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Urbino - The Light of Italy: Federico da Montefeltro - Extra History (Patreon)

Published:
2016-07-15 10:24:57
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Amid the wars that tore apart Italy, one small town became an unexpected haven of justice and knowledge: Urbino.

NOTE: The Lies for the Opium Wars will be out next week! We wanted to include some extra Lies for this episode about Urbino, so it only made sense to add that to our regular Lies episode.

Files

Previews only

Urbino - The Light of Italy: Federico da Montefeltro - Extra History

Federico da Montefeltro shone brightly as the "Light of Italy," one of many torches that helped light the flame of Renaissance. He made his name as a wily yet honest mercenary captain, but he also ruled as prince of the small, remote town of Urbino. There, he and his wife built an illustrious court that celebrated creativity, knowledge, and justice. Support us on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon --- (Episode details below) Grab your Extra Credits gear at the store! http://bit.ly/ExtraStore Subscribe for new episodes every Saturday! http://bit.ly/SubToEC Learn about the disastrous Macartney Embassy that tried and failed to improve British trade relations with China: http://bit.ly/28Ro4B1 Play games with us on Extra Play! http://bit.ly/WatchEXP Talk to us on Twitter (@ExtraCreditz): http://bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/ECFBPage Get our list of recommended games on Steam: http://bit.ly/ECCurator ____________ Born an illegitimate son, Federico da Montefeltro became the heir of Urbino when his family got the Pope to legitimize him. As a child, he was sent to Venice to serve as a hostage for his family's part in the wars of Lombardy, and by 15 he had turned his fate around to become knighted by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. At 16, he became a condotierre, a mercenary. Although he was technically prince of Urbino, his land was isolated and poor, so mercenary service allowed him to make money. He excelled at it: he never lost and never broke a contract. Cities began paying him NOT to fight against them, and he channeled their riches into his hometown. He looked after his soldiers families in Urbino, walked the markets every day, and held court in his garden where all citizens were treated equally under the law. Since he loved history and philosophy, he built one of the greatest libraries in all of Italy, hiring scribes to find and copy classical works that might have been lost if not for him. He also built a palace where he fostered art of all kinds, and young people from noble houses across the continent flocked to his court. His wife, especially his second wife Battista Sforza, built Urbino alongside him. She'd received the same liberal education he had and often counseled him on politics When he was away, she held court in his stead. Sadly, she died of complications while bearing Federico's only son, whom he named Guidobaldo. Guidobaldo was intelligent and well read, but he was sickly and could never be his father's equal in war. After Federico died, the Borgia came and seized Urbino from Guidobaldo, but although his family lost its holdings, his legacy lived on as the ideas and attitudes he'd nurtured in his court survived and spread far enough to help spur the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy. ____________ ♪ Get the intro music here! http://bit.ly/1EQA5N7 *Music by Demetori: http://bit.ly/1AaJG4H ♪ Get the outro music here! http://bit.ly/23isQfx *Music by Sean and Dean Kiner: http://bit.ly/1WdBhnm

Comments

RMS Oceanic

Interesting how one can use an ironclad reputation for integrity to your advantage. :) Random quibble: In the map of Europe, why is there a blank Space where Belarus and Ukraine should be? If you hadn't put any land beyond that I wouldn't have noticed, but spotting the Baltic area and chunks of Russia made it noticeable.

Aaron hutchinson

These episodes always brighten my day. Hearing these tales inspire me and I'm grateful that you share them with us.

barefoot James

I like how you depict Federico as if he is winking since he lost his right eye in a tournament. After he lost his eye, Federico had surgeons trim his nose so as to improve the field of vision of his remaining eye.

Trevor Sullivan
>>2148667

That's Poland-Lithuania, which was more war-torn than Italy at the time and didn't experience much of a Rennaisance. <a href="http://geacron.com/en/?v=m&lang=en&z=4&x=14.941408010102&y=47.215090685434&nd=-1&d=&di=1450&tm=p&ct=0&ly=yyyyyyy&fi=-500&ff=1500&sp=2&e=0&rp=0&re=0&nv=2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://geacron.com/en/?v=m&lang=en&z=4&x=14.941408010102&y=47.215090685434&nd=-1&d=&di=1450&tm=p&ct=0&ly=yyyyyyy&fi=-500&ff=1500&sp=2&e=0&rp=0&re=0&nv=2</a>

Christina Maria Jessen
>>2148667

Russia didn't exactly get in on the renaissance either. They were busy fighting Tatars and trying to work out the whole unified country thing. Not sure I'd really call it a major feature of Scandinavia either. At least not until the 17th century. More so than Russia, but that's not saying much.

Trevor Sullivan
>>2148667

Russia didn't exist yet. Take a look at the map I linked, the area you call "Russia" was still the Golden Horde and the Principate of Novgorod.

Josh Kendall

First off, this guy is one of my favorite characters and people we've covered. He seems like somebody out of fiction. Secondly is this a one off?

Christina Maria Jessen
>>2148667

The map is really, really bad, honestly. It claims that Sweden was part of Denmark, rather than Denmark, Norway and Sweden being the Kalmar Union of three separate kingdoms, for example. It also splits Burgundy between France and the HRE and ignores the division between the Teutonic and Livonian Orders. There are several similar instances elsewhere in the world. For Russia specifically, much of the land listed as belonging to the Golden Horde was actually under the control of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, a very faintly nominal tributary of the Golden Horde who had conquered most of the successor states of the Kievan Rus, including conquering Novgorod in 1478, four years before Federico's death. It would also definitively break with the Golden Horde in 1476, still within this period. But beyond, I simply meant the geographic region that modern Russia covers. Areas under the control of the Republic of Novgorod were marked on the map as places renaissance thought marked. Also, when a term is used for both a state and a geographical region, Germany, Russia and China being the most obvious, can we not be pedants about the state itself existing at a given point? We don't really have other terms for those regions and often the region would have had the name even while the state didn't exist.

Teollinc

that has to be one of most interesting people I have ever heard of. For me to the local library to find more!

ExtraCredits
>>2148667

Maps are the new flags. We're trying to get better at them, but basically we're freehanding them based off however many sources we can find, which are almost never sources for the years we WANT to talk about. Ergo, every map is a composite, and errors get introduced in the composite process. Right now my first map focus is getting the area we are talking about correct; if we can nail that down, then I'll look at the rest of the map, but often just getting one area right is difficult when I'm looking at three or four different maps that all purport to be for the same period but never quite the same year, and cross-referencing that with as many written sources as I can find that say things like "and in year XXXX they successfully pushed back the Western border of country YYYY" but don't HAVE maps to describe to me what the borders of said country are. Anyway, you get the idea: flags hard, maps maddeningly hard.

ExtraCredits
>>2148702

That's gonna be one of the things we talk about in Lies! James really wanted to tell that story. Also, if you look at Federico any time we show him in profile, you can see that Lil drew him with a huge divot in his otherwise round face to show where his nose was trimmed out. :D

ExtraCredits
>>2149876

It is a one-off, but it'll have a special section in next week's Lies, so we'll get to spend a little more time with Federico!

Christina Maria Jessen
>>2148667

Maps are such a pain when it comes to historical study. No matter what else you can say about the people over at Paradox, you have to give them praise for their effort on the maps. Even if they need to revise them regularly as they learn more.

Anonymous

It's funny that you mentioned the mercenary armies of Renaissance Italy. Machiavelli devoted a chapter of The Prince to explain just how dangerous and useless they were, and even speculated that the whole reason Carthage lost the Punic Wars was because they relied on mercenaries instead of an actual army.

Christina Maria Jessen
>>2148667

Oh, and just realized I should clarify. My criticisms of the map in general was the interactive one linked, not the one in the video. That one just spreads the renaissance further than is probably valid. The other one has some really weird stuff going on. Like apparently nobody claiming sovereignty over Turkmenistan and northern Caucasus and the Jurchen apparently not existing according to it, despite their immense historical significance.

Joël Quenneville

Hahaha, that "keep me on retainer *not* to sign a contract with your enemy" plan is BRILLIANT!

ExtraCredits
>>2151803

Can I be coy here? Am I allowed to be coy? Here's my attempt at a coy answer: we'll talk about it next week in Lies... or you can look him up online and find out sooner!

ExtraCredits
>>2152125

I think about all the companies that AREN'T paying me not to work for them and I feel like I've missed out on a golden business opportunity. :(

Jim McGeehin

Humorously enough, Machiavelli so hated the fickle condottierri of the Italian city-states that his prohibition on hiring mercenaries in his works largely stems from the negative experiences Italian rulers had during this era.

Dani McKenzie
>>2148667

This is why my ancestors are either French or Germany. Depends on which year they migrated from Alsace-Lorraine. :-)

Porcupine

As much as I love Vikings with horned helmets (hey, you can't teach grumpy old men new tricks... and Pluto IS a planet!), bonus points for not depicting the Vikings like that... ;)