The republic of Pisa was one of the first to make known to the world the riches and power which a small state might acquire by the aid of commerce and liberty. Pisa had astonished the shores of the Mediterranean by the number of vessels and galleys that sailed under her flag, by the succour she had given the crusaders, by the fear she had inspired at Constantinople, and by the conquest of Sardinia and the Balearic Isles. Pisa was the first to introduce into Tuscany the arts that ennoble wealth; her dome, her baptistery, her leaning tower, and her Campo Santo, which the traveller’s eye embraces at one glance, but does not weary of beholding, had been successively built from the year 1063 to the end of the twelfth century. These chefs-d’œuvre had animated the genius of the Pisans; the great architects of the thirteenth century were, for the most, pupils of Nicholas of Pisa. But the moment was come in which the ruin of this glorious republic was at hand; a deep-rooted jealousy, to be dated from the conquest of Sardinia, had frequently, during the last two centuries, armed against each other the republics of Genoa and Pisa; a new war between them broke out in 1282. It is difficult to comprehend how two simple cities could put to sea such prodigious fleets as those of Pisa and Genoa. In 1282, Ginicel Sismondi commanded thirty Pisan galleys, of which he lost the half in a tempest on the 9th of September; the following year Rosso Sismondi commanded sixty-four; in 1284, Guido Jacia commanded twenty-four, and was vanquished.[b]
These repeated losses obliged the Pisans to ask succour from the Venetians, in alliance with whom, in the Levant, they had often beaten the Genoese. Alberto Morosini, a Venetian, mayor of Pisa, endeavoured to effect a confederacy, but in vain; the Venetians chose to remain neutral. True policy, however, ought to have counselled them to support a power, by the ruin of which, their determined enemies, the Genoese, increased so much in strength; and they had reason enough afterwards to perceive their error. The last misfortune, instead of discouraging the Pisans, inflamed them still more with a desire for vengeance; they made one of their greatest efforts by arming seventy-two galleys, the command of which was given to Count Ugolino, already very powerful in Pisa; the flower of the nobility and Pisan citizens accompanied it, to which were added other smaller vessels. But instead of attacking the Genoese fleet, only thirty galleys strong, which were in Sardinia under the command of Giacaria, and which they might have easily overpowered, they lost precious time by insulting the city of Genoa, showing themselves before the port, throwing against it a few mortars, and challenging the Genoese to battle; and after these useless bravadoes returning home.
Pisa Defeated by Genoa near Meloria
The Baptistery, Florence
Nothing is more valuable in war than season and opportunity. The Genoese had recalled the army of Giacaria with all expedition from Sardinia and soon equipped a fleet of eighty-eight galleys with many other smaller vessels, the command of which was given to Obert Doria. Putting to sea, and hearing that the Pisan armament was near Meloria, they advanced to that port. Doria, fearing that the superior number of their vessels might oblige the Pisans to refuse battle, and retire into harbour, advanced with only fifty-eight galleys, ordering the division of Giacaria to remain behind with the remaining thirty. The Pisans accepted battle, which was fought on the 6th of August with all the fury and animosity of two nations seeking to destroy each other. The succour which arrived to the Genoese with Giacaria, and which the Pisans did not expect, probably decided the fate of that day. The galley upon which was the mayor of Pisa, Alberto Morosini, fought furiously with the admiral’s ship, commanded by Admiral Doria, who was joined, however, by other principal galleys commanded by Admiral Giacaria. Even the galley which bore the great Pisan standard was taken by the galley called St. Matthew (San Matteo), where were many of the family of Doria, and by the galley Finale the great standard was torn and broken down, and the defeat was complete. Twenty-seven Pisan galleys were taken, and seven sunk; the remainder, rendered unserviceable, with the advantage of night they saved themselves in the neighbouring Pisan port, and with three of these the count Ugolino escaped. The killed amounted to four thousand, and many prisoners, among whom was the son of Count Ugolino.
These losses with those in anterior battles, amounted to about eleven thousand, and all of the most considerable persons. This event destroyed the maritime power of Pisa, which could never again recover itself and assume the rank of her rivals. Many illustrious republics, as ancient and modern history demonstrate, have risen after the most heavy losses. Pisa, however, was no longer in this condition, and various causes combined to prevent her regaining it; the first of which was the loss of her bravest and wisest citizens taken prisoners, and whom the Genoese, actuated by a cruel and useless policy, refused to set at liberty; and being kept in prison for nearly fifteen years, or so long as the war lasted, the greater part of them finished their life in wretchedness.[d]
Perfidy and Fall of Ugolino
[1288-1293 A.D.]
While the republic was thus exhausted by this great reverse of fortune, it was attacked by the league of the Tuscan Guelfs; and a powerful citizen, to whom it had entrusted itself, betrayed his country to enslave it. Ugolino was count of the Gherardesca, a mountainous country situated along the coast, between Leghorn and Piombino; he was of Ghibelline origin, but had married his sister to Giovan di Gallura, chief of the Guelfs of Pisa and of Sardinia. From that time he artfully opposed the Guelfs to the Ghibellines; and though several accused him of having decided the issue of the battle of Meloria, others regarded him as the person most able, most powerful by his alliance, and most proper, to reconcile Pisa with the Guelf league. The Pisans, amidst the dangers of the republic, felt the necessity of a dictator. They named Ugolino captain-general for ten years; and the new commander did, indeed, obtain peace with the Guelf league; but not till he had caused all the fortresses of the Pisan territory to be opened by his creatures to the Lucchese and Florentines—a condition of his treaty with them which he dared not publicly avow. From that time he sought only to strengthen his own despotism, by depriving all the magistrates of power, and by intimidating the archbishop Roger degli Ubaldini, who held jointly with him the highest rank in the city. The nephew of Ubaldini, having opposed him with some haughtiness, was killed by him on the spot with his own hand. His violence, and the number of executions which he ordered, soon rendered him equally odious to the two parties; but he had the art, in his frequent changes from one to the other, to make the opposite party believe him powerfully supported by that with which he at the moment sided. In the summer of 1282 the Guelfs were exiled; but finding in the Ghibelline chiefs, the Gualandi Sismondi and Lanfranchi, a haughtiness which he thought he had subdued, he charged his son to introduce anew the Guelfs into the city. His project was discovered and prevented; the Ghibellines called the people on all sides to arms and liberty. On the 1st of July, 1288, Ugolino was besieged in the palace of the signoria; the insurgents, unable to vanquish the obstinate resistance opposed to them by himself, his sons, and his adherents, set fire to the palace; and, having entered it amidst the flames, dragged forth Ugolino, two of his sons, and two of his grandsons, and threw them into the tower of the Sette Vie. The key was given to the archbishop, from whom was expected the vigilance of an enemy, but the charity of a priest. That charity, however, was soon exhausted; the key after a few months was thrown into the river; and the wretched count perished in those agonies of hunger, and of paternal and filial love, upon which poetry, sculpture, and painting have conferred celebrity.