The early promise of Duke Guidobaldo I.--Count Girolamo
Riario assassinated--The Duke's marriage--Comparative quiet
of Italy.
In the life of Duke Federigo we have seen personal merit accompanied
by a remarkable continuance of good fortune. The mystery of his birth
was no bar to his enjoying unquestioned a sovereignty to which he
could not have established any clear right. The popular outbreak which
had cut off his predecessor shook not the stability of his dynasty. To
the fief he thus peaceably acquired he added important territories by
marriage and purchase. He transmitted to a hopeful son an important
and flourishing state, and with it the highest title compatible with
his station, obtained by his personal merits. Among competitors and
opponents of great military renown he was ever conspicuous, and almost
uniformly victorious. In an age when letters and arts began their
rivalry with arms he retained, as the Maecenas of a cultivated court,
the fame he had gained as a successful general. The biographers of
Guidobaldo[*215] have justly ascribed to him no inferior merit, while
they have strongly contrasted the persecutions of fortune which he
endured; and they have established the probability that, with equal
years and equal advantages, his memory might have not been less
glorious than that of his father. Those portents attending the
Prince's birth, to which a miraculous character was assigned by the
gratitude or superstition of the people, have been mentioned in a
preceding chapter. It took place at Gubbio on the 17th or 24th of
January, 1472, and on the 2nd of February he was baptized Guido Ubaldo
Girolamo Vincenzo;[*216] the first pair of these names, given in
memory of the old counts of Urbino, and of the patron saint of that
city, was commonly used by him in its contracted form GUIDOBALDO. The
court of his father, ever attractive to eminent men, was soon after
visited by the venerable Cardinal Bessarion, who, after being twice
within a vote or two of the triple tiara, was returning from his last
diplomatic mission to England a few months before his death. Federigo
availed himself of this opportunity to obtain for the infant the rite
of confirmation, though but three months' old. In two months more, the
condition with which Battista had accompanied her prayers for a male
heir was fatally fulfilled,[217] and Guidobaldo was deprived of a
mother's care long ere he could be sensible of the sad bereavement.
[Footnote *215: For the life of Guidobaldo, see BALDI, _Vita e fatti
di Guidobaldo I. di Montefeltro_ (Milano, 1821); ZACCAGNINI, _La Vita
e le opere edite e inedite di B. Baldi_ (Modena, 1903); CASTIGLIONE,
_Epistola ad Sacratissimum Britanniae Reg. Henricum de Guidobaldo Urb.
Duce_; BEMBO, _De Guido Ubaldo Feretrio deque Elisabetta Gonzagia
Urbini Ducibus liber_ (Cod. Vatic. Urbin., 1030), and Ugolini, _op.
cit._, II., lib. VIII. and IX.; see also MADIAI _Commentari dello
Stato di Urbino_, in _Arch. Stor. per le Marche e per l'Umbria_, vol.
III., pp. 419-464.]
[Footnote *216: See _supra_ note *1, p. 208. There, too, Guidobaldo's
names are given as Guido Paolo Ubaldo. As stated here they seem to be
right.]
[Footnote 217: See above, p. 207.]
[Illustration: _Gio. Sanzi, pinx. L. Ceroni, sculp._
GUIDOBALDO I.
_From a picture in the Colonna Gallery in Rome_]
Almost from his cradle the Prince was remarkable for a sweet and
docile temper, as well as for uncommon promise. We are gravely assured
by his preceptor that, while other infants had scarcely learned to
satisfy their instinctive need of sustenance, he could express his
wants; while they were trying to speak he was mastering his rudiments;
and these, with similar proofs of precocity, which we shall presently
cite, are asserted with the most solemn asseverations of their literal
truth. Fully aware of the importance of early directing so prompt a
genius, his father engaged, as the guide of his youthful studies,
Ludovico Odasio of Padua, an accomplished gentleman, as well as a
distinguished scholar, whom he ever treated with the attention due to
his own merits, as well as to the importance of his charge. The after
life of his pupil, and the language used by Odasio in his funeral
eulogy,[*218] bear ample testimony to the careful and satisfactory
tuition which the Prince imbibed, and the benefit he reaped from his
instructions. Nor were these ungratefully received by the latter, who,
on attaining majority, bestowed upon his preceptor the countship of
Isola Forsara, near Gubbio, which his descendants continued to enjoy
during many generations.
[Footnote 218: Guidobaldo always honoured and enriched Odasio, to whom
he gave, for instance, a fine _podere_ on 26 February, 1495 (cf.
_Arch. Centr. Perg. d'Urbino_, p. 275). This eulogy was an ovation and
nothing more; it was not the truth, or meant to be the truth. Cf.
UGOLINI, _op. cit._, vol. II., p. 151.]
The Paduan sage describes his charge as a fit model of those infantine
Cupids whom painters delight to introduce in their pictures of the
Queen of Love. Nor were his dispositions less engaging; gentle and
just to all, generous but prudent beyond his years. Neglecting the
childish toys suitable to his age, his whole mind was concentrated on
his studies and on manly sports, occasioning in many those anxious
fears that so generally attend the premature development of early
talent. Such was the genius committed to the care of Odasio, who seems
to have rendered it ample justice. Besides his native tongue,
Guidobaldo rapidly acquired the Latin language, and although Greek was
then a comparatively rare accomplishment, he so thoroughly mastered
its difficulties as to write it with freedom and Attic grace.
Possessing great powers of application, his reading included all the
best classical authors. The poets were his delight in boyhood, but by
degrees he attached himself more to the severer studies of philosophy
and ethics. Nor was his attention limited to abstract literature.
Geography engaged in turn his versatile talents, accompanied with
practical information as to the inhabitants by whom various countries
were peopled, their manners, their political relations, and the
character of their respective governments. But what his preceptor
considered as the great aim of a princely education was the
development of his powers of eloquence, and an extensive acquaintance
with history; to these, therefore, he drew Guidobaldo's attention with
entire success. In detailing to us these interesting particulars,
Odasio takes little credit for the progress of his pupil, whose quick
apprehension rendered his duty that of a companion and observer rather
than of a teacher. His powers of memory were especially remarkable,
and by judicious and habitual exercise were extended with advancing
manhood. He is said to have possessed that rarest gift, of never
forgetting anything he wished to recollect, and to have repeated with
perfect accuracy successive pages which he had read only once, some
ten or fifteen years before.
His insatiable thirst for knowledge did not prevent his perfecting
himself in every healthful and manly exercise. Precocious in his
amusements as in his talents, he devoted to these the play-time which
other children pass with noisy toys, and whilst they listened to
nursery tales, he hung upon the recital of heroic deeds, or the
stirring narratives of glorious war. To the boyish sports of ball and
dancing quickly succeeded gymnastic and military games, which were
followed with an enthusiasm, and accompanied by exposure to fatigue
and cold, that appear to have fatally affected his constitution. Thus
he grew up, adorned by the accomplishments, endowed with the courage,
and skilled in the martial exercises which formed a perfect knight
when the standard of chivalry was high. Nor were the graces of person
wanting to this phoenix of his age. Count Castiglione describes him
as represented in our engraving, of fair complexion and hair; of
singularly handsome features, in which a severe style was chastened
by gentle expression; of a person and limbs the model of manly beauty.
* * * * *
The death of Duke Federigo in the disastrous campaign of Ferrara, on
the 10th of September, 1482, left Guidobaldo an orphan ere he had
completed his eleventh year. In times where so much of the success,
and even security, of a petty sovereign depended on his personal
qualifications, a minority was ever perilous; but, in the present
instance, there were circumstances of peculiar danger to augment the
delicacy of his position. The state of Urbino was surrounded by those
of the Church, of Florence, of Rimini, and of Pesaro, whilst the more
distant powers, whose influence habitually bore upon the lesser
principalities of Italy, were Venice, Milan, and Naples. Of the former
category, the Pope, though connected by marriage, could scarcely be
deemed friendly, for Federigo had died in arms against the papal
troops; Lorenzo de' Medici was indebted to him for important aid, but
had never shown any peculiar attachment to his alliance; Rimini had
once more passed into the hands of an illegitimate heir, in whose eyes
the intermarriage of his father with the aunt of Guidobaldo[*219]
might not counterbalance the inveterate feuds between his grandfather
Sigismondo Pandolfo and Federigo. With Costanzo Sforza, Lord of
Pesaro, the young Duke could, indeed, calculate upon amicable
relations, but these, with so feeble a neighbour, were of negative
rather than available advantage. The open hostility of Venice, then
almost at the climax of her power, might well counterbalance the
Neapolitan alliance, and Ludovico Sforza was too busy with his own
ambitious projects upon the Milanese to interfere in support of a
distant ally. But how vain the calculations of human policy in the
sight of HIM in whose hands are the issues of life! The perils which
hung over the youthful Guidobaldo passed away like the morning mists
that precede a brilliant sunrise.
[Footnote *219: His sister, not his aunt. It was Elisabetta, the third
child of Federigo, who married Roberto Malatesta, illegitimate son of
Sigismondo. Roberto and Federigo of Urbino died on the same day (cf.
Allegretti, ap. Fabr. II., 245, and E.G. GARDNER, _Dukes and Poets at
Ferrara_ (Constable, 1904), p. 184).]
Having performed the last duties to his illustrious father, the new
Duke, on the 17th of September, was solemnly invested with the ducal
mantle, and rode through Urbino receiving homage amid the rejoicings
of all ranks. Thence he proceeded to Gubbio and his other principal
towns, meeting everywhere a unanimous welcome, and leaving, by his
fine presence and engaging manners, a highly favourable impression on
his subjects. In the arrangements necessary for the administration of
his state, he was aided by his cousin-german Ottaviano Ubaldini, of
whom we have already spoken.[220]
[Footnote 220: See above, p. 50, note.]
The messengers sent from Urbino to the combined powers of Naples,
Florence, and Milan, in whose service Duke Federigo had met his death,
returned with news which dissipated all present anxiety as to the
position of his heir, whom it at once placed on an eminence that might
have turned an older and more experienced head. The allies, in
faithful implement of his father's condotta, continued to him the same
command, entrusting to a child a charge which had baffled the best
generals of Italy. It is difficult satisfactorily to explain this
apparent absurdity. No doubt the services of condottieri were in
certain cases retained, rather for the following which they could
bring into active service than out of regard to their personal
qualifications, and it must have been most important for the League to
secure the brave and hardy militia of Montefeltro. Yet this affords no
valid reason for ostensibly setting a mere schoolboy over many veteran
officers. The appointment was probably but nominal, and at a moment
when no onward movement seemed requisite--when, in fact, the war had
been turned into a blockade--it was sanctioned as a mere temporary
expedient until time should be gained to deliberate on ulterior steps,
whether for a renewal of offensive demonstrations, or for a general
pacification. In this view the measure was politic, as a flattering
compliment to one whom it was well to conciliate, without tying up the
parties from whom it emanated. But, whatever be the just explanation,
the fact is positive that, in the language of Odasio, the Duke was
treated as a man ere he had well completed his childhood; was ranked
as a veteran ere he had served as a cadet; was made general before he
had served as a soldier. The career thus happily opened was not,
however, that which was destined most to illustrate his name. When
compared with his father's achievements, or with the military science
of his successor, the martial feats of Guidobaldo sink into
insignificance. The promise of an active and athletic childhood, and
the premature honours of boyish command, were blighted by the early
development of constitutional infirmities, which in a few years
disabled him from service in the field. Fortunately for himself and
his reputation, nature had endowed him with other resources, the
cultivation of which not only consoled his own privations, but greatly
contributed to humanise the age.
Nor did the result of their policy disappoint the confederates, or
expose Guidobaldo's military fame to premature risks. The wayward and
fickle character of Sixtus IV. solved all difficulties, by suddenly
changing his side. Upon pretended compunction for the miseries
produced by the war, but in reality from finding the Venetians likely
to reap the exclusive advantage of successes to which he had in no way
contributed, he reconciled himself with Ferdinand of Naples, and in a
treaty to this effect, signed on the 6th of January, 1483, he left to
the Signory an option of adherence to its terms. The publication of
this new alliance was inaugurated at Siena by a triumphal procession,
during which the Pontiff's sudden amity with the two Tuscan republics
was celebrated in a chorus to this effect:--
"Whate'er on earth by thee is bound shall be
Bound in the heavens, freed what thou settest free:
So spake the Lord, when in St. Peter's hands
He left the sovereignty of Christian lands;
And such the League, now destined to unite
Our state with God's own Vicar in the fight.
Pray that the Virgin and her Son uphold
The Oak, the Lily, and the Lion bold."[221]
[Footnote 221: These being the insignia of the Pope, Florence, and
Siena. See DELLA VALLE, _Lettere Sanese_, II., 47.]
The abandonment by Sixtus of his design upon Ferrara, although no
doubt promoted by the confederates' threat of a general council, was
probably induced by a calculation that the condotta with 10,000 ducats
of pay, and the vague promise of other fiefs in Romagna, which were
offered by Naples and Spain to Girolamo Riario, would prove to him a
more substantial boon than his stipulated share of the Ferrarese
territories, exposed to the chances of an obstinate and expensive
struggle, and coupled with the condition of handing over the larger
portion of that dukedom to the already dangerously powerful republic
of Venice. Thus was dissolved the League against the d'Este, and with
it expired Guidobaldo's commission, his position being at the same
time strengthened by a reconciliation with the Church.
But though the parties had changed, the game of war was continued. The
Venetians had good grounds for umbrage at the unceremonious desertion,
by his Holiness, of the common cause, without due notice, and still
better reason for discontent on finding themselves called upon to
abandon their designs upon Ferrara, after a long, expensive, and, on
the whole, successful campaign. They therefore, rejected the offer of
joining the new alliance, and persisted in offensive operations
against Duke Ercole, notwithstanding the displeasure of Sixtus, who,
with his usual violence, thundered an interdict against his recent
allies for pursuing the very policy to which he had persuaded them.
Intent on forcing peace upon the parties between whom he had recently
stirred up unprovoked hostilities, he directed the whole power of the
new combination against the Republic. To meet the exigencies of the
opening campaign, the combatants prepared their several forces, and
Guidobaldo was taken into the pay of King Ferdinand, with a salary of
15,000 ducats for three years, more, of course, on account of his
contingent of 180 men-at-arms and 30 lances than with any intention of
putting his own military talents to the test. The Venetians, nothing
daunted by the formidable combination they were called upon to oppose,
engaged the services of Costanzo Sforza, of Pesaro, with 300
men-at-arms. Thus, by a coincidence not uncommon in the career of
military adventurers, Guidobaldo was pitted against an uncle with
whom, and with whose states, the most affectionate and cordial
relations had always subsisted. But their impending rupture was
averted by the hand of fate. A malignant fever cut off Costanzo on the
19th of July, and his subjects were left to mourn a prince who had
conciliated their affection by wise policy, by attention to their
welfare, and by zeal in the improvement of his capital.
Death had, however, selected a partner in the game more important than
the Lord of Pesaro. The dread hour of reckoning was arrived to the
arch-spirit of turbulence, who from the chair of St. Peter had, during
thirteen years, been the scourge of Italy. Nor was his end out of
character with his career. By counter-plots, which we need not stay to
develop, the crafty Venetians contrived to seduce Ludovico il Moro
from the hostile band by whom they were beset, and turning the tables
upon the Pope, effected a pacification without including or even
consulting him. The treaty of Bagnolo aggrandised the maritime
republic with no reference to the interests of Riario. It reached
Sixtus on the 12th of August, 1484, and brought on a sudden attack of
his constitutional malady, gout, which struck him speechless. In a few
hours he expired of vexation, at finding himself outmanoeuvred in
his favourite game of intrigue, and at seeing those broils which he
had done so much to foment, thus brought to an unexpected close. The
Venetians, on learning that their rancorous foe had ceased to live,
redoubled the joy with which they heard of the general pacification;
and the satirical wits of the day commemorated his death in this
biting epigram:--
"No truce could Sixtus bind, though ratified:
A peace at length proclaimed,--he heard and died."[222]
[Footnote 222:
"Sistere qui potuit nullo cum foedere Sixtus,
Audito tantum nomine pacis, obiit."
_MSS. Bib. Magliab._ Cl. vii. No. 345.]
The successor of Sixtus was Cardinal Cibò, who took the title of
Innocent VIII. Between him and Duke Federigo had existed an old
friendship, which was cordially extended to Guidobaldo, and also to
Ottaviano Ubaldini: to these, therefore, it was a pleasure as well as
a duty to lay their congratulations at his feet, in return for which a
new investiture, already prepared by order of the late Pontiff, was
promptly forwarded to the young Duke. The aggressions of the Turk,
that standing grievance of Christian Europe, had of late menaced Italy
itself, and each pope, on ascending the chair of St. Peter, sought to
signalise his zeal by uniting the Peninsular powers against the common
foe. Yet, like his predecessors, Innocent was quickly diverted from a
project vast, glorious, and attractive, but impracticable, to meaner
objects; from the cause of Christianity to ebullitions of personal
pique. The rigour with which he exacted from the King of Naples some
arrears of _cense_, or ecclesiastical tribute, due to the Camera under
old investitures, but which had been modified by Sixtus IV.,
occasioned an exchange of harsh words. There occurred at Aquila, about
the same time, a most serious insurrection, headed by some Neapolitan
nobles belonging to the Angevine party, who, exasperated by a long
course of oppressive and injudicious government, appealed to Innocent
for assistance. The occasion seemed tempting for gratifying his
indignation against Ferdinand I., and for adding to the papal states
that important fief. The grand crusade against the Crescent was once
more forgotten, and the Pope, entering upon the career of Sixtus,
became the perturbator in place of the pacificator of unhappy Italy.
Among other small princes whom he retained for this struggle was
Guidobaldo, nor did he omit to secure the Venetians. Ferdinand was not
idle on his side, having made an alliance with the Florentines. Whilst
the ecclesiastical troops, under Roberto da Sanseverino and the
Prefect della Rovere, seconding the rebellious barons of Naples,
carried an aggressive war into the Abruzzi, the King made a diversion
in La Marca, by means of some military adventurers, who, at his
instigation, stirred up the people of Città di Castello, Fano, and
Osimo, to throw off the papal sway. To quell these movements, the
troops of Urbino, led by commanders sent by Innocent, and still more
the influence of the Duke, proved highly instrumental. The war, begun
without just cause, and leading to no important result, ended, as
usual, in a league which left the parties much as before. It included
the Pope, the King, Giovanni Galeazzo Sforza, and the Venetian
Republic, and was hailed with a joy that seemed wilfully oblivious of
the hollowness of former pacifications. It was concluded on the 11th
of August, 1485, and, unlike these, it secured the quiet of Italy
during the remainder of that pontificate.
The first actual service which it was the lot of Guidobaldo to
witness was in a cause at once vile and unimportant; but it placed him
under a rising soldier, who became one of the most distinguished
commanders of the age. Among the adventurers to whom we just now
referred as troubling the Marca, was Boccolino Guzzoni or Uguccione,
who, having made himself master of Osimo, continued to hold out with
obstinacy, embittered by a furious temper, and by the impolitic
severity which Innocent had manifested towards him. To reduce this
firebrand, Gian Jacopi di Trivulzio was sent from Milan in May,
1487;[*223] and, although the mediation of Lorenzo de' Medici saved
Uguccione from impending destruction, an incident which made him
acquainted with so remarkable a general must be considered important
to the youthful Duke, who had only completed his fifteenth year. His
advance towards manhood was marked by communications from the Court of
Rome being henceforward addressed to himself, instead of to Ottaviano;
but he dutifully continued to avail himself of his guardian's counsels
in all matters of moment.
[Footnote *223: Cf. AMBROGIO DA PAULLO, _Cronaca Milanese_,
1476-1515.]
[Illustration: _Alinari_
CATERINA SFORZA
_After the picture by Marco Palmezzani in the Pinacoteca of Forlì_]
We have seen the peculiar circumstances in which, with the aid of Duke
Federigo, the sovereignty of Count Girolamo Riario and his wife
Caterina Sforza was established in Imola and Forlì.[224] They had
reigned there during eight years, cited by their flatterers as models
of paternal government; abused by those whom they had disappointed and
especially by the Florentine writers, as monsters of tyranny. Truth
may probably lie between. Girolamo has been accused of no flagrant
crime, except a participation in the Pazzi conspiracy, which was
instigated by his uncle Sixtus IV., while Caterina is favourably
distinguished even above those brilliant spirits who abounded among
the contemporary princesses of Italy. The Count is alleged to have, by
an overbearing manner, offended several of his courtiers, but
particularly Francesco Deddi de' Orsi. Another account accuses
Lorenzo de' Medici of intriguing to avenge the old injury which he
justly attributed to Riario, a charge which his eulogists have
indignantly repelled, and which, resting on no proof, is certainly
inconsistent with a character so noble. Francesco, at the head of a
band of conspirators, broke in upon Count Girolamo, and murdered him
in his palace at Forlì. They then threw his body into the piazza, and
the populace, ever ready for change, rose simultaneously, some crying
"Liberty," others "Church," and finished their work by plundering his
residence.[*225] Meanwhile the leaders of the insurrection possessed
themselves of the Countess, her mother, sister, and six children; and
finding that Giacomo Fea, captain of the citadel, held it against
them, they dragged her to the walls, and insisted upon her summoning
him to surrender. Upon his refusing, they acceded to a proposal that
she should be admitted, in order to induce him to yield. Once within
the castle, Caterina thanked its defender, and stimulated the garrison
to fresh resistance, directing that all the artillery should be
brought to bear upon the town, ready to bombard it should the rebels
attempt to execute their cowardly threat of offering violence to her
children.[226]
[Footnote 224: We have spoken of this above.]
[Footnote *225: Cf. PASOLINI, _Caterina Sforza_. It was Ludovico and
Cecco Orsi who slew Girolamo, with the aid of two soldiers.]
[Footnote 226: The current edition of this anecdote, though somewhat
too gross for literal translation, is curiously illustrative of the
determined character of its heroine. It is thus recounted by
Boccalini, in his _Ragguagli di Parnasso_:--"Onde i congiurati così
vedendosi ingannati, apertamente le protestarono, che in pezzi avanti
gli occhi le havrebbono tagliati i suoi Figliuoli, s'ella non
consegnava loro la Rocca nelli mani, e ch'ella per quelle horrende
minaccie, in tanto non si spaventò punto, che anzi alzatesi le vesti,
e loro mostrando le parte vergognose, disse, che de' suoi Figliuoli
facessero a voglia loro, che a lei rimaneva la stampa di rifarne degli
altri." He represents Caterina as demanding, on the merits of this
action, admission into Parnassus, whereupon Apollo decides, after
ample discussion, that although "il sempre contenersi entro i termini
della modestia, fosse obbligo delle donne private, disse, che le
Principesse nate di alto sangue, negli accidenti gravi, che
occurrevano loro, erano obbligate mostrar virilità." [Transcriber's
Note: Errors in the Boccalini quotations have been corrected by
comparison with the original edition of 'De'ragguagli di Parnaso' at
the Internet Archive.] Bonolli, in his history of Forlì, tells the
same story, and Vallery characterises the expedient of the Countess as
"noblement impudique, et moins mère que femme de parti." Those who
wish to compare the various authorities on this point will find them
enumerated by Sismondi, chap. lxxxix. A letter of the conspirators to
Lorenzo de' Medici, printed by Roscoe, Appendix, No. 24, tends to
clear him of that participation in their crime of which he was
suspected.]
This bold bearing saved the cause of the young Riarii, without really
endangering their persons. Giovanni Bentivoglio, Lord of Bologna, a
faithful adherent of the Sforza, on the first news of this
insurrection, put himself at the head of a thousand horse and eight
hundred foot, and arrived in hot haste at the gates of Forlì. The
conspirators, divided in their counsels, and distracted by the
decisive course which the Countess had adopted, fled from the town
without waiting to resist, and thus the revolution was at an end.
Within two short weeks Caterina had been a happy wife, a bereaved
widow, an outraged prisoner, a triumphant sovereign. She remembered
her sorrows signally to avenge them; she threw aside her weeds to
assume a robe of triumph; and issuing from the castle, proclaimed her
son Ottaviano, Count of Forlì.
But a deep stain attaches to the punishment which she must have
sanctioned, if she did not direct it, and which was inflicted upon
Count Orsi, father of the assassin, with an accumulation of horrors
rarely exampled among even savage tribes. The old man, then in his
eighty-sixth year, after being exposed on the great square to insults
of the soldiery in presence of the whole populace, was bound to a
board, and drawn twice round the piazza, his snow-white head
projecting, and broken against the sharp stones; his quivering limbs
were then hacked in pieces by armed ruffians, whose atrocious
barbarities, as described by an eye-witness, are too revolting for
detail. All this the sufferer endured with a heroism and resignation
which produced on the spectators the usual effect of such brutal
perversion of justice, and converted their abhorrence of the crime
into sympathy with the criminal.
The murder of Count Girolamo took place on the 14th of April, 1488,
and the news of it excited great consternation at the court of Urbino,
which had always maintained a friendly footing with that of Riario, he
being cousin to the Prefect of Sinigaglia, husband of Guidobaldo's
sister. In the excited state of public feeling, men's minds caught
greedily at any trivial circumstance on which to found a surmise as to
the authors of the outrage, seeking for remote influences to account
for what seems to have been merely an outbreak of private passion. The
cries of "Church," which had mingled in the shouts of the excited
populace, were interpreted as an indication of the Pope's privacy to a
conspiracy, and doubts were entertained as to the part which he might
take in the revolution. But such ideas were quickly dissipated.
Whatever may have been the feelings of Innocent towards the dynasty
established by his predecessor at Forlì, the occupation of that city
by the Bolognese troops awakened his jealousy of the Bentivoglii. He
therefore despatched couriers, instructing the Duke of Urbino to
maintain at all hazards the legitimate government of Forlì, as
indispensable to the peace of Italy, and for this purpose to hold
himself in readiness for a march into Romagna, as soon as
commissioners should arrive from Rome with a subsidy. Guidobaldo
hastily assembled his troops, but ere the Pope's paymaster made his
appearance, the prompt aid of Bentivoglio, and an army sent from
Milan, had anticipated the service which he was commissioned to
effect.
Although the youthful Duke of Urbino was but little concerned in these
events of Italian history, they involved persons, and prepared the way
for political combinations, which turned the scale of his after life,
loading it with an undue portion of cares and sorrows. In absence of
domestic incidents during his minority, we may vary the narrative by
abstracting a few particulars from a volume of regulations for his
court. Though trifling, they throw light on his personal habits, and
supply an index to the civilisation of his age.[227] To all persons
composing the ducal household, unexceptionable manners were
indispensable. In those of higher rank there was further required
competent talents and learning, a grave deportment and fluency of
speech. The servants must be of steady habits and respectable
character; regular in all private transactions; of good address,
modest, and graceful; willing and neat-handed in their service. There
is likewise inculcated the most scrupulous personal cleanliness,
especially of hands, with particular injunctions as to frequent
ablutions, and extraordinary precautions against the unpleasant
effects of hot weather on their persons and clothing: in case of need
medical treatment is enjoined to correct the breath. Those who wore
livery had two suits a year, generally of fustian, though to some silk
doublets were given for summer use. They had a mid-day meal and a
supper: the former usually consisted of fruit, soup, and boiled meat;
the latter of salads and boiled meat. This was varied on Fridays and
vigil fasts by dinners of fish, eggs, and cheese; suppers of bread,
wine, and salads. Saturdays were semi-fasts, when they dined on soup
and eggs, and supped on soup and cheese. The upper table offered but
few luxuries in addition to this plain fare, such as occasionally
roasts, fowls, and pastry, with a more liberal allowance of eggs and
cheese on meagre days.
[Footnote 227: Urb. MSS. No. 1248. It was compiled after the death of
Duke Federigo, and apparently for his son's court.]
Of the diet at the ducal table we find sparing and unsatisfactory
notices; but its chief difference from that of the attendants seems to
have consisted in the more liberal use of sweet herbs and fruits. The
latter were presented in singular order: cherries and figs before
dinner; after it, pears, apples, peaches, nuts, almonds; before
supper, melons and grapes. The splendour of the table service seems to
have been more looked to than its supplies; and many rules are given
as to the covered silver platters in which meats were brought up, the
silver goblets and glass caraffes for wine, the fine napery and the
ornamental flowers. The regulations for the Duke's chamber service
indicate scrupulous cleanliness, both as to ablutions in perfumed
water, and frequent change of clothing, in strict conformance to the
directions of physicians and astrologers. Among the conveniences
enumerated for his bedroom are a bell, a night-light, and in cold
weather a fire. An attendant slept by him without undressing, also a
clerk in the guard-room within call. The music provided to accompany
the Duke on his rides seems to have been somewhat miscellaneous--a
company of bagpipers, a sackbut, four trumpets, three drums, with a
herald or pursuivant. The qualities insisted on for ladies of the
Duchess's household are exemplary gravity and unsullied honour; they
must further be handy, addicted neither to gossip nor wrangling, and
never talking unnecessarily in her presence.
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Anderson_
ISABELLA OF ARAGON
_After the drawing by Beltraffio in the Biblioteca Ambrogiana, Milan_]
We here reach an eventful epoch in the life of Guidobaldo. Baldi
informs us that, when Duke Federigo went to Naples in 1474 to receive
from Ferdinand the order of the Ermine he formally betrothed his son,
then but two years and a half old, to Princess Lucrezia of Aragon. He
adds that she corresponded with the Duke within a few months of his
death, but gives no account of the circumstances under which this
engagement was broken off. When Duke Guidobaldo had completed his
sixteenth year, another alliance was contracted for him, to the great
joy of his people, with Elisabetta (sometimes called Isabella)
Gonzaga, youngest sister of Francesco Marquis of Mantua. She was
daughter of the Marquis Federigo, by Margaretta daughter of Albert
III. Duke of Bavaria: her virtues, her manners, and her almost
unearthly beauty are extolled by Castiglione, in language which the
evidence of all writers has stamped with truth.[*228] Her age exceeded
the bridegroom's by one year, and her sister Madalena was at the same
time betrothed to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, the celebration of
both the nuptials being deferred until the end of October, 1489.
[Footnote *228: CASTIGLIONE, _Il Cortegiano_ (Firenze Sansoni, 1894),
Lett. Dedic. I., lib. I., iv.; III., ii.; III., xlix. Cf. also BEMBO,
_Lettere_, IV., i., 31.]
The rivalry inherent in the relations between neighbouring towns of
the Peninsula had on this occasion pleasing opportunity for display,
for nowhere more than in Italy do the people delight in pompous
festivities. The citizens of Urbino and of Pesaro strove which should
exhibit most taste and splendour in celebrating the happy event, and
in welcoming the bridal parties to their several homes. I have seen no
account of these shows, which is little loss, as there was much
sameness in all such exhibitions, and great dullness in their
monotonous descriptions. But we are assured that, in both capitals,
the display of triumphal processions, under arches studded with
statues and elaborate devices, followed by fireworks and dramatic
spectacles, were worthy of the auspicious occasion, and the emulous
spirit of their citizens.[229] The remainder of the year was devoted
by the Duke to similar amusements, or to sports of the chase, of which
his bride was passionately fond, and which she enjoyed at her ease in
the parks of Fossombrone and Castel Durante, where Federigo had
established an ample stock of fallow deer. The following spring
brought to his court new causes for joy, in the Marquis of Mantua's
marriage to a Princess of Ferrara, and the birth of an heir to the
Lord Prefect, in the person of Francesco Maria della Rovere, on whom
the dukedom of Urbino eventually devolved.
[Footnote 229: In the Laurentian Library (Plut. 91. No. 44, f. 57)
there is a laboured Latin epithalamium in ninety-six lines, written on
this marriage by Marcial de Gathe of Mantua, among his poems which are
dedicated to Bernardo Bembo.]
But alas, too soon was "bitter mixed with sweet." The hopes of
maintaining the ducal line, which the marriage of Guidobaldo had
nourished, were doomed to disappointment from infirmities of his
constitution which, though long kept secret from their people, were
quickly known to the young couple. These defects, having baffled
medical skill, were eventually attributed to the malign influence of
poison, or sorcery; an impression which the physicians probably
countenanced, to excuse the failure of their prescriptions, and which
seems to have been fully credited by the Duke and the public, when the
fact was allowed to transpire.[*230] The secrecy and resignation of
the Duchess under this dispensation, and her strict observance of her
nuptial vows, in circumstances which the loose morality of the age
might have regarded as a palliation for less faithful adherence to
them, are celebrated by her eulogists as proofs of almost superhuman
virtue, especially by Bembo, whose prurient language on this repulsive
topic offers curious proof of the low standard of decency then
prevailing among dignified churchmen, and persons of high pretensions
to refinement. Giovanni Sforza's marriage was still more fated, for
within ten months he was an afflicted widower.
[Footnote *230: An interesting book has been announced on the medical
practice of that day: TARULLI, _I medici ed i primordi della scuola
medica Perugina._ Meanwhile cf. TARULLI, _Appunti Storici_, in _Boll.
per l'Umbria_, vol. XII., p. 385 _et seq._ According to Petrarch,
Astrology and Medicine were different branches of a common
charlatanism. Cf. _Libri IV., Invectivarum contra medicum quemdam._
HEYWOOD, _The Ensamples of Fra Filippo, a Study of Mediæval Siena_
(Siena, 1901), p. 325. VOIGT, _Il Risorgimento dell'antichità
classica_ (Fir., 1897), vol. I., p. 77 _et seq._ OWEN, _The Skeptics
of the Italian Renaissance_ (London, 1893), p. 119, and cf. CHAUCER in
the _Prologue_ to the _Canterbury Tales_. For medical practice in the
fourteenth century, see _Fiori di Medicina di Maestro Gregorio
Medicofisico Del Sec. XIV._ (Bologna, Gaetano Romagnuoli, 1865), and
cf. IL LASCA, Nov. I., _et_ X., Cena Prima. Pico della Mirandola was
one of the first who entered the lists against these charlatans in his
treatise in twelve books, _Adversus Astrologos_ (Venice, 1498).]
The Duke had now attained to manhood, and in the enjoyment of a
tranquil reign he began to practise those lessons which he had imbibed
under Odasio. Amid the attractions of the lists or the chase, which
his own tastes and the joyous temperament of his Duchess strongly
recommended to him, he was not forgetful of more solid accomplishments.
It is unfortunate that few memorials are preserved of the formation of
that select circle which he appears thus early to have drawn around
him. It was not until fourteen years later, that Count Castiglione
entered that court which he was destined to immortalise; nor had the
group of fine spirits who are brought upon the stage in the
_Cortegiano_ as yet assembled at Urbino. But many of Duke Federigo's
old and honoured servants remained about the person of his son, and
maintained that tone of lettered refinement which the veteran
commander had cherished.
The pontificate of Innocent did not realise the warlike foretaste
which his early quarrel with King Ferdinand had given, and his mature
policy resolved itself into a maintenance of the _status quo_. Yet
from time to time there broke out, among the cities which acknowledged
his sway, those feuds and party squabbles, which ever and anon deluged
in blood most of the Italian communities, and of which Baldi well
says, "that it was matter equally of astonishment and compassion to
see persons born and bred within the same walls, brought up under one
law and one rule, change their very nature, and forget every principle
of humanity; mangling, destroying, and despoiling each other without
remorse, like wild beasts." On more than one such occasion, the Pope
called upon Guidobaldo to interpose his influence, or to advance his
troops in order to restore quiet; but these incidents do not merit
detailed notice. In services so barren of glory, the Duke showed
sometimes but little zeal, and in consequence received more than one
admonition from his ecclesiastical over-lord. The pacific views of
Innocent had been efficiently supported by Lorenzo the Magnificent,
with an influence belonging more to his personal character than his
absolute rank; but the premature death of both these sovereigns,
occurring almost simultaneously, deprived the Peninsula of its best
guarantees of tranquillity. Lorenzo having expired on the 7th of
April, 1492, the Pontiff breathed his last on the 25th of July; and on
the 11th of August was succeeded by Alexander VI.