Death of Leo X.--Restoration of Francesco Maria--He
enters the Venetian service--Louis XII. invades the
Milanese--Death of Bayard--The Duke's honourable reception
at Venice--Battle of Pavia.
News of the evacuation of Milan by the French reached Leo X. at
his hunting-seat of La Magliana, five miles down the Tiber from
Rome. Though not quite well, he hurried to his capital on the
24th of November, to witness the bonfires and rejoicings at their
discomfiture, and on the morning of the 1st of December was found
dead in bed.[*282] The mystery attending this sudden death of one in
the prime of life has never been cleared up. Suspicions of poison
were rife at the time, and have not been removed; they point at
the Duke of Urbino or of Ferrara, whom he had grievously outraged,
or at Francis I., whom he recently disgusted, as its probable but
undetected author. In absence of tangible accusation or tittle of
evidence, it seems needless to repel such a charge from Francesco
Maria, especially as other accounts impute the Pontiff's dissolution
to malaria fever, to a severe catarrh,[283] to debauchery, or even
to excessive exultation at the joyful news. So unexpected was the
event that there was not time to administer the last sacrament, a
circumstance which gave occasion to this bitter epigram, in allusion
to the notorious venality of church privileges during his reign:--
"Why were not Leo's latest hours consoled
By holy rites? such rites he long had sold."[284]
[Footnote *282: He seems to have received the news at La Magliana
on November 25th. He returned to Rome at once. The illness was not
considered serious till November 30th. He died on the evening of
December 1st. Cf. PARIS DE GRASSIS, in ROSCOE, _Leo X._, App.
CCXII.-IV., and clerk's letters of December 1st and 2nd, in BREWER,
_Calendar_ (1824-5).]
[Footnote 283: Such is the opinion of a monkish chronicler who wrote
in 1522. Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, f. 297. Even in 1517 the Venetian
envoy Giorgi reported him as afflicted by an internal plethoric
disease, a catarrh, and fistula. Vettori discredits the rumours of
poison, and Guicciardini says they were hushed up by his cousin the
Cardinal, lest they should give umbrage to the French monarch, with
whom it was his interest to stand well at the approaching conclave.
On the whole, the opinion of most weight is that of the Master of
ceremonies, who distinctly asserts that poison was detected on a
_post-mortem_ examination. Roscoe's innuendo inculpating Francesco
Maria is a glaring proof of his aptitude to do scanty justice to that
Duke, whose admitted hastiness of temper cannot, in absence of one
contemporary or serious imputation, be considered any relevant ground
for suspecting him of slow and stealthy vengeance. Another Venetian
ambassador mentions, in proof of the utter exhaustion of the papal
treasury, from the profusion of Leo and the greed of his Florentine
retainers, that the wax lights used at his funeral had previously
served for the obsequies of a cardinal.]
[Footnote 284:
"Sacra sub extrema si forte requiritis hora
Cur Leo non potuit sumere? vendiderat."
_Bibl. Magliabech. MSS._, cl. vii., No. 345.]
Tidings so momentous to Francesco Maria reached him when on a visit
to the Benedictine monastery at Magusano, on the Lago di Garda. He
had audience on the same day with Lautrec and Gritti, the French and
Venetian commanders, who bade him God-speed. Hurrying to his consort
at Verona, he there spent two days in consulting with such friends
as were at hand, and despatching courtiers to others, his resolution
being taken to strike a speedy blow for recovery of his state. The
impoverished finances of the papacy encouraged the attempt, and he
was quickly in communication with Malatesta and Orazio Baglioni, who
had been in like manner despoiled of Perugia. But before assuming
offensive operations, he commissioned a special envoy to lay before
the conclave a statement of his grievances, and a justification of
the measures he was about to pursue.[285] In two days more he reached
Ferrara, with the Baglioni, at the head of three thousand foot and
above five hundred horse. On the 16th he was at Lugo, where, and all
along his route by Cesena, numerous reinforcements poured in. "His
subjects," to borrow the words of Muratori, "desired and expected
him with clasped hands, because they loved him beyond measure for
his gracious government." Anticipating a renewal of his "Saturnian
reign," they, on his approach, flew to arms, threw the lieutenant of
Urbino out of the palace window, and welcomed him with the well-known
cry of "Feltro! Feltro! the Duke! the Duke!"
[Footnote 285: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 921.]
Pesaro received him on the 22nd, after a slight hesitation as to
their relations with the Church; but the citadel was held by eighty
men, there being no artillery at hand to bring against it. In
absence of cannon-balls, it was carried by paper pellets thrown in
from cross-bows, on which were written offers of a thousand scudi
to the castellan, and twenty-five to each soldier. The terms were
accepted, and the money advanced by Alfonso of Ferrara. On the day of
the Duke's arrival there, a deputation from Urbino laid its homage
at his feet, and, being thus secure of his own subjects, he turned
to succour his friends. Taught by the lesson of three successive
pontificates, whose policy it had been to crush the feudatories of
Umbria, he saw the necessity of making common cause with such of
these as still maintained a precarious independence. He therefore
undertook the re-establishment of his nephew, Sigismondo Varana,
and of the Baglioni, ere he devoted himself to the consolidation
of his own authority. After two days' repose in Pesaro, he marched
by La Pergola to Fabriano, where, hearing that Sigismondo had been
cordially received at Camerino, he, on the 28th, turned towards
Perugia, and, by the 5th of January, had reinstated the Baglioni,
notwithstanding a spiritless resistance by their uncle Gentile, and
by the vacillating Vitelli. Contrary to his own judgment,--but, as we
shall presently see, by a happy chance,--he was induced to accompany
his Perugian allies with seven thousand men in a foray upon Tuscany,
for the double purpose of annoying the Medici, by whom Gentile was
supported, and of re-establishing Pandolfo Petrucci as tyrant of
Siena.[*286] When, however, he found no responding movement from
within, and that the army of Giovanni delle Bande Nere was hovering
in the neighbourhood, he withdrew to Bonconvento, and endeavoured to
gain credit for his forbearance by despatching to the magistracy of
that city the following oily missive:--
"Most illustrious and most excellent Lords, much honoured
Fathers:
"The true, ancient, and cordial friendship which has ever
existed between your lofty republic and my most illustrious
house, and the recollection I retain how invariably my
distinguished predecessors have been united in special
good-will with your city of Siena, induce me, being of the
same sentiments, to follow in the steps of my said most
eminent ancestors, resolving that there shall never be
any failure on my part towards your noble commonwealth.
And in order that your Excellencies may at present have
some proof of this, I have, for the peace and order of
your town, adopted the resolution which your envoys will
comprehend from the tenor hereof, and which I feel assured
cannot be otherwise than welcome and acceptable to you.
I therefore pray you not only readily to give the like
credence to what these envoys will tell you on my part, as
you would to myself, but also to bear in mind the close and
affectionate amity wherein I am most ready to persevere,
nor on your side restrain or fall short of our wonted and
long-established kindliness, increasing, and, if possible,
extending it by an ampler interchange of charity; for you
will assuredly ever find me prepared and ready to benefit
and uphold your republic as much as your Excellencies could
ever desire, to whom I offer and commend myself. From
Bonconvento, the 15th of January, 1522.
"FRANCISCUS MARIA DUX URBINI."[287]
[Footnote *286: Fabio, not Pandolfo Petrucci. The latter died at S.
Quirico, in Osenna, in May, 1512. Borghese Petrucci, his son, soon
became the "best hated man in Siena." Four years after his father's
death both he and Fabio were declared rebels. Leo X. put Raffaello
Petrucci in Borghese's place. Raffaello died in 1522, and then some
of the _Nove_ brought back Fabio, who had married Caterina de'
Medici, niece of the Pope. But after a rule of less than two years he
was again an exile. "Thus," says Ferrari, "the Petrucci returned to
their primitive obscurity." Cf. LANGTON DOUGLAS, _A History
of Siena_ (Murray, 1902), p. 212.]
[Footnote 287: From the Italian original in the Archivio Diplomatico
at Siena.]
In truth, the Duke's own affairs required his full attention, for the
power of the Medici, though shaken, was still formidable, and its
natural representative, the Cardinal Giulio, was influential in the
Sacred College, and almost sovereign at Florence. Francesco Maria
therefore observed a prudent neutrality, when the Bande Nere advanced
to support the claims of Gentile Baglioni upon Perugia. These, being
warned off the ecclesiastical territory by the consistory, turned up
the valley of the Tiber, and, passing the Apennines, made a descent
upon Montefeltro, where they plundered until the end of February,--an
outrage for which the Cardinal was greatly blamed, as a convention
had already been signed between him and the Duke for their respective
states of Florence and Urbino. Much light is thrown upon these very
complicated transactions by a careful examination of Castiglione's
letters. To his dexterous diplomacy that convention seems to have
been chiefly owing. He endeavoured to clench the reconciliation by
an engagement for Francesco Maria in the Florentine service, and a
marriage between Prince Guidobaldo of Urbino and Caterina de' Medici,
daughter of Lorenzo, and heiress of his pretensions. The failure of
this plan, from backwardness on the part of the Cardinal rather than
of the Duke, was, perhaps, fortunate for the intended bridegroom's
domestic peace; and the contending claims which it was meant to
solve never ripened into importance. The condotta had a better issue:
avowedly for but one year, it seems to have been intended rather to
neutralise a troublesome foe than with the idea of calling the Duke's
service into actual requisition. Indeed, although he was nominally
captain-general, with 9000 ducats of pay, besides 100 broad scudi for
each of his two hundred men-at-arms in white uniform (three mounted
soldiers counting as one man-at-arms), this was expressly their
peace establishment and pay, to be increased in case of war.[288]
Castiglione's success in these arrangements was facilitated by
his having confided to Cardinal Giulio a refusal at this time, by
Francesco Maria, of very flattering proposals from the French court,
and the same good offices extended to disabusing the Duke in the eyes
of Emanuel, the imperial ambassador, who, believing him committed to
Francis, was countermining his interests in the consistory, and with
the Cardinal.
[Footnote 288: Archivio Diplomatico of Florence, May 25, 1522.]
Whilst immersed in these transactions, the election in which he was
so deeply interested came suddenly to a conclusion, brought about
indirectly by his means. The choice of the conclave astonished
Italy, for it fell upon an ultramontane cardinal, unknowing and
unknown in Rome. Adrian Florent,[*289] a Fleming of humble birth,
was a man of mild temper, peaceful habits, and literary tastes. He
had been preceptor of Charles V., and held the see of Tortosa. This
selection so curiously illustrates the haphazard results, which
have not unfrequently baffled both policy and intrigue in papal
elections, that we may pause for a moment on the circumstances
alleged by Guicciardini to have brought it about. The Medicean party
had not strength, at once, to carry their Cardinal, in the face of
the old members of the College, who were adverse from introducing
the hereditary principle into their selection, yet hoped in time to
exhaust the patience or the strength of their seniors. But whilst
Medici and Petrucci were thus ingeniously devising delays, news
reached them of the Duke of Urbino's descent upon Tuscany, causing
them respectively to tremble for their supremacy in Florence and
Siena, and to question the policy of procrastinating at the Quirinal,
whilst interests so momentous were elsewhere in peril. In this
state of matters the Cardinal of Tortosa "was proposed, without any
intention of choosing him, but that the morning might be wasted;
whereupon his eminence of San Sisto, in an endless oration, enlarged
upon his virtues and learning, until some of the members beginning to
accede, the others successively followed with more impetuosity than
deliberation, whereby he was unanimously then chosen Pope. The very
electors could allege no reason why, at a crisis of such convulsions
and perils for the papacy, they had selected a barbarian pontiff,
so long absent, and recommended neither by previous deserts, nor by
intimacy with any of the conclave, to whom he was scarcely known by
name, having never visited Italy, nor had he any wish or hope to do
so."[290] The Roman populace resented a choice which they felt as an
insult, and as the cardinals emerged from durance, they were assailed
by execrations of the mob.[*291]
[Footnote *289: Adrian Floriszoon, the son of a ship's carpenter
named Floris. His education was chiefly theological; humanism had not
penetrated Louvain.]
[Footnote 290: Guicciardini, lib. xiv.]
[Footnote *291: This account of Adrian VI.'s conclave is inaccurate
and confused. Cf. CREIGHTON, _op. cit._, vol. VI., pp. 216-222. The
Duke of Urbino seems to have had no influence in the conclave.]
Francesco Maria had every reason to be gratified by an election
he had most unwittingly influenced, for the exclusion of Cardinal
Giulio was of vast importance to his interests, which must have
been seriously compromised by the nomination of a hostile pontiff,
at a moment when his affairs were in so precarious a juncture. He
accordingly lost no time in accrediting to Adrian VI. in Spain,
an envoy who pleaded his cause to such good purpose, that a bull
was issued on the 18th of May, reinstating him in all his honours,
including the prefecture of Rome, which, on the death of Lorenzo,
had been conferred upon Giovanni Maria Varana, uncle of Sigismondo,
whose state he had usurped under the sanction of Leo. Meanwhile his
respectful and judicious demeanour had obtained from the Sacred
College, before the Pope's arrival, an acknowledgment of his rights,
upon the following conditions, dated at Rome, the 18th of February.
"The Lord Duke of Urbino promises to accept neither pay, engagement,
nor rank from any prince or power, and to take service only with the
Apostolic See, should he be required; but if not called upon by it,
to attach himself to no party without leave and sanction from the
Pope, and the Holy See, as represented _ad interim_ by the Sacred
College. Also, he renews his obligation in future never to oppose
the papal state; and further, for due observance of these terms, and
more ample assurance of his Holiness and the Apostolic See, he binds
himself within one month to deposit his only son as a hostage, in the
hands of the Marquis of Mantua, captain-general of the ecclesiastical
troops. On the other hand, the Sacred College undertakes to defend
and protect the Lord Duke's person, as well as to maintain him in
peaceful possession of the castles, fortresses, cities, and towns,
held by him now or before his deprivation; and further, to use
influence with our Lord the Pope for his reinvestment in the same, on
the terms of his former tenure."[292]
[Footnote 292: These articles are to be found in the Archivio
Diplomatico at Florence.]
Nor was it only from the Medicean faction that the Duke's
tranquillity was threatened. Whilst his fortunes were yet in
suspense, he was warned by Castiglione, then diplomatic resident
at Rome for his brother-in-law the Duke of Mantua, that Ascanio
Colonna was agitating certain vague pretensions on the duchy of
Urbino, through his mother Agnesina di Montefeltro. The nature of
these claims, which were from time to time revived, is not very
intelligible. All authorities make Giovanna, wife of the Prefect,
older than Agnesina, wife of Fabrizio Colonna, both being daughters
of Duke Federigo. Thus, even supposing Francesco Maria's title
irretrievably annulled, by the deprivations he had successively
sustained from Julius II. and Leo X., if the old investitures did
confer any rights upon females, his nephew Sigismondo Varana,
grandson of Giovanna, would have excluded the Colonna. Ascanio's
intrigues were, however, neutralised by the dexterity of Castiglione,
and the influence of the Duke of Mantua, until Francesco Maria's
cordial reconciliation with the Church and the Emperor had rendered
his position secure.[293] Even the Medici thereupon refused to
promote the pretender's views, and his only adherent was Gian Maria
Varana, who, having within a few weeks succeeded in recovering
possession of Camerino, sought so to occupy the Duke of Urbino as to
prevent his espousing the cause of Sigismondo, its rightful lord.
The latter also looked for support to his wife's uncle, Cardinal
Prospero Colonna, whilst the interests of his competitor were backed
by Cardinal Innocenzo Cibò, his brother-in-law. But ere these
respective claims could be tested, they were sadly set at rest by
the death of "poor dear but ill-starred Sigismondo," as he is called
by Castiglione, who was set upon and slain on the 24th of June by
a band of assassins, whilst riding with five attendants near La
Storta. This foul deed, in accordance with the wild habits of that
age, and the fratricidal tendencies of the Varana family, was imputed
to Ascanio Colonna at the instigation of Giovanni Maria, uncle of the
victim.
[Footnote 293: However these pretensions may have originated, they
derived a _quasi_ warrant in 1525, from a conditional investiture of
the duchy for three generations, granted by Clement VII. to Ascanio
"in case it should happen to lapse to the Holy See," Agnesina being
there mentioned as eldest sister. Charles V. was vainly solicited by
Ascanio to render this condition eventual, or by some other means
to make good his possession, and the claim did not drop until 1530.
Nor was it the only one vamped up on account of Duke Guidobaldo's
unfruitful marriage. In 1505 the Prince of Salerno seems to have made
similar pretensions through his mother, a sister still younger than
Agnesina; and in order to dispose of these, Julius II. is said to
have offered him his own daughter Felice, a union which however did
not take place.]
When reassured of pacific and equitable measures, Francesco Maria
dissolved a defensive league for mutual maintenance, which he had
formed on the 4th of March with the Baglioni, Sigismondo, and the
Orsini, to which the Cardinal de' Medici was a party. The strongholds
of S. Leo and Maiuolo, however, remained till 1527 in the hands of
the Florentines, mortgaged for their advances to Leo in the late
war. During these complex negotiations, an offer from Lautrec of
service under the lilies of France was declined by the Duke, on a
plea of reserving himself for the disposal of his ecclesiastical
overlord. Nor was the opportunity he looked for long delayed.
Pandolfo Malatesta, on ceding to Venice his pretensions upon Rimini,
after being expelled therefrom by Duke Valentino, had accepted from
that republic the castle of Cittadella near Padua, with large pay
in their service. His son Sigismondo availed himself of the Pope's
absence, and the unsettled ecclesiastical policy, to surprise Rimini
and its fortress towards the end of May. The consistory hastily
mustered all their means to meet the emergency, and called upon the
Duke of Urbino as their vassal to take the field. His answer was that
without money he could do nothing. About the beginning of August
the _rocca_ was retaken by Giovanni Gonzaga for the Church; but the
place was not finally recovered till Adrian sent thither some Spanish
troops, when the people at length rose, and drove out the interloper,
whose cruelties had alienated all his supporters. In this paltry
fray the Duke appears to have lent some trifling aid, which the
Pontiff gratefully acknowledged in writing to Leonora on the 24th of
December. When it was over, he turned to the internal affairs of his
duchy, disorganised by the long and severe struggle of which it had
been the scene. In the spring of 1523 he brought home the ladies of
his family
"Into their wished haven";
but of their once lively court we have little to record. Much had
occurred to chasten the naturally staid temperament of Duchess
Leonora. Retrenchment was imperatively imposed by accumulated
debts and dilapidated finances: the brilliant assemblage which had
frequented the saloons of Urbino seventeen years before was thinned
by death, scattered by dire events, alienated by ingratitude, or
seduced by newer attractions.
It was at this time that Pesaro seems to have become the permanent
residence of the ducal establishment, although the original capital
was frequently visited by its successive princes. Sanuto's Diaries
afford us glimpses of life at that court, in detailing the journey
to Rome of four Venetian envoys in March of this year. They arrived
on Good Friday, half dead of fatigue, fear, and hunger, having
ridden one hundred and twelve miles in two days, through wretched
weather and a plague-stricken country. The two Duchesses of Urbino
immediately sent them a pressing invitation to transfer their
quarters from the inn to better lodgings. This was about sunset, and
twilight had scarcely set in when both these ladies arrived in a fine
gilt coach, lined with white cloth and trimmings of black velvet,
drawn by four beautiful black and grey horses. They were suffering
from fever, the younger Duchess having risen from bed expressly to
visit the envoys, and apologise for a reception which, but for so
unlooked-for an arrival, would have been more conformable to their
wishes. Yet the apartment was tapestried from roof to floor, the beds
with gold brocade coverlets, and the curtains very handsome. Next
morning, after breakfast, the guests went to the palace to wait upon
the Duchesses, who met them in the fourth ante-room, whence, after
sundry ceremonies, they handed the ladies and their attendants into
the presence-chamber, newly done up with arrases, gilding, and a daïs
of silk. After conversing in an under-tone for three-quarters of
an hour, they retired with the like formalities. On Easter Sunday,
after vespers, they had an audience of leave, when the younger
Duchess, being very seriously indisposed, received them familiarly
in a bed-chamber so small that they could not all enter it, renewing
many excuses for their indifferent entertainment, in consequence of
the religious observances, and the recent arrival of the household
at Pesaro. On their return from congratulating the new Pontiff, the
envoys passed by Gubbio, where the Duchesses again surprised them by
a visit ere breakfast was over, attended by several lovely maidens.
The engagement which Francesco Maria had accepted, to command the
Florentine armies for a year, did not call him from this retirement;
it was important only as indicating an apparent reconciliation
with the Cardinal de' Medici, to which the latter was induced by
apprehension that he might have otherwise proved a formidable
opponent to his interest in a future conclave. After a somewhat
serious illness, the Duke repaired to Rome, to offer his homage on
the arrival of Adrian in Italy, and was honourably received and
formally invested with his restored dignities. He rode there escorted
by two hundred lances, and was lodged by the Venetian ambassador in
the palace of S. Marco. His late eventful history rendered him an
object of general interest, and he was universally admitted to have
borne his reverses with firmness, his successes with moderation.
To commemorate these, he adopted this device, invented for him by
Giovio,--a palm-tree, whose crest was weighed downwards by a block
of marble, with the motto, "Though depressed, it recoils." This
emblem of valour and constancy, which adversity could bend but could
not break, he bore upon his banner and trumpets, and frequently
introduced it in his coinage.
The repose of Italy was, as usual, of brief duration. Wearied of
those contests in which the ambition of France had for thirty years
involved the Peninsula, the leading powers began to regard Francesco
Sforza's maintenance in the duchy of Milan as their best guarantee
of peace. This policy was warmly adopted by the Emperor, interested
alike in the welfare of the Neapolitan territory, and in humbling
his rival Francis I. The result was a new confederation, to which
the Pope, the Emperor, Henry VIII., Venice, Milan, and Florence were
parties, but which brought on a general war, the very evil it was
intended to avert. Francesco Maria's condotta with the Florentines
being expired, he was named to succeed Teodoro Trivulzio, whose
supposed French tendencies occasioned his removal from command of
the Venetian troops. Those of the Church were committed to the
Marquis of Mantua, and Prospero Colonna was general-in-chief of the
League Lautrec and l'Escu[294] having been recalled, the Admiral
Gouffier de Bonnivet was sent into Lombardy to make good the title
of his master to the Milanese, whose daring spirit looked not beyond
the glory of encountering single-handed the armies of Europe. This
struggle, eventually so ruinous to Italy, so fatal to Rome, had
scarcely commenced ere Adrian was called from events which he was
in no respect fitted to direct. He died on the 24th of September,
1523,[*295] and was succeeded on the 19th of November by the Cardinal
de' Medici, as Clement VII., whose first act was an adherence to the
League.
[Footnote 294: Odet de Foix, Seigneur de Lautrec, and the Seigneur de
l'Escu were both brothers of the chivalrous Gaston de Foix.]
[Footnote *295: He died on the 14th September. For details, cf. Duke
of Sessa's letters in _Bergenroth_, pp. 597, 599.]
Prospero Colonna did not long survive the Pontiff. From him, perhaps,
Francesco Maria adopted the over-cautious policy which marked his
military manoeuvres during the remainder of his life, and which
contrasts strongly with the dashing valour of his early career. For
this he has been severely blamed by Sismondi, and we shall see it
attended with very miserable results. Fortunately for the Duke's
fame, his reputation in arms had been firmly established before the
later and more important years of his military prowess arrived. Ere
the allies had completed their preparations, the French poured into
Lombardy, carried Lodi, and laid siege to Cremona. The Venetian
troops occupied the banks of the Oglio, where they were joined by
the Duke of Urbino, as soon as he had received credentials and
instructions from the senate; his own stipulated contingent, under
his lieutenant-general Landriano, having already effected a junction.
Machiavelli, ever prone to cast reflections on mercenary troops, has
remarked that the Republic lost her superiority from the time that
she extensively employed them. This, however, is but a partial view
of the case. By their means, backed by their maritime supremacy,
and by her matchless diplomatic system, she gradually extended
her mainland territory, in spite of the unmilitary genius of her
people, until jealousy combined nearly all Europe against her in
the League of Cambray. But there was another fault inherent in
the organisation of her armies. Dark suspicion was the permeating
principle of her policy. Each branch of the executive jealously
watched the others. Magistrates distrusted their colleagues; fathers
set spies upon their sons, husbands upon their wives; governors and
governed doubted their paid troops, or countermined their selected
generals. The senate accordingly sent with their stipendiary forces
commissioners instructed to watch, and empowered to control, the
leaders--a check necessarily inducing dissension, for, as Macaulay
has happily remarked, what army commanded by a debating club ever
escaped discomfiture and disgrace? Under the title of _proveditori_,
these official spies performed some of the duties belonging to
commissaries-general; and although this plan for controlling soldiers
of fortune, who owed little fidelity to the cause, and whose ruling
principle was usually self-interest, might seem the result of wise
precaution, it practically occasioned perpetual embarrassments, and
fomented personal quarrels, paralysing operations in the field. Such
an _imperium in imperio_ had in this instance its usual results.
Distracted councils and divided responsibility hampered free action,
and rendered abortive the best-laid plans.[*296] Throughout the long
war now opening, the system was pregnant with peculiar mischief, and
it ought to bear much of the blame of that dilatory inefficiency
which is charged against Francesco Maria. Thus the Proveditore Emo,
at the very outset of this campaign, prevented him from crossing the
Oglio to harass the retreat of Renzo da Ceri, who, after loitering
away two months before Cremona, was recalled to the siege of Milan.
The Duke, however, soon after advanced to the Adda, and during the
rigour of winter occupied his troops in fortifying themselves at
Martinengo, from whence they were enabled to annoy the enemy by
continual forays towards Lodi.[297]
[Footnote *296: As usual, Machiavelli is right. If the _proveditori_
had so bad an influence (and it was doubtless bad) the results should
have been earlier seen, for it was an old custom with that Republic.
Francesco Maria, whom Dennistoun rates so highly as a soldier, as we
have seen, was not more harassed by these spies than his forerunners,
Carmagnuola Colleoni and Sigismondo Malatesta. The custom rose out
of the decision to employ no citizen as a captain-general. Nor was
Venice alone in this practice; Siena and Florence followed it too on
occasions.]
[Footnote 297: Sismondi's strictures curtly express the judgment
pronounced upon Francesco Maria by those who follow, without
examination, the prejudiced narrative of Guicciardini. Yet, as
they are founded upon admitted defects in his generalship, it may
be well to lay them before the reader. "He was not deficient in
military talent, nor probably in personal courage, but, taking
Prospero Colonna as his prototype, he exaggerated his method. His
only tactics consisted in the selection and occupation of impregnable
positions; whatever his numerical superiority, he evaded fighting; no
circumstance, however urgent, could bring him to a general action;
and by his obstinacy in refusing to risk anything, he made certain
of losing all." But in estimating the commander we should not put
out of view the discouraging nature of the cause, which this author
elsewhere happily describes as a war without an object. *This applies
better to the petty wars of Central Italy at this time and in the
fifteenth century. Waged by paid captains, they may be said to have
been without an object, or rather with but one object--war itself.
One and all they ended in nothing, though here and there, as with the
Sforza, the condottiere managed to establish himself. There was not,
save in Florence, Milan, and Venice, a sufficiently strong economic
reason to cause a real war. Such as they were, these wars were due to
the greed of petty princes, in which the professional armies enjoyed
themselves (few being killed) in sacking towns and cities whose
inhabitants, altogether at their mercy, were the only victims. To
drag out the war and to avoid serious fighting as much as possible
were naturally the first objects of the average condottiere.]
The command vacated by the death of Prospero Colonna was conferred
upon Don Carlos de Lanoy, Viceroy of Naples, who arrived at
head-quarters in the spring, and, upon drawing together the
confederates from their winter quarters, found himself at the head
of about twenty thousand foot, and four thousand lances and light
cavalry. Among their leaders were the Constable de Bourbon, the
Prince of Orange, and Don Ugo de Moncada, with all of whom we shall
often meet during the next few years.
In the confederate army there were too many conflicting interests,
too many rival leaders; but it was the peculiar misfortune of the
Duke of Urbino to serve a power whose jealousy exceeded all rational
bounds. It was not without considerable persuasion that he obtained
of the Signory sanction to cross the Adda, and unite their troops,
amounting to twelve hundred horse and six thousand foot, with the
forces of the League. The first combined operation was directed
against Gherlasco, which Francesco Maria, though in command of the
rear-guard, was permitted to carry by assault with his own division,
being greatly aided by using explosive shells. From thence they
advanced to Vercelli, taking Trumello, Sartirana, and other places
by the way. This movement was intended at once to cut off supplies
from the French army posted at Novara, and to intercept a strong
body of Swiss, for whom they were anxiously waiting. The allies
having reached Vercelli, it became a race which army should first
gain the bridge of Romagnano, to the west whereof lay the Swiss
subsidy. The French had almost passed, when Lanoy fell upon their
rear, which suffered immensely in men, baggage, and artillery; and
their commander, Bonnivet, was wounded. The credit of all these
arrangements is claimed by Leone for the Duke of Urbino, whose
annoyance may be imagined when he found himself arrested from reaping
the full benefit of their success, by interference of Pietro da
Pesaro, the Proveditore. That officer, standing upon the engagement
of the Venetian contingent to serve only within the confines of the
Milanese, objected to their passing the Sesia, which here formed
its limit, and thus nullified the resolution of the confederates
to follow up their partial victory by such a well-timed attack as
might drive the enemy across the Alps. The indignant army appealed
to Francesco Maria to break through this official obstruction, but
the commissioner was right to the letter, and the stern Signory
sanctioned no latitude of construction on the part of its servants.
The Duke, however, gained his consent by private remonstrances, at
once temperate and energetic, but especially by threatening to throw
up his commission from the senate, and as a free captain to pass with
his own company into the allies' service, leaving the Proveditore,
with a disorganised contingent, to bear the whole responsibility of
losing so admirable an opportunity of cutting short a struggle, which
it was in every view the interest of his republic to close.[298]
[Footnote 298: The details given by Paruta appear to bear out
this statement of the Duke's policy, but establish that, in the
eyes of his employers, his prudence and caution availed more than
dashing gallantry, an admission important in estimating his conduct
throughout the campaign of Lombardy, and throwing light upon the
hesitation which marked his subsequent career. Indeed, according to
this author, the orders of the Signory were to avoid fighting as much
as possible.]
The conduct of the French troops devolved, in consequence of the
Admiral's wound, upon Piere de Terrail, Chevalier de Bayard, who was
not long spared in a command which the blunders of his predecessor
had rendered hopeless. On the 30th of April, whilst drawing off
the rear-guard under the enemy's fire, a shot fractured his spine.
Refusing to be carried from the spot, he had himself supported
against a tree, with his face to the foe, and continued to give his
orders with composure: at length, feeling the hand of death upon him,
he confessed himself to his faithful squire, kissing the hand-guard
of his sword as a substitute for the cross. The imperialists
remaining masters of the field, he was approached by the Constable
Bourbon, to whose words of sympathy and regret he sternly replied,
"Grieve not for me, but for yourself, fighting against your king and
country." His fall was reported to Charles V. by the imperial envoy,
Adrian de Croy, in these touching terms:--"Sire, although the said
M. Bayard was in the service of your enemy, his death is certainly a
pity; for he was a gentle knight beloved of all, whose life had been
as well spent as ever was that of any of his condition, as, indeed,
he fully testified at its close, which was the most beautiful I
ever heard tell of." Thus fell, in his forty-ninth year, the flower
of French chivalry, "the fearless and irreproachable knight." His
army evacuated Italy before the end of May, and the Duke of Urbino
being entrusted with the recovery of Lodi, found it defended by
his relation and attached comrade-in-arms, Count Francesco del
Bozzolo, who, perceiving his position hopeless, soon capitulated upon
honourable terms.
After the ample details we had given of the comparatively unimportant
Urbino war, our rapid glance at the events in Upper Italy, from
1521 to 1526, may seem superficial. But as these Lombard campaigns,
although momentous to Europe, told very slightly upon the general
policy of the Peninsula, and as Francesco Maria bore no prominent
part in their varying results, we must be content to pass over them
thus cursorily, rather than to carry the reader too far from the more
especial object of these volumes. We may, however, pause for a moment
upon the reception accorded to the Duke at Venice, when summoned
thither to receive public thanks for his services, graphic details of
which are supplied by the unedited Diaries of Sanuto.
After he had, in compliance with orders from the Signory, disbanded
their infantry, and disposed of their cavalry in the mainland
garrisons, he proceeded to the maritime capital. At Padua, the
rectors had been premonished to pay him every attention; at the mouth
of the Brenta, and on the outskirts of the city, he was met by two
deputations, each consisting of thirty young men of distinction, and
was addressed in a Latin oration, "which he did not understand." He
was then escorted to the Rialto; and, after being welcomed by the
Doge, and all the foreign ambassadors, except the French, he was led
on board the Bucentaur, an honour paid only to highest rank or rarest
merit; and thus, amid a flotilla of state galleys and gondolas,
crowded with a lively population in gala attire, their princely guest
was conducted along the grand canal, its palaces glittering with
brocades and arrases, its windows radiant with sparkling eyes and
rich carnations, such as Titian and Pordenone loved to commemorate in
glowing tints. The Duke wore a suit of black velvet, with frock and
cap of scarlet, and was housed in an apartment prepared at the Casa
di San Marco, near San Giorgio Maggiore, with fifty ducats a day for
his expenses.
This festive welcome took place on the 25th of June. Next day
being Sunday, the Duke presented himself at the Collegio, dressed
in black damask over a white doublet, with a rose-coloured cap; a
small person, of indifferent presence [_poca presentia_]. He was
received outside of the audience-hall by the Doge and Signory;
when admitted, he spoke in a few words, and with low voice, of his
constant readiness to serve their state with life and limb. To
which the Doge replied, that he had acquitted himself well, but it
was their trust that he would do still better in future, and that,
being fully assured of his fidelity, they had selected him for
captain-general. The privileges of citizenship had been given him
many years before, in compliment to his uncle Guidobaldo, but the
general's baton was to be conferred upon him on the 2nd of July. In
deference, however, to the predictions of an astrologer, he requested
that his investiture might take place on the 29th of June, being St.
Peter's day. Accordingly, the magnates and diplomatic functionaries
of the most luxurious city in Christendom being assembled within
its picturesque and time-honoured cathedral, Francesco Maria, was
led in, magnificently arrayed in gold lama and damask, amid the din
of trumpets and bagpipes. After celebration of high mass, during
which he was seated on the Doge's left, the insignia, consisting of
a silver baton, and crimson standard with the lion in gold, were
blessed at the high altar, and consigned to his hands by the Doge, as
badges of authority, which he then swore to employ for the glory of
God, and for maintenance and defence of the Republic. This solemnity
was hailed by the spectators' shouts, the clang of bells, the crash
of martial music, the roar of artillery, and, as the Duke was
conducted to his gondola by a long procession of military and civil
dignitaries, the gorgeous piazza and gay canals displayed a splendour
unwonted even in Venice.
Unfavourable rumours of the Duchess's health rendered him impatient
to be done with these honours, and were probably the true reason
for his desiring that the installation might be accelerated. But
the fashionable club or company della Calza so urged his remaining
for their festival, which had been fixed for the 3rd in compliment
to him, that he could not well refuse a short delay in order to be
present.[299] The sports were enacted on that usual scene of Venetian
magnificence, the grand canal, decked out in many-tinted draperies,
and thronged by gay parties. The club, with the Duke of Urbino and
other honoured guests, were conveyed in two large flat barges,
lashed together and beautifully curtained, wherein assembled the most
distinguished youths of both sexes, who revelled in music and dancing
as they glided along the glassy surface. At length they stopped at
the massive, but now crumbling, Foscari palace, to witness a race of
four-oared gondolas, and concluded the entertainment with a supper
on the Rialto. Next day their sports were renewed, with addition of
a déjeuner, where fancy confections were presented to the principal
guests--a triumphal chariot to Francesco Maria, an eagle to the
imperial ambassador, and so forth.
[Footnote 299: See vol. I., p. 68, for a notice of this association,
so often mentioned in Venetian history.]
On the 5th of July, after ten days spent in these monotonous
gaieties, the Duke returned to Pesaro in his twelve-oared barge; but
his repose there was brief, for the second act soon opened of that
bloody drama wherein the ambition of Charles and Francis involved
Italy. An incursion of imperialists into Provence under the renegade
Bourbon had shifted the scene to France; but the French monarch,
by a sudden movement across the Alps, transferred it once more
into Lombardy, and took possession of Milan. The Signory hastily
summoned their general from his duchy, to guard their frontier. The
established order of Italian policy, however, rendering it probable
that new and contradictory combinations would speedily arise, his
instructions were to act upon the defensive; and a like temporising
spirit prevailed in the councils of his Holiness, who secretly lent
an ear to proposals of Francis for a combined effort to shake off
the Spanish domination in Naples. The Duke's undecided tactics, so
condemned by Sismondi, were therefore in accordance with orders,
which the ever-present Proveditore took care were complied with. He
thus had no share in the great battle of Pavia, which crushed the
chivalry of France, accelerated the climax of Italian subjugation,
and rendered Spanish influence fatally paramount in Southern Europe.
It was fought on the 25th of February, 1525, and left Francis
prisoner in his rival's hands. Francesco Maria thereafter retired to
Casali, suffering from a combined attack of gout and tertian fever,
in which he was attended by his Duchess, who had hastened to see
him.[*300]
[Footnote *300: The battle was fought on the 24th February.]