A REGENT AND A MOTHER
Lucretia, now Duchess of Biselli, had been living since July, 1498, with
a new husband, a youth of seventeen, she herself having just completed
her eighteenth year. She and her consort did not go to Naples, but
remained in Rome; for, as the Mantuan agent reported to his master, it
was expressly agreed that Don Alfonso should live in Rome a year, and
that Lucretia should not be required to take up her abode in the kingdom
of Naples during her father's lifetime.[60]
The youthful Alfonso was fair and amiable. Talini, a Roman chronicler of
that day, pronounced him the handsomest young man ever seen in the
Imperial City. According to a statement made by the Mantuan agent in
August, Lucretia was really fond of him. A sudden change in affairs,
however, deprived her of the calm joys of domestic life.
The moving principle in the Vatican was the measureless ambition of
Cæsar, who was consuming with impatience to become a ruling sovereign.
August 13, 1498, he flung aside the cardinal's robes and prepared to set
out for France; Louis XII, who in April had succeeded Charles VIII,
having promised him the title of Duke of Valentinois and the hand of a
French princess. Alexander provided for his son's retinue with regal
extravagance.
It happened one day that a train of mules laden with silks and cloth of
gold on the way to Cæsar in Rome was plundered by the people of Cardinal
Farnese and of his cousin Pier Paolo in the forest of Bolsena, whereupon
the Pope addressed some vigorous communications to the cardinal, in
whose territory, he stated, the robbery had been committed.[61]
In the service of the Farnese were numerous Corsicans, some as
mercenaries and bullies, some as field laborers, and these people, who
were universally feared, probably were the guilty ones, for it is
difficult to believe that Cardinal Alessandro would have undertaken such
a venture on his own account. It seems, however, that the relations of
the Borgias and the Farnese were somewhat strained during this period.
The cardinal spent most of his time on his family estates, and at this
juncture little was heard of his sister Giulia. It is not even known
whether or not she was living in Rome and continuing her relations with
the Pope, although, from subsequent revelations, it appears that she
was. April 2, 1499, we find the cardinal and his sister again in Rome,
where a nuptial contract was concluded in the Farnese palace between
Laura Orsini, Giulia's seven-year-old daughter, and Federico Farnese,
the twelve-year-old son of the deceased condottiere Raimondo Farnese, a
nephew of Pier Paolo. Laura's putative father, Orsino Orsini, was
present at the ceremony.[62]
It was probably Adriana and Giulia who were endeavoring to bring about a
reconciliation between the house of Orsini and the Borgias. In the
spring of 1498 these barons, having issued victorious from their war
with the Pope, began a bitter contest with their hereditary foes, the
Colonna, which, however, ended in their own defeat. These houses made
peace with each other in July, a fact which caused Alexander no little
anxiety, for upon the hostility of these, the two mightiest families of
Rome, depended the Pope's dominion over the city; his greatest danger
lay in their mutual friendship. He therefore endeavored again to set
them at loggerheads, and he succeeded in attaching the Orsini to
himself,--which they subsequently had reason to regret. He accomplished
his purpose so well that they intermarried with the Borgias; Paolo
Orsini, Giambattista's brother, uniting his son Fabio with Girolama, a
sister of Cardinal Giovanni Borgia the younger, September 8, 1498. The
marriage contract was concluded in the presence of the Pope and a
brilliant gathering in the Vatican, and one of the official witnesses
was Don Alfonso of Biselli, who held the sword over the young
couple.[63]
Shortly afterwards, October first, Cæsar Borgia set sail for France,
where he was made Duke of Valentinois, and where, in May, 1499, he
married Charlotte d'Albret, sister of the King of Navarre. At this court
he met two men who were destined later to exercise great influence upon
his career--George of Amboise, Archbishop of Rouen, to whom he had
brought the cardinal's hat, and Giuliano della Rovere. The latter,
hitherto Alexander's bitterest enemy, now suffered himself, by the
intermediation of the King of France, to be won over to the cause of the
Borgias; he permitted himself even to become Cæsar's stepping-stone to
greatness.
The reconciliation was sealed by a marriage between the two families;
the city prefect, Giovanni della Rovere, Giuliano's brother, betrothing
his eighteen-year-old son Francesco Maria to Angela Borgia, September 2,
1500.
Angela's father, Giuffrè, was a son of Giovanni, sister of Alexander VI,
and of Guglielmo Lanzol. Giovanni Borgia the younger, Cardinal Ludovico,
and Rodrigo, captain of the papal guard, were her brothers. Her sister
Girolama, as above stated, was married to Fabio Orsini. The ceremony of
Angela's betrothal took place in the Vatican in the presence of the
ambassador of France.
For the purpose of driving Ludovico il Moro from Milan, Louis XII had
concluded an alliance with Venice, which the Pope also joined on the
condition that France would help his son to acquire Romagna.
Ascanio Sforza, who was unable to prevent the loss of Milan, and who
knew that his own life was in danger in Rome, fled July 13, 1499, to
Genazzano and subsequently to Genoa.
His example was followed by Lucretia's youthful consort. We do not know
what occurred in the Vatican to cause Don Alfonso quietly to leave Rome,
where he had spent but a single year with Lucretia. We can only say that
his decision must have been brought about by some turn which the Pope's
politics had taken. The object of the expedition of Louis XII was not
only the overthrow of the Sforza dynasty in Milan, but also the seizure
of Naples; it was intended to be a sequel to the attempt of Charles
VIII, which was defeated by the great League. The young prince was aware
of the Pope's intention to destroy his uncle Federico, who had deeply
offended him by refusing to grant Cæsar the hand of his daughter
Carlotta. After this occurrence the relations of Lucretia's husband with
the Pope had altogether changed.
Ascanio was the only friend the unfortunate prince had in Rome, and it
was probably he who advised him to save himself from certain death by
flight, as Lucretia's other husband had done. Alfonso slipped away
August 2, 1499. The Pope sent some troopers after him, but they failed
to catch him. It is uncertain whether Lucretia knew of his intended
flight. A letter written in Rome by a Venetian, August 4th, merely says:
"The Duke of Biseglia, Madonna Lucretia's husband, has secretly fled and
gone to the Colonna in Genazzano; he deserted his wife, who has been
with child for six months, and she is constantly in tears."[64]
She was in the power of her father, who, highly incensed by the prince's
flight, banished Alfonso's sister Donna Sancia to Naples.
Lucretia's position, owing to these circumstances, became exceedingly
trying. Her tears show that she possessed a heart. She loved, and
perhaps for the first time. Alfonso wrote her from Genazzano, urgently
imploring her to follow him, and his letters fell into the hands of the
Pope, who compelled her to write her husband and ask him to return. It
was doubtless his daughter's complaining that induced Alexander to send
her away from Rome. August 8th he made her Regent of Spoleto. Hitherto
papal legates, usually cardinals, had governed this city and the
surrounding territory; but now the Pope entrusted its administration to
a young woman of nineteen, his own daughter, and thither she repaired.
He gave her a letter to the priors of Spoleto which was as follows:
DEAR SONS: Greeting and the Apostolic Blessing! We have
entrusted to our beloved daughter in Christ, the noble lady,
Lucretia de Borgia, Duchess of Biseglia, the office of keeper of
the castle, as well as the government of our cities of Spoleto and
Foligno, and of the county and district about them. Having perfect
confidence in the intelligence, the fidelity, and probity of the
Duchess, which We have dwelt upon in previous letters, and likewise
in your unfailing obedience to Us and to the Holy See, We trust
that you will receive the Duchess Lucretia, as is your duty, with
all due honor as your regent, and show her submission in all
things. As We wish her to be received and accepted by you with
special honor and respect, so do We command you in this epistle--as
you value Our favor and wish to avoid Our displeasure--to obey the
Duchess Lucretia, your regent, in all things collectively and
severally, in so far as law and custom dictate in the government of
the city, and whatever she may think proper to exact of you, even
as you would obey Ourselves, and to execute her commands with all
diligence and promptness, so that your devotion may receive due
approbation. Given in Rome, in St. Peter's, under the papal seal,
August 8, 1499.
HADRIANUS (Secretary).[65]
Lucretia left Rome for her new home the same day. She set out with a
large retinue, and accompanied by her brother Don Giuffrè; Fabio Orsini,
now the consort of Girolama Borgia, her kinswoman; and a company of
archers. She left the Vatican mounted on horseback, the governor of the
city, the Neapolitan ambassador, and a number of other gentlemen forming
an escort to act as a guard of honor, while her father took a position
in a loggia over the portal of the palace of the Vatican to watch his
departing daughter and her cavalcade. For the first time he found
himself in Rome deprived of all his children.
Lucretia made the journey partly on horseback and partly in a litter,
and the trip from Rome to Spoleto required not less than six days. At
Porcaria, in Umbria, she found a deputation of citizens of Spoleto
waiting to greet her, and to accompany her to the city, which had been
famous since the time of Hannibal, and which had been the seat of the
mighty Lombard dukes. The castle of Spoleto is very ancient, its
earliest portions dating from the Dukes Faroald and Grimoald. In the
fourteenth century it was restored by the great Gil d'Albornoz, the
contemporary of Cola di Rienzi, and it was completed shortly afterwards
by Nicholas V. It is a magnificent piece of Renaissance architecture,
overlooking the old city and the deep ravine which separates it from
Monte Luco. From its high windows one may look out over the valley of
the Clitunno and that of the Tiber, the fertile Umbrian plain, and, on
the east, to the Apennines.
August 15th Lucretia Borgia received the priors of the city, to whom she
presented her papal appointment, whereupon they swore allegiance to her.
Later the commune gave a banquet in her honor.
Lucretia's stay in Spoleto was short. Her regency there was merely
intended to signify the actual taking possession of the territory which
Alexander desired to bestow upon his daughter.
In the meantime her husband Alfonso had decided, unfortunately for
himself, to obey Alexander's command and return to his wife--perhaps
because he really loved her. The Pope ordered him to go to Spoleto by
way of Foligno, and then to come with his spouse to Nepi, where he
himself intended to be. The purpose of this meeting was to establish his
daughter as sovereign there also.
Nepi had never been a baronial fief, although the prefects of Vico and
the Orsini had held the place at different times. The Church through its
deputies governed the town and surrounding country. When Alexander was a
cardinal his uncle Calixtus had made him governor of the city, and such
he remained until he was raised to the papal throne, when he conferred
Nepi upon Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. The neatly written parchment
containing the municipal statute confirming Ascanio's appointment, which
is dated January 1, 1495, is still preserved in the archives of the
city. At the beginning of the year 1499, however, Alexander again
assumed control of Nepi by compelling the castellan, who commanded the
fortress for the truant Ascanio, to surrender it to him. He now invested
his daughter with the castle, the city, and the domain of Nepi.[66]
September 4, 1499, Francesco Borgia, the Pope's treasurer, who was also
Bishop of Teano, took possession of the city in her name.
September 25th Alexander himself, accompanied by four cardinals, went to
Nepi. In the castle, which he had restored, he met Lucretia and her
husband, and also her brother Don Giuffrè. He returned to Rome almost
immediately--October 1st. On the tenth he addressed a brief from there
to the city of Nepi, in which he commanded the municipality thenceforth
to obey Lucretia, Duchess of Biselli, as their true sovereign. On the
twelfth he sent his daughter a communication in which he empowered her
to remit certain taxes to which the citizens of Nepi had hitherto been
subject.[67]
Lucretia, therefore, had become the mistress of two large domains--a
fact which clearly shows that she stood in high favor with her father.
She did not again return to Spoleto, but entrusted its government to a
lieutenant. Although Alexander made Cardinal Gurk legate for Perugia
and Todi early in October, he reserved Spoleto for his daughter. Later,
August 10, 1500, he made Ludovico Borgia--who was Archbishop of
Valencia--governor of this city, without, however, impairing his
daughter's rights to the large revenue which the territory yielded.
As early as October 14th Lucretia returned to Rome. November 1, 1499,
she gave birth to a son, who was named, in honor of the Pope, Rodrigo.
Her firstborn was baptized with great pomp November 11th in the Sistine
Chapel--not the chapel now known by that name, but the one which Sixtus
IV had built in S. Peter's. Giovanni Cervillon held the child in his
arms, and near by were the Governor of Rome and a representative of the
Emperor Maximilian. All the cardinals, the ambassadors of England,
Venice, Naples, Savoy, Siena, and the Republic of Florence were present
at the ceremony. The governor of the city held the child over the font.
The godfathers were Podocatharo, Bishop of Caputaqua, and Ferrari,
Bishop of Modena.
In the meantime, October 6th, Louis XII had taken possession of Milan,
Ludovico Sforza having fled, on the approach of the French forces, to
the Emperor Maximilian. In accordance with his agreement with Alexander,
the king now lent troops to Cæsar Borgia to enable him to seize the
Romagna, where it was proclaimed that the vassals of the Church, the
Malatesta of Rimini, the Sforza of Pesaro, the Riario of Imola and
Forli, the Varano of Camerino, and the Manfredi of Faenza had forfeited
their fiefs to the Pope.
Cæsar went to Rome, November 18, 1499. He stayed in the Vatican three
days and then set forth again to join his army, which was besieging
Imola. It was his intention first to take this city and then attack
Forli, in the castle of which the mistress of the two cities, Catarina
Sforza, had established herself for the purpose of resisting him.
While he was engaged in his campaigns in Romagna, his father was
endeavoring to seize the hereditary possessions of the Roman barons. He
first attacked the Gaetani. From the end of the thirteenth century this
ancient family had held large landed estates in the Campagna and
Maritima. It had divided into several branches, one of which was settled
in the vicinity of Naples. There the Gaetani were Dukes of Traetto,
Counts of Fundi and Caserta, and likewise vassals and favorites of the
crown of Naples.
Sermoneta, the center of the domain of the Gaetani family in the Roman
Campagna, was an ancient city with a feudal castle, situated in the
foothills of the Volscian mountains. Above it and to one side were the
ruins of the great castle of Norba; below were the beautiful remains of
Nymsa; while at its foot, extending to the sea, lay the Pontine marshes.
The greater part of this territory, which was traversed by the Appian
Way, including the Cape of Circello, was the property of the Gaetani, to
whom it still belongs.
At the time of which we are speaking it was ruled by the sons of
Honoratus II, a powerful personality, who had raised his house from
ruin. He died in the year 1490, leaving a widow, Catarina Orsini, and
three sons--Nicola the prothonotary; Giacomo, and Guglielmo. His
daughter Giovanella was the wife of Pierluigi Farnese and mother of
Giulia. Nicola, who had married Eleonora Orsini, died in the year 1494;
consequently, next to the prothonotary Giacomo, Guglielmo Gaetani was
head of the house of Sermoneta.
Alexander lured the prothonotary to Rome and, having confined him in
the castle of S. Angelo, began a process against him. Guglielmo
succeeded in escaping to Mantua, but Nicola's little son Bernardino was
murdered by the Borgia hirelings. Sermoneta was besieged, and its
inhabitants surrendered without resistance.
As early as March 9, 1499, Alexander compelled the apostolic chamber to
sell his daughter the possessions of the Gaetani for eighty thousand
ducats. He stated in a document, which was signed by eighteen cardinals,
that the magnitude of the expenditures which he had recently made in the
interests of the Holy See compelled him to increase the Church property;
and for this purpose there were Sermoneta, Bassiano, Ninfa and Norma,
Tivera, Cisterna, San Felice (the Cape of Circello), and San Donato,
which, owing to the rebellion of the Gaetani, might be confiscated. This
transaction was concluded in February, 1500, and Lucretia, who was
already mistress of Spoleto and Nepi, thus became ruler of
Sermoneta.[68] In vain did the unfortunate Giacomo Gaetani protest from
his prison; July 5, 1500, he was poisoned. His mother and sisters buried
him in S. Bartolomeo, which stands on an island in the Tiber, where the
Gaetani had owned a palace for a great many years.
Giulia Farnese, therefore, was unable to save her own uncle. She was
reminded that Giacomo and Nicola had stood beside her when she was
married to the youthful Orsini in 1489 in the Borgia palace. We do not
know whether Giulia was living in Rome at this time. We occasionally
find her name in the epigrams of the day, and it appears in a satire,
_Dialogue between Death and the Pope, sick of a Fever_, in which he
called upon Giulia to save him, whereupon Death replied that his
mistress had borne him three or four children. As the satire was written
in the summer of 1500, when Alexander was suffering from the fever, it
is probable that his relations with Giulia still continued.
Cæsar, who had taken Imola, December 1, 1499, was far from pleased when
he saw the great estates of the Gaetani, whose revenues he himself could
use to good advantage, bestowed upon his sister; and, as he himself
wished absolutely to control the will of his father, her growing
influence in the Vatican caused him no little annoyance. He had sinister
plans for whose execution the time was soon to prove propitious.
FOOTNOTES:
[60] Despatch of Joh. Lucidus Cataneus, Rome, August 8, 1498. Gonzaga
archives.
[61] The briefs are in the state archives of Venice.
[62] The instrument is in Beneimbene's protocol-book.
[63] The instrument is in Beneimbene's protocol-book.
[64] Diary of Marino Saruto, ii, 751.
[65] This brief is in the state archives of Spoleto.
[66] The Bull of Investiture, written on parchment, is dated Rome, 1499,
Non. (the month is not given). It is an absolute _donum_. The document
is now in the archives of Modena.
[67] Both briefs are preserved in the archives of the State-house of
Nepi.
[68] The documents concerning this sale, dated February 11 to 15, 1500,
are preserved in the archives of Modena.