Good and evil lie strangely mixed together in the Italian
States of the fifteenth century. The personality of the ruler is so highly
developed, often of such deep significance, and so characteristic of the
conditions and needs of the time, that to form an adequate moral judgement on
it is no easy task.
The foundation of the system was and remained illegitimate,
and nothing could remove the curse which rested upon it. The imperial approval
or investiture made no change in the matter, since the people attached little
weight to the fact that the despot had bought a piece of parchment somewhere in
foreign countries, or from some stranger passing through his territory. If the
Emperor had been good for anything, so ran the logic of uncritical common
sense, he would never have let the tyrant rise at all. Since the Roman
expedition of Charles IV, the emperors had done nothing more in Italy than
sanction a tyranny which had arisen without their help; they could give it no
other practical authority than what might flow from an imperial charter. The
whole conduct of Charles in Italy was a scandalous political comedy. Matteo
Villani relates how the Visconti escorted him round their territory, and at
last out of it; how he went about like a hawker selling his wares (privileges,
etc.) for money; what a mean appearance he made in Rome, and how at the end,
without even drawing the sword, he returned with replenished coffers across the
Alps.
