The
adventure of the French in southern Italy began in 1501. King Ferdinand II of
Spain betrayed his cousin Frederick I, the last Aragonese of Naples,
subtracting the kingdom with the secret agreement with King Louis XII of
France.
It determined a proximity between the Spanish and the French. The southern part
of the kingdom of Naples remained under the control of the Spanish in
contiguity with the kingdom of Sicily already of the Iberians. Naples, Campania
and Abruzzo were under the control of the French. Louis d’Armagnac was
appointed Viceroy of Naples by Louis XII.
The following year began the contrasts and clashes between the two entities
that soon erupted into open conflict. The most significant episode of this war,
made to win control of the kingdom, was the famous Challenge of Barletta.
The Barletta town was under French siege, defended by Spanish and Italian. A
French nobleman, Charles de Chocques de la Mothe, was a prisoner of the Spanish
but treated with the respect due to his rank. He insulted Italians present
during a lunch, accusing them of treason.
The offended party challenged him in a clash between 13 Italian knights and 13
French knights to avenge the affront. On February 13 of 1503 the challenge took
place in Sant’Elia, near Trani, at a neutral ground because the town belonged
to the Republic of Venice.
The 13 Italians were led by Ettore Fieramosca of Capua, while the French were
led by Charles de la Mothe. Italians faced them bravely, even though they were
less battle-ready than their opponents. Courage and determination of Italians
were decisive. They roundly defeated the French.
On April 21, 1503 there was the decisive battle in Seminara, near Reggio
Calabria, between the Spanish and the French. The army of the latter was
completely defeated. On April 28th Louis d’Armagnac was killed in the Battle of
Cerignola. On May 16, the Great Captain of the Spanish, Consalvo of Cordova,
entered Naples with his army.
Louis XII, after the death of Luigi d’Armagnac, appointed viceroy Ludwig II del
Vasto, who never took his post since 1504, with the Treaty of Lyon, France
finally abdicated Naples in favor of Spain.
Ferdinand II the Catholic, king of Spain and Sicily, also became king of Naples
with the name of Ferdinand III. He appointed his deputy in Naples Consalvo of
Cordova, who was the first Spanish viceroy in Naples.
Consalvo was already in Naples with his army since
13 May 1503. The impact of the population had not been happy since the Spanish
troops behaved like an occupying army. Every morning was found in the street a
few soldiers slaughtered at the hands of husbands and brothers of importunate
women, or by people who had suffered robberies and injustices by soldiery.
The Spanish government canceled the feudal power of the nobles, still live on
the outskirts of the state. Consequently, the nobility preferred to leave now
feuds beyond their control to centralize in Naples. They were intended to hold
public positions profitable with which to continue to exercise power in the
capital. In fact the centralized state needed public officials with education
and leadership skills, things that were prerogatives of the nobles and of the
few educated bourgeois.
Further opportunities were opening for young nobles in aristocratic families
where until then the Cadets members were destined for a military career or
clerical, to be entrusted with public office within the administration of the
kingdom.
The six “Sedili” citizens, five of the nobles and one of the people gathered in
one assembly, were transformed into the General Parliament of the Kingdom, the
first case in Europe of a citizen assembly turned into a national parliament.
The viceroy Raymond of Cordova tried to introduce the Inquisition. There was a
general opposition. For once commoners, bourgeois and nobles were united in
rejecting the notorious Inquisition. There were riots and uprisings across the
kingdom, all aware of the consequences that it would have. The full powers of
that court allowed the judges, as well as sentencing corporal punishment, the
requisition in favor of church of property and assets of everyone found guilty
of something. Raymond of Cordova had to defer, giving up the Inquisition Court.
In 1526 Ugo Moncada was appointed Viceroy, brave men and valiant military. He
was involved in so-called “wars of Italy”, in which the houses
crowned of the great European powers, Spain, France and the Holy Roman Empire,
were vying for dominance.
On 6 May 1527 the mutinous troops (Lansquenets) of the Holy Roman Empire, in
Italy to oppose French and Spanish, invaded Rome putting the city on fire. The
date of May 6 has marked the history and the memory of the Romans for the
ferocity with which the German troops, formed from the most humble social
classes, sacked the holy city, with killings, rapes, looting and destruction of
works of art, not saving anyone and anywhere. Churches and convents, and all
private and public institutions of the city were involved.
The French army, commanded by Viscount de Lautrec,
who had been circumvented by the Lansquenets in their advance towards Rome, to
close the gap against the Germans, headed for Naples with hostile intentions.
Reinforcements arrived soon in Naples from all parts of the kingdom to give a
hand to the city troops, commanded by Ugo Moncada.
The French army besieged the city. The French fleet prevented access from the
sea. The walls and ramparts were able to stop the Lautrec’s troops, who were
positioned on the hills surrounding Naples. In April of 1528 Ugo Moncada
organized a small fleet and confronted the French fleet in Naples bay. He could
not defeat the French fleet and lost his life in battle.
Philibert de Chalons d’Orange, new viceroy, began a kind of guerrilla war
against the besiegers. This tactic was successful and, little by little, the
city forces managed to get the better. Philibert de Chalons ordered to pollute
the marshes under the Poggioreale hill with macerated hemp to give the coup de
grace. The stench of hemp caused an epidemic among French. Lautrec gave up the
siege retreating in town of Aversa.
In 1532 the king of Spain, Charles V appointed as viceroy Don Pedro de Toledo.
Don Pedro, wise administrator, dedicated his Government to the renewal of the
kingdom.
He faced the problem the judicial organization which suffered yet feudal order
dating from the Middle Ages. He reorganized the Court of Vicaria and issued new
laws to combat widespread corruption among judges, lawyers and professional
texts who earned with false testimonies.
Don Pedro decided an extension of living spaces by building new walls to cope
with the crowding of the city that counted 180,000 inhabitants. The city gate
named Porta San Gennaro was moved forward and new city walls were built in a
straight line up to Port’Alba gate, which replaced the old gate of San
Antonello who was further back.
The expansion continued with the construction of the walls of the Porta Reale
gate that was located on the current Via Toledo, at the intersection with Via
Tarsia. Via Toledo (which is named as its builder Don Pedro de Toledo) was
constructed covering the outer moat of the ancient walls. Accommodations of the
Spanish soldiers were created in the west of Via Toledo, now called “Quartieri
Spagnoli”.
The western walls were extended to Castel Sant ‘Elmo, and then to the Mashio
Angioino. The southern walls between the “Forte del Carmine” and Maschio
Angioino were moved forward, toward the sea, encompassing the buildings that
had been built next to the beach.
Don Pedro dedicated himself to the fight against banditry and malfeasance. He
made to wall up the Chiatamone caves which had become a refuge for prostitutes
and pimps. This measure apparently was unsuccessful because up to second half
of 20th century the traditional activities of the prostitutes was
still thriving in via Chiatamone and the Spanish Quarter, where it had
developed for the presence of the military barracks constructed by Don Pedro.
In 1571 Naples made his contribution to the
formation of the Christian fleet, put together by the “Holy League”,
promoted by Pope Pius V, to face the Turkish fleet that lorded in the eastern
Mediterranean. The fleet consisted of 243 units with 75,000 men. 30 of these
ships, with the admiral in command Giannandrea Doria, were armed by the kingdom
of Naples.
On October 7, there was a clash between the fleet of the Holy League and the
Turkish one, stronger than 282 ships off the coast of Lepanto. The battle was
hard but brief. The battle began at dawn, at midday the Turkish fleet had
already been defeated with heavy loss of life, including the commander Ali
Pasha, and with the capture of 150 ship and its crew.
The news of the Turkish defeat aroused great enthusiasm throughout the
Christian world. As a thank it was instituted the Marian prayer on the first
Sunday of October at 12am, corresponding to the time in which the victory of
Lepanto was recorded, prayer that is still recited at the sanctuary of Pompeii.
The church of S. Maria della Vittoria was built in the square “piazza Vittoria”
of the Chiaia district in Naples, out of gratitude to the Virgin Mary.
A serious act of violence disturbed the city in 1590. The Prince Carlo Gesualdo
di Venosa surprises the young and beautiful wife Maria d’Avalos in the nuptial
bed with a handsome young lover, the Duke Fabrizio Carafa. Prince, aided by his
servant, killed the two lovers. The two bodies were naked exposed on the steps
of the Prince’s Palace, sited at Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, in plain sight
of all the passers-by. The fact upset all the Neapolitans. It is said that
since then the ghost of Maria d’Avalos wander about the halls of the palace
which is now known as Palazzo di Sangro, as it was later inhabited by the di
Sangro family, princes of San Severo.
In 1630 the Spanish painter Diego Velasquez and the Roman painter Artemisia Gentileschi came to Naples. The two, linked by friendship, had commissioned paintings by Maria Anna of Austria, Queen of Hungary. In Naples they attended the Massimo Stanzione painters and Jose de Ribera. Artemisia was interpreter of the Baroque Caravaggio painting movement that developed among the Neapolitan painters. Very young she had attended with his father Orazio, also accomplished painter, the workshop of Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio.
In the time of Spanish domination also Vesuvius made to feel its presence. On 16 December 1631 the volcano began to erupt from a side where ash and hot water flowed from a mouth, forming a boiling mud river, after a few days when small earthquakes had happened. Soon after there was the outbreak of the main mouth of gases, ash and lapilli. The pyroclastic flow reached the towns surrounding the volcano: Portici, Resina, Torre del Greco and Torre Annunziata, causing many casualties. In total there were three thousand deaths. The terrified inhabitants of Naples prayed for their salvation, going in procession towards Vesuvius with various statues of saints. The eruption fortunately stopped before reaching the town, at the locality of Pietrabianca (White Stone), which was since named Pietrarsa (Burnt Stone).
“Long live the King of Spain, stop to the
misgovernment” was the cry that marked the revolt that broke out in Naples
on July 7, 1646 because of the onerous unjust taxes on goods sold in the
citizen Market. Leader of the revolt was a young fisherman, Thomas Aniello,
nicknamed Masaniello, who lived near the Piazza Mercato (Marketplace).
The revolt, which was promoted by the most humble people and merchants, was
able to enforce itself. The crowd of rioters invaded the Royal Palace, forcing
the Spanish viceroy Rodrigo Ponce de Leon to take refuge in a hurry inside
Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino).
The rioters managed to get by the Viceroy the abolition of heavy taxes on
foodstuffs and the restoration of an ancient privilege for the division of
taxes between the people and the nobility with the mediation of Cardinal
Filomarino. After ten days, during which Masaniello was named General Captain
of the people, the same began to show worrying signs of madness. He was killed
in the convent adjacent to the church of the Carmine by his own comrades of
revolt. Immediately after the uprising was eradicated, the powers were restored
and the suspended taxes reinstated.
In 1656 a terrible epidemic of plague outbroke in the city, it seems to flow
from Sardinia by some sailors. The authorities took immediate steps to limit
contagion but, given the overcrowding due to the large population, about
350,000 inhabitants, the epidemic spread with extreme violence. Only 100,000
Neapolitans were alive after six months from the start of the epidemic. New
cemeteries were created to accommodate the thousands who died from the disease.
The authorities, driven by the clergy, thought only to the building of churches
and statues of saints in thanksgiving for the end of the plague after the
epidemic, rather than take advantage of the city’s evacuation to break down the
most dilapidated neighborhoods and improve the urban situation.
The kingdom of Naples, after various vicissitudes that followed the death in
1700 of King Charles II of Spain, was involved in the dynastic wars between the
main ruling houses in Europe. Charles had ordered in his will that the throne
of Spain went to Philip of Anjou since he had no heirs. Philip’s grandmother
was the sister of the same Carlo. The Habsburgs challenged Philip’s succession
since Joseph I who reigned over Austria, in that thicket of relationships which
had arisen between the European royal families, found the loophole to present
himself as a legitimate pretender to the Spanish throne.
The viceroy of Spain in Naples, Luis Francisco de la Cerda y Aragon, Duke of
Medinaceli, favoring the will of Charles II, named Philip V of Anjou King of
Naples. On July 7, 1702 an Austrian army, commanded by General Daun, entered
the city without a fight, even well received by people who hoped in vain that
Naples became the seat of the sovereign, ending the string of Viceroy. Formally
the Austrian viceroyalty began in 1707 and was completed in 1734. The 27 year
of Austrian government went by without that nothing would change, except that
the indifference of the Habsburg crown caused a worsening of the economic
situation of the population, also burdened by taxes imposed to reimburse the
expenses of war.
The people suffered for a famine that affected the kingdom between 1728 and 1730. The misery was very diffused that one day, in front of the pawnshop, where women pawned the kit sheets to meet small needs daily, many of these women were swept away due the large crowds, three of them died trampled.
In 1734, Elisabetta Farnese, wife of Philip V of Spain, as the last heir of the Farnese and Medici, had managed to get the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza and the title of Crown Prince of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to her son Charles. Carlo, taking advantage of some favorable circumstances obtained the kingdom of Naples and Sicily in exchange for giving up the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, and the renunciation of succession in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in favor of the Austrian Hapsburgs.
Finally the period of the viceroys ended with the arrival of Carlos III in Naples. Charles began the dynasty of the Bourbons of Naples, between light and shadow, the dinasty ruled until the unification of Italy.
(Picture at the top: Hugo de Moncada.)
