The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0087/00875.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 15KB | 226 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00875}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of Europe During The Middle Ages
Part XIV}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Hallam, Henry}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{france
naples
medici
italy
lorenzo
ferdinand
de
footnote
republic
death}
$Date{}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of Europe During The Middle Ages
Book:        Book III: The History Of Italy
Author:      Hallam, Henry

Part XIV

     The two sons of Piero, Lorenzo and Julian, especially the former, though
young at their father's death, assumed, by the request of their friends, the
reins of government.  [A.D. 1469.] It was impossible that, among a people who
had so many recollections to attach to the name of liberty, among so many
citizens whom their ancient constitution invited to public trust, the control
of a single family should excite no dissatisfaction; and perhaps their want of
any positive authority heightened the appearance of usurpation in their
influence.  But, if the people's wish to resign their freedom gives a title to
accept the government of a country, the Medici were no usurpers.  That family
never lost the affections of the populace.  The cry of Palle, Palle (their
armorial distinction), would at any time rouse the Florentines to defend the
chosen patrons of the republic.  If their substantial influence could before
be questioned, the conspiracy of the Pazzi, wherein Julian perished, excited
an enthusiasm for the surviving brother, that never ceased during his life.
Nor was this anything unnatural, or any sever reproach to Florence.  All
around, in Lombardy and Romagna, the lamp of liberty had long since been
extinguished in blood.  The freedom of Siena and Genoa was dearly purchased by
revolutionary proscriptions; that of Venice was only a name.  The republic
which had preserved longest, and with greatest purity, that vestal fire, had
at least no relative degradation to fear in surrendering herself to Lorenzo
de' Medici.  I need not in this place expatiate upon what the name instantly
suggests, the patronage of science and art, and the constellation of scholars
and poets, or architects and painters, whose reflected beams cast their
radiance around his head.  His political reputation, though far less durable,
was in his own age as conspicuous as that which he acquired in the history of
letters.  Equally active and sagacious, he held his way through the varying
combination of Italian policy, always with credit, and generally with success.
Florence, if not enriched, was upon the whole aggrandized during his
administration, which was exposed to some severe storms from the unscrupulous
adversaries, Sixtus IV. and Ferdinand of Naples, whom he was compelled to
resist.  As a patriot, indeed, we never can bestow upon Lorenzo de' Medici the
meed of disinterested virtue.  He completed that subversion of the Florentine
republic which his two immediate ancestors had so well prepared.  The two
councils, her regular legislature, he superseded by a permanent senate of
seventy persons; ^m while the gonfalonier and priors, become a mockery and
pageant to keep up the illusion of liberty, were taught that in exercising a
legitimate authority without the sanction of their prince, a name now first
heard at Florence, they incurred the risk of punishment for their audacity. ^n
Even the total dilapidation of his commercial wealth was repaired at the cost
of the state; and the republic disgracefully screened the bankruptcy of the
Medici by her own. ^o But compared with the statesmen of his age, we can
reproach Lorenzo with no heinous crime.  He had many enemies; his descendants
had many more; but no unequivocal charge of treachery or assassination has
been substantiated against his memory.  By the side of Galeazzo or Ludovico
Sforza, of Ferdinand or his son Alfonso of Naples, of the pope Sixtus IV., he
shines with unspotted lustre.  So much was Lorenzo esteemed by his
contemporaries, that his premature death [A.D. 1492] has frequently been
considered as the cause of those unhappy revolutions that speedily ensued, and
which his foresight would, it was imagined, have been able to prevent; an
opinion which, whether founded in probability or otherwise, attests the common
sentiment about his character.

[Footnote m: Ammirato, p. 145.  Machiavelli says (l. viii.) that this was done
ristringere il governo, e che le deliberazioni importanti si riducessero in
minore numero.  But though it rather appears from Ammirato's expressions that
the two councils were now abolished, yet from M. Sismondi, t. xi. p. 186, who
quotes an author I have not seen, and from Nardi, p. 7, I should infer that
they still formally subsisted.]

[Footnote n: Cambi, a gonfalonier of justice, had, in concert with the priors,
admonished some public officers for a breach of duty.  Fu giudicato questo
atto molto superbo, says Ammirato, che senza participazione di Lorenzo de'
Medici, principe del governo, fosse seguito, che in Pisa in quel tempo si
ritrovava. p. 184.  The gonfalonier was fined for executing his constitutional
functions.  This was a downright confession that the republic was at an end;
and all it provokes M. Sismondi to say is not too much, t. xi. p. 345.]

[Footnote o: Since the Medici took on themselves the character of princes,
they had forgotten how to be merchants.  But, imprudently enough, they had not
discontinued their commerce, which was of course mismanaged by agents whom
they did not overlook.  The consequence was the complete dilapidation of their
vast fortune.  The public revenues had been for some years applied to make up
its deficiencies.  But from the measures adopted by the republic, if we may
still use that name, she should appear to have considered himself, rather than
Lorenzo, as the debtor.  The interest of the public debt was diminished one
half.  Many charitable foundations were suppressed.  The circulating specie
was taken at one fifth below its nominal value in payment of taxes, while the
government continued to issue it at its former rate.  Thus was Lorenzo
reimbursed a part of his loss at the expense of all his fellow-citizens.
Sismondi, t. xi. 347.  It is slightly alluded by Machiavelli.

     The vast expenditure of the Medici for the sake of political influence
would of itself have absorbed all their profits.  Cosmo is said by
Guicciardini to have spent 400,000 ducats in building churches, monasteries,
and other public works, l. i. p. 91.  The expenses of the family between 1434
and 1471, in buildings, charities, and taxes alone, amounted to 663,755
florins; equal in value, according to Sismondi, to 32,000,000 francs at
present.  Hist. des Republ. t. x. p. 173.  They seem to have advanced moneys
imprudently, through their agents, to Edward IV., who was not the best of
debtors.  Comines, Mem. de Charles VIII., l vii. c. 6.]

     If indeed Lorenzo de' Medici could not have changed the destinies of
Italy, however premature his death may appear if we consider the ordinary
duration of human existence, it must be admitted that for his own welfare,
perhaps for his glory, he had lived out the full measure of his time.  An age
of new and uncommon revolutions was about to arise, among the earliest of
which the temporary downfall of his family was to be reckoned.  The
long-contested succession of Naples was again involve Italy in war.  The
ambition of strangers was once more to desolate her plains.  Ferdinand King of
Naples had reigned for thirty years after the discomfiture of his competitor
with success and ability; but with a degree of ill faith as well as tyranny
towards his subjects that rendered his government deservedly odious.  His son
Alfonso, whose succession seemed now near at hand, was still more marked by
these vices than himself. ^p Meanwhile the pretensions of the house of Anjou
had legally descended, after the death of Regnier, to Regnier Duke of
Lorraaine, his grandson by a daughter; whose marriage into the house of
Lorraine had, however, so displeased by his father, that he bequeathed his
Neopolitan title along with his real patrimony, the county of Provence, t