"The true, ancient, and cordial friendship which has ever existed between your lofty republic and my most illustrious house, and the recollection I retain how invariably my distinguished predecessors have been united in special good-will with your city of Siena, induce me, being of the same sentiments, to follow in the steps of my said most eminent ancestors, resolving that there shall never be any failure on my part towards your noble commonwealth. And in order that your Excellencies may at present have some proof of this, I have, for the peace and order of your town, adopted the resolution which your envoys will comprehend from the tenor hereof, and which I feel assured cannot be otherwise than welcome and acceptable to you. I therefore pray you not only readily to give the like credence to what these envoys will tell you on my part, as you would to myself, but also to bear in mind the close and affectionate amity wherein I am most ready to persevere, nor on your side restrain or fall short of our wonted and long-established kindliness, increasing, and, if possible, extending it by an ampler interchange of charity; for you will assuredly ever find me prepared and ready to benefit and uphold your republic as much as your Excellencies could ever desire, to whom I offer and commend myself. From Bonconvento, the 15th of January, 1522.
"Franciscus Maria Dux Urbini."[287]
In truth, the Duke's own affairs required his full attention, for the power of the Medici, though shaken, was still formidable, and its natural representative, the Cardinal Giulio, was influential in the Sacred College, and almost sovereign at Florence. Francesco Maria therefore observed a prudent neutrality, when the Bande Nere advanced to support the claims of Gentile Baglioni upon Perugia. These, being warned off the ecclesiastical territory by the consistory, turned up the valley of the Tiber, and, passing the Apennines, made a descent upon Montefeltro, where they plundered until the end of February,—an outrage for which the Cardinal was greatly blamed, as a convention had already been signed between him and the Duke for their respective states of Florence and Urbino. Much light is thrown upon these very complicated transactions by a careful examination of Castiglione's letters. To his dexterous diplomacy that convention seems to have been chiefly owing. He endeavoured to clench the reconciliation by an engagement for Francesco Maria in the Florentine service, and a marriage between Prince Guidobaldo of Urbino and Caterina de' Medici, daughter of Lorenzo, and heiress of his pretensions. The failure of this plan, from backwardness on the part of the Cardinal rather than of the Duke, was, perhaps, fortunate for the intended bridegroom's domestic peace; and the contending claims which it was meant to solve never ripened into importance. The condotta had a better issue: avowedly for but one year, it seems to have been intended rather to neutralise a troublesome foe than with the idea of calling the Duke's service into actual requisition. Indeed, although he was nominally captain-general, with 9000 ducats of pay, besides 100 broad scudi for each of his two hundred men-at-arms in white uniform (three mounted soldiers counting as one man-at-arms), this was expressly their peace establishment and pay, to be increased in case of war.[288] Castiglione's success in these arrangements was facilitated by his having confided to Cardinal Giulio a refusal at this time, by Francesco Maria, of very flattering proposals from the French court, and the same good offices extended to disabusing the Duke in the eyes of Emanuel, the imperial ambassador, who, believing him committed to Francis, was countermining his interests in the consistory, and with the Cardinal.
Whilst immersed in these transactions, the election in which he was so deeply interested came suddenly to a conclusion, brought about indirectly by his means. The choice of the conclave astonished Italy, for it fell upon an ultramontane cardinal, unknowing and unknown in Rome. Adrian Florent,[*289] a Fleming of humble birth, was a man of mild temper, peaceful habits, and literary tastes. He had been preceptor of Charles V., and held the see of Tortosa. This selection so curiously illustrates the haphazard results, which have not unfrequently baffled both policy and intrigue in papal elections, that we may pause for a moment on the circumstances alleged by Guicciardini to have brought it about. The Medicean party had not strength, at once, to carry their Cardinal, in the face of the old members of the College, who were adverse from introducing the hereditary principle into their selection, yet hoped in time to exhaust the patience or the strength of their seniors. But whilst Medici and Petrucci were thus ingeniously devising delays, news reached them of the Duke of Urbino's descent upon Tuscany, causing them respectively to tremble for their supremacy in Florence and Siena, and to question the policy of procrastinating at the Quirinal, whilst interests so momentous were elsewhere in peril. In this state of matters the Cardinal of Tortosa "was proposed, without any intention of choosing him, but that the morning might be wasted; whereupon his eminence of San Sisto, in an endless oration, enlarged upon his virtues and learning, until some of the members beginning to accede, the others successively followed with more impetuosity than deliberation, whereby he was unanimously then chosen Pope. The very electors could allege no reason why, at a crisis of such convulsions and perils for the papacy, they had selected a barbarian pontiff, so long absent, and recommended neither by previous deserts, nor by intimacy with any of the conclave, to whom he was scarcely known by name, having never visited Italy, nor had he any wish or hope to do so."[290] The Roman populace resented a choice which they felt as an insult, and as the cardinals emerged from durance, they were assailed by execrations of the mob.[*291]
Francesco Maria had every reason to be gratified by an election he had most unwittingly influenced, for the exclusion of Cardinal Giulio was of vast importance to his interests, which must have been seriously compromised by the nomination of a hostile pontiff, at a moment when his affairs were in so precarious a juncture. He accordingly lost no time in accrediting to Adrian VI. in Spain, an envoy who pleaded his cause to such good purpose, that a bull was issued on the 18th of May, reinstating him in all his honours, including the prefecture of Rome, which, on the death of Lorenzo, had been conferred upon Giovanni Maria Varana, uncle of Sigismondo, whose state he had usurped under the sanction of Leo. Meanwhile his respectful and judicious demeanour had obtained from the Sacred College, before the Pope's arrival, an acknowledgment of his rights, upon the following conditions, dated at Rome, the 18th of February. "The Lord Duke of Urbino promises to accept neither pay, engagement, nor rank from any prince or power, and to take service only with the Apostolic See, should he be required; but if not called upon by it, to attach himself to no party without leave and sanction from the Pope, and the Holy See, as represented ad interim by the Sacred College. Also, he renews his obligation in future never to oppose the papal state; and further, for due observance of these terms, and more ample assurance of his Holiness and the Apostolic See, he binds himself within one month to deposit his only son as a hostage, in the hands of the Marquis of Mantua, captain-general of the ecclesiastical troops. On the other hand, the Sacred College undertakes to defend and protect the Lord Duke's person, as well as to maintain him in peaceful possession of the castles, fortresses, cities, and towns, held by him now or before his deprivation; and further, to use influence with our Lord the Pope for his reinvestment in the same, on the terms of his former tenure."[292]
Nor was it only from the Medicean faction that the Duke's tranquillity was threatened. Whilst his fortunes were yet in suspense, he was warned by Castiglione, then diplomatic resident at Rome for his brother-in-law the Duke of Mantua, that Ascanio Colonna was agitating certain vague pretensions on the duchy of Urbino, through his mother Agnesina di Montefeltro. The nature of these claims, which were from time to time revived, is not very intelligible. All authorities make Giovanna, wife of the Prefect, older than Agnesina, wife of Fabrizio Colonna, both being daughters of Duke Federigo. Thus, even supposing Francesco Maria's title irretrievably annulled, by the deprivations he had successively sustained from Julius II. and Leo X., if the old investitures did confer any rights upon females, his nephew Sigismondo Varana, grandson of Giovanna, would have excluded the Colonna. Ascanio's intrigues were, however, neutralised by the dexterity of Castiglione, and the influence of the Duke of Mantua, until Francesco Maria's cordial reconciliation with the Church and the Emperor had rendered his position secure.[293] Even the Medici thereupon refused to promote the pretender's views, and his only adherent was Gian Maria Varana, who, having within a few weeks succeeded in recovering possession of Camerino, sought so to occupy the Duke of Urbino as to prevent his espousing the cause of Sigismondo, its rightful lord. The latter also looked for support to his wife's uncle, Cardinal Prospero Colonna, whilst the interests of his competitor were backed by Cardinal Innocenzo Cibò, his brother-in-law. But ere these respective claims could be tested, they were sadly set at rest by the death of "poor dear but ill-starred Sigismondo," as he is called by Castiglione, who was set upon and slain on the 24th of June by a band of assassins, whilst riding with five attendants near La Storta. This foul deed, in accordance with the wild habits of that age, and the fratricidal tendencies of the Varana family, was imputed to Ascanio Colonna at the instigation of Giovanni Maria, uncle of the victim.
When reassured of pacific and equitable measures, Francesco Maria dissolved a defensive league for mutual maintenance, which he had formed on the 4th of March with the Baglioni, Sigismondo, and the Orsini, to which the Cardinal de' Medici was a party. The strongholds of S. Leo and Maiuolo, however, remained till 1527 in the hands of the Florentines, mortgaged for their advances to Leo in the late war. During these complex negotiations, an offer from Lautrec of service under the lilies of France was declined by the Duke, on a plea of reserving himself for the disposal of his ecclesiastical overlord. Nor was the opportunity he looked for long delayed. Pandolfo Malatesta, on ceding to Venice his pretensions upon Rimini, after being expelled therefrom by Duke Valentino, had accepted from that republic the castle of Cittadella near Padua, with large pay in their service. His son Sigismondo availed himself of the Pope's absence, and the unsettled ecclesiastical policy, to surprise Rimini and its fortress towards the end of May. The consistory hastily mustered all their means to meet the emergency, and called upon the Duke of Urbino as their vassal to take the field. His answer was that without money he could do nothing. About the beginning of August the rocca was retaken by Giovanni Gonzaga for the Church; but the place was not finally recovered till Adrian sent thither some Spanish troops, when the people at length rose, and drove out the interloper, whose cruelties had alienated all his supporters. In this paltry fray the Duke appears to have lent some trifling aid, which the Pontiff gratefully acknowledged in writing to Leonora on the 24th of December. When it was over, he turned to the internal affairs of his duchy, disorganised by the long and severe struggle of which it had been the scene. In the spring of 1523 he brought home the ladies of his family
"Into their wished haven";
but of their once lively court we have little to record. Much had occurred to chasten the naturally staid temperament of Duchess Leonora. Retrenchment was imperatively imposed by accumulated debts and dilapidated finances: the brilliant assemblage which had frequented the saloons of Urbino seventeen years before was thinned by death, scattered by dire events, alienated by ingratitude, or seduced by newer attractions.
It was at this time that Pesaro seems to have become the permanent residence of the ducal establishment, although the original capital was frequently visited by its successive princes. Sanuto's Diaries afford us glimpses of life at that court, in detailing the journey to Rome of four Venetian envoys in March of this year. They arrived on Good Friday, half dead of fatigue, fear, and hunger, having ridden one hundred and twelve miles in two days, through wretched weather and a plague-stricken country. The two Duchesses of Urbino immediately sent them a pressing invitation to transfer their quarters from the inn to better lodgings. This was about sunset, and twilight had scarcely set in when both these ladies arrived in a fine gilt coach, lined with white cloth and trimmings of black velvet, drawn by four beautiful black and grey horses. They were suffering from fever, the younger Duchess having risen from bed expressly to visit the envoys, and apologise for a reception which, but for so unlooked-for an arrival, would have been more conformable to their wishes. Yet the apartment was tapestried from roof to floor, the beds with gold brocade coverlets, and the curtains very handsome. Next morning, after breakfast, the guests went to the palace to wait upon the Duchesses, who met them in the fourth ante-room, whence, after sundry ceremonies, they handed the ladies and their attendants into the presence-chamber, newly done up with arrases, gilding, and a daïs of silk. After conversing in an under-tone for three-quarters of an hour, they retired with the like formalities. On Easter Sunday, after vespers, they had an audience of leave, when the younger Duchess, being very seriously indisposed, received them familiarly in a bed-chamber so small that they could not all enter it, renewing many excuses for their indifferent entertainment, in consequence of the religious observances, and the recent arrival of the household at Pesaro. On their return from congratulating the new Pontiff, the envoys passed by Gubbio, where the Duchesses again surprised them by a visit ere breakfast was over, attended by several lovely maidens.