One of the most interesting but now forgotten powerful and charismatic men from the Italian Wars was the Swiss cardinal Matthäus Schiner. A close ally to the Pope and fiercely anti-French, this war-loving cardinal inspired and rallied his fellow Swiss countrymen to fight!
The Swiss had already successfully defended their homeland and were famed as the best mercenaries in Europe, but Matthäus Schiner had big imperial ambitious for them. He wanted the feared and admired Swiss to become a premier warrior race in service of the Church of the Pope!
This ambitious bishop of Sion was made Bishop of Novara and cardinal in 1511, and in 1512 he was a Papal legate. Shiner was crucial in mobilizing the Swiss to drive the French out of Milan, resulting in one of their most humiliating defeats in history of France at Novara in 1513.
In 1515 he rallied the Swiss again against the French at Marignano, despite the French offering the Swiss a lot of gold to retreat and a lot of Swiss already leaving because of it. Schiner and the remaining Swiss faced the French again in a brutal battle that lasted for two days!
Despite being outnumbered the Swiss were on the verge of winning until the French were aided by their Venetian allies and won the battle. Shiner's power faded after this loss and so did the Swiss ambitions to engage in wars in foreign countries other than mercenary service.
The aftermath of the defeat of Marignano was in many ways the start of the famous Swiss neutrality. But history could have been very different if the ambitious Shiner was successful at Marignano.
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16th century Romans developed an interesting tradition of "talking statues", attaching anonymous political commentary on statues.
The Pasquino was the first of such statues.🧵
The Pasquino is an old statue in Rome dating back to Antiquity.
It was one of many random statues in Rome until early 16th century when Cardinal Oliveiro Carafa decorated the statue with Latin epigrams on the occasion of the Feast of Saint Mark.
The Cardinal's actions unintentionally inspired ordinary Roman people to start writing satirical poems and attaching them to the Pasquino.
It is speculated that these were first only consisting of lowbrow humor, but they soon began including controversial political criticism!
From 1475 on, the Venetians recruited the stradioti light cavalry from the Balkans as borderland troops in Friuli to defend against Ottoman raids.
These were known for cutting off the heads of dead or captured enemies and wanted to be paid extra for every head they brought back!
In one instance during the Ottoman raid on the town of Spilimbergo in 1499, the stradioti were able to respond quickly enough and in cooperation with local Friulian militias killed around 100 Ottomans whose heads they brought to a Venetian commander, demanding to be paid!
The territory of Friuli was acquired by Venice relatively late in 1420 following the collapse of the state of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.
Friuli would become a troubled borderland of Venice and faced many powerful enemies to the east.
I keep thinking about this town of Mahdia in Tunisia.
It used to be an important port but brutal wars through history reduced it to a quiet fishing town.
It's a place of significance for Western history as the first successful crusade-like expedition was launched here in 1087.
The Mahdia campaign of 1087 was a huge success for Pope Victor III who was able to rally the rival Italian maritime republics of Pisa, Genoa and Amalfi behind the Christian banner to attack the hated Muslim port of Mahdia from where pirate raids were staged by the Zirids.
11th century saw the rise of the maritime Republic of Pisa which was punching far above its weight in terms of power.
The Pisans continuously clashed with the Muslims for control of the Mediterranean and were eventually able to bring the war to them, sacking Tunis in 1130.