The Duke routed at Bologna from the Cardinal of Pavia's
treason, whom he assassinates--He is prosecuted, but
finally absolved and reconciled to the Pope--He reduces
Bologna--Is invested with Pesaro--Death of Julius II.
In December the Duke of Urbino returned the challenge to a general
engagement, which Chaumont had boastfully given him a few months
before, and, after carrying some places of minor importance, encamped
before Mirandola. To the surprise and no small scandal of all, the
Pontiff, scarcely recovered from a dangerous malady, and braving
the unusual rigours of the season, repaired to head-quarters. In
reply to representations of his advisers against a step hazardous
to his health, and unusual, if not unbecoming, in the head of the
Christian Church, he urged the necessity of vigorously, and at any
personal risks, meeting the disgraceful and schismatic proposal for
a council at Pisa,[*240] by proving himself both able and willing to
perform the duties of his high office, in wielding its temporal and
spiritual arms against all enemies and perturbators of the Church,
as well as in maintaining its doctrines, and supporting its friends.
This ill-judged decision is said to have been strongly prompted by
his evil genius the Cardinal of Pavia, who, speculating upon the
chance of its cutting short his master's life, made sure of, at all
events, turning to the advantage of his French friends the command
at Bologna, which upon the Pope's departure would once more devolve
upon him as legate. Guicciardini further charges him with promoting
the bootless demonstration against Mirandola, in order to divert the
army from Ferrara, whose inadequate defences might have rendered it
an easy as well as important conquest. In the first days of the year,
Julius reached the camp, attended by three cardinals, and took up
his quarters in a cottage exposed to the fire of the walls. It is
stated in an old chronicle, that a cannon ball having fallen close
to his pavilion, the enraged Pontiff ordered it to be sent to Loreto
as an _ex voto_ offering, and threatened to deliver over the place
to a sack. Severe cold and deep snow in nowise daunted him, and his
presence alarming the garrison, whilst the besiegers were stimulated
to exertion by his persuasions, the town was soon reduced, but, by
extraordinary exertions on the part of Francesco Maria, was saved
from pillage.[*241] Its garrison had been commanded by a natural
daughter of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio,[*242] who, on being rudely asked
by the Legate, in presence of Julius, if she were the woman who would
hold the place against the Pontiff, replied, "Against you I could
easily have defended it, but not against him."
[Footnote *240: Little is known of the steps which led to the Council
of Pisa. See some interesting letters printed in CREIGHTON,
_op. cit._, vol. V., p. 329 _et seq._]
[Footnote *241: Cf. SANUTO, _Diario_, vol. XI., p. 721 _et
seq._ It was the Pope who threatened pillage. CREIGHTON,
_op. cit._, vol. V., p. 143.]
[Footnote *242: She was the widow of the Count Ludovico of Mirandola.]
Julius, satisfied with this success, retired to Ravenna: whilst his
nephew, who about this time was warned by the Doge of Venice of a
plan concerted by the Cardinal of Rouen for poisoning him, led the
army towards Ferrara. As the best means of relieving that town,
and perhaps in concert with the treacherous Legate, Trivulzio, who
since Chaumont's death, commanded the French troops, amounting to
fifteen thousand lances, and seven thousand infantry, now marched
upon Bologna, avoiding a battle, which the Duke of Urbino would
gladly have hazarded. The latter, however, by forced marches arrived
there before him, and encamped at Casalecchio, three miles south
of the city. The French army was by this time at Ponte Laino, about
five miles north-west from the gate; and the Duke lost no time in
advising the Legate of the position of affairs, offering to throw two
or three thousand men and some artillery into Bologna. After losing
much valuable time in consultation with some of the citizens, the
Cardinal declined these as unnecessary. This answer appears to have
converted into certainty the suspicions which Francesco Maria had
long entertained of his coadjutor's good faith. He knew the garrison,
consisting of about twelve hundred troops, to be utterly inadequate
to resist the French; he was also aware that the exiled Bentivoglii,
then hovering about at the head of a strong band of adherents, were
eagerly looked for by their numerous partisans within the walls, to
whom the Cardinal had rendered his ecclesiastical authority doubly
odious, by a series of oppressive measures totally inconsistent with
its usual mild sway, and intended, no doubt, to promote his own
treasonable ends, by alienating the inhabitants from the established
order of things. Strongly impressed with the urgency of the crisis,
the young Duke persisted in his intention of reinforcing the
garrison, but some older officers, persuaded by renewed assurances
from the Cardinal, overruled him in council, and their march was
postponed until morning,--a delay fatal to the cause, and pregnant
with complicated evils.
So little was the Duke of Urbino satisfied with this resolution,
that he posted videttes under the walls, and spent the night in
reconnoitring with his staff. Midnight had just passed when a
confused murmur from the city attracted his attention. The word
_Chiesa!_ or church, seeming to prevail amid the din, he had hope
that the Legate's authority was maintained; but presently the
watchword being heard more distinctly, it proved to be _Sega!
Sega!_ signifying "The saw! the saw!" a badge and war-cry of the
Bentivoglii. After some time lost in painful suspense, it was
ascertained from the sentinels that the French and the Bentivoglii
were masters of the place. Aware of his critical situation, but
retaining his presence of mind, Francesco Maria gave instant orders
for a retreat, fixing a point of rendezvous five miles on the road
towards Romagna. Thither he marched his cavalry in perfect order,
by the level country, and was followed by the Venetian and other
infantry along the high ground. The latter, being set upon at once
by the enemy and the country people, fell into confusion, and, but
for the Duke's strenuous persuasions, and a successful charge which
he made with his cavalry upon their assailants, their officers
would have given way to a general panic, and the army must have
been annihilated. The coolness of their juvenile commander so far
reassured them that the retiring army encamped on the morrow between
Forlì and Cesena, without much further loss than their artillery
and baggage.[243] The vast quantity of booty obtained for this
misconducted affair the nick-name of "donkey-day."
[Footnote 243: So say the Urbino writers. Guicciardini characterises
the escape of the army as a panic-rout, in which the whole
camp-equipage and colours, including the ducal standard, fell into
the enemy's hands. Sanuto says that 200 men-at-arms were slain.]
Bologna was lost on the night of the 21st of May, and, beyond all
question, it fell from the Legate's fool-hardiness or treason. The
catastrophe which followed it called forth a bitterness of feeling
fatal to impartial judgment, and the historians whom we have chiefly
followed were friendly to the Duke of Urbino, and consequently
prejudiced against the Cardinal.[244] Yet, after full allowance
for this circumstance, there seems no reasonable doubt that the
latter secretly favoured the French interests, and neutralised those
measures by which Francesco Maria would have saved the city. He
placed the gates in charge of noted partisans of the exiled family,
by whom they were opened after nightfall to receive the Bentivoglii,
followed by the main body of the French army. It was even alleged
that he had previously sent away his most valuable effects; at all
events, he wanted courage to share the success which had crowned
his treason, and, in real or pretended panic, escaped upon a mule,
disguised in a lay habit, and attended by only two followers. Nothing
could palliate his flight without an attempt to warn the Duke of his
danger, or to concert measures for the preservation of his army; and
his whole behaviour lays him open to the suspicion of an intention
to sacrifice both. Against such a combination of untoward events
the friends of the Church could not struggle, and the mass of the
Bolognese, smarting under recent oppression, welcomed their former
rulers with joy, and vented their insensate fury in smashing the
bronze statue of the Pope, which Michael Angelo had executed in the
short period of fifteen months, and which was afterwards cast into a
cannon bearing the Pontiff's name.
[Footnote 244: Not only Leoni and Reposati, but the MSS. in the
Urbino library, which refer to these transactions, must be so
regarded. We have compared all of these, especially Baldi's life of
this Duke, and the defence of him against Guicciardini, which he
left prepared for the press in No. 906 of the Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 924
contains the pleading of the younger Beroaldo in favour of the Duke,
when charged with the Cardinal of Pavia's murder. No. 1023, art. v.,
and No. 819, fol. 335, the former by Monsignor Paolo Maria Bishop of
Cagli, the latter anonymous, have supplied us with some new facts.
Guicciardini, admitting in other passages the Legate's bad faith and
his antipathy to Francesco Maria, blames his deficiency of courage or
judgment in the Bologna affair, and lashes the aggravated vices of
his character. Roscoe has not here exercised his usual acumen.]
From Castel del Rio, a petty fief which his family had retained
after losing the seigneury of Imola, the Cardinal on the 22nd sent
courier after courier to Julius at Ravenna, preoccupying his ears
with representations against his nephew, upon whose cowardice he cast
the whole blame of the recent disaster. The latter, having sought
an audience of the Pope, found him alike prepossessed against him,
and deaf to his self-justifications; indeed, his attempts to unmask
the traitor were denounced as suggestions of envy and malice, and
he was superseded in his command. A temper less forbearing might
well be incensed by this climax of injury, at the hands of one whose
bad faith and malignity had long rankled in his fiery bosom. To
see his uncle at once sacrificed and cajoled, to be himself made
the scapegoat, while the true criminal was trusted and honoured,
were trials beyond endurance, even apart from the taunt by which
they were aggravated. As he quitted the presence-chamber, towering
with just indignation, and accompanied by two officers and as many
orderlies, he unluckily met the Legate on his mule, attended by a
hundred light-horse. Regardless of his escort, the Duke rushed upon
him and plunged a poignard into his entrails, which passed through to
his saddle.[*245] The blow was repeated by the officers, his guard
attempting neither redress nor vengeance, and in a few minutes the
Cardinal had gone to his dread account, exclaiming repeatedly in
Latin, "From crime comes mischief." This deplorable event happened
on the 24th of May.[246] Its details are variously stated, and one
account says that the rencontre occurred ere the Duke had seen
his Holiness, while the Legate was returning from an audience; on
the whole, we have preferred that of Giraldi, whose uncle was an
eye-witness.
[Footnote *245: The account of Paris de Granis (given by
CREIGHTON, _op. cit._, vol. V., pp. 305-19) somewhat differs
from that given here.]
[Footnote 246: Several letters, quoted by Sanuto, MS. Diary, XII.,
158-161, say the 23rd, being Saturday; but Saturday fell on the 24th.
See Filippo Giraldi, Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3153, f. 90.]
Francesco Maria was quickly aware of the horror of this outrage,
and immediately after arranging matters in the camp, retired to his
state, to repent, it is hoped, as well as to abide its results.[247]
The sacrilegious nature of the offence might indeed be palliated
in the letter, by the lay dress which the Cardinal chanced to wear,
but his episcopal dignity and holy character as vicegerent of the
papal authority were notorious, and the blind partiality of Julius
seemed to have increased as his misconduct became more palpable. The
situation of that old man was indeed calculated to bend even his
stern nature. He had committed an enterprise of doubtful policy, and
against which a large portion of the Church was openly declared,
to his most trusted friend and to his favourite nephew. The design
had utterly miscarried; Bologna, acquired by him so happily, was
lost; a victorious enemy was within a few leagues of him; and his
friend had been murdered by his nephew, after mutual recriminations
of treachery. The attendant cardinals and prelates, jealous of a
more favoured brother, exulted in the deed while condemning its
manner; but their master is described by Paris de Grassis as giving
way to the most exaggerated demonstrations of excessive grief,
renouncing food and shutting himself out from converse. After hastily
authorising negotiations with Trivulzio, he set out for his capital
in a litter. At Rimini he was startled by a formal citation to appear
before the Council of Pisa, and passed through Pesaro on the 11th of
June. But on reaching Rome his spirit had rallied. On the 18th of
July he summoned a general council at the Lateran, and declared that
of Pisa schismatic and null; he thundered excommunications against
Louis, the Florentines, and all its adherents; he deprived the
cardinals who attended it; and declared war anew against France, as
an enemy of the Church and of Italy. About the same time he suspended
his nephew from all his dignities, and summoned him to answer at
Rome for the assassination of the Cardinal of Pavia.
[Footnote 247: We obtain a curious glimpse of his home-circle at
this critical moment from the correspondence of Bembo, who, having
just quitted Urbino on his way to Venice, wrote thus to Fregoso from
Cesena, where he was waiting a passage by sea. "But what, I say,
are you and your ladies, and the Duke, and the rest of you grandees
about? What is my Ippolita doing? Is she entangled in the toils of
Secundio or Trivulzio? Oh dull and drivelling me, who, abandoning
my loves to the rapine and plunder of men of war, am here sitting
on a sandy shore more pluckless and besotted than the very shells!
Many salutations in my name to both their Highnesses, and to Emilia,
and the lively Margherita, and to Ippolita of many admirers, and to
my rival Alessandro Trivulzio." This badinage was surely ill-timed,
within a month of the defeat of Francesco Maria and the Cardinal's
assassination.]
The accounts we have of the proceedings against the Duke of Urbino
upon this charge are somewhat contradictory. Baldi says that his
impetuous temper, ill-brooking the severity of one whom he was
conscious of having honestly served, tempted him to throw off his
uncle and seek an engagement under Louis; and the monitory issued
against him by Leo X. in 1516 charges him with employing Count
Castiglione on such a mission: but this foolish idea quickly passing,
he obeyed the citation. On his arrival, attended by Castiglione, he
was put under arrest, and obliged to give bail in 100,000 scudi to
await the sentence of a commission of enquiry, consisting of six
cardinals, one of whom was Giovanni de' Medici, afterwards Leo X.
The process was long and complicated, for the Duke had many proofs,
oral and documentary, to adduce of the Legate's secret intelligence
with the French and the Bentivoglii. The pleading in his defence,
by Filippo Beroaldo the younger, has already been referred to as in
the Vatican library, and is a very remarkable declamation. Instead
of urging the hot blood of one-and-twenty in extenuation of a
sudden outbreak of fury under strong provocation, it justifies the
assassination as merited by the Cardinal's notorious and nefarious
treasons. Representing his life and morals in the darkest colours,
it brands his boyhood as base; his puberty as passed in flagitious
intercourse with bawds and gamblers; his youth as debauched by
bribery, peculation and sacrilege; his mature age as degraded by
the sacrifice of friends, the plunder of provinces, the open sale
of sacred offices. It charges him with having had the throats cut
of four eminent citizens of Bologna, against whom no accusation was
brought, and leaving their bodies in the piazza; and further alleges
that, having heard of the beautiful daughter-in-law of one of these
victims, he sent for her to his presence, when his attendants,
alarmed by fearful cries, broke open the doors and discovered him
in the act of violating her person. After narrating his manifold
treacheries towards the Pontiff and the Duke, the advocate, far from
palliating the homicide, boasts of it as a public service, and,
declaring that Francesco Maria was an instrument in the Almighty's
hand for the great and benevolent purpose of ridding mankind of
such a monster, only laments, for the public weal, that the holy
inspiration which dictated it had not been sooner vouchsafed to this
"liberator of the commonwealth." Lowering his tone, however, towards
the close of this inflated oration, he appeals to the judges to spare
a hero whose promise of future usefulness was precious to Italy,
and in whose acquittal many princely personages were interested.
The fierce philippic of Beroaldo was reproduced under a poetic garb
in the satirical ode of Giovio, which Roscoe has printed. Neither
authority can be deemed unprejudiced, but public feeling seems to
have confirmed these invectives, and even Guicciardini attempts not
to answer for the Cardinal's good faith.
Whilst this investigation was experiencing the law's delay, Julius
was attacked by a quartan ague of a dangerous character. With wonted
wilfulness, he refused all proper nourishment, eating only fruit,
until his constitution was nearly exhausted. A fainting fit having
occasioned rumours of his death, tumults arose, but were vigorously
suppressed by the Duke of Urbino, who by a happy device got the
Cardinal of S. Giorgio to carry him the viaticum. The apparition by
his bedside of the person supposed likely to succeed him at once
recalled his energies, and induced him to adopt the most likely means
of disappointing such expectations. He therefore no longer hesitated
to eat an egg, into which two yolks had been introduced by the Duke's
order, that he might take twice as much sustenance as he was aware
of; and from that hour his strength rallied. A deep-rooted affection
for his nephew, rekindled by this double service, prompted him to a
reconciliation, and in his first burst of gratitude he granted him
absolution for his crime, and sent him home with a donative of 12,000
scudi. But as his Holiness had been induced to this reconciliation
by personal favour, and perhaps by at length perceiving the Legate's
faithlessness, Francesco Maria declined availing himself of such an
acquittal; and the process for murder, resumed at its own instance,
hung over him until, on the 9th of December, a consistorial bull
issued, fully absolving him of the charge.
* * * * *
But to return to the seat of war, whence this untoward incident
had removed the Duke of Urbino at a moment of peculiar interest.
The King of Spain having contributed a powerful contingent, the
new armament against Louis was placed under command of Raimondo
di Cardona, viceroy of Naples, with the Cardinal de' Medici as
legate. The Venetians, as before, were parties to this league, as
well as Henry VIII.; Florence, still in the hands of its republican
faction, and the now restored Bentivoglii, supported the French;
whilst Maximilian, though its nominal adherent, was as usual equally
inefficient in war or peace. Romagna again became the destined scene
of the new struggle, and there, as in Lombardy, its chances proved
adverse to Louis. The Duke of Urbino, apparently from an unworthy
jealousy, refused to act under the Viceroy's command, but he gave
free passage to the army on its route through his state, supplying it
with provisions, and permitting his troops to march under its banner.
He even repaired to Fossombrone, to testify respect and hospitality
to the general, but, suddenly taking alarm, and suspecting sinister
intentions, he withdrew to Urbino in a somewhat ungracious manner.
Light may be thrown upon these eccentric movements from the
correspondence of Castiglione, by which it would seem that Julius,
relapsing into suspicion, had about this time spoken of his nephew
as a traitor, who deserved to be quartered for maintaining, through
Count Baldassare, a secret understanding with France and Ferrara;
indeed, that he even diminished his company by sixty men-at-arms,
and threatened to place the Duc de Termes over his head. It is not
unlikely that, disgusted by this new insult, he may have intrigued
with the French party in a moment of weakness. At all events,
so deeply was the Pope mortified, that, in an access of renewed
irritation, he declared him rebel, and absolved his subjects from
their allegiance. Francesco Maria was consequently absent from the
bloody field of Ravenna, where his early friend the chivalrous Gaston
de Foix met a heroic but premature death. The French army which he
commanded paid dearly, by his loss and that of their best troops,
for a nominal victory which eventually proved a ruinous reverse. It
was gained by the Duke of Ferrara's well-timed charge, and of forty
thousand left dead in the field, above half had fought under the
lilies of France. Indeed, but for the Viceroy's disgraceful flight,
in a panic by some attributed to his suspicion of the Duke of Urbino,
it might have been considered a drawn battle. So great was his terror
that he passed through Pesaro with but two attendants, leaving his
Spaniards to regain the Neapolitan frontier as they might.
This remarkable engagement took place on Easter Day, the 11th of
April, but four days after the Pontiff had issued the bull against
his nephew.[*248] Notwithstanding this fresh provocation, the latter
afforded every support to Cardona's troops, who,
"Masterless, without a banner fled";
and, after placing his family out of harm's way, in S. Leo, hastened
to Rome to console the Pope. But his Holiness was in no melting or
wavering mood. With the brief remark, "At all events, I have united
our enemies," he quickly repaired the recent breach by recalling
the bull against Francesco Maria, and presented him with the baton
of command. The Duke, remedying past misunderstandings by new
exertions, hurried to Romagna to rally the broken battalions of the
league, and to raise fresh levies. Ere the French could recover
from the paralysing effects of their dearly bought success, he had
regained that country, and, on the 21st of June, took possession
of Bologna without a blow. Following up his advantage, he mastered
with equal ease Modena, Parma, and Piacenza; but Reggio offered a
resistance worthy of the heroic ages. It was held for the Duke of
Ferrara by Count Alessandro Ferrofino, who, having detected some of
his soldiers attempting to spike the guns, set them astride upon a
mortar, and blew them into the air, assuring the bystanders that
he most willingly would serve his Holiness in the same way. When
ecclesiastical censures were thundered against the garrison, he
made its chaplain return a pop-gun excommunication of the Pontiff.
After two months had passed in this bootless struggle, Alfonso sent
his countersign to the commandant as an authority to surrender;
but, aware that his master was then at Rome, in the Pope's power,
the Count returned it, vowing that he would not yield till hunger
had driven him to eat off his right hand; adding, however, that, if
his Highness had a fancy to give away the fortress, he was ready to
consign it, with all its contents, by inventory, to whoever might
be commissioned to relieve him of the command. This proposal was
complied with, and the indomitable captain marched out his little
garrison, with a safe conduct from the Pope whom he had defied.[249]
[Footnote *248: The battle of Ravenna is fully described by
GUICCIARDINI, _Opere Inedite_ (Firenze, 1857), vol. VI., p.
36 _et seq._, in letters from his father and brother. The French had
everything in their hands, the route was complete. They should have
pressed on to Rome and Naples, and have reduced the Pope to terms and
annihilated the Spanish power in Italy. But Gaston was in his grave.
Cf. CREIGHTON, _op. cit._, vol. V., p. 168.]
[Footnote 249: Giraldi Dialogo, Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3153.]
The Emperor, ever ready to abandon a falling cause, withdrew his
contingent from the French service, and acknowledged the authority
of the Lateran council, which had been opened on the 3rd of May. The
Duke of Ferrara, too, thought it full time to make his peace with the
Pope; while Louis, thus abandoned, could no longer maintain a footing
in Italy, where but a few strongholds remained in his possession; and
Milan was restored to Maximiliano Sforza, son of Ludovico il Moro.
The overtures of Alfonso were, however, unavailing, being met in no
generous spirit by his ecclesiastical overlord. On proceeding to Rome
to plead his own cause, he was called upon to surrender his fief to
the Holy See, and was treated as a prisoner. By the energetic aid
of the Colonna chiefs, he escaped to his impenetrable swamps, and
hastened to accredit Ariosto as his minister to appease the Pontiff,
a mission which totally failed, the poet's silver tongue having
barely obtained grace for himself as envoy of a rebel. Francesco
Maria marched, by order of Julius, towards the Polesine, but malaria
prevailing there after recent inundations, fever ravaged his army,
and their leader averted the fate of his grandfather in these fens,
by a timely retreat to his mountain air. We are gravely told by
Giraldi that "the house of Ferrara mysteriously bears the name of
the Deity" [_Est_], an idea which their repeated escapes by similar
apparently special interpositions of Providence may have suggested.
It was during the Ferrarese expedition, and avowedly at the Pope's
urgent desire, that the Medici were re-established at Florence by
the league. The Duke of Urbino's absence from that enterprise has
been accounted for by Guicciardini and Giovio, as the result of
personal feeling against the Cardinal Giovanni, and as contrary
to his uncle's instructions. This innuendo becomes important from
being the first symptom of misunderstanding between the dynasties of
Urbino and Florence, and as apparently the origin of Guicciardini's
prepossessions against Francesco Maria, which, adopted by subsequent
writers, especially by Roscoe and Sismondi, have led to very general
misrepresentations of his after policy and motives. The whole
intercourse of that Duke with the Medici, down to 1515, affords a
virtual contradiction of latent enmity at this juncture, and the
special charge in question is inconsistent with the facts stated by
Leoni, who avers that, had Francesco Maria not been then engaged in
operations against Ferrara, he would gladly have accompanied the
combined forces to Florence, and that he actually connived at their
carrying with them a portion of his artillery, contrary to private
instructions from his Holiness, who, when the moment for action
arrived, is alleged to have favoured the independence of Florence,
perhaps under some vague apprehension of eventual dangers from
Medicean ambition.
Italy, now freed from ultramontane oppressors, saw Milan restored
to its native princes, and Florence again in the hands of her most
influential family. Thus far had the favourite aims of Julius been
attained; but, instead of hailing these events as the basis of a
general pacification befitting his advanced years, he fretted in the
recollection that Naples yet owned a foreign yoke, and that Louis was
still intent upon vindicating his title to a Cisalpine dominion. The
convulsive throes of a stranded leviathan were no unfit parallel to
the versatile efforts wherein the old man consumed his waning powers.
But, in the multifarious projects which agitated his yet elastic
mind, the interests of his again favourite nephew were not forgotten.
A brief of the 10th of January, 1513, granted to the latter plenary
remission for all his undutiful errors against the Church, as a
prelude to new favours, which must now be detailed.[250]
[Footnote 250: The preceding account of the judicial process, and of
the Duke's conduct in regard to the campaign of Ravenna, has been
chiefly taken from Baldi, as his narrative is more intelligible
and consistent with the best historical authorities, than the
indistinct and garbled statements of Leoni and Riposati, who gloss
over such facts as they cannot satisfactorily clear up. Guicciardini
asserts that Francesco Maria set his peasantry upon the troops of
Cardona as they fled through the duchy from the rout of Ravenna, a
statement more reconcileable with that author's prejudice than with
probability. The legal evidence of both the Duke's absolutions will
be found in No. V. of the Appendix, and Giraldi is our authority for
some minor details. We have purposely avoided mixing up with this
personal narrative the more general events of the French war. They
are succinctly given by Roscoe, _Leo X._, ch. viii. and ix.]
His uncle had entertained a scheme of purchasing for him the vague
rights over Siena which the Emperors had long, though ineffectually,
asserted; but a more hopeful expedient for his aggrandisement
opportunely presented itself. We have, in a former chapter, narrated
the circumstances under which Alessandro Sforza became invested
with Pesaro in 1445. His grandson Giovanni, the outraged husband
of Lucrezia Borgia, died in 1510, leaving, by his second marriage,
an only son Costanzo, about a year old. Galeazzo, natural brother
of Giovanni, who was himself of illegitimate birth, governed the
state, as tutor of this nephew, until the child's death, in August,
1512, and so entirely acquired the good will of the people, that
they proclaimed him their seigneur. The odious tyranny exercised by
all petty princes of Italy is a fertile theme for dreamy poets and
philosophising liberals; but, whilst the relative oppression was much
the same under all forms of government in the Peninsula, personal
safety was perhaps best maintained in those least exposed to internal
convulsion. From such shocks the minor sovereignties were more exempt
than the republics, and the residence of a court was beneficial as
well as flattering to the community; hence the fall of an hereditary
dynasty was, in almost every instance, lamented by its subjects.
These are not, indeed, necessarily the best judges of their own
welfare; yet their deliberate and repeated convictions, when free
from the influence of demagogues, and tested by impartial history,
can hardly be remote from truth.
The investiture of Pesaro had legally lapsed by the young Costanzo's
death, and although, in many instances, the assumption of similar
rights by illegitimate claimants had been passively permitted by the
Church, Galeazzo would have gladly shrunk from a contest which the
avowed policy of the reigning Pope rendered inevitable and hopeless.
Tempted, however, by the unanimous support of the people, he assumed
on his own account the authority he till now had held in behalf of
his nephew. Julius instantly recalled the Duke of Urbino from Lugo,
to commence operations for the reduction of Pesaro, with Cardinal
Sigismondo Gonzaga as legate. After a brief resistance, Galeazzo
surrendered the citadel, on the 30th of October, by a capitulation
which insured him an annuity of 1000 scudi of gold, and the allodial
holdings of his family. These he conveyed to the Duke for 20,000
ducats, including the Villa Imperiale, and on the 9th of November he
quitted Pesaro, attended by nearly the whole population, who bewailed
with bitter tears the extinction of a dynasty to whom they were
fondly attached. The melancholy procession accompanied their lord as
far as La Cattolica, from whence he retired to Milan, and there met a
violent death in the following year.
The Cardinal Legate remained at Pesaro to administer the government
in behalf of the Holy See, and the Duke returned home. Julius had
already made one exception to his policy of bringing the minor fiefs
under direct sway of the Church, by renewing the investiture of
Urbino in favour of his nephew, and the opportunity was too tempting
for repeating a measure recommended by the ties of natural affection.
The unmerited suspicions and hasty severity which he had manifested
towards Francesco Maria seemed to warrant some consideration; there
was also an arrear of about 10,000 scudi of pay and advances, by
the late and present Dukes, in the wars of the Church, which her
exhausted treasury was unable to discharge, but for which it was
desirable to secure compensation ere the tiara should encircle a less
friendly brow.[251] Accordingly, one of the Pontiff's latest acts was
to gain the consent of the consistory of his nephew's investiture in
Pesaro, to be held in vicariat for the annual payment of a silver
vase, a pound in weight. The bull to this effect is dated the 16th
of February, 1513, and on the 21st his busy spirit was at rest.
Three weeks later, the Duke and Duchess of Urbino took possession of
Pesaro, and were flatteringly welcomed. Indeed, the people, finding
the fate of the Sforza sealed, appeared to have looked about for any
means of emancipation from ecclesiastical rule; and, ere Galeazzo had
quitted the capital, the council entertained a proposal to petition
the Sacred College in favour of Francesco Maria as his successor.
This step, whether suggested by Julius or not, greatly strengthened
his hands in carrying through the arrangement which he had at heart,
and it enabled the citizens to receive their new lord with peculiarly
good grace.
[Footnote 251: Yet Julius was reported to have left in St. Angelo,
400,000 ducats of gold, besides jewels, and no state debts. Vat. Urb.
MSS., No. 1023, f. 297.]