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274 Italy: Umbria, the Marches 59 ITALY: UMBRIA, THE MARCHES 246. IN UMBRIA, which is now contained787 within the duchy of Spoleto, few cities were free from internal discord. Norcia, once the homeland of Quintus Sertorius,788 has only recently enjoyed a respite from repeated disruption by the intrigues of the Guelph party. Narni, which is ringed by a white river with sulfurous waters and hard to approach on its double ridge,789 was once oppressed by the faction of the Ghibellines but now enjoys tranquility under the political guidance of the Guelphs. The people of Amelia, Rieti, Foligno, Ortona, and finally Spoleto all experienced their own calamities .790 But the city of Assisi turned out to exceed them all in misery. By admitting at one time the faction of Braccio, at another that of Sforza, and expelling now the stronger party, now the one reputed to be weaker, it has been brought so low that its population could be described not just as reduced but rather nonexistent, the city having been almost deserted.791 247. The region of Picenum, known in our time as the Marches, was appropriated by Francesco Sforza in virtually a single expedition , when Pope Eugenius IV was occupied with affairs in Basel and embroiled in disputes not only with Filippo Maria but also King Alfonso. Francesco retained continuous possession of it for some years afterward.792 787. Reading continetur for mss. continentur. 788. Roman soldier (d. 73 BCE), who served Marius and set up an independent state in Spain, successfully fighting back several attempts by Roman troops to defeat him until he was assassinated by jealous officers under his command. 789. Martial, Epigrams, 7.93.1–2. 790. A reference to the Ghibelline uprisings against the Avignonese papacy in the early to mid fourteenth century in Umbria, which were harshly put down by Cardinal Gil Albornoz in the 1350s and 1360s; see Chambers, Popes, Cardinals and War, 25–32. 791. Condottiere Braccio da Montone (1386–1424) took control of Assisi, along with several other central Italian cities, in 1416; the pope recognized his rule of Assisi in 1419. The city changed hands several times in the next few decades between the Bracceschi faction and the Sforzescha faction. Niccolò Piccinino’s troops brutally sacked the city in 1442. 792. Dissatisfied with the rule of papal legate Giovanni Vitelleschi, several towns in Italy: Umbria, the Marches 275 Meanwhile, Sforza fell in love with a girl who was one of his wife’s handmaids and who caused much trouble for Francesco as well as her own death. She was called Perpetua, the daughter of high-ranking parents in Novara.793 She possessed beauty and an honorable character, except for being deceived by the flatteries of her powerful master into exchanging virginity for adultery. When her belly gradually began to swell, she was betrothed to a man who had been found to marry her in order to conceal the transgression. On the appointed day of their nuptials, after inviting his friends and preparing a grand banquet, the bridegroom joyfully awaited the arrival of his new bride in the town where he lived not far from the court of Francesco. The woman was brought with an escort of many nobles, but after she entered the town, and people thought that she would dismount at the house of her fiancé, she was ordered to keep going and hustled into the citadel, leaving no further opportunity for her unlucky husband to see his bride. When Francesco’s wife, Bianca, who was a very shrewd woman, learned of this, she did not rest until she had sent assassins to kill the girl, although she was closely guarded. Francesco, despite being deeply upset by this, thought he should forgive his wife as her resentment was justified.794 248. After this, Pope Eugenius, who had now been reconciled with Filippo Maria and King Alfonso, sent Niccolò Piccinino with an army to confront Francesco and also urged the king to invade the Marches. Alfonso agreed. After levying troops, he arrived in the March of Ancona offered themselves to Sforza in December 1433, prompting Pope Eugenius to declare him marquis of the Marches, vicar of Fermo, and gonfaloniere of the church in February 1434; see Ady, Milan under the Sforza, 16–18. Sforza lost all but Jesi in 1445 and finally signed that town over to the papacy on Aug 4, 1447. 793. Perpetua da Varese, mother of Polidoro Sforza, who was legitimized by Nicholas V in...

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