Pisa In the Cross-hairs, Under Attack: spring 1496

It was in the late winter or early spring when a band of Florentine partisans tried to take Pisa. Pietro Bembo, years later, tells the tale of Ludovico Sforza offering his help to the Senate in the matter, by being an ally to Venice, in order to help them to achieve this request for protection. The Senate pressed by activities all over and the entreaties of the duke of Milan, agreed to send funds to pay for soldiers, found in and near Genoa, to help defend Pisa. They also agreed, he says, to a pact with Milan and the pope to defend Pisa from the French. Bembo then segues to the attack from Florence of '6000 foot soldiers' and the following effects. But this is only one of a series of additional attacks and seizures on a number of cities and palaces across Italy that year which Venice was involved in.

Il Moro was determined to make some profit from the entire enterprise having worked for years to entice the French to come to Italy to begin with. This time, the crafty Duke of Milan got Venice to pay him so that he could raise an army in Genoa. He also failed to make much use of that army later on, further tarnishing his reputation, as if it could be worse. But Bembo gives Milan's opinion without quoting him, in this case.

"He said that he thought it quite right that Pisa should be protected, since the Florentines had formed an alliance with Charles - he himself had intercepted in his own territory the legate who negotiated the treaty as he returned in secret to the king. After lengthy discussions among the senators, and with Ludovico pressing them harder each day, a law was finally passed in the Senate with the approval of the ambassadors of all the allies that Pisa should be defended with the combined arms and resources of the pope, Venice and Ludovico. Appended to the law was a provision that 2,000 soldiers should be raised in Liguria at the Republic's expense and sentto Pisa. Ludovico had earlier undertaken to see to it that the Genoese would permit this to happen." [iii,23]

But Bembo says that when Florence learned of this, and before other forces could assemble, they quickly acted to take Pisa back by force. The artillery arrived at the gates but the Pisans surprised them. Opening the gates they charged at them and 'fighting manfully' siezed the artillery. But then they were met with deception.

"Shortly afterwards Paolo Vitelli, one of the Roman Orsini party and faction, and a brave man whom the Pisans had put in command of their forces, went over to the Florentines when he had fulfilled his contract with Pisa. Taking on the captaincy which the Florentines conferred on him, he put together an army of 10,000 infantry and made a fierce attack on Pisa. Vitelli rushed into the outskirts of the town, but was driven back and forced out by the Pisans, who had themselves gathered as many troops as they could. The Florentines later retook and held on to those outskirts, but they then abandoned Pisa and turned to defending themsleves for fear of Piero de' Medici, who was reportedly on the point of bursting into their territory at the head of the Orsini relatives." [iii, 24]

Again, Piero was the son of Clarice Orsini of the Orsini family who were helping him to win back Florence. The new government in Florence also wanted Pisa back. The old Medici leaders wanted to regain Florence. Everyone else were looking toward their own advantage. The Florentines, Bembo tells us were trying to buy the fortress in Pisa from King Charles of France. The Pisans then destroyed the fortress. Venice lost forty pounds of gold in attempting to help pay for this. [iii,25]
This war over Pisa would continue for years.

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Quotes from Bembo, Pietro: History of Venice; edited and translated by Robert W Ulery, Jr.; in english and latin, The I Tatti Renaissance Library; The President and Fellows of Harvard College, USA 2007