Youth of Duke Francesco Maria I.—The League of Cambray—His marriage—His first military service—The Cardinal of Pavia’s treachery—Julius II. takes the field.
Youth of Duke Francesco Maria I.—The League of Cambray—His marriage—His first military service—The Cardinal of Pavia’s treachery—Julius II. takes the field.
TO the family della Rovere, whom we have traced in thepreceding chapter, an heir was born on the 25th of March, 1490. His father, the Lord Prefect, acknowledged his arrival to be a divine blessing, and, as then usual, testified gratitude by the selection of his baptismal names. St. Francis was the established tutelary saint of the family, under whose guidance Sixtus IV. believed himself to have obtained the tiara, and to whom his brother the Prefect addressed his orisons for a male child. It came into the world on the fête of the Annunciation, and was immediately christened Francesco Maria,[*230]in honour of the saint and of the Madonna. In this, his only male offspring, centred the hopes and interests of the Lord of Sinigaglia; and after his death, in 1501, the boy was carried to the court of Urbino, where his progress was watched with almost paternal anxiety by Duke Guidobaldo. His mother occasionally visited there after her widowhood, although from motives of perhaps misplaced delicacy, she resided chiefly on her husband's fiefs of Sora and Arci in the Neapolitan territory.
The first care of his uncle Guidobaldo was to obtain for him a renewal of the prefecture of Rome, which his father had held; and as that appointment was in the hands of Alexander VI., an enemy of the della Rovere, the Dukeof Urbino had recourse to the influence of Louis XII. with the Pontiff. This application was warmly seconded in the same quarter by the Cardinal of S. Pietro in Vinculis, paternal uncle of Francesco Maria, and an adherent of the French interests. The readiness wherewith his Holiness accorded this dignity, and even held out hopes of marrying his niece, Angela Borgia, to the young Prefect, induced his uncles to hint at their project of adopting him as heir to the dukedom, a step which required the papal sanction. But they were met by temporising answers, and found, ere long, that the apparent frankness of Alexander was but a cover to that deep-laid plot of destruction, involving both Guidobaldo and his nephew, which we have already developed.
Meanwhile, Francesco Maria's education advanced in letters and arms, with every aid which books, talented preceptors, and distinguished society could afford. His earliest instructor had been Antonio Crastini of Sassoferrato, a man of excellent judgment, and well skilled in theology and philosophy, to whom his father had entrusted the command of Sinigaglia, and whose services were eventually rewarded by Julius II. with the sees of Cagli and Montefeltro. Ludovico Odasio still resided at the court of his former pupil Duke Guidobaldo, who placed under his superintendence his youthful relation. The lad, though small in stature for his years, was remarkable for strength and activity, as well as for an active temperament and lively talents. He was liberal, and even careless, of money; but all his pleasure was in the military art, all his ambition centred in martial glory, for Nicolò of Fossombrone, and another famous astrologer, had predicted from his horoscope high deeds of arms. After passing hours in the study of history and classical literature, and of those sciences wherein princes then sought pre-eminence, he found relaxation in horsemanship and martial exercises, under the eye of such honoured veterans of Duke Federigoas still wore their well-won laurels in the palace of his son. Thus was his youthful mind moulded to the noblest forms of chivalry, without those idle appendages which the affectation of other times has exaggerated into caricature.
FrancescoAlinariFRANCESCO MARIA I DELLA ROVEREAfter the picture by Titian in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence(From the Ducal Collection)
Francesco
Alinari
FRANCESCO MARIA I DELLA ROVERE
After the picture by Titian in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence(From the Ducal Collection)
The whirlwind that broke in upon this calm, and sent the Lords of Urbino and Sinigaglia into houseless exile, has been described in theeighteenth chapterof these memoirs. Francesco Maria, after accompanying his uncle's midnight flight as far as Sta. Agata, reached Bologna through mountain paths; and, having by great prudence escaped the attempts of Giovanni Bentivoglio to apprehend him, in compliance with Valentino's orders, he made his way by Genoa to Savona, where his uncle, the Cardinal della Rovere, resided. But the latter, not satisfied of his security, and anxious to place him where he would have better means of improvement, sent him to his see of Avignon, and thence recommended him to Louis XII., who received him with high favour. In the court then established at Lyons he resumed his education, especially in those military and personal accomplishments for which it was distinguished, and quickly acquired great proficiency in the French language. There he attached himself much to the youthful Gaston de Foix, acting as his page of honour, and gained some notice from the King, who bore testimony to his precocious attainments in chivalry, by bestowing upon him the order of St. Michael ere he had completed his thirteenth year.
The events already recorded in connection with the death of Alexander VI., restored Francesco Maria to his rights unquestioned; but his first care was to obey a summons of his cardinal uncle, who had been elected to the tiara. Travelling from France with his cousin-german Galeotto Franciotti, whom Julius had named to the hat just vacated by himself, he reached Rome amid public rejoicings on the 2nd of March, 1504. He immediately received the command of a hundred men-at-arms, andsteps were promptly taken for his public recognition as heir-apparent of Urbino. Accompanying Guidobaldo into the Marca, he was welcomed at Sinigaglia, on the 17th of June, by the unanimous voice of his people. On the 18th of September he was invested with the dukedom of Urbino in reversion, when he received the homage of his future subjects with a ceremonial which we have described at p. 37, and which was attended by delegates from all parts of the state, to adhibit the consent of their constituents. As a finishing stroke to these measures for consolidating the della Rovere sovereignty, a marriage was about the same time contracted between the Prefect and Leonora Gonzaga, daughter of Francesco Marquis of Mantua. To this arrangement, which turned out in all respects fortunate, the wishes of her aunt, the Duchess Elisabetta of Urbino,[*231]were mainly conducive; and preliminaries were negotiated by Count Castiglione, whose high favour with both contracting parties, as well as his diplomatic address, well qualified him for the mission. It was announced in January, 1505, but the ceremony was postponed for four years, on account of their youth. To the charms of the bride, Castiglione bears this tribute: "If ever there were united wisdom, grace, beauty, genius, courtesy, gentleness, and refined manners, it was in her person, where these combined qualities form a chain adorning her every movement."
Venetian Wedding-DressAndersonVENETIAN WEDDING-DRESS IN SIXTEENTH CENTURYAfter the picture called “La Flora” by Titianin the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Venetian Wedding-Dress
Anderson
VENETIAN WEDDING-DRESS IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY
After the picture called “La Flora” by Titianin the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
But although too young for matrimony, the Prefettino was allowed to flesh his maiden sword under his future father-in-law's command, in the expedition undertaken by Julius against the lords of Perugia and Bologna. In a military view the campaign was totally uninteresting; butin some skirmishes before Castel S. Pietro, Francesco Maria gained his general's approbation, and thus favourably entered upon the career wherein he was destined to high distinction. The greater part of his time was spent at Urbino, acquainting himself with the people over whom he was to reign, and with the duties that awaited him. Its limited court was rich in merit, and beneath an exterior of elegance and high polish, learning and accomplishments of every sort were cultivated and honoured to a degree elsewhere unknown. The laxity of morals which, notwithstanding the example of both sovereigns, accompanied that refinement, may be estimated from an anecdote sadly instancing the failing in Francesco Maria's character, which proved the bane of his whole life. We shall narrate it in the words of an anonymous diary, already largely drawn upon for the reign of Guidobaldo I.[232]"The Duke, [Guidobaldo] having brought up about his person one Giovanni Andrea, a bravo of Verona, he made him his favourite, and conferred upon him the order of the Golden Spur, as well as the fief of Sasso-Corbaro, and some mills on the Foglia. He was extremely handsome and generally liked; and it happened that Madama Maria, daughter of the late Prefect Giovanna of Sinigaglia, and widow of Venanzio of Camerino, who had been slain by Cesare Borgia, was residing in Urbino with her son. Being still young, she fell in love with this Giovanni Andrea, and was reported to have borne him a son. Whereupon her brother, the Prefect, sent for him one Saturday evening, and in the ducal chamber beset him with his people, and assassinated him with twenty-four blows. At the same moment, one of his attendants went out and slew a servant of Madama Maria, who was said to have delivered their messages. On the following evening, being Sunday, the body was carried to the cathedral with distinguished honours, accompanied by all the gentlemen of the ducal household, and bya concourse of the citizens, for he was generally lamented by persons of every rank, and no one had died for a length of time more regretted. And this occurred on the 6th of October, 1507."
We have elsewhere endeavoured to sketch the brilliant society in which the Prefect's youthful mind was developed; in due time we shall find several of its prominent members crossing him in the tangled weft of human destiny, as friends or foes, according to their several interests. We have also noticed the affectionate duty he continued to interchange with the Duke and Duchess, and the circumstances in which he succeeded to their state. Guidobaldo closed his life of suffering on the 11th of April, 1508, and on the 14th Francesco Maria, after high mass in the cathedral, produced the will naming him heir of the duchy and dignities.[*233]The gonfaloniere of Urbino then presented to him the city keys in a great silver basin, and also its standard, accompanied with a complimentary address. He next was arrayed in the ducal mantle of white satin doubled with gold brocade, and a cap faced with ermine, over which was placed the coronet; then mounting a superb charger richly housed, he was escorted through the principal streets by an enthusiastic multitude shouting "RovereandFeltro, DukeandPrefect!" in whose joyous hurrahs it would have been difficult to identify the disconsolate populace who not many hours before had raised their coronach over Guidobaldo's mortal remains. On returning, his horse was seized as their perquisite, and his mantle torn into shreds, which were scrambled for as relics to be treasured in memory of the day.
This spontaneous loyalty, and their satisfaction at the maintenance of their national independence, did not, however, prevent the citizens from recollecting their interests. On the new Duke's first appearance at Urbino the authorities had gathered round his horse to kiss his hands and knees, and to beseech attention to their wishes. Pleading recent fatigues, he declined entering then upon business, and the gonfaloniere, readily accepting the excuse, summoned a sort of parliament of the principal inhabitants to decide what favours and privileges should be asked as a preliminary to their homage. Estimating this movement at its actual value, rather than by its bearing upon any theories of self-government, Baldi has entered into no details of these demands: their object may, however, be guessed at from the municipal concessions made by Francesco Maria on the 31st of May, whereby precedence was granted to the gonfaloniere over the podestà; and the salaries of the city physician, lawyer, and schoolmaster were undertaken by the sovereign, who also consented to a modification of the imposts on agricultural produce.[*234]
Although the popularity both of the extinguished dynasty and of the youth who was destined to replace it, together with an absence of all conflicting claims, rendered the succession safe and certain, every measure which prudence could suggest had been taken by the Pope to secure its being peacefully effected. A few excitable spirits having assumed arms, in apprehension of some revolutionary movement, a proclamation was issued on the morning subsequent to the Duke's decease, commanding all to lay them down. On the 17th a papal brief was addressed to the people, condoling with them on their bereavement, and applauding their dutiful and orderly reception of Francesco Maria. An envoy, deputed by the community to present their answer, returned on the 30th, delighted with the gracious reception he had met with, and with the Pontiff's flattering assurances. The ceremony of swearing allegiance was out of delicacy postponed until the 3rd of May, the day subsequent tohis respected predecessor's funeral. Summonses for both solemnities were issued to the various communities in the following terms:—
"Right well-beloved,"On the second of the ensuing month will be celebrated the obsequies of the illustrious Lord Duke, our father of happy memory, for which it behoves you to send here in good time as many as possible of your well-qualified fellow-citizens, suitably dressed for the occasion. And to such of them as you shall please to choose, you shall give a special mandate for adhibiting the oath of fidelity to us in name of your community, taking care that it be in regular form as a public instrument. From Urbino, this 25th of April, 1508."Franciscus Maria Dux Urbini,Almæ Urbis Præfectus."
"Right well-beloved,
"On the second of the ensuing month will be celebrated the obsequies of the illustrious Lord Duke, our father of happy memory, for which it behoves you to send here in good time as many as possible of your well-qualified fellow-citizens, suitably dressed for the occasion. And to such of them as you shall please to choose, you shall give a special mandate for adhibiting the oath of fidelity to us in name of your community, taking care that it be in regular form as a public instrument. From Urbino, this 25th of April, 1508.
"Franciscus Maria Dux Urbini,Almæ Urbis Præfectus."
The deputations willingly rendered the required homage, for they considered this perpetuation of their independence as a boon doubly grateful in the person of a sovereign representing their old and loved dynasty, whose opening character promised no unworthy successor to his esteemed uncle and father. During some days the Duke attended to various demands and representations of the commissioners, and, by well-timed favours to their different cities, quickly established himself in the good graces of his new subjects. The Duchess Regent proved a kind and prudent counsellor until he came of age, and long continued her assistance in his affairs of state, residing at his court while he had a home to share with her. The great discretion and good feeling he now manifested towards her, and the scrupulous anxiety he testified to retain around him all Guidobaldo's tried friends and servants, quickly ripened the popularity which his fortunate position had sown, and which eventually enabled him to recover and maintain his sovereignty in circumstances nearly desperate.
VenusAndersonDETAIL OF THE URBINO VENUSSupposed portrait of Duchess Leonora, from the picture by Titian in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Venus
Anderson
DETAIL OF THE URBINO VENUS
Supposed portrait of Duchess Leonora, from the picture by Titian in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The restless spirit of Julius fretted against the resistance still offered by the Venetians to his incorporating with the papal states those places in Romagna which they had seized, upon the fall of Valentino, nor would he accept the compromise which they proposed, of surrendering Rimini, on receiving from him a formal investiture of Faenza. They were also suspected of irritating by their intrigues the feverish state of that district, and of undermining the preponderating influence which it was his policy there to establish. On pretext of crowning Maximilian, whose title to the imperial dignity had not been completed by that formality, the Pontiff invited him to march into Italy, and support his views. The Emperor, in accepting the proposal, demanded free passage through the Venetian territories, with a threat of forcing his way, if obstructed. Assured of support from their ally of France, the Signory offered compliance, on condition of his going unarmed: but, spurning such terms, he, in February, moved with an army upon the valley of Trent. He was, however, effectually held in check by the Venetian generals, Nicolò da Petigliano and Bartolomeo d'Alviano; whilst Louis, besides sending Gian Giacomo Trivulzio to their support, instigated the Duke of Gueldres to carry fire and sword into Lower Germany. Maximilian, finding his hands full, made a hasty truce with the Venetians in May, and turned to punish Gueldres. The Venetian and French armies being thereupon disbanded, the moment seemed to Julius favourable for renewing his designs upon Romagna, and in the following November he sent the Cardinal of Sta. Croce to take part in negotiations, which had been opened at Cambray, for reconciliation of the Emperor and the French monarch. Maximilian readily lent himself to any measures calculated to efface his recent disgrace in the Alpine valleys, and to recover some places in Friuli which had remained in the enemy's hands; Louis was induced to accede, inorder to wrest from Venice such portions of the old Visconti duchy as owned her sway; and Ferdinand joined the coalition in hopes of regaining several Neapolitan sea-ports, over which the Lion of St. Mark still waved in security of certain advances by the Republic for the wars of Lower Italy. Out of these elements there was concluded, on the 10th of December, a famous treaty, which denounced the Venetians as ambitious perturbators of Italy and all Christian lands, and declared war against them as the common enemies of the allies, who pledged themselves to take the field before April, for recovery of Ravenna, Cervia, Rimini, and Faenza to the Holy See, and of the territories respectively claimed by the other contracting powers in Austria, Lombardy, and Calabria. A subsidiary article took Francesco Maria under their special protection, and guaranteed his states; whilst by another the Duke of Ferrara was left free to become a party, on payment to the Emperor of a sum of money in dispute between them. Such was the notable League of Cambray, misnamed holy, on the vague pretext that the maritime Republic, by retaining Ravenna and Cervia, impeded the pacification of Christendom, and a general armament against the Turks. Not only was it an innovation upon the established custom of pitting the German and French interests against each other, and settling their differences on the blood-stained plains of Lombardy, but, as the first great coalition of European powers for one common political object, it may be regarded as founding the modern system of diplomacy.
Yet, though this formidable confederation was the child of his own brain, matured by the address of his legate, Julius shrank before the Promethean monster, and paused ere he animated it by his ratification. Well might it startle him to find that his labours for the ulterior emancipation of Italy from foreign yoke were about to divide one of her finest states among her most formidable ultramontane foes. Had Duke Guidobaldo been spared a little longer, his cool head and pacific disposition, as well as his friendship for the Signory and his influence with the Pope, might have counteracted the unnatural combination; but the die was cast, and the Pontiff had only to await the course of events for an opportunity of undoing his present work.[*235]
Unable to hold a military command, which would have better suited his talents and tastes than the duties of Christ's vicegerent upon earth, Julius gratified his family predilections by appointing his nephew Francesco Maria to be captain-general of the ecclesiastical troops. His investiture took place in the church of S. Petronio, at Bologna, on the 4th of October, 1508, when he received the pontifical baton from the Cardinal of Pavia, a prelate whose destiny we shall find, ere long, fatally bound up in his own. But the time for active service not being yet arrived, he contented himself with a review of the forces thus placed under his charge. Being considered equal to such a command, it is not surprising he should think it time to celebrate his long-projected nuptials.[*236]On the 5th of November, Julius wrote to the Duchess Elisabetta, to send alettigaor litter, with three horses, in order to bring his bride on a visit to Urbino, where theceremony took place on Christmas Eve, 1508.[*237]The letters, addressed to Federigo Fregoso by Bembo, who arrived on the 19th, unveil some proofs of the bridegroom's felicity which it were more decorous to pass over; but its revelations throw light upon the contrasted feelings of the still mourning court. "Our reception was truly chilling: no joy or hilarity in the palace; even in the city its wonted aspect; our happy youth himself quite frigid; but there is hope that he will become more ardent...." Writing a week after the marriage, he says that as soon as it was over, the Duke manifested the most unbounded affection, which became daily more passionate; and declares that he had never met with a more comely, merry, or sweet girl, who, to a most amiable disposition, added a surprisingly precocious judgment, which gained for her general admiration.[238]This event was hailed at Urbino with great public rejoicings and sumptuous fêtes, and the triumphal arches, theatres, and other architectural and pictorial works required for the occasion, were executed under the direction of Timoteo Vite and Girolamo Genga. In 1843 I saw, in the hands of Padre Cellani, at the Augustine convent in Pesaro, an interesting memorial of this marriage. It is a small MS. psalter, with a frontispiece illuminated in the manner of the Veronese limners, representing Nathan rebuking David, whose crown and sceptre are fallen to the ground—a singular theme for a bridal present, which, from the legend "Lionor Gozaga Urbini Ducissa," with the impaled arms of the two families, it may have been. The Lady Leonora was about his ownage, and, although neither her beauty nor accomplishments have met with the same celebration as those of her aunt the Duchess Elisabetta, we shall have ample opportunity of observing in her character much energy and good sense, with undeviating affection to her husband; whilst the pencil of Titian has preserved to us a person which in a sovereign must have been lauded as handsome.
Fur-CloakFranz HanfstaenglTHE GIRL IN THE FUR-CLOAKPossibly a portrait of Duchess Leonora of Urbino. After the picture by Titian in the Imperial Gallery, Vienna
Fur-Cloak
Franz Hanfstaengl
THE GIRL IN THE FUR-CLOAK
Possibly a portrait of Duchess Leonora of Urbino. After the picture by Titian in the Imperial Gallery, Vienna
From his honeymoon happiness the boy-bridegroom was speedily summoned to the field. After issuing a preparatory apostolic admonition to the Signory, on the 27th of April, 1509, Julius ordered his nephew to assume offensive operations against Romagna, supported by the Baglioni, Vitelli, and other vassals of the Church. The Duke was already on foot, and after some skirmishes before Rimini, he attacked Brisghella on the 4th of May; the place speedily surrendering, he occupied himself in saving its inhabitants, so far as possible, from the miseries of a sack, which Muratori denounces as worthy of the Turks, and which Roscoe unwarrantably imputes to him as an act of wanton cruelty. Following up this success, he, with youthful enthusiasm, adopted various expedients for harassing the enemy, but obtained still more credit for the judgment displayed in a singular dilemma, which might have disconcerted a more experienced commander.
There existed between some bands of Spanish and Italian soldiery in his camp, various heart-burnings ready to kindle at a spark. Ramocciotto, an Italian captain, having been sent upon secret duty, as evening approached his men were seized with a vague impression that he had met with foul play from the Spaniards. Just then, during a wrangle among some camp-followers about a baggage-mule, one of them called out in stentorian voice, "Taglia! taglia!" meaning that the packing-cords should be cut. These words, which rang through the stilly air, were mistaken for "Italia! Italia!" and were caught up by the feverish followers of Ramocciotto as a watchword, whichthey loudly echoed, and rushed to arms. Their cry and action were repeated by most of the troops, who had just finished their evening meal, and in a moment the camp was a scene of inexplicable confusion, the fury of some and the consternation of others combining to produce a general panic. Francesco Maria and his officers were taken by surprise, but with great presence of mind he ordered an advance upon Faenza as the readiest means of restoring order. The gloom of twilight now settled down upon the camp, augmenting the embarrassment, and ere the troops evacuated it, a good many Spaniards had been cut down in themêlée. Military discipline at length prevailed, and the Duke, finding the town on its guard, returned to quarters. Ramocciotto's reappearance appeased the originators of the tumult, but it was not till next day that a stern inquiry detected its casual origin. Thus did the promptitude and prudence of the juvenile general save his character from compromise, and his little army from disaster.[239]
The ecclesiastical army consisted of eight thousand infantry and one thousand six hundred horse, a force by no means adequate for the service it was called upon to perform. The Pontiff, with fatal partiality, had entrusted the entire control of the commissariat and stores for the campaign to the Cardinal of Pavia, of whom the remark passed into a proverb, that whoever would make up a jerkin of every colour should employ the words and actions of the Legate of Bologna. Francesco Alidosio was second son of the Lord of Castel del Rio, an inconsiderable mountain fief adjoining the state of Imola, which latter, after being long held in sovereignty by his family, had been bought or wrested from his grandfather bySixtus IV. and the Sforza. Having been educated for the Church, he attached himself on the death of that Pontiff to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, whose entire favour and confidence he won, not only by long personal service, but by firmly withstanding various offers made him by the Borgia to dispose of his master by poison. As soon as his patron was placed in the chair of St. Peter, his services were rewarded by a scarlet hat, followed by the see of Pavia, the rich office of Datario, and other valuable preferments. But his character had been regarded as so questionable, in the scandalous pontificate of Alexander, that many objections were raised in the consistory to his promotion, and even the silver-tongued Jovius attributes his rapid advancement to the advantages of a fine person and an unscrupulous pliancy of principle. The influence he had obtained over the open-hearted Julius was maintained by his facility in accommodating himself to the outbreaks of his patron's impetuous temper; and it entirely blinded the Pope to the danger of reposing implicit confidence in such a counsellor. But the Cardinal, not satisfied to share these favours with another, did all in his power to obtain an undivided mastery over his affections, and especially to supplant his nephew in his regards. The means which he adopted to effect this were, as we shall soon see, to thwart all the Duke's plans, and throw upon him the blame of their failure. But the mainspring of his hopes and intrigues was the restoration of Imola to himself or his brother; and as the policy of Julius rendered him deaf to such a request, even from a favourite, the latter scrupled not to purchase his object from the French, by betraying to them those interests with which as legate of Bologna he was entrusted.
Francesco Maria accordingly found his movements hampered at every turn by the scarcity of supplies, and, in answer to unceasing remonstrances, had from the Legate abundance of fair words and sounding promisesleading to no result whatever. This was the more provoking, as sound policy required a speedy conclusion to operations carried on in a province that, though in hostile hands for the time, was eventually destined to remain under the papal sway, towards which it was therefore of importance to conciliate the population, rather than to oppress them by military exactions. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the Duke reduced the castles of Granaruolo and Roscio, Faenza surrendered, and the siege of Ravenna seemed approaching a favourable conclusion, when the Venetians, panic-stricken by the French successes in Lombardy, and especially by the rout they had sustained on the 14th of May, at Vaila in the Ghiaradadda, sued for peace. They hoped, by offering to the Pope, the Emperor, and the Spaniard, all the places occupied on their respective territories, to conciliate these powers, and so be enabled to maintain themselves against French aggression. Their envoy addressed himself to arrange with the Legate a suspension of arms, whilst he should forward to the Pope a formal renunciation of the disputed towns in Romagna; but the wily Cardinal, who, whether from inherent dishonesty, or with some selfish end in view, seems to have acted with invariable bad faith, urged him to resign these places directly into his own hands, and, when the agent persisted in adhering to his instructions, he was thrown into irons and threatened with a halter. Nor was this the only manifest instance of the Legate's treachery; for besides thwarting the Duke on every occasion, and keeping him in the dark as to most important arrangements, he sent some of his own adherents to attack and pillage the garrison of Faenza, as it quitted the city upon a capitulation accorded by himself. Francesco Maria, disgusted with his duplicity, of his own authority liberated the envoy, and so was brought into angry collision with the Cardinal, thus aggravating a quarrel ere long to end in blood.
DuchessBrogiDUCHESS OF URBINO, EITHER ELEONORA OR GIULIA VARANAAfter the picture by Titian in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Duchess
Brogi
DUCHESS OF URBINO, EITHER ELEONORA OR GIULIA VARANA
After the picture by Titian in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The difficulties of the youthful commander were increased by the inopportune arrival of four thousand Swiss mercenaries, who, finding matters in train for a pacification which would dash their hopes of booty, could scarcely be restrained from an immediate assault upon Ravenna. Their ruffianly intentions being insidiously encouraged by the Legate, it was only by great prudence and decision that the Duke prevented them from sacking that city, when evacuated on honourable terms by the Venetian authorities. This conciliatory policy was rewarded by a speedy surrender of Cervia, followed on the 11th of June by that of Rimini, the last of the towns claimed by Julius, upon which Francesco Maria lost no time in disbanding his army and returning home. As soon as he was gone, the Cardinal, steady only to his duplicity, imprisoned the Venetian officers who had imprudently lingered within his reach. Although this campaign lasted but six weeks, and produced no considerable engagement, it afforded to the young Duke an insight into mankind, as well as a lesson in military affairs, which enabled him to pass at once from boyhood to the experience, as well as the reputation, of an able commander.
As soon as Francesco Maria was liberated from camp duties, he sent to Mantua for his bride, and at his uncle's desire carried her to visit Rome. The Roman citizens, ever devoted to festivity, received him with distinction, due not less to his personal merit than to his high rank and near relationship to the Pope. Among the pageants exhibited in honour of his marriage were tilting in the Piazza Navona, and a masque celebrating his successes in Romagna, after the manner of those triumphs which that capital used to witness some fifteen centuries before. He carried Giuliano de' Medici with him to the papal court, and effected his reconciliation with Julius, who, suspecting him of some intrigues at Bologna, had given orders for his imprisonment; thus swelling that debt ofthe Medici to his family, which Leo X. subsequently and most ungratefully expunged.
The Duke also used his influence for removal of the interdict from Venice, the tried ally of his house; and this the Pontiff more readily granted, having now gained all he hoped from the compact of Cambray, and being ready for any new coalition that might tend either to aggrandise the Holy See or to liberate Italy from foreign yoke. He therefore cared not for the remonstrances of his late coadjutors against his abrupt secession from their common policy; and, aware how little signified Maximilian's languid operations, he only sought an apology for putting himself in direct opposition to the French, whose successes in Lombardy were assuming a serious aspect. This was soon afforded by the hollow counsels of the Cardinal of Pavia, whom he had despatched to the camp of Louis on pretence of congratulating him upon his victory at Vaila, but in fact to watch his intentions. In this monarch the Legate found one as ambitious as his master, and not more scrupulous than himself; he therefore with characteristic treason encouraged the projects he had shrewdly penetrated, stipulating in return for the sovereignty of Imola, as soon as Louis should, by his secret aid, add Bologna and Romagna to his Milanese possessions. As an underplot in this drama of ingratitude and treachery, the Cardinal of Rouen proposed that Julius should be deposed by a general council, with a view to securing for himself the tiara. Such at least were the ends which the French King soon after openly pursued; and those historians who seek to establish a case against the Cardinal of Pavia, explanatory of his subsequent conduct, charge him with thus early selling himself to Louis, and betraying his partial and confiding patron the Pope.
The Legate, therefore, on his return to Rome, warmly seconded the Pontiff's views. A rupture with France was the preliminary move in the game he had arranged withLouis, and his zeal in promoting it seemed the surest disguise of his ulterior designs. Florence and Ferrara were bound to the French interests, while Venice was their determined foe; so it only remained for the Pope to join stakes with the Signory, and the party was made up. His intrigues to secure the support of Spain, Austria, and England, and to retain the Swiss in his service, do not require our particular notice.
Unwarned by recent events in Romagna, and blinded by affection for his nephew, and for the Cardinal of Pavia, to the character of the latter, and to the insuperable antipathy which had grown up between them, the Pope, unfortunately, again delegated to them the joint conduct of the war. The first advance was made against Ferrara, with the view, doubtless, of restoring the Polesine to Venice, and extending the temporal sway of the Keys to the banks of the Po. Francesco Maria, who, after wintering in Rome, had returned home with his Duchess in May, entered the Ferrarese ere July was over, at the head of six thousand infantry, and one thousand five hundred horse, and quickly became master of a great part of that duchy. But this army was unequal to operations against the city of Ferrara, strong in its surrounding marshes; and an expected contingent of ten thousand Swiss were intercepted by Chaumont, the French general (called Ciamonte by Guicciardini,) and sent back to their mountains by the combined means of force and gold. The naval armament against Genoa, then in the hands of Louis, proving also a failure, and the Cardinal Legate conducting his department as unsatisfactorily as before, the Duke of Urbino heard with joy that the Pontiff was on his way to the scene of operations. On the 15th of September he passed through Pesaro, leaving the Apostolic benediction, and various indulgences, in acknowledgment of his enthusiastic reception. When he reached Bologna, he found Modena, which had lately surrendered to his army, threatened by Chaumont in person, and a strong feeling abroad among the ecclesiastical officers, that they had been deluded by the Legate, who prevented them from clenching their success by the capture of Reggio, and had wiled them to a fruitless demonstration before Ferrara, thereby not only wasting precious time, but exposing the army to great hazard, and leaving Modena and Bologna uncovered. The Pope immediately directed his nephew to send the Cardinal, under arrest, to Bologna, which he did, with every mark of consideration; but the extraordinary influence which that sneaking spirit exercised over the frank and open-hearted Julius, diverted his suspicions, and was rewarded with new favours.
The unpromising aspect of his affairs, which brought the Pontiff in person to Bologna, did not improve. Disappointed of the assistance he looked for from Switzerland and Naples, feebly supported by his allies of Venice and Mantua, his troops were reduced to a defensive position, fatal to the prestige which had attended their first successes. Encouraged by this state of matters, and by the approach of Chaumont's powerful army, the friends of the exiled Bentivoglii began to agitate for their restoration to the sovereignty of Bologna. Nor were these the worst mortifications awaiting the proud spirit of Julius. The clergy of France had met at Lyons, and decided upon convoking a general council at Pisa, to sit in judgment upon his conduct, a movement already openly supported by Louis, the Emperor, and Florence, and by five members of the Sacred College. These anxieties fretted his fractious temperament into an illness, so serious at his advanced age, as to threaten a fatal termination; and in the prospect of thus losing the mainspring of the war, his confederates were little inclined to compromise themselves by fresh exertions. His courtiers, too, alarmed at the prospect of clinging to a falling cause, beset him with persuasions to obtain a truce on any terms. But they mistookthe character with whom they had to deal. In deference to their representations, he opened a negotiation with the French general, wherein, far from assuming a suppliant air, he prescribed as a preliminary stipulation, the sacrifice of the Duke of Ferrara to his vengeance, as a rebellious vassal. Thus passing
he sent a summary threat to his Venetian allies, and to the Marquis of Mantua, that unless their promised contingents instantly marched to his support, he would arrange matters with the French King for their extermination.
The moral influence of this indomitable courage retrieved his affairs. The Venetian, Mantuan, and Neapolitan succours successfully and quickly arrived; many small free companies flocked to his standard; and the Bolognese factions postponed their movement till a fitter moment. Breaking off all negotiations, he thundered censures against Chaumont and the Duke of Ferrara, and ordered his now ample army to assume offensive operations. His physical energy was at the same time restored, and the threatened eclipse proved but a passing cloud, from which his indomitable genius burst forth with renewed brilliancy.
The Duke routed at Bologna from the Cardinal of Pavia’s treason, whom he assassinates—He is prosecuted, but finally absolved and reconciled to the Pope—He reduces Bologna—Is invested with Pesaro—Death of Julius II.
The Duke routed at Bologna from the Cardinal of Pavia’s treason, whom he assassinates—He is prosecuted, but finally absolved and reconciled to the Pope—He reduces Bologna—Is invested with Pesaro—Death of Julius II.
IN December the Duke of Urbino returned the challenge to a general engagement, which Chaumont had boastfully given him a few months before, and, after carrying some places of minor importance, encamped before Mirandola. To the surprise and no small scandal of all, the Pontiff, scarcely recovered from a dangerous malady, and braving the unusual rigours of the season, repaired to head-quarters. In reply to representations of his advisers against a step hazardous to his health, and unusual, if not unbecoming, in the head of the Christian Church, he urged the necessity of vigorously, and at any personal risks, meeting the disgraceful and schismatic proposal for a council at Pisa,[*240]by proving himself both able and willing to perform the duties of his high office, in wielding its temporal and spiritual arms against all enemies and perturbators of the Church, as well as in maintaining its doctrines, and supporting its friends. This ill-judged decision is said to have been strongly prompted by his evil genius the Cardinal of Pavia, who, speculating upon the chance of its cutting short his master's life, made sure of, at all events, turning to the advantage of his French friends the command at Bologna, which upon the Pope's departure would once more devolveupon him as legate. Guicciardini further charges him with promoting the bootless demonstration against Mirandola, in order to divert the army from Ferrara, whose inadequate defences might have rendered it an easy as well as important conquest. In the first days of the year, Julius reached the camp, attended by three cardinals, and took up his quarters in a cottage exposed to the fire of the walls. It is stated in an old chronicle, that a cannon ball having fallen close to his pavilion, the enraged Pontiff ordered it to be sent to Loreto as anex votooffering, and threatened to deliver over the place to a sack. Severe cold and deep snow in nowise daunted him, and his presence alarming the garrison, whilst the besiegers were stimulated to exertion by his persuasions, the town was soon reduced, but, by extraordinary exertions on the part of Francesco Maria, was saved from pillage.[*241]Its garrison had been commanded by a natural daughter of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio,[*242]who, on being rudely asked by the Legate, in presence of Julius, if she were the woman who would hold the place against the Pontiff, replied, "Against you I could easily have defended it, but not against him."
Julius, satisfied with this success, retired to Ravenna: whilst his nephew, who about this time was warned by the Doge of Venice of a plan concerted by the Cardinal of Rouen for poisoning him, led the army towards Ferrara. As the best means of relieving that town, and perhaps in concert with the treacherous Legate, Trivulzio, who since Chaumont's death, commanded the French troops, amounting to fifteen thousand lances, and seven thousand infantry, now marched upon Bologna, avoiding a battle, which the Duke of Urbino would gladly have hazarded. The latter, however, by forced marches arrived there before him, and encamped at Casalecchio, threemiles south of the city. The French army was by this time at Ponte Laino, about five miles north-west from the gate; and the Duke lost no time in advising the Legate of the position of affairs, offering to throw two or three thousand men and some artillery into Bologna. After losing much valuable time in consultation with some of the citizens, the Cardinal declined these as unnecessary. This answer appears to have converted into certainty the suspicions which Francesco Maria had long entertained of his coadjutor's good faith. He knew the garrison, consisting of about twelve hundred troops, to be utterly inadequate to resist the French; he was also aware that the exiled Bentivoglii, then hovering about at the head of a strong band of adherents, were eagerly looked for by their numerous partisans within the walls, to whom the Cardinal had rendered his ecclesiastical authority doubly odious, by a series of oppressive measures totally inconsistent with its usual mild sway, and intended, no doubt, to promote his own treasonable ends, by alienating the inhabitants from the established order of things. Strongly impressed with the urgency of the crisis, the young Duke persisted in his intention of reinforcing the garrison, but some older officers, persuaded by renewed assurances from the Cardinal, overruled him in council, and their march was postponed until morning,—a delay fatal to the cause, and pregnant with complicated evils.
So little was the Duke of Urbino satisfied with this resolution, that he posted videttes under the walls, and spent the night in reconnoitring with his staff. Midnight had just passed when a confused murmur from the city attracted his attention. The wordChiesa!or church, seeming to prevail amid the din, he had hope that the Legate's authority was maintained; but presently the watchword being heard more distinctly, it proved to beSega! Sega!signifying "The saw! the saw!" a badge and war-cry of the Bentivoglii. After some time lost inpainful suspense, it was ascertained from the sentinels that the French and the Bentivoglii were masters of the place. Aware of his critical situation, but retaining his presence of mind, Francesco Maria gave instant orders for a retreat, fixing a point of rendezvous five miles on the road towards Romagna. Thither he marched his cavalry in perfect order, by the level country, and was followed by the Venetian and other infantry along the high ground. The latter, being set upon at once by the enemy and the country people, fell into confusion, and, but for the Duke's strenuous persuasions, and a successful charge which he made with his cavalry upon their assailants, their officers would have given way to a general panic, and the army must have been annihilated. The coolness of their juvenile commander so far reassured them that the retiring army encamped on the morrow between Forlì and Cesena, without much further loss than their artillery and baggage.[243]The vast quantity of booty obtained for this misconducted affair the nick-name of "donkey-day."
Bologna was lost on the night of the 21st of May, and, beyond all question, it fell from the Legate's fool-hardiness or treason. The catastrophe which followed it called forth a bitterness of feeling fatal to impartial judgment, and the historians whom we have chiefly followed were friendly to the Duke of Urbino, and consequently prejudiced against the Cardinal.[244]Yet, after full allowance for thiscircumstance, there seems no reasonable doubt that the latter secretly favoured the French interests, and neutralised those measures by which Francesco Maria would have saved the city. He placed the gates in charge of noted partisans of the exiled family, by whom they were opened after nightfall to receive the Bentivoglii, followed by the main body of the French army. It was even alleged that he had previously sent away his most valuable effects; at all events, he wanted courage to share the success which had crowned his treason, and, in real or pretended panic, escaped upon a mule, disguised in a lay habit, and attended by only two followers. Nothing could palliate his flight without an attempt to warn the Duke of his danger, or to concert measures for the preservation of his army; and his whole behaviour lays him open to the suspicion of an intention to sacrifice both. Against such a combination of untoward events the friends of the Church could not struggle, and the mass of the Bolognese, smarting under recent oppression, welcomed their former rulers with joy, and vented their insensate fury in smashing the bronze statue of the Pope, which Michael Angelo had executed in the short period of fifteen months, and which was afterwards cast into a cannon bearing the Pontiff's name.
From Castel del Rio, a petty fief which his family had retained after losing the seigneury of Imola, the Cardinal on the 22nd sent courier after courier to Julius at Ravenna, preoccupying his ears with representations against his nephew, upon whose cowardice he cast the whole blame of the recent disaster. The latter, having sought an audience of the Pope, found him alike prepossessed against him, and deaf to his self-justifications; indeed, his attempts to unmask the traitor were denounced as suggestions of envyand malice, and he was superseded in his command. A temper less forbearing might well be incensed by this climax of injury, at the hands of one whose bad faith and malignity had long rankled in his fiery bosom. To see his uncle at once sacrificed and cajoled, to be himself made the scapegoat, while the true criminal was trusted and honoured, were trials beyond endurance, even apart from the taunt by which they were aggravated. As he quitted the presence-chamber, towering with just indignation, and accompanied by two officers and as many orderlies, he unluckily met the Legate on his mule, attended by a hundred light-horse. Regardless of his escort, the Duke rushed upon him and plunged a poignard into his entrails, which passed through to his saddle.[*245]The blow was repeated by the officers, his guard attempting neither redress nor vengeance, and in a few minutes the Cardinal had gone to his dread account, exclaiming repeatedly in Latin, "From crime comes mischief." This deplorable event happened on the 24th of May.[246]Its details are variously stated, and one account says that the rencontre occurred ere the Duke had seen his Holiness, while the Legate was returning from an audience; on the whole, we have preferred that of Giraldi, whose uncle was an eye-witness.
Francesco Maria was quickly aware of the horror of this outrage, and immediately after arranging matters in the camp, retired to his state, to repent, it is hoped, as well as to abide its results.[247]The sacrilegious nature of the offencemight indeed be palliated in the letter, by the lay dress which the Cardinal chanced to wear, but his episcopal dignity and holy character as vicegerent of the papal authority were notorious, and the blind partiality of Julius seemed to have increased as his misconduct became more palpable. The situation of that old man was indeed calculated to bend even his stern nature. He had committed an enterprise of doubtful policy, and against which a large portion of the Church was openly declared, to his most trusted friend and to his favourite nephew. The design had utterly miscarried; Bologna, acquired by him so happily, was lost; a victorious enemy was within a few leagues of him; and his friend had been murdered by his nephew, after mutual recriminations of treachery. The attendant cardinals and prelates, jealous of a more favoured brother, exulted in the deed while condemning its manner; but their master is described by Paris de Grassis as giving way to the most exaggerated demonstrations of excessive grief, renouncing food and shutting himself out from converse. After hastily authorising negotiations with Trivulzio, he set out for his capital in a litter. At Rimini he was startled by a formal citation to appear before the Council of Pisa, and passed through Pesaro on the 11th of June. But on reaching Rome his spirit had rallied. On the 18th of July he summoned a general council at the Lateran, and declared that of Pisa schismatic and null; he thundered excommunications against Louis, the Florentines, and all its adherents; he deprived the cardinals who attended it; and declared war anew against France, as an enemy of the Church and of Italy. About the same time he suspended his nephew from all his dignities, andsummoned him to answer at Rome for the assassination of the Cardinal of Pavia.
The accounts we have of the proceedings against the Duke of Urbino upon this charge are somewhat contradictory. Baldi says that his impetuous temper, ill-brooking the severity of one whom he was conscious of having honestly served, tempted him to throw off his uncle and seek an engagement under Louis; and the monitory issued against him by Leo X. in 1516 charges him with employing Count Castiglione on such a mission: but this foolish idea quickly passing, he obeyed the citation. On his arrival, attended by Castiglione, he was put under arrest, and obliged to give bail in 100,000 scudi to await the sentence of a commission of enquiry, consisting of six cardinals, one of whom was Giovanni de' Medici, afterwards Leo X. The process was long and complicated, for the Duke had many proofs, oral and documentary, to adduce of the Legate's secret intelligence with the French and the Bentivoglii. The pleading in his defence, by Filippo Beroaldo the younger, has already been referred to as in the Vatican library, and is a very remarkable declamation. Instead of urging the hot blood of one-and-twenty in extenuation of a sudden outbreak of fury under strong provocation, it justifies the assassination as merited by the Cardinal's notorious and nefarious treasons. Representing his life and morals in the darkest colours, it brands his boyhood as base; his puberty as passed in flagitious intercourse with bawds and gamblers; his youth as debauched by bribery, peculation and sacrilege; his mature age as degraded by the sacrifice of friends, the plunder of provinces, the open sale of sacred offices. It charges him with having had the throats cut of four eminent citizens of Bologna, against whom no accusation was brought, and leaving their bodies in the piazza; and further alleges that, having heard of the beautiful daughter-in-law of one of these victims, he sentfor her to his presence, when his attendants, alarmed by fearful cries, broke open the doors and discovered him in the act of violating her person. After narrating his manifold treacheries towards the Pontiff and the Duke, the advocate, far from palliating the homicide, boasts of it as a public service, and, declaring that Francesco Maria was an instrument in the Almighty's hand for the great and benevolent purpose of ridding mankind of such a monster, only laments, for the public weal, that the holy inspiration which dictated it had not been sooner vouchsafed to this "liberator of the commonwealth." Lowering his tone, however, towards the close of this inflated oration, he appeals to the judges to spare a hero whose promise of future usefulness was precious to Italy, and in whose acquittal many princely personages were interested. The fierce philippic of Beroaldo was reproduced under a poetic garb in the satirical ode of Giovio, which Roscoe has printed. Neither authority can be deemed unprejudiced, but public feeling seems to have confirmed these invectives, and even Guicciardini attempts not to answer for the Cardinal's good faith.
Whilst this investigation was experiencing the law's delay, Julius was attacked by a quartan ague of a dangerous character. With wonted wilfulness, he refused all proper nourishment, eating only fruit, until his constitution was nearly exhausted. A fainting fit having occasioned rumours of his death, tumults arose, but were vigorously suppressed by the Duke of Urbino, who by a happy device got the Cardinal of S. Giorgio to carry him the viaticum. The apparition by his bedside of the person supposed likely to succeed him at once recalled his energies, and induced him to adopt the most likely means of disappointing such expectations. He therefore no longer hesitated to eat an egg, into which two yolks had been introduced by the Duke's order, that he might take twice as much sustenance as he was aware of; and fromthat hour his strength rallied. A deep-rooted affection for his nephew, rekindled by this double service, prompted him to a reconciliation, and in his first burst of gratitude he granted him absolution for his crime, and sent him home with a donative of 12,000 scudi. But as his Holiness had been induced to this reconciliation by personal favour, and perhaps by at length perceiving the Legate's faithlessness, Francesco Maria declined availing himself of such an acquittal; and the process for murder, resumed at its own instance, hung over him until, on the 9th of December, a consistorial bull issued, fully absolving him of the charge.
But to return to the seat of war, whence this untoward incident had removed the Duke of Urbino at a moment of peculiar interest. The King of Spain having contributed a powerful contingent, the new armament against Louis was placed under command of Raimondo di Cardona, viceroy of Naples, with the Cardinal de' Medici as legate. The Venetians, as before, were parties to this league, as well as Henry VIII.; Florence, still in the hands of its republican faction, and the now restored Bentivoglii, supported the French; whilst Maximilian, though its nominal adherent, was as usual equally inefficient in war or peace. Romagna again became the destined scene of the new struggle, and there, as in Lombardy, its chances proved adverse to Louis. The Duke of Urbino, apparently from an unworthy jealousy, refused to act under the Viceroy's command, but he gave free passage to the army on its route through his state, supplying it with provisions, and permitting his troops to march under its banner. He even repaired to Fossombrone, to testify respect and hospitality to the general, but, suddenly taking alarm, and suspecting sinister intentions, he withdrew to Urbino in a somewhat ungracious manner. Light may be thrown upon these eccentricmovements from the correspondence of Castiglione, by which it would seem that Julius, relapsing into suspicion, had about this time spoken of his nephew as a traitor, who deserved to be quartered for maintaining, through Count Baldassare, a secret understanding with France and Ferrara; indeed, that he even diminished his company by sixty men-at-arms, and threatened to place the Duc de Termes over his head. It is not unlikely that, disgusted by this new insult, he may have intrigued with the French party in a moment of weakness. At all events, so deeply was the Pope mortified, that, in an access of renewed irritation, he declared him rebel, and absolved his subjects from their allegiance. Francesco Maria was consequently absent from the bloody field of Ravenna, where his early friend the chivalrous Gaston de Foix met a heroic but premature death. The French army which he commanded paid dearly, by his loss and that of their best troops, for a nominal victory which eventually proved a ruinous reverse. It was gained by the Duke of Ferrara's well-timed charge, and of forty thousand left dead in the field, above half had fought under the lilies of France. Indeed, but for the Viceroy's disgraceful flight, in a panic by some attributed to his suspicion of the Duke of Urbino, it might have been considered a drawn battle. So great was his terror that he passed through Pesaro with but two attendants, leaving his Spaniards to regain the Neapolitan frontier as they might.
This remarkable engagement took place on Easter Day, the 11th of April, but four days after the Pontiff had issued the bull against his nephew.[*248]Notwithstanding this fresh provocation, the latter afforded every support to Cardona's troops, who,
"Masterless, without a banner fled";
and, after placing his family out of harm's way, in S. Leo, hastened to Rome to console the Pope. But his Holiness was in no melting or wavering mood. With the brief remark, "At all events, I have united our enemies," he quickly repaired the recent breach by recalling the bull against Francesco Maria, and presented him with the baton of command. The Duke, remedying past misunderstandings by new exertions, hurried to Romagna to rally the broken battalions of the league, and to raise fresh levies. Ere the French could recover from the paralysing effects of their dearly bought success, he had regained that country, and, on the 21st of June, took possession of Bologna without a blow. Following up his advantage, he mastered with equal ease Modena, Parma, and Piacenza; but Reggio offered a resistance worthy of the heroic ages. It was held for the Duke of Ferrara by Count Alessandro Ferrofino, who, having detected some of his soldiers attempting to spike the guns, set them astride upon a mortar, and blew them into the air, assuring the bystanders that he most willingly would serve his Holiness in the same way. When ecclesiastical censures were thundered against the garrison, he made its chaplain return a pop-gun excommunication of the Pontiff. After two months had passed in this bootless struggle, Alfonso sent his countersign to the commandant as an authority to surrender; but, aware that his master was then at Rome, in the Pope's power, the Count returned it, vowing that he would not yield till hunger had driven him to eat off his right hand; adding, however, that, if his Highness had a fancy to give away the fortress, he was ready to consign it, with all its contents, by inventory, to whoever might be commissioned to relieve him of the command. This proposal was complied with, and the indomitable captainmarched out his little garrison, with a safe conduct from the Pope whom he had defied.[249]
The Emperor, ever ready to abandon a falling cause, withdrew his contingent from the French service, and acknowledged the authority of the Lateran council, which had been opened on the 3rd of May. The Duke of Ferrara, too, thought it full time to make his peace with the Pope; while Louis, thus abandoned, could no longer maintain a footing in Italy, where but a few strongholds remained in his possession; and Milan was restored to Maximiliano Sforza, son of Ludovico il Moro. The overtures of Alfonso were, however, unavailing, being met in no generous spirit by his ecclesiastical overlord. On proceeding to Rome to plead his own cause, he was called upon to surrender his fief to the Holy See, and was treated as a prisoner. By the energetic aid of the Colonna chiefs, he escaped to his impenetrable swamps, and hastened to accredit Ariosto as his minister to appease the Pontiff, a mission which totally failed, the poet's silver tongue having barely obtained grace for himself as envoy of a rebel. Francesco Maria marched, by order of Julius, towards the Polesine, but malaria prevailing there after recent inundations, fever ravaged his army, and their leader averted the fate of his grandfather in these fens, by a timely retreat to his mountain air. We are gravely told by Giraldi that "the house of Ferrara mysteriously bears the name of the Deity" [Est], an idea which their repeated escapes by similar apparently special interpositions of Providence may have suggested.
It was during the Ferrarese expedition, and avowedly at the Pope's urgent desire, that the Medici were re-established at Florence by the league. The Duke of Urbino's absence from that enterprise has been accounted for by Guicciardini and Giovio, as the result of personalfeeling against the Cardinal Giovanni, and as contrary to his uncle's instructions. This innuendo becomes important from being the first symptom of misunderstanding between the dynasties of Urbino and Florence, and as apparently the origin of Guicciardini's prepossessions against Francesco Maria, which, adopted by subsequent writers, especially by Roscoe and Sismondi, have led to very general misrepresentations of his after policy and motives. The whole intercourse of that Duke with the Medici, down to 1515, affords a virtual contradiction of latent enmity at this juncture, and the special charge in question is inconsistent with the facts stated by Leoni, who avers that, had Francesco Maria not been then engaged in operations against Ferrara, he would gladly have accompanied the combined forces to Florence, and that he actually connived at their carrying with them a portion of his artillery, contrary to private instructions from his Holiness, who, when the moment for action arrived, is alleged to have favoured the independence of Florence, perhaps under some vague apprehension of eventual dangers from Medicean ambition.
Italy, now freed from ultramontane oppressors, saw Milan restored to its native princes, and Florence again in the hands of her most influential family. Thus far had the favourite aims of Julius been attained; but, instead of hailing these events as the basis of a general pacification befitting his advanced years, he fretted in the recollection that Naples yet owned a foreign yoke, and that Louis was still intent upon vindicating his title to a Cisalpine dominion. The convulsive throes of a stranded leviathan were no unfit parallel to the versatile efforts wherein the old man consumed his waning powers. But, in the multifarious projects which agitated his yet elastic mind, the interests of his again favourite nephew were not forgotten. A brief of the 10th of January, 1513, granted to the latter plenary remission for all his undutiful errors against the Church, as a prelude to new favours, which must now be detailed.[250]
His uncle had entertained a scheme of purchasing for him the vague rights over Siena which the Emperors had long, though ineffectually, asserted; but a more hopeful expedient for his aggrandisement opportunely presented itself. We have, in aformer chapter, narrated the circumstances under which Alessandro Sforza became invested with Pesaro in 1445. His grandson Giovanni, the outraged husband of Lucrezia Borgia, died in 1510, leaving, by his second marriage, an only son Costanzo, about a year old. Galeazzo, natural brother of Giovanni, who was himself of illegitimate birth, governed the state, as tutor of this nephew, until the child's death, in August, 1512, and so entirely acquired the good will of the people, that they proclaimed him their seigneur. The odious tyranny exercised by all petty princes of Italy is a fertile theme for dreamy poets and philosophising liberals; but, whilst the relative oppression was much the same under all forms of government in the Peninsula, personal safety was perhaps best maintained in those least exposed to internal convulsion. From such shocks the minor sovereignties were more exempt than the republics, and the residence of a court was beneficial as well as flattering to the community; hence the fall of an hereditary dynasty was, in almost every instance, lamented by its subjects. These are not, indeed, necessarily the best judges of theirown welfare; yet their deliberate and repeated convictions, when free from the influence of demagogues, and tested by impartial history, can hardly be remote from truth.
The investiture of Pesaro had legally lapsed by the young Costanzo's death, and although, in many instances, the assumption of similar rights by illegitimate claimants had been passively permitted by the Church, Galeazzo would have gladly shrunk from a contest which the avowed policy of the reigning Pope rendered inevitable and hopeless. Tempted, however, by the unanimous support of the people, he assumed on his own account the authority he till now had held in behalf of his nephew. Julius instantly recalled the Duke of Urbino from Lugo, to commence operations for the reduction of Pesaro, with Cardinal Sigismondo Gonzaga as legate. After a brief resistance, Galeazzo surrendered the citadel, on the 30th of October, by a capitulation which insured him an annuity of 1000 scudi of gold, and the allodial holdings of his family. These he conveyed to the Duke for 20,000 ducats, including the Villa Imperiale, and on the 9th of November he quitted Pesaro, attended by nearly the whole population, who bewailed with bitter tears the extinction of a dynasty to whom they were fondly attached. The melancholy procession accompanied their lord as far as La Cattolica, from whence he retired to Milan, and there met a violent death in the following year.
The Cardinal Legate remained at Pesaro to administer the government in behalf of the Holy See, and the Duke returned home. Julius had already made one exception to his policy of bringing the minor fiefs under direct sway of the Church, by renewing the investiture of Urbino in favour of his nephew, and the opportunity was too tempting for repeating a measure recommended by the ties of natural affection. The unmerited suspicions and hasty severity which he had manifested towards Francesco Mariaseemed to warrant some consideration; there was also an arrear of about 10,000 scudi of pay and advances, by the late and present Dukes, in the wars of the Church, which her exhausted treasury was unable to discharge, but for which it was desirable to secure compensation ere the tiara should encircle a less friendly brow.[251]Accordingly, one of the Pontiff's latest acts was to gain the consent of the consistory of his nephew's investiture in Pesaro, to be held in vicariat for the annual payment of a silver vase, a pound in weight. The bull to this effect is dated the 16th of February, 1513, and on the 21st his busy spirit was at rest. Three weeks later, the Duke and Duchess of Urbino took possession of Pesaro, and were flatteringly welcomed. Indeed, the people, finding the fate of the Sforza sealed, appeared to have looked about for any means of emancipation from ecclesiastical rule; and, ere Galeazzo had quitted the capital, the council entertained a proposal to petition the Sacred College in favour of Francesco Maria as his successor. This step, whether suggested by Julius or not, greatly strengthened his hands in carrying through the arrangement which he had at heart, and it enabled the citizens to receive their new lord with peculiarly good grace.