Isabella d'Este--Lodovico Sforza delays his wedding--Plot against his
life--Submission of Genoa--Duke Gian Galeazzo--The Sanseverini brothers
--Messer Galeazzo made Captain-General of the Milanese armies--His
marriage to Bianca Sforza--Marriage of Gian Galeazzo to Isabella of
Aragon--Wedding festivities at Milan--Lodovico draws up his marriage
contract with Beatrice d'Este.
1485-1490
Isabella d'Este, the eldest of Ercole's and Leonora's two daughters,
early displayed the striking beauty and great qualities that
distinguished her in after-years. Her regular features and delicate
colouring, her ready wit and gracious manners, charmed all the visitors
to Ferrara. The letters of princes and ambassadors were full of her
praises. The Mantuan envoy who was sent to Ferrara in 1480, to arrange
the terms of the marriage contract, was amazed at the little bride's
precocity. The six-year-old child not only danced charmingly before him,
but conversed with a grace and intelligence which seemed to him little
short of miraculous. All her teachers told the same story. Whatever
Madonna Isabella did was well done. Her quickness in learning, her
marvellous memory, and application to her studies were the theme of
every one at court. She was the apple of her father's eye, her mother's
most sweet and cherished companion--"_la mia carissima e dolce figliuola
sopra altre_." When she married and left home for Mantua, her poor old
tutor shed tears at the loss of his favourite pupil, and wandered
through the castle recalling her every word and movement; while for
weeks the good duchess could not bear to enter the room or open the
windows of the room which her darling child had occupied, and which was
now left empty and desolate.
By the side of this brilliant creature, her younger sister, the little
Beatrice, passed comparatively unnoticed. Her name is scarcely ever
mentioned in the records of the period. Yet she was only a year younger
than Isabella, and if all had gone well, the double wedding of the two
sisters was to have been celebrated at the same time in February, 1490.
But Lodovico Sforza had shown no inclination to press the matter. He
professed the most cordial friendship for the Duke of Ferrara, who had
every reason to be grateful for his help in the Venetian wars, and
entertained Ercole magnificently when, in 1487, he paid a visit to
Milan. But when the question of her marriage was mooted, he made excuses
and suggested further delay. The extreme youth of the bride, the urgency
of affairs of state, were all brought forward as excellent reasons for
putting off the marriage until a more convenient season. During the ten
years after his return to Milan, Lodovico's time and thoughts had been
fully occupied. The internal as well as the external affairs of his
state, the attacks of public enemies and private foes, alike demanded
his whole energies. But so far Fortune had favoured him in a wonderful
way. An attempt was made by Duchess Bona's confessor to assassinate him
on the steps of Saint Ambrogio at Christmas, 1485, but fortunately
failed, because that day Lodovico entered the church by a side door to
avoid the crowd. The sympathy excited by this cowardly attempt on his
life, and by his recovery from a dangerous illness which brought him to
the point of death, helped to strengthen his position at home, while
complete success attended his arms and diplomacy. On the one hand,
Venice was forced to accept his terms of peace; on the other, Genoa,
sorely pressed by her old rival Florence, appealed to the Regent of
Milan for assistance, and once more recognized the supremacy of Gian
Galeazzo Sforza. A cardinal's hat was obtained for Ascanio Sforza, in
whom Lodovico found an able and loyal supporter both in Rome and Milan.
And when, in 1488, Lodovico's niece, Caterina Sforza, turned to him for
help against the conspirators who had murdered her husband and seized
the Rocca of Forli, a Milanese army under young Galeazzo di Sanseverino
was promptly sent to her assistance. The citadel was besieged and
captured, and the rights of Caterina and her son Ottaviano were
triumphantly vindicated. Thus on every side the house of Sforza was
restored to its former dignity, and the great Condottiere's name was
respected and honoured. The Milanese once more enjoyed a period of peace
and prosperity, and Lodovico was able to devote himself to his favourite
pursuits, the encouragement of learning and of the fine arts. Even at
the most anxious and busiest times, in the midst of the war with Venice
and the negotiations for the league against her, Lodovico had found time
to carry on his brother's schemes for the decoration of the Castello of
Milan, and to help forward the works of the Duomo and the Certosa of
Pavia. He had begun to rebuild the palace of Vigevano on a splendid
scale, and had set on foot a vast system of irrigation for the
improvement of the ducal estates. Besides encouraging the rising school
of native artists, he had invited the best foreign architects and
painters, sculptors and poets, to his court. Already Bramante of Urbino
was the chief architect at the ducal court, and now Lorenzo de' Medici
sent a young Florentine master to Milan who played the lute divinely,
and whose varied talents might prove serviceable to his friend Lodovico.
So Leonardo da Vinci came to the court of the Moro, and found in him so
genial and understanding a patron, so generous and kindly a friend, that
he settled at Milan, and remained in the duke's service for the next
sixteen years. Thus Lodovico Sforza had shown himself a wise and
excellent regent, and had earned the gratitude of both prince and
people, while the young duke in whose name he governed was growing up to
man's estate. From his birth Gian Galeazzo had been a frail and sickly
child, subject to constant feverish attacks, and in the year 1483 was so
dangerously ill that at one moment his doctors despaired of his
recovery. As he grew older, it became plain that his mind was as feeble
as his body. He was utterly incapable of applying himself to serious
business, far less of administering state affairs. His whole days were
spent in idleness and pleasure, in hunting and drinking. Horses and dogs
were the only objects in which he took any interest. Under these
circumstances, it became plain that Lodovico would remain the actual
ruler of Milan even though his nephew bore the title of duke. All
outward respect was paid to Gian Galeazzo; he lived in great state, with
a household and officers of his own, and was surrounded by regal pomp on
public occasions. Clad in ducal robes, he appeared seated on a throne
erected in front of the Duomo when the Genoese patricians arrived at
Milan, and received their homage as duke of the principality of Genoa.
His brother Ermes, his sisters Bianca and Anna, shared his state, and
when Bianca's betrothed husband the young prince of Savoy died, she was
formally affianced in the Duomo to the eldest son of Matthias Corvinus,
King of Hungary. But the real sovereign of Milan was Lodovico Duke of
Bari. Here and there a jealous or discontented Milanese nobleman might
grumble, but the majority of the duke's subjects felt that in these
troublous days a strong hand was needed at the helm, and knew that they
had this strong man in the Moro.
By degrees Lodovico removed those governors of cities and fortresses
whose loyalty he had reason to suspect, and replaced them by
confidential servants. Filippo Eustachio, captain of the Castello of
Milan, a brave and honest man, Corio tells us, who had refused to yield
up the keys of the Rocca to Bona's minion, but whose brothers had been
implicated in the plot against Lodovico's life, was one day arrested by
the duke's orders, and imprisoned at Abbiategrasso; he was afterwards
released, no evidence of his guilt being produced, but his post was
filled by one of the Moro's servants. Chief among the trusted captains
in whom Lodovico placed his confidence were the Sanseverini brothers, "i
gran Sanseverini," as they were called in the court poet's verses, as
much on account of their great strength and stature as of the exalted
position which they held at the Milanese court. Their father, that
turbulent soldier Roberto, after making three desperate attempts to
unseat the prince whose return to power he had effected, and being three
times proclaimed a rebel and outlaw at Milan, had taken service under
Pope Innocent VIII. and led the campaign against Alfonso of Calabria, as
Captain-general of the Church. But before long he quarrelled with the
Pope and returned to the service of the Venetian Republic, until in
August, 1486, at the age of seventy, he fell fighting with heroic valour
against the Imperialists in the battle of Trent. Of his twelve sons,
four entered the service of their kinsman, Lodovico Sforza, and rose to
high honour and dignity. All of them were mighty men of valour like
their father before them, while a fifth, Cardinal Federigo, was to prove
a staunch adherent of the Sforzas in days to come. He inherited the
giant stature as well as the martial tastes of his family, and at the
consecration of Pope Alexander VI. is said to have lifted Borgia in his
arms and placed him on the high altar. The eldest of the brothers,
Giovanni Francesco, Count of Caiazzo, succeeded to his father's estates
in Calabria, but lived at Milan, and became one of Lodovico's chief
captains. Both Gaspare--the gallant soldier known by his surname of
Captain Fracassa--and Antonio Maria, the husband of the fair and learned
Margherita Pia of Carpi, a beloved friend and cousin of the Este
princesses, were prominent figures at the Milanese court. But the most
famous and popular of all the brothers was Galeazzo. This brilliant and
accomplished cavalier, who was to play so great a part at the Milanese
court, early attracted the notice of Lodovico by his personal charm and
rare skill in knightly exercises. As a rider and jouster, he was without
a rival. Wherever he entered the lists, at Milan or Venice, at Ferrara
or Urbino, he invariably carried off the prize, and was proclaimed
victor in the games. And to this prowess in courtly exercises he joined
a love of art and learning which especially commended him to the Moro.
Unlike his brother Captain Fracassa, who refused Caterina Sforza's
invitation to join in dance and song, saying that war was his trade and
he sought no other, Galeazzo was a model of courtesy and grace. All fair
ladies had a smile for him. Isabella d'Este and Elisabetta Gonzaga
honoured him with their friendship, and Beatrice d'Este found in him the
truest of friends and best of servants. Three kings of France, Charles
VIII., Louis XII., and Francis I., singled him out for special
distinction, and after enjoying the highest honour at Lodovico Sforza's
court, he lived to become Grand Ecuyer of France in the next century.
French Italian chroniclers alike own the fascination of his handsome
presence and extol the _gentilezza_ of this very perfect knight.
Leonardo da Vinci and Luca Pacioli the mathematician had in him a noble,
generous patron, and Baldassare Castiglione, who knew him in his youth
at Milan, has enshrined his memory in the pages of his "Cortigiano." It
was this rare union of qualities which endeared the young Sanseverino to
the Moro, who chose him for his intimate friend and companion. On his
return from his successful campaign against the Forli rebels, Lodovico
appointed him Captain-general of the Milanese armies, a step which
naturally excited great jealousy among his rivals, and mortally wounded
the pride of Messer Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, an older captain in the same
service. Short of stature and rude of speech, with the big nose and
rugged features that are familiar to us in Caradosso's medal, this able
soldier presented a curious contrast to the brilliant and courtly Messer
Galeazzo, whose rival he remained to the end of his life. Yet he knew
how to appreciate genius, and after his triumphant return to Milan in
1499, employed Leonardo to paint his portrait and design his tomb.
Although a Guelph by birth, Trivulzio, up to this time, had been one of
Lodovico's most active supporters. But when he saw a younger rival
preferred to him, he left Milan in disgust and retired to Naples, where
he entered King Ferrante's service, and became from that time a bitter
enemy of the Sforza's. Meanwhile the Moro loaded his favourite Galeazzo
with honours and rewards. He gave him the fine estate of Castelnuovo in
the Tortonese, which had once belonged to his father, the great
Condottiere Roberto, as well as a house in Pavia near the church of San
Francesco and a palace in Milan, near the Porta Vercellina, and allowed
him to build a villa and extensive stables in the park of the Castello.
As a last and crowning honour, he bestowed upon this fortunate youth the
hand of his illegitimate daughter Bianca, a beautiful and attractive
child to whom he was fondly attached. Of her mother we have no certain
knowledge, but she is generally supposed to have been some mistress of
low origin, and Bianca herself is described by a contemporary writer as
"_figlia ex pellice nata_." The wedding was solemnized with great
splendour in the chapel of the Castello di Pavia, on the last day of the
year 1489, but the young princess was still a child, and Galeazzo had to
wait five years before he took home his bride. After his marriage he
adopted the name of Sforza Visconti, and was treated by Lodovico as a
member of his family.
Another wedding which took place about this time was that of the young
duke, Gian Galeazzo. He had already entered his twentieth year, and the
Princess Isabella of Aragon, to whom he had been betrothed in his
father's lifetime, was turned eighteen, so that the marriage could no
longer be delayed. In November, 1488, his brother Ermes was sent to
Naples with a suite of four hundred persons, who entered King Ferrante's
capital sumptuously arrayed in silk brocade, and amazed even his
luxurious courtiers by the splendour of their gold chains and jewelled
plumes. At least Isabella's father, Alfonso, who had little love for his
brother-in-law, and had already found Lodovico more than a match for his
own cunning, could not complain that his daughter had not been
honourably treated. After a rough passage in the depth of winter, which
sorely tried the patience of the court poet Bellincioni, who was a
member of the Milanese suite, the bride landed on the 7th of February,
and travelled by land to Genoa and Tortona. There her bridegroom, the
young Duke of Milan, was awaiting her, with his uncle Lodovico, and a
banquet as memorable for ingenuity as for splendour was given in her
honour. Each course was introduced by some mythological personage. Jason
appeared with the golden fleece, Phoebus Apollo brought in a calf stolen
from the herds of Admetus, Diana led Actæon in the form of a stag,
Atalanta followed with the wild boar of Calydon, Iris came with a
peacock from the car of Juno, and Orpheus carried in the birds whom he
had charmed with his lute. Hebe poured out the wines, Vertumnus and
Pomona handed round apples and grapes, Thetis and her sea-nymphs brought
every variety of fish, and shepherds crowned with chaplets of ivy
arrived from the hills of Arcady, bearing jars of milk and honey to the
festive board. At Milan fresh wonders were awaiting the bridal pair. The
court of the Castello was hung with blue drapery and wreaths of laurel
and ivy, above which the ducal arms, designed in antique style, were
seen, supported by figures of Centaurs. Under a seven-columned portico
adorned with crimson-and-gold hangings, the duke's sister, Bianca Maria
Sforza, received the bride, and led her to a richly decorated chamber in
the Camera della Torre. On the following day the wedding was solemnized
with great pomp in the Duomo. The duke and duchess, clad in white,
walked hand-in-hand up the great aisles of the church, and finally, were
escorted to the rooms prepared for them in the Rocca, and after the
Milanese fashion, hung with pure white satin. But the most memorable
part of the wedding festivities, and that to which Lodovico himself
devoted especial attention, was the performance of an operetta composed
by the court poet Bellincioni for the occasion. "It was called _Il
Paradiso_" adds the chronicler to whom we owe these details, "because
Maestro Leonardo Vinci, the Florentine, had with great art and ingenuity
fabricated a paradise or celestial sphere, in which the seven planets
were represented by actors in costumes similar to those described by
those poets of old, who each in turn spoke the praise of Duchess
Isabella."
The festivities were interrupted by the illness of the young duke, who
was so much exhausted by the fatigues of these successive
entertainments, that he was unable to leave his bed for some weeks. But
in the following summer two splendid tournaments were held at Pavia, at
which Messer Galeazzo, as Sanseverino is always styled in Milanese
annals, appeared with twenty followers in golden armour, mounted on
chargers with gold trappings and harness, and, having unhorsed no less
than nineteen of his opponents, bore off the first prize, a length of
costly silver brocade. The duke and duchess were present with their
whole court, but the Ferrarese ambassador remarked that the crowd all
shouted, "Moro! Moro!" and that Signor Lodovico was by far the most
popular personage with the citizens of Pavia.
"He is a great man, and intends to be what he is in fact
already--everything!" he wrote in his despatches to Ferrara. "And yet
who knows? In a short time he may be nobody."
Gian Galeazzo, however, showed no signs of interfering with his uncle in
the management of public affairs. On the contrary, he gave full rein to
his pleasure-loving tastes, seldom came to Milan, and spent his days at
Pavia or Vigevano in the company of his young wife and a few favourites.
Duchess Isabella, as time showed, was a woman of strong character and
deep feeling, but she never seemed to have acquired any influence over
her feeble husband, and found herself powerless to arouse him to any
sense of his position, "_La dicte fille_" says Commines, "_etoit fort
courageuse et eut volontier donné crédit à son mary, si elle eut pu,
mais il n'etoit guère saige et révélait ce qu'elle lui disait_."
Lodovico treated both his nephew and niece with the utmost respect, and
discussed the situation freely with the Florentine ambassador
Pandolfini, saying that King Ferrante's envoy had lately gone so far as
to suggest that, since this young man could never rule for himself, his
uncle might as well assume the title, as well as the cares, of the head
of the state. But this, Lodovico declared, was a crime of which he would
never be guilty. "If I were to attempt such a thing," he exclaimed, "I
should be infamous in the eyes of the whole world!"
For the present the sense of power, the knowledge that he was the actual
ruler, sufficed him, and, as the King of Naples himself recognized, no
one could have governed Milan more wisely or well than Lodovico did in
his nephew's name. The birth of Duchess Isabella's son, in December,
1490, may have been a blow to his hopes. But the happy event was
celebrated with due rejoicings, the costly presents from the city of
Milan and court officials were displayed in the Castello, and the infant
heir of the house of Sforza received the name of his renowned
great-grandfather, Francesco, together with the title of Count of Pavia.
Meanwhile Lodovico felt that it was time to think of his own marriage,
and to keep the troth which he had pledged to the child-princess of
Este. His actions, as he well knew, were narrowly watched at the court
of Ferrara. Duchess Leonora was beginning to feel anxious about her
daughter's future, and the marriage of Anna Sforza with young Alfonso
d'Este had also to be arranged. Accordingly in May, 1489, when the Duke
of Milan's wedding was safely over, the Ferrarese envoy Giacomo Trotti
was sent back to his master duly acquainted with Signor Lodovico's
wishes and intentions respecting these important matters.
On the 10th of May, the articles of the marriage contract were finally
drawn up and signed at the Castello of Ferrara. They were on the same
basis as the marriage treaties which had lately been drawn up between
the Marquis Mantua and Isabella d'Este and the Duke and Duchess of
Milan. Lodovico was to receive 40,000 gold crowns and 2000 more in
jewels as Beatrice's portion. A sum equal to three-parts of the bride's
dower was to be chargeable on the goods and lands of Signor Lodovico. If
the most illustrious Madonna were to die without children, this dowry
was to be returned, as was stipulated in the case of the Duchess of
Milan. With regard to the choice and arrangement of the bride's
household, and the number of her women, Lodovico was content to leave
all particulars to the Duke and Duchess of Ferrara, trusting to their
goodness and prudence to settle all these matters on a scale suitable to
the birth and rank of a princess of this illustrious house. But he
especially begged Duke Ercole to see that Madonna Beatrice was well
supplied with clothes and other necessary articles of toilet fitting the
position which she would occupy at Milan as wife of the Duke of Bari and
Regent of the State. Last of all, the date of the marriage was
positively fixed for the month of May, 1490, Lodovico promising to
defray all the expenses of the wedding festivities. At the same time it
was also decided that Madonna Anna's marriage should take place in July,
1490, by which time Signor Alfonso would have completed his fourteenth
year, and the sum due to Messer Lodovico for Beatrice's dowry was to be
deducted from that of his niece, who, as a princess of Milan, was to
receive a portion of 100,000 crowns.
So Beatrice d'Este's wedding-day was at length fixed, and Duchess
Leonora rejoiced in the happy prospect of seeing both her daughters
married in the course of the following year.