Thus the republics of Florence and Siena were extinguished.  The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was created.  It became an Italian power of the first magnitude, devoted to the absolutist principles of Spanish and Papal sovereignty.  The further changes which took place in Italy after the year 1530, turned equally to the profit of Spain and Rome.  These were principally the creation of the Duchy of Parma for the Farnesi (1545-1559), of which I shall have to speak in the next chapter; the resumption of Ferrara by the Papacy in 1597, which reduced the House of Este to the smaller fiefs of Modena and Reggio; the acquisition of Montferrat by Mantua in 1536; the cession of Saluzzo to Savoy in 1598, and the absorption of Urbino into the Papal domains in 1631.

It was hoped when Charles and Clement proclaimed the pacification of Italy at Bologna on the last day of 1529, that the peninsula would no longer be the theater of wars for supremacy between the French and Spaniards.  This expectation proved delusive; for the struggle soon broke out again.  The people, however, suffered less extensively than in former years; because the Spanish party, supported by Papal authority, was decidedly predominant.  The Italian princes, whether they liked it or not, were compelled to follow in the main a Spanish policy.  At length, in 1559, by the Peace of Cateau Cambresis signed between Henri II. and Philip II., the French claims were finally abandoned, and the Spanish hegemony was formally acknowledged.  The later treaty of Vervins, in 1598, ceded Saluzzo to the Duchy of Savoy, and shut the gates of Italy to French interference.

Though the people endured far less misery from foreign armies in the period between 1630 and 1600 than they had done in the period from 1494 to 1527, yet the state of the country grew ever more and more deplorable.  This was due in the first instance to the insane methods of taxation adopted by the Spanish viceroys, who held monopolies of corn and other necessary commodities in their hands and who invented imposts for the meanest articles of consumption.  Their example was followed by the Pope and petty princes.  Alfonso II. of Ferrara, for instance, levied a tenth on all produce which passed his city gates, and on the capital engaged in every contract.  He monopolized the sale of salt, flour, bread; and imposed a heavy tax on oil.  Sixtus V. by exactions of a like description and by the sale of numberless offices, accumulated a vast sum of money, much of which bore heavy interest.  He was so ignorant of the first principle of political economy as to lock up the accruing treasure in the Castle of S. Angelo.  The rising of Masaniello in Naples was simply due to the exasperation of the common folk at having even fruit and vegetables taxed.  In addition to such financial blunders, we must take into account the policy pursued by all princes at this epoch, of discouraging commerce and manufactures.  Thus Cosimo I. of Tuscany induced the old Florentine