after these events, became once more a province of the Roman empire, of which Ravenna formed the capital, and in which the representatives of the emperor, the exarchs, fixed their residence. Narses, the first of them, was removed by the jealousy of the Byzantine court; and his successors neglected the defence of the Alpine passes, by which the Longobards, or Lombards, a German race, entered the country. They are supposed to have been of Scandinavian origin, and to have gained a settlement between the Oder and the Elbe in the reign of Augustus. They gradually descended towards the south, and approached the Danube. At the solicitation of Justinian, they passed that river, to reduce, in pursuance of a treaty, the cities of Noricum and the fortresses of Pannonia; but the spirit of rapine soon tempted them beyond these limits, and at length, under Alboin, in 568, they penetrated into Italy.

Before the Lombards entered Italy, they were established on the frontiers of the Roman empire, and had for neighbours two other barbarous tribes, the Avars and the Gepidae, who were sometimes hostile towards each other, though commonly at peace, demanding and receiving what they deemed tribute, but what the imperialists in their weak state denominated presents. The Avars and the Lombards, at the instigation or with the connivance of the Emperor Justin, the successor of Justinian, jointly attacked the Gepidae. The bravest of them fell in battle; their king Cunimund was slain, and his daughter Rosamund became the captive of Alboin, the chief of the Lombards, and by marriage shared that throne which had before been occupied by the daughter of Clovis, the king of the Franks.

The ambition of Alboin was excited rather than satisfied by the conquest of the Gepidae, and the submission of the Avars to his authority; and he turned his eyes from the Danube to the richer banks of the Po and the Tiber. Fifteen years before, his subjects, as the confederates of Narses, had visited Italy; the mountains, the rivers, and the highways, were familiar to their memory. The report of their success, and the views of the spoil, kindled in the rising generation the flame of emulation and of enterprise. Their hopes were encouraged by the spirit and eloquence of their leader. No sooner had Alboin, or Alboinus, erected his standard, than the native strength of the Lombards was multiplied by the adventurous youth of Germany and Scythia. The robust peasantry of Noricum and Pannonia resumed the manners of barbarians; and the names of the Gepidae, as well as of the Bulgarians, the Sarmatians, and the Sueves, are now to be found in the provinces of Italy. It has been said that Narses the eunuch, to resent an affront offered him by the Empress Sophia, the wife of Justin, had instigated Alboin to the attempt, and counselled him to form an alliance with the Huns before he commenced his operations.

The whole nation of the Lombards, accompanied by their allies, and attended by their wives, their children, their cattle, and their most valuable effects, began their march in April 568. They had no opposition to encounter as they passed through the Venetian country, and the city of Aquileia opened its gates, most of the inhabitants having abandoned their homes at the approach of the formidable invaders. Alboin passed the winter in Friuli, with his troops quartered around him, which city he erected into a dukedom, and appointed his nephew Gisulphus to govern and watch over the territory. In the succeeding year the conqueror advanced and occupied Trevigio, Oderzo, Vicenza, Verona, and Trent, leaving in each city a garrison, and intrusting the whole to one of his officers, with the title of duke during his command. Padua and some other cities were passed by, either because they did not intercept his progress, or because they were too strongly garrisoned. In the third campaign Alboin passed into Northern Liguria, and possessed himself of Brescia, Bergamo, Lodi, and Como, with little opposition, the inhabitants having escaped to the mountains. Milan, then the capital of Liguria, was captured after a short siege, the principal people, with their bishop, Honoratus, having fled to Genoa. In Milan the ceremony of the inauguration was solemnly performed. Alboin was lifted on a shield in the midst of his troops, received the emblems of royalty then in use, and was proclaimed king of Italy.

From Milan Alboin sent out expeditions, which reduced Piacenza, Parma, and Modena, and the other inland cities in Emilia and Tuscany. At Pavia he met an obstinate resistance, but, after a siege which endured more than three years, that city at length surrendered; and being strongly fortified, it was fixed as his place of residence, and long continued to be the capital of the Lombard kingdom. Whilst Alboin was in Pavia taking the steps necessary to defend the dominions he had acquired, and to reconcile his new subjects to his rule, he was murdered at the instigation of his wife, in the palace at Pavia, in the year 575. The queen, with her paramour, made an attempt to obtain the command of the Lombards; but not succeeding in their purpose, they fled to the Roman garrison at Ravenna, where both perished most miserably. Clephis, a relation of Alboin, having been raised to the throne, extended the Lombard power to the gates of Rome; but he conducted himself with such cruelty, that he was killed by his own people, after a reign of less than a year. His actions produced a dislike to monarchical power, and for ten years no king was chosen. The dukes who had been created among the chiefs of the Lombards acted in their respective territories as independent but allied sovereigns. Under this kind of government their power continued to extend, and that of the emperor gradually retreated before it. The want of a central authority was, however, soon discovered; and, in 586, Autharis, the son of Clephis, was chosen as king, and, by his valour and prudence, established the throne so securely, that it continued to flourish through the two succeeding centuries. It is not necessary to enter into a minute history of the several kings of Lombardy who ascended the throne of that country. A kind of aristocratic monarchy was created, composed of thirty principalities, the chiefs of which were distinguished by the titles of dukes, counts, or barons, which, with the revenues of the land, were held as fiefs under the kings, and became gradually hereditary. The islands of the Adriatic were formed into a republic, and the inhabitants, by electing, in 697, their first doge or duke, formed an independent and central government. The exarch appointed by the government at Constantinople held authority at the city of Ravenna, and had under his power Romagna, the Pentapolis, or five maritime cities of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia, and Ancona, and almost the whole sea-shores of Lower Italy, where Amalfi and Gaeta had their own dukes of the Greek nation. The island of Sicily, and the capital, Rome, in which a patrician ruled in the name of the emperor, formed also parts of the imperial dominions.

Constantly pressed upon by the Lombards, the power and influence of Constantinople gradually declined; and its fall was hastened by the Emperor Leo, called the Isaurian, whose zeal in the destruction of images embittered the clergy of the orthodox church in Italy. The inhabitants of cities forcibly expelled the imperial authorities, and elected a senate, with consuls, as in the time of the Roman republic. In Rome itself a certain power was acknowledged in the bishop, which, on account of the sanctity of his character, was of a paternal nature; at first it was exercised in ecclesiastical affairs, but by degrees extended to civil matters, and in process of time arrived at temporal sovereignty. The popes, who were anxious to defend their territory against the Lombards, when the Byzantine court had neglected or abandoned them, applied for assistance to the Franks.

It may not be improper here to remark, that the original Lombard invaders, composed as they were of various tribes, comprised different religions, some of them still adhering to the ancient heathenism, either of the Greek or the Gothic description; whilst others had embraced the Christian religion, but with the heretical tenets of Arianism. These tribes, with little attention or little adherence to any doctrinal points, had gradually been led to embrace the profession of the Roman Catholic church. Luitprand, who ascended the throne of Lombardy in 711, was the last of that nation to abandon his heresies, which he did in the presence of Pope Gregory at Rome in 729; upon which the pontiff made a public renunciation of his allegiance to the imperial court, and withdrew all claim of obedience from it. Gregory was, however, indisposed to form an alliance with Luitprand, whose vicinity to the capital of his diocese he viewed with suspicion. When the emperor was making preparations to invade Italy, in order to enforce his decrees for the destruction of images, the pope addressed himself to the Frankish monarch, then one of the most powerful princes of western Europe.

The Franks were at that time governed by the celebrated Charles Martel, who had highly distinguished himself in war, and was considered as the best commander of his time. Gregory despatched an embassy to his residence, with numerous presents of holy relics. It was received with respectful distinction, and a treaty was speedily concluded, by which Charles engaged to march with an army into Italy in defence of Rome and of the church, in case any attack should be made by the emperor or the king of Lombardy. The Romans, on their part, were to acknowledge Charles as their protector, and to confer upon him the dignity of the consulship.

Leo the Isaurian was succeeded by his son Constantine surnamed Copronymus, who carried his rage against images to a greater extent than his predecessor, and forbade the worship of the saints and of the Virgin Mary. This occasioned new disturbances in Italy, and made the Romans more zealous than before to separate themselves from their dependence on Constantinople. Zachary, who had succeeded to the chair of St Peter, urged on Luitprand the restoration of the four cities, and also the district of Sabina, which had been seized upon thirty years before; and in compliance with the representation, they were thus added to the sacred patrimony. Luitprand died in 743, after a reign of thirty-two years. His son Rachis, who succeeded him, was anxious to extend his dominions, and invaded the territory ceded to the holy see by his father, when Pope Zachary visited him, and, by his representation of the punishment hereafter to be inflicted on those who violated the rights of the church, so operated upon his mind, that he not only restored the towns and territory he had seized, but took the habit of a monk, and entered into the monastery of Monte Cassino, where he passed the remainder of his days, honoured as a saint by the other monks of the fraternity.

Astulphus succeeded his father on the Lombard throne in 751. The exarchate of Ravenna and the duchy of Rome excited his love for conquest. The city, the capital of the first, was surrendered with little difficulty. He advanced towards Rome, and, when arrived at Narai, sent an embassy to the pope, announcing his determination to enter that city, to seize the wealth of the Romans, and to impose a tax of a golden solidus on every one who would not swear allegiance to the Lombard throne. Stephen, who then filled the papal chair, attempted by negotiation to avert the threatened storm; but failing to appease Astulphus, in imitation of his predecessor, he had recourse to the assistance of France. Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, now filled the throne of that kingdom, and professed unlimited obedience to the holy see. Stephen, by the consent, or at least connivance, of Astulphus, whose forces were encamped round the city of Rome, made a journey to France, and Pepin immediately, accompanied by the pope, passed the Alps with a large army, and advanced into Italy. Astulphus could not raise a sufficient force to repulse his assailants, and, after some slight reverses, retired to Pavia. In that city he was besieged, and compelled to sue for peace. This was granted, upon the condition that he should give up, not to the emperor, but to the pope, the several cities he had captured in the exarchate and the dukedom, and deliver hostages for the performance of the conditions agreed on. Pepin with his forces returned to France; and the pope proceeded with exultation to the south, in the expectation of being placed in possession of the cities and territories which Astulphus had stipulated to deliver up, and which Pepin had guaranteed to the holy see. The Lombard king, however, as soon as the storm had passed over, broke into the dukedom and besieged Rome. The pope again had recourse to Pepin, who readily advanced. Astulphus, after an unavailing siege of three months, abandoned Rome, and once more took refuge in the strong fortifications of Pavia. During this second siege, which Pepin speedily commenced, an embassy from the Emperor Constantine Copronymus arrived at his camp, to remonstrate against the donation of the exarchate to the pope; and offered to repay the expenses of the war to France, if the territories were delivered over to the power of the emperor. Pepin replied to the envoy, that "as he had a right to those territories by the sword, and had thought proper to bestow them on the pope, nothing should induce him to alter his resolution." By a vigorous prosecution of the war, Pepin obtained a peace; and for the pope the city of Commachio, in addition to what had been before ceded to him. From this period, 756, the pontiffs assumed the language as well as the power of sovereigns, no longer using for the dates of their rescripts the year of the reign of the emperor, but that of their own pontificates.

Astulphus, soon after executing the treaty concluded at Pavia, met an untimely death, the manner of which, however, has been variously described. During the succeeding twenty years the Lombards languished in a state of weakness and decay, but interrupted by a disputed succession, which ended in the elevation of Desiderius to the vacant throne. A double marriage was arranged between two daughters of this Lombard king and Carloman and Charles (usually called Charlemagne), the sons of Pepin. Charles soon divorced his wife, under the pretence of barrenness; and Carloman died, leaving two sons, the grandsons of Desiderius, who detained them in the hope that they might be made use of to produce disturbances in France. Thus family jealousy was one amongst many grounds of quarrel. Desiderius was induced to attack the dominions granted to the pope; and, at the invitation of the pontiff, Charlemagne advanced with a large army. Desiderius, like his father, took refuge in Pavia; and after the capture of Verona, and a visit to Rome, Charlemagne drew up his forces, a part of which had blockaded it, around that city. The defence was brave and protracted; but by famine, and by the plague, which raged within the walls, the city was at length compelled to surrender. Desiderius being thus made prisoner, and sent with his family to France, all the other cities submitted to Charlemagne in 774. That monarch claimed the kingdom of the Lombards by right of conquest, and caused himself to be crowned king, with an iron crown, by the hands of the Archbishop of Milan, in the presence of his army, at a place called Modastia, about twelve miles from that city.

Thus ended the kingdom of Lombardy, after it had existed two hundred and six years. Though the Lombard kings were at first rude and barbarous, yet, when they had embraced the Christian religion, they ruled with great equity and mildness. "Under their government," says Paulus Diaconus, "no violence was committed, no one unjustly dispossessed of his property, none oppressed with taxes; theft, robberies, murder, and adultery, were seldom heard of, and every one went whither he pleased. They were the only power in Italy capable of defeating the ambitious views of the bishops of Rome, and hence arose the inveterate hatred which the popes bore to them; but their many wholesome laws, which are still extant, are at the same time convincing proofs of their justice, humanity, and wisdom, and a full confutation, as Grotius observes, of the many calumnies with which the popes and their partisans have endeavoured to asperse them."

The conduct of Charlemagne to his newly-acquired kingdom appears to have been wise and liberal. He sanctioned the laws by which the districts had been governed, whether Roman or Lombard; but to the latter he made a few additions. The emperor was left in quiet possession of the dukedom of Naples, and of the other places in Italy that he held. He allowed to the Dukes of Spoleto, Friuli, and Benevento, the same power and authority as they had exercised under the Lombard kings; and the smaller dukes were continued in their dignities, but were compelled to take annually the oaths of allegiance to him; and, unless they violated it, the dignity was made hereditary in their families. Having thus settled the affairs of Italy, he returned to France, having, in 781, appointed his son Pepin his viceroy.

A seditious controversy in Rome, respecting the election of a pope, induced Leo III, who had been raised to that dignity, to pass the Alps and apply for protection to Charlemagne, against the Roman populace. The conqueror of Italy, in consequence of this, repaired to Rome, where, on Christmas day 800, during the celebration of divine rites, Leo suddenly placed a valuable crown on his head, and the church resounded with the acclamations of the people, "Long life and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific emperor of the Romans." The title thus conferred by the pretended sudden impulse of a pope, on a conqueror who denied all participation in the project, has been retained by his German successors, till it was abandoned in the present century, out of compliment to revolutionary France.

During the life of Charlemagne, whilst his son Pepin was acting as viceroy, Venice, which had grown up to be a consolidated and warlike power, disavowed the title conferred by the pope, and commenced hostilities against his Italian dominions. The Saracens, a new power, availed themselves of the circumstances, and attacked the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, where they obtained much plunder, and made many of the inhabitants captives. Pepin equipped an army and a fleet to reduce Venice to submission; but having failed in the attempt, and lost most of his vessels among the shoals and rocks of the islands, chagrin at the reverses he sustained caused his death, which took place soon afterwards at Milan. A natural son of Pepin, named Bernard, was nominated by Charlemagne as his viceroy in Italy.

Charlemagne died in 813, and was succeeded by his son Louis. Louis and Bernard met at Aix-la-Chapelle, and appeared to have arranged the mode of ruling the extensive dominions of their departed ancestor; but the ambition of Bernard led him to attack his uncle, and to dispute his succession. Louis, however, was enabled to baffie his aspiring nephew, who was defeated, captured, and condemned to the loss of sight, under which operation he expired, in the fifth year of his reign.

Italy remained as a portion of the Frankish monarchy till the treaty of Verdun in 843, when it was delivered over, with the imperial title, and with the addition of the country of Lorraine, to Lotharius I, the eldest son of Louis. He bequeathed his dominion to Louis II, in 850, who appears to have been the best of the princes of the Carolingian race. He died, after a prosperous but rather a turbulent reign, in 875. The election of a pope, Benedict III. his rejection by Louis, and the ultimate submission of the monarch to its legality, were sources of vexation, though not of actual hostility. In the latter years of his reign, the Saracens, instigated by the emperor, invaded the south of Italy; but having been defeated near Capua, they were expelled the country. Three years afterwards they again resumed their attacks, and besieged Salerno; but meeting with a severe repulse, they again departed, leaving Italy at peace at the time of the death of the monarch.

His death seemed the signal for discord, from the va- rious claimants in the imperial family to the Italian dominions. Charles the Bald of France first took possession; but dying in 877, Carloman, king of Bavaria, seized the inheritance; and he was followed in 880 by his brother Charles the Fat, king of Swabia, who, for the last time, united under one sovereign the whole of the Frankish monarchy. During seven years Italy was the theatre of lawless violence, in which the nobles required an Italian prince, and the pope was anxious to have a foreigner placed on the throne; whilst the Saracens, availing themselves of the disturbances, extorted money from the pope as the price of peace, and still continued their depredations. Berengar duke of Friuli, and Guido duke of Spoleto, with the Marquis of Ivrea, were rivals for the throne; but Guido was, in 894, crowned as emperor and king, and his son Lambert nominated as his successor in these dignities. Arnulf, the German king of the Carlovigian race, urged and succeeded in his pretensions, and was crowned in 896; but, like those who succeeded him, he was unable to exercise any considerable power except whilst he continued to reside among his subjects.

After the death of Lambert in 898, and of Arnulf in 899, Louis, king of Lower Burgundy, appeared as the rival of Berengar I., but without effect; and the same fate befell another claimant, Rudolph of Upper Burgundy; in spite of the pretensions of both, the possession of the throne was at length, in 915, in the hands of Berengar, who was solemnly crowned. The power in the hands of the feudal vassals of the throne was so much weakened by the recent dissensions, that it became almost impossible to repress the plundering incursions which the Saracens were continually making on his dominions. This monarch was murdered in 924, when Rudolph of Upper Burgundy was induced to transfer his pretensions to the throne to Hugo, count of Provence. Hugo endeavoured, by the exercise of the most bloody tyranny, to gain the unsteady dominion of Italy; but his nephew Berengar, marquis of Ivrea, having escaped some snares that were laid for him, fled for refuge to Otho the Great, in Germany, collected there a number of fugitives, turned towards Italy, and in 945 succeeded in compelling Hugo to abdicate the throne, and transfer it to his son Lotharius, who was less the object of general aversion than himself, and who, upon his accession, appointed Berengar his first minister of state.

The death of Lotharius occurred in 950, and was supposed to have been the result of poison administered by Berengar, who was desirous to force the beautiful wife of the former to unite with his son. To avoid this match, and to escape from the consequences of rejecting it, she fled for safety to the city of Canosa, against which her persecutor commenced a siege. She then applied for assistance to King Otho. He with great expedition passed the Alps, liberated the lady, defeated Berengar, captured Pavia, and having seated himself on the throne of Italy, espoused the fair Adelheid in 951. Berengar made himself useful to the new sovereign by his early submission, and by his delivering up the Friouls, the keys of Italy, to the brother of Otho; and thence his offers of service were accepted, and he was appointed to rule the country in the name of Otho. After ten years, complaints reached the throne from the great vassals in Italy, when Otho returned there, dismissed Berengar from his station, led him as a prisoner to Bamberg in Germany, and having united Italy with his German dominions, was crowned with the iron crown at Milan in the year 961. Otho certainly granted the best lands as fiefs to his German nobles; but he conferred great privileges on the cities of Italy, and on these were grounded free constitutions, which, however, soon converted the country into a theatre of anarchy. During the tenth century, the liberality of the Frankish kings, who had served their purpose, so corrupted the church, and so weakened the royal authority, that it effectively undermined it; whilst the clergy and the people elected the popes according to the dictation of the consuls and of the inferior patricians. Thus it happened that, in the first half of the tenth century, two eminent intriguing females disposed of the holy see. Theodora, in 914, raised her son by her lover Pope John X., to the chair of St Peter, which he filled under the name of John XI. The brother of the last, Alberich of Camerino, and his son Octavian, were absolute masters of Rome; and the latter was consecrated pope in 956, at the age of twenty years. Otho, when crowned at Rome in 962, annulled the election, and appointed Leo VIII. in his stead; but the people, jealous of this exercise of power, elected Benedict V. The popes, instead of governing Rome, were thus themselves dependent on the leaders of the populace.

The republics of Gaeta and Amalfi, in the Neapolitan part of Italy, still maintained their independence against the Lombard dukedom of Benevento. This was more easily defended, from a division having been made of the territory of the dukedom, which diminished its power, and because they had a common enemy to contend with in the Saracens, who had by each party been invited to afford them assistance in their quarrels, but who had fixed themselves in Apulia, and there constructed powerful fortifications. The Emperor Louis II. and King Macedo, by their united forces, had so broken the power of the Musulmans in 866, that the latter could no longer maintain themselves in Lower Italy; and thus enabled the Greeks to form establishments on the territory previously occupied by the Saracens. They founded a province, called the Thema of Lombardy, which was ruled by a chief residing in Bari, and which maintained its independence during more than a hundred years.

Otho the Great was succeeded, in 973, by his son Otho II. Under his reign Crescentius, then consul in Rome, attempted to secure to himself the sole power of that city; whilst Otho was occupied in carrying on some plans of conquest in Lower Italy, and suffered the vicious popes, Boniface VII. and John XV. to exercise supreme authority. But, in 983, Otho III. succeeded his father, and elevated his cousin Gregory V. to the papal throne, when Crescentius, with the assistance of the populace, was enabled to drive him from the city, and to fill his station with a Greek pope, John XVI.; and he attempted also to lead back the Romans to an apparent subjection to the Greek emperor. Otho soon replaced Pope Gregory in the papal chair by force, and besieged Crescentius in the Castle of St Angelo, where he was at length, with twelve others of his associates, made prisoner, and, along with them, suffered decapitation in 998. Though compelled to take the oaths of allegiance, the submission of the city was reluctant, and the disposition to throw it off was only repressed by force of arms.

The death of Otho III. in 1002 was deemed by the Italians a dissolution of their connection with the German emperors, and Hardouin, marquis of Ivrea, was crowned king of Italy in Pavia; upon which the jealousy of the Milanese, the habitual rivals and enemies of Pavia, induced the citizens of that place to declare Henry II. of Germany as king also. The immediate consequence was a civil war, in which each city and district took a greater or a less part, and all suffered most severely. Henry was indeed, in 1004, acknowledged by the assembly of nobles collected in Pavia; but, in the tumult which arose on the occasion, a great part of the city was destroyed by fire.

After the death of Hardouin in 1015, Henry was acknowledged as king by the whole of Lombardy; as was also, after his death, his son Conrad II., who was, however, known in Italy as Italus or Italicus I. A general assembly was held near Piacenza, at which all the power of the feudatories was declared to be hereditary by an irreversible law, and zealous attempts were made to obtain peace and security to all the states. These efforts were ineffectual, from the rage between the growing cities and their bishops, as well as the hatred between the clergy and the nobles, and between those bodies and the inferior inhabitants. In republican Rome, where the family of Crescentius still directed the voices of the public, neither Henry nor Conrad, nor the pope, could enforce obedience. When Henry III., the son of Conrad, came to Italy in 1046, he found no less than three popes in Rome. These he displaced, and selected, by his sole power, Clement II., who was placed in the chair of St Peter; and regularly afterwards raised to the spiritual dignities respectable German ecclesiastics. This reform, although apparently wise at the time, as giving dignity to the pontiffs, was afterwards found in practice to have tended to corrupt them.

During the long minority of Henry IV., after the death of his father, Hildebrand, a monk, afterwards Pope Gregory VII., took the lead in opposition to the temporal power, and increased that of the ecclesiastical to an alarming extent. This increase of clerical power was much promoted by the transactions of the Normans. As early as the year 1016, some warriors from Normandy settled in Apulia and Calabria, and having early formed alliances with the Lombards, the republics, or the Greeks, as best served their purpose, against the Saracens, they became, through their warlike habits, a very powerful party. Leo IX. made several attempts to draw them away; but these all failed, and ended in his own captivity and submission. Nicholas II., on the other hand, formed alliances with the Norman leaders, and in 1059 endowed Robert Guiscard with the feudal rights of all the lands he had conquered in Lower Italy. Afterwards, the popes, in the contentions with the imperial power, trusted chiefly to the aid they could draw from their faithful confederates, the newly-created Dukes of Apulia and Calabria, to whom were afterwards added the chiefs of the Normans in the island of Sicily. Whilst, in the south of Italy, the small states thus became larger, in the north the great states were broken up into several of small extent and power. The Lombard states founded their subsequent greatness, and Venice, Genoa, and Pisa had already become rich and powerful. The Pisans, who, in 980, were in alliance with Otho II., and performed great services against the Greeks, and against the Saracens in Lower Italy, united with the Genoese, now a seafaring and warlike people, to attack the unbelievers in Sardinia, and twice, in 1017 and 1050, conquered those intruders, and finally divided the lands, in large districts, amongst the most eminent of the native inhabitants.

Gregory VII., usually called Gregory the Great, was at the head of the church, using all the exertions and influence of his station to extend its power. He laid claims to authority over Spain as a fief of the church, and required of that kingdom all the conquests which had been made from the Moors. Sardinia was demanded of the conquerors, and France was under his authority. He made attempts to exercise his power in Hungary, and even in Russia; and extorted from England the tax known by the name of Peter's pence, which long continued to be paid. In Italy, where knowledge had begun to dawn, there were many opposed to the vast extension of the papal power; but they were outnumbered by others, who feared more the government of a German prince. In most of the other parts of Europe the regular priests had so much influence, that the monstrous pretensions of the pontiff were submitted to with little or no reluctance. It was not so, however, in Germany. The policy of Gregory had enjoined on the priests the observance of celibacy, and the German clergy were reluctant to put away their wives. They opposed the pope's decrees, and joined with the emperor in resisting them. The German bishops in council pronounced the deposition of the pope; and the pontiff issued his excommunications against them and their emperor. A war thus broke out between Henry of Swabia and Pope Gregory, though Clement III. had been created pope by the Germans. Gregory and his army was defeated, and he retired to the Castle of Angelo, where he was long besieged, and at length, being released by Robert the Norman, removed to Salerno, where he died in the year 1085. Two popes were chosen in succession by the cardinals, viz. Victor III. and Urban II.; whilst the antipope Clement, with his conclave, sometimes in Rome, at other times driven from it, never ceased to fulminate his excommunications. Urban maintained the contest with Clement, and in fact triumphed over him. His success was owing in a great measure to the part he took in favour of the Crusades, which about that period began to excite the attention and rouse the passions of all Europe to achieve the conquest of the Holy Land. The enthusiasm of the period enabled Urban to drive Clement from the city of Rome, and to take possession of the chair of St Peter, in which dignity he terminated his life in the year 1099. Paschal II. was fixed by the cardinals at Rome in the papal chair; and though the party of Clement on his death elected another antipope, it did not weaken the secure hold on the dignity to which Paschal had been elevated. The son of Henry IV. was encouraged by the pope to rebel against him, as one who, being excommunicated, could not convey to his successor any right. The father was made prisoner by the son, and Henry V. was then crowned emperor and king.

Henry V., though, until he obtained the throne, the devoted defender of the papal claims, after his accession became their antagonist, and thus gained the support of his German nobles. After suppressing commotions in other parts of his dominions, he crossed the Alps with an army of eighty thousand men; passed through Italy to Rome without serious opposition; and there massacred many of the citizens, shut up the pope, the cardinals, and the nobility in prison, and held them confined till he had obtained from the pontiff the full investiture of all his dominions. The pope then crowned him as emperor, and honoured him at his departure with every mark of respect. Henry had scarcely reached his patrimonial dominions when he found a general flame kindled around him. The Lateran council disavowed all that his holiness had done, upon the notorious ground that it had been extorted by force. The French clergy had acquiesced in the excommunication, and those of Germany rejected the bull of investiture; whilst a rebellion, excited by Duke Lothario, broke out in Saxony. By the aid of the Duke of Staufen-Swabia, Henry was enabled to hush the domestic threatening storm, and again with an army marched to Italy, and seized upon Rome, whilst the pope fled to Apulia. He was once more crowned, the ceremony being performed by the Archbishop of Braga, in Portugal, on the assumption that the former coronation had been invalid, from the perjury of the pope who had performed the ceremony. At the conclusion of his reign Henry V. had nearly lost his influence in Rome, so that he had, at least tacitly, given up all concern in the election of a pope, when Calixtus was chosen by one party, and Honorius II. by another, to fill that dignity. Shortly afterwards he died at Utrecht in May 1125.

During the reigns of these German princes many of the cities of Italy had risen to considerable wealth, power, and splendour, and, from the emperors being often absent with their armies in the other parts of their dominions, had assumed to themselves almost all the rights of sovereignty. These cities forced the others of less extent near to them into an alliance, by which they obtained the aid of their population whenever they had occasion to have recourse to arms. The two cities of Milan and Pavia, in the north of Italy, were the chiefs of rival associations. Disputes between Milan and Cremona gave occasion to the first hostilities between the former of those cities and Pavia, in 1129, to which a contest between two rivals for the crown of Italy, Lothario II. and Conrad of Hohenstaufen, gave a different direction, and created two parties, the Guelphs, the adherents of the popes, and the Ghibelines, the supporters of the German emperors. These two parties, which long divided Italy, derive their origin from a family which in the eleventh century held extensive possessions in the north of Italy, amongst the mountains between St Gothard and the Brenner, and bore the name of Welf. They descended into the plains of Germany, and obtaining settlements in some of its finest provinces in the south of that country, this enabled them in process of time to become the founders of both the royal and ducal houses of Guelph; the first seated on the throne of Great Britain, and the second enjoying the duchy of Brunswick.

This family quarrelled among themselves, one branch bearing the name of Welf, changed by the Italians into Guelph, and the other Waiblingen, changed into Ghibeline; and they had, before their intermeddling in the Italian wars, fought a bloody battle at Winsberg in 1140. The state of Italy favoured the creation of parties, to which the chiefs of the two branches of this German family attached themselves, and continued their animosity during more than one hundred years.

In Rome were violent schisms between the partisans of rival popes; and this again gave rise to that spirit of independence which that city had constantly nourished. It was especially excited by the preaching of Arnold of Brescia, an eloquent monk, the pupil of Abelard, who declaimed with great energy against the luxury of the clergy, and in favour of that liberty which Rome had in ancient times enjoyed. Though banished in the year 1146, he returned again from Zurich, where he had taken refuge, and, under Pope Adrian IV. was condemned and executed in 1155. In the mean time the two great cities had strengthened themselves. Milan had in her alliance the cities of Tortona, Crema, Bergamo, Brescia, Placentia, and Parma. Pavia was at the head of Cremona and Novara. Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Treviso, and Mantua, who were nearly equal in power, maintained each its independence. Turin was at the head of the towns of Piedmont, and disputed the authority of the Counts of Savoy. The great feudatories were the Marquis of Montserrat and the Prince of Asti. To the south of the Po the city of Bologna had acquired great power, and exercised influence over Modena and Reggio on one side, and Ferrara, Ravenna, Faenza, Forli, and Rimini on the other. Florence had risen to superiority in Tuscany by the destruction of Fiesole, and had as allies the cities of Pistoja, Arrezzo, San Minato, Volterra, Lucca, Cortona, Perugia, and Sienna.

Such was the state of affairs in Italy when the diet of the empire of Germany, assembled at Frankfort in the year 1152, bestowed the crown of that kingdom on Frederick duke of Bavaria, of the house of Hohenstaufen, better known by the name of Barbarossa, the nephew of Conrad, his predecessor in that dignity. The new emperor is recorded by the authorities of his time to have been brave, just, and not addicted to cruelty, yet his reign inflicted the most severe visitations on Italy. The cities were zealous to defend the rights of self-government which they had obtained, and, though filled with factions, resolved to maintain them. They were surrounded with strong walls, impregnable against the arts of attack then practised; and they were well peopled with men, patient, brave, and abstemious, when a siege demanded the exercise of such qualities. The open country and the smaller towns, from which the numerous fortified cities drew their sustenance, suffered severely whenever an army traversed that country; and, to produce a greater pressure on the cities, the rude soldiery of that time not only destroyed the provisions they could not consume, but cut down the growing crops before they were fit to be harvested, or set them on fire, with the houses and the barns of the cultivators. Barbarossa viewed the whole of Italy as his subjects, and treated those who opposed him as rebels and traitors; and as the Ghibelines, who were the weaker party, adhered to him, his chief operations were directed against the Guelphs, of whom Milan was the main support and the centre of union.

Six times did the emperor cross the Alps with a numerous German army to reduce the country to obedience, and each time his attempts were frustrated. In 1154, in conjunction with the city of Pavia, he defeated the Milanese army, but could not take the city; yet he destroyed Tortona, and was then crowned, both in Pavia with the iron crown of Lombardy, and at Rome with the golden crown of the empire, though the ceremony was performed in the suburb, admission within the walls of the latter city being refused. After plundering Spoleto, sickness and desertion so thinned his ranks, that he led back the remnant of his troops, and repassed the Alps by way of Trent and the Tyrol. The most savage destruction was perpetrated in the retreat; but the cities were unassailed, and rejoiced in their freedom, though they did little injury to the retiring army. In the interval that followed, a civil war was carried on by the two parties, at the head of which were Milan and Pavia; but in this the latter, the weaker of the two confederates, suffered the most, whilst by the former the citizens of Tortona were received with sympathy, their houses rebuilt, and their fortifications restored.

Barbarossa entered Italy again in 1158, with the vassals who crowded to him from all parts of Germany. At Brescia, the terror of his name induced that city to renounce the alliance with Milan, which refused to receive the emperor. By the aid of the militia of Cremona and Pavia he was enabled to besiege Milan; but his engines being insufficient to beat down the walls, he resolved to starve it into surrender, and intercepted all provisions and destroyed the growing crops. In this situation of distress, Blandrate, an independent noble, known as a protector of Lombardy, with some others of the same rank, assumed the office of mediator, and obtained favourable terms. The city agreed to pay a tribute, and to restore the rights of the emperor, on condition that they should elect their consuls, and not be bound to open their gates to the emperor. Tortona and Crema were both included in this pacification, which was signed on the 7th of September 1158. A few weeks afterwards, a diet of the kingdom of Italy having been convoked at Roncaglia, fixed much wider bounds to the regal rights than the Milanese would admit, upon which they again took up arms and prepared to defend themselves. Another diet was called, which met at Bologna in the spring of 1159, and by whose decision Milan was declared to be under the ban of the empire. As that city was too strong to be captured, the first attempt of the emperor was directed against the allied city of Crema, which was compelled to surrender, after a siege of six months, in January 1160.

The German troops were exhausted by the severe duty of the siege, and their term of service having expired, many of them withdrew; but Frederick, with the Italian Ghibeline cities of Pavia, Cremona, and Novara, carried on the war by devastating the country of the Guelphs, and excluding all supplies from Milan. In June 1161, a new army reached the theatre of war in Italy, when the emperor resolved to reduce what he called his rebellious city. The defence of Milan was hopeless, but firmly maintained, when a fire, which destroyed the chief magazine of provisions, induced the inhabitants to surrender at discretion in March 1162. Frederick, though proud and severe, was not cruel, and never put to death by the hands of the executioner either enemies or rebels when vanquished. He ordered the militia of the Ghibeline cities to raze the walls, and so to destroy the buildings, that not one stone should be left on another. The poorer inhabitants were placed in villages at some distance from the place; and many sought hospitality in other cities, where their perseverance was recorded with applause, and where they spread the love of freedom and hatred of tyranny. The spirit of independence so rapidly increased that it was soon communicated to the Ghibeline cities; and the effect of it was to produce a confederacy of a most extended nature. Frederick had entered Italy in 1163, attended only by his splendid train of nobles, but without an army, under the impression that he could at pleasure call out the militia of the Ghibeline cities. He directed his steps towards Rome, where, on account of a contest for the papal chair, occasioned by the death of Adrian IV., he thought his presence necessary. Whilst in the south, a union was formed in the Veronese, which he deemed injurious to his prerogatives; and he hastened to call out the militia of the Ghibeline cities of Pavia, Cremona, Lodi, and Como, to lead them against Verona; but they were indisposed to the service, upon which he returned to Germany to collect an army, on whose exertions he might depend.

In October 1176 Frederick descended from the Grisons with his newly-collected army. His military operations were ineffectual; and whilst he advanced to Rome and to Ancona, the confederation of the cities of the Guelphs and the Ghibelines was cemented, and assumed the name of the League of Lombardy. Frederick had been repulsed at Ancona, whilst he had been victorious at Rome; but his victory proved useless. His army was attacked by disease, which swept away great numbers; and with the remnant he could scarcely protect himself from the increasing influence of the League, whose authority had already restored Milan, and built the new city of Alessandria, at the confluence of the rivers Tanaro and Bormida. In March 1168, the emperor, with but a very few troops, was enabled to effect his retreat from his Italian subjects, by the road of Mount Cenis, and soon prepared a new German force, which was to be employed in coercing them.

In the efforts to lead the Germans again into Italy, he was baffled by their reluctance, and remained, as far as regarded Italy, in a state of repose during five years. He sent, indeed, his warlike chancellor, Christian, archbishop of Mentz, to raise his party in Tuscany, the only district in which there existed any portion of attachment to the Ghibeline cause.

In October 1174, Frederick again entered Italy at the head of a powerful army, but was detained four months by the siege of the newly-built town of Alessandria; and the sickness among his troops, occasioned by the severity of the winter, so weakened him, that having abandoned the siege in April 1175, he was too weak to attack the forces of the League, and thus induced to enter on a negotiation. Much time was spent, but no plan of conciliation was adopted; and Frederick again sent into Germany for an army, which arrived in the spring of 1176 at Como, whither he was enabled secretly to join them; but he could get very little aid from the few cities of the Ghibeline party. He advanced to the neighbourhood of Milan, and at Lignano attacked the forces of the League. Though at first he met with success, yet the issue of the battle was so decisively against him, that his camp was pillaged, his army dispersed, and himself rendered a fugitive; but finally he escaped to Pavia, to contradict the report of his death, which had prevailed during several days. Negotiations followed this defeat. The pope and the Venetians acted as mediators, and in 1177 a truce for six years was concluded. During its continuance the political power of the League was strengthened and consolidated; whilst, on the other hand, the emperor had learned the lesson, untaught to his predecessors, of submitting to restrictions imposed by subjects on their sovereign. The truce was followed by the treaty of Constance in 1183, which secured the privileges of the cities, and recognised the prerogatives of the monarch, with certain necessary restrictions.

Barbarossa partook of the religious enthusiasm which infected all Europe, and, after the peace of Constance, repaired to the Holy Land, where, in 1190, he died of an apoplectic attack.

Though the peace of 1183 gave political freedom to the cities, yet this not being followed by any confederation, they each thought only of strengthening their defences, and of intriguing for power and supremacy. A party spirit was thus kindled, which spread and continued during the whole period that the emperors of Germany of the house of Hohenstaufen continued to exercise the shadow of sovereignty. The cities were soon divided again into Guelphs and Ghibelines, but had changed their party principles, the Ghibelines being the defenders of the papal power, and the Guelphs the assailants thereof. The party feeling within each of the cities was strong and active. In those where the Guelphs had the government, a large minority constantly opposed them; and the same was the case where the opposite faction had the upper hand. Noble and other families were engaged in long feuds with each other, which endured through generations, and were constantly occasioning open murders or private assassinations. The history of these cities is filled with narratives that exhibit human nature in forms most revolting to our best feelings.

A single, though far from a solitary, instance of the prevalent feudal proceedings, may not be without its use in showing the effects of such a state of society as existed in these cities. A noble Guelph, named Buondelmonte, of the upper vale of the Arno, had demanded the hand of a young lady of the Ghibelline house of Amidei; and his proposals having been accepted, preparations were made for the marriage. But a lady of another family, the Donati, stopped the lover as he passed her door; and bringing him into the apartment where her females were at work, raised the veil of her daughter, whose beauty was most captivating. "Here," said she, "is the wife I had reserved for thee. Like thee, she is a Guelph; whilst thou takest one from the enemies of thy church and race." Buondelmonte, dazzled and enamoured, instantly accepted the proffered hand. The Amidei considered this inconstancy as a deep affront; and all the noble families of Florence of the Ghibeline faction, about twenty-four in number, met, and agreed that he should atone with his life for this offence. Buondelmonte was attacked on the morning of Easter Sunday, as he passed the bridge on horseback, and was there killed. Forty-two families of the Guelphic faction then met, and swore to avenge the insult; and thus blood was shed to atone for blood. Every day some new murder or some open battle alarmed the citizens of Florence, during the space of thirty-three years. These two parties stood opposed to each other within the walls of the same city; and although sometimes in appearance reconciled, yet every little accident renewed their animosity, and they again had recourse to deadly warfare.

The nobility of Italy, who possessed extensive feudal estates in the intervals between the cities, and some in contact with them, were bound by their tenures to take part with the emperor in the hostilities he had carried on against the cities. By this they had been much impoverished and in debt; and their creditors were for the most part the inhabitants of the cities, to whom the estates were hypothecated. They were a high-spirited race, had by practice acquired great skill in arms, and were acuter and abler political intriguers than the magistrates of the cities. Some of the nobles, who had castles sufficiently strong, lands sufficiently extensive, and vassals sufficiently numerous, to defend themselves, became attached to the Ghibeline party. Those of them whose castles were weak from their situation, or near to cities too populous to be ruled by them, had been admitted to become citizens of such places, had assisted them in war, had obtained a considerable share in their government, and were for the most part compelled by their interest to become adherents of the Guelphic faction. The plains of Italy were thus deprived of all the independent nobility, who had become citizens of some of the free republics; but every chain of mountains was thickly set with castles, held by those who, whilst they maintained their own independence, professed to owe and to acknowledge allegiance to the emperors. As war was their sole occupation, they were often gladly received by the republics, which stood much in need of able captains. It seems that the independent nobles who became connected with the cities as commanders of the forces were not always, though most commonly, of the same faction; for the Ghibeline family of Visconti, which held most extensive fiefs, associated itself with the Guelphic republic of Milan. These nobles, however, when connected with the cities, soon acquired extensive influence, and became finally founders of families who obtained hereditary, and, some of them, sovereign power. Of these the house of Este, allied to the Guelphs of Saxony and of Bavaria, who had strong castles on the Euganian Hills, joined the republic of Ferrara. The family of Ezzel or Eccelino, whose fiefs and castles were at the foot of the Tyrolean range, and who were devoted to the Ghibeline party, formed connections with the republics of Verona and Vicenza. On the northern side of the Apennines, the fortresses of several Ghibeline nobles excited and maintained revolutions in Placentia, Parma, Reggio, and Modena; whilst on the southern side of those hills were the castles of other Ghibeline nobles, in turn citizens or enemies of the republics of Arezzo, Florence, Pistoja, and Lucca. In the lower valleys of the Po, as well as in the upper vale of the Arno, the castles of the Guelphic nobles supplied leaders to the republics in their vicinity.

The factious and ferocious state of society here briefly sketched continued during the whole of the reign of the family of Hohenstaufen; but it is only justice to observe, that in the latter years of that period the art of painting first made its appearance in Italy, and that the first dawn of the revival of literature became visible in the horizon, by the improvement made in the language, by the discovery of magnifying glasses and of the magnet, by the establishment of the university of Bologna, and by some writers of talent, to whom the literature and civilization of all Europe became deeply indebted.

During the nominal reign of the German family, no one of the individuals who succeeded to the title after the death of Barbarossa is deserving of notice, excepting his grandson, Frederick II., who attained the dignity before he had arrived at the age of eighteen. During his reign, Pope Innocent III. attained the pontifical chair; a man of rare talent, great learning, strict morals, and adequate energy. Though the founder of the mendicant orders of Franciscans and Dominicans, and of the fearful power of the inquisition, and though the instigator of the crusades against the Albigenses in France, all his acts originated in the view he took of the moral effect of the increase of the ecclesiastical power, and of its concentration in the head of the church. He made efforts in Rome to establish civil liberty, by forming a representative senate, to whom all power but the judicial was intrusted; but he issued his commands to all the princes of Europe in stronger tones than those of Gregory the Great, which, if obeyed, would have deprived them of all political liberty.

Frederick carried on wars, in spite of the pope's anathema, with great success. In 1237 he defeated, at Cortenuovo, his opponents, who lost 10,000 men; and his subsequent activity gained all Upper Italy to his party, except the four cities of Milan, Brescia, Placentia, and Bologna. But Gregory IX., who had succeeded Innocent on the papal throne, induced the maritime republics of Venice and Genoa to rescue the Guelphs from destruction. This gave a turn to affairs, though Pisa still held fast to the emperor and the Ghibelines. A general council, summoned by the pope, pronounced his excommunication, and his party forsook him by degrees. The mendicant orders everywhere excited conspiracies against him; he became suspicious of every one around him, and was at length obliged to concede every thing to the pope; and, through the mediation of St Louis of France, he proposed, as the condition of his re-admission to the church, that he should go to the Holy Land and join the crusaders, engaging never to return. Whilst waiting the effect of his proposals at his castle of Florentino in Sicily, where he still ruled, he was seized with a dysentery, and died in December 1250.

After the death of Frederick, and the triumph of Pope Innocent IV., much confusion ensued, in which all freedom was extinguished. The pontiff was deceived in the expectation of general submission which he had formed. He was, during a progress, in some places received with coldness, and in others with disdain. The populace were in a state not to be restrained; the demagogues who directed could not rule them till they had assumed military and despotic power. In this progress the most unheard-of cruelties were perpetrated. In the single city of Padua there were eight prisons always full, notwithstanding the incessant toil of the executioner to empty them; and two of these prisons contained three hundred prisoners each. The Eccelios became for a time absolute masters of the north of Italy, and were succeeded by the family of Romano, and they by Marten della Torre. The cities of Mantua and Ferrara fell into the power of D'Este, and Verona into that of Mastino della Scala. Palavicino became lord of Cremona, and in process of time, when the disorders had attained their greatest height, of Milan, Brescia, Alessandria, and Tortona. The whole of Italy, with the exception of Tuscany and the maritime cities, had learned that the rule of an individual was far better than that of a democracy, and quietly submitted themselves to a military commander.

During the period in which the emperors of Germany of the Swabian or Hohenstaufen race were the kings of Italy, the maritime cities of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, had grown up to be powerful republican states, and were only by slight ties bound to the common sovereigns of Italy. The nobility who had been admitted to the rights of citizenship were the senators; and some member of their families was commonly chosen as a ruler, with the title of doge or duke. They were strict aristocracies, preserved in that form by laws which, whilst they gave security to their privileges, secured in like manner the rights and possessions of each individual. Under this state of security they naturally became wealthy, and their progress was accelerated by favourable circumstances. The Crusades, which animated the whole west of Europe, created a demand for shipping to convey troops and stores to and from the Holy Land; and thus a mercantile navy was called into being, which could at any time be easily converted into a military navy. It was in this way that Venice was enabled to take, and for a time to retain, the city of Constantinople itself. The commerce of the East had also greatly contributed to increase the wealth, and consequently the power, of these free cities. The chiefs of the Crusades, who returned from these expeditions, brought with them from Asia a taste for its luxuries; and for these the maritime cities became the storehouses, supplying the countries in the western part of Europe.

After the death of Pope Alexander IV., in 1261, his successor, Urban IV., among several princes who sought the government of Italy, selected Charles of Anjou, brother of St Louis of France, appointed him king of Naples, a senator of Rome, papal vicar of Tuscany, and finally king of Italy. This gave a new direction to the two parties, the Guelphs and the Ghibelines, which still distracted the country. One of them was considered as the friend, and the other as the enemy, of the French aspirant. Besides these parties, there were also the republics; and besides them, contests between the nobles and the people, in most of which the latter were, in the beginning at least, the conquerors. Charles invaded Naples, and defeated Manfred, the king, in 1265, and thus gave the superiority to the Guelphs, which he further increased by placing a garrison in Florence, and excluding from the councils the whole of the nobles, and all others of the Ghibeline party. He was for a short time alarmed by an invasion from Germany under Conrad, the grandson of the last Swabian emperor. This prince was only sixteen years of age when he arrived at Verona at the head of 10,000 cavalry, where he was joined by all the Ghibeline commanders who had distinguished themselves under his ancestor, and aided by the efforts of the Ghibeline cities, Pisa and Sienna. The citizens of Rome were so disposed to favour him, that on his advance they opened their gates and promised assistance. But all this zeal in his favour was of no avail. He passed the Abruzzi Mountains, and at the foot of them fought a desperate battle in August 1268. It terminated in the total defeat of the Germans. Conrad, with the chiefs, were made prisoners, and, after a mock trial, were condemned and beheaded at Naples on the 26th of October 1268. After these executions, an uninterrupted exhibition of similar spectacles filled the two Sicilies, and some other parts of Italy, with such horror and dismay, that Charles of Anjou reigned triumphantly, and soon acquired the mastery over the republican cities.

Gregory X., who ascended the papal throne in 1272, saw the impolicy of his predecessors, who had given themselves a French master. He endeavoured to raise the Ghibeline party so as to counterbalance the Guelphs; and engaged Pisa, Venice, and Genoa, to co-operate with him in choosing a chief. The election was made the following year, when Rodolph of Habsburg, the founder of the house of Austria, was declared emperor. Martin IV., who was made pope in 1280, undid the work of his predecessor, and persecuted the Ghibelines with great fury. But in the mean time the popes had secured to the holy see the temporal power over the ecclesiastical territories. During this period hostilities took place between the maritime republics. The Genoese had assisted Michael Paleologus in his successful efforts to retake Constantinople from the Venetians, and had received for their reward the island of Chios. Near to Meloria, in a sea-fight, the Genoese had nearly annihilated the fleet of the Pisans; and in another battle, near Curzola, they had gained the command of the sea by their defeat of the Venetians.

Charles was preparing an armament in all the ports of Naples and of Sicily, with the intention of contending in Greece for the eastern empire. This induced him to levy taxes of great amount with excessive rigour, and the judges endeavoured to prevent resistance by striking terror into all those who declined or even delayed the required payments. John de Procida, the friend and confidant of Frederick and of the deposed Manfred, a native of Salerno, visited secretly the cities of both Sicilies, to re-animate the zeal of the Ghibelines, and to rouse their hatred towards Charles and the French. He had also obtained promises from Greece and from Spain. It was not necessary, however, to have recourse to foreign aid, for a sudden and popular explosion took place in Palermo. It was excited by a French soldier, who behaved rudely to a betrothed lady, as she was on her way with her affianced husband to a church to receive the nuptial benediction. The indignation of her family was on the instant communicated to the populace. The bells of the churches were ringing for vespers; the people answered by the cry, "To arms; death to the French." The French were furiously attacked in every quarter. Those who attempted to defend themselves were soon overpowered; others, who endeavoured to pass for Italians, were known by the pronunciation of the two words "ceer" and "cier," which they were forced to utter, and on mis-pronunciation were instantly put to death. In a few hours more than four thousand persons thus perished in Palermo, and every other town in Sicily followed the bloody example. Thus the Sicilian vespers overthrew the demission of Charles and of the Guelphs; separated that island from the kingdom of Naples; and transferred the crown of the former to Peter of Aragon, the son-in-law of Manfred, who was considered as the heir of the house of Hohenstaufen. The massacre occurred on the 30th of March 1282.

Florence had, by 1282, been led to a democratic state by the attainder of the nobles as a body, and, by its judicious regulations, had greatly strengthened the Guelphic party; but some disputes, which had originated in the neighbouring insignificant town of Pistoja, were extended to Florence, and in a short time divided the whole of Tuscany into two factions of Guelphs, called the Bianchi and the Neri, or the Whites and the Blacks, whose mutual animosity and hostility were continued till 1300, when, by the intrigues of Pope Boniface VII., and the instrumentality of Charles de Valois, the Bianchi were plundered and expelled the country, upon which a part of them joined the Ghibeline faction. In Lombardy the dying cause of freedom still continued to exist, and was at length rekindled; and the people, wearied out with the feuds of their nobles, between 1302 and 1306 drove them out. At this period, by the management of Philip le Bel, a Frenchman, Clement V. was chosen pope, and removed the seat of the papal throne to Avignon, where it continued till 1377. This gave room for the display of the spirit of freedom in Rome, and in all the territory of the church. The authority and almost the name of the emperor of Germany had been neglected in Italy during sixty years, whilst their minds were wholly occupied with internal disputes. At length, in 1308, the diet of Germany advanced Henry of Luxembourg to the imperial dignity, after three other princes had occupied that station. Henry VII. had little power to enforce obedience in Germany, and foresaw symptoms of opposition, which he wished to divert by flattering the vanity of conflicting parties, and uniting them in projects for extending his authority over the several parts of Italy. Henry crossed Mount Cenis, and appeared in Italy in 1310, accompanied by a few cavalry, not amounting to two thousand, composed chiefly of Belgians, Germans, and some Savoyards. At Turin he was waited on by many of the nobles of Lombardy and Piedmont, who at least professed obedience; and even the cities, in confusion and distress as they all were from their internal contentions, gave indications of a strong desire for tranquillity under their constitutional chiefs. Henry professed impartiality between all parties, and his conduct corresponded with his professions; but he wanted money, and it was issued out to him with great parsimony by all but the citizens of Pisa, who were extremely liberal, and increased his force with a guard of six hundred bowmen, who accompanied him to Rome, where he received the golden crown of the emperor from the pope's legate, without the walls, as the citizens refused admission to him and his troops, but had admitted a garrison of Neapolitans. The term for which his foreign troops had enlisted had expired on his coronation, and they mostly left his service; but the Ghibelines and Bianchi of central Italy gathered round him, and formed a respectable force. He made some ineffectual efforts to conquer the democracy of Florence, who had taken a garrison of mercenaries into their pay. He then, reinforced by the Pisans, marched towards Rome to contend with Robert, king of Sicily, who maintained an ill-disciplined force in that city, and expected reinforcements from the Guelphs of Tuscany. On the road, not far from Sienna, on St Bartholomew's day 1318, he received the communion from the hands of a Dominican monk, and expired a few hours afterwards, with strong suspicions of having been poisoned.

When Henry died, disputes arose at the diet at Frankfurt respecting his successor in the empire; but they seemed to have had little effect on the condition of Italy. In a few years most of the republican cities in the middle of Italy had fallen under the government of some distinguished military family, whilst Tuscany alone maintained a share of liberty, by selecting Robert, king of Naples, as its protector. The Ghibeline city of Pisa found a master in Ugugccione della Faggiuola in 1314; and, after his expulsion in 1316, in Castruccio Castracani. Padua fell to the house of the Carraras, Alessandria, Tortona, and Cremona, became submissive under the Visconti of Milan. Mantua fell to the share of Gonzaga in 1328. In Ferrara the family of the Este established their hereditary power; and Ravenna became the patrimony of the Polentas, who had long held power there. In the other cities the same tyranny was established, but, from generation to generation, so uncertain in its administration as to increase the evils it created. These small princes adhered to Robert of Naples, whose greedy lust of power obtained the means of indulgence by Clement V., having appointed him vicar-general of Italy, designing thereby to hold the balance of parties in his own hands. Louis of Bavaria made his appearance in Italy in 1327, in order to put down both Anjou and the Guelphs. He was supported by the Ghibelines; but, by want of firmness, and a breach of his professions, so estranged them, whilst, on the other hand, the wickedness of Pope John XXII., who supported the Guelphs, had so cooled their zeal in his favour, that the two parties who had so long opposed each other, uniting in the cause of common freedom, were drawn much closer together.

At this period that estimable royal adventurer, John, king of Bohemia, the son of the Emperor Henry VII., made his appearance in Italy; and having been invited by the citizens of Brescia, and favoured by the pope, he was announced as the mediator and pacifier of the kingdom. He arrived in 1330. But his purposes were frustrated by the opposition of Tuscany, where a dread of the government of a single person was generally entertained. His fickle disposition made him soon abandon his objects, and he quitted Italy in 1333.

After his departure, Mastino della Scala, who had been one of his supporters, and who was lord of the half of Lombardy, and of the territory of Lucca, began to threaten the independence of Italy; but he was opposed by a league, headed by Florence, which led to hostilities; but they were soon terminated, and the freedom of Florence was thereby secured. The necessities of Mastino induced him to sell his city of Lucca to the Florentines, upon which the Pisans rose and took that city for themselves. After this transaction, the Florentines, disgusted with those who had caused the loss of Lucca, selected as their chief a military adventurer, who, in the Crusades, had obtained the title of the Duke of Athens; but, owing to his severity, they soon dismissed him. In Rome, torn by aristocratic factions, Cola Rienze was chosen tribune of the people, in order to restore the laws and tranquillity; but after seven months he was obliged to give way before the power of the nobles, in 1347. After a banishment of seven years, in 1354 Cardinal Albornoz was recalled; but his rule was short, having been killed in an insurrection instigated by the nobles. The Genoese, tired out with everlasting quarrels between the Guelph families of Spinola and Doria, and the Ghibelline families of Grimaldi and Fieschi, drove them all out of their city, and elected their own first doge or duke. In Pisa the Ghibelines were divided into two violent parties, those of Berengario and of Raspani, when, after much contention, the latter succeeded in expelling the former, in 1348. At this period Italy suffered from a dreadful famine, which, in 1347, swept away, by absolute starvation, vast numbers of the inhabitants; and in the following year a pestilence of a most mortal nature spread over every part; and such was the suffering produced by these visitations, that it was calculated that two thirds of the whole population were destroyed by them. Another tremendous scourge followed, and was longer endured. After each peace, bands of dismissed soldiers were formed under chiefs, called condottieri, who carried on war on their own account, burning some towns, ransoming others, and plundering everywhere. They were mostly Germans, who had been called in by the Visconti and Della Scalas. A Duke Werner, a Count Ladis, and a Friar Morale, led bands of these robbers, who devastated Italy from Montserrat to the extremity of Naples, between 1348 and 1354. Meantime another war had broken out between the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice. The Venetians formed alliances with the Greek emperor and with Peter of Aragon. Formidable fleets were collected, one commanded by the Genoese admiral, Paganino Doria, and the other by the Venetian, Nicolo Pisani. A battle was fought between them on the 13th of February 1352, which proved indecisive; but in a second, fought in the following August, the Genoese were defeated with great loss. In two years success changed sides; and after a defeat of the Venetians in November 1354, a truce was agreed to, which terminated in a peace in the month of May following.

The family of Visconti had raised themselves to great power in the centre of Italy. John of that name had influence in Genoa, intrigued in Venice, and threatened to destroy the independence of Tuscany. He died in 1354; and his power and pretensions, being divided between his three nephews, became weaker, and received a check by the appearance of Charles IV., who again returned to Italy in 1355, where he was enabled to new-model the cities of Pisa and Sienna, and so far to overcome Tuscany, though but for a short period, as to compel even Florence to adopt the title of an imperial city. With but little real power he opposed the Visconti; but ended in obtaining money from them, as he did from most parts of Italy, in his progress through the country. In 1363, he liberated the city of Lucca from the dominion which the Pisans had obtained over it. About the same period Pope Innocent VI., by his legate, between 1365 and 1375, obtained absolute power over the cities of the papal dominions; but lost much of it again, from the discontent excited by the tyranny of the legate, and by the interference of Florence in favour of their freedom. Robert of Geneva, who was elected as pope, and took the name of Clement VII., established his court at Naples in 1378, under the protection of Queen Joan. He was opposed by another pope, The church was thus divided between two popes and two colleges of cardinals, and the temporal power of the holy see was weakened. Several of the cities had been enfranchised by the Florentines; but those of Romagna, with some others, fell under the yoke of petty tyrants.

The continuance of the thirst for dominion of the Visconti in the centre of Italy, where they had rendered themselves masters of Genoa and Bologna, excited a general combination against them, at the head of which was Florence; and the old parties of Guelphs and Ghibelines were forgotten in this new and threatening crisis. In Florence the Guelphs were divided into two parties, the Ricci and the Albizzi. After great tumults, Michael de Landro, of low origin, but a brave and generous man, produced tranquillity in 1378. The party of the Ricci, which had thus been for a moment defeated, was essentially aristocratic, and numbered amongst its members the family of Medici, whose names are then for the first time to be met with in Italian history. This party soon afterwards, in another tumult, banished Landro, and those who had supported his nomination, and then constituted the former aristocracy more firmly than it had before existed.

In the other republics the same progress was made. The leaders of the democracy, or their heirs, created themselves tribunes of the people, and became a fresh aristocracy, with the power of transmitting it to their families. At Genoa, a civil war was carried on for a long time between the two strongest parties, but ended in their conferring the sovereignty, in 1396, on Charles VI., king of France.

In Lombardy, Gian Galeazzo, of a French family, had seated himself on the throne of Milan, and having rendered himself master of the smaller cities in that district, alarmed Sienna, Pisa, Bologna, and other considerable places. Being restrained, by the opposition offered by Florence, from attacking them at that time, he succeeded in a few years, and conquered most of them; and ultimately brought Tuscany itself into a dangerous position, from which it was relieved by a pestilence, which, amongst many thousands whom it swept away, carried off also the object of its dread, Gian Galeazzo, in 1402. This event gave a breathing-time to that part of Italy; and, during the minority of the son of Gian, many of the places he had taken were retaken. Milan fell into a state of anarchy, and the Venetians availed themselves of it to conquer Padua and Verona, whilst, on the other side, the Florentines captured Pisa; and Gian Maria, a youth, was only supported on the tottering throne of Milan by the arms of the hired mercenaries. His tyranny and cruelty is painted in the blackest colours by all the writers of his age; and he at length fell a victim to the indignation of some of the nobles, by whom he was assassinated, in May 1412.

In 1409, a new but transitory danger threatened the republic of Florence, by the invasion of Ladislau, king of Naples, which was no sooner repressed than the power of the Visconti became predominant. The Duke Philip Maria of that family, with the assistance of his celebrated general, Carmagnola, between 1414 and 1420, conquered all the states which had belonged to the family in Lombardy; and Genoa submitted to him in 1421. Venice and Florence then made a league in 1425, and General Carmagnola, having turned to these parties, conquered the whole of the territories on the river Adda, and secured them by the peace of Ferrara in 1428. The condottiero Braccio Montone contrived to make himself master of the city of Perugia, and of the whole of Umbria, and extended his power to Rome itself; whilst the Petrucci, in 1430, firmly established their power in Sienna.

After the weakening of Milan by the Florentines and Venetians, and owing to the constant disturbances raised in Naples by the party of Anjou against Alfonso of Aragon, there was no longer any dangerous preponderating power in Italy. There existed, however, constant hostility between the armed military bands, in two divisions, according to their usual practice. One of these was led by Braccio Montone, and the other by Sforza Attendolo. Francis Sforza was enabled to make himself, after the death of Visconti, master of the whole territory of Milan, in 1450. The Venetians, greedy of extended territory, made an alliance with some of the smaller states; Sforza made a counter-treaty with Florence, which, under the change of circumstances, providently changed its policy. At this period the house of Medici, by its wealth and its prudence, began to attract notice and to gain importance in Florence. The power of Milan, where Sforza ruled; of Venice, which possessed the half of Lombardy; of Florence, which was wisely directed by Lorenzo de' Medici; and of Naples, that was not in a state to venture on offensive war; formed, towards the end of the fifteenth century, the political balance of Italy, and, in spite of manifold feuds, gave confidence to each power that its independence was secure.

In 1494, Charles VIII., king of France, advanced towards Italy, designing to conquer Naples; and Ludovico Sforza came forward, first to support, but afterwards to oppose him, whilst the pope, Alexander VIII., in order to elevate his son Cesare Borgia, courted the French alliance. The opposition to Charles was feeble, but the cruelties and the rapine which he caused or permitted filled Italy with disgust. Ludovico Sforza collected an army in the north, which induced Charles to leave one half of his forces to retain the possession of Naples, which he had gained. He was impeded in his retreat, and lost in the greater part of his army before he could enter his own kingdom. That portion of his force which he had left in Naples was at length obliged to capitulate at Attila in July 1496; so that, after two years of war of the most ravaging description, France did not gain the least footing. Louis XII., who had succeeded to Charles VIII., in April 1498, made pretensions to the government of Milan. He was opposed only by Ludovico Sforza, because Venice, who would have joined Ludovico, was engaged in an alarming war with the Turks; and Florence, from which the Medici had been banished, was ruled by a seditious faction, intent upon subjecting Pisa to their authority. Pope Alexander, who had opposed Charles, formed an alliance with Louis, on condition that his relation Cesare Borgia should be made Duke of Valentinois in France, and of Romagna in Italy. Frederick king of Naples, though aware that he must be ultimately the victim of France, was too much occupied in restoring tranquillity at home to take any active measures to protect Italy.

Louis, favoured by the position of affairs, passed the Alps with a powerful army in August 1499. He took some small towns by assault, and put the garrisons and most of the inhabitants to the sword; a ferocious proceeding, which produced universal terror, so that Sforza could make no opposition, but dispersed the army he had collected, and withdrew with his family and treasures into Germany. There he found protection with the Emperor Maximilian. The cities of the north of Italy opened with trembling anxiety their gates to the troops of the French king, and he was installed as Duke of Milan in that capital, whilst Genoa, which had been an ally of Sforza, made terms with France. After this hasty subjugation, Louis returned to Lyons. The insolence of the French, their violation of all national institutions, their contempt of Italian manners, the accumulation of taxes, and the irregularity of their administration, rendered the yoke insupportable. Ludovico soon became acquainted with the ferment which prevailed, History. and the eager wishes of his subjects to see him again at their head. He was on the Swiss frontier, and hastily collected a small force. With this he entered Lombardy in February 1500, having only five hundred horse and eight thousand infantry. Como, Milan, Parma, and Pavia, opened their gates to receive him; and after a short siege Novara capitulated. But Louis was active, and his general, Tremouille, advanced to suppress this rebellion with an army in which were ten thousand Swiss. Hired troops of the cantons were in both armies. When they met, these troops had parleys between themselves, and the part in Ludovico's army agreed with those in the army of Tremouille to murder their Italian fellow-soldiers, and to leave the service in which they had entered. This was executed. Ludovico Sforza was delivered up and sent to France, where he died after ten years' imprisonment; and the Swiss returned home with the wages of perfidy and the curses of Lombardy, whilst the French continued masters of the country till 1512.

The French then attempted to gain Naples, and a most infamous treaty was concluded with Ferdinand the Catholic, of Spain, who had engaged to defend that kingdom, by which that unfortunate country was subdued; and in the division of it quarrels broke out between the French and Spaniards, in consequence of which, after a battle had been gained by Gonzalvo, the general of the latter, the French were in 1508 completely driven out, and the kingdom of Naples became an appendage of the Spanish crown.

By the death of Pope Alexander VI., and the accession of Julius II., the pretensions of Cæsar Borgia vanished, as the new pontiff was more zealous to strengthen the holy see than to advance the son of his predecessor. With this view he formed a treaty with the kings of France and Spain, called the League of Cambrai, in 1508, the object of which was to check the engrossing measures of the Venetian republic; but it having failed in that respect, by the cunning of the Venetians, his holiness, in 1509, entered into a treaty with the Venetians themselves, in which the king of Spain and the Swiss cantons were comprehended, the purpose of which was to drive the French out of Italy; but this project was abandoned by the pope, from the dread that the council of French and German prelates assembled at Pisa would be induced to declare his election to the popedom invalid, and dismiss him from the dignity.

In the mean time Maximilian of Germany and the king of France had concocted an alliance at Blois, by which it was agreed to divide between them the whole of the dominions of Venice on the continent; and, in consequence of it, hostilities commenced in 1509. The cities surrendered to the French, the Germans, or the Spaniards, all of whom exercised the most abominable cruelties. The pope, in the midst of the conquests of the great powers, became alarmed, and, with the cunning of an Italian, attempted to free Italy from their ravages, by inflaming the emperor against the French, by forming a league with Venice, and by calling in the aid of the mercenary Swiss. The pope raised an army, commanded by the Duke of Urbino; and though it was defeated in 1511, he succeeded in forming a league, to which the prefix of Holy was given, on account of his being at the head of it, with the kings of Spain and of England, and which also comprehended the Swiss and the Venetians.

A powerful Spanish army from Naples, in 1512, advanced to assist the pope, commanded by Raymond de Cordova. He was gladly received by the people, but opposed by the most experienced of the French generals, Gaston de Foix, with whom he fought a most murderous battle near Ravenna, on the 11th of April 1512; and though the French were victorious, yet the loss of Gaston, who fell in the action, was more than a compensation for the defeat which the Spaniards had sustained. Maximilian suddenly betrayed his allies, recalled the German troops from the French service, and gave a passage through his territory to the Swiss to join the Venetian army. Ferdinand of Spain and Henry VIII. of England simultaneously attacked France, who was thus obliged to recall her troops from Italy, and abandon the country to the power of the Holy League. The liberties of Italy were then annihilated. Florence, with Tuscany, a country rich and factious, but not warlike, after being plundered by the Spaniards without pity or remorse, was delivered over to the banished but now restored Medicis, where Giovanni de' Medici, afterwards Pope Leo X., with some other members of that family, reimbursed themselves for their long proscription, by the abundant wealth they employed their power to extort.

Charles of Ghent, commonly called Charles V., already king of Spain, on the death of his grandfather Maximilian, was raised to the imperial throne in 1519. Charles, and Francis the king of France, had abundant subjects of contest; but Italy was doomed to become the theatre for their decision. Francis, in 1523, sent an army under Bonnivet to invade Lombardy and take possession of Milan. The city had time to collect stores and complete its defences, owing to the supineness of the French general, and thus was preserved from capture till the emperor could furnish an army of sufficient strength to meet Bonnivet in the field.

In the next year the imperial army received such reinforcements that Bonnivet thought himself unable to resist it, and resolved to withdraw his troops. On the retreat he was wounded, and the command devolved on the Chevalier Bayard, who was killed in the battle; after which the remnant of the French escaped to their own country, leaving Lombardy in the power of the imperialists. Charles was so elated by the success of his arms in Italy that he resolved on invading the patrimonial domains of Francis, and accordingly Pescara led his army into Provence, and began the siege of Marseilles; but the attempt proved unsuccessful, and its repulse encouraged Francis once more to make an attempt to retrieve the reverses he had suffered in Italy. The French passed the Alps by Mount Cenis, and the rapidity of their movements enabled them to enter Milan, which was unprepared for the attack; but the imperial general secured and garrisoned the citadel, which in some measure commanded it. Francis then laid siege to Pavia, which was strongly fortified, and garrisoned by six thousand veterans. The siege occupied several months, and thus gave time for Charles to collect his troops. Francis was resolved to fight, though urged by his generals to avoid a battle. On the 24th of February 1525, the two armies engaged; the contest was obstinate, and the issue long doubtful; but after dreadful carnage, the imperialists were victorious, Francis himself was taken prisoner, and with him Henry king of Navarre, and a few only of the body guard escaped. The French in Milan retired, and, in fourteen days after the battle, not a soldier of the nation remained in Italy.

After this last French attempt on Italy, which had, like all that preceded, only shown that a temporary ascendancy could be obtained by that nation, but could never be retained, the preponderating influence was securely held by the Emperor Charles V. Most of the reigning houses disappeared, and their successors were appointed either avowedly or secretly by him. When the male line of the Marquis of Montserrat became extinct, Charles, in 1536, gave his dominions to Gonzaga of Mantua; and Maximilian II. in 1573, created it a dukedom. The Florentines made an attempt, after murdering the Duke Alexander in 1573, to regain their independence; but their efforts were unavailing, and Cosmo de' Medici was raised to supreme power by the influence of Charles. Parma and Placentia had been seized upon by Pope Julius II. for the holy see; but Paul III. in 1545 erected those states into a dukedom for his bastard Peter Aloes Farnese, whose son Octavio, in 1556, was invested by the emperor. Genoa, which, since 1499, had submitted to France, found a deliverer from that power in the person of Andreas Doria, who established a firm aristocracy, which overcame the conspiracy that Fiesco had projected to destroy it. Charles, in 1553, had conveyed Milan, and also the kingdom of Naples, to his son Charles. At the peace of Château-Cambresis, in 1559, Philip II., and Henry II. of France, renounced their pretensions to Piedmont, which was given to the legitimate heir, the brave Spanish general Emmanuel Philip, duke of Savoy. In 1597, the legitimate line of the house of Este became extinct, upon which Caesar d'Este, a natural son of the last prince, obtained Modena and Reggio by an enfeoffment from the empire; and Ferrara was conveyed to him as a feudatory of the papal throne.

The end of the sixteenth century was a period of peace in Italy, and of such prosperity as could be expected after it had lost the foreign trade which had proved so lucrative, and which had been so long enjoyed by the discovery of the way to India by the Cape of Good Hope. In the next century only some insignificant changes of territory took place. Some reverses in Germany induced the Emperor Ferdinand II. in 1631, when the family of Gonzaga became extinct, to grant Mantua and Montserrat to Charles de Nevers, a protege of France, whose descendants retained it till the war of the succession in Spain. In the peace of Cherasco in 1631, the cunning of Richelieu obtained Pignerol and Casale, which might serve as means of facilitating an irruption into Italy; but, in 1637, he was obliged to give up the latter fortress. The peace of Italy was not disturbed by any of the operations of Louis XIV. of France, and seems to have been durably secured by its neutrality being made one of the stipulations of the treaty of Turin in 1696.

The effects of the war of succession in Spain were extended to Italy. Austria conquered Milan and Montserrat, and the Duke of Mantua was expelled on account of his crimes. Montserrat was ceded to Savoy, and the two other cities retained by the house of Austria. The peace of Utrecht, in 1714, conferred Sardinia and Naples on the emperor, and Sicily on the house of Savoy; afterwards the two powers exchanged the islands, and the house of Savoy, thus gaining Sardinia, assumed the title of kings of that island.

The family of the Farnese became extinct in 1731, when the Infant Charles of Spain received the investiture of Parma and Placentia. In the war respecting the Polish succession, which broke out in 1733, Emanuel of Savoy, now king of Sardinia, formed an alliance with France and Spain. By this he was enabled to take possession of the duchy of Milan; but at the peace of Vienna, in 1738, he was compelled to restore it to Austria, being allowed to retain only Novara and Tortona. The Spanish infant, who had become king of the Two Sicilies, delivered up Parma and Placentia to the house of Austria. The family of the Medici had enjoyed the title of Dukes of Tuscany with great tranquillity; but the last member of it dying in 1737, Francis Stephen, duke of Lorraine, by the preliminaries of the Vienna treaty, was invested with the sovereignty; and, in 1745, it was settled as the possession of the second son of the Lorraine-Austrian family. In the war of the Austrian succession, in 1745, the Spaniards conquered Milan, but were driven out by Charles Emanuel; for which service Maria Theresa conceded to him the districts of Vigevano and Bobbio, and some portions of Anghiera and of Pavia. Massa and Carrara fell by hereditary succession to the Duke of Modena in 1743. Parma and Placentia were taken possession of by the Spanish infant Don Philip, who soon lost it again; but, at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, he once more received it, and continued to hold it as an hereditary possession. Thus, at nearly the termination of the century, in 1792, the houses of Lorraine, Spain, and Savoy, were the rulers of all Italy except the states of the church, the duchy of Modena, and the republican cities, in which the decrepitude of old age was making rapid advances.

As the narrative of the events by which Italy fell under the dominion of Bonaparte is communicated in this work under the head FRANCE, it is only necessary to refer the reader to that article. When quiet possession of the peninsula had been gained in 1797, republicanism was in the ascendant at Paris, and the Cisalpine republic was formed. Lombardy was extended by adding to it a portion of the papal territory. Genoa formed another republic, called the Ligurian; and Venice, which had submitted without opposition, also adopted a republican form, though it was soon afterwards transferred to Austria by the treaty of Campo-Formio. Naples also was, in 1799, formed into a republic, under the denomination of the Parthenopean. Amidst the greatest oppression and the most wanton cruelty, this state of affairs continued till their conqueror became first consul, when the Cisalpine republic was new-modelled after the pattern of France, and converted into the Italian republic, with Bonaparte as its president. In 1805, when the military regime was completed in France, and Bonaparte had become its emperor, the same kind of monarchy was forced upon Italy, and he was crowned at Milan on the 26th of May, with the iron crown of Lombardy. About the same time Naples was converted into a kingdom for his brother Joseph, who, however, was soon compelled to abandon it, in 1808, for the throne of Spain, and was succeeded by General Murat. For one of his sisters, who had married Paschal Bacciochi, Parma and Piombino were formed into a kingdom, to be called that of Etruria; but it was soon destroyed, and converted into a province of France. Though Naples was subdued, the legitimate monarch took refuge in Sicily, and was enabled to maintain himself by the assistance of the English navy and army. Whilst Murat reigned as king in Naples, and Eugene Beauharnois as viceroy in Milan, they were both summoned, with all the forces they could collect, to join the grand army for the subjugation of Russia. After the retreat from Moscow, both returned to their dominions with the remnant of their forces. Eugene maintained the fidelity for which he had engaged; but Murat, offended with Bonaparte, formed an alliance with the confederated monarchs of Europe. After the abdication of the imperial throne, Eugene withdrew, and the states in the north of Italy soon returned to the government of their ancient rulers.

On the return of Bonaparte from Elba in 1815, Murat took up arms, as he affirmed, for the independence of Italy. With the Neapolitan troops he advanced towards the north, and entered Bologna; but was soon driven from thence, and afterwards defeated near Tolentino, upon which there was an end of his kingdom. The capital was entered by the Austrian general Nugent, and Murat fled to France, whilst his wife and family found a refuge in Austria. Ferdinand returned from Sicily to the capital of his continental kingdom, and was received with delight by the inhabitants. Murat made a feeble attempt to recover his kingdom; but having collected a small body of troops in Corsica, and landed with them on the coast of Calabria, he was made prisoner, tried by a military tribunal, and shot. By the final treaty of Vienna, the following arrangements regarding Italy were agreed to, and still remain. The king of Sardinia received back all his dominions, according to the boundaries existing in 1792, with some few changes in the limits on the side towards Geneva. To these were added the city of Genoa, and the territory attached to it in former times when it was a duchy. The emperor of Austria united with his hereditary monarchy the newly-erected kingdom of Venetian Lombardy, in which was included the districts of the Valteline, Bormio, and Chiavenna, parts of the Swiss canton of the Grisons. Istria was not included in the Austrian kingdom of Illyria. As the boundary between the pope-dom and Parma, the valley of the Po was fixed upon. The house of Este was again declared sovereign over Modena, Reggio, Mirandola, Massa, and Carrara. The Empress Maria Louisa received the state of Parma as a sovereignty for her life, after which it was to fall to the Duchess of Lucca and her heirs, who were to give up a territory in Bohemia to the Duke of Reichstadt, the son of Napoleon and Maria Louisa, who has since died. Prince Ferdinand of Austria received Tuscany, with the title of Grand Duke, as before his dismission, and the district of Piombino; and also the sovereignty of the isle of Elba, but reserving in that island the rights of Prince Buoncompagni Ludovisi. The Infanta Maria Louisa received Lucca as a sovereign dukedom, and with it a yearly pension of 500,000 francs, till the decease of the Empress Maria Louisa. The pope was fully reinstated in all his dominions, with the exception of a few small portions on the left bank of the Po; but Austria reserved the right of recruiting in Ferrara and Commachio. Ferdinand of Naples was again acknowledged as king of both Sicilies, and the republic of San Marino and the Prince of Monaco were guaranteed in the full enjoyment of their ancient rights.

The restoration of the old governments was not followed by the immediate return of tranquillity, and much less of contentment. A large army had suddenly changed its colours, and the officers serving in it feared that a change of masters might be unfavourable to their professional advancement. There was, or soon arose, a disposition to speculate on forms of government, to which Italy had always a strong tendency; and though it had been repressed by the military and inquisitorial power in the hands of Bonaparte, it was only stifled, and, when that power was destroyed, spread with great rapidity. This naturally engendered republican feelings; and the idea of uniting the whole of Italy into one large republic, to be administered solely by natives, was too flattering to the vanity of a people accustomed to view all foreigners as barbarians, not to meet with numerous adherents. The proselytes were chiefly found amongst those least capable of calculating the capability or the consequences of their projects. The spirit of change was deeply imbibed by the active part of the people, and especially those of immature age; the students in the colleges, the inferior officers in the civil and military departments, and the younger members of some of the noble families who were reduced to poverty by the exactions which had been practised by their late masters. In the recollection of what Italy had been fifteen centuries before, when she ruled the world, they overlooked many centuries during which she had since been subjected to Goths, Lombards, Germans, Normans, and Spaniards, and at intervals to the French. They never adverted to the condition of that most numerous class of all, the peasantry, who had formed the armies of Caesar and of Pompey, when independent in mind and powerful in body, but had since become the most ignorant, thoughtless, superstitious, and degraded of all the serfs of Europe. Though there were abundance of revolutionary projectors, and extensive conspiracies formed, yet the bands that were to execute the purposes of such leaders completely failed when collected together, if opposed by only a mere handful of disciplined troops. This had been seen when Murat led a large army proclaiming the independence of Italy, and promising to deliver it from all its transalpine intruders. The same spectacle was exhibited in both the attempts at revolution which were made in Naples and in Piedmont.

In Austrian Lombardy the same tendencies to revolution existed as in the other parts of the peninsula; but they were checked by the vigilance of the police, and by an armed force, which, as they spoke a different language from the conspirators, was not to be infected by the general mania of the natives. In the other parts of Italy, where the army was composed of natives, the prevalence of revolutionary views was easily communicated, and perhaps nowhere prevailed more generally than amongst all ranks of the officers. This was especially the case in Naples, where the army that had been created by Murat, and officered by him, was placed by the restored king under the command of the Austrian general Nugent, to the great mortification of all in the service. The French military regime was exchanged for that of Austria; the taxes upon land were increased; and, by an agreement with the pope, many of the abolished monasteries were re-established. These arrangements gave force to the speculative opinions which prevailed of a republican kind, and originated many secret societies, the most extensive of which was that of the Carbonari, which, if we may trust to the oaths and declaration as published by their enemies, was of the most atrociously murderous and diabolical kind.

Although the societies of the Carbonari had been opposed by another society, called the Calderari, adhering to the royal party, and employed by the police, it was said that they counted amongst their members, and those who favoured their proceedings, more than six hundred thousand individuals, including all the provinces of the kingdom. This vast combination, though to a certain degree known to exist, and to be numerous, made no public demonstrations of its force till a revolution had broken out in Spain. The excitement produced by that event spread throughout Italy, but the strongest effect was experienced at Naples. On the 2d of July 1820, Michael Morelli, a lieutenant of cavalry, and Luis Minichini, a priest, excited some troops quartered at Nola, by some violent harangues, to cry aloud, "God, the King, and the Constitution." They were soon joined by an officer of the guards with about twenty men, and the next day marched to Avellino, the capital of the province, where one of the conspirators had already declared the insurrection, and gained over more troops, when the united bodies advanced to Montefort, and took up a position, which they surrounded with intrenchments. Some troops were sent by the government, under General Campana, to reduce them to submission; but these troops discovered no disposition to act. Another general, Caracosa, with more soldiers, was pushed on; but they also refused to fight their brothers. On the 5th, General Pepe, at the head of a regiment of dragoons, proceeded from Naples and joined the insurgents, and was then declared their chief. Messengers were sent from the army to the king with petitions, requesting him to grant a constitution. He had no troops that could be relied on, and promised to present them with the plan of a constitution in eight days, and in the mean time dismissed his ministers, and replaced them by some of the leaders of the troops. This did not satisfy the impatient insurgents, and they demanded that within twenty-four hours the Spanish constitution should be adopted. The king appointed his son viceroy, and he assented to the proposition in his father's name.

The Spanish constitution thus proclaimed, was that of the Cortes of 1812 in Cadiz, of which no one in Naples had any knowledge, nor could even a copy of it be found in the city at the time of its adoption, as a fundamental law of the regenerated kingdom. In ten days, without a drop of blood being shed, a military revolt placed the revolutionists in the possession of the full power of the kingdom. An insurrection almost immediately broke out in Sicily, which, acting on the same principles, required independence; and the populace having broken loose, committed many disorders, such as breaking open the prisons, robbing the rich, murdering several persons of rank, and amongst these Prince Catholico, and assassinating others; so that on the 17th of July, three days after the events in Naples were known, fifteen hundred persons were killed and wounded in the city of Palermo, and confusion prevailed in every other part of the island. General Pepe was sent with a body of troops to restore tranquillity. He found the cities in a state of horrid confusion, some taking the part of the Neapolitans, and others insisting on independence. This state of misery continued till the whole insurrection in Naples was quelled.

Whilst Sicily was thus suffering the worst of horrors, the revolution in the continental part of the kingdom proceeded with less confusion. An assembly was convened, and adopted the Spanish constitution with some few trifling alterations. Though suggestions were made by some of the members, that some conditions taken from the English or French constitutions, or from some of those states in Germany which had recently received constitutions, would be desirable, they were scarcely attended to, and none of them acquiesced in. A great military force was decreed, to consist of fifty-two thousand regular troops, two hundred and nineteen thousand moveable national guards, and four hundred thousand local national guards, besides ten thousand gens-d'armes and coast-guards. The spirit of the regular troops could not be relied on, as many of the best of the officers had resigned their commissions. In a very short time the treasury was exhausted, though it had been left in a prosperous state; and it became necessary to borrow money from a Parisian banker, who advanced 1,500,000 ducats at a high rate of interest. The expenditure had increased at the rate of 4,084,000 ducats, whilst the income had diminished at the rate of 2,916,000 ducats, annually.

In these new hands every branch of the administration had become confounded, and embarrassed each other; the courts of justice decided nothing, the number of criminals increased, and trade was stagnant. These circumstances existed at Naples when the congress at Troppau, consisting of the emperors of Russia and Austria, and the king of Prussia, with their ministers, and the ambassadors from the other powers of Europe, had assembled, and in November had decided on a military interference in the affairs of Naples. Austria at this time had marched an army of eighty thousand men into her Italian provinces, under the command of General Frimont. Great Britain and France had each placed a naval squadron in the Bay of Naples, which were appointed to watch over the safety of the king and the royal family. These preparations excited the feelings of the several parties in the capital, producing on one hand suspicion and distrust, and on the other hope and joy. The king of France had offered to mediate between the parties, and suggested that the king should have the veto, the choice of his ministers, and the power of dissolving the assembly; but such propositions received no attention.

The three combined monarchs had on the 20th of November written a letter to Ferdinand, inviting him to meet them at Laybach; and the king of France had urged him to take this step. He resolved on doing so, and announced his resolution to the parliament on the 9th of December, and required that, during his absence, no changes in the constitution should be made. This communication produced much violent debate, and the answer given was a resolution, "that any proposition to alter the Spanish constitution being contrary to the oaths of the king and the parliament, they consent to his majesty undertaking the journey, on the condition that he will take the proper means to secure the acknowledgment of that constitution." To this resolution the royal reply was, that his majesty had never entertained any designs to change the constitution; but that, to avoid a war, it was advisable, by the king's mediation at Laybach, to obtain the sanction of the congress to what had been done, and that no further changes should be made during his absence. The parliament persisted in their resolution, and the king, on the 10th of December, declared that his mediation should have no other object than to maintain in its integrity that Spanish constitution that had been already sworn to, and to avert a war. The crown prince was then appointed regent; the king and his consort embarked in an English ship of the line on the 13th of December, landed at Leghorn on the 19th, and thence proceeded through Florence to Laybach.

The prince regent seems to have given way to the imputability of the parliament, to have passed some very revolutionary laws against the nobles of Sicily, and prepared as well as they could to arrange an army, which then was composed of fifty-four thousand troops of the line, and sixty thousand militia and volunteers; and they all appeared very energetic in the cause they had espoused.

When the king arrived at Laybach he was soon made acquainted with the decision of the congress, not to acknowledge as legal any transactions which had passed in Naples since the 5th July; and that the power of suppressing what was deemed a military revolt should be intrusted to the emperor of Austria. This resolution was made known by the king to his son, who acted as regent in Naples. At the same time the ambassadors of the combined powers made known, through the secretary of state for foreign affairs, to the prince regent, that an Austrian army was ready to enter the kingdom and to occupy it; and that if that was insufficient, a Russian army would also receive orders to join their force. The regent replied that he should make this known to the people, from whom he should not separate himself; because in all that had occurred great moderation had been shown, and the greatest respect displayed towards the royal family. The regent replied to the king, that as he could not believe the communication from his majesty to be a voluntary act, he should adhere in every way to the people, and share all dangers with them; upon which the ambassadors of the allied powers withdrew from Naples.

Preparations were now made for defence, and a proposal, that for the present the constitution should be suspended, and the recent declared dictator, was negatived. General William Pepe called to arms the whole of the people, arranged under ancient names, such as the legion of Brutus, of the Samnites, and others, and added them to the regulars, thus mustering a hundred and fifty thousand men, but many badly armed and clothed, and worse disciplined. The plans for defence were well arranged had the troops been well composed. The Austrians advanced, the first encounter happened on the 5th of March, and by the 10th a general dispersion of the whole army had taken place. It is not necessary to relate the several movements of the two armies. Many of the Neapolitans were killed in their flight; but the Austrians assert that they lost in all the combats not more than seventy men. The Neapolitan troops of the line soon joined themselves to the Austrian army, and the volunteers and militia returned to their homes. The Carbonari talked loudly of carrying on a guerrilla war amongst the mountains, but it produced no effect. Naples, with the fortresses of Gaeta and Pescara, capitulated on the 23d of March; the lodges of the Carbonari were dissolved, the leaders, including the two generals, Pepe and Carasoca, obtained passports to foreign countries; and the last sparks of the revolution were speedily extinguished. The king had arrived at Florence, whence he arranged a provisional government, which speedily abolished the whole of the republican institutions, and restored such as had previously existed. The troops of the line were disarmed and disbanded, and the volunteers stripped of their arms and accoutrements. The police was established on its ancient footing; and some of the leaders of the revolt were prosecuted, of whom a few were executed after trials before the restored tribunals. A detachment of the Austrian army passed over to Sicily, and in a short time restored tranquillity in that island, after having disarmed a few parties of guerrillas that infested the mountainous parts of it, whilst those who had commanded them fled into Spain. The restored government conducted the prosecutions with great mildness. Forty-three of the most conspicuous persons were brought to trial, of whom thirty were condemned to death, but only two of them, Morelli and Gilvati, were executed. On the 23d of September an amnesty was issued, from which only eleven persons were excepted, viz. General Pepe, the monk Minichini, Concilio, Carascosa, Rossarol, and six others, all of whom had taken refuge in England. Thus, in little more than fifteen months, the Carbonari insurrection was completely defeated, and the people returned to their usual habits, occupations, and gratifications.

The revolution which broke out in Piedmont whilst that in Naples was in operation, originated in the same causes, but varied in its progress, because it was more especially of a military character, and headed by persons of more weight, as well in the civil as in the military departments. The chief leaders of the insurrection were the Marquis Carlo de St Marzano, son of the minister for foreign affairs, Colonel Provano de Collegno of the artillery, the Counts St Michael and Santa Rosa, officers of the staff, Captain Count de Lissio, and some others, forming a confederacy to which they had given the name of the Italian League. They had resolved to select as their chief Prince Carignan, the heir apparent, who, they asserted, felt great zeal since the revolution at Naples, and was the best qualified to become the prince or king of New Italy. According to their representation, he had, on the 6th of March, acted with them, on the 7th he had declined proceeding, and on the 8th he had again consented to the revolution. On the 10th of March the revolt began in the regiments at Fossano, Tortona, and Alessandria, where the officers had gained over the men by spreading rumours that the Austrians had resolved to disband the Sardinian army, and to garrison the fortresses with their own troops. In vain the king contradicted the rumour; the insurrection increased, and a council of the officers, of which Ansaldi was president, issued a declaration in the name of the Kingdom of Italy. From Alessandria the infection spread to Turin, where the general cry was "Long live the king and the Spanish constitution." The people in the capital remained quiet, and a part of the garrison was marched against the insurgents.

On the 12th of March the king issued a proclamation commanding tranquillity and obedience, affirming that the garrisons of foreign troops should never be admitted; but on the same day the officers, with some of the students, seized on the citadel of Turin, by which the populace became excited, and in crowds exclaimed for the Spanish constitution and for war with the Austrians. Upon this the king, who had assented to the resolutions of the congress of Laybach, could not yield to the popular cry, and resolved to abdicate the throne; and on the 13th he did so, appointing, in the absence of his brother Felix, who was the next in succession, but at Modena, Prince Albert Carignan as regent. The whole of the ministers were then dismissed, the state prisoners liberated, and the Carbonari were everywhere triumphant, except at Nice, to which city the king had removed. The new regent found himself compelled to obey those whom he had expected to lead, and declared for the Spanish constitution, but with a reserve in behalf of the king's consenting to it. He then appointed new ministers, a council or junta, and promised to convene a parliament.

In Novara and some other places a dislike of the Spanish constitution was displayed; and in the whole of Savoy an aversion to the revolution prevailed. Amongst those who had favoured the revolution great differences arose. Many, and those the most thoughtful, preferred the constitution of France with two legislative bodies, to that of Spain with a single one. On the other hand, the revolution found many partisans in Lombardy; and many of the young men from Milan and Pavia hastened to join the revolted troops at Alessandria, which was the central point. Prince Felix at Modena refused the crown, declared the abdication to have been forced, and consequently illegal, and placed Count Galieri della Torre as commander in Novara, to take the command of the loyal troops and suppress the rebellion. This event tended greatly to damp the spirits of the revolutionary party; they still, however, remained triumphant in Turin, where the ambassador from Austria was dismissed, and preparations made to assemble a force and invade Lombardy under the command of Count Santa Rosa. But on the night of the 23d of March, on which the resolution had been taken by the council, the prince regent fled to Novara, thence to the Austrian headquarters, and then to Modena; but, being refused admittance to Prince Felix, he took up a short residence at Florence, and afterwards served in the French army which restored royalty in Spain in 1823.

The revolutionists continued to encourage their party by assurances of speedy assistance from France, and of great accessions by the revolting of the Austrian troops; but the news of the defeat and dispersion of the Neapolitan insurgents among the Abruzzi Mountains, which arrived at this period, inclined the Piedmontese to attempt a treaty, by which an amnesty should be granted, and stipulations made against the entry of any foreign troops. This, however, proved ineffectual, for the troops at Novara, under Della Torre, outnumbered any the insurgents could collect; and in Turin many abhorred the new system, and it was their desire that, without foreign troops, the revolt should be suppressed; but Felix at Modena had applied to the Austrian commander, and Count Bubna at the head of five thousand men joined forces with Della Torre, at two o'clock in the morning of the 8th of April at Novara. The troops of the insurgents appeared before that city at daybreak, and a battle ensued. They fought bravely, but were at length defeated. The native troops advanced to Turin, and the insurgent fortresses surrendered to the Austrians. The junta at Turin dissolved itself, and on the 10th the citadel was delivered up to Della Torre. The king renewed his abdication, and his brother Felix assumed the title of king. His power was now as unrestricted as that of his brother had been, and he instituted a tribunal for the investigation of crimes, and punishing the offenders; but most of them had escaped, many by way of Genoa to Spain, and others through Switzerland to France. It was shown before the tribunal that many of those who were arrested had acted by orders from Prince Carignan at the time he was the legal regent of the kingdom, and upon this ground they were unanimously acquitted. The property of sixty-five persons who had escaped was declared to be in a state of sequestration. Twenty-one others were declared guilty of high treason and condemned to death; and the same number were doomed to the galleys, with the confiscation of their goods. Of all these, only thirteen were apprehended, amongst whom were two who had been condemned to death. Only one, however, was executed; he was a captain of cavalry, named Garelli. The other, in his flight by sea, had been driven on shore and captured; and showing that he did not return by design, he was only banished for life.

This mild administration of the judicial tribunal, with a general amnesty, and rigid decrees to prevent any secret societies being formed, soon restored tranquillity; and the absence of so many leaders of revolution seems to have extinguished the roots of that spirit which, for a short period, had threatened a most fearful civil war. As the revolt in Spain in the year 1821 had been one of the exciting causes of the insurrections in Naples and Piedmont, so it appeared that the revolution in France which seated Philip of Orleans on the throne of that kingdom was the proximate cause of the disturbances which broke out in Italy in 1831.

The complaints in Italy were general, and the remedy sought varied according to the opinions in the several states; but there was one opinion in which all who were dissatisfied united, namely, that the only cure for the evils they complained of was to be found in a general government, which should unite under one legislative body, composed wholly of Italians, the interests of all the states into which the country is at present divided. The feeling towards the ultramontane barbarians, for such they had been taught to consider the rest of the European nations, was by far the strongest and the most universally diffused, and an appeal to that feeling was a certain way to form combinations with the avowed object of expelling them.

If some secret societies had existed in Italy before, they increased in number and became more apparent after the transactions in Paris; and the most eager hopes were held out by those who took the lead in such societies, that if they came to an open rupture with their sovereigns, they might rely on effectual assistance from the newly-established power in France.

The combinations formed, though watched by the police, continued to increase till they were thought by their leaders to be sufficiently powerful to act with effect. The first disturbance began at Modena, on the 3d of February 1831. It was led by one Minotti, and consisted chiefly of young men. The troops were called out, and some fighting in the streets took place, in which the insurgents had the worst, and retreated to Minotti's house, where they were shut up; and cannon being brought, they surrendered with their leader, and were made prisoners. Thus all appeared again tranquil; but two days afterwards intelligence arrived from Bologna that the insurgents in that city had been successful, and that its influence extended to Reggio. A new and much more formidable revolt then broke out. It gained strength, so that the Duke of Modena deemed it wise to withdraw from his capital, escorted by his troops, and accompanied by his prisoners, Minotti and his companions, and to take refuge in Mantua, where was a strong garrison of Austrian troops. He left at his departure a council of regency, which the people soon dissolved, and then nominated a provisional government, upon which the populace plundered the palace, destroyed the custom-houses on the frontiers, and committed other disorders.

At Bologna, a city of sixty thousand inhabitants, there was only a small garrison of papal troops, not exceeding six hundred in number. On the 4th of February an insurrection took place, chiefly composed of young men, many of them the students of the university. They assembled round the palace of the cardinal legate, who was absent, and required of the pro-legate the resignation of his authority, and that it should be delivered over to a provisional government. He at first refused, then hesitated, and at length complied. The soldiers received and obeyed orders from the newly-appointed council; but their commander, with the pro-legate, withdrew to Florence. The temporal power of the pope was abolished by a decree of the provisional government, and a national guard on the French model was ordered to be formed. This success at Bologna spread the spirit of revolt through all the delegations from that city to Ancona; and the latter city capitulated, with its citadel, to a slight force of the insurgents which appeared before it. A great part of the papal territory was thus under the insurrectionary power. Their force indeed entered the Apennines, intending to advance to the city of Rome itself; but being disappointed in the expectations they had formed of some revolutionary movements in that city, they abstained from any attempt on it.

In Parma the transactions nearly resembled those in Modena. The duchess was compelled to withdraw, and, escorted by her troops, found an asylum at Piacenza, when her subjects also formed a provisional government.

Strong expectations had been indulged by the insurgents of similar movements in the other parts of Italy, and especially in Piedmont and Tuscany; but no symptoms of it were manifested in them, and the whole of Lombardy under the Austrian power remained in a state of anxious tranquillity. Austria had drawn a large force from her hereditary dominions, which had reached the Italian provinces, and was said to amount to a hundred thousand men, well disciplined and well appointed. Had the revolutionary bodies, who began to assume some regular order, been in possession of even common prudence, they would have avoided any step which could have provoked or justified Austria in interfering in their affairs, which, knowing the tendency of the Austrian court, they might have been convinced, would be pleased with a pretext for undertaking active operations.

Instead of temporising or disguising their views, no sooner was the provisional government assembled, than, vain of their newly-acquired power, they issued a proclamation inviting the Lombards to join them in their federation. "Brave patriots of Lombardy," said they, "follow the example of France, imitate the example of Italy, burst asunder the chains with which the holy alliance hath fettered you. You are the slaves of foreigners, who enrich themselves by despoiling you, and by rendering you daily more miserable. On the day of your rising, forty thousand of our patriots will march to assist you in crushing the Austrians. Let there be no delay, for there is danger in hesitation. Display your courage, fellow-countrymen, and despotism will flee from our lands." Similar addresses were issued to the subjects of the king of Naples and of the king of Sardinia; but they had suffered too much by the transactions of the year 1821 to be easily excited; and besides, those who might have proved the most active leaders had been banished, and were dispersed in various countries. Under the mild and paternal government of the Duke of Tuscany, whatever dispositions might exist, or whatever sympathy might be felt for the neighbouring insurgents, no manifestations were displayed, but tranquillity was universally enjoyed.

France, at the period when Philip was hardly seated on the throne, had declared that she would not permit Austria to interfere in Italy; but at a subsequent period, when the new monarch had become firmly fixed in power, an explanation was given, stating, that the declaration did not bind him to take any measures to prevent such interference. The Italians who had revolted were, however, buoyed up with the expectation of assistance from France, and the provisional governments spread the delusion long after it was known that the expectation was vain.

France was not at that time in a condition to take any effectual part. Her army was not formed, nor her financial credit established, till after the fate of Italy was decided. She could only come in contact with the insurgents by forcing a passage through Switzerland; and, having suc- ceeded in that, she would have to encounter the well-appointed armies of the emperor of Austria or of the king of Sardinia, or of both united. The negotiation between Austria and France seems to have terminated in an understanding that the former power might make use of its troops to suppress the several insurrectionary parties in Italy, but not permanently to occupy the several countries in which they prevailed.

The troops of Austria did not suspend their operations on account of the negotiations with France. The Po was passed immediately after the promulgation of the address inviting the Lombards to insurrection. One division of the army advanced to Modena without opposition. The duke returned to his capital, and was reinstated in his power. His conduct towards the insurgents was mild; some of them were brought to trial, and a few convicted, but Minotti was the only one who suffered death. Another division marched to Parma; the inhabitants submitted; the duchess returned to her palace, and granted a free pardon to all persons connected with the revolt, excepting those who had occupied seats in the civic congress; and they suffered no infliction except that of being declared incapable of filling any office in the public service during the next three years.

In Bologna, to which the Austrians advanced, some efforts were made for the defence of that place, the seat of the provisional government; but they were so inadequate that the army entered without any opposition, and speedily all the other cities and towns surrendered except Ancona, where the members of the temporary government had fled for refuge. In their flight they had taken Cardinal Benvenuto, and carried him with them as a hostage or a prisoner. As the Austrians advanced towards Ancona, and no prospect of escape for the revolutionary leaders presented itself, the leaders of the insurgents pressed the cardinal to enter into a treaty, by which an indemnity should be given to all political offenders on condition of surrendering the city and the citadel. He at first refused to enter into any negotiation; but at length, under a protest that he had no power to do so, he signed a treaty to the effect proposed, and the city immediately submitted to its former sovereign. The same submission must have been made in twenty-four hours to the Austrians, and the pope refused to ratify the cardinal's stipulations.

Legal proceedings were then instituted against all such of the insurgents as had signed the act of the provisional government which had declared the abolition of the temporal power of the pope, broken their oaths of military obedience, or published irreligious or seditious writings. Several were tried and condemned to different degrees of punishment, but not a single life was sacrificed. It was said that this mitigation of punishment was adopted at the suggestion of the French ambassador at the court of Rome. That minister could not, however, feel much satisfaction at an apologetical paper put forth by the provisional government immediately before its dissolution at Ancona. In that manifesto they stated, "that a principle proclaimed by a great nation, which had solemnly promised not to permit its violation by any European power, and the declaration of guarantee given by a minister of that nation, had induced them to give their assistance to the movements of the people in the several provinces."

Within six weeks from their commencement, all the disturbances in Italy were quieted, and the Austrian troops had been withdrawn to their own territory. In the papal dominions, however, there was much confusion, owing principally to the undefined limits of the power of different constituted authorities. These had caused partial revolts, and the miserable papal troops were incapable of suppressing them. His holiness applied to Austria for some troops, which entered his dominions, and enforced submission. This movement had been notified to the French ambassador, whose answer left no apprehension on the part of that power; and therefore great surprise was excited when, about a month after, a French fleet, with an army on board, appeared before Ancona, and by a fraudulent attempt succeeded in seizing upon that city with its citadel, driving out the pope's troops, and exercising many excesses towards the inhabitants. This transaction occurred in February 1831. It led to some detailed negotiations, which at last were settled by a treaty on the 16th of April. By it the French were to remain in Ancona, but no reinforcements were to be sent to them. The general who had made the capture was to be recalled. The troops were not to go beyond the walls of the city, they were to be maintained wholly at the expense of France, they were to interfere in no internal affairs, and were to depart as soon as the pope should have no longer occasion for the assistance of any Austrian forces. In this equivocal situation, the French troops at present occupy one of the best ports in the Adriatic Sea. It is not the business of a work of this kind to enter into speculations on the motives which for the last four years have influenced the king of the French in his conduct regarding Italy.

Having thus sketched, with as much detail as the limits of this work will allow, the history of Italy from the time when the dissolution of the Roman empire took place to the present period, we must remark, that in compressing the events of fourteen centuries into a few sheets, it has been scarcely possible to do more than produce a chronicle rather than a complete history, and therefore the dates of the greater events only have been given, so as to be useful for the purpose of reference. The causes which led to these events, the characters of the great actors in them, and the effects produced by them, would have opened a wide field, which might have been explored with delight, but which would have encroached too much on the subjects required to be treated in this work.

We have, however, here pointed out the origin of the several states which now compose the land of Italy, and at what time and by what means they had attained their rank as sovereignties. The actual condition of these sovereignties will be found in their alphabetical order in this work; but the notices of the preceding pages on the history of Italy will be found sufficient to enable us to dispense with the minute historical details of each of the states that now exist.

We now proceed, therefore, to take a view of Italy as a whole, and to describe those physical circumstances common to it in that view.

Italy is bounded on the north-east by the Austrian provinces of Illyria and Tyrol, on the north-west by the cantons of Switzerland, and on the west, in a small part, by the kingdom of France. The southern part, however, which in shape resembles a boot, is surrounded by the sea, having on the north-east the Adriatic, on the south-east the Ionian Sea, and on the south and west the Mediterranean. Its sea-coasts are for the most part protected by lofty acclivities. On the north-east shore, however, an estuary is created by the mouths of the river Po, which form a kind of delta of swampy and marshy land, whose insalubrious atmosphere acts as a powerful protection against any maritime attacks.

The extent and population of the several states which compose the whole of Italy is shown by the following table, which includes the great islands of Sardinia and Sicily, and the smaller islands on the coast, but does not comprehend Corsica, which, though inhabited by an Italian race, forms at present a portion of the kingdom of France. Thus Italy may be considered about the extent of Great Britain and Ireland, but as containing nearly three millions fewer inhabitants.

The face of the country is much diversified by lofty mountains. The most stupendous mass of these elevations, which forms the northern boundary, has been most fully described in this work in its proper place, under the article ALPS. The second range of mountains, the Apennines, runs nearly through the whole of Italy. These commence in the maritime Alps with Mount Appio, between Tende and Coni, at the southern point of Piedmont, in latitude 44° 12' north, where the pass of the Bochetta is formed. At first they take a direction to the north-east, and then trend to the south-east, and at length to the south-west, when they are lost in the Mediterranean Sea at Cape Passaro in Sicily, in latitude 36° 35'. In Upper Italy the Apennines run along near the shore, and the foot of them is washed by the waves of the sea in the territory of Lucca, where they form the Gulf of Genoa. In Tuscany also they nearly touch the coast till they enter the papal dominions, when they run along the centre of the peninsula, and encompass the Abruzzos and Molise, and pass through Basilicata and the two Calabrias, to the most southern part of Continental Italy. They pass under the straits to Sicily, where they spread over the eastern coast of that island, and are joined with the gigantic Mount Etna, after which they vanish under the sea. The Apennines are covered with woods quite to their summits. Amongst the trees chestnuts especially abound, and the fruit of them is used by the natives as a most valuable substitute for corn during a great part of the year.

The Apennines in no case attain the elevation of the Alps, and have only a few very lofty rocky points, the highest of which are Gran Sasso, near Aquila, in the province of Abruzzo, which is 8255 feet above the level of the sea; and Velino, which is 7870 feet. In winter the range is covered with snow, and it is somewhat late, especially on the northern sides, before it melts. The mountains thus furnish to the inhabitants an abundant supply of that indispensable luxury in a warm climate, ice.

A great uniformity is observable in the composition of these mountains, which consists chiefly of calcareous stones, though in the extreme north and south parts there are many variations, but in the centre there are no rocks of primary formation. They in many parts abound in tufa; but the main range exhibits no specimens of volcanic matter, which are only to be seen on the south-eastern coast of Italy; Vesuvius, the extinct volcanoes of Nemi and of Albano, and the lava stream of Borghetto, not belonging to the Apennine range.

In their long progress through the greater portion of Italy these mountains send forth some remarkable shoots or spurs. To those on the west belong the Montagnolo and Montagnata, in the neighbourhood of Siena; the mountain Lora, near to Rome; and the rocky chain of Sorrento, which extends to Capri, in the Terra di Lavoro. On the east are the inferior ranges of the march of Ancona and of the district of Urbino, and especially the branch which projects between Accerenza and Venosa, and proceeds to Leccese, where it is lost in the sea, under which it probably proceeds, till it emerges from the water, and then continues to proceed through the Grecian ranges of Corfu and Arnauth.

Besides the Apennines, there are other mountains, which, though not far removed from them, yet manifestly do not belong to, and have no apparent connection with them. The most remarkable of these are the mountains of Sorriano and of Fogliano, near Viterbo; Sante Oreste, near Civita Castellana; Monte Cavo, between Frascati and Velletri; and the Volture in Puglia; all on the western side of the main range. Besides these, are the volcanoes, either active or now extinct, viz. Vesuvius, Capo de Monte, San Elmo, Camaldoli, Pausilippo, Solfatara, and Monte Nuovo. The most remarkable capes or promontories which surround the shores of the peninsula are, Martini delle Melle, Manara, and Mesco, on the coast of Genoa; Piombino and San Stefano, on the shore of Tuscany; Linara, Anzo, and Circeo, in the territory of the church; Licosa, Palinuro, Felta, Surero, Zambro, Vaticano, Armi, Sarta, Spartevento, Stilo, Nizzato, Colonne, Saracino, Roseto, Volta, San Vito, Turco, Assinella, and Acquabella, on the shores of Naples. To these may be added the following in the island of Sicily, which are of great importance to all the navigators of the Mediterranean Sea, viz. Peloro, San Croce, Passaro, Scaramis, Granitula, Fero Voco, St Vito, Dell' Ursa, Gallo, Zassarano, Orlando, Carara, and Melazzo.

The northern division of Italy is copiously supplied with streams of water from those capacious reservoirs formed at the foot of the mountain ranges of the Alps. Those lakes are composed of water, partly arising from springs, but chiefly from the melted snow and ice of the lofty summits around them. These lakes are never frozen in the winter, but run in continual streams, and thus serve the constant purpose of irrigation as well as of internal navigation, till they disappear in the rivers which proceed to the sea.

The largest of these lakes, called Lago di Maggiore, or Lago di Lucarno, begins in the Swiss canton of Ticino, but soon enters Italy, and then, between the dominions of Sardinia and Austria, extends to Sesto. It is nearly fifty miles in length, and varies in breadth from five to eight miles. It is shallower than most of the other lakes, being in the middle not more than twenty-five feet deep. It is 750 feet above the level of the sea, and is fed by the river Ticino and twenty-six brooks. It contains in it the celebrated Borromean Islands, for a description of which see this work (vol. v. p. 16). Its water issues forth by the river, which retains the same name as at its entrance till it joins the Po. The Lago di Lugano is partly also in the Swiss territory, and is of less considerable extent, but of great depth. It is about twenty-four miles in length, and from two and a half to six in breadth. Its surface is 870 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. It receives the water of forty-three brooks or rivulets, and discharges it partly by the river Tresa into Lego Maggiore, and partly by means of an artificial canal into the small lake of Piano, a little to the eastward.

The lake of Como, celebrated for the romantic beauty of its borders, is wholly in Italy. It is about thirty-five miles in length, and in no part exceeds three miles in breadth, but it is of very great depth. It is formed by the river Adda and 195 smaller streams. It issues forth by the river, which bears the same name as at its entrance, but with an increased volume of water, and serves to fructify a great extent of land. At Bellagio it divides into two branches, one of which terminates at the city of its own name, and the other at Lecco. Lago d'Iseo is about twenty miles long and six broad; it is chiefly supplied by the streams of the Oglio, which issues from it again and runs to the Po. Lago d'Idro is small, being only seven miles in length, and through it the river Chiese passes before it joins the Oglio. Lago di Garda is the most extensive of all the lakes of Italy, covering a space of 315 square miles, or 201,600 English acres. It receives the water of the Sarta, and its only issue is at Peschiera, into the Mincio. It is of sufficient depth to carry vessels of the greatest draft of water. These vast reservoirs are of unspeakable advantage, both to the internal connection of one part of the country with the other, and to the several occupations of agriculture. As the slope of the land is regular and gentle from these lakes to the river Po, nature has thereby formed the means of distributing, with comparatively little cost of labour, the water over an extensive portion of the land, and in that due proportion which the nature of the soil or the description of the crop may require. In many parts streams of water are made to pass rapidly over the fields that require it, and what is not absorbed by the earth is received again into canals, and, at lower elevations, again passed in a similar manner over other fields, till the surplus fluid at length reaches the river Po.

As these modes of disposing water to the greatest advantage are almost peculiar to Upper Italy, and by their extension have been productive of the most beneficial effects on the fruitfulness of the soil, as well as on the internal communication, a sketch of their commencement and early progress can scarcely be destitute of interest.

After the decline of the power of the German emperors of the Saxon race, who had succeeded to Charlemagne, several free states were formed, of which Milan became one of the most flourishing; but war having been kindled amongst these states, most of the others combined with the Emperor Frederick I. against Milan, and, in 1162, captured and almost destroyed the city, laying waste the fields; but, during the continuance of hostilities, a change of fortune favourable to Milan, and the gaining of a battle, led to a peace in 1176. The energy and industry which this free state had displayed in war became equally manifest in peace. The canal then, as now, called Naviglio Grande, was begun to be constructed in 1178, or rather perhaps restored, for it is probable that the citizens of Pavia, eighty years before, had dug the canal, which had been partly filled up and rendered altogether useless during the continuance of hostilities.

The canal was at first only carried to Abbiategrasso, but the benefit was found to be so great, that, in the year 1220, the canal of Muzza was added to it. In 1269 the canal of Vettabia was extended and lengthened. It had been originally constructed in 1037, but, as is stated by Giuleni (Storia di Milano, vol. iv.), was long neglected. In 1350 the canal of Treviglio, or Fosso Bergamasco, was begun; and, in 1460, the Duke Francesco Sforza first planned that of Artesana. These, though in some degree designed for the purposes of navigation, were chiefly planned and regulated to administer to irrigation. Navigation was only permitted two days in the week, and the other five days the water was used to enrich the land. It seems very probable that advantage to the soil from irrigation was known prior to any of the dates here stated as the commencement of these canals. That some progress was made as early as the year 1138, appears from a contract made in that year by the monks of Chiavarella and Vicoboldone, in which are the following conditions: "Ut monasterium possit ex Vectabia trahere lectura (a canal) ubi ipsum monasterium voluerit, et si fuerit opus licet facere eadem monasterio fossa super terram ipsius Johannis (the vender), ab una parte viae et ab alia, &c. possit firmare et habere clausum (sluice) in prota ipsius Johannis." A similar contract of the following year, and several of subsequent dates, are still in existence. The whole water of the Vettabia belonged to those monks, having been granted to them by a charter of the Emperor Frederick II.; and the fame of their skill in the management of water was so great, that the chief of Milan, Napoleone della Torre, intrusted to their care the construction of works for draining the environs of that city, whilst Rinaldo, archbishop of Cologne, employed them in improving the marshes in his dominions. These ecclesiastics confined their attention and labours exclusively to irrigation, and did nothing for navigation; but they were the first to introduce the practice, since become so extensive, of selling their water by the hour, the day, or the week, and are said to have gained to their convent 60,000 partiche, or about 10,000 acres, of the best meadow-land in Italy.

Progress in the conducting of water must have been made in Italy centuries before the subject had attracted attention in the other parts of Europe. The learned Frisi, in his work (Nuova Raccolta d'autori che trattano del moto della aqua), speaking of the canal of Muzza already noticed, says that it was planned with the most perfect skill, and formed a masterpiece of art. The canal of Martesana is still seen with surprise. It receives its water from the Vaprio and the Adda; is carried between stone walls five Italian miles, on a level twenty-five feet above the bed of the Adda, parallel to it, in order to preserve the level; and distributes its water to the fields, which it could not otherwise reach without great labour and expense.

The subsequent progress of the management of water, and its beneficial application to agriculture, belongs more properly to the description of Lombardy, where it will, under that head, be found, than to the more general subject of Italy; but the early state of that art belongs to the history of the first dawn of a useful practice in the peninsula taken as a whole.

The north of Italy, as may be gathered from the description of the lakes, abounds in rivers. The principal of these is the Po, which conveys to the sea the water of most of the other streams. It originates in Mount Piso, in the Alps, and takes an eastern direction through the great valley of Lombardy, till it enters the Adriatic. The whole length of its course is about 330 miles, but for the first eighty miles it is scarcely more than a brook. The rich plain that is watered by it and by its tributary streams is 330 miles in length and 170 in breadth, and consists of the greatest extent of highly fertile land that exists in Europe. The course of the stream is very rapid, the water running at the rate of more than four miles an hour. A vast quantity of mud and other substances is brought down by this great force of the water to the lower part of the river, and being there deposited, tends to raise the bottom; and though the effect is in some degree mitigated by throwing up the substances on the banks, and thereby forming strong dykes or embankments, the bottom of the river has in many parts become higher than the land on both sides of it.

Though much labour and expense are applied to preserve the embankments, yet, when the snow and ice on the Alps melt suddenly, great inundations are experienced. The chief tributary streams which contribute to form the mass of water of the Po fall into it on the left bank. These are the Agogna in the dominions of Sardinia; the Ticino, the boundary between Sardinia and Austria; and the Adda, the Oglio, and the Mincio, in Austrian Lombardy. The water which increases the Po by its right banks are the streams of the Tanaro, the Trebbia, the Oreglio, the Arda, the Taro, the Parma, the Ena, and the Secchia. The next considerable river of northern Italy is the Adige or Etsch, which comes out of the Tyrol, passes Trent and Verona, and enters the Adriatic a little to the north of the mouths of the Po. It does not in summer discharge much water, and is only navigable a short distance higher than Verona.

Central Italy does not abound in rivers, and most of them are of short courses. The most considerable is the Arno, which rises in the Apennines, at the foot of Mount Falterone, runs through Tuscany, and enters the sea near Pisa. It is navigable for small craft, but the chief interest it excites arises from the rich and beautiful valley which is watered by it in its passage to the sea. The rivers which rise in the Apennines and run to the eastward, are for the most part mountain streams or torrents, occasionally dry, and, except when the ice and snow melt, contributing but in a small degree to augment the waters of the Adriatic.

The south of Italy contains few rivers deserving the notice they have received. The Tiber, in the papal state, descends from the Apennines, not far from the source of the Arno, and continues a course of nearly 150 miles, in which it passes Rome, and enters the sea about fifteen below that city. It is turbid, rapid, and deep; but at Rome does not exceed a hundred yards in breadth, and is only navigable from the sea to that city. The only other river in that territory is the Pescara, which runs into the Adriatic.

The Neapolitan dominions, though abounding in brooks and rivulets, which are valuable to the agriculturist, and with mountain streams, sometimes swelled into torrents, and at other times nearly destitute of water, has few streams of any length. The most important of them is the Ofanto, running eastward to the Gulf of Manfredonia, the Basiento, the Salandra, the Agri, and some others; all of which empty themselves into the Gulf of Taranto. Those which run to the westward are the Gargillano, emptying itself into the Bay of Gaeta, the Volturno, and the Silaro. None of these are navigable, and their mouths are for the most part surrounded with swamps, which generate malaria, and are highly injurious to human life.

In a country extending from north to south through ten degrees of latitude, there must be a great difference of climate from the position alone; but besides that, the climate of Italy is influenced by the proximity of lofty mountains in some of its divisions, and by the influence of the air from the sea, which almost surrounds the other parts. If we follow the classification of Saussure, we may divide the climate of Italy into four regions. The first extends from latitude 46° 28' to 43° 30', and thus comprehends the whole of the Austrian and Sardinian dominions, and the other territories to the north of the Apennines, with the legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna. In this region the quicksilver in Reamur's thermometer descends to 10 degrees below zero; the lagunes at the mouths of the rivers are frozen; and sometimes in January and February the snow remains from ten to fourteen days on the ground. Delicate plants do not grow except in sheltered situations; but the mulberry trees flourish, and rice is grown. The slight night-frosts appear in November, and some years as late as April. Even in summer a benumbing cold is brought down from the Alps, by a violent storm of northerly wind. The second region extends from 43° 30' to 41° 30', comprehending Tuscany, Lucca, the papal states, the Abruzzis, and the whole of the western shore to the south of the Apennines, though some part of the latter does extend as far north as 44°, but, from being sheltered by the mountains, has a climate similar to the southern part. This is the appropriate climate for the growth of the orange, the lemon, and the olive; but, even in this region, the snow is occasionally to be seen on the fields. The third region extends from 41° 30' to 39°, and comprehends the greater part of the continental dominions of the kingdom of Naples. Here snow is rarely seen, and never remains; and the quicksilver seldom falls below three degrees, and all plants of the agrumenous tribe flourish in the open air. The fourth region extends from 39° to 35° 50', and comprehends the southern part of Calabria, and the island of Sicily. The quicksilver rarely falls below zero, and snow and ice are unknown except on the summits of the mountains of Etna and Sila. The tropical fruits come to perfection in the open air, the sugar-cane flourishes, the cotton plant ripens, the date trees are seen in the gardens, and the enclosures of the fields are formed by aloes. It will be obvious that this classification cannot be universally applied, and principally attaches to the flat land of Italy. Thus the positions on the sides of high mountains, the vicinity of the sea, and the volcanic nature of the soil, all have an influence which must cause many local variations in any classifications, and form exceptions to what is generally correct. The tops of the Alps in Savoy and Piedmont are covered with perpetual snow. The Apennines are commonly clothed with it from the middle of October till the beginning of April; and on the highest mountains of Abruzzo, the Majella and the Velino, it remains from September till May. The northern part of Italy, including Tuscany and the papal states, does not generally present that charming aspect which people from the north picture to themselves of the garden of Europe; and they are only introduced into that region on proceeding to the east from Manfredonia, or to the west from Terracina. There the winter is scarcely colder than our September; vegetation proceeds without interruption; and the air is filled with the most aromatic odours.

The climate of Italy, represented, as it frequently is, in the most glowing colours, is not without great and serious annoyances and inconveniences. There prevails from May to September a burning heat; the sun, with its perpendicular rays, threatens to destroy every vegetable; this burning atmosphere produces a brown landscape, unrefreshed by a drop of rain; when the air of the cooling sea breezes is scarcely perceptible, or so changed as to bring with it from the shores of Africa only a thick, damp steam, whilst a subterranean heat glows perpetually under the volcanic soil, and periodically sends forth noxious vapours injurious to the health of men and of beasts, and which have tended to produce depopulation in many extensive districts. To these evils may be added the annoyance produced by numerous swarms of insects, which fill the air, visit the dwellings, and are a constant source of vexation. The vast lagunes at the mouths of the great river, the Pontine Marshes, with similar swamps on the sea-coast, and in many other parts, tend to generate miasmata, that shorten human life, and are among the causes that the proportion of deaths to the whole number of inhabitants is greater in Italy than in any other division of Europe.

The inhabitants of Italy are a mixture of races, compos- Religion ed of Gauls, Germans, and Arabians, who at various but distant periods have immigrated into the peninsula, and mingled with the few aborigines, whose language they have expelled; and from it has been framed a speech, which by cultivation has attained a peculiar character, and become, notwithstanding its variety of dialects, a common bond of union. The language used by the best writers is nearly the same in every part of Italy; but that of the lower classes is so very different in the several divisions of the country, that those born in one can scarcely understand the conversation of the natives of the other. All the educated classes can comprehend and enjoy the writings of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Tasso, and Ariosto composed in the Tuscan dialect.

In Italy the inhabitants universally adhere to the Roman Catholic church; or, if any differ from it, the number must be very inconsiderable, as there are no public celebrations of any other religious rites but such as are prescribed by that communion, except that the Jews in Venetian Lombardy, in Leghorn, in Rome, and in Ancona, have permission, but under some rigid restrictions, to establish synagogues. The foreign Protestants also may celebrate their rites in their own language, under the sanction of the ambassador or consul of their nation. The established clergy are very numerous, and said to amount to 500,000 persons, or one in forty of the whole population. The number of sees, which formerly exceeded that of the bishoprics in the rest of Christendom, has been greatly reduced, as well as the greater part of the monasteries, which once deluged the cities and large towns. The churches, however, still possess great riches, and are everywhere sumptuous in their decorations and ornaments, containing much of what is most magnificent and glorious in art, or most refined in taste, elegance, and beauty. The exterior of the churches is very imposing, and the ceremonies are performed with the greatest degree of pomp and solemnity.

The higher clergy possess great power, and all of them enjoy immunity for their persons and goods, and in most cases are freed from taxation. The secular priests are under the superintendence of the bishops, and the monasteries under the chiefs of their several orders. Though the extent of the influence and power of the church, and its universality, are the same as in Spain and in Portugal, its exciting cause and its associations are very different. In those countries the religion is a species of chivalry, originating in the idea of the conquests achieved over the Moorish Moors, and combined with all the traditions on that subject; but in Italy it is chiefly to be traced to the progress made in the fine arts. It is associated with painting and statuary, with music and with architecture, and, as in Spain, has little connection with the moral feelings of integrity, chastity, temperance, industry, and the domestic relations. These virtues, where they exist, owe but little to the institutions of the church, of which they are unshaken though but feeble adherents. Confession and absolution are the substitutes for those virtues, and little beyond the value of those substitutes is inculcated in religious instruction.

In no part of Europe is the education of the humbler classes so neglected as in Italy, taken as a whole; for though some advances have recently been made in Lombardy and in Tuscany, and will probably continue, yet nothing is thought of or projected in the other territories, on the subject. The instruction of the poor is wholly in the hands of the ecclesiastics, and nothing can be worse conducted. It is a wonder to find a countryman that can read, and a handicraft workman in the towns that can write his own name is equally singular. The institutions for the higher kinds of education are also far behind those in the other countries of Europe. Amongst these are the colleges and lyceums, where the instruction is partial, and neither calculated to impress with taste, nor to excite freedom and extension of thought. The studies are directed to logic and some classics; but the sciences are neglected, as are the languages of other countries, their customs, their intelligence, and their modes of thinking and reasoning. Mathematics are scarcely known, but casuistry is sedulously inculcated. The Collegia Ambrosiana and the Collegia Brera in Milan form exceptions to the description here given, but in everything but classical literature they are far from being well conducted.

The universities where education is completed are sufficiently numerous, and mostly of ancient date in their foundation. They are, Salerno, founded in the year 1100; Bologna, in 1119; Naples, in 1224; Padua, in 1228; Rome, in 1248; Perugia, in 1307; Pisa, in 1329; Siena, in 1390; Pavia, in 1361; Turin, in 1400; Parma, in 1422; Florence, in 1443; Catania, in 1445; Cagliari, in 1764; and Genoa, renewed and extended in 1783; to which may be added that of Modena, which, after long neglect, has recently been re-established.

The dates of these institutions may serve to show the probable course of study originally introduced, when the works of the schoolmen and the casuists entirely engrossed the public mind. Some few improvements may have been ingrafted on these foundations, but they have been of little efficacy in exciting to study, or in forming a considerable proportion of enlightened scholars.

In almost every one of the cities of Italy there have been long-established literary and scientific societies, which have cherished and encouraged learning among their respective members. These were begun in the fifteenth century, and have multiplied and increased ever since. They have contributed, since the restoration of learning, to its preservation, and have been in a great degree the means of bringing the talents and industry of the scholars into public notice. They are too numerous to be even named here. One of the earliest, as well as the most celebrated, is the Academia della Crusca of Florence, which still exists, and had for its object the perfecting of the language, by which great renown has been gained. The most flourishing of these societies in the present day are the Imperial Institution of Milan, and the Academy of Sciences at Turin. The institutions for the promotion of the fine arts are numerous; they are in connection with schools, in which painting, sculpture, and architecture, are taught by competent masters. The most useful of these are at Florence, at Rome, and at Bologna.

Italy abounds in collections of books, and especially of manuscripts of great antiquity, and of high value. The libraries in general are, however, very deficient in works of modern literature and of science. The most distinguished of the libraries are that of the Vatican in Rome, the Ambrosian at Milan, that of St Mark in Venice, and those of the Magliabechi and the Medici at Florence. There are in every part of Italy museums of great value, and most of them are arranged in the most perfect manner. All of them are with the greatest liberality thrown open to the public, and are thereby made the common property of all nations. Each palace of the men of eminent rank, and each public building, is a cabinet of art; and each city boasts of its antiques or of its modern works of art. The most distinguished of the museums are those of Florence and of Naples. Picture galleries are to be found everywhere, and present to the inspector of them many of the finest specimens of that delightful art. The churches, too, are most abundantly graced, as well by their architecture as by the exquisite pieces which exhibit the skill of the painters or the sculptors. The greatest loss that Italy had to lament was the removal of the best works of art by the French invaders; but, fortunate- The clergy have already been noticed; and in viewing the inhabitants of Italy generally, it is proper to advert to the class next to that body in rank, but superior to them in number. The nobility consists of a vast number of families, each member of which continues through all their generations to retain their titles, even though they may be destitute of wealth. In most of the dominions they have little or no influence as a body on the measures of the governments. In the papal states, in Sicily, in Sardinia, some patrician power exists, and some feudal rights are exercised, and in Genoa a shadow of their ancient dignity is retained; but in the other parts not even a shadow of power is to be found amongst them. They have the barren titles of prince, duke, viscount, marquis, or count. Many of them possess extensive landed estates, which are for the most part majorats, or strictly entailed on the eldest son, and many of these are said to be at present deeply mortgaged. As no provision is thus made for the junior members of such families, they commonly enter the church or the army, and sometimes, though rarely, obtain offices in the civil service of the government. Of late some of the nobility have directed their attention to agriculture; but none of them, except in Venice and in Genoa, have applied themselves to commerce. From the condition of this class, it is usual to find amongst them the whole of the family residing in the palace of the head of it, with their wives and children, if they have any. As money rent is not commonly paid for the estates, but the produce of these divided between the proprietors and their occupiers, the necessaries for the support of such families reach them directly; and, except for purposes of show or of luxury, very little money is necessary. Although some members of the noble families have devoted themselves to the promotion of literature, of science, or of the fine arts, yet the great body live in the silent enjoyment of their rank and property, or, when mixing in society, do so in those crowded but economical assemblies, where they can, with little interruption from plebeian intruders, enjoy the patrician feeling of their dignity. In such families, the foreigners that may be introduced to them do not receive, or in general expect to receive, any hospitable attentions; nor indeed is hospitality one of those good qualities by which Italians are distinguished in any of the ranks of life.

It is generally reported that the morals of this class have been gradually improving of late years, and that the practice of each married lady having her favourite lover or cicisbeo, after the birth of her first child, is rapidly disappearing. In regard also to gambling, it is said to have been practised to a less ruinous extent of late years than in former periods. One of the greatest, or at least most usual, gratifications of the people of this rank, is a box at the opera, where they most commonly attend in the evening, and where, enclosed by curtains, they can receive the visits of their friends, without interrupting the pleasures they derive from the representation and the music.

The burghers in the cities have now none of the power which they enjoyed in the many cities which were once denominated free. The municipal power is concentrated in the hands of the several governments; and, where corporations do still exist, they have no other right than that of presenting humble representations or suggestions on inferior and local subjects. The more affluent inhabitants of the cities, comprehending those of the legal profession, the bankers, the merchants, and the superior artists, amongst whom may be included the possessors of the smallest landed estates, are not numerous; but they mix more with strangers than the nobles; and have fewer national prejudices. They appear to know that all born beyond the Alps are not necessarily barbarians or semi-barbarians, and amongst them foreigners may find the best associates.

The lower class of the town population are in bad repute, both as to morals and instruction. They are represented as more acute than honest, and are reported to be only capable of being restrained from violations of life and property by the activity of a very vigilant police.

Whatever may be the faults of the Italian nation, one good quality is obvious; their ready assistance to suffering humanity. All the cities are filled with charitable institutions, wherein infants, the helpless aged, the diseased, and the destitute, find refuge and relief; but it must be acknowledged, that no country has more need of such institutions, for in none are there to be found so great a number of beggars, nor so numerous a body as, in all the cities, take little care for any thing beyond the passing day or even hour.

The greater part of the population of Italy is, however, to be seen in the country, devoted to the pursuits of agriculture. A few, a very few of them, are in circumstances of moderate affluence; a few more may be represented as in a state of comparative ease, enjoying a bare sufficiency to support life; but the great body, to whom all others bear a slight proportion, are in the most wretched condition. They are the occupiers of small portions of land, some of them not exceeding an acre in extent, and most of them less than four acres, where, in miserable hovels, barely sheltered, they labour in the fields, and subsist themselves and their families on half the produce of the land, the other half being delivered to the proprietor at the time of harvest as his rent. Their food, simple as it is, is far from being sufficient to keep them in a healthy state. They taste neither bread nor animal food. Their chief subsistence is called polenta, made from Indian corn, which is merely pounded and then boiled, no expense on account of the miller or the baker being incurred. This kind of meal, made to the consistence of hasty pudding, would certainly be an aliment sufficient to support life when the quantity could be adequately supplied; but, with the utmost parsimony during the whole year, the termination of it, as the next harvest approaches, often finds them utterly destitute, and with no other resource but beggary or starvation. This is the condition of the larger class of human beings in the north and middle of Italy; whilst in the south the lazzaroni of Naples are living proofs of the wretched condition of great numbers in that more fertile soil and more temperate climate.

The Italians as a nation, excepting, however, those of the lowest class, are a fine race of men. The men are well formed, rather slim than stout, but strong and agile, with a complexion, either from nature or from exposure to the sun, of a dark hue, with expressive countenances and dark sparkling eyes, and for the most part with black hair. Their gait is grave but not solemn, and their whole appearance is expressive of self-respect. The women have mostly narrow foreheads, black or dark-brown hair, large, brilliant, and expressive eyes, a beautiful nose, which, with the forehead, forms the elegant Roman profile; a small mouth, with lips rather swelling; a clear, white complection, with slight red tinges showing through it, and a delicate but well-formed figure. But the lower classes, owing to their early marriages, their subsisting wholly on vegetable food, and the hard labour they endure, exposed to a burning sun, have their beauty checked before it has attained maturity, and rarely display any attractions.

A hasty or an unobservant traveller, in passing through Italy, may well be charmed with the scenery of the country, the magnificence of the cities, the clearness of the sky, and the mildness of the climate. He will see only what is admirable and exciting. The prospects on descending from the Alps, adorned as they are by lofty precipices, with their tops buried in snow, and their sides discovering waterfalls descending into the beautiful lakes below, are all of a kind to gratify the sense, as are also the odours exhaled from flowers; and the fruit-trees regale another sense at the bottom. On the plains, too, the beauty of the fields, surrounded with mulberry trees, having vines in elegant festoons, with their pendant fruit, trained from one tree to the next, the centre of the enclosure exhibiting heavy crops of corn, pulse, or culinary vegetables, all conspire to increase the delight. The excellence of the roads, the post-horses, and the inns, contribute their share to heighten the enjoyment. The appearance, too, of the cities, with their magnificent public edifices and their spacious private dwellings, though the streets may be narrow and crooked, presents a picture eminently calculated to convey to the beholder that feeling of pleasure which novelty usually creates in the mind. We have enjoyed these gratifications to the fullest extent; but, in the description here given, we have felt it a duty to look beyond the delightful surface, to view the interior of the land, the state of the several classes of society that inhabit it, and to communicate to the reader the most accurate view that could be produced after much careful investigation. If it be more dark and gloomy than it has been commonly drawn, it will not be found, by those who, like the writer, have examined and discriminated, to be unfaithful in the delineation.

In every country agriculture is the chief branch of industry, and this is eminently the case in Italy; but, from the formation of the land, and still more from its extending through ten degrees of latitude, it becomes difficult to take a general view of the state of cultivation. The cultivation of Savoy or Lombardy differs from that of Calabria as much as that of Massachusetts does from that of Carolina. In this work, therefore, the details of rural economy will be found under the heads of the several dominions into which Italy is divided; and in this place will only be noticed those results of agriculture which yield food, drink, or clothing to its inhabitants, or which form the basis of manufacturing industry, or the rudiments of foreign commerce. The cerealia form, as elsewhere in Europe, the chief aliment of the inhabitants; in Italy, however, the lower classes, who are the most numerous, subsist much on maize, which requires little preparation to render it fit for food. In some of the southern parts wheat is made use of by the same class, not in the form of bread, but in that of macaroni, which is manipulated with greater facility. It is made from a hard wheat commonly produced from the soil, or, in times of scarcity, imported from the countries on the Black Sea or the Sea of Azoph. Wheat and maize are, on the average of years, about equal to the consumption, but little or none can be spared for exportation; and in many of the ports are depôts of foreign wheat kept to meet the variations of seasons, or to be used as articles of commerce with other countries.

As Italy produces abundance of wine, and consequently needs neither beer nor corn-spirits, no barley is needed for these drinks, and scarcely any is cultivated. Oats are but little grown, but abundance of beans of various kinds is produced. Rye, the common bread-corn of the far greater portion of Europe, is only raised in a few spots in the very northernmost parts of Italy, where it is made into bread for the poor; whilst those of the higher classes there, as well as throughout the whole peninsula in the cities, make use of wheaten bread. Rice grows in many parts, in fact wherever there is a sufficiency of water to insure a good produce, at such a distance from towns as not to be injurious to the health of the inhabitants. It is a part of almost every meal in families in easy circumstances, but is scarcely used by the families who are in circumstances that require the practice of great parsimony. A great variety of lupines are used as food, especially in the soups. In some parts of the mountainous regions chestnuts are a substitute for corn as long as they last. Fruits are plentifully used, particularly melons and cucumbers, as food; whilst the cheapness of onions, garlic, tomatoes or love-apples, and capsicums, render them valuable as condiments. It is singular that that useful vegetable the potato, which in the other parts of Europe has been so much extended of late years, has been but partially introduced into Italy; and, where it is cultivated, it occupies a very small proportion of the soil. Lettuces, asparagus, endive, artichokes, and several kinds of turnips and of carrots, are everywhere grown.

Animal food is far from being extensively used. The oxen yield in some parts excellent, in others very indifferent, meat. The mutton is neither good nor abundant. Swine furnish a plentiful supply during the winter months, but are chiefly to be seen as bacon or hams, and above all prepared as sausages, the fame of which latter has reached unto England under the name of the city Bologna, where they were early and extensively prepared. The large dairy farms in Lombardy, in which the cheese known by the name of Parmesan is made, furnish the most and the best swine's flesh.

The fisheries contribute largely to the supply of food in Italy, though, from the number of farts still countenanced by the Catholic church, not sufficient for the consumption; and the deficiency is procured by commerce with the English, French, and Americans, who convey to the sea-ports the salted cod-fish from the banks of Newfoundland. Their own fisheries on the coast give much occupation; the most considerable are those for the tunny, a very large fish, and for the anchovy, a very small one. These are conducted upon a large scale by joint-stock companies, composed of almost the whole of the inhabitants of the parts of the coast where they are carried on. The lakes and the rivers also yield some, though not a great proportion, of that kind of food which ecclesiastical restrictions render indispensable.

The sugar-cane is cultivated in the south of Italy, and some is grown spontaneously; but it is found, that in point of strength, as well as of cost, the sugar made from it does not succeed in a competition with that substance when imported from the West Indies.

The products of agriculture are sufficient for the clothing of all its inhabitants; for though wool is neither good nor plentiful, yet hemp and flax are grown everywhere, are manufactured at home, and, from the nature of the climate, linen can be substituted for woollen dress during most of the months of the year. Some raw wool is, however, imported to supply the manufactures, and some cloths both from England and France, together with (in Lombardy) those from the other Austrian provinces, especially from Bohemia. Some cotton is grown on the southern divisions of Italy, but not sufficient to furnish materials for their very insignificant institutions of that manufacture.

The chief product of Italian agriculture is the silk. It is produced in every part, and much of it is converted into articles of dress or of furniture, where it is collected; but the chief production of it is in the dominions of the king of Sardinia, or of the emperor of Austria, whence the looms