Castro, War of

CASTRO, War of. - Pope Paul III had granted to his relatives, the Farnese, in addition to the possession of Parma, also that of a small duchy in the Viterbo area, called that of C. from its main town, included within the territories of the Papal State. At the time of Urban VIII the Barberini, the greedy nephews of the reigning Pope, looked with disfavor upon the presence of outsiders at the gates of Rome; for his part Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma, had various reasons for resentment against the Pontiff and the new lords; under such conditions it was easy to find a casus belli, and the war was soon transformed into a testing ground for the political prestige of the State of the Church, with all the other Italian States arrayed against it, glad to strike a blow at ecclesiastical power.

In Jan. 1640 Farnese had C. placed in a state of war; Urban asked him for the payment of the interest on the credits that the Roman bankers had granted him, securing themselves with the revenues of the duchy. Upon a refusal, the Pope ordered that traffic between Rome and Tuscany be diverted from the road that passed through C. and forbade the exportation of grain; the rebel did not yield, and open war ensued (end of 1641). Under the command of Marquis Luigi Mattei the pontifical troops, from Viterbo, marched against C. and occupied it almost without striking a blow; there followed the excommunication of Farnese and the confiscation of his allodial property, including the palace in Rome. But, not heeding counsels of moderation, Urban VIII then wished to continue the enterprise, turning against Parma and Piacenza, feudal dependencies of the Holy See; the Italian powers, alarmed, united in a league and helped financially. Odoardo thus was able to march at the head of an army "against the Barberini," he said, not against the Pope, and to occupy Bologna, Imola, Forlì. In Rome a new sack was already feared, like that of the Bourbon, but Farnese did not know how to profit from the fortunate circumstances. At this point the question became grafted onto the various European controversies and the eternal France-Spain duel, in the sense that the French ambassador in Rome sought to make peace solely for the purpose of directing the Italian forces against the duchy of Milan, which was held by the Spaniards; in the spring of 1643 a league was concluded between Venice, Tuscany, the Este and Farnese to "restore Italian peace," as was often repeated then, and in substance so that each might derive the maximum advantage for himself, with great mutual distrust. Meanwhile the war continued, almost without human casualties but with great financial damage, until Mazarin charged Card. Alessandro Bichi to conduct peace negotiations separately with the various interested parties in order to prevent Spain and the empire from also being present at a general congress; a defeat of the papal troops at Lagoscuro at the hands of the Venetians (spring of 1644) hastened the conclusion. Territorially there was a return to the status quo ante, but the moral position of the Pope, held in check by a rebellious dependent, emerged from it irreparably shaken; while Urban, after publishing the peace on May 1, 1644, died on July 29 of the same year.

Paolo Brezzi