irregularities, were a united and respectable couple, and brought up
their sons to be successful and remarkable men at a time when their
small but most important State was exposed to incessant danger. That
Francesco, either as statesman or as soldier, should adopt a policy of
exceptional honesty, was what neither the Emperor, nor Venice, nor the
King of France could have expected or desired; but certainly since the
battle of the Taro (1495), so far as military honour was concerned, he
felt and acted as an Italian patriot, and imparted the same spirit to
his wife. Every deed of loyalty and heroism, such as the defence of
Faenza against Cesare Borgia, she felt as a vindication of the honour
of Italy. Our judgement of her does not need to rest on the praises of
the artists and writers who made the fair princess a rich return for
her patronage; her own letters show her to us as a woman of unshaken
firmness, full of kindliness and humorous observation. Bembo, Bandello,
Ariosto, and Bernardo Tasso sent their works to this court, small and
powerless as it was, and empty as they found its treasury. A more
polished and charming circle was not to be seen in Italy, since the
dissolution (1508) of the old Court of Urbino; and in one respect, in
freedom of movement, the society of Ferrara was inferior to that of
Mantua. In artistic matters Isabella had an accurate knowledge, and the
catalogue of her small but choice collection can be read by no lover of
art without emotion.

In the great Federigo (1444-1482), whether he were a genuine
Montefeltro or not, Urbino possessed a brilliant representative of the
princely order. As a Condottiere he shared the political morality of
soldiers of fortune, a morality of which the fault does not rest with
them alone; as ruler of his little territory he adopted the plan of
spending at home the money he had earned abroad, and taxing his people
as lightly as possible. Of him and his two successors, Guidobaldo and