No one knew more
about the matter than the old phrase that Genoa was a _camera imperii_.
In fact, nobody in Italy could give a clear answer to any such
questions. At length when Charles V held Spain and the empire together,
he was able by means of Spanish forces to make good imperial claims:
but it is notorious that what he thereby gained turned to the profit,
not of the empire, but of the Spanish monarchy.
* * *
Closely connected with the political illegitimacy of the dynasties of
the fifteenth century was the public indifference to legitimate birth,
which to foreigners -- for example, to Commines -- appeared so
remarkable. The two things went naturally together. In northern
countries, as in Burgundy, the illegitimate offspring were provided for
by a distinct class of appanages, such as bishoprics and the like: in
Portugal an illegitimate line maintained itself on the throne only by
constant effort; in Italy. on the contrary, there no longer existed a
princely house where even in the direct line of descent, bastards were
not patiently tolerated. The Aragonese monarchs of Naples belonged to
the illegitimate line, Aragon itself falling to the lot of the brother
of Alfonso I. The great Federigo of Urbino was, perhaps, no Montefeltro
at all. When Pius II was on his way to the Congress of Mantua (1459),
eight bastards of the house of Este rode to meet him at Ferrara, among
them the reigning duke Borso himself and two illegitimate sons of his
illegitimate brother and predecessor Lionello.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41