Succession of Duke Guidobaldo II.--He loses Camerino and
the Prefecture of Rome--The altered state of Italy--Death
of Duchess Giulia--The Duke's remarriage--Affairs of the
Farnesi.
The course of our narrative seems to offer a not altogether fanciful
analogy to that of the Tiber. Issuing from the rugged Apennines,
this, with puny rill, is gradually recruited from their many valleys
until it has gained the force and energy of a brawling torrent, and
has absorbed a goodly portion of the Umbrian waters. So, too, the
former has brought us past scenes of martial prowess and creations
of mediæval policy. It has afforded us glimpses of townships where
civil institutions revived, and letters were cherished, the petty
capitals from whose courts civilisation was diffused. Carrying us
across the blood-watered and time-defaced Campagna, it has conducted
us to Rome at the moment of her lamentable sack by barbarian hordes.
Henceforward our history, like the river, will decline in interest.
The sluggish and turbid stream has little to enliven that dreary and
degenerate land through which it must still conduct us. This contrast
will be especially irksome in the life of Duke Guidobaldo II., who
kept much aloof from the few events of stirring interest which then
occurred in the Peninsula. We shall therefore hasten over it, in the
hope that those who favour us with their company may find, in the
incidents of his successor, a somewhat renovated interest, and may
be gratified to learn by what means our mountain duchy came to be
finally absorbed in the papal dominions, just as the tawny river is
lost in the pathless sea.
[Illustration: FACSIMILES OF SIGNATURES]
* * * * *
The birthday of Guidobaldo II. has been variously stated; most
authorities fix it on the 2nd of April, 1514, although the customary
donative appears from an old chronicle to have been voted by the
municipality of Urbino on the 17th of March. The Prince saw the light
at a moment inauspicious for his dynasty. Under the fostering care of
Julius II. it had attained its culminating point; and although his
successor still smiled upon the far-spreading oak of Umbria,[*45]
the intrigues of Leo X. were already preparing its overthrow. The
infant had scarcely passed his second year, when the ducal family
were driven from their states, and sought a friendly shelter at the
Mantuan capital. Before their five years of exile in Lombardy had
gone by, Guidobaldo is said to have been sent to the university of
Padua. His early education was committed to Guido Posthumo Silvestro,
who describes him as displaying, even in childhood, the spirit of his
father, and of his grand-uncle Julius II., whilst his mild temper
and sweet expression were those of his mother.[46] The preceptor, a
native of Pesaro, was tempted by attachment to his early patrons,
the Sforza, to avenge them with his pen, on the invasion of the
Duke Valentino, upon whom and whose race he charged, in some bitter
lampoons mentioned by Roscoe, all those crimes which have become
matter of history. But years rendered him more pliant; for when
another revolution came round, the attentions he had met with at the
court of Urbino did not prevent his resorting, on Duke Francesco
Maria's exile, to the protection of Leo, or lavishing eulogy and
flattery upon that Pontiff. At Rome, he enjoyed the consideration
there freely bestowed upon poets and wits, among whom Giovio assigns
him a conspicuous place; but the life of luxurious indulgence to
which he was tempted having undermined his health, he died in 1521.
[Footnote *45: The Rovere were anything but an Umbrian family, as we
have seen.]
[Footnote 46:
"Guidus Juliades, qui, quamquam mitis et ore
Blandus, ut ex vultu possis cognoscere matrem
Patrem animis tamen et primis patruum exprimit annis."
See as to Guido in ROSCOE'S _Leo X._, ch. xvii.]
Our authorities, barren of interest for the domestic life of Duke
Francesco Maria,[*47] are altogether a blank as regards his children,
and we know nothing of the Prince beyond the fact of his sharing his
mother's virtual arrest at Venice in 1527. His early tastes seemed
to have turned upon horses: in 1529, he ordered from Rome a set of
housings for his charger, with minute instructions accompanying the
pattern; ten years later, the Grand Duke Cosimo I. regretted his
inability to find for him such horses as he had desired; and he
appears to have paid 70 golden scudi for one from Naples. In 1843, I
was shown, at Pesaro, the wooden model of a beautiful little Arab,
which had long been preserved in the Giordani family, covered with
the skin of his favourite charger, a fragment of which remained.
We have seen Guidobaldo complimented by Clement VII. in 1529,
and in that year he had a condotta from Venice, for seventy-five
men-at-arms, and a hundred and fifty light horse, with 1000 ducats of
pay for himself, 100 for each man-at-arms, and 50 for each horseman.
In 1532, his father, on departing from Lombardy, left him regent
of the duchy. The circumstances of his marriage, on the 12th of
October, 1534, to Giulia Varana, then but eleven years of age, and
her questionable succession to her paternal state of Camerino, have
been fully detailed in our preceding chapter.[48] From 1534 till his
father's death, in 1538, he seems to have exercised the rights of
sovereignty, with the title of Duke of Camerino, unchallenged by the
Pontiff, who had recalled his censures. But no sooner was Paul III.
relieved from the influential opposition of Francesco Maria, than his
designs upon that principality were firmly carried out.
[Footnote *47: For certain details of Court life, cf. VERNARECCI, _Di
alcune rappresentazioni Drammatiche nella Corte di Urbino_ in _Arch.
St. per le Marche e per l'Umbria_, vol. III., p. 181 _et seq._, and
ROSSI, _Appunti per la Storia della Musica alla Corte di Francesco
Maria I. e di Guidobaldo della Rovere_ in _Rassegna Emiliana_
(Modena, 1888), vol. I., fasc. 8; also VANZOLINI, _Musica e Danza
alla Corte di Urbino_, in _Le Marche_ (1904), An. iv., fasc. vi., p.
325 _et seq._]
[Footnote 48: In the Harleian MSS. No. 282, f. 63, is a letter from
Henry VIII. of 28th November, in his 30th year [1538], to Sir Thomas
Wyatt, his ambassador to the Emperor, proposing a marriage of the
Princess Mary either to the young Duke of Cleves and Juliers, or to
"the present Duke of Urbyne," and desiring him to sound "whether he
wold be gladd to have us to wyve with any of them." Guidobaldo had
been already wedded for four years!]
[Illustration: GUIDOBALDO II., DUKE OF URBINO
_From a picture in the Albani Palace in Rome_]
We possess from an eye-witness these ample details as to
the ceremonial of investing Guidobaldo with his hereditary
succession:--"On the evening of Thursday [25th of October], the day
of the Duke's interment, his son the Prince arrived at Urbino about
nine o'clock, attended by all the nobility, gentry, and officials,
including Stefano Vigerio, the governor, and many more, who had gone
out to meet him. Dismounting in the palace-yard, he proceeded to the
ducal chamber, which, as well as the great hall, was hung with black.
There he dismissed the strangers to lodgings provided for them in
the town, and passed next day in grief and absolute seclusion along
with his consort, preparations being meanwhile made to traverse the
city.[49] Accordingly, on Saturday morning, mass of the Holy Spirit
having been said by the Bishop of Cagli, who thereafter breakfasted
in the palace, the citizens and populace crowded to the piazza,
where the doctors and nobles assembled to accompany the priors.
Thither also came a hundred youths of good family, in doublets of
sky-blue velvet, with gilt swords by their side, followed by a
vast many children bearing olive-boughs. The new Duke having been
meanwhile dressed in white velvet and satin, with cap and plume of
the same colour, Captain-general Luc-Antonio Brancarini marshalled
the procession. The gonfaloniere marched first, in a jerkin of black
velvet under a long surcoat of black damask lined with crimson,
begirt with a gold-mounted sword; his cap on his head and his mace
lowered. He was followed by the nobility, the doctors, and citizens;
and on entering the palace they halted in the basement suite
towards the garden, which were all hung with tapestry, the windows
of the great hall being occupied by the Duchess and her ladies in
magnificent attire. When all was ready, the Prince issued forth into
the Piazza, and advanced to the cathedral, followed by the officials
and train. At the top of the steps he knelt on a rich carpet and
brocade cushions, whilst the bishop, chapter, and clergy came out,
and with the usual ceremonies brought him into the church, and to
the high altar, before which other ceremonials were gone through,
and he offered an oblation-coin of ten Mantuan ducats. Meanwhile his
charger was brought to the foot of the steps, covered to the neck
with a housing of silver tissue, and other trappings, including a
white plume. It was led by seven lads of the chief Urbino families,
Bonaventura, Peruli, Passionei, Cornei, Corboli, and Muccioli, all
richly apparelled, and two of them holding goads. There was also a
horse for the Gonfaloniere with velvet harness, led by two lads.
The fore-mentioned hundred youths and numerous children having
ranged themselves around, the Prince and Gonfaloniere descended the
steps and mounted their steeds, and the latter, drawing his sword,
proclaimed aloud 'THE DUKE, THE DUKE; FELTRO, FELTRO; GUIDOBALDO,
GUIDOBALDO!' the cry being taken up and repeated by all. The cortège,
making a circuit by Pian di Marcato, Valbona, Santa Lucia, and Santa
Chiara, returned to the palace, where the Duke dismounted. His
charger and mantle were then seized, as their perquisite, by the
youths, who, mounting one of their number, Antonio dei Galli, again
went through the city crying and making merry. The Duke, having taken
his seat with his consort, received the gonfaloniere, priors, and
citizens to kiss hands.
[Footnote 49: _Correre la terra_ is the usual phrase for taking
sovereign possession, like "riding the marches" of Scottish burghs.]
[Illustration: _Alinari_
? GUIDOBALDO II. DELLA ROVERE
_From the picture by Titian in the Pitti Gallery, Florence_
(_Probably once in the Ducal Collection_)]
"On the following morning, there came in envoys from various places
to offer their condolence, wearing mourning robes that swept the
ground. The first who had audience were the gonfaloniere and priors
of Urbino, and then those from San Marino. After breakfast, the other
communities were admitted without order, in consequence of a wrangle
for precedence between Gubbio and Pesaro, Cagli and Fossombrone, and
this continued till seven o'clock in the evening. Next Monday being
the festival of San Simone, the oath of allegiance was administered
on Tuesday. A stage covered with black was erected between the two
windows of the great hall, on which stood a bench with a coverlet of
black velvet, and thereon an open missal, with a miniature of the
crucifixion. After breakfasting, the Duke seated himself on this
stage, with Messer Stefano, one of the judges; and the deputies from
communes being assembled, with their commissions in their hands,
Messer Stefano called upon the magistrates of Urbino with about a
hundred of the citizens, desiring them to swear fidelity, as was
right and customary, which they did, formally placing their hands on
the crucifixion. Thereafter, the envoys of other communities were
brought up and sworn; but on account of the aforesaid wrangling,
those of Pesaro, Sinigaglia, Fossombrone, and Cagli were sent back
to take the oaths at home. Next day, however, on their humble
petition, those of Cagli and Fossombrone were received, along with
some other highland deputies who had come in late; but Pesaro,
Sinigaglia, and the vicariat, took the oaths before the vice-dukes
in their respective cities. On the following Tuesday, there arrived
four envoys from Fano, and two from Città di Castello, to offer
condolence, who were honourably received; and next day came those
of Camerino and Rimini, men of high station. On Thursday, Messer
Quaglino, ambassador from the Duke of Ferrara, dismounted at Pesaro,
to condole with the dowager Duchess, and thence proceeded with a
suite of five to Urbino, where he was lodged for three days in
the Passionei Palace, and had audience. At the same time, the like
formalities were discharged by Vicenzo Schippo, who came with an
escort of ten, as representative of the Duke of Mantua. On Sunday,
deputations from all parts of the duchy went to offer their duty at
Pesaro to the widowed Duchess."
The smouldering embers of the Camerino quarrel soon burst forth,
when Paul III. found that the Emperor's influence and the arms of
Venice were no longer arrayed against his grasping pretensions, and
that the weight of the struggle had devolved from a renowned warrior
to an untried youth. In order to supplement the legal deficiencies
of his case, the Pontiff had in 1537 conferred certain estates upon
Ercole Varana, on condition of his claims upon the succession of
Camerino being assigned to his own grandson Ottavio Farnese; but
the death of Francesco Maria having released him from the necessity
of temporising, he at once sent a body of troops into that duchy,
under Stefano Colonna or Alessandro Vitelli. The young Duke, relying
on the support of Venice and the Medici, was at first disposed to
resist, but finding himself deserted, soon abandoned the idea. He
had in the history of his family too many examples of the perils of
papal nepotism; and it was obvious that the times were past when
church feudatories had anything to hope from single-handed contests
with their over-lord. In the certainty that to provoke this would
be to hazard all, he made up his mind to an unwilling compromise,
surrendering his wife's rights to Camerino for a full investiture
of his own dukedom, and the sum of 78,000 golden scudi as a poor
compensation for her inheritance. This transaction was completed on
the 8th of January, 1539; nor was it the only mortification he was
destined to undergo from the ambition of the Farnesi. The Prefecture
of Rome, although held by his father and grandfather, was a personal
dignity at the disposal of the new Pope, who conferred it upon
his own grandson Ottavio. In the end of 1538, he also married that
youth, then but fifteen, to Margaret of Austria, natural daughter
of Charles V. and widow of Duke Alessandro de' Medici, who had been
slain by his cousin Lorenzino, within a year after his marriage. That
imperious dame, who brought Ottavio a handsome dower in lands about
Ortona on the Adriatic, wrought upon the weakness of Paul, until in
1545, she obtained for her husband's father, Pier-Luigi, natural son
of his Holiness, the sovereign duchy of Parma and Piacenza. In order
to put a gloss upon this dismemberment of the ecclesiastical states,
and to accommodate the whole arrangement to the modified nepotism
of his age, the Pontiff stipulated for a resurrender by Ottavio to
the Holy See of Camerino and Nepi. These remained part of the papal
temporalities, whilst their Lombard duchy gave to the Farnese family
an important position among the sovereign houses of Europe.
Although the altered circumstances of Italy which humbled her
pride had also arrested her convulsions, these untoward events,
at the outset of his reign, proved to Guidobaldo that her few
remaining principalities were far from secure. To strengthen his
position became therefore a natural policy; and although neither
the Emperor nor the Venetian Signory had lent a willing ear to his
representations on the subject of Camerino, he sent to remind the
former of his promise to give him a company of men-at-arms, whilst,
with the Pope's permission, he accepted from the latter a two years'
engagement. The terms of this condotta, which was dated in 1539,
and continued in force until 1552, were one hundred men-at-arms and
as many light cavalry, with 4000 ducats of _piatto_ or yearly pay,
and an obligation to have in readiness ten of his father's veteran
captains, whose monthly pay was fixed at 15 scudi in peace, and 25 in
war. Four years later he was requested by the Republic to serve them
in another capacity, by complimenting Charles V. in their name on his
passage into Germany, on which occasion he was accompanied by the
vile sycophant Pietro Aretino.
In our fourteenth chapter, we had occasion to consider the change
which military affairs underwent in Italy about the time of the
first French invasion, and we have seen in Duke Federigo of Urbino
one of the last condottieri of the old sort. But it was not until
the fall of Rome and Florence had extinguished Italian independence,
that military adventure was entirely abolished; and it is curious
to find in his grandson Duke Francesco Maria I., not only the
latest captain who gathered laurels under that system, but to see
him joining with the Pope and the Medici to exterminate those armed
hordes which survived its mercenary armaments, and which, like the
restless spirits of a departed generation, troubled the repose of
their degenerate sons.[50] Their occupation was indeed gone. Tamed
by invaders whom they were powerless to resist, domestic broils no
longer demanded their services. Their forays were become intolerable
in a land where peace was the price of freedom. How far the earlier
adoption of Machiavelli's plans of defence might have availed against
ultramontane hosts were now a vain speculation; they were only
destined for trial after the sacrifice had been consummated. The
national militia suggested by him was not enrolled until there was no
longer a nationality to defend--until it was needed but as an armed
police under foreign control.
[Footnote 50: RICOTTI, IV., p. 129, quoting Adriani Storie, lib. II.]
This new force had been embodied in our duchy under the name of the
Feltrian Legion, by a proclamation dated 1st of March, 1533, and it
so fully satisfied the late Duke's expectations that he gradually
increased his militia to five thousand men in four regiments. Such
was the description of troops which henceforward maintained order at
Urbino, or were subsidised on foreign service. But their sinews,
hardened by a rude climate and rugged homes, maintained for them the
reputation gained by their ancestors; and although Duke Guidobaldo
II. lived in quiet times, and pretended to no heroic aspirations,
we find him accepting of commands offered chiefly for the sake of
securing his hardy mountaineers.
* * * * *
The abject position in which Italy was left after the wars of Clement
VII. has already been noticed. Her internal conflicts were at an end.
Of those states whose struggles for independence or for mastery had
during long ages convulsed her, the lesser had been absorbed by the
more powerful, and these in their turn had bowed to foreign dominion
or foreign influence. She was tranquillised but trodden down,
pacified but prostrate. Her history became but a series of episodes
in the annals of ultramontane nations, on whom her few remaining
princes and commonwealths grew into dependent satellites. Even the
popes, no longer arbiters of European policy, sought a reflected
consequence by attaching themselves to the interests of France,
Spain, or the Empire. Nor were they losers by the change to the same
degree as other Peninsular powers. The papacy was indeed shorn in
part of its temporal lustre. It no longer directed the diplomacy of
Christendom, nor did it waste its resources upon bloody and bootless
campaigns. But as its energies were gradually weaned from general
politics, they became more concentrated upon ecclesiastical affairs.
The small speck on the horizon towards which Leo X. had scarcely
directed a look or an anxiety, was now rapidly overspreading the sky,
and already excluded the rays of Catholicism from a large portion of
Central Europe. His successors, threatened with the loss of spiritual
as well as temporal ascendancy, had the wisdom to make a stand for
maintenance of the former, leaving the latter to its fate. The
spirit of popery from aggressive became conservative; its military
tactics gave place to theological weapons. It was by Paul III. that
a vigorous opposition was first made to the Reformation, the primary
steps taken towards that Catholic reaction, which Paul IV. and Pius
V. afterwards so successfully promoted, as not only to check the
rapid progress of Protestantism, but to regain a portion of the lost
ground. Seconding the zeal of the old monastic orders, which had
been revived in the Theatines,[*51] he, in 1540, recruited to it the
cold clear-sighted cunning of the Jesuits. Two years afterwards he
re-established the Inquisition,[*52] and in 1545 opened the Council
of Trent, whose sittings were not finally closed until eighteen years
later, when it had completed that bulwark which still constitutes a
stronghold of the Roman church. Extirpation of heresy henceforward
became the pervading principle of the papacy, and the engrossing
dogma of its zealots; the object for which councils deliberated,
pontiffs admonished, legates intrigued. For an end so sanctified no
means were accounted base. When argument failed threats were at hand.
From reason an appeal lay to the rack. Thus was the wavering power of
the Keys restored or confirmed over much of Europe, and an alliance
was effected between political and spiritual despotism for their
mutual maintenance and common defence. The success which crowned
these new efforts far exceeded any that mere mundane aims had ever
attained. The re-influx of Catholicism was in some instances more
signal, as it was more inexplicable, than had been the recent spread
of the Reformation.[*53] Although fatal to freedom of thought, its
influence proved highly favourable to morals. The revival of religion
was attended with a happy reformation of manners, after examples
emanating from high places. The sins, or at least the scenes, that
had disgraced the Borgian and Medicean courts no longer met the eye,
but were replaced by a semblance of ascetic virtue. The new religious
orders, being of more rigid rule, tended by precept and example to
restore discipline, and to purify, at least externally, the cup and
the platter. Prelatic luxury was curtailed, brazen vice retired from
public view, and the free exercise of papal nepotism was finally
restrained by Pius V., who, in 1567, prohibited the alienation by his
successors of church property or jurisdictions. But in these themes
our narrative has no part. The battles of orthodoxy were chiefly
fought beyond the Alps; the reformed morality of the papal court was
exampled in its own capital: in neither had Urbino any near interest.
[Footnote *51: The Theatines were a congregation of Clerks Regular,
founded by Gaetano Tiene, a Venetian nobleman, in 1524. They are
under the rule of S. Augustin. S. Gaetano Tiene died in 1547. In 1526
Matteo di Basso of Urbino founded a reform of Franciscan Observants,
giving his followers a long-pointed hood, which he believed to be
of the same shape as that worn by S. Francis. These friars became
known as Cappuccini or Capuchins. At first they were merely a company
of hermits devoted to the contemplative life. They remained, in
fact, under the Observants till 1617. They are now a separate order
governed by a general. They live in absolute poverty.]
[Footnote *52: The Inquisition was revived by a Bull of Sixtus IV.
in 1478. Two years later it was reinstated in Spain by the Catholic
kings. In 1526 it was established in Portugal; but it was only
introduced into Italy in 1546, at Naples, and came into Central Italy
only with many restrictions.]
[Footnote *53: It might seem that those parts of Europe securely
within the Roman Empire of antiquity eventually remained Catholic.]
Guidobaldo's condotta from the Signory being renewed in 1546 upon
more favourable terms (namely, 15,000 scudi of pay for his company,
and 5000 of _piatto_ for himself), he was invested about midsummer,
by an imposing ceremonial pompously described in the letter of an
eye-witness among the archives of Urbino. His jewelled cap and
diamond collar are mentioned as superb, and his sword is valued at
700 scudi. After high mass in St. Mark's, the great standard being
unfurled and supported by three bearers, and the baton of wrought
silver placed in his hands, the Doge thus addressed him: "Lord Duke,
we presented to your Excellency this standard of our St. Mark the
Evangelist, in the wonted form, and in token of supremacy; and we
pray the Lord our God that it tend to the weal and service of all
Christendom, but especially to the defence of this state. We give
it to your Excellency, confiding in your loyalty and prudence, well
assured that you will use it with courage and faith conformable to
your deserts. And we hand to your Excellency the baton, therewith
designing you head and governor of our forces, and transferring
to you the obedience of all our military: it is our will that you
be obeyed, honoured, and respected by our several condottieri and
soldiery, as representing our Signory itself. May it please the
Divine Majesty that all be well ordered, to the well-being and
furtherance of the Christian community, and of this our serene
Republic." The Duke replied, "I most willingly accept, most Serene
Prince, the distinction granted me by your Serenity, and with
the sure hope of maintaining the good opinion you repose in me,
which shall be nowise disappointed. I shall ever pray our Lord God
graciously to vouchsafe me an early occasion of honourably serving
your serene government, that I may thereby prove my good will. And I
feel sure that your Serenity will have cause to be well satisfied at
giving me this rank, which, without reserve of life or fortune, like
one aware of his obligation to your Serenity, it will be my care so
to hold as to augment my claims upon your favour." The function being
over, the Duke was escorted by an imposing military pageant to his
palace, where a splendid banquet was set out, of which, however, the
jealous regulations of the Republic did not permit her officials to
partake.
The court having gone to spend Christmas of 1547 in the mild climate
of Fossombrone, the Duke, in January, 1548, again repaired to
Venice, intending to return home for carnival. On the frontier he
was met by news of his consort's serious illness, and immediately
sent expresses to summon from Padua and Ferrara, Frigimiliza and
Brasavolo, two famous physicians. Under them and her own doctors, the
Duchess rallied for a time, but died on the 17th of February,--"a
very religious, charitable, and lettered lady, and a great loss to
the state." Her body was borne by torchlight to Urbino with the
usual solemnities, and, after lying in state, was entombed in Santa
Chiara on the 19th. The funeral service was performed at Urbino the
24th of March, with due pomp, and a ceremonial preserved by Tondini.
The procession consisted of the Duchess's household, twenty-two in
number, with thirty-nine of the Duke's; Guidobaldo and his brother;
the ambassadors of five friendly states; twenty-two principal
nobility of the duchy; forty captains; the municipality of Urbino,
with seventy leading citizens; deputies from thirty-six other towns;
in all, about three hundred and sixty persons. The obsequies were
celebrated in the cathedral, which was illuminated by a hundred and
eighty-six wax lights of four pounds each, and above two hundred
torches. The funeral oration was pronounced by Sperone Speroni, and
is published among his works.
Although, in somewhat startling contrast to these details of death,
we here introduce a letter written by the Duchess, which may interest
our lady readers. It is addressed to Marchetti, her steward of the
household, then at Venice, and is printed in his life by Tondini:--
"Master Steward, our well-beloved,
"This is to inform you that, on your return with his
Excellency, our Lord and Consort, you must by all means
bring as much of the finest and most beautiful scarlet
serge, such as is made on purpose for the cardinals, as
may suffice to make us a petticoat, taking care that it be
at once handsome, good, and _distingué_. You can ascertain
the necessary quantity. Here they tell us that if the stuff
be two _braccie_ [a yard and a quarter] wide, at least
eight _braccie_ will be required, and more if narrower, say
nine or ten. See that you get full measure, and let the
quantity be ample rather than deficient, so that we may not
have to mar it for want of cloth. And if you cannot find
such serge, bring some beautiful, good, and thin Venice
cloth, being careful that it be light in texture, and that
the colour be of the most bright and lively scarlet that
can be found. Use all diligence that we be well suited and
satisfied, if you would do us a grateful service. Bring
also some of those books and rosettes, as they are called,
which are commonly made there of thin white wax tapers;
and so good health to you. From Fossombrone, the 6th of
October, 1541.
"JULIA DUCHESS OF URBINO."
The Duchess had given birth to a son in 1544, but was survived only
by a daughter Virginia: her marriage had been interested, and her
lord lost no time in contracting another from similar motives, on
the excuse of requiring a male heir. In August he went to kiss the
Pope's feet at Rome, on occasion of negotiating a new matrimonial
alliance with his granddaughter, Vittoria Farnese. On the 30th he
returned home, and next month again met his Holiness at Perugia.
The nuptials were interrupted by the assassination of the bride's
father, Duke Pier-Luigi, whose son had supplanted Guidobaldo at
Camerino, and whose tyranny in his new state of Parma sharpened the
daggers of his outraged nobles. The ceremony, however, took place on
the 30th of January, 1548, when Vittoria, who had been previously
affianced to Duke Cosimo I., was twenty-eight years of age. On the
2nd of February she visited Urbino, amid many demonstrations of
respect, among which was a muster of forty lads in her livery of
yellow velvet, to each of whom an allowance of seven scudi had been
voted by the city; but it was the Duke's pleasure that they should
pay for their own dress. Art, too, had contributed its honours,
and Vasari narrates how Battista Franco aided in decorating the
triumphal arches designed by Girolamo Genga for her reception.
Similar welcome was given her at Gubbio, where the youths wore purple
velvet with white sleeves and white lilies.[*54] Coincident with,
and in consequence of, this marriage, the Duke received from Paul a
new investiture of his states, and a cardinal's hat, with the title
of S. Pietro in Vinculis, for his brother Giulio, who, though but in
his fifteenth year, was soon after named Legate of Perugia. On the
20th of February, 1549, there was born a prince, who succeeded to the
dukedom as Francesco Maria II., and the grateful people manifested
their loyalty by customary congratulations and donatives.[55] These
happy events were, ere long, interrupted by the death of Paul III.
on the 10th of November, followed by that of the dowager Duchess of
Urbino, on the 14th of February, thereafter.
[Footnote *54: Cf. PELLEGRINI, _Gubbio sotto i Conti e Duchi
d'Urbino_ in _Bolletino per l'Umbria_ (Perugia, 1905), vol. XI., p.
236 _et seq._]
[Footnote 55: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 934, is an elaborate exposition of
the devices and mottoes displayed on this august occasion.]
The little state of San Marino forms a solecism in the polity of
Europe, having preserved its petty limits and its purely popular
government during many centuries, whilst all the other republics
of Italy successfully yielded to personal ambition or foreign
conquest.[*56] For its independence during the ceaseless changes
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was debtor to the
Dukes of Urbino, whose aid was ever at hand when their name proved
an inadequate safeguard. The nature of the protection which they
accorded to that republic is shown in the subjoined document, which
seems worthy of insertion from its resemblance to those letters of
maintenance usually granted about the same period by the greater
barons of Scotland, in favour of less powerful neighbours and
friends, among the minor nobility, and even the burgh communities.
[Footnote *56: Cf. FATTORI, _Delle cause che hanno conservata la
Repubblica di S. Marino_ (Bologna, 1887).]
"Protection under which, at the instance of the Liberty of S.
Marino, pressed by its envoys, the Lord Duke Guidobaldo II. assumes
the aforesaid Liberty, its men and territory, following therein in
this the course adopted by Duke Federico, Guido I., Francesco Maria
his father, and others of his house: promising to the best of his
ability, and at all times, to defend, protect, and guard it against
all persons whatsoever who may seek or wish to injure it, whether in
respect to its possessions, subjects, state, or pre-eminence, holding
its enemies for his enemies, and its allies for his allies; and
further, undertaking to accord to it all possible aid and favour in
the maintenance of its independence and freedom: the said envoys, on
the other part, obliging themselves to the Lord Duke, in name of the
foresaid, with all their exertion and power to assist, uphold, and
preserve the subjects, state, honours, and dignity of the said Lord
Duke, against whatsoever person, state, or potentate who may make
attempts against him; promising to hold the friends of his Excellency
as their friends, and his foes as their foes, and to pay him at
all times the respect due to a faithful and good protector. At the
requisition of Ser Bartolo Nursino, 20th May, 1549."
It was Guidobaldo's policy to maintain with the Holy See those
amicable relations which his second marriage had established, and
he had accordingly, on the death of Paul III., sent some troops to
Perugia, in order to secure the quiet succession of Julius III. This
being effected, he went to Rome on a visit of congratulation to the
new Pontiff, accompanied by Aretino, whose venal appetites were ever
on the watch for opportunities of bringing his sycophancy to a good
market. The Pope disappointed him of the anticipated guerdon, but,
aware of the ready transition from adulation to slander, disarmed
his tongue of its venom by a gracious accolade, kissing the forehead
of this "scourge of princes." The first token of favour bestowed on
the Duke by his Holiness was his nomination as governor of Fano in
1551. In the following year he spent some time at Verona with the
Venetian army, accompanied by his boy, who there had an illness which
occasioned him much anxiety. This command was a somewhat anomalous
one, with the title of Governor of the Republican forces, which he
vainly negotiated to exchange for that of General. Disgusted by
this refusal, he listened to an overture from his brothers-in-law
for transferring his services to the French King. Ottavio Farnese,
now Duke of Parma, apprehending some hostile intentions from the
imperialists, had applied, in 1551, to the Pope for succours, in
order to guarantee his possession of that state; but, unable to spare
reinforcements or money, Julius had recommended him to take his own
measures for defence. Acting on this advice, he had recourse to
Henry II., from whom he accepted a condotta, on condition of Parma
being supplied with a French garrison. Such a step could not fail
to alarm the Emperor, who, representing that Ottavio had, in fact,
made over his duchy to France, brought upon him the thunders of the
Vatican. The inducement offered to Guidobaldo by the Farnesi for
following them into Henry's service was that the King should renounce
the supposed claims upon Urbino competent to his wife Caterina de'
Medici, in right of her father Lorenzo, its usurping Duke. But the
decided measures adopted by the Pontiff cut short this negotiation,
and we hear no more of pretensions which were doubtless vamped up to
serve a temporary purpose. Although the Pontiff was nominally a party
to the petty war which ensued in Lombardy, it was, in fact, but a
chapter in the prolonged struggle between the houses of Hapsburg and
Bourbon, with which our narrative has no concern. Another episode
in the same contest was more alarming to Central Italy, and, when
Tuscany became involved in the strife, it seemed well for Julius to
stand on the defensive. Accordingly, in January, 1553, he named
Guidobaldo captain-general of the Church, who, in April, proceeded
to Rome for his installation; and accompanied by a brilliant staff,
reviewed the pontifical troops.
Siena, originally Ghibelline, had, during the recurring convulsions
of a nominally democratic government, remained in some measure
devoted to the imperialist party. But, irritated by the licence
of their Spanish garrison, and alarmed at a rumoured intention of
Charles V. to seize their state, and exchange it with the Farnesi
for that of Parma, the citizens, in 1552, foolishly listened to the
intrigues of French emissaries, and, with the Count of Pitigliano's
aid, ousted their oppressors. In the campaign which followed,
Siena was under French protection, whilst Florence efficiently
co-operated with the imperialists against her, the Pope maintaining
an armed neutrality. The duties of Guidobaldo were thus limited to
an occupation of Bologna, in order to protect the ecclesiastical
territories and his own state, on the passage of French troops into
Tuscany. That his wishes favoured the independence of Siena appears
from his having, at the election of Marcellus II., in April, 1554,
recommended an intervention in its favour; but it was too late, as
the city had already capitulated, and was soon after finally annexed
to Florence.
The successor of Julius III., who died in March, 1555, was Marcello
Cervini, Bishop of Gubbio; and the Duke of Urbino congratulated
himself on seeing a personal friend mount the throne of St. Peter.
But his satisfaction was transient. Popular superstition awarded an
early death to any Pontiff who should take for title his Christian
name: the fate of Adrian VI. had verified the omen; and, after
a reign of but three weeks, Marcellus was carried to the tomb.
Guidobaldo immediately took armed possession of the Roman gates for
protection of the conclave; but the election of Cardinal Caraffa as
Paul IV. passed off satisfactorily, and his energy was rewarded by a
confirmation in his command, and the restoration of the Prefecture
of Rome, with reversion to his son, an honour which, though long
held by his father and grandfather, had been enjoyed for the last
seventeen years by the Farnesi.