Commune of Lucca

Who rules

Name

Not pinned. Lucca has had consuls since at least 1119 and podestà from 1187, alternating with consular years; we found no list naming the officers of 1199 or 1200.

Title

The commune of Lucca (consuls, or a podestà)

Confidence

low

Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana, LUCCA: consular government of the great families from 1118, a podestà from 1187. The Annals of Tolomeo of Lucca (ed. Schmeidler, MGH) would be the place to settle the 1199-1200 officers; we could not read them.

Overlord

The Empire. Henry VI recognised Lucca's rights within 'six miles' of the city on 30 April 1186, with exceptions; beyond that ring the commune's rule rests on purchase, oaths and force. Lucca bought the rights of Duke Welf over the city in 1160 and had Frederick I's sanction at the diet of San Genesio in July 1162.

What the realm holds

• The city and the 'six miles' round it (the plain of Capannori, Porcari, Nozzano)
• The Valdinievole: Pescia, Uzzano, Buggiano, Montecatini, Monsummano, Massa e Cozzile, the Valleriana hill castles (Pietrabuona, Vellano, Pontito and the rest) [Lucchese since the twelfth century; the 1180 settlement fixed the Pistoia border at Serravalle]
• The lower Valdarno north of the Arno and the bishop's castles south of it: Santa Maria a Monte, Montecalvoli, Fucecchio, the villages that will become Castelfranco and Santa Croce, Montopoli, Marti, Palaia [the bishop of Lucca's castles and the Cadolingi inheritance, which passed under Lucca's rule after 1113]
• Altopascio and its hospital on the Via Francigena
• The middle Serchio to Borgo a Mozzano; Pescaglia; Villa Basilica
• The coast at Viareggio and the port of Motrone, Lucca's outlets to the sea

How it was acquired

Consular commune from the early twelfth century (consules maiores in 1119; the consuls dealt with Marquis Conrad on 2 October 1120). Bought Duke Welf's rights in 1160; sanctioned by Frederick I in 1162; long wars with Pisa ended in a stable peace in 1181; accords with Modena (1182) and Florence (1184); Henry VI's diploma of 30 April 1186 fixed the six-mile district. The cattani of the countryside were gradually absorbed into the commune after 1185.

Allies and rivals

Founding member of the Tuscan League with Florence, Siena, San Miniato and the bishop of Volterra; at peace with Pisa (1181) but its old rival on the Serchio, in the Versilia and over the coinage; rival of Pistoia in the Valdinievole; claims over the Garfagnana and the Versilia against their lords. The bishop, Guido (attested 18 May 1194 to 9 May 1202), is a Church map record; the bishop's castles in the lower Valdarno (Montopoli, Palaia, Santa Maria a Monte) are part of the Lucchese sphere. Cardinals from Lucca sit in the curia (Pandolfo Masca, legate in Tuscany in 1197-98; Gerardo Allucingoli; Bernardo of S.

Frediano, legate in Tuscany and Lombardy: campaign notes Part 4).

The realm that morning

Lucca holds its city, the plain, the Valdinievole and its lower-Valdarno castles without open war on 1 January 1200. Its claims beyond are not made good: the Versilia castles (Corvaia, Vallecchia, the hills of Camaiore) are held by their own lords, largely allied with Pisa, until Lucca's offensive of about 1225; the Garfagnana has been held directly of the Empire since 1185, by its cattani and rural communes, and the pope regards it as part of Countess Matilda's lands (a papal lordship there comes only in 1227-1240). We found no evidence of a raided frontier with Pisa or Pistoia that winter.

Wealth

Silk cloth (Lucca is 'rich in the industry of silk drapery' in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Treccani); money-changing and money-lending; the oldest mint of Tuscany, whose coin is the region's standard; the pilgrim trade of the Via Francigena and the Volto Santo; the tolls of the Serchio, the Arno crossings and Motrone.

Military

City militia by the five gates' quarters; the knights of the consular families; the castles of the Valdinievole (Montecatini, Pescia, Monsummano), the Serchio (Nozzano) and the lower Valdarno (Santa Maria a Monte); the coastal towers of Viareggio and Motrone. No numbers in the sources we used.

Threats

• Pisa on the Serchio and in the Versilia, where the castle lords are Pisa's friends
• Pistoia in the Valdinievole
• The papal claim to the Matildine lands, which covers the Garfagnana
• The return of an emperor who would revive the claims of 1185

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. During 1200 (no date pinned)No dated event for Lucca in 1200 was found. Bishop Guido remains in office (attested to 9 May 1202).

Places of note

• Motrone: Lucca's port on the Versilia coast, fought over with Pisa in the 1170s
• Viareggio: Lucchese coastal castle on the Via Regia [foundation date not checked]
• Altopascio: The hospital of Altopascio on the Via Francigena (a Church map record)
• Nozzano: Lucchese castle on the Serchio facing Pisan Ripafratta
• Montecatini: The castle on the hill (Montecatini Alto), Lucca's ally against Pistoia in 1180

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The commune's institutions, the 1186 diploma and the league membership are dated; the officers of 1199-1200 and the exact state of the Garfagnana and Versilia that winter are not.

On the map: The Valdinievole line with Pistoia follows the 1180 settlement at Serravalle; the lower-Valdarno block follows the Lucchese diocese and the bishop's castles and is approximate; the Versilia and Garfagnana are shown as claims only.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Pisa, by Bernardo Maragone, with continuation, Bernardo Maragone (1160s to 1175, continued to 1192). Pisa's official annals stop in 1175 and their continuation in 1192, so there is no Pisan narrative for 1200 itself. Read online