Ferrante II. recovers Naples--Siege of Novara by the army of the league
--Review of the army by the Duke and Duchess of Milan--Charles VIII.
visits Turin and comes to Vercelli--Negotiations for peace--Lodovic and
Beatrice at the camp--Treaty of Vercelli concluded between France and
Milan--Jealousy of the other Powers--Commines at Vigevano--Zenale's
altar-piece in the Brera.
1495
If the failure of the league to cut off the French king's return to
Fornovo had disappointed Lodovico, he found compensation in the news
that reached Milan from Naples. Hardly had Charles VIII. started on his
march northwards, than Ferrante once more set foot in his own realm and
received a joyful welcome from his subjects. On the 7th of July, the day
after the battle of the Taro, he entered Naples, where the people took
up arms in his favour, and the nobles who had been the first to join the
French king hastened to assure him of their loyalty. One by one the
castles in the neighbourhood surrendered to their rightful king, and
Montpensier with the remnant of his forces retired into the Calabrian
fastnesses, to carry on a petty war of depredation and skirmishes during
the winter months. Lodovico hastened to impart the good news to his
sister-in-law Isabella, who replied in the following letter:--
"MOST ILLUSTRIOUS DUKE OF MILAN AND DEAR LORD,
"The news of King Ferrante's entry into Naples, which your Highness was
so good as to send me, has given me the greatest pleasure, both for his
Majesty's own sake and for that of your Highness, since it seems to me
that all this must help to deliver us the more speedily from the hands
of the French. So I congratulate myself with your Excellency, and thank
you with all my heart for your kindness in allowing me to share the good
news, which has indeed given me the greatest happiness. I only hope that
you may soon receive tidings of the recovery of Novara, and begging you
to keep me informed of your successes, and to commend me cordially to my
sister the duchess,
"I remain, your daughter and servant,
ISABELLA DA ESTE."[61]
Written with my own hand in Mantua on the 16th of July, 1495."
The siege of Novara, where the Duke of Orleans had been beleagured since
the middle of June, was now the centre of interest in Lombardy.
Immediately after Fornovo, the Count of Caiazzo's cavalry had joined his
brother Galeazzo's force before Novara, and on the 19th of July the
Marquis of Mantua encamped under the walls with the Venetian army. The
garrison of the besieged city was six or seven thousand strong, and well
provided with arms and ammunition, but already supplies of food were
scarce, and men and horses were dying of sickness and hunger. Some
dissensions having arisen between Francesco Gonzaga and the other
leaders as to the conduct of the siege, the Duke of Milan himself
visited the camp of the league on the 3rd of August, bringing with him,
says Guicciardini, his beloved wife--"_la sua carissima consorte_"--who
was his companion "no less in matters of importance than in actions
familiar, and who on this occasion, it is said, chiefly by her advice
and counsel brought the captains to an agreement." A council of war was
held, and Lodovico's recommendation to blockade the town instead of
carrying it by assault was finally adopted. On the 5th of August the
duke and duchess were present at a grand review of the whole army,
which, with Galeazzo's troops and the German and Swiss reinforcements,
now amounted to upwards of forty thousand men. Never in the memory of
man, say the chroniclers, had so great and splendid an army been seen in
Italy as that which, with flying colours and beating drums, to the sound
of trumpets and martial music, marched past the chariot of Duchess
Beatrice. First came the hero of Fornovo, Francesco Gonzaga, at the head
of his troop of horse, mounted on magnificent chargers, "a sight
admirable to behold;" then the infantry, all in excellent order, led by
their different Condottieri, in glittering armour; afterwards the
artillery, firing big guns, which seemed to rend the air; then the
Stradiots armed with lances, targets, and scimitars, and the Venetian
cross-bowmen and light cavalry. These were followed by Galeazzo di
Sanseverino, who looked his best that day, clad in French attire as a
knight of the Order of St. Michel--for which, we are told, he was
sharply reprimanded by the duke--followed by the flower of Milanese
chivalry, bearing in their midst the ducal banner with the figure of a
Moor, holding an eagle in one hand and strangling a dragon with the
other. After Messer Galeaz came his brothers, Antonio Maria and
Fracassa, "_ce très-beau et très-gracieux gendarme_," as Commines calls
him, each leading his own squadron; and finally the German infantry,
consisting of some five or six thousand men.
"It was indeed," writes the Neapolitan scholar, Jacopo d'Atri, who was
in attendance on his master, the Marquis of Mantua, "a stupendous sight,
and all who were present say that since the days of the Romans, so vast
and well-disciplined an army has never been seen." And the Marquis of
Mantua, in his letters, never ceased to regret his wife's absence,
telling her that she had missed the grandest sight in the world, a thing
the like of which she would never see again.
The only drawback to the day's success was an accident which befell the
duke's horse, who stumbled and fell as Lodovico passed along the lines,
throwing his rider to the ground, and soiling his rich clothes in the
mud. "This," remarks the chronicler who tells the story, "was held to be
an evil omen, and was remembered afterwards by many who were present
that day." After this review, the duke and duchess returned to Vigevano,
and the siege of Novara was prosecuted with fresh vigour. In vain Louis
of Orleans and his famished soldiers looked out for the French army that
was to bring them relief. King Charles had gone to visit his ally the
Duchess of Savoy at Turin, and was consoling himself for the toil and
disappointments of the campaign by making love to fair Anna Solieri in
the neighbouring town of Chieri. Since his reduced forces were unequal
to the task of facing the army of the league and relieving Novara, he
sent the bailiff of Dijon to raise a body of twelve thousand Swiss in
the Cantons friendly to France, and decided to await their arrival
before he took active measures.
Meanwhile he and most of his followers were thoroughly tired of warfare,
and the queen never ceased imploring him to return home. The French
supplies of men and money were exhausted, and when Charles sent home for
reinforcements, Anne of Brittany replied that there were no Frenchmen
left to send, only widows weeping for their husbands, whose bones were
whitening on the Italian plains. The Venetian ambassador, Commines, who
was strongly in favour of peace, had already opened negotiations with
some of his friends in Venice, and Charles lent a willing ear both to
his proposals and to those of the Duchess of Savoy, who on her part
offered to mediate between him and the Duke of Milan. But Briconnet, the
Cardinal of S. Malo, Lodovico's old enemy and a staunch partisan of
Orleans, defeated these plans by his intrigues, and the French army,
leaving Asti, advanced to Vercelli, in the duchy of Savoy, and prepared
to take the field. Both parties, however, were growing weary of this
prolonged warfare, and Commines declares that in the French camp no one
wanted to fight, unless the king led them to battle, and that Charles
himself had not the slightest wish to take the field.
At length, early in September, the first detachment of Swiss levies
reached Vercelli, and on the 12th the king himself arrived in the camp.
His first act was to hold a council of war, which decided in favour of
peace, and Commines was sent to treat with the Marquis of Mantua. The
allies insisted on the unconditional surrender of Novara, while Charles
VIII. asked for the restitution of Genoa as an ancient fief of the
French crown. Nothing was concluded, but a truce of eight days was
agreed upon, and prolonged conferences were held at a castle between
Vercelli and Cameriano.
On the 21st of September, Lodovico returned to the camp of the league,
bringing Beatrice with him, and rode out to meet the French
commissioners. Commines gives a minute account of the conferences, which
took place in the duke's lodgings at Cameriano during the next
fortnight.
"Every day the duke and duchess came to meet us at the end of a long
gallery and conducted us to their rooms, where we found two long rows of
chairs prepared, and we sat down on one side, and the representatives of
the league on the other. First came the ambassadors of the King of the
Romans and the King of Spain; then the Marquis of Mantua and the
Venetian Provveditori and envoy; then the Duke of Milan and his wife the
duchess, seated between him and the ambassador of Ferrara. On their
side, the duke was the only spokesman, and on our side one only. But our
habit is not to speak as quietly as they do; two or three of us often
began to speak at the same time, which made the duke say, 'Ho! ho! if
you please, one at a time.' And two secretaries, one of ours and one of
theirs, wrote down the articles agreed upon, and before we took leave,
read them aloud, the one in Italian, the other in French, to see if
there was anything that could be altered or shortened."
Beatrice was present at all the deliberations, and surprised the other
commissioners by her cleverness and quickness, and the ready tact she
invariably showed. The duke was now sincerely anxious for peace, and
only cared to recover Novara, and to see the French safely out of his
dominions, where the presence of Louis of Orleans could not fail to
prove a disturbing element. Both he and Commines directed all their
efforts to bring matters to a favourable conclusion, but the other
commissioners made difficulties, and the Venetian, Spanish, and German
ambassadors would decide nothing without consulting their separate
governments. The evacuation of Novara, however, was unanimously agreed
upon, and on the 26th of September, Orleans and his garrison marched out
with the honours of war, and were escorted by Messer Galeaz and the
Marquis of Mantua to the French outposts. More than two thousand men had
already died of sickness and starvation. Almost all their horses had
been eaten, and the survivors were in a miserable plight. Many perished
by the roadside, and Commines found fifty troopers in a fainting
condition in a garden at Cameriano, and saved their lives by feeding
them with soup. Even then one man died on the spot, and four others
never reached the camp. Three hundred more died at Vercelli, some of
sickness, others from over-eating themselves after the prolonged
starvation which they had endured, and the dung-hills of the town were
strewn with dead corpses. Yet still Orleans, who, as Commines remarks,
had caused all this mischief, was eager for war, and entreated the king
to make no terms with Signor Lodovico. He had a strong supporter in the
Milanese captain, Jean Jacques Trivulzio, who had entered the French
king's service after Alfonso's flight from Naples, and had never
forgotten his old griefs against Lodovico and his son-in-law. And on the
selfsame day that Novara was evacuated, the bailiff of Dijon arrived at
Vercelli with ten or twelve thousand more Swiss mercenaries, bringing up
the whole number to upwards of twenty thousand. So large a body had
never been assembled before, and the presence of these rude
mountaineers, greedy for spoil and ready to quarrel with friends or
foes, created general alarm. The Duke of Milan was now more eager than
ever to conclude peace, and when Louis of Orleans and Trivulzio urged
the king to break off negotiations and march at the head of the Swiss on
Milan, Charles replied curtly that it was too late, for the
preliminaries of peace were already signed. He himself had no wish but
to return home and send help to his distressed troops in Naples.
Accordingly, on the 9th of October a separate convention was concluded
between the King of France and the Duke of Milan, leaving the other
Powers to settle their differences among themselves. Novara was restored
to Lodovico, and his title to Genoa and Savona recognized, while Charles
renounced the support of his cousin Louis of Orleans' claims upon Milan.
In return the duke promised not to assist Ferrante with troops or ships,
to give free passage to French armies, and assist the king with Milanese
troops if he returned to Naples in person. He further renounced his
claim on Asti, and agreed to pay the Duke of Orleans 50,000 ducats as a
war indemnity, and lend the king two ships as transports for his
soldiers from Genoa to Naples. A debt of 80,000 ducats, that was still
owing to Lodovico, was cancelled, and the Castelletto of the port of
Genoa was placed in the Duke of Ferrara's hands, as a security that
these engagements would be kept on both sides. The king, we learn from
Commines, still retained a friendly feeling for the Duke of Milan, and
invited him to a meeting before he left Italy; but Lodovico had taken
umbrage at certain offensive remarks made by the Count of Ligny and
Cardinal Briconnet, and excused himself on plea of illness, while he
declared in private that he would not trust himself in the French king's
company unless a river ran between them. "It is true," says Commines,
"that foolish words had been spoken, but the king meant well, and wished
to remain his friend."
The Marquis of Mantua was better disposed towards his Most Christian
Majesty, and gladly accepted an invitation to visit the king at Vercelli
before his departure. He wrote to his wife in great haste, begging her
to send him his finest linen shirts and best gold brocade vest and
mantle, together with different sorts of choice perfumes, and the next
day duly made his obeisance to the king. He was highly gratified at the
courtesy with which he was received, and at the familiar way in which
his Majesty conversed, not only with himself, but with his servants,
"treating them exactly as if they were his equals" and condescending to
lift his hand to his cap each time they saluted him." What impressed
this rough soldier most of all was the sight of three cardinals standing
among the crowd at the door, "just as the chaplains may be seen in any
other house," and among them the cardinal of S. Pietro in Vincula
(afterwards Julius II.), "who dares contend with the Pope, and who yet
stood here in the humblest and most respectful fashion." Before the
marquis left, the king made him a present of two valuable bay horses,
remarkable for their fine shape and speed. One of the two was an
excellent jumper, and delighted Francesco by the way in which he could
clear wide trenches and lofty fences at a single bound, "jumping with
all four feet in the air at once."
At the same time Gonzaga's secretary, Jacopo d'Atri, informed the
Marchesa that the priest Bernardino d'Urbino and a troop of Mantuan
singers had been sent that evening to amuse the king. Charles questioned
the chaplain closely about his master's wife, asking for an exact
description of her person, height, and features, and being especially
anxious to learn if Isabella at all resembled the Duchess Beatrice, and
if, like that illustrious lady, she was as charming and gracious as she
was beautiful. Don Bernardino replied discreetly that the Marchesa was,
to say the truth, even more beautiful than her sister, and surpassed all
other ladies by her charm and brilliancy. This roused the king's
curiosity to the highest pitch, and he insisted on having a full and
particular account of Isabella's talents and accomplishments, as well as
of the gowns she usually wore and the fashion of her clothes, and
rejoiced to hear she was not very tall, since he himself was short of
stature and admired small women. "In short," adds the secretary, "his
Majesty appeared quite in love with my description of your Excellency,
and if he meets you, will, I am sure, seek to kiss your cheek, not once,
but many times. And this being the case, I am glad to be able to tell
you that the King of France is less deformed than people say."[62]
The desired meeting, however, was never effected. Immediately peace was
signed, Charles VIII. left Vercelli, crossed the Alps with the remnants
of his army, and reached Lyons on the 7th of November. Commines,
meanwhile, was sent on a further errand to Venice, where he vainly
endeavoured to negotiate a treaty, but found the Signoria determined to
maintain the cause of Ferrante of Naples. The Venetians were not sorry
to disband their army and see the French cross the Alps; but none the
less their indignation was great at the Duke of Milan's breach of faith
in concluding a separate peace, and sharp words passed between the
ambassadors of Spain and Naples and the Milanese envoy at Venice.
"The best thing, in my opinion," remarks the annalist Malipiero, "would
have been for Contarini to give the Stradiots orders to cut to pieces
both Duke Lodovico and Ercole of Ferrara, who are the Signory's worst
enemies. And the truth is, you should never take part in another's
quarrel, or enter the country of a foreign ally, for in these matters no
one is to be trusted."
[Illustration: Altar piece ascribed to Zenale with portraits of Lodovico
Sforza and Beatrice d'Este (Brera)
D. Anderson.]
Maximilian, on his part, was satisfied with Lodovico's excuses, and
owned that the duke was right to make peace without delay. As for
Lodovico, it was with a deep sense of relief that he saw the departure
of the last French troops. He invited the Duke of Ferrara, the
Marquis of Mantua, and the Venetian Provveditori to Vigevano, and
entertained them all magnificently. When, on his return from Venice,
Commines in his turn visited Vigevano, the duke rode out to meet him
with charming courtesy, and bade the French ambassador welcome to his
beautiful country home. But when they came to business, it was another
matter. Commines heard from Genoa that the two ships, which the Duke of
Milan was to send to Naples with the French fleet, had received orders
not to sail, and when he asked for an explanation, Lodovico told him
that he could put no trust or confidence in his master the king. At the
end of three days the ambassador took his leave, and just as he was
starting on his journey, to his surprise the duke came up to him very
civilly, and said that, after all, he wished to keep on friendly terms
with his Most Christian Majesty, and had determined to send Messer
Galeaz with the ships to Naples, and that before Commines reached Lyons
he should receive a letter to this effect. So Commines crossed the Alps
with a light heart, and all the way to Lyons he kept looking back, he
tells us, in constant expectation of hearing the sound of horse's hoofs
behind him. But the duke's messenger did not overtake him, and the ships
never sailed from Genoa.
That year the festival of Christmas was celebrated with great joy and
splendour at the court of Milan. After the troubled times of the last
twelve months, after the dangers which had threatened the very existence
of the State, and brought the noise of war to the gates of Vigevano,
peace and tranquillity were once more restored, and another era of
unclouded prosperity seemed about to dawn. Now that poor Giangaleazzo
was dead, and Louis of Orleans had once more crossed the Alps, there was
no one to dispute Lodovico's title or to prevent his son from eventually
succeeding him on the throne. Once more he and Beatrice were free to
devote themselves to the encouragement of learning and poetry, of
painting and architecture; to watch Bramante and Leonardo at work, or
read Dante and Petrarch together.
That winter the altar-piece of the Brera, containing the portraits of
the duke and his family, was painted by Zenale or some other Lombard
master, for the church of S. Ambrogio in Nemo. Here the Madonna and
Child are enthroned in the centre of the picture; the four Fathers of
the Church, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory, stand on either
side; and in the foreground, kneeling at the foot of the throne, are the
Duke and Duchess of Milan, with their two children. The Christ-child
turns towards Lodovico, and St. Ambrose, the protector and patron saint
of Milan, lays his hand on the shoulder of the duke, as, clad in rich
brocades and wearing a massive gold chain round his neck, he clasps his
hands in prayer. And the gentle Madonna stretches out her hand lovingly
towards Beatrice, who kneels at her feet, with the long coil of twisted
hair, and the pearls on her head and neck, and her favourite knots of
ribbons fluttering from her shoulders or falling over the velvet stripes
of her yellow satin robe. Close at her side is the infant prince,
Francesco Sforza, with his baby face and swaddled clothes; while
opposite, kneeling at his father's side, is the handsome little Count of
Pavia. Here, at least, there is no doubt that we have authentic
portraits of both Lodovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este, the reigning Duke
and Duchess of Milan, towards the close of the year 1495. There is no
mistaking the long black hair, the refined features, and long nose of
the Moro, while in Beatrice's features we recognize the same youthful
and child-like charm that mark her countenance in Cristoforo Romano's
bust or Solari's effigy in the Certosa of Pavia.
FOOTNOTES:
[61] Luzio-Renier, _op. cit_., p. 627.
[62] Luzio-Renier, _op. cit._, p. 630.