even were the choice an excellent one and such as would please everybody
else, it would be none the less fatal to the house of Aragon, although
Roderigo was born her subject and owed to her the origin and progress of
his fortunes; for wherever reasons of state come in, the ties of blood
and parentage are soon forgotten, and, 'a fortiori', relations arising
from the obligations of nationality.

Thus, one may see that Ferdinand judged Alexander VI with his usual
perspicacity; this, however, did not hinder him, as we shall soon
perceive, from being the first to contract an alliance with him.

The duchy of Milan belonged nominally to John Galeazzo, grandson of
Francesco Sforza, who had seized it by violence on the 26th of February,
1450, and bequeathed it to his son, Galeazzo Maria, father of the young
prince now reigning; we say nominally, because the real master of the
Milanese was at this period not the legitimate heir who was supposed to
possess it, but his uncle Ludovico, surnamed 'il Moro', because of the
mulberry tree which he bore in his arms. After being exiled with his two
brothers, Philip who died of poison in 1479, and Ascanio who became the
cardinal, he returned to Milan some days after the assassination of
Galeazzo Maria, which took place on the 26th of December 1476, in St.
Stephen's Church, and assumed the regency for the young duke, who at that
time was only eight years old. From now onward, even after his nephew
had reached the age of two-and-twenty, Ludovico continued to rule, and
according to all probabilities was destined to rule a long time yet; for,
some days after the poor young man had shown a desire to take the reins
himself, he had fallen sick, and it was said, and not in a whisper, that
he had taken one of those slow but mortal poisons of which princes made
so frequent a use at this period, that, even when a malady was natural, a
cause was always sought connected with some great man's interests.