The
taxes were extorted by every conceivable sort of compulsion; seven
daughters of the prince received a dowry of 100,000 gold florins
apiece; and an enormous treasure was collected. On the death of his
wife (1384) an order was issued 'to the subjects' to share his grief,
as once they had shared his joy, and to wear mourning for a year. The
_coup de main_ (1385) by which his nephew Giangaleazzo got him into his
power--one of those brilliant plots which make the heart of even late
historians beat more quickly was strikingly characteristic of the man .
In Giangaleazzo that passion for the colossal which was common to most
of the despots shows itself on the largest scale. He undertook, at the
cost of 300,000 golden florins, the construction of gigantic dikes, to
divert in case of need the Mincio from Mantua and the Brenta from
Padua, and thus to render these cities defenseless. It is not
impossible, indeed, that he thought of draining away the lagoons of
Venice. He founded that most wonderful of all convents, the Certosa of
Pavia and the cathedral of Milan, 'which exceeds in size and splendor
all the churches of Christendom.' The palace in Pavia, which his father
Galeazzo began and which he himself finished, was probably by far the
most magnificent of the princely dwellings of Europe. There he
transferred his famous library, and the great collection of relics of
the saints, in which he placed a peculiar faith.
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