Alinari
LORENZO DI PIERO DE’ MEDICI,
DUKE OF URBINO
After the picture by Bronzino in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The value of political gratitude is strikingly illustrated in the fact, that these outrageous measures were adopted, in a consistory composed for the most part of creatures of the della Rovere family, with the single dissentient voice of Cardinal Grimani, of Venice, Bishop of Urbino, whose independence earned him an exile from Rome. Nor was this the only painful lesson of the worth of courtier fidelity now taught to that illustrious house. Even the civilities of Bembo to the Duchess Dowager sank to a low grade, as he thus acknowledges in a letter to Bibbiena of the 19th of April:—"The Lady Duchess of Urbino, whom I visited yesterday (a duty which I, however, very rarely perform), commends herself to you, as does also the Lady Emilia. On these dames the Signor Unico [Accolti] dances attendance. He is more than ever in the heat of his old passion, which he declares now numbers five lustres and a half; and he has better hopes than heretofore of at length obtaining the consummation of his desires, having been asked by the Lady Duchess to improvisare, by which means he trusts to move that stony heart to tears—at the least. He is to rehearse in two or three days, and as soon as he does so, I shall report to you: would that you could be here, as he is sure to do it right well." It can scarcely be doubted that this innuendo was meant to apply to the more exalted of these ladies. Whether as a caustic sneer, or a current scandal, it comes ill from such a quarter, and only adds a new proof of the poet's inordinate conceit. Nor did it go unpunished, for we find such vain effrontery thus lashed by Gandolfo Porrino, a contemporary satirist:—
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"In such affairs the palm he gives to one beyond all gold, Urbino's Duchess dowager, your cousin scarce yet old. Long at that court Lord Unico had paragoned her face, With words and pen, in wondrous phrase, to angels' matchless grace. Till, gazing on those saint-like eyes, while tears bedimmed his own, The secret of his passion thus he breathed to her alone: 'All goddess fair! my love for thee all other loves exceeds, No Launcelot, no errant knight, its lightning course outspeeds! Prithee with me participate the boon that cannot cloy, And share in mutual confidence a bliss without alloy.' Unlike those artful hypocrites who evil speeches spurn, But wink at acts, the prudent dame thus answer did return: 'Remember that we hapless wives must each their lord obey, Tyrant or kind, his dread behests we never may gainsay; Mine is the Duke, to whom your wish propose, should he assent, As well I wot, right readily your whim shall I content.' Confounded by her sarcasm the carpet-knight was left Poor victim of his vanity, of self-respect bereft." |
The now inevitable war was opened by a simultaneous movement upon the duchy from three several quarters. Renzo, that is, Lorenzo da Ceri, accompanied by Lorenzo de' Medici and a powerful army, advanced from Romagna; Vitello Vitelli marched upon Massa Trabaria; and, on the 12th of May, Gianpaolo Baglioni seized on Gubbio.[*266] The force thus poured upon the state amounted to seventeen thousand foot, above a thousand men-at-arms, and near two thousand light horse. That which Francesco Maria could bring into the field numbered about nine thousand men, and being averse to entail upon his subjects the miseries of an unavailing struggle, he authorised their surrender, excepting the citadels of Pesaro, Urbino, S. Leo, and Maiuolo, which he garrisoned for resistance. His attempts to obtain the mediation or support of foreign powers entirely failed. Their sympathy and condolence were freely doled out to him, but none gave hope of efficient aid, except Maximilian, whose promises, on this as on all other occasions, proved quite worthless. It only remained to bow, as his uncle Guidobaldo had done, before the storm, and await happier times. On the 31st he sent off from Pesaro his consort, in an ailing state, his infant son, and the dowager Duchess to their relations at Mantua, with such valuables as they could transport in six or eight vessels, and, speedily following them, he embarked at midnight and reached that city in disguise.
Pesaro, after an eight days' siege, capitulated on honourable terms, in breach of which Tranquillo Giraldi, the commandant, was hanged upon a vague accusation of bad faith. Urbino having, by order of its sovereign, been surrendered without a blow on the 30th of May,[*267] the community, on the 16th of June, sent deputies to kiss the Pope's feet on taking possession of the state, in hopes of obtaining relaxation of the interdict; but his Holiness raised it only for such as adhered to the existing order of things. He committed the government of the town to its new bishop, Giulio Vitelli, who intrigued at all hands to induce the magistracy to follow the example set them in other places, of petitioning his Holiness to give them an independent sovereign, in order that the exaltation of his nephew to the dukedom might seem a popular measure. On the 16th of June the interdict was removed from all the duchy except S. Leo, which alone held out; but, faithful to the proverb of hating him whom he had injured, the Pontiff was deaf to all entreaties for restoration to church privileges of his victim, who consequently remained in hiding at Goito near Mantua, apart from his family, that he might not involve them in excommunication, and giving out that he had fled across the Alps, in order to baffle those who sought his life.
The example of Guidobaldo kept alive his hopes of regaining his sovereignty, as that Duke had done, by means of S. Leo. But ere he could organise measures for a descent, he had the grief of learning its fall. As there is always something of romantic adventure in the surprise of a place impregnable by ordinary expedients, we may dwell for a moment on the third and last successful leaguer of this fortress. The garrison consisted of a hundred and twenty men, one tenth of whom had fallen in its defence. After three months spent in hopeless assaults, a Florentine carpenter, named Antonio, observing from the opposite heights the absence of sentinels over one of the most precipitous parts of the rock, attempted to make his way up the face of it, sometimes aided by plants and bushes in the clefts, but generally driving iron spikes into their crevices, and fastening ropes, ladders, or beams, as he advanced. After four nights of this perilous toil he reached the wall, which he found, as expected, without defenders. Having reported the way accessible, a number of light infantry were entrusted to his guidance, whom he ordered to strip their headgear and shoes, and to strap upon their backs their shields, swords, and hatchets. On the 30th of September, under cover of a wet and foggy night, he conducted these safely to the summit, accompanied by a drummer and four pair of colours. At daybreak, an alarm was given from the watch-tower of an assault upon the gate, towards which the besiegers had sent a party; and, whilst the defenders hurried in that direction, Antonio, with some fifty men, cleared the walls, displayed their colours, and beat to arms. Ere the garrison had recovered their presence of mind, the gate was opened by the escalading party to their comrades, and the place was carried. The citadel was held for twenty-five days longer by a handful of desperate men, but they at length surrendered to one Antonio Riccasoli of Florence, who placed upon the castle a vainglorious inscription, claiming for himself the genius of another Dedalus. The fortress had been commanded by Sigismondo Varana, Count of Camerino, the Duke's young nephew, assisted by an experienced captain of the Ubaldini; and the good treatment experienced by the garrison gave rise to a suspicion of treachery on their part, Sigismondo alone being sent to Volterra as prisoner of war. Much of the Duke's treasure was taken, and the loss of S. Leo proved a serious blow to his interests.[268]