Sign-In
Cart
Mercenary Companies and the Decline of Siena
Hardcover
Series: Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political, Book 116
Medieval & Renaissance HistoryGeneral MathematicsItalian History
ISBN13: 9780801857881
Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
Published: May 29 1998
Pages: 272
Weight: 1.22
Height: 0.87 Width: 6.34 Depth: 9.29
Language: English
Among the most dramatic problems faced on the Italian peninsula in the fourteenth century were the raids of marauding mercenary companies. These companies, known locally as Companies of Adventure and more generally as Free Companies, were private armies, composed of professional soldiers and adventurers from throughout Europe. They sold their services to the highest bidder in times of war, and staged ruinous raids in times of peace. The city of Siena, visually opulent and wedged between Florence and the lands of the pope--two frequent employers of mercenaries--was an especial target.
In this groundbreaking volume, William Caferro explores the social, economic and administrative impact of the companies on Siena from the arrival of Werner of Urslingen and the Great Company in 1342 until the fall of the Sienese republic in 1399. During this time, Caferro explains, Siena endured some thirty-seven raids, characterized by arson, pillage, and looting in the countryside and extortion of enormous bribes from the city government. He shows that the raids constituted a persistent and significant drain on both the human and financial resources of Siena. Payments to the companies siphoned off valuable (and limited) funds, damaging an already circumscribed economy, while the government was forced to borrow money on an unprecedented scale from its citizens. Sienese officials pressed money out of every available resource, including the Church (which had previously been taxed only sporadically) and Jews (who were belatedly granted the right to lend money to the state). Other desperate measures included pawning land, forcing purchases of salt, and readmitting exiles for a fee. The stresses caused by the mercenaries were greatly exacerbated by plague and famine, which often coincided precisely with the raids--each disaster serving to intensify the effects of the other.
Caferro concludes that the stress of the companies acted as an agent of change on the machinery of state, bringing both decentralization and confusion. If, as some historians have argued, military expenditure led to more streamlined bureaucracies and helped make states elsewhere, it is nonetheless clear that the same phenomenon helped unmake Siena. The raids, therefore, were more than an exotic nuisance, but a key factor in Siena's decision to abandon independence in 1399.
Also in
Italian History
A Bite-Sized History of Italy: Gastronomic Tales of the Roman Empire, Renaissance, and Republic
Callegari, Danielle
Hardcover
The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America's Elite Alpine Warriors
Isserman, Maurice
Paperback
It Happened in Italy: Untold Stories of How the People of Italy Defied the Horrors of the Holocaust
Bettina, Elizabeth
Paperback
The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza De' Medici
Lev, Elizabeth
Paperback
The Great Siege, Malta 1565: Clash of Cultures: Christian Knights Defend Western Civilization Against the Moslem Tide
Bradford, Ernle
Paperback
Life in Ancient Rome: Absorbing Social History--A Vivid Portrait of a Magnificent Age
Cowell, F. R.
Paperback
Terroni: All That Has Been Done to Ensure That the Italians of the South Became "Southerners"
Aprile, Pino
Paperback
The Fire in the Mountain: A History of Sicily, Mount Etna, and the Island's Volcanic Legacy
Attlee, Helena
Hardcover
Days of Memory: Listening to Jewish Italians who lived through Fascism and the Holocaust
Monachina, Judith
Paperback
Road to Valor: A True Story of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation
McConnon, Andres
McConnon, Aili
Paperback
The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Ginzburg, Carlo
Paperback
This Earthly Globe: A Venetian Geographer and the Quest to Map the World
Di Robilant, Andrea
Paperback
Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic
Stille, Alexander
Paperback
In the Abruzzi: Travels in Southern Italy at the Turn of the 20th Century; The History, Culture and Folklore
MacDonnell, Anne
Paperback
Giorgia's Vision: Giorgia Meloni in Conversation with Alessandro Sallusti
Sallusti, Alessandro
Meloni, Giorgia
Hardcover
The Pope and the Heretic: The True Story of Giordano Bruno, the Man Who Dared to Defy the Roman Inquisition
White, Michael
Paperback
My Cousin the Saint: A Story of Love, Miracles, and an Italian Family Reunited
Catanoso, Justin
Paperback
Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy Volume 28
Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta
Paperback
Rise and Fight: Speeches from the Italian Social Republic, and the Political Testament
Mussolini, Benito
Paperback
Echoes of a Distant Republic: Italian Perspectives on the American and French Revolutions
Vincenzi, Anna
Paperback
The Medicis and Borgias: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Medici Family and House of Borgia
History, Captivating
Hardcover
Naples 1925: Adorno, Benjamin, and the Summer That Made Critical Theory
Mittelmeier, Martin
Paperback
Aqua Tofana: Poison, Patriarchy, and the Women Who Chose Murder in Renaissance Italy
Lynn, Kathleen
Paperback
Seeking Sicily: A Cultural Journey Through Myth and Reality in the Heart of the Mediterranean
Keahey, John
Hardcover
The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Spy Mission of World War II
O'Donnell, Patrick K.
Paperback
The Judge and the Historian: Marginal Notes on a Late-Twentieth-Century Miscarriage of Justice
Ginzburg, Carlo
Paperback
A Bold and Dangerous Family: The Remarkable Story of an Italian Mother, Her Two Sons, and Their Fight Against Fascism
Moorehead, Caroline
Paperback
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volumes 1 to 3 (of Six)(Box Set): Introduction by Hugh Trevor-Roper
Gibbon, Edward
Hardcover
Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style
Baxandall, Michael
Paperback
A Brief History of Italy: Tracing the Renaissance, Unification, and the Lively Evolution of Art and Culture
Haynes, Dominic
Paperback
The Italian Way of War: A Short History from Garibaldi to Operation Husky 1866-1943
LaMonica, Jeffrey
Hardcover
Across Sicily with Garibaldi's Thousand: An Adventure in Landscape and Italian Memory
Parks, Tim
Hardcover
The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of the West
Fletcher, Catherine
Hardcover
The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: Da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped
Strathern, Paul
Paperback
Learn Italian: A beginner's guide to learning basic Italian fast, including useful common words and phrases!
Alfaro, Adrian
Paperback
Prisoner of the Vatican: The Popes, the Kings, and Garibaldi's Rebels in the Struggle to Rule Modern Italy
Kertzer, David I.
Paperback
Churchill's Hellraisers: The Thrilling Secret Ww2 Mission to Storm a Forbidden Nazi Fortress
Lewis, Damien
Paperback
The Time Traveler's Guide to Norman-Arab-Byzantine Palermo, Monreale and Cefalù
Alio, Jacqueline
Mendola, Louis
Paperback
From Sicily to America: A History of Sicilian Immigration to America, from the Villages to Ellis Island and Beyond
Licata, Salvatore J.
Paperback
Jews and the Italian Left: Socialism, Zionism, and Antisemitism from 1892 to 1992
Tarquini, Alessandra
Hardcover
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: A Modern Abridgment by Moses Hadas
Gibbon, Edward
Paperback
Murder in Matera: A True Story of Passion, Family, and Forgiveness in Southern Italy
Stapinski, Helene
Paperback
St. Peter's Bones: How the Relics of the First Pope Were Lost and Found... and Then Lost and Found Again
Craughwell, Thomas J.
Paperback
1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance
Menzies, Gavin
Paperback
Naples 1925: Adorno, Benjamin, and the Summer That Made Critical Theory
Mittelmeier, Martin
Hardcover
The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance
King, Ross
Hardcover
The Italian Tradition of Equestrian Art: A Survey of the Treatises on Horsemanship from the Renaissance and the Centuries Following
Tomassini, Giovanni Battista
Paperback
This Earthly Globe: A Venetian Geographer and the Quest to Map the World
Di Robilant, Andrea
Hardcover
The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe
Kertzer, David I.
Paperback