Florentine Wars
The Florentine Wars refer to a series of conflicts in northern and central Italy during the late Middle Ages, primarily involving the city-state of Florence and its rivals. By the early 1300s, Italian city-states were embroiled in territorial disputes and power struggles, often aligned along Guelph (pro-papal) and Ghibelline (pro-imperial) lines. The death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII in 1313 intensified these tensions, prompting Florence to seek alliances for defense and expansion, including a temporary subjugation to the lordship of King Robert of Naples.
Florence’s military engagements included a reliance on mercenary forces, which became increasingly common among Italian cities. Key battles, such as the defeat at Altopascio in 1325 against the forces of Castruccio Castracani, highlighted the fierce competition for control over regions like Lucca and Pistoia. The shifting allegiances and continual warfare eventually led to the establishment of a stronger Florentine state, though conflicts with rivals like Pisa and Milan persisted. The political landscape remained dynamic, with alliances and hostilities contributing to the complex interplay of power in Renaissance Italy.
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Florentine Wars
At issue: Political hegemony in Tuscany
Date: 1313–1357
Location: Tuscany, Italy
Combatants: Florentines and allies vs. Pisans, Lucchesi, and Milanesi
Principal commanders:Florentine, Raymond of Cardona, captain of war; Pisan, Uguccione della Faggiuola, lord of Pisa (d. 1319); Lucchan, Castruccio Castracani, signore (1281–1328)
Principal battles: Sack of Lucca, Montecatini, First Siege of Pistoia, Altopascio, Siege of Lucca, Second Siege of Pistoia
Result: Florence created a sound basis for control of Tuscany, but hostilities continued
Background
By 1300, northern and central Italian city-states had been fighting among themselves over territorial boundaries and attempting to subject their neighbors for more than two hundred years. Alliances of smaller cities and the reaction of larger rivals tended to keep successes limited. The appearance of one-man lordships (signorie) in cities such as Milan, Verona, and Lucca gave direction to territorial ambitions, forcing powerful cities such as Genoa, Pisa, and Florence to fight or lose local power. Larger-scale commercial rivalries among the bigger cities also fueled the fires. Holy Roman emperor Henry VII’s descent into Italy in 1310–1313 further polarized the already hostile Guelph (propapal) and Ghibelline (proimperial) city-states, helping define lines of alliance.
Action
Henry died in 1313 and was buried in Ghibelline Pisa, which was left exposed to attack from a league of Tuscan cities headed by Florence. The Florentines recognized that warfare was handicapped by their republican style of government, and early in 1313, they placed themselves under the lordship of King Robert of Naples for five years, an agreement renewed to 1322. Mercenary captain Uguccione della Faggiuola was hired to mount Pisa’s defense at the head of 1,000 foreign cavalry, who had been left unemployed by Henry’s death. Uguccione struck first, against Guelph Lucca, which he sacked on June 14, 1314. He turned next on Pistoia, near which he routed a Guelph relieving force headed by Florence forces on August 29, 1315, at Montecatini. Uguccione was overthrown on Holy Saturday, 1316, by supporters of the Luccan exile Castruccio Castracani. Pisa regained its freedom, and Lucca accepted Castruccio as lord. A May, 1317, agreement ended hostilities.
Casstruccio wanted control of Tuscany and began his drive by attacking the Genoese countryside. Florence supported its Guelph ally, and small military clashes occurred frequently along the border. These animosities spread, entangling Lucca and Florence in Guelph/Ghibelline squabbles throughout central Italy. Castruccio first struck Pistoia, which fell on May 5, 1325. Florence rallied around Catalan mercenary and Florentine captain of war Raymond of Cardona, who organized 15,000 Florentine infantry and 2,500 cavalry, only 400 of whom were Florentines. This is a clear indication of the extent to which Italian cities were becoming reliant on professional mercenary soldiers. Castruccio’s well-rested army met and crushed the weary Florentines at Altopascio on September 23, 1325. In December, Florence subjected itself for ten years to the Guelph duke Charles Anjou of Calabria. Hostilities and small engagements continued. Florentines finally seized Pistoia while Castruccio was away in early 1328. He returned and successfully besieged it until August of that year, dying two months later. Charles’s death in November meant that Florence was now rid of both a mortal enemy and an inconvenient overlord.
German mercenaries seized leaderless Lucca, and eventually it landed in the hands of Mastino della Scala, lord of Verona. He dangled it before Florence, and soon Pisa joined the bidding. Frustrated, Pisa attacked the city in 1341, and Florence unsuccessfully attacked the attackers, first in late 1341 and then in early 1342. Lucca surrendered to Pisa on July 6, 1342. Florence responded by consolidating its hold on nearby towns such as Prato, San Gimignano, Pistoia, and the Val d’Elsa, creating a true base for Tuscan hegemony.
The aggressive archbishop of Milan, Giovanni Visconti, next engaged Florence, after his seizure of Bologna in October, 1350. He attacked Pistoia in summer, 1351, and again in the following spring, when Florence was much better prepared for a vigorous defense. The pope brokered the Peace of Sarzana in 1353. Milan, however, took control of Genoa in 1354, and pressure from a Florence-led and imperially supported anti-Visconti alliance resisted, for the time, further expansion. Genoa overcame the Milanese yoke by rebellion in 1357.
Aftermath
Florence continued to build its Tuscan state, but hostilities with Pisa and Milan did not cease.
Bibliography
Bayley, Charles C. War and Society in Renaissance Florence. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1961.
Green, Louis. Castruccio Castracane. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1986.
Nicolle, David, and Christa Hook. Italian Militiaman, 1265–1392. Oxford, England: Osprey Press, 1999.