degree, for the
splendor of Lorenzo the Magnificent, which was to appear in the century
following. The women in these regal courts were clothed in the most
extravagant fashion, and the precious stuffs and precious stones of all
the known world were laid at their feet by their admirers. Among these
affluent noblemen of the fourteenth century, Galeazzo Visconti was
generally considered the handsomest man of his age. Symonds tells us
that he was tall and graceful, with golden hair which he wore in long
plaits, or tied up in a net, or else loose and crowned with flowers. By
nature he was fond of display, liked to make a great show of his wealth,
and spent much money in public entertainments and feasts and in the
construction of beautiful palaces and churches. His wealth was so great
and his reputation had gone so far abroad that he was able to do what
other rich Italian noblemen accomplished in a somewhat later
time--arrange royal marriages for some of his children. His daughter
Violante was wedded with great ceremony to the Duke of Clarence, son of
Edward III. of England, who is said to have received with her as a dowry
the sum of two hundred thousand golden florins, and at the same time
five cities on the Piedmont frontier. London was a muddy, unpaved city
at this time, primitive in the extreme; the houses were still covered
with thatched roofs, beds were still made upon bundles of straw cast
upon the floors, and wine was so scarce that it was generally sold for
medicinal purposes. It has been pointed out that it must have been a
strange experience for this English nobleman to leave all that and come
to a country of warmth and sunshine, where the houses were large and
comfortable and made of marble, where the streets were dry and paved,
where wine was as plenty as water, and where ease and luxury were seen
on every hand.

This royal marriage was celebrated at Pavia, where Galeazzo held his
court, and the historian Giovio has given some curious and interesting
details regarding it. He says that on the completion of the ceremony
Galeazzo gave rich gifts to more than two hundred Englishmen, and it was
generally considered that he had shown himself more generous than the
greatest kings. At the wedding feast, Gian Galeazzo, the bride's
brother,--who was afterward married to Isabella, the daughter of King
John of France,--at the head of a band of noble youths, brought
wonderful new gifts to the table with the arrival of each n