HER FATHER BECOMES POPE--GIOVANNI SFORZA
On July 25, 1492, occurred the event to which the Borgias had long
eagerly looked forward, the death of Innocent VIII. Above all the other
candidates for the Papacy were four cardinals: Rafael Riario and
Giuliano della Rovere--both powerful nephews of Sixtus IV--Ascanio
Sforza, and Rodrigo Borgia.
Before the election was decided there were days of feverish expectation
for the cardinal's family. Of his children only Lucretia and Giuffrè
were in Rome at the time, and both were living with Madonna Adriana.
Vannozza was occupying her own house with her husband, Canale, who for
some time had held the office of secretary of the penitentiary court.
She was now fifty years old, and there was but one event to which she
looked forward, and upon it depended the gratification of her greatest
wish; namely, to see her children's father ascend the papal throne. What
prayers and vows she and Madonna Adriana, Lucretia, and Giulia Farnese
must have made to the saints for the fulfilment of that wish!
Early on the morning of August 11th breathless messengers brought these
women the news from the Vatican--Rodrigo Borgia had won the great prize.
To him, the highest bidder, the papacy had been sold. In the election,
Cardinal Ascanio Sforza had turned the scale, and for his reward he
received the city of Nepi; the office of vice-chancellor, and the
Borgia palace, which ever since has borne the name Sforza-Cesarini.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER VI.
From an engraving published in 1580.]
On the morning of this momentous day, when Alexander VI was carried from
the conclave hall to S. Peter's there to receive the first expressions
of homage, his joyful glance discovered many of his kinsmen in the dense
crowd, for thither they had hastened to celebrate his great triumph. It
was a long time since Rome had beheld a pope of such majesty, of such
beauty of person. His conduct was notorious throughout the city, and no
one knew him better in that hour than that woman, Vannozza Catanei, who
was kneeling in S. Peter's during the mass, her soul filled with the
memories of a sinful past.
Borgia's election did not cause all the Powers anxiety. In Milan,
Ludovico il Moro celebrated the event with public festivals; he now
hoped to become, through the influence of his brother Ascanio, a "half
pope." While the Medici expected much from Alexander, the Aragonese of
Naples looked for little. Bitterly did Venice express herself. Her
ambassador in Milan publicly declared in August that the papacy had been
sold by simony and a thousand deceptions, and that the signory of Venice
was convinced that France and Spain would refuse to obey the Pope when
they learned of these enormities.[17]
In the meantime, Alexander VI had received the professions of loyalty of
all the Italian States, together with their profuse expressions of
homage. The festival of his coronation was celebrated with unparalleled
pomp, August 26th. The Borgia arms, a grazing steer, was displayed so
generally in the decorations, and was the subject of so many epigrams,
that a satirist remarked that Rome was celebrating the discovery of the
Sacred Apis. Subsequently the Borgia bull was frequently the object of
the keenest satire; but at the beginning of Alexander's reign it was,
naïvely enough, the pictorial embodiment of the Pope's magnificence.
To-day such symbolism would excite only derision and mirth, but the
plastic taste of the Italian of that day was not offended by it.
When Alexander, on his triumphal journey to the Lateran, passed the
palace of his fanatical adherents, the Porcari, one of the boys of the
family declaimed with much pathos some stanzas which concluded with the
verses:
Vive diu bos, vive diu celebrande per annos,
Inter Pontificum gloria prima choros.[18]
The statements of Michele Ferno and of Hieronymus Porcius regarding the
coronation festivities and the professions of loyalty of the ambassadors
from the various Italian Powers must be read to see to what extremes
flattery was carried in those days. It is difficult for us to imagine
how imposing was the entrance of this brilliant pope upon the
spectacular stage of Rome at the time when the papacy was at the zenith
of its power--a height it had attained, not through love of the Church,
nor by devotion to religion, which had long been debased, but by
dazzling the luxury-loving people of the age and by modern politics; in
addition to this, the Church had preserved since the Middle Ages a
traditional and mystic character which held the respect of the faithful.
Ferno remarks that the history of the world offered nothing to compare
with the grandeur of the Pope's appearance and the charm of his
person,--and this author was not a bigoted papist, but a diligent
student of Pomponius Laetus. Like all the romanticists of the classic
revival, however, he was highly susceptible to theatrical effects. Words
failed him when he tried to describe the passage of Alexander to
S. Maria del Popolo: "These holiday swarms of richly clad people, the seven
hundred priests and cardinals with their retinues, these knights and
grandees of Rome in dazzling cavalcades, these troops of archers and
Turkish horsemen, the palace guards with long lances and glittering
shields, the twelve riderless white horses with golden bridles, which
were led along, and all the other pomp and parade!" Weeks would be
required for arranging a pageant like this at the present time; but the
Pope could improvise it in the twinkling of an eye, for the actors and
their costumes were always ready. He set it in motion for the sole
purpose of showing himself to the Romans, and in order that his majesty
might lend additional brilliancy to a popular holiday.
Ferno depicted the Pope himself as a demi-god coming forth to his
people. "Upon a snow-white horse he sat, serene of countenance and of
surpassing dignity; thus he showed himself to the people, and blessed
them; thus he was seen of all. His glance fell upon them and filled
every heart with joy. And so his appearance was of good augury for
everyone. How wonderful is his tranquil bearing! And how noble his
faultless face! His glance, how frank! How greatly does the honor which
we feel for him increase when we behold his beauty and vigor of body!"
Alexander the Great would have been described in just such terms by
Ferno. This was the idolatry which was always accorded the papacy, and
no one asked what was the inner and personal life of the glittering
idol.
On the occasion of his coronation Alexander appointed his son Cæsar, a
youth of sixteen, Bishop of Valencia. This he did without being sure of
the sanction of Ferdinand the Catholic, who, in fact, for a long time
did endeavor to withhold it; but he finally yielded, and the Borgias
consequently got the first bishopric in Spain into their hereditary
possession. Cæsar was not in Rome at the time his father received the
tiara. On the twenty-second of August, eleven days after Alexander's
election, Manfredi, ambassador from Ferrara to Florence, wrote the
Duchess Eleonora d'Este: "The Pope's son, the Bishop of Pamplona, who
has been attending the University of Pisa, left there by the Pope's
orders yesterday morning, and has gone to the castle of Spoleto."
The fifth of October Cæsar was still there, for on that date he wrote a
letter to Piero de' Medici from that place. This epistle to Lorenzo's
son, the brother of Cardinal Giovanni, shows that the greatest
confidence existed between him and Cæsar, who says in it that, on
account of his sudden departure from Pisa, he had been unable to
communicate orally with him, and that his preceptor, Juan Vera, would
have to represent him. He recommended his trusted familiar, Francesco
Romolini, to Piero for appointment as professor of canon law in Pisa.
The letter is signed, "Your brother, Cesar de Borja, Elector of
Valencia."[19]
By not allowing his son to come to Rome immediately, Alexander wished to
give public proof of what he had declared at the time of his election;
namely, that he would hold himself above all nepotism. Perhaps there was
a moment when the warning afforded by the examples of Calixtus, Sixtus,
and Innocent caused him to hesitate, and to resolve to moderate his love
for his offspring. However, the nomination of his son to a bishopric on
the day of his coronation shows that his resolution was not very
earnest. In October Cæsar appeared in the Vatican, where the Borgias now
occupied the place which the pitiable Cibòs had left.
On September 1st the Pope made the elder Giovanni Borgia, who was Bishop
of Monreale, a cardinal; he was the son of Alexander's sister Giovanna.
The Vatican was filled with Spaniards, kinsmen, or friends of the now
all-powerful house, who had eagerly hurried thither in quest of fortune
and honors. "Ten papacies would not be sufficient to satisfy this swarm
of relatives," wrote Gianandrea Boccaccio in November, 1492, to the Duke
of Ferrara. Of the close friends of Alexander, Juan Lopez was made his
chancellor; Pedro Caranza and Juan Marades his privy chamberlains;
Rodrigo Borgia, a nephew of the Pope, was made captain of the palace
guard, which hitherto had been commanded by a Doria.
Alexander immediately began to lay the plans for a more brilliant future
for his daughter. He would no longer listen to her marrying a Spanish
nobleman; nothing less than a prince should receive her hand. Ludovico
and Ascanio suggested their kinsman, Giovanni Sforza. The Pope accepted
him as son-in-law, for, although he was only Count of Cotognola and
vicar of Pesaro, he was an independent sovereign, and he belonged to the
illustrious house of Sforza. Alexander had entered early into such close
relations with the Sforza that Cardinal Ascanio became all-powerful in
Rome. Giovanni, an illegitimate son of Costanzo of Pesaro, and only by
the indulgence of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII his hereditary heir, was a
man of twenty-six, well formed and carefully educated, like most of the
lesser Italian despots. He had married Maddalena, the beautiful sister
of Elisabetta Gonzaga, in 1489, on the very day upon which the latter
was joined in wedlock to Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino. He had, however,
been a widower since August 8, 1490, on which date his wife died in
childbirth.
Sforza hastened to accept the offered hand of the young Lucretia before
any of her other numerous suitors could win it. On leaving Pesaro he
first went to the castle of Nepi, which Alexander VI had given to
Cardinal Ascanio. There he remained a few days and then came quietly to
Rome, October 31, 1492. Here he took up his residence in the cardinal's
palace of S. Clement, erected by Domenico della Rovere in the Borgo. It
is still standing, and in good preservation, opposite the Palazzo
Giraud. The Ferrarese ambassador announced Sforza's arrival to his
master, remarking, "He will be a great man as long as this pope rules."
He explained the retirement in which Sforza lived by stating that the
man to whom Lucretia had been legally betrothed was also in Rome.[20]
The young Count Gasparo had come to Rome with his father to make good
his claim to Lucretia, through whom he hoped to obtain great favor. Here
he found another suitor of whom he had hitherto heard nothing, but whose
presence had become known, and he fell into a rage when the Pope
demanded from him a formal renunciation. Lucretia, at that time a child
of only twelve and a half years, thus became the innocent cause of a
contest between two suitors, and likewise the subject of public gossip
for the first time. November 5th the plenipotentiary of Ferrara wrote
his master, "There is much gossip about Pesaro's marriage; the first
bridegroom is still here, raising a great hue and cry, as a Catalan,
saying he will protest to all the princes and potentates of Christendom;
but will he, will he, he will have to submit." On the ninth of November
the same ambassador wrote, "Heaven prevent this marriage of Pesaro from
bringing calamities. It seems that the King (of Naples) is angry on
account of it, judging by what Giacomo, Pontano's nephew told the Pope
the day before yesterday. The matter is still undecided. Both the
suitors are given fair words; both are here. However, it is believed
that Pesaro will carry the day, especially as Cardinal Ascanio, who is
powerful in deeds as well as in words, is looking after his interests."
In the meantime, November 8th, the marriage contract between Don Gasparo
and Lucretia was formally dissolved. The groom and his father merely
expressed the hope that the new alliance would reach a favorable
consummation, and Gasparo bound himself not to marry within one year.
Giovanni Sforza, however, was not yet certain of his victory; December
9th the Mantuan agent Fioravante Brognolo, wrote the Marchese Gonzaga,
"The affairs of the illustrious nobleman, Giovanni of Pesaro, are still
undecided; it looks to me as if the Spanish nobleman to whom his
Highness's niece was promised would not give her up. He has a great
following in Spain, consequently the Pope is inclined to let things take
their own course for a time, and not force them to a conclusion."[21]
Even as late as February, 1493, there was talk of a marriage of Lucretia
with the Spanish Conde de Prada, and not until this project was
relinquished was she betrothed to Giovanni Sforza.[22]
In the meantime Sforza had returned to Pesaro, whence he sent his proxy,
Nicolo de Savano, to Rome to conclude the marriage contract. The Count
of Aversa surrendered his advantage and suffered his grief to be
assuaged by the payment to him of three thousand ducats. Thereupon,
February 2, 1493, the betrothal of Sforza and Lucretia was formally
ratified in the Vatican, in the presence of the Milanese ambassador and
the intimate friends and servants of Alexander, Juan Lopez, Juan
Casanova, Pedro Caranza, and Juan Marades. The Pope's daughter, who was
to be taken home by her husband within one year, received a dowry of
thirty-one thousand ducats.
When the news of this event reached Pesaro, the fortunate Sforza gave a
grand celebration in his palace. "They danced in the great hall, and the
couples, hand in hand, issued from the castle, led by Monsignor Scaltes,
the Pope's plenipotentiary, and the people in their joy joined in and
danced away the hours in the streets of the city."[23]
FOOTNOTES:
[17] Cum simonia et mille ribalderie et inhonestate si è venduto il
Pontificato che è cose ignominiosa et detestabile. Despatch of Giacomo
Trotti, Ambassador of Ferrara in Milan, to the Duke Ercole, August 28,
1492, in the archives of Modena.
[18] These stanzas were written by Hieronymus Porcius, who printed them
in Hieronym. Porcius Patritius Romanus Rotæ Primarius Auditor....
Commentarius; a rare publication of Eucharius Silber, Rome, September
18, 1493. The stanzas of Michele Ferno of Milan conclude:
Borgia stirps: bos: atque Ceres transcendit Olympo,
Cantabunt nomen sæcula cuncta suum;
which turned out to be a true prophecy. See Michæl Fernus Historia nova
Alexandri VI ab Innocentii obitu VIII; an equally rare publication of
the same Eucharius Silber, A. 1493.
[19] Ex arce Spoletina, die v. Oct. (Di propria mano). Vr. vti fr. Cesar
de Borja Elect. Valentin. Published by Reumont in Archiv. Stor. Ital.
Serie 3, T. xvii, 1873. 3 Dispensa.
[20] Era venuto il primo marito de la dicta nepote, qual fu rimesso a
Napoli, non visto da niuno.... Despatch of Gianandrea Boccaccio, Bishop
of Modena, Rome, November 2, 1492, and November 5 and 9. Archives of
Modena.
[21] Despatch of that date in the archives of Mantua. Lucretia was still
sometimes designated as the Pope's niece.
[22] Gianandrea Boccaccio to Duke Ercole, Rome, February 25, 1493.
[23] Ms. Memoirs of Pesaro, by Pietro Marzetti and Ludovico Zacconi, in
the Bibl. Oliveriana of Pesaro.