Italy led the way in the education of the Western races, and was the first to realize the type of modern as distinguished from classical and mediaeval life.
During this age of the despots, Italy presents the spectacle of a nation devoid of central government and comparatively uninfluenced by feudalism.

The right of the Emperor had become nominal, and served as a pretext for usurpers rather than as a source of order.

The visits, for instance, of Charles IV.

and Frederick III.

were either begging expeditions or holiday excursions, in the course of which ambitious adventurers bought titles to the government of towns, and meaningless honors were showered upon vain courtiers.