Chapter XV: Book THE EIGHTH (4)

I arrived at Lyons on the 12th of December, in the year 1495: and there I found the king and his whole army. The king had been absent on his expedition about a year and two months.[460] The castles of Naples still held out for him, as you have heard. The Lord de Montpensier, his lieutenant in that kingdom, was at Salerno with the prince of that place; the Lord d’Aubigny was in Calabria, where he had done signal service, though under a long fit of sickness; the Lord Gracian des Guerres was in Abruzzo, Don Julian at Mount St. Angelo, and George de Suilly at Tarento; but all of them most miserably poor, and so far abandoned by our court that they could seldom or never receive letters or news out of France, and when they did, it was nothing but shams and promises without effect; for (as I said before) the king did nothing of himself. If they had been supplied with money in time, even a sixth part of what was spent afterwards to no purpose would have saved that kingdom from being lost; for at length when all was lost, they sent them forty thousand crowns as part of a year’s pay, and yet if that had arrived but a month sooner, the calamities and disgraces which they endured had never befallen them, and their divisions had been prevented; all which was occasioned through the negligence of the king, who managed nothing himself, and would not so much as hear anybody that came from them, and those whom he employed were careless and inexperienced, and I think some of them held a correspondence with the Pope; so that in appearance God had forsaken our king, and taken away that grace with which He had hitherto conducted him.

The king had not been at Lyons above two months, or thereabouts, when he received news that his only son, the dauphin, lay dangerously ill; and three days after, letters came that gave an account of his death.[461] The king was extremely concerned at first, as he ought to have been out of paternal affection; yet his sorrow soon wore off. But the queen (who was Anne, Duchess of Bretagne) took it more to heart than perhaps any other woman would have done, and her sorrow remained longer upon her; and I am afraid, that besides the natural affliction of mothers upon the loss of their children, her mind misgave her, and she was apprehensive that some greater misfortune would soon happen to her. The king (as I said before) having got over his own grief, had a great desire to give the queen some diversion at a ball of young gentlemen, which the king had appointed; among the rest of the dancers, the Duke of Orleans was one, who was at that time about thirty-four years old[462]; but he behaved himself so, that it was visible to all the court he rejoiced at the dauphin’s death, for he was (after him) next heir to the crown. Wherefore the king and he never spoke to one another for a long time after. The dauphin was about three years old when he died, yet a very handsome and precocious child, and not alarmed at those things wherewith children are usually frighted; for which reason his father was the sooner recovered from his sorrow, as being fearful already lest he should have grown too fast, and lest, if his courage increased with his years, he would have entrenched upon his father’s power and authority; for the king was not commanding either in person or understanding, but of the mildest and best disposition in the world. By this example we may see to what miseries great kings and princes, who grow jealous of their own children, are subject. His father, Louis XI., though so wise and virtuous a prince, was yet fearful of Charles VIII., but he provided prudently against the worst, and left him the crown when he was but fourteen years old. Louis XI. had been no less terrible to his father Charles VII., for at the age of thirteen years he was in arms, and confederated against him with certain of the nobility, upon some court-quarrels[463] and complaints against the government, (and this King Louis has often told me himself,) yet these troubles lasted not long. But when he came to man’s estate, he had great controversy with his father Charles VII., retired into Dauphiny, and from thence into Flanders, leaving Dauphiny to his father, as has been observed at the beginning of these Memoirs[464], in relating the reign of Louis XI.

No creature is exempt from adversity; every man eats his bread in pain and sorrow: God Almighty promised it to our first parents, and he has performed it very faithfully ever since to all people. Yet there are degrees and distinctions of sorrow, and the troubles and vexations of the mind are greater than those of the body; the anxiety of the wise is of one sort, and that of the fool of another, but that of the fool is the greater of the two (though some are of a contrary opinion) because he is less capable of comfort.

The poor people, who labour, drudge and toil to maintain themselves and their children, and pay their taxes and subsidies to their princes, would have but little comfort in this world if princes and great lords were sensible of nothing but pleasure, and they of nothing but sorrow and misery. But the thing is quite otherwise; for, should I endeavour to give an account of the sufferings and disorders which (for these thirty years) I have seen endured by persons of quality of both sexes, it would swell to a large volume. I do not mean such persons as Boccace mentions in his book[465], but such as raise the envy of all people, by their riches, health, and prosperity. Those who have not conversed with them so much as I have done, believe the condition of great persons to be the happiest in the world; but I have seen their troubles and disquiets, aroused upon such trifling occasions, as persons at a distance could hardly believe; an idle apprehension or an extravagant report disturbs them extremely; and this is the secret distemper that reigns in the courts of great princes, from whence many mischiefs arise to the sovereign, his ministers and subjects; and it is so great a shortener of life, that there is scarce a king of France (since the time of Charlemagne) who lived to be sixty years old.

Upon this bare suspicion, when Louis XI. came to be about that age, being sick of that disease, he concluded himself already dead. His father Charles VII., who had done so many memorable things in France, took a fancy that his courtiers had a design to poison him, and upon that account he ate nothing. Charles VI. had his jealousies too, and became crazed in his understanding upon a mere report. Certainly, princes are guilty of great error in not examining, or causing other people to examine, such tales as concern them, though, perhaps, they may be of themselves of no great importance; but this would keep them from being so frequently current, especially if they confronted the accused with the informer; by that means nothing would be reported but what was true. But there are some princes so stupid as to promise and swear to the accusers they will never discover them; and these are they who are subject to those anguishes and torments of mind of which I speak and who many times hate and injure the best ministers they have, upon the bare reports and calumnies of evil-minded and designing people, by which means they occasion great mischiefs and sorrows to their subjects.

CH. XXI.—How the King received News of the Loss of the Castle of Naples; of the selling of the Towns belonging to the Florentines to several Persons; of the Treaty of Atella in Apulia, much to the Prejudice of the French; and of the Death of Ferrand, King of Naples.—1496.

The death of the Dauphin (only son to Charles VIII.), occurred about the beginning of the year 1496, and was the greatest loss that happened or could possibly happen to the king, for he had never any child afterwards that lived. But this misfortune came not alone; for at the same time he received advice that the castle of Naples had been surrendered by those whom the Lord de Montpensier had left in it, under pressure of famine, and for the safety of the hostages, who had been delivered into the enemy’s hands by the Lord de Montpensier. The names of the hostages were Monsieur d’Alegre, one of the sons of the Lord de la Marche d’Ardaine, one called the Lord de la Chapelle de Loudonnois, and John Roquebertin, a Catalonian.[466] Those who had been in the castle were sent back again by sea. After this, another disgraceful accident befel him, and that was, that one Entragues, who was governor of the citadel of Pisa (which was strong, and commanded the whole town), delivered it up to the Pisans; which was contrary to the king’s oath, for he had sworn twice to the Florentines to deliver the said citadel to them, and other places, as Sarzana, Sarzanello, Pietrasanta, Librefatta, and Mortron, which the Florentines had lent the king in his necessities, at his first coming into Italy, and had given him six score thousand ducats, of which there were not above thirty thousand in arrear when he returned into France, as has been mentioned in another place.[467] In short, all these places were sold; the Genoese bought Sarzana and Sarzanello, and they were sold by the Bastard of St. Paul.[468] Monsieur Entragues sold Pietrasanta to the citizens of Lucca[469], and Librefatta to the Venetians, to the great dishonour of the king and his subjects, and to the detriment and I may say destruction of the kingdom of Naples. The first oath King Charles VIII. took for the restitution of those places was at Florence, upon the high altar in the great church of St. John; the second was at Asti, on his return, where the Florentines furnished him in his extremity with thirty thousand ducats, upon condition that if Pisa were surrendered to them, the king should be discharged of the said sum, and all his jewels and pawns should be restored; and they were to lend him threescore thousand more, to be paid down in the kingdom of Naples, to those whom his majesty had appointed to manage his affairs there, and to maintain at their charge three hundred horse for the service of our king in the kingdom of Naples, which were to continue there during the whole expedition; but upon the selling of Pisa and the rest of the towns all was at an end, and the king was obliged to repay the thirty thousand ducats which the Florentines had lent him, and all this by the disobedience and whisperings of some persons about the king, who had given private encouragement to Entragues to act thus in the business.

About the same time, in the beginning of the year 1496, the Lord de Montpensier, the Lord Virgil Ursini, Signor Camillo Vitelli, and the rest of the French officers, seeing that all was lost, took the field, and made themselves masters of several small towns; upon which King Ferrand, the son of Alphonso (who was turned monk, as you have heard before), with the Marquis of Mantua, brother to the Lord Montpensier’s wife[470], and captain-general of the Venetians, drew out against them, and found the Lord de Montpensier in a town called Atella, situated very disadvantageously for the supply of provisions. The enemy immediately encamped on a hill, and fortified themselves as strongly as they could, not daring to venture a battle, for King Ferrand and the Marquis of Mantua had been beaten by us in every engagement they had fought. The Venetians had in pledge six towns in Apulia, of very great importance, namely, Brindisi, Trani, Gallipoli, Crana, Otranto, Monopoli, and Tarento, which last they had taken from us. And they lent some money to King Ferrand, but they valued the service of their forces in that kingdom so high, that it was computed and charged upon the said towns at two hundred and fifty thousand ducats, besides what they demanded for the fortifications and other expenses in keeping them; so that I am persuaded they have no intention to restore them[471]; for it is not their custom to part with anything that is for their convenience, as those towns are, lying all upon the Gulf of Venice, and making them absolute lords of it, from Venice to Otranto, which is nine hundred miles complete. The Pope, indeed, has Ancona and some few other towns between them; but all must pay duties to the Venetians, or there is no passing through the Gulf; so that it was a great advantage to them to have those towns in their hands, and perhaps more than many people imagine, for they receive from them great quantities of corn and oil, which are two commodities very beneficial and necessary for them.

At the town of Atella[472] above-mentioned, our troops began to mutiny, not only for provisions (which were beginning to fail), but for their pay, for there was already an arrear due to them for above eighteen months, and they had suffered very great hardships. The Swiss, too, were largely in arrear, but not altogether so much, for all the money the Lord de Montpensier could raise in that kingdom went to the payment of them, and yet they had above a year due to them. They had, however, plundered several little villages, and got a considerable booty. If the forty thousand ducats which had been so often promised had been sent in time, or had they known they would receive them at Florence, this mutiny had never happened; but now all that was done proceeded merely from despair. Several of the commanders have told me since, that if our men would have agreed to have ventured a battle, in all likelihood the victory would been theirs, or if they had lost it, it could not have been with the destruction of half so many as they lost by their base and dishonourable surrender. The Lords de Montpensier and Virgil Ursini would willingly have fought, and they died in prison, and not one of the articles of their treaty was observed to them. These two gentlemen accused the Lord de Percy (a young gentleman of Auvergne), of having been the occasion of their not fighting; and the truth is, the Lord de Percy was an ill-conditioned and mutinous knight.

There were two sorts of Germans in that army[473]; one was the Swiss, of whom we had about one thousand five hundred, who had been with us from the beginning of our expedition, and they served us faithfully and as well as men could do to the very last. There was another commonly called Lansquenets, which is as much as to say, Companions of the Country, and these have a natural antipathy to the Swiss; they are a collection from all the countries upon the Rhine, Swabia, the Pays de Vaux in Sequania, and Guelderland; and they consisted of about seven or eight hundred men lately sent thither, with two months’ pay in advance, which was spent by them before they arrived. Seeing themselves in such danger and distress, they retained not that affection to us which the Swiss did, but began to hold parleys, and by degrees revolted to the enemy; upon which and the division among our commanders, the soldiers made a villanous and infamous agreement, which King Ferrand swore to observe; for the Marquis of Mantua took great care to secure the person of the Lord de Montpensier, his brother-in-law.

By the said agreement they delivered themselves into the hands of their enemies, gave them all the artillery which belonged to our king, and promised to restore all the places which our king possessed in that kingdom, as well in Calabria, where the Lord d’Aubigny commanded, as in Abruzzo, where the Lord Gracian des Guerres was chief; besides Gaeta and Tarento. Upon which terms King Ferrand undertook to send them into Provence by sea, and their baggage with them, which was worth little or nothing.[474] They were about five or six thousand men, and King Ferrand caused them to be conducted to Naples. So ignominious an agreement had not been made before in our times, nor did I ever read of any like it, unless it was that which (as Titus Livius reports[475]) was made by the two Roman consuls with the Samnites (who are now supposed to be the inhabitants of Beneventum) at a certain place upon the mountains, which was then called the Caudine Forks; but the Romans refused to ratify and confirm it, and sent the two consuls back prisoners to the enemy.

If our army had fought and been defeated, we had not lost so great a number of men as we did, for two-thirds of them died of famine and plague on ship-board, and in the Isle of Procida, whither they were sent afterwards by King Ferrand; among the rest, the Lord de Montpensier died there, some say of poison, others of a fever, (which I rather believe). And I think of their whole number there came not above one thousand five hundred back; for of the Swiss, who were one thousand three hundred, there returned not above three hundred and fifty, and those in a weak and miserable condition. These Swiss were highly to be commended for their loyalty; for they would never bear arms under King Ferrand, but chose rather to die, as many of them did in the island of Procida, some of a calenture, some of other diseases, and some of very hunger; for it is not to be imagined in what want of food they were kept on ship-board, and how long. I saw some of those who returned, and particularly the Swiss, who brought back all their colours; but by their looks one might see what they had suffered; for all of them were so very sick, that when they came ashore to take a little air, they could not walk without being supported. The Lord Virgil Ursini by his articles was to have had liberty to return into his own country with his son[476], and his whole regiment; but they detained him, and his lawful son with him (of which sort he had but one); yet he had a bastard who was a brave man, called Signor Carlo[477]; but he was killed by certain Italians who were in his company upon the road. Had this misfortune fallen upon any but those who had a hand in the treaty, it had been a very deplorable accident.[478]

Not long after King Ferrand had gained this honour, and newly married the daughter of his grandfather King Ferrand, whom he had by the present King of Castile’s sister (so that his queen was sister to his own father King Alphonso), and who was a young lady not above thirteen or fourteen years old, he fell into a hectic fever, and died in a few days.[479] He left the possession of his kingdom to King Frederic (now reigning) who was his uncle. I cannot think of this marriage without horror, though there were several of the same nature in that family within the memory of man, and that within the space of thirty years. He died not long after that infamous treaty of Atella in the year 1496. King Ferrand, when he was living, and Frederic since his accession to the throne, excused themselves, because the Lord de Montpensier had not surrendered the towns that were mentioned in the articles of agreement; but it was not in his power, for Gaeta and other places were not in his hands; and indeed though he was our king’s lieutenant in that kingdom, yet the governors of the respective towns were not bound to surrender them at his command, though if they had, our king had been no great loser by the bargain; for they afterwards cost a great deal to repair and victual: and so they were lost at last. I was present myself when provisions were sent, once to the castles of Naples, and thrice to Gaeta; and I think I should not mistake if I said those four supplies cost the king above three hundred thousand francs; and yet all came to nothing.

CH. XXII.—How several Plots were formed (in favour of our King) by some of the Italian Princes, not only for the Recovery of Naples, but for the Destruction of the Duke of Milan; how they miscarried for want of Supplies; and how another Design against Genoa came to the same ill End.—1496.

The king, after his return from his expedition to Naples, as we have already mentioned, continued a long time at Lyons, entertaining himself with jousts and tournaments; and though still desirous to regain the places he had lost in the kingdom of Naples, whatever it cost him, he would take no pains to manage his own affairs. He had very good intelligence in Italy, and great designs were set on foot in his favour; which could easily have been managed by the kingdom of France, which is very populous, and plentiful in corn, especially in Languedoc and Provence, and other countries, out of which it is no difficult task to raise money. But if any other prince besides the King of France should embrace the cause of the Italians, and undertake their assistance, it would impoverish and exhaust him to no purpose; for they will do nothing without money; nor, indeed, are they able to do anything, unless it be the Duke of Milan, or some of the great States. But a private governor or general, how well affected soever he may be to the House of France, and its pretensions to the kingdom of Naples, or the duchy of Milan, let him be as devoted as he will to its interest (and from Italians you must expect nothing more than partisanship), yet he cannot serve that house long after the pay begins to fail; for the poor general would be deserted by his own soldiers, and would himself be utterly undone; because for the most part they have nothing wherewith to raise men, but their reputation and credit; and the soldiers are paid by the general, and the general by him who employs him in his service.

But as to the designs which I have mentioned as being so considerable, they began before the surrender of Gaeta, upon the Duke of Milan’s not keeping his promise, and continued for two years after our king’s return. As for the Duke of Milan, he did not break his promise so much out of malice and deceit, as through fear; for he was fearful that the king could not have so great an addition to his power, without some diminution of his own; besides, he did not think our king a prince of any firmness or resolution. At length it was concluded that the Duke of Orleans should march to Asti with a considerable body of forces; and I saw him and his troops ready to set out. We were secure of the Duke of Ferrara with five hundred men-at-arms and two thousand foot (though he was the Duke of Milan’s father-in-law); for he joined with us to preserve himself against the danger he was in between the Duke and the Venetians, who not long previously (as I have said before[480]) had taken from him the Polesan, and endeavoured all they could to ruin him: upon which account he preferred his own and his children’s safety before the friendship of his son-in-law; and perhaps he was of opinion that his son-in-law would, by his mediation, come to some agreement with the king, when he found himself in danger. We had also engaged the Marquis of Mantua on our side, who had been, and was at that time general for the Venetians; but they were so jealous of him, and he so dissatisfied with them, that he remained with three hundred men-at-arms with his father-in-law the Duke of Ferrara, for his wife was sister to the Duchess of Milan, and the Duke of Ferrara’s daughter. Signor John Bentivoglio (who was governor, and as it were Prince of Bologna,) was to have provided a hundred and fifty men-at-arms, besides the horse and foot which his two sons were to have brought with them, and his country was well situated for an attack on the Duke of Milan. The Florentines, who saw they were utterly undone, and were afraid they should be dispossessed of Pisa and the rest of their towns, unless they exerted themselves, and did something extraordinary in this critical juncture of affairs, agreed to assist us with eight hundred men-at-arms, and five thousand foot, and to maintain them at their own expense; and they had six months’ pay ready in bank. The Ursini and the Prefect of Rome[481] (who was brother to the Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vincula, so often mentioned before), who were in the king’s pay, would have brought a thousand men-at-arms, but you must know the retinue and equipage of their men-at-arms is not so great as ours; for they have no archers, but their pay is alike; for the pay of a man-at-arms (if he is well paid) is one hundred ducats a year, but if he be attended by archers it is double. These soldiers the king would have paid, but the Florentines were to have paid their own forces. The Duke of Ferrara, the Marquis of Mantua, and Signor Bentivoglio desired only their expenses; for they expected their reward out of the towns which they should take from the Duke of Milan, had he been suddenly invaded by the Duke of Orleans’ forces. And of those who were his confederates, none would have been able to avoid siding with the king against the Venetians; and for less than eighty thousand crowns the king could have kept all these Italians together a long time; and if the Duke of Milan had been conquered, the kingdom of Naples would have fallen of course.

The miscarriage of this important design proceeded merely from the Duke of Orleans’ inconstancy. He intended over-night to set out in the morning; he had sent all his equipage, baggage, and whatever else belonged to his person, before him; so that there was nothing to follow but himself. His army, consisting of eight hundred French men-at-arms and six thousand foot (among whom were four hundred Swiss), lay ready at Asti, and their pay in advance in their pockets; yet on a sudden he changed his mind, and made two several requests to the king, that the expedition might be once more debated before the council; and it was done twice. I was present on both occasions: the result was, _nemine contradicente_ (though there were always ten or twelve in council), that he should proceed on the expedition; because they had given their above-mentioned friends in Italy repeated assurances of his coming; and they had raised men, and been at great expense in expectation of him. But the Duke of Orleans (either by the advice of some other person, or through his own unwillingness to go, on account of the king’s illness, and his being the next heir to the crown,) plainly declared he would not undertake that enterprise upon any quarrel of his own; but as he was the king’s lieutenant, if his majesty pleased to command it, he would go with all his heart; and so the council broke up. The next day, and several days after, the Florentine envoys, and the rest of the ambassadors, pressed the king, that he would command the duke to go; but the king’s answer was, that he would never send him to make war against his inclinations. And thus was that enterprise quashed in a moment, to the king’s great displeasure, who had been at vast charges, and had great hopes of revenging himself on the Duke of Milan, considering his own alliances at that time, and what he might have had by Signor John James de Trivulce, who was lieutenant-general for the king; and that the Duke of Orleans was born, and had great interest and alliance in the duchy of Milan, where many persons would have supported him.

But though this design miscarried, another revived, nay two or three at a time, in Genoa, which is a place ever prone to revolutions. One was contrived by Signor Baptista di Campoforgoso[482], a great leader of faction in Genoa; but he was banished, and his party could do nothing; nor could the family of Doria, who were gentlemen, but the Campoforgosi were not. The Dorias are of the same party with the Campoforgosi, but cannot be Doges themselves, because they are gentlemen; for no gentleman is capable of being Doge by their laws. But this Baptista had been Doge not long before, but was supplanted by his uncle the Cardinal of Genoa, who put the government into the hands of the Duke of Milan, under whom the city was governed by the Adorni, who also are not gentlemen; yet they have been often Doges, and are supported by the house of the Spinoli, who are gentlemen. The nobility in Genoa make Doges, but cannot be made so themselves. This Signor Baptista expected his whole party (both in the city and country) would take arms in his favour, and that the king would obtain the sovereignty, but the government would fall into the hands of himself and his party; and they did not question but to drive out the rest.

The other design was set on foot by several persons in Savona, who addressed themselves to the Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vincula, assuring him they would deliver up the town, provided their liberties and privileges might be secured to them; for they were then under the jurisdiction of Genoa, and paid heavy duties. If he could have made himself master of this town, he would have reduced Genoa to great straits, considering Provence was our king’s own country, and Savoy at his command. Upon this news, the king sent to Signor John James di Trivulce to assist the said Baptista di Campoforgoso with such supplies as might carry him to the very walls of Genoa, to see whether his party would rise. On the other side he was pressed hard by the Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vincula, who also obtained a letter to Trivulce from the king, commanding him to furnish the Cardinal with men enough to conduct him to Savona; and he received the same message by word of mouth from the Lord of Sernon in Provence, who was the Cardinal’s friend, and a bold talker. The king also sent orders to Signor James di Trivulce to contrive matters so as to support both parties, and yet do nothing against the Duke of Milan, or contrary to the peace that had been made with him the year before; but these orders were downright contradictions.

And after this manner the affairs of great princes are managed, when they are not present themselves, or are too hasty in commanding letters and messengers to be despatched, without mature and requisite deliberation. In this case, if one considers what was required by Signor Baptista di Campoforgoso and the Cardinal, we shall find that it was impossible to supply them both at a time. For to approach the walls of Genoa without a considerable body of forces, was ridiculous and impracticable, by reason of the numbers and courage of the inhabitants; and to have supplied the Cardinal had been to have divided his own army into three bodies, for part must of necessity have remained with Signor John James; and, besides, the alarm was taken, and the Duke of Milan, the Venetians, Don Frederic, and the Pope, had all of them sent forces to Genoa and Savona, suspecting their intended revolt.

Besides these two, Signor John James Trivulce had a third design of his own, and that was, to march directly with all his forces against the Duke of Milan, and lay those other enterprises aside; and certainly if he had been permitted to pursue his own scheme, he would have performed some great action; for, under pretence that he could not otherwise protect such as were engaged in the designs upon Genoa and Savona, he posted himself upon the high road from Alessandria to Genoa (and indeed the Duke of Milan could send forces no other way to molest us), and possessed himself of two or three small towns, without any resistance, pretending that this was no violation of the peace with the duke, for he was forced to it of necessity; and that the king could not be said to have made war upon the duke by endeavouring to recover Genoa and Savona, because they held of the king, and had forfeited their allegiance. However, to satisfy the Cardinal, Signor John James di Trivulce sent part of his army to Savona; but he found the garrison reinforced and his designs defeated, and so he marched back. He sent other troops to Signor Baptista, to attempt something upon Genoa, and great matters were expected from thence; but before they had marched four leagues, both the French and Swiss who were in his company grew suspicious of him (though I think it was wrongfully), and it was well things happened so; for their number being very inconsiderable, they would have exposed themselves to great danger if their party in the town had not risen. Thus all these enterprises and designs miscarried, and the Duke of Milan became strong; but he had run great danger if Signor John James had not been countermanded. Our army marched back, our foot were disbanded, the small towns restored, and the war was concluded, but with little advantage to the king, considering what expense he had been at in military preparations.

CH. XXIII.—Of certain Differences that arose between Charles King of France, and Ferrand King of Castile; and the Ambassadors who were sent by both of them to accommodate the Affair.—1497.

From the beginning of 1496, when the king had already been four months on this side of the mountains, till the year 1498, our forces lay still, and did nothing in Italy: I was present all that while with his majesty, and privy to most of his affairs. He went from Lyons to Moulins, and from Moulins to Tours, spending his time in nothing but jousts and tournaments wherever he came, without ever thinking of other affairs. Those who were in greatest reputation with him, were in great dissension among themselves, and it could hardly be greater. Some (as the Cardinal and seneschal) were for carrying on the war in Italy, because it was for their profit and advantage; the admiral[483] on the other side (who before that expedition had been the king’s greatest favourite), opposed it in hopes to be restored to his former authority and to supplant his competitors; and in this posture things stood about a year and a half.

In the meantime our king sent ambassadors to the King and Queen of Castile, for his majesty desired to be at peace with them, because they were very powerful both at sea and land; and though at land they had done no extraordinary exploits, yet by sea they had given Kings Ferrand and Frederic very considerable assistance; for the island of Sicily is distant from Rheggio in Calabria only a league and a half. Some are of opinion it was formerly joined to the continent[484], and in process of time separated from it by the sea. The opening is now called the Straits of Messina. From this island of Sicily, which belonged to the King and Queen of Castile, large supplies were sent to Naples, as well in caravels from Spain, as in men from the island, out of which several men-at-arms passed the sea into Calabria, with a good number of Spanish Genetaires, and made war against those who appeared for our king. Their fleet was continually joined with the confederates, and when they were united, our king was too weak to meet them at sea; otherwise the King of Castile had not done him much mischief. It is true a good body of his horse made an inroad into Languedoc, plundered some few towns, and quartered up and down that country for three or four days; but that was all, and no considerable damage done. Monsieur de St. André[485] (of Bourbonnois) being then upon the frontier with some troops belonging to the Duke of Bourbon, who was governor of Languedoc, attempted to take Sausses[486], a small town in Roussillon, from whence the enemy made all his incursions; for the king had restored the said Roussillon to them about two years before, in which province there is the territory of Perpignan, and this Sausses is in the middle of it. The design was great, because the town was strongly garrisoned with a detachment of the King of Castile’s own guards, and within a league lay their whole army, which was more numerous than ours, and ready to engage us. However, Monsieur de St. André managed his affairs so prudently, and with so much secrecy, that in ten hours’ time he took the town (which I have seen) by assault[487] and in it there were thirty or forty Spanish gentlemen of good quality slain, and among them the son of the Archbishop of St. James’s[488], besides three or four hundred more. They did not suppose we should have been masters of it so soon, because they knew not the goodness of our cannon, which certainly are the finest and best in Europe.

No other but this action happened between these two kings, and this was much to the dishonour of the King of Castile, who had such a numerous army in the field. But when God Almighty is pleased to chastise a nation for its sins, He begins with such small and supportable afflictions; for the King and Queen of Castile were visited afterwards with greater afflictions, and so were we too. The King and Queen of Castile acted very imprudently, and were ill-advised to forswear themselves to our master, especially after he had been so friendly as to restore Roussillon, which had cost his father so much to fortify and defend, and which had been mortgaged to him for 300,000 crowns; all which was remitted to hinder him from disturbing our king in his intended conquest of Naples. Besides which, they renewed the ancient alliances with not only king and king, kingdom and kingdom, but the individual subjects on both sides were mutually bound; and they promised not to interrupt us in our conquest, nor to marry any of their daughters with the houses of either Naples, England, or Flanders; which offer came first from themselves, and was made by one Friar John de Mauleon, on the part of the Queen of Castile. Yet as soon as they saw the war begun, and the king at Rome, they sent their ambassadors to all the neighbouring states to make an alliance against our king; and particularly to Venice, where I was resident at that time; and there the league (which I have spoken of so much) was made between the Pope, the King of the Romans, the Signory of Venice, the Spaniards, and the Duke of Milan; and immediately they began to act offensively against our king, and to declare that their former obligation had become void, and they were no longer bound to observe it, especially that article about the marriage of their daughters (of whom they had four, and but one son), though they first made that offer of themselves, as you have already heard.

But to proceed in my history. After the wars in Italy were over, and the king had nothing left in the kingdom of Naples but Gaeta, which he lost afterwards,—after the rival pretensions to Roussillon were adjusted, and each prince was in possession of what was his own, they sent a gentleman to King Charles, and with him certain monks of Montferrat, it being the custom of Spain to manage all their negotiations by such people, either out of hypocrisy and pretence of religion, or to save expense; for, as I said before, the treaty about Roussillon was managed by Friar John de Mauleon. These ambassadors, at their first audience, besought the king that he would forget the injury that had been done him by the King and Queen of Castile (which king and queen are always mentioned together, because Castile came by her, and she had in that country the principal authority, and it was a marriage of more than ordinary honour). Then they began to propose a truce, in which their whole league was to be comprehended, and our king was to keep Gaeta in his possession, and what other places were then in his hands in the kingdom of Naples; that during the truce his majesty might victual them as he pleased; and that a time and place should be appointed, at which ambassadors from all the parties to the league (or as many as desired it) should meet to conclude a final peace; after which the King and Queen of Spain intended to pursue the conquest of the Moors, and, having finished that, to pass over from Granada into Africa against the King of Fez, whose kingdom reaches to the coast on the other side of that sea. However, some say they never designed to do this, but were resolved to be satisfied with the conquest of the kingdom of Granada, which indeed was a glorious action, and the fairest acquisition which had been gained, not only in our times, but by all their predecessors; and I wish for their own sakes they had rested there, and kept their promise to our king.

With these ambassadors of theirs our king sent back the Lord of Clerieux[489], in Dauphiny, and endeavoured to conclude either a separate peace or a truce with them, without comprehending any of the rest of the confederates; but if the king had accepted their overture, he had preserved Gaeta, which might have been sufficient for the recovery of the whole kingdom, considering what friends his majesty had in it. When the Lord of Clerieux returned, he brought new propositions, for Gaeta was lost before he got to Castile. These propositions were, that the ancient alliance between the two crowns should be renewed, and that by common consent and expense they should endeavour the conquest of Italy, and that both the kings should be personally present in that expedition.[490] But first they insisted that a general truce might be concluded, wherein the whole league should be comprehended, and a day and place appointed in Piedmont, to which each of them might send their ambassadors; for they were desirous to acquit themselves honourably towards their confederates. But all this overture, in my opinion, (and I have understood as much since), was but an artifice to gain time, and suffer King Ferrand and his successor King Frederic to breathe a little. However, they would have been contented to have had that kingdom to themselves, and their title was better than that of those who possessed it; but our king’s title (which was the house of Anjou’s) was better than either; yet, considering the nature of the country, and the people who inhabit it, I think he has best right to it that can keep possession of it, so strangely are they inclined to revolutions.

After this, the king sent Clerieux back again into Spain, and with him one Michel de Grammont, with certain new proposals. This Lord de Clerieux had some little affection for the house of Arragon, and hoped to have the marquisate of Cotron in Calabria, which the King of Spain obtained among the last conquests which he made in that province. Clerieux pretended it was his, for he is an honest man, but something too credulous, especially of such great persons. The second time he returned, he brought back with him another ambassador from them, and the Lord de Clerieux reported that the King and Queen of Castile would be contented to take Calabria (which is the part of Italy that lies next Sicily) for their whole interest in that kingdom, and that our king should have the rest; he offered likewise that the King of Castile should be present in person in this intended expedition, and contribute as much towards paying the army as our king; and, indeed, he was at that time master of four or five fortified towns in Calabria, and among the rest was Cotron, which is not only a strong, but a beautiful city. I was present when the ambassador made his report, and most were of opinion he had been imposed upon, and that it would be necessary to send another ambassador of greater sagacity, to search more narrowly into the affair. Upon which the Lord du Bouchage was joined with him in the embassy. He was a person of great wisdom and penetration in state affairs, and had enjoyed places of great trust and honour in the late king’s reign, and was still highly valued and esteemed by his son. The Spanish ambassador, who came along with the Lord de Clerieux, would never confirm what he had said; only he told us, that he believed Monsieur de Clerieux would not have made that report, if the King and Queen of Castile had not said it; which gave us the more suspicion it was a trick; and, besides, nobody could believe the King of Spain would go thither in person, or that he would, or indeed could, bear an equal share of the expense with our master.

As soon as the Lord du Bouchage, Monsieur de Clerieux, Michel de Grammont, and the rest of our ambassadors, were arrived at the court of the King and Queen of Castile, they ordered them to be lodged in apartments where none could converse with them, and appointed persons to have an eye over them, and they were admitted to three private audiences of the king and queen. When the Lord du Bouchage had acquainted them with what the Lord de Clerieux had reported to his master, and Michel de Grammont had confirmed it, they answered, that they might have said some such thing by way of discourse, but not otherwise, yet they would readily engage themselves in any peace that should be for our master’s honour and advantage. The Lord de Clerieux was very uneasy at their answer (and with reason), and justified to their faces, in the presence of the Lord du Bouchage, that they had made him this offer. However, the Lord du Bouchage and the other ambassadors concluded a truce for two months[491], without comprehending the league in it; but including the princes who had married their daughters, and the fathers of their sons-in-law (namely, the King of the Romans, and the King of England), for the Prince of Wales[492] was but very young at that time. The King and Queen of Castile had four daughters; the eldest was a widow, and married to the son of the King of Portugal[493], who died lately, having broken his neck in her sight as he was passing a career upon a jennet before her, three months after their marriage; and they had one daughter[494] unmarried.

As soon as the Lord du Bouchage was arrived, and had informed the king of his reception at the Spanish court, his majesty was sensible he had acted wisely in sending him, for now he was assured of what he but suspected before, and that was, the credulity of the Lord de Clerieux. The Lord du Bouchage told him, moreover, that all he could obtain was that truce, which, however, his majesty had liberty either to accept or reject. The king confirmed it, and therein he did wisely, for it broke up that confederacy which had given so much disturbance to his affairs, and which hitherto he had been unable to dissolve, though he had tried all possible means to do it. The Lord du Bouchage also acquainted his majesty, that they would send ambassadors to him with power to conclude a peace; and of this the King and Queen of Castile had assured him when he had his audience of leave. He told our king also, that at his coming away he left their only son, the Prince of Castile, very dangerously ill.

CH. XXIV.—A Digression concerning the Fortunes and Misfortunes which happened to the House of Castile in the Author’s Time.—1497.

The Lord du Bouchage, ten or twelve days after his return into France, received letters from a herald, whom he had left behind to wait on the ambassadors that were to come from thence. The letters were to this purpose, that he must not wonder at their deferring the embassy, because of the death of the Prince of Castile[495] (as they called him), to the unspeakable grief of the king and queen, but especially of the queen, who was more like to die than to live; and certainly I never heard of so solemn and so universal a mourning for any prince in Europe. I have since been informed by ambassadors, that all the tradesmen put themselves into black clothes, and shut up their shops for forty days together; the nobility and gentry covered their mules with black cloth down to their very knees, so that there was nothing of them to be seen but their eyes; and set up black banners upon all the gates of the cities. When the Lady Margaret (daughter to the King of the Romans[496], sister to the Archduke of Austria[497], and wife to the said Prince of Castile) was informed of the news of his death, she miscarried of a daughter (being six months gone with child), which was born dead. What a terrible blow must this have been to a family which had known nothing before but felicity and renown, and had a larger territory (I mean by succession) than any other prince in Christendom! And, besides the late acquisition of Granada, they had forced the greatest monarch in Europe out of Italy, and defeated his enterprise, which was looked upon to be such a mighty action even by the Pope[498] himself, that he would have taken away the title of “Most Christian” from the King of France, and conferred it on the King of Castile, to whom several briefs were addressed with that title superscribed; but, because some of the Cardinals opposed it, he gave him another title, which was, “The Most Catholic,” by which title he is called now, and I suppose he will be styled so for ever at Rome. What a sad and surprising turn of fortune must this accident have been! at a time when they had reduced their kingdom to obedience, regulated the laws, settled the administration of justice, and were so well and happy in their own persons, as if God and man had conspired to advance their power and honour above all the rest of the princes in Europe.

Nor was this their only affliction, for their eldest daughter (the dearest thing to them in the world after the death of her brother) was forced to leave them, having some few days before been married to Emanuel[499], the young King of Portugal. He was then indeed but Prince of Portugal; but the crown of Portugal fell to him by the death of the last King of Portugal, who had most barbarously caused the head of his father-in-law[500] to be cut off, and killed his wife’s brother[501] with his own hand (who was elder brother to the king that now reigns in Portugal), and kept this present king in perpetual fear, and killed his own brother before his wife’s face, as they were sitting at dinner, to make way for one of his bastards[502] to be king. After which cruelties he lived in continual fear and suspicion, and not long after his only son broke his neck by falling off his mule, as you have heard; and he was the first husband to the lady of whom I am now speaking, and who is Queen of Portugal at present, into which kingdom she has been twice married; and by report she is one of the wisest and most honourable persons in the world.