Cover Image: Aeneas Piccolomini leaves for the Council of Basel, Pinturicchio, Piccolomini Library, Duomo, Siena.
Book 1: Chapters 3-7.
A recurring theme in Aeneas’ life, and The Commentaries, was travel. As we approached this section of the Commentaries, Barry and spoke at great length about the concept of viewing Aeneas as a traveller. This section of the Commentaries in particular provides us with an extensive narrative of his travels to Genoa, Milan, the Low Countries, Scotland and England. While his visits to each were conducted with specific diplomatic aims, we will be viewing them in this post as observations akin to those one may find in a travel guide or blog nowadays. What becomes apparent is that Aeneas’ somewhat peripatetic style of employment afforded him the chance to travel fairly extensively both within Italy but also across Western Christendom. In comparison to his contemporaries, Aeneas was well travelled. As one reads the descriptions of places visited, buildings encountered or stories heard it also raises the question of where Aeneas’ information/knowledge of such events came from. The stories he reports represent the sort of information available to a man of his position in the mid-fifteenth century. Aeneas probably did very little actual research into Britain's past during the months he spent on his mission there; most of what he learned he acquired in subsequent years. Finally, it is worth noting that he knew neither French or English and would not have been able to read the relevant and most concise sources of the time.
So where does this section take us?
You’ll notice as we follow Aeneas that he regularly changes masters, and employment. We begin with him joining the retinue of Cardinal Domenico Capranica (see separate bio on the blog) whose position in the College of Cardinals had been repudiated by Pope Eugenius IV (1383-1447). Capranica sets off to Council at Basel (which is already in session) to reaffirm his status as a cardinal. We will deal with the Council’s proceedings in a future blog post.
At several points in this section Aeneas comes close to danger. During his voyage from Siena to Genoa by way of a boat, the party was blown off course and towards the African coast, which if one has a map to hand, is a very significant detour! Whilst reading the passage, I was thinking of the incident involving Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (the subject of my own research) who was shipwrecked off the coast of Pisa in 1473. However, Capranica’s party did not fall foul to the sea (as Borgia’s retinue did) but were driven between Elba and Corsica and were then able to travel between the two islands of Corsica and Sardinia before finally anchoring in Porto Venere where they procured a boat to Genoa.
Several times in this section Aeneas visits Milan and the court of Filippo Maria Visconti (1392-1447). After a short stay, Aeneas left and negotiated the snow-covered St. Gotthard Alps before arriving in Basel. Here, he transferred his service to Bartolomeo Visconti, the bishop of Novara. Under Visconti’s service, Piccolomini travelled to Frankfurt before returning to Italy, specifically, Milan.
Working for Bartolomeo appears to have offered Aeneas the chance to travel somewhat extensively. Under his employment, the pair went to Florence where Pope Eugenius IV had fled to from Rome. Returning from a brief visit to the Sienese hinterland, Aeneas found Bartolomeo on trial after reportedly being ‘accused of grave offenses before Eugenius’.
Allegiance was fleeting for Aeneas who rather than supporting his employer, sought the protection of the Cardinal of Santa Croce, Niccolò Albergati (1373-1443). The cardinal had been appointed ambassador to France and charged with the specific task of arranging a peace between Charles VII of France (1403-1461) and Henry VI of England (1421-1471), trying to end the Hundred Years’ War between the two Kingdoms. After another quick stop in Milan, the retinue moved to Basel and then sailed down the Rhine to Cologne. On horseback it was then to Aix, Liège, Louvain, Douai, Tournai and Arras where there was a meeting of all the French and English cardinals who were attempting to broker a peace between France and England. In the midst of this, Albergati sent Aeneas on his merry way to Scotland to restore ‘a certain prelate to the king’s favour’ (King James I, 1394-1437); there were also rumours that the purpose of his visit was to incite James to war against England. Without going into too much detail, James’s hatred of the English was well founded: he had been a prisoner of the English for many years. Border warfare between Scotland and England was an almost constant reality, one Aeneas tried to provoke even more.
It is this part of the section where we get the meaty descriptions of Aeneas’s journey. In Calais, he was captured by the English who were entirely mistrustful of him and banned him from seeking an audience with ‘the Cardinal of Winchester’ (Cardinal Henry Beaufort, 1375-1447) who was returning from the conference of Cardinals at Arras. It is here where Aeneas hints at the ongoing tension between England and Scotland. Over the course of several lines we are told that the ‘Cardinal of Santa Croce had incurred the bitter hatred of the English by alienating the duke of Burgundy from their side’. Piccolomini was then swift to note ‘that he knew nothing of this’.
London Calling...
Aeneas spends little time writing on the English capital, preferring a whistlestop tour. We should note here that he had explored English history in more detail in both De Europa and De viris illustribus, even including the British legend that the country had been founded by the Trojans.
Of particular note here, though, was his visit to St Paul’s (before the magnificent Christopher Wren design and dome) where he saw ‘the wonderful tombs of the kings’. However, what was more interesting is the reference to ‘the village where men are said to be born with tails’. This point was of particular interest to both Barry and I! It reveals a lot about the popular imagination of the time. We have a number of reports of ‘monstrous’ beings from the period, particularly of note were bodies found washed up on the banks of the Tiber in Rome in the 1490’s. In this year marking the 850th anniversary of St. Thomas a Becket’s brutal murder, it is fitting that the last place Pius visits on this part of his tour of England was Canterbury. Here he writes about the lavish nature of the tomb of Thomas a Becket, known popularly as Thomas of Canterbury:
‘The golden mausoleum of Thomas of Canterbury, which is covered with diamonds, pearls and carbuncles and where it is considered a sacrilege to offer any mineral less precious than silver’.
Becket's shrine was destroyed during the Reformation. His shrine has been reconstructed using CGI.
We then are swiftly taken to the Low Countries: firstly to Bruges and then to Sluys - ‘the busiest port in the west’ - before setting sail for Scotland. Once again, Aeneas found himself at the mercy of the sea. By divine intervention, the fleet was not shipwrecked and after twelve days could safely anchor off Scotland. Perhaps in response to escaping danger, Aeneas details his barefoot pilgrimage-esque walk to the shrine of Our Lady of Whitekirk. The shrine had been desecrated by the armies of Edward III of England in 1356, an event memorialised as the Burnt Candlemas. Towards the end of the 14th century the shrine was reconsecrated and became part of the newly built Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Haddington. The site would also be visited by James IV, Margaret Tudor, and James V - it’s a very Scottish site!
St Mary's Collegiate Church, Haddington where the shrine of Our Lady was reconsecrated after it was destroyed by the forces of Edward III.
Inserted purely in the hope of a sympathetic response, Aeneas writes that ‘ his feet had grown so weak and numb with cold that he could not move’. After a brief (yet chilly) rest he was carried (!) into the king’s presence. He found James a benevolent monarch who gave him all that he asked for, plus the reimbursement of his travel expenses and an extra fifty nobles to accompany him. Yes. Fifty noblemen. They disappear after this account. Nobody knows where they go.
Piccolomini at the court of James I of Scotland.
It is here where we get a very tongue-in-cheek description of Scotland. Beginning with a description of the natural world, the discussion then moves to the inhabitants:
‘The people, who are poor and rude, stuff themselves with meat and fish but eat bread as a luxury’. ‘The men are short and brave; the women fair, charming and lusty’.
There are also fruits which apparently turn you into magical birds. Who knew! While to a modern audience this may appear comical, it also once again reveals a lot about the popular imagination of southern Europeans about their world, and the sort of titbit Aeneas thought should be included in his description of Scotland.
But. What really grabs your attention is the phrase ‘there is nothing the Scots like to hear more than abuse of the English’, which given the recent (but may I add thoroughly well deserved) Six Nations rugby result, still rings true today!
From Scotland it was back to England, to Berwick-Upon Tweed where our man Aeneas was received with awe by the town's inhabitants.
‘All the men and women of the village came running as if to see a strange sight, so they gazed in amazement at Aeneas’.
And then came the women, ‘a number of beautiful girls and matrons’ to be specific. These women took care of Aeneas even to the extent that ‘being the custom of the country, they were prepared to sleep with him, if asked’. WOW. But Aeneas quickly writes that he was ‘thinking less about women than about the bandits who might appear at any moment’. Because Scotland and its hinterlands were terrifying to the poor Italian statesman.
Spoilers: Aeneas is rumoured to have had one of his two children from around this time (one from Germany, the other from the British Isles). So read into the above as you will. We’re taking Aeneas’ words with more than a small grain of salt. It was then time for a jolly down to the North of England. Firstly Newcastle, ‘said to have been built by Caesar’. Then to Durham ‘where people now go to visit the tomb of the holy abbot, the Venerable Bede, a shrine piously revered by the inhabitants of the region’. Finally, York, a city which seems to have captivated Aeneas.
‘A large and populous city, where there is a cathedral renowned throughout the world for its size and design and for the brilliant chapel whose glass walls are held together by the slenderest columns’.
A strange chance encounter finished Aeneas’ visit to York. On the road he met an English judge who appears to have either been at the meeting in Arras or knew what had transpired. The judge cursed the Cardinal of Santa Croce calling him ‘a wolf in sheep’s cloth’.
All roads lead back to London, where Henry VI had forbidden any foreigner from leaving the island, unless they had a royal passport. Not having one, Aeneas bribed the keepers of the port and sailed to Calais. From then on it was back to Basel, and then Milan. However, it was not long before he was on the road again, this time catching up with the Cardinal of Santa Croce - the wolf in sheep’s clothing! - who had been dispatched from Florence and who was on his way to Basel. Ever the dedicated servant, Aeneas followed and returned to Basel, site of a major church council, and one that will see Aeneas become a more important player in European politics.
Our man Aeneas is probably one of the most well travelled popes from the Renaissance, if not the most well travelled. “Aeneas, a Traveller” will probably be a series of posts, but for now, we shall leave our man in Basel and about to engage in some thrilling politics (we promise they’re thrilling!) Expect a breakdown of what was happening, how it was happening, and how Aeneas fit into it in a next post or so!