Piero Soderini

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Piero Soderini, painted by ( Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio )

Piero Soderini (born May 18, 1452 in Florence , † June 13, 1522 in Rome ) was a Florentine statesman. He was at the head of the city government from 1502 to 1512. Historians disputed whether his rule was to be seen as an honest attempt to uphold the republican constitution or whether he wanted to establish an authoritarian principate. In Chapter 9 of “ The PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli refers to Soderini's rule without explicitly mentioning it and uses it as a counter-example to good politics.

Origin in Medicean Florence - 1450 to 1494

Piero Soderini was the son of Maso Soderini, who until his death in 1485, a leading figure of the Medici - rule in Florence was. His mother was a sister of Lucrezia Tornabuoni , who in turn was connected to Piero di Cosimo de 'Medici , that is, she represented an indirect marriage.
Unlike his brother Paolantonio, who moved into the opposition, Piero Soderini was a member of the Medici until 1494 and was specifically promoted for the purpose of the split.

Role of the family in Florence ' governo popolare - after 1494

After the overthrow of the Medici by Charles VIII's journey to Naples from France , Florence established a people's government under the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola and became dependent on France to protect the form of government and to repel the Medici, the party in exile. The Soderini were represented in the secular or official leadership under their brother Paolantonio, and were the heads of the so-called Frateschi . In addition to the Medici party members who remained in the city, the resigned oligarchs were also to be counted as opposition because the people's government cheated them of their participation.

The fact that Charles VIII failed in 1495 and that Florence asserted itself in the vague hope of his return could have caused an upheaval when the king's death and the execution of Savonarola in the spring of 1498 hit politics in quick succession. Since with Ludwig XII. A new king of France aimed at Italy, namely at the Duchy of Milan , but the party experienced a resurgence: The fact that the Soderini had the Medici party members in anticipation of a war by the spring of 1499 strengthened the latent leadership role of four brothers, Piero , Paolantonio, Francesco and Giovanvittorio Soderini. In addition to the need for protection of the Medici followers, a specific reason for the influx of the Soderini could have been the marriage to the Medici in the father generation.

Gonfaloniere a vita of Florence - 1502 to 1512

After the conquest of Milan in 1499/1500 by Louis XII. the threat continued because Pope Alexander VI. and his son Cesare Borgia consolidated the adjoining areas of the Church through war and submission and trusted in the lack of leadership in Florence. In the summer of 1502, on the other hand, the republic reformed its head of state by electing the gonfaloniere for life, not just for two months. The first official was Piero Soderini in the expectation of the oligarchy, he stabilized it against a tyranny of the people. However, he disappointed because, assured by his lifetime in office, he played the people off against the elite and was therefore considered a tyrant. In addition, the fact that the party in exile was allowed to change course after the death of Piero de 'Medici from 1504 led to a loss of loyalty.

Niccolò Machiavelli was under Soderini the carrier of a militia , which, recruited from the surrounding area, should arm Florence after the collapse of the neighboring small potentates and lead out of the dependence on French allies aid. The only success, however, was the end of the rebellion of Pisa, which fell from its rule in 1494, in 1509.

The rule of Soderini was exposed to great danger when Pope Julius II waged war with the League of Cambrai against the Venetians in 1509, but in the summer of 1510 turned against the French occupation of Milan. Soderini was aware that a collapse of the French would also have to tear the form of government of the dependent Florentines with it and tried to mediate. Hindered by the obstruction of its internal opponents, however, the republic persisted in indecision until Julius II's Holy League of the autumn of 1511 finally made the sacrifice. What remained was fatality: in 1509 the republic had supplemented the protection of France with Spanish protection, so it might manage to save it by jumping on the side of Ferdinand the Catholic . Since the French were victorious in the Battle of Ravenna in April 1512, it seemed that Louis XII again took sides in May. entitled.

The final chord was set by the collapse of the French in the summer of 1512, as their army got into disorder with the battle death of their general and withdrew from Italy. The attempt to intervene at the League's congress in Mantua in August and to renew the Spanish option at the last moment was doomed to failure because the priority was to detach Florence from French alliance attempts: the repatriation of the Medici had long been the threatening means. When a Spanish army raised against Tuscany in August, Piero Soderini was still able to assure himself of the loyalty of the people because an attack on Prato failed. However, instructed by a second attempt that led to the sacking of Prato, Soderini faced his fall. After his forced resignation, he fled his hometown on the night of August 31st to September 1st. The place of exile was Ragusa in Dalmatia .

Rehabilitation by the Medici - 1513 to 1522

With the election of the Medici pontiff Leo X , the Soderini were amnestied so that Piero was allowed to return to Italy from his exile. Committed to a stay in Rome , the former gonfalonier moved next to his brother Francesco , the bearer of a cardinalate, in the vicinity of the new rulers: the Medici led Florence in the clientele of their Pope and after 1515 insured themselves in an alliance with France after Francis I had recaptured Milan.

Betrayal of the Medici and Death - 1522

When the Medici power collapsed after the death of Leo X in 1521/22, the Soderini saw an opportunity to betray their old opponents. The concrete backdrop was provided by the aftermath of the Medici pontiff's alliance decision, as he had opted against the French and for Emperor Charles V in the spring of 1521 . When the new war for Milan and the papal death complemented each other, the Soderini were part of a conspiracy that struck the rule of Florence and the surviving former vice chancellor, Cardinal Giulio de 'Medici . The origin was the conclave of January 1522. However, the conspiracy failed until June, especially since the expected French aid was cut off in the course of the war and a separate mercenary train in southern Tuscany stalled. Piero Soderini, for his part, survived the failure by just a few weeks.

literature

  • Roslyn Pesman Cooper: Pier Soderini and the Ruling Class in Renaissance Florence (= Bibliotheca Eruditorum , Volume 31). Keip, Goldbach 2002, ISBN 3-8051-0961-X (collection of essays by the author)
  • Sergio Bertelli: Petrus Soderinus Patriae Parens. In: Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 31 (1969), pp. 93-114.
  • Sergio Bertelli: Pier Soderini. Vexillifer Perpetuus Reipublicae Florentinae 1502-1512. In: Anthony Molho, John A. Tedeschi (Ed.): Renaissance. Studies in Honor of Hans Baron. Sansoni, Florence 1971, pp. 335-359.
  • Sergio Bertelli: Uno magistrato per a tempo lungho o uno doghie. In: Studi di storia medievale e moderna per Ernesto Sestan. Vol. 1, Olschki, Florenz 1980, pp. 451-494.
  • Humfrey C. Butters: Piero Soderini and the Golden Age. In: Italian Studies 33 (1978), pp. 56-71.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William J. Connell: Sacrilege and Redemption in Renaissance Florence: The Case of Antonio Rinaldeschi. Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Toronto 2005, p. 53 f ; Giovanni Silvano: Florentine Republicanism in the Early Sixteenth Century. In: Gisela Bock , Quentin Skinner , Maurizio Viroli (eds.): Machiavelli and Republicanism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1990, pp. 41-70, here p. 52 f .
  2. ^ Roslyn Pesman Cooper: Machiavelli, Pier Soderini and Il Principe. In: Conal Condren, Roslyn Pesman Cooper (Eds.): Altro Polo. A Volume of Italian Renaissance Studies. University of Sydney, Sydney 1982, pp. 132-138; Sergio Bertelli: Machiavelli and Soderini. In: Renaissance Quarterly 28 (1975), pp. 1-16.