Claims of Charles VIII. to Naples--Of the Duke of Orleans to Milan--
Intrigues of the Venetian Senate, of Pope Innocent VIII., and of
Ferrante and Alfonso of Naples--Visit of the French ambassadors to Milan
--Treasures of the Castello--Jewels of Lodovico Sforza--Isabella of
Aragon and her father--An embassy to the French court proposed--Secret
instructions of the Count of Caiazzo--_Fête_ at Vigevano--Tournament of
Pavia.
1491
The most important event at the court of Milan that winter was the visit
of the French ambassadors. The young King of France, Charles VIII., now
that he had emancipated himself from his sister's tutelage and felt
himself his own master, was beginning to cherish secret dreams of
conquest, and already turned envious eyes towards the kingdom of Naples,
that ancient heritage of the House of Anjou. His own ardour for military
glory was fanned by the presence at the French court of several exiled
noblemen, who had fled from Naples to escape the harsh rule of King
Ferrante and his hated son Alfonso, and were burning to avenge their
wrongs. Chief among these were Antonio, Prince of Salerno, the head of
the great Sanseverino family, and his cousin, the Prince of Bisignano,
both of whom were in constant communication with their kinsmen at the
Milanese court. At the same time, Charles VIII.'s brother-in-law and
cousin, Louis, Duke of Orleans, a valiant and ambitious prince just
thirty years of age, who had inherited the Lombard town of Asti from his
grandmother, Valentina Visconti, and claimed the Duchy of Milan in right
of his descent from the Visconti dukes, rejoiced at the prospect of
advancing his pretensions against the rival House of Sforza.
Already more than one invitation to cross the Alps had reached the
young French king from Italy. In January, 1484, when Venice was waging a
desperate war against Milan and Naples, Antonio Loredano was sent to the
French court with secret instructions to remind Charles VIII., who had
just succeeded his father, Louis XI., that the kingdom of Naples had
formerly belonged to his family, and that, besides occupying a throne to
which he had no right, Ferrante of Aragon had instigated Lodovico Sforza
to usurp the crown of Milan. The Venetian envoy was further desired to
inform the Duke of Orleans that Lodovico evidently intended to make
himself Duke of Milan in his nephew's stead, and to point out that Louis
could not find a better moment than this, to assert his own claim to the
duchy of his Visconti ancestors.
"Say all you can to instigate the Duke of Orleans to undertake this
enterprise," were the secret instructions of the Ten, "and tell the
French that if they wish to dethrone the tyrant Ferrante and seize
Naples, they will never have a better opportunity."[17]
A month later the Venetian Government sent another message to Louis of
Orleans, urging him to invade Milan, and offering him the help of their
forces. The duke was by no means averse to the suggestion, but Anne de
Beaujeu, who governed France during her brother's minority, wisely
declined to meddle in the quarrels of Italian States, and by August
peace had been concluded between Venice and Milan.
Five years afterwards Pope Innocent VIII., having quarrelled with King
Ferrante, invited Charles VIII. to invade Naples, and offered him the
investiture of this important fief of the Church. But at that time the
French monarch had no leisure to think of a foreign expedition. He was
already engaged in war with Maximilian, King of the Romans, and in a
fierce quarrel with the States of Brittany over the regency of that
province during the minority of young Duchess Anne, the betrothed bride
of the future Emperor, whose first wife, Mary of Burgundy, had died in
1482. Finding that there was no prospect of help from this quarter, the
Pope had been forced to come to terms with Ferrante, whose armies
threatened Rome, and made peace with Naples in January, 1492.
Meanwhile Charles VIII. had mortally offended the King of the Romans by
sending back his daughter Margaret, to whom while yet Dauphin he had
been formally betrothed by his father, Louis XI., and who had been
educated in Touraine for the last six years, and taking Maximilian's
affianced bride, Anne of Brittany, for his wife. The marriage was
solemnized in the Castle of Langeais in December, 1491, and two months
afterwards the new queen was crowned at Saint Denis. Maximilian now
sought to form a coalition against Charles, to avenge his injured
honour; and his ally, Henry VII. of England, sent a letter to Lodovico
Sforza, asking him to join the league and invade France from the south.
Under these circumstances Charles VIII. was naturally anxious to
strengthen the old alliance which had existed between his father and the
House of Sforza. Even before his own marriage, in the summer of 1490,
Lodovico had sent Erasmo Brasca on a private mission to the French king,
to ask for a renewal of the investiture of the Duchy of Genoa,
originally granted to Francesco Sforza by Louis XI. Since those days,
Genoa had been lost during the regency of Duchess Bona, and only
recovered in 1888, by Lodovico's successful negotiations. Now Charles
VIII. gladly granted the regent's request, and proposed to send an
embassy to Milan in the course of the next year. Lodovico, on his part,
prepared to give the French ambassadors a splendid reception, and in
March, 1491, wrote to his chief secretary, Bartolommeo Calco, from
Vigevano, giving minute instructions for the preparation of a suite of
rooms in the Castello, where the Most Christian King's envoys were to be
lodged. Since, at that time, extensive improvements were being made in
other parts of the palace, Lodovico gave up his own rooms on the ground
floor for the use of these distinguished strangers. The chief
ambassador, the Scottish noble, Bernard Stuart d'Aubigny, Chamberlain to
King Charles, he wrote word, would occupy the Duchess of Bari's
apartment, known as the Sala della Asse, from the raised platform at one
end of the room, and would use the duchess's boudoir, with the painted
Amorini over the mantelpiece, and the adjoining chambers for his dining
and robing room. The second ambassador, Jean Roux de Visque, was to
occupy Lodovico's apartments; and the third, King Charles's doctor, the
Italian Teodoro Guainiero of Pavia, would be lodged in the rooms of
Madonna Beatrice, Niccolo da Correggio's mother, and of the duke's
secretary, Jacopo Antiquario. All of these rooms had been decorated and
hung with rich tapestries and curtains of velvet and brocade for
Lodovico's wedding a year before, but on this occasion he desired that
canopies adorned with the _fleur-de-lys_ should be placed over the beds,
and that other changes should be made in the hangings and furniture. And
since there was not room in the Castello, where the court officials and
servants who were daily lodged and fed within its precincts already
numbered some two hundred, for the whole of the suite, the remainder
were to be entertained at the duke's expense at the different inns of
the city, at the sign of the Stella, the Fontana and Campana.
A few weeks later the ambassadors arrived at Milan, and were
magnificently received by Lodovico and his nephew, both of whom wore
sumptuous vests of white Lyons brocade, presented to them in the French
king's name, at the ceremony of investiture which followed. Giangaleazzo
was formally invested with the Duchy of Genoa, and did homage to the
representative of his suzerain, the French king, in the presence of the
whole court. Among the members of the ducal family present on this
occasion was the duke's elder sister, Bianca Maria, who still remained
unmarried since her affianced husband, the son of Matthias Corvinus, had
been driven from the throne of Hungary, after his father's death in
1490. The splendour of the ceremony, and the dazzling white velvet suits
worn by her brother and uncle, were long remembered by this princess of
seventeen, who spent most of her time with her mother, Bona, at
Abbiategrasso. More than seven years afterwards, when poor Giangaleazzo
was dead, and the Sforzas' throne was already tottering to its fall,
Bianca Maria, then the wife of the Emperor Maximilian, wrote from
Fribourg, begging her uncle to try and procure her a robe of the white
velvet woven at Lyons, "like the vests worn by yourself and my brother,
of blessed memory, on the day when he was invested with the Duchy of
Genoa."[18] The young empress, whose mind, as her husband complained,
never rose above childish things, and who, in the lonely splendour of
her grim castles in the Tyrol, pined for the brightness of her fair
Milanese home, had set her heart on a gown of this material, and begged
her kind uncle to excuse her if she asked too much, assuring him that
nothing else could give her so much pleasure.
The beauty of Milan, with its stately Castello and white marble Duomo,
its spacious streets and long rows of armourers' and goldsmiths' shops,
its beautiful gardens and frescoed palaces, made a deep impression upon
these strangers from the North. Never had they seen so fair a city or so
rich a land. Marvellous were the tales they had to tell their countrymen
of the splendid court where they had lived like princes, and of this
wealthy and magnificent Signor Lodovico, who had entertained them in so
royal a manner.
But although the investiture of Genoa had been provisionally granted,
and a treaty of alliance agreed upon, several articles of the league
still remained to be discussed. Negotiations dragged on all through the
year, chiefly with regard to certain castles belonging to Charles's
ally, the Marquis of Montferrat, which had been seized by the Milanese.
Niccolo da Correggio was sent to France in the summer to endeavour to
bring matters to a satisfactory conclusion, but nothing was finally
settled until the winter, when Charles decided to send a second embassy
to Milan. This time one of the former envoys, Jean Roux de Visque, was
selected for the office, and, together with Le Sieur Pierre de
Courthardi, left Paris early in December, and arrived at Milan in
January, 1492.
Lodovico himself received the ambassadors in the Castello, and
entertained them with his wonted magnificence. A treaty was drawn up, by
which Charles agreed to recognize all the claims advanced by the Duke of
Milan, and admitted the Duke of Bari by name as governor of his nephew
into the defensive and offensive league concluded on the 13th of
January, and on the 19th the French ambassadors left Milan. Before their
departure, however, Lodovico, anxious to do his guests honour and at the
same time impress them with his wealth and the vast resources at his
command, himself conducted them over the Treasury of the Castello,
which was deservedly regarded as one of the principal sights of Milan.
There, in the heart of the Rocchetta, close to his own apartments, was
the vaulted room, decorated with frescoes by Leonardo and Bramante, and
known as the Sala del Tesoro. Here, piled up in enormous chests, were
the vast store of gold ducats which he kept as a reserve fund for the
State, and the priceless jewels that were his own private property.
Here, too, in oak presses, secured by ingenious contrivances devised
expressly for the purpose by Leonardo, were the treasures of gold and
silver plate, the salvers and goblets, the dishes and vases of antique
shape, in which the Moro took especial pride, and which were only
exhibited on festive occasions. Milan was at this time one of the
richest states in Italy. The revenue of the duchy, under Lodovico's wise
and careful rule, exceeded the sum of 600,000 ducats--that is to say,
double the revenue of Naples, and more than six times as much as that of
Mantua, and was only surpassed by that of Venice, which amounted to
800,000 ducats; while, according to the same table, the revenue of
England in the fifteenth century was calculated at 700,000 ducats, and
that of France at 1,000,000 ducats. And here, too, in the Sala del
Tesoro, were the jewels belonging to Lodovico, a collection which at
this time included some of the most famous gems in the world. A few of
these which he pawned to a Venetian merchant in 1495, were valued at
150,000 ducats, and a list, which is still preserved in the Trivulzio
library, gives a description of the different jewels which in the
troubled times at the close of his reign were pledged to bankers in Rome
and Milan.[19] There was the balass ruby, called _El Spigo_ or "the ear
of corn," which was valued at the enormous sum of 250,000 ducats; and
the jewel of _Il Lupo_, "the wolf," consisting of one large diamond and
three choice pearls, which the goldsmiths priced at 120,000 ducats.
There was the famous _Puncta_, or diamond arrow, given by Duchess
Beatrice's grandfather, Niccolo d'Este, to Francesco Sforza; and the
_Caduceus_, a favourite device of the Moro's, wrought in large pearls,
each of which was said to be worth 25,000 ducats; while the balass ruby,
known as the Marone, often worn as a brooch by Beatrice, was valued at
10,000 ducats. Another balass bore the effigy of Lodovico, and the
insignia of the Moraglia, or Mulberry, was composed of emeralds,
diamonds, and pearls. This jewel was frequently worn by the Moro
himself, at state banquets, as well as the famous Sancy diamond, which
had been found on the body of Charles the Bold after the battle of
Nancy, and afterwards acquired by Lodovico, whose agents were always in
search of precious stones of fine water and rare workmanship.
Such were a few of the treasures which the regent displayed before the
dazzled eyes of the French ambassadors. Unfortunately the presents which
he gave them on their departure seemed to them poor and insignificant,
after the marvels which they had seen in the Castello, and their
cupidity was but ill-satisfied.
"The French envoys," wrote the Florentine ambassador, Pandolfini, to his
master, Lorenzo de Medici, "are gone away disappointed with Signor
Lodovico's gifts, expecting to receive a handsomer present after seeing
all the splendours of the Treasury."[20]
Lodovico now determined to send an embassy to the French court to return
the king's civilities and congratulate him on his marriage. He was the
more anxious to strengthen his alliance with France on account of the
growing estrangement between himself and the royal family of Naples.
Hitherto, indeed, King Ferrante had maintained cordial relations with
the Regent of Milan, whose claims to this position he had been the first
to support, and whose marriage with his granddaughter Beatrice formed a
new link between the Houses of Aragon and Sforza. But his son Alfonso,
Duke of Calabria, who had frequently visited Milan during the long war
with Venice, had never forgiven Lodovico for treating with the Venetians
independently, and made no secret of his hatred for his brother-in-law.
The quarrel between the two princes was naturally embittered by the
complaints which Alfonso received from his daughter Isabella, Duchess of
Milan. Her miserable husband, Giangaleazzo, showed less inclination than
ever to take his proper place at the head of affairs, and abandoned
himself to low debauchery. In his drunken fits it was even said that he
forgot himself so far as to strike his wife.
"There is no news here," wrote the widowed Marchioness of Montferrat
from Milan to her envoy at Mantua, on the 2nd of May, 1492, "saving that
the Duke of Milan has beaten his wife."[21]
But the proud and high-spirited duchess began to resent the subordinate
position in which she and her husband were placed at their own court,
and she tried to instil her keen sense of this injustice into
Giangaleazzo's feeble mind. When Lodovico came to Pavia that spring, his
nephew began by refusing to see him, but before long he forgot his
wrongs, and after behaving for a few days like a sulky child, was on the
most affectionate terms with his uncle when they met again. Isabella
soon found that no dependence could be placed upon this foolish youth,
who cared for nothing but his dogs and horses, and repeated everything
that she said to Lodovico. So she devoured her griefs in silence, and
only gave utterance to her sorrows in her letters to Naples.
Meanwhile, Alfonso did his utmost to stir up enemies against Lodovico,
while, with habitual duplicity, he sent flattering messages to his
brother-in-law, and begged for the continuance of his friendship. That
February envoys were sent from Naples to France, under pretence of
buying horses and dogs for hunting, but with secret instructions to
persuade Charles VIII., if possible, to break with Lodovico Sforza, and
refuse to acknowledge him as Regent of Milan. Charles, however, was too
much intent on his own plans for the conquest of Naples to pay any heed
to these proposals, and the only result of Alfonso's intrigues was to
strengthen the alliance between France and Milan.
Gianfrancesco, Count of Caiazzo, the eldest of the Sanseverino brothers,
was chosen by Lodovico as chief ambassador to the French king, and
received secret instructions to show Charles VIII. the proposals which
had been made to the Regent of Milan by the King of England and
Maximilian, King of the Romans.
"Let him know by this means," runs the letter, still preserved in the
Milanese archives, "how unwilling we are to act in any way against his
interests, and let him see that we have preferred his alliance to that
of the mightiest monarchs in Europe. Take care also to insist on the
importance of the Duchy of Milan and on the exalted position that we
occupy in the eyes of other Italian States. And assure him that we are
his firm and loyal friends, whose constancy neither threats nor promises
can ever shake."[22]
Count Carlo Belgiojoso, Galeazzo Visconti and Girolamo Tuttavilla, Count
of Sarno, who was himself one of King Ferrante's exiled subjects, were
selected to accompany Caiazzo on his mission. On the 23rd of February
they left Milan, and reached Paris towards the end of March.
Not only had Lodovico given his envoys minute instructions as to the
language they were to hold in treating with the French king, but the
clothes they were to wear, the presents which they bore to Charles VIII.
and his queen, the very day and hour of their entry into Paris, were all
regulated by his orders. His astrologer, Ambrogio di Rosate, had fixed
upon the 28th of March as the most propitious moment for Caiazzo to
enter Paris, and on that day, accordingly, the Milanese ambassadors,
splendidly arrayed in rich brocades and cloth of gold, rode through the
streets of the capital, and under the walls of the old Louvre, where the
king and queen had their abode. On the following day, Charles himself
received the envoys, and Galeazzo Visconti delivered a long Latin
discourse prepared by Lodovico. On the 30th they were presented to the
queen, and a few days afterwards they accompanied the royal party on a
hunting expedition in the forest of Saint-Germain, but found the sport
of a rude and fatiguing description, and complained that both men and
animals were very savage in their habits. Every detail of the
proceedings was faithfully reported to Lodovico by Antonio Calco, the
secretary of the mission. For his benefit and that of Beatrice, he not
only describes the costumes of the royal pair--the king's gorgeous
mantle of Lyons velvet, lined with yellow satin, and the queen's gold
brocade robe and cape of lion skin lined with crimson--but gives a
minute account of Anne of Brittany's coiffure, a black velvet cap with
a gold fringe hanging about a finger's length over her forehead, and a
hood studded with big diamonds drawn over her head and ears. So curious
were Beatrice and her ladies on these matters, that Lodovico wrote on
the 8th of April from Vigevano, desiring Calco to send him a drawing of
the French queen's costume, "in order that the same fashion may be
adopted here in Milan." At the same time Lodovico desired Caiazzo to
show especial civility to the Duke of Orleans, assuring him that the
Dukes of Bari and Milan both regarded him as their own kinsman, and
hoped that the love and friendship between them would be that of
brothers. The ambassador was further empowered to offer the hand of
Bianca Sforza, the duke's unmarried sister, to James IV., the young King
of Scotland, through Stuart d'Aubigny, the Scottish nobleman whom
Charles VIII. had sent as his envoy to Milan. Meanwhile, King Ferrante's
emissaries were doing their best to stir up the Duke of Orleans against
his Sforza rivals, and had secretly offered his granddaughter Charlotte
in marriage to the youthful Scottish monarch.
But for the moment Lodovico's star was in the ascendant, and his
influence reigned supreme at the French court. Charles VIII. formally
ratified all the conditions of the treaty which had been signed at Milan
in January, and wrote to inform Pope Innocent that he had entered into
close alliance with the house of Sforza, and would regard any injury
done to the Dukes of Milan and Bari as a personal wrong.
The object of the embassy being accomplished, Count Caiazzo, Galeazzo
Visconti and Tuttavilla took leave of the French king and returned to
Milan on the 5th of May, leaving Count Belgiojoso as permanent envoy at
Paris. The triumph of Lodovico's diplomacy was complete, and without
shedding a drop of blood, or making any warlike demonstration, he had
outwitted all his foes and secured the alliance of his most powerful
neighbour.
The good news gave fresh zest to the pleasures of Beatrice's court that
summer, and to all the memorable enterprises upon which Lodovico was
engaged at home.
Early in March the Duke and Duchess of Bari left Milan to take up their
abode at Vigevano, and held a series of brilliant _fêtes_ and hunting
parties in this newly-finished palace. The works upon which Bramante and
his companions had been employed for years past were finished, the great
hall with its richly-wrought marble capitals, the noble tower and
imposing porticoes, were all complete. The last stone was in its place,
and on the great archway that formed the entrance to the stately pile,
Lodovico placed this proud Latin inscription, bearing the date, 1492.
"LUDOVICUS MARIA SFORTIA VICECOMES PRINCIPATU JOANNI GALEACIO
NEPOTI AB EXTERIS ET INTESTINIS MOTIBUS STABILITO POSTEAQUAM
SQUALLENTES AGROS VIGEVANENSES IMMISSIS FLUMINIBUS FERTILES
FECIT AD VOLUPTARIOS SECESSUS IN HAC ARCE VETERES PRINCIPUM
EDES REFORMAVIT ET NOVIS CIRCUMEDIFICATIS SPECIOSA, ETIAM
TURRI MUNIVIT POPULI QUOQUE HABITATIONIS SITU ET SQUALORE
OCCUPATAS STRATIS UT EXPEDITIS PER URBEM VIIS AD CIVILEM
LAUTICIAM REDEGIT DIRRUTIS ETIAM CIRCA FORUM VETERIBUS
EDIFICIIS ARCAM AMPLIANT AC PORTICIBUS CIRCUMDUCTIS IN HANC
SPECIEM EXORNAVIT. ANNO A SALUTE CHRISTIANA NONAGESIMOSECUNDO
SUPRA MILLESIMUM ET QUADRIGENTESIMUM."
He had given back peace to his nephew's realm and had vanquished external
foes and quelled internal dissensions, he had brought rivers of water to
make the barren fields of Vigevano fertile, and had rebuilt the ancient
Forum and raised fair porticoes and fine houses round the wide square.
And now, as a crowning gift to this his native city, he had restored and
beautified the ancestral castle of the illustrious house of Sforza and
had reared stately halls and a fair tower to make Vigevano a home of
perpetual delight.
During the continual round of amusements in which these festive weeks
were spent, Beatrice had little time for writing, and the only letter we
have from her hand during this visit to Vigevano is one addressed to her
sister Isabella, in which she begs for information respecting Father
Bernardino da Feltre, a famous revivalist preacher of the Franciscan
order, who had travelled through the cities of Central Italy, preaching
repentance and founding the charitable institutions known as Monte di
Pietà for the relief of the poor.
"A report has reached us here," wrote the young duchess, "that the
venerable Father Bernardino da Feltre, who has been preaching in Verona
this Lent, was heard to declare from the pulpit that he had received a
message from heaven, warning him that he would die in Holy Week, after
miraculously opening the eyes of a blind man. Now I am very anxious to
know if this report is true, and since at Mantua you are sufficiently
near Verona to learn the truth of these tales, I beg you to make
inquiries and let me know the result."
A fortnight later, Isabella, who had been absent from Mantua, was able
to satisfy her sister's curiosity and at the same time answer a previous
note in which Beatrice had given her a bad character of one of the
Marchesana's _protégés_, an archer in Fracassa's service. She writes:--
"MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND HONOURED SISTER,
"Only yesterday I received two letters which you wrote to me on the 16th
and 17th of April: the one in answer to my recommendation of Malacarno,
Signor Fracassa's archer, the other regarding a report which had reached
you as to certain words which Fra Bernardino da Feltre is said to have
spoken at Verona. In reply to your first letter, I assure your Highness
that if I had ever dreamt Malacarno could be guilty of such detestable
crimes, I would never have pleaded his cause, since naturally I hate
such conduct. But as I had been told his faults were trifling, I
consented to intercede with you on his behalf; and now I hear the bad
character he bears, am well satisfied to hear the punishment which he
has received, and praise your illustrious consort's prudence, while at
the same time I thank you for the very kind expressions in your letter.
As to Fra Bernardino's supposed prophecy that he would die this Holy
Week after miraculously opening the eyes of a blind man, I find that
there is absolutely no truth in the report you mention. Neither at
Verona, nor yet at Padua, where he has also been preaching, did he ever
use such language, which indeed his humility would forbid, and as I have
learnt from a monk who attended his sermons. All the same, in order to
satisfy you and make sure of the truth, I have made further inquiries,
the result of which I now lay before you, begging you to commend me
warmly to your illustrious lord.[23]
"Mantua, May 2nd, 1492."
From Vigevano, Lodovico and his wife moved to Pavia, where the summer
months were spent in entertaining a succession of guests, and, as
before, Beatrice and Isabella joined together in hunting parties and
amusements of every description. Giangaleazzo had totally forgotten his
passing vexation, the clouds which darkened Isabella's sad life seemed
to lift for the moment, and once more harmony reigned in the ducal
family. The _fêtes_ in honour of her son's christening, which had been
postponed in the previous summer, were now celebrated with increased
splendour. Bramante was summoned to arrange a succession of dramatic
performances, and a grand tournament was held in the park of the
Castello, in which Messer Galeazzo and his brother and all the most
skilled jousters at court took part. And the Moro's accomplished friend,
Ermolao Barbaro, the young Venetian patriarch, who had been once more
sent as envoy to Milan, composed a wonderful Latin epigram in honour of
the occasion, praying Pallas not to avert her face in sorrow at the
sound and tumult of war, which is after all but a mimic display, and
calling upon her, the goddess whose wisdom Lodovico honours above all
the thunders of Jove, to bless the great house of Sforza, illustrious
alike in the arts of war and peace.
FOOTNOTES:
[17] Secret Archives of the Venetian Senate, Reg. 31, fol. 123, 131,
etc., and Reg. 32, fol. 87.
[18] F. Calvi, _Bianca Maria Sforza_.
[19] C. Trivulzio in A. S. L., iii. 530.
[20] V. Delaborde, _L'Expédition de Charles VIII. en Italie_, p. 228.
[21] G. Uzielli, _op. cit._, p. 6.
[22] Archivio di Milano, _Potenze esterne Francia_.
[23] Luzio Renier, _op. cit._, p. 348.