Niccolò Mauruzzi best known as Niccolò da Tolentino (c. 1350 – March 20, 1435) was an Italian condottiero.

Biography

A member of the Mauruzi della Stacciola family of Tolentino

Tolentino

Tolentino is a town and comune of about 20,000 inhabitants, in the province of Macerata in the Marche region of central Italy.It is located in the middle of the valley of the Chienti.-History:...

, he fled from that city in 1370 after a dispute with his relatives. He therefore fought under several condottieri. In 1406–1407 he commanded the troops of Gabrino Fondulo, lord of Cremona

Cremona

Cremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...

, and subsequently was under Pandolfo III Malatesta

Pandolfo III Malatesta

Pandolfo III Malatesta was an Italian condottiero and lord of Fano, a member of the famous House of Malatesta.-Biography:...

, lord of Fano

Fano

Fano is a town and comune of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort 12 km southeast of Pesaro, located where the Via Flaminia reaches the Adriatic Sea...

 and Cesena

Cesena

Cesena is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, south of Ravenna and west of Rimini, on the Savio River, co-chief of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. It is at the foot of the Apennines, and about 15 km from the Adriatic Sea.-History:Cesena was originally an Umbrian...

.

After obtaining the title of count and the castle of Stacciola near the Metauro

Metauro

The Metauro is a river of the Marche, central Italy. It rises in the Apennine Mountains and runs east for 110 km ....

 river from Malatesta, he was hired by numerous Italian lords, including Filippo Maria Visconti

Filippo Maria Visconti

Filippo Maria Visconti was ruler of Milan from 1412 to 1447.-Biography:Filippo Maria Visconti, who had become nominal ruler of Pavia in 1402, succeeded his assassinated brother Gian Maria Visconti as Duke of Milan in 1412. They were the sons of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Gian Maria's predecessor, by...

, Queen Joan II of Naples

Joan II of Naples

Joan II was Queen of Naples from 1414 to her death, upon which the senior Angevin line of Naples became extinct. As a mere formality, she used the title of Queen of Jerusalem, Sicily, and Hungary....

 and the Republic of Florence

Republic of Florence

The Republic of Florence , or the Florentine Republic, was a city-state that was centered on the city of Florence, located in modern Tuscany, Italy. The republic was founded in 1115, when the Florentine people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany upon Margravine Matilda's death. The...

 (1425). In 1431 he was made seignior of Borgo San Sepolcro by Papal decree, but the following year he lost it as he passed under the Florentines, whose armies he led from June 1423 to May 1434, with intervals as Papal commander-in-chief in 1424 and 1428–1432, and commander of Milanese troops in 1432.

For Florence he seized Brescia

Brescia

Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...

 and won the Battle of Maclodio

Battle of Maclodio

The Battle of Maclodio was fought on 11 October 1427, resulting in a victory for the Venetians under Carmagnola over the Milanese under Carlo I Malatesta. The battle was fought at Maclodio a small town near the River Oglio, fifteen kilometres south-west of Brescia...

 (October 12, 1427). After these successes he was appointed capitano generale (commander-in-chief) of the Republic in 1431 and in 1432 he was sent as commander of coalition against Francesco I Sforza

Francesco I Sforza

Francesco I Sforza was an Italian condottiero, the founder of the Sforza dynasty in Milan, Italy. He was the brother of Alessandro, with whom he often fought.-Early life:...

 in Romagna

Romagna

Romagna is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, and the rivers Reno and Sillaro to the north and west...

, where he was victorious at the Battle of San Romano

Battle of San Romano

The Battle of San Romano was fought on June 1st 1432, some 30 miles outside Florence, between the troops of Florence, commanded by Niccolò da Tolentino, and Siena, under Francesco Piccinino. The outcome is generally considered favourable to the Florentines, but in the Sienese chronicles it was...

, and was commemorated in a painting of the battle

The Battle of San Romano

The Battle of San Romano is a set of three paintings by the Florentine painter Paolo Uccello depicting events that took place at the Battle of San Romano between Florentine and Sienese forces in 1432. They are significant as revealing the development of linear perspective in early Italian...

 by Paolo Uccello

Paolo Uccello

Paolo Uccello , born Paolo di Dono, was an Italian painter and a mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. Giorgio Vasari in his book Lives of the Artists wrote that Uccello was obsessed by his interest in perspective and would stay up all night in his...

. A portrait of Niccolò was executed in Santa Maria Novella as memory of his deeds.

In 1434 he was captured by the Visconti and thrown into a ravine. He survived, but died of the wounds the following year at Borgo Val di Taro

Borgo Val di Taro

Borgo Val di Taro is a town and comune in Emilia, Italy, in the Province of Parma, 63 km from the city of Parma.Borgo Val di Taro is an important centre for cattle husbandry in Emilia and it's one of the zones where Parmigiano-Reggiano is produced....

. He was buried in Santa Maria del Fiore

Santa Maria del Fiore

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is the cathedral church of Florence, Italy. The Duomo, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi...

 in Florence. A celebrating fresco by Andrea del Castagno

Andrea del Castagno

Andrea del Castagno was an Italian painter from Florence, influenced chiefly by Tommaso Masaccio and Giotto di Bondone. His works include frescoes in Sant'Apollonia in Florence and the painted equestrian monument of Niccolò da Tolentino in the Cathedral in Florence...

 was commissioned over his tomb by the Florentine commune.

His son Cristoforo da Tolentino

Cristoforo da Tolentino

Cristoforo da Tolentino was an Italian condottiero, the son of Niccolò da Tolentino.The elder of three brothers, he followed Niccolò's military career, and was lord of Tolentino in 1434–1439....

was also a condottiero.

Sources