Description

The final volume of this sweeping chronicle pulls listeners into the turbulent early‑1500s, when Milan teeters between foreign ambition and local resistance. It opens with the bitter legacy of French rule under Lautrec, prompting a wave of exiled Milaneses to rally in Reggio and plot the removal of the French presence. Their leader, Girolamo Morone, becomes the engine of intrigue, seeking to restore the Sforza line by installing Francesco, brother of the late duke, as the city’s rightful ruler.

Against this backdrop, the narrative maps the tangled alliances of Emperor Charles V, Pope Leo X, and the papal‑imperial coalition that promises military aid and hefty subsidies to the Sforza cause. Swiss mercenaries, papal envoys, and Florentine sympathizers converge, while the looming threat of Lutheran ideas adds a wider European tension. Listeners are treated to vivid portraits of court maneuvering, diplomatic letters, and the simmering resentment that fuels Milan’s fight for autonomy.

Details

Language

Duration

~9 hours (546K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Credits

Produced by Barbara Magni and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images made available by The Internet Archive)

Release date

2019-10-15

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

Source

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60499