L'AQUILA NEL REGNO. I RAPPORTI POLITICI FRA CITTA' E MONARCHIA NEL MEZZOGIORNO TARDOMEDIEVALE (1467-1503)

This PhD thesis concerns the politic relations between towns and monarchy in the Kingdom of Naples at the end of the Middle Ages, by the case study of L’Aquila. In the first chapter I analyze the institutions of the town and their changes between 14th and 15th centuries. Thereafter I examine the political processes of the institutions, that is the ways the local elite used to rule the city and to preserve its power. In the second chapter I consider the social groups which had a political importance (merchants, notaries, legum doctores) and the problem of the urban aristocracy. In the second part of the chapter I analyze the local elite. In the third chapter I examine the figure of Pietro Lalle Camponeschi, count of Montorio, his feudal power, his hegemony in the city and his ability to influence the relations between town and monarchy. Moreover I consider his role as leader of a faction. The fourth chapter focuses on the ways of demonstrating fidelity, the relations between urban fiscal system and royal fiscal system, those between urban justice and royal justice, the diplomatic network of the town and the flows of citizens in the royal administration. In the last chapter I analyze two aspects of the town-monarchy relations. The first part is about the power of the royal captain and the dialectic between this public official, the citizens and the monarchy. The second part concerns the mission of the royal lieutenant Antonio Cicinello (1476), which was the first direct intervention of the monarchy in the local political life.