From Rome to Mantua
In mid November 1522, having completed his duties towards the new Pope, Castiglione was at last able to leave Rome and return to Mantua: he was moved in part by a desire to escape the plague, that had been rife along the banks of the Tiber since July, and in part by a desire to once again embrace his children.
On 20th March 1523, Baldassarre received from the Marquis Federico Gonzaga an official decree publicly recognising his many merits and services and, furthermore, the Prince declared that he was indebted for him for his appointment as Captain General of the Papal Armies.
Having completed his will, in the autumn, following the Prince under his banner, he participated in the military campaigns that the Prince had to carry out in Lombardy, leading the troops of the Church and of the Republic of Florence, in support of the Duke of Milan Francesco II Sforza, threatened by the French. Castiglione, without much enthusiasm, was made captain of a company of fifty armed horsemen. His return to military life turned out to be anything but comfortable, also due to an early winter; in a letter from Pavia, dated 14th November, addressed to the Marchioness Isabella d’Este, he expressed his rancour towards the enemy: “Everybody strongly desires the war to end, to be able to return home, and that the cold may be so great that it will take all the French, if not on this side of the mountains, at least in that little chapel in Monsenis” (V. Cian, Un illustre nunzio pontificio del Rinascimento. Baldassar Castiglione, The Vatican 1951, 100).
On 21st November, as the Marquis was forced to interrupt his military campaign due to a serious infection, Baldassarre returned home again, in the family residence at Casatico, in the company of his mother and his children. It was here that the news reached him from Rome that, after the death of Adriano VI, Cardinal Giuliano de’ Medici had been elected Pope, with the name Clemente VII.
