At length death brought the desired release. Marino Sanuto briefly records the fact in the following words: "On the 17th day of May, 1508, at Loches, Signor Lodovico Sforza, formerly Duke of Milan, who was there in prison, died as a good Christian with the rites of the Catholic Church." All we know besides is that his faithful servant, Pier Francesco, was with him to the end, and closed his eyes in the last sleep. To this day the place of his burial remains unknown. A local tradition says that he was interred in the church of Loches at the entrance of the choir, but a manuscript account of the Sieur Dubuisson's travels in 1642, preserved in the Mazarin Library, states that Ludovic Sforza sleeps in the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre on the eastern side of the church. On his death-bed, it is said, he desired to be buried in the church of the Dominican friars at Tarascon, but we never hear if his wishes were carried out, and no trace of his burial is to be found in this place. On the whole we are inclined to think the most trustworthy authority on the subject is the Dominican historian of S. Maria delle Grazie, Padre Gattico. In the history of the convent which he wrote a hundred and fifty years after the Moro's death, he tells us that the friars of his convent supplied the duke with means for his unfortunate attempt to escape, and that this having failed, after his death they removed his body to Milan, and buried him by the side of his wife, Duchess Beatrice. This may very well have been effected during the reign of Lodovico's son Maximilian, who was restored to his father's throne in 1512, and would explain the uncertainty which has always existed at Loches as to the Moro's grave, and the absence of any inscription to mark his burial-place.
For Lodovico's sake, let us hope, the good Dominican's story is true. It is good to think that, after all the distress of those long years of exile and captivity, the unfortunate prince should have been brought back to rest in his own sunny Milanese, under Bramante's cupola, in the tomb where he had wished to lie, at Beatrice's side. There, during the next three centuries, masses were duly said for the repose of Duke Lodovico's soul and that of his wife, on the four anniversaries sacred to their memory, "in gratitude," writes Padre Pino, "for all the benefactions that we have received from this duke and duchess." And to this day, on the Feast of All Souls, the stone floor immediately in front of the high altar, where Beatrice's monument once stood, is solemnly censed, year by year, in memory of the illustrious dead who sleep there, in Lodovico's own words, "until the day of resurrection."
FOOTNOTES:
[81] M. Sanuto. Diarii, iii. 320.
CHAPTER XXXII
The Milanese exiles at Innsbrück—Galeazzo di Sanseverino becomes Grand Ecuyer of France—Is slain at Pavia—Maximilian Sforza made Duke of Milan in 1512—Forced to abdicate by Francis I. in 1515—Reign of Francesco Sforza—Wars of France and Germany—Siege of Milan by the Imperialists—Duke Francesco restored by Charles V.—His marriage and death in 1535—Removal of Lodovico and Beatrice's effigies to the Certosa.
1500-1564
After the catastrophe of Novara and the final ruin of the Moro's cause, his loyal kinsfolk and followers were reduced to melancholy straits. A document among the Italian papers in the Bibliothèque Nationale gives a long list of the Milanese exiles who, in the year 1503, were living in exile, and whose lands and fortunes had been granted to French nobles or Italians who had embraced Louis XII.'s party. Among them we recognize many familiar names, Crivellis, Bergaminis, Marlianis, and Viscontis, who had served Duke Lodovico loyally and now shared in his disgrace. Many of these took refuge at Ferrara and Mantua; others went to Rome or lived in retirement on Venetian territory, while as many as two hundred and fifty were living at one time at Innsbrück. A few of these were pardoned in course of years, and obtained leave to return to their Lombard homes, but by far the greater number died in exile.