The Lordships of the Condottieri

The Path of the Condottieri, from Paid Captains to Sovereign Rulers

From tables 1 and 2 of the file Il sistema dei condottieri it is shown that in the period 1330-1550, the years of relative peace in Italy were 4 for the Papal States, 24 for the Florentine state, 11 for the Duchy of Milan, 12 for the Kingdom of Naples, 64 for the Duchy of Savoy, and 16 for the Republic of Venice.

Correlated with this state of permanent conflict, the historical period under examination saw the proliferation of small and medium-sized local lordships (signorie). An example of extreme fragmentation is provided by the territories nominally controlled by the Papal States and those bordering them. Thus, there was the domain of the Gonzaga in Mantua, the Estensi in Ferrara, the Pio in Modena and Carpi, the da Correggio, the Terzi and the Rossi in Parma, the da Polenta in Ravenna, the Guidi in the Emilian-Romagnol Apennines, the Calboli in Castrocaro Terme, the Pepoli and the Bentivoglio in Bologna, the Ordelaffi in Forlì and Forlimpopoli, the Alidosi in Imola, the Manfredi in Faenza, and the Malatesta in Rimini, Cesena, Pesaro, and Fano. Between Romagna and the Marche, the presence of the Montefeltro in Urbino, in the Montefeltro region and in the Massa Trabaria—formerly a possession of the Brancaleoni—is notable, with the towns of Urbania (Castel Durante) and Sant’Angelo in Vado. Also present in the Marche were the lordships of the della Faggiuola, the Ubaldini della Carda in Apecchio and Sassocorvaro, the Atti in Sassoferrato, and, above all, the da Varano in Camerino, the Chiavelli in Fabriano, the Migliorati in Fermo, the Ottoni in Matelica, and the Simonetti in Jesi. Between Umbria and Tuscany, the Trinci in Foligno, the Cantelli in Gubbio, and the Tarlati in Arezzo stand out; in Latium, the great families of the Roman nobility held sway, such as the Vico, Orsini, Colonna, Savelli, Conti, Gaetani, and the Vitelleschi in Civitavecchia. The condottieri established more or less lasting signorie, which constituted an important political fabric in the landscape of the local wars of the period. For the territories involved, this situation resulted in continuous variations of their borders. The persistent wars, again in the period from the fourteenth to the first half of the fifteenth century, contributed at the same time to the creation of other new signorie, often headed by captains of fortune (condottieri di ventura).

The men who committed themselves to fortune (ventura), the so-called adventurers (venturieri), often took advantage of the economic difficulties of the states in which they were involved at the end of a conflict—be they the vanquished or the victors—due in part to the short duration of the military contracts offered to them. Their presence in loco could thus end with the taking of possession of a given locality as compensation. The condottiero thereby became, in fact, its “signore” (lord) for a more or less limited period. Subsequent upheavals gave rise to new, swift changes and to the disappearance of such micro-lordships (microsignorie), which were promptly replaced by other similar ones with protagonists of a different name.

Wars, obviously, must be waged effectively. Survival or the aspiration for territorial expansion meant that the rulers of states (especially the larger ones) needed to seek out valid professional skills. The consequence is that as time went on, specifically with the transition from the 14th to the 15th century, a process began of more continuous reliance on the services of condottieri di ventura, a service that was rewarded with the concession of a fief in their favour; sometimes this also occurred as compensation for the debt accumulated towards them for the delayed payment of their contract (condotta).

From the second half of the 15th century, with the Peace of Lodi, the situation changed. The signorie and the possibility for condottieri to become the lord of one or more localities weakened, not so much because their ambitions waned, but because there was “an adjustment of the ‘dimension’ of the regional state as an essential fact, as the form of state required by the measures and the play of forces in the field” (Chittolini). At the same time, the formation of more solid signorie grew stronger over time, linked to nobles and lords who possessed their own fiefs or large estates. For these men, the profession of arms responded not only to the desire to procure fame, honour, and money, but also to secure their own state on a broader level by relying on a greater power in the role of guarantor and employer. They too were mercenaries, and they too were endowed with good military skills. On the other hand, there was no shortage of opportunities for their paid intervention, given the internal divisions that characterized communities (conflicts between Guelphs (guelfi) and Ghibellines (ghibellini), with the variations these terms underwent over time; internal struggles in cities between the populace and the nobles; and the consequent wars with the exiles (fuoriusciti), the losing party of the moment, who did not accept exile and the confiscation of their property), and actual wars caused by the territorial ambitions of communes, republics, duchies, and kingdoms.

Over time, these condottieri and captains proved to be favoured over the representatives of the previous category, as they were advantaged by their control over a limited territory in which they could continuously recruit soldiers for their companies from among their own loyal followers. As mentioned, with the passage of time, there was a further variation in the concept of the “signoria“. The major states, such as the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice, made increasing use of the contribution of these members of noble extraction, granting them small and medium-sized localities as fiefs, often separated from one another and generally situated in peripheral areas, so as to act as a buffer in the event of external aggression. In this way, condottieri and captains abandoned the “ventura” to become, in turn, “subjects,” often also endowed with civil and penal jurisdictions in the territories under their control. A further evolution occurred around the last years of the 15th century and continued through much of the 16th century. The presence in the Italian Wars of foreign powers such as the Empire of Maximilian of Austria, France, Spain, and, above all, the Empire dominated by the presence of Charles V, saw the condottiero-lord increasingly lose his independence to become a kind of senior officer under the command of an almost always foreign captain. It was the end of the “ventura.”

In another section, the localities affected by the types of signorie examined, as they appear in the present biographical dictionary, are listed. They are highlighted in alphabetical order. For each, the name of the “signore” is cited, always distinguished for convenience in alphabetical order. Also included in this context are the co-lordships (cosignorie), which were frequently present within the same family circle. Due to frequent homonymy, the names listed are in turn differentiated by a number corresponding to their position in the family list reported in the research. In total, this amounts to 2097 localities, including municipalities and their hamlets. Thus, a cross-section of Italy is represented, primarily concerning the north and centre. Numerous places also refer to the south of the peninsula, with the exclusion of Sardinia and Sicily, areas that were also affected by continuous conflicts but not by the presence of condottieri and captains of fortune.

Of the Famous Lineages of Italy

Without much searching, finding every trace,
From day to day my fear does ever grow
In this most laudable and worthy chase.
And if my spirit trembles, sighs in woe
To make remembrance of so many, many,
That ten poems could not bear the flow;
And wishing well to treat of every any,
Who, why, where, when, what manner and what way,
Who in this warfare may have boasts a-plenty;
And wishing to tell every name’s display,
Alas! the enterprise is far too hard,
Small power for such immeasurable weigh.
Some gentle heart will leave me battle-scarred;
Hearing me blamed against all reason’s measure,
Will take the helm and shield to stand on guard.
For one cannot to all persons give pleasure
Entirely, nor should one even try,
For that would not be manly beyond measure.
Some will say: – this man surely did not spy
Perfect information of the Bracceschi,
To whom more worthy praise should hereby lie.
And who will say that it was the Sforzeschi
With bearing grand and manifest to see,
And who will speak of valiant Feltreschi.
And who will tell the honor’s legacy
Of Malatesti, Ordilaffi, Manfredi bright
And sacred blood of the good Marquis family
Of the house of Este in their ancient right.
My soul, my spirit sighs and languishes so
Because empire is not in their hands of might
To pull themselves from such a poisoned flow.
And who will tell the honor of Italians true
Has been within Visconti’s house, I know,
Looking well with intellects that see things through,
Oh! how many mighty cavaliers and counts
Of the house of Gonzaga, valorous crew,
Who’ve made to tremble plains and mountain mounts,
And who will tell of valiant Fregosi’s line,
Adorni, Malespini, and royal accounts
Of those dal Fiesco, the great ones divine.
The house of Mirandola and Correggio’s fame,
La Scala, il Carro, whom heaven would malign
Always declining from bad to worse came!
Now seek our Italy in the other direction,
And begin from beautiful Sicily’s name,
Which the Muses sang in verse’s perfection.
How many gentle, how many noble families
Has this pleasant island brought to resurrection
Full of Apollo’s wisdom in its galleries.
And you Calabria, all adorned and blessed
With Cavaliers, with Counts and Marquis qualities,
Who gave King Fernando much distressed.
I bear within my heart such doleful weight,
For in my heart I hold as scales the rest,
And by a thousand arrows wounded my senses wait.
Now look around the beautiful river shore,
To the Counts etc.
O blood most excellent of San Severino,
What noble cavaliers have I seen before,
Of whom I speak not in my brief Latino.
And you Apulians of celestial acquisition store,
O Duke of Andria, o Counts of Gravina’s door