THE RISE OF THE DESPOTS

The spreading of what Sismondi called ‘this brilliant flame of liberty’ throughout the Italian City Republics proved to be a sadly short-lived spectacle (Sismondi, 1826, vol. 3, p. 245). By the end of the thirteenth century most of the cities had become so riven with internal factions that they found themselves forced to abandon their Republican constitutions, to accept the strong rule of a single signore and to make the move from a free to a despotic form of government in the name of attaining greater civic peace.

The root cause of this erosion of Republican liberty must be sought in the class divisions which began to develop early in the thirteenth century (Jones, 1965, p. 79). The quickening pace of trade brought into prominence new classes of men, gente nuova, who soon grew rich as merchants in the cities and the surrounding contada (Jones, 1965, p. 95). Despite their increasing wealth, however, these popolani had no voice in the governing Councils of their cities, which continued to remain firmly under the control of the older magnate families (Waley, 1969, pp. 187–97). As these divisions widened, they began to generate an alarming increase in civic violence, with the popolani struggling for recognition while the magnates fought to maintain their oligarchic privileges.