on the 14th of September, peace was restored, leaving matters much on their former footing. Riposati assures us that during this war the French monarch would gladly have secured the services of Guidobaldo, now free from his engagements to the Pontiff, but that Duke Cosimo of Florence interested himself to procure for him an engagement from Spain. This was at length arranged, in the spring of 1558, previously to which Charles V. appears to have bestowed on him the Golden Fleece, the highest compliment at his disposal.*

The terms upon which the Duke took service under Philip II. are thus stated in a letter of Bernardo Tasso. The King guaranteed him protection for his territories against all hazards, and bound himself to supply and maintain for him a body-guard of at least two hundred infantry, besides a company of a hundred men-at-arms, and another of two hundred light horse. He further engaged to pay him monthly 1000 golden scudi for his appointments as captain-general, besides maintaining for him four colonels and twenty captains. In return, the Duke took an oath to serve his Majesty faithfully against all potentates, the pontiffs alone excepted. The political results of this arrangement were strongly and painfully felt by Bernardo, who regarded it as establishing the tranquillity of Naples, the security of Tuscany, and, in a word, the Spanish domination in Italy. Inclined to the French interests (for there was no longer an Italian party in existence), he would have gladly seen the sovereign of a highland population, whose warlike sinews were not yet quite relaxed, preserve his neutrality, or rather, like his father, attach himself to the republic of Venice, which still possessed much external power and internal independence. Indeed, he laments the short-sighted policy of the Signory, in omitting this opportunity of securing, as an available check upon Spanish influence, an able confederate, and corn-growing neighbour; a

* Some authorities represent him as receiving this Order eleven years later from Charles V., but that Emperor died in this very year. He is said to have had knighthood from the Pope in 1561.

blunder which was the more unaccountable, as, in the opinion of Mocenigo, who was Venetian envoy at Urbino many years later, the prepossessions of Guidobaldo were even then in favour of a connection which had hereditary claims upon his preference. On the first days of May the convention was published at Pesaro, after solemn thanksgiving to the Almighty for a dispensation so acceptable to the Duke. The importance to Spain of this condotta may be understood from a fact mentioned by Riposati, that Gubbio alone sent forth, between 1530 and 1570, three captains-general, two lieutenants-general, six colonels, and sixtyfive captains of note. Mocenigo says, there were in 1570 twelve thousand soldiers in the duchy, ready at call.

Our notices of Guidobaldo become ever more barren. In 1565 the armament of Sultan Solyman against Malta spread consternation throughout Western Europe, and, by desire of Philip II., the Duke of Urbino sent four or five thousand troops to aid in the defence of the knights. Prince Francesco Maria asked leave to accompany the expedition, but his father, considering his time better bestowed in visiting courts, sent him in this year to Madrid, with commission to recover a long arrear of his own military allowances. In this he was successful, but the sum scarcely sufficed to clear the expenses of his jour ney. Particulars of this visit, and of his marriage in 1571, will be told from his own pen in next chapter. But there was no lukewarmness on his father's part on the question of the Cross against the Crescent. After the Prince returned from the naval action off Lepanto, which will also be narrated from his Autobiography, Guidobaldo prepared a Discourse on the propriety of a general war against the Turks, the means of conducting the proposed campaign with due regard to the security of Italy,

* From an account of this engagement preserved among the Oliveriana MSS., and slightly differing from that by Bernardo Tasso (ii. letter 166.), we learn that the pay of officers was from 15 to 40 scudi a month, that of cavalry privates 5, and of infantry 3 scudi. It appears to have been worth to Guidobaldo in all about 35,000 scudi a-year, but to have been irregularly received.

the preparation of adequate munitions, and the best plan for carrying the seat of war into the enemy's country. It is unnecessary to dwell upon a matter now so completely gone by: the paper emanates from a mind capable of enlarged views, and fully conversant with the belligerent resources and general policy of his age, as well as experienced in military operations.*

The Relazioni of the Venetian envoys supply us with some notices of Urbino about this time, and prove that the Duke's expenses were very great, partly from frequent calls upon his hospitality by visiters of distinction, but still more from his maintaining separate and costly establishments for himself, the Duchess, the Prince, and the Princess.† Mocenigo estimates his income from imposts, monopolies, and allodial domains, at 100,000 scudi; adding that, “should he think proper to burden his people, this sum might unquestionably be greatly augmented, but, choosing to follow the custom of his predecessors, in making it his chief object to preserve the affection of his subjects, he is content to leave matters as they are, and live in straits for money." He also tells us that, though poor in revenues, he was master of his people's affections, who on an exigency would place life and substance at his disposal. The accuracy of these impressions is in some degree impugned by what we are now about to relate.

The most remarkable incident in Guidobaldo's reign was an outbreak of the citizens of Urbino, dignified in its municipal history by the name of a rebellion, which acquires a factitious importance as the only symptom of discontent that troubled

* Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 2510. f. 201.

†That of Mocenigo, 1570, is printed by Vieussieux, second series, vol. ii. p. 97., and in the Tesoro Politico, ii. 169.; that of Zen or Zane, 1574, in the same volume of Vieussieux, p. 315.

Of several statements as to the ducal revenue and expenditure which I have seen, none is distinct or satisfactory. The most detailed is in a MS. in the public library at Siena, K. iii. No. 58. p. 240., but the sums have been inextricably blundered by the transcriber. See Appendix, No. VIII.

the peace of the duchy, from the death of Oddantonio in 1443, to the extinction of its independence in 1631. We shall condense its incidents from the cotemporary narrative of GianFrancesco Cartolari, who designated himself agent of the Duke, and who, notwithstanding his official position, writes with apparent frankness and impartiality.*

In August 1572, the Duke intimated to the council of Urbino that he had received authority from Gregory XIII. to impose a tax of one quatrino per lb. on butchers' meat, and of two bolognini upon every staro of grain and soma of winet; and in October he made proclamation throughout the duchy of these new imposts. It being rumoured that the envoys of Gubbio had obtained for that community a suspension of the obnoxious duties, discontent began to prevail, and on the 26th of December one Zibetto, a cobbler, in an inflammatory harangue, at a public assembly dignified with the name of general council, declared that these were exactions under which the poor could not exist. On his proposal, forty delegates were chosen from the nobility, and sworn to represent the matter to the Duke in person. They repaired to Pesaro, and, on the 29th, had an audience to present the memorial agreed to by the council, which Guidobaldo received, and desired them to go home, promising that an answer would be transmitted when he had considered their statement. They, however, stayed a week, vainly looking for his reply, during which the council met daily at Urbino, and at length they were recalled by an express from the Gonfaloniere. Meanwhile a vice-duke had been sent thither, who, on the 1st of January 1573, published a suspension of the new imposts throughout the whole state. This concession, however, did not satisfy the discontented, who, in another general council, accredited two envoys to Prince Francesco Maria, begging

* Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3142. f. 165., and Oliveriana MSS., No. 390. p. 63. The staro or stajo corresponded to a bushel; the amount of a soma is doubtful. A quatrino is of a bajoccho, that is, of a halfpenny in present value. A bolognino was about 7 farthings. See Vol. II. p. 259.

his intervention to procure an answer to their memorial. Having failed in this object, and finding that troops were being secretly organised to garrison their city, the people of Urbino rushed to arms, closed the gates, and, having mustered above a thousand men, began to strengthen the defences and lay in stores. The Vice-duke being thereupon recalled, the general council assembled daily in such numbers, that adjournments to one of the largest churches were found necessary, and the inhabitants, setting aside private rivalries, co-operated with one mind for the public safety, mounting guard, and making every exertion to render their city tenable. The impossibility of doing so against the Duke's military levies being however quickly apparent even to the insurgents, an embassy of six was despatched to Rome to beseech the Pope's mediation. Nor did the reaction stop there; a general cry rose for the Prince, or his brother the Cardinal, the opportune arrival of either of whom would have ended the emeute. On the 29th, however, the Duchess came with a small suite, and was received with cries of "Long life to the Duke, but death to the gabelle!" The efforts of the magistracy and popular leaders to make their peace were unavailing, in consequence of their having sent representations to the Pontiff, and, on the 3rd of February, the Duchess departed without effecting any arrangement, to the infinite annoyance of all parties. The envoys could get no other reply from his Holiness but that they must go home and make submission, and they were followed by a brief from him, enjoining them to lay down arms and seek his Excellency's unconditional pardon. As soon as this had been publicly read by the Gonfaloniere, the people piled their arms in the piazza, and the peasantry dispersed to their country homes.

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