In the
year 1512 the French, retreating before the arms of Maximilian and the
Spaniards, were induced to make a declaration that the Milanese had
taken no part in their expulsion, and, without being guilty of
rebellion, might yield themselves to a new conqueror. It is a f act of
some political importance that in such moments of transition the
unhappy city, like Naples at the flight of the Aragonese, was apt to
fall a prey to gangs of (often highly aristocratic) scoundrels.
The house of Gonzaga at Mantua and that of Montefeltro of Urbino were
among the best ordered and richest in men of ability during the second
half of the fifteenth century. The Gonzaga were a tolerably harmonious
family; for a long period no murder had been known among them, and
their dead could be shown to the world without fear.7 The Marquis
Francesco Gonzaga and his wife, Isabella of Este, in spite of some few
irregularities, were a united and respectable couple, and brought up
their sons to be successful and remarkable men at a time when their
small but most important State was exposed to incessant danger. That
Francesco, either as statesman or as soldier, should adopt a policy of
exceptional honesty, was what neither the Emperor, nor Venice, nor the
King of France could have expected or desired; but certainly since the
battle of the Taro (1495), so far as military honour was concerned, he
felt and acted as an Italian patriot, and imparted the same spirit to
his wife.
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