CHAPTER XX
Arrival of the Duke of Orleans at Asti—The Neapolitan fleet sent against Genoa—The forces of Naples repulsed at Rapallo—Charles VIII. at Asti—Beatrice d'Este entertains him at Annona—The king's illness—His visit to Vigevano and Pavia—His interview with the Duke and Duchess of Milan—Last illness and death of Giangaleazzo Sforza—Lodovico proclaimed Duke at Milan—Mission of Maffeo Pirovano to Maximilian.
1494
On the 10th of July, the Duke of Orleans crossed the Alps with the advanced guard of the French army, and arrived at his own city of Asti, the fief which had formed part of the dowry of his grandmother, Valentina Visconti. Lodovico Sforza went to meet him at Alexandria on the 13th of July, and held a council of war there. The naval preparations that were being made at Genoa were the chief subject of discussion, and Orleans asked for a loan of sixty thousand ducats, which the Moro undertook to arrange. This was the first meeting between these two princes, who were destined to become such bitter enemies in days to come. Even now it was well known that the Duke of Orleans assumed the title of Dux Mediolani, and his deeply rooted aversion to the Moro was no secret at Milan. But both princes had the same courtly and polished manners, and Lodovico on his part took care that nothing should be wanting in the entertainment of his rival. The other ambassadors watched the scene with curious eyes, but the first impression which Louis of Orleans made upon them was distinctly unfavourable. "He has a small head with not much room for brains," wrote Pietro Alamanni to Piero de' Medici; "Lodovico will soon get the better of him."
Much interest was excited among the Milanese ladies by the arrival of the French duke, and Benedetto Capilupi, who had been sent from Mantua to invite Beatrice to the christening of her infant niece, Leonora Gonzaga, wrote to Isabella on the 23rd of July—
"The duchess says that when the Duke of Orleans comes here, she will have to leave off her mourning and dance, and be kissed by the duke, who will kiss all the maids of honour and all the court ladies after the French fashion. Barone, the jester, says that when he has kissed Madonna Polissena d'Este, he will be tired of it and will go no further. When the Count Dauphin and other princes of the blood royal arrive, the duchess sends your Highness word that you will have to come too and receive some of these kisses."
The Duke of Orleans, however, had no time to waste in paying his respects to the ladies of Beatrice's court. Directly after his interview with Lodovico, he went on to Genoa to fit out the French fleet to oppose that in which Alfonso's brother, Don Federigo, had already sailed to attack Genova. Twice over during the next few weeks the Neapolitan forces landed at Porto Venere and Rapallo, but each time they were repulsed by the Genoese and French troops, supported by a strong Milanese contingent under the gallant Fracassa and Antonio di Sanseverino, after which Don Federigo retired to the harbour of Leghorn, and was soon recalled to defend Naples itself against the French. On the 27th of July, the Count of Caiazzo received the bâton of command from Lodovico's hands on the piazza in front of the Castello of Milan, and started at the head of fifteen hundred foot soldiers and light cavalry to join the French army that was marching into Romagna to meet the forces led by Ferrante Duke of Calabria. On the 23rd of August, Isabella d'Este came to Parma at her brother-in-law's invitation to meet him and the French ambassador, and see the first French troops under La Trémouille and Stuart d'Aubigny—the Marchese d'Obegnino, as the Italians called him—march through the town. The spectacle, however, was less imposing than she expected, only about four hundred light cavalry riding past, as she describes it, in some confusion and disorder.
Meanwhile Charles VIII. had at length crossed the Alps and after pawning the jewels of his allies, the Marchioness of Montferrat and Duchess of Savoy, to pay his troops, arrived at Asti on the 9th of September. Here he was received with great honour by Lodovico and his father-in-law, Duke Ercole, who rode out to meet him on his entry into the town. The magistrates and citizens welcomed him as their liege lord, and the illiterate French barons were amazed to hear a child of eleven, Margareta Solari, declaim a Latin oration with perfect ease and fluency. Two days afterwards Beatrice herself arrived at the castle of Annona, in the neighbourhood of Asti, bringing her choir of singers and musicians, and accompanied by eighty ladies especially chosen for their beauty and rich attire, and gave the king a magnificent reception. Charles advanced, cap in hand, to greet the duchess, and, beginning with Beatrice and Bianca, the young wife of Messer Galeazzo, kissed all the ladies present. The beauty and vivacity of the young duchess made a deep impression upon the susceptible French monarch, who could not take his eyes off her, and after spending some time with her in lively conversation, begged her to allow him to see her dance. Beatrice readily complied with his request, as she tells Isabella in the following letter, written from Annona on the 12th of September:—
"About noonday the king came here to pay me a friendly visit with the chief lords of his court, and remained for about three hours with me and my ladies, conversing with the greatest familiarity and affection. I assure you that no prince in the world could have made himself more agreeable. He desired to see my ladies dance, and then begged me to dance before him, which seemed to give him great pleasure."[53]
The young king himself, short and ill proportioned as he was, with round shoulders and a large head, a very wide mouth and big nose, cut but a very sorry figure by the side of the stately Moro and the handsome Sanseverini brothers; but his good nature and genial manners atoned for his want of presence, and surprised Beatrice and her ladies, who had expected a far more formidable personage. "He was little in stature and of small sense, very timid in speech owing to the way in which he had been treated as a child, and as feeble in mind as he was in body, but the kindest and gentlest creature alive," says Commines, who accompanied Charles to Asti, and was sent on as ambassador to Venice. Guicciardini's judgment is more severe—