Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

to Madelaine de la Tour, of Auvergne, of the house of Bouillon, allied to the blood royal of France. The lying Sleidan, to use the epithet of the emperor Charles V. calls this lady Galla, of the house of Bolonnois, but the was the fe. cond daughter of John de la Tour, count of Auvergne, defcended from a brother of Godfrey, the first Chriftian king of Jerufalem, by Jane of Bourbon, fifter to the count of Vendofme. She brought Lorenzo a fortune of ten thousand ducats per annum, chiefly the gift of Francis 1. who alfo prefented him with fifty thoufand ducats out of the money raised for the crufade against the fultan Selim I. and which Leo had given a brief to that monarch to apply to his own ufe.

"It is not eafy to eftimate the grief of this pontiff, when he faw this prince brought to an early grave, by a lingering iilnefs contracted in France from youthful intemperance, and in a few days afterwards Madelaine, in bringing into the world Catherine, their only child. The little orphan becanie queen of France, and is well known for the uncommon beauty, fine accomplishments, and the vaft extent of abilities the poffeffed, but which were rendered dangerous in the extreme by the atrocious wickedness of her man

ners.

"Lorenzo had little to recommend him to Leo, except his relationfhip, as his character was chief ly formed of deceit, revenge, and cowardice. When he bad flamefully deferted France, and dreaded her vengeance, he meanly threw the whole blame upon his uncle and benefactor. Inftead of anfwer ing the challenge of the injured duke of Urbino, as military honour demanded, he bafely hired

affaffins to murder him, which they were near perpetrating. Lorenzo died May 4, 1519; his remains were depofited in the facrifty of St. Lorenzo's church, near thofe of the duke of Nemours. His mo nument is alfo the workmanship of Michael Angelo; his effigies, and the figure of Aurora and Twilight, are the admiration of connoiffeurs.

"Leo did not confine his favours to the nearest of his name. He was the patron of every one of his family, whether of the male or female line, not forgetting the ille. gitimate branches. He even formed the project of leaving Julio, the pofthumous natural fon of the unfortunate Julian, who fell a victim to the malice of pope Sixtus IV. and the Pazzi, his fucceffor in the papal fee. Lorenzo, the Maguificent, had fhown his particular regard for his brother Julian, by an extreme tenderness for this his fon, whom he educated with his own children, treated as his ne phew, and loaded with every kindnefs.

"His fine parts, learning, and tafte, ftill, if poffible, more endeared all the Medici to him. His courage, affiduity, and the ease and dexterity with which he performed the most difficult and hazardous enterprises, won him the favour of the difcerning Julius, who created him a knight of Rhodes, and grand prior of Capua, and as fuch he carried the standard of the military order at the corona. tion of Leo.

"The pontiff was no fooner feated upon the papal throne, than he obliged Julio to go into the church, though his inclination led him moft to the camp. Ecclefiaf. tical honours crowded upon him. He received the archiepifcopate of Florence. and the following year

was

his intereft to be infeparably the fame with that of the Medici. But all thefe pleafing appearances vanifhed; cardinal Sforza died; Pifa was deferted by her allies; and cardinal de la Rovere, the nephew of Sixtus IV. became pope, Oct. 17, 1503, fucceeding Pius III. who had furvived his election only a month. The new pontiff took the name of Julius II. and one of his first acts of power was, to declare himself the ally of Florence, with whom he first figned treaty, and then a peace. Florence, by this extraordinary alteration, regained her loft dominions, and civil difcord fubfiding, the Medici feemed for ever excluded her walls.

"Giovanni's drooping hopes, however, were foon raifed again by the folly of Soderini, who had exafperated his new ally, the pope, by imprudently permitting a gene ral council, called by Lewis XII., to fit at Pifa. In revenge for this infult, and to take from the French a power that was their great fupport, his holinefs determined to reftore the Medici, as it would neceffarily deftroy Soderini, who was at the head of the republic, and in his fread place Giovanni, who was, both from intereft and inclination, the enemy of a nation that he could not endure.

"Several favourable circumftances occurred to promote this change. The Florentines, difgufted with Soderini's impolitic conduct, of having himfelf declared gonfalonier for life, in imitation of Cæfar's perpetual dictatorship, were convinced that they were no more fafe under him than they had been before the expulfion of the Medici, nor that they enjoyed more freedom under the government of Soderini than they had done under that of the exiled family; and

they perceived, that they were neither fo rich nor fo happy as before the expulfion of the latter.

"Soderini too was the ally of France, who had treated the commonwealth with an excess of haugh tinefs. Great numbers of the citi zens were fecretly attached to the Medici from friendship, intereft, or gratitude, and not a few from fear and the love of change, which always has its charms with the populace.

"No perfon could be better ad apted to profit by these favourable conjunctures than Giovanni; he poffeffed every requifite to please, was in the prime of his life, handfome, graceful, polite, affable, magnificent, and liberal. So many fplendid qualities, clothed with the cardinalate, and invefted with both the legatineships of Perufia and Bologna, with the recollection of his father's great merit, confirmed the wavering, and won new partizans. The religious looked upon him as the mediator between them and heaven, and the young nobility trufted to him to fupport them in their extravagancies.

"In this crifis nothing could be more opportune than the gonfalonier's joining the French in their attempts upon Milan; as it convinced Julius that he and France were not to be feparated, and determined him no longer to defer the ruin of his intereft in Florence by the recal of the Medici.

"Upon the eve, as Giovanni fuppofed, of this being accomplished, he faw himself, by the lofs of the battle of Ravenna, a prisoner to Lewis XII. of which Julius was no fooner informed, than, by a mo nitory addreffed to the conqueror, he demanded his liberation.

"Giovanni at the fame time re

[blocks in formation]

ceived from his holiness a commiffion to abfolve fuch of the victorious foldiers as applied for pardon, for having dared to withstand the arms of the vicar of Christ, and a power of granting funereal rites to the dead: it is impoffible to exprefs the effects this produced. The foldiers refpecting him as alone having true apoftolic power, thronged to him, and not only the common men, but the ennobled perfous of the illuftrious families of Visconti, Palavicini, and Trivalzi; perhaps too the oppofition of Giovanni's character to San Severino, the legate of the council of Pifa, not a little contributed to this, for he was referved, haughty, and fevere; and instead of the habit of peace, in which his rival appeared, he wore bright fhining armour.

"To prevent the desertion of the army, which looked up to him with reverence and love, it was refolved to fend him into France, no place in Italy being judged proper to confine him. Giovanni find ing the intention of his enemies, prudently threw every impediment in the way, prolonging his stay in the camp as long as poffible; and when obliged to commence his journey, he pursued the fame plan, flattering himself that fome favourable circumstance might offer to affift him in making his efcape.

"Early one morning, as Giovanni was preparing to take a boat to pafs over the river Po, oppofite to Bifignana, Rinaldo Zallo, a no-. ble Venetian, obferving the facred dignity of the prifoner, refolved, if poffible, to procure him his li berty: for this purpose he collected with expedition his domeftics, and fome peafants of the village of Del Cairo, whom he ordered to advance fhouting, and fall upon the guard. The project answered

the kind defign of Zallo, for the guard affrighted, by fuppofing them a regular body of forces, deferted their prifoner, to feek their own fafety in flight.

"His efcape gave new life to the hopes of the party; Julius inftantly renounced the treaty he had folemnly concluded with Florence, and at a congrefs of the holy league it was refolved, through the perfuafion of the papal anballador, feconded by the entreaties of Julian, the brother of Giovanni, to restore the Medici to their country. To carry this into effect, Giovanni was invefted with legatine power throughout Tufcany, and put at the head of the pontifical army, which was joined by the troops of Naples, commanded by the viceroy of Ferdinand the Catholic.

"It was to no purpose the Florentines urged the repeated treaties that had been concluded between them and the allies, and the exact. nefs with which they had fulfilled the last. The confederates insisted upon Soderini's abdicating the gonfaloniership, and admitting the Medici into Florence; this he abfolutely refufed.

"The fordid avarice of Soderini defeated its own aim, and befriended the Medici to a great degree; he had heretofore refused the affiftance of the emperor Maximilian at a ftipulated price, so now he refused to part with thirty thoufand ducats, which the covetous viceroy afked as the terms of betraying the intereft of the exiled family.

"He foolishly relied upon the faith of the fickle multitude. Fatal fecurity! Prato was formed, and Piftra revolted, declaring for the Medici. Thefe misfortunes filled Florence with difcontent, and whilft a revolt was each mo

ment

ment threatened, Julian, with three other young noblemen, accomplish ed the revolution. The names of thefe grandees were Bartolomeo Valori, Paulo Vettori, and Antonio Francesco Albizi; the scheme was planned in a conference held at a country feat not far from Florence.

"They carried their intentions into execution by secretly entering the city with their partizans, when, feizing Soderini, they obliged him, by threatening inftant death in cafe of refufal, to quit the magiftracy. The unhappy man tremblingly complied with commands he durft not difpute, and fled immediately after to Ragufa by fea, with the money he could convey away; but the four youths who undertook the plot feized upon the public treafury, and then affembled the people, taking advantage of the univerfal panic to procure the repeal of the banishment of the Medici.

"The artful Julius, gratified that he had restored the exiled family, wished them only to be efteemed as private citizens of Florence, fuppofing them equal in that capacity to contend with the French faction; and flattered himself, that whilft he thus kept them, he might depend upon the fidelity of Giovanni. This however did not fatisfy the cardinal; he was too penetrating to be long the dupe of the pontiff's ambition.

"To counteract his holiness's de fign, he used all thofe blandifliments that seemed fo natural to him, and which won, defervedly won, every heart. He protected the women of Prato from the brutality of the foldiers, and put a stop to the carnage of the men of that place. He acted with moderation to all; he interceded with his friends to fpare the most violent enemies of his houfe. He gained

the young nobility by an excess of liberality.

"Having by these means prepared for the completion of his project, he excufed himself from paying the viceroy of Naples, pretending that he could not procure the money, owing to the French faction in the city, who threw every obstacle to it in his way. The greedy vice-king fell into the fnare o artfully laid for him; he, anxious to fecure the ftipulated fum, and difregarding the manner in which it was railed, told Giovanni that he might difpofe of the city in what manner he chofe, as most conducive to obtain the wished-for money.

"This was a moment not to be loft: he affembled the people in the great fquare, where he ftationed his friends, many of whom were lately won by the money he had judicioufly applied; these all voted for a change in the form of government, and placed none but fuch as he approved in the magiftracy; few, except Baptifto Rodolphi, the new gonfalonier, and the other officers of justice, oppofing it, but these were borne down, as prejudiced to their own intereft; thofe who had the fame fentiments, finding themselves furrounded by the Neapolitan troops, lent for the prefent purpose by the viceroy, knowing how vain, how dangerous would be their oppofition, appeared to acquiefce in what they could not prevent.

"This revolution at once furprifed and alarmed Julius; knowing that the Catholic king paid no regard to the most folemn trea ties, when it was his intereft to break them, he imagined that Giovanni had won him over by fome extraordinary temptation, fuppofing that the young cardinal 44

never

could

could have dared to have acted with fuch determined courage, had not he depended upon the fupport of fo powerful a prince. He feared the power of Spain equally with that of France, and felt himself ill at eafe in fuppofing that two fuch powerful ftates fhould almoft fur round his dominions, who were allies, and could, with the affiftance drawn from Spain, give laws to the patrimony of St. Peter. Entertaining these fentiments, it is not to be wondered at that his holinefs determined to deprive Giovanni of that confequence he had dared to feize without his participation.

"Perhaps nothing could have faved the Medici "from a cruel reverfe to their newly renewed confequence, but the timely death of the violent Julius II. who was taken from his earthly grandeur, February 21, 1513.

66

Though the Medici were fo lately reinftated in the government of Florence, yet Giovanni had the courage to leave the republic and repair to Rome, to affift in the conclave at the election of a fucceffor to Julius. Whilft detained in this confinement he fell ill, fcandal fays of a complaint never occafioned by chastity, and the young and the old cardinals quarrelling which fhould appoint a future pope, both parties at length acquiefced in nominating Giovanni, though only thirty-feven years of age, from the fuppofition that his prefent malady would foon terminate fatally; and Giovanni, to the joint furprise of the world, and of himself, was faluted fove, reign pontiff; March 10, in the · preceding year, affuming the name of Leo X. upon the occafion, in conformity to the ufage of the ⚫ popes.

Leo, in his coronation, difplayed a magnificence that exCeeded whatever had been seen in

Rome; the expences were more than one hundred thousand crowns. It was celebrated upon the anniversary of the battle of Ravenua; and his holiness rode the fame horse he did when he had been captured. It is foreign to the defign of thefe memoi:s to write the history of the papacy during his pontificate, but only continue to reprefent him to the reader as the principal of the houfe of Medici.

"What a change was here in the fortune of the lately exiled cardinal! He was now fovereign of two confiderable states, and, in right of one, the acknowledged head of Europe. Leo regarded his elevation in no other estimation, than as the means it afforded him to raise his family to permanent fovereignty.

"The most powerful monarchs vied with each other in offering him and his family their friendhip; Ferdinand the Catholic, and Francis 1. the fucceffor of Lewis XII. ftrove who fhould moft ingratiate themselves by their liberality to the Medici. The former propofed an advantageous marriage between Julian and a princefs of Cordona, allied to the crown of Spain, but Francis outbid him by offering his aunt, Philiberta, daughter of Philibert, and fifter of Charles, dukes of Savoy. In right of this lady he became duke of Nemours, and by the bounty of his brother he was impowered to fettle upon his bride one hundred thousand `ducats. Henry VIII. who alfo courted the friendfhip of the Medici, created the duke knight of the garter, and dedicated to his holiness his well-known book written againft the tenets of Luther, for which Leo gave him the title of Defender of the Faith.

"Leo, not content with the honours and titles he had procured Julian,

« ZurückWeiter »