Ciompi Revolt
[5]: 147 On 22 June the Ciompi took up arms for the first time but it was not until 21 July that they violently took over the city's government and forced the Signoria to create three new guilds and grant them political office.
[3]: 78 From these turbulent times emerged the gente nuova ('new men') a class of mainly immigrants with no aristocratic background who grew their wealth from trade.
Each side sought to gain control over the other, as the oligarchy used the Guelph Party to justify their patriciate status, while the gente nuova appealed to the middle and lower classes for support.
The Ubaldini were a feudal family who had strong influences over the peasants living in the Alpi Fiorentine, and Florence wished to break these ties for control in the north.
Adding to the need for more military forces was the increased crime and attacks directed at merchants and at pilgrims passing through Florence that developed after the Black Death.
[2]: 129 In fact, before the ciompi, there were already rebellions organized by labourers, such as the 9 October 1343 revolt by wool workers led by the Sienese Aldobrando di Ciecharino, who lived in Florence.
[8]: 739 Many of the issues leading to the revolt of the Ciompi involved the politics and relations between guild and non-guild members, as well as the ruling elites of the city (the Signoria).
[8]: 740 The 21 guilds, however, did not include the whole of Florence's working population and many people were excluded from the system, thus limiting their protection from exploitation and ability to be involved in city politics.
The exclusion of the Ciompi from this system reinforced unequal power relations within the city, reducing the rights and protections available for these workers unlike those assigned to members in other guilds.
Initially the Ciompi were not violently involved and the early stages of the revolt were as much a power struggle between the guilds as it was between Florence's Signoria and the exploited lower class.
The Signoria had no intention of granting the un-guilded Sotto posti these liberties however and instead, feeling threatened, made it more difficult to obtain office and quadrupled the fee for admittance.
This action sparked indignation and turned the Sotto posti, who were previously hopeful for better rights and social/professional advances, into opponents of the Signoria, aligning their aims and ailments with those of the lower class Ciompi.
[5]: 147 Salvestro de Medici was one of the individuals assigned the blame by many in the lower classes, and later also faced accusation from his peers for letting the situation with the Ciompi get out of hand.
On 22 June 1378, the first outbreak of violence occurred when the un-guilded wool-workers took up arms and attacked government buildings, monasteries and a number of Palazzi whilst also releasing inmates from city prisons.
The Signoria attempted to appease the lower classes through talks and petitions, although ultimately suggested little change and still left the Ciompi guildless and without power or representation in government.
[5]: 147 On 21 July, the lower classes forcibly took over the government, placing the wool carder Michele di Lando in the executive office of gonfaloniere of justice, and showing their banner, the blacksmith's flag, at the Bargello, the palace of the podestà.
On this day, thousands of armed wool workers (the Ciompi) and those from the Sotto posti, besieged the Signoria and pointedly hanged the public executioner by his feet in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
While they made demands such as the right to elect three of their own priors, the reduction of judicial corporal punishment, and reform of the tax system, the new government was rather weak and lacked strong bargaining skills.
The clash of interests and resulting struggle and sense of betrayal experienced by the Ciompi when their leader Michele di Lando turned against them, ignoring their demands, led to the third stage of the revolt.
Although often portrayed as radical today, the demands and wishes of the wool workers and others involved were fairly modest and reform did not take the shape of a societal overhaul.
[7]: 593 Salvestro made an error in his struggle against the Guelf party, thus spoiling his family image as well as others of similar rank, "subjecting them to the rashness of the excited multitude".
Trexler calls the radical Ciompi rebel group Gli Otto Santi del Popolo di Dio (or the "Eight Saints", also known as the Eight of Santa Maria Novella)[15] and suggests that they may be commonly confused with the more influential and better known otto della guerra (or the "Eight of War") who represented Florence and opposed Gregory XI and the Catholic Church in 1375 (in the War of the Eight Saints).
[16]: 362 There is very little recorded history about who Michele di Lando was before the Ciompi Revolt, because men of the lower working class did not leave behind major documents.
Within his industry, di Lando was the foreman of all the menial workers and made enough money to show up in tax records as paying small sums.
"[7]: 593 Upon Michele di Lando's ascension to power, the "Eight of War" (who thought themselves as effective rulers of Florence) wanted to appoint replacements for the Signory.
Social tension existed between the poor Ciompi and wealthy merchants who dominated the lucrative wool industry, and the Florentine government, which continued to increase taxation.
This scar built a tension between the new nobility and the lower labouring class greater than that prior to the uprising,[8]: 737 as the elites constantly feared the rabble's secret plots.
[8]: 737 He viewed this event as a historical cautionary tale, which presented the horrendous consequence when rabbles managed to seize control from the ruling class.
[20] In the late nineteenth century, a sculpture of the popular leader Michele di Lando was placed in a niche on the façade of the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo.
[21]: 286 Recent histories treat the conflict as a lens reflecting the issues of Florentine society in the late 14th century, and also as a catalyst for Florence's period politics.
