“Two Bodies and One Soul”. Power Games between Spouses in Northern Italian Principalities (Fifteenth Century)

The Italian peninsula in the late Middle Ages and early modern age was composed by a wide assortment of different political entities; the result was quite a distinctive political environment, in which several principalities mainly born from communal cities played a crucial role. Their authority was built using both men’s and women’s initiative, in different but equally crucial ways. A careful study of the role played by the princesses in late medieval Italy reveals the traits and mechanisms of what was born and structured as a shared authority due to its only partly legitimate origin (these were dynasties without any legitimate title to rule over the cities from which they emerged) and its inchoative nature (these were political systems far removed from the solidity and awareness of monarchical or imperial models). My paper focuses on a spectrum of case-studies that cover the 15th century over three generations (from the early 15th century to the years of the Italian Wars) and will take into account the principalities of the Po plain and their allies, from Milan to Savoy, from Mantua or Ferrara to Pesaro or Urbino. Culture, power, devotion, wealth, age, luck or misfortune all played a role in the shared life and success (or difficulties) of the couples we will use to break down this range of issues and opportunities.