Letter to the College of Cardinals in the person of the Duke of Urbino
In 1516 Francesco Maria Della Rovere, master of Urbino, was excommunicated and ousted by Leone X, and forced into exile; the duchy was given to Lorenzo de’ Medici, and Castiglione found refuge together with his prince in Mantua. Here, at the beginning of the following year, on 21st February, Baldassarre wrote a letter to the Sacred College of Cardinals in the name and on behalf of Francesco Maria, to legitimate the military campaign just begun, starting in Romagna, to recover possession of his state. It has been suggested that the letter, never presented in an official and solemn manner, had only circulated in Rome in the environment of the court, as an instrument for promoting among the cardinals a sense of benevolence towards Francesco Maria and of hostility towards the Medici family (V. Cian, Un illustre nunzio pontificio del Rinascimento. Baldassar Castiglione, The Vatican 1951, 95).
In the document written by Castiglione, Francesco Maria presented himself as a man unjustly persecuted by ill fate and his adversaries: in fact, the nepotistic policy of Leone X had deprived him of all his titles, dignity and privileges on the basis of unsubstantiated accusations, aimed at making him appear to be a rebel and traitor. The Pope, in particular, is accused of ingratitude, bearing in mind the many favours his family had received over the last decade from the Dukes of Urbino. Legitimately, therefore, as of January 1517 Della Rovere had began military preparations for the recovery of his state “il che è causato non da voler disturbare, né travagliare le cose della Chiesa, né esserle mai molesto in parte alcuna; ma più tosto per appellarmi alla giustitia divina del torto fattomi, et commettere la vita mia all’onda della fortuna” (brought about not by any desire to disturb or disrupt the affairs of the church, neither to molest it in any way; but more to appeal to divine justice over the wrong I have suffered, and to commit my life to the flow of fortune)(B. Castiglione, Le lettere, edited by G. La Rocca, I, Milan 1978, 376).
The war, that lasted from February to October, contrary to the expectations of Castiglione himself, however, ended negatively, due to the enormous amount of money put into it by the Pope, and by the order to disband given to the mercenary troops of Francesco Maria by their sovereigns of origin.
