On the occasion of each new election to the papacy, it is the custom for
all the Christian States to send a solemn embassy to Rome, to renew their
oath of allegiance to the Holy Father. Ludovico Sforza conceived the
idea that the ambassadors of the four Powers should unite and make their
entry into Rome on the same day, appointing one of their envoy, viz. the
representative of the King of Naples, to be spokesman for all four.
Unluckily, this plan did not agree with the magnificent projects of Piero
dei Medici. That proud youth, who had been appointed ambassador of the
Florentine Republic, had seen in the mission entrusted to him by his
fellow-citizens the means of making a brilliant display of his own
wealth. From the day of his nomination onwards, his palace was
constantly filled with tailors, jewellers, and merchants of priceless
stuffs; magnificent clothes had been made for him, embroidered with
precious stones which he had selected from the family treasures. All his
jewels, perhaps the richest in Italy, were distributed about the liveries
of his pages, and one of them, his favourite, was to wear a collar of
pearls valued by itself at 100,000 ducats, or almost, a million of our
francs. In his party the Bishop of Arezzo, Gentile, who had once been
Lorenzo dei Medici's tutor, was elected as second ambassador, and it was
his duty to speak. Now Gentile, who had prepared his speech, counted on
his eloquence to charm the ear quite as much as Piero counted on his
riches to dazzle the eye. But the eloquence of Gentile would be lost
completely if nobody was to speak but the ambassador of the King of
Naples; and the magnificence of Piero dei Medici would never be noticed
at all if he went to Rome mixed up with all the other ambassadors. These
two important interests, compromised by the Duke of Milan's proposition,
changed the whole face of Italy.

Ludovico Sforza had already made sure of Ferdinand's promise to conform
to the plan he had invented, when the old king, at the solicitation of