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doms, and was joined by the Dalecarlians; but being defeated by the Swedish forces, he was forced to return to Norway, where, being obliged to capitulate with the Spanish generals, he was kept prisoner all his life. In 1542, Gustavus having happily extricated himself out of all his troubles, prevailed on the states, to make the crown hereditary in his family; after which, he applied himself to the encouragement of learning and commerce. A treaty was set on foot for a marriage between his eldest son Eric, and Elizabeth queen of England. The prince's brother, duke John, went over to England, and resided for some time at the court of London, with great splendour. He returned full of expectations of success; but bringing with him no sort of proofs in writing, his father soon perceived that he had been the dupe of Elizabeth's superior policy. However, at last, he allowed Eric to go in person to England; but before he could embark, the death of Gustavus, in 1569, made him lay aside all thoughts of the voyage and marriage. Gustavus was thrice married; by his first consort, a daughter of the duke of Sax-Lauenburg, he had his successor Eric; by his second, daughter of a Swedish noble, three sons and five daughters. As he had changed the national religion, depressed the clergy, and exalted the power of the crown at the expense of the nobles, many of his subjects regarded him with dislike; but posterity has justly ranked him among the greatest and best sovereigns of his age and country. The minister of Gustavus, Lawrence Anderson, is placed under the head of religion, on account of his promoting the reformation.

NAPLES AND SICILY.

FERDINAND I., king of Naples, natural son of Alphonso V., king of Arragon, was legitimated by Pope Eugenius IV., and became king of Naples on the death of his father, in 1458. Callixtus III., then pope, refused to acknowledge him; but Pope Pius II., who succeeded him, granted him the bull of investiture, and he was crowned in 1459. He was soon, however, involved in a civil war, in consequence of some discontented barons having invited John of Anjou, who had claims on the Neapolitan crown. He entered the kingdom, and defeated Ferdinand, which caused him to be deserted by the greatest part of his friends. However, George Castriot, surnamed Scanderbeg, at the pope's request, went over to his assistance, and completely defeated John at Troia. By his subsequent successes, he restored tranquillity to the kingdom, which he endeavoured to secure by various foreign alliances; and he employed the years of peace in those internal improvements with

respect to laws, learning, arts, and manufactures, which gave a lustre to his reign. He assisted Pope Sixtus IV. in his designs against Florence, where he had projected the ruin of the Medici family. The celebrated Lorenzo, in order to avert the danger, took the magnanimous resolution of repairing to Naples, and putting himself in the power of Ferdinand; and though this prince was not remarkable for the delicacy or generosity of his political conduct, yet he was so far won by the persuasive arguments of Lorenzo, that he concluded an alliance with the Florentines, without consulting the pope. In 1480, he had the mortification of seeing Otranto taken by the Turks, with every circumstance of savage barbarity. His son Alphonso, however, recovered it in the following year. To this son, who was of a violent and tyrannical temper, Ferdinand committed the chief care of the government, and such discontent prevailed against them both, that upon occasion of a dispute between the king and Pope Innocent VIII., that pontiff occasioned the barons to revolt, which threatened the safety of the throne. Ferdinand also excited disturbances against the pope in the ecclesiastical states, which brought about a peace. Pardon to the barons was one of its conditions, but it was shamefully violated, and many were cut off for their share in the rebellion. A new rupture took place about two years after, between the king and the pope, in which the latter proceeded to excommunicate Ferdinand; but through the mediation of the king of Arragon, a reconciliation was effected. About this time the preparations of Charles VIII., king of France, for the invasion of Naples, became truly alarming; and Ferdinand, conscious that he could not rely upon the affections of his subjects, was thrown into great disquietude. He employed himself, however, in proper measures of defence; but in the midst of his cares, he died of a fit of apoplexy, in 1494, aged seventy-one, leaving his tottering throne to his son Alphonso. The stain of tyranny, perfidy, and cruelty, adheres to his name; but it is allowed that he possessed, in several points, the true wisdom of a sovereign. He is particularly distinguished as the author of many useful laws, and he restored the university of Naples, to which he introduced many learned and elegant writers; he himself received the instructions of several eminent scholars in his father's court, and was the author of a volume of orations and epistles.

ANTHONY, a Sicilian, who, when taken prisoner by Mahomet II., at the Negropont, 1473, set fire to the arsenal at Gallipoli, for which he was sawn asunder by the Turks.

ALPHONSO II., king of Naples, succeeded his father Ferdinand, in 1494. He exercised such a cruel and tyrannical sway over his subjects, as induced them to invite Charles VIII. of France, to invade the country. That prince took possession of Naples; on which Alphonso abdicated the throne, and retired to a monastery in Sicily, where he died about 1496.

ANDREW MATTHEW AQUAVIRA, duke of Atri, in the kingdom of Naples. He was very eminent as a military commander, and also devoted much time to the cultivation of letters. He died in 1528, aged 72.

FERDINAND FRANCIS D'AVALOS, marquis of Pescara, descended from one of the most illustrious families of the kingdom of Naples, originally from Spain, was brought up to the military profession, and became one of the principal commanders of the emperor Charles V. He married the celebrated Victoria Colonna, a lady equally illustrious for her personal and mental accomplishments, with whom he lived in perfect harmony. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Ravenna, in 1512, and during his confinement, he composed a "Dialogue on Love," dedicated to his wife. After his liberation, he was of great service to his master in the recovery of Milan, and in the battles of Bicoque and Pavia. Pope Clement VII., and the Italian princes, alarmed at the progress of the emperor's arms, wished to engage the marquis in a league against him, and tempted him with offering him the crown of Naples. He is thought to have lent an ear to the proposition; but the emperor discovering the negociation, he pretended to have listened to it only through policy. He did not long survive, but died at Milan, in 1525, aged 36, without issue. His tomb is to be seen at Naples. The marquis was a friend and patron of letters, and acquired a taste for science, under his tutor Musephilus.

VICTORIA COLONNA, an illustrious lady, distinguished for her productions in Italian poetry, was the daughter of Fabritio Colonna, duke of Palliano, and born at Marino in 1490. When seventeen years of age, she was married to Francis D'Avalos, marquis of Pescara. They lived together in the most perfect harmony; and she is said to have employed her influence in dissuading him from accepting the crown of Naples, which was offered him after the battle of Pavia, in order to detach him from the interest of the emperor Charles V. After his death, which happened in 1525, she lived in retirement, solacing her grief with poetry and devotion, and firmly rejecting all offers of a new alliance. She entertained a friendly correspondence with some of the most learned and cultivated persons of the age, as the cardinals Bembo, Contarini, and Pole; the poets Flaminio, Molza, Almanni, &c. For the sake of a more perfect retirement, she entered a monastery at Orvieto, in 1546, which she soon exchanged for that of St. Catherine in Viterbo. Her connection there with some learned men, who afterwards underwent the imputation of heresy, has occasioned some protestants to represent her as inclined to the new opinions; but Tirabosche seems to have brought evidence sufficient to refute this notion. She at length left the monastery, and returned to Rome, where she VOL. IV.

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died in 1547, Her poems passed through four editions, and and are much admired. They are not inferior to those of the greater part of the Petrarchian versifiers of that age, and are among the first in which Italian poetry was employed on religious topics.

VENICE AND GENOA.

BLAISE AXERETO, or ASSERETO, a celebrated Genoese admiral, who defeated Alphonso V., of Arragon, in a naval battle, 1435, and took him prisoner.

BERNARD JUSTINIANI, was born at Venice in 1408. He obtained the senator's robe at the age of nineteen, served the republic in several embassies, and was elected procurator of St. Mark, in 1474. He was a learned man, and wrote the History of Venice, with some other works of considerable merit, and died in 1489.

JEROME DONATO, an eminent Venetian statesman, and man of letters, was born about 1454. He was a person of conspicuous talents, and unblemished integrity, and was employed by his country in various important and difficult negociations. He commanded in Brescia and Ferrara, and reconciled the republic to Pope Julius II., though he had the misfortune to be carried off by a violent fever at Rome, in 1513, before the treaty was concluded between them. He published a translation of "Alexander Aphrodiscus de Anima." With a well cultivated understanding, great political experience, and a profound knowledge of the interests of the state, he combined very elegant manners, and the most captivating address; all which advantages were heightened by a majestic stature and deportment, and every personal accomplishment.

PROSPER ADORNE, a Genoese, was proclaimed doge after the French were expelled in 1460. His enemies at last prevailed against him, and at the end of a life chequered by misfortunes, he fled to Naples, where he died, 1486.

JEROME ADORNE, a Genoese of the same family with the preceding. He opposed the party of the Fregosos, who aspired to the supreme power. He was highly respected as a negociator, as an admiral, as a politician, and as a public magistrate.

BAPTIST FREGOSO, or FULGOSO, son of Peter Fregoso, succeeded his father as doge of Genoa, in November, 1478. His conduct was so arbitrary, that his ambitious uncle Paul, archbishop of Genoa, procured his deposition in 1483, and caused himself to be elected in his stead. Baptist was then banished to Tregni. He amused himself in his exile with literary composition. He wrote, 1. a work of which the translation is entitled, "Battista Fulgosi de dictus factisque memorabilibus collectanea." fol. 1508. 2. La Vita di Martino V. 3.

De Fœminis quæ doctrina excelluerunt. 4. A Treatise against Love, entitled, "Anteros," printed at Milan in 1469.

BARTHOLOMEW ALVIANO, an eminent Venetian general, who, in 1508, gained such advantages over the emperor Maximilian, that the republic decreed him triumphal honours. He commanded during the famous league against Venice, when his fire and enterprise did not well agree with the caution of count Piligliano, the commander-in-chief. At the battle of Aignadel, where he commanded the rear-guard, after the greatest exertions of personal bravery, he was wounded and taken prisoner. When the Venetians afterwards became the allies of France, Alviano was the chief commander of their army. He defended Padua with success against the emperor; but lost the great battle of la Motte, in which, however, he rendered himself so conspicuous, that the senate gave him the most honourable assurances of the continuance of their esteem. He afforded such timely aid to Francis I., in the desperate battle of Marignano, as greatly contributed to his success. He afterwards laid siege to Brescia, but incurred such fatigue in superintending the works, as threw him into a fever, which carried him off, 1515, aged sixty. He was a rare instance of a soldier of fortune, so disinterested, as to neglect his own affairs, in his zeal for those of his masters. He was profusely liberal to his soldiers, and yet a strict observer of discipline; and so much had he gained their affections, that they kept his body unburied twenty-five days, carrying it with them in funeral pomp in their marches. The republic, which deeply regretted his loss, buried him at the public charge, supported his unprovided family by a pension, and portioned his daughters.

ANDREW DORIA, one of the greatest men of his age, was born in 1466, or 1468, at Oneglia, of which his father Doria de la Eva, a noble Genoese, was feudatory lord. He early evinced an inclination for a military life, which was opposed by his family. After the death of his parents, he went to Rome, and entered into the service of Pope Innocent VIII., as a man at arms. He next engaged in the service of the kings of Naples; but on the expulsion of Alphonso II. by Charles VIII. of France, he joined the duke of Cora, for whom he successfully defended Rocca Guglielma, against the great captain Gonsalvo. After the death of the duke, Doria repaired to his own country, Genoa. He twice subdued the revolted Corsicans, and gained such great reputation, that he was created captain-general of the Genoese galleys, in 1513. He engaged the African pirates who infested the Mediterranean, enriched himself by prizes, and became master of four galleys in his own pay. Genoa was at this time a prey to opposite factions; and the city had, by one of them, been put into the hands of Lewis XII., of France. Finding himself unable to

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