co and Beatrice both of them
addressed to the Marchioness of Mantua, as well as in those of Giacomo
Trotti to the Duke of Ferrara, we find many allusions to the Duke of
Milan's wife, Isabella of Aragon. This princess, who was Beatrice's
first cousin and only five years older than Lodovico's wife, is
mentioned not only as present with her husband at all court festivities
and hunting-parties, but as her constant companion in all her
occupations and amusements, both at Vigevano and Pavia. In after-days,
when Lodovico had a son of his own and was suspected of designs on the
ducal crown, Duchess Isabella bitterly resented his conduct and that of
his wife. But there is absolutely no foundation for Corio's statement
that this rivalry between the two duchesses began at the time of
Beatrice's wedding, and that from the moment of her arrival at Milan,
Lodovico's wife objected to yield precedence to the Duchess of Milan.
The Milanese chronicler wrote after Lodovico's fall, and always assumed
the truth of the worst charges brought against the Moro and his wife.
Unfortunately, his hasty and inaccurate statements have been repeated by
Guicciardini and other contemporaries, and accepted as literally true by
later writers. In this case Corio probably looked back on the past
through the medium of the present, and judged the actors in the drama by
the light of their later conduct. In any case, there is absolutely no
trace of any jealousy or rivalry between the two young duchesses in the
private letters and court records of the period. On the contrary,
Isabella seems to have welcomed her cousin's presence joyfully, and to
have found that the dull life which she led by the side of her feeble
husband was sensibly brightened by Beatrice's company.

Bellincioni, whose verses certainly mirror the court life of the day, if
they also breathe the incense of flattery, wrote several sonnets in
which he descants on the close friendship and companionship of the two
duchesses, and the love that bound them together in the tender bonds of
sisterly affection. He is never tired of praising the concord that
reigned in the ducal family, and the pleasure that Beatrice took in
Isabella's little son, who was constantly seen in her arms.

"And when the ladies ask if she does not wish for a son of her own, she
replies in sweet accents, 'This one child is enough for me;' and
straightway all her courtiers repeat and extol her answer."

But more trustworthy than