CHAP. I.] SIXTUS IV. ATTACKS THE FLORENTINES.

113 fate. The populace executed summary justice on seventy persons of distinction belonging to the Pazzi party, including the two priestly assassins; and 200 persons more were subsequently put to death. Thus ended a conspiracy whose nature, the persons engaged in it, and the place of its execution, all tend to show, as a modern writer1 has observed, the practical atheism of the times.

Many European Sovereigns manifested on this occasion their sympathy with Lorenzo. Louis XI., especially, expressed in a letter to him the greatest indignation at the Pope's conduct; he even threatened to cite Sixtus before a General Council, and to stop annates; and he sent Philip de Comines to Florence to assure Lorenzo of his protection. Even Mahomet II. showed a friendly feeling towards the Florentine ruler by delivering up Bandini, who had sought refuge at Constantinople. But the Pope, supported by King Ferdinand, and impelled by the ambition of his nephew, displayed the most cynical contempt for public opinion. He fulminated against the Florentines the censures of the Church for hanging an Archbishop and imprisoning a Cardinal; he placed them under an interdict, annulled their alliances, and forbade all military men to enter into their service. Thus his spiritual weapons were pressed into the support of the carnal ones, which he also adopted. In conjunction with King Ferdinand he despatched an army into Tuscany; and, to prevent the Florentines from being succoured by Milan, he created employment for the forces of the Regent Bona by exciting an insurrection at Genoa, which, however, was only partially successful. At the instigation of Sixtus, Prosper Adorno, who governed Genoa for the Regent, threw off his allegiance, and defeated a Milanese army in the pass of the Bochetta, August 7th, 1478. But the success of Adorno was frustrated by raising up against him a rival, Battista Fregoso, who, with the help of Ibletto de' Fieschi and his party, drove out Adorno, and made himself Doge. The Riviera di Levante, however, still remained in the hands of Adorno. The Pope also excited the Swiss League to hostilities against Milan, and this step was combined with a profitable speculation. A board of priests was established in Switzerland to decide cases of conscience, as well as to sell indulgences, which were despatched thither in great abundance, and proved a very marketable commodity among a people who hired themselves out to slay and plunder; insomuch that Sixtus himself was astonished at the large sums which he 1 Voltaire, Essai sur les Maurs.

114

REVOLUTION AT MILAN.

[CHAP. L drew from so poor a country. The Papal Legate excited the animosity of the Swiss against the Milanese Government on the subject of a chestnut wood in the Val Levantina, on the southern side of the St. Gothard, which had been made over to the Canton of Uri by Galeazzo Maria in 1466, by a treaty called the Capitulate of Milan. The wood had remained in dispute, and towards the close of 1478 the men of Uri, assisted by other Cantons, carried their devastations as far as Bellinzona. Hostilities were continued with varied success till Louis XI. succeeded in mediating a peace.

Meanwhile the combined Papal and Neapolitan armies had entered Tuscany, the former under command of the Duke of Urbino, while that of Ferdinand was led by his son and heir, Alfonso, Duke of Calabria. The Pope demanded that Lorenzo de' Medici should be surrendered into his hands. As the Florentines had at first neither captain nor army, the Allies succeeded in taking several places; but Lorenzo at length procured the services of Ercole, Duke of Ferrara, as well as of Robert Malatesta, Lord of Pesaro, Giovanni Bentivoglio of Bologna, and other experienced captains; and the Florentine cause was proceeding pretty favourably in 1479, when it received a severe shock by a revolution which occurred at Milan. Ludovico Il Moro, paternal uncle of the young Duke of Milan, having formed an alliance with Sanseverino, a celebrated condottiere, appeared suddenly before the Milanese town of Tortona (August 10th), and was admitted by the Governor; whence marching upon Milan, he found the same reception. The Duchess Bona was now advised to reconcile herself with Ludovico: but that Prince, in whose hands the chief fortresses had been placed, soon displayed his true colours. Three days after entering Milan, he caused Simonetta to be confined in the Castle of Pavia, where he was subjected to a trial accompanied with dreadful tortures, and in the following year he was beheaded. Ludovico then caused the majority of Galeazzo, who was only twelve years of age, to be proclaimed, in order that he himself might reign in his nephew's name, and Bona withdrew to Abbiate Grasso.

This revolution deprived Lorenzo de'. Medici of the alliance of Milan, as the new Regent was on good terms with the King of Naples, who restored to him his brother's Duchy of Bari. The Florentines were also alarmed at the defeat of their army by the Duke of Calabria at Poggio Imperiale; and even the friends and 1 Planta, Helvetic Confederacy, vol. ii. p. 204.

CHAP. I.]

THE TURKS INVADE APULIA.

- 115 partisans of Lorenzo threatened to desert him. In this crisis of his fortunes, Lorenzo adopted the bold step of proceeding in person to the Court of the treacherous Ferdinand; where by his talents, address, and eloquence he made such an impression on that monarch that he succeeded in effecting not only a peace but a league with him (March, 1480). This clandestine treaty made the Venetians as angry with Lorenzo as the Pope was with King Ferdinand, and they found no difficulty in persuading Sixtus to form a league with themselves; of which his nephew, Jerome Riario, Count of Imola, was appointed Captain-General. Jerome now diverted his arms from Tuscany into Romagna, drove the noble house of Ordelaffi from Forlì, and was invested by Sixtus with the lordship of that city.

Such was the state of Italy when Mahomet II. determined on the expedition before referred to (p. 102), against Ferdinand of Naples, in revenge for the aid which he had given to the Knights of Rhodes. It is admitted by Venetian historians that their Republic, with the view of ruining Ferdinand, not only made the peace just mentioned with the Pope, but also sent ambassadors to the Grand Signor to incite him to invade Ferdinand's dominions, by representing to him that he was entitled to Brindisi, Taranto, and Otranto, as places formerly remaining to the Byzantine Empire: though it is probable that they did not communicate this step to Sixtus.' The landing of the Turks in Apulia induced the Pope to pardon the Florentines and reconcile them with the Church. Twelve of the leading citizens of Florence were despatched to Rome, where they were compelled to make the most. abject submission, and to receive at the hands of the Pope the flogging usually inflicted on such occasions; and by way of penance the Florentines were ordered to fit out fifteen galleys against the Turks.

Notwithstanding the peace between King Ferdinand and Lorenzo de' Medici, the Neapolitan army, under the Duke of Calabria, was still in Tuscany, when, in August, 1480, the Turks, under Ahmed Keduk, Pasha of Vallona, effected the landing in Apulia already referred to. They took Otranto, put the greater part of the inhabitants to death, sawed the Commandant and the Archbishop in half, and committed many other atrocities. They also attacked Taranto, Brindisi, and Lecce; but the approach of he Duke of Calabria compelled them to re-embark, leaving,

See Navagiero, Stor. Venet. in Muraori, Ital. Rer. SS. t. xxiii. p. 1165; Sa

nuto, ibid. xxii. p. 1213. Cf. Daru, Hist. de Venise, liv. xviii. §§ 3, 4.

116

DEATH OF MAHOMET II.

[CHAP. I.

The Pope,

however, a garrison of 8,000 men in Otranto. alarmed by the Turkish invasion and the menacing demands of King Ferdinand, who threatened that if he were not immediately assisted, he would treat with the invaders, and facilitate their march to Rome, formed a league with Milan, Ferrara, Genoa, and Florence; and in order to provide speedier succour, he sent his own plate, as well as that of some of the churches, to the mint. Ferdinand also received a few troops from his son-in-law, King Matthias of Hungary, and from Ferdinand of Aragon. The Venetians, on the other hand, assisted the Turks to victual Otranto. In 1481 the Turks made a fresh attempt on the Terra di Otranto, but could not penetrate the lines of the Duke of Calabria; and as the Neapolitan fleet was superior at sea, the garrison of Otranto began to feel the approach of famine. The unexpected news of Sultan Mahomet's death added to their discouragement, and on the 10th of September they capitulated. The Duke of Calabria, following their own example, violated the capitulation, and having captured some of the Turks after they had set sail, compelled them to serve in the army and in the galleys.

Mahomet died May 3rd, 1481, in his camp near Gebseh, while on his way to Byzantine Scutari; and with him expired his magnificent projects, which amounted to nothing less than the utter extinction of the Christian name. He was fifty-one years of age at his death, of which he had reigned thirty. Possessing some of the qualities of a great and noble nature, he was nevertheless the slave of passion and caprice, which often betrayed him into acts of the basest perfidy and most revolting inhumanity. He was, perhaps, the greatest conqueror of his martial race; yet not a mere destroyer, for he could also construct and organize, as appears from the laws which he prescribed for his own State, and from the manner in which he preserved and adorned Constantinople.

Having thus brought down the conquests of the Turks and the affairs of Italy to the death of Mahomet II., we shall now direct our attention awhile to the nations of Western Europe.

CHAP. II.]

THE DAUPHIN LOUIS IN BRABANT.

117

CHAPTER II.

FTER the expulsion of the English from France, the remainder of Charles VII.'s reign affords few events of importance, besides his quarrel with his son, the Dauphin Louis, and the flight of the latter to the Court of Burgundy. Louis, after his relegation into Dauphiné,1 displayed in the government of that land, in a manner remarkable in so youthful a Prince, the same principles which afterwards guided his conduct as King of France. He cultivated the friendship of the people, and endeavoured to depress the nobles, whom he forbade to exercise the right of private war; he introduced many reforms into the administration of the country, which gave it the air of a little kingdom; he established a Parliament at Grenoble and a University at Valence; he coined money bearing his own superscription; he raised a considerable army, and he negotiated with foreign Princes on the footing of an independent Sovereign. Against his father he waged open war. The hatred and jealousy between Charles VII. and his heir went on increasing, and in 1456 Charles resolved on reducing his rebellious son, and bringing Dauphiné under power of the Crown. Louis felt that, from the want of gens d'armes, he could bring no force into the field able to cope with his father's,2 and under pretence of joining the expedition which the Duke of Burgundy talked of preparing against the Turks, he fled to the Court of that Sovereign, where he met with a magnificent reception.

Philip, however, would offer nothing but his mediation; and he even made a sort of apology to Charles VII. for receiving Louis, protesting that he meant only the good both of father and son. But all negotiations proved unavailing, and Louis remained in Brabant, where he was treated with regal splendour: a residence was assigned him at Genappe, near Nivelle, with a monthly pension of 2,500 livres; and it was here that, to amuse his leisure hours, the Cent Nouvelles nouvelles were comSee above, p. 76.

2 See his letter, ap. Michelet, Hist. de France, t. viii. p. 99.