Byways in southern Tuscany . lowing century, the historyof Niccolo IV illustrates the characteristics of the familyand of the time better, perhaps, than any other. Between the third Niccolo and his great grandson Nic-colo IV there had been two Orsini counts, both of themcruel, treacherous, and tyrannical. The second, who wasGian Francesco father of Niccolo IV, fell weakly under theinfluence of a plebeian mistress, Rosata Agostini, whoseevery caprice he indulged, and whose son Orso helped tocomplicate the succession and increase bloodshed at thedeath of his father. A few years sufficed to rende
Byways in southern Tuscany . lowing century, the historyof Niccolo IV illustrates the characteristics of the familyand of the time better, perhaps, than any other. Between the third Niccolo and his great grandson Nic-colo IV there had been two Orsini counts, both of themcruel, treacherous, and tyrannical. The second, who wasGian Francesco father of Niccolo IV, fell weakly under theinfluence of a plebeian mistress, Rosata Agostini, whoseevery caprice he indulged, and whose son Orso helped tocomplicate the succession and increase bloodshed at thedeath of his father. A few years sufficed to render GianFrancesco odious to the subjects whom he intolerably op-pressed. Meanwhile his heir Niccolo IV grown to mansestate, and following the soldierly profession of the family,was fighting in Germany under the emperor, Charles V,and growing ripe for the career in which as the next CountOrsini he became celebrated. Bruscalupi ruefully remarksof him in the above campaign: In a combat at this time, Niccolo, amid prodigies of 260. Pitigliano. In the Court of the Orsini Castle. BYWAYS IN SOUTHERN TUSCANY
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecttuscany, bookyear1919
