Pisa: Sought After Pawn, Loyalist, Independent, Subordinate

During the few weeks before the French rode into Florence in November 1494, they had absorbed Pisa. This proud, rich jewel, Pisa had been taken by Florence in 1404, after a long siege. It was therefore not a plum to be given away by the Medici, though the city had strong advocates and the Medicean interests were well guarded, maintained, and were even allowed to flourish there,

Early in November 1494, Pisa was let go by Piero de Medici. As wags at the time and Francesco Guicciardini later on would put it, this was to save himself, in a deal that Piero brokered with King Charles VIII of France. It was then that the French assumed control there and then proceeded to Florence. Many Pisans reacted with outrage, as betrayed as many of their Florentine benefactors and bosses felt, and many also then supported the overthrow in Florence, and then still paid heed to the new edicts as they came out of the new Signoria in Florence throughout 1494-5.

By spring 1495 however, the French were on their way out of the peninsula. As they left, some Pisans hatched new plans. Letters to the Venetians, to the Duke of Milan, to certain members of the Signoria in Florence, and yes, to members of the cadet branch of the Medicean line, were sent out. Guicciardini tells us [vol. iii, 7-8] that Venice had sent diplomats to Genoa trying to persuade them not to give up on Pisa. Ludovico Sforza, still the Duke in Milan may have been instrumental in delaying all of this with promises made and unkept.

The siege at Novara broke up. Word spread fast that an agreement (~October 1495) had been made - Guicciardini called it the Turin Treaty - and the French finally would leave Italy. Pisa, and Livorno, its port, would be left behind as well, and those cities affairs left in the hands of, what turned out to be, a number of protectors. One was a French captain Entragues that tried to take Pisa with some Florentine troops [vol. iii, 10-15]. They were rebuffed in the end, but the story was very complicated, for a number of reasons.

The French knew Pisa and its harbor were coveted by all the players in Italy. Florence said it was theirs, but the current partisans bemoaned Piero giving it up, and Milan and Venice desired it for its revenue and their dreams of empire. Maximillian would come the following year to try to resolve the still caterwauling situation. It would be some time before the wrangling would be over and Pisa would not long have its former forms of 'independence' without outside domination.