The postscript is a sad one. In October of the same
year the unhappy prince was attacked in the night and robbed of life
and throne by his brother's son; and I myself escaped narrowly, and am
now in the deepest misery.'
A near-despotism, without morals or principles, such as Pandolfo
Petrucci exercised from after 1490 in Siena, then torn by faction, is
hardly worth a closer consideration. Insignificant and malicious, he
governed with the help of a professor of juris prudence and of an
astrologer, and frightened his people by an occasional murder. His
pastime in the summer months was to roll blocks of stone from the top
of Monte Amiata, without caring what or whom they hit. After
succeeding, where the most prudent failed, in escaping from the devices
of Cesare Borgia, he died at last forsaken and despised. His sons
maintained a qualified supremacy for many years afterwards.
The Greater Dynasties
In treating of the chief dynasties of Italy, it is convenient t discuss
the Aragonese, on account of its special character, apart from the
rest. The feudal system, which from the days of the Nor mans had
survived in the form of a territorial supremacy of the Barons, gave a
distinctive color to the political constitution of Naples; while
elsewhere in Italy, excepting only in the southern part of the
ecclesiastical dominion, and in a few other districts, a direct tenure
of land prevailed, and no hereditary powers were permitted by the law.
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