Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga

Power Sharing at the Italian Renaissance Court

Sarah D.P. Cockram

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781409448310
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317112716
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early Modern History
• Index: History

In the first book systematically to give evidence of conjugal co-rule at an Italian Renaissance court, and the first full length scholarly study of Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga, Sarah Cockram shows their relationship in an entirely new light. The book draws on (and presents) a large amount of unpublished archival material, including almost unprecedented surviving correspondence between and around these Renaissance princely rulers. Using these sources, Cockram shows Isabella and Francesco's strategic teamwork in action, illuminating tactics of collaboration and dissimulation. She also reveals behind-the-scenes diplomatic activity; court procedures; sexual politics and seduction; gift-giving and network-building; rivalries, intrigues and assassinations. Several epistolary themes emerge: insights into the couple's communication practices and double-dealing, their use of intermediaries, and attention to security matters. This book's analysis of Isabella's co-rule with her husband, supported by other members of the Gonzaga dynasty, sees her sometimes in the role of subordinate partner, sometimes guiding the couple's actions. It shows how, despite appearances at times, the couple shared common diplomatic policy as well as human, material, and cultural resources; joint administration; and the exercise of authority and justice. Thus emerges a three-dimensional picture of the mechanisms of power and power sharing in the age of Machiavelli.

Chapter 1
Letters and Lies

Epistolary Practices in the Information Sharing of the Marchesi

This study of Isabella and Francesco’s power sharing is, to a very great extent, based on evidence found in the couple’s letters, and this section gives a brief overview of the marchesa’s epistolary practices in writing to her husband, with a selection of pertinent examples taken from their correspondence.

The marchesi’s extensive, largely unpublished, correspondence is now preserved in the Archivio Gonzaga in the Mantuan State Archive. The Archive provides enlightening material on the culture, society, and diplomacy of the period, giving insight into all areas of Gonzaga activity.1 It supplies abundant evidence of the marchesi’s teamwork in the three thousand or so letters sent between the couple.2 Francesco and Isabella’s correspondence shows some similar patterns to the practices of Barbara of Brandenburg and Lodovico Gonzaga as described by Elisabeth Ward Swain, exchanging: ‘letters which portray a marriage in which the wife honoured the husband’s primacy, and yet shared his authority and his concerns to the satisfaction of both’.3 However, within Francesco and Isabella’s shared strategies of dynastic advancement, a complex relationship emerges.

Documents of State

Isabella’s surviving correspondence in the Mantuan archive numbers over 16,000 letters written and 9,000 letters received.4 Her letters project Isabella’s authority as a consort and ruler, and reveal her networking, and manipulation of the epistolary form.5 Letters functioned as ambassadors for their sender, their tone fundamentally determined by the identity of the addressee and the reason behind the communication, and Isabella’s letters show a fascinating variety of concerns, rhetorical structures, and registers. They were frequently written with an awareness of an audience beyond the addressed recipient in mind, whether letters likely to be circulated at court, those deliberately written to be artfully shown to another, or those at risk of interception by hostile forces.

As a governing co-ruler, Isabella wrote on the marchese’s behalf, and at times wrote in Francesco’s name.6 Unusually for a consort, like her husband’s, the marchesa’s letters were assiduously catalogued by the chancery, a great number transcribed by secretaries into copybooks, copialettere.7 They were thus recognised as important state documents, to be reviewed on the unfolding of diplomatic events. An example of Isabella going back to her copybooks to check facts is seen in 1496. Francesco accused her of not telling him of his uncle Gianfrancesco’s death, to which Isabella replied:

In a postscript Your Excellency tells me that I did not inform you of the death of the late illustrious Lord Gianfrancesco, at which, as well as remembering writing to you of it and seeing the letters, as is my habit, I had this checked in the register and I find that I wrote to you of this at length in letters of 15, 28, and 29 of last month and 5 of this month, and sent the last ones by way of Venice.8

The majority of the marchesa’s correspondence was dictated to her secretary Benedetto Capilupi,9 although, as shown above, she reviewed the missives before they were sent, and the involvement of secretaries in the letter-writing process raises issues of authorship and agency in Isabella’s letters.10 In addressing this matter, Deanna Shemek has concluded from the lack of evidence of revision between dictated drafts, archived copies, and sent copies in the marchesa’s surviving correspondence that, ‘secretaries and scribes did not routinely polish or revise letters written by competent and forceful patrons’.11

Thus Isabella’s voice may be equally heard in the mass of dictated letters, in the lesser number with an autograph signature,12 and in those rare examples written entirely in autograph. The physical act of writing with one’s own hands was considered highly significant, showing care, intimacy, and the expenditure of time.13 Autograph letters were often not sealed with large, official marchional crests but with small cameo seals, underlining their personal nature.14 Seals, whether unofficial or marchional, were vital to the security of letters which frequently traversed many dangers before reaching their recipients’ hands. On rare occasions unsealed letters were sent, or seals were superfluous, the sender aware that the contents had no confidentiality, as when Isabella sent letters to her husband during his imprisonment in Venice.15

The importance of the apparatus of seals and the presence of secretaries in the system of correspondence is indicated by Isabella’s assertion to her husband of October 1517 that she had been unable write to him, having ‘neither chancellor nor seal’.16 In this case the couple had communicated through an intermediary coming and going, Isabella’s trusted secretary Benedetto Capilupi. The use of intermediaries was common. If the marchesi knew they would soon be together, important information was deferred until it could be communicated face-to-face.17 When this was not possible, the most sensitive information was either communicated through a reliable intermediary, the recipient being asked to hear the bearer as direct representative of the sender, or was committed to paper with the highest security measures, seen below.18

The sending of trusted envoys was not practical on a common basis or with everyday diplomatic news, and letters delivered by courier constituted a pivotal part of Isabella and Francesco’s teamwork when they were apart, whether both in Mantuan territory at different locations, or when one or other was further afield.19 They informed each other of developments in their different locations. They also recognised that, having individual information networks as well as common, for teamwork it was essential to keep each other abreast of news received from correspondents. This was a sign of respect, and acknowledgment that the analysis of political intelligence and the resultant decisions were shared. In appreciation of the combining of information, and the necessity that if one were absent they were kept informed of Mantuan issues, the marchesi frequently thanked each other for details received.20 They could also be assured both of the well being of their spouse and family and of their shared affairs.21

There was habitually a sense of the vicarious sharing of experiences in these regular, comprehensive and, often colourful, reports. For instance, Isabella wrote to Francesco of his description of Louis XII’s triumphal entry into Milan: ‘it seems as though I have seen it’.22 In 1517 she thanked Francesco for letters she had received recounting Federico’s welcome in Venice, which she had read and reread, as they allowed her to see in her mind’s eye the honours received by their son.23 The marchese had enabled Isabella to see such images by including with his letters copies of letters by Federico and his secretary Stazio Gadio.

The marchesi routinely forwarded letters received from third parties as a means of information sharing. This is seen in various forms. The original letter was sometimes simply forwarded on.24 Otherwise a copy could be sent. For instance, in 1500 Francesco sent Isabella a copy of a letter received with news of the re-entry of the Sforza into Milan. He had sent the original to Isabella’s father in Ferrara, an act of alliance and openness, as a copy could always be in some way doctored.25 It was not only letters addressed to the marchesi that were copied for their reference. It will be seen in this study that Isabella’s secretary Capilupi also copied other people’s correspondence, letters shown or intercepted.26

In addition to originals and copies, the marchesi sent each other summaries of correspondence received. Although this required the exclusion of certain information, it was easier for the recipient to read. In 1497, for instance, Isabella sent Francesco an original letter from Lodovico Sforza along with summaries of letters intercepted.27 In 1500 Francesco sent Isabella summaries of news from Rome on several occasions, ‘so that you may, with less strain, understand as we do what is new’.28

To a great extent the couple gave each other access to their correspondence. On many occasions they also opened letters addressed to the other.29 When this occurred accidentally, or without prior permission, they apologised, and were routinely told that they should treat each other’s letters as their own.30 While it was natural that issues of state dictated that Isabella should open Francesco’s correspondence while he was away on military business and she governed Mantua, the marchese was also happy that she open his letters before forwarding them when he was at his villas in Mantuan territory. In July 1498 at Revere he was irritated that she had sent him on, unopened, a letter from Capilupi in Milan.31 In 1501, Isabella confidently opened a letter for Francesco, in Gonzaga, in order that she could act on it if necessary.32

As well as the exchange of correspondence, when Francesco was away from Mantua, in the absence of access to resources, he sent Isabella letters requiring translation.33 In 1499 he sent her a bundle of letters from Goito including two in French, which he was unable to understand, and asked if she could have them translated.34 In 1501 Francesco asked Isabella from Sacchetta to have a German letter translated.35 When information arrived in Mantua in a foreign language the marchesa had it translated before forwarding it.36 The receipt of letters in foreign languages was clearly an issue at court, requiring the intercession of a trusted translator.

Security Measures

Security was a crucial consideration in the marchesi’s epistolary practices. In 1496 Isabella requested from Ferrara lockable post-carrying bags, bolgette, similar to those her father’s couriers used.37 Despite these precautions, however, letters sometimes arrived opened and intercepted. For instance in 1503 Isabella reported to Francesco that his letters had been diverted to Milan, where they had been opened and read by the Gran Maestro, Charles d’Amboise.38 The greatest possible measures were to be taken to ensure that sensitive information, particularly that travelling longer distances outside Mantuan territory, did not find its way into the wrong hands.

To guard against interception and non-delivery letters could be sent twice....

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Notes on Usage
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Photograph Credits
• Introduction
• 1 Letters and Lies
• 2 Power Sharing
• 3 The Elimination of Threats to the Marchesa’s Authority
• 4 Disgruntled Diplomats and Scissor Attacks: Divided Fronts in the Court Environment
• 5 International Diplomacy: The Borgia Menace
• 6 Overcoming Tension and Troubles
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index