But some of the paths which Leo allowed himself to tread during the
first two years of his office were perilous to the last degree. He
seriously endeavored to secure, by negotiation, the kingdom of Naples
for his brother Giuliano, and for his nephew Lorenzo a powerful North
Italian State, to comprise Milan, Tuscany, Urbino and Ferrara. It is
clear that the Pontifical State, thus hemmed in on all sides, would
have become a mere Medicean appanage, and that, in fact, there would
have been no further need to secularize it.
The plan found an insuperable obstacle in the political conditions of
the time. Giuliano died early. To provide for Lorenzo, Leo undertook to
expel the Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere from Urbino, but reaped
from the war nothing but hatred and poverty, and was forced, when in
1519 Lorenzo followed his uncle to the grave, to hand over the hard-won
conquests to the Church. He did on compulsion and without credit what,
if it had been done voluntarily, would have been to his lasting honour.
What he attempted against Alfonso of Ferrara, and actually achieved
against a few petty despots and Condottieri, was assuredly not of a
kind to raise his reputation. And this was at a time when the monarchs
of the West were yearly growing more and more accustomed to political
gambling on a colossal scale, of which the stakes were this or that
province of Italy.
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