The war of Pisa--Venice defends the liberties of Pisa against Florence
--Lodovico invites Maximilian to enter Italy and succour the Pisans--The
Duke and Duchess of Milan go to meet the emperor at Mals--Maximilian
crosses the Alps and comes to Vigevano--His interview with the Venetian
envoys--His expedition to Pisa.
1496
"After Fornovo," wrote the Venetian Malipiero, "Lodovico Duke of Milan
governed all things in Italy." The departure of the French had left him
practically the arbiter between the other Powers, and afforded him fresh
opportunities of satisfying his ambitious schemes. He had long cherished
hopes of recovering the city of Pisa, upon which the Dukes of Milan had
ancient claims, and in September, 1495, while Orleans still held Novara,
he sent Fracassa, at the head of a band of Genoese archers, to help the
Pisans defend their newly recovered liberties against the Florentines.
Three months later Fracassa was recalled, in tardy compliance with the
condition of the Treaty of Vercelli; but early in the following year,
the Pisans, finding themselves deserted by the French, turned once more
to Lodovico and implored his help. At the same time they sought
assistance from the Signory of Venice, who, in March, 1496, publicly
took the city of Pisa under the protection of St. Mark, and helped their
new allies with liberal supplies of men and money. The Duke of Milan
sent a small brigade to join these forces, and strongly encouraged the
Venetians to bear the burden of a war from which in the end he hoped to
reap solid advantage. But his secret jealousy of Venice, as well as
rumours that Charles VIII. was meditating a second French expedition to
relieve the distressed garrison of Naples, induced him to seek the help
of a new ally In the person of the Emperor Maximilian.
Early in the spring he sent the Marchesino Stanga across the Alps to
invite Maximilian to come to the help of Pisa, which as an imperial city
had already appealed to him for protection, assuring him that his
presence in Italy would maintain the balance of power between Venice and
Florence, and curb the French king's ambition. The prospect of
descending upon Italy and assuming the imperial crown flattered
Maximilian's vanity, but, as usual, his movements were hampered by lack
of money. At length he agreed to meet the Duke of Milan on the frontier
of Tyrol and the Valtellina, and discuss their future plan of operations
together.
On the 5th of July the emperor left Innsbrück for Nauders, and on the
same day the duke and duchess, accompanied by Galeazzo di Sanseverino
and the Count of Melzi, set out on their journey up the lake of Como to
Bormio, in the Valtellina, On the 17th they reached the Abbey of Mals,
"an ancient monastery," says Cagnola, "at the foot of those terrible
mountains on the way to Germany;" and two days afterwards, received a
message from Maximilian, informing the duke and duchess that he was
about to pay them a visit, but begging them not to leave their lodgings,
as he wished the meeting to be informal and without ceremony. Early on
the morning of the 20th, the gay music of hunting-horns woke the
mountain echoes, and a hunting-party suddenly appeared at the gates of
the old Benedictine abbey. First came a hundred soldiers on foot,
bearing long lances, then fifty German lords in hunting-garb, with
falcons on their wrists. These were followed by his Imperial Majesty, a
princely figure in his simple grey cloth tunic and black velvet cap,
with a lion's skin hanging over his thighs, and the badge of the Golden
Fleece on his breast. A troop of servants and pages, in the imperial
liveries of red, white, and yellow, brought up the rear of the
procession, that wound along the steep mountain-side and halted before
the convent, where the Duke of Milan had his lodgings.
The Venetian ambassador, Francesco Foscari, hearing of Maximilian's
proposed visit, had, on Lodovico's invitation, followed him across the
Alps, accompanied by the Cardinal of Santa Croce, the papal nuncio.
Both these envoys waited on the emperor at Mals, and that evening
Foscari's secretary, Conrade Vimerca, wrote the following account of the
meeting between Maximilian and the duke and duchess in his despatches to
Venice:--
"His Majesty alighted with an eagerness which seemed to me only too
great, and went upstairs, where he found the duke alone with the
duchess, and spent half an hour in close and affectionate intercourse
with them both. Afterwards they all three attended mass in the
neighbouring church, and his Majesty appeared, leading the duchess with
his right hand and the duke with his left, with such demonstrations of
love and familiarity as can hardly be described. All three then rode on
horseback to the emperor's lodgings at Colorno (Glurns), some eight
miles distant, where his Majesty entertained the duke and duchess and
all their suite at dinner under a pavilion, which had been erected under
the trees. His Majesty insisted on both the duke and duchess washing
their hands with him in the same bowl, and, sitting down between them at
table, himself helped first one, then the other, from the endless
variety of dishes spread out before them. All this he did with an ease
and kindness beyond anything that I have ever seen in royal personages.
Each time the duke spoke he took off his cap, and his Majesty did the
same. After dinner they remained for some while in pleasant
conversation, and then rode all three together to another place called
Mals, one mile further off, his Majesty bearing all the expenses of the
entertainment. To-morrow night they will remain together here, and there
will be some time for discussion. I am quite sure," adds the Venetian
secretary, "after this that we shall see his Majesty in Italy next
August, and this you may hold to be absolutely certain. As for the King
of France, they do not even mention his name or think of him any more
than if he did not exist."
Although the Signoria of Venice had joined the Duke of Milan in inviting
Maximilian to come to Italy, and had promised him their assistance, they
were secretly not a little alarmed at the prospect of another foreign
invasion, fearing, as one of their chroniclers observes, that the
Germans might prove to be even greater barbarians than the French. In
the interview which Foscari had with the emperor at Mals, he endeavoured
politely to dissuade him from entering Italy with a German army; but,
as his secretary remarked, it was too late, for the Duke of Milan willed
that he should come. Nor were the jealous Venetians altogether pleased
to see the marks of friendship and confidence with which the German
emperor honoured Lodovico and his wife. The familiarity with which
Maximilian treated both the duke and duchess, and the evident pleasure
which he took in their company, seemed little short of marvellous in the
eyes of both Foscari and his secretary.
The singular charm and intelligence of Beatrice made a deep impression
upon Maximilian, who could not but contrast her brightness and
cleverness with the dulness and ignorance of his own Milanese wife. And
the duke's polished manners and cultured tastes could not fail to exert
a powerful fascination upon a monarch whose genuine love of art and
romance made him in his way as remarkable a type of the Renaissance as
the Moro himself. Even apart from political considerations, this meeting
between the two princes, that summer-time in the mountains of Tyrol, was
an event of deep interest, and we can only regret that no record of
Beatrice's impressions on this occasion has been left us.
A conference between the emperor, the Duke of Milan, and the ambassadors
was held on the evening of that eventful day, and the details of the
convention between the allied powers was finally agreed upon. A new
league, which Henry the Seventh of England was afterwards invited to
join, was formed between the Emperor Maximilian, the Duke of Milan, the
Pope, the King of Spain, and the Venetian Republic; and Venice and Milan
promised Maximilian a subsidy of 16,000 ducats if he would cross the
Alps with an army, and compel the Florentines to give up Pisa and
Leghorn.
On the following day, the Venetian ambassador and the papal legate took
their leave, and Maximilian accompanied the duke and duchess over the
Alps to Bormio, where he joined in a chamois-hunt, and then rode back
with his retinue across the mountains to meet the empress at Tirano.
Lodovico and Beatrice travelled back to Milan, where they kept the feast
of the "glorious martyr St, Lawrence," on the 10th of August, with
unwonted splendour, and then retired to Vigevano to prepare for the
emperor's speedy return.
Before the end of the month, Maximilian had once more crossed that
"_crudelissima montagna_" of Braulio (Piz Umbrail), and was at Bellagio
on the Lake of Como, where Fracassa received him, and with five other
Milanese knights held a _baldacchino_ over his head as he rode up to the
Marchesino Stanga's Castle on the hills.
"But he only brought six secretaries and two hundred horsemen with him,
and as before was simply clad in a suit of grey cloth," remarks a
Venetian writer: "the pettiest German baron would have come with more
pomp!" A few days afterwards, the emperor went on to the ducal villa at
Meda, near Como, where Lodovico met him with the Cardinal di Santa Croce
and Foscari, and conducted him, on the 2nd of September, to see Duchess
Beatrice at Vigevano. Here he remained for the next three weeks,
enjoying the beauties of the Moro's favourite summer palace, and
admiring the perfection of Lodovico's latest improvements--the clock
recently constructed by Bramante, the marble capitals of the great hall,
and the model farm and stables of the Sforzesca. Maximilian had
originally intended to visit Milan, and the erection of a triumphal arch
in the Roman style had been ordered by the duke, together with other
decorations on a vast scale; but at the last moment this idea was
abandoned. The Venetian, Marino Sanuto, unkindly suggests that the Moro
would not allow the emperor to come to Milan, lest he should see Duchess
Isabella's son, who was the rightful heir to the crown. In all
probability the true reason lay in Maximilian's dislike of
state-pageants, and his preference for the freedom and country pleasures
of Vigevano. As he told the Venetian ambassador, he preferred to travel
about in different places and enjoy himself in his own way. And His
Majesty added, with a frankness by no means agreeable to Foscari and his
government, that he had no need of his company, and he preferred to be
alone, since Duke Lodovico, with whom he was very intimate, could tell
him all that he wished to know. With which distinctly unpalatable piece
of information the ambassador had to be content. Maximilian, he was
compelled to acknowledge, had come to Italy as the sworn friend and ally
of the Duke of Milan, and the Republic must stoop to take the second
place in the councils of the League.
If Beatrice's charms had captivated the wise emperor at their first
meeting in the mountains of the Valtellina, he found her a thousand
times more fascinating at her beautiful country home, with her children
in her arms. He took great interest in both her little boys, and begged
that the elder of the two, Ercole, should bear the name of Maximilian,
by which he became known in future days. In memory of this visit the
emperor's portrait was introduced in the beautiful miniatures which
illustrate Maximilian Sforza's Book of Prayers, or Libro di Gesù, still
preserved in the Trivulzian Library. Here the young count is represented
on horseback, receiving his illustrious cousin, while the words of the
Latin oration, which he is in the act of reciting, are illuminated on
the front page.
The Venetian Signory had decided to send two special ambassadors to
congratulate the emperor on his arrival in Italy, and on the 14th these
envoys, Antonio Grimani and Marco Morosini, reached Milan, where they
were received by Galeazzo Sforza, Count of Melzi, and lodged in the
Palazzo del Verme, then inhabited by Madonna Cecilia Gallerani and her
husband Count Lodovico Bergamini, and lately decorated with frescoes and
marbles at the duke's expense. Early the next day they travelled by boat
to Abbiategrasso, past the fair villas and smiling gardens that charmed
the eyes of Jean d'Auton when he travelled along the banks of the
Ticino. Here Foscari, who was already in attendance on the emperor, came
to meet them, and they rode into Vigevano, where they were received by
the Count of Caiazzo and Galeotto della Mirandola, and listened in
torrents of rain to a Latin oration that was delivered in Maximilian's
name. It was already dark when the ambassadors reached the Castello, but
the duke himself rode out to welcome them, and conducted them to their
lodgings in the palace of his son-in-law, Galeazzo di Sanseverino. Here
the duke's own daughter, Madonna Bianca, the youthful bride whom Messer
Galeaz had brought home a few weeks before, entertained her father's
guests, and bade them welcome in the name of her gallant husband, who
was laid up with an attack of fever, and was unable to leave his room
or attend to business. The next day the ambassadors were granted an
audience, at which Marino Sanuto, as a member of Foscari's suite, was
himself present. His Majesty, whom the Venetian described as a
magnificent-looking man of thirty-seven, with long hair already turning
white, and perfect manners, received them at the top of the grand
staircase, on the first floor of the Castello. As usual, he was clad in
black and wore a long velvet mantle, and a black woollen cap trimmed
with cords in the French style, having taken a vow to wear no colours
until he had defeated the Turks, while his sole ornament was a gold
chain, with the badge of the Golden Fleece, which hung round his neck.
He was seated on a daïs, draped with cloth of gold, with the Duke of
Milan on his right hand, and the Cardinal di Santa Croce on his left.
The ambassadors of Naples and Spain were also present, as well as the
Count of Caiazzo, the Marchesino Stanga, Don Angelo de' Talenti, the
Bishops of Como and Piacenza, the secretary de' Negri, and other
well-known Milanese courtiers. Marco Morosini then pronounced an elegant
harangue, which was praised by all present, and graciously accepted by
the emperor, who conversed affably with the envoys on general subjects.
Afterwards Marino Sanuto was presented to the Duchess Beatrice, who, he
remarks, "never leaves her lord's side, although she is once more with
child,"--and her two fine little boys, "Ercole, whose name has been
changed by His Majesty's desire to Maximilian, and who is called Count
of Pavia, and a second named Sforza." A succession of _fêtes_ and
hunting-parties was given by the duke for the entertainment of his
imperial guest during the next week, and ending with a "_Caccia
bellissima_" to which the cardinal-legate, all the princes, ambassadors,
and courtiers were invited. Two hundred riders took part in the hunt
that day, and "I myself," adds the grave historian, "was there and saw a
hare caught by a leopard."
On the 23rd of September the emperor took leave of the Duchess Beatrice,
who presented him, as a parting gift, with a superb litter, made of
woven gold, richly adorned with fine needlework--"the most beautiful
thing which I have ever seen," writes Sanuto, "and valued at a thousand
ducats." The duke accompanied his guest as far as Tortona, where he
left Maximilian to go on to Genoa, and thence by sea to Pisa.
"There are, people say, three reasons," remarked Marino Sanuto, "why His
Imperial Majesty is such fast friends with the Duke of Milan. In the
first place, he sees that Lodovico has great power and authority
throughout Italy. In the second, he hopes to get some money out of him.
And in the third place, he looks on him as a useful ally against the
King of France."
Happily for both the emperor and the Duke of Milan's peace of mind, the
French king's military ardour had soon died away, and although Trivulzio
was sent to Asti, and Orleans would gladly have followed him, Charles
the Eighth spent his time in jousts and hunting-parties, and forgot his
unhappy subjects in Southern Italy. Ferrante, assisted by a Venetian
force under Francesco Gonzaga, recovered one fortress after another. On
the 29th of July, Montpensier, after holding the fortified city of
Atella during many months, was forced to capitulate with his five
thousand men, and himself died of fever a few weeks later at Pozzuoli.
Most of his troops shared the same fate, and few of that gallant army
lived to return to France. Suddenly, in the midst of his victorious
career, the young king Ferrante, who had a few months before obtained a
papal dispensation to marry his father's youthful half-sister, Princess
Joan, died of fever, brought on by the fatigues and hardships to which
he had exposed himself in the previous campaign. His death was deeply
lamented alike by his subjects and his relatives at Milan and Mantua,
who retained a sincere affection for this brave and popular prince.
Fortunately, his uncle and successor Frederic, the fifth king who had
reigned over Naples during the last three years, proved a wise and
capable monarch. By degrees he succeeded in capturing the few remaining
castles still held by the French, and once more restored peace to his
distracted kingdom. Such was the state of affairs that autumn, when the
German emperor landed at Pisa on the 21st of October. The citizens
received him with acclamations, and, pulling down the French king's
statue, as they had broken the lion of Florence in pieces two years
before, placed the imperial eagle on the top of the column in the public
square. But they were once more doomed to disappointment. Maximilian,
finding himself, as usual, ill supplied with both men and money, and
being inadequately supported by his allies of Venice and Milan, was
unable to prosecute the war against Florence with any vigour. He
attempted to besiege Leghorn; but his fleet was scattered and many of
his ships were wrecked by a violent storm, after which he gave up the
undertaking, saying that he could not fight against both God and man.
One day towards the end of November, he suddenly took his departure,
and, leaving Pisa, returned by Sarzana to Pavia. The Venetians saw the
failure of this expedition and the fruitless result of their large
expenditure of men and money, with great dissatisfaction, and attributed
most of the blame to Duke Lodovico.
"Things go badly for the Signory at Pisa," wrote Malipiero, who was
himself on board the Venetian fleet that sailed with Maximilian against
Leghorn, "and the cause of this is Lodovico Duke of Milan.... His pride
and arrogance are beyond description. He boasts that Pope Alexander is
his chaplain, the Emperor Maximilian his condottiere, the Signory of
Venice his chamberlain, since they spend their money largely to attain
his ends, and the King of France his courier, who comes and goes at his
pleasure. Truly a fearful state of things!"
And Marino Sanuto remarked, "The Duke of Milan is one of the wisest men
in the world, but his success has rendered him very ungrateful to
Venice, whose secret enemy he will always remain. He made a great
mistake in allowing the Duke of Orleans to escape from Novara, and some
day he will be punished for his bad faith. For he never keeps his
promises, and when he says one thing, always does another. All men fear
him, because fortune is propitious to him in everything. But none the
less, I believe that he will not continue long in prosperity, for God is
just, and will punish him because he is a traitor and never keeps faith
with any one."
The Florentine Guicciardini moralized in much the same strain, saying
that Lodovico publicly vaunted himself to be the son of Fortune, "little
remembering the inconstancy of human fame," and flattered himself that
he would always be able to govern the affairs of Italy, "with his
industrie to turn and winde the minds of every one. This fond
persuasion he could not dissemble, neither in himself, nor in his
peoples, in so much that Milan day and night was replenished with voices
vaine and glorious, celebrating with verses Latine and vulgar and with
publicke orations full of flatterie, the wonderfull wisedom of Lodowike
Sforce, on the which they made to depend the peace and warre of Italy,
exalting his name even to the third heaven."
In those days the bard of Pistoja proclaimed that there was one God in
heaven and one Moro upon earth, and sang the praises of this great and
divine Duca, who alone could open and close the doors of the Temple of
Janus and make peace or war in Italy, while Gaspare Visconti extolled
the talents and virtues of Duchess Beatrice as surpassing those of all
the most illustrious women of antiquity. Then Leonardo designed that
famous series of allegories in his sketch-book, in which Duke Lodovico
is represented alternately as Fortune, driving the squalid figure of
Poverty away with a golden wand, and throwing his ducal mantle over a
helpless youth who flies before the ugly hag; or as supreme Wisdom,
wearing the spectacles which can pierce through all disguises, and
pronouncing sentence between Envy on the one hand and Justice on the
other. Then Bramante painted those frescoes on the walls of the Castello
of Milan, in which the Moro was seen crowned and seated on his throne,
under a stately portico, administering justice, with four councillors
and two pages at his side, while the criminal trembled before him, and
officers of state held the scales and prepared to carry out the
sentence. And then, too, somewhere else in the palace, an unknown
Lombard master painted that fresco of Italy as a fair queen, with the
names of the chief cities embroidered on her robes, and the Moro
standing at her side, brushing the dust off her skirts with the
_scopetta_ or little broom, that favourite emblem which appears in so
many illuminated books of the day. On the wall below the painting, the
following motto was inscribed:--
"_Per Italia nettar d'ogni bruttura_."
"Take care, my lord duke," the Florentine ambassador is reported to have
said, when Lodovico graciously explained the meaning of the
allegory--"take care the negro who is so busy brushing Italy's skirts
does not cover himself with dust in his turn!" The courteous duke only
smiled at the jest, and shrugged his shoulders; but others overheard the
remark and repeated it, much to the satisfaction of his foes in Florence
and Venice.
The fame of the great and powerful Duke of Milan had reached the distant
cliffs of Albion and the palace of Westminster, and that November
Lodovico received a letter from Henry VII. of England, rejoicing with
his new ally on the conclusion of the League against France, and the
visit of the emperor to Italy. The king further informed him that "the
treaty had been solemnly proclaimed by the Cardinal-Archbishop of
Conturberi, on the Feast of All Saints, in the cathedral church of the
Blessed Apostle St. Paul, in our city of London." And our friend, Marino
Sanuto, proceeds to improve the occasion by informing us that "this King
Enrico has for wife Madonna Ysabeta, daughter of the late King Edward,
because he defended the cause of Richard, brother of the said Edward.
And he has two sons, Artur, prince of Squales, which is a neighbouring
island, and the Duke of Yorche."