Factions (Early Modern History)

« Un monde d’argent. Le difficile financement milanais de la coûteuse paix de Fribourg (1516-1519) », dans Alexandre DAFFLON, Lionel DORTHE et Claire GANTET (dir.) Après Marignan. La paix perpétuelle entre la France et la Suisse. Actes des colloques (Paris, 27 septembre / Fribourg, 30 novembre 2016), Mémoires et Documents publiés par la Société d’Histoire de la Suisse Romande, 4e série, t. XIV,  2018, p. 229-246.

Résumé : Arme décisive de la victoire et du maintien de la paix, l’impôt peut mettre cependant en péril le fragile consensus politique. Un des buts annoncés de la paix de Fribourg était de protéger le duché de Milan redevenu français après Marignan de toute nouvelle descente des carrés suisses. Or, le roi paie la sécurité de ses frontières au prix fort : un million de ducats doublé de 50 000 ducats de pensions annuelles aux cantons et à des particuliers. Mon article tend à montrer comment la sécurisation du duché de Milan par la paix de Fribourg a largement contribué à fragiliser le consensus politique autour de la domination royale en Milanais. Afin de couvrir le coût de la paix, il apparaît légitime au pouvoir royal que les Lombards contribuent à l’effort financier (communes, élites marchandes, feudataires, artisans, peuple manouvrier, paysans, mais excepté le clergé jouissant du privilège d’exemption). Trois traites à chaque premier 1er janvier des années 1517, 1518 et 1519 sont prévues pour honorer l’accord. C’est à chaque fois l’occasion d’étudier de façon précise les tensions qui se firent jour au moment des négociations.

Questo articolo parte dalla ricostruzione del modello aristotelico di amicizia fornita nel ‘Brief of the Art of Rhetorique’ e dai motivi della critica hobbesiana a questo modello per esaminare il modo in cui l’amicizia lavora nel discorso antropologico, etico e politico di Hobbes. In un primo momento mostra che l’amicizia rappresenta un potere e che la specificità dei rapporti amicali è costituita dalla loro natura egualitaria ed extra-contrattuale, nonché dalla corrispondenza di dono e gratitudine attraverso la quale si compie lo scambio di poteri e di onori. In un secondo momento si concentra sull’aspetto morale del problema, mettendo in evidenza il nesso tra l’amicizia e quella capacità di mettersi l’uno al posto dell’altro che costituisce il cuore di tutta la concezione hobbesiana della legge naturale. Infine, sottolinea il possibile pericolo politico dei vincoli particolaristici che l’amicizia è in grado di cementare e dalle forme di cooperazione che essa è in grado di promuovere nonostante e contro lo Stato.

Keywords: Hobbes, amicizia, potere, dono, legge naturale, politica

This study starts from the ‘reconstruction’ of the Aristotelian model of friendship, found in the ‘Brief of the Art of Rhetorique’, and the reasons behind Hobbes’s criticism of this model. It then moves on to examine the way friendship works in Hobbes’s anthropological, ethical and political discourse. First, Hobbes’s discourse shows that friendship represents power, and that the specificity of friendly relationships is their equalitarian and non-contractual nature, as well as, the correspondence of gifts and gratitude through which an exchange of power and honours is achieved. Second, it focuses on the moral aspect of the problem highlighting the link between friendship and the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes, which constitutes the heart of the whole of the Hobbesian conception of natural law. Finally, it emphasises the possible political danger of the bonds which friendship can cement and the forms of cooperation that it is able to promote in spite of and against the State.

Keywords: Hobbes, friendship, power, natural law, politics

Analysis of the historical development of the Liberal Thought. John Lock, John Stuart Mill, Alexis de Tocqueville and Adam Smith

The essay consists of 3 main parts:

I. Liberalism: Live and Let Live
II. Liberty and Private Property
III. The Will of the Majority: From the Advancement of the Public Good to Democratic Despotism

Spies played a crucial role in early modern imperial rivalries. While past scholars have emphasized the Islam/Christendom divide in the Mediterranean, these go-betweens, who mastered the codes of both cultures, easily crossed invisible boundaries between civilizations and connected the Ottomans and the Habsburgs, two imperial powers at each other’s throat. Apart from providing both empires with regular information on political and military developments, these entrepreneur information brokers played an active diplomatic role between two capitals and even participated in Ottoman factional politics. This dissertation compares both empires’ secret services and explains the differences between the two systems of information gathering based on these empires’ differing organizational structures. It argues that the Habsburgs tried to institutionalize and standardize their secret services in accordance with their general efforts of bureaucratization and centralization, even though the effect...

La Val Nure, sita nell'Episcopato piacentino al confine ligure, diviene teatro, a partire dal primo Cinquecento, di scontri fazionari particolarmente apri e violenti. Un fenomeno che, sovente viene ritenuto essere una devianza, un ritardo e una marginalità rispetto alla costruzione dello Stato moderno. Il libro, invece, individua l'esistenza di un nesso organico tra queste due realtà. Fallisce dapprima il tentativo attuato dagli Sforza di controllare la Valle attraverso la mediazione di una famiglia nobile, i Nicelli. Lo Stato pontificio, poi, subentrato nel dominio della valle agli Sforza, utilizzò le fazioni, prodotto di una pluralità non riducibile di centri di potere locale, come strumento di governo e fattore portante della propria struttura. Nel ricostruire le vicende della valle tra '400 e '500 e quelli delle parentele, famiglie e poteri in essa presenti, analoizzati anche nei rapporti con i poteri statuli prossimi, avanza una ipotesi sul ruolo e meccanismi dei fenomeni fazionari, visti in relazione con i modi di approprazione e distribuzione delle risorse, materiali e immateriali, ma anche in relazione a onore, vendetta. memoria e relazioni familiari, clientelari e comunitarie. Inoltre, come accennato, il volume avanza precise ipotesi sui rapporti esistenti tra i fenomeni fazionari e i processi di costruzione dello Stato in un periodo caratterizzato, a livello europeo, da profonde tensioni attorno agli intermediari esistenti tra Principe e comunità.

Spies played a crucial role in early modern imperial rivalries. While past scholars have emphasized the Islam/Christendom divide in the Mediterranean, these go-betweens, who mastered the codes of both cultures, easily crossed invisible boundaries between civilizations and connected the Ottomans and the Habsburgs, two imperial powers at each other’s throat. Apart from providing both empires with regular information on political and military developments, these entrepreneur information brokers played an active diplomatic role between two capitals and even participated in Ottoman factional politics.

This dissertation compares both empires’ secret services and explains the differences between the two systems of information gathering based on these empires’ differing organizational structures. It argues that the Habsburgs tried to institutionalize and standardize their secret services in accordance with their general efforts of bureaucratization and centralization, even though the effect of such efforts remained rather limited in the Levant. The Ottomans, on the other hand, maintained their longstanding decentralized approach and delegated the responsibility of gathering information to pashas and court favourites who established their own intelligence networks. This created a rather different situation whereby these networks served their masters’s interests rather than that of the state, thus giving the historian ample information on Ottoman factional politics. In relying on oral communication and not following the recent developments in steganography and cryptography, the Ottoman secret service was more personal than institutional.

Still, the Ottoman secret service produced good results. In spite of these differences that could have been otherwise considered shortcomings and contrary to the unwarranted assumptions that prevailed in Western historiography, the Ottomans successfully developed a functional information gathering mechanism which in itself was coherent. The real factor that negatively affected the efficiency of both empires was the lack of direct diplomacy between two capitals. While both empires kept themselves informed of political developments and military preparations, they failed to develop an awareness of each other’s legal, political and economic systems as well as cultural, linguistic and religious particularities.

Nella coscienza collettiva i guelfi e i ghibellini evocano insanabili discordie civili e feroci lotte intestine, e rappresentano il lato oscuro di quell’età comunale che per altri versi simboleggia un momento altissimo nella storia civile e politica d’Italia. La tradizione storiografica, da parte sua, ha spesso alimentato l’idea che questa coppia terminologica di sorprendente longevità non faccia che sopravvivere a se stessa già a partire dal Trecento. Eppure i contemporanei non cessano di utilizzare guelfi e ghibellini come chiave interpretativa degli avvenimenti fino al pieno Cinquecento. È davvero possibile, allora, che ben due terzi della parabola del binomio politico forse di maggior successo della storia italiana si riducano alla lenta agonia di parole così precocemente destituite di senso? È il principale interrogativo cui cerca di rispondere questo libro, che indaga la presenza e il rilievo dei guelfi e ghibellini nella politica interna ed estera degli stati dell’Italia centro-settentrionale nell’età del Rinascimento.

Il tema dell'aristocrazia territoriale e del suo ruolo nella costituzione del ducato visconteo-sforzesco è stato marginalizzato dalla storiografia politico-istituzionale in favore di un paradigma interpretativo centrato su un modello di stato territoriale a base urbana. Diverse ricerche recenti, tuttavia, hanno mostrato la necessità di complicare tale modello e di sottoporlo verifiche puntuali nelle sue articolazioni locali, rimarcando la pluralità di attori e di linguaggi politici che anima una dialettica non costringibile nell'alveo del rapporto preferenziale principe-città. Questo contributo si propone di sottolineare alcuni aspetti della complessa interazione fra i grandi casati signorili e un potere ducale non sempre in grado di preseguire un coerente sforzo di disciplinamento dell'aristocrazia, che mantiene almeno fino alla metà del XVI secolo un forte ascendente sulla società lombarda.

Resumen: El desarrollo de una nueva nobleza durante la época Trastámara estuvo acompañado por el patrocinio de fundaciones mendicantes. Los conventos, fundados en los centros más importantes de sus estados señoriales, se convirtieron en polos de formación religiosa y en lugares de la memoria del linaje, y, con frecuencia, los frailes dominicos en defensores de las opciones espirituales y políticas de sus señores. Palabras clave: Castilla. Frailes dominicos. Dinastía Trastámara. Abstract: The development of a new nobility during the Trastámara time was accompanied by the patronage of Mendicant foundations. The convents, founded on the most important centers of their stately states, became poles of religious education and in places of memory of the lineage, and often the Dominican friars in defenders of the spiritual and political options from their lords.

Throughout the 15th century the confessors of the Castilian monarchs of the Trastámara dynasty, mostly Dominican friars had increased their political influence. Therefore the friar García de Loaysa’s activity in the
Court of Carlos V from the year 1522, as Royal Confessor and then as
President of the Council of the Inquisition and of the Council of the Indies, although it's not strange, nonetheless arouse admiration, precisely asa result of the importance of the charges in the Court having been previouslyMaster General of his own religious order. The present paperaims to address the study of this versatile and influential political personage, of his rising career in the Order of Preachers and their government performance in the Court of Carlos V, mostly in collaboration with the Spanish faction of the Court, led by Secretary Francisco de los Cobos, while he served as confessor of the Emperor. For this we will use of the Chronicles of the time, as well as copious documentation gathered in Spanish archives  (Simancas and National) and in the archives of the Order of Preachers.

[Esp] - Catalina de Zúñiga y Sandoval, condesa de Lemos, era la hermana del duque de Lerma, favorito del rey Felipe III. De la correspondencia de Antonio Caetani, nuncio apostólico en Madrid del 1611 al 1618, se entiende su gran autoridad, la influencia que tenía en el valido y la capacidad de la estrategia política implementada para salvaguardar los intereses de su familia en España e Italia. Especialmente para los puestos de mayor prestigio para los hijos: Francisco de Castro (embajador en Roma) y Pedro Fernández de Castro (virrey de Nápoles). El fuerte carácter de la condesa de Lemos, su influencia sobre su hermano y la intromisión en los asuntos de interés estatal para el clan de la familia tuvo como resultado el estancamiento político, así como un conflicto diplomático duro y largo con la Sede Apostólica.

[Eng] - Catalina de Zúñiga y Sandoval, countess of Lemos, was the sister of the duke of Lerma, favorite of King Philip III. From the correspondence of Antonio Caetani, apostolic nuncio in Madrid from 1611 to 1618, we come to understand her great authority, the influence she had on the valido and her effective political strategy, which she acted out in order to safeguard his own family’s interests both in Spain and Italy. That is especially true as far as her sons are concerned, Francisco de Castro (ambassador to Rome) and Pedro Fernández de Castro (viceroy of Naples), in order to get them prestigious appointments. Her strong temperament, her great influence on her brother and her interference in the State affairs, for the sake of the family clan, soon resulted in a political impasse, as well as in a long and hard diplomatic dispute with the apostolic see.

With the arrival in 1631 of Emperor Ferdinand III’s bride to Vienna, the infanta Maria Anna, the “Spanish party” at the Imperial court gained a remarkable momentum. At the time, Philip IV’s interests found a key ally in the person of his sister, who, along with her influential confessor Diego de Quiroga, exerted an indisputable influence over the direction of Imperial issues for the following decades. Nevertheless, the empress’s untimely death, as well as the consequential return of Quiroga to the Peninsula, seriously undermined Spain’s interests and had a negative impact on the outcome of the Peace of Westphalia. In addition, the situation was further exacerbated by a sharp drop in the means to fund a long list of pensioners
and collaborators of the Spanish Crown. With a weakened party lacking leadership, the Spanish ambassador, within his recovered prominence, promoted the rise of a new figure as guarantor of Madrid’s interests: the count of Auersperg, a powerful minister which would hold a leading position in Ferdinand III’s government. Madrid, however, risked a great deal by focusing his support on a too ambitious a candidate with plenty of enemies. The rupture in 1656 between Auersperg and the Catholic ambassador implied a serious jeopardy for the Madrid’s position, in a very sensitive period regarding the survival of the Spanish Monarchy.

This article deals with the process of decision making at the Spanish court concerning the Revolt in the Netherlands. Focusing on the ideas and deeds of one of the most influential advisors of Philip II in the years 1576-1579, Antonio Pérez, it argues for an analysis of this process which not only pays attention to the financial and geopolitical causes of Spain’s imperial policy, but which also takes into account the implications of the power struggle amongst the courtiers in Madrid, based on networks of patronage and ideological strife that had important consequences for the orders sent from Spain to the battlefield.

"The Cape protest movement of the 1770s/1780s has for long been seen in simple terms of a struggle of burghers against colonial government. But the community of Cape Town at the end of the 18th century consisted of a wide variety of people with different backgrounds. The burgher protest movement was not a movement of all burghers against the Company, but of a certain faction of burghers against other factions with closer ties to the administration.
This chapter examines the burghers in the protest movement, both as individuals and as a group, in terms of their numbers; status, occupation, class position and family and business relations and in comparison with the wider burgher population of the town. It will also examine the close-knit urban elite consisting of prominent burghers and Company officials, and a small group of wealthy landowners in the direct vicinity of Cape Town, who did not associate with the protesters. A picture emerges of an involved network of personal and material relationships between burghers and Company officials which dominated political life and copied the Dutch urban faction system."

The Castro family, Counts of Lemos since the Middle Ages, reached the zenith of its power and prestige during the reign of Philip III. The political link generated by the marriage between the sixth Count of Lemos and one of the Duke of Lerma’s sisters allowed the sons of the couple to play a leading role within the faction led by the favourite of the King. The article aims to compare the work of the seventh and the eighth Count of Lemos, especially during their viceregal mandates in the Italian lands, highlighting the way in which they were able to contribute to the faction’s objectives and strategies. This comparison will show how, in the factions of early modern Europe, characters of very different abilities and ambitions could act together, being used each and every time according to their own skills and the needs of their families and allies.

Che cos’è una fazione nel Quattrocento? Il libro cerca di rispondere a questa domanda ripercorrendo le vicende di Parma, città nota ai contemporanei per la forza delle sue divisioni interne e per la vivacità dei contrasti che ne agitavano la vita politica, in piazza e nei Consigli cittadini.
La ricostruzione analitica della società politica parmense del XV secolo consente di procedere oltre la tradizionale visione storiografica dei partiti tardomedievali come portatori di insensata violenza, evidenziando come il disordine abbia le sue regole; e permette al tempo stesso di mettere in discussione il concetto di fazione come aggregato informale e fluido trasmessa agli storici del tardo medioevo e della prima età moderna dall’antropologia e dalla sociologia post-strutturaliste.
L’indagine mette a fuoco una pluralità di forme e di livelli d’azione dei gruppi politicizzati: le quattro «squadre», partiti cittadini dotati di un alto profilo istituzionale e stabilmente legati ai potenti casati signorili del contado; le «conventicole e sette», reticoli informali e lobbies che si coagulano intorno ad obiettivi aperti e chiusi nell’ombra dei giochi cortigiani e sulla grande scena del sistema degli stati italiani; le vecchie ma sempre incombenti metafazioni dei guelfi e dei ghibellini, ancora disponibili in pieno Quattrocento per chi sappia sfruttarne a fini politici il grande potenziale simbolico e l’intatta capacità di ridestare solidarietà antiche e profonde.

The purpose of this paper is to shed some new light on the precise moment of the appearance of a personal bond between one of the Potocki brothers and King Sigismund III. The five, later four brothers, were part of Jan Zamoyski's affinity and their links with the Grand Chancellor and Grand Hetman of the Crown were going way back - an inherited connection between Zamoyski's father and their own father. Taking this into consideration, their inten¬tion to initiate a liaison with Sigismund III, an adversary of the Chancellor, is most signi¬ficant for the debate of Polish historiography on the survival or the crisis of Zamoyski's entourage during both his final years of life, and the conflict with the king.


Keywords: Affinity, Sigismund III, Jan Potocki, Jan Zamoyski, fidelity, cour virtuelle, multiple fidelities.

Nel 1494, con la discesa di Carlo VIII di Francia, il mosaico politico dell’Italia va in pezzi e la penisola, percorsa dagli eserciti delle maggiori potenze europee, sprofonda in un conflitto che durerà oltre sessant’anni.
Quella che per le popolazioni civili è una tragedia, tuttavia, per i professionisti delle armi è un’opportunità.
Domenico d’Amorotto, figlio di un oste della montagna reggiana, ha saputo costruire sulle macerie una carriera folgorante: il carismatico montanaro si è fatto uomo d’armi, leader ghibellino e talvolta fuorilegge tenendo testa a un avversario d’eccezione, il governatore Francesco Guicciardini.
La prima parte del saggio ricostruisce lo scontro fra le due figure, il bandito e il governatore: uno scontro di culture politiche inconciliabili che, indagato nelle sue pieghe nascoste, getta luce sui meccanismi del potere in una fase cruciale della storia italiana.
La seconda parte rivela un corto circuito fra la vicenda storica e la sua narrazione. La morte di Domenico ha dato ai narratori l’opportunità di rimaneggiare la realtà facendola aderire a un modello: come altri fuorilegge, Domenico ha lasciato il proprio corpo storico per intraprendere il viaggio verso la mitizzazione.
L’indagine su un individuo diventa così l’occasione per una riflessione sull’archetipo del bandito fra storia e letteratura.