BRACCIO DA MONTONE

BRACCIO da MONTONE. – Military commander, son of O. Fortebracci, founder of a school of military art, born perhaps at Montone (Perugia) on 1 July 1368, died at l'Aquila on 5 June 1424. His father Oddo had been banished and deprived of his possessions when he was still a child. He learned the military profession under Alberico da Barbiano. After various attempts to return to his homeland, during which he distinguished himself among the other exiled Perugian nobles, he conquered territories in the Marches and sided with Giovanni XXIII against Ladislao di Durazzo, king of Naples. But the vicissitudes of the war and of the relations between the Pope and the Durazzo ruler prevented him from achieving his aim of reconquering the whole of his native territory. Appointed by the Pope to govern Bologna, he procured through extortion the means for his desired return to his homeland, which he succeeded in carrying out in 1416, after Giovanni had been deposed. The following year, he already dominated most of Umbria and a vast area of the Marches. For 70 days he held Rome, taking advantage of the conspiracy in favor of the antipope Benedetto XIII. He asked Martino V for Umbria in vicariate, but the new Pontiff instead ordered Guidantonio di Montefeltro to reconquer the entire patrimony of the Church. The struggle was fierce. The Florentines negotiated a peace, which was signed at Florence in February 1420. By its terms, B. obtained the vicariate of Umbria. At the end of that year, he subjected Bologna to the Church and married Niccolina Varano in a second marriage, 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 toward the Kingdom of Naples, where, intervening in the barons’ struggles, he obtained money and territories. A new intervention by the Florentines brought about a second peace with the Pope, in which B. obtained the principality of Capua, renouncing Città di Castello. But, taking advantage of the Florentines’ suspicions regarding Filippo Maria Visconti, he now aimed to dominate a large part of Italy. Despite the promise he had made to the Pope not to touch the Church’s dominions, he advanced against l'Aquila, a key position for the conquest of the Neapolitan kingdom. But the city resisted, while Martino V struggled to gather the greatest possible number of allies. The extremely bloody battle of 2 June 1424 marked the end of B.’s fortunes. Gravely wounded, he allowed himself to die, refusing all assistance, three days after the defeat. His state dissolved.