CHAPTER VIII.TROUBLES IN ROMAGNA. TUSCAN AND UMBRIAN NEIGHBOURS.Thesame year 1488, which brought to Lorenzo’s family festivals and family mourning, involved him in political complications with the Republic of a very serious character. The territory on the side nearest Romagna was threatened, and the amicable relations of Florence with her allies, and especially with Milan, was thereby greatly endangered.After the death of Sixtus IV. Girolamo Riario retired within his own little state, and for a time his grand political schemes remained in abeyance. He had forcible reason to congratulate himself on being able to retain possession of his territories, hemmed in on one side by the Pope, Venice and Florence, and on the other weakened by the dominion of Faenza, which divided them asunder. At the beginning of his reign Innocent VIII. showed himself very unfavourable to Riario. When Lorenzo, through Guid’Antonio Vespucci, confidentially suggested a project for an undertaking against him, the Pope appeared to have no objection, but to prefer to keep aloof himself and let others act for him. The execution of the project was delayed, partly on account of its difficulty, for Girolamo was on his guard, and there was a fear of encroachment from Venice; and also because of the doubt as to who should be enfeoffed with the two cities. Later on, the Pope and Florence being in difficulties, the project was entirely given up.[349]When it is rememberedthat in the lifetime of Sixtus, Lorenzo had made use of Girolamo’s mediation to procure tokens of favour and even benefices for his young son,[350]this intrigue throws no favourable light on his character.During the four following years the lord of Forlì kept on tolerably terms with the Florentines. The latter had not forgotten their old grudge against him for the events of 1478 and 1479; and the Count had but one genuine ally—Lodovico il Moro, who upheld him, first, on account of the ties of blood between them; and, secondly, because of his constant dread of the extension of Florentine sway on the north side of the Apennines. Confined within a narrow circle, Girolamo pressed the more heavily on his subjects. Indulging in splendour and expense when the inexhaustible funds of Rome were at his command, he still endeavoured to continue living in the same way; he embellished his two cities, Forlì and Imola, with many fine buildings, and kept up a military force far too oppressive for such a small state; and to cover the expenses of all this he was obliged to have recourse to levies and imposts, thereby strengthening the disaffection towards himself, already nourished by the old attachment to the Ordelaffi, which was not yet extinct in Forlì, and increased by his harsh arbitrary rule and cruel punishments. Under such circumstances, it was not difficult for a people accustomed to deeds of violence and to taking the law into their own hands, to form a conspiracy. At its head was Cecco dell’Orso, the captain of the guard, who was at enmity with the Count on account of arrears of pay and other private matters, and having been threatened by him, resolved to be beforehand with him. On April 14, Cecco, with two accomplices, entered the chamber of the unsuspecting Riario, and a few minutes afterwards, before the eyes of his own attendants, threw him from the window into the street below, a naked, bleeding, still quivering corpse. That was thesignal for a rising. While the people, shouting for liberty, dragged the corpse through the streets, the murderers struck down the chief of the municipality as he was hurrying to the spot, took possession of the wife and three sons of the Count, and hastened with their followers to the citadel to take immediate possession of it. But the commandant declared he would surrender to no one but the Countess, and not even to her if she were a prisoner. Thus repulsed at this important point, the heads of the conspiracy could not attain their object in the city either; for as a security against betrayal, they had admitted only a few to share in their secrets. The new ruling family had not many adherents; some favoured the old dynasty; the majority desired the direct government of the Church. The Papal governor of Cesena, Monsignor Savelli, was called upon to take possession of the city. Without the fortress this possession was incomplete, and as the negotiations fell to the ground, Riario’s widow took advantage of the difficulty and made herself mistress of the situation. Urged by the prelate and the insurgents to come forward as mediatrix, she promised, on condition of receiving compensation, to induce the castellan to surrender if she was allowed to speak to him. Her sons remained as hostages in the hands of the citizens. The gates were opened to her, and she raised the standard of the Sforza. A threat to kill the boys if she did not surrender was received with a defiant answer. The brave woman reckoned that every hour’s delay was in her favour, while the disunion among the opponents strengthened her hope that they would not proceed to extremities against her helpless children. She was not mistaken. On all sides there was a stir. Lodovico il Moro wrote to Florence, appealing to the Republic to guard the endangered rights of the sons of Riario. At the same time, without consulting the allies, he despatched Galeazzo da Sanseverino with horse and foot, while Giovanni Bentivoglio and Galeotto Pico della Mirandola set out towards Forlì with numerous troops. TheFlorentines, as soon as they heard of these military movements, sent part of the troops which they still kept in the Lunigiana to the frontiers of Romagna, under the Count of Pitigliano and Ranuccio Farnese. In Forlì no one knew what to do. The enemies of Riario hoped for active support from the Pope; but Innocent, though he caused a few troops to advance from Cesena, was either unwilling or unable to take part in their favour.The heads of the movement turned their eyes to Florence, well knowing the inward dislike in that city between the Medici and the Riari. The Ferrarese ambassador wrote that in Florence nothing had been known of the conspiracy; but the people rejoiced at the misfortune which had befallen the Count, and, mindful of the past, were not in a frame of mind to grieve if in the course of events his family should be destroyed root and branch. A letter addressed to Lorenzo by the perpetrators of the deed, four days later, sets forth their motives and proceedings, as well as the resolve of the citizens no longer to submit to a single ruler, but to give themselves up to the Church, on whose assistance they reckoned. Lorenzo, the letter added, must rejoice at an event which freed him and the Republic from a crafty foe, and avenged his innocent brother’s blood; and therefore the citizens hoped for active support from Florence. There was nothing, however, to indicate a previous understanding. Lorenzo sent to Forlì a confidential agent, Stefano da Castrocaro, who described the circumstances and state of the city, its confidence in Florentine help, and its idea of remaining under the direct government of the Church.[351]From expressions afterwards used by Lorenzo about this matter, it is clear that this very inclination of the majority of the people would have cooled his ardour to help them against the Riario party, if, indeed, he had ever felt any. Moreover, the progress of events was more rapid than was probablyexpected in Florence. Before the twisted threads of propositions and negotiations could be disentangled, the advance of the Milanese and Bolognese troops settled the matter. Those who were most deeply compromised betook themselves to the neighbouring Florentine territory, and on April 29, Girolamo’s little son Ottaviano Riario was proclaimed lord of Forlì and Imola. Caterina Sforza, who assumed the regency, took bloody vengeance on those within reach of her hand, for the murder of her husband and the danger of her children. This affair, however, brought upon Florence a difficulty which shows how uncertain were her relations both legal and political. In a rugged part of the Apennines, north-east of the road from Florence to Bologna, lies Piancaldoli, now a village of less than a thousand inhabitants. In the war of 1478, Girolamo Riario took possession of it, and the Florentines had never been able to make him give it up. Now they thought the time had arrived to obtain justice and avenge the insult. Their troops marching towards Romagna, in the direction of Imola, received orders to secure Piancaldoli. At this Lodovico became highly excited, not so much for the sake of the unimportant town as because he suspected that it might be the commencement of greater acquisitions. Giovan Pietro Bergomino, his commissioner with the troops sent against Forlì, came to high words with the Florentine commissioner Averardo de’ Medici. Both sides grew so excited that Ercole d’Este thought it necessary to step between them. Lorenzo showed not the slightest disposition to yield. He told the Ferrarese ambassador that things must be bad indeed if the Republic could not seek to recover her own property by means of her own people without asking leave of Milan, which at that very moment had sent her troops against Forlì without any agreement with Florence, this being an expedition of far more importance than that against Piancaldoli, and one which ought to have been carried out only in alliance with the Republic.Lorenzo’s conversations with the ambassador show the ill-will and distrust on all sides. He avoided stating plainly whether the Republic aimed at extending her dominions on the Romagna side, though it was observed to him that she would thereby become involved in a disastrous conflict with Sforza, who regarded the Forlì affairs as his own and thought his honour at stake in them. Lorenzo only promised to wait and see how events would develop themselves. He thought the Pope had the best prospect, as he considered it impossible that Forlì would again submit to the Riari; but he did not conceal the fact that a family dynasty, whether of Riari or any other, seemed to him a less evil than direct Papal government or an increase of the influence of the Sforza. Still, the aggrandisement of the latter would be less injurious than that of the Church, as they would probably be more willing to confer fiefs in Romagna on family dynasties, than the Church, which had long treated her barons with increasing disfavour and would not give up what she had once secured within her own grasp. The Church, he once observed, was at present more to be feared than even Venice, and this had chiefly induced him to support King Ferrante against the Pope.[352]Such were Lorenzo’s views at that time, when his chief care was to keep on good terms with the Pope—views which were always shared by the Neapolitan king. Piancaldoli was taken by the Florentines two days before Forlì came to terms with the Riari. But a few years after Lorenzo’s death an event happened to which he was most averse; all the small lordships of Romagna, whose interests were bound up with those of the Republic, came to a violent end.The ill-feeling against Milan remained even after this vexed question was settled and after Florence, from consideration for Lodovico, had refused to receive Riario’s murderers, who thereupon applied to Rome. Lorenzo declaredthat if the Duke of Bari’s demands were reasonable, Florence would always be willing to please him, but he must not come upon her with anything against the honour of the state; he also begged the Duke of Ferrara not to support such demands. About this time, towards the middle of May, he went to the baths, and his representative in politics, Pier Filippo Pandolfini, replied to Lodovico’s urgent demands for the restitution of Piancaldoli that it was in vain to ask for anything against their honour; Florence was no Pavia or Cremona, where the Duke of Milan could command. Scarcely had these first vexations passed off when a similar case occurred in which the Republic became still more deeply involved. The cause of the dispute this time was Faenza, the only state yet left to the Manfredi, and to which, as has been previously described, Florence stood in the relation of a protecting power. Galeotto Manfredi was married to Francesca Bentivoglio, one of the many daughters of the lord of Bologna; and in arranging this marriage Lorenzo had had a considerable share.[353]Her husband’s unfaithfulness excited the passionate woman to such a pitch of revenge that on May 31, 1488, she had him killed in their sleeping-chamber by hired assassins. She then, with her two sons, of whom the eldest was only three years old, hastened to the citadel and informed her father of what had been done. Giovanni Bentivoglio lost not a moment. He set out with the troops collected at the Forlì disturbances, and sent to Bergomino, the Milanese commissioner who was still in the latter town, directions to join him. At first all went well. The lord of Bologna and his troops were peaceably received in Faenza, and it seemed as if the proclamation of little Astorre Manfredi would settle everything; but some disagreement between the inhabitants and the rude mountaineers of the Lamone valley who had rushedinto the town, caused a riot in which the Milanese commissioner and more than fifty of his men lost their lives, and Giovanni Bentivoglio saved his own with difficulty. When the worst of the tumult was put down, Astorre was proclaimed under the protection of the Republic of Florence, to whose commissioner Antonio Boscoli the more reasonable of the two parties had at once applied for mediation and support.The news from Faenza caused great excitement in Florence. There was a suspicion abroad that the Milanese and Bolognese intrigues were at the bottom of the whole affair, and it was at once resolved to grant the desired protection both to the people of Faenza and to the young Manfredi, and to send the desired troops; measures which, in consideration of the old protecting relation of Florence to Faenza, could not justly be taken amiss by anyone. Faenza was occupied; Bentivoglio taken prisoner and transported to Modigliana, the neighbouring capital of Tuscan Romagna; Madonna Francesca was sent to her mother at Bologna; and a regency was established consisting of certain inhabitants of Faenza and of the Lamone valley. Bentivoglio, who had only the Florentines to thank for not having escaped unhurt from the mountaineers, thought it hard that he was kept in confinement on Florentine ground. Lodovico Sforza, King Ferrante, and Ercole d’Este all interceded for his release; his wife was loud in her lamentations, Bolognese troops assembled on the frontier, and the city of Bologna sent an embassy to Florence. But Lorenzo, knowing that the frontiers were sufficiently secured, replied that Messer Giovanni must have patience till things were settled in Faenza.At last the commissioner at Modigliana, Dionigi Pucci, received orders to release the prisoner and send him to Cafaggiuolo, where Lorenzo awaited him; this was on June 14. Lorenzo declared himself perfectly satisfied with his interview with Giovanni, and appeared to believe in a re-establishment of their former good understanding. Butafter a while the lord of Bologna sought to obtain the consent of Florence for his daughter’s return to Faenza, and at the same time offered the hand of another daughter for Giuliano de’ Medici. Both propositions were decisively refused, at which Bentivoglio was so angry that the Florentines began to consider Lorenzo’s residence at Poggio a Cajano unsafe, as the villa lay exposed to a raid from Bologna. Lorenzo himself was uneasy though he tried to hide it. When Giovanni appealed to him to procure the Pope’s absolution for Madonna Francesca that she might either marry again or enter a convent, he fulfilled the request in the hope of making friends again. His letter to Innocent VIII.[354]reminding him of the willingness he had displayed, proves that he was anxious about the matter. He ‘most earnestly besought,’ he said, ‘these tokens of favour.’A good understanding was soon established with Caterina Riario Sforza; Lorenzo endeavoured not only to thwart the attempts of the Ordelaffi and their party against her, but also to arrange a betrothal between her daughter and the young Manfredi, whom the Republic regarded and treated as a ward of its own.[355]So bad was the state of affairs in Romagna, especially in Faenza; so great was the insecurity caused by the enmity between families and individuals, and increased by political disturbances; and so powerless to secure lasting quiet were the efforts to procure peace and reconciliation made on the part of the Church, after the precedent of S. Bernardino of Siena and others before and after him, that the Florentine influence was doubly needed in these small states as a softening element for a people difficult to control, and as a support for their rulers. It was Lorenzo who protected the interests of Astorre Manfredi when Cotignola, the home and countship of the Sforza, triedto extend its little territory at the expense of Faenza. At the end of 1489 Giovanni Bentivoglio made another attempt to procure his daughter’s return to the last-named city. ‘I have never,’ he wrote to Lorenzo,[356]‘striven for this return, nor do I strive for it now, without the approval of your Magnificence; for in this, as in all my affairs, I wish only to act in accordance with your benevolent and wise counsels, as beseems our old friendship and brotherhood.’ That Francesca should return and undertake the guidance of her son he considered the only means of putting an end to the confusion, but he would do nothing without Lorenzo.These disturbances in Romagna were the last during Lorenzo’s lifetime in which there occurred political and military interference in the affairs of neighbouring states, and which threatened to create complications with other powers. But the southern side of the Apennines was not altogether quiet. It is a strange but undeniable fact that the man whose efforts in general were directed to preserve peace and secure political equilibrium could not always resist the temptation of forging intrigues against little neighbouring states, and employing restless, discontented parties for this purpose. He must have been urged on by that thirst for aggrandisement which was an inheritance of the Republic and the Medici as well as of Venice and of the Visconti. The fine words about union and brotherhood were belied in action. Lorenzo was, indeed, too prudent and cautious to be easily caught by foreign bait; but he only kept out of a thing when it seemed to him unprofitable or dangerous to himself. In March 1488, Franceschetto Cybò tried to draw him into an attempt against Jacopo IV. Appiani, who had long been quarrelling with Rome; in this attempt he hoped also to gain the support of Ferrante, thinking that the latter would gladly seize an opportunity of reconciliation with the Pope. Lorenzo showed no disposition for the undertaking.If Piombino could not be won for Florence, he naturally preferred to see it in the hands of a petty native lord rather than in those of the Pope, even if the latter was willing to give it to his son, which was not certain; and he did not at all want to push the King of Naples into Tuscan affairs. He well remembered having heard how the king’s father had said in 1448 that if he took Piombino he hoped to get possession of all Tuscany; words which he recalled to the remembrance of the Sienese, who held the little state under their protection, when he sought to inspire them with a good opinion of his friendly and neighbourly views.[357]But towards Siena herself his policy was anything but straightforward. Internal disquietude had never ceased in that city, and was paving the way for a government similar to that of Florence, only that the rising families of Siena—the Petrucci and Piccolomini—could not succeed in gaining a firm footing like the Medici, and the fickleness of the people and the nobility, violently at strife among themselves, far outdid that of the Florentines. The party among the nobility once supported by Alfonso of Calabria returned from exile in 1487, and brought about an apparently sweeping change in the constitution; raising the old classes, or Monti, long degenerated into hostile and exclusive parties, and extending eligibility for office to all sections of the community. This change in the constitution was hailed and joyously celebrated as the restoration of harmony; but it was not long before the reforming faction, who had hitherto ruled, discovered that they were getting the worst of it at the elections, and that all the authority was passing into the hands of their opponents. Dissatisfied with this, they secretly applied to Lorenzo; and he, who not long before had assured the sister-Republic of his warm interest in the preservation of peace, now showed himself disposed to help the malcontents to regain their former position. In March 1488 he causedtroops to advance towards Arezzo and the Chiana valley, and himself proceeded to the former place. But the Sienese got scent of the affair, arrested a number of suspected persons, banished those most deeply compromised, and sent Messer Niccolò Borghese to Arezzo to demand an explanation from Lorenzo. The latter, thus learning that the project was discovered, found out at the same time that the Pope, on whose aid he had seemingly reckoned, had no mind to be mixed up in the scheme, and had prevented his son from going to see his father-in-law. Naples, however, was ready to support her old friends at Siena. Altogether, Lorenzo thought it best openly to avow his intention of helping the reforming party to regain their rightful position. The ruling party in the city, excited by repeated disturbances in the district, caused by the Orsini of Pitigliano and by the exiles, fortified their frontiers and pressed harder than ever on their opponents. A rupture with Florence was, however, avoided. Lorenzo did not attain his object, but it is clear from his conduct that he was anxious to keep on good terms with his neighbours. In this he succeeded. His envoys were well received at Siena, and whenever he himself came to the city, or within its dominions, he was always most honourably received and loaded with presents. He was probably of the same mind as Franceschetto Cybò, who once wrote to him that Siena was a very rich morsel.[358]The state of friendly and neighbourly relations between them may be judged from the fact that, on account of a frontier dispute, the Florentine Signoria once had thoughts of making the high road through Siena to Rome practically impassable by imposing an utterly preposterous frontier-toll of one gold florin for every foot-passenger, two for every horseman, and five for every mule.[359]Little more than a year after these matters Lorenzo wasagain, outwardly at least, on such good terms with the Sienese Signoria that he could appeal to them for mercy on one of their imprisoned and condemned rebels: ‘I know well, my Lords,’ are his words, ‘how serious a matter for the state is a crime like that in question; but, on the other hand, I consider what merit before God and praise from man is gained by those who show mercy and pity towards such delinquents, provided the common weal is not thereby endangered. I would earnestly beg your Lordships, now that the safety of the state seems ensured, to show mercy to Messer Maurizio.’ When Lorenzo wrote thus he apparently forgot that five months before he had acted in a manner not exactly in accordance with these words and sentiments. A young man had killed an official of the Eight in a quarrel, fled to Siena, was from thence delivered up, and condemned to death. When he was led to the place of execution the people pitied him and shouted: ‘Fly! fly!’ and tried to free him from the attendant officers. Lorenzo was then in the palace. The foreign ambassadors and several of the youth’s relations begged him to procure the prisoner’s pardon. He put them off with words, caused the culprit to be hung at a window of the Palace of Justice, and four of the rioters to be seized, scourged, and banished from the city for several years. He did not return home till the tumult was completely put down;[360]he feared the slightest attempt to create disorder in the city, being perfectly aware of the inflammable material it contained.The Florentine policy was ambiguous towards the Sienese, as also in relation to Lucca. Reciprocal distrust and ill-will showed itself in many ways, and no blame can be attached to the far weaker Lucchese that they were on their guard. The dispute about Pietrasanta was never really settled, and when a money-compensation to Lucca came to be discussed the two parties could not agree as to the amount. At theend of March 1490, a plot was discovered whose only possible object was to betray Lucca into the hands of the Florentines, and in it a factor of the Medici appeared to be concerned. This occasioned a correspondence between the Anziani and Lorenzo, in which, despite all formal politeness and caution, the want of confidence was but too clearly shown. The Lucchese opinion of Florentine friendship was expressed, far more truly than in letters and embassies, by the trenches and ramparts with which they surrounded their unfortified places.[361]In Umbria and the Marches, too, Florentine interests were at stake, and Soderini, the ambassador to King Ferrante, was right in pointing out how anxious the Republic was to prevent any disturbance of the existing circumstances in Bologna, Perugia, Città di Castello, Faenza, or Siena, just as much as in her own state, and what large sums of money she expended with this object. Franceschetto Cybò, who was always on the look-out for something, would fain have made himself master of Città di Castello, and represented to Lorenzo that this was desired by both the factions—the Vitelli and the Giustini—who kept each other in check under a Papal governor. But Lorenzo was evidently not disposed to allow his son-in-law to have his will. Perugia was in constant excitement from the restless character of its citizens, culminating in a perpetual strife between the two most powerful families—the Baglioni and the Oddi—which filled the chief city of Umbria with tumults; day after day scenes of bloodshed occurred, and first one party and then the other was driven into exile. The Pope’s brother, Maurizio Cybò, a brave and sensible man, to whom the government was entrusted in February 1488, vainly attempted to restore peace and order between the disputants. A citation of the heads of the parties to Rome had no bettersuccess; several positively refused to go, and though a reconciliation did take place in consequence of the citation, it was not lasting. Quiet was restored for a time by a general prohibition of the use of arms, but the strife soon broke out again.When Franceschetto Cybò was in Perugia in July 1488, with a Papal commission to act as peacemaker,[362]many citizens came to him with complaints of the intolerable state of the city. They declared that right and justice had lost all power, and begged him to give his assistance in putting an end to the evil. Franceschetto was not lacking in goodwill; but to cure such a moral cancer required a different sort of man, and the result justified the opinion expressed by Lorenzo in a letter to Lanfredini when this difficult mission was conferred by the Pope on his son. Franceschetto’s deliberations with the representatives of the great families, and the remonstrances made in Rome to divers noble Perugians, were all equally vain. At the end of October there was a bloody fight in and around the square before the palace of the Priori; small artillery was actually employed, houses were set on fire, the cathedral of San Lorenzo was used as a fortress, and barricades were constructed. Throughout the next day the street-fighting continued, with plundering and burning, and the prisons were broken open. The governor, who came back when the tumult was at its height, was received with shouts of ‘Church! Church!’ and notwithstanding all he could do his influence was powerless to quell the disturbance. At last the Oddi were beaten and forced to leave the city and flee to Castiglione del Lago (on Trasimene), where they and their numerous adherents set up a camp. The fight threatened to spread over the whole neighbouring country, as most of the fortresses belonged to the nobility; Spello, Fuligno, and other important places were already in arms and at openwar with each other, the Vitelli, Orsini, and others taking part in the contest.From the time of the Pazzi disturbances Lorenzo had had so much to do with Perugia, and so clearly recognised the importance of that city to Florence, that he was most anxious to put an end to this boundless disorder, the result of which would tend to weaken even the victorious party. He sided with the Baglioni, who had, moreover, sent one of their number to him. Maurizio Cybò declined to stay any longer at Perugia, whereupon Innocent appointed Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, Cardinal of Siena, to be legate. On his arrival on November 16, 1488, Lorenzo tried to persuade him to declare for the Baglioni party and to further their interests; not merely with the object of securing their supremacy in Perugia with the Pope’s consent, but also to keep them from forming a closer connection with Ferrante. They were already in communication with that king, to the displeasure of Lorenzo, who hated all Neapolitan meddling in the affairs of central Italy. ‘The Baglioni,’ he wrote to Lanfredini, ‘would give themselves not merely to the king, but to the devil. Therefore I hold that all possible efforts must be made to extinguish this flame. Believe me, if the Pope uses this opportunity he will bring over the Baglioni completely to his own side, and be able to make them serviceable for his own ends. It would be well to tell the legate to deal with the exiles as he thinks good; I will then endeavour myself to induce the Baglioni to submit to the legate’s will. At all events, some cure for this wound is necessary.’ The Count of Pitigliano had already headed some Florentine troops against the Oddi. Cardinal Piccolomini was apparently not clearly convinced which party was right and which was wrong, and he was not inclined to be the tool of either. For a long time he withstood repeated persuasions to pronounce sentence of banishment on the exiles, urged upon him by the Baglioni in unison with the commissioners of Florence and Urbino, of the Orsini andthe Vitelli; Lorenzo had sent Messer Niccolò Vettori. At last the legate saw things could no longer remain in suspense; so he caused the heads of the ruling party to swear on the Gospels that they would keep the city in obedience to the Pope, lay down their arms, not hinder the course of justice, and hand over to his people the places they occupied in the district. Then on January 22, 1489, he confirmed the privileges of the city and issued a decree of banishment against the exiles, confining them for the next five years to various places in Tuscany, Romagna, and the Marches, under pain of outlawry if they left these appointed places.All this was done with the participation of the commissioners, who thereupon took leave, after a state dinner given them by the Signoria. The next thing was the election of the magistrates; the troops of the legate, two hundred and fifty men, occupied the city and its environs; the decree of banishment was posted up at the Cathedral and the palace of the Podestà, and the chief persons concerned were informed of it by an executor of the commonwealth. When this official came to one of the heads of the Oddi party, Agamemnone della Penna, who was at Castiglioncello on the Urbino frontier, he closed the doors, drew his dagger and said to the messenger: ‘Take your choice; either swallow the decree, or I will kill you.’ The man did not take long to consider. Agamemnone took from him the papers destined for the other exiles, most of whom were at Gubbio, close by, and sent him back with this pleasant intelligence to Perugia. The feud, in which the Florentines were not idle, began again in the district; but neither the fighting nor the efforts at mediation repeatedly made by the legate, who kept wandering from one place to another, brought about a decision. In the city, except for a few occasional disturbances, peace was in some degree restored, while all power was in the hands of the Baglioni, who for a long time refused to let any foreign mediation persuade them to a reconciliation with their adversaries. In June 1491however an attack on the city and fresh scenes of bloodshed obliged them to come to terms as soon as possible. Lorenzo, who had greatly contributed to the victory of the Baglioni through Lanfredini’s negotiations with the Pope and Vettori’s mediation in Perugia, and who was anxious that the Holy See should keep only a nominal authority in the latter city, could not help perceiving how difficult it was to restore to even the smallest degree of legal order a city torn by such wild passions and suffering under such unfortunate circumstances.[363]Of less importance to the Florentines than the affairs of Perugia were the disturbances at Ascoli near the Neapolitan frontier. On account of its position, commanding the high road from the valley of the Tronto towards Umbria, the state of this town was not a matter of indifference to the Republic. The quarrels in which from 1484 onwards it was involved with Fermo and other neighbouring places attracted considerable attention from the fact that on one side the Pope, and on the other King Ferrante, were drawn into them, and the lords of Urbino and Camerino found themselves obliged to interfere both for the sake of their own states and on account of their relations with Rome. These quarrels, which with short intervals of peace were perpetually recommencing, and did frightful damage to the smaller places and the unprotected country, had been profitable to some, amongst whom was Boccalino of Osimo, who had many connections in the Marches of Fermo. In 1487 Cardinal della Rovere vainly tried to make peace between Ascoli and Fermo. The strife was so furious that in an attack made by the Ascolani in April of that year on the fortress of Acquaviva, sixty men who had entered a building by treachery were burnt in it, and those who hurried to their assistance were slaughtered in the moat. Not long afterthis the Ascolans attacked Offida, which lay between them and the sea, drove out the vice-legate of the March, plundered, burned and murdered all and whomsoever came in their way, and repulsed the troops of Urbino which had marched to the rescue. Rome saw the need of putting an end to this anarchy, and entered into negotiations with the lords of Urbino and Camerino to overcome the resistance of Ascoli. But the Florentines, and still more the King of Naples, although they earnestly wished for peace on the Adriatic shores, were not willing that the Pope’s authority should be strengthened in that quarter. ‘The king,’ wrote Piero Nasi, Florentine ambassador at Naples, to Lorenzo, ‘is very anxious that the Pope should not get possession of Ascoli; for he sees that should this occur, the connection between himself and us will be for ever cut off. As we have managed to prevent the Pope from making himself lord of Perugia, so his Majesty’s power should suffice to compass the same at Ascoli.’Thus, in this so-called time of peace, there was strife and disorder, mistrust and selfishness, on all sides. Ferrante thought little enough of Florentine interests, in his unwillingness to let Innocent gain a firm footing on his own border. Even in Lorenzo’s last year of rule these disputes in the Marches were not settled. It was Cesare Borgia who first made peace here, as he did in Romagna, after his own fashion.[364]Cares and troubles overtook De’ Medici from another quarter. He was bound to the Orsini by other chains than family ties; the attitude taken by this old and powerful family towards the Popes, Naples, Siena, and Florence claimed his attention. The Orsini flattered themselves they were sovereign lords. So great was the number and importance of their possessions in the neighbourhood of Rome that they might well cause uneasiness to a strongergovernment than that of most of the Popes; and the only thing that tended to neutralise their power was their almost ceaseless strife with the Colonna, who, however, at this present time were no match for them. Their numerous fiefs in the kingdom of Naples brought them into close connection with its rulers. Since the beginning of the fourteenth century they had held, through inheritance from a branch of the Teutonic dynasty of the Aldobrandeschi, the county of Sorano-Pitigliano, between the Patrimonium Petri and the Sienese territory; and they kept their neighbours in constant uneasiness by the disordered state of affairs there, caused by the constant disagreement between the members of the family, not likely by any means to be softened by the protectorate (accomandigia) of Siena, herself in a state of great unrest.We have pointed out how much depended on the attitude of the Orsini in the days of the quarrel between Innocent and Ferrante. The relations of the most powerful of the family, Gentil Virginio, lord of Bracciano, with the Pope and the king, gave Lorenzo constant occupation, as is testified by his correspondence with the ambassadors in Rome and Naples. ‘Should his Holiness proceed in the manner suggested,’ he wrote to Lanfredini on March 24, 1489,[365]when Innocent for a moment thought of arresting Gentil Virginio for his suspicious conduct amid the Neapolitan troubles—‘he would thereby gain nothing, save that the whole family would unite and be a prize for the king. If the Pope answers that this will happen in any case, I reply that it is far better that it should happen without our having a hand in it, than that we should give them ground for laying the blame on us. The minds and wills of these lords Orsini never agree. They cannot keep together well, and you will see when the king most needs them they will serve him worst, for they are ambitious and greedy, andexcept when need compels them there is no constancy in them.’ In later days Ferrante once remarked that lord Virginio was naturally very obstinate when he had made up his mind to a thing, especially if he thought himself in the right;[366]it may therefore be imagined how much trouble Lorenzo had in controlling a man whom his position in Rome, his rank as Neapolitan general, his experience in warfare, and his great landed property rendered more powerful than many princes. He always remained on good terms with the Medici personally. Niccolò, Count of Pitigliano and Nola, was, as has been seen, closely connected with the Republic. But even with this naturally prudent man there arose some difficulties whenever his interests or inclinations as chief of a family clashed with his position as general of a greater state. He too, like all the warriors of the time, though his personal valour and honour are unstained, contributed to display the corruption of the military science of the time, and the incompatibility of the prevalent mercenary system with the advantage and security of the state.
CHAPTER VIII.TROUBLES IN ROMAGNA. TUSCAN AND UMBRIAN NEIGHBOURS.Thesame year 1488, which brought to Lorenzo’s family festivals and family mourning, involved him in political complications with the Republic of a very serious character. The territory on the side nearest Romagna was threatened, and the amicable relations of Florence with her allies, and especially with Milan, was thereby greatly endangered.After the death of Sixtus IV. Girolamo Riario retired within his own little state, and for a time his grand political schemes remained in abeyance. He had forcible reason to congratulate himself on being able to retain possession of his territories, hemmed in on one side by the Pope, Venice and Florence, and on the other weakened by the dominion of Faenza, which divided them asunder. At the beginning of his reign Innocent VIII. showed himself very unfavourable to Riario. When Lorenzo, through Guid’Antonio Vespucci, confidentially suggested a project for an undertaking against him, the Pope appeared to have no objection, but to prefer to keep aloof himself and let others act for him. The execution of the project was delayed, partly on account of its difficulty, for Girolamo was on his guard, and there was a fear of encroachment from Venice; and also because of the doubt as to who should be enfeoffed with the two cities. Later on, the Pope and Florence being in difficulties, the project was entirely given up.[349]When it is rememberedthat in the lifetime of Sixtus, Lorenzo had made use of Girolamo’s mediation to procure tokens of favour and even benefices for his young son,[350]this intrigue throws no favourable light on his character.During the four following years the lord of Forlì kept on tolerably terms with the Florentines. The latter had not forgotten their old grudge against him for the events of 1478 and 1479; and the Count had but one genuine ally—Lodovico il Moro, who upheld him, first, on account of the ties of blood between them; and, secondly, because of his constant dread of the extension of Florentine sway on the north side of the Apennines. Confined within a narrow circle, Girolamo pressed the more heavily on his subjects. Indulging in splendour and expense when the inexhaustible funds of Rome were at his command, he still endeavoured to continue living in the same way; he embellished his two cities, Forlì and Imola, with many fine buildings, and kept up a military force far too oppressive for such a small state; and to cover the expenses of all this he was obliged to have recourse to levies and imposts, thereby strengthening the disaffection towards himself, already nourished by the old attachment to the Ordelaffi, which was not yet extinct in Forlì, and increased by his harsh arbitrary rule and cruel punishments. Under such circumstances, it was not difficult for a people accustomed to deeds of violence and to taking the law into their own hands, to form a conspiracy. At its head was Cecco dell’Orso, the captain of the guard, who was at enmity with the Count on account of arrears of pay and other private matters, and having been threatened by him, resolved to be beforehand with him. On April 14, Cecco, with two accomplices, entered the chamber of the unsuspecting Riario, and a few minutes afterwards, before the eyes of his own attendants, threw him from the window into the street below, a naked, bleeding, still quivering corpse. That was thesignal for a rising. While the people, shouting for liberty, dragged the corpse through the streets, the murderers struck down the chief of the municipality as he was hurrying to the spot, took possession of the wife and three sons of the Count, and hastened with their followers to the citadel to take immediate possession of it. But the commandant declared he would surrender to no one but the Countess, and not even to her if she were a prisoner. Thus repulsed at this important point, the heads of the conspiracy could not attain their object in the city either; for as a security against betrayal, they had admitted only a few to share in their secrets. The new ruling family had not many adherents; some favoured the old dynasty; the majority desired the direct government of the Church. The Papal governor of Cesena, Monsignor Savelli, was called upon to take possession of the city. Without the fortress this possession was incomplete, and as the negotiations fell to the ground, Riario’s widow took advantage of the difficulty and made herself mistress of the situation. Urged by the prelate and the insurgents to come forward as mediatrix, she promised, on condition of receiving compensation, to induce the castellan to surrender if she was allowed to speak to him. Her sons remained as hostages in the hands of the citizens. The gates were opened to her, and she raised the standard of the Sforza. A threat to kill the boys if she did not surrender was received with a defiant answer. The brave woman reckoned that every hour’s delay was in her favour, while the disunion among the opponents strengthened her hope that they would not proceed to extremities against her helpless children. She was not mistaken. On all sides there was a stir. Lodovico il Moro wrote to Florence, appealing to the Republic to guard the endangered rights of the sons of Riario. At the same time, without consulting the allies, he despatched Galeazzo da Sanseverino with horse and foot, while Giovanni Bentivoglio and Galeotto Pico della Mirandola set out towards Forlì with numerous troops. TheFlorentines, as soon as they heard of these military movements, sent part of the troops which they still kept in the Lunigiana to the frontiers of Romagna, under the Count of Pitigliano and Ranuccio Farnese. In Forlì no one knew what to do. The enemies of Riario hoped for active support from the Pope; but Innocent, though he caused a few troops to advance from Cesena, was either unwilling or unable to take part in their favour.The heads of the movement turned their eyes to Florence, well knowing the inward dislike in that city between the Medici and the Riari. The Ferrarese ambassador wrote that in Florence nothing had been known of the conspiracy; but the people rejoiced at the misfortune which had befallen the Count, and, mindful of the past, were not in a frame of mind to grieve if in the course of events his family should be destroyed root and branch. A letter addressed to Lorenzo by the perpetrators of the deed, four days later, sets forth their motives and proceedings, as well as the resolve of the citizens no longer to submit to a single ruler, but to give themselves up to the Church, on whose assistance they reckoned. Lorenzo, the letter added, must rejoice at an event which freed him and the Republic from a crafty foe, and avenged his innocent brother’s blood; and therefore the citizens hoped for active support from Florence. There was nothing, however, to indicate a previous understanding. Lorenzo sent to Forlì a confidential agent, Stefano da Castrocaro, who described the circumstances and state of the city, its confidence in Florentine help, and its idea of remaining under the direct government of the Church.[351]From expressions afterwards used by Lorenzo about this matter, it is clear that this very inclination of the majority of the people would have cooled his ardour to help them against the Riario party, if, indeed, he had ever felt any. Moreover, the progress of events was more rapid than was probablyexpected in Florence. Before the twisted threads of propositions and negotiations could be disentangled, the advance of the Milanese and Bolognese troops settled the matter. Those who were most deeply compromised betook themselves to the neighbouring Florentine territory, and on April 29, Girolamo’s little son Ottaviano Riario was proclaimed lord of Forlì and Imola. Caterina Sforza, who assumed the regency, took bloody vengeance on those within reach of her hand, for the murder of her husband and the danger of her children. This affair, however, brought upon Florence a difficulty which shows how uncertain were her relations both legal and political. In a rugged part of the Apennines, north-east of the road from Florence to Bologna, lies Piancaldoli, now a village of less than a thousand inhabitants. In the war of 1478, Girolamo Riario took possession of it, and the Florentines had never been able to make him give it up. Now they thought the time had arrived to obtain justice and avenge the insult. Their troops marching towards Romagna, in the direction of Imola, received orders to secure Piancaldoli. At this Lodovico became highly excited, not so much for the sake of the unimportant town as because he suspected that it might be the commencement of greater acquisitions. Giovan Pietro Bergomino, his commissioner with the troops sent against Forlì, came to high words with the Florentine commissioner Averardo de’ Medici. Both sides grew so excited that Ercole d’Este thought it necessary to step between them. Lorenzo showed not the slightest disposition to yield. He told the Ferrarese ambassador that things must be bad indeed if the Republic could not seek to recover her own property by means of her own people without asking leave of Milan, which at that very moment had sent her troops against Forlì without any agreement with Florence, this being an expedition of far more importance than that against Piancaldoli, and one which ought to have been carried out only in alliance with the Republic.Lorenzo’s conversations with the ambassador show the ill-will and distrust on all sides. He avoided stating plainly whether the Republic aimed at extending her dominions on the Romagna side, though it was observed to him that she would thereby become involved in a disastrous conflict with Sforza, who regarded the Forlì affairs as his own and thought his honour at stake in them. Lorenzo only promised to wait and see how events would develop themselves. He thought the Pope had the best prospect, as he considered it impossible that Forlì would again submit to the Riari; but he did not conceal the fact that a family dynasty, whether of Riari or any other, seemed to him a less evil than direct Papal government or an increase of the influence of the Sforza. Still, the aggrandisement of the latter would be less injurious than that of the Church, as they would probably be more willing to confer fiefs in Romagna on family dynasties, than the Church, which had long treated her barons with increasing disfavour and would not give up what she had once secured within her own grasp. The Church, he once observed, was at present more to be feared than even Venice, and this had chiefly induced him to support King Ferrante against the Pope.[352]Such were Lorenzo’s views at that time, when his chief care was to keep on good terms with the Pope—views which were always shared by the Neapolitan king. Piancaldoli was taken by the Florentines two days before Forlì came to terms with the Riari. But a few years after Lorenzo’s death an event happened to which he was most averse; all the small lordships of Romagna, whose interests were bound up with those of the Republic, came to a violent end.The ill-feeling against Milan remained even after this vexed question was settled and after Florence, from consideration for Lodovico, had refused to receive Riario’s murderers, who thereupon applied to Rome. Lorenzo declaredthat if the Duke of Bari’s demands were reasonable, Florence would always be willing to please him, but he must not come upon her with anything against the honour of the state; he also begged the Duke of Ferrara not to support such demands. About this time, towards the middle of May, he went to the baths, and his representative in politics, Pier Filippo Pandolfini, replied to Lodovico’s urgent demands for the restitution of Piancaldoli that it was in vain to ask for anything against their honour; Florence was no Pavia or Cremona, where the Duke of Milan could command. Scarcely had these first vexations passed off when a similar case occurred in which the Republic became still more deeply involved. The cause of the dispute this time was Faenza, the only state yet left to the Manfredi, and to which, as has been previously described, Florence stood in the relation of a protecting power. Galeotto Manfredi was married to Francesca Bentivoglio, one of the many daughters of the lord of Bologna; and in arranging this marriage Lorenzo had had a considerable share.[353]Her husband’s unfaithfulness excited the passionate woman to such a pitch of revenge that on May 31, 1488, she had him killed in their sleeping-chamber by hired assassins. She then, with her two sons, of whom the eldest was only three years old, hastened to the citadel and informed her father of what had been done. Giovanni Bentivoglio lost not a moment. He set out with the troops collected at the Forlì disturbances, and sent to Bergomino, the Milanese commissioner who was still in the latter town, directions to join him. At first all went well. The lord of Bologna and his troops were peaceably received in Faenza, and it seemed as if the proclamation of little Astorre Manfredi would settle everything; but some disagreement between the inhabitants and the rude mountaineers of the Lamone valley who had rushedinto the town, caused a riot in which the Milanese commissioner and more than fifty of his men lost their lives, and Giovanni Bentivoglio saved his own with difficulty. When the worst of the tumult was put down, Astorre was proclaimed under the protection of the Republic of Florence, to whose commissioner Antonio Boscoli the more reasonable of the two parties had at once applied for mediation and support.The news from Faenza caused great excitement in Florence. There was a suspicion abroad that the Milanese and Bolognese intrigues were at the bottom of the whole affair, and it was at once resolved to grant the desired protection both to the people of Faenza and to the young Manfredi, and to send the desired troops; measures which, in consideration of the old protecting relation of Florence to Faenza, could not justly be taken amiss by anyone. Faenza was occupied; Bentivoglio taken prisoner and transported to Modigliana, the neighbouring capital of Tuscan Romagna; Madonna Francesca was sent to her mother at Bologna; and a regency was established consisting of certain inhabitants of Faenza and of the Lamone valley. Bentivoglio, who had only the Florentines to thank for not having escaped unhurt from the mountaineers, thought it hard that he was kept in confinement on Florentine ground. Lodovico Sforza, King Ferrante, and Ercole d’Este all interceded for his release; his wife was loud in her lamentations, Bolognese troops assembled on the frontier, and the city of Bologna sent an embassy to Florence. But Lorenzo, knowing that the frontiers were sufficiently secured, replied that Messer Giovanni must have patience till things were settled in Faenza.At last the commissioner at Modigliana, Dionigi Pucci, received orders to release the prisoner and send him to Cafaggiuolo, where Lorenzo awaited him; this was on June 14. Lorenzo declared himself perfectly satisfied with his interview with Giovanni, and appeared to believe in a re-establishment of their former good understanding. Butafter a while the lord of Bologna sought to obtain the consent of Florence for his daughter’s return to Faenza, and at the same time offered the hand of another daughter for Giuliano de’ Medici. Both propositions were decisively refused, at which Bentivoglio was so angry that the Florentines began to consider Lorenzo’s residence at Poggio a Cajano unsafe, as the villa lay exposed to a raid from Bologna. Lorenzo himself was uneasy though he tried to hide it. When Giovanni appealed to him to procure the Pope’s absolution for Madonna Francesca that she might either marry again or enter a convent, he fulfilled the request in the hope of making friends again. His letter to Innocent VIII.[354]reminding him of the willingness he had displayed, proves that he was anxious about the matter. He ‘most earnestly besought,’ he said, ‘these tokens of favour.’A good understanding was soon established with Caterina Riario Sforza; Lorenzo endeavoured not only to thwart the attempts of the Ordelaffi and their party against her, but also to arrange a betrothal between her daughter and the young Manfredi, whom the Republic regarded and treated as a ward of its own.[355]So bad was the state of affairs in Romagna, especially in Faenza; so great was the insecurity caused by the enmity between families and individuals, and increased by political disturbances; and so powerless to secure lasting quiet were the efforts to procure peace and reconciliation made on the part of the Church, after the precedent of S. Bernardino of Siena and others before and after him, that the Florentine influence was doubly needed in these small states as a softening element for a people difficult to control, and as a support for their rulers. It was Lorenzo who protected the interests of Astorre Manfredi when Cotignola, the home and countship of the Sforza, triedto extend its little territory at the expense of Faenza. At the end of 1489 Giovanni Bentivoglio made another attempt to procure his daughter’s return to the last-named city. ‘I have never,’ he wrote to Lorenzo,[356]‘striven for this return, nor do I strive for it now, without the approval of your Magnificence; for in this, as in all my affairs, I wish only to act in accordance with your benevolent and wise counsels, as beseems our old friendship and brotherhood.’ That Francesca should return and undertake the guidance of her son he considered the only means of putting an end to the confusion, but he would do nothing without Lorenzo.These disturbances in Romagna were the last during Lorenzo’s lifetime in which there occurred political and military interference in the affairs of neighbouring states, and which threatened to create complications with other powers. But the southern side of the Apennines was not altogether quiet. It is a strange but undeniable fact that the man whose efforts in general were directed to preserve peace and secure political equilibrium could not always resist the temptation of forging intrigues against little neighbouring states, and employing restless, discontented parties for this purpose. He must have been urged on by that thirst for aggrandisement which was an inheritance of the Republic and the Medici as well as of Venice and of the Visconti. The fine words about union and brotherhood were belied in action. Lorenzo was, indeed, too prudent and cautious to be easily caught by foreign bait; but he only kept out of a thing when it seemed to him unprofitable or dangerous to himself. In March 1488, Franceschetto Cybò tried to draw him into an attempt against Jacopo IV. Appiani, who had long been quarrelling with Rome; in this attempt he hoped also to gain the support of Ferrante, thinking that the latter would gladly seize an opportunity of reconciliation with the Pope. Lorenzo showed no disposition for the undertaking.If Piombino could not be won for Florence, he naturally preferred to see it in the hands of a petty native lord rather than in those of the Pope, even if the latter was willing to give it to his son, which was not certain; and he did not at all want to push the King of Naples into Tuscan affairs. He well remembered having heard how the king’s father had said in 1448 that if he took Piombino he hoped to get possession of all Tuscany; words which he recalled to the remembrance of the Sienese, who held the little state under their protection, when he sought to inspire them with a good opinion of his friendly and neighbourly views.[357]But towards Siena herself his policy was anything but straightforward. Internal disquietude had never ceased in that city, and was paving the way for a government similar to that of Florence, only that the rising families of Siena—the Petrucci and Piccolomini—could not succeed in gaining a firm footing like the Medici, and the fickleness of the people and the nobility, violently at strife among themselves, far outdid that of the Florentines. The party among the nobility once supported by Alfonso of Calabria returned from exile in 1487, and brought about an apparently sweeping change in the constitution; raising the old classes, or Monti, long degenerated into hostile and exclusive parties, and extending eligibility for office to all sections of the community. This change in the constitution was hailed and joyously celebrated as the restoration of harmony; but it was not long before the reforming faction, who had hitherto ruled, discovered that they were getting the worst of it at the elections, and that all the authority was passing into the hands of their opponents. Dissatisfied with this, they secretly applied to Lorenzo; and he, who not long before had assured the sister-Republic of his warm interest in the preservation of peace, now showed himself disposed to help the malcontents to regain their former position. In March 1488 he causedtroops to advance towards Arezzo and the Chiana valley, and himself proceeded to the former place. But the Sienese got scent of the affair, arrested a number of suspected persons, banished those most deeply compromised, and sent Messer Niccolò Borghese to Arezzo to demand an explanation from Lorenzo. The latter, thus learning that the project was discovered, found out at the same time that the Pope, on whose aid he had seemingly reckoned, had no mind to be mixed up in the scheme, and had prevented his son from going to see his father-in-law. Naples, however, was ready to support her old friends at Siena. Altogether, Lorenzo thought it best openly to avow his intention of helping the reforming party to regain their rightful position. The ruling party in the city, excited by repeated disturbances in the district, caused by the Orsini of Pitigliano and by the exiles, fortified their frontiers and pressed harder than ever on their opponents. A rupture with Florence was, however, avoided. Lorenzo did not attain his object, but it is clear from his conduct that he was anxious to keep on good terms with his neighbours. In this he succeeded. His envoys were well received at Siena, and whenever he himself came to the city, or within its dominions, he was always most honourably received and loaded with presents. He was probably of the same mind as Franceschetto Cybò, who once wrote to him that Siena was a very rich morsel.[358]The state of friendly and neighbourly relations between them may be judged from the fact that, on account of a frontier dispute, the Florentine Signoria once had thoughts of making the high road through Siena to Rome practically impassable by imposing an utterly preposterous frontier-toll of one gold florin for every foot-passenger, two for every horseman, and five for every mule.[359]Little more than a year after these matters Lorenzo wasagain, outwardly at least, on such good terms with the Sienese Signoria that he could appeal to them for mercy on one of their imprisoned and condemned rebels: ‘I know well, my Lords,’ are his words, ‘how serious a matter for the state is a crime like that in question; but, on the other hand, I consider what merit before God and praise from man is gained by those who show mercy and pity towards such delinquents, provided the common weal is not thereby endangered. I would earnestly beg your Lordships, now that the safety of the state seems ensured, to show mercy to Messer Maurizio.’ When Lorenzo wrote thus he apparently forgot that five months before he had acted in a manner not exactly in accordance with these words and sentiments. A young man had killed an official of the Eight in a quarrel, fled to Siena, was from thence delivered up, and condemned to death. When he was led to the place of execution the people pitied him and shouted: ‘Fly! fly!’ and tried to free him from the attendant officers. Lorenzo was then in the palace. The foreign ambassadors and several of the youth’s relations begged him to procure the prisoner’s pardon. He put them off with words, caused the culprit to be hung at a window of the Palace of Justice, and four of the rioters to be seized, scourged, and banished from the city for several years. He did not return home till the tumult was completely put down;[360]he feared the slightest attempt to create disorder in the city, being perfectly aware of the inflammable material it contained.The Florentine policy was ambiguous towards the Sienese, as also in relation to Lucca. Reciprocal distrust and ill-will showed itself in many ways, and no blame can be attached to the far weaker Lucchese that they were on their guard. The dispute about Pietrasanta was never really settled, and when a money-compensation to Lucca came to be discussed the two parties could not agree as to the amount. At theend of March 1490, a plot was discovered whose only possible object was to betray Lucca into the hands of the Florentines, and in it a factor of the Medici appeared to be concerned. This occasioned a correspondence between the Anziani and Lorenzo, in which, despite all formal politeness and caution, the want of confidence was but too clearly shown. The Lucchese opinion of Florentine friendship was expressed, far more truly than in letters and embassies, by the trenches and ramparts with which they surrounded their unfortified places.[361]In Umbria and the Marches, too, Florentine interests were at stake, and Soderini, the ambassador to King Ferrante, was right in pointing out how anxious the Republic was to prevent any disturbance of the existing circumstances in Bologna, Perugia, Città di Castello, Faenza, or Siena, just as much as in her own state, and what large sums of money she expended with this object. Franceschetto Cybò, who was always on the look-out for something, would fain have made himself master of Città di Castello, and represented to Lorenzo that this was desired by both the factions—the Vitelli and the Giustini—who kept each other in check under a Papal governor. But Lorenzo was evidently not disposed to allow his son-in-law to have his will. Perugia was in constant excitement from the restless character of its citizens, culminating in a perpetual strife between the two most powerful families—the Baglioni and the Oddi—which filled the chief city of Umbria with tumults; day after day scenes of bloodshed occurred, and first one party and then the other was driven into exile. The Pope’s brother, Maurizio Cybò, a brave and sensible man, to whom the government was entrusted in February 1488, vainly attempted to restore peace and order between the disputants. A citation of the heads of the parties to Rome had no bettersuccess; several positively refused to go, and though a reconciliation did take place in consequence of the citation, it was not lasting. Quiet was restored for a time by a general prohibition of the use of arms, but the strife soon broke out again.When Franceschetto Cybò was in Perugia in July 1488, with a Papal commission to act as peacemaker,[362]many citizens came to him with complaints of the intolerable state of the city. They declared that right and justice had lost all power, and begged him to give his assistance in putting an end to the evil. Franceschetto was not lacking in goodwill; but to cure such a moral cancer required a different sort of man, and the result justified the opinion expressed by Lorenzo in a letter to Lanfredini when this difficult mission was conferred by the Pope on his son. Franceschetto’s deliberations with the representatives of the great families, and the remonstrances made in Rome to divers noble Perugians, were all equally vain. At the end of October there was a bloody fight in and around the square before the palace of the Priori; small artillery was actually employed, houses were set on fire, the cathedral of San Lorenzo was used as a fortress, and barricades were constructed. Throughout the next day the street-fighting continued, with plundering and burning, and the prisons were broken open. The governor, who came back when the tumult was at its height, was received with shouts of ‘Church! Church!’ and notwithstanding all he could do his influence was powerless to quell the disturbance. At last the Oddi were beaten and forced to leave the city and flee to Castiglione del Lago (on Trasimene), where they and their numerous adherents set up a camp. The fight threatened to spread over the whole neighbouring country, as most of the fortresses belonged to the nobility; Spello, Fuligno, and other important places were already in arms and at openwar with each other, the Vitelli, Orsini, and others taking part in the contest.From the time of the Pazzi disturbances Lorenzo had had so much to do with Perugia, and so clearly recognised the importance of that city to Florence, that he was most anxious to put an end to this boundless disorder, the result of which would tend to weaken even the victorious party. He sided with the Baglioni, who had, moreover, sent one of their number to him. Maurizio Cybò declined to stay any longer at Perugia, whereupon Innocent appointed Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, Cardinal of Siena, to be legate. On his arrival on November 16, 1488, Lorenzo tried to persuade him to declare for the Baglioni party and to further their interests; not merely with the object of securing their supremacy in Perugia with the Pope’s consent, but also to keep them from forming a closer connection with Ferrante. They were already in communication with that king, to the displeasure of Lorenzo, who hated all Neapolitan meddling in the affairs of central Italy. ‘The Baglioni,’ he wrote to Lanfredini, ‘would give themselves not merely to the king, but to the devil. Therefore I hold that all possible efforts must be made to extinguish this flame. Believe me, if the Pope uses this opportunity he will bring over the Baglioni completely to his own side, and be able to make them serviceable for his own ends. It would be well to tell the legate to deal with the exiles as he thinks good; I will then endeavour myself to induce the Baglioni to submit to the legate’s will. At all events, some cure for this wound is necessary.’ The Count of Pitigliano had already headed some Florentine troops against the Oddi. Cardinal Piccolomini was apparently not clearly convinced which party was right and which was wrong, and he was not inclined to be the tool of either. For a long time he withstood repeated persuasions to pronounce sentence of banishment on the exiles, urged upon him by the Baglioni in unison with the commissioners of Florence and Urbino, of the Orsini andthe Vitelli; Lorenzo had sent Messer Niccolò Vettori. At last the legate saw things could no longer remain in suspense; so he caused the heads of the ruling party to swear on the Gospels that they would keep the city in obedience to the Pope, lay down their arms, not hinder the course of justice, and hand over to his people the places they occupied in the district. Then on January 22, 1489, he confirmed the privileges of the city and issued a decree of banishment against the exiles, confining them for the next five years to various places in Tuscany, Romagna, and the Marches, under pain of outlawry if they left these appointed places.All this was done with the participation of the commissioners, who thereupon took leave, after a state dinner given them by the Signoria. The next thing was the election of the magistrates; the troops of the legate, two hundred and fifty men, occupied the city and its environs; the decree of banishment was posted up at the Cathedral and the palace of the Podestà, and the chief persons concerned were informed of it by an executor of the commonwealth. When this official came to one of the heads of the Oddi party, Agamemnone della Penna, who was at Castiglioncello on the Urbino frontier, he closed the doors, drew his dagger and said to the messenger: ‘Take your choice; either swallow the decree, or I will kill you.’ The man did not take long to consider. Agamemnone took from him the papers destined for the other exiles, most of whom were at Gubbio, close by, and sent him back with this pleasant intelligence to Perugia. The feud, in which the Florentines were not idle, began again in the district; but neither the fighting nor the efforts at mediation repeatedly made by the legate, who kept wandering from one place to another, brought about a decision. In the city, except for a few occasional disturbances, peace was in some degree restored, while all power was in the hands of the Baglioni, who for a long time refused to let any foreign mediation persuade them to a reconciliation with their adversaries. In June 1491however an attack on the city and fresh scenes of bloodshed obliged them to come to terms as soon as possible. Lorenzo, who had greatly contributed to the victory of the Baglioni through Lanfredini’s negotiations with the Pope and Vettori’s mediation in Perugia, and who was anxious that the Holy See should keep only a nominal authority in the latter city, could not help perceiving how difficult it was to restore to even the smallest degree of legal order a city torn by such wild passions and suffering under such unfortunate circumstances.[363]Of less importance to the Florentines than the affairs of Perugia were the disturbances at Ascoli near the Neapolitan frontier. On account of its position, commanding the high road from the valley of the Tronto towards Umbria, the state of this town was not a matter of indifference to the Republic. The quarrels in which from 1484 onwards it was involved with Fermo and other neighbouring places attracted considerable attention from the fact that on one side the Pope, and on the other King Ferrante, were drawn into them, and the lords of Urbino and Camerino found themselves obliged to interfere both for the sake of their own states and on account of their relations with Rome. These quarrels, which with short intervals of peace were perpetually recommencing, and did frightful damage to the smaller places and the unprotected country, had been profitable to some, amongst whom was Boccalino of Osimo, who had many connections in the Marches of Fermo. In 1487 Cardinal della Rovere vainly tried to make peace between Ascoli and Fermo. The strife was so furious that in an attack made by the Ascolani in April of that year on the fortress of Acquaviva, sixty men who had entered a building by treachery were burnt in it, and those who hurried to their assistance were slaughtered in the moat. Not long afterthis the Ascolans attacked Offida, which lay between them and the sea, drove out the vice-legate of the March, plundered, burned and murdered all and whomsoever came in their way, and repulsed the troops of Urbino which had marched to the rescue. Rome saw the need of putting an end to this anarchy, and entered into negotiations with the lords of Urbino and Camerino to overcome the resistance of Ascoli. But the Florentines, and still more the King of Naples, although they earnestly wished for peace on the Adriatic shores, were not willing that the Pope’s authority should be strengthened in that quarter. ‘The king,’ wrote Piero Nasi, Florentine ambassador at Naples, to Lorenzo, ‘is very anxious that the Pope should not get possession of Ascoli; for he sees that should this occur, the connection between himself and us will be for ever cut off. As we have managed to prevent the Pope from making himself lord of Perugia, so his Majesty’s power should suffice to compass the same at Ascoli.’Thus, in this so-called time of peace, there was strife and disorder, mistrust and selfishness, on all sides. Ferrante thought little enough of Florentine interests, in his unwillingness to let Innocent gain a firm footing on his own border. Even in Lorenzo’s last year of rule these disputes in the Marches were not settled. It was Cesare Borgia who first made peace here, as he did in Romagna, after his own fashion.[364]Cares and troubles overtook De’ Medici from another quarter. He was bound to the Orsini by other chains than family ties; the attitude taken by this old and powerful family towards the Popes, Naples, Siena, and Florence claimed his attention. The Orsini flattered themselves they were sovereign lords. So great was the number and importance of their possessions in the neighbourhood of Rome that they might well cause uneasiness to a strongergovernment than that of most of the Popes; and the only thing that tended to neutralise their power was their almost ceaseless strife with the Colonna, who, however, at this present time were no match for them. Their numerous fiefs in the kingdom of Naples brought them into close connection with its rulers. Since the beginning of the fourteenth century they had held, through inheritance from a branch of the Teutonic dynasty of the Aldobrandeschi, the county of Sorano-Pitigliano, between the Patrimonium Petri and the Sienese territory; and they kept their neighbours in constant uneasiness by the disordered state of affairs there, caused by the constant disagreement between the members of the family, not likely by any means to be softened by the protectorate (accomandigia) of Siena, herself in a state of great unrest.We have pointed out how much depended on the attitude of the Orsini in the days of the quarrel between Innocent and Ferrante. The relations of the most powerful of the family, Gentil Virginio, lord of Bracciano, with the Pope and the king, gave Lorenzo constant occupation, as is testified by his correspondence with the ambassadors in Rome and Naples. ‘Should his Holiness proceed in the manner suggested,’ he wrote to Lanfredini on March 24, 1489,[365]when Innocent for a moment thought of arresting Gentil Virginio for his suspicious conduct amid the Neapolitan troubles—‘he would thereby gain nothing, save that the whole family would unite and be a prize for the king. If the Pope answers that this will happen in any case, I reply that it is far better that it should happen without our having a hand in it, than that we should give them ground for laying the blame on us. The minds and wills of these lords Orsini never agree. They cannot keep together well, and you will see when the king most needs them they will serve him worst, for they are ambitious and greedy, andexcept when need compels them there is no constancy in them.’ In later days Ferrante once remarked that lord Virginio was naturally very obstinate when he had made up his mind to a thing, especially if he thought himself in the right;[366]it may therefore be imagined how much trouble Lorenzo had in controlling a man whom his position in Rome, his rank as Neapolitan general, his experience in warfare, and his great landed property rendered more powerful than many princes. He always remained on good terms with the Medici personally. Niccolò, Count of Pitigliano and Nola, was, as has been seen, closely connected with the Republic. But even with this naturally prudent man there arose some difficulties whenever his interests or inclinations as chief of a family clashed with his position as general of a greater state. He too, like all the warriors of the time, though his personal valour and honour are unstained, contributed to display the corruption of the military science of the time, and the incompatibility of the prevalent mercenary system with the advantage and security of the state.
TROUBLES IN ROMAGNA. TUSCAN AND UMBRIAN NEIGHBOURS.
Thesame year 1488, which brought to Lorenzo’s family festivals and family mourning, involved him in political complications with the Republic of a very serious character. The territory on the side nearest Romagna was threatened, and the amicable relations of Florence with her allies, and especially with Milan, was thereby greatly endangered.
After the death of Sixtus IV. Girolamo Riario retired within his own little state, and for a time his grand political schemes remained in abeyance. He had forcible reason to congratulate himself on being able to retain possession of his territories, hemmed in on one side by the Pope, Venice and Florence, and on the other weakened by the dominion of Faenza, which divided them asunder. At the beginning of his reign Innocent VIII. showed himself very unfavourable to Riario. When Lorenzo, through Guid’Antonio Vespucci, confidentially suggested a project for an undertaking against him, the Pope appeared to have no objection, but to prefer to keep aloof himself and let others act for him. The execution of the project was delayed, partly on account of its difficulty, for Girolamo was on his guard, and there was a fear of encroachment from Venice; and also because of the doubt as to who should be enfeoffed with the two cities. Later on, the Pope and Florence being in difficulties, the project was entirely given up.[349]When it is rememberedthat in the lifetime of Sixtus, Lorenzo had made use of Girolamo’s mediation to procure tokens of favour and even benefices for his young son,[350]this intrigue throws no favourable light on his character.
During the four following years the lord of Forlì kept on tolerably terms with the Florentines. The latter had not forgotten their old grudge against him for the events of 1478 and 1479; and the Count had but one genuine ally—Lodovico il Moro, who upheld him, first, on account of the ties of blood between them; and, secondly, because of his constant dread of the extension of Florentine sway on the north side of the Apennines. Confined within a narrow circle, Girolamo pressed the more heavily on his subjects. Indulging in splendour and expense when the inexhaustible funds of Rome were at his command, he still endeavoured to continue living in the same way; he embellished his two cities, Forlì and Imola, with many fine buildings, and kept up a military force far too oppressive for such a small state; and to cover the expenses of all this he was obliged to have recourse to levies and imposts, thereby strengthening the disaffection towards himself, already nourished by the old attachment to the Ordelaffi, which was not yet extinct in Forlì, and increased by his harsh arbitrary rule and cruel punishments. Under such circumstances, it was not difficult for a people accustomed to deeds of violence and to taking the law into their own hands, to form a conspiracy. At its head was Cecco dell’Orso, the captain of the guard, who was at enmity with the Count on account of arrears of pay and other private matters, and having been threatened by him, resolved to be beforehand with him. On April 14, Cecco, with two accomplices, entered the chamber of the unsuspecting Riario, and a few minutes afterwards, before the eyes of his own attendants, threw him from the window into the street below, a naked, bleeding, still quivering corpse. That was thesignal for a rising. While the people, shouting for liberty, dragged the corpse through the streets, the murderers struck down the chief of the municipality as he was hurrying to the spot, took possession of the wife and three sons of the Count, and hastened with their followers to the citadel to take immediate possession of it. But the commandant declared he would surrender to no one but the Countess, and not even to her if she were a prisoner. Thus repulsed at this important point, the heads of the conspiracy could not attain their object in the city either; for as a security against betrayal, they had admitted only a few to share in their secrets. The new ruling family had not many adherents; some favoured the old dynasty; the majority desired the direct government of the Church. The Papal governor of Cesena, Monsignor Savelli, was called upon to take possession of the city. Without the fortress this possession was incomplete, and as the negotiations fell to the ground, Riario’s widow took advantage of the difficulty and made herself mistress of the situation. Urged by the prelate and the insurgents to come forward as mediatrix, she promised, on condition of receiving compensation, to induce the castellan to surrender if she was allowed to speak to him. Her sons remained as hostages in the hands of the citizens. The gates were opened to her, and she raised the standard of the Sforza. A threat to kill the boys if she did not surrender was received with a defiant answer. The brave woman reckoned that every hour’s delay was in her favour, while the disunion among the opponents strengthened her hope that they would not proceed to extremities against her helpless children. She was not mistaken. On all sides there was a stir. Lodovico il Moro wrote to Florence, appealing to the Republic to guard the endangered rights of the sons of Riario. At the same time, without consulting the allies, he despatched Galeazzo da Sanseverino with horse and foot, while Giovanni Bentivoglio and Galeotto Pico della Mirandola set out towards Forlì with numerous troops. TheFlorentines, as soon as they heard of these military movements, sent part of the troops which they still kept in the Lunigiana to the frontiers of Romagna, under the Count of Pitigliano and Ranuccio Farnese. In Forlì no one knew what to do. The enemies of Riario hoped for active support from the Pope; but Innocent, though he caused a few troops to advance from Cesena, was either unwilling or unable to take part in their favour.
The heads of the movement turned their eyes to Florence, well knowing the inward dislike in that city between the Medici and the Riari. The Ferrarese ambassador wrote that in Florence nothing had been known of the conspiracy; but the people rejoiced at the misfortune which had befallen the Count, and, mindful of the past, were not in a frame of mind to grieve if in the course of events his family should be destroyed root and branch. A letter addressed to Lorenzo by the perpetrators of the deed, four days later, sets forth their motives and proceedings, as well as the resolve of the citizens no longer to submit to a single ruler, but to give themselves up to the Church, on whose assistance they reckoned. Lorenzo, the letter added, must rejoice at an event which freed him and the Republic from a crafty foe, and avenged his innocent brother’s blood; and therefore the citizens hoped for active support from Florence. There was nothing, however, to indicate a previous understanding. Lorenzo sent to Forlì a confidential agent, Stefano da Castrocaro, who described the circumstances and state of the city, its confidence in Florentine help, and its idea of remaining under the direct government of the Church.[351]From expressions afterwards used by Lorenzo about this matter, it is clear that this very inclination of the majority of the people would have cooled his ardour to help them against the Riario party, if, indeed, he had ever felt any. Moreover, the progress of events was more rapid than was probablyexpected in Florence. Before the twisted threads of propositions and negotiations could be disentangled, the advance of the Milanese and Bolognese troops settled the matter. Those who were most deeply compromised betook themselves to the neighbouring Florentine territory, and on April 29, Girolamo’s little son Ottaviano Riario was proclaimed lord of Forlì and Imola. Caterina Sforza, who assumed the regency, took bloody vengeance on those within reach of her hand, for the murder of her husband and the danger of her children. This affair, however, brought upon Florence a difficulty which shows how uncertain were her relations both legal and political. In a rugged part of the Apennines, north-east of the road from Florence to Bologna, lies Piancaldoli, now a village of less than a thousand inhabitants. In the war of 1478, Girolamo Riario took possession of it, and the Florentines had never been able to make him give it up. Now they thought the time had arrived to obtain justice and avenge the insult. Their troops marching towards Romagna, in the direction of Imola, received orders to secure Piancaldoli. At this Lodovico became highly excited, not so much for the sake of the unimportant town as because he suspected that it might be the commencement of greater acquisitions. Giovan Pietro Bergomino, his commissioner with the troops sent against Forlì, came to high words with the Florentine commissioner Averardo de’ Medici. Both sides grew so excited that Ercole d’Este thought it necessary to step between them. Lorenzo showed not the slightest disposition to yield. He told the Ferrarese ambassador that things must be bad indeed if the Republic could not seek to recover her own property by means of her own people without asking leave of Milan, which at that very moment had sent her troops against Forlì without any agreement with Florence, this being an expedition of far more importance than that against Piancaldoli, and one which ought to have been carried out only in alliance with the Republic.
Lorenzo’s conversations with the ambassador show the ill-will and distrust on all sides. He avoided stating plainly whether the Republic aimed at extending her dominions on the Romagna side, though it was observed to him that she would thereby become involved in a disastrous conflict with Sforza, who regarded the Forlì affairs as his own and thought his honour at stake in them. Lorenzo only promised to wait and see how events would develop themselves. He thought the Pope had the best prospect, as he considered it impossible that Forlì would again submit to the Riari; but he did not conceal the fact that a family dynasty, whether of Riari or any other, seemed to him a less evil than direct Papal government or an increase of the influence of the Sforza. Still, the aggrandisement of the latter would be less injurious than that of the Church, as they would probably be more willing to confer fiefs in Romagna on family dynasties, than the Church, which had long treated her barons with increasing disfavour and would not give up what she had once secured within her own grasp. The Church, he once observed, was at present more to be feared than even Venice, and this had chiefly induced him to support King Ferrante against the Pope.[352]Such were Lorenzo’s views at that time, when his chief care was to keep on good terms with the Pope—views which were always shared by the Neapolitan king. Piancaldoli was taken by the Florentines two days before Forlì came to terms with the Riari. But a few years after Lorenzo’s death an event happened to which he was most averse; all the small lordships of Romagna, whose interests were bound up with those of the Republic, came to a violent end.
The ill-feeling against Milan remained even after this vexed question was settled and after Florence, from consideration for Lodovico, had refused to receive Riario’s murderers, who thereupon applied to Rome. Lorenzo declaredthat if the Duke of Bari’s demands were reasonable, Florence would always be willing to please him, but he must not come upon her with anything against the honour of the state; he also begged the Duke of Ferrara not to support such demands. About this time, towards the middle of May, he went to the baths, and his representative in politics, Pier Filippo Pandolfini, replied to Lodovico’s urgent demands for the restitution of Piancaldoli that it was in vain to ask for anything against their honour; Florence was no Pavia or Cremona, where the Duke of Milan could command. Scarcely had these first vexations passed off when a similar case occurred in which the Republic became still more deeply involved. The cause of the dispute this time was Faenza, the only state yet left to the Manfredi, and to which, as has been previously described, Florence stood in the relation of a protecting power. Galeotto Manfredi was married to Francesca Bentivoglio, one of the many daughters of the lord of Bologna; and in arranging this marriage Lorenzo had had a considerable share.[353]Her husband’s unfaithfulness excited the passionate woman to such a pitch of revenge that on May 31, 1488, she had him killed in their sleeping-chamber by hired assassins. She then, with her two sons, of whom the eldest was only three years old, hastened to the citadel and informed her father of what had been done. Giovanni Bentivoglio lost not a moment. He set out with the troops collected at the Forlì disturbances, and sent to Bergomino, the Milanese commissioner who was still in the latter town, directions to join him. At first all went well. The lord of Bologna and his troops were peaceably received in Faenza, and it seemed as if the proclamation of little Astorre Manfredi would settle everything; but some disagreement between the inhabitants and the rude mountaineers of the Lamone valley who had rushedinto the town, caused a riot in which the Milanese commissioner and more than fifty of his men lost their lives, and Giovanni Bentivoglio saved his own with difficulty. When the worst of the tumult was put down, Astorre was proclaimed under the protection of the Republic of Florence, to whose commissioner Antonio Boscoli the more reasonable of the two parties had at once applied for mediation and support.
The news from Faenza caused great excitement in Florence. There was a suspicion abroad that the Milanese and Bolognese intrigues were at the bottom of the whole affair, and it was at once resolved to grant the desired protection both to the people of Faenza and to the young Manfredi, and to send the desired troops; measures which, in consideration of the old protecting relation of Florence to Faenza, could not justly be taken amiss by anyone. Faenza was occupied; Bentivoglio taken prisoner and transported to Modigliana, the neighbouring capital of Tuscan Romagna; Madonna Francesca was sent to her mother at Bologna; and a regency was established consisting of certain inhabitants of Faenza and of the Lamone valley. Bentivoglio, who had only the Florentines to thank for not having escaped unhurt from the mountaineers, thought it hard that he was kept in confinement on Florentine ground. Lodovico Sforza, King Ferrante, and Ercole d’Este all interceded for his release; his wife was loud in her lamentations, Bolognese troops assembled on the frontier, and the city of Bologna sent an embassy to Florence. But Lorenzo, knowing that the frontiers were sufficiently secured, replied that Messer Giovanni must have patience till things were settled in Faenza.
At last the commissioner at Modigliana, Dionigi Pucci, received orders to release the prisoner and send him to Cafaggiuolo, where Lorenzo awaited him; this was on June 14. Lorenzo declared himself perfectly satisfied with his interview with Giovanni, and appeared to believe in a re-establishment of their former good understanding. Butafter a while the lord of Bologna sought to obtain the consent of Florence for his daughter’s return to Faenza, and at the same time offered the hand of another daughter for Giuliano de’ Medici. Both propositions were decisively refused, at which Bentivoglio was so angry that the Florentines began to consider Lorenzo’s residence at Poggio a Cajano unsafe, as the villa lay exposed to a raid from Bologna. Lorenzo himself was uneasy though he tried to hide it. When Giovanni appealed to him to procure the Pope’s absolution for Madonna Francesca that she might either marry again or enter a convent, he fulfilled the request in the hope of making friends again. His letter to Innocent VIII.[354]reminding him of the willingness he had displayed, proves that he was anxious about the matter. He ‘most earnestly besought,’ he said, ‘these tokens of favour.’
A good understanding was soon established with Caterina Riario Sforza; Lorenzo endeavoured not only to thwart the attempts of the Ordelaffi and their party against her, but also to arrange a betrothal between her daughter and the young Manfredi, whom the Republic regarded and treated as a ward of its own.[355]So bad was the state of affairs in Romagna, especially in Faenza; so great was the insecurity caused by the enmity between families and individuals, and increased by political disturbances; and so powerless to secure lasting quiet were the efforts to procure peace and reconciliation made on the part of the Church, after the precedent of S. Bernardino of Siena and others before and after him, that the Florentine influence was doubly needed in these small states as a softening element for a people difficult to control, and as a support for their rulers. It was Lorenzo who protected the interests of Astorre Manfredi when Cotignola, the home and countship of the Sforza, triedto extend its little territory at the expense of Faenza. At the end of 1489 Giovanni Bentivoglio made another attempt to procure his daughter’s return to the last-named city. ‘I have never,’ he wrote to Lorenzo,[356]‘striven for this return, nor do I strive for it now, without the approval of your Magnificence; for in this, as in all my affairs, I wish only to act in accordance with your benevolent and wise counsels, as beseems our old friendship and brotherhood.’ That Francesca should return and undertake the guidance of her son he considered the only means of putting an end to the confusion, but he would do nothing without Lorenzo.
These disturbances in Romagna were the last during Lorenzo’s lifetime in which there occurred political and military interference in the affairs of neighbouring states, and which threatened to create complications with other powers. But the southern side of the Apennines was not altogether quiet. It is a strange but undeniable fact that the man whose efforts in general were directed to preserve peace and secure political equilibrium could not always resist the temptation of forging intrigues against little neighbouring states, and employing restless, discontented parties for this purpose. He must have been urged on by that thirst for aggrandisement which was an inheritance of the Republic and the Medici as well as of Venice and of the Visconti. The fine words about union and brotherhood were belied in action. Lorenzo was, indeed, too prudent and cautious to be easily caught by foreign bait; but he only kept out of a thing when it seemed to him unprofitable or dangerous to himself. In March 1488, Franceschetto Cybò tried to draw him into an attempt against Jacopo IV. Appiani, who had long been quarrelling with Rome; in this attempt he hoped also to gain the support of Ferrante, thinking that the latter would gladly seize an opportunity of reconciliation with the Pope. Lorenzo showed no disposition for the undertaking.If Piombino could not be won for Florence, he naturally preferred to see it in the hands of a petty native lord rather than in those of the Pope, even if the latter was willing to give it to his son, which was not certain; and he did not at all want to push the King of Naples into Tuscan affairs. He well remembered having heard how the king’s father had said in 1448 that if he took Piombino he hoped to get possession of all Tuscany; words which he recalled to the remembrance of the Sienese, who held the little state under their protection, when he sought to inspire them with a good opinion of his friendly and neighbourly views.[357]But towards Siena herself his policy was anything but straightforward. Internal disquietude had never ceased in that city, and was paving the way for a government similar to that of Florence, only that the rising families of Siena—the Petrucci and Piccolomini—could not succeed in gaining a firm footing like the Medici, and the fickleness of the people and the nobility, violently at strife among themselves, far outdid that of the Florentines. The party among the nobility once supported by Alfonso of Calabria returned from exile in 1487, and brought about an apparently sweeping change in the constitution; raising the old classes, or Monti, long degenerated into hostile and exclusive parties, and extending eligibility for office to all sections of the community. This change in the constitution was hailed and joyously celebrated as the restoration of harmony; but it was not long before the reforming faction, who had hitherto ruled, discovered that they were getting the worst of it at the elections, and that all the authority was passing into the hands of their opponents. Dissatisfied with this, they secretly applied to Lorenzo; and he, who not long before had assured the sister-Republic of his warm interest in the preservation of peace, now showed himself disposed to help the malcontents to regain their former position. In March 1488 he causedtroops to advance towards Arezzo and the Chiana valley, and himself proceeded to the former place. But the Sienese got scent of the affair, arrested a number of suspected persons, banished those most deeply compromised, and sent Messer Niccolò Borghese to Arezzo to demand an explanation from Lorenzo. The latter, thus learning that the project was discovered, found out at the same time that the Pope, on whose aid he had seemingly reckoned, had no mind to be mixed up in the scheme, and had prevented his son from going to see his father-in-law. Naples, however, was ready to support her old friends at Siena. Altogether, Lorenzo thought it best openly to avow his intention of helping the reforming party to regain their rightful position. The ruling party in the city, excited by repeated disturbances in the district, caused by the Orsini of Pitigliano and by the exiles, fortified their frontiers and pressed harder than ever on their opponents. A rupture with Florence was, however, avoided. Lorenzo did not attain his object, but it is clear from his conduct that he was anxious to keep on good terms with his neighbours. In this he succeeded. His envoys were well received at Siena, and whenever he himself came to the city, or within its dominions, he was always most honourably received and loaded with presents. He was probably of the same mind as Franceschetto Cybò, who once wrote to him that Siena was a very rich morsel.[358]The state of friendly and neighbourly relations between them may be judged from the fact that, on account of a frontier dispute, the Florentine Signoria once had thoughts of making the high road through Siena to Rome practically impassable by imposing an utterly preposterous frontier-toll of one gold florin for every foot-passenger, two for every horseman, and five for every mule.[359]
Little more than a year after these matters Lorenzo wasagain, outwardly at least, on such good terms with the Sienese Signoria that he could appeal to them for mercy on one of their imprisoned and condemned rebels: ‘I know well, my Lords,’ are his words, ‘how serious a matter for the state is a crime like that in question; but, on the other hand, I consider what merit before God and praise from man is gained by those who show mercy and pity towards such delinquents, provided the common weal is not thereby endangered. I would earnestly beg your Lordships, now that the safety of the state seems ensured, to show mercy to Messer Maurizio.’ When Lorenzo wrote thus he apparently forgot that five months before he had acted in a manner not exactly in accordance with these words and sentiments. A young man had killed an official of the Eight in a quarrel, fled to Siena, was from thence delivered up, and condemned to death. When he was led to the place of execution the people pitied him and shouted: ‘Fly! fly!’ and tried to free him from the attendant officers. Lorenzo was then in the palace. The foreign ambassadors and several of the youth’s relations begged him to procure the prisoner’s pardon. He put them off with words, caused the culprit to be hung at a window of the Palace of Justice, and four of the rioters to be seized, scourged, and banished from the city for several years. He did not return home till the tumult was completely put down;[360]he feared the slightest attempt to create disorder in the city, being perfectly aware of the inflammable material it contained.
The Florentine policy was ambiguous towards the Sienese, as also in relation to Lucca. Reciprocal distrust and ill-will showed itself in many ways, and no blame can be attached to the far weaker Lucchese that they were on their guard. The dispute about Pietrasanta was never really settled, and when a money-compensation to Lucca came to be discussed the two parties could not agree as to the amount. At theend of March 1490, a plot was discovered whose only possible object was to betray Lucca into the hands of the Florentines, and in it a factor of the Medici appeared to be concerned. This occasioned a correspondence between the Anziani and Lorenzo, in which, despite all formal politeness and caution, the want of confidence was but too clearly shown. The Lucchese opinion of Florentine friendship was expressed, far more truly than in letters and embassies, by the trenches and ramparts with which they surrounded their unfortified places.[361]
In Umbria and the Marches, too, Florentine interests were at stake, and Soderini, the ambassador to King Ferrante, was right in pointing out how anxious the Republic was to prevent any disturbance of the existing circumstances in Bologna, Perugia, Città di Castello, Faenza, or Siena, just as much as in her own state, and what large sums of money she expended with this object. Franceschetto Cybò, who was always on the look-out for something, would fain have made himself master of Città di Castello, and represented to Lorenzo that this was desired by both the factions—the Vitelli and the Giustini—who kept each other in check under a Papal governor. But Lorenzo was evidently not disposed to allow his son-in-law to have his will. Perugia was in constant excitement from the restless character of its citizens, culminating in a perpetual strife between the two most powerful families—the Baglioni and the Oddi—which filled the chief city of Umbria with tumults; day after day scenes of bloodshed occurred, and first one party and then the other was driven into exile. The Pope’s brother, Maurizio Cybò, a brave and sensible man, to whom the government was entrusted in February 1488, vainly attempted to restore peace and order between the disputants. A citation of the heads of the parties to Rome had no bettersuccess; several positively refused to go, and though a reconciliation did take place in consequence of the citation, it was not lasting. Quiet was restored for a time by a general prohibition of the use of arms, but the strife soon broke out again.
When Franceschetto Cybò was in Perugia in July 1488, with a Papal commission to act as peacemaker,[362]many citizens came to him with complaints of the intolerable state of the city. They declared that right and justice had lost all power, and begged him to give his assistance in putting an end to the evil. Franceschetto was not lacking in goodwill; but to cure such a moral cancer required a different sort of man, and the result justified the opinion expressed by Lorenzo in a letter to Lanfredini when this difficult mission was conferred by the Pope on his son. Franceschetto’s deliberations with the representatives of the great families, and the remonstrances made in Rome to divers noble Perugians, were all equally vain. At the end of October there was a bloody fight in and around the square before the palace of the Priori; small artillery was actually employed, houses were set on fire, the cathedral of San Lorenzo was used as a fortress, and barricades were constructed. Throughout the next day the street-fighting continued, with plundering and burning, and the prisons were broken open. The governor, who came back when the tumult was at its height, was received with shouts of ‘Church! Church!’ and notwithstanding all he could do his influence was powerless to quell the disturbance. At last the Oddi were beaten and forced to leave the city and flee to Castiglione del Lago (on Trasimene), where they and their numerous adherents set up a camp. The fight threatened to spread over the whole neighbouring country, as most of the fortresses belonged to the nobility; Spello, Fuligno, and other important places were already in arms and at openwar with each other, the Vitelli, Orsini, and others taking part in the contest.
From the time of the Pazzi disturbances Lorenzo had had so much to do with Perugia, and so clearly recognised the importance of that city to Florence, that he was most anxious to put an end to this boundless disorder, the result of which would tend to weaken even the victorious party. He sided with the Baglioni, who had, moreover, sent one of their number to him. Maurizio Cybò declined to stay any longer at Perugia, whereupon Innocent appointed Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, Cardinal of Siena, to be legate. On his arrival on November 16, 1488, Lorenzo tried to persuade him to declare for the Baglioni party and to further their interests; not merely with the object of securing their supremacy in Perugia with the Pope’s consent, but also to keep them from forming a closer connection with Ferrante. They were already in communication with that king, to the displeasure of Lorenzo, who hated all Neapolitan meddling in the affairs of central Italy. ‘The Baglioni,’ he wrote to Lanfredini, ‘would give themselves not merely to the king, but to the devil. Therefore I hold that all possible efforts must be made to extinguish this flame. Believe me, if the Pope uses this opportunity he will bring over the Baglioni completely to his own side, and be able to make them serviceable for his own ends. It would be well to tell the legate to deal with the exiles as he thinks good; I will then endeavour myself to induce the Baglioni to submit to the legate’s will. At all events, some cure for this wound is necessary.’ The Count of Pitigliano had already headed some Florentine troops against the Oddi. Cardinal Piccolomini was apparently not clearly convinced which party was right and which was wrong, and he was not inclined to be the tool of either. For a long time he withstood repeated persuasions to pronounce sentence of banishment on the exiles, urged upon him by the Baglioni in unison with the commissioners of Florence and Urbino, of the Orsini andthe Vitelli; Lorenzo had sent Messer Niccolò Vettori. At last the legate saw things could no longer remain in suspense; so he caused the heads of the ruling party to swear on the Gospels that they would keep the city in obedience to the Pope, lay down their arms, not hinder the course of justice, and hand over to his people the places they occupied in the district. Then on January 22, 1489, he confirmed the privileges of the city and issued a decree of banishment against the exiles, confining them for the next five years to various places in Tuscany, Romagna, and the Marches, under pain of outlawry if they left these appointed places.
All this was done with the participation of the commissioners, who thereupon took leave, after a state dinner given them by the Signoria. The next thing was the election of the magistrates; the troops of the legate, two hundred and fifty men, occupied the city and its environs; the decree of banishment was posted up at the Cathedral and the palace of the Podestà, and the chief persons concerned were informed of it by an executor of the commonwealth. When this official came to one of the heads of the Oddi party, Agamemnone della Penna, who was at Castiglioncello on the Urbino frontier, he closed the doors, drew his dagger and said to the messenger: ‘Take your choice; either swallow the decree, or I will kill you.’ The man did not take long to consider. Agamemnone took from him the papers destined for the other exiles, most of whom were at Gubbio, close by, and sent him back with this pleasant intelligence to Perugia. The feud, in which the Florentines were not idle, began again in the district; but neither the fighting nor the efforts at mediation repeatedly made by the legate, who kept wandering from one place to another, brought about a decision. In the city, except for a few occasional disturbances, peace was in some degree restored, while all power was in the hands of the Baglioni, who for a long time refused to let any foreign mediation persuade them to a reconciliation with their adversaries. In June 1491however an attack on the city and fresh scenes of bloodshed obliged them to come to terms as soon as possible. Lorenzo, who had greatly contributed to the victory of the Baglioni through Lanfredini’s negotiations with the Pope and Vettori’s mediation in Perugia, and who was anxious that the Holy See should keep only a nominal authority in the latter city, could not help perceiving how difficult it was to restore to even the smallest degree of legal order a city torn by such wild passions and suffering under such unfortunate circumstances.[363]
Of less importance to the Florentines than the affairs of Perugia were the disturbances at Ascoli near the Neapolitan frontier. On account of its position, commanding the high road from the valley of the Tronto towards Umbria, the state of this town was not a matter of indifference to the Republic. The quarrels in which from 1484 onwards it was involved with Fermo and other neighbouring places attracted considerable attention from the fact that on one side the Pope, and on the other King Ferrante, were drawn into them, and the lords of Urbino and Camerino found themselves obliged to interfere both for the sake of their own states and on account of their relations with Rome. These quarrels, which with short intervals of peace were perpetually recommencing, and did frightful damage to the smaller places and the unprotected country, had been profitable to some, amongst whom was Boccalino of Osimo, who had many connections in the Marches of Fermo. In 1487 Cardinal della Rovere vainly tried to make peace between Ascoli and Fermo. The strife was so furious that in an attack made by the Ascolani in April of that year on the fortress of Acquaviva, sixty men who had entered a building by treachery were burnt in it, and those who hurried to their assistance were slaughtered in the moat. Not long afterthis the Ascolans attacked Offida, which lay between them and the sea, drove out the vice-legate of the March, plundered, burned and murdered all and whomsoever came in their way, and repulsed the troops of Urbino which had marched to the rescue. Rome saw the need of putting an end to this anarchy, and entered into negotiations with the lords of Urbino and Camerino to overcome the resistance of Ascoli. But the Florentines, and still more the King of Naples, although they earnestly wished for peace on the Adriatic shores, were not willing that the Pope’s authority should be strengthened in that quarter. ‘The king,’ wrote Piero Nasi, Florentine ambassador at Naples, to Lorenzo, ‘is very anxious that the Pope should not get possession of Ascoli; for he sees that should this occur, the connection between himself and us will be for ever cut off. As we have managed to prevent the Pope from making himself lord of Perugia, so his Majesty’s power should suffice to compass the same at Ascoli.’
Thus, in this so-called time of peace, there was strife and disorder, mistrust and selfishness, on all sides. Ferrante thought little enough of Florentine interests, in his unwillingness to let Innocent gain a firm footing on his own border. Even in Lorenzo’s last year of rule these disputes in the Marches were not settled. It was Cesare Borgia who first made peace here, as he did in Romagna, after his own fashion.[364]Cares and troubles overtook De’ Medici from another quarter. He was bound to the Orsini by other chains than family ties; the attitude taken by this old and powerful family towards the Popes, Naples, Siena, and Florence claimed his attention. The Orsini flattered themselves they were sovereign lords. So great was the number and importance of their possessions in the neighbourhood of Rome that they might well cause uneasiness to a strongergovernment than that of most of the Popes; and the only thing that tended to neutralise their power was their almost ceaseless strife with the Colonna, who, however, at this present time were no match for them. Their numerous fiefs in the kingdom of Naples brought them into close connection with its rulers. Since the beginning of the fourteenth century they had held, through inheritance from a branch of the Teutonic dynasty of the Aldobrandeschi, the county of Sorano-Pitigliano, between the Patrimonium Petri and the Sienese territory; and they kept their neighbours in constant uneasiness by the disordered state of affairs there, caused by the constant disagreement between the members of the family, not likely by any means to be softened by the protectorate (accomandigia) of Siena, herself in a state of great unrest.
We have pointed out how much depended on the attitude of the Orsini in the days of the quarrel between Innocent and Ferrante. The relations of the most powerful of the family, Gentil Virginio, lord of Bracciano, with the Pope and the king, gave Lorenzo constant occupation, as is testified by his correspondence with the ambassadors in Rome and Naples. ‘Should his Holiness proceed in the manner suggested,’ he wrote to Lanfredini on March 24, 1489,[365]when Innocent for a moment thought of arresting Gentil Virginio for his suspicious conduct amid the Neapolitan troubles—‘he would thereby gain nothing, save that the whole family would unite and be a prize for the king. If the Pope answers that this will happen in any case, I reply that it is far better that it should happen without our having a hand in it, than that we should give them ground for laying the blame on us. The minds and wills of these lords Orsini never agree. They cannot keep together well, and you will see when the king most needs them they will serve him worst, for they are ambitious and greedy, andexcept when need compels them there is no constancy in them.’ In later days Ferrante once remarked that lord Virginio was naturally very obstinate when he had made up his mind to a thing, especially if he thought himself in the right;[366]it may therefore be imagined how much trouble Lorenzo had in controlling a man whom his position in Rome, his rank as Neapolitan general, his experience in warfare, and his great landed property rendered more powerful than many princes. He always remained on good terms with the Medici personally. Niccolò, Count of Pitigliano and Nola, was, as has been seen, closely connected with the Republic. But even with this naturally prudent man there arose some difficulties whenever his interests or inclinations as chief of a family clashed with his position as general of a greater state. He too, like all the warriors of the time, though his personal valour and honour are unstained, contributed to display the corruption of the military science of the time, and the incompatibility of the prevalent mercenary system with the advantage and security of the state.