The Duke's influence, as head of the della Rovere family, was paramount in the conclave, composed as it was of relations, friends, and creatures of the late Pope in overwhelming majority. The election was therefore to a great degree in his hands, and when it fell upon the Cardinal de' Medici, he rejoiced in the elevation of a personal friend. He and his brother Giuliano, their nephew Lorenzo, and their cousin Giulio, afterwards Clement VII., had been welcome guests at Urbino, during their family's long exile from Florence. Indeed, we have noticed Giuliano as one of the most brilliant ornaments of Guidobaldo's court, where he resided so long that the apartment devoted to his use still bears his name in the palace. The restoration of the Medici to supremacy in their native city had been the doing of Julius; the choice of their cardinal as his successor was the act of his nephew.[*252] Thus was the bond of friendship confirmed by ties of gratitude. But from such fetters princes are often prone to assume an exemption, and Francesco Maria was destined to experience that they are not more binding upon pontiffs.[253] [Footnote *252: This is rather vague. We are not told what Francesco Maria did that justifies Dennistoun in saying that the election of Leo X. was his act. I can find no evidence of Francesco Maria's personal influence in the conclave. If the election of Leo was an arrangement, it was Cardinal Riario to whom it was due. The charge of ingratitude therefore falls to the ground.] [Footnote 253: To inaugurate the new pontificate, and mark the contrast of Alexander and Julius with their successor,--its Maecenas, Agostino Chigi, erected a triumphal arch, inscribed,-- "Olim habuit Cypris sua tempora; tempora Mavors Olim habuit; sua nunc tempora Pallas habet." Venus here reigned supreme, by Mars displaced; Our happier age by Pallas' sway is graced. To this doggerel there quickly appeared the rejoinder,-- "Mars fuit, est Pallas, Cypria semper ero." Once Mars, Minerva now, but Venus still.]