Chapter 22

[251]Yet Julius was reported to have left in St. Angelo, 400,000 ducats of gold, besides jewels, and no state debts. Vat. Urb. MSS., No. 1023, f. 297.

[*252]This is rather vague. We are not told what Francesco Maria did that justifies Dennistoun in saying that the election of Leo X. was his act. I can find no evidence of Francesco Maria's personal influence in the conclave. If the election of Leo was an arrangement, it was Cardinal Riario to whom it was due. The charge of ingratitude therefore falls to the ground.

[253]To inaugurate the new pontificate, and mark the contrast of Alexander and Julius with their successor,—its Maecenas, Agostino Chigi, erected a triumphal arch, inscribed,—"Olim habuit Cypris sua tempora; tempora MavorsOlim habuit; sua nunc tempora Pallas habet."Venus here reigned supreme, by Mars displaced;Our happier age by Pallas' sway is graced.To this doggerel there quickly appeared the rejoinder,—"Mars fuit, est Pallas, Cypria semper ero."Once Mars, Minerva now, but Venus still.

[253]To inaugurate the new pontificate, and mark the contrast of Alexander and Julius with their successor,—its Maecenas, Agostino Chigi, erected a triumphal arch, inscribed,—

To this doggerel there quickly appeared the rejoinder,—

"Mars fuit, est Pallas, Cypria semper ero."

Once Mars, Minerva now, but Venus still.

[254]Papal brieves of Aug. 4 and April 17, 1513, in Archivio Diplomatico at Florence, and Bembo's public despatches, ii. No. 8. Roscoe has no authority whatever for representing the Duke as at this period the Pope's "formidable rival."

[*255]Henry landed at Calais August 1st, 1513; it was then in English hands, as it remained till Mary Tudor lost it in 1558. From Calais Henry advanced to the siege of Terouenne. Castiglione was, of course, in London in 1506 to receive the Garter for Guidobaldo from Henry VII.; a second journey seems apocryphal. On Castiglione at Urbino and elsewhere, cf.LuzioeRenier,Mantova e Urbino(Torino, 1893), pp. 174, 234, 242et seq.

[*256]Yet he seems to have suffered in the war. His long residence at Urbino may well have been due to the Duchess, who loved him sincerely.

[257]One of the shrewd agents of the maritime republic supplied a key to the policy of Leo, by observing that it consisted in immediately opening a secret understanding with the avowed enemy of whatever prince he leagued with. His intrigues in behalf of his brother and nephew are illustrated by some documents in theArchivio Storico Italiano, Appendix I., 306.

[258]See below,p. 368.

[*259]However, Francesco's record was not a very brilliant one. He failed to take Mirandola without Julius II., and the affair of Ravenna would, one might think, have ruined any soldier.

[260]Dialogo Giraldi, Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3153.

[*261]The defeat of the Swiss at Marignano opened the way for the long fight between Francis I. and Charles V. It decided many things—the future of monarchy in Europe, for instance, as well as the fate of the republican army "so long invincible in Italy." Cf.Creighton,op. cit., vol. V., p. 243. "What will become of us," said Leo to Giorgi, the Venetian Ambassador, who brought him the news of the defeat—"and of you?" "We will put ourselves in the hands of the Most Christian King," he added, "and will implore his mercy." Cf. theRelazioni Venete, 2nd series, vol. III., p. 44, quoted by Creighton, who, as always, takes the view of a statesman, and not merely that of a scholar. Sforza surrendered Milan on October 4th. The Pope signed terms with Francis October 13th, 1515. The Pope was then in Viterbo, which he left for Bologna in November, coming to Florence on the last day of that month. In December he was back in Bologna to meet Francis. He returned to Florence and left for Rome on February 19th, 1516.

[*262]Giuliano had certainly been ailing for months. His death did not seem to have been unexpected.

[*263]So does Giorgi. Cf.Relazioni Venete, 2nd series, vol. II., p. 51.

[*264]Cf.Verdi:Gli ultimi anni di Lorenzo de' Medici duca d'Urbino, 1515-1519(Pietrogrande, 1905).

[*265]I do not see how this was an outrage. Francesco had been already dismissed: seesupra360. Besides, he had certainly made overtures to the French. Cf.Guicciardini,Storia d'Italia, vol. XII.

[*266]Cf.Pellegrini,Gubbio sotto i conti e Duchi d'Urbino, inBoll. per l'Umbria, vol. XI., p. 221. Gianpaolo Baglioni da Perugia entered the Eugubine territory with 100 knights, 500 horse, and 3000 foot. The Duke wrote that he could not defend Gubbio. On the 31st May the Consiglio was called together, and it decided: "redire ad Romanam ecclesiam et sub regimine s. D.N."

[*267]Zaccagninihas published an unknown poem on this taking of Urbino. SeeUn poemetto sconosciuto sulla presa d'Urbino del 1516, inLe Marche(1906), An. VI., p. 145.

[268]Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 906, 907, 928; Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3153.

[269]Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3153, f. 115.

[*270]It was against Venice that Leo had first, in March, 1517, tried to get help.

[271]Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, f. 141. It has been printed by Leone, p. 222.

[*272]"Gli pareva gran vergogna della Chiesa che ad un duchetto basti l'animo di fare questa novità; e il papa tremeva, ed era quasi fuor di sè." Cf.Giorgi,Relazioni Venete, 2nd series, vol. III., p. 47.

[273]This account is adopted by Leone, p. 230, by Sismondi, and by Centenelle, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 907. Baldi (Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 906) and Guicciardini say that Lorenzo, having undergone much personal fatigue at the battery, was walking away to repose himself in a sheltered spot, when a bullet from the walls hit him on the head, grazing his skull to the nape of the neck.

[274]See above,p. 325.

[275]Vat. Urb. MSS., No. 1023, art. vi.

[276]Vat. Urb. MSS., No. 907, f. 28, 30. The Minio despatches are full of details of this conspiracy unknown to Roscoe.

[277]Rymer, vol. IV., p. 135. On the 21st of December Lorenzo de' Medici had written to thank the King of England for his good wishes conveyed through the Bishop of Worcester, then resident at Rome. See a curious letter of the following June, from Wolsey to the usurping Duke,Appendix VI.

[278]Centenelle, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 907.

[279]These anecdotes are preserved by Baldi, to whom, and to Minio Centenelle and Giraldi, we owe many new details of this campaign. Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 906, 907; Ottob. 3153.

[280]Molini,Documenti di Storia Italiana, I., pp. 122, 135.

[281]Oliveriana MSS. No. 375; I., pp. 51, 75.

[*282]He seems to have received the news at La Magliana on November 25th. He returned to Rome at once. The illness was not considered serious till November 30th. He died on the evening of December 1st. Cf.Paris de Grassis, inRoscoe,Leo X., App. CCXII.-IV., and clerk's letters of December 1st and 2nd, inBrewer,Calendar(1824-5).

[283]Such is the opinion of a monkish chronicler who wrote in 1522. Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, f. 297. Even in 1517 the Venetian envoy Giorgi reported him as afflicted by an internal plethoric disease, a catarrh, and fistula. Vettori discredits the rumours of poison, and Guicciardini says they were hushed up by his cousin the Cardinal, lest they should give umbrage to the French monarch, with whom it was his interest to stand well at the approaching conclave. On the whole, the opinion of most weight is that of the Master of ceremonies, who distinctly asserts that poison was detected on apost-mortemexamination. Roscoe's innuendo inculpating Francesco Maria is a glaring proof of his aptitude to do scanty justice to that Duke, whose admitted hastiness of temper cannot, in absence of one contemporary or serious imputation, be considered any relevant ground for suspecting him of slow and stealthy vengeance. Another Venetian ambassador mentions, in proof of the utter exhaustion of the papal treasury, from the profusion of Leo and the greed of his Florentine retainers, that the wax lights used at his funeral had previously served for the obsequies of a cardinal.

[284]"Sacra sub extrema si forte requiritis horaCur Leo non potuit sumere? vendiderat."Bibl. Magliabech. MSS., cl. vii., No. 345.

[284]

[285]Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 921.

[*286]Fabio, not Pandolfo Petrucci. The latter died at S. Quirico, in Osenna, in May, 1512. Borghese Petrucci, his son, soon became the "best hated man in Siena." Four years after his father's death both he and Fabio were declared rebels. Leo X. put Raffaello Petrucci in Borghese's place. Raffaello died in 1522, and then some of theNovebrought back Fabio, who had married Caterina de' Medici, niece of the Pope. But after a rule of less than two years he was again an exile. "Thus," says Ferrari, "the Petrucci returned to their primitive obscurity." Cf.Langton Douglas,A History of Siena(Murray, 1902), p. 212.

[287]From the Italian original in the Archivio Diplomatico at Siena.

[288]Archivio Diplomatico of Florence, May 25, 1522.

[*289]Adrian Floriszoon, the son of a ship's carpenter named Floris. His education was chiefly theological; humanism had not penetrated Louvain.

[290]Guicciardini, lib. xiv.

[*291]This account of Adrian VI.'s conclave is inaccurate and confused. Cf.Creighton,op. cit., vol. VI., pp. 216-222. The Duke of Urbino seems to have had no influence in the conclave.

[292]These articles are to be found in the Archivio Diplomatico at Florence.

[293]However these pretensions may have originated, they derived aquasiwarrant in 1525, from a conditional investiture of the duchy for three generations, granted by Clement VII. to Ascanio "in case it should happen to lapse to the Holy See," Agnesina being there mentioned as eldest sister. Charles V. was vainly solicited by Ascanio to render this condition eventual, or by some other means to make good his possession, and the claim did not drop until 1530. Nor was it the only one vamped up on account of Duke Guidobaldo's unfruitful marriage. In 1505 the Prince of Salerno seems to have made similar pretensions through his mother, a sister still younger than Agnesina; and in order to dispose of these, Julius II. is said to have offered him his own daughter Felice, a union which however did not take place.

[294]Odet de Foix, Seigneur de Lautrec, and the Seigneur de l'Escu were both brothers of the chivalrous Gaston de Foix.

[*295]He died on the 14th September. For details, cf. Duke of Sessa's letters inBergenroth, pp. 597, 599.

[*296]As usual, Machiavelli is right. If theproveditorihad so bad an influence (and it was doubtless bad) the results should have been earlier seen, for it was an old custom with that Republic. Francesco Maria, whom Dennistoun rates so highly as a soldier, as we have seen, was not more harassed by these spies than his forerunners, Carmagnuola Colleoni and Sigismondo Malatesta. The custom rose out of the decision to employ no citizen as a captain-general. Nor was Venice alone in this practice; Siena and Florence followed it too on occasions.

[297]Sismondi's strictures curtly express the judgment pronounced upon Francesco Maria by those who follow, without examination, the prejudiced narrative of Guicciardini. Yet, as they are founded upon admitted defects in his generalship, it may be well to lay them before the reader. "He was not deficient in military talent, nor probably in personal courage, but, taking Prospero Colonna as his prototype, he exaggerated his method. His only tactics consisted in the selection and occupation of impregnable positions; whatever his numerical superiority, he evaded fighting; no circumstance, however urgent, could bring him to a general action; and by his obstinacy in refusing to risk anything, he made certain of losing all." But in estimating the commander we should not put out of view the discouraging nature of the cause, which this author elsewhere happily describes as a war without an object. *This applies better to the petty wars of Central Italy at this time and in the fifteenth century. Waged by paid captains, they may be said to have been without an object, or rather with but one object—war itself. One and all they ended in nothing, though here and there, as with the Sforza, the condottiere managed to establish himself. There was not, save in Florence, Milan, and Venice, a sufficiently strong economic reason to cause a real war. Such as they were, these wars were due to the greed of petty princes, in which the professional armies enjoyed themselves (few being killed) in sacking towns and cities whose inhabitants, altogether at their mercy, were the only victims. To drag out the war and to avoid serious fighting as much as possible were naturally the first objects of the average condottiere.

[298]The details given by Paruta appear to bear out this statement of the Duke's policy, but establish that, in the eyes of his employers, his prudence and caution availed more than dashing gallantry, an admission important in estimating his conduct throughout the campaign of Lombardy, and throwing light upon the hesitation which marked his subsequent career. Indeed, according to this author, the orders of the Signory were to avoid fighting as much as possible.

[299]Seevol. I., p. 68, for a notice of this association, so often mentioned in Venetian history.

[*300]The battle was fought on the 24th February.

[*301]So far as Julius is concerned, his one object was the absolute temporal dominion of the Church in Italy. He made the coming of an ultramontane power into Italy a certainty. His successors struggled in vain to save themselves and incidentally Italy from the consequence of his crime. But the policy of the Papacy was wise, if selfish. The only road to Italian unity lay through predominance of one power—Venice or Milan, for instance, or the Church herself. The popes successfully prevented this unity for more than a thousand years, really in self-defence—the defence of their temporal power at any rate; their international claims were destroyed by an eager and passionate nationalism. We have seen in our day how Piedmont united Italy, first destroying the Papacy, which remains merely as a spiritual power that seems in Italy to be slowly passing away.

[302]Brit. Mus. Cotton. MSS. Vit. B. VIII., f. 16, b. In f. 49, of B.V. there is a mutilated letter of compliment from the Duke to Henry VIII., in Latin, dated at Urbino 19 March, 1522.

[303]Leonardi's recollections of Francesco Maria, Vat. Urb. MSS., No. 1023, f. 85, and Baldi's defence of him from Guicciardini's charges,Ibid., No. 906, f. 214.

[304]Brit. Mus. Cotton. MSS., Vit. B. VIII., f. 93 b. In this volume are many despatches regarding the Lombard campaign, and the assault on Rome in 1526.

[*305]See Guicciardini's despairing letters to Giberti,Opere Inedite(1857-67, Firenze), vol. IV., pp. 73-146. Francesco Maria was to blame; he lost time in crossing the Adda, from whatever cause; he delayed again while the generals of the Emperor strengthened their lines round Milan—even when the allies arrived and their army numbered 20,000 against the 11,000 of the besiegers. He waited the arrival of the Swiss, he said, and went off meanwhile at the heels of the Venetian Proveditore to besiege Cremona. The Rocca of Milan fell on July 24th.

[*306]See his despairing letters cited above,p. 441, note *1. He was a true patriot and thought for Italy. The Duke's dilatory and inconclusive actions while Italy was slowly dying, and might have been saved, as he thought, disgusted and enraged him.

[307]Lettere, I., p. 28, edit. 1733.

[308]This treaty is printed by Molini, in theDocumenti di Storia Italiana, I., 229. At p. 204 of the same volume is a despatch throwing valuable light on the tangled diplomacy of these times. The details of this event are often mixed up with those of the far more atrocious sack of Rome perpetrated by Bourbon a few months later; the best account of it is by Negri, an eye-witness, in theLettere de' Principi.

[309]See above,p. 385.

[310]Above,p. 420.

[*311]He halted at S. Giovanni in Val d'Arno, where, though he ought never to have been allowed to come so far, he might have been easily crushed in that narrow pass. But if the Duke of Urbino showed now a certain activity, it was not of the sort to crush this adventure. Bourbon wheeled into the Via Francigena and marched down to Rome and death. "To Rome! to Rome!" were his dying words.

[312]Many facts regarding the war in Lombardy and the march to Rome are given by Baldi (Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 906) with a minuteness and impartiality not found in other writers. The feeble views of Clement are illustrated by his brieves to the Duke of Urbino, noticed in I. of the Appendix to our next volume.

[313]In Leonardo da Vinci he saw only a military engineer. His commission, desiring that great genius to survey and report upon all his fortresses, in the summer of 1502, is quoted inBrown'sLife of Leonardo, p. 118, and accordingly Urbino was visited by him on the 30th of July.

[314]MSS. No. 374, vol. I., p. 55.

[315]It is pleasant to find the arts from time to time becoming handmaids of history as well as of religion; and the friendly feeling for England then cherished at Urbino is curiously illustrated by a bequest of Bishop Arrivabene, who, in 1504, left 400 golden scudi to be expended in decorating a chapel, dedicated to St. Martin and St. Thomas of Canterbury: the Duchess Elisabetta was one of the trustees, and the fresco ordered by them from Girolamo Genga included a representation of the English saint, and a portrait of Duke Guidobaldo.

[316]Hall quaintly says that the King intended "to stop two gappes with one bushe."

[317]The palace thus gifted to Henry is believed to have been that in Borgo, called Palazzo Giraud, in which many of our countrymen have of late received the splendid hospitalities of Prince Torlonia.

[318]Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 498, f. 273. For Polydoro di Vergilio, see above,pp. 115-18.

[319]I can find nothing in support of Roscoe's assertion that he was wounded while aiding Guidobaldo to recover his duchy, and the whole facts seem to contradict it.Leo X., ch. vii., § 7, note. That usually accurate writer has fallen into the mistake of ascribing to the Count'ssisterhis interment and monumental inscription in the church of the Minims, near Mantua, while the epitaph which he has printed, bears that Aloysia Gonzaga placed it over a worthyson, whom she unwillingly survived. Several dates in our text are supplied from Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 904, p. 43.

[320]This marginal interpolation, occurring in the dedication, runs thus:—"Pregandoti humilmente ryguardi ly gloriosi fatti del tuo famoso padre, e non la basseza del myo style[not "srypt," as Passavant reads it],ornato solo da me dy quella sincer fede che deue vn fydeli servo al suo signore."

[321]Several errors in the numeration, both of the folios and chapters, might readily deceive a superficial observer, and have misled even Passavant.

[322]This chapter being numbered XLVI. by mistake in the original, the subsequent numbers here given are always in advance byoneuntil Cap. LXXIII.

[323]This chapter, being omitted in the original numeration, the subsequent five numbers are in advance bytwo.

[324]This chapter being omitted in the original numeration, the subsequent numbers are in advance bythreeuntil No. XCVII.

[325]This number being repeated by mistake in the original, the subsequent numbers are in advance bytwo.

[326]The notorial transumpt of this bull, verified in 1516 by three notaries in presence of the municipality of Urbino, is preserved in the Archivio Diplomatico at Florence, and the preceding abridgment was made from an authenticated extract obtained by me there in 1845. In the same archives there is another formal acquittal to the like purpose, which it is needless to quote.

Transcriber’s Errata ListPage 45, portrait caption: Now attributed to Piero del Pollaiolo.Page 440, signature line of letter: In the original, the C and the S at the ends of these words have tildes over them, signifying abbreviations. In the absence of appropriate HTML characters, carons are used instead.Page 471, facsimile: Handwritten text; seefootnote 320.

Transcriber’s Errata List

Page 45, portrait caption: Now attributed to Piero del Pollaiolo.

Page 440, signature line of letter: In the original, the C and the S at the ends of these words have tildes over them, signifying abbreviations. In the absence of appropriate HTML characters, carons are used instead.

Page 471, facsimile: Handwritten text; seefootnote 320.

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