Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/819

Rh MEDICI 787 Giovanni, the head of the family, resided in Home, playing the patron to a circle of literati, artists, and friends, seeking to increase his popularity, and calmly waiting for better days. The battle of Ravenna wrought the downfall of the fortunes of France in Italy, and led to the rise of those of Spain, whose troops entered Florence to destroy the republic and reinstate the Medici. Pietro had now been dead for some time, leaving a young son, Lorenzo (1492- 1519), who was afterwards duke of Urbino. The following Cardinal year (1513) Cardinal Giovanni was elected pope, and Giovanni assumed the name of Leo X. He accordingly removed to / T &quot;V O if Giuliano. T -=&amp;gt;,. ,, , . Lorenzo. Lorenzo in Florence, and accompanied by his cousin Giulio, who was a natural son of the Giuliano murdered in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, and was soon destined to be a cardinal and ultimately a pope. Meanwhile his kinsmen in Florence continued to govern that city by means of a &quot; balia,&quot; although preserving an empty show of republican institutions. And thus, being masters of the whole of central Italy, the Medici enjoyed great authority throughout the country, and their ambition plumed itself for still higher nights. This was the moment when Niccolo Machiavelli, in his treatise The Prince, counselled them to accomplish the unity of Italy by arming the whole country, and expelling its foregin invaders. Leo X., who is only indirectly connected with the history of Florence, gave his name to the age in which he lived in consequence of his magnificent patronage of art and letters in Rome. But he was merely a clever amateur, and had not the literary gifts of his father Lorenzo. He surrounded himself with versifiers and inferior writers, who enlivened his board and accompanied him wherever he went. He liked to lead a gay and untroubled life, was fond of theatrical performances, satires, and other intellectual diversions. His patronage of the fine arts, his genuine affection for Raphael, and the numerous works he caused to be executed by him and other artists, have served to- confer an exaggerated glory on his name. He failed to comprehend the significance of the great religious movement already stirring in Germany, and had not the remotest idea of the grave importance of the Reformation, which indeed he unconsciously promoted by his reckless and shameless sale of indulgences. The whole policy of Pope Leo X. consisted in oscillating between France and Spain, in always playing fast and loose, and deceiving both powers in turn. Yet the evil results of this contemptible policy never seemed to disturb his mind. He finally joined the side of the emperor Charles V., and in 1521, at the time of the defeat of the French by the Spanish troops on the river Adda, he ceased to breathe at his favourite villa of Magliana. Giuliano dei Medici had died during Leo s reign, in 1516, without having ever done anything worthy of record. He was the husband of Philiberta of Savoy, was duke of Nemours, and left a natural son, Ippolito dei Medici (1511-1535), who afterwards became a cardinal. Lorenzo, being of more ambitious temper, was by no means content to remain at the head of the Florence Government hampered by many restrictions imposed by republican institutions, and subject to the incessant control of the pope. In his eagerness to aggrandize his kinsmen, the latter had further decided to give Lorenzo the duchy of Urbino, and formally invested him in its rights, after expelling on false pretences its legitimate lord, Francesco Maria della Rovere. This prince, however, soon returned to Urbino, where he was joyously welcomed by his subjects, and Lorenzo regained possession only by a war of several months, in which he was wounded. In 1519 he also died, worn out by disease and excess. By his marriage with Madeleine de la Tour d Auvergne, he had &quot;one daughter, Caterina dei Medici (1519-89), married in 1533 to Henry, duke of Orleans, afterwards king of France. She played a long and sinister part in the history of that country. Lorenzo also left a natural son named Alessandro, inheriting the frizzled hair and projecting lips of the negro or mulatto slave who had given him birth. His miserable death will be presently related. Thus the only three surviving representatives of the chief branch of the Medici, Cardinal Giulio, Ippolito, and Alessandro were all of illegitimate birth, and left no legitimate heirs. Cardinal Giulio, who had laboured successfully for the Cardinal reinstatement of his family in Florence in 1512, had been Giulio long attached to the person of Leo X. as his trusted (9 lenicnt factotum and companion. He had been generally regarded as the mentor of the pope, who had no liking for hard work. But in fact, his frivolity notwithstanding, Leo X. always followed his own inclinations. He had much aptitude for command, and pursued his shuffling policy without any mental anxiety. Giulio, on the contrary, shrank from all responsibility, muddled his brains in weighing the reasons for and against every possible decision, and was therefore a better tool of government in others hands than he was fit to govern on his own account. When Giuliano and Lorenzo died, the pope appointed the cardinal to the government of Florence. In that post, restricted within the limits imposed by republican institutions, and acting under the continual direction of Rome, he performed his duties fairly well. He caressed the citizens with hopes of extended liberties, which, although never destined to be fulfilled, long served to keep men s minds in a pleasant flutter of expectation ; and when the more impatient spirits attempted to raise a rebellion he speedily quenched it in blood. When, after the death of Leo X. and the very brief pontificate of Adrian VI., he was elected pope (1523) under the name of Clement VII., he entrusted the govern ment of Florence to Cardinal Silvio Passerini conjointly with Alessandro and Ippolito, who were still too young to do much on their own account. The pontificate of Leo X. had been a time of felicity to himself if of disaster to Italy and the church. The reign of Clement, on the contrary, was fatal to himself as well, a result chiefly due to his hesitating temper and continual uncertainty of mind. His policy, like that of Leo X., consisted in* perpetual oscillation between France and Spain. By his endeavours to trick all the world, he frequently ended in being tricked himself. In 1525 he was the ally of the French, who then suffered a terrible defeat at Pavia, where their king Francis I. was taken prisoner. The armies of Charles V. triumphantly ad vanced, without Clement being able to oppose any effectual resistance. Both Rome and Florence were threatened with a fearful catastrophe. Thus far we have had no occasion to speak of the Giovanni younger branch of the Medici, descended from Lorenzo, (lelle brother to Cosimo the Elder. Always in obscurity, and e always held in check by the elder line, it now seemed to acquire new life, and first entered the arena of history when the other was on the point of extinction. In fact the most valiant captain of the papal forces was Giovanni dei Medici, afterwards known by the name of Giovanni delle Bande Nere. His father was Giovanni, son of Pier Francesco, who was the son of Lorenzo, the brother of Cosimo dei Medici. History has little to tell of the elder Giovanni ; but his wife Caterina Sforza, of whom he was the third husband, was a woman of more than masculine vigour. Giovanni dei Medici married her in 1497, but died in 1498, leaving her with one son who was christened Lodovico, but afterwards took his father s name of Giovanni (1498-1526). Trained to arms from his earliest years, this youth inherited all the energy of his Bother, whose Sforza blood seemed to infuse new life into the
 * . ,. * Home, leaving his brother Giuliano with his nephew