Until the dictator’s arrival Florence gave the chief command of her army to Pierre de Narsi, a French knight of exalted rank who was made prisoner at Altopascio; he had just been ransomed, and smarting under the indignity of Castruccio’s triumph sought revenge and distinction ere he was compelled to relinquish his brief and hazardous dignity. Not being able to save Montemurlo which, after a courageous resistance, honourably capitulated on the 8th of January, he exerted himself less worthily by trying to raise insurrections at Signa and Carmignano, and even attempting the life of Castruccio. But his effort came to nothing.
CHARLES AND HIS ARMY
A Florentine Citizen of the Fourteenth Century
The duke of Calabria was detained for some months, but on the 30th of July he entered Florence followed by eleven hundred men-at-arms, one hundred of whom were knights of the Golden Spur. He was lodged in the podesta’s palace from whence the seat of justice was purposely, perhaps derisively removed, and formally acknowledged as lord of the Florentine Republic. It was the mark of misfortune, the stigma of disgrace; yet it excited the admiration of Italy; for Italy beheld the Florentine people, masters only of a small and not a very fruitful territory, after their repeated misfortunes, after so many defeats, such reverses and so much treasure lost—nay, at the very moment when they seemed to totter on the very brink of ruin, suddenly rise in their strength and like a giant refreshed with wine, by the power of their own resources as it were, command the service of so great a prince, and an army such as had never before been seen in Florence!
There were no less than two thousand men-at-arms assembled, most of them belonging to the highest ranks of society, independent of the cardinal legate’s court and followers which were far from trifling; and without reckoning the Florentine chivalry or a single knight of the Guelfic confederacy. So vast a development of national resources was the more remarkable because at this very time the ancient bank of the Scali and Amieri, which had already endured for 120 years with undiminished reputation, failed for the enormous sum of 400,000 florins, which being for the most part due in the city of Florence shook the republic to its centre and, excepting bloodshed, was considered equally ruinous with the battle of Altopascio itself.
The several contingents of the Guelfic league were afterwards summoned, and increased this fine army to 3450 men-at-arms besides the Florentine cavallate, never less than five hundred men, and a selection of some of the best and bravest infantry in Tuscany. Sixty thousand florins were immediately raised by a partial and extraordinary tax on the richest citizens, and every diligence was used by the Florentines to insure success; yet this great army remained entirely passive, and they had the mortification to see their time and treasure idly wasted by him to whom they had surrendered their liberties in the expectation of a very different result. Seeing that nothing was to be expected from him, the Florentines contented themselves with fortifying Signa and the opposite town of Gangalandi in order to protect the agricultural labourers, and then quietly awaited the movements of both their masters. Castruccio had already driven Spinetto Malaspina from his dominions in Lunigiana and compelled him to take refuge with the protector of all unfortunate exiles, Cane della Scala; but the duke of Calabria tempted him once more to try his fortune by the invasion of that province while he with the Florentine army marched on Pistoia. Both these plans were executed and with more hope of success because the towns of Mammiano and Gavignana in the mountain of Pistoia had just revolted. Castruccio was not much alarmed, and though very ill, reduced both places in the middle of a severe winter, baffled the Florentine army which attempted in vain to relieve them, and finally compelled it to return in disgrace to the capital; then turning suddenly on Spinetto, once more drove him into exile.
Thus failed the first dilatory attempt of this brilliant army, and Florence became more desponding than ever; those that formerly used to tremble at the formidable name of Uguccione now acknowledged that he was only a sudden and startling noise, but that Castruccio was the thunderbolt itself which had stricken and consumed their country. The citizens were now utterly distracted and knew not where to turn, such was the confusion and so great the waste of men, money, and credit occasioned by his uncommon abilities and continual success; for in the midst of all Castruccio’s good fortune he had never, it was said, committed a rash or hazardous act; every event was calculated, few mistakes made, and victory attended him as his shadow.
To prevent the people of Lunigiana from revolting he destroyed all their fenced towns and augmented his army with the garrisons; the works of Montale near Pistoia were dismantled, and Montefalcone shared the same fate; for he used to say that those strongholds were the best which could make long marches and keep themselves near or distant according as they were wanted. The awe which his character impressed on the Guelfic lords of Italy caused Robert to be blamed for opposing the inexperience of his son to the power of so accomplished a general and exposing the descendant of a line of illustrious princes to the disgrace of being killed, defeated, or made prisoner by a simple gentleman of Lucca. Such was the “form and pressure of the time”! In consequence of this, as was supposed, Charles had instructions to tell the Florentines that unless they would consent to take eight hundred of his foreign cavalry into the pay of the confederacy he must return to Naples. This unexpected demand and infringement of every compact, after all their exertions, astonished the citizens; but there was no help and 30,000 florins were added to the 450,000 they had already thrown away upon the duke of Calabria, because few of the allies would submit to the extortion. Yet this was not all, and, as if to deride their weakness, he at the capricious request of the duchess repealed some of their sumptuary laws, the solemn decrees of the state, to which the citizens held with extreme tenacity; and they had the mortification to see their wives and daughters in the midst of the country’s misery, when they should rather have been clothed in mourning for her slaughtered citizens, puffed up with such excess of vanity as to adorn their heads, says Villani,[d] with “long tresses of white and yellow silk instead of hair, which they wore in front; this decoration, because it displeased the Florentines as immodest and unnatural, they had already taken from the females and had made laws against it and other disorderly ornaments; but thus the inordinate appetite of women overcame the good sense of men.”