The Tragedies of the Medici Part 15

The Duke went back to Rome and resumed his ordinary life there, without bearing with him any of the wholesome leaven of matrimony--a husband in name, and little more. d.u.c.h.ess Isabella, a mere child, wanton and wilful more than most, was thus left the uncontrolled mistress of a princely establishment, with no marital check to regulate her conduct. Surely as unstable a condition, and as conducive to infidelity, as can well be imagined.

Before leaving his wife at Poggio Baroncelli, Duke Paolo appointed her household, and made every provision for her comfort. A cousin of his, Cavaliere Troilo d'Orsini, was placed in charge of the d.u.c.h.ess as Chamberlain, or quasi-guardian--another false step, and embarra.s.sing for all parties. He was a handsome and accomplished man, avowedly unmarried, young and of a sympathetic disposition, and manifestly not at all the sort of person to place upon terms of such close relationship with the attractive young d.u.c.h.ess.

Under its fascinating _Castellana_ the Baroncelli villa became a busy little Court, the scene of constant festivities, gossip, and intrigue.

Her mother's Court at the Pitti was quite second in attractiveness.

d.u.c.h.ess Eleanora if virtuous and conscientious, was rather dull and uninteresting. She cared much more for her Spanish connections than for her Florentine courtiers: much of her time she spent in the Cappella degli Spagnioli at Santa Maria Novella. What time she spared from her devotions she occupied in the establishment and patronage of the _Accademia degli Elevati_--"Souls," for the encouragement of poetry.

d.u.c.h.ess Isabella d'Orsini was hailed as "_La Nuova Saffo_" by those who gathered round her. She was by nature an arrant flirt--as most pretty women are--for she inherited her father's amorous disposition; and she was impulsive,--an added charm where beauty reigns,--worldly-minded, and dreadfully extravagant; moreover, she dressed to perfection.

The Duke of Bracciano paid rare visits to Florence, but the d.u.c.h.ess, in compliance with her marriage-contract, spent a portion of each year with her husband in Rome. These visits were not occasions of happiness and satisfaction. The two had scarcely any interests in common, and the infrequency of intercourse entailed unfamiliarity and embarra.s.sment. The good-byes were never unwelcome on either side!

The Duke took up, once more, his military duties, following in the footsteps of his father as commander, in 1566, of a division of the Imperial army against the Turks. For his bravery at the battle of Lepanto, he was made Field-Marshal of the Emperor and a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. In other respects he had his consolations for his enforced separation from his wife--and Isabella, naturally, had hers too!

It was said that every man fell in love with her, and she, on her part, did not restrain her pa.s.sion. There was no one to advise, no one to check, no one to help her to keep in the path of wifely fidelity.

Reports of _liaisons_ were made to the Duke by his Chamberlain from time to time, but these were couched in words which concealed his own part therein. He and the d.u.c.h.ess were accustomed to be much alone together.

He was a musician and a linguist, a scholar and an artist like herself, and a most attractive companion. She helped him in his great literary work--_Lezione della Lingua Toscana_--perhaps the only serious occupation she ever undertook.

An intimacy, with such a similarity of tastes, ripened naturally into a romantic attachment--certainly quite in accord with the tenets of Platonic humanism, and perhaps something more! That Duke Paolo was conversant with the relations of his wife with his cousin was well known, but he made no complaint, and took no action to check them.

Likely enough he had that "easy-going contempt of everything and everybody" which Niccolo Macchiavelli has stigmatised as the prevailing tone of Italian society.

Probably the sad deaths of Princess Maria and d.u.c.h.ess Lucrezia d'Este, and the tragic events in the Maremma of 1562, affected Isabella greatly, but they only tended to increase her husband's detestation for everything Florentine. No doubt he judged that Cosimo's hand slew both Maria and Garzia--might it not strike Isabella or himself! When a man, in an autocratic position such as that made by Cosimo I., yields to unguarded pa.s.sion, reason and right alike are at a discount. Isabella's husband had taken the measure of her father--alas, that he was destined to follow his example!

For Isabella a new interest was created when, in 1564, Bianca Buonaventuri became "_La cosa di Francesco_,"--her brother. She, so to speak, clasped the lovely young Venetian to her bosom. She entered into the romance of the elopement, and of her brother's infatuation, with all her heart. Isabella de' Medici and Bianca Cappello-Buonaventuri became inseparable friends.

During d.u.c.h.ess Eleanora's life the gaieties and the follies of the court had been kept within something like bounds, but she had hardly been laid in her tomb within San Lorenzo than Duke Cosimo gave reins to his pa.s.sions, and the Palazzo Pitti and the various Medicean villas became the scenes of unbridled l.u.s.t and depravity. In 1564 the Duke deputed most of his sovereign power to his son Francesco, who became Regent and virtual ruler of Tuscany.

The grave scandals which distracted Florentine society began to raise up in the minds of the people violent antipathy for a Sovereign whose private example was so abominable, and whose discharge of public duties was so basely marked by turpitude. A revolution of a drastic description seemed to be inevitable, and, really, Cosimo had no other course than abdication.

The Florentine rendering and observance of Platonism favoured illicit connections between the s.e.xes. The palaces of the n.o.bles and of the wealthy merchants were nothing more or less than harems. The manners and traditions of the Orient took root, not only in Florence, but in all the other Italian States, and the normal strictness and restrictions of lawful married life had everywhere all but disappeared. Every household, not only of the n.o.ble but also of the middle cla.s.s, had among its number a _cicisbeo_, or two or more,--"unofficial wives"--we may call them, possessed of almost equal rights and position as the lawful spouses.

The great event of the year 1562 was the marriage of Prince Francesco and the Archd.u.c.h.ess Giovanna d'Austria. Quite certainly the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Bracciano were among the notable personages present at the nuptials. Indeed that year the Duke spent more of his time than usual in Florence, and was very busy buying and rebuilding the Villa Cerreto Guidi, and laying out the park and gardens--the former for the pursuit of deer-hunting, the latter by way of rivalry to Pratolino--Francesco and Bianca's plaisance.

The Grand d.u.c.h.ess Giovanna was something like her predecessor, d.u.c.h.ess Eleanora, a serious-minded sort of woman, with no pretensions to beauty or ability, not at all the sort of sovereign for that gay and dissolute court. The _beau monde_ took themselves off to the Orte Oricellari--to pay their devotions to the lovely Venetian mistress of their Sovereign; and to Poggio Baroncelli--where d.u.c.h.ess Isabella reigned as queen of fashion and frivolity.

Cosimo and Cammilla de' Martelli--whom he married secretly and took away to his favourite Villa del Castello--lived in strict retreat, rarely came into Florence, and kept no sort of state. At the same time two sons of his were sources of keen anxiety.

Ferdinando, born 1549, was now wearing the Cardinal's red hat, which hapless young Garzia's hunting-knife had caused to fall from his brother Giovanni's head in the Maremma. Ambitious, jealous, but, perhaps, less depraved than his father, the Cardinal de' Medici made no secret of his dislike of his brother Francesco and his _innamorata_, Bianca Buonaventuri. He became a thorn in his father's and brother's sides on account of his extortionate and presumptuous demands. His young stepmother--only two years his senior--favoured his pretensions, and so brought trouble upon herself, as we shall see later on.

Piero, Cosimo's youngest legitimate son, was but a boy of fourteen when his father married his second wife. Of course she was far too young and inexperienced to be of any use in guiding his growth and tastes.

The Court was thus divided: the two parties were headed respectively by the Grand d.u.c.h.ess Giovanna, the t.i.tular Grand d.u.c.h.ess-dowager,--so to call Cammilla,--with the Cardinal de' Medici; and by Bianca Cappello di Pietro Buonaventuri and d.u.c.h.ess Isabella of Bracciano.

With respect to the latter coterie, its influence was vastly augmented by the a.s.sa.s.sination of Pietro Buonaventuri in 1572. d.u.c.h.ess Isabella gave her whole heart's support to the beauteous young widow. She wrote to her the most affectionate letters, in one of which, if not in more, she says she loves Bianca "more than sister," and bids her retain her position as "the loving helper of my brother."

Bianca heartily returned her "more than a sister's" affection, and she repeatedly spoke of d.u.c.h.ess Isabella in her letters to her cousins in Venice. "I had," she says, for example, on 17th July 1574, "the ill.u.s.trious Domina Isabella to dine with me in my garden, and with her came my good friends her brother Don Piero and his young wife...."

Beautiful, accomplished, and light-hearted, Isabella and Bianca were the dearest and most constant of companions. They lived apparently only for admiration and adulation, but the d.u.c.h.ess' position was infinitely more free and unconventional than that of the Venetian: the latter lived for one man's love alone--Francesco--Isabella dispensed her favours where she willed!

Duke Paolo grew suspicious of his wife's liberty of action. His protests, at first couched in deprecatory language, were met with girlish _insouciance_; but, when he began to complain arrogantly, Isabella replied with spirit and determination. His jealous reprimands were met by like charges and, truth to tell, there was not a pin to choose between the two.

The Grand Duke Cosimo before his death in 1574, and the Grand Duke Francesco, were alike irritated by Bracciano's cool, calculating conduct; and both upheld Isabella against her husband's ill-humour and harsh judgments. Duke Paolo, however, kept his own counsel, and by means of spies discovered that Troilo d'Orsini's monthly reports were at least open to doubt as to their truthfulness with respect to his wife's conduct in private. Matters, however, drifted--he was too intent upon his own affairs in Rome and elsewhere to disturb rudely the state of things at Poggio Baroncelli.

His suspicions at length were brusquely confirmed, and the uneasy peace of evil deeds was broken by portentous news from Florence. A courier in his pay arrived one evening, in July 1576, breathless, at the Bracciano Palace, with the intelligence that the trusty chamberlain had stabbed to the heart an attractive young page, Lelio Torello, attached to the household of the Grand Duke; and had, moreover, at once taken flight precipitately from the Villa!

Bracciano knew exactly what this purported--young Torello was a lover of his wife as well as Troilo d'Orsini! Without a moment's delay, he started off for Florence to tax the d.u.c.h.ess with unfaithfulness. At the Porta Romana he was staggered by the news which greeted him--Piero de'

Medici had killed his wife, Eleanora de Garzia de Toledo, at Caf.a.ggiuolo!

He tarried not to pay his respects to the Grand Duke and Grand d.u.c.h.ess at the Palazzo Pitti hard by, but galloped off post-haste to his wife's villa, and, unannounced, surprised Isabella in the midst of preparations for a sudden journey! If, as some maintained, she meant to follow her fleeing lover, Troilo, at all events she was determined to seek the Court of France, and throw herself upon the sympathy of Queen Caterina, her kinswoman, and crave her protection for herself and her babe!

Several letters had already pa.s.sed between the two ill.u.s.trious women.

Isabella, on her part, says: "I have asked pardon of G.o.d for my sins, and have resolved to let things take their course"; but she implores Catherine to protect her little son. In the last of these letters she writes:--"Let your Majesty think of this letter as the last words of a person bound to you by the ties of blood, and consider them as the confidence of one who is about to die, resigned and repentant, who otherwise could only end her life in despair and desperation."

The Duke judged his wife guilty, before she had offered any explanation of the tragic doings at the Villa, and his impulse was to dishonour her before her whole household. The spirit of duplicity, which had haunted their married life, during eighteen random years of misunderstanding, distaste and estrangement, still ruled them both--but Bracciano restrained his pa.s.sion for a while.

He noted the preparations for hasty flight--indicative of Isabella's guilt--but, what more than all else enraged him almost beyond the power of self-control, was the cry of an infant within Isabella's apartments!

That child was not his. Whose was it?

Isabella met her husband perfectly unabashed, and, if she expected an immediate explosion, she was agreeably though somewhat misgivingly surprised at his cordial greeting. He asked her where she was going, and suggested that they should go away together. Isabella of course prevaricated--truth is a negative quality between those who doubt each other! Then, to her great surprise, Bracciano began to express himself in terms at once tender and apologetic.

"The faults, and faults there are, have been all on my side," he said, "but I wish to alter all this and begin a new course, happy, and well-regulated. I suggest that bygones be bygones, and that we mutually agree to bury the past. Let us, Isabella, begin an entirely new course of life and live henceforth only for each other." His fair words were matched by the mild expression he contrived to put into his face, and, although the d.u.c.h.ess distrusted them, or at least her sense of hearing, she met his advances handsomely.

The day pa.s.sed over pleasantly, the _rapprochement_ seemed to be real and sincere, and when the Duke invited her to accompany him upon a hunting expedition to Cerreto Guidi, on the morrow, his wife expressed her pleasure and acquiescence. He himself set off early in the day, it was 10th July, and he asked Isabella to follow with her maidens leisurely.

Whether from innate distrustfulness, or presage of coming evil, the d.u.c.h.ess put off her journey till quite late, and only arrived there as night was coming on. At the entrance to the Villa the Duke met her, holding in a leash two splendid hare-hounds, which he begged her to accept and use on the morrow.

The dinner-party was numerous and merry, but not one of the company was gayer than the host. Isabella sat beside him, and he offered her many lover-like attentions. Everybody remarked these excellent and unusual relations between the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess, and wondered greatly thereat.

After a very pleasant musical evening the company separated for the night, and the Duke, pa.s.sing into his own bedchamber, invited his wife to enter with him.

Was it instinct or was it second sight, which caused Isabella's steps to falter on the threshold? She trembled as her husband held aside the arras, turned deadly pale, and, retreating for a moment, she whispered to her lady-in-waiting, Donna Lucrezia de' Frescobaldi--"Shall I enter, or shall I not?" Bracciano's voice again was raised in gentle persuasiveness, and taking her by her hand, clammy cold as it was, he asked her, laughingly, why she held back.

She bade Donna Lucrezia good-night very tremulously, and then the curtain fell, and Isabella was alone with her lord. The room was in its usual state, but truth to tell, she had not lain there for many a long night, and, as the Duke continued to talk affectionately, and to prepare for bed, she began to feel less alarm. Without more ado she flung herself into a deep lounging-chair and began to meditate and to chatter.

Seating himself by her side, Bracciano began to caress her hands and to fondle her in his arms, and when he noted that she had given herself entirely to his will and pleasure, as an amorous, faithful wife once more, he swiftly reached down for a _corda di collo_--a horse's halter--which he had placed behind the chair. Implanting an impa.s.sioned kiss upon those lovely lips, which had so long yearned for a husband's embrace, he adroitly threw the rope round his wife's neck, and pulling it taut in a wild access of rage, he strangled her--holding on until her struggles ceased!

Then he cast her fair body from him, and spurned it with his foot, as though it had been some foul and loathsome thing. Thus perished, in her thirty-sixth year, Isabella de' Medici, wife of Paolo Giordano d'Orsini--as sinful as she was lovely, but much more sinned against than sinning after all.

Before the dawn of day the Duke, accompanied by one attendant only, rode into Florence, and left at the Palazzo Pitti a heartless message for the Grand Duke, requesting him to despatch the brethren of the _Misericordia_ to Cerreto Guidi, where was "something which required their attention"--then he continued his course straight on to Rome.

Florence was aghast at this horror, but the Grand Duke Francesco kept his own counsel, and no pursuit followed the murderer. An official announcement was made to the effect that "The d.u.c.h.ess of Bracciano died in a fit of apoplexy." This n.o.body for a moment believed: whether her brother was privy to the deed is perhaps open to doubt, for he and Isabella were devoted to one another.

It has been said that it was due to Bianca Buonaventuri's persuasion that the Grand Duke took no steps to vindicate his sister's honour or dishonour. The punishment of a.s.sa.s.sins mostly leads to further a.s.sa.s.sinations, and the "_La cosa di Francesco_" had reason to fear for her own life, seeing that her husband and her two dearest friends in Florence had been done brutally to death.

What became of the child, whose cries the Duke of Bracciano had heard, at Villa Poggio Baroncelli, no one seems to have recorded, nor are there any statements extant as to who his father actually was--a boy he was anyhow, and, though his name is uncertain, he was spoken of by the d.u.c.h.ess as "_il mio becchino_," "my little kid."

We may father him as we like--and at least three claimants for that honour are known--Troilo d'Orsini, the Duke's cousin and the d.u.c.h.ess'

companion; Lelio Torello, the comely young _Calcio_ player, and the favourite page of the Grand Duke Francesco; and, be it said in terms of doubt and horror, the Grand Duke Cosimo! If the latter, then this "Tragedy" is the culmination of all the abominable orgies which have blackened the character of the greatest tyrant and monster of his epoch!

Another story affects the career of the Chamberlain Troilo d'Orsini. He sought sanctuary in France and was befriended by Queen Catherine, to whom his mistress, the unhappy d.u.c.h.ess of Bracciano, had commended "the little kid." Whether he accepted the role of father to save the fame of the defunct Grand Duke is not known, but the unfortunate, if guilty, fugitive was stabbed in the streets of Paris by bravoes sent after him in the pay of the Duke of Bracciano.