We possess from an eye-witness these ample details as to the ceremonial of investing Guidobaldo with his hereditary succession:—"On the evening of Thursday [25th of October], the day of the Duke's interment, his son the Prince arrived at Urbino about nine o'clock, attended by all the nobility, gentry, and officials, including Stefano Vigerio, the governor, and many more, who had gone out to meet him. Dismounting in the palace-yard, he proceeded to the ducal chamber, which, as well as the great hall, was hung with black. There he dismissed the strangers to lodgings provided for them in the town, and passed next day in grief and absolute seclusion along with his consort, preparations being meanwhile made to traverse the city.[49] Accordingly, on Saturday morning, mass of the Holy Spirit having been said by the Bishop of Cagli, who thereafter breakfasted in the palace, the citizens and populace crowded to the piazza, where the doctors and nobles assembled to accompany the priors. Thither also came a hundred youths of good family, in doublets of sky-blue velvet, with gilt swords by their side, followed by a vast many children bearing olive-boughs. The new Duke having been meanwhile dressed in white velvet and satin, with cap and plume of the same colour, Captain-general Luc-Antonio Brancarini marshalled the procession. The gonfaloniere marched first, in a jerkin of black velvet under a long surcoat of black damask lined with crimson, begirt with a gold-mounted sword; his cap on his head and his mace lowered. He was followed by the nobility, the doctors, and citizens; and on entering the palace they halted in the basement suite towards the garden, which were all hung with tapestry, the windows of the great hall being occupied by the Duchess and her ladies in magnificent attire. When all was ready, the Prince issued forth into the Piazza, and advanced to the cathedral, followed by the officials and train. At the top of the steps he knelt on a rich carpet and brocade cushions, whilst the bishop, chapter, and clergy came out, and with the usual ceremonies brought him into the church, and to the high altar, before which other ceremonials were gone through, and he offered an oblation-coin of ten Mantuan ducats. Meanwhile his charger was brought to the foot of the steps, covered to the neck with a housing of silver tissue, and other trappings, including a white plume. It was led by seven lads of the chief Urbino families, Bonaventura, Peruli, Passionei, Cornei, Corboli, and Muccioli, all richly apparelled, and two of them holding goads. There was also a horse for the Gonfaloniere with velvet harness, led by two lads. The fore-mentioned hundred youths and numerous children having ranged themselves around, the Prince and Gonfaloniere descended the steps and mounted their steeds, and the latter, drawing his sword, proclaimed aloud 'The Duke, the Duke; Feltro, Feltro; Guidobaldo, Guidobaldo!' the cry being taken up and repeated by all. The cortège, making a circuit by Pian di Marcato, Valbona, Santa Lucia, and Santa Chiara, returned to the palace, where the Duke dismounted. His charger and mantle were then seized, as their perquisite, by the youths, who, mounting one of their number, Antonio dei Galli, again went through the city crying and making merry. The Duke, having taken his seat with his consort, received the gonfaloniere, priors, and citizens to kiss hands.
Alinari
? GUIDOBALDO II. DELLA ROVERE
From the picture by Titian in the Pitti Gallery, Florence
(Probably once in the Ducal Collection)
"On the following morning, there came in envoys from various places to offer their condolence, wearing mourning robes that swept the ground. The first who had audience were the gonfaloniere and priors of Urbino, and then those from San Marino. After breakfast, the other communities were admitted without order, in consequence of a wrangle for precedence between Gubbio and Pesaro, Cagli and Fossombrone, and this continued till seven o'clock in the evening. Next Monday being the festival of San Simone, the oath of allegiance was administered on Tuesday. A stage covered with black was erected between the two windows of the great hall, on which stood a bench with a coverlet of black velvet, and thereon an open missal, with a miniature of the crucifixion. After breakfasting, the Duke seated himself on this stage, with Messer Stefano, one of the judges; and the deputies from communes being assembled, with their commissions in their hands, Messer Stefano called upon the magistrates of Urbino with about a hundred of the citizens, desiring them to swear fidelity, as was right and customary, which they did, formally placing their hands on the crucifixion. Thereafter, the envoys of other communities were brought up and sworn; but on account of the aforesaid wrangling, those of Pesaro, Sinigaglia, Fossombrone, and Cagli were sent back to take the oaths at home. Next day, however, on their humble petition, those of Cagli and Fossombrone were received, along with some other highland deputies who had come in late; but Pesaro, Sinigaglia, and the vicariat, took the oaths before the vice-dukes in their respective cities. On the following Tuesday, there arrived four envoys from Fano, and two from Città di Castello, to offer condolence, who were honourably received; and next day came those of Camerino and Rimini, men of high station. On Thursday, Messer Quaglino, ambassador from the Duke of Ferrara, dismounted at Pesaro, to condole with the dowager Duchess, and thence proceeded with a suite of five to Urbino, where he was lodged for three days in the Passionei Palace, and had audience. At the same time, the like formalities were discharged by Vicenzo Schippo, who came with an escort of ten, as representative of the Duke of Mantua. On Sunday, deputations from all parts of the duchy went to offer their duty at Pesaro to the widowed Duchess."
The smouldering embers of the Camerino quarrel soon burst forth, when Paul III. found that the Emperor's influence and the arms of Venice were no longer arrayed against his grasping pretensions, and that the weight of the struggle had devolved from a renowned warrior to an untried youth. In order to supplement the legal deficiencies of his case, the Pontiff had in 1537 conferred certain estates upon Ercole Varana, on condition of his claims upon the succession of Camerino being assigned to his own grandson Ottavio Farnese; but the death of Francesco Maria having released him from the necessity of temporising, he at once sent a body of troops into that duchy, under Stefano Colonna or Alessandro Vitelli. The young Duke, relying on the support of Venice and the Medici, was at first disposed to resist, but finding himself deserted, soon abandoned the idea. He had in the history of his family too many examples of the perils of papal nepotism; and it was obvious that the times were past when church feudatories had anything to hope from single-handed contests with their over-lord. In the certainty that to provoke this would be to hazard all, he made up his mind to an unwilling compromise, surrendering his wife's rights to Camerino for a full investiture of his own dukedom, and the sum of 78,000 golden scudi as a poor compensation for her inheritance. This transaction was completed on the 8th of January, 1539; nor was it the only mortification he was destined to undergo from the ambition of the Farnesi. The Prefecture of Rome, although held by his father and grandfather, was a personal dignity at the disposal of the new Pope, who conferred it upon his own grandson Ottavio. In the end of 1538, he also married that youth, then but fifteen, to Margaret of Austria, natural daughter of Charles V. and widow of Duke Alessandro de' Medici, who had been slain by his cousin Lorenzino, within a year after his marriage. That imperious dame, who brought Ottavio a handsome dower in lands about Ortona on the Adriatic, wrought upon the weakness of Paul, until in 1545, she obtained for her husband's father, Pier-Luigi, natural son of his Holiness, the sovereign duchy of Parma and Piacenza. In order to put a gloss upon this dismemberment of the ecclesiastical states, and to accommodate the whole arrangement to the modified nepotism of his age, the Pontiff stipulated for a resurrender by Ottavio to the Holy See of Camerino and Nepi. These remained part of the papal temporalities, whilst their Lombard duchy gave to the Farnese family an important position among the sovereign houses of Europe.
Although the altered circumstances of Italy which humbled her pride had also arrested her convulsions, these untoward events, at the outset of his reign, proved to Guidobaldo that her few remaining principalities were far from secure. To strengthen his position became therefore a natural policy; and although neither the Emperor nor the Venetian Signory had lent a willing ear to his representations on the subject of Camerino, he sent to remind the former of his promise to give him a company of men-at-arms, whilst, with the Pope's permission, he accepted from the latter a two years' engagement. The terms of this condotta, which was dated in 1539, and continued in force until 1552, were one hundred men-at-arms and as many light cavalry, with 4000 ducats of piatto or yearly pay, and an obligation to have in readiness ten of his father's veteran captains, whose monthly pay was fixed at 15 scudi in peace, and 25 in war. Four years later he was requested by the Republic to serve them in another capacity, by complimenting Charles V. in their name on his passage into Germany, on which occasion he was accompanied by the vile sycophant Pietro Aretino.