Part 1

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THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES

ESSAYS AND QUESTIONS IN HISTORY

BY A. MARY F. ROBINSON (_Madame James Darmesteter_)

LONDON T FISHER UNWIN 26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE MDCCCLXXXIX

DEDICATION.

MY DEAR MR. SYMONDS,—_I send you a little book; different from the many volumes, plump with documents and the dignity of History, which I intended for you long ago. But, since I have no better thing to offer, take—dear Master—these rough and scattered pages. For to whom, if not to you, should I dedicate the book? When I look back, I see you at my side in all my studies; for the last ten years, there is not one of them which has not been confided to you, and, most of all, my dreams of History. So that whatever I write belongs in some sort to you; but especially this little volume of which we talked so much in your study at Davos two years ago. Do you remember how you guided me through the innumerable pages of Litta and of Muratori in quest of the secret of the French Claim to Milan? We did not find much of that, but we found so many better things; and, best of all, the happy hours which you illuminated! Hours in which you evoked for me, as we plunged deeper and deeper into your Chronicles, the great figures of the Past. At first they rose before me, pale and mute—silent and immaculate as the white recesses of your Alps; but, at the touch of your wand, they assumed their ancient colour and consistence—the very smile, the gait, the accent, the passions, that had moved them once beneath this sun that has survived them; their voices magically issued out of the silent yellow pages; the sound of their battles clashed anew along your windless valleys and eagle-haunted mountain tops. And, once alive, they remained alive for me._

_As I sat and wondered, a new desire awoke in me, an eager wish to seize these brilliant apparitions, to strip them of their faded purple, to strip them of their form and colour, to lay them bare to their innermost tissue and catch the reason and the secret of their being._

_And, first of all, to understand exactly what they did, and when, and why. Our beautiful chronicles were not always quite precise. I began to see that what I wanted must be sought in manuscripts and foreign archives. And, half afraid, I told you of my project for exchanging a cheerful holiday in Switzerland against a week or two of dull research in Paris. Since then I have worked long and hard, in Paris, in London, in Florence, and the writing of dead hands has grown familiar to me; but I have never forgotten that it was first in the solitude of your lofty valley, that my task grew plain before my mind. And now to whom, if not to you should I offer these scattered ruins of the thing undone—these first ineffectual sketches of that_ History of the French in Italy, _which still I mean to write? From Davos they took their flight; let them seek the nest again!_

_If I had better profited by your lessons and your example, it would not have been a mere sheaf of fragments that I should have offered you to-day, but a Book, a solid and coherent whole consistently animated, in all the complexity and the unity of its subject, by an epoch, an idea, a man, or an event. Nothing else is really durable, permanently useful. It is true that I have tried (and may the candour of this avowal excuse its weakness!)—yes, I have tried, after the manner of essayists, to give an apparent unity to my fragments by means of a title, large and comfortable as the cloak of charity which covers in its vague expanse a host of strangers._

_For, after all, what has Schwester Katrei to do with Charles VIII., or Isotta of Rimini with Mechtild of Magdeburg? Shall I avow that the volume is really the fragmentary essays towards two unwritten histories—one of the house of Hohenstaufen, the other of the French in Italy? Also I can imagine you remarking that, from the thirteenth century to the sixteenth, my Middle Ages take long a-dying:_

“_Les gens que vous tuez se portent assez bien._”

_And you might add that in a book on the end of the Middle Ages, it is strange to find not a line on the Loss of Constantinople, and not a chapter on the invention of Printing or the Discovery of America._

_What can I do but acknowledge my incompleteness? Nay, I will even confess to you that I have my private doubts whether the Middle Ages are over yet—whether any period comes to an end at a given epoch, but does not rather still subsist, diminished yet puissant, stealing in unnoticed currents along the vast veins and secret fabric of the world. In many a turn of thought and habit, in many a disregarded constitution—in May Day and Manor Court, in the Land laws and the Judenhetze—the Middle Ages are not over yet. Here and there they reappear and startle us in unexpected corners. That form of Nature which we know as History is, like every other evolution of Nature, too complex to be accurately fixed in words. Words only give the vague surroundings; they are the ill-fitting, ready-made clothes of a thought._

_Therefore, despite their official end, we may doubt whether we be done with the Middle Ages. And yet you will agree with me that the personages of my essays belong no longer wholly to the age in which they lived. Something came to an end then; something slowly began. Race of Cain and race of Abel, mystics lost in ecstasy, or captains of prey and plunder,—yet Eckhart, the forerunner of Hegel, and the sinister Giangaleazzo dreaming in a different fashion the dream of Count Cavour, was each unconsciously a precursor of the Modern Age._

* * * * *

_The Beguines, bringing the dissolvent of mysticism to the authority of Rome; the Pope, in quitting his true capital for Avignon; the Cardinals by opening the Schism: these, between them, have invented the Reformation.... Giangaleazzo Visconti, when he made his daughter of Orleans his heir, prepared the battles of Marignano and Pavia, and condemned Francis I. to his captivity in Spain. Even as the Feud of Orleans and Burgundy began the long rivalry of Francis and the Emperor, the great descendants of those angry houses.... Meanwhile the numerous invasions of Italy under the Dukes of Orleans, and still later, the triumphal journey of Charles VIII., brought back to France the splendour of the Renaissance. Thus Hallam closes the Middle Ages with the taking of Naples, in 1494. However this be, if you are indulgent, dear Master, you may consider my essays a very humble and inadequate Introduction to the study of your Sixteenth Century._

_Perhaps I am the only reader who will have learned anything from the little book. And, after all, I am contented that it should be so. It is so much pleasanter to learn than to instruct; and in learning one meets with so many friends and helpers. I cannot tell you here of all who have befriended me, but I must at least mention to you the names of Canon Creighton, unfailing critic and sympathizer; of Mr. Bryce, who reached out an experienced hand to me and spared me several more mistakes in Feudal Law; of Mr. H.F. Brown of Venice, who procured me my Venetian transcripts; of Professor Villari and Professor Paoli of Florence (it was the latter who taught me Palæography); and of Comte Albert de Circourt of Paris, in whom I have found a quite invaluable adviser and correspondent,—for probably no historian in Europe is so familiar with the Lombard schemes of Louis d’Orléans as he._

* * * * *

_To you I owe the largest debt of all. It is not only for the writing of a book I thank you here--_

_Ever sincerely yours_,

A. MARY F. DARMESTETER.

CONTENTS.

THE BEGUINES AND THE WEAVING BROTHERS.> PAGE

In 1180, Lambert of Liége founds the first Beguinage; the 8 rapid spread of the Order; invention of the kindred guild of the Beghards or Fratres Textores

In 1216 the invention of the Tertiary Orders of St. Dominic 12 and St. Francis supplies a monastic equivalent for Beguinism

Beguinism is awhile preserved from decadence by the prestige 14 of Mechtild of Magdeburg

After her death, heresy and mysticism swiftly undermine 24 the Beguine Orders

Opinions of the Beguines 25

The Church resolves on their suppression 29

The plague of the Wandering Orders 30

The Beguines are absorbed into the Tertiary Orders 31

The Beguines of Strasburg join the Dominican Order 32

And heresy begins to appear among the Dominicans of 33 Strasburg

Meister Eckhart and his doctrines 33

Swester Katrei 34

The Beguines are suppressed; but their ideas, stealthily 38 kept alive in quiet places, burst out again in the XVI. century

THE CONVENT OF HELFTA. >

Religious distinction of Thuringia in the 13th century 45

Gertrude of Helfta enters the Convent of Rodardesdorf 46 about 1234; arrival of her sister Mechtild

Life in the Convent 48

In 1251 Gertrude is elected Abbess 55

And removes the Convent to her Castle of Helfta 56

Mechtild of Magdeburg enters the Convent, 1265 57

The miracles of St. Gertrude 61

Death of Mechtild of Magdeburg 67

Illness of St. Gertrude 68

Her death 71

THE ATTRACTION OF THE ABYSS. >

The science of Mysticism 74

The bottom of the Soul 75

The Soul and God alone real, the world non-existent 75

The bottom of the Soul is Nothingness 8

God is the supreme Non-Existence 82

And created Matter _purum nihil_ 84

The world is Nothing 85

Superiority of the position of the Mystics to the position 87 of Theologians

THE SCHISM. >

The Pope comes to Avignon. The Popes remain there 95 seventy years. In 1377 the Pope re-enters Rome

Changed aspect of Rome 96

Robert of Geneva leads the Papal armies against the Italians 97 on revolt

Death of Gregory XI. The Conclave in Rome 97

Bartolommeo Prignano is elected 97

Triumph of the Italian party 98

The unpopularity of Prignano as Urban VI. 99

The rumour grows that his election was invalid. In 100 September, 1378, Robert of Geneva is elected Pope at Fondi as Clement VII.

The Schism 100

VALENTINE VISCONTI. >

Birth of Valentine Visconti, 1366 102

Her parentage and childhood 103

The rise of her father, Giangaleazzo 104

Description of Valentine 107

Conquests of Giangaleazzo 110

Valentine Visconti is betrothed to Louis, only brother of 111 Charles VI. of France

Reasons for the marriage 112

The dowry of Valentine 113

Antagonism of Prince Louis to his uncle of Burgundy 115

Burgundy resists the marriage 116

Valentine arrives at Court 118

Description of the King and Orleans 119

Mediæval Paris 122

Ascendancy of Valentine over the King 127

Her husband acquires the Duchy of Orleans, 1391 128

The King goes mad 129

The people suspect Orleans 131

And say the Duke of Orleans is a wizard 133

Madness of the King 134

People say that Valentine is a witch, and that she and her 137 husband compass the King’s madness

Reasons for popular irritation against Valentine 138

Rivalry of France and Visconti in Genoa 139

Visconti and Orleans play into each other’s hands 140

The Kingdom of Adria 145

Death of Clement VII. 146

France checkmates Orleans and Visconti in Genoa 147

There is talk in France of a Lombard campaign 149

But the disaster of Nicopolis compels the French to keep 150 friends with Milan

Nicopolis 151

Tyranny of Orleans in France 156

Death of Giangaleazzo Visconti 162

Orleans leads an army into Lombardy 164

And suddenly returns to Paris 165

The King bestows on him the royal claim to Pisa 165

The Florentines take Pisa 167

And Orleans turns his ambition towards Luxemburg, to the 169 detriment of Burgundy

Orleans is murdered in Paris 170

Burgundy avows the deed 173

Valentine struggles to vindicate her husband’s memory 174

She dies broken-hearted 178

THE FRENCH CLAIM TO MILAN. >

Valentine Visconti brings the Milanese succession into the 181 House of Orleans

Her marriage contract provides that on extinction of male 184 descent she shall inherit Milan

The Duke of Milan thus disposes of an Imperial fief 186

Ambiguity of his conduct and intention 189

He intends to secure himself equally against France and 190 against the Empire

Unsubstantiality of Imperial power 192

The will of Giangaleazzo Visconti confirms the French claim 193 to Milan

Fate of the children of Valentine 196

Orleans and Angoulême, in 1441, send Dunois to Milan to 197 demand the restitution of Asti from their uncle Filippo Maria Visconti

Illness of the Duke of Milan 199

The rival claims of his heirs 200

He talks of adopting the Dauphin Louis 202

Meanwhile Louis and Savoy plan the conquest of Milan 203

League between the Dauphin and the Duke of Milan 205

Death of the Duke of Milan 206

His will 207

The French prepare to assert the rights of Orleans 209

Raynouard du Dresnay begins the campaign 210

The Duke of Orleans arrives at Asti, October 17, 1447 213

He sends an embassy to Venice asking aid 215

The Venetians procrastinate 217

Intrigues of Savoy 220

The Venetians determine to assassinate Francesco Sforza 221

Suddenly the Milanese accept Sforza 229

His position as regards Orleans, and before the feudal law 231

The Venetians again determine to assassinate him 233

Efforts of Sforza to legalize his position 237

The Dauphin promises the Venetians to invade Italy, and 240 dispossess Sforza

In December, 1453, Venice incites the Dauphin to seize 241 the Milanese and expel Sforza—She professes her readiness to aid him with men or money; or she will do as much for the Duke of Orleans in the same undertaking. (A note quotes Venetian documents to show how, about the same time, Genoa, Milan, Venice, and Florence were taking measures to secure Italy against invasion.)

In April, 1459, Venice makes peace with Sforza 242

Opposite policy of Charles VII. and the Dauphin 243

Death of King Charles VII. 245

Louis XI. becomes the firm ally of Sforza, but discards 245 Savoy, Orleans, Dunois, and Anjou

In December, 1463, Louis XI. cedes to Sforza the French 245 claim to Genoa

Death of Charles, Duke of Orleans 246

Death of Louis XI., August 30, 1483 247

January 16, 1484. Venice sends to Charles VIII. and to 250 the young Duke of Orleans pointing out the French claim to Venice and to Naples

The Embassy is renewed in February; but a new peace in 251 Italy and the struggles of Orleans for the Regency in France postpone any further plans for a French invasion

The invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. takes place in 1494 252 at the instigation, not of Naples, but of Milan

Illness detains Orleans at Asti, within a league or two of 252 Lodovico Sforza at Milan

Venice and Florence begin to intrigue with Orleans, and 254 suggest that the French take Milan instead of Naples

Giangaleazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, dies in prison 257

Rights of the Regent, Lodovico il Moro 257

A diploma from the Emperor declares him Duke 256, 257

The relation between the French and Lodovico Sforza 258 become strained

In March, 1495, Venice, Milan, the Emperor, Castile, and 260 Arragon unite in a league to expel the French, unless they retire without offence

In June Orleans takes Novara 263

The blockade of Novara. Orleans is released by composition 264

Peace between France and the League is concluded in 265 October, 1495—The French evacuate Italy

Florence entreats Orleans to invade Italy, and insists upon 266 his rights to Milan, 1497

Orleans refuses to leave France 266

Death of Charles VIII. 267

Orleans becomes King of France as Louis XII. 267

Louis XII. conquers Lombardy, 1499 268

The Emperor confirms his victories, and annals the 269 privileges bestowed on Lodovico Sforza

Rights of Louis XII. and of Francis I. to Milan 269

The French lose Milan at the Battle of Pavia 270

Efforts to regain Milan, 1527-1536 271

The treaty of Crépy 271

The death of Charles II. of Orleans leaves Milan to the 272 Spaniards

THE MALATESTAS OF RIMINI. >

Carlo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, being childless, adopts his 274 dead brother’s three natural sons in 1427

And procures their legitimation before his death in 1429 275

He is succeeded by the eldest, Galeotto, a visionary ascetic 276

In 1430 Gismondo, his younger brother, drives back the 279 Papal armies and delivers Rimini, being at the time twelve years of age

Galeotto expels the Jews 279

And dies 280

Gismondo succeeds, drives back the armies of Urbino and 281 Pesaro, betroths himself to the daughter of Carmagnola, and marries Ginevra of Este, 1432

He rebuilds the Rocca, and becomes acquainted with Isotta 284 degli Atti

Character of Isotta 285

In 1440 the wife of Gismondo dies suddenly—In 1442 he 287 marries, not Isotta, but the daughter of Sforza

He rebuilds the church of Rimini in honour of Isotta 287

Architecture and decoration 287-294

Sudden death of Polissena Sforza 294

Triumphs and treacheries of Gismondo as a captain 295

He deserts from Arragon to Anjou 296

His reverses begin 296

At this moment his enemy, Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, is 296 elected Pope, 1453

The effigy of Gismondo is buried in the streets of Rome, and 297 he is excommunicated

He seeks help in vain of the Angevines at Naples 297

He marries Isotta, and leaves her as Regent in Rimini 297

He hires himself to the Venetians, conducts the campaign 298 of the Morea, and brings home the bones of Gemisthus Pletho in 1465

Ruin and death of Gismondo Malatesta 299

THE LADIES OF MILAN. >

Murder of Galeazzo Maria Sforza in 1476 300

The Duchess Bonne and her children leave the conduct of 300 affairs to Cecco Simonetta, secretary of the late Duke and of his father, the great Francesco Sforza

Simonetta exiles the brothers of the late Duke 301

He falls out with the favourite of the Duchess, who 302 persuades her to recall her brother-in-law, Lodovico il Moro

Lodovico returns secretly to Milan; beheads Simonetta 303

And shuts his two little nephews in the Tower 303

He rules Milan by the title of Regent, and exiles the 304 Duchess

His nephew, Giangaleazzo Sforza, marries Isabel of Arragon, 305 granddaughter of the King of Naples

Lodovico Sforza marries Beatrice d’Este, daughter of the 306 Duke of Ferrara

Jealousies of Beatrice and Isabel 306