The strain of tyranny proved too strong.

Crime, illegality, and the sense of peril, descending from father to son, produced monsters in the shape of men.

The last Visconti, the last La Scalas, the last Sforzas, the last Malatestas, the last Farnesi, the last Medici are among the worst specimens of human nature.
Macaulay's brilliant description of the Italian tyrant in his essay on Machiavelli deserves careful study.

It may, however, be remarked that the picture is too favorable.

Macaulay omits the darker crimes of the despots, and draws his portrait almost exclusively from such men as Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Francesco and Lodovico Sforza, Frederick of Urbino, and Lorenzo de' Medici.