The life of Leonardo da Vinci by John William Brown

During Ludovico Sforza's political gambles

About the end of this year Ludovico it Moro went to Pavia, attended by all his court, to meet the Emperor Maximilian, whom he had invited into Italy. Having gained his object in establishing himself in the sovereignty of Milan, he began to perceive the error he had committed in persuading the French monarch to revive his claims to the throne of Naples. He hoped the French would have encountered more serious opposition; but when he discovered the rapid and successful pro- gress of their arms, he became alarmed, fearing that Charles might be induced to enforce the claims of the House of Orleans to his own Dukedom, to prevent which he wished to form a league which should counterbalance their newly acquired power and consolidate his own.

With this intent he went to meet the Emperor at Pavia, where a most splendid reception had been prepared for him. Triumphal arches were prepared everywhere on his road, and most magnificent fetes awaited his arrival wherever he stopped as Ludovico disguised his true reason for this conference under the pretence of merely doing homage to his feudal lord.

Leonardo, who accompanied his patron on this occasion, had no doubt a principal share in arranging these festivities. That he was not forgotten by the Duke in proved by his having ordered him to paint a picture of the Nativity, which he presented to the Emperor in honour of the occasion, and which is now in the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna. At this interview the League was established between the Pope, the Emperor, and the Venetians, by the intrigues of the Duke of Milan. This was soon after published at Rome, and obliged the French King to relinquish his easily gained conquests with as much celerity as he had acquired them; but it did not remedy the evils which Il Moro's unwise policy had drawn upon himself and his country.