Europe in the Middle Ages

by Ierne L. Plunket

‘Il Moro’

The grim traditions established by the Visconti continued under this new family, christened with their very names. Francesco’s son, Galeazzo Maria, whose life was spent in debauch, is said to have poisoned his mother and buried his subjects alive. When he was assassinated, his brother, Ludovico, called from his swarthy complexion Il Moro, or ‘the Moor’, seized the reins of government, and proceeded to act on behalf of his young nephew, Gian Galeazzo, whom he kept in the background at Pavia, declaring him a helpless invalid.

Philip de Commines describes Ludovico as ‘clever, but very nervous and cringing when he was afraid: a man without faith when he thought it to his advantage to break his word’. Outwardly he displayed the genial manners customary in a Renaissance prince, and presided at Milan over a court so famed for its hospitality, wit, and intellect that it drew within its circle painters, sculptors, writers, and scholars, as well as military heroes and men of fashion.

It will be seen that Italy opened her arms wide to the new spirit of intellectual and artistic enjoyment. Venice, Naples, Milan, each vied with the other in attracting and rewarding genius: even the Popes at Rome, whose natural instinct as the guardian of mediaeval tradition was to distrust freedom of thought, were influenced by the atmosphere around them, and to Pope Nicholas V the world owes the foundation of the wonderful Vatican Library.

To the Queen of the Renaissance states we turn last—to Florence, the ‘City of Flowers’, that we left distracted by the internal discords of her ‘Blacks’ and ‘Whites’, and by her wars against Filippo Maria Visconti. The turning of the century had seen great changes in Florence, the whittling away of the old ideal of liberty that would brook no master, so that she became willing to accept the domination of a family superficially disguised as a freely elected government.

The Medici were no royal stock, nor were they flaunting condottieri like the Sforza, but a house of bankers, who by brains and solid hard work had built up for itself a position of respect, not only in Florence, but also throughout Europe, where their loans had secured the fortunes of many a monarchy that would otherwise have tumbled in ruins owing to lack of funds. It was the advantage of such monarchies to preserve the credit of the House of Medici, and so the bankers gained outside influence to aid their ambitions at home.

Within Florence the Medici posed as common-sense men of business, unassuming citizens, easy of access, ready friends, ever the supporters, while they were climbing the ladder of civic fame, of the popular party that loved to shout ‘Liberty!’ in the streets, while it voted her destroyers into public offices.

Cosimo de Medici

Cosimo de Medici, the first of the family to establish a position of supremacy, was related to many of the nobles debarred by their rank from any share in the government: but, though he won the allegiance of this faction, he took care to claim no honour himself that might frighten the public mind with terrors of a despot. Instead, simply clad and almost unattended, he walked through the streets, chatting in friendly equality with the merchants he met, many of whose interests were identical or wrapped up with his own financial projects; discussing agriculture with the Tuscan farmers like a country gentleman, freely spending his money on the schemes of the working classes, or scattering it amongst beggars.

When he died his mourning fellow citizens inscribed on his tomb the words Pater Patriae, ‘Father of his Country’. They had felt the benefits received through Cosimo’s government: they had not realized, or were indifferent to, the chains with which he had bound them. Some bitter enemies he had, of course, aroused, but these with quiet but remorseless energy he had swept from his path. It was his custom to sap the fortunes of possible rivals by immense exactions—to make them pay in fact for the liberal government, for which he would afterwards receive the praise, while drawing away their friends and supporters by bribery and threats. At last, ruined and deserted, they would be driven from the city; and here even Cosimo did not rest, since his influence at foreign courts enabled him to hunt his prey from one refuge to another until they died, impotently cursing the name of Medici, a warning to malcontents of the length and breadth of a private citizen’s revenge.