THE MIDDLE AGES
During the early
Middle Ages, Italian ties with the "New Rome" of the East
(Constantinople) were first threatened and later severed after a series
of invasions from the west and north into Italy. The severing of ties
with the East was confirmed by the eventual emergence of the PAPACY
and the Italian cities as powers in their own right.
The Lombards
After the Ostrogoths, another Germanic people, the LOMBARDS, arrived
in Italy in 568. Although much of southern and eastern Italy remained
in Byzantine hands, the Lombards' control soon spread from the north
to Tuscany and Umbria. The Lombards were resisted chiefly by the popes--most
notably GREGORY I (r. 590-604)--who acted as de facto political and
military as well as ecclesiastical leaders and held a band of land stretching
across the peninsula that later became the PAPAL STATES. By the end
of the 7th century, papal resistance had induced the Lombards to consolidate
their power in northern and central Italy, where they achieved a high
degree of political unification. Meanwhile, the unrest in the Byzantine
centers in the south reflected the disturbances taking place in Byzantium
itself (ICONOCLASM), and popular revolts broke out in Rome, Naples,
Venice, and elsewhere. Thus by 728 the Lombards, under Liutprand (r.
712-44), were able to extend their influence in spite of further papal
attempts at intervention. During Liutprand's reign, many of the Lombards
converted from ARIANISM to Roman Catholicism. By this time they were
accepting many other elements of Roman culture, including the Latin
language; their law and administration reflected both Roman and Germanic
influences.
The Franks
The success of the Lombards was temporary. Under the pretense of restoring
to the papacy its lost territories, Pope Stephen II (r. 752-57) invited
the FRANKS, another Germanic tribe, to invade Italy. In 774 the Franks
expelled the Lombard rulers; Lombard territory passed into the hands
of the Frankish ruler CHARLEMAGNE, who was crowned emperor in Rome on
Dec. 25, 800. The following century was characterized by continual feuding
between Franks and Byzantines, the chief beneficiaries being the SARACENS,
newly arrived from North Africa. These Arabs originally came to assist
rebels against the Byzantine Empire. The Saracens remained to conquer
(827-78) Sicily, however, and to establish outposts in southern Italy;
in 846 they launched an attack on Rome itself. The collapse of the Carolingian
empire in the 9th century, at the same time as the resurgence of Byzantium
under the Macedonian dynasty, caused a brief return to eastern influence.
The Ottonians
This constant alternation of power was temporarily ended by the arrival
in Italy, once again by papal invitation, of the German king OTTO I,
who was crowned Holy Roman emperor in 962. The Ottonian dynasty fell
shortly after 1000, leaving in the north a vacuum to be exploited by
the local small landowners and town merchants. Meanwhile, local insurrections
weakened the Saracens' hold on the southern coastal cities, although
the Arabs remained strong in Sicily.
The Rise of the
Italian City-States
In this climate of political and social fragmentation, individual Italian
cities began to assert their autonomy. During the 11th century an elaborate
pattern of communal government began to evolve under the leadership
of a burgher class grown wealthy in trade, banking, and such industries
as woolen textiles. Many cities, especially FLORENCE, GENOA, PISA, MILAN,
and VENICE, became powerful and independent CITY-STATES. Resisting the
efforts of both the old landed nobles and the emperors to control them,
these COMMUNES hastened the end of feudalism in northern Italy and spawned
deeply rooted identification with the city as opposed to the larger
region or country. The cities were often troubled by violent and divisive
rivalries among their citizens, the most famous being the papal-imperial
struggle between the GUELPHS (supporters of the popes) and the GHIBELLINES
(supporters respectively of the emperors. But despite such divisions
the cities contributed significantly to the economic, social, and cultural
vitality of Italy.
The Kingdom of Sicily
Unlike the north, with its network of vigorously independent urban centers,
southern Italy experienced a significant consolidation after its conquest
by the NORMANS. Bands of these invaders arrived in Italy early in the
11th century. Starting c.1046, ROBERT GUISCARD and his successors expelled
the Saracens and Byzantines and carved a powerful domain out of APULIA
CALABRIA, Campania, and Sicily. Although the Norman territories remained
a fief of the papacy, papal overlordship became a mere formality in
the 12th century especially after 1127, when ROGER II united the southern
part of the peninsula with Sicily; he assumed the title of king of Sicily
in 1130. While the Normans were consolidating their rule in southern
Italy, the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire continued their struggle
for dominance in northern and central Italy.
In 1077 Pope GREGORY
VII was successfully in making Holy Roman Emperor HENRY IV bow to papal
authority at Canossa (INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY). Later, Pope ALEXANDER
III successfully supported an alliance of northern cities known as the
Lombard League against the efforts of Emperor FREDERICK I of the HOHENSTAUFEN
dynasty to impose imperial authority over them. Early in the 13th century
the Hohenstaufen FREDERICK II succeeded in uniting the thrones of German
and Norman Sicily. Although Pope INNOCENT III (r. 1198-1216) opposed
the emperor and advanced far-reaching claims of political and religious
supremacy, Frederick established one of the wealthiest and most powerful
states in Europe, centering on his brilliant court at PALERMO with its
great cultural innovations.
The papal-imperial
conflict culminated in 1262 with a papal invitation to Charles of Anjou,
brother of King Louis IX of France, to conquer Sicily. Charles, the
founder of the ANGEVIN dynasty of Naples, ruled from 1266 as CHARLES
I, king of Naples and Sicily. French rule, which introduced feudalism
to the south at a time when it was weakening elsewhere, was highly unpopular,
and in 1282 a successful revolt (the SICILIAN VESPERS) resulted in the
separation of Sicily from the mainland. PETER III of Aragon was made
king of Sicily while the former Norman domains on the mainland remained
under Angevin rule as the Kingdom of Naples. In the 15th century both
kingdoms became Spanish possessions; they were then reunited under the
title Kingdom of the TWO SICILIES. |