the Peninsula had on this occasion pleasing opportunity for display,
for nowhere more than in Italy do the people delight in pompous
festivities. The citizens of Urbino and of Pesaro strove which should
exhibit most taste and splendour in celebrating the happy event, and
in welcoming the bridal parties to their several homes. I have seen no
account of these shows, which is little loss, as there was much
sameness in all such exhibitions, and great dullness in their
monotonous descriptions. But we are assured that, in both capitals,
the display of triumphal processions, under arches studded with
statues and elaborate devices, followed by fireworks and dramatic
spectacles, were worthy of the auspicious occasion, and the emulous
spirit of their citizens.[229] The remainder of the year was devoted
by the Duke to similar amusements, or to sports of the chase, of which
his bride was passionately fond, and which she enjoyed at her ease in
the parks of Fossombrone and Castel Durante, where Federigo had
established an ample stock of fallow deer. The following spring
brought to his court new causes for joy, in the Marquis of Mantua's
marriage to a Princess of Ferrara, and the birth of an heir to the
Lord Prefect, in the person of Francesco Maria della Rovere, on whom
the dukedom of Urbino eventually devolved.

[Footnote 229: In the Laurentian Library (Plut. 91. No. 44, f. 57)
there is a laboured Latin epithalamium in ninety-six lines, written on
this marriage by Marcial de Gathe of Mantua, among his poems which are
dedicated to Bernardo Bembo.]

But alas, too soon was "bitter mixed with sweet." The hopes of
maintaining the ducal line, which the marriage of Guidobaldo had
nourished, were doomed to disappointment from infirmities of his
constitution which, though long kept secret from their people, were
quickly known to the young couple. These defects, having baffled
medical skill, were eventually attributed to the malign influence of
poison, or sorcery; an impression which the physicians probably
countenanced, to excuse the failure of their prescriptions, and which
seems to have been fully credited by the Duke and the public, when the
fact was allowed to transpire.[*230] The secrecy and resignation of
the Duchess under this dispensation, and her strict observance of her
nuptial vows, in circumstances which the loose morality of the age
might have regarded as a palliation for less faithful adherence to
them, are celebrated by her eulogists as proofs of almost superhuman
virtue, especially by Bembo, whose prurient language on this repulsive
topic offers curious proof of the low standard of decency then
prevailing among dignified churchmen, and persons of high pretensions
to refinement. Giovanni Sforza's marriage was still more fated, for
within ten months he was an afflicted widower.

[Footnote *230: An interesting book has been announced on the medical
practice of that day: TARULLI, _I medici ed i primordi della scuola
medica Perugina._ Meanwhile cf. TARULLI, _Appunti Storici_, in _Boll.
per l'Umbria_, vol. XII., p. 385 _et seq._ According to Petrarch,
Astrology and Medicine were different branches of a common
charlatanism. Cf. _Libri IV., Invectivarum contra medicum quemdam._
HEYWOOD, _The Ensamples of Fra Filippo, a Study of Mediæval Siena_
(Siena, 1901), p. 325. VOIGT, _Il Risorgimento dell'antichità
classica_ (Fir., 1897), vol. I., p. 77 _et seq._ OWEN, _The Skeptics
of the Italian Renaissance_ (London, 1893), p. 119, and cf. CHAUCER in
the _Prologue_ to the _Canterbury Tales_. For medical practice in the
fourteenth century, see _Fiori di Medicina di Maestro Gregorio
Medicofisico Del Sec. XIV._ (Bologna, Gaetano Romagnuoli, 1865), and
cf. IL LASCA, Nov. I., _et_ X., Cena Prima. Pico della Mirandola was
one of the first who entered the lists against these charlatans in his
treatise in twelve books, _Adversus Astrologos_ (Venice, 1498).]

The Duke had now attained to manhood, and in the enjoyment of a
tranquil reign he began to practise those lessons which he had imbibed
under Odasio. Amid the attractions of the lists or the chase, which
his own tastes and the joyous temperament of his Duchess strongly
recommended to him, he was not forgetful of more solid accomplishments.
It is unfortunate that few memorials are preserved of the formation of
that select circle which he appears thus early to have drawn around
him. It was not until fourteen years later, that Count Castiglione
entered that court which he was destined to immortalise; nor had the
group of fine spirits who are brought upon the stage in the
_Cortegiano_ as yet assembled at Urbino. But many of Duke Federigo's
old and honoured servants remained about the person of his son, and
maintained that tone of lettered refinement which the veteran
commander had cherished.

The pontificate of Innocent did not realise the warlike foretaste
which his early quarrel with King Ferdinand had given, and his mature
policy resolved itself into a maintenance of the _status quo_. Yet
from time to time there broke out, among the cities which acknowledged
his sway, those feuds and party squabbles, which ever and anon deluged
in blood most of the Italian communities, and of which Baldi well
says, "that it was matter equally of astonishment and compassion to
see persons born and bred within the same walls, brought up under one
law and one rule, change their very nature, and forget every principle
of humanity; mangling, destroying, and despoiling each other without
remorse, like wild beasts." On more than one such occasion, the Pope
called upon Guidobaldo to interpose his influence, or to advance his
troops in order to restore quiet; but these incidents do not merit
detailed notice. In services so barren of glory, the Duke showed
sometimes but little zeal, and in consequence received more than one
admonition from his ecclesiastical over-lord. The pacific views of
Innocent had been efficiently supported by Lorenzo the Magnificent,
with an influence belonging more to his personal character than his
absolute rank; but the premature death of both these sovereigns,
occurring almost simultaneously, deprived the Peninsula of its best
guarantees of tranquillity. Lorenzo having expired on the 7th of
April, 1492, the Pontiff breathed his last on the 25th of July; and on
the 11th of August was succeeded by Alexander VI.

CHAPTER XIV

     State of the papacy at the accession of Alexander VI.--His
     election, character, and children--The aspect of Italy at
     the close of her golden age--The disputed succession of
     Naples reopened--Character and views of Charles
     VIII.--Proposed league to oppose him frustrated--State of
     the Roman Campagna--The old and new military systems in
     Italy.

The spiritual sway of the papacy at this time enjoyed great advantages
over its temporal dominion. Although the former had necessarily been
more permanent and influential under a Gregory or a Boniface, than
when wielded by imbecility or divided by schism, it continued as yet
undisputed. The power of the Keys was acknowledged to the utmost
limits of Christendom, whatever might be thought of their possessor or
policy. Monarchs and armaments, who defied or defeated the pontifical
banner, quailed under an interdict, and humbled themselves to the dust
for absolution. Another important vantage-ground of the Roman
ecclesiastical polity, well set forth by Robertson, was its unity.
Faithful to long traditionary maxims, as the magnetic needle to its
pole, few cases could occur unprovided for by precedent; and so
numerous were the checks and balance-wheels of the complicated
machine, which was kept in motion and regulated by a large and well
drilled staff, rather than by its apparent director, that his personal
conduct or private aims seldom perceptibly affected its working.
Although the same dignitaries who, by education and habit, were
enabled to maintain and transmit this unvarying system, formed also
the administrative government of the Papal State, they were, in the
latter capacity, merely ministers of a temporal prince, bound by
interest to flatter his foibles as well as to obey his behests. And
the sovereignty of Rome being elective, under circumstances often
inferring a very transient tenure of power, it was usually wielded
with much waywardness, selfishness, and caprice, even to the detriment
of that order by whom, through whom, and for whom the ecclesiastical
authority was exercised. Apart from the general question of the
fitness of priests for temporal sway, their circumstances were
peculiarly unfavourable at a time when no special requisites of
character were indispensable for holy orders, these being often
regarded as a mere qualification for preferments closed against the
laity. When legates were sent to lead armies, and cardinals took the
field as condottieri; when papal diplomacy and intrigue were rarely
veiled by a semblance of truth or honour; when poisoning by prelates
passed into a proverb, and "son of a clergyman" ceased to be an
imputation, it is not surprising that priest-ruled and priest-ridden
Italy should have become thoroughly demoralised. It was of this age
that Masse has pointedly remarked that "never were holy things mocked
with greater impunity, or spiritual power more unblushingly profaned;
never were the humane virtues held in such disrepute, nor blood so
treacherously spilt; never did poison more perfidiously contaminate
the veins of those whose presence was burdensome, or who clogged an
ambitious career, or whose death could serve any end whatever." Under
the new pontificate these evils were fully developed, and the fatal
influence exercised by it on Duke Guidobaldo and his state will demand
from us from time to time detailed notices of Alexander and his race.

Alfonso Borgia, on whom the triple tiara had been conferred in 1455,
with the title of Calixtus III., was descended from the ancient
Spanish family of Borja, at Xativa, in the kingdom of Murcia. His
sister Giovanna, or Isabella, married Giuffredo or Alfonso Lenzuoli,
and to them was born, in 1427, Roderigo, whose youth was spent in
arms, but on obtaining a page's appointment at the court of Alfonso
V., he laid aside the sword, and finally, in compliance with the
wishes of his family, entered the Church. Being there destined for
high preferment by the influence of his uncle, who had adopted him, he
exchanged his paternal name for that of Borgia. By this step, and by
his personal qualities, he so completely gained the favour of Calixtus
that, during his short pontificate, he rose to the highest honours,
and accumulated the best benefices at his disposal. To the dignities
of cardinal, vice-chancellor of the Church, and archbishop of
Valencia, were added the temporalities of three other archiepiscopal
and two episcopal sees, besides a shower of minor but rich endowments,
and various important legations. For the conspicuous part he was thus
called to fill nature had fully qualified him. His unbounded ambition
was supported by vigorous and varied talents; and, although his
acquirements by study were limited, his address and pliant sagacity,
seconded by great facility of speech, enabled him to bend people and
events to his purposes.[*231]

[Footnote *231: GASPAR VERONENSIS in MURATORI, _R.I.S._, III., pt.
II., 1036, speaking of the young Cardinal, says: "Formosus est,
laetissimo vultu, aspectuque jocundo, lingua ornata atque melliflua,
qui mulieres egregias visas ad se amandum gratior allicit, et mirum in
modum concitat, plusquam magnes ferrum; quas tamen intactas di mittere
sane putatur."]

The influence which Cardinal Borgia enjoyed from his abilities and
preferments was but little impaired by his notorious personal vices;
for the corruption of manners which disgraced the golden age of
Italian refinement had deeply tinctured the court of Rome. His open
immoralities brought upon him public censure from the worthy Pius II.,
but the laxer discipline of succeeding pontiffs left such scandals
unchecked. In order more easily to carry on a disgraceful intercourse
with his mistress Caterina Vanozza, he married her to a Roman, named
Domenico Arignano, and subsequently had by her three sons and a
daughter, whom he fully acknowledged as his children, allowing them
his adopted name. His general conduct and language were in all
respects consistent with such licentious courses. Guicciardini
describes him as of most debauched habits, insatiable avarice,
immoderate ambition, savage cruelty, and unscrupulous nepotism;
without sincerity, truth, good faith, shame, or religion. It would be
easy to adduce similar testimony from other contemporary authorities,
which, although widely varying in their details of scandal, agree in
the general estimate of his public and private character, even before
his elevation to the tiara.

On the death of Innocent VIII., Borgia was much the oldest cardinal.
His talents were unquestioned; his dissolute conduct could scarcely be
pleaded as disqualifying him from a dignity which Cibò and della
Rovere had just held. His rivals were Ascanio, son of the great
Francesco Sforza, and Giuliano della Rovere. The latter, at the head
of a feeble minority of five, who refused to sell their votes, earned
his uncompromising hatred. The former, finding success unattainable,
preferred making profit of his adherence to the winning candidate. To
him, to Orsini, Colonna, Savelli, and other influential members of the
conclave, those high dignities and benefices which their choice of
Borgia would render vacant, were lavishly promised, and, as an earnest
of future favours, treasures long purposely hoarded by the wily
Spaniard, were distributed amongst them in mule-loads. On the 11th of
August, Roderigo Borgia ascended the chair of St. Peter, amid festive
pageants more suited to a heathen triumph than a Christian coronation,
hailed by such epigrams as this:--

     "Great under Cæsar, greatest under thee,
     Rome hailed him _hero_, here a GOD we see!"[232]

[Footnote 232:

     "Cæsare magna fuit, nunc Roma est maxima, Sextus
         Regnat Alexander; ille vir, iste Deus."]

The sacred office to which Alexander VI. was thus elevated had no
salutary effect upon his unholy passions.[*233] The power he had
attained he administered by intrigue. Simony and poisoning were the
instruments of his administration; nepotism was its end. His temporal
policy was equally selfish, unstable, and dishonest. He was resolute
in nothing but his breaches of good faith. In the broils which he
fomented he sold his adherence to the best bidder, but ever kept
himself open for a higher offer. His contemporary, Machiavelli, thus
stamps his character, which he had carefully studied:--"His entire
occupation, his only thought, was deception, and he always found
victims. Never was there a man with more effrontery in assertion, more
ready to add oaths to his promises, or to break them; yet did his
deceit ever succeed to his heart's content."[*234] Sismondi terms him
"the most odious, the most publicly scandalous, and the most wicked of
all miscreants who ever misused sacred authority to outrage and
degrade mankind." No ecclesiastical writer has undertaken to defend
his reputation; most of them have treated him as a disgrace to the
papacy. Tommasi has termed him a "perfidious, sanguinary, and most
insatiable wolf, capable of insinuating himself like a fawning and
attached spaniel."

[Footnote *233: All that Dennistoun says of the Borgia must be
accepted with care. He takes the Puritan point of view in a country
where such a thing as Puritanism has happily seldom existed. Pastor,
to whom it seems natural to refer the reader [_A History of the
Popes_] is almost equally censorious though more discerning in his
condemnation. He, apparently holding a brief for the Papacy, felt it
incumbent upon him to restore the balance of some of his judgments by
denouncing Alexander VI. It is strange that the only two sane
historians of the Borgia should be Protestants. I gladly refer the
reader with every confidence to the work of CREIGHTON [_A History of
the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome_, vols. IV. and
V.] and of GREGOROVIUS [_Lucrezia Borgia_].]

[Footnote *234: As for Machiavelli's opinion of Alexander VI., it is
the most valuable we could possibly have, but he says little of him,
thinking him of small importance beside Cesare. Dennistoun, not
content with abusing the Pope himself by taking words out of the
context, tries to bring Machiavelli to his way of thinking. This is
not easily excused. In chapter xi. of _Il Principe_, Machiavelli says:
"Di tutti i Pontefici che sono stati mai, mostrò quanto un Papa e con
il denaro e con le forze si poteva prevalere." As Creighton says: "The
Borgia have become legendary as types of unrestrained wickedness, and
it is difficult to judge them fairly without seeming to palliate
iniquity.... The exceptional infamy which attaches to Alexander VI. is
largely due to the fact that he did not add hypocrisy to his other
vices.... Moreover, Alexander VI. was the only man in Italy who
clearly knew what he wanted to do and who steadily pursued his
purpose" (vol. V., pp. 51-52).]

Out of the conflicting statements which have reached us of the Borgian
pedigree and of Alexander's spurious offspring, we have prepared the
accompanying table as on the whole probable.[235] Francesco (called by
others Giovanni or Pietro), his eldest son by La Vanosia, was, at the
Pope's request, created Duke of Gandia by Ferdinand the Catholic, and,
as we shall see, came to a fearful end. The title descended to his
progeny, and was borne by his great-grandson, the famous general of
the Jesuits, who died in 1572, and was canonised as San Francesco
Borgia.[236] Cesare was his father's favourite, and we shall have
frequent occasion to trace him through the various phases of cardinal,
count, condottiere, usurper, sovereign, and prisoner. Giuffredo, with
the hand of a natural daughter of Alfonso II. of Naples, acquired high
honours in that kingdom. Lucrezia, after being branded with triple
incest and frequent poisonings, and after changing her husbands as
often as suited her father's schemes, dedicated her maturer years to
the patronage of letters and the cultivation of piety. Upon the
details and crimes of such a character there is fortunately little
occasion here to enter. Those who wish to learn them have only to turn
to any historian of her age; such as would see nearly all that has
been charged against her confronted with whatever redeeming traits
exist, and ingeniously redargued by negative proofs and assumed
improbabilities, may consult the dissertation appended to Roscoe's
_Leo the Tenth_.[*237]

[Footnote 235: Among numerous conflicting statements, the Duke of
Gandia is named Giovanni by Sismondi, in _Biog. Universelle_, _voce_
Borgia, Cæsar; and Francesco by Despartes, _voce_ Alexander VI. in the
same work.]

[Footnote 236: See below, p. 368.]

[Footnote *237: The Borgia entered as strangers into the cunning but
childish game of deception and lying that made up Italian politics.
Accepting the principles of the game, as all must who would play at
all, they broke through its absurd conventions. It was this that
caused them to be so universally hated. Savonarola, extraordinary
though his success was, knew that the greatest statesman in Italy saw
through his treason and his ambitions. The other politicians were
beaten at their own game, and loudly proclaimed that they had been
cheated. But, as Creighton reminds us, "Alexander dealt unscrupulously
with unscrupulous men, and played for higher stakes than any of them
dreamed of." Even his love for his children has been thrown in his
face. Would it have been a virtue in him to hate them?]

[Illustration: _Anderson_

POPE ALEXANDER VI.

_Detail from a fresco by Pinturicchio in the Borgia apartments of the
Vatican, Rome_]

We have now reached a period when our narrative must be extended, and
must include those great events which, besides revolutionising almost
every state in Italy, ultimately affected the political relations of
Western Europe. The fiery natures and turbulent spirits of the Italian
republicans and condottieri had for many years expended their energies
in petty broils and intestine struggles for mastery. Henceforward the
bloody drama was to be varied by the introduction of a new class of
actors; the battles of European ambition were to be fought on the
sunny plains of the Peninsula; her flourishing cities were to be the
spoil of victor and vanquished: the protracted struggle was destined
to leave her strength prostrated, her wealth wasted, her nationality
extinguished, her treasures of art defaced, the character of her
people degraded, their political independence destroyed. Although,
from 1466 to 1494, Italy had never remained very long free from
intestine commotions, the seat of serious warfare was during that
interval removed to Hungary, Turkey, and the Levant, and she enjoyed a
comparative repose, under the balmy influence of which, letters and
the liberal arts rose to high perfection. The invention of printing,
the study of the classics, the revival of ancient literature and
philosophy, the cultivation of vernacular poetry, and the adoption of
these tastes at many of the minor courts, all tended to this happy
result.

Under this prosperous state of things the condition of the Peninsula
is thus eloquently described by her Thucydides:--"Reduced to profound
peace and tranquillity, cultivated on her sterile and rugged sites as
in her more fertile districts, swayed by none but native masters, not
only did her population, commerce, and wealth abound, but she was
rendered gloriously eminent by the magnificence of her many princes,
by the splendour of her numerous noble and fair cities, and by the
seat and sovereignty of religion; whilst her celebrity was maintained
among all nations by the men whom she produced of high capacity for
public affairs, of elevated genius and acquirements in each branch of
learning, and every liberal or useful art, as well as of military fame
not unworthy of their age."[238] This was indeed her golden era, but
the pure metal was henceforward to be tarnished. The middle ages,
during which the civilisation of Europe had centred within her shores,
were now passed away: modern history was about to open, and with it
her subjugation. She had to learn, on a greater and more impressive
scale, the lesson which her annals have too often afforded, and as her
old republics had fallen one by one from want of union, so, at this
juncture, her states, failing in mutual good faith, became an
unresisting prey to the spoiler. She was in truth on the eve of that
fearful struggle which, after trampling for half a century on her
energies, left her to all intents at the mercy of those northern
powers whom she deemed barbarians. Their armies had heretofore
descended into her plains to fight under her banners and to receive
her pay; henceforward they warred on their own account, though not
less at her expense: formerly her mercenaries, they were in future her
foes.

[Footnote 238: Guicciardini, ch. i.]

The immediate cause of these evils was the disputed succession to the
crown of Naples, which we have formerly seen convulsing Italy, and
which it will require a brief digression and the annexed table to
explain. The Norman knights who in the eleventh century visited Lower
Italy in a crusade against the Saracens, soon contrived to make that
country their own. One of them, Robert Guiscard, by his valour and
talents acquired a supremacy in which he was succeeded by his nephew
Roger, who had by similar means made himself master of Sicily. In
1130, the latter procured from Innocent II. the investiture of a
kingdom nearly equal in extent to that of the Two Sicilies in our day,
which, during next century, passed by marriage into the line of the
Hohenstaufen emperors of Germany. But the same incurable jealousies,
which gave rise to the Guelphic and Ghibelline parties, made the popes
look with little favour on their new neighbours, who however
maintained their ground for three generations, notwithstanding
repeated offers of a competing investiture, by successive pontiffs, to
various English and French princes. The crown, thus sent a-begging,
was at length accepted by Charles Count of Anjou and Provence, seventh
son of Louis VIII. of France, who, in 1266, defeated and slew Manfred,
the last monarch of the Hohenstaufen line, and assuming the title of
Charles I., founded the first Angevine dynasty. But in consequence of
the brutal behaviour of his soldiery, he lost Sicily in a revolt,
during which there occurred, in 1282, the massacre of the French,
known as the Sicilian vespers. On this opening, Alfonso III. of Aragon
put in a claim through his mother, a daughter of Manfred, and having
established himself as King of Sicily, that title continued in his
successors, and was ultimately reunited to the crown of Naples. The
first house of Anjou, however, maintained themselves upon the throne
of Naples for about one hundred and seventy years, notwithstanding the
testamentary disposition of the maligned and unfortunate Queen Joanna
I., who, in 1382, bequeathed that kingdom and the county of Provence
to Louis I., second son of John II. of Anjou.

This will had been dictated by dislike of her second cousin and
adopted heir Charles Count of Durazzo, but it did not prevent him,
his son Ladislaus, and his daughter the beautiful and dissolute Joanna
II., from establishing a _de facto_ right to their heritage. Meanwhile
Louis I., Louis II., and Louis III., their rivals of the second
Angevine line, as it was called, persisted in styling themselves kings
of Naples as well as of Jerusalem, and having patched up their
defective title, by obtaining a recognition of their claims and
investitures from several popes, they each invaded their titular
kingdom. The first Angevine dynasty being about to close by the
childless death of Joanna II., she was persuaded to terminate the
struggle by settling her crown upon the second Angevine race, which at
her death in 1435, was represented by Rénier, usually called René le
Bon. The fatality of a disputed succession, with its attendant
miseries, was however still in store for unhappy Naples. Joanna II.
had already in 1421 adopted as her heir Alfonso V., King of Aragon and
Sicily, who was likewise representative of whatever claims might have
been transmitted from the old Norman dynasty, being in fact similar to
those upon which his family had acquired Sicily before 1300. Eugene
IV., at the same time, still further complicated this confusion, by
interposing his right as over-lord, alleging that the investiture had,
by failure of the reigning dynasty, lapsed to the Holy See.

After ineffectually attempting by an invasion to vindicate his title
against his rival of Aragon, René retired to his little state of
Provence, to dedicate his life to literature and the arts, but
especially to those chivalrous lyrics which, casting the halo of
poetic romance around the troubadours and their times, have wreathed
his brows with laurels far more enduring than the crown of Naples
could have conferred. Yet he and his nephew Charles continued titular
kings, until the latter, dying without surviving male issue in 1481,
left all his property, and therewith his claims upon Lower Italy, to
Louis XI. of France, his third cousin and nearest male heir, upon
whose death in 1483, these passed to Charles VIII. Alfonso V., having
repulsed the good René, had no further serious disturbance in his
possession of Naples and Sicily, now once more united; but he being
succeeded in these by a natural son Ferdinand I., his Spanish crown
going to his brother John II., the already defective title of the
house of Aragon to their Italian dominions on _terra firma_ was
thereby further weakened, at a moment when they exchanged the
competition of a petty and unwarlike prince for that of the powerful
and ambitious monarch of France.

Such was the political position of Naples; that of Milan must now
claim our attention. Giovanni Galeazzo had succeeded to the dukedom,
upon the assassination of his debauched father Galeazzo Maria, in
1476. Being then but seven years old, his mother, a princess of Savoy,
managed the government during four years, until the intrigues of his
uncle Ludovico supplanted her, and possessed himself virtually of the
sovereignty, though exercising it in the name of his nephew. He
married him at the age of twenty to Isabella, daughter of Alfonso
heir-apparent of Naples, but availing himself of his feeble character
maintained his own position, even after the Duke had attained to
manhood. He was generally known by the surname of _Il Moro_, from
using as his device the mulberry, which, being the last tree to hazard
its buds, and the first to mature its fruit, was the received emblem
of discretion and cautious policy. Ludovico il Moro may thus be
rendered Louis the Discreet, an epithet little in keeping with his
character, at once rash and restless, wavering and weak. Accordingly,
in pursuing his designs of unprincipled ambition, this unscrupulous
usurper most signally overreached himself, and, as we shall in due
time see, brought utter ruin upon his own person and house.

Venice, now at the summit of her pride and power, is thus finely
apostrophised by Politian;--

     "Sole Queen of Italy! of regal Rome
       The beauteous rival, ruling earth and sea,
     Sovereigns would fain thy citizens become.
       Ausonia's honoured light! 'tis but in thee,
     Unquenched by barbarous hosts, our freedom glows;
       'Tis to thy beams our sun a brighter radiance owes."[239]

[Footnote 239: _Opera Latina_, III., Eleg. i., p. 95.]

As yet she was the mart of the known world, for a commerce with the
enterprise of Columbus and the daring of De Gama were on the eve of
directing into new channels and rival ports. Her navy scarcely knew a
competitor on the seas. Her eastern possessions not only gave security
to her trade, but placed her foremost in defence of Christendom
against the Infidel, a post of natural glory and influence which it is
now difficult fully to appreciate. But these honourable and
substantial advantages sufficed her not. It was her ever cherished but
fatal ambition to swell her mainland possessions by every means of
arms or diplomacy. Although her citizens had no turn for military
exploits, although the gloomy genius of her government found no
sympathy among her _terra firma_ subjects, she pursued the ruinous
policy of intermingling in every combination, co-operating in every
war, which could add to her territories. At the moment of Charles's
invasion, she had gained her object of becoming one of the five great
Italian powers. How she lost it at the hands of his successor, and
how, in defending a pre-eminence she never should have desired, she
impaired the true sources of her superiority, will, in course of
events, come under our view.

In Florence Lorenzo de' Medici, to whose bright name history has done
justice, at the expense perhaps of some coeval stars in the Italian
hemisphere, had died a few months before Innocent VIII. He was happy
in living during a breathing time of comparative tranquillity, which
he had been not uninstrumental in preserving, and which it was perhaps
his good fortune not to survive. He had lived long enough to gain an
imperishable fame, and passed from life just before the golden age, of
which he was the signal ornament, began to be dimmed by influences
which he and his family were instrumental in promoting. Our admiration
of the assiduous and enlightened encouragement bestowed by him, and by
his son Leo X., upon letters and art, ought not to blind us to the
melancholy truths that the theoretical paganism of Lorenzo, the
practical worldliness of Leo, and the disastrous blundering of Clement
VII., have left upon the religion, the nationality, and the public
spirit of Italy, effects which counterbalance that vast impulse to
genius which the two first had the power to create, without the
judgment and virtue to direct. Lorenzo the Magnificent was succeeded
in his authority by his eldest son Pietro; but as that was founded
exclusively upon personal claims, and unsupported either by official
or hereditary dignities, it quickly passed from his feeble hands. It
was the folly of this Pietro that supplied a train to the smouldering
elements which we have endeavoured in this digression to analyse, and
which, had his father been spared, might have been welded into a
compact aggregate calculated to withstand barbarian aggression,
instead of, as we shall now see, bursting into a simultaneous and
destructive conflagration.[240]

[Footnote 240: Du Peloux, in a despatch addressed to Charles V. in
1529, alluding to the distractions and miseries of Italy, in terms
more appropriate to the period now under our review, observes "that
there were two races who occasioned all its misfortunes, the Medici
and the Sforza, and that it would be well for the world were both of
them extirpated."--_Lanz Correspondenz._]

Charles VIII. of France had attained his twenty-third year. It has
been well remarked of him that few monarchs have played so active a
part with fewer personal qualifications for success or distinction.
The hideous deformity of his body seems to have been equalled by the
defects of his character. Impetuous and fickle, ignorant and wilful,
he was alike devoid of judgment and of perseverance. The wars of the
Neapolitan succession, that had during much of the preceding century
harassed Lower Italy, were not forgotten, and the latent claims of the
Angevine dynasty became serious grounds for fresh anxiety, when vested
in the youthful monarch of a powerful ultra-montane nation. Ludovico
Sforza, situated nearest to the quarter whence the storm threatened,
was the first to take alarm, and for once his selfish policy tended to
a great and beneficial object. He proposed a general defensive
alliance of the Italian states against all foreign invasion. But his
counsels flowed from a tainted source. The King of Naples had already
interposed to emancipate his grand-daughter's husband from the unduly
prolonged regency of Ludovico, who soon perceived that his usurped
authority must be relinquished ere his overtures would be listened to
in that quarter. Yet the stake was worth an effort, and the new Pope's
elevation suggested a fit opportunity for the attempt, since it
attracted to Rome many embassies of congratulation which, when thus
congregated, might conveniently arrange the terms of a league. As a
preliminary, the Regent of Milan proposed that the various ambassadors
should give moral weight to their union, by entering the capital of
Christendom on the same day, in one imposing procession. This idea was
approved by most of the parties, but Pietro de' Medici, conceiving
that his personal vanity would be more effectively gratified by
exhibiting the superior magnificence of his retinue in a separate
display, resolved to thwart by indirect means a proposition to which
he could offer no reasonable objection. He, therefore, induced
Ferdinand to interpose some obstacles of etiquette, which marred by
miserable jealousies the intended unanimity of the demonstration.
Ludovico, having ascertained the origin of this intrigue, saw in it a
separation from the common cause by the two powers whose interests
were the most at variance with his own. The Medici were formidable
neighbours, as wielding the preponderating power of Florence, while
with the King of Naples the seeds of a domestic quarrel were already
rife.

Upon the coldness thus generated, other influences were brought
coincidently to bear. The Colonna and the Orsini had long been most
prominent and influential among the great barons of Rome. The
authority which they exercised over their fiefs in the Campagna was to
all intents sovereign. They alternately wasted that fair land with
their mutual broils, or bearded their ecclesiastical over-lord in his
capital. Those who have journeyed from Monterosi to Albano along the
lonely plain which, curtained by the Sabine mountains and the Alban
hills, stretches far around the Eternal City, or have cantered for
miles and miles across its vast expanse of undulating sward in
solitude and stillness; who have marked its rich vegetation running
wild in the most genial of European climes, its melancholy lines of
interrupted aqueducts witnessing to a long-degraded civilisation, its
distant and dilapidated watch-towers telling only of former forays,
its few isolated dwellings sheltering beneath crumbled walls and
broken battlements the units of a scanty and squalid population; and
who, to account for the spell of such a singular desolation, conclude
that this dreary waste has been depopulated by the course of nature;
such may wonder to hear that the mischief and misery are chiefly the
act of man. The calm serenity of these forlorn downs becomes deeply
touching from remembering that the soil was for centuries sodden with
blood, and covered with smouldering ruins; that European civilisation
there was nurtured, there waned, and there struggled into a second
life, amid the din of battles, the devastation of armies, the rapine
of banditti; that its long grass springs from the grave of ancient
refinement, of classic memorials, of mediæval strife.

In the middle ages much of the Campagna was fertile, and peopled by
an industrious peasantry. Its undulating slopes waved with abundant
crops, varied and sheltered by venerable woods, which the Goths and
Vandals of former centuries had spared. But incessant civil feuds
proved more fatal than barbarian hordes. The Ghibelline Colonna, from
their fortresses of Marino and Palestrina, watched the fitting moment
to pour their armed retainers on the plain, and, crossing the Tiber,
carried fire and sword, through the estates of their rivals, to the
very gates of Bracciano. The Guelphic Orsini waited for revenge only
till the ripened harvest had prepared for them a golden spoil in their
foemen's fields. Year after year did this miserable partizan-warfare
ravage those devoted lands till the peasantry by degrees were
exterminated, or driven to seek a livelihood in some more tranquil
spot; till of their smiling homes no stone remained upon another,
except where, at long intervals, the farm buildings were turned by
these men of blood into fortresses, or the tombs of the dead were
desecrated into defences for the living. A soil teeming with fertility
under a burning sun, and abandoned by man, ran to rank vegetation,
which, gradually choking the water-courses, generated miasma. The
evil, thus commenced, was augmented by cutting down the trees which
shadowed the burning earth, and, not unfrequently, covered a hostile
ambush. But the crowning mischief was the rash destruction of a vast
forest which, extending between the Campagna and the sea, excluded the
malaria that brooded over the Mediterranean coast from Leghorn to Mola
di Gaeta. Once admitted, that fearful scourge took possession of the
depopulated territory, which has ever since remained a puzzle to the
physiologist, a mystery to the moralist, a terror to all. At no period
had the feuds of the Colonna and Orsini been more virulent than during
the feeble reign of Innocent, when their armed bands had more than
once scoured the streets of Rome, and overawed the papal
government. The Savelli, the Frangipani, and the Gaetani, those
great families who, a century or two before, had been their rivals,
were no longer able to cope with them, and the lesser barons of the
Comarca sought protection and employment by ranging themselves as
their respective partizans. To humble these rampant houses was thus
the natural policy of the successors of St. Peter, and especially of
Alexander VI., who soon devoted his ambition and his authority to
provide temporal sovereignties for his illegitimate progeny. His
ruthless proceedings, and the changes which ensued over the whole
country, at length effectually quelled the lawless turbulence of these
chiefs; but it was too late to remedy the ruinous havoc which their
insatiate strife had occasioned.

[Illustration: "DIVA JULIA"

_From a bronze medal by L'Antico in the British Museum_]

[Illustration: CESARE BORGIA

_From a medal ca. 1500 in the British Museum_]

[Illustration: JULIUS II. AS CARDINAL

_From a medal in the British Museum_]

The late Pope, following the practice of the times, had endowed his
natural son Francesco Cibò (ancestor of the princes of Massa) with
Anguillara, Cervetri, and other holdings to the north-west of Rome,
and had married him to Madalena, sister of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
Desirous of exchanging this precarious sovereignty for some more
peaceful home, Francesco, by the influence of his brother-in-law,
Pietro de' Medici, induced the King of Naples to advance 40,000 ducats
to Gentile Virginio Orsini, for the purchase of these castles, which
adjoined his fief of Bracciano. This slight circumstance served to
kindle that train which the long series of events now alluded to had
gradually prepared for combustion, and to ripen those jealousies
already sown among the Peninsular powers. The Pope saw in it an
accession of territory to one of those great barons of the Campagna
whom he had resolved to humble; Ludovico il Moro, with the coward
suspicions of guilt, watched every motion of Ferdinand, whose just
indignation at his treatment of the Duke of Milan he had too good
reason to dread. As soon, therefore, as he had ascertained that Pietro
de' Medici, abandoning the cautious neutrality which his father had
ever maintained between the Milanese and Neapolitan interests, had
united with Ferdinand in the affair of Orsini, as well as in the less
serious intrigue which had prevented the cementing of a general
confederation he plotted to provide for the King full occupation at
home.

Suddenly, however, the tangled policy of the Peninsular states assumed
an aspect more favourable to Ludovico. The ambitious overtures of
Alexander to obtain for his natural son Giuffredo the hand of Sancia
of Aragon having been spurned by her father Alfonso, the impetuous
Pontiff, in April, 1493, hastily concluded a defensive treaty with
Milan and Venice, for the avowed purpose of expelling Orsini, the ally
of Naples, from his recent acquisitions. These having been obtained by
that feudatory, with the aid of his tried friend Ferdinand, and his
relation Pietro de' Medici, he naturally looked to these two powers
for support; and thus was Italy on the point of relapsing into her
normal condition of feud. But the King of Naples, considering such a
price extravagant for the mere gratification of family pride, had
within a few weeks adjusted his differences with the Pope, by
betrothing his granddaughter to Giuffredo Borgia. As if by repulsion
of the magnetic poles, the accession of Ferdinand caused Il Moro to
secede from the alliance he had just before joined, but from which he
could no longer look for support in his lawless authority, and,
judging his only security to consist in the depression of that
monarch, he resolved to effect it at any price.

Upon these most inadequate grounds of personal pique, or personal
apprehension, did Ludovico madly run upon the very danger against
which he had been the first to prepare

                       "All the swords
     In Italy, and her confederate arms."

In his eagerness to disable Ferdinand's anticipated vengeance upon his
own crimes, he renewed the calamities of a succession-war in the
south, and thereby laid open the Peninsula to a scourge whose
chastisement fell most heavily upon himself. Instead of heading a
league against foreign aggression, as he had just before proposed, he
made overtures to Charles VIII., tempting him with the diadem of
Naples as the reward of an invasion of Italy, and offering him free
passage through the Milanese. His private quarrel with the usurper did
not blind Ferdinand to the insanity of this step, and, forgetting his
feelings as a parent, he united with the other powers in representing
the peril of his policy. Gladly would Ludovico have withdrawn the
false step he had hastily made; but it was too late. The demon of
ambition was roused in the French king; the hour for retraction was
passed; that of bitter repentance was at hand. Behind her Alpine
barrier there was gathered an army, ready to burst upon fated Italy,
and to pour upon her plains calamities unknown since the fall of the
Western Empire.

With Federigo of Montefeltro and Roberto Malatesta, the old generation
of Italian condottieri may be said to have passed away. Political
changes and progressive civilisation, developed during forty years of
comparative tranquillity, already tended to limit both the supply of
veteran adventurers and the demand for their services. Under such
genial influences, the great companies of adventure had melted down to
petty followings, more proportioned to the exigencies of the age, and
to the resources and experience of their new leaders. Peaceful times
offered no rich prizes to call forth sustained daring, and to reward
vast enterprises. Captains of minor reputation, heading small bands
raised for some passing broil or petty foray, succeeded to the
Hawkwoods, Montoni, and Malatesta, without rivalling their deeds, or
maintaining their fame. The limited brigandage of the broken lances
differed from the sweeping desolation of their marshalled thousands
only in the narrower field on which it found scope; but the mercenary
system became more manageable when deprived of its cumbrous machinery,
and its leaders were henceforth the tools of their employers instead
of their virtual masters.

In bidding adieu to that system, we may quote the sweeping
condemnation bestowed upon it by Machiavelli; yet it is right to
remember that, as the advocate of infantry and national militia, he
had no toleration for the military art which they superseded, and that
he witnessed its practice only after its spirit was gone. "Whoever
relies for power upon mercenaries will never be stable or secure; for
they are disunited, ambitious, undisciplined, faithless: braggarts
among friends, dastards before the foe; destitute of fear of God, or
faith with man. To delay their assault is to postpone your own ruin;
in peace, you are plundered by them, in war by the enemy. The reason
of all this is, that they have no object, no inducement to keep the
field beyond their pittance of pay, which is never such as to induce
them to spend life and limb for you. They readily enough take service,
so long as you don't go to war, but when that comes, they desert or
fly. It were easy to establish all this, for the destruction of Italy
has arisen from no other cause but that, for many years, she depended
upon mercenary troops; who, indeed, occasionally did something, and
wore a semblance of valour when pitted against each other, but, on the
appearance of the stranger, showed in their true colours. Thus was
Charles of France allowed to take possession of the Peninsula as
easily as he would have chalked off his cantonments, and the result of
all their prowess left the country overrun by him, ravaged by Louis,
trampled on by Ferdinand, and insulted by the Swiss; in fine, by their
means she was enslaved and disgraced."

These changes led to considerable modifications in the art of war, to
which other circumstances greatly contributed. The invasion of Italy
by successive ultra-montane hosts brought into her battle-fields
other races, armed, drilled, and disciplined upon new principles; and
the descent of Charles VIII., which we are now about to describe,
forms an era in military tactics. The heavy accoutrements, the staid
evolutions, the blockade sieges, the bloodless encounters of the old
system were admirably suited for troops whose grand object was to
perform their term of service without unnecessary personal risk, and
to spare themselves all exertion which did not promise a meed of
booty. The invention of gunpowder at first tended to exaggerate the
very inconveniences which it was destined eventually to supplant: for
a time, defensive armour became more and more massive, and
horse-trappings less manageable. In order to resist the additional
weight, chargers of the most powerful shapes were sought for; but they
were in proportion sluggish and unhandy, apt to fall on the slightest
stumble, difficult to maintain in condition, and incapable of
sustained exertion. These evils having become apparent, the
men-at-arms ceased to be regarded as the sole sinews of war, and many
of them were converted into lances.

Unlike the cavalry which now bear that name, these lances were heavy
troops, and, like the men-at-arms, they each consisted of three
mounted soldiers--a head-lance on his charger, a soldier on his steed,
and a lacquey on his pad. The pay of these troops, which in 1492 were
already used in Romagna,[*241] was twelve florins for every lance,
being four times that of a foot-soldier; and they were reckoned twice
as effective as _balestrieri_ or light-horse, both new varieties of
mounted force. The former were brought into repute by Camillo Vitelli,

     "In heart a lion, though a calf in name,"[242]

and were armed with cross-bows, their tactics being to gall the enemy
without coming to close quarters. Of the latter there were several
varieties, the most efficient of which were the Stradiotes. Accustomed
from childhood to constant skirmishes with their Turkish foes, in the
mountains of Albania, where manoeuvres of regular cavalry were
impracticable, they partook of the agility and address for which
Cossacks and Circassians have lately become celebrated. Their arms
were a spear ten feet long, a broad-sword and a mace, and they were
defended by an iron skull-cap, a small shield, and a short quilted
jerkin. They were introduced by the Venetians into Lombardy, where
their dashing qualities, as well as their ferocity, soon established
the reputation of these irregular horse as most formidable
mercenaries.

[Footnote *241: The _Lancia_ had been used in Romagna and the Marche
for over half a century, certainly, in 1492. Cf. EDWARD HUTTON,
_Sigismondo Malatesta_, p. 71. Cf. BATTAGLINI, _op. cit._, vol. II.,
p. 348.]

[Footnote 242: Of sixteen Vitelli named in the genealogy following the
appendix, all but the first were renowned condottieri.]

Infantry occupied, under the new system, a place until then denied
them. They had hitherto been of small account in the mustering of
armies, and were rarely relied on except in situations which excluded
cavalry evolutions. They carried small shields, and halberts or
lances, but were scarcely at all drilled, and never attempted to stand
against a charge of horse. More effective were their cross-bows, and
the rude muskets which they began to use. As fire-arms were made more
handy, the value of infantry rapidly increased, and its discipline
became an important branch of the military art. But in this section of
the service, Italians had to learn costly lessons from their alpine
neighbours.

In a land where nature had lavished her most sublime efforts, she
reared a race as hardy in heart and sinew as their climate was severe,
their scenery wild, their hardships extreme. Life was there a
perpetual struggle with privations, an unceasing exercise of toil. To
provide the necessaries of existence required limbs enduring of
fatigue, an eye of unerring accuracy, perseverance inexhaustible,
courage indomitable. And such were the qualities of the Swiss
mountaineers, which they developed in the chase, exercised in rude
sports, and perfected in their struggles with the house of Hapsburg,
until their shouts of victory echoed through the valleys around
Morgarten,--until Europe stood aghast at the issue of Granson, and of

     "Morat the proud, the patriot field."

In their country of crags and ravines it was impossible either to rear
powerful horses, or to manoeuvre with heavy cavalry; the
accoutrements of _gens d'armerie_ were also too costly for a
population of scanty and much divided means. They therefore adopted,
what proved more effective even in the plain, an infantry so armed and
drilled as to withstand the shock of men-at-arms. In lines four deep,
or in cross-shaped columns, they received the charge upon their
bristling pikes, and with two-handed swords dealt fell blows on the
broken squadrons. Their defensive armour was of the least cumbrous
description, consisting generally but of breastplates; and with the
axe-headed halberts, which some of them carried, they unseated their
enemies, or cut their reins in the _mêlée_. By these means they were
enabled so well to apply the activity and endurance bestowed upon them
by nature, as to meet on equal terms with armies apparently much their
superiors. Louis XI. was the first sovereign to avail himself of a new
element, whose qualities he had learned by bloody experience at the
passage of the Birsa, in 1444.[243] But after the Swiss mercenaries
had tasted the gratification of regular pay, and the plunder of lands
more golden than their own, an appetite for adventure superseded the
pristine simplicity of their habits. The cantons, finding it difficult
to keep their youth at home, became parties to contracts which hired
out their services to the best bidder; and we shall henceforth find
them in the champagne lands of Lombardy, following with equal
goodwill the lilies of France, the lion of St. Mark, or the Papal
gonfalone. Thus in a few years, the military aspect of Southern Europe
became changed, not only by the employment of Swiss infantry in all
important enterprises, but from an adoption of their system by the
troops of Italy, France, and Germany.

[Footnote 243: RICOTTI, III., 257. The Swiss were first brought into
Italy by Sixtus IV., and fought at Giornico in 1479.]

The Emperor Maximilian was the first to organise in Germany a militia
of foot, under the name of _lanznechts_, against whom the Swiss,
recollecting their ancient struggles for liberty, nourished a rancour,
which only their common stipendiary interests could for the moment
suspend. Lightly armed with lance and dagger, but encumbered by a
preposterous camp-following; reckless of danger, yet indifferent to
glory; they were fractious, disobedient, debauched, impatient of
suffering, greedy of pay, devoted to plunder. But our notice of the
ultra-montane infantry would be incomplete without the Spaniards. They
were brought into Italy to maintain Ferdinand's pretensions upon
Naples, and to support the aspirations of his successor to extended
dominion in the Peninsula. Levied by tuck of drum, with scanty promise
of pay, but unlimited licence to pillage, they campaigned in the
spirit of pirates; and though the energy of Gonsalvo di Cordova
ultimately brought the Hispano-Neapolitan army into a very efficient
state, this stain was never effaced. The character for ferocity which
attached to their birth is stamped upon their military exploits, and
has left its traces to this day upon the inhabitants of Lower Italy.
The cavalry of Germany and Spain was decidedly inferior to the Italian
light horse and men-at-arms, and played but an unimportant part in the
wars which we are now to consider.

Our review of the military art in the Peninsula must needs include the
recent introduction of fire-arms. The researches of Gaye have
discovered that projectiles were used in Italy considerably earlier
than the date usually assigned to their invention, a due provision of
"cannons and metal balls," both for field-service and fortification,
being ordered by the Florentine government in February, 1326.[244]
Whatever may have been its origin, the invention was slowly followed
up; for, after nearly a century and three quarters, the Italian
artillery was still so cumbrous and defective as to be of little
practical utility, and it was rarely employed except in sieges.
Indeed, according to Guicciardini, the very name of cannons had passed
out of use, and the light and rapidly-served field-pieces of the
French army were regarded with as much surprise as apprehension.

[Footnote 244: _Carteggio d'Artisti_, preface to vol. II. Among the
other sources to which we have been indebted for these military
details, we may mention Machiavelli, Ricotti, and the Relazioni
Venete, _passim_, but especially Promis' edition of Francesco di
Giorgio on military institutions, a work of great learning and
research, published at Turin in 1841. See below, ch. xxvii.]

The development of the new power was extremely gradual; and although
we have seen it in operation at the battle of Molinella, in 1467, no
other instance occurred during that century of its being used with
effect in the field.[245] Nor is this surprising, when we consider the
unmanageable nature of the service, and the gradual steps whereby
science superseded rude contrivance. Heavy cannon were then from ten
to twelve feet long, requiring at times fifty yoke of oxen. They
carried balls of stone or metal of ten or twelve hundred pounds; and
after each discharge, some hours were needed to clean out, reload, and
point the piece. Even the flying artillery (_passa volanti_) were in
length sixty diameters, and the basilisks, reckoned as light guns,
were two-hundred pounders. We cannot now pursue the subject, but any
one who visits a complete armoury of 1480-1500, or examines the works
upon military engineering of that age, will probably conclude that few
modern discoveries in the destructive art had not even then been
approximated. For attack and defence of fortified places these
machines were certainly better adapted; yet, with all the talent and
princely encouragement then expended upon fortification, it must be
considered as in its infancy. But when the chivalry of the north
poured upon fated Italy, under Charles VIII., no part of their array
appeared so formidable as their field-train, powerful yet compact,
heavy but easily moved; and the unimportant service required from it
in that brief campaign, was performed in a manner which showed how
much even the Italians had to learn in this department. At the Taro,
the nature of the ground prevented it from contributing much to the
success of that bloody day, and it was reserved for the sanguinary
conflict of Ravenna to develop the capabilities of a service which
gradually became the right arm of European warfare.

[Footnote 245: Refer back to p. 189; also to p. 248, for a description
of the bombards used at the siege of Colle in 1479. The same tendency
to overweight artillery seems common to many half-civilised nations.
The size of the guns mounted in the Dardanelles is an instance, as
well as that of the Scottish Mons Meg; but the most gigantic
projectiles yet known have been found among the Burmese, and I believe
the Chinese. In modern warfare, field batteries are usually of six,
or, at most, nine pounders.]

CHAPTER XV

     Italy ill prepared for the French Invasion--Duke Guidobaldo
     sent against the Orsini--Lucrezia Borgia's second
     marriage--Descent of Charles VIII.--He reaches Naples and
     retreats--Battle of the Taro--The Duke engaged in the Pisan
     war--Is taken prisoner by the Orsini and ransomed.

The preceding rapid sketch may show the materials of which the
invading hosts were composed, and the nature of the approaching
danger. Its imminence appalled even those powers who, like Sforza,
thought more of their own ends than of the general weal; and Alfonso
II., who had succeeded to the crown of Naples on the death of his
father Ferdinand, in January, 1494, was indefatigable in uniting them
on the defensive. With Pietro de' Medici, we have already seen that
the latter was in close relations. Among the princes of Romagna,
Gallic influence had obtained no footing. The Venetians, occupied in
the defence of their eastern dependencies from the Turks, and
trusting, perhaps, to see Charles redeem his promise of a crusade
against the Crescent, were inclined to neutrality. Genoa was in the
hands of a faction entirely under the influence of Ludovico il
Moro,[*246] who, though bound by treaty to Charles, was already
alienated at heart from the connection, and ready on the first
opportunity to discard it. The Pontiffs position, like his usual
policy, was somewhat complicated. We have formerly found his
predecessors generally hostile to the dynasty of Aragon, as well as to
that of Hohenstaufen, and tolerably consistent in support of the
Angevine races, whose original title the Neapolitan crown was a papal
grant. Further, claims of the popes as lords paramount of that
kingdom, and the annual payments which in that capacity they demanded,
were fertile grounds for rancour, which but a few years before had
broken out into hostilities. We have also seen Ferdinand assisting
Virginio Orsini in purchasing those estates from which Alexander was
bent upon expelling him. But a deeper cause for mortification and
personal enmity arose out of the resistance by that King and his son
to the matrimonial alliance of a princess of their house with one of
the Pope's spurious sons.[*247] For a time, therefore, his Holiness
balanced between the parties, and appears even to have allowed his
name to be used by Ludovico Sforza in proposing to Charles the
conquest of Naples.[*248] But his object was merely to annoy and alarm
Ferdinand; and when he found this idea seriously adopted by the young
monarch of France, he hastily backed out, and employed his spiritual
and temporal influence to dissuade him from the enterprise.[249]
Alfonso warmly supported his Holiness in this new policy, and, in
order to clench him in it, betrothed his natural daughter, Sancia,
with a dowry of lands worth 10,000 ducats of rent, and jewels to the
value of 200,000 ducats, to Giuffredo Borgia, the Pope's youngest
child, whom he created Prince of Squillace. This son-in-law not being
yet marriageable, the King had an excuse for taking him to be brought
up near his bride, with the intention of securing a hostage for his
unstable parent's good faith. As a further bait, the principality of
Tricarico, with estates of 12,000 ducats a year, and one of the seven
great offices under the crown of Naples, were given to the eldest
Borgia, now Duke of Gandia; whilst on Cesare, already raised to the
purple as Cardinal Valentino (or of Valencia), his best ecclesiastical
benefices were showered by the hard-pressed Alfonso.

[Footnote *246: Ludovico Sforza held dominion in Genoa till 1498, when
he was defeated by Louis XII. of France, to whom Genoa was then made
over.]

[Footnote *247: See note below.]

[Footnote *248: Ludovico was alarmed at the alliance of Florence and
Naples, and tried to meet it with a league between the Pope, Milan,
and Venice [cf. Codice, Aragonese, II., 254, etc.] On April 25, 1493,
Alexander VI., guarded by an armed escort, celebrated Mass in S.
Marco, and after published his league with Venice, Milan, Siena,
Mantua, and Ferrara. The Pope's object was the recovery of the
possessions of the Holy See. Ferrante saw this, and immediately wrote
to Spain speaking of him as a profligate and accusing him of stirring
up strife--the one weak point in the Pope's armour. The Spanish
ambassador, Don Diego Lopez de Haro, came to Rome to offer the
obedience of the Catholic kings, and at once began to plead for the
peace of Italy, which was enforced by a hostile demonstration on the
part of Naples. Alexander agreed to negotiate. The result was that
peace was established. Orsini was allowed to keep the castles he had
bought from Cibò on condition that he paid 40,000 ducats to the Pope.
Peace with Naples was cemented by the marriage of the Pope's son Jofre
and Sancia, a daughter of Alfonso.]

[Footnote 249: Roscoe, in a note to chapter iii. of the recent
editions of _Leo X._, discusses the conflicting assertions as to the
Pope's encouragement of Charles's expedition.]

But the transaction of Virginio Orsini gave rise to a preliminary
episode in the great drama, which, as bringing the Duke of Urbino upon
the stage, requires some notice in this place. Besides the uneasiness
with which Alexander viewed the further aggrandisement of that already
too formidable subject, it is more than probable that, in claiming the
Cibò estates, as lapsed to the Camera Apostolica, his ultimate
intention was, to bestow them upon one of his own children; for his
selfish policy seldom embraced any aim more noble than nepotism or
revenge. Being doubtful of his own ability to drive the Orsini from
their new purchase, he, in April, 1493, leagued himself with Ludovico
Sforza and the Venetian republic. Through the former, he carried into
effect a scheme which at once tended to facilitate that object, and
promoted his favourite aim of providing his offspring with eligible
marriages. His daughter Lucrezia,--she whose name has, perhaps, done
more to render her infamous than her guilt, but whose beauty,
accomplishments, and eventual penitence, had been forgotten in the
heinous crimes which history laid to her charge unquestioned, until
Roscoe's ingenious defence,--Lucrezia Borgia was then betrothed wife
of a Spanish, or, rather, a Neapolitan, gentleman, named Procida. To
nullify a union so valueless cost no qualm to the Pontiff, and,
probably, as little to the lady. To match her with the widowed Lord of
Pesaro scarcely required the persuasions of his relation Ludovico il
Moro, and his brother-in-law, Duke Guidobaldo, whose good offices the
Pope put in requisition to arrange preliminaries with the bridegroom,
paying at the same time 3000 ducats as a solace to her first husband.
The betrothal, in May, was celebrated by a ball in the palace of
Pesaro, from which the assembled guests issued forth in couples,
dancing through the streets a sort of polonaise, which was led by the
papal ambassador! The nuptial ceremony was postponed until Lucrezia's
arrival from Spain in the following spring, and it was not until June
that the bridal party reached their capital.[*250]

[Footnote *250: For all concerning Lucrezia, see GREGOROVIUS,
_Lucrezia Borgia_.]

[Illustration: _Anderson_

ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA

_Supposed portrait of Lucrezia Borgia by Pinturicchio. Detail from a
fresco in the Borgia apartments of the Vatican, Rome_]

Having arranged this marriage, Alexander sent Duke Guidobaldo, along
with his son Cesare, against the Orsini. The former, though only in
his twenty-second year, was already suffering from gout, his fatal
malady, which had first shown itself during the rejoicings at Giovanni
Sforza's betrothal. But he resisted it with great courage, addicting
himself more than ever to the hardy exercises of the camp. The
partizan warfare on which the Pope thus employed him as gonfaloniere
of the Church, was, however, productive of little glory, and the
Orsini, driven by superior force from their new lands, awaited an
opportunity for retaliation. The nuptials of Lucrezia took place in
1494, after she had made a triumphal entry into Rome, scandalous even
in that pontificate of scandal. The ceremonial was witnessed by a
select party of ecclesiastical dignitaries, and a hundred and fifty of
the handsomest women of Rome, selected without regard to their
character, whose husbands were excluded. To each of these dames the
Pope presented a silver cup of confections, which, amid much
outrageous merriment, were emptied into their bosoms, "and all to the
honour and praise of Almighty God and the Romish Church," as the
contemporary narrator caustically observes.[251] The same parties then
paired off to supper, which was prolonged some hours beyond midnight,
the company being entertained by dramatic representations of a most
impure character. In all these revels Alexander and his then
favourite, Giulia Bella took part, and they were fitly wound up by his
conducting in person the bride to her husband's couch. For the
introduction of such disgusting details an apology may be due, but
without them, general declamation on the vices of the Borgian court
would convey no just idea of the truth. That the loathsome picture is
under-coloured, may be supposed from a concluding remark of the
diarist, that he had suppressed many reports regarding this orgy, as
they seemed either false or exceeding credibility. Bad as is this
scene, it is pure compared with some described by Burchard, another
journalist of the Vatican obscenities. In June, Lucrezia set out for
her new home, and, resting a night at Urbino on the way, was received
with the honours due to her rank. A furious tempest, in which she next
day entered her capital, ruined the costly preparations intended to
celebrate her welcome, and was remembered afterwards as ominous of the
result of her marriage, and of the mischiefs occasioned there by the
Borgia. But men's minds were quickly roused from idle festivities. The
barbarians were already scaling the Alps; Italy and her spoils lay at
their feet.

[Footnote 251: Stephani Infessuri Diarium Romanæ, in MURATORI,
_R.I.S._, III., p. ii., p. 1246. He dates the marriage ceremony the
12th of June, 1493.]

In return for the favours bestowed upon his children, the Pope renewed
to Alfonso his investiture of Naples, and sent thither his own nephew,
the Cardinal of Monreale, to attend his coronation and the betrothal
of his daughter to Giuffredo Borgia. But, with wonted cunning,
Alexander kept open a retreat from this alliance, by instructing the
Cardinal to obtain as a personal favour, the return to Rome of his
hostage child and bride. He celebrated their arrival in May following,
with pompous festivities exceeding in splendour the reception accorded
to royal personages, and, in defiance of public decency, appeared in
consistory, and in the papal chair of St. Peter, at the solemn
function of Pentecost, between the bastard bride of his bastard son,
and his dissolute daughter Lucrezia.

Such was the position of Italy at the moment of the French invasion,
the calamities of which are thus prefigured by Guicciardini. "From it
originated not only the revolution of states, the subversion of
dynasties, the desolation of provinces, the destruction of cities, the
most savage massacres; but likewise altered habits, changed morals, a
new and more sanguinary mode of warfare, and therewith diseases
previously unknown; it also so entirely disorganised the guarantees
for concord and internal tranquillity, that these could never be
replaced, and thus was the country left to be trodden down and wasted
by other foreign nations and barbarian armies. By a yet greater
misfortune, in order that our shame might derive no alleviation from
the prowess of our enemy, he whose invasion brought us so many
mischiefs, although most amply endowed with the bounties of fortune,
was destitute of almost every natural or mental endowment. For Charles
was from his childhood of languid complexion, deformed person, and
diminutive stature, besides having a countenance singularly repulsive
but for his penetrating and dignified glance, with limbs so
disproportioned as to resemble a monster rather than a man. Nor was he
only destitute of liberal acquirements; he scarcely knew his letters.
Although greedy of empire, there was nothing for which he was less
qualified; for he was encircled by a few, with whom he maintained
neither dignity nor authority; he was averse to all occupation and
business, and, when he did apply to his affairs, was alike wanting in
prudence and judgment. Even such apparently laudable qualities as he
seemed to possess proved, on examination, more akin to vices than to
virtues. Thus his inclination for glory was from impulse rather than
matured resolution; his liberality was ill directed and without
discrimination or degree; wavering at times in his counsels, he was
oftener guided by foolish obstinacy than by decision; and what many
called good-nature would have been better named indifference or
easiness of temper." The description given by a son of Andrea Mantegna
is still less favourable to the King's appearance. "He is said to have
a very ill-favoured face, with great goggle eyes, an aquiline nose
offensively large, and a head disfigured by few and sparse hairs. When
I think of such a little hunchy fellow my fancy is struck with
wonder."[252] We shall add one other characteristic sketch of a
monarch for whom fortune destined a part strangely at variance with
his qualifications. It was given by Ludovico il Moro, in December of
this year, to the Venetian resident at his court, and has been
obligingly communicated to me by Mr. Rawdon Brown, than whom no one is
more perfectly versed in the transactions of that republic. "The man
is young, and his conduct meagre, nor has he any form or method of
council. His assistants are divided into two factions, one headed by
the Comte de Bresse, the other by St. Malo and Beaucaire with their
adherents; they are violently opposed to each other on every topic,
and provided the one thwart the other and carry his point, no regard
soever is had for the King's interests. They attend to the
accumulation of coin, and care for nothing else; nor would all of them
put together make half a wise man. I remember when at Asti seeing him
in a room with the members of his assembled council, and, whilst
discussing any matter, one kept playing, another was eating breakfast,
a third was attending to this, a fourth to that; and the King was in
motion the whole time whilst listening to any one. He would order
letters to be couched in a certain form, and subsequently countermand
them on hearing another person's ideas."[253]

[Footnote 252: GAYE, _Carteggio_, I., p. 326. See a contemporary
estimate of the invading army in VIII. of the Appendix.]

[Footnote 253: Our French authorities for this expedition are
valuable, including Comines, and André de la Vigne, contemporaries who
shared in its hazards. A curious essay by M. de Foncemagne, ascribing
to Charles the ambition of a crusader, and pointing at Constantinople
as its real destination, will be found in vol. XVII., p. 539 of
_Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions_.]

It would lead us far beyond our limits to follow the blunders which on
both sides signalised the campaign. Charles opened it by sending an
army into Lombardy, under Sir Bernard Stuart of Aubigny, cousin-german
of John first Earl of Lennox in Scotland, whose career in arms was
rewarded with many dignities, and who, after uniting his troops with
those of Ludovico il Moro, his now unwilling ally, advanced on
Romagna. The King, leaving Vienne upon the 22nd of August, took the
Cenis pass with the main body of his forces, and on the 9th of
September was at Asti in Piedmont. From thence he visited Milan,
before marching against Florence. To meet these formidable foes,
Alfonso alone manifested any energy. He sent a fleet to the Ligurian
coast to watch a naval armament which had been fitted out at
Marseilles, and, if possible, to make a diversion upon Genoa. He at
the same time dispatched his eldest son Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria,
accompanied by two experienced generals, Nicolò Orsini Count of
Petigliano and Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, to support the Bolognese
against the onset of d'Aubigny. Being joined at Cesena by Guidobaldo
of Urbino, who had been engaged by Alfonso with 200 men-at-arms, at an
annual pay of 24,000 ducats, and by Giovanni Sforza, the Duke found
himself at the head of 2500 men-at-arms and 8000 foot, of whom the
portion belonging to Florence was commanded by Annibale Bentivoglio.
But none of these leaders possessed a master influence suited to the
crisis. The spirit of cordiality and mutual confidence, which alone
could promise success, was on this as on all similar occasions wanting
to Italy; and whilst Trivulzio and the other commanders, confident in
the superiority of their army, urged on a decisive engagement,
Petigliano exposed himself to the charge of sluggishness or the
suspicion of bad faith, by frustrating all their endeavours.

The forces of the league had orders to advance towards Parma, and meet
the French and Milanese troops under d'Aubigny and Gian Francesco da
Sanseverino, Count of Cajazzo, who had been retained by Ludovico il
Moro. This, however, they were unable to effect, and, finding
themselves much inferior in strength to the invaders, they retired
upon Faenza. In that neighbourhood the two armies remained for some
time, face to face, without further encounter than a few skirmishes,
in which Guidobaldo distinguished his bravery. Whilst they lost time
in disunited counsels, the progress of Charles in Central Italy
occasioned the recall of the Florentine and papal contingents. The
princes of Romagna, seeing the game virtually lost, found excuses for
liberating themselves from a falling cause, and by withdrawing to
their several states, sought safety in a neutral position. The Duke of
Calabria thus abandoned, retired within the Neapolitan frontier to
await fresh instructions from his father; and thus was the last chance
of saving Italy shamefully lost. Meanwhile the French monarch took the
road by Pontremoli and Sarzana, which fortress and Pietra Santa,
Pietro de' Medici surrendered to him in a panic, as base as it was
inexplicable. Disgusted with his cowardice, Florence and Pisa rose and
expelled his whole race, but rashly crediting the assurances of
Charles that he came as a deliverer and friend of liberty, received
him with open arms.

The description of an eye-witness to the overthrow of the Medici
conveys a vivid picture of the revolutions so common in republican
Florence. It has been printed by Gaye,[254] from the original diary of
Giusto. "On Sunday the 9th of November, the people of Florence rose in
arms against the _palle_, that is, against Pietro de' Medici, who had
so used his sway, and who repaired to the palace. The populace,
observing this, rushed thither, crying, 'Live the people and liberty!'
the children being first in the piazza: and by God's will all Florence
armed and hurried to the palace, calling out, 'People and liberty!' so
that Pietro, the Cardinal, and Giuliano his brother fled. And there
was a reward of 2000 florins proclaimed by the Signory, for whoever
would bring the Cardinal alive or dead to the palace; and thus matters
continued. Next day all the banners and pennons were set up, and such
was the people's fury at the palace, throughout the town, and at the
gates, day and night, that although I have four times found Florence
in arms since 1458, this has been the most unanimous and extraordinary
affair, from the efforts made by the lilies to erase the balls
[_gigli_ and _palle_, the respective arms of the republic and of the
Medici]: even children two or three years old, by a miracle, cried in
the houses 'People and liberty!' and among them our little Catherine.
Thus by God's grace did this community free itself from the hands of
many tyrants, who, thanks to the blessed God! were expelled without
bloodshed."

[Footnote 254: _Carteggio_, I., p. 213.]

But with these revolutions, which ended in giving to Florence and Pisa
independent popular governments,[*255] and with the war of rivalry
which consequently ensued between them, we have at present no concern.
The struggle was maintained during several years, with an obstinacy
and bitterness which more than once compromised the general
tranquillity of the Peninsula; when it terminated Pisa had been ruined
and Florence was bankrupt. It was at this crisis that there occurred
an anecdote preserved in the _Corteggiano_, among the _facetiæ_ of the
court of Urbino. One of the Florentine council, in a committee of ways
and means, proposed to augment the customs revenue by doubling the
number of city gates at which dues were collected!

[Footnote *255: These words are infinitely misleading.]

Alexander, ever too occupied with private objects to heed the general
cause, had meanwhile, upon a petty quarrel with the Colonna, withdrawn
his troops from Romagna, to waste them and much precious time in
wretched partizan struggles with these fractious barons, and in this
miserable trifling employed his son Cesare. Vainly confident while no
immediate danger impended, he had flattered himself that the French
invasion would come to nothing. But when he saw two powerful armies
reach his frontier, without obstacle or check, terror succeeded to
foolish security. Abandoning his ally of Naples, he humbly besought
his personal enemy Cardinal Ascanio Sforza to mediate with the French
monarch in his behalf. Yet to the latest moment did he waver,
alternately insolent and abject, fawning and fickle. Through these
fluctuations it is needless to follow him. On the last day of 1494 the
invading army marched unopposed and triumphant into Rome, and, leaving
the city on the 28th of January, advanced towards Naples. A panic had
already seized upon Alfonso, his army, and his people. On the 23rd of
January he abdicated the crown in favour of his son Ferdinand, and
fled with his treasures to Sicily, where he died after ten months of
abject austerities, as an offset to long years of aggravated
debauchery. The new King, upon his bloodless rout at the Garigliano,
found himself without money, and supported neither by his troops nor
his subjects. The bold front which he assumed availed nothing in
circumstances so desperate. He retired to Ischia, and on the 22nd of
February Charles took possession of Naples, amid the acclamations of a
populace, whom the iron sway of the false and gloomy Ferdinand, and of
his sanguinary son, had alienated from the Aragonese dynasty. But
though we pass thus rapidly over the campaign of the French and
Spaniards in Lower Italy, its results were of lasting importance. The
foretaste of the Peninsula then obtained by these nations as its
invaders or defenders stimulated a fatal relish for its attractions;
and the appetite thus engendered was not stayed until that fair land
had been trodden down by successive hosts, scarcely less damaging to
her prosperity and destructive to her liberties as her selfish allies,
than as her open foes.

Experience had by this time shown the folly of the Italian policy, and
the various states were not unwilling to profit by its lesson.
Forgetting for the moment their individual ends, they resolved to
throw off an incubus which threatened to make the Peninsula a province
of France. Ludovico Sforza had long sought to resile from his
ill-judged engagements with Charles; the Venetians found that the
Turkish crusade was but a false pretext; the Florentines saw their
adhesion to the invader repaid by the loss of Pisa; the Pope, ever
inclined to intrigue, was more especially ready to join in any plan
which should open an escape from his blunders in bringing down such
dangerous neighbours. Nor did the ultra-montane powers view with
satisfaction so vast an accession to French influence. Ferdinand II.
of Spain, whose envoy had formally broken with Charles ere he crossed
the Neapolitan frontier, now put himself forward to wean the Venetians
from their neutrality. Maximilian (who, not having been crowned, was
only King of the Romans, but whom we shall generally call Emperor)
burned for opportunity of avenging a double wrong which the French
monarch had done him by jilting his daughter Margaret, and by
espousing his betrothed bride, Anne of Bretagne. Having himself
married in 1493 Bianca Sforza, her uncle Ludovico il Moro bribed him
by a large dowry to take advantage of certain alleged flaws in the
Milanese investitures, and to recognise him as Duke, passing over his
sickly nephew Giovanni Galeazzo. The new charter in favour of Il Moro
reached him immediately after the death of the latter, whose feeble
and wretched existence was terminated, perhaps by poison, in October
1494. He left a son, and in defiance of the title of this child, whose
injuries his uncle, Alfonso of Naples, was no longer in circumstances
to redress, Ludovico seized the trappings of that sovereignty, which
he virtually had usurped long before the imperial diploma reached him.
Thus were these parties prepared for a united exertion in the common
cause; and the minor feudatories of the Peninsula willingly joined
them in a five years' league, for the purpose of restoring and
maintaining the independence of Italy. It was concluded at Venice, on
the 31st of March 1495, and by it Germany, Spain, Venice, Milan, and
the Pope were bound to furnish 34,000 horse, and 20,000 foot, or
monied contributions proportioned to their respective contingents of
that force.

[Illustration: _Anderson_

BIANCA, DAUGHTER OF LUDOVICO SFORZA

_After the picture by Ambrogio de' Predis in the Biblioteca
Ambrogiana, Milan_]

Charles and his army had abandoned themselves to the intoxication of
their easy conquest, and to excess in those pleasures which in the
Ausonian climate seem to enervate natives and strangers. From this
careless security, news of the alliance roused him to the danger of
being entrapped in his new kingdom. Leaving half his army there to
maintain his authority, he on the 20th of May set out with the
remainder on his return homeward. Hastily retracing the same route, he
saw difficulties increasing around him, but avoided hostilities, until
in descending the Apennines into Lombardy he found himself intercepted
among the defiles of the Taro by the allied army, so superior in force
as to render his destruction next to inevitable, even without taking
into account the immense advantages of the position which they had
selected. But the singular good fortune which had enabled the French
monarch to overrun the whole Peninsula, conquer a kingdom, and retire
in the face of opposing Europe, without once calling into exercise
whatever talent, judgment, or bravery he might have possessed, did not
forsake him in this his first difficulty. The confederates, by
unpardonable want of good understanding among their leaders, and of
steadiness among their troops, let slip the precious opportunity of
exterminating their invaders. On the 6th of July they suffered on the
Taro an overthrow which they vainly claimed as a victory, and after a
brief hour's conflict retired in disorder, leaving above three
thousand men on the field. Of this battle Guicciardini remarks that it
was the first for a long period that had been really sanguinary in its
character, compared with those tactic engagements of the condottieri,
in which bloodshed was little sought on either side. As the earliest
struggle between Italy and her invaders, the only occasion when her
disunited interests were rallied beneath one banner, it holds a place
in history which in a military view it by no means merited.[256] It
was lost by the delays, distracted counsels, and deficient discipline
among the allies, and brought little glory to the retreating army,
which, without further opposition, reached Asti, where a strong
garrison had been left, and in October re-entered France. The
Aragonese party was strong in Naples, and within six weeks after
Charles had quitted that capital, Ferdinand II. was welcomed back to
it by a versatile people, whom the never-failing insolence of the
French had quickly disgusted with their change of masters. The kingdom
was gradually recovered from its invaders and their supporters, the
Angevine barons, by aid of Spanish succours under Gonsalvo di Cordova,
whose gallantry and skill during a harassing guerilla campaign
established his reputation, and procured him the name of the Great
Captain. Montpensier, when left as viceroy in command of the army of
occupation, made feeble head against him for above a year, until most
of his troops having dropped under the effects of climate and
debauchery, he surrendered the remainder as prisoners of war. Lower
Italy, again under Ferdinand's sway, was no more disturbed by Charles,
who wasted the brief remainder of his life in dissolute indulgences,
better becoming his despicable character than foreign conquests.

[Footnote 256: See some details of it in IX. of the Appendix.]

Thus terminated the first of those systematic and successful invasions
from which Italy has suffered in later ages. Various circumstances
combined to modify its serious results upon her prosperity, and though
almost unopposed, the victors perhaps paid more dearly than the
vanquished. But the seeds of mischief were sown, too surely to ripen
into fatal evils. The nations of the north had learned important
lessons; her temptations, her disunion, and her consequent
powerlessness had been disclosed to them. This epoch may indeed be
regarded as the turning point of European history. From it the
liberties and prosperity of Italy declined, and the new combinations,
alliances, and intermarriages then formed by ultra-montane governments
gradually matured that political system which has since come to be
regarded as the bulwark of national independence. We have introduced
this rapid sketch of the French expedition, because, although it but
slightly influenced Guidobaldo's position, subsequent events, to which
it in some degree gave occasion, brought forward himself and his
successor as prominent actors. He had been engaged by the Venetian
republic to join the confederate army with four hundred and seventy
horse, but had no share in the disgraceful conflict at the Taro; his
squadrons, however, seem to have been there under his natural brother
Antonio, who, while commanding the reserve, might have turned the
fortune of the day, but for an oversight in the transmission of orders
to him.

The Pisan war was the immediate fruit of the French invasion, as
regarded the internal relations of the Peninsula. Charles, remembering
the old proverb, "sow divisions and rule," or perhaps from a mere love
of mischief-making, had instigated that city to throw off the yoke of
Florence, and re-establish its ancient republican independence. But
the support which he had pledged to it was forgotten, when personal
considerations rendered a retreat advisable; and the Pisans were left
to maintain themselves as best they could against their old rivals and
recent masters, with the aid of a French brigade under Monsieur
d'Entragues. The Florentines lost no time in engaging the Duke of
Urbino to command their troops for three years, who, by active and
well-judged movements, quickly possessed himself of Ponte Sacco,
Palaia, and other small towns about the Era. Their resistance was
punished with the usual barbarity of the time, by cold-blooded
cruelties which Guidobaldo does not appear to have shared or approved.
It seems questionable how far the blunders in an assault on Vicopisano
were owing to him or to the Florentine commissaries, who, as was usual
in the service of the great republics, were sent to control their
general; but the consequence was a repulse, after which he retired
into winter quarters. His subsequent operations in their service are
of no interest; their jealousies paralysing both his spirit and their
own.

The last year's experience was but short-lived in the Italian states.
Instead of profiting by the absence of their common foe to strengthen
themselves against a recurrence of danger, they resumed their innate
rivalries, and fomented fresh discord. The Florentines, far from
joining the league to expel Charles, continued to favour his cause,
attributing, with justice, to his advent their liberation from the
Medici and the re-establishment of a democratic government. What they,
above all things, dreaded was the return of that banished race, so
they kept aloof from any new combination that might lead to it. This
contumacy was looked upon with little favour by those powers who were
averse to popular institutions, or friendly to Pietro de' Medici;
besides which they apprehended that such a state of matters, if
allowed to continue, would facilitate a repetition of the late
invasion. In accordance with the crooked policy of the age, they
succoured Pisa, without any open declaration of the war which they
were in fact carrying on against Florence. This circumstance, and the
wonted bad faith of Ludovico il Moro, complicated a struggle which was
conducted in the drawling spirit of half-fighting, half-negotiating,
usual in such petty strifes. Ludovico finally tempted the Emperor to a
fresh invasion of Italy, in order to force Florence into the general
league, but he conducted the enterprise with equal feebleness and
faithlessness, and after having occupied Pisa, retreated without
leaving any material impression on the campaign, which declined into a
series of unimportant skirmishes. Meanwhile the Pope, the Venetians,
and Sforza united in exciting various neighbours of the Florentines,
such as the Bentivoglii, the Riarii, and Siena, to molest their
frontiers, whilst Virginio Orsini prepared to restore the Medici by
arms. This plan, however, fell to the ground, and Guidobaldo was soon
after summoned, as a vassal of the Church, to leave his incomplete
term of unsatisfactory service under the lilies of Florence, and join
the new combination formed by the Pontiff to replace Ferdinand upon
the Neapolitan throne.

The fate of the French army at Naples, against the wreck of which this
expedition was directed, has been already mentioned. The evolutions
whereby Guidobaldo, as lieutenant-general of the ecclesiastical
forces, in concert with the great Gonsalvo di Cordova, reduced some
Angevine feudatories in the Abruzzi, who, supported by the Orsini, for
a time resisted the restoration of the house of Aragon, need not
occupy our attention. The particulars are involved in contradiction,
and the results were unimportant to his fame. No sooner had Ferdinand
triumphed over his difficulties than he was called to another sphere.
He died in October, 1496, and was succeeded by his paternal uncle
Federigo. Of the French, not above five hundred escaped from sword and
pestilence to reach home.

Peace was once more restored to Italy, but not to the breast of that
turbulent Pontiff who was her curse. The moment was propitious for
resuming his favourite scheme of oppressing the Orsini, in whose
extensive estates he saw ample endowments for his own disreputable
progeny. The leaders of that family, Virginio, Gian-Giordano, Paolo,
and its adopted scion Bartolomeo d'Alviano of Orvieto, had fought
against Ferdinand's restoration, and all of them remained prisoners in
his hands.[257] The Pope at once perceived the chance thus offered,
and hastened to avail himself of it. After conciliating the Duke of
Urbino by a pompous reception on the 14th of October, and by assigning
him apartments in the Vatican, he held a secret consistory, which
attainted the Orsini on general charges of lese-majesty and rebellion,
and sanctioned the military occupation of their fiefs in name of the
Church. He entrusted the command to his son the Duke of Gandia,
associating with him the Duke of Urbino and Fabrizio Colonna (the
latter but too willing to promote the downfall of a rival house), and,
to inaugurate the expedition, he blessed the banners at St. Peter's,
with an imposing military and religious spectacle.

[Footnote 257: See their pedigree, so far as concerns our subject, in
the table at the end of this volume.]

The troops marched in October, and, having reduced Isola, a castle
within ten miles of Rome, which stood a twelve days' siege, many other
small strongholds speedily surrendered, their absent lords being
unable to aid in their defence. The fortress of Bracciano was,
however, strong by nature, and was held by Bartolomea, sister of
Virginio Orsini, with energy, talent, and unquailing resolution, which
saved her family in their urgent straits, and kept the assailants at
bay until her husband, Bartolomeo d'Alviano, escaping from Naples,
hastily raised a few old adherents of his adopted house, and hurried
to her rescue. The impetuous Alexander, disgusted by this dilatory
progress of affairs, had a lighter hastily built, and sent under a
strong escort to the lake of Bracciano, in order to aid the besiegers'
efforts, and to intercept the manoeuvres of the enemy, whose petty
force, passing by the water from one castle to another as occasion
required, was enabled to garrison the three separate strongholds of
Bracciano, Anguillara, and Trevignano. A well-timed ambuscade, laid by
d'Alviano, routed the escort, and the boat was burnt. In another sally
Bartolomeo, falling upon Cesare Borgia while hunting, chased him
almost to the gates of Rome, and, but for the fleetness of his horse,
would have obtained in his person the means of dictating terms to his
father. Of these incidents a partizan warfare was naturally more
productive than a more serious campaign.

Tired of such inglorious marauding, and aware how much delays might
tell against eventual success, Guidobaldo, although suffering from a
gunshot wound, pushed on operations to the utmost, but was met by a
most obstinate resistance, until affairs suddenly assumed an entirely
new aspect. Virginio, head of the Bracciano Orsini, his eldest son
Gian-Giordano, and cousin Paolo, were still captives at Naples; but
his natural son Carlo had repaired to the court of Charles VIII. to
crave assistance. There he found Vitellozzo Vitelli, on a similar
mission in behalf of his brother Paolo, who, having been suspected by
the Florentines of perfidy while in their service against Pisa, had
been arrested by them, and who was subsequently tortured and put to
death upon this charge. They easily obtained from that King a subsidy
to be employed for advantage of the French party in Italy, and,
hastening back, devoted it to the relief of Bracciano. The two Vitelli
were chiefs of a family whose pedigree is annexed, and who long held
Città di Castello in seigneury, greatly distinguished among the
military adventurers of the south. These brothers had paid especial
attention to training their hardy mountaineers in the art of war, with
all those improvements which the ultra-montane troops had recently
introduced. Vitellozzo, hurrying to the upper valley of the Tiber,
quickly recruited his old followers, whilst Carlo levied men about
Perugia and Todi. Guidobaldo with difficulty persuaded his coadjutors
to anticipate the attack thus preparing for them, by marching towards
Viterbo in quest of the enemy. In the action which followed, on the
23rd of January, the ecclesiastical troops, though inferior in
numbers, had at first some advantage, but the unskilful management of
their artillery turned the day, and they were in the end totally
routed, with loss of it and their baggage. Guidobaldo, having been
surrounded, fought with the utmost bravery, until his horse fell under
him, when he was taken prisoner by Battista Tosi, a Roman knight. In
this reverse the Colonna and Savelli shared deeply, their ancient
hatred of the Orsini having blinded them to the danger which they, in
turn, equally incurred from the selfish designs of the Pope. The
latter was filled with consternation, and would have brought the whole
force of Naples into the field. But his impetuous energy, being
neither based on principle nor maintained with perseverance, was
quickly discouraged by the coldness of Federigo, who had no
inclination to consume his already dilapidated resources in
ministering to the Pontiff's schemes of nepotism. The higher range to
which these projects were perhaps already aspiring may have conduced
to the arrangement by which his quarrel with the Orsini was patched
up, gilded as it was by the to him irresistible bait of 70,000 ducats
towards the expenses of the war.

The Duke of Urbino was committed to ward in Soriano, a castle of the
Orsini, near which his defeat had occurred, and the whole influence of
his family and numerous friends was exerted for his liberation under
the truce which ensued. With this view Dr. Marino Giorgi, envoy from
Venice to Naples, was instructed by the Signory to make a detour to
Urbino, in order in their name to console the Duchess, and then to
Soriano and Bracciano, for the purpose of negotiating her husband's
release.[258] But their interposition was fruitless, as he was
specially excluded from the free interchange of prisoners, and held to
ransom for 40,000 ducats, without which timely aid the Orsini would
have been unable to discharge the contribution imposed on them for the
costs of the war. Alexander having, without scruple, left a faithful
vassal and ally in his enemy's hands, had no delicacy in thus
pocketing from his captors the sum which this cruel abandonment cost
Guidobaldo. So large an amount was not, however, raised without
difficulty from the sale of jewels, and other heavy sacrifices by the
Duchess, and several of his subjects, which they did not hesitate to
incur. It may perhaps have been modified to 30,000 ducats, that being
the sum mentioned by Sanuto as paid for his liberation.[259] At
Gubbio he was warmly welcomed by his consort and people, and during
more than a year he enjoyed at home the blessings and leisure of
peace, "after having suffered much and most unfairly."

[Footnote 258: MARINO SANUTO'S Diary MS. i. 374. From another passage
in his annals we learn that a then usual scale of ransom was
twenty-five ducats for a man-at-arms, twelve for a light-horseman, and
three for a foot-soldier. These Diaries extend to fifty-seven large
volumes, from 1495 to 1533. Our various extracts from them were most
kindly communicated to us by Mr. Rawdon Brown, who has printed at
Venice a very curious digest of their contents, and whose successful
diligence in illustrating the secret history of that Republic may well
put her own citizens to the blush. They are preserved in Bib.
Marciana, MSS. Ital. classe vii. No. 419.]

[Footnote 259: Diary MS. i. 448.]

CHAPTER XVI

     The crimes and ambition of the Borgia--Murder of the Duke of
     Gandia--Duke Guidobaldo's expeditions against Perugia and
     Tuscany--He adopts Francesco Maria della Rovere as his
     heir--Louis XII. succeeds to Charles VIII., and to his views
     upon Italy--Cesare Borgia created Duke Valentino--Duke
     Guidobaldo at Venice.

Time was meanwhile maturing the crimes of the Borgia, whose sinister
influence upon the destiny of Guidobaldo was about to be signally
manifested. So far from regarding his spurious progeny with shame,
Alexander was indefatigable in his endeavours to elevate them to the
most conspicuous places. He had obtained for the eldest the dukedom of
Gandia in Spain, and one of the highest offices at Naples. For the
youngest he had secured, by political intrigue, a similar dignity
there, with the principality of Squillace, and the hand of an
illegitimate daughter of Alfonso II. He had loaded Cesare with
ecclesiastical benefices, and had remarried Lucrezia to the sovereign
of Pesaro. But his ambition became insatiable in proportion as it was
pampered. Upon a vague pretext he annulled his daughter's marriage,
that he might give her hand to the Duke of Bisceglia, natural son of
Alfonso. His schemes for endowing his sons with the Orsini holdings
having entirely miscarried, he resolved to provide for the Duke of
Gandia a sovereign principality from the states of the Church,
consisting of Benevento and Terracino. Having gained a complete
co-operation in the consistory, by frightening into exile or removing
by poison the more impracticable cardinals, and by overawing or
corrupting the others, he, on the 7th of June, invested the Duke with
these towns with due solemnity. Three days previously, Lucrezia had
retired to the convent of S. Sisto, to prepare for the formal rupture
of her marriage with Giovanni Sforza, whose murder would have
anticipated the divorce, had not a hint from her enabled him to save
his life by flight, _insalutato hospite_, as Machiavelli remarks.[260]
On the 9th, Cardinal Valentino received his credentials as legate for
the coronation of Frederick of Naples. On Thursday, the 15th, he set
out on his mission, after spending the preceding afternoon at a casino
of his mother, near S. Pietro in Vinculis, where all the family except
the sister were assembled in apparent harmony. He quitted it in
company with his eldest brother, who was never again seen in life, and
having visited his father at a late hour to receive a benediction, he
left Rome before dawn. When an alarm was raised on the Duke of
Gandia's disappearance, a boatman deposed to having seen, about one
o'clock on Thursday morning, a body thrown neck and heels into the
Tiber, at the present port of the Ripetta, by four attendants of a
mounted gentleman, who had brought it to the bank swung across his
horse. The river was dragged, and the Duke's body was found pierced
with wounds. He was said to have spent the preceding hours with a lady
in whose favours the Cardinal was his avowed rival. Public opinion,
though distracted by conflicting rumours, branded the latter with
fratricide, and scandal gave to that charge a still more loathsome
dye, by naming the lady Lucrezia Borgia. History has received the
former accusation as established, the latter as uncontradicted,
adducing against its truth no better argument than its revolting
improbability. It is, however, but just to pause ere we lend our faith
to charges so hideous. Burchard, though greedy of gossip, and seldom
scrupulous in exposing the Vatican immoralities, mentions no fact,
breathes no hint, tending to inculpate Cesare. Neither do contemporary
accounts from residents in the Holy City, preserved by Sanuto, attach
any such foul slur to his name, but chiefly mention Cardinal Ascanio
Sforza as then suspected of the murder.[261] They even prove that,
four days after it took place, the latter thought it necessary to
rebut the allegation by the mouth of the Spanish ambassador, in a full
consistory, from which he alone was absent. But this negation does not
appear to have quashed a surmise which gathered strength by scenting
out motives for the outrage. By some, Ascanio was regarded as an
unscrupulous instrument of the Orsini in their vengeance against the
Pontiff's family; others traced his evil purpose to a recent feud
between the Duke of Gandia and some guests at an entertainment given
by him, where mutual insults had led to bloody reprisals, imputed to
the implacable Borgia. Again, we are told by Burchard that the victim
was last seen in company with a masked figure, who had been observed
to follow him during several days, and whom he that night took up on
the crupper of his horse, probably to keep an assignation; a statement
easily reconcileable with the bargeman's evidence, and pointing
probably to some dark intrigue, whereto it does not appear that his
brother was necessarily privy.

[Footnote 260: The assertion of most historians, that the pretext was
Giovanni's impotency, is contradicted by very curious documents in the
suit of divorce. A commission having been issued by the Pontiff,
empowering two cardinals to examine into the facts, Lucrezia stated to
them that in her twelfth year she had been contracted in marriage, by
the words "Will you? I will," to Gaspare, son of Giovanni Francesco da
Procida, Count of Aversa, but that subsequently she had been induced
[_quadam facilitate_] to marry Sforza, and live with him above three
years; but she offered to prove by her own oath, and by the report of
_obstetrices_, that this marriage had never been consummated. Giovanni
averred himself ready to affirm on oath that no _copula_ had ever
followed, and he adhibited his consent to the divorce. These steps
took place towards the close of the year, and on the 18th of December
a bull issued dissolving this ill-fated union. Archiv. Dipl. Urb. at
Florence.]

[Footnote 261: SANUTO'S MS. Diary, Bib. Marc., vol. II., 466-71, 489,
495, 587-98. Compare with BURCHARD, _Eccard._, II., 2060; TOMMASI, I.,
223-43. Burchard has no trace of that partiality for Cesare at this
period, usually imputed to the Pontiff, but establishes an excessive
fondness for his elder brother up to his death. Roscoe rejects the
charge against the Cardinal; his German translator credits it.]

[Illustration: _Anderson_

CESARE BORGIA AS THE EMPEROR

_Detail from the fresco of the Disputa of S. Catherine in the
Appartamento Borgia in the Vatican_]

Although the Duke of Gandia's morals will bear no examination, he was
a general favourite in Rome. To a people fond of pageantry the taste
of his family for splendour was naturally grateful, and he, alone, of
the race, mingled neither tyranny nor cruelty with his magnificence.
The bargeman of the Ripetta had manifested neither surprise nor
curiosity regarding an incident which he stated to be of frequent
occurrence at that spot; but when the victim was ascertained, the
whole city was moved; the tradespeople closed their shops,[*262] and
all retired panic-stricken to their homes. The few stragglers who
crossed the bridge near to which the mutilated body had been found,
started at the cry of many sorrowing voices which issued from St.
Angelo, and one deep-toned note of woe, which rose above the wailing,
was imputed to the Pontiff, "lamenting him who was his right eye, the
hope and glory of his house." His grief and horror were indeed
overwhelming: we are assured that he swallowed nothing from Wednesday
till Saturday, and passed three successive nights without an hour of
sleep. On the 19th he held a consistory, to receive the condolence of
the cardinals and foreign ministers, whom he addressed to the
following purpose[263]:--

"The Duke of Gandia is dead, and his death has been to us the greatest
affliction: a more grievous trial we could not have met with, for we
loved him mightily, and we no longer value our popedom nor anything;
nay, had we seven popedoms, we should give them all to recover the
Duke's life. It is rather a visitation from God, sent, perhaps, for
some sin of ours, than that he should have merited a death so
dreadful. It being unknown by whom he was murdered and thrown into
the Tiber, rumour has ascribed the assassination to the Lord of
Pesaro, which we are certain is untrue; no more can it have been done
by the Prince of Squillace, brother of the Duke; and we are even
satisfied as to the Duke of Urbino: may God forgive who ever it was!
We have, however, determined no longer to apply to anything, nor take
any charge of the papacy, nor of life itself, nor any thought for the
Church; but in order to regulate it and our mode of life, and for the
due correction of our own person, we mean to commit these to six of
you, most reverend cardinals our brethren, along with two judges of
the Rota; and in order that all benefices may be bestowed by merit,
apart from any other consideration, they shall be decided by a
majority of you cardinals." After naming this executive council, and
hearing a justification of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, volunteered in his
absence by the Spanish ambassador, the Pope continued:--"God forbid
that we should entertain such a fancy, for never could we credit that
his Lordship would do us the smallest injury, least of all an outrage
such as this; for we have regarded him as a brother, and have on every
occasion placed ourselves at the disposal of himself and of the Duke
his brother: assuredly we harbour not the trace of such an idea, and
when he comes to us he will be welcome."

[Footnote *262: They always did; it was a mediæval practice in the
case of any trouble or riot: it might seem the merest common sense.
But the truth is, that when a crime had been committed the government
closed the shops till the culprit was forthcoming.]

[Footnote 263: SANUTO. Yet there are scoffers who sneered at this
worthy successor of St. Peter the fisher, netting the river for his
bastard son! Burchard apud Raynaldum.]

It was, indeed, high time that the scandals brought upon the Church by
the enormities of her head should terminate. Alexander had for some
time been openly living with a sister of Cardinal Farnese, wife of
Monoculo Orsini, who was known as Giulia Bella; and who, after
appearing prominently by his side on all public and solemn occasions,
had lately borne him a son.[264] But even now he realised the
scriptural proverb of "the dog turned to his own vomit again, and the
sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." The remorse and
repentance he had avowed, in full consistory, with sobs and tears,
were quickly forgotten; the public reforms he had promised were
repudiated; the administrative council he had formally nominated was
never assembled nor installed. Nepotism and intrigue again became his
policy, debauchery his pastime. Those who charge the Cardinal
Valentino with his brother's murder, may point to the exclamation, "I
know who did it," which was said to have escaped from their father in
the first outbreak of his grief; and it has been by some connected
with the alleged institution of Giovanni, their next brother, to the
titles and inheritance of the Duke of Gandia, passing over the
suspected fratricide. This, however, is an entirely erroneous
assumption, as there not only appears no brother of the Duke of Gandia
bearing his honours, but the invaluable diary of Sanuto expressly
mentions an investiture of the Neapolitan fiefs obtained for his _son_
within a few weeks of his death.[265] The Pontiff's displeasure with
Cesare, from whatever cause originating, was transient as his personal
reformation. His schemes of aggrandisement could not be pursued
without the co-operation of him who, alone of his children, was as
ambitious and as unscrupulous as himself, and the close of the year
brought Valentino an addition to his already enormous plurality of
benefices, upon the death of the Cardinal of Parma.

[Footnote 264: The papal legitimation of this Giovanni di Borgia, then
in his third year, dated the kalends of September, 1501, proceeds upon
this preamble: "Legittime genitos, ex quorum verisimilibus infantilis
ætatis indiciis, spes concipi potest quod, succedentibus annis, se in
viros debeant producere virtuosos, quousque progenitorum suorum
præclara merita, et ortûs generosa propago decorant, naturæ vitium
minime decolorat, quia decus virtutum genituræ maculam abstergit in
filiis, et pudicitia morum pudor originis aboletur." He is called a
son of Cesare, but in another, and probably secret, brief of the same
date, the Pope recognises him, nevertheless, as his own offspring by
an _unmarried_ woman, this description being also a legal fiction.]

[Footnote 265: SANUTO, Diario MS. i. 539.]

Valentino had endeavoured, by the imposing splendour of his legation
to Naples, and by scattering immoderate largesses, to dazzle, and if
possible blind, men to the Cain-brand that was upon him. But when he
developed a new scheme of aggrandisement, by proffering to a daughter
of Federigo a hand which his unscrupulous father was ready to liberate
from priestly vows, the King and the Princess alike recoiled from an
offer tainted by sacrilege and fratricide. We have seen that a similar
refusal by Ferdinand I. was a principal cause for Charles VIII. being
invited into Italy. Unwarned by that result of a wretched policy, the
Pontiff prepared to repeat it in circumstances still more fatal to the
Peninsula. Cesare Borgia returned from his legation on the 5th of
September, and was received with every mark of honour and favour by
his father, who appeared to have dismissed the Duke of Gandia's very
existence from his mind. The pontifical court was once more a scene of
alternate dissipation and crime, and the Cardinal of Valencia was the
moving spirit of both. In December, Lucrezia's divorce was pronounced,
and her dowry of 31,000 ducats returned; next August she became wife
of Alfonso Duke of Bisceglia, with an augmented provision of 40,000
ducats, he being then seventeen years of age.

In the following summer, the Duke of Urbino was induced to unite with
the Prefect della Rovere in an expedition against Perugia, for the
purpose of restoring the Oddi, who, as heads of the Ghibellines, had
been expelled from thence by their rivals, the Guelphic
Baglioni.[*266] But from this enterprise the Pope speedily recalled
him by a remonstrance, which with wonted devotion he hastened to obey,
stipulating, however, for indemnity of the expenses he had incurred,
amounting to 5000 scudi. About the same time he lost his relation and
counsellor Ottaviano Ubaldini, Count of Mercatello, who died at an
advanced age.

[Footnote *266: For this expedition, see MATARAZZO, _Chronicle of
Perugia_ (Dent), p. 243 _et seq._]

The services of Guidobaldo were speedily required in another quarter;
and by one of those sudden changes, not unusual to soldiers of
fortune, he found himself comrade of his late opponents, the Orsini
and Baglioni.[*267] The occasion was the recommencement of the Pisan
war, when the fickle usurper of Milan joined the Florentines in their
attempts to reduce that city to its former obedience; a combination
which, arousing the jealousy of Venice, induced her to adopt the cause
of Pisa. Pietro de' Medici and his brother Giuliano availed themselves
of this opportunity to make another effort for their re-establishment
in that capital. They offered to support an invasion of Tuscany, with
all the aid which their own credit and the Orsini influence could
bring into the field; and the maritime republic, accepting the
proposal, took into their pay, besides the Baglioni of Perugia, the
Duke of Urbino with two hundred men-at-arms, and a hundred light
horse, for which they allowed him 20,000 scudi a year.[268] Having
gained over one of the Malatesta, owner of a small fief in the passes
above Sarsina, the confederates sent forward Bartolomeo d'Alviano,
who, penetrating the mountain paths about Camaldoli, entered Tuscany
and seized Bibbiena, in the upper Val d'Arno, ere the Florentines were
aware of the incursion. Guidobaldo followed with a strong body of men,
and, finding the season vigorous, went into winter quarters in that
and the adjoining towns. The enemy was led by Paulo Vitelli, whose
judicious arrangements and great activity, having closed all the
defiles around them, kept them in a state of siege during the winter,
cutting off their supplies, surprising their posts, and tempting their
men to desertion, until they were reduced to great straits. The Duke's
health, already broken by frequent gouty attacks, suffered sadly from
the severe climate of these mountain sites, and the privations of an
ill-supplied commissariat. The critical position of his army
aggravated his malady by preying upon his spirits, and his
applications for a physician were coldly refused by his assailants. At
length, in the middle of February, their general, Vitelli, on his own
responsibility, granted him free passage home to Urbino, an act of
charity afterwards severely visited upon his head by the authorities
of Florence. Disgusted by the losses of a campaign fruitlessly
protracted by disinclination of the respective commanders to risk
their reputation in an engagement, the Venetians recalled the
reinforcements which they had sent under Nicolò di Petigliano, and
abandoned the cause of Pisan independence for that wider field of
ambition which the schemes of Louis XII. were developing.

[Footnote *267: For the peace, July 6, 1498, see V. ANSIDEI, _La Pace
fra Guidobaldo Duca d'Urbino e il Comune di Perugia_, in _Boll. per
l'Umbria_, vol. V., p. 741 _et seq._]

[Footnote 268: Bembo says 170 pounds of gold. _Hist. Venet._, IV.
Navigero puts the mounted cross-bow-men at 200. MURATORI, _R.I.S._,
xxiii. 1214.]

The Cardinal della Rovere, who, during nearly all the pontificate of
Alexander, provided for his safety by absence from Rome, had shared
the hardships of the Bibbiena campaign, and escaped from them with
Guidobaldo. Whilst thus thrown together they seem to have planned an
arrangement which opened a new era for Urbino. Feeling that in himself
must terminate the male investiture of his states, and dreading that
by his early decease they might lapse to a Pope who would joyfully
endow with them one of his odious progeny, the Duke willingly listened
to a suggestion of the Cardinal, that he should adopt their mutual
nephew Francesco Maria della Rovere, son of the Prefect of Sinigaglia,
then a promising boy of eight years old. At first they thought of
concealing this design from Alexander, but Guidobaldo, aware that
without his sanction it could not be matured, and trusting to the hold
which his services and dutiful obedience ought to have given him in
that quarter, soon proposed it for his approval. The successor of St.
Peter, anticipating the modern discovery that words are given to
conceal thoughts, professed great satisfaction with the plan, and
hinted at bestowing the hand of his niece Angela Borgia upon the
presumptive heir of Urbino. A brief interval removed the flimsy veil,
and proved that the Pontiff was ready to anticipate the lapse of that
dukedom, without awaiting his vassal's death.

The great convulsions impending over Italy require another general
glance at the new combinations which the politics of Southern Europe
had assumed. Charles VIII. died of apoplexy on the 7th of April, 1498,
and was succeeded by his second cousin, Louis XII., first of the
Orleans branch of Valois. Though a prince of narrow views and somewhat
feeble character, he became the instrument of unprecedented
misfortunes to Italy. In him were centred the Angevine claims upon
Naples which his predecessor had asserted; and likewise such
pretensions upon the Milanese as vested in the heir of line of the
Visconti, through his grandmother Valentina, sister of the last Duke.
Upon these grounds he at once assumed the style of King of Naples and
Jerusalem, and Duke of Milan, and avowed his intention of rendering
the latter at least of these titles effectual. Federigo of Aragon and
Ludovico Sforza trembled at the impending danger; but, with
unaccountable blindness, the other powers strove who should be
foremost to offer their alliance to the invader. The Venetians hailed
the certain punishment of a tyrannical usurper, who had aided in
thwarting them in their recent attempts to maintain the independence
of Pisa. They and the princes of Romagna and La Marca remembered how
little their several interests had suffered from the expedition of
Charles. Florence conceived that the return of the French was the
surest guarantee of their democratic independence against the
re-establishment of the Medici. The Pope, as usual, had in view
ulterior and private ends. His late indignation against his son, the
Cardinal, had, with unaccountable revulsion, been succeeded by an
increased fondness. The latter reminded him that the years passed
since his elevation to the tiara had brought no fulfilment of those
schemes of aggrandisement which their mutual ambition had nourished.
His recent domestic catastrophe perhaps warned the father how much
might be dared by a disappointed son. Every consideration urged upon
both the necessity of a great effort to obtain for Cesare a sovereign
principality; and conscious that this scheme would have the best
chance of success at a moment of general confusion, they resolved to
effect it through the instrumentality of a new French invasion, if no
readier means offered for their purpose.

Louis XII. had set his mind upon divorcing his queen, Jeanne, the
daughter of Louis XI., in order to marry Anne of Bretagne, widow of
his predecessor, for which purpose papal dispensations were required,
and for these he was a suppliant. The Borgia seized the golden moment
to pledge him to their views. Cesare had been created a Cardinal in
1494, by means of suborned oaths, that he was the lawful son of a
Roman citizen, for illegitimacy was a bar to that dignity. On the
pretext that ecclesiastical orders had been unwillingly conferred upon
him, his father, on the 17th of September, annulled them in full
consistory, and accepted a renunciation of his cardinal's hat. Next
day he appeared in a rich military costume of the latest French
fashion, and forthwith took shipping for Marseilles, on a special
embassy to the French court, where he arrived about the 18th of
October. The following letter of recommendation which he bore is
preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi, and being to all intents a
private missive, written and addressed by the Pope's own hand,
possesses a very different interest from ordinary papal brieves.

     "To our well-beloved son in Christ, the most Christian King
     of the French;

     "I.H.S. MARIA.

     "Pope Alexander VI., with his own hand.

     "Health and the apostolic benediction to our most dear son
     in Christ. Anxious in all respects to accomplish your and
     our own desires, we destine to your Majesty our heart, that
     is, our favourite son, Duke Valentino, who is prized by us
     beyond aught else, as a signal and most estimable token of
     our affection towards your Highness, to whom no further
     commendation of him is required; and we only ask that you
     will so treat him, who is thus commissioned to your royal
     person, as that all may, for our satisfaction, perceive that
     in his mission he has been in every respect most acceptable
     to your Majesty. Given at St. Peter's, Rome, the 28th of
     September." [1498.][269]

[Footnote 269: _Molini Documenti di Storia Italiana_, i. 29.]

This mission was ostensibly to present Louis with his divorce; but the
Duke, in fact, carried also a dispensation for his union with Queen
Anne, which had been secretly granted, and which he thus held, ready
to deliver it as soon as he should gain the royal consent to certain
conditions for his own aggrandisement, the prize then in distant
perspective being nothing less than the sceptre of Naples.[270]

[Footnote 270: See the curious disclosures of a Venetian ambassador,
printed by Ranke, _History of the Popes_, Appendix, sect. i., No. 3.
The exposition, by Machiavelli, of the French policy, and of the
persevering pursuit of sovereignty by the Borgia, is interesting and
instructive; _Il Principe_, ch. iii. and vii.]

Relieved from a character and garb but ill-adapted to his temperament
and habits, Cesare Borgia at once assumed the bearing and pomp of
sovereignty to which his gradually extending ambition now aspired. All
Rome had been busied in preparing his outfit, which is stated by
Sanuto at 100,000 ducats; and the magnificence of his following may
be estimated from the assertion that his chargers were shod with
silver, or, as some say, with gold. An account of his presentation at
the French court will be found in the Appendix X., with details of
splendour befitting lavish tastes. His reception was suited to such
pretensions, and Louis, well appreciating his disposition, prefaced
all negotiation by presenting him with a dukedom, a pension of 20,000
francs, and a similar sum in name of yearly pay for himself and a
hundred lances. As he had been styled Cardinal Valentino, from
Valencia in Spain, he now became Duke Valentino, from Valence in
Dauphiny.

But the intrigues of the Borgia had not entirely abandoned the hope of
an alliance for Cesare with a princess of Naples, notwithstanding the
cold reception which such a proposal had met with on his recent
legation at her father's court. Carlotta, daughter of Federigo, by his
first wife, a princess of Savoy, was resident in France, and they
hoped to sell the Pope's sanction to the French King's designs upon
Milan, for the influence of Louis in favour of her marriage to the
Duke Valentino, with the sovereignty of Tarento as her dowry. This
project was, however, finally abandoned, on receiving from the lady a
scornful refusal to soil her hand by uniting it with an apostate
priest, the son of a priest, a blood-thirsty fratricide, as base in
character as in birth. This result was not a little pleasing to Louis,
who, with a view to his ulterior designs upon Naples, was much more
content that the Duke should be the insulted suitor than the