 |
| Lucrezia to left and Alfonso to right |
Lucrezia’s
husband hated his brother-in-law and his influence over Lucrezia; Cesare
returned the compliment. The political reasons behind the marriage to the Duke
of Bisceglie had vanished and Alfonso was now a non-person in the family power
struggles.
On 15th
July 1500 Alfonso was returning from a dinner engagement at the Vatican, where
Lucrezia was nursing a convalescent Rodrigo[i] along with her
sister-in-law Sancha. Alfonso was on his way home when he and his two men were
set upon; Alfonso was beaten unconscious by a group of armed men.
Alfonso was
carried back, by his men, to the Vatican where Rodrigo arranged for 16 soldiers
to be stationed outside his sickroom. Cesare announced that anyone found
carrying arms in the area would be summarily executed. Lucrezia and Sancha
stayed with Alfonso night and day trying to ward off further assassination
attempts. They even prepared his food, fearing poison.
Alfonso was
beginning to recover from his injuries, but on 18th August;
‘He [Alfonso] was strangled
in his bed at about eleven o’clock, and later on that same evening, his body
was carried to the basilica of Saint Peter……..the doctors who had attended the
dead man were seized and sent to the Castel Sant’Angelo…..they were soon
released for they were innocent, and the man who had ordered the deed was well
known.’[ii]
All Rome
believed that Cesare had masterminded the attacks, jealous of the attention
Lucrezia bestowed upon Alfonso. A letter from Alfonso’s tutor named the killer
as Michelotto Corella , the most feared and hated of all
Cesare’s henchmen. Michelotto had been a friend of Cesare’s since the pair were
children and was known as ‘Valentino’s
executioner’.
 |
| Castello Borgia, Nepi |
After Alfonso’s
death Lucrezia left Rome to mourn her husband at Nepi, where she stayed for four months as Cesare paraded round Rome dressed
in black.
‘The pope is in bad humour,
possibly because of what happened, possibly because of the King of Naples, or
possibly because his daughter is in despair’.[iii]
wrote Gian
Lucido Cattanei, a correspondent of Isabella d’Esté[iv], soon to become Lucrezia’s
sister-in-law. The only visitor that Lucrezia received at Nepi was Cesare; it
would seem that she did not share Roman certainties about her husband’s killer.
Back to War
 |
| Modon |
Rodrigo
spent much of the autumn of 1500 raising funds for Cesare; he sold 13
cardinal’s hats, raising 160,000 ducats[v]. A further 80 posts were
established in the Curia and sold off for 780 ducats each[vi]. And the monies from the
pilgrim’s chest were probably also diverted into Cesare’s funds.
It is also
possible that some, if not all, of a tithing that Rodrigo pressed upon the
cardinals, ostensibly to fight the infidel who had taken the Venetian port of Modon[vii] in the Adriatic, was subverted to
Cesare’s war chest. The fortune of Cardinal Giovanni Michele, who died suddenly
after two days violent illness, was seized. He was popularly believed to have
been poisoned by Cesare for his money.
 |
| Giovanni Bentivoglio |
Cesare rode
out from Rome n 2nd October at the head of 10,000 men.
‘Duke Cesare Valentino, son
of Pope Alexander VI, has……taken Rimini and the Lord of Rimini has fled, and
they have taken Cesena and
Pesaro….and
because of this the Bolognese are taking up their arms and Giovanni
Bentivoglio has surrounded himself with a large armed
guard for fear of being driven out of Bologna.’[viii]
On 11th
November 1500 Louis of France and Ferdinand of Spain signed the Treaty of Granada, dividing the Kingdom of Naples
between their two countries and Venice. This document invited Spain to join
France in the dismemberment of an Italian state.
Rodrigo was
to give the treaty his seal of approval in June 1501 when he announced that
King Frederick was stripped of his authority and
his kingdom and that the throne was now given to Louis XII, king of France. The
King of Spain was invested with the Duchy of Calabria.
Campaigning in the Romagna
 |
| Faenza |
Following
the fall of Rimini Cesare retired to spend the winter in Cesena to plan the
attack on Faenza, whose ruler Astorre III Manfredi had no intention of capitulating
peacefully. January saw French troops march to Faenza to assist Cesare in his
siege of the city. En route the French passed through Reggio doing much damage to the surrounding countryside and refusing to pay for
their food.
In February
the beautiful Dorotea Caracciola, lady in waiting to the Duchess of Urbino Elizabetta Gonzaga, was abducted en route to her wedding, by 20 riders
in Cesare’s lands.
The Duke of Urbino asked Cesare to have her released
but Cesare denied all knowledge.
 |
| Duke of Urbino |
Faenza
finally fell in April and its Lord was taken to the Castel Sant’Angelo where he
mysteriously died the following year[ix]. The Castel Bolognese fell a few days later and Cesare moved his troops on
to Capua which he sacked in July when one of its citizens admitted
Cesare’s troops into the town.
Rodrigo made
Cesare Duke of the Romagna in May; he ordered his son to return to Rome. Cesare
complied, but came the indirect route, via Florence. His march on Florence
stopped ten miles out of the city where the Florentine emissaries met him with
a proposal. They offered to hire Cesare and his troops, many of whom were
French[x], for the sum of 36,000
ducats per annum[xi]
over a three year period.
 |
| Piombino |
Cesare
quickly accepted as it had never been his intention to besiege Florence and
come under attack from his patron. He then moved on and on 4th June
prepared to besiege Piombino. Before he could add to his list of
conquests Cesare was ordered by Louis to come to the assistance of the French
in the conquest of Naples. He left Vitellozzo Vitelli, one of Italy’s first experts in the use of
artillery, in charge of the siege of Piombino.
 |
| Vitellozzo Vitelli |
‘He [Cesare] is displeased
and uncertain because his affairs are held in the air. If the French win, they
will not take him into account; if they lose and others defeat the French he
will be in a bad way’[xii]
wrote one
correspondent who spoke to Cesare when he was in Rome.
Personal Affairs
Cesare’s was
depressed not only by his dependence on the fickle Louis and this was
heightened by his syphilis which seems to have flared up in July 1501. He was
suffering from pains in the groin and had to summons two doctors to attend him.
Cesare was now wearing a mask, to hide the pustules on his face, most of the
time and conducted most of his business at night.
Cesare’s
upside down hours exasperated Rodrigo when Cesare lived at the Vatican; with
him resided a small boy believed to have been his son, Giovanni[xiii]. Rumour also referred to Lucrezia
and Rodrigo as Giovanni’s parents. Others believed that Giulia Farnese was
Giovanni’s mother. On 18th September Giovanni was made Duke of Nepi;
at the same time his nephew, Lucrezia and Alfonso’s son Rodrigo was made Duke
of Sermonetta.
Bibliography
At the Court
of the Borgia – Johan Burchard, Folio Society 1990
Lucrezia
Borgia – Rachel Erlanger, Michael Joseph 1979
Florence and
the Medici – JR Hale, Phoenix Press 2001
The Rise and
Fall of the House of Medici – Christopher Hibbert, Folio Society 2001
The Borgias
– Mary Hollingsworth, Quercus Editions 2014
The Borgias
– GJ Meyer, Bantam 2013
A History of
Venice – John Julius Norwich, Penguin Books 1982
Absolute
Monarchs – John Julius Norwich, Random House 2011
The March of
Folly – Barbara Tuchman, Cardinal 1990
www.wikipedia.en
[i]
He suffered from fainting fits, and this one had been particularly bad
[ii]
At the Court of the Borgia - Burchard
[iii]
Lucrezia Borgia - Erlanger
[v]
In 2013 the relative: historic standard of
living value of that income or
wealth is £116,200,000.00 economic status
value of that income or wealth is £3,295,000,000.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £46,330,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[vi]
Totalling 62,400 ducats; in 2013 the relative: historic standard of
living value of that income or
wealth is £39,220,000.00 economic status
value of that income or wealth is £1,236,000,000.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £17,310,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[vii]
Now Methoni in Greece
[viii]
The Borgias - Hollingsworth
[ix]
It is assumed that Cesare ordered his death
[x]
Louis had promised to protect Florence, but the attack on Naples was taking all
his attention
[xi]
In 2013 the relative: historic standard of
living value of that income or
wealth is £22,630,000.00 economic status
value of that income or wealth is £712,900,000.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £9,986,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[xii]
Lucrezia Borgia - Erlanger
[xiii]
Known as the Infans Romanus in a bull issued by Rodrigo on 1st
September 1501, the bull stated that Cesare was the child’s father and failed
to name the mother
Thank you very much for sharing this insighful series os posts!
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