[CHAPTER XVIII]
Duke Guidobaldo’s retired life—Cesare Borgia surprises and seizes Urbino—The Duke’s flight—The diet of La Magione—Rising in the Duchy, and his return—He again retires.
OUR attention has been long distracted from our mountain duchy, whose lord sought, in the peaceful retreat of his elegant court and happy home, to isolate himself from intrigues alien to his tastes and perilous to his welfare. The notices we shall gather of his social circle towards the close of his life would doubtless apply, in part, to this period, so barren of incidents as to have baffled our research. All we know of him after his return from Venice is, that at Easter, in 1500, he visited Rome, with a suite of six horsemen and sixty attendants on foot, to observe with due honour the jubilee functions, and that, in the following February, one Camillo Caraccioli was hanged at Urbino, as an emissary of Valentino, suspected of a design to assassinate the Duke. In November, 1501, he met with a severe political as well as domestic loss in the death of his brother-in-law Giovanni della Rovere, Lord of Sinigaglia, and Prefect of Rome. In pursuance of the arrangement already referred to, of adopting his son Francesco Maria as heir of Urbino, the boy, then in his twelfth year, was removed to that court; and with a view to throw these parties more completely off their guard, Alexander continued to the youth his father's dignity of prefect, with which he was solemnly invested, on the 24th of April, in the cathedral of Urbino, a hint being still held out of betrothing him to Angela Borgia, niece of his Holiness. The installation was not attended by the Duchess, who, when the ceremonies and fetes of Lucrezia Borgia's marriage were concluded at Ferrara, had proceeded to Venice, accompanying her sister-in-law the Marchioness of Mantua, and attended by her faithful Emilia Pia. They remained there during several weeks, preserving a nominal incognito, and attending public sights muffled in their hoods, but received from the Signory a compliment of confectionary and wax to the amount of twenty-five ducats. On Easter Thursday they went to Verona and so to Mantua, where the Duchess remained until joined by her lord on his flight from Urbino.
The ambition of the Borgia must again claim our attention. For the nominal purpose of avenging upon the Colonna and Savelli their adherence to the King of Naples, Alexander had anew instituted an active persecution against these powerful barons of the Campagna and their inviting fiefs. But a larger field was wanting for Cesare's ever-expanding designs. Tuscany and Bologna were now under the protection of Louis XII.; the heir of Ferrara had become his brother-in-law; so was he compelled to turn towards La Marca in pursuit of his plans of usurpation. The Pope, having on some idle ground declared the fief of Camerino forfeited by Giulio Cesare Varana, its hereditary seigneur, sent Valentino to expel him by arms. At the same time, Vitellozzo Vitelli, lieutenant-general in Cesare's service, laid siege to Arezzo, on pretext of avenging his brother Paolo's judicial murder by the Florentines, but having, no doubt, a secret understanding with his master. The events, now crowding upon each other, which reduced Guidobaldo within a few hours from his flourishing sovereignty to proscription and exile, are clearly narrated in a letter written by himself a few days after his romantic escape, and addressed to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the uncle of his adopted heir, whom we shall, ere long, have to notice as Pope Julius II. It has been printed by Leone in his life of Duke Francesco Maria I.; but our translation was made from a contemporary copy in the Vatican library.[290] That the costly visit of Lucrezia to Urbino,[*291] the journey of Duchess Elisabetta to Ferrara, the withdrawal of troops and money to Arezzo, and the demand for artillery, were all parts of a deep-laid design to embarrass Guidobaldo, and facilitate the treacherous seizure of his capital by Cesare Borgia, is established beyond question by that letter. The attachment of his subjects, the respectability of his character, the support of France and of Venice secured to him by solemn pactions, the personal influence with Louis of his relation the Cardinal della Rovere, and the strength of his country, all presented most serious political and military obstacles to the employment against the Duke of the same means by which Valentino had gained a footing in Romagna. A surprise might anticipate remonstrance and paralyse resistance. Recourse was therefore had to treachery, and its success was equal to the cunning which prepared and the dexterity which effected it.
"Most reverend Lord,
"Your Lordship has doubtless ere now learned the excessive treachery used towards me by the Pope and Duke Valentino, and must feel surprise at not having received from me any confirmation of the fact. I pray your pardon for this delay; but the great difficulties I encountered in saving myself have occupied all my thoughts, although that I have reached this, may be ascribed rather to a miraculous interposition of Providence than to anything else. But to put you in possession of the whole case, you must know that the affair of Arezzo against the Florentines being disclosed to me after the return of Nicoloso Doria, I could not credit such a piece of villainy, for I never did or conceived anything in regard to the Pope or Duke Valentino except for their pleasure and profit. I therefore remained in secure reliance, considering the expeditions against Tuscany and Camerino to be great and justifiable enterprises: and I did so the more that my agent in Rome daily received pressing assurances of affection and safety from the Pope, the Cardinal of Modena, Trotti, Signor Adriano, Signor Paolo Orsini, and Duke Valentino. The Cardinal, in particular, volunteered to me, through an Observantine friar of influence who was much in my interest, the most solemn assurances on his own responsibility that I had nothing to fear, and that, having seen every despatch sent to France, Germany, and Venice, he was certain my name was never alluded to but in friendly terms. Whilst I thus remained inactive, and ready to follow your Lordship's advice, which I had already most anxiously sought through the Lord Prefect, I heard of the Duke leaving Rome with his troops, and at the same moment was applied to for a thousand infantry by Vitellozzo, who having taken Arezzo was doubtful of carrying the citadel. To whom I replied, that I had every wish to oblige his Holiness, the Duke, and himself, but that, as the Florentines were under French protection, and, as I had no personal quarrel with them to plead, I wished he would get the Pope to send a written application to me as his vicar, which I would at once obey. This answer he took much amiss, and refused me, saying that he would have the place without me.
"There arrived soon after at Perugia the Bishop of Elna, as commissary-general of the Pope for the enterprise against Camerino, who sent me two Spanish gentlemen, with a letter from his Holiness, couched in the most affectionate terms, and stating that having ever found me in all respects devoted to the Church and to himself, he prayed me to concur in all the Duke's projects, and to execute the directions which I should receive from the Bishop. My reply placed myself at his Holiness's disposal. The Spaniards then informed me that my artillery must advance by Gubbio, Cagli, La Serra, and Sassoferrato, for which purpose I should have the roads repaired, and draught oxen provided; they likewise required me to give free passage and provisions for [an escort of] fifteen hundred foot. I immediately sent back with them Messer Dolce, to inform the Bishop that these instructions should all be willingly fulfilled, and I gave the necessary orders to the commissioner of Cagli and the lieutenant of Gubbio. I subsequently wrote to Messer Dolce at Perugia, desiring him to proceed as far as Spoleto to meet the Duke, and to wait upon his Excellency with every offer of service. He was received with all possible demonstrations of gratitude by the Duke, who assured him, with many thanks, that on no one in Italy could he look with the same fraternal attachment as myself; and who further earnestly entreated that I should send the thousand men to Vitellozzo. Messer Dolce having reported these matters to me, I instantly sent him back to represent my readiness to comply, on receiving from the Pope and his Excellency such letters as should discharge me of every responsibility with the King of France, and to propose that, since the exigence did not afford time to obtain these, Vitellozzo might raise five hundred men in my state, for which purpose I should contribute 1000 ducats, a force which would probably suffice, as I had just heard of his having reduced the citadel of Arezzo. I also prepared a beautiful charger with a surcoat of brocade, and sent them with Messer Dolce next day as a present, to the Duke.