him to remain in the castle, but the choir had already been sent ahead, and Galeazzo decided to maintain his yearly tradition of honoring the first Christian martyr. In his favorite room of the castleâdecorated with golden sunbursts surrounding a dove against a red ground and Bona's motto, Ã BON DROIT , inscribed in goldâGaleazzo's children gathered to see their father off. His armorer brought the steel breastplate that he usually wore under his clothes for protection, but the duke, fearing that the metal would ruin the line of his new ermine-trimmed silk robe, decided to go without it. He embraced his two eldest sons and mounted his horse, riding off with his usual entourage of twenty courtiers.
At the church, Galeazzo dismounted and entered the ancient marble portal. Throngs of subjects surrounded their ruler, offering him good wishes. The lackeys, in livery of bright red and white, cleared a path as Galeazzo made his way down the nave, returning the greetings of the Milanesi. Then Andrea Lampugnano, assuming the subservient pose of a petitioner, approached the duke. Galeazzo, accustomed to frequent requests from Lampugnano, raised a preemptory hand as the conspirator knelt, sweeping his cap off his head. What the duke took to be a pleading gesture was in reality the secret signal to the assassins. Lampugnano struck first, plunging his knife into the duke's chest, and in a matter of moments the assassins rained fourteen blows on their victim. Thirty-two-year-old Galeazzo Maria fell, with barely enough time to gasp "I am dead." He expired on the cold floor of the basilica, his new scarlet suit stained with the deeper crimson of his own blood.
The conspirators had assumed that the people of Milan would rejoice at the assassination and rally to them in the expectation of greater freedom. They had miscalculated. Several horrified Milanesi moved forward to avenge their duke. Olgiati and Visconti escaped, but Lampugnano was found hiding among the skirts of the women and was killed instantly. The vengeful crowd dragged his corpse through the streets until it was mangled beyond recognition. Visconti was turned in by his own family, and Olgiati was apprehended almost immediately. Both men were publicly quartered, but Olgiati's stoicism earned him the admiration of the onlookers. His last words were
Mors acerba, fama perpetuaâ
"Death is bitter, but fame is eternal." 6 When the news reached the palace, there was no time for grieving. Everyone in Caterina's world sprang into action. Fearing a popular uprising in the wake of the duke's death, Galeazzo's trusted secretatary of state, Cicco Simonetta, raised all the drawbridges of the Porta Giovia castle, rendering the building secure. He then announced that six-year-old Gian Galeazzo was the new duke of Milan. Bona and Cicco both suspected that the duke's brothers, in league with the king of France, had a hand in the murder, but to avoid precipitating a coup d'état they chose not to publicly implicate them and instead declared that the assassins had acted alone, under the spell of ancient Roman ideology. This served to reassure their Florentine allies that the state was stable.
Bona then declared herself regent for her young son. Gathering the men-at-arms, she put them under the command of Robert Sanseverino, who had served the duchy for thirty-seven years. To placate the people of Milan, the duchess abolished the odious
inquinto
as well as several other taxes on basic necessities. Caterina witnessed Bona's transformation from quiet, patient wife and mother, enjoying leisurely days in her cottage on the castle grounds, to a dynamic and competent head of state, managing her responsibilities to the populace and dealing with rival claimants and external threats. The metamorphosis of Bona must have been a great lesson to the young countess, who knew that one day she might well find herself in a similar position.
Archived amid businesslike correspondence establishing
At the church, Galeazzo dismounted and entered the ancient marble portal. Throngs of subjects surrounded their ruler, offering him good wishes. The lackeys, in livery of bright red and white, cleared a path as Galeazzo made his way down the nave, returning the greetings of the Milanesi. Then Andrea Lampugnano, assuming the subservient pose of a petitioner, approached the duke. Galeazzo, accustomed to frequent requests from Lampugnano, raised a preemptory hand as the conspirator knelt, sweeping his cap off his head. What the duke took to be a pleading gesture was in reality the secret signal to the assassins. Lampugnano struck first, plunging his knife into the duke's chest, and in a matter of moments the assassins rained fourteen blows on their victim. Thirty-two-year-old Galeazzo Maria fell, with barely enough time to gasp "I am dead." He expired on the cold floor of the basilica, his new scarlet suit stained with the deeper crimson of his own blood.
The conspirators had assumed that the people of Milan would rejoice at the assassination and rally to them in the expectation of greater freedom. They had miscalculated. Several horrified Milanesi moved forward to avenge their duke. Olgiati and Visconti escaped, but Lampugnano was found hiding among the skirts of the women and was killed instantly. The vengeful crowd dragged his corpse through the streets until it was mangled beyond recognition. Visconti was turned in by his own family, and Olgiati was apprehended almost immediately. Both men were publicly quartered, but Olgiati's stoicism earned him the admiration of the onlookers. His last words were
Mors acerba, fama perpetuaâ
"Death is bitter, but fame is eternal." 6 When the news reached the palace, there was no time for grieving. Everyone in Caterina's world sprang into action. Fearing a popular uprising in the wake of the duke's death, Galeazzo's trusted secretatary of state, Cicco Simonetta, raised all the drawbridges of the Porta Giovia castle, rendering the building secure. He then announced that six-year-old Gian Galeazzo was the new duke of Milan. Bona and Cicco both suspected that the duke's brothers, in league with the king of France, had a hand in the murder, but to avoid precipitating a coup d'état they chose not to publicly implicate them and instead declared that the assassins had acted alone, under the spell of ancient Roman ideology. This served to reassure their Florentine allies that the state was stable.
Bona then declared herself regent for her young son. Gathering the men-at-arms, she put them under the command of Robert Sanseverino, who had served the duchy for thirty-seven years. To placate the people of Milan, the duchess abolished the odious
inquinto
as well as several other taxes on basic necessities. Caterina witnessed Bona's transformation from quiet, patient wife and mother, enjoying leisurely days in her cottage on the castle grounds, to a dynamic and competent head of state, managing her responsibilities to the populace and dealing with rival claimants and external threats. The metamorphosis of Bona must have been a great lesson to the young countess, who knew that one day she might well find herself in a similar position.
Archived amid businesslike correspondence establishing
Similar Books
