Chronography of Italy, San Marino and Malta
Page last
modified 19 May 2023
See also Sicily
See
also Malta
See also Roman Empire
See Earthquakes for major Italian earthquakes
Map of railway development in Sardinia
Venice � see
Appendix ii
San Marino � see
Appendix 2
Vatican City,
Papal States � see Appendix 3; see also Christianity
25 September 2022, In Italian elections, the country�s first female
Prime Minister, Giorgia
Meloni, was elected, leading the Rightist anti-immigrant Brothers of
Italy Party.
1/2020, The Rightist League party failed to
defeat ther Leftat a crucial election in Emilia-Romana.
8/2019, The Rightist League Party, led by Matteo Salvini,
withdrew from Government, to trigger early elections in which it hoped to do
well. However the Leftist Five-Star Party formed a workable coalition with
the Centre-Left Democratic Party, and Guiseppe Conte remained as Prime Minister.
14 August 2018, A 200 metre stretch of motorway bridge collapsed in
Genoa, Italy, plunging 45 metres onto a riverbed and factories, killing 43
people. There were suggestions that the bridge, built in 1967, had been poorly
maintained, or badly constructed under Mafia influence.
27 May 2018, Italy�s Populist
Government nominated Paolo Savona as Finance Minister; an economist
who supported Italy quitting the Eurozone. President Sergio Mattarella
vetoed that appointment. The Italian Right
hoped to cut taxes and boost welfare, and cut immigration. However Italy
was forced to scale back its spending after EU objections.
4 March 2018, Elections in Italy, a country still in recession,
with high unemployment and with anti-immigrant feeling running high in some
areas, produced gains for the two Populist-Right Parties, The League in the north and
Five Star in the south.
22 October 2017, Voters in two of
Italy�s wealthiest northern regions, Veneto
and Lombardy, voted overwhelmingly for greater autonomy. On a turnout of 58% in
Veneto and just over 50% in Lombardy, over 95% of votes were for more autonomy.
4 December 2016, Matteo Renzi, Italian Prime Minister, resigned
after a referendum rejected his government reform proposals by over 60%.
Berlusconi Rightist administration
13 February 2011, Women across
Italy protested against Berlusconi.
2007, Prodi resigned when he failed to secure Senate
support for continued US bases in Italy; however he was asked to form a new
Government by the Italian President.
16
April 2006, Easter Sunday. Romano Prodi, Centre-Left coalition, was
confirmed as winner of the Italian elections, defeating his rival Silvio
Berlusconi by just 25,000 votes.
2005, Conscription into the armed forces ceased in
Italy.
30
October 2005, Italian Minister of the Environment Altero Matteoli
announced an interest in switching to nuclear power as Italy�s main energy
source within 10-15 years. Nuclear power had been banned in Italy since the
Chernobyl accident in 1986
10
December 2004, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was acquitted
of charges that he bribed judges to protect his commercial interests in the
1990s.
1/2002, Italy adopted the Euro, replacing the Lira.
15
December 2001, The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened to the public,
after works to reduce its lean by 30cm. the lean had reached dangerous levels,
and stabilisation efforts began in 1990.
20 July 2001, The 3-day 27th
G8 talks began in Genoa, Italy, sparking major protests by anti-globalisation groups.
21
February 2001, In Sicily Bernardo Provenza, one of the ten most wanted
Mafia men, was arrested after 38 years on the run.
13
May 2000, Ex-Premier and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi was again elected
Prime Minister of Italy.
22
December 1994, Silvio
Berlusconi resigned after allegations of busoiness corruption.
28 March 1994, Silvio
Berlusconi became Prime Minister of Italy. He led a short-lived
Rightist government. There were concerns over
possible conflicts of interest between Berlusconi�s political responsibilities
and his widespread business� interests.
1992, The Northern League (Lega Nord) won over 50 seats in the General Election. The Northern League was resentful of taxes
generated in the prosperous north of Italy being used by Rome to support the
poorer South, and wanted an independent State in northern Italy, so-called
Padania.
25 May 1992, Oscar Salfaro was elected
President of Italy.
23 May 1992, In Italy, Judge Giovanni Falcone, the principal
anti-Mafia investigator, was killed by a massive car bomb.
7 January 1990. The Leaning
Tower of Pisa was closed to the public for the first time in 807 years so
work could begin to stop it leaning any further; the leaning rate had
accelerated. After nearly 12 years of repairs costing 53 billion lire that
reduced its lean by 44 cm the tower re-opened in December 2001, and was
expected to be safe for another 2 or 3 centuries. Parties of up to 30 are
allowed up on guided visits. The Tower of Pisa is the bell tower for a nearby
cathedral, and its construction began in 1173, and continues with two long
interruptions, for nearly 200 years. Designed to be vertical, a lean developed
during its construction.� The walls at
its base are eight feet thick, and it has 294 steps. Injection of cement into
the base in 1934 had accelerated the lean.
16 December 1987, In Italy, 338 people were convicted in the
largest Mafia trial ever.
3 June 1986, Italy released some 8,000 prisoners, including
suspected terrorists, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the republic.
19 July 1985, In Italy, 261 died when a dam burst, flooding the
tourist resort of Tesero.
1984, Roman Catholicism no longer the
Italian State religion.
23 December 1984. Terrorist bomb killed 29 on a train in Bologna,
Italy.
24 September 1983, In Italy, the executives responsible for
the Seveso dioxin disaster were
jailed.
4 August 1983. Bettino Craxi became Italy�s first Socialist
Prime Minister.
18 March 1983, King Umberto II of Italy, in exile since 1946,
died in a Geneva
clinic aged 78.
3 September 1982, Anti-Mafia chief murdered in Rome.
26 May 1981, The Italian cabinet resigned amidst allegations of
Freemason influence in the country�s political and judicial system.
17 May 1981, In a referendum, Italy voted to legalise abortion.
23 November 1980, A series of earthquakes in southern Italy
killed 4,800 people, and left 300,000 homeless.
2 August 1980, A right-wing terrorist bomb hit the railway
station at Bologna, Italy, killing
85 people and wounding over 200.
3 June 1979, In Italian general elections, the Communists
lost ground.
9 May 1978. The body of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro
was found in the boot of a car in central Rome, a victim of the Red Brigade.
16 March 1978, In Rome, former Prime Minister Aldo Moro
was kidnapped and murdered by the Red Brigade.
12 January 1978, Italy, the Andreotti government collapsed.
1976, Communist Party support in
Italy peaked at 34% under Enrico Berlinguer, who was a proponent of �moderate�
Communist policies.
11 February 1976, In Italy, Aldo Moro formed a minority
Christian Democrat Government.
17 October 1974, 10 million Italian workers went on strike
demanding measures to protect them against recession and inflation.
1972, Extreme-Right support in
Italy reached a post-War high of 9%. There was a rise in urban terrorism by
both extreme Right and extreme Left.
1970, The Red Brigades, extreme
Left terrorists, were formed.
6 December 1964, Antonio Segni, Italian Prime Minister resigned
for health reasons. He was succeedd on 28 December 1964 by Guiseppe Saragat.
9 October 1963, Three thousand were killed as the Vaijont Dam burst in the Italian Alps.
Despite warnings that the valley sides were being destabilised as the dam
filled, work continued until a rock slide hit the site.
4 December 1962, Pietro Tomasi Della Torretta, Italian
politician and diplomat, died aged 89.
6 May 1962, In Italy, Antonio Segni was elected President on the 9th
ballot.
4 November 1961, Italy's second television network Rai 2
began broadcasting, joining the original RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) which
had begun in 1954.
1957, Italy became a founder
member of the
EEC.
19 August 1954, Alcide de Gasperi, Italian statesman, died
aged 73.
30 August 1953, Italy moved troops into the border areas of
Trieste, near Yugoslavia,
a week after the Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Pella declared that Trieste was
�important to Italy�.Yugoslavia alleged that these troops had transgressed 50
metres into Yugoslav territory. President Tito of Yugoslavia demanded the
internationalisation of Trieste city and the incorporation of its hinterland
into Yugoslavia. The US and UK, unwilling to see Yugoslavia gain a major influence
over the northern Adriatic, announced they would end the Allied Military
Government in the 25-km coastal strip running NW from Trieste towards Italy and
hand the territory over to Italy. Tito said if this happened he would send in
Yugoslav troops. In early November Italians demonstrated for unity of Trieste
with Italy, and attempted to raise the Italian flag on Trieste Town Hall. There
were rioting and arrests; several rioters were killed. Italy protested and for
the time being both Italy and Yugoslavia withdrew their troops from the border
region, and the Allied Military Government remained in place.
18 June 1952, Italy
passed a law making the reconstitution of Fascism illegal. The neo-Fascist
Movimento Sociale Italiano *MSI) was allowed to convene on 26 June 1852, where
they adopted a policy of partial acceptance of NATO but with a strong trade
preference for Spain over Britain.
26 November 1951, Ilona Staller, Italian politician (and porn
star) was born.
27 January 1950, In Italy, following the resignation of the
Democratic Socialist Minister in November 1949 and withdrawal of Liberal
support, Alcide
de Gasperi formed a new coalition of Christian Democrats, Democratic
Socialists and� Republicans.
1949, Italy became a founder
member of NATO.
11 April 1949, Italian Foreign Minister Carlo Sforza asked the United
Nations to return Italy's pre-war African colonies, promising that Italy would
prepare them for independence at the earliest possible date.
11 May 1948, Luigi Einaudi was elected President of Italy.
18 April 1948, The Christian Democrats won an absolute majority
in Italian elections, securing 305 out of 574 seats.
15 September 1947, The Free Territory of Trieste was created as the Peace Treaty with Italy came into
effect.
17 April 1947, In Rome, a mob of about a thousand unemployed
workers staged a noisy protest outside the Parliament building, stopping
private cars and sometimes beating the occupants. One of those assaulted was Italian Foreign
Minister Carlo Sforza, who was struck by several fists as he stepped
out of his car to go to his office. The Foreign Ministry said that Sforza
had been shaken but not seriously hurt.
1 February 1947, In Italy, Alcide de Gasperi formed a government of
Christian Democrats, Communists and Left-Socialists.
28 June 1946, Enrico de Nicola became first President of Italy.
27 June 1946, Italy ceded the Dodecanese islands to Greece.
1946; End of the Italian monarchy
28 December 1947, Victor Emmanuel III, King of
Italy from 1900 until he abdicated in 1946, died.
13 June 1946, Pro-monarchist riots in
Rome over the departure of King Umberto II.
11 June 1946, Italy was officially declared a Republic.
3 June 1946, King Umberto II left Italy, to join his family in Lisbon.
2 June 1946, A referendum in Italy produced 12,182,855
votes for a Republic and 10,362,709 votes for continuing the monarchy.
9 May 1946. King Victor Emmanuel III, monarch of Italy
since 1900, abdicated. He was succeeded by Umberto II. A referendum voted
narrowly for a republic on 2 June 1946. Enrico de Nicola became the first President of Italy on 28 June 1946,
and Umberto
II left Italy on 3 June 1946.
1945, Alcide de Gasperi (born 1881)
organised the Christian Democratic party, and became Prime Minister of Italy.
20 December 1945, Mussolini�s daughter, Edda, was jailed in Rome for
aiding Fascism.
30 November 1945, Christian Democrats won Italian General
Elections.
22 July 1945, Art treasures worth an estimated $500 million U.S.
that had been looted by the Germans during the war were returned to Florence,
Italy.
Germany occupies Italy to forestall its defection
to the Allies
For main events of World War Two in Europe see France-Germany
15 September 1943, Three days after freed
from imprisonment by Germany, and seven weeks after his overthrow in July, Benito
Mussolini was restored to leadership of Italy by the Nazi occupiers;
German paratroopers also landed in St. Peter's Square at Vatican City in Rome, despite the
Vatican's neutrality in the war� Mussolini
made his announcement of a return to power from Adolf Hitler's headquarters at
Rastenburg.
11 September 1943, German Field Marshal
Albert Kesselring declared that all Italian territory was under
German military control, which former dictator Benito Mussolini would later
describe as reducing Italy to the status of a German "colony". Adolf Hitler
ordered that the occupied Italian territory be divided into three zones, with
the area around Rome extending south toward the front lines against the Allies,
the Alpine mountain region ("Alpenvorland") and the coast along the
Adriatic Sea ("Adriatische Kusterland"). Hitler also issued orders to
deal with any Italian military units that had gone over to fight for the
Allies, with all officers to be executed, and soldiers and non-combatants to be
deported to Germany as labourers.
9
September 1943. Allied forces landed at Salerno, Italy. King Umberto of
Italy left Rome and fled to Brindisi in the south. This was seen as
an abandonment by many Italians and contributed to the conversion of the
country to a Republic in 1946.
7 September 1943,
Suspecting that Italy was about to make peace with the Allies, German troops
quickly occupied Italy, especially its airfields, to forestall a complete
Allied possession of the country. However the entire Italian navy escaped to
Malta, thereby freeing up Allied ships for combat in the Pacific or Atlantic.
19 July 1943, First
Allied air raid on Rome. The raid was a political warning that Mussolini�s
regime must be overthrown.
1942, The Christian
Democratic Party was founded. It was a clandestine anti-Facist Party, and
in fact largely secular. Until 1993 it formed a large bloc in every post-War
Italian government; however it began to be plagued by acusations of corruption,
and by 1993 its popular support had completely evaporated, The Party
disintegrated after 1993.
For main events of World War Two in Europe see France-Germany
4 May 1941, Emperor Haile Selassie
returned to Ethiopia from exile in England, after the liberation of his country
by British forces.
12 September 1940. Italian
forces advanced on Egypt
from Libya.
19 August 1940, British
Somaliland fell to the Italians.� See 4
August 1940.
12 August 1940. In Albania, a revolt against
Italian occupation began.
9 August 1939, Romano Prodi,
Prime Minister of Italy, was born.
4 August 1940. Italian
troops began to invade British Somaliland from Ethiopia. See 19 August 1940.
4 July 1940, Three weeks after
Italy entered the War, Italian forces invaded Sudan, occupying Kassala, 300
kilometers east pf Khartoum, They also occupied Gallabat, further south.
10 June 1940. Italy declared war
on France and Britain.
2 April 1940. All Italians aged
over 14 were mobilised.
For main European
events of World War Two see France-Germany
Italian invasion of Albania
8 April 1939, King Zog fled Albania to Greece
as Italian forces entered Tirana.
7 April 1939. Italy mounted a surprise invasion of Albania, seeing it as a bridgehead for
an invasion of the Balkans. King Zog fled the country. They began an
invasion of Greece
from Albania on 28 October 1940. They were driven back by the Greeks who occupied
most of southern Albania. However the Greeks were beaten back in April 1941
when the Germans occupied Yugoslavia, Albania, and Greece. From 1944 on local
partisans, aided by the British, drove Axis forces from much of Albania, also
eliminating anti-communist forces. See 11 January 1946.
25 March 1939, Italy gave Albania an ultimatum
demanding that a protectorate be established over the country and Italian
troops be stationed within Albanian borders.
27 November 1926, Italy and Albania signed
the Treaty of Tirana, effectively making
Albania an Italian Protectorate. Britain formally recognised the Treaty,
angering France, who saw the Balkans as their sphere of influcnce.
11 January 1939. Neville Chamberlain visited Mussolini to discuss recognition of the Franco
regime in Spain.
17 December 1938, Italy
denounced the Franco-Italian agreement of 1935.
14 December 1938, The
Italian Parliament was replaced by a Fascist Chamber.
30 November 1938, Speeches
in the Italian Chamber claimed Nice and Corsica for Italy.
3 May 1938. Hitler and Mussolini met in Rome.
16 April 1938, Chamberlain, British PM, sought to dissuade Italy from
allying with Germany.
11 December 1937. Italy left
the League of Nations.
6 November 1937. Italy
joined the anti-Communist pact between Germany and Japan.� See 25 November 1936.
2 June 1937, German War
Minister Werner
von Blomberg began a three-day visit to Italy to discuss
German-Italian military ties.
2 January 1937, The UK and Italian
governments made an agreement, to curb dangerous levels of friction between the
two in the Mediterranean.
Period of
sanctions on Italy, imposed and lifted by the League of Nations (for invading
Abyssinia)
1936, The Italian Fascist Party
now had over 2 million members, up from 825,000 in 1931.
15 July 1936, The League of
Nations raised
sanctions against Italy.
1 November 1936. Mussolini announced an anti-Communist �axis� with Germany,
and urged France and Britain to join.
3 March 1936. Mussolini nationalised the Italian banks.
18 December 1935, In response to League of Nations sanctions, Mussolini
appealed to Italians to donate their gold wedding rings to the government, in
exchange for steel ones, also other gold, to help the invasion effort. Many
Italians responded, and a total of 33,622 metric tonnes of gold was handed in.
21 November 1935, Mussolini redeployed 100,000
soldiers from the army to work in agriculture and industry for 3 months to
counter the effects of sanctions.
19 October 1935, After Italy�s invasion of Abyssinia,
the League of Nations imposed economic sanctions on Italy. Meanwhile it was apparent that Italy�s
African possessions could not provide economic self-sufficiency for Italy, and
the country would never be self reliant in key raw materials sources such as
oil, coal and metals. This pushed Italy into a
closer partnership with stronger, industrialised, Germany.
2 October 1935, The Italian army invaded Abyssinia
(Ethiopia) after Mussolini�s forces pounded border towns. See 9 May 1936,
and 5 December 1934.
14 May 1935, Benito Mussolini made a Senate speech warning
other nations not to intervene in the Abyssinia Crisis, saying that only Italy
"can be the judge in this most delicate matter."
2 September 1926, Italy agreed a treaty with
Yemen; Italy was attempting to control
the eastern coast of the Red Sea.
24 January 1935. Mussolini dismissed the Italian Cabinet.
18 September 1934. Mussolini said all Italians from the age of 8 must have
military training.
13 June 1934, Adolf Hitler and Mussolini
met for the first time.in Venice, Italy. Hitler frequently quoted from his book Mein Kampf, and Mussolini later referred to him
as a �silly little monkey�.
20 October 1933. Mussolini denounced Roosevelt as a dictator.
21 May 1933. Britain signed a ten-year non-aggression pact
with Italy, France,
and Germany.
19 March 1933, Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister of Italy,
proposed a pact with Britain, France and Germany.
2/1933, Official Italian
unemployment stood at 1,229,000; up from 765,000 in 1931 and 1,147,000 in late
1932. However the true figure was almost
certainly considerably higher, since Mussolini was keener to attack the
unemployment statstics than deal with the problem of unemployment itself. He
kept excluding new categories of jobless from the figues, so as to massage them
downwards. Nevertheless official remained over one million during early 1934,
and Italian public works programmes never employed more than 200,000. But in
1935 300,000 Italians were called up for the invasion of Abyssinia, which also reduced the
unemployment totals.
1931, Mussolini made extensive use of
radio broadcasts, however Italy was a poor country and possessed just
176,000� radios, half of these being in
urban areas. Starace
therefore organised the distribution of 40,000 free radios to Italian schools,
so schoolchildren could hear his broadcasts.
28 October 1932. In Rome the Via dell� Imperio opened. It
was part of a grand plan for the reconstruction of Rome, initiated by Mussolini
in 1931. This was the tenth anniversary of the Fascist March on Rome.
22 December 1931, The Vatican Library suffered considerable
damage when its roof collapsed.
6 November 1931, The Italian government awarded prizes to
the country's biggest families.
12 January 1928, The Italian press was banned from reporting
suicides or sensational crimes.
6 January 1928, Italian Finance Minister Giuseppe Volpi banned industries
from taking out foreign loans without government approval.
5 April 1927, Hungary
signed a �Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation� with the Italian leader, Mussolini.
Hungary needed allies, and Italy strengthened its influence in the Danube
Basin.
Extension of Fascist powers in Italy 1925 - 29
22 May 1929, In Italy, Mussolini banned beauty contests
as immoral.
20 April 1929. The first Italian Parliament composed exclusively of Fascists led by Benito Mussolini was
opened by King
Victor Emmanuel III.
24 March 1929. Mussolini�s single party Fascist state claimed it had won 99%
of the vote in elections.
1928, In Italy,
prefects could prevent people from moving from rural areas to cities. Mussolini
wanted to raise the birth rate, and urban women were more lilely to work and
have fewer children. In 1927 Mussolini had prohibited the Italian media
from promoting slimness in women, as that was also associated with a reduced
birth rate, he believed.
20 September 1928, In Rome the supreme legislative body, the Chamber of
Deputies, was taken over by the Fascists.
12 May 1928. The Italian electorate was reduced from 10 million
to 3 million, under Mussolini. Now only men who paid taxes
of 100 lira or more could vote, and women had no vote at all.
15 January 1927. Winston Churchill met Mussolini in Italy.
1927, The Italian Boy Scouts
were suppressed in favour of the Fascist youth section, the Balilla.
15 December 1926. The Italian fascist party adopted the
Roman symbol of authority, the
fasces, or bundle of sticks, and origin of the word �fascist�, as its symbol.
8 November 1926, Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci
was jailed. He had started the Italian
Communist Party in 1921, and by 1924 was party leader and heading the fight
against Mussolini�s
Fascism. He was imprisoned as part of a fascist crackdown on its opponents, and
in 1928 Gramsci�s prison term was extended to 28 years. In prison in Rome he
wrote Prison Notebooks, detailing his theory of cultural hegemony, the process
whereby the working class take on the values and interests of the middle and
upper classes. Gramsci
argued that the working class needed to
develop its own distinctive culture before a true Communist revolution was
possible, this process requiring intellectuals from the working class to create
this culture. He died in prison in 1937 and his sister in law, Tatiana,
smuggled his works out of the prison and sent them in a diplomatic bag to
Moscow. His writings were not published until after World War Two had ended.
31 October 1926. An
attempt was made on Mussolini�s life. This gave him the excuse to
remove more civil liberties.
7 October 1926. Mussolini decreed the Fascist party to be the state Party;
all opposition was banned.
29 June 1926. In Italy, Mussolini
increased the working day by one hour.
7 April 1926. Mussolini survived an assassination attempt.
Violet Gibson, Irish aristocrat, shot him but only managed to graze his nose.
3 April 1926, In Italy the Ballilla, a Fascist youth
organisation, was founded. It cultivated
Fascist indoctrination of the Italian youth and promoted patriotism, It hosted
youth clubs, organised sports events and organised basic military training. Its
numbers grew aafter the Catholic Boy Scouts were abolished in 1928.
12 February 1926. Mussolini outlawed strikes in Italy.
4 December 1925, The Italian Chamber of Deputies passed
a law allowing the government to regulate rates of industrial production based
on the needs of the country.
25 September 1926, Italy began a campaign against the Mafia in
Sicily.
4 August 1926, Umberto Nobile was feted in Rome for his part
in the recent North Pole expedition, as 20,000 filled the square in front of
the Palazzo Chigi.
7 January 1926, The Royal Academy of Italy was created.
Consolidation of Fascist power in Italy 1922 - 25
5 November 1925. In Italy, Mussolini banned
all left-wing parties.
3 January 1925. Mussolini assumed full dictatorial control in
Italy.� He nominated his
cabinet on 5 January 1925.
5 December 1924, In
Italy, Mussolini
commenced comprehensive press censorship.
17 September 1924, Italy
abrogated the Treaty of Rapallo (made 12 November 1920).
10 June 1924, Italian
socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti was assassinated by Mussolini�s fascists. He had
replaced Filippo
Turati as leader of Italy�s reformed Socialist Party, and on 30 May 1924
he denounced the Italian elections of April 1924, in which Mussolini�s Fascists had done
well, as fraudulent.
6 April 1924. Mussolini�s
Fascist Party won a sweeping victory in the Italian general election. However
there was widespread voter intimidation so the vote was not free and fair.
28 January 1924,
Campaigning began for a general election in Italy. Benito Mussolini addressed
10,000 Blackshirts in the Palazzo Venezia in Rome, predicting complete victory
at the polls and declaring that the Fascists were "ready to kill or
die."
27 January 1924. Mussolini
signed a pact with Yugoslavia, and Italy annexed the free city of Fiume.
24 January 1924, All non-Fascist Trades Unions were banned
in Italy.
16 July 1923. Mussolini
banned gambling in Italy.
10 July 1923, All
non-Fascist Parties in Italy were abolished.
9 June 1923, In Italy, the Vatican ordered the Catholic Party to disband, and many of its members
joined Mussolini�s Fascist Party. The Catholic Party, or Partito Popolare
Italiano (Italian People�s Party), had been formed in 1919;before then the
Vatican had forbidden Catholics to vote. In Italian elections in 1919 and in
1921 the Catholic Party received 20% of the vote, second only to the Italian
Socialist Party. Following Mussolini�s victory in 1922 Cardinal Gasparri, the
Vatican�s Secretary of State, made a deal with Mussolini that the Catholic
Church would support him; in return Mussolini would restore the historic
privileges of the Catholic Church in Italy. In 1927 Mussolini was baptised as a
Catholic, and in 1929 he signed the Lateran Treaty, making the Vatican a
separate sovereign State. He also made Catholicism the State religion of Italy,
and paid the Vatican 750 million lire as compensation for the Vatican�s loss of
the ancient Papal States territory in Italy.
3 June 1923, In
Italy, Mussolini
approved a Bill giving women the vote.
23 April 1923, In
Italy, the Catholic
Party quit from Mussolini�s Government.
2/1923, Fascists were forbidden to be Freemasons; this
helped gain support for Fascism from the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church
was alarmed by the spread of Leftist influence and possible Communist-inspired
anarchy, especially in impoverished southern Italy, and saw the Fascists as
promising welcome stability. The Liberal Left would likely tax Church property.
The Fascists were also anti-contraception and birth control.
21 February 1923, In
Italy the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Vincenzo Cardinal Vanutelli,
said �Mussolini
had been chosen to save the nation and restore her fortune�.
14 January 1923, Fascist
voluntary militia officially approved in Italy.
25 November 1922, The
Italian Parliament granted Mussolini temporary emergency powers to force
through reforms.
31 October 1922, Mussolini�s
supporters organised a mass rally in Rome.
10/1922, General Strike in Italy, organised by the Communists. This gave Mussolini
the pretext for hos March on Rome.
14 November 1923, Italy passed a law stating that the Party
winning the greatest number of votes in an election would automatically receive
two thirds of the seats.
28 March 1923, The Italian Air Force was created.
14 January 1922, Antonino Gullotti,
Italian Christian Democrat politician, was born.
26 June 1921, In Italy, Prime Minister Giolitti fell. He was succeeded
by Ivanoe
Bonomi.
21 June 1919. Francesco Nitti became Prime Minister of
Italy.
14 January 1919, Giulio
Andreotti, Italian politician, was born (died 2013).
Mussolini,
Fascists, gain power in Italy 1920 - 22
30 October 1922. Benito
Mussolini took power in Italy.
29
October 1922, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy invited Mussolini
to travel to Rome from Milan to form a government. Mussolini�s Fascist Party had
been founded in March 1919, and was dissolved on 28 July 1943.
28
October 1922, King Victor Emmanuel III refused the request
of Prime
Minister Luigi Facta to declare martial law, on advice from generals
that the army might disobey orders to fire on the Fascists. The king instead invited Mussolini to come to Rome to discuss the political
situation.
24
October 1922, A mass
rally of 40,000 Fascists at Naples.
4 August 1922, Fighting in Italy between Fascists and Socialists
in several cities; disturbances continued until 8 August 1922.
31 July 1922, General Strike in Italy began in protest at the
weakness of the State in the face of Fascist agitators. Fascists
used the Strike as a pretext to seize power on several cities, including Milan
and Genoa.
1 June 1922, Over 50,000 Italian
Fascists held a meeting in Bologna. The Italian Government was already
favouring Fascists over Left-wingers.
14 March 1922, Socialists and Fascists
clashed in Rome.
7 November 1921, Benito
Mussolini, the 38 year old son of a blacksmith from the Romagna,
became leader of the Italian National
Fascist Party, with its 35 seats in Parliament. Black-shirted Fascist
sqaudristi roamed the country disrupting Communist meetings.
14 May 1921.
Fascists won 35 seats in Italian elections.
27 February 1921.
Communists and Fascists rioted in Italy.
1920, In Italy the Confindustria,
a confederation of industry aimed at countetring working-class agitation, was
established. It contributed large su,ms to the fascist movement who then used
their squadristi to attack the worlkers. From 1922 it was� asignoificant part of Mussolini�s fascist State.
Treaty of Rapallo; Italy, Yugoslavia, territorial
adjustments
5 June 1921, Italy and Yugoslavia signed an agreement over
control of Fiume.
27 November 1920, Italy's
Chamber of Deputies voted 221 to 12 to approve the Treaty of Rapallo with Yugoslavia.
12 November 1920, The
first Treaty of Rapallo was signed,
between Italy and Yugoslavia, settling territorial disputes in the Adriatic and
pledging collaboration to prevent a Hapsburg restoration. Istria, the territory
east of Venice, became part of Italy. The town of Fiume,
seized by Italian Nationalists in September 1919, was to return to Free City
status. However, although the Nationalists were ejected from Fiume by the Italian
Navy, Fiume did not regain this
status and in 1924, when Mussolini came to power, Italy abrogated these terms
and retained control of Fiume
(although Yugoslavia controlled the adjacent port of Susak). After World War
Two, Fiume became part of the Republic
of Croatia, itself a part of Yugoslavia
1919, Italy had made
considerable territorial gains through the Treaty
of Versailles, adding some 14,500 square kilometers of land at Austria�s
expense. Italy gained the provinces of Trentino, South Tyrol and Istria, and in
1924 annexed the Free City of Fiume
(see 12 November 1920). Italy, however had hoped for more, such as some of
Germany�s former colonies.
12 September 1919, An unofficial Italian army
under Gabriele
d�Annunzio seized Fiume,
before it was incorporated in Yugoslavia.
Italian Fascist Party founded, 1919
19 November 1919, In
Italy, Benito
Mussolini and 37 Fascists were arrested after rioting at the
election of the Socialists.
16 November 1919, First
Italian elections that were contested by the Fascists. However the Fascists
did badly, receiving just 4657 votes out of 270,000 cast in Milan, supposedly a
Fascist stronghold. In Predappio, Mussolini�s birthplace, not one vote went to
the Fascists. The Socialists, however,
did very well, gaining 1.76 million votes, their best tally to date; they
raised their seats from 52 to 156, and became Italy�s largest single party.
Socialist support had been boosted by the suffering of World War One,
especially in Germany and the troubles in Russia. The Popolari Party, run by Don Sturzo,
representing Catholics, the forerunner of the post-World War Two Christian
Democrats, also did well, gaining 100 seats. The Pope, who had previously
discouraged Catholics from voting, had now informally encouraged Catholic
support for the Popolari. The Socialists
were later undermined by the split in their ranks between the reformists
(riformisti) and the revolutionaries (massimilasti), the latter defecting to
the Communist Party in 1921. This split allowed the fascists to gain power.
23 March 1919 �The
Italian Fascist Party (Fascio di Combattimento) was founded in Milan by Benito Mussolini. The party aimed to
fight both Liberalism and Communism. The Fascists
wanted land for the peasants, abolition of the Senate, a seizure of Church
property, and tax reform. However most of this agenda was already offered by
the Socialists and by December 1919 the Fascists only had 870 members. During
1926 Party membership rose from 600,000 to 938,000. By the end of 1933 there
were 1,400,000 members, a figure that went up to 2,633,000 by 1939.
25 January 1915, Mussolini
formed the Fasci d�Azione Rivoluzionara in Milan.
Italy entered the Great War on the Allied side, 1915-18
4 November 1918, Italian
troops occupied Trieste.� Under the Treaty of London (25 April 1915), The
UK, France, and Russia agreed to give Trieste to Italy after the War.
1917, Food riots in Turin put down by troops; 50 people
were killed.
4 November 1917, Leopoldo
Franchetti, Italian politician, died (born 1847). He was one of the
first Italian politicians to lead an inquiry into the Sicilian Mafia
28 October 1917, Vittorio
Orlando became Italian Prime Minister.
28 August 1916. Italy declared war on Germany.
9 August 1916. Italian
troops took Glorizia.
17 June 1916, In
Italy a coalition government was formed, including the Catholics and Reformed
Socialists, under Paolo Boselli.
24 May 1915. The
Austrian fleet bombarded Ancona, N.E. Italy.
23 May 1915, Italy entered the war on the Allied side.
4
May 1915, Italy denounced the Triple Alliance (Italy,
Germany, Austro-Hungary). This was a preparatory move to her entering the War
on the Allied side on 23 May 1915.
For
main European events of World War One
see France-Germany
25 April 1915. Italy signed a secret treaty, the Treaty of London, with Britain,
France, and Russia.� Italy agreed to
enter the war on the Allied side within one month in return for territorial
gains.� Italy was to gain the Austrian
provinces of Trentino, South Tyrol, Istria, Gorizia, Gradisca, and Trieste,
also a large stretch of the Dalmatian coast and islands, some Albanian
territory around Valona, full sovereignty over the Turkish-controlled
Dodecanese Islands, the Turkish province of Adalia in Asia Minor, colonial
gains in Africa, and a share of war indemnities.� The Allies agreed to this because they
believed that Italian intervention would soon destroy Austro-Hungary, opening
the �back door to Germany�.� Italy duly
entered the war on 24 May 1915, but the expected breakthrough against Austria
never materialised.� When the Bolsheviks took over in 1917 they revealed the terms of this
secret treaty, which ran totally against the ethnic-determination principles of
President Wilson of the USA;
he stated he did not consider the treaty terms as binding.� At the Paris Peace Conference the UK and
France also opposed implementation of the treaty�s terms, and Italy received
far less than originally specified.� This created popular resentment in Italy
and was a factor in the rise of Mussolini
and Fascism in Italy.
7 June 1914, In Italy, popular uprisings, the so-called Red
Week, began in the Marches and Romagna. Rebellious landless labourers
confronted strike-breakers hired by the landowners. Revoliutionaries including Benito
Mussolini (1883-1945) incited the labourers, who also opposed
military conscription. Ancona and other towns proclaimed themselves
�independent� and Romagna declared itself a republic 100,000 soldiers had to be
deployed to restore order.
For more on 1911-12 conflict between Italy and Turkey see Greece-Turkey
1912, Electoral reform in Italy extended the vote to all literate
men aged 21 and over, and all men aged over 30. This expanded the Italian
electorate from 3 million to 8.6 million. A subsequent electoral reform soon
after abolished the literacy requirement for man aged 21-30, further expanding
the electorate to 11 million, and was a measure to ensure continued popular
support for the Italian war in Libya. It was estimated that 70% of these new
voters were illiterate.
1911,The Camorra were suppressed. Starting as a band of prisoners
united against their� gaolers in Naples
in the 1820s, the Camorra entered Italian politics in 1848.
29 September 1911. Italy declared war on Turkey, having been assured of the neutrality
of other European countries.� The
Italian Navy bombarded Preveza, and Italian forces landed at Tripoli and in
Cyrenicia. This was in retaliation for the alleged mistreatment of Italians in
Libya. The Italians expected the Arabs to welcome them as liberators from Turkish
rule, but instead the Arabs sided with the Turks in resisting Italian rule. In
May 1912 Italy invaded some islands off Turkey, including Rhodes, to put
further pressure on Turkey. Then Italy had some unexpected good fortune when in
1912 Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece started the Balkan War against
Turkey, forcing the Ottomans to surrender Libya to Italy. However Arab
resistance continued and despite a permanent Italian garrison of 50,000 troops
Italian rule only covered Tripoli and other major towns. At least, though,
Italy could now claim to have its own African colony.
18 March 1911, Italian
Prime Minister Luzzatti
resigned.
19 November 1910, Alessandro
Mussolini, father of the Italian dictator, died, aged 56.
24 October 1909, Italy and
Russia signed the Racconigi Pact. Each nation promised to support the status
quo in the Balkans. Italy promised to support Russian aims in tye dardanelles,
and Russia agreed not to interfere with Italian actions in Tripoli.
7 July 1907, Germany,
Austro-Hungary and Italy renewed their Triple Alliance for another 6 years.
29 March 1906, Italian
Prime Minister Giovanni
Giolitti returned to office.
Civil, industrial, conflict in Italy, 1901-05
12 March 1905, Ongoing
strikes and civil disorder in Italy forced Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti out of office.
He returned on 29 March 1906.
21 September 1904, A General
Strike in Italy, called by the Socialists, had spread across the country.
Violence in Milan saw 3 miners killed by troops. This violence caused the end
of the Strike this day.
4 January 1902, Italy was
facing a wave of socialist agitation, as workers campaigned for shorter hours,
greater security of employment, better pay, also non work-related matters such
as more rights for housing tenants. This day a major railway strike was
threatened. Italy was facing a new tendency, the �sympathy strike�.
7 February 1901, The
Italian Government of Guiseppe Saracco was overthrown, for its weak
response to a dock strike in Genoa.
17 May 1904, The
French Ambassador to The Vatican was recalled to Paris. Earlier, on 24 April 1904,
the Vatican had objected to a State visit by the French President to King
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.
24 April 1904, The
French President Emile Loubert and Foreign Minister Theophile Delcasse visited King
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. The Papacy was annoyed at the visit.
26 January 1904, Fire
caused major damage at the National Library, Turin, Italy.
1 November 1902, Italy
signed the Franco-Italian entente with Italy. Italy assured France it would
remain neutral if France was attacked.
16 December 1900, France and
Italy agreed to respect each other�s sphere of influence in North Africa.
Assassination of King Umberto I
29 August 1900, Bresci, the assassin of King Umberto I of
Italy, was sentenced to lie imprisonment. He committed suicide in jail on 22
May 1901.
30 July 1900. In Italy, Umberto I,
56, King since 1878, was shot dead in Monza by an anarchist. Victor Emmanuel
III, 30, �succeeded him.
1898, Nearly 100 people died in
riots in Milan sparked by poverty.
7 August 1898, Enrico Cosenz, Italian soldier, died (born 12
January 1812).
24 May 1898, Benedetto Brin, Italian naval engineer who
laid the basis for the Italian navy, died (born 17 May 1833).
6 March 1898, Felice Cavallotti, Italian politician, died
(born 6 November 1842)
24 May 1896, Luigi Menabrea, Italian statesman, died (born
4 September 1809).
12 May 1896, Henri Cernuschi, Italian politician, died
(born 1821).
27 December 1894, Former King Francis II of Naples died.
13 June 1894, Giovanni Nicotera, Italian politician, died
near Naples (born 9 September 1828).
3 January 1894, The
Italian government ordered the dissolution of the Fasci, and the arrest of their ringleaders. Over 1,000 people were
deported to Italian islands, often without trial. The Fasci were small
alliances, groups of radical or socialist academics and peasants, and some
anarchists, local gentry and Mafiosi. The name derived from the fasces, or
bundle, of sticks used in ancient Rome. Starting in Sicily in 1893 the Fasci
agitated for political ends, with strikes and riots, alarming the larger
landowners.
26 November 1892, Simone St-Bon,
Italian admiral, died (born 20 March 1823).
8 September 1892, Enrico Cialdini,
Italian politician, died (born 10 August 1811).
22 February 1891, Agostino
Magliani, Italian financier, died.
11 April 1890, Birth of Donna Rachele
Mussolini, wife of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (died 1979)
1 January 1890, The Kingdom of Italy established the colony
of Eritrea in Africa.
8 August 1889, Benedetto Cairoli, Italian statesman, died
(born 28 January 1825)
17 October 1888, Carlo Felice Nicolis Robilant, Italian
statesman, died in London (born 1826)
4 October 1888, Cesare Correnti, Italian Revolutionary, died
(born 3 January 1815).
9 April 1888, Lodovico Corti, Italian diplomat, died (born
28 October 1823).
27 February 1888, As
Italian-French relations deteriorated, France imposed selective duties
against Italian products. Italy retaliated in kind on 1 March 1888.
29 July 1887, Agostino
Depretis, Italian politician, died (born 31 January 1813).
20 February 1887, The
Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria and Italy was renewed for a further 5
years.
10 December 1886, Marco Minghetti,
Italian statesman, died (born 18 November 1818).
30 April 1886, Agostino
Bertani, Italian revolutionary, died (born in Milan 19 October 1812).
14 March 1884, Quintino Sella,
Italian statesman, died (born 7 July 1827).
29 July 1883, Benito Mussolini, Italian
founder of the Fascist party and ally of Hitler, was
born in Predappio, near Forli, a town in the impoverished Romagna region of
east-central Italy.� He was the son of a
blacksmith.
9 March 1882, Domenico Lanza, Italian politician, died (born
15 February 1810)
12 May 1881, Tunisia became a French Protectorate. The French
invaded in April 1881 when the Tunisian first minister made various reforms
taking away French economic privileges. This French move was disturbing to Italy, who had
believed that Britain would never permit an extension of French power in North
Africa.
3 April 1881, Alcide de Gasperi, Italian politician, was
born.
23 October 1880, Bettino Ricasoli, Italian statesman, died in
Broglio (born 19 March 1809 in Broglio)
9 January 1878, Victor Emmanuel II, who became the first King of Italy in 1863, died of fever in Rome aged
57. He was succeeded by his son Umberto, aged 33, who ruled until his
assassination in 1900.
5 January 1878, Alfonso
la Marmora, Italian statesman, died (born 18 November 1804).
6 November 1876, Giacomo
Antonelli, Italian Cardinal, died (born 2 April 1806 in Sonnino).
16 December 1873, Nino Bixio,
Italian soldier, died (born 2 October 1821).
1867, Milan�s famous Galleria Vittoria Emmanuele, with its glass roof,
was completed.
1860-72; Garibaldi and achievement of Italian unification and
independence
2 June 1882, Guiseppe Garibaldi, Italian soldier and
politician who helped form the Kingdom of Italy, died aged 74.
7/1872, King Victor Emmanuel of Italy made a
triumphant entry into Rome. A plebiscite had produced 133,681 votes for
unification of the Papal states with Italy, and just 1,507 against.
10 March 1872, Guiseppe Mazzini, Italian
revolutionary who fought for his country�s unity and independence, died in
Pisa.
1871, The Palace of the Quirinal, in the centre of Rome,
became the residence of the Italian Kings.
12/1870, The Tiber river flooded Rome. Victor Emmanuel
capitalised on this as an excuse to make an early visit to the city.
6
October 1870, Rome became the capital of newly-united Italy.
20 September 1870, Taking advantage of the French defeat at Sedan, Italian troops under Victor Emmanuel II
entered Rome
and expelled the Papal troops. Garibaldi had made several attempts to take Rome with his people�s army, the last in 1867,
but had been defeated by the French. Now however Napoleon III had his troops away
from Rome to fight the Prussians.
There was little resistance from Rome;
the walls were shelled, and breached at Porta Pia, and only a few lives were
lost.
29
January 1870, Leopold II, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, died (born
3 October 1797).
11 November 1869, Victor Emmanuel III, King of
Italy, was born.
5 December 1867, France stated that it would never
permit the Italians to occupy Rome. Bismarck of Prussia was not slow to take
advantage of the resultant anti-French sentoiment in Italy, to prevent any
future Franco-Italian alliance against Prussia.
3 November 1867, The Battle of Mentana. Garibaldi was
defeated by French troops rushed to Italy by Napoleon III to defend Rome. Garibaldi�s poorly-organised and diplomatically
ill-advised attempt to march on the Papal capital resulted in France revoking the September
Convention, under which French troops had been withdrawn from
Italy in December 1866.
1867-72, Italians wished to include Rome and the
Papal States in their territory.This was resisted by France, but when France
was distracted by the Franco-Prussian War, Garibaldi seized the opportunity.
9 October 1867, Carlo Filangieri, Neapolitan soldier and statesman, died (born
1784).
11 September 1867, Italian General Cadorna
marched with 60,000 men into Papal Territory. Cittavecchia surrendered, but the
Pope decided to use his force of 10,000 men in Rome to show that he was at
least making some resistance to this incursion.
9 August 1866, An order from Italian General Lamamora
reached Garibaldi; that he was to desist
form attacking the Austrians and evacuate the province of Trentino. Prussia
would not allow Italian expansion into Austria this far north. Garibaldi
now retired again to Caprera, to plan an attack on Rome (Papal States).
1 August 1866, Luigi Farini, Italian statesman,
died (born 22 October 1812).
25 July 1866, The Italians were defeated
in a sea battle against Austria off Lissa.
22 July 1866, A Plebiscite in Venetia
produced an overwhelming majority in favour of unification with Italy; 647,246
votes for, and only 69 against.
21 July 1866, Italy defeated Austria at
Bezzecca.
19 July 1866, Italy defeated Austria at
Amploa.
16 July 1866, Italy defeated Austria at
Condino.
10 July 1866, Italy defeated Austria at
Darso.
7 July 1866, Italy defeated Austria at Lodrone.
3 July 1866, Italy defeated Austria at Monte Saello.
20 June 1866, Italy declared war on
Austria, in support of Prussia.
8 April 1866. Bismarck arranged an
alliance between Italy and Germany. Italy
promised to join Germany in was against Austria if war broke out in the next
three months.
Italian
support for Prussia against Austria
15 September 1864, Under the �September Convention�, Napoleon III
of France agreed to evacuate Rome
and Italy agreed to move her capital from Turin to Florence.
29 August 1862, The Battle
of Aspromonte. Garibaldi,
frustrated by the reluctance of the Italian forces to take Rome
(see 20 September 1870), tried to march on the city with a force of volunteers
from Sicily. He was opposed by Rattazzi, and Garibaldi was wounded and captured at this battle (southern
Italian mainland) He was detained briefly at La Spezia before receiving a royal
pardon. Garibaldi returned to Caprera, as a national hero; in 1866 he again saw active
serive for the Italian State, defeating the Austrians in several battles in July
that year.
28 August 1862, Garibaldi�s
army landed at Calabria en route to Rome.
29 June 1862, Garibaldii,
unhappy at the course of Italian Unification (see 21 October 1860), landed at
Palermo and gathered an army under the slogan �Roma o morte�. Cavour�s successor, Ricasoli, had succeeded in
incorporating Garibaldi�s former forces into the regular Italian Army, and Rattazzi,
successor to Ricasoli,
urged Garibaldi to direct his energies in favour of supporting the Hungarians
(against Austria). However Garibaldi decided
to try and gain Rome (Papal States)
instead (see 21 October 1860). Rattazzi
made a stand against Garibaldi�s forces at Messina (Sicily), but Garibaldi circumvented
Rattazzi�s
forces, entered Catania (Sicily) and then crossed to Melito (Italian mainland,
25 August 1860). See 29 August 1862.
6 June 1861, Count Cavour, the politician primarily responsible
for the unification
of Italy, died.
17 March 1861, Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed King of Italy at Turin by the
country�s first Parliament.
2/1861, The formerly independent Grand-Duchy of Tuscany declared itself part
of Italy.
18 February 1861, The Italian Parliament
opened at Turin.� The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed.
12 February 1861, Gaeta, previously held by Naples, capitulated to Garibaldi. The withdrawal of the French fleet
had permitted bombardment of Gaeta from the sea also.
6 November 1860, The siege of Neapolitan forces at Gaeta by Garibaldi�s
army began.
26 October 1860, Guiseppe
Garibaldi, soldier and fighter for Italian unification,
proclaimed Victor Emmanuel as
King of Italy.
21 October 1860, Several
territories in Italy voted with large majorities to join the emerging Kingdom
of Italy under King Victor Emmanuel, including the Marches and Umbria, as well as the
territories conquered by Garibaldi.
This deprived Garibaldi of political momentum.
This was a relief to the rest of Europe,
who had feared that Garibaldi would overrun the Papal
Territories, destabilising other States in Europe. Garibaldi
handed power to Victor Emmanuel (see 26 October 1860) and retired to the island of Caprera.
However Garibaldi was later to object to the
cession of Nice to France, and returned to Italian politics, see 29 June 1862.
1 October 1860, Garibaldi�s forces
decisively defeated the Royalist forces of Naples at the Battle
of Volturno.
6 September 1860, Francis II, last King of Naples., left the city which had
fallen to Garibaldi�s army and went to Gaeta.
Naples ceased to be a separate state and came under the Italian rule of King Victor
Emmanuel.
21 August 1860, Neapolitan forces were defeated by Garibaldi at Reggio, Italian mainland.
20 August 1860, Garibaldi�s forces,
having conquered all of Sicilyeasily (he was percieved as a liberator), crossed
the Straits of Messina to attack the Italian (Neapolitan) mainland.
20 July 1860, Neapolitan forces were defeated by Garibaldi at Milazzo.
6 June 1860, Garibaldi took
Palermo.
15 May 1860, Neapolitan forces were defeated by Garibaldi at Calatafimi.
11 May 1860, Italian
revolutionary Garibaldi landed at Marsala, Sicily.
5 May 1860, The
radical Italian, Garibaldi, striving for
Italian Unification, set sail from Genoa with his army of redshirts for the
port of Marsala in Sicily.
16 April 1860, Bartolommeo
Borghesi, Italian antiquarian, died in San Marino (born near Rimini
11 July 1781).
1860-72; Garibaldi and
achievement of Italian unification and independence. See also Sicily
for history pre-Italian unification
Map of Italian Unification here � Source,
Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol.15, p.38, 1910
1831-60; Start of movement
towards unified, independent, Italy.
2 April 1860, The first
Italian parliament met, in Turin.
22 May 1859, Ferdinand II,
King
of the Two Sicilies, died (born 12 January 1810). Francis II became King.
Austro-Piedmont War 1859
10 November 1859, A peace
treaty signed at Zurich ended the war between France, allied to Piedmont, and Austria. The effects of the treaty were crucial in
the unification of Italy. Under its terms, Lombardy passed from Austria to
Piedmont, with the exception of the Quadrilateral forts (see 24 June 1859)
which were retained by Austria. Piedmont compensated France 60 million lire for the cost
of the war with Austria. Plebiscites were held in various territories to
determine which State they would join.
10
July 1859, The Treaty
of Villafranca was signed, see 24 June 1859. The war between France (allied
with Piedmont) and Austria was finally concluded by the peace treaty signed at
Zurich on 10 November 1859.
See also Austrian history
24
June 1859, At the Battle
of Solferino, Lombardy,
Italy, the French under Napoleon III allied to Piedmont defeated the Austrians. However the victory was costly for
the French. Napoleon
III knew that his armies must next face the Austrians at the
�Quadrilateral�, the four fortresses of Legnano, Mantua, Peschiera and Verona,
where the Austrians had retreated northwards to, and opposition to the French
would increase in this region. Within France, the war against Austria was
becoming unpopular as army casualties, and deaths from a typhus epidemic within
the ranks, mounted. The war was expensive to France, There was also the
question of what Britain might do, being opposed to the extension of French
power in Italy. Prussia�s intentions, with its 400,000 strong army, were also
uncertain. Therefore Napoleon, without consulting his Piedmont ally, signed the
Treaty of Villafranca, see 10 July 1859.
12 May 1859, France
declared war on Austria.
8 May 1859, The
Austrians were defeated by the Italians at Casale.
26 April 1859, The Austro-Piedmontese war began. Piedmont was
backed by France, who was more interested in weakening Austria than in the
ambitions of Piedmont.
23 April 1859, Austria issued an ultimatum to Piedmont to
disarm. This
followed an agreement between France and Piedmont to ally against Austria. This
agreement was strengthening the power of Italy (see 14 January 1858) and was a
significant threat to the southern flank of Austria.
9 March 1959, Piedmont
called up its reserve troops, to fight Austria.
1 January 1859, French
Emperor Napoleon
III warned the Austrian Ambassador of possible French military
action against Austria, in the Piedmont War.
10 December 1858, Having
obtained Russian approval, Napoleon III of France signed a scecret treaty
of support with Count Cavour, PM of Piedmont.
10 July 1858, Napoleon III
of France secretly met Count Cavour at Plombieres. The two agreed to
jointly attack Austria.
14 January 1858, An
Italian assassin threw a bomb at French Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie
as they drove to the Paris Opera. The bomb, thrown by Felici Orsini, missed its target
but killed eight bystanders and injured 100. Orsini planned the attack in London,
causing anti-British sentiment in France. Napoleon III, now convinced of the magnitude of nationalist sentiment in Italy,
invited Count
Cavour to the spa town of Plombieres in the Vosges Mountains where
the Plombieres Agreement of July
1858 was worked out. This Agreement provided that Piedmont would provide
100,000 men along with 200,000 French to fight Austria. After victory against
Austria, three kingdoms would be set up in Italy. 1) Northern Italy would include Lombardy,
Romagna, Sardinia and Venetia. 2) Central Italy would include Tuscany and the
Duchy of Parma. 2)a)
The Papal lands however would continue under the rule of the Pope. 3) Thirdly,
southern Italy, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, would be ruled by Luciano Murat,
if its current ruler, Ferdinand II, abdicated. A secret agreement of
24 January 1859 between France and Piedmont provided that both would respect
the sovereignty of the Pope.
Austro-Piedmont War 1859
12/1857, Large area east of Naples, Italy, devastated
by an earthquake.
26 January 1955, The
Piedmont Prime Minister, Count Cavour, anxious to secure Franco-British
support in the cause of Italian Unification, sent troops to join in the
Croimean war againbst Russia.
11 November 1854, Mussolini�s
father, Alessandro,
was born in Montemaggiore, close to Predappio.
4 November 1852, Count Camillio
de Cavour became Prime Minister of Piedmont.
8 August 1849, Ugo Bassi,
Italian patriot, was executed.
23 March 1849, Victor Emmanuel
II became King of Sardinia,
on the abdication of his father, Charles Albert (1789-1849), following the
defeat of Charles
at the Battle of Novara, against Austria.
Charles
had been assisting the Lombards in a rebellion against Austrian rule, and had
been defeated once before by Austria, at the Battle of Custozza (25 July 1848), by forces under Radetzky (following
this 1848 defeat, the Salasco Armistice
was signed).
9 February 1849, The Republic of Rome was proclaimed by Garibaldi.
His Nationalist Army came under attack (from 30 April 1849) from a combined
force of French, Austrian, Tuscan, Spanish and Neapolitan troops.
15 November 1848, Pellegrino Rossi, Italian
statesman, died (born in Carrara 13 July 1787)
10/1849, The Italian campaign in
northern Italy had completely failed, with the surrender of Venice this month.
Venice had held out, besieged, several months after everywhere else had
surrendered to the Austrians under Radeztky.
26 August 1848. Garibaldi was defeated by the
Austrians at Morrazone.
26 July 1848, Battle of Volta; along
with Custozza 24-55 July), Italians being forced back by Austrians
24 July 1848,
At the Battle of Custozza, Piedmontese forces were defeated by Austrian Field Marshal Count Radetzky. Austria
continued to rule Lombardy.
9 June 1848, Austrian forces
recaptured Vicenza from the Italians.
30 May 1848, Battle of Goito (also
fighting at Curtatone,29/5), Italians fighting Austrians.
6 May 1848, Battle of St Lucia di
Verona, Italian forces attempting to force back Austrians
29 April 1848, Italian forces halted at
Pastrengo by Austrians.
19 April 1848, Wednesday An Italian
attack on Mantua was repulsed by the Austrians
14 April 1848, Italian troops began a
siege of Austrian forces at Peschiera; the town held out until end-May.
9 April 1848, Italian troops fighting
Austria forced a passage across the River Mincio to its eastern bank.
23 March 1848,
Following the Milan Revolution, Piedmont declared a patriotic war against
Austria.
18 March 1848, Revolution broke out in Milan. This was the Cinque Giornate, �Five
Days� of street fighting that heralded the start of the anti-Austrian Revolution in
Lombardy. Radetzky was driven from Milan, and a
provisional government established under Carlo Cattaneo.
12 January 1848, In Palermo, an uprising
began against the misrule of Ferdinand II of Naples.
2 January 1848, Cigar workers began a
3-day riot in Naples.
1847, The Italian newspaper Il Risorgimento was founded in Turin by Cavour.
1847, In the Papal States,
the National Guard was set up to
keep civil order, by Pope Pius IX.
10 December 1846, Frederico Confalioneri, Italian
Revolutionary, died (born 1785). Italians
were now seeking their own State, free of foreign domination.
6 April 1839, Antonio Strabba Rudini, Italian
statesaman who in 1859 helped pave the way for Garibaldi�s unification of
Italy, was born in Palermo (died 6 August 1908)
2 February 1832, The Government of Piedmont
discovered plans for an uprising scheduled for June 1832, It was organised by
Liberal Republican Guiseppe Mazzini and his Young Italy Association, founded in 1831 to campaign for the political
unification of the Italian Peninsula.
1831, Italy adopted the current
red, green and white flag. Before then it was a red, blue and black Flag of
Revolution.
3 February 1831, Popular uprisings oin the
Italian States of Parma and Modena demanding national union, independence and a
Liberal Constitution. The rebellion spread to the Papal States where opposition
was growing to the rule of newly-eleted Pope Gregory XVI. Austria intervened to help suppress the revolt.
1846-60; Start of movement
towards unified, independent, Italy.
11 March 1847, Sidney Sonnino, Italian statesman, was born in
Florence.
20 February 1846, Francis IV, Duke of Modena, died
11 March 1841, Luigi Luzzatti, Italian financier, was born.
30 May 1845, Ferdinando Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, Italy, was
born (died 18 January 1890).
14 March 1844, Umberto I, King of Italy, was born in Turin,
the son of King
Victor Emmanuel I.
17 August 1843, Count Mariono del Tindaro Rampolla, Italian,
Cardinal, was born in Sicily.
6 November 1842, Felice Cavallotti, Italian politician, was
born (died 6 March 1898).
27 October 1842, Giovanni Giolitti, Italian statesman, was
born.
27 June 1835, Domenico Comparetti, Italian scholar of
mediaeval studies, was born in Rome (died 1929).
28 August 1834, Mussolini�s paternal grandfather, Luigi Mussolini,
was born.
17 May 1833, Benedetto Brin, Italian naval engineer who
laid the basis for the Italian navy, was born (died 24 May 1898)
22 January 1829, Emilio Visconti Venosta, Italian statesman,
was born in Milan.
11 June 1828, Constantino Nigra, Italian diplomat, was born
near Turin (died 1 July 1907 in Rapallo)
13 December 1827, Fabrizio Ruffo, Neapolitan Cardinal and
politician, died (was born 16 September 1744 in Calabria)
3 October 1827, Pasquale Villari, Italian histprical writer,
was born in Naples.
7 July 1827, Quintino Sella, Italian statesman, was born
(died 14 March 1884)
8 August 1826, Count Nicolas Robilant, Italian diplomat, was
born (died 17 October 1888).
28 January 1825, Benedetto Cairoli, Italian statesman, was born
(died 8 August 1889).
4 January 1825, Ferdinand I, King of
the Two Sicilies, died aged 73. He was succeeded 47-year old son, Francesco I.
24 January 1824, Ercole Consalvi,
Italian statesman, died (born 8 June 1757).
28 October 1823, Lodovico Corti,
Italian diplomat, was born (died 9 April 1888)
20 March 1823, Simone Arturo
Saint Bon, Italian Admiral, was born in Chambery (died 26 November
1892)
9 October 1821, Guiseppe
Saracco, Italian politician, was born in Bistagno (died 19 January
1907)
2 October 1821, Nino Bixio,
Italian soldier, was born (died 16 December 1873).
8 April 1821, The
revolt in Piedmont was suppressed, its leaders defeated at the Battle of Novara.
10 March 1821, Revolt in
Piedmont against the rule of King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia (Piedmont
was then a part of the Kingdom of Sardinia).See 8 April 1821.
7 March 1821, Battle of Rieti. The Austrians defeated
the Neapolitans under Pepe. They then entered Naples and reinstated Ferdinand IV
to the throne.
7 July 1820, King Ferdinand
I of Naples promised a national Constitution after a rebellion
organised by secret societies, including the Carbonari. The Inquisition was
also abolished in Naples.
14 March 1820, Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia and first King
of a united Italy, was born.
4 October 1819, Francesco Crispi, Italian statesman, was born
(died 12 August 1901).
18 November 1818, Marco Minghetti, Italian statesman, was born
(died 10 December 1886).
17 March 1817, Pasquale Mancini, Italian statesman, was born
(died 26 December 1888).
12 December 1816, King Ferdinand of Naples abolished the
Sicilian Constitution and proclaimed himself King
of the Two Sicilies (Naples and Sicily). As a monarch he had made himself virtually an Austrian vassal (see
23 January 1806), even having an Austrian, Count Nugent, as Commander in Chief of the
Army. Ferdinand�s ruthless suppression of opposition
in Sicily led to the emergence of the Carbonari, who eventually penetrated
large sections of the Army. A Sicilian military revolt under General Pepe
did intimidate Ferdinand into making some constitutional
reforms; however a pro-independence revolt in Sicily was harshly suppressed
with Neapolitan troops.
13 October 1815, Joachim Murat,
King of the Two Sicilies, was executed.
Murat � see also Napoleonic France
28 September 1815, Joachim Murat,
former
King of Naples, landed with only 30 men at Pizzon to try and regain the
throne. He was soon captured.
3 January 1815, Cesare Correnti,
Italian Revolutionary, was born (died 4 October 1888).
1814, The Italian Carabinieri were established by Victor Emmanuel
I, newly-restored King of Piedmont.
31 January 1813, Agostino
Depretis, Italian politician, was born (died 29 July 1887). They
would become an elite 83,000 strong paramilitary force, with distinctive cocked
hats.
19 November 1812, Agostino
Bertani, Italian revolutionary, was born in Milan (died 30 April 1886).
12 January 1812, Enrico Cosenz,
Italian soldier, was born (died 7 August 1898).
10 August 1811, Enrico Cialdini,
Italian politician, was born (died 8 September 1892).
10 August 1810, Count Cavour, Italian politician who played a
major role in the unification of Italy, born in Turin.
15 February 1810, Domenico Lanza, Italian politician, was born
(died 9 March 1882)
12 January 1810, Ferdinand II, King
of the Two Sicilies, was born (died 22 May 1856).
4 September 1809, Luigi Menabrea, Italian statesman, was born
(died 24 May 1896)
19 March 1809, Bettino Ricasoli, Italian statesman, was born
in Broglio (died 23 October 1880 in Broglio)
4 July 1807, Giuseppe Garibaldi,
soldier who played a major role in the unification of Italy, was born.
2 April 1806, Giacomo Antonelli, Italian Cardinal, was born
in Sonnino (died 6 November 1876).
22 June 1805, Guiseppe Mazzini, Italian
patriot, was born (died 10 March 1872).
18 November 1804, Alfonso la
Marmora, Italian statesman, was born (died 5 January 1878).
4 April 1804, Nicola Fabrizi, Italian patriot, was born
(died 31 March 1885).
23 February 1802, Luigi Cibrario, Italian politician, was born
(died 10/1870).
France,
involvement in Italy under Napoleon, 1795-1806
18 July 1806,
French Marshal Andre
Massena captured Gaeta, southern Italy.
4 June 1806,
British General John
Stuart defeated a small French force at Maida, Calabria, but then
withdrew to his base in Sicily.
30 March 1806, Napoleon
placed his elder brother Joseph on the throne as King of Naples.
23 January 1806, King
Ferdinand of Naples
fled to Palermo, Sicily, as Napoleon invaded Italy. Ferdinand had signed a
treaty of neutrality with France as war between France and Austria broke out; however a few days later he allied himself
with Austria, and allowed an Anglo-Russian force to land at Naples.
23 September 1805,
France annexed the Italian Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Gustalla.
4 June 1805,
France annexed the Ligurian Republic, Italy, thus gaining the port of Genoa.
6 November 1804,
Austrian Emperor Francis II made a secret treaty with Russia to resist
further French aggression in Italy.
21 September 1802, The Italian Republic (see
26 January 1802) annexed Piedmont, and also Parma and Piacenza in October 1802.
26 August 1802, France annexed the island
of Elba, which had been abandoned by Britain in 1797.
29 June 1802, A new Genoese Constitution
was enacted, making the city a vassal of
France, which was extending its influence across Italy.
For
Napoleonic campaign in Italy
against the Austrians, 1790s,
1800s, see also France
26 January 1802, Following the Treaty of
Luneberg between France and Austria (9 February 1801), the Cisalpine Republic,
established by Napoleon
in 4/1797 as a French satellite State in northern Italy, was renamed this day
the Italian Republic. Napoleon Bnaparte was its President. See 21
September 1902.
28 March 1801, Napoleonic France signed
the Peace of Florence with the Kingdom of Naples. This excluded British vessels
from Neapolitan ports.
13 November 1799, Austria occupied the
Italian March of Ancona, on the Adriatic coast of the Papal States, central
Italy.
15 August 1799, The Russians-Austrians
under Count
Suvorov defeated the French under Barthelemy Catherine Joubert at
Novi, Italy, then began an advance acrossa the Alps towards France. Joubert
died in the battle.
17 June 1799, A Russian-Austrian force
under Russian Field
Marshal Count Aleksander Vasilyevich Suvotov heavily defeated French
forces under the Governor of Rome., Jacques Alexandre MacDonald, at the Battle of
Trebbia. The French had been marching to relieve the army of General Victor
Moreau at Genoa.
4 June 1799, Austrian forces under Archduke Charles defeated the
French under Andre Massena at Zurich, Switzerland.
27 April 1799, The French under General Jean
Moreau were defeated� at
Cassano, Italy, by a Russian-Austrian force under Russian Field Marshal Count Alexander
Vasilyeyich Suvorov, who then occupied Turin.
5 April 1799, The Austrians under General Paul
von Kray defeated the French under General Barthelemy Scherer at
Magnano, Italy.
8 February 1799, Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, newly
appointed Papal Vicar-General of the Kingdom of Naples, began a
counter-revolutionary campaign against the French occupation of the Kingdom of
Naples. By June 1799 his forces had�
captured the city of Naples.
15 December 1798, French forces recaptured
Rome from the Austrians under Baron Karl Mack von Lieberich, and occupy the
Kingdom of Naples.
9 December 1798, French forces under General Joubert
forced King
Charles Emmanual of Sardinia to abdicate.
29 November 1798, Ferdinand IV, King of Naples (Ferdinand I,
King of the Two Sicilies), decalred war on France and occupied Rome. France
then (4 December 1798) declared war in Naples.
15 March 1798, The French-dominated Roman
republic was set up in central Italy. Pope Pius VI refused to formally relinquish
his temporal power and moved from Rome to Valence, France.
9 July 1797, France proclaimed a �Cisalpine Republic�,
including Milan, Modena, Ferrara, Bolohgna and Romagna. The Republic of Genoa became the Ligurian Republic, and was a French
puppet State.
19 February 1797, Napoleon captured Tolentino,
Italy, where he signed a treaty with the Papacy (The Peace of Tolentino).
9 February 1797, Napoleon captured Ancona, Italy.
3 February 1797, French and Italian troops
under Marshal
Victor defeated Papal State troops under General Colli.
2 February 1797, Napoleon captured Mantua, Italy.
1 February 1797, Napoleon captured Bologna,
Italy.
4 January 1797, Napoleon defeated the Austrians under
General
Joseph Alvintzi at Rivoli, Italy.
15 November 1796, The French under Napoleon
Bonaparte defeated the Austrians under General Joseph Alvintzi at
Arcole, Italy.
18 October 1796, Napoleon created the Cisalpine
Republic, a French vassal State, by merging the Papal territories of Bologna
and Ferrara with the Duchy of Modena.
15 August 1796, French forces under Napoleon
defeated the Austrians under Count Dagobert Wurmser at� Castglione delle Stiviere, Italy. This
prevented the Austrians relieving the Fremnch siege of Mantua.
16 May 1796, Lombardy, northern Italy, was declared a
Republic, under French rule.
15 May 1796, Sardinia signed the Peace of Cherasco with
Napoleonic France. Sardinia ceded Savoy and Nice to France.
10 May 1796, Napoleon won the Battle of Lodi. Napoleon was greeted in Milan as a
liberator of the city from Austrian rule.
28 April 1796, Napoleon reached an
armistice with Sardinia. Sradinia now abandoned its alliance with Austria
22 April 1796, Napoleon defeated the
Piedmontese at Modovi. Savoy and Nice were ceded to France.
24 November 1795, French General
Barthelemy Scherer defeated the Austrians at Loano, Piedmont,
northern Italy.
9 February 1795, The Grand Duchy of Tuscany,
Italy, made peace with France.
30 June 1799, Francesco Caracciolo, Neapolitan Admiral and revolutionary, died (born 18 January 1732).
2 October 1798, Albert Charles, King of Sardinia, was born
(died 28 July 1849).
4 June 1798, Casanova, Italian adventurer, lover, and
romancer, died at his Castle of Waldstein, Bohemia.
3 October 1797, Leopold II, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, was born
(died 29 January 1870).
3 February 1792, Guiseppe Cerutti, Italian politician, died
(born 13 June 1738)
13 July 1787, Pellegrino Rossi, Italian statesman, was born
in Carrara (died 15 November 1848)
11 July 1781, Bartolommeo Borghesi, Italian antiquarian, was
born near Rimini (died in San Marino 16 April 1860).
1778, Inauguration of La Scala opera
house, Milan.
4 November 1768, Maria Francesco Appendini, Italian historian,
was born (died 1837).
25 March 1767, Joachim Murat, king
of Naples, was born.
13 August 1765, Archduke Leopold, son of Holy Roman Emperor
Francis I and Maria Theresa, began his 25-year reign over the Grand Duchy of
Tuscany.
8 June 1757, Ercole Consalvi, Italian statesman, was born
(died 24 January 1824).
16 June 1752, Giulio Alberoni, Italian statesman, died (born
31 May 1664 near Piacenza).
12 January 1751, Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, was born (died 4 January 1825).
16 September 1744, Fabrizio Ruffo, Neapolitan Cardinal and
politician, was born in Calabria (died 13 December 1827)
8 June 1743, Alessandro Cagliostro, Italian alchemist and
impostor, was born (died 1795).
1739, Archeological excavations
began at Herculaneum, near the town of Pompeii buried by an eruption of Vesuvius.
Excavation of Pompeii itself began in 1748.
31 October 1732, Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy and King of
Sardinia, died (born 1666 in Turin)
13 June 1738, Guiseppe Cerutti, Italian politician, was born
(died 3 February 1792).
19 September 1734, The Battle of Luzzara.
29 June 1734, The Battle of Parma. The French under
Marshal de
Coigny derfeated the Imperialists under Count Claudius de Mercy, who was
killed.
25 May 1734, The Battle of Bitonto.
18 January 1732, Francesco Caracciolo, Neapolitan Admiral and revolutionary, was born (died 30 January
1799).
1720,
Sardinia was acquired by the Duke of Savoy.
7 May 1718, Mary of Modena died (born 5
October 1658).
War of
the Spanish Succession
See also Spain, France, 1700-1718, for events related to the War of the Spanish Succession
4 July 1714, Antonio Magliabechi, Italian
bibliophile, died (born 28 October 1633).
1708,
Austria took Sardinia from Spain.
13 March 1707, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I
occupied the Spanish Kingdom of Naples and forced French troops to leave
northern Italy by the Convention of Milan.
7 September 1706, Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated the French at
Turin, helped by Prussian forces under Leopold of Dessau. The French were evicted
from Italy, and Charles
III was proclaimed King at Milan.
31 August 1706, Eugene linked up with Victor Amadeus
on the upper Po. Their combined army now numbered 36,000, with a further 6,000
Piedmontese east of Turin and 15,000 in the besieged city. Against them were
60,000 French west of the Po at Turin, and a further 20,000 facing the
Piedmontese. A further 20,000 French were in various garrisons across northwest
Italy. Eugene,
in a favourable position bu outnumbered, decided to attack the French siege
lines.
15 August 1706, Eugene began a westwards
offensive against the Duke of Orleans and Marshal Marsin in Italy, seizing
Parma this day.
22 April 1706, Eugene arrived from Vienna to
take command in Italy and halt the Austrian retreat.
19 April 1706, Vendome, with some 100,000 men
against just 30,000 Savoyards and under 40,000 Asutrians, drove the Austrians
out of central Lombardy back to the Adige River, also besieged Turin, capital
of Savoy.
15 August 1702, Battle of Luzara. Eugene of Austria successfully fought off a
larger Franco-Spanish force.
1 February 1702, Battle of Cremona. Prince Eugene of Austria made a surprise
attack on the French and captured Marshal Duke Francois de Villeroi. The French
replaced him with Marshal Louis Josef, Duke of Vendome.
1 September 1701, Battle of Chiari, War of the Spanish
Succession. The French attacked Prince Eugene of Austria but were repulsed
with heavy losses. They withdrew to Cremona for the winter. Eugene
went on to blockade the French-Spanish garrison at Mantua.
28 May 1701, Prince Eugene of Austria made a surprise
arrival at Vicenza, having bypassed Catinat by using smaller roads. The French
withdrew west to avoid being cut off.
15 June 1671, Execution in Cagliari of
the Marquis
of Cea, leader of the Sardinian Conspiracy
28 May 1668, Assassination of the Marquis de
Camarassa, Viceroy of Sardinia.
31 May 1664, Giulio Alberoni, Italian statesman, was born
near Piacenza (died 16 June 1752)
5 October 1658, Mary of Modena was born (died 7 May 1718).
16 July 1647, Tommaso Aniello, fisherman who led the revolt
in Naples against Spanish rule, died.
11 July 1635, By the Treaty of Rivoli, Victor Amadeus I of Savoy
took command of the Italian league against Milan.
28 October 1633, Antonio Magliabechi, Italian bibliophile, was
born (died 4 July 1714).
19 June 1631, Cardinal Richelieu of France organised the
Treaty of Cherasco which ended the War of the Mantuan Succession. The French
candidate, Charles
Duke of Nevers, was invested by Ferdinand II with the Duchy of Mantua. France
gained Pinerolo, in the Alps near Turin, and the Duke of Mantua was betrothed
to the sister of King Louis XIII. France therefore gained territory and
influence in Italy.
17 January 1628, Charles I of Goganza took possession of Mantua,
after the death of his cousin Vincent II.
26 December 1627, Vincent II of Mantua (Lombardy, Italy) died.
5 March 1626, Spanish troops evacuated from the Valtelline,
Lombardy, Italy.
12 December 1602, Duke Charles Emmanuel attempted to take the
city of Geneva
by surprise, for the Kingdom of Savoy.�
He failed with heavy losses.
1594, The ancient town of Pompeii was (re)discovered.
1582, The Academia Della Crusca was founded in Florence, for the purpose of
maintaining the purity of the Italian language. In 1612 it published, for this
purpose, the Vocabulario della Crusca.
1 December 1580, Giovanni Morone, Italian Cardinal, died )born
25 January 1509).
French
expelled from Italy
10 August 1557, The Battle of St Quentin. Spanish forces under the Duke of Savoy
defeated the French
under the Constable
of Montmorency. The French were driven out of Italy.
25 October 1555, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V handed over government of The
Netherlands, Milan and Naples to his son Philip of Spain.
2 August 1553, Battle of Marciano. A
French army invading Tuscany was defeated.
War weariness of France and Spain. They come to an agreement, and this leaves
England, who had been fighting France, without allies
18 September 1544, France and
Spain concluded the Peace of Crepy. Spain was growing weary of fighting. The
Treaty prseerved the status quo, with France retaining north west Italy. England
was suddenly without allies against France. King Henry VIII returned to
England, leaving a garrison in Boulogne.
14 April 1544, Battle of
Ceresole. France defeated the Spanish south of Turin.
15 April 1542, Leonardo da Vinci was born.� His father, Piero da Vinci, was a notary and
his mother, Caterina
da Vinci, was a peasant
1 February 1542, Girolamo Aleandro, Italian
Cardinal, died in Rome (born 13 February 1480 in Motta, near Venice).
6 January 1537, Alessandro de
Medici was assassinated
24 October 1535, Francesco Sforza II, Duke of Milan, died
aged 45 without a successor. Milan became a suzerainty of Charles V.
12 August 1530, Florence
surrendered to the Holy Roman empire/
2 August 1530, Battle of
Gavinana; Florence was fighting to keep out the Holy Roman Empire.
23 February 1530, Carlos I of Spain was crowned Charles V
of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Italy by Pope Clement V.
29 June 1529, The Treaty of Barcelona was agreed. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
will be formally crowned king of Naples by Pope Clement VII.
5 May 1529, Paulus Aemilius, Italian historian, died in
Paris (born in Verona).
22 June 1527. Nicolo Macchiavelli died in Florence, Italy, aged 58.
6 May 1527, German mercenaries sacked the city of Rome, an
event considered by many to mark the end of the Renaissance. This occurred
during warfare between the Holy League and the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
24 July 1526, The Spanish captured Milan.
16 May 1526, Florence became a Republic again, as the
Medici rulers, nephews of Pope Clement VII, were exiled.
24 February 1525. The Battle of
Pavia. Pavia, held by the French, had been under siege by Spanish
forces since October 1524. Italy itself was a territory
being fought over by the rival powers of France, Germany, Turkey
and Spain.
The French
under King
Charles VIII defended Pavia with cavalry and cannon, but the Spanish
had adopted the arquebus or hackenbushe, an early version of the handgun; this
weapon replaced the Spanish crossbow. The arquebus meant an unskilled infantryman could kill a
skilled knight and Pavia was the start of the dominance of the handgun as a
military weapon.
25 January 1525, Italian troops approached Pavia from the east and dug in
across an unfordable river from the French besieging Pavia.
28 October 1524, France began a siege of Pavia (to 24 February 1525)
but the French
commender recklessly split his forces, sending some to attack Naples, which they failed to take, and
leaving just 25,000 men at Pavia.
30 April 1524, France defeated at the Battle of the Sesia, and retreated back across the Alps.
30 May 1522, The French were evicted from Genoa.
27 April 1522, Battle of Bicocca.
Swiss forces attacked the Spanish too early, before French
artillery support was in position. 3,000 Swiss cavalry were
killed by Spanish arquebus as they were held up at Spanish entrenchments.French
haev6y cavalry attempted a diversionary attack but were driven off, and the French
commander Lautrec
retreated east into Venetian territory.
23 November 1521, The Italians under General Prosper Colonna, with
their Spanish
and Papal allies, made a surprise attack on the French in Milan under Marshal Odet de
Lautrec and ousted them from the city. Then in 4/1522 Lautrec,
having obtained Swiss, Venetian and French
reinforcements, prepared to retake the city. The Swiss
troops threatened to depart unless paid, then agreed to fight one more time.
28 May 1521, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Pope Leo X agreed a secret
treaty to expel the French from Milan.
Efforts begin to
expel the French from Milan
2 October 1523, Alessandro Alessandri, Italian jurist, died in
Rome.
24 June 1519, Lucrezia Borgia, Italian noblewoman from a
corrupt family, illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VII, died.
12 June 1519, Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was
born. He was Duke of Florence from 1539 and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1569; he
died in 1574.
13 December 1516, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I overturned his
treaty with England and by the Treaty of Brussels, accepted the Treaty of Noyon, The Emperor�s claims
on Italy were withdrawn for a payment of 200,000 ducats, and Verona was
transferred to Venice.
France and
Spain make peace over Italy; France gains Milan and Spain gains Naples
13 August 1516, The Treaty of Noyon.
Charles I,
newly crowned King of Spain (later Emperor Charles V), made peace with France,
recognising French control of Milan in return for French renunciation of its
claims over Naples.
11 December 1515, Treaty of
Bologna. Pope
Leo X surrendered the northern Italian cities of Parma and Piacenza
to the French.
13 September 1515, The French defeated the Swiss
at the Battle of Marengo (Marignano).
After fierce fighting in which many on both sides were killed, the French now
occupied Milan. Switzerland negotiated peace with France, a peace that endured
until the French Revolution. The Pope then also also sued for peace, and the
anti-French alliance collapsed. France now occupied most of Lombardy.
6/1515, The new King of France, Francis,
continuing his predecessor�s aim of hegemony there, formed an alliance with
English King
Henry VIII and with Venice, against Germany, the Pope, Spain Milan,
Florence amnd Switzerland. Francis now invaded Italy by the high and
diffocult Argentoiere Pass, aided by the defected formerly Spanish engineer Pedro Navarro
(who had been captured by French forces after a conflict with Spain and then
abandoned hos former allegiance when Spain failed to ransom him back).
Gradual
cessation of the combatants against France (1502-13)
12/1513, Despite victories such as
Novara and Guinegatte, the Allies against France, discouraged by the defection
of Switzerland (September 1513) now made peace
one by one with France,
first Spain
and the Pope this month, then Germany (March 1514) and England (July 1514).
7 October 1513, Battle of La Motta.
Cardona, Viceroy of Naples, defeated Venice, due to his superior Spanish
pikemen.
9/1513, At Dijon, the Swiss
accepted a French indemnity and made peace, letting down their English and
German allies.
2 April 1512, At the Battle
of Ravenna, French
forces defeated a Spanish � Papal army.
13 November 1511, England
intervened in Italian politics when King Henry VIII joined the Holy League (see 5 October 1511).
England joins the forces fighting
against France in the Italian conflict
5 October 1511, Pope Julius II
formed the Holy League,
allying the Papacy with Venice and Spain to
evict the French from Italy.
13 May 1511, French forces
captured Bologna. However Papal and Spanish forces then beseiuged the city, but
French commander Gaston raised the siege.
3 July 1510, Pope Julius II
invested the Kingdom of Naples to Ferdinand II of Spain,
and gained the support of the Holy Roman emperor in an alliance against France.
12 October 1509, Emperor
Maximilian I, having failed to recapture Padua, departed for the
Tyrol.
17 July 1509, Padua rebelled
against the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Maximilian I besieged the city.
29 April 1507, Louis XII, King of France, led
his troops into Genoa.
25 March 1507, King Louis XII of France
attacked Genoa with a Swiss army to restore law and order there, after a
popular uprising in 1506.
31 January 1504, France ceded Naples to Spain
under the Treaty of Lyons. Spain retained the territory until 1713.
1 January 1504, French forces left Gaeta by
sea, under the terms of a peace treaty with the victorious Spanish.
29 December
1503, At the Battle of Garigliano, near Gaeta, Italy, Spanish forces
under Gonzalo
Fernandez de Cordoba defeated a French-Italian
mercenary army under Ludovico
II, Marquis
of Saluzzo.� French forces withdrew to Gaeta.
13 May 1503,
The Spanish
captured Naples.
21 April 1503, The Battle of Cerignola, Italy.� The Spanish under Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba
defeated the French under the Duc de
Nemoura, who was killed.� This
was the first battle considered to have been won by gunpowder and small arms.
1502, Spanish-French conflict restarted in Italy.
France and Spain re-start conflict over Italy
20
May 1509, Caterina Sforzi, Countess of
Forli, died (born 1463)
25
January 1509, Giovanni Morone, Italian
Cardinal, was born (died 1 December 1580).
4 August 1501, Louis D�Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, was named Viceroy of Naples by King Louis XII of France.
14
June 1497, Juan Borgia, Duke of Gandia and
illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI, was murdered, probably by
his brother Cesare.
Cesare
now directed Papal politics.
25 September 1496, Piero Capponi, Florentine
statesman, died.
7 September 1496, Ferdinand II, King of Naples, died.
18 December 1495, Alfonso II, King of Naples, died.
France and Spain
agree to a treaty over Italy, 1494-1500
11 November 1500, The Treaty
of Granada. Spain
and France
agreed to divide Naples between them.
6 July 1495, At the Battle
of Fornovo, the French Army secured its retreat from Italy by
defeating a combined Milanese-Venetian force under Giobvanni Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. France had contested with Spain over who would control Italy.
Charles VIII
of France
expected support from his one-time allies, the Milanese, but when he arrived in
Italy he found they had joined with Venice, the Papacy and the Holy Roman
Empire to oppose his plans for Italy.
28 June 1495, At the Battle of Seminara,
Cordoba
and Ferrante
were defeated by a French army under Bernard Stewart, Lord of Aubigny.
26 May 1495, A Spanish army under Gonzalo de Cordoba landed in
Calabria, to oust the French and restore Ferrante II to the throne of
Naples.
Spanish
forces enter Italy to expel the French
12 May 1495, Charles VIII of France was crowned King of
Naples.
31 March 1495, Pope Alexander VI formed the
League of Venice, which included the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Venice and
Milan. It was formed to protect Christendom from the Ottoman Empire, but initially worked to mexpel France from Italy.
22 February 1495, King Charles VIII of France entered Naples to claim the city�s
throne.� A few months later he returned
to France with most of his army, leaving a force under his cousin, Gilbert Count
of Montpensier as viceroy.
28 January 1495, King Charles VIII of France
left Rome for Naples.
17 November 1494, French forces entered Florence,
Italy.
31 December 1494, French forces engtered Rome. Pope Alexander
VI fled to the fortress of Castel Sant�Angelo.
8 November 1494, French forces entered Lucca,
Italy.
1 September 1494, Charles VIII of France
invaded Italy to claim Naples.
France
invades Italy to claim Naples
25 January 1494, Alfonso
II succeeded to the
throne of the Kingdom of Naples and was recognised by Pope
Alexander VI. Charles VIII of France also claimed the throne through descent
from the House of Anjou.
Rival French and Spanish
claims to the throne of Naples
14 June 1493, Ermolao Barbaro, Italian scholar, died in Rome
(born in Venice 21 May 1454).
12 January 1492, Andrea Alcati, Italian jurist, was born in
Alzano, near Milan.
8 April 1492, Lorenzo de Medici,
patron of learning and the arts, died aged 43, after a 23 year reign of
cultural enlightenment.
16 October 1483, Gasparo Contarini, Italiun diplomat and
Cardinal, was born.
10 September 1481, Alphonso II of Naples recaptured the city of Otranto.
18 April 1480, Lucrezia Borgia, Italian noblewoman,
illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope Alexander VI) was born in
Rome.
13 February 1480, Girolamo Aleandro, Italian Cardinal, was born
in Motta, near Venice (died 1 February 1542 in Rome).
7 September 1479, In Milan, Ludovico Sforza launched a coup
against the rule of his yoiung nephew Duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza.
26 April 1478, Guiliano de Medici was assassinated; the Pazzi
Assassination.
26 December 1476, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, was
assassinated by Milanese nobles. His 7-year-old son, Gian Galeazzo, succeeded
him under the regency of his mother, Bona of Savoy.
2 December 1469, Piero de Medici died. Control of his
Florentine bank passed to his sons Lorenzo and Guiliano.
3 May 1469, Niccolo Machiavelli,
Italian statesman and historian, was born in Florence.
7 October 1468, Sigismondo Malatesta, tyrant and soldier,
died.
1/ August 1464, Cosimo de Medici died aged 75 in Florence. He
was succeeded as head of the banking family by his son, Piero.
9 April 1454, Three rival Italian powers � Venice, Milan, and Florence � agreed to unite in an �Italian league�.
Rome also seemed likely to join.
26 February 1450, Francesco Sforza, claimant to govern the
Ambrosian republic of Milan, after Filippo Maria Visconti, successfully mounted a
coup and became its new ruler.
13 August 1447, Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan and last
of the Visconti Dynasty, died. Milan now established the Ambrosian Republic. Francesco
Sforza, son-in-law of the late Filippo, claimed military leadership, but his
claim was disputed� by various factions,
including supporters of King Alfonso V of Aragon. (whom Filipo
had actually nominated as his successor) and also Charles Duke of Orleans.
12 June 1442, Alfonso V, King of Aragon, was crowned King
pof Naples.
10 December 1441, The Treaty of Cavriana settled peace
between Milan and Venice. It was organised by Francesco Sforza, working for Venice
but married to Bianca,
daughter of Filippo
Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan.
11 February 1435, Joanna II, Queen of Naples, died.
5 October 1434, Florentine banker Cosimo de Medici returned from
exile to rule Florence for ther next 30 years.
2 February 1426, Venice declared war on Milan. During the
three year war that followed, Venice gained control of Verona, Vicenza, Brescia
and Bergamo.
28 October 1421, Milan annexed the port city of Genoa, as
the Visconti Dynasty made a bid for regional supremacy in northern Italy.
1416, At the naval Battle of
Gallipoli, Venice defeated the Ottoman fleet.
16 May 1412, In Italy, Giovanni Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, was
assassinated. He was succeeded by his brother Filippo.
7 August 1409, The Council of Pisa was dissolved.
9 October 1406, Florence had long coveted Pisa for an
outlet to the sea. In 1362-4 Pisa had defended its independence with the help
of a band under Sir
John Hawkwood (died 1392), and later secured French protection under
French King Charles VI (13680-1422). However in 1405 Florence persuaded France
to hand over Pisa in return fpor supporting the AntiPope Benedict XIII (Pedro
de Luna). Pisa rebelled against Florentine rule and Florence imposed a
six-month siege by land and sea. Pisa fell to Florence this day, giving it its
desired seaport.
1400, Five separate States, all very
different in culture, economy and politics, dominated the Italian Peninsula.
These were the Republics of Venice and Florence, the Duchy of Milan, the Papal
States,and the Kingdom of Milan
10 April 1389, Cosimo de Medici, Italian ruler, was born.
22 May 1382, Joanna I Queen of Naples was executed.
29 April 1380, Death of Catherine of Siena, who became the patron
saint of Italy. She was born in 1347 in Siena as Caterina Beninasca and became an
ascetic. She campaigned against the Papal split (Avignon) and corruption, and
was canonised by Pope Pius II in 1471, and is a noted Mediaeval women
writer.
1378, Revolt of the Ciompi, in Milan. Following the Black Death, workers
who were esxcluded from the Guilds, and thereby disenfranchised, breofly
overthrew the merchant oligarchy. However their victory was to be only
short-lived.
26 May 1362, Louis, King of Naples, died.
24 July 1358, This day a �Great Company� of roving German
mercenaries was defeated at Scalella Pass by the Florentines. These mercenaries
had originally been hired by Italian princes fighting Milan, but when their pay
ceased they took to roving and plundering anywhere in the Italian Peninsula.
This day Florence was saved from lootoing and destruction by them.
8
October 1354, Cola di Rienzi, reformer, was
murdered.
23
September 1339, Simon Bocanegra was elected the
first Doge of Genoa.
1326, The Kingdom of Aragon took Sardinia.
8
October 1323, Pope John XXII claimed the right
to confirm Imperial kingships and thereby demanded that Ludwig surrender the kingship of
the Romans because Ludwig claimed Imperial authority in northern
Italy.
11
June 1323, Papal Legate, Bertrand du
Poujet, led a military campaign against the Ghibbelines and besieged
Milan, but called off the siege when Ludwig of Bavaria sent troops to help the
Milanese.
5
January 1322, In Italy, Milanese
forces seized Cremona.
29
August 1315, In Italy, Uguccione,
Despot of Pisa, defeated the armies of Florence and Naples at Montecatini.
24
August 1313, King Henry VII of Germany was
poisoned, whilst leading an army against Naples.
13
June 1313, Pope Clement V declared Naples
to be under Papal protection.
31
October 1312, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII
abandoned his campaign against Florence.
7
May 1306, Revolt in Bologna, Italy,
against the Papacy.
10
June 1304, A fire destroyed the
centre of Florence. It was started by the extreme wing of the Black faction of
the Guelph Party.
27
January 1302, Dante was exiled from Florence.
His allies had been overthrown by Charles of Valois.
1299, Construction of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, began (completed 1301)
2
June 1289, Florence became the
dominant power in central Italy when it defeated Arezzo at the Battle of
Campaldino.
1285, Death of Charles of
Anjou (1227-85), Angevin King of Naples and Sicily. Posthumous son
of Louis
VIII of France, he was crowned King by Pope Urban IV
in 1265.
28 November 1284, Florence began to extend its city walls. The
first stone of the new walls was blessed this day.
6 August 1284, Second Battle of Meloria (island off Leghorn).
Genoese ships attacked a Pisan force, over their rival claims to the islands of
Corsoica and Sardinia. Pisa was defeated.
30 March 1282. Peter III of Aragon opened hostilities against
Charles of
Anjou for possession of Naples and Sicily.� This war was ended by the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302.
26 October 1274, Genoa allied with the pro-Imperialist
forces in Lombardy, NW Italy.
25 August 1268, Battle of Tagliacozzo. Charles defeated Conradin, who was captured and
executed.
1268, Conradin (see Germany,
see Sicily),
Holy Roman Empire, aged 16, was welomed in Rome in July, but his forces were
defeated in August at Tagliacozzo by Charles of Anjou, King of the Two Sicliies.
Agents of Charles
then seized and executed Conradin; he was tried as a traitor and found
guilty and then executed at Naples.
The House of Hohenstaufen was now extinct. The execution had the tacit approval
of Pope Clement IV, but it shocked Europe, especially King Henry III of England
and King Louis IX of France. It began a
long-lasting enmity between Germany and the Roman Catholic Church.
4 September 1260, The Battle of
Montaperti. Manfred,
King of Sicily, allied to the Ghibbelines, defeated the Guelphs. He now became
Protector of Tuscany.
2 December 1254, Manfred, illegitimate son of the late Ferederick II,� began an anti-Papal revolt and seized Lucera;
this day he defeated the Papal Army at Foggia, gaining the loyalty of Apulia.
26 May 1249, The King of Sardinia, Enzio, was captured by the Bolognese at
Fossalta.
Further conflict, Holy Roman Empire against Papal States
1247, Parma fell to a surprise attack by Lombard Guelphs. Frederick
II, Holy Roman Emperor, brought a large army and laid siege to the
town. In February 1248 the Lombards succeeded in breaking the siege., whilst Frederick
II was away hunting.
3 May 1241,
First battle of Meloria (island off Leghorn). Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II allied with Pisa, attacked ships bringing prelates to a
council summoned by Pope Gregory IX. Several of these Genoese
ships were sunk, and a number of prelates were killed or taken prisoner.
20 March 1239, Pope Gregory IX
excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II a second time.
27 November 1237, Holy Roman
Emperor Frederick II destroyed a second Lombard League
by his victory at Cortenuova. However in 1238 he failed to capture Brescia.
6 March 1226, A
second Lombard League of Italian cities was formed against Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.
18 November 1210, Holy
Roman Emperor Otto IV was excommunicated by the Pope, but completed
his conquest of southern Italy anyway.
25 April 1194, Eccelino da Romano, Ghibelline leader and
supporter of Frederick II, was born (died 7 October 1259).
8 August 1173, The construction of what is now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa began.
Resistance by North Italian cities against Germans, Holy Roman Emperor
25 June 1183,
The Peace of Konstanz was signed
between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and
the Italian Lombard League.
24 July 1177, Holy
Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa effected a reconciliation with Pope Alexander
III at Venice.
29 May 1176, The Battle of Legnano; Italian city-states
gained autonomy from the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa. The Lombard League of Italian
towns, supported by Pope Alexander III, objected to Barbarossa�s
interference in their internal affairs. Barbarossa had laid waste
to Milan, but was defeated at Legnano, north-west of Milan, and admitted
defeat.
13 April 1175, Frederick
called off his siege of Alessandria.
29 October 1174,
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick, on his 5th Italian
campaign, began a siege of Alessandria, northern Italy.
Attack on Italy by Holy Roman Emperor Barbarossa
27 April 1167, Italians from the
cities of Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona, Mantua, Treviso and Verona arrived at the
ruins of Milan to rebuild it. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa had imposed a
non-native ruler, or Podesta, upon it,
as he had upon other Italian cities he controlled, following the surrender of
Milan to him after his siege of it in 1158. The taxes imposed upon Milan by the
Podesta were heavy and they revolted.
In 1162 Frederick
returned to Milan and this time razed it to the ground, dispersing its
inhabitants into the countryside. Although Frederick went on to capture Rome in 1167, his
army was decimated by malaria and he had to return to Germany for
reinforcements. Facing domestic issues in Germany he could not return south and
deal with this act of defiance in rebuilding Milan. He was unable to re-enter
Italy until 1174, by which time the Lombard League had consolidated and gained
control of the central and eastern Alpine passes. In 1168 the Lombards founded
a new city, called Alessandria in honour of Pope Alexander II, to defend the
western frontier. Alessandria withstood a 6-month siege by Frederick (1174-5) and on 29 May
1176 Frederick
was decisively defeated at Legnano.
1164, North Italian cities established the Lombard League, to maintain their
independence against the Holy Roman Emperor.
26 November 1160, Holy Roman Emperor Barbarossa captured the Italian city of Crema. Crema was
allied to Milan, a wealthy city which Barbarossa wished to acquire. Arriving at
Crema on 2 July 1159, Barbarossa laid siege, and both sides used barbarous
tactics, tying prisoners to siege towers, even children, so they were killed by
their own side, and hacking prisoners to pieces in front of the enemy. Hunger
eventually forced Crema to surrender; its defenders lives were spared, but the
city was razed to the ground.
11 November 1158, Holy Roman
Emperor Frederick I
Barbarossa declared himself ruler of northern Italy.
1155, Pisa began constructing fortifications, building a
large ditch around the town this year and a city wall in 1156.
29 June 1128, Conrad of
Hohenstaufem was crowned King of Italy.
Rebellion of Arduin against King
Henry III of Germany�s rule of Italy
14 February
1014, King Henry III of Germany
was proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope. Arduin, considering himself the King of
Italy, seized Vercelli, west of Milan amd besieged Novara and Como; however he
was then vanquished by Henry III�s forces. Arduin then retired to a monastery� at Fruttuaria, near Turin, where he died in
1015.
14 May 1004, Arduin left Italy. Emperor
Henry II was crowned King.
1004, King Henry II of Germany, attempting
to reverse the success of Arduin (see 2/1002), overcame Arduin�s forces,
and
occupied Pavia. The townspeople resisted Henry, and uncertain of the
sustainability of his position, Henry fled back to Germany. Arduin now
attacked the bishops who had supported Henry., with the support of the Italian
nobles.
15 February
1002, Arduin led an
Italian revolt against German rule, and was crowned King of Italy
February 1002, Arduin, Marquis of Ivrea, led the Lombards
in NE Italy in a successful revolt agaoinst the rule of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III (980-1002). Otto had claimed
the title �King of Lombardy�, and planned to create an �ecclesiatical empire�
based on Rome. The Italian bishops supported Otto, but the lay nobles were loyal to Arduin. Arduin was now
proclaimed King of the Lombards at Pavia, shortly after the death of Otto.
21 May 996, Pope Gregory V
crowned Otto
III as Emperor. Gregory was expelled by the citizens of Rome
in September 996.
7 December 983, Holy Roman
Emperor Otto
II died in his palace in Rome, aged 28. He was succeeded by his
3-year-old son, Otto
III, under the guardianship of his Byzantine mother Theophano.
13 July 982, Emperor Otto II,
who had invaded Italy, was defeated at Apulia by an allied Arab-Byzantine
force.
14 April 972, Otto II
was married to Theophano,
niece of Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces. This allied the �Western Roman Empire� with Byzantium.
22 December 967, Pope John XIII
formally crowned Otto II, son of Otto I The Great, co-Emperor.
4 December 963, Emperor Otto I The Great deposed Pope John XII.
Leo VIII
was elected to succeed him.
September 961, King Otto I the Great of Germany, and his son, Otto, were recognbised
as Kings of Italy when they captured Pavia.
Normans in southern Italy pushed back Muslims
1059, Pope Nicholas II invested the Norman
leader, Robery
Guiscard, with the Dukedoms of Apulia, Catalonia and Sicily. The
Papacy had initially been opposed to the growth of Norman power in southern
Italy, but a Norman victory at Civitato in 1053 forced the Popes to
reconsider.
1050, Pisa took Sardinia from
the Saracens, who had invaded it around 800.
See also Sicily for history of Norman occupation there
1016, The Normans were �invited� to
help liberate southern Italy from Byzantine rule.
916, Italian forces
succeeded in capturing the Arab Muslim fortress on the River Garigliano, which
was about a third of the way north from Naples towards Rome. This secured
Italy, and the Christian centre of Rome, against Muslim incursions.
2 February 871, Louis II (the German) evicted
the Arabs from Bari, southern Italy.
840, Muslim Arabs attacked the
mainland of Italy. See 916.
10 August 843, The Treaty of
Verdun divided the Holy Roman Empire into three equal shares� The imperial crown and central portion from
Frisia to Italy went to Lothair.� Louis the German received Germany, and Charles the Bald, son of Pepin, received
France.
5 May 840, One of
the sons of Charlemagne,
Emperor Louis
of Bavaria, died of fright during a solar eclipse.� His other sons quarrelled, causing the
division of his empire into France, Germany, and Italy, see 843.
Lombardy 568-774
774, Charlemagne
defeated Lombardy, adding it to his Empire.
756, Aistulf went back on his promises and attacked Rome again. The Pope again
allied with Pepin, Lombardy was defeated again, and at the
Treaty of Pavia Lombardy became a Frank fiefdom.
751, Aistulf, King of Lombardy,
conquered Ravenna in a programme of territorial expansion. This alarmed the Papacy
under Pope Stephen,
who enlisted the support of Pepin
the Short against Aistulf.
Pepin
invaded Italy in 755, defeated Aistulf,
and made him promise to return the conquered territories. Aistulf died in
the campaigns of 756. These events paved
the way for the Carolingian domination of Italy.
Click here for
maps of Lombardy.
749, Aistulf became
Kong of Lombardy (died 756).
569, The Lombards
established a capital at Pavia.
1 April 568.
King Albion
of the Lombards (King since 565,
died 573), a Germanic tribe, assembled an army that included his allies,
20,000 Saxons, in order to cross the Alps and form a settlement in Italy. The
Lombards, from the Danube Valley, may have been invited to attack Italy by the
Byzantine General Narses.
Milan was occupied by the Lombards on 4 September 569 and Lombard rule was established
in northern Italy.
Goth attacks on Italy 401-552
552, King Totila,
Ostrogoth, killed fighting Byzantium (King Narses) at the Battle of Taginae. In 553 Narses again took
Rome and Naples for Byzantium.
550, Ostrogothic King
Totila reconquered Rome.
540, Ostroghtic King Totila
took Italy from Byzantium.
12
March 538, Vitiges realised
that Rome was not being starved, and the arrival of a Byzantine fleet in the
Tiber with 5,000 more men forced him to raise the siege. Vitiges then marched to Ravenna where he besieged John the Sanguinary in
Rimini.
21
March 537, Defenders of Rome using arrows,
catapults and ballistae inflicted heavy losses on the Goths besieging the city.
The Goth forces were now too depleted to keep a
continuous siege ring around the city.
2
March 537, Vitiges, leader of
the Goths, began laying siege to Rome.
2 October 534.
Death of Athalaric, King of
the Ostrogoths in Italy. Grandson of Theodoric, he was
born in 516 and became King in 526; aged ten, his mother Amalasuntha
held the Regency.
15 March 493,
Odoacer
was killed by Theodoric,
King of the Ostrogoths.
26 February
493, Ravenna capitulated to Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths.
11
August 490, Theodoric defeated Odoacer at the
Battle of the Adda. Odoacer fled to Ravenna.
Theodoric now laid seige to Ravenna until a naval blockade forced Odoacer to
capitulate.
401, The Visigoths invaded Italy.
For
earlier Italian history pre 400 see Roman Empire
Appendix ii � Venice
1 December 2019, In 1926 Mussolini
merged the constituency of Venice with the mainland towns of Mestre and
Marghera. At the time, Venice was still the largest settlement, but in the 50
years to 2019 the population of Venice fell from 150,000 to 50,000, whereas the
two mainland towns grew to 180,000 over the same period. This political balance
means most money spent in the region now goes to projects in Mestre. Meanwhile
the project to protect Venice from flooding has been put back successively,
from 1995 to, currently, 2021. On 1st December 2019 Venice holds a
referendum on administratively splitting off from the mainland.
12 November 2019, Venice suffered its worst flooding since 1966 as
an acqua alta reached 1.54 metres,
amidst heavy rain.
6 September 1987. The
historic Venice regatta was held without gondoliers for the first time since
1315. The gondoliers were on strike as a protest against the damage to the
fabric of Venice caused by powerboats.
25 May 1915. The Austrians bombarded Venice.
15 July 1902, The 1,000 year old bell tower at st Mark�s Square,
Venice collapsed.
22 September 1857, Daniele Manin, Venetian statesman, died (born
13 May 1804).
13 May 1804, Daniele Manin, Venetian statesman, was born
(died 22 September 1857).
Venice and
Napoleonic France (see
also France-Germany)
1802, Ludovico
Manin, last Doge of Venice (born 1726), died. He was elected as Doge
in March 1789. He both antagonised the French by allowing sanctuary to those
fleeing it, and refused to join the league of Italian states proposed by Victor Amadeus
III to counter French ambitions. The French forced the Republic of
Venice to capitulate in 1797
with overwhelming military force.
16 May 1797,
The Venetian Republic signed a treaty with France and made changes to its
Constitution, in the hope of avoiding French domination.
12 May 1797, Ludovico Manin,
the last Doge of Venice, abdicated.
9 May 1789, Ludovico Manin,
1l7th and last Doge of Venice, was elected.
2 April 1725. Giovanni Casanova,
Italian adventurer, gambler, secret agent, and �world�s greatest lover�, was
born in Venice.
17 November 1617, A naval battle between Sicily and Venice
ended inconclusively.
1592,The Rialto Bridge, Venice, was completed.
28 December 1538, Andrea Gritti, Doge of Venice, died.
14
May 1509, French victory over Venice
at the Battle of Agnadello, near Milan.
27
April 1509, Pope Julius II excommunicated
the Venetian Republic.
15
April 1509, France began an invasion
of Venice.
25 August 1499, The
Venetian fleet was defeated at the Battle of Zonchia by the Ottomans. This was
the first time cannon had been used in a naval battle. The Venetian-Ottoman
War, 1499-1503, started. Venetian sea-power in the Mediterranean was an
obstacle to Ottoman expansion. Ottoman Turkey gained the upper hand, and by
1503 Ottoman cavalry raids were reaching into Venetian territory. Venice was
forced to recognise Turkish gains.
14 April 1489, The Queen of
Cyprus, Catherine
Cornaro, sold her kingdom to Venice.
2 May 1482, Venice declared war on Ferrara. The 2-year war
resulted in Venice acquiring the Ferrarese city of Rovogo. This was Venice�s
last acquisition on the Italian mainland; Venice
was now at the peak of its power.
8 January 1465, Lorenzo Giustiniani, Bishop of Venice, died
(born 1380).
1457, Death of Francesco
Foscari, Doge of Venice from 1423. He pursued an aggressive policy
on the Italian mainland, gaining territories for the Republic of Venice.
However his rule was too nepotistic and despotic for the citizens of Venice,
who deposed him in 1457, shortly before his death from grief.
21 May 1454, Ermolao Barbaro, Italian scholar, was born in
Venice (died in Rome 14 June 1493).
1 January 1449, Lorenzo de Medici, statesman,
was born.
5 May 1432, Francesco Carmagnola, Italian soldier of
fortune, was executed in Venice (born 1390).
Venice-Genoa War, 1256-1380
14 June 1380, Venice gained victory
over Genoa, (see 1256) which had to
surrender its fleet. In May 1379, one Venetian fleet had been destroyed by the Genoese;
the rest of the Venetian fleet, under Carlo Zeno, was far away in the eastern
Mediterranean, and Venice seemed open to a Genoese attack. The Genoese fleet
entered the Venetian lagoon, and with its allies Hungary and Padua, blockaded
Venice by land and sea. However Venice struck back and trapped the Geonese
fleet; Carlo
Zeno�s fleet arrived back, and routed the Genoese. Genoa never
recovered,allowing Venice to dominate the eastern Mediterranean.
18 February 1358, Venice
ceded Istria and Dalmatia to Ludwig of Hungary.
17 April 1355, Marino Falieri, born 1279, was executed for
plotting to overthrow the government of Venice.
1 July 1346, King Louis I of
Hungary, attempting to secure a seaboard on the Adriatic, against
the wishes of the Venetian Republic who wishes toi control the entire Adriatic,
tried to defend the city of Zara. Zara had declared itself part of Hungary, but
was then besieged by Venice. The Venetians won and took Zara.
4 January 1343, Andrea Dandolo,
a friend of Petrarch, was elected Doge of Venice.
1339, Venice conquered Treviso, gaining its first mainland
possession.
7/1312, Marino Zorzi, Doge of Venice, died.
13 August 1311. Pietro
Gradenigo, Doge of Venice, died.
15 June 1310, By 1300 the
Governing Council of Venice had become an autocratic oligarchy. In 1300 a
popular rebellion against the Council failed, its leader being hanged. In 1310 Bajamonte
Tiepolo (died 1328) was preparing a further rebellion, conspiring
with the patrician Querini family to
take over the administration of Venice. However the plot was leaked out
compelling the conspirators to act before they were ready, and this day they
seized the public square of Venice. Forces loyal to the Venetian Doge (Chief
Magistrate), Pietro
Gradenigo (1249-1311) soon arrested the rebels, although Tiepolo
himself managed to escape. The Venetian oligarchy then established a secret
tribunal, the Council
of Ten, ostensibly to �protect� Venice from further insurrections by
tracking down rebels. By 1335 this body had become entrenched and took over
many Governmental functions, especially in finance and the military.
27 March 1309, Pope Clement V
declared Venice was no longer a Christian State, because it supported Falco d�Este,
ruler of Ferrara, whoch the Pope claimed as a Papal fief. Papal forces defeated
the Venetians in 8/1309.
8 September 1299, Genoa
destroyed the Venetian Navy off the Dalmatian coast. This defeat led to changes
in Venetian domestic policy; membership to the Great Council was restricted.
11 September 1298, The Governing Body of Venice, the Great Council, accepted a further
amendment (see 5 October 1286) that entrenched the position of the existing ruling families.
1291, Venice moved its
glass ovens to the island of Murano, initially to limit the risk of fire to the city. However
this also facilitated restrictions on the movement of glass-makers, who were
forbidden under strict penalties to jeopardise Venice�s monopoly in fine
glassware by taking their secrets abroad.
5 October 1286, The
Governing Body of Venice, the Great Council, accepted an amendment that
effectively confirmed membership amongst the families of existing families (an
earlier proposed amendment on 3 October 1286 had failed). The governance of Venice began to become more
exclusive and autocratic, see 11 September 1298.
14 March 1272, Enzio, former King of Sardinia, died in
captivity by the Bolognese.
7 October 1259, Eccelino da Romano, Ghibelline leader and
supporter of Frederick II, died (born 25 April 1194).
1256, Venice and Genoa
began a war that was to last for over a century, see 1380.
15 September 1254, Venetian explorer Marco Polo was born.
5 August 1205, Pietro, son of Sebastiano Ziani, was
unanimously elected Doge of Venice.
1 June 1205, Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice, died and was
succeeded by Pietro
Ziano.
1094, First record
of gondolas in Venice.
29 May 1176, The Battle
of Legnano; In Spring 1176 Holy Roman Emperor Barbarossa was campaigning
in Italy, but withdrawal of support by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria,
significantly reduced Barbarossa�s army strength. Meanwhile Milan
and the other cities of the Lombard League had built up their defences. The
Italian foot soldiers maintained a tight formation against Barbarossa�s cavalry, and the
horsemen broke on the foot soldier�s pikes. Then Barbarossa was unhorsed and
disappeared from view; his soldiers believed he had been killed, however he
turned up in Pavia three days later, where they were mourning his death.
However the result was that the Italian city-states gained autonomy from the
Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa. The Lombard League of
Italian towns, supported by Pope Alexander III, objected to Barbarossa�s
interference in their internal affairs. Barbarossa had laid waste to Milan, but was
defeated at Legnano, north-west of Milan, and admitted defeat.
18 June 1053, Battle of Civitate, Italy. The Normans established
domination over southern Italy, defeating a Papal, Byzantine and Swabian force.
18 September 887, Pietro,
Doge of Venice, was killed in an expedition against the Dalmatian pirates
828,
Venetians stole the relics of St Mark
from Alexandria.
8 July 810, Pepin, King of Italy, second son of Charlemagne King of the Franks, died having failed to conquer Venice. Venice recognised Byzantine rule
and began to develop the city state as a major political force.
801,
Venice gained full independence from the Byzantine Empire.
607,
Venice elected its first Doge, and began its rise to become a major power
in the Mediterranean. The fish and salt trade, and Venice�s central location,
helped it become very wealthy. Moreover Venice persistently defied orders from
both the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperors not to trade with Muslim states.
452,
Venice had become a thriving merchant city, founded by
refugees from the Huns invading Italy.
25
March 421,� Venice
was founded at twelve o'clock noon (according to legend) with the dedication of
the first church, San Giacomo, on the islet of Rialto (Italy).
Appendix 2 � San Marino
1992, San Marino joined the UN.
1973, Women gained the right to hold public office.
1960, Women gained the vote.
1945, In San Marino a coalition of Socialists and Communists gained power,
which raised suspicions in surrounding Italy. Italy was displeased further when
Communist San Martino opened casinos, eroding the profits of the Italian
gambling industry. Economic sanctions by Italy forced the closure of these San Marino
casinos by 1951. The Communist regime on San Marino ended in 1957, and relations
with Italy improved.
1944, San Marino was bombed by
the Allies during World War Two.
1862, San Marino signed a Treaty
of Friendship with Italy, but refused to join the newly-uniting nation.
1815, San Marino�s independence
was guaranteed by the Congress of Vienna.
1797, Napoleon Bonaparte, who liked
San Marino as a �model republic�, offered to enlarge its territories. San
Marino refused his offer, explaining that �only in poverty and insignificance
could San Marino hope to remain free and sovereign throughout the centuries�.
1631, The independence of San
Marino was formally recognised by Pope Urban VIII.
3
September 301, The republic of San Marino was established (traditional
date) by stonemasons from Dalmatia, who took refuge here.
Appendix 3 � Vatican City, Papal
States (See also Christianity,
Papal succession)
11 December 1999,� The Sistine Chapel, Vatican, reopened after
20 years restoration work and cleaning.
14 February 1940, The
Vatican introduced rationing.
9 June 1923, In Italy,
the Vatican ordered the Catholic Party to disband, and many of its members
joined Mussolini�s Fascist party. The Catholic Party, or Partito Popolare
Italiano (Italian People�s Party), had been formed in 1919;before then the
Vatican had forbidden Catholics to vote. In Italian elections in 1919 and in
1921 the Catholic Party received 20% of the vote, second only to the Italian
Socialist Party. Following Mussolini�s victory in 1922 Cardinal
Gasparri, the Vatican�s Secretary of State, made a deal with Mussolini
that the Catholic Church would support him; in return Mussolini would restore the
historic privileges of the catholic Church in Italy. In 1927 Mussolini was
baptised as a Catholic, and in 1929 he signed the Lateran Treaty, making the
Vatican a separate sovereign State. He also made Catholicism the State religion
of Italy, and paid the Vatican 750 million lire as compensation for the
Vatican�s loss of the ancient Papal States territory in Italy.
1870, Italian forces entered Rome, annexing the formerly
extensive Papal States. This left the Pope in self-imposed captivity in the
Vatican City.
4/1848, Pope Pius IX announced that
he would not back war against Catholic Austria; the Papal Allocution.
With this, the Pope lost favour with the Italian Nationalists.
1506, Bologna was incorporated
into the Papal States by Pope Julius II.
1415, The Medici family became
bankers to the Papacy.