The Duke's mischievous policy--New league against Charles
V.--A French army reaches Naples--The Duke's campaign in
Lombardy--Peace restored--Siege of Florence--Coronation of
the Emperor at Bologna--The independence of Italy finally
lost--Leonora Duchess of Urbino--The Duke's military
discourses.
We must now return to the confederate camp at Isola, which the Duke
of Urbino broke up, after having eased his conscience by sending to
Francis I. the explanation of his views to which we have referred.
The general feeling regarding his conduct was testified by a speedy
withdrawal of many forces under his command, some deserting to the
enemy, others retiring to their homes. On the 1st of June, he was
at Monterosi, and thence fell back upon Viterbo and Todi, where he
obtained some inglorious successes over the imperialist bands, as
they fled in disorder from plague-stricken Rome. During the autumn
his troops, which gradually diminished to a few thousands, led a
life of disreputable pillage about the valley of the Tiber; and,
after again embroiling himself in the affairs of Perugia with little
credit or success, he interfered in the succession of Camerino in
a way which we shall find eventually pregnant with mischief to his
son. On the Pontiff's arrival at Orvieto, he hastened to wait upon
his Holiness, and put forward the Venetian commissioner to make a
laboured justification of his recent miscarriages. Clement, affecting
contentment with what was beyond redress, received him cordially, and
hinted at a union of his son Guidobaldo with Caterina, daughter of
his late competitor, Lorenzo de' Medici. But ere long he reaped the
fruit of his feeble policy, by hearing that he was spoken of in the
most disparaging terms by the gallant Francis I., and by the French
general Lautrec.
Still more mortifying to him was the distrust shown by his Venetian
employers. We learn from Sanuto's Diaries that, early in May, his
Duchess had repaired to Venice, with the young Guidobaldo and a
suite of forty persons, while the visits passing between her and the
imperial ambassador soon became matter of unfavourable comment. On
the 29th of June, a guard of barges was placed near her residence,
to intercept any attempt at escape; and on the envoy from Urbino
questioning this proceeding, the Doge said, in explanation, "We have
much reliance on our Captain from past experience, but what has been
done was to satisfy the vulgar." Hearing that his wife and son were
thus under surveillance, as hostages for his good faith, the Duke, on
the 9th of July, penned a remonstrance and justification, somewhat
similar to that which he had transmitted to the French king. It will
be found in the Appendix, No. III., and, though a most inconclusive
defence, it was well received by the Signory, and his family were
so far released from constraint, that, early in August, the Duchess
was allowed to go for health to the baths of Abano. News of her
departure from such a cause were little consolation to her lord, who
declared that, were she to die, he should be in despair. Remembering,
however, the fate of Carmagnola, he would not venture in person to
Venice, until he had twice sent his confidential friend Leonardi
to reconnoitre the state of feeling there. Reassured at length, by
pressing invitations from the Signory, he in the spring took ship at
Pesaro with a small suite, and was met upon landing by an escort of
twenty gentlemen in scarlet, who conducted him to his lodging. Next
day he was admitted to the interview which he had demanded, and was
received at the top of the great stairs by the Doge, followed by
the principal senators. After mutual embraces, the Duke was led to a
seat of honour, and had audience for an hour and a half. This being
concluded, the public were admitted to see their Captain-general, who
was richly decked in diamonds, with a massive bracelet of twisted
gold on his left arm, and a jewelled device in his cap. On returning
to his apartment, he had from the Signory the customary compliment
of confections, malmsey, and wax lights. It would be hard to say how
far he was indebted to his oratory for this happy extrication from
his difficulties; but we are told by one of his suite that many of
the nobility, who crowded to pay their respects, besought a sight of
his speech to the senate, insisting that so eloquent an oration must
needs have been written and committed to memory.[23]
[Footnote 23: Leonardi's Memoirs, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, f. 85.
Most of the preceding details have been gathered from Sanuto's
Diaries.]
Thinking it well to retire with flying colours, he next morning
took his departure; and his party, being challenged by three of the
patrol for riding armed, answered by beating them to death. The
same intemperate behaviour brought him ere many days into a new
dilemma with his employers. Gian Andrea da Prato, an officer of
the Republic, having somewhat disrespectfully combated his opinion
as to the defences of Peschiera, received from him a severe blow
in the face, tearing it with a diamond ring he happened to wear,
which was followed up by a severe beating with his baton of command;
Leonardi adding that it was well for him the Duke was unarmed. The
Venetian officers, protesting against this violence as an insult to
the Signory, and as incompatible with due freedom of discussion in
council, sent a complaint to the senate; but the Duke's resident
minister succeeded in averting their indignation by explanations.
Their satisfaction with his services under the banner of St. Mark
was further testified by presenting him with a palace worth 10,000
scudi, which may fairly be taken into account as countervailing the
strictures of Guicciardini and Sismondi.
The capture of Rome being known, a new coalition was hastily patched
up, wherein France, England, Venice, and Florence were parties, and
to which the free cardinals, in name of the Sacred College, adhered.
Its avowed object was to check the exorbitant power of Charles in
Italy, and to establish Francesco Sforza in Milan, then held by
Antonio della Leyva for the Emperor. A powerful French army under
Lautrec marched on the 30th of June, and, on its arrival in Lombardy,
the Venetians recalled most of their forces from Central Italy. On
the 4th of October Pavia was taken and miserably sacked, and Milan
might have become an easy prey had not Lautrec preferred advancing
for the Pope's liberation. But, having lost time in extorting
contributions from Piacenza and Parma, he had only reached Reggio
when he heard of his escape from durance. Clement, though avowing
gratitude for these exertions on his behalf, declined committing
himself by any overt act against the Emperor, whose troops still
occupied Rome.
* * * * *
The year which now closed is justly characterised by Muratori as the
most fatal and lamentable for Italy that history has commemorated.
The horrors of war, which, during its course, were poured in
accumulated measure upon the Eternal City, fell largely upon many
other parts of the Peninsula. Four foreign armies were let loose upon
her plains, to steep them in misery, and the enormities attending
the sack of Rome were repeated at Pavia, Spoleto, and a multitude
of minor towns in Lombardy and Central Italy. The furies of civil
broil were meanwhile scarcely less rampant. The Campagna of Rome, the
sunny shores of Naples, the towns of the Abruzzi, were ravaged or
revolutionised by the arms and intrigues of the Pontiff. Florence,
Siena, Modena, Rimini, Ravenna, Perugia, and Camerino changed their
governments, under pressure of foreign force or domestic violence.
Nor were the elements more propitious. Incessant rains destroyed the
harvest, and laid whole districts under water. With an unusual demand
upon agricultural produce, the supply was greatly curtailed. Famine
reigned throughout the land, and pestilence desolated the population.
The inhabitants, reduced to general mendicity, beset the streets
and highways with their squalid children. Their murmurs by day and
their screams by night met with rare responses from passers-by as
needy as themselves; and at length, worn out with suffering, they
laid them down to die. It was during this year of general gloom that
Machiavelli closed his life; and to it specially applies that passage
in his _Principe_ (whether then interpolated or written long before)
describing the prostration of his native land. "Conquered, enslaved,
divided--without leader or law--beaten, spoiled, partitioned,
overrun, and in every way ruined--she lay half lifeless, awaiting
some one to heal her wounds, to arrest the robbery, pillage, and
forced taxation of her states, to heal her long-cankering sores."
To this hideous but faithful picture one finishing touch is wanting.
Alarmed by Lautrec's advance upon Naples, the Prince of Orange at
length, on the 16th of February, gave orders for the evacuation of
Rome. But his army, now crumbled away to some thirteen thousand
men, refused to march without an advance of pay, for which a final
contribution of 20,000 ducats was wrested from the Camera. Not
satisfied with this, the brutal soldiery redoubled their individual
efforts, by every ingenuity of torture, to screw more treasure or
ransom from the wretched inhabitants. But a summary vengeance awaited
them. Such of the citizens as had arms secretly left the city, and,
as their relentless foes straggled heedlessly across the Campagna,
laden with spoil, they, by a succession of furious charges, recovered
a vast quantity of the plunder, and, stripping the rapacious
soldiery of their gala dresses and rich jewels, dismissed them naked.
In this state the exasperated peasantry, headed by Napoleone Orsini,
the warlike Abbot of Farfa, set upon and massacred them without
mercy. So signal was these miscreants' fate that, in two years,
scarcely one of them is supposed to have survived.
* * * * *
After delaying for some weeks at Bologna, to abide the issue of many
intricate negotiations which followed upon the Pontiff's release,
Lautrec advanced, by the eastern coast, to attack the kingdom of
Naples. His army is estimated by Muratori at about fifty thousand,
though stated by others at a much higher amount. On the 10th of
February, he passed the frontier by the Tronto, and at Aquila, and
elsewhere in the Abruzzi, was received with open arms by the remnant
of the Angevine party. On the 12th of March, the two armies were in
presence at Troia; but, neither of them being anxious for a decisive
result, no engagement followed. After ravaging most of La Puglia and
Calabria, the French troops sat down before Naples, on the 29th of
April, and continued the siege during most of the summer. Once more
did that delicious land, where the ancients placed their Elysian
fields, and which is the terrestrial heaven of modern Italians,
prove fatal to its spoilers. Its soil, fertile in nature's choicest
products; its bright atmosphere, redolent of beauty; its climate,
conducive to luxurious gratifications; its volcanic air, stimulating
to sensual indulgences; its breezes, wafting perennial perfumes--all
invited to an excess of enjoyment, enervating to the physical, as
it was fatal to the moral energies of the invaders. Their cup of
pleasure was drugged, and Naples was avenged on her destroyers by her
own poisons, which they greedily quaffed. A contagious pestilence
swept their ranks, and, on the 15th of August, carried off their
leader. Weakened and discouraged, the remnant shut themselves into
Aversa, but were soon forced to a capitulation, which being violated,
most of them were cut to pieces.
To counterbalance Lautrec's expedition, the Emperor had ordered more
troops across the Alps, and, in the beginning of May, Henry Duke of
Brunswick brought fourteen thousand Germans through the Tyrol to the
Lago di Garda. On the first alarm of their approach, the Duke of
Urbino made the most of a handful of troops under his command, to
protect the Venetian mainland territory; and his biographers give him
great credit for defensive measures which ensured their towns from
attack, and obliged the invaders to move upon the Milanese. Pavia
having been, about the same time, surprised by della Leyva, Lodi
alone remained in Sforza's hands, and before it the Duke of Brunswick
drew his lines. But the destruction of his magazines by Francesco
Maria reduced his army to great straits; and a virulent epidemic
having carried off two thousand of his men, the residue broke up and
made their way homewards, after their first assault had been sharply
repelled.
In September, the Duke of Urbino's little army was reinforced by a
strong body of Swiss infantry and French lances, led by St. Pol,
and it was resolved to recover Pavia. Scarcely was the siege begun
when news of the desperate state of the French before Naples induced
St. Pol to propose withdrawing his contingent to the succour of
Genoa, which, in consequence of Andrea Doria suddenly passing over
from the side of Francis to that of his rival, was placed in great
danger. A brief delay was obtained by the urgent representations of
Francesco Maria, who, throwing aside his accustomed sluggishness,
directed operations in person. On the sixth day he effected a breach
by blowing up a bastion, which placed the city at its assailants'
mercy, and it was again exposed to the horrors of a ruthless sack.
This success was, however, counterbalanced by a revolution in Genoa,
the city declaring itself independent of France, and was followed by
the fall of Savona, on the 21st of October. It might have been saved
by more prompt exertions on the Duke's part, who was unjustly blamed
by his French allies for its loss, being, as Paruta assures us,
interdicted by the Signory from leaving their frontier exposed.
During the weary wars of Clement VII., the fluctuations inherent
in human affairs were rarely counterbalanced by high principles
or commanding genius. Confederacies formed upon narrow views and
selfish calculations were neither sustained with persevering energy,
nor directed by men of enlarged views and gallant bearing. Indeed,
courage itself faltered and zeal grew languid, in contests which
seemed to demoralise officers and soldiery. It cannot therefore
occasion surprise that all parties were equally ready to play fast
and loose; that the great powers kept themselves ever open for new
combinations; and that independent captains, true to old condottiere
usages, readily transferred their services to the quarter whence most
substantial benefits were likely to accrue. Thus, after the great
discouragement resulting to the cause of Francis, from the loss of
Lautrec's army and the desertion of Doria, his allies began to waver.
The Pontiff, though scarcely recovered from the alarm in which his
recent misfortunes had left him, displayed an unaccountable leaning
towards their author; and even Sforza, having to choose between two
claimants of his duchy, began to think that the best terms might
be had from the Emperor. The Venetians were as usual waiters upon
providence; but they so overplayed the temporising game, that the
arrangements for a double treaty between Clement, Charles, and
Francis found them still in the field, and they were left to make
head single-handed against the imperialists. As such a contest was
necessarily a defensive one, the Duke's dilatory manoeuvres were
at length well timed, and the Signory preferred thus prolonging
the struggle to restoring the territory they had gained during the
war, as a preliminary condition of peace. The Emperor had landed
in August at Genoa, with a powerful fleet and army, and new levies
arrived from Germany. St. Pol, after drawing off his troops towards
Genoa, was surprised and shamefully beaten ere he could be supported
by Francesco Maria,[24] who had encamped at Cassano on the Adda,
in a position that menaced Milan, and commanded supplies from the
Bergamese territory, whilst it effectually protected the Venetian
mainland from imperialist aggression. The Duke there resisted every
attempt to dislodge him, until the senate had arranged the terms of a
treaty with the Emperor, which was signed on the 23rd of December.
[Footnote 24: In his _Discorsi Militari_, pp. 7, 8, the Duke minutely
criticises the French general's tactics, which exposed him to this
shameful reverse; but the details have now little interest.]
The ostensible motives of Charles in coming to Italy were twofold;
to forward arrangements for a general league against the Turks, who,
after overrunning Hungary, had laid siege to Vienna; and to have
the imperial diadem and the iron crown of Lombardy imposed upon his
brows by the Pope. Bologna was selected for the ceremony, whither his
Holiness arrived in great state about the end of October, followed on
the 5th of November by the Emperor. The two potentates were lodged in
the public palace, and addressed themselves to the former of these
objects with so much success, that on the 23rd of December a treaty
was concluded, wherein were comprehended all the Italian states
except Florence. The Lombard question was settled, Sforza being left
in possession of his duchy, but hampered with ruinous payments to the
Emperor in name of expenses; whilst the Venetians, besides paying
heavy sums under the same pretext, had to resign their acquisitions
about Ravenna and on the Neapolitan coast. Florence was not included,
in consequence of its _de facto_ government being in the hands
of the democratic party, who, in 1527, had availed themselves of
Clement's difficulties to expel the Medici; it was now, however,
replaced under their sway by the combined arms of the Pontiff and the
Emperor. After ten months of obstinate defence,--the final effort of
its old republican spirit, which commands our sympathy and respect
far more than the struggles of faction that used in earlier times to
deluge its piazza in blood,--the city was surrendered on the 12th
of August, 1530, and its chains were riveted by a base bastard, who
seems to have had nothing of the Medici but their name. In this
siege died Philibert Prince of Orange, one of the last survivors of
the invaders of Rome. Like his comrade Bourbon, he was a renegade
from the service of Francis I., in disgust, as was alleged, at being
turned out of his palace to make way for the imperious Wolsey, and at
the ridicule to which this slight exposed him in the French court.
The title passed to his nephew René Count of Nassau, who carried it
from Provence to Holland, and was grandfather of William III. of
England. Their leader fallen, their occupation gone, a serious alarm
spread throughout Central Italy, lest the victorious soldiery should
re-enact the horrors perpetrated by Bourbon's sanguinary host. These
fears, however, soon subsided; indeed a century and a quarter elapsed
ere that fair land was again exposed to the devastations of foreign
spoilers.
These diplomatic arrangements being thus satisfactorily concluded,
preparations advanced rapidly for the coronation, and many princely
feudatories of Italy flocked to witness that august function. Among
these was Francesco Maria, who, though summoned as Prefect of Rome,
had some cause to misdoubt his welcome from the Pontiff and the
Emperor. The old family grudge still smouldered in the breast of the
former, and he was alleged to have lately intrigued with Charles that
the Prince of Orange, after re-establishing the Medici at Florence,
should seize upon Urbino for Ascanio Colonna, whose vague claims
upon that duchy have been already explained.[25] Indeed, a rumour of
that general's march upon his states in March, 1529, had suddenly
recalled the Duke from Lombardy, in order to provide for their
defence. To the Emperor he had been uniformly opposed, rather from
the chances of war than upon any personal quarrel; yet he did not
hesitate to repair to the coronation, arriving at Bologna about the
1st of November, and there met with an interesting incident.
[Footnote 25: Vol. II., pp. 420, 423.]
As he approached the city with his suite he was met by about fifty
German veterans, who addressed him in their rough transalpine tongue,
and through an interpreter explained that they had come to pay to
him their reverence, having served under his father in long past
wars, inquiring where their old commander had died. They were told
that it was himself that led them to victory; but, unaware how early
he had commanded armies, they demurred to this, saying, that were
their old leader alive his beard would be blanched. The Duke having
assured them that their gallantry and attachment were well known
and appreciated by him, they dismissed their doubts, crowding round
to kiss his hands or mantle, and accompanied him to his lodging, a
civility duly acknowledged by thanks and a suitable largess.
Several days having passed in visits of compliment, the Emperor
arrived, escorted into the town by the Dukes of Urbino and Savoy,
with their brilliant staffs. Mindful only of the renown which the
former had acquired in recent campaigns, the monarch summoned him to
his side, and conversed with him in friendly familiarity. He called
him the first general in Christendom, and complimented his officers
as worthy soldiers of a famous school, whose complexions bore the
honourable scars and weather-stains of good service. Duchess Leonora
became on her arrival equally the object of imperial favour, and
received flattering testimony to her polished and princely manners.
The purpose of these marked attentions was soon developed, in a
proposal to confer upon Francesco Maria the baton, as captain-general
of the imperial troops in Italy. This gratifying offer he gracefully
declined, pleading an engagement to the Venetians, which prevented
his listening to such proposals without consent of the Signory.
To them Charles forthwith addressed his request; but received for
answer that the same considerations which induced him to make it
rendered them resolute in retaining the services of a leader who
for many years had brought renown to their arms; but that, though
unable to spare himself, they were ready to place him with all their
forces at the disposal of his Highness. The Emperor had employed the
Duchess of Savoy's intervention in this affair, who at his suggestion
cultivated a great intimacy with the Duke and Duchess of Urbino,
and her pleading was on one occasion enforced by Charles in person
in a well-timed visit. The establishment of this lady is described
by Leonardi, who was particularly struck with the easy elegance and
graceful conversation of her six girlish maids of honour, seated on
cushions of tawny velvet, and gaily decked in rich jewels, plumes,
and streaming ribbons, chatting merrily with her guests. The Emperor,
far from taking umbrage at his disappointment, sought Francesco
Maria's opinion as to the person best fitted for commander-in-chief,
who recommended the appointment of Antonio della Leyva. Indeed,
Giraldi declares that Charles "never could have enough of his fine
discourses or sententious remarks," and pressed him to name any
favour he would accept of. The Duke, thus encouraged, urged the
restoration of Sora, Arce, Arpino, and Rocca Guglielmi, which had
been taken from him at the instigation of Leo X., a request to which
Charles acceded about three years later, paying 100,000 scudi of
compensation to a Flemish nobleman who had been invested with these
Neapolitan fiefs.
On the 22nd of February, in the chapel attached to the Palazzo
Pubblico, the brows of Charles were encircled with the iron crown of
Lombardy, which, as Muratori observes, had not yet been rendered a
sacred relic by the legend of its having been formed out of a nail
of the true cross. Two days after, he received the imperial diadem
in the church of S. Petronio, the Duke of Urbino, as Prefect of
Rome, carrying the sword of state, with which the Pontiff had just
conferred knighthood upon the Emperor. The populace were regaled
in the Piazza with two bullocks roasted entire, whilst both the
great fountains poured forth continued streams of wine, and silver
largess was scattered at all hands. An accident from the fall of some
scaffolding, which nearly proved fatal to the hero of the ceremonial,
brought on a sharp altercation between the captain of the imperial
guard and the chief magistrate of the city. To the threats of the
officer, to treat the place as he had already done the larger town of
Milan, the latter replied that in Milan they manufactured needles,
but in Bologna they made swords. On the 22nd of March, Charles
departed for Germany, in order to defend his Austrian dominions from
the Turks; and, nine days later, Clement set out in a litter for his
capital, where he arrived on the 9th of April, after spending the 6th
at Urbino, on a visit to Francesco Maria.
* * * * *
From these transactions at Bologna there dated a new era for Italy.
The long struggle of Guelph and Ghibelline was at length come to an
end--the standard of her nationality was finally struck. Succeeding
pontiffs were content to lean for support upon an authority which
their predecessors had defied or resisted. It mattered little whether
that paramount influence was held by an Austrian or Spanish imperial
dynasty; so long as the two Sicilies, Sardinia, and Milan owned its
dominion, the freedom of the other states was merely nominal. The
Peninsula was, indeed, no longer ravaged by European wars, yet the
protracted struggle did not close until the victor had riveted on
her his chains. She was seldom desolated by invading armies, but she
was not the less plundered by licensed spoilers. Peace was restored
to her, but independence was gone. The Reformation, too, which Leo
left a petty schism, had in ten years changed the faith of a large
section of Europe, and Rome was no longer the capital of Christendom.
The results of this change in the Church it is not the province of
these pages to notice, but, in common with other Italian feudatories,
the Dukes of Urbino felt the altered aspect of their political
relations. War was not now a profession demanding their services, and
recompensing them with glory and profit. The trade of arms had come
to an end, as regarded the old condottiere system and its frightful
abuses, and was modified into the more orderly machinery of standing
armies on a limited scale. We shall accordingly find these princes
for the future little mixed up with the general affairs of the
Peninsula, and scarcely ever taking the field, but left with ample
leisure for the administration of their little principality, or the
cultivation of their individual tastes. Had such been the lot of Duke
Federigo or his accomplished son, their fame would scarcely have
been dimmed, for theirs were virtues equally calculated to elevate
a court or illustrate a camp. But it was otherwise with the two
remaining sovereigns della Rovere; and the glories of the dynasty
would suffer no diminution did we now draw our narrative to a close.
Yet these Dukes were not commonplace men; and, making allowance
for the age in which they lived,--when the fine gold of literature
and arts had been transmuted into baser metal, and when genius had
fled from a desolation which peace without freedom was powerless to
reanimate,--they were not unworthy to rule in the Athens of Italy.
Those readers, however, who have thus far followed our narrative must
content themselves through its remaining chapters with characters
less striking, views less general, events of narrowed interest; and
must bear in mind that the niche in the temple of Fame appropriated
to Urbino, as well as that enshrining the Italian name, was earned
ere the coronation of Charles V. had closed the struggles of Italy,
and consummated her subjugation.
After that time, according to one of the most rational as well
as eloquent of the new dreamers after Italian nationality, "she
underwent a rapid yet imperceptible decline; yet her sky smiled
brightly as ever, her climate was as mild. A privileged land, removed
from all cares of political existence, she went on with dances and
music, happy in her ignorance, sleeping in the intoxication of
incessant prosperity. Used to the scourge of invasion, the sons of
the south took up again their guitars, wiped away their tears, and
sang anew like a cloud of birds when the tempest is over."[26] This
picture, drawn in bitterness, but not apparently in irony, paints the
decline of Italy in colours more attractive than any we should have
dared to employ; and we extract it chiefly for the sake of contrast
with the same writer's ready admission that the liberty of the old
republics was cradled amid convulsions of faction, which eventually
exhausted their forces, or stifled their independence.
[Footnote 26: MARIOTTI'S _Italy_, II.]
If the object of government be the greatest happiness of the masses,
it seems, according to Mariotti, to have been more fully attained in
Italy during the ages of foreign sway than in those of republican
strife. Admitting in some degree, this conclusion, we accord a more
hearty approval to the character he has elsewhere given of a state
of matters worse, probably, in that land than either of these
alternatives,--"that slow and silent disease, that atrabilious
frenzy--politics--which pervades all ranks, exhibiting a striking
contrast with the radiant and harmonious gaiety of heaven and earth."
* * * * *
Our notices of the court of Urbino have been suspended during a long
interval from lack of materials. Indeed, the military duties of its
head too well accounts for this deficiency of incident, rendering
his domestic life a blank. Even the brief intervals when he could
steal from the camp to the society of his Duchess, were passed in
some neighbouring town, where she met him, or at Venice, where she
made a lengthened sojourn, partly as a safer residence during the
alarm consequent upon Bourbon's invasion, but in some degree as a
guarantee for her husband to the suspicious government he served.
These circumstances occasioned him prolonged absences from his state,
of which his consort availed herself to prepare for him an agreeable
surprise.
Immediately north-west from Pesaro rises the fertile slope of Monte
Bartolo, near the summit of which, but sheltered from the keen
sea-breeze, Alessandro Sforza fixed the site of a villa called
Casartole. The Emperor Frederick III., when returning from his
coronation at Rome, in January, 1469, was magnificently entertained
by that Prince, and here laid the foundation of a casino, which in
compliment to him was named the Imperiale. Its dimensions were,
however, unequal to that imposing name, for, on the death of Giovanni
Sforza, in 1510, it was valued at only 8000 ducats. Having devolved
upon the Duke of Urbino, with the lordship of Pesaro, it was selected
by the Duchess for a compliment to him, which may be best explained
by the inscription she placed upon the building:--"For Francesco
Maria, Duke of the Metaurian States, on his return from the wars, his
consort Leonora has erected this villa, in token of affection, and
in compensation for sun and dust, for watching and toil, so that,
during an interval of repose, his military genius may here prepare
for him still wider renown and richer rewards." To carry out this
idea worthily, she summoned Girolamo Genga, of Urbino, one of the
best architects of his time; and under his able superintendence the
casino of the Sforza, distinguished from moderate country houses only
by heraldic devices and a lofty bell-tower, was rapidly transformed
into a handsome palace, which the pencil of Raffaele Colle was
employed to decorate with its master's triumphs.
The site of this villa was admirably adapted as a residence for the
sovereign of those broad lands it overlooked. It commanded every
dwelling in the little city of Pesaro, though perfectly secluded
from contact with its busy streets. The vale of the Isauro or Foglia
lay in verdure before it, beyond which were the gardenlike slopes
of Novilara, terminating in a varied landscape of hill and dale,
which carried the gazer to the blue mountains of Gubbio. To the left
spread the coast of Fano and Sinigaglia; to the right the high lands
of Urbino were bounded by the Apennines of Carpegna and the isolated
heights of San Marino. In a word, the Imperiale scanned the whole
duchy of Urbino, of which it might, not inaptly, be considered the
eye. The attractions of this princely retreat have been described
with enthusiasm by Ludovico Agostini, who enjoyed them in their
prime, and whose eulogies remain unedited in the Oliveriana Library.
But they owe to the pen of Bernardo Tasso a worthier and wider
celebrity, in his letter to Vincenzo Laureo, which sums up the
advantages of the Villa by declaring that no place in Italy united
with a temperate and healthful climate so many conveniences and
enjoyable spots.
Of many laboured and costly productions of human ingenuity little
remains there but saddening ruins.
The lofty oaks celebrated by Agostini have yielded to the axe; the
grove which served as a game preserve has shared the same fate; the
once innumerable pines and cypresses may be counted in units; the
orange and lemon trees, the cystuses and myrtles have disappeared.
Though even yet of imposing appearance, the building has undergone
pitiable dilapidations. Almost every morsel of the marble carving has
been carried off, and fragments may be purchased from the pawnbrokers
of Pesaro. The frescoes, except that representing Francesco Maria
receiving the adherence of his army, which seems the poorest in
execution, are almost totally defaced. But that the saloons, where
Bembo talked and Tasso sang, have been found well adapted for
the culture of silkworms, the desolation, begun a century ago by
Portuguese Jesuits, continued by a rabble soldiery, and permitted by
its present proprietors the Albani, might ere now have been complete.
But while the works of man have thus by man been degraded, glorious
nature remains unchanged. A few hundred paces lead to the summit
ridge of Monte Bartolo, a spot rarely equalled even in this lovely
land. To the vast prospect we have but now feebly described, there is
here added a marine panorama, extending from the headland of Ancona
to the Pineta of Ravenna, and including a boundless expanse of the
sparkling Adriatic. A wanderer on that attractive coast, it has been
my privilege to visit this unrivalled spot, and listlessly to survey
the swan-like sails skimming the mighty mirror, wherein was reflected
the deep indigo of an Italian sky, bounded along the horizon by that
pearly haze gradually dissolving towards the blue zenith, which no
painter but Perugino has been able to embody.
Of Duchess Leonora we know little.[*27] Unlike her predecessor,
she had no courtly pen to transmit us her praises, no Bembo or
Castiglione to celebrate the beauties of her person or the graces
of her mind. She enjoys, however, one advantage over her Aunt
Elisabetta; for in a speaking portrait by Titian, we may read much
of her character, exempt from the vague flattery of such diffuse
eulogists. Painted at that trying age when female beauty has
exchanged its maiden charms for mature womanhood, the grave matronly
air, the stiff contours and set features, with more of comely dignity
than sternness in their general expression, attest fidelity in the
likeness, and tally well with what we know of her temperament, and
with the trials under which it must have been formed. There we may
observe a composure calculated to moderate the fiery temper of her
lord, a self-possession fitted to sustain him through his varied
adversities. Her dress handsome rather than rich, her pose indicative
of quietude, the spaniel watching by her side, the small time-piece
on her table, are accessories adapted for one accustomed to pass
the long intervals of her husband's absence rather in reflective
solitude than in courtly pastimes.[28] To such a disposition the
cares of maternity and her children's education afforded an ever
pleasing resource, which she shared with the Dowager Duchess, an
unfailing companion and friend, whose once lively spirits had been
chastened by affliction into harmony with her temperament; but of
this solace she was deprived by her death at Venice in January,
1526. In the autumn of 1529, Leonora, who administered the duchy in
her husband's absence, received Clement at Pesaro, on his way to
the coronation at Bologna, with a princely welcome and magnificent
presents. In a letter which his Holiness took that opportunity to
address to the Duke, he expresses gratitude for these, and for the
attendance of the prince, "a youth of the highest hopes from his
excellent dispositions, his modesty, and his natural inclination
to literature, as well as his many estimable qualities." Whilst
promising much favour to Guidobaldo, he compliments his father on the
mild and equitable sway whereby the Duchess maintained his state in
peace and tranquillity, and concludes with an apostolic blessing on
him, his consort, and his son.
[Footnote *27: Cf. LUZIO E RENIER, _Mantova e Urbino_ (Torino, 1893)
and JULIA CARTWRIGHT, _Isabella d'Este_ (Murray, 1904).]
[Footnote 28: Cf. Appendix XII.]
Returned to his state after so long a separation, Francesco Maria
found, during the next two years, ample leisure to attend to its
internal administration, and to watch the progress of his promising
family. The eldest of these seems to have been Donna Ippolita, for
whom he soon received, through the Marquis del Vasto, an offer of
marriage from Don Antonio d'Aragona, son of the Duke of Montalto.
At the nuptials, which were celebrated with suitable splendour, he
had a very unlooked-for guest in Ascanio Colonna, whose intrigues
to supplant him in the duchy we have lately noticed, but who,
finding these hopelessly foiled by the Duke's establishment in the
good graces of the Emperor, sought a reconciliation through the
bridegroom, his cousin, whom he accompanied to Urbino. This frankness
was met in a kindred spirit by his host, and their amity was cemented
by a generous hospitality.
* * * * *
It was now, perhaps, that Francesco Maria took opportunity to dictate
the results of his long experience of war, in a series of Military
Discourses, which were published fifty years later, but which,
being evidently printed from loose and unrevised notes, are not
fairly amenable to literary criticism.[29] They are but desultory
and disjointed observations, carelessly jotted down, with little
attention to order or style, and edited without emendation, or
even intelligible punctuation. The matter abounds in truisms and
common-places, displaying neither enlarged views nor knowledge of
mankind: the style is garrulous, diffuse, and redundant. Yet, as on
matters of military skill the Duke was considered a high authority,
it may not be improper here to record some of his opinions.
[Footnote 29: Discorsi Militari dell'eccellentissimo Signor Francesco
Maria I. della Rovere, Duca di Urbino, nei quali si discorrano molti
avantaggi et disadvantaggi della guerra, utilissimi ad ogni soldato.
Ferrara, 1583. It was edited by Domenico Mammarelli, and dedicated to
Signor Ippolito Bentivoglio. There is a transcript in the library at
Newbattle Abbey, a. 3, 2, and a fragment of it in the Vat. Ottobon.
MSS. No. 2447, f. 135. *Cf. also _I discorsi di F.M.I. della Rovere
sopra le fortificazioni di Venezia_ (Mantova, 1902). These were
written 1537-38.]
This was his idea of a fortified town: "It ought to stand in a plain,
its citadel commanded by no eminence. The rampart-wall should be
three paces wide at base, supporting an earthern rampart of fifteen
or twenty paces wide, with barbicans. This retaining wall should be
in height about twenty feet, and have above it a curtain of nearly as
many. The upper part, being most exposed to be battered, had better
have an earthen facing. There ought to be a platform, rising sixteen
feet over the curtain, placed half-way between each baloard and
bastion. The baloards should have guns mounted only at the sides, and
be of massive strength, from fifty to sixty paces in diameter, that
the guns may be freely wrought. Should a baloard be taken, it will
still be flanked by the adjoining platforms, a ditch drawn between
each of which would in a night's time recomplete the defences. The
fosse should be about twenty paces wide, and is best without water,
so as to allow artificial fire to be showered down upon the enemy.
There ought to be no counterscarp, seeing it generally serves as a
protection to the besiegers; but, if there be one, it had better be
only of earth, at a low angle of elevation. Above all, there ought
to be provided many secret ports for frequent sallies, and for the
easy return of the men. It has been long noticed that no fortress was
ever carried but by some oversight of its defenders, and everything
depends upon a judicious selection of positions for defence.
Unquestionably a single sin suffices to send a man to the devil,
whatever be his other good works; and, in like manner, one oversight
in fortification may lose the place, as happened when I took Pavia
and Cremona. In short, it is all very well to play with plans and
models, but one must see to everything on the spot."
"He said, in reference to the fortresses of Legnano and Verona, that
it was very ill-judged in the Republic never to carry things out
as they had been planned, in consequence of frequent ministerial
changes, and the system of governing from day to day, and bit
by bit, without reference to any general design. By adopting an
opposite method, he had completed the defences of Pesaro much more
efficiently, and at a third of the outlay it would have cost any
one else, simply because he was the sole head and executor, and
kept in view the entire works, not the individual gates, baloards,
and details; and by so completing them that it must be attacked on
two or three sides, whilst provided with ten or twelve concealed
sally-ports." He contended that a fortress on a hill was difficult to
defend, one on a plain less so; but that the easiest and most secure
was one whose defences partly extended along the level, and in part
rose upon steep ground, such as Verona, which he maintained could be
more easily held by five thousand men against eighty thousand, than
most towns by eight thousand against half that besieging force.
In conducting a siege, the Duke dwells upon the necessity of a choice
infantry, in which German solidity should be happily combined with
the active troops of Italy and Spain; yet he admits that men-at-arms,
when dismounted, can be turned to excellent account in an assault,
and that light cavalry are of obvious value. "Above all," he says,
"you require a well-supplied commissariat, and regular pay, with
sufficient artillery and military machines. After choosing the most
eligible spot for encampment, just without range of the enemy's guns,
the first thing is to provide your baggage and supplies against
sudden surprise; next to open trenches for your artillery, securing
your men by a ditch wide enough for their operations, but not so
broad as to be commanded from the walls, and taking care not to let
too many of them at once into the trenches, so as to embarrass each
other. It is an immense protection to flank your trenches with lines
drawn from your principal encampment close up to the city walls,
which must be strongly defended against the enemy's guns, and must
contain a force adequate to check their sallies, and, if necessary,
to cover the trenches, or even succour your camp."
"Should you resort to a blockade, it is best to establish your army
in one or two towns ten to fifteen miles off, taking care to secure
every intervening place. At that distance your own supplies are more
easily procured, and your light cavalry can readily intercept the
enemy's convoys, whilst the garrison cannot attack you, except at
every disadvantage, and without artillery."
As for artillery, we find a recommendation of battering guns carrying
from thirty to one hundred pound balls, and of field-pieces and
ship's cannon from fifteen to twenty pounds. The gunpowder in Italy
being bad, fifty was the average of daily discharges; but the Turks,
having very superior powder, could fire as many as seventy times,
which was looked upon as a stupendous performance.
Animadverting upon those tardy tactics which never anticipated a
movement of the enemy, the Duke compared them to a child applying its
hand to the parts successively chastised, without attempting to ward
off the next blow; yet, Fabius-like, he considered that a general's
talent was more shown in his selection of suitable posts than in the
conduct of a pitched battle. Popular risings he held very cheap,
believing them utterly contemptible when not supported by disciplined
troops, and instancing his own experience at Florence in 1527, when,
with eighty soldiers, he put down an insurrection, and maintained
the ascendancy of the Medici.
With reference to the respective merits of various nations whom
he had seen in the field, he said that "a good Italian and a good
Spanish soldier are equal. The Swiss at the outset are an excellent
force; but, in a protracted campaign, they deteriorate, and become
good for little. The Germans sustain an onset of men-at-arms most
valiantly, and, during these Italian wars, have become in other
respects expert, especially at skirmishes, either in cover or in
the open country. The Turks, being unskilled in war, have hitherto
owed their victories rather to the deficiencies of their opponents
than to their own superiority. He ascribed the success of French
armies against the Italians to an absurd practice of the latter, who
always fought in squadrons of twenty-five men-at-arms, each squadron
engaging another, so that the battle was made up of many separate
skirmishes; and, in the end, the most numerous army generally
carried the day. Charles VIII., on the contrary, formed in three
battalions,--the van, centre, and rear,--and, with his force thus
concentrated, bore down the detached tactics of his opponents. Yet
the Duke did not consider this French disposition as invariably
efficacious, preferring in many cases that an army should act in one
body, even at the risk of leaving its baggage and artillery in the
rear, and comparatively unprotected. But, on this and similar points,
his maxim was not to adhere to any invariable rule."
Regarding the construction of an army, we find this passage:--"In
preparing an expedition, the commander ought to imitate the process
by which nature creates a living body, forming first the heart; then
the vital members, such as the liver, lungs, blood, and brains;
next the skin; and, finally the hair and nails. In like manner, the
foundation of an enterprise should be the general, who is its heart,
and in whom should be united varied capacity, with perfect rectitude
and justice. Then his officers should be strenuous, experienced,
and implicitly obedient, for such captains are certain to recruit
soldiers of the same stamp. Next, let him look to his commissariat
and military chest, and see that his arms and accoutrements are
adapted to his enemy and the country. Lastly, let him regard all
extraneous and casual aid as mere skin, hair, and nails, relying
mainly on his own well-disciplined troops." The Duke considered
that "men-at-arms are by no means so useless as they are sometimes
regarded, and that, although infantry is the basis of an army,
nevertheless it would not do to have only that force in the field;
just as, although in the human body it is the eye alone which sees,
the hand which works, the head which guides, yet man would not be so
perfect or beautiful a creature with but eyes, hands, or head, as
he is with all these various members. Hence he would wish to have
soldiers of all sorts in his camp,--men-at-arms, light cavalry, a
German brigade, and a full complement of Italians."
But whilst the theory of warfare thus occupied his thoughts, he was
not neglectful of its munitions; and it was his special concern
to provide for his veterans, horses, arms, and accoutrements of a
quality which gained them general admiration. After nearly three
years of peace the Venetians, fearing that their swords might become
rusty, ordered a muster of their forces on the mainland, and an
inspection of their frontier defences. The reviews were conducted by
their Captain-general in person, who spent several months of 1532 in
Lombardy with the Duchess, leaving the government of his state in the
hands of his son Guidobaldo, now eighteen years of age. From thence
he was called to Friuli, on the approach of a disorganised mass of
Italian soldiery, who were returning home from the Turkish war,
burning and plundering as they went. By firm and temperate measures
he kept them in check, and constrained them to resume an orderly
march. The only immediate result to the Peninsula from campaigns in
Hungary was an alarm along the Adriatic coast of a Turkish descent,
which was made a pretext by Clement for seizing upon Ancona, and
annexing that republic to the papal states.