Murder of Alfonso of Naples, Duke of Bisceglia--The second campaign in
Romagna--Pesaro surrenders--Caesar’s private life--Pandolfaccio
Malatesta gives up Rimini--Astorre Manfredi--Faenza’s brave
resistance--The Pope threatens Bologna--Faenza surrenders--
Caesar returns to Rome--Astorre Manfredi flung into prison--
Giovanni Bentivoglio--Giuliano and Piero de’ Medici--Caesar’s
agreement with Florence--Piombino invested--Caesar returns
to Rome--Coalition of the Pope and the King of France for the
destruction of the House of Naples--Yves d’Allegre comes to Rome--
Berault Stuart, Commander of the French Army, enters the city.
Alexander VI. nearly lost his life in an accident which occurred in
the Vatican, June 27, 1500, when the ceiling of a room fell down and
he was buried in the rubbish, from which, however, he was finally
extricated, having received only a few scratches. His escape, according
to his Holiness, was due to the Blessed Virgin Mary; solemn thanks were
therefore rendered her July 2nd. She, however, did not interfere about
two weeks after Alexander’s providential escape to prevent the brutal
murder of Lucretia Borgia’s second husband, Alfonso of Naples, Duke of
Bisceglia.
Early in the evening, July 15th, Alfonso was attacked at the entrance
to St. Peter’s by several armed men and wounded in the head, the right
arm, and the leg. The ruffians, about forty in number, ran down the
steps of the church, hastily mounted their horses, and escaped by the
Pertusa Gate. Such is Burchard’s account of the affair.
The orator of Naples adds: “And the prince ran to the Pope and told him
that he had been attacked and wounded, and Madonna Lucretia, who was
with the Pope, fainted.” Alfonso was placed in a room in the Vatican,
and his wife and his sister, Sancia, consort of the Pope’s son Giuffre,
Prince of Squillace, took entire care of him, even cooking his meals
themselves for fear of poison, owing to Valentino’s hatred of him. The
Pope had him guarded by sixteen men, fearing the Duke might murder him.
Only on one occasion, when the Pope went to see Alfonso, did Caesar
accompany him, and then he was heard to remark to his father, “What
is not finished at dinner may be finished at supper.” When the orator
asked the Pope about the affair his Holiness told him that Valentino
said, “I did not attack Alfonso, but if I had done so, it would have
only been what he deserved”; but one day--August 17th---Caesar
entered the wounded man’s room, drove Lucretia and Sancia out, and
ordered Don Michele to strangle the youth, and that night the body was
buried--a murder so cold-blooded that all Rome was horrified, though
no one dared mention it openly. Finally Valentino admitted that he had
caused Alfonso’s death because he feared the Duke would murder him.
Such is Capello’s account. Burchard adds that Alfonso’s physicians and
attendants were arrested and examined but immediately set at liberty,
as there was no doubt of their innocence.
Alfonso, sacrificed by his father for political reasons, had married
Lucretia, and when the plans of Alexander and Caesar required his
elimination she was unable to save him. He had been frequently warned
by his friends that Rome was a dangerous place for him. Caesar hated
the House of Aragon, and he had derived no greater profit from his
sister’s marriage with Alfonso than he had from her former union with
Giovanni Sforza of Pesaro. Valentino apparently had another alliance
in mind for his sister which he hoped would prove more advantageous to
himself.
As a son had been born to Lucretia and Alfonso, the marriage could
not be set aside as easily as the former had been; therefore heroic
treatment was necessary. When the war broke out in Milan Alfonso left
Rome, and he returned only on the urgent solicitations of his wife
and the Pope, his fears having been somewhat allayed by the warm
congratulations which Caesar had sent him on the birth of his son.
In a dispatch of July 19th the Venetian ambassador says: “It is not
certain who wounded Alfonso, but it is said to have been the same
person who killed the Duke of Gandia!”
Burchard merely records: “Alfonso was strangled in his bed about the
nineteenth hour, and in the evening, about the first hour of the night,
the body was carried to the basilica of St. Peter, accompanied by
Francesco Borgia, Archbishop of Cosenza, and his household.”
Various reasons have been adduced to explain Caesar’s hatred of his
sister’s husband. It has even been said that Caesar wished to have
him out of the way in order that he himself might enjoy her favours;
however, although this charge and others equally hideous, which
were made at the time, are no longer believed, they show to what
extremes calumny would go in those days and how ready chroniclers and
historians, inspired by hate, were to repeat slanders; but they also
show the execration and abhorrence in which the Borgias were held.
There was a Neapolitan party in Rome, and Alfonso may have been a
member of it; his sister Sancia was the wife of Giuffre, Caesar’s
brother, and probably the latter’s mistress. Subsequently she and
Valentino became bitter enemies, and she was the only person about the
Vatican who dared oppose him in anything.
All Rome, prelates, citizens, Lucretia, Giuffre, the Pope himself
seemed afraid of Caesar. Of the Pope it was said that he both loved and
feared him--_ama ed ha paura_. Valentino, hating the House of Naples,
and especially Sancia, whose strong nature and unprincipled character
clashed with his own, could easily bring himself to compass the death
of her brother because it would also leave his sister free for him
to marry her into some powerful family which would prove of great
assistance to him in his far-reaching projects.
Lucretia and Alfonso, whom his contemporaries described as one of
the handsomest men in Italy, apparently loved each other. She had
been greatly distressed when he fled from Rome, and had begged him
to return. On his death Lucretia, who was wholly without will and
character, who had none of the traits of the virago, such as Caterina
Sforza possessed, retired to Nepi for a time.
In speaking of the prompt release of Alfonso’s physicians and
servants, “because they were innocent,” Burchard adds the significant
remark, “as those sent to arrest them knew perfectly.”
The attack on the Duke of Bisceglia evidently was well planned, and he
was subsequently strangled within the very walls of the Vatican. The
servants and physicians were immediately exonerated. Who, then, was
responsible for the murder?
All the chroniclers, historians, and ambassadors either openly or by
implication charge Caesar with the crime. According to the standards
of that perfidious and brutal age, he had ample grounds for the
murder--grounds based on both personal hatred and on political ambition.
The conquest of Romagna was intimately connected with the aims of the
King of France with respect to Naples, and Alfonso was an obstacle
in Caesar’s path. The Neapolitan House had refused Valentino one of
its daughters for wife, and he had married a French princess; the
destruction of the Aragonese family was therefore the logical sequel.
When Alfonso of Bisceglia was murdered, Lucretia was only twenty years
of age; she was beautiful and wealthy, and had powerful kinsmen and
a considerable domain of her own; it would be a comparatively easy
matter, in view of these attractions, to find her another husband in
one of the great families of the peninsula, who would be of help to
Alexander and Caesar in subjugating Romagna, and in any other ambitious
projects they might evolve.
Alfonso of Bisceglia was useless to such practical men as Valentino
and his father; he was honest, gentle, and weak, and such men had even
less place in the swift movement of the Renaissance than they have in
modern politics and industry, and he had to be removed.
Alexander perhaps recognised his own blood in Caesar, and discovered
in him the same cynical contempt for all laws, human and Divine, that
he himself felt. If he had any horror of his son’s deed, it was not
of long duration, for Capello, wrote in September, a month after the
murder: “The Pope is daily growing younger; his greatest sorrows pass
in a night; he is of a most cheerful disposition, and never undertakes
anything but what promises to turn to his own profit; all his thoughts
are directed to a single end--to make great personages of his
children--to all else he is indifferent.”
Efforts have been made to place the responsibility for the murder of
Alfonso on the Sanseverini, who were robbed of the Principality of
Salerno in order that it might be given the prince; and on the Gaetani,
who had been despoiled of the Duchy of Sermoneta that it might be
bestowed on Alfonso’s infant son, Rodrigo. However, neither of these
families, who must also have had their enemies, was ever charged with
the crime by their contemporaries, and had Caesar and Alexander ever
suspected either of them, they certainly would not have treated the
affair with such indifference. The only one charged with it at the time
was the Duke of Valentino.
An ingenious eulogist of the Borgias has suggested that the strangling
in the Borgia tower, which was doubtless reported by Lucretia or
Sancia, was no strangling at all, but probably tetanic convulsions
due to infected wounds caused by the daggers--poignards usually being
cleaned in the earth; he, however, neglects to explain away the attack
when the daggers were used two weeks before.
Early in July the Pope had placed the ban on Faenza, on the ground
that Astorre Manfredi had refused to pay the tribute; the reduction of
Faenza and Rimini, therefore, was decided upon by the Pope and Caesar.
By his ambassador, Villeneuve, Louis XII. sent his consent for the
undertaking, and also his promise to help as far as he was able. In
addition the Venetian ambassador assured the Vatican of the neutrality
of his Government.
Valentinois had formed an army which he was holding in Umbria, in order
that it might be near at hand to be used to destroy the Colonna, who
were allies of Federigo of Naples, or for the operations in Romagna.
According to the statement of the Venetian orator, the King of France
was to furnish six hundred men-at-arms and the same number of Swiss,
in case it should be necessary to crush the Bentivoglio of Bologna,
who might attempt to aid their kinsmen in Faenza, Rimini, and Pesaro.
On the advice of the King they had withdrawn their protection from the
Malatesta and the Manfredi.
When the letter of the Signory was delivered by the ambassadors,
Capello and Giorgi, the Pope was so delighted that in spite of his
promise to keep it secret, the whole palace knew of it at once, and the
same night a great banquet was given in celebration of the event.
When Valentino was ready to set forth on the second campaign for
the conquest of Romagna, he had about ten thousand soldiers, partly
enlisted by himself and partly by Paolo Orsini and Giampaolo Baglioni,
who were waiting for him and his army in Perugia.
Caesar’s departure from Rome having become known, October 5th,
Pandolfo Malatesta sent his wife and children to the Court of his
brother-in-law, Giovanni Bentivoglio, in Bologna, and fortified himself
in the castle of Rimini, knowing he could no longer count on the help
of Venice.
To secure funds for the second campaign in Romagna, Alexander created
twelve cardinals, charging each of them one-tenth of the ecclesiastical
revenues. To this was added the plunder derived from the Gaetani and
other Roman nobles, and large sums were borrowed from the great banker
Agostino Chigi. This was one of the worst scandals of Alexander’s
reign. At this creation two members of the Borgia family were made
cardinals--Francesco of Sueca and Pier Luigi, the Pope’s nephew. All
the cardinals except the last paid well for the dignity. The Bishop
of Catania paid the highest--the enormous sum of 25,000 gold ducats;
Louis, Bishop of Acqui, and Jacobus, Archbishop of Oristano, paid 5,000
each; while D’Albret, Caesar’s brother-in-law, was charged ten thousand.
It is Burchard himself who gives the amount each cardinal was required
to pay. This creation was entirely political. Caesar had found that
he needed money for his undertakings, and he had enjoined the Sacred
College to ratify the nominations, and he had fixed the prices himself.
September 26th Capello wrote the Signory: “I understand that orders
have been given so that--the cardinals having been selected--the
Duke of Valentinois may set out in two or three days, provided the
astrologers say that the moment is favourable.”
The Holy Father, by the agreement with the King of France, was to help
Louis in case he decided to undertake the conquest of Naples, and the
King was to aid Caesar, to whom he now sent a considerable force under
Yves d’Allegre.
Caesar’s foot-soldiers were clad in red and yellow doublets with his
insignia, and were armed with short pikes and swords and casques of
iron. They were well drilled, and far superior to the earlier troops,
which had been little more than poorly armed mobs.
The army set forth the last of September, and it soon became known that
it was Caesar’s intention to drive Giovanni Sforza from Pesaro, and the
last of the Malatesta from Rimini. Sforza was a military commander of
no little reputation, and he decided to resist. He first endeavoured to
secure the help of his former wife’s brother, Francesco Gonzaga, and
also that of the Emperor Maximilian, with whom he was connected through
Bianca Sforza.
Early in 1500 Gonzaga had asked Valentino to stand as sponsor for his
infant son, a child who two years later was betrothed to Caesar’s
own daughter by Charlotte d’Albret. Giovanni Sforza plainly had not
appreciated the relations of Valentino with the Gonzaga family, who,
like all the princely families of Italy at that time, were ever ready
to ally themselves with the stronger and especially with the Papacy.
Struggling for existence, all were playing a desperate game of
politics. The duplicity of the age is again disclosed by the fact that
Gonzaga did send one hundred men to the assistance of the Lord of
Pesaro, who had only two hundred of his own. Giovanni had not been an
altogether unjust ruler, consequently a considerable portion of his
subjects remained loyal to him. While the nobles opposed him he could
count on the support of the lower classes; the middle classes, as is
usual, held aloof, ready to go over to the victor.
Most of the petty lords in the Romagna were upstarts and adventurers,
and as such were tyrants and entirely indifferent to the welfare of
their subjects; being politicians, they were wholly unable to look
ahead and provide for the future--their measures were always mere
temporary expedients to provide against present difficulties, chiefly
of a personal nature; being both ignorant and egotistical, they had no
just appreciation of their actual position, which they were compelled
to hold by force; the result was that they themselves were constantly
the victims of the treachery of their subjects--if treachery it could
be called, for their people professed no loyalty. For them a change
of masters only meant a change of evils, with the chance that for a
while, at least, their condition would be ameliorated. When the people
did not actually oppose their lords, they were indifferent to them.
This explains why many of the cities in Romagna made no resistance and
voluntarily opened their gates to Caesar.
[Illustration: PESARO.
_From an early engraving._
To face p. 166.]
Pesaro promptly surrendered to Bentivoglio, Caesar’s lieutenant, but
before the town yielded Giovanni Sforza managed to make his escape, and
October 27th the Duke himself entered the city with his usual brilliant
array of nobles and officers, by which he knew he could impress the
vulgar imagination. Valentino was theatrical in whatever he did, and
he studiously preserved an air of mystery at all times. When in Rome
he would keep himself in seclusion, and then suddenly on some pretext
would exhibit himself to the populace.
The castle of Pesaro was famous for its strength, and Caesar had
sketches made of it, which he sent to his father, who was interested in
affairs military.
Pandolfo Collenuccio, Ercole d’Este’s orator, arrived in Pesaro the
very day Caesar entered the place, and the Duke sent Don Remiro de
Lorca to call on him.
Collenuccio, a humanist of great reputation among the writers and
jurists of the day, had been exiled in 1489 by Giovanni Sforza in order
that he might confiscate the scholar’s property, and at the same time
be rid of an honest counsellor. After holding offices in various cities
of Italy, he had entered the service of the Este of Ferrara.
Caesar sent the orator a present of grain, wine, candles, a sheep,
and a number of capons and chickens, and in writing to his master,
Pandolfo said Caesar was “brave and generous--and it is believed he
will take care of deserving men. He is determined in his vengeance;
his is a great soul, eager for glory and power, but he seems more
anxious to acquire new States than to give those he already has a
good government”--a statement which does not wholly agree with those
of others. Pandolfo, however, failed to secure a public office,
consequently he discovered some of the Duke’s defects.
One day when conversing with the ambassador, Caesar remarked: “I do
not know what Faenza will do, but she will not cause us any greater
difficulties than the other places have--still, she may try to hold
out.” To which the accomplished diplomatist replied: “If she does it
will only give your lordship another opportunity to display your valour
and skill in taking the place.”
In one of his letters to the Duke, Ercole d’Este, Collenuccio gives
a description of Caesar’s personal habits which is interesting, as
details regarding his private life are few. “The Duke’s life is
as follows: he goes to bed between eight and ten at night. At the
eighteenth hour it is dawn; at the nineteenth the sun rises, and at the
twentieth it is broad daylight. Then he rises and immediately sits down
to the table. After this he gives his attention to business affairs.”
While Caesar was in Fano and Pesaro, Astorre Manfredi--the only tyrant
in that part of Italy who enjoyed the confidence and affection of his
people--was preparing to defend himself in Faenza.
Aid came to him from an unexpected quarter, for Giovanni Bentivoglio,
fearing that Valentino would attack him if Faenza fell, determined
to help the youthful tyrant. Bentivoglio had managed to secure the
goodwill of the French, and had entered into treaties with several of
his neighbours. Among others, Florence had promised to aid him if he
would assist her when she attacked Pisa. Late in October the Pope sent
a letter to Bentivoglio, commanding him, under pain of excommunication,
to take no part in the affairs of Faenza--the only effect of which
was to increase his determination to help Manfredi by sending him
additional troops. At the same time Bentivoglio strengthened his own
defences.
When Valentino left Pesaro, he placed a Spaniard, Marco Suere, in
charge of the citadel. Rimini was surrendered without a struggle by its
pusillanimous lord, Pandolfaccio Malatesta.
Astorre Manfredi, who was only eighteen, had discovered as early as
January, 1500, that Caesar had designs on his territory, although he
had been assured by Valentino of his friendship.
Early in November Caesar’s captain, Vitellozzo Vitelli, occupied
Brisighella, which was the key to Faenza, and all the petty powers of
the neighbourhood hastened to go over to Valentino, feeling certain
that he would win. Astorre had counted on Venice, but he soon found
that she had allied herself with the Pope, for in October Caesar’s
name was inscribed in her “book of gold,” and the Senate had voted him
a palace for residence in Venice, although it had refused to grant
him the title, which he had coveted, of Captain of the Armies of the
Republic.
Manfredi was brave, but he saw that his cause was hopeless. In his
extremity he suggested to his people that they make no resistance in
order that useless bloodshed and destruction of property might be
avoided, but to their great credit and his own they decided to support
him to the last. In the meantime Bentivoglio had succeeded in getting a
thousand infantry to Manfredi.
Faenza was invested November 10th, and Caesar offered the besieged
their lives if they would surrender; promises were followed by threats,
but the inhabitants of the place remained firm. Winter was drawing
near and Faenza was well protected with walls. Caesar established his
camp on the side towards Forli, and attempted to storm the walls,
but failed. Valentino had expected the youthful tyrant to offer him
a pitched battle, but Manfredi wisely refrained, and Caesar’s troops
suffered so from the severe weather that he decided to go into winter
quarters. The people of Faenza had destroyed all the timber in the
vicinity; the troops were encamped in a low, wet place, and they
were constantly harassed by the enemy. Astorre’s men were well fed
and sheltered, and were able to rest at night, while the besiegers
were never secure; Caesar therefore decided to raise the siege, and
announced he would return when the season was more favourable. He
withdrew December 3rd, but was careful to secure all roads leading to
Faenza, and to invest the city in such a manner that no provisions
could be introduced into it. He passed the winter in Cesena, remaining
until April, 1501. The time was spent in all sorts of spectacular
sports and amusements, and when he departed he left behind him the
memory of an amiable and affable lord, and at the same time that of
an able governor and severe justiciary. The accounts we have of his
daily life are chiefly by panegyrists who were enjoying his bounty and
protection, consequently, as evidence of his actual character, they are
worth little more than are the ferocious attacks of the enemies of the
Borgia.
While Caesar was in Forli, the usual number of avaricious artists
and literary men flocked about him, greedy for money or honours, and
clamouring for permission to dedicate their works--works for the
most part now lost--to him. This servility is a curious phase of the
literary character of those and even later days, and the ridiculously
bombastic dedications of books to various tyrants and adventurers,
stained with every crime, and incapable of appreciating anything
upright and noble, is nauseating. However, the painters and poetasters
who shone by the reflected light of some political adventurer as a rule
passed away with him, and such of their works as have been spared by
time are of a nature to console us for those which have been lost. All
these dedications and panegyrics were inspired by the hope of reward
in some form, and as evidence that the person addressed possessed any
characteristics worthy of admiration they are of no value. The names of
Caesar’s eulogists were legion, and in him they discerned every virtue,
just as his political adversaries and their sycophants discovered
every vice. While Caesar was in Cesena the youthful Manfredi, although
definitely abandoned by both Bologna and Florence, was holding out
bravely.
Alexander, knowing that Louis XII. would require his investiture
for the realisation of his designs regarding the Kingdom of Naples,
complained to him that his ally, Giovanni Bentivoglio, had frustrated
Caesar’s plans with respect to Faenza, although their failure was due
more to Manfredi’s stout resistance and the severity of the winter than
to the assistance of the tyrant of Bologna. His Holiness even went so
far as to demand possession of the territory of the Bentivoglio.
January 28, 1501, the Pope threatened Bologna with the interdict in
case lodging and supplies were not ready for Caesar’s troops within
six days. The King of France, however, was more diplomatic, for he
dispatched a letter from Blois, January 30, 1501, in which he “besought
his great and good friend of Bologna to aid our said cousin of
Valentinois with men, provisions, and artillery.”
Bentivoglio did furnish lodgings, supplies, and men, but absolutely
refused to allow the castle of Bologna to be occupied by Caesar’s
troops, because, as he said, this would endanger his authority too
much. Alexander had demanded possession of the stronghold on the ground
that it was required for Caesar’s operations in the Romagna, but
Bentivoglio was not to be deceived.
Valentino spent the early months of the year 1500 organising the
government of the territories bordering on the Adriatic, but he kept
a close watch on Faenza, which he again attacked about the middle
of April, but without accomplishing anything. The skill and valour
of Manfredi and his followers won the admiration of all Italy, and
Isabella d’Este, writing to her husband, the Marquis of Mantua, April
20th, said: “The people of Faenza have saved the honour of Italy”; and
Caesar is reported to have remarked: “Had I at my command an army like
the defenders of Faenza I could confidently undertake the conquest of
the entire peninsula.”
[Illustration: GIO·II·BENTIVOGLIO SIG·DI BOLOGNA
_From an early engraving._
To face p. 172.]
Manfredi, however, was finally reduced to the necessity of asking
for an armistice to arrange the terms of surrender and the night of
April 21st he was received by Caesar at his headquarters with marked
courtesy. The terms of the capitulation were drawn up in Caesar’s name
by Battista Orfino, and Michelotto Corella was placed in charge of the
stronghold.
The brave Manfredi was to be allowed to go whithersoever he wished; his
officers also were permitted to depart; the people and their property
were to be respected; the coins struck by the prince were to remain
current in the State; his debts were to be paid by Caesar, and to
enable the people to regain their prosperity they were to be granted
certain exemptions in the matter of taxes.
Manfredi, deceived by Caesar’s promises, instead of going to his
friends and kinsmen in Bologna or Venice, accepted the Duke’s
invitation to remain in his camp, and he probably stayed with Valentino
until his arrival at the Vatican, June 17, 1501. A few days later he
was flung into prison in the Castle of St. Angelo.
After the fall of Faenza Valentino directed his attention to Giovanni
Bentivoglio, demanding possession of Castle Bolognese in the name
of the Pope. When Bentivoglio learned that Caesar was advancing
with troops he dispatched ambassadors, who were promptly seized by
Vitellozzo, who had captured the strongholds of San Pietro, Frumina,
Guelfo, and Medicina. Bentivoglio, seeing that Caesar was determined,
decided to yield, but he cunningly planned to secure him as an ally at
the same time. April 30, 1501, Paolo Orsini negotiated a treaty between
Caesar and Bentivoglio by which, in return for the surrender of Castle
Bolognese, the former was to serve the latter as condottiere for three
years with adequate pay, in all undertakings except such as might
be directed against the King of France. Caesar was also to furnish
a certain number of troops. Giulio and Paolo Orsini and Vitellozzo
Vitelli signed the treaty for Caesar, who had remained at Medicina
and who was for the first time designated as the Duke of Romagna in
this document, his father having just conferred this title upon him.
Caesar’s consent to this arrangement is explained by the fact that the
King of France had demanded the return of his troops and the Pope had
instructed Valentino to come to Rome without molesting the Florentines.
Giuliano and Piero de’ Medici, anxious to recover possession of the
city from which they had been expelled, proposed to enter into an
alliance with Caesar. Giuliano joined him at Bologna, intending to
remain on his staff as he advanced through Tuscany and rally his own
adherents. Piero also came from Rome to join Caesar, who knew that
their presence in his army and the hatred of his captains for Florence
would constitute a menace to the Republic; he therefore refused to
enter into any agreement with Piero, and on the way to Bisagno he
compelled Giuliano to stop at Loiano.
Notwithstanding this the Signory of Florence felt that he had some
sinister purpose with respect to themselves, consequently they sent
Machiavelli to watch and study Caesar’s movements.
Valentino had asked permission to lead his troops through Florentine
territory, and the request, with certain restrictions--among them one
requiring him to avoid the fortified places--was granted. The Duke
did not wait for the envoys but continued his march, and when they
did appear he was already on Florentine territory. They threatened to
lodge a complaint, but Valentino upbraided them for the attitude of
their Government towards himself and his undertakings. He did not wish
to declare himself an enemy of the Republic, but he needed time to
consider the situation; he therefore made an appointment to meet the
envoys again at Barberino di Mugello.
Owing to her long and exhausting war with Pisa and to her intestine
troubles Florence was in no position to risk a struggle with the Duke
of Romagna; the Signory had therefore decided to grant his request.
Appreciating the danger of having a large number of armed men in their
territory, the Council of Ten made arrangements for resisting any
sudden attack. Caesar finally entered into an alliance, both offensive
and defensive, with Florence, and the Signory took him into its employ
as condottiere, furnishing him the number of troops befitting his rank
and promising him suitable remuneration. The arrangement was for three
years.
Caesar had agreed to continue his march as soon as the convention was
signed, but May 17th he was still at Forno dei Campi, and he asked for
half the artillery belonging to Florence for use against Piombino and
also for his first quarter’s salary. The Signory replied that these
requests were not included in the agreement, and Caesar did not insist.
He, however, dispatched Vitellozzo Vitelli to the Pisans to demand
their siege pieces. On the march towards Pisa Caesar’s troops committed
great depredation, sacking, burning, and plundering. His captains, the
Orsini and Vitelli--especially the latter, whose brother had been
executed by the Florentines--may have been responsible for this. The
Pope had sanctioned Caesar’s undertaking with respect to Piombino,
whose lord, Giacomo d’Appiano, after a feeble resistance before the
city, retired to the stronghold, which was well fitted to resist a
siege. Here it was that Giacomo’s grandfather had bravely defended
himself fifty years before against the ferocious condottiere Sigismondo
Malatesta, son of Pandolfo, Lord of Rimini.
By his agreement with Louis XII. Caesar was compelled to join the
French army about the middle of June. He therefore left a part of his
forces to invest Piombino, which surrendered to his lieutenants after a
two-months siege, and set out for Rome, where he arrived June 17, 1501.
His purpose in coming to Rome at this time was to join the French army
which was about to set forth for Naples. While in the city he concealed
himself from public gaze in the apostolic palace, rarely showing
himself.
[Illustration: RIMINI.
_From an early engraving._
To face p. 176.]
Nothing illustrates the duplicity of the age better than this coalition
of the head of the Christian Church and the King of France for the
destruction of the House of Naples. Only four years before Caesar, as
cardinal-legate, had crowned the last of the Aragonese Kings of Naples;
three times Alexander had endeavoured to marry one of his children into
this family, and he had become connected with it by the marriage of his
son Giuffre with Doña Sancia, and that of his daughter Lucretia with
Alfonso, Prince of Bisceglia, whom Caesar had murdered--and in this
perfidious age the most perfidious of all was the head of the Christian
Church.
In 1499 Louis XII. had secured the Pope’s consent to his undertaking
with respect to the Kingdom of Naples and the Duchy of Milan.
This, as we have seen, was one of those immoral bargains which powers
and potentates still make at the expense of weaker States, although the
bald egoism of the ruler is now less in evidence in these transactions
than it was during the Renaissance. To-day the heads of government,
being shorn of autocratic power, do not represent personal ambition or
achievement; they are either simply survivals of mediaevalism or the
representatives of some interest or faction--of an industrial unit of
some sort; therefore in advanced countries the actual egoism of the
ruler is of slight moment.
In the age of the Borgia the personality of the ruler was more
important; the extension of his power--in fact, his very tenure of
office and position--depended on his physical strength, his cunning,
his powers of dissimulation, his predilections, his ambitions, his
morals. He was hampered by no constitutional restrictions and his
dynasty required for its perpetuation something more than law; the
domination of his family could be secured only by force and fraud.
The heads of governments to-day being mere accidents of birth or the
product of economic interests, their accession to positions of nominal
power and their abandonment of those positions have no appreciable
influence upon the destinies of States; they are products of one class
of economic or social factors just as the despots of the Renaissance
were the products of another group.
Louis XII. was a ferocious egoist just as were Alexander VI. and Caesar
Borgia. He had desired a divorce from Jeanne of France in order that
he might marry Anne of Bretagne. Superstition, if not universal, was
then general, and was not, as it is now, confined to the ignorant and
depraved; rationalism and personal independence had not reached the
stage when mankind sees how absurd and preposterous it is to entrust
the conscience to the care and guidance of another man and especially
a bad one. During the latter half of the fifteenth century, when the
Popes were more depraved than they ever were before or have been
since, other monarchs were especially anxious to secure the pontiff’s
assent to their own egotistical undertakings and the more determined
to avoid his weapon of excommunication, ridiculous as it was. Louis,
therefore, had made a bargain with the Pope by which the latter was to
sanction and aid in the destruction of Naples and Milan, and also to
grant the necessary dispensation to enable the King to put aside his
wife. In return the King had created the Pope’s son, Caesar, Duke of
Valentinois, and had secured for him the hand of a French princess;
the bargain had been made and formally sealed, and now Louis was
endeavouring to compel the Pope to perform his part of the agreement.
The House of Aragon, by right of conquest, which it may be observed is
no _right_ at all, had ruled Southern Italy for a hundred years, but
its days were now numbered. To give his project an appearance of right
Louis had based his claim to Naples on the imaginary rights of the
House of Anjou.
Caesar came quietly to Rome the evening of June 17, 1501. The 19th
Yves d’Allegre arrived with his men-at-arms, who were to be placed
under Valentino’s command. Acqua Traversa was selected for the French
camp, and Burchard enumerates the supplies required for the troops;
wine, bread, meat, eggs, cheese, fruit, and even sixteen harlots were
allotted them. He also informs us that certain Florentine merchants
who were required to lodge the officers paid the Governor of the city
two hundred ducats to be relieved of the burden, and that the official
accepted the money, but, nevertheless, when the French officers arrived
compelled the Florentines to lodge them.
Berault Stuart, commander of the main body of the French forces,
entered Rome June 23rd and was received by all the cardinals and the
Pope’s household with great honours. He immediately repaired to the
papal palace and was conducted to the Pope in the Chamber of the
Papagalli.
“To-day the King’s lieutenants and several of the captains of the
French army went to see the Pope in his palace in Rome, where a great
many cardinals and nobles of the city were gathered. The Pope is a
Spaniard and a poor Frenchman, but he concealed his real feelings
and received the French officers with great cordiality and conversed
with them good-naturedly. To Monsieur Berault Stuart, the King’s
Lieutenant-General, he presented a grey charger, strong and swift,
perfectly broken, and richly caparisoned. The rest of the day was spent
in sports and various pastimes until evening, when the Cardinal of
Sanseverino, Bishop of Maillezais and brother of the Count of Gayas,
entertained the officers at a formal banquet at which the viands were
_exquises et plaisants_. The banquet was given in Cardinal Ascanio’s
garden amid the oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and other rare and
esteemed fruits and fragrant flowers of various sorts, while singers
and players, both tragic and comic, displayed their arts. The banquet
over, the Frenchmen went and took leave of the Holy Father. This done
they returned to their camp. It had been decided that the army should
set forth the following morning, to go directly to Naples and continue
the work begun.”[23]