Part 1
Verona. One of the major cities of north Italy. The heart of a significant duchy and the dominion of the della Scala dynasty. Della Scala was one of the most important powers in the confusing swarm of independent city states and duchies in the region. To the north lied the might German Kingdom, the lands of the emperor - in theory the liege of Italy, but not in the reality. To the west lied the stronger duchy of Milan, one of the rising powers since the emperor lost his influence over Lombardy. To the south lied Toscany and a lot of independent cities. To the east lied Venice, together with Genoa the mightiest maritime power in the Mediterranean.
Italy and the Holy Roman Empire 1337
The duke of Verona was a compitent man in his best years, named Mastino. He was a energetic man and a skillful
yconomus. A man of trade and wealth rather than war, though he did not lacked skills in the art of warfare. Over this, he had a bad habit that especially did not pleased the horde of bishops in the Catholic world. He was lustful, a little too lustful. He had four children, three of them born outside marriage.
But as a diplomatic and practical man, he managed to restrain the clergy and keep good relations with the Holy Father.
The doge of Venice, who feared the rising power that was Verona, decided to approach the duchy diplomatically and sent an alliance offer to Mastino. Mastino accepted the offer and promised to always support Venice in bad times.
Mastino's dream was to reunite Italy, but outside the Holy Roman Empire. He did not desire warfare, no he was more into diplomacy - alliances and marriages. Though, he did not hestitate to bring forth spears and bows if it went that far.
Mastino was a kind and just ruler. He believed in harsh penalties and a strong law, but he never used it wrong. He did not demand high taxes and always made sured that the peasant's situation was tolerable.
He was a bit of a conservative, but encouraged the spread of schools in his domains.
Another son was born in the beginning of 1338, Clemente. A few weaks later, Mastino travelled to the county of Padua, under the reign of his brother, to discuss the future priorities of the duchy. They agreed that the infrastracture and schools should be improved.
The pope called for a crusade in 1339, Mastino did not actually saw the importance of it.
But he looked towards the future results with excitement.
Later in 1339, dysentery arrived in the city of Verona. Mastino spent nights and days trying to stop the desease by isolate towns and villages. He barely slept and was constant on the roads. But he soon gave up. The desease had come to stay.
He heard of the rumours that flew through Europe in 1340. King Philippe of France had attacked the English lands in Gascony. A war between the two powers had started.
Mastino's brother Alboino had always been somewhat of a nail in the eye for Mastino. Alboino desired a more fuedal policy from Mastino but Mastino did not wished to change his way to rule. He strongly believed in a powerful central power to rule his dominion. He actually never wanted a vassal anyway, but felt forced to give his brother a title just to keep him away. His brother complained over the scutage tax and lack of land. He desired another county to rule. Mastino planned to revoke the brother's land some day to get rid of him.
Just as if Mastino did not had enough trubble with the dysentery, a new terrible desease arrived. The babonic plague came to Parma from the south and soon all of Italy was infected. It was revealed to be a catastrophe for the ecenomy. People died like insects and panic spread through the duchy. Mastino sat on his throne in Verona and could do nothing, only watch his people die.
During June of 1342, in the middle of the great plague, Mastino recieved news of a recently started war between his two neighbours, Genoa and Milan. He gathered his council quickly and could convince the nobles without problem that war was not an option for Verona. The duchy remained cold and neutral.
A Serbian army under Stefan Dusan himself marched through the duchy to aid Genoa and Mastino made sured that the strangers did not touch any Veronese citizen or property.
Milan soon lost the advantage and armies from Serbia, Genoa, Toscany and Mantua attacked Milan and the opposition was too heavy for the once mighty duchy.
Mantua conquered Pavia and then left the war, very fond over the doubled size of its dominion.
Mastino succesfully revoked his brother's lands in 1346. Alboino himself moved up north to the city of Osnabrück in Westphalia.
The war between Milan and Genoa ended with the victory of the latter. Genoa demanded Grisons in Switzerland and Milan had no choice but to accept.
Venice understood that the weakened duchy of Milan would clear the way for a stronger Verona. A little too strong for Venice interests. Despite the alliance, the republic decided to crush Verona before it was too late. A chocked Mastino recieved the news, it took some time to gather the council and the Venitians were already on their way plundering through Mastino's dominion. The council under Mastino's lead decided to act quickly and gather the forces in Verona to meet the enemy on the field. The goal was to take Venice itself and force the doge to peace.
Mastino's 8000 men were totally crushed outside Padua and then the Venitians took the city. Mastino was in a terrible condition and he became worse when the republic of Pisa decided to attack him too. Mastino prepared to negotiate and accept a bad peace. No one could argue with him about that, because Verona did not had any forces left to fight on with.
Peace was concluded during the summer of 1349 between Venice and Verona. Venice was given the city of Brescia and a big tribute of gold. Mastino was totally broken and he still had a war against Pisa to fight.
The enemy laid siege to Parma but then suddenly retreated. Mastino saw his opportunity. He sent orders to every city that every man who can carry a weapon must be recruted.
After the loss of the rich city of Brescia, Manisto was forced to change the laws and raise the taxes to collect gold. The peasantry was not pleased with that kind of actions and they did not listen when Mastino explained to them that it was only done to defend them from the enemy. A regular peasant did not cared if his ruler was Pisan och Veronese. They only wanted to live their melancholy lives in peace.
The war ended in 1351. The republic of Pisa was forced to pay Verona a large sum of gold.
Manisto's energy returned and he began to restore his ecenomy.
The consequences of the war were awfully clear though. Verona's power was broken and the duchy was degraded to a poor and weak state without much influence in the region. Mastino could bring in 40 gold florins per month with low taxes before the war. Now, even when he had raised the taxes to an unhealthy level, he only got 10 florins per month.
The power of north Italy now lied in the hands of the two maritime republics Genoa and Venice. But Mastino was determined to make Verona powerful enough to rule the region again, though he doubted he would accomplish that during his life time.
North Italy after the war
During this time of darkness, when plague and starvation was every man's situation, some light could be seen. The plague left some areas in Mastino's domains but more important was that Verona managed to establish an alliance with the mighty kingdom of England. Though, England was still fighting the neverending war against France.
The most skillful and promising child of Mastino was marshal Fragnano, his eldest son.
Though Fregnano was a bastard and the heir was therefore Mastino's next son Changrande.
Fregnano thought that he deserved the throne more than his brother, who did not had any sorts of skills. Mastino understood this, but he did not want to upset the hordes of lazy nobles in his realm. But he soon gave in and declared in front of the people that Fregnano della Scala was the new heir. Changrande never forgived his father for this.
Fregnano soon demanded own land and Mastino gave him Parma to rule.
Genoa and Milan clashed into eachother again in 1353. Milan won the war a few later and Genoa lost Grisons and Nice to the opponent. So then Milan took Genoa's place as the major power in northweast Italy. Luckily for Mastino, the young duke of Milan was his grandson...
* * *
A forest of pole axes and spears was what Mastino saw when he beheld his army. The burghers of Verona stood in tight formations with a line of crossbowmen in front of them. On the both flanks stood the small numbers of cavalry, mostly nobles from Verona and Parma. The enemy had positioned themselves on a small and low hill just across the field.
After a short council the attack order was given. Mastino took the lead of the right flank while Fregnano led the left. The infantry marched up the slopes and soon ran towards the enemy after some volleys from the crossbows. The battle had started.
The magistrate of Bologna was foolish enough to let his cavalry join the battle head on. They got stuck and cut down by the Vernonese burghers. The two armies engaged eachother in a duel like battle were no winner could be seen. and the soldiers just cut down as many as they could. A battle like this was dangerous, a long and tough battle which could only be won with terrible casualties.
Mastino knew he needed to end the battle before too many died. He took his squadron of knights and joined his son's squadron. This united force charged into the flank of the enemy and after some fierce cutting the enemy could be routed off the field. The battle was won. Mastino lost around 900 men, the magistrate of Bologna lost 4000...
It was the year of 1356 when Bologna attacked Verona. It was nothing wrong with the plan itself. Verona was weakened and Bologna had a strong ally in Aurgau to the north, Johann von Habsburg's county. But Bologna underestimated Verona's forces. Though, Bologna still hoped for help from Aurgau but the Veronese allies of England had already fallen into Aurgau from France and defeated count Johann.
After the battle, Bologna was forced to accept full annexation, and the burghers had to pay a huge tribute of 3000 florins in order to escape pillage and fire. The big city with the eldest university in Europe was Mastino's. But he could not rest yet. A small force of count Johann had escaped the English and besieged the city of Verona in a futile attempt to negotiate forth a good peace. But Mastino crushed the count's forces and forced Johann to pay him 2000 florins for peace. Johann accepted, but the Veronese could not return home this time either. The magistrate of Ferrara attacked Verona, a preventive war as he called it, but it was too late. Verona was too strong for Ferrara, espacially when Toscany attacked Ferrara as well. The city of Ferrara was surrendered to Verona together with a big tribute, but the magistrate continued to rule Modena.
In the meantime, England crushed count Johann's forces and conquered Aurgau. Johann was left as a count of St. Gallen. England also forced the French king to accept peace in 1357.
England managed to aquire parts of Armagnac and Pouitou.
Mastino saw his chance to unite the duchy of Romagna. But bad for him was that the bishop pf Ravenna was very hostile towards Mastino and would never accept him as a duke. Mastino decided to invade Ravenna and take the lands around the city by force.
But unluckily for him, Toscany was allied to Ravenna and now attacked Verona. Mastino decided to act quickly. He marched into the territories of Ravenna and took the city fast (the bishopric had no defence left after the war against Naples). He then turned towards Toscany and forced the duke there to peace.
Mastino's grandchild, the duke of Milan, attacked Venice in 1360. Mastino decided to attack the republic too. Venice was too strong for Milan and it would be terrible if Milan fell, then Verona would a much harder time trying to dominate the region.
Milan surprisingly managed to defeat 20 000 of Venice' forces with only 5000 by defeating the Venitian regiments one at a time. Mastino laid siege to Venice itself and took the city. The desperate doge of the republic offered him 2500 florins and Brescia back if Mastino would just accept peace. Mastino did accept and Brescia returned to Verona and noone longer doubted that Verona was the power of north Italy now.
Mastino was the richest man in Italy and his duchy was once again a power to be aware of.
He looked forward to a golden era for Verona...
Verona after the war of 1360
