The contemporary French accounts of the Neapolitan wars of Louis XII. are extremely meagre, and few in number. The most striking, on the whole, is D'Auton's chronicle, composed in the true chivalrous vein of old Froissart, but unfortunately terminating before the close of the first campaign. St. Gelais and Claude Seyssel touch very lightly on this part of their subject. History becomes in their hands, moreover, little better than fulsome panegyric, carried to such a height, indeed, by the latter writer, as brought on him the most severe strictures from his contemporaries; so that he was compelled to take up the pen more than once in his own vindication. The "Mémoires de Bayard," Fleurange, and La Trémouille, so diffuse in most military details, are nearly silent in regard to those of the Neapolitan war. The truth is, the subject was too ungrateful in itself, and presented too unbroken a series of calamities and defeats, to invite the attention of the French historians, who willingly turned to those brilliant passages in this reign, more soothing to national vanity.
The blank has been filled up, or rather attempted to be so, by the assiduity of their later writers. Among these, occasionally consulted by me, are Varillas, whose "Histoire de Louis XII.," loose as it is, rests on a somewhat more solid basis than his metaphysical reveries, assuming the title of "Politique de Ferdinand," already repeatedly noticed; Garnier, whose perspicuous narrative, if inferior to that of Gaillard in acuteness and epigrammatic point, makes a much nearer approach to truth; and, lastly, Sismondi, who, if he may be charged, in his "Histoire des Français," with some of the defect incident to indiscreet rapidity of composition, succeeds by a few brief and animated touches in opening deeper views into character and conduct than can be got from volumes of ordinary writers.
The want of authentic materials for a perfect acquaintance with the reign of Louis XII. is a subject of complaint with French writers themselves. The memoirs of the period, occupied with the more dazzling military transactions, make no attempt to instruct us in the interior organization or policy of the government. One might imagine, that their authors lived a century before Philippe de Comines, instead of coming after him, so inferior are they, in all the great properties of historic composition, to this eminent statesman. The French savans have made slender contributions to the stock of original documents collected more than two centuries ago by Godefroy for the illustration of this reign. It can scarcely be supposed, however, that the labors of this early antiquary exhausted the department, in which the French are rich beyond all others, and that those, who work the same mine hereafter, should not find valuable materials for a broader foundation of this interesting portion of their history.
It is fortunate that the reserve of the French in regard to their relations with Italy, at this time, has been abundantly compensated by the labors of the most eminent contemporary writers of the latter country, as Bembo, Machiavelli, Giovio, and the philosophic Guicciardini; whose situation as Italians enabled them to maintain the balance of historic truth undisturbed, at least by undue partiality for either of the two great rival powers; whose high public stations introduced them to the principal characters of the day, and to springs of action hidden from vulgar eyes; and whose superior science, as well as genius, qualified them for rising above the humble level of garrulous chronicle and memoir to the classic dignity of history. It is with regret that we must now strike into a track unillumined by the labors of these great masters of their art in modern times.
Since the publication of this History, the Spanish Minister at Washington, Don Angel Calderon de la Barca, did me the favor to send me a copy of the biography above noticed as the "Sumario de los Hechos del Gran Capitan." It is a recent reprint from the ancient edition of 1527, of which the industrious editor, Don F. Martinez de la Rosa, was able to find but one copy in Spain. In its new form, it covers about a hundred duodecimo pages. It has positive value, as a contemporary document, and as such I gladly avail myself of it. But the greater part is devoted to the early history of Gonsalvo, over which my limits have compelled me to pass lightly; and, for the rest, I am happy to find, on the perusal of it, nothing of moment, which conflicts with the statements drawn from other sources. The able editor has also combined an interesting notice of its author, Pulgar, El de las Hazañas, one of those heroes whose doughty feats shed the illusions of knight-errantry over the war of Granada.
FOOTNOTES
[1] He succeeded Garcilasso de la Vega at the court of Rome. Oviedo says, in reference to the illustrious house of Rojas, "En todas las historias de España no se hallan tantos caballeros de un linage y nombre notados por valerosos caballeros y valientes milites como deste nombre de Rojas." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 8.
[2] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 28, cap. 5.—Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 6, pp. 319, 320.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 48, 57.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 14, sec. 4, 5.—Daru, Hist. de Venise, tom. iii. pp. 364, 365.
[3] Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, pp. 267, 268.—Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 22.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 6, pp. 329, 330.— Machiavelli, Legazione Prima a Roma, let. 36.
[4] Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 2, cap. 110.—Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 189.—Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 3, fol. 266.
—Zurita, Historia del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 5, cap. 60.—Peter
Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 270.—Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 84.