CHAPTER XXXVIII

New league against Charles V.--The Duke's campaign in

Lombardy--His quarrels with Guicciardini--Rome pillaged by

the Colonna--The Constable Bourbon advances into Central

Italy--The Duke quells an insurrection at Florence.

The papal policy since the accession of Julius had been directed

to two leading objects. The first was to prevent any ultramontane

power from attaining a decided preponderance in Europe; the second,

to recover Italy from the barbarians, and restore its Neapolitan

and Milanese states to native dynasties.[*301] The only effective

check upon the unprecedented dominion of the Emperor having been

annihilated by the overthrow and imprisonment of his sole rival, it

became necessary for the Pontiff, in conformity with the former of

these purposes, to support the cause of France. The other object

was more than ever important, now that Milan was virtually at the

conqueror's mercy; and a proposition for confirming the sovereignty

of Sforza in that duchy, and placing the Marquis of Pescara on the

throne of Naples, appeared to His Holiness happily to meet the

exigencies of the case. Clement, possessing neither the discernment

of Julius nor the finesse of Leo, saw no difficulty in effecting this

convenient scheme, by simply uniting the independent states in a

conspiracy to expel Charles beyond the Alps. But he reckoned without

his host. The Marquis of Pescara, who was high in the imperial

service, betrayed the plot in time to frustrate its execution. His

death occurred soon after, from wounds received at Pavia, or possibly

from poison, and the year was spent in intrigues and counterplots,

which concern our present subject only as giving occasion to this

letter, addressed by Francesco Maria to Cardinal Wolsey:--

"Most illustrious and most worshipful Lord,

"Having learned that his serene Majesty [Henry VIII.] has

named me his adherent in the league lately made with his

most Christian Majesty, it becomes a duty, which I by these

letters discharge, to tender my respects, and humbly to

kiss his hand, having no other proof at present to offer

of the extreme obligation which, in addition to numberless

others, I owe to his Majesty, for this affectionate and

honourable recollection of me. And knowing the love which

your most illustrious and reverend Lordship has ever

exhibited towards my house, and especially for myself, I am

satisfied (as, indeed, I have heard from the reverend Lord

Protonotary Casale) that you have always borne in mind the

services towards that crown of my most famous progenitors

and myself. Whence, in addition to the boundless obligation

I lie under to his most serene Majesty for naming me his

adherent, I hold myself therein indebted to your most

reverend and illustrious Lordship, considering it in a

great measure owing to you. I have therefore written these

presents, not as mere thanks, for I would not so commence

what I cannot complete by words alone, but that you may

know the great obligation I feel and have expressed, and

how intensely I desire an opportunity of effectively

demonstrating my natural and deserved anxiety to do you

service; the which will be clearly made patent to your most

reverend and illustrious Lordship, so often as I have it

in my power to act upon my intentions. And, recommending

myself to your good favour, I pray that you still keep

in mind my services to his majesty. From Verona the 14th

February, 1526.

"_Servitor_,

"EL DUCA D'URBINO."[302]

[Footnote *301: So far as Julius is concerned, his one object was the

absolute temporal dominion of the Church in Italy. He made the coming

of an ultramontane power into Italy a certainty. His successors

struggled in vain to save themselves and incidentally Italy from the

consequence of his crime. But the policy of the Papacy was wise, if

selfish. The only road to Italian unity lay through predominance of

one power--Venice or Milan, for instance, or the Church herself. The

popes successfully prevented this unity for more than a thousand

years, really in self-defence--the defence of their temporal power

at any rate; their international claims were destroyed by an eager

and passionate nationalism. We have seen in our day how Piedmont

united Italy, first destroying the Papacy, which remains merely as a

spiritual power that seems in Italy to be slowly passing away.]

[Footnote 302: Brit. Mus. Cotton. MSS. Vit. B. VIII., f. 16, b. In f.

49, of B.V. there is a mutilated letter of compliment from the Duke

to Henry VIII., in Latin, dated at Urbino 19 March, 1522.]

At length, in May 1526, a new confederacy was announced, in which

the Pope, Francis I. (who had regained his liberty in March), Henry

VIII., Venice, and Florence, were marshalled against Charles V.,

nominally to wrest from him the Milanese, which remained in his hands

after the battle of Pavia. The citadel of Milan, however, was still

held by Francesco Sforza; and the Duke of Urbino, by the senate's

orders, led the Venetian troops from Verona to his relief, but under

protest that he considered them unequal to the service. On his march,

he received offers from an adherent of the Sforza to admit him into

Lodi, and immediately detaching Malatesta Baglione to avail himself

of the proposal, hastened onwards with the army to his support. The

attempt was completely successful, and after a gallant resistance

the imperialists evacuated the place on the 24th of June. This

acquisition was of the utmost importance to the allies. It secured

them command of the Adda, and gave them a strong position in the

enemy's country, from whence they could operate with equal facility

against Milan, Cremona, or Pavia.

The army of the League which now mustered at Lodi is estimated by

Guicciardini and Muratori at sixteen thousand foot and four thousand

horse. The Duke of Urbino was commander-in-chief of the Venetians;

Count Guido Rangone held the same rank in the ecclesiastical forces,

which included, however, the papal and Florentine contingents, led by

their respective captains-general, Giovanni de' Medici and Vitello

Vitelli. The embarrassment occasioned by so many commanders, under no

common head, was especially felt by Francesco Maria, who, although

admitted by Guicciardini to have been pre-eminent in rank, authority,

and reputation, as well as actually leader of the combined army,

was controlled by Pesaro, the Venetian Proveditore, and thwarted

by the Pope's anomalous appointment of that historian himself as

lieutenant-general, with ample indeed almost absolute powers in the

army and throughout the states of the Church.

Francesco Guicciardini was a Florentine gentleman, born in 1482, and

educated for the law, who, profiting by the partiality of Leo X. for

his fellow-citizens, had held several important civil appointments,

and had been successively named governor of Modena, Reggio, and

Parma, to which Clement added, in 1523, a jurisdiction over all

pontifical Romagna. He was gifted with considerable talents and

great command of language, but these promotions had rendered him

vain and overbearing. The accounts given us by the Urbino writers,

of one whom they had good reason to regard with prejudice, should

be received with caution; yet some anecdotes have come down which

confirm the allegation of Leoni, that his dogmatical pretensions

were neither authorised by etiquette, nor supported by his judgment

or military experience.[303] No defect of character was less likely

to meet with toleration from the blunt and hasty Francesco Maria,

and in consequence of their being opposed to each other at the

council-board, alike in momentous and trifling matters, scenes of

insult and violence ripened aversion into rancour. In this contest

the Florentine had the worst, but he amply availed himself of his

pen as a means of vengeance; and in his History, which has become

a standard authority, he studiously and throughout misrepresented

the Duke of Urbino. Lipsius, while bearing strong testimony to

his general truth and impartiality, admits that he on no occasion

concealed his detestation of that prince. Later writers, especially

Sismondi, have adopted his strictures with little modification,

and an ingenious defence of the Duke, prepared by Baldi after his

death, having never seen the light, the portraits of him hitherto

passing current in history are exaggerations of a malevolent pencil.

Yet it appears beyond question that an over-dilatory and cautious

system increased upon Francesco Maria, and, in conjunction with

other circumstances, greatly hampered his tactics and impaired their

success, during his service under the lion of St. Mark.

[Footnote 303: Leonardi's recollections of Francesco Maria, Vat. Urb.

MSS., No. 1023, f. 85, and Baldi's defence of him from Guicciardini's

charges, _Ibid._, No. 906, f. 214.]

The allied forces very considerably outnumbered those of Charles,

who were scattered among several garrisons and detached positions.

The moment, therefore, seemed propitious for following up their

recent success, and effecting the main object of the campaign by a

decided blow against Milan. That capital was occupied by about nine

thousand imperialist troops, who blockaded Sforza in the citadel,

and who, in letters casually intercepted, represented the citizens,

though disarmed by their conquerors, as mature for a rising. A prompt

movement for the relief of the hard-pressed fortress was therefore

urged by Guicciardini, and seconded by the Proveditore, whose ear

he had gained. The reasons by which Francesco Maria combated this

proposal savoured unquestionably, even by Leoni's admission, rather

of hollow excuses than of sound judgment, for whilst he awaited the

Swiss auxiliaries, he allowed reinforcements to reach the imperial

garrison.

Some light is, however, thrown upon this seeming inconsistency by an

argument in his Discorsi Militari, wherein the Duke illustrates, from

this very passage in his life, two axioms he broadly lays down,--that

to rely mainly for the success of a war upon the support of a people,

however gallant, is a great risk, if not inevitable ruin; and that no

popular rising ever succeeded of itself, or without an overpowering

force to second it. Considering that his uncle and himself had

thrice regained their state by a popular emeute, this doctrine may

seem ungracious from his mouth. Without, however, entering upon a

question which the recent experience of Europe has greatly affected,

or examining instances adduced by the Duke in support of his views,

it seems likely that his reasoning was adopted to cloak some unavowed

motive. Perhaps the alternative suggestion which he offered may

afford some clue to the truth, keeping in view the relationship and

confidential intercourse which had ever been maintained between the

princes of Urbino and Ottaviano Fregoso. His proposition was that,

instead of opposing their new and ill-disciplined levies to the

veteran and lately victorious occupants of Milan, the allies should

draw off towards Genoa, and there restore the supremacy of the

Fregosi, thus giving time for the arrival of Swiss subsidies, and

enabling them perhaps to intercept the reinforcements which Bourbon

was bringing by sea from Spain. The motive alleged by Sismondi for

this policy rests upon the broader ground of the Duke's desire to

humble Clement, in revenge for all he had suffered, rather from the

Pontiff's family than from himself; and it must be admitted that

much of his conduct during this lamentable and inglorious war, until

it ended in the sack of Rome, could scarcely have been different if

actuated by that ungenerous calculation. Yet in the instance now

under our consideration, it is but fair to notice Leoni's assertion,

that his opinions were supported by Giovanni de' Medici _delle Bande

Nere_, whilst those of Guicciardini, obtaining the suffrages of the

other leaders, carried the day.

With such diversity of opinion prevailing among commanders of

nearly equal authority, it is not surprising that the advance upon

Milan should have been most sluggish. After spending nine days in

marching about twenty miles, the army, on the 6th of July, drew

round that city, which the enemy, notwithstanding Bourbon's arrival

the preceding night with the Spanish succours, are supposed by

Sismondi to have been on the point of evacuating. The artillery

having next morning begun to play upon the walls, a sally was made,

and the allied troops, finding themselves under fire, behaved most

scandalously, so that, had not Francesco Maria with the cavalry

promptly supported the panic-stricken infantry of his own and the

papal brigades, they must have suffered a total rout. Alarmed at

these symptoms of unsteadiness, and unseconded by the expected

insurrection within, the Venetian Proveditore and Guicciardini

insisted upon a general retreat, as the only means by which their

forces could escape destruction. In despair, they besought the Duke

to take the retiring army under his command, a charge which he did

not accept without taunting them on a result that so fully bore out

his predictions, and proved their rashness in exposing an unorganised

host of raw Italians to fight the veterans of Germany and Spain.

But the moment was too critical for recrimination. Two hours before

dawn the camp was silently raised, and the army withdrew in good

order about twelve miles to Marignano. Their rear was effectually

guarded by Giovanni de' Medici against any sally of the imperialists,

but no less than four thousand of the foot were missing, having

ignominiously deserted their colours.

Such is the account of Leoni and Baldi. Guicciardini, on the other

hand, takes to himself credit for using every argument with the Duke

against a retreat, which he designates as uncalled for and infamous.

Upon his despatches were, no doubt, formed the opinions expressed in

the following letter of the Bishop of Worcester to Cardinal Wolsey:--

"Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord," &c.

"I have hitherto daily informed you of what was going

on, by longer or shorter letters, as time permitted. At

present nothing new has transpired, except that, on the

night of the 7th inst., the Duke of Urbino, captain-general

of the ecclesiastical and Venetian forces, after most

strenuous and gallant operations against the enemy, from

which a successful issue was expected, suddenly changing

his intention, notwithstanding numerous protests, drew off

his army to Marignano, a town ten miles from Milan. Which,

though the Duke, as usual, entangles it with numerous

reasons, has exposed him to no slight disparagement from

the public. I have only further humbly to commend myself to

your most illustrious Lordship. From Rome, 11th July, 1526.

"Your most illustrious and reverend Lordship's

_Humillimum manicipium_,

"HI[~C]. EP[~S]. WIGORNIEÑ."[304]

[Footnote 304: Brit. Mus. Cotton. MSS., Vit. B. VIII., f. 93 b. In

this volume are many despatches regarding the Lombard campaign, and

the assault on Rome in 1526.]

The prejudices of Guicciardini are admitted by the Venetian Paruta,

who tells us that the Signory were satisfied with their general's

explanations, but cautioned him for the future, to communicate his

views more frankly to the papal commissioner. It is a passage of

history hard to clear up, and in every view redounding little to the

credit of its actors, whether we most blame the Duke's policy or the

unsteadiness of his troops. Exposures so disgraceful well merited

the sneer, that the swords in that army had no edge; and Sismondi

admits that its spiritless conduct goes far to justify its leader's

dispiriting tactics.[*305]

[Footnote *305: See Guicciardini's despairing letters to Giberti,

_Opere Inedite_ (1857-67, Firenze), vol. IV., pp. 73-146. Francesco

Maria was to blame; he lost time in crossing the Adda, from

whatever cause; he delayed again while the generals of the Emperor

strengthened their lines round Milan--even when the allies arrived

and their army numbered 20,000 against the 11,000 of the besiegers.

He waited the arrival of the Swiss, he said, and went off meanwhile

at the heels of the Venetian Proveditore to besiege Cremona. The

Rocca of Milan fell on July 24th.]

On the 22nd of July, the confederates, having been joined by five

thousand Swiss levies, again approached the city, and were met by

about three hundred women and children, whom Sforza had dismissed

as embarrassing his defence. Shamed by their representations, the

leaders, in a council of war, decided upon a new attempt to relieve

the citadel, which, however, Giovanni de' Medici, after inspecting

the works of the besiegers, opposed as too perilous. Whilst they

lost time in these discussions, Sforza was fairly starved out, and

surrendered the fortress on the 24th. Leoni and Baldi agree in

charging these dilatory and unsatisfactory proceedings upon the other

generals, and the total inefficiency of the army, rather than upon

Francesco Maria's tactics. They may be considered as biased, but the

following anecdotes will show how far the Florentine historian had

reason to be impartial.

At one of the war councils held in the Certosa of Pavia, Guicciardini

having cast some doubt upon an opinion expressed by the Duke, was

thus answered: "Your business is to confer with pedants." These

rude words were accompanied by a knock-down blow on the face,

followed by an order to get up and begone! Leonardi, who preserves

this incident, adds, "Such pugilistic sport was habitual to my Lord

Duke; and it was well for those who could command their temper in

reasoning with him, as he was ever ready to strike any one who

argued against his views with disrespect." The historian's original

prepossession against Francesco Maria, is ascribed by Baldi to a

vain ambition of precedence. While lieutenant-general of the papal

forces he displayed it towards Guido Rangone, his superior officer,

and insisted on taking rank at the council-board of the Marquis of

Saluzzo, when he arrived in command of the French contingents. These

absurd pretensions were at first treated with indifference, but

finally brought him into a wrangle with the Duke, over whom he also

claimed a similar right, from the fact of being in the papal service,

waiving it only out of consideration for his sovereign rank. In

that instance, also, he is said to have been struck by the choleric

prince; at all events he was expelled from the council-chamber, and

a strong representation of his misconduct was made to the Pope, who

consequently cancelled his anomalous commission, and appointed him

governor of Modena.

Sismondi, embodying Guicciardini's one-sided narrative,[*306] has

thrown upon Francesco Maria the entire odium of the ludicrously slow

movements of the army, averaging about four miles on each alternate

day, and of their double miscarriage before Milan. The fatal tendency

of such measures, however they might have originated, admits of no

question, and the responsibility of their failure must fall upon the

most influential leader. It is always difficult in a heterogeneous

confederacy to maintain that unity of purpose which may compensate

for diversity of interests, and which can only be insured by prompt

action and brilliant success. But the sentiment "that reputation was

neither to be gained by risks nor lost by delays," which Bernardo

Tasso puts into the Duke's mouth, in describing a council of war

whereat he assisted,[307] not only advocates quite a different

policy, but too well confirms the charge brought against him as one

of those

"Generals who will not conquer when they may."

[Footnote *306: See his despairing letters cited above, p. 441, note

*1. He was a true patriot and thought for Italy. The Duke's dilatory

and inconclusive actions while Italy was slowly dying, and might have

been saved, as he thought, disgusted and enraged him.]

[Footnote 307: _Lettere_, I., p. 28, edit. 1733.]

When, however, he perceived victory to be hopeless, in an army

distracted by the jealousies of rival leaders, he had proposed

the nomination of a commander-in-chief, avowing himself ready to

accord him implicit obedience. In this he was again thwarted by

Guicciardini, who represented his suggestion to the allied powers

as dictated by personal ambition of the post. The plan fell to the

ground, and its author, fretted by the difficulties of his position,

was attacked by severe illness. Of this the Proveditore availed

himself to lead Malatesta Baglione, with three thousand troops, to

Cremona. Like Milan, it was occupied by an imperialist brigade, who

besieged in the citadel a handful of Sforza's adherents. The Duke's

warnings as to its military difficulties having been received with

indifference, this enterprise was on the point of miscarriage, on

learning which he rose from a sick bed, and hurried with fresh forces

to the scene of action. His presence infused new energy into the

operations, and on the 23rd of September the town was evacuated by

the imperialists upon capitulation.

This success was scarcely within his grasp when a courier arrived

from Rome, with tidings which gave a new aspect to affairs. Clement,

who had succeeded to the turbulence of his predecessors, without the

energy of Julius, or the address of Leo, made himself a dangerous

domestic foe in the Colonna,--broken, but not crushed by the rancour

of Alexander VI. Cardinal Pompeo Colonna, a man indifferent to

religion, whose unbounded ambition aimed directly at the tiara,

and whose brows better became a condottiere's casque than a mitre,

forgetting his duty as one of the Sacred College, entered into

treasonable correspondence with the imperialist leaders; and his

brother Marcello, having been driven from his fiefs by the Pope,

threw himself at the feet of Charles V., offering to support his

views upon Italy if reponed by his assistance. They also used their

influence at Venice in preventing his Holiness from raising a loan

to recruit his crippled resources, and, in concert with Don Ugo

Moncada, commander of the Neapolitan army, strove to alienate him

from the League. Don Ugo, a Spaniard by birth, was the worthy pupil

of Cesare Borgia, without his reputation for success. In every

important engagement his sword had been tarnished by defeat; his

character and personal adventures combined each brutal attribute

of a condottiere, with scarcely a redeeming trait of honour. The

plan of these confederates was by a coup-de-main to dictate terms

to the Pontiff; or, failing success in this, to give occupation at

home for the contingent he then maintained with the allied army

of Lombardy. Accordingly, the Colonna troops, who had assumed a

threatening attitude in the Campagna, were suddenly withdrawn beyond

the frontier; and a son of Prospero Colonna hastened to the capital

to throw himself at Clement's feet, assuring him of the pacific

disposition of his house, and that their levies were destined for

the imperial service at Naples. The Pope, being deceived into a

belief so conformable to his wishes, turned a deaf ear to the warning

of more clear-sighted men, and, disappointed of his loan, thought

only of reducing a war establishment he could no longer pay. But

so soon as his soldiery were dismissed, the Colonna recalled their

army of two thousand men, which, led by Pompeo with equal celerity

and success, reached the Lateran gate ere treachery was suspected.

Resistance being hopeless, they, on the 20th of September, marched

through the city into the Trastevere, where they were welcomed to

refreshments provided by the Cardinal's order. Thence they passed

into the Borgo S. Spirito, where are situated the Vatican, St.

Peter's, and the castle of St. Angelo, and within three hours had

pillaged that rich quarter, sparing neither the palace nor the

metropolitan church. The Pope, who had at first resolved to await

death in his pontifical chair, scarcely escaped with a few valuables

into the fortress, which, from unpardonable negligence, was entirely

unprovisioned. To arrest these horrors, the Pontiff next day made a

hasty four-months' truce, stipulating for the immediate evacuation of

Rome, as the condition on which he should recall Guicciardini with

the ecclesiastical troops from Upper Italy; three days, however,

elapsed ere the troops withdrew, laden with a booty estimated at

300,000 ducats.[308]

[Footnote 308: This treaty is printed by Molini, in the _Documenti di

Storia Italiana_, I., 229. At p. 204 of the same volume is a despatch

throwing valuable light on the tangled diplomacy of these times. The

details of this event are often mixed up with those of the far more

atrocious sack of Rome perpetrated by Bourbon a few months later; the

best account of it is by Negri, an eye-witness, in the _Lettere de'

Principi_.]

Upon the capitulation of Cremona, Francesco Maria stole a few days

for the society of his Duchess, and the affairs of his state, but was

speedily recalled to his post by the unsatisfactory aspect of matters

in Lombardy. The papal troops had been withdrawn; the garrison

of Cremona, whose services the Venetians would not retain at his

suggestion, had entered into new engagements with the enemy; fourteen

thousand _lanznechts_, alias _lansquenet_ infantry, under Georg v.

Fründesberg, were marching from Germany by the Val di Sabbia to

support the imperial cause. His first care was to check the pillage

of Cremona, a service which the citizens acknowledged by presenting

to him a golden vase weighing twenty pounds, and beautifully chased

with appropriate devices. He found the Marquis of Saluzzo arrived

with about five thousand levies from France, and that the _bande

nere_, amounting to almost as many, had been engaged by that power,

on Guicciardini's departure, whose absence proved a vast relief

to him. The army is now estimated at twenty-five thousand men by

Sismondi, who, echoing the charges of that writer, severely blames

the Duke for not supporting the naval attack made by the French upon

Genoa, a scheme for which we have seen him contending at an earlier

period. But a passage in his own _Discorsi Militari_ expressly states

the Venetian force at four thousand infantry and five thousand

cavalry, to keep in check both Fründesberg's lansquenets and ten

thousand men at Milan; and it explains his tactics to consist in

making Cremona the centre of a line of defence, embracing Bergamo on

the right, and Genoa on the left, which, being vastly too extended

for his force, necessitated his keeping his men together, in order

to move upon any exposed point. Accordingly, considering it most

incumbent to intercept the battalions of Fründesberg, he, after

throwing garrisons into some important places on his right flank,

pushed towards Mantua with about ten thousand men. Although sadly

impeded by dreadful weather, and by difficulties of transport, the

Proveditore having secured all the cattle to carry his own baggage

to Venice, he came up with the enemy at Borgoforte, on the Po, and,

interrupting their passage, drove their main body down the course of

that river. Deep snow and mud embarrassing his evolutions, he could

only hang upon their rear as far as the Mincio, where they were

met by a reinforcement with artillery from Ferrara. Thereupon the

Duke recalled his skirmishers, and left the Germans to pass the Po

unobstructed, on the 30th of November.

In this affair fell Giovanni de' Medici, whose birth we have formerly

noticed.[309] His name is consecrated to military renown by a halo

which his lion-heart well merited, and which has gained no additional

brilliancy from the attempts of some writers to elevate his fame at

Francesco Maria's expense. In this unworthy effort--as on too many

like occasions--Guicciardini has been followed by the historian of

the Italian republics. The charges of misconduct adduced against

the Duke of Urbino, in his movement against Fründesberg, are by no

means borne out by the more detailed accounts supplied by Leoni

and Baldi. He seems to have done everything that the state of the

elements would allow; and even accused himself of occasioning the

death of his faithful captain Benedetto Giraldi of Mondolfo, by

answering his plea, that his charger was completely knocked up, with

the sarcasm,--"What! you to whom I give a hundred scudi of yearly

pay, have not a fresh pair of horses at such a moment!" Stung by this

reproach, the gallant officer urged his steed to new efforts, and

shared the fate of Giovanni de' Medici. The brigade of the latter,

out of respect for their leader, assumed those mourning scarfs which

procured them the name _delle bande nere_; and most of them soon

after passed to Rome in the papal service.

[Footnote 309: See above, p. 385.]

The German lansquenets, whom Fründesberg had brought into Italy,

were in fact a free company, levied by himself on a mere plundering

adventure, without the pretext of pay. Alarmed at a reinforcement

of so obnoxious a character, the confederates bethought themselves

of renewed efforts. But disgusted with a drawling campaign, wherein

no party had exhibited either good heart or doughty deeds, they had

recourse to diplomacy, which, ever fluctuating between an inactive

war and a solid peace, failed to create any general interest.

The truce with Moncada being expired they had no difficulty in

enrolling the unstable Pontiff once more on their side; but intent

on his private quarrel with the Colonna, and burning to avenge the

outrage lately received at their hands, he gave no co-operation

to the League. His tortuous and feeble policy preferred rousing,

by small intrigues, the old Angevine party at Naples against the

imperial government, and sought the more sympathetic attractions

of a petty strife with his refractory vassals. Having engaged the

_bande nere_, he let them loose to carry fire and sword into the

Colonna holdings, depriving, at the same time, Cardinal Pompeo of

his hat, and thundering excommunication against his whole race.

As the spring advanced, he extended this inglorious warfare, with

"a worse than Turkish" virulence, into the Neapolitan territory.

Meanwhile, the Viceroy Lanoy, after narrowly escaping the fleet of

Andrea Doria, landed ten thousand fresh troops at Gaeta, and advanced

upon Rome, supported by Moncada and the Colonna. But the vengeance

of God against the Holy City was reserved for other hands. After a

slight check from the _bande nere_, at Frosinone, the Viceroy most

opportunely received letters from his master, disavowing the Colonna,

and breathing affectionate duty to the Pontiff. He thereupon made

overtures of reconciliation, and after various demurs, prompted

by the Pontiff's vacillating hopes and fears, but which, in the

exhausted state of his treasury, appear the dictates of insanity,

an eight months' truce was signed on the 15th of March, between the

Pope and the Emperor. It provided for a mutual restitution of all

conquests in Lower Italy, a restoration of the Colonna to their

estates and honours, and a payment by his Holiness of 60,000 ducats

towards the costs of the war. Should the French and Venetians accept

of this truce, the lansquenets were to be withdrawn from Italy; at

all events they and the Constable Bourbon's army were forthwith to

quit the ecclesiastical and Florentine territories. Whilst intimating

this arrangement to the Duke of Urbino, by a brief of the 16th of

March, Clement represents it as dictated by stern necessity, the

whole weight of the war having fallen upon himself, and as the sole

means of saving his own existence, and preserving "all Italy from

destruction."

Whilst these events were in progress in Lower Italy, the negotiations

for a general peace had produced no fruits, conducted, as they were,

with little good faith or honesty of purpose. The only one really

interested in prolonging the struggle was Francis I., whose children

were still in his rival's hands. The Italian states, weary of a

bootless contest, and disgusted by the feeble egotism of Clement,

fell into inertness akin, perhaps, to the fascination under which the

feathered tribes are said to become victims of their reptile-foe.

That foe was Charles Duke of Bourbon, son of Gilbert Count de

Montpensier, who died at Pozzuoli, in 1495, by Chiara Gonzaga,

sister of Elisabetta Duchess of Urbino. He was next heir to the

crown of France, after Francis Duke of Angoulême, who succeeded to

it as Francis I., and Charles Duke d'Alençon, whose blood had been

attainted for treason. Louis XII., having removed this attainder,

and restored the d'Alençon branch to their rights, incurred the deep

displeasure of Bourbon, who was, however, pacified by receiving, at

the age of twenty-six, the office of grand constable,--the highest

dignity of the realm. He greatly distinguished himself in Francis's

early Italian campaigns, but was recalled from the command at Milan

in 1516, in consequence of his overbearing conduct and ambitious

views. By Anna, sister of Charles VIII., whom he married in spite

of a hideously deformed person, he had the dukedom of Bourbon,

with an immense fortune; but his extravagant prodigality plunged

him into great embarrassments, and a suit brought after his wife's

death by the mother of Francis I.--whose love he was alleged to

have slighted--threatened him with utter ruin, by evicting him

from his wife's estates. In these circumstances, his jealous and

fiery temper was ready to seize upon any pretext for entering into

treasonable correspondence with the Emperor and King of England;

and, on a promise of the crown of Provence, he undertook to head an

insurrection in France as soon as Francis should cross the Alps. That

monarch having discovered the plot, at once sought the Constable in

one of his own castles, and frankly told him what he had learned.

The hypocrite had recourse to abject asseverations of innocence and

fidelity, and was ordered to attend his sovereign into Italy; but,

perceiving that his protestations had not removed suspicion, he fled

in disguise to the territory of Charles, and was declared rebel. His

perfidy and rancour now knew no bounds; he was ever after prominent

and indefatigable in the wars against his country, and mainly

instigated the descent upon Provence in 1524. He next entertained

a hope of the dukedom of Milan, by Clement's sanction; but he had

played away his honour in a losing game: despised by himself and

his employers, the prestige of success passed from his arms. Yet

his peculiar talent for courting popularity ensured him the zealous

support of his troops, who knew also that a bankrupt in character

and purse was the best leader for men intent upon pillage. To the

single merit of a winning manner, he united many odious qualities.

His unmeasured ambition was restrained by no principle, either

as to its objects, or the means of attaining them. His pride was

vain-glory, venting itself in capricious and ill-directed schemes,

and stimulating into fury a wayward and sanguinary temper, which,

when exasperated by exile and outlawry, became ungovernable.

During the war of Lombardy, the imperial generals were in a great

measure left to their own resources, both as to its conduct and its

supplies. Bourbon had for about a year maintained his army in Milan

without pay, by merciless plunder of the townspeople, upon whom

insult and outrage were unsparingly heaped. But their patience and

their means were nearly exhausted, and the difficulty of recruiting

his commissariat was greatly aggravated by judicious dispositions of

the allied army, directed by the Duke of Urbino. A forward movement

was therefore resolved upon, and as occupation and pillage were the

only chances of keeping together such disorganised troops, he led

them in search of both. Indifferent whether the spoils of Florence or

Romagna should prove the more convenient prey, he effected a junction

with Fründesberg's new levies, whose circumstances and objects

exactly corresponded with those of his own forces, and on the 30th of

January their united divisions passed the Po.

Our authorities are in many respects contradictory regarding these

operations, and especially as to the part which Francesco Maria took

in them. He seems to have been laid up at Parma, with an attack of

gout and fever, from the 3rd to the 14th of January, and to have

spent most of the next two months with his Duchess at Gazzuolo in the

Mantuese, for recovery of his health. It is insinuated by Sismondi

that this was but an excuse for abandoning the field, at a moment

when it would have been scarcely possible to pursue the policy, which

that author ascribes to him, of never risking in a general action the

prestige of invincibility. On the other hand, Leoni asserts that, at

a council of war held in Parma on the 11th of February, plans for

the campaign were proposed in writing by the different confederate

leaders, when that sent by the Duke was treacherously suppressed

by Guicciardini. Judging from the results of the campaign, there

can be no doubt that the imperialists ought to have been attacked

at this juncture; and if a general onset had been ordered on the

13th of March, when they broke out into open mutiny, Bourbon being

obliged to fly for his life, or, a few days after, when Fründesberg,

a monster of sacrilege and blasphemy, according to the Italian

historians, died of apoplexy, they would in all probability have

been totally exterminated. But they were the reserved instrument of

divine judgments; and it signifies little now to speculate whether

the immediate motives which paralysed the League were the Duke's

ill-timed caution, his anticipation that the starving band would ere

long of itself dissolve, or his personal enmity to the Pope. It is,

however, important to keep in view the cold and selfish character of

Venetian policy, and the hampering influence which their system of

_proveditori_ necessarily had upon the measures of their generals.

When Francesco Maria returned to the camp, the imperialists, who had

passed the Trebbia on the 20th of February, were slowly advancing

through the ecclesiastical state of Modena upon Bologna. His tactic

was to place them between two hostile armies; so the Marquis of

Saluzzo, with the French, ecclesiastical, and Swiss troops, preceded

them, leaving garrisons in the principal places, the Duke following

with the Venetians, some thirty miles in their rear. Against this

plan, which Guicciardini designates a strange proceeding, and

which even Baldi most justly criticises, the other leaders vainly

protested, alleging, among other reasons, that whilst the army

in advance must be speedily weakened by detaching garrisons, the

Venetians would probably hang back when their own frontier was freed

from danger. News of the truce between the Pope and the Viceroy now

arrived, and the Duke, disgusted at this new proof of Clement's

fickleness, and indifference to his allies' interests, withdrew

his army across the Po. But the courier who brought the treaty to

Bourbon at Ponte-Reno, with an order to obey its provisions, was

nearly cut to pieces by his troops, infuriated at this interference

with their hopes of booty, and the Constable refused to abide by

it. The fresh jealousy of their unstable ally, thus suggested to

the Venetians, afforded their leader a new apology for not exposing

their troops in a general action for the preservation of Bologna.

But when Bourbon had passed by that city towards Romagna and Urbino,

somewhat more spirit was infused into his movements, as the danger

seemed to approach his own frontier. He immediately sent forward

two thousand men to protect the duchy, and desired his family to

be removed for safety to Venice. On the 5th of March he had struck

his camp at Casal-Maggiore, and proceeded in pursuit of the enemy.

On that day they passed under Imola, which, with the other cities,

was garrisoned by detachments of Saluzzo, in accordance with tactics

already explained. Bourbon now scoured the plains of Romagna in

search of plunder, skirmishing occasionally with the French division.

When at Meldola on the 14th he bethought him of a descent upon Siena,

whose old Ghibelline and anti-Florentine preferences promised him a

welcome. He, therefore, penetrated the Apennines by forced marches

up the passes of the Bidente, and on the 18th reached S. Pietro in

Bagno, burning and pillaging as he went.

When the Constable's refusal to accept the treaty was known at Rome,

Clement, more perplexed than ever, besought Lanoy to hurry on and

induce him to a halt, or at all events to withdraw the Spaniards and

men-at-arms from his command. To this the Viceroy with much apparent

zeal consented; but doubts have been thrown on his sincerity, for

both he and Moncada, whilst professing cordial co-operation with the

Pope, are suspected of having secretly stimulated Bourbon's advance

upon Rome, as the only means of appeasing the troops, trusting that

the grandeur of the enterprise would, in their master's eyes, readily

excuse its criminality. It seems doubtful whether Lanoy actually met

the Constable; and his mission was understood to have exposed him

to great personal risk from the lawless and ungovernable troops. He

at all events conveyed to Bourbon a proposition for the immediate

payment to his army of 80,000 ducats, with 60,000 more during May,

on condition of their retreat within five days; these sums to be

advanced by Florence, on the Viceroy's guarantee for repayment of

one-half by the Emperor. The direct object of this proposal was to

divert the impending storm from Tuscany; and it was fully sanctioned

by Clement, true to the policy of Medicean pontiffs, who ever

regarded Florence as their patrimony, Rome as their life-interest. In

the negotiations to which it gave rise there was a double difficulty.

Whilst the demands of a mutinous and starving army were paramount to

all other considerations, each party of the confederates struggled to

throw upon another the burden of meeting them. The same selfishness

sought individual security against the future movements of the

general foe, by turning him upon some friendly frontier. The wealthy

Florentines lavished their gold to send him back upon Upper Italy,

which the timely distribution of a few thousand men in the Apennine

gorges might have prevented him from ever quitting. The game of the

Proveditore Pisani was to leave no obstacle in the way of his advance

in any direction save that of the Venetian terra-firma domain, and

to detain the Duke of Urbino with his army of observation as long as

possible near that frontier. The French strove at all hazards to keep

him clear of their Lombard conquests. The Pontiff, little dreaming

of an attack upon his capital, was distracted between the care of

Romagna and Tuscany, whilst his fickle imbecility deprived him of all

sympathy at his allies' hands; indeed, in this conflict of interests,

his pusillanimous tergiversations rendered him the weaker vessel,

and he consequently became the chief sufferer. Nor did the Duke of

Urbino escape suspicions of bad faith, for he is accused of a secret

understanding not to impede Bourbon's descent upon Tuscany, which

would naturally liberate his own duchy from danger. Guicciardini,

indeed, not only considers revenge for former injuries of the Medici

as the key to Francesco Maria's dilatory and inefficient proceedings

against the imperialists, but regards his conduct as justified by the

provocations received. These sentiments were at all events cherished

by the soldiery of Urbino, who wrote "FOR VENGEANCE" upon

the houses which they fired on their march through the Florentine

territory. Nor were these provocations light, for the grudge which

Leo had bequeathed was aggravated by a continued retention of the

fortresses in Montefeltro, and still more by an investiture of the

entire duchy, granted in 1525 by Clement, in total defiance of

the della Rovere rights, to Ascanio Colonna, whose claims we have

already considered.[310] This grant, though virtually annulled by the

same Pope's subsequent confirmation of the reinvestiture given to

Francesco Maria by Adrian VI., gave rise to renewed anxieties on his

part about two years later, and it was not until 1530 that we shall

see them finally extinguished by the Duke's generous hospitality to

his rival.

[Footnote 310: Above, p. 420.]

On the 22nd of April the Constable, finding the mountain peasantry

exasperated to a dangerous pitch by the merciless rigours of his

lawless soldiery, and his own sanguinary nature being goaded by their

ribald taunts, cut short these miserable intrigues by advancing into

Tuscany.[*311] The confederate leaders, having at length decided

on saving Florence, united their divisions, and on the 25th passed

the Apennines near the present Bologna road. The Duke now received

an offer of his fortresses of S. Leo and Maiuolo, which still

remained pledged to that commonwealth. This he answered by general

professions, and next day, sending on the army to Incisa to intercept

the approach of Bourbon, he proceeded with a band of faithful

followers to the Tuscan capital. The republican faction, calculating

upon his support, flew to arms and seized the Palazzo Vecchio, while

once more the unpopular sway of the Medici trembled in the balance.

But the Duke, with a nobility of purpose that goes far to absolve

him from suspicion as to his good faith with the Pope throughout

this campaign, rejected the temptation of avenging his many wrongs,

and, by extraordinary personal exertions, succeeded in quelling the

insurrection, and maintaining the established government. Thus, for

the first time, the city saw its Palazzo taken without a revolution

following. In gratitude for this service his fortresses were

immediately given up to Francesco Maria, who in due time received

also the thanks of his Holiness. The act for their restitution was

signed on the 1st of May, and on the 14th S. Leo was surrendered to

his lieutenant Orazio Florido.

[Footnote *311: He halted at S. Giovanni in Val d'Arno, where, though

he ought never to have been allowed to come so far, he might have

been easily crushed in that narrow pass. But if the Duke of Urbino

showed now a certain activity, it was not of the sort to crush this

adventure. Bourbon wheeled into the Via Francigena and marched down

to Rome and death. "To Rome! to Rome!" were his dying words.]

Bourbon's head-quarters were meanwhile at Montevarchi, near

Arezzo, where, seeing his approach to Florence foiled, and the

dissatisfaction of his followers on the increase, he decided upon

making a dash at Rome; his only alternative being to lead them to

pillage, or perish at their hands. As a blind to the Pope, he sent

forward a courier to demand free passage to Naples; and, after

receiving some supplies from Siena, he abandoned his artillery and

heavy baggage in order to lighten his march. He began it on the 26th,

and, notwithstanding incessant rains and an entirely disorganised

commissariat, he passed without halt or question by Acquapendente and

Viterbo to Rome.[312]

[Footnote 312: Many facts regarding the war in Lombardy and the march

to Rome are given by Baldi (Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 906) with a minuteness

and impartiality not found in other writers. The feeble views of

Clement are illustrated by his brieves to the Duke of Urbino, noticed

in I. of the Appendix to our next volume.]

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I

(Pages 33, 34)

PORTRAITS OF CESARE BORGIA

The same extremes of reprobation and flattery which alternate

in notices of the Duke Valentino puzzle us as to his personal

appearance. Giovio, the ardent collector of historical portraits,

while describing those which he had brought together, thus comments

upon that of Borgia:--"He is said to come of a plague-stricken stock

and of corrupted blood; for a livid rush overspread his face, which

was full of pimples shedding matter. His eyes, too, were deeply

sunk, and their fierce snake-like glance seemed to flash fire, so

that even his friends and comrades could not bear to look upon them;

yet, while flirting with the ladies, he had a wonderful knack of

playing the agreeable." The pen which inscribed these sentences was

evidently charged with even more than its wonted gall; but, after

every allowance, they cannot well be reconciled with a report of the

Venetian envoy Capello, dated in 1500, and bearing that "the Pope

loves and greatly fears his son the Duke, who is aged twenty-seven

years; his head is most beautiful; he is tall and well made, and

handsomer than King Ferdinand."

Nor can we attain to any more satisfactory conclusion from such

pictures as are alleged to transmit his features. We have no key to

identify as his any of the heads introduced by Pinturicchio into

those fine but little noticed frescoes commissioned by Alexander

VI. for the Torre di Borgia, now a wing of the Vatican Library. The

exquisite medallists of Romagna do not appear to have exercised their

skill upon his bust. Of easel portraits I am aware of six, which I

mention for the curious in such matters, although not prepared to

consider any of them genuine.

1. The elegant effeminate-looking Spaniard in the Borghese Gallery,

attributed to Raffaele, is now admitted to be a misnomer both of

subject and artist.

2. A mean head, in the manner of Federigo Zuccaro, was purchased

a few years ago at Rome by my late friend Monsignor Laureani,

librarian of the Vatican, as that of Valentino, and passed from

him, in 1844, to my friend the Cavaliere Campana. Its sinister and

spiteful expression is not unworthy of such a monster; and allowing

an artist's licence in disguising a complexion which no one would

willingly represent, it might tally with Giovio's too graphic

details. The figure is, however, short, while Capello describes

Cesare as tall.

3. A letter from Giuseppe Vallardi to Count Cesare di Castelbarco

Visconti was privately printed at Milan in 1843, in which he claims

to have discovered in the Count's palace a portrait of Borgia by

Raffaele, the original chalk study of which belonged to himself. From

the mass of verbiage usual in similar Italian effusions of "municipal

fanaticism," there may be extracted an allegation that the picture

had been painted from that earlier drawing about 1508, and a bold

inference is hazarded from their style that both were the handiwork

of Sanzio. The lithograph, however, would entitle us to ascribe them

rather to the Milanese school, and such is admitted to be the opinion

of various connoisseurs. No fact is adduced to authenticate the head,

or to show that Raffaele ever saw Valentino; indeed, the name seems

to libel a countenance so gentle, refined, and unimpassioned.

4. Vallardi mentions in the same letter another Borgian head, by

Giorgione, as in the Lochis Gallery at Bergamo, of which I cannot

speak, not having seen it.

5. A handsome over-dressed youth was engraved for Gordon's _Life of

Alexander VI._, in 1729, from a picture said to belong to D. Giuseppe

Valetta of Naples, which I entirely failed in tracing while in Italy.

Neither have I discovered any authority for supposing that soulless

epicurean to be Cesare Borgia.

Finally, we may include Fuseli's notice of a picture by Titian,

no longer, however, in the Borghese collection, representing a

conference between the Usurper of Romagna and Machiavelli. A finer

subject for the pencil of that intellectual limner could hardly be

found, but Valentino's prodigality was apparently never lavished on

art.[313] In his eleventh lecture, Fuseli also mentions a portrait of

Cesare by Giorgione, as hanging for study in the Royal Academy.

[Footnote 313: In Leonardo da Vinci he saw only a military engineer.

His commission, desiring that great genius to survey and report

upon all his fortresses, in the summer of 1502, is quoted in

BROWN'S _Life of Leonardo_, p. 118, and accordingly Urbino

was visited by him on the 30th of July.]

APPENDIX II

(Page 34)

DUKE GUIDOBALDO I. OF URBINO A KNIGHT OF THE GARTER

The loss of all early records of the Order, in consequence of their

having long been entrusted to the private and insecure custody of

its successive officers, has already placed us at disadvantage in

noticing the admission of Duke Federigo, but from various sources

we are enabled to glean much more satisfactory notices as to the

election and installation of his son to this honourable knighthood.

The chapter at which he was chosen is not preserved by Anstis, but

its date is known from the following letter, the original of which,

in Latin, I had the good fortune to discover in the Oliveriana

Library at Pesaro.[314]

[Footnote 314: MSS. No. 374, vol. I., p. 55.]

"Henry, by the grace of God, King of England and France,

Lord of Ireland, to the most illustrious and potent

Prince the Lord Guido Ubaldo, Duke of Urbino, our most

dear friend, health and augmented prosperity. We wrote

lately to inform your Highness that we had resolved upon

forthwith summoning a chapter of our military Order of the

Garter, for the purpose of creating your Sublimity a knight

thereof, and by the same letters gave you tidings of such

creation. We have now to signify how, in fulfilment of that

our promise, we have made your Highness a Knight of that

Order; and this we have done most cordially, not only on

account of our old necessity, which formerly occurred to

us with your father the illustrious Duke of happy memory,

but also in consideration of your singular merit and

virtues. Indeed we are assured that henceforward your

Highness will ever be regarded as our most attached cousin

and intimate friend, which you will more fully learn from

our distinguished cousin the Lord Talbot, a knight of that

Order, as also from the Reverend [Richard Bere] Lord Abbot

of Glastonbury, and the Venerable Sir Robert Shirbourn,

Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, our counsellors and

ambassadors, whom we have sent to offer our catholic and

filial obedience to our supreme Lord [Julius II.]. To these

our envoys we have committed all the knightly insignia

of the Garter, to be made over to your Highness, and our

anxious desire is that you will accept them in the same

spirit of cordial affection in which they are sent. We pray

you further to receive these our ambassadors as accredited

in our behalf, and that you will please to aid them with

your favour and counsels, which will be to us peculiarly

agreeable. Finally, as the Venerable Mr. Robert Shirbourn,

one of these our envoys, is by our command to remain for

some time as our minister at the Roman Court to transact

certain affairs of ours with our Lord his Holiness, we

therefore beseech your Sublimity that you will vouchsafe

to assist him, as our agent, with your gracious influence,

which has great and just weight with our Holy Father, and

that you will extend to him such favours as he may request;

by all which you will do us a singular pleasure. Further,

if it be in our power any way to oblige you, freely make

use of us and ours. From our palace near Westminster, the

20th of February, 1503-4.[315]

"HENRICUS REX."

[Footnote 315: It is pleasant to find the arts from time to time

becoming handmaids of history as well as of religion; and the

friendly feeling for England then cherished at Urbino is curiously

illustrated by a bequest of Bishop Arrivabene, who, in 1504, left 400

golden scudi to be expended in decorating a chapel, dedicated to St.

Martin and St. Thomas of Canterbury: the Duchess Elisabetta was one

of the trustees, and the fresco ordered by them from Girolamo Genga

included a representation of the English saint, and a portrait of

Duke Guidobaldo.]

The instructions to these ambassadors, dated the 20th of February,

and printed by Anstis, run thus:--

"And after due recommendacions, and presentaciones of the Kinge's

lettres [to Duke Guidobaldo], firste the saide Abbot of Glastonburye

shall make a brefe oracion, wherein he shall not onlye touche the

laudes of the noble Order of the Garter, and of the Kinges Highnes

as sovereigne of the same, but also declare the great vertues and

notable deades of the saide Duke, and how his progenitors and

auncestors have been accepted thereunto, and to theyr greate honor

have used the same, with the desyrous mynde that the sayde Duke is to

be honored therwithal; for the which consideracions and causes the

Kinge's Highness, by the assent of the Companions of that Order, have

been the rather moved and induced to name and elect him thereunto,

trustinge verelie that, his greate noblenesse with other of his

valiant actes and singuler vertues consydered, he shall not onlye

greatlye honor the saide Order, but also take greate honor by the

same. Shewinge fynallye that the Kinge's Highnes, for the singular

zeale, love, and affection which his Grace beareth unto hym, hath

sent hym them ornaments belonginge to the sayd Order, and with as

good and hartye mynde wylleth hyme to be honored therewith as anye

other prince lyvinge, desyring him therefore thankfullye to accept

the same, and to use and weare it in a memoriall of his Grace, and of

the saide notable and auncyant Order.

"And, after the proposition so sayde, they shall present theyr

commyssyon unto the sayde Duke, and cause the same openlye to be

read, and so followinge, the Abbot of Glastonburye shall in good

and reverent manner requyre him to make his corporall othe for the

inviolable observaunce of the same, lyke as, bye the tenure of the

saide estatuts, every Knight of that Order is bownde to do, in form

followinge:--

"Ego Guido Ubaldus, Dei Gratia Dux Urbinatis, honorificentissimi

atque approbatissimi Ordinis Garterii Miles et Confrater electus,

juro ad hæc sancta Dei evangelia per me corporaliter tacta, quod

omnia et singula statuta leges et ordinationes ipsius dignissimi

Ordinis bene sincere et inviolabiliter observabo. Ita me Deus

adjuvet, et hæc sancta Dei evangelia!

"Which othe geven, Sir Gybert Talbot shall deliver the Garter to hym,

and cause the same in good and honorable manner to be put about his

legge, the saide Abbott of Glastonburye sayinge audablye thes wordes

followinge:--

"Ad laudem et honorem summi atque omnipotentis Dei, intemeratæ

Virginis et Matris suæ Mariæ, ac gloriosissimi martiris Georgii,

hujus Ordinis Patroni, circumcingo tibiam tuam hoc Garterio, ut

possis in isto bello firmiter stare et fortiter vincere, in signum

Ordinis et augmentum tui honoris.

"Which thinge so don, the saide Sir Gylbert shall deliver unto the

saide Duke the gowne of purple couler, and cause hym to apparrell

hymself with the same, the saide Abbot of Glastonburye sayinge thes

wordes followinge, at the doinge on of the same:--

"Accipe vestem hanc purpuream, quâ semper munitus non verearis pro

fide Christi, libertate ecclesiæ et oppressorum tuitione fortiter

dimicare, et sanguinem effundere, in signum Ordinis et augmentum tui

honoris.

"And then followinge, the sayd Sir Gilbert shall cause the sayde

Duke to do upon hym the mantle of blew velvett, garnyshed with the

scute and crosse of Saint George, and the said Abbot of Glastonburye

sayinge thes wordes:--

"Accipe clamidem coelestis coloris clypeo crucis Christi

insignitam, cujus virtute atque vigore semper protectus, hostes

superare, et pro clarissimis tuis meritis gaudia tandem coelestia

promereri valeas, in signum Ordinis et augmentum tui honoris.

"And when the saide Duke shall be so apperrylled with the ornaments

aforesaide, the saide Sir Gylbert shall put the image of Seinte

George abowt his necke, the saide Abbott saying thes wordes:--

"Imaginem gloriosissimi martiris Georgii, hujus Ordinis patroni, in

collo tuo deferes, cujus fultus presidio hujus mundi prospera et

adversa sic pertranseas, ut hostibus corporis et animi devictis,

non modo temporalis militiæ gloriam, sed perennis victoriæ palmam

accipere valeas, in signum Ordinis et augmentum tui honoris."

Hollinshed, following Hall, informs us that "Sir Gilbert Talbot,

Knight, Richard Bere, Abbot of Glastonburie, and Doctor Robert

Sherborne, Deane of St. Paules, were sent as ambassadors from the

King to Rome, to declare to Pius the third of that name, newlie

elected pope in place of Alexander the Sixt, deceased, what joy and

gladnesse had entered the King's heart for his preferment. But he

taried not the comming of those ambassadors, for within a moneth

after that he was installed, he rendered his debt to nature, and so

had short pleasure of his promotion.... The King caused Guidebald,

Duke of Urbine, to be elected Knight of the Order of the Garter, in

like manner as his father Duke Frederike had been before him, which

was chosen and admitted into the Order by King Edward the Fourth. Sir

Gilbert Talbot, and the other two ambassadors, being appointed to

keepe on their journey unto Pope Julius the Second, elected after the

death of the said Pius the Third, bare the habit, and collar also,

unto the said Duke Guidebald."[316] It must, however, be observed

that letters of safe conduct for these ambassadors are stated to have

been issued under the Privy Seal on the 22nd of February, 1504, as if

but then beginning their journey. This mission was in accordance with

the statutes of the Order, which provided that, within four months

of the election, special messengers should be despatched to invest

each foreign knight with the insignia, and that, within eight months

after the investiture, he should send a proctor to England to receive

installation in his name.

[Footnote 316: Hall quaintly says that the King intended "to stop two

gappes with one bushe."]

We learn from Burchard that the three envoys reached Rome the 12th

of May, 1504. They were met by Sylvester Gigli, Bishop of Worcester,

Anglican resident at the papal court, and had a splendid reception.

On the 20th they had an audience, when, the minister of Louis XII.

having protested against Henry taking the style of France, they

were admitted as the ambassadors of England only. No details have

reached us of the investiture. The authority to which we naturally

turn for the circumstances attending this interesting episode of our

narrative is Polydoro di Vergilio, a native of Urbino, and historian

of England; but a fact, which to the writer ought to have been of

peculiar importance, is passed over without details. As, however,

the supposed autograph copy of his History varies considerably from

printed editions, we shall here quote from it the entire passage,

proving the incorrect manner in which this work is given to the

public.

"Alexandro Sexto mortuo, creatus est Pontifex Franciscus, Senensis

antistes, qui Pii fuit Secundi ex sorore nepos, voluitque et ipse

Pius Tertius in memoria avunculi vocari. Hic amicissimus erat regis

Henrici [VII.], qui, ut primus omnium Christianorum principum bono

patri de adepto pontificatu congratularetur, confestim Gilbertum

Talbott equitem, Ricardum Beer Abbatem Glasconiensem, et Robertum

Scherburn decanum divi Pauli Londinensis oratores designavit ad ipsum

pontificatum. Sed Pius non expectavit gratulationem, qui obiit sexto

et vigesimo die quam sedere coeperat. Creatur in ejus locum Julianus,

Cardinalis Sti. Petri ad Vincula, patria Ligur, dictusque est Julius

Secundus. Huic postea illi tres regis oratores congratulatum inerunt,

quos Hadrianus Castellensis episcopus Herefordensis, quem paulo

ante Alexander Cardinalem fecerat, Romæ hospitio excepit. Hunc rex

Henricus sub idem tempus ab Herefordensi sede ad Bathoniensem ac

Wellensem transferri curavit. At Hadrianus, ut præter sua quotidiana

obsequia, quæ tam regi quam Anglis omnibus libens præstabat, aliquo

diuturniori memoriæ monumento relinqueret, apud omnes testatum se

memorem fuisse acceptorum beneficiorum ab Henrico, atque nomen

Anglicum amasse, donavit regi palatium magnificum quod ipse Romæ

in Vaticano ædificaverat, ornavitque regis insignibus, ut in

ea luce hominum aliquod egregium opus nomini Anglico dedicatum

conspiceretur.[317] Item, iidem oratores detulerunt habitum Garterii

ordinis Guidoni Duci Urbini, principi seculo nostro Latinæ Linguæ

simul ac Græcæ ac militaris disciplinæ peritissimo, quem Rex paulo

ante in Collegium ipsius Ordinis asciverat. Dux postea destinavit

in Angliam Baldasarem Castilliorum, natione Mantuanum, equitem tam

doctrinâ quam bellicâ virtute præstantem, ut suo nomine ejus Ordinis

cerimonias exequeret. Fuit Baldaser ab Henrico perbenigne exceptus,

atque comiter habitus; qui, finitis ceremoniis, non indonatus,

postmodum ad suum Decem redivit."[318]

[Footnote 317: The palace thus gifted to Henry is believed to have

been that in Borgo, called Palazzo Giraud, in which many of our

countrymen have of late received the splendid hospitalities of Prince

Torlonia.]

[Footnote 318: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 498, f. 273. For Polydoro di

Vergilio, see above, pp. 115-18.]

There is thus no authority for a statement in the printed version of

this History, adopted by Hall, Baldi, and others, that the decoration

was conferred in consequence of Guidobaldo's own wish to belong to

an Order, of whose illustration he had become cognisant from its

having been borne by his father. Perhaps the requests which conclude

the letter of Henry VII. may give the most satisfactory key to the

royal policy. Informed, as he no doubt was, of the state of affairs

at the Papal court, he must have been aware that to conciliate the

Duke was the wisest course for those who had favours to gain from the

Pontiff. Be this as it may, the Garter was received by Guidobaldo at

Rome in June, as became so singular an honour, and was proudly worn

next St. George's day in compliance with the rules of the Order.

Having resolved suitably so to acknowledge the dignity by a special

envoy to London, he selected as his proctor Castiglione, the choicest

spirit of his elegant court. The first we hear of this intention is

from the Count's letter of 2nd March, 1505, confidently informing

his mother that he would probably be sent to represent his master

at his installation in England. The plan, however, remained long in

abeyance. Castiglione spent the autumn at the baths of S. Casciano in

Tuscany, for an old injury or wound in his foot, and, in the end of

the year, went on a mission to Ferrara.[319] At length he set out,

on the 24th of July, 1506, accompanied by Francesco di Battista di

Ricece, and Giulio da Cagli, with their respective suites. Among the

presents he was charged to deliver to the King were some falcons,

three of the finest racers of the Urbino breed, and a precious

little picture, by Raffaele, of St. George as patron of the English

Order, which we have already mentioned at p. 233. He was at Lyons in

September, and this notice of his arrival at Dover is preserved by

Anstis:--

"The 20th of Octobre, the twenty-second year of our soverain lord,

King Henry VII., there landed at Dover a noble ambassadeur, sent

from the Duc of Urbin, called Sir Balthasar de Castilione, whiche

came to be installed in his lorde's name; whiche Duc had receyved

before by the Abbot of Glastonbury and Sir Gilbert Talbott, being the

King's commissionaris, the Garetier, &c., to the Ordre apperteyning.

And, to mete with the said ambassadeur, was sent Sir Thomas Brandon,

havyng a goodly companye with hym of his owne servants, all verely

well horsed, unto the see-seyde; whiche, after they met togedre,

kept contynnually compagnie with hym, and, when they approched nere

to Deptford, ther met with the forsaid ambassadeur by the King's

commandement, the Lord Thomas Dokara, lord of St. John's, and Thomas

Writhesley, alias Gartier princypall king of Armes. Whiche lord of

St. John's had in his compaignie thirty of his servaunts, all in

a lyvery new, well horsed, every [one] of his gentlemen beryng a

javelayn in his hand, and every yeman havying his bowe and a sheffe

of arrowes, and soe convoyed hym to his lodging, and on the morrow

unto London. And by the waye ther met with the said ambassadeur

dyvers Italyens, as the Pope's Vicecollector, Paulus de Gygeles

[Giliis], with dyvers [others]; and soe convoyed hym to the Pope's

Vicecollector's hows, wher he was lodged."

[Footnote 319: I can find nothing in support of Roscoe's assertion

that he was wounded while aiding Guidobaldo to recover his duchy, and

the whole facts seem to contradict it. _Leo X._, ch. vii., § 7, note.

That usually accurate writer has fallen into the mistake of ascribing

to the Count's _sister_ his interment and monumental inscription in

the church of the Minims, near Mantua, while the epitaph which he has

printed, bears that Aloysia Gonzaga placed it over a worthy _son_,

whom she unwillingly survived. Several dates in our text are supplied

from Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 904, p. 43.]

Two days after Castiglione reached London he was sent for by the

King, whose marked favour, whilst he stated the objects of his

mission in an eloquent Latin address, is recorded in his own letters.

The installation took place on the 10th of November, upon the

following commission, printed by Ashmole:--

"Henry, by the grace of God, &c. Forasmuch as we understand that

the right noble prince Gwe de Ubaldis, Duke of Urbin, who was

heretofore elected to be one of the companions of the said noble

Order, cannot conveniently repair into this our realm, personally to

be installed in the collegiate church of that Order, and to perform

other ceremonies whereunto by the statutes of the said Order he is

bound, but for that intent and purpose hath sent a right honourable

personage, Balthasar de Castilione, Knight, sufficiently authorised

as his proctor, to be installed in his name, and to perform all other

things for him, to the statutes and ordinances of the said Order

requisite and appertaining. We, therefore, in consideration of the

premises, will, and by these presents, give unto you licence, full

power, and authority, not only to accept and admit the said Balthasar

as proctor for the same Duke, and to receive his oath and instal him

in the lieu and place and for the said Duke, but also farther, to do

therein as to the statutes and laudable usages of the said Order it

appertaineth; and this our writing shall be to you and every of you

sufficient discharge in that behalf. Given under the seale of our

said noble Order of the Garter, at our mannor of Grenewiche, the 7th

day of November, the twenty-second year of our reign."

After the ceremonial was concluded, the Count visited the other

knights in the name of his master. This installation by proxy has

given rise to a confusion that he was himself honoured with the

Garter, which Roscoe first exposed. It is probable, however, that

he was knighted by Henry, a dignity he had vainly looked for at the

hand of Julius II. before his departure; at all events he received

from him, besides gifts of horses and dogs, a gold chain or collar

of SS links, from which depended two portcullises and a golden rose

with its centre of silver. This chain, long peculiar to English chief

justices, is traced by Dugdale from the initials of Saint Simplicius,

a primitive Christian judge and martyr; and the badge was adopted

by that monarch as heir of the Plantagenets through both rival

roses. The decoration, mistaken by Marliani for the collar of the

Garter, was destined by the Count as an heirloom, and it accordingly

surrounded his armorial coat in that dedication copy of his letter

to Henry, narrating the life of Guidobaldo, which he described by

Anstis. On the 9th of February, 1507, he was at Milan on his return

to Urbino, where he arrived about the end of the month, charged with

affectionate letters and messages from Henry, and with rich presents.

His conversation, of all that he had seen in a country so imperfectly

known, was greatly relished by the Duke, and his anecdotes of its

court, its wealth, and its wonders long continued to enliven the

palace-circle of Montefeltro.

APPENDIX III

(Page 138)

GIOVANNI SANZI'S MS. CHRONICLE OF FEDERIGO DUKE OF URBINO

Considering the importance of Sanzi's Rhyming Chronicle of Duke

Federigo to the literary history of Urbino, and the almost total

neglect in which it has hitherto lain, we shall here describe with

some minuteness the only copy of it known to exist. It is a large

and thick folio volume, No. 1305 of the Ottoboniana MSS. in the

Vatican Library, written on paper in a firm Italian hand of the

fifteenth century, expressly for the Duke Guidobaldo I., to whom it

is dedicated. Some passages have been interpolated on the margin, and

others are altered by pasting a new version over the cancelled lines,

in a character slightly different from that of the text, of which,

being probably autograph, a fac-simile is given on the following

page.[320]

[Footnote 320: This marginal interpolation, occurring in the

dedication, runs thus:--"Pregandoti humilmente ryguardi ly gloriosi

fatti del tuo famoso padre, e non la basseza del myo style [not

"srypt," as Passavant reads it], ornato solo da me dy quella sincer

fede che deue vn fydeli servo al suo signore."]

The general title, supplied in a much later hand, runs

thus:--"Historia della Guerra d'Italia nel tempo de' PP. Pio e Paolo

II., del 1478, in versi di Gio[~v]. Sati al Duca di Urbino"; but the

Chronicle itself is thus headed, "Principio del opera composta da

Giohanni Santi, pictore, nelaquale se contiene la vita e gesti de lo

illustrissimo et invictissimo Principe Federico Feretrano, Duca di

Urbino." A prose dedication occupies four pages, and is followed by a

prologue of nine chapters in verse; the poem itself is divided into a

hundred and four chapters, arranged in twenty-three books, the whole

work consisting of about twenty-four thousand lines.[321] It may be

not uninteresting to print the contents of these chapters, supplying

the omitted titles of the two first.

[Footnote 321: Several errors in the numeration, both of the folios

and chapters, might readily deceive a superficial observer, and have

misled even Passavant.]

[Illustration: [Transcriber's Note: handwritten text; see footnote

320 above]]

LIBRO PRIMO.

CAP. I. [Of the race of Montefeltro preceding Duke

Federico, and of his birth and betrothal.]

CAP. II. [Of the boyish embassies of Count

Federico; of his education and marriage.]

CAP. III. Nel quale se tracta de la prima militia

sua cum Nicolo Picinino.

CAP. IV. Nel quale si tratta la rocta di Monte

Locho.

CAP. V. De la predicta rocta di Monte Locho.

LIBRO SECONDO.

CAP. VI. Nel quale se tratta el rincondurse del C.

Federico cum Nicolo Piccino e el guerre de la Marca.

CAP. VII. Nel quale se tratta la morte del Duca

Oddantonio el diventare el Conte Signore de Urbino.

CAP. VIII. Nel quale poi uarie cose, se tratta le

rebillione de la Marca contra el Conte Francesco Sforza.

CAP. IX. Nel quale se tratta l'aspera guerra per

Papa Eugenio al Conte Federico.

CAP. X. De varie cose e del tradimento de

Fossambrone contra del Conte Federico.

CAP. XI. De la rotta del Signore Sigismondo ha

Fossambrone.

LIBRO TERZO.

CAP. XII. Nel quale se contiene la guerra de

Toscana per il Re Alfonso contra Fiorentini, et la condutta

del Conte Federico cum loro.

CAP. XIII. Nel quale se tratta de lo assedio di

Pionbino per el Re Alfonso.

CAP. XIV. De la morte del Duca Phillippo, et

diverse guerre de Lombardia.

LIBRO QUARTO.

CAP. XV. Nel quale se contiene la condutta del

Conte cum el Re Alfonso, et la guerra di Toscana al tempo

di Ferrante Duca de Calabria.

CAP. XVI. De uarie cose de Lombardia, et la lega

quasi de tutta Italia, e l'andata del Conte a Napoli.

CAP. XVII. Parlamento insieme del S. Sigismondo et

de Conte a Ferrara, per el mezo del Duca Borso.

CAP. XVIII. Resposta del Conte al S. Sigismondo

nel predicto parlamento.

LIBRO QUINTO.

CAP. XIX. Nel quale se contiene la guerra fra el

S. Sigismondo el Conte de Urbino, et la uenuta del Conte

Jacomo Piccinino contra del S. Sigismondo.

CAP. XX. De la preditta guerra.

LIBRO SESTO.

CAP. XXI. Nel quale se contiene el principio et

uarie guerre del Reame di Napoli al tempo del Duca Giohanni

contra de el Re Ferrante.

CAP. XXII. Del andata del Conte Jacomo nel Reame

contra de el Re Ferrante.

CAP. XXIII. De la rotta del Re a Sarno, et el

correre scontro de dui Braceschi cum dui Feltreschi.

CAP. XXIV. Del fatto e l'arme de Santo Fabiano.

CAP. XXV. Del preditto fatto d'arme de Santo

Fabiano.

CAP. XXVI. Del predicto fatto d'arme.

LIBRO SETTIMO.

CAP. XXVII. Nel quale se contiene uarie e diuerse

ribellione de cipta e castelli de la predicta guerra del

Reame.

CAP. XXVIII. De la correria del Aquila a la citta,

et la expugnatione de Albi.

LIBRO OTTAVO.

CAP. XXIX. Nel quale se contiene le predicte

guerre del Reame, et molti expugnatione de castelli, et

lo assedio famossissimo de Casteluccio, et la uenuta del

Signori chi erano in Abruzo per la sua liberatione.

CAP. XXX. De la oratione fatta a li militi del

Conte, et la expugnatione di Castellucio.

CAP. XXXI. Dele preditte guerre del Reame e dela

rotta del S. Napolione inela la Marca.

LIBRO NONO.

CAP. XXXII. Nel quale se contiene la rotta che

dette el Conte al S. Sigismondo ha Senegaglia.

CAP. XXXIII. Del preditto fatto d'arme.

CAP. XXXIV. De la preditta guerra contra el S.

Sigismondo, et lo aquisto de diverse sue terre.

CAP. XXXV. De la preditta guerra contra el S.

Sigismondo, et la industriosa expugnatione de la Rocha de

Veruchio, et la assedio di Fano.

CAP. XXXVI. Del medesimo assedio di Fano, et la

uictoria di quello.

LIBRO DECIMO.

CAP. XXXVII. Nel quale se contiene l'ultima ruina

del S. Sigismondo, landata del Papa Pio in Ancona et la sua

morte, la creatione de Paulo II., la ruina del stato de

Deifobo da l'Auguilara, et la guerra de Cesena, da poi la

morte del S Malatesta.

CAP. XXXVIII. De la uictoria de Cesena la morte

del Duca Francesco [Sforza] et l'andata del Conte ha Milano.

LIBRO UNDECIMO.

CAP. XXXIX. Nel quale se contiene la nouita de

Fiorenza nel sesanta sei, et la guerra de Romagna per

Bartholomeo da Bergamo.

CAP. XL. De la preditta guerra de Romagna.

CAP. XLI. Oratione del Conte a li suoi militi

nante el fatto d'arme de la Mulinella.

CAP. XLII. Del bellissimo fatto d'arme fra

Bartholomeo, el Conte a la Mulinella.

CAP. XLIII. Del preditto fatto d'arme de la

Mulinella.

CAP. XLIV. De la preditta guerra, e 'l sachegiare

el Conte alle del Amone.

LIBRO DUODECIMO.

CAP. XLV. Nel quale se contiene la guerra et lo

assedio de Arimino per Papa Paulo.

CAP. XLVI. Del preditto assedio de Arimino, et una

proua mirabile del S. Roberto.

CAP. XLVII. De la preditta guerra, e una alto

pensiero del Conte per la liberatione de Arimino.[322]

[Footnote 322: This chapter being numbered XLVI. by mistake

in the original, the subsequent numbers here given are

always in advance by _one_ until Cap. LXXIII.]

CAP. XLVIII. De la preditta guerra, e locutione

del Conte ali militi nante el fatto, d'arme da Ceresuolo.

CAP. XLIX. De la uenuta de le gente de la Chiesa a

trouare el Conte.

CAP. L. Del bellissimo fatto d'arme da Cerisuolo.

CAP. LI. Del preditto fatto d'arme de Cerisuolo.

CAP. LII. Dela rotta dele gente de la Chiesa a

Cerisuolo.

CAP. LIII. Del fine de la guerra di Arimino.

LIBRO DECIMO TERZO.

CAP. LIV. Nel quale se tratta la rebellione de

Volterra contra Fiorentini, et l'andata del Conte per

campegiarla.

CAP. LV. Del campegiare de Volterra.

CAP. LVI. Del sacho de Volterra.

CAP. LVII. Dela tornata del Conte a casa, et dela

morte dela excellentissima donna sua, Madonna Baptista

Sforza.

LIBRO DECIMO QUARTO.

CAP. LVIII. Nel quale se contiene le fabriche et

magni hedificii che fea murare el Conte, et inparte la sua

uita altempo di pace.

CAP. LIX. Delo istudio del Conte, et dela venuta

del Cardinale de Samsixto ad Ogobio.

LIBRO DECIMO QUINTO.

CAP. LX. In questo se contiene l'andata del Conte

ha Napoli, et molti honori et dignita quale habbe in quella

andata.

CAP. LXI. Et quale tratta como el Conte fu fatto

Duca de Urbino, et delo assedio dela cipta de Castello.

CAP. LXII. De varie turbulentie, et precipue de

Romagna.

LIBRO DECIMO SESTO.

CAP. XLIII. Nel quale se contiene la venuta delo

Re Ferrante a Roma, l'andata del Duca, et la dignita de la

Galatera.

CAP. LXIV. Como el Duca receue la Galatea, et de

la morte del Duca Galeazo Duca de Milano.

CAP. LXV. Del luoco, et como, el di che fu morto

el preditto Duca Galeazo Maria.

CAP. LXVI. Discurso de la dubia uita de Signori et

de grani ciptadini.

LIBRO DECIMO SETTIMO.

CAP. LXVII. Nel quale se contiene la tornata del

Conte Carlo [Braccio] a Montone, le nouita de Penisia per

la sua uenuta, et landata che lui fea contra Senesi.

CAP. LXVIII. Del andare el Conte a campo a

Montone, et la expugnatione de esso Montone.

LIBRO DECIMO OCTAVO.

CAP. LXIX. Nel qual se contiene como el Signor

Carlo Manfredi fu chaciato de Faenza da el fratello

chiamato el Signor Galeotto; la mossa che fece el Conte in

suo favore, et como nel tornare adrieto essendo a Sanmarino

se ruppe uno piede.

CAP. LXX. Del modo et conmo el Duca se ruppe

el piede, et de la grauissima sua egritudine et de la

conjuratione contra li Medici in Fiorenza.

CAP. LXXI. De lo insulto contra de Laurentio de

Medici, et de la morte del suo fratello Giuliano.

CAP. LXXII. De la destrutione de la casa de

Pazzi, et del principio de la guerra de Toscano nel

MCCCLXXVIII.

LIBRO DECIMO NONO.

CAP. LXXIII.[323] Nel quale se tratta el primo

anno dela guerra di Toscana.

[Footnote 323: This chapter, being omitted in the original

numeration, the subsequent five numbers are in advance by

_two_.]

CAP. LXXIV. Dela unione che fece insieme el Duca

Alfonso Duca di Calabria, el Duca de Urbino.

CAP. LXXV. Delo assedio del Monte Samsavino, et

dele dificulta che il Duca ui sostinne.

CAP. LXXVI. Oratione lunga del Duca ali militi al

Monte Samsavino.

CAP. LXXVII. Dela preditta oratione.

CAP. LXXVIII. Del astutia che uso el Duca per

hauere la triegua al Monte Samsavino.

CAP. LXXIX. Dela proposta del Duca dela triegua

ali Signori del Campo, et dela expugnatione del Monte.[324]

[Footnote 324: This chapter being omitted in the original

numeration, the subsequent numbers are in advance by

_three_ until No. XCVII.]

LIBRO VIGESIMO.

CAP. LXXX. Nel quale se contiene el secondo anno

dela guerra de Toscana.

CAP. LXXXI. De diuersi danni de Perusini, et dela

morte del Conte Carlo, e altre cose.

CAP. LXXXII. Dela ruina de Casole, luoco de

Senesi, et dela uitoria del Signor Roberto ala Magione.

CAP. LXXXIII. De molti danni de Perusini per

el Signor Roberto, et l'aquisto per el Duca del Monte

Inperiale.

CAP. LXXXIV. De liberarse li Perusini dali danni

de Signor Roberto et delo assedio di Colle.

CAP. LXXXV. Del predicto assedio di Colle.

CAP. LXXXVI. Dela battaglia prima data ha Colle.

CAP. LXXXVII. De poi piu baptaglie data ha Colle,

et la uictoria hauta di lui.

CAP. LXXXVIII. De l'andata di Lorenzo di Medici a

Napoli, et la pace cum Fiorentini del Papa et del Re.

LIBRO VIGESIMO PRIMO.

CAP. LXXXIX. Dela stantia del Duca a Viterbo, et

dela dignita del Capello et dela Spada.

CAP. XC. Delo aquisto de Furli per et Conte

Geronimo Riario, et prima del andata del Duca.

CAP. XCI. Dela uictoria di Furli, et la

possessione de esso per el preditto Conte, et la uenuta de

Turchi a Otranto.

CAP. XCII. De la guerra de Turchi in Puglia.

LIBRO VIGESIMO SECONDO.

CAP. XCIII. Nel quale se contiene la guerra de

Ferrara per li Venetiani contra del Duca Ercule di Este,

et prima dela practica de essa guerra, l'andata del Conte

Geronimo a Vinesa.

CAP. XCIV. Dela preditta guerra de Ferara, et

landata del Signor Roberto da Santo Seuerino a Vinesa.

CAP. XCV. Dela partita del Duca da Urbino per

andare a Milano, e una disputa dela pictura.

CAP. XCVI. Dela ditta guerra de Ferrara, et dello

assedio de Figaruolo.

CAP. XCVII.[325] Del preditto assedio de

Figaruolo, le turbulentie de Roma, l'andata del Signor

Roberto Malatesta.

[Footnote 325: This number being repeated by mistake in the

original, the subsequent numbers are in advance by _two_.]

CAP. XCVIII. Del ditto assedio de Figaruolo, e

de la morte de Messer Pier deli Ubaldini al bastione dala

Punta.

CAP. XCIX. Dela aspre battaglie quale deva el

Signor Roberto da Santo Seuerino a Figaruolo.

CAP. C. Como el Signor Roberto da poi molte

baptaglie vinse Figaruolo.

LIBRO VIGESIMO TERZO.

CAP. CI. Nel quale se contiene el ponte che fece

el Signore Roberto per passare el Po, la rotta del Duca di

Callabria a Campomorto.

CAP. CII. Como se parti da Castello le gente

Feltresche, et andaro a Furli.

CAP. CIII. Dela egritudine del Duca, et la uenuta

sua in Ferrara.

CAP. CIV. Dela morte del Duca, et del Signore

Roberto Malatesta.

APPENDIX IV

(Page 138)

EPITAPH OF GIOVANNI DELLA ROVERE

The inscription upon the humble headstone of the sovereigns of

Sinigaglia in the nave of Sta. Maria delle Grazie, runs thus:--

D.O.M.

JOHANNES DE RUVERE,

Senogalliæ vetustissimæ civitatis

Dominus, Almæ urbis Prefectus,

Sori Arcanæque Dux, exercituum Sixti

Quarti, Innocentii Octavi, summus Imperator,

Maximorum Pontificium Sixti nepos,

Julii Secundi frater, cum uxore suâ

Joannâ Monfeltriâ, Federici Urbini

Ducis filiâ, præstantioribus

Et nobilioribus feminis, adversis

Secundisque rebus, conferendâ et

Preferendâ, magnum hoc templum

Affundamentis erexit; et multis

Egregiis tam bello quam pace actis,

Procaci abreptus morte,

Anno Domini MDI.,

Ætatisque suæ quadragesimo quarto,

Hic tumulatur.

APPENDIX V

(Page 348)

REMISSION AND REHABILITATION OF DUKE FRANCESCO MARIA I. IN 1511-13.

Having no wish to overload these pages with a papal bull, either in

its barbarous Latinity or in a crabbed translation, we shall content

ourselves with abbreviating the formal record of the investigation

and sentence of absolution, dated the 9th of December, 1511, by

which the Duke of Urbino was acquitted of the slaughter of the

Cardinal of Pavia. Julius, in that document, sets forth that, after

reducing Bologna to obedience of the Church, he placed over it

the Cardinal as legate, who ungratefully betrayed his duty to the

Pope and the Church by secretly plotting for restoration of the

Bentivoglii, and for defeat of the army under command of the Duke,

as well as by withdrawing to Ravenna on pretext of terror, but in

fact to conceal his treason. That having, by these and many other

enormities, incurred the guilt of treason and lèse-majesty, he was

slain by Francesco Maria; and that, on a complaint of this outrage

being preferred, his Holiness, judging from the first aspect of the

affair that this crime against the dignity of the purple afforded so

pernicious an example, and such general horror and scandal abroad, as

to require an impartial inquiry, had remitted it to six cardinals,

in order to make sifting inquest into the matter, receiving secret

oral testimony, without reference to the ties of blood, but with

ample powers, judicial and extra-judicial, to carry out the process

to its conclusion, and to pronounce sentence therein. And the

apostolic procurator-fiscal having appeared to support the charges,

required the Duke's committal to prison ere he should be allowed

to plead, in order to secure the due course of justice against any

elusory proceedings; whereupon he was put under arrest in his own

house, and bound over to appear in the sum of 100,000 golden ducats.

Thereafter, the judges having taken evidence and published it, the

Pope advocated the cause and pronounced an acquittal, which the

Duke refused to accept, insisting that the prosecution should take

its course, and returning under arrest until it should do so. This

having been proceeded with, the cardinals gave sentence, acquitting

him "of the said charge of homicide, and the punishment it legally

inferred," and debarring all future action thereanent at the public

prosecutor's instance. Whereupon Julius embodied this narrative in

a bull subscribed by eighteen cardinals, and formally guaranteed by

the amplest authority, as a protection to Francesco Maria against any

future question affecting his tranquillity and status.[326]

[Footnote 326: The notorial transumpt of this bull, verified in 1516

by three notaries in presence of the municipality of Urbino, is

preserved in the Archivio Diplomatico at Florence, and the preceding

abridgment was made from an authenticated extract obtained by me

there in 1845. In the same archives there is another formal acquittal

to the like purpose, which it is needless to quote.]

The remission of the Duke's subsequent misconduct was contained in

a papal brief of the 10th of January, 1513, addressed to himself,

wherein it was stated that he had been accused by many of maintaining

intelligence with the King of France before the battle of Ravenna,

and of other intrigues against the Roman Government, as well as of

various crimes, including slaughter of cardinals and lèse-majesty,

and that he had in consequence been deprived of his dukedom and

dignities; but that having experienced his zeal and good faith in

the like matters, the Pontiff could not persuade himself of his

guilt, for which reason he, _ex motu proprio_, granted to him and his

adherents plenary remission from all spiritual and temporal censures

and sentences incurred therein, and restored him to all his honours

and dignities. The entire wording of this document, the original of

which is preserved along with the bull just quoted, shows a studious

exactitude and elaboration of terms, so as to guard it against

future question; but, considering its importance with reference to

the prosecution subsequently mooted against the Duke by Leo X., it

may be well here to give the _ipsissima verba_ of the remission

clauses. The brief is addressed, but has no counter-signature; a

transumpt of it in the same archive has the name "Baldassar Tuerdus"

as a counter-signature.

"Motu proprio, et ex certâ nostrâ scientiâ ac maturâ deliberatione,

et apostolice potestatis plenitudine, apostolicâ auctoritate, tenore

presentium, tibi et illis plenarie remittimus pariter et indulgemus,

teque ac illos, et illorum singulos, ab omnibus sententiis censuris

et penis quibuslibet, spiritualibus et temporalibus, a jure vel ab

homine quomodolibet promulgatis, auctoritate scientiâ et potestate

predictis, absolvimus et liberamus, ac te tuosque filios, natos et

nascituros ac heredes quoscunque, ad Vicariatum, Ducatum, Comitatus,

teque ac subditos, adherentes, complices ac sequaces, ac singulorum

eorundem heredes, ad feuda, dominia, honores et dignitates, offitia,

privelegia, bona ac jura, ac ad actus legitimos, quibus forsan

premissorum, et aliâ quâcunque occasione, etiam de necessitate

experimendâ privati, censeri possetis, auctoritate scientiâ et

potestate premissis restituimus, et etiam reintegramus, et ad eundem

statum reducimus et reponimus, in quo tu et illi eratis ante tempus

quo premissa commisissetis; districtius inhibentes quibuscunque

officialibus nostris, et dicte Ecclesie, qui sunt et pro tempore

erunt, ne contra te et subditos, adherentes, complices et sequaces,

aut aliquem vestrum, occasione hujusmodi criminum possint procedere,

aut occasione premissorum te vel illos, aut aliquem eorum, molestare

quoquo modo presumant; ac decernentes ex nunc irritum et inane

quicquid ac quoscunque processus et sententias, quos seu quas

contra inhibitionem nostram hujusmodi haberi contigerit, seu etiam

promulgari."

APPENDIX VI

(Page 392)

LETTER FROM CARDINAL WOLSEY TO LORENZO DE' MEDICI

The following letter has been lately printed by the Marchese Caponi,

in the _Archivio Storico Italiano_, vol. I., p. 472, from the

original in his possession:--

To the most illustrious and most excellent Prince our Lord

Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, dear to us as a brother.

Most illustrious and most excellent Lord Duke, dear to us

as a brother,

The Signor Adriano, your Excellency's servant, has

delivered your most courteous and kind letters addressed

to us, on eagerly perusing which we recognised with great

satisfaction your Excellency's friendly dispositions in

our behalf. We have in consequence received the said

Signor Adriano with the greatest possible civility, and

have freely offered and promised him our every favour and

support in all places and circumstances. Having learned

that your Excellency takes no small pleasure in dogs,

we now send you by your said servant some blood-hounds

[_odorissequos_], and also several stag-hounds of uncommon

fleetness, and of singular strength in pulling down their

game. And we farther specially beg of you to let us know if

there be anything else in this famed kingdom that you would

wish; and should you in future boldly make use in your

affairs of my assistance, good-will, and influence, such as

it is, whether with his Majesty my sovereign, who is most

favourably disposed towards you, or with any other person

whatsoever, you will find me willing and ready to oblige

you. May you be preserved in happiness. From our palace in

London, the 28th of June, 1518.

As your Excellency's brother,

T. CARDINAL OF YORK.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

GENEALOGICAL TABLES

[Transcriber's Note: In the original genealogical tables, natural

children are denoted by a wavy line, here represented by the !

symbol.]

DESCENT OF THE DELLA ROVERE DUKES OF URBINO.

LUDOVICO LEONARDO = LUCHINA STELLA MUGLIONE.

DELLA ROVERE. |

|

_____________|________________________________________________

| | | |

FRANCESCO DELLA ROVERE, RAFFAELE = TEODORA ---- = GIOVANNI JOLANDA | GIROLAMO

POPE SIXTUS IV., | MENEROLA. | BASSO, RIARIO.

b. 1414, d. 1484. | | d. 1483.

| |

_______________________________| |

| |

| __________________________________________|________

| | | | | | 1476.

| GIROLAMO, FRANCESCO, BARTOLOMEO. GUGLIELMO, ANTONIO = CATERINA

| Cardinal, of Prior of d. 1482. MARCIANA,

| S. Chrisogono, Pisa. niece of

| d. 1507. Ferdinand

| of Naples.

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

| | | | 1474. |

BARTOLOMEO, GIULIANO DELLA ROVERE, LEONARDO, Duke = GIOVANNA, GIOVANNI, Prefect = GIOVANNA DI GABRIELE GARA = LUCHINA = G. FRANCESCO

Patriarch POPE JULIUS II., of Sora, | nat. daughter of Rome, Lord of | MONTEFELTRO, DELLA ROVERE. | | FRANCIOTTI,

of Antioch. b. 1453, d. 1513. Prefect of | of Ferdinand Sinigaglia, | of Urbino, | | DELLA ROVERE,

! Rome, d. 1475. | of Naples, b. 1458, d. 1501. | d. 1514. | | of Lucca.

! | Duchess of | | |

! | Sora. | | |

! | | | |

! S.P. | | |

__________________! _____________________________________________________________| | |

! | | |

! | _____________________________________________________________________________________| |

! | | | | |

! | RAFFAELE. SISTO, Cardinal GERAUD | SISTA = GALEAZZO _______________________________________|

! | of S. Pietro D'ANCEZUN, RIARIO. | | |

! | in Vincula, d. 1503. | | |

! | d. 1577. GALEOTTO, Cardinal NICOLÒ = ---- LUCREZIA = MARCANTONIO

! |______________________________________________________ of S. Pietro in | COLONNA.

! | Vincula. |

!_______________________________________________________________________ | |

| 1 2 | | | | ___________________|

RAFFAELE, = NICOLOSA = ANTONIO FELICE = GIAN-GIORDANO GIULIA. CLARICE. | | | 1541.

d. 1502. FOGLIANO, DELLA ROVERE. ORSINI, of | GUIDO. LAVINIA = PAOLO ORSINI.

of Fermo. Bracciano. |

_____________________________________________________________________________|__________________

| | 1509. 1497. | 2 | |

FEDERIGO, FRANCESCO MARIA I., = LEONORA IPPOLITA, VENANZIO = MARIA = GALEAZZO COSTANZA, DEODATA.

died young. DUKE OF URBINO, | d. of Francesco VARANA, R. SFORZA. d. 1507.

b. 1490, d. 1538. | Marquis of Mantua, d. 1503.

| d. 1543.

|

_____________________________|_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

| 1534. | 1548. | 1547. | 1548. | 1552. |

FEDERIGO, GIULIA VARANA, = GUIDOBALDO II. = VITTORIA FARNESE, IPPOLITA = DON ANTONIO GIULIA = ALFONSO D'ESTE, ELISABETTA, = ALBERICO CIBÒ, GIULIO, Cardinal

died young. d. of Giovanni | DUKE OF URBINO, | d. of Pier-Luigi, D'ARAGONA § Marq. of d. 1561. § Marquis of Archbishop of

Maria, Duke of | b. 1514, | Duke of Parma, DI MONTALTO. Montecchio, of Massa. Urbino, 1533,

Camerino, | d. 1574. | d. 1602. whom the Dukes d. 1578.

b. 1523, | ! | of Modena. !

d. 1547. | ! |_______________________________________________________________________________________________________ !

| !____________________ | | | !______________

_________________________| ! | | | !

| 1560. | ! 1570. | 1599. | 1565. | 1583. !

A son. COUNT FEDERIGO = VIRGINIA = FERDINANDO ORSINI, ! LUCREZIA D'ESTE, = FRANCESCO MARIA II., = LIVIA DELLA ROVERE, ISABELLA = BERN. DI S. LAVINIA = ALFONSO !

BORROMEO, S.P. Duke of Gravina. ! d. of Ercole II., | DUKE OF URBINO, | d. of Marquis of S. SEVERINO, d. 1632. D'AVALOS, !

brother of ! Duke of Ferrara, | b. 1549 + 1631. | Lorenzo, b. 1585. Prince of Marq. of !

S. Carlo. ! b. 1536, | | Basignano. Pescara. !

! d. 1598. S.P. | !

_________________________________________________! | _________________________________________!

| | | | |

| { 1. COUNT ANTONIO A daughter = SIGNOR GUIDOBALDO | IPPOLITO, Marq. = ISABELLA VITELLI GIULIANO,

A daughter = { LANDRIANO. RENIER. | of S. Lorenzo. | DELL'AMATRICE. Abbot of

{ 2. SIGNOR P. ANTONIO | | S. Lorenzo.

{ DA LUNA. | ______________________________|__________

| | | 1599. |

_______________________________________________| GIULIO. LIVIA, = FRANCESCO MARIA II., LUCREZIA = MARCANTONIO,

| 1621. b. 1585. DUKE OF URBINO. Marq. Lante.

FEDERIGO-UBALDO, = CLAUDIA DE' MEDICI, = ARCHDUKE LEOPOLD

b. 1605, d. 1623. | b. 1606, d. of of Austria.

| Ferdinand I.,

| Grand Duke of

| of Florence.

|

| 1637.

VITTORIA, = FERDINAND II., Grand

b. 1622, § Duke of Florence,

d. 1694. b. 1630, d. 1670.

DESCENT OF THE MEDICI, as connected with URBINO.

_From Les Généaologies Souveraines._

GIOVANNI DE' MEDICI

5th from Lippo de' M. of

Florence who d. 1258,

d. 1428.

|

_____|_____________________

| |

COSIMO DE' M., = CONTESINA LORENZO DE' M., = GINEVRA

_Pater Patriæ_, | DE' BARDI. d. 1440. | CAVALCANTI.

d. 1464. | |

| |

PIETRO DE' M., = LUCREZIA PIER-FRANCESCO = LAUDAMIA

d. 1472. | TORNABONI. DE' M., | ACCIAJOLI.

| d. 1477. |__________________________________________________

______________________|__________________________ |

| | | |

LORENZO DE' M., = CLARICE BIANCA = GUGLIELMO GIULIANO |

_the Magnificent_, | ORSINI. DE' PAZZI. DE' M., |

d. 1492. | d. 1478. |

| ! |

| GIULIO DE' M., |

| CLEMENT VII., |

| d. 1535. |

_______________|_____________________________________________________________ |

| | | | |

PIETRO DE' M., = ALFONSINA GIOVANNI DE' M., GIULIANO DE' M., = FILIBERTA, MADDALENA = FRANCESCO CIBÒ, |

d. 1504. | ORSINI. LEO X., d. 1521. _the Magnificent_, of Savoy. Count of |

| Duke de Nemours, Anguillara. |

| d. 1516. |

LORENZO DE' M., = MADELEINE ! _________________________________________|

Duke of Urbino, | DE LA TOUR. ! |

d. 1519. | IPPOLITO DE' M., |

! | Cardinal, |

! | d. 1535. |

! | |

! CATERINA DE' M., = HENRY II. |

! d. 1589. of France. |

! |

ALESSANDRO DE' M., = MARGARETTA OF AUSTRIA, |

Duke of Florence, bastard of Charles V. |

d. 1537. |

____________________________________________________________|

|

GIOVANNI GIORDANO = CATERINA RIARIO SFORZA,

DE' M. | of Imola.

|

GIOVANNI DE' M., = MARIA SALVIATI.

_delle bande nere_, |

d. 1526. |

|

COSIMO I. DE' M., = ELEONORA DI TOLEDO.

GRAND DUKE |

OF FLORENCE, |

d. 1574. |

|

_____________________|_____________

| |

JOANNA, of = FRANCESCO MARIA DE' M., = BIANCA FERDINAND II. DE' M., = CHRISTINE

Austria. GRAND DUKE OF FLORENCE, CAPELLO. GRAND DUKE OF FLORENCE, | DE LORAINE.

d. 1587. d. 1608. |

_______________________________________________________________|

| 1 | 2

COSIMO II. DE' M., = MARIA MADDALENA, FEDERIGO, Prince = CLAUDIA = ARCHDUKE LEOPOLD,

GRAND DUKE OF of Austria. of Urbino, | of Austria.

FLORENCE, d. 1621. d. 1623. |

|

FERDINAND II. DE' MEDICI, = VITTORIA DELLA ROVERE,

GRAND DUKE OF FLORENCE, § Princess of Urbino.

d. 1670.

DESCENT OF THE COLONNA, as connected with URBINO.

AGAPITO, eleventh in descent = CATERINA CONTI.

from Pietro Colonna, |

who lived in 1100. |

____________________|_________

| |

ODDO, elected MARTIN V. LORENZO ONOFRIO = SUEVA GAETANI

in 1407, d. 1431. | DA FONDI.

____________________________________________|_________________

| | |

ODOARDO, Duke = FILIPPA CONTI. ANTONIO, Duke of = IMPERIALE CATERINA = GUIDANTONIO,

of Marsi. | Paliano, d. 1471. | COLONNA. d. 1438. § Count of

| | Urbino.

__________|______ |

| | |

LORENZO ODDONE, FABRIZIO, Grand = AGNESE DI |

d. 1484. Constable of | MONTEFELTRO, |

| Naples, d. 1520. | d. 1522. |

| ! | |

MUZIO, ! | |

d. 1516. SCIARRA. | |

| |

______________________________| |_______

| | |

ASCANIO, Grand = GIOVANNA VITTORIA, = FERDINANDO, |

Constable of § D'ARAGONA, b. 1490, Fr. Marquis |

Naples, claimant natural d. 1548. of Pescara, |

of Urbino, branch of d. 1525. |

d. 1557. the Crown |

of Naples. |

______________________________________________________|

| | | |

GIROLAMO = VITTORIA CARDINAL PIER = BERNARDINA PROSPERO,

| CONTI. GIOVANNI, ANTONIO. | CONTI. d. 1523.

| d. 1508. |____

_____|_________________________ |

| | | | |

CARDINAL OTTAVIANO. MARCELLO. GIULIO. MARC ANTONIO = LUCREZIA

POMPEO, | | GARA DELLA

d. 1532. | | ROVERE.

| |

MARZIO, OTTAVIA = SIGISMONDO

d. 1546. VARANA,

d. 1522.