Friday, August 28, 2015

Honoring A Murdered Knight in Forli: August 28, 1495

In Forli, on the morning of August 28, 1495, Elizabeth Lev tells us, an 'impressive sight' emerged from the fortress now known as il Rocca Ravaldino. The day before, Giacomo Feo had been cut down by deceptive local enemies, when he and his lover the Countess Caterina Sforza and the children, were out for a summer picnic. Despite the gruesome tumults and brutal reprisals of the day before (which would continue) and a likely sleepless night for the grief-stricken Caterina, she and her remaining family were the very picture of nobility, stability and power.

From Lev's book, The Tigress of Forli: 
"... hundreds assembled outside Ravaldino wearing the somber colors of mourning. The drawbridge was lowered and a procession slowly crossed toward the city gate. The vicar of the bishop of Forli, dressed in funerary robes, walked in front, accompanied by Scipione Riario, Girolamo's natural son, now in his twenties, who lived with the family. Caterina came next, holding the hand of little Bernardino, her three-year-old son by Feo. Her pale face bore the signs of a sleepless night, but her expression was unreadable. She looked at no one and acknowledged nothing except the little boy by her side.
The Sforza-Feo household made an impressive sight, with ambassadors, ladies in waiting, and an honor guard in polished armor wending their way across the moat. Three pages, dressed in mourning livery, rode with the group. The first displayed Feo's sword and golden spur, the second his helmet, and the last his cuirass, denoting Giacomo's knightly status. Dozens of nobles, both local and foreign, joined the cortege as they headed into the city. Others poured into Forli from neighboring towns, gathering in the market square, where a giant catafalque had been prepared during the night. The towering monument was draped in gold cloth and surrounded by torches. At the appointed time, the canons of the cathedral, the parish priests, and the confraternities encircled the platform, bearing aloft thirty-three crosses as they sang psalms and prayers. The air was heavy with the scent of incense; a slowly cadenced chant set a stately pace for tthe procession that then wound to the church of San Girolamo. Count Girolamo Riario, lord of Forli, had not rerceived such elaborate obsequies.
Feo was temporarily laid to rest in the chapel containing the splendid tomb of the unfortunate Barbara Manfredi, the murdered wife of Pino Ordelaffi."
This nearly photographic or video-quality set of images is beautiful and realistic. The linearity of the description makes completely clear what is going on and what it means for the players. The source for this vivid description must come from Leone Cobelli and his contemporary Chronicle of Forli. Details of the attack, the motives of the assailants, the following reprisals and acts of bloody vengeance ordered by the Countess, including torture and the mounting of several severed heads in the marketplace and leaving them there for over a year, as well as the notes and sources of this episode will come over the next few days.
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from pp 183-4 by Elizabeth Lev, The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy's most courageous and notorious countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de'Medici : 2011, USA, Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt Publishing Company
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Thursday, August 27, 2015

news bits: end of August 2015

Nearing the end of August in middle America, this year we are enjoying unseasonably cool weather. Highs this week remain in the low 80's Fahrenheit (27-29 Celsius) and right now it looks like rain. Meanwhile much of the west of the country endures terrible drought conditions, epic wildfires of catastophic proportions and serious discussions on water scarcity.

The US Department of Agriculture forecasts lower prices for staples from the midwest like corn, soybeans, hogs, which means lower incomes. This also means lower tax revenues for states dependent on them. Losses in other areas, like in bee populations, almond, berry, apple and potatoe productions in the northwest, may mean more farms literally drying up.
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After numerous tragically avoidable killings all across the US this year, Wal-Mart has decided to stop selling certain kinds of assault-style rifles.

Meanwhile, not known as the most forward thinking of states, North Dakota's legislature has decided that certain kinds of drones can be equipped with tasers and tear gas.
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KOCH's and US President trade barbs.

The third book in Hugh Thomas' trilogy on the Spanish Empire is out. Here is a review by Nigel Cliff for the NY Times. Here is another look on the nexus of education, information and 'strategic culture' as it relates to Philip II's Spain and the Kennedy and Johnson Administration's from Geoffrey Parker.

China's huge sell off in their stock market has caused tremblors all over the world's economies.


This guy has an explanation for why 'no trade' or autarky is the bencmark for macro-economics instead of current school's definitions.

More tragic stories of refugees dying at sea emerge today. This has been happening particularly in Europe all year.


Desperate conditions remain in Nigeria, even for journalists.
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Friday, August 7, 2015

French Move Slowly Out of Italy : summer 1495

The retreat of the French from Italy did not start out that way. Leaving Rome, Pope Alexander at first asked the king to come visit him in Orvieto, away from the city, and then in Viterbo, and then as far as Perugia, up in the mountains. This drew the King's van north.

A further, later delay in nearby Siena, also probably in June, slowed everything down again. To King Charles' credit, he walked away from the prospect of his eager young cousin Ligni, a French prince ruling Siena as a favour for the French King. Then there was the additional heart-rending pleas of those in Pisa who wanted French protection, as well as the contrary Florentine contingents. Then the slow trip over the Apennines at last brought them above and then along the small river Taro, 30 km southwest of Parma, near Fornovo. The French goal, according to Guicciardini, was still Asti, where they had encamped the prior September. First they had to ford this smaller stream, the Taro in the summer when it would be lowest, and then head roughly west to Parma, and Piacenza, and then straight west past Tortona, south of the Po.

Along the way, those troops garrisoned on the coast southeast of Genoa near Sarzanello were ordered to cross the mtns to join the main body of troops. All but those in Ostia did so. Troops had also been sent west to board the fleet sent to pick up troops that remained along the coast. The King sent Cardinal della Rovere farther south, to Ostia, to help protect his interests there, as the most direct port to Rome. The main mass of the army were sent north and over the mountains where it was at least cooler if more arduous.

But on the fifth of July, the scouts for the King found a large mass of troops north of the Taro, and the Apennines, near Fornovo. There was a large contingent of Stradiotti, mercenary Albanians sent by Venice and their leaders. There were even a great many Milanese forces in the plain whose messengers said that in no way could the French army pass there. The Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza had been the French ally this entire time, effectively inviting King Charles to Italy in the first place. Charles sent a letter to meet with the Venetian proveditors who were on the field, but then afterward that night failed to meet with them.

All night the discussions on both sides went on and on. The camp of the Italian allies was dug in, as they had been there over a week. A storm with thunder and rain soured the French mood, even to become more fearful and uncertain in the weather and its greater difficulties, Guicciardini would say. In the morning, the French advanced across the river and so did the Italian allies to attack their flank. The battle continued all day with bravery and losses on both sides. Both sides took credit for winning.

But then the next day when embassies were sent by both sides, the Italian allies were said to insist that the French could not pass there and must stay on the west side of the Taro and south of the Po. Over the next several days, the French did and began moving west, not approaching Parma, but keeping to the high road to Piacenza. After eight to twelve additional days, the King at last reached Asti. The allies pursued them closely until reaching Tortona.

By this time news had been coming in that Naples was in the hands of the sons of Aragon again, the French fleet on the western shore was dashed, and French forces were fleeing the once secure Genoa. A siege on the French garrison under the Duke of Orleans' command at Navara, west of Milan, had begun as well. This was seen as a kind of rear guard to the masses of under-provisioned and weakened French troops gathering in the plain south and west of there. King Charles moved again to Turin to be in better communications with Novara as the siege there wore on. The King did not feel safe with enemies at his back attacking French troops at Novara and sought a final peace deal.

It was Ludovico Sforza who set their demands to the King alongside the Italian allies in nearby Vercelli. Guicciardini gives us the contrary opinions of King Charles' ministers, including that of the Prince of Orange, the Duke of Orleans and Monsieur de Tremouille. These discussions and arrangements would continue all summer. It was in October, Guicciardini tells us that the French King returned at last to France. There were other forms of fallout following the French retreat. In Forli, the captain-guard of Countess Caterina was struck down. In Florence, letters from Rome helped renew the tumult there.
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