The crimes and ambition of the Borgia--Murder of the Duke of
Gandia--Duke Guidobaldo's expeditions against Perugia and
Tuscany--He adopts Francesco Maria della Rovere as his
heir--Louis XII. succeeds to Charles VIII., and to his views
upon Italy--Cesare Borgia created Duke Valentino--Duke
Guidobaldo at Venice.
Time was meanwhile maturing the crimes of the Borgia, whose sinister
influence upon the destiny of Guidobaldo was about to be signally
manifested. So far from regarding his spurious progeny with shame,
Alexander was indefatigable in his endeavours to elevate them to the
most conspicuous places. He had obtained for the eldest the dukedom of
Gandia in Spain, and one of the highest offices at Naples. For the
youngest he had secured, by political intrigue, a similar dignity
there, with the principality of Squillace, and the hand of an
illegitimate daughter of Alfonso II. He had loaded Cesare with
ecclesiastical benefices, and had remarried Lucrezia to the sovereign
of Pesaro. But his ambition became insatiable in proportion as it was
pampered. Upon a vague pretext he annulled his daughter's marriage,
that he might give her hand to the Duke of Bisceglia, natural son of
Alfonso. His schemes for endowing his sons with the Orsini holdings
having entirely miscarried, he resolved to provide for the Duke of
Gandia a sovereign principality from the states of the Church,
consisting of Benevento and Terracino. Having gained a complete
co-operation in the consistory, by frightening into exile or removing
by poison the more impracticable cardinals, and by overawing or
corrupting the others, he, on the 7th of June, invested the Duke with
these towns with due solemnity. Three days previously, Lucrezia had
retired to the convent of S. Sisto, to prepare for the formal rupture
of her marriage with Giovanni Sforza, whose murder would have
anticipated the divorce, had not a hint from her enabled him to save
his life by flight, _insalutato hospite_, as Machiavelli remarks.[260]
On the 9th, Cardinal Valentino received his credentials as legate for
the coronation of Frederick of Naples. On Thursday, the 15th, he set
out on his mission, after spending the preceding afternoon at a casino
of his mother, near S. Pietro in Vinculis, where all the family except
the sister were assembled in apparent harmony. He quitted it in
company with his eldest brother, who was never again seen in life, and
having visited his father at a late hour to receive a benediction, he
left Rome before dawn. When an alarm was raised on the Duke of
Gandia's disappearance, a boatman deposed to having seen, about one
o'clock on Thursday morning, a body thrown neck and heels into the
Tiber, at the present port of the Ripetta, by four attendants of a
mounted gentleman, who had brought it to the bank swung across his
horse. The river was dragged, and the Duke's body was found pierced
with wounds. He was said to have spent the preceding hours with a lady
in whose favours the Cardinal was his avowed rival. Public opinion,
though distracted by conflicting rumours, branded the latter with
fratricide, and scandal gave to that charge a still more loathsome
dye, by naming the lady Lucrezia Borgia. History has received the
former accusation as established, the latter as uncontradicted,
adducing against its truth no better argument than its revolting
improbability. It is, however, but just to pause ere we lend our faith
to charges so hideous. Burchard, though greedy of gossip, and seldom
scrupulous in exposing the Vatican immoralities, mentions no fact,
breathes no hint, tending to inculpate Cesare. Neither do contemporary
accounts from residents in the Holy City, preserved by Sanuto, attach
any such foul slur to his name, but chiefly mention Cardinal Ascanio
Sforza as then suspected of the murder.[261] They even prove that,
four days after it took place, the latter thought it necessary to
rebut the allegation by the mouth of the Spanish ambassador, in a full
consistory, from which he alone was absent. But this negation does not
appear to have quashed a surmise which gathered strength by scenting
out motives for the outrage. By some, Ascanio was regarded as an
unscrupulous instrument of the Orsini in their vengeance against the
Pontiff's family; others traced his evil purpose to a recent feud
between the Duke of Gandia and some guests at an entertainment given
by him, where mutual insults had led to bloody reprisals, imputed to
the implacable Borgia. Again, we are told by Burchard that the victim
was last seen in company with a masked figure, who had been observed
to follow him during several days, and whom he that night took up on
the crupper of his horse, probably to keep an assignation; a statement
easily reconcileable with the bargeman's evidence, and pointing
probably to some dark intrigue, whereto it does not appear that his
brother was necessarily privy.
[Footnote 260: The assertion of most historians, that the pretext was
Giovanni's impotency, is contradicted by very curious documents in the
suit of divorce. A commission having been issued by the Pontiff,
empowering two cardinals to examine into the facts, Lucrezia stated to
them that in her twelfth year she had been contracted in marriage, by
the words "Will you? I will," to Gaspare, son of Giovanni Francesco da
Procida, Count of Aversa, but that subsequently she had been induced
[_quadam facilitate_] to marry Sforza, and live with him above three
years; but she offered to prove by her own oath, and by the report of
_obstetrices_, that this marriage had never been consummated. Giovanni
averred himself ready to affirm on oath that no _copula_ had ever
followed, and he adhibited his consent to the divorce. These steps
took place towards the close of the year, and on the 18th of December
a bull issued dissolving this ill-fated union. Archiv. Dipl. Urb. at
Florence.]
[Footnote 261: SANUTO'S MS. Diary, Bib. Marc., vol. II., 466-71, 489,
495, 587-98. Compare with BURCHARD, _Eccard._, II., 2060; TOMMASI, I.,
223-43. Burchard has no trace of that partiality for Cesare at this
period, usually imputed to the Pontiff, but establishes an excessive
fondness for his elder brother up to his death. Roscoe rejects the
charge against the Cardinal; his German translator credits it.]
[Illustration: _Anderson_
CESARE BORGIA AS THE EMPEROR
_Detail from the fresco of the Disputa of S. Catherine in the
Appartamento Borgia in the Vatican_]
Although the Duke of Gandia's morals will bear no examination, he was
a general favourite in Rome. To a people fond of pageantry the taste
of his family for splendour was naturally grateful, and he, alone, of
the race, mingled neither tyranny nor cruelty with his magnificence.
The bargeman of the Ripetta had manifested neither surprise nor
curiosity regarding an incident which he stated to be of frequent
occurrence at that spot; but when the victim was ascertained, the
whole city was moved; the tradespeople closed their shops,[*262] and
all retired panic-stricken to their homes. The few stragglers who
crossed the bridge near to which the mutilated body had been found,
started at the cry of many sorrowing voices which issued from St.
Angelo, and one deep-toned note of woe, which rose above the wailing,
was imputed to the Pontiff, "lamenting him who was his right eye, the
hope and glory of his house." His grief and horror were indeed
overwhelming: we are assured that he swallowed nothing from Wednesday
till Saturday, and passed three successive nights without an hour of
sleep. On the 19th he held a consistory, to receive the condolence of
the cardinals and foreign ministers, whom he addressed to the
following purpose[263]:--
"The Duke of Gandia is dead, and his death has been to us the greatest
affliction: a more grievous trial we could not have met with, for we
loved him mightily, and we no longer value our popedom nor anything;
nay, had we seven popedoms, we should give them all to recover the
Duke's life. It is rather a visitation from God, sent, perhaps, for
some sin of ours, than that he should have merited a death so
dreadful. It being unknown by whom he was murdered and thrown into
the Tiber, rumour has ascribed the assassination to the Lord of
Pesaro, which we are certain is untrue; no more can it have been done
by the Prince of Squillace, brother of the Duke; and we are even
satisfied as to the Duke of Urbino: may God forgive who ever it was!
We have, however, determined no longer to apply to anything, nor take
any charge of the papacy, nor of life itself, nor any thought for the
Church; but in order to regulate it and our mode of life, and for the
due correction of our own person, we mean to commit these to six of
you, most reverend cardinals our brethren, along with two judges of
the Rota; and in order that all benefices may be bestowed by merit,
apart from any other consideration, they shall be decided by a
majority of you cardinals." After naming this executive council, and
hearing a justification of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, volunteered in his
absence by the Spanish ambassador, the Pope continued:--"God forbid
that we should entertain such a fancy, for never could we credit that
his Lordship would do us the smallest injury, least of all an outrage
such as this; for we have regarded him as a brother, and have on every
occasion placed ourselves at the disposal of himself and of the Duke
his brother: assuredly we harbour not the trace of such an idea, and
when he comes to us he will be welcome."
[Footnote *262: They always did; it was a mediæval practice in the
case of any trouble or riot: it might seem the merest common sense.
But the truth is, that when a crime had been committed the government
closed the shops till the culprit was forthcoming.]
[Footnote 263: SANUTO. Yet there are scoffers who sneered at this
worthy successor of St. Peter the fisher, netting the river for his
bastard son! Burchard apud Raynaldum.]
It was, indeed, high time that the scandals brought upon the Church by
the enormities of her head should terminate. Alexander had for some
time been openly living with a sister of Cardinal Farnese, wife of
Monoculo Orsini, who was known as Giulia Bella; and who, after
appearing prominently by his side on all public and solemn occasions,
had lately borne him a son.[264] But even now he realised the
scriptural proverb of "the dog turned to his own vomit again, and the
sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." The remorse and
repentance he had avowed, in full consistory, with sobs and tears,
were quickly forgotten; the public reforms he had promised were
repudiated; the administrative council he had formally nominated was
never assembled nor installed. Nepotism and intrigue again became his
policy, debauchery his pastime. Those who charge the Cardinal
Valentino with his brother's murder, may point to the exclamation, "I
know who did it," which was said to have escaped from their father in
the first outbreak of his grief; and it has been by some connected
with the alleged institution of Giovanni, their next brother, to the
titles and inheritance of the Duke of Gandia, passing over the
suspected fratricide. This, however, is an entirely erroneous
assumption, as there not only appears no brother of the Duke of Gandia
bearing his honours, but the invaluable diary of Sanuto expressly
mentions an investiture of the Neapolitan fiefs obtained for his _son_
within a few weeks of his death.[265] The Pontiff's displeasure with
Cesare, from whatever cause originating, was transient as his personal
reformation. His schemes of aggrandisement could not be pursued
without the co-operation of him who, alone of his children, was as
ambitious and as unscrupulous as himself, and the close of the year
brought Valentino an addition to his already enormous plurality of
benefices, upon the death of the Cardinal of Parma.
[Footnote 264: The papal legitimation of this Giovanni di Borgia, then
in his third year, dated the kalends of September, 1501, proceeds upon
this preamble: "Legittime genitos, ex quorum verisimilibus infantilis
ætatis indiciis, spes concipi potest quod, succedentibus annis, se in
viros debeant producere virtuosos, quousque progenitorum suorum
præclara merita, et ortûs generosa propago decorant, naturæ vitium
minime decolorat, quia decus virtutum genituræ maculam abstergit in
filiis, et pudicitia morum pudor originis aboletur." He is called a
son of Cesare, but in another, and probably secret, brief of the same
date, the Pope recognises him, nevertheless, as his own offspring by
an _unmarried_ woman, this description being also a legal fiction.]
[Footnote 265: SANUTO, Diario MS. i. 539.]
Valentino had endeavoured, by the imposing splendour of his legation
to Naples, and by scattering immoderate largesses, to dazzle, and if
possible blind, men to the Cain-brand that was upon him. But when he
developed a new scheme of aggrandisement, by proffering to a daughter
of Federigo a hand which his unscrupulous father was ready to liberate
from priestly vows, the King and the Princess alike recoiled from an
offer tainted by sacrilege and fratricide. We have seen that a similar
refusal by Ferdinand I. was a principal cause for Charles VIII. being
invited into Italy. Unwarned by that result of a wretched policy, the
Pontiff prepared to repeat it in circumstances still more fatal to the
Peninsula. Cesare Borgia returned from his legation on the 5th of
September, and was received with every mark of honour and favour by
his father, who appeared to have dismissed the Duke of Gandia's very
existence from his mind. The pontifical court was once more a scene of
alternate dissipation and crime, and the Cardinal of Valencia was the
moving spirit of both. In December, Lucrezia's divorce was pronounced,
and her dowry of 31,000 ducats returned; next August she became wife
of Alfonso Duke of Bisceglia, with an augmented provision of 40,000
ducats, he being then seventeen years of age.
In the following summer, the Duke of Urbino was induced to unite with
the Prefect della Rovere in an expedition against Perugia, for the
purpose of restoring the Oddi, who, as heads of the Ghibellines, had
been expelled from thence by their rivals, the Guelphic
Baglioni.[*266] But from this enterprise the Pope speedily recalled
him by a remonstrance, which with wonted devotion he hastened to obey,
stipulating, however, for indemnity of the expenses he had incurred,
amounting to 5000 scudi. About the same time he lost his relation and
counsellor Ottaviano Ubaldini, Count of Mercatello, who died at an
advanced age.
[Footnote *266: For this expedition, see MATARAZZO, _Chronicle of
Perugia_ (Dent), p. 243 _et seq._]
The services of Guidobaldo were speedily required in another quarter;
and by one of those sudden changes, not unusual to soldiers of
fortune, he found himself comrade of his late opponents, the Orsini
and Baglioni.[*267] The occasion was the recommencement of the Pisan
war, when the fickle usurper of Milan joined the Florentines in their
attempts to reduce that city to its former obedience; a combination
which, arousing the jealousy of Venice, induced her to adopt the cause
of Pisa. Pietro de' Medici and his brother Giuliano availed themselves
of this opportunity to make another effort for their re-establishment
in that capital. They offered to support an invasion of Tuscany, with
all the aid which their own credit and the Orsini influence could
bring into the field; and the maritime republic, accepting the
proposal, took into their pay, besides the Baglioni of Perugia, the
Duke of Urbino with two hundred men-at-arms, and a hundred light
horse, for which they allowed him 20,000 scudi a year.[268] Having
gained over one of the Malatesta, owner of a small fief in the passes
above Sarsina, the confederates sent forward Bartolomeo d'Alviano,
who, penetrating the mountain paths about Camaldoli, entered Tuscany
and seized Bibbiena, in the upper Val d'Arno, ere the Florentines were
aware of the incursion. Guidobaldo followed with a strong body of men,
and, finding the season vigorous, went into winter quarters in that
and the adjoining towns. The enemy was led by Paulo Vitelli, whose
judicious arrangements and great activity, having closed all the
defiles around them, kept them in a state of siege during the winter,
cutting off their supplies, surprising their posts, and tempting their
men to desertion, until they were reduced to great straits. The Duke's
health, already broken by frequent gouty attacks, suffered sadly from
the severe climate of these mountain sites, and the privations of an
ill-supplied commissariat. The critical position of his army
aggravated his malady by preying upon his spirits, and his
applications for a physician were coldly refused by his assailants. At
length, in the middle of February, their general, Vitelli, on his own
responsibility, granted him free passage home to Urbino, an act of
charity afterwards severely visited upon his head by the authorities
of Florence. Disgusted by the losses of a campaign fruitlessly
protracted by disinclination of the respective commanders to risk
their reputation in an engagement, the Venetians recalled the
reinforcements which they had sent under Nicolò di Petigliano, and
abandoned the cause of Pisan independence for that wider field of
ambition which the schemes of Louis XII. were developing.
[Footnote *267: For the peace, July 6, 1498, see V. ANSIDEI, _La Pace
fra Guidobaldo Duca d'Urbino e il Comune di Perugia_, in _Boll. per
l'Umbria_, vol. V., p. 741 _et seq._]
[Footnote 268: Bembo says 170 pounds of gold. _Hist. Venet._, IV.
Navigero puts the mounted cross-bow-men at 200. MURATORI, _R.I.S._,
xxiii. 1214.]
The Cardinal della Rovere, who, during nearly all the pontificate of
Alexander, provided for his safety by absence from Rome, had shared
the hardships of the Bibbiena campaign, and escaped from them with
Guidobaldo. Whilst thus thrown together they seem to have planned an
arrangement which opened a new era for Urbino. Feeling that in himself
must terminate the male investiture of his states, and dreading that
by his early decease they might lapse to a Pope who would joyfully
endow with them one of his odious progeny, the Duke willingly listened
to a suggestion of the Cardinal, that he should adopt their mutual
nephew Francesco Maria della Rovere, son of the Prefect of Sinigaglia,
then a promising boy of eight years old. At first they thought of
concealing this design from Alexander, but Guidobaldo, aware that
without his sanction it could not be matured, and trusting to the hold
which his services and dutiful obedience ought to have given him in
that quarter, soon proposed it for his approval. The successor of St.
Peter, anticipating the modern discovery that words are given to
conceal thoughts, professed great satisfaction with the plan, and
hinted at bestowing the hand of his niece Angela Borgia upon the
presumptive heir of Urbino. A brief interval removed the flimsy veil,
and proved that the Pontiff was ready to anticipate the lapse of that
dukedom, without awaiting his vassal's death.
The great convulsions impending over Italy require another general
glance at the new combinations which the politics of Southern Europe
had assumed. Charles VIII. died of apoplexy on the 7th of April, 1498,
and was succeeded by his second cousin, Louis XII., first of the
Orleans branch of Valois. Though a prince of narrow views and somewhat
feeble character, he became the instrument of unprecedented
misfortunes to Italy. In him were centred the Angevine claims upon
Naples which his predecessor had asserted; and likewise such
pretensions upon the Milanese as vested in the heir of line of the
Visconti, through his grandmother Valentina, sister of the last Duke.
Upon these grounds he at once assumed the style of King of Naples and
Jerusalem, and Duke of Milan, and avowed his intention of rendering
the latter at least of these titles effectual. Federigo of Aragon and
Ludovico Sforza trembled at the impending danger; but, with
unaccountable blindness, the other powers strove who should be
foremost to offer their alliance to the invader. The Venetians hailed
the certain punishment of a tyrannical usurper, who had aided in
thwarting them in their recent attempts to maintain the independence
of Pisa. They and the princes of Romagna and La Marca remembered how
little their several interests had suffered from the expedition of
Charles. Florence conceived that the return of the French was the
surest guarantee of their democratic independence against the
re-establishment of the Medici. The Pope, as usual, had in view
ulterior and private ends. His late indignation against his son, the
Cardinal, had, with unaccountable revulsion, been succeeded by an
increased fondness. The latter reminded him that the years passed
since his elevation to the tiara had brought no fulfilment of those
schemes of aggrandisement which their mutual ambition had nourished.
His recent domestic catastrophe perhaps warned the father how much
might be dared by a disappointed son. Every consideration urged upon
both the necessity of a great effort to obtain for Cesare a sovereign
principality; and conscious that this scheme would have the best
chance of success at a moment of general confusion, they resolved to
effect it through the instrumentality of a new French invasion, if no
readier means offered for their purpose.
Louis XII. had set his mind upon divorcing his queen, Jeanne, the
daughter of Louis XI., in order to marry Anne of Bretagne, widow of
his predecessor, for which purpose papal dispensations were required,
and for these he was a suppliant. The Borgia seized the golden moment
to pledge him to their views. Cesare had been created a Cardinal in
1494, by means of suborned oaths, that he was the lawful son of a
Roman citizen, for illegitimacy was a bar to that dignity. On the
pretext that ecclesiastical orders had been unwillingly conferred upon
him, his father, on the 17th of September, annulled them in full
consistory, and accepted a renunciation of his cardinal's hat. Next
day he appeared in a rich military costume of the latest French
fashion, and forthwith took shipping for Marseilles, on a special
embassy to the French court, where he arrived about the 18th of
October. The following letter of recommendation which he bore is
preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi, and being to all intents a
private missive, written and addressed by the Pope's own hand,
possesses a very different interest from ordinary papal brieves.
"To our well-beloved son in Christ, the most Christian King
of the French;
"I.H.S. MARIA.
"Pope Alexander VI., with his own hand.
"Health and the apostolic benediction to our most dear son
in Christ. Anxious in all respects to accomplish your and
our own desires, we destine to your Majesty our heart, that
is, our favourite son, Duke Valentino, who is prized by us
beyond aught else, as a signal and most estimable token of
our affection towards your Highness, to whom no further
commendation of him is required; and we only ask that you
will so treat him, who is thus commissioned to your royal
person, as that all may, for our satisfaction, perceive that
in his mission he has been in every respect most acceptable
to your Majesty. Given at St. Peter's, Rome, the 28th of
September." [1498.][269]
[Footnote 269: _Molini Documenti di Storia Italiana_, i. 29.]
This mission was ostensibly to present Louis with his divorce; but the
Duke, in fact, carried also a dispensation for his union with Queen
Anne, which had been secretly granted, and which he thus held, ready
to deliver it as soon as he should gain the royal consent to certain
conditions for his own aggrandisement, the prize then in distant
perspective being nothing less than the sceptre of Naples.[270]
[Footnote 270: See the curious disclosures of a Venetian ambassador,
printed by Ranke, _History of the Popes_, Appendix, sect. i., No. 3.
The exposition, by Machiavelli, of the French policy, and of the
persevering pursuit of sovereignty by the Borgia, is interesting and
instructive; _Il Principe_, ch. iii. and vii.]
Relieved from a character and garb but ill-adapted to his temperament
and habits, Cesare Borgia at once assumed the bearing and pomp of
sovereignty to which his gradually extending ambition now aspired. All
Rome had been busied in preparing his outfit, which is stated by
Sanuto at 100,000 ducats; and the magnificence of his following may
be estimated from the assertion that his chargers were shod with
silver, or, as some say, with gold. An account of his presentation at
the French court will be found in the Appendix X., with details of
splendour befitting lavish tastes. His reception was suited to such
pretensions, and Louis, well appreciating his disposition, prefaced
all negotiation by presenting him with a dukedom, a pension of 20,000
francs, and a similar sum in name of yearly pay for himself and a
hundred lances. As he had been styled Cardinal Valentino, from
Valencia in Spain, he now became Duke Valentino, from Valence in
Dauphiny.
But the intrigues of the Borgia had not entirely abandoned the hope of
an alliance for Cesare with a princess of Naples, notwithstanding the
cold reception which such a proposal had met with on his recent
legation at her father's court. Carlotta, daughter of Federigo, by his
first wife, a princess of Savoy, was resident in France, and they
hoped to sell the Pope's sanction to the French King's designs upon
Milan, for the influence of Louis in favour of her marriage to the
Duke Valentino, with the sovereignty of Tarento as her dowry. This
project was, however, finally abandoned, on receiving from the lady a
scornful refusal to soil her hand by uniting it with an apostate
priest, the son of a priest, a blood-thirsty fratricide, as base in
character as in birth. This result was not a little pleasing to Louis,
who, with a view to his ulterior designs upon Naples, was much more
content that the Duke should be the insulted suitor than the
son-in-law of Federigo. Meanwhile the finesse of Cesare had nearly
overreached itself. Keeping back the dispensation until he had
effected his own objects, he endeavoured to attach conditions to its
delivery; but Louis, informed by the Bishop of Cette, who was Nuncio
at his court, that it had already issued on the 20th of October, and
that its non-publication could not prevent its validity, prepared to
celebrate his marriage without delay. The Duke hastened to remedy his
mistake with a good grace, by delivering the dispensation, and
presenting a cardinal's hat to George d'Amboise, the French King's
favourite minister; but with a vengeance that knew no pity, he had
poison administered to the tell-tale Bishop.
Lying nearest the common danger, Ludovico il Moro was the most
energetic, as well as the most interested, in preparing for defence.
Again he proposed a general league for the exclusion of ultra-montane
invasion, and attempted to gain the Pope's adherence to it by a secret
engagement, that the great states should, at his dictation, make
common cause against any or all of the princely feudatories of the
Church, and by money or the sword should establish Cesare Borgia in
some sovereignty. This offer being addressed to the Pontiff's leading
passion, it was entertained with apparent favour, in order to keep his
decision open to the last, as well as meanwhile to divert Sforza from
maturing an effectual resistance to Louis, whose alliance, as the most
powerful, seemed on the whole most eligible, and from whom it might be
easy for his Holiness to obtain the very advantages which Ludovico's
proposal offered.
Whilst the policy of Italy remained thus in suspense, Duke Valentino
became more and more united to the interests of France. Profiting by
the pique which his recent disappointment occasioned, Louis persuaded
him in the beginning of May to marry Charlotte d'Albret, sister of
Jean, King of Navarre, adding 80,000 francs to her dowry of 30,000;
and at the same time decorated him with the order of St. Michael, then
the most distinguished in Christendom. The Pope presented him with
200,000 scudi, and celebrated the event by extravagant festivities.
Having thus seemingly secured Alexander, the French King bribed the
Venetians to aid him in conquering the Milanese, by promising them a
slice of its territory, and in August sent his army across the Alps.
It would lead us too far from our proper theme to trace the invasion
of Italy which followed these complicated intrigues. The French
incursion into Lombardy was crowned with entire success, and within
three weeks Ludovico, driven from the capital which he had usurped,
retired with his treasure to Inspruck.
After recruiting the hardships of Bibbiena, from which however his
constitution never recovered, the Duke of Urbino paid a visit to
Venice, which is thus graphically told by Marino Sanuto in his amusing
diary.
"On the 2nd of June luncheon was prepared for the Duke of Urbino's
coming; and when it was over, the Doge with the ambassadors and
senators went in the Bucentaur to meet Duke Guido, as far as San
Antonio, and there awaited him; and there were five gig-boats
[_paraschelmi_] prepared as usual for us sages of the orders,
ornamented with the armorial bearings of each. And presently the Duke
arrived from Chioggia, with Giorgio Pisani, the Podestà, and some
gentlemen who had been sent to meet him. He is twenty-eight years of
age, a handsome man, dressed in black after the French fashion, as
were all his attendants, on account of the death of his uncle [cousin]
Ottavio de' Ubaldini, who long had governed both the state and the
Duke. And being brought into the Bucentaur with great rejoicings, he
came by the Cana l' Grande to the Marquis of Ferrara's house, which
had been made ready for him, and the Doge accompanied him to his
chamber. He remained [eleven] days in this city, with a numerous
suite, and thirty-five ducats a day were assigned for his expenses."
According to the estimate of this chronicler, a ducat was then worth
four English shillings, so that, making allowance for the depreciated
value of money, the sum set apart for the Duke's daily maintenance may
have exceeded 70_l._ He received at the same time the compliment of
citizenship, and his services were retained for the Republic with two
hundred men-at-arms, and 27,000 ducats of pay. It does not, however,
appear that he was called into action during the rapid campaign by
which Louis possessed himself of Milan, being probably then disabled
by gout: indeed, he seems to have suffered from it even on his visit
to Venice, as his not having danced at a ball given in his honour is
specially noted by Sanuto, and it was provided in his engagement of
service that his contingent should be led by an approved commander.
During this year he testified his good will for the Signory, by
sending them from his wide forests forty head of bucks, does, kids,
wild-boar, and other game, borne by forty men.