UC-NRLF 
 
 *B 503 bM5 
 
 
 
 .jStoricB from 
 taiian JQi&to 
 
 G , € . Crou 
 
• - * r 
 
 I • * * « « 
 
 f c « « " •   
 
 r » « 
 
 • t * * 
 
 e t • « t « 
 
 ''•''. 
 
 t » * « 
 
 » t 
 
 • t t 
 
 • • 
 
 y. 
 
 Zl 
 
 x 
 
STORIES FROM 
 
 ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 RETOLD FOR CHILDREN 
 
 BY 
 
 G. E. TROUTBECK 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 "Open my heart, and you will see 
 Graved inside of it, 'Italy.'' 
 
 NEW YORK 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
f , I . • « • • « • • • • « ••••.. 
 
 Published igii 
 
THIS BOOK WAS TO HAVE 
 BEEN DEDICATED 
 
 TO MY UNCLE 
 
 ROBINSON DUCKWORTH 
 
 SUBDEAN OF WESTMINSTER, 
 
 MY GUIDE AND COMPANION 
 
 IN MANY A DELIGHTFUL 
 
 ITALIAN HOLIDAY. 
 
 I DEDICATE IT TO HIS 
 MEMORY. 
 
 s8 .■ 2 
 
PREFACE 
 
 f- 
 
 It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to begin by 
 saying that this little book lays no claim to 
 originality. Its aim has been to tell some oft- 
 told stories in a form likely to attract those 
 who are not yet of an age to study the larger 
 classical works on the subjects chosen. 
 
 The following chapters do not form a con- 
 tinuous whole. The stories are drawn mainly 
 from the earlier periods of Italian history, and 
 can only pretend to give the simplest outline 
 of the matters and events described. 
 
 An eminent scholar of our own day was 
 once heard to say that he did not disapprove 
 of a certain amount of desultory reading, 
 because desultory study often " opens doors." 
 
 That is exactly what these short stories are 
 intended to do, namely, to open doors. 
 
 If the young readers can be induced to push 
 the doors further open and enter the enchanted 
 realms of history, especially of Italian history, 
 the object of this book will be attained. 
 
 vu 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. Attila and Venice i 
 
 II. A Great King : Theodoric the Ostrogoth . 36 
 
 III. St. Benedict . 64 
 
 IV. The Story of the Iron Crown . . .81 
 V. The Popes and the Emperors . . .109 
 
 VI. The Little Poor Man 136 
 
 VII. The Lilies of Florence 165 
 
 VIII. Some Great Captains 211 
 
 (i) SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD 213 
 
 (2) carmagnola 230 
 
 (3) bartolommeo colleoni .... 236 
 
 (4) giovanni delle bande nere . . . 244 
 
 (5) il medeghino 255 
 
 IX. The Lilies of France 265 
 
 IX 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 ¥ 
 
 The " Pineta," or Pine-Forest, at Ravenna Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Attila turned back by St. Leo the Great, St. 
 
 Peter's, Rome 7 
 
 Theodoric the Ostrogoth. Statue in Francis- 
 can Church at Innsbruck 36 
 
 Tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna .... 54 
 
 The "Scala Santa," in the Monastery of the 
 "Sacro Speco" at Subiaco 70 
 
 St. Scholastica) 
 
 v. ....... 73 
 
 St. Benedict \ 
 
 Queen Theudelinda's Hen and Chickens) 
 The Iron Crown of Lombardy > 
 
 Coronation of the Emperor Otto III. . . .104 
 
 Charlemagne 119 
 
 The Papal Palace at Avignon 129 
 
 St. Francis of Assisi 140 
 
 St. Francis Preaching to the Birds . . .157 
 
 Florence from the Boboli Gardens . . .166 
 
 Dante Alighieri 180 
 
 Statue of Savonarola 198 
 
 xi 
 
xu 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Sir John Hawkwood (Giovanni Acuto) 
 Bartolommeo Colleoni 
 Giovanni delle Bande Nere 
 Tomb of Pope Boniface VIII. . 
 Monument of Gaston de Foix 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 213 
 
 242 
 
 254 
 
 272 
 295 
 

 STORIES FROM ITALIAN 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 ATTILA AND VENICE 
 
 "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough hew them how we will." 
 
 Shakespeare, Hamlet. 
 
 Look at your map of Europe, and try to 
 imagine for a moment that you are crossing 
 over the Adriatic Sea from Trieste, on the 
 Austrian coast. 
 
 Let us think that it is an evening in spring. 
 You come nearer and nearer to Italy, and at 
 last your ship brings you through a passage 
 between some long, desolate islands like sand- 
 banks. What do you see ? On your right, 
 far away, are the blue Alps of Friuli, with 
 their crown of snow ; straight in front are some 
 strange pointed hills, purple against the sunset 
 fire. These are near the town of Padua, and 
 
2 SI CRIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 are called the Euganean Hills. Then, quite 
 near you, the wonderful city of Venice, with its 
 towers, its great golden church of St. Mark, and 
 its stately palaces, rises straight out of the pale 
 green water. 
 
 You ask : Why and how did people ever 
 think of building a great town right out among 
 these wild, salt lagoons ? How did this glorious 
 city ever get here at all ? And you might well 
 add, What does it stand upon, for it looks as if 
 it were built in the sea ? Well might a writer 
 of olden time say of the dwellers in the lagoons : 
 " There lie your houses, built like sea-birds' 
 nests, half on sea and half on land ; spread, as 
 the Cyclades, over the surface of the waters." 
 
 Now, in order to find any kind of answer to 
 these questions, you must turn your thoughts 
 back many hundreds of years, first of all to 
 Roman times, when the part of Italy we call 
 Venetia was inhabited by a people called the 
 Heneti. These people, who gave their name 
 to the country, are generally supposed to have 
 come from Asia Minor, because of the kind of 
 dress that was worn, and the kind of speech 
 that was used in early Venetian days. The 
 Heneti finally joined the Romans, in order to 
 protect themselves from the Gauls, and their 
 country became part of the Roman province of 
 Cisalpine Gaul. For a long time Cisalpine 
 Gaul was one of the most prosperous of all 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 3 
 
 the Roman provinces ; great roads were made, 
 and many important towns were built. Then, 
 about the time of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, 
 the barbarians be^an to attack and devastate 
 the country, and these terrible invasions went 
 on from time to time for two hundred years, 
 You will hear more about it in some of our 
 other stories. For the present, you must fix 
 your mind on something that happened in 
 Europe during the fourth and fifth centuries 
 after Christ, and which has a good deal to 
 do with the history of Venice. 
 
 About the year 374 a terrible horde of 
 savage people, ugly, skinny, and dirty, had 
 swept across from Asia, and had attacked and 
 conquered a people called the Ostrogoths, 
 who then lived in the country we call South 
 Russia. These savages were the Huns, whose 
 very name is still a terror in Europe. The 
 Huns were an Asiatic people, and were like 
 the Mongolian, Calmuck, and Turkish races. 
 "They did not belong to the same division of 
 the human family as the Europeans. They 
 were a cruel nation, loving war for its own 
 sake, and delighting in robbery and destruction. 
 We shall read again about their great fight 
 with the Ostrogoths, and of how Hermanric, 
 the brave old Ostrogoth chief, chose to die 
 rather than see his people slaves of the Huns. 
 
 Now, in the next century, in the year 433, 
 
4 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 two brothers, Attila and Bleda, began to reign 
 over the Huns. Twelve years later, Bleda died, 
 and Attila became sole king. We all know that 
 Attila's very name has become another word for 
 ferocity and savagery. We are told that like 
 most of the Huns, he was a little man, broad- 
 chested, with a large head and very ugly features. 
 He used to walk or strut about very proudly, 
 and rolled his eyes hither and thither, as if he 
 were feeling very triumphant. He was a lover 
 of war, but was not given to doing acts of 
 violence himself; he was very clever and very 
 cunning, and struck terror into everybody. An 
 old historian tells us that Attila always felt sure 
 he should do great things, and he felt all the 
 more sure of this because he had got possession 
 of a sacred sword, known as the "sword of 
 Mars." 
 
 This is the story of how the sword was found. 
 A certain herdsman one day noticed that one 
 of his heifers was limping. He followed the 
 marks of her bleeding footprints, and at last 
 came upon a sword, on which the heifer had 
 trodden while she was grazing. The herdsman 
 dug up the sword and carried it to Attila, who 
 declared it to be the sword of Mars, and re- 
 ceived it with great exultation. He gave the 
 herdsman a handsome present for bringing it 
 to him. As Attila had now got this wonderful 
 sword, he considered himself to be the sovereign 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 5 
 
 of the whole world, and to be certain of victory 
 in war always and everywhere. 
 
 At the time of which we are speaking, the 
 Hunnish Empire seems to have spread over a 
 great part of Europe, from the Caspian Sea 
 to the river Rhine ; but Attila' s own territory 
 appears to have been in the great plain we 
 now call Hungary, between the river Danube 
 and the Carpathian Mountains. 
 
 A well-known writer of our own day tells 
 us how it was said that Attila "subjected the 
 islands in the ocean to his sway." These 
 islands, he adds, were evidently Denmark and 
 the southern part of Sweden, which was at 
 that time thought to be an island. Perhaps 
 the Huns did not rule for very long in those 
 countries, but the same writer points out that it 
 was probably this invasion by the Huns that 
 drove the Angles and Saxons across to Britain, 
 where, as we know, they made their home. 
 
 It is curious to think that those wild Asiatic 
 savages may possibly have helped in the early 
 beginnings of the British Empire, and in the 
 formation of the An^lo- Saxon race. 
 
 In the year 451, Attila, with a terrible host 
 of half a million barbarians, crossed the Rhine 
 on rafts, and attacked the parts of Gaul we now 
 know as Lorraine and Northern France. It 
 was during this fearful invasion and war that 
 Paris was believed to have been saved by the 
 
6 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 prayers of St. Genevieve, and ever since that 
 time St. Genevieve has been the patron saint 
 of Paris. The Huns got down as far as the 
 river Loire, and besieged the town of Orleans. 
 The people of Orleans were terrified, and hardly 
 dared to hope for deliverance ; but their brave 
 Bishop bade them be of good courage, and 
 foretold that the town would be saved. And 
 so, indeed, it came to pass ; for on the very 
 day foretold by the Bishop the Roman and 
 Visigothic armies, under the great general 
 Aetius and the Visigoth king, were seen 
 approaching the city. When Attila found what 
 was happening, he changed his plans, and went 
 back towards the Rhine. On his way back he 
 stopped at Troyes, the town where, hundreds 
 of years afterwards, our King Henry v. was 
 married to Katherine de Valois. Attila spared 
 the town of Troyes, on condition that the 
 Bishop, St. Lupus, should go with him as far as 
 the Rhine. 
 
 But Attila did not get to the Rhine as soon 
 as he expected, because a little way from the 
 town of Troyes the pursuing armies came up 
 with him, and here, on the Mauriac plain, was 
 fought one of the great battles of history, the 
 battle known as the battle of Chalons. Attila 
 and his Huns were defeated, after awful 
 slaughter on both sides. More people were 
 killed at the battle of Chalons than in any 
 
Photo'] 
 
 [Anderson. 
 
 ATTILA TURNED BACK BY ST. LEO THE GREAT. 
 
 (St. Peter's, Rome.) 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 7 
 
 fight before the invention of gunpowder. The 
 reason the battle of Chalons was of such great 
 importance is that it prevented the Tartar race 
 from becoming master in Europe, and saved 
 our European civilisation. 
 
 After the battle, Attila retreated to the 
 Rhine, and got back to his own dominions. 
 
 But it is the next year, 452, which has 
 especially to do with our present story. Attila 
 was full of wrath at his defeat in Gaul, and was 
 determined to wipe out the disgrace of having 
 been conquered. So, in 452, he and his Huns 
 invaded Italy. They crossed the Julian Alps, 
 which are part of the north-east mountain wall 
 of Italy, and swarmed down on to the province 
 of Venetia. Here, on this beautiful plain, the 
 furious Huns burnt, slew, and robbed, laying 
 waste one fair city after another. One of the 
 most fierce and awful acts of devastation was 
 the sack and destruction of the ancient city of 
 Aquileia, which had been one of the great 
 defences and glories of this part of Italy in 
 Roman times. Aquileia made a long and 
 heroic resistance, and when at last the Huns 
 got in, their rage was all the more savage 
 because they had had to wait so long. The 
 inhabitants were treated with hideous cruelty, 
 and the city was reduced to a heap of smoking, 
 blackened ruins. 
 
 Such of the unhappy people as escaped from 
 
8 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Aquileia, Concordia, Altinum, and other cities, 
 fled to the lagoons at the mouth of the great 
 rivers which flow into the Adriatic. Here they 
 found the strange little lagoon-islands inhabited 
 chiefly by fisher-folk who lived in wattled 
 huts, and here the people who fled from the 
 fury of Attila founded what afterwards grew 
 into the lovely and famous city of Venice. 
 This year, 452, is usually spoken of as the 
 birth-year of Venice, but the Venetian State 
 can hardly be said to have begun until 466, for 
 it was in that year that the people first began 
 to elect their own officers from among them- 
 selves, officers whom they called by the old 
 Roman name of " Tribunes." The Tribunes 
 had to govern the twelve townships of the 
 lagoons. At the time of the great Lombard 
 invasion under Alboin, in 568, the Venetians 
 finally settled in the islands of the lagoons, and 
 gave up all thought of going back to their old 
 homes on the mainland. It was then that people 
 first began to live on the wild, lonely island of 
 Torcello, and to build churches there. The 
 first church, dedicated to St. Mary, is no longer 
 there ; but the present cathedral is hundreds of 
 years old, and is most beautiful and wonderful. 
 A curious old story is told about the settle- 
 ment at Torcello. One of the great cities of 
 Venetia in Roman times was called Altinum. 
 After a long struggle, this city had been taken 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 9 
 
 and plundered by Attila and his Huns. Now, 
 more than a century afterwards, it was 
 threatened by the terrible Lombards, and the 
 people made up their minds to flee elsewhere 
 for safety. 
 
 They sought for guidance, and tradition says 
 that a vision was vouchsafed to their Bishop, 
 Paulus. He heard a voice that bade him climb 
 the tower and look at the stars. He obeyed, 
 and he saw that the very stars themselves 
 seemed to form the figure of the group of 
 islands in the lagoon. This he and his people 
 took to be a sign from heaven, and they set 
 sail with all their most precious possessions for 
 the island which they afterwards called Torcello, 
 in memory of the many towers of their old city, 
 Altinum, which had been burned by the savage 
 Alboin. 
 
 There is an ancient marble seat, lying amid 
 the grass in the piazza at Torcello, which is still 
 called " Attila's throne." It is interesting to see 
 how the memory of the fierce Attila lives to 
 this day in those countries which he ravaged. 
 In the year 697 the Venetians elected their 
 first Doge, or Duke, to be their leader in war, 
 and the head of their State. The name of 
 this Doge was Paolo Anafesto, and he was the 
 first of the hundred and twenty Doges of 
 Venice. There were Do^es of Venice for more 
 than eleven hundred years. 
 
io STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Until the year 809 the Venetians lived 
 chiefly on the islands of Heraclea, Jesolo, and 
 Malamocco. The seat of government was on 
 one or other of those islands, and, as might be 
 expected, they did not always agree among 
 themselves. But in the year 809 Venice was 
 threatened by a great danger, which had the 
 good effect of making the citizens more united. 
 The Venetian settlements were attacked by 
 Pepin, son of Charlemagne, who had con- 
 quered the Lombards, and had been crowned 
 Roman Emperor, as you will read later on. 
 
 Now Pepin had been crowned King of Italy, 
 and he wanted to make himself master of the 
 Venetians, who were much too independent to 
 please him, and also too friendly with the 
 Greek Emperor at Constantinople. So Pepin 
 and his Franks sailed up the coast and laid 
 siege to several of the islands — Malamocco, the 
 capital, among them. After a time, the Franks 
 captured Malamocco, but they found only a 
 deserted island ; no one was there. 
 
 What had happened was this. When the 
 Doge and the Venetian people saw that their 
 capital was threatened by the Franks, they 
 decided all to join together and settle the seat 
 of government on a little group of islands 
 called Rivoalto, or Rialto, half-way between 
 the mainland and the sea, so that it was pro- 
 tected from attack either by land or by water. 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE n 
 
 Here, on Rialto, the present city of Venice 
 stands. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Franks tried to attack the 
 settlement on Rialto, but in vain. The 
 Venetians drove their rafts and pontoons on to 
 the shoals, and besides this, the Frankish army 
 suffered greatly from illness during the great 
 summer heats. When, at last, Pepin found 
 himself threatened by a Greek fleet, he made 
 peace, and promised to withdraw. The Vene- 
 tians ofot back the lands he had taken from 
 them, and were allowed their old trading rights 
 on condition of making a yearly payment. 
 
 Thus the Venetians were finally successful in 
 their fight with King Pepin, and their position 
 as an independent people was now secure. 
 They were subject only to the Roman Emperor 
 at Byzantium. 
 
 This is perhaps a good place in which to say 
 a few words about the Venetian State, and 
 about the form of government in the Republic. 
 
 It would take a long time to explain every- 
 thing about the government of Venice, because 
 the plan of it became very complicated as time 
 went on. Only a very simple outline will be 
 given here. 
 
 As you have heard, the Doge was at first 
 elected by the whole people, and in the early 
 days he was very powerful. He had the right 
 to impose taxes ; the army was under his 
 
12 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 authority ; the foreign affairs of the nation were 
 in his hands, although he could not declare 
 war or make peace without the consent of the 
 people. The Doge lived in the same kind of 
 pomp and state as if he were a king. On great 
 occasions he sat on an ivory throne, arrayed 
 in costly robes and holding a sceptre. When 
 he went out, he was surrounded by guards, 
 lighted tapers were carried, and trumpets were 
 played. The celebrated portrait of the Doge 
 Leonardo Loredano, by Giovanni Bellini, in the 
 National Gallery, will show you what the Doges 
 of Venice wore, and what the famous jewelled 
 cap or biretta of the Doges was like. 
 
 The office of the Doge was for life, but it 
 was not hereditary. Sometimes, however, it 
 did happen that a son succeeded his father as 
 Doge, but this was not liked by the Venetians. 
 They did not at all wish to have an hereditary 
 ducal family, but determined to remain in- 
 dependent, and free to choose the head of their 
 State for themselves. 
 
 As time went on, the Doges on the one 
 hand, and the people on the other, were shorn 
 of a good deal of their power, and the real 
 power fell into the hands of the Great Council. 
 
 This Great Council was formed in 1172. It 
 was appointed in order that the State should 
 no longer be at the mercy either of the populace 
 or of the Doge. It was arranged that hence- 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE i« 
 
 j 
 
 forward the Council should represent the people, 
 and elect the Doge and the other officers of 
 state. 
 
 Later on again, the Great Council was closed 
 to all except the members of certain families 
 belonging to the Venetian aristocracy. This 
 very important revolution, known as the " Ser- 
 rata del Gran Consiglio," or shutting of the 
 Great Council, took place in 1297, and from 
 that time onwards the government of Venice 
 was what is called an oligarchy, or government 
 by one comparatively small, exclusive class. 
 The names of the families and people who had 
 the right to enter the Council were written in 
 the famous Golden Book (Libro d' Oro), as it 
 was called. 
 
 When the Great Council grew too large to 
 manage all the details of government, some of 
 its powers were handed over to the Senate. 
 The Privy Council and the Doge together 
 presided over the Senate. The celebrated 
 Signory of Venice, of which you will read so 
 often in other books, was composed of the 
 Doge, the six Privy Councillors, and the three 
 chiefs of the judicial council, called the Council 
 of Forty. 
 
 This Signory — the " Serenissima Signoria" 
 — was the real head of the State, and the 
 Doge could not act without the rest of the 
 Signory. 
 
14 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 In stories about Venice you constantly read 
 of the Council of Ten, and very weird and 
 terrible tales are sometimes told of the things 
 done by this Council. The Council of Ten was 
 finally formed in 1335, when it was settled that 
 it should always be part of the Government. 
 
 The Ten were elected by the Great Council, 
 and each member sat for a year. At the end 
 of that time he retired, and went back to his 
 usual life. This Council of Ten had great 
 power ; they judged in nearly all cases concern- 
 ing crimes against the State, and offences of 
 any kind against the law ; they had the power 
 to inflict any punishment — fines, imprisonment, 
 banishment, or death. 
 
 About two hundred years later the Tribunal 
 of the Three State Inquisitors was set up, 
 chiefly for the purpose of protecting the Vene- 
 tian State against Spanish plots. 
 
 The secrecy and fearful swiftness with which 
 these tribunals often acted has caused their very 
 name to become a terror, but the Government 
 of Venice was really very just and equal, and it 
 had a very good name for the humane way in 
 which it treated its prisoners. One thing alone 
 will show this. For many centuries, alas ! 
 torture was used in every country of Christian 
 Europe, and the unhappy people who were 
 suspected of any crime were put to torture to 
 make them confess. The Venetian Republic 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 15 
 
 used torture like the rest, but they provided 
 a surgeon who examined the prisoners to see 
 whether they could bear it. The Venetians 
 were thus unusually merciful, when we consider 
 the cruelties that were commonly practised until 
 a comparatively short time ago. 
 
 The Venetian Government was also much 
 more liberal and tolerant in religious matters 
 than most other European States, and the In- 
 quisition was never allowed to have such power 
 in Venice as it had in other countries. Indeed, 
 it was some time before the Venetians would 
 have the Inquisition admitted at all into their 
 dominions. 
 
 It is rather sad to think that this glorious 
 Republic sank at last into a luxurious and 
 pleasure-seeking life, and thus lost her strength 
 and dignity. 
 
 Venice was famous for her splendid feasts 
 and pageants, but in her great days she was 
 not celebrated for these alone, but rather for 
 the vigour and energy of her sons, and for the 
 power of self-sacrifice in her people, who 
 poured out blood and treasure in her defence. 
 
 The Venetian Republic lasted until 1797, 
 when it sank before the armies of Napoleon, 
 and Venice became for a time subject to 
 Austria. Venice was united to the kingdom 
 
 o 
 
 of Italy in 1866. 
 
 We must now turn back again to the early 
 
16 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 days, and try to realise how Venice won her 
 extraordinary place and power. 
 
 You will find many books which describe 
 Venice and tell her history, and you will see 
 many pictures which show you her beauty. 
 Here we can only speak very shortly of some 
 few of the things that made her famous 
 throughout the world. 
 
 First of all, let us think of what is perhaps 
 the most wonderful thing in Venetian history — 
 that is, the passionate love of freedom and 
 independence, and the splendid courage and 
 perseverance which helped Venice to succeed 
 in becoming, and remaining, an independent 
 and self-governing State. The independence 
 of Venice is all the more wonderful when we 
 consider how closely she was surrounded by 
 powerful and warlike nations. In early days 
 she had to hold her own against the Lombards 
 and the Franks ; later on, she had to struggle 
 against the rising powers of France, Austria, 
 and Spain. 
 
 But if we think for a moment, we shall see 
 how the very things which seemed so sad and 
 so terrible at the time were really of great use 
 to Venice. We have read how the people who 
 founded Venice had been driven from their 
 beautiful homes by the barbarians, and how 
 they had been obliged to take refuge on the 
 wild islands of the lagoons. Yet we also find 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 17 
 
 that these very misfortunes made the Venetians 
 choose the safest possible place in which to 
 found their State, and we see that the city of 
 Venice stands free of the mainland, defended 
 from attack by land by the great sheets of 
 water which are called the lagoons, and that 
 she is protected from the sea by the long, 
 narrow sand-dunes which are called the "lidi." 
 Inside the lagoons, moreover, there are many 
 puzzling currents and channels which would 
 make it very difficult for an enemy to steer his 
 ships, even if he ever got inside at all. 
 
 The glory and safety of Venice, like that of 
 England, seemed to be bound up with the sea, 
 and this is only one of several things in which 
 England and Venice are much alike. Venice, 
 like England, was the greatest sea-power of 
 her time ; she was also, in a sense, a " crowned 
 Republic," as Tennyson has called England. 
 Again, she held a large foreign empire, and 
 through her vast trade and commerce she 
 became the great central mart of exchange in 
 Europe during several centuries. 
 
 One of the great state ceremonies in Venice 
 had especially to do with her dominion over 
 the sea ; for Venice, like Britannia, claimed to 
 " rule the waves." This famous ceremony was 
 known as the ''Wedding of the Adriatic," and 
 was solemnly performed by the Doge, in full 
 state, on Ascension Day. This custom first 
 
18 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 began in 998, after some great Venetian vic- 
 tories on the Dalmatian coast, and in later days 
 it became a most splendid national festival. 
 
 The Doge used to sail out from Venice in 
 his gorgeous state barge, called the Bucintoro. 
 With him were the Patriarch of Venice and the 
 other clergy, the chief officers of state and the 
 foreign ambassadors. The great flag of St. 
 Mark, with its golden lion on a red ground, 
 floated over the barge, which was followed by 
 a procession of beautiful galleys and gondolas. 
 The Bucintoro passed out from the lagoon into 
 the open sea — the sparkling blue Adriatic — 
 and then a ring was blessed by the Patriarch 
 and handed by him to the Doge. The Doge 
 took the ring and cast it into the waves, 
 saying, as he did so, " Sea, we wed thee in 
 token of our true and perpetual dominion over 
 thee." Then, in the evening, a great banquet 
 was given at the Ducal Palace to the admirals 
 and the masters of the arsenal ; a fair was 
 held in the city, and the people had a week 
 of holiday and amusement. Such was the 
 celebration of the Wedding of the Adriatic, 
 which was held as long as the Republic of 
 Venice lasted — that is, until 1797. The 
 Venetians used to call this festival " La 
 Sensa." 
 
 We have spoken more than once of the 
 position of Venice, and of the help that 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 19 
 
 position was to her as a defence from enemies. 
 If you look once more at the map, you will see 
 how finely placed she was as a centre for trade 
 and commerce, for she was in the midst of the 
 great highways North and South, East and 
 West. On one side her merchant fleet could 
 carry her merchandise to Constantinople, Syria, 
 Egypt, and even within reach of the Far East, 
 while on the other side her ships could easily 
 get to Spain, Flanders, and England, where 
 her chief port was Southampton. The northern 
 road over the Alps led the Venetians to 
 Innsbruck, to Munich, and to the Lake of 
 Constance, so that they could trade with 
 Germany and the North. 
 
 All these countries poured their wealth into 
 Venice, and on the Rialto people might see 
 the products and treasures of many lands. 
 The famous poet Petrarch, who lived for some 
 time in Venice, thus described what he used 
 to see there : " From my windows on the Riva 
 degli Schiavoni, I see vessels as large as my 
 house with masts taller than its towers. They 
 sail to all parts of the world, and brave a 
 thousand dangers. They carry wine to 
 England ; honey to the Scythians ; saffron, 
 oil, linen to Assyria, Armenia, Persia, and 
 Arabia ; wood to Egypt and Greece ; they 
 return laden with merchandise to be distributed 
 all over Europe. Where the sea ends, their 
 
20 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 sailors quit the ships and travel on to trade 
 with India and China ; they cross the Caucasus 
 and the Ganges, and reach the Eastern 
 Ocean." 
 
 Think of the gorgeous jewels and Eastern 
 carpets which Petrarch must have seen coming 
 into Venice, and of such things as coffee, sugar, 
 and spices, which used to arrive there from 
 the East, to be sent to all parts of Europe. 
 
 Another great feature in Venetian history is 
 the important part that Venice took in the 
 Crusades, and especially in the Fourth Crusade. 
 It is true that the Venetians probably thought 
 quite as much of extending their possessions 
 and their trade as of helping the Christians in 
 the Holy Land, but all the same we must admire 
 the splendid courage, energy, and ability that 
 they showed. During the time of the Crusades 
 the power of Venice increased steadily. As 
 one by one the various towns were conquered, 
 Venice, who was the chief provider of the ships, 
 insisted on having her own quarter in each 
 town. This meant that in such towns as Tyre, 
 Sidon, Acre, Constantinople, Venice had her 
 own church, street, market-place, bakery, and 
 so on, together with the right to use her own 
 weights and measures. 
 
 At the time of the Fourth Crusade the Doge 
 of Venice was the brave old Enrico Dandolo, 
 one of the great Venetian heroes. Dandolo 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 21 
 
 had lost his sight through a wound, and was 
 very aged ; but in spite of all that, he went in 
 person with the fleet and the army, and was 
 indeed the chief leader in the whole Crusade. 
 
 It was Pope Innocent 111. who was so anxious 
 for this Fourth Crusade, and it was decided 
 upon by the Assembly at Soissons in 1201, 
 when Venice was asked to supply the fleet 
 which was to carry the Crusaders to the East. 
 The Venetians fulfilled their part of the 
 bargain quite punctually ; but, alas ! when the 
 appointed time came, there were not enough 
 Crusaders to fill the ships, and not enough 
 money to pay for them. So it ended in the 
 Venetians making a fresh bargain. The 
 Venetians would lend the fleet, and wait for 
 the rest of the money, on condition that the 
 Crusaders first helped them to take the town 
 of Zara, on the Dalmatian coast. The 
 Crusading army consented, and so the great 
 fleet, with all its magnificent banners flying, 
 and with the three huge galleys, the Pilgrim, 
 the Eagle, and the Paradise, sailed off down 
 the Adriatic, and besieged and took Zara. 
 The Pope was very indignant at this delay ; 
 but there was still further delay, because, at the 
 wish of the Marquis of Montferrat, the fleet 
 went off to besiege Constantinople. After a 
 desperate struggle, Constantinople was taken ; 
 the old blind Doge was the man who urged 
 
22 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 the sailors on, and was the first warrior ashore. 
 This was in 1204. 
 
 The Greek Emperor was dethroned, and a 
 Latin Emperor set up instead. This Emperor 
 was Baldwin, Count of Flanders. Venice got 
 more and more possessions in the Eastern 
 Mediterranean, and among them the island of 
 Crete. Indeed, she now became an Empire 
 in her turn, and was mistress of the trade in 
 the Levant. The Venetians brought many 
 treasures home from Constantinople, such as 
 the four famous bronze horses which adorn 
 the front of St. Mark's, and also many jewels 
 which were used to ornament the Pala d' Oro, 
 or gold reredos in St. Mark's. As for the 
 brave old Dandolo, he died in 1205, and was 
 buried in a chapel belonging to the Venetians 
 in the great church of St. Sophia at Con- 
 stantinople. A magnificent monument was 
 put up to him, but this was destroyed by the 
 Sultan Mahomet 11., and Dandolo's armour 
 was given to the Venetian painter, Gentile 
 Bellini, who brought it back to Venice. 
 
 We have already spoken of the wonderful 
 way in which Venice traded with the Far East, 
 and this recalls the name of the orreat Venetian 
 traveller, Marco Polo, reminding us also that, 
 like our own English folk, the Venetians loved 
 travel and adventure. 
 
 Marco Polo was born about the year 1255, 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 23 
 
 and belonged to an old Venetian trading 
 family. His father Niccolo and his uncle 
 Maffeo had already made a great journey to 
 the Far East, and had been very graciously 
 received by the famous Kublai Khan, the 
 Tartar Emperor of China, who was very 
 anxious to learn all he could from them, 
 especially about the Christian religion. 
 
 In 1269, Niccolo and Maffeo returned, going 
 first to Acre, and then to Venice. In 1271 
 they set out again for the East, and this time 
 they took with them the young Marco, who 
 was now grown up. After many adventures, 
 they arrived once more at the court of Kublai 
 Khan, where they spent seventeen years. 
 
 Marco Polo was sent about on various 
 important missions to different places, some 
 at very long distances from the capital. He 
 has left splendid descriptions of what he saw 
 on his many travels in Persia, China, Japan, 
 and the Indies. 
 
 One of the stories told by Marco Polo must 
 be retold here, as it contains a beautiful and 
 interesting legend. We will quote the trans- 
 lation of Marco's own words. He is speaking 
 of the province of Persia, and writes as 
 follows : — 
 
 11 Persia was anciently a large and noble pro- 
 vince, but it is now in great part destroyed by 
 the Tartars. In Persia there is a city which 
 
24 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 is called Saba, from whence were the three 
 magi who came to adore Christ in Bethlehem ; 
 and the three are buried in that city in a fair 
 sepulchre, and they are all there entire with 
 their beards and hair. One was called Baldasar, 
 the second Gaspar, and the third Melchior. 
 Marco inquired often in that city concerning 
 the three magi, and nobody could tell him 
 anything about them, except that the three 
 magi were buried there in ancient times. 
 After three days' journey you come to a castle 
 which is called Palasata, which means the castle 
 of the fire-worshippers ; and it is true that 
 the inhabitants of that castle worship fire, and 
 this is given as the reason. The men of that 
 castle say that anciently three kings of that 
 country went to adore a certain king who was 
 newly born, and carried with them three 
 offerings, namely, gold, frankincense, and 
 myrrh : gold, that they might know if he were 
 an earthly king ; frankincense, that they might 
 know if he were God ; and myrrh, that they 
 might know if he were a mortal man. 
 
 " When these magi were presented to Christ, 
 the youngest of the three adored Him first, and 
 it appeared to him that Christ was of his stature 
 and age. The middle one came next, and then 
 the eldest, and to each He seemed to be of their 
 own stature and age. Having compared their 
 observations together, they agreed to go all to 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 25 
 
 worship at once, and then He appeared to them 
 all of His true age. When they went away, the 
 Infant gave them a closed box, which they 
 carried with them for several days, and then 
 becoming curious to see what He had given 
 them, they opened the box, and found in it a 
 stone, which was intended for a sign that they 
 should remain as firm as a stone in the faith 
 they had received from Him. When, however, 
 they saw the stone, they marvelled, and think- 
 ing themselves deluded, they threw the stone 
 into a certain pit, and instantly fire burst forth 
 in the pit. When they saw this, they repented 
 bitterly of what they had done, and taking 
 some of the fire with them, they carried it home. 
 And having placed it in one of their churches, 
 they keep it continually burning, and adore 
 that fire as a god, and make all their sacrifices 
 to it ; and if it happen to be extinguished, they 
 go for more to the original fire in the pit where 
 they threw the stone, which is never extin- 
 guished, and they take of none other fire. 
 And therefore the people of that country 
 worship fire. Marco was told all this by 
 the people of the country ; and it is true that 
 one of those kings was of Saba, and the 
 second was of Dyava, and the third was of 
 the castle." 
 
 You may remember that old Italian painters 
 used to be very fond of painting this beautiful 
 
26 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 scene — the Adoration of the Magi ; and the 
 three kings are always represented as of three 
 different ages — one old, one middle-aged, and 
 one young. 
 
 But we must go back to the story of Marco 
 Polo's own life. 
 
 Nearly twenty-five years went by, and about 
 1295 the three Poli returned to Venice. At 
 first their relations did not recognise the 
 three strange-looking men in Tartar dress, 
 who had almost forgotten how to speak 
 Venetian properly. Then Niccolo, Maffeo, 
 and Marco invited all their family to a grand 
 banquet. When every one had sat down to 
 table, the three appeared in flowing robes of 
 crimson satin. After this, they went away 
 again, and reappeared in still grander robes 
 of crimson damask, while the satin ones were 
 cut up and given to the servants. Then the 
 damask robes were changed for velvet ones, 
 and at last the hosts appeared in ordinary 
 dress, the damask and velvet robes being 
 given away like the satin ones. After all this, 
 the guests were more and more astonished 
 when Marco Polo brought the old Tartar 
 coats which he and his father and uncle had 
 been wearing, cut them open, and showered 
 down on the table a heap of gorgeous jewels 
 and precious stones. 
 
 Marco Polo, by reason of all his wonderful 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 27 
 
 travels and immense wealth, became a very 
 important person in Venice. He got the nick- 
 name of " Messer Marco Milione," or, as we 
 might say in English, " Master Mark Million," 
 because of his marvellous tales of the million 
 cities he had visited, and the millions of 
 jewels and treasure he had seen during his 
 wanderings in distant Asia. 
 
 Not long after Marco Polo came home, 
 Venice had a terrible war with Genoa, in which 
 the Venetians were defeated. Marco Polo 
 commanded one of the galleys, and was taken 
 prisoner in the great sea-fight off the island of 
 Curzola. 
 
 It is said that during his year of imprison- 
 ment at Genoa he used to cheer his fellow- 
 prisoners by his stories of adventure in far-off 
 lands. 
 
 You may still see Marco's house in Venice, 
 with the beautiful carved cross over the door- 
 way. Marco Polo died about the year 1325, 
 when Edward 11. was reigning here in England. 
 
 Although her trade was so enormous and 
 important, Venice was not a great manufac- 
 turing city herself. Her chief export was salt, 
 and this was one of the great sources of her 
 wealth, because so many people were depend- 
 ent upon Venice for this necessity of life. The 
 other industries were, first of all, the making of 
 the celebrated Venetian glass, which is still 
 
28 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 made on the island of Murano, as it was in old 
 days. There were also manufactures of silk, 
 of cloth-of-gold and cloth-of-silver, of metal- 
 work, and of stamped leather-work. Lace 
 was also made, and sent to other countries for 
 sale. 
 
 Another great work was that of the Venetian 
 printers and booksellers. This was so im- 
 portant to the cause of learning in Europe that 
 we must say a little about the most famous 
 of Venetian printers and publishers, Aldus 
 Manutius, who lived and worked in the 
 fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Aldus 
 was a distinguished student and man of letters 
 who settled in Venice in 1490, and set up his 
 celebrated printing-press, chiefly for the purpose 
 of printing all the Greek classics, but also be- 
 cause he wanted students to be able to get 
 books at moderate prices. At that time, of 
 course, they were very expensive. 
 
 The Aldine Press quickly became famous 
 throughout all Europe, and the German and 
 Flemish merchants in Venice had a large ex- 
 port trade in books. The Aldine Press did not 
 publish Greek books only, but also Latin and 
 Italian ones. The pretty little books published 
 by Aldus were known by their device of an 
 anchor and a dolphin, and the type used for 
 Latin and Italian books is said to have been 
 copied from the handwriting of the poet 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 29 
 
 Petrarch, and to have been made by the well- 
 known artist Francia. Aldus was a great friend 
 of learned men, and numbers of them used to 
 meet at his house in Venice in order to study 
 and edit the Greek classics. Among these 
 famous students was the celebrated Dutch 
 scholar and reformer, Erasmus, who, you will 
 remember, was a great deal in England, and 
 was a friend of the Lady Margaret Beaufort, 
 mother of King Henry vn. Lady Margaret 
 was much interested in the invention of printing, 
 and our English printer, Caxton, used to print 
 books for her. No doubt she knew all about 
 Aldus, as he was famous before her death. 
 
 We have spoken of a few of the things that 
 made the power and fame of Venice, and it 
 would make this story far too long if we 
 were to try to describe many of the beautiful 
 buildings and pictures to be seen there. 
 We most of us know from our early 
 childhood what many of the lovely things 
 in Venice are like ; for, happily, we are able 
 to see pictures of nearly all of them. At home 
 and at school, and elsewhere, we often find 
 prints and photographs of famous Venetian 
 buildings and paintings, and even of the 
 beautiful Murano glass. We feel that the 
 great palace of the Doges, with its splendid 
 arcade and stately courtyard, and those two 
 celebrated columns of St. Mark and St. Theo- 
 
3 o STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 dore, which look out to sea from the Piazzetta, 
 are old friends of ours. The Church of Santa 
 Maria della Salute, with its dome, is familiar 
 to our eyes, and so, indeed, is the whole Grand 
 Canal, with its gorgeous palaces and graceful 
 gondolas. The names of some of the Venetian 
 artists, both architects and painters, are among 
 the great names of the world. Even if they 
 cannot go to Venice, English boys and girls 
 have only to go to our own National Gallery 
 in order to see pictures by Giovanni and 
 Gentile Bellini, by Titian, by Tintoretto, and 
 by Paolo Veronese. 
 
 One building only we must mention in a few 
 last words, and that is the great church 
 dedicated to St. Mark, the patron saint of 
 Venice ; for in St. Mark's Church all that was 
 best and most glorious in Venice seems to 
 speak to us. 
 
 The church we now see was built in the 
 eleventh century, on the model of the Church 
 of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople. It 
 stands partly on the site of a still older Chapel 
 of St. Mark, built in the ninth century to receive 
 the body of the Evangelist. You may like to 
 hear the curious old story which is told about 
 the bringing of St. Mark's body to Venice. 
 
 To begin with, an ancient tradition says that 
 when St. Mark was on his way from Alexandria 
 to preach the Faith of Christ in Aquileia (you 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 31 
 
 remember that Aquileia was the town so cruelly- 
 destroyed by Attila), his boat was caught in a 
 terrible storm, and was driven on to one of the 
 islands close to Rialto. As St. Mark stepped 
 on shore, he was met by an angel, who 
 greeted him with the words : " Pax tibi, Marce 
 Evangelista meus," — that is, Peace be to thee, 
 Mark my Evangelist. The angel then told 
 St. Mark that his body should one day rest 
 at Rialto, and be reverenced there. This 
 prophecy was fulfilled in the following manner. 
 In the ninth century some Venetians went off 
 to trade with the infidels at Alexandria, where 
 St. Mark was martyred and buried. Trading 
 with the infidels was forbidden by the Emperor's 
 decree, but these Venetian sailors had disobeyed 
 the orders. Now some of the Venetians were 
 very valiant and daring men, and they made 
 a plan to get hold of St. Mark's body, and 
 carry it off in their ship to Venice. They 
 managed to go by night to the tomb, and to 
 take out the body. They then took the body 
 of another man, wrapped it in St. Mark's 
 shroud, and placed it in the tomb, which they 
 sealed up as it was before. After this, they 
 put the body of St. Mark into a basket, and 
 hid it by putting cabbages and swine's flesh 
 on the top of it. The basket was carried down 
 to the ship, and slung from the mast. The 
 story goes on to say that the pagans seem to 
 
32 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 have had some suspicion of what was going 
 on, for people came down and searched the 
 ship. But when they saw the basket with 
 pork in it hanging from the mast, they fled, 
 crying Kanzie ! Kanzie ! that is, Pork ! Pork ! 
 Pork was unclean to them, and it was for that 
 reason that they fled. 
 
 After a perilous voyage, the Venetian sailors 
 got their precious cargo back to Venice, where 
 they were welcomed with grand and solemn 
 ceremonies, and forgiven for their unlawful 
 voyage to Alexandria. We must suppose that 
 nobody was shocked at their having stolen the 
 body of St. Mark, who now became the patron- 
 saint of the Venetian Republic instead of St. 
 Theodore. This story is represented in some 
 of the mosaics in the church itself, while in 
 one of the chapels you may see mosaic pictures 
 of St. Mark's journey to Aquileia, the storm, 
 and the salutation of the angel as he landed 
 near Rialto. After the present church of St. 
 Mark was built, the body of St. Mark rested 
 in a great tomb in the crypt, where it remained 
 from the year 1094 to 181 1. It was then 
 moved to the High Altar, beneath which it 
 still lies. 
 
 The main part of the present church is built 
 of brick, faced with beautiful marbles of various 
 kinds. The interior is decorated with most 
 beautiful mosaics on a golden ground ; some 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 33 
 
 of them old, and some of them comparatively 
 modern. The old ones are far the finest. 
 The general decoration of the church went 
 on for a long time after the actual building 
 was done, and the very elaborate carving of 
 the galleries and pinnacles outside was added 
 only in the fourteenth century. 
 
 As you have read earlier in this chapter, the 
 four great bronze horses which stand below 
 the great window over the central porch were 
 sent from Constantinople by Enrico Dandolo 
 in 1204, at the time of the Fourth Crusade. 
 The horses are said to have been made by 
 the famous Greek sculptor, Lysippus, and to 
 have been sent from Rome to Constantinople 
 by the Emperor Constantine. 
 
 It is only for about the last hundred years 
 that St. Mark's has been the Cathedral-church 
 of Venice. Up to Napoleon's time St. Marks 
 was really the Chapel of the Doge, but in 1807 
 it was made the Cathedral, and the Patriarch 
 has his throne there. 
 
 Close to the church there stood the famous 
 Campanile, or bell-tower, first founded so long 
 ago as 888, and finished about the middle of 
 the twelfth century. This celebrated tower, 
 which was a kind of landmark in Venice, fell 
 into ruins on 14th July 1902, probably because 
 of the sinking- of the soil on which it was built. 
 Nothing, of course, can replace such a building, 
 3 
 
34 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 with all the wonderful memories and associa- 
 tions that cluster round it, but a new Campanile, 
 as like to the old one as it could possibly be 
 made, has been set up on the old foundations. 
 Those foundations have been strengthened by 
 an enormous number of piles, which have been 
 driven into the ground, so we must hope that 
 this new Campanile will stand and watch over 
 Venice for centuries and centuries, just as the 
 old one did. 
 
 If you go into St. Mark's late on a sunny 
 spring afternoon, a light like burning gold 
 seems to glow on the walls, as they are covered 
 with splendid marbles and gorgeous mosaics. 
 The mosaic pictures set forth the history and 
 doctrines of the Christian faith. Behind the 
 altar shines the great reredos, or " Pala d' Oro," 
 with its jewels and enamel pictures. We see 
 how the Venetians brought all that was most 
 magnificent to adorn their church ; and we re- 
 member that every newly elected Doge came 
 here to pray, and that a solemn service was 
 held here before the people went out to war. 
 
 St. Mark's is still the heart of Venice, rich even 
 yet with the treasures and the art of long ages, 
 and hallowed by a thousand years of prayer. 
 
 On St. Mark's Day the Patriarch comes in 
 grand procession, and the Venetians crowd 
 to the church to celebrate the festival of their 
 patron saint. 
 
ATTILA AND VENICE 35 
 
 Every one there, whether Venetian or 
 foreigner, would probably join in the last 
 prayer of one of the greatest sons of Venice, — 
 his dying prayer for his country, — " Esto 
 perpetua ! " (May she endure for ever !). This 
 prayer, indeed, has in a sense been answered ; 
 for Venice, although no longer a sovereign 
 state, is safer than ever before as one of the 
 chief cities of United Italy. 
 
 
II 
 
 A GREAT KING: THEODORIC THE 
 OSTROGOTH 
 
 " He was a man, take him for all in all, 
 We shall not look upon his like again." 
 
 Shakespeare, Hamlet. 
 
 In this chapter we are going to read the 
 story of a great and brave king, whose name 
 has been famous for many hundreds of years. 
 This is Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, 
 who ruled in Italy from a.d. 493 to 525. 
 But if we want to understand properly who 
 Theodoric was, and how he came to be in 
 Italy at all, we must once more turn our minds 
 to what had been going on during the fourth 
 and fifth centuries, not only in Italy, but in 
 the Roman Empire generally. 
 
 Now, in the fourth century, the Emperor 
 Constantine the Great had done two very 
 important things. 
 
 First, and most important, he commanded 
 that Christianity should, for the future, be 
 the religion of the Roman Empire. Secondly, 
 
 he formed a new capital, a kind of second 
 
 36 
 
THEOUOKIC THE OSTROGOTH. 
 (Statue in Franciscan Church at Innsbruck.) 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 37 
 
 Rome, at Byzantium. This capital was named 
 after the Emperor, and was usually called, as 
 we now call it, Constantinople. 
 
 Not long after this, the Roman Empire was 
 divided into an Eastern and a Western part, 
 and there were two emperors, an Emperor 
 of the East and an Emperor of the West. 
 The Emperor of the East had his capital at 
 Byzantium (or Constantinople) ; the Emperor 
 of the West had his capital at Rome, and later 
 on, for a time, at Ravenna. 
 
 For many years before this time, the wild, 
 fierce nations from the north and north-east 
 of Europe, — the "barbarians," as the Romans 
 called them, — had been attacking various parts 
 of the Roman Empire, and the Romans were 
 getting less and less able to resist them. 
 
 These barbarians — the Visigoths, the Vandals, 
 the Ostrogoths, and others — came chiefly from 
 those parts of Europe which we call Germany, 
 Austria, and Hungary. The most terrible 
 barbarians of all, however, came across from 
 Asia. These were the Huns, and you have 
 heard something about them, and about their 
 king, Attila, in the first chapter. 
 
 In this chapter we have to think only of the 
 Goths, and more especially of the nation who 
 were known as ^e Ostrogoths. 
 
 In the second century of the Christian era 
 the Goths were living in the great wide plains 
 
38 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 of what is now Southern Russia. They were 
 divided into two nations : the Visigoths, or 
 Western Goths, and the Ostrogoths, or Eastern 
 Goths. The Goths were what we call a 
 Teutonic race — that is, the race to which the 
 Germans, Dutch, the Anglo-Saxons, and the 
 Scandinavians belong. The Goths were more 
 like the ancient Frisian and Saxon tribes than 
 like the people of Central Germany. 
 
 At the time we are speaking of, the Goths, 
 of course, were heathens, and worshipped Odin 
 and Thor, like our own forefathers. But as 
 the years went on, they gradually became 
 converted to Christianity, and the man who 
 did most to convert them was their famous 
 Bishop, Ulfilas, who is remembered throughout 
 the civilised world as the translator of the 
 Bible into the Gothic tongue. 
 
 Ulfilas, the " Apostle of the Goths," as he 
 has been called, was not himself of Gothic 
 descent. He belonged to a Roman family of 
 the province of Cappadocia, who had been 
 carried off as captives by the Goths long before. 
 He was, however, a Goth by birth, as he had 
 been born among them in a Gothic land, and 
 had been brought up as a Goth. He is sup- 
 posed to have become a Christian when he 
 was a young man, at a time when he was living 
 at Constantinople as a hostage. 
 
 In 341, Ulfilas was made Bishop of Gothia, 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 39 
 
 and he spent the rest of his life in missionary 
 work among his own people, trying to teach 
 them both to believe and to behave as 
 Christians. 
 
 It was Ulfilas who persuaded the Emperor 
 Valens to let the Goths settle in the province 
 of Mcesia, which was within the frontier of the 
 Roman Empire. These Visigoths wanted to 
 escape from the cruel tyranny of the Huns, and 
 thought they would rather submit to the 
 Roman Emperor than to Tartar savages. 
 The Emperor consented to allow the Visigoths 
 to settle in Mcesia partly because some of 
 them, at any rate, were Christian. A certain 
 number of these Visigoths had been converted 
 to Christianity by Ulfilas, but most of them 
 were still heathen. Very strange tales are told 
 about the way in which these heathen Goths 
 brought their own altars and their own priests 
 with them into this Roman province. They 
 would not explain anything about their re- 
 ligious ceremonies, and they even disguised 
 their priests as Christian bishops, so that the 
 Roman inhabitants actually believed them to 
 be Christians. But once they got across the 
 Danube into Mcesia, they left off their pre- 
 tences and began to persecute their Christian 
 fellow-countrymen. 
 
 The more warlike of them wandered off, and 
 made great conquests in various parts of 
 
40 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Europe, as we shall presently see. Bishop 
 Ulfilas meanwhile remained as the chief pastor 
 of a large and peaceful colony of shepherds 
 and herdsmen, who dwelt at the foot of 
 Mount Haemus, and lived a simple, pastoral 
 life. 
 
 For these people Ulfilas made, first of all, 
 an alphabet ; and that alone was a most im- 
 portant work, as it meant giving the Goths a 
 written language. Into that language Bishop 
 Ulfilas translated the Bible. It is curious to 
 learn that he left out the Books of the Kings, 
 because he thought that all those warlike stories 
 were not good for the Goths, who were already 
 quite fierce and warlike enough. Some frag- 
 ments of this most precious work by Ulfilas 
 still remain. The most celebrated of all is 
 the copy of the Gothic Gospels made, it is 
 supposed, in the sixth century, and written 
 in silver letters on purple parchment. This 
 famous manuscript is known in Latin as the 
 "Codex Argenteus" or Silver Codex, from its 
 being written in silver. This great treasure is 
 now in Sweden, and is kept in the Library of 
 the University of Upsala. This book is of the 
 very greatest interest and value : first, because 
 it is the translation made by Bishop Ulfilas 
 for his Gothic converts in those far-off days ; 
 secondly, because it is the oldest book in a 
 Teutonic language that the world possesses, 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 41 
 
 and may therefore be counted as belonging 
 to all of us Teutonic peoples. 
 
 We must go back for a few moments to the 
 Visigoths, before we go on to speak of the 
 Ostrogoths. 
 
 You have just heard that in the time of the 
 Emperor Valens, about a.d. 376, the Visigoths 
 had been allowed to settle in a province of the 
 Empire. But, as might have been expected, 
 they did not remain quiet. They were a 
 martial race, restless, and splendid fighters, 
 and it was not long before they took up arms 
 against the Empire. In 3J& a great battle 
 took place near Adrianople, where the Visigoths 
 completely defeated a large Roman army 
 commanded by the Emperor himself. The 
 Emperor's body was found after the battle, 
 in a hut which had been set on fire by the 
 barbarians. 
 
 Some years after this, the great Emperor 
 Theodosius received the Visigoths into the 
 Roman army as " federates," but even this did 
 not prevent them from attacking other parts of 
 the Empire on various pretences. 
 
 At the beginning of the fifth century the 
 Visigoths, under their famous king, Alaric, 
 came down into Italy, besieged Rome no less 
 than three times, and finally took the city and 
 sacked it. This was in 410. This capture of 
 Rome itself by the barbarians was a very 
 
42 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 great and alarming event in the history of the 
 world. It seemed as if nothing was secure if 
 Rome could be taken. But it was only the 
 beginning of the end. Rome had many worse 
 things to suffer. Indeed, it was barely fifty 
 years afterwards that the city was again taken 
 and plundered, this time by the Vandals, under 
 their king, Gaiseric. 
 
 The great Visigothic king, Alaric, died soon 
 after the sack of Rome, and you will read one 
 day the story of his burial by his faithful Goths 
 — how they turned the river Busento, and laid 
 him to rest in the river-bed. When he was 
 once buried, the river was turned again into 
 its natural channel, so that none could ever 
 again see or touch the dead body of the 
 warrior-kinof. 
 
 After the death of Alaric the Visigoths 
 turned westward, and carved out kingdoms 
 for themselves in Spain and Southern Gaul, 
 where they made great conquests. 
 
 In a.d. 476 the Roman Empire of the 
 West came to an end. The barbarian 
 ''federates" in the Roman armies had been 
 getting stronger and stronger for long years 
 past, and were now really the masters of the 
 Empire. The last Emperor, the young 
 Romulus Augustulus, was taken prisoner at 
 Ravenna. He was deposed, but seems to have 
 been very kindly treated, and was allowed to 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 43 
 
 pass the rest of his life at a beautiful place 
 near Naples. 
 
 For some years Italy was ruled by a man 
 of barbarian descent, named Odoacer, or more 
 properly, Odovakar, or Odovacar. This name 
 is more usually written Odoacer, but we will 
 keep to the older form, Odovacar. 
 
 We shall hear a good deal more about 
 Odovacar presently, so it is important to re- 
 member his name and to realise that he was 
 the ruler — we might perhaps say king — of Italy 
 from the year 476 to 489. 
 
 Now let us turn our thoughts to the Ostro- 
 goths, that great barbarian nation to which 
 Theodoric belonged, and say a few words 
 about their history before Theodoric's time. 
 
 In the third century after Christ, the Ostro- 
 goths were the chief people living in the great 
 plains between the Baltic and the Black Sea, 
 the part of Europe we now call Lithuania and 
 South Russia. About the middle of the fourth 
 century the Ostrogoths were ruled by a brave 
 chieftain, or king, called Hermanric. An old 
 German poem, or " Saga," tells us about him 
 and his wars, and his terrible death. Her- 
 manric belonged to the great Amal family, 
 who were said to be descended from the gods, 
 like the old Greek heroes. He still worshipped 
 the old gods Odin and Thor, like our own 
 Saxon and Scandinavian forefathers, and like 
 
44 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 all his own Gothic ancestors. When Hermanric 
 was nearly a hundred and ten years old, the 
 Ostrogoths were attacked by the Huns, those 
 fierce and savage little people who overran a 
 great deal of Europe, killing, plundering, and 
 destroying wherever they went. The Huns 
 defeated the Ostrogoths, and Hermanric is 
 said to have killed himself, so that he might 
 not see his people ruled by the Huns. The 
 Ostrogoths had to serve and obey the Huns 
 for many years after this ; but after the defeat 
 of the cruel Attila and his Huns at the famous 
 battle of Chalons, in a.d. 451, they at last 
 got free. 
 
 At the time of this great battle the Ostro- 
 goths were governed by three kings, named 
 Walamir, Widemir, and Theudemir. These 
 three brother-kings belonged to the ancient 
 royal family, or clan, of the Amals. 
 
 Theudemir had a son, a strong, handsome, 
 fair- haired boy, called Theodoric, and it is 
 about him, Theodoric the Amal, as he was 
 called, that we are going to speak in this 
 story. In order to see what he had to do with 
 Italy, we must tell a little more of the history 
 of his people. Now, when Theodoric was 
 quite a little boy, the Ostrogoths were living 
 in that province of the Roman Empire which 
 was called Pannonia, a part of what is now 
 Austria. They were what was called "fede- 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 45 
 
 rates" of the Eastern Roman Empire. That 
 is to say, they had to give some service to the 
 Empire in return for holding their lands. 
 The Emperor on his part, used to send them 
 a present of money at the New Year. When 
 Theodoric was about six or seven years old, 
 the Goths began to find that this yearly gift 
 was not sent, and they got angry about it. 
 They sent to Constantinople to ask why the 
 money had not been sent, and they were still 
 more angry when they found that it had been 
 given to another Gothic chieftain, who did 
 not belong to the royal Amal family at all. 
 So the Goths flew to arms, and attacked the 
 province of Mcesia, which was not far from 
 Constantinople. 
 
 The Emperor made peace with them, 
 promising that the yearly gifts should be 
 punctually paid so long as the Goths promised 
 not to come south of the river Danube. They 
 also had to send the little Theodoric as a 
 hostage to Constantinople. So Theodoric, 
 who was only about seven years old, had to 
 leave his parents and his home in his own 
 beautiful, wild country, and go and live in the 
 Emperor's palace at Constantinople. He was 
 a brave-hearted boy, but we can all think how 
 sad and home-sick he must have felt in that 
 great court, with its crowd of officials and 
 grand, stately ceremonies. But the time was 
 
46 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 not wasted. Theodoric must have learnt a 
 great deal about civilised life in those years at 
 the Emperor's court ; and besides this, he 
 became a great favourite of the Emperor Leo. 
 
 In 471, when Theodoric was seventeen or 
 eighteen, he returned once more to his own 
 people, and soon began to show what he was 
 made of. He collected 10,000 men, and took 
 them off, unknown to his father, and attacked 
 the King of the Sarmatians, who had just taken 
 the city of Singidunum, or Belgrade, from 
 Rome. Theodoric defeated the Sarmatians, 
 and took Belgrade, but he did not give it back 
 to Rome. He kept it in his own power. He 
 and his warriors went home with great re- 
 joicing, and Theodoric received the title of 
 King. But, of course, he was at present King 
 under his father and his uncle. 
 
 Soon after this, in the year 473, the Goths 
 again began to quarrel with the Roman 
 Empire. Some of them attacked Italy, while 
 others attacked Macedonia and Thessaly. 
 Another peace was made, and the Romans, 
 hoping to keep the Goths from overrunning 
 their whole country, allowed them to settle in 
 certain lands and cities near the ^Egean Sea. 
 One of these towns was Bercea, where St. 
 Paul preached, as we all remember. King 
 Theudemir was the leader of this invasion. 
 
 In 474, Theudemir died, and his son, the 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 47 
 
 valiant young Theodoric (the " people-ruler," 
 as his name means), became sole King of the 
 Goths. During the next few years the Goths 
 seemed to have moved again ; and this time 
 they settled on the western shore of the Black 
 Sea, in the country which the Romans called 
 Scythia, and which now belongs chiefly to 
 Russia. The Emperor Leo had died, and the 
 Emperor Zeno was reigning at Constantinople. 
 
 Now that Theodoric had become King of the 
 Ostrogoths, he felt puzzled to know what he 
 should do. He was anxious to find some good 
 and fertile country for his people to live in, 
 because they had suffered very much in all 
 their wanderings from the shores of the Danube 
 to the Balkan Mountains. He also wanted to 
 be friends with the Roman Emperor, but, like 
 the true-born king that he was, he always loved 
 his own people best, and wanted to do all he 
 could for them. At first the Emperor Zeno 
 showed much favour to Theodoric ; he gave him 
 high dignities at the court, and even adopted 
 him as his son-in-arms. Yet Theodoric went 
 on living among his own people, and not at 
 Constantinople, as might have been expected. 
 
 Unfortunately, Theodoric had a rival and an 
 enemy, an Ostrogoth of the same name as 
 himself, who was continually plotting and 
 stirring up strife, and making mischief between 
 King Theodoric and the Emperor. In this 
 
48 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 way our Theodoric had many restless years, at 
 one time fighting for the Emperor, at another 
 time against him. 
 
 These fights and squabbles are too long and 
 confusing to describe in a short story like this, 
 but one very important thing happened in the 
 year 479. 
 
 Various disputes and wars had been going 
 on, and Theodoric greatly wanted to take his 
 people and to settle them in the beautiful pro- 
 vince of Epirus Nova, which came down to the 
 Adriatic Sea. Accordingly, he and his army 
 and his people began to cross the mountains, 
 and came down to the town which is now 
 called Durazzo, and which is on the coast of 
 the present Turkish province of Albania. 
 
 The Emperor reproached Theodoric for in- 
 vading Epirus, and Theodoric, in his turn, 
 reproached the Emperor for his behaviour to 
 the Goths. Before any arrangement or agree- 
 ment could be made between them, the Goths 
 were suddenly attacked by the Emperor's 
 troops, and suffered a most terrible defeat near 
 Durazzo. 
 
 For some years after this, very little is told 
 about Theodoric, but we find that he had in 
 no way lost his spirit and his courage ; for in 
 486 he again revolted against the Emperor, 
 who had offended him, and in 487 he got up 
 to the very gates of Constantinople itself. He 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 49 
 
 did not take the city, however, but returned to 
 his headquarters, burning towns and villages 
 as he went. At last these endless quarrels and 
 peace-makings were settled by the Emperor 
 making a kind of bargain with Theodoric, and 
 telling him that he and his people might 
 march over into Italy if they liked, and win 
 the western kingdom for themselves, if they 
 could manage to overthrow the present king, 
 Odovacar. Neither the Emperor nor the Goths 
 liked Odovacar, and perhaps the Emperor 
 thought that by allowing Theodoric to invade, 
 and possibly to conquer, Italy, he would get 
 rid both of him and of Odovacar also. 
 
 However that may have been, the end of 
 it was that Theodoric, with his army and all 
 his people, set out on the long, terrible march 
 to Italy. 
 
 Think what it must have meant to lead — 
 not just an army, but a nation of at least 200,000 
 people over those wild mountain passes, and 
 to find . food for them all, young and old, 
 women and children, as well as for the 
 soldiers. 
 
 The Goths endured fearful hardships, and 
 had many fights and skirmishes by the way. 
 Their worst fight was with a tribe or nation 
 called the Gepidse, who refused to let them 
 pass through their country. The two armies 
 faced each other on either side of a marshy 
 4 
 
50 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 river, and everything seemed to be against the 
 Goths. But Theodoric, calm in the hour of 
 danger, called for a cup of wine, so that he 
 might drink to the good fortune of his brave 
 Goths. Then he shouted to his soldiers to 
 follow him and his standard, saying, "The 
 Gepids shall know that a king attacks them ; 
 my people shall know that Theodoric saves 
 them." Theodoric dashed on, leading his army 
 over some more solid ground that he perhaps 
 had spied out. The Goths were completely 
 victorious ; a number of the Gepids were slain, 
 and their stores fell into the hands of the 
 Goths. 
 
 In 489, Theodoric and his host crossed the 
 Julian Alps, near the north-east corner of the 
 Adriatic Sea, and came down at last, after all 
 their weary wanderings, on to the plains of 
 Italy. 
 
 But their heaviest work was still to come. 
 When they reached the place where the river 
 Frigidus flows into the river Isonzo, they 
 found Odovacar and his army standing ready to 
 meet them. Odovacar had fortified himself in 
 a strong place on the river, and he had a 
 large army. So the last great struggle began. 
 A battle was fought on August 28th, 489, and 
 Theodoric won it. Odovacar fled from the 
 river Isonzo to the river Adige, and took 
 refuge in the beautiful town of Verona. 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 51 
 
 Theodoric followed him, and prepared for 
 another desperate fight. As he was putting 
 on his armour for that famous battle of 
 Verona, he told his mother and sister to bring 
 him his finest robes, those which they had 
 embroidered for him, so that even if he was 
 slain he might look splendid in death. 
 
 On September 30th, 489, a great battle was 
 fought at Verona, and Odovacar was utterly 
 defeated. He fled to Ravenna, while Theo- 
 doric went on, first to Milan, and then to 
 Pavia, where he stayed for the winter. 
 
 The next year, a.d. 490, Odovacar came out 
 from Ravenna, and on August nth another 
 great battle was fought on the river Adda, a 
 little east of Milan. Theodoric was victorious 
 again, and Odovacar once more fled to Ravenna, 
 and shut himself up there. 
 
 Then Theodoric laid siege to Ravenna itself, 
 and here he had very hard work, because 
 Ravenna must have been a very difficult place 
 for an enemy to attack. The town is close to 
 what was once the old Roman harbour of 
 Classis, where the Romans had their ships-of- 
 war, and there were streams and marshes all 
 round it. Thus it was almost impossible for 
 Theodoric to cut Odovacar off from the sea, 
 and boats were therefore able to come up with 
 food for the besieged people. However, 
 Theodoric and his soldiers got into a great 
 
52 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 pine-forest near Ravenna, and managed to 
 prevent any help from coming by land. 
 
 The siege went on for three years, until 
 Theodoric got down to the town of Rimini, 
 which is right on the Adriatic Sea, and so was 
 able to prevent ships from reaching Ravenna. 
 Meanwhile, the unhappy people at Ravenna 
 were suffering dreadful tortures of hunger, 
 and had been obliged to feed on the most 
 horrible things. At last they could hold out 
 no longer, and Odovacar saw that he would 
 have to make peace somehow with Theodoric. 
 Therefore, in February 493, the Archbishop 
 of Ravenna acted as a mediator between the 
 two, and a kind of arrangement was made, 
 by which Odovacar and Theodoric were to 
 govern Italy between them. In March, 
 Theodoric entered Ravenna in great state, and 
 was met by the Archbishop and clergy, who 
 greeted him as "the new King from the East," 
 and begged him to be friendly to them, and to 
 "receive them into his peace." 
 
 Some days after Theodoric's entry into the 
 town, a great banquet was held, to which 
 Odovacar and his friends were invited. A 
 terrible thing happened. Theodoric, taking 
 an awful revenge for the treacherous murder of 
 certain of his friends, commanded some of his 
 soldiers to slay Odovacar. They hesitated, 
 feeling perhaps that it was an evil thing to kill 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 53 
 
 a guest under your own roof, and an old man, 
 too. Then Theodoric himself strode out and 
 smote Odovacar a fearful blow with his sword, 
 almost cutting him in two. As he saw what 
 he had done in his barbarian fury, Theodoric 
 exclaimed with a savage laugh, " I think the 
 weakling had never a bone in his body ! ' 
 
 This murder — for it can be called nothing 
 else — was a sad stain upon Theodoric's honour. 
 He had promised that Odovacar's life should be 
 safe, and moreover Odovacar was his guest. 
 Even the barbarians knew better than this, for 
 they had great respect for plighted word and 
 for the laws of hospitality. 
 
 That so brave and really noble a man as 
 Theodoric could have done such a cruel and 
 treacherous deed shows us what a long time it 
 takes to teach even the best of men to be 
 civilised and Christian. 
 
 Theodoric now began his wonderful thirty- 
 three years' reign over Italy, Ravenna being 
 his capital. If you go to Ravenna some day, 
 you will see a very quiet old town, but a town 
 full of stirring thoughts and memories. You 
 will see the Chapel, or Mausoleum, where the 
 Empress Galla Placidia, with her husband, the 
 Emperor Constantius in., and her brother, the 
 Emperor Honorius, are buried. The Chapel 
 is glorious with the most splendid mosaics. 
 
 You will see the great Church of Sant' 
 
54 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Apollinare Nuovo, built by Theodoric ; you 
 will see what are supposed to be the remains 
 of Theodoric's palace. You will see Theo- 
 doric's tomb, that massive round building, 
 roofed with one single enormous block of 
 Istrian stone, and said to have been erected 
 by Theodoric's daughter, Queen Amalasuntha. 
 
 You will see the lovely Church of San Vitale, 
 built during the reign of the Emperor Justinian, 
 who is represented in the marvellous mosaics 
 on its walls. Farther away, in the lonely 
 meadows of Classis, you will see the Church 
 of Sant' Apollinare in Classe, built after 
 Theodoric's time. You will walk on and on, 
 and come to the famous pine-forest where 
 Theodoric himself must have walked, where 
 Dante had his vision of the earthly Paradise, 
 and where our own English poet, Byron, used 
 to wander. 
 
 Here, too, are memories of the War of 
 Italian Independence ; for it was in a peasant's 
 hut in this pine-forest that Garibaldi's wife, the 
 brave and devoted Anita, died in 1849. 
 
 Garibaldi had been helping in the fight for 
 Rome, and when the Italians were defeated he 
 and a band of followers went northward, hoping 
 to get to Venice. The few men who were still 
 left by the time they had fought their way to 
 the coast put to sea in thirteen fishing-boats, 
 but of these eight were taken by the Austrians. 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 55 
 
 Garibaldi escaped with the five remaining boats, 
 and landed near Ravenna. Here, in Dante's 
 beloved " forest," he had to leave all that was 
 mortal of Anita. 
 
 At Ravenna, indeed, you will see many 
 things, not the least among these things being 
 the tomb of one of the greatest poets who ever 
 lived, Dante Alighieri, who died in exile at 
 Ravenna, on Holy Cross Day, September 14th, 
 1321. 
 
 Theodoric used also to spend a good deal of 
 time at the towns of Verona and Pavia, and he 
 built a palace and public baths at both these 
 places. It was to Verona that Theodoric used 
 to eo when the German tribes orot restless and 
 he wanted to watch them. The old German 
 minstrels sang of him as " Dietrich von Bern," 
 or, as we should say, Theodoric of Verona, 
 probably because the town of Verona was 
 better known to the barbarian tribes than 
 Ravenna. 
 
 But to go back more specially to what 
 Theodoric did during his reign. Now, al- 
 though he was himself a Goth, he was very 
 just to all his subjects, whether they were 
 Goths or Romans. He would not allow 
 people to be persecuted for their religious 
 opinions. He was not only a brave soldier 
 and a splendid leader, but he was also a wise 
 and able ruler and lawgiver, with a very strong 
 
56 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 will, too. Theodoric never got to be much of 
 a scholar, and could not write his own name. 
 Therefore he ordered a golden plate to be 
 made, with the first four letters of his name 
 pierced through it, and then, when he had to 
 sign any document, he could trace through the 
 holes with his pen, and make a signature. 
 
 Theodoric's great wish was to set up a 
 national monarchy in Italy, and to bring out 
 all that was best in the two nations, Goth and 
 Roman. This was a noble ambition, but a 
 hard task, because the two races were quite 
 different in their laws, customs, and character. 
 It was not easy to make the wild, fierce Goths 
 respect law ; nor was it easy to revive the old 
 heroic spirit of the Romans, which they had so 
 sadly lost. Both nations had much to learn 
 from each other. The Goths, for instance, 
 could have taught the Romans their ideas of 
 true freedom and of loyalty to the King, while 
 the Romans could have taught the Goths the 
 meaning of civilisation. It turned out never- 
 theless that, in spite of all these difficulties, 
 Theodoric's reign was a time of peace, pros- 
 perity, and freedom from foreign invasion. 
 Although the Goths held a third of the lands 
 of Italy, and lived there as a sort of armed 
 aristocracy, the Romans still held many of the 
 chief civil offices, and were Theodoric's min- 
 isters. The offices of state were still called by 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 57 
 
 their old Roman names, such as we read in our 
 Roman history — Prefect, Quaestor, and so on. 
 
 Theodoric's most famous minister was 
 Cassiodorus, a Roman of noble birth. He was 
 a very learned man, as well as being a states- 
 man, and we are told that he was really the 
 first man who thought of making monasteries 
 places of learning. He wrote a celebrated 
 history of the Goths. 
 
 Theodoric gradually became very powerful 
 over a great part of Europe, for he and his 
 family were allied by marriage to the kings 
 of the Vandals, Visigoths, and Burgundians, 
 which meant that Theodoric had great influence 
 in Gaul. He himself married a sister of Clovis, 
 King of the Franks, — the same Clovis who 
 was converted to Christianity, and afterwards 
 baptized by St. Remi, Bishop of Reims, at 
 Christmas-time in the year 496. 
 
 Theodoric's actual dominions spread far 
 beyond Italy. He ruled over parts of Southern 
 France, parts of Switzerland, Tyrol, and 
 Bavaria, and over a great part of what is now 
 the Austrian Empire. He had occasional 
 quarrels with the Emperor at Constantinople, 
 but no one any longer disputed Theodoric's 
 right to his kingdom. 
 
 In the year 500, Theodoric visited Rome — a 
 great event for every one concerned. He first 
 worshipped in the old Basilica of St. Peter, and 
 
58 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 then was greeted by the Senators, the people, 
 and the Pope, who all came out to welcome 
 him. Theodoric made his visit a time of 
 rejoicing ; there were games in the Circus, and 
 gifts of corn to the poor people. He stayed in 
 Rome for six months, and it was very likely at 
 this time that he ordered some very useful 
 works to be begun, such as the draining of the 
 Pontine Marshes, the mending of the Appian 
 Way, and the repair of the walls of the city. 
 He commanded that proper care should be 
 taken of the great aqueducts, not only near 
 Rome, but also at Verona and Ravenna. 
 
 But our story about Theodoric must not get 
 too long, though there are many interesting 
 things to be told. It is rather sad to have to 
 say that the end of his reign was not so glad 
 and glorious as its beginning. For instance, 
 he let his anger get the better of him, and 
 began to persecute people who differed from 
 him in religion. This was a sad mistake, for 
 religious persecution is both stupid and wrong. 
 
 Then there is the grievous story of the unjust 
 executions of two very good men, Boethius 
 and Symmachus. We must say a few words 
 about Boethius and his writings, because there 
 is a special reason why English people should 
 like to know about him. Boethius belonged to 
 an old and illustrious Roman family. He held 
 various high offices in the State, and was for 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 59 
 
 many years in great favour with Theodoric. 
 What he cared for most, however, was study, 
 and he spent long hours in translating the 
 works of famous Greek writers. He knew 
 about many things — music, astronomy, mathe- 
 matics, poetry, philosophy — besides being a 
 statesman. 
 
 Certain bad men accused Boethius of trying 
 to plot a revolution and of writing treasonable 
 letters to the Emperor at Constantinople. Un- 
 happily, Theodoric believed these disgraceful 
 accusations, and allowed the Senate to sentence 
 Boethius to proscription and death. Boethius 
 was imprisoned, and was finally put to death by 
 torture. While he was in prison he wrote the 
 book which has made his name famous, The 
 Consolations of Philosophy. This book was 
 translated by our own King Alfred, and also 
 by our first great English poet, Geoffrey 
 Chaucer. Sir Thomas More was comforted by 
 reading the Consolations of Philosophy when he 
 was imprisoned by Henry viii., so there is good 
 cause for us to remember the name of Boethius. 
 
 Soon after the death of Boethius, his father- 
 in-law, the Senator Symmachus, was also 
 executed by order of Theodoric. This was 
 probably done for fear that Symmachus might 
 try to stir up a revolution in order to avenge 
 his son-in-law's death. 
 
 Theodoric fell ill not long after this, and is 
 
- 
 
 -v STORIZS PROM ITA1 HISTORY 
 
 ssub :: h = ve beer. ha.: rue b : v rerru.rse 
 at Ravenna, in 525 ifter only a short illness. 
 He was buried in the famous tomb of which 
 we read just now, but the tomb has 
 e for centuries past. 
 
 N :: rr ye _rs : r v ::;" :uri:us 
 
 hirreueb. I: ir. :;_"_ '-vj-.tr. s:rr.e 
 
 rr.eu ~ tre rr. !; :; i :';:•: :^r :.r t::: r :: :hr 
 : "r : m :h e M "eum or" 7 b e i ric. In digging, 
 
 : were ? ;: :.e::r ir. r:.:er . : ur. 
 
 The cuirass was of gold, and also the helm- 
 h -■ rue : e -- z .-. ere :e: ir. hue herr.e: £.nd ir. :r e 
 : :he 5 ■'■'.::.' U nf ortunately, most of this 
 pre::; us irrr. ::: v;l: ::.er. be:h re 
 rr.eru ever hearb ::" : : :.- 
 
 few pieces of the cuirass were got back again. 
 These are in the Museum at Ravenna, r- r e 
 eerie :hir.h :he sue! . r. ia rue 1 
 -s :hu :: 1 :' uuui; ':;: :: seerr.s uu ;uu 
 :e.v :; have beer. :ha: :: .he rriuruv 
 1 he: b:ri: hirr.sei: 
 
 The:b:ri: is :ue :: a.vse rr.er. -vh:rr. 
 sheuib have bear.v iiueb :: see ir his hs-bi: s.s 
 he ii eb hub :uis raukes i: : 
 
 cus :ha: :he urea: rr.esai: bvure ::' hiu 
 once adorned his :e has . :r.v 
 
 irreareu I here : ~h: =u 
 
 solendid golden statue of Theodoric on horse- 
 back, but tha: is supposed to have been carried 
 :a :: Aix-ia- bhireiie b _ veure svrb 
 
 _ . 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 61 
 
 was still there three hundred years after 
 Theodoric's death. 
 
 Theodoric's name lived on in after years in 
 many of the romantic tales and poems of the 
 Middle Ages. We know that in those old epic 
 poems, or Sagas, of the German and Scandina- 
 vian peoples he is called Dietrich of Bern, 
 Bern being their name for Verona, which town 
 Theodoric conquered. 
 
 The stories told by those German and 
 Scandinavian minstrels were chiefly about 
 fighting and about wild adventures. Some of 
 them you will find in a very delightful English 
 book about Theodoric. One little story we 
 will tell again here, as it has to do with Theo- 
 doric's death. 
 
 It is said that when he grew old, Theodoric 
 still continued to be a great hunter, and spent 
 much of his life in chasing beasts in the forests. 
 One day, when he was bathing in some pool in 
 the forest, one of his grooms called out to him 
 that a very fine stag had just rushed through 
 the wood. Theodoric threw a cloak round 
 him and called for his horse, so as to give 
 chase at once. While he was waiting, lo and 
 behold, a splendid coal-black steed suddenly 
 appeared ! Theodoric sprang on to its back, 
 and the great horse flew off with him, so 
 swiftly that none could follow. Theodoric 
 found that this was no ordinary horse, and he 
 
62 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 vainly tried to dismount. He called out to his 
 servant, who was trying to follow him, " This 
 must be the foul fiend on which I ride. Yet 
 will I return, if God wills and Holy Mary." 
 
 Theodoric then vanished, and has never 
 again been seen ; but some say that he was 
 saved, because in that last awful ride he called 
 on the name of God and on the Virgin Mary. 
 
 On the porch of the great Church of San 
 Zeno at Verona there is a carving which is 
 supposed to represent the scene described in 
 this old story. Perhaps you will one day see 
 it for yourselves. The very fact that Theodoric 
 was the hero of so many of these poems shows 
 us what a great impression he made on the 
 minds of the people of his day, and how all 
 those Germanic tribes remembered him. 
 
 The Saga stories are not at all like the real 
 history of Theodoric, but they are interesting, 
 both in themselves and in what they tell us 
 about the thoughts and feelings of the people 
 of those days. 
 
 With the death of Theodoric, the sun of the 
 Gothic kingdom began to set, and their power 
 gradually waned. Amalasuntha, daughter of 
 Theodoric, continued to reign at Ravenna as 
 regent for her young son, Athalaric. But 
 Athalaric died when he was only eighteen, and 
 Amalasuntha was murdered by foul treachery 
 while a prisoner on a little island on the Lake 
 
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH 63 
 
 of Bolsena, in 535. The Gothic kings who 
 reigned afterwards, — Witiges, the brave and 
 splendid young Totila, and lastly, Teias, — after 
 many famous fights, were defeated by the 
 celebrated generals of the Emperor Justinian, 
 Belisarius and Narses, and the Goths were 
 driven out of Italy for ever, in the year 553. 
 
 Thus ended one of the great stories of 
 Italian history, the story of the Ostrogoths, 
 and of their king, Theodoric. We, who now 
 happily see the kingdom of United Italy, may 
 feel that Theodoric's wish has come true at 
 last, and that it has come true in a better way 
 than Theodoric dreamed of; for the Italians 
 have a king of their own, and no stranger. 
 Still, let us remember Theodoric and his 
 vision of a United Italy in those far-off days. 
 
Ill 
 
 ST. BENEDICT 
 
 "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad 
 for them ; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the 
 rose." — ISA. xxxv. I. 
 
 When we travel about, either here in England 
 or in other countries of Europe, we often see 
 grand and beautiful cathedrals, abbeys, and 
 other churches. Some of these are still stately 
 and perfect, and used daily, such as West- 
 minster Abbey, Gloucester Cathedral, and 
 St. Albans. Others are in ruins ; very lovely 
 and very interesting, although the praises of 
 God are no longer sung in them. Among 
 these ruined churches some of the most famous 
 are Glastonbury Abbey in Somersetshire, 
 Tintern Abbey on the banks of the Wye, 
 Battle Abbey near Hastings, Fountains and 
 Rievaulx in Yorkshire. When we visit these 
 celebrated churches, or see them from afar as 
 we pass on our journeys, do we ever think for 
 a moment of how or why they came to be 
 there at all, or who built them ? If we asked 
 
 that question, we should be told that most of 
 
 6 4 
 
ST. BENEDICT 65 
 
 these glorious churches belonged to Benedictine 
 abbeys, and were built for and by Benedictine 
 monks. 
 
 We should then probably have to ask what 
 we mean by a " Benedictine " monk, and why 
 those monks were so called. 
 
 For answers to these questions, we shall 
 have to go far away to Italy, and to a time 
 very long ago. We shall have to remember 
 one of the many debts which Europe, and 
 indeed the whole civilised world, owes to Italy. 
 
 In the year 480, four years after the Roman 
 Empire of the West had been swept away by 
 Odovacar, the great man we now know as 
 St. Benedict was born at Norcia, a solitary little 
 town in the Apennine uplands. Norcia, "cold 
 Nursia' as it was called, is not far from 
 Spoleto, which is an important town about 
 eighty miles from Rome, on that great north 
 road which is named the Flaminian Way, 
 after the Consul C. Flaminius, who made the 
 road in the year 220 B.C. 
 
 While Benedict was still quite young, he 
 was sent away to be educated in Rome. He 
 became very much grieved and horrified at all 
 the wickedness he saw in the great city, and 
 although he was still only a boy, he felt that 
 he must go away, and escape into some 
 solitary place far from the evil kind of life he 
 saw all around him in Rome. 
 5 
 
s-?-;; e : ' ■. 7ai:a>» h:.5T".it 
 
 ; ..- - : v. * l£ .: :; .:- " '-• 
 
 £i.   " .   . . " 
 
 die 
 
 - . : " : - ' .   : 
 
 t .:. :   : :. 2 . : - . : : : 
 
   - - • . . : " - . : - " - . - - 
 
 \-'.. ' " ' - : Ifi . " - - '-..'.'. 
 
 . - - - 
 
 - 
 
 -..-:. . . 
 
ST. BE V 'ZDICT 67 
 
 We should also try to understand that some 
 of these 5:jries mav have an inner meaning 
 and are mean : : teach .. ; something. 
 
 Bened::: found that so many people crowded 
 to see him after hearinsr of this miracle th 
 he resolv ed 0: ?c :o a much wilder and 
 
 more desolate place 5 -.ill. So he tied secre: 
 :".- >m even.' one, even from his nurse, and went 
 farther ::z .:... the mountains, to a place called 
 Subiaco. 
 
 Subiaco is forty-four miles from Rome, in a 
 beautiful rocky vallev .7 wooded. Long- 
 
 years before St. Benedict's time, the Emperor 
 ! "ero had a villa, or country-house, there, and 
 had made some pretty artificial lakes, which 
 we the place its Roman name of Sublaqueum, 
 'under the lake." This name has been turned 
 in: . : I Ealian 5 . .aco. 
 
 Al Subii.:: Benedict met a monk named 
 Roman -5 =nd with his help he found a cave 
 at the foot of a hill, — rarj iifEcult to get at, — 
 where he -zesst three years almost entirely 
 alone, in prayer and fasting and meditation. 
 His only food was brought to him by the 
 rr. : r. •: Romanus, who used to give him part 
 of his own scanty portion. After a time, for 
 somt reason, Romanus ceased to bring 
 Benedict any food. It is possible that Romanus 
 had died. Benedict, meanwhile, nearly starved 
 with hunger. 
 
68 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 We hear, however, that at Easter-time a 
 certain priest who lived a long way off had a 
 vision in the night. In this vision he was told 
 by our Lord that a certain servant of His, who 
 lived in a cavern near Subiaco, was tortured by 
 the pangs of hunger. 
 
 The priest had been preparing an Easter 
 meal for himself, after the Lenten fast, so he 
 arose at once, took his food with him, and set 
 off for Subiaco on that early Easter morning. 
 At last he found Benedict, and after they had 
 prayed and talked together for a time, the 
 priest begged Benedict to share his food and to 
 eat, as it was Easter Day. Thus Benedict 
 broke his long fast, and he and the priest ate 
 and drank together. 
 
 After this visit of the priest, Benedict's 
 hiding-place became known, and some of the 
 mountain shepherds, when they first saw him 
 in his dress of sheepskin, thought he must be a 
 wild beast. But when they drew near, and 
 Benedict spoke to them, his gentleness and his 
 beautiful words so won their hearts that they 
 soon became Christians. 
 
 It is said that during his strange, lonely life 
 in the cave Benedict had to struggle with 
 many temptations to evil thoughts and deeds, 
 which he manfully resisted and overcame. One 
 story tells how that once when some great 
 temptation came to him, he conquered the bad 
 
ST. BENEDICT 69 
 
 thoughts by rolling in some prickly briers, 
 which tore his flesh. The old story says that 
 the thorns turned to roses, but the roses which 
 now grow in the convent garden at Subiaco 
 are said to have been planted there by St. 
 Francis, in memory of St. Benedict, and are 
 not the briers of St. Benedict's own day. 
 
 Not long after this time, the monks of the 
 convent of Vicovaro, not far from Subiaco, 
 sent to beg Benedict to be their abbot. 
 Benedict at first refused, saying that he knew 
 the monks would never endure his strict rule ; 
 but at length he yielded, and went to Vicovaro 
 to be abbot. However, Benedict proved to 
 have been quite right in what he said. The 
 monks got to hate his strictness, and at last 
 they even tried to poison him in a cup of wine. 
 When the poisoned cup was offered to him, 
 Benedict, as his custom was, made the sign of 
 the cross over it. The cup at once broke in 
 pieces, and the wine was spilt. Benedict in- 
 stantly understood what the monks had done, 
 and he rose and spoke to them, saying quite 
 calmly, "Almighty God pity you, my brethren. 
 Why have ye designed this wickedness against 
 me ? Said I not unto you that my ways and 
 yours could never agree ? Go and seek an 
 abbot after your own heart, for me ye shall see 
 here no more." 
 
 Thus Benedict left Vicovaro, and went back 
 
70 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 to his beautiful, wild Subiaco. During the 
 twenty years that followed, numbers of people 
 flocked to him to be taught, and as many 
 as twelve monasteries were established near 
 Subiaco. Benedict himself lived in a small 
 house above the cavern where he had spent 
 such a long time. On that spot there now 
 stands the wonderful convent of the Sacro 
 Speco, or " Holy Cave." That monastery is 
 so strange and so beautiful that we must say 
 something specially about it. 
 
 In order to reach the monastery, people have 
 to walk some way from the little town of 
 Subiaco itself. A wide, shady road climbs 
 gently round the valley, and then, at a turn in 
 this high road, a steep — very steep — path leads 
 right up the rocky ridge of the hill, on which 
 two monasteries are built. The first of these 
 is called Santa Scholastica, after the sister of 
 St. Benedict. The first books printed in Italy 
 were printed at this monastery, just as the 
 first books printed in England were printed 
 by Caxton under the shadow of the Bene- 
 dictine Abbey of Westminster. 
 
 From Santa Scholastica the path climbs 
 on and on, getting very rough near the top. 
 Down below is the deep, narrow gorge of the 
 river Anio, and the steep hillsides are covered 
 with thick and beautiful forest, through which 
 the rocks peep here and there. At last the 
 
Photo] [Brogi. 
 
 THE " SCALA SANTA" IN THE MONASTERY OF THE "SACRO SPECO " 
 
 AT SUBIACO. 
 
ST. BENEDICT 71 
 
 path ends at a stone gateway, leading into an 
 avenue of pines, and the avenue ends at the 
 famous monastery of the Sacro Speco. At 
 the entrance there is the following inscription : 
 11 Here is the cradle of the Order of St. 
 Benedict, Patriarch of the Monks of the West." 
 
 The church, or rather churches, and the 
 monastic buildings are so built into the steep, 
 rocky mountain-side that it is hardly possible 
 to tell where one ends and the other begins. 
 The buildings literally cling to the rock, and 
 overhang the precipice. From the terrace and 
 the garden where St. Francis's roses grow, 
 there is a most lovely view, and the very air 
 seems full of the memories of holy lives. The 
 monks are most kind, and take great trouble 
 to show all the beautiful and interesting things 
 in the churches and convent. There are really 
 three churches, one above another, and in one 
 of them is the cave where Benedict " dwelt 
 alone with himself," as St. Gregory says. 
 
 The walls of the various chapels and stair- 
 ways are nearly all covered with beautiful 
 frescoes, and some of these pictures represent 
 well-known stories of St. Benedict's life. 
 
 One picture in the Middle Church tells the 
 story of Maurus and Placidus, two of St. 
 Benedict's pupils. The story is as follows : — 
 
 While St. Benedict was still at Subiaco, the 
 Roman nobles began to bring their sons to 
 
72 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 him to be educated. About the year 523, 
 two boys, named Maurus and Placidus, were 
 brought to Subiaco and placed under Benedict's 
 care. 
 
 One day, when the little Placidus had gone 
 to draw water from the lake, he fell in, and was 
 swept far away by the swift current. Now, 
 just at the time, St. Benedict was praying in 
 his cell, and suddenly he called out, " Brother 
 Maurus, run ! That child has fallen into the 
 water, and is being carried away by the stream." 
 Maurus stayed for one moment to receive St. 
 Benedict's blessing, then rushed off, ran across 
 the lake, and pulled Placidus out, never 
 noticing that he had walked on the water. He 
 afterwards trembled with fear and astonishment 
 at what he had done, and came and told St. 
 Benedict, who said that he, Maurus, had been 
 able to do this wonderful thing as a reward for 
 his instant obedience. But Maurus declared 
 that it must have been an answer to the prayer 
 of St. Benedict, while Placidus said he had 
 seen St. Benedict's cloak hovering over him 
 while he was in the water. St. Maurus after- 
 wards became the great teacher of the 
 Benedictine rule in France. His name is 
 familiar to us all in the surname of St. Maur, 
 or Seymour, just as we constantly hear the 
 name Benedict as Bennet or Bennett. 
 
 Another picture, one of those in the Upper 
 
H 
 
 
 U- 
 
 , — , 
 
 5. 
 
 6 
 a 
 
 w 
 
 
 z 
 
 2 
 
 w 
 
 u 
 
 M 
 
 Cm 
 
 H 
 
 
 1/3 
 
 
 V 
 
 H 
 
 </) 
 < 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 c 
 
 3 
 
 Si 
 
 C/3 
 
 ;/3 
 
ST. BENEDICT 73 
 
 Church, represents the touching story of the 
 last meal of St. Benedict and his sister, St. 
 Scholastica. St. Scholastica, who was a nun, 
 seems to have lived in a cell quite near St. 
 Benedict, first at Subiaco, and then at Monte 
 Cassino, of which we shall speak presently. 
 Once a year Benedict used to visit her, and 
 one day, when the time for the usual visit had 
 come, he took a few of his pupils with him, and 
 spent the day with his sister. The brother and 
 sister passed their time chiefly in prayer and 
 praise together. When the evening came, and 
 they were sitting at supper, Scholastica begged 
 and begged that her brother would stay on ; 
 but Benedict said he must return to his own 
 cell. Scholastica clasped her hands tightly 
 together, and bowed her head in prayer. 
 When she at last looked up, the evening sky, 
 which had been clear and bright, grew dark 
 with clouds, and so fearful a storm of thunder, 
 lightning, and rain came on that Benedict and 
 his companions could not possibly leave the 
 cell. Benedict turned to his sister, exclaim- 
 ing, " What is this that thou hast done ? ' 
 Scholastica answered that as he had refused to 
 stay with her, she had prayed God to grant her 
 request. Her prayer had been heard, and now 
 Benedict could not leave her. Benedict was 
 satisfied that this was a Divine answer to 
 prayer, so he remained, and he and his sister 
 
74 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 spent the night in happy talk of spiritual 
 things. 
 
 When morning came, Benedict went back to 
 his cell, and three days afterwards he had a 
 vision of a white dove that was flying heaven- 
 wards. Then he knew that his sister 
 Scholastica was dead, and he sent some of his 
 monks to bring her body and bury it in the 
 place where he himself was also to be buried. 
 
 But we must go on with the story of St. 
 Benedict's life and work. 
 
 After some years, he began to find that he 
 could no longer have as much peace and quiet- 
 ness as he wished at Subiaco, and therefore 
 he left the monasteries he had founded and 
 built there to be ruled by abbots of their own, 
 and went southwards, to a part of Italy about 
 half-way betwen Rome and Naples. Here, on 
 a high tableland, on a spot where Apollo used 
 to be worshipped, Benedict built two chapels, 
 one dedicated to St. Martin and the other to St. 
 John ; and here arose what afterwards became 
 the greatest and most important monastery of 
 Western Europe, the famous monastery of 
 Monte Cassino. 
 
 St. Benedict came to Monte Cassino in 528, 
 and spent the last fifteen years of his life there. 
 It was at Monte Cassino that his famous meet- 
 ing with the last Gothic king, Totila, took 
 place. It is a curious story, showing St. 
 
ST. BENEDICT 75 
 
 Benedict's power of knowing hidden things, 
 and how he could tell what people were 
 thinking". 
 
 Totila had heard that St. Benedict possessed 
 the spirit of prophecy, and sent a message to 
 say that he was coming to see him. But 
 Totila did not really quite believe in St. Bene- 
 dict's powers, so he made his sword-bearer 
 dress up in the royal robes, and commanded 
 him to go to Monte Cassino and pretend to be 
 the king. 
 
 The sword-bearer accordingly went, accom- 
 panied by three nobles, just as if he were King 
 Totila himself. They entered the monastery, 
 but before they got near St. Benedict, he 
 called out to the pretended King, " Put off, my 
 son, put off that which thou wearest. It is not 
 thine." Then the sword-bearer fell to the 
 ground in terror, and he and his companions 
 all hurried back to their King. After this, Totila 
 himself came, and it is said that he fell prostrate 
 at the feet of St. Benedict, who raised him up 
 and spoke to him very solemnly. He rebuked 
 him for his cruelties, and foretold his wars, his 
 conquest of Rome, his nine years' reign, and 
 his death. It is said that the words of St. 
 Benedict had a great effect upon Totila, and 
 that from this time onwards he was much less 
 cruel in war, and much stricter with his soldiers. 
 
 The great monastery at Monte Cassino was 
 
76 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 destroyed by the Lombards in either 589 or 
 590, and the monks fled for safety elsewhere. 
 The monastery was not restored until 130 
 years later, when it was rebuilt. In the 
 eighth century a very famous man came to 
 Monte Cassino as a monk. This was Carlo- 
 man, uncle of Charlemagne, who ruled over 
 the eastern part of the Frankish dominions, 
 while his brother Pippin ruled over the western. 
 Carloman is said to have been stricken with 
 remorse after a cruel slaughter of the rebellious 
 Alamanni at Cannstadt, and in 747 he ab- 
 dicated, and became a monk. He spent some 
 years at Monte Cassino, performing the hum- 
 blest offices, and patiently submitting to the 
 discipline, no one at first knowing who he was. 
 It is strange to think of this Frankish warrior- 
 king retiring to that far-off monastery and 
 seeking for peace under the rule of St. 
 Benedict. 
 
 The Order of St. Benedict spread rapidly all 
 over the West. Spain, Gaul, England, and at 
 last Germany also, became filled with Bene- 
 dictine monasteries. For centuries the Bene- 
 dictine monks were the civilisers and educators 
 of Europe, and their great army all looked to 
 Monte Cassino for the guidance and pattern of 
 their life. Thus Monte Cassino came to be 
 looked upon as indeed a holy place, like Rome 
 or Jerusalem. All Christians thought of Monte 
 
ST. BENEDICT 77 
 
 Cassino with reverence and gratitude, and we 
 may very well do so too, when we think of 
 what most people in Europe owe to St. Benedict 
 and his monks. 
 
 St. Benedict allowed no idleness. His monks 
 had to divide their time between prayer, study, 
 and labour with their hands ; their rule of life 
 was also very strict as to food, clothes, and 
 hours of rest. Few of us would like to work as 
 hard as they did. The monks used to do a 
 great deal of copying and transcribing. They 
 copied missals, books on religious subjects, as 
 well as ancient poems and histories, and in this 
 way they preserved for us many of the great 
 deeds and thoughts of the old Greeks and 
 Romans. They also taught, not only the arts 
 and sciences, but agriculture and handicrafts in 
 many of the countries of Europe, and thus did 
 a great and lasting service to mankind. 
 
 We may take one instance alone — one which 
 ought to have a special interest for us English 
 folk — and that is the great work done for 
 education in the eighth century by the famous 
 Alcuin, the friend, adviser, and teacher of the 
 mighty Charlemagne himself. 
 
 Alcuin was a Northumbrian, and belonged 
 to a noble Anglian family. He was sent to be 
 educated at the great cloister-school at York, 
 under Archbishop Egbert, who had been a 
 pupil of the Venerable Bede. 
 
78 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 The name of the Venerable Bede will always 
 be remembered by English people, not only 
 because he wrote a very interesting Ecclesi- 
 astical History, but chiefly because he was a 
 most learned and saintly man. Bede was a 
 monk in the Benedictine monasteries of Wear- 
 mouth and Jarrow, monasteries founded in the 
 seventh century by another Northumbrian, 
 whose name was Benedict Biscop. This reminds 
 us that the Benedictine rule was first brought 
 to England by St. Augustine of Canterbury, who 
 was himself a Benedictine monk, and who died 
 not many years before Wearmouth was 
 founded. 
 
 But to return to Alcuin. We can see that 
 the influence of the Venerable Bede's life and 
 teaching descended upon him, and bore fruit in 
 the work he did for the vast dominions of 
 Charlemagne. Alcuin was the head of the 
 famous Palatine School, which was the centre 
 of the great revival of learning in Charlemagne's 
 time. 
 
 During the last eight years of his life he was 
 Abbot of St. Martin's at Tours ; there he re- 
 stored the strictness of the Benedictine rule, 
 and founded a school and library which became 
 celebrated throughout Europe. Alcuin died at 
 Tours on May 19th, 804, and was buried in the 
 Church of St. Martin. Because of what he did 
 for education, he may be counted as one of the 
 
ST. BENEDICT 79 
 
 men who did most good in Europe during the 
 early Middle Ages, and his work helps us to 
 understand what the Benedictines did in those 
 far-off days for the civilisation of the Western 
 world. 
 
 We must now say a few last words about 
 St. Benedict's death, which happened not long 
 after the death of his sister, Santa Scholastica. 
 St. Benedict had had a very wonderful vision 
 just at the moment of the death of one of his 
 great friends, and shortly after this he himself 
 fell ill. Six days before he died, he ordered 
 his grave to be made, close to where his sister 
 Scholastica lay, and just on the spot where 
 Benedict had overthrown the altar of Apollo 
 when he first came to Monte Cassino fifteen 
 years before. We are told that St. Benedict 
 died supported in the arms of his faithful 
 disciples, and with his hands upraised in prayer. 
 This was on March 21st, 543. 
 
 His death was mysteriously announced in a 
 vision to a monk who was in his cell at Monte 
 Cassino, and also to his beloved pupil St. 
 Maurus, who was then at Auxerre, in France. 
 
 These two men both had the same vision. 
 They beheld a pathway of brilliant light which 
 stretched eastward from St. Benedict's cell into 
 the depths of heaven. A venerable man with 
 a radiant countenance seemed to stand at their 
 side, and he asked if they knew what that 
 
8o STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 shining pathway was. They answered that 
 they did not know, and then he said to them, 
 " This is the path by which Benedict, beloved 
 of God, hath ascended up to heaven." 
 
 One of the devices used by the Benedictines 
 is the word " Pax," or " Peace," surrounded 
 by a crown of thorns. This device is chosen 
 by the English Congregation of the Order of 
 St. Benedict as meaning that true peace is only 
 to be found in self-denial, a thought which is 
 indeed brought home to us when we think how 
 St. Benedict himself lived. Once again we 
 may remind ourselves of the great work St. 
 Benedict and his monks did in and for a world 
 which then seemed to be falling into ruins, and 
 in which learning and civilisation were in danger 
 of being trampled out under the feet of the 
 barbarian nations. As we think of all the long 
 centuries of patient toil with head and hand, 
 we may feel that Benedict's name, "the blessed 
 one," was well deserved, and we may say, with 
 his devoted disciple, " May God enable us to 
 follow our master along this heavenward 
 way ! 
 
IV 
 
 THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 
 
 "Accipe Signum Gloriae!" 
 
 In these days of much travelling, many of 
 you are very likely to cross the great chain 
 of the Alps, and to come down to Milan, the 
 chief town of Lombardy, and now the most 
 important town in Northern Italy. 
 
 While you are there, you will perhaps take 
 the short journey to the little town of Monza, 
 which lies about eight miles to the north of 
 Milan, and there you will go to the Cathedral 
 to see the famous Iron Crown of Lombardy. 
 This present chapter has to do with the Iron 
 Crown and its story. That story will help to 
 explain why and how that grand plain in 
 Northern Italy came to be called Lombardy. 
 
 If you ask for the crown to be shown to 
 you, a priest will come, and will solemnly un- 
 lock the case in which it is kept, and which 
 stands on an altar in one of the chapels. The 
 candles will be lighted, incense will be burned, 
 
 and prayer will be said, because the Iron 
 6 
 
82 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Crown is looked upon as a sacred thing. You 
 will ask why this is. It is because the narrow 
 iron band inside the crown, and from which it 
 takes its name, is believed to be made out of 
 one of the nails used at the Crucifixion, and 
 is said to have been brought from Jerusalem 
 by the Empress Helena, mother of the 
 Emperor Constantine the Great. 
 
 It is thought that the precious ring of iron 
 was attached to a crown given to the Emperor 
 Constantine by his mother, and worn by him 
 on his helmet. 
 
 The crown itself is of gold. It is small, 
 being only six inches in diameter, and about 
 two and a half inches high. It is made in six 
 plates of gold, each double, and joined by 
 hinges. The crown is adorned by twenty-six 
 golden roses, twenty-two jewels, chiefly pearls 
 and emeralds, and twenty-four beautiful enamels. 
 Inside the crown is fastened the thin, narrow 
 ring of iron from which it takes its name. 
 The workmanship of the crown shows that it 
 is Byzantine (that is, made at Constantinople, 
 or by Byzantine craftsmen), and therefore there 
 may be some truth in the old tradition which 
 says that it was given to Constantine the Great 
 by his mother, Helena. 
 
 Again we are told that after Constantine's 
 death, this crown was placed in the Church of 
 Santa Sophia, the famous church built at 
 
QUEEN THEUDELINDA'S HEX AND CHICKENS. 
 
 (Cathedral Treasury at Monza. > 
 
 THE IRON CROWN OF LoMBARDY. 
 (Monza Cathedral.) 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 83 
 
 Constantinople by the Emperor Justinian. 
 Here it remained until the reign of the 
 Emperor Tiberius (578-582), at which time 
 Gregory the Great was sent as Nuncio to 
 Constantinople by Pope Pelagius 11. The 
 Emperor had a great regard for Gregory; and 
 when Gregory left Constantinople, Tiberius is 
 said to have given him many precious relics 
 to take back to Rome, and among them the 
 crown of Constantine containing the sacred nail. 
 
 Some years later, when Gregory had become 
 Pope, we hear that he sent this crown to the 
 celebrated Lombard queen, Theudelinda, who, 
 in her turn, presented it to the church which 
 she founded at Monza. 
 
 It is always difficult to disentangle the true 
 from the false in these old stories which have 
 been handed down to us from past generations 
 and far-off ages. One thing is certain, namely, 
 that the Iron Crown of Lombardy, like our 
 own Stone of Scone, has been an object of 
 care and reverence for many hundreds of 
 years, and we may be sure that such reverence 
 is never foolish and unmeaning. 
 
 When you look at this crown, you must try 
 to remember the many celebrated people who 
 have been crowned with it. Tradition says 
 that it was used for Charlemagne ; Otto the 
 Great was crowned with it, also the Emperor 
 Frederick Barbarossa. Nearer to our own 
 
84 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 time, it was taken with great pomp to Bologna 
 for the coronation of the Emperor Charles v. 
 in 1530. On that occasion Charles was 
 crowned both Emperor of the Romans and 
 King of Lombardy by Pope Clement vn. You 
 will read more about that great ceremony in 
 another of these stories. 
 
 Nearer again to our own days, the Iron 
 Crown has had strange adventures. 
 
 In the year 1805, when Napoleon 1. had 
 conquered a large part of Europe, and had 
 become Emperor of the French, the Iron 
 Crown was carried with great pomp from 
 Monza to Milan, and on May 25th, 1805, 
 Napoleon crowned himself with the Iron Crown 
 as King of Italy. 
 
 As he placed the crown on his head, 
 Napoleon uttered the words which have 
 become famous : " Dio me 1' ha data, guai a 
 chi la tocchera ! ' (God has given it to me. 
 Woe to him who shall touch it !). 
 
 In after years, when Napoleon's strange and 
 wonderful empire had been shattered, and he 
 had died, a prisoner at St. Helena, the Iron 
 Crown was used for the coronation of two 
 Austrian Emperors as Kings of Lombardy. 
 In 1859, when the war of Italian Independence 
 was at its height, the Austrians took the 
 crown away to Vienna for safety, and it was 
 brought back only in 1866. 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 85 
 
 The Iron Crown is now, happily, used for 
 the coronation of the Kings of United Italy, 
 and the present King of Italy wore it when he 
 made his first address to the Italian nation in 
 the assembled Parliament. 
 
 But now, after hearing so much about the 
 Lombard Crown, you will naturally ask who 
 these Lombards were, where they came from, 
 and why they were in Italy. You will perhaps 
 ask, too, how they got the name "Lombard," 
 a name borne by a very well-known street 
 in the city of London. 
 
 The earliest stories of the Lombards tell us 
 that they dwelt long ago on the shores of the 
 river Elbe, in the parts of Germany now known 
 as Holstein, Mecklenburg, and Hanover. 
 Some of their nearest neighbours were our 
 own forefathers, the Angli. 
 
 Most people agree that the name " Lombard ' 
 (or Langobardi, as the Romans called them) 
 means the " lonor-bearded men." But another 
 
 o 
 
 idea is that the name has something to do with 
 the long axes, or halberds, which the Lombards 
 used, or perhaps with their ancient dwelling- 
 place on the long shore of the great river 
 Elbe. 
 
 There is a curious old story, or " Saga," 
 about the meaning of the name " Lombard." 
 This is told for us in English in a very 
 interesting book which you must one day read 
 
86 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 for yourselves. It is as follows : — Long ago, 
 in Scandinavia, the powerful Vandals wanted 
 to make a little tribe, called the Winnili, pay- 
 tribute to them. The Winnili said they would 
 make ready to fight the Vandals rather than 
 pay. Some of the Winnili tribe prayed to 
 their god Odin to give them victory in the 
 battle, and he answered that he would give 
 the victory to the nation whom he first looked 
 upon at sunrise. Then the Winnili prayed 
 to the goddess Freya, the wife of Odin, and 
 she gave them the following advice about what 
 they were to do. The Winnili were all to 
 gather together before Odin's eastern window, 
 and they were to have their wives with them. 
 The women were to let their hair down, and 
 bring it all round their faces as if it were a 
 beard. The Winnili obeyed, and then, when 
 the sun was just rising, Freya awoke Odin, 
 and told him to look out of his eastern window. 
 He looked out, and saw the Winnili waiting 
 patiently there. Odin asked, "Who are these 
 long-bearded ones ? " and Freya answered, 
 " As thou hast given them the name Lango- 
 bardi, so give them the victory." Odin gave 
 them the victory, and from that day the Winnili 
 were called the Langobardi. The same book 
 tells us that in the old heathen days the tribes 
 who lived near the Langobardi, and probably 
 the Langobardi themselves, used to worship 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 87 
 
 a goddess whom they called Hertha, or Mother 
 Earth, and it describes one of their religious 
 rites. 
 
 The priest of Hertha lived on a lonely 
 island (perhaps Heligoland or Rugen), and 
 guarded the image and chariot of the goddess, 
 which were kept in a sacred grove of trees. 
 Once a year the priest crossed to the main- 
 land, bringing with him the image and the 
 chariot. The image was held in great rever- 
 ence ; it was always closely veiled, and it was 
 death to behold it. 
 
 When the priest had landed, the image of 
 Hertha was placed on the chariot. The 
 chariot was drawn along by cows, and the 
 procession was greeted with feastings and 
 rejoicings wherever it passed. 
 
 When all was done, the image and the 
 chariot were taken back to the little island, 
 and there a very cruel ceremony seems to 
 have taken place. The chariot, the image, 
 and the robe were washed in a sacred lake ; 
 but the poor slaves who had washed them 
 were afterwards drowned, for no one might 
 see the image and live. Then the priest once 
 more remained alone with the image on the 
 wild, solitary island of the ocean. 
 
 Now, like all the barbarian nations, the 
 Lombards (as we shall now call them) looked 
 longingly southwards and sunwards, towards 
 
88 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 brighter and more fertile countries. Early in 
 the sixth century after Christ we find that they 
 have wandered far away from their old Scan- 
 dinavian and North German homes, that they 
 have reached the shores of the river Danube, 
 and that they are living in the wide plains 
 of Hungary, which they called the "Feld." 
 Their history at this time is chiefly about wars 
 with other barbarian nations. They fought 
 with the savage Heruli, and defeated them. 
 Then they had a great war with the Gepidae, 
 the same people who, more than seventy years 
 before, had refused to let Theodoric and his 
 Goths pass through their country on the way 
 to Italy. 
 
 When the feud with the Gepidae first began, 
 the Lombards were ruled by a king called 
 Audoin, who reigned over them from about 
 546 to 565. Both the Lombards and the 
 Gepidae appealed to the Emperor Justinian 
 to decide between them. The Emperor had 
 already allowed the Lombards to cross the 
 Danube, and to settle in the countries we 
 now call Styria, Salzburg, and Carinthia, and 
 now he decided to help them against the 
 Gepidae. The two barbarian nations probably 
 took fright at the idea of Roman soldiers 
 interfering between them, as they always had 
 a great fear of really civilised races. So they 
 patched up a peace which lasted for about 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 89 
 
 two years, but after that time the war broke 
 out again more fiercely than ever. The 
 Lombards were victorious, and the champion 
 of the Gepidae, Prince Thorisind, was slain 
 by Alboin, son of the Lombard king, Audoin. 
 Some years after this, the two nations had yet 
 another war. King Audoin was now dead, and 
 had been succeeded by his son, the fierce and 
 famous Alboin, who led his people to battle. 
 
 Alboin slew the Gepid king, Cunimund, in 
 a hand-to-hand combat. He afterwards cut 
 off Cunimund's head, and made a drinking-cup 
 out of his skull. It is said that this cup or 
 goblet was adorned with costly pearls, and 
 it was used by Alboin at solemn festivals. 
 This savage behaviour seems all the more 
 dreadful when we remember that Alboin's 
 second wife was the beautiful Rosamund, 
 daughter of this very King Cunimund, whom 
 he had slain. We shall hear more about 
 Rosamund before long. It is no wonder that 
 the Lombards were looked upon as a specially 
 ferocious and destructive race. They were 
 evidently ruder and wilder than some of the 
 other barbarian peoples who had invaded the 
 Roman Empire, and it was a long time before 
 they became really civilised. The invading 
 Lombards were mixed, too, with other races, 
 such as the Saxons and Sclaves. At the time 
 of which we are speaking, the Lombards had 
 
go STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 become Christians, but they held Christianity in 
 its Arian form, as the Goths had done, and were 
 not Catholics. At first they used to persecute 
 those who did not agree with them, and it 
 was many years before they became Catholics. 
 This difference of religion was one reason why 
 the Lombards seemed rather apart from other 
 Western nations, and their fierce persecution 
 of other Christians made many political diffi- 
 culties in their later history. 
 
 We now come to one of the most important 
 things in all the Lombard history. 
 
 In 568 the Lombards, under King Alboin, 
 invaded Italy. They crossed the mountains by 
 much the same road as the Goths had done 
 before them, and came down, just as the Goths 
 had done, into the north-east corner of Italy. 
 They marched through Venetia, and took the 
 towns of Vicenza and Verona. The next year, 
 Alboin overran Liguria, that part of Italy 
 where Genoa is, and which in modern days we 
 call the Italian Riviera. He then took the 
 town of Milan, and now called himself " Lord 
 of Italy." 
 
 In this same year, 569, Alboin laid siege to 
 the important town of Pavia. The inhabitants 
 made a desperate resistance, and held out for 
 three years. Alboin was so enraged at their 
 stubborn defence of their city, that he vowed 
 he would put every one of the people to death 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 91 
 
 by the sword, if he ever got into the town. At 
 last the citizens were obliged to surrender, and 
 a curious story is told about Alboin's entry into 
 the town. As he was riding in as conqueror, 
 his horse fell under him — just in the gateway. 
 Nothing could make his horse get up again. 
 Then one of the Lombard soldiers called out 
 to Alboin to remember how he had made a 
 cruel and barbarous vow to kill all the people 
 in Pavia. The soldier advised the King to 
 recall that vow, and told him that then he 
 would be able to enter the city. Alboin took 
 his soldier's advice, and unsaid his terrible vow 
 of vengeance. The horse immediately arose, 
 and Alboin rode into the town, where he took 
 up his abode in the palace built by the great 
 King Theodoric. The fine town of Pavia, 
 which stands on the banks of the beautiful 
 river Ticino, afterwards became the Lombard 
 capital. It is interesting for English people to 
 remember that Pavia was the birthplace of the 
 great teacher, Lanfranc, who was Archbishop 
 of Canterbury in the reigns of William the 
 Conqueror and William Rufus. Lanfranc had 
 come over from Lombardy into France, and then 
 into Normandy, where he became a monk in 
 the famous monastery of Bee. This was how 
 he got to be a trusted friend and adviser of the 
 Conqueror, who brought him over to England 
 to be Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
92 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 But we must go back to our story. 
 
 The Lombards quickly conquered the greater 
 part of Italy, excepting Rome and the country 
 round it, and a few provinces and cities on the 
 seacoast, such as Ravenna, Ancona, Naples, 
 and others. These, and some few other cities 
 in Italy, remained " Roman " ; that is, they still 
 belonged to the Empire. A great plague had 
 been raging in Italy just about this time, and 
 no doubt this plague made it easier for the 
 Lombards to win all these victories over the 
 poor stricken people of Italy. 
 
 Yet in spite of all Alboin's great conquests, 
 his end was a terrible one. You remember that 
 Alboin had married Rosamund, the daughter 
 of King Cunimund, whose skull he had made 
 into a drinking- cup. One day, when the 
 King was sitting at a banquet in his palace at 
 Verona, he called for his dreadful goblet to be 
 brought out. Then he bade the cup-bearer 
 carry it to Queen Rosamund, and invite her 
 to drink. The Queen obeyed, with vengeance 
 in her heart, though for the time she hid 
 her terrible plan. But afterwards she made 
 a plot with Alboin's armour-bearer and the 
 chamberlain, and it was arranged that they 
 should attack the King and kill him while he 
 slept. 
 
 One of the conspirators fell upon him, and 
 then Alboin awakened and defended himself 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 93 
 
 with great valour. The would-be murderers 
 had tied up his sword so tightly in its sheath 
 that he could not draw it, therefore he seized 
 a footstool and tried to use that as a weapon. 
 But at last he was overcome, and was slain by 
 the assassins. One of these wicked men after- 
 wards married Rosamund, hoping that he 
 himself might be chosen Kino-. But the 
 Lombards were furious, and the treacherous 
 Rosamund and her new husband had to fly to 
 Ravenna. Rosamund soon wanted to get rid 
 of this second husband also, and tried to poison 
 him. He drank half the poisoned cup, and 
 then, realising what Rosamund had done, he 
 stood over her with a drawn sword and forced 
 her to drink the rest. So these two guilty 
 people died together, after having shared in 
 the murder of Alboin. 
 
 But we must turn away from Rosamund and 
 her barbarous wickedness to a very different 
 Lombard queen, and to a better time in the 
 history of the Lombard nation. 
 
 After Alboin's death the Lombards chose 
 another king, but he reigned for only two 
 years ; and then for the next ten years no king 
 was elected, but the nation was governed 
 during that time by the great nobles known as 
 "the Lombard Dukes." In those old days 
 " Dux," or Duke, meant the man who led a 
 tribe or nation forth to battle. The German 
 
94 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 nations called a Duke " Heretoga," and they 
 now call him " Herzog." 
 
 Between the years 568 and 574 the Lom- 
 bards invaded Gaul no less than five times. 
 They crossed the mountains and attacked the 
 Burgundians, who in their turn were fighting 
 with the Franks. The Lombards were de- 
 feated by a brave and skilful general called 
 Mummolus, who belonged to an old family of 
 Roman Gaul. 
 
 These wars between the Lombards and 
 Burgundians remind us that, long years after- 
 wards, the famous Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 St. Anselm, came to us from the little town of 
 Aosta, which stood just where the Lombard 
 and Burgundian lands touched one another, and 
 at the foot of those Alpine passes which the 
 Lombards crossed on the expeditions into Gaul. 
 
 Thus St. Anselm and his great friend, Lan- 
 franc, help to form a link between England 
 and Lombardy, which seemed so far apart in 
 those old days. 
 
 After a time the Lombards got tired ot 
 being governed by these dukes, and in the year 
 584 they elected another king. This was 
 Authari, son of the king who had reigned after 
 Alboin. 
 
 Authari was a fine and splendid-looking 
 young man, and he was evidently a very strong, 
 good, and able ruler. He married the beautiful 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 95 
 
 Bavarian princess, Theudelinda, daughter of 
 Garibald, Duke of the Bavarians, and it is 
 chiefly about her that we are going to speak in 
 the rest of this chapter. A story you may like 
 to hear is told of Authari's wooing of Theude- 
 linda. Authari had heard a great deal about 
 the beauty and accomplishments of the Princess 
 Theudelinda, and he wanted to see her for 
 himself, without letting her know who he was. 
 Accordingly he set out for the Bavarian Court, 
 taking with him just a few followers, one of 
 them being an older man, who had to pretend 
 to be the leader and head of the party. Duke 
 Garibald received the messengers, and the 
 supposed leader spoke some courteous words 
 of greeting. Then Authari himself came up to 
 the Duke, and, speaking as if he were only a 
 servant of the Lombard king, said to him, 
 "My master, Authari, has sent me that I may 
 behold the face of his betrothed, our future 
 mistress, and may make report of her beauty to 
 my lord." Then Garibald ordered Theudelinda 
 to come near, and Authari gazed and gazed at 
 her in silence. Then he asked that he and his 
 companions might receive a goblet of wine 
 from her hand. So Theudelinda brought the 
 goblet, offering it first to the older man, and 
 then to Authari, not knowing, of course, who 
 he was. Authari drank, and as he gave back 
 the cup he somehow contrived to take 
 
96 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Theudelinda's hand, and to kiss it secretly. 
 The Princess was a little disturbed, and when 
 the strangers had gone she told her old nurse 
 about the curious way the young Lombard 
 had behaved. The nurse answered that the 
 young man must have been King Authari 
 himself, as no one else would have dared to 
 do such a thing. The Lombard messengers, 
 meanwhile, went their way home, escorted by 
 some of the Bavarian nobles. As the party 
 reached the frontier of Italy, Authari rose high 
 in his saddle, whirled his battle-axe through 
 the air, and struck it deep into a tree trunk, 
 shouting out, "So Authari is wont to strike 
 his blow." Then the Bavarians found out 
 that he was indeed the King. 
 
 After a short time Theudelinda's father had 
 a war with Childebert, King of the Austrasian 
 Franks, and it ended in Duke Garibald being 
 dethroned. Theudelinda and her young 
 brother fled to Italy, and met Authari on the 
 shores of the Lake of Garda. Authari and 
 Theudelinda were married, with great rejoic- 
 ings, at Verona on May 15th, 589. We can 
 imagine how beautiful Verona must have 
 looked on that happy day in May, as the 
 people kept holiday on the banks of the green 
 Adige, with the trees in their spring dress 
 and the shining, snow-clad Alps beyond. 
 
 It is sad to have to tell of the death of 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 97 
 
 King Authari in the very next year, after 
 this happy and romantic marriage. 
 
 Authari and Theudelinda had no children, 
 and after Authari's death Theudelinda married 
 a brave Lombard warrior, Agilulf, Duke of 
 Turin, who was at once chosen King of the 
 Lombards. 
 
 A very curious story is told about this 
 Duke Agilulf. At the time of Theudelinda's 
 marriage to King Authari, while the rejoicings 
 at Verona were still going on, there was a 
 sudden violent storm, and a tree in the royal 
 garden was struck by lightning. Now, Duke 
 Agilulf had among his servants a boy who 
 was able to foretell things that were going to 
 happen, and when this storm came, the boy 
 said to Agilulf, (< That woman who has just 
 been wedded to our king will after no long 
 time be thy wife." Agilulf was angry, and told 
 the boy that if he said any more about such 
 a thing he would cut off his head. The bov 
 answered that, whether he was killed or not, 
 what he said would come true, as it was 
 certain that Theudelinda had come into the 
 land to be Agilulf s wife. Whatever we think 
 of this story, the marriage certainly came 
 to pass. 
 
 Agilulf and Theudelinda reigned for a long 
 time in Italy, and Theudelinda had a very 
 great and good influence in many ways. The 
 
 7 
 
98 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 chief thing she did was to bring about the 
 conversion of the Lombard nation to Catholic 
 Christianity. Before her time, as we know, 
 they had been Arians, like the Goths, and 
 they had many disputes with the Catholics. 
 King Authari, indeed, had forbidden the 
 Lombards to have their sons baptized at 
 Easter according to the Catholic rite ; but 
 Theudelinda, who was a Catholic, very soon 
 made her influence felt, and King A^ilulf 
 became much less bitter against the Catholics. 
 
 Now, in this important work Queen 
 Theudelinda was very much helped by the 
 famous Pope, St. Gregory the Great, who was 
 Pope from the year 590 to 604. All English 
 children must remember the celebrated story 
 of his seeing- the fair-haired and fair-skinned 
 young slaves from the north of England in the 
 Roman Forum, and his words, " Non Angli sed 
 Angeli," and his resolve to send missionaries to 
 England to convert the heathen tribes, Saxons 
 and Angles, who had conquered the island 
 and settled in it. 
 
 Pope Gregory had great influence in Italy, 
 and that influence was sorely needed in those 
 wild and stormy days. Wars were constantly 
 going on in various parts of Italy — sometimes 
 among the Lombards themselves, and some- 
 times between the Lombards and the Emperor 
 — or those cities and provinces of Italy which 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 99 
 
 still formed part of the Roman Empire, such, 
 for instance, as Rome itself. 
 
 In 593 King Agilulf was actually advancing 
 to the siege of Rome, but was met by Pope 
 Gregory, who besought him to spare the city. 
 It ended in Agilulf leaving Rome in peace, 
 and he gave up the idea of besieging it. 
 Pope Gregory made peace with King Agilulf, 
 and it was through his efforts and influence 
 that the Lombards and the Emperor became 
 reconciled. There is a beautiful letter from 
 Pope Gregory to Queen Theudelinda, written 
 in 598, in which he praises her for all she 
 had done in helping to make peace between 
 the various states of Italy, and also between 
 the Lombards and the Emperor. 
 
 But, notwithstanding all this, the Lombards 
 always seemed to be fighting with somebody 
 or other, and in 602 they had wars in Istria 
 and in the valley of the river Po. They 
 ravaged Istria, and in Italy they captured the 
 important post of Monselice (the Mountain of 
 Flint), not far from Padua. 
 
 The next year, 603, was one of great rejoic- 
 ing, for Adelwald, son of Agilulf and Theude- 
 linda, was born at Monza, the town you read 
 about at the beginning of this chapter. Queen 
 Theudelinda had built a palace at Monza, and 
 the walls of this palace were adorned with 
 paintings representing the victories of the 
 
ioo STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Lombards. These paintings would have been 
 very interesting to us, because in them the 
 Lombards appeared in their own curious dress, 
 which an old historian describes as being- like 
 that of the Anglo-Saxons. We are told that 
 this is the first time that the name " Anglo- 
 Saxon" was ever used in literature. It seems 
 that the Lombard dress was a loose linen 
 garment with coloured border, their boots 
 being open nearly to the toes and laced 
 across. They wore their hair very short 
 indeed at the back, but longer in front, and 
 parted in the middle. 
 
 In this new palace, then, the little Prince 
 Adelwald was born. He was baptized accord- 
 ing to the rites of the Catholic Church, and 
 Theudelinda wrote to Pope Gregory to tell 
 him of the baptism of her son. The Pope, 
 although very ill and suffering, wrote to thank 
 her for her letter, sending some presents for 
 the baby prince and three rings to the Queen 
 herself. Pope Gregory's presents to the little 
 Adelwald were a cross containing some of the 
 wood of our Lord's Cross, and a manuscript 
 of the Holy Gospel in an embroidered case. 
 Shortly after this Pope Gregory died at 
 Rome, and was buried in St. Peter's. 
 
 A few years later on Queen Theudelinda 
 found another friend and helper in the famous 
 Irish saint, Columbanus, who had a great 
 

 
 I ) 
 
 THE STORY OF THE IRON: .CltOWLf. nos 
 
 influence over the Queen and, through her, on 
 the whole religious life of Italy. 
 
 Columbanus, or Columban, was born in 
 Leinster in the year 543, the year St. 
 Benedict died. He studied hard and became 
 verv learned, and after he left his home he 
 spent some years in the monastery of Bangor, 
 in Ireland. Here he went on, no doubt, with 
 his studies, for this monastery was celebrated 
 for its learning, aud we must remember that 
 Ireland was not at that time so barbarous 
 as many parts of Europe, but the old arts 
 and sciences were still known and practised 
 there. 
 
 But Columban was at heart a missionary, and 
 he finally set out, with twelve companions, to 
 carry Christ's message into the many still 
 heathen parts of Europe. Columban and his 
 followers came over to England, where the 
 Angles and Saxons still worshipped the old 
 heathen gods ; but after a short stay in England 
 they crossed over to Gaul, or, as we should now 
 say, France. Here they taught and preached for 
 some time, until the King of Austrasia sent for 
 Columban and begged him to stay in his king- 
 dom. Columban did remain for some years in 
 that part of France, and founded more than one 
 monastery in the country in and near the Vosges 
 Mountains. He was greatly revered and 
 beloved by the people, but he had disputes 
 
ic2 : STORIKS JF.ROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 with the clergy of Gaul, who did not like his 
 strict ways. 
 
 One of Columban's followers, Gallus, founded 
 the famous monastery of St. Gall, in Switzer- 
 land. But we cannot stay to say more of all 
 St. Columban's labours and troubles among the 
 Franks, for that does not properly belong to 
 this story. What we have to remember is that 
 in the year 613 St. Columban crossed over 
 into Italy, where he was received with great 
 honour by Agilulf and Theudelinda. Colum- 
 ban stayed for a short time at Milan ; but he 
 did not care for the life in a city, among numbers 
 of people, and having heard of a little village 
 in a valley of the Apennines, he retired there, 
 and founded what afterwards grew into the 
 great and famous monastery of Bobbio. This 
 monastery became celebrated for its learning, 
 and its library contained many precious books, 
 some of which are preserved in the great 
 Ambrosian library at Milan. As we have said, 
 St. Columban, like St. Gregory, had a great 
 influence over Oueen Theudelinda, and his 
 work in Italy helped very much in converting 
 the Lombards to the Catholic form of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 In the year 617 St. Columban died, and King 
 Agilulf died also. Our story about part of the 
 Lombard history must begin to come to an end, 
 for we hear very little more of Theudelinda after 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN ios 
 
 she became a widow. Tradition says that 
 Queen Theudelinda died at her castle near the 
 little town of Varenna, on the beautiful lake of 
 Como. She used to spend much time on the 
 shores of this lake, and founded several churches 
 in the villages near. She also made a road, 
 still called the " Strada Regina," or Queen's 
 Way, near her castle above Varenna. 
 
 When Theudelinda built her great church at 
 Monza, she employed a certain celebrated band 
 of architects and masons who took their name 
 from the town or province of Como, and who 
 are believed to have been the great builders in 
 Central Europe during some hundreds of years. 
 They were known as the Comacine Masters. 
 
 Whether Oueen Theudelinda lived her last 
 years at Varenna or not, those years must have 
 been full of much anxiety and terrible grief, for 
 her son, King Adelwald, was dethroned and 
 poisoned, and she did not survive him for long. 
 Theudelinda died in 628, and was buried at 
 Monza, in the Church of St. John the Baptist, 
 which she had founded in 595. 
 
 The present cathedral stands on the site of 
 that church, and in one of the chapels you may 
 see the sarcophagus, or stone coffin, in which 
 Theudelinda is buried. In another chapel is 
 the Iron Crown, as we already know. In the 
 Treasury you will see Queen Theudelinda's 
 crown, fan, and gold-handled comb, and a 
 
1C4 :STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 splendid book-cover with her name upon it. 
 There, also, is preserved a very curious table- 
 ornament in silver-gilt, representing a hen and 
 chickens. The hen and chickens are supposed 
 to mean Lornbardy and its seven provinces. 
 The ornament was probably used to decorate 
 the table when Theudelinda gave a banquet. 
 
 Theudelinda's crown is a plain circlet, set with 
 a quantity of gems, chiefly emeralds and pearls, 
 and from it there hangs a cross, set with 
 emeralds and pearls like the crown. 
 
 A third crown, almost as interesting as the 
 Iron Crown itself, used to be kept in this same 
 Treasury. It was the crown of the brave 
 Agilulf, who, as you will remember, was 
 Theudelinda's second husband. This crown of 
 Agilulf was a circle of gold, adorned with 
 fifteen arched niches formed of laurel-boughs 
 worked in gold. In the niches were figures of 
 our Lord, between two angels, and of the twelve 
 Apostles. Above these niches was set a circle 
 of jewels — emeralds, carbuncles, and pearls. 
 From the crown there hung a gold cross, with 
 a large amethyst in the middle. This precious 
 and beautiful thing was taken to Paris, in 1804, 
 by Napoleon 1., who thought that it was the 
 Iron Crown of Lornbardy. It was stolen, alas ! 
 from the " Cabinet des Medailles," where it had 
 been placed ; it was melted down, and so 
 entirely lost. 
 
r- 1 n- 
 
 2; 
 
 2 
 
 c 
 
 O 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 105 
 
 The Lombard monarchy lasted on for nearly 
 a century and a half, and during that time the 
 two greatest kings and lawgivers were Rothari 
 and Liutprand. 
 
 We must speak of one very interesting thing 
 that happened during the reign of King Liut- 
 prand, namely, the bringing of the body of 
 St. Augustine to the city of Pavia. 
 
 You have all heard of the great St. Augustine, 
 who was Bishop of Hippo, a town in North 
 Africa, not far from Carthage. You will 
 remember the name of his mother, Monica, 
 who prayed so earnestly for his conversion, and 
 whom he loved so dearly. The book known 
 as The Confessions of St. Augustine has been 
 a treasure to Christian people throughout all 
 ages, and his teaching has had great power and 
 influence in the Church. Thus it is natural 
 that his burial-place should be of interest to us 
 all. St. Augustine died at Hippo in the year 
 430, while the town was being besieged by the 
 fierce Vandals. He was buried at Hippo, in 
 the Church of St. Stephen. Soon after his 
 death, the Vandals entered the city as con- 
 querors, and many of the chief Christian people 
 were banished to Sardinia. About the year 
 490 the body of St. Augustine was moved to 
 Sardinia by a noble Carthaginian, and was 
 buried in a church at Casfliari. 
 
 At the beginning of the eighth century 
 
106 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Sardinia was overrun by the Saracens, and 
 the Christians were only too glad when the 
 Lombard king, Liutprand, proposed to take 
 the body of St. Augustine across to Italy, and 
 give it a safe resting-place at the Lombard 
 capital, Pavia. 
 
 King Liutprand paid a large sum of money 
 to the Saracens in order to be allowed to move 
 the body, and in 710 it was brought to the 
 Church of San Pietro in Ciel d' Oro at Pavia. 
 
 The first church of this name is said to have 
 been built by King Agilulf, the second husband 
 of Queen Theudelinda. It is said to have been 
 rebuilt by King Liutprand in the usual fashion 
 of a Lombard church, and a beautiful fashion 
 that is, as you may one day see for yourselves. 
 The "golden roof" which gives it its name 
 was probably a picture in mosaic-work over the 
 part behind the altar ; and this was no doubt, 
 like many of the glorious mosaics, on a golden 
 ground, which you often see in old Italian 
 churches. 
 
 This Church of San Pietro in Ciel cV Oro is 
 mentioned by Dante as the last resting-place 
 of Boethius, of whom you read in the chapter 
 about Theodoric. Dante tells us, in his own 
 beautiful words, how the body of Boethius lies 
 "down in Cieldauro," and how his soul came 
 "from martyrdom and exile" to the peace of 
 Paradise. 
 
THE STORY OF THE IRON CROWN 107 
 
 When King Liutprand first brought the 
 body of St. Augustine to San Pietro, the 
 church was under the care of Benedictine 
 monks, who buried the precious remains in a 
 vault beneath the floor, so that they might be 
 safe. 
 
 Later on, the church was given to another 
 set of clergy, and some of these belonged to an 
 Augustinian order. In the fourteenth century 
 these Augustinian monks (or "Eremitani," as 
 they are called) began the splendid shrine 
 which we now see in the Church of San Pietro. 
 
 The present church is quite a modern re- 
 storation, and the body of St. Augustine and 
 its beautiful shrine have often had to be moved. 
 The shrine stood for a time in the Cathedral at 
 Pavia, but a few years ago it was put back into 
 its old place in San Pietro, and so St. Augustine 
 rests once more " down in Cieldauro." No one 
 who goes to Pavia should forget to go and visit 
 the church, with all its wonderful memories — 
 memories of St. Augustine and of the Lombard 
 kings, as well as of Boethius, Theodoric, and 
 Dante. 
 
 When we remember that St. Augustine 
 was taught and baptized by St. Ambrose, the 
 famous Bishop of Milan, it seems very appro- 
 priate that his body should have been brought 
 back to Italy, to rest, at last, near his great 
 teacher. 
 
108 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 And now this story about Queen Theude- 
 linda and the Lombards must come to an end. 
 You will read in another chapter how the Pope 
 invited the Franks to come and help him 
 against the attacks of the Lombards, and how 
 King Pepin and his son, Charlemagne, came to 
 the Pope's aid. 
 
 In 774 Charlemagne and his Franks crossed 
 the Alps, defeated the last Lombard king, and, 
 after besieging Pavia for nearly ten months, 
 entered the city as conquerors. Charlemagne 
 was acknowledged by the Lombards as their 
 lord, and the Lombard rule in Italy came to 
 an end. 
 
V 
 
 THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 
 
 " If therefore ye delight in thrones and sceptres, ye princes 
 of peoples, 
 Honour wisdom, that ye may reign for ever." 
 
 Wisdom of Solomon^ vi. 21. 
 
 The title of this chapter is rather a curious one. 
 We are going to begin by speaking once more 
 of the time when the great Roman Empire had 
 fallen to pieces, and the barbarians had spread 
 over much of Europe. As you have read in 
 the chapter about Theodoric, the last Roman 
 Emperors lived chiefly at Ravenna, and less 
 and less at Rome ; they lost almost all their 
 power, and in 476 the Roman Empire of the 
 West was swept away by Odovacar. 
 
 But there had been a feeling, even among 
 the barbarians, that Rome and her empire 
 could never really perish altogether ; and 
 although they destroyed much of the old 
 Roman civilisation, their chiefs and leaders 
 were often anxious to imitate Roman ways of 
 government, and to rule as if they were 
 
 successors or deputies of the Roman Emperor. 
 
 109 
 
no STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Gradually, however, the Roman Empire had 
 fallen into ruins, and a time of terrible ignor- 
 ance, trouble, and confusion followed. The 
 great nations of modern Europe had hardly 
 begun to grow up, and there seemed to be 
 only two things left to help to keep any sort 
 of order in the world. Those two things were 
 the Roman Church and the Roman Law. The 
 city of Rome herself, too, was still the only 
 centre for any kind of unity among men, as she 
 was the centre of Western Christendom and 
 the home of the old Roman Law. 
 
 It was very natural that the power of the 
 Church should increase after the downfall of 
 the Empire, and indeed we may almost say 
 that the place of the Emperor was taken by 
 the Bishop of Rome — at any rate, in Rome 
 itself. The great position held by the Bishop 
 of Rome — or the Pope, as he came to be called 
 — had been growing ever since the Emperor 
 Constantine had moved the seat of government 
 from Rome to Constantinople, and this power- 
 ful position of the Pope's is a very important 
 thing to remember, because it explains a great 
 deal of the history of all Europe for many 
 hundreds of years. 
 
 You will like to hear something about one 
 or two of the Popes in those early days, 
 as that will help you to understand how 
 it was that they won and kept so great 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS in 
 
 a place and influence among the nations of 
 Europe. 
 
 You will remember that in the first story 
 you read about the terrible King of the Huns, 
 Attila, and how he attacked, first Gaul, and 
 then Italy. 
 
 After the awful destruction of Aquileia and 
 other cities in Venetia, Attila marched through 
 what is now called Lombardy, and the cities of 
 Verona, Pavia, and Milan opened their gates 
 to him, thinking it better not to resist, for fear 
 of worse things. 
 
 The people of Rome were in terror lest 
 these barbarian savages should come there 
 also, so they arranged to send an embassy to 
 Attila, and to try whether he could be per- 
 suaded to spare the country any further 
 plundering and slaughter. 
 
 Now, the Pope at that time was named Leo. 
 He was a brave, wise, and holy man, and is 
 now generally called Leo, or St. Leo, the 
 Great. He was the first of the thirteen Popes 
 who took the name of Leo. 
 
 Putting aside all fear, lion-hearted like his 
 name, the Pope determined to join the embassy 
 to Attila, and went with the two great officials of 
 the Empire who were sent from Rome. The 
 ambassadors met Attila on the banks of the 
 river Mincio, not far from the city of Mantua, 
 and, strange as it may seem, they actually 
 
ii2 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 prevailed upon him to leave Italy in peace. 
 Attila returned to his own country beyond the 
 Danube, promising to be satisfied with a tribute. 
 We cannot tell how long Attila might have 
 kept his promise, because he died the next 
 year (453). 
 
 Most people believed that it was really the 
 influence of Pope Leo 1. and the power of his 
 goodness that had persuaded Attila to retreat, 
 and thus saved Italy from the Huns. It is 
 easy to understand, therefore, that this embassy 
 to Attila and its results helped to give the 
 Bishop of Rome a greater position than ever 
 before. And, indeed, Leo 1. asserted the right 
 of the Roman See to be the head of the 
 Church in all the rest of Europe, and he 
 claimed that every one ought to obey the 
 Bishop of Rome in all matters connected with 
 the Church. 
 
 And, again, there is another name which 
 we in England have cause to remember 
 with much gratitude, and that is the name of 
 Pope Gregory the Great, who, as you know, 
 was Bishop of Rome from 590 to 604. You 
 have already learnt about his friendship with 
 the Lombard queen, Theudelinda, and of his 
 letters to her. We have also spoken of the 
 great wish of Pope Gregory to convert England 
 and its Saxon conquerors to Christianity, 
 after his seeing the fair Anglo-Saxon children 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 113 
 
 in the market-place in Rome, and of his 
 determination that the praises of God should 
 be sung in their land. Christianity had been 
 taught in Britain long before St. Gregory's 
 time, and there was still an ancient British 
 Church, with its bishops. But the Saxons 
 were still heathens, and Pope Gregory did a 
 great work in sending St. Augustine to con- 
 vert them and to revive and strengthen the 
 Christians throughout all Britain. 
 
 All English boys and girls ought to re- 
 member the tradition which tells of the founda- 
 tion of the church on Thorney Isle by Sebert, 
 King of the East Saxons, nephew of Ethelbert, 
 King of Kent, who was converted to Chris- 
 tianity by St. Augustine. King Sebert's church 
 stood where Westminster Abbey now stands, 
 and the beautiful old story tells us that it was 
 consecrated by St. Peter himself. Mellitus, 
 who was then Bishop of London, was one of 
 the friends and pupils of St. Gregory the Great. 
 
 All this is very interesting to English people, 
 
 but what we must specially remember while 
 
 reading this chapter is the way in which Pope 
 
 Gregory raised and strengthened the position 
 
 of the Bishops of Rome, partly by means of 
 
 his own personal goodness and influence, partly 
 
 by his writings, and also by the grand music 
 
 and ritual he ordered for the services of the 
 
 Church. In these various ways, and by his 
 8 
 
ii 4 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 wisdom in dealing with men and nations, he 
 helped very greatly to increase the authority 
 of the Roman See. 
 
 We have so far spoken only about Popes, 
 and perhaps you are beginning to wonder when 
 you are going to hear anything about Emperors. 
 
 At the beginning of the chapter Rome was 
 described as the religious centre of the West ; 
 but as time went on, people found that they 
 also needed some strong power to check the 
 constant wars and the terrible disorder in civil 
 life — some power that would help to form a 
 new civilisation out of the ruins of the old 
 one that had been almost destroyed by the 
 barbarians. In fact, what was wanted was 
 some one to take the place of the Roman 
 Emperor as far as it was possible in the new 
 state of things. The Popes saw and felt this 
 very strongly, and we will see what happened. 
 
 If you think of your French history, you will 
 remember that from the fifth century onwards 
 a new and powerful monarchy was gradually 
 growing up in the west of Europe, and that 
 was the monarchy of the Franks, which may 
 be said to have begun with Clovis, who was 
 converted to Christianity in 496. 
 
 Early in the eight century, the chief power 
 in the Frankish kingdom (which we now call 
 France) was in the hands of a very brave and 
 famous man known as Charles Martel, or 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 115 
 
 Charles the Hammer. He was so called 
 because of the smashing blows he gave his 
 enemies in his many wars. Charles Martel was 
 not King of the Franks, but he was the Mayor of 
 the Palace, and he really governed the kingdom. 
 He fought much against the heathen German 
 tribes, but his name is celebrated chiefly because 
 of the great victory he won over the Saracens 
 at Tours in 732 — a victory which saved Europe 
 from being overrun by the Saracens. 
 
 The son of Charles Martel was Pepin le Bref 
 (or " the Short "), who was a very able man and 
 a good soldier. At first, Pepin was only Mayor 
 of the Palace, but in 752 he made himself King 
 of the Franks. In that year he was anointed 
 King at Soissons by St. Boniface, Archbishop 
 of Mainz. St. Boniface was an Englishman ; 
 his real name was Winifried, and he was born 
 at Crediton, in Devonshire. St. Boniface was 
 a famous missionary, and is known as the 
 Apostle of the Germans. Wherever the 
 armies of Charles Martel had gone, he followed, 
 teaching Christianity to the Saxons, Hessians, 
 and other tribes. He was finally martyred by 
 the savage Frisians, whom he was trying to 
 convert. 
 
 To return to King Pepin. He was again 
 anointed and crowned King, in the year 753, 
 by Pope Stephen 11., who had travelled all the 
 way from Rome to implore his help against 
 
u6 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 the fierce Lombards. This second coronation 
 took place at St. Denis, near Paris, and this 
 time Pepin's two sons, Charles and Carloman, 
 were crowned with him. After his coronation, 
 Pepin crossed the Alps and marched into Italy 
 to defend the Pope and his possessions. He 
 defeated the Lombard king, and forced him to 
 give up certain lands and cities to the Pope. We 
 must remember that Pepin and his family had 
 always been faithful supporters of the Church. 
 
 In j6& King Pepin died, and his large 
 kingdom was divided between his two sons, 
 Charles and Carloman. In 771 Carloman 
 died, and Charles became sole King of the 
 Franks. We know this famous king best by 
 his beautiful French name of Charlemagne 
 (or Charles the Great), so we shall call him 
 Charlemagne when we speak of him. 
 
 When Charlemagne became King, he also 
 fought the Lombards in defence of the Pope. 
 He defeated them, and confirmed the Pope 
 in the possession of the lands given him by 
 King Pepin. As you read in an earlier 
 chapter, the Lombard kingdom came to an 
 end in 774, and the Lombards acknowledged 
 Charlemagne as their lord. Perhaps all this 
 does not seem to have a great deal to do 
 with Popes and Emperors, but we have to 
 remember it in order to understand properly 
 what happened afterwards. 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 117 
 
 In the year 800 Charlemagne made his 
 last and most famous journey into Italy. He 
 had been victorious in many wars ; he was 
 a really great ruler, and he was now by far 
 the most powerful prince in Christendom. 
 
 When he arrived at the gates of Rome, on 
 November 24th, 800, he was received with 
 the greatest possible pomp and respect ; and 
 when he reached St. Peter's Church, the 
 Pope himself, with a number of bishops and 
 other clergy, stood on the steps to welcome 
 him. 
 
 On Christmas morning of that same year 
 Charlemagne went to St. Peter's Church, and 
 knelt in prayer before the tomb of St. Peter. 
 
 When he rose from his knees, Pope Leo in. 
 
 drew near, placed a splendid golden crown on 
 
 his head, and put the Imperial mantle on his 
 
 shoulders, proclaiming him by the old Roman 
 
 titles of Emperor and Augustus. Upon this, 
 
 the people broke out into loud acclamations. 
 
 Thus beoan what was known for long- Cen- 
 ts & 
 
 turies as the Holy Roman Empire — a dignity 
 which lasted for more than a thousand years, 
 and was only finally destroyed by Napoleon 
 Bonaparte in 1806, when the Emperor Francis 11. 
 was made to resign the Imperial crown. We 
 might say, indeed, that this Roman Empire had 
 lasted for a great deal more than a thousand 
 years, for many people looked upon it as a 
 
n8 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 restoration of the Empire which began with the 
 Emperor Augustus in B.C. 27. 
 
 The idea of the Holy Roman Empire in- 
 fluenced all the Middle Ages, and even so late 
 as the end of the thirteenth century it was still 
 possible for the great Florentine poet, Dante, 
 to write a book in which he said that there 
 should be one Emperor over all the kings and 
 princes of Europe, just as there was one Pope 
 who was the earthly head of the Church. The 
 Emperor was to rule over men so as to lead 
 them to the greatest possible goodness and 
 happiness in this life ; the Pope was to care for 
 their souls, and lead them to the blessedness 
 of life eternal. This was a beautiful thought, 
 but history has shown us that it was, and still 
 is, a long way from being realised. 
 
 It is very important to remember that Charle- 
 magne received the crown of the Holy Roman 
 Empire from the hands of the Pope. The 
 Popes evidently considered that they had the 
 power to make and unmake Emperors, as well 
 as to depose kings, and this naturally led to 
 a great deal of serious disputing and fighting 
 in Europe in after years. The Popes held 
 that they had the right to bestow the title of 
 Emperor, and the Emperors did not allow the 
 claim. The Emperors held that they were 
 independent of the Pope, and that he had no 
 right to interfere with them in matters of civil 
 
m ipM otjuim nm mm w& 
 
 CHARLEMA(i\K. 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 119 
 
 government. Thus we can easily understand 
 that, instead of being friends, as Pope Leo in. 
 and Charlemagne were, the Popes and the 
 Emperors in later ages often had dreadful 
 quarrels, and these quarrels affected most of 
 the countries of Europe, causing much dis- 
 turbance and trouble. 
 
 One curious thing is to be noticed. From 
 the time of Charlemagne and onwards it was 
 almost always the German king, or some great 
 German prince, who became Roman Emperor. 
 The Pope gave the Imperial crown to the 
 elected German king, who was not Emperor 
 until he had received it. We are always accus- 
 tomed to think of Charlemagne as French, but 
 we must not forget that he ruled over a great 
 part of Germany and, as a Frank, was of 
 Teutonic race. 
 
 One of the great disputes between a Pope 
 and an Emperor was the famous quarrel between 
 Pope Gregory vn. and the Emperor Henry iv. 
 
 This quarrel took place only a few years after 
 the Norman conquestof England. PopeGregory 
 vii. had already become well known in Europe, 
 under his own name of Hildebrand, while he 
 was Archdeacon of Rome. He had encouraged 
 William the Conqueror in his plans for conquer- 
 ing England, probably because the Normans 
 were helping the Papacy in Italy and Sicily. 
 Perhaps he also saw that, if William conquered 
 
120 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 England, the English Church would be brought 
 more directly under the power of Rome. In 
 1073 Hildebrand was elected Pope, and took 
 the name of Gregory vn. 
 
 Very soon afterwards he began to dispute 
 with the Emperor about the question of what 
 is called the investiture of bishops. The Pope 
 said the Emperor had no right to give the 
 Episcopal ring and staff to a bishop. 
 
 The Emperor then held a council at Worms, 
 in Germany, and at that council it was declared 
 that Gregory vn. was no longer Pope. A letter 
 was sent to Gregory to tell him what the 
 council had said. When the letter was delivered, 
 the Pope answered it by a solemn sentence of 
 deposition and anathema on the Emperor 
 Henry iv. This sentence made the nobles turn 
 against the unfortunate Emperor, and they told 
 him that, if he did not want to lose his throne 
 in Germany, he must go and ask absolution of 
 the Pope. 
 
 Now, the Pope was then at the castle of 
 Canossa, a place which has always been remem- 
 bered ever since that time. Canossa belonged 
 to the great Countess Matilda of Tuscany, who 
 was a personal friend of Gregory vn., and one 
 of the chief supporters of the Papacy. The 
 castle stood high above the plain, on a bare 
 rock, in the Apennine Mountains. It was a 
 dark, frowning fortress, looking over the vast 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 121 
 
 plain of Lombardy away to the distant Alps. 
 Here, in bitter winter weather, early in the 
 year 1077, came the Emperor Henry iv., and 
 with him came some bishops and laymen who 
 had also been excommunicated. They all 
 came as humble penitents. The Emperor's 
 companions were allowed to do penance, and 
 received absolution, but the Emperor himself 
 was kept waiting for three whole days. He 
 stood there, out in the bitter snow and cold, 
 barefoot and clad in a coarse woollen shirt, 
 until the fierce old Pope would allow him to be 
 let in. 
 
 At last he was admitted, and received absolu- 
 tion, but on very hard conditions. These con- 
 ditions made his Lombard subjects very angry, 
 and they blamed the Emperor for submitting 
 to the Pope ; so that poor Henry's position 
 was a very hard one, although it must be con- 
 fessed that he had partly deserved it. 
 
 Later on, a kind of peace was made. The 
 Emperor still kept the right of electing bishops 
 and abbots, but he had to give up to the Pope 
 the right of investing bishops with the ring and 
 staff. 
 
 The unfortunate Emperor Henry iv. had a 
 very sad ending to his life. His son turned 
 against him, and he was quite deserted in his 
 last years. When he died at Liege, in 1106, 
 his body was not allowed to remain in the 
 
122 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 cathedral, but was moved to a chapel near. 
 Here a poor monk who had returned from 
 Jerusalem used to come and pray beside the 
 lonely, neglected tomb. Finally, however, 
 Henry iv. was buried in the cathedral at 
 Speyer with the other princes of his family. 
 
 It is very difficult to say who was really in 
 the right in this quarrel. There was, no doubt, 
 some right and some wrong on both sides. 
 Both sides were too greedy of power. We 
 feel inclined to sympathise with the Emperor, 
 partly because he was very unfortunate, and 
 partly because he was so harshly treated. But 
 he was a man of undisciplined life, and brought 
 many of his misfortunes on himself. We must 
 remember, too, that great abuses sometimes 
 arose through bishops and great Church digni- 
 taries being chosen entirely by the Emperor 
 or other princes. The people they chose were 
 not always fit for their sacred office, and in some 
 cases the Popes had every right to object to the 
 choice. Those days were very different from 
 our own, and plans that answer quite well now 
 were often not advisable, or even possible, then. 
 
 In the twelfth century another great struggle 
 arose, this time between the famous Emperor 
 Frederick Barbarossa (or Red-beard) and the 
 two Popes, Hadrian iv. and Alexander in. 
 
 It is interesting for us Eno-Hsh to remember 
 that Pope Hadrian iv. was an Englishman, 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 123 
 
 
 
 his name being Nicholas Breakspear. Pope 
 Alexander hi. was a friend of Archbishop 
 Becket, and it was he who placed the name of 
 King Edward the Confessor among those of 
 the Saints of the Church. 
 
 The quarrel between these two Popes and 
 the Emperor was really just on the question as 
 to which of them was to be master. If we 
 think of our English history, we shall remember 
 the quarrel between Henry 11. and Archbishop 
 Becket, which went on much about this same 
 time, and about much the same things. 
 
 The difficulty arose chiefly through the Pope 
 wishing to have a great deal of power in the 
 State. Indeed, the Popes had really become 
 sovereigns, and were almost as much princes 
 as they were bishops. 
 
 Pope Hadrian claimed certain lands which 
 had been left to the See of Rome by the 
 Countess Matilda of Tuscany. He also 
 desired that the clergy should be tried by 
 clerical authority, and not by the usual law of 
 the land. These claims were disputed by the 
 Emperor. 
 
 When Pope Alexander 111. was elected, after 
 the death of Hadrian iv., the Emperor and his 
 council chose another Pope instead. Alexander 
 said they had no right to do this, and appealed 
 against the election of the rival Pope. He 
 fled from Rome and took refuge in Venice, 
 
124 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 which was an independent government, and 
 would not take sides. The Doge of Venice 
 began to intercede for Pope Alexander with the 
 determined and terrible Emperor, but Barbar- 
 ossa threatened that he would attack Venice 
 and plant his eagle standards on St. Mark's 
 unless the Pope were given up to him. 
 
 However, the Venetians were not easy 
 people to frighten. The Doge told the 
 Emperor the Venetians would not wait for 
 him, so they assembled a fleet, and defeated 
 Barbarossa's ships in the Adriatic, taking his 
 son, Prince Otho, prisoner. Barbarossa saw 
 that he had better try to be friends, and in 
 1 177 he actually consented to meet Pope 
 Alexander in Venice for a solemn reconciliation. 
 
 This famous meeting took place in front 
 of St. Mark's Church. The Pope sat, in his 
 splendid robes, and surrounded by cardinals, 
 bishops, and other clergy, waiting for the 
 Emperor to approach. The Emperor had 
 been obliged to recognise Alexander as the 
 true Pope before he was allowed to come 
 to Venice at all. So now he drew near, led 
 by the Doge, the Patriarch, and a great 
 procession with crosses and banners. When 
 he came up to the Pope, he seemed to be 
 stricken with a sudden awe, and knelt before 
 him. The Pope, with tears of joy, raised the 
 Emperor up, and gave him the kiss of peace. 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 125 
 
 Many stories were told afterwards about this 
 meeting, and there is a celebrated picture of it 
 in the Ducal Palace at Venice. One story, 
 told in later days, says that, as the Emperor 
 knelt and bowed before the Pope, the Pope put 
 his foot on Barbarossa's neck, saying as he did 
 so, " The young lion and the dragon shalt thou 
 trample under foot." 
 
 The day after the reconciliation a solemn 
 Mass was sung in St. Mark's by the Pope at 
 the Emperor's request. When the Mass was 
 ended, the Emperor took the Pope's hand, led 
 him to his white horse, and held his stirrup 
 while he mounted. Thus the great quarrel 
 ended in the victory of the Pope, and the 
 mighty Emperor had to give way. 
 
 Before we speak of any more Popes and 
 Emperors, we must say something about two 
 names you will constantly come across if you 
 read Italian history or Italian literature of 
 any kind. These two names are Guelf and 
 Ghibelline. They are the names of two great 
 political parties, and during most of the Middle 
 Ages the Italians were divided between these 
 two parties, Guelf and Ghibelline. 
 
 As these parties had to do chiefly with the 
 Pope on the one hand, and with the Emperor 
 on the other, it will be as well to explain 
 their names now. The words "Guelf and 
 " Ghibelline " come from two German names, 
 
i26 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Welf and Weiblingen. Welf was the name 
 of a great Bavarian family, some of whom 
 were Dukes of Bavaria in the tenth and 
 eleventh centuries. The Welfs were among 
 the ancestors of the House of Brunswick, and 
 thus of our own Royal Family also. 
 
 Weiblingen was the name of a castle in 
 Franconia, and was the home of the Emperor 
 Conrad n. Conrad n. was the first Emperor 
 of the great Franconian line, and was grand- 
 father of the Emperor Henry iv., about whom 
 we spoke just now. 
 
 He was also the ancestor of the still more 
 famous House of Hohenstaufen, to which 
 Frederick Barbarossa belonged. The first 
 Hohenstaufen Emperor was Conrad in. ; he 
 had a great fight with the Welf Duke of 
 Bavaria, and it was at this time (1140) that 
 the names Welf and Weiblingen first began 
 to be used as battle-cries in war. 
 
 The Italians turned these names into Guelf 
 and Ghibelline, and it is very important to 
 remember what they meant, if we want to 
 understand anything at all about Italy. 
 
 To put it shortly, we may say that the 
 Guelfs were the Pope's party, while the 
 Ghibellines were the Emperor's party. The 
 Ghibellines were mostly men of the court and 
 camp, and represented the nobility and the 
 feudal system generally. They also held to 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 127 
 
 the idea of a universal Empire, of which Italy 
 was to be the head. 
 
 The Guelfs, on the other hand, were zealous 
 supporters of the Church and the Papacy, and 
 were the defenders of Italian national life and 
 liberty. They stood up for the interests of the 
 cities and of the commercial and working 
 classes. 
 
 The Italian cities usually took sides with the 
 Pope, because they felt that the Empire and 
 the feudal nobility threatened their freedom 
 and their right of self-government. The Guelf 
 party cared more for Italy herself than for the 
 idea of a universal Empire. 
 
 These two parties really made the history 
 of Italy for centuries, and caused endless 
 divisions in nearly all the Italian states, towns, 
 and even among people of the same family. 
 
 But to return to the Popes and the Emperors. 
 It seemed, indeed, as if they could never 
 remain friends for long, and in the thirteenth 
 century they had one of their last and worst 
 quarrels. This time the struggle was between 
 Pope Gregory ix., and after him Pope 
 Innocent iv., on the one side, and the Emperor 
 Frederick u., grandson of the great Frederick 
 Barbarossa, on the other. Frederick 11. was 
 a very powerful prince, and very remarkable 
 for his great abilities. Some one described 
 him as the " wonder of the world." 
 
128 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 It would take far too long to tell the whole 
 story of the fight between him and the Pope, 
 which fight, indeed, lasted for years. The 
 Pope was claiming to rule over great pos- 
 sessions in Italy, and to be quite independent 
 of the Emperor. Moreover, he considered 
 that he ought to have power over the Church 
 throughout the world. Under Frederick n. 
 the Empire was too powerful, and menaced 
 the Pope's independence, and this made a 
 difficulty from the beginning. The first cause 
 of an open quarrel was that the Emperor 
 delayed joining the Crusade, as he had 
 promised to do. This and other violent dis- 
 putes went on until Frederick's death in 1250. 
 When the Emperor died, his son, King 
 Manfred, became King of Sicily. The Pope 
 was determined not to let him be King, so he 
 did what the Popes did in the days of Pepin 
 and Charlemagne when they wanted help 
 against the Lombards — and he turned for 
 help to France. 
 
 He offered the Crown of Sicily to King 
 Louis ix. of France, who refused it. He then 
 offered it to the brother of King Louis, 
 Charles of Anjou. He accepted the offer, and 
 came into Italy to fight Manfred. A great 
 battle was fought at Benevento (in the south 
 of Italy) in 1266, at which King Manfred was 
 defeated and slain. So bitter was the Pope's 
 
z 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 > 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 W 
 
 o 
 
 < 
 
 PL, 
 
 a, 
 
 < 
 
 w 
 
 X 
 H 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 129 
 
 feeling against the family of the Emperor, that 
 he would not allow Manfred's body to rest in 
 the kingdom of Naples, but had it taken out 
 of its first grave and cast down by the river 
 Verde. 
 
 In 1268 another great victory over the 
 Imperial army was won by the French and the 
 Papal party. This was at Tagliacozzo, when 
 the young Conradin, the last of the famous 
 Hohenstaufen House, was defeated, and after- 
 wards betrayed into the hands of the enemy. 
 He was executed at Naples by order of 
 Charles of Anjou. Thus the line of the great 
 Barbarossa came to an end, and a French 
 prince became King of Naples and Sicily. 
 
 Once more the Pope had triumphed over the 
 Emperor, but some of the following chapters 
 will show that the triumph was not very long- 
 lived, for the Popes suffered a worse humilia- 
 tion at the hands of King Philip the Fair of 
 France than they had ever yet undergone at 
 the hands of the Emperor. 
 
 We must now pass over more than two 
 hundred and fifty years, when we come to the 
 time of the most powerful Emperor who had 
 reigned since Barbarossa and his family, or 
 even since Charlemagne himself. This was 
 the Emperor Charles v., who ruled over Spain, 
 Naples, Austria, and Flanders, besides having 
 a great empire in the New World. Charles v. 
 9 
 
130 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 belonged to the House of Hapburg. He was 
 a cousin of Katharine of Aragon, first wife of 
 our King Henry vin. You may remember, 
 too, that when a Roman Emperor had to be 
 elected in 15 19, Henry vin. of England and 
 Francis 1. of France both tried to be made 
 Emperor, but the choice finally fell upon 
 Charles v. 
 
 The Pope at the time of which we are 
 speaking belonged to the celebrated Florentine 
 family of the Medici, and was called Clement vn. 
 
 Now, this was just about the time of the 
 Reformation, when terrible struggles were 
 going on for the cause of religious freedom. 
 Charles v. was a Roman Catholic, and took 
 the Catholic side against the Protestants ; but 
 this did not prevent him from doing a terrible 
 injury to the Pope and to the city of Rome. 
 
 In the year 1525 there was a war between 
 the Emperor and the French king, Francis 1., 
 and the Pope, alarmed at the growing power 
 of Spain, took the French side. Francis 1. 
 was defeated and taken prisoner at the battle 
 of Pavia, leaving the Emperor master of the 
 situation. 
 
 In 1527 Rome was besieged by the Imperial 
 army to punish the Pope for taking part with 
 the French. The Emperor's army was made 
 up of Germans, Spaniards, and Italians, and 
 was commanded by the Constable de Bourbon. 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 131 
 
 At the first assault the invaders got posses- 
 sion of part of Rome, and the Pope, with 
 a number of cardinals and court officials, 
 fled for refuge to the castle of St. Angelo, 
 which was fortified. Rome was taken by the 
 Imperial forces and sacked with terrible greed 
 and barbarity. That sack of Rome was almost 
 the worst the city had ever endured, even from 
 the so-called barbarians, and she has never 
 recovered her former beauty and splendour. 
 However, Pope Clement vn. and the Emperor 
 Charles v. came to terms, and a treaty was 
 made at Barcelona in 1529. Charles was to 
 be crowned Emperor, and to have the kingdom 
 of Naples, while the Pope was to have the 
 province of Emilia given back to him, and the 
 Medici family were to rule in Florence. The 
 French power and influence in Italy thus came 
 to an end, and through this alliance between 
 the Pope and the Emperor, Italy was crushed 
 beneath a Spanish and Papal tyranny. 
 
 Clement vn. and Charles v. met in great 
 state at Bologna in the autumn of 1529, a few 
 months before Charles' coronation. 
 
 The coronation of Charles v. as Roman 
 Emperor took place on February 24th, 1530, 
 in the great Cathedral Church of San Petronio 
 at Bologna. Charles had insisted on the Iron 
 Crown being sent to Bologna from Monza, 
 and he had already been crowned with it by 
 
132 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 the Pope on February 22nd. The Lombard 
 people had wished him to receive the Iron 
 Crown at Monza, according to ancient custom, 
 but Charles answered that he was not wont 
 to run after crowns, but to have crowns running 
 after him. 
 
 The ceremony of the final coronation was 
 very splendid, and was attended by Spanish, 
 Italian, and German nobles, besides ambas- 
 sadors from England, France, Scotland, 
 Hungary, and other countries. The bishops, 
 priests, and nobles from all parts of Europe 
 were attired in gorgeous dresses, adorned with 
 gold, silver, and jewels. 
 
 Any one who is interested in English history 
 will remember the name of Cardinal Campeggio, 
 who was sent to England by Pope Clement vn. 
 to consult about Henry vni.'s divorce from 
 Katharine of Aragon. Cardinal Campeggio 
 belonged to a noble Bolognese family, and 
 was Bishop of Bologna at this very time. He 
 returned to his native city to be present at 
 the welcome of Charles v. 
 
 On the coronation day, the Pope was carried 
 in full state into San Petronio, accompanied 
 by a great train of ecclesiastics. He wore 
 the papal tiara and a most splendid cope, 
 fastened with the famous stud worked by 
 Benvenuto Cellini, in which was set the 
 diamond that had once belonged to three very 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 133 
 
 celebrated men — Ludovico il Moro, Duke of 
 Milan ; Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy ; 
 and Pope Julius 11. 
 
 After the Pope's procession came the 
 Emperor's. The Emperor was in magnificent 
 robes, and four of the great princes of the 
 Empire carried the Imperial insignia. The 
 Marquess of Montferrat carried the sceptre ; 
 the Duke of Bavaria carried the orb ; the 
 Duke of Urbino, in splendid robes of crimson 
 and gold brocade, carried the sword ; while the 
 Duke of Savoy carried the Imperial crown. 
 
 Thus they came in great pomp and state to 
 the cathedral, where the Emperor was received 
 by the clergy. 
 
 Charles was consecrated as a deacon, then 
 anointed, and then led to the Pope to be 
 crowned. The Pope gave him the sword, the 
 sceptre, the orb, and the crown, after which the 
 Emperor, who was kneeling before him, bent 
 and kissed the Pope's feet. 
 
 When Charles rose he took his seat on a 
 throne beside the Pope, the Imperial throne 
 being set two steps lower than the Pope's, 
 just as we see it in many old pictures. 
 
 After the Mass the Pope and Emperor 
 shook hands, and at the door Charles held 
 the Pope's stirrup and led his palfrey for a 
 few paces, as a sign that he owed a son's 
 obedience to the Church. 
 
134 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 This was the last time that an Emperor of 
 the Holy Roman Empire was crowned by a 
 Pope, and we cannot help feeling that this 
 coronation was really a triumph of the 
 Emperor over the Pope and a triumph of 
 the foreigner over Italy. 
 
 One last, and very short, story about a Pope 
 and an Emperor — not a Roman Emperor this 
 time, but Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the 
 French. 
 
 Some few years after the French Revolution, 
 as we all know, Napoleon had made himself 
 master of a great part of Europe, and in 1804 
 it was arranged that he should become Emperor 
 of the French, and that the Imperial dignity 
 should be hereditary in his family. 
 
 The Pope at the time was Pius vn., and 
 Napoleon obliged him to take the long, tiring 
 journey from Rome to Paris in order to crown 
 him Emperor. When the time came, and they 
 were all assembled in Notre- Dame for the 
 gorgeous ceremony, the Pope indeed anointed 
 Napoleon, but Napoleon set the crown on his 
 own head, and himself crowned the Empress 
 Josephine. 
 
 Although the two occasions were not alto- 
 gether unlike, we seem a long, long way from 
 the coronation of King Pepin at St. Denis by 
 Pope Stephen n. in 753 ! 
 
 A long procession of popes and emperors 
 
THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS 135 
 
 has swept past us : Leo in. and Charlemagne ; 
 the stern Gregory vii. and the foolish and 
 unfortunate Henry iv. ; Barbarossa and the 
 two determined popes, Hadrian iv. and Alex- 
 ander vi. ; Frederick 11. and his family, crushed 
 at last by the Pope and his French allies. 
 Then we see Clement vn., forced to bow to the 
 superior force of Charles v. ; Pius vi. and 
 Pius vn., both treated with scant respect and 
 courtesy by Napoleon Bonaparte. When we 
 remember the history of these men, and as we 
 read this chapter about the Popes and the 
 Emperors, we shall perhaps feel that the idea 
 of there being one visible head of the church 
 on earth and one visible head of the state for 
 all the civilised world seems strange and almost 
 impossible. We see all the great nations of the 
 world round us; they all appear separate and 
 independent, each having the right to govern 
 itself as it sees fit, and we can hardly imagine 
 that their rulers would ever bow to the rule of 
 one universal bishop or one universal emperor. 
 Still, we must not forget that the idea of the 
 unity and peace of mankind is a very grand 
 one, and that it is of the very essence of 
 Christianity. In spite of all its failures, it was 
 this idea that tried to speak to us in those two 
 great figures of the Middle Ages — the Pope 
 and the Emperor. 
 
VI 
 THE LITTLE POOR MAN 
 
 " Love and a gentle heart are one same thing." 
 
 Dante, Vita Nuova. 
 
 Some day you may perhaps journey to Rome, 
 and when you do you may pass through that 
 beautiful part of Central Italy which is south of 
 Tuscany and north of Rome, and which is called 
 Umbria. You will see the great Umbrian 
 plain, where there was once an immense lake, 
 and through which the river Tiber flows. 
 Surrounding the plain are long ranges of 
 mountains, which seem to rise one beyond the 
 other in lovely, melting lines of soft blue and 
 purple, just as they painted them in the old 
 pictures. Long, long ago the Etruscans lived 
 in Umbria, and they have left the remains 
 of their famous hill towns to crown many 
 of the lesser heights in the Umbrian hill 
 country. 
 
 We know the old Etruscan building by its 
 massive blocks of stone, laid one upon another 
 
 without mortar ; and we can still see many 
 
 136 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 137 
 
 wonderful remains of Etruscan sculpture, paint- 
 ing, pottery, and other arts. 
 
 High above the Umbrian plain rises the 
 great town of Perugia, once Etruscan, and 
 afterwards Roman. Quite near it is the calm 
 and silvery Lake Thrasymene, where Flaminius 
 was conquered by Hannibal in a fearful fight, 
 and near whose shores the bones of Roman and 
 Carthaginian soldiers are still sometimes found 
 by the country folk. It all seems peaceful and 
 placid enough now, as you sit by the shore, or 
 walk in the streets of some little town by the 
 lake, watching the people, in their gay dresses, 
 perhaps coming to a fair, and driving their 
 beautiful, cream-coloured oxen. 
 
 Facing Perugia, as you look across the plain, 
 stands the town of Assisi, perched high on the 
 steep slopes of Monte Subasio. Assisi was 
 an old Roman town, and is now, for a special 
 reason, one of the most celebrated places in 
 Europe — and, indeed, in the world. 
 
 The great Italian poet, Dante, said in his 
 famous poem, the " Divine Comedy," that we 
 ought to call Assisi the place of sunrise, because 
 of the wonderful li^ht that once arose there. 
 What did Dante mean ? This story will try to 
 answer that question. 
 
 In the twelfth century there lived at Assisi 
 a well-to-do cloth merchant named Pietro 
 Bernardone. He had married a wife from 
 
138 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Provence, and she was known at Assisi as 
 Madonna Pica. 
 
 In 1 182, when Messer Pietro Bernardone 
 was away on business in France, — probably at 
 one of the great cloth-fairs at Troyes, — his 
 little son was born at Assisi, and was baptized 
 John. However, when the father came home 
 he called the little boy his little Frenchman, 
 his " Francesco," or, as we say in English, 
 Francis. 
 
 Francis grew up full of high spirits and 
 gaiety, and fond of all kinds of wild fun and 
 frolic. He learned the Provencal language 
 from his French mother, who taught him to 
 love the old tales of romance and chivalry told 
 by the troubadours. He must have known 
 the troubadour stories about King Arthur and 
 his knights, and about Charlemagne and his 
 paladins. He also loved music and the trou- 
 badour songs. It is said that whenever 
 Francis was much excited he began to talk in 
 French, although we are also told that he did 
 not speak it well. 
 
 The life in Italy at this time was a curious 
 mixture of splendour and misery ; there was 
 pleasure and amusement on the one hand, strife, 
 war, and cruelty on the other. The poor 
 suffered greatly from famine and pestilence, 
 and at the gates of the cities were to be seen 
 the lazar-houses, built for the victims of the 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 139 
 
 fearful disease of leprosy, which had been 
 brought from the East by the Crusaders, and 
 had spread over Western Europe. Meanwhile, 
 the towns were getting bigger, and the 
 merchants and artisans were becoming wealthier. 
 The richer merchants associated with the 
 nobles, and were often the bankers and advisers 
 of kings. But the people who were less well 
 off did not care so much about the feudal 
 nobility. They disliked and dreaded the 
 endless fighting which was kept up by the 
 nobles, because these wars caused so much 
 want and misery. 
 
 This was the kind of life into which Francis 
 Bernardone was born, and we are told that he 
 became one of the wildest of all the wild and 
 extravagant band of young men in Assisi. He 
 wasted both his time and his money, and set a 
 bad example of folly to the others. 
 
 In 1202 there was a fiodit between the towns 
 of Assisi and Perugia. It was no uncommon 
 thing in those days in Italy for one Italian town 
 to fight another, although it seems strange and 
 dreadful to us now to think of it. Francis 
 joined those nobles of Assisi who went to the 
 war, and rode forth with them in all his bravery 
 on a splendid charger. 
 
 The Assisans were defeated ; the nobles 
 were imprisoned for a year, and Francis was 
 imprisoned with them. It was he who cheered 
 
140 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 them with his wild spirits, astonishing them by 
 his merriment in the prison. We are told that 
 " among his fellow-prisoners was a knight, a 
 very proud and unbearable man ; but, while all 
 the rest determined to shun him, Francis' 
 patience did not fail. He endured the unendur- 
 able knight, and induced the others to make it 
 up with him." We can see already that the 
 courage, patience, and sweet temper Francis 
 showed were a promise of yet greater things 
 which were to come. 
 
 Soon after Francis came home again he fell 
 ill of a fever, and when he began to recover all 
 the world seemed changed to him ; none of the 
 old pleasures delighted him, and many serious 
 thoughts came over him. However, when he 
 was quite restored to health, he began to think 
 of doing great things in the world, and of 
 making a name for himself. So he planned to 
 join a noble knight of Assisi who was setting 
 out for Apulia to fight under the banner of the 
 11 gentle Count," Walter de Brienne, against 
 the Germans. But at Spoleto Francis fell ill 
 again, and now he seemed to hear a call to 
 quite another kind of life and a summons to 
 fight under another Captain. He mounted his 
 horse, rode back to Assisi, and went home to 
 his father's house for a time. All his com- 
 panions wondered why he was so changed, and 
 why he cared no longer for all the feasting and 
 
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI. 
 
 (Andrea della Robbia.) 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 141 
 
 revelry of former days. They questioned him 
 about it, and asked whether he was thinking 
 of being married. He answered that " he was 
 going to marry a nobler and fairer bride than 
 they ever saw, who shall surpass all others 
 in beauty, and excel them in wisdom." 
 
 People soon found out what Francis meant, 
 for he now turned quite away from his gay, 
 thoughtless way of living, and gave himself 
 and all that he had to the love and service 
 of God and man, and especially to the 
 service of the poor, the ignorant, and the 
 suffering. 
 
 This was the dawn of that wonderful light of 
 which Dante spoke — the light of seraphic love 
 which burned in the life of the man we know 
 as St. Francis of Assisi. Henceforward his 
 story is one of absolute devotion and self- 
 sacrifice for the sake of others — a picture of 
 the charity that never faileth. There was no 
 gloom or moroseness about the religion of 
 St. Francis. He loved not only his brother- 
 men, but all the glad and beautiful creatures of 
 the good God — the sun, moon and stars, the 
 flowers, the running streams and the still, 
 shining lakes, and all the birds and animals. 
 He always spoke of them as his brothers and 
 sisters, for, indeed, they and we are all children 
 of one Father. All these things had a message 
 of life and love for him, as they should have for 
 
i 4 2 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 us, and as they had for our own poet, Words- 
 worth, as he tells us — 
 
 "To me the meanest flower that blows can give 
 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." 
 
 Francis tried so earnestly to be a real brother 
 to the poor that he sometimes did things which 
 seem very strange to us. For example, when 
 he was once at Rome on a pilgrimage, he made 
 friends and companions of the beggars, and 
 changed clothes with one of them. Dressed in 
 the beggar's rags, he joyfully sat down among 
 all the poor in the great square in front of 
 St. Peter's Church, and counted himself as one 
 of them. We are told that when he went into 
 St. Peter's he wondered much that people 
 made such small offerings at the tomb of the 
 great Apostle, and, as his friend writes, " He 
 put his hand into his purse, and drew it forth 
 full of money, and flung it through the grating 
 of the altar with such a crash that all they who 
 were standing by did marvel greatly at so 
 splendid an oblation." 
 
 Again, we hear how one day, when Francis 
 was praying before the crucifix in the little 
 ruined church of St. Damian at Assisi, he heard 
 a voice, as it were from the Crucified Himself, 
 calling him by name, and saying to him, 
 "Francis, go repair My house, which, as thou 
 seest, is wholly falling into ruin." From that 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 143 
 
 hour Francis' whole soul was melted with love 
 of the Lord, and he hastened not only to try 
 and repair that one little church of St. Damian, 
 but to do all he could for the Church of Christ 
 everywhere. 
 
 So anxious was he to help the priest of 
 St. Damian to restore his church that one 
 day, when he had been sent by his father to 
 sell some bales of cloth at the town of Foligno, 
 he offered the money he received for the cloth 
 to the priest. Now the priest, very wisely, did 
 not accept the money, because he felt that 
 Francis hardly had the right to give it to him, 
 and certainly not without asking his father 
 first. And, indeed, when Messer Pietro heard 
 what his son had wished to do, he was very 
 angry, and shut him up, almost like a prisoner 
 in his own house. Madonna Pica, fearing that 
 Francis would fall ill, persuaded his father to 
 let him out. Then Messer Pietro wished to 
 brinQf Francis before the magistrate in order 
 that he might be forbidden by law to give all 
 this money away to the poor. But Francis 
 refused to be judged by any one except the 
 Bishop, and this famous scene is painted on the 
 walls of the Upper Church of San Francesco 
 at Assisi. 
 
 The Bishop exhorted Francis to give up all 
 money to his father, showing him that we have 
 no right to spend what is not strictly our own, 
 
i 4 4 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 even on good works. Francis then declared 
 that he would give up everything, even his 
 clothes, so that he should possess nothing that 
 had been bought with his father's money. 
 Then he renounced his inheritance, and, 
 stripping off his clothes, gave them all back 
 to his father. As we see in the picture, the 
 Bishop took him into his arms, put his own 
 cloak round him, and then ordered an old, 
 coarse artisan dress to be brought for him. 
 
 Thus did Francis give up all his worldly 
 possessions in order to be joined to his bride, 
 ' 'the Lady Poverty," as he and his followers 
 called her. 
 
 Francis at once began the rebuilding of the 
 little church of St. Damian, labouring at it with 
 his own hands, and promising to pray for all 
 those who would bring him stones to build 
 with. He afterwards repaired another tiny 
 chapel, known as St. Mary of the Little 
 Portion, which, like St. Damian, belonged to 
 the great Benedictine monastery on Monte 
 Subasio. 
 
 As you have read about St. Benedict in an 
 earlier chapter, you may like to hear the old 
 story of this little chapel, now so celebrated. 
 
 Early in the sixth century, when St. Benedict 
 was passing through Umbria, he found a lonely, 
 ruined chapel on this spot — a chapel which had 
 been built by pilgrims long, long before. He 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 145 
 
 restored the chapel, rebuilt the walls, and made 
 the two large doors we still see there. 
 
 We are told that one day, when St. Benedict 
 was praying in the chapel, he had a wonderful 
 vision, in which he saw a great crowd of people 
 singing hymns and calling on St. Francis for 
 help. St. Benedict understood from this vision 
 that some day a great saint would be honoured 
 in that tiny chapel, so he made two doors in it 
 in order that the vast crowds could pass in at 
 one and out at the other. 
 
 The people of Assisi gave St. Benedict a 
 small plot of ground near the little church, 
 whence it came to be called St. Mary of the 
 Little Portion. After St. Benedict founded his 
 great monastery at Monte Cassino, he sent 
 some of his monks to live at St. Mary of the 
 Little Portion and to minister to the people. 
 
 It was in the years 1207-09 that Francis 
 worked at the restoration of these two chapels. 
 He was now becoming so well known and so 
 greatly loved that he began to collect around 
 him a band of followers, who copied his self- 
 sacrifice and devotion, leaving everything in 
 order to follow his example and share his life. 
 
 The first little company of Francis' followers 
 made a kind of humble home at a place on a 
 bend of the river near Assisi. This place was 
 called " Rivo Torto," or the "winding shore," 
 like our Windsor. Here these first Franciscans 
 10 
 
146 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 lived, in poor mud huts, for Francis strictly for- 
 bade any grand houses to be built. As we read : 
 " He ever applied himself to holy simplicity, 
 nor did he allow the straitness of his abode to 
 cramp the breadth of his heart." 
 
 In 1210 the number of the brethren had 
 increased to eleven, and now Francis drew up 
 a rule of life which he wished them to follow. 
 
 The brethren were vowed to Humility, 
 Obedience, and most especially to Poverty — 
 the Lady Poverty, as they called her. No 
 Franciscan might possess anything except the 
 clothes he wore. Their houses and chapels 
 were to be of the very humblest and simplest, 
 and even these were not to be actually their 
 own. Their services were also to be very 
 plain and simple. Learning was held of little 
 or no account ; the chief aim was to be detach- 
 ment from all earthly riches and honours, and 
 a fervent love of God and man. 
 
 The Order was to be called that of the 
 Friars Minor, or Lesser Brethren. The 
 members were to preach repentance, to pro- 
 claim the Gospel, and to tend the sick, 
 especially the lepers. And they were never 
 on any account to be idle, idleness being the 
 parent of much mischief. Francis himself set 
 the pattern of this life before his followers, and 
 when we speak of the care of lepers, we are 
 reminded that Francis was especially anxious 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 147 
 
 to help and serve those unhappy people, 
 who were shunned by nearly all their fellow- 
 creatures. Francis had a horror of lepers in 
 his earlier days, but had made a great effort 
 to conquer this shrinking from them, so that he 
 was now able to tend and cheer those poor 
 sufferers. 
 
 At this time the great Innocent in. was 
 Pope — "a glorious man, and one exceedingly 
 renowned for wisdom," as the Franciscan 
 writers say. 
 
 Francis, with his band of eleven followers, 
 journeyed all the way to Rome, and came to 
 the Pope, begging him to confirm the rule he 
 had written for the new Order. The Pope 
 listened with great interest, but he hesitated 
 at first about confirming the rule, thinking it 
 too hard for any man to keep. 
 
 Another picture in that same famous church at 
 Assisi represents a dream of Pope Innocent 111., 
 in which he saw the great Lateran Basilica at 
 Rome, the mother-church of Western Christen- 
 dom, tottering to its fall and being supported 
 by a man in the rough dress of a humble friar, 
 so that it was saved from ruin. This dream 
 the Pope took to mean that Francis and his 
 brethren would be a great defence to the 
 Church of Christ, and accordingly, when he 
 saw how earnest and determined they were, 
 he consented to confirm the rule. 
 
148 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 In the year 121 1 St. Mary of the Little 
 Portion — the chapel of which you have read the 
 story — was given to Francis by the Benedictines 
 of Monte Subasio, who begged that this place 
 might always be the chief home and sanctuary 
 of his Order. Francis would not accept the 
 property as absolutely his own, but jinsisted 
 on paying a yearly tribute of fish for it to the 
 Abbot of San Benedetto. In return for this 
 offering, the Benedictines used to give the 
 friars a jar of oil. 
 
 Francis and his little community now moved 
 to their dearly loved " Santa Maria della Porti- 
 uncula," as it is called in Italian. Round the 
 church were built the humble huts where the 
 brethren lived. These huts or cells had mud 
 floors ; they were built of wattle and dab, and 
 thatched with straw. All is quite changed 
 now. The little chapel itself, and the cell 
 where St. Francis died, are now enclosed in 
 the great domed church of St. Mary of the 
 Angels. In the " Garden of the Roses," close 
 to the church, grow the thornless roses of 
 St. Francis, which replace the wilderness of 
 brambles that once was there. 
 
 Just about the time that Francis and his 
 brethren began to live at the " Little Portion," 
 something happened which was of great im- 
 portance for the Franciscan Order. 
 
 A young girl, who belonged to a noble 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 149 
 
 family of Assisi, had heard Francis preach, 
 and had from that moment determined to 
 take the vows of the Franciscan Order and 
 live a life of poverty, hard work, and prayer. 
 She fled one night from her father's palace in 
 Assisi, and came, with two terrified companions, 
 to St. Mary of the Little Portion, where she 
 found that the midnight Mass was going to be 
 said. After the Mass, Francis led her to the 
 altar, cut off her long fair hair, took her jewels 
 from her neck, and laid them all on the altar. 
 She was then clothed in the grey Franciscan 
 habit, with a black veil over her head, and 
 thus she took her vows. This young girl was 
 Chiara Scifi, known to us now as St. Clara or 
 St. Clare, and foundress of the first Franciscan 
 Order of Nuns, usually called the Poor Clares, 
 or the Order of Poor Ladies. 
 
 St. Clara was always a devoted friend of 
 St. Francis. She and her nuns afterwards 
 lived for some time at St. Damian, the first 
 of the little churches repaired by St. Francis, 
 where there is still a Franciscan monastery. 
 St. Clara and her nuns moved later into a 
 convent in Assisi itself. 
 
 A Franciscan writer says of St. Clara : — 
 
 "She was noble by family, but nobler by 
 
 grace ; . . . steadfast in purpose, and most ardent 
 
 in longing after the Divine love ; endued with 
 
 wisdom, and eminent in humility ; bright (clara) 
 
150 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 in name ; brighter in life ; brightest in 
 character." 
 
 Many books have been written at various 
 times about St. Francis and his wonderful 
 life, and you will probably read some of these 
 one day. Here it is only possible to speak 
 very shortly about the rest of his story. 
 
 In 1217 the brethren were sent out for the 
 first time to preach in foreign lands, and in 
 1219-20 Francis himself visited Egypt and 
 the Holy Land in the hope of converting the 
 Soldan. But although Francis had such extra- 
 ordinary power and influence among his own 
 countrymen, his foreign mission did not succeed, 
 probably because he only knew French and 
 Italian, and could therefore only speak to the 
 people by an interpreter. 
 
 The year 1223 was another very important 
 time in the history of Francis and his Order, 
 for it was then that Pope Honorius m. con- 
 firmed the Franciscan Rule by what is called 
 a Bull — that is, a formal document to which 
 the Pope's Seal, or " Bulla," is attached. So 
 now the great Franciscan Order — the Grey 
 Friars, or Friars Minor, as they are variously 
 called — became fully authorised and recognised 
 in the Church. One of the frescoes in the 
 Upper Church at Assisi represents Francis 
 preaching before Pope Honorius in., and this 
 picture is a specially beautiful one. 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 151 
 
 And now we must speak of one of the 
 strangest and most wonderful things that 
 happened in the life of St. Francis. 
 
 There is in the Apennines a certain high 
 and lonely mountain called La Verna, wild 
 and rocky, and thickly wooded at the top with 
 huge beech trees and pines. This mountain 
 rises just between the sources of two of the 
 most famous rivers of Italy, the Tiber and the 
 Arno, and it looks down upon a most splendid 
 and beautiful view. 
 
 Mount La Verna had been given to Francis 
 by a rich Tuscan nobleman, Count Orlando 
 Cattani of Chiusi, as "a secret place of rest 
 and solitude," where Francis might meditate 
 and pray in peace, away from the crowds of 
 men who flocked round him daily. 
 
 On August 15th, 1224, Francis came to 
 Mount La Verna, as he wished to prepare 
 for the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel 
 by forty days of prayer and fasting. 
 
 He chose the wildest and loneliest part of 
 the mountain for his retreat. He had taken 
 very few companions with him, and no one was 
 allowed to come near him, except when Brother 
 Leo brought him some bread and water. 
 Brother Leo used to leave the bread and water 
 beside a little bridge which had been made 
 over a great cleft in the rock, so that even he 
 did not come quite near. 
 
152 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 On September 14th, Holy Cross Day, 
 Francis, who had been praying very fervently, 
 had a most wondrous vision. We will tell it 
 in the words of the great Franciscan teacher, 
 St. Bonaventura, who says : " He (Francis) 
 beheld a Seraph, having six wings, flaming 
 and resplendent, coming down from the heights 
 of heaven. When in his flight most swift he 
 had reached the space of air nigh the man 
 of God, there appeared betwixt the wings 
 the Figure of a Man crucified, having his 
 hands and feet stretched forth in the shape 
 of a Cross, and fastened unto a Cross. Two 
 wings were raised above His head, twain were 
 spread forth to fly, while twain hid His whole 
 body. Beholding this, Francis was mightily 
 astonished, and joy, mingled with sorrow, filled 
 his heart. He rejoiced at the gracious aspect 
 wherewith he saw Christ, under the guise of 
 the Seraph, regard him, but His crucifixion 
 pierced his soul with a sword of pitying grief. 
 He marvelled exceedingly at the appearance 
 of a vision so unfathomable, knowing that 
 the infirmity of the Passion doth in no wise 
 accord with the immortality of a Seraphic 
 spirit. At length he understood therefrom, the 
 Lord revealing it unto him, that this vision 
 had been thus presented unto his gaze by the 
 Divine providence, that the friend of Christ 
 migdit have fore-knowledge that he was to be 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 153 
 
 wholly transformed into the likeness of Christ 
 Crucified, not by martyrdom of body, but by 
 enkindling of heart." 
 
 As the vision faded away Francis felt in his 
 heart a wondrous glow, and when he rose 
 from his knees he saw that he bore on his 
 body the marks of the Crucified — in his hands, 
 feet, and side. 
 
 This is what is meant by the Sacred Stigmata, 
 about which you will read in many of the 
 beautiful stories about St. Francis. 
 
 Francis called his faithful brethren to him 
 and told them of his vision, but he always tried, 
 as far as possible, to hide the sacred wounds. 
 
 On September 30th he left Mount La Verna 
 with the brethren, knowing well that he himself 
 would never return there. For a long time 
 past he had been suffering in many ways, 
 especially from his eyes ; and, indeed, his poor 
 body was well-nigh worn out with all the toil 
 and hardship he had laid upon it. He bade 
 a most pathetic farewell to his beloved mountain, 
 blessing it as he turned to gaze on it for the 
 last time. 
 
 Francis still went on teaching and preaching 
 for some time after this, but at last he became 
 so ill and weak that the brethren had to carry 
 him back to Assisi to the humble Franciscan 
 home, St. Mary of the Little Portion, where 
 he desired to die. 
 
154 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Here, on October 4th, 1226, Francis of 
 Assisi died, lying, by his own special wish, on 
 the bare ground, faithful to the very end to 
 his Lady Poverty. " His most holy spirit 
 was freed from the flesh, and, absorbed into 
 the boundless depths of the Divine glory, the 
 blessed man fell on sleep in the Lord." 
 
 When the people of Assisi knew that Francis 
 was dead, they hastened down to St. Mary of 
 the Little Portion in order to carry the precious 
 body back to the town. 
 
 As they returned, the long procession of 
 priests, nobles, and people, with torches, 
 trumpets, and waving branches, climbed slowly 
 up the hill towards Assisi, passing on its way 
 the little convent of St. Damian, where St. 
 Clara and her nuns were then dwelling. 
 
 The procession halted at St. Damian, and 
 from a little lattice window the sorrowing St. 
 Clara and her companions looked for the last 
 time on the face of their beloved father, 
 St. Francis, as he lay in his coffin. 
 
 The body was then taken in great state to 
 the Church of San Giorgio in Assisi, where 
 it was first buried. Afterwards, when the 
 Church of San Francesco was built, the body 
 was taken there, where it now lies. 
 
 Francis of Assisi has left behind him the 
 memory of one of the most Christ-like lives 
 men have ever seen, and in the year 1228 his 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 155 
 
 name was placed among those of the Saints of 
 the Church by Pope Gregory ix. The great 
 ceremony of canonisation took place at the 
 Church of San Giorgio, in the presence of the 
 Pope himself and of many cardinals and 
 prelates. 
 
 People have sometimes wondered what St. 
 Francis, one of the humblest souls that ever 
 breathed, would have thought of all the 
 splendour that surrounds his memory. We 
 must hope that he would have understood it 
 as an expression of love. We cannot help 
 this thought coming to our minds when we 
 remember that St. Francis liked to be called 
 the " Little Poor Man of Christ," and that 
 his one desire was to serve God and man in 
 simplicity and humility. The history of his life 
 should always remind us of what we read in the 
 Gospels, where we learn that "a man's life 
 consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
 which he possesseth," and that "the life is 
 more than meat, and the body than raiment." 
 
 A short story like this about such a great 
 man cannot help being very imperfect, but 
 it will have done its work if it persuades 
 anybody to read other stories and other books 
 which set forth the lovely character and life 
 of St. Francis in a more deserving way. 
 
 However, before we leave St. Francis we 
 must tell something of his wonderful love for 
 
156 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 all God's creatures, and of his marvellous 
 power over them. 
 
 English children are fond of animals, and 
 are nearly always kind to them. They often 
 have pets of their own — dogs or birds — so the 
 love of St. Francis for animals, and their love 
 for him, will have a special interest for those 
 for whom this little book is written. Animals 
 seem to have known in some curious way that 
 they would be safe with Francis. One story 
 tells how a live leveret was once brought to 
 him, and how it was set down on the ground 
 so that it might escape whither it would. 
 When Francis called it, it "leapt with flying 
 feet " into his arms, and every time it was 
 put down on the ground to escape if it liked, 
 it returned to Francis, as though, as St. 
 Bonaventura says, " by some hidden sense it 
 perceived the tenderness of his heart." The 
 same thing happened with a wild rabbit that 
 was brought to St. Francis. The timid little 
 creature fled from every one else, but trusted 
 itself to Francis. 
 
 We are told, also, how one day, when 
 Francis was on the lake of Rieti, a fine, live 
 fish was brought to him, " which he called, as 
 he was wont, by the name of brother, and put 
 back into the water nigh the boat. Then the 
 fish played in the water nigh the man of God, 
 and, as though drawn by love of him, would 
 
Photo] 
 
 [Anderson. 
 
 ST. FRANCIS PREACHING TO THE BIRDS. 
 
 (Giotto.) 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 157 
 
 in no wise leave the boat-side until it had 
 received his blessing and leave." 
 
 Some of the most delightful stories told us 
 by the friends of St. Francis are about his 
 love for birds, and the extraordinary power he 
 seemed to have over them. 
 
 One day, when he was journeying through 
 the valley of Spoleto, he came near to a place 
 called Bevagna, where there were numbers of 
 birds of all kinds — doves, rooks, and others. 
 Francis, in his fervent love of all birds and 
 beasts, ran towards these birds, which in no 
 wise flew away, as might have been expected, 
 but remained there, seeming as though they 
 had been waiting for him. The saint was 
 very joyful at this, and began to speak to 
 the birds and to preach a kind of sermon to 
 them, adding at the end, " My brother birds, 
 much ought ye to praise your Creator, and 
 ever to love Him who has given you feathers 
 for clothing, wings for flight, and all that ye 
 had need of. God has made you noble among 
 His creatures, for He has given you a habita- 
 tion in the purity of the air, and, whereas ye 
 neither sow nor reap, He Himself doth still 
 protect and govern you without any care of 
 your own." The story goes on to say that 
 "those little birds, rejoicing in wondrous 
 fashion, after their nature, began to stretch 
 out their necks, to spread their wings, to open 
 
158 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 their beaks, and to gaze on him. And then he 
 went to and fro amidst them, touching their 
 heads and bodies with his tunic. At length 
 he blessed them, and, having made the sign 
 of the Cross, gave them leave to fly away to 
 another place. But the blessed father (St. 
 Francis) went on his way with his companions, 
 rejoicing and giving thanks to God, whom all 
 creatures humbly acknowledge and revere." 
 
 Again, when once St. Francis was intending 
 to preach the Word of God to a company of 
 people, he could not be heard for the chirping 
 and chattering of a number of swallows that 
 were building their nests. Francis turned to 
 the birds, saying, " My sisters, the swallows, 
 it is now time for me to speak too, because 
 you have been saying enough all this time. 
 Listen to the Word of God, and be in silence 
 and quiet until the sermon is finished." Then, 
 to the amazement of the bystanders, the birds 
 became quite silent, and remained quietly in 
 their places until the sermon was done. 
 
 We read also of a certain falcon, who was 
 building his nest up on Mount La Verna at 
 the time when St. Francis was there alone. 
 The falcon made great friends with St. Francis, 
 and used to awaken him by singing when it 
 was the hour of prayer. When, however, 
 St. Francis was ill and weary, the bird did 
 not sing, as usual, in the middle of the night, 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 159 
 
 but waited until dawn, so as not to arouse 
 Francis too soon from his sorely needed rest. 
 
 Another time, when Francis was ill, a certain 
 nobleman sent him a pheasant. Francis was 
 greatly pleased to have the bird, not because 
 he wanted to eat it, but because he was " wont 
 to rejoice in such creatures for the love of the 
 Creator." The pheasant, once having come 
 into the cell where Francis was, would not 
 leave him, but came back and back again even 
 after it had been taken quite a long way off, 
 and almost forced its way into the cell under 
 the tunics of the brethren who stood at the 
 door. 
 
 After this, a physician, who was a great 
 friend of St. Francis, asked if he might have 
 the pheasant to take care of, and he took it 
 home with him. But the poor bird refused to 
 eat, and grew quite sad, as if a wrong had been 
 done to him. Then the doctor took him back 
 to St. Francis, and the bird immediately became 
 quite happy again and "began to eat joyfully." 
 
 One more story about birds must be told. 
 At one time, the brethren used to feed some 
 red-breasts, first the parent-birds, and after- 
 wards the young ones, which the parent-birds 
 had left to the brethren. The young birds got 
 to be quite at home with St. Francis and his 
 followers. They used to live in their house, 
 sit on their hands, and would have nothing" to 
 
160 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 do with any one else. But this happy life was 
 disturbed by the greed of the biggest bird, who 
 was very unkind to the smaller ones, for, when 
 he had eaten as much as he wanted himself, he 
 used to drive the others away from the food. 
 St. Francis, seeing this, said to the brethren, 
 11 See what this greedy bird is doing. Though 
 full and satisfied himself, he grudges against 
 his hungry brothers ; he will come to a bad end 
 yet." No sooner had these words been spoken 
 than punishment came upon the selfish bird, 
 for he went up on a vessel of water to drink, 
 and immediately fell in and was drowned. No 
 cat or any other beast would touch the body of 
 the bird afterwards. The Franciscan writer 
 adds that "horrible indeed is greed in men 
 when it is thus punished in birds ! " 
 
 Yet another story, — a very famous one, — not 
 about birds this time, but about a wolf. 
 
 It happened that the people of the town of 
 Gubbio in Umbria were at one time in great 
 terror of a very big and fierce wolf, which had 
 appeared in their country, and which used to 
 kill and devour not only animals, but even 
 men. 
 
 When it happened that St. Francis went to 
 stay at the town of Gubbio, he was very sorry 
 for the people, and told them that he would go 
 out into the country near to meet the wolf. He 
 started off bravely ; his companions went with 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 161 
 
 him so far, then got frightened and turned back 
 while Francis went on alone. 
 
 Presently the wolf appeared, and ran at 
 Francis with open jaws. But as he got near, 
 Francis made the sign of the Cross over him, 
 saying to him, " Brother Wolf, come here. I 
 command thee in the name of Christ that thou 
 do no harm either to me or to any one else." 
 And behold, directly Francis had made the sign 
 of the Cross, the wolf shut his terrible jaws, and 
 came as meekly as a lamb and lay down at the 
 saint's feet. 
 
 Francis then began to speak to him about 
 
 his dreadful cruelty and fierceness, talking to 
 
 him something after this fashion : " Brother 
 
 Wolf, thou hast done much mischief in these 
 
 parts, hunting and killing God's creatures. 
 
 And not only hast thou killed and devoured 
 
 beasts, but thou hast even dared to slay men, 
 
 who are made in the image of God. Thus thou 
 
 dost deserve to be hanged as a thief and a 
 
 murderer, and thus all this country and people 
 
 are thine enemies. But, Brother Wolf, I wish 
 
 to make peace between them and thee, so that 
 
 thou mayest no longer hurt them, and that they 
 
 may pardon thee, and men and dogs no longer 
 
 pursue thee. I will promise thee also that, if 
 
 thou wilt amend thy ways, thou shalt be duly 
 
 fed." 
 
 The wolf then moved his tail, his body, 
 ii 
 
162 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 and his eyes, as though he made answer, and 
 consented to do what St. Francis bade him. 
 
 After talking to him a little more, Francis 
 told the wolf to give him a solemn sign that he 
 promised no longer to molest man or beast, 
 whereupon the wolf lifted up his right paw and 
 put it into Francis' hand. 
 
 Francis then led him into the town, and there, 
 in the market-square, before all the people, the 
 wolf again made the same sign of his promise 
 to amend. We read that the people rejoiced 
 exceedingly, and paid great honour to St. 
 Francis, who had saved them from so much 
 trouble and danger. St. Francis, however, 
 reminded them that it was much more important 
 for them to flee from the sin that could slay 
 the soul than from the wolf, which could only 
 slay the body. 
 
 After this, Brother Wolf became a great 
 friend of all the people in the town. He went 
 about from house to house, and was fed, as 
 Francis had told him he should be. Two years 
 later, Brother Wolf died of old age, and was 
 mourned by all the people of Gubbio, because 
 when they saw him going "about so quietly and 
 gently among them, they were always reminded 
 of the beloved saint who had tamed him and 
 taught him to be good and peaceable. 
 
 These stories, and others like them which 
 are told of St. Francis, remind us of some 
 
THE LITTLE POOR MAN 163 
 
 beautiful lines in a poem which all English- 
 speaking children ought to know and love — 
 Coleridge's " Rime of the Ancient Mariner." 
 These two verses seem as if they might have 
 been spoken by St. Francis himself — 
 
 " Farewell, farewell, but this I tell 
 To thee thou wedding guest ! 
 He prayeth well who loveth well 
 Both man and bird and beast. 
 
 He prayeth best who loveth best 
 All things both great and small, 
 
 For the dear God, who loveth us, 
 He made and loveth all." 
 
 We cannot end this story of the " Little 
 Poor Man ' better than by quoting his 
 beautiful "Canticle of the Sun," written by St. 
 Francis when he was lying ill and blind in a 
 hut near the convent of St. Damian. This 
 song is one of the earliest poems written in 
 Italian, and this English version is by our own 
 poet, Matthew Arnold — 
 
 " O most high, almighty, good Lord God, to Thee belong 
 praise, glory, honour, and all blessing ! 
 
 Praised be my Lord God with all His creatures ; and 
 especially our brother the sun, who brings us the day, 
 and who brings us the light ; fair is he, and shining 
 with a very great splendour : O Lord, he signifies to 
 us Thee ! 
 
 Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon, and for the 
 stars, the which He has set clear and lovely in heaven. 
 
 Praised be our Lord for our brother the wind, and for air 
 and cloud, calms and all weather, by the which Thou 
 upholdest life in all creatures. 
 
1 64 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Praised be my Lord for our sister water, who is very 
 serviceable unto us, and humble, and precious, and 
 clean. 
 
 Praised be my Lord for our brother fire, through whom 
 Thou givest us light in the darkness ; and he is bright, 
 and pleasant, and very mighty, and strong. 
 
 Praised be my Lord for our mother the earth, the which 
 doth sustain and keep us, and bringeth forth divers 
 fruits and flowers of many colours, and grass. 
 
 Praised be my Lord for all those who pardon one another 
 for His love's sake, and who endure weakness and 
 tribulation ; blessed are they who peaceably shall 
 endure, for Thou, O most Highest, shalt give them a 
 crown ! 
 
 Praised be my Lord for our sister the death of the body, 
 from whom no man escapeth. Woe to him who dieth 
 in mortal sin ! Blessed are they who are found walk- 
 ing by Thy most holy will, for the second death shall 
 have no power to do them harm. 
 
 Praise ye and bless ye the Lord, and give thanks unto 
 Him, and serve Him with great humility." 
 
VII 
 
 THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 
 
 "The most beauteous and most famous daughter of Rome, 
 Florence." 
 
 Dante, Convivio. 
 
 This story is going to be partly about that 
 famous and beautiful city of Florence, and 
 partly about the lives of two of her greatest 
 sons. 
 
 If we want to understand what Italy was like 
 in the Middle Ages — and, indeed, for long after 
 the Middle Ages had passed away — we must 
 try to learn something about her great cities, 
 especially the great city-states of Central and 
 Northern Italy. 
 
 Now, Venice always stood rather apart by 
 herself, and we have already spoken about her 
 history in another chapter. But when we 
 come to think about the cities of Central Italy, 
 we shall find that Florence was by far the most 
 celebrated, and the most important in the 
 history of Europe. 
 
 Florence is renowned not only for her great 
 
 beauty, but also for the interest of her political 
 
 i6 5 
 
1 66 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 life, and for the wonderful work done by so 
 many of her sons in art, literature, commerce, 
 and statesmanship. These things have become 
 the heritage of all the Western world, and we all 
 owe to Florence a debt of undying gratitude for 
 what she has taught us in these various ways. 
 
 A well-known writer of our own day points 
 out that what we can see and read of the life 
 and history of Florence when she was at the 
 height of her prosperity and glory reminds us 
 of the most brilliant days of ancient Athens, 
 and he adds that at the end of the Middle 
 Ages the Florentine Republic was like a star 
 that lit up the world around. And if we want 
 to have any proof of this, we need only recall 
 the names even of some few of the more 
 famous Florentines — such, for example, as the 
 great poet, Dante ; the painters, Giotto and 
 Fra Angelico ; the architects, Arnolfo di 
 Cambio and Filippo Brunelleschi ; the sculptors, 
 Ghiberti, Donatello, and Luca della Robbia ; 
 the historian, Macchiavelli ; and last, but not 
 least, those two wonderful men, Leonardo da 
 Vinci and Michael Angelo, who were at once 
 architects, engineers, sculptors, painters, and 
 poets. When we think of the mighty works of 
 art done by these men, we may begin to realise 
 what Florence has given to the civilised world. 
 
 The city of Florence lies in the beautiful 
 valley of the Arno, that green river which 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 167 
 
 flows through the town, passing under the four 
 famous bridges, the Ponte alle Grazie, the Ponte 
 Vecchio (or Old Bridge), the Ponte Santa 
 Trinita, and the Ponte alia Carraia. On either 
 side rise the lovely hills of Fiesole and of San 
 Miniato, which look down on the far-famed 
 churches, towers, and palaces of the city herself. 
 As you gaze down on Florence, you may see 
 below you the great dome of the Cathedral, 
 that splendid church dedicated to St. Mary of 
 the Flower. It was designed and begun by 
 Arnolfo di Cambio in 1294, but the dome was 
 built by Filippo Brunelleschi nearly one hundred 
 and fifty years later. 
 
 Close to the Cathedral, or " Duomo," stands 
 the bell-tower, beautiful as a dream, planned 
 and begun by the great artist, Giotto, in 1334. 
 
 Near this again is the Baptistery, with its 
 glorious gates — " il mio bel San Giovanni " (my 
 beauteous St. John), as Dante calls it. 
 
 Not far off is the Church of Santa Croce, 
 which we might almost call the Westminster 
 Abbey of Italy when we think of all the 
 illustrious dead who rest there. In the square 
 in front of Santa Croce stands the statue of 
 Dante, who rests, not in his own city, but at 
 Ravenna, on the desolate Adriatic shore. 
 
 As we look again, we may see the Palazzo 
 Vecchio (the "old Palace" of the Signoria), 
 with its soaring, lily-like tower ; and farther 
 
1 68 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 away are the square and convent of San Marco, 
 with their memories of Fra Angelico and 
 Savonarola. 
 
 These wonderful and beautiful works of man 
 are framed by some of the fairest scenes of 
 Nature, so that Florence well deserves to be 
 called "most beauteous," as Dante says of her. 
 
 The story of Florence begins very long 
 ago. The old Florentine chroniclers tell many 
 tales of her supposed foundation — by the 
 Trojans, or by Julius Csesar, who, according 
 to their accounts, conquered and destroyed 
 the rival town of Fiesole. It is difficult to 
 say how much or how little truth there is in 
 these old histories, as a great deal of legend 
 and tradition is always mixed up with them, 
 but it is generally believed that Florence was 
 first founded by Etruscans who came from the 
 still older town of Fiesole, and who wanted 
 to have some settlement by the river-side for 
 their trade and commerce. This Etruscan 
 colony was very likely destroyed during the 
 wars between Marius and Sulla in B.C. 86-81, 
 and a Roman military colony was planted 
 in its place. This colony was probably 
 founded while Sulla was Dictator, and it was 
 called Florentia. It was enlarged by Csesar 
 and by Augustus, and thus there may be 
 some truth in the old Florentine story of the 
 foundation of Florence by Caesar. 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 169 
 
 The Roman Florentia was built on the plan 
 of a Roman camp, or "castrum." This word 
 "castrum" is very familiar to us in Britain, 
 where the Romans had so many camps, and 
 we still hear the old Roman word in the 
 names of many of our towns, such as Chester, 
 Lancaster, Winchester, and others. The 
 Roman Florence, then, was four-square, with 
 two creat streets which crossed one another in 
 the middle of the city, thus dividing it into 
 quarters. In the place where these chief 
 streets crossed was the forum, or market- 
 place. There were also temples, baths, and 
 an amphitheatre, as in most Roman towns. 
 There was at that time a great temple to the 
 god Mars, who was the patron of the 
 Florentines, and in this temple was a statue 
 of Mars. When the Florentines became 
 Christians, they took as their patron-saint 
 St. John the Baptist, and the present 
 Baptistery is thought to stand almost on the 
 very site of the former temple of Mars. 
 The Florentines, however, would not allow 
 the statue of Mars to be destroyed or dis- 
 honoured in any way, for they still believed 
 that, if any harm came to it, the city would 
 suffer great misfortunes. So the statue was 
 moved from the temple, and placed in a tower 
 near the river Arno. This tower is said to 
 have been destroyed when the city was 
 
170 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 demolished by Totila and his Ostrogoths, and 
 the statue fell into the Arno. 
 
 You will remember reading about the brave 
 King Totila and his visit to St. Benedict, and 
 how the Goths were finally driven out of Italy. 
 The story of the destruction of Florence by Totila 
 is supposed to be only a tradition, but it is quite 
 true that the Goths made themselves masters of 
 Tuscany and of Florence just about that time. 
 
 The legendary history goes on to say 
 that Florence was rebuilt by Charlemagne, 
 and that when the town was restored the 
 broken statue of Mars was put back in a 
 place of honour on a pillar near a bridge. 
 This bridge was carried away by a flood in 
 J 333'> the remains of the statue went with it, 
 and disappeared for ever. 
 
 Florence seems to have been quite an un- 
 important place until the time of Charlemagne, 
 when it rose again into a position of power 
 in Tuscany. Charlemagne himself spent his 
 Christmas there in 786, and the city was often 
 visited by Popes and Emperors — Emperors on 
 their way to Rome to be crowned, and Popes 
 flying from Rome, where their subjects had 
 rebelled against them. 
 
 After the days of Charlemagne, Florence 
 was for a very long time subject to the 
 Margraves of Tuscany. A few words must 
 be said about these Margraves, and how they 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 171 
 
 came to be ruling in Tuscany. When the 
 fierce Lombards had got possession of a large 
 part of Italy, — as you remember they did in 
 the sixth century, — they placed a duke in all the 
 chief cities they had taken and occupied. You 
 have read something about these dukes in the 
 story of the Iron Crown. The Lombard dukes 
 were very powerful, and some of them ruled 
 over quite large states. So powerful, indeed, 
 did some of them become, that they rebelled 
 against the Lombard king, and this want of 
 discipline and loyalty was one of the reasons 
 that the Lombard rule in Italy did not last, 
 for it was a house divided against itself. 
 
 In the eighth century the Pope, as you 
 already know, called in the Franks to help 
 him against the Lombards, and the Franks 
 came, led first by Pepin, and then by his 
 son, the great Charlemagne. When Charle- 
 magne had conquered the Lombards and 
 made an end of their kingdom, he put men 
 who were called counts in place of the dukes. 
 These counts were much less powerful than 
 the Lombard dukes, and ruled over much 
 smaller territories. But Charlemagne saw 
 that he would have to put very strong 
 defenders on the borders of his empire, so he 
 formed larger states, which we know as the 
 "Marches" (from the German word " Mark," 
 limit, or frontier), and over these Marches he 
 
172 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 placed Margraves (" Mark-grafen," or Counts 
 of the Marches). Some of these margraves 
 or marquises became very powerful, and even 
 tried to set up a separate kingdom of Italy. 
 The most important marquisates in those 
 early times were those of Friuli and of 
 Tuscany. The chief town in the marquisate 
 of Tuscany was then Lucca, and not Florence. 
 
 About the middle of the eleventh century 
 the Marquis Boniface in. was governing in 
 Tuscany. He had married Beatrice of 
 Lorraine, and their daughter was the famous 
 Countess Matilda of Tuscany, who was such 
 a great supporter of the Church and of Pope 
 Gregory vn. You remember that it was at 
 her castle of Canossa that the terrible meeting 
 took place between Pope Gregory and the 
 Emperor Henry iv. One day, if you go to 
 Pisa, you may see the monument of Matilda's 
 mother, the Countess Beatrice, in the cele- 
 brated Campo Santo. Matilda herself is buried 
 in St. Peter's at Rome. 
 
 But we must go back to Florence, which 
 in time became subject to the Countess 
 Matilda. She was a great and good ruler, 
 and under her wise government Florence 
 enjoyed much freedom and prosperity. At 
 times the Countess used to come in person 
 to Florence, and administer justice in the 
 forum. However, during her wars with the 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 173 
 
 Emperor and his party, Matilda seems to 
 have allowed the chief citizens of Florence to 
 govern the city in her name, and on her 
 death, in 11 15, the Florentine Commune 
 asserted its independence. The citizen-nobles 
 who had acted under the Countess Matilda 
 now became the Consuls of the Commune, 
 and commanded the Florentine armies in 
 war. Later on, the Head of the Commune 
 was called the Podesta. The Podesta had 
 always to be a nobleman from some other city, 
 not a Florentine. The Commune of Florence 
 was Guelf, but the great Ghibelline nobles both 
 outside and inside the city were always trying 
 to get the chief power and authority. 
 
 In one short chapter it is quite impossible 
 to describe all the fights and struggles that 
 went on in Florence, and all the various 
 changes that took place in her government. 
 We can only tell very shortly how, after 
 many disputes among the Florentines them- 
 selves, and after fierce struggles with the 
 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his grand- 
 son, Frederick 11., the first democratic constitu- 
 tion of Florence was set up in the year 1250. 
 This was the result of a fight with the 
 Ghibelline nobles, who, with the help of the 
 Emperors German troops, had succeeded in 
 governing Florence for two years. But when 
 the Emperor Frederick 11. died, in 1250, the 
 
i 7 4 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 people insisted on setting up a constitution, 
 which is called in Italian the " Primo Popolo," 
 or First Government by the People. This 
 existed side by side with the Commune, and 
 was headed by a new officer, called the 
 Captain of the People. 
 
 The " Primo Popolo " was very successful, 
 both in the affairs of the city and in victories 
 over enemies outside. It was at this time, 
 after the Ghibellines had been driven out, that 
 the banner of the Commune was changed from 
 a white lily on a red field to a red lily on a 
 white field, as we see it now. It is this well- 
 known and beautiful lily that gives its name to 
 this story. 
 
 This government of the " Primo Popolo" 
 was, however, soon overthrown in the wars 
 between the Guelf and Ghibelline parties. In 
 1260 a fearful battle was fought at Montaperti, 
 near Siena, between the Florentines and the 
 Ghibelline exiles, who had gathered together 
 at Siena. The Florentines were defeated 
 with terrible slaughter, and their precious 
 " Carroccio," or the Battle-Car of the Republic, 
 was taken by the enemy and destroyed. The 
 plan of having a Battle-Car was first begun by 
 the Milanese, and was then imitated by the 
 other Italian communes. The car had four 
 wheels, and was drawn by oxen. Upon it was 
 planted a tall mast, to which a crucifix was 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 175 
 
 attached, and from which two standards floated. 
 The car was the centre and the rallying-point 
 of the army, and it was defended by the 
 bravest of the soldiers. You can thus under- 
 stand how dreadful it seemed if the " Carroccio ' 
 was captured by the enemy. 
 
 Dante speaks of this awful fight at Monta- 
 perti, and says that it caused the river Arbia 
 to be coloured red with blood — " fece 1' Arbia 
 colorata in rosso." After their victory, the 
 Ghibelline party ruled in Florence for six 
 years ; but after the defeat of King Manfred by 
 Charles of Anjou in 1266, the Ghibellines were 
 once more overthrown, and the Guelfs returned, 
 more powerful than ever before. It was at 
 this time that the Republic rose to its greatest 
 power and glory, under the Government known 
 as the " Secondo Popolo," or Second Govern- 
 ment by the People. Florence was now the 
 chief power in Central Italy, and head of the 
 Guelf League. 
 
 It will be a good thing to go back for a 
 moment to speak once again about the Guelfs 
 and Ghibellines, of whom you read in the story 
 of the Popes and Emperors. You remember 
 that the Guelfs represented the cause of the 
 Pope, and that of the cities and the Italian 
 people generally, while the Ghibellines were 
 the party of the Emperor and the German 
 feudal nobility. In Florence, the chief reason 
 
176 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 for the constant fighting between the Guelfs 
 and Ghibellines was the rivalry between the 
 feudal military nobility, who were most of 
 them of German descent, and the commercial 
 democracy, who were of the old Latin race. 
 The disputes were much more between these 
 two sets of people than between the strictly 
 Papal and Imperial parties. 
 
 The great point to be remembered is that 
 Florence owed her prosperity and her splendid 
 position in Europe to the successful struggle 
 made by her Latin people against the foreign 
 feudal aristocracy. These nobles were the 
 descendants of the barbarian conquerors of 
 Italy, and they owed their power and place 
 partly to the establishment of the Holy Roman 
 Empire, of which the head was German. 
 These descendants of the foreign military nobles 
 had built their castles all about the country 
 and close round the valley where Florence lies, 
 so that they were able to interfere very much 
 with her commerce and her freedom. 
 
 Florence naturally depended almost entirely 
 on the safety of her trade, and it is well to 
 remember what not only Italy, but all modern 
 Europe owes to those great Merchant and 
 Trade Guilds at Florence. They fought for 
 freedom ; under their rule civilisation revived ; 
 and every kind of art and literature flourished 
 in a glory and perfection which has hardly 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 177 
 
 ever been known or surpassed in the history 
 of the world before or since. 
 
 And, again, as time went on, the Florentine 
 bankers and money-changers had much of the 
 business of Europe in their hands. For 
 example, the kings of France used to depend 
 on the great Florentine bankers to supply 
 them with money for their wars, and in 1338 
 Edward in. of England owed an enormous sum 
 to the Florentine banking-houses of the Bardi 
 and Peruzzi. An old French historian tells us 
 that Edward iv. of England owed his throne to 
 the help given him by the Florentine bankers. 
 This alone shows us what power and influence 
 Florence had, far beyond her own country, and 
 this power and influence she owed to her great 
 Trade Guilds and merchant princes. 
 
 When the Government known as the 
 " Secondo Popolo " arose, the chief Trade 
 Guilds began to be a real power in the State, 
 and in the year 1282 the government was 
 placed entirely in the hands of the Greater 
 Guilds, or " Arti Maggiori," as they are called 
 in Italian. 
 
 These Greater Guilds were seven in number, 
 and were as follows : ( 1 ) The Dressers of Foreign 
 Cloth, famous by their name of the " Arte di 
 Calimala"; (2) the Wool Merchants; (3) the 
 Money-Changers ; (4) the Physicians and 
 Apothecaries (in whose Guild painters and 
 12 
 
178 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 booksellers were included) ; (5) the Silk- 
 Merchants ; (6) the Furriers ; (7) the Judges 
 and Notaries. 
 
 In 1293 the constitution was made still 
 more strictly democratic, and a certain amount 
 of power was given to the fourteen Lesser 
 Guilds. The nobles were shut out from all 
 share in the government, unless they joined 
 one of the Guilds, or Arts, and enrolled them- 
 selves among its members. These important 
 measures are known as the "Ordinances of 
 Justice," and they have been described as "the 
 Magna Charta of Florence." It was at this 
 time that the magistrate called the " Gon- 
 faloniere," or Standard-bearer of Justice, was 
 first appointed. He was so called because the 
 great " Gonfalon," or Standard of the People, 
 with its red cross on a white ground, was given 
 to him as his sign of office. In later days, the 
 Gonfaloniere became the head of the Floren- 
 tine State. 
 
 Meanwhile, Florence was constantly at 
 war with her Ghibelline neighhours, such as 
 the towns of Pisa and Siena. One of the 
 most famous of these fights was the battle 
 of Campaldino, in 1289, when the Tuscan 
 Ghibellines were crushed by the Florentines, 
 who were fighting under the banner of the 
 House of Anjou. This battle of Campaldino 
 is one of the most interesting battles of the 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 179 
 
 Middle Ages, for two reasons. One reason is, 
 that Dante Alighieri fought in it ; and the 
 other is, that Campaldino was almost the last 
 Italian battle won by the old citizen forces. 
 Soon after that time the burghers of the 
 Italian city-states began to use hired armies 
 to fight their battles for them. These hired 
 troops were often largely made up of foreigners, 
 and were commanded by captains who were 
 called "condottieri." These captains were 
 really soldiers of fortune, and did not mind 
 very much whom they fought for. We shall 
 hear some more about these "condottieri " in 
 another chapter. 
 
 Unhappily, the Florentines did not seem able 
 to settle down peacefully among themselves, 
 but terrible divisions very soon arose among 
 the Guelfs, and they split into two parties, the 
 White Guelfs and the Black Guelfs. These 
 factions fought fiercely ; first one side was 
 successful, and then the other. At last, in 
 1 301, the French prince, Charles de Valois, 
 was sent to Florence by Pope Boniface vm. to 
 act as peacemaker between the rival parties. 
 But the Florentines very soon said that no real 
 peace would be made, for Charles de Valois did 
 not play fair, but sided with the Black Guelfs 
 against the Whites. The Black Guelf party 
 were victorious, and the Whites were driven 
 into exile, the poet Dante being among them. 
 
180 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 As this unjust and cruel exile was the great 
 turning-point in Dante's life, this will be a 
 good place in which to say something more 
 about him. 
 
 Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest poets of 
 all time, and the most famous son of that fair 
 city of Florence, which he loved so dearly, was 
 born in 1265. 
 
 It will help us to realise what was going on 
 in other parts of Europe if we remind ourselves 
 that at this time Henry 111. was reigning in 
 England and Louis ix. (St. Louis) in France. 
 The battle of Evesham was fought in this very 
 year, and at that battle Simon de Montfort was 
 killed. Henry iii.'s glorious Abbey at West- 
 minster was being built, and his part of it — the 
 choir and transepts — were not far from being 
 finished. The Crusades ended when Dante 
 was five years old. 
 
 Dante was the son of a notary, and belonged 
 to an old Guelf family. We know that he was 
 fond of study, that he knew a good deal about 
 drawing and painting, and that he was a great 
 lover of music. When he was only eighteen 
 he was already known as a poet, and while he 
 was still quite a young man he wrote that 
 most lovely little book, the Vita Ntiova, or 
 New Life, in which he tells us about the great 
 love of his life, and how it began. He says 
 that in 1274, when he was nine years old, he 
 
Photo} 
 
 
 DAXTE ALIGHIERI. 
 
 (From the bronze in the Xational Museum at Naples. 
 
 yBrogi. 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 181 
 
 met a beautiful little orirl at a house to which 
 his father had taken him. This little girl was 
 called Beatrice, and she was nearly a year 
 younger than Dante. We read how Dante 
 instantly fell in love with her in his childish 
 heart ; how he never forgot her, but loved her 
 more and more. Through all the wanderings 
 and bitter sorrows of his life, Dante's love for 
 Beatrice remained his guiding star, until his 
 soul found its way to the very vision of God 
 in highest heaven. Some day you must read 
 that book for yourselves. 
 
 But although Dante was a student and a 
 poet, he was no mere bookworm or dreamer. 
 He took a keen interest and an active part in 
 the life of his country, and served her on the 
 battlefield and in the council chamber. 
 
 We have just read how he was in the 
 Florentine army at Campaldino, where he is 
 said to have "fought valiantly on horseback in 
 the front rank." 
 
 In 1295 he entered the political life of the city, 
 and, according to the Florentine rule, he had to 
 enrol himself in one of the Great Guilds. He 
 chose that of the Physicians and Apothecaries. 
 
 In 1300 Dante was elected one of the six 
 Priors, who used to hold office for two months 
 at a time, and he came in for many troublous 
 days in Florence, as her liberty and independ- 
 ence was being threatened, not only by the 
 
s 
 
 182 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Pope, but also by the quarrels among her own 
 children, which was worse than any danger 
 from outside. 
 
 Dante is thought to have taken an important 
 share in the government, and he helped to 
 oppose the imperious Pope Boniface vm. and 
 the Black Guelf party. 
 
 The struggle ended, as we have already seen, 
 in the triumph of the Black Guelfs, with the 
 help of Charles de Valois, and in the defeat of 
 the moderate party, to which Dante Alighieri 
 belonged. 
 
 In 1302 a cruel sentence of confiscation and 
 exile was passed against a certain number of 
 citizens, among whom was Dante himself. 
 Thus did Florence drive out her greatest son, 
 and Dante's weary wanderings began, to end 
 only with his life. 
 
 After a time he took refuge at Verona, at 
 the court of the famous Delia Scala family, 
 and here he first met. the young Can Grande 
 della Scala, who afterwards became so cele- 
 brated as a soldier and general. 
 
 After the year 1304, Dante spent some 
 time at Bologna and at Padua, where he saw 
 Giotto working at his well-known frescoes in 
 Sta. Maria dell' Arena. 
 
 In 1309 Dante went to Paris, where he 
 studied at the University. Some people have 
 even thought that he came to Oxford, but this 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 183 
 
 cannot be said for certain, much as we should 
 like to believe it. After a short time he 
 returned to Italy, and was at Lucca during the 
 rule of the great Ghibelline captain, Uguccione 
 della Faeeiuola. He then went once more to 
 Verona, where he was the guest of Can Grande 
 della Scala, and finally he went to Ravenna, 
 where he was most kindly received by the lord 
 of the city, Guido da Polenta. This was in 
 1 3 17. Dante lived for about four years at 
 Ravenna, occupying himself with teaching and 
 writing, and finishing his immortal poem, the 
 Divine Comedy. 
 
 In 132 1 Dante fell ill on his return from an 
 embassy to Venice, and died on September 14th, 
 Holy Cross Day. His tomb is in a tiny chapel, 
 close to the Franciscan church at Ravenna, for 
 although Florence tried hard to get possession 
 of his body, the people of Ravenna very rightly 
 insisted that it should remain there, and not be 
 given back to a country which had driven him 
 into exile. But now, happily, Dante belongs to a 
 United Italy — and, indeed, to the whole world. 
 
 Our own poet Shelley has told us that "we 
 learn in sorrow what we teach in song," and of 
 no one is this more true than of Dante himself. 
 
 What he suffered at the hands of the restless 
 democracy of Florence made him learn the 
 value of a strong and stable government, and 
 showed him what an excellent thing a monarchy 
 
1 84 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 may be, and how peace and true freedom may 
 flourish under its protection. 
 
 His heart-breaking exile from the earthly 
 city which he never ceased to love did indeed 
 make him a stranger and a sojourner on the 
 earth. He found, in his own pathetic words, 
 " how salt doth taste another's bread, and how 
 hard the path to descend and mount upon 
 another's stairs." But this grief taught him 
 the deathless words he has written about " the 
 city which hath foundations " — that Jerusalem 
 which is above, which is free, which is the 
 mother of us all, and from which none of her 
 children are ever driven out. 
 
 Perhaps, if Dante had lived an easy and 
 prosperous life, he would never have left 
 behind him that great poem, the Divine 
 Comedy, which has been the comfort and 
 delight of so many generations of his fellow- 
 men. He wrote it, as he himself tells us, in 
 order to help all who read it out of the state of 
 sin and misery, and to lead them to true 
 happiness. Such was the poet's noble aim 
 and desire. There can be little doubt that 
 his wish has been largely fulfilled. 
 
 We cannot now speak more of Dante ; we 
 must turn once more to the history of Florence. 
 Through all the fourteenth century feuds and 
 factions went on in Florence itself, besides 
 fights with other cities. But in spite of all 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 185 
 
 these tumults and wars, the Florentines found 
 time to make their city glorious in art, illustrious 
 in letters, and victorious in war and politics. 
 Such a fullness of life has been given to very 
 few nations on the face of the earth. It will 
 help us to realise this if we remember that 
 some of the most splendid of the buildings in 
 Florence were erected during this time, such 
 as the Cathedral, Santa Maria Novella, Santa 
 Croce, the Palace of the Podesta, the Palace of 
 the Priors, the beautiful Loggia de' Lanzi, 
 Giotto's bell-tower, and others almost as famous. 
 This gives some idea of what was going on in 
 the city, in the midst of all the fighting and 
 disputing among the citizens themselves and 
 their conquests among neighbouring cities. 
 
 In 1378, however, a great change began. 
 It would take too long to describe all that went 
 on, so it must be told very shortly. A fierce 
 revolt broke out among the lowest class of 
 artisans, who were dissatisfied and demanded 
 a share in the government. They had been 
 secretly stirred up to this revolt by a certain 
 wealthy and ambitious merchant, Salvestro de' 
 Medici, who then held the office of Gonfaloniere 
 of Justice. Salvestro knew that the powerful 
 party known as the " Parte Guelfa ' had con- 
 spired to seize the State and take possession of 
 it, and he wanted to frustrate their plans. 
 Although the populace were successful for a 
 
1 86 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 time, the attempted revolution ended with the 
 downfall of democratic government in Florence, 
 and the State fell gradually into the hands of one 
 family, the famous family of the Medici. The 
 Medici became the real rulers of Florence, first 
 as her chief citizens, and then as Grand Dukes 
 of Tuscany, for more than three hundred years. 
 
 It is not possible to admire everything that 
 the Medici did. Some of them were bad and 
 cruel men, but some of them were men of 
 wonderful gifts and abilities. By their gener- 
 ous patronage of art and letters they made 
 Florence the centre of most of the beauty and 
 learning of the Renaissance ; by their brilliant 
 statesmanship, and also by their influence as 
 great bankers, they made her a power in 
 European politics. 
 
 You will remember how, in after years, two 
 daughters of the Medici house became Queens 
 of France, namely, Catherine de' Medici, who 
 married Henry n., and Marie de' Medici, who 
 married Henry iv. This is very remarkable 
 when we think that the Medici began simply as 
 Florentine citizens. 
 
 The Medici took for their coat-of-arms the 
 device of six golden balls on a shield — a device 
 w T hich became very celebrated. Often did the 
 cry of " Palle, palle ! ' (balls, balls!) echo 
 through the streets of Florence in those days 
 of plots, conspiracies, and fights. 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 187 
 
 The patron-saints of the Medici were SS. 
 Cosmas and Damian, who are the patron-saints 
 of physicians and surgeons. You will often 
 see these saints represented in places and in 
 pictures connected with the Medici. 
 
 The most famous of the Medici were (1) 
 Cosimo, called the Father of his Country ; 
 (2) his grandson, Lorenzo, known as "the 
 Magnificent " ; (3) Giovanni, second son of 
 Lorenzo, who became Pope Leo x. ; and (4) 
 Giovanni delle Bande Nere. 
 
 Cosimo was the first of the family to become 
 very powerful. Of course he was never called 
 a prince, but he was really, though not in name, 
 Prince of Florence and head of the State. The 
 government remained republican in form, but 
 Cosimo found means to get all the power into 
 his own hands. He raised men who were 
 friends and supporters of his own to positions 
 of power and wealth, and he crushed those 
 who opposed him by fines, taxation, or by 
 banishment. Thus, although there was not 
 much blood shed under Cosimo's rule, many of 
 the noblest Florentine families were ruined. 
 
 Cosimo de' Medici made one very important 
 change in beginning quite a new kind of policy 
 in the foreign affairs of Florence. This was 
 the alliance which he formed with Francesco 
 Sforza, Duke of Milan ; and although the 
 Florentines hated this plan of joining with the 
 
1 88 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Duke of Milan, the alliance gave Florence great 
 power in the political life of Italy. 
 
 Cosimo was very simple in his private life, 
 and did not surround himself with any princely 
 state ; it was one of his maxims that it was 
 unwise to excite the envy of your fellow-citizens 
 by show and extravagance. He loved the 
 society of artists and men of letters, and some 
 of the most famous painters, sculptors, and 
 writers of the age were his friends. 
 
 Cosimo founded several of the most beautiful 
 Renaissance churches or convents in and near 
 Florence, such as San Lorenzo and San Marco. 
 He also founded the splendid libraries at the 
 Convent of San Marco and in the Badia of 
 Fiesole. The famous Platonic Academy of 
 Florence, the centre of the greatest learning in 
 Italy at that time, also owed its foundation to 
 him, and he even founded a hospital at Jerusalem. 
 Cosimo de' Medici certainly set an example 
 of true magnificence, because he spent his 
 wealth on things that did good in the world 
 around, and not on luxuries for himself. He 
 died in 1464, and, by his own request, his funeral 
 was quiet and simple. His grave is in front 
 of the high altar of San Lorenzo. 
 
 Cosimo was succeeded by his son, Piero, who 
 died in 1469, and then the power of the Medici 
 family descended to the two sons of Piero, 
 Lorenzo and Giuliano, who soon became the 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 189 
 
 real lords and masters of Florence. In 1478 
 their enemies, headed by a family called the 
 Pazzi, formed a conspiracy against the two 
 Medici, whom they regarded as foes to the 
 liberties of Florence. Lorenzo and Giuliano 
 were attacked in the Cathedral, where they 
 were attending Mass. Giuliano was killed, 
 pierced by nineteen dagger-stabs, but Lorenzo 
 escaped with only a slight wound. The Flor- 
 entine people took the side of the Medici ; they 
 wrought fearful vengeance on the conspirators ; 
 and it all ended in Lorenzo becoming more 
 powerful and more secure in his position than 
 ever before. 
 
 This Lorenzo is always known as "the 
 Magnificent," and he was really the most 
 famous of all his family. He ruled in Florence 
 completely ; everything was in his hands, and 
 by his foreign policy and splendid diplomacy 
 he raised himself and his family to a princely 
 — and, indeed, almost royal — position. He was 
 treated as an equal by the sovereigns of France 
 and Germany ; the Sultans of Egypt and of 
 the Turks sent ambassadors to him, as though 
 he too were a sovereign, and his influence in 
 Italy was very powerful. 
 
 But although Florence was now in such a 
 brilliant and important position in Europe, her 
 life was not so wholesome or so truly great as 
 in the simpler days of the old Republic. The 
 
i go STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 citizens had no real share in the government, 
 which was entirely in Lorenzo's hands, and 
 they were kept contented and amused by all 
 kinds of splendid shows and gorgeous festivities. 
 This was very bad for the character of the 
 people, for they no longer thought of their 
 public duties and responsibilites, but grew 
 more and more luxurious, pleasure-loving, and 
 corrupt, day by day. Much of this, of course, 
 was the fault of the Medici, who wanted to 
 keep the power in their own hands ; but in spite 
 of some serious faults, Lorenzo was a very 
 wonderful man, and did great things for his 
 country. By his state-craft he managed to 
 keep peace and a balance of power in Italy ; 
 by his love and understanding of art and learn- 
 ing he attracted all the greatest artists and 
 scholars of the age to his court. 
 
 Lorenzo de' Medici ruled in Florence just 
 when the great revival of ancient classical art 
 and letters which we call the Renaissance was 
 at its height. Florence was then the very 
 centre of that revival, or " Renaissance," which 
 took place mainly in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
 centuries. 
 
 Long before Lorenzo's day people had begun 
 to search eagerly for manuscripts of the great 
 classical authors, both Greek and Latin, and 
 many treasures both of art and literature were 
 being discovered. In the year 1453 Con- 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 191 
 
 stantinople had been taken by the Turks, and 
 the Eastern Empire came to an end. At that 
 time many great Greek scholars fled from Con- 
 stantinople and took refuge in other European 
 countries, bringing with them many valuable 
 manuscripts, and bringing, above all, the 
 knowledge of the Greek lan^ua^e, for which so 
 many people were thirsting. 
 
 Under these new influences the other nations 
 of Europe learned to look upon life in a very 
 different way from their ancestors in the Middle 
 Ages. They tried to copy the Greeks and 
 Romans, not only in their writings and in their 
 art, but also in their ways of thinking. 
 
 The world no longer seemed to them a 
 dangerous and evil place, as it had done — 
 unhappily — to so many people during the 
 terrible times of the barbarian invasions and 
 other wars. . People now began to take a keen 
 delight in life, and perhaps almost too great a 
 delight in every kind of beauty and enjoyment. 
 They were sometimes in danger of forgetting 
 that splendid art and beautiful literature will 
 not do instead of a pure and righteous life, 
 which alone truly exalteth a nation. So we 
 find that many people in this Renaissance time 
 were a curious mixture of learning and refine- 
 ment with cruelty, treachery, and corruption. 
 It need hardly be said that there were at the 
 same time many exceptions to this rule, and 
 
i 9 2 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 that there were men and women whose natures 
 seemed pure and beautiful all through. 
 
 The thought of this brilliant age of the 
 Renaissance brings with it also the remem- 
 brance of another very famous figure in 
 Florentine history — and, indeed, in all history. 
 This is Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who first 
 became celebrated on account of the solemn 
 and awful warnings he uttered to the frivolous 
 and wicked society he saw around him. 
 
 Girolamo Savonarola was not a Florentine 
 by birth, although the great work of his life was 
 done in Florence. His family originally came 
 from Padua, but they had settled at Ferrara, 
 where Michele, the grandfather of Girolamo, 
 was physician to the Duke of Ferrara. 
 
 Girolamo was born at Ferrara on September 
 21st, 1452, and spent his early years there. 
 His mother seems to have had great influence 
 on his character, which soon showed itself to be 
 keen, earnest, and rather inclined to melancholy. 
 Girolamo was very fond of serious study, and 
 cared not at all for the gay and brilliant life at 
 the court of the d' Este princes. While he was 
 still quite young, he became distressed and 
 disgusted with the carelessness and wickedness 
 of which the world seemed full, and he soon 
 made up his mind to become a monk. He 
 waited for a time, as he knew his family would 
 not wish him to enter a monastery ; but at last 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 193 
 
 he took a firm resolve, and stole away from his 
 fathers house to the Convent of San Domenico 
 at Bologna. He wrote a farewell to his father, 
 telling him that he could no longer endure the 
 corruption of the world around him. He bade 
 his father comfort his mother, and begged for 
 his parents' blessing. 
 
 It was in 1475 tnat Girolamo Savonarola 
 went to Bologna, and he remained there for 
 seven years, studying and teaching the novices. 
 These years at Bologna seem to have been the 
 most peaceful and happiest time in his life. 
 But for him, as for all of us, these happy early 
 years were the preparation for the real work of 
 life, which is a sterner business. 
 
 The great Dominican Order, to which 
 Savonarola belonged, was especially a preaching 
 order. It had been founded by St. Dominic 
 in 12 15, just after the Albigensian Crusade, 
 and it was known as the Order of Preaching 
 Friars. Some day, perhaps, you will see the 
 famous and beautiful shrine of St. Dominic in 
 the great Church of San Domenico at Bologna, 
 and perhaps you will remember about Savon- 
 arola and his life in that city. 
 
 In due time, then, Fra Girolamo, as he was 
 called, was sent forth to preach, and in 1481 he 
 began his wonderful work of preaching in his 
 native town, Ferrara. 
 
 In 1482 he was sent to Florence, and 
 r 3 
 
i 9 4 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 entered the Dominican Convent of San Marco, 
 where he was appointed reader in Holy 
 Scripture to the convent. 
 
 The Church and Convent of San Marco were 
 just outside Florence. The convent was given 
 to the Dominicans at the time of Cosimo de' 
 Medici, who paid almost entirely for rebuilding 
 it. This rebuilding took place between the 
 years 1437 and 1452. San Marco, although 
 no longer a convent, is one of the most in- 
 teresting places in Florence. The cloister and 
 the cells are decorated with many famous 
 and beautiful frescoes by Fra Angelico, Fra 
 Bartolommeo, and other painters. In the 
 Chapter House is Fra Angelico's splendid 
 picture of the Crucifixion, which every one 
 ought to know. The cells where Savonarola 
 lived may still be seen, and various things 
 which belonged to him are still kept there, 
 such as his crucifix, his books, manuscripts, 
 and his friar's dress. 
 
 Savonarola's first sermons at Florence were 
 preached during the Lent of 1482, when he 
 had been appointed Lenten preacher at San 
 Lorenzo. We are told that at first people 
 hardly listened to him, because his sermons 
 were not in the polished and flowery style that 
 was so much admired in those days, and which 
 the Florentines were accustomed to hear in the 
 pulpit. 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 195 
 
 Savonarola was then sent to preach in 
 various towns of Tuscany and Lombardy, and 
 this journeying lasted altogether for about 
 seven years, as he did not return to Florence 
 until 1489. 
 
 It was during these years of preaching in 
 the different towns of Italy that Savonarola 
 began to feel that he had truly a Divine 
 message to deliver. He seemed to have some 
 special vision of all the woes that were coming 
 upon Italy as a punishment for the corrupt and 
 wicked life that so many people were leading. 
 At San Gemignano and at Brescia he 
 preached wonderful sermons, in which he re- 
 buked the sins of the people and foretold the 
 misery and desolation that was coming upon 
 the land. In 1489 Savonarola came back 
 to Florence and took up his former work 
 as instructor at San Marco. He soon began 
 to preach also, and such crowds came to hear 
 him that he had to remove from San Marco 
 to the Duomo in order to make room for the 
 large congregations who came to listen to 
 the man who had now become the most famous 
 preacher in Italy. 
 
 There have been many interesting books 
 written about Savonarola, and what we have 
 to say of him here can only be very short and 
 simple indeed. About his great sermons we 
 must remember that in them he attacked these 
 
196 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 three chief things, namely, the corrupt govern- 
 ment of the Church, the wicked and ex- 
 travagant life led by many of the Florentines, 
 and the unlawful and mischievous government 
 of Florence by the Medici family, whom he 
 looked upon as tyrants. His fiery words about 
 the Florentines now being slaves reminded 
 many of them of their ancient love of freedom 
 and of their grand Republic, and this was one 
 reason that Savonarola had such power over 
 large numbers of the people. Men's minds 
 were deeply stirred by his teaching and preach- 
 ing, and his influence grew day by day. 
 
 In 1 49 1 Savonarola was made Prior of 
 San Marco. The next year something very 
 important happened in the history of Florence, 
 and that was the death of Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent. There is a famous story which 
 tells how Lorenzo, as he lay on his death-bed 
 at his villa near Florence, sent for Savonarola, 
 and made confession to him of certain sins he 
 had committed. Savonarola, it is said, assured 
 him of mercy and forgiveness if he would do 
 these three things : First, that he should put 
 all his faith in God's mercy ; secondly, that 
 he should restore his ill-gotten gains ; and, 
 thirdly, that he should give back liberty to 
 Florence. Lorenzo said he would fulfil the 
 first two conditions, but when he heard the 
 third, which meant that the Medici family 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 197 
 
 should no longer rule in Florence, the dying man 
 turned away and answered nothing. Savonarola 
 left him without giving him absolution. 
 
 This story was told and believed by many 
 people at the time, though all do not give 
 quite the same account of what happened. 
 Still, it is quite true that Lorenzo sent specially 
 for Fra Girolamo, and this shows what respect 
 and admiration he must have had for him. 
 
 Lorenzo was succeeded by his son, Piero, 
 a wild and foolish young man, who soon began 
 to undo his father's work. Savonarola, on the 
 contrary, became more and more powerful, and 
 had great influence in bringing about changes 
 even in the government itself. Some people 
 have thought it was a pity that Savonarola 
 mixed up politics with his teaching, but it was 
 not easy for him to avoid doing this, as he 
 believed that the government of the Medici 
 was bad for the character of the Florentine 
 people, and that they had learned all kinds of 
 vice and wickedness under the Medici rule. 
 
 Still, it is plain that Savonarola was not so 
 well able to judge in matters of state as in 
 matters of religion and conduct, and his strong 
 political opinions led him to do some unwise 
 things — things which were really the cause of 
 his terrible end. 
 
 For instance, he was so anxious to destroy 
 the rule of the Medici in Florence that he 
 
198 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 encouraged and rejoiced in the invasion of Italy 
 by Charles vin. of France in 1494, thinking 
 that by this means Florence would be set 
 free from tyranny and purified from her 
 wickedness. He did not realise how Italy 
 would be rent asunder by the ambition, greed, 
 and cruelty of foreign armies, and how in the 
 end all her liberties would be destroyed. 
 
 We shall hear more of Charles vin. and of 
 what the French called "the Italian wars" 
 in another chapter. Here we need only say 
 that what King Charles vin. chiefly wanted 
 to do was to reconquer the kingdom of Naples 
 for the French, and to take it away from the 
 House of Aragon. He was encouraged in this 
 by the invitation of Ludovico Sforza, Duke 
 of Milan, who asked him to come across the 
 Alps to overthrow the Princes of Aragon. 
 The Duke of Milan should have known better 
 than help to bring a foreign army into Italy, 
 but he was thinking only of his own position. 
 Now, just at this time most of the people of 
 Florence had determined to shake off the yoke 
 of the Medici, and to restore the ancient 
 republican rights and liberties. Savonarola, 
 who had constantly foretold that some great 
 power should arise to punish Italy and to 
 reform the Church, pointed to the invasion 
 of the French as a fulfilment of this prophecy. 
 " Behold, " he said, "the sword has descended, 
 
Photo] 
 
 [Alinari. 
 
 STATUE OF SAVONAROLA. 
 (Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.) 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 199 
 
 the scourge has fallen, the prophecies are being 
 fulfilled ; behold, it is the Lord who is leading 
 on these armies." 
 
 The Florentines now decided to expel the 
 Medici, and at the same time they sent ambass- 
 adors to the French king, hoping that he would 
 support the cause of the Republic. Among 
 these ambassadors was Savonarola himself. 
 
 In November, 1494, the Medici fled, and 
 a few days after their flight Charles viii. 
 entered Florence in great pomp and state, with 
 all his gorgeous French knights, his Swiss 
 infantry, German cavalry, and huge Scottish 
 bowmen, some ten thousand men in all. 
 
 Charles viii. was rather boastful and 
 adventurous, and not a man of really great 
 ability or character. Thus he somewhat dis- 
 appointed the Florentines. Nevertheless, after 
 some hesitations and squabblings, it was 
 arranged that the King and the Republic 
 should make an alliance, and that Charles 
 should be called " Restorer and Protector of 
 the Liberties of Florence." He was to receive 
 a large sum of money, and the Medici were 
 to be banished from Tuscany. The name of 
 the brave man who stood up for the liberty 
 of Florence ought to be remembered. It was 
 Piero Capponi. Even the French king, with 
 all his army, could not get the better of Capponi's 
 courage and honesty. 
 
200 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 At last, after staying much longer than he 
 was wanted, King Charles and his soldiers left 
 Florence, on their way to Naples, taking with 
 them everything of value they could lay hands 
 on, including many rare and beautiful treasures 
 collected by Cosimo and Lorenzo de' Medici. 
 
 After the departure of the French and the 
 re-establishment of the Republic, Savonarola 
 became the real leader of the State, and the 
 form of government was planned chiefly accord- 
 ing to his advice. Savonarola's own particular 
 followers were known as the " Piagnoni," or 
 ''Weepers," because of their grave and strict 
 manner of life. They were very active in 
 trying to purify the public and private life of 
 Florence, and they went so far as to burn such 
 books, pictures, and ornaments as they believed 
 might do harm to people. This was called 
 (< the Burning of the Vanities." Savonarola 
 used also to send bands of children round the 
 city, and these children were taught to beg the 
 people to give up their evil ways and to sacrifice 
 their costly and luxurious adornments. 
 
 Savonarola insisted that Jesus Christ was 
 the rightful King of Florence, and there were 
 processions through the streets in honour of 
 Christ and His mother, and the people sang 
 hymns and praises. 
 
 But, as we can well understand, there 
 were many people in Florence who disliked 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 201 
 
 Savonarola and his followers. Some wanted 
 the Medici back again ; others hated the 
 stricter and graver kind of life which pre- 
 vented them from enjoying themselves in their 
 old, frivolous way. Savonarola thus had bitter 
 and powerful enemies, not only in Florence, 
 but also at Rome. 
 
 The Pope at that time was called Alexander 
 vi. His family name was Borgia — a name 
 which reminds us of some of the most dreadful 
 things in Italian history. In 1495 tne Pop e 
 formed a league, which was called the Italian 
 League, for the purpose of driving the French 
 out of Italy. This League was joined by 
 Venice and by the Duke of Milan, who had 
 now changed his mind about the French. It 
 was also supported by the Emperor Maximilian 
 and Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain. 
 
 The Pope was naturally very angry with 
 Savonarola for taking the part of the French 
 and opposing the League. Moreover, he would 
 also have liked to see the Medici restored to 
 power, and tried hard to get Florence to join 
 the League. After a time, therefore, the Pope 
 forbade Savonarola to preach, and at last ex- 
 communicated him. 
 
 Savonarola, meanwhile, had always been 
 speaking with the greatest severity about the 
 corruption of the Church. After the excom- 
 munication he kept silence for a short time, 
 
202 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 and then he defied the Pope, and began to 
 preach as before. He fiercely denounced 
 Alexander vi., declaring that he was not a 
 rightful pope, as he had obtained the Papacy 
 by unworthy means ; and he went on to utter a 
 kind of threat, meaning that he would rouse 
 the princes of Christendom to summon a 
 General Council of the Church in order to 
 depose Pope Alexander. 
 
 And, indeed, Savonarola had already been 
 in communication with the Duke of Ferrara, 
 hoping to bring about a new French invasion 
 of Italy, for he seemed still to believe that the 
 French king would help and support him in the 
 reformation of Florence. So determined was 
 he, that he began writing letters to important 
 people in various other countries, intending to 
 stir up the question of this General Church 
 Council. One of these letters was intercepted 
 by a servant of the Duke of Milan and sent to 
 the Pope. This really sealed Savonarola's fate, 
 although the actual end came about in a rather 
 sudden and unexpected way. 
 
 For years past Savonarola had constantly 
 spoken as if he believed himself to possess 
 prophetic and almost miraculous powers. His 
 words seemed to mean that he thought these 
 powers had been granted to him from Heaven 
 in order that he might use them for the puri- 
 fication of the society around him. On one 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 20-, 
 
 j 
 
 occasion he had almost said that he might one 
 day work a miracle. 
 
 His enemies were not slow to use his own 
 words against him. The Franciscans, who 
 had always been unfriendly to him, planned 
 a way in which they thought they might 
 catch him. A certain Franciscan friar, Fra 
 Francesco, had a fierce controversy with one 
 of Savonarola's most ardent followers, Fra 
 Domenico, and at last the Franciscan 
 challenged Fra Domenico to pass through 
 the fire with him, and thus to decide which 
 one of them was in the right. The question 
 between them was whether Savonarola really 
 possessed the power of prophesying which he 
 appeared to claim. 
 
 Accordingly, it was solemnly arranged, with 
 the consent of the Government, that the famous 
 " Ordeal by Fire " should take place in the 
 Piazza on April 7th, 1498. The Franciscans 
 first arrived, and then came Savonarola with 
 his Dominicans, in procession, chanting the 
 67th Psalm and carrying a crucifix aloft. 
 Meanwhile, the Piazza was crowded with armed 
 soldiers, and with the people who had come to 
 see the sight. A great pyre had been set up, 
 through which there was a narrow passage. 
 As the friars entered, the fuel was to be set on 
 fire behind them. 
 
 The champions stood forth, but one objection 
 
20 4 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 after another was made, causing delay upon 
 delay, and at last a tremendous storm of rain 
 came on, drenching everything around and 
 making the ordeal impossible. Evening came, 
 and both parties were ordered home by the 
 authorities. The people were furious ; they 
 turned quite against Savonarola and his party, 
 who were only saved by the soldiers from 
 being torn in pieces. 
 
 The next day the Church and Convent of 
 San Marco were fiercely attacked by an angry 
 mob, and, in spite of Savonarola's entreaties, 
 the friars could not be restrained from defend- 
 ing themselves by arms. At last a message 
 came from the Signory, ordering Savonarola 
 and his two faithful friends, Fra Domenico and 
 Fra Silvestro, to go to the Palazzo. They 
 gave themselves up, and were taken off to 
 prison, amid the howls and insults of the mob. 
 
 Savonarola was accused of various offences, 
 among them being his correspondence with 
 foreign princes and his rebellion against the 
 Pope. The three prisoners were tortured in 
 order to make them confess, and the Signory 
 were very anxious that Savonarola should deny 
 his Divine mission. However, in spite of the 
 torture, there is no good evidence that he did this. 
 
 The three friars were finally condemned to 
 death. They were to be hanged, and their 
 bodies were to be burned. On May 23rd, 1498, 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 205 
 
 Savonarola and his followers were brought out 
 of their prison into the square, where the 
 scaffold had been set up. Their friars' dress 
 was stripped off them, and they were degraded 
 by the Bishop of Vasona. The bishop, as he 
 degraded Savonarola, said to him, " I separate 
 thee from the Church militant and triumphant," 
 to which Fra Girolamo made his famous reply, 
 " Militant, not triumphant, for that rests not 
 with you." 
 
 Then the execution took place. The friars 
 were hanged in chains from the great gallows ; 
 the fire was lighted beneath, and blazed up. 
 A few charred bones were soon all that was 
 left of the bodies, and the ashes were thrown 
 into the Arno by order of the Government. 
 Some of Savonarola's devoted followers, in- 
 cluding some noble Florentine ladies, collected 
 any remains that floated on the river, and kept 
 them as precious relics of the teacher they had 
 so loved and revered. 
 
 Whatever mistakes Savonarola may have 
 made, there is no doubt that he was a brave 
 and saintly man, who dared to rebuke wicked- 
 ness in high places without fear of the con- 
 sequences to himself, and whose one aim was 
 the political, moral, and religious salvation of 
 Florence. 
 
 After Savonarola's martyrdom, as we may 
 almost call it, it seemed as if many of the things 
 
206 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 he had prophesied came to pass almost at once. 
 The French came into Milan ; the Spaniards 
 occupied Naples; in 1527 Rome suffered — 
 at the hands of the Emperor Charles v.'s 
 Spanish and German troops — the most cruel 
 and horrible sack she had ever endured during 
 all her history. Italy now fell into the hands 
 of Austria and Spain, and all her brilliant 
 Renaissance life was crushed. 
 
 As to Florence herself. The Medici returned 
 in 15 1 2, brought back by the Spaniards after 
 a terrible sack and massacre at the town of 
 Prato, close to Florence. In 1527 the Floren- 
 tines again drove the Medici out, and set up 
 the Republic once more. This, as we have 
 just said, was the year of the awful sack of 
 Rome by the army of the Emperor Charles v. 
 The Pope at this time was called Clement vn., 
 and he was one of the Medici family. After 
 the sack of Rome and all the insults offered 
 to the Pope by the foreign soldiery, there 
 was a reconciliation between the Pope and the 
 Emperor, and they agreed upon one thing, 
 namely, to destroy the liberties of Florence and 
 to bring back the Medici. Therefore, in 1529, 
 the Papal and Imperial armies laid siege to 
 Florence, and the unhappy city endured the 
 miseries of a siege for nearly two years. In 
 1530 she surrendered, partly through the treach- 
 ery of her own commander, Malatesta Baglioni. 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 207 
 
 Thus did the noble and glorious Republic of 
 Florence come to an end at last. 
 
 The Emperor Charles v. and Pope 
 Clement vii. now set up a certain Alessandro 
 de' Medici, who was descended from a younger 
 branch of the family, and made him hereditary 
 ruler of Florence. Alessandro was a bad man 
 and a tyrant. He was assassinated, in 1537, 
 by one of his own relations, a certain Lorenzo, 
 who fled after the murder, and died in Venice 
 some years later. 
 
 Duke Alessandro was succeeded by his 
 kinsman, Cosimo, son of the famous Giovanni 
 delle Bande Nere, of whom you will read 
 more in another chapter. This Cosimo was 
 a very able, but very cruel, man, and under 
 his government Florence quite lost her ancient 
 liberties. He became the first Grand Duke 
 of Tuscany, and his descendants reigned in 
 Tuscany for two hundred years. The Medici 
 dynasty m ended with the Grand Duke Gian 
 Gastone in 1737. You may see a most ex- 
 traordinary bust of this man in the Uffizi 
 Gallery. It shows what foolish manner of 
 person he must have been. 
 
 Before we say farewell to the Medici 
 altogether, we must turn for a moment to 
 speak of their wonderful monuments in the 
 Church of San Lorenzo, which are some of 
 most beautiful things in Florence. It has 
 
208 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 already been mentioned that the elder Cosimo 
 was buried in front of the high altar of this 
 Church of San Lorenzo, and a plain marble 
 slab was placed over his grave. Cosimo's sons, 
 Piero and Giovanni, are also buried in San 
 Lorenzo, and so are his grandsons, Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent and Giuliano. The bodies of these 
 two last were moved into the New Sacristy, 
 which was built by Michael Angelo for Pope 
 Clement vn., and finished in 1524. Piero and 
 Giovanni are buried in the Old Sacristy, which 
 was built for their father, Cosimo, and their 
 simple and beautiful tomb is there. 
 
 In the New Sacristy there were to have 
 been four monuments, but only two were 
 actually set up. These very famous monu- 
 ments are the work of Michael Angelo, and are 
 to a younger Lorenzo, who was called Duke 
 of Urbino (father of Catherine de' Medici, 
 Queen of France), and a younger Giuliano, 
 Duke of Nemours. These monuments are 
 celebrated not only for the fine statues which 
 represent the two dukes, but more especially 
 for the splendid figures below each of these 
 statues. Beneath Lorenzo are the figures of 
 Dawn and Twilight ; beneath Giuliano are 
 those of Day and Night. 
 
 Under the figure of Night, who seems tortured 
 in her dreams, Michael Angelo has written his 
 wonderful and bitter lines — 
 
THE LILIES OF FLORENCE 209 
 
 " Grato mi e il sonno, e piu l'esser di sasso, 
 Mentre che il danno e la vergogua dura ; 
 Non veder, non sentir, m'e gran ventura ; 
 Pero non mi destar ; deh, parla basso ! " 
 
 (" Dear is my sleep, but more to be mere stone, 
 So long as ruin and dishonour reign ; 
 To hear naught, to feel naught, is my great gain ; 
 Then wake me not ; speak in an undertone.") 
 
 {Trans. J. A. Symonds.) 
 
 We can well understand how Michael Angelo 
 came to feel and write like this when we 
 remember that he had been working at these 
 statues just before that awful siege of Florence 
 in 1529-30, while he was actually engaged in 
 fortifying the city against the enemy. He had 
 to return to the work after Florence had been 
 betrayed, and when the Republic he loved had 
 fallen for ever. He himself was threatened 
 with death by the tyrant, Alessandro. His 
 thoughts might well be dark and sorrowful ! 
 
 The two other monuments which were to 
 have been erected were most probably intended 
 for Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother, 
 Giuliano ; but this is not certainly known, and, 
 in any case, the monuments were never set up. 
 
 In another chapel , called the Chapel of 
 the Princes, are the tombs of the Medicean 
 Grand Dukes of Tuscany, Cosimo 1. and his 
 descendants. This chapel is gorgeous with 
 marble and mosaics, and although it has not 
 the grandeur of simplicity or the great historical 
 14 
 
210 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 interest of the tombs of the elder Medici, the 
 general effect is extremely beautiful. 
 
 When the Medici died out, they were suc- 
 ceeded in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany by 
 princes of the House of Austria, and in 1738 
 the first Austrian Grand Duke, Francis 11., 
 entered Florence by the Porta San Gallo, 
 which is still standing. These Austrian princes 
 were much better rulers than the later Medici, 
 and they made Tuscany the most prosperous 
 state in Italy. But when the time came for 
 Italy to rise into one great, united kingdom, 
 the Grand Duke of Tuscany finally chose to 
 take part with Austria, and so had to abdicate. 
 
 Florence then became for a time the capital 
 of King Victor Emmanuel's kingdom. Now, 
 of course, the capital of the kingdom of Italy 
 is Rome, but Florence remains one of the 
 greatest towns in that kingdom — "la bellissima 
 e famossissima figlia di Roma " (the fairest and 
 most famous daughter of Rome), as Dante 
 rightly calls her. 
 
 And now this long chapter about Florence 
 must come to an end. And long as the story 
 has been, there has been no time to speak much 
 about the glorious works of art in Florence, or 
 about her great writers. It has only been 
 possible to give a kind of outline of her 
 wonderful history, in the hope of pointing out 
 how worthy she is of more and more study. 
 
VIII 
 THE GREAT CAPTAINS 
 
 "Why, then, the world's mine oyster, 
 Which I with sword will open." 
 
 Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor. 
 
 In most of the other chapters you have read 
 about the way in which Italy was so long- 
 divided up into different states, which states 
 used to be constantly at war with one another 
 as well as with countries outside Italy. 
 
 Indeed, the history of Italy, from the time of 
 the downfall of the Roman Empire until quite 
 modern days, seems to be one long story of 
 plots and of wars. It was a sad thing for Italy 
 that she was for so many centuries divided 
 against herself, because these divisions were the 
 cause of terrible loss and misery, and finally 
 ended in various Italian states being conquered 
 and governed by foreign nations. One of the 
 worst and strangest parts of it all was that after 
 the end of the thirteenth century, and until 
 the sixteenth century, these wars were nearly 
 always carried on by means of hired armies. 
 The citizens of the countries who were at war 
 
 211 
 
212 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 no longer fought themselves, but got other 
 people to do their fighting for them. These 
 hired troops were made up partly of Italians — 
 probably of the discontented and unsatisfactory 
 sort — and partly of foreigners — French, English, 
 German, Spanish, and perhaps others as well. 
 
 These troops fought under the command 
 of their own captains or leaders, and these 
 captains were usually described in Italian as 
 "condottieri." 
 
 The " condottieri ' and their companies did 
 not, as a rule, belong to the country for which 
 they were fighting, and therefore could not be 
 expected to have any special feeling of patriot- 
 ism or loyalty. Indeed, some of them had 
 little feeling of honour at all, and did not always 
 keep their word. They really fought mainly 
 for money, lands, and power, and sometimes, no 
 doubt, for sheer love of fighting and adventure. 
 Their armies often behaved much more like 
 freebooters and marauders than like soldiers. 
 
 It was a very bad sign that such captains 
 and such troops should be employed at all, for 
 a healthy state is defended by its own sons, 
 and not by mercenaries who have to be paid 
 to defend it, and who do not really belong to 
 the country. 
 
 Still, many of the captains who commanded 
 these bands in Italy were very fine men; they 
 were brave, clever, and persevering, full of 
 
Phoio\ 
 
 \_Alinari. 
 
 SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD. 
 
 (Giovanni Acuto.) 
 
 Fresco by Paolo Uccello in the Duomo of Florence. 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 213 
 
 resource and daring, able and ready to face all 
 kinds of hardships and fatigue. They were 
 often very cruel, but they lived in very cruel 
 times, and probably were not much worse than 
 many of their neighbours. 
 
 We may notice that at the beginning of the 
 fourteenth century, foreign mercenaries were 
 employed by some of the great Italian captains 
 and by the communes. Then came a time 
 when the captains, or "condottieri," were 
 themselves foreign. Later on, again, the chief 
 "condottieri" were Italians, as we shall find as 
 our story goes on. 
 
 (1) Sir John Hawkwood 
 (Giovanni Acuto) 
 
 One of the most famous — perhaps the most 
 famous — of the foreign captains who fought in 
 Italy was Sir John Hawkwood, an Englishman, 
 son of a certain Gilbert de Hawkwood of 
 Hedingham Sybil, in Essex. 
 
 John Hawkwood must have been born early 
 in Edward in.'s reign, as he fought in the 
 French wars. He is said to have been forced 
 to enter the army, and to have served at first 
 as an archer. You remember what good work 
 the English archers did at the battle of Cre^cy 
 in 1346. 
 
 After the battle of Poitiers in 1356 and the 
 Peace of Bretigny in 1360, a number of troops 
 
214 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 were disbanded by both the King of England 
 and the King of France. These soldiers 
 formed themselves into independent companies 
 under their own leaders, and lived chiefly by 
 fighting and pillage. 
 
 In 1359, Hawk wood, who is spoken of as 
 very fierce, and as having the cunning of a fox, 
 was commanding a troop of free-lances in 
 Gascony. He and his men took the town of 
 Pau by storm and robbed the clergy. The 
 next year, 1360, Hawkwood joined another 
 company of freebooters under the celebrated 
 French leader, Bernard de la Salle, and in 
 1 36 1 they attacked and took Pont d'Esprit, 
 near Avignon, much to the wrath and dismay 
 of Pope Innocent vi., who was then living at 
 the Papal Palace at Avignon. The Pope tried 
 to get up a kind of crusade against these 
 robber-bands ; but this failed, and he had to 
 buy them off with a large sum of money. At 
 the same time he advised the Marquis of 
 Montferrat, who was at war with the Visconti, 
 lords of Milan, to hire this company to fight 
 for him. The Marquis of Montferrat was then 
 very hard pressed by the Milanese, so he 
 eneaeed the band of Bernard de la Salle to 
 help him against the Visconti. 
 
 Perhaps it will help to make this story 
 clearer if, before talking any more about 
 Hawkwood, we say something about the great 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 215 
 
 Visconti family, who ruled in Milan during 
 part of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth 
 centuries. We shall hear so much of their 
 doings that it is as well to know a little of 
 their history, and how they came to be so 
 powerful and important. 
 
 To begin with their name, Visconti. It is 
 probably derived from one of the " viscounts " 
 appointed in Charlemagne's time. Their coat- 
 of-arms is very remarkable and very well known. 
 On the shield is a seven-coiled serpent de- 
 vouring a child, and this shield is said to have 
 been carried by a Saracen who was slain in 
 single combat by the crusader, Otto Visconti. 
 Otto took this device or cognisance for his own 
 and handed it on to his descendants, and this 
 is why the Visconti are sometimes called the 
 House of the Snake. 
 
 The Visconti had many fights and struggles 
 with the family of the Torriani, the former 
 lords of Milan, who were Guelfs, while the 
 Visconti were Ghibellines. In 1277, Arch- 
 bishop Otto Visconti, who was then the leader 
 of the Ghibelline party in Lombardy, won a 
 decided victory over the Torriani, drove them 
 out, and was proclaimed lord of Milan. It 
 seems curious to us now that an archbishop 
 should be at the head of an army and ruler of 
 a city, but in those days it was not uncommon. 
 
 Some years after this, the Torriani, helped by 
 
2i6 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 the lower classes in Milan, returned to power 
 for a time; but in 1310 they were completely 
 overthrown, and the Visconti came back once 
 more. This time they returned under the 
 protection and authority of the Emperor 
 Henry vn., who had come over into Italy to 
 receive the Imperial crown, and to try to 
 restore peace and order among the Italian 
 communes. By their craft and clever scheming 
 the Visconti had got the Emperor to help 
 them, and in 131 2 Matteo Visconti, who was 
 then the head of the house, received the title 
 of Imperial Vicar of Milan. The Visconti 
 managed to get many of the Lombard cities 
 under their rule, and made Milan a very 
 wealthy, important, and powerful state. 
 
 In Sir John Hawkwood's time, two brothers, 
 Galeazzo and Bernabo Visconti, were ruling in 
 Milan. They lived in royal state and dignity, 
 and made all kinds of grand marriages for 
 their children. Galeazzo's son, the celebrated 
 Gian-Galeazzo, married a French princess, Isa- 
 belle de Valois ; his daughter, Violante, married 
 Lionel, Duke of Clarence, son of Edward in. 
 This last wedding took place at Milan in 1368, 
 and was most splendid and gorgeous. Among 
 the crowd of guests was Sir John Hawkwood 
 himself. 
 
 These two Visconti brothers were very cruel 
 and oppressive in their government ; but, curious 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 217 
 
 as it may appear, they were at the same time 
 very devout, and founded many churches and 
 convents. 
 
 Galeazzo died in 1378, and his share of the 
 government fell to his son, Gian-Galeazzo, who 
 remained quietly at Pavia for seven years after 
 his father's death, while his uncle, Bernabo, con- 
 tinued to rule in Milan. Bernabo became 
 more and more tyrannical and cruel in his 
 government as time went on, and was more 
 and more feared and hated by the people. 
 
 Now, his nephew, Gian-Galeazzo, was the 
 most able, subtle, and ambitious of all the 
 family. He appeared to be living a life of 
 quiet study at Pavia, and ruled much more 
 gently than his uncle, who had a certain con- 
 tempt for him. But he was making his plans 
 with great care, and he waited calmly for his 
 opportunity. 
 
 At last, in 1385, he set out for Milan with a 
 large escort of men-at-arms, saying that he was 
 on his way to visit a holy shrine at Varese, 
 and adding that he should like to meet his 
 uncle as he passed by Milan. 
 
 Accordingly, Bernabo and his sons rode 
 out to meet Gian-Galeazzo, laughing at his 
 cowardice in bringing so large an escort. But 
 when they met, Gian-Galeazzo made a sign to his 
 captain, and Bernabo and his sons were instantly 
 made prisoners and hurried off to a castle. 
 
218 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Gian-Galeazzo entered the city of Milan, 
 where he was received with the greatest joy, 
 and where he now became sole ruler. 
 
 Gian-Galeazzo's excuse for his treachery was 
 that his uncle and cousins had been intriguing 
 against him ; but this is doubtful, and few people 
 believed it. Gian-Galeazzo, by means of his 
 wonderful ability, his terrifying astuteness, per- 
 severance, and ambition, soon became the 
 most powerful ruler in North Italy, and all his 
 enterprises seemed to succeed. 
 
 At one time the dominion of the Visconti 
 reached right across to the Adriatic ; Gian- 
 Galeazzo also became master of Pisa, and his 
 soldiers conquered Perugia, Assisi, and Siena. 
 
 In 1395, by authority of the Emperor 
 Wenceslas, the Milanese state, together with 
 a number of the conquered cities, was made 
 into a Duchy, and Gian-Galeazzo was solemnly 
 robed and crowned as Duke of Milan by the 
 Papal Legate in the Piazza of St. Ambrogio. 
 It was settled that his heirs were to succeed 
 him in the Duchy. 
 
 Gian-Galeazzo was undoubtedly a great 
 statesman and a great administrator as well as 
 a conqueror. He ruled wisely and well, and 
 under his government people were not nearly 
 so cruelly taxed as before. Like most Italian 
 princes of his time, he had a great knowledge 
 and love of art and letters. He planned and 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 219 
 
 founded the splendid Cathedral of Milan and the 
 exquisite Certosa at Pavia. He brought many 
 great scholars to the University of Pavia, and 
 among these was a very famous Greek, who 
 was able to teach his own language, which many 
 people in those days were so anxious to learn. 
 
 In 1401-02 Duke Gian-Galeazzo had almost 
 realised the great dream of his life — that of 
 becoming King of Italy. Just at that time he 
 was on the point of subduing his last, bravest, 
 and most obstinate foe, the Republic of 
 Florence ; and then, just as the hour of triumph 
 seemed to be at hand, he fell ill of the plague, 
 and died, after a few days' illness, in August 
 1402. He left two sons, Galeazzo Maria and 
 Filippo Maria, both of whom became in turn 
 Duke of Milan. His daughter, Valentina, 
 married the Duke of Orleans. Her grandson 
 became King Louis xn. of France, and in later 
 days he claimed Milan in right of his descent 
 from this very Valentina Visconti, and thus 
 brought many disastrous wars upon Italy. 
 
 And now, having explained who the Visconti 
 were, and how it was that they were so power- 
 ful and important, we must go back to Sir John 
 Hawkwood and his career, and we must begin 
 by saying something about that famous and 
 terrible band of soldiers known as the White 
 Company, of which Hawkwood soon became 
 one of the chief leaders. 
 
220 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 This company was begun after the Peace of 
 Bretigny by a man named Bertrand de Crequi, 
 who gathered together some of the troops 
 which had garrisoned Picardy, Champagne, and 
 Burgundy during the war. They seem to 
 have joined with the bands which had fought 
 under Bernard de la Salle, and with another 
 company, collected by a certain Countess 
 d'Harcourt, who wanted to avenge her 
 husband's death. 
 
 These armed bands, being chiefly made up of 
 men who had served under the English, called 
 themselves Englishmen, and took the name of 
 the " White Company." Curiously enough, 
 the first commander of this so-called English 
 company was a German, whose name was 
 Albert Sterz. 
 
 The White Company was very strong and 
 well disciplined, the men having been accus- 
 tomed to every kind of hardship during the 
 wars in France. The company consisted of 
 one thousand " lances," as they were called, 
 and two thousand infantry. 
 
 By the word " lance " was meant a knight, 
 with his esquire and page. The knight and 
 his esquire rode powerful chargers, while the 
 page rode a palfrey. The knight was clad in 
 iron and steel from head to foot, but the esquire 
 was less heavily armed. The chief weapon 
 used was a long, heavy lance, which needed 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 221 
 
 two men to wield it. The men were also 
 armed with swords and daggers. An old 
 chronicler tells us that the armour was kept so 
 bright and shining by the pages, that when the 
 " lances " went into battle they glittered like 
 mirrors, and this helped to terrify the enemy. 
 He also adds that the White Company first 
 brought the use of the word " lance " into Italy, 
 as a name for cavalry. 
 
 The infantry who served in the White 
 Company were chiefly archers, and carried 
 bows made of yew. They also were armed 
 with swords and daggers, and carried small, 
 light ladders for scaling walls and towers. 
 
 We have already mentioned that the Marquis 
 of Montferrat had employed some of these armed 
 bands to fight for him against the Visconti. 
 When he and the Visconti had made peace, 
 the White Company passed into the service of 
 the Republic of Pisa, which was at war with 
 Florence. 
 
 Just as Pisa seemed on the point of victory, 
 part of the company broke faith with her and 
 went away like traitors, having been bribed by 
 Florentine gold. Sir John Hawkwood, with 
 twelve hundred lances, remained true to his 
 word, but a great attack which he had planned 
 on Florence failed. Some say that this was 
 because his German allies were bribed to desert 
 him ; others say that the Florentine captains 
 
222 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 roused up, and were not so careless as their 
 chief commander had been before. 
 
 Sir John Hawkwood (or Giovanni Acuto, as 
 the Italians always called him) now became a 
 very important person in Italy. 
 
 When the Pisan war was over, Hawkwood 
 and his company attacked Perugia. Then, after 
 fighting in various places, he joined an Italian 
 band, called the Company of St. George, which 
 had been formed by one of the Visconti family. 
 This company attacked and conquered first 
 Siena, and then Perugia. After these two 
 victories the company divided, and Hawkwood 
 led his men into Lombardy, where he entered 
 the service of the Visconti, who were then 
 fighting with the d' Este family. This was in 
 1368, when Lionel, Duke of Clarence, married 
 Violante Visconti, and Hawkwood went to 
 Milan for the wedding. 
 
 The next year we find Hawkwood fighting 
 against the Pope. He was taken prisoner near 
 Arezzo, but was ransomed by the Republic of 
 Pisa. He then pursued the Pope, and actually 
 besieged him at Montefiascone. 
 
 Then suddenly, in 1372, Hawkwood threw 
 up his command under the Visconti, and now 
 passed into the service of the Pope, against 
 whom he had just been fighting. 
 
 In order to try and understand even a little 
 of what was going on in all this confusion, we 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 223 
 
 must remember that for nearly seventy years 
 the popes had held their court, not at Rome, 
 but at Avignon, where they had been really 
 forced to live by King Philip the Fair, and 
 where they had stayed long after his death. 
 Many people, especially in Italy, were very 
 indignant at this, and were most anxious that 
 the popes should return to Rome. 
 
 Gregory xi., the pope who finally did bring 
 the papal court back to Rome, unfortunately 
 tried to reconquer the States of the Church by 
 sending foreign legates to persuade or threaten 
 the people, and by employing the help of foreign 
 soldiery. Among these hired troops the worst, 
 it is sad to say, were the Bretons and the 
 English. In the time of Gregory's successor, 
 Urban vi., most horrible atrocities were com- 
 mitted by these soldiers in the province of 
 Romagna, and especially at the unhappy towns 
 of Faenza and Cesena. Hawkwood at first 
 tried to protest, but in the end he disgraced 
 himself by his cruelty to the miserable in- 
 habitants. 
 
 When speaking of this time and these doings 
 in Italy, we are reminded of one of the sweetest, 
 noblest, and most devoted of women, St. 
 Catherine of Siena, who had such a wonderful 
 power for good. Many books have been written 
 about St. Catherine, and you will one day learn 
 more about her life of devotion, and about her 
 
224 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 great wisdom and prudence. Here we can 
 only say a very few words about her. St. 
 Catherine was born at Siena in 1347, and was 
 the daughter of one Giacomo Benincasa, a dyer. 
 She was the youngest of a very large family 
 of children. She showed a spirit of earnest 
 devotion from quite early childhood, and when 
 she was nearly seventeen she joined the Domin- 
 ican Sisters of Penance, and became one of 
 their Order, giving herself up entirely to the 
 service of God and of the poor and suffering. 
 She gradually formed a special band of fol- 
 lowers, and as years went on people of all kinds 
 turned more and more to her for advice, — 
 even on public and political matters, — so greatly 
 did they reverence her opinion and counsel. 
 
 St. Catherine died in Rome in 1380, and is 
 buried under the high altar of the great Domini- 
 can Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. 
 
 In those sad days of strife St. Catherine not 
 only implored the Pope to return to Rome, 
 but begged him to come in love and peace, 
 with the Cross in his hand, and not with bands 
 of armed soldiers. St. Catherine used all her 
 great influence in the cause of peace. She was 
 most anxious to set Italy free from these terrible 
 companies that were making war up and down 
 in her midst, and, hearing that the Pope was 
 thinking of a new Crusade, she did all she could 
 to persuade people to join it. One of her 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 225 
 
 eloquent letters is to Sir John Hawkwood ; 
 she entreats him and his soldiers not to fight 
 any more against their fellow-Christians, but to 
 " take the pay and the Cross of Christ crucified 
 ... so that you may be a company of Christ 
 to go against those infidel clogs who possess 
 our holy place, where the first sweet Verity 
 reposed and sustained death and torment for 
 us. 
 
 It is said that Hawkwood and his captains 
 made a most solemn promise that, when the 
 Crusade was started, they would go and fight 
 the Turks, but in the end this plan came to 
 nothing. 
 
 After some more years of fighting and in- 
 triguing, Hawkwood went over to the other 
 side again, and joined the league against the 
 Pope. It was at this time — 1377 — that he 
 married a daughter of Bernabo Visconti. 
 
 In 1378 Hawkwood and a German condot- 
 tiere called Count Lucius Landau were sent 
 into the Veronese territory to claim the inherit- 
 ance of Can' Signorio della Scala, Lord of 
 Verona, for his sister Beatrice, who was married 
 to Bernabo Visconti. The besiegers are said to 
 have been bought off by a large sum of money, 
 as was often done in those days. After this, 
 Hawkwood fought for Francesco Carrara, the 
 Lord of Padua, who was at war with Verona. 
 This war between two neighbouring cities seems 
 *5 
 
226 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 to have been stirred up partly by Venice on one 
 side, and by Milan on the other. In the 
 Paduan army Hawkwood commanded a com- 
 pany of five hundred cavalry and six hundred 
 English archers. 
 
 He showed great daring, and led his troops 
 right up to the very walls of Verona. This 
 placed them in considerable danger, as the 
 Veronese were in a very strong fortified 
 position. Hawkwood now showed his fox-like 
 cunning, of which we heard — for he made his men 
 pretend flight before the enemy, and this tempted 
 the Veronese to come out of their stronghold. 
 When he got them well out of Verona, he 
 turned, attacked them fiercely, and routed them. 
 
 The Republic of Venice then tried to get 
 Hawkwood into their service, and offered him 
 a large sum of money ; but he refused the offer, 
 and in the year 1380 he passed into the service 
 of Florence. (You will remember that this was 
 just about the time that the Medici first began 
 to rise into power.) Hawkwood was now 
 evidently thought to be a very important per- 
 sonage, for in 1382 he was sent as English 
 Ambassador to the Pope with Sir Nicholas 
 Dae worth and the Dean of St. Martin's. In 
 1385 Hawkwood was again sent as English 
 Ambassador, this time to the Court of Naples. 
 
 In this same year — 1385 — Hawkwood's 
 father-in-law, Bernabo Visconti, was murdered, 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 227 
 
 it is said by his nephew, Gian-Galeazzo, 
 that wonderful but unscrupulous prince you 
 read about just now. Hawkwood wanted the 
 Florentines to help him to fight Gian-Galeazzo 
 in revenue for this murder, but at that time the 
 Florentines would not consent to his leading 
 their forces against Milan. 
 
 But the years went on, and Gian-Galeazzo 
 became more and more powerful. He was 
 getting nearer and nearer to his great aim, 
 namely, to make himself King of Italy, and to 
 be crowned at Florence. In 1390 the Floren- 
 tines saw that they must make a real stand 
 against "the Great Serpent," Gian-Galeazzo 
 Visconti, unless they wanted to lose the in- 
 dependence of their republic. So at last the 
 war broke out. 
 
 Gian-Galeazzo had provided himself with 
 some of the ablest and greatest captains in 
 Italy to lead his forces. 
 
 The Florentines sent for Sir John Hawk- 
 wood, who was in Rome, and they also got a 
 French general called d'Armagnac to cross 
 the Alps and invade the Milanese state from 
 the side of Provence. 
 
 Armagnac and his troops came over into 
 Italy, but he was defeated by the famous 
 Milanese general, Jacopo del Verme, at a 
 place not far from Alessandria. Armagnac 
 was taken prisoner, and died of his wounds. 
 
228 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 The Milanese, encouraged by their victory, 
 moved on to meet Hawkwood, who, with his 
 army, was encamped on the river Adda. As 
 the Milanese army was so much larger than 
 the Florentine, Hawkwood and his captains 
 thought it would be wiser to retreat in the 
 direction of the river Adige, and finally get on 
 to Paduan territory. But this was not at all 
 easy ; the Milanese general thought he had 
 caught Hawkwood in a trap, and he sent him, 
 as a mocking joke, a fox shut up in a cage. 
 Hawkwood answered quite pleasantly that he 
 was quite glad to be in the cage, as he knew 
 the way out very well. And, indeed, so it 
 proved. For when Hawkwood saw that the 
 Milanese troops were getting careless and too 
 sure of victory, he turned and attacked them, 
 routing them with great slaughter. He then 
 finished his celebrated retreat, and took his 
 army to Bologna, thus saving the Florentine 
 troops and turning what was almost a defeat 
 into a victory for his side. 
 
 A year's truce was made with the Visconti, 
 and in 1392 Florence was able to make peace 
 on honourable terms. This peace was made 
 at Genoa, and afterwards Sir John Hawkwood 
 gave up his career as a soldier, and settled 
 down to live quietly at Florence, where he was 
 much honoured, and where he had a good deal 
 of property. 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 229 
 
 He was just arranging to sell his lands and 
 castles to the Florentine Commune, wishing 
 to return to spend his last days in England, 
 when he was seized with mortal illness, and 
 died on March 16th, 1394. 
 
 He was buried with great pomp in the 
 Duomo of Florence, where his monument still 
 remains. Some time afterwards, at the request 
 of the King of England, and by permission 
 of the Florentine Republic, his body was 
 brought back and buried at his old home 
 in Essex. 
 
 Some day, when you go to Florence, you 
 will see at the west end of the Duomo a fresco 
 of this great captain, who has been called "the 
 first real general of modern times." The 
 portrait represents him as a man of handsome 
 and regular features, broad-shouldered, and 
 above the middle height. 
 
 It is pleasant to think that in those days, 
 when treachery was only too common, Hawk- 
 wood was considered a trustworthy commander. 
 And, while we cannot help being sorry for his 
 many cruelties, we are glad to know that in 
 1380 he helped to found the English hospital 
 in Rome, which shows that he was not wholly 
 hard-hearted. 
 
 This is only a short sketch of his life, but 
 we can understand how and why Sir John 
 Hawkwood became so important in the history 
 
2 3 o STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 of Italy at that time when we remember that 
 he had a hand in bringing the Papal Court 
 back to Rome, and, above all, that by saving 
 the independence of Florence he prevented 
 Gian-Galeazzo Visconti from making himself 
 King of Italy. 
 
 We might perhaps ask ourselves whether 
 it would not have been better if Gian-Galeazzo 
 had succeeded in his plans, and had set up a 
 powerful kingdom to keep out the French, 
 Spanish, and Austrians. However, it is clear 
 that Italy was at that time not ready for union, 
 and she would most likely have been torn 
 asunder again by fights among her own 
 children. 
 
 (2) Carmagnola 
 
 As we know already, Gian-Galeazzo Visconti 
 died in 1402, so there was an end of his 
 ambition and his schemes. His successors 
 were not so able or successful as he was, and 
 were more cruel. We are reminded of this, 
 because the next great captain we are going to 
 speak about had to do with Gian-Galeazzo's 
 son, Filippo Maria, who became Duke of 
 Milan in 1412, after his elder brother, Giovanni 
 Maria, had been murdered in revenge for his 
 horrible cruelties. 
 
 While this miserable, wicked Giovanni Maria 
 was Duke, many of the cities in the duchy of 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 231 
 
 Milan had rebelled, and had chosen lords of 
 their own. Therefore, when Filippo Maria 
 succeeded to the title of Duke of Milan, he 
 found himself almost like a prisoner in his own 
 castle of Pavia, without lands and without an 
 army. He took a curious way of helping 
 himself out of his difficulty, and that was by 
 marrying Beatrice Tenda, widow of a very 
 famous Milanese general named Facino Cane, 
 who had fought in Gian-Galeazzo's wars. In 
 this way Duke Filippo Maria got hold of the 
 castles which Facino Cane had held, and, what 
 is more, he also got hold of his troops. 
 
 One of the commanders in this army was a 
 certain Francesco Bussone, afterwards famous 
 in history as the Count of Carmagnola, that 
 being the name of the little Piedmontese village 
 where he was born. 
 
 The general, Facino Cane, had noticed this 
 brave, intelligent-looking boy, who was tending 
 the herds at Carmagnola, and he had taken 
 him into his service. 
 
 You will see that Carmagnola was mixed up 
 with many of the principal events of his day, 
 and that he, like Hawk wood, played an im- 
 portant part in the internal politics of Italy. 
 
 Carmagnola took service under the new 
 Duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti. The 
 first thing he did was to help the Duke to get 
 back the capital of his duchy, for Milan was 
 
232 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 then in the hands of Astorre Visconti and of 
 the conspirators who had assassinated Giovanni 
 Maria. 
 
 When Filippo Maria had returned to Milan 
 and had avenged the murder of his brother, 
 he set his two great generals, Carmagnola and 
 Piccinino, to work to recover his other lost 
 possessions. In the short space of twelve 
 years no less than twenty towns had been won 
 back for the duchy of Milan, and this chiefly 
 through the courage and loyalty of Carmagnola 
 himself. 
 
 But, unhappily, the Duke was a man of 
 mean, cowardly, and cruel character, and was 
 also very suspicious. He allowed himself to 
 listen to certain of his courtiers who were 
 jealous of Carmagnola, and who wished to 
 injure him. The Duke therefore began by 
 trying to remove Carmagnola from any com- 
 mand in the army ; but Carmagnola guessed 
 at once that his enemies had been at work, 
 so he rode out to the castle where the Duke 
 was staying in order to see him face to face 
 and have an explanation. The Duke, how- 
 ever, would not meet him, but sent a message, 
 bidding him explain what he wanted to one of 
 the courtiers, a man who was Carmagnola's 
 enemy. At last Carmagnola, in a rage, 
 mounted his horse and called out, " Maybe 
 before long the Duke will be sorry he did 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 233 
 
 not listen to me ! ' He then set spurs to his 
 horse, and he and his followers galloped off 
 and disappeared. 
 
 Carmagnola went first to his own prince, 
 Amedeo, Duke of Savoy, and tried to stir 
 him up against the Duke of Milan. He 
 finally entered the service of the Republic of 
 Venice, which was at that time allied with 
 Florence in a war with the Duke of Milan. 
 This was in 1425, just at the time when Venice 
 was beginning to try to win more possessions 
 on the mainland, and was getting more and 
 more ambitious of power. The Doge, Fran- 
 cesco Foscari, encouraged the Venetians in 
 pursuing this aim, which was not really a wise 
 one, and only brought them much trouble in 
 the end. 
 
 In January of the next year Carmagnola 
 was made captain-general of the Venetian 
 forces. The Venetians had hesitated at first 
 about giving him the chief command of their 
 army, fearing that he would not fight loyally 
 against his old master, the Duke of Milan. 
 But Carmagnola swore faith to Venice ; he 
 received the baton of command from the hands 
 of the Doge, Francesco Foscari, and the 
 standard of the Republic was given to him 
 at the altar of St. Mark's. 
 
 Carmagnola won many victories for Venice, 
 the most glorious of them being at Maclodio, 
 
234 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 in the year 1427, when the Milanese army 
 was completely defeated and eight thousand 
 prisoners were taken, besides great booty. It 
 seems a curious thing that Carmagnola almost 
 immediately set free this enormous number of 
 prisoners. The Venetians were inclined to be 
 displeased with him for doing this, but when he 
 told them that it was the custom of war, they 
 appeared to be satisfied. 
 
 In 1428 peace was signed at Ferrara 
 between Venice and the Duke of Milan. By 
 this peace the towns of Brescia and Bergamo, 
 besides other lands, were given up to Venice. 
 
 On his return to Venice, Carmagnola was 
 received with great pomp and rejoicing. His 
 pay as general of the forces was increased, and 
 lands were assigned to him. 
 
 In 1429 the war broke out again, but this 
 time the victories were not all on the Venetian 
 side. The Milanese won a very important 
 battle on the river Po, in which the Venetian 
 ships were defeated. The Venetians began to 
 doubt Carmagnola's loyalty, and to suspect that 
 he had a secret understanding with the enemy. 
 History is not very clear on this point, and, un- 
 happily, treachery was only too common in 
 those days. Nevertheless, it is really very 
 unlikely that Carmagnola betrayed Venice, and 
 it has certainly never been proved against him. 
 It is true that he did not succeed as he had 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 235 
 
 done before ; the Venetians therefore distrusted 
 him, and they resolved on a terrible vengeance. 
 
 They got Carmagnola back to Venice under 
 pretence of consulting him on the terms of 
 peace, and when he arrived he was once more 
 received with great honour and with every 
 show of welcome. But, when he went to the 
 ducal palace, he found that the Doge was said 
 to be unwell and not able to see him. He 
 turned to leave, but the doors closed, and the 
 gentlemen-in-waiting pointed to the passage 
 that led to the prison, saying, "Your way is 
 there, my lord count." Guards suddenly ap- 
 peared in the doorway, seized Carmagnola, and 
 dragged him off to the dungeons. " I am lost," 
 he said, and made no struggle to escape. We 
 are told that for three days he refused to eat. 
 
 This brave soldier was secretly tried, tortured, 
 and at last condemned to death as a traitor to 
 the Republic. On May 5th, 1432, he was led 
 down, gagged, to those two famous pillars that 
 stand on the Piazzetta at Venice, and was there 
 beheaded. His wife and daughter were in 
 Venice at the time. Carmagnola was first 
 buried in the great Franciscan church at Venice, 
 but his body was afterwards moved to Milan. 
 
 It is only fair to add that the Venetians seem 
 to have been kind to the widow and daughters 
 of their famous captain-general, and to have 
 provided for them after his death. 
 
236 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 (3) Bartolommeo Colleoni 
 
 The remembrance of Venice, of Carmagnola, 
 and of the wars with Milan leads us on to 
 think of another great Italian captain, who was 
 more fortunate than Carmagnola, though his 
 name is perhaps not so widely known. 
 
 This was Bartolommeo Colleoni, who was 
 born near the beautiful hill-city of Bergamo, 
 in Lombardy, in the year 1400. His family 
 belonged to the country nobility, and were 
 Guelfs. His father, who had been exiled by 
 the Visconti, was assassinated through the 
 treachery of some of his own near kinsfolk, 
 and Bartolommeo's eldest brother was slain at 
 the same time. The little Bartolommeo was 
 thus left, the one remaining child of his lonely, 
 widowed mother. When the boy grew up, he 
 determined to be a soldier, and entered the 
 service of the Lord of Piacenza, who was then 
 at war with the Duke of Milan. The Milanese 
 army, under Carmagnola, won back Piacenza 
 for their Duke, and the young Colleoni then 
 went away to the south of Italy, where the war 
 of the Neapolitan succession was going on. 
 
 Colleoni served first under the great general 
 Braccio, who was fighting against Queen Joan 
 of Naples ; but he did not at all like this service, 
 and determined to join the French army instead. 
 He had actually set off, but the ship in which 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 237 
 
 he was sailing was captured by corsairs and 
 brought back. 
 
 Colleoni now joined the forces of the other 
 general, Jacopo Caldora, who was fighting on 
 Queen Joan's side. This shows us very clearly 
 how little many of these men cared which side 
 they fought on, so long as they did fight. 
 
 Colleoni was given what was called a "con- 
 dotta," or commission of a certain number of 
 men-at-arms. It is from this word "condotta" 
 that "condottiere " is derived, meaning the man 
 who led a certain number of soldiers in the field. 
 Italian armies at this time were made up of 
 these companies, which had each its own 
 captain. They all served under one general- 
 in-chief, who made his bargain with the state 
 for which he was fighting-. 
 
 Colleoni showed so much courage and ability 
 at the siege of Naples that he was promoted to 
 a larger command, and was allowed to have his 
 own banner, with his family device of lions' 
 heads upon it (in allusion to his name). 
 
 In 1424 Colleoni's general won a decided 
 victory over the enemy, and the war in the 
 kingdom of Naples quieted down for a time. 
 
 Colleoni then offered his services to Venice, 
 and fought under the great Carmagnola in the 
 war with Milan of which you read just now. 
 
 After Carmagnola's terrible death in 1432, 
 Colleoni served for some years under another 
 
238 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 great general, called Gattamelata, who was 
 commanding the Venetian forces against the 
 famous Milanese general, Piccinino. 
 
 Before we go on with the story of Colleoni's 
 fights and adventures, we will say just a few 
 words about this general with the curious name, 
 Gattamelata, or "honeyed cat." 
 
 His real name was Erasmo (or Stefano) da 
 Narni, so called from his birthplace. He had 
 risen from a very humble position to be one of 
 the most important commanders in Italy. He 
 first served in the army of Pope Eugenius iv., 
 and in 1434 he passed into the service of 
 the Venetian Republic, under the Marquis 
 Francesco Gonzaga, who was then the general- 
 in-chief of the Venetian forces. When 
 Gonzaga deserted Venice in 1438 and went 
 over to their enemy, the Duke of Milan, 
 Gattamelata remained faithful. He saved part 
 of the Venetian army, and led it successfully 
 aeainst the treacherous Gonzaga and the 
 Milanese. 
 
 During these fights, Gattamelata broke up 
 Gonzaga's forces and compelled them to fly 
 in various directions. The Milanese general, 
 Piccinino, fled to the castle of Tenno, which 
 stands on a precipitous rock near the Lake of 
 Garda. Piccinino escaped, and got through 
 Gattamelata' s lines by having himself carried 
 out of the castle in an old, dirty sack, under 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 239 
 
 pretence that it contained the body of a man 
 who had died of the plague. The supposed 
 corpse was borne by two men disguised as 
 bearers of the dead, and in front of it walked 
 men who were ringing bells, according to the 
 usual custom on such occasions. The Venetians 
 of course allowed them to pass, and Piccinino 
 got off and joined the main part of his army. 
 When, soon after this, Venice and Florence 
 made an alliance, they chose the celebrated 
 Francesco Sforza to command their armies. 
 Gattamelata consented to serve under him, and 
 fought loyally and well. 
 
 He was struck down with paralysis in 1440 
 and died in 1443. The Venetians honoured his 
 memory by having a most splendid equestrian 
 statue of him set up near the great Church of 
 St. Anthony at Padua. This statue is by the 
 famous Florentine sculptor, Donatello, and is a 
 wonderful work. 
 
 Meanwhile, Bartolommeo Colleoni rose 
 higher and higher in the service ; he was made 
 captain-general of the infantry, and was chosen 
 to be Governor of Verona. Besides these 
 military honours, estates near Bergamo and 
 Cremona were bestowed upon him, and he 
 thus became master of three fine castles. 
 
 When Gattamelata died, Colleoni became 
 one of the most important commanders in 
 Italy, and he won a great reputation as a 
 
2 4 o STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 general. He seems to have been both cautious 
 and daring, and thus he could be trusted to 
 seize upon any possible advantage without 
 risking his troops needlessly. Again, he was 
 honest in dealing with the states that em- 
 ployed him, and was kind and just to his men. 
 
 When the war with Milan was over, the 
 Venetian Senate reduced the number both of 
 commanders and of troops. It is not surprising 
 that they wanted to do this, when we consider 
 the enormous expense the war must have been. 
 Venice had employed the most famous con- 
 dottieri she could find, such as Gonzaea of 
 Mantua, Gattamelata, Francesco Sforza, and 
 Bartolommeo Colleoni, so no wonder she 
 found that her treasure-chest was getting 
 empty. One story alone will show what 
 enormous sums of money she must have spent 
 on the war, and what her possessions on the 
 mainland of Italy had cost her. 
 
 In 1438 Venice was very anxious to relieve 
 the town of Brescia, which was then besieged 
 by the great Milanese general, Piccinino, but 
 all the ways of getting to the town were cut 
 off. The Venetians therefore got a very clever 
 engineer to carry out a plan for taking a fleet 
 of thirty vessels right over the mountains to 
 the head of the Lake of Garda, a distance of 
 two hundred miles. The galleys and boats 
 were taken up the river Adige as far as was 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 241 
 
 possible ; then they were taken over the 
 mountain passes to the little Lake of Loppio, 
 and after this they were let down over the 
 terrible precipices of Monte Baldo to a place 
 called Torbole, which had a little harbour 
 on the lake. The Venetian fleet was thus 
 able to sail down the lake and bring help to 
 Brescia from an unexpected direction. When 
 we think of what this wonderful feat of en- 
 gineering meant, the roads that had to be 
 levelled, the bridges that had to be built, the 
 numbers of engineers, pioneers, and other men 
 who were employed, we can easily understand 
 what the cost must have been. 
 
 But for some reason Colleoni seems to have 
 been annoyed at the cutting down of the 
 Venetian defences, and he ended by quarrelling 
 with an important Venetian official. 
 
 Colleoni then offered his services to the 
 
 Duke of Milan, who at first received him 
 
 courteously, gave him a good command, and 
 
 sent him on a fighting expedition to the March 
 
 of Ancona. But after his usual fashion, the 
 
 Duke grew jealous and suspicious. He recalled 
 
 Colleoni, accused him of treachery, and actually 
 
 shut him up in one of the horrible dungeons at 
 
 Monza which were known as the "Forni," or 
 
 Ovens. These dungeons had been built by 
 
 one of the Visconti, and the cells were so made 
 
 that the wretched prisoners could neither stand 
 16 
 
242 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 up nor lie at full length. Moreover, as there 
 were spikes all over the floor, it was torture 
 either to sit or to move. 
 
 After a year of this shameful treatment, 
 Colleoni managed to escape, and was greeted 
 with the greatest joy by his faithful soldiers. 
 This happened in 1447, just at the time of the 
 Duke of Milan's death. Soon afterwards, 
 Colleoni returned to the service of Venice, and 
 in 1455 he was appointed general-in-chief of 
 the Venetian forces, with full powers and a 
 very large stipend. 
 
 Three years later he came to Venice, and 
 made a triumphal entry into the city, escorted 
 by a splendid train of followers. The Doge 
 and all the great people of Venice came to 
 meet him, and he received the baton of com- 
 mand from the hands of the Doge at the altar 
 of St. Mark's, just as Carmagnola had done, 
 and with the same stately ceremonies. 
 
 Colleoni held this important office for over 
 twenty years, and this shows how completely 
 the Venetians must have trusted him. 
 
 At this time Venice had no great wars going 
 on, and Colleoni spent some years quietly at 
 his castle of Malpaga, between Brescia and 
 Bergamo. Here he was constantly visited by 
 distinguished people of all kinds. He had 
 become very famous, and everybody wanted 
 him. For example : Pope Paul 11. tried to get 
 
Photo] 
 
 
 pt • «• «.«»«j* V-»<« » w*j>«,*«,5» jg»# .«# m* 
 
 [Bro£i. 
 
 BARTOLOMMEO COLLEONI. 
 
 (Statue by Verrocchio at Venice.) 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 243 
 
 him to command a crusade in 1468 ; Pope 
 Pius 11. wished him to lead an expedition 
 against the fierce Sigismondo Malatesta ; King 
 Louis xi. of France wanted him to take a 
 command in his army, and so, too, did Charles 
 the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. But Colleoni 
 started on no fresh adventures, although it 
 seems that he had wished to serve under the 
 Duke of Burgundy, because some sort of com- 
 pact was drawn up between them. Venice, 
 however, was opposed to this idea. 
 
 Colleoni died peacefully at Malpaga in 
 1475, and is buried in the beautiful Chapel of 
 St. John the Baptist at Bergamo, which he 
 built and decorated in gorgeous fashion. His 
 own splendid monument stands in the chapel, 
 and also the simpler but much more lovely 
 monument of his daughter, Medea. The 
 great soldier is best recalled to our minds 
 by the magnificent equestrian statue which 
 stands just outside the famous Church of St. 
 John and St. Paul at Venice. This wonderful 
 bronze is by the sculptor Verrocchio, and 
 represents Bartolommeo Colleoni as he was 
 said to be — tall, erect, well and powerfully built. 
 He sits his horse in a grand attitude — half 
 triumphant half defiant — and even in the bronze 
 we seem to see the flash of the black, piercing 
 eyes — those eyes that had seen so many things 
 happen in Italy. 
 
244 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Colleoni did not forget his duties to the poor 
 and to the Church. He founded several 
 charitable institutions in and near his native 
 place, he built churches on his principal estates, 
 and he rebuilt and endowed two monasteries, 
 dedicating one to St. Francis and the other to 
 St. Clara. These names will remind us of our 
 story of St. Francis, and help to show how " the 
 Little Poor Man " was beloved and revered by 
 all his countrymen. 
 
 (4) Giovanni delle Bande Nere 
 
 Another of these famous captains was 
 Giovanni de' Medici, usually called " Giovanni 
 delle Bande Nere," or John of the Black Bands 
 or Companies. He belonged to the great 
 Medici family, of whom you read so much in the 
 chapter about Florence, and he became one of 
 the most celebrated of these soldiers of fortune 
 in Italy. The story of his life gives us a very 
 good picture of these captains of independent 
 companies, and of the way they served, first on 
 one side, and then on the other. 
 
 Giovanni delle Bande Nere was born in 
 1498, twenty-three years after Bartolommeo 
 Colleoni died. His father was a kinsman of 
 the great Cosimo de' Medici and of Lorenzo 
 the Magnificent. His mother was Caterina 
 Sforza, called the Lady of Forli, celebrated 
 for her spirit and courage. She was the 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 245 
 
 daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of 
 Milan, and granddaughter of the famous 
 general, Francesco Sforza, who became Duke 
 of Milan after Filippo Maria Visconti died in 
 1447. You have already heard how Francesco 
 Sforza commanded the allied armies of Venice 
 and Florence in a war against Milan, the very 
 state of which he afterwards became Duke. 
 
 The little Giovanni de' Medici soon began to 
 show that he came of a warlike stock. He 
 was very fierce and savage even when he was 
 quite a child, and used to beat his nurses and 
 tutors. When he got bigger, he delighted in 
 all kinds of athletic exercises, such as wrestling, 
 swimming, breaking in wild horses, and prac- 
 tising the use of arms. He still remained 
 terribly fond of fighting, and, indeed, he was at 
 one time banished from Florence on account 
 of his quarrelsome ways. Some of his friends 
 got permission for him to go back again, but 
 he was just as quarrelsome and violent as 
 ever. 
 
 At last Pope Leo x., who was a relation of 
 Giovanni, thought he might perhaps be able to 
 keep this wild young man in better order in 
 Rome, so he sent for him to go there. But, 
 alas ! Giovanni was as troublesome and blood- 
 thirsty at Rome as in Florence, and began 
 quarrels and fights with the great Orsini family. 
 
 Just at this time, however, war broke out 
 
246 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 between the Pope and the Duke of Urbino, 
 and Giovanni decided to become a soldier. 
 
 He collected a number of men among his 
 friends and servants, got horses for them, and 
 in this way began to form the great fighting 
 company which afterwards became so famous, 
 and which was the wonder both of friend and 
 foe. 
 
 Giovanni and his company fought on the 
 Papal side in these sad and confusing wars until 
 the death of Pope Leo x. in 1521. As a sign 
 of mourning for the Pope's death, Giovanni 
 changed the ensigns of his company from white 
 to black, and from that time his soldiers began 
 to be known as the " Black Bands " or " Black 
 Companies " — a name which quickly became 
 celebrated in all Europe. 
 
 The Duke of Urbino took advantage of the 
 Pope's death to push on the war, and he and 
 his allies began to threaten Tuscany. It might 
 have been an evil day for Tuscany — and 
 especially for Florence — if Giovanni de' Medici 
 had not been called to their help ; but 
 Giovanni hastened to the rescue, having with 
 him his own company and some Swiss and 
 German soldiers he had collected in a hurry. 
 
 In a very few days he had driven the Duke 
 of Urbino out of Florentine territory, and had 
 also won back Montefeltro for the Florentine 
 Republic. 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 247 
 
 He would also have taken possession of 
 Perugia, but his advance was checked by 
 orders from Rome, where the College of 
 Cardinals was growing jealous and wished to 
 prevent Giovanni from becoming too important 
 and powerful. 
 
 Giovanni was so furious at these orders from 
 Rome that he left Tuscany and went into 
 Lombardy, pretending that he was going to 
 take service under the Duke Francesco Maria 
 Sforza of Milan. But he was really thinking 
 of deserting the Spanish-Papal League and 
 of accepting the splendid offers made to him 
 by Francis 1. of France. The King of France 
 promised him the lordship of Imola and Fori! ; 
 and not only that, but he even promised that 
 he should rule in Florence, which Giovanni 
 greatly wished to do. 
 
 In spite of all these promises, however, 
 Giovanni did not quite like to break faith with 
 the League, and hesitated for a time. At last 
 he made up his mind, and did join the French 
 army, taking with him three thousand infantry 
 and two hundred cavalry. 
 
 You may wonder what the King of France 
 and his army were doing in Italy at all, but 
 we shall hear yet more about this matter in 
 another chapter. Meanwhile, you must re- 
 member there was at this time a great rivalry 
 between Francis 1. and the young Emperor 
 
248 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Charles v. They had been rivals for the 
 Empire, and they were now disputing as to 
 the heritage of the Dukes of Burgundy. 
 
 The names of Francis i. and Charles v. 
 remind us, too, of what was going on in 
 England at that time. Both these sovereigns 
 tried to get Henry vm. to take his part, 
 as each one was anxious to win the friend- 
 ship and alliance of England. Both Francis 
 and Charles tried to gain Cardinal Wolsey's 
 favour — Francis by means of flatteries and 
 presents, Charles by half promising that 
 Wolsey should be Pope. 
 
 It is interesting to think that the great 
 meeting at the " Field of the Cloth of Gold' 
 took place just at the time when our Giovanni 
 delle Bande Nere was beginning his wonder- 
 ful career as a soldier. 
 
 At that time the French king's army in Italy 
 was commanded by the Sieur de Lautrec, 
 under whom Giovanni de' Medici fought. 
 Lautrec was defeated near Milan in 1522, and 
 went back to France to beg for more troops. 
 But this defeat was a serious one for the 
 French, as it meant the loss of Milan. The 
 castle of Milan surrendered to the Spanish 
 and Papal forces in 1523, and, among other 
 misfortunes, the French lost the help of 
 Giovanni de' Medici, who was persuaded by 
 his relation, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, to go 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 249 
 
 back to the service of the League. This 
 Cardinal Giulio was at that time governing in 
 Florence. He soon afterwards became Pope, 
 and took the name of Clement vil, which you 
 will remember in some of our other stories. 
 
 Giovanni, however, soon got tired of the 
 insolence and insincerity of the Spaniards; and 
 perhaps thinking he could serve his own 
 country better by fighting with the French, he 
 left the League and once more joined the 
 French army. The King gave him large 
 allowances, and bestowed upon him the Order 
 of St. Michael, which Order he never would 
 wear. Very likely he felt that to wear that 
 foreign order seemed like disloyalty to Italy. 
 
 This service with the French was a very 
 short one, for Giovanni was wounded in the 
 leg by a shot, which obliged him to leave the 
 seat of war and retire to Piacenza. This was 
 again a serious loss to France, as the 
 Medicean bands, having lost their leader for 
 a time, gradually dispersed. 
 
 Very soon after this came the terrible defeat 
 of the French at the battle of Pavia, when 
 Francis 1. was taken prisoner by the troops of 
 the Emperor Charles v. This was in 1525. 
 
 After this victory over the French at Pavia, 
 the Spanish began to try and lord it over 
 Italy as if they were the masters of the 
 country. They turned Francesco Maria 
 
250 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Sforza out of his duchy of Milan, and laid 
 sieee to the castle of Milan itself. The Italian 
 
 o 
 
 princes now found that the Spanish had de- 
 ceived them when they promised to respect 
 the independence of the Italian states, and a 
 League was formed for the purpose of getting 
 rid of the Spanish out of Italy. Giovanni de' 
 Medici and his soldiers joined this Italian 
 League, and Giovanni was appointed captain- 
 general of all the Italian infantry. 
 
 The princes of the League, with a large army, 
 tried to relieve Milan and to save the castle ; 
 but the citadel surrendered to the Spanish 
 under the very eyes of the Italian commander. 
 Giovanni de' Medici was the last to withdraw 
 from Milan, and he was really the only man 
 who had upheld the honour of Italy in this 
 most unhappy war, as he had fought bravely 
 and honestly for his country. 
 
 As for driving out the Spanish, it was easier 
 said than done ; the Italians had encouraged 
 foreign armies to come into Italy, and now 
 they had to put up with the devastation and 
 tyranny that followed, especially as they were 
 divided among themselves. All this happened 
 in 1526, and the next year saw the fearful 
 sack of Rome by the Emperor's German and 
 Spanish troops — a revenge for the Pope's 
 having encouraged this very League, and for 
 his having partly sided with the French. 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 251 
 
 Later in the year 1526 a certain German 
 commander, named George Frundsberg, was 
 called into Italy by the Emperor and by the 
 Constable de Bourbon. Frundsberg had with 
 him a number of German and Tyrolese troops, 
 some of them very ferocious men, and with 
 them he swooped down upon Lombardy. 
 Some of Frundsberg's men were fanatical 
 Lutherans, and an old story says that Frunds- 
 berg himself brought with him a chain with 
 which he hoped to bind the Pope. He is 
 said to have been anxious to try some great 
 attack on Rome, and also to rescue his son, 
 who was shut up in Milan. Giovanni and his 
 Black Bands met these terrible forces in the 
 marshy country near Mantua, and fought 
 splendidly against them. But one day, when 
 he was pursuing them with his usual daring 
 and valour, he was badly wounded in the leg 
 by a cannon-ball, and had to be carried by his 
 soldiers to the town of Mantua, which was 
 about eight miles away. The surgeons told 
 him that his leg would have to be cut off 
 if his life was to be saved, and they proposed 
 that some of his soldiers should hold him while 
 the dreadful operation was being performed. 
 You remember that people had to bear all the 
 pain in those days, as there was no chloroform 
 to 8five them. But when Giovanni heard of 
 the plan, he smiled and said, " Twenty men 
 
252 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 would not hold me if I did not choose that 
 they should ! " Taking the candle, he held it 
 so that the surgeon could see, and he never 
 changed either in his face or his voice, except 
 just when the bone was being sawn through, 
 and then he twice cried out. When all was 
 done, he had the leg brought to him to look 
 at, and sighed, grieving more that his career 
 was ended than for the thought of death. The 
 amputation did not save his life, and Giovanni 
 died a very few days afterwards. He was not 
 quite twenty-eight years old. 
 
 We are told that Giovanni de' Medici was 
 of middle height and pale ; he wore a short 
 beard. He had a terrifying voice, and was 
 very powerful, so that none could resist him. 
 In athletic exercises he had no rival, and he 
 was such a strong swimmer that he twice 
 swam across the river Po with his steel cuirass 
 on. He was simple in his food and his dress, 
 and although he was so terrible in war, he 
 was most generous to his soldiers and his 
 servants. 
 
 Lawless as he was in many ways, Giovanni 
 kept very stern rules in his camp, and his 
 military discipline was very severe. Places 
 of honour and command were given only to 
 those who deserved them. The lazy and 
 cowardly were driven out of the camp. 
 Sometimes, indeed, they were put to death 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 253 
 
 by Giovanni's orders, and sometimes he even 
 slew them with his own sword. 
 
 But he never asked his soldiers to do 
 what he shirked doing himself. He was 
 always the first in the saddle and the last to 
 dismount ; he did not merely bid his men 
 advance, but he dashed on and bade them 
 follow him. 
 
 There was a very fine and strong spirit of 
 fellowship among those fierce soldiers of the 
 Black Bands ; they would run any risk to save 
 their comrades-in-arms. 
 
 It is said that Giovanni himself once rushed 
 almost alone into the midst of the enemy 
 in order to rescue one of his captains, who 
 had been taken prisoner. He made such 
 a desperate onslaught with his battle-mace, 
 shouting in his terrible voice and spurring on 
 his horse, that the enemy was scared, and 
 Giovanni saved his man from their hands. 
 
 But in spite of their loyalty to one another 
 in battle, these soldiers used to quarrel and 
 fight among themselves when they were not 
 fighting with any one else. Giovanni often 
 rebuked them for this, and at last was 
 determined to punish them. So one day, 
 at the town of Fano, when two of his bravest 
 soldiers had got into a quarrel, Giovanni 
 locked them up in a room together, telling 
 them that now, as they had begun, they must 
 
254 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 fight to a finish, and that only one should 
 come out of that room alive, for one had to be 
 slain. The men fought until they sank ex- 
 hausted to the ground, and still Giovanni 
 refused to open the door. At last a friend 
 begged so hard for mercy that he did open it, 
 and the two warriors were found lying covered 
 with blood and more dead than alive. After 
 that there was no more fighting among the 
 soldiers at Fano. 
 
 It is said that Giovanni had very useful plans 
 for remounting his cavalry when they lost 
 their good horses. For instance, if he met 
 a friar ambling comfortably along on horse- 
 back, he would come up to him, and, offering 
 him the most broken-down old horse in the 
 company, he would say to him, " Father, this 
 horse will carry you quite nicely to your 
 Chapter-meeting ; your nag will do well for 
 fighting. So go your ways." We can imagine 
 the friar's feelings ! Possibly, though, he was 
 glad that nothing worse happened to him. 
 
 One reason for Giovanni de' Medici being 
 so important in the history of his time was 
 that his famous Bands were the only real, 
 independent Italian company in the whole 
 peninsula, and they were thus a kind of 
 beginning of a national army once more. 
 
 Giovanni's troops were chiefly what we call 
 'Might horse," and he is thought to have first 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 * ; ' ' , • 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 ' H ' • . 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^B.- 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 1 Tv" 
 
   
 
 
 
 "^^■^ KM 
 
 B ' r. 
 
 
 
 
 J9H> 1   9} I 
 
   
 
 S 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 1 <<** 
 
 ^^pr 
 
 jjfl 
 
 tarn 
 
 
 
 
 H| *. ** ~ V   ¥ ' >v » ^ «f rH 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 W^' :: . '■■ y El ':.-■ • > -'.*^ / ' -*•- 
 
   
 
       : 
 
 
 I B 
 
 : *^x 
 
 - B'. 1 i 1   _-. "\ * r-~ * Hn 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . ] 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 1? 
 
 Jit   ' 
 
 . mm 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 l1 
 
   1 I 
 \ 1 1 
 
 1 1l| ' 
 
 VJj ^H 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 ■^^^^^ 
 
 ' fl 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 "^^^r V ^1 
 
 
 It 
 
 
 
 JH 
 
 H *■' ' 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
   >y 
 
 
 
 
 ^m 
 
 
 
 rhoto] 
 
 [Rrogi. 
 
 GIOVANNI delle haxde xeke. 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 255 
 
 started the idea of troops which could fight 
 both on horse and on foot. 
 
 The Black Bands did not disperse directly 
 after Giovanni's death. He had left behind 
 him several captains, who afterwards became 
 famous, and under these leaders the Black 
 Bands served in other wars in different parts 
 of Italy. 
 
 In 1528 they joined with the French army 
 at Naples, and fought against the Spanish. 
 They also helped to defend Florence during 
 the great siege of 1529-30, when she was 
 attacked by the Pope and the Emperor, and 
 when she finally lost her independence. 
 
 Giovanni delle Bande Nere married Maria 
 Salviata, a grand-daughter of Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent. Their son, Cosimo, became the 
 first Grand Duke of Tuscany. As you already 
 know, he began to reign in 1537, and the 
 descendants of our wild and splendid Giovanni 
 reigned over Florence and Tuscany for two 
 hundred years. 
 
 (5) II Medeghino 
 
 We will tell just one more of these strange 
 tales of adventure to show what extraordinary 
 things it was possible for a clever and daring 
 man to do in those days. 
 
 Curiously enough, the man of whom we are 
 going to speak was also called Medici, but he 
 
256 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 was no relation of the great Florentine family 
 of that name. His people belonged to Milan, 
 where he was born in 1498, the same year as 
 Giovanni delle Bande Nere. His name in 
 full was Gian-Giacomo de' Medici ; but as he 
 was usually known as the Medeghino, we will 
 call him so in this short sketch of his life. 
 
 You must notice that the Medeghino was not 
 exactly a " condottiere," or captain, like the 
 other men in this chapter. He was not the 
 leader of a regular company which served in 
 various campaigns ; he was really a very clever, 
 courageous, and unscrupulous adventurer, who 
 simply fought for his own hand. The days 
 of the real " condottieri " were then almost 
 past. 
 
 When the Medeghino was only sixteen, he 
 was banished from Milan for the murder of 
 an enemy — an act of which he did not seem 
 to be ashamed, but which obliged him and 
 his family to take refuge near the Lake of 
 Como. He then determined to be a soldier, 
 and became a captain of mercenaries, rather 
 in the same way as the " condottieri " of former 
 days. At the time when the Medeghino 
 began his career as a soldier of fortune, the 
 French, Swiss, Germans, and Spanish were 
 all fighting for the mastery in Lombardy. 
 As you have just read, Milan was in the 
 hands of the French, and it was governed by 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 257 
 
 the Sieur de Lautrec, as lieutenant of Francis 1. 
 in Italy. You will remember how Giovanni 
 and his Black Bands served under Lautrec for 
 a time. In 152 1 Pope Leo x. and the Emperor 
 Charles v. made a "Holy League" for the 
 purpose of driving out the French, and a plan 
 was formed in Milan for bringing back the 
 Duke Francesco Sforza and reinstating him 
 in his capital. Lautrec prepared to fight the 
 Papal and Imperial forces. He left the castle 
 of Milan garrisoned, but came out himself 
 with his army. As we know, he suffered a 
 great defeat near Milan, at a place called 
 La Bicocca. Meanwhile, the Medeghino had 
 been very busy helping in the plan for bring- 
 ing the Duke back to Milan. This particular 
 plot seems to have been found out and punished; 
 but, nevertheless, Duke Francesco Sforza did 
 come back, and entered Milan amid the wild 
 delight of the people. 
 
 The Medeghino came back to Milan for 
 a time, and he was appointed to reduce the 
 country round the Lake of Como to order. 
 He took advantage of this commission to make 
 himself more and more powerful, and to take 
 vengeance on the enemies who had caused 
 his exile. 
 
 The Medeghino set out to subdue the people 
 round the lake, and the last fortress which 
 surrendered to him was the castle of Musso, a 
 '7 
 
258 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 splendid stronghold near the northern end of 
 the Lake of Como. 
 
 The Medeghino set his heart on being made 
 governor of this castle, which was built in a 
 wonderful position on a great rock right up above 
 the lake. Below it was a precipice, sheer down 
 into the water, and behind were the moun- 
 tains, so that it was defended on all sides. 
 There had been a tower at Musso from ancient 
 times, but the Visconti had added a fort, and 
 other walls and defences had been built. The 
 castle commanded a long sweep of the lake, 
 and a foe could be seen coming either from the 
 Swiss side or the Italian. It was no wonder 
 the Medeghino thought he should dearly like to 
 be master of Musso. 
 
 Hoping to win this coveted prize, he went 
 to Milan to beg the Duke to appoint him 
 governor of Musso. The Duke would not 
 give him a straight answer; but at last he hinted 
 that, if the Medeghino could manage to get rid 
 of a certain popular young nobleman called 
 Astorre Visconti, he might perhaps receive the 
 governorship of Musso as a reward. 
 
 The Medeghino, sad to say, did not at all 
 object to this murderous and treacherous busi- 
 ness, so he got Astorre Visconti killed, and 
 then claimed the Duke's promise. 
 
 We are told that by the advice of a very 
 clever and cunning Milanese statesman, the 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 259 
 
 Medeghino was sent to Musso, taking with him 
 an open letter from the Duke of Milan to the 
 governor of the castle. In this letter the 
 governor was ordered to give up the castle of 
 Musso to the Medeghino ; but with the open 
 letter there was a sealed letter, also addressed 
 to the governor. This made the Medeghino 
 suspicious ; he knew his men, and did not trust 
 them. So he opened the sealed letter, and 
 found that it contained an order to the governor 
 of Musso to put him, the Medeghino, to death. 
 He destroyed this letter and presented the 
 other to the governor, who thereupon gave up 
 the fortress. 
 
 Thus, at last, the Medeghino got hold of 
 Musso. He at once began to fortify it more 
 and more, and all kinds of outlaws and robbers 
 collected there under his protection and leader- 
 ship. 
 
 When the Medeghino had settled and forti- 
 fied himself to his satisfaction at Musso, he 
 began to live like a kind of bandit chief, think- 
 ing of nothing and caring for nothing except of 
 gaining power and possessions for himself, no 
 matter how. 
 
 He thought he would gain favour in the eyes 
 of the Duke of Milan by fighting the Swiss 
 from the Grisons, who were travelling down to 
 the Lake of Como on their way to join the 
 army of Francis 1. He burned all the boats on 
 
26o STORIES FROM ITALIAN- HISTORY 
 
 the lake, except those he wanted for himself, 
 and he pushed the war so far into Swiss terri- 
 tory that the Swiss troops had to be hurried 
 back from Italy to defend their own homes. 
 
 Indeed, it may truly be said that the Mede- 
 ghino had a great hand in the defeat of Francis i. 
 at the battle of Pavia, — where, you remember, 
 Francis was taken prisoner, — because it was 
 iust before that battle that the Swiss soldiers 
 had to return and fight for their own country. 
 
 In 1526 the Duke Francesco Sforza was 
 turned out of Milan, and the Marquis of 
 Pescara held the city in the name of the 
 Emperor Charles v. This was the time when, 
 as you have just read, the Italian princes made 
 a league to defend their independence against 
 Spain, and Giovanni de' Medici and his Black 
 Bands were helping to save Milan, but in vain. 
 
 The Medeghino refused to obey the Spanish, 
 and fought successfully against them both by 
 land and by water. He had a real navy on the 
 Lake of Como, with large vessels, small boats, 
 and a flagship, from which his banner floated. 
 
 The Spaniards thought it would be wiser 
 to try to win him over by friendliness, so 
 Charles v. gave him the castle of Musso and 
 the lordship of a great part of the lake. The 
 Medeghino now took the titles of Marquis 
 of Musso and Count of Lecco, and considered 
 himself to be a sovereign prince. He coined 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 261 
 
 money with his own name and device, just like 
 other princes. 
 
 It is clear that he intended to make himself 
 yet more powerful if he could, for in 1529, when 
 Duke Francesco Sforza was again restored to 
 the duchy of Milan, the Medeghino refused 
 to obey his former lord, and began to attack 
 the Grisons once more. He pretended to be 
 acting under the Duke's orders, but he was 
 really doing just what he chose himself. At 
 first his attack succeeded, but only for a time. 
 The Swiss rose against him in great numbers, 
 and the Duke of Milan sent forces both by land 
 and by water to subdue him. The Medeghino 
 was defeated in a battle on the lake, near the 
 beautiful little town of Menaggio. But, in spite 
 of this, he went on fighting courageously, and 
 gained some victories over his enemies. He 
 drove some of them out, he rolled the Swiss 
 cannon into the lake, and he took the Duke 
 of Mantua prisoner. However, in the end he 
 was outnumbered ; his forces were too much 
 weakened to go on ; he had no more money, 
 and so he was finally obliged to give in. 
 
 Yet, although he was defeated, he was allowed 
 to retire with all the honours of war. A free 
 pardon was granted not only to the Medeghino 
 himself, but to his family and followers. He 
 had to give up Musso and all his lands and 
 defences on the lake, but in return he received 
 
262 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 a very large sum of money from the Duke of 
 Milan, and was made Marquis of Marignano, by 
 which name he was generally known in Europe. 
 
 The Medeghino left Musso in 1532, grieving 
 bitterly at having to give up his beloved 
 fortress and all the shore that was so dear to 
 him. We are told that no sooner had he set 
 sail than the Duke of Milan's Swiss troops 
 made a rush on the castle, to sack and destroy 
 it. The Medeghino was so furious that he 
 ordered the ship to put back, as if he were 
 going to land and attack the Swiss. The Swiss 
 fled at once, and did not venture back until the 
 Medeghino and his fleet were out of sight. 
 
 Afterwards, the castle was dismantled and 
 destroyed, and only a very few remains can now 
 be seen on the steep rocks above the blue 
 waters of Lake Como. The Medeghino took 
 service under Spain, and soon rose to be a field- 
 marshal. He fought for Charles v. in the 
 Netherlands and in Hungary, where he fought 
 against the Protestants. He then ruled 
 Bohemia for a time as Spanish Viceroy. 
 
 After this, he became general of the league 
 formed by the Pope, the Emperor, and Duke 
 Cosimo 1. for the purpose of crushing the 
 liberties of Tuscany. He subdued the city of 
 Siena by a very cruel siege, when he seems to 
 have been more ruthless, proud, and greedy 
 than ever. 
 
THE GREAT CAPTAINS 263 
 
 The Medeghino died in 1555, soon after 
 the sieee of Siena. He was first buried at 
 Marignano, but the funeral service took place 
 with great pomp in the Cathedral of Milan. 
 In 1562 his body was brought from Marignano 
 and buried in Milan Cathedral by order of 
 his brother, Pope Pius iv. There is a mag- 
 nificent monument to him in the Cathedral, 
 the work of the sculptor Leone Leoni, who 
 came from Menaggio, on the Lake of Como, 
 the very place near which the Medeghino had 
 been defeated during his last struggle for 
 independence. As has just been mentioned, 
 one of the Medeghino's brothers became Pope 
 Pius iv. One of his sisters married Count 
 Giberto Borromeo, and became the mother 
 of St. Carlo Borromeo, the famous Archbishop 
 of Milan. 
 
 Such is the strange story of this man, 
 whom an Italian historian calls " pirate, king, 
 brigand, liar, rebel, assassin, and hero." We 
 see how, in a very few years, he raised 
 himself from obscurity to the position of a 
 ruling prince, and how, even after his fall, 
 he became one of the chief commanders in 
 Italy, and indeed in Europe. 
 
 We have spoken of only a very few of those 
 great captains, but there were many others 
 equally brave and clever, and some of them 
 equally famous. 
 
264 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 This story would grow far too long if we 
 tried to describe the harm done in Italy by 
 these companies of mercenaries and their 
 leaders. They may not all have been bad or 
 treacherous men. Indeed, we know they were 
 not. But, as we said before, the plan of 
 hiring bands of foreign soldiers, first under 
 this commander, and then under that, was bad 
 for every one- — for the Italian princes and 
 states, for the people, and for the captains 
 and soldiers themselves. It was a good thing 
 when, in the sixteenth century, the various 
 states of Italy made a beginning of having 
 national armies once more, and of making the 
 citizens defend their own countries. 
 
 But better still, by far, is the great United 
 Italy we now see, defended by her own 
 children, who are no longer divided up into 
 different states at war one with another. 
 
IX 
 THE LILIES OF FRANCE 
 
 " Up, princes ! And with spirit of honour edged 
 More sharper than your swords, hie to the field." 
 
 Shakespeare, He?ity v. 
 
 We have already spoken of the Lilies of 
 Florence, and now, in this last story, we 
 shall speak of some other lilies — the golden 
 Lilies of France, which so often appear in 
 the history of Italy, and which played a very 
 important part in that history. 
 
 Indeed, the French were so closely connected 
 with Italian history that much of this chapter 
 will remind you of what you have been reading 
 in several other stories in this book. This 
 is the reason that it has been placed last, in 
 order that it may recall and sum up a good 
 deal of what has been told before. 
 
 We learn something" about the Gauls and 
 their country when we read the history of 
 ancient Rome, but that does not belong to 
 these present stories of ours. 
 
 In the chapter about the popes and emperors 
 
 you read about Pepin and his son, the famous 
 
 265 
 
266 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Charlemagne, and how they led their hosts of 
 Frankish warriors across the wild Alpine 
 passes to help and defend the Popes against 
 the fierce Lombards. 
 
 You have read how Charlemagne was 
 crowned Emperor on Christmas Day, 800, as 
 he stood before the tomb of St. Peter in St. 
 Peter's at Rome. 
 
 You also read how his son, Pepin, failed to 
 conquer the brave Venetians, and how Venice 
 managed to keep her freedom and independence 
 in spite of her mighty neighbours and foes. 
 
 All this belongs to the first coming of the 
 Franks into Italy, when they were called 
 into Italy by the Pope. We shall see how 
 often the French were called into Italy 
 in after years, sometimes by the Pope, and 
 once or twice by other Italian princes, generally 
 to their own undoing. 
 
 The coming of the Franks brings to our 
 minds the country we now know as France 
 — a kingdom which was formed, or began to 
 be formed, at the time when Charlemagne's 
 vast empire was divided in 843. 
 
 The golden lilies from which this chapter 
 takes its name were for hundreds and hundreds 
 of years the emblem of France, and were borne 
 on the royal shield and banner. You may see 
 the shield of St. Louis, King of France, with 
 its lilies, carved on the walls of Westminster 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 267 
 
 Abbey, close to that of the Emperor Frederick 11., 
 which bears the Imperial eagle. 
 
 One story tells us that the lily was brought 
 from heaven by an angel and given to Clovis, 
 King of the Franks, who had vowed to become 
 a Christian if he were victorious over the 
 Alemanni at the battle at Tolbiac in 496. 
 You remember that Clovis was baptized at 
 Reims by the bishop, St. Remi, on the 
 Christmas Day of that same year. Another 
 account says that the fleur-de-lis, as it is 
 generally called, was used as an emblem by 
 Hugues Capet and all his descendants — that 
 long line of kings which lasted from the year 
 987, when Hugues Capet, Duke of France and 
 Count of Paris, was proclaimed King, to 1848, 
 when the French monarchy ended. The fleur- 
 de-lis seems to have been first used in heraldry 
 in the time of Louis vii. (or "le Jeune"), who 
 reigned from 1 1 37 to 11 80; it appears on a 
 seal of King Philip Augustus of France in 
 1 1 80, the year he came to the throne. 
 
 But we must go on to consider some of the 
 more notable occasions on which the fleur-de-lis 
 appears in Italian history. 
 
 In the thirteenth century the Popes again 
 turned to France for help, this time against 
 the Imperial House of Hohenstaufen, who 
 were making the Empire too powerful and 
 defying the Pope's authority in various ways. 
 
268 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 At the time of which we are speaking, the 
 great Emperor Frederick n., grandson of 
 Frederick Barbarossa, was reigning. He was 
 famous for his brilliant early success, for his 
 wonderful abilities and learning, and perhaps, 
 too, for his signal misfortunes. As the Emperor 
 represented the unity and independence of 
 the State, he was constantly fighting with the 
 Pope ; yet he often defended the Pope from 
 the attacks of enemies. The Pope, on his 
 part, did not want the State to be in- 
 dependent of his authority, and therefore he 
 favoured the revolt of the Italian communes 
 against the Emperor, and used every weapon 
 in his power to lessen the Emperor's position. 
 
 Frederick n. died in the year 1250. His 
 heir was his son, Conrad, whose succession to 
 the Imperial crown was disputed by another 
 prince, William of Holland. 
 
 You have already heard the name of another 
 son of Frederick 11., the gallant Manfred, who 
 was renowned not only as a soldier, but as 
 a poet. By his father's will Manfred was 
 left as Conrad's lieutenant in Southern Italy. 
 Conrad was at that time in Germany, but 
 Manfred begged him to come to Italy and 
 defend the Imperial authority against the Pope. 
 
 Conrad accordingly came, and in 1253 he 
 made a triumphal entry into Naples. For this 
 he was excommunicated by the Pope, who 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 269 
 
 considered that the Emperor had no right to 
 the kingdom of Naples unless he had been 
 invested with it by the Pope. 
 
 The next year, 1254, Conrad died, leaving 
 his infant son, Conradin, as his successor. But 
 the question immediately arose as to who was 
 to be King of Naples and Sicily — a kingdom 
 which had really been formed by the Norman 
 conquerors of Sicily and Southern Italy, and 
 with which they had been invested by Pope 
 Leo ix. In allowing the Normans to become 
 Kings of Naples and Sicily (or of " the Two 
 Sicilies," as it was called), Pope Leo ix. was 
 following the example of Pope Leo in. when 
 he gave the Imperial crown to Charlemagne. 
 We thus see that the Popes claimed, not only 
 the right of taking away kingdoms, but also 
 the right of bestowing them. The kingdom 
 of the Two Sicilies had passed by inheritance 
 to the Imperial House of Hohenstaufen, but 
 the Pope still considered that they held it by 
 right of investiture by him, and that therefore 
 he could give it to whom he pleased. 
 
 Pope Innocent iv. wanted to get rid of these 
 too powerful Hohenstaufen princes, so he 
 thought of offering the crown of Naples to 
 Charles of Anjou, brother of King Louis ix. 
 of France. However, there were hesitations 
 and difficulties about it at the French court, 
 and the Pope then turned to England. 
 
270 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 He offered the crown to Henry in. for his 
 second son, Edmund Crouchback, first Earl 
 of Lancaster, begging that the little prince 
 might be sent to Italy with an army to fight 
 against Manfred. This plan, as we know, came 
 to nothing. The only result, as far as England 
 was concerned, was that the nation had to pay 
 a vast sum in marks of silver in order to 
 support Prince Edmund's claim and satisfy 
 the Papal demands. 
 
 Now Manfred was at that time the real 
 master of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 
 having conquered it by force of arms. He 
 saw that the Pope seemed unlikely to find a 
 powerful prince to come and take the crown, 
 so he resolved on a bold step. He had himself 
 proclaimed King, and was crowned in the 
 Cathedral of Palermo in August 1258. Much 
 norhting and confusion followed. Manfred was 
 excommunicated, and had to fight against 
 other Italian states, which were stirred up 
 against him by the Popes. This was perhaps 
 the greatest Guelf and Ghibelline fight of all. 
 
 In 1 26 1 a French pope was elected, who 
 reigned under the title of Urban iv. He was 
 determined to drive King Manfred out, so he 
 began by again offering the kingdom of the 
 Two Sicilies to Edmund Crouchback ; but as 
 England once more declined the offer, he 
 decided to invite Charles of Anjou to come 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 271 
 
 and conquer the kingdom and wrest it from 
 King Manfred. 
 
 This time the offer was accepted. Charles 
 was an ambitious man, cruel and unscrupulous, 
 and was quite ready to make the dangerous 
 attempt. His wife, Beatrice of Provence, was 
 equally ambitious, and even pawned her jewels 
 in order to get money for the war. This lady, 
 Beatrice of Provence, was the sister of Eleanor, 
 wife of Henry in. of England, and was one 
 of those four sisters of whom Dante says that 
 they were "each one a queen." The two 
 other sisters were Margaret, married to King 
 Louis ix. of France, and Sanchia, married to 
 Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who, later on, was 
 elected King of the Romans, and who wanted 
 very much to be Emperor. 
 
 In October 1264 Pope Urban iv. died. He 
 was succeeded, in 1265, by Pope Clement iv., 
 who was a native of Provence, and thus 
 naturally inclined to favour the coming of 
 Charles of Anjou and his Provencal wife. 
 The new Pope did all he could to help the 
 French, and the people who gave him most 
 support were the great Guelf bankers at 
 Florence. They were only too glad of a 
 chance of fighting the Ghibellines successfully, 
 and were also well satisfied with their large 
 commercial gains. 
 
 Charles of Anjou set out for Italy in April 
 
272 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 1265, and sailed for the Latin coast. Every- 
 thing seemed to favour him, but the stars in 
 their courses seemed to fight against the 
 valiant King Manfred. To begin with, a 
 storm prevented Manfred's fleet from getting 
 near the shore ; but Charles made a bold 
 venture, and actually succeeded in landing, 
 though the wind swept him away from the rest 
 of his ships. His boat managed to reach the 
 shore not far from the Tiber ; he was received 
 with the greatest joy by his Guelf friends and 
 supporters, and was taken to the Convent of St. 
 Paul without the Walls. His fleet was not long 
 in reaching the Tiber also, and Charles made a 
 solemn entry into Rome on May 23rd, 1265. 
 
 In January 1266 Charles of Anjou and his 
 wife were crowned King and Queen of Naples 
 and Sicily in St. Peter's, Rome. In the 
 February of the same year the two armies met 
 at Benevento, and after a desperate fight King 
 Manfred was defeated and slain. When 
 Manfred saw that some of the nobles had 
 deserted him, and that all was lost, he threw 
 off his royal insignia, put on his helmet, and 
 rushed into the battle to die. 
 
 The story of Manfred's burial is sad enough. 
 After two days of vain search, his body was 
 found, so terribly disfigured by wounds that 
 even his enemies wept to see it. The French 
 had greatly admired his splendid courage and 
 
o 
 
 
 
 K 
 
 2 - en 
 
 Oh 
 
 — ■•-» 
 
 "-• 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 273 
 
 valour, and wished to give him honoured and 
 Christian burial. But Charles of Anjou was 
 an ungenerous and pitiless foe, and he would 
 not allow any funeral ceremony. He said 
 that, as Manfred had died excommunicated, his 
 body could not rest in consecrated ground. 
 The body was therefore left near the bridge 
 at Benevento, and each soldier cast a stone 
 upon it, thus making a kind of cairn, such as 
 used to be sometimes raised over the grave 
 of a hero in ancient times. 
 
 But even this much rest was denied to the 
 bones of Manfred. The Archbishop of Capua 
 said that the body could not be allowed to 
 remain within the kingdom of Naples, so he 
 ordered it to be taken up from its rude resting- 
 place and thrown out beyond the frontier, 
 exposed to the wind and rain, somewhere near 
 the river Liri or Verde. 
 
 This piece of mean and spiteful revenge on 
 
 a fallen foe is the subject of one of the loveliest 
 
 passages in Dante's Divine Comedy, where he 
 
 tells us how, beneath the sweet skies of the 
 
 Mount of Purgatory, he meets one of noble 
 
 mien, golden-haired and fair to look upon. 
 
 This spirit shows him how he bears a wound 
 
 on his breast, and then, smiling, says to 
 
 him, '- 1 am Manfred, grandson of Empress 
 
 Constance." He goes on to describe how he 
 
 died, "pierced by two mortal stabs," and how 
 18 
 
274 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 his body had been torn from its resting-place 
 and cast forth beneath the storms and rain. 
 But he adds that the Eternal Love is not 
 bound by human hatreds and curses, and that, 
 as he trusted in the Divine mercy, he was 
 saved in spite of his "horrible transgressions." 
 
 After this great victory, Charles of Anjou 
 began to treat the Imperial family with the 
 most disgraceful cruelty, just, indeed, as the 
 Norman Royal House had been treated by 
 Manfred's own grandfather, the Emperor 
 Henry vi. Manfred's widow and four young 
 children died in prison some years afterwards, 
 and, meanwhile, there only remained Manfred's 
 nephew, the young Conradin, who was the 
 rightful heir of the Hohenstaufen House. He 
 was still quite a boy, but he was full of courage, 
 and he came into Italy to try once more to rally 
 the Imperial party and to defend the cause of 
 the Empire. 
 
 The armies met once again in deadly 
 combat, this time near Tagliacozzo. They 
 faced one another on each side of the 
 river Salto, not far from the Lake of Fucino. 
 Although Conradin had much the larger army, 
 he was defeated, and was escorted by his 
 friends to Rome, where he thought he should 
 find support. But he soon saw he was not 
 safe there, and he fled to the Mediterranean 
 shore, to a place called Astura. You may see 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 275 
 
 the dark Torre Astura as you look across the 
 shining, sapphire sea from Porto d' Anzio, and 
 you can picture the brave young prince with 
 his few faithful friends, hoping to set sail for 
 Pisa, and thus get into safety. Conradin did 
 set out, but he was betrayed and brought back 
 by Giovanni Frangipani, the owner of the 
 castle, who gave him up to Charles of Anjou. 
 Charles gave him a kind of mock trial, and 
 then had him beheaded in the market-place of 
 Naples, together with some of his friends. 
 Thus, by treachery and cruelty, the last prince 
 of the Hohenstaufen House died, and the 
 kingdom of Naples and Sicily passed to the 
 Lilies of France. 
 
 King Charles 1. of Naples and Sicily is 
 connected with a story which is very inter- 
 esting to English people. To begin with, we 
 may remind ourselves that in the year 1265, 
 when Charles landed in Italy, the Barons' War 
 was going on and the battle of Evesham was 
 fought. As every one remembers, Simon de 
 Montfort, Earl of Leicester, was slain at 
 Evesham, and his dead body was very ill- 
 treated, being dragged along the ground in 
 revengeful fashion. 
 
 Simon's sons went off to Italy, and Guy de 
 Montfort, who succeeded his father as Earl of 
 Leicester, became Vicar of Charles of Anjou in 
 Tuscany. 
 
276 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Now in 1 27 1 the cardinals met in con- 
 clave in the ancient town of Viterbo, in order 
 to elect a pope as successor to Clement iv., 
 who, indeed, had died three years before. 
 This — 1 27 1 — was the year after the last 
 Crusade, the second Crusade of St. Louis, 
 which had been joined by Charles of Anjou 
 and by the English princes, Edward (afterwards 
 King Edward 1.), Edmund Crouchback, and 
 Henry d'Almain, son of Richard, Earl of 
 Cornwall. 
 
 Charles of Anjou had persuaded his brother, 
 King Louis, to begin by fighting the infidel in 
 Africa, as he wished to make Tunis pay its 
 tribute to Sicily. Thus the Crusaders landed 
 first at Tunis, where King Louis died, in 
 1270. 
 
 When Charles returned from Tunis in 1271, 
 he went off to Viterbo to watch what was going 
 on at the conclave, for he was anxious that a 
 pope who was friendly to the French should 
 be chosen. With him went Guy de Montfort. 
 
 To Viterbo came also the other princes who 
 were on their way home from the Crusade, and 
 among them were the English princes, Edward, 
 Edmund, and Henry d'Almain. 
 
 One day an awful deed was done. The 
 princes were at Mass in the Church of San 
 Silvestro, and Guy de Montfort, in a fury of 
 revenge for the death of his father at Evesham, 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 277 
 
 fell upon Prince Henry d'Almain, stabbed him, 
 and slew him there before the altar. 
 
 A knight asked him, " What have you 
 done ? " 
 
 11 1 have done vengeance," answered Guy de 
 Montfort. 
 
 The knight replied, " How then? Your 
 father's body was trailed on the ground." 
 
 Then, as the old chronicler says, Guy de 
 Montfort returned immediately to the church, 
 " took Henry by the hair, and, dead as he was, 
 he dragged him vilely from the church " into the 
 now desolate little piazza in front. 
 
 Guy de Montfort had to fly, as he was guilty 
 of both murder and sacrilege. He was after- 
 wards excommunicated by Pope Gregory x. ; 
 but Charles of Anjou does not seem to have 
 punished him very severely, and we are not 
 surprised to be told by the old chronicler, 
 Villani, that Prince Edward, when he became 
 King, "was never friendly towards King 
 Charles or his folk." 
 
 The heart of the murdered Prince Henry 
 was put into a golden cup and brought to 
 Westminster Abbey, where it was placed near 
 the shrine of Edward the Confessor. 
 
 This horrible crime is alluded to by Dante 
 in the Divine Comedy, and he speaks of the 
 heart of Prince Henry as "the heart which is 
 still honoured on the banks of the Thames." 
 
278 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 But we must return to Charles of Anjou and 
 his history. As might be expected, his cruelties, 
 oppressive taxes, and tyranny made his subjects 
 turn against him, and in March 1282 a fearful 
 revolution took place in Sicily. This revolution, 
 which actually broke out at Palermo, is known 
 in history as the Sicilian Vespers, because the 
 fury of it burst forth just at the hour of vespers. 
 Both the people and the nobles had long been 
 hating King Charles, but the direct cause of 
 the revolution was an insult offered to a Sicilian 
 bride by a French soldier. The Sicilians rose, 
 massacred the French soldiers, and finally, with 
 the help of King Peter of Aragon, drove the 
 French out of the island. 
 
 Great fighting began between King Charles 
 and the King of Aragon for the possession of 
 Sicily, and the son of Charles of Anjou, gener- 
 ally known as Charles the Lame, fought bravely 
 in his father's wars. At a naval battle with the 
 Aragonese and Sicilian fleet, Charles the Lame 
 was made prisoner, and was taken off to Sicily. 
 The Sicilians wanted to behead him, as his 
 father had beheaded the brave young Conradin ; 
 but his life was spared, and he was sent, a 
 prisoner, to Spain. 
 
 The next year, 1285, Charles of Anjou died, 
 and now Charles the Lame, Prince of Salerno, 
 became King of Naples. As he was still a 
 prisoner, the government of Naples had to be 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 279 
 
 carried on for a time in the name of his son, 
 Charles Martel. In 1288 Edward 1. of England 
 got it arranged that Charles should be set free ; 
 but it was understood that he was to be King 
 of Naples only, and that Sicily was not to be 
 given back to him. Sicily was to belong to 
 King James, brother of the King of Aragon. 
 
 During the next few years various attempts 
 were made to get Sicily back for Charles n. of 
 Naples, but the Sicilians did not want the 
 Angevin princes to rule over them again, 
 and therefore in 1296 they chose Frederick 
 of Aragon to be their king, and war went on 
 for a long time between him and Charles the 
 Lame. 
 
 This struggle for Sicily brings yet another 
 French Charles to our mind, namely, Charles 
 de Valois, brother of King Philip the Fair of 
 France, and cousin as well as son-in-law of 
 Charles the Lame. 
 
 You may remember how in the story about 
 Florence you read that, in the year 1300, this 
 Charles de Valois was invited into Italy by 
 Pope Boniface vni., partly to help to make 
 peace in Florence, and partly to help Charles 
 the Lame in his war with Frederick of Aragon. 
 We know already how Charles de Valois came 
 to Florence, armed, as Dante says, " with the 
 lance of treachery " only, and how he played 
 into the hands of the Black Guelf party, instead 
 
28o STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 of keeping his promise to be fair to both parties 
 alike. 
 
 In 1302, when Charles de Valois had finished 
 his bad work for Pope Boniface in Florence, 
 and when many good Florentine citizens of the 
 White Guelf party had been driven into life- 
 long exile, he set out for Naples to prepare for 
 a campaign in Sicily. He was quite unsuccess- 
 ful, and was obliged to make an ignominious 
 peace, which was concluded at Caltabellotta. 
 Frederick of Aragon was to remain in possession 
 of Sicily for his life, and was to marry a 
 daughter of King Charles of Naples. Those 
 who had gone over to the Spanish side were 
 not to be punished, and were to have their 
 lands back again. 
 
 Charles de Valois had to return to France, 
 having obtained little or nothing. The Italians 
 nicknamed him " Carlo Sanzaterra " (Charles 
 Lackland) because of his failure to win back 
 Sicily for his cousin, the King of Naples. 
 They also said of him that he came to 
 Florence in order to bring peace, but went 
 out leaving war behind him ; he went into 
 Sicily to bring war, and left peace instead. 
 The French used to say that Charles de 
 Valois was "son of a king, brother of a king, 
 uncle of three kings, father of a king, and yet 
 never a king himself." He had tried for no 
 less than four crowns, and had never succeeded 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 281 
 
 in getting one. He had wanted to be King of 
 Aragon and of Sicily ; he tried to claim the 
 crown of Constantinople, and also that of the 
 Holy Roman Empire. 
 
 At this time King Philip the Fair was on 
 the throne of France. His name and that 
 of the great Pope Boniface vin. remind us of 
 yet other ways in which the Lilies of France 
 interfered very seriously in Italian affairs. 
 
 You have just read about Pope Boniface 
 having called Charles de Valois into Italy, and 
 how the plans for pacifying Florence and 
 turning the Aragonese out of Sicily had failed. 
 
 Now we must speak of what happened be- 
 tween Pope Boniface and the King of France. 
 
 Philip the Fair was at war with both the 
 English and the Flemish, and he was in great 
 want of money for carrying on these wars. 
 He therefore began to levy taxes on the 
 churches, convents, and clergy. The Papal 
 legate opposed this heavy taxation, and the 
 King imprisoned him. Thus began a terrible 
 quarrel between Pope Boniface and King 
 Philip. As an answer to the King's action in 
 levying taxes on the clergy and then imprison- 
 ing the legate, the Pope published the famous 
 Bull known in history as " Clericos Laicos," by 
 which he forbade the clergy and religious 
 bodies to pay any taxes or subsidies without 
 his consent. Philip replied by forbidding any 
 
282 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 money or valuables to go out of the kingdom, 
 so that the Pope could get no more supplies 
 from France. 
 
 A second Bull was sent to Philip, in which 
 the Pope claimed that power was given him by 
 God over all kings and kingdoms. This Bull 
 was solemnly burnt in Notre-Dame in 1302. 
 
 In the next year, 1303, the quarrel between 
 the Pope and King Philip came to its height, 
 and Pope Boniface intended to excommunicate 
 the Kine and to declare his crown forfeit. 
 The Pope was at that time staying at his birth- 
 place, the town of Anagni, not far from Rome. 
 The ceremony of excommunication was to take 
 place, with great and awful solemnity, in the 
 Cathedral of Anagni, the very same church 
 where Pope Alexander 111. had excommuni- 
 cated Frederick Barbarossa, and where Pope 
 Gregory ix. had excommunicated the Emperor 
 Frederick 11. 
 
 But a dreadful thing happened. The Pope 
 was a very arrogant and ambitious man, and 
 had made many enemies. Among these 
 enemies was the great Roman family of the 
 Colonna, who were, indeed, some of the chief 
 among the Roman nobility. The Colonna 
 were full of wrath against the Pope on account 
 of all the evil he had done to them, and they 
 were longing to revenge themselves. Accord- 
 ingly, some of them made a conspiracy with 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 283 
 
 William de Nogaret, King Philip's chief adviser 
 and defender. Nogaret and a certain Sciarra 
 Colonna, with their followers, came to Anagni, 
 attacked the Papal palace, and, having either 
 killed or imprisoned most of the Pope's servants 
 and soldiers, actually forced their way into the 
 Pope's own presence. 
 
 The aged Pope remained alone and steadfast. 
 His enemies found him seated on his throne, 
 wearing the Papal robes and tiara and holding 
 a cross and the keys of his sacred office. 
 
 The angry men fell upon him, dragged him 
 from his throne, and Sciarra Colonna would 
 fain have struck him with his mailed fist, had 
 he not been prevented by his companions. 
 The Pope was kept prisoner for three days 
 while the conspirators sacked the palace and 
 the cathedral treasury. During these days 
 Pope Boniface refused to eat, and would 
 answer no questions. He was so firm and 
 courageous that even his enemies could not 
 help admiring and respecting him. 
 
 At last he was set free by the people, who 
 turned against the conspirators. Sciarra 
 Colonna and Nogaret had to escape from their 
 wrath, while the Pope was taken back to 
 Rome. But the old man (he was eighty-four) 
 was so shaken by what he had suffered both in 
 mind and in body that he was seized with a 
 a kind of delirium. He again refused food, 
 
284 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 and at last beat his head so violently against 
 the wall that he fell back unconscious on his 
 bed and died. 
 
 Here, again, we are reminded of Dante and 
 his great poem. Dante was no lover of Pope 
 Boniface, to whom he partly owed his exile ; 
 but the words in which he condemns King 
 Philip the Fair could not well be stronger. 
 He speaks of the "fiordaliso' (fleur-de-lis) 
 entering Anagni, and of the shameful treatment 
 inflicted upon the chief bishop in Christendom, 
 in whose person an injury is offered to Christ 
 Himself. It is a splendid passage, and shows 
 us what Christendom thought of Philip the 
 Fair and his offence against the reverence due 
 to the Pope's position. It is the office that 
 Dante reveres, not the actual Pope ; and his 
 words are easy enough to understand when we 
 remember that, whatever he may have written 
 about some of the popes, he was always a 
 devout Catholic. 
 
 Two years after this Philip the F'air managed 
 to get a Frenchman chosen as Pope. This 
 was the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who became 
 Pope Clement v. Having got this accom- 
 plished, King Philip insisted on the Pope 
 leaving Rome and going to live at Avignon, 
 where he would be more under the eye and 
 in the power of the French king. In that 
 splendid Papal palace at Avignon the popes 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 285 
 
 lived for more than seventy years — that is, until 
 1378. This exile of the popes at Avignon was 
 called the " Babylonian Captivity " by the 
 Italian writers ; and no wonder the Italians 
 were indignant at such interference with the 
 Papal court and at its removal from Rome. 
 
 You may remember, when you were reading 
 about Sir John Hawkwood and his adventures, 
 that the Papal court returned to Rome at the 
 time of Pope Gregory xi., when St. Catherine 
 of Siena wrote her famous letters, imploring 
 the Pope to come in peace and charity, and 
 not with armed bands. 
 
 We must now pass on to the end of the 
 fifteenth century, when the lily banner of 
 France was again carried into Italy, and once 
 more by a prince who bore the name of Charles. 
 
 At this time the French kings began to make 
 serious claims not only on Naples, as they had 
 done before, but also on the duchy of Milan. 
 
 To begin with Naples. You have just been 
 reading how, in the thirteenth century, the 
 kingdom of Naples and Sicily fell into the 
 hands of the French prince, Charles of Anjou. 
 You saw, too, how by his misgovernment he 
 lost the island of Sicily, which passed into the 
 possession of the House of Aragon. 
 
 In the year 1494 a prince of the House of 
 Aragon was on the throne of Naples, and it 
 must be remembered that the House of Aragon 
 
286 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 claimed that throne by right of descent from 
 King Charles i., called of Anjou, who was the 
 first French King of Naples. But there were 
 other claimants to the kingdom, namely, the 
 elder branch of the House of Anjou, who had 
 bequeathed their rights to King Louis xi. of 
 France. 
 
 Louis xi. had too much to do at home, in 
 strengthening his position in his own kingdom, 
 to be able to trouble about conquests in Italy ; 
 but with his son, Charles viii., it was different. 
 Charles had got his head full of romantic tales 
 of chivalry and adventure, and of the exploits 
 of Alexander the Great and of Caesar. He 
 was longing to win military glory, and accord- 
 ingly he set his heart on carrying out a 
 tremendous plan. He wished to win back 
 Naples for the elder branch of the House of 
 Anjou, which he now represented under the 
 will of the Comte du Maine. If he succeeded 
 in this, he wanted to take back Constantinople 
 from the Turks and to restore the Christian 
 Empire of the East. (You remember that the 
 Turks had conquered Constantinople in 1453, 
 and had turned the great Church of Santa 
 Sophia into a mosque.) But, strange to say, 
 the man who invited Charles viii. to invade 
 Italy and to attack Naples was Ludovico 
 Sforza, called "II Moro." The Sforza family 
 first began to rule in Milan after the death 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 287 
 
 of the last Visconti, Filippo Maria, whose 
 daughter was married to that famous " con- 
 dottiere," Francesco Sforza. 
 
 Francesco Sforza became Duke of Milan in 
 1450, and the reigning Duke at the time of 
 which we are speaking was his grandson, Gian- 
 Galeazzo. But the government had really been 
 usurped by the Duke's uncle, the famous 
 Ludovico il Moro, who was plotting to get 
 himself made Duke, while the feeble and 
 delicate young Duke was kept almost a prisoner 
 in his own palace. The King of Naples had 
 taken Gian-Galeazzo's part against Ludovico. 
 Ludovico, therefore, was not sorry that the 
 French should attack Naples, and without 
 thinking of the injury he was doing to Italy, he 
 actually invited Charles vm. to cross the Alps. 
 
 In the autumn of 1494 the young French 
 king came to Pavia with a splendid army, and 
 was received with great pomp and rejoicing by 
 Ludovico and his wife, Beatrice. 
 
 We know already how Charles vm. passed 
 through Florence, and how his coming was 
 welcomed by Savonarola, who thought he 
 would help to punish and purify the corruptions 
 of the Florentine state and of Florentine 
 society. We know, too, how vain that hope 
 really proved, and what was the fate that over- 
 took Savonarola himself. 
 
 When Charles left Florence, he went on to 
 
288 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Naples. The French army met with no re- 
 sistance by the way, and even Naples itself 
 made no real stand against it. Alfonso, the 
 Aragonese king, abdicated in favour of his son, 
 Ferdinand, who in his turn had to take refuge 
 in Sicily. 
 
 Meanwhile, Charles viii. had himself crowned 
 Emperor of the East and King of Jerusalem 
 and of Naples. He then made a solemn entry 
 into the city, robed in the Imperial mantle and 
 carrying the golden sceptre and orb. 
 
 But he soon lost his new conquest through 
 carelessness and through frivolous love of 
 amusement. He did not insist on proper 
 discipline, and took no pains to ensure his 
 position. He was brave enough, but was 
 foolish and light-headed, and did not think 
 enough of the dangers that threatened him. 
 
 Moreover, the rulers of the other Italian 
 states had now taken fright, and began to see 
 what a perilous game this was that they were 
 playing in allowing a destructive foreign army 
 to come unopposed, to go whether it would. 
 They saw that a powerful French king might 
 soon overrun and conquer the whole peninsula. 
 So a great league was made against Charles by 
 Venice, Milan, Florence, and the Pope, who 
 got the Emperor Maximilian, King Ferdinand 
 the Catholic, and Henry vn. of England to join 
 with them. What the league wanted to do 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 289 
 
 was to shut the French up in Naples and 
 crush them; but Charles viii., of course, got to 
 hear of this plan, and he determined that, what- 
 ever happened, he would get back to France. 
 He left Naples at the head of ten thousand men, 
 and met the enemy at a place called Fornovo, 
 not far from Parma. Here a great battle was 
 fought ; and although the French were greatly 
 outnumbered, they made a splendid fight for 
 it, and managed to cut their way through, 
 although with very heavy losses. 
 
 Charles got back to France, having lost 
 Naples and most of his army besides. This 
 was in 1495. In spite of this loss and failure, 
 Charles viii. wanted to make a second attack 
 on Italy; but he died in 1498, aged only 
 twenty-seven, and this further plan was never 
 carried out. 
 
 Now we come to the story of the French 
 fights for Milan, which are very interesting, and 
 which seem to bring us nearer to modern times. 
 
 You may remember that in the chapter 
 about the great captains you read something 
 about that celebrated family of the Visconti, 
 who ruled for so long in Milan, and you will 
 remember that the most famous man of that 
 family was Gian-Galeazzo Visconti, the first 
 Duke of Milan, who reigned from 1378 to 1402. 
 
 Valentina Visconti, daughter of Duke Gian- 
 Galeazzo, was married to Louis, Duke of 
 Orleans, younger son of King Charles v. of 
 19 
 
290 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 France. Their son was Charles, Duke of 
 Orleans, and his son became King Louis xn. of 
 France after the death of Charles viii. King 
 Louis xii. considered that he had a claim to 
 the duchy of Milan because he was the grand- 
 son of Valentina Visconti ; and, besides this, he 
 also wanted to try to recover the kingdom of 
 Naples. 
 
 With regard to Milan, King Louis felt sure 
 of support from the Pope and from Venice. 
 Indeed, in 1499 a treaty was proclaimed 
 between these three powers — France, Venice, 
 and the Pope. 
 
 Thus it came about that Ludovico il Moro, 
 now Duke of Milan, had no friend left except 
 the Emperor Maximilian, who was no real 
 help to him. The Milanese armies, too, were 
 made up chiefly of foreigners, who served the 
 Duke only for pay. 
 
 In June 1499 the French army crossed the 
 Alps once more ; city after city fell into their 
 hands, and Duke Ludovico fled to Innsbruck. 
 The citadel of Milan was basely betrayed to 
 the French, and then King Louis entered the 
 city in state, wearing the ducal cap as Duke of 
 Milan. 
 
 After a short time he went back to France, 
 leaving a famous general named Trivulzio as 
 governor of Milan. But once the King's back 
 was turned, a party in Milan set about schem- 
 ing to bring Duke Ludovico back again. 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 291 
 
 Ludovico himself was doing all he could to get 
 his duchy back; in 1500 he returned with a 
 strong force of Swiss and German soldiers, 
 took the town of Como, and actually got back 
 for a time into Milan. But, unfortunately for 
 himself, he did not strike hard enough, and 
 thus left time for more troops to pour across 
 the Alps to help the French. 
 
 In April 1500 a decisive battle was fought 
 at Novara ; but it was in a sense only a sham, 
 for the unhappy Ludovico was deserted by his 
 Swiss troops and their leaders, who had been 
 mean enough to treat with the French before- 
 hand. All that Ludovico could get them to do 
 was to promise that they would convey him 
 into safety in the midst of their ranks. But 
 even his disguise as a common soldier did not 
 save him ; he was recognised, betrayed, and 
 captured by the French. 
 
 Ludovico il Moro ended his days in the 
 gloomy castle of Loches, in France, where he 
 languished in prison for ten years. 
 
 The French lilies triumphed for a time in 
 Milan, which lost its independence at the battle 
 of Novara. After this time, the Dukes of 
 Milan were never really independent sovereigns, 
 and the city of Milan fell into the hands first 
 of France, then of Spain, then of Austria. 
 Milan is now, happily, a splendid and pros- 
 perous city, Italian and free. 
 
 After this, King Louis turned his thoughts 
 
2 9 2 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 to Naples, which was still claimed by the 
 French king as heir of the House of Anjou. 
 Ferdinand the Catholic also had his eye on 
 Naples, because he thought it ought rightly to 
 belong to Spain, as the first Aragonese king 
 had won it by Spanish arms. 
 
 These two kings thereupon attacked Naples 
 in 1 50 1 ; the French and Spanish armies were 
 at first victorious, but they could not agree 
 about the spoils of war. King Louis was 
 deceived by the crafty Ferdinand, and did not 
 send reinforcements to his generals, who were 
 defeated several times, even after their first 
 success. In 1504 the French army had to 
 leave the kingdom of Naples, and by the 
 Treaty of Blois, in 1505, it was given over to 
 Ferdinand the Catholic. Spain thus became 
 for many long years master in Southern Italy. 
 
 Having failed in Naples, Louis xn. tried to 
 get complete possession of all the Milanese 
 state, which meant almost all Lombardy. He 
 found a formidable foe in the powerful Republic 
 of Venice, which for some time past had been 
 helping itself to slices of territory belonging to 
 its neighbours, and was becoming a menace in 
 North Italy. In 1508 a great blow was struck 
 at Venice, for the King of France joined with 
 the Pope, the Emperor, and King Ferdinand 
 of Spain in a league against her. This league 
 was called the League of Cambrai, and it is very 
 important in Italian history, as it gave a severe 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 293 
 
 check to the ambition of Venice. Venice 
 found that she could not hold out against so 
 many powers, so she saved herself and got out 
 of her dangerous position by withdrawing her 
 forces and restoring what she had taken from 
 the Papal dominions and the King of Naples. 
 
 This being done, the League of Cambrai 
 broke up, as there was no more need of it. 
 
 A few years later the Pope — that warlike old 
 Pope, Julius 11. — suddenly changed his policy, 
 and now he proclaimed a league against France. 
 In 151 1 the "Holy League' was formed 
 for the purpose of driving the French out of 
 Italy, and in this league the Pope was joined 
 by Venice, by the King of Spain, and by the 
 Emperor Maximilian and Henry vin. of 
 England. Some terrible fi^htino- followed the 
 proclamation of the league. The Pope him- 
 self began the war by taking a place called 
 Mirandola, near Modena, by assault. And 
 strange as it seems to us, he actually rode 
 into the town at the head of his troops. 
 
 The French army was commanded by that 
 splendid young soldier, Gaston de Foix, Duke 
 of Nemours, who was a nephew of the King of 
 France and at this time Governor of Milan. 
 Gaston de Foix now gathered his troops and 
 swept across Lombardy with the swiftness of 
 a sudden storm. An Italian writer speaks of 
 him as "a thunderbolt of war" ("fulmine di 
 guerra ") ; and, so indeed, he must have seemed. 
 
294 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Under his brilliant leadership the French 
 entered Bologna, took the town and castle of 
 Brescia, besides retaking or relieving other 
 cities. 
 
 Gaston de Foix pushed on and on, and finally 
 met the Papal and Imperial army at Ravenna, 
 that famous town on the Adriatic about which 
 you have read in another of these stories. 
 
 Here, at Ravenna, on Easter Day 15 12, a 
 great battle was fought, and the French were 
 completely victorious ; but it was a victory 
 dearly bought. Gaston de Foix had performed 
 prodigies of valour in the fight, but in the 
 flush of his triumph he allowed himself to 
 pursue the flying foe too hotly ; he was sur- 
 rounded by the enemy and slain. 
 
 " May God save us from such victories as 
 this ! " exclaimed King Louis, when he heard 
 the grievous news of his nephew's death. 
 
 And, truly, the blow proved to be a crushing 
 one for France. Misfortune after misfortune 
 seemed to fall upon her. She was attacked in 
 Navarre by the King of Spain, and by the 
 Emperor and the King of England in the 
 north. In Italy, the new French commander 
 was slow and inactive, and thus the Pope was 
 able to rally his forces. The French army 
 was defeated at Novara in 15 13 ; they had to 
 retreat across the Alps, and Louis xn. had to 
 give up Milan after having held it for twelve 
 years. 
 
X! 
 
 J— I 
 
 O 
 
 fa 
 
 w 
 
 a 
 
 z 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 <; 
 o 
 
 fa 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 fa 
 
 o 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 295 
 
 The body of the valiant young Gaston de 
 Foix was taken to the Cathedral of Milan. 
 His coffin was placed close to those of the 
 Dukes of Milan, and, after the curious fashion 
 of those days, was hung between two great 
 pillars near the altar. The coffin was torn 
 down and the remains scattered by the brutal 
 Swiss soldiers who came over the Alps with 
 the terrible Cardinal de Sion to fight for the 
 Pope a few years afterwards. 
 
 If you go some day to Milan, you may see 
 in the Castello the beautiful statue of Gaston 
 de Foix, which was taken from his monument 
 in the Church of Santa Marta — a church which 
 is now pulled down. 
 
 We must speak yet once more of the Lilies 
 of France, and say something about the famous 
 Italian wars of King Francis 1., who succeeded 
 King Louis xn. in 15 15. Perhaps English 
 people remember Francis 1. chiefly as the king 
 who met Henry vm. at the Field of the Cloth of 
 Gold ; but we shall find that the most important 
 part of his history has to do with Italy. 
 
 Francis 1., like Louis xn., was a descendant of 
 Valentina Visconti ; he therefore thought he 
 had a claim to the duchy of Milan, and his 
 first wish was to reconquer it. After the defeat 
 of the French at Novara, one of the Sforza 
 family had been brought back to Milan as 
 Duke ; he was in alliance with the Pope, and 
 was supported by the Swiss. These Swiss 
 
2 9 6 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 troops were guarding the passes of the Alps, 
 hoping to prevent the French from getting 
 over. Suddenly they heard that the French 
 army had come down into Italy by the Col 
 de l'Argentiere, close to Mont-Blanc, a pass 
 so wild and difficult that it was thought to be 
 impossible to cross it. But here the French 
 were, down in Italy once more, and they had 
 got as far as a place called Marignan, near Milan. 
 At Marignan a great battle was fought — "a 
 battle not of men, but of giants," as the Italian 
 general, Trivulzio, said — and the French won a 
 brilliant victory. A very interesting thing 
 happened on the field of Marignan. The 
 famous Chevalier Bayard, so renowned in 
 history for his courage, his courtesy, and every- 
 thing that a true knight should be, was at the 
 battle. King- Francis i. had been most valiant 
 
 o 
 
 in combat, and after the battle he himself was 
 knighted by Bayard — the ''chevalier sans peur 
 et sans reproche," as he was called. 
 
 After the battle of Marignan, Milan became 
 French again, and Francis i. tried to make 
 sure of his conquest by various treaties. At 
 the Peace of Fribourg, the Swiss undertook 
 not to interfere any more in the affairs of Italy, 
 and promised to serve with the French. By 
 the Treaty of Noyon, which was signed by the 
 King of Spain, Francis i. was to succeed to 
 the throne of Naples, and Spain was to give 
 up Navarre. A concordat was also made with 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 297 
 
 Pope Leo x., who had succeeded Pope Julius n. 
 in 15 13. You remember that Pope Leo was 
 one of the Medici, a son of Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent. 
 
 The French ruled again in Milan for six 
 years. The great Constable de Bourbon was 
 governor of Milan at first, and he ruled 
 fairly well and justly. He was succeeded as 
 governor by the Sieur de Lautrec, whose name 
 you will remember in the story of the great 
 captains. Lautrec was cruel and tyrannical, and 
 his bad government had something to do with 
 the revolt and the war that broke out in 1521. 
 
 But this time the war had not really so much 
 to do with Milan and with Italy as with the 
 fierce rivalry between France and the House 
 of Austria. 
 
 As you remember, King Francis 1. of France 
 and King Charles of Spain had each wanted 
 to be made Emperor, and they had both tried 
 to secure the friendship and support of 
 Henry vm. and of Cardinal Wolsey. As we 
 know, Charles became Emperor in 15 19, after 
 the death of the Emperor Maximilian. He is, 
 of course, always known as Charles v., because 
 he was the fifth emperor of that name. 
 
 Now, Francis 1. and the Emperor were at 
 this time both claiming the heritage of the 
 Dukes of Burgundy, and in many ways the 
 Emperor's enormous power was a menace to 
 France, for he had inherited an immense terri- 
 
298 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 tory — Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Naples, 
 besides the treasures of the New World. 
 
 In 1 52 1 war broke out between France and 
 Spain. It began first in Spain, where there 
 had been an insurrection against the Emperor. 
 The French tried to help the insurgents, but 
 arrived too late, and were driven back from 
 Navarre. The Emperor, meanwhile, made a 
 new " Holy League" with Pope Leo x. ; he 
 declared that Milan was an Imperial fief and, 
 as such, belonged to him. As you already 
 know, a great battle took place between the 
 armies of France and of the Emperor at La 
 Bicocca, near Milan, and Lautrec, the French 
 governor of Milan, suffered a terrible defeat. 
 Once again the French were driven out of the 
 duchy of Milan. But in 1523 they were back 
 once more, devastating the country and trying to 
 reconquer the city of Milan for the third time. 
 
 The French cause was much damaged by 
 the desertion of the Constable de Bourbon, 
 who was one of the greatest nobles of France, 
 a kinsman of the Royal House, and a most 
 distinguished soldier. 
 
 The King was jealous of his wealth and 
 importance, and disliked his reserved and 
 silent ways. Bourbon, on his part, was 
 offended at the treatment he received not 
 only from the King, but also from the King's 
 mother, Louise de Savoie, Duchess of Angou- 
 leme, who had a spite at Bourbon and tried to 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 299 
 
 injure him in every way. Through the revenge- 
 ful intrigues at the court the Constable de 
 Bourbon lost a great part of his vast estates, 
 and, allowing his resentment to get the better 
 of his patriotism, he accepted the offers of 
 friendship made to him by the enemies of 
 France, the Emperor Charles v. and Henry vm. 
 of England, and made a compact with them. 
 
 Bourbon now went over to the service of the 
 Emperor, and thus fought against his own 
 country in the Italian wars. 
 
 In 1524 the French army suffered more than 
 one defeat, and at one of these battles the 
 great Chevalier Bayard met his death. His 
 career as a soldier had been closely connected 
 with Italy, for his first taste of real war was at 
 Fornovo, in 1495, when Charles vm. had to 
 fight his way back to France. 
 
 Bayard fought for Louis xn. in his Nea- 
 politan wars ; he fought for Francis 1. in his 
 two Milanese campaigns, and now he lay dying 
 by the banks of the river Sesia, mortally 
 wounded by a shot from an arquebuse. He 
 bade his men lay him at the foot of a tree, with 
 his face to the foe. He then kissed the cross- 
 hilt of his sword, and said some of the verses 
 of the 51st Psalm. As he lay there, the 
 Constable de Bourbon passed by ; and as he 
 saw that Bayard had but a short time to live, 
 he uttered some words of pity and sorrow, 
 saying that he had always loved and honoured 
 
3 oo STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 him. " My lord, I thank you," answered 
 Bayard, " but I need no pity, for I die as a 
 true man ; it is I who pity you — you who are 
 fighting against your prince, your country, and 
 your oath." 
 
 Bayard lived but two hours after his fatal 
 wound, and died as he had lived — true and loyal. 
 
 After the defeat of the French in 1524 the 
 Constable de Bourbon, at the head of the 
 Imperial troops, invaded Provence ; but he was 
 not very successful, and the Imperial army 
 finally turned back towards the Alps. 
 
 The next year, 1525, a great battle was fought 
 at Pavia — a battle which decided the fate of 
 I taly, and also of France, for many years to come. 
 
 King Francis was completely defeated by 
 the Emperor's troops ; the very flower of the 
 chivalry of France were slain ; the King himself 
 was made prisoner and taken off to Madrid. 
 
 In spite of all these misfortunes, and in spite 
 of the terms he accepted under the Treaty of 
 Madrid, King Francis still continued to make 
 attempts on the kingdom of Naples, until the 
 dispute was settled by the Peace of Cambrai 
 in 1529. By the terms of that peace Francis 
 was to keep Burgundy, but he had to promise 
 to give up all his Italian allies. 
 
 The final defeat of the French at Pavia 
 meant that Italy fell under the crushing 
 tyranny of Spain, and her efforts to shake 
 it off were useless. 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 301 
 
 As you already know, Pope Clement vn. did 
 not want either France or Spain to have the 
 chief power in Italy ; but he, together with 
 Venice and Florence, took fright at the grow- 
 ing power of the Emperor, and made a secret 
 league with France against him. After the 
 battle of Pavia they tried to raise a really 
 Italian army for the deliverance of Italy ; but 
 the Constable de Bourbon came down from 
 the Alps with fresh forces, some of them being 
 fanatical Lutherans, while many of them were 
 freebooters. The Italian army, which was 
 commanded by the Duke of Urbino, seems 
 to have been kept prudently out of the way, 
 and this new onslaught of barbarians ended in 
 the merciless sack of Rome in 1527, of which 
 you have heard more than once. As you will 
 remember, that sack was a revenge on the 
 Pope for his having inclined to the French 
 side, so the French did indeed play a part in 
 this terrible business also. 
 
 The Constable de Bourbon led the assault on 
 Rome in person, and was actually climbing a 
 scaling ladder that was put up against the walls 
 when he was killed by the first shot from the 
 ramparts. Had he lived to command at the 
 siege, the behaviour of the troops would prob- 
 ably have been less atrocious. As it was, we 
 know that Rome never recovered from the 
 barbarity of that sack. 
 
 As far as Francis 1. was concerned, even the 
 
3 o2 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 Peace of Cambrai did not put an end to his 
 Italian ambitions, for in 1536 he made yet 
 another attempt to get hold of the duchy of 
 Milan. Again, in 1542, war broke out between 
 Francis 1., the Emperor, and Henry vm. of 
 England. This ended in Francis finally 
 abandoning his claim to the kingdom of 
 Naples. 
 
 And now, properly, this story ought to end, 
 for we have spoken of the most famous 
 occasions on which the fleur-de-lis of France 
 helped to shape the destinies of Italy. 
 
 But we cannot stop here, or finish this 
 chapter, without saying a few words about 
 something which happened in days much 
 nearer our own time, when France became for 
 a few years mistress not only of Italy, but of a 
 great part of Europe. Strictly speaking, the 
 Lilies of France have really nothing to do with 
 these last invasions of Italy by the French, 
 because they took place after the great Revolu- 
 tion, when the golden lilies had been drenched 
 with the blood of the King and Queen and of 
 large numbers of the nobles of France, and the 
 French flag was now the republican tricolour. 
 
 What happened can only be told very 
 shortly. 
 
 In 1793 the new French Republic was 
 defending itself against the other states of 
 Europe, which had banded together to oppose 
 it. The French army invaded Nice and 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 303 
 
 Savoy, and later on the young soldier, 
 Napoleon Buonaparte, crossed the Alps at the 
 head of his troops and overran a great part 
 of Italy. 
 
 After much fighting with the Austrians, 
 during which the French won many brilliant 
 victories, a peace was made at Campo-Formio 
 in 1797, when Lombardy, Mantua, Modena, 
 and various other territories in North Italy 
 were formed into what was called the Cisalpine 
 Republic. 
 
 The once glorious Republic of Venice — of 
 which you read in our first story — had grown 
 luxurious and feeble, and had lost her old 
 heroic spirit. She crumbled at the touch of 
 the conqueror ; she lost her independence, and 
 was handed over to Austria. Rome itself was 
 occupied by the French, and for a short time 
 the Papal government was abolished and a 
 Roman republic set up. The aged Pope 
 Pius vi. left Rome and took up his abode for 
 a time in the Certosa of Florence. He was 
 finally carried off into exile in France, almost 
 as a prisoner. 
 
 One coalition after another was formed 
 against France during the years that followed ; 
 but under the leadership of Napoleon Bona- 
 parte she triumphed over her enemies, and 
 for some time she was able to dictate to most 
 of Europe, including Italy. 
 
 We seem to see all the old story repeated 
 
304 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 in Napoleon's days. The names of govern- 
 ments may change, but human nature remains 
 much the same, whether we call the state a 
 constitutional monarchy, a republic, or a 
 despotism. One thing is sure. A good 
 government cannot be made by bad and un- 
 scrupulous people, and a nation generally gets 
 the kind of state it deserves. 
 
 After Napoleon became Emperor in 1804, 
 he drove the Bourbons out of Naples and put 
 his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, on the throne 
 of that kingdom. Later on again, after his 
 victories in Spain and Portugal, he made 
 Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain and put 
 his brother-in-law, General Murat, on the 
 throne of Naples. He also made his sister, 
 Elisa, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. He made 
 Pope Pius vii. come all the way to Paris to 
 anoint him as Emperor, and then set the crown 
 on his own head. The States of the Church 
 were taken away from the Pope and united 
 to the Empire, and you may remember that 
 Napoleon's son was given the title of King 
 of Rome. 
 
 We seem to hear distant echoes of the 
 old strife in the days of the Emperors 
 Henry iv., Barbarossa, and Frederick it., and of 
 King Philip the Fair of France. But there 
 was this difference. In those days the Pope 
 generally got the better of the Emperor ; in 
 Napoleon's time the Emperor got the better 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 305 
 
 of the Pope, and the position of the Pope 
 has never been the same since. 
 
 All this conquest of Italy by France may 
 appear very sad and humiliating ; but in the 
 end it was a good thing, for in a strange way 
 it has helped to bring about the union of Italy 
 into one great kingdom. 
 
 We see this yet more clearly when once 
 more, nearer still to our own days, France 
 played a most important part in the affairs of 
 Italy, and this time again under a Bonaparte. 
 
 After the various restorations and revolu- 
 tions that had taken place since the final 
 defeat of the great Napoleon at Waterloo, 
 Northern Italy had again fallen under the yoke 
 of Austria, while Naples groaned under the 
 tyranny of the Spanish Bourbons. But the 
 patriotic spirit, once aroused, was growing 
 stronger and stronger, and the Italians were 
 determined to have their country for them- 
 selves and no longer to be a prey to foreigners. 
 
 We have now come to the time when the 
 nephew of the great Napoleon, known as 
 Napoleon 111., was Emperor of the French. 
 
 In 1859 Count Cavour, the celebrated 
 minister of the King of Sardinia, raised the 
 question of Italian independence, and per- 
 suaded the Emperor Napoleon 111. to help the 
 brave Piedmontese against the Austrians. 
 
 Again, you see, France was asked to come 
 
 and help Italy against the foes within her own 
 20 
 
306 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 border. The French emperor came in person 
 with his army, and the Austrians were com- 
 pletely defeated at the famous battles of 
 Magenta and Solferino, both fought in June 
 1859. Lombardy was given up to France, who 
 at once ceded it to Piedmont. Very soon after 
 this many of the other Italian states voted their 
 annexation to Piedmont, and in 1861 Victor 
 Emmanuel was proclaimed King of Italy. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the Emperor Napoleon 
 did not very much want a kingdom of United 
 Italy to be formed. He had wished to set up 
 a sort of Confederation of Italian States under 
 the presidency of the Pope, which was not at 
 all what the Italians desired. But, happily, 
 nothing could stand against the uprising of 
 Italian patriotism and the heroic self-sacrifice 
 of the Italian people. 
 
 The story of Garibaldi has often been told, 
 and you may read in many books how he and 
 his wonderful men struggled for the deliver- 
 ance of their country, and how they fought in 
 Sicily and Naples and helped to win these 
 states for the Italian kingdom. 
 
 Meanwhile, the two great questions re- 
 mained : What was to happen to Venice ? and 
 what was to be done about the Papal dominions 
 and about Rome itself? 
 
 As to Venice. There was more fighting 
 between the Austrians and Italians in the north 
 of Italy in 1866. The Italians were not very 
 
THE LILIES OF FRANCE 307 
 
 successful ; they were defeated at Custozza, 
 and at the naval battle of Lissa. But as 
 Austria was at that time attacked by Prussia, 
 she was not sorry to come to some sort of 
 terms, and Venice was given up to the 
 Emperor Napoleon in. It should, of course, 
 have been given at once to Italy ; but this did 
 not happen until later in that same year, when 
 the Peace of Vienna was signed. By the terms 
 of that peace the Venetian territory was joined 
 to Italy ; the Austrian emperor renounced the 
 title of King of Lombardy and Venetia ; he 
 also restored to Italy the famous Iron Crown 
 of which you have read in one of these stories, 
 and which had been taken from Monza to 
 Vienna in 1859. 
 
 When we turn to think of Rome and what was 
 going on there, we still find the hand of France 
 in it all, for Pope Pius ix. was being helped 
 and defended by French troops, so that Rome 
 could not yet be made the capital of Italy. 
 
 You will some day read the story of Gari- 
 baldi's attack on Rome and his gallant attempt 
 to win it for the King. He was outnumbered, 
 and was defeated at the memorable battle of 
 Mentana. This meant that the French troops 
 remained near Rome, though they did not 
 actually stay in the city itself. 
 
 When the terrible war between France 
 and Prussia broke out in 1870, these French 
 troops had to leave Italy and go back to help 
 
3 o8 STORIES FROM ITALIAN HISTORY 
 
 in the defence of their own country. In the 
 September of that year the French suffered a 
 fearful defeat at the battle of Sedan ; the 
 Empire fell, and the Republic was proclaimed 
 in France. 
 
 The Italians now announced their intention 
 of making Rome the capital of the kingdom of 
 Italy, and, after very little resistance from the 
 Papal troops, the Italians entered the city on 
 September 20th, 1870. 
 
 Thus the great work of making a United 
 Italy was at once completed and begun. 
 
 It was completed, in the sense that the 
 whole Italian peninsula, together with the 
 island of Sicily, was now joined under one flag 
 and made into one great kingdom under a 
 constitutional sovereign. 
 
 It was, in a sense, only begun, because a 
 strong and vigorous state cannot be built up in 
 a moment ; it is like each separate human being 
 — it has to grow, and has to learn how to live. 
 
 In this year of the Jubilee of Italian Unity, 
 we all, friends and lovers of Italy, can find 
 nothing better to say than the words of Fra 
 Paolo Sarpi already quoted in this book — his 
 dying words of farewell to his beloved Venice 
 — " Esto perpetua " (May she endure for ever), 
 with which words these stories from Italian 
 history shall end. 
 
 Printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited, Edinburgh 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 MAR 1G 1035 
 
 rc ,59?W 
 
   
 
 L L 
 
 ■*■>, 
 
 REcn 
 
 ^FP 
 
 — 
 
 Ti 
 
 LD 21-100m-8,'34 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 

 I II 1 • 
 
 till 
 
 
 mi