Nor did he lose time in sweeping Val Bregaglia.  The news of this conquest recalled the Switzers from the Duchy; and as they hurried homeward just before the battle of Pavia, it may be affirmed that Gian Giacomo de’ Medici was instrumental in the defeat and capture of the French King.  The mountaineers had no great difficulty in dislodging their pirate enemy from Chiavenna, the Valtelline, and Val Bregaglia.  But he retained his hold on the Trepievi, occupied the Valsassina, took Porlezza, and established himself still more strongly in Musso as the corsair monarch of the lake.

The tyranny of the Sforzas in Milan was fast going to pieces between France and Spain; and in 1526 the Marquis of Pescara occupied the capital in the name of Charles V. The Duke, meanwhile, remained a prisoner in his Castello.  Il Medeghino was now without a master; for he refused to acknowledge the Spaniards, preferring to watch events and build his own power on the ruins of the dukedom.  At the head of 4,000 men, recruited from the lakes and neighbouring valleys, he swept the country far and wide, and occupied the rich champaign of the Brianza.  He was now lord of the lakes of Como and Lugano, and absolute in Lecco and the adjoining valleys.  The town of Como itself alone belonged to the Spaniards; and even Como was blockaded by the navy of the corsair.  Il Medeghino had a force of seven big ships, with three sails and forty-eight oars, bristling with guns and carrying marines.  His flagship was a large brigantine, manned by picked rowers, from the mast of which floated the red banner with the golden palle of the Medicean arms.  Besides these larger vessels, he commanded a flotilla of countless small boats.  It is clear that to reckon with him was a necessity.  If he could not be put down with force, he might be bought over by concessions.  The Spaniards adopted the second course, and Il Medeghino, judging that the cause of the Sforza family was desperate, determined in 1528 to attach himself to the Empire.  Charles V. invested him with the Castle of Musso and the larger part of Como Lake, including the town of Lecco.  He now assumed the titles of Marquis of Musso and Count of Lecco:  and in order to prove his sovereignty before the world, he coined money with his own name and devices.

It will be observed that Gian Giacomo de’ Medici had hitherto acted with a single-hearted view to his own interests.  At the age of thirty he had raised himself from nothing to a principality, which, though petty, might compare with many of some name in Italy—­with Carpi, for example, or Mirandola, or Camerino.  Nor did he mean to remain quiet in the prime of life.  He regarded Como Lake as the mere basis for more arduous undertakings.  Therefore, when the whirligig of events restored Francesco Sforza to his duchy in 1529, Il Medeghino refused to obey his old lord.  Pretending to move under the Duke’s orders, but really acting for himself alone, he proceeded to attack his