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François Ier et l’espace politique italien

 | 
Juan-Carlos D’Amico
, 
Jean-Louis Fournel

Troisième partie. François Ier, les états de l’église et les royaumes du sud de l’Italie

Francis I, Charles V and the Roman barons

Christine Shaw

Résumé

Francis I and Charles V adopted the same policies towards the Roman barons as fifteenth-century Italian princes and republics had done, employing them as military commanders, expecting to use them to exert influence, if not pressure, on the popes, and to have access through them to the Guelf and Ghibelline factions that looked to the barons for leadership. This was most evident during the pontificate of Clement VII, in the period culminating in the Sack of Rome in 1527. The failure of Francis’s attempt to recover the kingdom of Naples in 1528-9, and the consolidation of Charles’s rule there, caused them to develop different approaches to their use of the barons. Charles expected Roman barons who were his subjects by virtue of their Neapolitan estates to put their resources in the Papal States at his service. Francis continued to employ Roman barons as commanders, and valued the opportunity to use their influence in Rome, but for him, the potential use of their lands and fortresses was a secondary consideration.

Texte intégral

1Before the Italian Wars, Italian princes and republics competed for the services of Roman barons as condottieri, not only because they were among the leading military commanders available and the popes were unable to establish a monopoly over their services, but because they also saw the employment of Roman baronial condottieri as a potential way of exerting influence, if not pressure, on the popes. Roman barons were often willing to put loyalty to their employer before any duty of obedience to the pope as their temporal sovereign, and to put their lands and their fortresses and their political connections in Rome and the wider Papal States at the service of other powers. A decision to give a military contract to a Roman baron could be as much a political as a military one.

2Francis I – like other French kings during the Italian Wars – and the emperor Charles V adopted broadly the same policies as the fifteenth-century Italian powers. They expected to be able to make use of the personal military assets and the political resources and networks of the Roman barons they employed as commanders. But their relationship to the barons developed rather differently: for Francis, political considerations became less important than they were to Charles.

3By the time Francis and Charles came to their thrones, the Roman barons had had to adjust to the different terms on which military commands were offered by the ultramontane powers. In the early phases of the wars, the French and Spanish kings had given Italian commanders the kind of military contracts, condotte, that they were used to, but as they became established in Italy, they preferred Italians to fit in with the organization and structures of their own armies. If they hired Italian captains, they would rather give them command of an existing unit. Companies of Italian infantry or light horse raised by their commanders might be taken on, but were generally the first to be dismissed when the campaign for which they had been hired was over. French and Spanish kings were not prepared to pay Italian commanders to keep their companies on their own estates in peace time, as Italian powers had sometimes been willing to do. This change brought a significant reduction in the independent military strength of the Roman barons. Nevertheless, the French and Spanish were still aware of the military potential of the barons’ estates, particularly their fortresses, and of the potential value of the large numbers of men they could raise from their subjects and tenants.

4They were also aware of the potential value of the barons’ connections with the Guelf and Ghibelline factions of the Papal States. Intervention in Italy by the French kings and the emperor had revived the sense of the old associations of Guelfs with the French and Ghibellines with the Empire. Guelfs might serve the emperor, and Ghibellines the king of France, but if they did so they could be taunted for their choice, even accused of suspect loyalties. It would be regarded as only natural that, among the Roman barons, Francis should have links with the Guelf Orsini family, and Charles with the Ghibelline Colonna.

5Charles’s association with the main branches of the Colonna family, however, was not so much due to their being Ghibellines as to his inheritance of the kingdom of Naples. During Ferdinand of Aragon’s reign, the Colonna had established close ties to the Spanish there – not untroubled, or exclusive, but closer than they had ever been with the Aragonese dynasty that ruled Naples in the fifteenth century. Those Colonna branches that had estates in the kingdom were Charles V’s subjects and vassals, and he was conscious of having as much call on their allegiance as the pope did. Fabrizio and Prospero Colonna, the two leading, veteran, condottieri of the family, both looked to him as their primary temporal lord, although they never forgot they were Roman barons.

  • 1 A. Desjardins and G. Canestrini, Négociations diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane, vol. 1, P (...)
  • 2 M. Sanuto, I diarii, 58 vols (Venice, 1879-1903), XXX, col. 469: Venetian ambassador in France, 23  (...)
  • 3 G. Molini, Documenti di storia italiana, I, Florence, 1836, p. 110-11: ? to Prospero Colonna, 13 Au (...)

6Great Constable of the kingdom of Naples, Fabrizio Colonna based himself there rather than in Rome. Prospero, unwilling to accept a subordinate command under the viceroy, had preferred to be captain-general of the army of Massimiliano Sforza, the duke of Milan. In trying to block the French invasion of Milan in 1515, Prospero was captured, and when Charles inherited the kingdom of Naples in January 1516, Prospero was a prisoner in France. Before his ransom was agreed, Francis tried to being him into his own service. It was said that perhaps half, perhaps nearly the whole of his ransom of 35,000 ducats would be set against his payment for the command of 100 lances, but Prospero himself denied this1. He may have had to promise that he would not fight against Francis, or that he would serve him if the king asked him to within a certain period. When he commanded the Imperial and papal troops in the campaign to expel the French from Milan in 1521 it was reported from France that « il Re vuol tuor le zente l’havea »2. A formal challenge was addressed to him from someone, apparently an Italian, in the French army, reproaching him for « il tristo acto che haveti facto al mio Re, in mancharli de la parola et fede vostra che li desti quando vi donò la libertà della carcere in la qual vi teneva »3.

  • 4 For example, M. Sanuto, I diarii… cité, XXVII, col. 441: Venetian ambassador in Spain, 11 June 1519 (...)
  • 5 Mantua, Archivio di Stato, Archivio Gonzaga (henceforth ASMantua, AGonzaga), b. 864, cc. 184, 185: (...)
  • 6 Ch. Shaw, Barons and Castellans: The Military Nobility of Renaissance Italy, Leiden, 2015, p. 141.
  • 7 Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, London, 1862-1964, II, p. 488-9: instructions of Prospero Colonn (...)
  • 8 Ibid., p. 515: Prospero Colonna to Charles V, 24 Dec. 1522, Milan.

7After his release, Prospero went to some trouble to assure Charles of his loyalty, travelling to Spain several times, and he acted as an intermediary between Charles and Pope Leo X, transmitting messages rather than formally negotiating4. He was very well received and treated with honour by Charles and his court. As he was at Barcelona about to leave for Naples in the summer of 1519, according to Prospero’s secretary, Charles sent him 10,000 ducats to cover part of the expense he had incurred in coming to see him. Prospero refused it, so the emperor sent him a privilege increasing his share of the taxes from his Neapolitan estates by 2,000 ducats instead5. Although Prospero still refused to serve under the viceroy, and threatened to leave the camp if the viceroy came to take command of the campaign in Milan in 15216, he does seem to have devoted himself to the emperor’s service. In late 1522 he sent a long memorandum of advice to Charles, on how he might become master of Italy and keep the French at bay. A league of Italian states was a key element of his proposed strategy, and he was not suggesting that Charles should rule even Milan directly7. Union was the only way to resist the French, he argued. The emperor must urge the pope (by then Adrian VI) to declare himself an enemy of France8. When he died in January 1524, Prospero was the Imperial captain-general in Lombardy.

  • 9 Rome, Archivio Capitolino, Archivio Orsini (henceforth AOrsini), b. 93, c. 53: Martino da Bracciano (...)

8 Francis did not inherit such useful ties with any Roman baron. True, the head of the main branch of the Orsini family, Giangiordano, had an almost quixotic devotion to Louis XII, and he transferred his loyalty to the new king. But he had long abandoned the pursuit of a military career, and was too eccentric to carry any real political weight as an advocate for France in Rome. As head of the Orsini family, however, he merited receiving a pension from Francis, as he had from Louis. His pension lapsed on his death in October 1517; Francis promised to continue paying part of it to Giangiordano’s sons but, like other pensioners of the king, they found payments could be very hard to extract9.

  • 10 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XXIV, col. 613: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 24 Aug. 1517.
  • 11 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 864, c. 160: Alessandro da Gabbioneta to Isabella d’Este, 17 June 1519, Rome

9It was in fact a Colonna, not an Orsini, who was the principal Roman baron in the service of the king in the early years of his reign. Marcantonio Colonna, Prospero’s nephew, struck an independent path. In accepting a contract with the French king in 1517, he was following the logic of a career soldier who saw no bar to serving any employer who offered a suitable command, rather than deliberately setting at defiance either his own family or Charles. But Francis wanted to make use of his insider’s knowledge of Rome, and sent him to support the French ambassador, who lacked experience of the papal court10. He stayed there for about two years, until after Francis failed to secure the Imperial election in 1519. So sure had he been that the king would be elected, that Marcantonio had planned elaborate celebrations in Rome, but hearing of Charles’s success, he left the city so as to avoid seeing the celebrations of the other Colonna11.

  • 12 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cité, XXVIII, col. 109: Venetian ambassador in France, 23 Nov. 1519; col. 115: (...)
  • 13 Ibid., col. 77: Venetian secretary in Milan, early Nov. 1519.
  • 14 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 1911, c. 94: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 14 Mar. 1541, Rome.
  • 15 C. Guasti (ed.), I Manoscritti Torrigiani donati al R. Archivio Centrale di Stato di Firenze, in Ar (...)

10He went to France to see the king, and on his return to Italy in October 1519 by order of the king was given six artillery pieces for his fortresses, and 1,000 infantry cuirasses in Milan12. He was also given a personal company of 50 lances, a signal honour reportedly enjoyed by only two French nobles and no other Italian at the time13. It may have been at this point that Francis gave him money to strengthen his fortress of Paliano, strategically placed between Rome and the border with Naples, « per havere il passo nel Regno di Napoli » (according to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga’s agent in Rome when Paliano was coming under attack by the forces of Paul III in 1541)14. Even before the Imperial election he was said to be encouraging Francis to invade Naples, telling him it would be easy to do15.

  • 16 G. Molini, Documenti di storia italiana… cit., I, p. 120-1: Marcantonio Colonna to Francis I, 25 Se (...)
  • 17 E. Pacheco y de Leyva (ed.), La Politica Española en Italia. Correspondencia de Don Fernando Maria, (...)
  • 18 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XXXII, col. 200, 203 (3 Dec. 1521).
  • 19 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Archivio della Repubblica, (henceforth ASFlorence), Otto di Pratica, R (...)
  • 20 E. Pacheco y de Leyva (ed.), La Politica Española en Italia… cité, p. 235: Abad de Nájera to Charle (...)

11As preparations were made to drive the French out of Milan in 1521, Marcantonio made another journey to France, and the king urged him to continue in his service. He reached the king in late August, only to be sent back quickly to join Lautrec. Writing to Francis, he reported receiving a letter from him, « per la quale se degna non solo monstrare de havere accepto el mio servitio che ha inteso che io li fo, ma me exorta al perseverare ». Lautrec had shown him another letter from the king ordering that « attesa la mia servitù et pensando che per la demonstratione che ho facta forsi non potria cosi comodamente stare in terre de Roma, che io sia proveduto de una bona masone in questo stato, dove possa accomodarme con mia consorte et famiglia »16. In early December he went to Venice, sent by the French to encourage their Venetian allies to persevere, it was believed by the Spanish in Milan17. In Venice, it was rumoured he had come to discuss being taken on as the Governor of the Venetian army18. Two months later, it was reported in Rome that he had been given permission by the king to accept a Venetian condotta19. He died fighting with the French army besieging the city of Milan in March 152220.

12After Marcantonio Colonna, the main Roman baron Francis had in his service was Renzo da Ceri. Renzo was not a member of the Orsini family – he was an Anguillara – but he had close personal and political ties to them. As a leading figure in the Orsini-Guelf faction in the Papal States, he could call on the resources of the faction. The soldiers of the Orsini family were not necessarily prepared to accept his leadership, however, so he could not guarantee Francis the use of their lands and fortresses. His own estates were not of much significance.

  • 21 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cité, XXI, col. 72: Venetian ambassadors to Francis I, 2-8 Sept. 1515. Renzo d (...)
  • 22 Ibid., XXII, col. 217: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 5, 6, 9, 12 May 1516; col. 205: Duke of Ferrara (...)
  • 23 G. Molini, Documenti di storia italiana… cité, I, p. 139-42, ‘Copia Capitulorum’ (Jan. 1522?).

13Renzo had made a reputation for himself in the wars in Lombardy, attaining high command in the service of Venice. He first approached Francis in September 1515, but the king told him to serve out his term with Venice. Renzo had sent a messenger « a scusarsi non pol servir la Signoria, li è stà roto li soi capitoli. Il Re li usò gran parole: ch’el signor Renzo compia il tempo promesso, perchè la Signoria non ha colpa di deferentie è tra lui e Bortolo d’Alviano »21. There were reports in May 1516 that he had been given 100 lances by Francis, and that Leo might share him with the king22. It was Leo he served for the next five years, until he quarrelled with the pope (over Orsini family conflicts) and left his service in the summer of 1521. After Leo’s death a few months later, Renzo linked up in a mutual defence league with Francesco Maria della Rovere, the duke of Urbino deposed by Leo, and Camillo and Mario Orsini and Orazio Baglioni23.

14It seems to have been as a soldier with extensive political and military connections in the Papal States, at a time when it was widely expected that the emperor would have the new pope, Adrian VI, practically under his control, that Renzo finally appeared to Francis as someone who could be useful. Renzo was delighted when the king wrote to him. The king’s letter, Renzo wrote in response,

  • 24 Ibid., p. 142-3: Renzo da Ceri to Francis, 28 Jan. 1522.

[…] mi ha dato tanto gaudio, piacere et speranza come de cosa alchuna che io, deditissimo servitor di quella, havesse possuto havere, considerato che molti anni sono che mai in altro ho pensato se no di servire ad V. Maestà et essere connumerato tra lli minimi servitori di quella, alla quale me, colli figlioli, partesani, amici et stato et quanto ho al mondo mi son dato integramente per servitore, né mai altro pensarò se non per servitio di V. Maestà con quella sincera fede deve un servitore al suo patrone et Signore24.

  • 25 ASFlorence, Otto di Pratica, Responsive, b. 25, c. 141: Galeotto de’ Medici, 23 May 1522, Rome.
  • 26 Ibid., c. 261, 265: Galeotto de’ Medici, 16, 20 June 1522, Rome.
  • 27 Ibid., c. 378: Galeotto de’ Medici, 16 July 1522, Rome.

15Soon he was busy raising troops among the Guelf partisans with money from Francis, although these funds quickly dried up as the French forces struggled in Lombardy. He led an unsuccessful expedition to install a pro-French regime in Siena, and expel the Medici from Florence. Although he may have called himself the king’s lieutenant in Tuscany25, he did not have a formal contract with the king. It was said in Rome that Francis sent messengers to him, asking him to put troops in order and promising that he would not lack for money, and Renzo himself may have spread a rumour that he had a condotta for 100 lances from the king, and 12,000 ducats cash26. Apparently, all he actually received were promises. Offered a condotta by the Venetians, he was said to have replied « essere obligato a parole al Re, per non haver fermo la condocta », and to be sending Stefano Conti to France « a protestare al Re li dia la condocta promissoli o licentia di posserla pigliar da Venetiani ».27 Conti did not go, and Renzo may not have been given a contract until he went to France himself in early 1523. He would remain in the service of Francis for the rest of his life.

  • 28 For an outline of the campaigns Renzo fought in French service see Dizionario biografico degli Ital (...)
  • 29 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 869, c. 17, 39: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 8, 21 Jan. 1525, Rome (...)
  • 30 Ibid., b. 869, c. 47: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 28 Jan. 1525, Rome; ASFlorence, Otto d (...)
  • 31 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 869, c. 165: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 29 Mar. 1525, Rome.

16Renzo became one of the king’s most trusted Italian commanders, at the head of 5,000 infantry in Lombardy in the campaigns of 1523-4, and directing the defence of Marseilles against the invading Imperial army in 152428. He was commander of the infantry of the expeditionary force under the duke of Albany that was intended to invade the kingdom of Naples the following year, raising thousands of men with other Orsini in their favoured recruiting-grounds in Umbria. He spent several days in Rome in late January, visiting the French ambassador but not the pope29. Several Orsini, Ludovico, conte di Pitigliano, Gentil Virginio, conte d’Anguillara, Mario, Gianantonio, Girolamo and Ottavio, as well as Camillo Caetani da Sermoneta and another Caetani, were given condotte to raise men at arms and light horse to join up with Albany on his way to Naples30. When that invasion was called off, following the king’s capture at Pavia, Renzo, and Ottavio and Gianantonio Orsini, left with Albany on the fleet that came to evacuate the French troops from Civitavecchia31.

  • 32 ASFlorence, Otto di Pratica, Responsive, b. 32, c. 453: Galeotto de’ Medici to Otto di Pratica, 18  (...)
  • 33 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 869, c. 34: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 19 Jan. 1525, Rome.
  • 34 Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, III, part 1, p. 356: Duca di Sessa to Charles V, 5 Oct. 1525, Ro (...)
  • 35 Ibid., p. 442: Lope Hurtado to Charles V, 5 Nov. 1525, Milan.

17On the other side, while the Orsini were engaged in raising troops to support Albany’s expedition against Naples, Ascanio, Vespasiano and Cardinal Pompeo Colonna were recruiting thousands of men to defend the kingdom, and placing artillery in their fortresses32. The Imperial ambassador, the duca di Sessa, sent recruiters with drummers around Rome, proclaiming that anyone who wanted to join up should go to the Colonna33. If the allegiance of the Colonna was a valuable asset to Charles at this time, it was because of their local connections, their ability to call on the services of their tenants and partisans, not because of the military abilities of individual members of the family. After Prospero’s death, there was no senior Colonna soldier who could take his place as a military commander for Charles. Vespasiano, Prospero’s son, was ailing; Ascanio, Fabrizio’s son, was willing enough to assume the mantle of military and political head of the family, but he had yet to prove himself capable of doing so (and never really would). The most militant member of the Colonna family was Cardinal Pompeo Colonna, whose long-standing rivalry with Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici had turned to enmity since Cardinal Medici’s election to the papacy as Clement VII. He left Rome for his estates in October 1525, claiming that as a faithful servant to the emperor he was not safe in Rome34. He and Ascanio spoke of calling their family together and placing themselves under the orders of the marchese di Pescara, Charles’s lieutenant in Italy. If need be, Ascanio suggested, they would raise troops, enter Rome in force and then stay there, to serve the emperor’s cause35.

  • 36 Ibid., p. 567: Charles V to Duca di Sessa, 8 Feb. 1526, Toledo.
  • 37 Ibid., p. 603: Miguel de Herrera to Charles V, 16 Mar. 1526, Rome; M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XLI, (...)
  • 38 K. Lanz (ed.), Correspondenz des Kaisers Karl V. aus dem Königlichen Archiv und der Bibliothèque de (...)
  • 39 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 871, c. 619: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 25 Aug. 1526, Rome.

18At that time, Charles thought the cardinal could be of more use to him in Rome, aiding the efforts of the Imperial ambassador to secure the alliance of the pope36. The suggestion that Cardinal Colonna should be involved in negotiations infuriated Clement, however. In any case, the cardinal was on bad terms with the ambassador, and when Charles’s letter asking him to go to Rome reached him, he excused himself from complying, saying that he had gout37. He sent to the emperor to say that he was prepared to drive the pope from Rome, and that he could raise Siena and Florence against Clement, too. Charles ordered his envoy, Ugo de Moncada, to get the cardinal to put these plans into action – appearing to act on his own initiative – if the pope could not be won over to join the emperor against Francis38. Vespasiano Colonna, although loyal to Charles, was more moderate than Cardinal Pompeo or Ascanio, and negotiated a truce for his family with Clement that reflected his own position rather than theirs. The Colonna were declared to be faithful vassals of the pope for their lands in his jurisdiction and were not to help the imperiali against him, but also vassals of Charles and bound to defend the kingdom of Naples39.

  • 40 Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, III, part 1, p. 897: Ugo de Moncada to Alonso Sanchez, 14 Sept. (...)
  • 41 Ibid., p. 927-8: Articles of the truce between Clement and Ugo de Moncada, 21 Sept. 1526; G. Molini (...)
  • 42 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XLIII, col. 244: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 11, 12 and 13 Nov. 1526; A (...)

19This truce, so Moncada claimed, had been made so that the pope could be taken unawares40 – as indeed he was, when Moncada, with Cardinal Pompeo, Ascanio and Vespasiano too entered Rome with thousands of the Colonna’s men and Spanish troops, on 19 September 1526. Before they left the city the next day, the Borgo and the Vatican itself had been sacked. In the truce he negotiated with the pope, Moncada got what he wanted for his master – the withdrawal of the papal troops from Lombardy – and a full pardon for the Colonna and their followers41. Yet the Colonna paid a heavy price in the devastation of their lands and castles by papal troops over the winter, as Clement maintained that by attacking his own vassals, he was not offending Charles or breaking his truce with him42.

  • 43 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XLIV, col. 312: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 16 Mar. 1527.
  • 44 Ibid., col. 425: terms dated 16 Mar. 1527; ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 873, c. 220-1: transcription of c (...)
  • 45 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XLV, col. 60: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 4 and 5 May 1527.
  • 46 V.L. Bourrilly, Guillaume du Bellay, seigneur de Langey, 1491-1543, Paris, 1905, p. 44-46.

20Francis sought to take advantage of this situation, sending Renzo da Ceri to support the pope in January 1527. Once again, Renzo turned to the Orsini faction to raise troops to prosecute the campaign against the Colonna lands; he also took the war across the Neapolitan border into the counties of Tagliacozzo and Albi, which were held by Ascanio Colonna but claimed by the Orsini. With the French ambassador, he spoke to the Venetian ambassador in Rome, to urge that the Venetians should send a fleet and troops to the kingdom43. But just at that time, in mid-March 1527, Clement was concluding a truce with the viceroy of Naples and Renzo could not dissuade him44. The truce did not restrain the mutinous Imperial army under Charles, duc de Bourbon heading south to attack Rome; Clement, at the last minute, entrusted the defence of the city to Renzo45. After trying in vain to stem the influx of Imperial soldiers into Rome, Renzo went to the Capitol with the French ambassador Guillaume du Bellay in a vain attempt to rally the Romans to defend their city, and prevent the entry of the Colonna, before trying to defend Trastevere. Eventually he, du Bellay, and around 25 other French gentlemen took refuge in the Castel Sant’Angelo, with the pope. With the French, he advised Clement not to surrender, but succeeded only in delaying negotiations by a day. He and the French were allowed to leave Rome in early June, and he left for France with du Bellay on the galleys of Andrea Doria at the beginning of July46.

  • 47 Ibid., p. 49.
  • 48 Ibid., p. 48-53.
  • 49 M. Arfaioli, The Black Bands of Giovanni. Infantry and Diplomacy during the Italian Wars (1526-1528 (...)
  • 50 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 877, c. 610: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 20 Oct. 1528, Rome (citi (...)

21In September, Renzo was sent back to Italy to raise and command 6,000 men, to be embarked on the king’s and Doria’s galleys. His instructions were to take them to Naples, or Sicily or Sardinia, « ainsi qu’il verra estre à propoz [...] pour faire la guerre aux ennemys du Roy par tous moiens dont il se pourra adviser et par prendre, acquérir et réduire le dict pais en l’obeyssance dudict Roy »47. Shortage of money to raise the intended number of troops, storms that damaged the fleet, and the lateness of the season prevented much being achieved by this expedition48. In July 1528, he was sent with Charles de Foix-Albret, prince de Navarre, to bring inadequate reinforcements to the French army under Lautrec besieging Naples. Having inspected the camp and formed his opinion as to what was going wrong, Renzo used his professional standing and the esteem in which he was held by the king to speak frankly to Lautrec. He convinced him that it was essential to raise more men, and was despatched to the Abruzzi to raise 4,000 infantry and as many light horse as he could there and in papal territory49. The siege of Naples was abandoned before he could return. Francis appointed him commander in Apulia and then, in January 1529, his lieutenant-general in the kingdom50. He fought on until Francis surrendered all the places held for him in Italy in the Treaty of Cambrai. Subsequently, Renzo seems to have preferred to live in France, rather than in or around Rome.

  • 51 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., L, col. 97: Venetian provveditore at Trani, 21 Feb. 1529.
  • 52 Ch. Shaw, Barons and Castellans… cit., p. 139.
  • 53 Ibid.; C. De Cupis, Regesto degli Orsini e dei Conti Anguillara, in Bullettino della R. Deputazione (...)
  • 54 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., LVI, col. 302: Venetian ambassador in London, 13 May 1532.

22Some younger Orsini, as well as his own son Gianpaolo, had been with Renzo in the Abruzzi and Apulia. Camillo Orsini would in time become one of the most respected commanders in Italy; there was a report in February 1529 that Francis had given him a condotta for 3,000 infantry and 200 light horse51. But his service in Naples, although it helped build his reputation, was only an interlude in two decades of service to Venice52. Camillo Pardo Orsini, from a Neapolitan branch of the family, was reported to have been given a condotta of 2,000 infantry, and Francis also promised him restitution of all the offices, titles and lands his ancestors had held, if the kingdom was recovered53. He seems to have stayed in the service of the king; in May 1532 he was in London, « mandato dal re Christianissimo, passa in Dans (Danzig?), poi in Prusia, per andar a li servicii del re Zuane »54.

23Neither the king nor the Orsini forgot what had become a tradition, even more than a history, of Orsini links with France. But for the rest of his reign, Francis’s military efforts in Italy were focused on the north-west of the peninsula, in Piedmont, Monferrato and Saluzzo, where no Roman barons had any political connections, let alone lands or fortresses, that could be of any use to him. And there was a problem – there was still no member of the Orsini family whom the king could employ to promote French interests in Rome.

  • 55 See C. Shaw, The exemplary career of a rogue elephant: Napoleone Orsini, Abate di Farfa, in Viator, (...)
  • 56 AOrsini, b. 95, c. 382: Napoleone Orsini to Felice Orsini, 22 Dec. 1528 (?); the condotta for 2,000 (...)
  • 57 AOrsini, b. 294, c. 145: Giangirolamo Tenaglio to Napoleone Orsini, 13 Aug. 1529, Saint-Quentin.
  • 58 Ibid., c. 150: Giangirolamo Tenaglio to Napoleone Orsini, 20 Sept. 1529, Paris.
  • 59 Ibid., c. 141: Pierpaolo Sanguigno to Napoleone Orsini, 5 Oct. 1529, Rome.
  • 60 Simancas, Archivo General (henceforth ASimancas), Estado, leg. 850, 99: transcription coded passage (...)
  • 61 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., LIV, col. 177: Venetian ambassador in Blois, 18 Nov. 1530.
  • 62 C. De Cupis, ‘Regesto degli Orsini’… cit., Ser. IV, 4, 1934, p. 358-359: 10 Nov. 1533.
  • 63 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 882, c. 153: Fabrizio Peregrino to Federico Gonzaga, 9 Nov. 1533, Rome.

24 None of the three sons of Giangiordano, who were the most obvious candidates, showed any sign of maturing into being a useful politician, or soldier. The eldest, Napoleone, was unstable and unreliable55. He had repudiated the ecclesiastical career his family had planned for him, been imprisoned by Clement for plotting against him, and quarrelled with his half-brothers and his stepmother. He had looked to Francis for support, and Napoleone claimed to have received a written assurance, sealed and signed by the king, of a condotta for 2,000 infantry and 200 light horse, with 6,000 francs a year pension, and the promise of estates in the kingdom of Naples, and the office of Great Constable of Naples that his grandfather Virginio had held56. Apparently, however, he did not receive much, if any, of the payment promised for this condotta, and after the conclusion of the Treaty of Cambrai his envoy in France saw no prospect of his being paid for the condotta or the pension57. Nevertheless, his envoy expressed confidence that the king « non è per mancarve mai et molto ben sa li grati servitii della Signoria Vostra et delli soi antecessori con lla corona de Franza delli quali non se scorda et è per farvelo cognoscere » .58 In Rome, the French ambassador and Cardinal Trivulzio, who helped handle French affairs there, warned Napoleone’s agent that if he would not come to a reasonable settlement with his brothers and stepmother, « non erano per favorirle in niuno conto, ad cio quella sopto ombra del Re non havessi ad occupare le cose de altri » . If he did not do right by his brothers, the ambassador warned, « ne farria dispiacere al Re perche erate figlioli tutti ad un patre »59. In 1530 Napoleone offered his services to Charles, but his bad reputation told against him, and he turned again to the French. Cardinal Tarbes helped him obtain a pardon from Clement after he had tried to use force to settle his quarrel and defied the pope60, and then Napoleone went to France, to try to get some money from the king61. After he had again incurred the wrath of the pope and needed another pardon, it was the intercession of the king which obtained it for him, while Francis and Clement were together at Nice62. The king was said to have promised on his behalf that he would be a faithful subject of the Church63. Francis was spared further trouble on his behalf by the murder of Napoleone in February 1534 by his brother Girolamo, who looked to Charles rather than Francis for support, but was of little use to him.

  • 64 ASimancas, Estado, leg. 1005, 95: Ascanio Colonna to Charles V, 19 Nov. 1529, Imperial camp near Fl (...)

25The Colonna also had a major problem in the disposition of family lands at this time, after Vespasiano Colonna died in 1528, leaving his vast estates to his young second wife and his daughter Isabella. The Colonna claimed that the lands should go to the nearest male heir – from October 1528, that was Ascanio Colonna. Both the pope and the emperor asserted a right to settle the matter. Ascanio urged Charles to hear him put his case before deciding anything. Charles was the master of all he had, « mio unico e perpetuo patrone », and he was sure that Charles « non vorra con la sua autorità contra la voluntà de mei antecessori privare me de quello che essy aquistorno con tante fatighe et con tanto sangue » from Charles’s ancestors64. Charles knew how important the matter was to the Colonna, and yet he decided against Ascanio’s claims to Vespasiano’s Neapolitan estates, and did not help him in his fight to gain possession of the estates near Rome.

  • 65 Ibid., leg. 1006, 83: Cardinal Colonna to Charles V, 23 Feb. 1530, Naples.
  • 66 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., LVI, col. 552: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 6 July 1532.
  • 67 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 886, c. 480: transcription of coded passage of letter from Cardinal Ercole G (...)

26At that time, the strongest connection between Charles and the Colonna was maintained by Cardinal Colonna. Still estranged from Clement, Cardinal Colonna assured Charles that « non ho altra dependentia che da lei, ne ricognosco altro signore al mundo »65. He governed the kingdom of Naples from 1529 until his death in 1532. After that, the imperiali tried to persuade Ascanio to take on the role of head of the family in Rome66. For a few years, he collaborated with the Imperial ambassador, speaking to the pope on behalf of Charles, but in 1536 Charles was reported to have ceased to make use of him in this way, because he had mishandled the emperor’s affairs67. Increasingly eccentric, Ascanio further compromised his position by quarrelling with his wife, Giovanna d’Aragona, who was related to the emperor.

  • 68 ASimancas, Estado, leg. 1033, 16: copy Ascanio Colonna to Pedro de Toledo, 28 Feb. 1541, Marino.
  • 69 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 1911, c. 86: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 9 Mar. 1541, Rome.

27Ascanio continued to look to Charles for support, which he got, up to a point. When Ascanio went to war against Pope Paul III in 1541 over the imposition of a salt tax on his estates, he asked Charles for troops and money for « la mia justa et necessaria defensione » against the pope, beseeching Pedro de Toledo, the viceroy of Naples, « se digne farme subito ajutar et dale gente de guerra et da quanto po como Sua Maestà a tante volte scritto et convene alla protectione de Sua Maestà et alla servitù di casa mia et mia »68. What he got was some mediation by the Imperial ambassador in Rome. As the war went badly for him, Ascanio wanted Charles to command him to come to terms with the pope, so that he could save his honour by saying he was obeying Charles, not the pope69.

28That all Ascanio’s lands in papal territory were lost to him need not be regarded by anyone as final. The established pattern in such conflicts between barons and popes was that the barons would recover their lands on the death of the pope, if not before – as indeed Ascanio did, when Paul died. Charles did get a promise from Paul when they met in Lucca in 1541, that the estates would be restored. When it became known that Paul planned to dismantle Ascanio’s fortress of Paliano in 1543,

  • 70 Ibid., b. 1913, unnumbered: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 20 Jan. 1543, Rome.

[…] sapendosi che Nostro Signore truovandosi in Lucca promise al Imperatore di rendere lo stato al Signor Ascanio e al Signor Fabritio suo figliolo, et di poi ha sempre tenuti in speranza di restituirlo li ministri di Sua Maestà [...] fa maravigliare ogn’uno70.

  • 71 Ibid., unnumbered: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 14 Feb. 1543, Rome.
  • 72 A. Bertolotti, La prigionia di Ascanio Colonna (1553-57), in Atti e memorie delle RR. Deputazioni d (...)

29The demolition of the fortress at Paliano by the pope was viewed by the imperiali in Rome as a blow to the emperor’s interests, and they swore that the emperor would have his revenge. Paul, however, argued that « non v’era il desservitio di l’Imperatore poi che quel luogo fu fortificato con li dinari del Re de Francia, et mandatovi l’artiglieria con animo di posser con l’occasioni nuocere a Sua Maestà »71. The association with the Colonna family in Rome was too valuable an asset to be destroyed by the eccentricities of an individual, and Charles kept an interest in the next generation, Ascanio’s sons; one of them, Fabrizio, was kept at the Imperial court for some years. Charles would have been quite content for the estates to be restored to them, not their father. When Ascanio finally exhausted his patience and was arrested in 1554, accused of being in contact with the French, his lands in Naples were not confiscated, but given over to his son Marcantonio72.

30Charles’s difficulties with Ascanio made it less problematic for Francis that he still had no prominent Orsini on whom he could rely in Rome. The French envoys there could feel the lack of such support. In 1532, the French ambassador felt « disperato » because the only leader of the Orsini faction he felt could be of use to him, Renzo’s son Gianpaolo, was about to leave. The imperiali in Rome were said to be behind the proposal that he should accompany Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici to Hungary

  • 73 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 881, c. 124: transcription of code in letter from Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga to (...)

[…] per servirsene loro et levato a Franzesi [...] Questa importa assai più che non pare perche qui non resta più alcuno di Casa Ursina né della Colonna il quale pigliasse la spada in mano per la fattione del Re Christianissimo, tanto bene essi sono deportati Franzesi con l’una et l’altra parte73.

  • 74 Ibid., c. 157: Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga to Giangiacomo Calandra, 10 July 1532, Rome.
  • 75 Ibid., c. 187: Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga to Giangiacomo Calandra, 8 Aug. 1532, Rome.

31The king’s men in Rome sent to France to urge the conclusion of the condotta and pension for Gianpaolo that had been discussed for some time, and persuaded him that he was honour bound to wait in Rome for a reply74. Soon, he was given a condotta of 3,000 infantry and 150 horse in time of war, and 1,500 scudi pension; the ambassador asked him to keep this quiet « perche come l’altri capitani et personaggi di guerra l’intendessero tutti vorebbano che loro fosse accresciuta conditione »75. Francis did not have the claim to Gianpaolo’s loyalty as a vassal that Charles could make on Ascanio Colonna. It was as a soldier that he served Francis, earning a good reputation at the head of Italian infantry in Piedmont.

  • 76 Ibid., b. 883, c. 189: Fabrizio Peregrino to Federico Gonzaga, 6 Oct. 1534, Rome.
  • 77 Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, XXVII, p. 443-5.
  • 78 G. Molini, Documenti di storia italiana… cit., II, p. 166: Gregorio Casale to Montmorency, 10 Apr. (...)
  • 79 Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, XXVII, p. 443-445.

32When Francis sent Roman barons to accompany the French cardinals hurrying to Rome for the conclave following Clement’s death in 1534, he sent not Gianpaolo but Renzo, and Stefano Colonna da Palestrina76. Stefano, whose branch of the family had been estranged from the rest of the Colonna for generations and in some ways been closer to the Orsini, had been in French service since late 1528, with 2,000 infantry and 200 light horse77. In early April 1529 he was warmly welcomed on his arrival in Rome, « né si potria dire quanto alli devoti del Christianissimo sia grato il vedere il predetto Signore condotto a servitii di Sua Maestà che non potra essere altro che bene et honorevolmente servita da lui », although he had yet to receive the money he needed to raise his troops78. Soon, he was fighting with the French in Lombardy, where he was captured at the battle of Landriano on 21 June 1529. With the king’s permission, he served Florence during the siege of 1529-30, and then went to France. He was involved in the defence of Provence against the Imperial invasion in 1536. But he was displeased by the king’s response to fighting between the French and Italian troops at Arles, which he was guarding, and he left his service79.

  • 80 V.L. Bourrilly, Guillaume du Bellay… cit., p. 231.
  • 81 Ibid., p. 251.

33Gianpaolo da Ceri had been with the forces harassing the retreating Imperial army in September80 (Renzo had died in a hunting accident earlier that year), and he became colonel-general of the Italian infantry in Piedmont, except for those under the command of Guido Rangone and Cesare Campofregoso, with whom he did not get on well81. Just before his death in 1542, it was reported that he was dissatisfied and thinking of leaving French service, although he had denied it. His relative in Rome who had told the Imperial ambassador that Gianpaolo was ready to serve Charles, was said to have excused himself to Gianpaolo,

  • 82 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 1912, c. 244: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 10 Sept. 1542, Rome.

ch’el s’era mosso da se pensando fargli piacere et servitio, conoscendo quanto fusse dal suo Re mal trattato, et vedeva quanta grandezza et utile riportavono quelli che servivono l’imperatore il quale ha a chi lo serve donati principati, ducati et altri stati, il che non si vede che faccia il Re con li suoi servitori82.

  • 83 Ibid., c. 220-1: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 23 Aug. 1542, Rome.
  • 84 J. Lestoquoy (ed.), Correspondance des nonces en France Capodiferro, Dandino et Guidiccione 1541-15 (...)

34In fact, in the last decade or so of his reign, Francis does not appear to have paid much attention to fostering his relationship with the Orsini family and faction around Rome. The most prominent Orsini in his service in the last years of his reign was Gentil Virginio Orsini, who brought his four galleys (three of them commanded by young members of the family) into the king’s service in 1542. He dismissed warnings « ch’el Re non mantiene quello che promette se non durando il bisogno, et venendo l’armata Turcesca in favore del Re », his estates would be in danger of confiscation by the pope83. But he was imprisoned in 1545, on the orders of Cardinal de Tournon, and not released until after the king’s death84.

  • 85 ASimancas, Estado, leg. 1461, 56-7: record of interrogation of Giulio Salvi, 24 Sept. 1543.
  • 86 Ibid., leg. 1459, c. 15: Duca d’Amalfi to Charles V, 17 Apr. 1537, Siena.
  • 87 V.L. Bourrilly, Guillaume du Bellay… cit., p. 351.
  • 88 ASimancas, Estado, leg. 1464, 65-6: Francesco Grasso to Charles V, 20 Dec. 1546, Siena.
  • 89 Ibid., 63: Francesco Grasso to Charles V, 22 Dec. 1546, Siena.
  • 90 Ibid., 73: Francesco Grasso to Charles V, 13 Sept. 1546, Siena.
  • 91 Niccolò himself went over to the French in 1552, provoking Gian Francesco to go over to the emperor (...)

35Gentil Virginio was involved in a plot in 1543 against the Imperial domination of Siena and to bring the Republic under the influence of Francis85. Another Orsini, conte Gianfrancesco da Pitigliano, was also involved – indeed, his fortress of Pitigliano was key to schemes to undermine the Imperial hold over Siena. It was reported in 1537 that he had been offered a condotta (an improbably large one, 3,000 infantry and 200 horse, for a soldier who never made much of a reputation as a military commander) by Francis86. He had been associated with Piero Strozzi, the leading Florentine exile in French service; he was with him in the Frenchheld stronghold of Mirandola in 1542, gathering troops87, and would command infantry under Strozzi during the raid launched from Mirandola into the Milanese and Piedmont in 154688. Charles was told that Pitigliano was « uno luoco di tanta e forsi maggiore importantia alle cose di Toschana, come la Mirandola alle cose di Lombardia »89, and when the conte di Pitigliano was close to the French, Imperial interests in Siena were threatened90. But in late 1546 Gianfrancesco’s despotic ways provoked a rebellion among the men of Pitigliano, his estranged son Niccolò, who was in the service of the emperor, came to take possession of the stronghold, and the opportunity for Francis to make use of it was lost91.

36The apparent decline in Francis’s interest in cultivating and exploiting the connection of the Orsini family and the Orsini-Guelf faction of the Papal States with the French could be partly due to the lack in the 1530s and 1540s of suitably authoritative and capable Orsini on whom he could have relied. Yet Charles had a similar problem with the Colonna in those years, and nevertheless the imperiali in Rome and Naples continued to see the connection with the Colonna as an important support to the emperor’s influence in Rome. The Colonna were Charles’s subjects, and because they were his subjects, Charles and his agents in Italy expected to be able to make use of their resources in the Papal States. The Colonna estates and fortresses were seen as forward defences of the kingdom of Naples, as well as capable of being used to intimidate the pope. The Orsini were not subjects of the French king; the promises of grants of lands in Naples that they obtained from Francis were worthless. He continued to employ Orsini and other Roman barons as soldiers, but for him the potential use of their lands and fortresses became only a secondary consideration. The differences that developed in the policies of the king and the emperor in their dealings with the Roman barons were fundamentally due to the fact that it was Charles, not Francis, who held the kingdom of Naples.

Notes

1 A. Desjardins and G. Canestrini, Négociations diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane, vol. 1, Paris, 1859-86, p. 775, 777-8: Francesco Vettori to Lorenzo de’ Medici, [20-21?], 25 Feb. 1516, Lyons.

2 M. Sanuto, I diarii, 58 vols (Venice, 1879-1903), XXX, col. 469: Venetian ambassador in France, 23 June 1521.

3 G. Molini, Documenti di storia italiana, I, Florence, 1836, p. 110-11: ? to Prospero Colonna, 13 Aug. 1521, Parma.

4 For example, M. Sanuto, I diarii… cité, XXVII, col. 441: Venetian ambassador in Spain, 11 June 1519; XXVIII, col. 6: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 28 Sept. 1519.

5 Mantua, Archivio di Stato, Archivio Gonzaga (henceforth ASMantua, AGonzaga), b. 864, cc. 184, 185: Alessandro da Gabbioneta to Isabella d’Este, 16 Sept., 1 Oct. 1519, Rome.

6 Ch. Shaw, Barons and Castellans: The Military Nobility of Renaissance Italy, Leiden, 2015, p. 141.

7 Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, London, 1862-1964, II, p. 488-9: instructions of Prospero Colonna to « Joan Vicenzio Cosso » (Gian Vincenzo Cossa?), Oct. 1522.

8 Ibid., p. 515: Prospero Colonna to Charles V, 24 Dec. 1522, Milan.

9 Rome, Archivio Capitolino, Archivio Orsini (henceforth AOrsini), b. 93, c. 53: Martino da Bracciano to Felice della Rovere Orsini, 15 Nov. 1517, « Tursi » (Tours?); Ibid., c. 131: Gianbattista da Petesa to Felice Orsini, 16 June 1519, Saint-Germain.

10 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XXIV, col. 613: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 24 Aug. 1517.

11 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 864, c. 160: Alessandro da Gabbioneta to Isabella d’Este, 17 June 1519, Rome.

12 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cité, XXVIII, col. 109: Venetian ambassador in France, 23 Nov. 1519; col. 115: Venetian secretary in Milan, early Dec. 1519.

13 Ibid., col. 77: Venetian secretary in Milan, early Nov. 1519.

14 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 1911, c. 94: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 14 Mar. 1541, Rome.

15 C. Guasti (ed.), I Manoscritti Torrigiani donati al R. Archivio Centrale di Stato di Firenze, in Archivio storico italiano, 25, 1877, p. 13: Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici to Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi, 13 Jan. 1519.

16 G. Molini, Documenti di storia italiana… cit., I, p. 120-1: Marcantonio Colonna to Francis I, 25 Sept. 1521.

17 E. Pacheco y de Leyva (ed.), La Politica Española en Italia. Correspondencia de Don Fernando Maria, Abad de Nájera con Carlos I, Madrid, 1919, p. 168: Abad de Nájera to Charles V, 3 Dec. 1521, Milan.

18 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XXXII, col. 200, 203 (3 Dec. 1521).

19 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Archivio della Repubblica, (henceforth ASFlorence), Otto di Pratica, Responsive, b. 22, c. 16: Galeotto de’ Medici, 8 Feb. 1521 (2), Rome.

20 E. Pacheco y de Leyva (ed.), La Politica Española en Italia… cité, p. 235: Abad de Nájera to Charles V, 10 Mar. 1522, Milan.

21 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cité, XXI, col. 72: Venetian ambassadors to Francis I, 2-8 Sept. 1515. Renzo da Ceri and Bartolomeo d’Alviano were rivals for the top commands in the Venetian army.

22 Ibid., XXII, col. 217: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 5, 6, 9, 12 May 1516; col. 205: Duke of Ferrara to his ambassador in Venice, 10 May 1516.

23 G. Molini, Documenti di storia italiana… cité, I, p. 139-42, ‘Copia Capitulorum’ (Jan. 1522?).

24 Ibid., p. 142-3: Renzo da Ceri to Francis, 28 Jan. 1522.

25 ASFlorence, Otto di Pratica, Responsive, b. 25, c. 141: Galeotto de’ Medici, 23 May 1522, Rome.

26 Ibid., c. 261, 265: Galeotto de’ Medici, 16, 20 June 1522, Rome.

27 Ibid., c. 378: Galeotto de’ Medici, 16 July 1522, Rome.

28 For an outline of the campaigns Renzo fought in French service see Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, III, p. 309-12, ‘Lorenzo Anguillara’.

29 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 869, c. 17, 39: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 8, 21 Jan. 1525, Rome; b. 870, c. 48: Angelo Germanello to Gianbattista degli Abbati, 27 Jan. 1525, Rome.

30 Ibid., b. 869, c. 47: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 28 Jan. 1525, Rome; ASFlorence, Otto di Pratica, Responsive, b. 32, c. 438, 440, 453: Galeotto de’ Medici to Otto di Pratica, 9, 11, 18 Jan. 1524 (5), Rome.

31 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 869, c. 165: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 29 Mar. 1525, Rome.

32 ASFlorence, Otto di Pratica, Responsive, b. 32, c. 453: Galeotto de’ Medici to Otto di Pratica, 18 Jan. 1524 (5), Rome; ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 870, c. 48: Angelo Germanello to Gianbattista degli Abbati, 27 Jan. 1525, Rome.

33 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 869, c. 34: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 19 Jan. 1525, Rome.

34 Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, III, part 1, p. 356: Duca di Sessa to Charles V, 5 Oct. 1525, Rome.

35 Ibid., p. 442: Lope Hurtado to Charles V, 5 Nov. 1525, Milan.

36 Ibid., p. 567: Charles V to Duca di Sessa, 8 Feb. 1526, Toledo.

37 Ibid., p. 603: Miguel de Herrera to Charles V, 16 Mar. 1526, Rome; M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XLI, col. 47: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 1 Mar. 1526.

38 K. Lanz (ed.), Correspondenz des Kaisers Karl V. aus dem Königlichen Archiv und der Bibliothèque de Bourgogne zu Brüssel, 3 vols, Leipzig, 1844-6, I, p. 216: Charles V to Ugo de Moncada, 11 June 1526.

39 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 871, c. 619: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 25 Aug. 1526, Rome.

40 Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, III, part 1, p. 897: Ugo de Moncada to Alonso Sanchez, 14 Sept. 1526, Subiaco.

41 Ibid., p. 927-8: Articles of the truce between Clement and Ugo de Moncada, 21 Sept. 1526; G. Molini, Documenti di storia italiana… cit., I, p. 230.

42 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XLIII, col. 244: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 11, 12 and 13 Nov. 1526; ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 871, c. 815: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 8 Nov. 1526, Rome.

43 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XLIV, col. 312: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 16 Mar. 1527.

44 Ibid., col. 425: terms dated 16 Mar. 1527; ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 873, c. 220-1: transcription of coded passage, Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 16 Mar. 1527, Rome.

45 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., XLV, col. 60: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 4 and 5 May 1527.

46 V.L. Bourrilly, Guillaume du Bellay, seigneur de Langey, 1491-1543, Paris, 1905, p. 44-46.

47 Ibid., p. 49.

48 Ibid., p. 48-53.

49 M. Arfaioli, The Black Bands of Giovanni. Infantry and Diplomacy during the Italian Wars (1526-1528), Pisa, 2005, p. 155.

50 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 877, c. 610: Francesco Gonzaga to Federico Gonzaga, 20 Oct. 1528, Rome (citing a letter from the French court, dated 2 Oct.).

51 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., L, col. 97: Venetian provveditore at Trani, 21 Feb. 1529.

52 Ch. Shaw, Barons and Castellans… cit., p. 139.

53 Ibid.; C. De Cupis, Regesto degli Orsini e dei Conti Anguillara, in Bullettino della R. Deputazione abruzzese di storia patria, Ser. IV, 1-2, 1932, p. 337: decree of Francis, 19 Dec. 1528.

54 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., LVI, col. 302: Venetian ambassador in London, 13 May 1532.

55 See C. Shaw, The exemplary career of a rogue elephant: Napoleone Orsini, Abate di Farfa, in Viator, 39, 2, 2008, p. 343-362.

56 AOrsini, b. 95, c. 382: Napoleone Orsini to Felice Orsini, 22 Dec. 1528 (?); the condotta for 2,000 infantry was also reported by an envoy of Camillo Orsini who had been in France (M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., L, col. 97: Venetian provveditore at Trani, 21 Feb. 1529).

57 AOrsini, b. 294, c. 145: Giangirolamo Tenaglio to Napoleone Orsini, 13 Aug. 1529, Saint-Quentin.

58 Ibid., c. 150: Giangirolamo Tenaglio to Napoleone Orsini, 20 Sept. 1529, Paris.

59 Ibid., c. 141: Pierpaolo Sanguigno to Napoleone Orsini, 5 Oct. 1529, Rome.

60 Simancas, Archivo General (henceforth ASimancas), Estado, leg. 850, 99: transcription coded passages in Miguel Mai to Charles V, 15 Sept. 1530, Rome.

61 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., LIV, col. 177: Venetian ambassador in Blois, 18 Nov. 1530.

62 C. De Cupis, ‘Regesto degli Orsini’… cit., Ser. IV, 4, 1934, p. 358-359: 10 Nov. 1533.

63 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 882, c. 153: Fabrizio Peregrino to Federico Gonzaga, 9 Nov. 1533, Rome.

64 ASimancas, Estado, leg. 1005, 95: Ascanio Colonna to Charles V, 19 Nov. 1529, Imperial camp near Florence.

65 Ibid., leg. 1006, 83: Cardinal Colonna to Charles V, 23 Feb. 1530, Naples.

66 M. Sanuto, I diarii… cit., LVI, col. 552: Venetian ambassador in Rome, 6 July 1532.

67 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 886, c. 480: transcription of coded passage of letter from Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 13 Oct. 1536, Rome.

68 ASimancas, Estado, leg. 1033, 16: copy Ascanio Colonna to Pedro de Toledo, 28 Feb. 1541, Marino.

69 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 1911, c. 86: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 9 Mar. 1541, Rome.

70 Ibid., b. 1913, unnumbered: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 20 Jan. 1543, Rome.

71 Ibid., unnumbered: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 14 Feb. 1543, Rome.

72 A. Bertolotti, La prigionia di Ascanio Colonna (1553-57), in Atti e memorie delle RR. Deputazioni di storia patria per le provincie modenesi e parmensi, Ser. III, 2, 1883, p. 109-81; N. Bazzano, Marco Antonio Colonna, Rome, 2003, p. 57-65.

73 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 881, c. 124: transcription of code in letter from Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga to Giangiacomo Calandra, 20 June 1532, Rome.

74 Ibid., c. 157: Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga to Giangiacomo Calandra, 10 July 1532, Rome.

75 Ibid., c. 187: Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga to Giangiacomo Calandra, 8 Aug. 1532, Rome.

76 Ibid., b. 883, c. 189: Fabrizio Peregrino to Federico Gonzaga, 6 Oct. 1534, Rome.

77 Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, XXVII, p. 443-5.

78 G. Molini, Documenti di storia italiana… cit., II, p. 166: Gregorio Casale to Montmorency, 10 Apr. 1529, Rome.

79 Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, XXVII, p. 443-445.

80 V.L. Bourrilly, Guillaume du Bellay… cit., p. 231.

81 Ibid., p. 251.

82 ASMantua, AGonzaga, b. 1912, c. 244: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 10 Sept. 1542, Rome.

83 Ibid., c. 220-1: Nino to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, 23 Aug. 1542, Rome.

84 J. Lestoquoy (ed.), Correspondance des nonces en France Capodiferro, Dandino et Guidiccione 1541-1546, Rome, 1963, p. 348; J. Lestoquoy (ed.), Correspondance des Nonces en France Dandino, Della Torre et Trivultio 1546-1551, Rome, 1966, p. 188-9: Girolamo Dandino to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, 4 May 1547, Rome.

85 ASimancas, Estado, leg. 1461, 56-7: record of interrogation of Giulio Salvi, 24 Sept. 1543.

86 Ibid., leg. 1459, c. 15: Duca d’Amalfi to Charles V, 17 Apr. 1537, Siena.

87 V.L. Bourrilly, Guillaume du Bellay… cit., p. 351.

88 ASimancas, Estado, leg. 1464, 65-6: Francesco Grasso to Charles V, 20 Dec. 1546, Siena.

89 Ibid., 63: Francesco Grasso to Charles V, 22 Dec. 1546, Siena.

90 Ibid., 73: Francesco Grasso to Charles V, 13 Sept. 1546, Siena.

91 Niccolò himself went over to the French in 1552, provoking Gian Francesco to go over to the emperor (Ch. Shaw, Barons and Castellans… cit., p. 245).

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