Montréal de Albarno, also known as Fra Moriale (1315 ? –August 1354) was a Provençal mercenary and

condottiero ''Condottieri'' (; singular ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian captains in command of mercenary companies during the Middle Ages and of multinational armies during the early modern period. They notably served popes and other Europe ...

Life

Montreal de Albarno was born as Jean Montréal du Bar at

Le Bar-sur-Loup Le Bar-sur-Loup (, literally ''Le Bar on Loup (river), Loup''; oc, So Barn; it, Albarno) is a Communes of France, commune in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in southeastern France. Originally known simply as Le Bar, the co ...

. He came from the aristocratic family "maison de Grasse" which was one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Provence. Le Bar-sur-Loup was previously known as Albarno. He arrived in Italy in 1331, and, like his uncle, Isnard de Albarno, became a member of the military Order of

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...

, better known now as the Knights of Malta. His name Italianized was "Moriale" and Fra came from the fact that his was from a religious order. He fought for

Louis I of Hungary Louis I, also Louis the Great ( hu, Nagy Lajos; hr, Ludovik Veliki; sk, Ľudovít Veľký) or Louis the Hungarian ( pl, Ludwik Węgierski; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370 ...

in the succession wars for the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

."The Condottieri", ''United Service: A Monthly Review of Military and Naval Affairs", Volumes 10-11, October 1884
/ref> Later he was hired by the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

, but he abandoned them due to insufficient payment. The King of Hungary made him his vicar and gave him the castle of Aversa. Along with Corrado Lupo, head of a company of 7000 men, they became the two foreign commanders of the Hungarian forces. With the war over the Kingdom of Naples succession ended, Montréal was sent by King Louis I of Hungary to Genova and then he brought him to Hungary as the Prior of Vrana. .Vittozzi, Elvira. "Moriale, John", ''Treccani'', Vol.76, 2012
/ref> Moriale refounded the Great Company with German, Italian and

Provençal Provençal may refer to: *Of Provence, a region of France * Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France *''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language *Franco-Provençal language, a distinct Roman ...

mercenaries. Luigi di Taranto cited Moriale to the court of the Vicariate, where Moriale was condemned in absentia. In 1352, Joanna I of Naples sent Galeotto I Malatesta of Rimini, to besiege him in

Aversa Aversa () is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Caserta in Campania, southern Italy, about 24 km north of Naples. It is the centre of an agricultural district, the ''Agro Aversano'', producing wine and cheese (famous for the typical bu ...

, where Moriale had amassed a large treasure during years of pillages. Forced to surrender, he was allowed to escape alive in exchange for all his wealth. He then took service for a time with John of Viterbo and Orvieto, before forming another "Companie of adventurers". In an attempt to rescue his brothers, Rambaud and Bertrand, who had loaned funds to Cola di Rienzi

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, he was arrested with them by order of the

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

Cola di Rienzo and condemned to death. He was

beheaded Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

in the

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

square on 29 August 1354, and buried in the nearby

Basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Outrage at the execution helped lead to Cola's later downfall.

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moriale, Fra 1303 births 1354 deaths People from Narbonne 14th-century condottieri French military personnel People executed by the Papal States by decapitation Executed French people Knights of Malta Burials at Santa Maria in Ara Coeli 14th-century executions Executed people from Languedoc-Roussillon