READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER VI.

AFFAIRS OF ITALY, SPAIN AND THE EMPIRE, DOWN TO THE LEAGUE OF CAMBRAY

AFTER the election of Pius III, Caesar Borgia had returned to Rome to congratulate that Pontiff on his accession; but no sooner did he appear there than he was set upon by the Orsini and their adherents, as well as by other enemies; and Pope Pius offered him the Castle of St. Angelo as a refuge from their violence. After the death of his father Caesar’s power waned fast; and the effects of the poison, from which he was still suffering, prevented him from taking any active steps to retain it. One thing alone, as he told Machiavelli, had escaped his care and foresight; he had provided for every possible contingency in the event of his father’s death, except his own sickness at that critical juncture. A great part of his mercenaries now dispersed themselves; the Venetians attacked some of his towns, others they bought from the ancient Lords of them, whose return they had aided. Some of Borgia’s captains, however, remained faithful to him, and he still held Bertinoro, Forli, Imola, and a few other places. This profligate and cruel man seems, like Ludovico Sforza, not to have been a bad ruler. It is said that the cities reduced under his sway did not regret their ancient Lords; at all events he had conferred on them a benefit by slaying their former tyrants.

Julius II on his accession to the Papacy immediately resolved to avail himself of Caesar Borgia’s helpless condition to extend the temporal dominion of the Holy See. The classical name of that Pontiff seemed to announce the warlike tenor of his reign; which, however, if hardly more Christian was at all events less scandalous than that of his predecessor. Had Julius, indeed, been a secular Prince, his ideas and projects would have done him honor. They ultimately embraced two grand objects: the extension of the Papal territory by the recovery of Romagna, and the expulsion of all foreigners from the soil of Italy. It was not nepotism that urged Julius to undertake his conquests. Although he did not altogether neglect his family, his leading wish was to render the Papal States powerful and respected; that is, in a temporal view; for on the interests of Christianity, or the dangers which threatened the Church, he bestowed not a thought.

Caesar Borgia had helped Julius to the tiara; but no sooner had the latter got possession of it than he proceeded, partly by threats, partly by caresses, to strip Caesar of all the possessions he still retained. He was thrown into that very tower at Rome which, from the numerous victims he had himself confined in it, had obtained the name of the “Torre Borgia”. As some of his captains, however, refused to give up the fortresses demanded of them so long as their master was in confinement, Julius at length released him, and he succeeded in escaping to Naples. The sequel of his fate may here be briefly told. He was well received at Naples by Gonsalvo de Cordova, who had given him a safe conduct, and pretended to forward his plans; but shortly after, by order of the Spanish Court, he was shipped off to Spain, and kept prisoner nearly three years in the Castle of Medina del Campo. This is the second of those perfidies, committed for the service of a perfidious master, of which Gonsalvo is said to have repented on his death-bed; the other being the betraying of the young Duke of Calabria, before related. Borgia, having contrived to effect his escape, proceeded to the Court of his brother-in-law, the King of Navarre, and in the civil wars of that country found a tragical and somewhat romantic death. He was met in a defile near Viana by a band of insurgents, and his gilt armor indicating a person of distinction, he was surrounded by a band of assailants, and fell fighting valiantly for his life. He was endowed with great strength of body as well as personal beauty. At a bull-fight he killed six wild bulls, severing the head of one at the first blow. He was not altogether destitute of good qualities. He possessed liberality, courage, and a certain magnanimity of disposition, but he was abandoned to the most depraved lusts, and of a ferocity so sanguinary that his own father as well as all Rome stood in fear of him. He slew Peroto, one of his father's favorites, while taking refuge under the Papal mantle, so that the blood spurted into Alexander's face. Yet his father's fear was mingled with love. Caesar Borgia owed his advancement to being the bastard of a Pope who placed the Roman treasury at his disposal, and to his having found so great a dupe as Cardinal d'Amboise and so stupid a King as Louis XII.

Although Julius II loaded Cardinal d'Amboise with attentions, that ecclesiastic returned to France dejected and discouraged. The delay of six weeks which his ambitious projects had caused to the French army proved fatal to the campaign. Malaria made great havoc in their ranks, and La Trémouille himself was compelled by illness to resign the command to the Marquis of Mantua, whose talents as a general did not inspire the army with much confidence. Julius II remained a quiet spectator of the war of Naples. The French still held some places in that Kingdom, which their army had entered about the beginning of October, 1503. They succeeded in relieving the garrison of Gaeta, which was besieged by Gonsalvo, and they afterwards forced the passage of the Garigliano, November 9th: but here their progress was checked. Every opportunity was lost through the indecision of the Marquis of Mantua, who, weary with the reproaches of his officers, at length resigned the command in favor of the Marquis of Saluzzo: a general, however, of no better repute than himself. The seasons themselves were hostile to the French; heavy rains set in with a constancy quite unusual to that climate; and the French soldiers perished by hundreds in the mud and swamps of the Garigliano. The Spanish army encamped near Sessa was better supplied and better disciplined ; and at length, after two months of inaction, Gonsalvo, having received some reinforcements, assumed the offensive, and in his turn crossed the river. The French, whose quarters were widely dispersed, were not prepared for this attack, and attempted to fall back upon Gaeta; but their retreat soon became a disorderly flight; many threw down their arms without striking a blow; and hence the affair has sometimes been called the rout of the Garigliano (December 29th). Peter de Medici, who was following the French army, perished in his retreat, having embarked on a vessel in the river which sank from being overloaded. Very few of the French army found their way back to France. Gaeta surrendered at the first summons, January 1st, 1504. This was the most important of all Gonsalvo’s victories, as it completed the conquest of Naples.

The two attacks on Spain had also miscarried. Nothing was accomplished on the side of Fontarabia. In Roussillon the French penetrated to Salsas and undertook the siege of that place, but on Ferdinand’s approach with a large army were compelled to retire into Narbonne. A truce of five months was concluded, November 15th, which was subsequently converted into a peace of three years. Singularly enough, Frederick, the abdicated King of Naples, was employed to mediate this peace between two monarchs who had combined to strip him of his dominions. Ferdinand’s conquest was, on the whole, a fortunate event for the Neapolitans, who had been sadly misgoverned, both under the House of Anjou and their first four Aragonese Sovereigns. The Catholic King, during a visit to Naples in 1507, conceded many privileges to the people, and the Neapolitans testified their sense of the benefits conferred on them by observing, during more than two centuries, the anniversary of his death as a day of mourning. His Viceroys subsequently introduced some useful reforms into the law, and resuscitated the venerable University of the capital, which was fast falling into decay.

The power and the policy of Venice had at this period excited great jealousy in the breasts of several European Princes. The Venetians had just brought to a close a war with the Turks. Sultan Bajazet II, who now ruled the Turkish Empire, was addicted to literature and the study of the sacred books of his religion, and had little energy of character, though he sometimes strove to conceal that defect by exaggerated bursts of passion. After his accession the Turkish scimitar was everywhere sheathed, except on the side of Hungary and Croatia. We shall not, however, detail the numerous expeditions of the Turks in that quarter, which present a uniform and disgusting scene of devastation, and shall content ourselves with stating that, in 1407, in revenge for an aggression made on them by the King of Poland, they for the first time succeeded in penetrating into that kingdom. During the first seventeen years of Dajazet’s reign the peace between the Venetians and the Porte, though occasionally threatened, remained on the whole undisturbed. The Venetians complained of the Turkish inroads, and the definitive occupation of Montenegro, while the Porte, on its side, was jealous because the Republic had reduced the Duke of Naxos to dependence, and obtained possession of Cyprus (1489). At last, in 1498, the Turks, after making great naval preparations, suddenly arrested all Venetian residents at Constantinople, and in the following year seized Lepanto, which surrendered without striking a blow (August, 1499). Soon after, a body of 10,000 Turks crossed the Isonzo, carrying fire and desolation almost to the lagoons of Venice. In August, 1500, Modon was taken by storm, and those cruelties committed to which we have before referred. Navarino and Koron surrendered soon after, but towards the close of the year the Venetians were more successful. They captured Aegina, devastated and partly occupied Lesbos, Tenedos, and Samothrace, and with the help of a Spanish squadron, and 7,000 troops under Gonsalvo dc Cordova, reduced the island of Cephalonia. For this service the grateful Venetians rewarded Gonsalvo with a present of 500 tons of Cretan wine, 60,000 pounds of cheese, 260 pounds of wrought silver, and the honorary freedom of their Republic.

In 1501 the Venetian fleet was joined by a French, a Papal, and a Spanish squadron, but through want of cordiality among the commanders little was effected. The Turks, however, had not made a better figure; and the Porte, whose attention was at that time distracted by the affairs of Persia, was evidently inclined for peace. The Venetians, from the disordered state of their finances, and the decay of their commerce through the maritime discoveries of the Portuguese, were also disposed to negotiate; although the sale of indulgences, granted to them by the Pope for this war, is said to have brought more than seven hundred pounds weight of gold into their exchequer. The war nevertheless continued through 1502, and the Venetians were tolerably successful, having captured many Turkish ships, and, with help of the French, taken the island of St. Maura. But at length a treaty was signed, December 14th, by which Venice was allowed to hold Cephalonia, but restored St. Maura, and permitted the Porte to retain its conquests, including the three important fortresses of Modon, Koron, and Navarino.

The election of Julius II placed upon the Papal throne a Pontiff very inimical to the Venetians, on account of their opposition to his ambitious plans. One of the first steps of Pope Julius was to form a league against Venice by the triple alliance of Blois. By these treaties, executed September 22nd, 1504, a perpetual alliance was stipulated between Louis XII, Maximilian I, and his son, the Archduke Philip; and at the same time the Emperor and the French King made an alliance with Pope Julius, which laid the foundation of the League of Cambray. The treaties of Blois, which were prejudicial to the true interests of France, are supposed to have been the work of Louis XII’s consort, Anne of Brittany, who is said to have retained a secret affection for the Emperor Maximilian. The Emperor and the Pope were the chief gainers by the alliance. It enabled Maximilian to put an end to the war of the Bavarian succession, as well as to obtain for his son, the Archduke Philip, Guelderland and Zutphen, by the withdrawal of French aid from his opponents. He defeated Duke Albert of Lower Bavaria, the rightful heir of Charles of Baiern-Landshut, against the attempts of Rupert, son of the Elector Palatine, who had married a daughter of Charles; and with the help of the Swabian League, Maximilian defeated Rupert’s forces in a battle in which he displayed great personal valor. In like manner, in 1505, the French King, in consideration of being invested by the Emperor with the Duchy of Milan, withdrew his protection from Charles, Duke of Guelderland, and the Archduke Philip took possession of Guelderland and Zutphen. The Pope also acquired indirectly some advantages from the treaties of Blois. Maximilian, who had not entered earnestly into the league against the Venetians, having given them secret information of it, they immediately entered into negotiations with Julius II, and that Pontiff took what they offered, awaiting his opportunity to get more. By an arrangement effected in 1505, the Holy See obtained the restoration of Porto Cesenatico, Savignano, Tossignano, Santo Arcangelo and six other places which the Venetians had seized, while Venice was allowed to retain Rimini and Faenza.

Soon after the execution of the treaties of Blois, Queen Isabella of Castile died (November 20th, 1504), at the age of fifty-three and in the thirtieth year of her reign. She had long been in declining health, and her death is said to have been hastened by the concern which she felt for the lamentable condition of her daughter Joanna, whose dejection, after the departure of her husband Philip from Spain in 1503, began to assume all the appearance of insanity. Early in 1504, Joanna had rejoined Philip in the Netherlands, where her jealousy, for which, indeed, she had but too much cause, gave rise to the most scandalous and disgraceful scenes. These and other symptoms of her daughter's malady led Isabella to provide against its effects by a testament executed a month or two before her death, by which she settled the succession of Castile on Joanna as “Queen Proprietor” and on her husband Philip; and in the event of the absence or incapacity of Joanna, she appointed her own husband, King Ferdinand, to be the Regent of Castile, until her grandson Charles should attain his majority. She also made a large provision for Ferdinand from the revenues of the Indies and other sources.

Isabella’s remains were carried to the Alhambra, which had been converted into a Franciscan monastery; but after the death of Ferdinand she was laid by his side in a mausoleum in the Cathedral of Granada. This excellent and amiable Queen seems to have had at heart only the good of her people and the welfare of her family. The sole blemish in her character was that her deep religious feeling, which bordered on superstition, led her to submit her conscience too implicitly to the guidance of her priests and confessors, and thus sometimes betrayed her into acts of bigotry and intolerance. She was otherwise a woman of the best sense and most acute discernment, and is still regarded by the Spaniards as the greatest of their Sovereigns. The Castilians had in general lived contented under her government, which had been conducted many years by two successive Archbishops of Toledo: Don Pedro Gonzalo de Mendoza, who, by a then not uncommon union of offices, was also High Admiral of Castile, and after Mendoza’s death in 1495, by the celebrated Ximenes. Mendoza, from his influence and reputation, had been called “the third King of Spain”; yet his fame has been surpassed by that of his successor.

Francis Ximenes de Cisneros, born in 1436, was a Franciscan friar of the Order called Observantines or Recollets, who adhered to the strictest rule of their founder, while the older portion of the Franciscan Order, styled Conventuals, allowed themselves considerable mitigations. Ximenes from his youth had accustomed himself to the most rigorous mortifications, and at one period became a sort of anchorite, living only on herbs and water. He had long been known for his ascetic life, the severity of his principles, and the energy of his character, when in 1492, at the recommendation of Archbishop Mendoza, he was appointed Queen Isabella’s confessor. He soon acquired an extraordinary influence over his royal mistress; and, after the death of Mendoza, was made Archbishop of Toledo and High Chancellor of Castile. Under his administration persecution and the terrors of the Inquisition became part and parcel of the government. His severity produced an insurrection of the Moors in the Alpujarras, which ended in their reduction and forcible conversion to Christianity (1502). They now obtained the name of Moriscos. At the same time Ximenes repressed the insolence of the Spanish grandees—a part of his administration grateful alike to Crown and people.

Ximenes was appointed one of the executors of Isabella’s will, together with King Ferdinand and four other persons. On the day that his consort expired, Ferdinand, laying down the Crown of Castile, assumed the title of Administrator or Governor, and caused the accession of Philip and Joanna to be proclaimed in the great square of Toledo. The Cortes of Castile, which assembled at Toro, January 11th, 1505, regarding the incapacity of Joanna as established, tendered their homage to King Ferdinand, as Governor in her name; and an account of these proceedings was sent to Philip and Joanna in Flanders. There was, however, a strong party, led by the Marquis of Villena and the Duke of Najara, who wished to see the Archduke Philip Regent of Castile. They promised themselves more license under the sway of that easy-tempered Prince than under the strict and jealous rule of Ferdinand; and through the channel of Don Juan Manuel, Ferdinand’s ambassador at the Court of Maximilian, and one of Philip’s warmest partisans, they opened a correspondence with the Archduke. Encouraged by this support, Philip wrote to his father-in-law, desiring him to lay down the government and retire into Aragon. To this uncourteous demand Ferdinand replied with moderation, urging Philip to come to Spain with his wife, but at the same time admonishing him of his incompetence to govern a people like the Spaniards. Ferdinand felt his weakness, and his situation was indeed embarrassing. It was thought probable that Louis XII would support Philip, whose party had acquired great strength; and it was even suspected that Gonsalvo, the Viceroy of Naples, had been tampered with, and was prepared to place that Kingdom in the hands of the Archduke. Under these circumstances Ferdinand resolved to court the friendship of Louis, and Juan de Enguera, a Catalan monk, was dispatched into France to negotiate an alliance with that monarch.

Louis XII was then in a disposition highly favorable to the views of Ferdinand. Towards the end of April, 1505, he had been seized with so dangerous an illness, that, in expectation of his death, extreme unction was administered to him. In what he imagined to be his last hours, he was struck with remorse at having abandoned the interests of France at his wife’s instigation; by a secret will be revoked all his engagements with the House of Austria, and directed that his daughter Claude, who had been affianced to Philip’s son, Charles, should be given, when of marriageable age, to his cousin and heir, Francis, Count of Angouleme. Although Louis soon afterwards recovered, he still continued in his altered sentiments, and Anne of Brittany was obliged to confirm the new arrangement which he had made.

Louis, therefore, when Ferdinand’s ambassador arrived, was disposed to listen to any proposals that were unfavorable to the House of Austria. After apologizing for the wrongs which he had done to France, Ferdinand requested the hand of Germaine of Foix, niece of Louis, and daughter of John of Foix, Viscount of Narbonne; and he accompanied this proposal with the offer of a new arrangement respecting Naples. This Kingdom was to be the dowry of Germaine, and to descend to her children by Ferdinand; but in default of issue, the moiety was to return to Louis and his successors. Ferdinand undertook to grant an amnesty to all the partisans of France in Naples, and to restore their possessions; and he also engaged to pay a million gold ducats, within ten years, for Louis’s expenses and losses in the war.

These were the principal conditions of a treaty signed at Blois, October 12th, 1505; by which the two Sovereigns also promised each other mutual aid and succor, or according to the words of the instrument, they were to be “as one soul in two bodies”. The King of England, Henry VII, became security for the due execution of the treaty; the first advantageous one that Louis XII had ever made. At the time of this marriage Ferdinand was fifty-three years of age, while Germaine was only eighteen, and of remarkable beauty. She was nearly related to him, being the grand-daughter of the guilty Eleanor, Queen of Navarre, the half-sister of Ferdinand. This marriage roused the indignation of the Castilians, who regarded it as an insult to Isabella's memory. Philip could hardly believe the news of this unexpected alliance till he was refused permission to pass through France on his way to Spain, unless he previously reconciled himself with his father-in-law. He now resolved to combat Ferdinand with his own weapons. In order to put that wily monarch off his guard, Philip entered into a treaty with him, which he only meant to observe till he should be able to land in Spain; and by the arrangement called “the Concord of Salamanca”, effected November 24th, 1505, it was agreed that Ferdinand should be associated with Philip in the government of Castile, and should enjoy one half of the public revenue.

PHILIP AND JOANNA IN ENGLAND.

Philip and his wife Joanna set sail for Spain, January 8th, 1506, with a considerable Netherland fleet. They had not been long at sea when their ships were dispersed by a violent tempest, and that in which Philip and Joanna had embarked was driven into the port of Weymouth in Dorsetshire. Henry VII profited by the opportunity thus thrown in his way in a manner characteristic of his ungenerous temper. Philip was invited to Windsor, where, though treated with great apparent honor and distinction, he was in reality detained a prisoner, till he had complied with certain demands of the English King. He was compelled to deliver up the Earl of Suffolk, who had taken refuge in the Netherlands; and though Philip, as a salvo for his honor, stipulated for the life of the unfortunate nobleman, yet Henry, as is well known, though he literally observed this condition, violated it in effect by recommending his successor, on his death­bed, to bring Suffolk to the block. Henry also obliged Philip to execute a treaty of commerce between England and the Netherlands, so much to the disadvantage of the latter country that the Flemings gave it the name of the malus intercursus, to distinguish it from the liberal treaty, called magnus intercursus, which they had obtained from the same monarch in 1406. He likewise extorted a promise from Philip that he would give the Archduke Charles in marriage to his daughter Mary; and that he would, moreover, procure the hand of his sister Margaret, with a large dowry, for the King’s second son Henry, though that Prince was already contracted to Philip’s sister-in-law, Catharine, daughter of Ferdinand. A marriage between Henry’s eldest son, Prince Arthur, and Catharine, had been celebrated in November, 1501; but Arthur died in the following April; and Henry, unwilling to relinquish the bride’s dowry, of which only half had been paid, detained Catharine in England, and caused her to be contracted to his second son Henry, now become heir-apparent. A Papal dispensation, afterwards of such momentous consequence to the Roman See, was obtained, for this Prince’s marriage with his brother’s widow, which was to have taken place in 1505, when Henry would have completed his fifteenth year; but in order to obtain a hold upon Ferdinand, the English monarch put off the marriage, and caused his son to make a public declaration, that he did not and would not consider himself bound by any engagement made during his minority. At the same time, Henry privately assured Ferdinand that this declaration only regarded other engagements; and that it was still his wish that his son should marry Catharine.

After a detention of three months, Philip and his wife set sail from England, and arrived at Coruña, April 28th, 1506. The marriage of Ferdinand and Germaine had been celebrated a little while before at Dueñas. On Philip’s landing, Ferdinand advanced as far as Leon to meet him, but Philip cautiously avoided an interview till his adherents should have assembled, who included most of the Castilian grandees and their followers. Philip had brought with him 3,000 German infantry; and finding, when joined by his party in Castile, that his army amounted to 9,000 men, he flung off the mask, repudiated the Concord of Salamanca, and declared that he would never consent to any infringement of his own and his wife’s claim to the throne of Castile. Ferdinand, whose cause was very unpopular, was at this time wandering about from place to place, and some of his own cities shut their abates against him. At length Don Juan Manuel, who directed all Philip’s counsels, consented that an interview should take place between this Prince and his father-in-law on a plain at Puebla de Senabria, on the confines of Leon and Galicia, at which, however, Joanna was not permitted to be present, though her father earnestly desired to see her. Philip appeared on the field surrounded by his army in battle array, while Ferdinand could muster only some 200 followers. Nothing, however, could be arranged, either at this meeting or a subsequent one which took place at a hermitage in the neighborhood; and Ferdinand having conceived strong suspicions of the fidelity of his Viceroy Gonsalvo, determined to proceed to Naples. With this view he consented to all Philip’s demands, and by an agreement made June 27th, resigned the sovereignty of Castile to him and Joanna, reserving the revenue granted to him by the will of Isabella, and the Grand-Masterships of the Military Orders of St. James of Compostella, Alcantara, and Calatrava. Whilst, however, he publicly announced his resignation, he with his usual duplicity privately protested against it, on the ground of compulsion, and announced his intention of rescuing his daughter as soon as possible from what he called her captivity, and asserting his own claims to the regency.

Philip and Joanna, together with their youthful son Charles, received the oaths of allegiance from the Castilian States at Valladolid, July 12th, 1506. The Archduke assumed the title of Philip I, seized the entire administration, and attempted wholly to set aside Joanna, and to confine her on the plea of her insanity; but the States would not consent to this proceeding. Philip enjoyed only for a very brief period his newly-acquired power. He was carried off suddenly at Burgos (September 25th), at the early age of twenty-eight, by a fever, occasioned by drinking cold water after heating himself in a game of tennis. Besides his two sons, Charles, now in his seventh year, and Ferdinand, who was scarcely four, Philip left three infant daughters; and Joanna was again pregnant at the time of his death. He deserved his surname of Philip the Handsome. His complexion was fair, his features regular, his person well-formed and of the middle height. His careless easy temper, combined, however, with a certain magnanimity and ambition, and his frank and open bearing, seemed calculated to win popularity; but being unskilled in business, and trusting too much to his favorites, and particularly to his Netherland courtiers, he contrived in the few months during which he held supreme power in Castile, completely to alienate the hearts of his new subjects. Disregarding the counsels of Archbishop Ximenes, he adopted the most extravagant scale of expenditure, and by the whole tenor of his conduct excited such disgust, that symptoms of insurrection began to appear before his death. That event created great confusion. Both the Netherland and Spanish followers of Philip were struck with alarm, and began to consider of offering the regency to the Emperor Maximilian, or to the King of Portugal; while Ximenes and the adherents of Ferdinand looked forward to the re-establishment of the regency. At the instance of Archbishop Ximenes a provisional council of seven, of which he himself was the head, was appointed to conduct the government.

After her husband’s death, Joanna had sunk into a state of apathetic insensibility. She shed no tears, but she sat in a dark room, motionless as a statue, refusing to attend to any business or sign any papers, and finding only in music some alleviation of her woe. Few words could be drawn from her, yet what she did say betrayed no symptoms of insanity, and formed a striking contrast to her extraordinary behavior. She spent hours in contemplating the dead body of her husband, which she accompanied with a long train of ecclesiastics, when removed to Granada for interment. The funeral procession moved forward only by night; during the day the body was deposited in some church or monastery, where funeral services were performed, to which no female was admitted; for the Queen appeared still to retain that jealousy of her husband which she had felt during his life.

Immediately on Philip’s death messengers were dispatched to Ferdinand, who had sailed for Italy with his consort only three weeks before. He had previously weakened Gonsalvo by withdrawing half his army, and had also recalled the Viceroy himself; alluring him with the promise of the Grand-Mastership of Santiago. Gonsalvo, however, procrastinated his return, although there seem to have been no just grounds for Ferdinand’s suspicions; and with the consciousness of innocence he proceeded to Genoa to meet his Sovereign. Hence he accompanied Ferdinand to Naples. Although they were met at Porto Fino by the messengers announcing Philip’s death, Ferdinand persisted in his intention of proceeding to Naples, but promised to return to Spain as soon as he had arranged the affairs of the former Kingdom; for, assured of his ascendancy over the mind of Joanna, he felt that the evils of anarchy would soon make his absence from Castile regretted even by his opponents. He met with a cordial reception from the Neapolitans. In the Parliament which he assembled, he said nothing of the claims of his consort, as settled by the treaty of Lyon, but caused the oath of allegiance to be taken only to Joanna and her posterity.

In June, 1507, Ferdinand set sail on his return to Spain, and was followed in a day or two by Gonsalvo. Ferdinand, during his stay at Naples, manifested an entire confidence in the Great Captain, who, besides being left in possession of all his other estates and dignities, was created Duke of Sessa, and seemed completely to direct the counsels of his master. In the patent for his honors, the King had expressed the feeling that he should never be able adequately to reward his eminent services, and it was not till after the Great Captain’s arrival in Spain that Ferdinand showed any symptoms of discontent with him. The equitable administration of Gonsalvo, as well as his winning and popular manners, had made him a universal favorite with the Neapolitans, notwithstanding the reckless extravagance with which he had squandered their revenues. Ferdinand’s nephew, the Count of Ribagorza, was appointed to succeed him as Viceroy of Naples, but with powers very much curtailed.

The Spanish fleet on its return touched at Savona, where an interview had been arranged between Ferdinand and Louis XII. Some events in France had confirmed the latter monarch in his anti-Austrian policy, and consequently disposed him to draw still closer the bonds of his alliance with Ferdinand. His most prudent counselors, in order to prevent him from retracing his steps and yielding to the entreaties of his consort Anne with regard to the Austrian marriage, had advised him to summon the States-General of his Kingdom, and to sound the inclinations of the nation, which they well knew were in favor of the marriage of Louis’s daughter Claude with Francis of Angoulême. The States were accordingly assembled, May, 1506, at Plessis-lez-Tours; and at a solemn audience in the grand apartment of the Castle, Thomas Bricot, Canon of Notre-Dame and deputy for Paris, speaking in the name of the States, after enumerating all that Louis had done for France, bestowed on him the title of “Father of his People”; and concluded his harangue, himself and all the Assembly kneeling, by requesting the King to give his daughter to Francis. During this touching scene, Louis himself and all the audience were moved to tears; yet in the very midst of it, he was contemplating an act of the grossest dissimulation. With the view apparently of making his compliance appear to be a spontaneous concession to the wishes of the Assembly, Louis said that he would consult his family and council respecting the marriage with Francis, which he declared that he had never heard suggested, although he had himself determined on it more than a twelve month before! A few days after (Hay 23rd) Francis and Claude were actually affianced.

The death of Philip of Austria delivered Louis XII from some embarrassments, though many yet remained behind. The attitude of Maximilian became every day more hostile; and the Germanic Diet assembled at Constance, alarmed by the large preparations making in France for an expedition into Italy, seemed disposed to second the Emperor's warlike inclinations. The French armament was directed against Genoa. That city having risen in insurrection and driven out Ravenstein, the French Governor (October 25th, 1506), Louis determined to quash this rebellion by a vigorous stroke; and, crossing the Alps in April, 1507, with a numerous army, he soon reduced the Genoese to obedience, and constructed a new fort, called La Briglia, or the Bridle, to overawe the city. Louis then made a sort of triumphal progress through Lombardy, and afterwards proceeded to Savona, for the interview with Ferdinand already mentioned. At this meeting, which was celebrated with superb fêtes, the two Sovereigns displayed the most entire confidence in each other. The greatest captains of the age, who had recently been opposed to one another in the field, as the Marquis of Mantua, D'Aubigny, Gonsalvo, and others, were here assembled together in harmony; but none of them drew so much attention as the Great Captain, who, at the request of Louis, was admitted to sup at the table of the Sovereigns,—an honor which served only to increase Ferdinand’s jealousy of Gonsalvo.

Ferdinand landed in Valencia, July 20th, 1507. At Tortoles he was met by Archbishop Ximenes and Joanna, with whose altered and haggard figure he was much struck. She submitted herself implicitly to her father’s will, and soon afterwards took up her residence at Tordesillas, which she never quitted during the remaining forty-seven years of her life: and though her name appeared in instruments of government, along with that of her son Charles, she could never be induced to attend to business or sign any papers. From the time of his return, Ferdinand exercised all the royal authority. By the clemency and affability which he assumed, he won back the hearts of many of the malcontents; but he at the same time took care to assure his authority by keeping on foot a considerable military force and surrounding his person with a bodyguard. Ximenes retained the supreme direction of affairs, who soon after the King’s return received a Cardinal’s hat from Pope Julius II, and the post of Inquisitor-General of Castile.

Gonsalvo de Cordova, who landed in Spain soon after the King, was received by the people with such unbounded applause, that his journey resembled a triumphal procession. But it soon became apparent that the King had forgotten his promises to him; and when reminded of the Grand-Mastership of Santiago, the subject was evaded, and at length dismissed. Ferdinand, who had united in his own person the Masterships of the three Orders, was unwilling to relinquish a post, which, by the distribution of commanderies, enabled him to work on the fears and hopes of the nobles. Gonsalvo was indeed presented with the royal town of Loja, near Granada; which appointment, however, was, in effect, an honorable banishment. Ferdinand offered to perpetuate the grant of Loja to his heirs if he would relinquish his claim to the Grand-Mastership, of which the King, when at Naples, had given him a written promise; but Gonsalvo replied that he would not forego the right of complaining of the injustice done him for the finest city in the King’s dominions. He consequently passed the remainder of his life in seclusion.

CONQUESTS OF JULIUS II.

We have before seen that Venice had been for some years the object of the ill-will and jealousy of several European Powers, and Maximilian now resolved to call all these latent passions into action, and to make them the instruments of his revenge. Both Louis XII and the Pope had recently received from the Venetians what they considered fresh causes of offence. Louis was annoyed by their concluding the armistice with the Emperor without his consent, and the Pope because they had refused to install one of his nephews in the vacant bishopric of Vicenza, and had named to it a countryman of their own, in conformity with their maxim, that no benefice in their territories should be conferred on a foreigner, or indeed on anybody without their consent. Julius was also offended by the shelter which they afforded to John Bentivoglio, whom he had recently driven out of Bologna.

In the first few years of his Pontificate, Julius had acted with a moderation which surprised those who knew his restless mind and his former conduct, which more resembled that of a condottiere than of a priest. During these years he had occupied himself in amassing money, and had shown a parsimony not before observed in his character; but towards the end of August, 1506, after declaring several times in Consistory that it was necessary to purge the Church of tyrants, he sallied forth from Rome at the head of twenty-four Cardinals and a small army. John Paul Baglione, of Perugia, and John Bentivoglio, of Bologna, who like the Medici at Florence, had become the chief men, or Lords, of those cities, were the objects of his attacks, and with the aid or connivance of the French, the Florentines, and other States, he soon expelled them from Perugia and Bologna, and annexed these cities to the immediate dominion of the Church. Julius remained in Bologna till February, 1507, when he returned to Rome, and employed himself in his favorite project of fomenting a league against Venice.

Self-interest was the chief motive which swayed both Louis and the Pope in their hostility to Venice, as it was the sole one which influenced Ferdinand the Catholic. All these Powers, on the ground of inalienable and imprescriptible right, laid claim to some of the Venetian possessions, which that Republic held under the faith of treaties. Thus Louis XII as Duke of Milan, claimed Brescia and Bergamo, which had been made over to the Venetians by the Sforzas, as well as Cremona and the Ghiara d'Adda, which he had himself given them as the price of their assistance. The Pope claimed Rimini, Faenza, and other places, as ancient possessions of the Holy See, under the grants of the Exarchate by Pippin and Charlemagne. Ferdinand, who in great measure owed his Neapolitan throne to the help of the Venetians, wished to recover the maritime towns of Trani, Brindisi, Gallipoli, Pulignano, and Otranto, which his predecessor, King Frederick, had pledged to the Republic as security for its expenses.

The machinations against Venice were secretly conducted, under pretense of an arrangement between Maximilian and Louis XII on the subject of the Duke of Guelderland. Margaret, Governess of the Netherlands, had persuaded her father that it would be for the interest of his grandson Charles to conciliate the French, who were supporting the Duke of Guelderland in his hostilities; and Maximilian, who had now another reason for desiring the friendship of Louis, consented to enter into negotiations. An interview, at Cambray, was accordingly arranged between Margaret, who combined with female dexterity the judgment and decision of a man, and the Cardinal d'Amboise. Margaret, though without any formal powers, acted for Ferdinand the Catholic as well as for her father; while d'Amboise in like manner represented the Pope as well as his own Sovereign; and though a Papal Nuncio and an ambassador of the Catholic King were present at Cambray, neither of them took any part in the conferences.

The affair of the Duke of Guelderland gave rise to some warm discussion; but it was at last arranged that Charles should provisionally hold Guelderland and the County of Zutphen, surrendering only a few places. The question of the future homage of the Archduke Charles to the King of France was also settled; and Maximilian, in consideration of 100,000 gold crowns, ratified the rupture of the marriage treaty between his grandson and the Princess Claude, and renewed the investiture of Milan to Louis and his heirs. The negotiators were sooner agreed on the subject of Venice, and the treaty which formed the celebrated League of Cambray was signed in the cathedral of that city, December 10th, 1508. The principal stipulations were that of the places to be wrested from the Venetians, Ravenna, Cervia, Faenza, Rimini, and Forli should be assigned to the Pope; Padua, Vicenza, and Verona to the Empire as Imperial fiefs; Roveredo, Treviso, and Friuli, to the House of Austria; the five maritime towns of Naples, before mentioned, to Ferdinand the Catholic; and to Louis XII all the places that had at any time belonged to the Duchy of Milan. The Pope was to excommunicate the Venetians, and to absolve their subjects from their oath of allegiance: a proceeding which would enable him to invoke, in support of the Papal sentence, the arms of Maximilian, as Advocate or Protector of the Church, and thus release him from the armistice to which he had so recently sworn. The French King was to commence the war by the 1st of April following, and the other Allies were to appear in the field at the expiration of forty days. Other Powers who had any claims, real or imaginary, upon Venice, were to be invited to join the League within a given period: as the King of Hungary, for the Venetian lands in Dalmatia and Slavonia; the Duke of Savoy, as heir of the family of Lusignan, for Cyprus, which the Venetians had occupied by virtue of the will of their fellow-citizen, Catharine Cornaro, widow of James II, the last King of Cyprus; the Duke of Ferrara, for the Polesine of Rovigo; and other princes for various claims.

The League of Cambray is remarkable as being the first great combination since the time of the Crusades, of several leading European Powers for a common object. A modern historian has observed, that it laid the foundation of public law in Europe, by raising either in itself or its consequences three questions, on one of which that law must be founded; namely, the question of imprescriptible right alleged by Louis XII and the Emperor Maximilian; the right of treaties, as pleaded by the Venetians: and, finally, when Pope Julius turned round upon his allies, and attempted to drive them out of Italy as barbarians, the question of the public good—the only sure ground on which any political system can be erected.

The League was long kept secret from the Venetians, who were naturally slow to believe in an alliance among Sovereigns who were jealous of one another, and had so many grounds of mutual distrust and enmity. Louis XII even protested to their ambassadors that nothing had been done at Cambray disadvantageous to the Republic, and that he would never commit any act that might be injurious to such ancient allies! But the bond which embraced such discordant interests was knit together by a common cupidity and envy; motives which are betrayed in the preamble of the treaty itself, which also contains an example of the gross hypocrisy so often seen in the diplomacy of those times. This preamble states that the Emperor and the King of France, having, at the solicitation of Pope Julius II, allied themselves, in order to make war on the Turks, had first resolved to put an end to the rapine, losses, and injuries caused by the Venetians, not only to the Holy Apostolic See, but also to the Holy Roman Empire, the House of Austria, the Duke of Milan, the King of Naples, and many other Princes; and to extinguish, as a common devouring fire, the insatiable cupidity and thirst of domination of the Venetians. Thus the Allied Sovereigns, who had of course no serious intention of entering into a crusade against the Turks, pretended to begin a war against them, by destroying a State which had proved the securest barrier against Moslem encroachments, and which by its maritime power was still best able to arrest their further progress.

The Sovereigns of France and Spain secured the adhesion of the Florentines to the League of Cambray, by a transaction which, as a modern historian observes, cannot be paralleled for mercenary baseness in the whole history of the merchant princes of Venice. At the time of the conference at Savona, Ferdinand and Louis, in consideration of a large payment, agreed to betray Pisa, which had long been making a noble struggle for its independence, to the Florentines, by putting in a garrison which the Pisans would receive without suspicion, but which, after a given time, should open the gates to the enemy. Meanwhile, the French King assisted Pisa, in order to hinder it from falling into the hands of the Florentines before the expected sum had been received: and the Florentines were at length induced to sign a convention (March 13th, 1509), by which they agreed to pay Louis 100,000 ducats, and Ferdinand 50,000, in consideration of those Princes withdrawing their protection from Pisa. Ferdinand, who was to be kept in ignorance that his brother King had received more than himself, subsequently transferred his share to Maximilian; in consideration of which, and of the further aid of 300 lances, Maximilian, ever mean and necessitous, agreed to relinquish his pretensions to the regency of Castile. Pisa was at this time brought to extremity of famine. The Florentines entered it June 8th, 1509, and behaved with great liberality in relieving the distress of the inhabitants.

CHAPTER VII

FROM THE LEAGUE OF CAMBRAY IN 1508 TO THE DEATH OF JULIUS II IN 1513