Heroes of Modern Europe

								

was the rule of the house of Medici.  No less than five thousand pounds
of sweetmeats had been provided for the wedding, but it must be
remembered that the banquets went on continuously for several days, and
the humblest citizen could present himself at the hospitable boards of
the bridegroom and his kinsfolk.  The country-folk had sent the usual
gifts, of fat hens and capons, and were greeted with a welcome as
gracious as that bestowed on the guests whose offerings were rings or
brocades or costly illuminated manuscripts.
After his marriage, Lorenzo was called upon to undertake a foreign
mission.  He travelled to Milan and there stood sponsor to the child of
the reigning Duke, Galeazzo Sforza, in order to cement an alliance.  He
gave a gold collar, studded with diamonds, to the Duchess of Milan, and
answered as became him when she was led to express the hope that he
would be godfather to all her children!  It was Lorenzo's duty to act
as host when the Duke of Milan came to visit Florence.  He was not
dismayed by the long train of attendants which followed the Duke, for
he knew that these richly-dressed warriors might be bribed to {36}
fight for his State if he conciliated their master.  There were
citizens in Florence, however, who shrank from the barbaric ostentation
of their ally.  They looked upon a fire which broke out in a church as
a divine denunciation of the mystery play performed in honour of their
guests, and were openly relieved to shut their gates upon the Duke of
Milan and his proud forces.
Lorenzo betrayed no weakness when the town of Volterra revolted against
Florence, which exercised the rights of a protector.  He punished the
inhabitants very cruelly, banishing all the leaders of the revolt and
taking away the Volterran privilege of self-government.  His enemies
hinted that he behaved despotically in order to secure certain mineral
rights in this territory, and held him responsible for the sack of
Volterra, though he asserted that he had gone to offer help to such of
the inhabitants as had lost everything.
But the war of the Pazzi conspiracy was the true test of the strength
of Medicean government.  It succeeded a time of high prosperity in
Florence, when her ruler was honoured by the recognition of many
foreign powers, and felt his position so secure that he might safely
devote much leisure to the congenial study of poetry and philosophy.
Between the years 1474-8 Lorenzo had managed to incur the jealous
hatred of Pope Sixtus IV, who was determined to become the greatest
power in Christendom.  This Pontiff skilfully detached Naples from her
alliance with Florence and Milan by promising to be content with a
nominal tribute of two white horses every year instead of the handsome
annual sum she had usually exacted from this vassal.  He congratulated
himself especially on this stroke of policy, because he believed Venice
to be too selfish as a commercial State {37} to combine with her