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 the presence of the foe. Seduced by those fascinating 
 attentions, the power of which Caroline perfectly under- 
 stood, he had adopted the ideas and entered into the 
 views of the queen. 11 He believed her stories of the 
 devoted attachment of the Neapolitan people to herself, 
 and he did not hesitate bitterly to censure the remissness 
 of the commanders who would not trust to the loyal 
 bravery of these devoted subjects, and strike one bold 
 blow to restore to them the sovereign of their affection 
 arid their hearts. 
 
 Far far indeed was that brave and generous spirit 
 from sympathising with the almost fiendish desire for 
 vengeance which had taken possession of the queen. 
 There are few incidents more striking than that 
 which he has himself recorded, of his passing close to 
 Naples when the glare of the illuminated city flung 
 over the bay the symbol of rejoicing for the proclama- 
 tion of Joseph Buonaparte, their new king. On the 
 very night of that illumination, Sir Sidney Smith 
 approached Naples with five British men-of-war. 
 
 " The city," he writes in his despatch to the Admi- 
 ralty, " was illuminated on account of Joseph Buona- 
 parte proclaiming himself King of the Two Sicilies. 
 The junction of the Eagle made us five sail of the 
 
 11 The following letter from the queen to Sir Sydney Smith fell into tbe 
 hands of Mr. Drummond, and was forwarded by him to General Fox : 
 
 " J'ai reois la desagre'able nouvelle que 1'infernale intrigue et cabale a pro- 
 voque" : quelconque en sera le re"sultat, de loin ou de pres, je serai toujours 
 Totre eternellement attached et reconnaissante amie, 
 
 " CHARLOTTE." 
 
 " With an ingenious device, by way of flourish, where a heart is represented 
 in the midst of flames." Letter of Mr. Drummond to General Fox. Bunbury's 
 Narrative.
 
 CHAP, x] ESCAPE OF NAPLES. 379 
 
 line, and it would have been easy to have interrupted 
 the show and festivity ; but I considered that the 
 unfortunate inhabitants have evil enough on them ; that 
 the restoration of the capital to its lawful sovereign and 
 fugitive inhabitants would be no gratification if it should 
 be found a heap of ruins, ashes, and bones ; and that as 
 I had no force to land and keep order in case of the 
 French army retiring to the fortresses, I should leave 
 an opulent city a prey to the licentious part of the 
 community, who would not fail to profit by the con- 
 fusion the flames would occasion. Not a gun was fired." 12 
 
 On the same night, and still within sight of the 
 illuminations of the city, he attacked the fortress island 
 of Capri, and after a brisk cannonade he carried its 
 almost inaccessible heights by storm. The cannonade 
 was distinctly heard in the palace of Joseph by the 
 festive throng that filled its saloons. It reverberated 
 through the streets of Naples over the waters of the 
 bay, and many an anxious watch was kept that night 
 through the agitated city. 
 
 In April, 1808, Sir John Stuart returned to the com- 
 mand of the British troops in Sicily. Sir John Moore had 
 gone to lead that expedition, in which he found on the 
 heights of Corunna a soldier's grave. Lord Amherst was 
 accredited to Palermo as the representative of the King 
 of England. The relations of Sir John Stuart with the 
 court, during his second residence in Sicily, were even 
 less harmonious than they had been during his first. 
 
 Caroline, accustomed at Naples to regard the services 
 
 12 Despatches of Sir Sidney Smith. Sir John Barrow's " Life of Sir Sydney 
 Smith." Annual Register, 1814.
 
 880 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. T. 
 
 of spies and informers as essential to the existence 
 of the monarchy, could not divest herself of her 
 continental habits of rule. Her employment of these 
 disgraceful instruments of government soon became the 
 subject of universal odium and complaint. The people 
 revenged themselves by caricatures and pasquinades. 
 At a masquerade ball at the British ambassador's, some 
 young Sicilian nobles appeared in the character of 
 spies, in a dress which represented them as all ears and 
 tongues. 13 They acted this practical satire on the 
 government in the presence of the queen. Unhappily 
 the personal habits of her majesty were not calculated 
 to win for her much respect. At the age of sixty she 
 put no restraint upon her passions. The stimulant of 
 opium kept her in a state of excitement bordering upon 
 intoxication. But the constant resort to this fatal stimu- 
 lus, could not disguise the ravages which age and dissi- 
 pation were making upon her temper and her frame. 
 
 Nothing could be worse than the management of 
 public affairs. The extravagance of the court exhausted 
 their slender resources in an attempt to maintain 
 upon the revenue of Sicily alone, the same splendour 
 and extravagance which the united exchequers of the 
 two countries had been hardly able to support. The 
 system of espionage was practised by the queen upon 
 a scale so extensive, and maintained by an expenditure 
 so profuse, as to amount to a very serious encroach- 
 ment upon her limited means. The exiles, who had 
 accompanied her from Naples, were a heavy drain upon 
 the treasury, and a grievous source of offence to the 
 
 " Lord Valentia's MS. Journal.
 
 CHAP, x.] INTRIGUES WITH NAPOLEON. 3Sl 
 
 Sicilians. Mismanagement produced its natural result, 
 and the sums that were thus improperly squandered, 
 left the treasury unable to meet its legitimate demands. 
 
 The pay of the army fell into arrear, the soldiers 
 were said at times to want the common necessaries of 
 life, their uniforms were in rags, and their condition was 
 the more intolerable, from their being brought in con- 
 tact with the British troops, who were at least provided 
 with everything requisite to keep them from actual 
 want. Remonstrances from the British officials but 
 inflamed the violence arid exasperated the enmity of the 
 queen. After the marriage of her grand-daughter with 
 Napoleon she openly expressed her annoyance at the 
 presence of the British troops. Secretly she opened a 
 correspondence with the French emperor, and offered 
 to concert measures for betraying the island to his 
 invading troops. 
 
 Napoleon had too much experience of the queen 
 implicitly to trust her, but there is no doubt that 
 the result of these intrigues was the attempt at the 
 invasion of Sicily by Murat in the summer of 1810. 14 
 Caroline had represented to Napoleon that the Sicilian 
 people were ready to break out into open revolt against 
 their English oppressors as soon as they saw a French 
 force approaching the island. Napoleon directed Murat 
 to make the attempt ; but secretly gave orders to General 
 Regnier, who commanded the French auxiliaries, not to 
 cross the straits, except in support of an insurrection 
 
 14 Colletta's " History of Naples," book vii. chap. ii. The facts relating to 
 the Sicilian invasion are collected in a note to Bunbury's Narrative, p. 289 ; 
 " Naples par Charles Paya," p. 227, Pantaleoni et Lumia " Droits Poli- 
 tiques de la Sicile," p. 40.
 
 SS2 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 in Sicily. He had another object in the display, to 
 prevent any assistance being sent from Sicily to Lord 
 Wellington in Spain. 
 
 In resisting the threatened attack, Sir John Stuart 
 received but little support from the Sicilian court. The 
 people shouted everywhere for King George ; 15 but the 
 royal party at Palermo showed no sign of care, and the 
 British general was left almost unaided, with his own 
 force of 15,000, to resist the threatened invasion of 
 Murat, with a well equipped army of 40,000 men. 
 
 The sea, however, intervened. Upon each side of 
 the narrow straits of Messina the hostile armies were 
 encamped. The army of Murat, 40,000 strong, was 
 bivouacked on the heights of Sc} r lla ; 15,000 English 
 were spread along ten miles of the coast from Messina 
 to Faro point Under the protection of the batteries, 
 208 gun-boats lay close to the once formidable rock of 
 Scylla ; 700 boats, of other descriptions, waited the 
 embarkation of the troops. On the British side four 
 line of battle ships, with several frigates and smaller 
 vessels, were lying at anchor within the straits, ready 
 to assail with their destructive fire the first of the 
 flotilla which should attempt to cross the narrow sea 
 that divided the hostile camps. 16 
 
 Almost daily skirmishes took place between some of 
 the British squadron and the gun-boats of Murat. These 
 isolated engagements could, of course, be attended with 
 
 15 " The bells clanged from every little village, and the peasants, grasping 
 whatever weapons they could find, were shouting on every height, Viva Re' 
 Qeorgio, and exhibiting by their gestures the fiercest hostility to the 
 invaders." Bunbury'a Narrative, p. 401. 
 
 16 Letter of the Adjutant-General. Buriburtft Narrative, p. 397.
 
 CHAP, x.] REPULSE OF THE INVASION. S83 
 
 no decisive result. The batteries over the rock of Scylla 
 threw shells which crossed the strait, and fell within 
 the British lines. The mortars of the British returned 
 the fire, and for weeks in succession, the strait was each 
 night illuminated by the blaze of the shells, that flew 
 from side to side, like meteors through the air. This 
 nocturnal display, described as beautiful by those who 
 witnessed it, produced but little damage upon either 
 side. Any actual advantage that was gained, was with 
 the British. Several vessels of the Neapolitan flotilla 
 were captured. At last, on the 18th of September, 
 about 3500 men of Murat's army succeeded in accom- 
 plishing the passage, and effecting a landing near the 
 Faro point ; unsupported by any following troops, they 
 were speedily repulsed, and retired to their gun-boats, 
 with the loss of 800 of their comrades left prisoners 
 in the hands of the defenders of the Sicilian soil. 
 
 Murat soon afterwards finally abandoned the attempt, 
 and consoled himself for its failure by a proclamation, 
 in which he assured his soldiers that though the expedi- 
 tion to Sicily was adjourned, the object of the king in 
 menacing that island had been fulfilled ; it had been 
 proved that the enemy's flotilla could not obstruct the 
 passage, and that Sicily could be conquered whenever 
 its conquest should be seriously intended. 
 
 The conduct of the court in this transaction con- 
 vinced Sir John Stuart of the impossibility of main- 
 taining his position, while invested with no political 
 authority to control the machinations of the queen. In 
 October he wrote to Lord Liverpool, resigning his com- 
 mand ; while, in the same letter, he made the strongest
 
 384 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 representation of the dangers he apprehended from 
 the suspicious movements of the court of Palermo. 17 
 
 These representations determined the British cabinet 
 on recalling their civil representative and uniting in 
 one person the functions of diplomacy and of supreme 
 military command. 18 
 
 In selecting a person to fill this important post, the 
 choice of the cabinet fell upon Lord William Bentinck. 
 The Duke of Kent earnestly solicited the appointment 
 from his brother, who in consequence of the illness of 
 the king had just been invested with the powers of 
 Prince Regent. Probably had the request been made 
 while the king was still capable of transacting public 
 business, it would not have been refused. The Prince 
 Regent assured his brother that he had made every 
 effort to obtain for him the appointment, but that his 
 ministers had thought it absolutely necessary to con- 
 ciliate the political influence of the great family to 
 which Lord William Bentinck belonged. 19 
 
 Considerations of state or of ministerial policy pre- 
 vented the appointment of one of the royal family 
 of England to head the struggle in Italy for the 
 independence of nations. On the 4th day of February, 
 the Gazette contained the appointment of Lord William 
 Bentinck as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipo- 
 tentiary to the court of Palermo, and the command of 
 all the British forces both military and naval was 
 annexed to this appointment. 
 
 '7 Sir John Stuart to Lord Liverpool, October 23, 1810. 
 
 18 Bunbury's Narrative. 
 
 19 The fact of the application, the refusal, and the excuse, were told by the 
 Duke of Kent himself to Lord Valentia. Lord, Valenlia'a MS. Journal.
 
 CHAP, x.] LORD WILLIAM BENTLNCK. 385 
 
 Lord William Bentinck landed at Palermo on the 
 1st of July, 1811. The court had already proceeded 
 to arbitrary measures, which threw the whole kingdom 
 into a ferment. Disappointed in the attempt at the 
 Sicilian invasion, an attempt which, as far as he was 
 concerned, was sincere, Murat had endeavoured to gain 
 possession of Messina, by sending emissaries to form 
 republican conspiracies among the people. The attempt 
 would not appear to have been attended with any great 
 success. The French agents were only successful in 
 engaging a small number of the inferior class of 
 mechanics, and the whole affair was one that, after 
 the arrest of the few persons who were implicated, 
 might safely have been treated with contempt. This, 
 however, would not have suited the temper of the 
 queen, or the interest of those who were employed by 
 her in the profitable office of spies. It was represented 
 to Caroline that the French never would have entrusted 
 a conspiracy to the wretched instruments who had as 
 yet been detected. The very difficulty of tracing any 
 connection with persons of higher rank, was but a proof 
 of the formidable nature of the conspiracy, which thus 
 continued to baffle the efforts used for its detection. 
 Hints were thrown out of suspicions gravely impli- 
 cating men in a higher station. The queen was assured 
 that it was essential to her safety that every means 
 should be taken to bring to light the entire of this 
 mysterious confederation. 
 
 The queen sent to Messina the Marquis Antale, who 
 executed his mission of investigation in a spirit worthy 
 of the court by whom he was sent. The laws of 
 
 VOL. I. C C
 
 386 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i 
 
 Sicily were unhesitatingly violated in the means to 
 ' which he resorted. A number of persons were imme- 
 diately arrested most of them of the humbler classes, 
 but some few belonging to the higher ranks of society. 
 They were treated in a manner which recalls to mind 
 the atrocities of which, in the days of classical antiquity, 
 Sicily had been the theatre. 
 
 The great object was to extort a confession. The 
 prisoners were carried off suddenly from their homes. 
 They were flung into some of the dungeons scooped out 
 of the rock, which are become familiar objects in the 
 history of Neapolitan prisons. They were formed below 
 the level of the sea, and of a size so small that they did 
 not permit their wretched inmates to lie at full length, 
 or even to stand upright. In these dungeons, their 
 life sustained only by bread and water, some of the 
 miserable victims were immured uncondemned for 
 weeks. Torture was employed to extract confessions 
 of their guilt. It is stated upon trustworthy authority 
 that the process of scalping was adopted in detail by 
 the application of pincers to the skin. The torture 
 of the rack was too commonplace to suit the refined 
 cruelty of these ingenious tormentors, and they endea- 
 voured to supplement its deficient cruelty by new con- 
 trivances, which, it may be hoped for the honour of 
 human nature, were their own. Burning brands were 
 applied to the most tender parts of the flesh, or they 
 were torn with heated pincers ; deleterious drugs were 
 given them to produce frightful dreams, on awaking 
 from which they found themselves in contact with heated 
 irons, while the agent of the police stood close to them,
 
 CHAP, x.] CRUELTIES AT MESSINA. 387 
 
 to record as evidence for the queen the incoherent 
 utterances of their waking fright. 20 
 
 These proceedings were known in Messina. The 
 threats of the Marquis Antale spread terror through 
 the town. No one could tell whose turn might come 
 next. A loud outcry was raised against the British 
 officers, who, it was said, had come to protect the 
 people, but were now only protecting those who perpe- 
 trated against them these enormities. 
 
 On their being reported to Sir John Stuart, he sent 
 Lord Forbes personally to examine into the facts. The 
 mission of inquiry was significantly attended by a staif 
 of surgeons. After the visit of the British officers, the 
 atrocities were not repeated ; and when a little interval 
 elapsed, the wretched survivors of these cruel tortures 
 were released. 
 
 A very few days before the arrival of Lord William 
 Bentinck, the indignation created by these atrocities had 
 been merged in an excitement, produced by a still more 
 daring violation on the part of the court, of the laws and 
 liberties of the kingdom. 
 
 In the year 1810, the royal necessities had com- 
 pelled the assembling of a parliament for the pur- 
 pose of asking for more supplies. Every effort was 
 
 20 The story of these cmelties is told with great minuteness by Botta : and 
 there is no reason to doubt its correctness. See note B at the end of this 
 Tolume. 
 
 The Queen boasted that she would bring about a state of things in which 
 the character of a spy would be no longer infamous. Every morning she 
 received in silver specie 200 ounces which she distributed in the payment of 
 her spies this with 1200 ounces a day expended in the persons of the 
 Neapolitan refugees, nearly exhausted the British subsidy. Lord Valentia's 
 Journal. 
 
 r c 2
 
 388 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 made by the queen and her minister Medici to obtain 
 a majority : successful with the clergy and the com- 
 mons, the ecclesiastical and territorial states, as they 
 were called, they failed with the barons or the military 
 state. The barons, under the guidance of the Prince 
 Belmonte, one of the highest of their order in wealth 
 as in ancestry and in rank, determined to make an effort 
 to stay the ruin into which the country was fast falling 
 from the measures of the queen. They commenced by 
 offering to abandon on their own part many feudal 
 privileges and all special exemptions from taxation, pre- 
 senting, perhaps, the only instance in history of a 
 privileged order voluntarily and without pressure sur- 
 rendering their privileges to the public good. 
 
 They attempted, also, to correct the evils of the 
 lawless state of the country, by substituting the insti- 
 tution of a regular police for the old and ineffectual 
 plan of entrusting the preservation of the peace to the 
 captains of justice. The court had the folly to throw 
 opposition in the way of these reforms, unwilling, per- 
 haps, that the parliament should gain the credit that 
 would attend their achievement. 
 
 Parliament granted a subsidy, though not to the 
 full extent of the demands of the minister. Belmonte 
 succeeded in placing its application under stringent 
 control. Unaccustomed to be thwarted, and blinded by 
 her passions, the queen determined on the bold step of 
 levying contributions without the authority of parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1811, two royal edicts 
 were issued, one imposing an ad valorem stamp duty of
 
 CHAP, x.] ILLEGAL TRANSACTION. PROTEST. 389 
 
 one per cent, upon all contracts, which the notaries were 
 commanded to collect ; the other directing a sale by 
 lottery of the possessions of the religious houses. The 
 people determined to resist these measures. Con- 
 tracts were all made without writing or the aid of the 
 notary, and men in the gravest matters of business 
 trusted to each other's honour, rather than incur the 
 obnoxious tax. The tickets for the lotteries were bought 
 only by the officials and dependents of the court. The 
 popular feeling was seconded by the barons, forty-three 
 of whom signed a remonstrance addressed to the king, 
 against the imposition of taxes without the authority of 
 parliament, which they truly represented as an unpre- 
 cedented violation of the constitution. 
 
 Instead of yielding to the unquestionable argu- 
 ments of this protest, the queen had the hardihood to 
 arrest five of the barons who had taken the leading 
 part in its preparation. On the 18th of July, the 
 princes of Belmonte, of Castelnuovo, of Villa Franca, of 
 Aci, and the Duke of Anjou, were seized at night 
 and hurried off to separate prisons in islands on the 
 coast. This bold and illegal step created universal con- 
 sternation. Nothing but the presence of the English 
 troops prevented an immediate revolt. The alarm and 
 terror of the community at large were excited to the 
 utmost by a proceeding, which not only violated all law 
 but seemed emphatically designed to impress the lesson 
 that no rank and no respect could protect anyone in the 
 island from the vengeance of a power that alike disre- 
 garded law and public opinion ; the families of the 
 barons were tormented by anxieties for their personal
 
 390 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 safety ; and dark insinuations were circulated that assas- 
 sination or poison could easily in the secret dungeons 
 get rid of the enemies of the queen. 
 
 The Duke of Orleans, destined afterwards, as Louis 
 Philippe, to fill the throne of France, was then in Sicily, 
 having married Amelia, the daughter of the king. He 
 exerted all his influence to dissuade his mother-in-law 
 from this fatal step. His remonstrances were disre- 
 garded, as had been his advice against the violent acts 
 which preceded, and naturally led to, this result. 
 
 In the very height of the ferment, occasioned by 
 these proceedings, Lord William Bentinck reached 
 Palermo. Every effort was made by the court to pre- 
 vent his having intercourse with the Sicilians ; artifices 
 were resorted to of the most paltry character to attain 
 this end. Everything was done on the other hand to 
 impress the Sicilians with the belief that the English 
 general was the partisan of the court. 21 
 
 On presenting his credentials to the court at Palermo, 
 the British ambassador remonstrated against proceed- 
 ings, the adoption of which, under their protection, he 
 stated plainly the government of Britain would never 
 sanction. The queen at this time believed herself 
 secure of the support of France. French agents, under 
 the disguise of Austrian couriers, had visited Palermo, 
 
 21 His servants were the spies of police, and when he was visited by some 
 of the island nobility, their cards were returned to them, with an intimation 
 that his excellency could only receive the visits of the English. As might be 
 expected, this disgraceful and stupid artifice was successful only for a few 
 days. It was discovered through the medium of Lord Valentia, who took 
 upon himself to remonstrate with the astonished ambassador on the impolicy 
 of such a step. Apologies were instantly sent to all to whom it could be 
 ascertained that this insult had been offered. Lord Valentia 's Journal.
 
 CHAP, x.] THE KING APPOINTS A VICAR. 39 L 
 
 and urged the court to excite a popular commotion, 
 against the English. Under such influence the interfer- 
 ence of Lord William Bentinck was haughtily rejected. 
 " This man," said the king, " was sent to make bows, 
 and not to dictate laws." The queen demanded from 
 him the production of any instructions authorising him 
 to interfere in Sicilian politics. And after several 
 angry interviews, Bentinck determined to return to 
 London, personally to represent to the cabinet the 
 position of affairs. 
 
 In a few months he returned to Palermo, with 
 authority from his government, if necessary, to employ 
 the military force at his disposal, for the purpose of 
 enforcing compliance with his demands. This authority 
 was given him in a written despatch, and armed with 
 this power, the ambassador of England once more 
 presented himself to the queen. 
 
 He took first the precaution of gathering round 
 Palermo the entire British force in the island, amount- 
 ing to nearly 12,000 men. The king refused to see 
 him, retiring to a castle at a distance from Palermo 
 under the pretence of illness. The British general 
 insisted on an interview with the queen. From her he 
 demanded the cancelling of the illegal edicts and the 
 release of the barons these steps he insisted should 
 be followed by her own total withdrawal from all in- 
 terference in state affairs. Lord William urged these 
 demands by the threat that in case of their refusal the 
 British troops should leave the island, and the British 
 subsidy be withheld. 
 
 Before resorting to extreme measures Lord William
 
 392 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 tried the effect of his threat of abandoning Sicily. The 
 British arms were already taken down from the palace 
 of the- embassy. So far from being alarmed at the 
 withdrawal of British protection, the approaching de- 
 parture of the English troops appeared to give extreme 
 satisfaction to the court. Bentinck, convinced by this 
 of their utter faithlessness, determined to enforce sub- 
 mission. He waited on the hereditary prince and told 
 him in plain language that unless his demands were at 
 once complied with, his soldiers would march upon the 
 palace the king and queen would both be placed on 
 board a frigate and sent prisoners to England. The 
 crown would be conferred upon the prince if he were 
 true to the English alliance, and would consent to 
 govern the country upon constitutional principles. " If 
 not," continued Lord William, " you too must go on 
 board the English frigate, and your infant son with a 
 regency of my appointment shall be proclaimed 
 king." 22 
 
 Caroline at first determined on resisting by force. Her 
 advisers pointed out to her the futility of such an attempt. 
 The court were compelled to submit to the humilia- 
 tion. Under the excuse of illness the king resigned the 
 government, for which he had so incontestably proved 
 himself unfit. The hereditary prince, who had joined 
 the Duke of Orleans in his protest against the recent 
 measures, was appointed to govern as Vicar- General, 
 with full regal power, in his name. The illegal edicts 
 
 ** The fact of this coercion is mentioned both by Palmieri and Botta. Lord 
 Castlereagh assured the House of Commons, 14th February, 1812, that the 
 appointment of the Vicar-General was the king's voluntary act. Hansard's 
 Parliamentary Debates.
 
 CHAP, x.] THE KEVOLUTION. 393 
 
 were revoked, the ministers who had counselled them 
 were dismissed. The barons were released from prison ; 
 one of them, the Prince Belmonte, was placed at the 
 head of a new administration. Never was revolution 
 more complete. Lord William Bentinck sternly refused 
 the last request of the queen to place the Duke of 
 Orleans at the head of the Sicilian troops. He himself 
 was appointed generalissimo of the Sicilian army. 
 
 The installation of a liberal ministry was followed by 
 a measure which has frequently been described as the 
 granting of the English constitution to Sicily ; but 
 which was really little more than the assertion and 
 definition of privileges which had been the right of the 
 Sicilians from the earliest times. It was unfortunate 
 for the liberties of Sicily that the changes which were 
 made gave occasion to its enemies to represent the 
 parliamentary constitution as the modern creation of 
 English influence in the year 1812. 
 
 It is most probable that had the Sicilians been in a 
 position in which the nation could have been left to 
 itself, the arbitrary acts of the sovereign in levying 
 money without the consent of parliament, and in 
 arresting the members who protested against it, would 
 have been followed by a contest with royal prerogative 
 resembling that which acts exactly similar provoked 
 in England in the days of Charles I. The resistance 
 to these illegal acts we may perhaps believe would have 
 led to the establishment of Sicilian freedom by arrange- 
 ments like those which secured that of England in the 
 revolution of 1688. In 1811 the presence of the British 
 troops protected the court against any insurrection
 
 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i 
 
 of the people. In the settlement of the constitu- 
 tion in 1812, Lord William Bentinck obtained nothing 
 more for the Sicilian people than those securities, 
 which would have been the natural result of the 
 struggle which the illegal acts of Ferdinand provoked. 
 Unhappily that settlement only existed long enough 
 to prove how vain are all attempts to secure the 
 freedom of a nation by foreign intervention, or build up 
 popular liberty by any other means than the spirit and 
 the efforts of the people themselves. 
 
 The Sicilian parliament met on the 15th of May, 
 1812. On the 18th of July, the anniversary of the 
 arrest of the barons, they had laid before them a plan 
 for reforming the constitution proposed by the Abbe 
 Balsamo. It was in fact the adaptation of the English 
 constitution to that already existing in Sicily. It was like 
 the English revolution of 1688, the assertion of ancient 
 popular rights against the usurpation of prerogative. 
 The barons and ecclesiastics having seats in parliament 
 were to form an upper house of peers the representa- 
 tives of the vassals and freeholders the house of com- 
 'mons. All laws must receive the assent of both houses 
 and the king, the judges were declared independent 
 and irremoveable, except by both houses of parliament ; 
 arrests except in accordance with law were strictly pro- 
 hibited ; and while the king was left the absolute power 
 of convening and proroguing parliament, he was obliged 
 by law to assemble it at least once a year. Ministers 
 were declared responsible for all acts of state. The 
 nation formally acknowledged itself bound to provide 
 suitably and liberally for the honour and dignity of the
 
 CHAP, x.] THE CONSTITUTION OF 1812. 395 
 
 crown, but the right of parliament to regulate and 
 control all the items of the public expenditure was 
 expressly admitted and declared. 23 
 
 The barons then carried out the measure which they 
 
 ** 
 
 had partially attempted in 1810. All feudal privileges 
 were abolished. These provisions were added by the 
 barons themselves, who relinquished manorial dues and 
 other burdens arising from their feudal claims. In 
 assenting to these remissions some of the barons sur- 
 rendered an income of three or four thousand a year. 
 
 In the month of August the royal assent was given 
 by the Vicar-General to the most important of the pro- 
 posed changes ; but in the settlement of the details so 
 many obstacles were interposed by the devices of the 
 queen, that in January 1813, the constitution was still 
 unratified by the royal sanction. Lord Castlereagh on 
 that date addressed a despatch to Lord William Ben- 
 tinck, in which he expressed in strong terms the dis- 
 pleasure of the Prince Regent at the delay. 
 
 " The conduct of the queen," he said, " continues to 
 be a subject of equal anxiety and alarm. Her majesty, 
 notwithstanding her solemn assurances to the contrary, 
 still perseveres in embarrassing the councils of the 
 government. Her determination to obstruct, and if 
 possible to overthrow, the existing system of govern- 
 ment, as subversive of her own immediate power, is 
 notorious. For this purpose it appears there is no 
 extremity to which she is not prepared to push her 
 hostility to the British alliance, regarding it as the main 
 agent to the accomplishment of her own ambitious 
 
 83 See note A at the end of this volume.
 
 396 HISTORY OP ITALY, [VOL. L 
 
 designs, in prosecution of which every expedient of 
 internal intrigue has been resorted to, and even treason- 
 able intercourse with the enemy has been employed to 
 forward her purpose." "* 
 
 This energetic dispatch, after referring to the proofs 
 which Lord "William Bentinck had been able to collect 
 of the treasonable intercourse between the queen and 
 the enemy, to the undoubted information which from 
 other sources had reached the English government of a 
 conspiracy, to which foreign courts were parties, to effect 
 the conquest of the island by means of an internal 
 faction expressed the desire of the Prince Regent that 
 the queen should be prevailed on to abstain from 
 interference by the means best calculated to accord 
 with her own feelings and her personal dignity ; but at 
 the same time Lord William Bentinck was commanded 
 to consider himself fully authorised to employ the powers 
 which had been confided to him, to protect the island 
 against the danger which menaced it through her 
 majesty's influence. 
 
 And, finally, he was desired to represent to the 
 Vicar-General the absolute necessity of the queen's 
 retirement from the island, until all its affairs were 
 finally settled. 
 
 The assent of the Vicar-General was formally given 
 to the new constitutional statutes. The confirmation 
 of the king was obtained under his own hand. The 
 ministry proved their sincerity and zeal in the English 
 alliance, by sending seven thousand Sicilian troops to 
 Spain, and as the last triumph of the constitutional 
 
 M Despatch of Lord Castlereagh ; January 13, 1813. Castlereagh Papers.
 
 CHAP, x.] ATTEMPT AT COUNTER-REVOLUTION. 397 
 
 party the queen retired to the castle of Castelveterano, 
 about sixty miles from Palermo ; from which it was 
 understood, that in the spring she was to repair on a 
 visit to her royal relations at Vienna. 
 
 The English government in every possible way gave 
 its moral sanction to the measure that had been adopted. 
 Lord Castlereagh, by the express desire of the Prince 
 Regent, addressed a letter to the Prince Belmonte, in 
 which he assured him of his royal highness's entire 
 approbation of the conduct he had pursued, conduct by 
 which the Prince Regent trusted the alliance between 
 England and Sicily had been consolidated for the mutual 
 good of both. 
 
 Before finally yielding, the queen had made one last 
 and desperate effort to retrieve her power. In January, 
 1813, she unexpectedly presented herself at Palermo, 
 and Ferdinand, summoning the ministers, announced to 
 them, that having recovered his health, he had resumed 
 in his own person the exercise of the royal functions. 
 A solemn thanksgiving was actually chaunted in the 
 cathedral for the recovery of the king, and everything 
 was arranged for the issuing of an ordinance, by which 
 the constitution was to be annulled. 
 
 Lord William Bentinck was not slow in making his 
 preparations. Once more the British troops were 
 gathered into Palermo. The guns of the British artillery 
 moved rapidly through the streets. The king was told 
 that the commander-in-chief was determined to main- 
 tain the government by military force. Ferdinand burst 
 into a vehement rage and told his prime minister Prince, 
 Belmonte that he would effect a counter-revolution
 
 398 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. I. 
 
 in spite of him, and that the prince should be its first 
 victim. Lord "William Bentinck once more pointed to 
 the British frigate in the bay. The king was com- 
 pelled to yield, and Ferdinand issued an ordinance, in 
 which his subjects were informed that even his short 
 return to the cares of business had again affected his 
 health and that illness again obliged him to delegate 
 his power to the Vicar-General. 
 
 This daring attempt at a counter-revolution compelled 
 Lord William Bentinck to put in force the powers with 
 which he was armed. The queen was now openly 
 accused of having been a party to placing in the senate- 
 house a bottle, charged with explosive materials, which 
 certainly had been concealed in the embrasures of one of 
 the windows, but had fortunately burst without doing 
 harm. 25 More horrible accusations were every where 
 credited of her having attempted to poison the heredi- 
 tary prince, whom she bitterly reproached with being 
 the slave of her English enemies. In the feeling 
 excited against her, by charges like these the minor 
 ones of treasonable correspondence with the French were 
 almost forgotten. Still it was universally believed that 
 she had entered into a plot to betray the island to the 
 French. Every where it was reported, and not alto- 
 gether without foundation, that letters had been seized 
 by the English in Spain, which established, on her part, 
 a treasonable correspondence with Napoleon. Without 
 much regret or pity from any of the people, Caroline was 
 compelled to leave Sicily. She was fated never to return 
 to it again. Her first destination was one of the Ionian 
 
 Botta.
 
 CHAP, x.] ABSENCE OF LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK. 399 
 
 Islands ; whence immediately before the assembling of 
 the congress, she proceeded to Vienna, where she died. 
 
 Lord William Bentinck, believing the affairs of Sicily 
 finally settled, left it for the purpose of commanding a 
 portion of his army, which landed in the south of Spain, 
 to support the movements of the Duke of "Wellington. 
 
 In his absence the direction of the Sicilian embassy 
 was entrusted to Lord Montgomerie. Bentinck had not 
 long left the island when he found it necessary to return 
 to Palermo to save the constitution from destructio n 
 He landed in Spain with the Sicilian contingent in June. 
 On the 31st of August he wrote to Lord Castlereagh 
 from Tarragona, stating that he was compelled by the 
 accounts he had received from Lord Montgomerie of 
 the state of affairs in Sicily, to relinquish the command 
 in Spain, and return to the island. In this letter he 
 made an earnest request to be relieved of his political 
 charge, and appointed to a purely military command. 
 " I am now convinced," he observed, " that such is the 
 weakness of the hereditary prince, and such will be the 
 incapacity of any set of men that may be placed at the 
 head of the government ; such, also, the silly, the 
 interested, the depraved character of the people, it will 
 be impossible for the British political authority ever to 
 absent himself from Sicily." 26 
 
 The ministry he had formed had before his return 
 been broken up. Internal dissensions had been the 
 cause of their fall. Castelnuovo had been anxious to 
 carry a law for the total abolition of entails. Belmonte 
 
 K Lord William Bentinck to Lord Castlereagh, from Tarragona, August, 
 18.13. Castlereagh Papers, vol. i., 3rd series, p. 44.
 
 400 H1STOKY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 and the rest of the ministers opposed it. The dispute 
 led to a personal hatred between these two chiefs of 
 the constitutional party. Many of their supporters, 
 especially in the upper house, were alienated by the 
 proposal of Castelnuovo. The dissensions of the ministers 
 led to divisions among their followers. The disunited 
 and weakened ranks of the constitutionalists had to 
 meet an unnatural, but not therefore less formidable 
 alliance, between the royalists and the violent demo- 
 crats, many of whom had obtained seats in the new 
 parliament. The result of the combination was, that 
 ministers were unable to obtain from parliament the 
 necessary supplies which under one pretence or other 
 were postponed. It was believed that French intrigue 
 and French gold were actively employed, and an appa- 
 rently petty tumult which occurred in Palermo about 
 the middle of July, was regarded as the result of 
 an organised plot to overthrow the constitution and 
 reinstate the king. 
 
 Ministers prorogued parliament for a week. A mili- 
 tary commission was issued to try the rioters, and 
 Palermo was virtually placed under martial law. On the 
 re-assembling of parliament the attacks upon ministers 
 for this conduct were so violent that they resigned. A 
 ministry composed of the most determined of the royal 
 partisans was appointed in their stead. It was resolved 
 at once to carry an address in both houses, inviting the 
 king to resume the exercise of his authority. This was 
 prevented by the firmness of Lord Montgomerie, who de- 
 clared to the hereditary prince his determination to pre- 
 vent by military force even the making of such a proposal.
 
 CHAP, x.] NEW ELECTIONS. 401 
 
 These proceedings were not very well calculated to 
 uphold the authority of the constitution. Lord William 
 Bentinck reached Palermo in October. Immediately on 
 his landing, he issued a proclamation, in which he 
 stated that having engaged to the king to preserve 
 tranquillity until the work begun in the parliament of 
 1812 should be completed, he was prepared to fulfil 
 that pledge by the employment of the force under his 
 command, and to punish summarily all who ventured to 
 disturb the public peace. 27 
 
 Overawing the disaffected by this threat of military 
 force, he summoned to his house the members of the 
 constitutional party. He insisted on a reconciliation of 
 their differences. Having accomplished this, he induced 
 the prince-vicar to dismiss his new ministers and recall 
 his former advisers, and finally he advised him to dissolve 
 the parliament. 
 
 Lor& William Bentinck did not hesitate to use every 
 means in his power to influence the new elections, upon 
 the result of which he believed the preservation of the 
 fabric of Sicilian freedom to depend. In the depth of 
 a winter unusually severe in Sicily, as throughout 
 Europe, he traversed the island upon a tour, supposed 
 to be one of pleasure. Everywhere he was received 
 with enthusiasm. Everywhere he made his presence 
 the occasion of a political lesson. He appealed to the 
 people not to allow the opportunity of securing national 
 freedom to pass from their hands, and at some of the 
 festivals given in his honour, he openly expressed the 
 hope that they would not send to the new parliament 
 
 *7 Palmieri, "Constitutional History of Sicily," p. 215. 
 VOL. r. D D
 
 402 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 the same class of men as those whom they had returned 
 to the last. 
 
 The result was a triumph to that which might now 
 be considered as the British cause. In the new parlia- 
 ment the constitutional party constituted an over- 
 whelming majority. Possibly, had Lord William 
 Bentinck then acted on the views he had expressed to 
 Lord Castlereagh, and remained at his post, Sicilian 
 liberty might have been firmly established ; but once 
 more the passion for military glory placed him at the 
 head of his troops ; once more his absence inflicted an 
 injury, upon this occasion an irreparable one, upon the 
 cause which he had created with so much pains. In 
 the beginning of 1814, he left Palermo at the head of 
 a body of English and Sicilian troops. His landing at 
 Leghorn, and his expedition against Genoa, have been 
 already described. Scarcely had he sailed from Sicily 
 when a plan was formed for undoing all that he had 
 accomplished in the recent elections. 
 
 The prince-vicar opened the session in a speech which 
 was everything the most ardent patriot could wish. 
 He repeated his pledge to maintain the constitution, 
 congratulated the people upon the establishment of 
 their liberties, and pointed to the example of England, 
 all whose greatness and glory he attributed to her 
 possession of institutions like those which had now been 
 established in Sicily. 
 
 In the struggles which attended the elections, 
 there was no doubt that irregularities had occurred, 
 and returns been obtained by violence and illegality. 
 On these grounds a motion was made in the house
 
 CHAP, x.] EESTOEATION OF ROYAL AUTHORITY. 403 
 
 of Peers for an address to the prince-vicar to dissolve the 
 parliament, and before the lower house had time to inter- 
 pose in defence of its privileges, the design was carried 
 into execution and the dissolution actually took place. 
 
 When Lord William Bentinck returned from Genoa 
 the object of England in maintaining the struggle in 
 Sicily was past. With the fall of Napoleon's power the 
 great importance of the island as the centre of military 
 operations was at an end ; the military occupation of 
 the British was to cease, and with it passed away the 
 only grounds upon which the course of violent inter- 
 ference that had been adopted could be sustained. The 
 patriots of Sicily had not the same object in opposing 
 the return of the king to power as they had when they 
 apprehended the subversion of their liberties by a plot 
 supported by France ; and when Belmonte, among others, 
 declared his wish to restore the regal authority, Lord 
 William Bentinck was no longer able to resist, and in 
 1814 Ferdinand resumed the exercise of the royal 
 authority with the full consent of the ministers of 
 England. 
 
 The fears of the friends of Sicilian independence now 
 turned in another direction. England was believed to 
 meditate the design of seizing on the island for herself. 
 Bentinck had unquestionably given grounds for the sus- 
 picion. The project of placing Sicily under English sove- 
 reignty was one of which he had at least contemplated 
 the possibility. From the result of his own observation 
 he had formed a decided opinion one entertained years 
 before by Sir John Moore, that Sicily could never en- 
 joy security either for her happiness or her freedom, 
 
 D D 2
 
 404 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 except under English protection, 28 and he had suggested 
 to his own government the plan of annexing the island 
 to the British crown : he went even the length of 
 sounding the Duke of Calabria as to the possibility of 
 purchasing, by territorial compensation in other quarters, 
 a consent to such an arrangement on the part of the 
 reigning family an act of boldness or indiscretion which 
 drew upon him a reprimand from Lord Castlereagh, 
 with directions to convey to the Sicilian government 
 the unequivocal disclaimer on the part of the British 
 ministry of any such design. 29 
 
 Lord William had the mortification of seeing the 
 return of the king to power, followed by the restoration 
 of a reactionist ministry the reversal of his own policy 
 and the exclusion of his friends from all office and 
 favour. No direct attack was made upon the consti- 
 tution, but the underlings and runners of the court 
 those who represent the passions and the prejudices 
 of their masters made no secret of their expectation 
 of its approaching downfall. Lord William Bentinck 
 had no longer any power to interfere. Sent for by the 
 king on his resumption of his authority, he was asked 
 by Ferdinand if he desired to make any communication. 
 The ambassador who once had haughtily dictated his 
 terms, could only reply by requesting that his majesty 
 would honour him by coming to the British embassy to 
 witness the display of fireworks upon the festival of 
 St. Rosalia. 30 
 
 18 The unguarded expression of this opinion was one of the reasons of Sir 
 John Moore's removal from the Sicilian command. Castlereagh Papers, vol. vii. 
 
 19 Letter of Lord Castlereagh. Castlereagh Papert. 
 
 30 Lord Valentia mentions, in his journal, that the British embassy com-
 
 CHAP, x.] DEPARTURE OF LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK. 405 
 
 The king opened the session of the new parliament 
 on the 18th of July (A.D. 1814). Two days previously 
 Lord William Bentinck finally bade farewell to the 
 island where he had laboured so earnestly for the 
 freedom of its people. About the same period the 
 Duke of Orleans returned to France, and Belmonte, 
 in bad health, accompanied him to Paris, where 
 he died. 
 
 The three years during which Lord William Bentinck 
 represented the English government in Sicily, were 
 eventful ones for this island. No mean judge of men 
 has described him from personal knowledge as " one of 
 the most able, most enlightened, and most virtuous 
 men, that ever were employed in high public trusts." 81 
 His conduct in Sicily appears to have been influenced 
 only by an earnest desire to give to the Sicilians the 
 blessings of freedom, and to secure to them those 
 liberties which their ancient constitution in theory at 
 least conferred on them. The constitution of 1812 
 was in fact nothing more than the restoration of those 
 liberties, with such guarantees as could be drawn from 
 the example of the country which in its early insti- 
 tutions most nearly resembled their own. In his earlier 
 efforts he was cordially supported by the Marquis 
 Wellesley, who then held the seals of the English 
 foreign office. If Sicily failed in maintaining that free 
 constitution, the fault certainly does not rest either with 
 the foreign minister of England, or with the nobleman 
 
 manding a good view of the pyrotechnic display, it was usual for the Court 
 to visit it on that evening. 
 
 31 Lord Brougham's "Political Philosophy," part l,p. 621.
 
 406 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 whose name is identified with the freedom of the island. 
 The Marquis Wellesley gave to the cause of Sicilian 
 liberty a generous and an enlightened support, and in 
 arming Lord William Bentinck with all the power that 
 might be necessary to protect the Sicilian people against 
 the attempted despotism of the court, he acted the part 
 worthy of the minister of a nation which had asserted 
 its own liberties in a struggle not very unlike that in 
 which the Sicilians were engaged. The ordinances of 
 Ferdinand imposing taxation without the consent of 
 parliament, were a violation of the Sicilian constitution 
 as those of Charles I. were of the English. There was 
 something singular in the closeness with which Ferdinand 
 copied his English exemplar, even in the number of his 
 arrests. The arrest of the five barons in Sicily was an 
 incident closely resembling that of the five members by 
 the English king. 
 
 The support of the British government to Lord 
 William Bentinck did not cease with the removal 
 of Lord Wellesley from office. Success crowned his 
 efforts. The reformed constitution of Sicily was 
 established, and in January 1813, Lord Castlereagh 
 almost overstepped the ordinary limits of diplomatic 
 communication in conveying to the Prince of Belmonte 
 the expressions of the approval of the English court. 
 " I fulfil," he wrote to the Sicilian minister for foreign 
 affairs, " I fulfil with the highest satisfaction, the com- 
 mands of the Prince Regent, by transmitting to your 
 excellency the sentiments which animate his royal 
 highness on this occasion. Both the British public and 
 government equally understand the truly wise and
 
 CHAP, x.] FERDINAND OPENS PARLIAMENT. 407 
 
 patriotic part which your excellency has taken in the 
 negotiations which have taken place between the 
 minister and commander of the forces of his Britannic 
 Majesty and the Sicilian government, and there is no 
 doubt here that by persevering in the same conduct, 
 the alliance between the two countries will be for ever 
 fixed upon such a basis that neither intrigues nor force 
 will be able to shake it." 32 
 
 When Lord William Bentinck departed from the 
 island, he left Sicily in possession of a constitution 
 established upon the firmest basis of law. By the laws 
 of the island no power except that of the parliament 
 itself could interfere with it. The sovereign had no 
 more right to alter it than the sovereign of England 
 has to change the laws of the English nation. Against 
 any attempt from external violence the faithjof England 
 was pledged to the Sicilian people. 
 
 On resuming his royal authority, the king to all 
 appearance cordially and sincerely acquiesced in the 
 securities which that constitution afforded to the liberties 
 of his subjects. On proceeding to open the session of 
 parliament he took in the presence of the assembled 
 peers and commoners, the solemn oath to observe the 
 constitution. In his opening speech he expressed his 
 cordial approbation of all that had been done by the 
 prince vicar, declared his admiration for the constitution 
 which his people had been happy in obtaining, and 
 earnestly exhorted his parliament to strengthen and 
 defend it. It was impossible for the forms of language 
 to express a more earnest or apparently a more sincere 
 
 * Palmieri, p. 160.
 
 408 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 attachment to the cause of the freedom and national 
 independence of Sicily : 
 
 " Illustrious Peers, Honourable Representatives of the Commons 
 of the Kingdom, 
 
 " Amongst the thousand thoughts awakened by this memorable 
 day, I prefer communicating those which most rejoice my heart. 
 I come in the midst of you, as a father in the bosom of his affec- 
 tionate family. I have but one sole object, the welfare, felicity, 
 and greatness of the Sicilian nation. 
 
 " Providence, before whom the imaginations of men are but vain 
 and insignificant, has guided the great events of Europe by ways 
 the most extraordinary and unexpected. Sicily herself is now on 
 the verge of being able to recover all her ancient splendour. 
 Abroad she has reassumed her rank among the hierarchy of 
 nations, because the enormous mass which stifled independence 
 and political liberty has been destroyed. At home, the wishes 
 and efforts for a useful and salutary reform has seconded the spirit 
 and general impulse of the age towards perfection. I was not 
 ignorant of the wisdom of your ancient laws. I could appreciate 
 the institutions and regulations which reflect so much honour 
 upon your parliaments, and upon the illustrious princes who were 
 the founders and restorers of this monarchy. But I was con- 
 vinced that no human work is lasting ; that time by changing the 
 relations of things, renders the best systems susceptible of cor- 
 rection ; and that political, like civil laws, continually require to 
 be brought back to the purity of their first principles, and cleared 
 from the abuses which oftentimes disfigure them and render them 
 abortive. 
 
 "Sicily has now a written constitution : that constitution having 
 for object the establishment of a certain order in the various 
 modes of exercising power, with a view to prevent their being 
 confounded with each other ; the assigning a limit to the different 
 functions of that power, so that one might not encroach upon the 
 other; the fixing the grand focus in which private rights and 
 public necessities should harmoniously concentrate themselves ; 
 the protecting the civil liberty of individuals, and the full security 
 of persons and property ; in short, that constitution having for its 
 object the laying foundations for the prosperity and welfare of
 
 CHAP, x] THE KING'S SPEECH. 409 
 
 Sicilians, has been regarded by me with feelings of the tenderest 
 Affection, and has taken for its model the form of the government 
 of a great and enlightened nation which commands the admiration 
 of the world, and which has given, and is still continually giving, 
 astonishing proofs of riches, power, and magnanimity. 
 
 " It is true that these great benefits have not entirely answered 
 the expectations formed of them. The consequences of a general 
 war, the fear of a contagion which threatened our shores, the con- 
 vulsions which usually accompany great changes and sudden 
 and unprepared transitions, and the destruction of ancient habits 
 and customs, have perhaps occasioned some irritation, and (I must 
 confess it) some dissensions. But on this solemn day we are at 
 length united together, in order to enjoy and increase the good 
 we possess, and to obliterate the recollection of every ill. Sons 
 and brothers of the same family, actuated by the same interests, 
 and influenced by the same love of glory, you will have but one 
 mind, but one will. As becomes the descendants of Henry IV., 
 the only ardent desire of my breast shall be the true felicity of 
 my people, and in that, and for that alone, will I employ all the 
 moments of my existence, and all the powers and prerogatives 
 which the constitution secures to my crown. 
 
 " Direct your attention, therefore, to the objects for which you 
 have been called together. May concord, unanimity, justice, 
 humanity, honour, and patriotism preside among you, diffuse 
 themselves into your discussions, and enlighten your resolves. 
 
 " Let your first and most special care be, to support the dignity 
 of the nation. The balance of power, and the free use of those 
 relations which are the right of every nation, being restored, Sicily 
 will have her own proper existence, and will enjoy her political 
 independence. Be justly proud of this sacred privilege ; but be 
 careful to support it with all your powers, so long as it wants 
 strength, and so long as our political horizon is not entirely cleared 
 of those clouds which might, at any hour, produce the storm and the 
 tempest. Be upon your defence, and render the first moments of 
 your independence secure by the presence of an armed force which 
 shall make you respected. Consider that these temporary sacri- 
 fices will perhaps save you from the humiliation of falling into 
 contempt and insignificance, and that you will be indebted to 
 them for the consolation of soon perceiving that your political 
 existence will be much more durable, and much less costly.
 
 410 HISTOEY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 " Complete, therefore, \vhat is still wanting in the civil edifice 
 which you have raised. The legislative code, and the defining of the 
 functions of the magistrates, are the noblest and most necessary- 
 portions of it. Tour lives, your persons, your property, "will be 
 insecure, if justice do not appear open and undisguised. That 
 heavenly virtue will reject the petition of those who invoke her in 
 an unrighteous cause, and who wish to make her the instru- 
 ment of iniquity, or the torch of discord. 
 
 " Retouch and correct such imperfections as may be met with in 
 the execution of your work. The productions of men are defective 
 from their very origin. Avail yourself of the experience of past 
 ages ; consult the prudent provisions of prevailing laws : assimi- 
 late, as much as possible, ancient usages with modern ones ; adapt 
 the modes of thinking, of feeling, and of living, of the inhabitants 
 of this happy soil, to the times and to the progress of intelligence 
 and civilisation ; and do not forget to consider, in every point of 
 view and in all its relations, the present state of industry and 
 commerce, as well as that which they may hereafter attain." 33 
 
 In spite of all these glowing protestations, even then 
 the design was formed of getting rid of that popular 
 constitution which could never be cordially accepted by 
 a court long trained in the principles of a despotic 
 government. Unhappily events occurred to favour 
 that design. 
 
 The new representative of England at the court of 
 Palermo was Mr., afterwards Sir William, A'Court. 34 He 
 regarded the attempt to give to the island representa- 
 tive institutions as a failure. His views on Sicilian 
 politics were directly the reverse of those of his pre- 
 decessor, and he was able entirely to impress them upon 
 the cabinet at home. In Sicily itself the new ambas- 
 
 33 "Sicily and England," Ridgeway, 1848. 
 
 34 He -was subsequently elevated to the peerage as Lord Heytesbury, and 
 was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1845.
 
 CHAP, x.] MR. A COURT MINISTER OF ENGLAND. 411 
 
 sador was regarded as the partisan of the court, and 
 the friends of popular institutions, in contrasting his 
 conduct with that of his predecessor, could not help 
 applying to them a designation drawn from the history 
 of their early Norman sovereigns, which recorded the 
 reigns of William the Bad and William the Good. 
 Such are the names by which William A'Court and 
 William Bentinck are still known. 35 
 
 The Sicilian parliament held its sessions both in 
 1814 and 1815. In neither year was their conduct 
 marked by those qualities which in elevating the cha- 
 racter, might still have secured the permanence of 
 representative institutions. The violence of the demo- 
 cratic party was now turned upon the royalists, with 
 whom they had been but recently allied. Personal 
 altercations disgraced, and personal violence, upon some 
 occasions it is said, interrupted their debates. 36 The 
 character and influence of parliamentary government 
 suffered in these scandals. Many of the warmest 
 friends of liberty desired a modification of the consti- 
 tution, and the king took advantage of this feeling to 
 place in the hands of Mr. A'Court a plan, not for 
 modifying, but for virtually abrogating the constitution. 
 By some unfortunate mistake the paper of the king was 
 transmitted to London, as if it had obtained the sanc- 
 tion of the leading members of the parliament. 
 
 Rumours were rife in the island that England had 
 
 35 Palmieri. 
 
 36 Lord Brougham's Political Philosophy, voL i.chap. xvii. ; Hughes' Travels, 
 vol. i. p. 16. The passage from the latter, quoted by Lord Brougham, is 
 plainly intended as a caricature of scenes that did occur, but not exactly with 
 the accompaniments mentioned in the graphic description of the writer.
 
 412.. HISTOEY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 become a party to the destruction of the constitution. 37 
 The old story was renewed that she contemplated 
 the seizure of Sicily for herself. On the 20th of 
 October Mr. A'Court communicated to the Sicilian 
 government an official memorandum which was circu- 
 lated through the entire island, announcing the with- 
 drawal of England from active interference in Sicilian 
 affairs ; but at the same time declaring that " in the 
 event of any prudent and temperate modification 
 of the government, England would willingly lend 
 that aid and support which it might be in her power to 
 afford ; " adding, however, this condition. " She exacts 
 only as a condition of her assistance, that this modifi- 
 cation be undertaken by the parliament itself, and 
 accomplished in a legal and constitutional manner, as 
 far removed from any direct intervention of overween- 
 ing authority on the one hand, as from any undue 
 exertion of popular interference on the other/' 38 The 
 
 3? It was circulated in the island, and generally believed, that King 
 George III., then in confinement at Windsor Castle, " the blind old man 
 whom God had smitten," had written to Ferdinand, desiring him to resume 
 his authority, and to govern his subjects despotically, and that he should 
 have King George's support. Such was Sicilian knowledge of the events that 
 were passing in other countries. 
 
 33 "Sicily and England: a Sketch of Events in Sicily ;" Ridgeway, 1849. 
 Very great complaints were made of the withholding, by Lord Castlereagh, 
 of this despatch from Parliament at the time of the discussion on Lord 
 William Bentinck's motion on the affairs of Sicily, June, 1821. 
 
 In this valuable pamphlet the memorandum of Mr. A'Court is printed hi full, 
 and the importance of the document will justify its transcription here. 
 
 MEMORANDUM OF MR. A'COURT. 
 
 " The fortunate events which have lately taken place in Europe, having 
 materially altered the relative position in which Great Britain is placed with 
 respect to Sicily, it becomes necessary for her representative to make known 
 to the Sicilian nation the sentiments by which the British government is 
 actuated, and the views to which its attention is principally directed at the
 
 CHAP, x.] MB. A COURT'S MANIFESTO. 413 
 
 publication of this manifesto had the effect of assuring 
 the minds of the Sicilians, who still regarded England 
 as the protector of their liberties and rights. 
 
 present moment. This is the more necessary, because, in the conflict of 
 parties, the right of interference has, perhaps, been as much exaggerated on 
 one side, as it has been unnecessarily and unwisely denied on the other. The 
 sacrifices which Great Britain has made for the safety and prosperity of this 
 Island, entitle her to expect that her suggestions should be received with 
 respect and attention ; whilst the moderation with which she is disposed to 
 exercise the privilege, which the benefits she has conferred have given her, 
 ought to be considered as a sufficient proof that she is little disposed to aim 
 at the acquirement of any undue influence, inconsistent with the principles of 
 the constitution, or with the dignity of an independent State. 
 
 " It is necessary to go back to the causes which led to the general expression 
 of the national desire for a reform in the constitution of the country ; causes 
 which may be found in the progressive advancement of civilisation ; in the 
 more general diffusion of knowledge, and in the inadequacy of all human in- 
 stitutions to resist the abuses and deterioration to which they are necessarily 
 subject, and to afford, amidst the change of opinions and circumstances, the 
 same security for the happiness of the people, which they might perhaps have 
 possessed at the time of their original formation. 
 
 " But although the wish for a change was almost unanimous, the definition 
 of the precise limits which ought to be given to the proposed alterations was 
 attended with considerable difficulty. In this emergency it was not unnatural 
 that the nation should turn its eyes towards a country which, possessing an 
 extent and population comparatively small and unimportant, was not only 
 herself affording a successful opposition to the torrent which had overwhelmed 
 the most powerful monarchies of Europe, but was extending the hand of 
 succour to those who were oppressed or menaced in every part of the world. 
 
 " To the wise and excellent institutions of that country it was supposed, 
 and very justly supposed, that its splendour and prosperity were to be attri- 
 buted ; and a hope was entertained, that by the adoption of a similar form of 
 government the same advantages might be secured to Sicily, whose insular 
 position and early institutions offered a certain degree of resemblance to those 
 of its more powerful ally. 
 
 " England could not be insensible to the appeal which was made to her ; 
 and whilst she charged herself with the protection of Sicily from any foreign 
 invader, she at the same time lent herself to hhe invitation she had received, 
 and became the protectress and the supporter of alterations, founded upon 
 principles so just in themselves, and so creditable to those from whom they 
 had originally emanated. 
 
 ' Under such auspices the work of the Constitution was begun. If in its 
 progress it has met with difficulties which could not bo foreseen ; if it has 
 encountered obstacles, which may still appear to be insurmountable; the 
 magnitude of the undertaking should be considered ; the comparative ease,
 
 414 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 The parliament assembled in 1815. Before leaving 
 Sicily, Ferdinand once more dissolved it. In the May 
 of that year he resumed the throne of Naples. No 
 
 with which some very important changes have already been effected, recol- 
 lected ; and above all, that tone of despondency and discouragement should 
 be resisted, which leads to the condemnation of every attempt at amelioration 
 as a vain and visionary project. 
 
 " It is difficult, it may almost be said to be impossible, to transfer from one 
 country to another, without any previous preparation, the whole of its laws, 
 forms, and institutions. The difference of manners, prejudices, religions, and 
 education, offers an insurmountable bairier to the accomplishment of BO 
 total a revolution. Great Britain never wished to impose this condition upon 
 Sicily. As the friend and the ally of the Sicilian Nation, she wished to favour 
 the adoption of such parts only of her constitution, as after grave and 
 deliberate examination, should be found in consonance with the wishes of the 
 people, and calculated to insure their prosperity and happiness. 
 
 " In the further deliberations which may precede the completion of the 
 constitution, she is desirous of recommending to the serious consideration of 
 the nation, the necessity of leaving an adequate proportion of power in the 
 hands of the executive government ; and on the other hand, she would hold 
 up to the executive power the example of the King of France, who on his 
 restoration to the throne of his ancestors, has confirmed to the nation the 
 privileges and advantages of a free government, as far as is consistent with 
 the necessary authority of the crown, the maintenance of order and tran- 
 quillity amongst the people, and with the habits and character of the French 
 nation. 
 
 " She would further recommend an early attention to the code of laws, and 
 to the arrangements necessary to ensure their due administration. She would 
 call to the recollection of the nation, that the happiness of a people depends 
 more upon a pure and impartial administration of justice, than upon the pro- 
 portion of political power that may be entrusted to them. The full posses- 
 sion of civil liberty is the only secure foundation upon which political power 
 can be established ; and to the acquirement of this invaluable blessing, she 
 would willingly call that attention which has hitherto been principally 
 directed to objects of lesser importance. 
 
 " In any temperate and prudent modification of the government, England 
 would willingly lend that aid and support which it may be in her power to 
 afford ; she exacts only as a condition of this assistance that it be done by the 
 parliament itself; that it be accomplished hi a legal and constitutional manner, 
 as far removed from any direct intervention of overbearing authority on the 
 one hand, as from any undue exertion of popular interference on the other. 
 She tenders this advice and this assistance in no other light than as the 
 moat intimate friend and ally of his Sicilian majesty. The offer which was 
 lately made of withdrawing her troops from Sicily, would be a sufficient 
 proof (if indeed any proof were wanting) that England has not the remotest
 
 CHAP, x.] HIS PKOCLAMATIONS. 415 
 
 less tlian three proclamations assured his Neapolitan 
 subjects of the blessings he intended to bestow upon 
 them by his mild and paternal rule. Each rose above 
 the other in expressions of liberality and good will. 
 In the last, which was dated from Messina, just on the 
 
 wish, to exercise a military influence over the councils of the king or of the 
 nation. The attitude which she was obliged to assume during the war, may 
 have given rise to the propagation of a variety of erroneous reports, the best 
 refutation of which is to be found in the well-known loyalty of her conduct, 
 and in her acknowledged good faith. 
 
 " The continued prevalence of party spirit in Sicily cannot sufficiently be 
 lamented. The views of Great Britain being solely directed to the general 
 prosperity of the island, there can bo nothing more remote from the inten- 
 tions of her government than that the British minister at Palermo should 
 appear as the centre of a party. But in making this declaration, it may not 
 be unnecessary to add, that the British government considers itself as deeply 
 interested in the fate of those individuals who have supported the measures 
 of internal policy in Sicily, which the critical situation of the country during 
 the last three years compelled its representative to recommend. The upright 
 and honourable intentions by which these individuals were actuated, are per- 
 fectly well known, and their abandonment under such circumstances would be 
 inconsistent with the character and dignity of the British nation. It has an 
 undoubted right to insist that no person shall suffer, either in his person or 
 pi-operty, for the part he may have taken in the establishment and support of 
 the constitution ; and the perfect security of these individuals must be con- 
 sidered as the sine qud non of the continuance of British protection and 
 alliance. 
 
 " The different position in which the two countries are necessarily placed 
 by the conclusion of a general peace, has drawn from the representative of 
 Great Britain this general declai-ation of the views and sentiments of his 
 government. The interference of Great Britain in the domestic policy of 
 Sicily, has never sprung but from the purest motives of disinterested friend- 
 ship. She will be amply compensated for all the sacri6ces he shas made, if 
 it be eventually found that her exertions have contributed to the welfare, 
 
 happiness, and prosperity of the Sicilian nation. 
 
 "WILLIAM A'CouET. 
 "Palermo, October 20th, 1814." 
 
 Without anticipating the history of future years, the reader may perhaps be 
 here reminded that the Sicilian constitution was destroyed, not " by the par- 
 liament itself," not " in a legal and constitutional manner," but by an edict, 
 dated in 1816, founded solely on the royal authority, and claiming also the 
 sanction of the Congress of Vienna, upon the absurd ground that Ferdinand 
 had been recognised as King of the two Sicilies. This edict had not even the
 
 416 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 eve of his embarkation, he promised a constitution to 
 Naples in which the law should be supreme, and the 
 king only the instrument of executing the will of a 
 united people. 
 
 pretence of legal authority to support it. In the absence of a parliament 
 there has not been since 1816 any legal government in Sicily. 
 
 In a despatch to Mr. A'Court from Lord Castlereagh, dated the 6th of 
 September, 1816, the British minister laid down the following rule as guiding 
 the conduct of England in reference to proposed changes in the Sicilian con- 
 stitution. Disclaiming generally the right of interference, Lord Castlereagh 
 proceeded to point out that the Prince Regent would consider such inter- 
 ference imposed on him as a duty, in two cases : 
 
 let. If any unkindness or persecution were adopted to those who had acted 
 with the British government. 
 
 "His Royal Highness would feel himself equally compelled, however 
 reluctantly, to interfere, if he had the mortification to observe any attempt 
 made to reduce the privileges of the Sicilian nation, in such a degree as might 
 expose the British Government to the reproach of having contributed to a 
 change of system in Sicily, which had, in the end, impaired the freedom and 
 happiness of its inhabitants, as compared with what they formerly enjoyed." 
 
 The change, which was a few months afterwards enforced by the edict of 
 the king, unquestionably fell within the latter of these conditions. It abro- 
 gated not only the reforms of 1812, but also the ancient constitution which 
 had preserved parliamentary institutions from the earliest times ; it destroyed 
 that national independence which, under every change of dynasty, had been 
 preserved, and it left England justly exposed to the reproach of having con- 
 tributed to a change of system in Sicily which had, in the end, impaired the 
 freedom and happiness of its inhabitants as compared with what they formerly 
 enjoyed. 
 
 After his departure from Sicily, Ferdinand never convened the parliament, 
 but its legal existence never was destroyed. The edict of 1816, by the mere 
 usurpation of power, established despotism in the place of government by 
 representative institutions.
 
 NOTE] SICILIAN CONSTITUTION OF 1812. 417 
 
 NOTE ON THE SICILIAN CONSTITUTION OF 1812. 
 
 THE following sketch from a recent publication, 1 contains a clear 
 and correct account of the arrangements adopted in 1812. 
 
 " The Parliament of Sicily, like that of England, was com- 
 posed of two Chambers; Chamber of Peers and Chamber of 
 Commons. 
 
 " The Chamber of Peers was composed of the Sicilian barons 
 and prelates who had formed a part of the ancient Parliament. 
 The king could create new peers among the Sicilian nobles 
 enjoying an income of 6000 ounces, that is 78,000 livres. The 
 parliamentary dignities were perpetual, hereditary, and inalien- 
 able. The quality of ecclesiastical peer was transmitted from 
 titular to titular. If new bishoprics were created in the 
 kingdom, the new bishops and their successors were ecclesiastical 
 peers in full right. All the peers were equal in right, and here- 
 ditary counsellors of the crown. They took their seats in the 
 chamber according to the seniority of their peerage. They could 
 not deliberate with a smaller number than thirty. The peers, their 
 wives, their widows, so long as they did not contract a new mar- 
 riage, and the heirs to the peerage were judged, in criminal matters, 
 by the Chamber of Peers. The president of the Chamber of 
 Peers was chosen by the king for each parliament from the mem- 
 bers of the chamber. 
 
 " The Chamber of Commons was composed of the representa- 
 tives of the people of the realm. The representatives were elected 
 for four years, counting from the day of their convocation. At the 
 expiration of this term their powers ceased altogether. The repre- 
 sentatives received no pay. 2 The kingdom of Sicily was divided 
 
 1 " Naples, 11301857." Par Charles Paya. 
 
 2 There was an exception to this general rule with regard to the repre- 
 sentatives of the universities. They might receive pay, but out of the funds 
 of the establi-hment, and in virtue of a deliberation of the university body,
 
 418 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 into twenty-three districts, and each district nominated two repre- 
 sentatives. The town of Palermo nominated six; the towns of 
 Messina and Catania each three. The island of Lipari nomi- 
 nated one ; the university of Palermo two ; that of Catania one. 
 Every town or commune of eighteen thousand inhabitants and 
 upwards nominated two. Every town or commune of from ten 
 to eighteen thousand inhabitants, one. The classification of the 
 parliamentary towns and communes could only be changed by a 
 new census approved by the parliament. With very few excep- 
 tions there was incompatibility between the quality of a represen- 
 tative and an office payed by the state. To be named a represen- 
 tative it was necessary, first, to be a Sicilian ; second, to have 
 passed the age of twenty ; third, to possess in Sicily a net income 
 for life of 300 ounces, or 3900 livres, for a district representative ; 
 of 500 ounces, or 6500 livres, for a representative of the town 
 of Palermo ; of 150 ounces, or 1950 livres, for a representative of 
 any other parliamentary town or commune. A representative of 
 the university required the same income, unless he was a 
 professor in the university, in which case no condition of income 
 was imposed. To be an elector it was necessary to be a Sicilian, 
 twenty years of age, to possess an income which varied according 
 to the locality and the condition of the person from 117 to 650 
 livres, or to occupy a public situation for life, producing for some, 
 650 livres, for others, 1300 livres. 
 
 " The formation of lists, the taking of the votes, and the process 
 of scrutiny, have often, and in all places, given rise to revolting 
 iniquities. The Sicilian constitution took minute pre- 
 
 cautions to escape such misfortunes. 
 
 " The commission of scrutiny was not called upon to examine 
 whether the candidates possessed the required qualifications. This 
 office belonged to the prothonotary of the kingdom, and the parties 
 interested might appeal against his decisions to the Chamber of 
 Commons, which decided definitively. In the same way they 
 could appeal to the Chamber of Commons upon any difficulties 
 which might arise in the course of the elections. 
 
 " No peer of the realm could take part in the election of mem- 
 bers of the Chamber of Commons. The legislature feared that the 
 
 which was submitted to the approbation of the civic council. The payment 
 could not exceed one ounce, or thirteen livres daily.
 
 NOTE] SICILIAN CONSTITUTION OF 1812. 419 
 
 influence too often acquired by great fortunes and great names, 
 should succeed in falsifying in its principle, the true character of 
 the second chamber. No official of the king, no dependant of 
 the crown, could interfere in the elections under penalty of a fine 
 of 200 ounces, or 2600 livres, with the loss of his situation. The 
 care which in this latter instance they had taken to give a sanction 
 to the prohibition showed that they feared still more the disastrous 
 effect of interference. 
 
 " The candidate could not promise money to the electors, or 
 offer them any present whatever. They could not invite them 
 either to a banquet or a fete under penalty of a fine of 200 
 ounces, or 2400 livres and a void election. It was above all 
 against certain functionaries of the government whose candidature 
 was possible, that the article was directed, but high moral feeling 
 should have rendered it general. The man who possesses no 
 fortune but his own merit, is often thrust aside by the rich and 
 ignorant one. They did not wish wealth to occupy the position 
 due only to talent. 
 
 " But what the legislature most anxiously endeavoured to 
 secure was freedom of suffrage. No corps or detachment of 
 troops could remain in towns when elections were being held. 
 If the place of voting was a garrison town, the soldiers were 
 obliged to remove to a distance of at least two miles, two days 
 before the election commenced, and not to return until two days 
 after it was over; in this way, all violence of power became 
 impossible, and the citizens could exercise their rights in security. 
 
 " Let us now suppose the two chambers nominated, and see 
 what were their functions. The parliament made, interpreted, 
 modified, and repealed the laws. The king's duty was to pro- 
 mulgate them. He granted or refused his sanction ; but could not 
 modify the laws. The parliament must be convoked every year. 
 If the king opened the session in person, he went to the Chamber 
 of Peers, and pronounced, or caused to be read, a speech. If the 
 king dissolved parliament, he was obliged immediately to convoke 
 the electoral assemblies, and these latter should elect the deputies 
 of the Chamber of Commons within an interval of forty days. 
 It was declared the duty of parliament during the first session of 
 each reign to seek out carefully any abuses in the execution of the 
 constitutional laws, which might have been introduced during the 
 preceding reign. They were to reform or to urge the reformation of 
 
 K E 2
 
 420 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. I. 
 
 these errors. The suppression of an old magistracy or the creation 
 of a new one, were considered legislative acts, and could not take 
 place without a warrant from parliament. 
 
 " Every proposition relating to taxes originated in the Chamber 
 of Commons. The Chamber of Peers accepted or rejected the 
 proposition, but could not modify it. No right of precedence 
 existed among the members of the Chamber of Commons. That 
 chamber could not deliberate unless there were at least sixty 
 members present. It elected its president by secret ballot, and 
 the election was only submitted to the approbation of the king. 
 Here, as in the other chamber, every member had a right to make 
 a motion. 
 
 " If a representative accepted any of the offices which made him 
 ineligible, he ceased, ipso facto, by law to be a member of parlia- 
 ment. Both chambers adjourned their sittings, discussions, and 
 deliberations at pleasure. One chamber could not take cognizance 
 of the discussions in the other ; a motion rejected by a chamber 
 could not be re-produced until the session of the following year. 
 
 " The king could not take cognizance of the motions debated 
 in the chambers. No judge or magistrate of the kingdom could 
 institute a proceeding at law, pronounce or execute judgment 
 against the members of the two chambers, or against either 
 chamber as a body, for anything that might be said or done in 
 the course of their debates or deliberations. Any person trans- 
 gressing this was punished by a fine of 1000 ounces, or 13,000 
 francs, by the loss of his office, and by transportation for ten 
 years, without being permitted to plead even orders or commis- 
 sions of the king in extenuation of his guilt. The king could not 
 grant pardon of the punishment incurred, nor even mitigate it. 
 Each chamber had the right of arresting all persons who were 
 guilty of contempt towards it. The sittings of the two chambers 
 were public. The parliament had a printing-office within the pre- 
 cincts of its house. The director of this printing-office was subject 
 entirely and immediately to the orders of the presidents of the 
 two chambers. 
 
 " The king was the supreme head of the army and navy. But 
 this formidable instrument, which by force of circumstances is 
 placed in the hands of the executive power, is often dangerous to 
 the liberties of the people. The constitution sought to avert this 
 danger by declaring that the king could neither introduce into or
 
 NOTE.] SICILIAN CONSTITUTION OF 1812. 421 
 
 retain in Sicily any troops without the consent of the parlia- 
 ment. Everything is to be feared from a power which, without 
 right, creates for itself an exorbitant force. The legislature had 
 decreed that the king could not press any Sicilian into the 
 military service, either on land or sea, without the consent of 
 parliament. History abounds in proofs, and Naples shows at 
 present, that foreigners are nearly always a calamity to a nation ; 
 the king could not appoint any foreigner to military offices or 
 employment without the express and special authority of parlia- 
 ment. He could not select any but Sicilians for his secretaries 
 of state, members of his privy council, for the ecclesiastical 
 benefices of royal patronage, or as judicial and administrative 
 magistrates. The creation of new and lucrative offices, new 
 corporations, and pensions granted for services rendered to the 
 state, becomes sometimes in corrupt hands a more easy means 
 of oppression ; in all these cases the parliament interfered, and 
 nothing could be done without its consent. The right of granting 
 pardons might save great criminals from well merited punish- 
 ments ; the king was prohibited from exercising his prerogative, 
 when the crime was one against the constitution of the realm. 
 
 " In fine, when the new king or queen was acknowledged by 
 the parliament, he (or she) was bound to take in the cathedral of 
 Palermo, and from the hands of the archbishop, this solemn oath: 
 " ' I, M. N. king (or queen) of Sicily, I promise and swear 
 " ' upon the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and upon the four 
 " ' gospels, to observe, and make to be observed, the Catholic 
 " ' Apostolic and Eoman religion, to observe and respect, make to 
 " ' be observed and respected, the constitution of this realm, and 
 " ' all the laws made, and which shall be made by the parliament 
 " ' according to the constitutional form. I swear and promise 
 " ' upon the aforesaid Holy Cross, never to attempt anything 
 " ' against the laws established by the parliament, or the happi- 
 " ' ness of my subjects.' 
 
 " The parliament in return swore to maintain the sovereign in all 
 the rights which the constitution granted to him, and an article, 
 which immediately followed, enacted that if the King of Sicily 
 should be re-established in the kingdom of Naples, or if he should 
 acquire any other states, the kingdom of Sicily should remain in 
 entire and absolute independence either of the kingdom of Naples 
 or of any other state The constitution guaranteed
 
 422 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 individual liberty against abuses of every kind. It established 
 trial by jury in criminal matters, and promised it in civil matters. 
 It instituted arbitration. It protected the prisoner, and took 
 particular care of the person arraigned. It founded communal 
 administration, and devoted one entire chapter in twenty-two 
 articles to the rights and duties of the citizens. There were 
 to be found two stipulations, which themselves alone were worth 
 all the others, for the security, the glory, and the greatness of the 
 nation, if they had been respected by the sovereign. First, the 
 citizens could freely publish their opinions by means of the press, 
 without being submitted to any preventive censorship. Secondly, 
 they could speak freely upon any political subject, and complain 
 with equal freedom of any injustice which they thought they 
 suffered. The magistrates were bound to disregard informers of 
 the conversations of the citizens."
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT OF LORD NELSON. 423 
 
 NOTE ON EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 NEAPOLITAN EESTOBATION OF 1799. 
 
 SOME of the transactions mentioned in the eighth chapter of 
 this volume require, perhaps, a fuller notice than was consistent 
 with the space devoted to them in the text. 
 
 The object of this note is : 
 
 1st. To examine the facts relative to the annulling of the capitu- 
 lation by Lord Nelson. 
 
 2nd. To refer more fully to the cruelties practised by the 
 restored Neapolitan government. 
 
 I. CONDUCT OF LORD NELSON. 
 
 The part taken by Lord Nelson in the annulling of the capitu- 
 lation has been the subject of condemnation, which until very 
 recently has been universal. Even now, when for more than fifty 
 years the remains of the great hero have been reposing beneath 
 the dome of St. Paul's, nothing that affects his memory, nothing, 
 above all, that can throw a new light upon that transaction which 
 has been hitherto regarded as a damning blot upon his fame, can 
 be without interest to the British nation. 
 
 No one can accuse the historians of that nation of having 
 qualified the language in which they have described his acts at 
 Naples. 
 
 Southey, his partial biographer, thus writes : 
 
 " The castles of Uovo and Nuovo were chiefly defended by 
 Neapolitan revolutionists, the powerful men among them having 
 sought shelter there. They were strong places, and if they were 
 taken, the reduction of Fort St. Elmo, which commands Naples, 
 would be greatly expedited. Cardinal Buffo proposed to the 
 garrison to capitulate, on condition that their persons and pro- 
 perties should be guaranteed. The capitulation was accepted. It
 
 424 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i 
 
 was signed by the cardinal, by the Russian and Turkish com- 
 manders, and by Captain Eoote, commander of the British forces. 
 Thirty-six hours afterwards Nelson arrived, and annulled the 
 treaty, declaring that he would grant no other terms than those 
 of unconditional submission. The cardinal objected to this; nor 
 could all the arguments of Nelson, Sir William Hamilton, and 
 Lady Hamilton, who took an active part in the conference, con- 
 vince him that a treaty of such a nature, solemnly concluded, could 
 honourably be set aside. He retired at last, silenced by Nelson's 
 authority, but not convinced. Captain Foote was sent out of the 
 bay, and the garrisons, taken from the castles under the pretence 
 of carrying the treaty into effect, were delivered over as rebels to 
 the vengeance of the Sicilian court." 
 
 " A deplorable transaction, a stain upon the memory of Nelson 
 nnd the honour of England : to palliate it would be vain, to 
 justify it would be wicked; there is no alternative for one who 
 will not make himself a participator in guilt but to record the 
 disgraceful story with sorrow and with shame." * 
 
 Sir Archibald Alison uses stronger terms of indignation in 
 describing it. After stating the terms of the capitulation, he 
 continues : 
 
 " These wise and humane measures were instantly inter- 
 rupted by the arrival of the king and queen with the court on 
 board Lord Nelson's fleet. They were animated with the 
 strongest feeling of revenge against the republican party, and 
 unfortunately the English admiral, who had fallen under the fasci- 
 nating influence of Lady Hamilton, the too celebrated wife of the 
 British ambassador at the court of Naples, who shared in all the 
 feelings of the court, was too much inclined to adopt the same 
 principles. He instantly declared the capitulation null, as not 
 having obtained the king's authority, and entering the harbour at 
 the head of his fleet, made all those who had issued from it in 
 virtue of it, prisoners, and had them chained two and two on board 
 his own fleet. The king, whose humanity could not endure the 
 sight of the punishments which were preparing, returned to Sicily, 
 and left the administration of justice in the hands of the queen 
 and Lady Hamilton." 2 
 
 1 South ey's Life of Nelson, vol. ii. p. 18. 
 
 * Alison's " History of Europe from the Commencement of the French 
 Revolution," vol. vi. p. 389. The eminence of the writer makes this, perhaps,
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT OF LORD NELSON. 425 
 
 There is an error in this passage as to the arrival of 
 the king and queen. A reference either to Captain Foote's 
 account, or the log books cited by Sir H. Nicolas proves that 
 the king did not arrive at Naples until the 8th of July ; the 
 arrival of Lord Nelson was on the 24th of June. 3 The king re- 
 mained on board the " Foudroyant " until the 8th of August, when 
 he returned in that vessel to Palermo, w r hich the queen had not 
 left during the entire time. 4 This does not affect the opinion 
 expressed as to Lord Nelson. The historian of the French revo- 
 lution, after describing the executions, especially that of Caraccioli, 
 proceeds : 
 
 " For these acts of cruelty, no sort of apology can or ought to 
 be offered. Whether the capitulation should or should not have 
 been granted is a different or irrelevant question. Suffice it to 
 say that it had taken place, and that by virtue of its provisions 
 the allied powers had gained possession of the castles of Naples. 
 To assert in such a case that the king had not ratified the capitu- 
 lation, and that without such sanction it was null, is a quibble 
 
 the most remarkable instance of the injustice that is done by vindicating the 
 supposed " good nature " of Ferdinand at the expense of his guilty but far 
 more estimable queen. The estimate of Ferdinand's character, which attributes 
 to him this equivocal praise, originated with the Neapolitan Lazzaroni, to 
 whom his good qualities were exactly suited. He had that worthless and 
 selfish good nature which means nothing more than the manifestation of 
 the complacency felt in a strong sense of animal enjoyment, and which in 
 many others as in him is consistent with a cruel, treacherous, and brutal dis- 
 position. Those who have read the anecdotes of his life and habits contained 
 iu such publications as Michiel's " Secret History of Austria," and Vehse's 
 " Memoirs of the Austrian Court," will not consider the latter word too 
 strong no other can express his real character. During the worst of the 
 Neapolitan atrocities he was on board the " Foudroyant " without the queen. 
 At all events the unhappy Caroline is not answerable for his perfidies in 
 1821 and the most cruel act of his life, the refusal to his daughter-in-law 
 to pardon Saufelice, was altogether his own. 
 
 Lord Nelson states that the queen on her knees begged from him the 
 life of Cirillo, but in vain. Clarke and Me Arthur. 
 
 3 "His Sicilian Majesty arrived in this bay on the 10th, and immediately 
 hoisted his standard on board the 'Foudroyant,' where his majesty still remains 
 with all his ministers." Nelson to Lord Keith, July 13th, London Gazette, 
 August 17 th. 
 
 The logbook of the "Seahorse " explains that although the king arrived off 
 Procida on the 8th, he did not come nearer to the city until the 10th. 
 
 4 Sir Harris Nicolas's " Nelson Despatches," vol. iii. pp. 506, 507.
 
 426 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 which, though frequently resorted to by the continental powers, 
 and sometimes by the French, is unworthy of a generous mind, 
 
 and destitute of any support in the law of nations In 
 
 every point of view, therefore, the conduct of Nelson in this tragic 
 affair was inexcusable. His biographer may, perhaps with justice, 
 ascribe it to the fatal ascendancy of female fascination, but the 
 historian who has the interests of humanity and the cause of 
 justice to support, can admit of no such alleviation, and will best 
 discharge his duty by imitating the conduct of his eloquent anna- 
 lists, and with shame acknowledging the disgraceful deeds." * 
 
 A more recent writer gives still more forcible expression to 
 the judgment in which many have mournfully acquiesced : 
 
 " On his return to Naples, Nelson dishonoured his character, 
 and sullied his glory, by listening to the violent counsels of a 
 woman, whose passionate zeal for her friends overleaped all the 
 boundaries not only of discretion, but of justice. He became her 
 accomplice in perfidy and murder. These seem to be hard terms 
 to use of a man of whom, in other respects, England is so justly 
 proud. But they are the terms used by Lord Holland, and not 
 unwarranted by impartial history." 6 
 
 6 Alison, vol. vi. p. 390. 
 
 6 Rev. G. Vernon Harcourt, preface to Diaries and Correspondence of Right 
 Hon. George Rose. 
 
 Mr. Spalding in his " Italy and the Italian Islands," a work in which an 
 immense mass of information is condensed into a small compass, more 
 correctly describes what would appear to have been the real nature of the 
 transactions. 
 
 " The two lower castles surrendered on a capitulation with the cardinal, 
 which stipulated that the republicans should at their choice remain unmolested 
 in Naples or be conveyed to Toulon, and two prelates with two noblemen, 
 who were prisoners in the forts, were consigned to Colonel Megean, French 
 commander of the Castle Sant Elmo, as hostages for the performance of the 
 convention. The last incidents of this bloody tale cannot be told without 
 extreme reluctance by any native of the British empire, for they stain deeply 
 one of the brightest names in our national history. While the persons 
 protected by the treaty were preparing to embark, the English fleet uuder 
 Nelson arrived, bringing the king, the minister Acton, and the ambassador, 
 Sir William Hamilton with his wife, who was at once the queen's confidante 
 and the evil genius of the brave admiral. The French commandant, 
 treacherous as well as cowardly, surrendered the castle and gave up the 
 hostages without making any condition. The capitulation was declared null, 
 although the cardinal indignantly remonstrated, and retired from the royal 
 service on failing to procure its fulfilment. The republicans were searched
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT OF LORD NELSON. 427 
 
 These opinions are encountered by a defence of Lord Nelson in 
 the third volume of Sir H. Nicolas' s Nelson Despatches, published 
 in the year 1846, a defence which an influential periodical has not 
 hesitated recently to declare not only acquits Lord Nelson of the 
 heavy charges made against him, but clearly shows that he did 
 nothing more than his plain duty to the Sicilian king, in consigning 
 traitors to a punishment they had richly deserved. 7 
 
 It is impossible fairly to judge Lord Nelson's conduct without 
 carefully reading the facts stated, and the documents contained in 
 the publication of Sir Harris Nicolas. An impartial examination of 
 these facts and documents leads irresistibly to the conclusion that 
 whatever judgment may be formed on the whole transaction, 
 many of the statements generally accepted convey a very inac- 
 curate representation of the occurrences that took place. 
 
 The materials from which the most authentic accounts can be 
 derived, will be found in the despatches and other documents 
 published by Sir Harris Nicolas, and those in Clark and McArthur's 
 Life of Nelson. The publication in the latter of a despatch of 
 Lord Nelson's, in which he applied the term " infamous " to the 
 capitulation, drew from Captain Foote a vindication of his own 
 conduct, which contains the most valuable and authentic infor- 
 mation. Miss Helen Williams, in her Sketches of the State of 
 Manners and Opinion in the French Republic, published in 
 1801, has adduced some authentic documents relating to these 
 transactions. Two or three of great importance are contained 
 in the life of Cardinal Euffo, presently to be referred to and 
 Mr. Vernon Harcourt has published in his Diaries and Corres- 
 pondence of Sir George Eose, some letters which were trans- 
 mitted to that gentleman by Lady Hamilton, in support of her 
 claim upon the British government, when she was reduced to the 
 humiliation of asking for a reward, for the services which she 
 
 for and imprisoned, and arbitrary commissions sent to try them. Under 
 the sentence passed by such courts in the metropolis and the provinces, four 
 thousand persons died by the hand of the executioner." Spaldintfs Italy, 
 vol. iii. pp. 50, 51. 
 
 Mr. Spalding falls into the common mistake of representing the king as 
 coming with Lord Nelson, but in other respects the above passage correctly 
 states the occurrences which took place. 
 
 The Castle of Sant Elmo was not surrendered until the 13th of July. 
 Lord Nelson's Despatches ; Sir N. H. Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 403. 
 
 7 See the article in Blackwood's Magazine, March, 1360.
 
 428 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 rendered, by her influence with the queen, when the wife of the 
 British ambassador at Naples. It must be said, with the light 
 supplied by these documents, that all the accounts that have been 
 published convey representations, more or less inaccurate, of the 
 transactions in which Lord Nelson took a part ; it is only by a 
 careful examination of the documents contained in these sources 
 that the truth is to be discovered. 
 
 There are facts upon which all persons are agreed. It is beyond 
 all question that the republican troops and the members of the 
 directory occupied the castles of TJovo and Nuovo; that they were 
 in a position in which they could have made a desperate resistance, 
 and inflicted terrible injury on the city; that they had also 
 the prospect of relief from the possible arrival of the French 
 fleet, and that under such circumstances an armistice first, and 
 then a capitulation was entered into, the latter being signed on 
 the 22nd of June by Cardinal Euflb, as vicar-general of Ferdi- 
 nand, by Captain Foote as commanding the British naval forces, 
 and also by the Eussian and Turkish commanders. 
 
 It is equally undeniable that when, on the 24th, Lord Nelson 
 arrived with his fleet, he forcibly prevented this capitulation from 
 being carried into effect that he subsequently seized the persons 
 who, according to its terms, were to have been conveyed safely 
 to Toulon, and that they were handed over to the vengeance of 
 the Neapolitan government. 
 
 Except these leading facts, all matters connected with the 
 transaction, have been the subject either of controversy or of 
 generally received misrepresentation. 
 
 On the 21st of June, the fleet of Lord Nelson unexpectedly 
 returned to Palermo, and after manoeuvring a few hours without 
 casting anchor, sailed for Naples, to reduce the city to subjection, 
 in concert with the land attack of Cardinal Ruffb. Sir William 
 and Lady Hamilton came on board from Palermo, and accompanied 
 Lord Nelson to Naples. At this period the Neapolitan court were 
 peri'ectly aware of the terms granted in the capitulation of Castela- 
 niare, and that the safety of the rebels in that fort was guaranteed. 8 
 
 8 Letter of Sir William Hamilton to Captain Foote, June 21st, 1798. 
 Extract from one from Sir J. Acton : 
 
 " I return you Captain Foote's letters. I do not know whether he has 
 granted the demands of the rebel officers to go free to their families. His 
 ultimatum was for surrendering prisoners of war." Foote'* Vindication, p. 139.
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT OF LORD NELSON. 
 
 After the departure of Nelson's fleet, the queen heard of the 
 capitulation entered into with Uovo and Nuovo, and found means 
 to overtake the fleet of Lord Nelson, with letters informing him 
 of that capitulation. 
 
 By the imperfect information, or the mistake, or possibly even 
 the design of the queen, though the latter seems improbable, the 
 transaction was wholly misrepresented. 
 
 On the 27th of June, Lord Nelson writes to Lord Kejth, that 
 " on the passage from Palermo to Naples he received letters in- 
 forming him that an infamous armistice had been entered into 
 with the rebels." 9 In the same volume is contained an opinion 
 of Lord Nelson, "delivered," as he indorses it himself, " before I 
 saw the treaty of armistice, only from reports met at sea." 
 
 This opinion commences with the statement, " The armistice I 
 take for granted is, that if the French and rebels are not relieved 
 by their friends in twenty-one days from the signing of the 
 armistice, then they shall evacuate Naples in this infamous manner 
 to his Sicilian Majesty and triumphant to them, as stated in the 
 article." 10 
 
 It was under this entirely false impression of the nature of the 
 truce he signalled to Captain Foote to annul it. 
 
 The "Foudroyant" cast anchor about four in the evening. 
 Captain Foote had immediately an interview with Lord Nelson. 
 The latter when apprised of the capitulation, declared that he 
 would not suffer it to be carried into effect, and an intimation to 
 that nature was immediately made to Cardinal Buffo. 
 
 Very opposite representations are given of the state of things 
 at the time when Lord Nelson took this step. Both Southey and 
 Sir Archibald Alison assume that the castles had been then actually 
 surrendered on the terms of the capitulation ; Botta, Colletta, and 
 Pepe, 11 distinctly state so, and also represent the soldiers that 
 
 9 Sir H. Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 392. Cardinal Ruffo, it appears from other 
 sources of information, was accused of having been bribed to grant the capitu- 
 lation, in order to screen some rebels of rank in the castles. This impression 
 was, in all probability, produced on Nelson's mind. 
 
 10 Ib. p. 394. " Lord Nelson, misled by the imperfect information he had re- 
 ceived, confounded an armistice with a capitulation. The misconception pervades 
 the whole of the paper, which, without this explanation, is indeed scarcely 
 intelligible." Sir H. Nicolas, p. 494. 
 
 11 Pepe at the time was a prisoner in one of the dungeons and derived his 
 information from the prisoners who from time to time joined him in their
 
 430 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 garrisoned them as having been all the previous night on board 
 the vessels that were to take them to Toulon, and only prevented 
 sailing by an unfavourable breeze. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is perfectly certain that the castles were not taken 
 possession of until the evening of the 26th. 12 It has been said that 
 the soldiers were even then taken out of them on the faith that the 
 terms of the capitulation would be fulfilled. 13 But it is beyond all 
 
 confinement. His statement is distinct : that before the arrival of Lord 
 Nelson's fleet the embarkation had commenced. 
 
 " Towards evening," he writes, " the patriots began to evacuate the different 
 castles, not as had been agreed upon, with the honours of war, but shamefully 
 driven before the Russian soldiers until they reached the vessels destined to 
 bear them thence. This was a sad omen of future misery and of new disasters. 
 The anticipation of a favourable night breeze alone prevented them from 
 immediately weighing anchor. On the following day, Nelson's fleet, composed 
 of numerous ships of the line, made its appearance in the Bay of Naples. 
 Although the expected breeze had arisen during the course of the night, the 
 vessels containing our people had not yet made sail. On the next day they 
 were towed from their moorings and stationed immediately under the cannon 
 of the Castel del Uovo. Their helms and sails were dismantled, their anchors 
 cast, and guards were put on board j in a word, they were converted into 
 regular prisons." Pepe's Memoirs, English translation, vol. L p. 1 06. 
 
 Notwithstanding the positive and apparently satisfactory character of this 
 testimony, a careful comparison of its statements with the written documents 
 of the time, make it plain that Pepe, writing after the interval of many years, 
 and recording the impressions received while he was passing through the 
 miserable days of a dungeon life, mistook the period at which the embarkation 
 took place. 
 
 That which he describes must have taken place after Nelson's consent to the 
 embarkation was given to the cardinal. The passages marked in Italics are 
 sufficient to prove this. It is irreconcilable with all the known facts to believe 
 that before Nelson's arrival the troops should be driven by the Russians 
 without the honours of war, although such a proceeding exactly tallies with 
 the supposition that the embarkation took place under Nelson's protest, 
 although with his permission. If Pepe's account were correct, the capitula- 
 tion had been violated before Nelson's arrival. But the statement that 
 the vessels were moored under the guns of Castel Uovo, places the matter 
 beyond doubt. It is demonstrated that Castel Uovo was not in the hands of 
 the royalists until the 26th. 
 
 12 " Sant Elmo is yet in possession of the French, but the Castles of Uovo 
 and Nuovo, I took possession of last evening, and his Sicilian Majesty's 
 colours are now flying from them." Nelson's Despatch to the Admiralty, 
 June 27th. 
 
 13 It is perfectly possible that notwithstanding the proclamation of Nelson 
 many of the soldiers who left the castles may have believed that they were
 
 NOTE] CONDUCT OP LORD NELSON. 431 
 
 doubt that on the 25th, Lord Nelson had addressed to the 
 garrisons of the forts a proclamation, which he certainly in- 
 tended should reach them, in which he distinctly stated that he 
 would not suffer them to embark for Toulon, and that they 
 must throw themselves unconditionally on the mercy of their 
 king. 14 
 
 All the evidence leads to the conclusion that on the morning 
 of the 24th, nothing had been done towards the evacuation of 
 the forts. The terms of the capitulation were, that the embarka- 
 tion and evacuation should be contemporaneous ; there appears 
 to have been some delay and difficulty in obtaining the polacres. 
 
 leaving them in accordance with the terms of the capitulation that they were 
 doing so. This would account for much of the misrepresentation upon this 
 subject which has prevailed. 
 
 14 His Britannic Majesty's Ship Foudroyant, 
 
 Naples Bay, June 25th, 1799. 
 
 " Eear Admiral Lord Nelson, K.B., Commander of his Britannic Majesty's 
 fleet in the Bay of Naples, acquaints the rebellious subjects of bis Sicilian 
 Majesty in the castles of Uovo and Nuovo that he will not permit them to 
 embark or quit those places. They must surrender themselves to his Majesty's 
 royal mercy. NELSON." 
 
 Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 386. 
 
 " As you will believe, the cardinal and myself have begun our career by a 
 complete difference of opinion. He will send the rebels to Toulon. I say 
 they shall not go. He thinks one house in Naples more to be pi-ized than hia 
 sovereign's honour. Trowbridge and Ball are gone to the cardinal for bim to 
 read my declaration to the French and the rebels, whom he persists in calling 
 patriots : what a prostitution of the word. I shall send Foote to get the 
 gun boats from Procida." Nelson to Admiral Duckworth, June 25th, 1799. 
 Ibid. 387. 
 
 It is quite plain that at the time of writing these letters, the " rebels " or 
 patriots were still in possession of the forts, and that Nelson desired a decla- 
 ration to be read to them, apprising them that the capitulation would not be 
 carried into effect. 
 
 See the subsequent correspondence of the 26th, page 432. Nelson yielded 
 to Cardinal Ruffo so far as to permit them to be placed on board the polacres, 
 and to wait the decision of the king. It is this that has given rise to the 
 charge that they were taken out of the castles under pretence of fulfilling the 
 terms of the capitulation; but it is plain that when they left the castlea 
 Lord Nelson unequivocally declared his determination, although it is quite 
 true that their embarkation was in part fulfilment of the terms of the capitu- 
 lationintended, it would seem, perhaps, by themselves, certainly by Ruff<, 
 and by the Russian commander, to throw an obstacle in the way of the king's 
 annulling it.
 
 432 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 A letter from Captain Foote to Lord Nelson, dated half-past seven 
 on the morning of the 24th, contains these sentences : 
 
 " I am obliged to send the ' Bulldog ' to convey the polacres 
 on board of which the republicans are about to embark for Toulon, 
 as it was particularly stated they should have a British ship of 
 war to escort them. "When the capitulation is put into effect and 
 the troops of his Sicilian Majesty, or those of his allies, have taken 
 possession of the forts, I shall be better able to judge what is to 
 be done." 15 
 
 The letter manifestly implies that nothing then had been done 
 in the execution of the capitulation at the time when it was 
 written. 16 
 
 Such appears to be the trne account of the circumstances under 
 which Lord Nelson believed himself warranted in annulling the 
 capitulation, or rather in suspending its execution until its terms 
 should be submitted to the king. 
 
 15 Letter of Captain Foote. Foote 's Vindication, p. 141. 
 
 16 See the Petition of prisoners to Lord Nelson. Miss Helen Williams' 
 Sketches, vol. ii. p. 120. 
 
 As this document, addressed to Lord Nelson, may be assumed accurately to 
 state the truth, it throws important light on the transactions : 
 
 [TRANSLATION.] 
 
 "To his Excellency Lord Nelson, Admiral of the British Fleet in the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 " Excellency, The persons on board the Polacre, No. 14, and who lately 
 made part of the garrisons of Castel Nuovo and Castel del Uovo, represent to 
 your Excellency, that on the 15th of June, his eminence, Cardinal Ruff>, 
 vicar-general of his Majesty the Sicilian King, published a proclamation to the 
 people, in which he enjoined respect to the flag of truce which should be sent 
 to the forts to capitulate, in order that the articles of the capitulation should 
 be exactly fulfilled. By this proclamation it was admitted, that the troops which 
 formed the blockade of the forts were regular troops, belonging to his Sicilian 
 Majesty, and to his allies; and a capitulation having been proposed by the 
 said vicar-general, which should be guaranteed by the allied powers, that is 
 to Bay, by England, Russia, and the Ottoman Porte, on the 21st of June, the 
 articles of this capitulation, after the approbation and signature of Citizen 
 Migan, commander of the Fort St. Elmo, were signed with the usual for- 
 malities, on the part of Great Britain, by Commodore Foote, who then com- 
 manded the British squadron in this road. 
 
 " The capitulation prescribed, that the garrisons should surrender the two 
 forts, with the arms and stores to the army of the King of Sicily and his
 
 >-OTE.] CONDUCT OF LORD NELSON. 44:3 
 
 Nelson rested his entire justification on these two points, that 
 Cardinal Buffo had no power to enter into the capitulation without 
 submitting it for ratification to the king, and that nothing had 
 been done to carry it into effect when he arrived. 1 ' 
 
 allies, and should inarch out with the honours of war, and ground their arms 
 on the shore ; and that such persons as did not choose to return to their 
 homes, should be embarked on board flags of truce, and be transported to 
 Toulon. After the arrival of the British fleet in this road, commanded by 
 your excellency, the capitulation was begun to be put in execution. The 
 garrisons of the forts on their part set at liberty the state prisoners and the 
 English prisoners of war, and gave up to the troops of his British Majesty the 
 gate of the royal palace which leads to the new fort, and on the other side the 
 troops of his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, attended the march of the 
 garrison with the honours of war, out of the forts, on the side of the arsenal 
 of the marine, where they grounded their arms, and embarked in fourteen 
 transports to be conveyed to Toulon. By these transactions the articles of 
 the capitulation, which were signed, have been ratified by Kussia and England, 
 the troops of which powers have received the prisoners, and taken possession 
 of the gates of the castle. 
 
 " It is now twenty-four days that we are lying in this road, unprovided 
 with everything necessary to existence ; we have nothing but bread to eat, we 
 drink nothing but putrid water, or wine mingled with sea-water, and have 
 nothing but the bare planks to sleep on. Our houses have been entirely 
 pillaged, and consequently we can receive no assistance from thence, and the 
 greater part of our relations have been either imprisoned or massacred. Our 
 deplorable situation has already been productive of diseases, and on board 
 this Polacre there are five persons sick of an infectious fever, which threatens 
 the lives of the whole. 
 
 " We are persuaded that all the treatment which we suffer, after having 
 capitulated, and after having on our side put the articles of the capitulation 
 religiously into execution, is entirely unknown to your Excellency and to his 
 Sicilian Majesty ; your fidelity and his benevolence being engaged in our 
 deliverance. The delay of the execution of the capitulation gives us room 
 to claim and implore his and your justice, in order that a treaty concluded 
 with four of the most civilised powers of Europe, who have always appreciated 
 the inviolability of treaties, should be executed as speedily as possible. We 
 hope that by means of your good offices with his Sicilian Majesty, due execu- 
 tion will be given to the articles of a capitulation, which has been signed with 
 good faith, and religiously executed on the part of the garrison, who implore 
 your protection and the justice of the Powers, and praying you to give atten- 
 tion to the present, &c., &c., &c." 
 
 ANSWER OF LORD NELSON. 
 
 " I have shown your paper to your gracious king, who must be the beet and 
 
 onlv iudee of the merits and demerits of his subjects. 
 
 (Signed) NELSON." 
 
 J 7 " Neither Cardinal Kuffo, nor Captain Foote, nor any other person, had any 
 VOL. i. *
 
 43 i HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Under the impression that it was merely an armistice, he 
 treated it as terminated by his own arrival. Learning that it was 
 a regular and formal capitulation, he regarded it as invalid 
 without the king's ratification, and stopped it, as nothing had been 
 done. 
 
 The most authoritative statement of the law of nations on 
 such a subject is to be found in G-rotius. In his chapter " De 
 fide nrinorum potestatum in bello," he thus writes of armistices 
 or truces: 
 
 " To grant truces is the business of every general, even 
 subordinate ones, as far as concerns themselves. For such truces 
 do not bind other generals of equal autJiorify, as the history of 
 Fabius and Marcellus in Livy declares." Grotiu*, De Jure Belli, 
 vol. i. p. 385. 
 
 Lord Nelson, therefore, was right in his opinion, that on the 
 arrival of his force he was at liberty to annul an armistice. When 
 he entered the Bay of Naples, he saw the flag of truce still flying 
 from the forts and the British ships but the armistice was only 
 in existence for the purpose of carrying out the capitulation, 
 which was completely entered into, and which every preparation 
 was making to carry into effect. 
 
 No such principle applies to capitulations. Once completed 
 
 power to enter into any treaty with the rebels, that even the paper which they 
 signed was not acted on, as I very happily arrived at Naples and prevented 
 such an infamous transaction from taking place ; therefore, when the rebels 
 surrendered they came out of the castles as they ought, without any honours 
 of war, and trusting to the judgment of their sovereign. I put aside (and 
 sent them notice of it) the infamous treaty, and they surrendered as I 
 have said." Letter of Lord Nehon to Mr, Stephens, Feb. 10th, 1803. 
 
 " Foudroyant, June 26t7i, 1799. 
 
 " Rear Admiral Lord Nelson arrived in the British fleet the 24th of June, 
 in the Bay of Naples, and found a treaty entered into with the rebels, which 
 in his opinion cannot be carried into execution without the approbation of his 
 Sicilian Majesty." Written opinion delivered to Cardinal Ruffo. Nicolas, 
 vol. iii. p. 388. 
 
 * Under this opinion the rebels came out of the castles, which were 
 instantly occupied by the marines of the squadron." Nelson to Lord Keith, 
 ib. 393. 
 
 In the copy of this opinion, published by Sir Harris Nicolas, and that 
 printed in Cardinal Foote's vindication, there is a curious discrepancy. 
 
 In the latter there are added at the end the words, " Lord St. Vincent, Lord 
 Keith." Foote's Vindication, p. 74.
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT OP LORD NELSON. 435 
 
 they are inviolable, and by the law of nations and of war, 
 every general conducting military operations has of necessity 
 authority to enter into capitulations. No general has authority 
 to surrender territory or fortresses. " But," continues Grotius, 
 " it is in the power of generals to grant the possession of 
 things not yet acquired, because towns sometimes, and men 
 often, surrender themselves in war on condition of lives being 
 spared, or liberty or property, about which concessions the state 
 of things does not allow the decision of the supreme authority to 
 be asked, and by parity of reasoning the right is also given to 
 commanders who are not the highest within the limits of the 
 matters which are given them to execute. Maherbal had given to 
 some Romans who had escaped from the battle at Trasimenum, 
 Aunibal being absent for so long a time as to leave room for 
 this, not only his pledge for their lives, but if they gave up their 
 arms, the liberty of departing each with a single suit of apparel. 
 But Annibal retained them, alleging to them that it was not in the 
 power of Maherbal to pledge himself, without consulting him, to 
 those who surrendered that they should be free from harm and 
 penalty. The judgment of Livy on this act follows the pledge was 
 observed by Annibal with Punic faith." Q-rotius, De Jure Belli, 
 (Whewell's edition), vol. i. p. 390. 
 
 Nor can this implied authority be got rid of, by any secret 
 instructions "He who placed a person in command is bound, 
 even though the person so placed acts against secret orders 
 within the limits of his public function." Grotius (Whewell's 
 translation), vol. i. p. 385. 
 
 It follows from these principles unquestionably the principles 
 of common sense that Cardinal Euffo had full power to accept 
 the surrender of the castles that no secret instructions, even if 
 they existed, could alter or affect that power as regarded strangers, 
 and that the capitulation entered into was valid without any 
 ratification from the king. 
 
 "Nothing," said Captain Foote, in his second vindication, 
 " can be more evident than the fact that a solemn capitulation 
 had been agreed upon, formally signed by the chief commander 
 of the forces of the King of Naples, by the Eussian commander, 
 and myself, all duly authorised to sign any capitulation in the 
 absence of superior power. This was not a treaty of peace, 
 subject to ratification; it was not a truce liable to be broken; it 
 
 y v 2
 
 436 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 was a serious agreement for surrender upon terms which involved 
 the lives and properties of men who might have chosen to forfeit 
 their lives and properties, had they not relied principally on the 
 faith of a British officer. One hour after the signature of the 
 convention was sufficient to render it sacred instead of thirty-six 
 hours . . . Although nothing had been done in the execution of 
 the terms agreed upon, it was equally binding on all the contract- 
 ing parties. The truth, however, is that some parts of the agree- 
 ment had been performed, and actual advantage was taken of 
 those parts of the capitulation that had been thus executed, to 
 seize the unhappy men, who, having been thus deceived by a 
 sacred pledge, were sacrificed in a cruel and despotic manner." 18 
 
 It is plain that Nelson reached Naples with the strongest pre- 
 judices against Buffo. In his very first interview with Captain 
 Foote, he told that officer that " he was aware he had been imposed 
 upon by that worthless fellow Cardinal Buffo, who had been 
 endeavouring to form a party hostile to the interests of his sove- 
 reign." 19 Disliking him from the first, he readily adopted all the 
 impressions of his conduct which Lady Hamilton conveyed to him 
 from the queen, and he entered the Bay of Naples determined, if 
 possible, to prevent the accomplishment of that, which he certainly 
 believed to be, a mercy to rebels in contempt of the authority of 
 the king. 
 
 But it is much more than doubtful that any such instructions, as 
 are alleged, were ever given to Cardinal Buffo. The only evidence 
 of their existence is, that Lord Nelson was shown a letter, in which 
 the king afterwards upbraided the cardinal with having acted in 
 opposition to his commands. What value is to be attached to such 
 a declaration, made when the king wished to justify his breach of 
 the capitulation, the character of Ferdinand enables us perfectly to 
 appreciate. It is inconsistent with all the acts both of the cardinal 
 and the king. In all Nelson's letters written at the time, he 110- 
 where mentions that such directions had been given. In the long 
 and angry discussions which he had with Buffo, there is no trace 
 of such an allegation being made. 20 
 
 18 Letter of Captain Foote to Mr. Clarke, March 18, 1802. Foote't Vindica- 
 tion, p. 47. Quarterly Review, 1810. 
 
 19 Foote's " Vindication/' p. 90. 
 
 20 The king's own letter of the 27th of June to Cardinal Ruffo (note 19) is 
 entirely inconsistent with it
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT OP LORD NELSON. 437 
 
 Instead of being visited with punishment, Buffo received 
 honours and rewards. It was not competent for the king to 
 disavow his capitulation as an act of almost treasonable dis- 
 obedience, and at the same time award him the honours only 
 due to the faithful and the true. 
 
 But it is incorrect to say that nothing had been done under the 
 capitulation. Naples had been saved from that pillage and ruin 
 which a conflict would inevitably have caused. The republicans 
 in the city had given up the struggle which they were prepared to 
 prolong to the last extremity, and not only this, but many had 
 returned from the country and openly shown themselves on the 
 faith of the amnesty which had been proclaimed. 
 
 A few days before the capitulation, the garrison of the fortress 
 of Vigliena when pressed to the last, had set a match to the maga- 
 zine, and blew themselves, their assailants, and the fortress into 
 the sea. One of the garrison escaped by leaping into the sea 
 and making his way to Castelnuovo. The threat of imitating this 
 daring act by the defenders of Uovo and Nuovo, influenced very 
 much the cardinal to grant the capitulation. Botta does not 
 exaggerate when he says that by that step both Naples and the 
 castles were preserved. 21 Had Buffo not yielded the demands of 
 the republicans, Nelson would have found on his arrival the castles 
 reduced to shattered walls, and probably the greater part of 
 Naples a heap of ruins. 
 
 On the 18th of June, Captain Foote offered to the defenders of 
 the Castle of Uovo " an asylum under the flag of his sovereign ;" 2 
 the offer it is true was rejected, but on the 20th of June he signed, 
 as representing England, the capitulation, which guaranteed to 
 these unfortunate men a safe passage to Toulon and the conduct of 
 a British man-of-war. They had a right to believe, they did believe, 
 that the faith of England was pledged to the fulfilment of that con- 
 dition, and no disavowal by the Sicilian monarch of the act of his 
 vicar-general, could release England from the obligation. 
 
 But while it is impossible, on principles of international law, 
 to justify the act by which the capitulation was annulled, the 
 charge against Lord Nelson really is, that he took a mistaken 
 view of the position in which he was placed. " It was not 
 
 21 Botta, vol. iii. p. 433. 
 
 ** Letter of Captain Foote to the garrison of Castle tJovo, June 18. Foote't 
 Vindication, p. 159.
 
 438 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 only his opinion at the time that he acted correctly, but he 
 retained it to the end of his life, and if it be now thought that 
 he was mistaken and that he had no right to suspend the 
 capitulation, either on the ground that he arrived before its con- 
 ditions were executed, or because Cardinal Buffo had disobeyed 
 the king's orders, yet assuredly the error might have been com- 
 mitted without the slightest departure from those principles of 
 duty, patriotism, humanity, and honour, which distinguished his 
 whole previous career." 23 
 
 Neither is it necessary to resort to the supposition of female 
 influence to account for the course which he adopted. The crimes 
 of the French revolution had provoked in the minds of men, 
 attached to the cause of order, an intensity of hatred which in- 
 capacitated them from being dispassionate judges of any question 
 relating to its adherents. With Nelson, hatred of the French 
 revolutionists was a passion as strong as his loyalty or his devotion 
 to England, and but little of argument was needed to convince 
 him that he was justified in annulling a capitulation, which in his 
 eyes enabled traitors to cheat justice and insult the majesty of 
 their sovereign, by escaping the punishment which it was a duty 
 to mankind to inflict. The Jacobin was regarded by many 
 besides Lord Nelson by none perhaps with more earnestness as 
 the enemy of God and man. " The rebels came out of their castle 
 as they ought, and as I hope all those who are false to their king 
 and country will, to be hanged or otherwise disposed of as their 
 sovereign thought proper," was Lord Nelson's description of the 
 transaction. 24 It is difficult in our tranquil times to realise the 
 intensity of the Anti-Gallican and Anti- Jacobin feelings which the 
 horrors of the early days of the revolution had evoked. Sir 
 Samuel Bomilly tells us that he found that feeling an obstacle even 
 to his attempts to humanise the penal code. 
 
 Lady Hamilton, it is true, had her influence. With her hus- 
 band she accompanied Lord Nelson to Naples, and from their 
 representations, reflecting the vengeful vindictiveness of the court, 
 there can be little doubt that Nelson derived many of the impres- 
 sions which acted so powerfully on his judgment. Lady Hamilton 
 appears, in his interview with Buffo, conducting the argument for 
 
 23 Harris Nicolas, " Nelson Despatches," vol. iii. p. 498. 
 4 Letter of Lord Nelson, ante.
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT OF LORD NELSON. 439 
 
 cruelty. She was an eye-witness of the last struggles of the ill- 
 fated Caraccioli, as he was hanged from the yard-arm of the Sicilian 
 ship. 
 
 It must be remembered, that in all the transactions with the 
 Court of Naples, Lady Hamilton was the moving and directing 
 spirit. The queen and the wife of the British ambassador com- 
 pletely superseded their husbands in the management of state 
 affairs ; and the original plan of Nelson's expedition to Naples 
 was entirely arranged on communications made through Lady 
 Hamilton from the queen. 25 
 
 Unfortunate it may have been for Nelson at such a moment 
 to have given his confidence to an adviser who was influenced by 
 the malignant passions of the queen, or permitted his judgment 
 to be controlled by counsels, the secret motive of which was the 
 gratification of an almost fiendish thirst for vengeance. But 
 surely an impartial review of all the facts must lead to the con- 
 clusion that the very severest censure, which could with a shadow 
 of justice be passed upon the British hero, is immeasurably 
 removed from those imputations which represent him as deliber- 
 ately violating good faith to gratify the requests of an abandoned 
 woman. Artifice and misrepresentation may have succeeded in 
 warping his judgment ; his own strong political antipathies may 
 have blinded him to considerations which ought to have controlled 
 him ; his very unsuspecting and generous spirit may have made 
 him the more easily lend himself to the vindictiveness of the 
 court a sovereign driven from his throne made the most powerful 
 appeal to the chivalrous loyalty one driven by the French to the 
 passionate patriotism of Nelson's heart: 26 but no one would 
 have dared to propose to him designedly to violate the meanest 
 obligation of good faith. In the acts which in these unhappy 
 transactions have tarnished his fame, he most assuredly had 
 persuaded himself or suffered others to persuade him that he was 
 only exercising a right and a needful severity towards traitors to 
 their king. 
 
 The protest of Cardinal Euffo against the violation of the 
 
 15 Letter of Lady Hamilton to Lord Nelson, June 12. Harris Nicolas, Nelson 
 Despatches, vol. iii. p. 491. 
 
 26 How far Nelson was completely blinded to the real character of the 
 Sicilian court we may gather from expressions in two of his letters. 
 
 " I must beg leave," he says in his letter to Mr. Stephens already quoted,
 
 440 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 capitulation is not mentioned by Colletta, 57 yet that protest was 
 carried to an extent which proved the sincerity with which it was 
 made. He distinctly refused to permit his troops to join in any 
 new attack upon the forts, and threatened to withdraw his army 
 from Naples, and leave to the English the whole disgrace of 
 breaking the terms previously agreed on. He went personally on 
 board the flag-ship on the 24th to remonstrate with Lord Nelson, 
 and left it unconvinced even by the eloquence of Lady Hamilton. 
 His obstinate adherence to his engagement drew upon him the 
 personal rebuke of the sovereign, and a peremptory order of 
 Ferdinand removed him from Naples, under pretence of attending 
 on the king. 28 On the 28th of June he was conveyed to Palermo 
 in one of the ships of the British squadron, and on the same 
 evening Captain Foote was ordered to take the "Sea Horse" to 
 
 " to warn you to be very careful how you mention the characters of such 
 excellent sovereigns as the king and queen of Naples." 
 
 In a letter to Lady Hamilton, written a short time before the unfortunate 
 transactions at Naples, he eays of the queen " I declare to God my whole 
 study is how best to meet her approbation." Southey's Life of Nelson. 
 
 27 When Colletta's history'was written, the life of Cardinal Ruffo, in -which the 
 documents connected with that protest were first given to the world, had not 
 been published. The cardinal thus bore all the odium of being an assenting 
 party to the cruelties of the court, except so far as he was relieved by the 
 statement of his first dispute with Nelson, published in the Vindication of 
 Captain Foote. The contemporaneous accounts were all written in ignorance 
 of this, the most remarkable and most important incident in the transactions. 
 
 28 In the " Life and Correspondence of the Right Hon. George Rose," some 
 letters are published which were sent to Sir G., then Mr. Rose, by Lady 
 Hamilton, with a view of supporting the claims which she made upon the 
 British government. The following explains the part taken by the Sicilian 
 court: 
 
 GENERAL ACTON TO THE DUKE OF SOLANDRA. 
 
 "Pato-mo, 27th June, 1799. 
 
 " YOUR EXCELLENCY, The king having decided that Cardinal Ruffo should 
 be conducted here by one of the men-of-war, to be chosen for this purpose 
 by the admiral of the British squadron, Lord Nelson has designed to com- 
 mand that your excellency, in concert with General Gamba, if this latter be 
 not occupied or prevented, and Colonel Baron Tschudy, be charged to execute 
 the said removal, with all the caution that circumstances demand, and to 
 consign the above-mentioned admiral, to whom his majesty has already given 
 the corresponding orders, that the same should be embarked and removed 
 here. In the royal name, I urge upon your excellency the prompt and exact 
 accomplishment of this desire. " JOHN ACTON."
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT OF LORD NELSON. 441 
 
 wait upon his Majesty's commands. 29 Probably Captain Foote's 
 vessel was the one which conveyed the cardinal away. 
 
 It is not very easy to trace through conflicting accounts the 
 accurate course of these events. All must be tested by a reference 
 to documents. Colletta states positively that when the news of 
 the capitulation reached Palermo, the fleet of Lord Nelson had 
 already sailed : that the queen sent for Lady Hamilton and 
 induced her to embark with Sir "William on board a fast-sailing 
 corvette, which overtook the " Foudroyant " at daybreak on the 
 24th as it was entering the Bay of Naples. Sir Harris Nicolas 
 quotes from the diary of Miss Knight, a lady then forming part 
 of the household of the Queen of Naples, an extract which proves 
 
 GENERAL AOTON TO CARDINAL RUFFO. 
 
 "Palermo, June 27th, 1799. 
 
 " YOUR EMINENCE, The king, finding it indispensable for his royal service 
 that your excellency should repair instantly to this capital, that his majesty 
 may be minutely informed by you of every event that has happened, to 
 enable his majesty to make important provisions for the good government of 
 the affairs of this city and kingdom ; has, therefore, resolved and commanded, 
 that you should immediately embark: on board one of the men-of-war that 
 shall be selected for this purpose by the admiral of the British squadron, 
 Lord Nelson ; and be conveyed immediately here for the above-mentioned 
 object : his majesty having already given to the aforesaid English admiral 
 his royal commands concerning the persons who, during your eminence's 
 absence, will assume the military command and regulate all civil affairs. 
 
 " In the royal name I command speedy obedience, the corresponding orders 
 being already given to the above-mentioned admiral. 
 
 " Your Eminence, 
 
 "JOHN ACTON." 
 
 FROM HIS MAJESTY THE KING TO CARDINAL RDJTO. 
 
 " Palermo, June Wth, 1799. 
 
 " I have heard with inexpressible consolation of the arrival after dinner of 
 my frigate from Naples, and also of the happy arrival there of the very 
 worthy and faithful admiral, Lord Nelson. I have read the declaration which 
 he, in the form of observations, has despatched to you, which could not be 
 more wise, reasonable, and adapted to the end, and truly evangelical. 
 
 " I do not doubt that you immediately conformed to it, and acted hi con- 
 sequence on his advice. Otherwise that which would be is impossible, after 
 the many proofs of fidelity and attachment given me in the past. 
 " May the Lord preserve you, as with all my heart I desire. 
 
 " FERDINANDO R." 
 
 (The original is in the king's own handwriting.) 
 Order of Lord Nelson, Juno 28. Foote't Vindication, p. 42.
 
 442 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 that on the 20th of June, Sir "William, Lady Hamilton, and Lord 
 Nelson, left Palermo together for Naples. 30 The latter is therefore 
 the account adopted in the text. 31 
 
 It would not be right to close this note without a reference to 
 a publication which has recently appeared in Paris, in which a 
 totally different view of all these transactions is attempted to 
 be sustained. 32 
 
 In the view of this writer, Lord Nelson alone is responsible 
 for annulling the capitulation. Cardinal Buffo, so far from 
 disobeying the orders, truly represented the feeling of his court. 
 But it suited the purposes of England to wage a war of exter- 
 mination against French Jacobinism, and Nelson carried out his 
 country's policy in defiance of the merciful intentions of Ferdi- 
 nand and Caroline. 
 
 30 Harris Nicolas, " Nelson Despatches," vol. iii. p. 491. 
 
 31 The story of the queen having sent Lady Hamilton to overtake the fleet 
 of Lord Nelson, has been so frequently and so positively stated, that it is 
 difficult to believe it entirely without foundation. 
 
 The following extracts are printed by Sir H. Nicolas from Miss Knight's 
 journal. It cannot be supposed that they untruly represented what occurred. 
 
 "June 16th, 1799. 
 
 41 Dined at Sir William Hamilton's. In the afternoon went with them and 
 Lord Nelson on board the ' Foudroyant,' where Lord Nelson has hoisted his 
 flag, a fine eighty-gun ship. Went on board the ' Serapis/ Captain Duncan, a 
 forty-four gun-ship, and afterwards dined at Sir William Hamilton's. The 
 fleet is to sail to-morrow morning early for Naples, and the hereditary Prince, 
 with Duke Gravena and General Acton, goes on board the Admiral's ship, as 
 do Sir William and Lady Hamilton, with a commission from the king. Cardinal 
 Ruffo, with his army, will be at Naples by the time the fleet arrives, and it 
 appears certain that the Castle of St. Elmo will capitulate as soon as the fleet 
 is seen." 
 
 New intelligence as to the movements of the French fleet altered this 
 arrangement. On the 21st, Miss Knight writes in her diary : 
 
 " Lord Nelson came in his barge, the ' Foudroyant' and ' Earl St. Vincent ' 
 cutter lying off . . . Met Lord Nelson and Sir William and Lady Hamilton at 
 dinner on board the ' Serapis,' Captain Duncan, and at five they all embarked 
 for Naples whither the fleet goes." 
 
 Lord Nelson certainly received the intelligence of the capitulation on his 
 passage from Palermo to Naples. The statements are all reconciled by 
 believing that Lady Hamilton left Palermo with Lord Nelson that the queen 
 did send a fast sailing corvette to overtake the fleet, and that her letters to 
 Lady Hamilton overtook her on board. 
 
 32 Baron Hervey St. Denys, Histoire de la revolution dans les deux Sicilep, 
 depuis 1793. Paris 1856.
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT OF LORD NELSON. 413 
 
 Letters are published in this volume as having passed on the 
 26th, which, so far from implicating Lord Nelson in the graver 
 accusation of having annulled the capitulation after its execution, 
 directly acquit him of that charge. 33 
 
 On the report by Cardinal Kuffo to the Turkish and Russian 
 commanders, a protest was formally drawn up and signed by the 
 three, in which they stated their determination to carry the terms 
 of the capitulation into effect in spite of any opposition of the 
 British admiral. 
 
 This was followed by a negotiation, which resulted in the 
 following letter from Sir "William Hamilton to Cardinal Kuffo. 34 
 
 ' ' EMINENCE, "June 26th, 1799. 
 
 " My Lord Nelson begs me to assure you that he is resolved to 
 do nothing to break the armistice which your Eminence has 
 granted to the Castles of Naples. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, 
 
 " WM. HAMILTON." 
 
 This letter was brought by Captains Trowbridge and Ball, and 
 a written memorandum was handed to Ruffo by the former. 
 
 " I, Captain Trowbridge, have authority to deckre, on the part 
 
 33 In Sir Harris Nicolas's " Nelson Despatches," vol. iii. p. 395, a letter is 
 printed without a date, but which was plainly written on the evening of the 
 26th, from Lord Nelson to Cardinal Ruffo, which probably completes all 
 the documentary evidence which can now throw light on the transaction : 
 
 " Sir, I am just honoured with your Eminence's letter, and as his 
 Excellency Sir William Hamilton wrote to you this morning, that I will not 
 on any account break the armistice entered into by you, I hope your Eminence 
 will be satisfied that I am supporting your ideas; I send once more Captains 
 Trowbridge and Ball to arrange with your Eminence everything relative to an 
 attack on St. Elmo, whenever your army and cannon are ready to proceed 
 against it. I will land 1200 men to proceed against it under the present 
 armistice. I have only to rejoice that his Britannic Majesty's fleet is here to 
 secure the city of Naples from all attacks by sea. 
 
 " I am, &c., 
 
 " NELSON." 
 
 34 These documents are taken from a life of Cardinal Ruffo, published by 
 Sacchinelli at Naples, in 1836. 
 
 " Sacchinelli, Vita del Cardinale Ruffo. Memorie Storiche sulla Vita del 
 Cardinale Fabrizio Ruffo. Scritti dall al Domenico Sacchinelli giu eegretario
 
 444 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 of Lord Nelson, to his Eminence, that he will not oppose the 
 embarkation of the rebels and the people -who compose the 
 garrisons of the castle." 
 
 But this document Captain Trowbridge refused to sign, on the 
 ground that he was only authorised to treat of military and not of 
 diplomatic affairs. 35 
 
 The baron goes on to state, that on the faith of those letters 
 the garrisons of the castles embarked on that evening, and the 
 castles were surrendered ; but soon after, Euffo heard with 
 amazement that the members of the directory who had thus left 
 the Castle of TJovo, were carried prisoners on board the vessels of 
 the English fleet. It is also asserted that Lord Nelson, in conse- 
 quence of his remonstrances, placed Captain Foote under arrest. 
 The latter assertion is certainly unfounded. The statement that 
 
 de quel Porporato con osservazione sulle opere di Coco, di Botta, edi Colletta. 
 Napoli, 1836. 
 
 In an appendix to this life they are all set out as fac-similes of the originals 
 with elaborate typography. No one denies their, genuineness. 
 
 The protest of Ruffo find the Russian and Turkish commanders declared : 
 
 " That the capitulation of the castles of Naples was useful, necessary, and 
 honourable for his Majesty the King of the Two Sicilies, and his allies, the 
 King of Great Britain, the Emperor of Russia, and the Sublime Porte, that 
 this treaty had terminated without shedding of blood, or domestic and foreign 
 war that it facilitated the expulsion of the republican armies that having 
 been solemnly guaranteed by the high powers already mentioned, it would be 
 an outrage upon public faith, either to suspend its execution or to violate it. 
 In begging of Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson to recognise the capitulation, they 
 declared themselves perfectly determined to execute it in all its parts ; and 
 that whoever would interfere with this must answer for it before God and 
 man." Sacchinellis Life of Cardinal Ruffo; Baron Hervey St. Denys' Nea- 
 politan Revolutions. 
 
 This protest was ineffectual, and Cardinal Ruffo then wrote to Lord Nelson 
 that, " if the British admiral would not recognise the capitulation of the 
 castles, which bore the name of a British naval officer, the British govern- 
 ment must bear all the responsibility, that in his capacity of Vicar-General of 
 Naples, rather than consent to an act of bad faith, without example in the 
 history of nations, he was firmly resolved to place everything in the position 
 which it occupied before the treaty that consequently he was about to with- 
 draw his troops from the city, and leave the English free to act with their 
 own proper forces." Ibid. 
 
 It was this that elicited the mission of Captains Trowbridge and Ball, the 
 letter of Sir William Hamilton, and finally that from Nelson himself. 
 K Life of Cardinal Ruffo. * Baron Hervey St. Denys.
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT OF LORD NELSON. 445 
 
 the garrisons finally left the castles on the faith of the capitula- 
 tion, is positively contradicted by the account contained in the 
 despatches of Lord Nelson. 37 The letters published in Sir George 
 Rose's Memoirs are conclusive evidence that in opposing the acts 
 of Lord Nelson, Cardinal Buffo was certainly not carrying out 
 the intentions of the king. 
 
 The letters of the 26th supply the evidence of what took 
 place on that day. An armistice, it will be remembered, had been 
 entered into, to last until the capitulation should be executed. 
 Nelson agreed to observe the armistice, but refused to recognise 
 the capitulation until it should receive the king's ratification. 
 This is plain, not only on the very terms of Sir William Hamilton's 
 letter, but still more from the language of Captain Trowbridge, 
 that he was authorised to treat only on military, and not on diplo- 
 matic matters. 
 
 Lord Nelson permitted, it is true, the embarkation of the 
 troops, but under his own distinct declaration, conveyed to them 
 the previous evening, that if they left the castles, they did so 
 unconditionally submitting to the king; and Colletta tells us, 
 that contrary to the terms of the capitulation, they embarked 
 without any of the honours of war. That he never assented 
 to their embarking for Toulon, is evident from the very fact 
 that they did not sail there, but were detained in the polacres 
 moored under the guns of the fleet. 
 
 Everything then waited the decision of the king ; that decision 
 arrived on the 28th. It annulled the capitulation, and virtually 
 ordered Cardinal Buffo into custody if he any longer opposed the 
 measures of the king. Then it was that Nelson published the 
 king's ordinance, and proceeded to deal with the prisoners as 
 traitors given up to the justice of their sovereign, and in that pro- 
 ceeding it would appear that the Turkish and Bussian com- 
 manders at least silently acquiesced. 
 
 In judging then of Lord Nelson's conduct, these are the facts 
 upon which an opinion must be formed. On coming into the 
 Bay of Naples, he found a capitulation effected with the republicans 
 or " rebels," as he styled them, of which he disapproved. It had 
 been solemnly signed by the vicar-general of the Sicilian king ; 
 by the commanders of all the allied forces, and among them, by 
 
 # Letter to Mr. Stephens. Nicolas, ill 521, ante.
 
 446 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 the British officer in command. Virtually agreed on for several 
 days, it had been signed for more than thirty-six hours, and 
 accident alone prevented all its stipulations from being already 
 executed; but though every preparation had been made, nothing had 
 been actually done to carry them into effect beyond the cessation 
 of hostilities which the armistice in itself accomplished, and Nelson 
 had at least an excuse for saying that it was still regarded as 
 incomplete, because when he entered the bay a flag of truce was 
 still flying both from the castles and the men-of-war. This denoted 
 the suspension of hostilities, not their final termination. The 
 armistice was in fact to last until the capitulation should be com- 
 plete. Instantly on arriving in the bay, Lord Nelson adopted the 
 view that the capitulation could not be valid without the ratification 
 of the king. He desired Cardinal Ruffo to apprise the republicans 
 who still had possession of the castles, that he could not suffer 
 its terms to be fulfilled. Prom this view he never wavered, and 
 referring the question to the king, he acted on the king's orders, 
 when his decision arrived refusing to be bound by it. 
 
 In the interim, it is true that, pressed by the strong protest of 
 Buffo, of the Turkish and of the Eussian commanders, he permitted 
 them to carry the terms of the capitulation into effect so far as the 
 embarkation of the garrisons. But he did so after having dis- 
 tinctly stated that they must be considered as placing themselves 
 unreservedly at the disposal of the king. 
 
 In adopting the opinion that nothing had been actually done at 
 the period of Lord Nelson's arrival to carry the capitulation into 
 effect, that alternative is selected to which the facts all seem to 
 lead. Those punctually acquainted with the investigation of fact 
 know well the fallibility of human testimony, and how dangerous 
 it is to rely upon mere general statements made from memory, 
 especially when there is no opportunity of sifting even the recol- 
 lection of the person who makes them. A written contempora- 
 neous document is often, in reconciling the conflicts of evidence, 
 worth all the oral testimony that can be given by those who 
 speak only from memory. 
 
 The written documents place it perfectly beyond doubt that the 
 castles were not occupied by the allied troops until the 26th. 
 This cardinal fact is in effect decisive of the whole question. But 
 there is in addition the contemporaneous statement of Lord 
 Nelson himself, the petition of the prisoners, and the letter of
 
 NOTE.] CONDUCT ON LORD NELSON. 447 
 
 Captain Foote, written on the morning of the 24th, all irresistibly 
 leading to the conclusion that nothing had really been done when 
 the British squadron entered the bay. 
 
 Against this there are, no doubt, the statements of Colletta and 
 Pepe, open to the observations already made, still more open to 
 the comment that, evidently writing in entire ignorance of the pro- 
 test of Kuffo and the consequent struggle between the cardinal and 
 Lord Nelson, they were in fact unacquainted with the most essen- 
 tial part of the transaction. 
 
 Colletta is proved beyond all doubt to be mistaken in alleging 
 that the surrender of the castles took place before the arrival of 
 Lord Nelson's fleet. This mistake deprives his testimony upon 
 the other point of all weight. 
 
 Captain Foote's statement that " some parts of the agreement 
 had been performed," is very unsatisfactory and vague, especially 
 when we compare it with his own account of his interview with 
 Lord Nelson, and with the written statement which he handed to 
 the admiral on his arrival. It does not tell us what parts were 
 so performed, and the probability is that the statement refers to 
 something that occurred relating to the hostages, a matter which 
 rests in great obscurity. Indeed, had the embarkation partially 
 taken place, it is impossible to suppose that the fact would not 
 have been clearly stated by Captain Foote. 
 
 It must, however, be said that there is a general belief among the 
 families of many of the Neapolitan patriots, that several of them 
 had embarked before Lord Nelson's arrival, and the names of 
 some have been mentioned with regard to whom it is alleged that 
 documentary evidence can be adduced to that effect. 
 
 Neither must we omit that a statement to the same effect has 
 been made by a British traveller, who accompanied the fleet of 
 Lord Nelson from Sicily to Naples, and who takes upon himself 
 to say, that when that fleet entered the bay " the garrisons were 
 embarked, and ready to sail for Toulon." 3S The book, however, in 
 
 33 The Neapolitan patriots, unwilling to trust to the faith of their own 
 government, had all determined to emigrate, and were actually embarked and 
 ready to sail to Toulon, when unhappily Lord Nelson made his appearance in 
 the bay in consequence of the French fleet having returned to France. He 
 had brought with him the British ambassador, Sir W. Hamilton, and his far- 
 famed beautiful and fascinating lady, the favourite of the Hero of the Nile ! 
 When this trio beheld from the deck of their ship, the white flags flying on 
 the walls of the castles, they were horror-struck ; and their dismay was greatly
 
 448 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 which Mr. Pryse Lockhart Gordon makes this statement was not 
 written until 1830, thirty-one years after the transaction, and it 
 was perfectly possible for a young man to have been on board one 
 of the vessels of the fleet, and actually know nothing of the real 
 state of affairs. 
 
 .All this is consistent with the statement adopted in the text, 
 that after the appearance of the fleet in the bay in the morning, 
 and between that hour and the anchoring of the vessels in the 
 afternoon, the Cardinal Buffo and the Bussian commander should 
 have made some of the garrison go on board the vessels, which 
 Captain Foote's letter shows, were in readiness on the morning 
 of the 24th. Lord Nelson's signal was made to Captain Poote 
 that he annulled the armistice ; but this could not prevent Buffo 
 or Micheroux from proceeding as they pleased. It would appear 
 very probable that they should hurry the partial execution of 
 the capitulation, and Buffo took the opportunity of securing the 
 safety of some of the hostages and prisoners in the hands of the 
 garrison, his anxiety for whom is said to have been the cause of his 
 granting terms to the rebels. 
 
 This statement does not conflict with the documentary evidence 
 which, it must be said, establishes beyond doubt that when Lord 
 Nelson made the signal to annul the armistice, the terms of the 
 
 augmented when they found that the patriots had obtained honourable terms. 
 The admiral gave immediate orders to disarm the rebels and traitors as he 
 designated them, and to put them on board feluccas hired for the purpose, 
 and moored at the sterns of the ships of war in the bay ; a certain number of 
 the officers (alias ring-leaders) being ordered into close confinement under 
 charge of the captains, who on this occasion became their jailers. 
 
 " It was in vain that these gallant men remonstrated against such a mon- 
 strous breach of faith. ' Give them back, my lord, their castles and their 
 arms,' said the brave Trowbridge, ' if the treaty must be broke, and let them 
 live or die in their defence.' But this language did not accord with his lord- 
 ship's feelings : the captains were informed that he had summoned them ' to 
 obey, not to advise ; ' and 472 persons, comprehending men of high rank and 
 talent, were confined for several months in their floating prisons, suffering 
 every privation, exposed to the influence of a burning sun in the dog-days, 
 half-starved on a short allowance, forbidden all communication with their 
 families and friends, and daily insulted by a hired lazzaroni, sent by their 
 barbarous enemies for this purpose. Finally, these unfortunate patriots were 
 delivered over to the Junta, who transported them into the dungeons and 
 caves of the Lipari and other islands, from whence but few issued alive." 
 Gordon's Personal Reminiscences, vol. ii. p. 341.
 
 CONDUCT OP LORD NELSON. 449 
 
 capitulation had not been executed, and that the surrender of the 
 castles did not take place for two days more, and that they were 
 given up after Lord Nelson's positive announcement that the 
 terras of the capitulation could not be observed unless they 
 received the sanction of the king. 
 
 With reference to this announcement there is one, and only 
 one part of the transaction upon which the evidence does not 
 throw full light. It has already been observed that it is just 
 possible that some soldiers of the garrison may have embarked 
 under the belief that the terms of the capitulation were to be 
 observed. This supposition derives some countenance from 
 the frequency of the complaints of bad faith. "We have no- 
 where a distinct account of the manner in which Lord Nelson's 
 determination was conveyed to the castles. Nelson's letter 
 to Admiral Duckworth contains the statement that "Trow- 
 bridge and Ball are gone to the cardinal for him to read my 
 declaration to the French and rebels." ; This, however, was 
 followed by the protest of Buffo and the other two commanders, 
 and by Nelson's statement that he would not oppose the embarka- 
 tion taking place. Of what passed with the castles we have no 
 certain account. In another letter Nelson states, " on his (Cardinal 
 Buffo's) refusal, to send in a joint declaration to the French and 
 rebels, I sent in my note, and on which the rebels came out of 
 the castles." 40 
 
 Cardinal Buffo's refusal to send in a joint declaration was before 
 the drawing up of Lord Nelson's proclamation, which was sent by 
 Captains Trowbridge and Ball to the cardinal that he might read it 
 to the rebels ; and Nelson's statement just leaves room for the 
 possibility that it was left to Cardinal Buffo to carry the message, 
 and that he permitted the troops to embark without doing so. 
 That Lord Nelson believed the garrisons had full notice of his 
 determination is plain, and if they had not, the blame would 
 rest with those who undertook the execution of the embarkation, 
 and not with the British admiral. It is, however, exceedingly 
 improbable that the garrisons in the forts could for days have 
 remained ignorant of the opposition offered by Nelson, which 
 for the space of two whole days prevented the execution of the 
 
 a> Letter to Admiral Duckworth. Nicdat, vol. iii. p. 387, ante. 
 Letter to Mr. Davisoc, May 9th, 1800. Nicolat, vol. iii. p. 610. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 450 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. r. 
 
 capitulation. The improbability is increased by the fact upon 
 which Pepe can hardly be mistaken, although he may be as to 
 the time, that whenever the embarkation took place, the troops 
 were driven on board the polacres by the Russians, and without 
 the honours of war. 41 This is almost decisive proof that they were 
 apprised of the altered state of affairs. 
 
 These observations are not intended to justify the breach of the 
 capitulation. If Grotius correctly states the law of nations, that 
 capitulation was beyond the power of any one to annul, but it 
 needs no reference to this law to tell that it was one which ought 
 to have been respected. That Nelson permitted his devotion to 
 the Neapolitan court, his hatred of revolutionary principles, or the 
 influence of evil counsels, or alLcombined, to lead him to a contrary 
 conclusion, is a fact which every admirer of his character must 
 lament the more so as it made him a party to acts of vengeance 
 which under any circumstances inflict upon their perpetrators 
 everlasting disgrace. It is not necessary, nor is it just, to add to 
 this the imputation of any personal breach of faith. The charge 
 against Nelson is that he repudiated, or enabled the Sicilian court 
 to repudiate, the terms granted to the republicans by their officers. 
 
 41 The fact is distinctly stated in Lord Nelson's letter to Mr. Stephens 
 "When the rebels surrendered they came out of the castles as they ought, 
 without any honours of war," (see note 2), yet strange to say, in the memorial 
 to Lord Nelson from the prisoners already cited, it is alleged that " the 
 troops of his Majesty the Emperor of all the Ilussias attended the march 
 of the garrison, with the honours of war, out of the forts on the side of the 
 arsenal of the marine, where they grounded their arms, and embarked in 
 fourteen transports to be conveyed to Toulon." 
 
 This they positively stat e occurred after the arrival of the British fleet 
 Compare this with Pepe's account that on the evening 'before the arrived of 
 Lord Nelson, the patriots began to evacuate the different castles, not as had 
 been agreed upon, with the honours of war, but shamefully driven before 
 the Russian soldiers until they reached the vessels destined to bear them 
 thence." 
 
 So difficult is it to extract the facts of history even from contemporaneous 
 accounts. 
 
 The language of the memorial is peculiar : " the Russian troops attended 
 the garrisons with all the honours of war." We may perhaps conjecture the 
 truth to be that something occurred which was very different from a garrison 
 marching out with the honours of war, with " drums beating and colours 
 flying," but which the unfortunate " rebels " or " patriots " interpreted as its 
 equivalent
 
 NOTE.] NEAPOLITAN CRUELTIES. 451 
 
 Lord Nelson's reply is that such terms it was beyond the power 
 of these officers to grant, and that he arrived just in time to annul 
 them without any breach of faith. Whether in this he formed a 
 right judgment is the question upon which history must pro- 
 nounce. 
 
 For the execution of Caraccioli, Nelson unhappily made himself 
 responsible, but it would not be fair to charge his memory with all 
 the acts of vengeance in which the court of Naples revelled under 
 shelter of his power. But however men must reject the terrible 
 judgment which has been far too severely passed upon his acts, 
 every impartial reader, especially when we remember the cruelties 
 that followed, will feel that the memory of the British hero would 
 have been more free from blame had no seductions of passion, of 
 influence, or friendship prevailed on him to become the instrument 
 of the vengeance of a blood-thirsty court ; had he declared that a 
 compact of mercy, once signed by a British officer, was sacred, and 
 that no power on earth should drag to the dungeon or the scaffold 
 the miserable wretches who had once been promised the protec- 
 tion of the British flag. 
 
 The page that records these transactions is one that every lover 
 of the glory of England would wish to see blotted from the annals 
 of the times. 
 
 II. CEUELTIES OF THE NEAPOLITAN GOVEBNMENT. 
 
 THE cruelties committed by the government of Ferdinand on 
 his restoration in 1799, will ever remain an indelible stain upon 
 the Bourbon dynasty. They appear, indeed, to have established 
 a system of government in that realm, such as exists in no other 
 country on the face of the globe, which has been continued with 
 occasional suspensions down to our own days. 
 
 When we read of 30,000 persons imprisoned and waiting 
 for trial for political offences, and of 4000 falling victims to the 
 judicial vengeance of a restored king, the first impulse is to treat 
 the statement as a gross exaggeration. Nevertheless, a careful 
 examination of the authorities supplies evidence that compels 
 belief. 
 
 Pepe, Colletta, and Botta supply ample records of these horrors. 
 
 o o 2
 
 452 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 All contemporaneous and incidental accounts confirm in the 
 details all their leading characteristics. Pepe was in Naples at 
 the time, but was from the 14th a prisoner enduring many of the 
 horrors he describes. Charles Paya, in his work on Naples, pub- 
 lished in Paris, in 1857, has collected some valuable information, 
 and in the history of Count Orloff more will be found. The dismal 
 story rests on the testimony of more than one eye-witness. The 
 narrative of one of these, Yicenzo Coco, has never been impeached, 
 and is that to which most frequent reference has been made. 
 
 Pepe was a young man of sixteen years of age. His youth and 
 the influence of his family obtained for him a commutation of his 
 punishment to perpetual exile. Previously he endured the misery 
 of a prolonged imprisonment in the public granaries, and on board 
 a corvette, under the cannon of the British fleet. 
 
 "The first day of our imprisonment," he says, "passed without 
 our receiving any kind of nourishment, and we were dreadfully 
 tormented by hunger and thirst. The officers on guard assured 
 us that our sufferings were an inevitable result of the confusion 
 produced by having upwards of 20,000 prisoners in the granary. 
 
 " It was not before the morning of the third day that they began 
 to distribute to us a certain quantity of bread and water. I still 
 recollect the eagerness with which I swallowed the water given to 
 me, until want of breath compelled me to desist." l 
 
 For twenty-two days these wretched prisoners were compelled 
 to lie half naked on the bare ground, subsisting on a scanty allow- 
 ance of bread and water. Nor was their condition ameliorated by 
 their removal on board a corvette, where they lay without covering 
 on the boards. 
 
 Summoned before the inhuman Speciale, the young republican 
 was complimented by his judge, with the decorous commentary on 
 his unshaven beard and tattered garments, " Why you look like 
 a brute." Provoked by some tart reply, the judge raised his ink- 
 stand to throw it at his head. On reflection, however, he con- 
 tented himself with telling him with savage glee, "Do you suppose 
 you are too young to be hanged ? Mind we don't have you in a 
 noose." 2 After a miserable imprisonment, which lasted from 
 June to December, in a gloomy dungeon, where he was chained 
 with common malefactors, Pepe was conveyed, under a sentence of 
 
 1 Pepe's Memoirs, English translation, vol. i. p. 97. 
 * Ibid, 111 ; note 3, ibid. 116.
 
 NOTE.] NEAPOLITAN CRUELTIES. 453 
 
 perpetual exile, to Marseilles a sentence which he shared with 
 4000 of his patriot associates. 3 
 
 "The list of proscriptions," writes Colletta, "arrived from 
 Palermo which had been there compiled by the Queen after con- 
 sulting old registers, and upon information supplied by spies 
 employed during and since the republic." 
 
 " Thirty thousand Neapolitans were undergoing imprisonment 
 in the city alone, and as the old prisons were not sufficiently 
 spacious to contain so many persons, the subterranean vaults of 
 the castles, and other unhealthy cells were used for the purpose. 
 To add to their sufferings, they were denied the usual conveniences 
 of life a bed, chair, light, and eating or drinking materials." 4 
 
 The worst horrors of imprisonment were in the dungeons of 
 the island of Favignano, alluded to in the text. 
 
 " This island in the seas of Sicily, the -<Egusa of the Latins, and 
 in that time a prison notorious through the decrees of the Roman 
 tyrants, rises from the sea to a great height in the shape of a cone, 
 on whose summit a castle has been built. "Within the castle 
 there is a descent by steps cut the whole depth of the rock, until 
 it reaches an artificial grotto, which well deserves its name of the 
 fossa or pit. Here the sun's rays never penetrate, and the cold is 
 piercing, while only a dim light pervades the dense moisture which 
 hangs in the atmosphere; it is inhabited by noxious animals, 
 while man, however young and robust, soon dies there. This 
 was the apartment assigned to nine of the prisoners, among whom 
 the most noted were the Prince of Torella, who was an invalid, 
 
 s Colletta, vol. i. English translation, p. 379. 
 
 * Ibid, p. 379. Poerio, a name illustrious in the annals of Neapolitan 
 martyrdom. " The advocate Poerio " was one of those who left the Castle of 
 Uovo, trusting, as his relatives still declare, to the faith of the capitulation. His 
 life was sustained in his imprisonment by a laundress, who continued secretly 
 to convey sustenance, especially wine, to the dungeon in which he was confined. 
 His life was thus preserved. Restored to his liberty by the Treaty of 1801 
 (ante, vol. L p. 343), he occupied a distinguished position in Naples, under the 
 government of Murat, by whom he was created a baron. He was a second 
 time exiled after the revolution of 1820, but again returned to Naples, where 
 he died in 1843. 
 
 His eldest son, Alexander, a volunteer in the patriotic armies of Venice, 
 was killed in a conflict with the Austrians on the 27th of October, 1848. 
 
 His second son, the Baron Carlo, was one of the prisoners whom the English 
 nation two years ago welcomed on their escape from the Neapolitan dungeons 
 to the British shores.
 
 454 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 and in advanced life ; the Marquis Corleto, of the house of Riari ; 
 the "advocate Poerio ; and the cavaliere Abbamonti." 
 
 Botta thus sums up in a few sentences the terrible result : 
 
 " Great was the slaughter in the capital, as well by the tribu- 
 nals as by the popular rage. Nor was it less in the provinces ; 
 there perished in a manner always violent, often cruel, not less 
 than 4000 persons, almost all eminent for their distinguished 
 learning or their lineage, or their virtue a horrible massacre." 
 
 But the story does not rest on the testimony of Neapolitan 
 writers, however trustworthy. 
 
 The Abbe Montgaillard, a royalist and an emigre, thus describes 
 the scenes that followed the publication of the royal edicts. 
 
 " Immediately commenced innumerable judicial cruelties. The 
 most vivid pencil could not draw the picture of these horrible 
 massacres and atrocious vengeance. Dignity, age, or sex, gave 
 no security. They seized on all ranks, and those of the suspected 
 who were spared by the executioners of the minister Acton, and 
 escaped from the assassins of Cardinal Ruffo, were plunged into 
 the dungeons of Lipari. During many weeks blood flowed in 
 streams before the eyes of a prince free from passion, popular, 
 and gifted with natural goodness, but whether it was that these 
 multiplied executions wounded his sight, or that his advisers 
 represented them to him as just and necessary punishments in 
 the full development of which his presence would interfere, he 
 hastened to return to Palermo." 
 
 " Horrible year of 1799, which will for ever blast the names of 
 the queen, Maria Caroline, of her minister, the adventurer Acton, 
 and Admiral Nelson. The Neapob'tans for centuries will speak 
 of this famous year 1799, when they wish to refer to an execrable 
 epoch. There were put to death almost all who had made them- 
 selves remarkable by nobility of character, by bravery, by the 
 virtues of goodness or amiability, by the brilliancy of their talent. 
 The persons suspected of disaffection to the government were 
 mercilessly sacrificed. For a long time still the prisons will give 
 up innocent persons, and in the name of principles opposed to the 
 French revolution, the atrocities were reproduced at Naples with 
 which France was stained during the reign of terror. The 
 Neapolitan atrocities are the more execrable." 
 
 & L'Abta Montgaillard. ffittoire de France, torn. v. pp. 218229.
 
 NOTE.] NEAPOLITAN CRUELTIES. 455 
 
 A French general who published an account of these transactions 
 in 1803, under the title of B. N., an eye-witness, describes the 
 Lazzaroni and the soldiers of Ruffb's army as commencing imme- 
 diately indiscriminate domiciliary visits, dragging the inmates of the 
 houses of both sexes prisoners to the boats of the English fleet, 
 by whom they were conveyed to the isle of Procida. "When the 
 junta attempted to stop their violence by forbidding arbitrary 
 arrests, "the 8th and 9th of July were celebrated by horrors from 
 the recital of which my pen shrinks. Having lighted a great fire 
 before the royal palace, they burned in the flames seven miserable 
 beings whom they had just arrested. They carried their savage 
 barbarity so far as to eat their quivering flesh. The arch-priest 
 Einaldi boasted of having taken part in this infamous banquet." 6 
 
 By the junta all persons who had held office under the republic, 
 were condemned to death without any form of judicial trial. 
 " The commander Massa, Janvier Serra, the prince of Strongoli, 
 Julien Colonna, and others whom it would be too tedious to 
 enumerate, met their death in the castle of Euf with courage and 
 intrepidity. The two monks, Belloni and Pistici, were hanged 
 near to the Vicaria." 
 
 The junta of state could not agree on the punishment to be 
 inflicted on the members of the legislative body. Some were of 
 opinion that they ought all to be condemned to death : others 
 thought the punishment ought to be proportioned to the guilt of 
 each, and this opinion supported by Antonio La Rossa prevailed 
 in spite of all the ministers. 
 
 They commenced with Cirillo the President he was conducted 
 into their presence for the purpose of being interrogated. Firm in 
 his opinions, and sustained by the pride with which his reputation 
 inspired him, he appeared calm and serene before his judges. 
 In reply to the questions of his name and profession, he 
 answered, "my name is Domiuico Cirillo, under the despotism 
 
 6 These atrocities are mentioned by all writers. They were referred to in 
 the speech of Mr. Fox in the House of Commons. An!e, p. 342, note 17. 
 
 They are described by Count Orloff: 
 
 " II n'y avait plus dans cette grand cite* quo deux classes d'habitans, des 
 bourreaux et des victiines. Ceux-ci etaieut dechire's en lambeaux par uno 
 foule de cannibales qui devoraient leur chairs palpitante?. D'autres apros 
 avoir e'te' traine's dans les rues, etaient jetes, ou morts ou mourants, dans los 
 buches allume's sur les places publiques." Lc Comte Orlof, M&moin Histo- 
 riquts sur la Royawne de Naples.
 
 456 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 I was a physician, under the republic a representative, before 
 you to-day I am a hero." 
 
 Both he and Maria Pagano in vain pleaded the capitulation. 
 The king had annulled it, and the judges declared it void. Pagano 
 addressed an elaborate argument to his judges, and referred to the 
 fact, that an earlier capitulation entered into by Cardinal Ruffo 
 on his own authority, even before his appointment as vicar- 
 general, had been respected by the king. In vain the only 
 favour extended to Cirillo was to permit him to die in company 
 with his friends, and to spend his last night in their company. 
 Four were brought to the scaffold together, Pagano, Ciago, and 
 Pignatelli, with Cirillo. 
 
 " The next day," writes B. N., " they conducted to execution 
 the rest of the representatives and ministers, but the executions 
 were become so numerous and so familiar that they produced 
 but a feeble impression, the names of the victims were scarcely 
 known." 7 
 
 Coco, an eye-witness of the scenes he describes, bears equal 
 testimony to the horrors that attended the vengeance of the 
 court. The first junta, that nominated by Cardinal Ruffo, advised 
 the king that no act should be treated as treason committed after 
 the occupation of Naples by the French troops ; from that moment 
 the French held the kingdom by the very same right in which it 
 had been acquired by Ferdinand's" own father, that of conquest, 
 and the submission to the authority of the republic could not 
 with any justice be treated as a crime. They also advised the 
 king that whether as a matter of justice or expediency, the 
 capitulation ought to be observed ; of justice because it was 
 binding, and of expediency because to violate it would be to shake 
 all confidence in royalty, and to convert every civil war into one 
 of extermination. 
 
 These counsels of justice and wisdom only caused the dismissal 
 of those who gave them, and the substitution of men ready to 
 execute the ferocious biddings of the court. The edicts which 
 were issued had no pretence to the name of laws, they were 
 commands of massacre. As the law of Naples was formerly, 
 words could never amount to treason. One of these edicts 
 
 7 " M^moires pour servir a 1'histoire des derniers revolutions de Naples," 
 pp. 169228.
 
 NOTa O NEAPOLITAN CRUELTIES. 457 
 
 declared that every one should be punished with death who had 
 during the republican ascendancy used language insulting to the 
 king or the royal family ; acts which were innocent at the time 
 they were committed, were by these edicts declared now punish- 
 able with death. Anyone who had worn the national cockade 
 was by another of them declared guilty of a capital offence. The 
 sovereign power which thus visits with the penalty of death acts 
 not forbidden at the time they were committed, has not in truth 
 the sanction of law for the executions which it thus orders. The 
 proceeding is nothing more or less than the arbitrary ordering 
 for execution of certain individuals. 
 
 The edict which most flagrantly outraged every principle of 
 justice was that which condemned to death all those who had in 
 any way aided the so-called republic. The principle has been 
 already stated that obedience to a government de facto, by the 
 first principles of law, can never be a crime. This maxim 
 which ought by every rule of justice to be held sacred, was 
 plainly violated in the language of the edict itself. 
 
 In its application, those who administered it, seemed almost as 
 if their object was to exhibit its injustice in the most revolting 
 form. It was under this edict that Sanfelice was condemned 
 to die for having accidentally disclosed the existence of a plot to 
 assassinate the adherents of the only government then existing 
 in Naples. Atrocious as was her sentence, it was surpassed by 
 the one which sent to the scaffold a tailor for having made up 
 the state dresses for some of the republican officials, or even by 
 that which condemned to perpetual imprisonment in a dungeon 
 the musician who set to music the words of a republican melody 
 written by a friend. 8 
 
 There is after all a sameness in the exhibition of the evil 
 passions of human nature in all times and countries, and 
 Speciale, the chief of the infamous tribunal, recalls in many 
 strange points of coincidence the picture of Jeffreys. We read of 
 the same brutal jesting with the sufferings of his victims, the 
 same coarse and unfeeling insolence, while he added qualities of 
 
 8 Botta, vol. iii. p. 345. Cimarosa was released from his dungeon by the 
 intervention of the Russians. He did not long survive the treatment he had 
 received : he died at Venice on his way to St. Petereburgh, where, in his 
 person, Italian art was seeking in the home of the "barbarian" Muscovite, a 
 refuge from the cruelties which threatened it on the Italian BoiL
 
 458 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 his own, which even if he possessed them, Jeffreys had 110 
 opportunity of displaying. 
 
 One of the proscribed, Nicholas Fiani, was the object of some 
 special hatred of the court. There was peculiar anxiety to obtain 
 his conviction, but the process against him supplied no proof. He 
 had been in early youth a friend of Speciale. He sent for him to 
 come to his house, he affectionately embraced him, and told him 
 he was now speaking, not to his judge, but to the friend of his 
 early years. That he was anxious to save him, but that he could 
 only do so by having from him a confession of the part he had 
 really acted. The unhappy victim gave this, and gave it in 
 writing ; it was produced before the tribunal, and Fiani ordered 
 for execution. To a young wife who came to beg her husband's 
 life, he promised that his sentence should be commuted for that 
 of perpetual exile. At the moment when he gave the assurance, 
 her husband was on his way to execution. He excused himself 
 by saying that he had done better for her she was young and 
 handsome, and could easily get another husband. 9 
 
 Even the sentences of Speciale were not numerous enough, or 
 sanguinary enough, for the bloodthirstiness of the court. The 
 tribunal was more than once reproved for its remissness, and 
 more than one of those upon whom they had pronounced the 
 sentence of exile or imprisonment were sent to the scaffold by 
 orders from the king. Yet there was no unwillingness on the 
 part either of Speciale or his associates to shed blood. They 
 inaugurated their judicial career by a new bargain with the 
 executioner, and instead of the payment of six ducats, which was 
 the established fee for each execution, they engaged him at a 
 monthly salary, with an intimation that for a twelvemonth he was 
 to hold himself each day at the disposal of the tribunal. 
 
 To cite all the trustworthy accounts of these dismal scenes 
 would extend this note to too great length. The unhappy repub- 
 licans were exposed in the first instance to the fury of the royalist 
 banditti who plundered and pillaged the town. The description 
 of their atrocities by a recent writer sums them up in a few words : 
 
 " Dark as are the crimes which stain the history of our race, 
 humanity has seldom been disgraced by scenes so horrible as 
 
 9 Colletta; Coco. It is unnecessary to encumber the page by the individual 
 references to each passage. The accounts are taken without alteration from 
 the pages of Colletta and Coco.
 
 NOTE.] NEAPOLITAN CRUELTIES. 459 
 
 those which followed. Universal carnage was but one feature of 
 the atrocity; the details are sickening, many of them utterly 
 unfit to be told. Some republicans were strangled with designed 
 protraction of agony, others were burnt upon slow fires. The 
 infuriated murderers danced and yelled round the piles on which 
 their victims writhed, and it is even said that they were seen to 
 snatch the flesh from the ashes and greedily devour it. The 
 Lazzaroni, once more royal subjects, eagerly assisted in hunting 
 down the rebels ; during two whole days the massacre was unin- 
 terrupted, and death without torture was accepted as mercy." 10 
 
 It needs the testimony of impartial witnesses personally cogni- 
 sant of these facts to obtain for them implicit credence. That of 
 B. N. has been already quoted. Two more may be cited, one 
 from an English, another from a German traveller. 
 
 The work published by Mr. Gordon Lockhart has been already 
 referred to. He went to Sicily in company with Lord Mont- 
 gomerie, a nobleman who visited it for his health, and while there 
 was employed in the diplomatic service of his country (ante, 
 page 399). Mr. Gordon's intimacy with Lord Montgomerie 
 gained him access to Lord "William Bentinck and the best in- 
 formed circles. In testifying to the atrocities committed at 
 Naples, he describes scenes which he himself witnessed. 
 
 " The barbarities that were committed on the unhappy patriots, 
 to which I was a daily witness, were most atrocious. 
 
 " One morning I met a crowd of savages carrying a human head 
 on a pole, while a miscreant, holding up a severed limb and sucking 
 the blood, exclaimed ' Eccolo il sangue d'un Jacobino date mi 
 a bere ! ' (Here is the blood of a Jacobin give me something to 
 drink). The bodies of many individuals were thus treated, and 
 these horrid outrages encouraged by the junta. 
 
 " This military tribunal was instituted for th'e trial of the rebels. 
 
 " It consisted of five persons, tools of the queen, the president 
 being a French renegade baron, in whom her Majesty could place 
 implicit confidence. Probably such a jury has not existed in 
 modern times, not excepting Eobespierre and his blood-thirsty 
 myrmidons." 
 
 " A proclamation announced by royal authority, that whoever 
 should denounce a traitor would be rewarded on conviction (which 
 
 10 Colletta, vol. i. English translation, p. 884.
 
 4,60 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 always followed) with a third of his property, and the name of 
 the informer concealed. The most trifling pretences were suffi- 
 cient evidence. Hair cropped al Bruto, wearing pantaloons (a 
 French costume), having been intimate with French officers 
 during the occupation of the city, were sufficient accusations to 
 send a man to the gallows or a dungeon ; and the more money he 
 possessed the more certain was he of condemnation." l 
 
 Similar is the account of Seume, a German traveller, who was 
 not actually present at the time, but who visited Naples while the 
 recollection of the events was still recent. 
 
 " All cruelties," he writes in his journey to Syracuse, "which 
 we have heard of in Paris during the revolution, are humanity 
 itself compared with those of Naples. 
 
 " What the democrats in Paris did singly, the royalist Lazzaroni 
 and Calabrians in Naples have horribly improved upon. They have 
 literally burned men alive, cut off pieces of their flesh, and forced 
 their friends to eat of them not to mention horrors still more 
 shameful. A trustworthy person, a really good man, assured me 
 that a man came to him with a bag full of noses and ears that had 
 been cut off; he recounted to him the names of the owners. My 
 informant added that he needed all his self-possession and discre- 
 tion to avoid manifesting his disgust, lest he himself might become 
 one of the victims. 
 
 " This took place under Cardinal Buffo, whose humanity has 
 been praised. 
 
 " The names of Admiral Nelson and Lady Hamilton are men- 
 tioned with horror and execration." 12 
 
 The king's edict declared that any one who had defended his 
 home against these atrocities by firing on the rabble was guilty of 
 high treason, and should be punished with death. 
 
 Then followed the sittings in the capital of that merciless 
 tribunal which was appointed to execute the queen's inhuman 
 declaration, that no one above the rank of a common advocate 
 should be left in Naples. 
 
 " It would be a tedious and a melancholy task," writes Colletta, 
 "to describe instance after instance of the proceedings of the 
 tyrants, and of the misery of their victims. I shall therefore only 
 
 11 Lockhart Gordon's " Personal Reminiscences," vol. i. p. 225. 
 
 12 " Journey to Syracuse." SeumJs Works, p. 181. German.
 
 NOTE.] NEAPOLITAN CRUELTIES. 461 
 
 mention those which were most cruel and notorious. About 
 300 of the first men in the kingdom perished, without mentioning 
 those who had been killed in fight, or during the riots. Of this 
 unhappy number were Caraffa, Eiario, Colonna, Caracciolo, five 
 of the Pignatellis, and at least twenty more members of illustrious 
 families : besides whom were seen men distinguished in letters 
 or science, such as Cirillo, Pagano, Conforti, Eusso, Ciaja, 
 Fiorentino, Baffi, Falconieri, Logoteta, De Filippis, Albanese, 
 Bagui, Neri, and many more, as well as men renowned for other 
 reasons, such as Generals Federici, Massa, Manthone, Bishop 
 Sarno, Bishop Natale, and the prelate Troise : besides Eleonora 
 Pimental, a woman of unblemished character, and the unhappy 
 girl Luiga Sanfelice. No other city or kingdom in the world has 
 been equally impoverished by the loss of so many and of BO high 
 an order. The cases of the noble youths Serra and Riario, who 
 were beheaded, were still more pitied by gentle hearts, neither 
 of them having completed his twentieth year, while one of the 
 name of G-ensano, had hardly attained his sixteenth." 13 
 
 The name of another bishop is to be added to the list of victims, 
 Serrao, Bishop of Potenza, continued with his flock during the 
 ascendancy of the French ; he was shot by the royalist rabble in 
 his bed : " fortunate," says the narrator, " in not being reserved for 
 cruelties which emanated from higher quarters, and which were so 
 much the more abominably atrocious as they were disguised under 
 the forms of law, not of justice." " 
 
 " Sir W. Hamilton," writes Swinburne, an English traveller, 
 well acquainted with Naples, "has given me a list of all the 
 people executed upon the return of Cardinal Buffo and the king, 
 notwithstanding the capitulation. I enclose you a copy of it, by 
 which you will see, as Sir "W. says, that almost every man of worth 
 and learning is destroyed or fled from Naples. 
 
 " He showed me the English letter which Cirillo wrote to him 
 for his interference, but which Marshal Pignatelli took care should 
 not be delivered to him till after the unfortunate petitioner's 
 
 13 Spalding's " Italy," vol. iii. p. 50. 
 
 i De Potter's " Life of Ricci " (Roscoe's translation) vol. ii. p. 392. 
 
 The murder of the good bishop was horribly avenged. A friend residing 
 in Potenza, pretending a fanatic zeal in the royalist cause, invited seventeen 
 persons who were known as the murderers to a banquet. After dinner he 
 put them all to the sword. Cdletta, vol. i. p. 315.
 
 462 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. L 
 
 execution. It is manly and simply affecting. The Duke of 
 Cassano was put to death, and his wife would have been so like- 
 wise, but the queen had her life saved, because it was known she 
 hated her, and she thought her death would be ascribed to 
 personal vindictiveness. The infant son of young G-ensano was 
 executed, and his father near dying of grief in consequence." 15 
 SwinlurnJs Letters from the Courts of Paris, Naples, Sfc., vol. ii., 
 p. 292, 
 
 These executions were followed by new commissions to try 
 deserters in the army and the navy, and finally by that general 
 visitation of the provinces which went " to purge Naples of the 
 enemies of the altar and the throne," and which swelled the 
 number of the victims of this terrible proscription to an amount 
 unexampled, in proportion to the population, in the history of 
 mankind ; nearly one in fifty of the adulfc male population was 
 punished more or less severely, one in two hundred and fifty 
 perished on the gallows. 16 
 
 " There are upwards of 40,000 families," writes Sir Thomas 
 Trowbridge, " who have relations confined. 
 
 This system of government by terror commenced with the aera 
 of the French revolution. The execution of her sister, and the 
 atrocities of Robespierre appeared almost to have driven the 
 queen into a frenzied imitation of the horrors of the Parisian 
 crimes. There was a reign of terror at Naples from 1792 to 
 1797. 17 It is on record, that when Yanni pressed for the applica- 
 tion of the torture to Medicis, he was able to point to a royal 
 decree which desired the torture to be applied to suspected 
 persons, " as if they were dead bodies." 1S 
 
 The unhappy queen appears never to have lost the passion for 
 
 15 Colletta gives a different account. He says that his father had the incon- 
 ceivable baseness a short time after the execution of his son to invite the 
 judges of the tribunal to a feast. 
 
 It will be observed that Mr. Swinburne contradicts the generally received 
 story that Cirillo refused to ask for pardon, a story in all possibility the inven- 
 tion of the man who kept back his letter. 
 
 16 The population of the continental kingdom of Naples in 1782, was esti- 
 mated at 4,700,000. The proportion of adult males in such a population 
 would not much exceed one million. 
 
 >? Ante, pp. 313, 314. 
 
 18 Colletta, vol. ii., English translation, p. 245.
 
 NEAPOLITAN CRUELTIES. 463 
 
 blood which charity may almost attribute to that morbid desire for 
 imitation which sometimes follows even on the horror produced by 
 the contemplation of great crimes. 19 After her second flight to 
 Sicily, she renewed her relations with the most sanguinary mis- 
 creants in Calabria, and if we add to the victims of the massacres 
 of 1799 those who fell under the licentious outrages of Mammone, 
 FraDiavolo, 20 and the rest of the murderous brigands who desolated 
 
 19 During the whole period of her second residence in Sicily, her imagina- 
 tion appears to have been haunted by the terrors of Jacobin plots against 
 royalty, against which she fancied she could protect herself by the employ- 
 ment of spies and the inflictions of the most cruel punishments. 
 
 Lord Valentia in his MS. journal already referred to describes the report of 
 her death in 1811 as diffusing among the population of Palermo unusual joy. 
 
 "The joy expressed last year when the queen was ill, showed most com- 
 pletely the real state of the public feelings. It was only a few days previously 
 to the festival of Santa Rosalia that she had an attack of apoplexy and con- 
 tinued insensible during the whole day. The people ran up and down the 
 streets congratulating each other, and returning thanks to the saints for 
 having at length heard their prayers. When Lady Amherst went to the 
 palace to 'make her inquiries, the very people in waiting did not dissemble 
 their satisfaction, but openly replied, ' Thank God, she was gone at last.' 
 Even Lady Circello said to Lady A., that the poor Sicilians had been tor- 
 mented long enough, that they were now released, and things would go on 
 better, for they could manage the king without her. Nothing could equal 
 the dismay and confusion which her recovery gave rise to. The courtiers 
 were alarmed lest she should hear of the satisfaction they had expressed at her 
 illness, and the populace were nearly driven to desperation by their disap- 
 pointment." MS. Journal of Lord Valentia. 
 
 The hatred of the queen to the English, whose presence restrained her 
 cruelty and despotism, has been already mentioned. Mr. Lockhart Gordon, to 
 whose means of information allusion has been already made, tells us that she 
 had proposed to Murat to cause a general massacre of the English army, and 
 to place the island under his protection, rather than submit any longer to " the 
 tyranny of the English." 
 
 The plot was betrayed to Lord William Bentinck, who was in possession of 
 the clearest proofs of her Majesty's guilt. 
 
 " This vindictive woman had the effrontery to include her own son-in- 
 law, the Duke of Orleans, in her list of the proscribed ; and the chief of the 
 sbirri had orders to seize on his Royal Highness at his country-house, a short 
 distance from the city ; but the descendant of St. Louis resisted, and sallying 
 forth at the head of his household, armed in the best manner they could, 'on 
 the spur of the occasion,' gave battle to the ragged ruffians, and drove them 
 back with broken pates ! " Oordon-'s Reminiscences. 
 
 10 The atrocities committed by the brigand leaders, who were employed in 
 the service of the Neapolitan court in Calabria, in some respects surpass any-
 
 464 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Calabria in the name of loyalty and religion, the lives sacrificed to 
 the democratic rage of the revolutionists in France do not bear, 
 
 thing recorded of the French revolution. The reader who has a taste for the 
 ghastly tales of the exploits of monsters of cruelty and blood, will find it 
 abundantly, gratified in the pages of Coco, Colletta, and Botta, which describe 
 the Calabrian brigand chiefs. 
 
 " Fra Diavolo," was the name given by the populace to Michele Pezza, a 
 man on whose head in peaceful times the government had set a price, and 
 whose wonderful escapes had obtained for him the title which expressed that 
 he combined the good luck of a friar and a devil, the two beings to whom a 
 superstitious proverb of Calabria attributed the most marvellous fortune. 
 
 6aeta.no Mammone was a miller, who appears to have taken up the occupa- 
 tion of a brigand chief under the royalist banners to gratify a fiendish appetite 
 for blood. The stories relating to him, that are vouched for by many trust- 
 worthy writers, seem almost incredible. He is said during the civil war to 
 have put to death in cold blood more than 400 persons with his own hands, 
 not unfrequently gratifying himself and his guests in their drunken revels 
 by slaughtering for their amusement the unhappy wretches whom he had 
 placed in confinement. A head newly cut off was a common ornament of his 
 table at dinner, and he drank his wine from a human skull. Atrocities liko 
 these are unhappily not altogether incredible. The stories of the Csssars, and 
 of Ivan the Terrible of Russia, belong to the regions, not of fable, but of 
 authentic history, and nowhere could the lessons of cruelty have been more 
 easily learned by a merciless heart than in the brigand war of Calabria. How 
 completely the minds of men were seized with the ideas of sanguinary revenge, 
 is shown by an incident which occurred to Sir Thomas, then Captain Hardy. 
 A devoted royalist sent him some grapes as a present : in the same basket 
 was contained the head of a Jacobin. The sender never thought of doubting 
 that the sight would be an acceptable one to the British sailor. 
 
 Pronio and Rodio were two other of the chiefs of this guerilla war. Pronio 
 had been in early life an ecclesiastic, but was convicted of homicide : and 
 sent to the galleys. He managed to escape, and, after infesting for some time 
 the woods of Calabria, found in the royalist service the path to honours, 
 security and wealth. 
 
 Rodio appears to have been a gentleman by birth and education. He was 
 the only one of these guerilla chieftans unstained by crime, aud seems to 
 have embarked in the warfare from devotion to the royalist cause. 
 
 Calabria for the ten years following the year 1799 presented a state of 
 soeiety unparalleled in the annals of civilised nations. Deeds of heroic daring, 
 nay of what appeared to be lofty patriotism, threw something like a relief 
 over the acts of fierce cruelty and of wild revenge which exhibited the most 
 demoniac passions of the human heart. The story of Calabrian life through 
 the etruggles of 1799, the insurrections aided by Sir Sidney Smith, and 
 encouraged by the queen, down to the execution of those terrible decrees by 
 which Manhes made a desert and called it peace, would form a chapter in 
 the romance of history which few narratives as well authenticated could
 
 NOTE.] NEAPOLITAN CRUELTIES. 465 
 
 in proportion to the population, any comparison with those which 
 were in the kingdom of Naples sacrificed to the royalist vengeance, 
 which was planned and directed by the Bourbon Court. 
 
 Difficult, indeed, would it be to calculate the sum of human 
 misery and anguish which was caused by the inhuman proscription 
 of those who were driven into exile and poverty, while all their 
 possessions were confiscated to the state. 21 
 
 It must not be forgotten that among the edicts issued by 
 Ferdinand on his restoration was one destroying all the municipal 
 privileges of the city of Naples, privileges which in their very 
 forms were traceable to the days when it was a colony of the 
 Greeks, and another confiscating the property of the religious 
 houses on the ground that the monks had been the partisans of 
 the republic. 
 
 In contemplating the inhuman prosecutions which succeeded 
 the restoration of Ferdinand, we cannot avoid being struck by the 
 fact, that the lowest and the worst of the rabble were on the side 
 of the king and that their passions and their vices were employed 
 as the instruments of royalist vengeance. Both in the city of 
 Naples and in Calabria there was kindled a servile war, and the 
 atrocities that followed combined the apparently inconsistent traits 
 that mark the crimes of despotism and those of popular fury. The 
 whole of the educated and middle classes of Naples were on the 
 side of the republic, the rabble espoused that of the Bourbons. 
 " The eifusions of loyalty," writes Nelson, " from the lower order 
 of the people to their Father, for by no other name do they address 
 
 surpass. Yet while the testimonies to the general result are abundant, but 
 few descriptions of particular scenes are preserved. Some there are in the 
 military despatches published in General Bunbury's narrative of the great 
 war. Although the incident itself belongs to a later period, the reader will 
 find some idea of what brigand life was, in the description in Mr. Keppel 
 Craven's travels, of the shooting of the band of the Vardarelli, in 1818 
 (Craven's Tour, pp. 3757). The extermination of the Vardarelli band 
 accidentally witnessed by the English traveller, risea to the dignity of an 
 historical event in the Neapolitan annals. Colletta. 
 
 To Mammone, the most sanguinary monster of them all, Kong Ferdinand 
 sent an autograph letter no small compliment from the monarch not very 
 partial to epistolary feats in which he designated him " my general and my 
 friend." 
 
 21 " To this day families who were in easy circumstances can with difficulty 
 procure the necessaries of life, and often have to beg for food." Colletta, vol. i. 
 p. 285. 
 
 VOL. I. H H
 
 466 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 the king, is truly moving with some few exceptions the conduct 
 of the nobles has been infamous and it delights me to see that 
 his majesty remarks the difference in the most proper manner." : 
 " Everyone in Naples who knows how to read is a Jacobin," was 
 the judgment of the queen, and in the spirit of this conviction 
 was her declaration, that everyone above the rank of a common 
 advocate must die. 
 
 How can we calculate the effect upon Naples of the proscrip- 
 tion which was carried 'out in accordance with such a maxim ? 
 which brought to the scaffold, almost all in the better ranks of 
 society who were distinguished for the talents that illustrate, the 
 virtues that adorn, or the character that dignifies life ? 
 
 In these transactions at Naples, we see a community suddenly 
 deprived of all its best members professional and literary merit 
 swept from its society. The scale was turned against the accused 
 in the trembling balance of judgment by the damning evidence 
 that he had taught his son mathematics. " Have you no better 
 occupation for him in times like these?," roared Speciale to the un- 
 happy father, whom this evidence sent to his doom. In this spirit 
 all the judgments were pronounced. " He is a notary and a 
 clever man, he must die," was his decision in a case in which his 
 colleagues were inclined to mercy. Nothing was safe in Naples 
 except the dull and undistinguished ignorance, which in trying 
 times had passed in unnoticed obscurity. 
 
 It has been already observed that many of these sentences were 
 pronounced in defiance of that principle founded in common justice, 
 that obedience to a government, actually in possession of the seat 
 and authority of power, can never be a crime. 23 This has 
 been carried so far, that the rightful sovereign has frequently 
 punished men for treason committed against the usurper. The 
 citizen is not obliged to live in a state of perpetual war. He is 
 protected if he gives his obedience to the ruler who is proclaimed 
 by actual possession of the authority, to be at least, for the time, 
 the one to whom his allegiance is due. For any act against him 
 before he was driven from his throne, Ferdinand might indeed 
 justly punish on his restoration it was rebellion against the reign- 
 ing sovereign. But from the time that his place was occupied by 
 
 22 Letter to Lord Keith. Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 407. 
 
 23 See Sir W. Blackstone'a observations on the English law of treason, and 
 the application of this principle during the " Wars of the Roses."
 
 NOTE.] NEAPOLITAN CRUELTIES. 407 
 
 another power, he had no right to treat as treasonable any act of 
 adherence to that power. The violation of this principle becomes 
 doubly guilty when we remember that Ferdinand left his capital 
 in opposition to the entreaties of his people. That the regent 
 whom he left in spite of the protest of the municipality, formally 
 surrendered Naples to the French, and actually burned the 
 ships of the national navy to prevent any resistance being made. 
 And yet on his return one of the first edicts of the king destroyed 
 the time-honoured privileges of that municipality, for submitting 
 to the conqueror to whom they had been handed over. 
 
 This was not all. Many of the sentences were pronounced for 
 acts which, at the time of their committal, were not forbidden by 
 any law, and which could not, therefore, have been justly punished 
 had the government of Ferdinand been reigning at the time. The 
 edict which denounced as a traitor anyone who had spoken dis- 
 respectfully of the king or royal family during the days of the 
 republic, has, it may be hoped, no parallel in the history of 
 legislation. 
 
 To illegalities such as these, it is not necessary in order to con- 
 demn the conduct of the restored government to execration to add 
 the guilt of a violated capitulation, of the perverted forms of justice, 
 and of so-called tribunals degraded to be the mere executioners of 
 the vengeance which they were ordered to inflict. Had everything 
 else been right had the acts been those of unquestioned rebellion 
 against a sovereign in possession of the royal authority, had they 
 been plainly treasons against the existing law the mode of trial 
 would have been sufficient to brand with infamy all who took 
 part in the proceedings. The English reader, almost of necessity, 
 turns to those passages in our history which have loaded with 
 execration the memory of Jeffreys. The rebellion of Monmouth 
 was a plain and unquestioned treason all who aided him were as 
 undoubtedly guilty as himself. No ex post facto laws were needed 
 to bring them within the penalty of their crime. No new tribunal 
 was established to reverse the ordinary mode of procedure and 
 escape all the restraints of judicial rule yet 320 executions, in 
 the western counties of England, 24 were sufficient to hand down, 
 for nearly 200 years, the memory of " the Bloody Assi/e," and 
 associate that of Jeffreys with the infamy that belongs to the 
 
 * 4 Lord Macaulay's History, vol. ii. p. 225.
 
 468 HISTORY OP ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 degraded instrument of cruelties, of which history has been 
 puzzled in appropriating the odium between the sovereign and 
 the judge. 
 
 It is unnecessary to point out the contrast between this and the 
 crimes which restored royalty perpetrated at Naples. The re- 
 semblance in many respects between Jeffreys and Speciale has 
 been already suggested. Even in his worst act, that of obtaining 
 confessions on a promise of pardon, the latter is not altogether 
 without precedent in his English prototype : Jeffreys browbeat or 
 wheedled his victims into pleas of guilty in open court. Speciale 
 deluded them into confessions iri the privacy of his chamber. 
 But freed from all restraints of judicial prudence, exempt from 
 publicity, at liberty to make both the law and create the evidence, 
 with the power of torture to extort the acknowledgment of unreal 
 crimes, not obliged to confront their victim with those who bore 
 witness against him, at liberty to act upon their own suspicions or 
 the suspicions of the court, the tribunals of Naples far surpassed 
 the enormities which his worst enemies have ever attributed to the 
 English judge. In a community not more numerous than the 
 population among whom Jeffreys found 320 victims, the tribunals 
 of " the good king " Ferdinand sent 4000 victims to their grave. 
 More than that number were doomed to dungeons worse than 
 death, or consigned to a perpetual exile, stripped of all their pos- 
 sessions, and condemned to wander in poverty in foreign lands. 
 
 No wonder that these events have left upon the Neapolitan 
 nation and its government an impression which sixty years have 
 been unable to efface. The terrible example had been set of 
 governors deliberately violating all law. Those whose very exist- 
 ence as rulers is in the character of guardians of right, had openly 
 trampled it under foot. The lawlessness of government became 
 at Naples an established fact ; how often the kingdom has felt the 
 effects of that fatal precedent its subsequent history must tell. 
 
 The parallel, if it can be called such, with the English Bloody 
 Assize, suggests the question If England had been subjected in 
 1685, to the process which Naples endured in 1799, what would 
 have been her fate ? If James II. and Jeffreys could have cut off 
 all in the nation that were exalted by virtue, by talent, and love 
 of liberty, what would have been the result ? Where would be 
 her constitution and her liberties, if her Bloody Assize had stricken 
 her patriots as those of Naples were mown down ?
 
 NOTE.] NEAPOLITAN CRUELTIES. 469 
 
 It may be forgiven, even to the calmness of historical reflection, 
 to suggest that in the pride and security of our long-estab- 
 lished freedom, we may not refuse our sympathy to a people who, 
 if they have not been equally fortunate in asserting their liberties, 
 can, in their very failure, boast a longer list of martyrs to liberty 
 than our own.
 
 ADDENDUM. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. PAGE 425. 
 
 [The following Note was accidentally omitted in its proper place.] 
 
 THE report of General Championnet to the French Directory of the taking 
 of Naples contains a very vivid account of the resistance which his troops 
 encountered from the heroic resistance of the undisciplined Lazzaroni. For 
 three days they disputed every incli of the ground ; fired on the French troops 
 from the houses, the possession of which they absolutely disputed, and 
 rushed with desperate bravery upon the bayonets of the advancing battalions. 
 The Castle of St. Elmo, by a stratagem, was placed in the hands of the 
 republicans ; its cannon played upon the streets ; but neither the fire of the 
 cannon, nor the charge of the bayonet, could quell the courage of tho 
 undaunted Lazzaroni. 
 
 .After the armistice agreed upon with the Neapolitan commanders, informa- 
 tion reached Championnet that the Lazzaroni had risen. Mack was compelled 
 to fly for his life and take refuge with the French, the royalist soldiers were 
 disarmed, and the artillery seized. The flying soldiers of the Royalist army 
 came in crowds to the camp of the invaders. The Lazzaroni issued from the 
 city to attack the French troops, and after desperate conflicts were driven 
 back. Championnet ordered his troops to advance upon the town, and 
 occupy the strong positions. "I was not," he writes, "prepared for the 
 resistance they met. Volleys of musketry assailed them as they entered tho 
 streets." The rest can be most effectually told in his own words. 
 
 " General Duhesme found still more formidable obstacles on the left ; he 
 marched forward to close on the town. He was attacked in three of his 
 columns, but the 27th light regiment, the grenadiers of the 73rd, and a 
 battalion of the 64th of the line, repulsed and overthrew the Lazzaroni 
 and the troops of the line who were mixed with them. This engagement 
 was very brisk. General Mounier gave the example of boldness, and fell 
 wounded. Captain Ordenneau, aide-de-camp to General Duhesme, was dis- 
 abled by a canister shot. The wound of Mounier was considered dangerous. 
 This misfortune added to the regrets of the army, which would lose in him 
 one of its best generals. General Broussier and Adjutant-General Thiebault 
 pursued the brigands, and drove them into the town. They brought up
 
 NOTE.] ADDENDUM. 471 
 
 twenty pieces of cannon; the nouses were set on fire; the streets were 
 heaped up with dead bodies. Night put an end to the combat, and General 
 Duhesme recalled his troops. The situation of Naples became frightful for its 
 inhabitants. I believed it my duty to summon them to surrender and lay 
 down their arms. The Lazzaroni fired on the parley ; their excess of madness 
 gave me great pain. The army passed the night in position on the heights 
 of Naples. The insolence of the besieged enraged me. The brave men 
 whom the army had lost, the cowardly assassinations which were every 
 day committed, justified tho desire for vengeance. I gave the order to attack 
 on tho morrow the columns to move, armed with lighted torches; to 
 advance only from ruin to ruin, and to shoot all who carried arms. 
 
 "Meanwhile, I find that the Neapolitan patriots are worthy to be the 
 friends of the French. They had taken possession of the fortress of St. Elmo. 
 The brave Moliterno commanded them. I took advantage of the night to 
 throw into the fortress two battalions. They were received with cries of 
 ' Vive la rdpublique.' The cannon thundered from the fortress. It was the 
 signal agreed upon. The army rushed forward, it attacked with fury, it was 
 received with the same. Never was there a more obstinate combat or more 
 frightful scene. The Lazzaroni, those amazing men those regiments, both 
 foreign and Neapolitans, which had escaped from the wreck of the army which 
 had fled before us, become heroes when shut up in Naples. They fought in 
 every street. The ground was disputed foot to foot. The Lazzaroni were 
 commanded by fearless chiefs ; the fort^of St. Elmo thundered on them, the 
 terrible bayonet plunged through their ranks, they retreated in order, 
 returned to the charge and advanced with audacity, and often gained posses- 
 sion of the ground. Nevertheless, half the city was conquered by the end of 
 the day. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " I had hoped that the terrible example of vengeance would compel the 
 Lazzaroni to ask for quarter. Far from it ; they kept up skirmishes the entire 
 night, they multiplied their attacks, and awaited undauntedly the advance of 
 the French columns. I ordered then a third attack the storming of Castle 
 Nuovo and the bastion of the Carmine, and the firing of Basso Porto, the 
 quarter of the Lazzaroni. The combat was renewed with fury. The French 
 are conquerors at all parts. The Castle Nuovo is carried there remains 
 nothing but the port of Carmine. 
 
 " The city is threatened with a general sack. At last I offer them again 
 terms of peace. I interest the patriots who escaped from misfortune. I 
 persuade the priests, the people listen to them. One of tho leaders of tho 
 Lazzaroni was gained over. Hope revived, the peaceable citizen showed 
 himself, tranquillity was re-established, and the very same people who 
 fought so desperately for a perfidious king, returning from their madness, 
 blessed the French made the air ring with shouts of 'Vive la rdpublique.' " 
 Despatch of General Championnet to the French Directory. Pepe's Memoires, 
 vol. i. p. 46. 
 
 Such were the Neapolitan populace before they were debased and demo- 
 ralised by the frightful scenes of the restoration of 1799.
 
 472 HISTORY OF ITALY. [VOL. i. 
 
 Colletta who, though a Neapolitan, had no partiality for the Neapolitan 
 royalists, gives a still more vivid picture of the heroic resistance of the popu- 
 lace, a resistance in itself sufficient to redeem the Neapolitan character from 
 any imputation of want of courage. 
 
 The resistance of the undisciplined masses of the peasantry in the country 
 is acknowledged both by Colletta and tho French historians to have been as 
 brave. 
 
 END OP VOL. L 
 
 BIUDBTJRY AND EVANS, TE1NTEKS, WUITEFKUR3.
 
 000 107622 3