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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
A constant source of discord within the States of the Church during medieval times was the absence of clearly-defined territorial boundaries between the control of the self-governing communes of the Patrimony and that of the papal authorities. Disputes arising from this cause embittered for several centuries the relations of the papacy with some of the principal towns of the Patrimony, among them Spoleto, Gubbio, and Orvieto. The subject of this paper is an episode in the papacy's quarrel with the last of these communes.
page 121 note 1 For the other towns mentioned, see Ermini, G., ‘Aspetti Giuridici della Sovranita Pontificia nell' Umbria nel Secolo XIII’, Bullettino della R. Dep. di Storia Patria per l'Umbria, xxiv (1937).Google Scholar
page 121 note 2 G. Pardi, Il Catasto d'Orvieto dell'anno 1292 (Perugia, 1896).
page 121 note 3 Codice Diplomatico della Città d'Orvieto (Florence, 1884), ed. L. Fumi (cited hereafter as C.D.), p. 26.
page 121 note 4 See the map at the beginning of the paper.
page 122 note 1 The four petitions are mentioned in C.D., doc. dlxx. For the previous history of the dispute, Ibid., p. 26 and docs, lxi–iii, lxviii, lxxxiii, clxvi–ii, cxcvi, ccxciii–iv, cccxxxiii–iv; Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, N.S., xv. 5 (‘Ephemerides Urbevetanae’), ed. L. Fumi (Città di Castello, 1904) (hereafter cited as R.I.S.), pp. 127, 131, 142, 146, 149, 154, 157, 311; Les Registres de Grégoire IX, ed. L. Auvray (Paris, 1896–), nos. 514, 1715, 2056; Codex Diplomaticus Dominii Temporalis Sanctae Sedis, ed. A. Theiner (Rome, 1861), i, doc. cclxxiii, etc.
page 122 note 2 The events of the conclave are summarized in T. S. R. Boase, Boniface VIII, pp. 29–41.
page 123 note 1 See map.
page 123 note 2 C.D., doc. cvi.
page 123 note 3 R.I.S., pp. 133 and 160.
page 123 note 4 For Margherita, see especially Ciacci, G., Gli Aldobrandeschi nella Storia e nella ‘Divina Commedia’ (Rome, 1935), iGoogle Scholar, ch. 6, and corresponding documents in ii; Lisini, A., La Contessa Palatina Margherita Aldobrandeschi Signora del Feudo di Sovana (Siena, 1933)Google Scholar, passim; and Caetani, G., Domus Caietana, vol. i, pt. i (1927)Google Scholar, ch. xviii (= ‘Margherita Aldobrandesca e i Caetani’, Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria, xliv (1921). For Guy de Montfort, see Powicke, F. M., ‘Guy de Montfort (1265–71)’, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., 4th ser. xviii (1935).Google Scholar
page 123 note 5 Les Registres de Nicholas IV, ed. E. Langlois (Paris, 1886–), nos. 5751–2.
page 123 note 6 Ciacci, op. cit., ii, doc. 607 (Count Rosso's will); Boase, op. cit., pp. 7–10, 25–6, 29, 32, 35–6 (Boniface's previous contacts with Orvieto and Todi); see also Una Continuazione Orvietana della Cronaca di Martin Polono, ed. L. Fumi in Archivio Muratoriano, fasc. 14 (Cittè di Castello, 1914), (hereafter Cont. Orv. Polono) p. 120, for an account of the evil portents accompanying his ordination as priest at Orvieto. It is suggested that he hoped to succeed Nicholas IV by Boase, op. cit., pp. 29, 32; Finke, H., Aus den Tagen Bonifaz VIII (Münster, 1902), pp. 31, 37Google Scholar; and Morghen, R., ‘Il Cardinale Matteo Rosso Orsini,’ in Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria, xlvi (1923), p. 319.Google Scholar
page 123 note 7 Lisini, op. cit., p. 69.
page 124 note 1 See below, p. 127, n. 1.
page 124 note 2 R.I.S., p, 163; C.D., nos. dl–dlii.
page 124 note 3 Cont. Orv. Polono, p. 120, and Bolsenese chronicle cited in R.I.S., p. 163 n. The Bolsenese chronicler was almost certainly a contemporary (his description of the submission to Orvieto in 1294 appears to be that of an eye-witness). Cont. Orv. Polono was not compiled till some fifty years later. Its tone is in general pro-papal, but it is unfriendly to Boniface.
page 125 note 1 See below, pp. 128–31. For the negotiations of October to December 1295, Archivio Comunale d'Orvieto (hereafter ACO), Riformagioni 1295, fos. 78–133; the letter of 9 December is fos. 113–14v., and is summarized by Dottarelli, C. in his Storia di Bolsena (Orvieto, 1928)Google Scholar, but he fails to grasp its implications. The letter was approved by the Council of XXIV, by three other Councils ‘magnis et diversis’, and by a specially-appointed Balia of seventeen.
page 125 note 2 Stefaneschi's verse life of Celestine V in Seppelt, F. X., Monumenta Coelesliniana (Paderborn, 1921), p. 8.Google Scholar Stefaneschi says that Boniface went to Anagni in the summer of 1292 and that later he spent most of his time at Viterbo; it is not made clear when he moved there.
page 125 note 3 It is not absolutely necessary to the thesis propounded above to suppose that the bargain preceded the Orsini marriage, although this seems highly probable. Boniface knew Margherita's guilty secret, that during her first husband's captivity she had lived with Nello dei Pannocchieschi, and he later used this to dissolve her marriage to his nephew Roffredo (see below, p. 133). He might therefore have proposed to dissolve the Orsini marriage, if he became pope, on the same grounds; this would have had the additional savour of being a snub for his rival Napoleone Orsini. But there is no evidence that he tried to break up the Orsini marriage and this theory is altogether less probable than the one based on the supposition that the bargain preceded the countess’ betrothal to Orsello.
page 126 note 1 See above, p. 123, n. 6. G. Villain (lib. viii, cap. v) says that Boniface ‘aveva grande volontà di pervenire alla dignità papale’ and gives the story, then generally believed, of Boniface persuading Celestine to make the ‘gran rifiuto’
page 126 note 2 Boase (pp. 33 n., 40–1, and 162) puts Orsello's death in the summer of 1294, just before Celestine's election, but he was still alive in June 1295 (C.D., dlxv). G. Tommasi, Dell'Historie di Siena (Venice, 1625), Pt. 2, p. 138, and the Orvietan chronicler Manente (R.I.S., p. 328) say he died in October 1295, and this date is confirmed by the visit to the countess of a Sienese embassy—presumably of condolence—on the 21st of that month (Lisini, op. cit., p. 73). The brother of Cardinal Napoleone, whose death Stefaneschi mentions as occurring in 1294, was probably the Giovanni whose tomb is in S. Francesco at Assisi (see Caetani, G., Caietanorum Genealogia (Perugia, 1920), Table lxiv)Google Scholar; this is the opinion of the latest historian of Assisi (Fortini, A., Assisi nel Media Evo (Rome, 1940), p. 234).Google Scholar
page 127 note 1 In June Perugia replied unfavourably to an Orvietan ‘feeler’ about her attitude in the event of an attack on the Val del Lago, but Orvieto showed Perugia some papal ‘litteras gratie’ in October (Dottarelli, op. cit., p. 128). The deed whereby Orvieto appointed a proctor to renew the alliance with Perugia is in ACO (Dipl., Sec. xiii, n. 66). This document is partly illegible and the date is missing, but palaeographical evidence, the presence of a Spoletan in office at Orvieto, and the dating during a papal vacancy enable it to be assigned with almost complete certainty to the first half of 1294 (the only recorded Spoletan official at Orvieto in this period was Celle de'Bustoliti, Poiesta in 1294; C.D., pp. 432–4). Boase (p. 33) is under the impression that the attack actually took place in 1293.
page 127 note 2 Theiner, op. cit., cccxcii. It is possible that the attack would never have taken place but for the Orsini marriage of 1293; Perugia was only, approached in June, after the marriage. But it seems more likely that, even had the agreement with Boniface held, Orvieto would have had to take the Val del Lago by force and Boniface to have made at least a show of disapproval. After 1296 he was hated in the Val del Lago; the Bolsenese chronicler calls the exchange of that year ‘contra di Dio e contra di rascione… e Dio volse che pochu n'ebe bene’.
page 127 note 3 The campaign is described in Cont. Orv. Polono (p. 119) and two chronicles in R.I.S. (pp. 163–4 and 164 n.). The cardinals’ bull is in Potthast, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, no. 23946. The cardinals’ representative at Acquapendente, a friar, was one signatory to the July truce. Orvieto was then under an interdict, and the truce was in no way an acknowledgement of her gains (C.D., dliii and dlxx).
page 128 note 1 C.D., dliv–dlvi and Dottarelli, docs, xix–xxii. The towns also swore to the usual articles of obedience.
page 128 note 2 Les Registres de Boniface VIII, ed. G. Digard, A. Thomas, and R. Fawtier (Paris, 1890–), no. 741; R.I.S., p. 164 (where the exodus of the clergy in May is also mentioned).
page 128 note 3 Registres de Boniface VIII (hereafter Reg. B. VIII), nos. 767–9, and Theiner, op. cit., ccccxciv, which also summarizes the course of events since the summer of 1294.
page 128 note 4 ACO, Riformagioni 1295, fos. 9–75v.: Costantini, N., Memorie Storiche di Acquapendente (Rome, 1903)Google Scholar, doc. xvi.
page 129 note 1 Reg. B. VIII, no. 438. Bishop Francesco was a firm ally of the commune and a sturdy upholder of the rights of both bishopric and commune in the Val del Lago. The two were closely connected, since the so-called ‘right of the Italic cities’ equated the boundaries of the city with those of the diocese. Much of the property of the bishops of Orvieto was situated in the Val del Lago, for ia the early middle ages Bolsena had been their seat.
page 129 note 2 For the negotiations of October-November, ACO, Rif. 1295, fos. 78–133. The Bull of 20 November is Reg. B. VIII, no. 847; it may represent a temporary breakdown in negotiations, or it may have been a mere bargaining-move by Boniface. For Orsello Orsini's death, see above, p. 126, n. 2.
page 129 note 3 See above, p. 125. The ambassadors who took the letter were specifically informed that they were not authorized to take any oath on behalf of the commune.
page 130 note 1 R.I.S., p. 168; Reg. B. VIII, no. 1574; C.D., dlxvi–dlxix (dlxix = Reg. B. VIII, no. 1029). The commune had to raise a loan to pay a sum of money demanded by the archbishop.
page 130 note 2 R.I.S., p. 168 and n.
page 130 note 3 Roffredo became Count Palatine and Rector of the Tuscan Patrimony in March (Reg. B. VIII, nos. 5452–4); this was doubtless when the marriage was arranged.
page 130 note 4 C.D., dlxx.
page 130 note 5 C.D., dlxxi–ii. One ringleader alone of the fifty-four condemned in 1295 was to remain excommunicated. Acquapendente was granted by a separate bull, ten days after the towns of the Val del Lago proper.
page 130 note 1 Caietanorum Genealagia, p. 52; R.I.S., pp. 169–70.
page 130 note 2 Dottarelli, op. cit., doc. xxv; C.D., dlxxiii–dlxxv; R.I.S., p. 170; ACO, Rif. 1297, fos. 5–10 of loose sheets. On 28 February Boniface issued a bull authorizing Orvieto and the officials of the Patrimony to use force against the towns of the Val del Lago, but it was not needed: Grotte had given in three days before, and the other towns soon followed suit.
page 130 note 3 C.D., dlxxvii–iii; Dottarelli, op. cit., pp. 161–3; ACO, Rif. 1301, fos. 27V.–29V., 40, 162. Orvieto's refusal to allow the Val del Lago towns to tax her citizens’ property there was a genuine grievance, for these towns were taxed by both Orvieto and the Patrimony. The amounts they paid in taxation to the Patrimony in 1298 are recorded by P. Fabre, ‘Un Registre Caméral du Cardinal Albornoz en 1364’, Mélanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire (Paris, 1887), pp. 185–93.
page 131 note 1 C.D., p. 397; R.I.S., pp. 134 and 170. One of these statues is still to be seen above the Porta Maggiore.
page 131 note 2 R.I.S., pp. 134 and 170; Reg. B. VIII, nos. 1851–2179 and 2207–8; C.D., p. 398 and dlxxvi; Theiner, op. cit., dix. Boniface had already given the Opera del Duomo 1,000 florins (Cont. Oro. Polono, p. 126). Although he talks of the cancellation of a fine of 40,000 florins, the bull of 10 September 1296 had seemed to imply that Orvieto was absolved from all her punishments, including this fine.
page 131 note 3 C.D., dlxxvii–dxci and dxcvii–iii (where the chronology is confused through the date of dlxxvii being read as ‘1300’ instead of ‘1301’); R.I.S., pp. 172–3 and 215–16. The frontier-dispute over Montemarte had led to many wars, from the beginning of the thirteenth century. The pacification of 1300–1 lasted until 1314.
page 132 note 1 Caetani, G., Regesta Chartarum (1922), i.Google Scholar 147, and Caietanorum Genealogia, p. 52. Roffredo and Margherita were probably already living apart in 1297 (Lisini, op. cit., p. 78; Ciacci, op. cit., p. 270).
page 132 note 2 See above, p. 125, n. 3 and below, pp. 137–8. If Margherita married Nello she probably did so in 1289; in that year Ranieri da Baschi, the brother of Margherita's stepmother, came with troops from Todi and carried her away from Orbetello, where she was living with Nello (R.I.S., pp. 161–2; Ciacci, op. cit. pp. 252–6; Lisini, op. eit., p. 13). It is very unlikely that the marriage was valid, i.e. that it took place after Montfort's death in 1291, for Orsello Orsini would hardly have married her in 1293 in those circumstances.
page 132 note 3 Cont. Orv. Polono, p. 120. Ciacci (pp. 271 ff.) suggests that Margherita was the ‘belta donna’, of Inferno, XIX, whom Boniface
‘non temesti torre a ’nganno
… e poi di fame strazio’
but the reference is certainly to the Church. The legality of the divorce was questioned by Nogaret in 1303, when he drew up a list of accusations against Boniface (Ciacci, p. 276). The surviving documents concerning Boniface's posthumous trial refer to accusations of heresy and immorality and this matter is not mentioned in them.
page 134 note 1 Boase, op. cit., chap, vi passim; Falco, G., ‘Sulla Formazione e la Costituzione della Signoria dei Caetani, 1283–1303’ in Rivista Storica Italiana, N.S., vi (Turin, 1928).Google Scholar
page 134 note 2 Lisini, p. 89, and Domus Caietana, p. 140, suggest this; Cardinal Theoderic was certainly in charge of Saturnia and Marzano in 1300 (Reg. B. VIII, no. 3909). Theoderic, who became ‘one of Boniface's most trusted servants’ (Boase, p. 127) clearly occupied a very special position in connection with the pope's central Italian schemes. Not only was he a sort of ‘Adviser on Aldobrandeschine and Orvietan affairs’ to Boniface, but he never forgot his place of birth and was always ready to press its claims. The possession of an unofficial but influential representative at the Curia was of great assistance to Orvieto.
page 134 note 3 Ciacci, pp. 287–90 and doc. 645 (in vol. ii); R.I.S., pp. 170 and 172; Domus Caietana, p. 140; Reg. B. VIII, nos. 3905–6 and 3909; ACO, Rif. 1300, fos. 21–28v. and 136v.–137. Gentile Orsini was made Potestà of Orvieto in 1301, at the pope's request (Rif. 1301, fos. 81v.–88).
page 134 note 4 Reg. B. VIII, nos. 3911–15.
page 134 note 5 ACO, Rif. 1300, fos. 56V.–68, and 1301, fos. 1, 26, 39v.–40v., 44, 49; R.I.S., pp. 172–3; Reg. B. VIII, nos. 4326 (April 1301; Florence is asked to provide 200 cavalry for the Orsini) and 4387.
page 135 note 1 ACO, Rif. 1302, fo. 201 and v. (‘… quod sanctissimus pater dominus noster intendebat commune Urbisveteris praeferre in terris Marittime et comitatu Aldebrandesca ipsum commune extollere et magnificare ac ipsi communi ad censum ipsas terras Marittime concedere et comitatum’).
page 135 note 2 They are last mentioned in connection with this campaign in October 1301 (ACO, Rif. 1301, fo. 90).
page 135 note 3 R.I.S., p. 173; ACO, Rif. 1302, fo. 215 (the July embassy, the first to go to the Curia after April); Theiner, dlxi.
page 135 note 4 Reg. B. VIII, nos. 5333–5 and 5337 (Benedict appointed Rector of the Tuscan Patrimony). An inventory of the Aldobrandeschine lands held of the monastery of S. Anastasio is printed by I. Giorgi,’ II Regesto del Monastero di S. Anastasio’, Archivio delta Soc. Romana di Storia Patria, i (1877).
page 135 note 5 Regesta Chartarum, i. 229 (the oath of Montebuono: Caetani gives the date as 1302, in error: the indiction is that for 1303). For the Orvietan visit: R.I.S., pp. 337–9, and ACO, Rif. 1303, fos. 21 and 31v.
page 136 note 1 Cardinal Napoleone Orsini, whose rivalry with the Caetani concerning the Aldobrandeschine contado has been mentioned above (pp. 123 and 125 n.): was in touch with the conspirators (Boase, p. 349) and was a hostile witness at Boniface's posthumous trial (Ibid., p. 368).
page 136 note 2 ACO, Rif. 1303, fos. 60–63v.
page 137 note 1 For all these events, ACO, Rif. 1303, fos. 64–6. Difficulty was experienced in raising sufficient troops because the. Val del Lago towns had just provided men for the Patrimony and protested against this double imposition.
page 137 note 2 Ibid., fos. 67–69v.
page 137 note 3 Ibid., fos. 74–6, 79v.–80, 86V.–88; C.D., p. 387. Several of the Aldobrandeschine towns submitted formally in January 1304 (C.D., dciv–dcv).
page 137 note 4 The interdict was imposed when one Amato was Vicar of the Patrimony (C.D., dcxiv): this dates it to 1303 when Benedict Caetani's Vicar was Amato di Giovanni (Les Registres de Benoît XI, ed. C. Grandjean (Paris, 1883–), no. 91). ACO, Rif. 1303, fo. 84, and 1304, fos. 133V. and 146V. (Benedict XI Potestà and Capitano). The pope was invited to Orvieto (Ibid., 1304, fo. 112), and Ferreto de’ Ferreti (Historia, i. 173, in Fonti per la Storia d'Italia) says he stayed there four days, but Cont. Orv. Polono (p. 126) and another Orvietan chronicler (R.I.S., p. 339) give Acquapendente as the place of his stay: the latter adds that he was ‘poco amico ad Orvieto’. The Bolsenese chronicler (R.I.S., p. 174 n.) states that Benedict XI revoked Boniface VIII's concession of the Val del Lago, but there is no trace of such a deed, and the statement is, improbable.
page 138 note 1 ACO, Rif. 1304, fos. 109V.–153V.; Caetani, Domus Caietana, p. 143. Margherita was compelled to marry Nello by Cardinal Theoderic, on papal orders (Ciacci, ii, doc. 651); see above, p. 133.
page 138 note 2 Domus Caietana, p. 144; Regesta Chartarum, i. 240.
page 138 note 3 ACO, Rif. 1312, fos. 220V., 253–5v., 270, and 1313, fos. 3–16; R.I.S., pp. 136, 178, 350. Orvieto had kept in touch with Margherita, who still owned property there (Orvieto, Archivio Vescovile, Codice A, fo. 83): in 1308 the commune aided her daughter and son-in-law in a war (Ciacci, p. 328; ACO, Rif. 1309, fos. 183v. and 217, and 1310, fo. 10) and in 1309 she planned a visit to the town (Rif. 1309, fos. 284v.–285). The promised allowance was never paid her.
page 138 note 4 C.D., dcxi; the deed of submission is no longer extant, but it figures in a fourteenth-century inventory of the Orvietan archive (R.I.S., p. 123). For Benedict Caetani's rôle in opposing Henry VII, see Previté-Orton, C. W., ‘The Roman House of Caetani in the Middle Ages’, Edinburgh Review, ccxlviii (Oct. 1928), pp. 303–4.Google Scholar Benedict died in 1322 and was succeeded by Guido Orsini, the son of Margherita's daughter Anastasia de Montfort.
page 139 note 1 For the interdict and the negotiations leading up to Orvieto's absolution, see C.D., dcxiv and notes. The whole episode is characteristic of the methods that made Dante call Clement's successor, John XXII, ‘Tu che sol per cancellare scrivi’ (‘You who order only to countermand’—Paradiso, xviii, 130).
page 139 note 2 R.I.S., pp. 135 and 177; ACO, Rif. 1310, fos. 71–2 (there was a severe famine in 1310). It is not clear to what extent the interdict was observed throughout these years, but when Cardinal Fieschi went to Orvieto in 1311 he thought it worth while to obtain Papal permission to celebrate Mass there (Regestum Clementi Papae V (Rome, 1885), no. 7545).