Mantua > Mantova Lombardia Italy

…the other to the right to Mantua, …

Emperor Valentinian III sends three envoys, the high civilian officers Gennadius Avienus and Trigetius, as well as the Bishop of Rome, Leo I, who meets Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua, and obtains from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the Emperor.

Prosper of Aquitaine gives a short description of the historic meeting, but gives all the credit of the successful negotiation to Leo.

Priscus reports that superstitious fear of the fate of Alaric—who died shortly after sacking Rome in 410—gave him pause.

In reality, Italy had suffered from a terrible famine in 451 and her crops are faring little better in 452; Attila's devastating invasion of the plains of northern Italy this year does not improve the harvest.

To advance on Rome would have required supplies which were not available in Italy, and taking the city would not have improved Attila's supply situation.

Therefore, it is more profitable for Attila to conclude peace and retreat back to his homeland.

Secondly, an East Roman force had crossed the Danube under the command of another officer also named Aetius—who had participated in the Council of Chalcedon the previous year—and proceeded to defeat the Huns who had been left behind by Attila to safeguard their home territories.

Attila, hence, faces heavy human and natural pressures to retire.

The Huns, awash in plunder, depart over the Alps.

…Mantua.

Several Lombard dukes defect; Gisulf I, duke of Friuli, is defeated and replaced by his son Gisulf II.

The Frankish invasion of Lombard lands in 590 probably results in the establishment of some sort of Frankish supremacy; the Lombards pay tribute, at least for a time.

Agilulf manages to unify the duchies of the north into a single kingdom on the on the basis of the lands ceded to his predecessor.

Agilulf captures Mantua, and divides its territory between the Lombard duchies of Brescia and Bergamo.

The southern Italian princes have paid homage to Emperor Henry III, who, through war and diplomacy, has induced the rulers of Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary to do the same.

The marriage of Upper Lorraine’s troublesome Duke Godfrey with Beatrice of Tuscany in 1054 had created a threat in Italy that Henry seeks to counter in 1055.

Henry has by Easter arrived in Mantua.

The emperor holds several courts, one at Roncaglia, where, a century later (in 1158), Frederick Barbarossa will hold a far more important diet, sending out his missi dominici to establish order.

Godfrey, ostensibly the reason for the visit, is not well received by the people and returns to Flanders.

The office of chancellor of the kingdom of Italy is at this period regarded as an appanage of the archbishopric of Cologne, and this is probably the reason why Anno has a considerable share in settling the papal dispute in 1064.

He declares Alexander II to be the rightful pope at a synod held at Mantua in May 1064, and takes other steps to secure his recognition.

The imperial army marches first against Mantua, which decides to surrender instead of being sacked, and then to …

The first Gonzaga family members of historical importance are known to have collaborated in the Guelph faction alongside the monks of the Polirone Abbey.

Beginning in the twelfth century, they have become an important family in Mantua, and had grown richer when their allies, the Bonacolsi, defeated the traditional familiar enemy, the Casalodi.

In 1328, however, Ludovico I Gonzaga overthrows the Bonacolsi lordship over the city with the help of the Scaliger family, and enters the Ghibelline party as capitano del popolo ("people's captain") of Mantua and imperial vicar of emperor Louis IV.

Pope Pius II, after allying himself with Ferdinand, the Aragonese claimant to the throne of Naples, convenes a congress of the representatives of Christian princes at Mantua for joint action against the Turks.

He had on September 26, 1459, called for a new crusade against the Ottomans, and on January 14, 1460, proclaims the official crusade: it is to last for three years.

Alberti has meanwhile been commissioned by Ludovico II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, to redesign the exterior of the church of San Sebastian here.

The plan, which is considered one of the earliest and most significant examples of Renaissance centrally planned churches, is in the shape of a Greek cross, with three identical arms centering apses, under a central cross-vaulted space without any interior partitions.