132

THE HIST011Y OF THE ORDER OF [bo. k hi.

all probability, and they almost never received andnot often gave quarter.

It is not, as thought, that Giulio de Medici hadbeen only in boyish years a knight of the order; hehaving, even now, become Prior of Capua, and wasexpedited by his cousin, who afterwards becameLeo X., to give the precise description of a cele-brated battle, then recent, to the vast consolationof his warlike Holiness, Julius the Second, and theterrified Homans; which a boy could by no meanshave effectuated. He, on the contrary, won hisway up to the great dignities of the Hospitallers,before he laid down his knighthood, and began toaspire to the Papacy. 1

Sir Almeric left our globe on the 8th of Novem-ber, 1512, 2 and was succeeded by D’Aubusson’snephew, Sir Guido de Blanchefort, then Prior of

, _, ^ Auvergne—the same that headed the council1012 °

on his uncle’s death—Blanchefort, who haddistinguished himself in the siege of Rhodes, andon other occasions.

At his election were Sir William Dorrel, nowTurcopolier; Sir Clement West, and Sir WilliamCorbolly, for England. 3

1 Bosio: par. ii., lib. xvii. 498.

2 Seb. Paoli: Serie, ii. 471.

3 However Bosio writes Quest and. Corlol : par. ii., lib. xvii.,anno 1512.