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Updated: May 19, 2025
The old Count Federigo had made all this refined magnificence possible, it is true, and Guidobaldo had been in every way a worthy successor to his father, though lacking his rugged strength; but to Guidobaldo's wife, the gracious and wise Elizabetta Gonzaga, belongs the credit for having kept Urbino up to a high standard an achievement of which few, if any, other women of her time were capable.
He was an exiled member of that famous Mantua family, which has bred some scoundrels and one saint. With the money which, at parting, a doting mother had bestowed upon him, he was cutting a brave figure at the Urbino court, where he was tolerated by virtue of his kinship with Guidobaldo's Duchess, Monna Elizabetta.
It was known that the Count of Aquila stood high in the favour of Gian Maria, and the news of his sudden fall and banishment could not have reached Guidobaldo's niece, who had fled before the knowledge of it was in Urbino. His name would awaken suspicion, and any story of disgrace and banishment might be accounted the very mask to fit a spy.
Acknowledge your defeat, as I acknowledge mine, and pay." "But what is your defeat to mine?" cried Gian Maria, who saw through Guidobaldo's appreciation of the fact that such a nephew-in-law as Francesco del Falco was far from undesirable in the troublous times that threatened. "It is at least as absolute," returned Guidobaldo, with a shrug.
Among them was Titian's famous portrait of Duke Ascanio's mistress, known as the Goldsmith's Daughter, and a Venus by the Venetian painter Giorgione, so highly esteemed in its day that Pope Leo X. is said to have offered in exchange for it the gift of a papal benefice, and a Cardinal's hat for Duke Guidobaldo's younger son.
"They are no more than that you relinquish your claim to Monna Valentina, and that you find consolation as I think his Highness of Urbino has himself suggested in the Lord Guidobaldo's younger niece." Before he could reply Guidobaldo was urging him, in a low voice to accept the terms. "What else is there for you?" Montefeltro ended pregnantly.
That she was niece to the Duke of Urbino he remembered no more than that he was Count of Aquila, well-born, but of none too rich estate, and certainly no more a match for her in Guidobaldo's eyes than if he had been the simple knight-errant that he seemed.
So that if he be disposed to marry her, will you be disposed to let her marry a homeless vagrant or a headless corpse?" Guidobaldo's face seemed to change, and his eyes looked curiously at the white-faced Duke beside him. "So you are the other pretender to my niece's hand, Lord Count?" he asked, in his coldest voice. "I am, Highness," answered Francesco quietly.
"By the Virgin's Ring of Perugia!" spluttered Gian Maria in increased dismay. "Do you suggest that they fled together?" "My lord!" Guidobaldo's voice rang sharp and threatening. "It is of my niece that you are speaking. She took this gentleman with her just as she took three of her ladies and a page or two, to form such attendance as befits her birth."
I commend myself to your Excellency's merciful benevolence as your Majesty's youngest sister, ASSISI, March 21, 1500. Agnesina di Montefeltre mentioned in the letter, Guidobaldo's soulful sister, was married to Fabritius Colonna, who subsequently became one of Italy's greatest captains. She was then twenty-eight years of age.
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