INTROD.]

MILANESE SUCCESSION.

53

negotiations which it will be our business to relate in the following pages. These claims were: 1. That of Charles, Duke of Orleans, founded on his being the son of Valentina Visconti, eldest sister of the late Duke; 2. That of Bianca, Philip's illegitimate daughter, and of her husband Francesco Sforza, who could also plead that he had been designated by Philip as his successor; 3. That of Alfonso, King of Naples, which rested on a genuine or pretended testament of the deceased Duke; 4. That of the Emperor, who, in default of heirs, claimed the duchy as a lapsed fief.

The question between Bianca and the House of Orleans rests on the issue, whether a legitimate collateral succession were preferable to an illegitimate but direct one? According to the usages of those times, when bastardy was not regarded as so complete a disqualification as it is at present, and when there were numerous instances of illegitimate succession in various Italian States, this question should perhaps be answered in the negative. Sforza's pretensions, as well as those of the King of Naples, rested on the question, whether the Duke had power to appoint in default of natural heirs; and, if so, which of the two were the more valid appointment: but it must also be recollected that Sforza's claim was further strengthened by his marriage with Bianca. Thus far, then, we might, perhaps, be inclined to decide in favour of Sforza. But the claim of the Emperor remains to be considered. The charter to the Ducal House given. by King Wenceslaus at Prague, October 13th, 1396, limited the succession to males, sons of males by a legitimate bed, or, in their default, to the natural male descendants of John Galeazzo, after they had been solemnly legitimated by the Emperor.' Milan, therefore, was exclusively a male fief. But there were no male heirs of any kind, nor has it been shown that the Duke had any power of appointment by will or otherwise. This seems to make out a clear case in favour of the Emperor, according to the general usage respecting fiefs, unless his original power over the fief should be disputed. But this had been clearly acknowledged by John Galeazzo when he accepted the duchy at Wenceslaus's hands, and had indeed been always previously recognized by the Ghibelin House of the Visconti. It is true, as a modern writer observes, that the sovereignty lay properly with the Milanese

1 Sismondi, Rép. Ital. t. ix. p. 282.

2 Ibid. p. 263. Yet Sismondi admits the efficacy of the investiture of Wences

laus: "Les Viscontis reçurent une nouvelle existence par les diplomes de Wenceslaus; ils furent dès lors considérés

54

FRANCIS SFORZA, DUKE.

[INTROD people; but they were unable effectually to assert it, and subsequently the pretensions actually contested were not those of the Emperor and the people, but of the Emperor and the claimants under the title of the Visconti.

The people, indeed, after the death of the Duke, under the leadership of four distinguished citizens, established a Republic, while the council acknowledged Alfonso King of Aragon and Naples, and hoisted the Aragonese flag. Some of the Milanese towns, as Pavia, Como, and others, also erected themselves into Republics; some submitted to Venice, others to Milan; and Asti admitted a French garrison in the name of Charles, Duke of Orleans. The Venetians refused to give up the territories which they had conquered; and, under these circumstances, the Republic of Milan engaged the services of Francesco Sforza, who thus became for a while the servant of those whom he had expected to command, though with the secret hope of reversing the position. It belongs not to our subject to detail the campaigns of the next two or three years. It will suffice to state generally that Sforza's operations against the Venetians were eminently successful, and that particularly by the signal defeat which he inflicted on them at Caravaggio, September 15, 1448, they found it politic to induce him to enter their own service, by offering to instate him in the Duchy of Milan, but on condition of his ceding to Venice the Cremonese and the Ghiara d'Adda. The Venetians, however, soon perceived that they had committed a political blunder in handing over Milan to a warlike Prince instead of encouraging the nascent Republic; and disregarding their engagements with Sforza, they concluded at Brescia a treaty with the Milanese republicans (September 27th, 1449), and withdrew their troops from Sforza's army. But that commander had already reduced Milan to famine; and knowing that there was within its walls a former officer of his own, Gaspard da Vicomercato, on whose services he might rely, Sforza boldly ordered his soldiers to approach the city, laden with as much bread as they could carry. At a distance of six miles they were met by the starving population; the bread was distributed, and Sforza advanced without resistance to the gates. Ambrose Trivulzio and a small band of patriots would have imposed conditions before he entered, and made him swear to observe their laws and liberties: but it was too late-the populace had declared for Sforza; there were no means of resisting

commes les seigneurs naturels, ainsi qu'on l'exprimait, et non plus comme les tyrans de la Lombardie."-Ibid. t. vii. p. 345.

INTROD.]

TREATY OF LODI.-NAPLES.

55

his entry; and when he appeared on the public place, he was saluted by the assembled multitude as their Duke and Lord.

This revolution was accomplished towards the end of February, 1450. During the next few years, however, Sforza had to contend with the Venetians for the possession of his dominions. The fall of Constantinople caused the Italian belligerents to reflect on the pernicious nature of the contest in which they were engaged; and Pope Nicholas V. summoned a congress at Rome to consider of the means of making head against the common enemy. None of the Italian Powers, however, was sincere in these negotiations; not even Nicholas himself, who had learned by experience that the wars of the other Italian States assured the tranquillity of the Church. The Venetians, exhausted by the length of the war, and finding that the congress would not succeed in establishing a general peace, began secretly to negotiate with Sforza for a separate one. This led to the Treaty of Lodi, April 9th, 1454. The Marquis of Montferrat, the Duke of Savoy, and other Princes, were now compelled to relinquish those portions of the Milanese which they had occupied; and in this manner, together with the cessions of the Venetians, Sforza recovered all the territories which had belonged to his predecessor.1

The remaining Italian States, with the exception of the Kingdom of Naples, are not important enough to arrest our attention. The chief of them were Ferrara, then ruled by the illustrious House of Este, Mantua, under the Gonzagas, and Savoy. The Counts of Savoy traced their descent up to the tenth century. The Emperor Sigismund, in the course of his frequent travels, having come into Savoy, erected that county into a duchy in favour of Amadeus VIII., who was afterwards Pope Felix V., by letters patent granted at Chambéry, February 19th, 1416.2 Sigismund exercised this privilege on the ground that Savoy formed part of the ancient Burgundian Kingdom of Arles, and in consideration of a paltry loan of 12,000 crowns.

When this history opens Naples had been more than ten years in possession of Alfonso V., King of Aragon, who had obtained the Neapolitan throne after a hard struggle with a rival claimant, the French Prince René d'Anjou. The pretensions of the House of Anjou were originally derived from the donation of Pope Urban IV. in the middle of the thirteenth century. The Norman conquerors of Naples had consented to hold the County,

1 Sismondi, Républ. Ital. t. ix. p. 415 sqq.

2 Guichenon, Hist. Généal, de la Royale Maison de Savoie, p. 456.

56

HOUSE OF ANJOU AT NAPLES.

[INTROD. afterwards Kingdom, of Sicily, as a fief of the Roman See, and the Norman line was represented at the time above-mentioned by Conradin, grandson of the Emperor Frederick II.; whose uncle Manfred, an illegitimate son of Frederick, having usurped the Sicilian throne, Urban offered it to Charles, Count of Anjou, brother of Louis IX. of France. Manfred was defeated and slain in the battle of Benevento, 1266; and two years afterwards Conradin, who had been set up by the Ghibelin nobles, was also defeated at Tagliacozzo, and soon after put to death by order of Count Charles, who thus established in Naples and Sicily the first House of Anjou. The Crown was, however, disputed by Don Pedro III., King of Aragon, who had married a daughter of Manfred; a war ensued, and Pedro succeeded in seizing Sicily, and transmitting it to his posterity. The first House of Anjou continued in possession of the Kingdom of Naples down to the reign of Queen Joanna I., who was dethroned in 1381 by Charles of Durazzo her heir presumptive. She had previously, however, called in from France her cousin Louis, Duke of Anjou, brother of the French King, Charles V.; and his son, after the assassination of Charles of Durazzo in Hungary in 1385, actually ascended the Neapolitan throne with the title of Louis II. The reign, however, of this second House of Anjou was but short. Louis was driven out the same year by Ladislaus, son of Charles of Durazzo, who, in spite of all the efforts of Louis, succeeded in retaining the sovereignty till his death in 1444 He was succeeded by his sister, Joanna II., who, though twice married, remained childless.

In these circumstances Joanna had displayed so much favour towards the Colonna family that it was expected she would bequeath her Crown to a member of it; but from this purpose she was diverted by her paramour Caraccioli. Pope Martin V., a Colonna, piqued at this change in her behaviour, determined, if possible, to dethrone her in favour of Louis III., a stripling of fifteen, and son of Louis II., who had died in 1417; and with this view he engaged the services of Sforza Attendolo, a renowned condottiere, and father of Francis Sforza, whose history we have already related. Sforza Attendolo, who had been constable to Joanna II., but through the enmity of Caraccioli was now alienated from her, was to invade the Neapolitan dominions with an army, while Louis III. was to attack Naples from the sea. In this desperate situation Joanna invoked the aid of Alfonso V., King of Aragon and Sicily, and promised in return

INTROD.]

REVOLUTIONS OF NAPLES.

57

for his services to adopt him as heir to her dominions (1420). These terms were accepted: Alfonso was solemnly proclaimed Joanna's successor; the Duchy of Calabria was made over to him as security; and having frustrated the enterprise of Louis, he fixed his residence at Naples as future King.

Such was the origin of the second claim of the House of Aragon to the Neapolitan throne. To make it good, Alfonso had to undertake a struggle of many years' duration, of which we need mark only the leading events. Perceiving that the Queen and Caraccioli meant to betray him, Alfonso endeavoured to secure their persons; but having failed in the attempt, Joanna cancelled his adoption as heir to the Crown, substituted Louis III. in his stead, and, having reconciled herself with Sforza, obtained the assistance of his arms. The war dragged slowly on; Sforza was accidentally drowned in the Pescara, January 4th, 1424, when his command devolved to his son Francis; and Alfonso, having been obliged to return to Aragon by a war with the Castilians, left his brothers, Don Pedro and Don Frederick, to conduct his affairs in Naples. But they were betrayed by their condottiere Caldora, and Joanna re-entered Naples with her adopted son, Louis III. of Anjou.

In 1432 a revolution, chiefly conducted by the Duchess of Suessa, having accomplished the death of Caraccioli, who had disgusted everybody, and at last even Joanna herself, by his insolence and brutality, the Duchess and a large party of the Neapolitan nobles invited Alfonso to return; and as he had now arranged the affairs of Aragon, he accepted the invitation. his expedition was unsuccessful. Louis III. repulsed his attacks on Calabria; and after some vain attempts to induce Joanna to recall her adoption of that prince, Alfonso concluded a peace for ten years, and retired from the Neapolitan territories early in 1433.

But

The death of Louis in 1434, followed by that of Queen Joanna II. in February, 1435, again threw Naples into anarchy. Joanna had bequeathed her Crown to René, Duke of Lorraine, Louis III.'s next brother, who had succeeded to Lorraine as son-in-law of the deceased Duke Charles; but Antony, Count of Vaudemont, brother of Charles, contested with him this succession, defeated him, and made him prisoner.

In this state of things the Neapolitan nobles again called in Alfonso; but the partisans of the House of Anjou were supported by Philip Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, who could dispose of the maritime forces of Genoa, then under his government; and,