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An Italian city-state geared for war: urban knights and the cavallata of Todi

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 39; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03044181.2013.773264

1873-1279

Peter Hoppenbrouwers,

Historical and Religious Studies of Rome

Abstract The prominent presence of noble families in towns is generally accepted as a distinguishing feature of medieval Italy's communal city-states. Paradoxically, the nobility, as the exclusive supplier of trained and fully equipped cavalrymen, would retain a pivotal position in the communal armies when, in the Duecento, their political power was questioned. In this article a detailed study has been made of the nobility's role in the organisation of the [ac]cavallata (the public obligation to maintain warhorses) as well as in the militia (cavalry service) of the Umbrian town of Todi in the decades around 1300, when Todi as a city-state reached the zenith of its power. It is argued that in Todi cavallata and militia did not coincide in all respects, and also that both institutions were to some extent open to members of the sizeable class of the sergentes. The sergentes were responsible for the ‘rural’ part of the cavallata, and they provided the cavalry of the communal army with light horsemen. Keywords: city-statesItalyUmbriawarfareknightsknighthoodcavalrysergeants Notes 1 This article is a substantially revised version of a paper published in Dutch in 2011 as ‘Stadsridders: de cavallata van Todi en het mysterie van de sergentes’. The following abbreviations are used in this paper: ASCT: Archivio Storico Comunale di Todi; ASSF: Archivio Segreto di San Fortunato; TnM: Todi nel medioevo (secoli VI–XIV). Atti del XLVI Convegno storico internazionale (Todi, 10–15 ottobre 2009). 2 vols. (Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 2010). E. Coleman, ‘Cities and Communes’, in Italy in the Central Middle Ages, 1000–1300, ed. D. Albulafia. The Short Oxford History of Italy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 27–57 (43). 2 I use the terms pseudo-/bastard feudalism as shorthand for the broader phenomenon of powerful noblemen building up ‘affinities'or communities of [armed] followers to increase their own power on the regional level. For a short discussion, D. Crouch, The Birth of Nobility. Constructing Aristocracy in England and France, 900–1300 (Harlow: Pearson/Longman, 2005), 180–7. There is no reason to see this phenomenon as exclusively, or predominantly, English. Cf. Crouch, Birth of Nobility, 297–302, for a comparison with France. 3 In practice, these options were often used in combination, and they were not uncommon in more conventional, monarchical states. 4 This was also the case in Provence and the Languedoc: M. Aurell, ‘La chevalerie urbaine en Occitanie (fin Xe–début XIIIe siècle)’, in Les élites urbaines au moyen âge. XXVIIe Congrès de la S.H.M.E.S. (Rome, mai 1996) (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1997), 71–118. 5 P. Jones, The Italian City-State. From Commune to Signoria (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), Ch. 2, and 66; P. Cammarosano, Nobili e re. L'Italia politica dell'alto medioevo (Rome: Laterza, 1998), 302–6; J. Larner, Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch, 1216–1380 (London: Longman, 1980), Ch. 5; C. Wickham, Early Medieval Italy. Central Power and Local Society 400–1000 (London: Macmillan, 1981), 144–5. 6 Jones, Italian City-State, 103–5; J.-C. Maire Vigueur, Cavaliers et citoyens: guerre, conflits, et société dans l'Italie communale, XIIe–XIIIe siècles (Paris: École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2003), 268, speaks of a ‘double vocation, guerrière et marchande’. 7 Quote from Jones, Italian City-State, 112. 8 S. Gasparri, I milites cittadini. Studi sulla cavalleria in Italia (Rome: Istituto storico italiano per il medio evo, 1992), 114–21. 9 G. Tabacco, ‘Nobili e cavalieri a Bologna e a Firenze fra XII e XIII secolo’, Studi Medievali 3rd series, 17 (1976): 46–8. 10 Only cavalieri addobati had undergone ritual initiation into knighthood by way of the ceremonial girding of the sword (cingulum militiae/militare) or, in a later period, of the accolade. From the Libro de Montaperti, in which the accounts were kept of the Florentine army that in 1260 suffered horrible defeat at Montaperti, it appears that only a few Florentine milites used the title of lord (dominus). It was only these knights that we can be certain would have been addobati. Tabacco, ‘Nobili e cavalieri’, 58. On the Libro and its contents, Maire Vigueur, Cavaliers et citoyens, 96–7. 11 R. Bordone, Uno stato d'animo. Memoria del tempo e comportamenti urbani nel mondo comunale italiano (Florence: Firenze University Press, 2002), 89–102. Many of these virtues would be classified by Crouch, Birth of Nobility, as ‘pre-chivalric norms of the noble habitus’ or ‘[pre-chivalric] ideal of noble conduct’ (88). Only in the third quarter of the twelfth century would they develop into ‘a self-conscious code of aristocratic/noble conduct, or chivalry’ (80, 86), ‘a moral guide to a nobleman, which he could be taught’ (88) The international discussion about the origins of chivalry, and its connection to courtliness is a bit casuistic; for France and England it is conveniently summarised by Crouch, Birth of Nobility, Chs. 2 and 3. 12 On Pisa, Maire Vigueur, Cavaliers et citoyens, 121–3. On Modena, Bordone, Stato d'animo, 106. The last and more comprehensive treatment, with references to the earlier literature, is Pierre Racine, ‘Noblesse et chevalerie dans les sociétés communales italiennes’, in Les élites urbaines, 137–51 (138–40). 13 E.g. Gasparri, ‘Les milites dans les villes de la Marche de Trévise (XIe–XIIIe siècles)’, in Les élites urbaines, 55–69 (63). 14 C. Lansing, The Florentine Magnates: Lineage and Faction in a Medieval Commune (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), 153. 15 D. Waley, ‘The Army of the Florentine Republic from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Century’, in Florentine Studies: Politics and Society in Renaissance Florence, ed. N. Rubinstein (London: Faber, 1968), 75; Gasparri, Milites cittadini, 129. 16 Tabacco, ‘Nobili e cavalieri’, 52. 17 Gasparri, Milites cittadini, 130–3. 18 Excellently summarised by Jean-Claude Maire Vigueur, ‘Comuni e signorie in Umbria, Marche e Lazio’ in Storia d'Italia, ed. G. Galasso: Vol. 7.2, Comuni e signorie nell'Italia nordorientale e centrale: Lazio, Umbria e Marche, ed. G. Arnaldi (Turin: UTET, 1987), 321–606. Many aspects of the rich medieval history of Todi have been recently treated in TnM. Thorough overviews of Todi's general history in the Duecento and Trecento are Laura Andreani, ‘Todi al tempo di Iacopone’, in Iacopone da Todi. Atti del XXXVII Convegno storico internazionale (Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 2001), 21–45; and eadem, ‘Todi nel basso medioevo (secoli XIII–XIV): aspetti di vita politico-institutionale’, in TnM, 1: 51–87. 19 Further ‘Roman’ influence came from the podestà and cardinals from powerful Roman aristocratic families such as the Orsini and Savelli. See Alberto Bartola, ‘Aristocrazia romana a Todi nel Duecento. Il reclutamento dei podestà’, in TnM, 1: 377–439. 20 To be defined as a communal government, composed of representatives of the popolo (the political party of the established middle classes) and the artes or merchant and artisan guilds. 21 For a detailed survey of the rise of the arti in Todi, see Emore Paoli, ‘Il purgatorio degli artigiani. Le corporazioni medievali di Todi tra economia, politica, religiosità e devozione’, in Itinerarium. Università, corporazioni e mutualismo ottocentesco: fonti e percorsi storici, ed. Enrico Menestò and Giancarlo Pellegrini (Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 1994), 159–202. 22 Cf. Maire Vigueur, ‘Comuni e signorie’, 469 and 488–92, which is mainly based on Getulio Ceci's book on medieval Todi: G. Ceci, Todi nel medio evo (Todi: A. Rombetti, 1897). On the strength of the popolo at this point in time, and on its entwinement with the Guelph party there has been some discussion between Paoli, ‘Il purgatorio’, 172–4, and G. Milani, ‘Podestà, popolo e parti a Todi tra Due e Trecento: per una revisione del “paradigma tudertino”’, in TnM, 1: 351–76 (356–9). 23 Unlike ville or ordinary villages, castra/castelli were settlements – in this area often hilltop settlements – that were arranged around, and named after, a noble family's castle. 24 G. Bassa, G. Chiuini and A. di Lorenzo, ‘Todi: l'organizzazione del contado tra espansione comunale e “periferie” feudali’, in Città, contado e feudi nell'urbanistica medievale: Padova, La Valdelsa, Il Casentino, Gubbio, Todi, Ascoli Piceno, L'Aquila, Ferentino, ed. E. Guidoni (Rome: Multigrafica, 1974), 152–62. The population size of the contado has been calculated by multiplying the registered number of households (fuochi, focolari) in 1290–2 by five. I argue below that this method may have led to serious underestimates. For the town of Todi and its banlieu no libri dei fuochi have been preserved for this period; the population size is an estimate based on various later data. The area of the city-state has been calculated on the basis of the map in Bassa, Chiuni and di Lorenzo, ‘Todi’, 155 (Figure 59). It is no coincidence that the territory of the city-state of Todi more or less coincided with that of the diocese of Todi. See also Andreani, ‘Todi nel basso medioevo’, 56; and Giovanna Benni, ‘L'organizzazione del territorio di Todi dalla tarda antichità all'alto medioevo: le relazioni città-campagna tra continuità e trasformazione’, in TnM, 1: 161–91, and Table 4, Figure 7 for a map. This situation closely resembled that of Perugia. Maire Vigueur, ‘Comuni e signorie’, 440. 25 Ceci, Todi. Summary overviews of the contents of the medieval sources that are preserved in the archives in Todi are published by G. Mazzatinti, Gli archivi della storia d'Italia, vol. 3 (Rocca San Casciano: L. Capelli, 1904), 98–160, and in Gli archivi dell'Umbria. Pubblicazioni degli Archivi di Stato / Ministero dell'interno 30 (Rome, 1957), 149–68. 26 Ceci, Todi, 224–8. On the loose association of the pedites (infantry) with the popolo, and via the popolo to the arti (merchant and artisan guilds), see Paoli, ‘Il purgatorio’, 168–70. Paoli also states quite pertinently that it appears from the riformanze or city government deliberations from the end of the thirteenth century, that the arti were generally excluded from involvement in ‘the management of the accavalata, which as a rule was reserved to noblemen’ (169). 27 ASCT, ASSF, Armadio IIIbis, palchetto III, 14 (before 1336, incomplete), 15 (for 1340) and 16 (for 1347). The old communal archive, that is to say, the administrative and judicial archives of the medieval city-state of Todi, have been incorporated into the archives of the modern commune of Todi as the fondo Archivio Segreto di San Fortunato because the archives of the medieval commune were kept in the Franciscan convent of San Fortunato. 28 In 1280, the magistrate of Todi had to contract a debt of 13,807 Cortonese lire in order to be able to pay full compensation for warhorses that had been killed or lost; at that time this was more than half of the commune's total budget. Ceci, Todi, 338. There is one register with the assessments of the values of horses extant from the end of the thirteenth century, but I have not yet had the opportunity to have a closer look at it: ASCT, ASSF, Armadio I, casettone I, 34. More generally on the notion of salvum [equi] and similar indemnities for knights in Italian city-states, Maire Vigueur, Cavaliers et citoyens, Ch. 4. 29 Ceci, Todi, 225: ‘Le decretali e gli statuti nominano di continuo i “sergenti”; che fossero soldati a piedi non va dubbio.’ (‘Sergeants are mentioned all the time in the [city-state's] decrees and statutes; there is no doubt that they were foot soldiers.’) 30 Ceci, Todi, 225–6. 31 For data for cavalry deployed by Italian city-states, Maire Vigueur, Cavaliers et citoyens, 86–9. 32 Maire Vigueur, Cavaliers et citoyens, 98; Ceci, Todi, 183. 33 G. Italiani and others, eds., Le cronache di Todi (secoli XIII–XVI) (Florence: La nuova Italia, 1979), 156. Savelli was later beheaded by order of the pope, because he refused to end the war and because he repeatedly broke ceasefire treaties and formal surrenders. Milani, ‘Podestà, popolo e parti’, 370. 34 ‘Cives Tudertini infrascriptorum regionum civitatis Tuderti ac nobiles et sergentes ac privilegiate persone dicte civitatis et comitatus eiusdem’: ASCT, ASSF, Armadio III, palchetto III, 16, f. 2r. 35 These castri were Castrum Plani Ameti, Castrum Ripe Blanc[h]e and Castrum Boneie. ASCT, ASSF, Armadio IIIbis, palchetto III, 18, ff. 72v–74r. The libro dei fuochi mention only that some of the inhabitants of these villages enjoyed these privileges ‘in perpetuity’, others just temporarily. 36 Ceci, Todi, 326. 37 ASCT, ASSF, Armadio IIIbis, palchetto III, 17 and 18 (18 is a copy of 17). 38 For the political and financial background to its introduction, Andreani, ‘Todi nel basso medioevo’, 79. Cf. for Perugia, A.Grohmann, L'imposizione diretta nei comuni dell'Italia Centrale nel XIII secolo. La Libra di Perugia del 1285 (Rome: École française de Rome, 1986), 1–52. 39 ASCT, ASSF, Sala III, scansia A, 1–19. Furthermore, there are various local (draft?) registers from the years 1318–23: numbers 20–1 and 27–32. Register 24, which only contains data on the rural district (plebato) of Santa Maria in Monte, is even older. It was probably completed in 1316, but it has marginal glosses that go back to 1308. 40 ASCT, ASSF, Sala III, scansia A, 30 and 31. 41 Author's emphasis. ASCT, ASSF, Sala III, scansia A, 30, f. 2r. 42 The cadastral data for the ordinary peasants (massari) of Santa Maria di Rosceto are included in the registers ASCT, ASSF, Sala III, scansia A, 27 (for 1320) and 19 (for 1323). 43 ASCT, ASSF, Sala III, cassettone 3. Possibly, Sala III, cassettone 10, is a rough draft of this register. Some of its entries are dated to the years between c.1402 and 1416. 44 Ceci, Todi, 228. The Consiglio Generale or Maggiore was the general advisory board of the city-state's government. Its main functions were to elect the main city-state officials, including the podestà, and to approve the government's major decisions. During the second half of the thirteenth century, the Consiglio had 300 members, that is to say, 50 per rione or urban district. In 1294, the total number was raised to 500, which almost inevitably led to the creation of a smaller, executive committee from its midst: the Consiglio speciale or dei sapienti (‘of wise men’), which numbered 60 members. Ceci, Todi, 222–3. 45 For the latter, ASCT, ASSF, Armadio III, palchetto III, 16, f. 15r: ‘Heredes domini Gilij domini Johannis sive Tudinelli, pro quinque pertibus de sex pertibus unius equi’ (‘The heirs of lord Giles son of lord John [or] of the Tudinelli family, for five-sixths of a horse’). 46 J.F. Niermeyer and C. van de Kieft, eds., Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus (Leiden: Brill 2002), sub verbo ‘serjantus’. 47 For example, J. France, Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000–1300 (London: UCL Press, 1999), 58 and 65; M. Prestwich, Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages: the English Experience (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 16–17; P. Contamine, War in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Blackwell, 1984), 69; idem, Guerre, état et société à la fin du moyen âge. Études sur les armées des rois de France, 1337–1494. 2 vols. (Paris: Mouton, 1972), 1: 15, 21–2. 48 W. Caferro, John Hawkwood. An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), 73; M. Borgogni, La guerra tra Siena e Perugia (1357–1359). Appunti su un conflitto dimenticato (Siena: Cantagalli, 2003), 17–18 and note 11. The earliest mention of the lancia in connection with Todi dates from 1377. 49 H. Nicholson, Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights: Images of the Military Orders 1128–1291 (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1993), 4. 50 For Umbria in general, the use of light cavalry in support of the traditional cavalry of heavily armed knights was one of the novelties taken over from Tuscany around the end of the thirteenth century. Maire Vigueur, ‘Comuni e signorie’, 515. Others were the more frequent deployment of well-trained detachments of [cross]bowmen and the increased hiring of specialised mercenaries. 51 A. Settia, Comuni in guerra: armi ed eserciti nell'Italia delle città (Bologna: CLUEB, 1993), 188–93. 52 On the statute, Maria Grazia Nico Ottaviani, ‘Todi e i suoi statuti (secoli XIII–XIV)’, in TnM, 2: 717–41; and Laura Andreani, ‘Per una morfologia della statutaria medievale umbra: lo statuto di Todi del 1275’, in Gli statuti comunali umbri. Atti del Convegno di studi svoltosi in occasione del VII centenario della promulgazione dello Statuto comunale di Spoleto, 1296–1996, ed. E. Menestò (Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 1997), 43–66. 53 G. Ceci and G. Pensi, eds., Statuto di Todi del 1275 (Todi: A. Trombetti, 1897), 102–3. 54 Maire Vigueur, Cavaliers et citoyens, 205.