CHAPTER FOUR

THE STATE OF AND THE SPANISH MONARCHY*

Antonio Álvarez-Ossorio Alvariño

Lombardy during the

From the start of the Italian Wars in 1494, Milan was a battle- ground. The French invasions led to the decline of the local Sforza dynasty, and from 1499 to 1512, Louis XII claimed the title of Duke of Milan.1 French rule transformed the distribution of power in Lombard society. With the creation of the politically and militarily powerful position of Lieutenant General, the first system for an absent sovereign was established, and the mediating role of an oligarchy was ensured through the institution of a Senate comprised of pow- erful Milanese oligarchs and five foreign togati (men of law).2 The families that governed the city of Milan adapted to the permanent absence of the duke and they formulated a system of embassies and legates to the French royal court to deliver petitions and gifts in order to ensure that the dominant faction at court would attend to

* Translated by Karina Xavier. Abbreviations AGS = Archivo General de Simancas; E = Estado; AHN = Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid; ASCMI = Archivio Storico Civico, Milan; ASMi = Archivio di Stato, Milan; ASV = Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Rome; BFZ = Biblioteca Francisco de Zabálburu, Madrid; BNMa = Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid; BPR = Biblioteca del Palacio Real, Madrid; HA = Gräflich Harrach’sches Familienarchiv, depositado en Österreichi- sches Staatsarchiv, Vienna. 1 L. G. Pèlissier, ed., Documents pour l´histoire de la domination française dans le Milanais (1499–1513) (Toulouse, 1891); and L. Arcangeli, ed., Milano e Luigi XII. Ricerche sul primo dominio francese in Lombardia (1499–1512) (Milan, 2002). 2 G. P. Bognetti, “La città sotto i Francesi”; and G. Franceshini, “Le dominazioni francesi e le restaurazioni sforzesche,” in Storia di Milano, vol. VIII: Tra Francia e Spagna (1500–1535) (Milan, 1957), pp. 3–80 and 81–333; and A. Álvarez-Ossorio Alvariño, “Carlos V y el Estado de Milán,” Torre de Lujanes 43 (March 2001): 85–99. 100 antonio álvarez-ossorio alvariño their requests.3 These forms of negotiation and pressure, and the new plan of government, constituted decisive precedents for the polit- ical process when the State of Milan became part of the Habsburg monarchy. The shadow of Louis XII loomed over Charles V’s con- ception of the government in Milan. The dethroned Sforza dynasty, longed for by a part of the local nobility and dependent on the interested complicity of certain kings and rulers, constantly threatened to ambush French domination in . The end of Ludovico Sforza, il Moro, did not mean the definitive defeat of his line, since his two young sons were growing up in the midst of the cabals of the European courts. The nuptial alliances woven by Ludovico allowed the Sforza to survive after the victory of Louis XII. In 1493, Emperor Maximilian I married for the second time, to the duke’s sister, , who moved to the Austrian duchies with a household of Lombard nobil- ity. The matrimonial alliance revived Habsburg interest in project- ing its influence into northern Italy, and Charles VIII’s invasion in 1494 brought to southern Europe the Valois-Habsburg rivalry, which years before had centered on the Flemish and Burgundian states. When the second French invasion threatened Lombard soil in September 1499, the Duke sent his sons, Ercole Massimiliano and Francesco, to Innsbruck. After the defeat and imprisonment of Ludovico, the children enjoyed the protection of Bianca Maria Sforza in the Imperial court until her death in December 1510. Pawns or valuable hostages in the volatile negotiations between the King of France and Maximilian, the sons, as they grew up, began to unite the Lombard nobles inter- ested in reestablishing the ducal dynasty and to arouse the interested support of those rulers and Italian republics that did not want the French monarch as neighbor. After the death of Bianca Maria, Marguerite of Austria, ruler of the Low Countries, became the young boys’ guardian, and the Habsburg courts became a favorable envi- ronment for exiled Lombards. Some entered the service of the young Charles of Ghent, duke of Burgundy. Notable among them was the Milanese humanist Luigi Marliani, from a family of captains and

3 A. Salomoni, Memorie storico-diplomatiche degli Ambasciatori, Incaricati d’affari, Corrispondenti, e Delegati, che la Città di Milano inviò a diversi suoi Principi dal 1500 al 1796 (Milan, 1806), pp. 1–43.