Italy ill prepared for the French Invasion--Duke Guidobaldo
sent against the Orsini--Lucrezia Borgia's second
marriage--Descent of Charles VIII.--He reaches Naples and
retreats--Battle of the Taro--The Duke engaged in the Pisan
war--Is taken prisoner by the Orsini and ransomed.
The preceding rapid sketch may show the materials of which the
invading hosts were composed, and the nature of the approaching
danger. Its imminence appalled even those powers who, like Sforza,
thought more of their own ends than of the general weal; and Alfonso
II., who had succeeded to the crown of Naples on the death of his
father Ferdinand, in January, 1494, was indefatigable in uniting them
on the defensive. With Pietro de' Medici, we have already seen that
the latter was in close relations. Among the princes of Romagna,
Gallic influence had obtained no footing. The Venetians, occupied in
the defence of their eastern dependencies from the Turks, and
trusting, perhaps, to see Charles redeem his promise of a crusade
against the Crescent, were inclined to neutrality. Genoa was in the
hands of a faction entirely under the influence of Ludovico il
Moro,[*246] who, though bound by treaty to Charles, was already
alienated at heart from the connection, and ready on the first
opportunity to discard it. The Pontiffs position, like his usual
policy, was somewhat complicated. We have formerly found his
predecessors generally hostile to the dynasty of Aragon, as well as to
that of Hohenstaufen, and tolerably consistent in support of the
Angevine races, whose original title the Neapolitan crown was a papal
grant. Further, claims of the popes as lords paramount of that
kingdom, and the annual payments which in that capacity they demanded,
were fertile grounds for rancour, which but a few years before had
broken out into hostilities. We have also seen Ferdinand assisting
Virginio Orsini in purchasing those estates from which Alexander was
bent upon expelling him. But a deeper cause for mortification and
personal enmity arose out of the resistance by that King and his son
to the matrimonial alliance of a princess of their house with one of
the Pope's spurious sons.[*247] For a time, therefore, his Holiness
balanced between the parties, and appears even to have allowed his
name to be used by Ludovico Sforza in proposing to Charles the
conquest of Naples.[*248] But his object was merely to annoy and alarm
Ferdinand; and when he found this idea seriously adopted by the young
monarch of France, he hastily backed out, and employed his spiritual
and temporal influence to dissuade him from the enterprise.[249]
Alfonso warmly supported his Holiness in this new policy, and, in
order to clench him in it, betrothed his natural daughter, Sancia,
with a dowry of lands worth 10,000 ducats of rent, and jewels to the
value of 200,000 ducats, to Giuffredo Borgia, the Pope's youngest
child, whom he created Prince of Squillace. This son-in-law not being
yet marriageable, the King had an excuse for taking him to be brought
up near his bride, with the intention of securing a hostage for his
unstable parent's good faith. As a further bait, the principality of
Tricarico, with estates of 12,000 ducats a year, and one of the seven
great offices under the crown of Naples, were given to the eldest
Borgia, now Duke of Gandia; whilst on Cesare, already raised to the
purple as Cardinal Valentino (or of Valencia), his best ecclesiastical
benefices were showered by the hard-pressed Alfonso.
[Footnote *246: Ludovico Sforza held dominion in Genoa till 1498, when
he was defeated by Louis XII. of France, to whom Genoa was then made
over.]
[Footnote *247: See note below.]
[Footnote *248: Ludovico was alarmed at the alliance of Florence and
Naples, and tried to meet it with a league between the Pope, Milan,
and Venice [cf. Codice, Aragonese, II., 254, etc.] On April 25, 1493,
Alexander VI., guarded by an armed escort, celebrated Mass in S.
Marco, and after published his league with Venice, Milan, Siena,
Mantua, and Ferrara. The Pope's object was the recovery of the
possessions of the Holy See. Ferrante saw this, and immediately wrote
to Spain speaking of him as a profligate and accusing him of stirring
up strife--the one weak point in the Pope's armour. The Spanish
ambassador, Don Diego Lopez de Haro, came to Rome to offer the
obedience of the Catholic kings, and at once began to plead for the
peace of Italy, which was enforced by a hostile demonstration on the
part of Naples. Alexander agreed to negotiate. The result was that
peace was established. Orsini was allowed to keep the castles he had
bought from Cibò on condition that he paid 40,000 ducats to the Pope.
Peace with Naples was cemented by the marriage of the Pope's son Jofre
and Sancia, a daughter of Alfonso.]
[Footnote 249: Roscoe, in a note to chapter iii. of the recent
editions of _Leo X._, discusses the conflicting assertions as to the
Pope's encouragement of Charles's expedition.]
But the transaction of Virginio Orsini gave rise to a preliminary
episode in the great drama, which, as bringing the Duke of Urbino upon
the stage, requires some notice in this place. Besides the uneasiness
with which Alexander viewed the further aggrandisement of that already
too formidable subject, it is more than probable that, in claiming the
Cibò estates, as lapsed to the Camera Apostolica, his ultimate
intention was, to bestow them upon one of his own children; for his
selfish policy seldom embraced any aim more noble than nepotism or
revenge. Being doubtful of his own ability to drive the Orsini from
their new purchase, he, in April, 1493, leagued himself with Ludovico
Sforza and the Venetian republic. Through the former, he carried into
effect a scheme which at once tended to facilitate that object, and
promoted his favourite aim of providing his offspring with eligible
marriages. His daughter Lucrezia,--she whose name has, perhaps, done
more to render her infamous than her guilt, but whose beauty,
accomplishments, and eventual penitence, had been forgotten in the
heinous crimes which history laid to her charge unquestioned, until
Roscoe's ingenious defence,--Lucrezia Borgia was then betrothed wife
of a Spanish, or, rather, a Neapolitan, gentleman, named Procida. To
nullify a union so valueless cost no qualm to the Pontiff, and,
probably, as little to the lady. To match her with the widowed Lord of
Pesaro scarcely required the persuasions of his relation Ludovico il
Moro, and his brother-in-law, Duke Guidobaldo, whose good offices the
Pope put in requisition to arrange preliminaries with the bridegroom,
paying at the same time 3000 ducats as a solace to her first husband.
The betrothal, in May, was celebrated by a ball in the palace of
Pesaro, from which the assembled guests issued forth in couples,
dancing through the streets a sort of polonaise, which was led by the
papal ambassador! The nuptial ceremony was postponed until Lucrezia's
arrival from Spain in the following spring, and it was not until June
that the bridal party reached their capital.[*250]
[Footnote *250: For all concerning Lucrezia, see GREGOROVIUS,
_Lucrezia Borgia_.]
[Illustration: _Anderson_
ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA
_Supposed portrait of Lucrezia Borgia by Pinturicchio. Detail from a
fresco in the Borgia apartments of the Vatican, Rome_]
Having arranged this marriage, Alexander sent Duke Guidobaldo, along
with his son Cesare, against the Orsini. The former, though only in
his twenty-second year, was already suffering from gout, his fatal
malady, which had first shown itself during the rejoicings at Giovanni
Sforza's betrothal. But he resisted it with great courage, addicting
himself more than ever to the hardy exercises of the camp. The
partizan warfare on which the Pope thus employed him as gonfaloniere
of the Church, was, however, productive of little glory, and the
Orsini, driven by superior force from their new lands, awaited an
opportunity for retaliation. The nuptials of Lucrezia took place in
1494, after she had made a triumphal entry into Rome, scandalous even
in that pontificate of scandal. The ceremonial was witnessed by a
select party of ecclesiastical dignitaries, and a hundred and fifty of
the handsomest women of Rome, selected without regard to their
character, whose husbands were excluded. To each of these dames the
Pope presented a silver cup of confections, which, amid much
outrageous merriment, were emptied into their bosoms, "and all to the
honour and praise of Almighty God and the Romish Church," as the
contemporary narrator caustically observes.[251] The same parties then
paired off to supper, which was prolonged some hours beyond midnight,
the company being entertained by dramatic representations of a most
impure character. In all these revels Alexander and his then
favourite, Giulia Bella took part, and they were fitly wound up by his
conducting in person the bride to her husband's couch. For the
introduction of such disgusting details an apology may be due, but
without them, general declamation on the vices of the Borgian court
would convey no just idea of the truth. That the loathsome picture is
under-coloured, may be supposed from a concluding remark of the
diarist, that he had suppressed many reports regarding this orgy, as
they seemed either false or exceeding credibility. Bad as is this
scene, it is pure compared with some described by Burchard, another
journalist of the Vatican obscenities. In June, Lucrezia set out for
her new home, and, resting a night at Urbino on the way, was received
with the honours due to her rank. A furious tempest, in which she next
day entered her capital, ruined the costly preparations intended to
celebrate her welcome, and was remembered afterwards as ominous of the
result of her marriage, and of the mischiefs occasioned there by the
Borgia. But men's minds were quickly roused from idle festivities. The
barbarians were already scaling the Alps; Italy and her spoils lay at
their feet.
[Footnote 251: Stephani Infessuri Diarium Romanæ, in MURATORI,
_R.I.S._, III., p. ii., p. 1246. He dates the marriage ceremony the
12th of June, 1493.]
In return for the favours bestowed upon his children, the Pope renewed
to Alfonso his investiture of Naples, and sent thither his own nephew,
the Cardinal of Monreale, to attend his coronation and the betrothal
of his daughter to Giuffredo Borgia. But, with wonted cunning,
Alexander kept open a retreat from this alliance, by instructing the
Cardinal to obtain as a personal favour, the return to Rome of his
hostage child and bride. He celebrated their arrival in May following,
with pompous festivities exceeding in splendour the reception accorded
to royal personages, and, in defiance of public decency, appeared in
consistory, and in the papal chair of St. Peter, at the solemn
function of Pentecost, between the bastard bride of his bastard son,
and his dissolute daughter Lucrezia.
* * * * *
Such was the position of Italy at the moment of the French invasion,
the calamities of which are thus prefigured by Guicciardini. "From it
originated not only the revolution of states, the subversion of
dynasties, the desolation of provinces, the destruction of cities, the
most savage massacres; but likewise altered habits, changed morals, a
new and more sanguinary mode of warfare, and therewith diseases
previously unknown; it also so entirely disorganised the guarantees
for concord and internal tranquillity, that these could never be
replaced, and thus was the country left to be trodden down and wasted
by other foreign nations and barbarian armies. By a yet greater
misfortune, in order that our shame might derive no alleviation from
the prowess of our enemy, he whose invasion brought us so many
mischiefs, although most amply endowed with the bounties of fortune,
was destitute of almost every natural or mental endowment. For Charles
was from his childhood of languid complexion, deformed person, and
diminutive stature, besides having a countenance singularly repulsive
but for his penetrating and dignified glance, with limbs so
disproportioned as to resemble a monster rather than a man. Nor was he
only destitute of liberal acquirements; he scarcely knew his letters.
Although greedy of empire, there was nothing for which he was less
qualified; for he was encircled by a few, with whom he maintained
neither dignity nor authority; he was averse to all occupation and
business, and, when he did apply to his affairs, was alike wanting in
prudence and judgment. Even such apparently laudable qualities as he
seemed to possess proved, on examination, more akin to vices than to
virtues. Thus his inclination for glory was from impulse rather than
matured resolution; his liberality was ill directed and without
discrimination or degree; wavering at times in his counsels, he was
oftener guided by foolish obstinacy than by decision; and what many
called good-nature would have been better named indifference or
easiness of temper." The description given by a son of Andrea Mantegna
is still less favourable to the King's appearance. "He is said to have
a very ill-favoured face, with great goggle eyes, an aquiline nose
offensively large, and a head disfigured by few and sparse hairs. When
I think of such a little hunchy fellow my fancy is struck with
wonder."[252] We shall add one other characteristic sketch of a
monarch for whom fortune destined a part strangely at variance with
his qualifications. It was given by Ludovico il Moro, in December of
this year, to the Venetian resident at his court, and has been
obligingly communicated to me by Mr. Rawdon Brown, than whom no one is
more perfectly versed in the transactions of that republic. "The man
is young, and his conduct meagre, nor has he any form or method of
council. His assistants are divided into two factions, one headed by
the Comte de Bresse, the other by St. Malo and Beaucaire with their
adherents; they are violently opposed to each other on every topic,
and provided the one thwart the other and carry his point, no regard
soever is had for the King's interests. They attend to the
accumulation of coin, and care for nothing else; nor would all of them
put together make half a wise man. I remember when at Asti seeing him
in a room with the members of his assembled council, and, whilst
discussing any matter, one kept playing, another was eating breakfast,
a third was attending to this, a fourth to that; and the King was in
motion the whole time whilst listening to any one. He would order
letters to be couched in a certain form, and subsequently countermand
them on hearing another person's ideas."[253]
[Footnote 252: GAYE, _Carteggio_, I., p. 326. See a contemporary
estimate of the invading army in VIII. of the Appendix.]
[Footnote 253: Our French authorities for this expedition are
valuable, including Comines, and André de la Vigne, contemporaries who
shared in its hazards. A curious essay by M. de Foncemagne, ascribing
to Charles the ambition of a crusader, and pointing at Constantinople
as its real destination, will be found in vol. XVII., p. 539 of
_Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions_.]
It would lead us far beyond our limits to follow the blunders which on
both sides signalised the campaign. Charles opened it by sending an
army into Lombardy, under Sir Bernard Stuart of Aubigny, cousin-german
of John first Earl of Lennox in Scotland, whose career in arms was
rewarded with many dignities, and who, after uniting his troops with
those of Ludovico il Moro, his now unwilling ally, advanced on
Romagna. The King, leaving Vienne upon the 22nd of August, took the
Cenis pass with the main body of his forces, and on the 9th of
September was at Asti in Piedmont. From thence he visited Milan,
before marching against Florence. To meet these formidable foes,
Alfonso alone manifested any energy. He sent a fleet to the Ligurian
coast to watch a naval armament which had been fitted out at
Marseilles, and, if possible, to make a diversion upon Genoa. He at
the same time dispatched his eldest son Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria,
accompanied by two experienced generals, Nicolò Orsini Count of
Petigliano and Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, to support the Bolognese
against the onset of d'Aubigny. Being joined at Cesena by Guidobaldo
of Urbino, who had been engaged by Alfonso with 200 men-at-arms, at an
annual pay of 24,000 ducats, and by Giovanni Sforza, the Duke found
himself at the head of 2500 men-at-arms and 8000 foot, of whom the
portion belonging to Florence was commanded by Annibale Bentivoglio.
But none of these leaders possessed a master influence suited to the
crisis. The spirit of cordiality and mutual confidence, which alone
could promise success, was on this as on all similar occasions wanting
to Italy; and whilst Trivulzio and the other commanders, confident in
the superiority of their army, urged on a decisive engagement,
Petigliano exposed himself to the charge of sluggishness or the
suspicion of bad faith, by frustrating all their endeavours.
The forces of the league had orders to advance towards Parma, and meet
the French and Milanese troops under d'Aubigny and Gian Francesco da
Sanseverino, Count of Cajazzo, who had been retained by Ludovico il
Moro. This, however, they were unable to effect, and, finding
themselves much inferior in strength to the invaders, they retired
upon Faenza. In that neighbourhood the two armies remained for some
time, face to face, without further encounter than a few skirmishes,
in which Guidobaldo distinguished his bravery. Whilst they lost time
in disunited counsels, the progress of Charles in Central Italy
occasioned the recall of the Florentine and papal contingents. The
princes of Romagna, seeing the game virtually lost, found excuses for
liberating themselves from a falling cause, and by withdrawing to
their several states, sought safety in a neutral position. The Duke of
Calabria thus abandoned, retired within the Neapolitan frontier to
await fresh instructions from his father; and thus was the last chance
of saving Italy shamefully lost. Meanwhile the French monarch took the
road by Pontremoli and Sarzana, which fortress and Pietra Santa,
Pietro de' Medici surrendered to him in a panic, as base as it was
inexplicable. Disgusted with his cowardice, Florence and Pisa rose and
expelled his whole race, but rashly crediting the assurances of
Charles that he came as a deliverer and friend of liberty, received
him with open arms.
The description of an eye-witness to the overthrow of the Medici
conveys a vivid picture of the revolutions so common in republican
Florence. It has been printed by Gaye,[254] from the original diary of
Giusto. "On Sunday the 9th of November, the people of Florence rose in
arms against the _palle_, that is, against Pietro de' Medici, who had
so used his sway, and who repaired to the palace. The populace,
observing this, rushed thither, crying, 'Live the people and liberty!'
the children being first in the piazza: and by God's will all Florence
armed and hurried to the palace, calling out, 'People and liberty!' so
that Pietro, the Cardinal, and Giuliano his brother fled. And there
was a reward of 2000 florins proclaimed by the Signory, for whoever
would bring the Cardinal alive or dead to the palace; and thus matters
continued. Next day all the banners and pennons were set up, and such
was the people's fury at the palace, throughout the town, and at the
gates, day and night, that although I have four times found Florence
in arms since 1458, this has been the most unanimous and extraordinary
affair, from the efforts made by the lilies to erase the balls
[_gigli_ and _palle_, the respective arms of the republic and of the
Medici]: even children two or three years old, by a miracle, cried in
the houses 'People and liberty!' and among them our little Catherine.
Thus by God's grace did this community free itself from the hands of
many tyrants, who, thanks to the blessed God! were expelled without
bloodshed."
[Footnote 254: _Carteggio_, I., p. 213.]
But with these revolutions, which ended in giving to Florence and Pisa
independent popular governments,[*255] and with the war of rivalry
which consequently ensued between them, we have at present no concern.
The struggle was maintained during several years, with an obstinacy
and bitterness which more than once compromised the general
tranquillity of the Peninsula; when it terminated Pisa had been ruined
and Florence was bankrupt. It was at this crisis that there occurred
an anecdote preserved in the _Corteggiano_, among the _facetiæ_ of the
court of Urbino. One of the Florentine council, in a committee of ways
and means, proposed to augment the customs revenue by doubling the
number of city gates at which dues were collected!
[Footnote *255: These words are infinitely misleading.]
Alexander, ever too occupied with private objects to heed the general
cause, had meanwhile, upon a petty quarrel with the Colonna, withdrawn
his troops from Romagna, to waste them and much precious time in
wretched partizan struggles with these fractious barons, and in this
miserable trifling employed his son Cesare. Vainly confident while no
immediate danger impended, he had flattered himself that the French
invasion would come to nothing. But when he saw two powerful armies
reach his frontier, without obstacle or check, terror succeeded to
foolish security. Abandoning his ally of Naples, he humbly besought
his personal enemy Cardinal Ascanio Sforza to mediate with the French
monarch in his behalf. Yet to the latest moment did he waver,
alternately insolent and abject, fawning and fickle. Through these
fluctuations it is needless to follow him. On the last day of 1494 the
invading army marched unopposed and triumphant into Rome, and, leaving
the city on the 28th of January, advanced towards Naples. A panic had
already seized upon Alfonso, his army, and his people. On the 23rd of
January he abdicated the crown in favour of his son Ferdinand, and
fled with his treasures to Sicily, where he died after ten months of
abject austerities, as an offset to long years of aggravated
debauchery. The new King, upon his bloodless rout at the Garigliano,
found himself without money, and supported neither by his troops nor
his subjects. The bold front which he assumed availed nothing in
circumstances so desperate. He retired to Ischia, and on the 22nd of
February Charles took possession of Naples, amid the acclamations of a
populace, whom the iron sway of the false and gloomy Ferdinand, and of
his sanguinary son, had alienated from the Aragonese dynasty. But
though we pass thus rapidly over the campaign of the French and
Spaniards in Lower Italy, its results were of lasting importance. The
foretaste of the Peninsula then obtained by these nations as its
invaders or defenders stimulated a fatal relish for its attractions;
and the appetite thus engendered was not stayed until that fair land
had been trodden down by successive hosts, scarcely less damaging to
her prosperity and destructive to her liberties as her selfish allies,
than as her open foes.
Experience had by this time shown the folly of the Italian policy, and
the various states were not unwilling to profit by its lesson.
Forgetting for the moment their individual ends, they resolved to
throw off an incubus which threatened to make the Peninsula a province
of France. Ludovico Sforza had long sought to resile from his
ill-judged engagements with Charles; the Venetians found that the
Turkish crusade was but a false pretext; the Florentines saw their
adhesion to the invader repaid by the loss of Pisa; the Pope, ever
inclined to intrigue, was more especially ready to join in any plan
which should open an escape from his blunders in bringing down such
dangerous neighbours. Nor did the ultra-montane powers view with
satisfaction so vast an accession to French influence. Ferdinand II.
of Spain, whose envoy had formally broken with Charles ere he crossed
the Neapolitan frontier, now put himself forward to wean the Venetians
from their neutrality. Maximilian (who, not having been crowned, was
only King of the Romans, but whom we shall generally call Emperor)
burned for opportunity of avenging a double wrong which the French
monarch had done him by jilting his daughter Margaret, and by
espousing his betrothed bride, Anne of Bretagne. Having himself
married in 1493 Bianca Sforza, her uncle Ludovico il Moro bribed him
by a large dowry to take advantage of certain alleged flaws in the
Milanese investitures, and to recognise him as Duke, passing over his
sickly nephew Giovanni Galeazzo. The new charter in favour of Il Moro
reached him immediately after the death of the latter, whose feeble
and wretched existence was terminated, perhaps by poison, in October
1494. He left a son, and in defiance of the title of this child, whose
injuries his uncle, Alfonso of Naples, was no longer in circumstances
to redress, Ludovico seized the trappings of that sovereignty, which
he virtually had usurped long before the imperial diploma reached him.
Thus were these parties prepared for a united exertion in the common
cause; and the minor feudatories of the Peninsula willingly joined
them in a five years' league, for the purpose of restoring and
maintaining the independence of Italy. It was concluded at Venice, on
the 31st of March 1495, and by it Germany, Spain, Venice, Milan, and
the Pope were bound to furnish 34,000 horse, and 20,000 foot, or
monied contributions proportioned to their respective contingents of
that force.
[Illustration: _Anderson_
BIANCA, DAUGHTER OF LUDOVICO SFORZA
_After the picture by Ambrogio de' Predis in the Biblioteca
Ambrogiana, Milan_]
Charles and his army had abandoned themselves to the intoxication of
their easy conquest, and to excess in those pleasures which in the
Ausonian climate seem to enervate natives and strangers. From this
careless security, news of the alliance roused him to the danger of
being entrapped in his new kingdom. Leaving half his army there to
maintain his authority, he on the 20th of May set out with the
remainder on his return homeward. Hastily retracing the same route, he
saw difficulties increasing around him, but avoided hostilities, until
in descending the Apennines into Lombardy he found himself intercepted
among the defiles of the Taro by the allied army, so superior in force
as to render his destruction next to inevitable, even without taking
into account the immense advantages of the position which they had
selected. But the singular good fortune which had enabled the French
monarch to overrun the whole Peninsula, conquer a kingdom, and retire
in the face of opposing Europe, without once calling into exercise
whatever talent, judgment, or bravery he might have possessed, did not
forsake him in this his first difficulty. The confederates, by
unpardonable want of good understanding among their leaders, and of
steadiness among their troops, let slip the precious opportunity of
exterminating their invaders. On the 6th of July they suffered on the
Taro an overthrow which they vainly claimed as a victory, and after a
brief hour's conflict retired in disorder, leaving above three
thousand men on the field. Of this battle Guicciardini remarks that it
was the first for a long period that had been really sanguinary in its
character, compared with those tactic engagements of the condottieri,
in which bloodshed was little sought on either side. As the earliest
struggle between Italy and her invaders, the only occasion when her
disunited interests were rallied beneath one banner, it holds a place
in history which in a military view it by no means merited.[256] It
was lost by the delays, distracted counsels, and deficient discipline
among the allies, and brought little glory to the retreating army,
which, without further opposition, reached Asti, where a strong
garrison had been left, and in October re-entered France. The
Aragonese party was strong in Naples, and within six weeks after
Charles had quitted that capital, Ferdinand II. was welcomed back to
it by a versatile people, whom the never-failing insolence of the
French had quickly disgusted with their change of masters. The kingdom
was gradually recovered from its invaders and their supporters, the
Angevine barons, by aid of Spanish succours under Gonsalvo di Cordova,
whose gallantry and skill during a harassing guerilla campaign
established his reputation, and procured him the name of the Great
Captain. Montpensier, when left as viceroy in command of the army of
occupation, made feeble head against him for above a year, until most
of his troops having dropped under the effects of climate and
debauchery, he surrendered the remainder as prisoners of war. Lower
Italy, again under Ferdinand's sway, was no more disturbed by Charles,
who wasted the brief remainder of his life in dissolute indulgences,
better becoming his despicable character than foreign conquests.
[Footnote 256: See some details of it in IX. of the Appendix.]
Thus terminated the first of those systematic and successful invasions
from which Italy has suffered in later ages. Various circumstances
combined to modify its serious results upon her prosperity, and though
almost unopposed, the victors perhaps paid more dearly than the
vanquished. But the seeds of mischief were sown, too surely to ripen
into fatal evils. The nations of the north had learned important
lessons; her temptations, her disunion, and her consequent
powerlessness had been disclosed to them. This epoch may indeed be
regarded as the turning point of European history. From it the
liberties and prosperity of Italy declined, and the new combinations,
alliances, and intermarriages then formed by ultra-montane governments
gradually matured that political system which has since come to be
regarded as the bulwark of national independence. We have introduced
this rapid sketch of the French expedition, because, although it but
slightly influenced Guidobaldo's position, subsequent events, to which
it in some degree gave occasion, brought forward himself and his
successor as prominent actors. He had been engaged by the Venetian
republic to join the confederate army with four hundred and seventy
horse, but had no share in the disgraceful conflict at the Taro; his
squadrons, however, seem to have been there under his natural brother
Antonio, who, while commanding the reserve, might have turned the
fortune of the day, but for an oversight in the transmission of orders
to him.
The Pisan war was the immediate fruit of the French invasion, as
regarded the internal relations of the Peninsula. Charles, remembering
the old proverb, "sow divisions and rule," or perhaps from a mere love
of mischief-making, had instigated that city to throw off the yoke of
Florence, and re-establish its ancient republican independence. But
the support which he had pledged to it was forgotten, when personal
considerations rendered a retreat advisable; and the Pisans were left
to maintain themselves as best they could against their old rivals and
recent masters, with the aid of a French brigade under Monsieur
d'Entragues. The Florentines lost no time in engaging the Duke of
Urbino to command their troops for three years, who, by active and
well-judged movements, quickly possessed himself of Ponte Sacco,
Palaia, and other small towns about the Era. Their resistance was
punished with the usual barbarity of the time, by cold-blooded
cruelties which Guidobaldo does not appear to have shared or approved.
It seems questionable how far the blunders in an assault on Vicopisano
were owing to him or to the Florentine commissaries, who, as was usual
in the service of the great republics, were sent to control their
general; but the consequence was a repulse, after which he retired
into winter quarters. His subsequent operations in their service are
of no interest; their jealousies paralysing both his spirit and their
own.
The last year's experience was but short-lived in the Italian states.
Instead of profiting by the absence of their common foe to strengthen
themselves against a recurrence of danger, they resumed their innate
rivalries, and fomented fresh discord. The Florentines, far from
joining the league to expel Charles, continued to favour his cause,
attributing, with justice, to his advent their liberation from the
Medici and the re-establishment of a democratic government. What they,
above all things, dreaded was the return of that banished race, so
they kept aloof from any new combination that might lead to it. This
contumacy was looked upon with little favour by those powers who were
averse to popular institutions, or friendly to Pietro de' Medici;
besides which they apprehended that such a state of matters, if
allowed to continue, would facilitate a repetition of the late
invasion. In accordance with the crooked policy of the age, they
succoured Pisa, without any open declaration of the war which they
were in fact carrying on against Florence. This circumstance, and the
wonted bad faith of Ludovico il Moro, complicated a struggle which was
conducted in the drawling spirit of half-fighting, half-negotiating,
usual in such petty strifes. Ludovico finally tempted the Emperor to a
fresh invasion of Italy, in order to force Florence into the general
league, but he conducted the enterprise with equal feebleness and
faithlessness, and after having occupied Pisa, retreated without
leaving any material impression on the campaign, which declined into a
series of unimportant skirmishes. Meanwhile the Pope, the Venetians,
and Sforza united in exciting various neighbours of the Florentines,
such as the Bentivoglii, the Riarii, and Siena, to molest their
frontiers, whilst Virginio Orsini prepared to restore the Medici by
arms. This plan, however, fell to the ground, and Guidobaldo was soon
after summoned, as a vassal of the Church, to leave his incomplete
term of unsatisfactory service under the lilies of Florence, and join
the new combination formed by the Pontiff to replace Ferdinand upon
the Neapolitan throne.
The fate of the French army at Naples, against the wreck of which this
expedition was directed, has been already mentioned. The evolutions
whereby Guidobaldo, as lieutenant-general of the ecclesiastical
forces, in concert with the great Gonsalvo di Cordova, reduced some
Angevine feudatories in the Abruzzi, who, supported by the Orsini, for
a time resisted the restoration of the house of Aragon, need not
occupy our attention. The particulars are involved in contradiction,
and the results were unimportant to his fame. No sooner had Ferdinand
triumphed over his difficulties than he was called to another sphere.
He died in October, 1496, and was succeeded by his paternal uncle
Federigo. Of the French, not above five hundred escaped from sword and
pestilence to reach home.
* * * * *
Peace was once more restored to Italy, but not to the breast of that
turbulent Pontiff who was her curse. The moment was propitious for
resuming his favourite scheme of oppressing the Orsini, in whose
extensive estates he saw ample endowments for his own disreputable
progeny. The leaders of that family, Virginio, Gian-Giordano, Paolo,
and its adopted scion Bartolomeo d'Alviano of Orvieto, had fought
against Ferdinand's restoration, and all of them remained prisoners in
his hands.[257] The Pope at once perceived the chance thus offered,
and hastened to avail himself of it. After conciliating the Duke of
Urbino by a pompous reception on the 14th of October, and by assigning
him apartments in the Vatican, he held a secret consistory, which
attainted the Orsini on general charges of lese-majesty and rebellion,
and sanctioned the military occupation of their fiefs in name of the
Church. He entrusted the command to his son the Duke of Gandia,
associating with him the Duke of Urbino and Fabrizio Colonna (the
latter but too willing to promote the downfall of a rival house), and,
to inaugurate the expedition, he blessed the banners at St. Peter's,
with an imposing military and religious spectacle.
[Footnote 257: See their pedigree, so far as concerns our subject, in
the table at the end of this volume.]
The troops marched in October, and, having reduced Isola, a castle
within ten miles of Rome, which stood a twelve days' siege, many other
small strongholds speedily surrendered, their absent lords being
unable to aid in their defence. The fortress of Bracciano was,
however, strong by nature, and was held by Bartolomea, sister of
Virginio Orsini, with energy, talent, and unquailing resolution, which
saved her family in their urgent straits, and kept the assailants at
bay until her husband, Bartolomeo d'Alviano, escaping from Naples,
hastily raised a few old adherents of his adopted house, and hurried
to her rescue. The impetuous Alexander, disgusted by this dilatory
progress of affairs, had a lighter hastily built, and sent under a
strong escort to the lake of Bracciano, in order to aid the besiegers'
efforts, and to intercept the manoeuvres of the enemy, whose petty
force, passing by the water from one castle to another as occasion
required, was enabled to garrison the three separate strongholds of
Bracciano, Anguillara, and Trevignano. A well-timed ambuscade, laid by
d'Alviano, routed the escort, and the boat was burnt. In another sally
Bartolomeo, falling upon Cesare Borgia while hunting, chased him
almost to the gates of Rome, and, but for the fleetness of his horse,
would have obtained in his person the means of dictating terms to his
father. Of these incidents a partizan warfare was naturally more
productive than a more serious campaign.
Tired of such inglorious marauding, and aware how much delays might
tell against eventual success, Guidobaldo, although suffering from a
gunshot wound, pushed on operations to the utmost, but was met by a
most obstinate resistance, until affairs suddenly assumed an entirely
new aspect. Virginio, head of the Bracciano Orsini, his eldest son
Gian-Giordano, and cousin Paolo, were still captives at Naples; but
his natural son Carlo had repaired to the court of Charles VIII. to
crave assistance. There he found Vitellozzo Vitelli, on a similar
mission in behalf of his brother Paolo, who, having been suspected by
the Florentines of perfidy while in their service against Pisa, had
been arrested by them, and who was subsequently tortured and put to
death upon this charge. They easily obtained from that King a subsidy
to be employed for advantage of the French party in Italy, and,
hastening back, devoted it to the relief of Bracciano. The two Vitelli
were chiefs of a family whose pedigree is annexed, and who long held
Città di Castello in seigneury, greatly distinguished among the
military adventurers of the south. These brothers had paid especial
attention to training their hardy mountaineers in the art of war, with
all those improvements which the ultra-montane troops had recently
introduced. Vitellozzo, hurrying to the upper valley of the Tiber,
quickly recruited his old followers, whilst Carlo levied men about
Perugia and Todi. Guidobaldo with difficulty persuaded his coadjutors
to anticipate the attack thus preparing for them, by marching towards
Viterbo in quest of the enemy. In the action which followed, on the
23rd of January, the ecclesiastical troops, though inferior in
numbers, had at first some advantage, but the unskilful management of
their artillery turned the day, and they were in the end totally
routed, with loss of it and their baggage. Guidobaldo, having been
surrounded, fought with the utmost bravery, until his horse fell under
him, when he was taken prisoner by Battista Tosi, a Roman knight. In
this reverse the Colonna and Savelli shared deeply, their ancient
hatred of the Orsini having blinded them to the danger which they, in
turn, equally incurred from the selfish designs of the Pope. The
latter was filled with consternation, and would have brought the whole
force of Naples into the field. But his impetuous energy, being
neither based on principle nor maintained with perseverance, was
quickly discouraged by the coldness of Federigo, who had no
inclination to consume his already dilapidated resources in
ministering to the Pontiff's schemes of nepotism. The higher range to
which these projects were perhaps already aspiring may have conduced
to the arrangement by which his quarrel with the Orsini was patched
up, gilded as it was by the to him irresistible bait of 70,000 ducats
towards the expenses of the war.
The Duke of Urbino was committed to ward in Soriano, a castle of the
Orsini, near which his defeat had occurred, and the whole influence of
his family and numerous friends was exerted for his liberation under
the truce which ensued. With this view Dr. Marino Giorgi, envoy from
Venice to Naples, was instructed by the Signory to make a detour to
Urbino, in order in their name to console the Duchess, and then to
Soriano and Bracciano, for the purpose of negotiating her husband's
release.[258] But their interposition was fruitless, as he was
specially excluded from the free interchange of prisoners, and held to
ransom for 40,000 ducats, without which timely aid the Orsini would
have been unable to discharge the contribution imposed on them for the
costs of the war. Alexander having, without scruple, left a faithful
vassal and ally in his enemy's hands, had no delicacy in thus
pocketing from his captors the sum which this cruel abandonment cost
Guidobaldo. So large an amount was not, however, raised without
difficulty from the sale of jewels, and other heavy sacrifices by the
Duchess, and several of his subjects, which they did not hesitate to
incur. It may perhaps have been modified to 30,000 ducats, that being
the sum mentioned by Sanuto as paid for his liberation.[259] At
Gubbio he was warmly welcomed by his consort and people, and during
more than a year he enjoyed at home the blessings and leisure of
peace, "after having suffered much and most unfairly."
[Footnote 258: MARINO SANUTO'S Diary MS. i. 374. From another passage
in his annals we learn that a then usual scale of ransom was
twenty-five ducats for a man-at-arms, twelve for a light-horseman, and
three for a foot-soldier. These Diaries extend to fifty-seven large
volumes, from 1495 to 1533. Our various extracts from them were most
kindly communicated to us by Mr. Rawdon Brown, who has printed at
Venice a very curious digest of their contents, and whose successful
diligence in illustrating the secret history of that Republic may well
put her own citizens to the blush. They are preserved in Bib.
Marciana, MSS. Ital. classe vii. No. 419.]
[Footnote 259: Diary MS. i. 448.]