Francesco V of Fidenza

Francesco V Lamberto, (2nd February 1599 - 25th September 1672) known as the Soldier-King or the Great, was a monarch of the House of Visconti ruling as King of Fidenza and Milan from the death of Queen Maria in 1642 until his own death in 1672. His thirty-year reign is considered to be one of the greatest periods in Fidenzan history, a stable period full of glory for the nation and prosperity for the people.

Francesco V's reign was known for great military victories and brutal efficiency, but also for the great expansion of Fidenzan productivity and great advancements in military technology. For his many achievements, Francesco V is sometimes hailed as, "the father of modern Fidenza, our late King Francesco the Great."

Birth
Francesco Lamberto d'Urbino was born on February 2nd 1599 to Ludovico d'Urbino, Duke of Urbino and his wife, the Princess Maria Benedetta of Fidenza. His father had the long lineage back to the House of Este and its subsequent parent houses, and his mother was the sister of King Emmanuele I, and the daughter of King Francesco IV. This gave him one of the longest lineages in Fidenza, though at birth he wasn't a part of the Royal Family as it was only through matrilineal descent. He was, however, brought up very closely with his Visconti relatives.

Early Life
His mother and father had been gifted the Castello Visconti in Pavia by King Emmanuele as a wedding gift. They chose to make it their home, and moved their family there. His parent's marriage was relatively happy, and thus he was later joined by younger siblings, including his younger brother Benedetto Giovanni, who'd go on to be elected King of Poland-Lithuania. At the behest of his father, great military minds were brought in to tutor the young Francesco, intent on giving him a commanding education to become a great commander of the Royal Armies and gain fame in the military.

He had a happy childhood overall. He was incredibly close to his parents and to his siblings, and took a deep interest in learning and education. He was notably a diligent, brave and affectionate boy, said to be a pleasure to speak to by his tutors. He had a sharp and astute mind, and grew strong and well-built. His small and happy life at Castello Visconti, however, was soon to come to an end. His destiny was about to change forever.

Ascension of Maria I and Ludovico III
King Emmanuele I was a weak monarch, not particularly skilled at anything and unwilling to rule. In 1605, he announced his intent to abdicate in favour of his elder sister, Francesco's mother. This created a problem, however. Maria had been married to the Duke of Urbino, and her children were officially in the House of Urbino. After much hardship and debate, an agreement was eventually made. Emmanuele I's instrument of abdication stated that all children of the union of Maria and Ludovico would be officially of the House of Visconti. In return, Duke Ludovico would be made co-monarch of Fidenza as King Ludovico III. It was too appealing a prospect for Ludovico to turn down, and thus Emmanuele I left behind his throne and his mother officially ascended the throne, as Queen Maria I. He was present at the coronations of his mother and father, ten years old at the time he was sat in a small armchair to the side of the chapel. He notably maintained his maturity and composure the entire time, even as he was called forth to be officially invested as Crown Prince of Fidenza and Duke of Savoy by his mother and the Crown Cardinal.

Crown Prince of Fidenza
When he became Crown Prince, his life changed drastically and quickly almost over night. His family moved from Castello Visconti to Palazzo Reale in Rome, where he was given a luxurious suite of rooms. His uncle Emmanuele, whom he was close to, had them laid out for him personally before he moved from the Palazzo. Emmanuele would move into the Castello Visconti after his abdication, where he lived out a peaceful life until his death in 1653, during Francesco's reign. Francesco's education changed into one focused on both militarism and rulership, in order to groom him into a great King when his reign would come. His new tutors, some of the greatest in Europe, carefully balanced his education to provide the best quality for him. His mother was strict when it came to his routine, and carefully made sure not to let him over-indulge in certain hobbies, which led to his temperance and humility later in life. He was, however, taught to have ambition and to do the best he could in every way. He obtained the gift of diligence, and worked hard in every way he could. Ludovico III was impressed by his son's talent, and began to take him on military exercises and hunting excursions, which Francesco would later credit his immense love of all things militaristic to. As he grew, his mother began to give Francesco more say in the governance of the realm. She once told him, "Governance is like a carefully balanced table. If one of the legs is shorter than the others, then the table is unstable. If the leg is allowed to stay unstable, the table can collapse. Keep watch over every issue your Kingdom faces, it is of imperative importance.". Francesco admired his mother, for her excellent rulership and for her skill. He followed her often, taking note of her practices and learning lessons from her. He toured the country with her in 1614, when he was fifteen. She insisted that the people of the country see the sovereign they served, and the heir they would one day kneel to. It was a way of inspiring loyalty, if the people saw the monarchs. They first travelled north from Rome, visiting the cities of Pavia, Chambery and Milan, before travelling eastward to travel through Ferrara, Urbino, Ancona and toward Napoli. In Napoli, a parade was held for the arrival of the monarchs. Francesco was seen with his mother in their carriage, cheered on and revered by the onlookers. He described it as a wonderful feeling he'd never felt before, and became devoted to his people after feeling their love.

Marriage
An agreement of peace between the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperors and the Visconti Kings of Fidenza was reached in 1616, with the agreement of marriage between Prince Francesco and the Archduchess Maria Carlotta. She was brought to Fidenza in February of 1616, and they married the day after her arrival. Francesco insisted on full wedding mass and stood the entire time, and his piety became noticed by the church. A ball was held in honour of the wedding, which was attended by anyone of importance. The great Lords of the realm arrived to meet their future King in the capital, where he left a great impression on many. His charisma and talent with words left many lords astounded, and they left with a great opinion of the Prince. This left a lasting impact on his future, despite the twenty-six years he still had until his inheritance. The marriage was marked by celebrations in the streets, and gifts were given out to the people by the Royal Family themselves. The festivities in Rome boosted the capital's prosperity, as traders thrived on the celebration.

The marriage was reportedly consummated on the first night, and when the Archduchess was found to be pregnant there were great celebrations in the court. Nine months later, a child was born to them. The first member of the newly joined houses of Visconti and Urbino, a daughter was born to the couple whom they named Maria Carolina. Although there was some disappointment over the birth of a Princess rather than a Prince, Francesco cherished her either way. He said, ''"The example of my mother shows me that I could be content even if I was never blessed with a son.". ''His family would continue to grow over the years, though many personal tragedies would strike the couple. Many of their children would die in infancy, including all of their sons and most of their daughters. Maria Carlotta herself would die in childbirth with her son Leonardo Taddeo, who himself would die later. He'd later remarry a noblewoman, Lamberta d'Apulia.

Royal Commander
When he was seventeen, he begged his mother to be able to join and lead the armies of Fidenza. She agreed, and allowed him to become one of the commanders of the nation's armies. Many of the older and more experienced commanders protested at the appointment of the Prince, but soon his prowess and skill was undoubted. He lead the armies of the Kingdom to fight against Sicilian Revolutionaries in 1619 and won many victories for the Crown, for which he was duly rewarded with both money and prestige. He was put in charge of drilling the armies and recruitment programs across the country, where it was said his presence as Crown Prince helped inspire morale and boosted the numbers of men in the ranks of the Fidenzan Army. When he was done, the army was a formidable force in Europe. His diligence and bravery with the army became well-known, and the Crown Prince became beloved across the Kingdom.

Adulthood
As he grew, he became more of a power in Fidenzan politics. The Queen would often come to him for his opinion on matters facing the Kingdom, and he was permitted to attend meetings of the Ministerial Council from 1620. He devoted himself to the governance of the nation, and became a driving force behind modernising Fidenza. With his help, Fidenza began to enter into a new Renaissance during the reign of Queen Maria. People said that he was more of a co-monarch to the Queen than the King was, and he relished this position of power and influence. He did not, however, use his power for his own personal gain and merely wished to use his influence for the good of the Kingdom he was set to rule. As he matured, though, he realised that the politics of the great lords was more of a volatile situation than he'd thought. Many of the lords wished for a return to total decentralisation which was seen during the medieval age and wiped out by his Visconti ancestors during the conquest of Italy. All lords of the Italian Peninsula bent the knee to the crown, and Francesco made it his task to make sure that they remembered that.

The Prince marched with his retinue around many great holdings in the Kingdom to sure up support and ensure that loyalty to the House of Visconti was still remembered by dissident noblemen. Ever since the Visconti Conquests, all lords had paid their dues to the Kings of Fidenza and Milan, and it wasn't about to change. When he reached Ancona, the Count told him that he was to go and that he would not take threats. He mobilised his retinue inside the castle, and so the Prince declared this a declaration of revolt against the crown. He called on the assistance of nearby levies, and his retinue was joined by local troops. He laid siege to the castle at Ancona, and within a week had the castle captured and the Count in chains. He brought the man before the Queen and stated that he'd committed treason by declaring he felt no loyalty to the Crown. The Queen was horrified at what he'd done, and paid an indemnity for damages done to the Count and ordered his immediate release. She commanded Francesco to disband his retinue, and warned that he could never take such actions against nobility again.

Illness of Maria I
Although still upset over the actions taken against him after his glorious capture of Ancona, Francesco duly accepted the regency offered to him during the Queen's illness. Eventually, the Queen was diagnosed with cancer and it was clear she wouldn't live. He did not act against his mother, despite his bitterness toward her for what she did, and rather continued to duly serve the Kingdom in her name for the good of all the realm. Her illness led to instability and fear over the future, as most of the generation of Fidenzans had only known her as sovereign and feared what would happen after she'd die. She'd soon become delirious and infirm with her illness, only exacerbating the unrest and fear being felt. In early July of 1642, it became clear that the Queen would not recover from her illness. Preparations were made for the succession, and the now 43-year-old Francesco was ready for his new duty to come. He met his mother on her deathbed, where she'd give him her final piece of advice, "rule wisely, rule justly, administer according to your will, you will be King, and nobody shall outrank you."

Coronation
With the death of the Queen Maria, he had been declared King as Francesco V Lamberto. His coronation was carried out on August 15th 1642, in St. Peter's Basilica of Rome. The ceremony was performed by Pope Urban VIII himself, as had become traditional with the bond between the Kings of Fidenza and the Popes. The ceremony was long and traditional, a request made by Francesco himself. The new King was determined to be well-loved for his piety, and stood fervently behind the Catholic Church in politics. He became loved by the pious peasantry of Fidenza for his outwards virtue, and the Pope himself granted the King many favours. The coronation ceremony brought many peasants from across the nation to Rome to celebrate the new King, and masses gathered outside St. Peter's to cheer for him when the procession exited the Basilica. He broke protocol when he greeted many of the peasants that had travelled to see him, giving him almost universal adoration among the smallfolk. The nobility, however, were less impressed with his new ruling practices. They had become accustomed to the court of Maria I, a subjugated Queen as the first among equals, but Francesco made it clear he was to change that.

Strengthening Royal Power
Francesco set out on his mission to increase centralisation in Fidenza, and immediately sought to bring the dissident noble factions to heel. Although the Visconti under Gian III and Ludovico I had subjugated the Italian noble families, future monarchs had failed to keep them loyal. Infamously, Queen Isabella had become so hated by her vassals that nine assassination attempts had been made against her during her three year reign, the last of which succeeded. Cosimo II had become so hated that the nobility rebelled against him, and he ended up killed because of it. Francesco would learn from the mistakes of his predecessors, and began to slowly increase his power. A new series of laws were brought in which discreetly heightened royal power while on the surface seeming to be continuing to enfranchise the nobility. Since the end of the Insurrection of 1580, Visconti monarchs had tread carefully with the rights of the nobility. Francesco IV had enfranchised the nobles to keep the peace, as the immediate successor to the tyrannical Cosimo II.

A great assembly of the nobility was called in 1645, at which Francesco made a grand show of power to the nobility. He had himself dressed in all the great regalia of the King of Fidenza, the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece and the jewel-encrusted crown of his grandfather, Francesco IV. From the great throne in the hall of the Palazzo Reale, he spoke to the assembled nobility in an authoritative tone, showing him not to be the first among equals with them but being their sovereign and superior. He made it customary for the nobility to greet the King with the proper courtesy afford to a monarch. He declared at the assembly that, "The powers of the crown and of the nobility are distinguished by the privilege the crown holds as the liege lord of each noble in the realm. You owe your fealty to your liege King, and as such the rights of the monarch shall be upheld as greater than all things."

Francesco had the show of power he'd needed to keep the nobility in line, and began further changes to subjugate the nobility. In Rome, he had the relatively minor Castello Reale, the usual residence of the King of Fidenza in Rome, transformed into the great Palazzo Reale, a palace fit to house almost every noble in the realm. He invited every noble to move to the Palazzo Reale, as anyone who was anyone would have an esteemed place there. Slowly but surely, the nobility began to leave their estates where they could be meddlesome and move into the gilded cage that was the Palazzo Reale. He meticulously created every day exactly so it would keep the nobility occupied for the entire day, and not returning to their estates where they might raise an army or cause trouble. This grand project was completed by 1657, having taken almost 12 years since the nobles assembly to come to fruition. It had been made clear who was in charge in Fidenza, and it became a revolutionary occurrence for monarchy.

Military Campaigns
Francesco V was a militaristic King above all else, despite his reforms in administration and court life. He first waged war in North Africa, in 1662 launching a war against the Muradid Dynasty of Tunis for subjugation of the region. With his military prowess, he had his troops ferried across the Mediterranean and with ease marched through Tunisian land and laid siege to their capital of Tunis. It only took eight months for the the city to fall, having been constantly bombarded with siege weaponry and charges against the walls. The seizure of Tunis was seen as a triumph for Christendom, as yet another Muslim nation had been wiped clean off the map. Soon after, he made an attempt to push into Algiers, and take more territory in North Africa but he was dealt a defeat at the Battle of Oran and withdrew to his own holdings.

He would later wage war in the Balkans against the Ottoman Empire, pushing through and seizing much of Bosnia and the Coast of the Adriatic. He established a series of Christian viceroyalties and protectorates in the lands he conquered from the Ottomans, stretching from Albania to past Slovenia. He'd withdraw after the signing of the Treaty of Belgrade, which acknowledged the Fidenzan dominion over the conquered lands. He'd wage war against the Archduchy of Austria, marching his powerful army through Tyrol and seizing the lands just north of Venice. For a time it seemed as though Fidenza was unstoppable beneath Francesco V, and he earned himself the loving nickname of the Soldier-King by his people, who admired his bravery and diligence on the field of battle. Fidenzan diplomatic relations became shaky through the conquests of Francesco V, but the King knew that to trust another nation's leadership was a foolish move diplomatically, for everyone had a hidden motive.

Inheritance Question
Francesco V and his first wife, Archduchess Maria Carlotta, suffered greatly with the many losses of their children at young ages. All of their young sons were taken by sickness or never lived at all, and few of their daughters survived childhood. When the Archduchess would die in 1654, Francesco remarried his longtime lover, Lamberta d'Apulia. It was a somewhat scandalous move, though nobody could deny the realm needed an heir. Their first child together, a daughter they named Maria Vittoria, was healthy and happy much to the relief of her parents. He was finally blessed with a surviving son in 1656, whom they named Emmanuele Vittorio, who became Duke of Savoy and heir to his father's crown. Francesco was 57 by the time of his heir's birth, but there was finally an heir to the realm. They were blessed with another surviving son the next year, whom they named Filippo Antonio, Duke of Parma and Piacenza. Finally, the inheritance of the Kingdom seemed secure, and so stability was restored to the realm.

Final Campaign and Death
Francesco once again waged war beginning in 1671, now aged 72. Against all better judgement and the pleas of his advisors, Francesco V chose to lead his armies in person. He marched North toward Switzerland, and upon passing into the nation, they were met with a large army of the Holy Roman Emperor. A fierce battle ensued, with much chaos and destruction around him. Francesco dismounted his horse, drew his longsword and defended his position for hours as battle raged around him. The elderly man, though, now aged 73 was unable to keep up his defence. Despite his strength and his greatest efforts to keep his pace, he lost any energy he still had a few hours in. He fell to his knees, where an enemy soldier charged towards him and dealt a killing blow to the King. It did not kill him immediately, in fact he was very much alive but wounded. His aides shuttled him back to his tent, where he was unresponsive for hours. When they brought in his nephew, Giuseppe Antonio, he spoke softly to the young man. He said, "Help my young son. Help him to rule justly and wisely as I did. Help him have better judgement than I did, please, please..."

Francesco V, King of Fidenza and Milan, perhaps the greatest King that Fidenza had seen up to that point, died at the age of 73 in his tent outside Basel. His thirty year reign had been one of the strongest and most stable times in Fidenzan history, and when news of his death reached home, it is said that the people of Fidenza wept in the streets for their fallen King. At heavy cost, the war was won for Fidenza, and the Holy Roman Emperor left to pay dearly for the death of their King with heavy reparations. As the bells tolled in Rome, the new King was declared. The 16-year-old Emmanuele II was anointed King at the death of his father, only just passed the age of majority and as such did not require a regency.

First Marriage

 * Maria Carolina, Principessa di Fidenza (3rd March 1617 - 12th August 1621)
 * Maria Elisabetta, Queen of Spain (3rd March 1617 - 21st December 1682)
 * Francesco Emmanuele, Duca di Savoia (19th July 1619 - 20th July 1619)
 * Stillborn son (28th March 1620)
 * Alessandro Matteo, Duca di Savoia (30th August 1621 - 14th January 1623)
 * Maria Ludovica, Principessa di Fidenza (6th September 1623 - 19th September 1623)
 * Maria Valentina, Principessa di Fidenza (24th October 1625 - 5th January 1636)
 * Maria Alessandra, Duchess of Apulia (19th July 1626 - 3rd February 1678)
 * Benedetto Stefano, Duca di Savoia (16th April 1628 - 24th July 1641)
 * Leonardo Taddeo, Conteggio di Faucigny (22nd December 1630 - 25th December 1630)
 * Maria Bianca, Principessa di Fidenza (2nd January 1632 - 3rd January 1632)

Second Marriage

 * Maria Vittoria, Principessa di Fidenza (20th September 1655 - 2nd June 1656)
 * Emmanuele II Vittorio, King of Fidenza and Milan (17th July 1656 - 12th February 1678)
 * Maria Sofia, Principessia di Fidenza (17th July 1656 - 14th February 1722)
 * Filippo III Antonio, King of Fidenza and Milan (9th April 1657 - 12th December 1714)
 * Lorenzo Piero, Duca di Spoleto (13th September 1660 - 14th September 1660)

Titles and Styles

 * 2nd February 1599 - 17th October 1605: Sua Altezza Sereno, Signore d'Urbino
 * 12th October 1605 - 12th July 1642: Sua Altezza Reale, Il Duca di Savoia
 * 12th July 1642 - 25th September 1672: Sua Maesta, Il Re di Fidenza