BRACCIO DA MONTONE

BRACCIO da MONTONE. - Condottiero, son of O. Fortebracci, founder of a school of military art, born at Montone (Perugia) on 10 July 1368, died at L'Aquila on 5 June 1424. His father Oddo had been banished and stripped of his goods while he was still a child. He learned the art of war under Alberico da Barbiano. After several attempts to return to his homeland, during which he distinguished himself among the other exiled Perugian nobles, he conquered territories in the Marca and sided with John XXIII against Ladislaus of Durazzo, king of Naples. However, the vicissitudes of war and the relations between the Pope and the Durazzesque king prevented him from achieving his goal of reconquering all his native territory. Appointed by the Pope to govern Bologna, he procured the means for his longed-for return home through extortion, which he succeeded in carrying out in 1416, after John had been deposed. The following year, he already dominated most of Umbria and a vast area of the Marca. For 70 days he held Rome, taking advantage of the conspiracy in favour of the antipope Benedict XIII. He asked Martin V for Umbria in vicariate, but the new Pope instead ordered Guidantonio da Montefeltro to reconquer the entire Patrimony of St Peter. The struggle was fierce. The Florentines negotiated the peace that was signed in Florence in February 1420. B. obtained, albeit with difficulty, the vicariate of Umbria. At the end of that year, he subjected Bologna to the Church and married a second time to Niccolina Varano, by whom he had a son, Carlo. At the beginning of the following year, despite the Pope's prohibition, he set out on an expedition to the kingdom of Naples, where, intervening in the barons' struggles, he obtained money and territories. A new intervention by the Florentines led to a second peace with the Pope, in which B. obtained the principality of Capua, renouncing Città di Castello. But he, taking advantage of the Florentines' suspicions towards Filippo Maria Visconti, now aimed to dominate a large part of Italy. Despite his promise to the Pope not to touch the Church's domains, he turned against L'Aquila, a key position for the conquest of the Neapolitan kingdom. But the city resisted, while Martin V strove to gather as many allies as possible. The bloodiest battle on 2 June 1424 marked the end of B.'s fortune. Seriously wounded, he refused all help and died three days after his defeat. His state collapsed.