ation as a gallant soldier and brilliant
courtier, until, in 1525, he was slain in the battle of Pavia, under
the walls of the Castello, where, thirty-five years before, he had been
wedded to Bianca Sforza.

Meanwhile Beatrice's sons grew up at Innsbruck, under the care of their
cousin, the Empress Bianca. It was a melancholy life for these young
princes, born in the purple and reared in all the luxury and culture of
Milan. And when their cousin Bianca died in 1510, they lost their best
friend. But a sudden and unexpected turn of the tide brought them once
more to the front. That warlike pontiff, Julius II., who, as Cardinal
della Rovere, had been one of the chief instruments in bringing the
French into Italy, entered into a league with Maximilian to expel them
and reinstate the son of the hated Moro on the throne of Milan. They
succeeded so well that, in 1512, four years after Lodovico's death at
Loches, young Maximilian Sforza entered Milan in triumph, amidst the
enthusiastic applause of the people. Once more he rode up to the gates
of the Castello where he was born, and took up his abode there as
reigning duke. But his rule over Lombardy was short. A handsome, gentle
youth, without either his father's talents or his mother's high spirit,
Maximilian was destined to become a passive tool in the hands of
stronger and more powerful men. His weakness and incapacity soon became
apparent, and when, three years later, the new French king, Francis I.,
invaded the Milanese, and defeated the Italian army at Marignano, the
young duke signed an act of abdication, and consented to spend the rest
of his life in France. There he lived in honourable captivity, content
with a pension allowed him by King Francis and with the promise of a
cardinal's hat held out to him by the Pope, until he died, in May, 1530,
and was buried in the Duomo of Milan. His brother Francesco was a far
more spirited and courageous prince, who might have proved an admirable
ruler in less troublous times, but was doomed to experience the
strangest vicissitudes of fortune. After the second conquest of Milan by
the French, he retired to Tyrol, until, in 1521, Pope Leo X. combined
with Charles V. to oppose Francis I., and restore the Sforzas. Their
aims were crowned with success, and by the end of the year Francesco
Sforza was proclaimed Duke of Milan, only to be driven from his throne
again three years later. After the defeat of Pavia, the young duke, who
had won