Note 293 — Chapter XXXVII

However these pretensions may have originated, they derived a quasi warrant in 1525, from a conditional investiture of the duchy for three generations, granted by Clement VII. to Ascanio "in case it should happen to lapse to the Holy See," Agnesina being there mentioned as eldest sister. Charles V. was vainly solicited by Ascanio to render this condition eventual, or by some other means to make good his possession, and the claim did not drop until 1530. Nor was it the only one vamped up on account of Duke Guidobaldo's unfruitful marriage. In 1505 the Prince of Salerno seems to have made similar pretensions through his mother, a sister still younger than Agnesina; and in order to dispose of these, Julius II. is said to have offered him his own daughter Felice, a union which however did not take place.