Braccio Fortebraccio

Giovanni Tomacelli, brother of Pope Boniface IX, was lord of Orvieto in the period 1398-1404.

In 1413-4, Orvieto fought for Pope John XXIII against King Ladislas of Naples, who took the city for a period in 1414. 

[Muzio Attendola Sforza held Orvieto for a period in 1415].

Armello d’ Ascoli held it for Ladislas until 1416, when he treacherously opened the gates for the soldiers of Braccio Fortebraccio.

Francesco Monaldeschi della Montagna, who was aligned with the Beffati, became bishop of Orvieto in 1418.

Beffati and Melcorini

Pope Martin V, who favoured Luca Monaldeschi della Cervara and the Beffati, forced Braccio Fortebraccio to abandon his position in Orvieto in 1419.  He restored the Opera del Duomo to secular (as opposed to clerical) administration and reformed its statutes during a visit to the city in 1420.

Luca Monaldeschi della Cervara died in 1429, leaving Orvieto temporarily at peace.

However, Orvieto was soon to be engulfed by the deteriorating political situation in Italy,  In 1433, Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan sent the condottiere Francesco Sforza into the Papal States to harass Pope Eugenius IV, whereupon Sforza used the opportunity to carve out a territory for himself in the Marches.  When he changed sides in 1434, the infuriated Filippo Maria Visconti sent another condottiero, Nicolò Piccinino to drive him from the Marches. 

1. ✴Piccinino, who also had ideas of founding his own state, entered Orvieto in April 1434 with the assistance of the Beffati, expelled the Melcorini, and was proclaimed Lord of Orvieto. 
   

2. ✴Sforza besieged and then took the city in 1435 and installed the Melcorini Gentile and Arrigo Monaldeschi della Vipera as Lords of Orvieto.  The citizens took the opportunity to demolish the hated Rocca.  (Gentile Monaldeschi added “della Sala” to his name in reference to the Castello della Sala, which his father had built in 1350). 
   

A series of protests to the papal authorities about the conduct of Bishop Francesco Monaldeschi that is documented from 1437 presumably related to the new ascendancy of the Melcorini.  Eugenius IV finally transferred him to the diocese of Teramo in 1443.

In 1449, the Beffati (Corrado and Gentile di Luca Monaldsechi della Cervara) took Orvieto by stealth, with the support of Pope Nicholas V.  Arrigo Monaldeschi was killed in his palace, and Gentile, who was absent from Orvieto, took flight. 

Gentile and Arrigo Monaldeschi probably sponsored the appointment of Fra Angelico to paint the frescoes of the Cappella Nuova in the Duomo in 1447.  Work was halted when Fra Angelico was called to Rome after his first summer in Orvieto, and came to a complete halt with the coup of 1449.

Papal Government

Orvieto now settled down to its fate as a papal possession under Nicholas V.  By this time, the population had fallen by more than a half from its peak in the 13th century.  Nicholas V commissioned Bernardo Rossellino to rebuild the Rocca, but this hardly proved necessary for the suppression of what was left of the city.

In 1459, Francesco Monaldeschi (who, as noted above, had been bishop of Orvieto in 1418-43) proposed to build an oratory in the Duomo to house the venerated image known as the Madonna di San Brizio.  Although the Opera del Duomo was reluctant to accept money from such an unpopular figure, its dire need of funds overcame these scruples.  A chapel was duly built on the counter-facade (to the right of the main entrance) soon after the death of Francesco Monaldeschi in 1461. 

Pope Pius II visited Orvieto in 1460.  He found the city in a state of decay: “Age has destroyed much and civil strife has burned and ravaged more.  Half-ruined towers and crumbling churches can still be seen, but [the Duomo] the equal of any in Italy, stands in tact at the city centre … Beside the church stands the papal palace, which is very spacious and fit for a pope, though nowadays it lies mostly in ruins.  Pope Nicholas V restored a number of its chambers and halls, and it was here that Pope Pius II [i.e. the writer] now lodged.  The same Pope Nicholas V also began the construction of a fortress in a corner of the city.  It is still unfinished but it is guarded, and it is not easy to take because it is protected by high cliffs and a deep moat”.

Gentile Monaldeschi della Vipera was subsequently reconciled with the papacy and allowed to return to the Castello della Sala.  However, he tried to re-take Orvieto during the celebrations for Corpus Cristi in 1461.  The plot was discovered and foiled.  The furious Pius II (who recoded these events in his journal) sent troops to take the Castello della Sala.  Gentile Monaldeschi was once more exiled, but allowed to keep his property “out of compassion for his daughters”.

In 1467, the Monaldeschi family finally called a truce when Gentile's son, Pietro Antonio Monaldeschi della Vipera della Sala married his cousin Giovanna Monaldeschi della Cervara.  Pietro Antonio played an important part in the life of the city, and served on the Opera del Duomo on three occasions in the 1480s.  He died before 1500, the year in which the widowed Giovanna made a donation from his estate towards the cost of decorating the Cappella Nuova of the Duomo.  The inscription on the monument (1516) that she erected nearby read: “His father having been exiled by tyranny, he nevertheless conducted himself with equanimity and care for the republic ... with such integrity and faith that no one surpassed him in public charity”.

Alexander VI (1492-1503) and Cesare Borgia

In 1493, Pope Alexander VI and his young son, Cesare Borgia visited Orvieto and the other cities of the Papal States to avoid an outbreak of plague in Rome.  They probably also wished to inspect the city’s defences: Orvieto stood on the route that the French King Charles VIII might well take if he marched on Naples.  However, when he actually did invade Italy in 1494, Charles VIII took the route through Tuscany.  From there he marched on Rome, and the Alexander VI was forced to capitulate without any resistance.

As Charles VIII returned to Rome in 1495 after taking Naples, Alexander VI and Cesare Borgia fled to Orvieto.  As Charles VIII marched north, they fled again to Perugia (June 1495). 

In July 1495, once the danger had passed, Alexander VI nominated Cesare Borgia as papal legate of Orvieto, a post that, as he recognised, he did not discharge very well.  He wrote an abject letter of apology to the citizens, promising to treat them as “brothers and dear companions” thereafter.