Conflict and Stability within the Tuscan Aristocracy

This chapter examines the aristocratic propensity for social violence. It looks at specific incidents of violence and at how one might account for them, and for fluctuations in their intensity. Violence was institutionalized in the form of the masnada, or armed following, and this is carefully scrutinised. The chapter shows that much of the reported violence was not anarchic but purposive. Moreover, the exercise of power and the need for security tended towards the creation of social equilibrium. It was achieved by a variety of means, including dispute resolution and the use of pacts. The content and typology of these are given close scrutiny. There were, however, moments of major fracture where equilibrium was less easily achieved. The final section will look in particular at one such fracture—the internecine conflict which affected the cities during the last decade of the twelfth century. Here I concentrate on Florence.