Rafael Sabatini 
Shame Of Motley — Being the Memoir of Certain Transactions in the Life of Lazzaro Biancomonte, of Biancomonte, sometime Fool of the Court of Pesaro. [EPUB ebook] 

The Shame of Motley is a swashbuckler romance first published in 1908, set in Italy at the turn of the 16th/17th century. The main character, Lazzaro Biancomonte, is of noble birth but now reduced to the role of a court fool. His redemption comes in his part in an adventure involving the Madonna Paola, with whom he becomes besotted. (Goodreads)