LIFE AND TIMES OF FRANCESCO SFORZA. * TILE life of Francesco

Sforza is selected by Mr. Pollard Urquhart to illustrate the condition of Italy in the fifteenth century. To render more intelligible the state of Italian politics at that time, and the circumstances which enabled a soldier of fortune to rise to the dignity of Duke of Milan, the author prefixes a summary sketch of the history of Italy from the overthrow of the Western Empire till the close of the thirteenth century, a review of the Italian system of warfare with notices of some of the leading con- dottierri, and a sketch of the life of Gian Attendolo, nicknamed Sforza, the father of Francesco.

This introductory matter is superior both in breadth and in- terest to the life and times of the second Sforza. The leading fea- tures of the history of Italy from the fifth to the fifteenth century are clearly perceived and distinctly presented. The account of the Italian mode of warfare is given with plain succinctness. The brief notices of the mercenary captains are sufficient, and the life

• Life and Times of Francesco Stoma, Duke of Milan. With a Preliminary Sketch of the History of Italy. By William Pollard Urquhart, Esq. In two volumes. Published by Blackwood and Sons.

of the first Sforza is an interesting sketch. The plain, frank, kindly character of the Italian peasant, which neither the high- class villany of his age could altogether overcome, nor the tempta- tions of a life of violence and licence corrupt, is well impressed ; and would seem to show' that the training of the peasant in Italy was better than that of the prince. The historical matter is not indeed very new, at least to the readers of Gibbon and Sismoncli, and the personal anecdotes are often well known ; but though there is little novelty or research, there is a clear, concise and in- forming outline of Italian history and of the traits of Italian so- osety, expressed in an easy and pleasant style.

The Life of Francesca Sforza is not so effective. This may arise from Mr. Urquhart having to quarry his own materials, as well as to select, fashion and build them up. Or it may be that he is too minute and detailed in the account of the times as well as the life of Sforza • noticing the resultless quarrels and bootless strifes of the Italian states of that age, yet not so fully as to impart cir- cumstances and life. Perhaps the hero himself is hardly enough to support an elaborate work. As a mercenary soldier, many have excelled him in exploits and adventures : in fact, where such in- glorious ends as smothering in mud or trampling to death formed

the chief risk of the soldier, there is little interest in the fluctua- tions of what Hume calls "a pompous tournament." Pure strategy, where an enemy is defeated without fighting, by intercepting his communications, cutting off his supplies, or being strongest upon a given point, have of course the interest arising from skill, though, as conducted by the Italians' it was more like the skill of a game of chess than of actual warfare. The Italian policy of that age was rather revolting than interesting: dissimula- tion and perfidy were the common means not of success but of ac- tion, and considered clever, not criminal. The life of a soldier necessarily wants that relief and instruction which may be im- parted to the biography of an eminent civilian. Policy of course falls to be considered in connexion with war; but all the other vo- cations of man—such as learning and literature, philosophy and the arts, religion and law, manufactures and commerce, each of which formed a marked feature of Italy in the middle ages—have little connexion with the life of a military adventurer, and are properly ' passed over by Mr. Urquhart. In times of convulsion or national corruption, sovereign power has often been obtained by men who had no legal title to it, through foreign conquest or some real or assumed election; but in either ease a national power was the foundation of their greatness. The barbarian chieftains who carved temporary or permanent principalities out of the Roman dominions in the decline of the empire, led their own peoples. So it was with the Mongols in India and the Turks, as well as with the various attempts of the Normans. The men who attained the Roman purple often gained it by a victory over an opponent and an army which the consti- tuted authorities had no means of resisting; but whatever the new Emperor's race might be, he claimed to be a Roman, and to succeed by the will of Romans. Cromwell was an Englishman heading an army and a large party of Englishmen. Napoleon, though Italian by blood and Corsican by birth, professed to be a Frenchman; he achieved his victories by French armies, and was raised to power with the national consent. The contest of rival claimants for a throne,: such as those of York and Lancaster, take not only a national but a legal form. It was the peculiarity of Francesco Sforza, that he was merely the leader of a mercenary army, which had no national character at all, and which could hardly be called his' since a portion of it was composed of bands under their own leaders. His claim to the Duchy of Milan was of the slenderest kind. He had married the natural daughter of the last Duke, the last of the Viscontis ; but Francesco Sforza him- self was a natural son ; a legitimate heir of the Visconti existed in the female line ; no will of the late Duke could be established : indeed, it seems probable that the selfish and suspicious old man died with a celebrated modern sentiment on his lips—" After me the deluge," uttered not self-huggingly but maliciously ; while the Milanese ihemselves immediately on the death of Visconti, had recurred to their old themselves, and, established a republic. Yet in spite of these obstacles, with no better claim than his wife's relationship to the last Duke and his own military means and reputation, Sforza eventually succeeded to the dukedom. His mode of accomplish- ing his end was considered by Italians as the triumph of policy. Venice and Milan were at war ; Sforza entered into the service of the Milanese, maintained his army with their money, and carried on the war for his own purposes, by capturing towns where a party was willing to submit to him, or which would consolidate the power of Milan should he come to be master of it. At any time, such conduct might have given rise to an attempt at counterworking. In Italy during the fifteenth cen- tury, it was certain to produce a series of treacheries greater than those of Sforza ; because his motives could only be sus- pected, not proved. The discovery of treachery on the part of the Milanese furnished Sforza with an excuse to join the Venetians ; a part of the agreement being that he should become Duke. The wily republic, however, had no wish to see that accomplished. They pre- ferred to have the Milanese shorn of their power for their own aggrandizement, rather than see the first soldier and one of the first politicians of the day at the head of a rival state. When Sforza had reduced the Milanese to extremities, the Venetians made peace ; offering him a disjointed principality out of what he had conquered, and on his refusal joining the Milanese: but it was too late. The military abilities of Sforza baffled the Venetian forces, while he still out off the supplies of the city. At last, hun.

ger induced the citizens to listen to the partisans of Sforza ; Milan capitulated, and received for its Duke the illegitimate son of an Italian peasant ; though, like most fortunes acquired by fraud and violence, the career of the family was unfortunate, and its duration brief.

"If the new Duke of Milan, says M. Sismoncli, could, at this very mo- ment, when he had obtained the prize which had been the great object of his ambition, have foreseen the future destiny of the family whom he had raised to the throne, his joy would have been turned into sorrow. In the words of a Milanese historian of the sixteenth century, his crown was not destined to descend to a sixth heir, and the five successions through which it did pass were accompanied with many tragic events in his family. His son Galeazzo, as a punishment for his crimes and his lust, was killed by his at- tendants, in the presence of the people, in front of the altar, and in the midst of the celebration of sacred rites; after which, the whole city was deluged with the blood of the conspirators. Gian Galeazzo, who came after- wards, was poisoned bLLudovico the Moor, and was the victim of the crimes of his uncle. He in his turn, after having been made prisoner by the French, died of grief during his captivity. The fate of one of his chil- dren was like to his own; and the other, after having passed a long time in banishment and misery, reistablished his children on his shattered throne, and afterwards saw the termination of both his family and his kingdom. "Such was the value of the prize for which Sforza had so long, so earnestly, it may be thought so unscrupulously striven ; such, too, is the value of many things, for the attainment of which mortals still rise up early, go to bed late, and eat the bread of carefulness."

The number of republics and principalities into which Italy in the middle ages was divided renders the narrative of her history, except that of Venice and the Popedom, tedious, and not very in- telligible without more attention than common readers will be- stow. The most effective mode of handling it would be by epochs, or the results of occurrences rather than occurrences themselves ; while her social state might be illustrated by the career and con- duct of her prominent persons. Two great lessons, however, may be learned from her story, let it be treated how it may,—the effects of wealth in producing luxury and undermining the spirit of a nation; the sure effects of a commercial and unwarlike spirit in leading to national destruction. The evil consequence of wealth and luxury were dwelt upon by ancient writers with a strength and pertinacity which seemed exaggerated and absurd to the philo- sophers and economists of the last and indeed of the present cen- ttFy ; for they had not the living facts of antiquity present to their mind's eye, and some of them could not recognize the signs of their own times. Yet there is no _profounder political truth than that contained in the classical declamations. Three or four centuries of plunder, peace, and fiscal extortion, rendered Rome feeble and dis- jointed, first a prey to the strongest adventurer, and then to any powerful invader. The profits of a commerce which embraced in actual monopoly nearly the whole manufactures and trade of Eu- rope enriched and corrupted the Italians in even less time. The martial spirit which carried the Genoese and Venetians to Con- stantinople and the East, and prompted the inland cities to contend successfully with the Emperor of Germany, existed no longer. The Italians never got so far in dreams and declamations as our Peace people ; but those wars which they knew could not be avoided they delegated to hired mercenaries, and their nationality perished. A profounder and more picturesque view of the condottieri and their wars might be presented than Mr. Urquhart has compiled; but the sketch is not unfrequently informing and interesting. Take as an instance, the following description of their armour and arms.

"The arms and equipments of these companies of adventurers were such as would naturally be selected by men who washed to reap as many of the advantages, and to encounter as few of the perils of war as possible. When their nature and the circumstances under which they fought are duly con- sidered, it will not be matter of surprise that, 'for once in the history of mankind, the art of defence had outstripped that of destruction.' In gene- ral, two thirds of an army consisted of cavalry. The plate armour worn by the soldiers afforded a tolerably secure defence against the pointed swords and lances, the weapons then most in use. Intent as all were upon enriching themselves, each combatant was more desirous to unhorse and capture than to slay his antagonist. A handsome ransom was generally paid for the offi- cers who had been taken prisoners; but the common soldiers, who had no- thing to give, were for the most part set at liberty, after they had been stripped of their armour. So eager were they upon the acquisition of booty, that many an incipient victory was changed into a defeat in consequence of the troops, the instant they had gained an advantage, dispersing in quest of spoil, and then being set upon by their rallied opponents. The infantry ap- pear to have been used not so much in regular action as in mountain war- fire, and in the attacking and defending of fortresses. As the country so abounded with these, that, in the words of Muratori, one beheld, as it were, a wood of them in many places, no small part of each campaign was spent in the manner last mentioned. Not only were stone fortresses erected in im- portant or naturally strong positions, but wooden towers were also carried about, and placed in situations whence their occupants might prevent or re- tard the advance of an enemy. Cross-bows and missiles of all sorts were made use of by those who were within, as well as by those who attacked these towers; but though these missiles might compel an assailant or defender to relinquish hi position, and though they might produce much confusion among a compact body of men, they did not often inflict fatal or dangerous wounds.

"We have no well-authenticated account of gunpowder having been used in Italian warfare till the battle of Chiozza, in 1378. The Venetians on that occasion brought into the field two pieces of artillery, denominated bons- bardi ; but the records which we have of the engagement lead us to think that they were merely used in a clumsy attempt to blow stones into the air, under the desperete expectation that they might fall on the heads of their adversaries. We afterwards read frequently of fortifications having been blown up by powder, and of these bombards having been brought into the field on divers occasions. They were, however, in all probability, nothing more than a rude species of mortar; and though they might have been often effective in compelling engineers to desist from their operations, and in an- noying those who might have been in otherwise impregnable positions, it is not likely that they were ever used with effect, from any distance at least, against a body of men in motion. Indeed, it is probable that the time re- quired to load them was so long as to render any continuous fire out of the question. Accordingly, they seem to have been but of little service in regular

engagements. It is questionable even if they did much damage to masonry till the year 1447, when the Milanese general astonished his contemporaries by the use he made of them in the capture of a city, said at that time to be the beat fortified in Italy. And the success with which he adopted the some- what hazardous experiment of firing them over the heads of his soldiers, who were then in the trenches beneath, shows that the science of gunnery must have made some little progress during the sixty-seven years that had elapsed since its introduction into Italy. About two years after that, the citizens of Milan caused some panic among the ranks of their opponents by bringing into battle a species of gun called fuoili, probably somewhat resembling a clumsy sort of musket ; but the bullets fired therefrom do not appear to have made any im- pression on the armour of the regular troops."

The peasant founder of the house of Sforza seems to have had a manliness and simplicity which his son Francesco wanted, and. which in fact his times and training as a noble prevented him from possessing. Sforza Attendolo was not, however, devoid of the vices of the Italian and the mercenary soldier. His frequent change of service exposed him to reproach, and. in addition to lampoons, gave rise to a smart remark from the Queen of Naples, whose commander in chief he had often been.

" Braccio, having performed his part, returned to Perugia, to set the af- fairs of his kingdom in order ; and Sforza proceeded to make his peace with her majesty. She had accepted the mediation of Bmecio, and consented to restore Stoma to the office he had formerly held ; but on going through the ceremony of presenting him with the baton of constable, she was unable to avoid making a joke at his expense. Some difference having arisen among her ministers about the form of the inaugural oath, she exclaimed, Let Sforza himself decide • he has made so many oaths to myself and to my ene- mies, that nobody knows better than he in what manner people bind them- selves by engagements and afterwards loose themselves from the same.'"

The services of the elder Sforza to various potentates had pro- cured him several fiefs, or principalities if the owner was strong enough to make them so. He also looked to marriage to"advance Francesco; and being disappointed in his snit for a connexion of the Queen, obtained the hand of a lady who had. several cities in Calabria. His advice to his son on his departure is a curious med- ley of the large and little.

' The advice which &orals Atteudolo gave to his son, when about to start to take possession of his bride, is worthy of notice, as coming from a man who certainly was not dishonest for the period in which he lived, and knew well how to push his fortune in the world; and it must be allowed that, if it was not such as to merit the entire approbation of a strict moralist of the present day, it was at least in many degrees less iniquitous than much of that which one century later Machiavelli gave to those who were desirous of reigning in Italy. After having referred to his past life and expressed some general wishes for his future welfare, he proceeded to say, 'Above all things, I wish you to be assiduous in your observance of justice to everybody : when hereafter you come to rule over people, it will not only recommend you to the favour of Heaven, but it will make you especially popular among men. And though you should-observe it in• all things, be especially careful not to irritate any of your subjects by the commission of adultery : that is an in- jury which both the wrath of God and the bitter anger of men punish with the greatest severity.' He then recommended him never to excite the angry passions of any of his generals by a blow ; but in case he should so far forget himself as to do ao, to have the person whom he so offended removed from access to his person ; and concluded by advising him never to get on a horse that had a hard month, or that was not sure of filet."

It is singular that he lost his life through his horse losing his footing, though not in the manner against which he warned his son. To turn an enemy's position, he determined to force a pas- sage across the river Pescara, in spite of the obstructions his great opponent, Breccia, had opposed to him. "The 4th of .Tanuary 1424 was chosen by Sforza for his hazardous under- taking. There are many reports extant of omens of ill-lack having appeared to him before the commencement of this day, which was destined to termi- nate his career. Some of these may possibly have been invented after the tragic event had taken place; trivial incidents, which under ordinary cir- cumstances would have been forgotten, may have been recorded and exagge- rated, or may have made an impression upon those of his followers who had leas heart for the enterprise than himself; and it is not improbable that visions may have been conjured up by the imagination of Stores himself, in- tent upon his enterprise, and fully aware of its danoser. After having, as was his custom, performed the ceremony of mass and taken the sacrament before daybreak, he is said to have related, that while he lay awake at night there appeared to him the head of a man of gigantic stature, and that he afterwards had a vision of himself struggling in the current and vainly im- ploring assistance. Before starting, he was reminded of the prediction of an astrologer, that he should above all things beware of crossing a river on a Monday., and implored by his companions in arms not to despise such evi- dent indications of the will of the Almighty. Nor did the circumstance uf the horse of one of the standard-bearers having fallen fail to produce its due effect on the minds of the superstitious and timid among his followers. "When he arrived at the river, he found that the elements as well as his enemy had rendered the passage more than usually difficult, as, besides the preparations before mentioned made by Breed°, a strong East wind had set in, and caused a sort of conflict between the current of the river and the waves of the sea ; but he, as little daunted by the reality as he had been by the visions of danger, gave orders to the foremost men in his army to cross the river by the shallows adjoining the beach. Five of the best-mounted men in the army dashed into the stream, trusting to the strength of their heavy armour to defend them against the javelins and cross-bows of the enemy.: after them came young Francesco Sforza, followed by his father. Notwithstanding the opposition of the enemy, aided by the wind, the waves, and the sea, they all effected a safe landing on the Northern bank of the Pescam ; and their success emboldened others to follow their example. Al- ready had fortune begun to declare in favour of the brave. Forty of the best men in the camp had arrived in safety after the Sforzas: The bowmen, who had been placed behind the palisades, having fled in terror to the city, brought word to the garrison of Bmccio that they had been unable to defend the passage of the river, and entreated them to attack the enemy before they had landed in considerable numbers. Already a party had come from the city for that purpose ; but they were unable to stand the onset of a small number of heavily-armed knights, headed by Francesco Sforza, and a great number of them were made prisoners before they could reach the walls of the city. In the moment of his exultation, the elder Sforza beckoned to his followers on the Southern bank to lose no time in crossing the river to assist in following up their success ; and, impatient of delay, he dashed into the water, determined to return again to the other side and lead the way for the timid or the doubtful. But on this occasion, the wind, which is said to rule the waves of the Adriatic, showed itself a more formidable enemy than the bowmen of Braccio. The waves which it continued to raise met the flow of the river with redoubled violence ; the heavy armour of the warrior and the increased conflict of the waters were too much for the horse, which had al- ready had some hours of exercise. Sforza, while in the middle of the pas- sage, stooped forward to extend his hand to one of his soldiers, who, being dismounted, seemed to be in danger of being carried off by the current ; the animal lost his balance, slipped behind, and precipitated his steel-clad rider into the dangerous eddy. The horse, freed from his burden, swam to the bank. The warrior, was unable to struggle with the billows : twice were his steel-elad hands seen raised above the waters, clasped together, as if he were imploring assistance, though any words that he may have attempted to utter

were choked by the rage of the elements ; after which, he k to rise no more, and his body was never afterwards found."