Note [386] page 202. Perhaps the most famous woman of the Gonzaga family was “my lady Duchess’s” great-aunt, Cecilia Gonzaga, (born 1425), who shared with her four brothers the tuition of the celebrated Vittorino da Feltre, wrote Greek with remarkable purity at the age of ten, became a nun at nineteen, devoted her life to religious and literary exercises, and was regarded as one of the most learned women of her time. Her niece (?), Barbara Gonzaga, (born about 1455), was educated with especial care, became Duchess of Würtemberg, induced her husband to found the University of Tübingen, and ruled the duchy as regent after his death.
Of the Este family, two aunts (Ginevra, born 1419, and Bianca Maria, born 1440) of Isabella and Beatrice d’Este (see notes 397 and 398), were famous for their knowledge of Latin and Greek, in which languages the younger wrote both prose and verse, besides being an accomplished musician, dancer and needlewoman.
Of the Pio family, Castiglione doubtless had in mind the celebrated Alda Pia da Carpi, who was a sister of Aldus’s pupil and patron Alberto Pio, aunt of Count Ludovico Pio of The Courtier (see note [46]), and mother of the still more celebrated poetess Veronica Gambara, (born 1485).
MARGARITA OF AUSTRIA
1480-1530
Head enlarged from Braun’s photograph (no. 13.796) of an anonymous portrait group, in the Palace at Versailles, representing the Emperor Maximilian I and his family.
Note [387] page 202. Anne de Bretagne, (born 1476; died 1514), was the daughter and heiress of Duke Francis II of Brittany, which became permanently united to the crown of France through her marriages to Charles VIII (1492) and Louis XII (1499). Castiglione’s praise of her seems to have been in the main justified. Although sometimes vindictive, she was generous, virtuous beyond the standard of her time, and carried cultivation to the verge of pedantry. She surrounded herself with artists, historians, minstrels and poets, and formed a collection of MSS. and other precious objects, largely the spoils of her husbands’ Italian campaigns. Branthôme called her “the worthiest and most honourable queen that has been since Queen Blanche, mother of the king St. Louis, and so wise and virtuous.”
Note [388] page 202. Charles VIII, (born 1470; died 1498), was the son of Louis XI and Charlotte of Savoy. Having succeeded his father in 1483, and assumed royal power in 1491, he married Anne of Brittany and soon set about enforcing his pretensions to the crown of Naples, transmitted to him through his father and cousin from René of Provence, to whom the last Angevine ruler had devised the kingdom in 1435. As we have seen, the immediate cause of the invasion of Italy (1494) was a request from Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan and Pope Alexander VI. Although the expedition was undertaken without adequate preparation and conducted with incredible foolhardiness,—continuous good fortune together with the mutual jealousies of Italian princes and the decadence of Italian military power enabled Charles to enter Milan, Florence and Rome without hindrance, to seize Naples almost unopposed, and (when threatened by a powerful league formed against him) to retire northwards, to defeat the Italians at Fornovo, and finally to reach France in safety, October 1495. His garrisons were driven from Naples in the following year, but his foray had the immediate result of expelling the Medici from Florence, and the far more important consequence of revealing to the rest of Europe the wealth and helplessness of Italy,—thus paving the way for the subsequent invasions with which the peninsula was scourged during the 16th Century. The remainder of Charles’s life was given up to inglorious ease and pleasure. A son of the painter Mantegna thus describes him: “A very ill-favoured face, with great goggle eyes, an aquiline nose offensively large, and a head disfigured by a few sparse hairs;” while Duke Ludovico Sforza said of him: “The man is young, and his conduct meagre, nor has he any form or method of council.” His own ambassador, Commines, wrote: “He was little in stature and of small sense, very timid in speech, owing to the way in which he had been treated as a child, and as feeble in mind as he was in body, but the kindest and gentlest creature alive.”
Note [389] page 202. Margarita of Austria, (born 1480; died 1530), was the daughter of the Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy, and a native of Brussels. Having been betrothed to the Dauphin Charles (VIII) and then rejected by that prince in favour of Anne of Brittany, she married (1497) the Infant Juan of Castile, but soon lost both husband and child. In 1501 she married Duke Filiberto of Savoy, and after four years of happiness again became a widow. In 1507 she was entrusted by her father with the government of the Low Countries and the care of her nephew Charles (see note 462). She did much to further the progress of agriculture and commerce in her dominions, and besides showing a lofty spirit and no little political sagacity, she was a patroness of art and letters, and composed a great number of poems in French, most of which are said to be lost. Her correspondence with her father has been published.
Note [390] page 202. Maximilian I, Emperor of Germany, (born 1459; died 1519), was the son of the Emperor Frederick III of Hapsburg and Eleanora of Portugal. In 1477 he married Charles the Bold’s daughter and heiress, Mary of Burgundy, who bore him five children and died in 1482. On the death of his father in 1493, he was elected Emperor, and soon afterwards married Bianca Maria, niece of Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan. He was a member of the league that forced Charles VIII to retire from Italy (1495), of the League of Cambray against Venice (1508), and of the Holy League (1511) for the expulsion of Louis XII from Italy. Although deriving little profit or honour from these and other foreign enterprises, he contrived by prudent marriages to add Bohemia and Hungary to his empire and to make Spain a possession of his family. He also effected many reforms in his government, and even founded several important institutions, such as a postal service and a permanent militia. From his youth he showed a taste for study, became a patron of scholars, poets and artists, and enriched the Universities of Vienna and Ingolstadt. Besides being an accomplished if not very successful soldier, he was the author of works on gardening, hunting and agriculture, as well as on military science.