Cola di Rienzo

Cola di Rienzo was born with Rome towards 1313. Wire of a landlord and a washerwoman, it made believe for a long time that he was the illegitimate son of Henri VII of Luxembourg. To trust of the Roman past and its antique size, its youth is marked by the reading of the Latin writers which gives him the taste and the ambition to restore the prestige of old the Roman République. For him, the Eternal City is nothing any more but the shade of itself, tarnished by the fights between the patricians big families (the Orsini, the Colonna) and by the absence of the pope, who elected residence with Avignon since the beginning of the century.

In 1343, it takes the head of a delegation and goes to see Clément VI to convince it to return to Rome. The pope refuses the proposal but sympathizes with him. In 1344, it appoints it secretary of the Camera capitolina and a Jubilé for 1350 promises to him to establish. Cola di Rienzo understands that it will not obtain anything else and returns to Rome to prepare its revolution.

The May 21st 1347, assisted pontifical vicar, it convenes the people with the Capitole and is made elect powerful orator and liberator of the Republic. A new Constitution is adopted giving him quasi dictatorial capacities. Rienzo then drives out Orsini and Colonna of the city and takes measures to restore the order.

Clement VI approved the coup d'etat but is wary of the dream of Rienzo to want to unify the Italy with Rome like capital. , 200 deputies come from various towns of Italy grant their tender to him. Consequently, the pope will support the opposing party, that of Orsini and Colonna which raise the head. Dissatisfaction goes indeed growing to Rome. The taxes increase and the people with the impression that is to pay the many pompeuses and useless festivals that Rienzo organizes. The December 15th 1347, the pontifical legate restores the old order seigneurial. The dictator has only time to flee.

He finds initially refuge at the Spirituels franciscains of Assembles Marilla. In 1350, it goes to Prague where it tries to persuade the emperor Charles IV to come to deliver Italy. This one stops it and delivers it to Clément VI, which releases it on the request for Pétrarque. Pétrarque saw in Rienzo the honor of both Brutus .

In 1353, Orsini and Colonna dispute the pontifical authority again. The new pope Innocent VI returns Cola di Rienzo , accompanied by the cardinal Albornoz, to restore the order there. In August 1354, it returns again triumphantly in Rome where it is made elect senator. Its capacity however is very disputed. The October 8th 1354, Colonna organize a popular rising. Captured by the rioters, he is decapitated, his corpse flaring and his ashes thrown in the the Tiber.

Memory

The historical opera Rienzi of Wagner was inspired by the history of Cola di Rienzo .

Its life was also the subject, in 1835, of a historical novel written by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton: " Rienzi, Last off the Romance Tribunes".

The main street of new the rione Prati, created in 1911 and intended for the civils servant of the Kingdom, bears his name. It is one of the principal streets commercial of Rome.

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