he condition of a rotten borough: nor did this policy fail. One
notable sign of the influence he exercised was the change which now
came over the foreign relations of the republic. Up to the date of his
dictatorship Florence had uniformly fought the battle of freedom in
Italy. It was the chief merit of the Albizzi oligarchy that they
continued the traditions of the mediaeval State, and by their vigorous
action checked the growth of the Visconti. Though they engrossed the
government they never forgot that they were first of all things
Florentines, and only in the second place men who owed their power and
influence to office. In a word, they acted like patriotic Tories, like
republican patricians. Therefore they would not ally themselves with
tyrants or countenance the enslavement of free cities by armed
despots. Their subjugation of the Tuscan burghs to Florence was itself
part of a grand republican policy. Cosimo changed all this. When the
Visconti dynasty ended by the death of Filippo Maria in 1447, there
was a chance of restoring the independence of Lombardy. Milan in
effect declared herself a republic, and by the aid of Florence she
might at this moment have maintained her liberty. Cosimo, however,
entered into treaty with Francesco Sforza, supplied him with money,
guaranteed him against Florentine interference, and saw with
satisfaction how he reduced the duchy to his military tyranny. The
Medici were conscious that they, selfishly, had most to gain by
supporting despots who in time of need might help them to confirm
their own authority. With the same end in view, when the legitimate
line of the Bentivogli was extinguished, Cosimo hunted out a bastard
pretender of that family, presented him to the chiefs of the
Bentivogli faction, and had him placed upon the seat of his supposed
ancestors at Bologna. This young man, a certain Santi da Cascese,
presumed to be the son of Ercole de' Bentivogli, was an artisan in a
wool factory when Cosimo set eyes upon him. At first Santi refused the
dangerous honour of governing a proud republic; but the intrigues of
Cosimo prevailed, and the obscure craftsman ended his days a powerful
prince.

By the arts I have attempted to describe, Cosimo in the course of his
long life absorbed the forces of the republic into himself. While he
shunned the external signs of despotic power he made himself the
master of the State. His complexion was of a pale olive; his stature
short; abstemious and