tained him full possession of the

state.

VENICE UNDER LUIGI LOREDANO. --Loredano succeeded as doge 1501, at a moment when the oligarchy was deeply depressed by the change in its commercial prosperity. In the year 1497, when the discovery of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope was made, the European trade with India, which had been exclusively in the hands of the Venetians, was lost to them. The carriage by way of Alexandria almost entirely ceased; and it was wholly out of the power of the oligarchy to keep up a naval force sufficient to cope with the Portuguese (the instrument of their deprivation), on the wide Atlantic. Moreover the Turks still harassed them; and in 1508, the league of Cambray between the pope, emperor of Germany, and king of France, took place, especially to crush the Venetian power. By the skilful management of Loredano, the oligarchy weathered the storm, and a treaty was at length formed with France against the emperor; but though so far successful, the decline of Venice had begun, and respectable as her maritime authority remained for centuries after, she was never able, but on occasion of the seizure of Candia, to resist with spirit the encroachments of the Turks and other invaders. The declension of Venice, therefore, did not, like that of Rome, proceed from the increase of luxury, or the revolt of her own armies in distant colonies, or from civil wars of any kind. She dwindled in importance and power, from causes which could not be foreseen, or guarded against by human prudence even had they been foreseen. Loredano died

1521.

NAPLES UNDER ALFONSO II., &c. Fernando I. was succeeded by his son Alfonso, 1494, a gloomy and (it is said) cruel prince, who, terrified at the approach of the French (mentioned in the last reign), abdicated in favour of his own son, FERNANDO II., 1495, and retired to a monastery in

Sicily. Fernando endeavoured to rally his troops against the invaders ; but being forsaken by them all, he withdrew to Sicily, with his uncle Frederigo. The French occupied Naples; but their conduct soon disgusting the Neapolitans, Fernando seized the opportunity to ask assistance from Ferdinand V. of Spain. Gonzalo of Cordova, the Spanish general, soon arrived with an army, and having reconquered Naples with expedition, Fernando returned in triumph to his capital; but he did not long enjoy his prosperity, dying suddenly 1496, aged 28. He was succeeded by his uncle, FREDERIGO III., who thought it better to conciliate than oppose the French. The invaders, therefore, soon aware of his disposition, offered him, in the name of their sovereign, Louis XII., an annual pension of 30,000 ducats, with the title of duke of Anjou, if he would relinquish his title to Naples; and this he accordingly acceded to, 1501. The state was then shared between Louis and Ferdinand of Castile; but so unnatural a proceeding, as might be expected, soon brought the respective nations of the two kings into collision, and Gonzalo was at length again authorized to expel the French from Italy. This he effected 1503, but had scarcely reentered Naples in triumph as viceroy, when another French force, under La Trimouille, assailed him, 1504. It is shown, in the memoir of Gonzalo, how completely he overcame it at Garigliano, and a third time entered Naples a victor. From that period to the present day, both Naples and Sicily (or, as they are conjunctively styled, the kingdom of the Two Sicilies,) have been attached, so far as royal relationship is concerned, to the crown of Spain, and they made part and parcel of its territories until 1759; when Don Carlos being called to succeed his brother Ferdinand VI. as king of Spain, gave them to his younger son Fernando, who took the title, first of Fernando IV. of Naples, and, at his restoration in 1815, of

Fernando I. of the Two Sicilies. (See Masaniello.)

His

FLORENCE UNDer Lorenzo de MEDICI. This noble character succeeded his father Pietro 1472, at the age of 21. Some of the most talented men of the age had been his tutors, and Picus of Mirandola and Politian were his fellow pupils; and though such advantages are too often of little avail to the careless student, Lorenzo became an accomplished scholar, and, in his political capacity, acquired the respect of foreign potentates. disputes with pope Sixtus IV. exposed him to great personal hazard; and a conspiracy being formed by the Pazzi, the hereditary enemies of his family, Lorenzo and his brother Julio were attacked by assassins during divine service at church, 1478, and Julio fell a victim. The party of the duke was powerful enough to punish the daring murderers; and Lorenzo, having come to terms with the pope, found himself at leisure to indulge his taste in schemes for the advancement of learning and the arts, which he prosecuted with an extraordinary degree of success. He revived the academy of Pisa, and founded a gallery of arts, where Michael Angelo, under his patronage, pursued his youthful studies. He sent John Lascaris to Greece, to gather MSS. wherewith to enrich his library; and, by his princely generosity to the learned, and his exertions for the improvement of literature, obtained the title of the Magnificent.' He died in the zenith of his renown, much lamented by his subjects and the lovers of letters in general, at the age of 44, 1492. His second son, Giovanni, was chosen a cardinal at 13, and became the celebrated pope Leo X. The Medici preserved their power in Florence, with occasional obstacles, until the acknowledgment of Cosmo II., 1569, by the pope as grand duke; when the state was raised to a grand duchy, a rank which it has maintained to this day under the more classic name of Tuscany. (See Cosmo I.)

IRELAND UNDER HENRY VII.-The Irish, after Richard II.'s death, still retained a warm affection for the male house of Plantagenet; and upon the revival of that family's claim to the crown, embraced its cause. Edward IV. made the earl of Desmond lieutenant of Ireland for his services against the Ormond party, and other adherents of the house of Lancaster ; and he was the first Irish chieftain that obtained that honour. Even the accession of Henry VII. to the crown of England did not reconcile the Irish to his title of duke of Lancaster; and they therefore readily joined Lambert Simnel, who pretended to be the eldest son of Edward IV., though they paid dearly for this line of conduct, in the defeat they sustained on invading England. They were consequently cautious at first in joining Perkin Warbeck, notwithstanding his plausible pretences to be the duke of York, second son of Edward IV. He was, however, at last declared king by the Irish; and in the history of Henry's reign, the event of his pretensions will be found. Henry behaved with moderation towards his favourers, and was contented with requiring the Irish nobility to take a fresh oath of allegiance to his government; a lenity which had the desired effect during the administration of the two earls of Kildare, the earl of Surrey, and the earl of Ormond. Indeed Henry VII. was the first to civilize Ireland to any degree. This he effected by enacting salutary laws; and Sir Edward Poynings contributed more than any other of his governors to the tranquillity of the state. During his administration was passed the law known as Poyning's Law, the purport of which was, that no parliament should be held in Ireland, without previous notice being given to the king of England of the acts to be passed in that parliament. Thus the power of the turbulent barons was greatly broken; and the governor, not having it in his power to assemble parliaments when he pleased, became a

FRANCESCO XIMENES (1437-1517) | was born at Torrelagunna, in Old Castile, of the honourable but poor family of Cisneros; and after taking holy orders, suddenly entered among the monks of St. Francis, in which community he was soon remarkable for his rigid attention to religious duties. When obliged to attend the court, as confessor of Isabella of Castile, he preserved the same sternness; and such was the opinion of his sanctity, that the queen raised him in 1495 to the archbishopric of Toledo, then, next to the papacy, the richest dignity in the Church. Promotion, however, produced no alteration in Ximenes' manners; and under his pontifical robes he wore the coarse frock of a Franciscan friar, which he mended with his own hands. He at no time used linen, but wore hair-cloth next his skin; and in both his lodgings and diet he was still attentive to the severe rules of his order. Notwithstanding these peculiarities, so inconsistent with the manners of the world, he possessed a thorough knowledge of its affairs; and when called upon by Ferdinand and Isabella to take a principal share in the administration of the government, he displayed talents for business which rendered the fame of his wisdom equal to that of his sanctity. In 1507, Julius II. bestowed on him a cardinal's hat; and shortly after, the king appointed him prime minister. His conduct in this exalted station was so satisfactory to his master, that at his death in 1516, he left Ximenes sole regent of Castile, till the arrival of his grandson and successor (afterwards

the emperor Charles V.) in Spain. The national character of the Spaniards and the existing state of affairs combined to render the duties of the new regent peculiarly arduous; but by a rare union of prudence, firmness, and decision, he preserved undiminished the authority with which he had been entrusted, in spite of the cabals of the nobility, and the more dangerous intrigues of the courtiers who surrounded the young king during his residence in the Netherlands

where he continued twenty months after the death of his grandfather. Though nearly 80 when he held the reins of government, Ximenes abated nothing of the rigour of his mortifications, or the regularity of his attentions to religious duties: and such exercises did not prevent him from constantly attending the council of state, reading all papers presented to him, dictating letters and instructions, and inspecting all business, civil, ecclesiastical, and military. The only amusement in which he indulged, by way of relaxation, was to canvass, with a few friars and other theologians, some intricate article of scholastic divinity. The ungrateful requital of his services by the prince whose interests he had so powerfully promoted, caused his death. Ximenes, when the king landed in Spain, 1517, set out to meet him; but upon reaching Aranda, he received a letter from Charles, in which, after a few cold and formal expressions of regard, he was permitted, or rather ordered, to retire to his diocese, 'that, after a life of such continued exertion, he might end his days in tran

quillity. His high spirit could not brook this unmerited indignity, and he expired a few hours after reading the letter, Nov. 8, 1517. The variety, the grandeur, and the success of Ximenes' schemes during his short regency, leave it doubtful whether his sagacity in council, his prudence in conduct, or his boldness in execution, deserve the superior praise. His reputation has been permanent, not only for wisdom, but for sanctity; and he is,' says Dr. Robertson, the only prime minister mentioned in history whom his contemporaries reverenced as a saint, and to whom the people under his government ascribed the power of working miracles.' Literature was indebted to the cardinal for academical foundations at Alcala and Talavera, and also on account of the famous Complutensian polyglott bible, printed under his patronage at Alcala, (Complutum).

GONZALO DE CORDOVA (1453 1515), of the noble house of `d'Aguilar, but a younger brother, rose in the army of Isabella, and (like our Raleigh afterwards) owed the impetus of his elevation to the gallant act of rushing into the water, clad in magnificent brocade, to carry the queen from a boat. He served at the conquest of Granada, received an estate as his reward, and was then earnestly recommended to her consort by Isabella. He was appointed over the heads of his seniors in rank to command, and sent by Ferdinand to Calabria, to aid Fernando II. of Naples against the French king, Charles VIII. After having driven the French from Naples, and reinstated Fernando, pope Alexander VII. procured his aid against one Menoldo Guerri, of Biscay, to whom Charles VIII., on his retreat, delivered Ostia in trust, and who, by his exactions from the trading vessels of the Tiber, distressed and starved Rome. Gonzalo surrounded that fortress with his veterans, stormed it on the eighth day, and the Eternal City, the capital of Christendom, beheld the hero of the age bringing in chains the

monster that had occasioned her alarm-a modern triumph, the glory of which the conqueror enhanced by requesting and obtaining the pardon of the vanquished, and an exemption from all taxes during ten years for the inhabitants of Ostia and its environs. Thus did the great captain crown his first expedition to Italy, 1498. In 1500, he suppressed a revolt of the converted Moors in the Alpujarras, and requested their pardon also as the reward of his victory. Charles VIII. having died 1498 and been succeeded by Louis XII., the latter made preparations to expel Sforza from Milan, and to stretch his arms as far as Naples. Ferdinand, who now agreed to partake of the spoil, sent Gonzalo to Italy again, but only as an ally of the Venetians. The first result of this campaign was the taking of Cefalonia from the Turks, 1500; and the next the inducing Fernando of Naples to relinquish his territories, as related in the reign of that prince. Gonzalo entered Naples a second time in triumph, 1504; and had scarcely found time to breathe, when a new French army, under La Trimouille, advanced upon the conquered territory. Gonzalo again seized the opportunity, and actually crushed the enemy at Garigliano. 'The miserable remnant of the French hosts,' says Peter Martyr,' the finest army which the sun ever beheld, crawled and limped back through Italy, scorned and hooted at;' the peasantry rose upon them in masses, and the roads ran with the blood of the poor ill-requited victims of their leader's incapacity. They retained nothing of their conquests but the dishonour and disease. Gonzalo, meanwhile, entered Naples triumphantly for the third time; and having sheathed for ever his victorious sword, exhibited in his civil office of viceroy those talents which had distinguished him in the field-justice, fortitude, temperance, magnificence, gentleness, wisdom. Indifferent to honours and advantages for himself, he impoverished his own private for