page_title: Laudomia Forteguerri
section_title: Siege of Siena
hierarchical_section_title: Laudomia Forteguerri / Siege of Siena
context_page_description: Laudomia Forteguerri was an accomplished Italian poet and a member of one of the most powerful families in the sixteenth-century Republic of Siena. She is considered by some historians to be Italy's earliest lesbian writer, and she was famous for her beauty, wit, and intelligence. In January 1553, Forteguerri led a group of women in helping with the construction of a defensive bastion to protect her city against an anticipated attack from Imperial Spanish forces. The attack and siege that followed in 1554–55 ultimately lead to the fall of the independent Republic. Forteguerri became a legendary figure in Sienese history and her legacy has lived on long after her death.
context_section_description: The Republic of Siena had been experiencing increasing political turmoil as the sixteenth-century went on, and by the 1550s, the city was involved in full scale-war. When the Petrucci era of the Republic came to an end in the 1520s, an intense struggle for power broke out between the city's leading factions as they all tried to take its place.  The fighting escalated, and Pope Clement VII even attempted to intervene at the beginning of the sixteenth-century on behalf of the Notrevechi party (to which the Forteguerri family belonged); Holy Roman Emperor Charles V finally became involved in 1530, using the political turmoil of Siena as an excuse to occupy the city. The occupation was brutal, and in 1552 the people of Siena rose up against the Imperial forces and were able to expel their Spanish occupiers from the city. However, the Sienese people knew that they would have little chance of surviving the imminent Imperial attack. Because of this, every able citizen was mobilized in the effort to build fortifications, and Laudomia Forteguerri herself led a group of 1,000 noble and artisan women to aid in the construction.  The siege was brutal, and it lasted a year and a half (26 January 1554 to 17 April 1555). By the time the Republic of Siena finally surrendered to Duke Cosimo I de' Medici in April 1555 after the bloody Battle of Battle of Marciano, the once proud city lay in ruins, marking the end of the Republic of Siena  Although there is no record of Laudomia after 1555, her legacy lived on long, and she would forever be remembered for her bravery in the face of her city's destruction.
caption: Giorgio Vasari – The Battle of Scanniglio
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