History of Carignanum

What would have happened if the national states we know today in Europe had never been established? If the various European monarchies had not had the strength to impose themselves completely on their vassals? If the power of every Christian monarch had been seriously opposed by the powerful city guilds and the nobles? Welcome to my Utopian Europe! Our history begins in 1096 AD.

The Most Serene Republic of Carignanum

In 1096, in Genova, the bishop Arialdo, taking advantage of the imperial power vacuum that had been created in Italy in recent decades, and being supported by the viscounts ( feudal lords of the Holy Roman Empire) and the citizens, founded an assembly of all citizens, the Arengo (the Arengo, in the Middle Ages, was the place where the citizens gathered together to organize themselves: the term is probably derived from the Germanic "hring" (=circle, ring)). The Arengo proclaimed the Genovese independence from the Holy Roman Empire, and bought the Emperor's approval, who was engaged in various wars in Germany at that time, by paying a very high sum to the imperial coffers.

Little is known of the following years, the obscure first years of the Republic. The citizens between the ages of 16 and 70, all part of the Arengo, gathered in the Cathedral of Saint Lawrence, in the absence of a building that could hold so many people. Soon, however, it was realized that such a vast parliament could only slow down the growth of the Republic. It was therefore decided to add another body to the Arengo, made up of fewer people (350), which would serve as the primary legislative body. The new assembly took the name of "Consilium" (the name was taken directly from Roman History); its members, elected by the people, were mainly members of the most noble or wealthy families.

Since the independence of the Republic had been obtained thanks to the action of the Bishopric, many citizens wanted the bishop of Genova to become also its political leader. The nobles, worried that the newly obtained independence could be destroyed by bishops appointed by Rome, decided to bypass the popular initiative by appointing instead as head of the state a Consul (another term taken from the tradition of Rome), chosen by lot within the members of the newly formed Consilium. To meet the popular sentiment, it was decided that the bishop, in any case, should always be informed directly by the Consilium of any political question. The first Consul in the history of the Republic was the famous Guglielmo Embriaco, a member of a rich family of merchants.

After stabilizing internal politics, the Republic, initially named "Republic of Genova", decided to extend its control over the whole of Liguria, still de jure part of the Holy Roman Empire: all the coastal cities of the Ligurian coast were slowly submitted (1100-1150 AD). Being strongly jealous of their independence, cities like Noli or Savona could represent hotbeds of insurrections within the State. For this reason the Consilium, instead of imposing a control that would have been hated by the conquered, decided to "integrate" gradually the conquered Ligurian city-states in the system of the Republic: they would have maintained their administrative and judicial apparatus, but their foreign and economic policy would have been decided by Genova. The Republic was also concerned with keeping the defense of its city-states under the capital's control.

The Republic, which looked with suspicion on the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, first supported the Pope in the fight against the Emperor, and later provided military and economic support to all the various Italian cities that rose against imperial authority, seen by the citizens of the italian peninsula as a foreign power. The Empire, despite the appointment of very capable emperors (such as Frederick I), was no longer able to keep the rich Italian cities under its control, as they started to provide themselves with autonomous systems of government. After decades of wars and looting (the Italian Independence Wars against the Empire began with small skirmishes around 1150 only to end with the Peace of Milan in 1215) the Italian states definitively left the orbit of the Holy Roman Empire (despite the fact that Holy Roman Emperors still nominally retained the title of "King of Italy" and were to come to Rome to be crowned by the Pope).

The Republic of Genova, following the wars against the Empire, obtained the privilege of beating its own currency (the Golden Genovin) and the other Italian states recognized its possession of Liguria (1215). The enormous war effort against the Empire had forced the Republic to equip itself with a large fleet and an enormous financial apparatus that could withstand the costs of war (many were the Genovese war subsidies to the other Italian states). At the end of the conflict, although it no longer enjoyed imperial support, the Genovese Navy had been able to establish itself as one of the major naval forces in the Mediterranean.

All these enormous expenses were sustained thanks to all the credits taken by other Italian city-states towards the Republic: to manage them, the Consilium created the first bank in the world, the Banco di San Giorgio (the Bank of St. George, named after one of the patron saints of Genova). The Bank greatly encouraged the economic and militar growth of the city, which coincided with commercial growth: soon the Genovese merchants managed to establish themselves in all the commercial ports of the Mediterranean. The Republic also forged commercial relations with the Byzantine Empire: the last heir of Rome was the gateway to the Far East, and the Genovese established emporiums throughout the Byzantine coast and even in Constantinople itself. The Genovese understood, however, that not only trade could be a great economic resource: loans, especially to foreign nations, could also prove to be very fruitful: precisely for this reason, huge flows of Genovins arrived in the coffers of the Byzantine emperor (who could in this way reject the danger of a Muslim invasion) and in the coffers of the various monarchies of the Iberian peninsula during the Christian Reconquista (which lasted throughout the 13th century). The loans to the Iberian monarchs were rewarded with the control of the Balearic islands and the exclusive privilege of free passage in the Strait of Gibraltar, a privilege that led the Genovese merchants to trade to England and Flanders.

Around 1240 Genova was the richest city in the whole of Europe. But all this wealth ended up making enemies: other Italian city-states, following the Genovese example, began to appear on the Mediterranean, and although many could not compete with the by-now developed Genovese economy, two cities came to seriously threaten the dominance of the Republic: Pisa, an opponent of Genova on the Western Mediterranean, and Venice, an opponent in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The first of the two great rivals with whom Genova had to confront was Pisa: in 1245 the Tuscan city had occupied the island of Corsica in response to the Genovese commercial threat. It was a dangerous situation for Genova, but the Republic had soon to face another, and even more urgent, problem: in 1248 the last Duke of Provence had died without male heirs: the crown of Provence had therefore been claimed, among others, by the Duke of Savoy and Genova. The Duke aimed to expand his Duchy and to obtain an outlet to the sea; Genova, on the other hand, aimed to take Provence in order to capture Marseille and destroy the competition that that port made to the Ligurian ports. Genova and Savoy, after months of useless negotiations, came to war (1249), and it was precisely at that time that Pisa decided to enter the scene: it supported the Duke and declared war on Genova. The Republic of Genova, forced to fight by land and by sea, was forced to make severe sacrifices. But everything changed within months: the King of France, called by Genova, intervened in the conflict (1250): the Genovese had just agreed with him for a partition of Provence in case of victory. The French power overthrew the war and in 1255 the Peace of Marseille was signed: the Duke of Savoy was forced to a white peace, Genova obtained the Provencal coast (and Marseille), France obtained the rest of the region, while Pisa was forced to to surrender the island of Corsica, which was made vassal of Genova.

The definitive defeat of Pisa occurred years later: after the two rivals had clashed along the Tunisian coast, Genova used a pretext to declare war on the Tuscan city (1283), a war that was practically concluded just a year later thanks to the impressive Battle della Meloria (from the name of a nearby Tuscan island), a great Genovese victory in what was perhaps the largest naval battle that Europe had seen since the Roman Empire. The Pisans were forced to enter the Genovese orbit (1285), but just like the Ligurian cities, Genova allowed the glorious enemy to remain "a nation within the nation". Furthermore, the Consilium enacted a series of laws that helped the economy of the Pisan area, seriously damaged by the war, to recover. Pisa, therefore, obtained great benefits from the Genovese domination, a domination desirous of wiping out any hypothesis of Pisan rebellion.

After having bent Pisa and obtained Marseille, it seemed that the Genovese were invincible: they had gained control of the western Mediterranean and their merchants traded from London to Constantinople. Genova prospered: but the greatest crisis of the Republic did not come from outside, but from within. From the middle of the 13th century, Genovese society had started to become increasingly "polarized" in three classes: the aristocrats, the merchants and the corporations. The nobles had increased their prestige by actively participating in all the wars in which the Republic had been involved: they considered themselves the real leaders of Genova and believed that they had allowed the Republic to prosper. The merchants replied by underlining the importance of trade for Genovese development: after all, the money to start wars (and to win them) came from trade. The guilds instead reaffirmed their importance in the urban context, especially in the capital. The three factions, so far in equilibrium, were represented by three great families: the Doria family were the leaders of the merchants, the Grimaldi family were the leaders of the nobles and the Fieschi family guided the guilds.

With the conquest of Pisa, the fragile balance between the factions began to deteriorate: the Consilium found itself divided, crushed, among the various factions, which arrived at open confrontation: the nobles retreated to their villas in open country, to recruit their armed peasants; the merchants armed their sailors and employees, and the guilds gave the order to start open revolts in the capital. The civil war between the factions broke out in the summer of 1301. For many days Genova, the largest city in the Europe, became a huge battlefield; the city authorities, unable to manage the conflict, took shelter in their palaces. The guilds seemed to win at first, but after months of intense guerrilla warfare, the peasant armies grouped by the nobles won: and on June 24, 1302, the day of the patron Saint John the Baptist, the Grimaldis entered victoriously in a destroyed Genova: they and their allies declared the Consilium lapsed, and completely rewrote the republican constitution.

The Consilium was replaced by two new bodies, the Maggior Consiglio (the Greater Council); this body aimed to directly replace the Consilium. The Minor Consiglio (the Minor Council) was also established: in this assembly sat all the male members of the families registered in the Golden Book of Nobility. Among other things, the Minor Council also had the task of electing the new head of state, the Doge (from the Latin "dux" = leader, military commander), symbol of the new power of the military aristocracy. With this new Constitution, the Republic changed considerably, because even though there still remained a Council elected by the people, noble families (even though many of their members were also merchants) could exercise a new and powerful influence on the life of the State. The Republic itself changed its name: the aristocrats, in fact, were also known as "The faction of Carignanum", from the Latin name of the hill of Carignano, on which the nobles met: this name, once the victory of the aristocrats took place, began to circulate until it came to replace the name of the Republic: the city of Genova retained its name, but slowly the State became known as the "Republic of Carignanum".

To highlight the new re-birth of the Republic, the various palaces in which the Consuls and Consilium had gathered for centuries were destroyed; in their place was built the new Palazzo Ducale (= Ducal Palace, construction began in 1305, but was reworked for several decades). In the new building all the State organs had to be housed, starting from the Councils (Greater and Minor), the Doge and the Supreme Court: in short, the building had to physically represent the power of the Republic.

Despite being exhausted at the end of the civil war, it did not take long before the republic recovered: in 1315, we see Carignanum alongside Venice, his bitter enemy, to face an even stronger opponent: the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines, in fact, while Genova was plunging into the civil war, had removed the commercial privileges of both the Genovese and the Venetians: now the two italian republics were just waiting for revenge.

The occasion happened in 1321: the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus II died without heirs, and it fell to a distant cousin to ascend the throne, with the name of Andronicus III. The new ruler was of Turkish nationality, but the cultural base of the Empire remained the Greek-Roman culture: the Greeks, therefore, opposed to the new Emperor, showed signs of open rebellion. Carignanum and Venice understood that it was the right time to strike the Empire: they made agreements with the Greek populations and pushed them to fight against the imperial authority, just as the Muslim threat appeared again on the eastern borders of the Empire.

The Greek War of Independence began in 1322: the Italians easily got the better of the sea, but the Byzantine army repeatedly destroyed the small Greek troops and managed to reconquer part of Greece. Carignanum and Venice then evacuated the most important cities of Greece with their fleets, so that the population was safe from the Emperor's troops. But revenge from the Byzantines never came, because, having had to split their army in two, they were seriously beaten to the east by the Arabs (1325). Andronicus III then requested a truce from the Greeks, and shortly after he even asked for help: he would have granted independence to Greece, if the Greeks and their Italian allies had helped him to repel the Arabs. The agreement was accepted and in 1328 the Byzantines declared victory over the Muslims.

As promised, Greece became an independent republic, but the two Italian allies imposed heavy conditions on the newly formed country: part of the new State had to be divided between Venice and Carignanum, and in addition the new State became de facto a colonycontrolled by rulers appointed by Carignanum and Venice. These new Greek colonies were to serve as strategic commercial bases for trade with the East, a trade that resumed with the Byzantine Empire too.

After the Greek war, Carignanum and Venice continued to be rivals, but tried to avoid a direct conflict. For its part, Carignanum, once its dominion over the seas was established, no longer sought to expand into the mainland: the administrative decentralization of the Republic allowed it to maintain, without much effort, good control over both its Italian territories, and the colonies scattered throughout the Mediterranean. The Republic, after 1330, experienced a period of great splendor: new trading bases were created throughout Europe.

And so we come to the present day, 1400 AD: Venice remains a great threat, but for now it is not an imminent danger. Who knows, maybe with the new century things will change. What is certain is that, all what I told you, is only the beginning of the great history of the Republic of Carignanum.