Genoa and the Genoese, 958-1528 by Steven A. Epstein & Steven Epstein

Author:Steven A. Epstein & Steven Epstein [Epstein, Steven A. & Epstein, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, Europe, Italy
ISBN: 9780807849927
Google: qM_cJJ5352YC
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Published: 1996-11-15T00:11:45.850523+00:00

SIMONE BOCCANEGRA AND CHIOS, 1331–1347

Robert of Anjou, king of Naples, ruled Genoa through his rector and a council of eight nobles and eight popolo. In 1335 the new rector, Burgaro de Tolentino, became unpopular with the Ghibellines because they felt that he favored the Guelfs. In February a series of incidents prompted both parties to arm.49 On 27 February the Ghibellines attacked and with the help of the formerly Guelf Salvatico family pushed into Guelf areas. The Fieschi retreated out of town and headed for Piacenza, and by the next day, without any more bloodshed, pillaging, or fires, Robert’s people were allowed to leave. On 9 March, at a parlamento significantly summoned by the nobles, Raffaele Doria and Galeazzo Spinola da Luccoli were elected captains of the people for two years. A new podestà was chosen and the captains ruled the old way, through a council of anziani and the people protected by their abate. Stella maintains that many Guelfs, presumably weary of strife, swore loyalty to the captains, and many nobles simply became Ghibellines. The strongly Guelf Giovanni Villani writes that the revolt ruined Genoa’s good state and diminished its power and trade.50 Once Robert of Naples was out, the Guelf party in Genoa collapsed. Moneglia and Portovenere, held by Guelfs, submitted to Genoese rule. Robert occupied Ventimiglia in the western Riviera, and the Guelfs rallied at Monaco, from where their galleys resumed piracy against the Genoese.51

The captains’ main policy was to make peace with Aragon, and after a truce was proclaimed in early 1336, both parties came to terms in September.52 This treaty ended the conflict but accomplished nothing for the Genoese in Sardinia. At least peaceful commerce with the east resumed during the truce; significantly, however, the ten galleys sent to trade in Greece and Syria required another ten galleys to protect them.53 Having secured external peace, the captains on 25 March 1337 obtained three more years of rule, this time without a podestà, and they got the right to name the abate.

As Stella’s account of what he calls an ardua mutatio, a hard change—the revolution of 1339—is the only surviving version, we must look carefully at his explanation of what happened.54 Trouble started in the Ghibelline galleys that Genoa had sent to Flanders the previous year. The mariners were in dispute over their wages, and they sent a delegation headed by Pietro Capurro to the king of France. Pietro and fifteen others ended up in prison. Other seamen returned to Genoa and spread news of this by shouting “long live Capurro” and presumably describing in some detail their complaints against the shipowners. The men of Savona organized the mariners according to their valleys—Voltri, Bisagno, Polcevera—implying that many of them came from the small towns and villages of Liguria. John McNeill has observed that the mountains exported people into military service and brigandage; here, the tough men of the valleys took to the sea, possibly to escape the misery of overpopulation.55 It was announced, by whom it is not clear, that Capurro and the others had been put to death, but many refused to believe this.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.