Presently the main body of cavalry, scarcely tarrying to exchange a single lance-thrust, hurried off in universal confusion, leaving everything to the infantry who still maintained their ground with undaunted courage; but neither their arms nor discipline was calculated to stand alone against such masses of man and steel as came successively upon them, and after an obstinate resistance they also were discomfited. The battle lasted but a short time, few were killed in the fight but many in the pursuit, for Castruccio instantly sent on a detachment to Cappiano, took possession of the bridge which had already been abandoned, and cut off all direct means of escape. The slaughter was therefore considerable but uncertain; the prisoners, amongst whom were Raymond of Cardona and his son, were numerous; the carroccio, the martinella, with all the public standards, banners, and baggage of the army, were taken; Cappiano and Montefalcone soon capitulated, and Altopascio not many days after. Thus did the tide of fortune turn and bear forward Castruccio to prouder hopes and higher dignities. On the 27th of September his whole army assembled at Pistoia and was reinforced by that garrison, while Castruccio in all the confidence of victory dismantled the bridge and forts of Cappiano and Montefalcone, and secure in the possession of Pistoia left the rest of his frontier open to the Florentines, whose territory he ravaged for nearly seven weeks without interruption. Policy and necessity dictated this course, for his funds were exhausted, Azzo Visconti was still unsatisfied, and the army in arrears of pay; so that nothing but the plunder of Florentine citizens could supply his present necessities. Carmignano was his first conquest; he then marched to Lecore, to Signa, Campi, Brozzi, and Guaracchi; all were captured or fell a prey to flames and plunder; Peretola, within two miles of Florence, became for a while his headquarters, while from the Arno to the mountains he ravaged all the plain, a plain covered, then as now, but more richly, with magnificent villas and beautiful gardens, the delight of the citizens and the admiration of the world. All was destroyed. The wealth was plundered, the monuments of then reviving art were carried away and reserved for the conqueror’s triumph. Games were celebrated and races run on the very spot time out of mind reserved by the Florentines for their public spectacles. A course of horsemen began the sports; that of footmen followed; and afterwards, to make the insult still more disgusting, a bevy of common prostitutes ran together in mockery, deriding the impotence of the Florentines, not one of whom had the courage to come forth and check these insulting spectacles. Yet the city was full of troops, and thousands had escaped from the fight, but the star of Castruccio shed its influence over them; their spirit was subdued, their courage wasted, and distrust of those great families whose kinsmen were prisoners to Castruccio, lest they should treat with him secretly, completely distracted their judgment. After another course of devastation the invaders reassembled on the 26th of October and repeated their insults to please Azzo Visconti, who thus revenged a similar proceeding of the Florentine auxiliaries, not long before, under the walls of Milan.
Castruccio next occupied Signa, as it gave him command of the Arno at this point with a free entrance into the Val di Pesa and all the southern country; he therefore reinforced and strengthened it, coined silver money there with the imperial image as an act of high sovereignty, and passed them current under the name of Castruccini.
CASTRUCCIO ADDS INSULT TO INJURY
Florence was during this time in a painful state of suspicion and dismay; all the prisoners’ kinsmen were regarded with distrust and deprived of office both within and without the city; half the Contado was a desert, its starving inhabitants huddled together in the capital where a wide-spreading mortality was the natural consequence. Deaths were so frequent that the public crier, whose business it was to proclaim the decease of a citizen according to ancient custom, was prohibited from exercising his calling during the continuance of the malady. Every precaution was adopted to secure the city; the walls were strengthened, San Miniato a Monte was fortified, and even the citadel of Fiesole repaired from mere apprehension of Castruccio, who threatened to restore it and beleaguer Florence; and this he probably would have done had not the bishop of Arezzo and the Ubaldini from incipient jealousy refused to lend their assistance. Fearful of internal war, all exiles but the regular Escettati of 1311 were restored to their country on payment of a trifling impost; assistance was demanded from King Robert and the allies, but with little success, for through terror of Castruccio only Colle and San Miniato Tedesco answered the call. King Robert afterwards sent some trifling aid; but still Florence did not despair, and a bold attempt was made to cut off Castruccio’s whole army in a pass of the Val di Marina near Calenzano. New taxes were imposed to the annual amount of 180,000 florins beyond the ordinary revenue; levies were made in Mantua and in Germany; Monte Buoni and other important posts were fortified to protect the district; yet in the middle of all this danger two hundred cavalry were magnanimously despatched to Bologna, which was sorely pressed, and its army soon after defeated at Monteveglio by Passerino lord of Mantua, with the assistance of Azzo Visconti and his followers, fresh from their Tuscan victories.
But this Milanese chief, ere he finally quitted Tuscany, offered a parting insult to Florence by holding public games in the very bed of the Arno. He then returned with 25,000 florins as his share of the general plunder, while Castruccio, loaded with prisoners and booty, resolved to enter his capital in triumph like a Roman conqueror.
The fame of this event attracted a crowd of spectators from all parts of Italy, eager to witness the revival of an ancient ceremony but more eager to behold a hero whose reputation had already become familiar to the world. On the 10th of November, being the festival of St. Martin, Castruccio made this triumphal entry into Lucca; not in a car, but on a magnificent courser, and at some distance from the gates a solemn procession of the clergy, nobility, and almost all the women of exalted rank in the city received him like a royal personage. At the head of his procession were the prisoners of least note with uncovered heads, and arms crossed upon the breast, stooping as it were in humble supplication for the mercy of their emperor; next came the Florentine carroccio rolling heavily along, drawn by the same oxen and decked with the same trappings they had borne in the field, and overhung by the reversed and now degraded standard of that republic. Then followed other Florentine banners, those of the Guelf party and the kings of Naples, with flags and pennons of inferior note, and various communities, all trailing in the dirt and as it were sweeping the path of the conqueror. Immediately after this mortifying spectacle walked the same chiefs who had so often borne these flags to victory. Here Raymond of Cardona also had full leisure to contemplate the effects of his own dishonesty; and the gallant Urlimbach, a German knight who had unhorsed Castruccio, could also muse on the instability of fortune, as despoiled of arms and spurs he swelled the train of the victor. A multitude of noble captives followed in this insulting procession, which was closed by Castruccio and his legions in all the pride and insolence of victory. But nothing mortified the prisoners so much as being compelled to bear large waxen torches as offerings to St. Martin, the tutelar saint of Lucca and dear to her troops because of the Bacchanalian license usual at his festival on pretence of tasting the various flavours of the new-made wines, and because the saint himself had once been a soldier.
FLORENCE IN DESPAIR CALLS ON THE DUKE OF CALABRIA
Thus bearded at their very gates, insulted, ridiculed, the country a desert, Signa occupied by the enemy, Prato at his mercy, Montemurlo still unsuccoured and ready to fall, the Bolognese army, their only bulwark against Lombardy, defeated, their best chieftains prisoners, their army diminished, their expenses increased, their allies daunted, death raging within the city and destruction without, all things adverse to them, and fortune courting their enemies—under such a pressure the people at last gave way, and despair once more compelled them to a temporary surrender of their independence. Charles duke of Calabria was therefore, and perhaps not unexpectedly, offered the lordship of Florence for ten years on certain conditions.
It was decreed that the prince should remain for thirty months consecutively within the Florentine state, or at war in the enemy’s dominions, and the three succeeding summer months in addition should hostilities continue. That in time of war he was to maintain one thousand transalpine cavalry and have an annual allowance from the republic of 200,000 golden florins; half that sum in peace, with the obligation of maintaining only 450 men-at-arms. If in time of peace the duke wished to be absent, he was bound to appoint a lieutenant of the blood royal or of some other great and powerful family; also to nominate a vicar for the administration of justice, who was not to alter any part of the government, but on the contrary defend and maintain the priors and gonfalonier, the executor of the ordinances of justice, and the sixteen chiefs of companies. This decree, which passed on the 23rd of December, 1325, was despatched with a solemn embassy to Naples and finished the transactions of that unfortunate year, which began so brightly for the Florentines.
[1325-1326 A.D.]