Chapter XIII: Part 13

During the break-up of the Roman empire in the West the possession of Corsica was for a while disputed between the Vandals and the Gothic allies of the Roman emperors, until in 469 Genseric finally made himself master of the island. For 65 years the Vandals maintained their domination, the Corsican forests supplying the wood for the fleets with which they terrorized the Mediterranean. After the destruction of the Vandal power in Africa by Belisarius, his lieutenant Cyril conquered Corsica (534) which now, under the exarchate of Africa, became part of the East Roman empire. The succeeding period was one of great misery. Goths and Lombards in turn ravaged the island, which in spite of the prayers of Pope Gregory the Great the exarch of Africa did nothing to defend; the rule of the Byzantines was effective only in grinding excessive taxes out of the wretched population; and, to crown all, in 713 the Mussulmans from the northern coast of Africa made their first descent upon the island. Corsica remained nominally attached to the East Roman empire until Charlemagne, having overthrown the Lombard power in Italy (774), proceeded to the conquest of the island, which now passed into the hands of the Franks. In 806, however, occurred the first of a series of Moorish incursions from Spain. Several times defeated by the emperor's lieutenants, the Moors continually returned, and in 810 gained temporary possession of the island. They were crushed and exterminated by an expedition under the emperor's son Charles, but none the less returned again and again. In 828 the defence of Corsica was entrusted to Boniface II., count of the Tuscan march, who conducted a successful expedition against the African Mussulmans, and returning to Corsica built a fortress in the south of the island which formed the nucleus of the town (Bonifacio) that bears his name. Boniface's war against the Saracens was continued by his son Adalbert, after he had been restored to his father's dignities in 846; but, in spite of all efforts, the Mussulmans seem to have remained in possession of part of the island until about 930. Corsica, of which Berengar II., king of Italy, had made himself master, became in 962, after his dethronement by Otto the Great, a place of refuge for his son Adalbert, who succeeded in holding the island and in passing it on to his son, another Adalbert. This latter was, however, defeated by the forces of Otto II., and Corsica was once more attached to the marquisate of Tuscany, of which Adalbert was allowed to hold part of the island in fee.

The Terra di Comune.

The period of feudal anarchy now began, a general mellay of petty lords each eager to expand his domain. The counts of Cinarca, especially, said to be descended from Adalbert, aimed at establishing their supremacy over the whole island. To counteract this and similar ambitions, in the 11th century, a sort of national diet was held, and Sambucuccio, lord of Alando, put himself at the head of a movement which resulted in confining the feudal lords to less than half of the island to the south, and in establishing in the rest, henceforth known as the Terra di Comune, a sort of republic composed of autonomous parishes. This system, which survived till the Revolution, is thus described by Jacobi (tom. i. p. 137), "Each parish or commune nominated a certain number of councillors who, under the name of 'fathers of the commune,' were charged with the administration of justice under the direction of a _podesta_, who was as it were their president. The podestas of each of the states or enfranchised districts chose a member of the supreme council charged with the making of laws and regulations for the Terra di Comune. This council or magistracy was called the Twelve, from the number of districts taking a share in its nomination. Finally, in each district the fathers of the commune elected a magistrate who, under the name of _caporale_, was entrusted with the defence of the interests of the poor and weak, with seeing that justice was done to them, and that they were not made the victims of the powerful and rich."

Papal sovereignty

Rule of Pisa.

Meanwhile the south remained under the sway of the counts of Cinarca, while in the north feudal barons maintained their independence in the promontory of Cape Corso. Internal feuds continued; William, marquis of Massa, of the family known later as the Malaspina, was called in by the communes (1020), drove out the count of Cinarca, reduced the barons to order, and in harmony with the communes established a dominion which he was able to hand on to his son. Towards the end of the 11th century, however, the popes laid claim to the island in virtue of the donation of Charlemagne, though the Frankish conqueror had promised at most the reversion of the lands of the Church. The Corsican clergy supported the claim, and in 1077 the Corsicans declared themselves subjects of the Holy See in the presence of the apostolic legate Landolfo, bishop of Pisa. Pope Gregory VII. thereupon invested the bishop and his successors with the island, an investiture confirmed by Urban II. in 1190 and extended into a concession of the full sovereignty. The Pisans now took solemn possession of the island and their "grand judges" (_judices_) took the place of the papal legates. Corsica, valued by the Pisans as by the Vandals as an inexhaustible storehouse of materials for their fleet, flourished exceedingly under the enlightened rule of the great commercial republic. Causes of dissension remained, however, abundant. The Corsican bishops repented their subjection to the Pisan archbishop; the Genoese intrigued at Rome to obtain a reversal of the papal gift to the rivals with whom they were disputing the supremacy of the seas. Successive popes followed conflicting policies in this respect; until in 1138 Innocent II., by way of compromise, divided the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the island between the archbishops of Pisa and Genoa. This gave the Genoese great influence in Corsica, and the contest between the Pisans and Genoese began to distract the island. It was not, however, till 1195 that the Genoese, by capturing Bonifacio--a nest of pirates preying on the commerce of both republics--actually gained a footing in the country. For twenty years the Pisans fought to recover the fortress for themselves, until in 1217 the pope settled the matter by taking it into his own hands.

Throughout the 13th century the struggle between Pisans and Genoese continued, reproducing in the island the feud of Ghibellines and Guelphs that was desolating Italy. In order to put a stop to the ruinous anarchy the chiefs of the Terra di Comune called in the marquis Isnard Malaspina; the Pisans set up the count of Cinarca once more; and the war between the marquis, the Pisans and Genoese dragged on with varying fortunes, neither succeeding in gaining the mastery. Then, in 1298, Pope Boniface VIII. added to the complication by investing King James of Aragon with the sovereignty of Corsica and of Sardinia. In 1325, after long delay, the Aragonese attacked and reduced Sardinia, with the result that the Pisans, their sea-power shattered, were unable to hold their own in Corsica. A fresh period of anarchy followed until, in 1347, a great assembly of _caporali_ and barons decided to offer the sovereignty of the island to Genoa. A regular tribute was to be paid to the republic; the Corsicans were to preserve their laws and customs, under the council of Twelve in the north and a council of Six in the south; Corsican interests were to be represented at Genoa by an _orator_.

Genoese domination.

The Genoese domination, which began under evil auspices--for the Black Death killed off some two-thirds of the population--was not destined to bring peace to the island. The feudal barons of the south and the hereditary _caporali_ of the north alike resisted the authority of the Genoese governors; and King Peter of Aragon took advantage of their feuds to reassert his claims. In 1372 Arrigo, count of La Rocca, with the assistance of Aragonese troops, made himself master of the island; but his very success stirred up against him the barons of Cape Corso, who once more appealed to Genoa. The republic, busied with other affairs, hit upon the luckless expedient of investing with the governorship of the island a sort of chartered company, consisting of five persons, known as the _Maona_. They attempted to restore order by taking Arrigo della Rocca into partnership, with disastrous results. In 1380 four of the "governors of the Maona" resigned their rights to the Genoese republic, and Leonello Lomellino was left as sole governor. It was he who, in 1383, built Bastia on the north coast, which became the bulwark of the Genoese power in the island. It was not till 1401, after the death of Count Arrigo, that the Genoese domination was temporarily re-established.

Meanwhile Genoa itself had fallen into the hands of the French, and in 1407 Leonello Lomellino returned as governor with the title of count of Corsica bestowed on him by Charles VI. of France. But Vincentello d' Istria, who had gained distinction in the service of the king of Aragon, had captured Cinarca, rallied round him all the communes of the Terra di Comune, proclaimed himself count of Corsica at Biguglia and even seized Bastia. Lomellino was unable to make headway against him, and by 1410 all Corsica, with the exception of Bonifacio and Calvi, was lost to Genoa, now once more independent of France. A feud of Vincentello with the bishop of Mariana, however, led to the loss of his authority in the Terra di Comune; he was compelled to go to Spain in search of assistance, and in his absence the Genoese reconquered the island. Not, however, for long. The Great Schism was too obvious an opportunity for quarrelling for the Corsicans to neglect; and the Corsican bishops and clergy were more ready with the carnal than with spiritual weapons. The suffragans of Genoa fought for Benedict XIII., those of Pisa for John XXIII.; and when Vincentello returned with an Aragonese force he was able to fish profitably in troubled waters. He easily captured Cinarca and Ajaccio, came to terms with the Pisan bishops, mastered the Terra di Comune and built a strong castle at Corte; by 1419 the Genoese possessions in Corsica were again reduced to Calvi and Bonifacio.

Aragonese intervention.

At this juncture Alphonso of Aragon arrived, with a large fleet, to take possession of the island. Calvi fell to him; but Bonifacio held out, and its resistance gave time for the Corsicans, aroused by the tyranny and exactions of the Aragonese, to organize revolt. In the end the siege of Bonifacio was raised, and the town, confirmed in its privileges, became practically an independent republic under Genoese protection. As for Vincentello he managed to hold his own for a while; but ultimately the country rose against him, and in 1435 he was executed as a rebel by the Genoese, who had captured him by surprise in the port of Bastia.

The anarchy continued, while rival factions, nominal adherents of the Aragonese and Genoese, contended for the mastery. Profiting by the disturbed situation, the Genoese doge, Janus da Fregoso, succeeded in reducing the island, his artillery securing him an easy victory over the forces of Count Paolo della Rocca (1441). To secure his authority he built and fortified the new city of San Fiorenzo, near the ruins of Nebbio. But again the Aragonese intervened, and the anarchy reached its height. An appeal to Pope Eugenius IV. resulted in the despatch of a pontifical army of 14,000 men (1444), which was destroyed in detail by a league of some of the _caporali_ and most of the barons under the bold leadership of Rinuccio da Leca. A second expedition was more fortunate, and Rinuccio was killed before Biguglia. In 1447 Eugenius was succeeded on the papal throne by Nicholas V., a Genoese, who promptly made over his rights in Corsica, with all the strong places held by his troops, to Genoa. The island was now, in effect, divided between the Genoese republic; the lords of Cinarca, who held their lands in the south under the nominal suzerainty of Aragon; and Galeazzo da Campo Fregoso, who was supreme in the Terra di Comune.

The Bank of San Giorgio.

Milanese intervention.

An assembly of the chiefs of the Terra di Comune now decided to offer the government of the island to the Company or Bank of San Giorgio, a powerful commercial corporation established at Genoa in the 14th century.[1] The bank accepted; the Spaniards were driven from the country; and a government was organized. But the bank soon fell foul of the barons, and began a war of extermination against them. Their resistance was finally broken in 1460, when the survivors took refuge in Tuscany. But order had scarcely been established when the Genoese Tommasinoda Campo Fregoso, whose mother was a Corsican, revived the claims of his family and succeeded in mastering the interior of the island (1462). Two years later the duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, overthrew the power of the Fregoso family at Genoa, and promptly proceeded to lay claim to Corsica. His lieutenant had no difficulty in making the island accept the overlordship of the duke of Milan; but when, in 1466, Francesco Sforza died, a quarrel broke out, and Milanese suzerainty became purely nominal save in the coast towns. Finally, in 1484, Tommasino da Campo Fregoso persuaded the duke to grant him the government of the island. The strong places were handed over to him; he entered into marriage relations with Gian Paolo da Leca, the most powerful of the barons, and was soon supreme in the island.

Within three years the Corsicans were up in arms again. A descendant of the Malaspinas who had once ruled in Corsica, Jacopo IV. (d'Appiano), was now prince of Piombino, and to him the malcontents applied. His brother Gherardo, count of Montagnano, accepted the call, proclaimed himself count of Corsica, and, landing in the island, captured Biguglia and San Fiorenzo; whereupon Tommasino da Campo Fregoso discreetly sold his rights to the bank of San Giorgio. No sooner, however, had the bank--with the assistance of the count of Leca--beaten Count Gherardo than the Fregoso family tried to repudiate their bargain. Their claims were supported by the count of Leca, and it cost the agents of the bank some hard fighting before the turbulent baron was beaten and exiled to Sardinia. Twice he returned, and he was not finally expelled from the country till 1501; it was not till 1511 that the other barons were crushed and that the bank could consider itself in secure possession of the island.

If the character of the Corsicans has been distinguished in modern times for a certain wild intractableness and ferocity, the cause lies in their unhappy past, and not least in the character of the rule established by the bank of San Giorgio. The power which the bank had won by ruthless cruelty, it exercised in the spirit of the narrowest and most short-sighted selfishness. Only a shadow of the native institutions was suffered to survive, and no adequate system of administration was set up in the place of that which had been suppressed. In the absence of justice the blood-feud or _vendetta_ grew and took root in Corsica just at the time when, elsewhere in Europe, the progress of civilization was making an end of private war. The agents of the bank, so far from discouraging these internecine quarrels, looked on them as the surest means for preventing a general rising. Concerned, moreover, only with squeezing taxes out of a recalcitrant population, they neglected the defence of the coast, along which the Barbary pirates harried and looted at will; and to all these woes were added, in the 16th century, pestilences and disastrous floods, which tended still further to impoverish and barbarize the country.

First French Intervention, 1553.

In these circumstances King Henry II. of France conceived the project of conquering the island. From Corsican mercenaries in French service, men embittered by wrongs suffered at the hands of the Genoese, he obtained all the necessary information; by a treaty of alliance concluded at Constantinople (February 1, 1553) with Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent he secured the co-operation of the Turkish fleet. The combined forces attacked the island the same year; the citadel of Bastia fell almost without a blow, and siege was at once laid simultaneously to all the other fortresses. The capitulation of Bonifacio to the Turks, after an obstinate resistance, was followed by the treacherous massacre of the garrison; soon, of all the strong places, the Genoese held Calvi alone. At this juncture the emperor Charles V. intervened; a strong force of imperial troops and Genoese was poured into the island, and the tide of war turned. The details of the struggle that followed, in which the Corsican national hero Sampiero da Bastelica gained his first laurels, are of little general importance. Fortresses were captured and recaptured; and for three years French, Germans, Spaniards, Genoese and Corsicans indulged in a carnival of mutual slaughter and outrage. The outcome of all this was a futile reversion to the _status quo_. In 1556, indeed, the conclusion of a truce left Corsica--with the exception of Bastia--in the hands of the French, who proceeded to set up a tolerable government; but in 1559, by the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, the island was restored to the bank of San Giorgio, from which it was at once taken over by the Genoese republic.

Sampiero da Bastelica.

Trouble at once began again. The Genoese attempted to levy a tax which the Corsicans refused to pay; in violation of the terms of the treaty, which had stipulated for a universal amnesty, they confiscated the property of Sampiero da Bastelica. Hereupon Sampiero again put himself at the head of the national movement. The suzerainty of the Turk seemed preferable to that of Genoa, and, armed with letters from the king of France, he went to Constantinople to ask the aid of a fleet for the purpose of reducing Corsica to the status of an Ottoman province.[2] All his efforts to secure foreign help were, however, vain; he determined to act alone, and in June 1564 landed at Valinco with only fifty followers. His success was at first extraordinary, and he was soon at the head of 8000 men; but ultimate victory was rendered impossible by the indiscipline among the Corsicans and by the internecine feuds of which the Genoese well knew how to take advantage. For over two years a war was waged in which quarter was given on neither side; but after the assassination of Sampiero in 1567 the spirit of the insurgents was broken. In 1568 an honourable peace, including a general amnesty, was arranged with the Genoese commander Giorgio Doria by Sampiero's son Alphonso d'Ornano, who with 300 of his friends emigrated to France, where he rose to be a marshal under Henry IV.

From this time until 1729 Corsica remained at peace under the government of Genoa. It was, however, a peace due to lassitude and despair rather than contentment. The settlement of 1568 had reserved a large measure of autonomy to the Corsicans; during the years that followed this was withdrawn piecemeal, until, disarmed and powerless, they were excluded from every office in the administration. Nor did the Genoese substitute any efficient system for that which they had destroyed. In the absence of an effective judiciary the _vendetta_ increased; in the absence of effective protection the sea-board was exposed to the ravages of the Barbary pirates, so that the coast villages and towns were abandoned and the inhabitants withdrew into the interior, leaving the most fertile part of the country to fall into the condition of a malarious waste. To add to all this, in 1576 the population had been decimated by a pestilence. Emigration _en masse_ continued, and an attempt to remedy this by introducing a colony of Greeks in 1688 only added one more element of discord to the luckless island. To the Genoese Corsica continued to be merely an area to be exploited for their profit; they monopolized its trade; they taxed it up to and beyond its capacity; they made the issue of licences to carry firearms a source of revenue, and studiously avoided interfering with the custom of the _vendetta_ which made their fiscal expedient so profitable.[3]

Revolt of 1729.

King Theodore of Corsica.

In 1729 the Corsicans, irritated by a new hearth-tax known as the _due seini_, rose in revolt, their leaders being Andrea Colonna Ceccaldi and Luigi Giafferi. As usual, the Genoese were soon confined to a few coast towns; but the intervention of the emperor Charles VI. and the despatch of a large force of German mercenaries turned the tide of war, and in 1732 the authority of Genoa was re-established. Two years later, however, Giacinto Paoli once more raised the standard of revolt; and in 1735 an assembly at Corte proclaimed the independence of Corsica, set up a constitution, and entrusted the supreme leadership to Giafferi, Paoli and Ceccaldi. Though the Genoese were again driven into the fortresses, lack of arms and provisions made any decisive success of the insurgents impossible, and when, on the 12th of March 1736, the German adventurer Baron Theodor von Neuhof arrived with a shipload of muskets and stores and the assurance of further help to come, leaders and people were glad to accept his aid on his own conditions, namely that he should be acknowledged as king of Corsica. On the 15th of April, at Alesani, an assembly of clergy and of representatives of the communes, solemnly proclaimed Corsica an independent kingdom under the sovereignty of Theodore "I." and his heirs. The new king's reign was not fated to last long. The _opera bouffe_ nature of his entry on the stage--he was clad in a scarlet caftan, Turkish trousers and a Spanish hat and feather, and girt with a scimitar--did not, indeed, offend the unsophisticated islanders; they were even ready to take seriously his lavish bestowal of titles and his knightly order "della Liberazione"; they appreciated his personal bravery; and the fact that the Genoese government denounced him as an impostor and set a price on his head could only confirm him in their affection. But it was otherwise when the European help that he had promised failed to arrive, and, still worse, the governments with which he had boasted his influence disclaimed him. In November he thought it expedient to proceed to the continent, ostensibly in search of aid, leaving Giafferi, Paoli and Luca d'Ornano as regents. In spite of several attempts, he never succeeded in returning to the island. The Corsicans, weary of the war, opened negotiations with the Genoese; but the refusal of the latter to regard the islanders as other than rebels made a mutual agreement impossible. Finally the republic decided to seek the aid of France, and in July 1737 a treaty was signed by which the French king bound himself to reduce the Corsicans to order.

Intervention of France, 1738.

The object of the French in assisting the Genoese was not the acquisition of the island for themselves so much as to obviate the danger, of which they had long been aware, of its falling into the hands of another power, notably Great Britain. The Corsicans, on the other hand, though ready enough to come to terms with the French king, refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of Genoa even when backed by the power of France. A powerful French force, under the comte de Boissieux, arrived in the spring of 1738, and for some months negotiations proceeded. But the effect of the French guarantee of Corsican liberties was nullified by the demand that the islanders should surrender their arms, and the attempt of Boissieux to enforce the order for disarmament was followed, in the winter of 1738-39, by his defeat at the hands of the Corsicans and by the cutting up of several isolated French detachments. In February 1739 Boissieux died. His successor, the marquis de Maillebois, arrived in March with strong reinforcements, and by a combination of severity and conciliation soon reduced the island to order. Its maintenance, however, depended on the presence of the French troops, and in October 1740 the death of the emperor Charles VI. and the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession necessitated their withdrawal. Genoese and Corsicans were once more left face to face, and the perennial struggle began anew.

Sardinian and British Intervention, 1746.

Renewed French Intervention.

In 1743 "King Theodore," supported by a British squadron, made a descent on the island, but finding that he no longer possessed a following, departed never to return. The Corsicans, assembled in diet at Casinca, now elected Giampietro Gaffori and Alerio Matra as generals and "protectors of the fatherland" (_protettori della patria_), and began a vigorous onslaught on the Genoese strongholds. They were helped now by the sympathy and active aid of European powers, and in 1746 Count Domenico Rivarola, a Corsican in Sardinian service, succeeded in capturing Bastia and San Fiorenzo with the aid of a British squadron and Sardinian troops. The factious spirit of the Corsicans themselves was, however, their worst enemy. The British commander judged it inexpedient to intervene in the affairs of a country of which the leaders were at loggerheads; Rivarola, left to himself, was unable to hold Bastia--a place of Genoese sympathies--and in spite of the collapse of Genoa itself, now in Austrian hands, the Genoese governor succeeded in maintaining himself in the island. By the time of the signature of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, the situation of the island had again changed. Rivarola and Matra had departed, and Gaffori was left nominally supreme over a people torn by intestine feuds. Genoa, too, had expelled the Austrians with French aid, and, owing to a report that the king of Sardinia was meditating a fresh attempt to conquer the island, a strong French expedition under the marquis de Cursay had, at the request of the republic, occupied Calvi, Bonifacio, Ajaccio and Bastia. By the terms of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Corsica was once more assigned to Genoa, but the French garrison remained, pending a settlement between the republic and the islanders. In view of the intractable temper of the two parties no agreement could be reached; but Cursay's personal popularity served to preserve the peace for a while. His withdrawal in 1752, however, was the signal for a general rising, and once more, at a diet held at Orezza, Gaffori was elected general and protector. In October of the following year, however, he fell victim to a _vendetta_ and the nation was once more leaderless. His place was taken for a while by Clemente Paoli, son of Giacinto, who for a year or two succeeded, with the aid of other lieutenants of Gaffori, in holding the Genoese at bay. He was, however, by temperament unfitted to lead a turbulent and undisciplined people in time of stress, and in 1755, at his suggestion, his brother Pasquale was invited to come from Naples and assume the command.

Pasquale Paoli.

The first task of Pasquale Paoli, elected general in April at an assembly at San Antonio della Casabianca, was to suppress the rival faction led by Emanuele Matra, son of Gaffori's former colleague. By the spring of 1756 this was done, and the Corsicans were able to turn a united front against the Genoese. At this juncture the French, alarmed by a supposed understanding between Paoli and the British, once more intervened, and occupied Calvi, Ajaccio and San Fiorenzo until 1757, when their forces were once more called away by the wars on the continent. In 1758 Paoli renewed the attack on the Genoese, founding the new port of Isola Rossa as a centre whence the Corsican ships could attack the trading vessels of Genoa. The republic, indeed, was now too weak to attempt seriously to reassert its sway over the island, which, with the exception of the coast towns, Paoli ruled with absolute authority and with conspicuous wisdom. In the intervals of fighting he was occupied in reducing Corsican anarchy into some sort of civilized order. The vendetta was put down, partly by religious influence, partly with a stern hand; the surviving oppressive rights of the feudal _signori_ were abolished; and the traditional institutions of the Terra di Comune were made the basis of a democratic constitution for the whole island.

Corsica sold to France.

As regarded the relations of Corsica all now depended on the attitude of France to which both Paoli and the republic made overtures. In 1764 a French expedition under the comte de Marbeuf arrived, and, by agreement with Genoa, garrisoned three of the Genoese fortresses. Though Genoese sovereignty had been expressly recognized in the agreement authorizing this, it was in effect non-existent. French and Corsicans remained on amicable terms, and the inhabitants of the nominally Genoese towns actually sent representatives to the national _consulta_ or parliament. The climax came early in 1767 when the Corsicans captured the Genoese island of Capraja, and occupied Ajaccio and other places, evacuated by the French as a protest against the asylum given to the Jesuits exiled from France. Genoa now recognized that she had been worsted in the long contest, and on the 15th of May 1768 signed a treaty selling the sovereignty of the island to France.

French conquest.

The Corsicans, intent on independence, were now faced with a more formidable enemy than the decrepit republic of Genoa. A section of the people indeed, were in favour of submission; but Paoli himself declared for resistance; and among those who supported him at the _consulta_ summoned to discuss the question was his secretary Carlo Buonaparte, father of Napoleon Bonaparte, the future emperor of the French. Into the details of the war that followed, it is impossible to enter here; in the absence of the hoped-for help from Great Britain its issue could not be doubtful; and, though the task of the French was a hard one, by the summer of 1769 they were masters of the island. On the 16th of June Pasquale and Clemente Paoli, with some 400 of their followers, embarked on a British ship for Leghorn. On the 15th of September 1770, a general assembly of the Corsicans was summoned and the deputies swore allegiance to King Louis XV.

Corsica and the revolution of 1789.

Revolt under Paoli.

For twenty years Corsica, while preserving many of its old institutions, remained a dependency of the French crown. Then came the Revolution, and the island, conformed to the new model, was incorporated in France as a separate department (see Renucci, ii. p. 271 seq.). Paoli, recalled from exile by the National Assembly on the motion of Mirabeau, after a visit to Paris, where he was acclaimed as "the hero and martyr of liberty" by the National Assembly and the Jacobin Club, returned in 1790 to Corsica, where he was received with immense enthusiasm and acclaimed as "father of the country." With the new order in the island, however, he was little in sympathy. In the towns branches of the Jacobin Club had been established, and these tended, as elsewhere, to usurp the functions of the regular organs of government and to introduce a new element of discord into a country which it had been Paoli's life's work to unify. Suspicions of his loyalty to revolutionary principles had already been spread at Paris by Bartolomeo Arena, a Corsican deputy and ardent Jacobin, so early as 1791; yet in 1792, after the fall of the monarchy, the French government, in its anxiety to secure Corsica, was rash enough to appoint him lieutenant-general of the forces and governor (_capo comandante_) of the island. Paoli accepted an office which he had refused two years before at the hands of Louis XVI. With the men and methods of the Terror, however, he was wholly out of sympathy. Suspected of throwing obstacles in the way of the expedition despatched in 1793 against Sardinia, he was summoned, with the procurator-general Pozzo di Borgo, to the bar of the Convention. Paoli now openly defied the Convention by summoning the representatives of the communes to meet in diet at Corte on the 27th of May. To the remonstrances of Saliceti, who attended the meeting, he replied that he was rebelling, not against France, but against the dominant faction of whose actions the majority of Frenchmen disapproved. Saliceti thereupon hurried to Paris, and on his motion Paoli and his sympathizers were declared by the Convention _hors la loi_ (June 26).

British occupation, 1794-1796.

Paoli had already made up his mind to raise the standard of revolt against France. But though the _consulta_ at Corte elected him president, Corsican opinion was by no means united. Napoleon Bonaparte, whom Paoli had expected to win over to his views, indignantly rejected the idea of a breach with France, and the Bonapartes were henceforth ranked with his enemies. Paoli now appealed for assistance to the British government, which despatched a considerable force. By the summer of 1794, after hard fighting, the island was reduced, and in June the Corsican assembly formally offered the sovereignty to King George III. The British occupation lasted two years, the island being administered by Sir Gilbert Elliot. Paoli, whose presence was considered inexpedient, was invited to return to England, where he remained till his death. In 1796 Bonaparte, after his victorious Italian campaign, sent an expedition against Corsica. The British, weary of a somewhat thankless task, made no great resistance, and in October the island was once more in French hands. It was again occupied by Great Britain for a short time in 1814, but in the settlement of 1815 was restored to the French crown. Its history henceforth is part of that of France.

See F. Girolami-Cortona, _Geographie generale de la Corse_ (Ajaccio,
1893); A. Andrei, _A travers la Corse_ (Paris, 1893); Forcioli-Conti,
_Notre Corse_ (Ajaccio, 1897); R. Le Joindre, _La Corse et les Corses_
(Paris, 1904); F. O. Renucci, _Storia di Corsica_ (2 vols., Bastia,
1833), fervidly Corsican, but useful; Antonio Pietro Filippini,
_Istoria di Corsica_ (1st ed., 1594; 2nd ed., corrected and
illustrated with unpublished documents by G. C. Gregori, 5 vols.,
Pisa, 1827-1832); J. M. Jacobi, _Hist. gen. de la Corse_, 2 vols.,
(Paris, 1833-1835), with many unpublished documents; L. H. Caird,
_History of Corsica_ (London, 1899). Further works and references to
articles in reviews, &c., are given in Ulysse Chevalier's _Repertoire
des sources_, &c., _Topo-bibliographie_, t. ii. s.v.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See "Conventions entre quelques seigneurs Corses et l'office de
St Georges (1453)," in _Bulletin soc. scientif. Corse_ (1881-1882),
pp. 286, 305, 413, 501, 549 and (1883) 147; also the report of the
deputies sent by the bank to Pope Nicholas V. in 1453, ib. p. 141.

[2] Hammer-Purgstall, _Gesch. des Osmanischen Reichs_ (Pest, 1840),
ii. 288.

[3] Father Cancellotti, who visited every part of the island,
estimated the number of murders committed in 20 years at 28,000
(quoted in the article on Corsica in _La Grande Encyclopedie_).

CORSICANA, a city and the county-seat of Navarro county, Texas, U.S.A., situated in the N.E. part of the state, about 55 m. S. of Dallas. Pop. (1890) 6285; (1900) 9313, of whom 2399 were of negro descent; (1910 census) 9749. It is served by the Houston & Texas Central, the St Louis South Western, and the Trinity & Brazos Valley railways. It is the centre of a large and productive wheat- and cotton-growing region, which has also numerous oil wells (with a total production in 1907 of 226,311 barrels). The city has two oil refineries, a large cotton gin and a cotton compress, and among its manufactures are cotton-seed oil, cotton-cloth, flour and ice. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $1,796,805, being an increase of 50.3% since 1900. Natural gas is extensively used for fuel and for lighting. Corsicana is the seat of the Texas state orphan home and of an Odd Fellows widows' and orphans' home, and has a Carnegie library. Corsicana was named in honour of the wife of a Mexican, Navarro, who owned a large tract of land in the county and from whom the county was named. The first permanent settlement here was made in 1848, and Corsicana was incorporated as a village in 1850 and chartered as a city in 1871.

CORSINI, the name of a Florentine princely family, of which the founder is said to be Neri Corsini, who flourished about the year 1170. Like other Florentine nobles the Corsini had at first no titles, but in more recent times they received many from foreign potentates and from the later grand dukes of Tuscany. The emperor Charles IV. created the head of the house a count palatine in 1371; the marquisate of Sismano was conferred on them in 1620, those of Casigliano and Civitella in 1629, of Lajatico and Orciatico in 1644, of Giovagallo and Tresana in 1652; in 1730 Lorenzo Corsini was elected pope as Clement XII., and conferred the rank of Roman princes and the duchy of Casigliano on his family, and in 1732 they were created grandees of Spain. They own two palaces in Florence, one of which on the Lung' Arno Corsini contains the finest private picture gallery in the city, and many villas and estates in various parts of Italy.

See L. Passerini, _Genealogia e storia della famiglia Corsini_
(Florence, 1858); A. von Reumont, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom_ (Berlin,
1868); _Almanach de Gotha_. (L. V.*)

CORSON, HIRAM (1828- ), American scholar, was born on the 6th of November 1828, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He held a position in the library of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (1849-1856), was a lecturer on English literature in Philadelphia (1859-1865), and was professor of English at Girard College, Philadelphia (1865-1866), and in St John's College, Annapolis, Maryland (1866-1870). In 1870-1871 he was professor of rhetoric and oratory at Cornell University, where he was professor of Anglo-Saxon and English literature (1872-1886), of English literature and rhetoric (1886-1890), and from 1890 to 1903 (when he became professor emeritus) of English literature, a chair formed for him. He edited Chaucer's _Legende of Goode Women_ (1863) and _Selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales_ (1896), and wrote a _Hand-Book of Anglo-Saxon and Early English_ (1871), and, among other text-books, _An Elocutionary Manual_ (1864), _A Primer of English Verse_ (1892), and _Introductions_ to the study of Browning (1886, 1889), of Shakespeare (1889) and of Milton (1899). The volume on Shakespeare and the _Jottings on the Text of Macbeth_ (1874) contain some excellent Shakespearian criticism. He also published _The University of the Future_ (1875), _The Aims of Literary Study_ (1895), and _The Voice and Spiritual Education_ (1896). He translated the _Satires of Juvenal_ (1868) and edited a translation by his wife, Caroline Rollin (d. 1901), of Pierre Janet's _Mental State of Hystericals_ (1901).

CORSSEN, WILHELM PAUL (1820-1875), German philologist, was born at Bremen on the 20th of January 1820, and received his school education in the Prussian town of Schwedt, to which his father, a merchant, had removed. After spending some time at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin, where his interest in philological pursuits was awakened by the rector, Meinike, he proceeded to the university, and there came especially under the influence of Bockh and Lachmann. His first important appearance in literature was as the author of _Origines poesis romanae_, by which he had obtained the prize offered by the "philosophical" or "arts" faculty of the university. In 1846 he was called from Stettin, where he had for nearly two years held a post in the gymnasium, to occupy the position of lecturer in the royal academy at Pforta (commonly called Schulpforta), and there he continued to labour for the next twenty years. In 1854 he won a prize offered by the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences for the best work on the pronunciation and accent of Latin, a treatise which at once took rank, on its publication under the title of _Uber Aussprache, Vocalismus, und Betonung der lateinischen Sprache_ (1858-1859), as one of the most erudite and masterly works in its department. This was followed in 1863 by his _Kritische Beitrage zur lat. Formenlehre_, which were supplemented in 1866 by _Kritische Nachtrage zur lat. Formenlehre_. In the discussion of the pronunciation of Latin he was naturally led to consider the various old Italian dialects, and the results of his investigations appeared in miscellaneous communications to Kuhn's _Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Schriftforschung_. Ill-health obliged him to give up his professorship at Pforta, and return to Berlin, in 1866; but it produced almost no diminution of his literary activity. In 1867 he published an elaborate archaeological study entitled the _Alterthumer und Kunstdenkmale des Cistercienserklosters St Marien und der Landesschule Pforta_, in which he gathers together all that can be discovered about the history of the Pforta academy, the German "Eton," and in 1868-1869 he brought out a new edition of his work on Latin pronunciation. From a very early period he had been attracted to the special study of Etruscan remains, and had at various times given occasional expression to his opinions on individual points; but it was not till 1870 that he had the opportunity of visiting Italy and completing his equipment for a formal treatment of the whole subject by personal inspection of the monuments. In 1874 appeared the first volume of _Uber die Sprache der Etrusker_, in which with great ingenuity and erudition he endeavoured to prove that the Etruscan language was cognate with that of the Romans. Before the second volume (published posthumously under the editorship of Kuhn) had received the last touches of his hand, he was cut off in 1875 by a comparatively early death.

CORT, CORNELIS (1536-1578), Dutch engraver, was born at Horn in Holland, and studied engraving under Hieronymus Cockx of Antwerp. About 1565 he went to Venice, where Titian employed him to execute the well-known copperplates of St Jerome in the Desert, the Magdalen, Prometheus, Diana and Actaeon, and Diana and Calisto. From Italy he wandered back to the Netherlands, but he returned to Venice soon after 1567, proceeding thence to Bologna and Rome, where he produced engravings from all the great masters of the time. At Rome he founded the well-known school in which, as Bartsch tells us, the simple line of Marcantonio was modified by a brilliant touch of the burin, afterwards imitated and perfected by Agostino Caracci in Italy and Nicolas de Bruyn in the Netherlands. Before visiting Italy, Cort had been content to copy Michael Coxcie, F. Floris, Heemskerk, G. Mostaert, Bartholomaus Spranger and Stradan. In Italy he gave circulation to the works of Raphael, Titian, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Baroccio, Giulio Clovio, Muziano and the Zuccari. His connexion with Cockx and Titian is pleasantly illustrated in a letter addressed to the latter by Dominick Lampson of Liege in 1567. Cort is said to have engraved upwards of one hundred and fifty-one plates. In Italy he was known as Cornelio Fiammingo.

CORTE, a town of central Corsica, 52 m. N.E. of Ajaccio by the railway between that town and Bastia. Pop. (1906) 4839. The upper town is situated on a precipitous rock overhanging the confluence of the Tavignano and Restonica, the rest of the town lying below it on both banks of the rivers. On the summit of the rock stands a citadel built by Vincentello d'Istria (see CORSICA). Other interesting buildings are the house in which Pasquale Paoli lived while Corte was the seat of his government (1755 to 1769), and the house of another patriot, Giampietro Gaffori, whose wife defended it from the Genoese in 1750. There are statues of Paoli, of General Gaffori, and of General Arrighi di Casanova, duke of Padua (d. 1853). Corte is capital of an arrondissement of the island, has a subprefecture, a tribunal of first instance and a communal college, and manufactures alimentary paste. There are marble quarries in the vicinity, and the town has trade in wine and timber. In the 18th century Corte was the centre of the resistance to the Genoese, and it was the seat of a university erected by Paoli.

CORTE-REAL, JERONYMO (1533-1588), Portuguese epic poet, came of a noble Portuguese stock. Of the same family were Gaspar Corte-Real, who in 1500 and 1501 sailed to Labrador and the Arctic seas; and his brothers Miguel and Vasco. Their voyages opened the way for important Portuguese fisheries on the Newfoundland coast (see Henry Harrisse, _Les Corte-Real et leurs voyages au Nouveau-Monde_, and _Gasper Corte-Real: la date exacte de sa derniere expedition au Nouveau-Monde_, Paris, 1883). In his youth Jeronymo fought in Africa and Asia according to the custom of noblemen in that age. There is a tradition that he was present at the affair of Tangier on the 18th of May 1553, when D. Pedro de Menezes met his death. Returning home, it is supposed about 1570, he spent the rest of his days in retirement. In 1578 he placed his sword at the disposal of King Sebastian for the fatal expedition to Africa, but the monarch dispensed him from the journey (it is said) on account of his age, and in 1586 we find him acting as _provedor_ of the _Misericordia_ of Evora. He married D. Luiza da Silva, but left no legitimate issue. Corte-Real was painter as well as soldier and poet, and one of his pictures is still preserved in the church of S. Antao at Evora. His poetical works are believed to have been composed in his old age at the mansion on his estate near Evora, known as "Valle de Palma." _O Segundo cerco de Diu_, an epic in 21 cantos, deals with the historic siege of that Indian island-fortress of the Portuguese. First printed in 1574, it had a second edition in 1783, while a Spanish version appeared at Alcala in 1597. _Austriada_, an epic in 15 cantos celebrating the victory of Don John of Austria over the Turks at Lepanto, was written in Spanish and published in 1578. King Philip II. accepted the dedication in flattering terms and visited the poet when he came to Portugal. _Naufragio de Sepulveda_, an epic in 17 cantos, describes the tragic shipwreck on the South African coast and the death of D. Manoel de Sepulveda with his beautiful wife and young children, a disaster which drew some feeling stanzas from Camoens (_Lusiads_, v. 46). The poem was published four years after the death of Corte-Real by his heirs, and had two later editions, while a Spanish version appeared in Madrid in 1624 and a French in Paris in 1844. _Auto dos quatro novissimos do homem_ is a short poem printed in 1768. Except the _Naufragio de Sepulveda_, which is highly considered in Portugal, Corte-Real's poetry has hardly stood the test of time, and critics of later generations have refused to ratify the estimate formed by contemporaries, who considered him the equal, if not the superior, of Camoens. His lengthy epics suffer from a want of sustained inspiration, and are marred by an abuse of epithet, though they contain episodes of considerable merit, vigorous and well-coloured descriptive passages, and exhibit a pure diction.

See _Subsidios para a biographia do poeta Jeronymo Corte-Real_ (Evora,
1899); also Ernesto do Canto's Memoir on the family in Nos. 23 and 24
of the _Archivo dos Azores_, and Dr Sousa Viterbo's _Trabalhos
nauticos dos Portuguezes_, ii. 153 et seq. (E. PR.)

CORTES, HERNAN or HERNANDO (1485-1547), Spanish soldier, the conqueror of Mexico, was born at Medellin, a small town of Estremadura, in 1485. He belonged to a noble family of decayed fortune, and, being destined for the law, was sent, at fourteen years of age, to the university of Salamanca; but study was distasteful to him, and he returned home in 1501, resolved to enter upon a life of adventure. He arranged to accompany Ovando, who had been appointed to the command of San Domingo, but was prevented from joining the expedition by an accident that happened to him in a love adventure. He next sought military service under the celebrated Gonsalvo de Cordoba, but a serious illness frustrated his purpose. At last, in 1504, he set out, according to his first plan, for San Domingo, where he was kindly received by Ovando. He was then only nineteen, and remarkable for a graceful physiognomy and amiable manners, as well as for skill and address in all military exercises. He remained in San Domingo, where Ovando had successively conferred upon him several lucrative and honourable employments, until 1511, when he accompanied Diego Velazquez in his expedition to the island of Cuba. Here he became alcalde of Santiago, and displayed great ability on several trying occasions.

An opportunity was soon afforded him of showing his powers as a military leader. Juan Grijalva, lieutenant of Velazquez, had just discovered Mexico, but had not attempted to effect a settlement. This displeased the governor of Cuba, who superseded Grijalva, and entrusted the conquest of the newly discovered country to Cortes. The latter hastened his preparations, and, on the 18th of November 1518, he set out from Santiago, with 10 vessels, 600 or 700 Spaniards, 18 horsemen and some pieces of cannon. Scarcely had he set sail, however, when Velazquez recalled the commission which he had granted to Cortes, and even ordered him to be put under arrest; but the attachment of the troops, by whom he was greatly beloved, enabled him to persevere in spite of the governor; and on the 4th of March 1519 he landed on the coast of Mexico. Advancing along the gulf, sometimes taking measures to conciliate the natives, and sometimes spreading terror by his arms, he took possession of the town of Tobasco. The noise of the artillery, the appearance of the floating fortresses which had transported the Spaniards over the ocean, and the horses on which they fought, all new objects to the natives, inspired them with astonishment mingled with terror and admiration; they regarded the Spaniards as gods, and sent them ambassadors with presents. Cortes here learned that the native sovereign was called Montezuma; that he reigned over an extensive empire, which had lasted for three centuries; that thirty vassals, called caciques, obeyed him; and that his riches were immense and his power absolute. No more was necessary to inflame the ambition of the invader, who did not hesitate to undertake the conquest of this great empire, which could only be effected by combining stratagem and address with force and courage. He laid the foundation of the town of Vera Cruz, caused himself to be elected captain-general of the new colony, and burned his vessels to cut off the possibility of retreat and show his soldiers that they must either conquer or perish. He then penetrated into the interior of the country, drew to his camp several caciques hostile to Montezuma, and induced these native princes to facilitate his progress. The republic of Tlaxcala, which was hostile to Montezuma, opposed him; but he routed its army, which had resisted all the forces of the Mexican empire, dictated peace on moderate terms and converted the people into powerful auxiliaries. His farther advance was in vain attempted to be checked by an ambuscade laid by the inhabitants of Cholula, on whom he took signal vengeance.