true that we must submit with patience to the will of God, but I have not enough strength of mind to bear such a calamity with calmness. I pray God to send me more composure and comfort, and to grant peace and blessedness to her soul. Your Excellency, towards whom I give free course to my sorrow, will understand the state of mind of your faithful servant, who commends himself to you as heartily as he can.’ It is self-evident that Lorenzo had to consider his peculiar position in planning the future connections of his children as they grew up. He strove to reconcile the political needs of this position with the traditions of the country, which were against foreign marriages. The family alliance which he formed between the Medici and the Cybò has this peculiarity, that in this case, for the first time, the son of a Pope was in some degree recognised and brought on the political stage, the sad beginning of a grievous error in the history of the Popedom. Before the middle of March, 1487, Giovanni Lanfredini went to Rome to arrange preliminaries for a contract of marriage between Lorenzo’s second daughter, Maddalena, and Franceschetto Cybò, son of Innocent VIII.[308] On the 22nd Lorenzo publicly announced ‘the family connection concluded with me by his Holiness.’ The allies, Naples and Milan, had been informed of the negotiations in question. Lorenzo attached especial importance to the king’s approval, because there had once been a project of marriage between Franceschetto and a daughter of Ferrante, and it was not till he had made sure of the latter’s agreement that he formally concluded the contract with Rome, or even discussed the matter with the Florentine magistrates, to whom he submitted it for approval. ‘Our opinion of the illustrious Lorenzo,’ so run Ferrante’s instructions addressed, on May 1, to Trojano de’ Bottuni, who was going as ambassador to Rome, Florence, and Milan,[309] ‘is so firmly established that the whole world could produce no change in us. Wish him joy of the new connection, which, in my opinion, is likely to be no less useful to us than to him; for his influence on the Pope will operate favourably to smooth the misunderstandings between his Holiness and ourselves, and we only regret not having known of the plan earlier that we might immediately have given it our full agreement.’