The birthday of Guidobaldo II. has been variously stated; most authorities fix it on the 2nd of April, 1514, although the customary donative appears from an old chronicle to have been voted by the municipality of Urbino on the 17th of March. The Prince saw the light at a moment inauspicious for his dynasty. Under the fostering care of Julius II. it had attained its culminating point; and although his successor still smiled upon the far-spreading oak of Umbria,[*45] the intrigues of Leo X. were already preparing its overthrow. The infant had scarcely passed his second year, when the ducal family were driven from their states, and sought a friendly shelter at the Mantuan capital. Before their five years of exile in Lombardy had gone by, Guidobaldo is said to have been sent to the university of Padua. His early education was committed to Guido Posthumo Silvestro, who describes him as displaying, even in childhood, the spirit of his father, and of his grand-uncle Julius II., whilst his mild temper and sweet expression were those of his mother.[46] The preceptor, a native of Pesaro, was tempted by attachment to his early patrons, the Sforza, to avenge them with his pen, on the invasion of the Duke Valentino, upon whom and whose race he charged, in some bitter lampoons mentioned by Roscoe, all those crimes which have become matter of history. But years rendered him more pliant; for when another revolution came round, the attentions he had met with at the court of Urbino did not prevent his resorting, on Duke Francesco Maria's exile, to the protection of Leo, or lavishing eulogy and flattery upon that Pontiff. At Rome, he enjoyed the consideration there freely bestowed upon poets and wits, among whom Giovio assigns him a conspicuous place; but the life of luxurious indulgence to which he was tempted having undermined his health, he died in 1521.

Our authorities, barren of interest for the domestic life of Duke Francesco Maria,[*47] are altogether a blank as regards his children, and we know nothing of the Prince beyond the fact of his sharing his mother's virtual arrest at Venice in 1527. His early tastes seemed to have turned upon horses: in 1529, he ordered from Rome a set of housings for his charger, with minute instructions accompanying the pattern; ten years later, the Grand Duke Cosimo I. regretted his inability to find for him such horses as he had desired; and he appears to have paid 70 golden scudi for one from Naples. In 1843, I was shown, at Pesaro, the wooden model of a beautiful little Arab, which had long been preserved in the Giordani family, covered with the skin of his favourite charger, a fragment of which remained. We have seen Guidobaldo complimented by Clement VII. in 1529, and in that year he had a condotta from Venice, for seventy-five men-at-arms, and a hundred and fifty light horse, with 1000 ducats of pay for himself, 100 for each man-at-arms, and 50 for each horseman. In 1532, his father, on departing from Lombardy, left him regent of the duchy. The circumstances of his marriage, on the 12th of October, 1534, to Giulia Varana, then but eleven years of age, and her questionable succession to her paternal state of Camerino, have been fully detailed in our preceding chapter.[48] From 1534 till his father's death, in 1538, he seems to have exercised the rights of sovereignty, with the title of Duke of Camerino, unchallenged by the Pontiff, who had recalled his censures. But no sooner was Paul III. relieved from the influential opposition of Francesco Maria, than his designs upon that principality were firmly carried out.

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.

"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.

In our fourteenth chapter, we had occasion to consider the change which military affairs underwent in Italy about the time of the first French invasion, and we have seen in Duke Federigo of Urbino one of the last condottieri of the old sort. But it was not until the fall of Rome and Florence had extinguished Italian independence, that military adventure was entirely abolished; and it is curious to find in his grandson Duke Francesco Maria I., not only the latest captain who gathered laurels under that system, but to see him joining with the Pope and the Medici to exterminate those armed hordes which survived its mercenary armaments, and which, like the restless spirits of a departed generation, troubled the repose of their degenerate sons.[50] Their occupation was indeed gone. Tamed by invaders whom they were powerless to resist, domestic broils no longer demanded their services. Their forays were become intolerable in a land where peace was the price of freedom. How far the earlier adoption of Machiavelli's plans of defence might have availed against ultramontane hosts were now a vain speculation; they were only destined for trial after the sacrifice had been consummated. The national militia suggested by him was not enrolled until there was no longer a nationality to defend—until it was needed but as an armed police under foreign control.

This new force had been embodied in our duchy under the name of the Feltrian Legion, by a proclamation dated 1st of March, 1533, and it so fully satisfied the late Duke's expectations that he gradually increased his militia to five thousand men in four regiments. Such was the description of troops which henceforward maintained order at Urbino, or were subsidised on foreign service. But their sinews, hardened by a rude climate and rugged homes, maintained for them the reputation gained by their ancestors; and although Duke Guidobaldo II. lived in quiet times, and pretended to no heroic aspirations, we find him accepting of commands offered chiefly for the sake of securing his hardy mountaineers.

The abject position in which Italy was left after the wars of Clement VII. has already been noticed. Her internal conflicts were at an end. Of those states whose struggles for independence or for mastery had during long ages convulsed her, the lesser had been absorbed by the more powerful, and these in their turn had bowed to foreign dominion or foreign influence. She was tranquillised but trodden down, pacified but prostrate. Her history became but a series of episodes in the annals of ultramontane nations, on whom her few remaining princes and commonwealths grew into dependent satellites. Even the popes, no longer arbiters of European policy, sought a reflected consequence by attaching themselves to the interests of France, Spain, or the Empire. Nor were they losers by the change to the same degree as other Peninsular powers. The papacy was indeed shorn in part of its temporal lustre. It no longer directed the diplomacy of Christendom, nor did it waste its resources upon bloody and bootless campaigns. But as its energies were gradually weaned from general politics, they became more concentrated upon ecclesiastical affairs. The small speck on the horizon towards which Leo X. had scarcely directed a look or an anxiety, was now rapidly overspreading the sky, and already excluded the rays of Catholicism from a large portion of Central Europe. His successors, threatened with the loss of spiritual as well as temporal ascendancy, had the wisdom to make a stand for maintenance of the former, leaving the latter to its fate. The spirit of popery from aggressive became conservative; its military tactics gave place to theological weapons. It was by Paul III. that a vigorous opposition was first made to the Reformation, the primary steps taken towards that Catholic reaction, which Paul IV. and Pius V. afterwards so successfully promoted, as not only to check the rapid progress of Protestantism, but to regain a portion of the lost ground. Seconding the zeal of the old monastic orders, which had been revived in the Theatines,[*51] he, in 1540, recruited to it the cold clear-sighted cunning of the Jesuits. Two years afterwards he re-established the Inquisition,[*52] and in 1545 opened the Council of Trent, whose sittings were not finally closed until eighteen years later, when it had completed that bulwark which still constitutes a stronghold of the Roman church. Extirpation of heresy henceforward became the pervading principle of the papacy, and the engrossing dogma of its zealots; the object for which councils deliberated, pontiffs admonished, legates intrigued. For an end so sanctified no means were accounted base. When argument failed threats were at hand. From reason an appeal lay to the rack. Thus was the wavering power of the Keys restored or confirmed over much of Europe, and an alliance was effected between political and spiritual despotism for their mutual maintenance and common defence. The success which crowned these new efforts far exceeded any that mere mundane aims had ever attained. The re-influx of Catholicism was in some instances more signal, as it was more inexplicable, than had been the recent spread of the Reformation.[*53] Although fatal to freedom of thought, its influence proved highly favourable to morals. The revival of religion was attended with a happy reformation of manners, after examples emanating from high places. The sins, or at least the scenes, that had disgraced the Borgian and Medicean courts no longer met the eye, but were replaced by a semblance of ascetic virtue. The new religious orders, being of more rigid rule, tended by precept and example to restore discipline, and to purify, at least externally, the cup and the platter. Prelatic luxury was curtailed, brazen vice retired from public view, and the free exercise of papal nepotism was finally restrained by Pius V., who, in 1567, prohibited the alienation by his successors of church property or jurisdictions. But in these themes our narrative has no part. The battles of orthodoxy were chiefly fought beyond the Alps; the reformed morality of the papal court was exampled in its own capital: in neither had Urbino any near interest.

Guidobaldo's condotta from the Signory being renewed in 1546 upon more favourable terms (namely, 15,000 scudi of pay for his company, and 5000 of piatto for himself), he was invested about midsummer, by an imposing ceremonial pompously described in the letter of an eye-witness among the archives of Urbino. His jewelled cap and diamond collar are mentioned as superb, and his sword is valued at 700 scudi. After high mass in St. Mark's, the great standard being unfurled and supported by three bearers, and the baton of wrought silver placed in his hands, the Doge thus addressed him: "Lord Duke, we presented to your Excellency this standard of our St. Mark the Evangelist, in the wonted form, and in token of supremacy; and we pray the Lord our God that it tend to the weal and service of all Christendom, but especially to the defence of this state. We give it to your Excellency, confiding in your loyalty and prudence, well assured that you will use it with courage and faith conformable to your deserts. And we hand to your Excellency the baton, therewith designing you head and governor of our forces, and transferring to you the obedience of all our military: it is our will that you be obeyed, honoured, and respected by our several condottieri and soldiery, as representing our Signory itself. May it please the Divine Majesty that all be well ordered, to the well-being and furtherance of the Christian community, and of this our serene Republic." The Duke replied, "I most willingly accept, most Serene Prince, the distinction granted me by your Serenity, and with the sure hope of maintaining the good opinion you repose in me, which shall be nowise disappointed. I shall ever pray our Lord God graciously to vouchsafe me an early occasion of honourably serving your serene government, that I may thereby prove my good will. And I feel sure that your Serenity will have cause to be well satisfied at giving me this rank, which, without reserve of life or fortune, like one aware of his obligation to your Serenity, it will be my care so to hold as to augment my claims upon your favour." The function being over, the Duke was escorted by an imposing military pageant to his palace, where a splendid banquet was set out, of which, however, the jealous regulations of the Republic did not permit her officials to partake.

The court having gone to spend Christmas of 1547 in the mild climate of Fossombrone, the Duke, in January, 1548, again repaired to Venice, intending to return home for carnival. On the frontier he was met by news of his consort's serious illness, and immediately sent expresses to summon from Padua and Ferrara, Frigimiliza and Brasavolo, two famous physicians. Under them and her own doctors, the Duchess rallied for a time, but died on the 17th of February,—"a very religious, charitable, and lettered lady, and a great loss to the state." Her body was borne by torchlight to Urbino with the usual solemnities, and, after lying in state, was entombed in Santa Chiara on the 19th. The funeral service was performed at Urbino the 24th of March, with due pomp, and a ceremonial preserved by Tondini. The procession consisted of the Duchess's household, twenty-two in number, with thirty-nine of the Duke's; Guidobaldo and his brother; the ambassadors of five friendly states; twenty-two principal nobility of the duchy; forty captains; the municipality of Urbino, with seventy leading citizens; deputies from thirty-six other towns; in all, about three hundred and sixty persons. The obsequies were celebrated in the cathedral, which was illuminated by a hundred and eighty-six wax lights of four pounds each, and above two hundred torches. The funeral oration was pronounced by Sperone Speroni, and is published among his works.

Although, in somewhat startling contrast to these details of death, we here introduce a letter written by the Duchess, which may interest our lady readers. It is addressed to Marchetti, her steward of the household, then at Venice, and is printed in his life by Tondini:—

The Duchess had given birth to a son in 1544, but was survived only by a daughter Virginia: her marriage had been interested, and her lord lost no time in contracting another from similar motives, on the excuse of requiring a male heir. In August he went to kiss the Pope's feet at Rome, on occasion of negotiating a new matrimonial alliance with his granddaughter, Vittoria Farnese. On the 30th he returned home, and next month again met his Holiness at Perugia. The nuptials were interrupted by the assassination of the bride's father, Duke Pier-Luigi, whose son had supplanted Guidobaldo at Camerino, and whose tyranny in his new state of Parma sharpened the daggers of his outraged nobles. The ceremony, however, took place on the 30th of January, 1548, when Vittoria, who had been previously affianced to Duke Cosimo I., was twenty-eight years of age. On the 2nd of February she visited Urbino, amid many demonstrations of respect, among which was a muster of forty lads in her livery of yellow velvet, to each of whom an allowance of seven scudi had been voted by the city; but it was the Duke's pleasure that they should pay for their own dress. Art, too, had contributed its honours, and Vasari narrates how Battista Franco aided in decorating the triumphal arches designed by Girolamo Genga for her reception. Similar welcome was given her at Gubbio, where the youths wore purple velvet with white sleeves and white lilies.[*54] Coincident with, and in consequence of, this marriage, the Duke received from Paul a new investiture of his states, and a cardinal's hat, with the title of S. Pietro in Vinculis, for his brother Giulio, who, though but in his fifteenth year, was soon after named Legate of Perugia. On the 20th of February, 1549, there was born a prince, who succeeded to the dukedom as Francesco Maria II., and the grateful people manifested their loyalty by customary congratulations and donatives.[55] These happy events were, ere long, interrupted by the death of Paul III. on the 10th of November, followed by that of the dowager Duchess of Urbino, on the 14th of February, thereafter.

The little state of San Marino forms a solecism in the polity of Europe, having preserved its petty limits and its purely popular government during many centuries, whilst all the other republics of Italy successfully yielded to personal ambition or foreign conquest.[*56] For its independence during the ceaseless changes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was debtor to the Dukes of Urbino, whose aid was ever at hand when their name proved an inadequate safeguard. The nature of the protection which they accorded to that republic is shown in the subjoined document, which seems worthy of insertion from its resemblance to those letters of maintenance usually granted about the same period by the greater barons of Scotland, in favour of less powerful neighbours and friends, among the minor nobility, and even the burgh communities.

"Protection under which, at the instance of the Liberty of S. Marino, pressed by its envoys, the Lord Duke Guidobaldo II. assumes the aforesaid Liberty, its men and territory, following therein in this the course adopted by Duke Federico, Guido I., Francesco Maria his father, and others of his house: promising to the best of his ability, and at all times, to defend, protect, and guard it against all persons whatsoever who may seek or wish to injure it, whether in respect to its possessions, subjects, state, or pre-eminence, holding its enemies for his enemies, and its allies for his allies; and further, undertaking to accord to it all possible aid and favour in the maintenance of its independence and freedom: the said envoys, on the other part, obliging themselves to the Lord Duke, in name of the foresaid, with all their exertion and power to assist, uphold, and preserve the subjects, state, honours, and dignity of the said Lord Duke, against whatsoever person, state, or potentate who may make attempts against him; promising to hold the friends of his Excellency as their friends, and his foes as their foes, and to pay him at all times the respect due to a faithful and good protector. At the requisition of Ser Bartolo Nursino, 20th May, 1549."

It was Guidobaldo's policy to maintain with the Holy See those amicable relations which his second marriage had established, and he had accordingly, on the death of Paul III., sent some troops to Perugia, in order to secure the quiet succession of Julius III. This being effected, he went to Rome on a visit of congratulation to the new Pontiff, accompanied by Aretino, whose venal appetites were ever on the watch for opportunities of bringing his sycophancy to a good market. The Pope disappointed him of the anticipated guerdon, but, aware of the ready transition from adulation to slander, disarmed his tongue of its venom by a gracious accolade, kissing the forehead of this "scourge of princes." The first token of favour bestowed on the Duke by his Holiness was his nomination as governor of Fano in 1551. In the following year he spent some time at Verona with the Venetian army, accompanied by his boy, who there had an illness which occasioned him much anxiety. This command was a somewhat anomalous one, with the title of Governor of the Republican forces, which he vainly negotiated to exchange for that of General. Disgusted by this refusal, he listened to an overture from his brothers-in-law for transferring his services to the French King. Ottavio Farnese, now Duke of Parma, apprehending some hostile intentions from the imperialists, had applied, in 1551, to the Pope for succours, in order to guarantee his possession of that state; but, unable to spare reinforcements or money, Julius had recommended him to take his own measures for defence. Acting on this advice, he had recourse to Henry II., from whom he accepted a condotta, on condition of Parma being supplied with a French garrison. Such a step could not fail to alarm the Emperor, who, representing that Ottavio had, in fact, made over his duchy to France, brought upon him the thunders of the Vatican. The inducement offered to Guidobaldo by the Farnesi for following them into Henry's service was that the King should renounce the supposed claims upon Urbino competent to his wife Caterina de' Medici, in right of her father Lorenzo, its usurping Duke. But the decided measures adopted by the Pontiff cut short this negotiation, and we hear no more of pretensions which were doubtless vamped up to serve a temporary purpose. Although the Pontiff was nominally a party to the petty war which ensued in Lombardy, it was, in fact, but a chapter in the prolonged struggle between the houses of Hapsburg and Bourbon, with which our narrative has no concern. Another episode in the same contest was more alarming to Central Italy, and, when Tuscany became involved in the strife, it seemed well for Julius to stand on the defensive. Accordingly, in January, 1553, he named Guidobaldo captain-general of the Church, who, in April, proceeded to Rome for his installation; and accompanied by a brilliant staff, reviewed the pontifical troops.

Siena, originally Ghibelline, had, during the recurring convulsions of a nominally democratic government, remained in some measure devoted to the imperialist party. But, irritated by the licence of their Spanish garrison, and alarmed at a rumoured intention of Charles V. to seize their state, and exchange it with the Farnesi for that of Parma, the citizens, in 1552, foolishly listened to the intrigues of French emissaries, and, with the Count of Pitigliano's aid, ousted their oppressors. In the campaign which followed, Siena was under French protection, whilst Florence efficiently co-operated with the imperialists against her, the Pope maintaining an armed neutrality. The duties of Guidobaldo were thus limited to an occupation of Bologna, in order to protect the ecclesiastical territories and his own state, on the passage of French troops into Tuscany. That his wishes favoured the independence of Siena appears from his having, at the election of Marcellus II., in April, 1554, recommended an intervention in its favour; but it was too late, as the city had already capitulated, and was soon after finally annexed to Florence.

The successor of Julius III., who died in March, 1555, was Marcello Cervini, Bishop of Gubbio; and the Duke of Urbino congratulated himself on seeing a personal friend mount the throne of St. Peter. But his satisfaction was transient. Popular superstition awarded an early death to any Pontiff who should take for title his Christian name: the fate of Adrian VI. had verified the omen; and, after a reign of but three weeks, Marcellus was carried to the tomb. Guidobaldo immediately took armed possession of the Roman gates for protection of the conclave; but the election of Cardinal Caraffa as Paul IV. passed off satisfactorily, and his energy was rewarded by a confirmation in his command, and the restoration of the Prefecture of Rome, with reversion to his son, an honour which, though long held by his father and grandfather, had been enjoyed for the last seventeen years by the Farnesi.

CHAPTER XLIII

THIS somewhat barren portion of our narrative may be appropriately enlivened by the marriage of Princess Elisabetta, sister of Guidobaldo, to Alberico Cibò, Prince of Massa. The bride left Urbino on the 26th of September, accompanied by the Duke and Duchess, and remained at Castel Durante for two days. She was convoyed for some miles farther by the court, and parted from her family with copious tears on both sides. That night she slept at S. Angelo, and next day reached Città di Castello, escorted by an immense train of the principal residents to the Vitelli Palace. There she was entertained at an almost regal banquet, with about fifty gentle dames, each more beautiful than the other, and all richly dressed; after which there followed dancing, to the music of many rare instruments and choruses, till near daybreak. Travelling in a litter by easy journeys, she reached Florence in four days, and was welcomed with magnificent public honours. She entered the city in a rich dress of green velvet, radiant with jewels, and passed two days there, the guest of Chiappino Vitelli, who spent 2000 scudi upon four entertainments in her honour, including a ball and masquerade. On going to court, she was received by the Grand Duke and Duchess as a sister, with much kindness, and a world of professions. Near Pisa she was met by her bridegroom, at the head of a cavalcade which resembled an army marching to the assault of the city; and his mother, though almost dying, had herself carried to the bed in which the bride had sought repose, to embrace her with maternal affection. More acceptable, perhaps, than this singular visit, was the present received from her in the morning, of two immense pearls, and a golden belt studded with costly jewels. The pair entered the capital next day, amid a crash of artillery, martial music, and bells, preceded by fifty youths in yellow velvet and white plumes. The festive arches delighted the narrator, but still more the palace furniture, "where nothing was seen but armchairs brocaded in silk and gold, and one everywhere stepped on the finest carpets." The community offered six immense vases, and a donative of bullocks, fowls, and wax. "But all this is nothing to the excessive affection which the Lord Marquis bears to his most illustrious consort: he does not merely love her, he adores her. May God continue it, and maintain them in happiness."[57] This kind wish had scanty fulfilment, for the Princess died nine years later, her husband surviving to the patriarchal age of ninety-six.

In 1556, Guidobaldo finished the citadel and fortifications of Sinigaglia, which had occupied him during ten years, and which were considered an important bulwark against Turkish descents on the Adriatic coast. There also he instituted a college for the study of gunnery; and he commemorated the completion of these establishments by striking four medals, of which three are described by Riposati; none of them, however, merit special notice, the beauty of Italian dies being already on the wane. The court was now for the most part resident at Pesaro, a situation excelling in amenity and convenience the original capital of the duchy. Among its attractions may be numbered the palace-villa of Imperiale, which has been described; but it became necessary to provide a town residence, that in the citadel, which had sufficed for the Sforza, being far too restricted for the demands of growing luxury. Of the palace at Pesaro, Guidobaldo II. may be considered the entire author,[*58] and if it seem scarcely suited for the accommodation of so famed a court, we must recollect that the golden days of this principality were already passing away, that the military qualities of its sovereigns and people had become less gainful, and the devotion of its dukes to letters and arts was beginning to languish. Although extensive, the aspect of this residence is mean, its buildings rambling. It exhibits no appearance of a public edifice except the spacious loggia or arcade. Over this, its single external feature, is the great hall, measuring 134 by 54 feet, and of well-proportioned height. Here we find some interesting traces of the della Rovere, in those quaint and significant family devices which it was their pride unceasingly to repeat. The manifold compartments of its richly stuccoed ceiling contain their heraldic badge, the oak-tree; the ermine of Naples; the half-inclined palm-tree; the meta, or goal of merit, and similar fancies.[59] These recur among delicately sculptured arabesques on the internal lintels, and ornament the imposing chimney-pieces, varied by figures of Fame strewing oak-leaves and acorns. This palace was later the winter residence of the cardinal legates of Urbino and Pesaro, of whom portraits, from the Devolution of the duchy to the Holy See, in 1626, surround the great hall. In 1845, Cardinal della Genga was the forty-eighth of this long succession.

Paul IV. was seventy-nine years of age when he assumed the triple tiara. His life had been one long exercise of holy zeal and ascetic observance, and the Romans, again sunk in those habits of luxury and indulgence from which Bourbon's army had roused them, saw with little satisfaction the accession of one so intolerant. But they were ill-prepared for a turbulence unparalleled during many years. His policy leaned to the once favourite, but long dormant, idea of expelling the Spaniards from Lower Italy; while, to the astonishment of mankind, the almost abandoned pretensions of nepotism were revived with unflinching fierceness by this octogenarian founder of the strictly devotional order of Theatins. A trumpery outrage on the French flag by the Sforza of Santa-fiore,[*60] in which the Colonna were alleged to have participated or sympathised, supplied a pretext for putting the latter to the ban; and their vast possessions, which in the ecclesiastical states alone numbered above a hundred separate holdings, were conferred upon the Pope's nephew, Giovanni Caraffa, Count of Montorio. The Colonna flew to arms, and, being under the avowed protection of Spain, were supported by troops from Naples, against whom the Duke of Urbino was ordered to march; but fortunately the ashes of civil broils were nearly cold, and peace would have continued undisturbed, had not Paul, in the following year, issued his monitory against Philip II. Although the Spanish intervention in behalf of the Colonna formed an ostensible ground for this aggression, its true motives are traced by Panvinio to more remote and personal considerations, dating from the viceroyalty of Lautrec, by whom the Caraffa, always adherents of France, had been harshly treated. Reverting to the papal policy of half a century before, Paul sought to avenge this quarrel through French instrumentality, and although a pacification of unusual solemnity had been concluded in February of this year between Charles V. and Henry II., preparatory to the former retiring from the cares of sovereignty, he contrived, by successful intrigues, to bring the two great European powers once more into hostility, and to revive in the Bourbon King those ambitious projects which had formerly brought his predecessors across the Alps for the conquest of Naples.

Anticipating this threatened danger, the Duke of Alva marched an army of fourteen thousand men into the Comarca, which he overran in September, occupying Tivoli on the one hand, and Ostia on the other, whilst Marc-Antonio Colonna scoured the Campagna, to the gates of Rome. Guidobaldo, who appears to have been about this time superseded, and his truncheon of command transferred to the Pontiff's favourite nephew, contented himself with sending a contingent of two thousand troops, under Aurelio Fregoso, for his Holiness's support. The efforts made on all sides to conclude a harassing and useless war, were rendered unavailing by the Pope's obstinacy and ambition; the only terms he would agree to including an investiture of his nephew as sovereign of Siena, in compensation for the Colonna estates.

During the winter months, a horde of northern barbarians were once more mustered to invade unhappy Italy. Fourteen thousand Gascons, Grisons, and Germans, under command of the Duc de Guise, marched early in the spring upon Romagna, which, though a friendly country, they cruelly ravaged. Faenza having escaped their brutality by denying them entrance, its citizens testified their gratitude for the exemption, by instituting an annual triduan thanksgiving, and dotation of two of their daughters. The Duke of Urbino did his best to secure his people during the transit of this army, which crossed the Tronto in April. It would be tedious to follow the fortunes of a campaign in which he took no part, and which, whoever gained, was the scourge of Italy. On the 26th of August, the Duc de Guise placed his scaling ladders against the San Sebastiano gate, and Rome had nearly been carried by a coup-de-main. At length the representations of Venice and Florence, which had remained neutral, prevailed with his Holiness, and, on the 14th of September, peace was restored, leaving matters much on their former footing. Riposati assures us that during this war the French monarch would gladly have secured the services of Guidobaldo, now free from his engagements to the Pontiff, but that Duke Cosimo of Florence interested himself to procure for him an engagement from Spain. This was at length arranged, in the spring of 1558, previously to which Charles V. appears to have bestowed on him the Golden Fleece, the highest compliment at his disposal.[61]

The terms upon which the Duke took service under Philip II. are thus stated in a letter of Bernardo Tasso. The King guaranteed him protection for his territories against all hazards, and bound himself to supply and maintain for him a body-guard of at least two hundred infantry, besides a company of a hundred men-at-arms, and another of two hundred light horse. He further engaged to pay him monthly 1000 golden scudi for his appointments as captain-general, besides maintaining for him four colonels and twenty captains. In return, the Duke took an oath to serve his Majesty faithfully against all potentates, the pontiffs alone excepted. The political results of this arrangement were strongly and painfully felt by Bernardo, who regarded it as establishing the tranquillity of Naples, the security of Tuscany, and, in a word, the Spanish domination in Italy. Inclined to the French interests (for there was no longer an Italian party in existence), he would have gladly seen the sovereign of a highland population, whose warlike sinews were not yet quite relaxed, preserve his neutrality, or rather, like his father, attach himself to the republic of Venice, which still possessed much external power and internal independence. Indeed, he laments the short-sighted policy of the Signory, in omitting this opportunity of securing, as an available check upon Spanish influence, an able confederate, and corn-growing neighbour; a blunder which was the more unaccountable, as, in the opinion of Mocenigo, who was Venetian envoy at Urbino many years later, the prepossessions of Guidobaldo were even then in favour of a connection which had hereditary claims upon his preference. On the first days of May the convention was published at Pesaro, after solemn thanksgiving to the Almighty for a dispensation so acceptable to the Duke.[62] The importance to Spain of this condotta may be understood from a fact mentioned by Riposati, that Gubbio alone sent forth, between 1530 and 1570, three captains-general, two lieutenants-general, six colonels, and sixty-five captains of note. Mocenigo says, there were in 1570 twelve thousand soldiers in the duchy, ready at call.

Our notices of Guidobaldo become ever more barren. In 1565 the armament of Sultan Solyman against Malta spread consternation throughout Western Europe, and, by desire of Philip II., the Duke of Urbino sent four or five thousand troops to aid in the defence of the knights. Prince Francesco Maria asked leave to accompany the expedition, but his father, considering his time better bestowed in visiting courts, sent him in this year to Madrid, with commission to recover a long arrear of his own military allowances. In this he was successful, but the sum scarcely sufficed to clear the expenses of his journey. Particulars of this visit, and of his marriage in 1571, will be told from his own pen in next chapter. But there was no lukewarmness on his father's part on the question of the Cross against the Crescent. After the Prince returned from the naval action off Lepanto, which will also be narrated from his Autobiography, Guidobaldo prepared a Discourse on the propriety of a general war against the Turks, the means of conducting the proposed campaign with due regard to the security of Italy, the preparation of adequate munitions, and the best plan for carrying the seat of war into the enemy's country. It is unnecessary to dwell upon a matter now so completely gone by: the paper emanates from a mind capable of enlarged views, and fully conversant with the belligerent resources and general policy of his age, as well as experienced in military operations.[63]

The Relazioni of the Venetian envoys supply us with some notices of Urbino about this time, and prove that the Duke's expenses were very great, partly from frequent calls upon his hospitality by visitors of distinction, but still more from his maintaining separate and costly establishments for himself, the Duchess, the Prince, and the Princess.[64] Mocenigo estimates his income from imposts, monopolies, and allodial domains, at 100,000 scudi; adding that, "should he think proper to burden his people, this sum might unquestionably be greatly augmented, but, choosing to follow the custom of his predecessors, in making it his chief object to preserve the affection of his subjects, he is content to leave matters as they are, and live in straits for money."[65] He also tells us that, though poor in revenues, he was master of his people's affections, who on an exigency would place life and substance at his disposal. The accuracy of these impressions is in some degree impugned by what we are now about to relate.

The most remarkable incident in Guidobaldo's reign was an outbreak of the citizens of Urbino, dignified in its municipal history by the name of a rebellion, which acquires a factitious importance as the only symptom of discontent that troubled the peace of the duchy, from the death of Oddantonio in 1443, to the extinction of its independence in 1631. We shall condense its incidents from the contemporary narrative of Gian-Francesco Cartolari, who designated himself agent of the Duke, and who, notwithstanding his official position, writes with apparent frankness and impartiality.[66]

In August, 1572, the Duke intimated to the council of Urbino that he had received authority from Gregory XIII. to impose a tax of one quatrino per lb. on butchers' meat, and of two bolognini upon every staro of grain and soma of wine;[67] and in October he made proclamation throughout the duchy of these new imposts. It being rumoured that the envoys of Gubbio had obtained for that community a suspension of the obnoxious duties, discontent began to prevail, and on the 26th December one Zibetto, a cobbler, in an inflammatory harangue, at a public assembly dignified with the name of general council, declared that these were exactions under which the poor could not exist.[*68] On his proposal, forty delegates were chosen from the nobility, and sworn to represent the matter to the Duke in person. They repaired to Pesaro, and, on the 29th, had an audience to present the memorial agreed to by the council, which Guidobaldo received, and desired them to go home, promising that an answer would be transmitted when he had considered their statement. They, however, stayed a week, vainly looking for his reply, during which the council met daily at Urbino, and at length they were recalled by an express from the Gonfaloniere. Meanwhile a vice-duke had been sent thither, who, on the 1st of January, 1573, published a suspension of the new imposts throughout the whole state. This concession, however, did not satisfy the discontented, who, in another general council, accredited two envoys to Prince Francesco Maria, begging his intervention to procure an answer to their memorial. Having failed in this object, and finding that troops were being secretly organised to garrison their city, the people of Urbino rushed to arms, closed the gates, and, having mustered above a thousand men, began to strengthen the defences and lay in stores. The Vice-Duke being thereupon recalled, the general council assembled daily in such numbers, that adjournments to one of the largest churches were found necessary, and the inhabitants, setting aside private rivalries, co-operated with one mind for the public safety, mounting guard, and making every exertion to render their city tenable. The impossibility of doing so against the Duke's military levies being however quickly apparent even to the insurgents, an embassy of six was despatched to Rome to beseech the Pope's mediation. Nor did the reaction stop there; a general cry rose for the Prince, or his brother the Cardinal, the opportune arrival of either of whom would have ended the émeute. On the 29th, however, the Duchess came with a small suite, and was received with cries of "Long life to the Duke, but death to the gabelle!" The efforts of the magistracy and popular leaders to make their peace were unavailing, in consequence of their having sent representations to the Pontiff, and, on the 3rd of February, the Duchess departed without effecting any arrangement, to the infinite annoyance of all parties. The envoys could get no other reply from his Holiness but that they must go home and make submission, and they were followed by a brief from him, enjoining them to lay down arms and seek his Excellency's unconditional pardon. As soon as this had been publicly read by the Gonfaloniere, the people piled their arms in the piazza, and the peasantry dispersed to their country homes.

Notwithstanding this surrender, Guidobaldo advanced upon the city, quartering his troops in the surrounding villages, so as to blockade it, and all the public functionaries were superseded. Dreading a sack, the citizens rushed to the monasteries with their valuables, and, about the middle of February, sent fifty of the nobles to crave pardon of their sovereign. After waiting at Pesaro for three days, these were admitted to tender submission on their knees, and were then placed under arrest at their inn for twenty days, notwithstanding incessant petitions from their fellow citizens for their release. Six of them were then committed to the castle, and from time to time other leaders were brought from Urbino to share their imprisonment. So terrified were the insurgents by these measures, that those most compromised fled from the duchy, and but few remained in their houses; a proclamation was therefore issued that all exiles should return home within two months, under penalties of rebellion. The property of the prisoners and exiles was confiscated; the city was disarmed; public assemblies were prohibited; and the magistracy were discharged from their duties.[69] Such rigorous measures having inspired a general panic, the imposts were again proclaimed at Easter, to include retrospectively the previous year. These severities were perhaps scarcely beyond the exigencies of the case; at all events, they cannot be justly regarded as an extreme exercise of the despotic authority which the Duke undoubtedly possessed; but those which ensued must be viewed with abhorrence, alike from their own enormity, and from their prejudicial influence in confounding vengeance with justice.

A judge was brought from Ferrara to sit upon the prisoners, and on the 1st of July nine of them were beheaded in the castle at midnight; their bodies, after being flung out and exposed beyond the city, were huddled together into an unconsecrated pit, until some days later they were taken up by order of the Bishop of Pesaro, and received Christian burial. Nor was the indignation of their sovereign appeased by these revolting cruelties: others implicated were sent to the galleys or died of hard usage. A commission sat at Urbino for two months to realise the estates of those attainted, whose widows and children were deprived of their dowries, and in some instances their very houses were razed to the ground. The results were fatal to the whole community, for magisterial business was suspended, the schools were left without teachers, the town without medical practitioners, trade of every sort at a stand. At length, in December, permission was obtained to hold a general council, at which it was determined once more to send ambassadors to intercede for mercy. For this purpose about eighty of the principal nobility were selected to accompany the Gonfaloniere and priors to Pesaro, their cavalcade amounting to above a hundred persons on horseback. On the 27th of December, they were admitted to an audience in presence of the whole court, and the Gonfaloniere, after a very judicious speech, presented to his Excellency a petition couched in the following terms:—

"Most illustrious and most excellent Lord Duke, our especial lord and master! Inspired by a most ardent desire for your illustrious Excellency's favour and good will, and having ever felt the utmost grief and regret for the recent events, the city of Urbino, with entire devotion and alacrity, has resolved to send to your illustrious Excellency its magistrates, and the present numerous embassy, in order that with every possible humility, they in our name, and we likewise for ourselves, may supplicate you, with all reverence and submission, to accord us grace and pardon, entirely forgetting the provocations received, and, as our clement father and master, full of charity towards us, to deign willingly to comfort us, and receive us again, and restore us to your love and benign grace; assuring your most illustrious Excellency, that this your city will never, in fidelity, love, and obedience towards your most illustrious person and house, yield to any other in the world, and that it is, and ever will be, most prompt at all times and occasions to expose our lives, and those of our children, and our whole goods and possessions, in your service and honour; so that, in the event of our receiving, as we desire and hope, forgiveness from your infinite bounty and magnanimity, we, the humblest and most faithful of your servants, thanking God with sincerely joyful hearts, may return, singing in chorus—'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath visited and redeemed his people,' and may ever keep in remembrance this trusted day of grace, and render it a gladsome festival in all time to come."

To this petition the Duke returned the following gracious answer:—"I hear with much good will and satisfaction the duty which you pay, the free pardon which you ask, and the penitence which you exhibit, all which induce me to confirm to you, as I now do most willingly, the forgiveness I already have accorded: and the promise which you make, of being ever faithful and loyal to me, proves you ready to second your words with good purposes, as I readily believe you will do. I also promise you from henceforward entirely to forget the past, and to receive you into my pristine affection; and had it pleased God that the warnings and persuasions which you received from my lips had been taken by you at first, you would have been spared many evils, annoyances, and losses, and I much displeasure. Nevertheless, take courage, and, as I have already said, so long as you do your duty, you will find me as loving in time to come as I have ever been, all which you will report to your city."[70]

This reply gave great satisfaction to the deputation, and after being suitably acknowledged by their head, all of them knelt to their Sovereign, the Duchess, and the Prince, kissing the hems of their garments in humble attitude. Next day they returned home, and summoned a general council, to which there was read a letter from Guidobaldo, reinstating the city in its former privileges, and removing the obnoxious imposts. Four deputies having been commissioned to thank his Highness for these demonstrations of returning favour, they were honourably received and entertained at Pesaro. The council next voted a peace-offering of 50,000 scudi towards paying the Duke's debts, which had been the primary root of the evil; but, in consideration of their recent sufferings, he accepted of but 20,000, payable in seven years. Although there remained some symptoms of smouldering sedition, the Duke on the 14th of June suddenly started for Urbino, and was welcomed by a deputation, and such other marks of respect as the short notice would permit. During a residence of twelve days, he renounced 8000 scudi of the donative, and conceded several privileges to the community, whom he did not again visit during the brief residue of his life.

The Urbino rebellion holds a place in the history of that state which neither its incidents nor its issue deserve. It originated in a sore of old standing, the Duke having for years comparatively deserted the ancient capital of his duchy, and transferred his residence to Pesaro. Influenced by this grudge, its citizens, instead of, like the other communities, resting satisfied with his remission of dues in January, 1573, kept up an agitation, and finally piqued their sovereign by carrying their grievances to the papal throne. On the whole, these transactions were in all respects most unfortunate, and it was long ere the duchy recovered from the heart-burnings they left behind. The Duke then forfeited the popularity of a lifetime, and his fame continues blackened by the scurrilous traditionary nickname of Guidobaldaccio, a usual diminutive expressing contemptuous disparagement. Grossi says that, when too late, he regretted the harshness of his after measures; and some doubt as to his good faith in regard to an amnesty is hinted in the following letter from his cousin-german Ludovico Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers and Rethel, which I found among the Oliveriana MSS. at Pesaro.