Hollinshed, following Hall, informs us that "Sir Gilbert Talbot, Knight, Richard Bere, Abbot of Glastonburie, and Doctor Robert Sherborne, Deane of St. Paules, were sent as ambassadors from the King to Rome, to declare to Pius the third of that name, newlie elected pope in place of Alexander the Sixt, deceased, what joy and gladnesse had entered the King's heart for his preferment. But he taried not the comming of those ambassadors, for within a moneth after that he was installed, he rendered his debt to nature, and so had short pleasure of his promotion.... The King caused Guidebald, Duke of Urbine, to be elected Knight of the Order of the Garter, in like manner as his father Duke Frederike had been before him, which was chosen and admitted into the Order by King Edward the Fourth. Sir Gilbert Talbot, and the other two ambassadors, being appointed to keepe on their journey unto Pope Julius the Second, elected after the death of the said Pius the Third, bare the habit, and collar also, unto the said Duke Guidebald."[316] It must, however, be observed that letters of safe conduct for these ambassadors are stated to have been issued under the Privy Seal on the 22nd of February, 1504, as if but then beginning their journey. This mission was in accordance with the statutes of the Order, which provided that, within four months of the election, special messengers should be despatched to invest each foreign knight with the insignia, and that, within eight months after the investiture, he should send a proctor to England to receive installation in his name.
We learn from Burchard that the three envoys reached Rome the 12th of May, 1504. They were met by Sylvester Gigli, Bishop of Worcester, Anglican resident at the papal court, and had a splendid reception. On the 20th they had an audience, when, the minister of Louis XII. having protested against Henry taking the style of France, they were admitted as the ambassadors of England only. No details have reached us of the investiture. The authority to which we naturally turn for the circumstances attending this interesting episode of our narrative is Polydoro di Vergilio, a native of Urbino, and historian of England; but a fact, which to the writer ought to have been of peculiar importance, is passed over without details. As, however, the supposed autograph copy of his History varies considerably from printed editions, we shall here quote from it the entire passage, proving the incorrect manner in which this work is given to the public.
"Alexandro Sexto mortuo, creatus est Pontifex Franciscus, Senensis antistes, qui Pii fuit Secundi ex sorore nepos, voluitque et ipse Pius Tertius in memoria avunculi vocari. Hic amicissimus erat regis Henrici [VII.], qui, ut primus omnium Christianorum principum bono patri de adepto pontificatu congratularetur, confestim Gilbertum Talbott equitem, Ricardum Beer Abbatem Glasconiensem, et Robertum Scherburn decanum divi Pauli Londinensis oratores designavit ad ipsum pontificatum. Sed Pius non expectavit gratulationem, qui obiit sexto et vigesimo die quam sedere coeperat. Creatur in ejus locum Julianus, Cardinalis Sti. Petri ad Vincula, patria Ligur, dictusque est Julius Secundus. Huic postea illi tres regis oratores congratulatum inerunt, quos Hadrianus Castellensis episcopus Herefordensis, quem paulo ante Alexander Cardinalem fecerat, Romæ hospitio excepit. Hunc rex Henricus sub idem tempus ab Herefordensi sede ad Bathoniensem ac Wellensem transferri curavit. At Hadrianus, ut præter sua quotidiana obsequia, quæ tam regi quam Anglis omnibus libens præstabat, aliquo diuturniori memoriæ monumento relinqueret, apud omnes testatum se memorem fuisse acceptorum beneficiorum ab Henrico, atque nomen Anglicum amasse, donavit regi palatium magnificum quod ipse Romæ in Vaticano ædificaverat, ornavitque regis insignibus, ut in ea luce hominum aliquod egregium opus nomini Anglico dedicatum conspiceretur.[317] Item, iidem oratores detulerunt habitum Garterii ordinis Guidoni Duci Urbini, principi seculo nostro Latinæ Linguæ simul ac Græcæ ac militaris disciplinæ peritissimo, quem Rex paulo ante in Collegium ipsius Ordinis asciverat. Dux postea destinavit in Angliam Baldasarem Castilliorum, natione Mantuanum, equitem tam doctrinâ quam bellicâ virtute præstantem, ut suo nomine ejus Ordinis cerimonias exequeret. Fuit Baldaser ab Henrico perbenigne exceptus, atque comiter habitus; qui, finitis ceremoniis, non indonatus, postmodum ad suum Decem redivit."[318]
There is thus no authority for a statement in the printed version of this History, adopted by Hall, Baldi, and others, that the decoration was conferred in consequence of Guidobaldo's own wish to belong to an Order, of whose illustration he had become cognisant from its having been borne by his father. Perhaps the requests which conclude the letter of Henry VII. may give the most satisfactory key to the royal policy. Informed, as he no doubt was, of the state of affairs at the Papal court, he must have been aware that to conciliate the Duke was the wisest course for those who had favours to gain from the Pontiff. Be this as it may, the Garter was received by Guidobaldo at Rome in June, as became so singular an honour, and was proudly worn next St. George's day in compliance with the rules of the Order. Having resolved suitably so to acknowledge the dignity by a special envoy to London, he selected as his proctor Castiglione, the choicest spirit of his elegant court. The first we hear of this intention is from the Count's letter of 2nd March, 1505, confidently informing his mother that he would probably be sent to represent his master at his installation in England. The plan, however, remained long in abeyance. Castiglione spent the autumn at the baths of S. Casciano in Tuscany, for an old injury or wound in his foot, and, in the end of the year, went on a mission to Ferrara.[319] At length he set out, on the 24th of July, 1506, accompanied by Francesco di Battista di Ricece, and Giulio da Cagli, with their respective suites. Among the presents he was charged to deliver to the King were some falcons, three of the finest racers of the Urbino breed, and a precious little picture, by Raffaelle, of St. George as patron of the English Order, which we have already mentioned at p. 233. He was at Lyons in September, and this notice of his arrival at Dover is preserved by Anstis:—
"The 20th of Octobre, the twenty-second year of our soverain lord, King Henry VII., there landed at Dover a noble ambassadeur, sent from the Duc of Urbin, called Sir Balthasar de Castilione, whiche came to be installed in his lorde's name; whiche Duc had receyved before by the Abbot of Glastonbury and Sir Gilbert Talbott, being the King's commissionaris, the Garetier, &c., to the Ordre apperteyning. And, to mete with the said ambassadeur, was sent Sir Thomas Brandon, havyng a goodly companye with hym of his owne servants, all verely well horsed, unto the see-seyde; whiche, after they met togedre, kept contynnually compagnie with hym, and, when they approched nere to Deptford, ther met with the forsaid ambassadeur by the King's commandement, the Lord Thomas Dokara, lord of St. John's, and Thomas Writhesley, alias Gartier princypall king of Armes. Whiche lord of St. John's had in his compaignie thirty of his servaunts, all in a lyvery new, well horsed, every [one] of his gentlemen beryng a javelayn in his hand, and every yeman havying his bowe and a sheffe of arrowes, and soe convoyed hym to his lodging, and on the morrow unto London. And by the waye ther met with the said ambassadeur dyvers Italyens, as the Pope's Vicecollector, Paulus de Gygeles [Giliis], with dyvers [others]; and soe convoyed hym to the Pope's Vicecollector's hows, wher he was lodged."
Two days after Castiglione reached London he was sent for by the King, whose marked favour, whilst he stated the objects of his mission in an eloquent Latin address, is recorded in his own letters. The installation took place on the 10th of November, upon the following commission, printed by Ashmole:—
"Henry, by the grace of God, &c. Forasmuch as we understand that the right noble prince Gwe de Ubaldis, Duke of Urbin, who was heretofore elected to be one of the companions of the said noble Order, cannot conveniently repair into this our realm, personally to be installed in the collegiate church of that Order, and to perform other ceremonies whereunto by the statutes of the said Order he is bound, but for that intent and purpose hath sent a right honourable personage, Balthasar de Castilione, Knight, sufficiently authorised as his proctor, to be installed in his name, and to perform all other things for him, to the statutes and ordinances of the said Order requisite and appertaining. We, therefore, in consideration of the premises, will, and by these presents, give unto you licence, full power, and authority, not only to accept and admit the said Balthasar as proctor for the same Duke, and to receive his oath and instal him in the lieu and place and for the said Duke, but also farther, to do therein as to the statutes and laudable usages of the said Order it appertaineth; and this our writing shall be to you and every of you sufficient discharge in that behalf. Given under the seale of our said noble Order of the Garter, at our mannor of Grenewiche, the 7th day of November, the twenty-second year of our reign."
After the ceremonial was concluded, the Count visited the other knights in the name of his master. This installation by proxy has given rise to a confusion that he was himself honoured with the Garter, which Roscoe first exposed. It is probable, however, that he was knighted by Henry, a dignity he had vainly looked for at the hand of Julius II. before his departure; at all events he received from him, besides gifts of horses and dogs, a gold chain or collar of SS links, from which depended two portcullises and a golden rose with its centre of silver. This chain, long peculiar to English chief justices, is traced by Dugdale from the initials of Saint Simplicius, a primitive Christian judge and martyr; and the badge was adopted by that monarch as heir of the Plantagenets through both rival roses. The decoration, mistaken by Marliani for the collar of the Garter, was destined by the Count as an heirloom, and it accordingly surrounded his armorial coat in that dedication copy of his letter to Henry, narrating the life of Guidobaldo, which he described by Anstis. On the 9th of February, 1507, he was at Milan on his return to Urbino, where he arrived about the end of the month, charged with affectionate letters and messages from Henry, and with rich presents. His conversation, of all that he had seen in a country so imperfectly known, was greatly relished by the Duke, and his anecdotes of its court, its wealth, and its wonders long continued to enliven the palace-circle of Montefeltro.