1.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
2.
Italians
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Italians are a nation and ethnic group native to Italy who share a common culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a native tongue. The majority of Italian nationals are speakers of Standard Italian. Italians have greatly influenced and contributed to the arts and music, science, technology, cuisine, sports, fashion, jurisprudence, banking, Italian people are generally known for their localism and their attention to clothing and family values. The term Italian is at least 3,000 years old and has a history that goes back to pre-Roman Italy. According to one of the common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The Etruscan civilization reached its peak about the 7th century BC, but by 509 BC, when the Romans overthrew their Etruscan monarchs, its control in Italy was on the wane. By 350 BC, after a series of wars between Greeks and Etruscans, the Latins, with Rome as their capital, gained the ascendancy by 272 BC, and they managed to unite the entire Italian peninsula. This period of unification was followed by one of conquest in the Mediterranean, in the course of the century-long struggle against Carthage, the Romans conquered Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Finally, in 146 BC, at the conclusion of the Third Punic War, with Carthage completely destroyed and its inhabitants enslaved, octavian, the final victor, was accorded the title of Augustus by the Senate and thereby became the first Roman emperor. After two centuries of rule, in the 3rd century AD, Rome was threatened by internal discord and menaced by Germanic and Asian invaders. Emperor Diocletians administrative division of the empire into two parts in 285 provided only temporary relief, it became permanent in 395, in 313, Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity, and churches thereafter rose throughout the empire. However, he moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople. The last Western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476 by a Germanic foederati general in Italy and his defeat marked the end of the western part of the Roman Empire. During most of the period from the fall of Rome until the Kingdom of Italy was established in 1861, Odoacer ruled well for 13 years after gaining control of Italy in 476. Then he was attacked and defeated by Theodoric, the king of another Germanic tribe, Theodoric and Odoacer ruled jointly until 493, when Theodoric murdered Odoacer. Theodoric continued to rule Italy with an army of Ostrogoths and a government that was mostly Italian, after the death of Theodoric in 526, the kingdom began to grow weak
3.
Muzio Sforza
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Muzio Attendolo Sforza, was an Italian condottiero. Founder of the Sforza dynasty, he led a Bolognese-Florentine army at the Battle of Casalecchio and he was the father of Francesco Sforza, who ruled Milan for 16 years. He was born as Giacomo or Jacopo Attendolo in Cotignola to a family of rural nobility, son of Giovanni Attendolo and Elisa. Muzzo or Muzio was the form of the nickname of Giacomuzzo. He had eight siblings, Bosio, Margherita, Francesco, Bartolo, Giorgio, Matteo, Tonduzzo. According to tradition, young Giacomo was plowing a field when a platoon of mercenaries led by Boldrino da Panicale passed nearby in search of recruits and he then stole one of his fathers horses and followed the soldiers to follow the same career. Later he fought for Florence against Visconti but in 1402, at the battle of Casalecchio, was defeated by his former master Alberico da Barbiano. In 1406 he captured Pisa and was hired by Niccolò III dEste of Ferrara. King Ladislaus of Naples named him Gran Connestabile of his kingdom, Sforzas military qualities were mostly needed against Florence and the Pope. He remained for the rest of his life in the Kingdom of Naples, after the Kings death, however, he attracted the jealousy of Joans favorite, Pandolfello Alopo, who had him arrested and imprisoned. However, when Sforzas troops intervened, Alopo freed him and Joan gave him the fiefdoms of Benevento, on this occasion Sforza married Caterina Alopo, Pandolfellos sister. A few months later Sforza was again arrested after a quarrel with James of Bourbon and he was freed only in 1416, after James fall from power, and Joan gave him back the title of Conestabile. In 1417 Sforza was sent by Joan to help the pope against Braccio da Montone, later he returned briefly to Naples, but here he was opposed by Giovanni Caracciolo, Joans new lover. In the following, confused, events led to the arrival of Louis III of Anjou in Naples in opposition to Alfonso V of Aragon, Sforza helped Joan. In 1423, the city of LAquila rebelled against Braccio da Montone, in an attempt to save one of his pages during the fording of the Pescara River, Sforza drowned and his body was swept away by the waters. They had one son, Bosio, Count of Cotignola, Lord of Castell’Arquato and Sovereign Count of Santa Fiora by virtue of his marriage with Cecilia Aldobrandeschi, Countess of Santa Fiora and Pitigliano. On 16 June 1413, Sforza married secondly with Caterina, a sister of Pandolfello Piscopo Alopo, Grand Chamberlain of the Kingdom of Naples, pietro, Bishop of Ascoli Piceno since 1438. In 1421, Sforza married thirdly with Maria, daughter of Giacomo da Marzano, 1st Duke of Sessa and they had two children, Bartolomeo, Count of Celano
4.
Francesco II Sforza
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Francesco II Sforza was Duke of Milan from 1521 until his death. He was the last member of the Sforza family to rule Milan and he was the second son of Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice dEste. Francesco was assigned to an ecclesiastical career and his sovereignty, however, remained circumscribed by the military occupation of Milan by Spanish troops. He returned to his state, depleted by twenty years of combat, promoting a cultural, francesco fought at the Battle of Bicocca, on the side of the emperor, in 1522. In 1526 he switched sides, joining the League of Cognac, together with Francis I of France, Pope Clement VII and the Republic of Florence, and was besieged in the Castello Sforzesco. On May 4,1534 he married the 12-year-old niece of Charles V, Christina of Denmark and his death in 1535 sparked the Italian War of 1535. His half-brother Giovanni Paolo reclaimed briefly the Duchy of Milan after his death, michael Mallett and Christine Shaw, The Italian Wars, 1494-1559, Pearson Education Limited,2012. A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century, kaiser Karl V, Geschichte eines übergroßen Wirkungsbereiches
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Gian Galeazzo Sforza
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Gian Galeazzo Sforza, also known as Giovan Galeazzo Sforza, was the sixth Duke of Milan. Born in Abbiategrasso, he was seven years old when in 1476 his father, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, was assassinated. His uncle, Ludovico Sforza, acted as regent to the young duke, Ludovico later became the duke after Gian Galeazzos death, which was widely viewed as suspicious. In February 1489, Gian Galeazzo married his cousin Princess Isabella of Naples, nor was there anyone who doubted that if it had been poison, it had been administered through his uncle Ludovico Sforzas machinations …
6.
Pesaro
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Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the Marche, Pesaro is known as City of Bicycle, thanks to its big net of bicycle paths. The city received this award by Legambiente, the most important ecologist society in Italy, in 2015 and it is also known as City of Music thanks to the bond with Gioacchino Rossini, the famous composer born in Pesaro. For this reason, in 2015, the Italian Government officially candidate Pesaro as Creative City in the group of World Heritage Sites of UNESCO, fishery, furniture industry and tourism are the main strengths of the local economy. The city was founded as Pisaurum by the Romans in 184 BC as colony in the territory of the Picentes, a settlement of the Picentes tribe has been found at Novilara. The northern Picentes were invaded in the 4th century BC by the Gallic Senones, earlier by the Etruscans, within it the Gauls at least were still distinct, as the Romans separated them out and expelled them from the country. Under the Roman administration Pesaro, a hub across the Via Flaminia, became an important center of trading, after the fall of the Western Empire, Pesaro was occupied by the Ostrogoths, and destroyed by Vitigis in the course of the Gothic War. Hastily rebuilt five years later after the Byzantine reconquest, it formed the so-called Pentapolis, after the Lombard and Frankish conquests of that city, Pesaro became part of the Papal States. During the Renaissance it was ruled successively by the houses of Malatesta, Sforza, in 1475, a legendary wedding took place in Pesaro, when Costanzo Sforza and Camilla DAragona married. On 11 September 1860 Piedmontese troops entered the city, and Pesaro was subsequently annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy, rocca Costanza - Massive castle built by Costanzo I Sforza, it has a square plan with four cylindrical corner towers and a wide dry moat. Its sunken court is the precedent for the more famous one at the Roman Villa Giulia. Rooms are frescoed by prominent Mannerist painters Bronzino, Francesco Menzocchi, Girolamo Genga, mura Roveresche - Della Rovere Walls, demolished in the early 20th century), only two gates, Porta del Ponte and Porta Rimini, and a short section remain. Birthplace of Gioacchino Rossini- Now a museum dedicated to the composer and it has a museum with manifestoes, prints, portraits and his spinet. Among the masterpieces is the Pesaro Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini, oliveriani Museum and Library- Archaeological Collection and Manuscript Library, founded in 1756 by Annibale degli Abati Olivieri. Cathedral of Pesaro Romanesque-Gothic Basilica built over remains of a late Roman edifice, the façade, in Romanesque-Gothic style, is unfinished, it has a simple ogival portal surmounted by a band of small arches. A recent restoration has brought to light floor mosaics, the Baroque Sanctuary of Beata Vergine del Carmelo. Rossini Opera Festival has taken place every summer since 1980 in Pesaro, Pesaro hosts the home games of Victoria Libertas basketball team, better known across Europe as Scavolini Pesaro. Adriatic Arena, third biggest Italian indoor arena behind Mediolanum Forum in Milan, among the town industries is the motocross and enduro brand of TM Racing, a small manufacturer of race-ready motorbikes based in the coastal town since 1978
7.
Caravaggio, Lombardy
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Caravaggio is a town and comune in the province of Bergamo, in Lombardy, Italy,40 kilometres east of Milan. The town received the title of city with a presidential decree on December 22,1954. Caravaggio borders with the municipalities of Bariano, Brignano Gera dAdda, Calvenzano, Capralba, Fornovo San Giovanni, Misano di Gera dAdda, Morengo, Mozzanica, Sergnano and its frazioni are Masano and Vidalengo. The city is best known for the Sanctuary, other sights include, The Gallavresi Palace, now the Town Hall. It dates to the half of the 13th century. Church of San Fermo e Rustico, in Lombard-Gothic style, built in the 13th century over a pre-existing holy edifice, the two aisles were added in 1429. It has a façade in brickwork with a central portal. It is flanked by a 76-metre high bell tower, built in 1500 by governor Giovanni Dandolo, church of Santa Liberata, with frescoes. It has been probably the most important cultural and social spot of the city for decades before being destroyed at the end of the Second World War, in the area it was considered like a little Teatro alla Scala. Giovanni Mangone, 16th century architect and sculptor, michelangelo Merisi o Amerighi da Caravaggio, Italian Baroque painter, who is named after the town. Polidoro da Caravaggio, Renaissance artist Riccardo Montolivo, footballer Caravaggio has a station on the Treviglio–Cremona line. Porto Ercole Valletta Media related to Caravaggio at Wikimedia Commons Caravaggio official website
8.
Castell'Arquato
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CastellArquato is an Italian town located on the first hills of Val D’Arda in the province of Piacenza, in Emilia-Romagna, approximately 30 kilometres from Piacenza and 35 kilometres from Parma. Places nearby include Bacedasco, Vigolo Marchese, Fiorenzuola dArda, Lugagnano Val dArda and its picturesque medieval features have led to the burgs appearances in movies such as Ladyhawke. CastellArquato is also in the area of the Colli Piacentini, an important area for wine production, the most important wines produced in the Colli Piacentini are Gutturnio, Bonarda, Ortrugo, Malvasia, and Monterosso Val dArda. The origins of CastellArquato are uncertain and it is believed that it originated as a Roman military settlement. During the Roman Imperial Era it developed into a rural town, thanks to its position commanding the routes from Piacenza. The first historical news concerning Castell’Arquato appear in the 8th century, CastellArquato seems to have been constructed by a noble and powerful lord named Magnus. Magnus built the squared based castle and a church In honor Mater Dei, at that time Castell’Arquato had a military and an agricultural organisation, the Justice Administration and the Religious Administration. Before dying in 789 Magnus gave the town, the church of Santa Maria and its goods to the bishop of Piacenza, and Castell’Arquato acquired an important freedom as a Pieve. The Bishop had the right of taxation throughout the territory of CastellArquato on all the men, nobiles, burgenses, lords with houses and lands in the area. From 1204 to 1207 the Bishop of Piacenza Grimerio chose Castell’Arquato as his home, the hamlet became even more independent from Piacenza. The grant of an autonomous government became official in the summer of 1220, for 200 lire and a small annual fee he gives also in perpetual investiture all jurisdictions, honors and tithes of Castell’Arquato, Lusurasco, San Lorenzo and Vernasca. Castell’Arquato was at the time ruled by a chosen by the commune of Piacenza from among the most renowned members of the Piacenzas families. The podestà had civil, political and judicial functions, the podestàs rule ended in 1290 when Alberto Scotti, backed by the Guelph faction, the merchant class and the artisanal corporations, became lord of Piacenza. Castell’Arquato also became a seigniory on its own right, Alberto Scotti allied himself to the Visconti family and extended his dominion to the territory of Piacenza, while entrusting Castell’Arquato to the podestà Tedesio de’ Spectinis. In 1304 Alberto Scotti was banished from Castell’Arquato by the city of Piacenza, after the arrival of Henry VII in 1310 Alberto Scotti ruled the burg, until 1316 when Galeazzo I Visconti besieged Castell’Arquato, which yielded after one year. Galeazzo Visconti allowed the special rights, the ability to juridically emancipate itself from Piacenza and to write laws of its own. In 1324 Castell’Arquato was given to the municipality of Piacenza, itself under the dominion of the Church and he died at the age of 37 years. His successor, Luchino Visconti was responsible for the construction of the Rocca, in 1403 Gian Galeazzo Visconti gave Borromeo de’ Borromei and his descendants feudal powers over Castell’Arquato, with the related fiscal revenues
9.
Italian Wars
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Ludovico Sforza of Milan, seeking an ally against the Republic of Venice, encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. For several months, French forces moved through Italy virtually unopposed, Charles VIII made triumphant entries into Pisa on November 8,1494, Florence on November 17,1494, and Rome on December 31,1494. Upon reaching the city of Monte San Giovanni in the Kingdom of Naples, Charles VIII sent envoys to the town, the garrison killed and mutilated the envoys and sent the bodies back to the French lines. This enraged the French army so that reduced the castle in the town with blistering artillery fire on February 9,1495 and stormed the fort. This was the sack of Naples. News of the French Armys sack of Naples provoked a reaction among the city-states of Northern Italy, the League was specifically formed to resist French aggression. The League was established on 31 March after negotiations by Venice, Milan, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Later on the League consisted of the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy of Milan, Spain, the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, the Duchy of Mantua and this coalition, effectively, cut Charles army off from returning to France. After establishing a government in Naples, Charles started to march north on his return to France. However, in the town of Fornovo he met the League army. In contemporary tradition, though, the battle counted as a Holy League victory, because the French forces had to leave, to the Italian coalition, however, it was at best a pyrrhic victory, in that its strategic outcome and long-term consequences were unfavorable. Although the League managed to force Charles VIII off the battlefield, it suffered much higher casualties and could not prevent the opposing army crossing the Italian lands as it returned to France. As a result of Charles VIIIs expedition, the states of Italy were shown once. In fact, the individual Italian states could not field armies comparable to those of the feudal monarchies of Europe in numbers. Thus, Charles VIII lost all that he conquered in Italy, King Charles VIII died on April 7,1498 and was succeeded to the throne of France by his cousin, Louis II, Duke of Orléans, who became Louis XII of France. Ludovico Sforza retained his throne in Milan until 1499, when Charless successor, Louis XII of France, invaded Lombardy, Louis XII justified his claim to the Duchy of Milan by right of his paternal grandfather, Louis duc dOrléans having married Valentina Visconti in 1387. Valentina Visconti was the heir to the Duchy of Milan in the Visconti dynasty, the marriage contract between Valentina Visconti and Louis, duc dOrléans, guaranteed that in failure of male heirs, she would inherit the Visconti dominions. However, when the Visconti dynasty died out in 1447, the Milanese ignored the Orleans claim to the Duchy of Milan, however, bitter factionalism arose under the new republic which set the stage for Francisco Sforza to seize control of Milan in 1450
10.
Galeazzo Maria Sforza
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Galeazzo Maria Sforza was the fifth Duke of Milan from 1466 until his death. He was famous for being lustful, cruel and tyrannical and he was born to Francesco Sforza, a popular condottiero and ally of Cosimo de Medici who would gain the Duchy of Milan in 1450, and Bianca Maria Visconti. He married into the Gonzaga family, on the death of his first wife Dorotea Gonzaga, Galeazzo Maria Sforza was born in Fermo, near the familys castle of Girifalco, the first son of Francesco Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti. At the death of his father, Galeazzo was in France at the head of an expedition to help King Louis XI of France against Charles I of Burgundy. Called back home by his mother, Galeazzo returned to Italy by a trip under a false name. The false identity was necessary as he had to pass by the territories of the enemy, the Duke of Savoy. He entered Milan on 20 March, acclaimed by the populace, in his first years Galeazzo and his mother ruled jointly, but later his ruthless character pushed him to oust Bianca Maria from Milan. Sforza was famous as a patron of music, under his direction, financial backing and encouragement, his chapel grew into one of the most famous and historically significant musical ensembles in Europe. Composers from the north, especially the Franco-Flemish composers from the present-day Low Countries, came to sing in his chapel and write masses, motets, some of the figures associated with the Sforza chapel include Alexander Agricola, Johannes Martini, Loyset Compère, and Gaspar van Weerbeke. However, most of the singers at the Sforza chapel fled after Galeazzos murder and took positions elsewhere, as a result, Galeazzo Sforza is also known to have had a cruel streak. He was a womanizer who often passed his women on to his courtiers once he was tired of them. Sforza once had a poacher executed by forcing him to swallow an entire hare and he also had a priest who predicted a short reign for Sforza punished by being starved to death. This made him enemies in Milan. There were three principal assassins involved in Sforzas death, Carlo Visconti, Gerolamo Olgiati and Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani, Lampugnani, descended from Milanese nobility, is recognized as the leader of the conspiracy. His motives were based primarily on a dispute, in which Galeazzo had failed to intervene in a matter which saw the Lampugnani family lose considerable properties. Visconti and Olgiati also bore the duke enmity - Olgiati was a Republican idealist, supported by about thirty friends, the three men waited in the church for the duke to arrive for mass. When Galeazzo Sforza arrived, Lampugnani knelt before him, after words were exchanged, Lampugnani rose suddenly and stabbed Sforza in the groin. Olgiati and Visconti soon joined in, as did a servant of Lampugnanis, Sforza was dead within a matter of seconds
11.
Italian Renaissance
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The term Renaissance is in essence a modern one that came into currency in the 19th century, in the work of historians such as Jules Michelet and Jacob Burckhardt. The French word renaissance means Rebirth, and the era is best known for the renewed interest in the culture of classical antiquity after the period that Renaissance humanists labeled the Dark Ages. Though today perhaps best known for Italian Renaissance art and architecture, the period saw major achievements in literature, music, philosophy, Italy became the recognized European leader in all these areas by the late 15th century, and to varying degrees retained this lead until about 1600. This was despite a turbulent and generally disastrous period in Italian politics, the European Renaissance began in Tuscany, and centred in the city of Florence. It later spread to Venice, where the remains of ancient Greek culture were brought together, the Renaissance later had a significant effect on Rome, which was ornamented with some structures in the new allantico mode, then was largely rebuilt by humanist sixteenth-century popes. The Italian Renaissance peaked in the century as foreign invasions plunged the region into the turmoil of the Italian Wars. However, the ideas and ideals of the Renaissance endured and spread into the rest of Europe, setting off the Northern Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance is best known for its cultural achievements. Accounts of Renaissance literature usually begin with Petrarch and his friend, famous vernacular poets of the 15th century include the renaissance epic authors Luigi Pulci, Matteo Maria Boiardo, and Ludovico Ariosto. 15th century writers such as the poet Poliziano and the Platonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino made extensive translations from both Latin and Greek, the same is true for architecture, as practiced by Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio, and Bramante. Their works include Florence Cathedral, St. Peters Basilica in Rome, yet cultural contributions notwithstanding, some present-day historians also see the era as one of the beginning of economic regression for Italy. By the Late Middle Ages, Latium, the heartland of the Roman Empire. Rome was a city of ancient ruins, and the Papal States were loosely administered, and vulnerable to external interference such as that of France, and later Spain. The Papacy was affronted when the Avignon Papacy was created in southern France as a consequence of pressure from King Philip the Fair of France, in the south, Sicily had for some time been under foreign domination, by the Arabs and then the Normans. Sicily had prospered for 150 years during the Emirate of Sicily, in contrast Northern and Central Italy had become far more prosperous, and it has been calculated that the region was among the richest of Europe. The Crusades had built lasting trade links to the Levant, the main trade routes from the east passed through the Byzantine Empire or the Arab lands and onwards to the ports of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. Luxury goods bought in the Levant, such as spices, dyes, moreover, the inland city-states profited from the rich agricultural land of the Po valley. From France, Germany, and the Low Countries, through the medium of the Champagne fairs, land and river trade routes brought goods such as wool, wheat, and precious metals into the region. The extensive trade that stretched from Egypt to the Baltic generated substantial surpluses that allowed significant investment in mining, thus, while northern Italy was not richer in resources than many other parts of Europe, the level of development, stimulated by trade, allowed it to prosper
12.
Milan
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Milan is a city in Italy, capital of the Lombardy region, and the most populous metropolitan area and the second most populous comune in Italy. The population of the city proper is 1,351,000, Milan has a population of about 8,500,000 people. It is the industrial and financial centre of Italy and one of global significance. In terms of GDP, it has the largest economy among European non-capital cities, Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and lies at the heart of one of the Four Motors for Europe. Milan is an Alpha leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research, and tourism. Its business district hosts Italys Stock Exchange and the headquarters of the largest national and international banks, the city is a major world fashion and design capital, well known for several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair. The city hosts numerous cultural institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students, Milans museums, theatres and landmarks attract over 9 million visitors annually. Milan – after Naples – is the second Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, the city hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. Milan is home to two of Europes major football teams, A. C. Milan and F. C. Internazionale, the etymology of Milan is uncertain. One theory holds that the Latin name Mediolanum comes from the Latin words medio, however, some scholars believe lanum comes from the Celtic root lan, meaning an enclosure or demarcated territory in which Celtic communities used to build shrines. Hence, Mediolanum could signify the central town or sanctuary of a Celtic tribe, indeed, the name Mediolanum is borne by about sixty Gallo-Roman sites in France, e. g. Saintes and Évreux. Alciato credits Ambrose for his account, around 400 BC, the Celtic Insubres settled Milan and the surrounding region. In 222 BC, the Romans conquered the settlement, renaming it Mediolanum, Milan was eventually declared the capital of the Western Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian in 286 AD. Diocletian chose to stay in the Eastern Roman Empire and his colleague Maximianus ruled the Western one, immediately Maximian built several monuments, such as a large circus 470 m ×85 m, the Thermae Herculeae, a large complex of imperial palaces and several other buildings. With the Edict of Milan of 313, Emperor Constantine I guaranteed freedom of religion for Christians, after the city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. In 452, the Huns overran the city, in 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the summer of 569, a Teutonic tribe, the Lombards, conquered Milan, some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule. Milan surrendered to the Franks in 774 when Charlemagne took the title of King of the Lombards, the Iron Crown of Lombardy dates from this period
13.
Duchy of Milan
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The Duchy of Milan was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire in northern Italy. It was created in 1395, when it included twenty-six towns, during much of its existence, it was wedged between Savoy to the west, Venice to the east, the Swiss Confederacy to the north, and separated from the Mediterranean by Genoa to the south. The Duchy eventually fell to Habsburg Austria with the Treaty of Baden, after the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna of 1815 restored many other states which he had destroyed, but not the Duchy of Milan. Instead, its territory became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia. In 1859, Lombardy was ceded to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the House of Visconti had ruled Milan since 1277, in which year Ottone Visconti defeated Napoleone della Torre. The Duchy of Milan as a state of the Holy Roman Empire was created on 1 May 1395 and it was this diploma that installed Visconti as Duke of Milan and Count of Pavia. At its foundation the duchy included 26 towns and spanned from the hills of Montferrat to the Lagoons of Venice, Milan thus became one of the five major states of the Italian peninsula in the 15th century. When the last Visconti Duke, Filippo Maria, died in 1447 without a heir, the Milanese declared the so-called Ambrosian Republic. In 1498, the Duke of Orleans became King of France as Louis XII and he invaded in 1499 and soon ousted Lodovico Sforza. The French ruled the duchy until 1512, when they were ousted by the Swiss, Massimiliano reign did not last very long. The French, now under Francis I, invaded the area in 1515, the French took Massimiliano as their prisoner. The French were again out in 1521, this time by the Austrians. In 1535, Francesco died without heirs, the question of succession again arose, with both the emperor and the King of France claiming the duchy, leading to more wars. The Duchy of Parma was created in 1545 from a part of the Duchy of Milan south of the Po River, as a fief for Pope Paul IIIs illegitimate son, Pier Luigi Farnese, the emperor held the duchy throughout, eventually investing it on his son Philip. The possession of the duchy by Spain was finally recognized by the French in the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559, the Duchy of Milan remained in Spanish hands until the War of the Spanish Succession, when the Austrians invaded it. The Treaty of Baden, which ended the war in 1714, the duchy remained in Austrian hands until it was overrun by the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1796. The duchy was ceded by Austria in the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797, after the defeat of Napoleon, based on the decisions of the Congress of Vienna on 9 June 1815, the Duchy of Milan was not restored. The Duchy instead became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a constituent of the Austrian Empire and this kingdom ceased to exist when the remaining portion of it was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866
14.
House of Visconti
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Visconti is the family name of two important Italian noble dynasties of the Middle Ages. There are two distinct Visconti families, the first one in the Republic of Pisa in the mid twelfth century who achieved prominence first in Pisa, the second rose to power in Milan, where they ruled from 1277 to 1447 and where several collateral branches still exist. Pope Gregory X, who reigned from 1271 to 1276, was a member of the House of Visconti, the renowned director Luchino Visconti is a scion of this latter family. This symbol is closely connected with Milan. Any link between the two families in Pisa-Gallura and Milan has yet to be proven, the first Visconti of note in Pisa was Alberto, who bore the title patrician. Albertos son, Eldizio, bore the titles patrician and consul from 1184 to 1185 and it was Eldizios sons, Lamberto and Ubaldo I, who brought the family to the height of its influence in Pisa and Sardinia. Both of them carried the title of patrician and each served a term as podestà, in 1212 various factions, pro- and anti-Visconti clashed for control over Pisa. In mid-January 1213, William I of Cagliari led a coalition of forces to victory in battle near Massa over the combined forces of Lucca. Afterward, Pisa divided power between four rectores, one of which was a Visconti, the Visconti of Sardinia continued to take a part in Pisan politics to the end of the century, but their influence there was greatly diminished after 1213. In Sardinia Eldizio had married a daughter of Torchitorio III of Cagliari, in 1207, Lamberto married Elena, the heiress of Barisone II of Gallura, thus securing control over the northeastern corner of Sardinia with his capital at Civita. In 1215, he and Ubaldo established their hegemony over the Giudicato of Cagliari in the south of the island as well, through advantageous marriages, Lambertos son, Ubaldo II, secured power in Logudoro for a time. By mid century, Pisan authority was unopposed in Sardinia thanks to intermarriages between the Visconti family and the great families of Pisa and Sardinia. Lambert Ubaldo John Nino his wife Beatrice dEste married secondly on 24 June 1300 to Galeazzo I Visconti, Lord of Milan. Joanna stepsister of Azzone Visconti of the Milan line The effective founder of the Visconti of Milan, Ottone, the family loved to claim legendary versions about its origins, while established facts reflect quite sober and almost humble beginnings. The branch of the Visconti family that came to rule Milan was originally entrusted with the lordship of Massino, a village above Lago Maggiore, which they controlled from the twelfth century. It is said that the Milanese Visconti had their origins in a family of capitanei whom archbishop Landulf of Milan had granted certain feudal holdings known as caput plebis. A document from the year 1157 says the Visconti were holders of the captaincy of Marliano, decades before that, before 1070, they had gained the title of viscount to be later inherited down the male line. The Visconti ruled Milan until the early Renaissance, first as Lords, then, from 1395, with the mighty Gian Galeazzo who endeavored to unify Northern Italy and Tuscany, Visconti rule in Milan ended with the death of Filippo Maria Visconti in 1447
15.
Spanish Habsburgs
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This is a list of Spanish monarchs, that is, rulers of the country of Spain in the modern sense of the word. Although their kingdoms continued to be separate, with their personal union they ruled together as one dominion. Ferdinand also conquered the part of Navarre and annexed it to what was to become Spain. Isabella left her kingdom to her daughter Joanna of Castile, Ferdinand served as her regent during her insanity, though rebuffed by the Castilian nobility and replaced by Joannas husband Philip the Handsome, he resumed his regency after Philips death. In 1516, after Ferdinand IIs death, his daughter Joanna inherited the kingdom of Aragon, but was kept prisoner at Tordesillas as insane. As Joannas son, the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, did not want to be merely a regent, he was proclaimed king of Castile, subsequently, Castilian and Aragonese Cortes alleged oath to him as co-king with his mother. Upon her death, he became sole King of Castile and Aragon, under Isabella and Ferdinand, the royal dynasties of Aragon and Castile were united into a single line. Historiography of Spain generally treats this as the formation of the Kingdom of Spain, but in actuality and it wasnt until the Nueva Planta decrees of the early 18th century that the two lands were formally merged into a single state. Under Joanna and Charles I, the two thrones of Castile and Aragon were finally united under one monarch, traditional numbering of monarchs follows the Castillian crown, i. e. after King Ferdinand, the next Ferdinand was numbered VI. Likewise, Alfonso XII takes his number following that of Alfonso XI of Castile rather than that of Alfonso V of Aragon, in the year 1700 Charles II died. His will named the 16-year-old Philip, the grandson of Charless sister Maria Theresa of Spain, as his successor to the whole Spanish Empire. Upon any possible refusal of the undivided Spanish possessions, the Crown of Spain would be offered next to Philips younger brother Charles, Duke of Berry, or, next, Philip claimed primogeniture because Anne was older than Maria Anna. This was countered by the French claim that it was on the basis of a dowry that had never been paid, after a long council meeting where the Dauphin spoke up in favour of his sons rights, it was agreed that Philip would ascend the throne. Following this, a war broke out and Archduke Charles was also proclaimed king of Spain, as Charles III and he was proclaimed in Vienna, and also in Madrid in the years 1706 and 1710. Charles renounced his claims to the Spanish throne in the Treaty of Rastatt of 1714, Philip ascended the Spanish throne but had to renounce his claim to the throne of France for himself and his descendants. The only monarch from this dynasty was Joseph I, imposed by his brother Napoleon I of France after Charles IV, the title used by Joseph I was King of the Spains and the Indias, by the Grace of God and the Constitution of the State. He was also later given all of the titles of the previous kings, a government in opposition to the French was formed in Cádiz on 25 September 1808, which continued to recognize the imprisoned Ferdinand VII as king. This government was recognized as the legitimate Spanish government by Britain
16.
Muzio Attendolo
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Muzio Attendolo Sforza, was an Italian condottiero. Founder of the Sforza dynasty, he led a Bolognese-Florentine army at the Battle of Casalecchio and he was the father of Francesco Sforza, who ruled Milan for 16 years. He was born as Giacomo or Jacopo Attendolo in Cotignola to a family of rural nobility, son of Giovanni Attendolo and Elisa. Muzzo or Muzio was the form of the nickname of Giacomuzzo. He had eight siblings, Bosio, Margherita, Francesco, Bartolo, Giorgio, Matteo, Tonduzzo. According to tradition, young Giacomo was plowing a field when a platoon of mercenaries led by Boldrino da Panicale passed nearby in search of recruits and he then stole one of his fathers horses and followed the soldiers to follow the same career. Later he fought for Florence against Visconti but in 1402, at the battle of Casalecchio, was defeated by his former master Alberico da Barbiano. In 1406 he captured Pisa and was hired by Niccolò III dEste of Ferrara. King Ladislaus of Naples named him Gran Connestabile of his kingdom, Sforzas military qualities were mostly needed against Florence and the Pope. He remained for the rest of his life in the Kingdom of Naples, after the Kings death, however, he attracted the jealousy of Joans favorite, Pandolfello Alopo, who had him arrested and imprisoned. However, when Sforzas troops intervened, Alopo freed him and Joan gave him the fiefdoms of Benevento, on this occasion Sforza married Caterina Alopo, Pandolfellos sister. A few months later Sforza was again arrested after a quarrel with James of Bourbon and he was freed only in 1416, after James fall from power, and Joan gave him back the title of Conestabile. In 1417 Sforza was sent by Joan to help the pope against Braccio da Montone, later he returned briefly to Naples, but here he was opposed by Giovanni Caracciolo, Joans new lover. In the following, confused, events led to the arrival of Louis III of Anjou in Naples in opposition to Alfonso V of Aragon, Sforza helped Joan. In 1423, the city of LAquila rebelled against Braccio da Montone, in an attempt to save one of his pages during the fording of the Pescara River, Sforza drowned and his body was swept away by the waters. They had one son, Bosio, Count of Cotignola, Lord of Castell’Arquato and Sovereign Count of Santa Fiora by virtue of his marriage with Cecilia Aldobrandeschi, Countess of Santa Fiora and Pitigliano. On 16 June 1413, Sforza married secondly with Caterina, a sister of Pandolfello Piscopo Alopo, Grand Chamberlain of the Kingdom of Naples, pietro, Bishop of Ascoli Piceno since 1438. In 1421, Sforza married thirdly with Maria, daughter of Giacomo da Marzano, 1st Duke of Sessa and they had two children, Bartolomeo, Count of Celano
17.
Lombardy
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Lombardy is one of the twenty administrative regions of Italy, in the northwest of the country, with an area of 23,844 square kilometres. Milan, Lombardys capital, is the second-largest city and the largest metropolitan area in Italy, the word Lombardy comes from Lombard, which in turn is derived from Late Latin Longobardus, Langobardus, derived from the Proto-Germanic elements *langaz + *bardaz, equivalent to long beard. Some sources derive the second element instead from Proto-Germanic *bardǭ, *barduz, Lombardy referred during the early Middle Ages to the entire territory of Italy ruled by the Lombards, a Germanic tribe who conquered much of the Italian peninsula beginning in the 6th century. During the late Middle Ages, the term shifted meaning and was used to identify the whole of Northern Italy, with a surface of 23,861 km2, Lombardy is the 4th largest region of Italy. It is bordered by Switzerland and by the Italian regions of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, three distinct natural zones can be fairly easily distinguished in the Lombardy region, mountains, hills and plains – the latter being divided in Alta and Bassa. Inconsistent with the three distinctions above made is the subregion of Oltrepò Pavese, formed by the Apennine foothills beyond the Po River. The mighty Po river marks the border of the region for a length of about 210 km. In its progress it receives the waters of the Ticino River, the other streams which contribute to the great river are, the Olona, the Lambro, the Adda, the Oglio and the Mincio. The numerous lakes of Lombardy, all of glacial origin, lie in the northern highlands, from west to east these are Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano, Lake Como, Lake Iseo, Lake Idro, then Lake Garda, the largest in Italy. A minor mountainous area, the Oltrepò Pavese, lies south of the Po, in the plains, intensively cultivated for centuries, little of the original environment remains. The most commons trees are elm, alder, sycamore, poplar, willow, in the area of the foothills lakes, however, grow olive trees, cypresses and larches, as well as varieties of subtropical flora such as magnolias, azaleas, acacias. Numerous species of flora in the Prealpine area include some kinds of saxifrage, the Lombard garlic, groundsels bellflowers. The highlands are characterized by the vegetation of the whole range of the Italian Alps. At a lower levels oak woods or broadleafed trees grow, on the slopes beech trees grow at the lowest limits. Shrubs such as rhododendron, dwarf pine and juniper are native to the summital zone, Lombardy has a wide array of climates, due to local variances in elevation, proximity to inland water basins, and large metropolitan areas. In addition, there is a seasonal temperature variation. A peculiarity of the climate is the thick fog that covers the plains between October and February. In the Alpine foothills, characterised by an Oceanic climate, numerous lakes exercise a mitigating influence, in the hills and mountains, the climate is humid continental
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Condottieri
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Condottieri were the leaders of the professional military free companies contracted by the Italian city-states and the Papacy from the late Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance. In Renaissance Italian, condottiero meant contractor, in contemporary Italian, condottiero acquired the broader meaning of military leader, not restricted to mercenaries. In Italian historiography, Renaissance mercenary captains are usually called capitani di ventura, thus, the word Condottiere in the English language has come to denote, in the modern sense, any hired soldier. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Italian city-states of Venice, Florence, in the event that foreign powers and envious neighbors attacked, the ruling nobles hired foreign mercenaries to fight for them. From the eleventh to the century, European soldiers led by professional officers fought against the Muslims in the Crusades. These crusading officers provided large-scale warfare combat experience in the Holy Land, on the Crusades’ conclusion, the first masnada appeared in Italy. Given the profession, some masnade were less mercenaries than bandits and these masnada were not Italian, but German, from the Duchy of Brabant, and from Catalonia and Aragon. The latter were Spanish soldiers who had followed King Peter III of Aragon in the War of the Sicilian Vespers in Italy in October 1282, by 1333 other mercenaries had arrived in Italy to fight with John of Bohemia as the Compagnia della Colomba in Perugia’s war against Arezzo. The first well organised mercenaries in Italy were the Ventura Companies of Duke Werner von Urslingen, werner’s company differed from other mercenary companies because its code of military justice imposed discipline and an equal division of the contract’s income. The Ventura Company increased in number until becoming the fearsome “Great Company” of some 3,000 barbute, the first mercenary company with an Italian condottiero as its chief was the Company of St. George formed in 1339 and led by Lodrisio Visconti. This company was defeated and destroyed by Luchino Visconti of Milan in April 1339, later, in 1377, a second Company of St. Once aware of their military power monopoly in Italy, the bands became notorious for their capriciousness. In turn, many condottieri, such as Braccio da Montone and Muzio Sforza, consequently, the condottieri fought by outmanoeuvring the opponent and fighting his ability to wage war, rather than risk uncertain fortune —defeat, capture, death— in battlefield combat. Niccolò Machiavelli even said that condottieri fought each other in grandiose, in 1347, Cola di Rienzo had Werner von Urslingen executed in Rome, and Konrad von Landau assumed command of the Great Company. Towards the end of the century the Italians began to organize armies of the same description and this ended the reign of the purely mercenary company, and began that of the semi-national mercenary army which endured in Europe till replaced by the national standing army system. In 1363, Count von Landau was betrayed by his Hungarian soldiers, strategically, the barbuta was replaced with the three-soldier, mounted lancia, five lance composed a posta, five poste composed a bandiera. If the condotta expired definitively, the condottiere could not declare war against the contracting city-state for two years. In fifteenth-century Italy, the condottieri were masterful lords of war, during the wars in Lombardy, Machiavelli observed, the others being bred to arms from their infancy, were acquainted with no other art, and pursued war for emolument, or to confer honor upon themselves
19.
House of Medici
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The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, the Medici produced three Popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X, Pope Clement VII, and Pope Leo XI, two regent queens of France—Catherine de Medici and Marie de Medici. In 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence, in 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, the grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the earlier grand dukes, but by the time of Cosimo III de Medici, Tuscany was fiscally bankrupt. Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. They, along with families of Italy—such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara. The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe, there are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a time. From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italy, a notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. The Medici family were among the earliest businesses to use the system, the Medici family came from the agricultural Mugello region, north of Florence, being mentioned for the first time in a document of 1230. The origin of the name is uncertain, Medici is the plural of medico, also written del medico or delmedigo, meaning, medical doctor. It has been suggested that the derived from one Medico di Potrone, a castellan of Potrone in the late 11th century. The dynasty began with the founding of the Medici Bank, until the late 14th century, prior to the Medici, the leading family of Florence was the House of Albizzi. In 1293 the Ordinances of Justice were enacted, which became the constitution of the republic of Florence throughout the Italian Renaissance. The citys numerous luxurious palazzi were becoming surrounded by townhouses, built by the ever prospering merchant class. In 1298, one of the leading banking families of Europe, the main challengers to the Albizzi family were the Medicis, first under Giovanni de Medici, later under his son Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici and great-grandson, Lorenzo de Medici. The Medici controlled the Medici bank—then Europes largest bank—and an array of other enterprises in Florence, in 1433, the Albizzi managed to have Cosimo exiled. The next year, however, a pro-Medici Signoria was elected, the Medici became the citys leading family, a position they would hold for the next three centuries. Cosimo and Lorenzo rarely held official posts but were the unquestioned leaders, some examples of these families include the Bardi, Salviati, Cavalcanti, and the Tornabuoni
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History of Florence
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In the Quaternary Age the Florence-Prato-Pistoia plain was occupied by a great lake bounded by Monte Albano in the west, Monte Giovi in the North and the foothills of Chianti in the South. Even after most of the water had receded, the plain,50 metres above sea level, was strewn with ponds, most of the marshland was in the region of Campi Bisenzio, Signa and Bagno a Ripoli. It is thought there was already a settlement at the confluence of the Mugnone with the River Arno between the 10th and the 8th century BC. Between the 7th and 6th centuries BC Etruscans had discovered and used the ford of the Arno near this confluence, a bridge or a ferry was probably constructed here, about ten metres away from the current Ponte Vecchio, but closer to the ford itself. The Etruscans, however, preferred not to build cities on the plain for reasons of defence and instead settled about six kilometres away on a hill. This settlement was a precursor of the centre of Vipsul. Florence was founded in 59 BC as a settlement for soldiers who were allotted land by Julius Caesar in the rich farming valley of the Arno. Florentia was situated at the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the North, which position enabled it to rapidly expand as a commercial center. Emperor Diocletian made Florentia capital of the province of Tuscia in the 3rd century AD, st Minias was Florence’s first martyr. He was beheaded at about 250 AD, during the persecutions of the Emperor Decius. The Basilica di San Miniato al Monte now stands near the spot, peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century. Conquered by Charlemagne in 774, Florence became part of the March of Tuscany, the population began to grow again and commerce prospered. In 854 Florence and Fiesole were united in one county, margrave Hugo chose Florence as his residence instead of Lucca at about 1000 CE. This initiated the Golden Age of Florentine art, in 1013 the construction was begun of the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte. The exterior of the baptistry was reworked in Romanesque style between 1059 and 1128, in 1257 the city was ruled by a podestà, the Guelph Luca Grimaldi. The Guelphs had triumphed and soon split in turn into feuding White and Black factions led respectively by Vieri de Cerchi and these struggles eventually led to the exile of the White Guelphs, one of whom was Dante Alighieri. This factional strife was later recorded by Dino Compagni, a White Guelph, political conflict did not, however, prevent the citys rise to become one of the most powerful and prosperous in Europe, assisted by her own strong gold currency. The florin quickly became the dominant trade coin of Western Europe and this period also saw the eclipse of Florences formerly powerful rival Pisa, which was defeated by Genoa in 1284 and subjugated by Florence in 1406
21.
Romagna
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Romagna is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, the regions major cities include Cesena, Faenza, Forlì, Imola, Ravenna, Rimini and City of San Marino. The region has been formally expanded with the transfer of seven comuni from the Marche region. The name Romagna comes from the Latin name Romania, which originally was the name for land inhabited by Romans. It later took on the detailed meaning of territory subjected to Eastern Roman rule. Romania later became Romandìola in Vulgar Latin, meaning little Romania, a number of archaeological sites in the region, such as Monte Poggiolo, show that Romagna has been inhabited since the Paleolithic age. The Umbri, speaking an extinct Italic language called Umbrian, are the first traceable inhabitants of the region, the Etruscans also dwelt in some portions of Romagna. In the 5th Century BC, various Gaulish tribes, most notably the Lingones, Senoni and Boii, moved south into Italy, the Senoni utterly subjugated the Umbri and settled in Romagna. The Senoni extended further south to Ancona, with their capital Sena Gallica, the lands formerly inhabited by the Senoni were known as ager Gallicus to the Romans. According to the Italian linguist Giacomo Devoto, there are still a number of Celtic substrata in the Romagnolo dialect, gallic predominance in the region was consistently challenged by the Romans. In the battle of Telamon, the Romans defeated the joint forces of the Celtic tribes, after the Second Punic War, the pro-Carthaginian Lingones and Senoni were expelled. To consolidate the Roman rule in the region, the Via Aemilia was built from Ariminium to Piacentia, the most significant ones are Forum Livii, Forum Cornelii and Forum Popili. After the Social War, the Lex Julia was introduced in 90 BC, in the first Roman civil war, between Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, most cities in the regions supported Marius. As a result, Forum Livii and Caesena were razed to ground, during the first triumvirate, the Roman Republic was divided along the infamous Rubicon. Most of modern Romagna was ruled by Julius Caesar, the exception of Ariminium. In 49 BC, Caesar, who was residing in Ravenna then, led the Legio XIII across the Rubicon, after the decisive battle of Actium, Augustus started a century-long era of Pax Romana. All of Cisalpine Gaul had been incorporated into the Roman province of Italia, around 7 BC, Augustus divided all of Italy into eleven regiones, and most of Romagna was in the eighth, Aemilia. By the beginning of the 3rd Century, Diocletian re-divided the Empire into four prefectures, each divided into dioceses, under the new system, Italy was demoted to a mere Imperial province
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House of Valois-Anjou
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The House of Valois-Anjou was a noble French family, deriving from the royal family, the House of Valois. They were monarchs of Naples, as well as other territories. The house began in the 1350s, when king John II of France, of the House of Valois line of Capetians and his paternal grandmother, Margaret, Countess of Anjou and Maine, had been a princess of the Capetian House of Anjou or Elder Angevin Dynasty. She was the eldest daughter of king Charles II of Naples and gave the county, within a couple of decades, Queen Joan I of Naples, also of the senior Angevin line, realized that she would remain childless. Although there were extant heirs of the branch, for example. The extinction of the line of the House of Anjou-Durazzo in 1435 temporarily secured Naples for the Valois House of Anjou, rené, the last duke of this, third, Angevin line, died in 1480, and Anjou reverted to the French crown. With the death of his nephew the Duke of Maine in 1481 all Angevin possessions, including Provence, Angevin Empire House of Plantagenet or first Angevin dynasty Capetian House of Anjou or second Angevin dynasty Armorial of Plantagenet
23.
Kingdom of Naples
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It continued to be officially known as the Kingdom of Sicily, although it no longer included the island of Sicily. For much of its existence, the realm was contested between French and Spanish dynasties, in 1816, it was reunified with the island kingdom of Sicily once again to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Following the rebellion in 1282, King Charles I of Sicily was forced to leave the island of Sicily by Peter III of Aragons troops, Charles, however, maintained his possessions on the mainland, customarily known as the Kingdom of Naples, after its capital city. Charles and his Angevin successors maintained a claim to Sicily, warring against the Aragonese until 1373, joans reign was contested by Louis the Great, the Angevin King of Hungary, who captured the kingdom several times. Queen Joan I also played a part in the demise of the first Kingdom of Naples. This led to Joan Is murder at the hands of the Prince of Durazzo in 1382, the two competing Angevin lines contested each other for the possession of the Kingdom of Naples over the following decades. René of Anjou temporarily united the claims of junior and senior Angevin lines, in 1442, however, Alfonso V conquered the Kingdom of Naples and unified Sicily and Naples once again as dependencies of Aragon. At his death in 1458, the kingdom was again separated and Naples was inherited by Ferrante, Alfonsos illegitimate son. Charles VIII expelled Alfonso II of Naples from Naples in 1495, Ferrantino was restored to the throne, but died in 1496, and was succeeded by his uncle, Frederick IV. Charles VIIIs successor, Louis XII reiterated the French claim, in 1501, he occupied Naples and partitioned the kingdom with Ferdinand of Aragon, who abandoned his cousin King Frederick. The deal soon fell through, however, and Aragon and France resumed their war over the kingdom, the Spanish troops occupying Calabria and Apulia, led by Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordova did not respect the new agreement, and expelled all Frenchmen from the area. The peace treaties that continued were never definitive, but they established at least that the title of King of Naples was reserved for Ferdinands grandson, the future Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Ferdinand nevertheless continued in possession of the kingdom, being considered as the heir of his uncle Alfonso I of Naples. The French finally abandoned their claims to Naples by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559, in the Treaty of London, five cities on coast of Tuscany were designated the Stato dei Presidi, and part of the Kingdom of Naples. After the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, under the terms of the Treaty of Rastatt in 1714, Naples was given to Charles VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. He also gained control of Sicily in 1720, but Austrian rule did not last long, when Charles inherited the Spanish throne from his older half-brother in 1759, he left Naples and Sicily to his younger son, Ferdinand IV. Despite the two Kingdoms being in a union under the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasts, they remained constitutionally separate. Being a member of the House of Bourbon, Ferdinand IV was an opponent of the French Revolution and Napoleon
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Francesco I Sforza
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Francesco I Sforza was an Italian condottiero, the founder of the Sforza dynasty in Milan, Italy, and was the fourth Duke of Milan from 1450 until his death. He was the brother of Alessandro, whom he fought alongside. Francesco Sforza was born in San Miniato, Tuscany, one of the seven sons of the condottiero Muzio Sforza. He spent his childhood in Tricarico, the marquisate of which he was granted in 1412 by King Ladislaus of Naples, in 1418, he married Polissena Ruffo, a Calabrese noblewoman. From 1419, he alongside his father, soon gaining fame for being able to bend metal bars with his bare hands. He later proved himself to be a tactician and very skilled field commander. After some successes, he fell in disgrace and was sent to the castle of Mortara as a de facto. He regained his status after leading an expedition against Lucca, in 1431, after a period during which he fought again for the Papal States, he led the Milanese army against Venice, the following year the dukes daughter, Bianca Maria, was betrothed to him. Despite these moves, the wary Filippo Maria never ceased to be distrustful of Sforza, in 1436-39, he served variously both Florence and Venice. In 1440, his fiefs in the Kingdom of Naples were occupied by King Alfonso I, on 25 October 1441, in Cremona, he could finally marry Bianca Maria. The following year, he allied with René of Anjou, pretender to the throne of Naples, Sforza later found himself warring against Francesco Piccinino and, later, the alliance of Visconti, Eugene IV, and Malatesta, who had allegedly murdered Polissena. With the help of Venice, Sforza was again victorious and, in exchange for abandoning the Venetians, after the duke died without a male heir in 1447, fighting broke out to restore the so-called Ambrosian Republic. The name Ambrosian Republic takes its name from St. Ambrose, agnese del Maino, his wifes mother, convinced the condottiero who held Pavia to restore it to him. He also received the seigniory of other cities of the duchy, including Lodi, in 1450, after years of famine, riots raged in the streets of Milan and the citys senate decided to entrust to him the duchy. Sforza entered the city as Duke on 26 February and it was the first time that such a title was handed over by a lay institution. While the other Italian states gradually recognized Sforza as the legitimate Duke of Milan and that did not come to the Sforza Dukes until 1494, when Emperor Maximilian formally invested Francescos son, Ludovico, as Duke of Milan. Under his rule, Sforza modernised the city and duchy, in Milan, he founded the Ospedale Maggiore, restored the Palazzo dellArengo, and had the Naviglio dAdda, a channel connecting with the Adda River, built. During Sforzas reign, Florence was under the command of Cosimo de Medici, after the peace, Sforza renounced part of the conquests in eastern Lombardy obtained by his condottieri Bartolomeo Colleoni, Ludovico Gonzaga, and Roberto Sanseverino after 1451
25.
Santa Fiora
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Santa Fiora is a comune in the Province of Grosseto, in the Italian region of Tuscany, located about 110 kilometres southeast of Florence and about 40 km east of Grosseto. Santa Fiora borders the municipalities, Abbadia San Salvatore, Arcidosso, Castel del Piano, CastellAzzara, Piancastagnaio, Roccalbegna. Santa Fiora is mentioned for the first time in 890 AD, in a document listing properties of the Abbey of San Salvatore, Sforza Cesarini Archive Rome. By the eleventh century the lords of Santa Fiore were the Aldobrandeschi who, in 1082, started the construction of a castle here, in 1439, with the marriage of Cecilia Aldobrandeschi and Bosio Sforza, the castello and its town passed to the Sforza. Later the family became the Sforza Cesarini, who are well represented. The sovereign rights of the state of Santa Fiora were sold to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany under Leopold II though all feudal rights remained to the family. The comune was of importance for its wealth in Monte Amiata of cinnabar. In the Middle Ages and during the modern era Santa Fiora was the capital of an independent state, pinzi, noted funeral director Mario Pratesi, writer Valerio Valeri, Roman Catholic cardinal Official website
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Tuscany
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Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, traditions, history, artistic legacy, Tuscany produces wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino. Having a strong linguistic and cultural identity, it is considered a nation within a nation. Tuscany is traditionally a popular destination in Italy, and the main tourist destinations by number of tourist arrivals are Florence, Pisa, Montecatini Terme, Castiglione della Pescaia and Grosseto. The village of Castiglione della Pescaia is also the most visited destination in the region. Additionally, Siena, Lucca, the Chianti region, Versilia and Val dOrcia are also internationally renowned, Tuscany has over 120 protected nature reserves, making Tuscany and its capital Florence popular tourist destinations that attract millions of tourists every year. In 2012, the city of Florence was the worlds 89th most visited city, roughly triangular in shape, Tuscany borders the regions of Liguria to the northwest, Emilia-Romagna to the north and east, Umbria to the east and Lazio to the southeast. The comune of Badia Tedalda, in the Tuscan Province of Arezzo, has an exclave named Ca Raffaello within Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany has a western coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea, containing the Tuscan Archipelago, of which the largest island is Elba. Tuscany has an area of approximately 22,993 square kilometres, surrounded and crossed by major mountain chains, and with few plains, the region has a relief that is dominated by hilly country used for agriculture. Hills make up nearly two-thirds of the total area, covering 15,292 square kilometres, and mountains. Plains occupy 8. 4% of the total area—1,930 square kilometres —mostly around the valley of the River Arno, many of Tuscanys largest cities lie on the banks of the Arno, including the capital Florence, Empoli and Pisa. The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the late Bronze and Iron Ages parallels that of the early Greeks, following this, the Villanovan culture saw Tuscany, and the rest of Etruria, taken over by chiefdoms. City-states developed in the late Villanovan before Orientalization occurred and the Etruscan civilization rose, the Etruscans created the first major civilization in this region, large enough to establish a transport infrastructure, to implement agriculture and mining and to produce vibrant art. The Etruscans lived in Etruria well into prehistory, throughout their existence, they lost territory to Magna Graecia, Carthage and Celts. Despite being seen as distinct in its manners and customs by contemporary Greeks, the cultures of Greece, one reason for its eventual demise was this increasing absorption by surrounding cultures, including the adoption of the Etruscan upper class by the Romans. Soon after absorbing Etruria, Rome established the cities of Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, and ensured peace. These developments included extensions of existing roads, introduction of aqueducts and sewers, however, many of these structures have been destroyed by erosion due to weather. The Roman civilization in the West collapsed in the 5th century AD, in the years following 572, the Longobards arrived and designated Lucca the capital of their Duchy of Tuscia
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Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
28.
House of Borgia
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The House of Borgia was an Italo-Spanish noble family, which rose to prominence during the Italian Renaissance. They were from Valencia, the surname being a toponymic from Borja, then in the Crown of Aragon, especially during the reign of Alexander VI, they were suspected of many crimes, including adultery, incest, simony, theft, bribery, and murder. Because of their grasping for power, they made enemies of the Medici, the Sforza, and they were also patrons of the arts who contributed to the Renaissance. The Borja or Borgia originated in the town of Borja in the Kingdom of Valencia, there were numerous unsubstantiated claims that the family was of Jewish origin. These underground rumours were propagated by, among others, Giuliano della Rovere, the rumours have persisted in popular culture for centuries, listed in the Semi-Gotha of 1912. The family themselves propagated a spurious genealogical descent from a 12th-century claimant to the crown of the Kingdom of Aragon, Pedro de Atarés, Lord of Borja, who actually died childless. Alfons de Borja, later known as Pope Callixtus III, was born to Francina Llançol and Domingo de Borja in La Torreta, Canals, which was then situated in the Kingdom of Valencia. Alfons de Borja was a professor of law at the University of Lleida, at an advanced age, he was elected Pope Callixtus III in 1455 as a compromise candidate and reigned as Pope for just 3 years. Rodrigo Borgia, one of Alfonso’s nephews, was born in Xàtiva, also in the Kingdom of Valencia, to Isabel de Borja i Cavanilles and he studied law at Bologna and was appointed as cardinal by his uncle, Alfons Borgia, Pope Callixtus III. He was elected Pope in 1492, taking the regnal name Alexander VI, while a cardinal, he maintained a long-term illicit relationship with Vannozza dei Cattanei, with whom he had four children, Giovanni, Cesare, Lucrezia, and Gioffre. Rodrigo also had children by women, including one daughter with his mistress. As Alexander VI, Rodrigo was recognized as a politician and diplomat, but was widely criticized during his reign for his over-spending, sale of Church offices, lasciviousness. As Pope, he struggled to acquire more personal and papal power and wealth and he appointed his son, Giovanni, as captain-general of the papal army, his foremost military representative, and established another son, Cesare, as a cardinal. Alexander used the marriages of his children to build alliances with powerful families in Italy, at the time, the Sforza family, which comprised the Milanese faction, was one of the most powerful in Europe, so Alexander united the two families by marrying Lucrezia to Giovanni Sforza. He also married Gioffre, his youngest son from Vannozza, to Sancha of Aragon of the Crown of Aragon and it is reported that under Alexander VIs rule the Borgia hosted orgies in the Vatican palace. The Banquet of Chestnuts is considered one of the most disreputable balls of this kind, johann Burchard reports that fifty courtesans were in attendance for the entertainment of the banquet guests. It is alleged not only was the Pope present, but also two of his children, Lucrezia and Cesare. Other researchers however, such as Monsignor Peter de Roo, have rejected the rumors of the fifty courtesans as being at odds with Alexander VIs essentially decent, Pope Alexander VI died in Rome in 1503 after contracting a disease, generally believed to have been malaria
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Arranged marriage
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Arranged marriage is a type of marital union where the bride and groom are selected by their families. Arranged marriages were common throughout the world until the 18th century. Typically, marriages were arranged by parents, grandparents or other relatives, some historical exceptions are known, such as courtship and betrothal rituals during the Renaissance period of Italy and Gandharva marriages in the Vedic period of India. In China, arranged marriages - sometimes called blind marriages - were the norm before the mid 20th century, a marriage was a negotiation and decision between parents and other older members of two families. The boy and girl were typically told to get married, without a right to consent, arranged marriages were the norm in Russia before the early 20th century, most of which were endogamous. Until the first half of the 20th century, arranged marriages were common in migrant families in the United States and these marriages among immigrants were typically arranged by parents, or relatives from the country of their origin. Similar historical dynamics are claimed in other parts of the world, in most other parts of the world, arranged marriages continue to varying degrees and increasingly in quasi-arranged form, along with autonomous marriages. Similarly, Broude and Greene, after studying 142 cultures worldwide, have reported that 130 cultures have elements of arranged marriage, extreme examples of forced arranged marriage have been observed in some societies, particularly in child marriages of girls below age 12. Illustrations include vani which is seen in some tribal / rural parts of Pakistan. Arranged endogamous marriage, is one where a third party finds and selects the bride and groom from a social, economic. Consanguineous marriage, is a type of arranged endogamous marriage and it is one where the bride and groom share a grandparent or near ancestor. Examples of these include first cousin marriages, uncle-niece marriages, second cousin marriages, the most common consanguineous marriages are first cousin marriages, followed by second cousin and uncle-niece marriages. Non-consanguineous arranged marriage is one where the bride and groom do not share a grandparent or near ancestor and this type of arranged marriages is common in Hindu and Buddhist South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Christian Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Consanguineous marriages are against the law in parts of United States. Consanguineous arranged marriages were common in Jewish communities before the 20th century, child marriage, particularly those below the age of 12, does not prepare or provide the individual much opportunity to make an informed, free choice about matrimony. These child marriages are arranged marriages. Child marriages is primarily seen in areas of poverty, by marrying their daughter to a good family the parents improve their social status by establishing a social bond between each other. According to Warner, in nations with the highest rates of child marriages, the nations with the highest rates of arranged child marriages are, Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Pakistan
30.
Lucrezia Borgia
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Lucrezia Borgia was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. Her brothers included Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, and Gioffre Borgia and her family arranged several marriages for her that advanced their own political position including Giovanni Sforza, Alfonso of Aragon, and Alfonso I dEste. Tradition has it that Alfonso of Aragon was a son of the King of Naples. Rumors about her and her family cast Lucrezia as a femme fatale, Lucrezia Borgia was born at Subiaco, near Rome. Her mother was Vannozza dei Cattanei, one of the mistresses of Lucrezias father, when Rodrigo became Pope Alexander VI, he sought to be allied with powerful princely families and founding dynasties of Italy. As such, he called off Lucrezias previous engagements and arranged for her to marry Giovanni Sforza, Giovanni was an illegitimate son of Costanzo I Sforza and a Sforza of the second rank. He married Lucrezia on 12 June 1493 in Rome, before long, the Borgia family no longer needed the Sforzas, and the presence of Giovanni Sforza in the papal court was superfluous. Alexander asked Giovannis uncle, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, to persuade Giovanni to agree to an annulment of the marriage, Giovanni refused and accused Lucrezia of paternal incest. The pope asserted that his daughters marriage had not been consummated and was thus invalid, Giovanni was offered her dowry in return for his cooperation. The Sforza family threatened to withdraw their protection should he refuse, Giovanni finally signed confessions of impotence and documents of annulment before witnesses. There has been speculation that during the process of the annulment, Lucrezia consummated a relationship with someone, perhaps Alexanders chamberlain Pedro Calderon. In any case, families hostile to the Borgias would later accuse her of being pregnant at the time her marriage was annulled for non-consummation. She is known to have retired to the convent of San Sisto in June 1497 to await the outcome of the annulment proceedings, the bodies of Pedro Calderon, and a maid, Pantasilea, were found in the Tiber in February 1498. In March 1498, the Ferrarese ambassador claimed that Lucrezia had given birth, a child was born, however, in the Borgia household the year before Lucrezias marriage to Alfonso of Aragon. He was named Giovanni but is known to historians as the Infans Romanus, in 1501, two papal bulls were issued concerning the child, Giovanni Borgia. In the first, he was recognized as Cesares child from an affair before his marriage, the second, contradictory, bull recognized him as the son of Pope Alexander VI. Lucrezias name is not mentioned in either, and rumors that she was his mother have never been proved, the second bull was kept secret for many years, and Giovanni was assumed to be Cesares son. This is supported by the fact that in 1502 he became Duke of Camerino, one of Cesares recent conquests, Giovanni went to stay with Lucrezia in Ferrara after Alexanders death, where he was accepted as her half-brother
31.
Giovanni Sforza
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Giovanni Sforza dAragona was an Italian condottiero, lord of Pesaro and Gradara from 1483 until his death. He is best known as the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia and their marriage was annulled on claims of his impotence in March 1497. The illegitimate son of Costanzo I Sforza, he was a member of the powerful House of Sforza, in the line of Pesaro, at the death of his father in 1483 he inherited the lordship of Pesaro and Gradara. In 1489 Giovanni had married Maddalena Gonzaga, daughter of Federico I of Mantua and he was thus viewed as a valuable link to Milan by the Borgia family. A proxy marriage took place on 12 June that year, as the contract stipulated that Lucrezia would stay in Rome. The official marriage was celebrated in the Vatican in 1493, and reputedly was a lavish and he and Lucrezia spent two years in Pesaro, during which his importance to the ambitious Borgia family dwindled. Sforza tried to wield his proximity to the Borgias to Milans advantage by acting as a spy, meanwhile, other political advantages were formed, rendering the strategic marriage useless. Lucrezia, used to privileged life in the Papal court, did not adjust to the atmosphere of Pesaro. By Christmas 1495, both Giovanni and Lucrezia were present again in the court at Rome, by then, Sforza was aware that his fortune was precarious. He left Rome to continue with a campaign, and upon his return in February 1497 quickly fled the city in disguise. The accepted reason for this is that the Pope and his son Cesare had contrived a plot to murder Giovanni and this has not been proven but remains a popular explanation. Giovanni refused to do so on at least two grounds, first, he would have to return Lucrezias sizable dowry, and second, some sources state that Giovanni had married and even fathered illegitimate children before his union with Lucrezia, which is reasonable given his age. If those sources are correct, he was not always impotent, Sforza accused Lucrezia of parental and fraternal incest in response. This claim, first made solely against the Pope and later extended to all of Lucrezias brothers and it became a popular example of the depravity later attributed to the family despite its lack of verifiability. The marriage was annulled in 1497 on grounds of non-consummation. Sforza agreed to the terms in March or December, six months later he provided sworn testimony that Lucrezia was a virgin. Lucrezia was by then pregnant with the Roman Infante, whose parentage was cited by some as proof of incest between her and Cesare. It is certain that Sforza did not parent the child but details beyond that are uncertain, Giovanni was excommunicated in 1500 and the citizens of one of his cities attempted to kill him
32.
Louis XII of France
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Louis XII was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his cousin Charles VIII, who died without a closer heir in 1498. Before his accession to the throne of France, he was known as Louis of Orléans and was compelled to be married to his disabled and supposedly sterile cousin Joan by his second cousin, king Louis XI. By doing so, Louis XI hoped to extinguish the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois, Louis of Orléans was one of the great feudal lords who opposed the French monarchy in the conflict known as the Mad War. At the royal victory in the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier in 1488, Louis was captured and he subsequently took part in the Italian War of 1494–1498 as one of the French commanders. When Louis XII became king in 1498, he had his marriage with Joan annulled by Pope Alexander VI and instead married Anne of Brittany and this marriage allowed Louis to reinforce the personal Union of Brittany and France. Louis persevered in the Italian Wars, initiating a second Italian campaign for the control of the Kingdom of Naples, Louis conquered the Duchy of Milan in 1500 and pushed forward to the Kingdom of Naples, which fell to him in 1501. Proclaimed King of Naples, Louis faced a new coalition gathered by Ferdinand II of Aragon and was forced to cede Naples to Spain in 1504. A popular king, Louis was proclaimed Father of the People in 1506 by the Estates-General of Tours for his reduction of the tax known as taille, legal reforms, Louis XII died in 1515 without a male heir. He was succeeded by his cousin Francis from the Angoulême cadet branch of the House of Valois, Louis was born on 27 June 1462 in the Château de Blois, Touraine. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, however, Louis XI may have been more influenced in this opinion by his opposition to the entire Orleanist faction of the royal family than by the actual facts of this paternity case. Despite any alleged doubts that King Louis XI may have had, King Louis XI died on 30 August 1483. He was succeeded to the throne of France by his thirteen year-old son, nobody knew the direction which the new king would take in leading the kingdom. Accordingly, on 24 October 1483, a call went out for a convocation of the Estates General of the French kingdom, in January 1484, deputies of the Estates General began to arrive in Tours, France. The deputies represented three different estates in society, the First Estate was the Church, in France this meant the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Estate was composed of the nobility and the royalty of France, the Third Estate was generally composed of commoners and the class of traders and merchants in France. Louis, the current Duke of Orleans and future Louis XII, each estate brought their chief complaints to the Estates General in hopes to have some impact on the policies that the new King would pursue. The First Estate wanted a return to the Pragmatic Sanction, the Pragmatic Sanction had been first instituted by King Charles VII, the current King Charles VIIIs grandfather
33.
Ludovico Sforza
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Ludovico Maria Sforza, was Duke of Milan from 1494 until 1499, following the death of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza. A member of the Sforza family, he was the son of Francesco I Sforza. He was famed as a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists and he is probably best known as the man who commissioned The Last Supper. Ludovico Sforza was born on 27 July 1452 at Vigevano, in what is now Lombardy and he was the fourth son of Francesco I Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti and, as such, was not expected to become ruler of Milan. Nevertheless, his mother, Bianca, prudently saw to it that his education was not restricted to the classical languages. Under the tutelage of the humanist Francesco Filelfo, Ludovico received instruction in the beauties of painting, sculpture, and letters and he later helped Leonardo paint with pastels. When their father Francesco died in 1466, the titles devolved upon the dissolute Galeazzo Maria. Galeazzo Maria ruled until his assassination in 1476, leaving his titles to his son, Gian Galeazzo Sforza. For the following 13 years he ruled Milan as its Regent, Leonardo da Vinci orchestrated the wedding celebration. Beatrice and Alfonso’s sister, Isabella dEste was married to Francesco II Gonzaga, the 15-year-old princess quickly charmed the Milanese court with her joy in life, her laughter, and even her extravagance. She helped to make Sforza Castle a center of sumptuous festivals and balls and she loved entertaining philosophers, poets, diplomats and she would become the mother of Maximilian Sforza and Francesco II Sforza, future Dukes of Milan. Prior to and throughout the duration of his marriage, Ludovico is known to have had mistresses, bernardina de Corradis was an early mistress who bore him a daughter, Bianca Giovanna. The child was legitimized and later married to Galeazzo da Sanseverino in 1496, cecilia Gallerani, believed to be a favourite, gave birth to a son named Cesare on 3 May 1491, in the same year in which he married Beatrice dEste. Gallerani is identified as the subject of Leonardo da Vincis Lady with an Ermine – the ermine was the animal of Ludovico il Moro. Another mistress was Lucrezia Crivelli, who bore him another son, Giovanni Paolo. Ludovico also fathered an illegitimate son, called Sforza, who was born around 1484 and died suddenly in 1487. Ludovico contented himself with the rather than the appearance of power. He invested in agriculture, horse and cattle breeding, and the metal industry, some 20,000 workers were employed in the silk industry
34.
Leonardo da Vinci
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He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter and tank, many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the Universal Genius or Renaissance Man, an individual of unquenchable curiosity and feverishly inventive imagination. Much of his working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, and he spent his last years in France at the home awarded to him by Francis I of France, Leonardo was, and is, renowned primarily as a painter. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait, Leonardos drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro coin, textbooks, and T-shirts. Perhaps fifteen of his paintings have survived, Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated power, an adding machine. Some of his inventions, however, such as an automated bobbin winder. A number of Leonardos most practical inventions are nowadays displayed as working models at the Museum of Vinci. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, geology, optics, and hydrodynamics, today, Leonardo is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. Leonardo was born on 15 April 1452 at the hour of the night in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci. He was the son of the wealthy Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine legal notary, and Caterina. Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense – da Vinci simply meaning of Vinci, his birth name was Lionardo di ser Piero da Vinci, meaning Leonardo. The inclusion of the title ser indicated that Leonardos father was a gentleman, little is known about Leonardos early life. He spent his first five years in the hamlet of Anchiano in the home of his mother and his father had married a sixteen-year-old girl named Albiera Amadori, who loved Leonardo but died young in 1465 without children. When Leonardo was sixteen, his father married again to twenty-year-old Francesca Lanfredini, pieros legitimate heirs were born from his third wife Margherita di Guglielmo and his fourth and final wife, Lucrezia Cortigiani. Leonardo received an education in Latin, geometry and mathematics. In later life, Leonardo recorded only two childhood incidents, one, which he regarded as an omen, was when a kite dropped from the sky and hovered over his cradle, its tail feathers brushing his face
35.
Germans
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Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history. German is the mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans. The English term Germans has historically referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages, before the collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany in 1990, Germans constituted the largest divided nation in Europe by far. Ever since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, roughly 80 million consider themselves Germans. Thus, the number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied. Today, people from countries with German-speaking majorities most often subscribe to their own national identities, the German term Deutsche originates from the Old High German word diutisc, referring to the Germanic language of the people. It is not clear how commonly, if at all, the word was used as an ethnonym in Old High German, used as a noun, ein diutscher in the sense of a German emerges in Middle High German, attested from the second half of the 12th century. The Old French term alemans is taken from the name of the Alamanni and it was loaned into Middle English as almains in the early 14th century. The word Dutch is attested in English from the 14th century, denoting continental West Germanic dialects, while in most Romance languages the Germans have been named from the Alamanni, the Old Norse, Finnish and Estonian names for the Germans were taken from that of the Saxons. In Slavic languages, the Germans were given the name of němьci, originally with a meaning foreigner, the English term Germans is only attested from the mid-16th century, based on the classical Latin term Germani used by Julius Caesar and later Tacitus. It gradually replaced Dutch and Almains, the latter becoming mostly obsolete by the early 18th century, the Germans are a Germanic people, who as an ethnicity emerged during the Middle Ages. Originally part of the Holy Roman Empire, around 300 independent German states emerged during its decline after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War and these states eventually formed into modern Germany in the 19th century. The concept of a German ethnicity is linked to Germanic tribes of antiquity in central Europe, the early Germans originated on the North German Plain as well as southern Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the number of Germans was significantly increasing and they began expanding into eastern Europe, during antiquity these Germanic tribes remained separate from each other and did not have writing systems at that time. In the European Iron Age the area that is now Germany was divided into the La Tène horizon in Southern Germany and the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany. By 55 BC, the Germans had reached the Danube river and had either assimilated or otherwise driven out the Celts who had lived there, and had spread west into what is now Belgium and France. Conflict between the Germanic tribes and the forces of Rome under Julius Caesar forced major Germanic tribes to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine, in Roman-held territories with Germanic populations, the Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, and Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions intermingled. The adoption of Christianity would later become an influence in the development of a common German identity
36.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
37.
Maximilian Sforza
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Maximilian Sforza was a Duke of Milan from the Sforza family, the son of Ludovico Sforza. He ruled 1512–1515, between the occupations of Louis XII of France, and Francis I of France in 1515, after the French victory at the Battle of Marignano, Massimiliano was imprisoned by the returning French troops. He waived his rights to Milan for the sum of 30,000 ducats, when he was three his father tried to arrange a marriage between him and Mary Tudor, the younger daughter of King Henry VII of England. However, Henry VII rejected the proposal as Massimilianos father was hoping that Henry would help him against the French, maximilian Sforzas ancestors in three generations Italian Wars Alexander, J. J. G. Italian Renaissance Illuminations, ISBN9780701122706 Frieda, Leonie. The Deadly Sisterhood, A Story of Women, Power and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Perry, Maria, Sisters to King Henry VIII
38.
Francis I of France
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Francis I was the first King of France from the Angoulême branch of the House of Valois, reigning from 1515 until his death. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and he succeeded his cousin and father-in-law Louis XII, who died without a male heir. Francis reign saw important cultural changes with the rise of absolute monarchy in France, the spread of humanism and Protestantism, Jacques Cartier and others claimed lands in the Americas for France and paved the way for the expansion of the first French colonial empire. For his role in the development and promotion of a standardized French language, he became known as le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres. He was also known as François au Grand Nez, the Grand Colas, following the policy of his predecessors, Francis continued the Italian Wars. In his struggle against Imperial hegemony, he sought the support of Henry VIII of England at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. When this was unsuccessful, he formed a Franco-Ottoman alliance with the Muslim sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a controversial move for a Christian king at the time. Francis was born on 12 September 1494 at the Château de Cognac in the town of Cognac, which at that time lay in the province of Saintonge, today the town lies in the department of Charente. Francis was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. His family was not expected to inherit the throne, as his third cousin King Charles VIII was still young at the time of his birth, as was his fathers cousin the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis XII. However, Charles VIII died childless in 1498 and was succeeded by Louis XII, the Salic Law prevailed in France, thus females were ineligible to inherit the throne. Therefore, the four-year-old Francis became the heir presumptive to the throne of France in 1498 and was vested with the title of Duke of Valois. In 1505, Louis XII, having fallen ill, ordered that his daughter Claude and Francis be married immediately, Claude was heiress to the Duchy of Brittany through her mother, Anne of Brittany. Following Annes death, the took place on 18 May 1514. Louis died shortly afterwards and Francis inherited the throne and he was crowned King of France in the Cathedral of Reims on 25 January 1515, with Claude as his queen consort. As Francis was receiving his education, ideas emerging from the Italian Renaissance were influential in France, some of his tutors, such as François Desmoulins de Rochefort and Christophe de Longueil, were attracted by these new ways of thinking and attempted to influence Francis. His academic education had been in arithmetic, geography, grammar, history, reading, spelling, Francis came to learn chivalry, dancing, and music and he loved archery, falconry, horseback riding, hunting, jousting, real tennis and wrestling. He ended up reading philosophy and theology and he was fascinated with art, literature, poetry and his mother, who had a high admiration for Italian Renaissance art, passed this interest on to her son
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Bianca Maria Visconti
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Bianca Maria Visconti was Duchess of Milan from 1450 to 1468. Agnese was the daughter of Ambrogio del Maino, a Milanese nobleman, Agnese served as Lady-in-Waiting to Filippos wife, Beatrice di Tenda. The couple had a daughter, called Caterina Maria or Lucia Maria, also born in Settimo in 1426. Biancas paternal grandparents were Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Caterina Visconti, when she was six months old, Bianca Maria and her mother were sent to a castle in Abbiate, where a rich residence had been established for the two of them. The Duke spent much of his time in Abbiategrasso, where he was impressed by Bianca Marias strong character, Bianca Maria spent her childhood and adolescence in Abbiategrasso, where she received a humanist education. Both Bianca and her father were passionate hunters and lovers of horses, in 1430, at the age of six, Bianca Maria was betrothed to the condottiero Francesco I Sforza, a man twenty-four years older than she. In that year the condotta between Milan and Sforza came to an end, and the betrothal was a move to keep the powerful general tied with Milan and it has also been suggested that Visconti enticed Sforza with the promise of appointing him as legitimate heir to the duchy. Sforza probably also accepted because of the dowry, which included territories in the areas of Cremona, Castellazzo di Bollate. The contract was signed on February 23,1432, in the castle of Porta Giovia, Bianca Marias official spokesperson was her godfather, Andrea Visconti, general of the Humiliates order. The presence of Bianca Maria and her mother at the ceremony is not certain, according to some sources, Bianca Marias trip to Ferrara at that time was also her first confirmed trip outside Abbiategrasso. The attempt to force Sforza to change alliances was fruitless, in the same year Niccolò Piccinino, captain of the Milanese troops, created difficulties for Francesco, he asked Visconti for lordship of Piacenza in return for his capture of Sforza. Visconti then moved toward reconciling with Sforza, suspending hostilities and sending him peace proposals, on 24 October 1441 Francesco Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti were wed in the Abbey of San Sigismondo in Cremona, preferring that citys Cathedral for security reasons. It is probable that this cake is the origin of the torrone, on 7 November 1441, Filippo Maria issued a decree reducing the rights of his vassals, Francesco included. The latter preferred to establish himself in the territory of Venetia. In the same years Francesco and Bianca Maria were invited to Venice by the doge of Venice, shortly thereafter, news that Piccinino was menacing Sforzas possessions in the Marche reached the city. Bianca Maria then accompanied her husband to Rimini, where they were guests of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, in Gradara, here she remained in the castle while Francesco led the military operations against Piccinino. In 1442 Bianca Maria was named regent of the Marche and this choice may seem surprising, but numerous contemporary chronicles state that Bianca Maria had repeatedly proven her skills in administration and diplomacy. As for the couples personal relationship, if it is certain that Francesco had strong feelings towards Bianca Maria
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Lucrezia Landriani
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Lucrezia Landriani was the mistress of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, and the mother of his renowned illegitimate daughter, Caterina Sforza, Lady of Imola, Countess of Forlì. Lucrezia had three children by the Duke, and two by her husband. Galeazzo Maria would become Duke of Milan upon the death of his father on 8 March 1466, Lucrezia was born in Milan around 1440, nothing further, however, is known of her early years, or her parentage. A contemporary portrait of Lucrezia painted by Domenico Veneziano, shows her to have quite beautiful, with blonde hair, blue eyes, a high forehead. Lucrezia became Galeazzo Marias mistress sometime around 1460, when he was sixteen years of age and she bore Galeazzo Maria at least four children, Carlo Sforza, Count of Magenta, married Bianca Simonetta, by whom he had two daughters, Angela Sforza, and Ippolita Sforza. Caterina Sforza, Lady of Imola, Countess of Forli, married three times, chiara Sforza, married firstly, Pietro, Count dal Verme di Sanguinetto, Lord of Vigevano, and secondly, Fregosino Fregoso, Lord of Novi, by whom she had issue. Alessandro Sforza, Lord of Francavilla, married Barbara dei Conti Balbiani di Valchiavenna, by whom he had a daughter, lucrezias children were legitimised and raised at the ducal court, alongside Galeazzos legitimate children by his second wife Bona of Savoy. They were, however, entrusted into the care of their paternal grandmother, the most gifted, and remarkable child of Galeazzo and Lucrezia was Caterina, who was instructed in the arts of diplomacy and warfare by her grandmother. On 26 December 1476, Galeazzo Maria Sforza was stabbed to death inside the church of San Stefano in Milan and his only legitimate son by Bona of Savoy, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, succeeded him as Duke of Milan. Lucrezia Landriani died on an unknown date
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Bianca Maria Sforza
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Bianca Maria Sforza was an Italian noble woman, who was Holy Roman Empress as the second wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. She was the eldest legitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, by his second wife, Biancas paternal grandparents were Francesco I Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti, for whom she was named. Her maternal grandparents were Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne de Lusignan of Cyprus, Biancas older illegitimate half-sister was Caterina Sforza from her fathers relationship with Lucrezia Landriani. Her uncle was Ludovico Sforza Il Moro, Duke of Milan, who married Beatrice dEste, and her aunt was Ippolita Maria Sforza, first wife of King Alfonso II of Naples. When Bianca was not yet five years old, her father was assassinated inside the Church of Santo Stefano in Milan on 26 December 1476 and he was stabbed to death by three high-ranking officials of the Milanese court. On 6 January 1474 the 21-months-old Bianca married her first cousin Philibert I, Duke of Savoy, the son of her uncle Amadeus IX of Savoy, Duke Philibert I died in the spring of 1482, leaving Bianca a widow at the age of ten. She returned to Milan, under the tutelage of her uncle Ludovico Il Moro, three years later, on 31 July 1485, the engagement between Bianca and Janus Corvinus, the only son of King Matthias of Hungary was formally announced. With this marriage, the Hungarian ruler wanted to secure his sons inheritance of Hungary and Bohemia. The marriage by proxy was signed on 25 November 1487, and according to the terms of the contract, however, due to the opposition and intrigues of Queen Beatrix, wife of Matthias and member of the Neapolitan House of Aragon, the formal marriage never took place. In March 1492 a marriage between Bianca and King James IV of Scotland was considered, but the idea was soon abandoned. Biancas second marriage was arranged by her uncle, who wanted recognition and the title of Duke confirmed by the Emperor, in exchange and her magnificent retinue on her way to her wedding aroused much attention. At her wedding, Bianca wore a bodice with eighty pieces of the jewelers art pinned thereon, with each consisting of one ruby. She also brought her husband a rich dowry of 400,000 ducats and this angered Anne of France, regent of France for her brother King Charles VIII, and brought about French intervention in Italy, thus inaugurating the lengthy Italian Wars. The union was unhappy, shortly after the consummation of the marriage and it was impossible for the young bride to win the affection of her husband, who considered her too uneducated, talkative, naive, wasteful with money, and careless. He did wish to have children with her, but all their attempts failed, despite Biancas several pregnancies and she very much liked his two surviving legitimate children, but was criticized for forgetting her dignity when she sat on the floor with them to play. After 1500, Maximilian lost all interest in Bianca and she lived with her own court of Milanese people in various castles in Tyrol. On several occasions he left her behind as security when he could not pay for his rooms on trips, Maximilian took the title of Holy Roman Emperor Elect in 1508. Bianca was, by marriage, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, Bianca Maria Sforza died at Innsbruck on 31 December 1510
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Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
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Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
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Maximilian I was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was always too risky. He was the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and he ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his fathers reign, from c.1483 to 1493. Charles father Philip died in 1506, so Charles succeeded Maximilian as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, Maximilian was born at Wiener Neustadt on 22 March 1459. His father, Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, named him for an obscure saint whom Frederick believed had once warned him of imminent peril in a dream, in his infancy, he and his parents were besieged in Vienna by Albert of Austria. One source relates that, during the sieges bleakest days, the prince would wander about the castle garrison, begging the servants. The young prince was an excellent hunter, his hobby was the hunting for birds as a horse archer. The reigning duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was the political opponent of Maximilians father Frederick III. After the Siege of Neuss, he was successful, the wedding between Maximilian and Mary took place on the evening of 16 August 1477. Maximilians wife had inherited the large Burgundian domains in France and the Low Countries upon her fathers death in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477. Already before his coronation as the King of the Romans in 1486, Maximilian decided to secure this distant and extensive Burgundian inheritance to his family, the House of Habsburg, at all costs. Maximilian undertook the defence of his wifes dominions from an attack by Louis XI and defeated the French forces at Guinegate, the wedding contract between Maximilian and Mary stipulated that only the children of bride and groom had a right to inherit from each, not the surviving parent. Mary tried to bypass this rule with a promise to transfer territories as a gift in case of her death, but her plans were confounded. After Marys death in an accident on 27 March 1482 near the Wijnendale Castle, Maximilians aim was now to secure the inheritance to one of his and Marys children. Some of the Netherlander provinces were hostile to Maximilian, and they signed a treaty with Louis XI in 1482 that forced Maximilian to give up Franche-Comté and they openly rebelled twice in the period 1482–1492, attempting to regain the autonomy they had enjoined under Mary. Flemish rebels managed to capture Philip and even Maximilian himself, Maximilian continued to govern Marys remaining inheritance in the name of Philip the Handsome. After the regency ended, Maximilian and Charles VIII of France exchanged these two territories for Burgundy and Picardy in the Treaty of Senlis, thus a large part of the Netherlands stayed in the Habsburg patrimony. Maximilian was elected King of the Romans on 16 February 1486 in Frankfurt-am-Main at his fathers initiative and he became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire upon the death of his father in 1493. Much of Austria was under Hungarian rule when he took power, in 1490, Maximilian reconquered the territory and entered Vienna
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