Overview of Italy during the Reformation
Overview
Italy is commonly divided into three general regions: the north, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. The "north" was dominated by a variety of city-states plus some duchies (such as Milan or Florence) that had a specific city as its foundation. The Papal States also consisted of a collection of city-states, with the papacy exercising an overlordship that varied in effectiveness from one decade to the next. In the south, the Kingdom of Naples began as a major player in Italian politics, but by the end of our period it was a backwater.
Mixed in with this potpourri of powers were external kingdoms—in particular, France, Spain and Austria. Dominating events in the early 16th century were a series of invasions by Charles VIII, Louis XII and Francis I of France. Overlapping these invasions, and continuing after, was a strong Spanish influence that began with Emperor Charles V. With the involvement of the Hapsburgs, imperial entanglement moved in the 17th century from Spain to Austria, a kingdom that would continue to have interests in Italy right down to the 20th century.
That's the political angle. Economically and culturally, Italy underwent a wrenching transformation, from a brilliant leader in Europe in 1500 to an also-ran and imitator by 1700. This reasons for the change are complex and still debated, but the general trend is indisputable. In these areas, too, there were significant differences between the north and the south, with the Papal States as a kind of intermediate region.
Northern Italy
This is the part of Italy that gets noticed most, and for good reason. Most of the great powerhouses of the Renaissance were in the north: Florence, Venice, Milan, Ferrara, Mantua, Urbino. Even second-tier players were mostly here: Cremona, Piacenza, Verona, Siena, Lucca, Pisa, and so on. Rome and Naples are the two major exceptions. I'll mention these in a moment.
The first thing you'll notice is that these were all cities. Even those that became duchies were important almost entirely because of their principal city. Northern Italy was the most urbanized place in Europe, although the Low Countries were catching up. In 1500, moreover, nearly every one of these was an independent state. One of the overarching themes of our period is the rapid transformation of northern Italy from a patchwork of city-states into a patchwork of duchies, counties and petty kingdoms. By 1700, only Venice remained as an independent republic.
A second political theme is shaped by the Italian Wars, which occupy the first quarter of our two hundred years. These wars were a primary catalyst in the transformation mentioned in the previous paragraph. They also brought foreign powers solidly and permanently into Italy: first France, then Spain, then Austria. This profoundly affected the political course of Italy right into the age of Napoleon, and even after.
A third theme, worth mentioning even though I'm not going to delve into it much, is that all the turmoil it Italian politics generated quite a lively literature in political theory. Most famous, of course, is the work of Machiavelli, but there were numerous other writers, either themselves Italians or others commenting on Italian politics. It is not too much of a stretch to say that political science originated during the period 1500 to 1700, and that events in northern Italy played a major role in that development.
The Papal States
Not to be confused with the Papacy. The popes resided in the city of Rome. Most of the popes in our period were Italians, which meant they had family ties somewhere in Italy, so papal policy inevitably got tangled up in local politics to some extent. Beyond this, though, there were states—mostly in central Italy—that belonged in one sense or another to the papacy. Exactly which states was a matter much debated and indeed much fought-over. Endless local wars that were as vicious as they were petty. I'll group all this maneuvering into two general categories.
The first was the machinations of local princes—of Perugia, Orvieto, Todi, Ravenna, Bologna and numerous others‐to gain favor with the popes, to expand their territories against their neighbors, or to win free of papal supervision. These local princes would form alliances, foment rebellions, and ally with outside powers. The general trend, though, was that papal control over the Papal States improved over the course of our two centuries.
The second category was papal maneuvering. The popes had claims on certain territories and tried to make good those claims. Conversely, neighbors of the Papal States had their own claims, against which the popes defended as best they could. This in turn formed a keystone of papal policy in the peninsula: to balance the various major powers—especially Milan, Venice, Florence and Naples—against one another, so that no one of these became so strong that they could then gobble up Papal States at will.
In short, the pope, who himself never had an army (yet never seemed to be without one), had to become the continent's foremost juggler. Far from being some all-powerful force, the pope had to spend time and resources trying to manage the Papal States (which generally-speaking didn't want to get managed), as well as trying to fend off the latest successful power to the north or south.
The South
The political situation in southern Italy was by contrast mercifully simple. There were two kingdoms, Sicily and Naples. The former was the island of Sicily. The latter was the rest of southern Italy, from a point somewhere between Naples and Rome (it fluctuated) and running roughly northeast to somewhere a bit north of Pescara (about halfway up the peninsual on the Adriatic side).
The history of Sicily during this time was pretty dull and I'm going to leave it aside. Sicily belonged to the kingdom of Aragon. When Aragon merged into the kingdom of Spain, Sicily in turn belonged to the Spanish crown. The island during our period continued its long economic and cultural decline, utterly overshadowed by the kingdom of Naples.
Naples, by contrast, was a hot potato. It was in fact the catalyst for the Italian Wars. There wasn't a lot of fighting down there, and what there was tended to concentrate in and around the city itself, but the effects of the fighting were significant.
In particular, the Italian Wars made Naples into a possession of Spain. Once it was firmly under Spanish control, two things of importance happened. First, the Spanish pretty much left the countryside to its own devices; which is to say, the local Italian (and now some Spanish) barons were given free reign to exploit their peasants, and that exploitation was backed up by Spanish troops. The back-country of the kingdom of Naples looked increasingly like the back-country of Sicily.
Matters were very different, though, in Naples itself. The city flourished under Spanish rule, especially in the later 16th and into the 17th century. Naples became a major center of European culture. Many of the famous and beautiful buildings of the city were constructed during these decades.
That's as far as it went, though. Naples never developed commerce or industry of any but local significance. It never became a major political power. It continued to be a destination for poets and painters and architects and playwrights. It continued to be one of the prettiest cities in Italy (the old saying is "see Naples and die"). No more than that, but the Neapolitans seemed content with that.
Conclusion
There's the quick overview. The detailed essays in this section follow that construction: essays on the major northern powers, an essay on the Papal States and the papacy, and an essay on Naples. No essay on "Italy" because there really was no such thing. Italy was, to quote another saying, this one by Prince Metternich, "only a geographical expression."