Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part I Common Themes
- Part II The Church in the Thirteenth Century
- Part III The Western Kingdoms
- Part IV Italy
- 15 Northern Italy
- (a) Northern Italy: The maritime republics
- (b) Sardinia and Corsica from the mid-twelfth to the early fourteenth century
- (c) The rise of the signori
- (d) Florence
- 16 The kingdom of Sicily under the Hohenstaufen and Angevins
- Part V The Mediterranean Frontiers
- Part VI The Northern and Eastern Frontiers
- Appendix Genealogical tables
- Primary sources and secondary works arranged by chapter
- Index
- Plate section
- Map 1 Europe in the thirteenth century
- Map 3 France, c. 1260
- Map 5 Germany and the western empire
- Map 6 Genoa, Venice and the Mediterranean
- Map 8 The Latin empire of Constantinople and its neighbours
- Map 10 Aragon and Anjouin the Mediterranean">
- References
(c) - The rise of the signori
from 15 - Northern Italy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part I Common Themes
- Part II The Church in the Thirteenth Century
- Part III The Western Kingdoms
- Part IV Italy
- 15 Northern Italy
- (a) Northern Italy: The maritime republics
- (b) Sardinia and Corsica from the mid-twelfth to the early fourteenth century
- (c) The rise of the signori
- (d) Florence
- 16 The kingdom of Sicily under the Hohenstaufen and Angevins
- Part V The Mediterranean Frontiers
- Part VI The Northern and Eastern Frontiers
- Appendix Genealogical tables
- Primary sources and secondary works arranged by chapter
- Index
- Plate section
- Map 1 Europe in the thirteenth century
- Map 3 France, c. 1260
- Map 5 Germany and the western empire
- Map 6 Genoa, Venice and the Mediterranean
- Map 8 The Latin empire of Constantinople and its neighbours
- Map 10 Aragon and Anjouin the Mediterranean">
- References
Summary
DURING the thirteenth century, political life in the city-states of northern Italy began to be dominated by a new breed of political and military leaders, often described as tyrants or despots. In an acclerating development, as Frederick II’s efforts to reimpose imperial authority failed, monarchical power was recreated at the local level, in the persons first of Frederick’s former political and military lieutenants, then of local faction chiefs (Azzo d’Este in Ferrara, Martino della Torre in Milan, Mastino della Scala in Verona). Though their power often remained informal, for they were masters, not lords of their cities, they passed that power to their heirs, who sometimes formalised their position through popular ‘elections’ and technical transfers of arbitrary power (Ferrara, 1264; Mantua, 1299, etc.). In the course of time some of these lordships developed into the principalities and regional states of Renaissance Italy (the Visconti, Este, Gonzaga, Montefeltro). By 1300 most cities of northern Italy were under signorial rule; nearly all of those that were not (Padua, Parma, Vicenza) soon followed.
How should these important changes be described and explained? Let us start with the word ‘despot’. How is it that this word has become attached to late medieval Italy? Its usage seems to be an English peculiarity. Other languages use other terms (signori, seigneurs, Tirannen). With its one-time connotations of ferocity and caprice, of indiscriminate butchery, of eastern domination over slaves, the word is really displaced. The concept of the signori as tyrannical despots seems to have become current among English historians during the nineteenth century when the historian Hallam, writing of the Italian signori, commented: ‘I know not of any English word that characterises them, except tyrant in its primitive sense.’
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- The New Cambridge Medieval History , pp. 458 - 478Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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