Lying nearest the common danger, Ludovico il Moro was the most energetic, as well as the most interested, in preparing for defence. Again he proposed a general league for the exclusion of ultra-montane invasion, and attempted to gain the Pope's adherence to it by a secret engagement, that the great states should, at his dictation, make common cause against any or all of the princely feudatories of the Church, and by money or the sword should establish Cesare Borgia in some sovereignty. This offer being addressed to the Pontiff's leading passion, it was entertained with apparent favour, in order to keep his decision open to the last, as well as meanwhile to divert Sforza from maturing an effectual resistance to Louis, whose alliance, as the most powerful, seemed on the whole most eligible, and from whom it might be easy for his Holiness to obtain the very advantages which Ludovico's proposal offered.
Whilst the policy of Italy remained thus in suspense, Duke Valentino became more and more united to the interests of France. Profiting by the pique which his recent disappointment occasioned, Louis persuaded him in the beginning of May to marry Charlotte d'Albret, sister of Jean, King of Navarre, adding 80,000 francs to her dowry of 30,000; and at the same time decorated him with the order of St. Michael, then the most distinguished in Christendom. The Pope presented him with 200,000 scudi, and celebrated the event by extravagant festivities. Having thus seemingly secured Alexander, the French King bribed the Venetians to aid him in conquering the Milanese, by promising them a slice of its territory, and in August sent his army across the Alps. It would lead us too far from our proper theme to trace the invasion of Italy which followed these complicated intrigues. The French incursion into Lombardy was crowned with entire success, and within three weeks Ludovico, driven from the capital which he had usurped, retired with his treasure to Inspruck.
After recruiting the hardships of Bibbiena, from which however his constitution never recovered, the Duke of Urbino paid a visit to Venice, which is thus graphically told by Marino Sanuto in his amusing diary.
"On the 2nd of June luncheon was prepared for the Duke of Urbino's coming; and when it was over, the Doge with the ambassadors and senators went in the Bucentaur to meet Duke Guido, as far as San Antonio, and there awaited him; and there were five gig-boats [paraschelmi] prepared as usual for us sages of the orders, ornamented with the armorial bearings of each. And presently the Duke arrived from Chioggia, with Giorgio Pisani, the Podestà, and some gentlemen who had been sent to meet him. He is twenty-eight years of age, a handsome man, dressed in black after the French fashion, as were all his attendants, on account of the death of his uncle [cousin] Ottavio de' Ubaldini, who long had governed both the state and the Duke. And being brought into the Bucentaur with great rejoicings, he came by the Cana l' Grande to the Marquis of Ferrara's house, which had been made ready for him, and the Doge accompanied him to his chamber. He remained [eleven] days in this city, with a numerous suite, and thirty-five ducats a day were assigned for his expenses." According to the estimate of this chronicler, a ducat was then worth four English shillings, so that, making allowance for the depreciated value of money, the sum set apart for the Duke's daily maintenance may have exceeded 70l. He received at the same time the compliment of citizenship, and his services were retained for the Republic with two hundred men-at-arms, and 27,000 ducats of pay. It does not, however, appear that he was called into action during the rapid campaign by which Louis possessed himself of Milan, being probably then disabled by gout: indeed, he seems to have suffered from it even on his visit to Venice, as his not having danced at a ball given in his honour is specially noted by Sanuto, and it was provided in his engagement of service that his contingent should be led by an approved commander. During this year he testified his good will for the Signory, by sending them from his wide forests forty head of bucks, does, kids, wild-boar, and other game, borne by forty men.
[CHAPTER XVII]
The condition of Romagna—Cesare Borgia overruns and seizes upon it—The spirit of his government—Naples invaded by Louis, and handed over to Spain—Lucrezia Borgia’s fourth marriage.
THE French conquests in Lombardy having been achieved, Valentino now urged Louis to perform certain secret stipulations which had for their object his establishment in Romagna and La Marca as a sovereign prince. The scene of our narrative must, therefore, for a time be laid in that country; and it may be well, though thereby incurring some repetition, to lay before the reader a brief sketch of its then condition, as given by Sismondi.
"Whilst even in the Campagna of Rome the Pope's authority was barely acknowledged, and whilst in the very streets of his capital he was forced to arm alternately against the Colonna and the Orsini, the more distant provinces had still more completely shaken off his sway. In some towns, republican forms of government were continued: Ancona, Assisi, Spoleto, Terni, and Narni had either avoided or broken the yoke of domestic tyranny, but their internal factions and petty wars kept them in feeble obscurity. Other towns had become subject to pontifical vicars, who asserted a complete independence, burdened with but the promise of an annual tribute which they never paid. Nearly the whole Marca was divided between the families of Varana and Fogliano. Giulio di Varana was then the seigneur of Camerino; Giovanni di Fogliano, who soon after was cruelly murdered by his nephew Oliverotto, ruled in Fermo. Sinigaglia had been given in fief by Sixtus IV. in 1471, to his nephew Giovanni della Rovere, the titular Prefect of Rome, who was likewise son-in-law and heir presumptive to the Duke of Urbino. That highland district which extended from La Marca to Tuscany, and included the duchy of Urbino, the county of Montefeltro, and the lordship of Gubbio, was under the sway of Guidobaldo, the last and distinguished representative of the Feltrian race: the warlike qualities of its people and the lettered elegance of its court were nowhere surpassed in Italy. On the western frontier of this duchy the vale of the Tiber was occupied by two petty principalities, those of Giovanni Paulo Baglioni of Perugia, and of Vitellozzo Vitelli of Città di Castello: both of these chiefs were soldiers by trade, and the latter had conferred importance on his state by great military talents shared with his four brothers, as well as by the high state of discipline to which he had brought his vassals.