The Sagacity of Cosmo di Medici

 

But though this war, which at its commencement threatened mighty revolutions, was brought to an end without occasioning any alteration in those states which were its immediate object, it had produced during its progress effects of considerable consequence in other parts of Italy.

As Philip was extremely solicitous to terminate his quarrel with Paul as speedily as possible, he was willing to make any sacrifice in order to gain those princes, who, by joining their troops to the papal and French army, might have prolonged the war. With this view, he entered into a negotiation with Octavio Farnese, duke of Parma, and in order to seduce him from his alliance with France, he restored to him the city of Placentia, with the territory depending on it, which Charles V had seized in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-seven, had kept from that time in his possession, and had transmitted, together with his other dominions, to Philip.

This step made such a discovery of Philip's character and views to Cosmo di Medici, the most sagacious as well as provident of all the Italian princes, that he conceived hopes of accomplishing his favorite scheme of adding Sienna and its territories to his dominions in Tuscany. As his success in this attempt depended entirely on the delicacy of address with which it should be conducted, he employed all the refinements of policy in the negotiation which he set on foot for this purpose. He began with soliciting Philip, whose treasury he knew to be entirely drained by the expense of the war, to repay the great sums which he had advanced to the emperor during the siege of Sienna. When Philip endeavored to elude a demand which he was unable to satisfy, Cosmo affected to be extremely disquieted, and making no secret of his disgust, instructed his ambassador at Rome to open a negotiation with the pope which seemed to be the effect of it.

The ambassador executed his commission with such dexterity, that Paul, imagining Cosmo to be entirely alienated from the Spanish interest, proposed to him an alliance with France which should be cemented by the marriage of his eldest son to one of Henry's daughters. Cosmo received the overture with such apparent satisfaction, and with so many professions of gratitude for the high honor of which he had the prospect, that not only the pope's ministers, but the French envoy at Rome, talked confidently, and with little reserve, of the accession of that important ally, as a matter certain and decided. The account of this was quickly carried to Philip; and Cosmo, who foresaw how much it would alarm him, had despatched his nephew Ludovico de Toledo into the Netherlands, that he might be at hand to observe and take advantage of his consternation, before the first impression which it made should in any degree abate.

Cosmo was extremely fortunate in the choice of the instrument whom he employed. Toledo waited, with patience, until he discovered with certainty, that Philip had received such intelligence of his uncle's negotiations at Rome, as must have filled his suspicious mind with fear and jealousy; and then craving an audience, he required payment of the money which had been borrowed by the emperor, in the most earnest and peremptory terms. In urging that point, he artfully threw out several dark hints and ambiguous declarations, concerning the extremities to which Cosmo might be driven by a refusal of this just demand, as well as by other grievances of which he had good reason to complain.

Philip, astonished at an address in such a strain from a prince so far his inferior as the duke of Tuscany, and comparing what he now heard with the information which he had received from Italy, immediately concluded that Cosmo had ventured to assume this bold and unusual tone on the prospect of his union with France. In order to prevent the pope and Henry from acquiring an ally, who, by his abilities, as well as the situation of his dominions, would have added both reputation and strength to their confederacy, he offered to grant Cosmo the investiture of Sienna, if he would consent to accept of it as an equivalent for the sums due to him, and engage to furnish a body of troops towards the defence of Philip's territories in Italy, against any power who should attack them. As soon as Cosmo had brought Philip to make this concession, which was the object of all his artifices and intrigues, he did not protract the negotiation by any unnecessary delay, or any excess of refinement, but closed eagerly with the proposal, and Philip, in spite of the remonstrances of his ablest counselors, signed a treaty with him to that effect.

As no prince was ever more tenacious of his rights than Philip, or less willing to relinquish any territory which he possessed, by what tenure soever he held it, these unusual concessions to the dukes of Parma and Tuscany, by which he wantonly gave up countries, in acquiring or defending which his father had employed many years, and wasted much blood and treasure, cannot be accounted for from any motive, but his superstitious desire of extricating himself out of the war which he had been forced to wage against the pope.

By these treaties, however, the balance of power among the Italian states was poised with greater equality, and rendered less variable than it had been since it received the first violent shock from the invasion of Charles VIII of France. From this period Italy ceased to be the great theatre, on which the monarchs of Spain, France, and Germany, contended for power or for fame. Their dissensions and hostilities, though as frequent and violent as ever, being excited by new objects, stained other regions of Europe with blood, and rendered them miserable, in their turn, by the devastations of war.

 

The Madness of the Pope Paul the Fourth