The birth of Count Federigo--Condition of Italy--His
marriage and only military service--The Malatesta, his
inveterate foes--He takes S. Leo--Is invested with
Mercatello.
With Federigo, successor of Duke Oddantonio, commences the proper
subject of these volumes, but we are met by a preliminary difficulty
as to his birth and parentage, which has baffled many of his
biographers. It would be useless, as well as tedious, to enumerate and
examine the host of conflicting and often inconsistent authorities on
this vexed question.[55] The amount of blundering and contradiction to
which it has given rise is scarcely conceivable, considering that most
of our authorities either frequented the court of Urbino during his
own and his son's time, or had access to contemporary documents. Seven
separate theories have found supporters:--1. That Federigo was son of
Count Guidantonio, born in wedlock; 2. That he was his natural, but
legitimated son; 3. That he was his natural son, passed off as the
child of his first wife Rengarda, after a pretended pregnancy; 4. That
he was son of Bernardino della Carda and his wife Anna, sister of
Count Guidantonio, adopted by the latter whilst he had no son; 5. That
he was their son, passed off as the child of Countess Rengarda; 6.
That he was their son, passed off as a natural child of Guidantonio;
7. That being their son, and Anna or Aura being daughter of
Guidantonio, he was adopted or passed off as son of the latter,
though, in fact, his grandson.[56] It would follow that he might have
been either nephew, brother-in-law, or son of Bernardino. All doubt on
this subject is set at rest by a formal legitimation from Martin V.,
of 22nd December, 1424, which I discovered in the Archivio Diplomatico
at Florence, in favour of Federigo, as son of Guidantonio by a maiden
of Urbino. This document is alluded to by Galli, Reposati, and others;
but its existence has been often denied, notwithstanding the almost
equally valid evidence of that Count's testament quoted by Riposati,
wherein, failing his lawful sons, he substitutes his "legitimate son"
Federigo as his universal heir.
[Footnote 55: LAZZERINI, in his _Memorie Storiche dei Conti di
Urbino_, has discussed without exhausting them in fifty folio pages.
The magnificent work by Count Pompeo Litta is marred by adopting the
theory of an Ubaldini descent for Duke Federigo. See his notice of
Emilia Pio da Carpi, wife of Count Antonio di Montefeltro.]
[Footnote 56: The merit of another, and apparently an original
conjecture, belongs to Sismondi, who makes him the adulterous son of
Bernardino, by one of Guidantonio's wives. For this there is no
authority whatever; indeed, this historian, by confounding Guidantonio
with his son, and omitting Oddantonio entirely, has utterly confused
the family and history of Urbino. We have formerly set down Aura as
daughter of Guidantonio, on authority of a licence from Nicholas V.
for Federigo, his wife, and his sister Aura, to choose a confessor,
quoted by Gallo Galli, and also in the MS. of Muzio (Vat. Urb. MSS.,
No. 1011), which is much fuller than the printed edition. Thus also
Giovanni Sanzi, father of the painter Raffaele, in his rhyming
chronicle of Federigo's life, which we shall frequently have to quote
(Vat. Ottobon. MSS., No. 1305), and shall examine in our twenty-fifth
chapter, says of him,--
"But others call this admirable flower
Grandson of Guidantonio, being child
Of that count's daughter, whose exalted name
Is dear to virtue, Bernardino's wife
Of th' Ubaldini."]
It is very remarkable that the filiation of Federigo to the Ubaldini
is adopted by a majority of those writers who lived under him and his
son, giving colour to a conjecture that it may have been encouraged at
their court as masking the flaw in their pedigree. This, however, is
but an unsatisfactory explanation. His character and brilliant
distinctions could well dispense with the honours of birth; and in
this century, bastardy, so far from inferring a blot on the princely
escutcheons of Italy, or presenting a bar to sovereignty, seemed, as
in the dynasties of Este and Scala, as well as in the Malatesta,
already referred to, to constitute a preference. But in order to
explain his special affection for the Ubaldini, it has been supposed
that his mother was of that stock, and that he was at first brought up
by them, in deference to the jealousy of Countess Rengarda. This
motive soon ceased by her death, when the infant was received and
cherished in his father's palace.
* * * * *
FEDERIGO DI MONTEFELTRO is generally said to have been born on the 7th
of June, 1422, and the earliest incident of his childhood was his
premature betrothal.[*57] The mountain-land from whence spring the
Metauro and the Foglia, including some of the loftiest Apennine
summits, was then called Massa Trabaria, and had been long held in
fief by the Brancaleoni. Mercatello was the petty metropolis of some
twenty townlets which obeyed Bartolomeo, the last male of that race.
Art has given to his merits a record withheld by history, and the few
travellers who visit the church of S. Francesco in that town, a very
shrine of local æsthetics, will pause to admire his Gothic tomb,
beautiful even through its disguise of recent whitewash, and to read
this touching epitaph:--"Joanna Aledusia during her life erected this
monument of affection to Bartolomeo Brancaleone, prince of this place,
her most faithful husband, and to herself." This lady was born an
Alidosio of Imola, and being left with an only daughter, Martin V., to
whom the fief had lapsed, conferred its interim administration upon
Count Guidantonio of Urbino, as rector, with promise of a new
investiture to his son Federigo, on condition of his marriage with the
orphaned Gentile. They were accordingly affianced ere the
boy-bridegroom had completed his eighth year, and the spouses were
brought up together under the fond and judicious tutelage of the Lady
Joanna.
[Footnote *57: Federigo was born in Gubbio, where he remained for two
years, and on 2 December, 1437, was there solemnly betrothed to
Gentile Brancaleoni. On the question of the birth of Federigo, see
REPOSATI, _op. cit._, tom. I., p. 136, and UGOLINI, _op. cit._, tom.
I., p. 221. I take this opportunity of referring the reader behind all
the later lives of Federigo to what is probably the first, the codex
Vatic. Urbin. 1010. It is a codex _cartaceo_ in folio bound in
parchment measuring 0·32 × 0·21 of 107 pages. It is written by many
hands, and is rich in marginal notes probably by Bernardino Baldi. It
is entitled, _Commentarj della vita et gesti dell'invittessimo
Federico duca d'Urbino raccolti et scritti da Pierantonio Paltroni da
Urbino_. GUIDO ZACCAGNINI has written a commentary on this MS. in _Le
Marche_, fasc. I., ann. IV., pp. 8-33 (Fano, 1904). Cf. also MADIAI,
_F. da M. nella Relaz. coi Parenti_ in _Le Marche_ (Fano, 1903), vol.
III., pp. 114 _et seq._; G. ZANNONI, _Federico II., di Montefeltro e
G.A. Compano_, in _Atti della R. Accademia delle Scienze di Torino_.
See also F. MADIAI, _Pierantonio Paltroni e B. Baldi biografi di
Federico da Montefeltro_, in _Le Marche_, fasc. V.-VI., ann. II.
(Fano, 1902).]
* * * * *
The return of the popes to Rome was the beginning of a new act in the
great drama of Italian mediæval history. Deserting their proper
capital, they had left it for above a century a prey to faction,
strife, and rapine, which there was no authority to control, nor any
holier influence to modify. The example of such disorganisation spread
through the Peninsula, and aggravated dissension in all its cities. In
absence of the papal court, the gloom of a dark age again brooded over
the ecclesiastical states, for the few sparks of learning had been
carried by emigrant churchmen to Provence. But, with its restoration,
Rome became once more the metropolis of Christendom, and Italy began
to feel that kindling glow, which, radiating from its centre,
disseminated the cheering light and healthful flush of knowledge and
civilisation over the globe. In one respect, however, and that a
material one, was the position of the papacy altered. The protracted
scandal of recent repeated schisms had shaken men's reliance on its
infallibility; the fierce bickerings between popes and anti-popes,
hurling anathemas and bandying abuse, had raised in the spectators a
doubt if their cause could be more sacred than their weapons. The
days when an emperor would hold the stirrup for a successor of St.
Peter were passed away. Nor were affairs altogether satisfactory as
regarded the domestic security of the latter. The dread of again
losing their sovereign court formed a convenient check upon the
factious citizens of Rome; but the barons of the Campagna were
restless neighbours and turbulent vassals, and though the Gaetani and
Frangipani were no longer formidable, the Savelli, the Orsini, and the
Colonna by turns carried fire and sword into each other's holdings, or
scoured the streets of Rome itself in their forays. To assert an
effectual jurisdiction over the province immediately surrounding their
capital, and to maintain their waning influence abroad, became the two
great objects of successive pontiffs during the fifteenth century: one
of these was perhaps a painful necessity, the other originated a
policy ruinous to Italy; both occasioned frequent appeals to carnal
weapons, pregnant with mischief to the Holy See.
Among many anomalies in the papacy, was the inverse ratio of its
foreign influence and its domestic strength. Even whilst Rome and its
vicinity had been most lawless, whilst the authority of popes in
preceding centuries had been most fettered by faction, or most exposed
to seditious outrage, their spiritual sway attained its height, and
was acknowledged over Christendom without question. The reason is
obvious. The religious spirit of the age bowed to ecclesiastical
domination, while the factious temperament of the Romans fretted under
all restraints of order. After their long exemption from the personal
control of the popes, it became more than ever requisite to curb these
feverish citizens, and to break down their robber noblesse: we shall
hereafter see by what unscrupulous means, and at how great a sacrifice
of character, this was finally effected by Alexander VI. But the
popedom, whose unity had been rudely shaken by schism and absence,
began, after its return to Rome, to suffer manifest inroads from the
extension of their political individualities by the chief states of
Europe. In order to maintain itself against this new tendency, it had
recourse to a like policy; it sought by temporal aggrandisement to
compensate the decay of spiritual authority. During its antecedent
struggles with the empire, the cause of the Church had been that of
freedom, its rallying cry the watchword of liberty. In those days its
successes were hailed as a boon by the communes of Italy. Even the
feudatories, whose jurisdiction had grown up under shelter of the
imperial name, were glad to confirm their title by enrolling
themselves as vassals of the Holy See. But when the successors of St.
Peter began to develop ulterior aims,--when they descended into the
arena of mere political ambition, and sought to aggrandise their
territorial dominion by intrigue and arms,--a marked reaction took
place. The princes and republics of the Peninsula stood on their
defence against a new power of discord, the most fickle in its policy,
the most unscrupulous in its expedients, that they had yet been called
to resist. The ultra-montane nations pressed on to cope with or to
conquer those degenerate Vicars of Christ, who, abandoning their high
calling as shepherds and pacificators of Christendom, became its
perturbators.
The rapid sketch which we have given in our first chapter of the
seigneuries and communities of Central Italy may suffice to exhibit
the general condition of Umbria, the March of Ancona, and Romagna as
far as the Po. In Tuscany, democratic institutions had taken deeper
root, among a population addicted rather to arts than to arms, and
preferring wealth earned by industry and commercial enterprise to the
precarious glory and profits of the sword. Their peaceful habits
permitted capital to accumulate; its increase gave them a stake in its
security; leisure and consequent intelligence enabled them to mature
ideas of liberty beyond those of neighbouring states. It was in
Florence especially that a more perfect system of municipal
institutions established communal freedom upon a firmer basis, which,
amid the ceaseless convulsions of domestic factions, and even through
the long atrophy of later Medicean domination, has preserved for that
city a political and intellectual pre-eminence, finely acknowledged by
old Sanzi in his exclamation,
"For to curtail fair Florence of her freedom,
Were to pluck forth an eye from Italy,
And cause her orb to wane."
In the adjacent commonwealths of Pisa, Lucca, and Siena, similar
results sprang from somewhat analogous causes, although they were from
time to time, in the words of Dante,
"O'erthronged
With tyrants, and a great Marcellus made
Of any petty factious villager,"
until, by degrees encroached on by their more powerful neighbour, they
were finally absorbed in the state which owned the Arno's queen as its
capital.[*58]
[Footnote *58: Lucca was never absorbed. It is true she was sold to
Florence, but the City of the Lily could never get her. Cf. Ammirato,
Muratori, Sismondi.]
Lombardy was no longer the emporium whence commercial wealth
circulated over Europe, but her cities, surrounded by plains of
unequalled fertility, gave no signs of decay, her universities were
crowded by transalpine students. She had fully realised the stinging
reproaches of Alighieri,--
"Thy living ones
In thee abide not without war, and one
Malicious gnaws another, ay, of those
Whom the same wall and the same moat contain;"
but her Ezzelino and Can della Scala were no more, and many of her
petty principalities had been merged in the wide-spreading duchy of
Milan, or the mainland conquests of Venice. The Lion of St. Mark was
in the ascendant during the fifteenth century, and, though we have no
occasion to follow the fleets of Venice as they spread terror among
the Turks, we shall in due time find her terra-firma policy
complicating the relations and hampering the diplomacy of Italy.
Naples, long exposed to the calamities of a disputed succession, which
we shall hereafter explain, endured the feeble sway of the notorious
Joanna II., by whose death in February, 1435, the crown passed to
Alfonso V.,--notwithstanding her death-bed recognition of the claims
of the first Angevine dynasty, then represented by the good King René
of Provence,--and the dynasty of Aragon was continued by his
illegitimate descendants until the close of this century.
Having thus endeavoured in a few pages to exhibit the condition of
those Italian states with which our narrative will have to do during
the life of Federigo, we must resume its interrupted thread. Martin V.
was succeeded in 1431 by Eugene IV., a noble of Venice, who, eager to
undo the favours bestowed by Martin on his own relations, sought a
quarrel with the Colonna and their adherents, including the Count of
Urbino. This misunderstanding was patched up by mediation of the
Venetian signory, upon an interchange of hostages, among whom was
included Federigo. It thus became necessary for him to repair to
Venice, where he was received in the college or council, and acquitted
himself so well that the Doge, Francesco Foscari, foretold his rise to
great eminence in after life. The favourable opinion thus formed was
daily confirmed by his engaging manners, and he conciliated the noble
youths, who admitted him into their fashionable and very select club
or fraternity of the _calze_, or hose, so called from their
uniform.[59] The plague having appeared, he was permitted by the
Doge, after a residence of fifteen months, to retire to the court of
Mantua, then presided over by the Marquis Gian Francesco Gonzaga,
whose marriage with a Malatesta connected him with both the wives of
our Count Guidantonio. His welcome there was cordial and
distinguished, and during two years he enjoyed advantages which
beneficially influenced his after life. In the Marquis's children he
found fellow-pupils as well as playmates, and, under their father's
eye, was taught the theory of war and the practice of military
exercises, until he became one of the most skilful swordsmen and
equestrians of his day.
[Footnote 59: It consisted of a tight pantaloon, fantastically
party-coloured, and a device distinguishing it from similar clubs. The
members associated together for festive and social purposes, which
were freely indulged in at the election or marriage of a brother of
the hose, and they wore mourning for four days on the death of any one
of their number.]
But it was to the tuition of Vittorino de' Rambaldoni da Feltre[*60]
that we may ascribe his progress in those tastes and accomplishments,
for which in his person and that of his son, Urbino became eminent.
This Vittorino was excelled in learning by few of his contemporaries,
and none of them equalled his reputation as an instructor of youth. He
was born at Feltre in 1378, and sent to the university of Padua. After
completing, under Giovanni da Ravenna, the training in grammar,
dialectics, and philosophy which then constituted the basis of a
liberal education, he learned Greek from the famous Guarino of Verona.
His powerful mind being attracted to mathematics, and finding his
means unable to command the instructions of Pelacane of Parma, he
proffered the most menial services about his person, in hopes of
picking up some crumbs of knowledge in his service. But the mercenary
professor was not to be melted without gold, and the poor student was
left to struggle unaided with the difficulties of exact science, until
he thoroughly mastered its truths. It was in 1425 that the Marquis of
Mantua induced him to move, with his already celebrated school, to
that capital, for the purpose of teaching his children. The lessons of
Vittorino were well bestowed on the young princes of Gonzaga, but
especially on their sister Cecilia, whose name is not least remarkable
among those prodigies of female learning produced in the Italian
courts of that age. When but ten years old she wrote Greek with
singular purity, and her life of celibacy was devoted to literature.
[Footnote *60: On Vittorino da Feltre, see ROSMINI, _V. da Feltre_
(1845), and Prof. WOODWARD, _V. da Feltre_.]
The peculiarity of Vittorino's system was its extending the field of
his labours beyond the mere scholastic tuition of his time. Without
neglecting the severer studies, he varied them by light
accomplishments, and relaxations of person and mind which proved alike
healthful to both, such as music and drawing, horsemanship, fencing,
and all manly exercises. Its success was testified by an influx of
pupils from transalpine and oriental lands, as well as from every
state in Italy. These for the most part resided in his house, under
the immediate influence of his training and example, which were not
less admirably calculated for inculcating high moral excellence, than
for the development and direction of genius. A man of more simple
tastes, winning manners, and pure life was rarely found, and, by a
happy blending of rigid discipline with mild temper, his influence was
beneficially extended over even the least ductile of his flock. At his
board, the rich acquired habits of frugality, the poor were welcomed
with generous consideration. Careless of worldly gain, his earnings
were freely spent in providing for their wants, and at his death in
1447, he left not enough for his funeral. No work remains from his
pen, but he has given ample proof of his influence on the age, in the
eminent names that issued from his academy, to illustrate Italian
letters, either as sovereigns or savants. A beautiful and rare medal
of him by Pisanello presents a fine allegory: the pelican baring its
bosom to feed its little ones happily suggests the unwearying
self-sacrifices of a conscientious instructor, whilst the legend
designates him as father of all human studies. Sanzi's tribute to his
character is at once happy and just:--
"Brilliant his powers of thought, unmatched his zeal,
For science in her varied walks: his life
And manners holy; yet on gentle crafts
And joyous themes right heartily intent."
[Illustration: NICCOLÒ PICCININO
_From a bronze medal by Pisanello_]
[Illustration: VITTORINO DA FELTRE
_From a medal by Pisanello in the British Museum_]
In the autumn of 1432, the Emperor Sigismund, while returning from his
coronation at Rome, was entertained by Count Guidantonio with
magnificent hospitalities at Gubbio[*61] and Urbino, and bestowed
knighthood both on the Count and his son Oddantonio.[*62] On reaching
Mantua, he conferred the like honour on the Gonzaga princes, and
extended it to their guest the young Federigo, who was recalled home
whenever his father had been restored to a good intelligence with the
Pontiff. His marriage was celebrated on the 2nd of December, 1437,
after he had completed his fifteenth year, and he at once entered upon
the government of his wife's paternal fief.
[Footnote *61: Guidantonio entertained many potentates in Gubbio,
among them, on September 24, Pope Martin V., who was housed in the
Palazzo Beni. Cf. LUCARELLI, _Memorie e Guida di Gubbio_ (Capi, 1888).
The Emperor was received with great magnificence not in the autumn of
1432, but in August, 1433. Cf. GUERRIERO, _op. cit._ (_supra_, note 1,
p. 22); R. REPOSATI, _op. cit._, vol. I., p. 141.]
[Footnote *62: It is instructive to notice that the Emperor also
conferred knighthood a few days later in Rimini on Sigismondo
Malatesta and his brother Novello. Sigismondo was born in 1417, and
was christened Gismondo. Cf. CLEMENTINI and BATTAGLINI. The Emperor,
in knighting him, bade him take his own name. Thus Gismondo became
Sigismondo. This becomes of great importance later to his history. The
family badge of the Malatesti was the elephant (complete); the
elephant's head _échancré_ was the family crest. Neither was ever a
charge in the arms of the family. But for a century before
Sigismondo's time the rulers of Rimini had been in the habit of
placing an initial or monogram in the second and third quarters of the
family arms. The first known date of this use by Sigismondo of SI is
1445, and this has caused it to be confused by all writers on the
subject with the name of Isotta his mistress, later his third wife,
whom he met about this time. The SI, say they, stands for
Sigismondo-Isotta. It does not; it stands for Sigismondo, as I think I
have shown. Of course, I am sure Sigismondo was only too delighted to
find that his monogram embraced the initial letter of his Love. There
is good evidence to show that this was the popular belief after
Polissenas's death in 1449; but that is very different indeed from any
assertion that he actually placed the "I" in the family coat for love
of Isotta. If such a prince could do such a thing, I will believe with
John Addington Symonds that he murdered a wife whom he never married.
I may end this long note with a word or two on the use of the plural
Malatesti. There are many excellent authorities for it, among them
Clementini, Battaglini, and d'Annunzio, to say nothing of Villani and
the chroniclers of Rimini. It is indeed a question for a pedant.
However, the form, to be just, is Florentine, and arose in this
manner, maybe. The Florentine family name was primarily a genitive.
Rainiero, the son, called himself Rainiero Rainiero; Rainiero, son of
Rainiero; Rainierus, Rainieri. The Latin genitive being the same as
the nominative plural, all the family became Rainieri. This, however,
presupposes a nominative singular in _us_. Were the nominative in _a_,
the system would not work: Malatesta--Malatestae. In order to twist it
into Florentine shape it was necessary to insert the preposition _de_,
thus: Malatesta--de Malatestis, and then to drop the final _s_. This
sounds excellent enough; but what if the plural is as natural after
all as an English plural would be in its place: Smith--the Smiths;
Rainiero--i Rainieri; Malatesta--i Malatesti?]
In an age when society consisted of those who fought, those who
wrought, and those who prayed, the young Count of Mercatello belonged
to the first of these classes, and the duty now devolved upon him of
carrying into practice those lessons of warfare which had varied the
routine of his more abstruse studies. Under the military system which
we have already explained, he had to choose what free captain he would
serve with, until experience should qualify him to raise an
independent banner. The condottieri then of greatest name were Nicolò
Piccinino and Francesco Sforza, names which will soon be familiar to
our pages. The first of these was of birth so humble as to own no
other surname than that conferred on him in ridicule of his tiny
stature, and appears to have been equally destitute of those varied
talents and enlarged views which enabled several of his contemporaries
to consolidate and transmit the power gained by their swords. But
though unworthy of historic fame,[*63] his dwarfish body contained a
daring and indomitable spirit, which, after considerable service under
Braccio di Montone, the first general of his age, was rewarded with
the hand of his niece; and, notwithstanding the blame of occasioning
his defeat and death at the Lake of Celano in 1424, Nicolò kept
together his veterans, obtaining, as leader of that gallant band, a
reputation of which his own qualities were unworthy. Yet he was unable
to cope with Francesco Sforza, whose first service had been under
Joanna II. of Naples, but who after having, in 1441, won from Filippo
Maria Visconti, rather by fear than favour, the hand of his natural
daughter Bianca Maria,[*64] eventually established himself as his
successor in the duchy of Milan.
[Footnote *63: Which among the condottieri is worthy of what
Dennistoun seems to regard as only to be bestowed on the best of men?
However, he is wrong about Piccinino. Of all the Bracceschi, he alone
was an honourable man. Gaspare Broglio, one of Sigismondo Malatesta's
captains, gives him the fifth place among the soldiers of Italy; after
Carmagnuolo, Francesco Sforza, Sigismondo himself, and Federigo of
Urbino. A fine fighter, an excellent strategist, it was his weakness
to be true to his master. And then he was what Sforza never was, nor
could the dukedom of Milan make him--a gentleman. Cf. EDWARD HUTTON,
_Sigismondo Malatesta_ (Dent, 1906), _passim_, and G. CAMPANO e G.B.
POGGIO, _Vite di Braccio Fortebraccio e di Nic. Piccinino Perugini_
(Perugia, 1636).]
[Footnote *64: Bianca Maria was promised and withheld from Sforza many
times. At the beginning of the third war with Venice, which ended in
1432, the Emperor Sigismund came into Italy, and to Milan first, to
receive the Iron Crown. It was on this occasion that Sforza was first
betrothed to Bianca Maria Visconti, just then eight years old. At the
date of their wedding--they had not met between--she was only
seventeen, yet I suppose this to have been none too early for an
Italian girl of the fifteenth century. Sforza was forty. A curious
panegyric on the bride will be found in SABADINO G., _Gynevra de la
clare donne_ (_Scelta di curiosità letterarie inedite o rare
Dispensa_, 223, Bologna, 1888). And see C.M. ADY, _Milan under the
Sforza_ (Methuen, 1907), pp. 18 and 24-5.]
The Council of Basle, opened in July, 1431, to concert measures for
extirpation of the Bohemian heresy, had occupied itself in reforming
alleged abuses in the Church and the papal prerogatives. A collision
with Eugene IV. was the natural result, when he fled to Florence,
leaving his state a prey to Sforza, Piccinino, the Colonna, and other
military adventurers. As the best means of bridling these bandits, he
bribed the first of them to turn his arms against the others, by
offering him the vicariate of La Marca,
"That land
Which lies between Romagna, and the realm
Of Charles."[65]
[Footnote 65: That is, Charles II., king of Naples, when Dante wrote.
See _Purgatorio_, v.]
But by degrees all Italy was involved in the struggle, Alfonso of
Naples, the Florentines, Genoese, and eventually the Venetians,
supporting the Pontiff, whilst Filippo Maria Visconti, the Angevine
party at Naples, and the city of Bologna sided with the Council. In
this war Piccinino led the Milanese army, and among his independent
captains was Bernardino della Carda, who dying in 1437, his company of
800 men-at-arms was divided between his son Ottaviano and the young
Federigo di Montefeltro. In the end of May, 1438, the latter set out
for Piccinino's camp, assisting at the siege of Brescia, and in the
opening of the Lombard war, where the rival generalship of Nicolò and
Sforza was first brought to the test, with results more interesting in
a military than an historical view. It is not to be supposed that
services performed by so youthful a soldier could much influence the
campaign, but they appear to have been approved by his commander.
Guidantonio Manfredi, generally known by the contemptuous abbreviation
of Guidaccio, had been brought up at the court of Urbino, during his
father's temporary banishment from his hereditary fief of Faenza, and
had married a daughter of Count Guidantonio di Montefeltro. In the
division of parties which we have just explained, both these
feudatories adhered to the Milanese, but as their neighbour, the Lord
of Rimini, was at first a partisan of the league, and as Bologna had
but recently thrown off the papal authority, Filippo Maria considered
it advisable to strengthen his forces in Romagna. Federigo was
accordingly ordered to join his brother-in-law Guidaccio, and
acquitted himself creditably in various skirmishes with the Tuscan
troops, under Gianpaolo Orsini. The only personal incident preserved
of this petty war is one to which he was in the habit of alluding,
with something of the superstitious dread that pervades the good
Sanzi's account of it, although its character was rather grotesque
than horrible. Having marched from Faenza in bright moonlight, with a
party of 400 horse on a foraging expedition, a noise like the clashing
of arms was suddenly heard at a distance, which immediately being
repeated close at hand, the troops, with fierce and terrified aspect,
rushed on each other, and for about ten minutes fought and struggled
pell-mell, while their frightened horses, partaking in the panic,
neighed and bolted in all directions. Dawn discovered a scene of
strange confusion; the infantry mounted, the cavalry on foot, many
lying wounded on the ground, not a few horses killed, others with
broken or disordered harness. This senseless alarm was never accounted
for, and was consequently ascribed to diabolical influence.
But he was soon recalled by home interests from under the command of
Guidaccio. The Malatesta, whose descent will be found in the annexed
table, had for some generations held several fiefs in Romagna and the
March of Ancona, and although a bold and warlike race, the usage in
their family of separating its seigneuries among various sons,
legitimate or natural, prevented any of them from acquiring more than
a provincial reputation or influence, until Sigismondo Pandolfo made
himself famous by his struggle with Count Federigo, and by the
memorials of art which embalm his otherwise detested name. The
youngest of three bastard brothers,[*66] he survived to unite their
territories with his own, and although connected with the
Montefeltrian princes by the marriages of his aunt and brother, he
became a bitter enemy to the Count of Urbino. Indeed the latter of
these alliances, which we have noticed at page 48, served to foster
the family feud. Violante di Montefeltro had from Eugene IV. in 1431,
when a mere infant, some form of grant of her native mountain-land in
vicariate, in virtue whereof, and of her assumed rights as heiress of
her nephew Duke Oddantonio, in default of his male issue, a pretended
title was eventually trumped up, in competition with Federigo's
succession,[67] at all events as regarded Montefeltro, some townships
of which had already passed in various ways to the Malatesta, with
whom she intermarried. An incursion upon the territory of Guidantonio,
in the autumn of 1439, accordingly commenced a strife which, with
occasional brief interludes, endured above twenty years, and which
Sanzi thus deplores:--
"For e'en when fortune crowns the first essays
Of reckless hardihood, a reckoning hour
Of rapine, grief, and misery impend.
Such the destruction which these rival powers
Reaped from protracted broils and savage war,
While neighbouring cities, castles, towns, were sacked,
And high-born chiefs the double risk incurred
Of death or exile. There, for twice twelve years,
Italia's flower and might contended, till, in fine,
To right, by prudence, constancy, and force upheld,
Heaven gave success; the Eagle gnawed the heart
Of the great Elephant."[68]
[Footnote *66: I think Dennistoun is wrong here. Galeotto, called _Il
beato_, was the son of Pandolfo Malatesta by Allegra di Mori, and was
born 1411. Sigismondo was his son by Madonna Antonia, and was born in
1417. See BATTAGLINI, _Basini Parenensis Poetæ Opera_ (Arimini, 1744),
vol. II., p. 274; CLEMENTINI, _Raccolto Istorico della Fondatione di
Rimino_ (Rimini, 1617), vol. II., p. 299; and EDWARD HUTTON, _op.
cit._, p. 16. Novello was his son also by Madonna Antonia, and was
born in 1418. Neither of these ladies was Pandolfo's wife. Pandolfo
died before his brother Carlo. On Carlo's death the Malatesta
territory was held in trust for a time by women till Galeotto
succeeded. On his death the same thing happened; but at last
Sigismondo took Rimini when he was fifteen, and Novello had Cesena. It
is true that Novello predeceased Sigismondo, though only by a few
years, but by then Sigismondo was fighting for his life, having lost
everything save Rimini itself. All that Dennistoun says of the
Malatesti is inaccurate and clouded by prejudice.]
[Footnote 67: Bib. Marucelli, MSS. G, No. 308.]
[Footnote 68: The heraldic bearing of the Montefeltri was an imperial
eagle; of the Malatesta an elephant, allusive, perhaps, to the bones
of Hannibal's elephants, said to have been found at the Furlo Pass,
near Fossombrone and Fano, of which they were seigneurs.[*C]]
[Footnote *C: See note *2, page 71, _supra_.]
Had Sigismondo Pandolfo possessed temper and judgment equal to his
courage and ambition, he might have obtained and consolidated a
powerful sovereignty, which his liberal and cultivated tastes would
have rendered glorious in arts as well as arms. But deeply tainted
with--
"That poison foule of bubbling pride,"
his lofty daring was sustained by no continuous impulse, his
impetuous efforts were crowned by no success; the selfishness of his
political aims was equalled by the vainglorious direction he gave to
art; his energies were wasted in contests with Federigo, a rival
against whom he had neither any just quarrel, nor any chance of
success; his patronage was monopolised by poets who flattered, and
medalists who portrayed himself and his favourite mistress Isotta.
The first foray of Sigismondo into the wild valleys of Montefeltro was
repaid by Federigo, in a successful descent upon the richer
possessions of the Malatesta; but he was checked by a serious wound,
before the petty fortress of Campi, and on his recovery rejoined
Guidaccio. Piccinino, having again changed the seat of war from
Lombardy to Romagna, crossed into Tuscany, and during the summer of
1440, carried on an active but unsuccessful campaign in the upper
valley of the Tiber, till it was closed by his complete defeat at
Anghiari, leaving his baggage and half his army in the hands of the
Florentines. This battle has obtained a singular notoriety, and
affords a valuable test of condottiere tactics, where combats were
interested calculations, not internecine onsets. Machiavelli, the
opponent of that system, asserts that only one man lost his life, out
of some thirty or forty thousand combatants, and he by a fall from his
horse; whilst the largest calculation of slaughter on both sides gives
but seventy killed and six hundred wounded. Federigo was little
interested in that campaign, but ere long found occupation in the
defence of his wife's rights, disputed by Alberigo di Brancaleone.
This pretender had seized on Santa Croce and Montelocco, both of which
the Count recovered in the autumn of 1442, after a severe action,
which first tested his military skill. Sigismondo Pandolfo, having
secretly abetted this onset, was punished by an attack upon S. Leo.
That small city was the capital of Montefeltro, although this honour
has been claimed for Penna di Billi. Its situation is perhaps the most
singular in Europe. In a country whose rugged mountains and
precipitous ravines seem monuments of some tremendous primeval
convulsion, there stand uptossed two isolated pinnacles, the very
obelisks of nature, rising on three sides sheer from the valley. On
the remaining side of each, a narrow and rapidly descending ridge
connects the summit with the surrounding level, affording toilsome and
precarious footing to mules and mountaineers. On either peak, a
fortress commands a cluster of dwellings, nestled wherever the rocky
crest afforded footing, and inhabited by men of iron hearts and stout
sinews. The larger of these is S. Leo, the smaller Maiuolo, and we
shall often have occasion to mention them as the chief strongholds of
Montefeltro, to which they both originally belonged,[*69] though S.
Leo had for some time been possessed by the Malatesta. Its loftiest
pinnacle was crowned, in classic times, by a temple dedicated to
Jupiter Feretrius, affording an easy etymology for Montefeltro: a
later era found it sheltering a Christian hermit, whose ascetic
virtues obtained canonisation, and who left his name to the township
which rose around his cell. During the competition for her crown which
ravaged Italy in the tenth century, and rendered that the most dismal
as well as confused period of her dark ages, S. Leo became the refuge
of King Berengarius, from whence he long defied the arms of his
eventually successful rival Otho the Great: of its protracted siege,
however, in 962-3, no incidents worthy of credit have come down to us.
Its circuit is estimated at two miles, and not the least peculiar of
its phenomena is a spring of excellent water near the summit,
sufficient perennially to supply the mills. The accompanying
engraving, from a sketch taken on the spot, will best convey an
idea of this remarkable site, but we may quote Sanzi's description of
it, and of its surprise by Federigo.[70]
"A city yonder stands, San Leo hight,
Whose crest the sky menaces; 'gainst its strength
No force has e'er prevailed, with scathed cliffs
And rocks environed, heavenward uprearing
Its summit, by a single path approached,
Trod singly by the citizens. Earth holds
None other deemed impregnable.
To it the Count his daring aims addressed;
And, knowing that a rock, which few to scale
Would venture, jutted midway from the ridge,
At midnight's murky hour the spot he gained,
With few but agile comrades, well prepared
With ladders; then alone and stealthily
The outposts reconnoitred, slumbering all,
Like men who knew no fears save from on high.
Next scaling one by one that arduous rock,
And reaching thence the level space beyond,
The town his soldiers entered silently.
Sudden uprose their cry, with clash of arms,
And furious blows and crackling flame, the work
Befitting, whilst the startled garrison,
Knowing nor whence nor what the sounds,
No struggle made, but rushed in desperation
Or here or there, whilst others stood transfixed
To find themselves befooled. Not more surprised
Was he who gained the golden fleece, to see
From the plough's furrow armed men spring forth,
Than were these luckless denizens to find
Their stronghold carried in the sudden fray."
[Footnote 69: See UGOLINI, _op. cit._, pp. 4 and 5. S. Leo seems to
have been called at one time Monteferetro. Cf. MARINI, _Saggio di
ragioni della città di S. Leo_ (Pesaro, 1758), and MAZIO, _Relazione a
Urbano VIII., dello stato d'Urbino_ (Roma, 1858).]
[Footnote 70: Views of S. Leo, from other points, will be found in Mr.
GALLY KNIGHT'S _Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy_, and in COMTE DE
BYLANDT'S _Atlas de Volcans_, where it is rendered subsidiary to the
phenomena developed in that remarkable district.]
[Illustration: _A. Nini, del. A. Marchetti, sculp._
SAN LEO AND MAIUOLO
_From a drawing by Agostino Nini_]
A somewhat different account of the means by which S. Leo was taken,
has been adopted by Baldi, from Volpelli's history of that place.[71]
Matteo Grifone, who, from being a miller at S. Angelo in Vado, became
a staunch follower of Count Federigo, and subsequently a general in
the Venetian service, obtained permission to attempt a surprise.
Accompanied by twenty picked men, he, in a dark and rainy night,
gradually made his way to an outpost which he knew to be seldom
occupied, and there left all but one comrade, with whom he effected an
entrance by means of scaling-ladders. Silently and stealthily they two
went from house to house, fastening each door with the chain which
usually hung outside. At dawn, Federigo by concert led his troops to a
feigned assault, to repel which the garrison sallied down the ridge.
Grifone then, hastily admitting his men, closed the gates upon these
skirmishers, and displaying in the piazza eight pair of colours which
he had brought, raised the cry of Feltro! Feltro! The few defenders
left in the citadel, conceiving the town to have been carried, and its
inhabitants (who being barred into their dwellings could offer no
resistance) to have sided with the enemy, surrendered without a blow.
A temporary reconciliation with Sigismondo soon followed, by the
interposition of Francesco Sforza, who gave to Malatesta his natural
daughter Polissena in marriage, as a means of strengthening his hold
on La Marca.
[Footnote 71: Vat. Urb. MSS., No. 928.]
The father of Sforza, whether by birth a peasant or a gentleman, had
owed his fortunes to his sword, which won him wealth and honours in
various Italian states, especially in Romagna and Naples.[*72] His son
succeeded to these honours, as well as to the command of his veterans,
and inherited talents and address of still higher quality. Availing
himself of the enfeebled papacy, and the confusion into which the
ecclesiastical states fell during the contest of Eugenius IV. with
the Council of Basle, he overran La Marca, whilst Fortebraccio menaced
Rome itself. In order to save the latter, Eugenius abandoned the
former to Sforza, with the title of Marquis, and the authority of
Vicar; this bribe was accepted, and the service rendered for it was
the restoration of his supremacy over the rest of the papal territory.
On the death of Joanna of Naples, Francesco Sforza, now the first
soldier of his day, acknowledged René as her successor, and when that
monarch, by withdrawing in 1442, left the kingdom to his rival
Alfonso, Sforza lost his Neapolitan dignities and estates. The
sacrifice was more than compensated by his marriage with the Duke of
Milan's natural daughter; yet for a time this splendid alliance
brought with it no good fruits. Filippo Maria had acceded to it with
indifferent grace, and jealousy of his son-in-law led him, in 1443, to
join Eugenius and Alfonso in a combination for wresting from Francesco
the March of Ancona.
[Footnote *72: Sforza's origin is now proved. The Attendoli were not
peasants, but among the leading families of Cotignola. As early as
1226 an Attendolo was ambassador for the neighbouring town of
Bertinoro in its submission to Bologna. They were a well-known race of
soldiers, it seems. Cf. SOLIERI, _Le origini e la Dominazione degli
Sforza a Cotignola_ (Bologna, 1897), and _ibid._, _L'Antica Casa degli
Attendoli Sforza in Cotignola_ (Ravenna, 1899). Also C.M. ADY, _op.
cit._, p. 3.]
Nicolò Piccinino being again hired to serve against his old enemy,
Count Federigo preferred, after his father's obsequies, joining him
before Monteleone to remaining idle at home, Sanzi assuring us,--
"That martial practice was his sole desire,
Ready his guard to mount by night or day,
And deeming cowardly the love of quiet."
He immediately attended his general to an interview with the King of
Naples at Terracina, embarking at Civita Vecchia; and the impression
made by him on that monarch is thus finely given by the same
chronicler, in language splendid as his reception:--
"As its bright rays the comet's track precede,
So the Count's virtues harbingered his way.
And as Apollo scattering o'er the dawn
His plumes of gold, along the orient sky,
E'er he emerges calmly from his couch,
Bears in his brilliant orb the blazing signs
Of bounteous disposition: thus the youth
Round the king's inmost heart himself entwined
With hope's sweet fillet, and a lodgment made
Firm as the solid nail in growing tree."[73]
[Footnote 73: The original lines, notwithstanding their antiquated
orthography, so much excel our version, that many readers will gladly
refer to them:--
"Como a cometa enanze corre el ragio,
Cusi nel giovin le vertude ancora
Scorse il senthier del suo illustre viagio:
E como quando Apollo insu l'Aurora
Sparge le chiome d'or per l'oriente,
Mentre tranquillo vien del onde fora,
Mirava nel suo volto resplendente
D'un almo invicto segni senza frodi.
Onde a tal Re quel giovine excellente,
Cum futura speranza, in dolci nodi
El cor gli avinse, et poi dentro se fisse,
Si como in verde pianta saldi chiodi."]
After three days spent in concerting plans for an attack upon La
Marca, Nicolò returned to Tuscany, but Federigo was invited by Alfonso
to remain with him until the campaign should open. Ere long, however,
he rejoined his troops at Viterbo, and, after a foraging march through
the enemy's country, reached Fano just before Sforza, who had for some
time remained there awaiting his Venetian and Florentine contingents,
put Piccinino once more to the rout at Monteluro. Giovanni Sanzi, then
a youth residing at Colbordolo, went forth to see the battle, which he
describes with much spirit:--
"War's crash and clang were there; the horseman's charge
With shock impetuous, and with ringing cheers
That seemed the vaulted sky to scare. There, too,
Men huddled lay on earth with dismal howls,
Their drums and spears a booty: some the while
Encouraging, some eager, some dismayed.
The very air, with clouds surcharged and dim,
Seemed wailing for the slaughter of that day,
Its fierce assaults and sanguinary scenes."
The Count shared not in this defeat, but lent opportune aid to rally
the broken and disorganised troops, and was about this time rewarded
by Eugenius with his promised investiture of the countship of
Mercatello. In July he repaired to the baths of Campagnatico, in the
Maremma, to recruit from an attack of fever, but on his return found
new occupation from the Lord of Rimini.
The grandfather of that seigneur was Galeotto Malatesta, whose
patrimony included Rimini, Faenza, and Fossombrone, and whose elder
brother, Malatesta Malatesta, had transmitted the fief of Pesaro to
his great-grandson Galeazzo. This Galeazzo was a man of feeble parts
and degraded character, altogether unable to maintain his authority
over a disgusted people, or to cope with his bold and ambitious cousin
Sigismondo of Rimini. After the defeat of Monteluro, he had
reluctantly received into Pesaro some of Piccinino's stragglers, and
Sigismondo availed himself of this pretext to persuade his
father-in-law Sforza to seize and make over to him that city. But
Francesco, intent on sustaining his interests in La Marca, soon left
the affair in the hands of Sigismondo, who, although able to overrun
the surrounding country, could make no impression upon the capital,
held by Count Federigo, even after its poor-spirited lord had
withdrawn to Forlì. Thus baffled for eighteen months, the impetuous
Sigismondo, by way of cutting short the contest, sent to Federigo this
insolent challenge:--
"To the Lord Federigo of Montefeltro, Captain-General of the
illustrious Count Francesco Sforza.
"Mighty Lord,
"Your lordship knows the difference long existing between
us, and, if you judge rightly, you will perceive the fault
to lie on your side, not on mine. Patience is no virtue of
mine, and so far from appearing disposed to amend them, you
daily multiply your errors. Anew have you written calumnies
against me to the Court of Rome, and caused ill to be spoken
of me. I am determined to bear it no longer, but to show,
with my person against yours, that I am a better man than
you, for in sooth you are a bad one, and do amiss to affront
me. I therefore send to you Signor Giovanni da Sassoferrato,
my chancellor, with full authority to inquire as to the duel
which by your letter you have already accepted. And although
Signor Giovanni holds a public instrument of mandate, I
wished to write this letter as of more ample authority,
praying that you will accept it: which I feel assured you,
as the brave man you avow yourself and ought to be, will do;
and that you will thereupon please to send one of your
people of weight, informed of your wishes as to the manner,
time, and place of our fighting, so that all may be settled.
I have said of weight, that he may be qualified to fix upon
a place with him whom I shall send, so that we may
understand each other. And that this your agent may repair
hither in safety with four horses, this letter will be an
ample and valid safe conduct for his freely coming, staying,
and returning. And in case of your refusal, which I do not
believe, I warn you that I shall proceed against you more or
less, according to the usual practice, as I may see fit.
"SIGISMONDO PODOLFO DI MALATESTA.[74]
"Rimini, the 21st of February, 1445."
[Footnote 74: _Carteggio inedito d'Artisti_, I., p. 179, from the
Archivio di Urbino at Florence, Lettere, filza 104.]
This cartel was answered as became a high-spirited knight; but, on
reaching the rendezvous under the walls of Pesaro, Federigo was
surprised to find his adversary absent. No explanation appears of this
failure beyond Sanzi's expressive exclamation,--
"Ah! foul dishonour to the recreant lord!"
and Sigismondo, covered with ridicule, was glad to patch up a truce
with his cousin Galeazzo.[*75]
[Footnote *75: This eloquence is a little stupid. If the _rendezvous_
was "under the walls of Pesaro," already held by Federigo, Sigismondo
would have been indeed a fool to go.]