I.
The marriage of her last remaining daughter, and the removal of her granddaughter to the French Court, loosened the ties that bound the Duchess-mother to Lorraine. The failure of the high hopes which Don John's coming had aroused were a grievous disappointment, and, after her dangerous attack of illness in the spring of 1578, Christina decided to follow her doctor's advice and seek a warmer climate. Her thoughts naturally turned to her dower city of Tortona, whose inhabitants still paid her allegiance, in spite of Philip's invasion of her privileges. Since the Spanish garrison still occupied the castle, the magistrates begged her to inhabit the Communal palace, and Christina, touched by their expressions of loyalty and affection, resolved to accept the offer.
Aug., 1578] CHRISTINA RETURNS TO ITALY
Before settling at Tortona, however, she decided to make a pilgrimage to Loreto, the shrine for which the Lorraine Princes had always cherished especial veneration. Early in August, 1578, she left Nancy and travelled across the Alps, and through Savoy, by the route which she had taken as a bride, nearly half a century before. Her old friend, the Duchess Margaret, whose marriage had been one of the happiest results of the Treaty of Câteau-Cambrésis, had already been dead four years, and her lord of the Iron-head was a confirmed invalid; but he sent his son, Charles Emanuel, to meet the Duchess and escort her to the citadel of Turin.
From Savoy, Christina proceeded to Milan, where she arrived on the 20th of August, and was hospitably entertained in the Castello by the Spanish Viceroy, the Marquis d'Ayamonte.[647] Once more she drove in her chariot through the streets where her coming had been hailed by rejoicing multitudes, once more she prayed by her husband's tomb in the Duomo and saw Leonardo's Cenacolo in Le Grazie. Her old friends, Count Massimiliano, the Trivulzi, and Dejanira, were dead and gone, and at every step the ghosts of bygone days rose up to haunt her memory. Then she travelled on by slow stages to Loreto, on the Adriatic shore, where she paid her vows at Our Lady's shrine, and offered a massive gold heart set with pearls and precious gems, to the admiration of future pilgrims.[648] But the long journey had overtaxed her strength, and when, on her return to Lombardy, she reached Ripalta, she was too ill to go any farther. Here she remained throughout the winter to recover from her fatigues and give the citizens of Tortona time to prepare for her reception.
At length, on the 17th of June, 1579, the Duchess made her state entry into the city. The magistrates met her at the gates with a stately baldacchino fringed with gold and silver, and escorted their Sovereign Lady to the house of Bartolommeo Busseto, where she alighted to partake of the banquet which had been prepared. Afterwards the loyal citizens accompanied her to the Palazzo Pubblico, halfway up the hill above the town, which had been splendidly fitted up for her occupation. The beauty of the view delighted the Duchess as much as the enthusiastic warmth of her reception, and the health-giving breezes of the Lombard city proved even more beneficial than her physicians had expected. "She came to our city of Tortona a dying woman, and lived there in health and comfort for more than ten years."[649] So wrote Niccolò Montemerlo, the historian whose chronicles of Tortona were published in 1618, when Christina had not yet been dead thirty years. His contemporaries joined with him in praising the Duchess's wise and beneficial rule, the strictness with which she administered justice, her liberality and benevolence.
"The Duchess Christina of Milan," wrote Campo of Cremona in 1585, "celebrated for her beauty and gracious manners, for her affability and generosity, has lately come to spend her widowhood in the city of Tortona, and lives there in great splendour, beloved by all."[650]
June, 1579] THE LADY OF TORTONA
Christina's administrative powers found ample scope in the government of the city, and under her rule Tortona enjoyed a brief spell of peace and prosperity. She reformed abuses, obtained the restitution of lost privileges, and healed a long-standing feud with the city of Ravenna. At her prayer, Pope Gregory XIII. repealed a decree exacting a heavy fine from every citizen of Tortona who entered Ravennese territory, and friendly communications were restored between the two cities. Before her coming, the Spanish Viceroy had incurred great unpopularity by building a new citadel on the heights occupied by the ancient Duomo and episcopal palace, and converting these into barracks and powder-magazines. In 1560 the foundations of a new Cathedral were laid by Philip's orders in the lower city, but this could not atone in the eyes of the citizens for the desecration of the venerated shrine founded by St. Innocent in the fourth century, and adorned with priceless mosaics and marbles. When, in 1609, the lofty campanile was struck by lightning, and 400 barrels of gunpowder stored in the nave exploded with terrific force, the accident was regarded as a Divine judgment, and the panic-stricken Spaniards joined in the solemn procession that bore the relics of the martyrs from their old resting-place to the new sanctuary.[651]
But if Christina could not atone for this indignity, or deliver Tortona from the presence of the hated Spaniards, she protected her subjects from their outrages, and rigidly enforced the observance of the law. Many were the petitions and remonstrances on behalf of her own rights and those of the citizens which she addressed to her dear and illustrious cousin, Don Carlos of Aragon, Duke of Terranuova, who reigned over the Milanese as Viceroy from 1583 to 1592. The Duchess was in frequent correspondence with her children beyond the Alps, and many requests for passes for horses which she is sending to Lorraine and Bavaria, as well as for privileges for her Equerries, Signor Alfonso and Gaspare Visconti, are to be found in the archives of Milan.[652]
Jan., 1585] THE LAST PHASE
Many were the illustrious guests, remarks Montemerlo, who came to visit the Duchess at Tortona. In October, 1581, the Empress-Dowager Maria, widow of Maximilian II., passed through Lombardy on her return to Spain, and was received at Alessandria by Madame de Lorraine. Together they drove through streets hung with tapestries and adorned with triumphal arches, until, after three days' festivities, they went on to Tortona, and thence to Genoa. The families of the old Milanese nobles who had remained loyal to the House of Sforza welcomed Christina's return to Lombardy with joy. The nephew and heir of Count Massimiliano Stampa placed his superb pleasure-house at Montecastello, in the fief of Soncino, at her disposal, and named his eldest son Christian in her honour. The Guaschi of Alessandria, the Counts of Oria, the Trivulzi, the Somaglia and Visconti, vied with each other in entertaining her sumptuously.[653] The saintly Archbishop of Milan, Carlo Borromeo, visited her more than once, and the excellent Bishop of Tortona, Cesare Gambara, sought her help and advice in all that concerned the welfare of his people. From the day when, hardly more than a child herself, she begged Cardinal Caracciolo's protection for the destitute ladies at Pavia, Christina always cared for the poor and needy, and in her old age she was busy with active works of mercy. One of her last good actions was to send to Paris for Madame Castellani, a daughter of her old friend the Princess of Macedonia, who was living in reduced circumstances at the French Court, and bring her to Tortona to spend the rest of her life in peace and comfort. So she earned the love and gratitude of all around her, and thousands blessed the good Duchess's name long after she was dead.