Battle of Campomorto

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The Battle of Campomorto was fought on August 21, 1482 near Frosinone (south of Rome ) by armed forces of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples . The outcome was a crushing defeat for the people of Naples.

War context

Context: Diversion in the Salt War of Commachio

The context of the dispute was modeled in the war between the Republic of Venice and Sixtus IV against Ercole I d'Este , Duke of Ferrara : When war was being waged on the Po , a diversion was necessary to relieve the duke. His allies in the so-called League of 1480 were Lodovico Sforza , Lorenzo de 'Medici and Ferdinand I of Naples .

War movements and battle

In the summer of 1482 , Don Alfonso , Duke of Calabria and heir to the throne of Naples, led an army from Abruzzo to near Rome to distract Sixtus IV . Due to the threat to Rome, he tried to divert attention from the northern theater of war and actually managed to get the condottiere Roberto Malatesta in Venice's service to approach.

Since Alfons was outnumbered near Rome, he tried to move to the Velletri area with a march . However, Malatesta followed him, and on August 21, 1482 there was a battle near Campomorto, which ended devastating for the Aragonese. However, Malatesta could not take advantage of his victory because he died of an illness in September 1482.

Niccolò Machiavelli , who was a thirteen-year-old Florentine at the time of the battle , ruled decades later in his Istorie fiorentine that it had been one of the bloodiest armed acts of the time. The background to this assertion is that the warfare of the Italians, based on mercenary leaders and all-round kinship, was not very rough in the 15th century and at least faced new facts with the onset of the wars for Italy in 1494.

Historiographical sources

  • Morisi Guerra, Anna: Bernardino Corio. Storia di Milano. Turin 1978, VI. Chapter, p. 1435 as well as for the whole war passim.
  • Francesco Guicciardini. Storia fiorentina. Chapter VII, p. 56.