with the banished prince, Lorenzo was
closely allied with the rulers of Milan, and Lodovico soon saw that his
only hope of seeing his native land again was to be found in the support
of Ferrante, King of Naples, the sworn foe of the Medici. This monarch
looked on Simonetta as a traitorous villain who had taken advantage of
Bona's weakness to usurp the supreme power in Milan, and wrote to King
Louis XI, begging him to come to his kinswoman's help and assist in
restoring the Duke of Bari and his brother to their rights. But the
French king had no wish to be drawn into the quarrel, and when Ferrante
endeavoured to obtain the restoration of his exiled kinsmen by fair
means and had failed, Sforza and Lodovico resolved to try the fortunes
of war once more. Roberto di Sanseverino, whose mother had been a niece
of Duke Francesco, and who had large estates of his own in Lombardy,
placed his sword at their disposal, and they knew they could reckon on
the secret support of their Sforza and Visconti kinsmen in Milan. Among
these, Lodovico had a devoted partisan in Beatrice d'Este, the sister of
Duke Ercole of Ferrara, who had lately been left a widow for the second
time by the death of her husband, the brave soldier Tristan Sforza, and
who kept up a secret correspondence with the exiled princes. Early in
February, 1479, the Sforza brothers and Roberto di Sanseverino landed in
Genoa and boldly raised the standard of revolt. Simonetta retaliated by
confiscating their revenues and proclaiming them rebels, while he hired
Ercole D'Este and Federigo Gonzaga to join the Florentines in resisting
the advance of the Neapolitan forces. In the midst of these warlike
preparations, Sforza Duke of Bari died very suddenly at Genoa. His death
was attributed, after the fashion of the day, to poison secretly sent
him from Milan; but, as Corio remarks, many persons thought that his
excessive stoutness was the true cause of his decease. Lodovico, whom
the King of Naples immediately invested with the dukedom of Bari in his
brother's stead, now crossed the Genoese Alps and boldly invaded the
territory of Tortona. But the enterprise was a perilous one, and the
allied forces of Milan were preparing to crush his little army, when an
unexpected turn of fortune altered the whole condition of affairs.
Duchess Bona, a very beautiful woman, but, as Commines remarks, "_une
dame de petit sens_" had become infatuated with a certain Antonio
Tassino, a Ferrarese youth