ABSTRACT
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-u.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429292354/3abb420d-80da-4aed-a9cf-ae5c42b997f9/content/ifig0001.tif"/>During the Renaissance when the young warriors of the House of Baglioni rode or walked through the streets and piazzas of Perugia the people would stop whatever they were doing and stare at them with awe and admiration, fear and hatred. Tall, blond, beautiful in their brutal fashion, they moved with the controlled grace of panthers and looked at all around them with the fierce arrogance of falcons. The Baglioni, brave as the Knights of the Round Table, were able condottieri for six generations and the aristocratic de facto rulers of the most important town in Umbria and of many lesser towns and villages. But they never achieved official recognition from the Perugians as their lords. They never acquired any hereditary title. And they never learned to govern others or themselves. Cruel, treacherous, vindictive, the Baglioni were as famous for their family feuds and intramural murders as they were for their eminence in arms. Their extraordinary story combines heroic courage with moral blindness. Probably no family contributed more to the political anarchy of Renaissance Italy than “the High and Mighty Baglioni.”
