- Wars in Lombardy
The wars in Lombardy were a series of conflicts fought in central-northern
Italy between theRepublic of Venice and theDuchy of Milan , and their different allies. They lasted from 1425 until the signing of theTreaty of Lodi in 1454. During their course, the political structure of Italy was transformed: out of a competitive congeries of communes and city-states, emerged the five major Italian territorial powers that would make up the map of Italy until theItalian Wars . Important cultural centers of Tuscany and Northern Italy—Siena, Pisa, Urbino, Mantua, Ferrara—became politically marginalized. The wars, fought in four campaigns, were a struggle forhegemony in Northern Italy that ravaged the economy ofLombardy and weakened the power of Venice, whose leaders failed to heed the words of warning in doge Tommaso Mocenigo's famous farewell letter (1423)::"Beware of the desire to take what belongs to others, and of making unjust war, for God will destroy you."The war, which was both a result and cause of Venetian involvement in the power politics of mainland Italy, [Venice subdued
Verona in 1402,Padua in 1405, and the rest of eastern Lombardy, the Venetian "terra ferma" ("mainland"), the following year. Previously Venice had been strictly a maritime power: her battles with theRepublic of Genoa , culminating in thebattle of Chioggia , were all fought at sea.] found Venetian territory extended to the banks of the Adda and involved the rest of Italy in shifting alliances but only minor skirmishing. The shifting counterweight in the balance was the allegiance of Florence, at first allied with Venice against encroachments by Visconti Milan, then switching to ally withFrancesco Sforza against the increasing territorial threat of Venice. The Peace of Lodi, concluded in 1454, brought forty years of comparative peace to Northern Italy, [See however the briefWar of Ferrara (1482–1484) that was settled by thePeace of Bagnolo .] as Venetian conflicts focussed elsewhere. [The extension of Ottoman power into theBalkans and in the Aegean had involved Venice in intermittent warfare since 1415.]First campaign
The first of four campaigns against the territorial ambitions of
Filippo Maria Visconti ,duke of Milan , was connected to the death of the lord ofForlì ,Giorgio Ordelaffi . He had named Visconti the trustee of his nine-year-old heir, Teobaldo II. The latter's mother,Lucrezia degli Alidosi , daughter of the lord ofImola , did not agree and assumed the regency for herself. The Forlivesi rebelled and called in the city the MilaneseVisconti 's condottiero,Agnolo della Pergola (May 14 1423 ). Florence reacted by declaring war to Visconti. Its captain Pandolfo Malatesta therefore entered Romagna to help the Alidosi of Imola, but he was defeated and the city stormed onFebruary 14 1424 . The youngLuigi degli Alidosi was sent captive to Milan and a few days later the lord ofFaenza ,Guidantonio Manfredi , joined the Visconti party. The Florentine army, this time commanded by Carlo Malatesta, was again defeated at theBattle of Zagonara in July; Carlo, taken prisoner, was freed by Visconti and joined him too. Florence thus hiredNiccolò Piccinino andOddo da Montone , but the two were also beat inVal di Lamone . Oddo was killed but Piccinino was able to convince Manfredi to declare war against Visconti.After the failure in Romagna, Florence tried to defy the Visconti from the
Liguria n side, by allying with the Aragonese of Naples. However, both a fleet of 24 Aragonese galleys sent in Genoa to move it against the Milanese, and a land army, were unsuccessful. In the meantime, Piccinino and the other condottiero Francesco Sforza had been hired by Visconti, who also sent an army them to invade Tuscany underGuido Torello . He subsequently defeated the Florentine army at Anghiari and Faggiuola.The Florentine disaster were countered by the pact signed on
December 4 ,1425 with theRepublic of Venice . By the agreement the war was to be pursued at the common expense of both: the conquests in Lombardy to be assigned to the Venetians; those in Romagna and Tuscany to the Florentines; and the condottiero Carmagnola was appointed Captain General of the League. In the ensuing fighting seasons (1425-26), Carmagnola, recently in the pay of Visconti, retookBrescia , which he had recently taken by Visconti, after a long siege which saw massive use of artillery (november 26 1426 ). Meanwhile the Venetian fleet on thePo River , underFrancesco Bembo , advanced as far asPadua and the Florentines regained all their lands in Tuscany. Visconti, who had already ceded Forlì and Imola to the Pope to gain his favour, called a mediation. Through the intervention of the Papal legate,Niccolò degli Albergati , the peace was signed onDecember 30 1426 in Venice.Visconti regained the lands occupied by Florence in Liguria, but had to renounce to the area of
Vercelli , conquered byAmadeus VIII of Savoy , and Brescia, which went to Venice, and to promise to stop encroaching himself in Romagna and Tuscany.econd campaign
The peace did not last much. Under advice by the emperor Sigismund, Visconti refused to ratify it and the war broke out n May 1427. The Milanese were initially victorious, taking
Casalmaggiore and besiegingBrescello ; the fleet sent there was set on fire by the Venetian one by Bembo, butNiccolò Piccinino was however able to defeat Carmagnola at Gottolengo onMay 29 . The Venetian commander pushed him back and conquered Casalmaggiore onJuly 12 , whileOrlando Pallavicino , lord of several castles nearParma , rebelled against the Visconti while Amadeus VIII andJohn Jacob of Montferrat invaded Lombardy from East.Visconti could count on some of the best condottieri of the time, such as Sforza, della Pergola, Piccinino and
Guido Torello . But, as they were jealous, he named supreme commander Carlo Malatesta. The latter led the Milanese at Maclodio (October 4 ,1427 ), being crushed by the Venetians under Carmagnola. The victory was however undecisive, and Visconti managed to reconciliate with Amadeus by ceding himVercelli and marrying his daughter Maria. However, as Sforza was defeated by some Genoese exiled and Sigismund's help was wanting, Visconti sued for a treaty. With the mediation of the Pope, the peace was signed at Ferrara onApril 18 1428 . A Venetian governor was established atBergamo andCrema (1429) in addition to confirming the Venetian possession of Brescia and its "contado" (neighbourhood). The Florentines recovered the strongholds they had lost, apartVolterra who rebelled to the new settlement. The troops sent to reduce that city, underNiccolò Fortebraccio , were later sent to invade theLucca , whose lord,Paolo Guinigi , had sided for the Visconti previously.Third campaign
The third war (1431-1433) started therefore when Visconti took up the Lucchese cause, by sending them, with 3,000 horse,
Francesco Sforza ; the latter, however, was eventually bought off with fifty thousand ducats from the Florentines, who continued the siege of Lucca after the condottiero had left. Called in by the besieged, Visconti managed to have theRepublic of Genoa [Milan controlled Genoa since 1421.] declare war against Florence. The subsequent defeat on theSerchio banks of their commander, Guidantonio da Montefeltro (december 2 1430 , encouraged the Florentines to engage the aid of Venice once more and re-erect their League, with the favour of the new Pope,Eugene IV , a Venetian. Visconti replied hiring again Piccinino and Sforza, who were again to face Carmagnola.The League's army was first beat at Soncino (
May 17 1431 ), whileLuigi Colonna defeated the Venetians atCremona , Cristoforo Lavello pushed back the Montferrat troops, and Piccinino established strong positions in Tuscany. Also dismayal for the League was the destruction of the Po Fleet underNiccolò Trevisani near Pavia (June 23 ). In 1431 Visconti also found a precious ally in Amadeus VIII of Savoy in exchange to help against John Jacob of Montferrat.Venice won a naval victory over Genoa at
San Fruttuoso on 27 August 1431, but on land his commander Carmagnola moved catiously, avoiding a pitched battle and raising the suspicion he could have been bought by Visconti, while the latter was also joined by Sigismund who had entered Italy to receive the imperial crown. In the end Carmagnola was suspended; recalled by theCouncil of Ten , he was arrested in March 1432, tried for treason and beheaded outside theDoge's Palace . In the November1432 a Venetian army was crushed by Piccinino at theBattle of Delebio by a collegate army of Milan andValtellina , which had been invaded by the Serenissima in 1431.The peace of Ferrara in May 1433 institutionalized an unsteady status quo. The Florentine war with Lucca and her allies likewise resulted in a return to the previous status quo, but the major League leader's lack of successes had lost much other charisma: the Venetian doge Foscari was on the verge of resigning, while
Cosimo de' Medici was imprisoned and confined in Padua. Another aftermath was the reduction ofMontferrat to a satellite of Savoy.Fourth campaign
In the so-called "fourth war" broader questions were personalized in the combats among antagonistic condottieri:
Gattamelata , and laterFrancesco Sforza fought nominally for Venice, while the Visconti side was led byNiccolò Piccinino , who had promised to Eugene IV to reconquer the Marche for him. But, in a typical reversal of the time, when he capturedRavenna andBologna he forced the to recognize the Milanese suzerainty.Piccinino, backed by
Gian Francesco Gonzaga , had invaded the Lombard possessions of Venice. In September 1438 he laid siege to Brescia and assaultedBergamo andVerona . In response to this Venice signed an alliance with Florence and Francesco Sforza, including some notable captain of the time such asAstorre II Manfredi ,Pietro Persaliano and Niccolò III of Ferrara, who was also returned thePolesine in exchange of his support.The Milanese were repeatedly defeated in Tuscany and at Soncino (
June 14 1440 ). The war seemed won for Venice, and Sforza went to Venice to receive the triumph. However, Piccinino returned from Romagna in February 1441 and crushed Sforza's garrison at Chiari. Sforza besiegedMartinengo , but when Piccinino cut him off from any possibility of retreat the situation looked again favourable to Milan. Believing that the victory was now in his hands, he asked to Visconti the seigniory ofPiacenza in exchange of it. The lord of Milan preferred instead to appeal for an agreement with Sforza.On the field of Cavriana, Sforza acted as mediator between the two sides accomplishing the act for which Carmagnola had lost his head. No large territorial changes were made in the ensuing Peace of Cremona of
20 November 1441 : Venice kept Ravenna, Florence theCasentino . Piccinino was awarded with the lands of Orlando Pallavicino in the Parmense, while Filippo Maria Visconti recognized the independence of Genoa and again promised to stop interfere with the situation in Tuscany and Romagna.Aftermaths
Off the battlefields, important dynastic and political changes occurred: Francesco Sforza entered the service of Visconti and married his daughter, while Florence took a new turn under
Cosimo de' Medici . After Visconti died in 1447, Francesco Sforza, backed by Lorenzo de' Medici, entered Milan in triumph (May 1450). [after the demise of the short-livedAmbrosian Republic .] Two coalitions now formed: Sforza Milan allied with Medici Florence on the one hand, faced Venice and the AragoneseKingdom of Naples on the other. The main theater of war remained Lombardy, where both sides joined in thePeace of Lodi (May 1454), a compromise peace that formed the basis for a general accord among the four contenders, Venice, Milan, Florence and Naples, under the blessings ofPope Nicholas V , representing the fifth power in Italy. The peace of Lodi is often marked as the emergence of a consciously expressed political principle ofbalance of power .ee also
*
War of Ferrara
*Italian Wars Notes
References
* [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/m/machiavelli/niccolo/m149h/chapter24.html Niccolò Machiavelli, "History of Florence" Books IV.i-VI.vi] The wars in Lombardy from the Florentine perspective.
* [http://www.veneto.org/history/serenissima3.htm Veneto.org: History of Venice]
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