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The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V3

W >> William H. Prescott >> The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V3




The great powers, who had now entered the lists, created entirely new
interests in Italy, which broke up the old political combinations. The
conquest of Milan enabled France to assume a decided control over the
affairs of the country. Her recent reverses in Naples, however, had
greatly loosened this authority; although Florence and other neighboring
states, which lay under her colossal shadow, still remained true to her.
Venice, with her usual crafty policy, kept aloof, maintaining a position
of neutrality between the belligerents, each of whom made the most
pressing efforts to secure so formidable an 'ally. She had, however, long
since entertained a deep distrust of her French neighbor; and, although
she would enter into no public engagements, she gave the Spanish minister
every assurance of her friendly disposition towards his government. [3]
She intimated this still more unequivocally, by the supplies she had
allowed her citizens to carry into Barleta during the late campaign, and
by other indirect aid of a similar nature during the present; for all
which she was one day to be called to a heavy reckoning by her enemies.

The disposition of the papal court towards the French monarch was still
less favorable; and it took no pains to conceal this after his reverses in
Naples. Soon after the defeat of Cerignola, it entered into correspondence
with Gonsalvo de Cordova; and, although Alexander the Sixth refused to
break openly with France, and sign a treaty with the Spanish sovereigns,
he pledged himself to do so, on the reduction of Gaeta. In the mean time,
he freely allowed the Great Captain to raise such levies as he could in
Rome, before the very eyes of the French ambassador. So little had the
immense concessions of Louis, including those of principle and honor,
availed to secure the fidelity of this treacherous ally. [4]

With the emperor Maximilian, notwithstanding repeated treaties, he was on
scarcely better terms. That prince was connected with Spain by the
matrimonial alliances of his family, and no less averse to France from
personal feeling, which, with the majority of minds, operates more
powerfully than motives of state policy. He had, moreover, always regarded
the occupation of Milan by the latter as an infringement, in some measure,
of his imperial rights. The Spanish government, availing itself of these
feelings, endeavored through its minister, Don Juan Manuel, to stimulate
Maximilian to the invasion of Lombardy. As the emperor, however, demanded,
as usual, a liberal subsidy for carrying on the war, King Ferdinand, who
was seldom incommoded by a superfluity of funds, preferred reserving them
for his own enterprises, to hazarding them on the Quixotic schemes of his
ally. But, although the negotiations were attended with no result, the
amicable dispositions of the Austrian government were evinced by the
permission given to its subjects to serve under the banners of Gonsalvo,
where indeed, as we have already seen, they formed some of his best
troops. [5]

But while Louis the Twelfth drew so little assistance from abroad, the
heartiness with which the whole French people entered into his feelings at
this crisis, made him nearly independent of it, and, in an incredibly
short space of time, placed him in a condition for resuming operations on
a far more formidable scale than before. The preceding failures in Italy
he attributed in a great degree to an overweening confidence in the
superiority of his own troops, and his neglect to support them with the
necessary reinforcements and supplies. He now provided against this by
remitting large sums to Rome, and establishing ample magazines of grain
and military stores there, under the direction of commissaries for the
maintenance of the army. He equipped without loss of time a large armament
at Genoa, under the marquis of Saluzzo, for the relief of Gaeta, still
blockaded by the Spaniards. He obtained a small supply of men from his
Italian allies, and subsidized a corps of eight thousand Swiss, the
strength of his infantry; while the remainder of his army, comprehending a
fine body of cavalry, and the most complete train of artillery, probably,
in Europe, was drawn from his own dominions. Volunteers of the highest
rank pressed forward to serve in an expedition, to which they confidently
looked for the vindication of the national honor. The command was
intrusted to the maréchal de la Trémouille, esteemed the best general in
France; and the whole amount of force, exclusive of that employed
permanently in the fleet, is variously computed from twenty to thirty
thousand men. [6]

In the month of July, the army was on its march across the broad plains of
Lombardy, but, on reaching Parma, the appointed place of rendezvous for
the Swiss and Italian mercenaries, was brought to a halt by tidings of an
unlooked-for event, the death of Pope Alexander the Sixth. He expired on
the 18th of August, 1503, at the age of seventy-two, the victim, there is
very little doubt, of poison he had prepared for others; thus closing an
infamous life by a death equally infamous. He was a man of undoubted
talent, and uncommon energy of character. But his powers were perverted to
the worst purposes, and his gross vices were unredeemed, if we are to
credit the report of his most respectable contemporaries, by a single
virtue. In him the papacy reached its lowest degradation. His pontificate,
however, was not without its use; since that Providence, which still
educes good from evil, made the scandal, which it occasioned to the
Christian world, a principal spring of the glorious Reformation. [7]

The death of this pontiff occasioned no particular disquietude at the
Spanish court, where his immoral life had been viewed with undisguised
reprobation, and made the subject of more than one pressing remonstrance,
as we have already seen. His public course had been as little to its
satisfaction; since, although a Spaniard by birth, being a native of
Valencia, he had placed himself almost wholly at the disposal of Louis the
Twelfth, in return for the countenance afforded by that monarch to the
iniquitous schemes of his son, Caesar Borgia.

The pope's death was attended with important consequences on the movements
of the French. Louis's favorite minister, Cardinal D'Amboise, had long
looked to this event as opening to him the succession to the tiara. He now
hastened to Italy, therefore, with his master's approbation, proposing to
enforce his pretensions by the presence of the French army, placed, as it
would seem, with this view at his disposal.

The army, accordingly, was ordered to advance towards Rome, and halt
within a few miles of its gates. The conclave of cardinals, then convened
to supply the vacancy in the pontificate, were filled with indignation at
this attempt to overawe their election; and the citizens beheld with
anxiety the encampment of this formidable force under their walls,
anticipating some counteracting movement on the part of the Great Captain,
which might involve their capital, already in a state of anarchy, in all
the horrors of war. Gonsalvo, indeed, had sent forward a detachment of
between two and three thousand men, under Mendoza and Fabrizio Colonna,
who posted themselves in the neighborhood of the city, where they could
observe the movements of the enemy. [8]

At length Cardinal D'Amboise, yielding to public feeling, and the
representations of pretended friends, consented to the removal of the
French forces from the neighborhood, and trusted for success to his
personal influence. He over-estimated its weight. It is foreign to our
purpose to detail the proceedings of the reverend body, thus convened to
supply the chair of St. Peter. They are displayed at full length by the
Italian writers, and must be allowed to form a most edifying chapter in
ecclesiastical history. [9] It is enough to state, that, on the departure
of the French, the suffrages of the conclave fell on an Italian, who
assumed the name of Pius the Third, and who justified the policy of the
choice by dying in less time than his best friends had anticipated;--
within a month after his elevation. [10]

The new vacancy was at once supplied by the election of Julius the Second,
the belligerent pontiff who made his tiara a helmet, and his crosier a
sword. It is remarkable, that, while his fierce, inexorable temper left
him with scarcely a personal friend, he came to the throne by the united
suffrages of each of the rival factions of France, Spain, and, above all,
Venice, whose ruin in return he made the great business of his restless
pontificate. [11]

No sooner had the game, into which Cardinal D'Amboise had entered with
such prospects of success, been snatched from his grasp by the superior
address of his Italian rivals, and the election of Pius the Third been
publicly announced, than the French army was permitted to resume its march
on Naples, after the loss,--an irreparable loss,--of more than a month. A
still greater misfortune had befallen it, in the mean time, in the illness
of Trémouille, its chief; which compelled him to resign the command into
the hands of the marquis of Mantua, an Italian nobleman, who held the
second station in the army. He was a man of some military experience,
having fought in the Venetian service, and led the allied forces, with
doubtful credit indeed, against Charles the Eighth at the battle of
Fornovo. His elevation was more acceptable to his own countrymen than to
the French; and in truth, however competent to ordinary exigencies, he was
altogether unequal to the present, in, which he was compelled to measure
his genius with that of the greatest captain of the age. [12]

The Spanish commander, in the mean while, was detained before the strong
post of Gaeta, into which Ives d'Allègre had thrown himself, as already
noticed, with the fugitives from the field of Cerignola, where he had been
subsequently reinforced by four thousand additional troops under the
marquis of Saluzzo. From these circumstances, as well as the great
strength of the place, Gonsalvo experienced an opposition, to which, of
late, he had been wholly unaccustomed. His exposed situation in the
plains, under the guns of the city, occasioned the loss of many of his
best men, and, among others, that of his friend Don Hugo de Cardona, one
of the late victors at Seminara, who was shot down at his side, while
conversing with him. At length, after a desperate but ineffectual attempt
to extricate himself from his perilous position by forcing the neighboring
eminence of Mount Orlando, he was compelled to retire to a greater
distance, and draw off his army to the adjacent village of Castellone,
which may call up more agreeable associations in the reader's mind, as the
site of the Villa Formiana of Cicero. [13] At this place he was still
occupied with the blockade of Gaeta, when he received intelligence that
the French had crossed the Tiber, and were in full march against him. [14]

While Gonsalvo lay before Gaeta, he had been intent on collecting such
reinforcements as he could from every quarter. The Neapolitan division
under Navarro had already joined him, as well as the victorious legions of
Andrada from Calabria. His strength was further augmented by the arrival
of between two and three thousand troops, Spanish, German, and Italian,
which the Castilian minister, Francisco de Roxas, had levied in Rome; and
he was in daily hopes of a more important accession from the same quarter,
through the good offices of the Venetian ambassador. Lastly, he had
obtained some additional recruits, and a remittance of a considerable sum
of money, in a fleet of Catalan ships lately arrived from Spain. With all
this, however, a heavy amount of arrears remained due to his troops. In
point of numbers he was still far inferior to the enemy; no computation
swelling them higher than three thousand horse, two of them light cavalry,
and nine thousand foot. The strength of his army lay in his Spanish
infantry, on whose thorough discipline, steady nerve, and strong
attachment to his person he felt he might confidently rely. In cavalry,
and still more in artillery, he was far below the French, which, together
with his great numerical inferiority, made it impossible for him to keep
the open country. His only resource was to get possession of some pass or
strong position, which lay in their route, where he might detain them,
till the arrival of further reinforcements should enable him to face them
on more equal terms. The deep stream of the Garigliano presented such a
line of defence as he wanted. [15]

On the 6th of October, therefore, the Great Captain broke up his camp at
Castellone, and, abandoning the whole region north of the Garigliano to
the enemy, struck into the interior of the country, and took post at San
Germano, a strong place on the other side of the river, covered by the two
fortresses of Monte Casino [16] and Rocca Secca. Into this last he threw a
body of determined men under Villalba, and waited calmly the approach of
the enemy.

It was not long before the columns of the latter were descried in full
march on Ponte Corvo, at a few miles' distance only on the opposite side
of the Garigliano. After a brief halt there, they traversed the bridge
before that place and advanced confidently forward in the expectation of
encountering little resistance from a foe so much their inferior. In this
they were mistaken; the garrison of Rocca Secca, against which they
directed their arms, handled them so roughly, that, after in vain
endeavoring to carry the place in two desperate assaults, the marquis of
Mantua resolved to abandon the attempt altogether, and, recrossing the
river, to seek a more practicable point for his purpose lower down. [17]

Keeping along the right bank, therefore, to the southeast of the mountains
of Fondi, he descended nearly to the mouth of the Garigliano, the site, as
commonly supposed, of the ancient Minturnae. [18] The place was covered by
a fortress called the Tower of the Garigliano, occupied by a small Spanish
garrison, who made some resistance, but surrendered on being permitted to
march out with the honors of war. On rejoining their countrymen under
Gonsalvo, the latter were so much incensed that the garrison should have
yielded on any terms, instead of dying on their posts, that, falling on
them with their pikes, they massacred them all to a man. Gonsalvo did not
think proper to punish this outrage, which, however shocking to his own
feelings, indicated a desperate tone of resolution, which he felt he
should have occasion to tax to the utmost in the present exigency. [19]

The ground now occupied by the armies was low and swampy, a character
which it possessed in ancient times; the marshes on the southern side
being supposed to be the same in which Marius concealed himself from his
enemies during his proscription. [20] Its natural humidity was greatly
increased, at this time, by the excessive rains, which began earlier and
with much more violence than usual. The French position was neither so low
nor so wet as that of the Spaniards. It had the advantage, moreover, of
being supported by a well-peopled and friendly country in the rear, where
lay the large towns of Fondi, Itri, and Gaeta; while their fleet, under
the admiral Prejan, which rode at anchor in the mouth of the Garigliano,
might be of essential service in the passage of the river.

In order to effect this, the marquis of Mantua prepared to throw a bridge
across, at a point not far from Trajetto. He succeeded in it,
notwithstanding the swollen and troubled condition of the waters, [20] in
a few days, under cover of the artillery, which he had planted on the bank
of the river, and which from its greater elevation entirely commanded the
opposite shore.

The bridge was constructed of boats belonging to the fleet, strongly
secured together and covered with planks. The work being completed, on the
6th of November the army advanced upon the bridge, supported by such a
lively cannonade from the batteries along the shore, as made all
resistance on the part of the Spaniards ineffectual. The impetuosity with
which the French rushed forward was such as to drive back the advanced
guard of their enemy, which, giving way in disorder, retreated on the main
body. Before the confusion could extend further, Gonsalvo, mounted _á la
gineta_, in the manner of the light cavalry, rode through the broken
ranks, and, rallying the fugitives, quickly brought them to order. Navarro
and Andrada, at the same time, led up the Spanish infantry, and the whole
column charging furiously against the French, compelled them to falter and
at length to fall back on the bridge.

The struggle now became desperate, officers and soldiers, horse and foot,
mingling together, and fighting hand to hand, with all the ferocity
kindled by close personal combat. Some were trodden under the feet of the
cavalry, many more were forced from the bridge, and the waters of the
Garigliano were covered with men and horses, borne down by the current,
and struggling in vain to gain the shore. It was a contest of mere bodily
strength and courage, in which skill and superior tactics were of little
avail. Among those who most distinguished themselves, the name of the
noble Italian, Fabrizio Colonna, is particularly mentioned. An heroic
action is recorded also of a person of inferior rank, a Spanish
_alferez_, or standard-bearer, named Illescas. The right hand of this
man was shot away by a cannon-ball. As a comrade was raising up the fallen
colors, the gallant ensign resolutely grasped them, exclaiming that "he
had one hand still left." At the same time, muffling a scarf round the
bleeding stump, he took his place in the ranks as before. This brave deed
did not go unrewarded, and a liberal pension was settled on him, at
Gonsalvo's instance.

During the heat of the _mêlée_, the guns on the French shore had been
entirely silent, since they could not be worked without doing as much
mischief to their own men as to the Spaniards, with whom they were closely
mingled. But, as the French gradually recoiled before their impetuous
adversaries, fresh bodies of the latter rushing forward to support their
advance necessarily exposed a considerable length of column to the range
of the French guns, which opened a galling fire on the further extremity
of the bridge. The Spaniards, notwithstanding "they threw themselves into
the face of the cannon," as the marquis of Mantua exclaimed, "with as much
unconcern as if their bodies had been made of air instead of flesh and
blood," found themselves so much distressed by this terrible fire, that
they were compelled to fall back; and the van, thus left without support,
at length retreated in turn, abandoning the bridge to the enemy. [21]

This action was one of the severest which occurred in these wars. Don Hugo
de Moncada, the veteran of many a fight by land and sea, told Paolo Giovio
that "he had never felt himself in such imminent peril in any of his
battles, as in this." [22] The French, notwithstanding they remained
masters of the contested bridge, had met with a resistance which greatly
discouraged them; and, instead of attempting to push their success
further, retired that same evening to their quarters on the other side of
the river. The tempestuous weather, which continued with unabated fury,
had now broken up the roads, and converted the soil into a morass, nearly
impracticable for the movements, of horse, and quite so for those of
artillery, on which the French chiefly relied; while it interposed
comparatively slight obstacles to the manoeuvres of infantry, which
constituted the strength of the Spaniards. From a consideration of these
circumstances, the French commander resolved not to resume active
operations till a change of weather, by restoring the roads, should enable
him to do so with advantage. Meanwhile he constructed a redoubt on the
Spanish extremity of the bridge, and threw a body of troops into it, in
order to command the pass whenever he should be disposed to use it. [23]

While the hostile armies thus lay facing each other, the eyes of all Italy
were turned to them, in anxious expectation of a battle which should
finally decide the fate of Naples. Expresses were daily despatched from
the French camp to Rome, whence the ministers of the different European
powers transmitted the tidings to their respective governments.
Machiavelli represented at that time the Florentine republic at the papal
court, and his correspondence teems with as many floating rumors and
speculations as a modern gazette. There were many French residents in the
city, with whom the minister was personally acquainted. He frequently
notices their opinions on the progress of the war, which they regarded
with the most sanguine confidence, as sure to result in the triumph of
their own arms, when once fairly brought into collision with the enemy.
The calmer and more penetrating eye of the Florentine discerns symptoms in
the condition of the two armies of quite a different tendency. [24]

It seemed now obvious, that victory must declare for that party which
could best endure the hardships and privations of its present situation.
The local position of the Spaniards was far more unfavorable than that of
the enemy. The Great Captain, soon after the affair of the bridge, had
drawn off his forces to a rising ground about a mile from the river, which
was crowned by the little hamlet of Cintura, and commanded the route to
Naples. In front of his camp he sunk a deep trench, which, in the
saturated soil, speedily filled with water; and he garnished it at each
extremity with a strong redoubt. Thus securely intrenched, he resolved
patiently to await the movements of the enemy.

The situation of the army, in the mean time, was indeed deplorable. Those
who occupied the lower level were up to their knees in mud and water; for
the excessive rains, and the inundation of the Garigliano, had converted
the whole country into a mere quagmire, or rather standing pool. The only
way in which the men could secure themselves was by covering the earth as
far as possible with boughs and bundles of twigs; and it was altogether
uncertain how long even this expedient would serve against the encroaching
element. Those on the higher grounds were scarcely in better plight. The
driving storms of sleet and rain, which had continued for several weeks
without intermission, found their way into every crevice of the flimsy
tents and crazy hovels, thatched only with branches of trees, which
afforded a temporary shelter to the troops. In addition to these evils,
the soldiers were badly fed, from the difficulty of finding resources in
the waste and depopulated regions in which they were quartered, [25] and
badly paid, from the negligence, or perhaps poverty, of King Ferdinand,
whose inadequate remittances to his general exposed him, among many other
embarrassments, to the imminent hazard of disaffection among the soldiery,
especially the foreign mercenaries, which nothing, indeed, but the most
delicate and judicious conduct on his part could have averted. [26]

In this difficult crisis, Gonsalvo de Cordova retained all his usual
equanimity, and even the cheerfulness, so indispensable in a leader who
would infuse heart into his followers. He entered freely into the
distresses and personal feelings of his men, and, instead of assuming any
exemption from fatigue or suffering on the score of his rank, took his
turn in the humblest tour of duty with the meanest of them, mounting guard
himself, it is said, on more than one occasion. Above all, he displayed
that inflexible constancy, which enables the strong mind in the hour of
darkness and peril to buoy up the sinking spirits around it. A remarkable
instance of this fixedness of purpose occurred at this time.

The forlorn condition of the army, and the indefinite prospect of its
continuance, raised a natural apprehension in many of the officers, that,
if it did not provoke some open act of mutiny, would in all probability
break down the spirits and constitution of the soldiers. Several of them,
therefore, among the rest Mendoza and the two Colonnas, waited on the
commander-in-chief, and, after stating their fears without reserve,
besought him to remove the camp to Capua, where the troops might find
healthy and commodious quarters, at least until the severity of the season
was mitigated; before which, they insisted, there was no reason to
anticipate any movement on the part of the French. But Gonsalvo felt too
deeply the importance of grappling with the enemy, before they should gain
the open country, to be willing to trust to any such precarious
contingency. Besides, he distrusted the effect of such a retrograde
movement on the spirits of his own troops. He had decided on his course
after the most mature deliberation; and, having patiently heard his
officers to the end, replied in these few but memorable words; "It is
indispensable to the public service to maintain our present position; and
be assured, I would sooner march forward two steps, though it should bring
me to my grave, than fall back one, to gain a hundred years." The decided
tone of the reply relieved him from further importunity. [27]

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