Italy Aquileia silver Denar Bacardi Bertrando di San Genesio c1334 - buy 1350 1.1 g 20 mm

Italy Aquileia silver Denar Bacardi Bertrando di San Genesio c1334 - 1350 1.1 g 20 mm
A famous professor of law at the University of Toulouse and chaplain to the pope , Bertrand was elevated to the patriarchate of Aquileia on 4 July 1334 . Already advanced in age, he arrived in Friuli with a very specific plan of institutional and ecclesiastical, administrative and military reforms to be carried out.
In the post he showed great skill as a diplomat, since he made alliances with both Venice and the Duke of Austria ; he also revealed great military skills, defeating in the open field Rizzardo III da Camino (who died from his injuries) ( 1335 ), who had conquered a castle (Cavolano) along the Livenza river during the vacant seat of the patriarchate. With this victory he managed not only to steal the previously lost lands, but also to bring the whole Cadore back under the patriarchal jurisdiction ( 1347 ).
Against the republic of Venice he participated in the expedition of Louis "The Great" king of Hungary to the aid of Zara (May-July 1346 ), which had been taken by the Venetians. Later, allying himself with the counts of Gorizia , Alberto IV count of Istria , Alberto II "the Sciancato" of Habsburg duke of Austria and the Croats invaded the Istrian lands again ( 1348 ). Koper took the opportunity to rebel but was besieged by the Venetians who forced it to surrender and, with the peace signed, obtained the restitution of part of the occupied lands.
Bertrando subsequently faced the count of Gorizia , personally leading the army , together with Bregonia, lord of Spilimbergo , to the reconquest of Venzone in 1336 (on that occasion he allowed the city to hold a weekly market), Braulins and Cormons . In an attempt to recapture Venzone, the counts of Gorizia, supported by Albert V, Duke of Austria, invaded the lands of the patriarch; in 1340 the patriarch sacked Cormons in the Gorizia area, laid siege to Goriziaand forced the count to a truce. The Christmas mass was celebrated by the patriarch and the abbot of Moggio dressed in armor. The event was traditionally repeated in Udine (until 1848 ), then in Gorizia buy and has still flowed into the ritual of the Mass of the Spadone . The siege was lifted only because of some riots that broke out in Friuli. However, the patriarch did not give up on definitively subjugating the counts of Gorizia and besieged Belgrade of Varmo, forcing the counts to a truce (7 January 1341 ).
Once the patriarchal jurisdiction was re-established, Bertrando devoted himself to the repression of the power and independence of the feudal lords; he then aimed to strengthen the control of the Alpine passes, vital for the trade of the patriarchate: he strengthened the Alpine defenses, building the Bertranda fortress between Moggio Udinese and Pontebba ; he also had a new city wall built in Sacile ( 1347 ). Also in 1347 he re-appropriated Cadore to the patriarchate, granting him substantial autonomy through the recognition of the Cadore Statutes .
On the ecclesiastical level he called a council in Udine ( 1335 ) and one in Aquileia ( 1339 ), followed by four synods with which he reformed religious life; it also confirmed the norms against heretics issued by the patriarch Bertoldo of Andechs-Merania .
In 1348 the Friuli was hit by a severe earthquake that destroyed Gemona , Venzone, the patriarchal palace of Udine and the upper part of the Aquileia basilica , along with the disaster of the Black Death that was spreading throughout Europe . In February 1350 the patriarch participated in the celebrations in Padua at the Basilica of Sant'Antonio to dissolve the vote for the end of the black plague: the French cardinal Guy de Boulogne , as papal representative, before Jacopo II da Carrara , lord of Padua, to the bishop of Padua Ildebrandino Contiand to a crowd of elders and people, he guided the translation of the relics of Sant'Antonio da Padova into the new church and placed the jaw of the saint in a very precious reliquary that still contains it today. Francesco Petrarca was also present at the sumptuous rite . On the occasion, Cardinal Guy de Boulogne tried, unsuccessfully, to settle the conflict between the patriarch and the count of Gorizia .
The patriarch favored the arts, established the university of Cividale in 1344 (after having obtained the papal concession in 1339) and transferred numerous administrative departments from Cividale to Udine, where he completed and rededicated the cathedral. Bertrando is also remembered for the innovations he introduced in the minting of the Aquileian Coins: he passed from dished denarii, that is with raised edges (for the enlargement of the central part due to the pressure of the minting, which was smaller in diameter than that of the coin rounds) to those flat (which will remain in use for the rest of the history of the patriarchate) which were of reduced weight, size and purity; these were adaptations to the taste of the time, but the change was also due to technological advances, aimed at reducing minting costs without giving up good-looking and difficult to counterfeit products.
The Friulian nobles, opposed to the centralization of power and the loss of their independence, allied themselves with Cividale ( 1348 ); the main conspirators were the count of Gorizia Enrico III - excommunicated by Bertrando in December 1348 - Gualtiero Bertoldo IV, lord of Spilimbergo , his brother Enrico di Spilimbergo, the Villalta and Federico da Portis. These attacked and took Fagagna , San Daniele and Buia ; Udine, deprived of water, was forced to accept a truce while the papal legate, Cardinal Guy de Montfort, tried in vain to mediate peace from Padua. Seeing the possibility of a military victory soon fade, the rebel feudal lords prepared a conspiracy (April 15, 1350 ): while the now over ninety-year-old patriarch was returning from Sacile, at the ford of San Giorgio della Richinvelda he suffered a deadly ambush at the hands of Enrico of Spilimbergo (6 June 1350 ). A monument remembers the place where the murder took place. He was beatified in 1760 by Pope Clement XIII .
Taking advantage of the power vacuum, Albert II of Habsburg tried to invade Friuli.