Federico II: faith in power (1517-1525)
Last years of Francesco II’s life, even if afflicted by a long illness, were pleased by the vision of the development of his male progeny. Isabella had given birth to Federico, Ercole and Ferrante, three princely and brilliant young: the first would be destined to follow the Marquis to the throne, the second to be appointed Cardinal, very nearly a Pope, the third to become a valiant general and a favourite of Holy Emperor Charles V. War did not leave the Marquis until the end, as accompanied his life all along.
In January 1517, few days after his own ascension to the throne, Christian II, King of Denmark, a cruel and quarrelsome man, inexplicably declared war on Genoa and Tuscany, joined by his closest friends in Stockholm and Moscow. Leo X, whose cowardice was second only to his love for arts, abandoned Italic League for approaching Carlos I and become a devoted member of his alliance. Faded echoes of battles among the forces of Italic League’s members and enemy armies coming from those outermost Northern lands resounded in the palace, next to the bedside of Francesco II, but the skirmishes did not touch the lands of Gonzaga. After roughly 15 months of Danish raids, Ottaviano Campofregosi, doge of Genoa, settled a truce with Christian II paying 50 ducats, and war ended, suddenly as it started.
The riots, started in Milan on September 1st, 1518 and sparked into a general popular revolt, represented the last concern for Francesco II. Mantuan garrison in Milan, consisting of less than 10.000 men, was halved in the first days of insurrection and forced to leave the city in the furious hands of rebels. In November a second attempt to restore the city to the Marquesate resulted in further massacres; only in the second part of April, 1519, one month before Francesco II’s death, a group of 6.000 soldiers manage to rout the rebels.
Here are some maps of 1519 Italy for you, readers; the first one shows the predominance of Charles V Hapsburg over the peninsula - Sicily has been cut for size matters, but it belongs to Spain, too; the second one shows the single serious obstacle for the Emperor: the "Italic League"
Federico II, 19 years old, became Marquis under the regency of his mother Isabella on May 30, 1519.
With Federico II’s ascension to the throne of the Marquesate, it’s time to explain the title of this thread: ”FIDES” (“fede” in Italian, “fidelity” in English) was his motto and - in its ancient Italian translation – the first half of his own baptised name. In January, Maximilian I died at age 59 and Carlos I Hapsburg, who was born in the same year of Federico, was elected Emperor as Charles V. Federico II’s life would cross over those of other great sovereigns of XVI century, as Francois I of France, Henry VIII of England, Gustav Wasa of Sweden, Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent.
In 1515 Federico II had married Maria Paleologue, heiress of Montferrat (approximately corresponding to Piemonte), but Maria died. In the meanwhile, Federico who had been enjoying for years the graces of his mistress, the famous and controversial Boschetta, gradually supplanted his mother in domestic power, being also appointed general captain of the papal armies at age of 20 and setting up a revived interest for military training
+1 Quality slider.
The “twenties” recorded an unprecedented detachment of the Marquis from European events of that period: the finest relations with Italic League and foreign powers (apart the Hapsburg) could permit isolation, perhaps for a short moment. In 1523 Titian arrived in Mantua and met Federico, who became one of his major clients. Those were the years when Palazzo Te was built under the supervision of the celebrated architect Giulio Romano. The palace takes the name from the place in which it rises: the island of Te, surrounded from the three lakes. It was the amusement residence of the Duke, directly inspired from the scheme of ancient Roman villas, decorated with Romano’s erotic ceilings and embellished with paintings collection of the Gonzagas (enriched in the years with Tintoretto, Titian, Durer, Rubens, Bruegel).
Such lack of involvement in domestic affairs assured a spontaneous growth in production and trade, but did not prevent the emergence of nuisances typical of economies growing uncontrolled, as
the inflationary progression, from 6% to 16%, caused by demographic expansion in the earliest years of the decade and exacerbated by the food shortage deriving from the persistent revolts – started with his election - in the provinces under the control of Charles V Hapsburg, both Spanish Southern Italy and Austrian Central Italy. Notwithstanding his apprehension for the growing disorder in the Empire, even among the same loyal Great German Union, inflamed by the words of Luther, Charles V tried to find the occasion to settle down rebels in many years: but only in 1524, with the capture of the last insurgent cities of Taranto and Modena, he would manage to get his authority back in all his domains.
This outbreak, recalled as
“bread rebellion” in Imperial archives, name that does not tell the truth about the anti-Hapsburg intentions of the rebels, ended up to involve Milan. The city rioted in January 1523, to be subjected again under Federico II’s authority only in November of the same year, after forcing the Marquis to call up one of the greatest enlistments ever recorded in the history of the city:
6.000 soldiers plus 2.000 knights, recruited in June 1524 for the weighty cost of 118 ducats, half of the Marquisal treasury. Yet, the Milanese revolt now portrayed was the single trouble in the first years of Federico’s sovereignty.
Although it looks like Venice saved you but then that's what alliances are for. I'm still very impressed with your AAR. 
