[4] From a letter of King Emanuel of Portugal, it appears that Ximenes had endeavored to interest him, together with the kings of Aragon and England, in a crusade to the Holy Land. There was much method in his madness, if we may judge from the careful survey he had procured of the coast, as well as his plan of operations. The Portuguese monarch praises in round terms the edifying zeal of the primate, but wisely confined himself to his own crusades in India, which were likely to make better returns, at least in this world, than those to Palestine. The letter is still preserved in the archives of Alcalá; see a copy in Quintanilla, Archetype, Apend. no. 16.
[5] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 15.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 77.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1507.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 28, cap. 15; lib. 29, cap. 9.
[6] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 418.
[7] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 96-100.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 413.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 7.
[8] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 100-102.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, ubi supra.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 19.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218.
[9] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., ubi supra.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 30.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 108.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Ximenez.
[10] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 108-110.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 19.—Zurita, Anales, lib. 8, cap. 30.
[11] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 418.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 110, 111.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 18.
[12] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, ubi supra.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 22.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., ubi supra.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 19.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1509.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 15.
[13] "Sed tandem somnus ex labore et vino obortus eos oppressit, et cruentis hostium cadaveribus tantâ securitate et fiduciâ indormierunt, ut permulti in Oranis urbis plateis ad multam diem stertuerint." Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 111.
[14] To accommodate the Christians, as the day was far advanced when the action began, the sun was permitted to stand still several hours; there is some discrepancy as to the precise number; most authorities, however, make it four. There is no miracle in the whole Roman Catholic budget, better vouched than this. It is recorded by four eye-witnesses, men of learning and character. It is attested, moreover, by a cloud of witnesses, who depose to have received it, some from tradition, others from direct communication with their ancestors present in the action; and who all agree that it was matter of public notoriety and belief at the time. See the whole formidable array of evidence set forth by Quintanilla. (Archetypo, pp. 236 et seq. and Apend. p. 103.) It was scarcely to have been expected that so astounding a miracle should escape the notice of all Europe, where it must have been as apparent as at Oran. This universal silence may be thought, indeed, the greater miracle of the two.
[15] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 22.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 113.—Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 22.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 15.
[16] Fléchier, Histoire de Ximenes, pp. 308, 309.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 18.
[17] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 3, p. 107.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 117.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 16.—"The worthy brother," says Sandoval of the prelate, "thought his archbishopric worth more than the good graces of a covetous old monarch."
[18] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 420.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 118.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 20.
[19] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 20.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 119, 120.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 30.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 22.
[20] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 9, cap. 1, 2, 4, 13.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 435-437.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 20.— Mariana, Hist. de España, lib. 29, cap. 22.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 122-124.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 222.—Zurita gives at length the capitulation with Algiers, lib. 9, cap. 13.
[21] Chénier, Recherches sur les Manures, tom. ii. pp. 355, 356.—It is but just to state, that this disaster was imputable to Don Garcia de Toledo, who had charge of the expedition, and who expiated his temerity with his life. He was eldest son of the old duke of Alva, and father of that nobleman, who subsequently acquired such gloomy celebrity by his conquests and cruelties in the Netherlands. The tender poet, Garcilasso de la Vega, offers sweet incense to the house of Toledo, in one of his pastorals, in which he mourns over the disastrous day of Gelves;
"O patria lagrimosa, i como buelves los ojos a los Gelves sospirando!"
The death of the young nobleman is veiled under a beautiful simile, which challenges comparison with the great masters of Latin and Italian song, from whom the Castilian bard derived it.
"Puso en el duro suelo la hermosa cara, como la rosa matutina, cuando ya el sol declina 'l medio dia; que pierde su alegria, i marchitando va la color mudando; o en el campo cual queda el lirio blanco, qu' el arado crudamente cortado al passar dexa; del cual aun no s' alexa pressuroso aquel color hermoso, o se destierra; mas ya la madre tierra descuidada, no l' administra nada de su aliento, qu' era el sustentamiento i vigor suyo; tal esta el rostro tuyo en el arena, fresca rosa, acucena blanea i pura." Garcilasso de la Vega, Obras, ed. de Herrera, pp. 507, 508.
[22] The reader may feel some curiosity respecting the fate of count Pedro Navarro. He soon after this went to Italy, where he held a high command, and maintained his reputation in the wars of that country, until he was taken by the French in the great battle of Ravenna. Through the carelessness or coldness of Ferdinand he was permitted to languish in captivity, till he took his revenge by enlisting in the service of the French monarch. Before doing this, however, he resigned his Neapolitan estates, and formally renounced his allegiance to the Catholic king; of whom, being a Navarese by birth, he was not a native subject. He unfortunately fell into the hands of his own countrymen in one of the subsequent actions in Italy, and was imprisoned at Naples, in Castel Nuovo, which he had himself formerly gained from the French. Here he soon after died; if we are to believe Brantôme, being privately despatched by command of Charles V., or, as other writers intimate, by his own hand. His remains, first deposited in an obscure corner of the church of Santa Maria, were afterwards removed to the chapel of the great Gonsalvo, and a superb mausoleum was erected over them by the prince of Sessa, grandson of the hero. Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 124.—Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. pp. 226, 289, 406.—Brantôme, Vies des Hommes Illustres, disc. 9. —Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, pp. 190-193.
[23] Ximenes continued to watch over the city which he had so valiantly won, long after his death. He never failed to be present in seasons of extraordinary peril. At least the gaunt, gigantic figure of a monk, dressed in the robes of his order, and wearing a cardinal's hat, was seen, sometimes stalking along the battlements at midnight, and, at others, mounted on a white charger and brandishing a naked sword in the thick of the fight. His last appearance was in 1643, when Oran was closely beleaguered by the Algerines. A sentinel on duty saw a figure moving along the parapet one clear, moonlight night, dressed in a Franciscan frock, with a general's baton in his hand. As soon as it was hailed by the terrified soldier, it called to him to "tell the garrison to be of good heart, for the enemy should not prevail against them." Having uttered these words, the apparition vanished without ceremony. It repeated its visit in the same manner on the following night, and, a few days after, its assurance was verified by the total discomfiture of the Algerines, in a bloody battle under the walls. See the evidence of these various apparitions, as collected, for the edification of the court of Rome, by that prince of miracle-mongers, Quintanilla. (Archetypo, pp. 317, 335, 338, 340.) Bishop Fléchier appears to have no misgivings as to the truth of these old wives' tales. (Histoire de Ximenés, liv. 6.)
Oran, after resisting repeated assaults by the Moors, was at length so much damaged by an earthquake, in 1790, that it was abandoned, and its Spanish garrison and population were transferred to the neighboring city of Mazarquivir.
[24] The custom, familiar at the present day, of depositing coins and other tokens, with inscriptions bearing the names of the architect and founder and date of the building, under the corner-stone was observed on this occasion, where it is noticed as of ancient usage,more prisco. Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 28.
[25] Fléchier, Histoire de Ximenés, p. 597.
[26] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 16.— Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. 178.—Colmenar, Délices de l'Espagne, tom. ii. pp. 308-310.—Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 7,—who notices particularly the library, "piena di molti libri et Latini et Greci et Hebraici."
The good people accused the cardinal of too great a passion for building; and punningly said, "The church of Toledo had never had a bishop of greateredification, in every, sense than Ximenes." Fléchier, Histoire de Ximenés, p. 597.
[27] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 79.
[28] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 82-84.
[29] Navagiero says, it was prescribed the lectures should be in Latin. Viaggio, fol. 7.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 16.
Of these professorships, six were appropriated to theology; six to canon law; four to medicine; one to anatomy; one to surgery; eight to the arts, as they were called, embracing logic, physics, and metaphysics; one to ethics; one to mathematics; four to the ancient languages; four to rhetoric; and six to grammar. One is struck with the disproportion of the mathematical studies to the rest. Though an important part of general education, and consequently of the course embraced in most universities, it had too little reference to a religious one, to find much favor with the cardinal.
[30] Lampillas, in his usual patriotic vein, stoutly maintains that the chairs of the university were all supplied by native Spaniards. "Trovó in Spagna," he says of the cardinal, "tutta quella scelta copia di grandi uomini, quali richiedeva la grande impresa," etc. (Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. i, part. 2, p. 160.) Alvaro Gomez, who flourished two centuries earlier, and personally knew the professors, is the better authority. De Rebus Gestis, fol. 80-82.
[31] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 13.
Alvaro Gomez knew several of thesesavanswhose scholarship (and he was a competent judge) he notices with liberal panegyric. De Rebus Gestis, fol. 80 et seq.
[32] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.
[33] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 86.
The reader will readily call to mind the familiar anecdote of King Charles and Dr. Busby.
[34] "Alcalá de Henares," says Martyr in one of his early letters, "quae dicitur esse Complutum. Sit, vel ne, nil mihi curae." (Opus Epist., epist. 254.) These irreverent doubts were uttered before it had gained its literary celebrity. L. Marineo derives the nameComplutumfrom the abundant fruitfulness of the soil,—"cumplumiento que tiene de cada cosa." Cosas Memorables, fol. 13.
[35] Ximenes acknowledges his obligations to his Holiness, in particular for the Greek MSS. "Atque ex ipsis [exemplaribus] quidem Graeca Sanctitati tuae debemus; qui ex istâ Apostolicâ bibliothecâ antiquissimos tam Veteris quam Novi codices perquam humane ad nos misisti." Biblia Polyglotta, (Compluti, 1514-17,) Prólogo.
[36] "Maximam," says the cardinal in his Preface, "laboris nostri partem in eo praecipue fuisse versatam; ut et virorum in linguarum cognitione eminentissimorum operâ uteremur, et castigatissima omni ex parte vetustissimaque exemplaria pro archetypis haberemus; quorum quidem, tam Hebraeorum quam Graecorum ac Latinorum, multiplicem copiam, variis ex locis, non sine summo labore conquisivimus." Biblia Polyglotta, Compluti, Prólogo.
[37] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 39.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 10.
[38] Martyr speaks of Ximenes, in one of his epistles, as "doctrinâ singulari oppletum." (Opus Epist., epist. 108.) He speaks with more distrust in another; "Aiunt esse virum,si non literis, morum taraen sanctitate egregium." (Epist. 160.) This was written some years later, when he had better knowledge of him.
[39] Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 3, cap. lo.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 38.
The scholars employed in the compilation were the venerable Lebrija, the learned Nuñez, or Pinciano, of whom the reader has had some account, Lopez de Zuñiga, a controversialist of Erasmus, Bartholomeo de Castro, the famous Greek Demetrius Cretensis, and Juan de Vergara;—all thorough linguists, especially in the Greek and Latin. To these were joined Paulo Coronel, Alfonso a physician, and Alfonso Zamora, converted Jews, and familiar with the Oriental languages. Zamora has the merit of the philological compilations relative to the Hebrew and Chaldaic, in the last volume, lidem auct. ut supra; et Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.
[40] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 10.
[41] The work was originally put at the extremely low price of six ducats and a half a copy. (Biblia Polyglotta Compluti, Praefix.) As only 600 copies, however, were struck off, it has become exceedingly rare and valuable. According to Brunei, it has been sold as high as £63.
[42] "Industriâ et solertiâ honorabilis viri Arnaldi Guillelmi de Brocario, artis impressoris Magistri. Anno Domini 1517. Julii die decimo." Biblia Polyglotta Compluti. Postscript to 4th and last part of Vetus Test.
[43] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 38. The part devoted to the Old Testament contains the Hebrew original with the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint version, and the Chaldaic paraphrase, with Latin translations by the Spanish scholars. The New Testament was printed in the original Greek, with the Vulgate of Jerome. After the completion of this work, the cardinal projected an edition of Aristotle on the same scale, which was unfortunately defeated by his death. Ibid., fol. 39.
[44] The principal controversy on this subject was carried on in Germany between Wetstein and Goeze; the former impugning, the latter defending the Complutensian Bible. The cautious and candid Michaelis, whose prepossessions appear to have been on the side of Goeze, decides ultimately, after his own examination, in favor of Wetstein, as regards the value of the MSS. employed; not however as relates to the grave charge of wilfully accommodating the Greek text to the Vulgate. See the grounds and merits of the controversy, apud Michaelis, Introduction to the New Testament, translated by Marsh, vol. ii. part 1, chap. 12, sec. 1; part 2, notes.
[45] Professor Moldenhauer, of Germany, visited Alcalá in 1784, for the interesting purpose of examining the MSS. used in the Complutensian Polyglot. He there learned that they had all been disposed of, as so much waste paper, (membranas inutiles) by the librarian of that time to a rocket-maker of the town, who soon worked them up in the regular way of his vocation! He assigns no reason for doubting the truth of the story. The name of the librarian, unfortunately, is not recorded. It would have been as imperishable as that of Omar. Marsh's Michaelis, vol. ii. part l, chap. 12, sec. 1, note.
[46] The celebrated text of "the three witnesses," formerly cited in the Trinitarian controversy, and which Porson so completely overturned, rests in part on what Gibbon calls "the honest bigotry of the Complutensian editors." One of the three Greek manuscripts, in which that text is found, is a forgery from the Polyglot of Alcalá, according to Mr. Norton, in his recent work, "The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels," (Boston, 1837, vol. i. Additional Notes, p. xxxix.),—a work which few can be fully competent to criticize, but which no person can peruse without confessing the acuteness and strength of its reasoning, the nice discrimination of its criticism, and the precision and purity of its diction. Whatever difference of opinion may be formed as to some of its conclusions, no one will deny that the originality and importance of its views make it a substantial accession to theological science; and that, within the range permitted by the subject, it presents, on the whole, one of the noblest specimens of scholarship, and elegance of composition, to be found in our youthful literature.
[47] "Accedit," says the editors of the Polyglot, adverting to the blunders of early transcribers, "ubicunque Latinorum codicum varietas est, aut depravatae lectionis suspitio (id quod librariorum imperitiâ simul et negligentiâ frequentissimè accidere videmus), ad primam Scriptunae originem recurrendum est." Biblia Polyglotta, Compluti, Prólogo.
[48] Tiraboschi adduces a Psalter, published in four of the ancient tongues, at Genoa, in 1516, as the first essay of a polyglot version. (Letteratura Italiana, tom. viii. p. 191.) Lampillas does not fail to add this enormity to the black catalogue which he has mustered against the librarian of Modena. (Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. part. 2, p. 290.) The first three volumes of the Complutensian Bible were printed before 1516, although the whole work did not pass the press till the following year.
[49] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Ximeni.
Ferdinand and Isabella conceded liberal grants and immunities to Alcalá on more than one occasion. Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 43, 45.
[50] Erasmus, in a letter to his friend Vergara, in 1527, perpetrates a Greek pun on the classic name of Alcalá, intimating the highest opinion of the state of science there. "Gratulor tibi, ornatissime adolescens, gratulor vestrae Hispaniae ad pristinam eruditionis laudem veluti postliminio reflorescenti. Gratulor Compluto, quod duorum praesulum Francisci et Alfonsi felicibus auspiciis sic efflorescit omni genere studiorum, ut jure optimopamploutonappellare possimus." Epistolae, p. 771.
[51] Quintanilla is for passing the sum total of the good works of these worthies of Alcalá to the credit of its founder. They might serve as a makeweight to turn the scale in favor of his beatification. Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.
League of Cambray.—Alarm of Ferdinand.—Holy League.—Battle of Ravenna.—Death of Gaston de Foix.—Retreat of the French.—The SpaniardsVictorious.
The domestic history of Spain, after Ferdinand's resumption of the regency, contains few remarkable events. Its foreign relations were more important. Those with Africa have been already noticed, and we must now turn to Italy and Navarre.
The possession of Naples necessarily brought Ferdinand within the sphere of Italian politics. He showed little disposition, however, to avail himself of it for the further extension of his conquests. Gonsalvo, indeed, during his administration, meditated various schemes for the overthrow of the French power in Italy, but with a view rather to the preservation than enlargement of his present acquisitions. After the treaty with Louis the Twelfth, even these designs were abandoned, and the Catholic monarch seemed wholly occupied with the internal affairs of his kingdom, and the establishment of his rising empire in Africa. [1]
The craving appetite of Louis the Twelfth, on the other hand, sharpened by the loss of Naples, sought to indemnify itself by more ample acquisitions in the north. As far back as 1504, he had arranged a plan with the emperor, for the partition of the continental possessions of Venice, introducing it into one of those abortive treaties at Blois for the marriage of his daughter. [2] The scheme is said to have been communicated to Ferdinand in the royal interview at Savona. No immediate action followed, and it seems probable that the latter monarch, with his usual circumspection, reserved his decision until he should be more clearly satisfied of the advantages to himself. [3]
At length the projected partition was definitely settled by the celebrated treaty of Cambray, December 10th, 1508, between Louis the Twelfth and the emperor Maximilian, in which the pope, King Ferdinand, and all princes who had any claims for spoliations by the Venetians, were invited to take part. The share of the spoil assigned to the Catholic monarch was the five Neapolitan cities, Trani, Brindisi, Gallipoli, Pulignano, and Otranto, pledged to Venice for considerable sums advanced by her during the late war. [4] The Spanish court, and, not long after, Julius the Second, ratified the treaty, although it was in direct contravention of the avowed purpose of the pontiff to chase thebarbariansfrom Italy. It was his bold policy, however, to make use of them first for the aggrandizement of the church, and then to trust to his augmented strength and more favorable opportunities for eradicating them altogether.
Never was there a project more destitute of principle or sound policy. There was not one of the contracting parties, who was not at that very time in close alliance with the state, the dismemberment of which he was plotting. As a matter of policy, it went to break down the principal barrier, on which each of these powers could rely for keeping in check the overweening ambition of its neighbors, and maintaining the balance of Italy. [5] The alarm of Venice was quieted for a time by assurances from the courts of France and Spain, that the league was solely directed against the Turks, accompanied by the most hypocritical professions of good-will, and amicable offers to the republic. [6]
The preamble of the treaty declares, that, it being the intention of the allies to support the pope in a crusade against the infidel, they first proposed to recover from Venice the territories of which she had despoiled the church and other powers, to the manifest hindrance of these pious designs. The more flagitious the meditated enterprise, the deeper was the veil of hypocrisy thrown over it in this corrupt age. The true reasons for the confederacy are to be found in a speech delivered at the German diet, some time after, by the French minister Hélian. "We," he remarks, after enumerating various enormities of the republic, "we wear no fine purple; feast from no sumptuous services of plate; have no coffers overflowing with gold. We are barbarians. Surely," he continues in another place, "if it is derogatory to princes to act the part of merchants, it is unbecoming in merchants to assume the state of princes." [7] This, then, was the true key to the conspiracy against Venice; envy of her superior wealth and magnificence, hatred engendered by her too arrogant bearing, and lastly the evil eye, with which kings naturally regard the movements of an active, aspiring republic. [8]
To secure the co-operation of Florence, the kings of France and Spain agreed to withdraw their protection from Pisa, for a stipulated sum of money. There is nothing in the whole history of the merchant princes of Venice so mercenary and base, as this bartering away for gold the independence, for which this little republic had been so nobly contending for more than fourteen years. [9]
Early in April, 1509, Louis the Twelfth crossed the Alps at the head of a force which bore down all opposition. City and castle fell before him, and his demeanor to the vanquished, over whom he had no rights beyond the ordinary ones of war, was that of an incensed master taking vengeance on his rebellious vassals. In revenge for his detention before Peschiera, he hung the Venetian governor and his son from the battlements. This was an outrage on the laws of chivalry, which, however hard they bore on the peasant, respected those of high degree. Louis's rank, and his heart it seems, unhappily, raised him equally above sympathy with either class. [10]
On the 14th of May was fought the bloody battle of Agnadel, which broke the power of Venice, and at once decided the fate of the war. [11] Ferdinand had contributed nothing to these operations, except by his diversion on the side of Naples, where he possessed himself without difficulty of the cities allotted to his share. They were the cheapest, and if not the most valuable, were the most permanent acquisitions of the war, being reincorporated in the monarchy of Naples.
Then followed the memorable decree, by which Venice released her continental provinces from their allegiance, authorizing them to provide in any way they could for their safety; a measure, which, whether originating in panic or policy, was perfectly consonant with the latter. [12] The confederates, who had remained united during the chase, soon quarrelled over the division of the spoil. Ancient jealousies revived. The republic, with cool and consummate diplomacy, availed herself of this state of feeling.
Pope Julius, who had gained all that he had proposed, and was satisfied with the humiliation of Venice, now felt all his former antipathies and distrust of the French return in full force. The rising flame was diligently fanned by the artful emissaries of the republic, who at length effected a reconciliation on her behalf with the haughty pontiff. The latter, having taken this direction, went forward in it with his usual impetuosity. He planned a new coalition for the expulsion of the French, calling on the other allies to take part in it. Louis retaliated by summoning a council to inquire into the pope's conduct, and by marching his troops into the territories of the church. [13]
The advance of the French, who had now got possession of Bologna, alarmed Ferdinand. He had secured the objects for which he had entered into the war, and was loath to be diverted from enterprises in which he was interested nearer home, "I know not," writes Peter Martyr, at this time, "on what the king will decide. He is intent on following up his African conquests. He feels natural reluctance at breaking with his French ally. But I do not well see how he can avoid supporting the pope and the church, not only as the cause of religion, but of freedom. For if the French get possession of Rome, the liberties of all Italy and of every state in Europe are in peril." [14]
The Catholic king viewed it in this light, and sent repeated and earnest remonstrances to Louis the Twelfth, against his aggressions on the church, beseeching him not to interrupt the peace of Christendom, and his own pious purpose, more particularly, of spreading the banners of the Cross over the infidel regions of Africa. The very sweet and fraternal tone of these communications filled the king of France, says Guicciardini, with much distrust of his royal brother; and he was heard to say, in allusion to the great preparations which the Spanish monarch was making by sea and land, "I am the Saracen against whom they are directed." [14]
To secure Ferdinand more to his interests, the pope granted him the investiture, so long withheld, of Naples, on the same easy terms on which it was formerly held by the Aragonese line. His Holiness further released him from the obligation of his marriage treaty, by which the moiety of Naples was to revert to the French crown, in case of Germaine's dying without issue. This dispensing power of the successors of St. Peter, so convenient for princes in their good graces, is undoubtedly the severest tax ever levied by superstition on human reason. [15]
On the 4th of October, 1511, a treaty was concluded between Julius the Second, Ferdinand, and Venice, with the avowed object of protecting the church,—in other words, driving the French out of Italy. [16] From the pious purpose to which it was devoted, it was called the Holy League. The quota to be furnished by the king of Aragon was twelve hundred heavy and one thousand light cavalry, ten thousand foot, and a squadron of eleven galleys, to act in concert with the Venetian fleet. The combined forces were to be placed under the command of Hugo de Cardona, viceroy of Naples, a person of polished and engaging address, but without the resolution or experience requisite to military success. The rough old pope sarcastically nicknamed him "Lady Cardona." It was an appointment, that would certainly have never been made by Queen Isabella. Indeed, the favor shown this nobleman on this and other occasions was so much beyond his deserts, as to raise a suspicion in many, that he was more nearly allied by blood to Ferdinand, than was usually imagined. [17]
Early in 1512, France, by great exertions, and without a single confederate out of Italy, save the false and fluctuating emperor, got an army into the field superior to that of the allies in point of numbers, and still more so in the character of its commander. This was Gaston de Foix, duke de Nemours, and brother of the queen of Aragon. Though a boy in years, for he was but twenty-two, he was ripe in understanding, and possessed consummate military talents. He introduced a severer discipline into his army, and an entirely new system of tactics. He looked forward to his results with stern indifference to the means by which they were to be effected. He disregarded the difficulties of the roads, and the inclemency of the season, which had hitherto put a check on military operations. Through the midst of frightful morasses, or in the depth of winter snows, he performed his marches with a celerity unknown in the warfare of that age. In less than a fortnight after leaving Milan, he relieved Bologna, then besieged by the allies, made a countermarch on Brescia, defeated a detachment by the way, and the whole Venetian army under its walls; and, on the same day with the last event, succeeded in carrying the place by storm. After a few weeks' dissipation of the carnival, he again put himself in motion, and, descending on Ravenna, succeeded in bringing the allied army to a decisive action under its walls. Ferdinand, well understanding the peculiar characters of the French and of the Spanish soldier, had cautioned his general to adopt the Fabian policy of Gonsalvo, and avoid a close encounter as long as possible. [18]
This battle, fought with the greatest numbers, was also the most murderous, which had stained the fair soil of Italy for a century. No less than eighteen or twenty thousand, according to authentic accounts, fell in it, comprehending the best blood of France and Italy. [19] The viceroy Cardona went off somewhat too early for his reputation. But the Spanish infantry, under the count Pedro Navarro, behaved in a style worthy of the school of Gonsalvo. During the early part of the day, they lay on the ground, in a position which sheltered them from the deadly artillery of Este, then the best mounted and best served of any in Europe. When at length, as the tide of battle was going against them, they were brought into the field, Navarro led them at once against a deep column of landsknechts, who, armed with the long German pike, were bearing down all before them. The Spaniards received the shock of this formidable weapon on the mailed panoply with which their bodies were covered, and, dexterously gliding into the hostile ranks, contrived with their short swords to do such execution on the enemy, unprotected except by corselets in front, and incapable of availing themselves of their long weapon, that they were thrown into confusion, and totally discomfited. It was repeating the experiment more than once made during these wars, but never on so great a scale, and it fully established the superiority of the Spanish arms. [20]
The Italian infantry, which had fallen back before the landsknechts, now rallied under cover of the Spanish charge; until at length the overwhelming clouds of French gendarmerie, headed by Ives d'Allègre, who lost his own life in themêlée, compelled the allies to give ground. The retreat of the Spaniards, however, was conducted with admirable order, and they preserved their ranks unbroken, as they repeatedly turned to drive back the tide of pursuit. At this crisis, Gaston de Foix, flushed with success, was so exasperated by the sight of this valiant corps going off in so cool and orderly a manner from the field, that he made a desperate charge at the head of his chivalry, in hopes of breaking it. Unfortunately, his wounded horse fell under him. It was in vain his followers called out, "It is our viceroy, the brother of your queen!" The words had no charm for a Spanish ear, and he was despatched with a multitude of wounds. He received fourteen or fifteen in the face; good proof, says theloyal serviteur, "that the gentle prince had never turned his back." [21]
There are few instances in history, if indeed there be any, of so brief, and at the same time so brilliant a military career, as that of Gaston de Foix; and it well entitled him to the epithet his countrymen gave him of the "thunderbolt of Italy." [22] He had not merely given extraordinary promise, but in the course of a very few months had achieved such results, as might well make the greatest powers of the peninsula tremble for their possessions. His precocious military talents, the early age at which he assumed the command of armies, as well as many peculiarities of his discipline and tactics, suggest some resemblance to the beginning of Napoleon's career.
Unhappily, his brilliant fame is sullied by a recklessness of human life, the more odious in one too young to be steeled by familiarity with the iron trade to which he was devoted. It may be fair, however, to charge this on the age rather than on the individual, for surely never was there one characterized by greater brutality, and more unsparing ferocity in its wars. [23] So little had the progress of civilization done for humanity. It is not until a recent period, that a more generous spirit has operated; that a fellow-creature has been understood not to forfeit his rights as a man, because he is an enemy; that conventional laws have been established, tending greatly to mitigate the evils of a condition, which with every alleviation is one of unspeakable misery; and that those who hold the destinies of nations in their hands have been made to feel, that there is less true glory, and far less profit, to be derived from war, than from the wise prevention of it.
The defeat at Ravenna struck a panic into the confederates. The stout heart of Julius the Second faltered, and it required all the assurances of the Spanish and Venetian ministers to keep him staunch to his purpose. King Ferdinand issued orders to the Great Captain to hold himself in readiness for taking the command of forces to be instantly raised for Naples. There could be no better proof of the royal consternation. [24]
The victory of Ravenna, however, was more fatal to the French than to their foes. The uninterrupted successes of a commander are so far unfortunate, that they incline his followers, by the brilliant illusion they throw around his name, to rely less on their own resources, than on him whom they have hitherto found invincible; and thus subject their own destiny to all the casualties which attach to the fortunes of a single individual. The death of Gaston de Foix seemed to dissolve the only bond which held the French together. The officers became divided, the soldiers disheartened, and, with the loss of their young hero, lost all interest in the service. The allies, advised of this disorderly state of the army, recovered confidence, and renewed their exertions. Through Ferdinand's influence over his son-in-law, Henry the Eighth of England, the latter had been induced openly to join the League in the beginning of the present year. [25] The Catholic king had the address, moreover, just before the battle to detach the emperor from France, by effecting a truce between him and Venice. [26] The French, now menaced and pressed on every side, began their retreat under the brave La Palice, and, to such an impotent state were they reduced, that, in less than three months after the fatal victory, they were at the foot of the Alps, having abandoned not only their recent, but all their conquests in the north of Italy. [27]
The same results now took place as in the late war against Venice. The confederates quarrelled over the division of the spoil. The republic, with the largest claims, obtained the least concessions. She felt that she was to be made to descend to an inferior rank in the scale of nations. Ferdinand earnestly remonstrated with the pope, and subsequently, by means of his Venetian minister, with Maximilian, on this mistaken policy. [28] But the indifference of the one, and the cupidity of the other, were closed against argument. The result was precisely what the prudent monarch foresaw. Venice was driven into the arms of her perfidious ancient ally, and on the 23d of March, 1513, a definitive treaty was arranged with France for their mutual defence. [29] Thus the most efficient member was alienated from the confederacy. All the recent advantages of the allies were compromised. New combinations were to be formed, and new and interminable prospects of hostility opened.
Ferdinand, relieved from immediate apprehensions of the French, took comparatively little interest in Italian politics. He was too much occupied with settling his conquests in Navarre. The army, indeed, under Cardona still kept the field in the north of Italy. The viceroy, after re-establishing the Medici in Florence, remained inactive. The French, in the mean while, had again mustered in force, and crossing the mountains encountered the Swiss in a bloody battle at Novara, where the former were entirely routed. Cardona, then rousing from his lethargy, traversed the Milanese without opposition, laying waste the ancient territories of Venice, burning the palaces and pleasure-houses of its lordly inhabitants on the beautiful banks of the Brenta, and approaching so near to the "Queen of the Adriatic" as to throw a few impotent balls into the monastery of San Secondo.
The indignation of the Venetians and of Alviano, the same general who had fought so gallantly under Gonsalvo at the Garigliano, hurried them into an engagement with the allies near La Motta, at two miles' distance from Vicenza. Cardona, loaded with booty and entangled among the mountain passes, was assailed under every disadvantage. The German allies gave way before the impetuous charge of Alviano, but the Spanish infantry stood its ground unshaken, and by extraordinary discipline and valor succeeded in turning the fortunes of the day. More than four thousand of the enemy were left on the field, and a large number of prisoners, including many of rank, with all the baggage and artillery, fell into the hands of the victors. [30]
Thus ended the campaign of 1513; the French driven again beyond the mountains; Venice cooped up within her sea-girt fastnesses, and compelled to enrol her artisans and common laborers in her defence,—but still strong in resources, above all in the patriotism and unconquerable spirit of her people. [31]
* * * * *
Count Daru has supplied the desideratum, so long standing, of a full, authentic history of a state, whose institutions were the admiration of earlier times, and whose long stability and success make them deservedly an object of curiosity and interest to our own. The style of the work, at once lively and condensed, is not that best suited to historic writing, being of the piquant, epigrammatic kind, much affected by French writers. The subject, too, of the revolutions of empire, does not afford room for the dramatic interest, attaching to works which admit of more extended biographical development. Abundant interest will be found, however, in the dexterity with which he has disentangled the tortuous politics of the republic; in the acute and always sensible reflections with which he clothes the dry skeleton of fact; and in the novel stores of information he has opened. The foreign policy of Venice excited too much interest among friends and enemies in the day of her glory, not to occupy the pens of the most intelligent writers. But no Italian chronicler, not even one intrusted with the office by the government itself, has been able to exhibit the interior workings of the complicated machinery so satisfactorily as M. Daru has done, with the aid of those voluminous state papers, which were as jealously guarded from inspection, until the downfall of the republic, as the records of the Spanish Inquisition.
[1] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iii. lib. 5, p. 257, ed. Milano, 1803.— Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 7, 9, et alibi.
[2] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. part. 1, no. 30.—Flassan, Diplomatie Française, tom. i. pp. 282, 283.
[3] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 78.
[4] Flassan, Diplomatie Française, tom. i. lib. 2, p. 283.—Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. part 1, no. 52.
[5] This argument, used by Machiavelli against Louis's rupture with Venice, applies with more or less force to all the other allies. Opere, Il Principe, cap. 3.
[6] Du Bos, Ligue de Cambray, tom. i. pp. 66, 67.—Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 36, 37. Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 141.—Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, tom. ii. lib. 7.
[7] See a liberal extract from this harangue, apud Daru, Hist. de Venise, tom. iii. liv. 23,—also apud Du Bos, Ligue de Cambray, tom. i. p. 240 et seq.—The old poet, Jean Marot, sums up the sins of the republic in the following verse:
"Autre Dieu n'ont que l'or, c'est leur créance."
Oeuvres de Clément Marot, avec les Ouvrages de Jean Marot, (La Haye, 1731,) tom. v. p. 71.
[8] See the undisguised satisfaction, with which Martyr, a Milanese, predicts (Opus Epist., epist. 410), and Guicciardini, a Florentine, records the humiliation of Venice. (Istoria, lib. 4, p. 137.) The arrogance of the rival republic does not escape the satirical lash of Machiavelli;
"San Marco, impetuoso ed importuno,Credendosi haver sempre il vento in poppa,Non si curu di rovinare ognuno;Ne vidde come la potenza troppaEra nociva."Dell' Asino d'Oro, cap. 5.
[9] Mariana, Hist. de España, lib. 29, cap. 15.—Ammirato, Istorie Florentine, tom. iii. lib. 28, p. 286.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 423.
Louis XII. was in alliance with Florence, but insisted on 100,000 ducats as the price of his acquiescence in her recovery of Pisa. Ferdinand, or rather his general, Gonsalvo de Cordova, had taken Pisa under his protection, and the king insisted on 50,000 ducats for his abandonment of her. This honorable transaction resulted in the payment of the respective amounts to the royal jobbers; the 50,000 excess of Louis's portion being kept a profound secret from Ferdinand, who was made to believe by the parties that his ally received only a like sum with himself. Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. pp. 78, 80, 156, 157.
[10] Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 30.—Fleurange, Mémoires, chap. 8.— Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 183.
Jean Marot describes the execution in the following cool and summary style.
"Ce chastelain de là, aussi le capitaine,Pour la derrision et response vilaineQu'ils firent au hérault, furent pris et sanglezPuis devant tout le monde pendus et estranglez."Oeuvres, tom. v. p. 158.
[11] The fullest account, probably, of the action is in the "Voyage de Venise" of Jean Marot. (Oeuvres, tom. v. pp. 124-139.) This pioneer of French song, since eclipsed by his more polished son, accompanied his master, Louis XII., on his Italian expedition, as his poet chronicler; and the subject has elicited occasionally some sparks of poetic fire, though struck out with a rude hand. The poem is so conscientious in its facts and dates, that it is commended by a French critic as the most exact record of the Italian campaign. Ibid. Remarques, p. 16.
[12] Foreign historians impute this measure to the former motive, the Venetians to the latter. The cool and deliberate conduct of this government, from which all passion, to use the language of the abbé Du Bos, seems to have been banished, may authorize our acquiescence in the statement most flattering to the national vanity. See the discussion apud Ligue de Cambray, pp. 126 et seq.
[13] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 221.—Fleurange, Mémoires, chap. 7.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 416.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. pp. 178, 179, 190, 191; tom. v. pp. 71, 82-86.—Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 7, 9, 10.
[14] Opus Epist., epist. 465.-Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 46.—Fleurange, Mémoires, chap. 26.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 225.
[14] Istoria, lib. 9, p. 135.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1511.— Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 225.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 465.
Machiavelli's friend Vettori, in one of his letters, speaks of the Catholic king as the principal author of the new coalition against France, and notices three hundred lances which he furnished the pope in advance, for this purpose. (Machiavelli, Opere, Lettere Famigliari, no. 8.) He does not seem to understand that these lances were part of the services due for the fief of Naples. The letter above quoted of Martyr, a more competent and unsuspicious authority, shows Ferdinand's sincere aversion to a rupture with Louis at the present juncture; and a subsequent passage of the same epistle shows him too much in earnest in his dissuasives, to be open to the charge of insincerity. "Ut mitibus verbis ipsum, Reginam ejus uxorem, ut consiliarios omnes Cabanillas alloquatur, ut agant apud regem suum de pace, dat in frequentibus mandatis." Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., ubi supra.—See further, epist. 454.
[15] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., no. 441.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 24.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 164.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 18.
The act of investiture was dated July 3d, 1510. In the following August, the pontiff remitted the feudal services for the annual tribute of a white palfrey, and the aid of 300 lances when the estates of the church should be invaded. (Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 9, cap. 11.) The pope had hitherto refused the investiture, except on the most exorbitant terms; which so much disgusted Ferdinand, that he passed by Ostia on his return from Naples, without condescending to meet his Holiness, who was waiting there for a personal interview with him. Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 353.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 73.
[16] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. v. lib. 10, p. 207.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 30, cap. 5.—Rymer, Foedera, tom. xiii. pp. 305-308.
[17] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom., v. lib. 10, p. 208.—Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, tom. ii. lib. 12.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 30, cap. 5, 14.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 483.
Vettori, it seems, gave credence to the same suggestion. "Spagna ha sempre amato assai questo suo Vicerè, e per errore che abbia fatto non l'ha gustigato, ma più presto fatto più grande, e si può pensare, come molti dicono, chesia suo figlio, e che abbia in pensiero lasciarlo Re di Napoli." Machiavelli, Opere, let. di 16 Maggio, 1514.
According to Aleson, the king would have appointed Navarro to the post of commander-in-chief, had not his low birth disqualified him for it in the eyes of the allies. Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 12.
[18] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 230, 231.—Guicciardini,Istoria, tom. v. lib. 10, pp. 260-272.—Giovio, Vita Leonis X., apud VitaeIllust. Virorum, lib. 2, pp. 37, 38.—Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 48.—Fleurange, Mémoires, chap. 26-28.
[19] Ariosto introduces the bloody rout of Ravenna among the visions of Melissa; in which the courtly prophetess (or rather poet) predicts the glories of the house of Este.
"Nuoteranno i destrier fino alla panciaNel sangue uman per tutta la campagna;Ch' a seppellire il popol verrâ inancoTedesco, Ispano, Greco, Italo, e Franco."Orlando Furioso, canto 3, st. 55.
[20] Brantôme, Vies des Hommes Illustres, disc. 6.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. v. lib. 10, pp. 290-305.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 231, 233.—Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 54.—Du Bellay, Mémoires, apud Petitot, Collection des Mémoires, tom. xvii. p. 234.—Fleurange, Mémoires, chap. 29, 30.—Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, tom. ii. lib. 12.
Machiavelli does justice to the gallantry of this valiant corps, whose conduct on this occasion furnishes him with a pertinent illustration, in estimating the comparative value of the Spanish, or rather Roman arms, and the German. Opere, tom. iv., Arte della Guerra, lib. 2, p. 67.
[21] Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 54.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. v. lib. 10, pp. 306-309.—Peter Martyr, epist. 483.—Brantôme, Vies des Hommes Illustres, disc. 24.
The best, that is, the most perspicuous and animated description of the fight of Ravenna, among contemporary writers, will be found in Guicciardini (ubi supra); among the modern, in Sismondi, (Républiques Italiennes, tom. xiv. chap. 109,) an author, who has the rare merit of combining profound philosophical analysis with the superficial and picturesque graces of narrative.
[22] "Le foudre de l'Italie." (Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iv. p. 391.)— light authority, I acknowledge, even for asobriquet.
[23] One example may suffice, occurring in the war of the League, in 1510. When Vicenza was taken by the Imperialists, a number of the inhabitants, amounting to one, or, according to some accounts, six thousand, took refuge in a neighboring grotto, with their wives and children, comprehending many of the principal families of the place. A French officer, detecting their retreat, caused a heap of faggots to be piled up at the mouth of the cavern and set on fire. Out of the whole number of fugitives only one escaped with life; and the blackened and convulsed appearance of the bodies showed too plainly the cruel agonies of suffocation. (Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 40.—Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, tom. ii. lib. 10.) Bayard executed two of the authors of this diabolical act on the spot. But the "chevalier sans reproche" was an exception to, rather than an example of, the prevalent spirit of the age.
[24] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. v. lib. 10, pp. 310-312, 322, 323.— Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 7.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 30, cap. 9.—Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 3, p. 288.— Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1512.—See also Lettera di Vettori, Maggio 16, 1514, apud Machiavelli, Opere.
[25] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. p. 137.
He had become a party to it as early as November 17, of the preceding year; he deferred its publication, however, until he had received the last instalment of a subsidy, that Louis XII. was to pay him for the maintenance of peace. (Rymer, Foedera, tom. xiii. pp. 311-323.—Sismondi, Hist. des Français, tom. xv. p. 385.) Even the chivalrous Harry the Eighth could not escape the trickish spirit of the age.
[26] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. v. lib. 10, p. 320.
[27] Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 55.—Fleurange, Mémoires, chap. 31.— Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 380, 381.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. v. lib. 10, pp. 335, 336.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi; lib. 10, cap, 20.
[28] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 44-48.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. vi. lib. 11, p. 52.
Martyr reports a conversation that he had with the Venetian minister inSpain, touching this business. Opus Epist., epist. 520.
[29] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. part. 1, no. 86.
[30] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. vi. lib. 11, pp. 101-138.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 523.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 30, cap. 21.—Fleurange, Mémoires, chap. 36, 37.—Also an original letter of King Ferdinand to Archbishop Deza, apud Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 242.
Alviano died a little more than a year after this defeat, at sixty years of age. He was so much beloved by the soldiery, that they refused to be separated from his remains, which were borne at the head of the army for some weeks after his death. They were finally laid in the church of St. Stephen in Venice; and the senate, with more gratitude than is usually conceded to republics, settled an honorable pension on his family.
[31] Daru, Hist. de Venise, tom. iii. pp. 615, 616.
1512-1513.
Sovereigns of Navarre.—Ferdinand Demands a Passage.—Invasion andConquest of Navarre.—Treaty of Orthès.—Ferdinand Settles his Conquests.—His Conduct Examined.—Gross Abuse of the Victory.
While the Spaniards were thus winning barren laurels on the fields of Italy, King Ferdinand was making a most important acquisition of territory nearer home. The reader has already been made acquainted with the manner in which the bloody sceptre of Navarre passed from the hands of Eleanor, Ferdinand's sister, after a reign of a few brief days, into those of her grandson Phoebus. A fatal destiny hung over the house of Foix; and the latter prince lived to enjoy his crown only four years, when he was succeeded by his sister Catharine.
It was not to be supposed, that Ferdinand and Isabella, so attentive to enlarge their empire to the full extent of the geographical limits which nature seemed to have assigned it, would lose the opportunity now presented of incorporating into it the hitherto independent kingdom of Navarre, by the marriage of their own heir with its sovereign. All their efforts, however, were frustrated by the queen mother Magdaleine, sister of Louis the Eleventh, who, sacrificing the interests of the nation to her prejudices, evaded the proposed match, under various pretexts, and in the end effected a union between her daughter and a French noble, Jean d'Albret, heir to considerable estates in the neighborhood of Navarre. This was a most fatal error. The independence of Navarre had hitherto been maintained less through its own strength, than the weakness of its neighbors. But, now that the petty states around her had been absorbed into two great and powerful monarchies, it was not to be expected, that so feeble a barrier would be longer respected, or that it would not be swept away in the first collision of those formidable forces. But, although the independence of the kingdom must be lost, the princes of Navarre might yet maintain their station by a union with, the reigning family of France or Spain. By the present connection with a mere private individual they lost both the one and the other. [1]
Still the most friendly relations subsisted between the Catholic king and his niece during the lifetime of Isabella. The sovereigns assisted her in taking possession of her turbulent dominions, as well as in allaying the deadly feuds of the Beaumonts and Agramonts, with which they were rent asunder. They supported her with their arms in resisting her uncle Jean, viscount of Narbonne, who claimed the crown on the groundless pretext of its being limited to male heirs. [2] The alliance with Spain was drawn still closer by the avowed purpose of Louis the Twelfth to support his nephew, Gaston de Foix, in the claims of his deceased father. [3] The death of the young hero, however, at Ravenna, wholly changed the relations and feelings of the two countries. Navarre had nothing immediately to fear from France. She felt distrust of Spain on more than one account, especially for the protection afforded the Beaumontese exiles, at the head of whom was the young count of Lerin, Ferdinand's nephew. [4]
France, too, standing alone, and at bay against the rest of Europe, found the alliance of the little state of Navarre of importance to her, especially at the present juncture, when the project of an expedition against Guienne, by the combined armies of Spain and England, naturally made Louis the Twelfth desirous to secure the good-will of a prince, who might be said to wear the keys of the Pyrenees as the king of Sardinia did those of the Alps, at his girdle. With these amicable dispositions, the king and queen of Navarre despatched their plenipotentiaries to Blois, early in May, soon after the battle of Ravenna, with full powers to conclude a treaty of alliance and confederation with the French government. [5]
In the mean time, June 8th, an English squadron arrived at Passage, in Guipuscoa, having ten thousand men on board under Thomas Grey, marquis of Dorset, [6] in order to cooperate with King Ferdinand's army in the descent on Guienne. This latter force, consisting of two thousand five hundred horse, light and heavy, six thousand foot, and twenty pieces of artillery, was placed under Don Fadrique de Toledo, the old duke of Alva, grandfather of the general, who wrote his name in indelible characters of blood in the Netherlands, under Philip the Second. [7] Before making any movement, however, Ferdinand, who knew the equivocal dispositions of the Navarrese sovereigns, determined to secure himself from the annoyance which their strong position enabled them to give him on whatever route he adopted. He accordingly sent to request a free passage through their dominions, with the demand, moreover, that they should intrust six of their principal fortresses to such Navarrese as he should name, as a guarantee for their neutrality during the expedition. He accompanied this modest proposal with the alternative, that the sovereigns should become parties to the Holy League, engaging in that case to restore certain places in his possession, which they claimed, and pledging the whole strength of the confederacy to protect them against any hostile attempts of France. [8]
The situation of these unfortunate princes was in the highest degree embarrassing. The neutrality they had so long and sedulously maintained was now to be abandoned; and their choice, whichever party they espoused, must compromise their possessions on one or the other side of the Pyrenees, in exchange for an ally, whose friendship had proved by repeated experience quite as disastrous as his enmity. In this dilemma they sent ambassadors into Castile, to obtain some modification of the terms, or at least to protract negotiations till some definitive arrangement should be made with Louis the Twelfth. [9]
On the 17th of July, their plenipotentiaries signed a treaty with that monarch at Blois, by which France and Navarre mutually agreed to defend each other, in case of attack, against all enemies whatever. By another provision, obviously directed against Spain, it was stipulated, that neither nation should allow a passage to the enemies of the other through its dominions. And, by a third, Navarre pledged herself to declare war on the English now assembled in Guipuscoa, and all those co-operating with them. [10]
Through a singular accident, Ferdinand was made acquainted with the principal articles of this treaty before its signature. [11] His army had remained inactive in its quarters around Victoria, ever since the landing of the English. He now saw the hopelessness of further negotiation, and, determining to anticipate the stroke prepared for him, commanded his general to invade without delay, and occupy Navarre.
The duke of Alva crossed the borders on the 21st of July, proclaiming that no harm should be offered to those who voluntarily submitted. On the 23d, he arrived before Pampelona. King John, who all the while he had been thus dallying with the lion, had made no provision for defence, had already abandoned his capital, leaving it to make the best terms it could for itself. On the following day, the city, having first obtained assurance of respect for all its franchises and immunities, surrendered; "a circumstance," devoutly exclaims King Ferdinand, "in which we truly discern the hand of our blessed Lord, whose miraculous interposition has been visible through all this enterprise, undertaken for the weal of the church, and the extirpation of the accursed schism." [12]
The royal exile, in the mean while, had retreated to Lumbier, where he solicited the assistance of the duke of Longueville, then encamped on the northern frontier for the defence of Bayonne. The French commander, however, stood too much in awe of the English, still lying in Guipuscoa, to weaken himself by a detachment into Navarre; and the unfortunate monarch, unsupported, either by his own subjects or his new ally, was compelled to cross the mountains, and take refuge with his family in France. [13]
The duke of Alva lost no time in pressing his advantage; opening the way by a proclamation of the Catholic king, that it was intended only to hold possession of the country as security for the pacific disposition of its sovereigns, until the end of his present expedition against Guienne. From whatever cause, the Spanish general experienced so little resistance, that in less than a fortnight he overran and subdued nearly the whole of Upper Navarre. So short a time sufficed for the subversion of a monarchy, which, in defiance of storm and stratagem, had maintained its independence unimpaired, with a few brief exceptions, for seven centuries. [14]
On reviewing these extraordinary events, we are led to distrust the capacity and courage of a prince, who could so readily abandon his kingdom, without so much as firing a shot in its defence. John had shown, however, on more than one occasion, that he was destitute of neither. He was not, it must be confessed, of the temper best suited to the fierce and stirring times on which he was cast. He was of an amiable disposition, social and fond of pleasure, and so little jealous of his royal dignity, that he mixed freely in the dances and other entertainments of the humblest of his subjects. His greatest defect was the facility with which he reposed the cares of state on favorites, not always the most deserving. His greatest merit was his love of letters. [15] Unfortunately, neither his merits nor defects were of a kind best adapted to extricate him from his present perilous situation, or enable him to cope with his wily and resolute adversary. For this, however, more commanding talents might well have failed. The period had arrived, when, in the regular progress of events, Navarre must yield up her independence to the two great nations on her borders; who, attracted by the strength of her natural position, and her political weakness, would be sure, now that their own domestic discords were healed, to claim each the moiety, which seemed naturally to fall within its own territorial limits. Particular events might accelerate or retard this result, but it was not in the power of human genius to avert its final consummation.
King Ferdinand, who descried the storm now gathering on the side of France, resolved to meet it promptly, and commanded his general to cross the mountains, and occupy the districts of Lower Navarre. In this he expected the co-operation of the English. But he was disappointed. The marquis of Dorset alleged that the time consumed in the reduction of Navarre made it too late for the expedition against Guienne, which was now placed in a posture of defence. He loudly complained that his master had been duped by the Catholic king, who had used his ally to make conquests solely for himself; and, in spite of every remonstrance, he re-embarked his whole force, without waiting for orders; "a proceeding," says Ferdinand in one of his letters, "which touches me most deeply, from the stain it leaves on the honor of the most serene king my son-in-law, and the glory of the English nation, so distinguished in times past for high and chivalrous emprize." [16]
The duke of Alva, thus unsupported, was no match for the French under Longueville, strengthened, moreover, by the veteran corps returned from Italy, with the brave La Palice. Indeed, he narrowly escaped being hemmed in between the two armies, and only succeeded in anticipating by a few hours the movements of La Palice, so as to make good his retreat through the pass of Roncesvalles, and throw himself into Pampelona. [17] Hither he was speedily followed by the French general, accompanied by Jean d'Albret. On the 27th of November, the besiegers made a desperate though ineffectual assault on the city, which was repeated with equal ill fortune on the two following days. The beleaguering forces, in the mean time, were straitened for provisions; and at length, after a siege of some weeks, on learning the arrival of fresh reinforcements under the duke of Najara, [18] they broke up their encampment, and withdrew across the mountains; and with them faded the last ray of hope for the restoration of the unfortunate monarch of Navarre. [19]
On the 1st of April, in the following year, 1513, Ferdinand effected a truce with Louis the Twelfth, embracing their respective territories west of the Alps. It continued a year, and at its expiration was renewed for a similar time. [20] This arrangement, by which Louis sacrificed the interests of his ally the king of Navarre, gave Ferdinand ample time for settling and fortifying his new conquests; while it left the war open in a quarter, where he well knew, others were more interested than himself to prosecute it with vigor. The treaty must be allowed to be more defensible on the score of policy, than of good faith. [21] The allies loudly inveighed against the treachery of their confederate, who had so unscrupulously sacrificed the common interest, by relieving France from the powerful diversion he was engaged to make on her western borders. It is no justification of wrong, that similar wrongs have been committed by others; but those who commit them (and there was not one of the allies, who could escape the imputation, amid the political profligacy of the times,) certainly forfeit the privilege to complain. [22]
Ferdinand availed himself of the interval of repose, now secured, to settle his new conquests. He had transferred his residence first to Burgos and afterwards to Logroño, that he might be near the theatre of operations. He was indefatigable in raising reinforcements and supplies, and expressed his intention at one time, notwithstanding the declining state of his health, to take the command in person. He showed his usual sagacity in various regulations for improving the police, healing the domestic feuds,—as fatal to Navarre as the arms of its enemies,—and confirming and extending its municipal privileges and immunities, so as to conciliate the affections of his new subjects. [23]
On the 23d of March, 1513, the estates of Navarre took the usual oaths of allegiance to King Ferdinand. [24] On the 15th of June, 1515, the Catholic monarch by a solemn act in cortes, held at Burgos, incorporated his new conquests into the kingdom of Castile. [25] The event excited some surprise, considering his more intimate relations with Aragon. But it was to the arms of Castile that he was chiefly indebted for the conquest; and it was on her superior wealth and resources that he relied for maintaining it. With this was combined the politic consideration, that the Navarrese, naturally turbulent and factious, would be held more easily in subordination when associated with Castile, than with Aragon, where the spirit of independence was higher, and often manifested itself in such bold assertion of popular rights, as falls most unwelcome on a royal ear. To all this must be added the despair of issue by his present marriage, which had much abated his personal interest in enlarging the extent of his patrimonial domains.
Foreign writers characterize the conquest of Navarre as a bold, unblushing usurpation, rendered more odious by the mask of religious hypocrisy. The national writers, on the other hand, have employed their pens industriously to vindicate it; some endeavoring to rake a good claim for Castile out of its ancient union with Navarre, almost as ancient, indeed, as the Moorish conquest. Others resort to considerations of expediency, relying on the mutual benefits of the connection to both kingdoms; arguments which prove little else than the weakness of the cause. [26] All lay more or less stress on the celebrated bull of Julius the Second, of February 18th, 1512, by which he excommunicated the sovereigns of Navarre, as heretics, schismatics, and enemies of the church, releasing their subjects from their allegiance, laying their dominions under an interdict, and delivering them over to any who should take, or had already taken, possession of them. [27] Most, indeed, are content to rest on this, as the true basis and original ground of the conquest. The total silence of the Catholic king respecting this document, before the invasion, and the omission of the national historians since to produce it, have caused much skepticism as to its existence. And, although its recent publication puts this beyond doubt, the instrument contains, in my judgment, strong internal evidence for distrusting the accuracy of the date affixed to it, which should have been posterior to the invasion; a circumstance materially affecting the argument; and which makes the papal sentence, not the original basis of the war, but only a sanction subsequently obtained to cover its injustice, and authorize retaining the fruits of it. [28]
But, whatever authority such a sanction may have had in the sixteenth century, it will find little respect in the present, at least beyond the limits of the Pyrenees. The only way, in which the question can be fairly tried, must be by those maxims of public law universally recognized as settling the intercourse of civilized nations; a science, indeed, imperfectly developed at that time, but in its general principles the same as now, founded, as these are, on the immutable basis of morality and justice.
We must go back a step beyond the war, to the proximate cause of it. This was Ferdinand's demand of a free passage for his troops through Navarre. The demand was perfectly fair, and in ordinary cases would doubtless have been granted by a neutral nation. But that nation must, after all, be the only judge of its propriety, and Navarre may find a justification for her refusal on these grounds. First, that, in her weak and defenceless state, it was attended with danger to herself. Secondly, that, as by a previous and existing treaty with Spain, the validity of which was recognized in her new one of July 17th with France, she had agreed to refuse the right of passage to the latter nation, she consequently could not grant it to Spain without a violation of her neutrality. [29] Thirdly, that the demand of a passage, however just in itself, was coupled with another, the surrender of the fortresses, which must compromise the independence of the kingdom. [30]
But although, for these reasons, the sovereigns of Navarre were warranted in refusing Ferdinand's request, they were not therefore authorized to declare war against him, which they virtually did by entering into a defensive alliance with his enemy Louis the Twelfth, and by pledging themselves to make war on the English and their confederates; an article pointedly directed at the Catholic king.