208

VISIONARY SCHEMES OF CHARLES VIII.

[CHAP. V.

CHAPTER V.

HE weak mind of Charles VIII. of France was filled with

THE

visions of glory and conquest; he deemed himself a paladin, and christened his firstborn son Roland after the hero of Roncesvalles. Louis XI. had prudently declined to prosecute the claims to Naples bequeathed to him by Charles du Maine; in the mind of his son the conquest of that Kingdom was to be only the steppingstone to the Empire of the East and the expulsion of the Turks from Constantinople. Charles assumed the title of King of Jerusalem, and received without a smile the homage paid him by his courtiers as Greek Emperor; which title he had bought from Andrew Palæologus. His impolitic enterprise against Naples was warmly opposed by his sister, the late Regent, and by all the old statesmen of the school of Louis XI.; but nothing could divert him from what he called his "voyage d'Italie," in contemplation of which he made friends with his neighbours by three disadvantageous treaties; and he was supported in his scheme by interested politicians, as Etienne de Vesc, formerly his valet de chambre, but now first president of the Chambre des Comptes, and by Briçonnet, Bishop of St. Malo, who expected to gain a Cardinal's hat.

In the spring of 1494 Charles VIII. despatched ambassadors to some of the principal Italian States to beg their assistance in recovering Naples. King Ferdinand had died January 25th, and the Kingdom had devolved to his son Alfonso II., who was still more odious and unpopular than himself; for, with all his harshness and cruelty, Ferdinand possessed some good qualities. He loved and encouraged literature and art; he patronized Laurentius Valla, and Antonio Panormita, and his own letters and speeches, which have been published, display both eloquence and erudition. But Alfonso was nothing but a rough unlettered soldier. Charles VIII. found slight encouragement from the

1 Above, p. 81. The deed of transfer is in the Acad. des Inscr. t. xvii. p. 539, and in Roscoe's Leo X. vol. v. p. 96.

2 That of Etaples with Henry VII., of Senlis with Maximilian, and of Barcelona with Ferdinand and Isabella.

CHAP. V.]

CHARLES VIII. CROSSES THE ALPS.

209

Italians, except Lodovico il Moro, with whom he had a secret engagement. Lodovico undertook to provide him with troops and money, on condition of receiving the protection of the French and the Principality of Taranto, after the conquest of Naples should have been accomplished. The Venetians, alleging their danger from the Turks, declared that they should remain neutral, The Florentines, agreeably to their ancient traditions, would have sided with the French, but Peter de' Medici, who had entered into a treaty with Alfonso, while protesting his affection for France, gave the French ambassadors an evasive answer. Pope Alexander VI., though, as we have said, at first inclined to France, had begun to perceive that the establishment of a great foreign Power in Italy would defeat his plans for the aggrandizement of his family. Alfonso, too, after the death of his father, had courted the Pope's friendship, and an intimate alliance had sprung up between them, cemented by the marriage of their natural children, Sancia, daughter of Alfonso, and Alexander's son Geoffrey. The Pope had therefore exhorted Charles to submit his claims to the decision of the Holy See, and subsequently, as Lord Paramount of Naples, had invested Alfonso II. with that Kingdom.1

The conduct of the French King displayed little of the vigour requisite for the great enterprise in which he had embarked. Although the French army had assembled at the foot of the Alps, he wasted his time at Lyon in tournaments, festivals, and amours, and when he was at length driven from that city by a pestilence he found that he had squandered all his money. The undertaking seemed on the point of being abandoned, when a loan of 50,000 ducats from a Milanese merchant enabled the army to resume its march. Charles crossed Mont-Génèvre September 2nd, 1494, and passing through Susa and Turin, was met at Asti by Lodovico Sforza with a brilliant retinue, including many ladies. Charles now renewed the follies of Lyon, and contracted a disorder by his debaucheries which detained him at Asti till the 6th of October. He was still so poor that he was compelled to borrow, and he pledged the jewels of the Duchess Dowager of Savoy and the widowed Marchioness of Montferrat in order to proceed. Lodovico, who had accompanied the

1 Guicciardini's Storia d'Italia begins with the invasion of Charles VIII, and runs to 1534: from which period it is continued by Botta to 1789. Other authorities for the period are the Latin history of Arnold le Feron (1494-1546), Guil

King as far as Piacenza, was laume de Villeneuve, Hist. de la Guerre de Charles VIII. en Italie, and André de la Vigne, whose Journal de Charles VIII. ends with the King's return to Lyon,

1495.

210 [CHAP. Vrecalled to Milan by the death of his nephew, the dispossessed Duke Gian Galeazzo, who expired in the Castle of Pavia, October 22nd, at the age of twenty-five. His death was universally ascribed to poison administered to him by order of his uncle, and the proceedings of Lodovico strongly confirm this suspicion. Gian Galeazzo had left an infant son; but Lodovico, on pretence that the times were too dangerous for a minority, caused himself to be elected Duke by a body of his partisans; and his title was afterwards confirmed by a diploma which he obtained from the Emperor Maximilian. The widowed Duchess Isabella was confined with her two infant children in the Castle of Pavia.

THE MEDICI EXPELLED FROM FLORENCE.

At Piacenza Charles held a council respecting the route to be adopted. The union of Tuscany with the Pope and the King of Naples seemed to impose an impenetrable barrier to his advance; but it was known that there was a strong party in Florence opposed to the Medici; and though Charles had driven from France all the agents of that family, he had respected the privileges of the other Florentine houses of commerce. Pisa also expected her liberation from the Florentine yoke at the hands of the French. It was resolved to proceed through Florence and Rome. No sooner did the French enter Tuscany than the lurking discontent against Peter de' Medici exploded. Conscious of his danger he hastened to Sarsanella to deprecate the anger of the French King, and without even consulting his fellowcitizens, agreed to give Charles immediate possession of all the Tuscan fortresses, including Leghorn and Pisa, on condition that they should be restored after the conquest of Naples. He also undertook to supply Charles with a loan of 200,000 florins, in consideration of which Florence was to be taken under protection of France; and it was agreed that a treaty to this effect should be executed at Florence.

The facility with which Peter de' Medici made these large concessions excited the astonishment and ridicule even of the French themselves. Very different were the feelings of the Florentines, who, however much they desired the French alliance, were indignant at Peter's pusillanimous submission. On his return he found the gates of the Public Palace closed and guarded, the interview which he requested with the magistrates was refused, and symptoms of tumult appeared among the people. In vain did the young Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici proceed with his servants and retainers through some of the principal streets shouting

1 1 Comines, liv. vii. ch. 7.

CHAP. V.]

RISE AND CHARACTER OF SAVONAROLA.

211

Palle! Palle! the well-known rallying cry of the family-not a voice responded. At the Porta St. Gallo, Peter and his brother Julian also attempted to excite a movement in their favour by distributing money among the populace, but they were answered only with threats; and alarmed by the sound of the tocsin they fled to the Apennines, where they were soon joined by the Cardinal in the disguise of a Franciscan. The Signory now declared the Medici traitors, confiscated their possessions, and offered a reward for their heads; at the same time Charles allowed the Pisans to expel the Florentine magistrates and to become free; and the Lion of Florence was flung into the Arno amid cries of Viva Francia!

This revolution placed a remarkable man at the head of the Florentine Republic-Girolamo Savonarola.1 Born at Ferrara in 1452, of a respectable Paduan family settled in that town, Savonarola's temperament was marked by a nervous sensibility, heightened, it is said, by a disappointment in love. He viewed with disgust the crimes and profligacy then prevalent in Italy; hence he was inclined to renounce the world, and at the age of twenty-three he took the monastic vows in a Dominican convent at Bologna. His learning was considerable. He had been a deep student of the scholastic philosophy, and of the works of Thomas Aquinas; from the former he acquired a tendency to subtlety and sophistry, from the latter, combined with an assiduous reading of the Old Testament and the Apocalypse, his religious exaltation was much augmented. He began to fancy that the dreams to which he had been subject from childhood were visions and inspirations, and he spent whole nights in prayer and contemplation." In 1489 he proceeded to Florence and entered the Dominican convent of St. Mark, of which he became Prior in 1491. At Florence he began to advocate a reformation of the Church, which was, indeed, very much needed. He was also the champion of civil liberty; and while as a religious reformer the wicked lives of the Popes supplied him abundantly

Since the first two volumes of this work were published in 1861, the concluding volume of Signor Villari's biography of Savonarola has appeard, containing the last momentous scenes in the monk's life, and the documentary evidence (Storia di Girolamo Savonarola, Firenze, vol. i. 1859, vol. ii. 1861). It is the completest work on the subject, and has led the author in some degree to modify his former opinions. Signor Villari is through

out the unflinching apologist of Savonarola, his advocate quand même, and his work is chiefly founded on biographies written by the friar's personal friends and followers. Nevertheless the author has here taken all the facts respecting Savonarola as they are given by Villari, though in his inferences and opinions about them he has sometimes been obliged to differ from that writer.

2 Villari, vol. i. p. 295.

212

[CHAP, V.

SAVONAROLA'S EMBASSY TO CHARLES VIII. with topics, so as a political one he denounced the tyrannical domination of the Medici. He regarded Lorenzo de' Medici as the destroyer of his country's freedom; he would neither visit him nor show him any mark of respect; though Lorenzo, struck by the friar's reputation, courted his friendship and even sent for him on his deathbed to hear his confession. But the highly dramatic scene which is said to have ensued between them, described by Villari and other biographers, in which the friar refused to give Lorenzo absolution unless he restored the liberty of the people, seems hardly to be true.1

Savonarola appears to have gained his great influence by means of his sermons. These were not in the old scholastic method, but original both in matter and language, and highly dramatic; filled with apostrophes and interrogations, and delivered with great fire and vehement gesticulation. We are not surprised to hear that he often made his hearers weep; a more astounding effect was, that they are said to have caused several merchants and bankers to refund their ill-gotten gains. In this case, if it be true, he certainly worked a miracle. Through his ministry the whole aspect of the city was changed. Luxury and show were abandoned; the songs of the carnival gave place to hymns; and the Bible and the works of the Frate formed almost the only reading of the people.

Such a character was most formidable to a ruler like Peter de' Medici. Savonarola seized the moment to overthrow him, and at the head of a Florentine embassy appeared before Charles VIII. at Lucca, where he addressed that monarch in the style of a prophet, and promised him victory in this world, Paradise in the next, provided he protected Florence. Charles replied with vague protestations, and entering Florence November 17th, took up his residence in the palace of the Medici. The wealth of the city was tempting, and Charles imagined that it lay at his disposal he intimated his intention of recalling Peter de' Medici, of appointing him his lieutenant, and of imposing a fine upon the citizens. But he had miscalculated his own strength and the disposition of the Florentines. The solid lofty towers

1 Savonarola's demand is not mentioned by Politian, who was in the house at the time, though probably not in the room, as the confession was in all likelihood private. In that case the friar's requisition must either have been told to somebody by Lorenzo himself, which is in the highest degree improbable, especially as his friend Politian had not heard of it;

or Savonarola must have violated the secrecy of the confessional; which, indeed. he is said to have done, and to have told the story to Fra Silvestro Maruffi (Villari, i. 157). But Silvestro, of a weak and shuffling character, more likely invented it. Gino Capponi does not believe it. Storia di Firenze, iii. 30, note 2.