Transcript Document

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In 800 Charlemagne returned to Rome to restore Pope Leo III
(795-816) who had been driven out by a popular riot. On
Christmas Day he was crowned emperor in St. Peter’s. The Holy
Roman Empire, with its claim to be the heir of the Empire of
Augustus, started its long history, but the paradox created by
the fact that the Franks had encouraged the popes to have
similar claims was to provide the central core of the battle
between temporal and religious power.
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THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY (800 - 1216 AD)
Charlemagne did not become the ruler of Italy. After his death
his empire broke up and his heirs never succeeded in
integrating Italy with the empire
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The Arabs were already in Sicily in 831, when they took
Palermo, Syracuse fell in 878. They brought cotton, sugar cane,
orange and lemon plants. Taxes were low
PALERMO
SIRACUSA
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Palermo became an important trading post and a center of a
rich, cosmopolitan civilization. Mosques were built while
the Arabic style of architecture was visible throughout the
city and still remains today to mark that period of sicilian
civilization
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Moslems and Christian lived in peace
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The Holy Roman Empire gradually lost significance in Italy.
The local agents of central government were disappearing,
as was the sense of loyalty to the king/emperor felt by his
emissaries (counts and bishops)
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The end of royal power in Italy is symbolized by the burning
of the royal palace in Pavia, in 1024
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The south had always maintained a certain degree of
independence: Naples was an independent city already in the
ninth century
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The maritime city of Amalfi, and its sisters Gaeta and Naples,
became major trading republics in the Western Mediterranean
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They traded with the Eastern Mediterranean, and had Jewish
minorities. Salerno (XI) was famous for its medical school.
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The decline of the maritime states of Southern Italy coincided
with the invasion of the Normans. Genoa and Pisa, maritime
republics in the Northern and Central part of Italy, had also
became too strong.
AMALFI
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First arrived as mercenaries in Souther Italy (XI), the
Normans had fought indiscriminately for the Lombards
against the Byzantines and for the Byzantines against the
Arabs.
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The Normans were Christians and would never ally
themselves with the Moslems. They settled in Sicily after
1030. Robert the Guiscard was their most successful knight,
who became the Duke of Puglia and Calabria and defeated
the army of Alexius Comnenus (Byzantine Emperor) at
Durazzo, in 1081.
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Guiscard took his title as a vassal to the pope, enabling the
Papacy to claim sovereignity over Southern Italy
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The Normans displayed a strange mixture of Realpolitik and
religious piety. When Popo Leo IX resisted their aggressions in
Southern Italy, they made war on him, and defeated him at
Civitate in 1053. They then accepted the papal blessing
devoutly, and released him. They were thus perfectly suited to
become the spear-head of the reform movement initiated by
Hildebrand (1020-85), who became Pope Gregory VII
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Gregory VII believed that the pope and the priesthood had to
assert their authority - the pope by appointing his bishops, and
the priests by observing rules of celibacy. The great medieval
confrontation known as the “Investiture Contest,” the dispute
over the investiture of the bishops, became a struggle for
power between church and state.
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In Germany a strong man, Emperor Henry IV, asserted his powers
over the church by investing the Archbishop of Milan. The Pope
excommunicated him. In turn, Henry deposed the pope.
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Later, and under pressure from the Saxon nobility, Henry, waited
in the clothes of a penitent for three days in the snow outside of
the castle of Canossa, near Reggio Emilia, where the Pope was
living under the protection of Matilda of Tuscany, his powerful
ally.
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Henry subsequently invaded Italy, and in 1084 entered Rome,
was crowned emperor by the antipope, Clement III. Gregory’s
supporters, the Normans, retaliated by sacking Rome. Only after
both Henry’s and Gregory’s deaths, Henry V conceded most of
the papal claims on the investiture question
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Frederick Barbarossa inaugurated something approaching the
“Italian spirit”. He invaded Italy in 1154, two years after his election
as emperor. In 1162 Frederick destroyed Milan, act which led to the
formation of the Lombard League of Italian states (supported by the
pope and the Republic of Venice). He entered Rome in 1166, while
Pope Alexander III took refuge in the Colosseum. In 1176 he was
defeated by the forces of the Lombard league in Legnano
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By the Peace of Constance, Frederick recognized the full authority of
the cities of the Lombard League under his nominal suzerainty. A
period of independence started for the Italian peninsula
VENEZIA
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VENICE AND ITS EMPIRE c. 600-1300
There is strong evidence of a first Venetian settlement in 568,
organized by refugees from the Lombard invasion. The settlers
accepted the soveregnty of the Eastern Emperor, but in the eighth
century took part in a revolt against Emperor Leo III (717-41). Leo
had ordered all religious icons to be destroyed. Pope Gregory II
rejected the order and so did the peoples from Byzantine Italy,
including the Venetians. The revolt prompted the Venetians to
elect a DUX, duke or DOGE: Orso Ipato . (first DOGE recorded is
Paoluccio Anafesto)
By the time Charlemagne was emperor, Venice was undeniably an
independent republic. She maintained cultural and economic
limks with Constantinople. Doge Agnello repulsed the Franks who
had attempted to place Venice under their dominion. He also
supervised the move from the original settlement location of
Malamocco to the Rialtine islands.
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About 828 a Venetian merchant ship arrived from Egypt with
what was said to be the remains of St. Mark. Agnello’s son,
Giustiniano, realized the importance of the saint’s remains. The
body was buried in the doge’s chapel, where the church of St.
Mark’s was built (1063-93). The winged lion, symbol of the
evangelist, will become the symbol of the Serenissima
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Pietro Orseolo II was one of Venice’ most successful diplomats.
He finalized a deal with the Emperor Basil II by which
Constantinople agreed to the import of Venetian goods with
much lower tariffs than those demanded of other traders. For
this favor Orseolo agreed to provide ships for the transportation
of Byzantine troops when the emperor required it
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When Otto III arrived in Italy in 996, Orseolo reached an
agreement by which Venice secured trading rights on the Italian
mainland. The control of the Mediterranean was secured
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Saint Mark’s Basilica. The third and surviving church of St. Mark
was begun in 1063 by Doge Domenico Contarini. It was
consacrated in 1094 under Doge Vitale Falier. With its cupolas and
mosaics, it is a superb example of Byzantine art. In the façade
there are evident Gothic elements, added by Lombard and
Florentine artists in XIII
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THE CRUSADES
In the first crusade, which moved primarily from France and
Germany, the Venetians controlled the sea route to the Holy Lands,
and Italian ships transported some of the armies
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Venice was reluctant to antagonize the Moslems - whether Arabs
or Turks. Only after the French had occupied Jerusalem in 1097 did
a large Venetian fleet set sail. In the event the Venetian clashed
not with the infidel but against their commercial rivals, the Pisans.
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1124 Conquest of Tyre from the Arabs. Venice has the
nucleus for her overseas empire
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Accident in Costantinople. The Galata settlement (Genoese)
was attacked and the Venetians were blamed , maybe
unjustly, and imprisoned, their goods confiscated. Venice
found this unacceptable and sought retaliation
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In 1201 Enrico Dandolo agreed to provide 55 galley-ships
and a large army for the IV crusade. The entire cost of the
fleet could not be paid to the Venetians, this debt
constituted a barganing chip to be used to reach Dandolo’s
own aim. The fleet reached Costantinople in 1203, and the
Venetians conquered it and sacked it. The sack brought
immense wealth and empire to the city of Venice
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The Venetian Constitution had become more sophisticated over
the years. The powers of the DOGE had been modified in 1172/3 by
the creation of the MAGGIOR CONSIGLIO, an assembly of 480
Venetians, who were responsible for electing ministers to serve
under the doge. The Doge was now elected not by the ARENGO, but
by eleven electors (nominated by the Great Council)
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In 1297 the Great Council was limited to a close circle of the
nobility and an oligarchy was thus created