Pope Gregory XI harbors various grievances against…

Pope Gregory XI harbors various grievances against Florence for their refusal to directly aid him in his war against the Visconti of Milan.

When the pope’s war against Milan ends in 1375, many Florentines fear that the pope will turn his military attention toward Tuscany; thus, Florence pays off Gregory XI's main military commander, English condottiere John Hawkwood, with one hundred and thirty thousand florins, extracted from local clergy, bishops, abbots, monasteries, and ecclesiastical institutions, by an eight-member committee appointed by the Signoria of Florence, the otto dei preti.

Hawkwood also receives a six hundred-florin annual salary for the next five years and a lifetime annual pension of twelve hundred florins.

The transalpine mercenaries employed by Gregory against Milan, now unemployed, are often a source of friction and conflict in papal towns.

Florence forms an alliance with Milan in July 1375, immediately prior to the outbreak of the war, and the prosecution of the war is entirely delegated to another eight-member committee appointed by the Signoria of Florence: the otto della guerra.

Florence incites a revolt in the Papal States in 1375; humanist Chancellor of Florence Coluccio Salutati disseminates public letters urging the cities to rebel against the "tyrannical" and "corrupt" papal rule, instead urging a return to all'antica Republicanism.

The Florentines send agents to …