B. H. BLACKWELL LTD. BOOKSELLERS THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY ftF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGEUiS MEMOIRS OF THE DUKES OF URBINO. VOL. III. LONDON : SPOTTISWOORES and SHAW, New-street- Square . 317" FRANCESCO MAMA I. DUKE OF URBINO. MEMOIES OP THE DUKES OF URBINO, ILLUSTRATING THE ARMS, ARTS, AND LITERATURE OF ITALY, FROM 1440 TO 1630. BY JAMES DENNISTOUN, OF DENNISTOUN. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 1851. " E POI COSA NOTI8SIMA E FUOR D' OGNI CONTRARIETA ANCOR DAI MALIGNI, CHE LA CA8A MONTEFELTRIA E DELLA ROVERE E STATA QUELLA CHE, DA GIA GRAN TEMPO, HA ILLUSTRATA L' ITALIA, NELLE LETTERE, NELL' ARME, ED IN OGNI SORTE DI VIRTU RARA ; E CHE LA CORTE D' URBINO E STATA UN FONTE, n, QUALE, PIU CON VERITA D' ISTORIA CHE CON VAGHEZZA DI POESIA, SI POTREBBE DIR VERO PEGASEO. DELLE COSE POI DELLA GUERRA, SAPIAMO CHE QUELLA CASA DA MOLTI ANNI E STATA UN FELICISSIMO GIARDINO O PRATO, NEL QUALE SI SON' FORMATI INFINITI GRANDI UOBIINI CHE 8ARAN' CELEB KATI PER OGNI TEMPO." Ruscelli, Impretsi Illustri. CONTENTS OP THE THIRD VOLUME. BOOK SIXTH. continued. OF FRANCESCO MARIA BELLA ROVERE, FOURTH DUKE OF URBINO. CHAPTER XXXIX. Causes which led to the Sack of Rome. The Assault. Death of Bourbon. Atrocities of his Soldiery. The Duke of Urbino's fatal Delays. The Pontiffs Capitulation and Escape. Policy of the Emperor ------- Page 3 CHAPTER XL. The Duke's mischievous Policy. New League against Charles V. A French Army reaches Naples. The Duke's Campaign in Lombardy. Peace restored. Siege of Florence. Coronation of the Emperor at Bologna. The Independence of Italy finally lost. Leonora Duchess of Urbino. The Duke's Military Discourses - 31 CHAPTER XLI. Italian Militia. The Camerino Disputes. Death of Clement VII. Marriage of Prince Guidobaldo. Proposed Turkish Crusade under the Duke. His Death and Character - - 56 BOOK SEVENTH. OF GUIDOBALDO DELLA ROVEHE, FIFTH DUKE OF URBINO. CHAPTER XLII. Succession of Duke Guidobaldo II. He loses Camerino and the Prefecture of Rome. The altered State of Italy. Death of Duchess Giulia. The Duke's Remarriage. Affairs of the Farnesi 81 CHAPTER XLIII. The Duke's domestic Affairs. Policy of Paul IV. The Duke enters the Spanish Service. Rebellion at Urbino severely repressed. His Death and Character. His Children - - 99 A 3 2064529 yi CONTENTS. BOOK EIGHTH. OF FRANCESCO MARIA II. BELLA ROVEHE. CHAPTER XLIV. Autobiography of Duke Francesco Maria II. His Visit to the Spanish Court. His studious Habits. His Marriage. Is engaged in the Naval Action of Lepanto. Succeeds to the Dukedom. Page 121 CHAPTER XLV. The unsatisfactory Results of his Marriage. He sepa- rates from the Duchess. Hia Court and Habits. Death of the Duchess. He remarries - - - - - 144 CHAPTER XLVI. Birth of Prince Federigo. The Duke's retired Habits and Aversion to Business. His Constitution-making Experiments. His Instructions to his Son. The Prince's unfortunate Education and Character ....._. 164 CHAPTER XL VII. The Prince's Marriage. The Duke entrusts to him the Government, and retires to Castel Durante. His dissolute Career and early Death. Birth of his Daughter Vittoria. The Duke rouses himself. He arranges the Devolution of his State to the Holy See. Papal Intrigues - - - - - - -186 CHAPTER XL VIII. The Duke's monkish Seclusion. His Death and Character. His Portraits and Letters. Notices of Princess Vit- toria, and her Inheritance. Fate of the Ducal Libraries. The Duchy incorporated with the Papal States. Results of the Devolution - 212 BOOK NINTH. OF LITERATURE AND ART UNDER THE DUKES DELLA ROVERE AT URBINO. CHAPTER XLIX. Italian Literature subject to new Influences. The Academies. Federigo Comandino. Guidobaldo del Monte. The Paciotti. Leonardi. Muzio Oddi. Federigo Bonaventura - 239 CHAPTER L. Italian Versification. Ariosto. Pietro Aretino Vit- toria Colonna. Laura Battiferri. Dionigi Atanagi. Antonio Galli. Marco Montana. Bernardo Tasso .... 262 CHAPTER LI. Torquato Tasso. His Insanity. Theories of Dr. Verga and Mr. Wilde. His Connection with Urbino. His Intercourse with the Princesses. His Portraits. His Letter to the Duke of Urbino. His Confinement. His Death. His Poetry. Battista Guarini. 292 CONTENTS. yii CHAPTER LIL The Decline of Italian Art, its Causes and Results. Artists of Urbino. Girolamo della Genga and his Son Bartolomeo. Other Architects and Engineers ... - Page 319 CHAPTER LIIL Taddeo Zuccaro. Federigo Zuccaro. Their Pupils. Federigo Baroccio and his Pupils. Claudio Ridolfi. Painters of Gubbio - - - 337 CHAPTER LFV. Foreign Artists patronised by the Dukes della Rovere. The Tomb of Julius II. by Michael Angelo. Character and Influence of his Genius. Titian's Works for Urbino. Palma Giovane. II Semolei. Sculptors at Urbino ----- 362 CHAPTER LV. Of the Manufacture of Majolica in the Duchy of Urbino 382 APPENDIX. No. I. Correspondence of Clement VII. with Duke Francesco Maria before the Sack of Rome, 1527 - - - 407 No. II. The Sack of Rome - ... 408 No. III. The Duke of Urbino's Justification, 1527 - - 419 No. IV. Sketch of the Negotiations of Castiglione at the Court of Madrid, 15251529 - - 421 No. V. Account of the Armada of Don John of Austria at Messina, 1571 424 No. VI. Indulgence conceded to the Corona of the Grand Duke of Tus- cany by Pius V., 1666 - ... - 426 No. VII. Monumental Inscriptions of the Ducal Family of Urbino - 427 No. VIII. Statistics of Urbino - - -430 No. IX. Letter of Introduction from an accomplished Artist .at Rome, presenting the Author of these Pages to a Friend in the Provinces 435 No. X. Theories regarding Tasso's Misfortunes ... 436 No. XI. Two Sonnets by Pietro Aretino on Titian's Portraits of Duke Francesco Maria I. and his Duchess Leonora - 437 No. XII. Petition to Guidobaldo II. Duke of Urbino, by certain Majolica- Makers in Pesaro ...--- 438 No. XIII. Letter from the Archbishop of Urbino to Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, regarding a Service of Majolica - 439 No. XIV. Collections of Art made by the Dukes of Urbino - - 440 A 4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. No. XXXV. Portrait of Duke Francesco Maria I., from the Original by Titian, in the Uffizii Gallery at Florence - Frontispiece No. XXXVI. Pedigree of the Varana Family - Page 59 No. XXXVII. Plate of Facsimiled of Signatures - - 81 No. XXXVIII. Portrait of Duke Guidobaldo II., from a poor Picture in the Albani Palace at Rome - - - - - 99 No. XXXIX. Portrait of Duke Francesco Maria II., from an Original purchased by the Author at Pesaro, of the School of Baroccio - 151 No. XL. Portrait of Prince Federigo, from an Original of the School of Baroccio, in possession of Andrew Coventry, Esq., Edinburgh - 187 No. XLI. Plate of Facsimiles of Signatures and Monograms - - 191 No. XLII. Portrait of Ariosto from the Original by Titian, in possession of the Author, 30 inches by 23 - - - - - 265 No. XLIII. Portrait of Bernardo Tasso, from the Original, purchased by the Author at Rome ...... 283 No. XLIV. Portrait of Torquato Tasso, from the Original by Alessandro Allori, in possession of the Author, 45 inches by 38 - - 305 No. XLV. Woodcut of a Majolica Nuptial Plate of Giulia Bella, in pos- session of the Author ...... 394 No. XL VI. Woodcut of the Holy Family from a Majolica Tile, in posses- sion of the Author, 8 inches by 6 - - - - 399 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS THE THIRD VOLUME. CHAPTER XXXIX. A. D. 1'AGE 1 527. Causes leading to the sack of Rome - - -4 The Pontiff's fatal confidence - - . - 5 Defenceless state of his capital - - _ - ib. April. His tardy alarm, and inadequate exertions - - - ib. Demoralisation of the city - - . . - 6 ,, Warnings of impending woe - - . .7 May. Foolhardiness of Renzo da Ceri - - . - ib. Authorities for the sack - - - . - 8 Panic in the city - - - _ . - ib. Estimate of the respective forces - - . - ib. 5. Arrival of Bourbon's army - - - ,. - 9 6. The assault - - - - . - 10 The localities examined and compared - - - ib. Death of Bourbon - - - , . - ib. Rome lost by a panic - - . -12 The Pope and Cardinals gain the castle of S. Angelo - ib. The imperialists overrun the entire city - - - 13 It is ferociously sacked during three days - - - ib. The Prince of Orange succeeds Bourbon - - - 1 4 Savage atrocities and sacrilege of the army - - - 15 Several cardinals outraged - - - . - ib. Pillage of shops and palaces . - . - 16 Ransom extorted by the soldiery - - - - ib. Dilatory proceedings of the confederates - - - 1 7 3. The Duke of Urbino leaves Florence - - - ib. Unworthy motives imputed to him - - - - 18 17. Abortive attempt to rescue the Pope - - - ib. 20. He advances to Isola de' Farnesi - - - - 1 9 Distracted counsels in his camp - - 2O X CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A. D. PACE 1527. May. He resolves upon inaction - - - - 20 His memorial defending this - - ib. M The Pontiff vainly appeals to Lanoy - - - 21 June 5. He accepts a humbling capitulation - - ib. t , Sale of cardinals' hats - - 22 The capitulation rejected - - - - - ib. Aug. Pestilence and famine in Rome - - - - 23 Death of Lanoy - - - ib. Oct. New and more severe terms of capitulation - - - ib. Dec. 8. The Pope escapes in disguise to Orvieto - - ib. Castiglione's negotiations at Madrid from 1524 to 1528 - 24 July 25. Conduct of Charles V. on hearing of the sack - - 26 The Pope's dissatisfaction and Castiglione's defence - - 27 Nov. 22. The Emperor's hollow professions - - - - 28 Fatal consequences of the sack - - - 29 CHAPTER XL. June 1. The confederates retire to Monterosi Aug. Mischievous policy of Francesco Maria Dec. His interview with the Pope ... July. Distrust of the Venetians - 1528. Removed by a visit from the Duke - His violent proceedings .... He is presented with a palace at Venice 1527. June. New League against Chailes V. - July. A French army enters Italy ... Close of this miserable year 1528. Feb. 16. The imperialists evacuate Rome ... Overtaken by signal vengeance ... 10. Lautrec enters the Abruzzi - April 29. And lays siege to Naples .... Aug. 15. His death, and the destruction of his army - May. The Duke protects the Venetian mainland - And saves Lodi from the Duke of Brunswick Sept. 20. He recovers Pavia - - ... Oct. 21. But loses Savona - Demoralising eflects of these wars - 1529. June 29. Peace restored between the great powers Dec. Venice not being included, the Duke keeps the field December - Nov. 5. Charles and Clement meet at Bologna Dec. 23. Treaty of the Italian powers - 1530. Aug. 12. Siege of Florence - - Death of the Prince of Orange there 1529. Nov. 1. The Duke arrives at Bologna with the Duchess till 31 ib. 32 ib. 33 ib. 34 ib. ib. ib. 35 36 ib. ib. ib. 37 ib. ib. ib. 38 39 ib. ib. ib. ib. 40 41 OF CONTENTS. XI A. D. PAGE 1529. His reception by some veterans - - - - 41 1 530. He declines the imperial baton - - - - ib. But is in high favour with Charles - - - -42 Who restores to him Sora and Arce - - - ib. Feb. 22. The coronation of Charles V. - - - - ib. Mar. 22. He leaves Bologna - - - - - - 43 April 6. Clement VII. visits Urbino - - - - ib. Altered position of Italy by the loss of her nationality and in- dependence - - - - - - ib. Opinions of Mariotti - - - - - 45 The Duchess of Urbino builds the palace of Imperiale - 46 Its attractions and site - - - - - 47 Her portrait and administration - - - - 48 Prince Guidobaldo - - - - - - 49 Marriage of Princess Ippolita - - - - ib. The Duke's Military Discourses - - - - 5O His opinions on fortification - - - - - ib. His critique on Venetian policy - - - - 51 His views regarding sieges - - - - - 52 And artillery - - - - - - 53 His comparative estimate of various nations in the field - ib. His rules for the construction of an army - - - 54 1532. His inspections of the Venetian troops - - - 55 Ancona annexed to the papal states - - - - ib. CHAPTER XLI. 1533. Militia organised in Italy - - - 56 The Feltrian legion institued at Urbino - - - 57 ,, Jan. Charles V. attends a congress at Bologna - - - 58 Where Titian meets him and probably paints the Duke and Duchess of Urbino - - - - - ib. April. Birth of Prince Giulio - - - - - ib. Origin of the Camerino disputes - - - - 59 ,, Descent of the Varana family - - - - ib. ,, Giovanni Maria made Duke of Camerino - - - 60 His daughter Giulia offered to Prince Guidobaldo - - 61 ,, The consent of Clement VII withheld - - - ib. ,, Attempted abduction of Giulia - - - - ib. 1534. Sept. 27. Death of Clement, and his character - - - - 62 Oct. 12. Election of Paul III. - - "- - - 63 Marriage of Guidobaldo - - - - - 64 It is disapproved by the Pope - - - - ib. Vain mediation of Francesco Maria - - - - ib. Hostilities resorted to - - - - ib. 1535. The Duke visits Charles V. at Naples, and makes him pre- sents - - 65 xii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A. D. PAGE 1535. Singular tradition in the Abruzzi - - 65 Death of the last Sforza - - GO 1538. Jan. 31. Confederacy against the Turks, with the Duke as captain- general - - - ib. Sept. 20. His sudden illness - -67 He returns to Pesaro - - - ib. Oct. 22. His death from poison - - ib. n His funeral obsequies and epitaph - - 68 His vicissitudes of fortune - - 69 M His fame has suffered from prejudiced historians - - 70 His character and military reputation - - 71 Opinion of Urbano Urbani - - - 73 And of Centenelli - - 74 His dutiful conduct to Duchess Elisabetta - - - 75 His widow and testamentary dispositions - - - ib. His children - - - ib. Cardinal Giulio della Rovere - - - 76 CHAPTER XLII. Diminished interest of our subject - . . - 81 1514. April 2. Birth of Prince Guidobaldo - - - 82 Educated by Guido Posthumo Silvestro - - - ib. 1529. His boyish taste for horses - - - 83 1534. Oct. 12. His marriage and its political results - - - ib. 1538. 22. His succession to the Dukedom - - - - 84 25. The ceremonial described by an eye-witness - - - ib. 1539. Jan. 8. He compromises the Camerino succession, and loses the Pre- fecture - - ... 87 Camerino annexed to the papal states - - - 88 The Duke strengthens himself by taking service with the Em- peror and Venice - - - ib. 1543. Compliments Charles V., with Pietro Aretino in his suite - ib. 1533. Final abolition of the condottiere system - - 89 The Feltrian Legion embodied - - - - ib. 1540. The altered condition of Italy - . - 9O And new policy of the papacy - - - - ib. Reaction against the Reformation - - - - 91 Investiture of Guidobaldo as captain-general of Venice - 92 1547. Feb. 17. Death of the Duchess Giulia - - . - 93 1541. Letter of commissions from her - - - - 94 1548. Jan. 30. The Duke's remarriage to Vittoria Farnese - - - ib. 1549. Nov. 10. Death of Paul III. - - - . . 95 1550. Feb. 14. And of Duchess Leonora - - - _ - ib. 1549. Feb. 20. Birth of Prince Francesco Maria II. - . - ib. 1 550. San Marino under his protection - ib. OF CONTENTS. Xlii A. D. PAGE 1551. Guidobaldo made governor of Fano .. - 97 1552. He quits the Venetian service - - ib. 1 553. The affairs of the Farnesi - - - - - ib. 1555. The Prefecture restored to the Duke - - - 98 CHAPTER XLIII. 1552. Marriage of Princess Elisabetta - ... 99 His domestic affairs - - - - 100 He builds the palace at Pesaro - - - - 101 1555. The bigotry and ambitious nepotism of Paul IV. - - 1O2 He sends Guidobaldo against the Colonna - - ib. 1557. Aug. 26. Rome nearly taken - 103 1558. April 9. He receives an engagement from Spain, and the Golden Fleece - - - . - -104 ,, The "terms of his service - - - - - ib. 1565. He sends his son to Spain ----- 105 His Discourse against the Turks - - - - ib. 1570. His great expenses ----- log 1572. Consequent increase of imposts - - - - ib. Which occasions an insurrection at Urbino - - - ib. It is repressed by stringent measures - - - 108 1573. Severities against the guilty - 109 The humiliation of the city - - - - 110 The blot attaching to the Duke's memory from these events 1 1 2 Letter of remonstrance to him - - - - ib. 1574. Sept. 28. His death and character - - - - -114 His children. - - - . - -117 CHAPTER XLIV. The autobiography of Duke Francesco Maria II. - -121 1549- Feb. 20. His birth and education - - . . - 122 1565. He goes to Spain by Genoa - - . - 123 1568. His account of Don Carlos's imprisonment - - 125 July 11. His return home by Milan - - - _ - 126 His studious habits - - - . - 127 1571. Jan. His marriage to Lucrezia d' Este announced by himself - 128 Early coldness - - . . . - ib. >, Congratulatory letters on the occasion ... 129 >, Protestant doctrines at Ferrara - - - - 131 He joins the Turkish expedition - - ._ - 132 His account of the sea-fight at Lepanto - - - ib. 1574. Sep. 28. He succeeds to the dukedom - - -"' . . 134 Ceremonial of his investiture - - - - ib. , Letter of advice from Girolamo Muzio - - -135 XIV CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A. D. 1574. The difficulties of his position Overcome by prudence and moderation A conspiracy against him discovered PAGE - 140 - 141 - 142 CHAPTER XLV. 1577. Unsatisfactory results of his marriage His separation from the Duchess His autograph Diary 1582. He is taken into the Spanish service And receives the title of " Most Serene " 1583. Marriage of his sister Princess Lavinia He builds the Videtta Villa 1586. And obtains the Golden Fleece List of officers at his court 1588. His fondness for the chase - 1589. Other pastimes of his court His literary pursuits His hospitalities. Galileo 1597. Oct. Death of the last Duke of Ferrara - 1598. Feb. 11. And of the Duchess of Urbino ,, Clement VIII. visits Urbino His desire for the Duke's abdication The Duke's retired habits The anxiety of his people for his remarriage His singular appeal to them 1599. April 26. He marries Li via della Rovere 1602. Dec. 13. Death of Duchess Vittoria 144 145 147 148 149 ib. ib. 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 ib. 157 ib. ib. ib. 159 161 162 CHAPTER XLVI. 1605. May 16. Birth of Prince Federigo - - - 165 Universal joy of the people - - - - ib. The Duke's pilgrimage of thanks to Loreto - - 167 1 9. Baptism of the Prince, amid festive pageants - - ib. 1606- The Duke's breeding-stud .... 171 His aversion to business, and retired habits - - - ib. Castel Durante his favourite residence ... 173 He appoints a council of state - - - - 174 A glance at the constitutional establishments at Urbino - 177 1607. The unfortunate education of the Prince - - - 179 His father's code of instructions to him - - - 1 80 1608. His unpromising youth - - - - - 184 OP CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XLVlt. A. D. PAGE 1608. His betrothal to Princess Claudia de 1 Medici - - 186 1610. His dissolute habits - - - - - 187 1616. He visits Florence - - - - -188 1617. Court pastimes at Urbino ..... 189 1621. April 29. The Prince's marriage concluded - - - - ib. Reception of the bridal pair - - - - 1 90 Francesco Maria resigns the administration of his state to the Prince - - - - 192 And retires to Urbania - - - - - 194 1622. The Prince's reckless career, and debauched life - - ib. 1623. June 29. His sudden death - - - - - -197 The Duke's resignation - - - - - 198 Ominous warnings - - - - - -199 Monumental inscription to the Prince - - 200 1622. July 27. Birth of his daughter Vittoria - - - - ib. 1623. Princess Claudia returns to her family ... 201 The Duke rouses himself - - ... 202 The difficulties of his position - - - - ib. Aug. 8. Election of Pope Urban VIII. - - 203 1624. The Duke's negotiations with the Holy See - - 204 Intrigues and threats employed against him - - 205 He arranges the Devolution of his state to the Holy See - 208 To which the people gave no consent ... ^09 1628. The terms of surrender ill kept - -210 CHAPTER XLVIII. The Duke's monkish seclusion at Urbania - - - 212 1631. Apr. 28. His death there --.-.. 213 His funeral - - - - . -214 Notices of his character by Donato, Gozze, and Passeri - 215 His appearance and portrait - - - - 218 Letters of his domestic circle - - - - 219 Notices of Princess Vittoria - .... 226 And of Duchess Livia ..... 227 ,, The Duke's will, and the amount of his succession - - ib. His libraries ---._. 228 1658. The MSS. carried to the Vatican ... -229 The printed books transported to the Sapienza at Rome - 23O Probable number of MSS. ----- 232 1631. The duchy incorporated with the Ecclesiastical States - ib. To the great misfortune of the people ... 233 Conclusion ...---. 236 XVI CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A. D. HOO. 149-21530. 1530 1600. 15091575. 1544. 15291591. 1560. 15691639. 15531612. 14961576. 15551602. CHAPTER XLIX. FACE The glory and progress of Italy while divided into many states 239 Her long struggle against foreign aggression is closed in servitude - - 240 Spanish domination fatal to manners, language, and literature ib. This evil augmented by the Academies - - - 241 The Assorditi of Urbino ... 242 The influence of the Reformation, how excluded from Italian letters - - 243 The age of rhetoricians and fulsome compliment - - ib. Mathematics and engineering studied at Urbino - - 245 Federigo Comandino of Urbino - - - - 246 Guidobaldo Marchese del Monte - - 248 Francesco Paciotti of Urbino - ... 249 Gian Giacomo Leonard! of Pesaro - 250 Muzio Oddi of Urbino - - 25 1 Bernardino Baldi of Urbino, his vast acquirements and nume- rous works - - ib. His Lives of Dukes of Urbino - 257 Girolamo Muzio of Capo d' Istria, biographer of the Dukes - 259 Federigo Bonaventura of Urbino .... 261 CHAPTER L. Facilities of Italian versification - 262 Absence of traditionary ballads - 263 1508 1600. Poetry flourishes at Urbino - -264 1474 1533. Ludovico Ariosto - - - - - - ib. 1515. He visits Urbino; his room in the palace there - - 265 The qualities of his poetry - .... 268 1492 1557. Pietro Aretino, " scourge of princes" ... 27O Mediocrity of his poetry, and baseness of his character - 27 1 1490 1547. Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara - 274 Her devotional character and poetry - 275 1522. Laura Battiferri of Urbino ----- 277 Other bards of that court - - - - - ib. Dionigi Atanagi ; specimens of his verses - - - 278 Antonio Galli and Marco Montani of Urbino - - 282 1493 1569. Bernardo Tasso - - - - , - ib. His early irregularities and services - 283 1531. Enters that of the Prince of Salerno - - - ib. 1539. His marriage and happy residence at Sorrento - - 284 1544. Mar. Birth of his son Torquato - - - - - ib 1 552. Becomes a wanderer on his patron's disgrace - - 285 1556. Death of his wife - - - - - - ib. OF CONTENTS. XV11 1556. His appeal to the Prince - Reaches Pesaro, where he resides for two years 1 557. Reads his Amadigi at that court 1559. Sept. 28. Torquato intimates his death to the Duke of Urbiuo His poetry and correspondence - His invention of the Ode - PAGE - 258 - 287 - ib. - 289 - ib. - 290 CHAPTER LI. Torquato Tasso, a subject of mystery and contradiction - 292 Count Alberti's recent impositions - - 293 Dr. Andrea Verga's theory of his insanity - - 294 Is sufficient justification of the Duke of Ferrara - - 297 1556. Torquato's arrival at Pesaro ..... 298 His early devotion to the muses - - 299 1565. His first visit to Ferrara - . ib. His compliments to the family of Urbino in the Rinaldo - 300 His devotion to Princess Lucrezia d'Este, afterwards Duchess of Urbino -.-_.. 301 1571. His sonnet to her, and canzone on her marriage - - 303 1573. His Aminta performed at Pesaro - - - ib. 1574. His dangerous intercourse with her at Urbania - ib. She is separated from the Duke and returns to Ferrara - 305 1575. Tasso at Florence, his portrait - - - - ib. 1576. Symptoms of mental disease ----- 306 1577. Outbreak of insanity - - - - - ib. 1578. He .seeks shelter at Pesaro from imaginary wrongs - - ib. " His canzone to the Duke - - - - - ib. His long letter to him ..... 308 1579. He is shut up in the hospital of Sta. Anna at Ferrara for seven years - - - - . -311 1587 1594. His subsequent wanderings .... 312 Are closed at Rome - - - - - ib. 1595. April 25. His farewell letter and death at S. Onofrio - - - ib. Retrospect of his life - - - - 313 His rivalry with Ariosto - - - - 314 His the latest of Italy's great names - - - - 315 1537 1611. Battista Guarini of Ferrara - -316 16021604. Invited to Urbino - - - - - - -317 CHAPTER LIT. 1470 1520. The fine arts especially felt the impulse given to mind before 1500 - . 319 1520 1600. Tendency of the "new manner" to exaggeration and arti- fice .._.__ 322 VOL. in. a xvm CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A. D. PAGE 1520 1600. New classes of subjects leading to new errors - 326 Art under the patronage of the della Rovere became prolific 328 1476 1551. Girolamo della , Genga of Urbino, painter, architect, and engineer - -.-.._ 339 The decorations of the imperial palace * - - 331 1518 1558, Bartolomeo della Genga of Urbino, engineer -334 CHAPTER LIII. 1529 1566. Taddeo Zuccaro of S. Angelo in Vado, painter - - 337 He paints at Urbino, Rome, and Caprarola - - 339 1543 1608. Federigo Zuccaro, painter - - 34O His precocity and rapid execution - -541 Paints at Rome, Venice, and Florence - - ib. Is compromised by his satirical picture of Calumny - - 342 1574. Visits England and paints portraits - - ib. Also Spain, where he was less successful - - 343 1583. His ideas of religious art - - 346 1593. Chosen first president of St. Luke's Academy at Rome - 347 His house there - . - - - 348 His writings ----.. 349 The paintings of the brothers Zuccaro - - - ib. Their pupils and followers in the duchy - - 350 The Barocci a family of artists - - - 351 1528 16 . Federigo Baroccio of Urbino - - - - ib. Is poisoned by jealous rivals - - 352 His best works _.-_.. 353 His manner --..-. 355 His pupils - - - 358 15601644. Claudio Ridolfi - - - 360 Painters of Gubbio - - - - - -361 CHAPTER LIV. 1474 1563. Michael Angelo's monument of Julius II. His style and influence His monuments of the Medici 1477 1576. Titian patronised by the Dukes of Urbino His paintings for that court His Venus - - His letter to Duke Guidobaldo II. - 1544 1628. Palma Giovane - '. 1560. Gianbattista Franco il Semolei Sculptures executed for Urbino OF CONTENTS. XIX CHAPTER LV. PAGE Cultivation of the mechanical arts in Italy - - 382 Watchmaking at Urbino ... - 383 Origin of majolica or earthenware - - - - ib. Influence of Luca della Robbia .... 385 Majolica of Pesaro - - - 387 Finer qualities introduced there .... 389 The drug-vases at Loreto - - - 390 Subjects for majolica painting - ib. Decline of the art - -391 Manufactory of it at Urbino - 392 And at Gubbio - - 393 The forms and applications of majolica-ware - - 394 Mottoes upon it - 395 Artists chiefly employed - - - 397 Was Raffaele among them ? Collections of majolica - - 404 APPENDIX. 1527. April 20. Brief from Clement VII. to Duke Francesco Maria I. - 407 May 7. Letter from the Bishop of Modula to the confederate leaders at the sack of Rome .... 408 20. Letter written from Urbino detailing the sack - 409 24. Despatch to Charles V. detailing it - - - - 412 July 9. Letter of Duke Francesco Maria I. justifying himself to the Signory of Venice - - - - - 419 1525 1527. Castiglione's negotiations at the Court of Madrid - -421 1571. Don John of Austria's armada at Lepanto - 424 1666. Indulgences belonging to a Corona - - - - 426 1442. Monumental inscription to Count Guidantonio - 427 1444. To Duke Oddantonio - - 428 1482. To Duke Federigo - - ib. 1508. To Duke Guidobaldo I. - - ib. 1538. To Duke Francesco Maria I. - ib. 1574. To Duke Guidobaldo II. - ... 429 1602. To Duchess Vittoria - - ib. 1578. To Cardinal Giulio della Rovere - - ib. 1523. To Prince Federigo - ib. 1531. To Duke Francesco Maria II. - - 430 1632. To Princess Lavinia della Rovere - - - - ib. Statistics of Urbino - - - - - ib. Revenues of the duchy - - - 43 1 Its population ... . 432 BOOK SIXTH continued. OF FRANCESCO MARIA BELLA ROVERE, FOURTH DUKE OF URBINO. 1 TOO OFT, FORGETFUL OF THEIK TRUST DIVINE, HAVE FORMER PONTIFFS BURNT WITH WARLIKE RAGE. THERE LET THE GATJL, IN MAILED ARMOUR BRIGHT, SPUR HIS PROUD STEED, CONSPICUOUS FROM AFAR ; HELVETIA'S SONS, ON FOOT WHO URGE THE FIGHT, SWEEP O'ER THE FIELD, A SABLE CLOUD OF WAR ; AND THEY WHO JOY TO WIELD THE GLITTERING SPEAR, THE BOLD IBERIANS, SHALL THE BATTLE GRACE ; GERMANIA'S GIANT OFFSPRING TOO BE THERE." MARCO MASSURO, transl. by Roscoe. " CHE 'L FORNITO 8EMPRE CON DANNO L' ATTENDER SOFFERSE." DANTE, Inferno, xxxviii. "THAT DELAY TO MEN PREPARED WAS EVER HURTFUL." CAREY'S Translation. VOL. III. B 7 4 CAUSES OF THE SACK OF ROME. 1527. by which the laws of nature, the dictates of humanity, the principles of civilisation were alike outraged. The sack of Rome inflicted a dire retribution for the restless shuffling that had disgraced the temporal policy of recent pontiffs ; it was the crowning mischief to a long agony of ultramontane aggression ; and in it was spent one of the last mighty waves of barbarian aggression that broke upon the Ausonian peninsula. Such are the difficulties in the way of a just and satisfactory judgment as to the causes which led to this outrage, that it may be well to review these, even at the risk of some recapitulation. The total demoralisation of Bourbon's army, the want of good understanding between him and other imperial leaders in Italy, the absence of zeal or common interests among the confederate powers and their officials, with the prevailing bad faith of all parties, form a combination of elements baffling to the historian as it must have been to the actors themselves. The petty motives and feeble measures of the Pontiff have already been amply exposed. Francis and the Venetians had originally en- tered the strife only from selfish views upon Lombardy, which they pursued without attempting any comprehensive or efficient operations, and, as soon as the storm had passed by them, their languor became indifference. Charles cared little for Italy, or the ill-defined claims of the Empire upon it, except as a fair field for aggrandising or securing, by intrigue or by arms, his already exorbitant dominions, and he left his officers there pretty much to their own discretion in the maintenance of his interests. His successive viceroys at Naples, perceiving the policy of Clement to be inherently adverse to their master's interests, were ever ready to annoy his frontier, or to cajole him away from the Lombard league. The Constable, finding that the cautious tactics of the Duke of Urbino kept his own movements in check, and impeded his appeasing with pillage a reckless host whom he could not pay, was ready to adopt any enterprise that might ensure occupation and plunder to his dangerous bands, not doubting that, whoever might suffer, success would justify 1527. INFATUATION OP THE POPE. 5 him with the Emperor, to whose glory it must ultimately re- dound. As soon as the Pope had ratified the truce of the 15th March, he, with an infatuation which even an empty treasury can ill excuse, dismissed two thousand of the bande nere who garrisoned Rome. A Swiss corps withdrew at the same time, on his refusal of their monthly pay in advance. When the imperialists drew southward, his chief care was for Florence, and, on hearing of the insurrection there, he sent one of his chamberlains to acknowledge Francesco Maria's good service, adding a vague hope that, in the event of Bourbon threatening Rome, he would contribute counsel and aid for its safety. In reply, the Duke recommended that Viterbo, and Montefiascone should be secured, and Rome suitably defended by Renzo da Ceri and Orazio Baglioni, suggesting that his Holiness might betake himself to the strongholds of Orvieto or Civita Castellana : with these precautions, he added that an early and innocuous conclusion of the inroad would ensue, as the enemy, when shut out from plunder of the towns, must quickly disperse. But these counsels came too late, and, with a foolhardiness and folly savouring of judicial blindness, the Pontiff remained in the comfortable con- viction that Bourbon would take up his quarters at Siena, on the representations of Lanoy. It was only about the 25th that his impending danger first daAvned upon him. Rome had then, of regular troops, but two hundred foot and a few light cavalry, besides the Swiss guard, and the only officer of rank was Renzo da Ceri, whose personal courage and military capacity were in equal disrepute, and of whom Clement had on various occasions spoken with contempt. Yet upon this broken reed did he place his sole reliance for the defence of his capital. He commanded the weak points of the walls to be repaired and strictly guarded, distributing the artillery where most required. He pressed above three thousand men into his service ; but these hasty levies were of the most useless description, composed of artizans, servants, and the scum of the population, " more used to handle B 3 6 PORTENTOUS OMENS. 1527. kitchen spits and stable forks than military weapons." Resort- ing to fanatical expedients, he proclaimed a plenary remission of their sins to such as should fall in the sacred struggle. But the greatest difficulty was to raise money for these purposes : the wealthy classes were so absorbed in egotism and luxury, so deluded by false security, that they would contribute nothing. Domenico de' Massini, one of the richest of them, would lend but a hundred ducats, a refusal for which he and his family paid bitterly in the sack. On the llth of April, Girolamo Negri, a shrewd observer, wrote that the papal court had become a barn-yard of chickens, and that, though each day gave more manifest signs of evil times, every one relied on the Viceroy's mediation, failing which all would be lost. At this juncture there appeared in Rome one of those strange fanatics whose mysterious aspect and unearthly character, taking strong hold of the popular imagination at particular crisises, impart a supernatural character to their wild and dismal vati- cinations. He was an aged anchorite, who, fancying himself another Jonah, had long attracted street audiences by vague declamations of coming convulsions, and, as the peril became imminent, warned the anxious people that a total revolution in church and state, and the ruin of the priesthood, were at hand. Rushing along the thoroughfares, he preached, with piercing voice and excited gesticulation, a general penitence and humble reliance on the offended Deity, as the only shelter from the impending storm. He even forced his way to the presence of his Holiness, and, in the midst of the court, repeated gloomy warnings and stern denunciations in harsh words seldom heard in such high places. " But," in the words of an old writer, " repentance is an irksome sound to the ears of hardened sinners," and "more is required to make a saint than sackcloth raiment, a crucifix, and philippics against vice;" so the prophet was committed to prison, to continue his preaching to a more limited audience. Yet it needed no stretch of superstition to regard the sack of Rome, with its accumulated horrors, as a Divine 1527. FALSE SECURITY OF THE ROMANS. 7 judgment. The gross vices which disgraced the papacy towards the close of the preceding century had, indeed, been considerably modified ; but, as the reformation was rather in decency than in morals, it had not greatly influenced the people of Rome : the poison, though counteracted at the core, continued to cir- culate through the branches. In truth, the hearts of all were so indurated, and their judgment so blinded by pleasures, de- baucheries, avarice, and ambition, that the forebodings of enthu- siasts, and the many portentous omens of evil that occurred about the same time, were equally disregarded. Among these were, of course, blood-red suns and fiery meteors ; but it was afterwards remembered that two aged men with long beards had been observed to stride solemnly along the chief thorough- fares of the city, bearing a large empty bag, and exclaiming at intervals with dolorous solemnity, " Behold the sack ! " * The measures of the government, superficial as they were, generated false security ; and a general muster of the citizens, which returned thirty thousand as capable of bearing arms, tended to confirm the fatal delusion. The Pope gave currency to it by setting forth on all occasions the reduced state of the impe- rialist army, the proximity of that of the league, and above all insisted that the invaders, being for the most part Lutherans, were no doubt conducted by Providence, to undergo a signal punishment for their heresies under the very walls of the Christian metropolis. To such a height was this foolhardiness carried, that the messenger, who arrived on the 3d of May to demand free passage to Naples, was dismissed by Renzo with the threat of a cannon-ball at his head ; and on the following day the Datary wrote to Count Guido Rangone, that a rein- * The play of words applies equally in Italian and English, and the incident savours much of a carnival jest. A scarce little book of prophecies, dated 1532, has for Envoy e a sonnet, foreshadowing the woes of Italy in consequence of " L' infando error de Sogdoma e Gomora, Le profanate sacre binde e tempi, L' occider Dio mille volte al hora." B 4 8 ESTIMATE OF THE ARMIES. 1527. forcement of six or eight hundred men would suffice for de- fence of the city. But ere the messenger was well clear of the gate, the enemy were before it.* The inhabitants, at length aroused to their danger by the presence of an army whom they supposed at Siena, were thrown into general panic, though some were so blinded as to suppose it the advanced guard of the confederates. Even now, bold and judicious expedients might have defended the walls until the arrival of the allies, whose first division actually reached the Porta Salara the same day on which the city was taken ; and had the bridges been previously cut, as was urged upon Renzo in consideration of the weak defences of the Borgo S. Spirito, the principal portion of the city might have held out, even after these had been carried, whilst the Duke of Urbino would have had leisure to execute signal vengeance upon the ruffian in- vaders, demoralised by their leader's fall, and by the pillage of its Transteverin quarters. It is by no means easy to form an idea of the actual force of the invading army from the varying estimates that have come down to us. Muratori, who bestowed much attention upon such military statistics, reckons the troops whom Bourbon carried from Milan at about five thousand Spaniards, four thousand Germans, and half as many Italians, besides five hundred men-at-arms, two thousand German cavalry, and an indefinite number of light horse, to whom were soon united the lansquenets of Friindesberg, originally fourteen thousand, but * It is difficult to reconcile the varying accounts of the sack, for which, besides the many printed authorities, we have drawn largely upon a collection of unpub- lished and very minute details, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1677. It is doubtful whether Bourbon arrived on the evening of the 4th or of the 5th of May, but the assault was unquestionably made upon Monday the 6th. Many of the incidents given in that MS. are too horrible for admission into these pages. The narratives of Guicciardini and Giacomo Buonaparte, and those printed in the second volume of Eccardius, may be consulted for such ; the two first, indeed, have done little beyond arranging some documents of that MS. collection. We have also consulted the Narrative of Leonardo Santori, Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 2607., and Sanuto's MS. Diaries ; check- ing the whole by minute examination of the localities. 1527. BOURBON'S ARRIVAL BEFORE ROME. 9 already somewhat reduced. This would give a total of twenty- six or twenty-seven thousand men, which exceeds by a few thousand infantry the calculation adopted by Giacomo Buona- parte, his multiplication of the men-at-arms by ten being obviously an accidental error. The same author supposes that the Imperialists who had marched from Montevarchi were about twenty thousand Germans, eight thousand Spaniards, three thousand Italians, with but six hundred horse. The im- pression current at Rome, and in the confederate camp, that Bourbon brought from forty to fifty thousand men before that city was therefore grossly exaggerated ; indeed, some autho- rities diminish his effective force to half that number, while Buonaparte esteems it under thirty thousand. The allied army, according to Baldi, was twenty thousand strong, of whom one fifth were cavalry ; but it, too, had melted away when mustered at Isola, as we shall in due time see. On the whole, it appears that the inequality of numbers was not such as to justify the Fabian tactics, or it may be the petted policy, of Francesco Maria. On Sunday, the 5th of May, the Constable bivouacked in the meadows north-west of the city, having approached it without crossing the Tiber. He repeated by trumpet his summons in name of the Emperor for free passage to Naples ; an idle insult, considering that the way beneath the walls lay open for him. He then explained to a council of his officers the perilous state of affairs, the troops fatigued, starving, mutinous, with a powerful enemy pressing upon their rear, and the richest me- tropolis of Europe ill-defended before them, urging that there was no alternative but that night to conquer its effeminate citizens, or next day be cut to pieces by the allied host. But, finding these representations received with cold indifference, he at dusk repeated them to the whole army in an energetic harangue, which he concluded by assuring them he had re- ceived, through Cardinal Colonna, assurances of support from the Ghibelline party within the city. 10 THE ASSAULT. 1527. Ere the morrow's dawn his army was in motion, and, under cover of a singularly dense fog, approached the city between the modern gates of Cavallegieri and S. Pancrazio. The wall was there pierced by a loop-hole, serving as the window of a small and slightly built house that formed part of the defences ; below it was another aperture into the cellar. These vulnerable points, which had been unpardonably overlooked by the papal engi- neers, were quickly noticed by the enemy, who brought the few guns they possessed to bear upon them, and soon effected a small breach. The exact site is loosely and contradictorily de- scribed as between one of the gates and the tower of S. Spirito, near Cardinal Mellini's, or Ermellini's, garden. Meanwhile the besiegers, protected by the mist from the guns of S. Angelo, vigorously attacked various points ; and on the heights above the Strada Giulia, two Spanish colours were wrested from them. The walls and substructions now visible on that side, and those which separate the Lungara from the Borgo S. Spirito, are all of later date ; and in constructing them, sixteen years subse- quently, the aspect of the localities has been so changed as to baffle accurate comparison with descriptions of the assault. If we can suppose the external wall to have run from near the Porta S. Spirito towards that of S. Pancrazio, instead of being carried, as at present, along the Janicular ridge from the Porta Cavallegieri, it might be comparatively easy to reconcile these statements. At all events, it is certain that considerable resist- ance was made by some citizens who occupied the Campo Santo or burying ground, which then lay just outside of the gate from S. Spirito into the Lungara, and which, according to a mural inscription there, was removed in 1749 to its present site further up the hill. This, being the brunt of the battle, was occupied by Bourbon, whose exertions throughout the morning had been unremitting. "Whilst steadying a ladder with his left hand, and cheering on his men with his right, he was struck to the ground by a bullet which passed through his thigh. The credit of that lucky shot, which cut short a career commenced in treason, 1527. DEATH OF BOURBON. 11 closed in sacrilege, is claimed by Benvenuto Cellini. He tells us that on hieing to the Campo Santo with two comrades, he beheld from the walls the enemy assaulting the spot where they stood ; whereupon they discharged their pieces in terror, he aiming at a figure singled out in the mist from its commanding height. Having mustered courage to peep over the wall, he saw a great confusion occasioned by the Constable's fall, and, fleeing with his friends through the cemetery, escaped by St. Peter's to the castle of S. Angelo. This assertion, which has generally passed for gasconade, receives support from the Vatican MS., wherein the shot is ascribed to some silversmith lads who, from the Mount of the Holy Crucifix, aimed at the general's w r hite mantle and plume ; and a monumental tablet outside the church of S. Spirito commemorates Bernardino Passeri, goldsmith and jeweller to Clement and his two pre-- decessors, who was killed on the 6th of May, on the adjoining part of the Janicular, after slaying many of the enemy, and capturing a standard. About five hundred paces to the west of that reach of the modern city wall which commands the Cavallegieri gate, there stands on the road to the Fornace a small oratory, called the Capella di Barbone, and pointed out by tradition as the spot where Bourbon was wounded. No account, however, which I have seen, countenances the idea of his having fallen so far away ; nor is it possible, even when no mist intervenes, to see either that point, or the site of the present exterior city wall, from the old cemetery of S. Spirito, whence the fatal shot appears to have been aimed. But from whatever spot or hand it proceeded, the wound was mortal, and the Constable died in his thirty-ninth year, ere he could witness the desecration or share the booty to which he had stimulated his followers. Yet had God's just judgment on the traitor been withheld for a time, his influence might, perhaps, have stayed the fury of the soldiery, and Rome might have been spared some portion of the misery that ensued. His body was carried to Gaeta, and his armour is still shown at the Vatican, 12 ROME IS ENTERED. 1527. a plain coat of immense strength. It, however, bears an in- dentation on the inner side of the right thigh, where the fatal bullet entered after grazing its steel edge.* For a moment his troops wavered, dismayed by their leader's fall ; but revenge and a consciousness of their perilous position rendered them desperate. The assertion of Mambrino Roseo, that the Swiss guard disputed every inch of the breach until only a drummer was left alive, wants confirmation from those narratives of eye-witnesses which I have examined. Be this as it may, it was about half-past eight that the first detachment, who had made their way into the Borgo, were observed by Renzo da Ceri. Instead of cutting them down with the body of horse who followed him, he in a loud voice gave the sauve qui peut, and, galloping round by the Ponte Sisto, reached that of S. Angelo, where he recklessly crushed and trode down the citizens, already rushing across it in masses to the castle. Had this craven caitiff rallied his men to the breach, it might have been repaired ; and had he but held the Porta Settiminiana, or even now cut the lower bridges, the invaders would have been confined within a small district of the city, until Guido Rangone arrived with succours. The panic thus originated by the city's defender spread rapidly in all quarters. The Pontiff, who, from his chair in St. Peter's* had been thundering spiritual menaces against the foe, was hurried along the covered passage to S. Angelo, whither also flocked the cardinals, clergy, and citizens of all ranks, in such crowds that it was found impossible to close the gates. At length the portcullis was dropped, with great difficulty from its rusty condition, and several cardinals, who had been excluded, In a set of miniatures executed by Giulio Clovio for Charles V., and illustra- tive of his military achievements, which were bequeathed by the Right Hon. Thomas Granville to the British Museum in 1847, Bourbon is represented falling backwards from a ladder placed against a round tower on the walls of Rome ; but being com- posed without accurate knowledge of the localities, it throws no light upon the manner of his death. 1527. THE SACK. 13 Avere afterwards drawn up in baskets. The terrified crowd who were thus shut out, rushed to escape by the city gates, but, find- ing these closed, they dispersed themselves among the palaces of the Ghibelline cardinals, upon which they vainly relied as sure asylums. About three thousand got into the castle, with fourteen car- dinals. It was very ill supplied with provisions, and the neigh- bouring shops were hurriedly emptied of whatever stores they contained. The Pontiff, in his alarm, would have attempted flight, but Bourbon's death inspired him with some hope of making terms. In fact, the besiegers, who had at first rushed in with cries of " Hurrah for Spain ! slay ! slay ! " soon paused, discouraged by the loss of their leader, and anticipating a des- perate resistance. In this state of matters, the Portuguese ambassador was authorised by his Holiness to propose an ac- commodation to the imperialist chiefs, who, finding themselves in possession of but a fraction of the city, with walls and gates on either side excluding them from the S. Spirito and Traste- * vere quarters, temporised for some hours. But as the bulk of their army entered at S. Pancrazio, and they ascertained the panic in the town, their misgivings passed away, and about two hours before sunset they suddenly advanced through the Porta Settiminiana, in Via Lungara. Encouraged by its defenceless state, they pushed across the Ponte Sisto, which they found equally unguarded, and spread like a deluge over the devoted city. Now began the horrors of the sack. The brutal soldiery, absolved from discipline, scoured the city at will, penetrating unchallenged into the most secret and most sacred places. Churches and convents, palaces and houses, were invaded and rifled ; resistance was punished with fire and sword ; rape and murder were the fate of the inhabitants. Passing over details too revolting for the imagination to supply, but too repulsive for a place in these pages, we may cite the feeling exclamations of one who seems to have witnessed them : " Alas ! how 14 THE SACK OF ROME. 1527. many courtiers, gentlemen, and prelates, how many devout nuns, matrons, and maidens became a prey to these savages ! What chalices, images, crucifixes, vessels of silver and gold, were torn from the altars by these sacrilegious hands ! What holy relics were dashed to the ground with derisive blasphemy by these brutal Lutherans ! The heads of Saints Peter, Paul, Andrew, and of many others, the wood of the sacred cross, the blessed oil, and the sacramental wafers, were ruthlessly trodden upon. The streets exhibited heaps of rich furniture, vestments, and plate, all the wealth and splendour of the Roman court, pillaged by the basest ruffians."* After these miserable scenes had endured for three days, rumours of the Duke of Urbino's approach recalled the im- perialist leaders to the necessity of defence. The command having devolved upon the Prince of Orange, a yellow-haired barbarian, further plunder was prohibited, under severe penal- ties ; and the army, reduced to comparative order, betook them- selves to enjoy their booty. But now a new drama of atrocities opened. The Germans had especially distinguished themselves by a thirst for blood, but the wily Spaniards taught them a means more effectual than murder of enriching themselves and punishing their victims. The prisoners had, in most cases, con- cealed whatever of greatest value they possessed, and recourse was had to every variety of torment in order to extract from them supposed treasures, and a ransom for their lives ; so that those who had been spared in seeming mercy found themselves but reserved for a worse fate. After stripes and blows had been exhausted, when hunger and thirst had failed to force compli- ance, tortures the most brutal succeeded. Some were suspended naked from their own windows by a sensitive limb, or swung head downwards, and momentarily threatened to be let drop into the street. Others had their teeth drawn slowly and singly, or were compelled to swallow their own mutilated and roasted * Vat Urb. MSS. No. 1677. f. 19. 1527. THE SACK OF ROME. 15 members. Others were forced to perform the most odious and menial services ; and the greatest extremities were always used towards those who were suspected of being the most wealthy and noble. Even after the desired amount of gold had been thus extorted from them, their sufferings were sometimes re- sumed at the instance of new tormentors. When such cruelties palled, their inflictors had recourse to a novel amusement, by forcing from the victims a confession of their sins ; and we are assured by the narrator of these enormities, himself a Roman, that the iniquities thus brought to light, as habitual in that dis- solute capital, were such as to confound even the licentious soldiery of Bourbon. Over the outrages committed upon the women we draw a veil : when lust was satiated, they were pro- longed in diabolical punishment, the husbands and fathers being compulsory witnesses to such unspeakable atrocities. But the delight of these sacrilegious villains, especially of the German Lutherans, was to outrage every thing holy. The churches and chapels, including the now blood-stained St. Peter's, were desecrated into stables, taverns, or brothels ; and the choirs, whence no sounds had breathed but the elevating chant of prayer and praise, rang with base ribaldry and blas- phemous imprecations. The grand creations of religious art were wantonly insulted or damaged ; the reliquaries and mi- raculous images were pillaged or defaced. Nay, a poor priest was inhumanly murdered for his firm refusal to administer the blessed sacrament to an ass. Nor was any respect paid to per- sons or party feelings. The subjects of the Emperor who hap- pened to be in Rome, the adherents of the Colonna and other Ghibelline leaders, were all involved in the general fate. Four cardinals attached to that faction had declined entering S. An- gelo, calculating that they would not only " Guide the whirlwind and direct the storm," but peradventure, promote their own interests in the melee. They were, however, miserably mistaken, for they, too, were 16 THE SACK OF ROME. 1527. held to ransom ; and one of them ( Araceli), after being often led through the streets tied on a donkey, behind a common soldier, was carried to church with mock funereal rites, when the office of the dead was read over his living body, and an oration pro- nounced, wherein, for eulogy, were loathsomely related all the real or alleged immoralities of his past life. Another outrage in especial repute with the Germans, was a ribald procession, in which some low buffoon in sacred vestments was borne shoulder- high, scattering mock benedictions among the mob, amid shouts of " Long live Luther ! " A great portion of the circulating wealth of the city was centred in the Strada de' Banchi, which, from being in a line with the castle and just across the river, was considered com- paratively secure. But this fallacious hope quickly vanished, and during five hours that quarter of bankers, merchants, and jewellers was savagely sacked in sight of the papal court. In one of these shops a large money bag being discovered, a general scramble ensued for its contents, and forty-two of the soldiery lost their lives at their comrades' hands, fighting for what proved to be counterfeit coin. The Jews, who were not then inclosed in the Ghetto, suffered a full share of such miseries, to make them disgorge their secret treasures. Vast multitudes of citizens took refuge in the palaces of the cardinals and principal nobility, especially of those supposed to be friendly to the imperial interests; but these asylums were seldom respected. That of the Cancelleria, originally built by Cardinal Pietro Riario, and still one of the most spacious in the capital, was long spared ; but on the 20th of May its turn came ; and as it was the last to be pillaged, the outrages perpetrated upon its miserable inmates, including numerous ecclesiastical and diplo- matic dignitaries, with a crowd of the high-born beauties of Rome, were perhaps the most signal and sanguinary of all. In other palaces the fugitives, though spared from violence, were held to ransom. The Dowager Marchioness of Mantua purchased immunity for her residence with 10,000 ducats, which 1527. THE TACTICS OF THE ALLIED ARMY. 17 the merchants whom it sheltered joined in paying, and which her son Ferdinando, one of the imperial leaders, was said to have basely shared. In the Vatican MS. is a backbond, signed by about five hundred persons, who had sought refuge in the palace of Cardinal Andrea della Valle, obliging themselves to repay, in sums varying from 10 to 4000 scudi each, the ransom of 40,000 ducats which he had advanced. Among the names is the King of Cyprus, and, what may have more interest for us, that of Peter Hustan from Scotland. The English Cardinal of St. Cecilia, Thomas Usher, Archbishop of York, was one of those who escaped into the castle. But where, meanwhile, was the army of the League ? The Duke of Urbino, after quelling the insurrection at Florence, had lingered there for some days at the instance of the Cardinal Legate, who represented to him that Rome was amply pro- vided with means of defence. Yet, upon learning Bourbon's advance, the confederates despatched Guido Rangone from Incisa, where their army lay, to anticipate by forced marches his arrival at that capital. Taking five thousand light infantry of the bande nere, with a large force of cavalry, he pushed on, and at Otricoli met the Datary's foolish missive of the 4th of May, which, declining further relief, asked for but a few hundred troops as enough for the wants of the city. The Count, however, paid no attention to this news, and, hurrying across the Campagna, heard near the Ponte Salara that the enemy had that morning penetrated the walls. Had he but known the real state of the army, or by a headlong dash risked his all in the noble enterprise, his name would have been honoured as the saviour of Rome. But his genius was unequal to the opportunity, and he retired to Otricoli to await the arrival of his chiefs. The Duke at length aroused himself, and moved rapidly forwards. On the 3d he quitted Florence, and at Cortona VOL. III. C 18 THEIR DILATORY MOVEMENTS, 1527. separated the army into two divisions for facilitating the com- missariat. One he led by Perugia, the other, under Saluzzo, took the Val di Chiana, with a common rendezvous at Orvieto. He was at the lake of Thrasimene on the day Rome fell, and arrested his march at Perugia to effect once more a revolution there, by substituting his friend Orazio Baglioni for Gentile, a partisan of the Medici. Santori justly observes, that " in the Duke of Urbino the desire of avenging old injuries was suspected to have prevailed over zeal for the honour of Italy and the safety of Rome:" indeed, this ill-timed gratification of an old grudge cost several precious days. On the 9th, his advanced guard were met at Casalino on the Tiber by a fugitive from Rome with news of the fall of that city, and again halted. Thus it was the 16th ere he joined the other division of the army at Orvieto, where it had preceded him by five days, and whence, after cruelly sacking Citta della Pieve, which refused supplies, he sent on a strong party of two thousand foot and five hundred horse to carry off the Pope. It was commanded by Federigo da Bozzolo, whose gallantry well qualified him for such an attempt; but his horse having unfortunately fallen upon him near Viterbo, disabling him entirely, the command of the expedition devolved upon a subaltern, who, finding it day- light ere he came in sight of S. Angelo, and his orders being for a night attack, retraced his steps without communicating with the castle. Three days were now passed in consultations among the leaders, of which we have varying accounts. Guicciardini of course represents them in the most unfavourable light for Fran- cesco Maria. He tells us that neither the letters of the Pontiff, nor the entreaties of the Proveditori and the French general, could rouse the Duke's stubborn nature to active measures ; and he describes him as full of zeal in words and proposals, but ever interposing obstacles to the execution of any definite plan. On the other hand, Baldi asserts that an onward movement, suggested by the Duke at Isola, was, to his great regret, over- 1527. AND DISTRACTED COUNSELS. 19 ruled by these authorities, and by Guicciardini himself; whilst the Bishop of Cagli* pleads as his excuse for inaction, that the Venetians, finding their duty very different from field-days and muster-rolls, refused to follow him, and even retired home in great numbers. But, assuming the truth of the last averment, should not the blame of such lax discipline attach to the general who had led these troops through several campaigns? and may not the moral paralysis which impeded effective tactics in the army be fairly adduced in mitigation of their unauthorised furloughs ? At length an advance was agreed upon, and on the 20th the head-quarters were at Isola di Farnese, nine miles from Rome, the Duke having marche$ by Nepi, and Saluzzo by Bracciano. Here distracted counsels again prevailed, and, in answer to urgent representations of his confederates, that the Pope must at all hazards be relieved, Francesco Maria ordered a muster of the army, which showed twelve to fifteen thousand men. Letters to the same purpose arriving from the Signory, and a message declaring that Clement had broken off a negotiation with his oppressors on the strength of speedy assistance, he at length consented that Rangone should once more attempt to bring off his Holiness, by leading a division to Monte Mario, whilst he advanced to his support with the main body as far as Tre Capanne. But on pretext of making a previous ex- amination of the ground, he wasted so much time, that night had fallen when they reached that place ; and the expedition being thereby delayed until morning, a general feeling then prevailed that the force was inadequate, and the troops were * Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 818. f. 5. Sanuto has preserved a letter -which he says gave the first authentic information of the sack to the combined leaders, and which urges them to exertion in most pressing terms. It will be found in No. IL of the Appendix, with two other letters detailing the principal incidents of that direful event in terms which, though in a great measure anticipated by our narrative, show the impression made by them at the time, and probably conveyed the fullest in- formation of the catastrophe to the Duchess of Urbino and to the Emperor. See the Pontiff's bricves illustrating his feeble policy, No. I. C 2 20 THE DUKE Or URBINO's JUSTIFICATION. 1527. thereupon withdrawn. An even less creditable version of this evolution is given by an eye-witness in the Duke's service, who attributes as its motive the seizure of a quantity of booty, which had been removed from Rome to Monte Rotondo ; adding that, on seeing signal fires over the Campagna, and hearing a vague rumour that the enemy were approaching in force, the Duke suddenly faced about and regained his quarters, his men in sad plight, and the rear stripped to their shirts by some skirmishers.* In order to cut short such discreditable scenes, the Duke, at a council of war, announced his resolution to attempt no offen- sive operations until his army should be recruited by fifteen thousand Swiss, some ten thousand other troops, and forty pieces of cannon, with ample funds for their pay ; adding that, as S. An- gelo was provisioned for three months, there would be sufficient time for raising these reinforcements. This opinion he embodied in a memorial, which he sent on the 30th from Isola, by the Bishop of Asti, to Francis I. It is preserved by Baldi, and in * Memoirs of Antenore Leonard!, dictated by him in 1581. Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023. f. 85. Among the works dedicated to Francesco Maria II. is a Treatise on Tides by Annibale Raimondo of Verona [1589], who had served under his grandfather in Lombardy, and at this time. In the preface, a somewhat inflated testimony is borne to that Duke's military talents, arguing that his tactics were ever aggressive when unimpeded by other leaders, who in the present instance prevented him from marching upon Rome. But the author was eighty-four when he wrote a statement palpably intended for an adulatory purpose, and his feeble or partial reminiscences cannot be considered of material weight. We have thought it right, in a passage so nearly touching the Duke of Urbino's fair fame, to embrace the con- flicting views of our best authorities : the narratives of Paruta and Morosini, Vene- tians, who had no interest in his reputation, go far to reconcile these and justify him. They tell us that the Signory, profoundly moved by the Pontiff's danger, sent pressing orders for their army to support him ; and that, in compliance therewith, Francesco Maria and the Proveditore Pisani resolved to advance upon Rome and rescue Clement, even at the hazard of a general engagement, but that the other Proveditore, Vetturi, formally protested against exposing the army to so great a risk : that disgusted by the failures brought on by these misunderstandings, the Signory superseded Vetturi, and grumbled against their general : that the latter, annoyed by unmerited reflections, wished to throw up his command, and that it was only, after cool consideration, and flattering advances from the senate, that he consented to remain in its service. See his formal defence, App. No. III. 1527. THE PONTIFF CAPITULATES. 21 Sermonetta's Letters, and offers a verbose, laboured, and incon- clusive defence of his drivelling tactics. The burden of it is the inferiority of the allied force to the enemy, the probable failure of aggressive movements, and an urgent appeal that the King should come in person, as the only means of giving unanimity to a council in which each desired to lead. Indeed, the whole proceedings of the army attest the mutual jealousies and disunion of its leaders, which form the best justification of the Duke's dilatory measures, amid difficulties which he had not energy or decision to overcome. The Pontiff, thus abandoned to his fate, learned by bitter ex- perience, " With what a weight that robe of sovereignty Upon his shoulder rests, who from the mire Would guard it, that each other fardel seems But feathers in the balance." On the 18th he wrote to the Duke of Urbino, " amid these calamities and perils," begging a safe-conduct for a messenger as far as Siena, to induce Lanoy to repair to Rome, the envoy selected for this mission being Bernardo, father of Torquato Tasso. The Viceroy willingly responded to this summons, hoping to succeed Bourbon in command of the imperialists. But finding the Prince of Orange already chosen by the army to that post, he in disgust kept aloof from the capitulation, which was signed on the 5th of June, by intervention of Gattinara. Its principal stipulations were these: 1. A safe-conduct to Naples for his Holiness, and such of the cardinals as chose to go, upon payment of 150,000 golden scudi, two thirds whereof within six days, the remainder on the expiry of twenty. 2. Security for the personal property within the castle, upon pay- ment of as much more, for which hostages were to be given until it could be raised by a general impost or otherwise. 3. The removal of all censures from the Colonna, and their restoration to their estates and dignities. 4. The immediate surrender of S. Angelo, Civita Vecchia, Ostia, and Civita Castellana, with c s 22 A PESTILENCE BREAKS OUT. 1527. the further cession of Parma, Piacenza, and Modena to the Em- peror, as an inducement for the army to evacuate Rome. This treaty was signed by nine cardinals, four bishops, and eighteen imperialist officers, and the castle was forthwith consigned to a guard of the invaders, in whose hands the Pontiff and his court remained virtually prisoners.* But many difficulties impeded completion of the remaining conditions. The amount of ransom seems under various pre- texts to have been considerably advanced, and is set down by most writers at 400,000 scudi. In order to raise this sum, all the church-plate, which had been saved in the fortress, was hastily coined into specie, and three scarlet hats were set up to sale. Two of them were at once secured for 160,000 scudi by the Venetians, ambitious of influence in the conclave. The third was bought for a creature of Pompeo Colonna, whose personal hostility to Clement had become somewhat mitigated by grief for the sufferings he had brought upon the city, and who, in a pathetic audience with his master, obtained his forgiveness and benediction. Still, a large balance of the besiegers' demands remained undischarged, and the stipulation regarding the for- tresses was nullified, Civita Castellana being in the hands of the allies, and Ostia occupied by Andrea Doria, neither of whom would acknowledge the capitulation. Parma and Piacenza were also held for the Church, in consequence, as was suspected, of instructions secretly transmitted by Clement. In the hope of obtaining better terms, his Holiness successively directed more than one member of the Sacred College to proceed as legate to Charles, among whom was Cardinal Farnese, his successor on the papal throne ; but none of them would execute the com- mission. Meanwhile the miseries of the city were fearfully aggravated. The terrified peasantry having ceased to carry supplies where they were sure of misusage, scarcity was succeeded by famine ; * Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1677. f. 38. 1527. FLIGHT OP THE PONTIFF. 23 and. the sewers, choked with bodies and abandoned to neglect, engendered a deadly epidemic, called by Muratori, the murrain, which spared neither friend nor foe. In August, the pestilence increased to a terrific degree ; and the invading army being re- duced by long licence to an undisciplined horde, portions of it rushed in masses from the city of the plague. Some of these bands, after attempting to hang the Pope's hostages, fled to- wards Terni and Spoleto, sacking the towns on their way, until cut to pieces by the confederates. Nor was the Pontiff exempt from scenes of suffering. Asses' flesh was served at his table ; and a greengrocer's wife was hanged before S. Angelo, for dropping into the trenches a few salad leaves for his use. The contagion spread so rapidly in the castle, that the invaders, fear- ing their prey might slip from their grasp by death, removed his Holiness for some weeks to the Vatican Belvidere, until the scourge had abated. Lanoy, having fallen a victim to the disease, was succeeded as viceroy by TJgo da Moncada, from whose mercy Clement knew he had nothing to expect, and whom Santori characterises as " an experienced, clever, and sagacious man of the world, devoid of religion, full of fraud, and no observer of his word." He arrived on the 31st of October, in order to effect some new arrangement, when the Pope purchased by further large sums an exemption from several of the former stipulations, in par- ticular from putting himself and his cardinals into his enemy's hands by going to Naples.* To raise this fresh imposition, four more hats were thrown upon the market, and were purchased by adherents of the Emperor. At length, after many delays, the 9th of December was fixed for his liberation from a seven months' virtual captivity ; but, distrusting every one, he escaped in disguise the previous night. Concealing his face and beard under an old slouch hat and cloak, and laden with baskets and * The new treaty of November 26. is printed by Molini in the Documenti di Storia Italiana, i. 273. c 4 24 THE POPE'S DIPLOMATIC 1527. bags, he passed the sentinels of S. Angelo as a pedler or menial servant. At a secret postern in the Vatican garden, he found a fleet horse, with a single attendant, supposed to have been pro- vided by Cardinal Colonna, and, riding all night by Celano and Baccano, after a short repose at Capranica, he reached Or- vieto, which he had some days before fixed upon as an interim residence. The diplomatic relations of the Holy See at Madrid were at this juncture in the hands of Count Castiglione, with whom we have formerly become acquainted in the service of Dukes Gui- dobaldo and Francesco Maria, and whom we last noticed as agent for the Marquis of Mantua at the Roman court in 1522, where he was again sent in the same capacity on the election of Clement VII. The position of the new Pontiff soon became one of great delicacy, and already were those difficulties closing around him, which, during his reign, completed the first great breach in the Romish Church, and consummated the mischiefs of foreign invasion in the Peninsula. The struggle for universal dominion of those youthful rivals who occupied the thrones of France and the Empire, was convulsing civilised Europe, and Italy was obviously fated to become the permanent prey of the victor. In these circumstances, a character so deficient in energy and decision was singularly inadequate to cope with the necessities of the times ; and Clement's influence at Florence, far from affording a prop to the tottering papacy, tended yet more to distract his irresolute purpose. Falling back upon the usua lexpedient of small minds, he adopted a neutral attitude between the two contending potentates : but the days were past when pontiffs could grasp the balance of power, or curb a dangerous ascendancy ; and Clement's views aimed not beyond siding with a momentary victor. To carry out such policy fine diplomacy was requisite, and Castiglione was selected to watch the interests of Rome at the Spanish court. In the autumn of 1524, he accepted this Nunziatura, to which was joined the 1527. RELATIONS AT MADRID. 25 lucrative collectorship of Spain ; and after visiting the shrine of Loreto, he reached Madrid in the following March. His negotiations for the next four years embraced the politics of Europe, to which those of Italy were but an episode. We cannot interrupt the thread of our narrative to notice them : a sketch of their progress, in No. IV. of the Appendix, may afford some idea of the difficulties of Castiglione's position, as the medium of communication between a master who, leaving him habitually Avithout information, recalled his most momentous in- structions after they had been acted upon, and a monarch whose public measures were in uniform contradiction to his private assurances. That diplomacy so conducted should have issued in disgrace to Clement, ruin to Rome, and a broken heart to Count Baldassare, can excite no astonishment ; but the ambassador merits our pity rather than our blame. Indeed its complicated intrigues may well drive the historian and the critic to despair. Incidents, which, although attended by important consequences, seem sudden and unlocked for, might, upon more accurate scru- tiny, be detected as results long aimed at, and patiently wrought out. Thus, some documents lately published by Lanz * prove that Charles, although disposed to yield much for a satisfactory accommodation with Clement, had authorised Moncada, early in the summer of 1526, to concert with Cardinal Pompeo Colonna a series of domestic insurrections, in order to embarrass his Holiness into a disposition for peace, the issue of which ma- chinations we have seen in the first sack of Rome. Although the acts of Charles and his generals during 1526-7 were uniformly and aggravatingly hostile to Clement, and pre- judicial to the papacy, they must be regarded as in some measure forced upon him by the shuffling of his Holiness. His own position and prospects were not then by any means so secure as to render redundant the support still carried by the influence of the Keys ; and the cherished aim of his manhood, * Lanz Correspondenz des Kaisers Carl V. See also the delightful and well- edited Lettere di Castiglione by Serassi, 26 THE POPE'S DIPLOMATIC 1527. which would have united Western Europe in one faith and under one sway, had not yet been abandoned as a fitful dream. By keeping in view these peculiarities in his situation, we may in some measure reconcile the obvious contradictions between his professions and his policy between his language to Castig- lione and the conduct of Bourbon ; and we may appreciate in their true sense such apparently fulsome and false expressions as he thus addressed to Clement, on the 18th of September, 1526: "And since God has constituted us two as mighty luminaries, it behoves us to endeavour that the globe should be enlightened by us, and to see that no eclipse occur through our differences ; let us, then, take counsel together for the general weal, for repressing barbarian inroads, and restraining sectarian error." At a moment when the eastern frontier of the empire had been broken down by the victorious Crescent; when the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia were tottering on his brother's brow; and when, as he writes in 1526, the wars of Italy had extracted every ducat from his treasury, we may well suppose how sincere was his wish for a settlement of those protracted struggles within the Alps, and for a union of interests with the Holy See. That his measures little accorded with that object, and nowise tended to bring it about, arose less from want of sincere intention than from an ill-judged mixture of good words and hard blows, partly dictated by his own deficient judgment, partly by the misapprehension of his officers. Though there- fore the pillage of Rome by the Colonna was a natural con- sequence of his own intrigues, the regret he expressed to the Pontiff that his people had been driven to it [" que Ton ait donne I occasion a mes gens que tel desastre soit advenu "] was, no doubt, his real feeling. Equally inconsistent in appearance, but natural in the circum- stances, was his conduct in reference to Bourbon's outrageous proceedings. When news of the sack reached Madrid, he affected great indignation, and put his court into mourning. On the 25th of July, he addressed to the magistracy of Borne a letter 1527. RELATIONS AT MADRID. 27 defending his proceedings. After narrating his liberation of Francis, and the various other sacrifices made by him, pre- liminary to such a general pacification as might enable all Christian powers to unite their arms against the Infidel, he charged the Pope with defeating this scheme by suddenly, and without reason, instigating an attack upon him and the imperial dignity, Avhereby he was compelled from self-defence to march fresh forces upon Italy, in what he regarded as a worse than civil broil. Moreover, new alliances against him having been arranged by his Holiness, and the truce actually broken, his troops had no alternative but to adopt compulsory measures. That these should, by the blunders of his officers, have led to the siege of the city, without his knowledge, he deeply re- gretted, and gladly would shed his best blood to repair its disasters. But great as had been the sacrifice, he consoled himself with a hope of its paving the way for a general peace, which he would do his utmost to accelerate. In fine, he wound up with most sonorous professions of devotion to the grandeur of the Roman name.* The Pontiff's natural dissatisfaction with his ambassador at Madrid was very plainly expressed in a letter of the 20th of August, which taxed him with undue reliance upon the Em- peror's vague protestations, imputing generally to him a want of foresight preceding the calamity of Rome, and a neglect of the proper remedies for that mischief. To this brief, Castiglione an- swered at considerable length, and with unnecessary diffuseness, as soon as it reached him in December, f The substance of his defence is that, on every occasion during the four years of his mission, he had laboured to establish a good understanding between his Holiness and Charles, and had been met with assurances, verbal and written, of his Majesty's anxious desire to meet these views ; but that the great distance, and the delays of communication with Rome, not only rendered it * Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1677. f. 36. f Lettere de' Principi, i. 83. 28 DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS AT MADRID. 1527. impossible to provide for the successive exigencies as they arose, but left him entirely in the dark as to the most important movements until too late to avert impending mischief. Thus he had no intelligence of the truce arranged with Lanoy on the 15th of March, till he heard of its being rejected by Bourbon. These excuses ostensibly satisfied Clement ; and, however in- adequate they might be deemed in ordinary cases of diplo- matic blundering, they may be allowed some weight in this instance ; for, although the Emperor could scarcely fail to an- ticipate from the sack of Rome new facilities for domination in Italy, in consequence of the permanent humiliation of the papacy, history must acquit him of a preconcerted plan to bring about a catastrophe which incidentally resulted from Bourbon's disobedience and the disorganisation of his army. Indeed, had Charles been as much interested in the welfare of the Eternal City as Castiglione himself, he would have been powerless to arrest the destroyer, whose death had removed him from all reckoning on this side the grave, and prevented his master from sacrificing him in token of good faith. It is, however, impossible to regard without contempt the hollow professions of an autograph letter addressed by the Emperor to Clement, on the 22d of November, wherein he congratulated his Holiness on his supposed liberation, thanking God for it "with joy as sincere as was the grief with which I heard of your detention from no fault of mine." Avowing himself his most humble and loyal son, ready to use every effort for the restoration and increment of the apostolic dignity, he besought the Pontiff to credit nothing to the contrary that might be asserted by false and interested suggestions.* Such are the considerations which seem calculated, and not altogether inadequate, to account for the eccentric policy and hollow professions of Charles, in so far as we can gather from the strange events thus briefly sketched. But, if we are to rely * Lettere de' Principi, i. 71. 110. 1527. RESULTS OF THE SACK. 29 upon a different view brought forward by the Sieur de Bran- tome in his anecdotes of Bourbon, the advance of the imperi- alist army was not dictated from Madrid. In his gossiping and often apocryphal pages is detailed a conversation held by him at Gaeta with a veteran, who in youth had been with the Constable, and who imputed to that renegade an intention of seizing upon the sovereignty of Rome. His overweening vanity and unbounded ambition countenance the idea, and the way in which he is there stated to have conciliated his soldiery, by pandering to their worst passions, gives colour to the charge. If it be credited, Clement's indignation was misplaced, and Charles might have defended his consistency at the expence of his pride, could he have demeaned himself to acknowledge having been baffled and betrayed by his own general. Thus ended the Sack of Rome. No similar calamity had befallen the Holy City since the devastation of Robert Guis- card, who, four centuries and a half before, at the head of his Apulian Normans, laid in ruin and ashes the most monumental portion of the imperial capital. On this occasion, fewer re- mains of antiquity were exposed to destruction, but the people suffered far more severely. From four to six thousand of them fell in the first fury of the barbarians, besides many who perished by more mature cruelties. Thirty thousand are said to have sunk under the famine and pestilence which, during many subsequent months, ravaged the devoted city, leaving only about as many more for its entire population, which, ac- cording to Giovio, had, ten years before, amounted to eighty- five thousand. The value of property pillaged and destroyed was supposed to exceed two millions of golden ducats; the amount extorted in ransoms has been stated at a nearly equal sum. So general a pauperism ensued, that regular distri- butions were long continued from the papal treasury, drained as it had been. But a great revival of religious observances fol- lowed, being inculcated by the clergy and government, and 30 RESULTS OP THE SACK. 1527. practised very generally among the inhabitants, whose ob- livion of such duties, and addiction to debauchery, usury, and every grovelling pursuit, had hitherto been scandalously ap- parent. Throughout all these scenes of misery, the Pontiff had bewailed the misfortunes of his subjects more than his own suf- ferings, and had penitently confessed himself their author. It was not till the 6th of October, in the following year, that he returned to his capital, pale and thin, languid and disheartened; and at the moment of his arrival, a preternatural storm burst over the city, succeeded by a most destructive flood. Nor were such omens out of season. In him had set the ancient glory of the papacy. From the moment that his predecessors, mingling in the arena of international strife, descended from arbiters to parties in the conflicts of Europe, their influence waned. When they had to canvass for the support of temporal sovereigns, they ceased to command them. But, after Clement was re- duced to sue for personal protection to the successor of one who had knelt before a pontiff, the prestige of papal power was gone, its sceptre was shivered in the dust.* * The name CLEMENT has been remarked as unlucky for the papacy. Under Clement V. the Holy See was translated to France ; under Clement VI. the metro- politan chureh of the Lateran was burnt ; Clement VII. saw Home pillaged by an army of transalpine heretics, and capitulated to them. 1527. THE DUKE OF UEBINO'S POLICY. CHAPTER XL. THE DUKE'S MISCHIEVOUS POLICY. NEW LEAGUE AGAINST CHARLES V. A FRENCH ARMY REACHES NAPLES THE DUKE's CAMPAIGN IN LOMBARDY. PEACE RESTORED. SIEGE OF FLORENCE. CORONATION OF THE EMPEROR AT BOLOGNA. THE INDEPENDENCE OF ITALY FINALLY LOST. LEONORA DUCHESS OF URBINO. THE DUKE'S MILITARY DISCOURSES. " Italy was pacified, but its stillness was desolation." ANON. " For lo ! the kings of the earth are gathered, and gone by together." PSALM XL. " Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss." SHAKSPEARB. WE must now return to the confederate camp at Isola, which the Duke of Urbino broke up, after having eased his conscience by sending to Francis I. the explanation of his views to which we have referred. The general feeling regarding his conduct was testified by a speedy withdrawal of many forces under his command, some deserting to the enemy, others retiring to their homes. On the 1st of June, he was at Monterosi, and thence fell back upon Viterbo and Todi, where he obtained some in- glorious successes over the imperialist bands, as they fled in disorder from plague-stricken Rome. During the autumn his troops, which gradually diminished to a few thousands, led a life of disreputable pillage about the valley of the Tiber ; and, after again embroiling himself in the affairs of Perugia with little credit or success, he interfered in the succession of Camerino in 32 THE DUKE OP URBINO's POLICY. 1527, a way which we shall find eventually pregnant with mischief to his son. On the Pontiff's arrival at Orvieto, he hastened to wait upon his Holiness, and put forward the Venetian com- missioner to make a laboured justification of his recent mis- carriages. Clement, affecting contentment with what was be- yond redress, received him cordially, and hinted at a union of his son Guidobaldo with Caterina, daughter of his late com- petitor, Lorenzo de' Medici. But ere long he reaped the fruit of his feeble policy, by hearing that he was spoken of in the most disparaging terms by the gallant Francis I., and by the French general Lautrec. Still more mortifying to him was the distrust shown by his Venetian employers. We learn from Sanuto's Diaries that, early in May, his Duchess had repaired to Venice, with the young Guidobaldo and a suite of forty persons, while the visits passing between her and the imperial ambassador soon became matter of unfavourable comment. On the 29th of June, a guard of barges was placed near her residence, to intercept any attempt at escape ; and on the envoy from Urbino questioning this proceeding, the Doge said, in explanation, " We have much reliance on our Captain from past experience, but what has been done was to satisfy the vulgar." Hearing that his wife and son were thus under surveillance, as hostages for his good faith, the Duke, on the 9th of July, penned a remonstrance and justification, somewhat similar to that which he had trans- mitted to the French king. It will be found in the Appendix, No. III., and, though a most inconclusive defence, it was well received by the Signory, and his family \vere so far released from constraint, that, early in August, the Duchess was allowed to go for health to the baths of Abano. News of her departure from such a cause were little consolation to her lord, who de- clared that, were she to die, he should be in despair. Re- membering, however, the fate of Carmagnola, he would not venture in person to Venice, until he had twice sent his con- fidential friend Leonardi to reconnoitre the state of feeling HE EEPAIRS TO VENICE. 33 there. Reassured at length, by pressing invitations from the Signory, he in the spring took ship at Pesaro with a small suite, and was met upon landing by an escort of twenty gentle- men in scarlet, who conducted him to his lodging. Next day he was admitted to the interview which he had demanded, and was received at the top of the great stairs by the Doge, fol- lowed by the principal senators. After mutual embraces, the Duke was led to a seat of honour, and had audience for an hour and a half. This being concluded, the public were ad- mitted to see their Captain-general, who was richly decked in diamonds, with a massive bracelet of twisted gold on his left arm, and a jewelled device in his cap. On returning to his apartment, he had from the Signory the customary compliment of confections, malmsey, and wax lights. It would be hard to say how far he was indebted to his oratory for this happy extrication from his difficulties ; but we are told by one of his suite that many of the nobility, who crowded to pay their respects, besought a sight of his speech to the senate, insisting that so eloquent an oration must needs have been written and committed to memory.* Thinking it well to retire with flying colours, he next morn- ing took his departure ; and his party, being challenged by three of the patrol for riding armed, answered by beating them to death. The same intemperate behaviour brought him ere many days into a new dilemma with his employers. Gian Andrea da Prato, an officer of the Republic, having somewhat disrespectfully combated his opinion as to the defences of Peschiera, received from him a severe blow in the face, tearing it with a diamond ring he happened to wear, which was followed up by a severe beating with his baton of command ; Leonardi adding that it was well for him the Duke was unarmed. The Venetian officers, protesting against this violence as an insult * Leonardos Memoirs, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023. f. 85. Most of the preceding details have been gathered from Sanuto's Diaries. VOL. III. D 34 A NEW COALITION. 1527. to the Signory, and as incompatible with due freedom of dis- cussion in council, sent a complaint to the senate ; but the Duke's resident minister succeeded in averting their indignation by explanations. Their satisfaction with his services under the banner of St. Mark was further testified by presenting him with a palace worth 10,000 scudi, which may fairly be taken into account as countervailing the strictures of Guicciardini and Sismondi. The capture of Rome being known, a new coalition was hastily patched up, wherein France, England, Venice, and Florence were parties, and to which the free cardinals, in name of the Sacred College, adhered. Its avowed object was to check the exorbitant power of Charles in Italy, and to establish Fran- cesco Sforza in Milan, then held by Antonio della Leyva for the Emperor. A powerful French army under Lautrec marched on the 30th of June, and, on its arrival in Lombardy, the Venetians recalled most of their forces from Central Italy. On the 4th of October Pavia was taken and miserably sacked, and Milan might have become an easy prey had not Lautrec pre- ferred advancing for the Pope's liberation. But, having lost time in extorting contributions from Piacenza and Parma, he had only reached Reggio when he heard of his escape from durance. Clement, though avowing gratitude for these exertions on his behalf, declined committing himself by any overt act against the Emperor, whose troops still occupied Rome. The year which now closed is justly characterised by Muratori as the most fatal and lamentable for Italy that history has com- memorated. The horrors of war, which, during its course, were poured in accumulated measure upon the Eternal City, fell largely upon many other parts of the Peninsula. Four foreign armies were let loose upon her plains, to steep them in misery, and the enormities attending the sack of Rome were repeated at Pavia, Spoleto, and a multitude of minor towns in Lombardy and Central Italy. The furies of civil broil were meanwhile 1527. THE CONDITION OF ITALY. 35 scarcely less rampant. The Campagna of Rome, the sunny shores of Naples, the towns of the Abruzzi, were ravaged or revolutionised by the arms and intrigues of the Pontiff. Flo- rence, Siena, Modena, Rimini, Ravenna, Perugia, and Camerino changed their governments, under pressure of foreign force or domestic violence. Nor were the elements more propitious. Incessant rains destroyed the harvest, and laid whole districts under water. With an unusual demand upon agricultural produce, the supply was greatly curtailed. Famine reigned throughout the land, and pestilence desolated the population. The inhabitants, reduced to general mendicity, beset the streets and highways with their squalid children. Their murmurs by day and their screams by night met with rare responses from passers- by as needy as themselves ; and at length, worn out with suf- fering, they laid them down to die. It was during this year of general gloom that Machiavelli closed his life ; and to it specially applies that passage in his Principe (whether then interpolated or written long before) describing the prostration of his native land. " Conquered, enslaved, divided without leader or law beaten, spoiled, partitioned, overrun, and in every way ruined she lay half lifeless, awaiting some one to heal her wounds, to arrest the robbery, pillage, and forced taxation of her states, to heal her long- cankering sores." To this hideous but faithful picture one finishing touch is wanting. Alarmed by Lautrec's advance upon Naples, the Prince of Orange at length, on the 16th of February, gave or- ders for the evacuation of Rome. But his army, now crumbled away to some thirteen thousand men, refused to march without an advance of pay, for which a final contribution of 20,000 ducats was wrested from the Camera. Not satisfied with this, the brutal soldiery redoubled their individual efforts, by every ingenuity of torture, to screw more treasure or ransom from the wretched inhabitants. But a summary vengeance awaited them. Such of the citizens as had arms secretly left the city, and, as their relentless foes straggled heedlessly across the Campagna, D 2 36 INVASION OF NAPLES. 1528. laden with spoil, they, by a succession of furious charges, re- covered a vast quantity of the plunder, and, stripping the rapa- cious soldiery of their gala dresses and rich jewels, dismissed them naked. In this state the exasperated peasantry, headed by Napoleone Orsini, the warlike Abbot of Farfa, set upon and massacred them without mercy. So signal was these miscreants' fate that, in two years, scarcely one of them is supposed to have survived. After delaying for some weeks at Bologna, to abide the issue of many intricate negotiations which followed upon the Pontiff's release, Lautrec advanced, by the eastern coast, to attack the kingdom of Naples. His army is estimated by Muratori at about fifty thousand, though stated by others at a much higher amount. On the 10th of February, he passed the frontier by the Tronto, and at Aquila, and elsewhere in the Abruzzi, was received with open arms by the remnant of the Angevine party. On the 12th of March, the two armies were in presence at Troia ; but, neither of them being anxious for a decisive result, no engagement followed. After ravaging most of La Puglia and Calabria, the French troops sat down before Naples, on the 29th of April, and continued the siege during most of the sum- mer. Once more did that delicious land, where the ancients placed their Elysian fields, and which is the terrestrial heaven of modern Italians, prove fatal to its spoilers. Its soil, fertile in nature's choicest products ; its bright atmosphere, redolent of beauty ; its climate, conducive to luxurious gratifications ; its volcanic air, stimulating to sensual indulgences ; its breezes, wafting perennial perfumes all invited to an excess of enjoy- ment, enervating to the physical, as it was fatal to the moral energies of the invaders. Their cup of pleasure was drugged, and Naples was avenged on her destroyers by her own poisons, which they greedily quaffed. A contagious pestilence swept their ranks, and, on the 15th of August, carried off their leader. Weakened and discouraged, the remnant shut themselves into 1528. FRANCESCO MARIA IN" LOMBARDY. 37 Aversa, but were soon forced to a capitulation, which being violated, most of them were cut to pieces. To counterbalance Lautrec's expedition, the Emperor had ordered more troops across the Alps, and, in the beginning of May, Henry Duke of Brunswick brought fourteen thousand Germans through the Tyrol to the Lago di Guarda. On the first alarm of their approach, the Duke of Urbino made the most of a handful of troops under his command, to protect the Venetian mainland territory ; and his biographers give him great credit for defensive measures which ensured their towns from attack, and obliged the invaders to move upon the Milanese. Pavia having been, about the same time, surprised by della Leyva, Lodi alone remained in Sforza's hands, and before it the Duke of Brunswick drew his lines. But the destruction of his magazines by Francesco Maria reduced his army to great straits ; and a virulent epidemic having carried off two thousand of his men, the residue broke up and made their way homewards, after their first assault had been sharply repelled. In September, the Duke of Urbino's little army was reinforced by a strong body of Swiss infantry and French lances, led by St. Pol, and it was resolved to recover Pavia. Scarcely was the siege begun when news of the desperate state of the French before Naples induced St. Pol to propose withdrawing his con- tingent to the succour of Genoa, which, in consequence of Andrea Doria suddenly passing over from the side of Francis to that of his rival, was placed in great danger. A brief delay was obtained by the urgent representations of Francesco Maria, who, throwing aside bis accustomed sluggishness, directed opera- tions in person. On the sixth day he effected a breach by blowing up a bastion, which placed the city at its assailants' mercy, and it was again exposed to the horrors of a ruthless sack. This success was, however, counterbalanced by a revo- lution in Genoa, the city declaring itself independent of France, and was followed by the fall of Savona, on the 21st of October. It might have been saved by more prompt exertions on the D 3 38 NEW COMBINATIONS. 1529. Duke's part, who was unjustly blamed by his French allies for its loss, being, as Paruta assures us, interdicted by the Signory from leaving their frontier exposed. During the weary wars of Clement VII., the fluctuations inherent in human affairs were rarely counterbalanced by high principles or commanding genius. Confederacies formed upon narrow views and selfish calculations were neither sustained with persevering energy, nor directed by men of enlarged views and gallant bearing. Indeed, courage itself faltered and zeal grew languid, in contests which seemed to demoralise officers and soldiery. It cannot therefore occasion surprise that all parties were equally ready to play fast and loose; that the great powers kept themselves ever open for new combinations ; and that independent captains, true to old condottiere usages, readily transferred their services to the quarter whence most substantial benefits were likely to accrue. Thus, after the great discouragement resulting to the cause of Francis, from the loss of Lautrec's army and the desertion of Doria, his allies began to waver. The Pontiff, though scarcely recovered from the alarm in which his recent misfortunes had left him, dis- played an unaccountable leaning towards their author; and even Sforza, having to choose between two claimants of his duchy, began to think that the best terms might be had from the Emperor. The Venetians were as usual waiters upon pro- vidence ; but they so overplayed the temporising game, that the arrangements for a double treaty between Clement, Charles, and Francis found them still in the field, and they were left to make head single-handed against the imperialists. As such a contest was necessarily a defensive one, the Duke's dilatory manoeuvres were at length well timed, and the Signory pre- ferred thus prolonging the struggle to restoring the territory they had gained during the war, as a preliminary condition of peace. The Emperor had landed in August at Genoa, with a powerful fleet and army, and new levies arrived from Germany. St. Pol, after drawing off his troops towards Genoa, was sur- 1529. CHARLES V. IN ITALY. 39 prised and shamefully beaten ere he could be supported by Francesco Maria*, who had encamped at Cassano on the Adda, in a position that menaced Milan, and commanded supplies from the Bergamese territory, whilst it effectually protected the Venetian mainland from imperialist aggression. The Duke there resisted every attempt to dislodge him, until the senate had arranged the terms of a treaty with the Emperor, which was signed on the 23d of December. The ostensible motives of Charles in coming to Italy were twofold ; to forward arrangements for a general league against the Turks, who, after overrunning Hungary, had laid siege to Vienna ; and to have the imperial diadem and the iron crown of Lombardy imposed upon his brows by the Pope. Bologna was selected for the ceremony, whither his Holiness arrived in great state about the end of October, followed on the 5th of November by the Emperor. The two potentates were lodged in the public palace, and addressed themselves to the former of these objects with so much success, that on the 23d of De- cember a treaty was concluded, wherein were comprehended all the Italian states except Florence. The Lombard question was settled, Sforza being left in possession of his duchy, but hampered with ruinous payments to the Emperor in name of expenses ; whilst the Venetians, besides paying heavy sums under the same pretext, had to resign their acquisitions about Ravenna and on the Neapolitan coast. Florence was not in- cluded, in consequence of its de facto government being in the hands of the democratic party, who, in 1527, had availed them- selves of Clement's difficulties to expel the Medici ; it was now, however, replaced under their sway by the combined arms of the Pontiff and the Emperor. After ten months of obstinate defence, the final effort of its old republican spirit, which * In his Discorsi Militari, pp. 7, 8., the Duke minutely criticises the French gene- ral's tactics, which exposed him to this shameful reverse ; but the details have now little interest. D 4 40 CORONATION OP THE EMPEROE. 1529. commands our sympathy and respect far more than the strug- gles of faction that used in earlier times to deluge its piazza in blood, the city was surrendered on the 12th of August, 1530, and its chains were riveted by a base bastard, who seems to have had nothing of the Medici but their name. In this siege died Philibert Prince of Orange, one of the last survivors of the invaders of Rome. Like his comrade Bourbon, he was a renegade from the service of Francis I., in disgust, as was alleged, at being turned out of his palace to make way for the imperious Wolsey, and at the ridicule to which this slight exposed him in the French court. The title passed to his nephew Rene Count of Nassau, who carried it from Provence to Holland, and was grandfather of William III. of England. Their leader fallen, their occupation gone, a serious alarm spread throughout Central Italy, lest the victorious soldiery should re-enact the horrors perpetrated by Bourbon's sanguinary host. These fears, however, soon subsided ; indeed, a century and a quarter elapsed ere that fair land was again exposed to the devastations of foreign spoilers. These diplomatic arrangements being thus satisfactorily con- cluded, preparations advanced rapidly for the coronation, and many princely feudatories of Italy flocked to witness that august function. Among these was Francesco Maria, who, though summoned as Prefect of Rome, had some cause to misdoubt his welcome from the Pontiff and the Emperor. The old family grudge still smouldered in the breast of the former, and he was alleged to have lately intrigued with Charles that the Prince of Orange, after re-establishing the Medici at Florence, should seize upon Urbino for Aseanio Colonna, whose vague claims upon that duchy have been already explained. * Indeed, a rumour of that general's march upon his states in March, 1529, had suddenly recalled the Duke from Lombardy, in order to provide for their defence. To the Emperor he had been * Vol. U. pp. 402. 405.. 1529. CORONATION OF THE EMPEROR. 41 uniformly opposed, rather from the chances of war than upon any personal quarrel ; yet he did not hesitate to repair to the coronation, arriving at Bologna about the 1st of November, and there met with an interesting incident. As he approached the city with his suite he was met by about fifty German veterans, who addressed him in their rough transalpine tongue, and through an interpreter explained that they had come to pay to him their reverence, having served under his father in long past wars, inquiring where their old com- mander had died. They were told that it was himself that led them to victory ; but, unaware how early he had commanded armies, they demurred to this, saying, that were their old leader alive his beard would be blanched. The Duke having assured them that their gallantry and attachment were well known and appreciated by him, they dismissed their doubts, crowding round to kiss his hands or mantle, and accompanied him to his lodging, a civility duly acknowledged by thanks and a suitable largess. Several days having passed in visits of compliment, the Emperor arrived, escorted into the town by the Dukes of Urbino and Savoy, with their brilliant staffs. Mindful only of the renown which the former had acquired in recent campaigns, the monarch summoned him to his side, and conversed with him in friendly familiarity. He called him the first general in Christendom, and complimented his officers as worthy soldiers of a famous school, whose complexions bore the honourable scars and weather-stains of good service. Duchess Leonora became on her arrival equally the object of imperial favour, and received flattering testimony to her polished and princely man- ners. The purpose of these marked attentions was soon de- veloped, in a proposal to confer upon Francesco Maria the baton, as captain-general of the imperial troops in Italy. This gratifying offer he gracefully declined, pleading an engagement to the Venetians, which prevented his listening to such pro- posals without consent of the Signory. To them Charles 42 CORONATION OF THE EMPEROR. 1529. forthwith ^addressed his request ; but received for answer that the same considerations which induced him to make it rendered them resolute in retaining the services of a leader who for many years had brought renown to their arms; but that, though unable to spare himself, they were ready to place him with all their forces at the disposal of his Highness. The Emperor had employed the Duchess of Savoy's intervention in this affair, who at his suggestion cultivated a great intimacy with the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, and her pleading was on one occasion enforced by Charles in person in a Avell-timed visit. The establishment of this lady is described by Leonardi, who was particularly struck with the easy elegance and graceful conversation of her six girlish maids of honour, seated on cushions of tawny velvet, and gaily decked in rich jewels, plumes, and streaming ribands, chatting merrily with her guests. The Emperor, far from taking umbrage at his dis- appointment, sought Francesco Maria's opinion as to the person best fitted for commander-in- chief, who recommended the ap- pointment of Antonio della Leyva. Indeed, Giraldi declares that Charles " never could have enough of his fine discourses or sententious remarks," and pressed him to name any favour he would accept of. The Duke, thus encouraged, urged the restoration of Sora, Arce, Arpino, and Rocca Guglielmi, which had been taken from him at the instigation of Leo X., a request to which Charles acceded about three years later, paying 100,000 scudi of compensation to a Flemish nobleman who had been invested with these Neapolitan fiefs. On the 22d of February, in the chapel attached to the Palazzo Publico, the brows of Charles were encircled with the iron crown of Lombardy, which, as Muratori observes, had not yet been rendered a sacred relic by the legend of its having been formed out of a nail of the true cross. Two days after, he received the imperial diadem in the church of S. Petronio, the Duke of TJr- bino, as Prefect of Rome, carrying the sword of state, with which the Pontiff had just conferred knighthood upon the Em- 1530. THE ALTERED PROSPECTS OF ITALY. 43 peror. The populace were regaled in the Piazza with two bul- locks roasted entire, whilst both the great fountains poured forth continued streams of wine, and silver largess was scattered at all hands. An accident from the fall of some scaffolding, which nearly proved fatal to the hero of the ceremonial, brought on a sharp altercation between the captain of the imperial guard and the chief magistrate of the city. To the threats of the officer, to treat the place as he had already done the larger town of Milan, the latter replied that in Milan they manufactured needles, but in Bologna they made swords. On the 22d of March, Charles departed for Germany, in order to defend his Austrian dominions from the Turks ; and, nine days later, Clement set out in a litter for his capital, where he arrived on the 9th of April, after spending the 6th at Urbino, on a visit to Francesco Maria. From these transactions at Bologna there dated a new era for Italy. The long struggle of Guelph and Ghibelline was at length come to an end the standard of her nationality was finally struck. Succeeding pontiffs were content to lean for support upon an authority which their predecessors had defied or resisted. It mattered little whether that paramount influence was held by an Austrian or Spanish imperial dynasty ; so long as the two Sicilies, Sardinia, and Milan owned its dominion, the freedom of the other states was merely nominal. The Peninsula was, indeed, no longer ravaged by European wars, yet the protracted struggle did not close until the victor had riveted on her his chains. She was seldom desolated by invading armies, but she was not the less plundered by licensed spoilers. Peace was restored to her, but independence was gone. The Reformation, too, which Leo left a petty schism, had in ten years changed the faith of a large section of Europe, and Rome was no longer the capital of Christendom. The results of this change in the Church it is not the province of these pages to notice, but, in common with other Italian feuda- 44 THE ALTERED PROSPECTS OF ITALY. 1530. tories, the Dukes of Urbino felt the altered aspect of their political relations. War was not now a profession demanding their services, and recompensing them with glory and profit. The trade of arms had come to an end, as regarded the old con- dottiere system and its frightful abuses, and was modified into the more orderly machinery of standing armies on a limited scale. We shall accordingly find these princes for the future little mixed up with the general affairs of the Peninsula, and scarcely ever taking the field, but left with ample leisure for the administration of their little principality, or the cultivation of their individual tastes. Had such been the lot of Duke Federigo or his accomplished son, their fame would scarcely have been dimmed, for theirs were virtues equally calculated to elevate a court or illustrate a camp. But it was otherwise with the two remaining sovereigns della Rovere ; and the glories of the dynasty would suffer no diminution did we now draw our narrative to a close. Yet these Dukes were not common- place men ; and, making allowance for the age in which they lived, when the fine gold of literature and arts had been transmuted into baser metal, and when genius had fled from a desolation which peace without freedom was powerless to re- animate, they were not unworthy to rule in the Athens of Italy. Those readers, however, who have thus far followed our narrative must content themselves through its remaining chap- ters with characters less striking, views less general, events of narrowed interest ; and must bear in mind that the niche in the temple of Fame appropriated to Urbino, as well as that en- shrining the Ausonian name, was earned ere the coronation of Charles V. had closed the struggles of Italy, and consummated her subjugation. After that time, according to one of the most rational as well as eloquent of the neAv dreamers after Italian nationality, " she underwent a rapid yet imperceptible decline ; yet her sky smiled brightly as ever, her climate was as mild. A pri- vileged land, removed from all cares of political existence, she 1530. THE ALTERED PROSPECTS OP ITALY. 45 went on with dances and music, nappy in her ignorance, sleep- ing in the intoxication of incessant prosperity. Used to the scourge of invasion, the sons of the south took up again their guitars, wiped away their tears, and sang anew like a cloud of birds when the tempest is over."* This picture, drawn in bit- terness, but not apparently in irony, paints the decline of Italy in colours more attractive than any we should have dared to em- ploy ; and we extract it chiefly for the sake of contrast with the same writer's ready admission that the liberty of the old re- publics was cradled amid convulsions of faction, which eventu- ally exhausted their forces, or stifled their independence. " Better to sink beneath the shock, Than moulder piecemeal on the rock," is one of those sentiments more easy to applaud in poetry than to approve in practice ; and if the object of government be the greatest happiness of the masses, it seems, according to Ma- riotti, to have been more fully attained in Italy during the ages of foreign sway than in those of republican strife. Admitting in some degree, this conclusion, we accord a more hearty ap- proval to the character he has elsewhere given of a state of matters worse, probably, in that land than either of these alter- natives, "that slow and silent disease, that atrabilious phrenzy politics which pervades all ranks, exhibiting a striking contrast with the radiant and harmonious gaiety of heaven and earth." Our notices of the court of Urbino have been suspended during a long interval from lack of materials. Indeed, the military duties of its head too well accounts for this deficiency of incident, rendering his domestic life a blank. Even the brief intervals, when he could steal from the camp to the society of his Duchess, were passed in some neighbouring town, where she met him, or at Venice, where she made a lengthened sojourn, * Mariotti's Italy, ii. 46 THE IMPERIALS PALACE. 1530. partly as a safer residence during the alarm consequent upon Bourbon's invasion, but in some degree as a guarantee for her husband to the suspicious government he served. These cir- cumstances occasioned him prolonged absences from his state, of which his consort availed herself to prepare for him an agree- able surprise. Immediately north-west from Pesaro rises the fertile slope of Monte Bartolo, near the summit of which, but sheltered from the keen sea-breeze, Alessandro Sforza fixed the site of a villa called Casartole. The Emperor Frederick III., when returning from his coronation at Home, in January, 1469, was magnifi- cently entertained by that Prince, and here laid the foundation of a casino, which in compliment to him was named the Im- periale. Its dimensions were, however, unequal to that im- posing name, for, on the death of Giovanni Sforza, in 1510, it was valued at only 8000 ducats. Having devolved upon the Duke of Urbino, with the lordship of Pesaro, it was selected by the Duchess for a compliment to him, which may be best ex- plained by the inscription she placed upon the building: " For Francesco Maria, Duke of the Metaurian States, on his return from the wars, his consort Leonora has erected this villa, in token of affection, and in compensation for sun and dust, for watching and toil, so that, during an interval of repose, his military genius may here prepare for him still wider renown and richer rewards." To carry out this idea worthily, she sum- moned Girolamo Genga, of Urbino, one of the best architects of his time ; and under his able superintendence the casino of the Sforza, distinguished from moderate country houses only by heraldic devices and a lofty bell-tower, was rapidly trans- formed into a handsome palace, which the pencil of Haffaele del Colle was employed to decorate with its master's triumphs. These will be described in the fifty-second chapter of this work j now alas ! only " A fading fresco there demands a sigh." 1530. THE IMPERIALS PALACE. 47 The site of this villa was admirably adapted as a residence for the sovereign of those broad lands it overlooked. It commanded every dwelling in the little city of Pesaro, though perfectly secluded from contact with its busy streets. The vale of the Isauro or Foglia lay in verdure before it, beyond which were the garden-like slopes of Novilara, terminating in a varied land- scape of hill and dale, which carried the gazer to the blue moun- tains of Gubbio. To the left spread the coasts of Fano and Sinigaglia ; to the right the high lands of Urbino were bounded by the Apennines of Carpegna and the isolated heights of San Marino. In a word, the Imperiale scanned the whole duchy of Urbino, of which it might, not inaptly, be considered the eye. The attractions of this princely retreat have been described with enthusiasm by Ludovico Agostini, who enjoyed them in their prime, and whose eulogies remain unedited in the Olive- riana Library. But they owe to the pen of Bernardo Tasso a worthier and wider celebrity, in his letter to Vincenzo Laureo, which sums up the advantages of the villa by declaring that no place in Italy united with a temperate and healthful climate so many conveniences and enjoyable spots. Of many laboured and costly productions of human ingenuity little remains there but saddening ruins. The sceptre of its sovereigns has passed to strangers who care not for these princely halls ; who " Have fed upon their signories, Disparked their parks, and felled their forest woods." The lofty oaks celebrated by Agostini have yielded to the axe ; the grove which served is a game preserve has shared the same fate ; the once innumerable pines and cypresses maybe counted in units ; the orange and lemon trees, the cystuses and myrtles have disappeared. Though even yet of imposing appearance, the building has undergone pitiable dilapidations. Almost every morsel of the marble carving has been carried off, and 48 DUCHESS LEONORA. 1530. fragments may be purchased from the pawnbrokers of Pcsaro. The frescoes, except that representing Francesco Maria re- ceiving the adherence of his army, which seems the poorest in execution, are almost totally defaced. But that the saloons, where Bembo talked and Tasso sang, have been found well adapted for the culture of silkworms, the desolation, begun a century ago by Portuguese Jesuits, continued by a rabble soldiery, and permitted by its present proprietors the Albani, might ere now have been complete. But while the works of man have thus by man been de- graded, glorious nature remains unchanged. A few hundred paces lead to the summit ridge of Monte Bartolo, a spot rarely equalled even in this lovely land. To the vast prospect we have but now feebly described, there is here added a marine panorama, extending from the headland of Ancona to the Pineta of Ravenna, and including a boundless expanse of the sparkling Adriatic. A wanderer on that attractive coast, it has been my privilege to visit this unrivalled spot, and listlessly to survey the swan-like sails skimming the mighty mirror, wherein was reflected the deep indigo of an Italian sky, bounded along the horizon by that pearly haze gradually dissolving towards the blue zenith, which no painter but Perugino has been able to embody. Of Duchess Leonora we know little. Unlike her prede- cessor, she had no courtly pen to transmit us her praises, no Bembo or Castiglione to celebrate the beauties of her person or the graces of her mind. She enjoys, however, one advantage over her aunt Elisabetta ; for in a speaking portrait by Titian, we may read much of her character, exempt from the vague flattery of such diffuse eulogists. Painted at that trying age when female beauty has exchanged its maiden charms for ma- ture womanhood, the grave matronly air, the stiff contours and set features, with more of comely dignity than sternness in their general expression, attest fidelity in the likeness, and tally well with what we know of her temperament, and with 1530. DUCHESS LEONORA. 49 the trials under which it must have been formed. There we may observe a composure calculated to moderate the fiery temper of her lord, a self-possession fitted to sustain him through his varied adversities. Her dress handsome rather than rich, her pose indicative of quietude, the spaniel watching by her side, the small time-piece on her table, are accessories adapted for one accustomed to pass the long intervals of her husband's absence rather in reflective solitude than in courtly pastimes.* To such a disposition the cares of maternity and her children's education afforded an ever pleasing resource, which she shared with the Dowager Duchess, an unfailing companion and friend, whose once lively spirits had been chastened by affliction into harmony with her temperament ; but of this solace she was deprived by her death at Venice in January, 1526. In the autumn of 1529, Leonora, who administered the duchy in her husband's absence, received Clement at Pesaro, on his way to the coronation at Bologna, with a princely welcome and mag- nificent presents. In a letter which his Holiness took that op- portunity to address to the Duke, he expresses gratitude for these, and for the attendance of the prince, " a youth of the highest hopes from his excellent dispositions, his modesty, and his natural inclination to literature, as well as his many estimable qualities." Whilst promising much favour to Guidobaldo, he compliments his father on the mild and equitable sway whereby the Duchess maintained his state in peace and tranquillity, and concludes with an apostolic blessing on him, hie consort, and his son. Returned to his state after so long a separation, Francesco Maria found, during the next two years, ample leisure to attend to its internal administration, and to watch the progress of his promising family. The eldest of these seems to have been Donna Ippolita, for whom he soon received, through the * This portrait will be further noticed in Chap. LIV. and in the last No. of the Appendix. VOL. III. E 50 THE DUKE OF UEBINO'S 1530, Marquis del Vasto, an offer of marriage from Don Antonio d' Aragona, son of the Duke of Montalto. At the nuptials, which were celebrated with suitable splendour, he had a very unlooked-for guest in Ascanio Colonna, whose intrigues to sup- plant him in the duchy we have lately noticed, but who, finding these hopelessly foiled by the Duke's establishment in the good graces of the Emperor, sought a reconciliation through the bridegroom, his cousin, whom he accompanied to Urbino. This frankness was met in a kindred spirit by his host, and their amity was cemented by a generous hospitality. It was now, perhaps, that Francesco Maria took opportunity to dictate the results of his long experience of war, in a series of Military Discourses, which were published fifty years later, but which, being evidently printed from loose and unrevised notes, are not fairly amenable to literary criticism.* They are but desultory and disjointed observations, carelessly jotted down, with little attention to order or style, and edited without emen- dation, or even intelligible punctuation. The matter abounds in truisms and common-places, displaying neither enlarged views nor knowledge of mankind : the style is garrulous, diffuse, and redundant. Yet, as on matters of military skill the Duke was considered a high authority, it may not be improper here to record some of his opinions. This was his idea of a fortified town : " It ought to stand in a plain, its citadel commanded by no eminence. The rampart- wall should be three paces wide at base, supporting an earthen rampart of fifteen or twenty paces wide, with barbicans. This retaining wall should be in height about twenty feet, and have above it a curtain of nearly as many. The upper part, being * Discorsi Militari dell' eccellentissimo Signer Francesco Maria I. della Rovere, Duca di Urbino, nei quali si discorrano molti avantaggi et disadvantaggi della guerra, utilissimi ad ogni soldato. Ferrara, 1583. It was edited by Domenico Mammarelli, and dedicated to Signor Ippolito Bentivoglio. There is a transcript in the library at Newbattlo Abbey, a. 3. 2., and a fragment of it in the Vat. Ottobon. MSS. No. 2447. f. 135. 1530. MILITARY DISCOURSES. 51 most exposed to be battered, had better have an earthen facing. There ought to be a platform, rising sixteen feet over the curtain, placed half-way between each baloard and bastion. The baloards should have guns mounted only at the sides, and be of massive strength, from fifty to sixty paces in diameter, that the guns may be freely Avrought. Should a baloard be taken, it will still be flanked by the adjoining platforms, a ditch drawn between each of which would in a night's time recom- plete the defences. The fosse should be about twenty paces wide, and is best without water, so as to allow artificial fire to be showered down upon the enemy. There ought to be no counterscarp, seeing it generally serves as a protection to the besiegers ; but, if there be one, it had better be only of earth, at a low angle of elevation. Above all, there ought to be pro- vided many secret ports for frequent sallies, and for the easy return of the men." " It has been long noticed that no fortress was ever carried but by some oversight of its defenders, and everything depends upon a judicious selection of positions for defence. Unquestionably a single sin suffices to send a man to the devil, whatever be his other good works ; and, in like man- er, one oversight in fortification may lose the place, as happened when I took Pavia and Cremona. In short, it is all very well to play with plans and models, but one must see to everything on the spot." " He said, in reference to the fortresses of Legnano and Verona, that it was veiy ill-judged in the Republic never to carry things out as they had been planned, in consequence of frequent ministerial changes, and the system of governing from day to day, and bit by bit, without reference to any general design. By adopting an opposite method, he had completed the defences of Pesaro much more efficiently, and at a third of the outlay it would have cost any one else, simply because he was the sole head and executor, and kept in view the entire works, not the individual gates, baloards, and details ; and by so completing them that it must be attacked on two or three B 2 52 THE DUKE OF URBINO's 1530. sides, whilst provided with ten or twelve concealed sally-ports." He contended that a fortress on a hill was difficult to defend, one on a plain less so ; but that the easiest and most secure was one whose defences partly extended along the level, and in part rose upon steep ground, such as Verona, which he maintained could be more easily held by five thousand men against eighty thousand, than most towns by eight thousand against half that besieging force. In conducting a siege, the Duke dwells upon the necessity of a choice infantry, in which German solidity should be happily combined with the active troops of Italy and Spain ; yet he admits that men-at-arms, when dismounted, can be turned to excellent account in an assault, and that light cavalry are of obvious value. " Above all," he says, " you require a well- supplied commissariat, and regular pay, with sufficient artillery and military machines. After choosing the most eligible spot for encampment, just without range of the enemy's guns, the first thing is to provide your baggage and supplies against sud- den surprise ; next to open trenches for your artillery, securing your men by a ditch wide enough for their operations, but not so broad as to be commanded from the walls, and taking care not to let too many of them at once into the trenches, so as to embarrass each other. It is an immense protection to flank your trenches with lines drawn from your principal encampment close up to the city walls, which must be strongly defended against the enemy's guns, and must contain a force adequate to check their sallies, and, if necessary, to cover the trenches, or even succour your camp." " Should you resort to a blockade, it is best to establish your army in one or two towns ten to fifteen miles off, taking care to secure every intervening place. At that distance your own supplies are more easily procured, and your light cavalry can readily intercept the enemy's convoys, whilst the garrison can- not attack you, except at every disadvantage, and without ar- tillery." 1530. MILITARY DISCOURSES. 53 As for artillery, we find a recommendation of battering guns carrying from thirty to one hundred pound balls, and of field- pieces and ship cannons from fifteen to twenty pounds. The gunpowder in Italy being bad, fifty was the average of daily discharges ; but the Turks, having very superior powder, could fire as many as seventy times, which was looked upon as a stupendous performance. Animadverting upon those tardy tactics which never antici- pated a movement of the enemy, the Duke compared them to a child applying its hand to the parts successively chastised, without attempting to ward off the next blow ; yet, Fabius- like, he considered that a general's talent was more shown in his selection of suitable posts than in the conduct of a pitched battle. Popular risings he held very cheap, believing them utterly con- temptible when not supported by disciplined troops, and in- stancing his own experience at Florence in 1527, when, with eighty soldiers, he put down an insurrection, and maintained the ascendancy of the Medici. With reference to the respective merits of various nations whom he had seen in the field, he said that " a good Italian and a good Spanish soldier are equal. The Swiss at the outset are an excellent force ; but, in a protracted campaign, they deterio- rate, and become good for little. The Germans sustain an onset of men-at-arms most valiantly, and, during these Italian wars, have become in other respects expert, especially at skir- mishes, either in cover or in the open country. The Turks, being unskilled in war, have hitherto owed their victories rather to the deficiencies of their opponents than to their own supe- riority. He ascribed the success of French armies against the Italians to an absurd practice of the latter, who always fought in squadrons of twenty-five men-at-arms, each squadron engaging another, so that the battle was made up of many separate skirmishes ; and, in the end, the most numerous army generally carried the day. Charles VIII., on the contrary, formed in three battalions, the van, centre, and rear, and, with his E 3 54 THE DUKE'S MILITARY DISCOURSES. 1530. force thus concentrated, bore down the detached tactics of his opponents. Yet the Duke did not consider this French dispo- sition as invariably efficacious, preferring in many cases that an army should act in one body, even at the risk of leaving its baggage and artillery in the rear, and comparatively unprotected. But, on this and similar points, his maxim was not to adhere to any invariable rule." Regarding the construction of an army, we find this passage : " In preparing an expedition, the commander ought to imitate the process by which nature creates a living body, forming first the heart; then the vital members, such as the liver, lungs, blood, and brains; next the skin; and, finally, the hair and nails. In like manner, the foundation of an enterprise should be the general, who is its heart, and in whom should be united varied capacity, with perfect rectitude and justice. Then his officers should be strenuous, experienced, and implicitly obedient, for such captains are certain to recruit soldiers of the same stamp. Next, let him look to his commissariat and military chest, and see that his arms and accoutrements are adapted to his enemy and the country. Lastly, let him regard all extra- neous and casual aid as mere skin, hair, and nails, relying mainly on his own well-disciplined troops." The Duke considered that " men-at-arms are by no means so useless as they are sometimes regarded, and that, although infantry is the basis of an army, nevertheless it would not do to have only that force in the field ; just as, although in the human body it is the eye alone which sees, the hand which works, the head which guides, yet man would not be so perfect or beautiful a creature with but eyes, hands, or head, as he is with all these various members. Hence he would wish to have soldiers of all sorts in his camp, men- at-arms, light cavalry, a German brigade, and a full complement of Italians." But whilst the theory of warfare thus occupied his thoughts, he was not neglectful of its munitions ; and it was his special concern to provide for his veterans horses, arms, and accou- 1531-2. MUSTER OP VENETIAN FORCES. 55 trements of a quality which gained them general admiration. After nearly three years of peace the Venetians, fearing that their swords might become rusty, ordered a muster of their forces on the mainland, and an inspection of their frontier defences. The reviews were conducted by their Captain-general in person, who spent several months of 1532 in Lombardy with the Duchess, leaving the government of his state in the hands of his son Guidobaldo, now eighteen years of age. From thence he was called to Friuli, on the approach of a disorganised mass of Italian soldiery, who were returning home from the Turkish war, burning and plundering as they went. By firm and temperate measures he kept them in check, and constrained them to resume an orderly march. The only immediate result to the Peninsula from the campaigns in Hungary was an alarm along the Adriatic coast of a Turkish descent, which was made a pretext by Clement for seizing upon Ancona, and annexing that republic to the papal states. i: 4 56 THE ITALIAN MILITIA. 1533. CHAPTER XLL ITALIAN MILITIA. THE CAMEBINO DISPUTES. DEATH OF CLEMENT VII. MARRIAGE OP PRINCE GUIDOBALDO. PROPOSED TURKISH CRUSADE UNDER THE DUKE. HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. " The great men whose talents gave lustre to that melancholy period had been formed under the influence of happier days, and would leave no successors behind them." MACAULAY. THREE nearly cotemporary events had lately combined to extinguish the nationality of Italy, and those liberties which, shared in ample or more sparing measure by her many states, had till now crowned her military glories with intellectual renown. In the sack of Rome the power of the Keys had been shaken, the prestige of the papal city had passed away. The defence of Florence was the last effort of patriotism, and with it fell communal independence. The coronation of Charles V. laid upon the Peninsula an iron yoke of foreign despotism, which rendered her virtually a province of Spain. A necessary consequence of this sad change will be to limit the field of our investigation, and to restrict what remains of our work to the ducal family and their hereditary domains, which for the future were little more than an appanage of the Spanish monarchy. The Lords of Urbino had hitherto been prominent among the captains of adventure, and bore a part wherever engagements were offered, or hard blows to be had. But the condottiere system being now superseded, a new mode of war- fare and machinery of defence became indispensable. JCnight- 1533. THE ITALIAN MILITIA. 57 service and the romance of war were swept away by artillery ; the imposing battaglia of men-at-arms proved powerless when confronted by battalions of steady infantry, or out-mano2uvred by the dashing cavalry of Dalmatia. This lesson, first taught by the Swiss in their fastnesses, had been practically demon- strated to the Italians in every great action from the Taro to the recent Lombard campaigns, and had been adopted by most of their leaders. It now, however, became necessary to apply it in another sense, and, seeing that captains were no longer to be hired with their respective followings of efficient soldiery, to organise a militia of its own for the defence of each state, upon principles which Machiavelli was among the first to recognise and explain. Before that system came into general use, the Italian in fantry was notoriously incompetent to cope with transalpine levies, as Francesco Maria had bitterly experienced in the war of 1523-27. He therefore, in 1533, instituted a militia of his mountaineers, under the name of the Feltrian legion, which before his death numbered five thousand men, in four regiments, commanded by as many colonels. The object was to make them good soldiers without ceasing to be citizens ; to maintain in readiness at small expense a military population, who were not men of war by profession. For this purpose lists were annually taken of all males from eighteen to twenty-five, learned professions and infamous persons being exempted, and to them arms were given. They were drilled and instructed in the necessary evolutions, and a proportion of them were called into active service when needed. On these occasions they were well paid ; but, when kept on the reserve, their small stipend was rendered more attractive by a variety of political immunities and fiscal exemptions, including the exclusive privilege of bearing arms. The practical result was this, the able-bodied population were, on the one hand, brought into a sort of direct dependence on the executive, and, on the other, were taught that the safety of the commonwealth was intrusted to their 58 THE EMPEROR AGAIN IN ITALY. 1532-3. swords and sinews. It is scarcely necessary to add that this system has been generally adopted, and that on it are still based the military institutions of most continental nations. In December, 1532, the Emperor returned to Italy, and Avas met near Vicenza by Francesco Maria, who welcomed him in his own name, and in that of the Signory. Dispensing with complimentary formalities, Charles received him at once to easy intercourse, and, requesting his continued attendance, spent much time in conversing with him on the art of war. At Bologna another congress was held by the Pontiff and the Emperor, in which were discussed the affairs of Italy, the pro- posed general council, and the matrimonial speculations of Clement for advancement of his house. The marriage of Ales- sandro de' Medici, now created Duke of Florence, was arranged with Margaret of Austria, natural daughter of Charles ; but the hand of Caterina de' Medici, which the latter wished to be given to Francesco Sforza, was reserved by her ambitious uncle for a French prince. Charles left Bologna on the 28th of February, 1533, and embarked at Genoa for Spain, after giving some hope to Francesco Maria of a satisfactory settlement of his claims upon Sora. Clement in ten days after set out for Rome. The estrangement between these potentates, which at this meeting began to chill their intercourse, was greatly widened by the voyage of his Holiness in the following autumn to Mar- seilles, where he celebrated the nuptials of Caterina with Henry, second son and successor of Francis I. At this second con- gress of Bologna, Titian met the Emperor by special command ; and it was perhaps on that occasion that he had commissions for portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, which now ornament the Florence gallery. The former is engraved as a frontispiece for this volume ; of the latter we have lately spoken: both will demand further notice in our fifty-fourth chapter,and in the last No. of the Appendix. In April the Duchess Leonora gave birth to a son at Mantua, iC'C "rt***^ wo; *~ >>5 ~ ' o s g "^ ac 5 IK !JH -O-B = s^ S*''* S pjisH^ zj.-- . S 'R < ss'i s w g S ?S -8 l| jt,C w ^ 11 2- u 1 ~~ S 6 o s < < w 'i."5cc 4 K . i < S ^S fe ".< j c5s" P 3"Si-s 2 -s-c^l 5 all o si| n d HC^ ^3 J8j H _ S |l| ^ ||f || p w I-! <"g^" 73 "5 sji "|| |Is wS'a . ("3 "g a -S ^ i t> 355 .c c ^ fc. = 1 ' o o>-. o o 1"8e ^ 2 - i O *^. J. - -^ ^ O (a |si .ilj ^" 1^ Sow ^^-5"" ^4 B sa f s" *9 S y * o 5 o |w5 s S* c K 14 |wo- jf2|g <| ]LT7 <* s || ^ r- _- M J t 1 3 cc 5 < c 2 u SJ '* -1 < 2 t^ "S - o S a -d 2i oSsii Sao'S .2 1 _ ^CJ" 5 * . \ } . > - ... > \ t" -^ - % , \x ""*' ^ CHAPTER XLIL SUCCESSION OP DUKE GUIDOBALDO II HE LOSES CAMERINO AND THE PREFECTURE OF ROME. THE ALTERED STATE OF ITALY. DEATH OF DUCHESS GIULIA. THE DUKfi's REMARRIAGE. AFFAIRS OF THE FARNESI. " 1540 ; Italia mesta, sotta sopra voltata, como pei venti in mare le torbid' onde, ch' or da una parte et hor da 1' altra volta." INSCRIPTION ON A MAIOLICA PLATE. In 1540, forlorn Italy had been thrown into confusion, like ocean waves troubled by the winds that tumble them from side to side. THE course of our narrative seems to offer a not altogether fanciful analogy to that of the Tiber. Issuing from the rugged Apennines, this, with puny rill, is gradually recruited from their many valleys until it has gained the force and energy of a brawl- ing torrent, and has absorbed a goodly portion of the Umbrian waters. So, too, the former has brought us past scenes of martial prowess and creations of mediaeval policy. It has afforded us glimpses of townships where civil institutions revived, and letters were cherished. It has shown us the cradle whence Christian art radiated through Italy, the petty capitals from whose courts civilisation was diffused. Carrying us across the blood-watered and time-defaced Campagna, it has conducted us to Home at VOL. III. G 82 THE YOUTH OF the moment of her lamentable sack by barbarian hordes. Hence- forward our history, like the river, will decline in interest. The sluggish and turbid stream has little to enliven that dreary and degenerate land through which it must still conduct us. This contrast will be especially irksome in the life of Duke Guidobaldo II., who kept much aloof from the few events of stirring interest which then occurred in the Peninsula. We shall therefore hasten over it, in the hope that those who favour us with their company may find, in the incidents of his successor, a somewhat renovated interest, and may be gratified to learn by what means our mountain duchy came to be finally absorbed in the papal dominions, just as the tawny river is lost in the pathless sea. The birth-day of Guidobaldo II. has been variously stated ; most authorities fix it on the 2d of April, 1514, although the customary donative appears from an old chronicle to have been voted by the municipality of Urbino on the 17th of March. The Prince saw the light at a moment inauspicious for his dy- nasty. Under the fostering care of Julius II. it had attained its culminating point ; and although his successor still smiled upon the far-spreading oak of Umbria, the intrigues of Leo X. were already preparing its overthrow. The infant had scarcely passed his second year, when the ducal family were driven from their states, and sought a friendly shelter at the Mantuan capital. Before their five years of exile in Lombardy had gone by, Guidobaldo is said to have been sent to the university of Padua. His early education was committed to Guido Posthumo Silvestro, who describes him as displaying, even in childhood, the spirit of his father, and of his grand-uncle Julius II., whilst his mild temper and sweet expression were those of his mother.* The preceptor, a native of Pesaro, was tempted by * " Guidus Juliades, qui, quamquam mitis et ore Blandus, ut ex vultu possis cognoscere matrem Pattern animis tamen et primis patruum exprirnit annis." See as to Guido in Roscoe's Leo X, chap. xvii. 1527-34. DUKE GUIDOBALDO II. 83 attachment to his early patrons, the Sforza, to avenge them Avith his pen, on the invasion of the Duke Valentino, upon whom and whose race he charged, in some bitter lampoons mentioned by Roscoe, all those crimes which have become matter of history. But years rendered him more pliant ; for when another revolution came round, the attentions he had met with at the court of Urbino did not prevent his resort- ing, on Duke Francesco Maria's exile, to the protection of Leo, or lavishing eulogy and flattery upon that Pontiff. At Rome, he enjoyed the consideration there freely bestowed upon poets and wits, among whom Giovio assigns him a conspicuous place ; but the life of luxurious indulgence to which he was tempted having undermined his health, he died in 1521. Our authorities, barren of interest for the domestic life of Duke Francesco Maria, are altogether a blank as regards his children, and we know nothing of the Prince beyond the fact of his sharing his mother's virtual arrest at Venice in 1527. His early tastes seem to have turned upon horses : in 1529, he ordered from Rome a set of housings for his charger, with minute instructions accompanying the pattern ; ten years later, the Grand Duke Cosimo I. regretted his inability to find for him such horses as he had desired; and he appears to have paid 70 golden scudi for one from Naples. In 1843, I was shown, at Pesaro, the wooden model of a beautiful little Arab, which had long been preserved in the Giordani family, covered with the skin of his favourite charger, a fragment of which remained. We have seen Guidobaldo complimented by Clement VII. in 1529, and in that year he had a condotta from Venice, for seventy-five men-at-arms, and a hundred and fifty light horse, with 1000 ducats of pay for himself, 100 for each man- at-arms, and 50 for each horseman. In 1532, his father, on departing for Lombardy, left him regent of the duchy. The circumstances of his marriage, on the 12th of October, 1534, to Giulia Varana, then but eleven years of age, and her ques- tionable succession to her paternal state of Camerino, have a 2 84 HE SUCCEEDS 1538 been fully detailed in our preceding chapter.* From 1534 till his father's death, in 1538, he seems to have exercised the rights of sovereignty, with the title of Duke of Camerino, unchallenged by the Pontiff, who had recalled his censures. But no sooner was Paul III. relieved from the influential opposition of Fran- cesco Maria, than his designs upon that principality were firmly carried Out. We possess from an eye-witness these ample details as to the ceremonial of investing Guidobaldo with his hereditary succes- sion : " On the evening of Thursday [25th of October], the day of the Duke's interment, his son the Prince arrived at Urbino about nine o'clock, attended by all the nobility, gentry, and officials, including Stefano Vigerio, the governor, and many more, who had gone out to meet him. Dismounting in the palace-yard, he proceeded to the ducal chamber, which, as well as the great hall, was hung with black. There he dismissed the strangers to lodgings provided for them in the town, and passed next day in grief and absolute seclusion along with his consort, preparations being meanwhile made to traverse the city.f Ac- cordingly, on Saturday morning, mass of the Holy Spirit having been said by the Bishop of Cagli, who thereafter breakfasted in the palace, the citizens and populace crowded to the piazza, where the doctors and nobles assembled to accompany the priors. Thither also came a hundred youths of good family, in doublets of sky-blue velvet, with gilt swords by their side, followed by a vast many children bearing olive-boughs. The new Duke having been meanwhile dressed in white velvet and satin, with * In the Harlcian MSS. No. 282. f. 63. is a letter from Henry VIIL of 28th November, in his 30th year [1538], to Sir Thomas Wyatt, his ambassador to the Emperor, proposing a marriage of the Princess Mary either to the young Duke of Cleves and Juliers, or to " the present Duke of Urbyne," and desiring him to sound " whether he wold be gladd to have us to wyve with any of them." How deficient must have been diplomatic information in these days, seeing that Guido- baldo had been already wedded for four years ! f Correre la terra is the usual phrase for taking sovereign possession, like " riding the marches " of Scottish burghs. 1538. TO UEBINO. 85 cap and plume of the same colour, Captain-general Luc- An- tonio Brancarini marshalled the procession. The gonfaloniere marched first, in a jerkin of black velvet under a long surcoat of black damask lined with crimson, begirt with a gold- mounted sword ; his cap on his head and his mace lowered. He was followed by the nobility, the doctors, and citizens ; and on entering the palace they halted in the basement suite towards the garden, which were all hung with tapestry, the windows of the great hall being occupied by the Duchess and her ladies in magnificent attire. When all was ready, the Prince issued forth into the piazza, and advanced to the cathedral, followed by the officials and train. At the top of the steps he knelt on a rich carpet and brocade cushions, whilst the bishop, chapter, and clergy came out, and with the usual ceremonies brought him into the church, and to the high altar, before which other cere- monials were gone through, and he offered an oblation-coin of ten Mantuan ducats. Meanwhile his charger was brought to the foot of the steps, covered to the neck with a housing of silver tissue, and other trappings, including a white plume. It was led by seven lads of the chief Urbino families, Bonaventura, Pertili, Passionei, Cornei, Corboli, and Muccioli, all richly ap- parelled, and two of them holding goads. There was also a horse for the Gonfaloniere with velvet harness, led by two lads. The fore -mentioned hundred youths and numerous children having ranged themselves around, the Prince and Gonfaloniere descended the steps and mounted their steeds, and the latter, drawing his sword, proclaimed aloud * THE DUKE, THE DUKE; FELTRO, FELTRO ; GUIDOBALDO, GUIDOBALDO !' the cry being taken up and repeated by all. The cortege, making a circuit by Pian di Marcato, Valbona, Santa Lucia, and Santa Chiara, re- turned to the palace, where the Duke dismounted. His charger and mantle were then seized, as their perquisite, by the youths, who, mounting one of their number, Antonio dei Galli, again went through the city crying and making merry. The Duke, G 3 86 HE SUCCEEDS TO URBINO. 1538 having taken his seat with his consort, received the gonfaloniere, priors, and citizens to kiss hands. " Oa the following morning, there came in envoys from various places to offer their condolence, wearing mourning robes that swept the ground. The first who had audience were the gonfaloniere and priors of Urbino, and then those from San Marino. After breakfast, the other communities were admitted without order, in consequence of a wrangle for precedence be- tween Gubbio and Pesaro, Cagli and Fossombrone, and this continued till seven o'clock in the evening. Next Monday being the festival of San Simone, the oath of allegiance was administered on Tuesday. A stage covered with black was erected between the two windows of the great hall, on which stood a bench with a coverlet of black velvet, and thereon an open missal, with a miniature of the crucifixion. After break- fasting, the Duke seated himself on this stage, with Messer Stefano, one of the judges; and the deputies from communes being assembled, with their commissions in their hands, Messer Stefano called up the magistrates of Urbino with about a hun- dred of the citizens, desiring them to swear fidelity, as was right and customary, which they did, formally placing their hands on the crucifixion. Thereafter, the envoys of other com- munities were brought up and sworn ; but on account of the foresaid wrangling, those of Pesaro, Sinigaglia, Fossombrone, and Cagli were sent back to take the oaths at home. Next day, however, on their humble petition, those of Cagli and Fossom- brone were received, along with some other highland deputies who had come in late ; but Pesaro, Sinigaglia, and the vicariat, took the oaths before the vice-dukes in their respective cities. On the following Tuesday, there arrived four envoys from Fano, and two from Citta di Castello, to offer condolence, who were honourably received ; and next day came those of Carnerino and iiimini, men of high station. On Thursday, Messer Quaglino, ambassador from the Duke of Ferrara, dismounted at Pesaro, to condole with the dowager Duchess, and thence proceeded with 1538. THE CAMERINO COMPROMISE. 87 a suite of five to Urbino, where he was lodged for three days in the Passionei Palace, and had audience. At the same time, the like formalities were discharged by Vincenzo Schippo, who came with an escort of ten, as representative of the Duke of Mantua. On Sunday, deputations from all parts of the duchy went to offer their duty at Pesaro to the widowed Duchess." The smouldering embers of the Camerino quarrel soon burst forth, when Paul III. found that the Emperor's influence and the arms of Venice were no longer arrayed against his grasping pretensions, and that the weight of the struggle had devolved from a renowned warrior to an untried youth. In order to sup- plement the legal deficiencies of his case, the Pontiff had in 1537 conferred certain estates upon Ercole Varana, on condition of his claims upon the succession of Camerino being assigned to his own grandson Ottavio Farnese ; but the death of Francesco Maria having released him from the necessity of temporising, he at once sent a body of troops into that duchy, under Stefano Colonna or Alessandro Vitelli. The young Duke, relying on the support of Venice and the Medici, was at first disposed to resist, but finding himself deserted, soon abandoned the idea. He had in the history of his family too many examples of the perils of papal nepotism ; and it was obvious that the times were past when church feudatories had anything to hope from single- handed contests with their over-lord. In the certainty that to provoke this would be to hazard all, he made up his mind to an unwilling compromise, surrendering his wife's rights to Ca- merino for a full investiture of his own dukedom, and the sum of 78,000 golden scudi as a poor compensation for her inhe- ritance. This transaction was completed on the 8th of January, 1539; nor was it the only mortification he was destined to undergo from the ambition of the Farnesi. The Prefecture of Rome, although held by his father and grandfather, was a personal dignity at the disposal of the new Pope, who con- ferred it upon his own grandson Ottavio. In the end of 1538, he also married that youth, then but fifteen, to Margaret of o 4 88 THE DUKE'S CONDOTTA WITH VENICE. 1539. Austria, natural daughter of Charles V. and widow of Duke Alessandro de' Medici, who had been slain by his cousin Lo- renzino, within a year after his marriage. That imperious dame, who brought Ottavio a handsome dower in lands about Ortona on the Adriatic, wrought upon the weakness of Paul, until in 1545 she obtained for her husband's father Pier-Luigi, natural son of his Holiness, the sovereign duchy of Parma and Piacenza. In order to put a gloss upon this dismemberment of the ecclesiastical states, and to accommodate the whole ar- rangement to the modified nepotism of his age, the Pontiff stipulated for a resurrender by Ottavio to the Holy See of Ca- merino and Nepi. These have since remained part of the papal temporalities, whilst their Lombard duchy gave to the Farnese family an important position among the sovereign houses of Europe. Although the altered circumstances of Italy which humbled her pride had also arrested her convulsions, these untoward events, at the outset of his reign, proved to Guidobaldo that her few remaining principalities were far from secure. To strengthen his position became therefore a natural policy ; and although neither the Emperor nor the Venetian Signory had lent a willing ear to his representations on the subject of Camerino, he sent to remind the former of his promise to give him a company of men-at-arms, whilst, with the Pope's per- mission, he accepted from the latter a two years' engagement. The terms of this condotta, which was dated in 1539, and con- tinued in force until 1552, were one hundred men-at-arms and as many light cavalry, with 4000 ducats afpiatto or yearly pay, and an obligation to have in readiness ten of his father's veteran captains, whose monthly pay was fixed at 15 scudi in peace, and 25 in war. Four years later he was requested by the Republic to serve them in another capacity, by compliment- ing Charles V. in their name on his passage into Germany, on which occasion he was accompanied by the vile sycophant Pietro Aretino. 1539. HIS MILITIA. 89 In our fourteenth chapter, we had occasion to consider the change which military affairs underwent in Italy about the time of the first French invasion, and we have seen in Duke Federigo of Urbino one of the last condottieri of the old sort. But it was not until the fall of Rome and Florence had extinguished Ausonian independence, that military adventure was entirely abolished; and it is curious to find in his grandson Duke Francesco Maria I., not only the latest captain who gathered laurels under that system, but to see him joining with the Pope and the Medici to exterminate those armed hordes which sur- vived its mercenary armaments, and which, like the restless spirits of a departed generation troubled the repose of their degenerate sons.* Their occupation was indeed gone. Tamed by invaders whom they were powerless to resist, domestic broils no longer demanded their services. Their forays were become intolerable in a land where peace was the price of freedom. How far the earlier adoption of Machiavelli's plans of defence might have availed against ultramontane hosts were now a vain speculation ; they were only destined for trial after the sacrifice had been consummated. The national militia suggested by him was not enrolled until there was no longer a nationality to defend until it was needed but as an armed police under foreign control. This new force had been embodied in our duchy under the name of the Feltrian Legion, by a proclamation dated 1st of March, 1533, and it so fully satisfied the late Duke's expecta- tions that he gradually increased his militia to five thousand men in four regiments. Such was the description of troops which henceforward maintained order at Urbino, or were sub- sidised on foreign service. But their sinews, hardened by a rude climate and rugged homes, maintained for them the repu- tation gained by their ancestors ; and although Duke Guido- baldo II. lived in quiet times, and pretended to no heroic * Ricotti, iv. 129., quoting Aclriani Storic, lib. ii. 90 THE NEW POLICY 1540. aspirations, we find him accepting of commands offered chiefly for the sake of securing his hardy mountaineers. The abject position in which Italy was left after the wars of Clement VII. has already been noticed. Her internal con- flicts were at an end. Of those states whose struggles for independence or for mastery had during long ages convulsed her, the lesser had been absorbed by the more powerful, and these in their turn had bowed to foreign dominion or foreign influence. She was tranquillised but trodden down, pacified but prostrate. Her history became but a series of episodes in the annals of ultramontane nations, on whom her few re- maining princes and commonwealths grew into dependent satellites. Even the popes, no longer arbiters of European policy, sought a reflected consequence by attaching themselves to the interests of France, Spain, or the Empire. Nor were they losers by the change to the same degree as other Peninsular powers. The papacy was indeed shorn in part of its temporal lustre. It no longer directed the diplomacy of Christendom, nor did it waste its resources upon bloody and bootless cam- paigns. But as its energies were gradually weaned from ge- neral politics, they became more concentrated upon ecclesiastical affairs. The small speck on the horizon towards which Leo X. had scarcely directed a look or an anxiety, was now rapidly overspreading the sky, and already excluded the rays of Ca- tholicism from a large portion of Central Europe. His succes- sors, threatened with the loss of spiritual as well as temporal ascendancy, had the wisdom to make a stand for maintenance of the former, leaving the latter to its fate. The spirit of popery from aggressive became conservative ; its military tactics gave place to theological weapons. It was by Paul III. that a vigorous opposition was first made to the Reformation, the primary steps taken towards that Catholic reaction, which Paul IV. and Pius V. afterwards so successfully promoted, as not only to check the rapid progress of Protestantism, but to OF THE PAPACY. 91 regain a portion of the lost ground. Seconding the zeal of the old monastic orders, w-hich had been revived in the Theatins, he, in 1540, recruited to it the cold clear-sighted cunning of the Jesuits. Two years afterwards he re-established the Inqui- sition, and in 1545 opened the Council of Trent, whose sittings were not finally closed until eighteen years later, when it had completed that bulwark which still constitutes a stronghold of the Romish church. Extirpation of heresy henceforward be- came the pervading principle of the papacy, and the engrossing dogma of its zealots ; the object for which councils deliberated, pontiffs admonished, legates intrigued. For an end so sanc- tified no means were accounted base. When argument failed threats were at hand. From reason an appeal lay to the rack. Thus was the wavering power of the Keys restored or confirmed over much of Europe, and an alliance was effected between political and spiritual despotism for their mutual maintenance and common defence. The success which crowned these new efforts far exceeded any that mere mundane aims had ever attained. The re-influx of Catholicism was in some instances more signal, as it was more inexplicable, than had been the recent spread of the Reformation. Although fatal to freedom of thought, its influence proved highly favourable to morals. The revival of religion was attended with a happy reformation of manners, after examples emanating from high places. The sins, or at least the scenes, that had disgraced the Borgian and Medicean courts no longer met the eye, but were replaced by a semblance of ascetic virtue. The new religious orders, being of more rigid rule, tended by precept and example to restore discipline, and to purify, at least externally, the cup and the platter. Prelatic luxury was curtailed, brazen vice retired from public view, and the free exercise of papal nepotism was finally restrained by Pius V., who, in 1567, prohibited the alienation by his successors of church property or jurisdictions. But in these themes our narrative has no part. The battles of or- thodoxy were chiefly fought beyond the Alps; the reformed 92 THE DUKE'S INVESTITURE AT VENICE. 1545. morality of the papal court was exampled in its own capital : in neither had Urbino any near interest. Guidobaldo's condotta from the Signory being renewed in 1546 upon more favourable terms, (namely, 15,000 scudi of pay for his company, and 5000 of piatto for himself,) he was invested about midsummer, by an imposing ceremonial pom- pously described in the letter of an eye-witness among the archives of Urbino. His jewelled cap and diamond collar are mentioned as superb, and his sword is valued at 700 scudi. After high mass in St. Mark's, the great standard being unfurled and supported by three bearers, and the baton of wrought silver placed in his hands, the Doge thus addressed him: "Lord Duke, we present to your Excellency this standard of our St. Mark the Evangelist, in the wonted form, and in token of supremacy ; and we pray the Lord our God that it tend to the weal and service of all Christendom, but especially to the defence of this state. We give it to your Excellency, con- fiding in your loyalty and prudence, well assured that you will use it with courage and faith conformable to your deserts. And we hand to your Excellency the baton, therewith designing you head and governor of our forces, and transferring to you the obedience of all our military : it is our will that you be obeyed, honoured, and respected by our several condottieri and soldiery, as representing our Signory itself. May it please the Divine Majesty that all be well ordered, to the well-being and further- ance of the Christian community, and of this our serene Re- public." The Duke replied, " I most willingly accept, most Serene Prince, the distinction granted me by your Serenity, and with the sure hope of maintaining the good opinion you repose in me, which shall be nowise disappointed. I shall ever pray our Lord God graciously to vouchsafe me an early occasion of honourably serving your serene government, that I may thereby prove my good will. And I feel sure that your Serenity will have cause to be well satisfied at giving me this rank, Avhich, without reserve of life or fortune, like one aware of his obliga- 1547. THE DEATH OF HIS DUCHESS. 93 tion to your Serenity, it will be my care so to hold as to augment my claims upon your favour." The function being over, the Duke was escorted by an imposing military pageant to his pa- lace, where a splendid banquet was set out, of which, however, the jealous regulations of the Republic did not permit her offi- cials to partake. The court having gone to spend Christmas of 1547 in the mild climate of Fossombrone, the Duke, in January, 1548, again repaired to Venice, intending to return home for carnival. On the frontier he was met by news of his consort's serious illness, and immediately sent expresses to summon from Padua and Ferrara, Frigimiliza and Brasavolo, two famous physicians. Under them and her own doctors, the Duchess rallied for a time, but died on the 17th of February, " a very religious, charitable, and lettered lady, and a great loss to the state." Her body was borne by torchlight to Urbino with the usual solemnities, and, after lying in state, was entombed in Santa Chiara on the 19th. The funeral service was performed at Urbino the 24th of March, with due pomp, and a ceremonial preserved by Tondini. The procession consisted of the Duchess's household, twenty-two in number, with thirty-nine of the Duke's ; Guidobaldo and his brother ; the ambassadors of five friendly states ; twenty -two principal nobility of the duchy ; forty captains; the municipality of Urbino, with seventy lead- ing citizens ; deputies from thirty-six other towns ; in all, about three hundred and sixty persons. The obsequies were cele- brated in the cathedral, which was illuminated by a hundred and eighty-six wax lights of four pounds each, and above two hundred torches. The funeral oration was pronounced by Sperone Speroni, and is published among his works. Although, in somewhat startling contrast to these details of death, we here introduce a letter written by the Duchess, w T hich may interest our lady readers. It is addressed to Mar- chetti, her steward of the household, then at Venice, and is printed in his life by Tondini : 94 HIS REMARRIAGE. 1548. " Master Steward, our well-beloved, " This is to inform you that, on your return with his Excel- lency our Lord and Consort, you must by all means bring as much of the finest and most beautiful scarlet serge, such as is made on purpose for the cardinals, as may suffice to make us a petticoat, taking care that it be at once handsome, good, and distingue. You can ascertain the necessary quantity. Here they tell us that if the stuff be two braccie [a yard and quarter] wide, at least eight braccie will be required, and more if narrower, say nine or ten. See that you get full measure, and let the quantity be ample rather than deficient, so that we may not have to mar it for want of cloth. And if you cannot find such serge, bring some beautiful, good, and thin Venice cloth, being careful that it be light in texture, and that the colour be of the most bright and lively scarlet that can be found. Use all diligence that we be well suited and satisfied, if you would do us a grateful service. Bring also some of those books and rosettes, as they are called, which are commonly made there of thin white wax tapers; and so good health to you. From Fossombrone, the 6th of October, 1541. " JULIA DUCHESS OF URBINO." The Duchess had given birth to a son in 1544, but was survived only by a daughter Virginia : her marriage had been interested, and her lord lost no time in contracting another from similar motives, on the excuse of requiring a male heir. In August he went to kiss the Pope's feet at Rome, on occa- sion of negotiating a new matrimonial alliance with his grand- daughter, Vittoria Farnese. On the 30th he returned home, and next month again met his Holiness at Perugia. The nuptials were interrupted by the assassination of the bride's father, Duke Pier-Luigi, whose son had supplanted Guidobaldo at Camerino, and whose tyranny in his new state of Parma sharpened the daggers of his outraged nobles. The ceremony, however, took place on the 30th of January, 1548, when 1549. THE REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO. 95 Vittoria, who had been previously affianced to Duke Cosimo I., was twenty-eight years of age. On the 2d of February she visited Urbino, amid many demonstrations of respect, among which was a muster of forty lads in her livery of yellow velvet, to each of whom an allowance of seven scudi had been voted by the city ; but it was the Duke's pleasure that they should pay for their own dress. Art, too, had contributed its honours, and Vasari narrates how Battista Franco aided in decorating the triumphal arches designed by Girolamo Genga for her reception. Similar welcome was given her at Gubbio, where the youths wore purple velvet with white sleeves and white lilies. Coin- cident with, and in consequence of, this marriage, the Duke received from Paul a new investiture of his states, and a cardi- nal's hat, with the title of S. Pietro in Vinculis, for his brother Giulio, who, though but in his fifteenth year, was soon after named Legate of Perugia. On the 20th of February, 1549, there was born a prince, who succeeded to the dukedom as Francesco Maria II., and the grateful people manifested their loyalty by customary congratulations and donatives.* These happy events were, ere long, interrupted by the death of Paul II., on the 10th of November, followed by that of the dowager Duchess of Urbino, on the 14th of February, there- after. The little state of San Marino forms a solecism in the polity of Europe, having preserved its petty limits and its purely popular government during many centuries, whilst all the other republics of Italy successively yielded to personal ambition or foreign conquest. For its independence during the ceaseless changes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was debtor to the Dukes of Urbino, whose aid was ever at hand when their name proved an inadequate safeguard. The nature of the pro- tection which they accorded to that republic is shown in the subjoined document, which seems worthy of insertion from its * Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 934. is an elaborate exposition of the devices and mottoes displayed on this august occasion. 96 THE DUKE'S POLICT. 1549. resemblance to those letters of maintenance usually granted about the same period by the greater barons of Scotland, in favour of less powerful neighbours and friends, among the minor nobility, and even the burgh communities. " Protection under which, at the instance of the Liberty of S. Marino, pressed by its envoys, the Lord Duke Guidobaldo II. assumes the foresaid Liberty, its men and territory, following therein in this the course adopted by Duke Federico, Guido I., Francesco Maria his father, and others of his house : Promising to the best of his ability, and at all times, to defend, protect, and guard it against all persons whatsoever who may seek or wish to injure it, Avhether in respect to its possessions, subjects, state, or pre-eminence, holding its enemies for his enemies, and its allies for his allies ; and further, undertaking to accord to it all possible aid and favour in the maintenance of its independence and freedom : the said envoys, on the other part, obliging them- selves to the Lord Duke, in name of the foresaid, with all their exertion and power to assist, uphold, and preserve the subjects, state, honours, and dignity of the said Lord Duke, against whatsoever person, state, or potentate who may make attempts against him ; promising to hold the friends of his Excellency as their friends, and his foes as their foes, and to pay him at all times the respect due to a faithful and good protector. At the requisition of Ser Bartolo Nursino, 20th May, 1549." It was Guidobaldo's policy to maintain with the Holy See those amicable relations which his second marriage had esta- blished, and he had accordingly, on the death of Paul III., sent some troops to Perugia, in order to secure the quiet succession of Julius III. This being effected, he went to Rome on a visit of congratulation to the new Pontiff, accompanied by Aretino, whose venal appetites were ever on the watch for opportunities of bringing his sycophancy to a good market. The Pope dis- appointed him of the anticipated guerdon, but, aware of the ready transition from adulation to slander, disarmed his tongue of its venom by a gracious accolade, kissing the forehead of this 1551-3. THE DUKE'S POLICY. 97 " scourge of princes." The first token of favour bestowed on the Duke by his Holiness was his nomination as governor of Fano in 1551. In the following year he spent some time at Verona with the Venetian army, accompanied by his boy, who there had an illness which occasioned him much anxiety. This command was a somewhat anomalous one, with the title of Governor of the Republican forces, which he vainly negotiated to exchange for that of General. Disgusted by this refusal, he listened to an overture from his brothers-in-law for transferring his services to the French King. Ottavio Farnese, now Duke of Parma, apprehending some hostile intentions from the imperialists, had applied, in 1551, to the Pope for succours, in order to guarantee his possession of that state ; but, unable to spare reinforcements or money, Julius had recommended him to take his own measures for defence. Acting on this advice, he had recourse to Henry II., from whom he accepted a con- dotta, on condition of Parma being supplied with a French garrison. Such a step could not fail to alarm the Emperor, who, representing that Ottavio had, in fact, made over his duchy to France, brought upon him the thunders of the Vatican. The inducement offered to Guidobaldo by the Farnesi for following them into Henry's service was that the King should renounce the supposed claims upon Urbino competent to his wife Caterina de' Medici, in right of her father Lorenzo, its usurping Duke. But the decided measures adopted by the Pontiff cut short this negotiation, and we hear no more of pretensions which were doubtless vamped up to serve a temporary purpose. Although the Pontiff was nominally a party to the petty war which ensued in Lombardy, it was, in fact, but a chapter in the prolonged struggle between the houses of Hapsbourg and Bourbon, with which our narrative has no concern. Another episode in the same contest was more alarming to Central Italy, and, when Tuscany became involved in the strife, it seemed well for Julius to stand on the defensive. Accordingly, in January, 1553, he named Guido- baldo captain-general of the Church, who, in April, proceeded VOL. III. H 98 THE DUKE'S POLICY. 1552-5. to Rome for his installation ; and, accompanied by a brilliant staff, reviewed the pontifical troops. Siena, originally Ghibellme, had, during the recurring con- vulsions of a nominally democratic government, remained in some measure devoted to the imperialist party. But, irritated by the licence of their Spanish garrison, and alarmed at a rumoured intention of Charles V. to seize their state, and ex- change it with the Farnesi for that of Parma, the citizens, in 1552, foolishly listened to the intrigues of French emissaries, and, with the Count of Pitigliano's aid, ousted their oppressors. In the campaign which followed, Siena was under French pro- tection, whilst Florence efficiently co-operated with the impe- rialists against her, the Pope maintaining an armed neutrality. The duties of Guidobaldo were thus limited to an occupation of Bologna, in order to protect the ecclesiastical territories and his own state, on the passage of French troops into Tuscany. That his wishes favoured the independence of Siena appears from his having, at the election of Marcellus II., in April, 1554, recom- mended an intervention in its favour ; but it was too late, as the city had already capitulated, and was soon after finally annexed to Florence. The successor of Julius III., who died in March, 1555, was Marcello Cervini, Bishop of Gubbio ; and the Duke of Urbino congratulated himself on seeing a personal friend mount the throne of St. Peter. But his satisfaction was transient. Popu- lar superstition awarded an early death to any Pontiff who should take for title his Christian name : the fate of Adrian VI. had verified the omen ; and, after a reign of but three weeks, Marcellus was carried to the tomb. Guidobaldo immediately took armed possession of the Roman gates for protection of the conclave ; but the election of Cardinal Caraffa as Paul IV. passed off satisfactorily, and his energy was rewarded by a con- firmation in his command, and the restoration of the Prefecture of Rome, with reversion to his son, an honour which, though long held by his father and grandfather, had been enjoyed for the last seventeen years by the Farnesi. 2VI GUIDOBALBO DUKE OF URBINO. 1552. MARRIAGE OF HIS SISTER. 99 CHAPTER XLIII. THE DUKE'S DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. POLICY OF PAUL IV. THE DUKE ENTERS THE SPANISH SERVICE. REBELLION AT URBINO SEVERELY REPRESSED. HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. HIS CHILDREN. ' Nor are these people carried into blood Only and still with violent giddy passion ; But in our nature, rightly understood, Rebellion lives, still striving to disfashion Order, authority, lawes, . . ." LORD BROOKE. THIS somewhat barren portion of our narrative may be appro- priately enlivened by the marriage of Princess Elisabetta, sister of Guidobaldo, to Alberico Cibo, Prince of Massa. The bride left Urbino on the 26th of September, accompanied by the Duke and Duchess, and remained at Castel Durante for two days. She was convoyed for some miles further by the court, and parted from her family with copious tears on both sides. That night she slept at S. Angelo, and next day reached Citta di Castello, escorted by an immense train of the principal resi- dents to the Vitelli Palace. There she was entertained at an almost regal banquet, with about fifty gentle dames, each more beautiful than the other, and all richly dressed; after which there followed dancing, to the music of many rare instruments and choruses, till near day -break. Travelling in a litter by easy journeys, she reached Florence in four days, and was welcomed with magnificent public honours. She entered the city in a H 2 100 THE DEFENCES OF SINIGAGLIA. 1556 rich dress of green velvet, radiant with jewels, and passed two days there, the guest of Chiappino Vitelli, who spent 2000 scudi upon four entertainments in her honour, including a ball and masquerade. On going to court, she was received by the Grand Duke and Duchess as a sister, with much kind- ness, and a world of professions. Near Pisa she was met by her bridegroom, at the head of a cavalcade which resembled an army marching to the assault of the city ; and his mother, though almost dying, had herself carried to the bed in which the bride had sought repose, to embrace her with maternal affection. More acceptable, perhaps, than this singular visit, was the pre- sent received from her in the morning, of two immense pearls, and a golden belt studded with costly jewels. The pair entered their capital next day, amid a crash of artillery, martial music, and bells, preceded by fifty youths in yellow velvet and white plumes. The festive arches delighted the narrator, but still more the palace furniture, " where nothing was seen but arm- chairs brocaded in silk and gold, and one everywhere stepped on the finest carpets." The community offered six immense vases, and a donative of bullocks, fowls, and wax. " But all this is nothing to the excessive affection which the Lord Marquis bears to his most illustrious consort : he does not merely love her, he adores her. May God continue it, and maintain them in happiness."* This kind wish had scanty fulfilment, for the Princess died nine years later, her husband surviving to the patriarchal age of ninety-six. In 1556, Guidobaldo finished the citadel and fortifications of Sinigaglia, which had occupied him during ten years, and which were considered an important bulwark against Turkish descents on the Adriatic coast. There also he instituted a college for the study of gunnery ; and he commemorated the completion of these establishments by striking four medals, of which three are described by Riposati ; none of them, however, merit special * Tondini Memorie di Franccschino Marchetti, App. p. 16. 1552-6. THE PALACE AT PESARO. 101 notice, the beauty of Italian dies being already on the wane. The court was now for the most part resident at Pesaro, a situation excelling in amenity and convenience the original capital of the duchy. Among its attractions may be numbered the palace-villa of Imperiale, which has been described at p. 46. ; but it became necessary to provide a town residence, that in the citadel, which had sufficed for the Sforza, being far too restricted for the demands of growing luxury. Of the palace at Pesaro, Guidobaldo II. may be considered the entire author ; and if it seem scarcely suited for the accommodation of so famed a court, we must recollect that the golden days of this principality were already passing away, that the military quali- ties of its sovereigns and people had become less gainful, and the devotion of its dukes to letters and arts was beginning to lan- guish. Although extensive, the aspect of this residence is mean, its buildings rambling. It exhibits no appearance of a public edifice except the spacious loggia or arcade. Over this, its single external feature, is the great hall, measuring 134 by 54 feet, and of well-proportioned height. Here we find some interesting traces of the della Rovere, in those quaint and significant family devices which it was their pride unceasingly to repeat. The manifold compartments of its richly stuccoed ceil- ing contain their heraldic badge, the oak-tree ; the ermine of Naples ; the half-inclined palm-tree ; the meta, or goal of merit, and similar fancies.* These recur among delicately sculptured arabesques on the internal lintels, and ornament the imposing chimney-pieces, varied by figures of Fame strewing oak-leaves and acorns. This palace is now the winter residence of the cardinal legates of Urbino and Pesaro, of whom portraits, from the Devolution of the duchy to the Holy See, in 1626, surround the great hall. In 1845, Cardinal della Genga was the forty- eighth of this long succession. * See these devices explained in No. V. of the Appendix to Vol. 1. The re- spective importance of the ducal residences is marked by their colloquial epithets, the corte at Urbino, the palazzo at Pesaro, the casa at Gubbio. H 3 102 THE POLICY OP 1555-6. Paul IV. was seventy-nine years of age when he assumed the triple tiara. His life had been one long exercise of holy zeal and ascetic observance, and the Romans, again sunk in those habits of luxury and indulgence from which Bourbon's army had roused them, saw with little satisfaction the accession of one so intolerant. But they were ill-prepared for a turbulence un- paralleled during many years. His policy leaned to the once favourite, but long dormant, idea of expelling the Spaniards from Lower Italy ; while, to the astonishment of mankind, the almost abandoned pretensions of nepotism were revived with unflinching fierceness by this octagenarian founder of the strictly devotional order of Theatins. A trumpery outrage on the French flag by the Sforza of Santa-fiore, in which the Colonna were alleged to have participated or sympathised, sup- plied a pretext for putting the latter to the ban ; and their vast possessions, which in the ecclesiastical states alone numbered above a hundred separate holdings, were conferred upon the Pope's nephew, Giovanni Caraffa, Count of Montorio. The Colonna flew to arms, and, being under the avowed protection of Spain, were supported by troops from Naples, against whom the Duke of Urbino was ordered to march ; but fortunately the ashes of civil broils were nearly cold, and peace would have continued undisturbed, had not Paul, in the following year, issued his monitory against Philip II. Although the Spanish intervention in behalf of the Colonna formed an ostensible ground for this aggression, its true motives are traced by Pan- vinio to more remote and personal considerations, dating from the viceroyalty of Lautrec, by whom the Caraffa, always adherents of France, had been harshly treated. Reverting to the papal policy of half a century before, Paul sought to avenge this quarrel through French instrumentality, and although a pacification of unusual solemnity had been concluded in Fe- bruary of this year between Charles V. and Henry II., pre- paratory to the former retiring from the cares of sovereignty, he contrived, by successful intrigues, to bring the two great 1557. PAUL IV. 103 European powers once more into hostility, and to revive in the Bourbon King those ambitious projects which had formerly brought his predecessors across the Alps for the conquest of Naples. Anticipating this threatened danger, the Duke of Alva marched an army of fourteen thousand men into the Comarca, which he overran in September, occupying Tivoli on the one hand, and Ostia on the other, whilst Marc- Antonio Colonna scoured the Campagna, to the gates of Rome. Guidobaldo, who appears to have been about this time superseded, and his truncheon of command transferred to the Pontiff's favourite nephew, contented himself with sending a contingent of two thousand troops, under Aurelio Fregoso, for his Holiness's sup- port. The efforts made on all sides to conclude a harassing and useless war, were rendered unavailing by the Pope's obstinacy and ambition ; the only terms he would agree to including an investiture of his nephew as sovereign of Siena, in compensation for the Colonna estates. During the winter months, a horde of northern barbarians were once more mustered to invade unhappy Italy. Fourteen thousand Gascons, Orisons, and Germans, under command of the Due de Guise, marched early in the spring upon Romagna, which, though a friendly country, they cruelly ravaged. Fa- enza having escaped their brutality by denying them en- trance, its citizens testified their gratitude for the exemption, by instituting an annual triduan thanksgiving, and dotation of two of their daughters. The Duke of Urbino did his best to secure his people during the transit of this army, which crossed the Tronto in April. It would be tedious to follow the fortunes of a campaign in which he took no part, and which, whoever gained, was the scourge of Italy. On the 26th of August, the Due de Guise placed his scaling ladders against the San Sebastiano gate, and Home had nearly been carried by a coup- de-main. At length the representations of Venice and Florence, which had remained neutral, prevailed with his Holiness, and, H 4 104 THE DUKE IN THE SERVICE OF SPAIN. 1558. on the 14th of September, peace was restored, leaving matters much on their former footing. Riposati assures us that during this war the French monarch would gladly have secured the ser- vices of Guidobaldo, now free from his engagements to the Pon- tiff, but that Duke Cosimo of Florence interested himself to procure for him an engagement from Spain. This was at length arranged, in the spring of 1558, previously to which Charles V. appears to have bestowed on him the Golden Fleece, the highest compliment at his disposal.* The terms upon which the Duke took service under Philip II. are thus stated in a letter of Bernardo Tasso. The King guaranteed him protection for his territories against all hazards, and bound himself to supply and maintain for him a body-guard of at least two hundred infantry, besides a company of a hun- dred men-at-arms, and another of two hundred light horse. He further engaged to pay him monthly 1000 golden scudi for his appointments as captain-general, besides maintaining for him four colonels and twenty captains. In return, the Duke took an oath to serve his Majesty faithfully against all poten- tates, the pontiffs alone excepted. The political results of this arrangement were strongly and painfully felt by Bernardo, who regarded it as establishing the tranquillity of Naples, the security of Tuscany, and, in a word, the Spanish domination in Italy. Inclined to the French interests (for there was no longer an Italian party in existence), he would have gladly seen the sovereign of a highland population, whose warlike sinews were not yet quite relaxed, preserve his neutrality, or rather, like his father, attach himself to the republic of Venice, which still pos- sessed much external power and internal independence. Indeed, he laments the short-sighted policy of the Signory, in omitting this opportunity of securing, as an available check upon Spanish influence, an able confederate, and corn-growing neighbour; a * Some authorities represent him as receiving this Order eleven years later from Charles V., but that Emperor died in this very year. He is said to have had knighthood from the Pope in 1561. 1565. HE BECOMES AN AUTHOR. 105 blunder which was the more unaccountable, as, in the opinion of Mocenigo, who was Venetian envoy at Urbino many years later, the prepossessions of Guidobaldo were even then in favour of a connection which had hereditary claims upon his preference. On the first days of May the convention was published at Pesaro, after solemn thanksgiving to the Almighty for a dispensation so acceptable to the Duke.* The importance to Spain of this con- dotta may be understood from a fact mentioned by Riposati, that Gubbio alone sent forth, between 1530 and 1570, three captains-general, two lieutenants-general, six colonels, and sixty- five captains of note. Mocenigo says, there were in 1570 twelve thousand soldiers in the duchy, ready at call. Our notices of Guidobaldo become ever more barren. In 1565 the armament of Sultan Solyman against Malta spread consternation throughout Western Europe, and, by desire of Philip II., the Duke of Urbino sent four or five thousand troops to aid in the defence of the knights. Prince Francesco Maria asked leave to accompany the expedition, but his father, considering his time better bestowed in visiting courts, sent him in this year to Madrid, with commission to recover a long ar- rear of his own military allowances. In this he was successful, but the sum scarcely sufficed to clear the expenses of his jour- ney. Particulars of this visit, and of his marriage in 1571, will be told from his own pen in next chapter. But there was no lukewarmness on his father's part on the question of the Cross against the Crescent. After the Prince returned from the naval action off Lepanto, which will also be narrated from his Auto- biography, Guidobaldo prepared a Discourse on the propriety of a general war against the Turks, the means of conducting the proposed campaign with due regard to the security of Italy, * From an account of this engagement preserved among the Oliveriana MSS., and slightly differing from that by Bernardo Tasso (ii. letter 166.), we learn that the pay of officers was from 15 to 40 scudi a month, that of cavalry privates 5, and of infantry 3 scudi. It appears to have been worth to Guidobaldo in all about 35,000 scudi a-year, but to have been irregularly received. 106 HIS FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. 1570. the preparation of adequate munitions, and the best plan for carrying the seat of war into the enemy's country. It is un- necessary to dwell upon a matter now so completely gone by : the paper emanates from a mind capable of enlarged views, and fully conversant with the belligerent resources and general po- licy of his age, as well as experienced in military operations.* The Relazioni of the Venetian envoys supply us with some notices of Urbino about this time, and prove that the Duke's expenses were very great, partly from frequent calls upon his hospitality by visiters of distinction, but still more from his maintaining separate and costly establishments for himself, the Duchess, the Prince, and the Princess. f Mocenigo estimates his income from imposts, monopolies, and allodial domains, at 100,000 scudi; adding that, "should he think proper to burden his people, this sum might unquestionably be greatly augmented, but, choosing to follow the custom of his predecessors, in making it his chief object to preserve the affection of his subjects, he is content to leave matters as they are, and live in straits for money."J He also tells us that, though poor in revenues, he was master of his people's affections, who on an exigency would place life and substance at his disposal. The accuracy of these impressions is in some degree impugned by what we are now about to relate. The most remarkable incident in Guidobaldo's reign was an outbreak of the citizens of Urbino, dignified in its municipal history by the name of a rebellion, which acquires a factitious importance as the only symptom of discontent that troubled * Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 2510. f. 201. f That of Mocenigo, 1570, is printed by Vieussieux, second series, vol. ii. p. 97., and in the Tesoro Politico, ii. 169. ; that of Zen or Zane, 1574, in the same volume of Vieussieux, p. 315. i Of several statements as to the ducal revenue and expenditure which I have seen, none is distinct or satisfactory. The most detailed is in a MS. in the public library at Siena, K. iii. No. 58. p. 240., but the sums have been inextricably blundered by the transcriber. See Appendix, No. VIII. 1572. THE REBELLION AT URBINO. 107 the peace of the duchy, from the death of Oddantonio in 1443, to the extinction of its independence in 1631. We shall con- dense its incidents from the cotemporary narrative of Gian- Francesco Cartolari, who designated himself agent of the Duke, and who, notwithstanding his official position, writes with ap- parent frankness and impartiality.* In August 1572, the Duke intimated to the council of Urbino that he had received authority from Gregory XIII. to impose a tax of one quatrino per Ib. on butchers' meat, and of two bolognini upon every staro of grain and soma of winef ; and in October he made proclamation throughout the duchy of these new imposts. It being rumoured that the envoys of Gubbio had obtained for that community a suspension of the obnoxious duties, discontent began to prevail, and on the 26th of Decem- ber one Zibetto, a cobbler, in an inflammatory harangue, at a public assembly dignified with the name of general council, de- clared that these were exactions under which the poor could not exist. On his proposal, forty delegates were chosen from the nobility, and sworn to represent the matter to the Duke in per- son. They repaired to Pesaro, and, on the 29th, had an audi- ence to present the memorial agreed to by the council, which Guidobaldo received, and desired them to go home, promising that an answer would be transmitted when he had considered their statement. They, however, stayed a week, vainly looking for his reply, during which the council met daily at Urbino, and at length they were recalled by an express from the Gonfalo- niere. Meanwhile a vice-duke had been sent thither, who, on the 1st of January 1573, published a suspension of the new im- posts throughout the whole state. This concession, however, did not satisfy the discontented, who, in another general coun- cil, accredited two envoys to Prince Francesco Maria, begging * Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3142. f. 165., and Olivcriana MSS., No. 390. p. 63. f The staro or stajo corresponded to a bushel ; the amount of a soma is doubtful. A quatrino is ^ of a bajoccho, that is, of a halfpenny in present value. A bolog- nino was about 7J farthings. See Vol. II. p. 259. 108 THE REBELLION AT URBINO. 1573. his intervention to procure an answer to their memorial. Hav- ing failed in this object, and finding that troops were being se- cretly organised to garrison their city, the people of TJrbino rushed to arms, closed the gates, and, having mustered above a thousand men, began to strengthen the defences and lay in stores. The Vice-duke being thereupon recalled, the general council assembled daily in such numbers, that adjournments to one of the largest churches were found necessary, and the in- habitants, setting aside private rivalries, co-operated with one mind for the public safety, mounting guard, and making every exertion to render their city tenable. The impossibility of doing so against the Duke's military levies being however quickly apparent even to the insurgents, an embassy of six was despatched to Rome to beseech the Pope's mediation. Nor did the reaction stop there ; a general cry rose for the Prince, or his brother the Cardinal, the opportune arrival of either of whom would have ended the emeute. On the 29th, however, the Duchess came with a small suite, and was received with cries of "Long life to the Duke, but death to the gabelk!" The efforts of the magistracy and popular leaders to make their peace were unavailing, in consequence of their having sent represent- ations to the Pontiff, and, on the 3rd of February, the Duchess departed without effecting any arrangement, to the infinite an- noyance of all parties. The envoys could get no other reply from his Holiness but that they must go home and make submission, and they were followed by a brief from him, enjoining them to lay down arms and seek his Excellency's unconditional pardon. As soon as this had been publicly read by the Gonfaloniere, the people piled their arms in the piazza, and the peasantry dispersed to their country homes. Notwithstanding this surrender, Guidobaldo advanced upon the city, quartering his troops in the surrounding villages, so as to blockade it, and all the public functionaries were super- seded. Dreading a sack, the citizens rushed to the monasteries with their valuables, and, about the middle of February, sent 1573. THE REBELLION AT URBINO. 109 fifty of the nobles to crave pardon of their sovereign. After waiting at Pesaro for three days, these were admitted to tender submission on their knees, and were then placed under arrest at their inn for twenty days, notwithstanding incessant petitions from their fellow citizens for their release. Six of them were then committed to the castle, and from time to time other leaders were brought from Urbino to share their imprisonment. So terrified were the insurgents by these measures, that those most compromised fled from the duchy, and but few remained in their houses ; a proclamation was therefore issued that all exiles should return home within two months, under penalties of re- bellion. The property of the prisoners and exiles was confis- cated ; the city was disarmed ; public assemblies were prohi- bited ; and the magistracy were discharged from their duties.* Such rigorous measures having inspired a general panic, the im- posts were again proclaimed at Easter, to include retrospectively the previous year. These severities were perhaps scarcely be- yond the exigencies of the case ; at all events, they cannot be justly regarded as an extreme exercise of the despotic authority which the Duke undoubtedly possessed ; but those which ensued must be viewed with abhorrence, alike from their own enormity, and from their prejudicial influence in confounding vengeance with justice. A judge was brought from Ferrara to sit upon the prisoners, and on the 1st of July nine of them were beheaded in the castle at midnight ; their bodies, after being flung out and exposed be- yond the city, were huddled together into an unconsecrated pit, until some days later they were taken up by order of the Bishop of Pesaro, and received Christian burial. Nor was the indigna- tion of their sovereign appeased by these revolting cruelties : others implicated were sent to the galleys or died of hard usage. A commission sate at Urbino for two months to realise the es- * The magistrates of Urbino were four in number, a gonfaloniere chosen from the city nobles, a prior to represent the merchants, and two priors of the trades. The general council seems to have been open to all citizens. 110 THE REBELLION AT URBINO. 1573. tales of those attainted, whose widows and children were de- prived of their doweries, and in some instances their very houses were razed to the ground. The results were fatal to the whole community, for magisterial business was suspended, the schools were left without teachers, the town without medical practi- tioners, trade of every sort at a stand. At length, in Decem- ber, permission was obtained to hold a general council, at which it was determined once more to send ambassadors to intercede for mercy. For this purpose about eighty of the principal no- bility were selected to accompany the Gonfaloniere and priors to Pesaro, their cavalcade amounting to above a hundred per- sons on horseback. On the 27th of December, they were ad- mitted to an audience in presence of the whole court, and the Gonfaloniere, after a very judicious speech, presented to his Ex- cellency a petition couched in the following terms : " Most illustrious and most excellent Lord Duke, our especial lord and master! Inspired by a most ardent desire for your illustrious Excellency's favour and good will, and having ever felt the utmost grief and regret for the recent events, the city of Urbino, with entire devotion and alacrity, has resolved to send to your illustrious Excellency its magistrates, and the present numerous embassy, in order that, with every possible humility, they in our name, and we likewise for ourselves, may supplicate you, with all reverence and submission, to accord us grace and pardon, entirely forgetting the provocations received, and, as our clement father and master, full of charity towards us, to deign willingly to comfort us, and receive us again, and restore us to your love and benign grace ; assuring your most illustrious Excellency, that this your city will never, in fidelity, love, and obedience towards your most illustrious person and house, yield to any other in the world, and that it is, and ever will be, most prompt at all times and occasions to expose our lives, and those of our children, and our whole goods and possessions, in your service and honour ; so that, in the event of our receiving, as we desire and hope, forgiveness from your infinite bounty and mag- 1573. THE REBELLION AT URBINO. Ill nanimity, we, the humblest and most faithful of your servants thanking God with sincerely joyful hearts, may return, singing in chorus ' Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath visited and redeemed his people,' and may ever keep in remem- brance this trusted day of grace, and render it a gladsome festival in all time to come." To this petition the Duke returned the following gracious answer : "I hear with much good will and satisfaction the duty which you pay, the free pardon which you ask, and the penitence which you exhibit, all which induce me to confirm to you, as I now do most willingly, the forgiveness I already have accorded : and the promise which you make, of being ever faith- ful and loyal to me, proves you ready to second your words with good purposes, as I readily believe you will do. I also promise you from henceforward entirely to forget the past, and to receive you into my pristine affection ; and had it pleased God that the warnings and persuasions which you received from my lips had been taken by you at first, you would have been spared many evils, annoyances, and losses, and I much displeasure. Never- theless, take courage, and, as I have already said, so long as you do your duty, you will find me as loving in time to come as I have ever been, all which you will report to your city." * This reply gave great satisfaction to the deputation, and after being suitably acknowledged by their head, all of them knelt to their Sovereign, the Duchess, and the Prince, kissing the hems of their garments in humble attitude. Next day they returned home, and summoned a general council, to which there was read a letter from Guidobaldo, reinstating the city in its former privileges, and removing the obnoxious imposts. Four deputies having been commissioned to thank his Highness for these demonstrations of returning favour, they were honourably re- ceived and entertained at Pesaro. The council next voted a peace-offering of 50,000 scudi towards paying the Duke's debts, * Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3141. ff. 160. 165., dated December 27. 1573. 112 THE REBELLION AT URBINO. 1573. which had been the primary root of the evil; but, in consider- ation of their recent sufferings, he accepted of but 20,000, pay- able in seven years. Although there remained some symptoms of smouldering sedition, the Duke on the 14th of June suddenly started for Urbino, and was welcomed by a deputation, and such other marks of respect as the short notice would permit. During a residence of twelve days, he renounced 8000 scudi of the donative, and conceded several privileges to the community, whom he did not again visit during the brief residue of his life. The Urbino rebellion holds a place in the history of that state which neither its incidents nor its issue deserve. It originated in a sore of old standing, the Duke having for years comparatively deserted the ancient capital of his duchy, and transferred his residence to Pesaro. Influenced by this grudge, its citizens, instead of, like the other communities, resting satis- fied with his remission of dues in January, 1573, kept up an agitation, and finally piqued their sovereign by carrying their grievances to the papal throne. On the whole, these transac- tions were in all respects most unfortunate, and it was long ere the duchy recovered from the heart-burnings they left behind. The Duke then forfeited the popularity of a lifetime, and his fame continues blackened by the scurrilous traditionary nick- name of Guidobaldaccio, a usual diminutive expressing con- temptuous disparagement. Grossi says that, when too late, he regretted the harshness of his after measures ; and some doubt as to his good faith in regard to an amnesty is hinted in the follow- ing letter from his cousin-german Ludovico Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers and Rethel, which I found among the Oliveriana MSS. at Pesaro. " Most illustrious and most excellent Lord, " Your Excellency's letters of the 15th of June and 9th of July reached me together, at the forest of Vincennes, only on the 10th instant, along with another addressed by you to the most 1573. THE REBELLION AT URBINO. 113 serene King of Poland, which I have not failed to deliver in person to his Majesty, with such expressions as seemed suitably to convey your Excellency's good wishes. With these his Majesty was much satisfied and pleased, and he returns to your Excellency many thanks. I have not as yet been able to ob- tain his answer, as he went off suddenly to Fontainbleau, whither I now am on my way, and on my arrival shall get it sent you as soon as possible. " I have read the summary of the trials of these rebels, of whom your Excellency advises me you had nine beheaded, as to which matter I have been glad to be informed, in order satisfac- torily to answer those who occasionally speak of it ; and also being at all times glad to learn that your affairs go on well and to your contentment. It is my conviction that you have acted most justly, and done everything for clear reasons ; yet, I do not omit telling you that some people are perplexed at these events, saying, that your Excellency having granted a general pardon to all the conspirators, they cannot see by what right you after- wards let justice take its course against them. This I mention . purposely that you may be informed of everything. " It only remains to beseech that you will deign command my willing services, in whatever respect you consider me use- ful, as this is my ardent wish ; and so I sincerely kiss your hands, praying God to grant you all happiness. From Paris, the last of September, 1573. Your Excellency's most devoted, and most obliged cousin, " LUDOVICO GONZAGA." The account of these disturbances, given by the Prince in his Autobiography, is as follows : " His father having by great liberality and magnificence deranged his finances, found it necessary to augment his revenue, and his subjects, unused to such burdens, began to offer resistance. The Duke, not to let himself be thwarted in that way, prepared to use force ; but at last matters were restored to quiet, by their humbling them- VOL. III. I 114 THE DUKE'S DEATH. 1574. selves, and receiving his pardon, not without the punishment of some, as an example to the rest. At this juncture Francesco Maria contrived so to conduct himself, that his father had reason to be well satisfied with his services ; and the people had no cause to be discontented with him, his uniform endeavour having been, to the utmost of his power, to mollify the one and mode- rate the other, which was in the end effected." Of this dull reign little remains to be told. In the words of the same Memoir, " Guidobaldo went to Ferrara in the au- tumn of 1574, to visit Henry III. of France, who was on his way from Poland, on the death of his brother Charles IX. Returning to Pesaro during great heats, he fell ill, and passed to a better life on the 28th of September, aged sixty. On hearing of his illness, Francesco Maria hastened to Pesaro from Castel Durante, where he generally stayed for the hunting season, and finding his father in great suffering, he attended him assiduously through the fatal malady. The funeral ceremonies were per- formed with much pomp, in presence of many deputies and ambassadors ; and Giacomo Mazzoni pronounced a long and elaborate oration, commending his clemency, liberality, bravery, prudence, and other princely virtues." We are told by a co- temporary chronicler that his illness was a quartan, which be- came a putrid, fever, but that he bore it with patient and pious resignation, supported by the aids of religion. His funeral took place in the church of Corpus Domini, at Pesaro, in conformity with his own wish, mindful perhaps, in his last moments, of his recent quarrel with Urbino, where the ashes of his ancestors were laid. The character of this Duke, drawn by the Venetian envoys, is quite as favourable as the few notices given us by Urbino writers. His habits were free and social, and his liberality to friends and favourites gave him a popularity at court which extended to his subjects and soldiery. In affairs of honour his judgment was often sought, and his decisions generally ad- mitted. Though seldom in the field, he was considered an 1574. HIS CHARACTER. 115 authority on military affairs, and, without rivalling the literary tastes of his son, he was a patron of letters, and especially of music. The device which he selected was a goal or winning- post, with a Greek inscription, " To the most devoted lover of worth ; " and Ruscellai informs us that he acted up to the senti- ment in encouraging merit. His hospitality is alluded to by Ariosto in Rinaldo's journey to Lapidusa, and Count Litta ascribes to him the institution of the Pacieri, an association of both sexes for the purpose of preventing litigation. It is true that his failings of character or temper were neither gilded by the military renown of his father, nor redeemed by the pious philosophy of his son ; but so far as the meagre materials within out reach have enabled us to judge, no great faults have been brought home to him either as a sovereign or as a man. Indeed, we are enabled to adduce one satisfactory instance wherein, under circumstances peculiarly irritating to a person of impe- tuous disposition, his conduct was marked with great forbear- ance and gentleness. His favourite undertaking of fortifying Sinigaglia had been thwarted in 1556, from the obstinate refusal of money by a Jew, who, ijhough sent to him for the purpose of effecting a loan, resisted his urgent persuasions to conclude it. After mentioning the circumstance in a letter to his con- fidential favourite Marchetti, he thus continues : " We avoided all expressions which might seem to approve of his discourse, and so left him. However, to you we shall just say that if they won't lend, may they meet with the like.* We shall seek some other course, and obtain by other means what is required for the operations. You may, therefore, after doing your best for this purpose in Sinigaglia, proceed first towards La Pergola, and then to Fossombrone, but there is no occasion to employ in this matter threats or severe language. On the contrary, you are only to seek out the people, to exhort and civilly urge them to what is wanted, but of their own free will, and by no * " Tal sia di loro," a phrase which may perhaps only mean " be it so." I 2 116 HIS PORTRAITS. 1574. other means; and if they will not agree, you need not break out upon them, but let it stand over, that we may see what can be effected in some other way." In absence of any cotemporary estimate of this Duke's character, we may cite one from the pen of a modern writer, himself a citizen of TJrbino, and an enthusiastic student of its history. "Although possessing not the marvellous sagacity, the untainted justice, the quick intelligence in public affairs, nor the other brilliant and rare virtues of his ancestors and of his son, which have rendered their names great, their authority respected, their memory dear and popular ; he had good sense, military experience, and much fondness for all liberal acquire- ments. He protected and honoured the first geniuses of his time ; and his beneficent actions were splendid even beyond his means. Could one page be blotted from his life, too fatally memorable from its unjust and slippery policy, too detestable and disgraceful to his name ; and had his manners been more affable, his nature less impetuous and violent, his temper less overbearing, and his resolutions less inflexible; the people of Urbino would probably have attempted no revolutionaiy move- ment, and he would have acquired much of the reputation left by his great-grandfather, and by his estimable son." * For the fine arts he seems to have cared little, and his me- mory has suffered in consequence of this neglect. Angelo Bronzino is said to have painted him during the life of his father, but the only original portrait I have ever found of him is a miniatui'e in the Pitti Palace. In absence of any more suitable embodiment of his unintellectual features, I have been obliged to engrave a very poor picture, which I casually dis- covered and identified in the porter's room of the Albani Palace at Rome, and which seems a reduced copy of some better like- ness. Bernardo Tasso was the laureat of his court, and we shall mention, in Chapter L., the friendly welcome extended to that fortune-stricken bard during part of his life-long struggle. * Padre Chcccucci, Professor of Rhetoric in the University of Urbino, 1845. 1574. HIS CHILDREN. 117 Bernardo Capello and Pietro Aretino were among his guests ; and Ludovico Domenichini of Piacenza, having dedicated to him an Italian translation of Plutarch's Lives, visited Urbino in 1555 to present the work to his patron. Guidobaldo left by his first wife one daughter, VIRGINIA, married in 1560 to Count Federigo Borromeo, whose premature death is said to have frustrated a pro- ject of his uncle, Pius IV., for investing him with Camerino. She afterwards married Ferdinando Orsini, Duke of Gravina, and, dying in childbed, left to her father about 180,000 scudi. The children of his second marriage were, 1. FRANCESCO MARIA, his heir. 2. ISABELLA, married in 1565 to Nicolo Bernardino di Sanseverino, Prince of Bisignano, a Neapolitan noble- man, with a fine fortune, but greatly encumbered. She was a princess of generous and attractive character, and died in 1619 without surviving issue. 3. LAVINIA, said in the Venetian Helazione of Zane to have been betrothed to Giacomo Buoncompagno, natu- ral son of Gregory XIIL, but the nuptials never took place. She afterwards married Alfonso Felice d'Avalos d' Aquino, Marquis of Guasto, son of the famous Vit- toria Colonna, and died in 1632, aged seventy-four. From similarity of name, this princess has been confused by M'Crie and others with her second cousin Lavinia Franciotti della Kovere, wife of Paolo Orsini, whose intimacy with Olympia Morata is well known to those who trace the quickly smothered seeds of Protestantism in Italy. Guidobaldo left also two natural daughters, 1. , married, first, to Count Antonio Landriano of Pesaro; secondly, to Signer Pier- Antonio da Luna of Castella, in the Milanese. 2. , married to Signor Guidobaldo Renier. I 3 BOOK EIGHTH. OF FRANCESCO MARIA II. DELIA ROVERE, SIXTH AND LAST DUKE OF URBINO. " THL'S FARES THAT MAN THAT HATH PREPARED A REST FOR HIS DESIRES, AND SEES ALL, THINGS BENEATH HIM, AND HATH LEARNED THIS BOOKE OF MAN FCLL OF THE NOTES OF FRAILTY, AND COMPARED THE BEST OF GLORY WITH HER SUFFERINGS." SAMUEL DANIEL. I 4 BOOK VIII. OF FRANCESCO MARIA II. BELLA ROVERE, SIXTH AND LAST DUKE OF URBINO. CHAPTER XLIV. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DUKE FRANCESCO MARIA II HIS VISIT TO THE SPANISH COURT. HIS STUDIOUS HABITS. HIS MARRIAGE. IS ENGAGED IN THE NAVAL ACTION OF LEPANTO. SUCCEEDS TO THE DUKEDOM. " Plough not the seas, sowe not the sands, Leave off your idle paine ; Seeke other mistresse for your mindes, Love's service is in vaine." ROBERT SOUTHWELL. IN following the history of his father, we have details of the early life of Francesco Maria. Upon these we now turn back, and shall avail ourselves to the utmost of the Memoirs he has left behind him, which, though brief and incomplete, afford a valuable illustration of his character, and an interesting addition to our few autobiographies of sovereigns. From the introduc- tory sentence, we learn the motives by which they were under- taken : " As it is very usual for people to blame the actions of others, and especially the proceedings of those who have long directed the affairs of government, it has hence seemed to 122 BIRTH OF FRANCESCO MARIA II. 1549. me right to narrate simply, truly, and briefly, the incidents that have occurred to Francesco Maria, second of that name and sixth Duke of Urbino, in order that those who read this abstract may be aware of the actual and candid truth." Upon a narra- tive thus modestly prefaced it is unnecessary to make any cri- tical remarks. Ere we close this Book, their abrupt termina- tion, before the marriage of Prince Federigo, will be sadly but sufficiently accounted for.* " To them [Duke Guidobaldo II. and Duchess Vittoria] was born at Pesaro, on 20th of February, 1549, a son, who was named Francesco Maria. Cardinal Duranti was sent by the Pope to perform the ceremony of his baptism, which was celebrated with great splendour on the 1st of May, Giacomo Soranzo acting as godfather in name of the republic of Venice. He was in infancy brought up with becoming care, and at three years of age was carried to Venice by his father and mother. Guidobaldo was then general in the service of that state, and their troops were chiefly stationed at Verona, whither Francesco Maria was taken, and where he had a dangerous illness, re- * For the life of Francesco Maria II. our materials have been ample. His own Memoirs, extending from his birth to the marriage of his son, have been nearly all quoted verbatim. The autograph of this MS. I have examined in the Oliveriana Library (No. 384. folio 219. to 229.), but have made my translations from the only printed edition, in the twenty-ninth volume of the Nuova Eaccolta d' Opuscoli, known by the name Calogeriana, and published at Venice in 1776. There too will be found an account of the Devolution of Urbino to the Holy See, from the pen of Antonio Donate of Venice, by whom that negotiation was concluded on the Duke's part. In the Magliabechiana Library at Florence (class 25. No. 76.) is the auto- graph Diary of Francesco Maria from 1583 to 1623, which I have closely searched. The rich MS. collections of the Oliveriana are stored with original correspondence and other documents illustrative of his reign, most of which have been looked into with scarcely remunerative labour, but, among the matter there gleaned, his in- structions to his son may be deemed of especial importance. From a vast mass of such correspondence in these two libraries, a general insight into his character and position, and those of his son, has been acquired, as well as many minute traits of both ; but the Prince's brief and unhonoured span has been illustrated in a great measure from collections made by Francesco Saverio Passeri, of Pesaro, nephew of the naturalist Gianbattista Passeri, and printed in the twenty-sixth volume of the Calogeriana Collection, 1565. HE GOES TO SPAIN, 123 covered from which he returned home. There, as he grew up, he was taught all fitting exercises of mind and body, under the successive superintendence of Muzio of Giustinopoli, Antonio Galli of Urbino, and Girolamo Simonetta of Cagli : his masters in grammar were Vincenzo Bartoli of Urbino, and afterwards L/udovico Corrado of Mantua, of literary note. After some years, the Duke and his brother the Cardinal, having resolved to amuse themselves with a visit to Venice, at the fete of the Ascension, they took with them Francesco Maria, who was re- ceived with great favour and much made of, being admitted into the company delle Calze."* This was in 1564, and even thus early his taste for painting was noticed by Titian, and celebrated in a sonnet by Verdizzotti. An establishment was maintained for him at Venice apart from that of his father and uncle, and he gave many sumptuous entertainments. "Having returned to Pesaro, and completed his sixteenth year, he had a great wish to go forth and see the world and its usages, and made much interest that his father should send him to some court, preferring that of the Emperor, who was then at war with the Turk. To this his father was pleased to agree, but desired first to consult the Catholic King (Philip II.), in whose service he was, and who in reply commended the plan, but desired that it might be carried into effect at his own court, where the Prince would be welcomed and treated as a son. His intentions being thus necessarily altered, at the close of 1565, after the marriage of his sister Donna Isabella with the Prince of Bisignano, he took his way to Spain, accompanied by many knights, particularly by Count Francesco Landriani, and Pier- Antonio Lonato. Choosing the route by Genoa, he passed through Ferrara to Mantua, where he stayed fifteen days by his father's desire, who in youth long inhabited that city ; and hear- ing of his uncle the Duke of Parma's return just then from Flanders, he went to see him. On his arrival at Genoa he was * Sec Vol. I. p. 64. 124 HE GOES TO SPAIN. 1565. lodged by Count Filippino Doria, his vassal in the castle of Sassocorbaro, and, after being visited and much distinguished by the Signory, he embarked in a war-galley of the Duke of Sa- voy, which, with another fully armed, had been sent on purpose for him, under the command of Admiral di Leini. In it he went to Savona, the native place of his family, where he was received into the house of the Vigeri, who were his subjects, and being storm-stayed during eight days of the carnival, was en- tertained with festivities and serenades, as is customary in that country. " When the weather cleared, he re-embarked, and after a plea- sant voyage of a few days reached Palamos in Spain, whence he went by land to Barcelona. In that city he passed most of Lent, to give time for an apartment being prepared for him in the palace, but got to Madrid for Easter week. He was met by the whole court and by many grandees, especially by the Marquis of Pescara, who manifested singular courtesy, attending to him ^as his own son ; whence a most intimate and enduring friendship arose between them. He got the same quarters which the Prince of Florence had occupied shortly before, and his treatment was precisely similar. Next day he waited upon the King, Queen, and Prince Royal, the Princess of Portugal, and the two sons of the Emperor [Maximilian II.], who were being educated there. By all he was received with distinguished favour, which continued during the two years and a half he spent at Madrid. He occupied himself in all those noble exercises which there, more than anywhere else, were attended to, prac- tising military games on foot and horseback in public, and also privately under superintendence of the Marquis of Pescara, who was then considered unequalled in them. He frequently went out hunting with Don Carlos [Infant of Spain], by whom he was received into much intimacy ; and enjoyed a close friendship with Don John of Austria [natural son of Philip II.], after- wards the famed commander by sea and land. He also paid court to the ladies, and learned the sports of the jennet as prac- 1568. OCCURRENCES AT THE SPANISH COURT. 125 tised there, from Don Pedro Enciquel, afterwards Count of Fuentes and general in Flanders. " Some movements having occurred in Flanders, the King gave orders to proceed there, and the court, including Francesco Maria, made preparations to attend him. But the latter, wish- ing to see France, asked permission to take that route by land, and so to rejoin his Majesty, who was to go by sea. The King, desiring his attendance on his person, refused this request, and so the opportunity was lost, to his great mortification, and perhaps to the no small loss of his Majesty. Subsequently occurred the imprisonment of Don Carlos, which was thus effected by order of his own father. An hour after midnight, the King, in his dressing-gown, holding a candle in his hand, having gone down to the Prince's room, with his council of state and but one gen- tleman of his chamber, found him in bed. The Prince on see- ing them tried to reach the corner, where were his sword and a pair of arquebuses, which he kept there always ready ; but this was prevented by the Duke of Feria, who had already secured these arms. Then, rushing to his father, he exclaimed, ' So you are come to kill me ? ' To this his Majesty replied, ' Not so, but because you must live as becomes you, so be calm ; ' and never addressed him again. The Prince then said, * I see that I am taken for a madman, which I am not, though a desperate one.' The King, having seen the doors and win- dows nailed up, leaving only a shutter open for light, and having desired the arms and all such things to be taken away, returned to his apartment, leaving with Don Carlos his major- domo Ruggo Mez de Silva (?) with several chamberlains and other officers of his household, a guard of Germans being sta- tioned outside of his door ; and the court was greatly vexed thereat." These details are curious, in illustration of the mysterious fate of Don Carlos, eldest son of Philip II. It seems agreed that he was of a most unhappy temperament, perverse, wilful, and vio- lent, possibly insane. The immediate cause of the unnatural 126 HE RETURNS HOME. 1568. scene here described has never been satisfactorily explained. It is generally stated that he was discovered in treasonable correspon- dence with the Dutch ; though others have attributed the beha- viour of his father to jealousy of an old attachment between his wife Elizabeth of Valois, and the Prince, to whom she was said to have been previously promised. The Prince's arrest occurred in January 1568 : it was followed by no trial or public investi- gation, but in the following July he ceased to live. His death was understood to have taken place under some judicial sanction, but whether by poison or the sword was never known. The entombment of his head separate from his body renders the se- cond supposition more probable. We may here mention that, before embarking for Spain, the Prince had, from his Cardinal uncle, the dukedom of Sora, yielding an income of about 4000 scudi, which, however, proved quite inadequate to his expenditure. Zane, the Venetian am- bassador, asserts that the large arrears of pay due to his father, which he was commissioned to recover from the Spanish govern- ment, were more than absorbed by his extravagance, and that this was the reason of his recal. His own narrative, however, is entirely silent upon this subject. " Francesco Maria, having been at length recalled by his father, who was anxious for the marriage of his only son and heir, took leave of the King and Queen, and the royal family, and proceeded by Saragossa to Barcelona, where he embarked in a galley with the Marquis of Pescara, then going as viceroy to Sicily. After a prosperous voyage of eight days, he reached Genoa, where he lived with Giovanni Andrea Doria, with whom he had become intimate at the court of Spain. Thence he went to Milan for some days, and was welcomed with distinction ; and then visited Madame of Austria at Piacenza ; and at Parma stayed with the Duke and his son, towards both of whom he maintained the best intelligence and cousinship. He next passed through Bologna to Ravenna, where his uncle, the Cardinal of Urbino, was archbishop, and accompanied him to Pesaro. He 1569. HIS MARRIAGE. 127 arrived on the llth of July, 1568, and was received with the greatest joy by all classes. " After a few months, seeing that his father made no move- ment in the affair of his marriage, he returned to his studies, interrupted during his absence from Italy. He read mathe- matics with Federigo Comandino, and afterwards philosophy with Cesare Benedetti (subsequently Bishop of Pesaro), Felice Pacciotti, Giacomo Mazzoni, and Cristofero Guarimone. At the same time he kept up active exercise in arms, riding, hunting, ball, and rackef." About this time Mocenigo, the Venetian ambassador, praises his fine dispositions and pleasing manners, as well as his progress in various pursuits, especially mathematics and fortification ; but says that his eager exposure to fatigue gave rise to apprehensions for his health, which were sadly realised. He adds that, since his return from Spain, something of the hauteur which characterised that nation was noticed in his manner. " Finally the Duke decided upon his marriage with Donna Lucrezia d'Este, sister of Alfonso, the last Duke of Ferrara, which took place, though little to his taste ; for she was old enough to have been his mother. He went for this purpose to Ferrara, where the nuptials were celebrated with great splendour, and with chivalrous games and other festivities." Such is all that we learn from the Memoirs of Francesco Maria regarding one of the most eventful moments of his life. Passeri, in his collections for the life of Prince Federigo, men- tions a rumour of his attachment to a lady at the Spanish court as the immediate cause of his recal home, and of the match with Princess Lucrezia being concluded : indeed, I have seen, in the correspondence of the Oliveriana Library, that a certain Donna Madalena Girona was the supposed object of that early affection. That he made no secret to his father of his distaste at the con- nection laid out for him, is stated on the same authority, as well as the Duke's answer, that his people's welfare was to be considered rather than his son's fancies, whose youth made it 128 HIS MARRIAGE. 1569-71. the more requisite to mate him with a princess of tried prudence and staid manners. How far these epithets were borne out by Lucrezia's subsequent conduct will be presently seen; mean- while, the following letter, to one who long after continued an especial friend and favourite, will show that the bridegroom gave no outward signs of his discontent. " To Camillo Giordani. " My most magnificent and well-beloved, " I am confident that you feel the pleasure which you express at the conclusion which it has pleased God to vouchsafe to my marriage with Madam Lucrezia d ' Este, and at all other like occasions of joy which happen to me ; and the duty you have in this instance paid me in your letter has been most truly acceptable, and has my best thanks. God ever bless you ! From Pesaro, the last day of [15]69. " THE PRINCE or URBINO." The ceremony took place at Ferrara on the 2d of January, 1571, and on the 8th the bride was brought home to Pesaro. The people hailed her with enthusiasm, and spent largely in shows and rejoicings to welcome her arrival, besides giving to the Duke a donative exceeding 10,000 scudi. Yet Mocenigo, the Venetian ambassador accredited to the marriage, while laud- ing the handsome and gracious Princess, admits an early pre- possession against her, on the part both of her new subjects and her lord. It was the hope of an heir to the dukedom that pre- ponderated with the former ; and, as she was many years older than her husband, a chill of disappointment naturally mingled even with their congratulations.* The same observer states it as the general impression that, the Prince having compromised * Tesoro Politico, ii. f. 169. Eelazioni Venete, serie ii. vol. ii. p. 105. Litta says she was born the 1 6th December, 1535, making her thirteen years and two months his senior. Her sister, Tasso's Leonora, was born the 19th of June, 1537. 1571. HIS MARRIAGE. 129 himself with a lady in Spain, his father thought the best way of getting him out of all difficulty with that court was to match him suddenly with a princess of high rank, whose dowery of 150,000 scudi was by no means unacceptable. Zane, another envoy from the maritime Republic a few years later, describes the Duchess as below par in good looks, but well-dressed ; add- ing that difference of age accounted for the absence of affection between her and her husband. The following letters from the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, Prince Francesco Maria and his bride, were written in answer to congratulations sent them on occasion of the marriage, by the Cardinal de' Medici, who afterwards became Grand Duke of Florence, by the title of Ferdinand L* They have been intro- duced here as an index to the feelings of the respective writers regarding a union which turned out so unsatisfactory to all parties ; but, still more, as a specimen of the epistolary style then prevalent between personages of exalted rank, and of the general formality and barrenness of interest which characterise such documents. " My most illustrious, most reverend, and most respected Lord, " The Marquis of Villa Franca has discharged towards me the duty with which your most illustrious Lordship was pleased to entrust him, and he has represented your gracious sympathy towards our wedding in a manner most acceptable to all. For the satisfaction we, and myself especially, have derived from this, I do most heartily thank your most illustrious Lordship, praying you to lend a willing ear to the assurances of my affec- tion, and of my wish for frequent opportunities of correspond- ence, which I have given to the Marquis, and which I do not doubt he will, without fail, in compliance with my desire, fully * Bibl. Riccarcliana, MSS. No. 2430., art 11G 119 VOL. III. K 130 HIS MARRIAGE. 1571. repeat to you. I kiss your most illustrious Lordship's hands, praying for you all happiness. From Pcsaro, the lath of January, 1571. " Your most illustrious Lordship's servant, " THE DUKE or URBIXO." " My most illustrious, most revered, and most respected Lord, " The proof which your most illustrious Lordship has deigned to give me, in your most kind letter, of the pleasure you take in the marriage of the Prince my son, I esteem a great favour ; for not only do I desire your sympathy in all my happiness, but I am also anxious in every circumstance to find occasion of serving your most illustrious Lordship. Thus will all my present and future occasions of joy be valued by me in proportion as they may become subservient to that object, and to the affection I bear your most illustrious Lordship, whose hands I kiss, praying the Lord God of his grace to vouchsafe you a happy accomplishment of all your desires. From Pesaro, the 15th of January, 1571. " Your most illustrious and most reverend Lordship's most humble servant, " THE DUCHESS OF URBINO." " My most illustrious and most reverend Lord, " The Marquis of Villa Franca, who has handed me your most illustrious Lordship's letter, will likewise report to you my unceasing desire for your service, and the pleasure where- with I have received the courteous duty you have been pleased on this occasion to send me, for which I certainly am under many obligations, as the Marquis will more fully show you. I, however, pray your illustrious Lordship to afford me frequent opportunities of effectually proving to you my good will ; and I kiss your hands, beseeching for you from our Lord God all 1571. HIS MARRIAGE. 131 the happiness you may desire. From Pesaro, the loth of January, 1571. " Your most illustrious and most reverend Lordship's most affectionate servant, " THE PRINCE OF URBINO." " Most illustrious and most reverend Lord, " Whatever pleasure my affairs may afford your most illustri- ous Lordship is only the consequence of your great kindness and courtesy ; and as regards the expression of it, which you have thought fit to communicate to me by the Marquis of Villa Franca, and by your own letters, I can but say that I kiss your hand for all your affection, assuring you that every occasion of happiness you may enjoy will afford me cause for quite as much congratulation as I now have received from you : and referring you to whatever more that gentleman Avill say in my behalf, I remain, praying God to gratify you in all your desires, " Your most illustrious Lordship's very obedient, " LUCREZIA n' ESTE. " From Pesaro, the 16th of January, 1571." Henee of France, mother of Princess Lucrezia, had embraced the doctrines of Calvin, who visited Ferrara about the time of her daughter's birth, and Francesco Porta da Greta, preceptor of the young Princesses, was discovered to be tinged with the same principles. Alarmed for the orthodoxy of his daughters, Duke Ercole dismissed their instructor, and secluded his consort, in a wing of the palace, from all intercourse with her children. A cloud of mystery hangs over these transactions which Dr. M'Crie's diligent investigation has but partially cleared up. It is, however, pretty evident that the seeds of evangelical truth took no root in the pleasure-loving princesses of Este. " Soon after his return to Pesaro from his marriage, the Pope, the King of Spain, and the Venetians, having [on the 20th of May] leagued together against the Turk, Don John of K 2 132 THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO. 1571. Austria came into Italy as commander-in-chief, and Francesco Maria, with his father's permission, set out on the 8th of July, to join him at Genoa. There he embarked in the Savoyard frigate * that had carried him to Spain, commanded by the same Monsignor de Leini, who had orders from the Duke of Savoy to receive him with that affectionate courtesy which both lie and his sovereign ever displayed towards him. Having touched at Naples, he was there welcomed with the utmost favour and distinction, and passed his time most agreeably. From thence the fleet sailed to Messina, where he assisted at a general council of war, as indeed he often subsequently did.f Leaving Sicily, the expedition in a few days arrived at Corfu, and on the morning of the 7th of October fell in with the Turk. Don John drew up the Christian fleet in order of battle, the Proveditore Agostino Barbarigo, of Venice, having the land- ward squadron, and Giovanni Andrea Doria the opposite and heavier one, with Don Alvarez di Bassano as a reserve ; the centre he kept for himself, where was also Francesco Maria, in the foresaid frigate. Here was the thick of the fight, as at this point the two admirals met. The Turkish at first selected the frigate in which was Francesco Maria, whom he well knew, and who warmly received his attack ; but as soon as he distinguished the flag-ship, he turned to engage it : and, after fighting for two hours, the Turks struck, their admiral, Pacha Ali, having been killed by an arquebuse ; the others were all put to the sword ; and so was this long very doubtful victory secured to the Christians. Meanwhile the Savoyard frigate fought two galleys, one ahead and the other astern, and had enough to do, most of her company being killed or wounded. The squadron under Bar- Larigo drove on shore many galleys, sinking and taking others; but he was wounded by a splinter in the eye, of which he soon * The word which I thus translate means literally a ship or galley commanded by a captain. f The muster-roll of the armament at this time will be found in No. V. of the Appendix. 1571. THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO. 133 after died. Doria had at first run out to sea, fi paired to recruit his health at Urbino, whilst Ippolito proceeded to Rome. The greeting which met our poet at that lettered court partook of the discriminating hospitality which genius could ever there command ; and though his own poetical reputa- tion was as yet but dawning, his intimacy with Guido Posthumo of Pesaro was probably a claim in his behalf to special distinc- tion, which the publication of his Orlando Furioso, before the end of that year, firmly established. On proceeding to Rome, the favour bestowed upon him at the Vatican was not such as either to satisfy his just anticipations, or to do credit to the Pon- tiff's discernment. In his third and seventh Satires, Ariosto 266 LUDOVICO ARIOSTO. comments upon the long and intimate friendship of their former years, when the Cardinal de' Medici had proffered him a fraternal partiality, and vows that never again will he rely on other men's promises, postponed from ides to calends, and from calends to ides. The reception he at first met with might well give con- fidence to his hopes ; for on his presentation Leo stooped for- ward to press his hand, saluting him on both cheeks. But, as the Venetian envoy caustically observed, his Holiness promised largely, but performed not. All that followed this flattering accolade was a privilege of copy-right, not even gratuitously issued; and as those substantial benefits, which his merits deserved and his position required, were vainly expected, the poet quitted Rome " with humbled crest," a disappointed man. Yet he was of too kind a nature to harbour malice, as well as of a temper too easy for courtly struggles. He returned to the quiet of his native state, content to seek some respectable em- ployment, and avowing his indifference to scenes of wider or more varied ambition. " Let him who golden spur or scarlet hat affects Serve king, or duke, or cardinal, or pope ; This suits not me, who care for neither gaud."* Whether his patron's proverbially slighting reception of a dedication of the first fruits of his epic muse proceeded from obtuseness, or, as Tiraboschi suggests, was a poor jest, it could not but be mortifying to a man of delicacy and conscious genius. Ere long a breach occurred between them, on Ludovico declin- ing to attend the Cardinal in a distant and fatiguing embassy to Hungary. This occurred in 1517 ; but he was soon after admitted into the Duke of Ferrara's service, with a monthly salary of seven crowns, and allowances for three servants and two horses. His first employment in this new sphere was a * Part of this third Satire will be found translated in Roscoe's Leo X., chapter xvi, where the demands of nepotism upon his Holiness are playfully exposed. LUDOVICO AEIOSTO. 267 mission, in 1519, to condole with Lorenzo de' Medici, the usurp- ing Duke of Urbino, on the loss of his consort Madeleine of France ; but ere he reached Florence, Lorenzo's own death had supervened. It was on this occasion he composed his first Capitulo, where, and in his Stanze, he speaks of that prince in the usual fulsome style of courtly bards, alluding to his uncles Leo and Giuliano as " Twin suckers from that long descended laurel stem, Which in its verdure decked a golden age." How little the duty thus imposed upon him consisted with his own tastes may, however, be gathered from an incident characteristic of the age. The venal conduct of Duke Fran- cesco Maria's Spanish followers having brought to a sudden close his attempt to regain his patrimonial states, in the manner de- tailed in our thirty-sixth chapter, one of their number resented an imputation to that effect, cast upon his comrades by some gentlemen of Ferrara. A challenge was the result, each party selecting a bravo to maintain their cause. This duel by deputy took place on the Neapolitan territory, and, of the combatants, who fought naked with swords, the Spaniard was left dead on the field. The victor returned to be fted in the capital of the d' Este; and Ariosto composed his thirty-fifth sonnet upon " Ferrara's true paladin, of truth, genius, worth, and valour, who has cleared up the Spaniard's slippery trick upon the good Duke of Urbino, and testified to Italian bravery." We may well sup- pose the satisfaction with which the minstrel saw this " good Duke" restored to his station in 1521, and may conjecture that he paid him homage in his mountain capital. A room in the ducal palace there, decorated with his portrait, went by his name, and he ' was enrolled among the Assorditi academicians.* In 1532, a few months previous to his death, Prince Guidobaldo wrote to ask of him an unacted comedy, for representation at * See above, p. 242. 268 LUDOVICO ARIOSTO. Pesaro, to which he replied, regretting his inability to comply with the request, as he had long ceased to write such things. Ariosto's life presents few remarkable incidents, consider- ing the space which his name justly occupies in the literary annals of Italy. Though honoured and complimented by the Dukes of Urbino and Ferrara, and by Leo X., he seems to have incurred few solid obligations from these Maecenases of his age. The only promotion awarded to him was the administration of Garfagna, a mountain-holding under the d' Este family, chiefly peopled by banditti, which he obtained in 1522, but resigned after three years' sad experience of the turbulent charge. His coronation by Charles V. is apocryphal, although he is under- stood to have received from that Emperor a diploma as his poet laureat. He died on the 6th of June, 1533, in his home at Ferrara, which he had built, and thus inscribed : " My house though small befits me well, by none Disliked, nor mean ; my proper gold it won." It would be foreign to the object proposed in these pages to enter fully into the merits of works so universally known, and so little connected with our immediate subject, as the heroic poems of Ariosto. But we have ample evidence of the popu- larity enjoyed by his Orlando Furioso, during the first half- century after its publication, in the testimony of one not likely to be partial to a successful rival : " And if the aim which a good poet ought to keep in view be that of imparting pleasure and enjoyment, it is obvious that this was accomplished by Ariosto ; for there is neither artisan, nor man of learning, nor boy, nor girl, nor old person, who is satisfied with a second perusal of him. Are not his stanzas a solace to the jaded pil- grim, who sings them to alleviate the irksomeness of his hot and weary way ? Do you not hear them chanted all day long in the highways and the fields? I believe that there have not been printed as many copies of Homer or Virgil as of the Furioso, during the time that has elapsed since that most ac- LUDOVICO ARIOSTO. 269 complished gentleman published his poem ; and if so, as cannot be doubted, is not this a clear proof of its beauty and excel- lence?"* We set aside the minor faults which have been found in the execution, and most gladly escape from all critical dis- cussion of the vexed question, as to its due observance of unity and sustained action. The absence of perfections so question- able is by many accounted a charm. Nowhere has imagination been more freely indulged, nowhere the poetic vein left to play such fantastic tricks ; but in its sallies, effort and restraint are alike unknown. As the figures in a magic-lantern, or the end- less changes of the kaleidoscope, its phantasmagoria appear and pass by, without our being aware of the machinery which called them up ; yet, from time to time, there occur images of life so veracious, traits of nature so touching, that we are again sum- moned to the realities of existence and the sympathies of hu- manity, with a startling effect scarcely less marvellous than the wild creations which precede and follow these charming episodes. Even extravagance thus ceases to be a blemish, whilst facility and freshness are ever multiplying new beauties. Epi- sodes and incidents, serious or grotesque, capriciously introduced into the poem, give it a motley and heterogeneous aspect ; variety of matter and diversity of style are its familiar characteristics ; and its unequal execution is, perhaps, less pardonable than the desultory character of its plan. Nor is it only by its novelty that this freedom of action sustains the interest of the work. The introduction of real personages and recent events relieves the tedium of long continued allegory, and stamps nature and individuality on adventures in themselves extravagant and apo- cryphal. * Bernardo Tasso, Lcttere ii. No. 165. How much of this might now he said of " the Ariosto of the north," as Sir Walter Scott has been aptly named ! In a pri- vilege of copy-right granted in very complimentary terms hy Leo X., the Orlando is pedantically described by Bembo as " a work in vernacular verse regarding the feats of those called knights-errant, composed in a ludicrous style, but with long study, and the laborious application of many years." Bembo, Epistolse nomine Leonis X. lib. x. No. 40. 270 PIETRO ARETINO. In estimating the rank of this poet, critical judgment has too often been diverted from the quality of his verses to the fitting- ness of his style; and in comparing him with Tasso, the argument resolves itself into a contrast between romantic and classic poetry. Upon such a discussion we purpose not to enter. Ariosto found his countrymen under the charm of old legendary histories, perpetuated by tradition from the days of Charlemagne and his paladins, and more recently popularised in Pulci's bur- lesque epic of the Morgante Maggiore, and by Boiardo's un- fettered fancy in the Orlando Innamorato. He was content to sail with the stream, spreading his canvass to the prevailing breeze, rather than to strike out another course, and steer in search of newer attractions. This decision necessarily limited the scope of a highly original genius to varying the details and episodes of inventions already familiarised to his readers by other less inspired pens ; and it were difficult to account for his thus contentedly following their track, except from the con- viction that none else was so certain a guide to success. Do- menichi and Berni, aware that Boiardo had unworthily handled his theme, were content to employ themselves in recasting it into more attractive shape, and Le Sage's French translation is a mere paraphrase. But Ariosto chose the higher aim of taking up the story where Boiardo had left it incomplete, and working it out in forms less exaggerated and fanciful, but far more nobly conceived, and executed with infinitely greater polish and poetic beauty. PIETRO ARETINO has been designated by Ariosto* "the scourge of princes," a description somewhat more just than the epithet of " divine," which is added possibly in irony ; for few men, it is hoped, have been so destitute of those high aspirations which form the link between human and divine nature. He has been aptly compared to an ill-conditioned cur, ever ready to * Orlando Furioso, xlvi. st. 14. PIETEO ARETINO. 271 yelp and snap at all who do not feed or fondle him, but to such as do, the most fawning of his species. He was born at Arezzo in 1492, and was natural son of one Luigi Bacci. After serv- ing his apprenticeship to a bookbinder at Perugia, he went to push his fortunes in Rome, where his first remarkable produc- tions were verses illustrating a set of engravings by Marcan- tonio, after designs by Giulio Romano, a work so scandalously offensive to decency that scarcely any copies have escaped de- struction. After the death of Giovanni de' Medici delle bande nere, his earliest patron, he went to Venice, and subsequently visited most of the Italian courts. His foul scurrilities and loathsome adulation were dealt out with equal readiness, as best served his insatiable avarice and undisguised selfishness. These base qualities, tempered by tact and great readiness, gained for him a success equally unaccountable and undeserved : he became rich, caressed, applauded, dreaded, and is said to have earned not less than 70,000 scudi during his career. The popu- larity which his writings enjoyed among all ranks seems an in- fatuation, considering their very moderate merit, and must be viewed as symptomatic of a generally depraved taste, though no doubt his own ineffable conceit and insolence contributed to the delusion. " There truly never was a man who combined such haughty presumption with equal ignorance of literature, mean- ness of spirit, and debauchery of morals. His style possesses no elegance or grace ; indeed he seems to me one of the first to in- troduce those ludicrous hyperboles and extravagant metaphors that came so generally into use during the next century. Never assuredly have I met with books so empty and useless as those of this impostor, whose baseness equalled his profound ignorance, and the sole object of whose writings was self-interest and lucre. As to his manners, they are amply testified by his works, wherein, besides a prodigal sprinkling of obscenity, there are mentioned the women with whom he intrigued, and the children these bore him ; they in fact prove him destitute of moral or religious principle ; and if ever he makes a show of compunction 272 PIETRO ARETINO. or amendment, it is but to relapse speedily into his wonted pro- fanity. Truly such a fellow, who ought hardly to have ven- tured to show himself in public, stands unequalled in presump- tuous arrogance. But the most surprising thing is to see a majority of European princes, and not a few learned Italians, humbling themselves before him without a blush, and rendering him a degrading tribute of gifts and eulogies. Chains of gold, considerable sums of money, pensions, and handsome presents of every sort, came in so constantly from various quarters, that he confesses to receiving from different princes 25,000 scudi within eighteen years. The most amusing part of it is that these rich donations were made because he assumed the proud epithet of scourge of princes, on the plan, as it would seem, of threatening them with his indignation, and with attacks upon their actions in his writings ; yet never was there a more sordid adulator of the great, and no work of his contains a single word against any sovereign." It would be difficult to select words more graphic or more just than this description by Tiraboschi, which we have preferred adopting, to the task of reviewing so filthy a cha- racter. We shall elsewhere allude to him in connection with Michael Angelo and Titian, and other notices might be selected of his intercourse with Duke Guidobaldo II. The self-assumed privilege of his position did not however always protect him from the merited consequences of his meanness and malevolence. Boccalini (an author scarcely less mordent than himself, who is said to have expiated his satiric vein by being beaten to death) calls him " a magnet of fisty-cuffs and cudgels, whose enemies' hands, rivalling the promptitude of his own pen, had scarred him all over with as many lines as a navigator's chart." Among those who met him with his own weapon was Antonio Francesco Doni, a literary adventurer of Florence, whose arrival about 1552 at the court of Guidobaldo II. inspired Aretino with jealousy which exploded in an impertinent letter. The in- truder, however, maintained his ground till 1558, the year after his opponent's characteristic death, and retaliated in a volume PIETRO ARETINO. 273 published in 1556, entitled " Doni's Earthquake, overthrowing the great beastly colossal Antichrist of our age ; a work com- posed in honour of God and the Holy Church, and in defence of good Christians," and dedicated " to the infamous and rascally source and fountain of all malice, Pietro Aretino, the putrid limb of public imposture, and true Antichrist of our time." Still more pungent was the epigrammatic epitaph proposed for him by Francesconi : " Arezzo's hoary libeller here is laid, Whose bitter slanders all save CHRIST essayed : He for such slip this reason good can show, ' How could I mock one whom I do not know ? ' " Aretino, returning a Roland for his Oliver, rejoined : " Francescon, wretched rhymer, here is laid, Who of all things save asses evil said : His plea in favour of the long-eared race, A cousinship that none could fail to trace." * But enough of such ribaldry. The writings of Aretino and his biography are in one respect useful to the historian of his time. The degrading views of human nature afforded by both form a contrast to the bright luminaries which yet lingered above the horizon, whilst by their shadows they complete the verity of the picture. Favoured by fortune far beyond his deserts during life, his memory is equally indebted to art. The encomium of Ariosto has already been quoted, and the pencil of his friend Titian has preserved his person in several portraits ; one of them, which, though unfinished, is perhaps the noblest comme- * " Qui giace 1* Aretino, poeta Tosco, Che d* ognun disse male fuorche di Christo, Scusandosi col dir ' Non lo conosco.'" " Qui giace Francescon, poeta pessimo, Che disse mal d' ognun fuorche del asino, Scusandosi col dir che egli era prossimo." VOL. III. T 274 V1TTORIA COLONNA. morated on Vecellio's canvass, adorns the Pitti Gallery, and almost persuades us that Aretino was a gentleman. From an age too prolific in parasitical literature and in shameless morals, there has descended to us a name radiant with genius, and unsullied in reputation. The historian of Urbino may contribute a leaf to the garland which fame has hung upon the brows of VITTOEIA COLONNA, for her mother was a prin- cess of Montefeltro, and to her maternal ancestry she seems in- debted for her heritage of talent. She was daughter of Fabrizio Colonna, by Agnesina daughter of Duke Federigo of Urbino, and was born in 1490. When but four years old she was be- trothed, in conformity with the usage of her times, to a mere infant. Yet her marriage may be deemed fortunate, for her husband, Ferdinando Francesco Marquis of Pescara, was not only a cadet of the very ancient house of Avalos, which had accompanied Alfonso of Aragon from Spain to Naples, and had married the heiress of Aquino and Pescara in the Abruzzi, but, among the warriors of an era still fertile in heroes, none was more early distinguished or promoted. He died prematurely at thirty-three, while in command of the imperial troops ; but the last transactions of his life, to which we have elsewhere referred, were tarnished by a double perfidy.* His consort, imitating her grandmother Battista Sforza, had learned to console the childless solitude of his prolonged absences by habits of study, and in them found resource amid the bereavements of a widow- hood which no offer of marriage could tempt her to infringe. But though she sought not the world or its incense, her high rank, wealth, and personal graces, gained many an admirer, whilst the elevated beauty of her poetry, the charms of her con- versation and correspondence, attracted to her the respectful adoration of the learned. It is supposed that she remained in ignorance of the blot which attached to her husband's memory, for she cherished it with rare constancy, modifying grief by * At Vol. II. p. 41 6. VITTORIA COLONNA. 275 spiritual solace. In her piety there was neither blind supersti- tion nor cold formality. Devotional exercises and religious in- tercourse shared her hours with poetry and literature tinged by their influence, and among her most welcome visitors were some of those Italian divines who favoured the Reformation. On this account she has been claimed as a convert to protestantism, but upon insufficient grounds. She adhered apparently to the faith of her fathers, and was spared by a timely death, in 1547, from witnessing the persecutions undergone by her friends of the new creed. Among those to whom the sympathies of genius and piety united her was Michael Angelo, who testified his respect by a visit to her death-bed, and his regret by a touching sonnet to her memory. Not less gratifying was the tribute to her Avorth which Ariosto has embalmed in seven stanzas of the Furioso, canto xxxvii. : " One will I choose, and such will choose, that she All envy shall so well have overthrown, No other woman can offended be, If, passing others, her I praise alone ; Nor joys this one but immortality, Through her sweet style, and better know I none." Of her writings few remain, and these but fugitive pieces. We are happy in being able to make our readers acquainted with them through the graceful translations of the late Mr. Glassford, selecting three sonnets in which she tenderly alludes to the blight of her widowhood, mildly inculcates the cloisters' quiet, and clothes in glowing language orisons of holiest fervour. i. " Methinks the sun his wonted beam denies, Nor lends such radiance to his sister's car ; Methinks each planet mild, and lovely star, Has left its sweet course in the spangled skies. Fallen is the heart of noble enterprise, True glory perished and the pride of war ; All grace and every virtue perished are, The leaf is withered and the floweret dies. T 2 276 LAURA BATTIFERRI. Unmoved I am, though heaven and earth invite, Warmed by no ray nor fanned if zephyr blow ; All offices of nature are deranged : Since the bright sun that cheered me vanished so, The courses of the world have quite been changed ; Ah no ! but sorrow veils them from my sight. " If those delights which from the living well Above are dropped into the heart contrite Were also visible, and others might Know what great peace with love divine can dwell, Perhaps it would be then less hard to tell Why fame and fortune have been counted light, And how the wisest men transported quite Would take their cross and seek the mountain cell, Finding that death-sweet life ; and not alone In prospect, but now also while the blind And erring world from shadows will not cease. When the awakened soul to God has flown With humble will to what He wills inclined, Then outward war to such is inward peace. " Thanks to thy sovereign grace, O God ! if I Am graflPd in that true vine a living shoot, Whose arms embrace the world, and in whose root, Planted by faith, our life must hidden lie. But thou beholdest how I fade and dry, Choked with a waste of leaf, and void of fruit, Unless thy spring perennial shall recruit My sapless branch, still wanting fresh supply. O cleanse me then, and make me to abide Wholly in thee, to drink thy heavenly dew, And watered daily with my tears to grow. Thou art the truth, thy promise is my guide ; Prepare me when thou comest, Lord, to show Fruits answering to the stock on which I grew." * In Italy the Muses have ever had numerous priestesses, wel- comed with an enthusiasm measured rather by the gallantry of their admirers than by their real deserts. Among these was * This sonnet is also rendered in Specimen Translations of Italian Sonnets, a small volume published by Murray, 1827. VARIOUS POETS. 277 LAURA BATTIFERRI, born at Urbino in 1522-3, whose genius has inspired the pens of Caro, Varchi, Mazzuchelli, and others ; and whom by a questionable, and, as regarded her morals, a most unmerited compliment, Pietro Vettori compared to Sap- pho. Following a very different model, she, like Vittoria Colonna, composed many devotional pieces, often versifying the sadder portions of sacred writ, two volumes of which were published at Florence. Rarer perhaps, and more creditable than her poetic celebrity, was the reputation for moral worth transmitted to us in connection with her name, which she hap- pily exchanged by her union with Bartolomeo Ammanati, not- withstanding frowns from a high quarter. The Duchess Vit- toria, proud of her talents, laid upon her an injunction not to marry out of her native state. This restriction had the usual result ; her husband was a Florentine sculptor, and it required all the influence of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese with his sister to obtain pardon for such flagrant disobedience. " In 1558, there were at the court of Urbino of old the resort of talented persons many great and famous poets, such as Messer Bernardo Capello, Messer Bernardo Tasso, Messer Girolamo Muzio, and Messer Antonio Gallo, whose whole occu- pation it was, like white gentle swans, emulously to sing, and celebrate in verse, the eminent beauty, and far more eminent virtues, of the illustrious Duchess." With these names might be coupled Dionigi Atanagi, the writer of this euphuism, and also Annibale Caro, Antonio Allegretti, Marco Montano, and Cornelio Lanci. Of Tasso and Muzio we elsewhere speak. Caro and Capello were connected with the ducal family only by one or two complimentary effusions, in return for occasional hospitality. Allegretti indited an epithalamium on the marriage of Duchess Vittoria, in which, alluding to the heraldic bearings then united, he celebrated the prudent hand of the wise shep- herd (Paul III.), who transplanted that virgin Lily into good soil under the shadow of the mighty Oak ; in conclusion, he T 3 278 DIONIGI ATANAGI. summoned the attendants to scatter acorns and fleurs-de-lis be- fore the bridal pair. Lanci's comedies no longer " fret and strut their hour upon the stage," but they are said to deserve the praise of comparative purity in an age when decency was no necessary ingredient of scenic merit. Three names remain for consideration, who, as natives of the duchy, may claim a brief notice. DIONIGI ATANAGI was born at Cagli, and, after twenty-five years spent at the Roman court, returned, in 1557, to recruit his constitution in his native air. He was invited to Pesaro by his sovereign, at the suggestion of Bernardo Tasso, who wished him to revise the Amadigi ; but there he found his health still further impaired by mental fatigue. Several of his sonnets are addressed to members of the ducal family and court; one of them, in- scribed to Guidobaldo II., lauds him as " a prince and captain of invincible valour, of wisdom superhuman, of bounty and benignity past belief, of ineffable eloquence, of incomparable liberality and magnificence, a paragon of religion, the lofty stay of Italian honour and renown. Being the natural sovereign as well as special patron and singular benefactor of the author, whose every hope rests in him next to God, it is his desire, in the full knowledge how much is due to his Excellency's infinite merits, to fill with heroic praises of him whatever work he may undertake ; but overwhelmed by the grandeur of the theme, his silence is broken only by excuses for his deficiency." This ful- some trash is no unfair specimen of such compositions. The following invitation to Urbino, as"an asylum of the Muses, is in a somewhat happier vein, which we have endeavoured to render : " Anime belle, e di virtute amiche, Cui fero sdegno di fortuna offende, Si che ven gite povere e mendiche, Come e lei piace, che pieta contende ; Se di por fine alle miserie antiche Caldo desio P afflitto cor v' incende, Katte correte alia gran QUEECIA d' oro, Ond' avrete alimento ombra e ristoro. DIONIGI ATANAGI. 279 " Qui rcgna un Signer placido e benigno, Ch' altro ch' altrui giovar unqua non pensa, Cortese, e d' ogni real laude degno ; Che ciascun pasce a sua ricca mensa, E 'n buon revolge ogni destin maligno, Mentre le grazie sue largo dispensa GUIDOBALDO, di principi fenici, Che pud col guardo sol far 1'uom felice. " Qui le buone arti ed i nobili costumi, Senno, fede e valor, fido albergo hanno ; Qui fioriscon gl' ingegni, e chiari lumi Via piu ch' il sol spargendo intorno vanno : Qui mel le piante, qui dan latte i fiumi ; Qui pace e queta senza alcuno affanno ; Qui '1 vizio e morto, e virtu bella e viva Beato chi ci nasce e chi ci arriva." Ah ! beauteous souls, to virtue ever prone, Whom evil Fortune's cruel grudge offends, Bereft of every stay, and left to groan By her caprice, while heavy grief impends; If in your aching hearts that grief evoke A wish such lengthened miseries to close, Speed 'neath the umbrage of the golden OAK To share its genial shelter and repose. 2. A gentle and benignant Prince there reigns, On other's weal exclusively intent, Courteous, and worth all praise in royal strains, From whose well plenished table none are sent. Each evil destiny by him disarmed, His gracious boons are scattered widely round ; E'en by his winning glance is each one charmed, Phcenix of princes, GUIDOBALDO crowned. 3. Ennobling arts and noble manners here, With wit, and faith, and courage have their home, While genius' meteor gleams more bright appear Than Phoebus nickering in the skiey dome. Here honey-laden meads and milky streams To painless peace attract, and gentle rest ; Here vice is dead, while worth resplendent seems : Happy such duchy's native, or its guest ! T 4 280 DIONIGI ATANAGI. As an example of the conceits into which Italian poetry has been tortured, we insert a monody by Atanagi, on a lady named Leonora. Such artificial cadences and rhymeless reiterations defy, and scarcely deserve, translation, yet, as it is characterised by a subdued and touching sentiment, superior to the fulsome flatteries and cold classicism prevalent in similar compositions of his age, we shall endeavour to render it into English. " Veraraente siam polvere ed ombra, E nostra vita, che ne par si bella, E solo un di, che 'n aprir chiude il cielo ; Ne sia chi '1 nieghi, poi che 1' empia morte Svelto ha questa real gradita pianta, Mentre di primi fior beava il mondo. " Delle tenere frondi a pena il mondo Scopria la desiata amabil ombra, Quando cadeo la pargoletta pianta, Che la terra rendea si vaga e bella, E maledir s' udio 1' invida morte Che ne fe si per tempo adorno il cielo. " Quando '1 termino arriva fisso in cielo Ch' uom da questo sen varchi ad altro mondo, Nulla e ch' affreni la vegnente morte, Ch' ella non copra con sua horribil ombra, E non aduggi qual piu ricca e bella E honorata, sia terrena, pianta. " Quinci questa gentil leggiadra pianta, In cui piovea tutte le sue grazie il cielo Per farla sopra ogni altra altera e bella, Allor sterpo, che piu felice il mondo, Non che Isapi ed Isauro, alia dolce ombra Posar sperava. Ahi cruda acerba morte ! " Ahi veramente cruda acerba morte, Quanto in herba hai valor con questa pianta Tronco, e sparse virtu colla bell' ombra I Tu quel ch' a pena da in mill' anni '1 cielo Sol in un punto hai tolto al cieco mondo Che mai piu non vedra cosa si bella. " Vattene in pace, anima viva e bella, E noi, che 'n guerra lasci e 'n man di morte, Talor rimira con pieta nel mondo ; E 1' una e 1' altra invitta amata pianta Che ti produsse or te sospira, e '1 cielo Spesso conforta con la tua sant' ombra. DIONIGI ATANAGI. 281 ; Mortc avrolto ha ben noi di nebbia e