Charles had a body of 2000 Spaniards already quartered at Genoa, as well as strong garrisons in the Milanese, and a force of about 7000 troops collected by the Prince of Orange from the debris of the army which had plundered Rome.  While he was on his road from Genoa to Bologna, this force was already moving upon Florence.  He brought with him as escort some 10,000 men, counting horse and infantry.  The total of the troops which obeyed his word in Italy might be computed at about 27,000, including Spanish cavalry and foot-soldiers, German lansknechts and Italian mercenaries.  This large army, partly stationed in important posts of defence, partly in movement, was sufficient to make every word of his a law.  The French were in no position to interfere with his arrangements.  His brother Ferdinand, King of Bohemia and Hungary, was engaged in a doubtful contest with Soliman before the gates of Vienna.  He was himself the most considerable potentate in Germany, then distracted by the struggles of the Reformation.  Italy lay crushed and prostrate, trampled down by armies, exhausted by impost and exactions, terrorized by brutal violence.  That Charles had come to speak his will and be obeyed was obvious.

To greet the king on his arrival at Genoa, Clement deputed two ambassadors, the Cardinals Ercole Gonzaga and Monsignor Gianmatteo Giberti, Bishop of Verona.  Gonzaga was destined to play a part of critical importance in the Tridentine Council.  Giberti had made himself illustrious in the Church by the administration of his diocese on a system which anticipated the coming ecclesiastical reforms, and was already famous in the world of letters by his generous familiarity with students.[3] Three other men of high distinction and of fateful future waited on their imperial master.  Of these the first was Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who succeeded Clement in the Papacy, opened the Tridentine Council, and added a new reigning family to the Italian princes.  The others were the Pope’s nephews, Alessandro de’Medici, Duke of Florence designate, and his cousin the Cardinal Ippolito de’Media.  Six years later, Ippolito died at Itri, poisoned by his cousin Alessandro, who was himself murdered at Florence in 1537 by another cousin, Lorenzino de’Medici.

[Footnote 3:  See Ren. in It., vol. v. p. 357.]

It had been intended that Charles should travel to Bologna from Parma through Mantua, where the Marquis Federigo Gonzaga had made great preparations for his reception.  But the route by Reggio and Modena was more direct; and, yielding to the solicitations of Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, he selected this instead.  One of the stipulations of the Treaty of Barcelona, it will be remembered, had been that the Emperor should restore Emilia—­that is to say, the cities and territories of Modena, Reggio, and Rubbiera—­to the Papacy.  Clement regarded Alfonso as a contumacious vassal, although his own right to that province only rested on the force of arms by which Julius II. had detached it from the Duchy of Ferrara.  It was therefore somewhat difficult for Charles to accept the duke’s hospitality.  But when he had once done so, Alfonso knew how to ingratiate himself so well with the arbiter of Italy, that on taking leave of his guest upon the confines of Bologna, he had already secured the success of his own cause.