Romagna
Romagna is an Italian historical region that corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna, North Italy. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, the rivers Reno and Sillaro to the north and west; the region's major cities include Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and City of San Marino. The region has been formally expanded with the transfer of seven comuni from the Marche region, which are a small number of comuni where Romagnolo dialect is spoken; the name Romagna originates from the Latin name Romania, the generic name for "land inhabited by Romans", first appeared on Latin documents in the 5th century. It took on the more detailed meaning of "territory subjected to Eastern Roman rule", whose citizens called themselves Romans, thus the term Romania came to be used to refer to the territory administered by the Exarchate of Ravenna in contrast to other parts of Northern Italy under Lombard rule, named Langobardia or Lombardy. 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 dwelt in some portions of Romagna. In the 5th Century BC, various Gaulish tribes, most notably the Lingones and Boii, moved south into Italy, sacked Rome in 390 BC; the Senoni utterly settled in Romagna. The Senoni extended further south with their capital Sena Gallica; the lands 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 challenged by the Romans. In the battle of Telamon, the Romans defeated the joint forces of the Celtic tribes, thus achieving a hegemony over the new Roman Province of Cisalpine Gaul centred at Mutina. 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, a series of Roman colonies were founded.
The most significant ones are Forum Cornelii and Forum Popili. After the Social War, the Lex Julia was introduced in 90 BC, Roman citizenship was granted to all municipia south of the River Po. 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, the region was looted by Sulla's army. During the first triumvirate, the Roman Republic was divided along the infamous Rubicon. Most of modern Romagna was ruled by Julius Caesar, the notable exception of Ariminium, south of the river. In 49 BC, residing in Ravenna led the Legio XIII across the Rubicon and ignited Caesar's civil war. 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, 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, into provinces.
Under the new system, Italy was demoted to a mere Imperial province. Modern Romagna was organized into the Roman province of Flaminia et Picenum in the diocese of Italia Annonaria. Ravenna, surrounded by swamps and marshes and rose in importance, a Roman fleet was based at the city, it had developed into a major port on the Adriatic. However, in 330, the capital of the Empire was transferred to Constantinople, so with the fleet that stationed at Ravenna, thus weakened the coastal defence in the Adriatic. Stepping into the 5th Century, the Germanic migrations into the Empire further intensified. In 402, Emperor Honorius moved the Western Roman Empire's capital from Mediolanum to Ravenna because of the region's defensive terrain. 8 years Alaric I of the Visigoths looted Rome. In 476, Odoacer deposed Romulus in Ravenna. Encouraged by Emperor Zeno, Theodoric the Great led the Ostrogoths into Italy, he entered Ravenna and murdered Odoacer in 493, establishing a twofold kingdom of the Romans and Goths.
Under the Ostrogoths Italy was restored to its former prosperity. In 535 Justinian I initiated the Gothic War, it was fought for 20 years, the Ostrogoths were subjugated. The peninsula and devastated, was ruled by an exarch from Ravenna. However, Imperial authority was maintained for more than a decade. In 568 new Germanic tribes, the Lombards, entered Italy, established their capital at Pavia; the Empire could defend the region around Ravenna and Rome, connected by a narrow strip of land passing through Perugia, as well as a series of coastal cities. The Imperial frontier retreated to Bologna. In 727 the Lombard King Liutprand renewed war against the Byzantines, taking most of Romagna and besieging Ravenna itself; these territories were returned to the Byzantines in 730. In 737 the king took Ravenna; the exarch, retook the region in 740, with Venetian assistance. Another Lombard king, Aistu
Aversa
Aversa is a city and comune in the Province of Caserta in Campania, southern Italy, about 5 kilometres north of Naples. It is the centre of the Agro Aversano, producing wine and cheese. Aversa is the main seat of the faculties of Architecture and Engineering of the Seconda università degli studi di Napoli. With a population of 52,974, it is the second city of the province after Caserta. Aversa is located near the city of Naples, from which it is separated by only 5 kilometres, only 16 kilometres from Caserta, the administrative centre of the province to which it belongs; the municipality borders with Carinaro, Cesa, Giugliano in Campania, Gricignano di Aversa, San Marcellino, Sant'Antimo and Trentola Ducenta. It is located in a fertile coastal plain north of Naples, thus serving as a market for agricultural products to the city; the plain on which it sits was known in ancient Roman times as the Campania Felix. Although some archaeological sites excavated near Aversa have revealed human presence in the area since the Neolithic period, the first known inhabitants in the area were the Liburnians, people related to the Illyrians, whose territory was bounded on the south by Naples, west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and north along the Clanio river.
However, some say. In any case, because of endemic malaria that ravaged the region, the primitive city was abandoned. Only a small military fortification, a castellum, still stands in the area, linked to a chapel in memory of the current alleged passage through Aversa by the Apostle Paul in the year 61. A. D. via the Roman road that ran towards Rome. See List of Counts of Aversa. Aversa, which replaced the nearby city of Atella, laid waste during the Gothic Wars, was the first of the Norman territories in the Mediterranean. In 1030, the site was ceded to Rainulf Drengot, a cadet of the lords of Quarrel near Alençon in Normandy. By offering a generous principle of asylum for the persecuted, Rainulf enlarged the power and importance of his little borgo, which became the base from which the Normans forged a state in Sicily and Italy; the diplomacy of Robert Guiscard, who built the fortifications, led to the investiture of a bishop responsible to the Pope at Aversa, nominally territory of the Eastern Emperor.
One of the first bishops was the Norman Guitmund, a Benedictine monk and opponent of Berengar of Tours. The count of Aversa, Richard I, was one of the chief leaders in the struggle against the Papal forces which culminated in the Battle of Civitella del Fortore in Beneventan territory; the astute Richard did not treat the pope as a prisoner, but escorted him back to Rome with full honours, a gesture that led to the conciliation of the Normans with the Church, the lifting of the ban of excommunication, laid upon Aversa. After the Norman dynasty Aversa declined in importance: the Angevin kings of Naples came to Aversa to hunt and hold court in the citadel, of which a few traces remain in via Roma in Aversa's historic centre. In particular Queen Joanna I chose Aversa for her preferred seat. There a group of nobles threw her husband Andrew from a window with a rope around his neck, his brother, King Louis I of Hungary, head of the Capetian House of Anjou, marched into Italy and at Aversa took his vengeance at a banquet of reconciliation, as Joanna escaped to Avignon.
The presence of the court benefitted Aversa by the institution of the Real Casa dell'Annunziata an orphanage and hospice that occupied a central place in Aversan public life. When Alfonso V of Aragon permanently enthroned the kingdom of Naples within the domains of the Crown of Aragon, Aversa continued to maintain the privileges it had enjoyed. Soon the epidemics and subdivisions of land caused it to be relegated as a peripheral urban center of Naples. In the fourteenth or fifteenth century the County of Aversa was taken over by a family from Valencia, the Pròixida. In fact, the palace of the Count of Almenara in Almenara is known as the palace of the Count of Aversa. Italian wine, both white and sparkling, under the Aversa DOC appellation comes from this area. Grapes destined for DOC product must be harvested to a maximum yield of 14 tonnes/hectare with the finished wines fermented to a minimum alcohol level of 10.5% for still and 11% for the spumante style. The primary grape variety of the region is the Asprinio which must constitute at least 85% of the wines, with other local white grape varieties, such as Fiano and Greco permitted to fill in the remainder.
Viticulture in Aversa is unique for its use of growing the grapevines with poplar trees acting as trellises. This traditional method of trellising means that all harvesting is done by hand. Aversa, the second in historic importance of the dioceses of Campania, is the "city of a hundred churches" in its extensive historic center. Among its monuments: The Romanesque Duomo, dedicated to Saint Paul, has a spectacular ambulatory and a majestic octagonal dome. Francesco Solimena's Madonna of the Gonfaloneand the Quattrocento painter Angiolillo Arcuccio's Martyrdom of St Sebastian are in the Duomo; the pre-Romanesque sculpture of St George and the Dragon is one of the few surviving free-standing sculptures of its date. An outstanding collection of Baroque liturgical silver is kept in the Treasury; the Baroque Church of San Francesco d
Tuscany
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. The regional capital is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, artistic legacy, its influence on high culture, it is regarded as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and has been home to many figures influential in the history of art and science, contains well-known museums such as the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace. 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 sometimes considered "a nation within a nation". Tuscany is a popular destination in Italy, the main tourist spots are Florence, Lucca, Versilia and Chianti; the village of Castiglione della Pescaia is the most visited seaside destination in the region, with seaside tourism accounting for 40% of tourist arrivals. Additionally, Lucca, the Chianti region and Val d'Orcia are internationally renowned and popular spots among travellers.
Seven Tuscan localities have been designated World Heritage Sites: the historic centre of Florence. 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 world's 89th most visited city, with over 1.834 million arrivals. Triangular in shape, Tuscany borders the regions of Liguria to the northwest, Emilia-Romagna to the north, Marche to the northeast, 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 Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea, among, the Tuscan Archipelago, of which the largest island is Elba. Tuscany has an area of 22,993 square kilometres. Surrounded and crossed by major mountain chains, with few plains, the region has a relief, dominated by hilly country used for agriculture. Hills make up nearly two-thirds of the region's total area, covering 15,292 square kilometres, mountains, a further 25%, or 5,770 square kilometres.
Plains occupy 8.4% of the total area—1,930 square kilometres —mostly around the valley of the Arno. Many of Tuscany's largest cities lie on the banks of the Arno, including the capital Florence and Pisa; the climate is mild in the coastal areas, is harsher and rainy in the interior, with considerable fluctuations in temperature between winter and summer, giving the region a soil-building active freeze-thaw cycle, in part accounting for the region's once having served as a key breadbasket of ancient Rome. The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the late Bronze and Iron Ages parallels that of the early Greeks; the Tuscan area was inhabited by peoples of the so-called Apennine culture in the late second millennium BC who had trading relationships with the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations in the Aegean Sea. Following this, the Villanovan culture saw Tuscany, 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 the area of Etruria well into prehistory; the civilization grew to fill the area between the Arno and Tiber from the eighth century BCE, reaching its peak during the seventh and sixth centuries B. C. succumbing to the Romans by the first century BCE. Throughout their existence, they lost territory to Magna Graecia and Celts. Despite being seen as distinct in its manners and customs by contemporary Greeks, the cultures of Greece, Rome, influenced the civilization to a great extent. 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 and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, ensured peace.
These developments included extensions of existing roads, introduction of aqueducts and sewers, the construction of many buildings, both public and private. However, many of these structures have been destroyed by erosion due to weather; the Roman civilization in the West of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century, the region fell to barbarians migrating through the Empire from Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Goths was re-conquered by the revived Eastern Roman Empire under the strong Emperor Justinian. In the years following 572, the Lombards arrived and designated Lucca the capital of their subsequent Tuscia. Pilgrims travelling along the Via Francigena between Rome and France brought wealth and development during the medieval period; the food and shelter required by the
Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry VII was the King of Germany from 1308 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1312. He was the first emperor of the House of Luxembourg. During his brief career he reinvigorated the imperial cause in Italy, racked with the partisan struggles between the divided Guelf and Ghibelline factions, inspired the praise of Dino Compagni and Dante Alighieri, he was the first emperor since the death of Frederick II in 1250, ending the great interregnum of the Holy Roman Empire. His son, John of Bohemia, failed to be elected as his successor, there was another anti-king, Frederick the Fair contesting the rule of Louis IV. Born around 1275 in Valenciennes, he was a son of Count Henry VI of Luxembourg and Béatrice from the House of Avesnes. Raised at the French court, he was the lord of comparatively small properties in a peripheral and predominantly French-speaking part of the Holy Roman Empire, it was symptomatic of the empire’s weakness that during his rule as the Count of Luxembourg, he agreed to become a French vassal, seeking the protection of King Philip the Fair of France.
During his rule of Luxembourg, he ruled especially in keeping the peace in local feudal disputes. Henry became caught up in the internal political machinations of the Holy Roman Empire with the assassination of King Albert I on 1 May 1308. King Philip of France began aggressively seeking support for his brother, Charles of Valois, to be elected the next King of the Romans. Philip thought he had the backing of the French Pope Clement V, that his prospects of bringing the empire into the orbit of the French royal house were good, he lavishly spread French money in the hope of bribing the German electors. Although Charles of Valois had the backing of Henry, Archbishop of Cologne, a French supporter, many were not keen to see an expansion of French power, least of all Clement V; the principal rival to Charles appeared to be the Count Palatine. Given his background, although he was a vassal of Philip the Fair, Henry was bound by few national ties, an aspect of his suitability as a compromise candidate among the electors, the great territorial magnates who had lived without a crowned emperor for decades, who were unhappy with both Charles and Rudolf.
Henry of Cologne’s brother, Archbishop of Trier, won over a number of the electors, including Henry, in exchange for some substantial concessions. Henry skillfully negotiated his way to the crown, elected with six votes at Frankfurt on 27 November 1308. Henry was subsequently crowned at Aachen on 6 January 1309. In July 1309, Pope Clement V confirmed Henry's election, he agreed to crown Henry Emperor at Candlemas 1312 the title having been vacant since the death of Frederick II. Henry in exchange, swore an oath of protection to the Pope, agreed to defend the rights and not attack the privileges of the cities of the Papal States, agreed to go on Crusade once he had been crowned emperor, yet the newly crowned king had local issues to deal with. Henry was approached by part of the Bohemian nobility and some important and influential ecclesiastics to intervene in Bohemia. Unhappy with the rule of Henry of Carinthia, wary of the claims of the Habsburgs who had some legitimate claim on the crown, they convinced Henry to marry his son John I, Count of Luxemburg to Elizabeth, the daughter of Wenceslas II, so establish a claim to the Bohemian crown.
In July 1310 he engineered the removal of Henry of Carinthia. On 15 August 1309, Henry VII announced his intention to travel to Rome, having sent his ambassadors to Italy to prepare for his arrival, so expected his troops to be ready to travel by 1 October 1310. Prior to leaving Germany, he sought to smooth relations with the Habsburgs, forced against their will to accept the accession of Henry’s son in Bohemia, cowed by the threats of making the Duchy of Austria dependent on the Bohemian crown, he therefore confirmed them in their imperial fiefs by October 1309. Henry felt he needed to obtain a papal imperial coronation because of the lowly origins of his house, because of the concessions he had been forced to make to obtain the German crown in the first place, he saw it, together with the crowns of Italy and Arles, as a necessary counterweight to the ambitions of the French king. To ensure the success of his Italian expedition, Henry entered into negotiations with Robert, King of Naples in mid-1310, with the intent of marrying his daughter, Beatrix to Robert’s son, Duke of Calabria.
It was hoped that this would lessen the tensions in Italy between the anti-imperial Guelphs, who looked to the King of Naples for leadership, the pro-imperial Ghibellines. Negotiations broke down due to Robert’s excessive monetary demands, as well as through the interference of Philip, who did not want such an alliance to succeed. While these negotiations were taking place, Henry began his descent into northern Italy in October 1310, with his eldest son John remaining in Prague as the Imperial vicar; as he crossed the Alps and travelled into the Lombard plain and prelates of both Guelph and Ghibelline factions hastened to greet him, Dante circulated an optimistic open letter addressed to the rulers and the people. As Emperor, Henry had planned to restore the glory of the Holy Roman Empire, but he did not reckon on the bitterly divided state that Italy had now become. Decades of warfare and strife had seen the rise of dozens of independent city-states, each
Simone Martini
Simone Martini was an Italian painter born in Siena. He was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and influenced the development of the International Gothic style, it is thought that Martini was a pupil of Duccio di Buoninsegna, the leading Sienese painter of his time. According to late Renaissance art biographer Giorgio Vasari, Simone was instead a pupil of Giotto di Bondone, with whom he went to Rome to paint at the Old St. Peter's Basilica, Giotto executing a mosaic there. Martini's brother-in-law was the artist Lippo Memmi. Little documentation of Simone's life survives, many attributions are debated by art historians. Simone was doubtlessly apprenticed from an early age. Among his first documented works is the Maestà of 1315 in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. A copy of the work, executed shortly thereafter by Lippo Memmi in San Gimignano, testifies to the enduring influence Simone's prototypes would have on other artists throughout the 14th century. Perpetuating the Sienese tradition, Simone's style contrasted with the sobriety and monumentality of Florentine art, is noted for its soft, decorative features, sinuosity of line, courtly elegance.
Simone's art owes much to French manuscript illumination and ivory carving: examples of such art were brought to Siena in the fourteenth century by means of the Via Francigena, a main pilgrimage and trade route from Northern Europe to Rome. Simone's other major works include the St. Louis of Toulouse Crowning the King Robert of Anjou at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples. During this stay, putative pupils were his son Francesco, Gennaro di Cola, Stefanone. Among other of Simone's works, he painted the Saint Catherine of Alexandria Polyptych in Pisa and the Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus at the Uffizi in Florence, as well as frescoes in the San Martino Chapel in the lower church of the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi. Francis Petrarch became a friend of Simone's while in Avignon, two of Petrarch's sonnets make reference to a portrait of Laura de Noves that Simone painted for the poet. A Christ Discovered in the Temple is in the collections of Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery.
Simone Martini died while in the service of the Papal court at Avignon in 1344. Memmo di Filippuccio Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Artists. Penguin Classics. Herbermann, Charles, ed.. "Simone Martini". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Art of Simone Martini Simone Martini – Gothic Painter Simone Martini at the National Gallery of Art
Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Louis IV, called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was King of the Romans from 1314, King of Italy from 1327, Holy Roman Emperor from 1328. Louis IV was Duke of Upper Bavaria from 1294/1301 together with his elder brother Rudolf I, served as Margrave of Brandenburg until 1323, as Count Palatine of the Rhine until 1329, he became Duke of Lower Bavaria in 1340, he obtained the titles Count of Hainaut, Holland and Friesland in 1345 when his wife Margaret inherited them. Louis was born in Munich, the son of Louis II, Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, Matilda, a daughter of King Rudolph I. Though Louis was educated in Vienna and became co-regent of his brother Rudolf I in Upper Bavaria in 1301 with the support of his Habsburg mother and her brother, King Albert I, he quarrelled with the Habsburgs from 1307 over possessions in Lower Bavaria. A civil war against his brother Rudolf due to new disputes on the partition of their lands was ended in 1313, when peace was made at Munich.
In the same year, on November 9, Louis defeated his Habsburg cousin Frederick the Fair, further aided by duke Leopold I. He was a friend of Frederick, with whom he had been raised. However, armed conflict arose when the guardianship over the young Dukes of Lower Bavaria was entrusted to Frederick though the late Duke Otto III, the former King of Hungary, had chosen Louis. On 9 November 1313, Frederick was defeated by Louis in the Battle of Gammelsdorf and had to renounce the tutelage; this victory caused a stir within the Holy Roman Empire and increased the reputation of the Bavarian Duke. The death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII in August 1313 necessitated the election of a successor. Henry's son John, King of Bohemia since 1310, was considered by many prince-electors to be too young, by others to be too powerful. One alternative was Frederick the Fair, the son of Henry's predecessor, Albert I, of the House of Habsburg. In reaction, the pro-Luxembourg party among the prince electors settled on Louis as its candidate to prevent Frederick's election.
On 19 October 1314, Archbishop Henry II Cologne chaired an assembly of four electors at Sachsenhausen, south of Frankfurt. Participants were Louis' brother, Rudolph I of the Palatinate, who objected to the election of his younger brother, Duke Rudolph I of Saxe-Wittenberg, Henry of Carinthia, whom the Luxembourgs had deposed as King of Bohemia; these four electors chose Frederick as King. The Luxembourg party did not accept this election and the next day a second election was held. Upon the instigation of Peter of Aspelt, Archbishop of Mainz, five different electors convened at Frankfurt and elected Louis as King; these electors were Archbishop Peter himself, Archbishop Baldwin of Trier and King John of Bohemia - both of the House of Luxembourg - Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg and Duke John II of Saxe-Lauenburg, who contested Rudolph of Wittenberg's claim to the electoral vote. This double election was followed by two coronations: Louis was crowned at Aachen - the customary site of coronations - by Archbishop Peter of Mainz, while the Archbishop of Cologne, who by custom had the right to crown the new king, crowned Frederick at Bonn.
In the following conflict between the kings, Louis recognized in 1316 the independence of Switzerland from the Habsburg dynasty. After several years of bloody war, victory seemed within the grasp of Frederick, supported by his brother Leopold. However, Frederick's army was decisively defeated in the Battle of Mühldorf on 28 September 1322 on the Ampfing Heath, where Frederick and 1300 nobles from Austria and Salzburg were captured. Louis held Frederick captive in Trausnitz Castle for three years, but the determined resistance by Frederick's brother Leopold, the retreat of John of Bohemia from his alliance, the Pope's ban induced Louis to release Frederick in the Treaty of Trausnitz of 13 March 1325. In this agreement, Frederick recognized Louis as legitimate ruler and undertook to return to captivity if he did not succeed in convincing his brothers to submit to Louis; as he did not manage to overcome Leopold's obstinacy, Frederick returned to Munich as a prisoner though the Pope had released him from his oath.
Louis, impressed by such nobility, renewed the old friendship with Frederick, they agreed to rule the Empire jointly. Since the Pope and the electors objected to this agreement, another treaty was signed at Ulm on 7 January 1326, according to which Frederick would administer Germany as King of the Romans, while Louis would be crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in Italy. However, after Leopold's death in 1326, Frederick withdrew from the regency of the Empire and returned to rule only Austria, he died on 13 January 1330. Despite Louis' victory, Pope John XXII still refused to ratify his election, in 1324 he excommunicated Louis, but the sanction had less effect than in earlier disputes between emperors and the papacy. After the reconciliation with the Habsburgs in 1326, Louis marched to Italy and was crowned King of Italy in Milan in 1327. In 1323, Louis had sent an army to Italy to protect Milan against the Kingdom of Naples, together with France the strongest ally of the papacy, but now the Lord of Milan Galeazzo I Visconti was deposed since he was suspected of conspiring with the pope.
In January 1328, Louis entered Rome and had himself crowned emperor by the aged senator Sciarra Colonna, called captain of the Roman people. Three months Louis published a decree declaring Pope John XXII deposed on grounds of heresy, he installed a Spiritual Franciscan, Pietro Rainalducci as Nicholas V, but both left Rome in August 1328. In the meanti
Peter III of Aragon
Peter III of Aragon, known as Peter the Great, was King of Aragon, King of Valencia, Count of Barcelona from 1276 to his death. At the invitation of some rebels, he conquered the Kingdom of Sicily and became King of Sicily in 1282, pressing the claim of his wife, uniting the kingdom to the crown, he was one of the greatest of medieval Aragonese monarchs. Peter was the eldest son of his second wife Violant of Hungary. Among betrothals of his youth, he was betrothed to Eudoxia, the youngest daughter of Emperor Theodore II Laskaris of Nicaea, in or before 1260; this contract was dissolved, after Eudoxia's brother lost the imperial throne in 1261, Eudoxia was instead married to the Count of Tenda. On 13 June 1262, Peter married Constance and heir of Manfred of Sicily. During his youth and early adulthood, Peter gained a great deal of military experience in his father's wars of the Reconquista against the Moors. On James I's death in 1276, the lands of the Crown of Aragon were divided amongst his two sons.
The Kingdom of Aragon, the Kingdom of Valencia and the Catalan counties went to Peter III as being the eldest son. Peter the Great and Constance of Sicily, Queen of Aragon were crowned in Zaragoza in November 1276 by the archbishop of Tarragona. Peter's first act as king was to complete the pacification of his Valencian territory, an action, underway before his father's death. However, a revolt soon broke out in Catalonia, led by the viscount of Cardona and abetted by Roger-Bernard III of Foix, Arnold Roger I of Pallars Sobirà, Ermengol X of Urgell; the rebels had developed a hatred for Peter as a result of the severity of his dealings with them during the reign of his father. Now they opposed him for not summoning the Catalan corts, confirming its privileges after his ascension to the throne. At the same time, a succession crisis continued in the County of Urgell; when Count Álvaro died in 1268, the families of his two wives, Constance, a daughter of Pedro Moncada of Béarn, Cecilia, a daughter of Roger-Bernard II of Foix, began a long fight over the inheritance of his county.
Meanwhile, a good portion of the county had been repossessed by Peter's father, James I, was thus inherited by Peter in 1276. In 1278, Ermengol X, Álvaro's eldest son, succeeded in recovering most of his lost patrimony and came to an agreement with Peter whereby he recognised the latter as his suzerain. In 1280, Peter defeated the stewing rebellion led by Roger-Bernard III after besieging the rebels in Balaguer for a month. Most of the rebel leaders were imprisoned in Lleida until 1281, while Roger-Bernard was imprisoned until 1284; when Muhammad I al-Mustansir, the Hafsid Emir of Tunisia who had put himself under James the Conqueror, died in 1277, Tunisia threw off the yoke of Aragonese suzerainty. Peter first sent an expedition to Tunis in 1280 under Conrad de Llansa designed to re-establish his suzerainty. In 1281, he himself prepared to lead a fleet of 140 ships with 15,000 men to invade Tunisia on behalf of the governor of Constantine; the fleet landed at Alcoyll in 1282. It was these Aragonese troops that received a Sicilian embassy after the Vespers of 30 March asking Peter to take their throne from Charles of Anjou.
In 1266, the French Charles I of Anjou, king of Naples with the approval of Pope Clement IV, invaded the Kingdom of Sicily, governed by the house of Hohenstaufen, the house of Peter III's wife, Constance of Sicily, oldest daughter of Manfred I of Sicily and rightful heir to the throne of Sicily after the deaths of her father and cousin Conradin fighting against Charles' invading forces. This made Peter III the heir of Manfred of Sicily in right of his wife; the Italian physician John of Procida acted on behalf of Peter in Sicily. John had fled to Aragon after Charles' success at Tagliacozzo. John travelled to Sicily to stir up the discontents in favour of Peter and thence to Constantinople to procure the support of Michael VIII Palaeologus. Michael refused to aid the Aragonese king without papal approval, so John voyaged to Rome and there gained the consent of Pope Nicholas III, who feared the ascent of Charles in the Mezzogiorno. John returned to Barcelona but the pope died, to be replaced by Simon de Brion, a Frenchman and a staunch ally of Charles and the Anjou dynasty.
This set the stage for the upcoming conflict. Constance thus claimed to her father's throne, supported by her husband, but the claim was fruitless, as Charles was supported by the Papacy and his power remained stronger; the election of a new Pope Nicholas III in 1277 gave the king of Aragon a glimpse of hope, but Nicholas somehow died in 1280 and a pro-French Pope Martin IV dissipated hopes. Peter had begun making strategic alliances with his neighbouring monarchs. Peter made his brother James II of Majorca sign the treaty of Perpignan in 1279, in which he recognized the Kingdom of Majorca as a feudal kingdom of Peter III. Peter by February 1283 had taken most of the Calabrian coastline. Charles feeling desperate, sent letters to Peter demanding they resolve the conflict by personal combat. King Peter accepted and Charles returned to France to arrange the du
