The now inevitable war was opened by a simultaneous movement upon the
duchy from three several quarters. Renzo, that is, Lorenzo da Ceri,
accompanied by Lorenzo de' Medici and a powerful army, advanced from
Romagna; Vitello Vitelli marched upon Massa Trabaria; and, on the
12th of May, Gianpaolo Baglioni seized on Gubbio.[*266] The force
thus poured upon the state amounted to seventeen thousand foot,
above a thousand men-at-arms, and near two thousand light horse.
That which Francesco Maria could bring into the field numbered about
nine thousand men, and being averse to entail upon his subjects the
miseries of an unavailing struggle, he authorised their surrender,
excepting the citadels of Pesaro, Urbino, S. Leo, and Maiuolo, which
he garrisoned for resistance. His attempts to obtain the mediation
or support of foreign powers entirely failed. Their sympathy and
condolence were freely doled out to him, but none gave hope of
efficient aid, except Maximilian, whose promises, on this as on all
other occasions, proved quite worthless. It only remained to bow, as
his uncle Guidobaldo had done, before the storm, and await happier
times. On the 31st he sent off from Pesaro his consort, in an ailing
state, his infant son, and the dowager Duchess to their relations at
Mantua, with such valuables as they could transport in six or eight
vessels, and, speedily following them, he embarked at midnight and
reached that city in disguise.
[Footnote *266: Cf. PELLEGRINI, _Gubbio sotto i conti e
Duchi d'Urbino_, in _Boll. per l'Umbria_, vol. XI., p. 221. Gianpaolo
Baglioni da Perugia entered the Eugubine territory with 100 knights,
500 horse, and 3000 foot. The Duke wrote that he could not defend
Gubbio. On the 31st May the Consiglio was called together, and it
decided: "redire ad Romanam ecclesiam et sub regimine s. D.N."]
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