1494
The short week which had elapsed between the king's departure from Pavia and the return of Lodovico to the French camp had effected a complete change in the situation. Suddenly the Moro found himself at the height of his ambition, elected duke by popular acclamation, and in actual possession of the throne, while he held in his hands the imperial diploma that was to give him a surer and safer title to the duchy than any of his race had possessed.
"All that this man does prospers, and all that he dreams of by night comes true by day," wrote the Venetian chronicler. "And, in truth, he is esteemed and revered throughout the world and is held to be the wisest and most successful man in Italy. And all men fear him, because fortune favours him in everything that he undertakes."
But already ugly rumours began to be whispered abroad. The unhappy duke, it was openly said at Florence and Venice, had, it was plain, died of poison, administered by his uncle. The moment of his death was so opportune, and fitted in so exactly with Lodovico's plans; the promptness with which the Moro had acted in seizing the crown which ought to have belonged to Giangaleazzo's son, helped to confirm the suspicions that were aroused in the minds of men whom the new duke's policy had inspired with distrust, and who looked with jealous eyes on the success of his diplomacy. The French king's doctor, Theodore Guainiero of Pavia, was quite sure he had detected signs of poisoning in the sick duke's face when he had been present at the interview between his royal master and poor Giangaleazzo at Pavia. Contemporary chroniclers, improving upon this remark, with one voice asserted that the doctor had found evident traces of poison on the body at a post-mortem examination held after the duke's death, ignoring the fact that at that moment Theodore Guainiero was with King Charles at Piacenza. So the legend grew, and found ready acceptance among both French and Italians, who alike hated the Moro with deadly hatred.
"And if the duke were dispatched by poison, there was none," wrote the Florentine historian, "that held that his uncle was innocent, and either directly or indirectly, as he, who not content with an absolute power, but aspiring, according to the common desires of great men, to make themselves glorious with titles and honours, and especially he judged that both for his proper heritage and the succession of his children, the death of the lawful duke was necessary, wherein ambition and covetousness prevailed above conscience and law of nature, and the jealous desire of dominion enforced his disposition, otherwise abhorring blood, to that vile action."
The careful examination of the various documents connected with Giangaleazzo's death has led recent historians to a different conclusion. "Nothing is further from the truth," writes Magenta, in his history of the "Castello di Pavia," "than that Giangaleazzo died of poison." And Delaborde, Porrò, Cantù, as well as those able and learned scholars, Signor Luzio and Signor Renier, all endorse these statements, and ascribe the duke's death to natural causes. Even Paolo Giovio, who hated the Moro as the man who had betrayed his country to the French, owns that there is much reason for doubting the truth of the accusation brought against him in this instance. Charles VIII., it is plain, did not himself believe in Lodovico's guilt. When the news of Giangaleazzo's death reached him, he caused a solemn requiem mass to be held in the Duomo of Piacenza, and distributed liberal alms to the poor of the town in memory of his dead cousin. And Galeazzo di Sanseverino, who had remained in attendance upon the king, informed Lodovico, in one of his letters, that the only remark which His Most Christian Majesty had made on the subject was to express his sorrow for the duke's orphan children, and to say that he hoped Signor Lodovico would treat them as his own, to which Galeazzo replied that he might rest assured they would want for nothing. But the suspicion that the duke's end had been hastened by his uncle's act found general acceptance in the French army, and deepened the distrust with which Lodovico was already regarded. At this critical moment, the unexpected action of Piero de' Medici helped to bring about a breach between the Moro and his allies.
When, on the 31st of October, the new duke reached the French camp before the Tuscan castle of Sarzana, he found to his surprise that Piero de' Medici, who up to this time had been the staunchest ally of Naples, had arrived there the day before, to make his submission to King Charles. Sanuto relates how this craven son of the magnificent Lorenzo threw himself at the feet of the French monarch, and promised to accept whatever conditions he chose to impose. Not only did he agree to give the army of Charles free passage through Tuscany, and to dismiss the Florentine troops which he had levied, but he actually promised to surrender the six strongholds of Sarzana, Sarzanello, Pietra Santa, Librafratta, Leghorn, and Pisa. Thus, without a single blow, the city and state of Florence was placed at the mercy of the invaders. Even the French councillors who negotiated the terms of the treaty, were amazed at the readiness with which their demands were accepted, and told Commines afterwards that they marvelled to see Piero de' Medici settle so weighty a matter with so much lightness of heart, "mocking and jeering at his cowardice as they spoke." Lodovico, on his part, received the news of Piero's disgraceful concessions with ill-concealed disgust. Now that he had attained his own objects, and had nothing to fear from Alfonso, whose armies were in full retreat, he would willingly have seen the progress of the French delayed, and the king forced to winter in Tuscany, and was bitterly annoyed to find that the passes of the Apennines were in the hands of Charles, as well as the castles and ports which he had hoped to obtain for Milan as the price of his alliance. Guicciardini relates how he met Piero de' Medici that day in the camp, and how his old friend's son, anxious to ingratiate himself with the powerful duke, made excuses for not having given him an official welcome into Florentine territory, saying that he had ridden out to meet him, but had missed his way. "One of us certainly missed the way," replied the duke, with a bitter meaning under his courteous phrases; "perhaps it is you who have taken the wrong road."
But he hid his vexation as best he could, when he entered the French king's presence, and boldly asked Charles to give him the castles of Sarzana and Pietra Santa, which had formerly belonged to Genoa. When the king replied that he preferred to keep these forts in his own hands until his return from Naples, Lodovico once more disguised his feelings, and contented himself with asking for a renewal of the investiture of Genoa, formerly granted to his nephew, which he obtained on payment of 30,000 ducats. After this he saw no reason for remaining in the French camp any longer, and, pleading urgent State affairs, he left again for Milan on the 3rd of November.
"Et merveilleusement malcontent," says Commines, "se partit du Roy pour le reffuz."
Only the Count of Caiazzo, with a troop of fifty horse, remained in the French camp, while Galeazzo di Sanseverino and Duchess Beatrice's brother, Ferrante d'Este, were the sole Italians to be seen riding in the royal procession when Charles made his triumphal entry into Florence. "Many thought then," adds the Sieur d'Argenton, "that he wished the king out of Italy." A week later he recalled the Milanese troops from Romagna, saying that their presence was no longer needed. For the present, however, the new Duke of Milan took a strictly neutral line, and while he outwardly maintained friendly relations with France, at the same time received congratulatory messages on his accession from the Pope, the Doge and Signory of Venice, and his old enemy, Alfonso of Naples, who forgot all the grievances of the past in his dismay at the approach of the French invaders.
On the 6th of November Lodovico returned to Milan, and joined his wife at Vigevano, where Beatrice had remained during her husband's absence with her infant son. We have no letters to tell us what her feelings were at this eventful period, and do not learn if she joined her husband during the few days of his hurried visit to Milan in October. But we are glad to find that she expressed sympathy with the unhappy widow of Giangaleazzo, and showed real concern for her cousin's melancholy condition. After her husband's death, Isabella's courage and fortitude broke down under the long strain, and for some days she shut herself up in a dark room, and refused to take food, or accept any comfort. Four Milanese councillors waited upon her at Pavia to offer their condolences, and invited her to come to Milan in the name of the new duke and the people, assuring her that she and her children should be treated with due honour, and retain possession of the ducal residence in the Castello. This attention gratified her, and Paolo Bilia, an old and faithful servant, who had been long in her service, wrote by her desire to Lodovico on the 28th of October—
"My Lady is much pleased to hear that you have accepted the gift which she sent you, and is grateful for the kind messages which she has received from Your Illustrious Consort, as well as the offers which you have made her, and the addresses of the councillors. Under Niccolo da Cusano's treatment her health has certainly improved; and the children are very well, only the boy objects to the black clothes and hangings of the rooms."
A week later the Councillor Pusterla wrote that he visited the Duchess every day, and found her much rested, and already considerably calmer, and was charged to convey her warmest thanks to the duke for his kindness, and express her wish to show herself in all things his obedient daughter. But she still refused to leave Pavia, and shrank from seeing any one but her children and servants.
"The duchess," wrote Donato de Preti from Milan to his mistress Isabella d'Este, "has not yet arrived here, but is expected on Friday. All the rooms and furniture in the Castello are hung with black. To-day a man who came from Pavia is said to have brought word that Count Borella had been sent to ask the duchess for her son Francesco, but that she had refused to send him. This, however, may not be true, for the person who told me is not to be trusted."
On the 29th of November, the same informant wrote again—
"The widowed duchess has not yet come to Milan. It appears that she has asked leave to remain at Pavia until after her confinement, and this she will certainly do. I hear that she still mourns her dead lord."
Her mother-in-law, Duchess Bona, remained with her at Pavia, and here, on the first of December, she received a visit from Chiara Gonzaga, a sister of the Marquis of Mantua, and wife of Gilbert, Duke of Montpensier, who was captain-general of the French army. This princess, who was now on her way to Mantua, was sincerely attached to both Isabella and Beatrice d'Este, and proved a loyal friend to Lodovico at the French court, while after her husband's death he, in his turn, gave her the benefit of his powerful help in her efforts to obtain the recovery of her fortune from the French king. There seems, however, to have been no truth in the report that the widowed duchess was again with child, and on the 6th of December she finally summoned up courage to return to Milan. On her arrival she was received by Beatrice, and Barone, the jester, who was on the same familiar terms with the Marchioness of Mantua as he was with her sister, sent her the following pathetic account of their meeting—
"Last night the Duchess Isabella arrived in Milan, and our duchess went to meet her, two miles outside the town, and directly they met, our duchess got out of her chariot and entered that of Duchess Isabella, both of them weeping bitterly, and so they rode together towards the Castello, where the Duke of Milan met them on horseback at the gate of the garden. He took off his cap, and accompanied them to the Castello, where they all three alighted, and placing Duchess Isabella between them, our duke and duchess accompanied her to her old rooms. When they reached these rooms they sat down together, and the Duchess Isabella could do nothing but weep, until at last the duke spoke to her, and begged her to calm herself, and be comforted, with many other similar words. Dear friend, the hardest heart would have been melted with compassion at the sight of her, with her three children, looking so thin and altered by her grief, wearing a long black robe like a friar's habit, made of rough cloth, worth fourpence the yard, and her eyes hidden by a thick black veil. Certainly I, for one, could not help crying, and if I had not restrained myself, I should have wept still more."[55]
Until the death of Beatrice, Isabella of Aragon and her children occupied the rooms in the Castello where she and her husband had formerly resided, and spent the spring and summer in the Castello of Pavia, but the widowed duchess lived in complete retirement during the next two years, and her name seldom appears in contemporary records. Her mother-in-law Bona, retained her rooms until the following January, when the duke desired her to move to the old palace near the Duomo, known as the Corte Vecchia, partly because the use of her apartments was required by the court officials, and partly owing to the intrigues which she secretly practised. Only lately Lodovico's envoys at Antwerp had informed him of the bitter words which Bona wrote against him to her daughter Bianca, words which the empress's secretary thought it wiser to pass over when he read her mother's letters aloud, taking care, he adds, to see that they were burnt before they could do further mischief. A year afterwards, Bona left Milan for good and returned to France, where she lived at Amboise until the end of 1499, when she came back to her native land of Savoy, and died at Fossano on the 8th of January, 1504.
Meanwhile Maffeo Pirovano, after being delayed on his journey by violent storms and floods, and narrowly escaping with his life from the brigands and highwaymen who infested the streets of Cologne, had at length reached Antwerp and discharged his errand. In his letters to the duke, he gives an interesting account of his interview with the emperor, whose imposing presence and gracious kindness made a deep impression upon him.
"The Most Serene King has the noblest bodily presence as well as the greatest qualities of mind and soul, and as far as you can judge from outward signs, I should say that his Majesty's wisdom and loyalty are beyond dispute, and that there is no prince in the world whom he esteems more highly than your Excellency. And if I asked why all the king's dealings appear slow and tardy, I should say that this was caused by two obstacles, which neither of them proceed from his Majesty's own fault. The first is want of money, and the second the little confidence that he can place in his ministers."
Maffeo was able to give Lodovico satisfactory assurances as to Maximilian's readiness to confirm him in the investiture of Milan. He promised to send the letters forthwith, but desired the duke to allow no one but his brother Cardinal Ascanio to see a copy, and not to publish them before March. "He fears," wrote the Milanese envoy, "in the first place the electors of the Diet, and in the second the wrath of King Alfonso of Naples. But his Majesty promises to speak to the electors as soon as possible, and after that will have the privileges drawn up by the chancellor, and will send a solemn embassy to put the duke in possession of his dignities and the realm.
The young empress, who, Maffeo remarked, "is not very wise," was overjoyed to see an old friend, and had much to hear about her beloved Milanese home. She wrote an affectionate little note to her uncle, lamenting her poor brother's death and congratulating him on his accession, which she called "a due reward of all the benefits which we have received from your Excellency."[56]
And when Maffeo left Antwerp early in December to return to Milan, he received a whole string of commissions from her Majesty. He was, in the first place, to visit and condole with her mother, her widowed sister-in-law, and her brother Ermes, and to commend the Duchess Isabella and her children especially to the duke. Then he was to beg the duke and duchess to send her their latest portraits, as well as those of her mother, brother, sister-in-law, and her sister Madonna Anna, wife of Alfonso d'Este. There was a special message to Beatrice, begging her for some perfumes and powders, a ball of musk, and a bunch of heron's plumes. And there was another for Lodovico, asking him to try and procure a certain set of pearls from Bianca's half-sister, Caterina Sforza, the famous Madonna of Forli. Last of all, there was an earnest request that the duke would entreat her lord the Most Serene King to come to Italy, and write urgently to him on the subject, without, however, letting it appear that the suggestion had proceeded from Bianca herself.
In these communications between the empress and her family there is no trace whatever of any ill-will to Lodovico and Beatrice, far less any suspicion that her uncle had hastened her brother's death, although some chroniclers allude to a report that Maximilian's wife held Lodovico to be guilty of this crime. The fact that some rumour of this kind had reached the imperial court seems probable from the Latin letter which Lodovico himself addressed in December, 1494, to the Bishop of Brixen, one of the delegates who were afterwards sent to Milan with the imperial privilege. In this letter the Moro refutes the calumny which he hears had been brought against him in certain quarters, and points out that his nephew's death had been due to natural causes, that the late duke had been ill for many months, and that he had been assiduously attended by his devoted wife and the most skilful doctors, three of whom had known him from his cradle. He alludes to the visit paid to Giangaleazzo a few days before his death by His Most Christian Majesty, and explains that he himself was only prevented from being present at his nephew's death-bed by the necessity of attending on the French king. "Nothing," he adds, "could be more contrary to our nature than so great a crime." In conclusion, he dwells on the fatherly love which he had always shown his nephew, and renews his protestations of devotion to His Most Serene Majesty the King of the Romans. In point of fact, as both Maffeo and Brasca informed their master the subject which disquieted Maximilian at this moment far more than poor Giangaleazzo's death, was the rapid advance of the French king. A rumour had reached the German court that Charles aspired to the imperial title, and intended to make the Pope crown him in Rome. This report filled the emperor-elect with dismay, and he turned to the Milanese envoys with the words, "I know that the Duke of Milan has great power in Italy, and has proved his faith and good intentions towards myself, but I hope, since he is so wise in everything, that he will make some difference between me and the King of France."
Lodovico, however, needed no warning on this subject, and was as much alarmed as any of his neighbours at the extraordinary success which had attended Charles VIII.'s expedition. Florence and Siena both received him within their gates, and helped him with loans of money and supplies of corn. On the 4th of December he left Siena; by the 10th he was at Viterbo, within sixty miles of Rome, and sent the Pope word that he would spend Christmas in the Vatican and treat with him there. For a moment Alexander VI., encouraged by the arrival of the Duke of Calabria's army under the walls of the eternal city, put on a bold face and defied Charles to do his worst. The same day he arrested the cardinals Ascanio Sforza and Sanseverino at a consistory in the Vatican, upon which Galeazzo di Sanseverino, who was at Viterbo with the French king, rode all the way to Vigevano in three days, to take Lodovico the news of this insult to his family. The duke was furious, and vowed vengeance upon the Pope. But Alexander's courage soon failed him. In a few days his defiant mood gave place to one of abject terror, the two cardinals were released and sent to plead the Pope's cause with Charles VIII., and on the 30th of December Ferrante retired with his troops towards Naples. That same day the French king entered Rome by the Flaminian Gate, and rode in triumphal procession along the Corso with Cardinals Giuliano delle Rovere and Ascanio Sforza at his side, both of them, remarks Commines, great enemies of the Pope, and still greater enemies of one another. Alexander fled for shelter to the Castello Sant'Angelo, and Charles took up his abode in the palace of San Marco, from which he dictated terms of peace to the terrified pontiff. Already a rumour had reached Milan that the Pope was to be deposed, and that the French king intended to attempt a general reformation of the scandals that disgraced the Church.
"His Most Christian Majesty," remarked Lodovico, drily, "had better begin by reforming himself." And when the Venetian ambassador Sebastian Badoer and Benedetto Trevisano arrived at Vigevano to take counsel with the duke in this perilous state of affairs, he spoke very contemptuously of the king's person and character.
"The Most Christian King," he said, "is young and foolish, with little presence and still less mental power. When I was with him at Asti, treating of important matters, his councillors spent their time eating and playing cards in his presence. Sometimes he would dictate a letter by one man's advice, and then withdraw it at the suggestion of another. He is haughty and ill-mannered, and when we were together, he has more than once left me alone in the room like a beast, to go and dine with his friends."
And he proceeded to remind the Venetian envoys how he had sent his wife, Duchess Beatrice, to warn the Signoria of the critical state of affairs, and how his advice had been neglected, and nothing had been done.
"It is true," the duke added, "that I lent the king money, but at the same time I gave him good advice. 'Sire,' I said to him, 'drive out the tyrant Piero de' Medici, and give Florence her old liberties;' and when I refused to accompany him further, I desired Messer Galeaz to defend the freedom and rights of both Florence and Siena. You see how little the king has followed my advice and how cruel and insolent he has shown himself. These French are bad people, and we must not allow them to become our neighbours."
In reality, what disturbed the Duke of Milan far more than the success of Charles in the south, was the presence of Louis of Orleans with a body of troops at Asti. When Charles left Asti in October, his cousin was ill with an attack of fever, and had been compelled to remain behind. The close vicinity of this dangerous neighbour, and the boldness with which Orleans asserted his claim on Milan, led the Moro to use all his influence with Maximilian to induce him to join his old enemies, the Venetians, in a common league against the French. While these negotiations were being secretly carried on, the victorious French king had, on the 15th of January, signed a treaty with the Pope, by which the crown of Naples was bestowed upon him, and the chief fortresses of the Papal States were surrendered into his hands until his return. The next day Charles attended mass at St. Peter's, and met the Pope in the Vatican—"a very fine house," he wrote to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Bourbon, "as well furnished and adorned as any palace or castle I have ever seen."
On the 19th of January, he did homage to His Holiness before the College of Cardinals, as Vicar of Christ and successor of the Apostles, and was embraced and welcomed by the Pope in return as the eldest son of the Church. A week later he left Rome and set out at the head of his army on the march to Naples. And the same day he received the news that Alfonso of Aragon, seized with a fatal panic, had abdicated his crown in favour of his son Ferrante, and was on his way to Sicily.
FOOTNOTES:
[55] A Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p. 399.
[56] F. Calvi, op. cit.
CHAPTER XXII
Visit of Isabella d'Este to Milan—Birth of Beatrice's son, Francesco Sforza—Fêtes and comedies at the Milanese court—Works of Leonardo and of Lorenzo di Pavia—Mission of Caradosso to Florence and Rome in search of antiques—Fall of Naples—Entry of King Charles VIII. and flight of Ferrante II.—Consternation in Milan—Departure of Isabella d'Este.