Origin of the Counts of Montefeltro, and of their
sovereignty in Urbino and the surrounding country--Their
early genealogy--Guido, Count of Urbino--Antonio, Count of
Urbino.
The first princely dynasty of Urbino affords examples of most of the
phases of mediæval jurisdiction on which we have briefly touched in
our introductory remarks.
[Illustration: _Alinari_
VIEW OF URBINO]
From the mists of the dark ages which brooded over the mountains of
Central Italy, there emerged a race who gradually spread their paltry
highland holding over a broad and fair duchy. In the territories
earned by their good swords, and their faithful services to the
Church, it was their pride to foster the lessons of peace, until their
state became the cradle of science, of letters, and of art. The Counts
of Montefeltro, a fief long held by imperial grant, gradually
established the seigneury over the neighbouring town of Urbino, which
thenceforth gave them their title, and in the thirteenth century they
received investiture of it from the popes. Invited in 1371 by the
people of Cagli to supplant the usurping Ceccardi, and in 1384, by
those of Gubbio,[*18] to expel the tyrannical race of the
Gabrielli, they were soon recognised as Church-vassals in both.
Casteldurante, partially conquered from the Brancaleoni by Count
Guidantonio, was erected into a countship in his person by Martin V.
in 1433; and his son Federigo obtained by marriage the remaining fiefs
of that family, including S. Angelo in Vado, Mercatello, and Massa
Trabaria. Fossombrone was bought by the same Federigo in 1445, from
Malatesta of Pesaro. Mondaino, Tavoleta, Sassocorbaro, La Pergola, S.
Leo, Sant'Agata, and other townships, were wrested at intervals by the
Counts of Urbino from their hereditary foes the Malatesta. The ducal
house della Rovere owed to papal nepotism the rich endowments of
Sinigaglia and Mondavio in 1474, and those of Pesaro, Gradara, and
Novilara in 1513.
[Footnote *18: The story of the Counts and Dukes of Urbino in Gubbio,
which begins in this year, is a long one, lasting to 1632. Some of the
sources of information may perhaps here be given.
_Croniche di Gubbio_ di Ser Guerriero, di Fra Gir. Maria da Venezia e
di Don Francesco (per cura del Prof. Giuseppe Mazzatinti), _R.I.S._,
tom. XXI., parte IV. (Città di Castello, 1902).
V. ARMANNI, _Stor. della famiglia de' conti Bentivoglio da Gubbio_
(Bologna, 1682).
B. TONDI, _I Fasti della Gloria_ (Venezia, 1684).
M. SARTI, _De Episcopis Eugubinis_ (Pisauri, 1755).
R. REPOSATI, _Della Zecca di Gubbio ecc._ (Bologna, 1772).
SIMON PAOLO, _Diario detto di Marcello Cervino_ (Gubbio, 1848).
G. MAZZATINTI, _Cronaca di ser Guerriero di Ser Silvestro Berni_, in
_Arch. Stor. per le Marche e per l'Umbria_ (Foligno), vol. I., pp. 195
e 385.
G. MAZZATINTI, _Di alcune leggi suntuarie eugubine_, in _Bollettino
per l'Umbria_ (Perugia), vol. III., pp. 287-301.
F. BALLERINI, _Le feste di Gubbio per la nascita di Federico Ubaldo,
dei duchi d'Urbino_, in _Il Muratori_, vol. I., fasc. II. e segg.
(1892, Roma).
O. SCALVANTI, _Il Mons Pietatis di Perugia con qualche notizia di
quello di Gubbio_ (Perugia, 1892).
F. RANGHIASCI, _De' palazzi municipali ecc. di Gubbio_, in _Arch. St.
It._, ser. VI., vol. VI., p. ii.
A. PELLEGRINI, _Gubbio sotto i conti e Duchi d'Urbino_, in _Bollettino
per l'Umbria_, vol. XI., pp. 135-246 e 483-535, e vol. XII., pp.
1-50.]
The state which had thus been by degrees extended over much of Romagna
and La Marca constituted the Duchy of Urbino, and received no further
increment of territory. It contained seven episcopal cities, a number
of smaller towns, and some three or four hundred "castles," by which
must be understood fortified villages, for in that land of
interminable contests, every hamlet became a stronghold. Penna da
Billi was the original capital of Montefeltro. S. Leo, in the same
wild and rugged district, was by nature one of the most impregnable
fortresses in Italy; yet we shall have to detail its capture by
surprise or treachery on three several occasions. Fano, with its
small circumjacent territory, though nearly in the middle of the
duchy, continued to hold directly of the Church.
The early lords of Montefeltro were raised to the rank of counts of
that fief by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa about 1160, a favour
which seems to have long borne fruits in their Ghibelline principles.
Their first investiture as Church-vassals was from Honorius III., in
1216, but it was not till towards the close of that century, that we
find them designated Counts of Urbino, a title which they used in
common with Montefeltro, until the dukedom of Urbino was conferred
upon Federigo in 1474.[19] On the death of his son, Duke Guidobaldo,
in 1508, the ecclesiastical investitures fell by failure of heirs
male; but the dynasty was revived in the person of Francesco Maria
della Rovere, who happened to be nephew of Pope Julius II. as well as
of the Duke, and who thus founded the second ducal line. With his
grandson, Duke Francesco Maria II., the male investiture again ended
in 1631; and the days of gross nepotism being past, Urban VIII., who
then filled the chair of St. Peter, instead of presenting the lapsed
sovereignty to his nephew Cardinal Barberini, incorporated it with the
states of the Church, and discharged the claims of consanguinity in
modified measure by appointing him the first legate of Urbino and
Pesaro.
[Footnote 19: It was first given to Oddantonio, in 1443, but lapsed a
few months later by his death.]
* * * * *
It would be quite foreign to the object of this work were we to pause
on a preliminary research into the remote antiquities of the house of
MONTEFELTRO. Like many other distinguished Italian genealogical stems,
it had attained vigour ere modern history dawned. Nor shall we follow
tradition in its mazy attempts to trace the hardy plant from the
feeble seedling, which, whether of indigenous growth, or transalpine
origin, took root upon the Apennine cliffs of Carpegna. In the twelfth
century it put forth three leading branches, distinguished as those
of Carpegna, Pietra Robbia, and Monte Copiolo. Whilst the last of
these gradually acquired an important sovereignty, and earned undying
distinction in Italian history, the eldest, less favoured by energy,
talent, or opportunity, forcibly recals the unprofitable servant in
the parable. The Counts of Carpegna continued to hold their tiny
mountain fief, with its sovereign jurisdiction, in such utter
insignificance, that their names gained no note during the centuries
of turmoil which passed over them. Their eagle nest sent forth no
eagle spirits. After the peace of 1815, the Camera apostolica, anxious
to abolish privileges no longer consonant to the altered policy of
Europe, bribed the Count with 300,000 scudi (65,000_l._) to surrender
the entire fief, with all its jurisdictions and immunities, and on the
following day disposed of the allodial estates for one-fifteenth of
that sum.[20]
[Footnote 20: The Carpegna arms were azure, three bends argent. The
Montefeltri of Urbino had their bends or, impaled with the eagle as
feudatories of the empire.]
It seems admitted that ANTONIO, the first Lord of Monte Copiolo, or
his son MONTEFELTRANO, performed some important services[*21] to the
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, when he visited Italy for his coronation
in 1154, and in return for these obtained, among other investitures,
the countship of Montefeltro. From thence arose the distinctions, and
the Ghibelline principles, which have preserved not a few names of
this race in the picturesque pages of mediæval history; but we shall
not attempt from these tattered leaves to disentangle their
affiliation, or to distinguish their respective deeds of glory. Their
extending influence took the direction usual in these days, and
Urbino, the nearest township, tempting the ambition of Buonconte, he
had the address to procure a double investiture of its sovereignty,
from the Emperor Frederick II., and again, in 1216, from Pope
Honorius III., by virtue whereof he became both count and vicar of
that city. But parchments and bulls were then but imperfect
title-deeds, and it was by the sword that they in general fell to be
completed. The citizens of Urbino had hearts of oak and frames of iron
wherewith to maintain their privilege of self-government, nor was it
until after a struggle of nearly twenty years that they submitted to
the seigneury of Buonconte. The succeeding century and a half found
the Counts of Urbino occupied in ever-recurring struggles with the
Church, originating from their Ghibelline policy, and occasionally
complicated by the republican aspirations of their citizens. Upon
these scenes of petty strife we need not dwell; but one of the race
was far too striking a personage to be passed over in silence.
[Footnote *21: This was the detection of a plot against Frederick. Cf.
UGOLINI, _Storia dei Conti e Duchi d'Urbino_ (Firenze, 1859), vol. I.,
p. 12.]
The earliest notice we have of COUNT GUIDO, the elder, is in 1268,
when the youthful Corradino came into Italy to dispute the crown of
Naples with Charles of Anjou. At Pisa he was met by the Ghibellines of
Romagna and Tuscany: among them was the Count of Urbino, who obtained
some laurels in the subsequent brief campaign, although spared from
the crushing reverse at Tagliacozzo, having been left to maintain the
imperial interests in Rome, with the title of Senator. In after years
he acted as captain-general of the Ghibellines with such energy and
judgment, that in 1281 all Romagna was subject to his sway, and he
established Forlì as the capital of his new conquests. Martin IV. met
the crisis by sending thither Giovanni di Appia, called in the old
chronicles Gianni di Pa, one of the most esteemed condottieri of
France, to sustain his interests as rector of the Church. The siege of
Forlì ensued, where Guido had recourse to one of those stratagems
which, to borrow the language of Villani, established his reputation
as "a sagacious man, more cunning than any Italian of his time,
masterly alike in war and in diplomacy." Gianni having carried Faenza
by the treachery of Tribaldello,
"Who op'ed Faenza when the people slept,"
he made similar overtures for the betrayal of Forlì, which were
accepted by order of the Count. On a stipulated day, in May, 1282, one
of the gates was abandoned to the besiegers, the garrison withdrawing
by another port as these entered. Delighted with their bloodless
conquest, and deceived by the apparent cordiality of the citizens, the
advanced guard threw aside their arms, and committing their horses to
the charge of the inhabitants, prepared to enjoy the spoil. Meanwhile
Guido, whom they supposed in full retreat, fell upon and dispersed
their reserve who were posted in the plain; he then formed his
infantry in the position which the enemy had occupied, and reentering
the town with a division of cavalry, surprised the captors, who,
unprepared for resistance, fled to their rendezvous, where they fell
an easy prey to the Ghibellines at the moment they looked for support
from their friends. The success of this stratagem equalled its
dexterity, and long was the fatal day remembered, which
"Piled in bloody heap the host of France."
The Guelphic party were roused to fresh efforts, though rather of gold
than of steel: within a year, Forlì and Meldola had been surrendered
to Gianni by their inhabitants, and in 1286, Guido, having made his
peace with the Pope, was absolved from excommunication.
But this reconciliation was short-lived. Within three years he merited
new censures, by accepting from the Pisans the command of their troops
against the Guelphs of Florence and Lucca, along with the seigneury of
their republic. Whilst he held that authority, the fearful tragedy of
Count Ugolino was perpetrated in the _Torre della fame_, but we may
presume him guiltless of its horrors, since neither the naive
narrative of Villani, nor the magnificent episode of Dante, alludes
to his name, whilst impugning that cold-blooded murder. Meanwhile the
people of Urbino had taken advantage of his absence and embarrassments
to rally for their freedom round the papal banner. Wearied of these
struggles, and fretting under their penal consequences, he once more
humbled himself before his ecclesiastical superior, and obtained
absolution in May, 1295.[*22] It was probably the cordial reception
which his overtures met from Celestine V., that obtained for that
pontiff, after his canonisation, a high degree of devotional repute
among the people of Urbino. The romance of most men's lives goes by in
youth; that of Count Guido was reserved for his declining years.
Embued with the devotional enthusiasm which St. Francis evoked from
the mountains of Umbria, he deemed the Pontiff's pardon an inadequate
expiation of his accumulated rebellions. Casting aside the gauds of
sovereignty, sheathing the sword which he had never drawn but to
conquer, he assumed the cord and cowl of the new order, and in the
holy cells of Assisi, sought that peace which it had been the aim of
his previous life to trouble.
[Footnote *22: He had been excommunicated for the third time in 1288
for defending the Pisani. He was finally reconciled to the Church,
October 1, 1294. Cf. Ugolini, _op. cit._, vol. I., p. 81 _et seq._
MURATORI (_Annali_ ad ann. 1295) says: "Guido conte di Montefeltro
rimesso in grazia del papa, venne in quest'anno a Forlì...."]
This monastic seclusion, upon which he entered about the close of
1296, was, however, ere long, broken in upon by one of the most
remarkable pontiffs that has occupied the chair of St. Peter, whom we
must briefly introduce to the reader. Boniface VIII., of the ancient
Roman house of Gaetani, was elected in the end of 1294, to supply the
vacancy occasioned by the abdication of Celestine V., a visionary
anchorite, whom six months' experience had convinced that the triple
tiara was a load ill-suited to his brows. His resignation was chiefly
brought about by the intrigues of Cardinal Gaetani, of whom Celestine
is said to have predicted that he would attain to the papacy by the
arts of a fox, rule it with the fury of a lion, and die the death of a
dog. Chosen at an age already much exceeding the ordinary span of
human life, Boniface wielded his sovereignty with a boldness of will
and an energy of purpose rarely found even in the prime of manhood;
and dying at eighty-six, he had in nine years shaken the thrones of
many monarchs, by pretensions and intrigues untried by his
predecessors. It would be foreign to our purpose to trace his career,
and to reconcile the various and contradictory estimates of his
character: those who wish to glance at the state of this controversy
may consult the pages of two recent periodicals, in which the
respective views of ultra Romanist and Protestant writers are ably
developed.[23]
[Footnote 23: _Dublin Review_, vol. XI., 1841, p. 505. _Brit. and
Foreign Review_, vol. XIII., 1842, p. 415.]
But to the point which more especially regards our subject, the feuds
between Boniface and the house of Colonna. The validity of his
election had been early questioned, and was long disputed, on the
ground that the rights of his predecessor, as a legally chosen pope,
were indefeasible by abdication. Such doubts, it may be well
conceived, the fiery spirit of Boniface could ill brook, and upon a
rumour that two cardinals, sons of Giovanni Colonna, had been heard to
express them, he at once summoned them to his presence to state their
opinion upon that delicate point. This was in 1296, after the
Pontiff's fierce character had been amply developed by a reign of two
years; and these cardinals instantly withdrew from Rome to the
strongholds of their family, from whence they issued an answer,
respectfully avowing their misgivings as to the matter in question,
and offering to submit them to the decision of a general council. But
their flight, and the delay of a few days, had been construed by the
haughty Vicar of Christ as acts of contumacy; and even before their
offensive manifesto reached him, he had directed the thunders of the
Church against the two Colonna, visiting on their devoted heads the
accumulated offences of all their line, without allowing them an
opportunity of explanation or defence. The bull of excommunication
proceeds, with more than wonted elaboration of abusive epithets, to
designate the obnoxious race, as "detested by their dependants,
troublesome to their neighbours, enemies to the community, rebels
against the Church, turbulent in the city, fractious to their allies,
thankless to their benefactors, unwilling to obey, incapable of
command, devoid of humility, agitated by passion, fearless of God,
regardless of man." A general proscription of their whole family and
adherents, and a sequestration of their vast property, was followed up
by the siege of Palestrina, their principal fief. Finding his
exertions unequal to the reduction of that fortress, Boniface
bethought him of the military experience of the old Ghibelline monk of
Montefeltro, and demanded of him counsel, silencing his religious
scruples by a preliminary absolution for the sin of reverting to
worldly schemes. Thus pressed, Count Guido advised recourse to
deceitful promises as the surest means of conquest; and "the bard of
hell," who is an authority for this passage in his life, hence
consigns him to the doom of an impenitent sinner. But let us hear the
poet, through the version of Carey:--
"A man of arms at first; I clothed me then
In good Saint Francis' girdle, hoping so
To have made amends. And certainly my hope
Had failed not, but that he whom curses light on,
The high priest, again seduced me into sin;
And how and wherefore listen while I tell.
Long as the spirit moved the bones and pulp
My mother gave me, less my deeds bespake
The nature of the lion than the fox:
All ways of winding subtlety I knew,
And with such art conducted that the sound
Reached the world's limit. Soon as to that part
Of life I found me come, when each behoves
To lower sails and gather in the lines,
That which before had pleased me then I rued,
And to repentance and confession turned;
Wretch that I was, and well it had bested me!
The chief of the new Pharisees meantime,
Waging his warfare near the Lateran,
Not with the Saracens or Jews (his foes
All Christians were, nor against Acre one
Had fought, nor trafficked in the Soldan's land),
He his great charge nor sacred ministry
In himself reverenced, nor in me that cord
Which used to mark with leanness whom it girded.
As in Soracte Constantine besought,
To cure his leprosy, Silvester's aid;
So me to cure the fever of his pride
This man besought. My counsel to that end
He asked, and I was silent, for his words
Seemed drunken: but forthwith he thus resumed:
'From thy heart banish fear; of all offence
I hitherto absolve thee. In return,
Teach me my purpose so to execute,
That Palestrina cumber earth no more.
Heaven, as thou knowest, I have the power to shut
And open, and the keys are therefore twain,
The which my predecessor meanly prized.'
Then yielding to these forceful arguments,
And deeming silence yet more perilous,
I answered, 'Father, since thou washest me
Clear of that guilt wherein I now must fall,--
Large promise with performance scant right sure
Shall make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.'
When I was numbered with the dead, then came
Saint Francis for me; but a cherub dark
He met, who cried, 'Wrong me not! he is mine,
And must below to join the wretched crew,
For the deceitful counsel which he gave:'
E'er since I've watched him, hovering at his hair.
No power can the impenitent absolve,
For to repent and will can ne'er consist,
By contradiction absolute forbid.
Oh misery! how I shook myself when he
Seized me and cried, 'Thou haply thoughtst me not
A disputant in logic so exact!'
To Minos down he bore me, and the judge
Twined eight times round his callous back the tail,
Which, biting with excess of rage, he spake,
'This is a guilty soul that in the fire
Must vanish!' Hence, perdition doomed, I rove,
A prey to rankling sorrow in this garb."
CAREY'S _Inferno_, xxvii.
Such is the passage that has given a celebrity to Count Guido, which
neither his prowess nor his alleged treachery could have
conferred.[*24] Yet there are not wanting doubts as to the fidelity of
this picture of his latter days; indeed, the whole charge against him
in the affair of the Colonnas has been considered apocryphal by the
apologists of Boniface VIII., and is rejected by Franciscan writers.
Villani, whilst confirming the fact that the chiefs of that lawless
race were cajoled by the Pontiff into a surrender of "their noble
fortress" upon terms which were shamefully violated, drops no hint
that Guido was a party to the fraud. Nor is there any reason to
suppose his Holiness in want of a prompter, such faithlessness being
then in usual practice for political ends, and the old chronicler
expressly tells us that the conscience of Boniface was very readily
stretched for gain to the Church, under cover of the axiom that the
end justified the means. Against these authorities the vision can
scarcely be deemed of historic weight, especially as such breach of
good faith was, probably, in the eyes of Dante, a less heinous offence
than his reconciliation with the Guelphs.[25] Indeed the poet in the
Convito ranks him with those noble spirits, "who, when approaching the
last haven, lowered the sails of their earthly career, and, laying
aside worldly pleasures and wishes, devoted themselves to religion in
their old age."[*26] Of the merit or efficacy of such sacrifices at
the dread tribunal, it belongs not to erring man dogmatically to
judge: for our purpose it is more appropriate to notice the following
brief of Boniface to the Franciscan superintendent of La Marca, as
remarkable evidence of the devotional zeal which actuated the Count in
assuming the monastic vows, and which
"When joy of war and pride of chivalry
Languished beneath accumulated years,
Had power to draw him from the world."
[Footnote *24: The authorities for the life of Count Guido il Vecchio
of Montefeltro are the _Cronaca Riminese_ and the _Cronaca Estense_,
in MURATORI, _R.I.S._ Cf. also VILLANI, _Cronaca_, especially lib.
VII., caps. 81, 128, and RODOLFO HONIG, _Conte Guido di Montefeltro_
(Bologna, 1901). Cf. also RIZZOLI, _I Sigilli nel Museo Bottacin di
Padova_ (Padova, 1903), p. 51, tav. 6, where a seal of Guido is
described and illustrated.]
[Footnote 25: Yet the denial of this imputation by Muzio and Baldi may
be ascribed rather to sycophancy than to historic research, especially
as the latter, in his _Encomio della Patria_, has gravely maintained
that Guido was placed in the Inferno, not for his misdeeds, but as the
only modern warrior worthy to be the associate of Ulysses!]
[Footnote *26: Convito, IV., 28, 61 _seq._ "Il nobilissimo nostro
Latino Guido Montefeltro."]
"Our beloved son, the noble Count Guido of Montefeltro, has repeatedly
conveyed to us personally, and through credible informants, his wish,
desire, and intention, after communing with his own heart, to end his
days in God's service, under the monastic habit, as a means of
effacing his sins against Him, and the mother Church of Rome; and this
with the full assent of his wife, who is said to be willing to take
upon herself the vows of perpetual chastity. We, therefore, commending
in the Lord his devotional aspirations, which seemed disposed in all
prudence to admit the spirit of counsel, and in order to the more free
fulfilment of his vow,--will that his household be paid out of what
movables he possesses, and that he assign to his wife from his real
estate as much beyond the amount of her dowry as may give her a
hundred pounds in Ravenna currency yearly, during her life, a divorce
having been first duly pronounced between them, in the form customary
and becoming when a vow of chastity has been undertaken. And we
further desire that all such personal effects as may remain, after
remunerating his attendants, shall be securely deposited, and lie in
the hands of responsible persons in the meantime, until we shall come
to further resolutions regarding the real and movable property which
he now has. And further, as the advanced age of his consort places her
beyond suspicion, it is our will that she have leave to remain in her
present position, if she cannot be persuaded to a monastic
retirement." After conferring on the Superintendent the authority
requisite for carrying these resolutions into effect, the Pope
concludes by desiring that it be left to the Count's unbiassed
decision, whether he will enter one of the military orders, or adopt
the more rigid rule of the friars minor of St. Francis. This letter is
dated from Anagni the 23rd of August, 1296.[27] The option thus given
him in no way shook his intention of conforming to the ascetic rule of
"poverty and Francis:" and although his Countess Costanza did not
follow his example by assuming the monastic vows, she passed the eight
remaining years of her worldly pilgrimage in the not less strict
seclusion of Santa Chiara at Urbino, a convent especially favoured by
her posterity, and of such rigid discipline that the nuns went
barefoot and wore no linen, rising habitually at midnight, and but
once a year permitted to approach the grating in order to see their
nearest relatives. Her lord's remaining life was of shorter span, as
he died at Assisi on the 27th of September, 1298, and is said to have
been interred in the church there. That his courage was not unmingled
with cunning seems established rather by some incidents in his life
than by the bitter lines of the Ghibelline bard; that his piety was
shadowed by superstition is a conclusion suggested by the closing
scenes of his life, and still more by his most stirring years having
bent to the slavish control of astrological quackery to a degree
exceeding even the darkness of his age. His zeal founded the family
chapel, which may yet be seen in the lower church at Assisi,--its
frescoes cruelly defaced; and the devotion of his family was long
after specially directed to the service of St. Francis and Santa
Chiara.[*28]
[Footnote 27: RIPOSATI, _Zecca di Gubbio_, I., p. 408.]
[Footnote *28: There was never a Montefeltro chapel in the Lower
Church of S. Francesco at Assisi. Guido died in 1298, and the first
two chapels were only founded about 1310 by "due prelati di Casa
Orsina, cioè Gian Giordano e Napoleone ambedue cardinali. Fece il
primo far la cappela di S. Giovanni Battista in capo al braccio
meridionale, e il secondo quella di S. Niccolò rimpetto alla
menzionata, cioè in testa al baccio settentrionale della croce del
sotterraneo." P. GIUSEPPE FRATINI: _Storia della Basilica di S.
Francesco in Assisi_ (Prato, 1882), p. 94. What Dennistoun possibly
means, is that Guidantonio in the first half of the fifteenth century
commissioned the painting of the Cappella dei Pellegrini in Via
Principe di Napoli in Assisi from Mezzastris and Matteo da Gualdo.
CRISTOFANI: _Storia d'Assisi_ (Assisi Tip. Metastasio), p. 198.
Dennistoun errs again when he suggests that Guido was buried in S.
Francesco. Cristofani (_op. cit._, p. 124) tells us he was buried "nel
luogo degli Angeli. D'onde il figlio Federigo fe' poi trasportarne le
ossa nella chiesa di S. Bernardino a picciola distanza dalla città
d'Urbino." Cf. also UGOLINI, _op. cit._, vol. I., pp. 88-90.]
During the next century, the pedigree of the Montefeltri, and their
feats of arms against rival seigneurs, such as the Brancaleoni, the
Malatesti, and the Ceccardi, are involved in confusion which we need
not stay to extricate. Heroes they were, but in fields which the wide
glance of history has overlooked: they found no Thucydides to depict
their gallant deeds, no Froissart to chronicle their fame. Fighting
under Ghibelline colours, their victories were followed by papal
vengeance, affording a pretext for new risings of their urban
subjects, in one of which Count Federigo and his son were torn to
pieces about 1322. But though Guelph was then the ordinary watchword
of freedom, and though all who desired self-government were wont to
rally round the Church, they often found, like the frogs in the fable,
that they had gained a worse master. As a specimen of the papal
legates of his day, we may mention Guglielmo Durante,[*29] a predicant
friar, who presided over the ecclesiastical territories in Romagna,
about the beginning of that century, giving his name to a town in the
duchy of Urbino which he rebuilt, and which long afterwards became
Urbania. His tomb is in the church of the Minerva at Rome, one of
those fine monuments where architecture and sculpture unite to
perpetuate the dead, and over which mosaic throws the magic of rich
colouring. The inscription, after enumerating his legal and liturgical
works, thus celebrates the energetic qualities of this mitred warrior:
"Savage as a lion against his foes, he tamed indomitable communities,
he put church rebels to the sword, and reduced the vanquished to
servitude." No wonder that the citizens of Urbino preferred to such
pastors a return under their hereditary lords. Nor was Umbria the only
theatre of Feltrian prowess. Among the republics, Pisa was as
devotedly Ghibelline, as were these counts among the great
feudatories. Intimate political relations were the natural result, and
the Pisans were seldom without one of that race as their seigneur to
maintain the common cause against their Guelphic rivals of Florence
and Lucca.
[Footnote *29: For Guglielmo Durante, see MAZZATINTI, _Il Card.
Albornoz nell'Umbria ecc._, in _Arch. St. per le Marche e per
l'Umbria_, vol. IV., p. 466 _et seq._, and FILIPPINI, _La riconquista
dello Stato della Chiesa per opera di Egidio Albornoz_ 1353-57, in
_Studi Storici_ (Pisa e Torino, 1897), vol. VI., fasc. I., _et seq._]
ANTONIO COUNT OF MONTEFELTRO AND URBINO, eighth or ninth in descent
from Antonio first Lord of Monte Copiolo. His family having for some
years been expatriated, and their state a prey to intestine broils,
the harassed citizens recalled him in 1377 as representative of their
ancient chiefs; and from that time we can follow with tolerable
certainty the generations and history of the Montefeltri. The imperial
party in Italy was now reduced to a mere name, fitted rather for a cry
of faction than to be the rallying point of international feud. The
authority lost by the emperors in Central Italy had passed to the
pontiffs, and Count Antonio, emancipating himself from the spell that
had bound his race to a falling cause, gave to his posterity an
example of loyalty to his over-lord the Pope. He is mentioned in a
chronicle of 1384 as introducing certain reforms in the administration
of justice, which before publication were submitted for approval by
the municipal council of Urbino, and eight years thereafter he put
forth various amended statutes and constitutions. His good sense was
rewarded by peace at home and acquisitions abroad. Cagli and Gubbio
drove out their domestic tyrants the Ceccardi and the Gabrielli, in
order to welcome his sway,[*30] and he conquered Cantiano from the
latter after a nine years' struggle. Benedict IX. welcomed him as an
obedient son of the Church, and established him by new investitures in
these towns, as well as in the former holdings of his family.[*31] His
bitter strife with the Malatesti was with difficulty appeased by
mediation of that Pontiff and of the Venetians. Allied with Florence,
Siena, and Milan,[*32] he gained the fame of a gallant captain, whilst
his exertions to govern his people with humanity and justice
established his reputation as a mild, generous, and benignant prince.
His prudence, high counsel, and lofty spirit are lauded in an old
chronicle of Forlì;[*33] and a sonnet, inspired by religion rather
than poetry, and ascribed to his pen, will be found in the Appendix I.
[Footnote *30: According to GUERRIERO, _op. cit._ (see _supra_, note
*1, p. 22), Antonio arrived on March 31, 1384, with 2000 foot and
400 horse--to the cry of "Viva el Conte Antonio"--"con più suoi
gentiluomini e provisionati, e con ottocento some di vittuaglia e fece
molto onore alli consoli. Ebbe le guardie della rocca della città, le
chiavi delle porte.... Mandò alli nostri gentiluomini, e molti
tornarono, e incominciò ad invilire il prezzo del grano a 20 ancone la
mina." Cf. SIMON PAOLO, _op. cit._ (see _supra_, note *1, p. 22).]
[Footnote *31: He went to Perugia in the latter part of 1392 while the
Pope was there. Ghinolfo Conti, a Roman baron, administered justice in
Perugia (without respect to the factions and with little satisfaction
to the nobles greedy of privileges) in the name of the Pope "cui
consigliava a trovar modo di rimettere i fuorusciti nella città. Allo
stesso pietoso officio intendeva il conte Antonio da Urbino venuto a
Perugia con 200 cavalli." _Arch. St. It._, ser. I., vol. XVI., part
I., p. 254 and note 3.]
[Footnote *32: The treaty was signed February 1, 1375. Cf. SOMMI
PICENARDI, _Trattato fra Bernabò Visconti, ecc. ecc._, in _Miscellanea
di Storia Italiana_, vol. XXIII. (Torino, 1885).]
[Footnote *33: _Annal. Foroliviens_, in MURATORI, _R.I.S._, tom. XXII.
See also _Sozomenus Chron._, in _R.I.S._, tom. XVI.]
The death of Count Antonio was announced to the government of Siena by
his son, in terms which, exceeding the formal expression of
ceremonious regret, afford a pleasing specimen of official
intercourse in early times. The original, in rude Latin, is preserved
in the Archivio Diplomatico at Siena.
"To the mighty and potent Lords and special Fathers, the
Lords Priors, and Governors of the people and city of Siena.
"Mighty and potent Lords, special Fathers; I should gladly
communicate news more pleasant both to your magnificences,
whose true and unwavering son I am, and to myself; but
whatever they may be, they ought to be freely reciprocated
where there exists true strength of affection, and intact
purity of friendship, in order that such guileless amity may
rejoice with a friend in prosperity, and may sustain,
support, sympathise with, or even defend him in misfortune.
And being made aware by information from others, as well as
by personal experience, of the sincere affection and mutual
interchange of favours continued between your progenitors
and my own, I have decided, with tearful words, bitter
sighs, and sad wailings, to inform your magnificences, to
whom I faithfully commend myself and state, how, on the 29th
of last April, the potent Lord my father, of unfading
memory, yielded his noble spirit to the Almighty Creator of
all, paying the timely but, alas, unavoidable debt, and
separated from the flesh by force of fever, after disposing
of his worldly affairs, and receiving the holy eucharist and
other sacramental rites of our religion, with a mind
distinct to his last hour. Ah me! wretched and afflicted,
doomed to such distress! Dearest fathers, the loss of such
and so great a parent torments and agitates me; what and how
eminent a son have you and your community lost in him. It is
indeed beyond the power of nature herself to replace to your
magnificences one of greater or even equal affection, or to
supply such a father to me who fain would imitate him. For
he curtailed my cares, relieved my sighs, appeased my
fears, cleared my entanglements. One only consideration
soothes and mitigates my mental affliction, and the grief
that envenoms my heart, that since fate has bereaved me of
such a parent, it may find for me another in you,
magnificent fathers, whom I heartily beseech to assume a
paternal care of me your child, and of my state, and to
counsel me in my affairs as a steady son, who will in no way
abandon these recollections, and my paternal associations.
Prepared for all compliance with your wishes, your
magnificences' son,
"GUIDO COUNT OF MONTEFELTRO AND URBINO.
"Urbino, 9th May, 1404."
Count Antonio died in April, 1404, and by his wife, a daughter of
Ugolino Gonzaga, left,
1. COUNT GUIDANTONIO, his successor.
2. ANNA, who died unmarried in 1434.[*34]
3. BATTISTA.
[Footnote *34: Anna married Francesco Brancaleoni. Cf. UGOLINI, _op.
cit._, I., 191. Later she is said to have married a Malatesta.]
Upon the last of these sisters we must dwell in some detail, for she
was conspicuous among the ladies of high birth, whose acquirements
gave illustration to her age. By contemporary authors, her talents and
endowments are spoken of in most flattering terms, whilst her
character is celebrated for piety and justice, benignity and clemency.
She corresponded with many of these writers, and employed her pen in
theology and poetry. Among other moral treatises, she is said to have
written upon human frailty, and on the true faith. In such exercises
she found a resource amid the large share of public and domestic
calamities which shadowed her lot. Her marriage was celebrated in
1404, when about twenty-one years of age, with Galeazzo Malatesta,
heir of the seigneury of Pesaro, a spiritless creature entirely devoid
of the martial qualities of his race, and whose incapacity so
disgusted his subjects that, after two years, he was driven out. He
subsequently sold his birthright by a transaction which we shall
describe in our fifth chapter, and, forsaking his wife, consoled
himself in old age with another mate. Battista, with her only child,
fled from her rebellious subjects to Urbino, and at the court of her
brother found a ready welcome. When the Emperor Sigismund arrived
there, on returning from his coronation at Rome in 1433, she was
selected to pronounce, in his honour, a Latin harangue, which is
published, but now possesses little interest. Her poetic vein had been
encouraged by her father-in-law, who, anticipating the literary tastes
which prevailed among the Italian princes later in this century,
gained the surname of _Malatesta degli Sonetti_, from his success in
that class of compositions. Several of the Italian sonnets and canzoni
which passed between them are preserved in manuscript, as well as some
of her letters in Latin.[35] Specimens of both are printed in the
Appendix No. I., including a letter of Battista written for an
interesting purpose. Cleofe, her husband's youngest sister, had
married Teodoro, eldest son of an emperor of Constantinople, and
despot of the Morea, but this splendid alliance was embittered by
persecutions on account of her faith, which at length induced her thus
to state the case to Martin V. The result of this appeal does not
appear, but the subject of it is believed to have outlived his
Holiness about two years.[36]
[Footnote 35: Bibl. Oliveriana, MSS. No. 454. Vat. Urb. Lib., No.
3212, f. 128. Also a MS. in the Chigi Library. See, as to the writings
both of Malatesta and his daughter-in-law, TIRABOSCHI, VI., part II.,
p. 164, and CRESCIMBENI, III., pp. 214, 265.]
[Footnote 36: A very curious contract, preserved in Archivio
Diplomatico at Florence, and dated 29th May, 1419, secures to her the
exercise of her own religion and native usages during the marriage,
and in case of widowhood, permits her return to Italy.]
The ill-starred and virtually widowed lady of Pesaro eventually took
the veil, by the name of Sister Gerolima, in the Franciscan convent of
Santa Lucia at Foligno, where she died in 1450. Another monastery of
the rigorous order of Sta. Chiara, dedicated by her at Pesaro to the
Corpus Domini, had in 1443 received her daughter Elisabetta, whose lot
was scarcely less unfortunate. Her husband, Pietro Gentile Lord of
Camerino, fell a victim in 1433 to fraternal jealousy, leaving an only
child Costanza, whom we shall subsequently notice as first wife of
Alessandro Sforza, the supplanter of her grandfather in the seigneury
of Pesaro, and as mother of Battista Countess of Urbino.