The Sultan's answer is contained in a letter addressed to the Pontiff, wherein this passage occurs:—"For these reasons, we began, with Giorgio Bucciardo, to consider that for your Potency's peace, convenience, and honour, and for my satisfaction, it would be well you should make the said Gem, my brother, die, who is deserving of death, and detained in your hands; which would be most useful to himself and your Potency, most conducive to tranquillity, and further, very agreeable to myself! And if your Mightiness is content to oblige me in this matter, as in your discretion we trust you will do, it is desirable, for maintenance of your own authority, and for our full satisfaction, that your Mightiness will, in the manner that seems best to you, have the said Gem removed from the straits of this world, transferring his soul to another life, where it will enjoy more quiet. And if your Potency will do this, and will send us his body to any place on this side of our channel, we, the foresaid Sultan Bajazet Chan, promise to pay 300,000 ducats at any place your Mightiness may stipulate, that your Potency may therewith buy some sovereignties for your sons." To this cold-blooded offer are added many general professions of eternal amity towards his Holiness, and promises that his subjects will everywhere forbear from aggression upon Christians; and after stating that he had in the envoy's presence taken his oath for the performance of all these obligations, he concludes thus:—"And further I, the aforesaid Sultan Bajazet Chan, swear by the true God, who created the heaven, the earth, and all things therein, in whom we believe, and whom we adore, that I shall make performance of every thing contained above, and shall never in any respect countermine or oppose your Mightiness. From our palace at Constantinople, the 15th of September, in the year of Christ's advent, 1494."
Although discredit was thrown upon these documents by the Roman court, and the whole affair was alleged to be a device of Cardinals della Rovere and Gurk, to screen the Prefect at the Pontiff's expense,[220] it appears clear that a bribe was offered by Bajazet for the destruction of his brother, who did not long survive this incident. Alexander accepted 20,000 ducats from Charles VIII. to put Gem into his hands during six months, as a tool for his ambitious design upon the East; and in the treaty between his Holiness and the French monarch, dated 15th January, 1495, there is a special article that the former should consign "the Turk" to his Majesty as a hostage, to be kept in the castle of Terracina, or elsewhere, in the ecclesiastical territories, from whence Charles came under a promise not to remove him "unless in case of need, in order to prevent an invasion of the other Turks, or to make war upon them." He also bound himself to defend the Pope from any descent of the Infidel upon the Adriatic coast, and, on quitting Italy, to restore Gem to his custody, his Holiness meanwhile continuing to draw the Sultan's pension, and for due observance of these conditions, Charles bound himself in a penalty of 800,000 ducats. By another article he undertook to arbitrate in the complaint brought against the Prefect, in the affair of Bucciardo and the captured subsidy. It is further stipulated that the Cardinal della Rovere should be restored to favour, and replaced as legate at Avignon; and that, on termination of the Neapolitan enterprise, Ostia should be again surrendered into his hands.[221]
This oriental Prince's sudden demise, which soon followed, was attributed to various causes, but a general belief imputed it to poison, in implement of the Pope's engagement to Bajazet. Zizim is represented as far superior to his countrymen in mind and attainments; and we shall by and by find him honoured as a Maecenas of literature. A very different impression is, however, left by the amusing, but obviously caricatured, description of him transmitted from Rome in 1489, by Andrea Mantegna, the painter, to his patron the Marquis of Mantua:[222]—"The Turk's brother is here, strictly guarded in the palace of his Holiness, who allows him all sorts of diversion, such as hunting, music, and the like. He often comes to eat in this new palace where I am painting,[223] and for a barbarian, his manners are not amiss. There is a sort of majestic bearing about him, and he never doffs his cap to the Pope, having in fact none; for which reason they don't raise the cowl to him either.[224] He eats five times a-day, and sleeps as often; before meals he drinks sugared water like a monkey. He has the gait of an elephant, but his people praise him much, especially for his horsemanship; it may be so, but I have never seen him take his feet out of the stirrups, or give any other proof of skill. He is a most savage man, and has stabbed, at least, four persons, who are said not to have survived four hours. A few days ago, he gave such a cuffing to one of his interpreters that they had to carry him to the river, in order to bring him round. It is believed that Bacchus pays him many a visit. On the whole he is dreaded by those about him. He takes little heed of any thing, like one who does not understand, or has no reason. His way of life is quite peculiar; he sleeps without undressing, and gives audience sitting cross-legged, in the Parthian fashion. He carries on his head sixty thousand yards of linen, and wears so long a pair of trowsers that he is lost in them, and astonishes all beholders. Once I have well seen him, I shall forward your Excellency a sketch of him, which I should send you with this, but that I have not yet fairly got near him; for when he gives now one sort of look and then another, in the true inamorato style, I cannot impress his features on my memory. Altogether he has a fearful face, especially when Bacchus has been with him. I shall no longer tire your Excellency with this familiar joking style; to whom I again and again commend myself, and pray your pardon if too much at home." Homely it is in good earnest, being written in the Lombardo-Venetian dialect, some passages of which baffle translation.[225]
It is, however, time to return from the digression into which this singular and romantic history of the Turkish Prince has tempted us. Alexander, greatly exasperated by the insults put upon his envoy, and by the loss of a most opportune remittance, threatened the Prefect with deprivation of his state; but finding his people, and the neighbouring communities prepared to stand by him, deferred his vengeance. Notwithstanding a reference of the whole affair to the French monarch, by the treaty of 1495, nearly six years elapsed ere Giovanni della Rovere was formally absolved from the daring exploit. He was not spared to witness the revival and aggrandisement of his family's fortunes by his elder brother's election to the papal throne. On the 6th of November, 1501, death found him already attired in a winding-sheet appropriate to the devotional habits of the age, the cowl formerly worn by the beatified Fra Giacomo della Marca.
Two miles west from Sinigaglia, on a rising ground which overlooks the city, commanding the fertile vale of the Misa, from its Apennine rampart to the bright waves of the blue Adriatic, there stands a convent of Zoccolantine Franciscans. It was founded by the piety of the Prefect and his consort; it was the chosen retreat of their devotional hours, and was selected by them as the spot for their last repose. There he was laid, agreeably to his dying wish, in the Franciscan habit; and a plain marble slab in the pavement commemorates his titles, and her worth, "in prosperity and adversity comparable, nay preferable, to the best and noblest of her sex." There, too, was composed by Father di Francia, guardian of the convent, that brief record of the merits of his sovereign and patron from which the preceding sketch has in part been compiled. The original MS. has disappeared in the general havoc of ecclesiastical treasures; but in the adjoining church there has been marvellously preserved from the sacrilegious rapine of French invaders, from the selfish gripe of unscrupulous collectors, and from the merciless ignorance of modern restorers, an interesting memorial of the persons, piety, and artistic tastes of this princely pair. Into a small picture of the Madonna and Child are introduced, on either side, portraits of Giovanni della Rovere and his wife, their arms devoutly crossed, their dress displaying no royal gauds except her simple string of pearls, and a large crystal bead suspended from his neck by a double gold chain. Their regular and unimpassioned features are, probably, somewhat idealised by the pencil of one more happy, as well as more habituated, to embody inspirations of religious mysticism, than to portray the indexes of human passion. Nothing is known of the artist, but he must have been among the foremost in the Umbrian school.
By his will, the Prefect left his only son under the joint guardianship of the Venetian senate, his widow, his brother the Cardinal, and the gallant Andrea Doria, whose faithful services we have formerly mentioned. To his consort he bequeathed 20,000 ducats, and 7000 to each of his daughters. On the 18th of November, Francesco Maria rode through Sinigaglia, to receive the allegiance of his subjects; but being only eleven years of age, his mother continued to govern for his behoof, whilst his education was chiefly conducted at the court of her brother, the Duke of Urbino. For a time she was spared the fate of the Romagnese princes; and it was not until Guidobaldo's second flight that the arms of Borgia reached her frontier. Aware how deeply her personal safety was perilled by the approach of so sanguinary a foe, her friend Doria, who commanded the garrison, sent her off disguised in male apparel; and, after a fatiguing flight through mountain-paths, she reached Florence, accompanied only by one confidential servant and a female attendant. The defence of her citadel against an overwhelming force being utterly vain, Doria retired just before the massacre of his allies by Cesare Borgia, which we have recounted in our [nineteenth chapter] of this work. There, too, we have narrated the young Prefect's escape to France, where he remained under his uncle's auspices, until the latter was called to assume the triple tiara. Giovanna lived until 1514, and passed from worldly trials just before adverse fortune had again exiled her son from his rightful states. Ere we proceed to consider his eventful life, we shall close this chapter with a few brief notices of his uncle Giuliano, the greatest of the della Rovere race.
An account of Julius II. should be, in a great degree, a history of Italy during the crisis of its fate; but as we have in other portions of this work to glance at those events of his life and pontificate most connected with the politics of Urbino, and with the succession of his nephew to that duchy, we shall here, as in the case of his uncle Sixtus, limit ourselves to a few notices of his character and personal history, including his exertions in behalf of art.
Giuliano della Rovere[*226] was in most respects the reverse of Pietro Riario, his cousin and rival in the affections of Sixtus IV. Moderate in his tastes and habits, his attendants were chosen for their orderly lives; his equipages were as scanty as the exigencies of rank would permit; his table was economical as his apparel, unless when called upon to show fitting hospitality to persons of distinction. Among the virtues with which he adorned the dignity of cardinal, Panvinio enumerates the modesty of his demeanour, the gravity of his address, the elegance of his winning manners. The less partial Volterrano characterises him as somewhat severe in disposition, and of a genius ordinary as his learning. Dignities were conferred upon him in rapid succession by his uncle, including the sees of Albano, Sabina, Ostia, Velletri, and Avignon, with the more important offices of Grand Penitentiary and Legate of Picene and Avignon. The latter appointment occasioned his prolonged residence out of Italy during the reign of Innocent VIII., and afforded him a convenient escape from the snares of his inveterate enemy Alexander VI. Their mutual disgusts, arising from opposite characters and rival interests, were, according to Infessura, brought to a climax by the Cardinal's adherence to Neapolitan interests, in December, 1492, on the question of Leonora Queen of Hungary's divorce. He then retired to his citadel-see at Ostia, where, at the abbey of Grotta Ferrata, his moats and battlements remain, witnesses to his warlike spirit, as well as to the perils of those troubled times. But, considering himself even there insecure, he ere long withdrew to Naples, whence, after narrowly escaping seizure by the Pope's emissaries, he again reached Ostia in an open boat. On the approach of an army under Nicolò Count of Pittigliano, he fled thence to France, leaving the garrison in charge of the Prefect, who soon capitulated, on condition that neither he nor his brother should incur ecclesiastical censures. Grotto Ferrata was about the same time seized and delivered over to Fabrizio Colonna, on payment of 10,000 ducats.