his fifteenth year, was soon after named Legate of Perugia. On the 20th of February, 1549, there was born a prince, who succeeded to the dukedom as Francesco Maria II., and the grateful people manifested their loyalty by customary congratulations and donatives.[55] These happy events were, ere long, interrupted by the death of Paul III. on the 10th of November, followed by that of the dowager Duchess of Urbino, on the 14th of February, thereafter. [Footnote *54: Cf. PELLEGRINI, _Gubbio sotto i Conti e Duchi d'Urbino_ in _Bolletino per l'Umbria_ (Perugia, 1905), vol. XI., p. 236 _et seq._] [Footnote 55: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 934, is an elaborate exposition of the devices and mottoes displayed on this august occasion.] The little state of San Marino forms a solecism in the polity of Europe, having preserved its petty limits and its purely popular government during many centuries, whilst all the other republics of Italy successfully yielded to personal ambition or foreign conquest.[*56] For its independence during the ceaseless changes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was debtor to the Dukes of Urbino, whose aid was ever at hand when their name proved an inadequate safeguard. The nature of the protection which they accorded to that republic is shown in the subjoined document, which seems worthy of insertion from its resemblance to those letters of maintenance usually granted about the same period by the greater barons of Scotland, in favour of less powerful neighbours and friends, among the minor nobility, and even the burgh communities. [Footnote *56: Cf. FATTORI, _Delle cause che hanno conservata la Repubblica di S. Marino_ (Bologna, 1887).] "Protection under which, at the instance of the Liberty of S. Marino, pressed by its envoys, the Lord Duke Guidobaldo II. assumes the aforesaid Liberty, its men and territory, following therein in this the course adopted by Duke Federico, Guido I., Francesco Maria his father, and others of his house: promising to the best of his ability, and at all times, to defend, protect, and guard it against all persons whatsoever who may seek or wish to injure it, whether in respect to its possessions, subjects, state, or pre-eminence, holding its enemies for his enemies, and its allies for his allies; and further, undertaking to accord to it all possible aid and favour in the maintenance of its independence and freedom: the said envoys, on the other part, obliging themselves to the Lord Duke, in name of the foresaid, with all their exertion and power to assist, uphold, and preserve the subjects, state, honours, and dignity of the said Lord Duke, against whatsoever person, state, or potentate who may make attempts against him; promising to hold the friends of his Excellency as their friends, and his foes as their foes, and to pay him at all times the respect due to a faithful and good protector. At the requisition of Ser Bartolo Nursino, 20th May, 1549."