Dear Reader,
*SOME EXCITING NEWS*
We finally met! Ok OK, not in person but digitally! We had a wonderful conversation about the blog/future posts (be prepared for one of the film Conclave) and Barry's gorgeous dog even made an appearance...
Right where were we?
Before we begin our analysis of the Commentaries, it is probably to explore the world in which they were written. Whilst the majority of the information will come at the relevant points of our read along, we thought it would be beneficial for everyone to know who the main ruling families are throughout Enea's lifetime and what events shaped the world in which the Commentaries was written:
Enea Silvio Piccolomini was born in a period of upheaval across Western Christendom. The Catholic Church had been divided by the Western Schism (1378-1417) which had resulted in popes in both Avignon and Rome. The struggle was only ended after the Council of Constance (1414-18) where the remaining papal claimants, Antipope John XXIII (deposed 1415) Pope Gregory XII and Antipope Benedict XIII resigned, the latter not going down without a fight which forced the church to declare him a schismatic and he was excommunicated, living out the rest of his days at the castle at Peñiscola on the eastern coast of Spain, north of Valencia. The electoral body that gathered in Constance, was comprised of 23 cardinals and prelates representing the five 'nations' into which the Council was organized: Germany, Spain. England, France, and Italy. There were, therefore, fifty-three voting members at the conclave. After the customary politicking and scrutinies, Oddone Colonna, the cardinal- deacon of San Giorgio in Velabro was elected, taking the papal name Pope Martin V. Incidentally, it was rare for cardinal-deacons to be elected pontiffs, they are the lowest tier in the College of Cardinals and were usually either young or affiliated with a royal power and weren't considered papabile- aka likely to be elected!
'Habemus Papam': The announcement of the election of Oddone Colonna, Pope Martin V.
Whilst the Western Schism had divided the Church, there was also a series of notable conflicts sweeping across Christendom. France and England were still locked in the Hundred Years War which had begun in 1337 and which did not come to a conclusion until 1453, which became an auspicious year! Two years after Piccolomini's birth (1405) civil war broke out between France and Burgundy after Louis duke of Orléans, brother of King Charles VI was murdered in Paris. In 1419 Bohemia witnessed the Hussite Wars a reaction to the execution of the theologian Jan Hus (1372-1415). If that wasn't enough the Ottoman Turks were beginning to be come a threat to Christendom, making inroads at Varna (Bulgaria) before taking Constantinople in 1453, an event which traumatised Aeneas, the humanist community and Christians everywhere.
Le siège de Constantinople (1453) by Jean Le Tavernier (1455).
Other Key Events:
1337- 1453: Hundred Year's War.
1400: Followers of John Wycliffe become known as Lollards.
1406: Pisa is captured by the Florentines.
1407: Murder of Louis, duke of Orléans, brother of King Charles VI in Paris, results in civil war between France and Burgundy.
1408: Wycliffe's English Bible is published.
1409: Prelates meet in Pisa to name a pope to replace the two claimants to the throne of St Peter. Both refuse to step aside.
1410: Viking settlement in Greenland ends after 400 years.
1415: Jan Hus executed in Constance.
1415: The Battle of Agincourt.
1418: Competition to design the dome of the Duomo in Florence, Filippo Brunelleschi is chosen.
1419-1433: Hussite Wars in Bohemia.
1420: The Treaty of Troyes.
1427: Henry the Navigator chances upon the Azores.
1428: Martin V orders Hus's bones to be exhumed and burned.
1428-9: Siege of Orléans.
1430: Siege of Compiègne.
1431: Burning of Joan of Arc in Rouen.
1431: Council of Basel.
1435: Treaty of Arras ends the civil war between France and Burgundy.
1438: Sanction of Bourges, limits the power of the papacy in France.
1438: Council of Ferrara this moves to Florence the following year.
1443: Janos Hunydi captures Sofia from the Ottoman Turks, he goes on to liberate most of Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania.
1444: Turkish victory at Varna.
1453: The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.
1455-1485: The Wars of the Roses rages in England.
1464: Sultan Mehmed II conquers Bosnia.
Jan Hus is burnt at the stake in Constance.
A woodcut of the Council of Florence in the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Whose ruling where: In order to keep things easy, all names have been given in English.
Western Christendom.
Scotland.
The House of Stuart:
Robert III (1390-1406)
James I (1406-1437)
James II (1437-1460)
James III (1460-1488)
England.
House of Lancaster:
Henry IV (1399-1413)
Henry V (1413-1422)
Henry VI (1422-1461)
House of York:
Edward IV (1461-1470)
France:
House of Valois:
Charles VI (1380-1422)
Charles VII (1422-1461)
Louis XI (1461-1483)
Portugal:
House of Aviz:
John I ( 1385-1433)
Edward I ( 1433-1438)
Afonso V (1438-1481)
Aragon.
House of Barcelona:
Martin (1396-1410)
House of Trastámara:
Ferdinand I (1412-1416)
Alfonso V (1416-1458)
John (1458-1479)
Castile.
House of Trastámara:
Henry III (1390-1406)
John II (1406-1454)
Henry IV (1454-1474)
Burgundy.
House of Valois-Burgundy
Philip II (The Bold) 1363-1404
John I (the fearless) 1404-1419
Philip III (the Good) 1419-1467.
Holy Roman Emperors
House of Luxembourg:
Wenzel of Luxemburg (1378-1400)
Ruprecht III (1400-1410)
Sigismund of Luxemburg (1433-1437)
Albert II of Habsburg (1438-1439)
Frederick III (1440-1493)
Italian city states and kingdoms.
Milan.
The House of Visconti:
Giovanni Maria (1402-1412)
Filippo Maria (1412-1447)
House of Sforza:
Francesco I (1450-1466)
Venice.
Doge Michele Steno (1400-1413)
Doge Tommaso Mocenigo (143-1423)
Doge Francesco Foscari (1423-1457)
Doge Pasquale Malipiero (1457-1462)
Doge Cristofo Moro (1462-1471)
Mantua.
Lords of Mantua:
Francesco Gonzaga (1382-1407)
Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (1407-1433)
Marquesses of Mantua:
Gianfrancesco (1433-1444)
Lodovico III (1444-1478)
Urbino:
Lords of Urbino
Guidantonio da Montefeltro (1403-1433)
Oddanttonio da Montefeltro (1433-1444)
Dukes of Urbino from 1443.
Federico III da Montefeltro (1444-1482)
Florence:
‘De Facto rulers’:
Albizzi Family (1382-1434)?
Cosimo de’ medici (1434-1464)
Naples.
House of Anjou (restored):
Ladislao I (1399-1414)
Giovanna II (1414-1435)
René I (1435-1442)
Alfonso I (1442-1458)
Ferdinand (1458-1494)
Ferrara:
House of d'Este:
Niccolò III d’Este (1393-1441)
Leonello d’Este ( 1441-1450)
Borso d’Este (1450-1471)
Doge Cristoforo Moro, 1462-71. King Edward IV of England, 1461-70
then 1471-83.