History
The history of le Marche
Few countries in the world are as drenched in historical awareness as Italy. From the myths surrounding the origins of Etruscan civilization to the founding of United Italy in the 19th century, the past and present were inextricably linked to each other for over 3000 years.
Before the Romans
Our knowledge about the first inhabitants of Le Marche is very vague and often provided with information from unreliable writings of later Roman historians. The most important tribes that first populated the region were the Piceni, who lived on the east side (of today's Le Marche) along the coast. Up in the mountains lived the Umbri tribes, which continued into the neighboring areas, now known as Umbria. Both strains have left little useful information. We found some traces of their presence among the Etruscans, who later populated the Le Marche area, but that has not been much either.
Ancient Rome
After the expulsion of the last Etruscan king Tarquinius Superbus in 509 BC, the new "Roman Republic" gradually started to exert its influence. After being weakened first by attacks by Greek settlers in southern Italy and then by those of the Celts in the north, the Etruscans came under the rule of Rome. The beginning of the end was marked by the conquest by the Romans of the Etruscan site of Veio (near Rome) in 396 BC. With the construction of the through connecting roads such as the Via Flaminia to the north, Roman rule was assured throughout Italy. Under the first Roman emperor, Augustus, the area (now known as Le Marche) was split up. The northern part became part of the Umbria region, the southern part was henceforth called Picenum.
The arrival of the Barbarians
In 476 AD, Rome was weakened by the separation of the Western and Eastern Empire. After the first looting of the Goths and Vandals from the north, Rome finally fell through Odoacer, a warlord of the Barbarians, who reigned as the first king of Italy. His kingdom was short-lived. In 489, Theodorus, king of the Eastern Goths, conquered the Roman Empire and brought a relative peace to Italy for 33 years.
The emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople tried, before his death, to restore imperial authority in Italy by sending his faithful generals Beselarius and Narses. Although they eventually succeeded in defeating the Gothic king Totila in 552, the decisive battle took place in the Furlo pass in Le Marche. In the meantime, the imperial army had weakened to such an extent that it was no longer able to withstand the next invader from the north in the Lombards in 568.
For over 200 years, these occupiers dominated most of Italy and ruled from the towns of Lucca and Spoleto. Only in the northern part of le Marche did the Byzantine armies keep a small area under the protection of the bishop of Ravenna.
The Holy Roman Empire.
Although the Lombards were converted to Christianity by Pope Gregory the Great, they were considered unwelcome guests. Pope Stephanus II was the first to come up with the idea of seeking foreign aid to expel the Lombards from Italy. For this, in 754, Pepijn de Korte was at the head of a Frankish army. Expelling the Lombards was more difficult than they thought, and this first succeeded under the leadership of the son of Pippin known as Karel de Grote.
In appreciation, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Although this position was little more than an honorary title at the time, the Holy Roman Empire lasted around 1000 years and was the cause of constant competition between successive popes and emperors. Although Charlemagne's empire flourished, this was only due to his powerful leadership. After the death of Charlemagne in 814, the entire Empire fell apart.
There was anarchy again in Italy, with imperial officials acting like local despots. More security in the country was obtained with the arrival of the Saxon King Otto I, which meant a revival of the power of the Holy Roman Empire. Trade and industry began to flourish, and while the emperor and the pope argued over who had something to say, many a city in central Italy expressed the desire for independence. Although they tried to stay on good terms with the emperor and with the pope, they found themselves capable enough to determine their own future. Devoid of a well-functioning government, these first city-states were hotbeds of patriotism and constant struggle with their neighbors. Proponents of the Papal or Imperial Power (Pope & Emperor Congregation)
The rivalry between the Vatican and the Empire reached its peak during the reign of the brilliant German Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederic II, the man who won his title Stupor Mundi ("world wonder ”) Earned by his extraordinary knowledge and intelligence. If you visit the town of Jesi (near Ancona), you can see the place where he was born, namely in a tent! Although he nearly succeeded in establishing a united Italy under his authority, his death in 1250 caused the end of the German imperial power in Italy.
Like everywhere else in Italy, Le Marche was very involved in this struggle by entering into obligations with the popes and / or with the emperors.
The popes have won the battle with the arrival of the French under Charles of Anjou in the mid-13th century, at the invitation of Pope Urban IV. From then on the French were the ruling foreign power in Italy instead of the Germans. However, the division between the Pope and the Emperor continued for many centuries. Long after the parties had lost their original ideals, this discord persisted in the discussion with any disagreement.
Despots and Republics
From 1305 to 1377, the Pope's seat was in Avignon. As a result, among other things, the great schism occurred with three candidates for the Papal Chair. Furthermore, the outbreak of the Black Death, the plague, in all of Europe in 1348. All this gave fertile ground for the emergence of local rulers in Le Marche. The life of these local tyrants was suddenly disrupted by the arrival of the ruthless Cardinal Albornoz, who had been sent by the Avignon popes to reorganize and take over the leadership of the papal states in Italy, which eventually led to the restoration of the papal power in Rome under pope Martinus V.
Silence before the storm
The height of the Renaissance in the mid-15th century was marked by a period of relative calm throughout Italy. This was not in the least due to the establishment of the "Italian Defense" League between the ruling powers, which controlled both the smaller states and foreign invaders. It was also because of this that centers of arts and sciences flourished.
But the days of this first united Italy were numbered. The interest of the most powerful states for itself took precedence over the common, and the arrival of Charles VIII marked the end of the League and the beginning of the Italian Wars. Although the French troops had a powerful grip on central Italy, Charles was back in France two years later and all his conquests were lost again.
But the French intervention and the conquests had caught the attention of another major European power, Spain. At the end of the 16th century, when the Italian Renaissance became famous throughout Europe, Italy became the scene of French and Spanish troops fighting each other's claim to Italy. With the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis in 1559, the 150-year Spanish rule over Italy began.
During Spanish rule, all of Italy, including the Vatican, was free to manage its assets in all its territories, including in Le Marche. The center of Italian culture moved again to the Contra Reformation in Rome. The papal states languished under powerless ecclesiastical bureaucracy.
Napoleon and the Italian Unification
The shock waves of the French Revolution of 1789 were felt in Italy and they sparked the first fires of Liberalism which reached its peak in 1860 with the birth of a united Italy. But first the Napoleonic invasion of 1796 had to be repulsed. Everywhere in Italy, Bonaparte had set up friends-states, with the Papal States forming the new "Roman Republic," which at the time was Italy's most disgusted kingdom. The collapse of this authority, with the fall of Napoleon, went as quickly as its creation. The Napoleonic arrangements awoke the whole of Italy from a long and deep sleep and cherished the rebirth of nationalism. Under King Victor Emanuel of Sardinia, his prime minister Cavour and the heroic General Garibaldi, a united Italy became a reality. In 1859 the Italian tricolor blew from the Fortezza in Florence. The last Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, renounced the throne. A year later, large parts of Italy applied to join the new Kingdom of Piedmont.
The papacy proved to be irreconcilable about the fierce attack of the Unification movement and it was only possible with violence that Le Marche could free himself from the Paapian power. In the end it took another 10 years before Rome fell. From here, the history of le Marche is part of the history of modern Italy.
