Duke Guidobaldo restored--The election of Julius II.--The
fall of Cesare Borgia--The Duke's fortunate position--Is
made Knight of the Garter--The Pope visits Urbino.
Whilst Valentino and his partizans thus had their hands full at Rome,
Romagna and his recent conquests threw off his rule. His officers had
concealed the first news of the tragedy at the Vatican, but, on the
22nd of August, authentic intelligence of the death of Alexander and
the illness of his son having reached Urbino, through some emissaries
of Guidobaldo who announced that the moment for action had arrived,
the people ran to arms. The governor fled to Cesena; his lieutenant
was slain in the tumult; the siege of S. Leo was raised; and in one
day the entire duchy, except one unimportant castle, returned to its
lawful sovereign.[*12]
[Footnote *12: During the Duke's absence an interesting
correspondence passed between Isabella d'Este and Cardinal Ippolito
d'Este in Rome concerning a Venus and a Cupid of the Duke's. The
Venus was a torso and antique, but the Cupid was the work of
Michelangelo. Cf. GAYE, _Carteggio d'Artisti_, vol. II.,
p. 53; ALVISI, _Cesare Borgia_, p. 537; LUZIO, in _Arch. St. Lombardo_
(1886), and JULIA CARTWRIGHT, _Isabella d'Este_ (Murray, 1903), vol. I.,
p. 230 _et seq._]
On hearing that the Pope and Cesare were both ill, the Duke of Urbino
hastily quitted Venice, his honourable and secure retreat, leaving
behind, in the words of Bembo, "a high reputation for superhuman
genius, for admirable acquirements, for singular discretion." As
a parting favour, that republic advanced him 3000 or 4000 ducats,
towards the expenses of his restoration. He wrote desiring his
nephew Fregoso to send over a detachment from S. Leo, to maintain
order in his capital, and himself following upon the steps of his
messenger, reached that fortress on the 27th of August. Next day he
proceeded to Urbino, where, Castiglione tells us, "he was met by
swarms of children bearing olive-boughs, and hailing his auspicious
arrival; by aged sires tottering under their years, and weeping for
joy; by men and women; by mothers with their babes; by crowds of
every age and sex; nay, the very stones seemed to exult and leap."
Women of all ranks flocked in from the adjacent townships, with
tambourines played before them, to see their sovereign, and touch his
hand; whilst popular fury spent itself upon the usurper's armorial
ensigns, which had been painted in fresco over the city gates a few
months before by Timoteo Vite, at the rate of from one to four ducats
each.[*13]
[Footnote *13: Cf. MADIAI, _Diario delle Cose di Urbino_, in
_Arch. St. per le Marche e per l'Umbria_, vol. III., p. 444.]
The example of Urbino was quickly followed by Sinigaglia, Pesaro,
and the other principalities; and by October, a confederacy for
their common maintenance and defence, under oaths and a mutual bond
of 10,000 ducats, was organised by these three states, along with
Camerino, Perugia, Piombino, Città di Castello, and Rimini, in all
which the exiled seigneurs had resumed their ascendancy.
It was a condition of this league, that no step or engagement should
be taken by any of the parties without the sanction of Guidobaldo,
who a month before had strengthened his position by accepting service
from the Venetians. The Signory engaged to protect him during life in
his state, against all attacks, and to pay him annually 20,000 scudi,
he maintaining for them a hundred men-at-arms, and a hundred and
fifty light cavalry, besides placing at their disposal, for instant
service, two thousand foot. These were forthwith sent to ravage the
neighbourhood of Cesena, which remained faithful to Valentino, and
thereafter, co-operating with other forces of the new league under
Ottaviano Fregoso, they attacked in succession such citadels and
castles as were held for the usurper.
The star of Borgia seemed once more in the ascendant. Early
in October Cesare, now able to bestride a mule, returned to
Rome, attended by a hundred and fifty men-at-arms and a hundred
halberdiers, where he patched up a reconciliation with the Orsini
faction, then dominant. From motives which it would now be difficult
to trace, the new Pontiff received him with favour, and named
him captain-general of the Church. But in this crisis of his
destiny he displayed no elevation of character. Disconcerted by
the embarrassment of his position, perhaps by the admonitions of
conscience, uncertain where to repose confidence or look for support,
he quickly repented having trusted himself in the city, and longed
to escape from its incensed populace and exasperated factions to
the shelter of his strongholds in Romagna. Humbling himself before
Gian-Giordano Orsini, the enemy of his race, he obtained a promise of
his escort across the Campagna; but perceiving, ere he had cleared
the gate, that he was in the hands of men by whom old grudges were
not forgotten, he fled in panic to the Vatican. There he crouched
beneath the doubtful favour of Pius, and the waning influence of the
Spanish cardinals, who vainly sought to protect his property from
pillage, and to expedite his escape in disguise, until the Holy See
was again vacated by its short-lived occupant.[14]
[Footnote 14: In the communal archives of Perugia, there is a brief
addressed to the authorities of that town by Pius III., dated 17th of
October, 1503, "before his coronation," but in fact the day preceding
his death, which must have been obtained by the influence of Cesare,
and which speaks a language very different from what his Holiness
would probably have adopted had his life been spared. Its object
was to prohibit certain "conventicles" which Gianpaolo Baglioni
was reported to be holding in Perugia, for the purpose of plotting
against the person of the Duke of Valenza and Romagna, and to desire
that he be charged to avoid all courses tending to the prejudice of
Borgia.]
Thus was that make-shift policy defeated by which the late conclave
had sought time for strengthening their interests and maturing their
intrigues: a new election was at hand ere its elements had subsided
from their recent turmoil. The Orsini were paramount in the city,
the Spaniards in the Sacred College. A struggle ensued whether the
former should obtain an order for Valentino's departure, or should
themselves withdraw from Rome before the conclave was closed. Victory
declared for the Iberian cardinals, by aid of Ascanio Sforza, who
sought to conciliate their suffrages for himself. Once again the
bantling of fortune had the game in his hand, again to play it
away. Holding, as was supposed, at his absolute disposal the votes
of the Borgian cardinals, he was courted by all who aspired to the
tiara; and in hopes of retrieving his affairs by the election of a
friendly pope, he took measures for throwing his whole influence
into the scale of Amboise, Cardinal of Rouen, as organ of the French
party. But that strong will and indomitable resolution which had
triumphantly carried him through many crimes were now wanting. From
day to day his plans faltered and his policy wavered; finally his
efforts failed. Men were wearied of the feeble counsels, the selfish
epicureanism, the public scandals of recent pontiffs. To rescue
the Church from utter degradation, a very different category of
qualifications was required, and even the electors felt that they
must find a pope in all respects the reverse of Alexander.
There was no member of the Sacred College whom Valentino had such
reason to fear and hate, none of whose domineering ambition the
Consistory stood in such awe, as Giulio della Rovere. Yet did his
master-spirit overcome all opposition. On the day preceding the
conclave he effected a reconciliation with the Spaniards, and his
ancient rival Ascanio Sforza sought his friendship. As he rode to
enter upon its duties, the cortège of attendant prelates equalled
that which usually swelled the train of an elected pope. Before
the door was closed, bets of eighty-two to a hundred were made on
his success, one hundred to six being offered against any other
candidate. It was, therefore, scarcely matter of surprise that within
an hour or two thereafter Julius II. was chosen by acclamation,
without a scrutiny.[15]
[Footnote 15: Our information is in many respects deficient regarding
the numerous and complicated events occurring at Rome between the
poisoning of Alexander and the final departure of his son Cesare,
and authorities are frequently irreconcileable. We are indebted to
Sanuto's Diary for many unedited particulars, especially of the papal
elections, but the most distinct account of these transactions, and
on the whole trustworthy, which we have met with, is given by Masse.]
At the last moment, Borgia's adherents, finding opposition vain,
thought it best to lay the new occupant of St. Peter's chair under
the obligation of their suffrages, a policy which Machiavelli had
justly condemned as the greatest blunder ever committed by their
leader. Some historians allege that their support was gained by an
offer of Julius to maintain him in his dignities and investitures,
betrothing his infant daughter to his own nephew the young Lord
Prefect. Unlikely as this may seem, there is much apparent
inconsistency in the Pontiff's treatment of him, which, if our
authorities are to be trusted, showed nothing of that choleric
temperament and energetic firmness which habitually characterised
him. Within two days of his election, when speaking of Valentino
to the Venetian envoy, he said, "We shall let him get off with all
he has robbed from the Church in his evil hour, but would that
the towns of Romagna were taken from him." Yet a change appears
to have supervened, induced perhaps by Cesare's representations,
which had formerly been successful with Pius III., that, under his
sway, the influence of the Church in that province of her patrimony
would be far better maintained than by handing it again to the old
dynasties, whom he had with difficulty eradicated, and who had ever
been turbulent vassals of the Apostolic Chamber. The now manifest
intention of the Venetians to obtain a footing in that quarter, upon
various pretexts founded on claims of the Manfredi and others of the
dispossessed lords, gave cogency to this reasoning in the eyes of
Julius, whose paramount policy of at all hazards aggrandising the
keys, rendered Valentino's sovereignty preferable to such extension
of their dominion, and may have somewhat extenuated the Borgian
policy in his eyes. He therefore brought the usurper from St. Angelo
to lodge in the Vatican, and entered with seeming cordiality into
his views. But the lapse of a few days found his Holiness in another
mood, declaring that his guest should not hold a single battlement
throughout Italy, but might be thankful if spared his life and the
treasures he had plundered, most of which were however already
dissipated. From that moment the prestige of his position was at an
end, and he remained at the palace "in small repute."
The crisis soon became urgent, for the Venetian troops were pouring
upon Romagna, whilst the few fortresses that still owned Borgia as
their master were gradually falling to the confederate chiefs, led
by Guidobaldo. On the 9th of November, letters, demanding these
captured castles in the name of the Signory, found the latter ill
of gout; but in reply he expressed surprise at the summons, seeing
that he had wrested them from the usurper, and hoped to hold them
for the pope elect, and in security for the valuables of which he
had been pillaged. In consideration, perhaps, of his being then
actually in pay of the Republic, he agreed to deliver up Verucchio
and Cesenatico, whereupon the messenger reported him to the Doge as
"a good Christian, but in want of some one to counsel him."
In this exigency, Cesare proposed to surrender to the Pope the
citadels of Cesena, Bertinoro, Forlì, and Forlimpopoli, as a means
of immediately arresting the progress of their assailants, and of
cutting short the schemes of Venice, offering to serve the Church
during the rest of his life in any capacity that was thought
expedient. This offer Julius declined, but gave him liberty to
repair to the scene of action, and act for the best with what
troops he could raise. He accordingly went to Ostia on the 19th
of November, meaning to take shipping for Upper Italy; but on the
21st the Pontiff, alarmed at the progress of the Venetians, and
influenced by Guidobaldo, who, arriving on that day, had demanded
justice upon Borgia, thought better of it, and sent to get from
him the countersigns of his citadels. These Valentino refusing,
he was brought back to Rome under arrest on the 29th, and, after
much temporising, ultimately gave the necessary passwords for the
surrender of his last hold upon his recent dominions.
Such seem the admitted facts of the Pope's treatment of Borgia.
His change of conduct may have been dictated by new circumstances
coming to his knowledge, or it may have been part of a systematic
deception, in order to turn Valentino's influence to his own
purposes. The opinions of Giovio and De Thou show that such treachery
as Guicciardini charges upon Julius, and as Cesare met soon after
from Gonsalvo di Cordova, was regarded by the lax public and private
morality of the age as justified by his own infamous perfidies. On
the other hand, it is admitted that the Cardinal della Rovere's high
reputation for good faith was one of his recommendations to the
conclave. Bossi, in an additional note to vol. IV. of his translation
of _Leo X._, considers this dark passage of history to be cleared up
by the narrative of Baldi, regarding Guidobaldo's generous treatment
of the enemy of his house, to which he attributes the moderation of
his Holiness; but this view does not seem borne out either by dates
or by Baldi's words.[*16]
[Footnote *16: Cf. the latter, in which an account of the interview
between Cesare and Guidobaldo is given, UGOLINI, _op. cit._, vol. II.,
p. 523. It does not bear out Giustiniani's account (q.v. ii., 326) of
what Guidobaldo said to him, and is probably mere rhetoric.]
Thus terminated Duke Valentino's connection with the immediate
subject of this narrative. A few words will suffice to trace the
remainder of his fluctuating fortunes. Having been again transmitted
to Ostia, he remained there a sort of prisoner at large until
April, 1504, when his escape to Naples was connived at. There he
was received with distinction by Gonsalvo di Cordova, viceroy of
Ferdinand II.; but soon after, an order arrived from that king to
send him prisoner to Spain. With this command, suggested probably by
a brief from Julius, which Raynaldus has printed, the Great Captain
at once complied, although Borgia held his safe-conduct,--a breach of
faith which the Spanish historians justify by the alleged detection
of schemes and intrigues, originated by Cesare and perilous to the
ascendancy of his Catholic Majesty. Yet we learn that the Viceroy's
last hour seemed troubled by repentance for this stain upon his
conscience, which even in his day of pride one chivalrous spirit had
dared thus to question. Baldassare Scipio of Siena, a free captain
long in Cesare's service, publicly placarded a challenge to any
Spaniard who should venture to maintain "that the Duke Valentino had
not been arrested at Naples, in direct violation of a safe-conduct
granted in the names of Ferdinand and Isabella, to the great infamy
and infinite faithlessness of all their crowns." On reaching the land
of his fathers, this incarnate spirit of a blood-stained age was
confined in the castle of Medina del Campo, and the interest used for
his release by the Spanish cardinals, and by his brothers-in-law the
King of Navarre and the Duke of Ferrara, who offered their guarantee
for his good behaviour, was, during three years, unavailing on the
ground of his dangerous character. At length he made his escape by
a rope-ladder or cord, under circumstances so fool-hardy as to be
ascribed by the country people to supernatural aid, and reached the
King of Navarre, who gave him the command of an expedition against
the Count de Lérin. On the 10th of March, 1507, he fell into an
ambuscade near Viane, and was cut to pieces fighting desperately. By
a singular coincidence, his stripped and plundered body, having been
recognised by a servant, was interred in the church of Pampeluna, the
archbishopric of which had been his earliest promotion. Short as was
his life (for he seems to have died under thirty) he had survived all
his dignities and distinctions, realising the distich of Sannazaro,
"CÆSAR, he aimed at all, he vanquished all;
In all he fails, a CYPHER in his fall."[17]
[Footnote 17:
"Omnia vincebas, sperabas omnia Cæsar;
Omnia deficiunt, incipis esse nihil."]
Valentino's was a character peculiar to Spain, with which Pizarro
alone seems to have matched. His boundless ambition was profoundly
selfish and utterly unscrupulous; his energy of purpose owned no
impulse but egotism; his capacity was marred by meanness; his
splendid tastes served but as incentives to spoliation. The demands
of honour, the compunctions of conscience, the value of human
life availed nothing in his eyes. In him foresight became fraud,
calculation cunning, prudence perfidy, courage cruelty. His daring,
his constancy, his talent were devoted to murder, rapine, and
treachery. His campaigns were massacres, his justice vengeance, his
diplomacy a trick. Generosity was a stranger to his impulses, remorse
to his crimes.
* * * * *
Fortune, so long adverse to Guidobaldo, at length smiled upon him.
The election to the tiara of his relative and confidential friend,
Cardinal della Rovere, freed him from anxiety as to the restoration
of his duchy, and promised him a long career of prosperity and
honour. His policy of supporting the Venetians in their views upon
Romagna thus not only became superfluous as a check upon Borgia,
but seemed not unlikely to place him in a dilemma with the Camera.
The new Pontiff, therefore, lost no time in removing him from a
position of such delicacy, by summoning him to Rome. The invitation
found him encamped before Verucchio, whence he immediately set out;
and, after devoting two days at Urbino to public thanksgivings and
festivities for his own restoration and for the election of Julius,
he performed the journey in a litter, his gout preventing him from
riding. On the eleventh day, being the 20th of November, he was met
at the Ponte Molle by a superbly caparisoned mule, and on it was
painfully but honourably escorted by an imposing cortège to his
apartment in the Vatican, under a salute from the artillery of St.
Angelo. Notwithstanding his fatigue, he was bidden by the impatient
Pontiff to supper that evening, and was received by his Holiness on
the landing-place with equal favour and distinction.
In the explanations which followed, their mutual views were frankly
stated. The claim which the Venetians had upon Guidobaldo, from
extending to him their hospitality and support in almost desperate
circumstances, was fully allowed by the Pope, and his avowal that, in
co-operating with them in an invasion of Romagna, he conceived they
were thwarting Borgia, not the Church, was accepted as satisfactory.
But his Holiness intimated, with reference to the future, that the
vassal of the Apostolic See had duties paramount to all foreign ties;
and that, since the rights of the Camera over that province admitted
of no compromise, he would do well to resign the service of the
Republic, and recall his consort to administer his affairs at home,
whilst he remained in Rome for the winter. To these suggestions the
Duke agreed, and wrote in most grateful terms to the government of
Venice, explaining the obstacles which had unexpectedly arisen to his
repaying at that moment the obligations he had incurred. We learn
from Sanuto that on the 10th of October the Duchess with her ladies
went into college, and being seated near the Doge, thanked the
Signory in her lord's name for the favour, command, and protection
granted to him, to which the Doge replied blandly, asserting the love
borne him by the Republic. Again, on the 15th of November, there came
into the cabinet of the Signory "the Duchess of Urbino with Madonna
Emilia and her company of damsels to take leave, for she is departing
early to-morrow morning for her duchy; she goes in a barge by the Po
as far as Ravenna, and from thence on horseback: and the Doge spake
her fair, and having taken leave, we sages of the orders accompanied
her as far as the palace-gates, and she proceeded along the Mercery,
reaching home on the 2d of December."
Borgia took the opportunity of Guidobaldo's visit to make advances
for a reconciliation, having reason to dread his influence with
the Pope. These were received with courtesy; but, in the words of
the Venetian chronicler just quoted, "the Duke was resolved to
have his own again, especially the library, which was promised
him without damage, with the tapestries, although the Cardinal of
Rouen had already got a good share of them." According to Baldi's
elaborate and somewhat too dramatic description of their interview,
he magnanimously forgave the extraordinary injuries he had received
from his now humbled adversary. On the authority of private letters,
an anonymous diary, already noticed, states that the usurper threw
himself, cap-in-hand, at the Duke's feet, beseeching mercy and
pardon, and excusing his conduct on the plea of youth, the brutality
of his father, and the persuasions of others. This incident was
represented in a fresco by Taddeo Zucchero, which I saw at Cagli in
1843, and which had been cut from the villa built at S. Angelo in
Vado, by Duke Guidobaldo II. Cesare is a slight figure handsomely
dressed, with long sharp features, a high nose and reddish hair. He
kneels before the Duke of Urbino, raising his cap, whilst one notary
appears to read aloud an act of surrender, and another makes an
instrument upon the transaction.[18]
[Footnote 18: Considering that Borgia was probably dead half a
century before this painting was commissioned, little reliance can be
placed upon the likeness. *This is the account alluded to in note *1,
page 29.]
Even after Valentino had given authority for a surrender of the
citadels in Romagna, they were held by his officers upon the plea
that he was not a free agent, and the bearer of his missive was
hanged by the castellan of Cesena. At length the Pope ordered
Guidobaldo to reduce them by force. For this purpose he named
him gonfaloniere of the Church, retaining him and four hundred
men-at-arms, with a year's pay of 7000 ducats in advance. It was
about this time that he was invested with the insignia of the Garter,
to which illustrious order he had been elected in February. His
acquisition of this dignity, and Count Baldassare Castiglione's
mission to London as proxy at his installation, form an episode of
so much interest to an English reader that we have gleaned every
possible notice of these events, and have arranged them in II. of the
Appendix.
The Duke left Rome for his command, accompanied by his nephew the
Prefettino, as he was then usually called from his youth, who had
returned from France three months before to wait upon his Holiness.
They were attended by Castiglione, who, after charming Julius by
his polished society, was permitted by him to transfer his services
to the court of Guidobaldo, of which he became the ornament and
commentator. On the 1st of June they reached Urbino, and found the
Duchess re-established among an attached people, who, to drive away
sad recollections of their recent sufferings, had amused her during
the preceding carnival with scenic imitations of the principal events
of the usurpation! One of these was the comedy (so called rather
in a Dantesque than a comic sense) of the Duke Valentino and Pope
Alexander VI. In it were successively represented their plotting the
seizure of the state, their sending the Lady Lucrezia to Ferrara,
their inviting the Duchess to her wedding, the invasion of the duchy,
the duke's first return, and his redeparture, the massacre of the
confederates, the death of the Pope, and the Duke's restoration to
his rights.
The garrisons of Cesena and Bertinoro had surrendered ere Guidobaldo
took the field, that of Forlì came to terms as soon as his troops
appeared. With it passed the last wreck of the Borgian substantial
power and vast ambition, within a year from the death of Alexander,
leaving to future times no memorial but a name doomed to lasting
execration. Guidobaldo had at the same time the satisfaction of
recovering most of the valuables that had been pillaged from his
palace, estimated by him at not less than 100,000 ducats, especially
a large proportion of his father's celebrated library.
On the 6th of September the Duke retraced his steps to Urbino, and
there at length renewed the long-suspended joys of his secure and
tranquil residence. Few, perhaps, of their rank and age, less needed
such rough discipline to inculcate moderation, than this exemplary
couple. Yet must the lessons of adversity have been ordained for some
purifying purpose, and we may indulge the hope that they were not
sent in vain. The Duke devoted his earliest leisure to signalise his
gratitude for the unflinching loyalty of his subjects by conferring
upon their several municipalities various privileges and immunities,
and remitting their fiscal arrears. The Duchess expressed her
thankfulness by many works of piety, by liberal charities, and by
instituting a three days' fair on the anniversary of her lord's
restoration. Their domestic circle was agreeably enlarged by the
arrival of the Lady Prefectess, as the widow of Giovanni delle Rovere
was entitled, who, on returning from a similar exile, and after
paying her reverence to her brother-in-law the Pope, hastened to join
her son at her brother's court. We have noticed the services which
when assailed by Valentino, she received from Andrea Doria; they
were now acknowledged by Guidobaldo with the castle of Sassocorbaro,
and other holdings. Another guest at Urbino was Sigismondo Varana,
the young heir of Camerino, who arrived with his mother Maria, sister
of the Prefettino, and with his uncle and guardian Giovanni Maria,
who afterwards supplanted him in that state.
Urbino was now enlivened by an event which proved of paramount
interest to its sovereign, and was destined by providence to carry
forward its independence and glories under a new dynasty. We have
seen how it had been proposed between the Cardinal della Rovere and
Guidobaldo, in 1498, that the latter should adopt the young Prefect
as his heir, and procure from the Pope a renewal of the Dukedom and
investitures to his favour.[19] The simulated sanction of Alexander
to this arrangement led to no result; but, as soon as Julius was
fixed in the seat of St. Peter, he took measures for placing his
nephew's prospects beyond question. In the natural course of events
the state of Urbino would lapse to the Holy See on the Duke's death,
and, as the uniform policy of this Pontiff was to unite to it as many
such fiefs as the failure of their seigneurs or the force of his
arms brought within his grasp, his making an exception of the most
valuable of them all in favour of his own nephew gave rise to not a
few strictures. It is, however, the only instance in which nepotism
can be laid to his charge, and the precedents left him by recent
Popes may be pleaded in justification of a comparatively trifling
abuse.
[Footnote 19: See vol. I., p. 371.]
On the 14th of September the Archbishop of Ragusa arrived at
Urbino as papal nuncio, charged with brieves for the completion
of this affair, and also with the ensigns of command for the Duke
as generalissimo of the ecclesiastical troops. The ceremonials
consequent upon the implement of his mission have been detailed by
Baldi, and are characteristic of the times we are endeavouring
to depict. The nuncio and his splendid suite were received with
distinction, and next day, being Sunday, was fixed for Guidobaldo's
installation. The whole court and principal inhabitants being
assembled in the cathedral, high mass was performed by him, after
which, standing in front of the altar, he laid aside his mitre, and
pronounced a solemn benediction on the two standards of the Church,
which were held furled by a canon, whilst he waved incense over them,
and sprinkled them with holy water. This ended, he desired them to
be mounted on their staves, and having sat down and resumed his
mitre, he presented them to the Duke, who received them, devoutly
kneeling on the altar-steps, and handed one to Ottaviano Fregoso, the
other to Morello d'Ortona. He then received the baton, with the like
ceremonies, and rose, after kissing hands; whereupon the audience
dispersed amid strains of martial music and popular acclamations.
Upon the 18th, there assembled in the Duomo a still more numerous
and distinguished auditory; when, after celebration of mass by the
nuncio, he seated himself before the altar, with the Prefect on his
right, and the Duke on his left, and in an elegant Latin discourse,
set forth the desire of the latter to make sure the succession by
adopting his nephew, and the approval of the Pope and college of
cardinals to that substitution, in evidence of which the brieves and
other formal documents were read. A magnificent missal,--perhaps
that painted for Matthew Corvinus King of Hungary, which adorns the
Vatican Urbino Library,--was then placed in the hands of Francesco
Maria, opened at a miniature of the holy sacrament, and upon it
deputies from the communities of the duchy took the oath of fidelity
and homage to him as their future sovereign; all which having been
regularly attested in notorial instruments, the solemnity ended.[*20]
[Footnote *20: Cf. MADIAI, _op. cit._, in _Arch. cit._, vol.
_cit._, p. 451-2.]
These events served to aggravate the jealousy of the Venetians
against the claims of Julius upon their recent acquisitions of
Romagna, which they regarded as fairly conquered from Borgia. They
possessed in this way the states of Ravenna, Faenza, and Rimini, and
had gained footing upon the territories of Imola, Forlì, and Cesena,
the inhabitants of which loudly complained of their aggressions.
Of all these places the Church was the acknowledged superior, and
the old investitures held under her by their respective princely
families had been annulled by Alexander, in order to make way for
his son. Some of these dynasties had died out, and Julius showed
no disposition to restore the others, his leading object being the
temporal aggrandisement of the papacy. At this juncture his Holiness
sent for Guidobaldo, to consult with him; and in order to facilitate
his arrival, presented him with a commodious litter swung between
two beautifully dappled horses. The winter journey was, however,
disastrous to his dilapidated frame, and he was laid up for nine
days at Narni with gout, complicated by fever and dysentery, and
consequently did not reach Rome with his nephew and Castiglione
until the 2nd of January, when they slept outside of the gate, and
next morning made a solemn entrance. It was the great object of the
Republic to be received as vicar or vassal of the Holy See in the
three first-mentioned states, and for this end they were willing to
abandon all claims and attempts upon the remaining three. Guidobaldo,
interposing as a mediator to prevent an open breach between parties
so mutually deserving of his friendship, persuaded the Signory to
abandon the latter places, and trust to the justice of Julius for the
fulfilment of their desires. To procure this, they sent, in April,
a splendid embassy to Rome of eight commissioners, with two hundred
attendants, headed by Bembo, who, passing by Urbino, received from
the Duchess a princely welcome. But no benefit accrued from this
measure, for the Pontiff's ultimatum was announced to the senate
through Louis XII., giving them Rimini and Faenza, during his life
only, a result highly unsatisfactory to the Republic.
The Duke's prolonged residence in Rome, where his company became
greatly prized by the Pope, was little relished by his consort or his
people; so, to maintain them in good humour, his Holiness announced
a plenary indulgence for all their broken vows and deeds of violence
during the late usurpation, to such as should devoutly observe the
Easter ceremonies. The alms collected at this jubilee, amounting to
2265 florins, were expended upon the duomo of Urbino. At length, in
the end of July, 1506, he obtained leave to return home, on the plea
that change of air was advisable for his health.[*21]
[Footnote *21: Cf. MADIAI, _op. cit._, in _Arch. cit._, vol.
_cit._, p. 455. This Diary says that the Duke returned at the end of
February, 1506.]
Julius, having announced to the consistory his intention of extending
the temporal sovereignty of the Church over such portions of the
ecclesiastical territory as were possessed by tyrants (for so he
called the vicars and other lords who ruled their petty states as
feudatories of the Holy See), carried his design into effect with
characteristic energy. He set out for Perugia on the 26th of August,
after having directed the Duke of Urbino and his nephew to march
thither, each with two hundred men-at-arms, and expel its seigneur
Gianpaolo Baglioni. Here Guidobaldo again appeared as mediator, and,
persuaded by him to submit with good grace to a fate that he could
not avert, the Lord of Perugia gave up his fortresses, and was taken
into the pay of Julius for his expedition against Bologna. The Pope,
elated by the ease with which so formidable an opponent had been
disposed of, pressed on preparations for attacking the Bentivoglii.
He reached Urbino on the 25th of September, accompanied by twenty-two
cardinals, with a suitable cortège, and a guard of four hundred men.
Beyond the walls he was received by forty-five noble youths, dressed
in doublets and hose of white silk, who, on his alighting, seized as
their perquisite his richly caparisoned mule, which was afterwards
redeemed from them for sixty golden ducats. The gates were thrown
down to receive him, and he was there met by the Duke, disabled from
dismounting; by the magistracy, who presented the keys; and by the
court and clergy. A rich canopy shaded him, as the holy sacrament
was borne before him to the cathedral; and after devotion there, he
entered the palace, which next evening was illuminated, along with
the citadel, fireworks being displayed in the piazza. Some singular
usages of hospitality were adopted on this occasion. The Duke
presented to his Holiness a hundred sacks of flour, as much barley
and corn, with a proportionate quantity of live stock and poultry,
to the value in all of 800 ducats.[*22] This donative was accepted,
and part of it was handed over to the hospital of the Misericordia.
In anticipation of the Pope's advent, the roads were repaired and
smoothed, triumphal arches and statues were erected, flowers and
evergreens were strewn before him, the streets were adorned with gay
hangings and shaded by linen awnings, the palace was arrayed in those
rich tapestries, pictures, and furniture, which the taste of Federigo
and his son had accumulated. Next evening, the palace roofs and the
citadel were illuminated, and over the latter was hung a brilliant
cross of fire. Deputations arrived from Pesaro, and the principal
places in the duchy, with gifts of provisions; but large supplies had
been previously laid in by the Duke for so vast an influx; and in
order to regulate prices, the following tariff, calculated at about
half the current value, was proclaimed.
Wheat, per staio or bush 45 bolognini.
Barley " " 36 "
Oats " " 24 "
Wine, per somma 54 "
Ditto, new " 27 "
Mutton, per lb. 1 "
Veal, per lb. 10 "
Ox flesh " 8 "
Salt meat " 1 to 7 "
Capons, per pair 9 "
Fowls " 4 to 7 "
Pigeons " 4 to 7 "
Wood pigeons, per pair 1 to 7 "
Eggs, seven for 1 "
Cheese, per lb. 1 to 7 "
Hay, per cwt. 4 to 7 "
Wood, per somma 1/2 carlino.[23]
[Footnote *22: Cf. MADIAI, _op. cit._, _Arch. cit._, vol.
_cit._, p. 456-7.]
[Footnote 23: These, and many other particulars interwoven with our
narrative, are taken from the anonymous Diary, Vat. Urb. MSS. No.
904. During the preceding year of scarcity, wheat had varied in
different parts of Italy from four to twelve golden ducats, each
of forty bolognini, a price scarcely credible. Riposati quotes a
document proving that in 1450 a florin contained forty bolognini of
Gubbio, of which twenty-nine and a half were coined from an ounce of
silver, with 9/48 of alloy. Although it seems right to insert the
above tariff, most of the prices appear enormous, beyond all belief.
See the Preface to this work, for the comparative value of money.
*This diary is the one quoted under MADIAI.]
[Illustration: _Anderson_
POPE JULIUS II
_From the picture by Raphael in the Pitti Gallery, Florence_]
On the 29th of the month, his Holiness set out for Bologna, and,
avoiding the territory held by the Venetians, reached Cesena on
the 2nd of October by mountain tracks through Macerata and S. Leo.
Thence he summoned the Bentivoglii to surrender their city to him as
its lawful sovereign, and ordered the people on pain of interdict
to abandon their cause, and open the gates. These chiefs had made
great preparations for defence, but subsequently, on finding
themselves deserted by Louis XII., offered terms, to which Julius,
elated at the prospect of French succours, would not listen. The
war, which promised to be obstinate, passed off in a revolution; for
the Bentivoglii, losing heart, made their escape, to the delight
of the citizens, who, thus saved from a siege, threw open their
gates, and hailed the Pope as their liberator. He made his entry
on Martinmas-day, and at once confirmed this favourable impression
by abolishing various grievances, and by scattering in the streets
4000 golden scudi bearing the legend "Bologna freed from its tyrant
by Julius."[24] The mob showed their zeal by demolishing the
palace of their late rulers, one of the most beautiful in Italy,
wherein miserably perished many treasures of art; and its ill-fated
master and mistress soon after died of broken hearts in Lombardy.
But fortune is fickle, and the breath of popular favour still more
changeful. Four years and a half from this date the war-cry of
"Bentivoglio" again rang through these streets; the same mob strained
their brawny sinews to level the citadel which Julius had erected
to curb them, and to shatter the colossal statue of him with which
Michael Angelo had adorned their piazza; the same Pontiff saved
himself from capture, and his legate escaped from the popular fury
to fall by the dagger of a friend. Such are the retributions of
HIM "whose ways are unsearchable, and whose thoughts are
past finding out."[25]
[Footnote 24: In the same feeling, though of later date, a copy of
Raffaele's speaking portrait of his Holiness, now in the Torlonia
Gallery, and attributed to Giulio Romano, is inscribed, "The author
of freedom, for the citizens he saved." This conquest became a
triumph of art as well as of arms; the colossal statue of Julius,
begun by Michael Angelo in Nov. 1506, was erected in February, 1508.
It weighed 17,500 lb. of bronze, and cost about 12,000 golden ducats,
of which 1000 went to the artist.]
[Footnote 25: See ch. xxxiii. of this work.]
The Pope remained until late in February to settle his new conquest,
keeping the Duke near him as a friend and counsellor, and on the
3rd of March, in defiance of the inclement season, repeated his
visit to Urbino for one day, with a smaller company, while on his
return to Rome. His host, after conveying him as far as Cagli on the
5th, pleaded his constitutional malady, and returned home with the
Prefect. As this was the period selected by Count Castiglione for
portraying the ducal court, it will be well to pause for a little,
and consider the representation he has left us of it.