at last compelled to give in. Yet he retired
with all the honours of war. In exchange for Musso and the lake, the
Duke agreed to give him 35,000 golden crowns, together with the feud
and marquisate of Marignano. A free pardon was promised not only
to himself and his brothers, but to all his followers; and the Duke
further undertook to transport his artillery and munitions of war at
his own expense to Marignano. Having concluded this treaty under the
auspices of Charles V. and his lieutenant, Il Medeghino, in March
1532, set sail from Musso, and turned his back upon the lake for
ever. The Switzers immediately destroyed the towers, forts, walls, and
bastions of the Musso promontory, leaving in the midst of their ruins
the little chapel of S. Eufemia.
Gian Giacomo de' Medici, henceforth known to Europe as the Marquis
of Marignano, now took service under Spain; and through the favour
of Anton de Leyva, Viceroy for the Duchy, rose to the rank of
Field Marshal. When the Marquis del Vasto succeeded to the Spanish
governorship of Milan in 1536, he determined to gratify an old grudge
against the ex-pirate, and, having invited him to a banquet, made him
prisoner. II Medeghino was not, however, destined to languish in a
dungeon. Princes and kings interested themselves in his fate. He
was released, and journeyed to the court of Charles V. in Spain.
The Emperor received him kindly, and employed him first in the Low
Countries, where he helped to repress the burghers of Ghent, and at
the siege of Landrecy commanded the Spanish artillery against other
Italian captains of adventure: for, Italy being now dismembered and
enslaved, her sons sought foreign service where they found best pay
and widest scope for martial science. Afterwards the Medici ruled
Bohemia as Spanish Viceroy; and then, as general of the league formed
by the Duke of Florence, the Emperor, and the Pope to repress the
liberties of Tuscany, distinguished himself in that cruel war of
extermination, which turned the fair Contado of Siena into a poisonous
Maremma. To the last Il Medeghino preserved the instincts and the
passions of a brigand chief. It was at this time that, acting for the
Grand Duke of Tuscany, he first claimed open kinship with the Medici
of Florence. Heralds and genealogists produced a pedigree, which
seemed to authorise this pretension; he was recognised, together with
his brother, Pius IV., as an offshoot of the great house which had
already given Duke
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