La Strada dei Re Volume One by Federico Zabini

La Strada dei Re, or the Road of Kings has been a long journey. Much longer for us with the power of Magic in our blood than for our Muggle Counterparts, for we began the struggle to unify much earlier than they did. It began, as many of these things do, with the Inquisition. In the days before the Inquisition came down, it was not uncommon in the many lands of Italia for a relative of the Kings, Dukes, or Princes with the spark of Magic in their veins to act as the King's Prefect for Magical Affairs.

(Translator's Note: The Title of Prefetto or Prefect has a different connotation in the South of the Continent than it does here in Britain, tracing its roots to the Roman Praefectus or Military Governor who would sometimes govern whole provinces. In this case, the Term Prefect of Magical Affairs could roughly be comparable to our modern position of Minister for Magic.)

So it was for the Kings of Naples and Sicily as the fifteenth century began to turn into the sixteenth. Both Sicily and Naples were ruled by two brothers, Ferrante the First of Naples and Giovanni the Second of Aragon. The two were half-brothers, sons of Alfonso the Magnanimous of Aragon and both had entrusted the office of Prefect of Magical Affairs to their other half-brother, Enrico the Alchemist, Principe di Lipari, who was magical himself.

(Translator's Note: The Title of Principe, or Prince means different things depending on where you are on the continent. Many princes in Italy are not ruling princes of anything but their own lands, similar to any nobiliary title here in Britain. Instead, these non-ruling Princely Titles denote a direct lineage from a Royal Bloodline rather than rule without any overlord to which to pay homage. Indeed, Enrico ruled only the Island of Lipari in his own name and was in fact obliged to pay Homage to Giovanni the Second of Aragon as King of Aragon, whose crown was overlord of both the Crowns of Sicily and Naples, along with the Principality of Lipari.)

Enrico was, it must be said, illegitimate. The son of Alfonso the Magnanimous and the famous Seeress Cassandra Zabini, daughter of Teodoro Zabini, Conte del Villaggio del Mistero in the Mountains of Sicily, and one of my own ancestors, Enrico was not guaranteed much of anything in life save perhaps some small appenage in his Grandfather's County. Fortunately for him, and all of Italia, Alfonso the Magnanimous had earned his epithet for a good reason. He had recently taken the Island of Lipari back from the Moors and found it the perfect fief for his Enrico.

(Translator's Note: Yes, this does technically mean that the Kings of Magical Italy sprang from the loins of a man who would be considered a Half-Blood by Modern British Standards. You must remember that the continent does things differently and that the past is, as they say, a foreign country.)

Legitimate or not, Enrico was quite clearly magical. His father found him the best tutors that money could buy, many of whom would go on to faculty positions in various magical schools throughout Europe, with many becoming members of the initial faculty board of institutions such as the Universidad de Místicos de León in the Cantabrian Mountains, the Kritikó Mageftikó Scholeío in the Cretan Interior, and the Accademia Veneziana di Alchimia in Venice. At that time, it was not seen as dangerous by the people at large, if they even knew about such things. Even when Giovanni the Second of Aragon died and was succeeded by Enrico's Nephew, Ferdinando the Second, this didn't change.

Ferdinando signed off on his Uncle's position as Prefect of Magical Affairs for Sicily. By that point, Enrico had children of his own, after all, through a marriage with Eulalia Greco, the Daughter of Demetrio Greco, the Conte di Palagorio in Calabria. Enrico and Eulalia's children consisted of three sons, Orlando, Tommasso, and Decimo, as well as a daughter, Cosima, all but Tommasso were magical, with Tommasso turning out to be a Squib. The prevailing sentiment was that none wanted potential kinslaying to break out at the behest of the religious authorities.

This all changed with the end of the Reconquista in Spain. The Fall of the Last of the Moorish strongholds in Iberia brought with it a change in Ferdinando's thinking. Now, Ferdinando had a large population of Jews and Moors in his Kingdom, which included the Crown of Castille through his Marriage with Isabella of Castille. What better way to break the power of subversive elements in his territory who might agitate for a return of the Emirs of Granada than with religion? This was especially useful in the case of the Moorish inhabitants, many of whom practiced astronomy or mathematics that were strikingly close to the wizarding practices of Astrology and Numerology.

(Translator's Note: For those unfamiliar with the terms, Astrology is one branch of the Modern Wizarding Subject of Astronomy, though, in those days, the practice was less advanced than it currently is in much of Europe. The Muslim and Oriental nations of the time were far ahead of us in that respect. Meanwhile, Numerology is, in many ways, a more basic form of Modern Arithmancy. Of course, the Mechanical Analytical Engine of the Squibs Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace revolutionized the field allowing the creation of the standard Arithmantic Formulae in use today. Some would say that showed a remarkable amount of mental fortitude, while others would point toward the oversight of the Pureblood Unspeakable Billius Prewett who oversaw the project as counter-evidence. That is a debate for another time, I only add the information in for context.)

Regardless of whether his kin practiced similar disciplines to the Moors of Grenada, edicts were issued to convert, be exiled, or die, and the Inquisition was loosed in Spain. This prompted many Spanish Wizards and Witches to flee overseas alongside the Moors and Jews. Many settled in Southern Italy, where they brought news of the Inquisition to Enrico. It was not long before the Inquisition's eyes began to turn toward the Spanish Possessions in Southern Italy. A mere eighteen years after the Inquisition was turned loose on the former territories of Moors, Enrico, now seventy years of age, went to his nephew with a compromise.

The Wizards and Witches of Southern Italy would, within the next ten years, separate entirely from the muggle population, voluntarily agreeing to hide away from their muggle counterparts. His son Tomasso, who was non-magical, would become the new Prince of Lipari, while he would go away from the muggle world along with the rest of the Wizarding Population. Seeing a way to remove a potential obstacle without being forced to kill kin, Ferdinando agreed and the so-called Compromise of Lipari was signed.

(Translator's Note: The Compromise of Lipari became the first of many Statutes of Secrecy to come down in Europe in fifteen-ten. It was also, perhaps, the most bloodless. The Bloodiest was likely the Hexenkompakt of sixteen-thirty-three, which only came into effect after a mass series of Witch Trials took place throughout the Holy Roman Empire the death toll of which, when combined with the death toll of the then ongoing Thirty-Years War, is estimated to have reduced the Wizarding Population of the German States by close to a third of what it had been at the start of fifteen-sixty. We in Britain got off comparatively light with the Statute of Secrecy in the aftermath of King Henry the Eighth's fifteen-forty-eight Witchcraft Act.)

The Compromise of Lipari was completed with lightning speed, helped along by the Spanish Preoccupation with the War of the League of Cambrai in Northern Italy drawing focus away from the South and eliminating any temptation on the part of Ferdinando to renege on his promise. Unplottable wards were erected around various estates, villages, and streets in larger cities, along with muggle-repelling charms and various other safeguards that would help keep the Magical and Muggle worlds separate. This culminated in fifteen-sixteen, with the then seventy-six-year-old Enrico faking his death via the Draught of Living Death, along with his magical family members in what had been claimed to be a freak bout of ergot poisoning. Tommasso the First of Lipari became the first of the Enrici cadet branch of the House of Trastamara to be Hereditary Princes of Lipari.

Once everything had been finished, and the Magical and Muggle worlds of Southern Italy had finished parting ways, Enrico became the first King of Magical Naples, Sicily, and Lipari. Now eighty years old, he began his next big project, the first of the major expansions of the Magical Kingdom of Southern Italy. Mind you, the groundwork first had to be laid down vis-a-vis adherence to the Compromise of Lipari. This was not difficult in places such as Pontecorvo and Benevento, which were beginning to suffer from the first rumblings of the later Roman Inquisition within the territories of the Papal States, both of whom were isolated geographically from the Papal States and simply had to slip out of sight of local authorities via their wards. This was accomplished in four years and the Duchies of Magical Benevento and Magical Pontecorvo were added as feudatories of the Kingdom of Magical Naples, Sicily, and Lipari.

It was also not difficult in Sardinia, another possession of the Crown of Aragon that had come under the overall rule of the Crown of Spain once the now-dead Ferdinando The Second had come to the thrones of both Castille and Aragon. Giovanna of Castille, the new Queen of Spain on Ferdinando's death, was in no position to back off from the expansion of the Compromise of Lipari, as she was facing a massive revolt that ended in her confinement and the total control of Spain being given over to Carlo the First of Spain in fifteen-twenty-two. It helped that Decimo Enrici, Enrico's second son, had married Beata Cagliostro, the Daughter and sole remaining living child of Duke Fulberto Cagliostro of Arborea, who himself was a squib, but whose marriage to Giulia DiCipriano, whose father was a Pureblooded Lord on Corsica had produced half-blood offspring.

(Translator's Note: This Marriage to whatever Half-Blood or Squib-born Magical Nobility is a common theme in many areas of the continent that were struggling to unify within the next century or two of the Compromise of Lipari. As stated earlier, the past is a foreign country, and some states were better at accomplishing such feats than others. Generally, the earlier this was attempted, the better it worked out. The lateness of unification, for example, is largely why there are still three separate Magical German States to this day, not counting Austria and the Swiss Confederation, of course.)

With that marriage, and the agreement of Spain, the Kingdom of Magical Sardinia was over the next ten years, added to the Crown of what seemed to be swiftly becoming the Kingdom of Magical Italy in the same manner as Muggle Castile and Aragon unified into the Kingdom of Spain. Unfortunately, Enrico's next target, Magical Corsica, was not proving as easy as he would have hoped to add. Corsica was still a possession of the Republic of Genoa in those days, having been retaken from Aragon by the Genoese in fourteen-thirty-four and it had remained out of Spanish Hands since. The Genoese had not adopted any such compromise as had been adopted by Enrico and the Geonoese Gonfalonieri of Magical Affairs, Martino Spignola, was suspicious of his familial ties to the House of Trastamara. Martino was the half-blood half-brother of the newly elected Doge of Genoa, Battista Spinola, and thus not only held his office but exercised significant influence over the Doge as well.

(Translator's Note: A Gonfalonieri is a magisterial office that was often appointed or elected in the Italian states in the North and Central parts of Italy in those days. Generally, the Gonfalonieri would be appointed or elected to act as a magistrate over a specific section of public life. In this case, Martino Spinola was the Gonfalonieri of Magical Affairs, not the Gonfalonieri of the Army, the Gonfalonieri of the Navy, or the Gonfalonieri of Justice. Think of the other positions as a combined equivalent to the Head of the DMLE for the Army and Navy and the Judicial Aspects of the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot in terms of our modern British System of Magical Governance.)

This culminated in stymied progress in talks over Corsica and prompted Enrico to look elsewhere. By fifteen-thirty-five. he had set his eyes on a new target, The Island of Malta had, in fifteen-thirty, been given over to the Knights of Malta to rule by Carlos the First, now also Carlos the Fifth of the Holy Roman Empire. The Maltese Wizards were wary of a militant holy order beholden to no one but the Pope coming in to rule their islands. They dreaded the potential for the Knights to be ordered by the Pope to begin exporting his increasingly strict witch-hunting procedures to the Island. In fifteen-thirty-five, the Knights finally began to clamp down on suspected Witches and Wizards for practicing what they termed to be heretical Muslim sorceries. Any hint of Astrology or Numerology was followed up on, culminating in the execution of a Maltese Family of Pureblood Wizards by the Church, who stormed their house in the dead of night and slaughtered them all with crossbows and swords in their beds.

(Translator's Note: Some of you may be scoffing at the silliness of wizards being slain in such a fashion by mere muggles with swords and crossbows. Some of you have obviously never been surprised whilst sleeping in a place you believed to be safe. As someone who has been on the wrong side of an ambush by Goblins during the War of Eighteen-Ninety, a wizard caught unawares without his wand in hand is likely to fare poorly indeed.)

This caused the remaining Maltese Wizarding Families to turn to Enrico for help and Enrico seized upon the chance to do so. He and a group of his most powerful and cunning Wizards and Witches, including his sons Orlando and Decimo along with one of this author's own ancestors, Virgilio Zabini, and moved out on a campaign to attack Knightly Shipping and misdirect the Knights as to the cause. Mounted on Aethonian Winged Horses and wielding battle magic, powers of the mind, and illusions, over the course of a summer of campaigning, around a fifth of the Knights' fleet had been sunk and the rest had been duped into believing that the Ottoman Turks had been the perpetrators.

This caused the Knights of Malta to sail off to Rhodes in an attempt to retake their lost island fortress and stem the tide of Ottoman Piracy in the Central Mediterranean. Their war lasted five years and they were not victorious. In that time, Enrico helped the Maltese Wizards enter into a version of their own Compromise of Lipari in exchange for their fealty. By fifteen-forty, The Principality of Magical Malta had been added to the Crown of Magical Italy.

By now, however, Enrico the Alchemist was one hundred years old. He had only two decades left in him at most and began to look toward the future. His children were all married and all had heirs of their own, with his eldest son Orlando having married the Ragusan Pureblood Witch Magdalena Cerva, a cousin of the former Rector of Ragusa, Helius Cerva via the Magical Cadet Branch of the Cerva Family of Ragusa. They had two sons and two daughters, Enrico, Dante, Appolonia, and Carmila.

Enrico Enrici, the future Enrico the Second of Magical Italy was their eldest and married to another ancestor of mine, Fausta Zabini. Fausta and Enrico themselves had a son, Marco Enrici, the future Marco the Cunning who would mastermind the takeover of Magical Venice. Dante, meanwhile, was married to Danica Pamalioti, a Half-Blood member of the powerful Pamalioti Family of Venetian Dalmatia who controlled the Venetian-aligned coastal territories between the Bay of Kotor and the Republic of Ragusa. They had two children, twins Nikola, the Future Nikola the Torch of the Southern Dalmatian Revolt, and Sabrina. Appolonia meanwhile had married into the magical branch of the Pallavinci Family who were the Conti Di Cagliari and they had one son, Giuseppe, the future Magical Count of Cagliari. Carmila on the other hand had gone to secure the allegiance of Riccardo, the Magical Duke of Benevento via marriage.

Of Decimo's children with Beata Cagliostro, he had two, a son, Massimo, and a daughter Letizia. Massimo married the Daughter of the Magical Conte di Torres, Sonia Malaspina, and their son, Luciano was still a teenager. Meanwhile, Letizia had married the Magical Conte d'Ajaccio, Carlo Ramolino as a way toward furthering familial ties on Corsica in the person of their son, Bernardo Ramolino, future Magical Count of Ajaccio.

Of Enrico's Daughter, Cosima, he had married her off to Adrian Grimaldi, a magical member of the House of Grimaldi, whose magical branch had members in various holdings. Adrian was, at present, the Magical Principe di Piombino, the Grimaldis having swiftly purchased the Lordship from the Pisans, enacted their own variant of the Compromise of Lipari, and subsequently raised the Magical Title to a principality from a Lordship. Their son was Onorio Grimaldi, the future Onorio the Hammer, who would gain fame fighting the Barbary Corsairs during his tenure as Magical Prince of Piombino.

All that was to say that there was much to do regarding the succession before Enrico the Alchemist would feel comfortable passing on. Through a series of complicated, interweaving, agreements and objectives, Enrico managed to secure Orlando and his line as the uncontested heirs to Magical Italy, though subsequent titles would be created for Decimo's children as well as Cosima's once everything was in place. In Decimo's case, it would be the Principality of Sardinia and Corsica, and in Cosima's Case, the Princes of Tuscany.

However, if they truly wished for those titles, they would have to work to fulfill them. Corsica was as yet still under the Genoan Yoke, while Tuscany was still mostly controlled by Florence, Lucca, and Sienna, none of whom had their own versions of the Compromise of Lipari at the moment. If they wanted those titles to be more than simple words on parchment, the children of Decimo and Cosima would have to earn them.

To his credit, Enrico's gambit for dividing the focus of the three branches of his family into separate areas of responsibility worked. By the time of his death in fifteen-fifty-eight, there was no sign of a squabble over the succession. Each branch of the family was concerned with expanding the domain in different areas from each other.

As Orlando took the Throne as King Orlando the First of Magical Italy, however, none would realize that the easy path to expansion would end in his lifetime. But that, however, is a tale for the next volume.

(Translator's Note: I am currently translating volume two and hope to have it finished by the summer of nineteen-twenty. Hopefully, this will serve as something of worth that not even my father can gainsay. He always claimed I was far too preoccupied with the distant past and that learning about the histories of other, inferior cultures to British Wizardry would ensure only scorn and mockery. It is my sincere hope that in translating these histories from the Italian, they might find an audience in Magical Britain who will buy them, thus proving to my father that my hobbies will indeed amount to something.

After all, those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Honorius Basilikos Black, translated on the seventh of November, Nineteen-Nineteen.)