the house of Acciaioli, headed by Angelo, the new bishop of Florence.
Of course, it would not have been difficult for the Acciaioli, and others,
tofind allies amongst the disaffected elites. It is noteworthy that no fewer
than three separate plots developed. When the key conspirator in one of
these, Antonio Adimari, was arrested and hurled into prison, matters
quickly came to a head. The plots coalesced into one armed uprising,
which began in the small hours of 26 July. The cry of the rebels could not
have been more different from what it had been the previous autumn:
‘death to the duke, long live the commune, long live thepopolo, long live
liberty!’They soon had Walter and his men penned into the Piazza della
Signoria. For several days, Walter was besieged in the square, whilst his
friends and allies in the rest of the city were hunted down and butchered.
Walter tried to calm things down by releasing Antonio, but this was seen,
quite rightly, as a sign of weakness. Finally, in return for an assurance
that he himself would be free to leave the city, Walter agreed to renounce
thesignoria, and to hand over several of his closest associates to the rough
justice of the mob. He can have been under no illusions about what
would happen to them. Whilst Cerettieri de’Visdomini managed to
make good his escape, William of Assisi and his young son were torn
limb from limb. At the end of that terrible day, Bishop Angelo had the
satisfaction of being present as Walter formally ratified his abdication.^142
The‘signoriafor life’had lasted just ten months.^143
Although Walter had renounced his lordship, the Florentines had
every reason to fear that he would soon try to recover it. According to
Villani, the city government placed a bounty of 10,000florins on Wal-
ter’s head in late 1344.^144 The most obvious place for Walter to look for
assistance was, of course, the Neapolitan court. Whilst it is possible that
Acciaioli influence played its part in limiting what the Angevins would
do, it is more likely that the biggest problem was simply the political
infighting that was taking place there.^145 Indeed, Walter achieved very
little across Italy as a whole, despite a promising sign from Venice.^146 He
promptly withdrew to France, where he hoped to have more success with
the papacy and the French king. The upshot was a small‘tug of war’,as
both Florence and Walter competed to sell their side of the story to the
(^142) It is worth noting an irony that no one could have foreseen at the time. Before the
century was out, the Acciaioli would have acquired the other lordship that Walter
claimed–that is, the duchy of Athens. The remarkable career of Nerio I Acciaioli is
covered in Setton’s magisterialCatalan Domination of Athens.
(^143) De Sassenay,Brienne, 220–31. (^144) Villani,Nuovo cronica, iii, book 13, ch. 34.
(^145) Neatly summarized in Abulafia,The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms, 162–6.
(^146) On 1 March 1344 Walter and his heirs, like so many other notables of the day, were
accorded Venetian citizenship. See Setton,Catalan Domination of Athens, 43.
A Florentine Tragedy 171