The Project Gutenberg eBook of Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Volume III (of 3), by James Dennistoun

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FOOTNOTES

[*1] The army would not hear of a truce. Bourbon, really at their mercy, as he knew before he crossed the Apennines, asked them what they wished to do. "To march on," replied the Spaniards, "even without pay." The Germans after a time, though hungry for their wage, made common cause with them. "To march on," became almost a war-cry, and Bourbon was compelled to consent. He sent word to the Pope before he got into Val d'Arno that his men "were determined to push on, not only to Florence but to Rome, and dragged him with them as a prisoner." He asked for 150,000 ducats by April 15th to pay them with, that he might lead them back. The Pope, however, who had no faith in his power or honesty, sent nothing, trusting in Lannoy and that broken reed the Duke of Urbino.

[2] The play of words applies equally in Italian and English, and the incident savours much of a carnival jest. A scarce little book of prophecies, dated 1532, has for Envoye a sonnet, foreshadowing the woes of Italy in consequence of—

"L'infando error de Sogdoma e Gomora,
Le profanate sacre binde e tempi,
L'occider Dio mille volte al hora."

[3] It is difficult to reconcile the varying accounts of the sack, for which, besides the many printed authorities, we have drawn largely upon a collection of unpublished and very minute details, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1677. It is doubtful whether Bourbon arrived on the evening of the 4th or of the 5th of May, but the assault was unquestionably made upon Monday the 6th. Many of the incidents given in that MS. are too horrible for admission into these pages. The narratives of Guicciardini and Giacomo Buonaparte, and those printed in the second volume of Eccardius, may be consulted for such; the two first, indeed, have done little beyond arranging some documents of that MS. collection. We have also consulted the Narrative of Leonardo Santori, Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 2607, and Sanuto's MS. Diaries; checking the whole by minute examination of the localities. *On the 3rd May Bourbon had passed Viterbo, on the 4th he was at Isola Farnese. As to the number of men which Renzo da Ceri had at command, 3000 seems nearer the truth than 30,000. Bourbon had scaling ladders but no artillery. Cf. Guicciardini, Il Sacco di Roma, Milanesi, p. 163, and Casanova, Lettere di Carlo V. a Clement VII. (per nozze Firenze, 1894).

[*4] Cf. The Life of Benvenuto Cellini, trans. by J.A. Symonds (Nimmo, 1896), p. 656.

[5] In a set of miniatures executed by Giulio Clovio for Charles V., and illustrative of his military achievement, which were bequeathed by the Right Hon. Thomas Granville to the British Museum in 1847, Bourbon is represented falling backwards from a ladder placed against a round tower on the walls of Rome; but being composed without accurate knowledge of the localities, it throws no light upon the manner of his death.

[*6] Creighton justly remarks that this was not in keeping with Renzo da Ceri's character. The tale is from Guicciardini. Renzo da Ceri was certainly no "craven caitiff."

[*7] They were of many nationalities—Germans, Spaniards, Italians—"a horde of 40,000 ruffians free from all restraint." They gratified their elemental passions and lusts at the expense of the most cultivated population in the world. The Germans were the worst: "the Lutherans amongst them setting an example which was quickly followed of disregard of holy places." The Spaniards, however, excelled them in deliberate cruelty. For three days this barbarism went on unchecked. On the fourth the barbarians began to quarrel amongst themselves over the division of the booty. "The Germans ... turned to drunkenness and buffoonery. Clad in magnificent vestments and decked with jewels, accompanied by concubines who were bedizened with like ornaments, they rode on mules through the streets and imitated with drunken gravity the processions of the Papal Court." Cf. Creighton, op. cit., vol. VI., pp. 342-3.

[8] Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1677, f. 19.

[*9] The Duke was very slow as usual. There was plenty of time for him to receive imploring letters. A career, which was a failure brought about by dilatoriness and treason, here seems to have reached its lowest point. As always, Dennistoun is too favourable in his judgment of anyone belonging to the Rovere house.

[*10] Where indeed! The Duke of Urbino had left Florence on May 3rd, but it was the 22nd of that month before he reached Isola. Strangely enough, he marched much slower than the barbarians.

[*11] This amazing route is inexplicable. The way by the Val di Chiana was, of course, a highway to Rome. The way by Perugia, "with a rendezvous at Orvieto," is inexplicable. No more fatuous proceeding can be imagined. From Florence he would keep the Via Aretina so far as Arezzo, following it indeed thence to Rigutino to Camuscia to the Case del Piano in the Perugino close to Trasimeno. If he went thence to Perugia he was merely trying to delay his march. It was off the main route, and would lead him into the valley of Spoleto. From Perugia to Orvieto there was no good road. If he wished for a road to Rome via Perugia he should have joined the Via Flaminia at Foligno and followed it directly to the Eternal City.

[*12] It is impossible to represent the Duke in a worse light than he appears. He behaved throughout the campaign like a selfish fool; he seems never to have understood the gravity of the situation or the enormity of his crime. His biographer does not seem to understand it either.

[*13] As we know, he did not reach Isola till the 22nd. Rome was then sacked. If Guicciardini delayed, as Baldi says, we know that it was for some good reason, for his integrity and his patriotism cannot be questioned. We may well doubt Baldi's tittle-tattle.

[14] Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 818, f. 5. Sanuto has preserved a letter which he says gave the first authentic information of the sack to the combined leaders, and which urges them to exertion in most pressing terms. It will be found in II. of the Appendix, with two other letters detailing the principal incidents of that direful event in terms which, though in a great measure anticipated by our narrative, show the impression made by them at the time, and probably conveyed the fullest information of the catastrophe to the Duchess of Urbino and to the Emperor. See the Pontiff's brieves illustrating his feeble policy, No. I.

[15] Memoirs of Antenore Leonardi, dictated by him in 1581, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, f. 85. Among the works dedicated to Francesco Maria II. is a Treatise on Tides by Annibale Raimondo of Verona [1589], who had served under his grandfather in Lombardy, and at this time. In the preface, a somewhat inflated testimony is borne to that Duke's military talents, arguing that his tactics were ever aggressive when unimpeded by other leaders, who in the present instance prevented him from marching upon Rome. But the author was eighty-four when he wrote a statement palpably intended for an adulatory purpose, and his feeble or partial reminiscences cannot be considered of material weight. We have thought it right, in a passage so nearly touching the Duke of Urbino's fair fame, to embrace the conflicting views of our best authorities: the narratives of Paruta and Morosini, Venetians, who had no interest in his reputation, go far to reconcile these and justify him. They tell us that the Signory, profoundly moved by the Pontiff's danger, sent pressing orders for their army to support him; and that, in compliance therewith, Francesco Maria and the Proveditore Pisani resolved to advance upon Rome and rescue Clement, even at the hazard of a general engagement, but that the other Proveditore, Vetturi, formally protested against exposing the army to so great a risk: that disgusted by the failures brought on by these misunderstandings, the Signory superseded Vetturi, and grumbled against their general: that the latter, annoyed by unmerited reflections, wished to throw up his command, and that it was only after cool consideration, and flattering advances from the senate, that he consented to remain in its service. See his formal defence, App. III. *Nothing can justify him, and it is impossible to defend him with honour. After all the only excuse for a soldier is his success, and Francesco Maria knew not what success meant. The testimony of courtiers should go for nothing. History has tried him, and the ruin of Rome bears witness to the treason of this ineffectual Signorotto. The Pope surrendered Castel S. Angelo on June 7th.

[16] Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1677, f. 38.

[17] The new treaty of November 26 is printed by Molini in the Documenti di Storia Italiana, I., 273.

[18] Lanz, Correspondenz des Kaisers Carl V. See also the delightful and well-edited Lettere di Castiglione by Serassi. *Cf. also Casanova, Lettere di Carlo V. a Clement VII. (per nozze, Firenze, 1894).

[19] Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1677, f. 36.

[20] Lettere de' Principi, I., 83.

[21] Lettere de' Principi, I., 71, 110.

[22] The name Clement has been remarked as unlucky for the papacy. Under Clement V. the Holy See was translated to France; under Clement VI. the metropolitan church of the Lateran was burnt; Clement VII. saw Rome pillaged by an army of transalpine heretics, and capitulated to them.

[23] Leonardi's Memoirs, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, f. 85. Most of the preceding details have been gathered from Sanuto's Diaries.

[24] In his Discorsi Militari, pp. 7, 8, the Duke minutely criticises the French general's tactics, which exposed him to this shameful reverse; but the details have now little interest.

[25] Vol. II., pp. 420, 423.

[26] Mariotti's Italy, II.

[*27] Cf. Luzio e Renier, Mantova e Urbino (Torino, 1893) and Julia Cartwright, Isabella d'Este (Murray, 1904).

[28] Cf. Appendix XII.

[29] Discorsi Militari dell'eccellentissimo Signor Francesco Maria I. della Rovere, Duca di Urbino, nei quali si discorrano molti avantaggi et disadvantaggi della guerra, utilissimi ad ogni soldato. Ferrara, 1583. It was edited by Domenico Mammarelli, and dedicated to Signor Ippolito Bentivoglio. There is a transcript in the library at Newbattle Abbey, a. 3, 2, and a fragment of it in the Vat. Ottobon. MSS. No. 2447, f. 135. *Cf. also I discorsi di F.M.I. della Rovere sopra le fortificazioni di Venezia (Mantova, 1902). These were written 1537-38.

[*30] Cf. Edward Hutton, Sigismondo Malatesta (1906), p. 61.

[31] Many details regarding these transactions have been given, vol. I., p. 411; vol. II., pp. 36, 317, 371, 419.

[*32] Cf. Feliciangeli, Notizie e documenti sulla vita di Caterina Cibò Varano (Camerino, 1891).

[33] Cuparini's account of the war of Camerino, Vat. Urb. MSS. 1023, art. 10. Leoni says the despatch arrived after the nuptials had been solemnised.

[34] Vat. Urb. MSS., 1023, art. 1.

[*35] Cf. Viani, L'avvelenamento di Francesco Maria I. della Rovere (Mantova, 1902), and La Morte di F.M. della Rovere, in Fanfulla della Domenica, 23 March, 1902.

[36] Relazione della Legazione di Urbino, Bib. Marucc. c. 308.

[37] Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 992. Gozzi's Chronicle, Oliveriana MSS., No. 324. Also Teofiles's MS. narrative, penes me.

[39] Trattato di Architettura di Francesco di Giorgio, vol. II., p. 67. (Turin, 1841.)

[40] Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 489, f. 61. See for many of these, vol. II.

[41] See Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, art. 21.

[42] Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, f. 85.

[43] Ibid. No. 907.

[44] Oliveriana MSS. No. 375. This may, however, have been addressed by Duchess Vittoria to Francesco Maria II.

[*45] The Rovere were anything but an Umbrian family, as we have seen.

[46]

"Guidus Juliades, qui, quamquam mitis et ore
Blandus, ut ex vultu possis cognoscere matrem
Patrem animis tamen et primis patruum exprimit annis."

See as to Guido in Roscoe's Leo X., ch. xvii.

[*47] For certain details of Court life, cf. Vernarecci, Di alcune rappresentazioni Drammatiche nella Corte di Urbino in Arch. St. per le Marche e per l'Umbria, vol. III., p. 181 et seq., and Rossi, Appunti per la Storia della Musica alla Corte di Francesco Maria I. e di Guidobaldo della Rovere in Rassegna Emiliana (Modena, 1888), vol. I., fasc. 8; also Vanzolini, Musica e Danza alla Corte di Urbino, in Le Marche (1904), An. iv., fasc. vi., p. 325 et seq.

[48] In the Harleian MSS. No. 282, f. 63, is a letter from Henry VIII. of 28th November, in his 30th year [1538], to Sir Thomas Wyatt, his ambassador to the Emperor, proposing a marriage of the Princess Mary either to the young Duke of Cleves and Juliers, or to "the present Duke of Urbyne," and desiring him to sound "whether he wold be gladd to have us to wyve with any of them." Guidobaldo had been already wedded for four years!

[49] Correre la terra is the usual phrase for taking sovereign possession, like "riding the marches" of Scottish burghs.

[50] Ricotti, IV., p. 129, quoting Adriani Storie, lib. II.

[*51] The Theatines were a congregation of Clerks Regular, founded by Gaetano Tiene, a Venetian nobleman, in 1524. They are under the rule of S. Augustin. S. Gaetano Tiene died in 1547. In 1526 Matteo di Basso of Urbino founded a reform of Franciscan Observants, giving his followers a long-pointed hood, which he believed to be of the same shape as that worn by S. Francis. These friars became known as Cappuccini or Capuchins. At first they were merely a company of hermits devoted to the contemplative life. They remained, in fact, under the Observants till 1617. They are now a separate order governed by a general. They live in absolute poverty.