Caesar’s ambition was only fed by victories: scarcely was he master of
Faenza before, excited by the Mariscotti, old enemies of the Bentivoglio
family, he cast his eyes upon Bologna; but Gian di Bentivoglio, whose
ancestors had possessed this town from time immemorial, had not only
made all preparations necessary for a long resistance, but he had also
put himself under the protection of France; so, scarcely had he learned
that Caesar was crossing the frontier of the Bolognese territory with
his army, than he sent a courier to Louis XII to claim the fulfilment of
his promise. Louis kept it with his accustomed good faith; and when
Caesar arrived before Bologna, he received an intimation from the King
of France that he was not to enter on any undertaking against his ally
Bentivoglio; Caesar, not being the man to have his plans upset for
nothing, made conditions for his retreat, to which Bentivoglio
consented, only too happy to be quit of him at this price: the
conditions were the cession of Castello Bolognese, a fortress between
Imola and Faenza, the payment of a tribute of 9000 ducats, and the
keeping for his service of a hundred men-at-arms and two thousand
infantry. In exchange for these favours, Caesar confided to Bentivoglio
that his visit had been due to the counsels of the Mariscotti; then,
reinforced by his new ally’s contingent, he took the road for Tuscany.
But he was scarcely out of sight when Bentivoglio shut the gates of
Bologna, and commanded his son Hermes to assassinate with his own hand
Agamemnon Mariscotti, the head of the family, and ordered the massacre
of four-and-thirty of his near relatives, brothers, sons, daughters, and
nephews, and two hundred other of his kindred and friends. The butchery
was carried out by the noblest youths of Bologna; whom Bentivoglio
forced to bathe their hands in this blood, so that he might attach them
to himself through their fear of reprisals.
Caesar’s plans with regard to Florence were now no longer a mystery:
since the month of January he had sent to Pisa ten or twelve hundred men
under the Command of Regniero della Sassetta and Piero di Gamba Corti,
and as soon as the conquest of the Romagna was complete, he had further
despatched Oliverotto di Fermo with new detachments. His own army he had
reinforced, as we have seen, by a hundred men-at-arms and two thousand
infantry; he had just been joined by Vitellozzo Vitelli, lord of Citta,
di Castello, and by the Orsini, who had brought him another two or three
thousand men; so, without counting the troops sent to Pisa, he had under
his control seven hundred men-at-arms and five thousand infantry.
Still, in spite of this formidable company, he entered Tuscany declaring
that his intentions were only pacific, protesting that he only desired
to pass through the territories of the republic on his way to Rome, and
offering to pay in ready money for any victual his army might require.
But when he had passed the defiles of the mountains and arrived at
Barberino, feeling that the town was in his power and nothing could now
hinder his approach, he began to put a price on the friendship he had at
first offered freely, and to impose his own conditions instead of
accepting those of others. These were that Piero dei Medici, kinsman and
ally of the Orsini, should be reinstated in his ancient power; that six
Florentine citizens, to be chosen by Vitellozzo, should be put into his
hands that they might by their death expiate that of Paolo Vitelli,
unjustly executed by the Florentines; that the Signoria should engage to
give no aid to the lord of Piombino, whom Caesar intended to dispossess
of his estates without delay; and further, that he himself should be
taken into the service of the republic, for a pay proportionate to his
deserts. But just as Caesar had reached this point in his negotiations
with Florence, he received orders from Louis XII to get ready, so soon
as he conveniently could, to follow him with his army and help in the
conquest of Naples, which he was at last in a position to undertake.
Caesar dared not break his word to so powerful an ally; he therefore
replied that he was at the king’s orders, and as the Florentines were
not aware that he was quitting them on compulsion, he sold his retreat
for the sum of 36,000 ducats per annum, in exchange for which sum he was
to hold three hundred men-at-arms always in readiness to go to the aid
of the republic at her earliest call and in any circumstances of need.
But, hurried as he was, Caesar still hoped that he might find time to
conquer the territory of Piombino as he went by, and take the capital by
a single vigorous stroke; so he made his entry into the lands of Jacopo
IV of Appiano. The latter, he found, however, had been beforehand with
him, and, to rob him of all resource, had laid waste his own country,
burned his fodder, felled his trees, torn down his vines, and destroyed
a few fountains that produced salubrious waters. This did not hinder
Caesar from seizing in the space of a few days Severeto, Scarlino, the
isle of Elba, and La Pianosa; but he was obliged to stop short at the
castle, which opposed a serious resistance. As Louis XII’s army was
continuing its way towards Rome, and he received a fresh order to join
it, he took his departure the next day, leaving behind him, Vitellozzo
and Gian Paolo Bagliani to prosecute the siege in his absence.
Louis XII was this time advancing upon Naples, not with the incautious
ardour of Charles VIII, but, on the contrary, with that prudence and
circumspection which characterised him. Besides his alliance with
Florence and Rome, he had also signed a secret treaty with Ferdinand the
Catholic, who had similar pretensions, through the house of Duras, to
the throne of Naples to those Louis himself had through the house of
Anjou. By this treaty the two kings were sharing their conquests
beforehand: Louis would be master of Naples, of the town of Lavore and
the Abruzzi, and would bear the title of King of Naples and Jerusalem;
Ferdinand reserved for his own share Apulia and Calabria, with the title
of Duke of these provinces; both were to receive the investiture from
the pope and to hold them of him. This partition was all the more likely
to be made, in fact, because Frederic, supposing all the time that
Ferdinand was his good and faithful friend, would open the gates of his
towns, only to receive into his fortresses conquerors and masters
instead of allies. All this perhaps was not very loyal conduct on the
part of a king who had so long desired and had just now received the
surname of Catholic, but it mattered little to Louis, who profited by
treasonable acts he did not have to share.
The French army, which the Duke of Valentinois had just joined,
consisted of 1000 lances, 4000 Swiss, and 6000 Gascons and adventurers;
further, Philip of Rabenstein was bringing by sea six Breton and
Provencal vessels, and three Genoese caracks, carrying 6500 invaders.
Against this mighty host the King of Naples had only 700 men-at-arms,
600 light horse, and 6000 infantry under the command of the Colonna,
whom he had taken into his pay after they were exiled by the pope from
the States of the Church; but he was counting on Gonsalvo of Cordova,
who was to join him at Gaeta, and to whom he had confidingly opened all
his fortresses in Calabria.
But the feeling of safety inspired by Frederic’s faithless ally was not
destined to endure long: on their arrival at Rome, the French and
Spanish ambassadors presented to the pope the treaty signed at Grenada
on the 11th of November, 1500, between Louis XII and Ferdinand the
Catholic, a treaty which up, to that time had been secret. Alexander,
foreseeing the probable future, had, by the death of Alfonso, loosened
all the bonds that attached him to the house of Aragon, and then began
by making some difficulty about it. It was demonstrated that the
arrangement had only been undertaken to provide the Christian princes
with another weapon for attacking the Ottoman Empire, and before this
consideration, one may readily suppose, all the pope’s scruples
vanished; on the 25th of June, therefore, it was decided to call a
consistory which was to declare Frederic deposed from the throne of
Naples. When Frederic heard all at once that the French army had arrived
at Rome, that his ally Ferdinand had deceived him, and that Alexander
had pronounced the sentence of his downfall, he understood that all was
lost; but he did not wish it to be said that he had abandoned his
kingdom without even attempting to save it. So he charged his two new
condottieri, Fabrizio Calonna and Ranuzia di Marciano, to check the
French before Capua with 300 men-at-arms, some light horse, and 3000
infantry; in person he occupied Aversa with another division of his
army, while Prospero Colonna was sent to defend Naples with the rest,
and make a stand against the Spaniards on the side of Calabria.
These dispositions were scarcely made when d’Aubigny, having passed the
Volturno, approached to lay siege to Capua, and invested the town on
both sides of the river. Scarcely were the French encamped before the
ramparts than they began to set up their batteries, which were soon in
play, much to the terror of the besieged, who, poor creatures, were
almost all strangers to the town, and had fled thither from every side,
expecting to find protection beneath the walls. So, although bravely
repulsed by Fabrizio Colonna, the French, from the moment of their first
assault, inspired so great and blind a terror that everyone began to
talk of opening the gates, and it was only with great difficulty that
Calonna made this multitude understand that at least they ought to reap
some benefit from the check the besiegers had received and obtain good
terms of capitulation. When he had brought them round to his view, he
sent out to demand a parley with d’Aubigny, and a conference was fixed
for the next day but one, in which they were to treat of the surrender
of the town.
But this was not Caesar Borgia’s idea at all: he had stayed behind to
confer with the pope, and had joined the French army with some of his
troops on the very day on which the conference had been arranged for two
days later: and a capitulation of any nature would rob him of his share
of the booty and the promise of such pleasure as would come from the
capture of a city so rich and populous as Capua. So he opened up
negotiations on his own account with a captain who was on guard at one
of the gates such negotiations, made with cunning supported by bribery,
proved as usual more prompt and efficacious than any others. At the very
moment when Fabrizio Colonna in a fortified outpost was discussing the
conditions of capitulation with the French captains, suddenly great
cries of distress were heard. These were caused by Borgia, who without a
word to anyone had entered the town with his faithful army from Romagna,
and was beginning to cut the throats of the garrison, which had
naturally somewhat relaxed their vigilance in the belief that the
capitulation was all but signed. The French, when they saw that the town
was half taken, rushed on the gates with such impetuosity that the
besieged did not even attempt to defend themselves any longer, and
forced their way into Capua by three separate sides: nothing more could
be done then to stop the issue. Butchery and pillage had begun, and the
work of destruction must needs be completed: in vain did Fabrizio
Colonna, Ranuzio di Marciano, and Don Ugo di Cardona attempt to make
head against the French and Spaniards with such men as they could get
together. Fabrizia Calonna and Don Ugo were made prisoners; Ranuzia,
wounded by an arrow, fell into the hands of the Duke of Valentinois;
seven thousand inhabitants were massacred in the streets among them the
traitor who had given up the gate; the churches were pillaged, the
convents of nuns forced open; and then might be seen the spectacle of
some of these holy virgins casting themselves into pits or into the
river to escape the soldiers. Three hundred of the noblest ladies of the
town took refuge in a tower. The Duke of Valentinois broke in the doors,
chased out for himself forty of the most beautiful, and handed over the
rest to his army.
The pillage continued for three days.
Capua once taken, Frederic saw that it was useless any longer to attempt
defence. So he shut himself up in Castel Nuovo and gave permission to
Gaeta and to Naples to treat with the conqueror. Gaeta bought immunity
from pillage with 60,000 ducats; and Naples with the surrender of the
castle. This surrender was made to d’Aubigny by Frederic himself, an
condition that he should be allowed to take to the island of Ischia his
money, jewels, and furniture, and there remain with his family for six
months secure from all hostile attack. The terms of this capitulation
were faithfully adhered to on both sides: d’Aubigny entered Naples, and
Frederic retired to Ischia.
Thus, by a last terrible blow, never to rise again, fell this branch of
the house of Aragon, which had now reigned for sixty-five years.
Frederic, its head, demanded and obtained a safe-conduct to pass into
France, where Louis XII gave him the duchy of Anjou and 30,000 ducats a
year, on condition that he should never quit the kingdom; and there, in
fact, he died, an the 9th of September 1504. His eldest son, Dan
Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria, retired to Spain, where he was permitted to
marry twice, but each time with a woman who was known to be barren; and
there he died in 1550. Alfonso, the second son, who had followed his
father to France, died, it is said, of poison, at Grenoble, at the age
of twenty-two; lastly Caesar, the third son, died at Ferrara, before he
had attained his eighteenth birthday.
Frederic’s daughter Charlotte married in France Nicholas, Count of
Laval, governor and admiral of Brittany; a daughter was born of this
marriage, Anne de Laval, who married Francois de la Trimauille. Through
her those rights were transmitted to the house of La Trimouille which
were used later on as a claim upon the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
The capture of Naples gave the Duke of Valentinois his liberty again; so
he left the French army, after he had received fresh assurances on his
own account of the king’s friendliness, and returned to the siege of
Piombino, which he had been forced to interrupt. During this interval
Alexander had been visiting the scenes of his son’s conquests, and
traversing all the Romagna with Lucrezia, who was now consoled for her
husband’s death, and had never before enjoyed quite so much favour with
His Holiness; so, when she returned to Rome. She no longer had separate
rooms from him. The result of this recrudescence of affection was the
appearance of two pontifical bulls, converting the towns of Nepi and
Sermoneta into duchies: one was bestowed on Gian Borgia, an illegitimate
child of the pope, who was not the son of either of his mistresses, Rosa
Vanozza or Giulia Farnese, the other on Don Roderigo of Aragon, son of
Lucrezia and Alfonso: the lands of the Colonna were in appanage to the
two duchies.
But Alexander was dreaming of yet another addition to his fortune; this
was to came from a marriage between Lucrezia and Don Alfonso d’Este, son
of Duke Hercules of Ferrara, in favour of which alliance Louis XII had
negotiated.
His Holiness was now having a run of good fortune, and he learned on the
same day that Piombino was taken and that Duke Hercules had given the
King of France his assent to the marriage. Both of these pieces of news
were good for Alexander, but the one could not compare in importance
with the other; and the intimation that Lucrezia was to marry the heir
presumptive to the duchy of Ferrara was received with a joy so great
that it smacked of the humble beginnings of the Borgian house. The Duke
of Valentinois was invited to return to Rome, to take his share in the
family rejoicing, and on the day when the news was made public the
governor of St. Angelo received orders that cannon should be fired every
quarter of an hour from noon to midnight. At two o’clock, Lucrezia,
attired as a fiancee, and accompanied by her two brothers, the Dukes of
Valentinois and Squillace, issued from the Vatican, followed by all the
nobility of Rome, and proceeded to the church of the Madonna del Papalo,
where the Duke of Gandia and Cardinal Gian Borgia were buried, to render
thanks for this new favour accorded to her house by God; and in the
evening, accompanied by the same cavalcade, which shone the more
brightly under the torchlight and brilliant illuminations, she made
procession through the whale town, greeted by cries of "Long live Pope
Alexander VI! Long live the Duchess of Ferrara!" which were shouted
aloud by heralds clad in cloth of gold.
The next day an announcement was made in the town that a racecourse for
women was opened between the castle of Sant’ Angelo and the Piazza of
St. Peter’s; that on every third day there would be a bull-fight in the
Spanish fashion; and that from the end of the present month, which was
October, until the first day of Lent, masquerades would be permitted in
the streets of Rome.
Such was the nature of the fetes outside; the programme of those going
on within the Vatican was not presented to the people; for by the
account of Bucciardo, an eye-witness, this is what happened—
"On the last Sunday of the month of October, fifty courtesans supped in
the apostolic palace in the Duke of Valentinois’ rooms, and after supper
danced with the equerries and servants, first wearing their usual
garments, afterwards in dazzling draperies; when supper was over, the
table was removed, candlesticks were set on the floor in a symmetrical
pattern, and a great quantity of chestnuts was scattered on the ground:
these the fifty women skilfully picked up, running about gracefully, in
and out between the burning lights; the pope, the Duke of Valentinois,
and his sister Lucrezia, who were looking on at this spectacle from a
gallery, encouraged the most agile and industrious with their applause,
and they received prizes of embroidered garters, velvet boots, golden
caps, and laces; then new diversions took the place of these."
We humbly ask forgiveness of our readers, and especially of our lady
readers; but though we have found words to describe the first part of
the spectacle, we have sought them in vain for the second; suffice it to
say that just as there had been prizes for feats of adroitness, others
were given now to the dancers who were most daring and brazen.
Some days after this strange night, which calls to mind the Roman
evenings in the days of Tiberius, Nero, and Heliogabalus, Lucrezia, clad
in a robe of golden brocade, her train carried by young girls dressed in
white and crowned with roses, issued from her palace to the sound of
trumpets and clarions, and made her way over carpets that were laid down
in the streets through which she had to pass. Accompanied by the noblest
cavaliers and the loveliest women in Rome, she betook herself to the
Vatican, where in the Pauline hall the pope awaited her, with the Duke
of Valentinois, Don Ferdinand, acting as proxy for Duke Alfonso, and his
cousin, Cardinal d’Este. The pope sat on one side of the table, while
the envoys from Ferrara stood on the other: into their midst came
Lucrezia, and Don Ferdinand placed on her finger the nuptial ring; this
ceremony over, Cardinal d’Este approached and presented to the bride
four magnificent rings set with precious stones; then a casket was
placed on the table, richly inlaid with ivory, whence the cardinal drew
forth a great many trinkets, chains, necklaces of pearls and diamonds,
of workmanship as costly as their material; these he also begged
Lucrezia to accept, before she received those the bridegroom was hoping
to offer himself, which would be more worthy of her. Lucrezia showed the
utmost delight in accepting these gifts; then she retired into the next
room, leaning on the pope’s arm, and followed by the ladies of her
suite, leaving the Duke of Valentinois to do the honours of the Vatican
to the men. That evening the guests met again, and spent half the night
in dancing, while a magnificent display of fireworks lighted up the
Piazza of San Paolo.
The ceremony of betrothal over, the pope and the Duke busied themselves
with making preparations for the departure. The pope, who wished the
journey to be made with a great degree of splendour, sent in his
daughter’s company, in addition to the two brothers-in-law and the
gentlemen in their suite, the Senate of Rome and all the lords who, by
virtue of their wealth, could display most magnificence in their
costumes and liveries. Among this brilliant throng might be seen Olivero
and Ramiro Mattei, sons of Piero Mattei, chancellor of the town, and a
daughter of the pope whose mother was not Rosa Vanozza; besides these,
the pope nominated in consistory Francesco Borgia, Cardinal of Sosenza,
legate a latere, to accompany his daughter to the frontiers of the
Ecclesiastical States.
Also the Duke of Valentinois sent out messengers into all the cities of
Romagna to order that Lucrezia should be received as sovereign lady and
mistress: grand preparations were at once set on foot for the fulfilment
of his orders. But the messengers reported that they greatly feared that
there would be some grumbling at Cesena, where it will be remembered
that Caesar had left Ramiro d’Orco as governor with plenary powers, to
calm the agitation of the town. Now Ramiro d’Orco had accomplished his
task so well that there was nothing more to fear in the way of
rebellion; for one-sixth of the inhabitants had perished on the
scaffold, and the result of this situation was that it was improbable
that the same demonstrations of joy could be expected from a town
plunged in mourning that were looked for from Imola, Faenza, and Pesaro.
The Duke of Valentinois averted this inconvenience in the prompt and
efficacious fashion characteristic of him alone. One morning the
inhabitants of Cesena awoke to find a scaffold set up in the square, and
upon it the four quarters of a man, his head, severed from the trunk,
stuck up on the end of a pike.
This man was Ramiro d’Orco.
No one ever knew by whose hands the scaffold had been raised by night,
nor by what executioners the terrible deed had been carried out; but
when the Florentine Republic sent to ask Macchiavelli, their ambassador
at Cesena, what he thought of it, he replied:
"MAGNIFICENT LORDS,-I can tell you nothing concerning the execution of
Ramiro d’Orco, except that Caesar Borgia is the prince who best knows
how to make and unmake men according to their deserts. NICCOLO
MACCHIAVELLI"
The Duke of Valentinois was not disappointed, and the future Duchess of
Ferrara was admirably received in every town along her route, and
particularly at Cesena.
While Lucrezia was on her way to Ferrara to meet her fourth husband,
Alexander and the Duke of Valentinois resolved to make a progress in the
region of their last conquest, the duchy of Piombino. The apparent
object of this journey was that the new subjects might take their oath
to Caesar, and the real object was to form an arsenal in Jacopo
d’Appiano’s capital within reach of Tuscany, a plan which neither the
pope nor his son had ever seriously abandoned. The two accordingly
started from the port of Corneto with six ships, accompanied by a great
number of cardinals and prelates, and arrived the same evening at
Piombina. The pontifical court made a stay there of several days, partly
with a view of making the duke known to the inhabitants, and also in
order to be present at certain ecclesiastical functions, of which the
most important was a service held on the third Sunday in Lent, in which
the Cardinal of Cosenza sang a mass and the pope officiated in state
with the duke and the cardinals. After these solemn functions the
customary pleasures followed, and the pope summoned the prettiest girls
of the country and ordered them to dance their national dances before
him.
Following on these dances came feasts of unheard of magnificence, during
which the pope in the sight of all men completely ignored Lent and did
not fast. The object of all these fetes was to scatter abroad a great
deal of money, and so to make the Duke of Valentinois popular, while
poor Jacopo d’Appiano was forgotten.
When they left Piombino, the pope and his son visited the island of
Elba, where they only stayed long enough to visit the old fortifications
and issue orders for the building of new ones.
Then the illustrious travellers embarked on their return journey to
Rome; but scarcely had they put out to sea when the weather became
adverse, and the pope not wishing to put in at Porto Ferrajo, they
remained five days on board, though they had only two days’ provisions.
During the last three days the pope lived on fried fish that were caught
under great difficulties because of the heavy weather. At last they
arrived in sight of Corneto, and there the duke, who was not on the same
vessel as the pope, seeing that his ship could not get in, had a boat
put out, and so was taken ashore. The pope was obliged to continue on
his way towards Pontercole, where at last he arrived, after encountering
so violent a tempest that all who were with him were utterly subdued
either by sickness or by the terror of death. The pope alone did not
show one instant’s fear, but remained on the bridge during the storm,
sitting on his arm-chair, invoking the name of Jesus and making the sign
of the cross. At last his ship entered the roads of Pontercole, where he
landed, and after sending to Corneto to fetch horses, he rejoined the
duke, who was there awaiting him. They then returned by slow stages, by
way of Civita Vecchia and Palo, and reached Rome after an absence of a
month. Almost at the same time d’Albret arrived in quest of his
cardinal’s hat. He was accompanied by two princes of the house of
Navarre, who were received with not only those honours which beseemed
their rank, but also as brothers-in-law to whom the, duke was eager to
show in what spirit he was contracting this alliance.