Chapter VII

The Florentines were indeed in a peculiarly evil case; for Charles, who was their ally, found himself powerless to procure them the restitution of Pisa; and the Italian cities were resolved that, at no risk, must Pisa pass to the ally of Charles. That post, in the hands of the friends of France, would mean not merely a door always open from Marseilles into Tuscany, but a continual supply of help to the French garrisons in Naples. It was certain that Pisa must be kept, yet Pisa was too weak to stand alone; plot and counter-plot darkened the decision as to which great State the port of Pisa should belong.

From the 16th of September to the 14th of December, Captain Fracassa, the Duke of Milan’s captain, held the town, dogged by the jealous surveillance of a Venetian commissary, while Entragues and his Frenchmen shut themselves inside the citadel. A few months later the Sienese, Lucchese, and Genoese, united in a secret league with Pisa against the Florentines. Milan and Venice wove a ceaseless web of intrigue around the place. And it is quite possible that by persisting in the citadel, Entragues may have been animated by a lofty and heroic disobedience, hoping by his presence to maintain Pisa in fidelity to France, and to prevent it from strengthening the hands of the deadly enemies of his country.

Be this as it may, on the 1st of January, Entragues, having some days ago assisted at the expulsion of Fracassa, placed the citadel in the hands of the Pisan Signory. Great was the joy. Before the falling of the night, the hated fortress, built by the Florentines to dominate the town, was a shapeless heap of ruins. New money was struck, bearing the head of Charles VIII.; and salvo on salvo of artillery rang right across the plain to the very walls of Florence, announcing with a threat the dawn of the New Year, which had begun with liberty in Pisa.

Entragues himself, rich in the price of the gems of Pisan beauty, retired for a month or two to Lucca, to conclude his traffic on the fortresses. Pietra Santa he sold to Lucca, Sarzana to Genoa. He did a good turn to Pisa, distributing them, for a round sum, among her allies. But if he hoped that Pisa would maintain her independence by the protection of these humbler friends he must easily have been deceived: it was no later than the 26th of January when Messer Gianbernardin del Agnolo was sent to Venice with a humble message, entreating the august protection of that city for the young Republic. It was Venice, rather than Milan, to whom the Pisans turned—Venice preponderate now in the Peninsula, sheltering in secret Pisa and Taranto under her wide-reaching ægis. During thirteen years from this date the shifting fortunes, the greeds and jealousies of the great Italian cities, fostered an artificial liberty in Pisa. Thrown like a ball from Milan to Venice, Venice to Maximilian, Max again to Venice, and thence to Cæsar Borgia, the unhappy Republic described the whole circle of desperate hope, agonized courage, misery, poverty, cunning, and betrayal. But with the anguish of her heroic vicissitudes we have, at this moment, no concern. The conduct of Entragues is our affair.

From that New Year’s Day all hope was over for the French in Naples. Gaeta, Taranto, Atella, Ostia fell; Montpensier died of heartbreak, the troops of fever; the great Guelf kingdom, the vision of so many centuries, disappeared like fairy gold as soon as the French had grasped it.

In France, the Count of Ligny, Entragues’ patron, was banished from the Court in disgrace. “He is gone to his estates in Picardy,” wrote Antonio Vincivera, “like a desperate creature. The King has disgraced him because of the affair of Pisa.” Thus Entragues, in the most effectual manner, had ruined his master’s chances: and though in time Ligny was pardoned by the King, it was not in the lifetime of his bride. In February, 1498, the daughter of the Mages expired, far from the arms of Ligny, in her Nunnery at Naples.

But if the action of Entragues proved unfortunate to his friends, it had a more deadly consequence to his enemies in Florence. The party of Savonarola never recovered that failure of the French to give back Pisa. For some time, amid famine, pestilence, and ruin, they kept a weakening hold upon the city: “And still they stand in hope of the things above,” mocks Maron Sanuto, in the spring of 1497, “and still they expect the coming of the King.” A year later, in the May of 1498, Savonarola expiated that delusion by the flaming penance of the stake. “Questa è la fine dei cattivi!” ejaculates the Venetian Secretary.

Of all the actors in this complicated drama, the one person who suffered not at all was that dishonoured liberator, Entragues himself. He went back to live in Pisa where he seems to have displayed an eminent and almost official dignity. Twice in moments of difficulty it was proposed that Entragues should be sent as envoy to Venice, in place of his brother-in-law; but the necessity passed away. He remained in comfort and splendour in Pisa, where we read of his receiving the Lucchese ambassadors and conducting the diplomacy of the Republic. Pisa herself—unhappy devotee of liberty!—grew poorer and ever poorer, a humble pensioner on Venetian bounty: “They adore us,” remarks Sanuto with some fatuity, “and, of a verity, they would starve without us.” But, shorn of all her territories as she was, Pisa housed her liberator in a palace, and little did it matter to this voluntary exile that his King declared a readiness to decapitate him with royal hands. Meanwhile he remained the natural centre of all dignity in Pisa. Here we catch a last glimpse of him in that sinister spring of 1498 which witnessed in Florence the martyrdom of Savonarola and in France the sudden death of Charles VIII. The whirlwind that destroyed these mighty vessels allowed the idle straw to float unharmed. “Entragues is back in Pisa,” writes Sanuto, “which city is very poor now, having lost all her lands and subsisting only on that which we afford her. He has returned some time from his visit to Jerusalem. He lives with certain families in Pisa. He has money of his own, and gives himself his pleasures.”

Five years later, when the eminence of Venice was dangerously threatened by Italian jealousy, the Pisans began to look about for a new Protector. “We will offer ourselves to the Devil,” they declared, “rather than to Florence.” As a matter of fact they offered themselves to Cæsar Borgia. They made very few conditions: two of them are noteworthy in view of the present history:

“The Pisans will bestow themselves upon Il Valentino if neither he nor the Pope will ever make peace or truce with Florence.

“The new Duke must promise the city never to make any peace or league with France.”

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=The Gresham Press=,
UNWIN BROTHERS,
CHILWORTH AND LONDON.

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Transcriber’s Note

The footnotes are moved to follow the paragraph within which they are referenced, and are sequenced numerically for uniqueness.

Hyphenation of compound words can be variable. Where it occurs on a line break, the most commonly used form is assumed. Many footnotes contain extended transcriptions in 14th or 15th century Italian, and it is difficult to ascertain their correctness. With a few exceptions, noted below, the text is printed verbatim.

The name of the Convent of ‘Roderdesdorf’ in the Contents is everywhere given in the text as ‘Rodardesdorf’. The Contents’ entry has been corrected to facilitate searches.

The page references in the Contents direct the reader to the indicated topics. Be forewarned, however, that those references to the chapter on ‘The French at Pisa’ go astray after p. 354, and one entry is missing entirely, but is most likely referring to p. 358.

Obvious printer’s errors or printing flaws have been corrected, and are noted here with their resolutions. The corrections are indicated by page and line number, or, where the correction is to a note, by note and line number within the note.

iv.8 and, half afraid, [ /I] told you Restored.

viii.1 the Convent of Rod[e/a]rdesdorf> Replaced.

n1.3 Beginen-häuser [i]m Mittelalter Restored.

n1.5 Geschic[h]te der deutschen Mystik Added.

8.29 the [the ]Alexandrian theories of the Removed.
pseudo-Dionysius

14.1 the poor vain min[s]trels Added.

33.28 suspected of her[se/es]y. Transposed.

37.17 the panth[ie/ei]st idea Transposed.

38.3 By the middle of the fifteenth century, Replaced.
[T/t]he Beghards

59.27 so many hours?[’] Added.

64.19 for the sins of the ungo[l]dly Removed.

61.17 thanksgi[v]ing Added.

82.21 this unconscious bea[u]titude Removed.

n5.1 Bib. Nat. Fran[c/ç]ais Replaced.

120.9 Que cette Bergère jolie.[’/”] Replaced.

148.17 supers[ti]tition Removed.

149.21 “And that journey,” say[s] Froissart Added.

n41.7 pour en avoir garde.[”] Added.

182.28 of his uncle Berna[d/b]ò> Replaced.

193.27 [(]if we may trust the verdict of Corio) Added.

n57.6 (Pièces Originales Fontanieu, dossier 1185, Added.
No. 38[)]

200.13 the Duke was afraid of Sforz[o/a] Replaced.

207.16 proved irres[is]tibly fascinating Added.

221.5 resolution of Count Francesco Sforz[o/a]. Replaced.

n90.1 promised to assis[t] the Dauphin Restored.

262.25 1,300 men-at[ /-]arms Replaced.

277.3 What was the magnificence of earth [ ] to him? _sic_: ‘to
him’?

282.23 he fought almost contin[u]ously Added.

294.4 mocking the sacred mon[o]gram> Added.

302.30 to take counsel with the wise old Replaced.
statesm[e/a]n and learn his views

n113.13 et diceva non si voller p[ui/iù] curar ne de Replaced.
figlioli

309.21 he weary of his life[.] Added.

326.1 and to poor [l]ittle Lorenzio Restored.

321.24 in making improm[p]tu> verses Added.

330.25 with the said Peter[./,]>” says Commines Replaced.

335.20 Pietra Santa, which [which ]had cost them Removed.
150,000 ducats

340.15 A Medite[rannean/rranean]> seaport Replaced.

n120.9 guerra non gli [f/s]ia fatta a noi Replaced.

n120.24 di questi ell[ /a] Restored.

n121.17 la citt[a/à] nil Replaced.

n121.18 del Seren[e/i]ssimo Re predetto. Replaced.

n121.62 Che nel terreno di Pisa non dovess[o/e]no fare Replaced.
alcuna

n122.12 he will make war upon the fra[u]dulent Added.
possessors

358.13 detention of the Florentine Ambassadors by Added.
Orleans[,]

n129.2 della Repubb[l]ica> Fiorentina Added.

368.2 writes an eye-witness,[” to/ “to] hear them Replaced.

369.30 could not attempt to justify[-/.] Replaced.

388.4 Gi[e/é] Replaced.

End of Project Gutenberg's The End of the Middle Ages, by A. Mary F. Robinson