Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Vol III | Page 4

passage of his Chronicle which deals with the
fair state of Florence just before the outbreak of the Black and White
parties, says the city at that epoch numbered 'three hundred Cavalieri di
Corredo, with many clubs of knights and squires, who morning and
evening went to meat with many men of the court, and gave away on
high festivals many robes of vair.' It is clear that these citizen knights
were leaders of society, and did their duty to the commonwealth by
adding to its joyous cheer. Upon the battlefields of the civil wars,
moreover, they sustained at their expense the charges of the cavalry.
Siena was a city much given to parade and devoted to the Imperial
cause, in which the institution of chivalry flourished. Not only did the
burghers take knighthood from their procurators, but the more
influential sought it by a special dispensation from the Emperor. Thus
we hear how Nino Tolomei obtained a Cæsarean diploma of
knighthood for his son Giovanni, and published it with great pomp to
the people in his palace. This Giovanni, when he afterwards entered
religion, took the name of Bernard, and founded the Order of Monte
Oliveto.
Owing to the special conditions of Italian chivalry, it followed that the
new knight, having won his spurs by no feat of arms upon the
battlefield, was bounden to display peculiar magnificence in the
ceremonies of his investiture. His honour was held to be less the reward

of courage than of liberality. And this feeling is strongly expressed in a
curious passage of Matteo Villani's Chronicle. 'When the Emperor
Charles had received the crown in Rome, as we have said, he turned
towards Siena, and on the 19th day of April arrived at that city; and
before he entered the same, there met him people of the commonwealth
with great festivity upon the hour of vespers; in the which reception
eight burghers, given to display but miserly, to the end they might
avoid the charges due to knighthood, did cause themselves then and
there to be made knights by him. And no sooner had he passed the
gates than many ran to meet him without order in their going or
provision for the ceremony, and he, being aware of the vain and light
impulse of that folk, enjoined upon the Patriarch to knight them in his
name. The Patriarch could not withstay from knighting as many as
offered themselves; and seeing the thing so cheap, very many took the
honour, who before that hour had never thought of being knighted, nor
had made provision of what is required from him who seeketh
knighthood, but with light impulse did cause themselves to be borne
upon the arms of those who were around the Patriarch; and when they
were in the path before him, these raised such an one on high, and took
his customary cap off, and after he had had the cheek-blow which is
used in knighting, put a gold-fringed cap upon his head, and drew him
from the press, and so he was a knight. And after this wise were made
four-and-thirty on that evening, of the noble and lesser folk. And when
the Emperor had been attended to his lodging, night fell, and all
returned home; and the new knights without preparation or expense
celebrated their reception into chivalry with their families forthwith. He
who reflects with a mind not subject to base avarice upon the coming
of a new-crowned Emperor into so famous a city, and bethinks him
how so many noble and rich burghers were promoted to the honour of
knighthood in their native land, men too by nature fond of pomp,
without having made any solemn festival in common or in private to
the fame of chivalry, may judge this people little worthy of the
distinction they received.'
This passage is interesting partly as an instance of Florentine spite
against Siena, partly as showing that in Italy great munificence was
expected from the carpet-knights who had not won their spurs with toil,

and partly as proving how the German Emperors, on their parade
expeditions through Italy, debased the institutions they were bound to
hold in respect. Enfeebled by the extirpation of the last great German
house which really reigned in Italy, the Empire was now no better than
a cause of corruption and demoralisation to Italian society. The conduct
of a man like Charles disgusted even the most fervent Ghibellines; and
we find Fazio degli Uberti flinging scorn upon his avarice and baseness
in such lines as these:--
Sappi ch' i' son Italia che ti parlo, Di Lusimburgo ignominioso Carlo ...
Veggendo te aver tese tue arti A tór danari e gir con essi a casa ... Tu
dunque, Giove, perche 'l Santo uccello Da questo Carlo quarto
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