The Story of 
 
 The Borgias 
 
 John Fyvie
 
 L1BRARV 
 
 UN ,VERSITV OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 AN DIEGO
 
 THE STORY OF 
 
 THE BORGIAS
 
 flom <Jt^- fte&co-^-u, i//sn6Ut*4Ccn4<s
 
 THE STORY OF 
 
 THE BOEGIAS 
 
 AUTHOR OF "TRAGEDY QUEENS OF THE 
 GEORGIAN ERA" ETC 
 
 NEW YORK 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 1913
 
 PRINTED 
 
 AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS 
 
 TAVI STOCK STREET Co VENT GARDEN 
 
 LONDON
 
 THE story of the Borgia family has always been 
 one of strangely fascinating interest ; but a lurid 
 legend grew up about their lives, which culminated 
 in the creation of the fantastic monstrosities of 
 Victor Hugo's play and Donizetti's opera. For 
 three centuries their name was a byword for the 
 vilest infamy ; but in our own day there has been 
 an extraordinary swing of the pendulum, which 
 is hard to account for. Quite a number of para- 
 doxical writers have proclaimed to an astonished 
 and mystified world that Pope Alexander VI 
 was both a wise prince and a gentle priest whose 
 motives and actions have been maliciously mis- 
 represented ; that Cesare Borgia was a noble- 
 minded and enlightened statesman, who, three 
 centuries in advance of his time, endeavoured to 
 form a united Italy by the only means then in 
 anybody's power ; and that Lucrezia Borgia was 
 a paragon of all the virtues. 
 
 It seems to have been impossible to " whitewash " 
 the Borgia without a good deal of juggling with the 
 evidence, as well as a determined attack on the 
 veracity and trustworthiness of the contemporary 
 
 b v
 
 PREFACE 
 
 historians and chroniclers to whom we are indebted 
 for our knowledge of the time. Guicciardini and 
 Burchard, in particular, have been singled out for 
 depreciation and abuse. But nobody is likely to 
 be much disturbed about Guicciardini 's essential 
 trustworthiness and accuracy after the ample vin- 
 dication of him which has been given by Villari 
 in his " History of the Life and Times of Machia- 
 velli." Nor has Burchard's authority suffered in 
 the slightest degree by these indiscrirninating 
 attacks. He was Master of the Ceremonies at 
 the Vatican throughout the reign of Alexander VI, 
 and he kept a diary, or rather a note-book, in 
 which he jotted down, not officially but for his own 
 private use, brief memoranda of anything connected 
 with the Pope or the Vatican which came under his 
 observation. Although the details he gives are 
 sometimes highly indecent, and shocking to our 
 modern notions, they do not appear to have been 
 so to him. They are set down without comment ; 
 he never imputes motives or makes any reflection 
 on character ; he invariably speaks of his master 
 the Pope with profound reverence and respect, 
 and no really competent authority has questioned 
 his good faith. 
 
 Of course, it is quite true that we know to-day 
 a good deal more about the true history of the 
 
 Borgia than was known when Victor Hugo wrote 
 vi
 
 PREFACE 
 
 his play, and Alexander Dumas his lurid book of 
 " Celebrated Crimes." Thousane, in his complete 
 and elaborately annotated edition of Burchard's 
 "Diarium," Pastor, in his "History of the Popes," 
 Creighton, in his " History of the Papacy," 
 Gregorovius, in his " History of the City of Rome 
 during the Middle Ages " and in his monograph 
 on " Lucrezia Borgia," Villari, in his " Life and 
 Times of Machiavelli " and in his edition of the 
 " Dispatches of Giustiniani," and Charles Yriarte, 
 in his monograph on " Cesare Borgia " (to name no 
 others), have brought forward much fresh docu- 
 mentary evidence as well as thrown new light on 
 the old. To these works, as well as to those of 
 Burckhardt and J. A. Symonds on the civilisation 
 and culture of the Renascence, no succeeding 
 writer on the period can fail to be heavily indebted. 
 I wish also to express my obligations to William 
 Gilbert's biography of Lucrezia Borgia for 
 many details of her later life in Ferrara ; and 
 for many facts in my sketch of Francisco Borja, 
 to the biography of the saint by Father A. M. 
 Clarke, S.J. ; although I sincerely hope that nobody 
 will charge that good Jesuit father either with my 
 manner of stating the facts or with any of the 
 comments I have ventured to make thereon. 
 
 The present volume makes no pretence of con- 
 taining fresh documentary evidence or of being 
 
 vii
 
 PREFACE 
 
 the result of original research. My aim has been 
 to relate the actions and depict the characters 
 of the principal persons of the House of Borgia in 
 as straightforward and unbiassed a manner as 
 possible after a careful sifting of all the evidence 
 already available. It may be that the last word 
 has not yet been said on the subject : but it seems 
 to be in the highest degree unlikely that anything 
 can now be discovered which can make any appre- 
 ciable difference in the verdict of history on this 
 extraordinary family. 
 
 J.F. 
 
 vm
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PACK 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION 1 
 
 II. THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 48 
 
 III. THE FRENCH INVASION 74 
 
 IV. DIVORCE AND MURDER 104 
 V. CESARE BORGIA, DUKE OP ROMAGNA 183 
 
 VI. LUCREZIA BORGIA, PRINCESS OF ESTE 165 
 
 VII. THE CULMINATION 180 
 
 VIII. THE DOWNFALL 208 
 
 IX. LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 244 
 
 X. LUCREZIA BORGIA, DUCHESS OF FERRARA 262 
 
 XI. A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 803 
 
 INDEX 387 
 
 IX
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 RODRIGO BORGIA (POPE ALEXANDER VI) Frontispiece 
 
 From the fresco by Pinturricchio in the Vatican 
 
 To/ace 
 page 
 
 CARDINAL ASCANIO SFORZA 72 
 
 From a medal in the British Museum 
 
 CESARE BORGIA 134 
 
 From a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci 
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 264 
 
 After the manner of Titian, in Casa Pamphili-Doria 
 
 SAINT FRANCISCO DE BOHJA 328 
 
 XI
 
 I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 WHEN Rodrigo Borgia ascended the Papal throne, 
 as Alexander VI, in 1492, a revolution was in 
 progress throughout Europe. Not only was the 
 old political order changing, but literature, art, 
 science, commerce, and social life were undergoing 
 a bewildering transformation. The history of all 
 this must be sought elsewhere ; but it is impossible 
 to form any just estimate of the characters and 
 careers of the Borgia without first making a brief 
 survey of the social and political conditions which 
 prevailed in Italy towards the end of the fifteenth 
 century. Guicciardini declares that at no time for 
 a thousand years past had Italy enjoyed such 
 prosperity. Her fertile lands, he says, were cul- 
 tivated to the tops of the mountains ; her popula- 
 tion and wealth were abundant ; she contained 
 numerous and beautiful cities ; her various States 
 suffered under no foreign influence, but were 
 governed by their own princes ; she was remark- 
 able for the number of her citizens who were 
 distinguished in politics, in science, and in every 
 noble art ; and within her boundaries was the 
 majestic seat of the Primate of the Christian 
 religion. But there was also a heavy balance on 
 
 A 1
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 the other side, which this eloquent historian omits 
 to mention. The Italian Princedoms and Republics 
 were in a state of perpetual conflict with one 
 another ; bands of mercenary troops, who sold 
 their services to the highest bidder, plundered and 
 wasted the country from end to end ; everywhere 
 the many were taxed, often to the point of ex- 
 haustion, for the benefit of the few ; and in addition 
 to the sufferings which the people of Italy had to 
 endure from these causes, they were ravaged by 
 numerous visitations of the plague, which from 
 time to time devastated both the cities and the 
 country districts. 
 
 The Eastern Empire had been recently over- 
 whelmed by the conquering Turks, who, firmly 
 established in Constantinople, continued to extend 
 their boundaries, and constituted a standing 
 menace to their Christian neighbours. The 
 Western Empire still existed, but was now restricted 
 to Germany, and shorn of all its power. The 
 independent fiefs and communes of the Middle 
 Ages were tending to disappear ; and the great 
 nations of modern Europe were in process of 
 consolidation. France, which under Louis XI had 
 permanently annexed the great duchy of Burgundy, 
 was just on the point of adding that of Brittany 
 also to the hereditary possessions of its crown. 
 Spain, by the union of the crowns of Castile and 
 of Aragon, held the greater part of the Peninsula, 
 and had just driven the Moors from their last 
 stronghold in Granada. The consolidating process, 
 which was also at work in Hungary, in Poland, in 
 2
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Scandinavia, and in Russia, seems to have been 
 unfelt in Italy alone, where the five principal 
 States, Venice, Milan, Naples, Florence, and Rome, 
 jealously maintained their independence, and 
 abhorred the idea either of a Republican federation 
 or of a monarchical unity. The only approach to 
 a national league amongst the Italians had been 
 in 1455, when, in consequence of the taking of 
 Constantinople and the dread that Mohammed 
 might soon make his appearance in the Mediter- 
 ranean, Pope Nicholas V had induced these five 
 States to conclude a defensive alliance for twenty- 
 five years against any foreign foe that might invade 
 any part of Italy. Had any of the other Italian 
 potentates possessed the foresight and sagacity of 
 Lorenzo de' Medici, or even had his life been 
 prolonged for another ten or fifteen years, this 
 alliance might have been developed into some- 
 thing of a wider and more permanent character. 
 Why it was not will become apparent in the course 
 of the following narrative. In the meantime it 
 will be necessary to devote a few words to each of 
 these five States separately. 
 
 Venice, satisfied with having defeated her mari- 
 time rivals, Pisa and Genoa, mistress of the seas, 
 abundantly rich from her extensive commerce, and 
 fortunate in possessing a stronger internal govern- 
 ment than any of the other States, had consistently, 
 if also somewhat selfishly, kept herself aloof from 
 Italian politics until circumstances brought about 
 a change in her policy in the fourteenth century. 
 Then she commenced to extend her dominions in 
 
 3
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 various directions. After the fall of Constantinople 
 many islands of the Archipelago voluntarily gave 
 themselves up to her protection ; and, having 
 acquired Padua, Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, and 
 other towns on the mainland, she obviously aspired 
 to make herself the dominant power in Italy. This 
 policy aroused the most violent jealousy in all the 
 other States, who would have regarded subordina- 
 tion to the oligarchical Council of Ten as worse 
 than submission to a foreign foe. 
 
 But the greatest danger to the peace of Italy at 
 the moment was the state of affairs in Milan. 
 When Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza was assassinated 
 in 1476, his widow, Bona of Savoy, assumed the 
 regency on behalf of her young son Gian- Galeazzo. 
 Three years later, however, Ludovico Sforza, eldest 
 surviving brother of the murdered Duke, taking 
 advantage of the confusion created by the war of 
 Sixtus IV against Florence, had usurped the 
 regency, and having got into his possession all the 
 arms and treasure of the duchy, acted both at home 
 and abroad as its reigning Prince, leaving his helpless 
 nephew nothing but the bare title of Duke. When 
 Alexander VI ascended the Papal throne in 1492, 
 Gian- Galeazzo was twenty- three years of age, and 
 married to Isabella, daughter of Alfonso of Calabria, 
 heir to the throne of Naples, who naturally espoused 
 the cause of his son-in-law and sought by all the 
 means in his power to force Ludovico into giving 
 up the reins of government. It was Ludovico's 
 struggle to maintain his usurped power in defiance 
 of the hostility of Naples that was the immediate 
 4
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 cause of all the troubles which soon fell so thickly 
 on the whole of Italy. 
 
 The Neapolitan dynasty was in scarcely better 
 case than the Milanese. That kingdom, after a 
 long and ruinous conflict, had been conquered by 
 Alfonso of Aragon in 1442 ; and when he died in 
 1458, after a salutary and undisputed reign of 
 sixteen years, he had bequeathed it to his natural 
 son Ferrante. The refusal of Calixtus III to 
 recognise Ferrante had forced that able but 
 crafty and brutal prince to reconquer the kingdom 
 for himself. Having accomplished this, he had 
 maintained his power for over thirty years by 
 the utmost oppression and cruelty. Not only 
 were his opponents treacherously entrapped and 
 ruthlessly destroyed, but the fiendish monarch 
 frequently pleased himself by keeping some of the 
 most troublesome of them in cages, like captured 
 wild beasts, in order that he might gloat over the 
 sufferings to which he subjected them. He 
 exhausted his people by ruinous taxation ; and 
 as he condescended to trade on his own account, 
 his avarice even went the length of accumulating 
 stocks of corn, oil, and other merchandise, and 
 then forbidding his subjects to sell their stocks 
 until he had obtained a scarcity price for his own. 
 Rebellions, of course, were of frequent occurrence ; 
 and as late as 1485 Pope Innocent VIII had aided 
 a conspiracy of the Neapolitan barons which had 
 bid fair to plunge the whole of Italy into war. 
 But although Ferrante's courage and ability might 
 enable him to crush all such uprisings within his 
 
 5
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 own dominions, it was obvious to himself, as well 
 as to others, that his power could never survive 
 the attack of any foreign foe ; and he lived in 
 perpetual dread of the assertion of the claim of 
 France to the Neapolitan throne. 
 
 Florence, whose dominion extended over almost 
 the whole of Tuscany, though nominally a Republic, 
 was practically under the absolute rule of the House 
 of Medici. Lorenzo " the magnificent " had died 
 in April 1492, four months before the accession of 
 Alexander VI. Though only the first citizen of a 
 trading community, without command of an army, 
 and not even legally the ruler of his State, he was 
 in fact an absolute despot, and his foreign policy, 
 hingeing on friendliness with the Vatican and 
 mediation between Naples and Milan, had justly 
 gained him the name of the balancing needle of 
 Italy. His eldest son, Piero, who succeeded without 
 opposition to the high position of Lorenzo, was as 
 weak as he was vicious, and having neither the 
 good sense to follow his father's successful policy 
 nor the ability to originate one of his own, suffered 
 himself to be directed in matters of State by the 
 Roman baron, Virginio Orsini, to whom he was 
 related both through his mother and his wife. 
 
 The position of the Roman Pontiff w r as a rather 
 ambiguous one, and will require to be stated at 
 somewhat greater length. For several centuries 
 the Popes had been striving to secure for the 
 Papacy, in addition to the spiritual domination of 
 the Christian world, the temporal domination of 
 the Italian peninsula. The origin of the temporal 
 6
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 sovereignty of the Papacy may be traced back to 
 the more or less considerable gifts of estates which 
 the piety of various sovereigns and nobles had 
 induced them to bestow on the Bishops of Rome. 
 As time went on, the aggregate of these estates 
 increased to such an extent that, to say nothing 
 of the possessions which he owned in other parts 
 of the world, the Bishop of Rome, by the beginning 
 of the seventh century could claim to be the 
 largest landowner in Italy. But although Gregory 
 the Great, who was elected to the Papacy by the 
 Senate, clergy, and people of Rome in 590, was 
 forced by the circumstances of his time to assume, 
 and that with considerable success, the role of a 
 temporal governor, his successors were by no means 
 always in a position so to act. They had diffi- 
 culties with the turbulent people of the Eternal 
 City, difficulties with the insubordinate barons of 
 the Patrimony, and difficulties with the successive 
 occupants of the Imperial throne. From the 
 beginning of the ninth century, while the Popes 
 claimed the right to crown the Emperor, the 
 Emperor, on his part, claimed the right to confirm 
 the election of the Pope. About the middle of the 
 eleventh century, Nicholas II, inspired by the 
 formidable monk, Hildebrand, decreed that the 
 cardinals who were attached to the various parishes 
 of Rome alone possessed the right to elect a Pope, 
 thus audaciously withdrawing all elective power 
 from the Senate and people of Rome, as well as 
 repudiating the Emperor's right of confirmation. 
 In 1145 the Roman nobles and people revolted 
 
 7
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 against the Papal authority and re-established the 
 Senate. When Lucius II attempted to drive the 
 Senate from the Capitol he was stoned to death. 
 Eugenius III, on his election, not only had to 
 fight his way into Rome, but entirely failed to 
 subjugate the people. But ten years later Frederick 
 Barbarossa accepted his investiture of the Imperial 
 crown from the hands of the head of the Church ; 
 and Arnold of Brescia, founder of this twelfth- 
 century Roman Commonwealth, was burnt at the 
 stake and his ashes thrown into the Tiber. To 
 the end of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 
 the Popes maintained their independence ; but 
 during the first three-quarters of the fourteenth 
 (1309-1378), when the Papal seat was at Avignon, 
 they naturally lost much of the power which they 
 had previously acquired. The Colonna, the Orsini, 
 and other great Roman barons assumed the rule of 
 sovereigns in their immense territories, whilst the 
 Este, the Montefeltri, the Malatesta, the Manfredi, 
 the Ordelaffi, and other princely families became 
 unfettered " tyrants " at Ferrara, Urbino, Imola, 
 Faenza, Forli, and other towns of the Romagna. 
 Towards the end of the fourteenth century 
 Boniface IX recognised the authority of these 
 nobles by giving them the title of Vicars of the 
 Church ; and in return for the security of tenure 
 which this conferred upon them they were mostly 
 willing enough to pay him a sum of money down 
 and engage to pay a small annual tribute to the 
 Holy See. 
 
 The five Popes under whom Rodrigo Borgia 
 8
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 served his apprenticeship from 1455 to 1492 were 
 men of varied character and policy. His uncle, 
 Calixtus III (1455-1458), of whom something more 
 will have to be said presently, was devoted to 
 but two objects, the prosecution of a crusade 
 against the Turks, and the aggrandisement of his 
 relatives. He made no effort to extend the 
 dominions of the Holy See, although he risked 
 plunging the whole of Italy into war by refusing 
 to recognise Ferrante of Naples, from the mere 
 desire to obtain a kingly crown for the head of 
 his favourite nephew, Don Pedro Borgia. 
 
 Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who as Pius II reigned 
 from 1458 to 1464, reversed the policy of Calixtus 
 in regard to Naples, and even assisted Ferrante 
 with troops when his throne was threatened by 
 pretenders. He was a fortunate opportunist who, 
 though personally averse to any warlike policy, yet 
 conquered all his enemies, and considerably en- 
 larged the States of the Church. He allied himself 
 with the Colonna, and redeemed the towns of 
 Spoleto, Narni, Soriano, Viterbo, Civita Castellana, 
 and Civita Vecchia from the castellans of Calixtus's 
 Borgia. His absence from Rome for nearly two 
 years, from January 1459 to October 1460, was the 
 cause or occasion of a violent disturbance. A 
 band of youthful rebels, under their leader Tiberzio, 
 with the professed object of delivering Rome 
 from the rule of the priests, terrorised the city 
 and compelled the Governor to take refuge in 
 the Vatican. They made alliance with certain 
 disaffected barons of the Campagna, and after 
 
 9
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Malatesta, the Savelli, the Count of Anguillara, 
 and others of their allies had seized on a number 
 of the smaller towns, they all conspired together 
 to invite the redoubtable condottiere, Piccinnino, 
 to march to their assistance for the conquest of 
 Rome. But after Pius's return Tiberzio was 
 captured and hanged ; when, with the assistance 
 of Ferrante of Naples and Francesco Sforza of 
 Milan, the Pope was able to drive Piccinnino out 
 of his territories and reduce the revolting barons 
 to subjection. The nepotism of Pius II was as 
 pronounced, though not so pregnant with 
 momentous results to the Church, as that of his 
 predecessor. He elevated several of his relations 
 to the purple ; one nephew became Master of his 
 household, another Bishop of Pavia ; and of four 
 brothers Piccolomini, Giacomo was made Lord of 
 Monte Marciano, Andrea, Lord of Castiglione della 
 Pescaja, Francesco (destined afterwards to reach 
 the Papal throne) was raised to the Cardinalate, 
 and Antonio, married to a natural daughter of 
 King Ferrante and created a Duke, became a 
 vassal of the crown of Naples. 
 
 Pietro Barbo, who reigned as Paul II from 1464 
 to 1471, was a rather theatrically-minded Pope, 
 who gave the sacred festivities of the Church a 
 splendid but altogether secular and pagan turn, 
 amusing the Roman populace with " bread and 
 circuses." His personal vanity induced him to 
 collect precious stones for the adornment of his 
 vestments and tiaras. On the death of his rival, 
 Cardinal Scarampo, who was also a collector of 
 10
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 precious stones and other gewgaws, Paul set aside 
 the will in which the Cardinal had left all these to 
 his nephews, took forcible possession of the gold 
 and plate and jewellery which the legatees were 
 attempting to send off to Florence, and had several 
 cartloads of them shot into the treasury of the 
 Vatican. When he died, there were found amongst 
 his personal possessions fifty-four silver cups filled 
 with pearls, together with precious stones and 
 gold and other jewellery to the total value of a 
 million and a half of ducats. At his election 
 Paul II had been forced to sign a capitulation to 
 assemble the Sacred College twice a year, a notable 
 attempt to reduce the Papacy from a sovereignty 
 to an oligarchy which, as might have been expected, 
 proved not worth the paper it was written on. 
 He greatly reformed the administration of justice 
 in Rome ; and he showed little inclination to 
 interfere in matters outside his own domain. But 
 his war with certain vassals of the Holy See, when 
 the house of Anguillara was humbled and one 
 feudal lord after another crushed, aroused the 
 dismay of Florence, Milan, and Naples at the 
 growing power of the Papacy, so that they banded 
 together and forced the Pope to stop just as he 
 was about to oust Roberto Malatesta from Rimini. 
 Francesco Rovere, the son of a poor fisherman, 
 who occupied the Chair of St. Peter from 1471 to 
 1484 in the name of Sixtus IV, was a more violent 
 and ambitious spirit. At first Sixtus seemed 
 disposed to carry on the policy of his immediate 
 predecessors as regards war against the Turk ; 
 
 11
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 but his efforts in this direction proving something 
 of a failure, he speedily abandoned them and 
 concentrated his attention on the internal politics 
 of Italy. His nepotism was excessive and scan- 
 dalous. Within six months of his election he 
 raised two of his " nephews " to the purple, Pietro 
 Riario, generally understood to be not his nephew 
 but his son, and Giuliano della Rovere, son of 
 his brother Rafael. Another nephew, Lionardo 
 Rovere, was made Prefect of Rome, and after- 
 wards married to an Aragonese princess, whose 
 dowry made him Duke of Sora ; the price paid by 
 the Pope for this being the remission of Ferrante's 
 tribute during his lifetime, a transaction, as will 
 be seen, which caused much trouble in the future. 
 Pietro Riario was so loaded with rich benefices 
 that his income is said to have amounted to a 
 sum equal to 150,000 of our present money. 
 The sudden rise from the station of a poor monk 
 to such a pinnacle of wealth and greatness seems 
 to have turned Pietro's head, and he plunged into 
 the wildest extravagance and sensuality. When 
 Leonora, daughter of the King of Naples, came to 
 Rome in 1473 to meet her husband, Duke Ercole 
 of Ferrara, Cardinal Pietro Riario entertained her 
 in a style that beggars description. The piazza 
 adjoining his palace was roofed with canvas, and 
 transformed into a pavilion. The foremost artists 
 of Rome were employed to decorate the place, 
 which was hung with silk and velvet and the 
 magnificent tapestries of Nicholas V which depicted 
 the creation of the world. The rooms glittered 
 12
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 with gold and purple, luxurious couches and 
 soft-cushioned chairs stood on silver feet ; and 
 the Cardinal's attention to splendid detail was 
 such that as one of its reporters slyly remarks, 
 the ladies of the Court must have smiled when, 
 on retiring to their sleeping apartments, they found 
 even the humblest utensils to be of silver gilt. 
 On the day after the Princess's arrival, which was 
 Whitsunday, the Florentine actors performed a 
 play or masque in the Piazza Pavilion representing 
 Susannah and the Elders. On the Monday, 
 Cardinal Pietro gave a great banquet, the bill- of - 
 fare of which occupies two pages of Corio's " Storia 
 di Milano." And so it went on with unparalleled 
 extravagance day after day. The Cardinal's palace 
 was like the Court of a King, thronged with time- 
 serving artists, poets, and other hangers-on. Pietro 
 got himself appointed Legate for the whole of 
 Italy ; and when he travelled he was received 
 everywhere with the honours due to royalty. But 
 his luxury and dissipation and debauchery were 
 so extravagant that in two years he wore himself 
 out ; and he died at the age of twenty-eight in 
 1474, when it was found that, although he had 
 received during the short period of his splendour 
 something like half a million sterling he was 
 overwhelmed with debt. His brother, Girolamo, 
 a customs-house officer, then succeeded to the 
 Pope's favours, who married him to Caterina 
 Sforza, a natural daughter of the Duke of Milan, 
 and invested him with the Lordship of Imola. 
 Another nephew, Giovanni, was married to Caterina 
 
 13
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Montefeltro, daughter of the Duke of Urbino, and, 
 in 1475, on the death of his brother Lionardo, was 
 made Prefect of Rome. In addition to the fore- 
 going, three other nephews, Rafael Riario, and 
 Cristoforo and Gieronimo Rovere, were elevated to 
 the purple. 
 
 Such was the fierceness of Sixtus's lust for the 
 aggrandisement of his family that when Lorenzo 
 de' Medici opposed his efforts to secure the 
 supremacy of Count Girolamo in the Romagna, 
 the Pope even condescended to ally himself with 
 the Pazzi in their vile conspiracy to assassinate 
 Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano before the high 
 altar in the Cathedral at Florence. Giuliano de' 
 Medici was killed, but Lorenzo defended himself 
 with his sword and escaped with only a slight 
 wound. The Florentines, in their fury at this 
 dastardly act, retaliated by hanging not only the 
 murderers, but also the Archbishop of Pisa, who 
 was believed to be an accomplice. Then the 
 infuriated Sixtus formed a league with Naples and 
 Siena to drive the Medici from Florence. The 
 city was excommunicated, all property in Rome 
 belonging to its citizens was confiscated, and the 
 Pope, with his allies, marched an army into 
 Tuscany. It was at this moment that Ludovico 
 Sforza took advantage of the confusion to seize 
 the regency of Milan, which Naples and the Pope 
 agreed to on condition that he took their side 
 against Florence. The situation of the Florentines 
 was now desperate, and Lorenzo de' Medici showed 
 the greatness of his mind by carrying out the bold 
 14
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 resolve of going to Naples, placing himself entirely 
 in the power of his avowed enemy, and endeavouring 
 by mere force of reason to persuade Ferrante to 
 make peace with him. He succeeded, and was 
 received back in Florence with jubilation ; but 
 the obstinate and vindictive Sixtus would not 
 come to terms until he was forced into a peace 
 by the Turkish conquest of Otranto. 
 
 While danger from the Turk was imminent 
 Sixtus maintained an alliance with Venice for 
 defence against the common enemy ; but when 
 the death of Mohammed II set his two sons, 
 Bajazet and Djem, fighting for the vacant throne 
 of Constantinople, and the Turkish army was in 
 consequence forced to evacuate Otranto, the Pope 
 once more turned to his chief interest of advancing 
 the fortunes of his " nephews." Girolamo Riario, 
 already Lord of Imola by purchase, had become 
 possessed of Forli also by the simple process of 
 seizing the place after murdering one of the 
 claimants to the Lordship when there occurred a 
 dispute as to the succession among the illegitimate 
 children of Pino Ordelaffi. But not content with 
 these lordships, the Pope also wished to endow his 
 nephew with Faenza, Ravenna, Rimini, and other 
 towns. In 1481 Venice sought a pretext for making 
 war on Duke Ercole d'Este, and Sixtus lent his aid 
 to the project, evidently thinking that after he had 
 allowed Venice to go as far as suited his purpose, 
 he might be able to step in, and add Ferrara also 
 to the dominions of Count Girolamo. But all 
 Italy was now thoroughly alarmed at the ambitious 
 
 15
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 designs of the scheming Pope, as well as at the 
 increasing aggressiveness of Venice, so that not 
 only did Ferrante of Naples send troops to the 
 assistance of his son-in-law, Ercole, but Milan and 
 Florence, together with Gonzaga of Mantua and 
 Bentivoglio of Bologna, ranged themselves on the 
 side of Ferrara. The Pope could not even secure 
 the services of his old ally and captain, Federigo 
 of Urbino, and was obliged to entrust the command 
 of his forces to Roberto Malatesta instead. More- 
 over, the war with Ferrara brought about another 
 feud between the rival factions of Rome, the 
 Colonna and the Savelli siding with Naples, in 
 whose employ some of them were serving, whilst 
 their hereditary antagonists, the Orsini, ranged 
 themselves under the banners of the Pope. On 
 August 21, 1482, the Papal forces under Malatesta 
 defeated Alfonso of Calabria in the district known 
 as Campo Morto, but such was the pestilential air 
 of the place that the general died of malaria a 
 fortnight after his triumphal return to Rome. 
 Sixtus, of course, was jubilant ; but he showed his 
 gratitude to the man who had won the battle for him 
 in characteristic fashion. Roberto Malatesta's son 
 and heir, Pandolpho, was a mere child, and the 
 sordid Pope instantly despatched his nephew to 
 Rimini in hopes that he might be able to seize on 
 the boy's inheritance. Florence, however, came 
 forward and protected Roberto's widow from this 
 act of Papal greed and treachery. That un- 
 fortunate lady lost both husband and father at 
 the same moment ; for on the very day that 
 16
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Roberto Malatesta died in Rome, his father-in-law, 
 Duke Federigo of Urbino, died at Ferrara, also of 
 fever, which he had contracted whilst fighting on the 
 opposite side. He was succeeded by his son, Guido- 
 baldo, the last of the Montef eltri, whom we shall hear 
 of again as suffering at the hands of Cesare Borgia. 
 Three months later, however, Sixtus was brought 
 to heel by the opposition of the Emperor and 
 the threat of a Council; whereupon he promptly 
 changed sides, with consummate effrontery ordered 
 Venice to desist from making war against 
 Ferrara ; and, five months later, was found in 
 league with Naples, Milan, and Florence against 
 the ally whom he had so unscrupulously abandoned. 
 In fact on May 25, 1483, he even went the length 
 of excommunicating Venice for continuing to 
 prosecute that war against Ferrara which he him- 
 self had been mainly instrumental in instigating. 
 Then Sixtus, with the aid of the Orsini, made a 
 determined onslaught on the Colonna, plundering 
 their palaces and razing their fortresses to the 
 ground with the object of obtaining their posses- 
 sions for his nephew. Count Girolamo hoped to 
 crush and perhaps even to exterminate the Colonna ; 
 but they made a desperate resistance, and the 
 Pope, who was ill with fever, became greatly 
 depressed by his nephew's want of success. Then 
 came a final blow to his hopes ; for on August 11, 
 1484, he learned that, without consulting him, 
 Venice had made peace with the other Italian 
 powers. The unwelcome news threw him into such 
 transports of rage that he died the following day. 
 
 B 17
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Although none of his ambitious plans were 
 successful, Sixtus IV, as Machiavelli remarks, was 
 the first Pope to show the temporal power of the 
 Papacy ; and it may be added that his Vice- 
 chancellor, Rodrigo Borgia, was the man to mark, 
 learn, and inwardly digest. In spite of his tortuous 
 diplomacy Sixtus got nothing either from Venice 
 or from Naples ; he failed in his designs against 
 Ferrara ; he did not even succeed in crushing the 
 power of the Colonna within his own territory. 
 But he pointed out the way to his successors. 
 It has been said that had the condition of things 
 in his time favoured a French invasion, or had 
 his nephews been of the calibre of the Borgia, 
 his reign would probably have been as disastrous 
 in the history of Italy and of Rome as that of the 
 equally unscrupulous but far subtler man who 
 ascended the Papal throne eight years later. If 
 this were a biography of Sixtus, much would have 
 to be said on the other side ; but we may agree 
 with Mandell Creighton, no harsh critic, when he 
 says that Sixtus lowered the moral standard of 
 the Papacy, and did much to prepare the way for 
 still unworthier successors. 
 
 Immediately the death of Sixtus IV was 
 announced, the Colonna, whom he had treated so 
 vilely, flew to arms ; and the Roman populace, 
 who likewise had suffered severely at the hands 
 of his rapacious nephew, sacked the palace of Count 
 Girolamo, and plundered the banks and the corn 
 granaries. Caterina, Count Girolamo's amazon 
 wife, took possession of the Castle of St. Angelo 
 18
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 and held it on her husband's behalf, whilst he, 
 abandoning his camp at Palliano to the enemy, 
 hurried by forced marches towards Rome. The 
 cardinals were urged to hasten the election of a 
 new pope as the only means of averting civil war. 
 They managed to arrange a truce ; getting Giro- 
 lamo to surrender St. Angelo in exchange for 
 40,000 ducats, and persuading the Colonna and 
 the Orsini to retire to their own territories. Then 
 commenced a series of intrigues and bargainings 
 for votes. Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia had thought 
 himself so secure of election that he had barricaded 
 his palace to prevent the customary pillage ; but 
 the Venetian Cardinal Barbo proved to be stronger 
 in votes, whilst Ascanio Sforza and Giovanni of 
 Aragon, though neither able to secure their own 
 election nor that of any other candidate of their 
 choice, were yet quite strong enough to exclude 
 any one whom they opposed. In this conjuncture, 
 Giuliano della Rovere, whose aim it was to secure 
 the elevation of a Pontiff under whom he might 
 direct the policy of the Holy See, induced Borgia 
 and others to sink their claims and work for the 
 election of the Genoese cardinal, Giovanni Battista 
 Cibo. Palaces, castles, abbeys, legations, and other 
 lucrative offices were accordingly promised to those 
 who would join the party led by Rovere ; and 
 Burchard tells us that Cardinal Cibo gained enough 
 votes to render all opposition useless by signing 
 the petitions for favours of this kind which 
 were presented to him during one night in his 
 cell. 
 
 19
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Innocent VIII, who thus came to the Papal 
 throne in 1484 and continued to reign until 1492, 
 having been made pope by Cardinal Giuliano della 
 Rovere, was completely ruled by that restless and 
 intriguing spirit, at least during the first few years 
 of his Pontificate. The Cardinal soon embroiled 
 the Papacy in a war with Naples by inducing 
 Innocent to demand the feudal tribute which 
 Sixtus IV (for a consideration, as we have seen) 
 had relinquished. Florence and Milan sided with 
 Naples; Venice, and Genoa with the Pope. As, 
 however, the Colonna and the Savelli were amongst 
 the Papal forces, Ferrante was easily able to draw 
 their hereditary enemies into alliance with him ; 
 and Virginio Orsini quickly marched on Rome, 
 seized the Porta Nomentana, and placed the 
 Eternal City in a state of siege. But for the energy 
 and alertness of Cardinal Giuliano, who, clad in 
 armour, personally conducted the defence of the 
 walls, Orsini would have captured the city, when 
 perhaps he might even have gone the length of his 
 insolent threat to carry the warlike Cardinal's head 
 on a lance through the streets and throw the Pope 
 himself into the Tiber. After a year's fighting, 
 with much devastation, but little practical success 
 on either side, Innocent threatened to call in the 
 aid of Charles VIII of France. This brought about 
 a compromise ; and by the mediation of Lorenzo 
 de' Medici and Ferdinand of Spain a peace was 
 patched up in 1486. Although this peace was in 
 no way a creditable one to the Pope, for he not 
 only gained by it no advantage to the Holy See, 
 20
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 but basely left his allies, the revolting Neapolitan 
 barons, to the mercy of Ferrante, who exterminated 
 them after his own ferocious fashion, yet it was 
 very grateful to the people of Rome. The city 
 was in a state of anarchy. Murders and robberies 
 were of daily occurrence, and so corrupt was the 
 administration of justice that crimes of the most 
 diabolical character were compounded for a fine. 
 Franceschetto Cibo, the Pope's son, made an 
 arrangement with the Vice- Chancellor Borgia 
 whereby these fines were divided between the two 
 of them in certain specified proportions. When 
 the Vice- Chancellor was reproached one day by 
 some outspoken person concerning the failure of 
 the law to deal properly with criminals who 
 deserved execution, he is reported to have replied 
 in his genially cynical manner : " God desireth not 
 the death of a sinner, but rather that he should 
 pay and live." 
 
 The cardinals, whose power and splendour now 
 eclipsed that of the old Roman nobility, promoted 
 rather than discouraged this condition of anarchy. 
 Their palaces, with great pillared courtyards and 
 flanking towers, were to all intents and purposes 
 fortresses ; they gave sanctuary to whom they 
 pleased ; and each one considered the immediate 
 neighbourhood of his house as under his own 
 special jurisdiction alone. Hence there were fre- 
 quent frays between the retainers of these proud 
 princes of the Church. Most of them kept several 
 hundred servants capable of bearing arms ; in 
 the galleries overlooking their courtyards were 
 
 21
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 often to be found hired soldiers armed with muskets, 
 and occasionally even a piece or two of artillery. 
 It is reported that one day when some young 
 Romans had wounded a follower of Cardinal 
 Ascanio Sforza, the retainers of that prelate sallied 
 out, and by way of retaliation wounded more than 
 twenty people in the streets. On another occasion, 
 when the captain of the Cardinal's Court was 
 arresting a criminal near the palace of Cardinal 
 La Balue, the latter from one of his windows 
 forbade such a proceeding within the precincts of 
 his palace ; and when that arrest was nevertheless 
 proceeded with, the French cardinal's retainers 
 were ordered to attack the Court of Justice, which 
 they promptly sacked, after releasing all the 
 prisoners. Most of the cardinals had " nephews," 
 after the example of the Supreme Pontiff, and 
 were surrounded by a court of favourites, parasites, 
 and hired bravoes. They rode in the streets in 
 secular attire, sometimes with swords at their 
 sides ; they vied with one another in displaying 
 their wealth and magnificence ; and altogether 
 they had attained to such a degree of wealth 
 and power that they threatened to subjugate the 
 Papacy itself. This was another matter that Vice- 
 Chancellor Borgia marked and inwardly digested, 
 with the result that, when his time came, the 
 College of Cardinals was reduced to an assembly of 
 tame and subservient domestic chaplains. 
 
 In 1487 Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere fell out 
 of favour with Innocent VIII, and the French 
 cardinal, La Balue, succeeded him in the direction 
 22
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of the Papal policy. The first indication of a 
 change was a league with Venice. This was any- 
 thing but pleasing to Florence and Milan, but 
 before long Lorenzo de' Medici managed to draw 
 Innocent away from it by marrying his daughter 
 Maddelena to the Pope's son, Franceschetto. This, 
 in its turn, brought about another change, for 
 Maddelena's mother was a sister of Virginio Orsini, 
 and their marriage relationship caused this family 
 once more to regain its influence in the Vatican. 
 Innocent at once made peace with Virginio, who 
 came to Rome ; whereupon Cardinal Giuliano della 
 Rovere found it convenient to retire for a time to 
 Bologna. On April 14, 1488, Count Girolamo 
 Riario, the brutal nephew, for whose sake Sixtus 
 IV had schemed and fought so persistently, was 
 assassinated by some of his own retainers at Forli, 
 who attacked him unawares as he was resting after 
 supper, and flung his naked corpse out of the 
 window. The Forlivese thereupon promptly 
 sacked the palace, and would have handed over 
 the town to the Pope, had not Girolamo's virago 
 of a wife outwitted them, and set up her young 
 son, Ottaviano, as Lord of Forli, with herself as 
 Regent. It was generally thought that Innocent 
 VIII had countenanced this plot in order to acquire 
 Forli for his son, but his complicity was never 
 proved, although it was extremely suspicious that 
 envoys from the conspirators were hospitably 
 received at Rome and that the Papal Governor of 
 Cesena was sent with troops to Forli apparently 
 for their assistance. 
 
 23
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 In 1489 Rome witnessed the strange spectacle 
 of a son of the infidel conqueror of Byzantium 
 coming to take up his abode in the Vatican as a 
 paying guest of the head of the Christian Church. 
 When Mohammed II died in 1481, his two sons, 
 Bajazet and Djem, disputed the succession ; but 
 Djem, being hopelessly defeated at Broussa, had 
 fled to Egypt and subsequently, in July 1482, 
 sought refuge with the Knights of St. John at 
 Rhodes. Though treated with superficial courtesy, 
 Djem was really detained as a prisoner and held 
 as a hostage for the peaceful behaviour of his 
 dreaded brother, Bajazet, with whom the Knights 
 of St. John opened up negotiations. Bajazet 
 agreed to pay them 40,000 ducats annually for 
 his brother's maintenance, and to preserve peace 
 with them so long as Djem was kept in safe 
 custody. But it soon became advisable to 
 transfer Djem to more secure quarters. There 
 were many candidates for the profitable privi- 
 lege of entertaining him. The Sultan of Egypt 
 would have been ready to make war on Constan- 
 tinople on his behalf; he would have been a 
 valuable asset to Mathias of Hungary, who was 
 then endeavouring to drive the Turks from his 
 borders ; he would have been equally welcome to 
 Ferdinand of Spain, who was occupied in driving 
 the Moors out of Granada ; Ferrante of Naples 
 contended that as he was geographically the 
 natural guardian of the Mediterranean, Djem 
 should be placed in his keeping ; Innocent VIII 
 claimed the custody of him on the ground that, 
 24
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 as Pope, he was the real head and leader of every 
 Crusade. The Grand Master of the Knights of 
 St. John finally decided to send him to France, 
 where he was kept a close prisoner for seven years 
 in one of the strongholds of the Order. About the 
 end of that period, however, the French monarch 
 was badly in want of the Pope's assistance, for 
 only by means of his concurrence would it be 
 possible for the young King Charles VIII to marry 
 Anne of Brittany and secure her duchy. Amongst 
 other conditions which Innocent imposed in return 
 for the granting of this favour was the transference 
 of Prince Djem to the custody of the Vatican. 
 But as this transference could not be accomplished 
 without the consent of the Knights of St. John, 
 Innocent was also obliged to bribe the Grand 
 Master of that Order, Pierre d'Aubusson, by the 
 offer of a cardinal's hat. 
 
 On March 13 all Rome was in a flutter to witness 
 the ceremonial entry of the Pope's strange guest. 
 Prince Djem was received at the city gate by the 
 households of the cardinals, by the magistrates of 
 the city, by Roman nobles and foreign ambassadors, 
 with all the honour and ceremony due to a sovereign. 
 An envoy of Bajazet, who happened to be in Rome 
 at the time, prostrated himself on the ground, and, 
 with tears in his eyes, kissed first the hoof of the horse 
 and then D Jem's foot and knee. But the Turkish 
 prince sat motionless and silent on the white palfrey 
 which had been presented to him by the Pope, and 
 when the formal greetings were over rode sullenly 
 through the crowded streets of Rome, between the 
 
 25
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Prior of Alverina and Franceshetto Cibo, keeping 
 his face closely covered by a veil. Such was the 
 religious prejudice of Charles VIII that during 
 D jem's residence in France he had refused even 
 to see the " infidel," but no such fanaticism pre- 
 vailed at the Court of the Vatican. On the day 
 after his entry into Rome Innocent formally 
 received him in full consistory. The Turkish 
 prince had been carefully instructed by Burchard, 
 the Master of the Ceremonies, to throw himself 
 down before the Pope and observe all the cere- 
 monial proper to such an occasion. But this 
 squat - figured, hawk - nosed, one - eyed little 
 " infidel " haughtily declined to behave in a 
 manner which he thought unbecoming in a follower 
 of the Prophet and a son of the conqueror of 
 Constantinople. He did not kneel, or attempt to 
 kiss the Papal foot, but, after an almost imper- 
 ceptible bow, stepped calmly up to the Pope, 
 turban on head, and bestowed a perfunctory kiss 
 on the Pontiff's right arm. Innocent made him 
 assurances of friendship, promised that his guest 
 should live quite unmolested in Rome, and sent 
 many rich presents of clothes, carpets, hangings, 
 and ornaments to the chambers which had been 
 allotted him in the Vatican. But Djem main- 
 tained his impenetrable reserve ; and during 
 the remainder of Innocent's reign passed the 
 greater part of his time in his apartments, some- 
 times relieving his tedium with literature and 
 music, but indulging freely in alcohol, and mostly 
 dozing away the days with ultra Oriental apathy. 
 26
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Bajazet was quite willing to go on paying a 
 heavy annual tribute to have Djem kept safely 
 where he could do no mischief, but he would have 
 been even more willing to pay a much larger sum 
 down to have the greater security of his brother's 
 death. Knowing, or surmising this, a Roman 
 baron named Cristoforo di Castrano, who had 
 been dispossessed of his lands by Innocent VIII, 
 went to Constantinople and offered his services 
 for the purpose. His scheme, which presumably 
 was considered and approved by Bajazet, would 
 not only have killed Prince Djem, but the Pope 
 and most of his household also, for it consisted in 
 poisoning the well from which the drinking-water 
 of the Vatican was drawn. Fortunately it was 
 discovered in time ; and we can hardly wonder 
 that the miscreant suffered for his intended crime 
 by torture and a peculiarly cruel death. Thence- 
 forth, of course, the daily fear of poison added to 
 the already sufficiently pitiable condition of Djem's 
 existence. Six months later, when Bajazet sent an 
 embassy to the Pope with 120,000 ducats for three 
 years of his brother's maintenance, the ambassador 
 insisted on seeing the Prince, probably only to 
 make sure that he still lived, before paying over 
 the money. The Prince insisted on receiving his 
 brother's envoy in state, seated on an elevated 
 throne, with prelates of the Roman Church on 
 either side of him, and protected by a company of 
 the Palace guards. For further assurance, the 
 ambassador, who had previously been carefully 
 rubbed down with a towel and made to kiss it, was 
 
 27
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 then obliged to prostrate himself thrice before the 
 Prince's throne, and to lick all over, inside and 
 out, a letter he had brought, before Djem would 
 touch it with his fingers. 
 
 All this time the weak and incompetent 
 Innocent VIII had been indulging in most un- 
 apostolical luxury and festivity. He was not the 
 only pope who had been blessed with a family, but 
 he was the first who openly acknowledged them 
 as his own children. He is said to have had a 
 numerous family, but Burchard mentions two 
 only, a son, Franceschetto, and a daughter, Theo- 
 dorina, the marriage festivals of both of whom in 
 1488 were celebrated with great splendour in the 
 Vatican to the scandal of all good pious Catholics. Of 
 Theodorina, who was married to a wealthy Genoese 
 merchant, nothing more need be said. Frances- 
 chetto, who was thirty-five years of age at his 
 father's elevation, though married to a daughter 
 of the magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici and made 
 Lord of Cervetri and Anguillara, remained to the 
 end a mean-spirited fellow without a spark of 
 ambition of any kind. So long as he could obtain 
 money to satisfy his extravagance he was content ; 
 and he had no scruples about the methods by which 
 his money was obtained. As already mentioned, 
 he had made a bargain with the Vice-Chancellor to 
 divide the fines by which criminals were permitted 
 to compound for their felonies. He gambled 
 heavily ; and it is on record that once having lost 
 40,000 ducats in two nights' play at the palace 
 of Cardinal Riario, he went to the Pope and 
 28
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 endeavoured to get it refunded by bringing an 
 accusation of cheating. When Prince Djem came 
 to Rome in 1489 this hopeful son secretly promised 
 to hand the Oriental over to Venice (at a price, 
 of course) as soon as the Pope should die ; and 
 when in September of the following year Inno- 
 cent VIII fell ill and was believed to be dying, 
 Franceschetto hurried from his father's bedside to 
 sieze the Papal treasury and obtain possession of 
 the person of Djem a project, however, which was 
 frustrated by the prompt action of the cardinals 
 and by the Pope's recovery. When at length his 
 father did die on August 1492, the gambler sold 
 his territories of Cervetri and Anguillara to Virginio 
 Orsini for 40,000 ducats, and went off to Florence 
 to live under the protection of his brother-in-law, 
 Piero de' Medici. 
 
 The last few months of Innocent's reign were 
 marked by entertainments and spectacles of more 
 than ordinary splendour. The year opened 
 auspiciously, for on January 2, 1492, Granada 
 surrendered to Ferdinand the Catholic, and the 
 event was celebrated in Rome by illuminations 
 and bonfires and processions and diversions of 
 every kind, including a bull fight, in which five 
 bulls were slain, the first entertainment of its 
 kind which had ever been seen in Rome, and which 
 was the special contribution to the rejoicings of 
 Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. In March the young 
 cardinal, Giovanni de' Medici, not yet seventeen 
 years of age, entered the Eternal City with a degree 
 of pageantry which presaged the magnificence 
 
 29
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 which he was to show after his own accession 
 to the Papacy as Leo X twenty-one years 
 later. In May, Don Ferrantino, son of Alfonso 
 of Calabria, came to Rome to celebrate the recon- 
 ciliation of Naples with the Papacy ; and was 
 entertained by his relation Cardinal Ascanio Sforza 
 with such extravagant splendour that the chronicler 
 Infessura feared a description of it would be found 
 incredible. Towards the end of the same month, 
 an ambassador arrived from Sultan Bajazet bring- 
 ing as a present from his master the head of the 
 very lance which had pierced the side of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ on the Cross. Although it was 
 pointed out that both Paris and Nuremberg 
 claimed to possess already this identical spear- 
 head, Innocent VIII declared for the genuineness 
 of the piece of iron offered him by the Sultan ; 
 and on Ascension Day it was carried in procession 
 to the Vatican, when there was great feasting, 
 and fountains of wine played in the streets through 
 which the precious relic was carried. But all this 
 outside show did not hide the corruption beneath. 
 The Milanese general, Trivulzio, roundly described 
 the Pope as " full of greed, cowardice, and base- 
 ness, like any common knave " ; and Lorenzo 
 de' Medici, in an admonitory letter to his young 
 cardinal son, not unjustly stigmatised Rome as a 
 " sink of iniquity." 
 
 It is important to bear in mind that the per- 
 petual warfare between the five great States, as 
 well as between the other smaller States, of which 
 as yet little mention has been made, was carried 
 30
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 on by means of mercenary troops, for to this 
 significant fact Machiavelli attributed the ultimate 
 ruin of Italy. After the breaking up of the Imperial 
 authority and the consequent division of Italy 
 into a number of separate States, the burghers 
 of the trading Republics and the Popes of Rome, 
 being unaccustomed to the use and exercise of 
 arms, took foreign troops into their pay whenever 
 they had occasion for them. This soon led to the 
 formation of bands of adventurers who were 
 ready to sell their swords to the highest bidder. 
 Amongst the first of these was a company of men- 
 at-arms led by an Englishman, Sir John Hawk- 
 wood, who carried on a number of campaigns in 
 Italy between 1360 and 1394. In the succeeding 
 century the Italians formed similar bands of armed 
 troops amongst themselves, the most eminent of 
 their leaders being Braccio da Montone and 
 Attendolo Sforza. Having no interest but pay 
 and plunder, these men invented a plan of cam- 
 paign to suit themselves. Infantry would have 
 been useless to them except in much larger numbers 
 than they could maintain, and consequently they 
 limited their armies almost exclusively to heavily 
 armed cavalry, one squadron of which was able 
 to rout a whole army of foot before the use of 
 gunpowder revolutionised the practice of warfare. 
 They protracted their campaigns by endless 
 marching and counter- marching ; they seldom 
 killed their opponents ; prisoners of the opposing 
 army were usually dismissed without stipulation 
 or ransom ; when besieging a town they made no 
 
 31
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 dangerous night attacks, and they put up no 
 entrenchments because they feared no sorties ; 
 none of them ever dreamed of such a thing as a 
 winter campaign ; and altogether the soldier's 
 life was made as easy as this system of chess- 
 playing evolutions permitted. Moreover, on the 
 offer of higher pay, almost any one of these con- 
 dottieri was ready to abandon his employer and 
 go over to the enemy. 
 
 Many of these mercenary leaders were men of 
 low origin, whose military ability had raised 
 them to positions of great wealth and power, and 
 whose ambition sometimes led them to endeavour 
 to subjugate for themselves the territories they 
 were employed to conquer for others. Braccio 
 da Montone, one of the most famous of them, 
 usurped the government of Perugia in 1416, and 
 even aspired to found a kingdom. Giacomo 
 Piccinnino, who sprang from a family of butchers 
 in that same town, only failed to establish himself 
 in a lordship of his own because Ferrante of Aragon 
 enticed him to Naples in 1465 and murdered him. 
 Muzio Attendolo Sforza, who was originally a field 
 labourer, became High Constable of the kingdom 
 of Naples ; and his son, Francesco, who succeeded 
 to the command of his troops, having married 
 a daughter of Philippo Maria Visconti, succeeded 
 his father-in-law in the great dukedom of Milan. 
 All of them did not end so fortunately, of course. 
 Francesco Carmagnola, for example, a Piedmontese 
 who began life as a herdsman, having first fought 
 with great success in the pay of the Visconti of 
 32
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Milan, went over in 1426 to the side of Venice, 
 when he defeated the troops of Piccinnino and 
 Sforza, who were fighting on behalf of ^ his old 
 master. He was made commander-in- chief of the 
 Venetian forces, and endowed with many valuable 
 estates. But when, four years later, Sforza 
 defeated him, the suspicions of his employers seem 
 to have been aroused, and after being received in 
 Venice with all due pomp and honour, he was 
 thrown into prison, secretly impeached, sentenced 
 to death, and executed on the Piazza of San Marco, 
 without any reason being publicly assigned by 
 the Council of Ten. Braccio and Attendolo Sforza, 
 who were originally comrades, found it more 
 profitable to separate their men into two com- 
 panies, after which, first in the pay of one State, 
 then of that State's opponents, they carried on 
 in opposition to one another all the wars that 
 were waged in Italy during the first quarter of the 
 fifteenth century. 
 
 The fascinating and profitable trade of con- 
 dottiere had been taken up likewise by several of 
 the minor princes of Italy, by the Montefeltri of 
 Urbino, the Malatesta of Rimini, the Baglioni of 
 Perugia, the Varani of Camerino, the Vitelli of 
 Citta di Castello, and also by the Colonna, the 
 Orsini, the Savelli, and other great barons of Rome. 
 These petty despots turned their vassals into 
 trained men-at-arms, and went roving about the 
 country, fighting now on one side of a quarrel, 
 now on the other, seldom killing any of the other 
 mercenary soldiers opposed to them, but often 
 
 o 33
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 ravaging and plundering the cities and country 
 districts they invaded with much ferocity. 
 
 The principles of statecraft which governed the 
 actions of all these Italian rulers, both small and 
 great, may be found laid down with incomparable 
 clearness and cynicism in the celebrated Principe 
 of Machiavelli. They held that to act honestly 
 and straightforwardly in a public capacity was not 
 only unnecessary, but actually deleterious. A 
 prudent ruler should dissemble and deceive, though 
 always in such a way as to preserve an outward 
 show of goodness. He who played the fox best 
 was always the most successful ; and success was 
 the only test of merit. Political assassination 
 became a common occurrence, and was generally 
 regarded as an allowable way of getting rid of a 
 troublesome enemy. We hear of such expedients 
 being coolly discussed and calmly determined on 
 in the Council of Venice. The spirit of pagan 
 individualism which had been resuscitated by the 
 new learning, and the consequent worship of the 
 virtues of the heroes of antiquity, had begot an 
 intense craving for personal " glory." A man 
 must achieve fame of some sort, no matter by 
 what means. The admiration which successful 
 treachery and brutality excited amongst the 
 Italians of the Renascence is well exemplified by 
 the fact that Machiavelli strongly blames Gianpaolo 
 Baglioni for not having strangled Julius II when 
 that Pope came to visit him in Perugia in 1506. 
 It could not have been piety that restrained him, 
 argues Machiavelli, because the heart of a man 
 34
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 who had cohabited with his sister and murdered 
 many of his other relations must have been without 
 any scruples of that kind ; it can only have been 
 want of courage ; and in the Machiavellian sense 
 this is want of virtue, for, he says, Baglioni must 
 have known that the whole world would have 
 admired such a daring act, and he would conse- 
 quently have acquired immortal " glory." Allied 
 with this spirit, amongst the ruling class especially, 
 there was also a degree of sensuality and lust that 
 is well nigh incredible. Extravagance, luxury, and 
 display, particularly in dress, prevailed every- 
 where, and the example spread from the rich to 
 the middle and even to the lower classes. Gambling 
 was prevalent throughout Italy, both amongst rich 
 and poor. Almost every town framed enactments 
 for its suppression, but with little effect. Sexual 
 immorality was rampant to such a degree that 
 Roberto da Leece, a celebrated preacher, pro- 
 nounced the wickedness of his day to exceed that 
 of the world before the flood. Illegitimate children 
 were not only accounted no disgrace, but in many 
 cases were brought up openly together with a 
 man's legitimate offspring. Enea Silvio Picco- 
 lomini declares in one of his works that most of the 
 rulers of Italy in his day were born out of wedlock, 
 and states that when Pius II came to Ferrara in 
 1459 he was received by seven princes, not one of 
 whom was a legitimate son. Nor was this all. 
 Gianpaolo Baglioni lived in open incest with his 
 sister at Perugia. Sigismondo Pandolfo Mala- 
 testa of Rimini murdered three wives and violated 
 
 35
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 his own daughter. A princess of Ferrara was 
 beheaded for adultery with her step-son. Lorenzo 
 de' Medici publicly carried on for years a liaison 
 with a married lady of Florence. A Doge of 
 Venice, Pietro Mocenigo, at the age of seventy, 
 exhausted himself by indulgence with beautiful 
 captive women from Turkey. And the list might 
 be indefinitely extended. 
 
 This state of things is plainly reflected in the 
 literature and drama of the time, the indecency 
 of which deserves to be stigmatised in the vigorous 
 terms which Macaulay applied to our comic 
 dramatists of the Restoration. Irregular relations 
 between the sexes was the favourite subject ; and 
 it was usually treated with the crudest realism. 
 The Duke of Ferrara and Isabella Gonzaga of 
 Mantua, two of the most estimable characters of 
 their time, seem to have found nothing objection- 
 able in this licentious drama, and were amongst 
 its most prominent supporters. In Rome it was 
 patronised by many of the cardinals ; and during 
 the reign of Alexander VI plays of a character 
 which would not now be tolerated anywhere 
 formed a prominent feature in the festivities of 
 the Papal Court. Several of Machiavelli's letters 
 to his friend, Vettori, are so coarse and obscene 
 that to this day no one has ventured to print 
 them. And Gregorovius says he has seen a manu- 
 script collection of poems, made in the time of 
 Alexander VI, in which a series of epigrams begins 
 with several in praise of the Holy Virgin and 
 then, without a break or any word of warning, 
 36
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 there follow several others devoted to the glorifica- 
 tion of the most famous courtesans of the day, 
 the Queen of Heaven and the votaries of Venus 
 being placed side by side as equally admirable 
 women. In all the cities of Italy the hetairce were 
 very numerous. Infessura estimates the number 
 in Rome in 1490 at over six thousand ; while in 
 Venice and Naples there appear to have been an 
 even larger number. Smaller towns, such as 
 Ferrara, Perugia, and Orvieto published decrees 
 laying more or less severe restrictions on these 
 women, but apparently without much effect. In 
 Rome they enjoyed considerable freedom. The 
 lower class lived in a sort of Ghetto in the Region 
 Ripa, but there were many who lived luxuriously 
 in splendid houses in the best quarters of the 
 city, and were known by such classic names as 
 Diana, Imperia, Olympia, and Penthesilea. Not 
 only laymen but many of the clergy were infected 
 by this prevalent corruption, which in the College 
 of Cardinals first began to be noticeable under 
 Paul II, increased under Sixtus IV and Innocent 
 VIII, reached its culmination under Alexander VI, 
 and was not amended until the middle of the 
 sixteenth century. 
 
 The strange paradox in the psychology of the 
 men of the Italian Renascence is that while they 
 committed the vilest treacheries and other crimes, 
 while they never hesitated to use poison or poniard 
 whenever it suited their personal ends, while 
 they wallowed in what seem to us the most 
 disgusting and obscene orgies, they yet at the 
 
 37
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 same time exhibited a manner of the most polished 
 elegance, and showed an unbounded delight in 
 poetry, eloquence, painting, architecture, music, 
 in everything in fact which is calculated to refine 
 the character and the taste of mankind. Sigis- 
 mondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, is 
 the best known specimen of this type. An able 
 general, as cunning and treacherous as he was 
 brave, dissolute, cruel, and inhuman throughout 
 his whole life, who was burned in effigy by Pope 
 Pius II, who was impeached at Rome for heresy, 
 parricide, incest, adultery, rape, and sacrilege, 
 who murdered three high-born wives on various 
 pretexts one after another, Malatesta always 
 delighted in the society of men of letters and 
 artists ; in his intervals of leisure from fighting 
 he read the Greek and Roman classics with 
 enthusiastic ardour ; and on his return home 
 from Greece brought back with him, as the most 
 precious relic he could find, the bones of the 
 philosopher Gemisthos Plethon, which he housed 
 splendidly in his own city, induced thereto, as the 
 inscription testifies, " by the great love with 
 which he burns for all learned men." His own 
 enduring monument is the magnificent cathedral 
 church of St. Francis at Rimini, which he employed 
 his friend, Leo Battista Alberti, to erect, whereon 
 may still be seen in the sculpture work which 
 adorns every arch his own cipher together with 
 the initials of his beautiful concubine, Isotta degli 
 Atti. 
 
 But if we confined our attention to this strange 
 38
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 and fascinating type of mind we should be apt to 
 paint the morality of the Renascence blacker than 
 it really was. It has been well said that the 
 records of all nations consist mostly of the relation 
 of crimes, because while vice and lawlessness 
 always raise a great commotion, virtue usually 
 goes quietly on her way unnoticed and little heard 
 of. The existence of a widely diffused moral and 
 religious spirit amongst the Italians of the Re- 
 nascence is indicated by the constitution and 
 conduct of the numerous guilds and brotherhoods 
 of the time, whose objects, though mainly secular, 
 were almost invariably associated with charitable 
 and religious aims. Hospitals and asylums for 
 the poor, also, were a marked feature of the period. 
 No other country in Europe could compare with the 
 splendid establishments of this kind which then 
 existed in Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice, and other 
 Italian cities. Moreover, even art itself, which is 
 so generally instanced to prove the predominance 
 of a pagan and unspiritual spirit, might be cited 
 to prove precisely the reverse, for one careful 
 historian has shown that the proportion of religious 
 to classical pictures throughout the fifteenth cen- 
 tury stands in the proportion of twenty to one. 
 Over against the licentious comedies which found 
 such favour at the courts of certain princes and 
 cardinals we must place the pious Lauds and the 
 Sacra Rappresentazione, which were widely popular. 
 The correspondence of Alessandra Strozzi, a noble 
 Florentine lady of the fifteenth century, affords a 
 specimen of a healthy, moral, and religious family 
 
 39
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 life which we are not justified in assuming to have 
 been unique, or even singular. The Note-books of 
 Giovanni Morelli, in which he tells the story of his 
 own life for the guidance of his son, exhibit a 
 specimen, which again we must not assume to 
 have been either unique or singular, of " a model 
 Christian father, whose solicitude for the welfare 
 of his children, both temporal and spiritual, begins 
 with early infancy, and follows them throughout 
 their lives, and even beyond the grave." Another 
 illuminating instance is quoted by Pastor from 
 the Note-book of Giovanni Rucellai (1475-1526), 
 a man who had amassed great wealth in business 
 and was allied by marriage to the Medici family. 
 Towards the end of his honourable career, Rucellai 
 could express himself in the following fine and 
 fervently pious fashion : "I thank God our Lord 
 that He has created me a rational and immortal 
 being ; in a Christian country, close to Rome, 
 which is the centre of the Christian faith ; in Italy, 
 the noblest country in Christendom ; in Tuscany, 
 one of the noblest provinces in Italy ; in Florence, 
 the most beautiful city not only of Christendom, 
 but, by common consent, of the whole world." 
 Then, after thanks for long life and bodily health, 
 he goes on : "I thank him also for success in my 
 business, by which I have been enabled from small 
 beginnings to acquire riches and the confidence of 
 all men ; and that it has been given to me not only 
 to amass wealth honourably, but also to spend it 
 in like manner, which is more difficult than the 
 acquisition of it." " I thank him also," he pro- 
 40
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ceeds, " for an excellent mother, who though only 
 in her twentieth year at the time of my father's 
 death, refused all offers of marriage and devoted 
 herself wholly to her children ; and also for an 
 equally excellent wife, who loved me truly, and 
 cared most faithfully for both household and 
 children ; who was spared to me for many years, 
 and whose death has been the greatest loss that 
 ever has or could have befallen me." This 
 Giovanni Rucellai, it may be added, was also a 
 scholar and a poet, author of two successful 
 tragedies and of some eclogues in imitation of 
 Virgil. 
 
 We have recently been told, with confident 
 iteration, that the self-seeking, the intrigues, the 
 treacheries, the licentiousness, and the admitted 
 crimes of Alexander VI and Cesare Borgia are not 
 to be condemned because such regrettable failings 
 were common to all the princes and prelates of their 
 era, that no higher ideal of life then existed, and 
 that it was impossible for any man in high place 
 to conduct himself much otherwise than they did 
 in the miasmatic moral atmosphere of the time. 
 The answer to this is twofold. In the first place, 
 self-seeking, intrigue, treachery, licentiousness, and 
 crime are to be condemned, whether common or 
 exceptional, and whether exhibited in the fifteenth 
 or the twentieth century. Moreover, it is one 
 thing to find some excuse for a criminal on account 
 of his evil environment, and quite another thing 
 to hold up the greatest criminal of an evil time 
 to our admiration, which is what some of the 
 
 41
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Borgian apologists have done. In the second 
 place, it is not true to say that no man in high 
 place could escape the admittedly prevalent moral 
 contagion of the time. Several instances to the 
 contrary might be given ; but it may suffice to 
 draw attention to the character and career of one 
 secular and one ecclesiastical prince of that day ; 
 to the chivalrous Federigo Duke of Urbino, and 
 to the venerable Cardinal Capranica. 
 
 The secular prince is probably the better known 
 of the two by reason of Dennistoun's " Memoirs 
 of the Dukes of Urbino," and of J. A. Symonds's 
 sympathetic sketch in his " Renaissance in Italy." 
 Federigo's little duchy, only some forty miles 
 square and consisting mainly of bare hillsides and 
 uncultivated ravines, contained a capital and a 
 court to which the young nobles of Italy flocked, 
 both to imbibe culture and manners and to learn 
 the art of war. Federigo was a condottiere by 
 trade, who was excelled as a general by no com- 
 mander of his time, and who, indeed, never lost 
 a battle. He did not confine himself any more 
 than other such generals to the service of any one 
 State, although for many years he remained in 
 the exclusive pay of Naples. He acted like a 
 father to his subjects. When, in time of famine, 
 his avaricious paymaster Alfonso made money out 
 of monopolies of food-stuffs, Federigo filled his 
 granaries with corn and sold it extra cheap to his 
 poor dependents. He looked after the destitute, 
 provided for orphans, and made loans to tem- 
 porarily distressed traders. He was an admirable 
 42
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 scholar, a patron of the arts and of learning ; he 
 formed a fine library, and filled Urbino with 
 priceless treasures of art. At his Court there was 
 no gambling or swearing, but men, and women 
 also, there conversed with intelligence and sobriety. 
 He kept open hall, but took plain food himself, and 
 drank no wine. At his table it was the custom 
 to have books read out, spiritual works in Lent, 
 at other times the famous classics of antiquity. 
 He was sincerely pious, hearing Mass on his knees 
 every morning, and strictly observing the rites 
 of his Church. He was a good husband, a constant 
 friend, without reproach in his relations with 
 women, and he never failed in the strictest obser- 
 vance of good faith, so that once he had given his 
 word everybody knew that he would stand to it 
 under any circumstances. Yet, notwithstanding 
 all these conspicuous virtues, which we are told 
 the Borgia could only have practised at the cost 
 of their ruin, his duchy flourished and stood secure 
 when those of some other perfidious and un- 
 scrupulous princes crumbled away or were over- 
 whelmed. 
 
 The history of the ecclesiastical Prince, of 
 which an all too brief account is to be found in 
 the admirable " History ' of Pastor, is equally 
 illuminating. Domenico Capranica, who was born 
 in the year 1400, from his earliest youth showed a 
 great love of learning ; and after studying civil 
 and canon law at the University of Padua, con- 
 tinued these legal studies with great zeal at 
 Bologna. He was a favourite with all his teachers, 
 
 43
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 and he outstripped all his companions not only 
 in his own special abstruse subjects, but in the 
 study of polite literature also. His modesty was 
 as remarkable as his assiduity ; and throughout 
 the whole of his student life he was never known 
 to take part in merry-makings or festivities even 
 of an innocent character. He received his doctor's 
 cap at the age of one-and-twenty ; and soon 
 afterwards Martin V, who was a friend of his 
 family, made him a clerk of the Apostolic Chamber. 
 His official work caused little interruption of his 
 studies ; and we are told that St. Augustine, 
 St. Jerome, Cassian, and Seneca were his favourite 
 and constant reading. After he had acquitted 
 himself satisfactorily in several difficult matters 
 of negotiation, and distinguished himself both as 
 a leader of the Papal troops and as Governor of 
 Perugia, Martin V raised him to the purple in 
 1430. Unfortunately, before Capranica could go 
 to Rome to receive his hat and ring, Martin V 
 died ; and, as a connection of the Colonna family 
 was obnoxious to the Orsini, who were just then 
 in the ascendant, they were able to prevent his 
 being in Rome for the Conclave. After the election 
 of Eugenius IV, moreover, they managed to pre- 
 judice the new Pope against him so strongly that 
 the dignity of cardinal was denied him. They 
 even plundered his house in Rome, and scattered 
 his precious library. Capranica calmly appealed 
 to the Council then sitting at Basle ; and although 
 in the meantime Eugenius IV deprived him of his 
 benefices and confiscated his patrimony, so that 
 44
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 he was reduced to great poverty, yet when a 
 settlement was effected in his favour two years 
 later, he came to an understanding with Eugenius 
 in a spirit of perfect friendliness. Without losing 
 his independence for a moment, or failing to 
 protest against any measure which he considered 
 unwise or unjust, he fairly won the favour of the 
 previously hostile Pope, and not of the Pope 
 only but of the whole of Rome, so that on the 
 death of Eugenius it was generally expected, or 
 at least generally hoped, that he would be elevated 
 to the Papal Chair. The opposition to the Colonna 
 faction, however, was once more too great, and a 
 poor and scarcely known cardinal ascended the 
 throne as Nicholas V. During the eight years 
 reign of this admirable Pope, Capranica filled 
 important offices and discharged difficult legations 
 with conspicuous success, exhibiting all the time a 
 genuine and ardent devotion to the best interests 
 of the Church. On the death of Nicholas V in 
 1455 it seemed once more as though Capranica 
 would be elevated to the Papacy ; but again there 
 was such a division of parties that Calixtus III 
 was chosen as a stop-gap. During the plague 
 which ravaged Rome in 1456 Capranica alone 
 of the cardinals remained at his post in the infected 
 city ; and he displayed equal courage in another 
 direction by protesting against the extravagance 
 of Calixtus in the endowment of his rapacious 
 and unworthy relations. But the Borgian nephews 
 were too powerful for him ; and his steady refusal 
 to acquiesce in the Pope's appointment of his 
 
 45
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 favourite nephew, Don Pedro Luis, to the duke- 
 dom of Spoleto aroused such bitter animosity that 
 Capranica was forced to retire almost altogether 
 from public life. Yet such was his reputation for 
 piety, for learning, for decision of character, and 
 for political ability, that on the death of Calixtus III 
 in 1458 he would undoubtedly have been elected 
 as the next Pope, with the approbation of every 
 Roman faction as well as of every prince in Italy, 
 but for the lamentable fact that he fell ill of fever 
 at the same time as Calixtus, and died just as the 
 negotiations for his election were in process of 
 being completed. 
 
 His contemporaries are unanimous in testifying 
 that the life of Capranica was that of a saint. 
 Four hours were all that he ever allowed himself 
 for sleep ; immediately after rising he recited 
 the Hours, went to confession, and said or heard 
 Mass ; then, before granting audiences, he regularly 
 devoted several hours to the study of the Fathers. 
 Although he lived in a palace suited to his dignity, 
 luxury and splendour were conspicuous by their 
 absence ; and his own dinner invariably consisted 
 but of one dish. No women were ever permitted 
 to enter his apartments, not even his sister or other 
 relations. He detested court ceremonies, and 
 rebuked those prelates who forsook their churches 
 in order to seek advancement by haunting the 
 Vatican. His own ecclesiastical household con- 
 sisted exclusively of men chosen for their merit, 
 to whom he showed himself more as a father than 
 a master. He was ever sterner to himself than 
 46
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 to others ; and his friends were earnestly requested 
 to point out frankly any faults they might discern 
 in him. Never, even in joke, it is said, would he 
 permit himself to utter a falsehood. He was a 
 lover of learning, and the founder of the first 
 college ever instituted in Rome for the benefit of 
 poor scholars an institution which still exists and 
 bears his name. In this and other ways his 
 liberality and charity were so great that he fre- 
 quently found himself in pecuniary difficulties. 
 After his demise it was found that all his worldly 
 goods had been bequeathed to the Church, for 
 in his view he was not the owner but merely the 
 steward thereof, and therefore not justified in 
 leaving to his relations what properly belonged 
 to the poor. When he died, just eight days after 
 Calixtus III, the Milanese ambassador wrote to 
 his Duke, saying : " The wisest, the most perfect, 
 the most learned, and the holiest prelate whom 
 the Church in our day has possessed is gone from 
 us. His whole life was devoted to the exaltation 
 of the Roman Church. He was the pillar of Italian 
 peace, and a mirror of piety and all sanctity." 
 Had Capranica been elected instead of Calixtus III 
 in 1455, or had a prelate of similar mind and 
 character ascended the Papal throne in 1492 
 instead of Rodrigo Borgia, the subsequent history 
 of Rome and of all Italy would have been a very 
 different story. 
 
 47
 
 II 
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 WHEN the Duke of Ferrara's ambassadors were 
 instructed to learn everything worthy of account 
 n the history of the " illustrious House of Borgia " 
 in order to provide matter for a complimentary 
 oration on the occasion of Lucrezia Borgia's mar- 
 riage to Alfonso d'Este in 1501, those ambassadors 
 wrote to their sovereign saying that after a 
 thorough investigation into the records of that 
 ancient and noble Spanish family they had been 
 able to find nothing worthy of note before the 
 time of Lucrezia's great-uncle, Pope Calixtus III. 
 And, however undiplomatic such a confession 
 may be considered, it was undoubtedly true ; for 
 although the Borgian heralds would have pro- 
 duced with great confidence a complete genealogical 
 tree showing the descent of that family from the 
 old Kings of Aragon, there is really no evidence 
 in support of such a pedigree. The origin of the 
 family is lost in obscurity ; and its name first 
 emerges into the light of history in 1429, when 
 Alonzo de Borja, private secretary and intimate 
 counsellor to Alfonso of Aragon, rendered a signal 
 service to the Holy See by persuading the anti- 
 Pope Clement VIII to lay aside his papal trap- 
 48
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 pings and subside into insignificance as Bishop of 
 Majorca. 
 
 Alonzo de Borja, who was born at Xativa in 
 Valencia in 1378, came of a race remarkable for 
 bodily strength, mental vigour, powerful will, great 
 personal beauty, and pronounced sensuality. He 
 was educated at the University of Lerida, where 
 his abilities won him first a professorship and 
 subsequently a canonry. The young priest was 
 evidently a youth of fair promise, for when the 
 Dominican Vincent Ferrer came on a mission to 
 Valencia that great preacher singled out Borja 
 from the crowd of his assistants and told him he 
 was destined to become the ornament of his house 
 and his country, and would rise to the highest 
 dignity attainable by man. Soon after this young 
 Borja appears to have turned his attention to 
 politics, and to have become private secretary to 
 Alfonso of Aragon, afterwards also King of Naples, 
 in whose service he remained for many years and 
 with whom he lived on terms of intimate friend- 
 ship, rendering great service to the king in re- 
 organising the conquered kingdom of Naples, and 
 taking a prominent part in the most important 
 affairs both of the Church and of the State. In 
 1429 his services in bringing about the resignation 
 of the anti-Pope earned the gratitude of Martin V, 
 who conferred on him the bishopric of Valencia. 
 In 1444 his powers of persuasion were again 
 brought conspicuously into play when he induced 
 Pope Eugenius IV to confirm the crown of Naples 
 to Alfonso I and to legitimise that monarch's 
 
 D 49
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 bastard, Don Ferrante. Shortly after this, in 
 return for his skill as peacemaker between King 
 and Pope, Alonzo de Borja, whose name had now 
 become Italianised into Alfonso Borgia, was raised 
 to the cardinalate. Nothing of any special note 
 is recorded of Cardinal Alfonso Borgia during the 
 succeeding ten years, but in 1455, doubtless as 
 much to his own as to everybody else's surprise, 
 he fulfilled the prediction of St. Vincent Ferrer. 
 
 After the funeral of Nicholas V there were 
 several candidates for the Papacy. At first the 
 tiara seemed destined to descend upon the worthy 
 head of Cardinal Capranica ; but his being a 
 friend and connection of the Colonna brought 
 about such opposition from the Orsini faction that 
 it became advisable to pass him by. Cardinal 
 Bessarion then became the favourite ; but on 
 invincible opposition being raised to the elevation 
 of a bearded Greek to the headship of the Latin 
 Church, the Electoral College was again thrown 
 into confusion. At length, by way of compromise, 
 they agreed upon the Spanish cardinal Borgia, who 
 on April 28, 1455, was proclaimed Pope in the 
 name of Calixtus III. Alfonso Borgia was 
 admittedly a persuasive diplomatist, a man of 
 first-rate business capacity, and a jurist of con- 
 siderable repute ; moreover, unlike the majority 
 of his colleagues in the Curia, he had led a life 
 free from scandal. In handsomeness of person, 
 in energy of body, in strength of will, and in 
 charm of manner, he seems to have been no less 
 gifted than other members of his family. But 
 50
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 in several respects his character stands out in 
 shining contrast with his more celebrated rela- 
 tives. His contemporaries agree in describing 
 him as an old man of honourable and virtuous 
 life. As bishop, and as cardinal, he had declined 
 all other preferment. Pomp and splendour 
 were distasteful to him ; but though austere him- 
 self, he was indulgent to others. Men of letters, 
 who were disappointed to find that he devoted 
 all his energies and all the revenues of the Holy 
 See to the prosecution of a Crusade instead of to 
 the patronage of learning, have charged him with 
 being an enemy to humanistic culture. It would 
 be truer to say that his absorption in other matters 
 caused him to be indifferent to it. But he was by 
 no means devoid of all intellectual interests. He 
 loved to discourse on legal matters, and showed 
 in his old age as great a familiarity with laws and 
 canons as if he were but just fresh from their 
 study in the University. But he was elected, not 
 on account of any mental recommendations, but 
 because in the existing state of parties the other 
 cardinals thought it well to choose a feeble and 
 inoffensive veteran of seventy- seven who in all 
 human probability could not for long occupy the 
 Papal chair. The Orsini faction, however, were 
 unable altogether to smother their impatience and 
 vexation at the failure of one of their family to 
 secure the Papal crown ; and on the day of 
 Calixtus's coronation they broke out into what 
 might easily have become a very disastrous tumult. 
 The ostensible cause of the riot was a quarrel 
 
 51
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 between one of the followers of the Count of 
 Anguillara and one of the Orsini, causing high 
 words and blows amongst the excited crowd, 
 whereupon Napoleone Orsini raised his war-cry, 
 and, having speedily collected 3000 men, threatened 
 to storm the Lateran and drag the offending 
 Anguillara from the sacred edifice, notwithstanding 
 the presence of the Pope himself. Fortunately 
 Cardinal Latino Orsini was able to calm the rage 
 of his infuriated brother, and so prevent the 
 coronation festivities of the feeble old Pope from 
 being stained with bloodshed. After this experience 
 Calixtus did his best to keep the peace between the 
 rival factions in Rome ; and feuds during his reign 
 were certainly somewhat rarer than usual. But 
 his nephews never forgave the Orsini ; and by 
 keeping up a close intimacy with the Colonna they 
 naturally incurred the deadly enmity of that 
 family's hereditary antagonists. 
 
 But, old and feeble as Calixtus was, there were 
 two objects which he pursued with unflagging 
 energy and zeal throughout the three years of his 
 reign. The first was a crusade against the Turks. 
 Almost his first public act was a solemn vow to 
 Almighty God and the Holy Trinity that, " by 
 war, maledictions, interdicts, excommunications," 
 and all other means in his power he would pursue 
 those foes of the Christian name to the death. 
 His ardour in this one absorbing cause left no 
 room for the carrying on of his predecessor's 
 magnificent scheme for the architectural and artistic 
 adornment of Rome. Nicholas V's buildings re- 
 52
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 mained unfinished and the workmen were dis- 
 missed. The few painters who were retained in 
 the city were no longer required to decorate 
 palaces and churches, but were solely employed in 
 colouring standards to be borne against the Infidel. 
 Men of letters found no patronage ; for all the 
 money in the ecclesiastical treasury, all that could 
 be added to it by the lavish sale of indulgences, all 
 that the Pope could raise by the sacrifice of the 
 Papal jewellery, and even by the sale of some of 
 the splendidly bound books of the Vatican library, 
 was devoted to the building of a fleet. And all 
 over Europe his emissaries were despatched in 
 swarms to stir up Christendom to a united effort 
 against the common foe. The energy displayed by 
 this sick and aged Pontiff was amazing ; but in 
 spite of all his exertions, Germany, France, Spain, 
 England, all found reasons satisfactory to them- 
 selves for holding aloof ; and although the heroic 
 John Hunyadi in July 1456 drove Bajazet from 
 the walls of Belgrade, the victory was not followed 
 up by concerted action ; and a golden opportunity 
 was allowed to let slip of sending the Turk bag 
 and baggage out of Europe. 
 
 As Mandell Creighton aptly remarks, the weak- 
 ness of Calixtus III left more permanent results 
 than did his strength ; for the second object to 
 which the energies of the old man were devoted, 
 the aggrandisement of his nephews, was pregnant 
 with momentous consequences to the Church and 
 to Italy. Calixtus was by no means the initiator 
 of Papal nepotism, which had commenced thirty 
 
 53
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 years previously under Martin V, who had so 
 profusely provided his relations with towns and 
 fortresses and estates that the Colonna became 
 petty rulers throughout the greater part of Latium. 
 Neither did he carry his nepotism to such a length 
 as did some of his successors, notably Sixtus IV. 
 Moreover, he was a man of real piety, unosten- 
 tatious, charitable, and attentive to his religious 
 duties ; so that we may readily believe, with 
 Gregorovius, that " could he have foreseen how 
 his blind affection for his nephews was to render 
 the hitherto stainless name of his family a synonym 
 for all infamy in the history of the Church, it is 
 probable that he would rather have banished the 
 sons of his sisters to the darkest dungeons of 
 Spain." 
 
 Calixtus's relations were very numerous ; and 
 many members of the three allied families of 
 Borja, Mila, and Lanol flocked to Rome in hope 
 of advancement. Three nephews in particular, 
 Pedro Luis and Rodrigo Langol, sons of the Pope's 
 sister Isabella, and Luis Juan de Mila, son of 
 Calixtus's sister Catalina, were loaded with dignities 
 and favours of all kinds. Their doting uncle 
 adopted them all, and conferred upon them his 
 own family name, in its Italianised form of Borgia, 
 together with his coat of arms, a red bull on a gold 
 field. Within a month of Calixtus's coronation, 
 Rodrigo de Lanol (now Rodrigo Borgia), a remark- 
 ably handsome, vigorous and fascinating young 
 man of five-and-twenty, was made notary of the 
 Apostolic See ; and a few weeks later was sent off 
 54
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 to Bologna to study jurisprudence, travelling thither 
 in company with his cousin, Luis Juan de Mila 
 (now Luis Juan Borgia), a youth of twenty, who 
 had been appointed governor of that city. As 
 early as February 1456 these two young nephews 
 were secretly made cardinals. Neither of them 
 had done anything to merit the dignity ; and it 
 was so flagrant a violation of Calixtus's promises 
 on his election that he did not venture to publish 
 their elevation until the following September, when 
 nearly every member of the Sacred College had 
 left Rome on account of the heat. In November 
 they were recalled from Bologna, and made their 
 ceremonial entry into Rome. In December Rodrigo 
 was appointed Legate in the March of Ancona, and 
 Luis Juan, Legate of Bologna, both of them being 
 at the same time richly endowed with benefices. 
 In the following year Rodrigo was made Vice- 
 Chancellor, the highest dignity in the Church after 
 that of the Pope, as well as the most important 
 and lucrative office of the Papal Court. Don Pedro 
 Luis, Rodrigo's elder brother, who was the Pope's 
 favourite, preferred a secular career. He was 
 created Duke of Spoleto, appointed Gonfaloniere 
 of the Holy Roman Church, castellan of all the 
 pontifical fortresses, governor of the cities of Terni, 
 Narni, Todi, Rieti, Orvieto, Spoleto, Foligno, 
 Nocere, Assisi, Amelia, Civita Castellana, and 
 Nepi, and in 1457 was also made Prefect of Rome 
 and put in possession of the castle of St. Angelo. 
 These vigorous young Borgian nephews made hay 
 while the sun shone ; and such was their influence 
 
 55
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 with their uncle that any cardinal who showed 
 himself in the least degree opposed to them was 
 promptly got out of the way. Cardinals Capranica, 
 Carvajal and Cusa were sent on distant embassies ; 
 Cardinal Scarampo, much against the grain, was 
 compelled to cruise about the Mgean as admiral 
 of the Papal fleet ; Cardinal Orsini was driven to 
 retire from Rome lest worse should befall him. 
 Most of the others, some from policy, some perhaps 
 from genuine liking, remained on good terms with 
 the temporarily all-powerful Borgia. Adventurers 
 of all kinds, Neapolitans as well as Spaniards, 
 swarmed to Rome and crowded round the wild and 
 splendid Don Pedro Luis, who, though as hand- 
 some and graceful and fascinating as any of his 
 race, was not equally endowed with intellect and 
 energy. These " Catalans," as they were popularly 
 termed, secured every civil post in the city that 
 was worth having ; they were insolent and over- 
 bearing towards the Roman citizens ; and the 
 management of the police, which was entirely in 
 their hands, became so incompetent or so corrupt 
 that robberies and murders in the streets were of 
 common occurrence. The old and sickly Pope, 
 immured in the Vatican, and engrossed with his 
 Crusade, appears to have known nothing of all 
 this, but to have imagined that his trusted nephews 
 were dealing quite satisfactorily with the adminis- 
 trative affairs of Rome. 
 
 One of the fears which had been generally 
 entertained on the election of Calixtus III had been 
 that, in consequence of his long and intimate con- 
 56
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 nection with Alfonso of Aragon, the affairs of the 
 Holy See would be unduly influenced from Naples ; 
 and the Neapolitan king himself doubtless imagined 
 that he would be able to have very much his own 
 way with his former private secretary. But matters 
 fell out quite contrary to this expectation. Alfonso 
 seems to have offended Calixtus at the outset by 
 trying to make terms concerning his obedience. 
 He asked Calixtus to hand over to him the March 
 of Ancona and other territories of the Church, a 
 request which the Pope bluntly refused. He also 
 requested bishoprics in his own dominions for 
 candidates whom Calixtus refused to institute on 
 the ground that they were too young and ignorant. 
 " Let the King of Aragon rule in his own king- 
 doms," said the Pope, " and leave the administra- 
 tion of the Holy See to ourselves." Two other 
 matters also served to inflame the anger of Calixtus 
 against his former friend and patron. Alfonso 
 privately aided Piccinnino when the Pope, in 
 conjunction with Venice, Florence and Milan, was 
 endeavouring to drive that redoubtable condottiere 
 out of central Italy. And, what was even more 
 galling, instead of sending his galleys, which had 
 been partly paid for out of the Church's money, to 
 co-operate with the Papal fleet against the Turks, 
 Alfonso had despatched them against Genoa in 
 furtherance of a private quarrel of his own. In 
 March 1458 the Pope's nephews endeavoured to 
 bring about a reconciliation with Naples, but 
 although out of consideration to them the Pope 
 might have given way, Alfonso had by that time 
 
 57
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 become irreconcilable. Three months later, on 
 June 27, Alfonso of Aragon died. The very next 
 day Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia was made Bishop of 
 Valencia, and Cardinal Luis Juan Borgia, as well 
 as other relatives, received a number of benefices 
 which had been in dispute between the Pope and 
 the late king. But this was not all. Calixtus at 
 once refused to recognise the succession of Alfonso's 
 natural son Ferrante, and declared his intention to 
 recover Naples as a lapsed fief of the Church. The 
 Pope's objection that Ferrante had no right to the 
 throne because he was not even the natural son 
 of Alfonso was a mere pretext, and came with a 
 peculiarly bad grace from the man who had pro- 
 cured Ferrante's legitimation. As the Milanese 
 ambassador pointed out, Calixtus's real motive 
 was the desire to secure the kingdom of Naples for 
 his favourite nephew Don Pedro Luis, whom in 
 his blind fondness he imagined to be a second 
 Julius Caesar. On July 14 the Pope issued a Bull 
 claiming Sicily as a lapsed fief, forbidding its 
 subjects to swear fealty to any pretender to the 
 crown, loosing from their obligation any who had 
 already taken such oath, and summoning all the 
 claimants to Rome. He then commanded Don 
 Pedro Luis to levy troops as a demonstration against 
 Naples. Ferrante was not the sort of man to sit 
 still while this sort of thing was going in. The 
 messengers who brought the Papal Bull into his 
 dominions were seized and beaten ; and a congress 
 was immediately summoned at Capua at which the 
 Neapolitan barons were called upon to rally round 
 58
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 him and repel the Pope's pretensions. Fortunately 
 for Ferrante, he was at once acknowledged as king 
 by Duke Sforza of Milan and by Cosmo de' Medici 
 of Florence, who united in his support out of 
 fear both of the pretensions of the Pope and of the 
 King of France. Nevertheless, a disastrous war 
 would inevitably have ensued but for the death of 
 Calixtus III in the following month. One of his 
 last acts, whilst lying on his death-bed, was to 
 bestow the vicariate of Terracina and Benevento 
 on his beloved nephew Don Pedro Luis, those two 
 cities having indisputably reverted to the Holy 
 See on the demise of Alfonso I. Except for his 
 deplorable nepotism, Calixtus III was not a bad 
 Pope ; and he deserves high praise for the energy 
 and perseverance of his resistance to the Turkish 
 power, a matter the importance of which to 
 Western civilisation he alone of all the potentates 
 of Italy seemed adequately to realise. 
 
 Anticipating great disorder in Rome as soon as 
 the dying Pope's end should be announced, the 
 Sacred College took measures to deal with it in 
 time. A Commission of four of its members was 
 appointed for the purpose, who first occupied the 
 Capitol with a force of two hundred troops, and 
 then proceeded to treat with Don Pedro Luis. 
 This splendid but not over-brave cavalier, seeing 
 that it would be unsafe for him to remain in Rome 
 after the Pope's death, surrendered to them the 
 castle of St. Angelo and the other fortresses of 
 which he was castellan, in consideration of receiving 
 in advance a sum of 22,000 ducats to which he 
 
 59
 
 would become entitled under his uncle's will. The 
 Orsini, who bore him deadly enmity, had already 
 begun to take up arms, and they watched every 
 road to prevent his escape. But in the sheltering 
 darkness of the night of August 5 his brother 
 Rodrigo and Cardinal Barbo smuggled him out of 
 the city, when, although he was already so dis- 
 credited as well as detested that the escort of 
 soldiers with which his protectors had provided 
 him refused to accompany him any further than 
 the Porta del Popolo, he managed to make his 
 way unmolested to Ostia, whence he took boat to 
 Civita Vecchia. Next day Calixtus III died ; and 
 the Orsini immediately plundered the houses of all 
 the Borgia and their detested " Catalans." Don 
 Pedro Luis did not long survive his fall. Six 
 months later he was seized with fever, and died at 
 Civita Vecchia, when all his wealth went to swell 
 the already abundant resources of his brother 
 Rodrigo. The two cardinal nephews seem to have 
 been unmolested ; but shortly after his uncle's 
 death Cardinal Luis Juan Borgia retired to his 
 distant diocese of Lerida, and notwithstanding the 
 subsequent rise of his family to the highest pinnacle 
 of power in Italy he remained there quietly until 
 his death nearly fifty years afterwards. 
 
 In August 1458 there were several candidates 
 for the chair of St. Peter, but a first scrutiny at 
 once reduced the number to two, the wealthy 
 Estouteville, Cardinal-Archbishop of Rouen, who 
 looked upon his election as a certainty, and the 
 subtle and brilliant but poor and powerless Enea 
 60
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 Silvio Piccolomini, Cardinal of Siena. On the 
 second scrutiny, however, it appeared that Piccolo- 
 mini had more votes than Estouteville, although 
 not the minimum majority necessary for his 
 election. For awhile the whole conclave sat pale 
 and silent, no one on either side venturing to open 
 his mouth, until at length the young Vice-Chancellor 
 Borgia arose and said, " I accede to the Cardinal of 
 Siena." His example, being promptly followed by 
 others, not only placed Piccolomini on the Papal 
 throne, but likewise placed Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia 
 high in favour with the new Pontiff, who was 
 forthwith proclaimed as Pius II. 
 
 Little is known of the public life of Cardinal 
 Rodrigo Borgia during the thirty-four years covered 
 by the reigns of the four Popes who followed his 
 uncle Calixtus III ; but he was certainly more or 
 less in favour with all of them, for he not only 
 retained the numerous lucrative posts and benefices 
 with which he had already been loaded, but added 
 considerably to their number. In 1462 we hear of 
 him as engaged in the superintendence of the fine 
 buildings with which Pius II was adorning his native 
 city of Siena ; and in the same year it is recorded 
 that he gave an exhibition of his wealth and 
 magnificence by outdoing all the other cardinals 
 in the splendour of his pageant on the occasion 
 of the Pope's visit to Viterbo. Pius had ordained 
 a grand ceremonial observance of Corpus Christi 
 Day ; and each cardinal undertook the decoration 
 of part of the road to the cathedral. One cardinal 
 gave a representation of the Last Supper ; another 
 
 61
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 of a choir of angels ; another of a dragon surrounded 
 by demons, whose head was cut off by the descend- 
 ing Archangel Michael at the moment the Pope 
 passed by. But Cardinal Borgia's pageant eclipsed 
 them all. He had erected a large purple tent 
 across the road leading to the cathedral. When 
 the Pope approached, two angels advanced and 
 knelt in reverence to the Host, which was carried 
 by his Holiness ; then, turning towards the tent, 
 they sang, " Lift up your heads, O ye gates, that 
 King Pius, lord of the world, may come in." On 
 this, five kings, accompanied by a band of armed 
 men, came out to bar his entrance, crying, " Who 
 is King Pius ? " Then the angels shouted in 
 reply, " The Lord strong and mighty ! " whereupon 
 the curtain fell, and the kings with their troops 
 knelt before the Pope, singing songs to his honour 
 to the accompaniment of a band of musicians. 
 
 When Pius II died two years later at Ancona, 
 whither he had gone to stir up enthusiasm for 
 his crusade against the Turk, Cardinal Rodrigo 
 Borgia, who had accompanied the Holy Father, 
 was also stricken with fever. On his return to 
 Rome he appeared in the Conclave with his head 
 bound up ; and on account of his indisposition he 
 was unable to perform the ceremony of crowning 
 Pietro Barbo, who was unanimously elected Pope 
 on August 30, 1464, and proclaimed as Paul II. 
 Cardinal Borgia appears to have retained the favour 
 of Paul II throughout the seven years of his reign, 
 but his name does not come into prominence until 
 on the sudden death of Paul in 1471 he was able 
 62
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 once more to take the initiative in a Papal election. 
 Bessarion, the Greek, for the second time in his 
 life, became the favourite candidate, his age, 
 which was verging on seventy, rendering him all 
 the more acceptable as being likely to lead to 
 another vacancy within a short time. But Rod- 
 rigo Borgia, backed by the Cardinals Orsini and 
 Gonzaga, set up a competitor in the person of 
 Francesco della Rovere, a man of low birth but 
 high character and great learning ; and they 
 succeeded in carrying their candidate, who was 
 duly crowned on August 25 in the name of Sixtus IV. 
 Delia Rovere's supporters, of course, looked for 
 their appropriate rewards ; and to Rodrigo Borgia's 
 share fell the rich abbey of Subiaco. The Pope, 
 following in the footsteps of his predecessors, urged 
 upon Christendom the duty of a united war against 
 the Turk, for which purpose Barbo was sent as 
 Legate to Germany, Bessarion to France, and 
 Borgia to Spain. None of them met with any 
 success as regards the special object of their 
 mission ; but Rodrigo Borgia seized the oppor- 
 tunity to display himself magnificently in his native 
 Valencia, and to form connections with the Spanish 
 court which were afterwards useful to him. After 
 an absence of about fifteen months he made his 
 will and set out on his return journey to Rome on 
 September 11, 1473. Off the coast of Pisa his 
 galleys encountered a fearful storm which sank 
 one of them. Property to the value of 30,000 
 florins was lost, and more than two hundred persons 
 of his suite, including three bishops, were drowned. 
 
 63
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 The galley in which the Cardinal Legate travelled 
 only narrowly escaped the same fate ; and one 
 may perhaps be permitted to wonder whether it 
 would not have been much better for Italy and 
 the Roman Church if this vessel had foundered 
 instead of the other. During the following ten 
 years little is recorded of Cardinal Rodrigo, except 
 that he completed the building of his huge Palazzo 
 Borgia, which soon became celebrated as one of 
 the finest palaces in Italy, and which he adorned 
 with sumptuous furniture, costly tapestries and 
 carpets, with marvels of artistic workmanship in 
 gold, silver and bronze, with fine specimens of 
 antique statuary, superb armour, gorgeous plate, 
 fine books, and in fact with every splendid luxury 
 within the reach of the wealthiest prince of ths 
 time. 
 
 On the death of Sixtus IV in 1484 Cardinal 
 Rodrigo Borgia, then fifty-three years of age, 
 Vice-Chancellor of the Church, and possessed of 
 enormous wealth from the revenues of his numerous 
 benefices, thought himself so secure of election 
 that he had his palace barricaded to prevent that 
 pillage by the mob which always took place on 
 such occasions. But he had miscalculated the 
 strength of his support ; and after the first scrutiny 
 he and his bitter rival, Cardinal Juliano della 
 Rovere, united their forces in order to prevent the 
 election of the Venetian cardinal, Barbo, and to 
 secure that of the Genoese cardinal, Cibo, who on 
 August 29 was proclaimed as Innocent VIII. 
 During the eight years of Innocent's pontificate 
 64
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia seems to have occupied 
 himself mainly in husbanding his wealth and con- 
 solidating his friendships in preparation for the 
 next struggle. 
 
 Of Rodrigo Borgia's private life during the 
 period of his cardinalate the details, though meagre, 
 are illuminating. Our first glimpse of it is afforded 
 by an admonitory letter in which his friend Pius II 
 reproved him for dissolute conduct in Siena in the 
 summer of 1460. Pius had learned that Borgia, in 
 company with another ecclesiastic, had spent five 
 hours at a bacchanalian orgy in a certain private 
 garden in Siena to which had been invited a number 
 of ladies of questionable character. Shame forbids 
 mention of all that took place, says the Pope, but 
 he mentions that wanton dancing was a prominent 
 feature of the entertainment, that no amorous, 
 allurements were lacking, and that the husbands, 
 fathers, brothers and other kinsmen of the young 
 women and girls were not invited to be present 
 in order that there might be no restraint. Such 
 conduct displeased the Pope beyond words ; and 
 Borgia was not only admonished to remember that 
 as bishop of the premier see in Spain, as cardinal, 
 and as Vice-Chancellor of the Church, it behoved 
 him to be above reproach and exhibit an example 
 of right living in the sight of all men ; but he was 
 also informed pretty plainly that should such a 
 scandalous exhibition occur again he would have 
 to be rebuked in a more open and peremptory 
 manner. However indisposed the libidinous cardinal 
 may have been to curb his insatiable sensuality, we 
 
 E 65
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 may assume, in the absence of any evidence to the 
 contrary, that he gave no further public and 
 ostentatious examples of it at any rate during the 
 lifetime of Pius II. But everybody knew that 
 Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia thought little of his 
 priestly vow of chastity. A contemporary historian, 
 Gasparino of Verona, describes him as " a handsome 
 man, with a pleasant look and a honeyed tongue, 
 who lures women to love him, and attracts those 
 on whom he casts his eyes more powerfully than 
 the magnet draws iron." At least half a dozen of 
 his children were openly acknowledged as such. 
 Of his eldest son, Pedro Luis, born of an unknown 
 mother about 1460, little more is known than that 
 after being educated as befitted the son of a prince, 
 his father's wealth and influence in Spain procured 
 for him the dukedom of Gandia ; that the young 
 Duke distinguished himself as a soldier in the war 
 against the Moors in Granada ; and that when he 
 died, at the age of thirty or thereabout, he was 
 betrothed to a princess of the royal House of 
 Aragon. Even more meagre is our information 
 concerning a daughter, named Girolama, who was 
 born, either of the same or of another unknown 
 mother, in 1467, and who at the age of fifteen was 
 married to Don Giovandrea Cesarini, a scion of one 
 of the baronial houses of Rome. And there was 
 another daughter, named Isabella, who was married 
 in 1483 to a Roman noble named Mattuzi. 
 
 But in addition to these children, Cardinal 
 Rodrigo Borgia had four others who were all the 
 offspring of a Roman lady named Vanozza de 
 66
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 Catanei ; namely, Giovanni, born in 1474 ; Cesare, 
 born in 1475 or 1476 ; Lucrezia, who was born 
 (most probably) in 1480; and Giuffre, who was 
 born in 1481. Who and what manner of woman 
 Vanozza de Catanei was is almost entirely a matter 
 of conjecture. No authentic portrait of her exists, 
 nor has her appearance been described by any of 
 her contemporaries. We may confidently assume 
 that she was of more than ordinary beauty, or she 
 would not have attracted Rodrigo Borgia. We 
 may also confidently assume, with Gregorovius, 
 that although perhaps of no great culture, she 
 must have been a woman of some intellectual as 
 well as physical vigour, or she would not have 
 retained the Cardinal's affection so long as she 
 did. At what date the connection began is also 
 a matter of conjecture. Some historians have 
 endeavoured to fix it at about the year 1460; but 
 a consideration of all the evidence available seems 
 to render it much more probable that the liaison 
 did not begin before 1473, after Cardinal Rodrigo 
 Borgia's return from his legation to Spain, when 
 he was forty-two years of age and Vanozza thirty- 
 one. In 1480 we hear of her as living in a house 
 on the Piazza, Branca, not far from the Borgia 
 palace, and known as the wife of Giorgio Croce, a 
 Milanese for whom Cardinal Rodrigo had obtained 
 a post as Apostolic secretary. There appears to 
 have been little secrecy concerning Borgia's rela- 
 tions with her, and her four children already 
 mentioned were openly acknowledged, brought 
 up, and educated as the Cardinal's own. When, 
 
 67
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 however, Vanozza's husband, Giorgio di Croce, died 
 early in 1486, the Cardinal's ardour seems to have 
 cooled ; for, having already provided her with 
 ample means of subsistence, he married her off in 
 June of the same year to a Mantuan named Carlo 
 Canale ; and then, after the manner of his kind, 
 entered into more intimate relations with younger 
 women. 
 
 What influence Vanozza was allowed to have in 
 the rearing and education of her children does not 
 appear. They all evidently remained on very good 
 terms with her to the end of their lives ; and the 
 inscription on her tombstone shows that she was 
 proud of her distinguished progeny. But Lucrezia 
 at least was removed from her care in early child- 
 hood, and brought up under the tuition of Cardinal 
 Rodrigo's cousin, Adriana da Mila, widow of 
 Ludovico Orsini, who lived with her only son, 
 Orsino Orsini, a boy some seven years older than 
 Lucretia, in the Orsini palace on Monte Giordano. 
 The kind of woman Madonna Adriana was, and the 
 pernicious influence she was likely to exercise on 
 the character of the young girl committed to her 
 charge, may be judged of from her conduct in 
 another matter. Her son Orsino had been be- 
 trothed before the death of his father to Giulia 
 Farnese, youngest daughter of Pierluigi Farnese, 
 who also, like the boy's father, had since died. 
 On May 21, 1489, when Giulia was barely fifteen, 
 and Orsino probably not more than a year older, 
 the young couple were duly married in the Palazzo 
 Borgia, amidst great splendour and rejoicing. 
 68
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 Young girls develop early under Italian skies, and 
 the golden- haired Giulia, probably at that time in 
 the full bloom of her marvellous beauty, aroused 
 the passions of Cardinal Borgia, who, though close 
 upon sixty years of age, brought into play those 
 fascinating manners and seductive arts for which 
 he was so famous, with the result that Giulia soon 
 became his acknowledged mistress. Of course this 
 could never have happened but for the concurrence 
 and connivance of Madonna Adriana, whose assist- 
 ance in this and other equally shameful proceedings 
 of her powerful kinsman made her his intimate 
 confidant, and consequently one of the most 
 influential women in Rome. 
 
 Venozza's three sons were brought up and 
 educated as the sons of a prince. When Pedro 
 Luis Borgia died, about the year 1488, his duchy 
 of Gandia devolved upon Vanozza's eldest son 
 Giovanni, then a lad of fourteen, who was promptly 
 sent off to Spain to take possession of his inheritance. 
 Cesare, her second son, was intended by his father 
 for an ecclesiastical career. In 1480, when the 
 child was four or five years of age, his father 
 obtained for him from Sixtus IV a dispensation 
 relieving him from the necessity of proving his 
 legitimacy, a relief which was necessary in order to 
 make him eligible for the ecclesiastical benefices 
 which it was the Cardinal's intention to procure 
 for him. Two years later his father was made 
 administrator of all the benefices which should be 
 conferred on the said Cesare Borgia until he 
 reached the age of fourteen. Shortly after that 
 
 69
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Cardinal Rodrigo was able to make his son a canon 
 of Valencia. In 1484, when the boy was eight or 
 nine, he received also the post of treasurer of the 
 cathedral of Cartagena. In 1488 or thereabouts he 
 was sent to the University of Perugia, where, if 
 we may believe the laudations of Paolo Pompilio, 
 the maturity of his intellect and his rapid progress 
 in learning astonished everybody. A few years 
 later he was transferred to the University of Pisa, 
 where he lived in princely style, and amongst 
 other advantages was brought into friendly rela- 
 tions with some of the Medici. The youngest son, 
 Giuffre, was also apparently intended for the 
 Church, although eventually his father made a 
 Neapolitan prince of him instead. When he was 
 about ten years of age we hear of his being made 
 canon and archdeacon of Valencia. Spain was 
 naturally Cardinal Borgia's happy hunting-ground ; 
 and in February of this same year 1491 a contract 
 of betrothal was entered into on behalf of his 
 daughter Lucrezia, then barely eleven years of age, 
 and Don Cherubino Juan de Centelles, a youthful 
 brother of the Count of Oliva. Before the year 
 was out, however, some unknown change had taken 
 place in the plans of Lucrezia's father, for the 
 betrothal to Don Cherubino was annulled and 
 another betrothal made instead to Don Gasparo, 
 son of the Count of Aversa, a boy of fifteen then 
 being educated in Valencia. This contract like- 
 wise was annulled in its turn ; for although the 
 marriage of a Cardinal's bastard into the old and 
 proud nobility of Spain was as brilliant a match 
 70
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 as even her rich and haughty father could then 
 have aspired to, but a few months later Rodrigo 
 Borgia ascended the Papal throne, and then, of 
 course, he immediately began to cast about for a 
 more splendid as well as a more politically useful 
 alliance. 
 
 On July 25, 1492, died Innocent VIII, after an 
 inglorious reign of seven years. There were several 
 candidates for the Papacy, notably Ascanio Sforza, 
 Lorenzo Cibo, Rafael Riario, Rodrigo Borgia and 
 Giuliano della Rovere ; but to all intents and 
 purposes the contest lay between Borgia and 
 Rovere. The election of Rovere was ardently 
 desired by Charles VIII of France, who lodged 
 200,000 ducats in a Roman bank to further his 
 protege's candidature. But Ascanio Sforza, who 
 was bitterly opposed to Giuliano della Rovere, 
 sank his own pretensions and worked hard for the 
 election of Rodrigo Borgia. Both candidates openly 
 and shamelessly promised benefices and money in 
 return for votes ; and in this traffic, Borgia, who 
 was by far the richest cardinal in the Church, 
 eventually carried the day. To Cardinal Colonna 
 he promised the rich abbacy of Subiaco, with all 
 its surrounding villages, in perpetuity ; to Cardinal 
 Orsini, the two fortified towns of Monticelli and 
 Soriano, together with the Legation of the Marches 
 and the bishopric of Cartagena ; to Cardinal 
 Savelli, the town of Civita Castellana and the 
 bishopric of Majorca ; to Cardinal Pallavicini, the 
 bishopric of Pamplona ; to Cardinal Michiel, the 
 suburban bishopric of Porta, with the tower and 
 
 71
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 furniture thereof, including amongst other desirable 
 things a cellar full of good wine ; Cardinals Sola- 
 fenati, Sanseverino, Riario Rovere and Domenico 
 Rovere each received several valuable benefices ; 
 the Patriarch of Venice, Fra Gheraldo, a man 
 ninety-five years of age, who had but just been 
 made cardinal, was given 5000 golden ducats in 
 cash ; whilst to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza were 
 promised the bishopric of Erlau, which had a 
 revenue of 10,000 ducats, the castle of Nepi, the 
 princely Palazzo Borgia, and the high and lucrative 
 office of Vice-Chancellor. Moreover, shortly before 
 entering the Conclave, Cardinal Borgia sent round 
 to Cardinal Sforza's palace four mules laden with 
 silver plate, ostensibly for safe keeping until the 
 usual pillage was over, but, as was generally 
 believed, with the private understanding that it 
 need not be returned in the event of Borgia's 
 election. Some apologists have recently ventured 
 to deny the simoniacal character of Alexander VTs 
 election ; but the evidence of it is overwhelming. 
 
 Late in the night of August 10, or rather in the 
 early hours of the following morning, Rodrigo 
 Borgia heard his election announced. Unable to 
 express his elation, he is reported to have exclaimed 
 jubilantly, " Am I, then, Pope and Vicar of Christ ? " 
 whereupon Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, who had been 
 mainly instrumental in securing that result in 
 return for the emoluments already enumerated, 
 expressed his conviction that the election had been 
 the work of God, who had chosen the worthiest of 
 his brethren to fill the chair of St. Peter. The 
 72
 
 THE RISE OF THE BORGIA 
 
 newly elected Pope replied that he was conscious 
 of his own weakness and unworthiness, but that 
 he hoped for the same divine assistance as had 
 been given to the Apostle, and that he was unfeign- 
 edly desirous of following the dictates of the 
 Holy Spirit. Notwithstanding such expressions of 
 humility, however, it was noticed that he made 
 unusual haste to don his pontifical vestments, and 
 that he instructed the Master of the Ceremonies 
 to write his name on small slips of paper and throw 
 these from the window in order that his elevation 
 might be made known as soon as possible to the 
 waiting crowd outside. The mob, of course, first 
 rushed off to pillage the palace of the new Pope, 
 and then swarmed back to St. Peter's to receive 
 his blessing. Many thought that he would take 
 the name of Calixtus, out of compliment to the 
 uncle to whose favour all his wealth and greatness 
 were due. But when this suggestion was made he 
 answered haughtily, " We desire to be known by 
 the name of the invincible Alexander." 
 
 78
 
 Ill 
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 ALTHOUGH the Papal throne had been put up to 
 auction and sold to the highest bidder, the election 
 of Rodrigo Borgia, though not generally expected, 
 seems to have been generally acceptable, both at 
 home and abroad. If Ferrante of Naples really 
 shed the tears which Giucciardini reports, and if 
 the youthful Cardinal de' Medici really whispered 
 to Cardinal Cibo that they were in the jaws of a 
 wolf and would have to flee or be devoured, those 
 two notabilities were either exceptionally sagacious 
 or, as is more probable, exceptionally apprehensive 
 for personal reasons of their own. The new Pope, 
 who was sixty years of age, had as yet shown 
 nothing of those dark traits in his character which 
 were to beget the loathing of his contemporaries 
 and make his name a byword for infamy to suc- 
 ceeding generations. He was generally admitted 
 to be the most capable as well as the most ex- 
 perienced member of the Sacred College. One 
 contemporary describes him as an accomplished 
 man with a thorough knowledge of business ; 
 another speaks of his aptitude for finance ; yet 
 another of his robust body, vigorous mind, dignified 
 manners, and acquaintance with court ceremonies. 
 74
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 He is described as tall, powerfully built, with an 
 imposing presence, and dark, lively, penetrating 
 eyes ; as eloquent in speech, fascinating in manner, 
 and endowed with a degree of bodily health capable 
 of enduring endless fatigue ; in fact, as possessing 
 in an eminent degree all the qualities necessary for 
 a distinguished temporal ruler, which seems to 
 have been all that was then looked for in the head 
 of the Church. Most of the Italian States sent 
 dutiful, and apparently genuine, expressions of 
 their loyalty to the Holy Father. Venice, it is 
 true, made no secret of her displeasure ; but on 
 the other hand Florence rejoiced with the ringing 
 of bells, and in Milan the gratification of Ludovico 
 Sforza was shown by public festivities and illumina- 
 tions. The Romans exhibited every sign of pleasure 
 and approbation. On the night of Alexander's 
 elevation the magistrates of the city rode in pro- 
 cession by torchlight to the Vatican to do him 
 homage; and a fortnight later the cardinals and 
 nobles, little dreaming how soon so many of them 
 were to fall victims to the rapacity of their new 
 Pontiff, vied with one another in the splendour of 
 their dresses and decorations on the day of his 
 coronation. Triumphal arches and altars and 
 statues and pictures decorated the streets. The 
 most extravagant adulation was expressed by 
 allegorical devices and processions, by addresses 
 and inscriptions, and by ingenious mythological 
 applications of the bull of the Borgian arms. The 
 populace enthusiastically acclaimed the elevation 
 of the most princely of the cardinals, whose 
 
 75
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 appearance and demeanour gave promise of a 
 more than ordinarily splendid reign. And the 
 humanistic writers of the time joined in the general 
 chorus of praise and flattery. One of these, after 
 enumerating the seven hundred priests and car- 
 dinals with their retinues, the dazzling cavalcades 
 of knights and nobles, the troops of archers and 
 horsemen, the Papal guards with long lances and 
 glittering shields, the twelve riderless horses with 
 golden bridles, and all the rest of the pomp and 
 parade which filled the streets of Rome when 
 Alexander made his ceremonial passage to the 
 Lateran, breaks out into almost lyrical rapture 
 when he comes to describe the Pope himself. The 
 majestic Borgia, we are told, seated upon a milk- 
 white horse, rode along, serene of countenance 
 and of surpassing dignity, bestowing his blessing 
 upon the crowd, and filling every heart with joy. 
 And not only were the mild composure of his 
 mien, the frankness of his glance, the nobleness of 
 his face, regarded as of good augury, but the beauty 
 and vigorous health of his body also, we are assured, 
 enhanced the reverence which he inspired. In 
 similar strain, another contemporary historian, 
 Gasparino of Verona, declares that not only Alex- 
 ander's broad forehead and majestic countenance, 
 but the heroic beauty of his whole body also 
 was given him by nature in order that he might 
 " adorn the seat of the Apostles with his divine 
 form in place of God." It is highly significant of 
 the morality of the period that no mention was 
 made by anybody of the well- enough-known irregu- 
 76
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 larities of Rodrigo Borgia's private life ; although, 
 curiously enough, a good deal of indignation soon 
 manifested itself concerning the bribery by means 
 of which he had won his election. 
 
 In the early months of his Pontificate, Alexander 
 showed himself a vigorous and capable ruler. 
 There was indeed need of a strong hand ; for 
 during the month which had elapsed between 
 Innocent's death and his successor's coronation no 
 less than 220 assassinations had been perpetrated 
 in the streets of Rome. Besides putting an end to 
 this sort of thing by exemplary severity, the new 
 Pope also recommended himself by more regular 
 payment of official salaries, by moderating the 
 prices of food in the markets, and by various other 
 ordinances making for the quiet and contentment 
 of his people. He had promised to effect reforms 
 in the Curia, to get rid of certain tyrannical 
 officials, to make none but worthy appointments, 
 and to keep his sons far away from Rome ; thus 
 creating a very good impression, and justifying 
 the Ferrarese ambassador's report to his master 
 that Alexander was generally expected to prove 
 " a glorious Pontiff." But all the Pope's good 
 intentions, if good intentions he really did entertain 
 at this time, came to speedy shipwreck through his 
 ardent desire to aggrandise his own kith and kin. 
 On the day of his coronation he conferred on his 
 son Cesare the archbishopric of Valencia, one of 
 the most considerable of the benefices which he had 
 enjoyed during his own cardinalate. A few days 
 later, his nephew Giovanni, son of his sister Juana 
 
 77
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 de Lan9ol, received a cardinal's hat. Shortly after- 
 wards another nephew became the Pope's equerry, 
 while a third was made captain of the palace 
 guard. As early as November the Ferrarese 
 ambassador who three months previously had 
 prognosticated a model Papacy was constrained 
 to write home saying that " ten Papacies would 
 never suffice to satisfy such a swarm of relations." 
 And this was merely a beginning ; for in the course 
 of his reign Alexander promoted more than thirty 
 persons bearing his name to spiritual or secular 
 appointments in the service of the Holy See. 
 
 Family alliances which had seemed advantageous 
 enough for the children of the Cardinal no longer 
 satisfied the ambition of the Pope, who promptly 
 annulled the contract of marriage between his 
 daughter Lucrezia and Don Caspar da Procida. 
 While he was casting about for some suitor of 
 higher degree, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, whose 
 influence with a Pope of his own making was 
 naturally very great, brought forward a kinsman 
 of his own in the person of Giovanni Sforza, Lord 
 of Pesaro. Giovanni himself, a young widower, 
 some six-and-twenty years of age, was eager enough 
 for the alliance because, apart from questions of 
 dowry and other advantages, he being an illegiti- 
 mate son and only recognised as his father's heir 
 by the indulgence of the two previous Popes, it 
 would render his position as a Romagnian despot 
 more secure. Cardinal Ascanio desired it because, 
 great as his influence in the Vatican was at the 
 moment, he had had experience enough to know 
 78
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 that it might require buttresses in the future, 
 Ludovico Sforza desired it because it was of the 
 greatest importance to him to have the Pope on 
 his side in the struggle for his usurped duchy which 
 he was carrying on with Naples ; and Alexander 
 on his part was equally desirous of a family connec- 
 tion with the powerful ruler of Milan. A betrothal 
 was duly made accordingly ; nobody, of course, 
 thinking it at all necessary to consider the inclina- 
 tions of the young lady herself. 
 
 Shortly before this, Ferrante of Aragon had sent 
 his second son, Federigo, to Rome, to profess his 
 obedience and to persuade the Pope to an alliance 
 with Naples. But although Ferrante's proposals 
 had been warmly supported by Cardinal Giuliano 
 della Rovere and several other cardinals, Federigo 
 returned home without any success. The Pope had 
 been aggrieved by Virginio Orsini's purchase of 
 Cervetri and Anguillara from Franceschetto Cibo, 
 with money advanced, as was generally suspected, 
 by King Ferrante ; and when Virginio, who was 
 commander-in-chief of the Neapolitan army, occu- 
 pied these cities with his troops, Alexander naturally 
 enough became still more uneasy. His anger 
 against Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, who had 
 favoured this arrangement^was so manifest that 
 towards the end of 1492 the Cardinal, feeling him- 
 self unsafe in Rome, retired to his impregnable 
 fortress of Ostia. Ferrante was now greatly dis- 
 turbed at the prospect of a family alliance between 
 the Houses of Borgia and Sforza. He sent Federigo 
 once more to Rome ; and even listened favourably 
 
 79
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 to a proposal that he should give his daughter in 
 marriage to the Pope's son Giuffre. But the 
 negotiations came to nothing. The Sforza interest 
 was for the moment all-powerful at the Vatican ; 
 and on April 25, 1493, a league was announced 
 between the Pope, Ludovico Sforza, Venice, 
 Ferrara, and Mantua, one of the first results of 
 which was the despatch of troops by both Milan 
 and Venice to aid the Pope in driving Virginio 
 Orsini out of Cervetri and Anguillara. The King 
 of Naples thereupon complained to the court of 
 Spain that the Pope was stirring up strife in Italy. 
 It was certainly a case of the pot calling the kettle 
 black ; but this cruel and crafty old monarch was 
 a profound student of human nature as well as the 
 most experienced statesman then living ; and even 
 at this early date he had accurately gauged the 
 Pope's character and divined the one object of 
 his policy. Alexander led so scandalous a life, he 
 declared, that every one turned from him with 
 horror. He had seized upon the sale of Cervetri 
 and Anguillara as a pretext to ruin both the 
 Orsini and the Colonna and to begin a quarrel with 
 Naples. He had forced Cardinal Giuliano della 
 Rovere to flee from Rome. He was certainly 
 intriguing with France, and probably even with 
 the Turks. All his thoughts and all his actions 
 were directed to the aggrandisement of his children, 
 which he was determined to accomplish whether 
 by fair means or by foul. As will appear presently, 
 these representations were not without their effect. 
 Lucrezia, who had but just completed her 
 80
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 thirteenth year, already had a palace of her own, 
 in close proximity to the Vatican, where, under 
 the guidance of her father's cousin Madonna 
 Adriana, she maintained the state of a royal 
 princess. On June 9, 1493, her betrothed, Giovanni 
 Sforza, arrived in Rome and was received with due 
 ceremony by the Senate, the foreign ambassadors, 
 and other notabilities. Three days later the nuptials 
 were celebrated in the Vatican, with great splendour, 
 in the presence of the Pope, many cardinals and 
 bishops, the ambassadors of France, Milan, Venice 
 and Ferrara, the Roman magistrates, and a brilliant 
 company of fifty noble matrons with their spouses. 
 At the select dinner which followed Alexander VI 
 and several of his cardinals sat down to table with 
 a number of ladies, amongst whom was the beautiful 
 Giulia Farnese-Orsini, concerning whose irregular 
 relations with his Holiness people had already 
 begun to talk, and who is roundly termed by 
 Infessura the Pope's concubine. After the table 
 was cleared many wedding gifts were formally 
 presented to the bride, including diamond and 
 ruby rings, drinking services of silver-gilt, gold 
 brocade, and other articles of considerable 
 value. Then followed the performance of a lively 
 (not to say indecent) comedy, music, singing 
 and dancing, the Pope and his guests spending 
 the whole night in this revelry, " whether well 
 or ill," wrote the Ferrarese ambassador to his 
 master next morning, " I leave your Highness to 
 determine." 
 
 Immediately after this the Spanish ambassador 
 
 F 81
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 arrived in Rome, to tender the obedience of his 
 master, but also to warn the Pope that Ferdinand 
 the Catholic looked upon the interests of Naples 
 and the House of Aragon as his own. At the same 
 time Ferrante redoubled his efforts to arrive at an 
 understanding with Alexander and to detach him 
 from the Milan- Venice league before the arrival 
 of the ambassador of France, who, it was presumed, 
 would make tempting offers to secure his master's 
 investiture of the crown of Naples. In conjunction 
 Naples and Spain employed a bait which, according 
 to Ferrante's astute divination, it was not in the 
 nature of Alexander to resist. They proposed that 
 Sancia, natural daughter of Alfonso of Calabria, 
 should be given in marriage to the Pope's youngest 
 son, Giuffre, bringing to him as dowry the princi- 
 pality of Squillace ; and that the Pope's eldest 
 son, Giovanni, second Duke of Gandia, should 
 marry the Princess Maria, niece of King Ferdinand, 
 to whom his deceased brother had been betrothed. 
 They also used their good offices to bring about a 
 satisfactory arrangement with Virginio Orsini, 
 whereby Virginio agreed to pay the Pope 35,000 
 ducats and receive in return the investiture of the 
 fiefs of Cervetri and Anguillara, which he already 
 held by force of arms. A reconciliation was like- 
 wise patched up between Alexander and Giuliano 
 de la Rovere, so that on July 24 both that cardinal 
 and Virginio Orsini came to Rome and dined 
 amicably with the Pope. The engagement of Don 
 Giuffre was to be kept secret until Christmas ; but 
 on August 2 the Duke of Gandia set out for 
 82
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 Barcelona with a splendid retinue, where he was 
 received with princely honours, and duly united 
 to his^ royal bride. A few days later the French 
 ambassador arrived in Rome to demand the investi- 
 ture of Naples for his master ; but he was answered 
 in very ambiguous terms ; and some people thought 
 from Alexander's shifting policy that he had lost 
 his head. The Milanese ambassador, however, was 
 of a contrary opinion, having evidently come to 
 the same conclusion as King Ferrante regarding 
 the Pope's real aim. The man, he said, who had 
 negotiated a treaty that made King Ferrante groan 
 and yet brought him to consent to a family alliance, 
 who had married one of his sons to a princess of 
 Spain, who had married his daughter to a prince 
 of the House of Sforza, and who had forced the 
 powerful Virginio Orsini to pay for his fiefs and 
 submit to the Church, was a man who evidently 
 knew what he wanted and also how to accomplish 
 his ends. 
 
 In September of this year the Pope created 
 twelve new cardinals. At a later date it was 
 Alexander's policy to fill the Sacred College with 
 Spaniards who were devoted to his interests. In 
 this instance, although he secured for himself a 
 majority which shattered the opposition, the new 
 creations were considerately selected from various 
 nationalities, and most of them were admittedly 
 able and worthy men. Three of the appointments, 
 however, were altogether indefensible. Ippolito 
 d'Este, son of Duke Ercole of Ferrara, was a mere 
 child of fifteen, remarkable at that time only for
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 his exceptional personal beauty, but afterwards 
 equally remarkable for his extravagance and disso- 
 luteness. Cesare Borgia received the red hat partly 
 because it was the darling aim of Alexander to 
 advance his children by every means at his dis- 
 posal, and partly because a son at his right hand 
 in the Sacred College would greatly increase the 
 Pope's power. Alessandro Farnese, a young man 
 of five-and-twenty, cultured and intellectual, but 
 equally dissolute and vicious, owed his elevation 
 solely to the circumstance that his beautiful 
 sister Giulia was Alexander's mistress, a fact so 
 notorious that he came to be dubbed in derision 
 14 the petticoat cardinal." Alessandro Farnese 
 undoubtedly showed great ability in after days ; 
 but the rise of his family to wealth and greatness 
 and his own elevation to the Pontificate as Paul III 
 in 1534 were due in the first instance to his sister's 
 adulterous connection with Rodrigo Borgia. 
 
 Alexander's shifting policy aroused mistrust on 
 all sides. Notwithstanding the apparent triumph 
 of Cardinal Ascanio at the Vatican, his brother 
 Ludovico Sforza thought Milan's alliance with the 
 Pope and Venice so unreliable, and was so disturbed 
 by the Borgian arrangements with Naples lest they 
 should lead to a combined demand on him to give 
 up the reins of government to his nephew Gian 
 Galeazzo, that he sent envoys to Charles VIII 
 urging him to march into Italy, promising him 
 assistance both in men and money, and inflaming 
 the young French king's romantic imagination by 
 representing the conquest of Naples as but a 
 84
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 preliminary step to the glorious reconquest of 
 Constantinople. On the other hand, Ferrante of 
 Naples was greatly disturbed by the Pope's coquet- 
 ting with the King of France, and complained that 
 he did nothing to hinder Charles's dangerous 
 designs on Italy. But on January 25, 1494, 
 Ferrante died and was succeeded by his vicious 
 son Alfonso of Calabria. Charles VIII at once 
 sent an embassy to Rome to demand the investi- 
 ture of the kingdom of Naples ; whilst Alfonso 
 on his part hastened to pay off the tribute which 
 his father had shirked, undertook to continue it 
 punctually, and made other offers to induce the 
 Pope to support him and form an alliance against 
 Charles. Alexander played fast and loose as usual. 
 Although in February he wrote expressing his sur- 
 prise that the French king should entertain designs 
 against another Christian nation instead of uniting 
 against the common foe, in March he sent Charles 
 the Golden Rose, and approved of his action in 
 raising an army, ostensibly for war against the 
 Turk, but really, as the Pope and everybody else 
 knew well enough, for the conquest of Naples. 
 But when Charles's envoy asked for the investiture 
 of that kingdom Alexander refused ; and on 
 April 18, having formally decided in favour of 
 the House of Aragon, he appointed his nephew, 
 Cardinal Juan Borgia, as legate to crown Alfonso II 
 at Naples. Alexander's apparently irresolute policy 
 was probably coolly calculated to advance the 
 bargaining which of course went on concerning the 
 advancement of his children. At any rate, it is 
 
 85
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 significant that the day before Alfonso was crowned 
 the Pope's eldest son, Giovanni of Gandia, received 
 the principality of Tricarico; his second son, 
 Cardinal Cesare, received a number of valuable 
 benefices in the kingdom of Naples, and his 
 youngest son, Don Giuffre, was married to the 
 king's daughter Sancia, receiving with her the 
 principality of Squillace and an income of 40,000 
 ducats. In their opposition to these measures of 
 the Pope, Cardinals Ascanio Sforza and Giuliano 
 della Rovere were, for once in their lives, in unison. 
 Cardinal Ascanio wished to leave Rome, but per- 
 mission was refused. Cardinal Giuliano fled from 
 Ostia, leaving that fortress in the hands of his 
 brother, and, with the aid of Ludovico Sforza, made 
 his way to the camp of Charles VIII at Lyons, 
 where he was warmly received. His urgent en- 
 treaties, added to the representations of the de 
 facto Duke of Milan, materially hastened the French 
 invasion of Italy. 
 
 Charles VIII not only gathered together a great 
 army, but, through his agents, was very active in 
 stirring up strife amongst the Italians. Having 
 secured the active friendship of Milan and the 
 neutrality of Venice, he proceeded to tamper with 
 some of the Roman barons, and by Cardinal 
 Ascanio Sforza's aid the Colonna and others were 
 induced to accept French pay. This, together 
 with the fact that Charles's ecclesiastical allies, 
 especially the cardinals Sforza and Rovere, threat- 
 ened a Council to depose the Pope on account 
 of his simoniacal election, drove Alexander into a 
 86
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 tight corner. In this dilemma he turned for aid 
 to the very Turk for whose overthrow by Charles's 
 army he had been apparently so eager a few 
 months previously. When sending to Bajazet in 
 June to ask for the remittance of D Jem's allow- 
 ance, which he said he needed to defend himself 
 against Charles VIII, the Pope instructed his envoy 
 to inform the Sultan that the French king desired 
 to get Djem into his power in order to set him up 
 in Constantinople as soon as Naples had been 
 conquered. Wherefore Bajazet was asked to afford 
 some aid to the Pope and Naples in withstanding 
 Charles, and also to use his good offices to persuade 
 Venice from her present selfish neutrality. When 
 the Pope's envoy, a Genoese . named Giorgio 
 Bocciardo, was returning home in November, 
 accompanied by an envoy from Sultan Bajazet 
 bringing answering letters and the 40,000 ducats 
 applied for, they were attacked and robbed both 
 of the papers and the money by the Prefect of 
 Sinigaglia, Giovanni della Rovere. The papers, 
 which, as the Prefect said, contained astounding 
 things most dangerous to Christianity, were sent 
 on to Cardinal Giuliano, and promptly published by 
 Alexander's enemies. In addition to the Pope's 
 instructions to his envoy, in which he promised to 
 remain on terms of strict friendship with the 
 " Infidel " in return for the aids requested, and 
 the Sultan's answer thereto, in which speedy aid 
 was promised to Naples as well as an embassy to 
 Venice articles in themselves damaging enough 
 Bajazet had sent another letter to Alexander con- 
 
 87
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 taining a proposal which shocked the morals even 
 of that Machiavellian era. He calmly proposed to 
 the Pope that, as the death of Djem in the circum- 
 stances would be of benefit to both of them, the 
 Pope should put the prince to death in any manner 
 most convenient to his Holiness, and in return for 
 the dead body Bajazet promised to send Alexander 
 300,000 ducats in cash, " to purchase some terri- 
 tories for your sons." 
 
 Meanwhile Charles had been advancing on his 
 career of conquest with scarcely any hindrance. 
 After crossing the Alps he entered Turin on Septem- 
 ber 5, and was welcomed as joyfully as though he 
 were a liberator. At Asti, a day or two later, he 
 was greeted by Ludovico Sforza. Here he soon 
 heard of the victory which his cousin, Louis of 
 Orleans, had gained over Ferrantino of Aragon at 
 Rapallo, when with a savagery which struck terror 
 into the Italians, who had been accustomed to the 
 chess-playing and bloodless methods of the condot- 
 tiere, all the inhabitants, even the sick in the 
 hospital, were put to the sword. On October 14 
 he entered Pa via in triumph ; on the 18th he 
 reached Piacenza. Whilst there he heard of the 
 death of the unfortunate Gian Galeazzo, by which 
 event Ludovico Sforza became undisputedly Duke 
 of Milan. At Pavia Charles had visited the young 
 man who lay there sick to death in the castle, and 
 had turned away from the pleadings of Gian's wife 
 with empty words of consolation. It was now 
 rumoured that Ludovico had poisoned his nephew, 
 but of this there is no sufficient proof. On the 
 88
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 26th Piero de Medici, frightened out of his wits, 
 arrived at the French camp, and, to the astonish- 
 ment of Charles and everybody else and the sub- 
 sequent dismay and anger of his fellow citizens, 
 not only yielded up Florence and all her fortified 
 cities without striking a blow, but undertook to 
 pay 200,000 ducats into the bargain. 
 
 The Pope, who watched the French unopposed 
 march with trembling, being without an army, 
 unable to induce Venice to budge from her 
 neutrality, harassed by Caterina Sforza's declara- 
 tion for France, and by the treacherous handing 
 over of Ostia to the Colonna, now sent Cardinal 
 Piccolomini to negotiate with Charles ; but the 
 French king declined to see him, and sent word 
 to say he was coming to Rome to confer with the 
 Pope in person. On November 9 Charles came to 
 Pisa, whose citizens welcomed him enthusiastically, 
 and immediately threw off their allegiance to 
 Florence. On the same day the Florentines ex- 
 pelled the Medici, and proclaimed a republic under 
 the guidance of Savonarola. Eight days later 
 Charles, with lance on thigh, rode at the head of 
 his army into Florence. Imagining himself able 
 to impose what terms he pleased, his demands were 
 extravagant ; and when the deputies appointed 
 by the Senate to treat with him objected, he 
 threatened to sound his trumpets. Then Pierro 
 Capponi, one of the burgher deputies, snatched the 
 paper out of the secretary's hands, tore it in pieces 
 in the king's face, and answered boldly, " Sire, if 
 you sound your trumpets we will ring our bells." 
 
 89
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Charles had the sense to know that if driven to 
 desperation the Florentines, who were all armed 
 and who had collected some six thousand soldiers 
 within their walls, having the advantage of all the 
 towers and fortified palaces, might easily get the 
 better even of his formidable army, scattered as it 
 was through the narrow streets. He accordingly 
 gave way, agreed to more equitable terms, made 
 no further efforts on behalf of the recall of the 
 Medici, and on November 28 marched out of the 
 city in the direction of Rome. 
 
 Alexander VI was now in a very difficult position. 
 The French king was coming to Rome, it was 
 reported, for the purpose of furthering a reform of 
 the Church. Several cardinals, with Giuliano della 
 Rovere and Ascanio Sforza at their head, were 
 calling for a Council to depose the Pope on account 
 of his simoniacal election, to which of course he 
 well knew they were able to bear witness. He 
 could not break with Alfonso of Aragon without 
 risking the forfeiture of some of the great family 
 advantages which his Neapolitan alliance had 
 gained for him. Envoys passed to and fro between 
 the Pope and the King. Alexander proposed that 
 he should come to meet Charles in order to discuss 
 with him his proposed Crusade ; but the King 
 replied that he would rather visit his Holiness in 
 the Vatican. Meantime Alexander fortified and 
 provisioned the castle of St. Angelo, and called in 
 from the Romagna the troops under Virginio Orsini, 
 the Counts of Pitigliano and Trivulzio, and the six 
 thousand Neapolitans under the young Duke of 
 90
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 Calabria. The sight of this little army seems to 
 have given him a momentary accession of courage, 
 for, although the negotiations with Charles were 
 still going on, and seemed indeed to be on the 
 point of conclusion, he suddenly arrested the 
 Cardinals Ascanio Sforza, Sanseverino and Lunate, 
 who, together with Prospero Colonna and Girolama 
 Estouteville, had come into Rome under his safe 
 conduct to discuss matters. At the same time the 
 French ambassador was informed that his master 
 could not be granted a safe passage through the 
 States of the Church. Nevertheless the French 
 steadily advanced, sacking every place they came 
 to, although meeting with no resistance. On 
 December 10 Charles entered Viterbo, from which 
 the Papal governor had fled. On the 17th he took 
 Civita Vecchia ; and on the same day Virginio 
 Orsini went over to the French side and delivered 
 up his strong castle of Bracciano, where Charles 
 set up his headquarters. For weeks the Pope had 
 been irresolute whether to fight or fly. All his 
 valuables had been transferred to St. Angelo, and 
 everything else in the Vatican, down to bed and 
 table services, had been packed for removal. In 
 the end he did neither. The Roman populace 
 called for a treaty with Charles, and declared that 
 if the Pope did not agree to this within two days 
 they themselves would admit the King to the city. 
 On December 24 the Pope, in Consistory, told the 
 young Duke of Calabria that his Neapolitan troops 
 must leave Rome, whereupon Don Ferrantino 
 indignantly quitted the assembly. But even at 
 
 91
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 the last moment Alexander was undecided what 
 to do, and on the 25th an agreement was drawn 
 up between him and the Duke whereby it was 
 agreed that he should accompany the Neapolitan 
 troops, taking Prince Djem with him, and that as 
 long as he remained in Naples he should receive 
 50,000 ducats a year and be accommodated with 
 the fortress of Gaeta for Djem's safe preservation. 
 Before the day was out, however, he had acceded 
 to the French king's demands, released Cardinal 
 Ascanio from prison, and arranged for Charles's 
 entry into Rome. 
 
 On December 31, 1494, from three o'clock in 
 the afternoon until nine o'clock at night, the long 
 files of the French army were marching through 
 the gates of the Eternal City amidst shouts of 
 " Francia ! " " Colonna ! " " Vincoli ! " from the 
 excited populace. All the houses displayed French 
 favours ; and when darkness came on the streets 
 were lighted with lamps and torches, whose fitful 
 illumination made men and horses loom larger and 
 more formidable than they really were. About 
 seven in the evening the King arrived at the Porta 
 del Popolo, and, having formally received all the 
 keys of the city, rode through the streets with 
 lance in rest to the palace which had been prepared 
 for him. He was a queer figure of a conqueror. 
 Twenty-two years of age, short of stature, with 
 emaciated legs, a malformed disproportionately 
 large head, an immense crooked nose, thick lips 
 always open, and large, lustreless, short-sighted 
 eyes, his hideous personal appearance, which was 
 92
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 peculiarly repulsive to the beauty-loving Italians, 
 was unrelieved by any intellectual compensations. 
 Guicciardini says that he was not only ignorant 
 of any liberal art, but that he scarcely knew his 
 letters ; that he hated the fatigue of business, and 
 invariably showed want of judgment in any matters 
 that he took in hand ; that though eager to rule, 
 he was utterly incompetent to exercise authority ; 
 and that his desire for glory sprang from empty 
 vanity. That this is not altogether the biased 
 opinion of an Italian enemy is evident from the 
 account of him given by his own follower, De 
 Comines, who describes Charles as weak and wilful, 
 destitute of good sense himself, and surrounded 
 by foolish advisers. Such was the man who now 
 entered into a diplomatic contest with the subtle 
 and wily Rodrigo Borgia. Both parties had fears 
 that their negotiations might be cut short by 
 violent or underhand methods. Alexander en- 
 trenched himself in the Borgo, surrounded by his 
 palace guards and a thousand horse. Charles had 
 cannon mounted in front of the palace of San 
 Marco, where he sat down to table alone, with a 
 chamberlain to taste every dish and four physicians 
 to examine every glass of wine that was served to 
 him. Cesare Borgia and all the other cardinals 
 waited upon the King two days after his entry. 
 They were received haughtily, and Charles's first 
 demands were that the castle of St. Angelo should 
 be delivered up to him, that Prince Djem should 
 also be handed over unconditionally, and that 
 Cardinal Cesare should accompany him to Naples 
 
 93
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 as hostage for the due observance of any treaty 
 that might be agreed upon. 
 
 But Rodrigo Borgia was not the man to deliver 
 himself up bound hand and foot in this fashion, 
 notwithstanding that he was virtually a prisoner 
 in the hands of the most powerful prince in 
 Christendom, whose cannon could shatter the 
 crumbling walls of St. Angelo within a few hours. 
 Cardinals Giuliano della Rovere and Ascanio Sforza, 
 together with Gurk, Sanseverino, St. Denis, Savelli 
 and Colonna, were by the King's side, urging him 
 to call a Council, and having in their hands a decree 
 already drawn up for the deposition of an unworthy 
 Pope who had obtained his elevation by simony. 
 It lay within Charles's power, remarks Gregorovius, 
 to deliver the Church from Alexander VI ; and the 
 baneful figure of Cesare Borgia would never have 
 risen to historic importance had this vain and 
 ambitious young king possessed sufficient wisdom 
 and firmness to support those cardinals who were 
 calling for a reform of the Curia. But although 
 he made threat after threat, and thrice pointed his 
 cannon against the castle of St. Angelo, he was 
 completely foiled by the subtle Borgia ; and the 
 terms ultimately agreed upon between them freed 
 the Pope from all his fears and spread consterna- 
 tion amongst his enemies. By the treaty which 
 was signed on January 15, 1495, Alexander agreed 
 to give up Civita Vecchia, to appoint governors of 
 Charles's choice in the cities of the Patrimony, to 
 grant complete amnesty to those cardinals and 
 nobles who had espoused the French cause, to 
 94
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 give the French army free passage through the 
 territories of the Church, to hand over Prince 
 Djem to Charles in order to further his expedition 
 against the Turks (though the Pope was still to 
 retain the Sultan's pension), and to send Cardinal 
 Cesare Borgia with the French army for the next 
 four months, nominally as legate, but really, of 
 course, as hostage. Charles, on his part, promised 
 to recognise Alexander as Pope and to defend 
 him in all his rights. The opposition cardinals 
 were utterly discomfited and dismayed. Lunate 
 and Ascanio Sforza left Rome for Milan at 
 once ; Giuliano della Rovere, notwithstanding 
 the Pope's blandishments, refused to trust him, 
 and remained under the protection of the French 
 king. 
 
 The day after this treaty was signed Charles 
 accepted Alexander's invitation to take up his 
 quarters in the Vatican. Their first interview was 
 carefully arranged beforehand. Alexander entered 
 the garden by way of the tunnel from St. Angelo ; 
 the King, who appeared as though by accident 
 walking in the neighbourhood of the entrance to 
 this passage, advanced towards his Holiness and 
 bent his knee ; Alexander, lifting his cap, came 
 forward and raised Charles by the arm, kissed him, 
 and insisted on remaining uncovered until the 
 other had replaced his hat. Charles then requested 
 a cardinalate for his favourite Briyonnet, and as 
 this minister had already been secretly won over 
 to the Pope's side, the request was immediately 
 complied with. Then, taking the King's hand, 
 
 95
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Alexander led him into the palace, where they had 
 no sooner arrived than his Holiness was overcome 
 by a fainting fit which necessitated his being placed 
 in a chair, probably an assumed swoon artfully 
 contrived to enable the Pope to be seated during 
 the interview without raising any disputable point 
 of etiquette. Three days later a Consistory was 
 held, when the French conqueror made public 
 profession of the obedience which he had hitherto 
 refused. Alexander seems to have been rather 
 taken by surprise when the President of the Parlia- 
 ment of Paris explained that it was the custom in 
 France that whenever a vassal made his homage 
 to an over-lord he should receive in return whatso- 
 ever favour he requested, wherefore the King of 
 France demanded three things : firstly, confirma- 
 tion of all the privileges hitherto granted to himself, 
 his wife, and his heir ; secondly, the investiture of 
 the kingdom of Naples to him and his successors 
 for ever ; thirdly, that the security he had given 
 for the return of Prince Djem within six months 
 might be retracted. With his accustomed subtlety 
 the Pope answered that the privileges referred to 
 were willingly confirmed ; but that as the investi- 
 ture of Naples involved other interests it could 
 not be given until after deliberation and the assent 
 of his cardinals, with whom, however, he promised 
 to use his best endeavours ; whilst as regards Prince 
 Djem he would take a fitter opportunity to talk 
 the matter over with his Majesty and the Sacred 
 College, having little doubt it could be accommo- 
 dated to their mutual satisfaction. Seemingly 
 96
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 quite satisfied with this rather evasive reply, 
 Charles kissed the Pope's hand and foot ; and in 
 the prescribed form tendered his obedience and 
 reverence, acknowledging Alexander as Vicar of 
 Christ, and promising to defend both his Holiness 
 and the Church against all enemies. After spend- 
 ing another week in Rome, during which the Pope 
 and the King made a public display of their 
 alliance and friendship by riding out together 
 and by going in state to the feast of the Con- 
 version of St. Paul, Charles set out for Naples on 
 January 28. 
 
 Alfonso II did not await his enemy's arrival. 
 He was reputed to be the first general in Italy ; 
 he was provided with abundant pecuniary re- 
 sources ; his fortresses were admirably equipped ; 
 and he was at the head of a numerous army. But 
 partisans of Anjou arose on every side, so that in 
 his terror he would start up from sleep imagining 
 the very winds and waves were shrieking " France ! 
 France ! " in his ears. He must have known that, 
 to use Sanudo's words, even Nero would have seemed 
 a saint beside two such accursed despots as himself 
 and his father ; and, overwhelmed by the results 
 of his infamous misgovernment, he formally abdi- 
 cated on January 23 in favour of his youthful son 
 Ferrantino, taking his treasures with him to 
 Sicily and immuring himself in a cloister at 
 Mazzarra, where, fortunately for the world, he 
 died in the following November. Charles heard 
 of Alfonso's abdication at the end of his first day's 
 march, at Marino. At Velletri, which was his next 
 
 G 97
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 halt, two Spanish ambassadors came to protest 
 against his enterprise ; but Charles, who seemed 
 to be climbing with little trouble to the highest 
 pinnacle of glory, was not to be moved from his 
 purpose. In the morning, however, a disturbing 
 surprise awaited him ; his hostage, Cesare Borgia, 
 had mysteriously disappeared ; and it soon became 
 evident that the young cardinal's escape had been 
 carefully prearranged. As befitted a Pope's son, 
 who was also a legate, Cesare had brought with 
 him a number of baggage waggons, two of which, 
 on being unloaded at the first halt, were seen to be 
 filled with silver plate for the service of his table. 
 But when, on the news of his flight, the French 
 soldiers went to plunder the other waggons, they 
 were found to be filled with stones. It is supposed 
 that Cesare contrived to have the two waggons 
 containing his valuables left behind at Marino, and 
 that during the following night at Velletri, in the 
 disguise of a groom, he had taken horse and 
 hurried back to Rome. Next morning Alexander 
 heard that his son was hiding in the house of the 
 auditor Antonio Flores ; whence he got away in 
 safety first to Rignano and then to Spoleto. The 
 Roman people sent envoys to Charles repudiating 
 any complicity in this breach of faith ; and the 
 Pope also, on the receipt of an angry protest from 
 the King, sent word that he had had no hand in 
 the matter and was ignorant of his son's where- 
 abouts. But he made no offer of another hostage, 
 and Charles could see that he had been tricked. 
 Turning back, however, as the Borgia had calcu- 
 98
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 lated, was entirely out of the question; and the 
 French army marched on, finding no force to 
 oppose their progress. Trivulzio delivered up 
 Capua ; Virginio Orsini and Pitigliano surrendered 
 at Nola ; and young Ferrantino, retiring on his 
 capital, found the city in revolt, and was forced to 
 take boat for Ischia. On February 22 Charles 
 rode into Naples in triumph amidst the acclama- 
 tions of the people. Except for the storming of a 
 couple of fortresses and the slaughter of their 
 garrisons, which had been permitted merely to 
 satisfy the hatred of the Colonna for the 
 Conti, there had been no fighting ; the French, 
 as Alexander sarcastically remarked, having 
 overrun Italy in a few weeks with no other 
 arms than a piece of chalk to mark out their 
 quarters. 
 
 Three days after his arrival in Naples with Charles, 
 Prince Djem died. Alexander's enemies at once 
 accused him of having poisoned the Turkish prince ; 
 and Paolo Giovio relates circumstantially that 
 before being delivered over to the French he had 
 been dosed with a certain white powder mixed in 
 sugar, capable of envenoming any liquor, and 
 inappreciable either by colour or taste. Some 
 modern authorities, including Thousane and 
 Gregorovius, seem inclined to credit the poison 
 theory. But the Pope would lose 40,000 ducats 
 a year by the death of Djem under these circum- 
 stances without any prospect of obtaining the 
 larger sum which Bajazet had offered for his dead 
 body ; and Alexander VI was by no means the 
 
 99
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 man to do this merely to spite Charles VIII. It 
 seems far more probable that the Turk, enfeebled 
 by dissolute habits and by eight years' seclusion 
 in the hot rooms of the Vatican, succumbed to an 
 attack of bronchitis or dysentery, brought on by 
 the hardships of a winter journey as a military 
 prisoner. The death of Djem seems to have put 
 an end to Charles's project of a crusade. After 
 receiving the homage of the Neapolitan nobility 
 and people, he demanded the investiture of the 
 kingdom from the Pope ; and whilst Alexander 
 hesitated or temporised he abandoned himself to 
 his customary dissipation. But all the powers of 
 Europe were now thoroughly alarmed, and there 
 were signs of a gathering storm. Spain, having 
 already made formal protest against the French 
 aggression, sent her great captain, Gonsalvo de 
 Cordova, to Sicily with a body of troops. The 
 Emperor Maximilian was disturbed at the prospect 
 of Charles obtaining the hegemony of Europe. 
 Venice now realised that there was real danger to 
 herself. The Pope feared a Council from France 
 triumphant. And Ludovico Sforza, who had in- 
 vited Charles into Italy to bring about disturbance 
 rather than conquest, so that in the confusion he 
 might more firmly establish himself, was now 
 greatly disquieted by the claims of Orleans on the 
 duchy of Milan. These powers therefore formed 
 a league on March 31, ostensibly for defence 
 against the Turk, but really for united action 
 against the French conqueror ; and Charles, 
 who knew well enough what the combination 
 100
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 meant, saw that nothing remained for him but a 
 safe retreat. 
 
 Had the various Italian States united to oppose 
 the French invasion, which might well have hap- 
 pened had Lorenzo de' Medici been still alive, 
 Charles would never have reached Naples ; had 
 they now carried out the purpose of their league 
 with vigour and resolution, his retreat would have 
 become a hopeless rout. And he gave them every 
 opportunity ; for it was not until May 12 that, 
 finding it impossible to extort his investiture from 
 the Pope, he asserted his unsupported claims to 
 the kingdom of Naples and the Empire of the East 
 in the Neapolitan cathedral ; and not until the 
 20th of that month that, leaving Montpensier with 
 half his army to hold the conquered kingdom, he 
 set out with the remaining half on his way back to 
 France. The Pope had received troops from no 
 member of the league except Venice, and, doubtful 
 of his ability to defend himself against even half 
 of the French army, he retired, with twenty of his 
 cardinals and 10,000 troops, to Orvieto. On June 1 
 Charles VIII re-entered Rome, where he was 
 received with all due honour, according to the 
 Pope's instructions. On this occasion he enforced 
 strict discipline amongst his troops and made offers 
 of a tribute if the Pope would grant him the 
 investiture of Naples. But Alexander kept out of 
 the way, and Charles was forced to resume his 
 retreat. At Siena on the 13th Savonarola came 
 to meet him and warned him that he had incurred 
 the wrath of God by neglecting to reform the 
 
 101
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Church. At Pisa he was implored by the inhabi- 
 tants not to deliver them over again to Florence. 
 He turned a deaf ear to both, and continued his 
 march. Had the allies thrown themselves upon 
 him he must have been annihilated ; but he was 
 allowed to cross the Apennines with all his baggage 
 and artillery, and it was not until he reached the 
 river Taro, near Fornuovo, that the forces of the 
 league under Francesco Gonzaga barred his way 
 and gave him battle on July 6. Both sides claimed 
 the victory ; but although Charles lost all the 
 immense booty which he had plundered from 
 Naples and other towns of Italy, his loss of men 
 was far less than that of his opponents, and he 
 was able to reach Asti in safety. After giving his 
 soldiers a much-needed rest, he established himself 
 in Turin. His cousin, the Duke of Orleans, was 
 now besieged by the allied forces in Novara ; and 
 Charles set about endeavouring to detach Milan 
 from the league. Meanwhile the Pope, his personal 
 danger having passed, had returned to Rome, 
 whence at the instigation of Venice he commanded 
 Charles to withdraw all his troops from Italy on 
 pain of excommunication. About the same time 
 young Ferrantino of Aragon, having received aid 
 from the Pope and Venice and Spain, drove 
 Montpensier out of Naples and recovered his 
 kingdom. Once more the successes of his allies 
 threatened to become inconvenient to Ludovico 
 Sforza ; and consequently, without their know- 
 ledge, he made a separate treaty with Charles, 
 which gave him back Novara, left him in undis- 
 102
 
 THE FRENCH INVASION 
 
 turbed possession of his duchy, and allowed the 
 French king to return to his own dominions, 
 despoiled of his plunder, and followed by the 
 diseased and dirty remnant of his once magnificent 
 army. 
 
 103
 
 IV 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 THE disappearance of the French menace left 
 Alexander VI free once more to pursue his darling 
 project of advancing the worldly fortunes of his 
 children. The crimes with which the Borgia have 
 been charged have sometimes led to the impression 
 that they were savage, sombre, and ferocious 
 monsters. Superficially, at any rate, they pre- 
 sented a very different appearance to their 
 contemporaries. Vicious they undoubtedly were, 
 even according to the lax moral standard of their 
 day. But at the same time they were as graceful 
 and attractive and charming a set of people as 
 could be found in any of the courts of Italy. 
 Alexander VI was noted for the dignity of his 
 manners, the eloquence of his speech, the charm 
 of his address, and for a geniality and gaiety that 
 never failed him. In these respects most of his 
 family seem to have been no less happily endowed. 
 They were all bright, lively, pleasure-loving young 
 people, rather barbaric in their love of magnificence 
 and display, but fairly versed in the culture of their 
 time, and fond of the society of artists and men of 
 letters. Before the French invasion came about 
 they had all been already abundantly provided 
 104
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 for. Vanozza's eldest son, Giovanni, had succeeded 
 Don Pedro Luis in the dukedom of Gandia. Part 
 of the Pope's bargain with Alfonso II in return for 
 the investiture of Naples had been the conferring 
 on Giovanni of the Principality of Tricarico and 
 the Countships of Claromonte, Lauria, and Carinola. 
 It was Alexander's desire to make this favourite son 
 of his a great prince ; and he proposed now to 
 endow him with the extensive possessions of the 
 Orsini. The moment was a favourable one, for 
 Virginio Orsini and his son, Giovanni Giordano, 
 had been forced to capitulate with the French 
 garrison at Atilla, and were being kept in prison by 
 Ferrantino of Naples at the Pope's request, so 
 that the Orsini family were deprived of their 
 ablest generals. The Duke of Gandia was sum- 
 moned from Spain to Rome, where he arrived on 
 August 10, 1496, and was soon afterwards made 
 standard-bearer of the Church, Governor of Viterbo, 
 and Legate of the whole Patrimony, Giulia's 
 brother, Cardinal Farnese, being removed from 
 the last-named post in order to make room for 
 him. Then, having secured the services of Guido- 
 baldo of Urbino to lead the Papal forces, Alexander, 
 who had an exaggerated opinion of the military 
 talents of his son, appointed Giovanni second in 
 command. The expedition set out in October ; 
 and at first did very well. The strongholds of 
 Scrofano, Galera, Formello, and Campagnano were 
 easily taken one after another, and Anguillara 
 gave itself up without any resistance. Then siege 
 was laid to Trevignano and the impregnable five- 
 
 105
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 towered castle of Bracciano, when, unfortunately 
 for the Papal forces, the Duke of Urbino was 
 wounded and the command devolved upon the 
 Duke of Gandia. Towards the end of November 
 Trevignano surrendered ; but Bracciano held out 
 until it was relieved by a force under Vitelozzo 
 Vitelli of Citta di Castello, which on January 25, 
 1497, totally routed the Papal forces, wounded the 
 Duke of Gandia, and took the Duke of Urbino 
 prisoner. Alexander was compelled to make peace 
 at once ; and was nearly beside himself at this 
 failure of his first attempt to crush one of the 
 great and turbulent Roman baronial houses and 
 transfer their possessions to his own family. 
 Although the Orsini agreed to pay him 50,000 
 golden florins, and submitted to his retaining 
 possession of Cervetri and Anguillara, he was 
 forced to restore all their other castles, so that they 
 remained masters of the Campagna ; whilst the 
 French still held Ostia and seriously interfered 
 with the import of provisions into Rome. In this 
 difficulty Alexander invoked the aid of Spain, and 
 Gonsalvo of Cardova coming to his assistance with 
 1000 foot and 600 horse forced Ostia to capitulate 
 within a fortnight. On March 15 Gonsalvo and 
 the Duke of Gandia, " the one an able statesman 
 and general, the other a mere stage prince bedizened 
 with ornaments and tinsel," returned in triumph 
 to Rome. 
 
 In the previous February the Pope had 
 strengthened his influence in the Sacred College 
 by adding four more Spanish cardinals to the five 
 106
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 who were already there, one of the new creations 
 being his sister's son, Juan Borgia. He now felt 
 strong enough to deprive Cardinal Giuliano della 
 Rovere of all his benefices, and to remove that 
 cardinal's brother, Giovanni, from the Prefecture 
 of Rome. Then, having failed to enrich his son, 
 Giovanni, by spoiling the Orsini, Alexander pro- 
 ceeded to endow him with a principality at the 
 expense of the Church. On June 7, in a secret 
 consistory, the duchy of Benevento and the cities 
 of Terracina and Pontecorvo were handed over to 
 the Duke of Gandia as hereditary possessions ; 
 only one out of twenty-seven cardinals venturing 
 to utter the slightest protest. 
 
 Vanozza's second son, Cesare, although nomi- 
 nated to an archbishopric on the day of his father's 
 coronation, had not been allowed to enter Rome 
 until two months afterwards. He disliked the 
 idea of an ecclesiastical career ; and as early as 
 March 1493 there had been talk of his relinquishing 
 the priesthood and marrying one of the natural 
 daughters of the King of Naples. The Ferrarese 
 ambassador, Boccaccio, who was on intimate terms 
 with the young man, mentions having met him 
 one day about that time just as he was going out 
 hunting, dressed, not as an ecclesiastic, but in silk, 
 and armed, like a layman. His bearing, we learn, 
 was princely, and he was endowed with great 
 talents and a very charming personality. Like his 
 father and his sister, he was remarkable for high 
 spirits, a smiling countenance, and a ready laugh. 
 His appearance, we are told, was more distinguished 
 
 107
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 than that of his elder brother the Duke of Gandia, 
 although the latter also was highly endowed. He 
 never had any inclination for the priesthood, adds 
 Boccaccio, and if the projected marriage takes 
 place, his benefices, which are worth 16,000 ducats 
 annually, will fall to his younger brother, Giuffre. 
 This projected marriage never came to anything ; 
 and six months later, on September 20, 1493, 
 Cesare was created Cardinal-Deacon of Santa 
 Maria Nuova at the age of eighteen. He had given 
 the first proof of that subtlety and daring and 
 unscrupulousness for which he afterwards became 
 so famous by escaping from Charles VIII's army 
 at Velletri in January 1495 ; and at the date we 
 have now reached, though only twenty-two years 
 of age, was a personage of great wealth and immense 
 influence in Rome. 
 
 Vanozza's third son, Giuffre, now sixteen years 
 of age, had been married three years previously to 
 Donna Sancia of Aragon, and had thereby become 
 Prince of Squillace in the kingdom of Naples. He 
 and his wife did not appear in Rome until May 
 1496, when they entered the Eternal City in royal 
 state, being met by Lucrezia and her suite as well 
 as by ambassadors, cardinals, and nobles, who 
 escorted them to the Vatican. Donna Sancia, a 
 beautiful but giddy girl, who had been brought 
 up in one vicious court and was now transferred 
 to another equally vicious, and in which, as the 
 wife of a boy husband, she was allowed greater 
 freedom, soon got herself scandalously talked 
 about. Not only were several young cardinals and 
 108
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 Roman nobles believed to enjoy her favours, but 
 it was also whispered that her two brothers-in- 
 law, the Duke of Gandia, and Cardinal Cesare, 
 were favoured by her in turn, and that they 
 quarrelled for the exclusive possession of her. 
 
 Lucrezia, as we have already seen, had been 
 married to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, in 
 June 1493. After her marriage, as before, she lived 
 and held her court in the palace of S. Maria in 
 Portico, with Madonna Adriana Mila-Orsini in 
 attendance upon her. Vanozza remained in her 
 own house in the Regolo quarter, evidently keeping 
 up constant intercourse with her illustrious 
 children, although there is no record of her ever 
 having set foot in the Vatican. Giovanni Sforza, 
 like most of his family, was a handsome man of 
 noble bearing and princely demeanour. A medal 
 struck some ten years after his marriage to Lucrezia 
 shows him as possessing a high forehead, an 
 aquiline nose, a sensitive mouth, long flowing locks, 
 and a full beard. There is no evidence that he 
 was not quite as attractive to Lucrezia, as that 
 charming, delicate-featured, blue-eyed, golden- 
 haired, slender, but beautifully proportioned, and 
 always gay and smiling young girl presumably 
 was to him. Soon after his marriage we hear of 
 him riding out with his brother-in-law, the Duke 
 of Gandia, both richly dressed in garments glittering 
 with jewels, as though they were two kings ; and 
 everybody thought, as the Ferrarese ambassador 
 prognosticated, that " so long as this Pope rules, 
 the illustrious Lord Giovanni will be a great man 
 
 109
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 in Rome." But his uncles, Cardinal Ascanio and 
 Duke Ludovico Sforza, had married him to Lucrezia 
 for the express purpose of engaging the Pope on 
 the side of Milan against Naples ; consequently 
 when Alexander shifted his ground and granted 
 the investiture of that kingdom to Alfonso II, 
 whilst Charles VIII on Ludovico Sforza's invita- 
 tion was preparing his expedition for its conquest, 
 the Pope's son-in-law found his position at the 
 Vatican somewhat awkward, In April 1494 he 
 wrote to his uncle Ludovico begging for his support, 
 and plainly hinting that he feared being deprived 
 of his principality. Early in June he betook 
 himself to his own city, taking his bride with him 
 according to nuptial contract ; Lucrezia being 
 accompanied by her mother, together with the 
 Pope's confidential cousin, Madonna Adriana, and 
 his beloved mistress, Giulia Farnese. Lucrezia and 
 her husband were to remain at Pesaro for a year. 
 It was proposed that the others should remain 
 with her until August ; but from a letter of the 
 Pope to his daughter dated July 24th it appears 
 that Adriana and the precious Giulia had then 
 left Pesaro in order to look after the latter's 
 brother, who was sick of fever at Capodimonte. 
 The letter exhibits the Holy Father's anxiety for 
 the safety of his concubine ; and that anxiety 
 was not unwarranted, for on November 27 fol- 
 lowing, whilst Charles VIII was in Florence, a 
 troop of French cavalry who had been scouring 
 the Patrimony captured the ladies Adriana and 
 Giulia, with their suite, as they were travelling 
 110
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 from Capodimonte to Viterbo. The French 
 captain, when he discovered who his beautiful 
 captives were, demanded 3000 ducats as ransom, 
 for which sum Giulia at once wrote to Rome. The 
 Pope was frantic. He sent one messenger to 
 Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, who was with the Colonna, 
 and another to Cardinal Sanseverino, who was 
 with the French king, imploring their assistance 
 to obtain the release of the fair prisoners. Charles 
 seemed quite indifferent, declined to see the 
 ladies, and allowed them to be escorted to the 
 gates of Rome on December 1 by an escort of 
 400 cavalry. We learn from a letter of the 
 Ferrarese ambassador at Milan that his Holiness 
 rode out to meet the ladies arrayed in a black 
 doublet bordered with gold brocade, wearing 
 Spanish boots, a beautiful belt in the Spanish 
 fashion with sword and dagger, and a velvet 
 biretta, "all very gallant." And the same 
 ambassador reports that the shrewd Ludovico 
 Sforza gravely reproved his brother Ascanio and 
 Cardinal Sanseverino for surrendering such precious 
 hostages for the paltry sum of 3000 ducats. The 
 Pope, he said, would have paid fifty thousand, or 
 more, to get them back again ; but seeing they 
 were his heart and eyes, and that he could not 
 do without them, the best plan would have been 
 to hold them back, and thereby get a whip in 
 hand to compel him to do whatever they wanted. 
 
 The whole of Italy seems to have been aware 
 of the relationship which existed between this 
 astonishing sexagenarian Pope and the young 
 
 111
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Giulia Farnese. In 1492 she had given birth to 
 a daughter, who was named Laura, and officially 
 styled the daughter of Orsini, though everybody 
 felt assured that she was really the child of the 
 Pope. Giulia's husband was agreeable (or perhaps 
 compelled) to keep himself out of the way on one 
 of the estates which had been presented to him 
 on his marriage ; and the satirists of the day 
 blasphemously called Madonna Giulia " Christ's 
 bride." Whether this beautiful but frivolous and 
 shameless girl were attracted by the magnetic 
 personality of the man Rodrigo Borgia, whether 
 she were fascinated by the homage of the Holy 
 Father before whom even princes prostrated them- 
 selves, or whether she were a callous and calcu- 
 lating adventuress who reckoned upon providing 
 for herself and her relations out of her lover's 
 abundant bounty, is altogether a matter of 
 conjecture. At any rate, she made little secret 
 of it, living in the palace of S. Maria in Portico 
 as lady-in-waiting on her lover's daughter, 
 Lucrezia, and being ready enough to inform 
 obsequious courtiers that this, that, or the other 
 benefice had not been obtained by the recom- 
 mendations of the Vice- Chancellor or any other 
 dignitary, but solely through her own influence 
 with the Pope. Lorenzo Pucci, writing to his 
 brother in Florence in December 1493, speaks of 
 Laura as " the child of the Pope, the niece of the 
 Cardinal [i.e. Giulia's brother Alessandro], and 
 the putative daughter of Signer Orsini " ; and 
 relates how he had boldly so designated her in 
 112
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 course of a recent conversation with the cardinal 
 in question. In the same letter he goes on to give 
 some interesting details of a visit he had paid to 
 Madonna Giulia at the palace of S. Maria in Portico. 
 He found her sitting by the fire with Madonna 
 Lucrezia, having just finished washing her hair. 
 She received him very cordially, and showed him 
 her baby, in whose face he declared he saw a 
 strong family likeness to the Pope, although pre- 
 sumably he kept his thoughts on this point to 
 himself at the moment. Giulia, he says, has 
 grown stouter, and is a most beautiful creature. 
 She let down her hair and had it dressed before 
 him, sending him into raptures of admiration ; 
 for never had he seen anything to compare with 
 it : it reached to her feet, and shone like the sun ! 
 Some notion of Giulia's style of beauty may be 
 obtained from a fresco of the Virgin and Child 
 by Pinturricchio over the door of one of the rooms 
 in the Vatican, as the features of the Virgin in this 
 picture are traditionally believed to have been 
 copied from those of Giulia Farnese. 
 
 Few details have reached us concerning the 
 private life of Lucrezia Borgia in Rome, for she 
 is hardly ever alluded to in the despatches of 
 the foreign ambassadors, who were far from being 
 the scandal-mongers which the Borgian apologists 
 would like to make them out, but, on the contrary, 
 seldom reported to their masters at home anything 
 which had no bearing on political affairs. B orchard 
 rarely mentions her in his diary, and when he does 
 it is always in connection with some of the affairs 
 
 H 113
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 of the Vatican. She and her sister-in-law, Donna 
 Sancia, who was only about a year older than 
 herself, seem to have held a splendid court in the 
 Vatican and in their own palaces. Music, dancing, 
 masquerades, and revels of all kinds were the 
 order of the day. Alexander VI was fond of 
 having comedies and ballets performed at all the 
 family festivities in the Vatican ; and these repre- 
 sentations were of a character that would now be 
 prohibited by the censor in any European country. 
 This, however, did not shock the morals or taste 
 of the men and women of the Renascence ; but 
 old-fashioned Catholics were greatly scandalised 
 to hear that the Pope and his cardinals freely 
 took part in all the festivities in indiscriminate 
 association with females. We may take it for 
 granted that Lucrezia and Donna Sancia and 
 Giulia Farnese entertained and were entertained 
 by cultured and gallant young ecclesiastics, such 
 as the Cardinals Medici, d'Este, Riario, and Farnese. 
 They were also doubtless frequent guests at the 
 banquets of the various Roman nobles, as well as 
 in the no less splendid palaces of some of the 
 wealthy bankers and merchants of the time. They 
 must often have aroused the envy as well as the 
 admiration of the citizens of the Eternal City 
 when they were seen riding through the streets to 
 or from one of these palaces and the Vatican, or 
 when they rode out to the Campagna, hunting or 
 hawking, in company with their gay and princely 
 husbands, all gorgeously attired, and surrounded 
 by a brilliant cavalcade of equally resplendent 
 114
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 courtiers. But coming troubles had already begun 
 to cast their shadows before. 
 
 The Pope had decided to dissolve Lucrezia's 
 marriage with Giovanni Sforza. That alliance had 
 now become rather an incumbrance than other- 
 wise ; and Alexander, prompted perhaps by his 
 young but abnormally astute son Cesare, desired 
 Lucrezia's freedom in order that she might enter 
 into another marriage more favourable to the 
 Borgian plans for family advancement. But 
 Giovanni, who did not yet realise what kind of 
 persons it was with whom he had to deal, refused 
 to agree to an amicable divorce. Whether or not 
 Lucrezia wished for the divorce does not appear ; 
 but at any rate she enabled her husband to escape 
 from the vengeance of her father and brother. 
 According to the chroniclers Almerici and Marzetti 
 of Pesaro, when Cardinal Cesare came to visit 
 Lucrezia one evening in Holy Week she com- 
 manded her husband's chamberlain, Jacomino, to 
 conceal himself behind a screen in the room. The 
 Cardinal talked very plainly to his sister, and 
 amongst other things informed her that the order 
 had already been given to kill her husband. As 
 soon as he had departed Lucrezia directed 
 Jacomino to tell his master what he had heard. 
 Sforza immediately made some excuse for visiting 
 the Church of St. Onofrio, mounted a horse that 
 had been sent there to await him, and galloped 
 off to his own territory at such a rate that when 
 he reached Pesaro after four-and-twenty hours' 
 riding the exhausted animal dropped dead. Safe 
 
 115
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 in his own domain, where he was protected by the 
 power of Venice, Giovanni continued for some 
 months to resist the Pope's demand that he should 
 voluntarily relinquish Lucrezia ; and in the mean- 
 time everybody's thoughts were turned in another 
 direction by a terrible and mysterious tragedy in 
 the family of the Borgia. 
 
 A day or two after the Duke of Gandia had been 
 invested with the duchy of Benevento, the Pope 
 appointed Cardinal Cesare as Legate for Naples. It 
 was arranged that he should proceed thither early 
 in the following month for the purpose of crowning 
 the new king, Ferrantino, and that he should be 
 accompanied by his brother Gandia. On June 14 
 Vanozza entertained her three sons together with 
 Cardinal Juan Borgia and a number of other 
 friends at a supper at her vineyard in the neigh- 
 bourhood of S. Pietro in Vincoli. It was late in 
 the evening when the Duke of Gandia and Cardinal 
 Cesare mounted their horses as though to return 
 together to the Vatican. But when near the palace 
 of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza the Duke took leave of 
 his brother, saying that he had to attend to some 
 private business, and rode away into the darkness, 
 accompanied only by one groom, and by an 
 unknown man in a mask, who had come to him 
 at the feast and who had been in the habit of 
 visiting him at the Vatican during the past month. 
 He was never seen alive again. When morning 
 came, and the Duke did not return, his servants 
 sent word to the Pope, who, though somewhat 
 disturbed, was well enough acquainted with his 
 116
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 son's habits to assume that he was engaged in 
 some love affair and could not leave the house 
 in daylight for fear of compromising himself or 
 the lady. But when night came and nothing could 
 be heard of Giovanni, Alexander was terrified, and 
 commanded every effort to be made to discover 
 his whereabouts. Presently the police brought 
 intelligence that they had found the missing Duke's 
 groom lying mortally wounded in the Piazza degli 
 Ebrei, and too far gone to give any intelligence 
 about what had happened to his master. Then 
 the rumour spread throughout Rome that the 
 Duke had been murdered and his body thrown into 
 the Tiber. Inquiries were made of all who had 
 business on the river or who lived near it ; and at 
 length, on the 16th, a Sclavonian charcoal dealer 
 or timber merchant told of a strange scene of 
 which he had been eye-witness on the night of 
 the 14th. Whilst keeping watch over a load of 
 timber which he had put on shore, he noticed two 
 men emerge from the alley on the left-hand side 
 of the Sclavonian Hospital, who looked all round 
 to see if the coast were clear, and then went back. 
 Presently two other men appeared, and after 
 looking about in the same manner, made a signal. 
 Then there emerged a man on a white horse, 
 carrying behind him on the crupper a dead body, 
 the head and hands of which were supported on 
 the one side and the legs on the other by the two 
 men whom he had seen at first. Coming slowly 
 to the place where rubbish was usually shot, the 
 horseman backed towards the river, and his 
 
 117
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 attendants lifted the dead body and flung it as 
 far as they could into the water. " Have you 
 thrown him well in ? " inquired the cavalier ; and 
 they replied, " Yes, sir." After this he turned 
 his horse's head to the river, and seeing something 
 black floating asked what it was. They replied 
 that it was his cloak, and then threw stones upon 
 it till it sank. Finally they all disappeared down 
 the alley which led to the Hospital of St. James. 
 Of course the man was asked why he had not 
 instantly reported such an occurrence to the 
 Governor ; and his reply is illuminating as to the 
 law and order maintained under the rule of Pope 
 Alexander VI. " In my time," said he, " I have 
 seen a hundred dead bodies flung into the Tiber, 
 and never heard of anybody troubling himself 
 about them." 
 
 The inhabitants of Rome, from the highest to 
 the lowest, were greatly agitated and alarmed. 
 The Orsini and the Colonna called their troops 
 together ; citizens closed their shops and barri- 
 caded their doors ; for nobody knew what might 
 happen next. Meanwhile hundreds of fishermen 
 were set to work with their nets dragging the river, 
 and about mid-day the body of the Duke was 
 found, near to S. Maria del Popolo and close to a 
 garden belonging to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. The 
 hands were tied together, the throat had been cut, 
 and the body was pierced by nine ghastly wounds. 
 But it was evidently no case of robbery, for not 
 only were the rich and costly garments intact, 
 but a purse containing forty ducats was found 
 118
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 upon the corpse. After being taken to the Castle 
 of St. Angelo, and washed and clothed in the robes 
 of the Gonfaloniere of the Church, the body of the 
 murdered man, on an open bier, was carried to 
 S. Maria del Popolo to be buried with all due 
 pomp and ceremony in the family chapel of his 
 mother. The Pope became nearly frantic. 
 Burchard records that he shut himself up in 
 his room, refusing to eat or drink, weeping and 
 moaning bitterly, and unable to obtain a moment's 
 sleep from Thursday until Sunday. At length, in 
 response to the urgent and persistent entreaties 
 of the Cardinal of Segovia and other courtiers, 
 he opened his door. He had already given orders 
 to the Governor of the city to make a thorough 
 search of every house on the banks of the Tiber, 
 including the palace of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza ; 
 but the complete failure of the police to find 
 the slightest clue left room for all sorts of sus- 
 picions and rumours. Some suspected it to be a 
 retaliation on the part of the Orsini ; some that it 
 was the work of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, who was 
 known to have had a violent quarrel with the 
 Duke a short time previously ; others attributed 
 it to Giovanni Sforza, actuated, it was whispered, 
 not merely by desire for vengeance on the Pope 
 but also by jealousy of Gandia's reputed incestuous 
 relations with Lucrezia. But, in addition to these, 
 suspicion also rested on the Duke of Urbino, 
 Cardinal Sanseverino, and Count Antonio Maria 
 della Mirandola, who had a beautiful daughter, and 
 whose palace stood near the spot where the Duke 
 
 119
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 was thrown into the river ; whilst many believed 
 the deed to be the work of some unknown jealous 
 husband. 
 
 On June 19 the Pope summoned a Consistory, 
 which was attended by all the cardinals except 
 Ascanio Sforza, and by the ambassadors of Spain, 
 Venice, Naples, and Milan. After they had all 
 offered their condolences, he addressed them in a 
 speech in which he declared that he loved the 
 Duke of Gandia better than any one else in the 
 world, that if he had seven Papacies he would 
 give them all for the life of his son, that he knew 
 not who was the murderer, but that he repudiated 
 the suspicions which had been cast upon his son 
 Giuffre, his son-in-law Giovanni Sforza, the Duke 
 of Urbino, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, and others 
 though it was remarked as significant that as 
 regards the Orsini he merely maintained silence. 
 He regarded the Duke's death as a punishment 
 for his sins ; and had resolved to amend his own 
 life and to reform the Church. He renounced all 
 nepotism from henceforth, promised that benefices 
 should be conferred on none but proper and 
 deserving persons, and appointed on the spot a 
 commission of cardinals to carry out the necessary 
 reforms. " Time will show whether he is in 
 earnest," wrote Cardinal Ascanio to his brother, 
 Ludovico, in Milan ; and it was not long before 
 time did show, for as soon as the Commission 
 produced its first projects of reform Alexander 
 vetoed them on the ground that they unduly 
 restricted the liberty of the Pope. From a letter 
 120
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 of the Florentine ambassador, Bracci, we learn 
 that four days after this Consistory Alexander 
 suddenly abandoned the search for his son's 
 murderer, probably, as this envoy surmises, in 
 order to put the criminals off their guard ; but in 
 a subsequent despatch some weeks later, Bracci 
 reports that the reason why the Pope has aban- 
 doned his investigations is that he knows all. 
 
 The assassination had evidently been carefully 
 planned some time beforehand ; and Bracci rightly 
 describes it as a masterpiece of craft. Popular 
 suspicion fastened itself in turn upon everybody 
 who could be surmised to have any motive for 
 the deed ; but it was not until some nine months 
 after that anybody accused the dead Duke's 
 brother Cesare. From that date until the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century, when William 
 Roscoe ventured to express a contrary opinion in 
 his " Life and Pontificate of Leo X," the young 
 cardinal was universally believed to have been 
 his brother's murderer. Roscoe's disbelief seems 
 to have been founded solely on the ground that 
 after the event Cesare appeared to have enjoyed 
 the continued favour both of his father and of his 
 mother. But some subsequent historians have 
 given other reasons for doubting or disbelieving 
 the traditional story. Mandell Creighton, in his 
 " History of the Papacy," contends that the 
 accusation against Cesare rests on no better founda- 
 tion than the suspicions against Cardinal Ascanio, 
 Giovanni Sforza, the Orsini, and the rest of them. 
 He inclines to think the Duke probably fell a 
 
 121
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 victim to the jealousy of some lover or husband 
 whose honour had been attacked ; but finally 
 concludes that it is impossible to express any 
 certain opinion. Pastor, in his " History of 
 the Popes," while admitting that the amatory 
 explanation may after all be the true one, alleges 
 Alexander's persistent pursuit of the Orsini as 
 evidence that the Pope believed them to be the 
 murderers of his son. He sees no evidence to 
 implicate Cesare ; and indorses Knopfler's remark 
 that, considering the intense hatred which Cesare 
 afterwards inspired, we cannot wonder if one 
 undeserved accusation should be added to the 
 many which he so richly merited, nor that it 
 should have been generally believed. 
 
 On the other hand, Gregorovius, in his " History 
 of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages," brings 
 in an unhesitating verdict of guilty. Guicciardini, 
 Machiavelli, and all the principal statesmen and 
 historians of the time, believed Cesare to be the 
 murderer ; and although no one dared for a time 
 to express the opinion openly, he finds indications 
 that from the first it was generally held in secret. 
 Moreover, he holds that the Pope knew, but that 
 Alexander had already fallen so completely under 
 the spell of Cesare's terrible strength of will that 
 he trembled and bowed down before it. Of course 
 it would be absurd to look for such proof of this 
 far-off crime as would suffice to hang a man at the 
 Old Bailey in the present day. But there are at 
 least two points in the case which seem totally 
 inexplicable on any other hypothesis than Cesare's 
 122
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 fratricide and the Pope's knowledge of it. Although 
 burning for vengeance, and having given orders 
 for the pursuit of the assassins with the utmost 
 rigour, Alexander suddenly abandoned all search 
 for them nine days after the event. What other 
 explanation can be given of this inconsistency 
 except Bracci's that it was because the Pope knew 
 who was the criminal ? And if he knew that it 
 was a Sforza or a Mirandola, an Urbino or an 
 Orsini, is it conceivable that such a man as Rodrigo 
 Borgia would have rested for a moment until he 
 had destroyed the murderer of his favourite son ? 
 The second point is scarcely less significant. 
 Cardinal Cesare's name never appears in any of the 
 proceedings at the Vatican, public or private, from 
 the day of the murder until July 22, when he left 
 Rome, according to arrangement, for the purpose 
 of crowning Ferrantino of Aragon at Naples. He 
 exhibited no sign of that fierce vindictiveness 
 which flashed out so terribly on other occasions ; 
 neither, on the other hand, did he show any sign 
 of a softer spirit ; and he did not attend his 
 brother's funeral. During those thirty-seven days 
 he and the Pope seem to have avoided one another ; 
 and it is further noticeable that when he returned 
 from Naples on September 6, after having fulfilled 
 his mission with great splendour and eclat, the 
 Pope received him in Consistory with strange 
 and unaccustomed reserve, for Burchard notes in 
 his diary that the father and son did not exchange 
 a single word. 
 
 Not even the most thorough-going admirers of 
 
 123
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Cesare Borgia and, strange to say, several of 
 them have recently appeared have ventured to 
 suggest that he was incapable of fratricide ; but 
 they, as well as Pastor and some other historians, 
 have argued in favour of his innocence in this case 
 that, as the Duke of Gandia's son would inherit 
 his father's title and possessions, there was no 
 " sufficient motive " impelling his brother to the 
 murder. It would be too strange a question of 
 casuistry to determine what might be considered 
 a " sufficient motive " for fratricide ; but looking 
 at the matter in the light of Cesare's subsequent 
 conduct and career it is easy enough to show that, 
 at any rate, he must have been strongly desirous 
 of having the Duke of Gandia out of his way. 
 Cesare had already determined to lay aside his 
 clerical habit and carve out a career for himself 
 by arms and diplomacy. But his elder brother 
 Giovanni was his father's favourite ; and the 
 Pope, who had an exaggeratedly high opinion of 
 the Duke's military talents, intended to advance 
 him to the highest attainable pitch of secular 
 greatness. Whilst Cesare could never hope to 
 occupy the Papal chair on account of the stain 
 of his bastardy, the Dukedom of Benevento, 
 backed by all the wealth and power of the Holy 
 See, might easily prove to be only a stepping-stone 
 to the throne of Naples. After carefully watching 
 the conduct of the campaign against the Orsini, 
 Cesare can have felt nothing but contempt for the 
 military abilities of his brother ; and yet it was 
 perfectly plain to him that so long as this incom- 
 124
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 petent favourite of the Pope lived, his own path 
 along these lines was insurmountably barred. We 
 need not go so far as Charles Yriarte and Louis 
 Gastine, who contend that Cesare had already 
 become convinced that the safety of the Papacy, 
 and consequently of the House of Borgia, depended 
 upon the instant establishment of the temporal 
 power of the Church. And their citation of the 
 decorative chasings on his sword of state in glori- 
 fication of the deeds of his great Roman namesake 
 as " documentary evidence " of his own settled 
 determination to extend the empire of the Holy 
 See over the whole of Italy, may certainly be 
 dismissed as fanciful and fantastic. But although 
 Cesare was only twenty-two years of age, his mind 
 was far in advance of his years, his personal 
 ambition was boundless, his tiger-like spirit had 
 already shown itself in the orders given for the 
 murder of his brother-in-law Giovanni Sforza, 
 and what we know of his subsequent swift and 
 sanguinary dealings with Perotto, with the Duke 
 of Bisceglia, and with his own condottiere generals 
 at Sinigaglia, forbids us to suppose that he would 
 have had any qualms about clearing from his 
 path by a violent death even a brother who barred 
 his way to " honour and glory." 
 
 Alexander's buoyancy of nature did not allow 
 of any prolonged indulgence in grief even for the 
 death of his favourite son. All idea of reform, 
 either of the Church or of his private life, was 
 soon abandoned ; his old habits of licentious 
 living were resumed ; his nepotism became more 
 
 125
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 pronounced than ever ; and from this time forward 
 he seems to have fallen more and more under the 
 influence, it might indeed be said under the 
 complete control, of his son Cesare. The Pope 
 was determined to have Lucrezia divorced from 
 Giovanni Sforza, but the Lord of Pesaro still 
 refused to submit even after a commission presided 
 over by two cardinals had declared the marriage 
 to be null and void on the ground that it had 
 never been consummated because of his impotency. 
 Giovanni went to Milan to solicit the support of 
 his powerful relative the Duke ; but Ludovico 
 Sforza, after making the humorous suggestion 
 that Giovanni should submit himself to a test of 
 his capacity in the presence of trustworthy 
 witnesses, finally joined with Cardinal Ascanio 
 in inducing their kinsman to submit to the inevit- 
 able. Sforza accordingly declared in writing that 
 his marriage with Lucrezia had never been con- 
 summated, whereupon on December 20, 1497, the 
 divorce was formally decreed, and Giovanni re- 
 quired to return his wife's dowry of 31,000 ducats. 
 But he took a terrible revenge ; for to his exaspera- 
 tion is due the foulest of all the scandals which 
 have besmirched the name of Borgia. He told his 
 uncle Ludovico in so many words that the reason 
 why the Pope wished to divorce him from Lucrezia 
 was the Holy Father's desire to have unfettered 
 unnatural relations with his own daughter. 
 
 Unfortunately Alexander's conduct had been so 
 unexampled and outrageous that people were 
 ready to believe anything of him ; and the matter 
 126
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 became common talk throughout Italy. When 
 Guicciardini wrote his history forty years after- 
 wards he stated it as an accepted fact that 
 Lucrezia's two brothers, Giovanni and Cesare, 
 were rivals in the love of their common sister ; 
 and added that it was commonly reported, " if 
 we ought to believe so great an enormity," that 
 not only the two brothers, but the Holy Father 
 himself was a candidate for her favours. Early in 
 June, before the murder of her brother Giovanni, 
 Lucrezia had left her palace in Rome and retired 
 to the Convent of S. Sisto on the Appian Way. 
 Donato Aretino, reporting this event, which 
 naturally caused some speculation in Rome, 
 remarks that some people say she will turn nun, 
 whilst others make statements which he would 
 rather not trust to a letter. Villari, in his " Life 
 and Times of Machiavelli," seems to suspect not 
 only some connection between this dark hint and 
 a subsequent report by some of the foreign 
 ambassadors in Rome that in March 1498 Lucrezia 
 gave birth to an illegitimate child, but also between 
 these two reports and the parentage of a certain 
 Giovanni Borgia, the mysterious " Infans 
 Romanus," who must have been born somewhere 
 about that time. By a Brief dated September 1, 
 1501, the Pope legitimised this boy as the natural 
 son of Cardinal Cesare and a Roman spinster ; 
 but in a second Brief, issued immediately after- 
 wards, the boy, who is stated to be about three 
 years old, is acknowledged as the Pope's own son. 
 At a later date this boy Giovanni appeared at 
 
 127
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Lucrezia's court at Ferrara, and he was brought 
 up and educated with her own son Rodrigo. 
 
 Amongst those who had written to express their 
 sympathy with the Pope on the occasion of the 
 murder of his son we find the name of Girolamo 
 Savonarola. But the great Florentine preacher 
 and religious reformer did not by any means abate 
 in his denunciations of the corruption of the 
 Church in general or of the notoriou< evil living 
 of the Pope in particular. At first Alexander 
 seems to have been only scornfully amused at the 
 infatuation of the Florentines for a " chattering 
 friar " ; but after the death of Lorenzo de' Medici 
 Savonarola's influence reached such a height that 
 it had to be seriously reckoned with. Like the old 
 Hebrew prophets, he claimed to be divinely 
 inspired ; and when his prediction that a new 
 Cyrus would overrun Italy without opposition 
 seemed to be miraculously fulfilled to the very 
 letter by the expedition of Charles VIII, many 
 believed that the fanatical Dominican was indeed 
 a man sent from God. Even Charles himself seems 
 to have been touched with the prevalent super- 
 stition, for when Savonarola boldly threatened 
 him with the Divine wrath if he did not promptly 
 evacuate Florence, the French conqueror humbled 
 himself and departed. In July 1495 Alexander 
 had courteously invited him to Rome to explain 
 his claims to a Divine commission ; but the 
 " chattering friar," who was not so simple as to 
 put his head into the wolf's jaws, excused himself. 
 Then, in September, the Pope suspended him ; 
 128
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 but the call of the Florentines was so urgent that 
 in February 1496 he began preaching again. 
 Nothing like it had ever been heard, and nothing 
 like it could have been expected to succeed, in 
 the Cathedral of Florence. He not only denounced 
 the prevalent infidelity and immorality, but, in 
 the very heart and centre of all the culture of the 
 Renascence, he stigmatised the Italian love of 
 beauty as mere lust, and the whole life of the 
 time as despicable frivolity and sensualism. The 
 effect was almost magical. Crowded congregations 
 were dissolved in tears. His numerous followers 
 abandoned festivities and amusements of all kinds. 
 Hymns were heard in every street in place of 
 licentious songs and carnival choruses. Wealthy 
 women laid aside their costly garments and 
 jewellery to dress as plainly as Quakers. Roystering 
 youths became decorous and devout. The bitterest 
 enemies became reconciled. Usurers restored their 
 ill-gotten gains. Nor was this all ; for after the 
 expulsion of the Medici, it was Savonarola who 
 drew up the constitution of the new Republic 
 which was then formed, so that the " chattering 
 friar " became in effect and for a time the master 
 of the city. Alexander then changed his tactics, 
 and endeavoured to enlist Savonarola on his side 
 by the offer of a cardinal's hat ; but this the 
 Dominican proudly rejected. 
 
 Before long, however, the inevitable reaction set 
 in. A number of gay young men, calling them- 
 selves " Compagnacci," or bad fellows, desirous 
 of reviving the bacchanalian revels of the 
 
 I 129
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Medician regime, organised a riotous opposition 
 to the " Piagnoni," or snivellers, as they dubbed 
 the followers of Savonarola. This, of course, only 
 redoubled the energy of the " Piagnoni," who 
 replied by the famous burning of " the vanities," 
 when books, pictures, statuettes, trinkets, carnival 
 dresses, and a thousand other condemned treasures 
 were carried in procession to one of the public 
 squares and burned in huge bonfires, whilst a 
 solemn dance was executed around the sacrificial 
 pyre. The opposition, however, not only obtained 
 ascendency in the Signoria, and ordered the dis- 
 continuance of Savonarola's preaching, but, aided 
 by Piero de' Medici, then living in exile in Rome, 
 they induced the Pope to excommunicate him. 
 He refused to recognise the interdict, and continued 
 his sermons as well as his strenuous exhortations 
 to Charles VIII and other European princes to 
 summon a council for the salvation of the Church. 
 Nothing ever alarmed Alexander VI more than the 
 threat of a council ; but in this instance his fears 
 were allayed, and his troublesome opponent silenced 
 in a very singular manner. A Franciscan monk, 
 named Francesco di Puglia, in the course of a 
 sermon preached against Savonarola in the Church 
 of Santa Croce, declared himself ready to go through 
 the ordeal of fire with him in order to prove the 
 falsity of the Dominican's doctrines. Savonarola 
 himself took no notice of the absurd and antiquated 
 challenge, but one of his zealous followers, Fra 
 Domenico Buonvicini of Pescia, eagerly took it 
 up and offered to undergo the ordeal on behalf 
 180
 
 DIVORCE AND MURDER 
 
 of his master. Francesco di Puglia then artfully 
 retired, on the ground that it was Savonarola 
 he had challenged, and him alone with whom he 
 was willing to enter the fire ; and another 
 Franciscan, Fra Giuliano Rondinelli, was put 
 forward to undergo the trial with Buonvicini. 
 The Arrabbiatti and the riotous " Compagnacci " 
 were determined not to let such a good opportunity 
 escape them, hoping to overwhelm the " Piagnoni " 
 with ridicule, and perhaps even, in the tumult 
 which they could easily bring about, to accomplish 
 the assassination of Savonarola. 
 
 The Signoria, secretly countenanced by Rome, 
 made all arrangements for the strange contest ; 
 and on April 17, 1498, Savonarola, who had at 
 last been persuaded that his witless followers' zeal 
 was due to inspiration from on high, marched at 
 the head of a long procession of his monks to the 
 Piazza in front of the palace. The flames were 
 kindled in the presence of an immense crowd, 
 many of whom confidently expected to see a 
 repetition of the miracle of the fiery furnace 
 described in the Book of Daniel. Savonarola 
 insisted that his champion should bear the Host 
 with him when he entered the fire ; whereupon 
 the Franciscans, who were by no means eager to 
 proceed any further, raised a cry of sacrilege ; 
 and in one way or another managed to waste 
 most part of the day in disputes about procedure, 
 until in the evening a violent thunderstorm came 
 on, and the Signoria declared that the ordeal 
 could not take place. The disappointed crowd, 
 
 131
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 some furious at missing an exciting spectacle, 
 some convinced that Savonarola must be an 
 impostor or he would have entered the fire himself 
 and confounded his enemies, were stimulated by the 
 " Campagnacci " and the Arrabbiatti to attack the 
 Convent of S. Marco, many of the " Piagnoni " were 
 killed or wounded in the streets, and Savonarola, 
 with Fra Domenico and some other of his prominent 
 supporters, were thrown into prison. Alexander VI 
 endeavoured to get the " chattering friar " handed 
 over to his tender mercies in Rome, but the 
 Signoria, though they were quite willing that the 
 tribunal should be directed and presided over 
 by emissaries of the Pope, insisted on the trial 
 taking place in Florence. Under the rack a 
 confession was extorted from Savonarola to the 
 effect that his claim of direct Divine inspiration 
 had been a delusion. This was enough for the 
 Apostolic Commissioners, who condemned him and 
 his two principal supporters as heretics, and 
 sentenced the three of them to be burned to death 
 in the market place and their ashes thrown into 
 the Arno. It is certainly not fair to saddle 
 Alexander VI with the entire responsibility for 
 the ruin and death of Savonarola. From first to 
 last he despised the " chattering friar," but there 
 was sufficient danger in Savonarola's persistent 
 demand for a council to make Alexander quite 
 ready to lend his support to the great Dominican's 
 enemies ; and doubtless he sat far more securely 
 in St. Peter's Chair when that powerful voice that 
 called so urgently for reform was silenced for ever. 
 132
 
 CESARE BORGIA, DUKE OF ROMAGNA 
 
 ON April 7, 1498, the day of the proposed ordeal 
 by fire which proved so disastrous to Savonarola, 
 Charles VIII of France died suddenly at the early 
 age of twenty-eight. He was succeeded by his 
 equally weak but equally ambitious cousin the 
 Duke of Orleans, who, although announcing his 
 accession to the Pope in most conciliatory terms, 
 left little doubt as to the aggressive policy he 
 intended to pursue by assuming not only the title 
 of Louis XII of France, but that of King of 
 Jerusalem and the Two Sicilies, as well as (by reason 
 of his descent from the Visconti) that of Duke of 
 Milan. Alexander VI at once sent envoys to 
 express his congratulations, though they were 
 instructed to point out at the same time that the 
 new king was expected to make war on the Turks 
 instead of on Italy, that his claims on Milan and 
 on Naples were impracticable, that the liberties of 
 Florence must be respected and Pisa restored to 
 her, that the Orsini and the Colonna should not 
 be employed in the French service, and that Louis 
 must abstain from taking the banished ex-Prefect 
 Giovanni della Rovere under his protection. 
 Alexander's policy, always governed by con- 
 
 133
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 siderations of family advancement, seems to have 
 been from this time forth directed by the greater 
 subtlety and the more vaulting ambition of his 
 son. Cesare had firmly resolved to exchange an 
 ecclesiastical for a secular career ; and already he 
 aimed at nothing less than a kingdom. His first 
 scheme was to marry an Aragonese princess, as a 
 step towards acquiring the throne of Naples, 
 where, although Ferrantino had been reinstated 
 with acclamation after the expulsion of the French, 
 the government was weak and threatened both 
 within and without. The Pope accordingly made 
 proposals for a double alliance with the Neapolitan 
 reigning house, his daughter Lucrezia being sug- 
 gested as a wife for Alfonso, Duke of Bisceglia, a 
 natural son of Alfonso II, whilst Ferrantino' s 
 daughter Carlotta, who was to bring the princi- 
 pality of Taranto as a dowry, was suggested as a 
 wife for Cesare. The young princess shrank from 
 marrying " a priest and the son of a priest," and 
 her father refused to hear of the match ; but in 
 June Lucrezia was betrothed to Alfonso of Bisceglia, 
 and in the following month the Duke, who was a 
 year younger than Lucrezia, came quietly to Rome 
 and was duly married to the Pope's daughter in 
 the Vatican. Though of a somewhat melancholy 
 cast of countenance, this youth of seventeen was 
 described as the handsomest lad ever seen in Rome. 
 It was expressly agreed that he should remain at 
 the Papal court for a year, and that Lucrezia 
 should not be required to live in Naples during 
 her father's lifetime. 
 134.
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 The failure to bring about Cesare's projected 
 marriage, however, combined with some other 
 unexpected happenings to bring about a change 
 in the Papal policy. A sanguinary conflict had 
 been raging for some time between the Orsini and 
 the Colonna, until on April 12, 1498, notwith- 
 standing their alliance with the Conti, the Orsini 
 suffered a crushing defeat at Palombara. Both 
 factions seem then to have realised that their 
 perpetual conflicts, instead of bringing any advan- 
 tage to either of them, only played into the hands 
 of the Pope. Accordingly they made peace, sealed 
 their reconciliation by several intermarriages, and 
 placed the settlement of their family disputes in 
 the hands of King Ferrantino of Naples. That 
 this was generally understood as a menace to the 
 Borgia was made plain by a set of verses which 
 the Pope one day found affixed to the door of the 
 Vatican library, in which the Colonna and the 
 Orsini were exhorted to turn their now happily 
 united forces to the succour of their country by 
 slaying the " Bull " now devastating Ansonia and 
 flinging his calves into the Tiber. Meanwhile the 
 Pope had been negotiating with Louis XII. Louis 
 wished to get rid of his wife Joanna, who was 
 childless, in order that he might marry Anne of 
 Brittany, his cousin's widow, who might bring 
 him children, and certainly would bring him the 
 last of the great fiefs not yet joined to the French 
 crown. In order to accomplish this purpose it 
 was necessary for him to obtain a dispensation from 
 the Pope ; and Alexander of course seized the 
 
 135
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 opportunity to make a bargain to the advantage 
 of himself and his family. It mattered not that 
 Italy must suffer a second invasion, and that both 
 Naples and Milan must be handed over to a foreign 
 foe, so long as Cesare Borgia could obtain a 
 dukedom and a royal bride, whilst Alexander VI 
 obtained protection against the enemies who were 
 now banding together against him. 
 
 On August 17 Cesare explained to the cardinals 
 in a Consistory called for the purpose that he had 
 never desired to be a priest, and that having 
 hitherto followed an irksome ecclesiastical career 
 solely out of regard for his father's wishes, he now 
 desired to lay it down, in order that he might marry 
 and devote himself to secular concerns, for which 
 he felt he had more aptitude as well as more 
 inclination. None of the subservient cardinals 
 present raised any objection, several of them 
 perhaps looking forward to a share of the valuable 
 benefices which Cesare perforce resigned together 
 with his red hat. However this may be, the arch- 
 bishopric of Valencia, at any rate, was not allowed 
 to go out of the family, but was soon afterwards 
 made over to Cardinal Juan Borgia. On the same 
 day the French king's envoy arrived in Rome for 
 the purpose of conducting Cesare to France ; the 
 Pope having agreed with Louis XII to send him 
 his dispensation for a divorce on condition of his 
 giving Cesare a dukedom and engaging to procure 
 Ferrantino's consent to the ex-cardinal's marriage 
 with Carlotta of Aragon. 
 
 The preparations for Cesare's journey were so 
 136
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 elaborate that he was not able to set out until 
 October 1. His father had decked him out with 
 more than regal splendour and extravagance ; and 
 watched him proudly from a window of the Vatican 
 when he set out on his journey, riding a magnificent 
 horse, clad in a costume of white damask with a 
 mantle of black velvet and wearing a hat with 
 black plumes. He was accompanied by four cardi- 
 nals, several young Roman nobles, and a numerous 
 retinue scarcely less splendidly equipped than him- 
 self, for it is said that their magnificent horses were 
 shod with silver and their saddle-cloths embroidered 
 with pearls. Some hundreds of mules carried his 
 plate and other treasure ; and the whole repre- 
 sented 200,000 ducats' worth of property, extracted 
 from the faithful by more or less questionable 
 methods, ostensibly for the propagation of the 
 Christian religion. He embarked at Civita Vecchia 
 in French galleys for Marseilles, where he was 
 received on his arrival with royal honours. At 
 Avignon he was welcomed with great splendour 
 and apparent cordiality by Cardinal Giuliano della 
 Rovere, for that wily prelate, seeing no prospect 
 of anything but hopeless exile in continuing his 
 contest with the powerful Borgia, had made his 
 peace with Alexander and was now using every 
 endeavour to promote at the court of France the 
 interests of his bitterest enemy. 
 
 Louis XII was with the French camp at Chignon, 
 where Cesar e made his formal entry on December 19 
 with all the barbaric splendour of an Oriental 
 potentate. A detailed account of the pageant has 
 
 137
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 been preserved in the Memoires of Brantome, 
 where may be found a list of the relay after relay 
 of baggage mules, loaded with trunks spread over 
 with rich coverings embroidered with the Borgian 
 arms ; of the sumptuously caparisoned led horses ; 
 of the pages on horseback dressed in crimson 
 velvet ; of the guards on foot, having stripes of 
 yellow silk over their velvet coats ; of the thirty 
 gentlemen clad in cloth of gold and silver ; of the 
 kettledrums, the trumpeters, the minstrels carrying 
 instruments of silver slung on chains of gold, with 
 all the rest of the extravagant show. And bring- 
 ing up the rear of this bright host came the ex- 
 cardinal himself, mounted on a large and stately 
 horse, superbly caparisoned. He was dressed in 
 red satin and cloth of gold powdered all over with 
 large pearls and costly diamonds. Around his cap 
 were double rows of jewels, including six or seven 
 rubies as large as beans. Precious stones glittered 
 all over his apparel, and even his boots were 
 covered with twisted cordage of gold and bordered 
 with pearls. Louis XII is reported to have re- 
 garded this absurd and inappropriate display with 
 the contempt it deserved ; but he received Cesare 
 with all outward honour, for it was of the utmost 
 importance to him to secure the adhesion of the 
 Pope. 
 
 Cesare had brought with him the papal Bull 
 authorising Louis's divorce ; and in return duly 
 received his dukedom of Valentinois, with an 
 appropriate revenue. But the French king was 
 unable to persuade either Ferrantino of Naples 
 138
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 or the Princess Carlotta herself to consent to 
 a marriage with the Pope's son. Meantime 
 Alexander VI was in a critical position. His 
 negotiations with France had alarmed Ludovico 
 Sforza, who, together with Cardinal Ascanio and 
 the Colonna faction, made common cause with 
 Ferrantino of Naples. Towards the end of Novem- 
 ber the Portuguese envoys remonstrated strongly 
 with the Pope concerning his simony, his nepotism, 
 and his French policy, threatening a council if the 
 latter, which endangered the peace of Italy, were 
 persevered in. It was believed that Cardinal 
 Ascanio hoped, with the aid of the Emperor 
 Maximilian and Ferdinand of Spain, to secure the 
 summoning of a council to dethrone Alexander ; 
 and when the Spanish envoys arrived in Rome 
 about the middle of December and used much 
 the same language as the Portuguese had done, 
 the Pope was filled with misgivings. He blamed 
 Louis XII for failing to bring about Cesare's 
 marriage with Carlotta of Aragon ; and when the 
 French king concluded a treaty with Venice for 
 the partition of Milan in March 1499 Alexander 
 was doubtful whether or not to throw in his lot 
 with the other side. He endeavoured to conciliate 
 Spain by taking away Benevento from the heirs 
 of the Duke of Gandia and restoring it to the 
 Church, and by other reformatory measures. But 
 when in May he received a letter from Louis XII 
 informing him that in consequence of the failure 
 to secure Carlotta of Aragon, Cesare had been given 
 the hand of Charlotte d'Albret, a princess of the 
 
 139
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 royal house of France, his joy was unbounded. 
 Rome was illuminated in celebration of the 
 auspicious event ; and the Pope, openly announcing 
 himself on the French side, declared that the 
 reigning dynasty in Milan must be done away with. 
 This was a final breach with the house of Sforza ; 
 and Cardinal Ascanio, taking all his movable 
 treasure with him, fled from Rome. He was 
 followed shortly afterwards by the Cardinals 
 Colonna and Sanseverino, and also by Lucrezia's 
 husband, Alfonso of Bisceglia, who evidently felt 
 that he would be safer in his native land, notwith- 
 standing that he was the Pope's son-in-law and 
 that Lucrezia seemed genuinely attached to him. 
 
 As Louis XII had secured the neutrality of 
 Spain by treaty, and as Florence was fully occupied 
 with Pisa and Maximilian with the Swiss, whilst 
 Ferrantino of Naples thought he had enough to 
 do to look after his own dominions, Ludovico 
 Sforza was left to face the French and Venetians 
 without a single ally. In July 1499 he was 
 attacked simultaneously by the French from the 
 west and the Venetians from the east. Fortress 
 after fortress rapidly fell to his enemies, either by 
 cowardice or by treachery. On September 1, find- 
 ing his situation hopeless, he fled to the Tyrol ; 
 and no sooner had he left Milan than the city 
 opened its gates to the enemy. On learning the 
 rapid success of his generals Louis XII left Lyons 
 for Milan ; and on October 6 he entered the city 
 in triumph as its rightful duke amidst the acclama- 
 tions of the populace. He was accompanied by 
 140
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 the Princes of Savoy, Montferrat, Ferrara, and 
 Mantua; by the envoys of Genoa, Florence, Siena, 
 Luca and Pisa; by the Cardinals d'Amboise and 
 Giuliano della Rovere, and by Cesare Borgia, Duke 
 of Valentinois, who had left his duchess in Dauphine 
 whilst he went on to push his fortunes under the 
 aegis of the French king. He had been married 
 to Charlotte d'Albret on May 10 quite quietly in 
 the Queen's apartments of the chateau of Blois, 
 in the presence of the King. Nine days later 
 he was solemnly invested with the order of St. 
 Michael. Notwithstanding his disappointment of an 
 Aragonese marriage, Cesare seems to have exerted 
 himself to please his wife, who, for her part, 
 appears to have become deeply in love with the 
 handsome but heartless adventurer. When he 
 left Dauphine for Milan with Louis XII he had 
 lived with her for four months ; and he never set 
 eyes on her again. Presumably he must have had 
 some correspondence with her, but not a letter of 
 it has ever been found. 
 
 The Pope made no concealment of his delight 
 at the success of the French arms, which bade fair 
 to turn out so favourably for Cesare's advance- 
 ment. All his children were now away from Rome. 
 Donna Sancia had been banished to Naples ; and 
 her husband Giuffre had been sent with his sister 
 to Spoleto, of which town her father had made 
 Lucrezia regent. In September he went to Nepi, 
 which town also he bestowed upon his beloved 
 daughter. Whilst there her husband was per- 
 suaded to return to her ; and presently Duke 
 
 141
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Cesare joined the family party. It was probably 
 at this time that the Pope and his son took counsel 
 together as to the best method of advancing 
 the family fortunes, and that it was agreed upon 
 that Cesare should conquer and extirpate the 
 reigning families of the Romagna and weld the 
 whole of that territory into one principality for 
 himself. In return for the Pope's support, Louis XII 
 placed a portion of his army at Cesare's disposal, 
 with the stipulation that operations should be 
 undertaken only against those families who had 
 supported the cause of the Sforza. Of course the 
 expedition was ostensibly made in the interests of 
 the Church. The " tyrants " of the network of 
 small principalities in Romagna and the Marches 
 were nominally vicars of the Church, but their 
 relations with their feudal lord were of such a 
 character that it was easy for any Pope who was 
 so minded to pick a quarrel with them. Alexander's 
 pretext was that the Lords of Rimini, Pesaro, 
 Faenza, Imola, Forli, Urbino and Camerino had 
 forfeited their estates by non-payment of tribute. 
 A Bull to this effect was issued in October ; and 
 in less than a month Cesare started on his campaign. 
 At the head of an army which, including his 
 French and Swiss auxiliaries, numbered some 8000 
 men, Cesare swooped down upon Imola and Forli, 
 which were held by Caterina Sforza as regent for 
 her son. The people of Imola opened their gates 
 without any attempt at defence, and on December 1 
 the governor, who had shut himself up in the 
 fortress, was forced to capitulate also. The Duke 
 142
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 then turned his attention to Forli, the inhabitants 
 of which likewise offered no resistance ; but the 
 amazonian Caterina, entrenching herself in her 
 citadel, defied Cesare Borgia, as she had previously 
 defied the murderers of her husband eleven years 
 previously. Once, in the course of a parley, she 
 all but succeeded in entrapping Cesare into the 
 citadel ; and the Borgia alleged that one of her 
 adherents was sent to Rome to poison the Pope by 
 means of an infected letter. Caterina held out 
 for six weeks, but on January 12, 1500, her fortress 
 was stormed by the French troops and she was 
 led away a prisoner. Almost at the same moment 
 Cesare received intelligence of the death of his 
 relative, Cardinal Giovanni Borgia the younger. 
 Giovanni had been in Cesare's camp a few days 
 previously, and had ridden as far as Urbino on his 
 way to Rome when he heard of the Duke's success, 
 and. although then suffering from fever, mounted 
 his mule in order to return and offer his congratula- 
 tions in person. But the hand of death was upon 
 him and before he could get beyond Fossombrone 
 he expired. He had been at variance with his 
 powerful relatives ; and at a later date, when the 
 deadly danger of the Borgian enmity became more 
 apparent, Cesare was suspected of having poisoned 
 him. But this rumour seems to have had no 
 good foundation. The dead cardinal's remains 
 were carried to Rome and interred with little 
 ceremony in S. Maria del Popolo, whilst his benefices, 
 of course, were promptly transferred to another 
 member of the family. 
 
 143
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Cesare, being now master of Cesena, Imola and 
 Forli, was in a good strategical position for pur- 
 suing his conquests, and was preparing to proceed 
 against Pesaro when his campaign received an 
 unexpected check. Machiavelli aptly remarks that 
 people change their prince in the hope of bettering 
 their condition, but that in this they are most 
 commonly disappointed, because the new prince 
 is obliged to quarter his army on them, to tax 
 them, and to make them suffer a thousand incon- 
 veniences which are the natural results of conquest. 
 And he points out that this is why Louis XII so 
 quickly subdued Milan, and lost it again as quickly. 
 The people who had so readily opened their gates 
 to him were very soon greatly angered by the 
 rapacity of the French governor Trivulzio, they 
 could not brook the foreigner's haughtiness, and 
 finding themselves deceived in their hopes of a 
 better condition they revolted, and recalled their 
 banished Duke Ludovico, who on February 5, 
 1500, at the head of a body of Swiss and German 
 mercenaries, re-entered Milan. Ludovico imme- 
 diately attacked the French forces in Lombardy ; 
 and as a consequence the troops which Louis XII 
 had lent to Cesare Borgia were suddenly recalled. 
 Without their assistance it was impossible for him 
 to continue his campaign ; and accordingly he 
 returned to Rome. 
 
 His entry into the Eternal City on February 26 
 was made with extravagant pomp and magnificence. 
 He was met by all the cardinals, the foreign 
 ambassadors, the nobility, and the magistrates of 
 144
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 Rome. Preceded by gorgeous heralds, and sur- 
 rounded by a bodyguard of Gascons dressed in 
 black, the Duke rode through the crowded streets 
 to the Vatican, simply but strikingly attired in 
 black velvet, with a gold chain of curious workman- 
 ship around his neck. Kneeling before the Papal 
 throne he made a short speech in Spanish, rendering 
 thanks for the honours and favours bestowed upon 
 him, and expressing his devotion to the Holy See ; 
 to which the Pope briefly replied in the same 
 language. Alexander gave no more audiences that 
 day, and seemed beside himself with joy, weeping 
 and laughing at the same moment. Next day a 
 masque of the triumph of Julius Caesar was repre- 
 sented in the Piazzo Navona, with twelve gorgeous 
 cars decorated after the manner of the ancients, 
 in which, amongst other trophies, appeared the 
 amazonian Caterina Sforza, like another Queen of 
 Palmyra, fettered with chains of gold. The triumph 
 over, Caterina was cast into one of the dungeons of 
 St. Angelo, where her days would soon have been 
 numbered had not the French, who admired the 
 courageous virago's defence of Forli, secured her 
 release, and enabled her to find asylum in one of 
 the convents of Florence. 
 
 At twenty-five years of age Cesare Borgia had 
 become the most influential man in the Papal domi- 
 nions. On March 29 the Pope made him Standard 
 Bearer of the Church (an office that had been filled 
 by his murdered brother Giovanni), and conferred 
 upon him the coveted distinction of the Golden Rose. 
 All the fortresses of the Holy See were placed in 
 
 K 145
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 the hands of his retainers ; and it was currently 
 reported that even in such a matter as the nomina- 
 tion of cardinals the voice of the Duke of Valentinois 
 would overrule every other. His portrait by 
 Leonardo da Vinci, now in the Museo Civico at 
 Venice (if indeed it be his portrait), bears out the 
 tradition that he was the handsomest man of his 
 time. He was of graceful and dignified carriage, 
 and an athlete of herculean strength. He pro- 
 fessed an interest in art, in literature and in music. 
 His speech was eloquent and persuasive ; his gaiety 
 of spirit, at least in his earlier days, unfailing and 
 contagious ; his way of life liberal and magnificent 
 to extravagance. But all these superficially attrac- 
 tive qualities were governed and held in strictest 
 subordination by an iron will, a cool and penetrating 
 intellect, and a fixed conviction that he, the super- 
 man, was justified in adopting any means for the 
 attainment of his own personal ends. Machiavelli 
 in his Principe did not exaggerate, but merely 
 codified and set down in black and white the 
 principles of Cesare Borgia's consistent practice. 
 
 He had not long to wait before another of the 
 rapid and tragic changes of fortune with which 
 the history of the time is filled opened the way for 
 further exploits in the Romagna. Two months 
 after his triumphant return to Milan, Ludovico 
 Sforza, betrayed by his own captains, and defeated 
 by a fresh army under La Tremouille which 
 Louis XII had instantly despatched against him 
 from France, was captured as he was endeavouring 
 to escape disguised as a common soldier in the 
 146
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 ranks of his Swiss auxiliaries, and carried away 
 a prisoner into France. When he was conducted 
 to Lyons, where Louis XII was at the time, says 
 Guicciardini, an infinite number of spectators 
 flocked from all parts to behold a prince, so lately 
 at the height of grandeur and majesty, now fallen 
 into the most abject misery, and not able to obtain 
 the favour, though he earnestly desired it, of being 
 admitted to the King's presence. This handsome 
 and cultured prince, " the Pericles of Milan," who 
 from mere lust of power had dispossessed (and 
 perhaps murdered) his nephew, and who, from the 
 necessity of buttressing his own usurped dominion, 
 had been the first to invite the French into Italy, 
 was now thrown into a gloomy dungeon in the 
 fortress of Loches in Touraine, where he was left 
 to pine away in dismal solitude the remaining ten 
 years of his chequered life. His brother, Cardinal 
 Ascanio, also fell into the hands of the French, and 
 was imprisoned at Bourges, where he remained 
 until January 1502. He never saw Rome again 
 during the lifetime of Alexander VI ; but he went 
 thither in 1503 to assist in the election, as it was 
 hoped, of Cardinal d'Amboise ; and he died there 
 of the plague in May 1505. 
 
 Whilst Cesare Borgia was possessing himself of 
 Imola and Forli, the Pope had not remained idle. 
 One of his favourite schemes from the first had 
 been to seize the hereditary possessions of the 
 Roman barons and settle them on his own children. 
 He now turned on the Gaetani. The head of this 
 ancient family was the prothonotary Giacomo, 
 
 147
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 whom Alexander succeeded in luring to Rome, 
 when he was instantly cast into the Castle of 
 St. Angelo whilst the Papal forces took possession 
 of Sermoneta, the central town of the Gaetani 
 domains in the Campagna. The estates of the 
 family were then declared to be confiscated by 
 rebellion ; and the town of Sermoneta was con- 
 ferred on the beloved daughter Lucrezia, who was 
 already mistress of Nepi and Spoleto. Shortly 
 afterwards Giacomo Gaetani died in his prison, and 
 it was currently reported that he had been poisoned. 
 About this time the Pope himself had more than 
 one narrow escape from death. In the spring he 
 had had an attack of fever, which was dangerous 
 enough to cause a report of his death and the 
 appearance of a savage Latin satire in which his 
 Holiness was represented as holding a dialogue 
 with the King of Terrors, and begging to be allowed 
 to die in the arms of one of his concubines. On 
 June 28 a heavy iron chandelier fell to the floor 
 just in front of him ; and on the following day a 
 more serious accident happened. On the feast of 
 SS. Peter and Paul, just as the Pope was about to 
 give audience, a sudden tornado tore off part of 
 the roof of the building, and blew down a chimney 
 which crashed through to the room in which his Holi- 
 ness was sitting. Three gentlemen-in-waiting were 
 killed, and it was thought for some little time that 
 the Pope must have suffered the same fate. When 
 at length however, a way was made through the 
 dust and debris, Alexander was found still sitting 
 on his throne, unconscious and bleeding from the 
 148
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 head and the right hand, but not dangerously 
 injured. The balcony over his head had protected 
 him from the falling masonry, and the hangings 
 of his throne had saved him from suffocation by 
 the sub equent dust. He soon recovered from his 
 wounds and the shock, and two days afterwards 
 went to the Church of S. Maria del Popolo to offer 
 his thanks, together with three hundred crowns, to 
 the Virgin, under whose special protection he 
 believed himself always to be. " Any other man," 
 says the Catholic historian Pastor, " would have 
 been led by such a series of narrow escapes to 
 look into himself and consider his ways ; but 
 Alexander was a true Borgia ; he thanked God 
 and the Blessed Virgin and SS. Peter and Paul 
 for preserving him, and went on living just the 
 same as before." A few months later the Venetian 
 ambassador remarked in one of his letters to the 
 Signoria that, although seventy years of age, the 
 Pope seemed to grow younger every day, that he 
 was always merry and careless, and troubled about 
 nothing in the world but the aggrandisement of 
 his children. 
 
 All the Pope's family came to Rome for the 
 Jubilee. Lucrezia had returned thither from Nepi 
 in the previous October ; and on November 1 she 
 had given birth to a son, who was named, after his 
 grandfather, Rodrigo. Her young husband, to 
 whom she appears to have been sincerely attached, 
 was with her, having been to all appearance 
 reconciled with his shifty father-in-law. It was 
 observed by the wondering crowds of pilgrims, who 
 
 149
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 filled the Eternal City and the Pope's coffers at 
 the same time during this year of Jubilee, that 
 bishops only were allowed to celebrate Mass to 
 Madonna Lucrezia, bishops waited on her in the 
 Vatican, bishops conducted her from place to 
 place. Whenever she appeared abroad it was in 
 royal state, attended by no less than two hundred 
 ladies and gentlemen on horseback. But in the 
 midst of all this splendour and happiness came a 
 bolt from the blue. On the night of July 15, as 
 he was leaving the Vatican to return home, the 
 Duke of Bisceglia was attacked by a number of 
 masked men with daggers on the very steps of the 
 Pope's palace, who wounded him severely in various 
 parts of his body before he succeeded in escaping 
 from them. The assassins made off under the 
 escort of a body of forty horsemen, and got safely 
 out of the city, whilst the wounded prince staggered 
 back into the Vatican. He refused all medical 
 help, because, as he wrote to the King of Naples, 
 his own physician had endeavoured to poison him ; 
 but Lucrezia and his sister Sancia took him in 
 charge, and he was nursed back to convalescence. 
 The Venetian ambassador reported that it was not 
 known who had wounded the Duke, but it was 
 believed to be the same hand that had murdered 
 the Duke of Gandia. Alfonso himself was con- 
 vinced that it was the doing of his terrible brother- 
 in-law Cesare, and he burned for revenge. There 
 is no positive proof that Cesare had had any hand 
 in the matter so far, though it is highly probable 
 that he knew well enough what was afoot. He hated 
 150
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 the whole House of Aragon, and had been specially 
 angered against Alfonso of Bisceglia. Lucrezia's 
 marriage with this youth had been arranged merely 
 to further his own designs on the Neapolitan 
 crown, and was now as valueless as her previous 
 alliance with the Lord of Pesaro. It would be 
 extremely useful to have her free to enter into 
 another matrimonial engagement more advantage- 
 ous to his present projects. But Alfonso could not 
 be set aside in the way Giovanni Sforza had been, 
 because Lucrezia had already borne him a son ; 
 and according to the Borgian logic it followed that 
 he must be got rid of by some other means. 
 
 As to what happened afterwards there are two 
 discrepant and, as regards details, flatly contra- 
 dictory accounts. According to the one story, 
 Cesare having visited the wounded man and found 
 that he bade fair to make a good recovery, called 
 in his trusted henchman, Don Michelotto, thrust 
 the two princesses out of the room, and had the 
 Duke strangled in his bed. According to the other, 
 and more likely story, Alfonso was looking out of 
 his chamber window one day, when, seeing Cesare 
 walking in the Vatican garden, he seized hold of a 
 bow and discharged an arrow at the hated enemy 
 whom he believed responsible for the recent attempt 
 on his own life. But the bolt missed, and Cesare 
 immediately sent some of his bodyguard to cut 
 the Duke in pieces. The essential fact, however, 
 is undisputed. On August 18 the Duke of Bisceglia 
 was murdered ; and Cesare Borgia openly acknow- 
 ledged the authorship of the deed, alleging that he 
 
 151
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 merely acted in self-defence, because Bisceglia had 
 endeavoured to kill him. The Pope evidently 
 wished to hush up the whole matter ; and when 
 Lucrezia was found unable to control her grief, she 
 was sent away by Cesare's desire to recover her 
 equanimity in the quiet city of Nepi. 
 
 Meanwhile Cesare, who had taken his father's 
 recent narrow escapes from death as a warning 
 to put his own affairs in order, set about making 
 the necessary preparations for the prosecution of 
 his projects in the Romagna. Venice was induced 
 to withdraw its protection from Rimini and Faenza 
 in return for promise of Papal aid against the 
 Turks. And in order to provide the necessary 
 money twelve new cardinals were created, in- 
 cluding two Borgia, four other Spaniards, and 
 Cesare's brother-in-law Amadeo d'Albret, who 
 altogether contributed 120,000 ducats to his war- 
 chest in exchange for their red hats. By the end 
 of September he was ready, and on October 1 he 
 set out from Rome at the head of 10,000 men. His 
 army was mainly composed of bands of mercenaries, 
 including the troops of Gianpaolo Baglioni of 
 Perugia, Vitellozzo Vitelli of Cita di Castello, and 
 several barons of the Savelli and Orsini families. 
 The first place to be attacked was Pesaro, the 
 domain of his sometime brother-in-law Giovanni 
 Sforza. Being hopeless of defending his hereditary 
 possessions against such overwhelming odds, 
 Giovanni sought safety in flight ; and as soon as 
 Cesare had thus taken possession of Pesaro without 
 striking a blow, he proceeded along the coast to 
 152
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 Rimini. Pandolfo Malatesta likewise took to flight 
 without making any attempt to defend himself ; 
 and, having left a sufficient garrison in both places, 
 Cesare marched his force against Faenza. This 
 small place gave him rather more trouble, for its 
 ruler, Astorre Manfredi, a handsome and amiable 
 youth of eighteen, was beloved by his subjects, 
 who defended their town with such bravery and 
 resolution that on the approach of winter Cesare 
 was compelled to raise the siege. In the following 
 March, however, he returned to the attack ; and 
 on April 25, 1501, the brave defenders were com- 
 pelled by hunger to surrender. According to the 
 terms of capitulation the persons and effects of the 
 citizens were to be respected, and young Astorre 
 Manfredi left free to go where he pleased un- 
 molested. But young Astorre Manfredi was be- 
 loved by his people, favoured by both Venice and 
 Florence, and supported by his relatives the 
 Bentivogli of Bologna. Consequently he was too 
 dangerous a claimant to leave at large ; and in 
 spite of the capitulations he was never allowed 
 to leave Cesare's camp until he was sent under a 
 guard to Rome to be thrown into the Castle of 
 St. Angelo. A wise and prudent conqueror, says 
 Machiavelli, having Cesare Borgia in his eye, destroys 
 the ruling families whom he dispossesses. There- 
 fore we need not be surprised to learn that some 
 few months afterwards the strangled remains of 
 young Astorre and his brother Octavian were found 
 floating in the Tiber. 
 
 The family of Bentivoglio was the next to be 
 
 153
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 attacked ; not only because Giovanni Bentivoglio 
 had given some assistance to his young relative 
 Manfredi in the defence of Faenza, but also because 
 Cesare had set hungry eyes upon Bologna as a 
 suitable capital for the extensive principality he 
 was carving out for himself in the Romagna. 
 Bologna, however, was under the express protection 
 of France, and Louis XII sent orders to Cesare 
 not to attack the place. The Pope then inter- 
 vened with the plea that, according to treaty, 
 Bologna was entitled to French protection only 
 so far as that did not infringe upon the rights of 
 the Holy See. Not knowing what might not be 
 made out of this point by the subtle Borgia, 
 Giovanni Bentivoglio was glad to compromise the 
 matter by giving up Castel Bolognese to the 
 Church and agreeing to supply Cesare with 300 
 horsemen for a period of five years. Cesare having 
 thus made himself lord of a large territory which 
 included the cities of Imola, Forli, Pesaro, Rimini, 
 Faenza, Cesena and Fano, the Pope, in open 
 Consistory, created him Duke of Romagna, ap- 
 parently untroubled in conscience, as Gregorovius 
 remarks, by any such consideration as that the 
 making of this large province hereditary in the 
 Borgian family would necessarily entail the sever- 
 ance of all its component states from the Church. 
 
 But Cesare's ambition was by no means con- 
 fined to the Romagna. As soon as he was prohibited 
 from attacking Bologna he turned his attention to 
 Tuscany ; and having seized upon Bessighella, the 
 key of the Val di Lamone, he sent a messenger to 
 154
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 the Signoria of Florence informing them that he 
 was leading his troops back to Rome, and demand- 
 ing in no very civil terms a free passage through 
 the territories of the Republic. The Florentines, 
 knowing with whom they had to deal, and being 
 exhausted by their war with Pisa, were in great 
 alarm, especially as some of Cesare's captains, the 
 Orsini and Vitelli, were partisans of the threatening 
 Medici. They sent an envoy to treat with the 
 Duke of Romagna, but also at the same time sent 
 off post haste to implore the assistance of Louis XII. 
 After some temporising, Cesare received permission 
 to pass through the territories of the Republic, 
 but only with small bodies of troops at a time, and 
 without either the Orsini or the Vitelli. Cesare 
 haughtily marched on, unheeding the conditions 
 and allowing his soldiers to pillage as they went ; 
 until, seeing there was danger of a general rising 
 against him, and knowing well enough that 
 Louis XII, whose aids were already on the way, 
 would not allow him to 'attack Florence, he sent 
 word to the Signoria that he desired to be on 
 terms of friendship with them, and would even 
 accept an engagement as condottiere in their pay, 
 provided they allowed him free passage in his 
 present expedition against Piombino, and that they 
 consented to the recall of Piero de 5 Medici. The 
 restoration of the Medici was altogether out of the 
 question, as they told him plainly, but as the 
 Florentines could not get rid of the menacing Duke 
 otherwise, they made a treaty of perpetual alliance 
 with him, and engaged him as their condottiere 
 
 155
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 for three years at a salary of 36,000 ducats. It 
 was stipulated that he was always to be ready 
 to bring 300 men-at-arms to the assistance of the 
 Republic in an emergency, but three months' notice 
 was to be given of any other services that were re- 
 quired, in which latter cases he was not bound to 
 come in person, though he might be obliged to accom- 
 pany the French expedition against Naples. This was 
 undoubtedly a sharper's agreement on both sides. 
 The Florentines being under obligation to furnish 
 men-at-arms for the French king, thought that if 
 they were forced to pay Cesare this money it 
 might serve both purposes ; whilst Cesare, on his 
 part, knowing that he would have to go with the 
 French in any case, was glad to make the Floren- 
 tines answerable for the cost. Moreover, whilst 
 the Florentines agreed to pay Cesare 36,000 ducats 
 a year in order to get rid of his awkward presence 
 at the moment, they counted upon finding some 
 means of avoiding the payment ; and although 
 Cesare was well aware of this, he was quite satisfied 
 with the agreement, because a failure to pay 
 would afford him an excellent excuse for further 
 aggressive action in Tuscany whenever a favourable 
 opportunity presented itself. He therefore con- 
 tinued his march to Piombino. But before he 
 had succeeded in reducing Jacopo Appiano to 
 subjection the Pope recalled him to Rome. 
 
 The French army under d'Aubigny was already 
 encamped in the neighbourhood when the envoys 
 of France and Spain made the Pope acquainted 
 for the first time with a treaty which their respec- 
 156
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 tive masters had made secretly in the preceding 
 November for the partition of the kingdom of 
 Naples. The " Catholic " Ferdinand and the 
 " most Christian " Louis XII had not failed to 
 find a religious pretext for their act of robbery. It 
 was alleged that Ferrantino had invited the Turks 
 to Italy to assist him against his enemies; and 
 Alexander VI, who undoubtedly had invited the 
 Turks to Italy to assist him against his enemies in 
 1494, now, on this ground, proclaimed Ferrantino 
 deposed as a traitor to his country, and agreed to 
 the partition of that country between two hungry 
 foreign foes. Ferdinand was to have Calabria and 
 Apulia with the title of Grand Duke, whilst 
 Louis XII was to have the capital and the rest of 
 the provinces with the title of King of Naples ; 
 both monarchs promising to take an oath of 
 vassalage to the Holy See. In thus abandoning 
 the traditional policy of Rome, Alexander VI, of 
 course, was actuated as usual by family and 
 personal considerations. In the first place, the 
 alliance between France and Spain, and the depo- 
 sition of Ferrantino, would deprive the Roman 
 barons of all external support, and place the 
 estates of the Colonna, in particular, at his mercy. 
 And, in the second place, he shrewdly counted on 
 the quarrels which would inevitably arise when 
 two jealous powers had divided the Aragonese 
 dominions between them to bring about such a 
 condition of things as might fulfil his long-cherished 
 dream of placing one of his sons on the throne of 
 Naples. 
 
 157
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 After the Pope had entertained d'Aubigny, 
 d'Allegres, and the other generals with great 
 hospitality, including the provision of a liberal 
 number of Roman courtesans, the French army 
 set out for the conquest of Naples on June 28, 
 accompanied by the Duke of Romagna with 300 
 lances as well as by several bodies of his mercenary 
 troops under Vitelozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, 
 and other condottiere in his pay. Ferrantino, in 
 ignorance of the secret treaty, had counted upon 
 the support of Spain ; but as soon as the French 
 troops appeared on his frontier the Spanish general, 
 Gonsalvo de Cordova, threw off his mask, and 
 Ferrantino found himself between two fires. Leav- 
 ing Prospero Colonna in command at Naples, he 
 then retired to Capua, which was held for him by 
 Fabrizzio Colonna. But on July 24 that city was 
 stormed and taken by the French, who sacked the 
 place and butchered the inhabitants with the 
 greatest brutality. Seven thousand persons were 
 slain ; and Guicciardini declares that even the 
 cloistered virgins were sacrificed to the lust or 
 avarice of the brutal soldiery. Some, in despair, 
 threw themselves into the river and were drowned ; 
 but many were outraged and many were after- 
 wards sold into ignominious slavery in Rome. On 
 August 19 the French entered Naples, and Ferran- 
 tino, who had fled to Ischia, surrendered to 
 Louis XII. Such was the end of the Aragonese 
 dynasty in Naples. Ferrantino accepted the duchy 
 of Anjou with an annual pension of 30,000 ducats. 
 He died at Tours on September 9, 1504 ; and with 
 158
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 the death of his sons soon afterwards the Neapolitan 
 house of Aragon became extinct. 
 
 The Pope did not wait for the fall of Naples 
 before commencing to plunder the families of 
 Colonna and Savelli. In anticipation of the coming 
 storm, the Colonna tried to shelter themselves by 
 giving up the keys of their fortresses to the College 
 of Cardinals ; but Alexander would not hear of 
 this, and insisted on their being delivered to him. 
 Amongst these places was the rich Abbey of 
 Subiacco, which Cardinal Colonna had received as 
 the price of his vote at Alexander's election. As 
 early as June 23 twenty vassals of the family came 
 to Rome to swear fealty to the Pope, each one 
 receiving in return a gold ducat and a pair of 
 stockings. Immediately after the fall of Capua 
 Alexander went in person to inspect the garrisons 
 he had placed in some of these fortresses, and to 
 visit Sermoneta. It was on this occasion that he 
 committed what even his apologists are bound to 
 admit was a scandalous and unheard of breach of 
 decorum by appointing his daughter Lucrezia 
 regent during his absence, with power to open all 
 his correspondence and attend to all the business 
 of the Vatican. The spectacle of a young and 
 beautiful woman, the acknowledged daughter of 
 the Holy Father, presiding over the cardinals in 
 Consistory, shows us more convincingly than a 
 thousand satires, as Gregorovius remarks, to what 
 a depth of shameless secularisation the Papacy had 
 sunk. Soon after the Pope's return a Bull was 
 issued excommunicating the Colonna and the 
 
 159
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Savelli, who were declared to be rebels and their 
 property confiscated on account of their league 
 with Ferrantino of Naples. A small part of the 
 Savelli estates was conferred on Giovanni Paolo 
 Orsini, whom it was politic to favour for the time 
 being ; but the bulk of the plunder, which of 
 course remained in the family of the Borgia, 
 enabled Alexander to found two more dukedoms. 
 The duchy of Sermoneta, which included Nimfa, 
 Cisterna, Nettuno, Ardea, Nerni, Albano, and other 
 towns or villages to the number of twenty-eight, 
 was given to Lucrezia's infant son Rodrigo ; and 
 the dukedom of Nepi, which included the towns of 
 Palestrina, Olevano, Paliano, Frascati, and Anticoli 
 with some twenty other places, was conferred upon 
 the three-year-old Giovanni Borgia, that mysterious 
 " Infans Romanus " who had been legitimised by 
 a Bull on September 1 as the natural son of Cesare 
 and immediately afterwards by a second Bull of 
 the same date as the son of the Pope himself. The 
 greater part of the states of the Church had now 
 passed into the hands of the Borgia ; for, whilst 
 these two dukedoms absorbed the hereditary estates 
 of the three principal Roman barons, the dukedom 
 of Romagna had absorbed most of the other 
 princely fiefs. 
 
 Quickly following upon this came the announce- 
 ment that a marriage had been arranged between 
 the Pope's daughter Lucrezia and Alfonso d'Este, 
 heir-apparent to the dukedom of Ferrara ; another 
 piece of family advancement which Alexander had 
 accomplished in consequence of his acquiescence 
 160
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 in the partition of Naples. It was a capital stroke 
 of diplomacy, for it would bring to the support 
 of the Pope and Cesar e not only Ferrara itself, 
 which was just rising to the position of influence 
 which Florence had formerly possessed in the time 
 of Lorenzo de' Medici, but also Urbino and Mantua, 
 both of which were closely allied by marriage to 
 the House of Este. A league of Cesare's present 
 states with Ferrara, Mantua, and Urbino, backed 
 by all the influence of the Papacy, and allied to 
 France, would probably enable him to accomplish 
 his cherished designs upon Bologna and Florence, 
 and to defy any likely combination of enemies 
 against the House of Borgia. But it had been no 
 easy matter to bring about. The pride of the 
 Este, one of the oldest princely houses in Italy, 
 had revolted against a union with the bastard of 
 a Borgia, who had been married twice already, 
 and whose reputation had been smirched, whether 
 falsely or truly, by the most abominable scandals. 
 Alfonso was strongly prepossessed against the lady ; 
 and his father, Duke Ercole, at first rejected the 
 Pope's offer with disdain. Alexander was not sur- 
 prised, but he quietly persisted in pointing out the 
 advantages of such an alliance to Ferrara, and the 
 serious disadvantages that would attend a refusal. 
 Louis XII's support of this project had been 
 secured as part of the return for the Pope's consent 
 to the expedition against Naples ; and in the end 
 Duke Ercole was forced to yield to the pressure 
 brought to bear upon him by the French king. 
 Alfonso, however, would not consent until his 
 
 L 161
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 father assured him that unless he gave way he, 
 Duke Ercole, would be compelled to marry 
 Lucrezia himself. In announcing the engagement 
 to his kinsman Gonzaga of Mantua, it is noticeable 
 that Duke Ercole speaks of his affianced wife not 
 as the Pope's daughter but as " the illustrious 
 Lady Lucrezia, sister of the illustrious Duke of 
 Romagna and Valentinois " ; and he makes no 
 secret of the fact that he has consented from con- 
 siderations of policy and the persistent urging of 
 the French king. 
 
 But though thus forced into giving his consent, 
 Ercole had not failed to bargain for all he could 
 get. He insisted on a dowry of 100,000 golden 
 ducats, the cession of the two cities of Ceuto and 
 Castel della Pieve, which belonged to the Arch- 
 bishopric of Bologna, on the relinquishment to the 
 House of Este of a large number of lucrative 
 benefices, and on the remission of Ferrara's yearly 
 tribute as a fief of the Church. Alexander did 
 not much like the terms, and roundly denounced 
 Ercole as "a tradesman " ; but being strongly 
 urged to accept by Cesare, who was anxious for 
 the alliance on account of its political advantage 
 to himself, he at length, after a good deal of 
 wrangling, agreed to all the Duke of Ferrara's 
 demands. The nuptial contract was accordingly 
 signed on September 1, and was announced in 
 Rome three days later by the illumination of the 
 Vatican and the thunder of the guns of St. Angelo. 
 Lucrezia, perhaps unaware of Alfonso's aversion, 
 did not attempt to conceal her joy. Though she 
 162
 
 CESARE BORGIA 
 
 had already lost two husbands, one by divorce and 
 one by murder, she was only twenty-one years of 
 age ; and her vanity was doubtless deeply gratified 
 by the prospect of becoming reigning Duchess of 
 Ferrara and a member of one of the oldest of the 
 princely houses of Italy. It was no more than a 
 year since the tragedy of her second husband's 
 assassination ; but Lucrezia, who possessed a full 
 measure of her father's light-hearted carelessness, 
 could fling her whole little soul into the fleeting 
 pleasures of the passing moment and let the dead 
 past bury its dead. 
 
 On the morning following the announcement of 
 her betrothal Lucrezia went in procession, gorge- 
 ously attired, accompanied by four bishops and 
 surrounded by a brilliant suite of three hundred 
 nobles and ladies, to the Church of S. Maria del 
 Popolo to offer up her thanks and ask the blessing 
 of Heaven on her approaching nuptials ; and then, 
 in the course of the subsequent festivities to 
 celebrate the event, she nearly danced herself into 
 a fever. The rejoicings were kept up for several 
 weeks ; masquerades and races and bull-fights 
 entertained the populace, comedies were performed 
 in the Vatican, and the Ferrarese ambassador 
 reports that at the Pope's palace the whole of 
 every night, until two or three o'clock in the 
 morning, was spent in dancing and in play. It 
 would be absurd, of course, to judge either the 
 ladies or the priests of the Italian Renascence 
 according to our modern notions of decorum ; but 
 some of the Borgian amusements were of so 
 
 163
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 licentious a character that even contemporary 
 libertines were shocked. If such charges rested 
 solely on the authority of an anonymous hostile 
 pamphlet, like the " Letter to Silvio Savelli," they 
 might perhaps be dismissed as false and malicious 
 libels ; but the evidence of Burchard, the Pope's 
 precise and pedantic Master of the Ceremonies, is 
 irrefutable. Without the slightest trace of feeling, 
 or the remotest hint of blame, this phlegmatic 
 diarist records as the merest matter of fact the 
 unprintable details of a scandalous orgy in the 
 Vatican, when Cesare Borgia introduced a company 
 of fifty nude courtesans to amuse the company 
 after supper ; and on another occasion relates with 
 the same sang-froid how the Pope and his daughter 
 sat at a window of the Vatican and laughed at an 
 even more lewd and revolting spectacle which the 
 Holy Father himself had devised for their enter- 
 tainment. 
 
 164
 
 VI 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA, PRINCESS OF ESTE 
 
 So little faith had the Duke of Ferrara in the 
 promise of a Borgia, and so anxious was he to 
 have securities in hand for all the concessions he 
 had demanded, that three months elapsed after the 
 betrothal before he could be persuaded to send 
 for his son's bride. At length, however, on 
 December 9, 1501, a brilliant cavalcade of more 
 than fifteen hundred persons set out to fetch 
 Lucrezia to her new home. At their head were 
 Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, with two other brothers 
 of the bridegroom ; and besides members of the 
 ducal family, the escort included a number of 
 magnificently apparelled nobles, several bishops, 
 and a crowd of friends and vassals of the House 
 of Ferrara. There were 580 horses and mules 
 and fifty waggons to carry the necessary baggage. 
 After a tedious and uncomfortable journey of 
 thirteen days, they arrived, wet through and 
 bespattered with mud, at Monterosi, a castle 
 belonging to the Pope, situated about fifteen 
 miles from Rome. Here they halted to make them- 
 selves presentable for a ceremonious entry, and 
 sent a herald to receive the Pope's commands. 
 Answer arrived that arrangements had been made 
 
 165
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 to meet them at the Porta del Popolo the next 
 day. 
 
 It was a red-letter day in the annals of the House 
 of Borgia, and Alexander had determined that 
 it should be celebrated with all the theatrical 
 splendour at his command. At the Ponte Molle 
 the visitors were met by the Governor and senators 
 of Rome, who came out to salute them, preceded 
 by drums and trumpets, and accompanied by two 
 thousand men. After this preliminary ceremony, 
 the embassy was met at half-a-bowshot from the 
 city gate by the Duke of Romagna and his suite, 
 with a following of four thousand men. First 
 came six pages dressed in silk tunics of the Duke's 
 colours, black and yellow ; after these followed 
 a hundred mounted gentlemen of the Duke's 
 service ; then two hundred Swiss guards, carrying 
 halberds, clothed in black and yellow velvet, and 
 wearing black and yellow plumes in their hats. 
 When these had formed up as a guard of honour, 
 the Duke himself, followed by a numerous train, 
 advanced to meet the head of the embassy. His 
 splendid appearance seems to have created a great 
 impression. He was dressed in a silk tunic of the 
 French fashion, fastened by a golden belt, and 
 he rode a splendid charger, whose harness was 
 completely covered with gold and pearls and other 
 jewels to the value, as the Venetian ambassador 
 declares, of 10,000 ducats. After embracing 
 Cardinal Ippolito, Cesare rode by his side to the 
 city gate, where the embassy was met by nineteen 
 cardinals, each attended by two hundred followers, 
 166
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA, PRINCESS OF ESTE 
 
 and the formal ceremonies, including an oration^ 
 occupied more than two hours. This ended, the 
 visitors proceeded over the Corso to the Vatican. 
 As they passed the Castle of St. Angelo they were 
 saluted by a salvo of artillery, which frightened 
 some of the horses and threw the cavalcade into 
 disorder ; but they reached the Apostolic Palace 
 at last, and were warmly received by his Holiness, 
 who advanced to meet them accompanied by a 
 suite of twelve cardinals. After they had kissed 
 his feet, Cardinal Ippolito and his brothers were 
 raised up and embraced by the Pope, who expressed 
 his great pleasure at seeing them, made kind 
 inquiries as to their journey, and altogether 
 pleased them very much by his amiability and 
 condescension. Then the Duke of Romagna con- 
 ducted the Princes to the apartments of his sister. 
 The beautiful and clever Isabella Gonzaga, 
 Marchioness of Mantua, had sent a special agent 
 to Rome in order to be supplied with full details 
 of Lucrezia's dress and appearance and of all 
 the wedding festivities. From the report of this 
 agent, El Prete, which is preserved in the archives 
 of Mantua, we learn that Lucrezia was dressed in 
 a mulberry-coloured gown embroidered with gold, 
 the sleeves tight and cut in the Spanish fashion, 
 an outer robe, lined with ermine, which reached 
 nearly to her feet, a head-dress of green velvet 
 trimmed with gold fringe and pearls, and round 
 her neck a string of pearls with a pendant. She 
 advanced to meet her visitors leaning on the arm 
 of some court official, an old gentleman in black 
 
 167
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 velvet, who wore a gold chain round his neck. 
 There had been some discussion, El Prete says, 
 concerning the manner in which the cardinal and 
 his brothers were to address Lucrezia, so as to 
 exhibit some degree of brotherly love and at the 
 same time the respect due to her exalted position. 
 The matter had been referred to the Pope's Master 
 of the Ceremonies, who ruled that the brothers must 
 not kiss her, but pay their addresses in the way 
 ladies of the blood-royal of France were accus- 
 tomed to be approached in public by their relatives. 
 Accordingly, after Lucrezia had bowed to them 
 graciously, conversed for a few minutes, offered 
 them refreshments, and distributed amongst them 
 certain small gifts of jewellery, the envoys retired 
 from her august presence, and were conducted to 
 the apartments prepared for them in the Apostolic 
 Palace. 
 
 Duke Ercole had made an excellent political 
 bargain over the match, but apparantly he was still 
 greatly disturbed by the black rumours that had 
 been circulated concerning the character of the young 
 woman whom he had been forced to accept as his 
 eldest son's wife, for the Ferrarese ambassador 
 had been instructed to make every inquiry and to 
 report the exact truth. This good man, however, 
 seems to have fallen an easy conquest to the 
 characteristic charm of the Borgian manner. On 
 the very evening of his arrival he wrote off to say 
 it was impossible to credit any sinister reports 
 about such a lovely and gracious lady. She is not 
 only very beautiful, he declares, but modest and 
 168
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA, PRINCESS OF ESTE 
 
 decorous likewise. Moreover, she is a devout 
 Christian, for to-morrow she goes to confession, 
 and in Christmas week she will receive the Com- 
 munion. He has had a long conversation with 
 her, has found her extremely intelligent, and is 
 quite sure that both the Duke and his illustrious 
 son will be highly pleased with her. 
 
 Alexander had wished the marriage of his 
 daughter to be solemnised by the head of the 
 Christian Church in the Apostolic Palace in Rome, 
 but a committee of cardinals learned in ecclesi- 
 astical law decided that the marriage ceremony 
 had already been performed by proxy in Ferrara 
 and could not be repeated. But although he 
 could not have a full church service in the chapel 
 of St. John the Evangelist, the Pope arranged for 
 a splendid ceremony in his own apartments in 
 the Vatican. On the evening of December 30, 
 Lucrezia, accompanied by fifty maids of honour 
 and a bevy of courtiers, was escorted by the 
 Ferrarese envoys from her own palace to the 
 Vatican. Nicolo Cagnolo describes her as a slight 
 graceful figure of middle height, with well-formed 
 neck and bust, an oval face, delicately shaped 
 Grecian nose, grey eyes, golden hair, a rather large 
 mouth with beautiful white teeth, and an amiable 
 and lively countenance. Isabella Gonzaga's agent, 
 El Prete, completes the portrait by telling us what 
 she wore. She was dressed on this occasion, he 
 says, in an overmantle of gold brocade, made in 
 the French fashion with open sleeves. Beneath 
 this was a dress of crimson silk bordered with 
 
 169
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 ermine. At the back of her head she wore a 
 cap of dark-coloured silk shot with gold thread. 
 Her golden hair fell over her shoulders, and was 
 merely held together by a narrow black riband. 
 Round her neck was a string of large pearls from 
 which hung a pendant of precious stones of great 
 value. 
 
 Seated on his throne and surrounded by thirteen 
 cardinals, the Pope awaited the bridal party in 
 the Sala Paolina. Then, in the presence of a 
 brilliant throng, which included the Duke of 
 Romagna and the ambassadors of France, Spain, 
 and Venice, Lucrezia stood at a table side by side 
 with Don Ferrante, who acted as his brother's 
 proxy, whilst the Bishop of Adria delivered a 
 wedding sermon. When this good prelate's elo- 
 quence was exhausted, or rather when it had been 
 cut short by the impatient Pope, Don Ferrante 
 placed the wedding ring on the bride's finger, 
 and the completion of the ceremony was duly 
 attested by a notary. Immediately afterwards 
 Cardinal Ippolito d'Este presented the Duke of 
 Ferrara's present to his daughter-in-law, which 
 consisted of a small casket containing chains, 
 rings, pearls, and other jewellery to the value of 
 70,000 ducats. Other wedding gifts were then 
 presented by the various cardinals and ambassa- 
 dors, after which the guests went to the windows 
 to watch the entertainments which were going 
 on in the Piazza, of St. Peter. Fireworks, free 
 theatres, horse-races, reviews of troops, tourna- 
 ments, bull-fights, and mimic battles, amused the 
 170
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA, PRINCESS OF ESTE 
 
 Roman populace for a full week, until the day 
 arrived for Lucrezia to set out on her journey to 
 Ferrara. 
 
 The Pope equipped his daughter as if she were 
 a queen. In addition to the 100,000 ducats in 
 cash which he paid over to Duke Ercole, Lucrezia 
 carried with her to Ferrara silver plate to the 
 value of 30,000 ducats, jewellery, dresses, linen, 
 and other household furniture, trappings for horses 
 and mules, &c., worth another 100,000 ducats. 
 Amongst other costly articles enumerated by the 
 Mantuan agent were a single dress said to be 
 worth 15,000 ducats or more, and two hundred 
 chemises, some of which, being trimmed with 
 gold fringe, were worth a hundred ducats apiece. 
 One hundred and fifty mules were required to 
 carry her baggage ; and so large was her retinue 
 that Alexander provided a thousand horses and 
 mules, as well as two hundred carriages for their 
 transport. A cardinal, Francesco Borgia, Arch- 
 bishop of Cosenza, accompanied her as Legate ; 
 the city of Rome and the Roman nobility sent 
 several special representatives, and the Duke of 
 Romagna provided an escort of two hundred 
 cavaliers. The bridal escort had come to Rome 
 by way of Tuscany, but the Pope decided that 
 Lucrezia should travel to Ferrara through the 
 Romagna. He carefully named which towns they 
 should put up in throughout the journey ; and 
 each place was required, on pain of his displeasure, 
 to provide everything the company required during 
 their stay. 
 
 171
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 On January 6, 1502, at three o'clock in the after- 
 noon, Lucrezia departed from Rome, riding on a 
 beautiful white mule, whose trappings were em- 
 broidered with silver and edged with gold fringe. 
 According to his express instructions from Isabella 
 of Mantua, young Ferrante d'Este forwarded 
 particulars of her attire. She wore a tight dress 
 of crimson silk, a loose over-robe of gold brocade 
 with large hanging sleeves and lined with ermine. 
 On her head was a hat of crimson silk trimmed with 
 feathers, and below the hat on the left side hung 
 a pendant of pearls which reached to her ear. 
 Altogether, says the admiring youth, she made a 
 magnificent appearance. Her father went from 
 window to window of the Vatican watching the 
 procession till it vanished from sight, little dreaming 
 that he would never look upon his beloved daughter 
 again. 
 
 The journey from Rome to Ferrara occupied 
 nearly a month, because Lucrezia, being of a 
 delicate constitution, and unaccustomed to the 
 saddle, travelled by easy stages and frequently 
 rested on the road. The Pope was so anxious 
 about her that he had made her promise to write 
 to him concerning her health from every city 
 she passed through. According to the Ferrarese 
 ambassadors, his Holiness demanded daily and 
 even hourly reports of her journey, showing un- 
 mistakably they thought that he loved her more 
 than any of his children. All the cities through 
 which she passed received her with triumphal 
 arches, decorations, illuminations, and every 
 172
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA, PRINCESS OF ESTE 
 
 demonstration of honour and esteem. Just before 
 she reached Foligno all the Baglioni came from 
 their various castles to meet her, and invited her 
 to their city of Perugia. But this was not in the 
 programme, and she continued her march towards 
 Urbino. At Gubbio, one of the principal cities of 
 the Montefeltri, she was met by the Duchess 
 Elizabetta, who remained with her all the rest 
 of the way to Ferrara. When she reached Urbino 
 on January 18 Duke Guidobaldo with the whole 
 of his court came out to meet her and conduct 
 her to his beautiful palace, which he had vacated 
 for her convenience, and which, by way of in- 
 gratiating himself with the sister of the dreaded 
 Duke of Romagna, he had decorated with the 
 Borgian and French coats-of-arms. From Urbino 
 she passed on to Pesaro, now owned by her brother 
 Cesare, where a hundred children, clad in his 
 colours of black and yellow and carrying olive 
 branches in their hands, came out to greet her, 
 crying, " Duca ! Duca ! Lucrezia ! Lucrezia ! " 
 The city officials conducted her to the palace 
 that had once been that of her divorced husband, 
 Giovanni Sforza ; and we need not be surprised 
 to learn that during her stay in that place she 
 joined in none of the festivities, but kept herself 
 in strict seclusion on the pretext of washing her 
 head. From town to town of the Duke of 
 Romagna's dominions she was accompanied by 
 his despotic and cruel lieutenant, Don Ramiro 
 d'Orco ; and at every city gate the magistrates 
 presented her with their keys. After leaving Forli, 
 
 173
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 where again she had spent a day in the apparently 
 highly important mystery of " washing her head," 
 a guard of a thousand foot and 150 horsemen was 
 provided, in case the bridal train might be attacked 
 by the bandit Carraro, who, notwithstanding the 
 efforts of Cesare's terrible lieutenant, Don Ramiro, 
 still infested the roads. At Bologna, which had 
 not been seized by the Duke of Romagna solely 
 because of the prohibition of the French King, 
 Giovanni Bentivoglio entertained the sister of his 
 mortal enemy with splendid festivities, and on 
 the following day accompanied her with osten- 
 tatious courtesy to the river Po, along which she 
 proposed to finish her journey in order to escape 
 the discomfort of further travelling by land. 
 
 On the evening of January 31 Lucrezia reached 
 one of the castles belonging to the Bentivogli family 
 situated about twenty miles from Ferrara. And 
 here a very singular thing happened. Although 
 she had corresponded in very friendly terms with 
 her father-in-law, and had evidently made a 
 highly favourable impression on her young brothers- 
 in-law, her husband had hitherto held aloof, and 
 there had been no personal communication what- 
 ever between them. Apparently he had not the 
 slightest interest in the wife who had been forced 
 upon him by the Pope and the King of France. 
 But all of a sudden his curiosity seems to have 
 been aroused ; and, disguising himself and four 
 of his friends as common soldiers, he rode off to 
 this castle of the Bentivogli, sent a messenger 
 to Lucrezia to inform her of his arrival, and 
 174
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA, PRINCESS OF ESTE 
 
 requested an interview with her. Although some- 
 what startled by his sudden and unexpected ap- 
 pearance, Lucrezia seem to have received her 
 tardy husband very graciously ; and after some 
 conversation he and his disguised friends rode 
 back to Ferrara. 
 
 Alfonso d'Este was of a reserved and even sullen 
 disposition. He was a capable soldier in the field, 
 and had devoted himself specially to the study of 
 civil and military engineering. So great was his 
 interest in the manufacture of cannon that he had 
 made himself a skilful mechanic, and was in the 
 habit of working in the foundry in company with 
 his men. When little over fifteen years of age 
 he had been married to Anna Sforza, sister to the 
 young Duke of Milan ; but in 1497, after six happy 
 years of married life, she had died immediately 
 after the birth of her first child, and the infant 
 had not survived her. Alfonso was now in his 
 twenty-fifth year, fully aware that it was his duty 
 as heir to the dukedom to carry on the succession, 
 but strongly averse to a second wife on account 
 of the tender memories he cherished of the first, 
 and doubly averse to Lucrezia Borgia, because of 
 her dubious reputation and because she was the 
 illegitimate offspring of a priest. Whatever may 
 have been his sentiments, however, previous to 
 this surprise interview in the castle of the 
 Bentivogli, there seems to be no doubt that he 
 immediately succumbed to the peculiar fascination 
 which Lucrezia Borgia exercised over all who came 
 in contact with her. It may be an exaggeration 
 
 175
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 to say, as one of her admiring biographers does, 
 that she instantly turned Alfonso's ardent aversion 
 into an equally ardent love, but it is an undoubted 
 fact that she secured his confidence and esteem, 
 and that they lived together in undisturbed 
 harmony for nearly twenty years. 
 
 Duke Ercole had made the most splendid and 
 extravagant preparations for Lucrezia's reception. 
 He had induced his daughter, Isabella Gonzaga of 
 Mantua, strongly prejudiced against Lucrezia and 
 ardently hostile as she was to the whole Borgian 
 family, to come to Ferrara to do the honours of 
 the city ; and the special guests he had invited 
 numbered, together with their numerous suites, 
 no less than two thousand persons. The Ferrarese 
 nobility placed their palaces at his disposal, but 
 Ercole insisted that none but those whose means 
 were amply adequate should be at any expense 
 for the maintenance of his guests. The French 
 ambassador and his suite of fifty persons were 
 entertained with profuse hospitality throughout the 
 festivities by the Cavaliere Bonifacio Bevilagna. 
 The Venetian ambassadors with their suite, which 
 numbered one hundred and fifty, were lodged with 
 a son-in-law of Sigismondo, the Duke's brother. 
 Count Guaniero, the Grand Steward, took charge 
 of the Florentine ambassadors, whose suite likewise 
 numbered one hundred and fifty. The ambas- 
 sadors of the bride's brother, the illustrious Duke 
 of Romagna, were lodged in the Schiavanoja 
 Palace, the most splendid in all Ferrara ; and the 
 other princely and noble visitors were similarly 
 176
 
 LUCRETIA BORGIA, PRINCESS OF ESTE 
 
 provided for. Duke Ercole, who had engaged a 
 small army of cooks, found his commissariat a 
 matter of no small difficulty. We read that as 
 early as December 22 he had collected 300 oxen 
 and calves, 15,000 head of poultry, about the 
 same quantity of game, 300 large cheeses, and other 
 requisities in similar proportion. But the ladies 
 and gentlemen of the Renascence had hearty 
 appetites, and he evidently feared lest his guests 
 should be short of veal, for we find him subse- 
 quently begging the loan of 100 calves from his 
 illustrious son-in-law of Mantua, under promise 
 to return that number on the first convenient 
 opportunity. 
 
 The Duke of Ferrara was a specialist in cere- 
 monial shows, and he had determined that the 
 home-coming of his daughter-in-law should be one 
 of the most brilliant spectacles of that spectacular 
 age. On Tuesday, February 1, the illustrious 
 Isabella Gonzaga, Marchioness of Mantua, with 
 her suite, went up the river in a state barge to a 
 point at which it had been arranged to meet the 
 bride, who was coming down stream in her barge, 
 accompanied by Elizabetta, Duchess of Urbino. 
 Isabella greeted and embraced her sister-in-law 
 with great politeness and demonstrations of 
 apparent affection, although, as she wrote to her 
 husband immediately afterwards, her real senti- 
 ments were those of anger and repugnance. Yet 
 she also was destined to fall under the spell of 
 the Borgian magnetism, and from this time forth 
 to the day of her death she remained one of 
 
 M 177
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Lucrezia's most sympathetic and affectionate 
 friends. Isabella conducted the bride to the 
 Palace of Alberto d'Este, outside the walls, where 
 Lucrezia and her husband were to stay the night, 
 before making their public entry into the city. 
 A lady superintendent with twelve younger ladies, 
 all dressed alike in crimson satin and black velvet, 
 had been appointed to wait upon her ; and her 
 father-in-law had sent as a present five gorgeous 
 carriages, covered in velvet, or satin, or gold 
 brocade, and each drawn by four beautiful and 
 handsomely caparisoned horses. 
 
 On the following day Lucrezia made her formal 
 entry into Ferrarr., every detail of which has been 
 minutely recorded by the chroniclers of the time. 
 We are told of the eighty resplendent trumpeters 
 in white and mulberry-coloured satin and gold 
 brocade, of the seventy-five mounted archers in 
 the Este livery of white and red, of the company 
 of halberdiers in tunics of dark-coloured velvet 
 and cloth of gold and wearing close-fitting panta- 
 loons of which one leg was black and the other 
 flesh-coloured, of the five reverend bishops in long 
 mantles trimmed with fur, of the gentlemen in 
 attendance on the bride including some specially 
 magnificent Spaniards in vests of gold brocade 
 with tabards of black velvet, of the foreign 
 ambassadors, the deputies of the city of Rome, 
 the ladies in open carriages, all resplendently 
 attired in satins and velvets and jewels, and of the 
 clowns and buffoons without which no procession 
 in these days would have been complete. 
 178
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA, PRINCESS OF ESTE 
 
 The bridegroom, a stern-looking, black-bearded 
 man, was dressed after the French fashion in red 
 velvet. He wore small red boots with black 
 velvet gaiters, and rode a bay horse caparisoned 
 in crimson and gold. The bride, on a splendid 
 white horse, whose trappings were richly orna- 
 mented with gold and pearls, rode under a purple 
 baldachin which was supported by eight doctors 
 of the various faculties of the University of Ferrara. 
 It was no doubt the proudest moment of her life, 
 and she had apparelled herself accordingly. Over 
 a camorra of dark satin trimmed with gold lace 
 she wore a loose robe of gold brocade. On her 
 head was a small cap completely covered with gold 
 and pearls, to the value, as Zambotta declares, of 
 30,000 ducats. Round her neck was a chain 
 composed of alternate diamonds, pearls, and rubies, 
 from the centre of which hung a pearl and a ruby 
 of great size and value. Her beautiful golden hair 
 fell loosely over her shoulders ; and as she rode 
 through the crowded streets, the people of Ferrara 
 must have thought that their Prince could never 
 have found a more magnificent or more radiantly 
 beautiful bride. Eighty-six mules had previously 
 entered the city carrying her trousseau and jewel- 
 lery ; so that the good people of Ferrara were also 
 shown that their Prince had brought home a bride 
 exceptionally well dowered. It may not have 
 occurred to them, as the historian Gregorovius 
 severely remarks, that the boxes and bales so 
 ostentatiously displayed represented her rapacious 
 father's plunder from all the cities of Christendom. 
 
 179
 
 VII 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 TOWARDS the end of 1501, and just before 
 Lucrezia's departure for Ferrara, a virulent 
 lampoon against the Pope and his family appeared 
 in the form of a printed letter addressed to Silvio 
 Savelli, one of the dispossessed and exiled Roman 
 barons, who was then living at the Court of 
 the Emperor Maximilian. It purported to have 
 been written by another banished Roman, and 
 was dated from the Spanish camp at Taranto. 
 It would not be fair, of course, to take the ex parte 
 statements of this epistle as evidence except 
 where there is some corroboration. But it is an 
 authentic document, which was widely read and 
 widely believed during Alexander's lifetime. The 
 mere fact that it could be believed is significant 
 of much. And after making every allowance for 
 the passion of an injured and revengeful enemy 
 (who was probably one of the Colonna), it must 
 be admitted to cast a lurid light upon the condition 
 to which Rome and the Church had been reduced 
 by the disgraceful conduct of the Borgia. 
 
 Silvio, who had been reported to have solicited 
 friends and obtained recommendatory letters to 
 intercede with the Pope for the restoration of his 
 180
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 estates, is warned of the hopelessness of attempting 
 to deal in that way with such a traitor, who never 
 would or could do justice unless compelled by 
 fear or force. He is a monster, says the writer, 
 whose whole life has been devoted to whoredom 
 and rapine and deceit. It is folly to complain 
 of the Turk when this new Mahomet infinitely 
 surpasses the other. He is anti-Christ, for no 
 greater enemy to our religion is conceivable. He 
 must be publicly exposed. Silvio must inform 
 the Emperor and all the Princes of the Empire 
 of all the abominable crimes of this plague of 
 Christendom. They must be related before the 
 Diet ; and printed copies of the charges must be 
 distributed throughout Europe. Some of these 
 charges, which Silvio is enjoined to recite boldly, 
 with an audible voice, in a public assembly of the 
 princes, are then enumerated as follows. 
 
 Honours, dignities, marriages, divorces, every- 
 thing is now vendible by this monstrous head of 
 the Christian Church. Benefices and ecclesiastical 
 dignities, which used to be, and ought to be, 
 conferred on worthy men for the salvation of 
 souls, are now disposed of by open sale. Any one 
 may now go to the Pope's Palace and buy the 
 Christian mysteries with gold. There, like Cer- 
 berus at the gate of Hell, stands the Cardinal of 
 Modena, the Pope's minister of iniquity, readily 
 granting admission to the rich and sending the 
 poor empty away. In Rome, and even within the 
 Pope's own apartments, the Tartars are outdone 
 in thieving, the Carthaginians in treachery and 
 
 181
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 deceit, Nero and Caligula in riot and cruelty. 
 There Alfonso of Aragon was barbarously murdered 
 and Perotto slain within his master's arms. The 
 number of other persons who have been wounded 
 or murdered and thrown into the Tiber is too 
 great to be enumerated. There is not now a 
 private person in Rome without fears for himself 
 or some of his family. It is impossible to describe 
 without trembling the monstrous lewdness which 
 is openly practised in the Pope's own palace, or 
 the filthiness of his sons and daughters. But the 
 indignant writer does go on to describe what no 
 modern pen, whether trembling or not, can venture 
 to translate. 
 
 The Pope has driven the greater part of the 
 Roman nobility into exile and despoiled the 
 ancient Lords of Latium in order to provide 
 wealth and principalities for his incestuous brood 
 of children and grandchildren, some of whom 
 are yet infants in their cradles. A religious war 
 has been proclaimed against the Turk, prayers 
 appointed in all the churches of Rome, pardons 
 and indulgences sold in every foreign city for 
 what ? Solely as a contrivance to raise large 
 sums of money to enable the Pope to support 
 the luxury of his children, and to make war upon 
 ancient free cities and rightful princes. 
 
 As to the doings of his son Cesare, everybody 
 knows of the calamities that have fallen upon 
 Imola and Forli, of the storming of Faenza, of 
 the subjugation of Rimini and Pesaro. To these 
 have now been joined Cesena, Fano, and Bertinoro, 
 182
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 all severed from the ecclesiastical patrimony in 
 order to create a new dominion wherein this son, 
 the very likeness of his father, may have a wide 
 enough field for plunder. Cesare is at present 
 conspiring against Camerino and Urbino, so that 
 by conquering them he may possess himself of the 
 whole March of Ancona. Spoleto, Civita Vecchia, 
 Isola, Nepi, the Castle of St. Angelo, all the 
 strongest fortresses of the ecclesiastical state, are 
 now garrisoned by his forces ; and matters are 
 come to such a pass that every place is governed 
 according to his pleasure. Last year he destroyed 
 and ravaged the cities belonging to the Holy See 
 in the Romagna as if it had been an enemy's 
 country ; and afterwards, in the neighbouring 
 and friendly State of Tuscany gave his soldiers 
 leave to plunder for several days so that they filled 
 every place with rapine, rape, and murder. The 
 cardinals are silent. The most powerful of them 
 having been driven away, and most of the others 
 preferring to keep possession of their dignities 
 and wealth by fawning and flattery, none remain 
 who dare whisper against this Duke's doings. 
 They all praise and admire, though they all secretly 
 fear, this fratricide, who once was a cardinal and 
 now is an assassin. By his will and nod everything 
 is controlled ; and whomsoever he may desire 
 to get rid of is stabbed or poisoned and thrown 
 into the Tiber. There is a good deal more in the 
 letter than is here summarised ; and the writer 
 concludes with an impassioned appeal to the 
 princes of the Empire to come to the rescue of 
 
 183
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 their Church, to remove out of the way the vilest 
 Pope that ever lived, and so bring back the barque 
 of St. Peter, now tossing in a tempest, to a safe 
 haven. 
 
 Cardinal Ferrari, the " Cerberus " of this scathing 
 composition, ventured to show it to the Pope, 
 who seems to have treated it with contemptuous 
 indifference. Apparently he took no steps to 
 stop the circulation of the pamphlet or to discover 
 its author. Cesare, who was now absolute tyrant 
 of Rome, which was filled with his police and 
 spies, was by no means so tolerant of affronts ; 
 and how the author of the " Letter to Silvio 
 Savelli " might have been dealt with had he been 
 in Rome, and unwise enough to sign his name, 
 may be inferred from the following instance or 
 two of Cesare's method of dealing with critics. 
 A masquerader who had been seen to point with 
 his finger at the Duke of Romagna, and heard 
 by a spy to utter some disparaging remark, was 
 immediately seized and thrown into prison, when 
 Cesare ordered the culprit's offending finger to be 
 amputated and his tongue cut out, so that both 
 members, tied together and suspended from the 
 bars of the prison window, might serve as a warning 
 to others to behave more respectfully. Even the 
 Venetian ambassador was powerless to save a 
 fellow citizen who had similarly offended the 
 vindictive Duke. A younger brother of Giovanni 
 Lorenzo, a Venetian of good family and famous 
 for his learning, had written home some strong 
 comments on the extravagant expenditure of the 
 184
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 Pope and his son. Cesare, hearing of it through 
 his spies, immediately had the poor fellow seized 
 and thrown into prison. As soon as this became 
 known in Venice the Senate sent instructions 
 to their ambassador in Rome to demand Lorenzo's 
 liberation. The Pope expressed great regret for 
 the occurrence, of which he declared he was 
 ignorant, and promised to give immediate orders 
 for the prisoner's release. But when the ambas- 
 sador called on the following day the Pope informed 
 him, with expressions of profound sorrow, that the 
 young man had already died in prison. On making 
 further inquiries, the ambassador discovered that, 
 the very day before, by Cesare's orders, Lorenzo 
 had been strangled and his body thrown into the 
 Tiber. Alexander explained that he had fre- 
 quently told his son that Rome was a free city, 
 where everybody should be at liberty to speak 
 and write as he pleased, and reminded him that 
 although evil had often been spoken of himself 
 he had always let it pass. Whereupon the Duke 
 replied that he meant to teach such people repent- 
 ance. 
 
 On February 17, six weeks after Lucrezia's 
 departure for Ferrara, the Pope and the Duke 
 of Romagna, accompanied by six cardinals, paid 
 a visit to Piombino to inspect the fortifications 
 being constructed there under the direction of 
 Leonardo da Vinci. It was evident that Cesare 
 had seized the place as a convenient headquarters 
 for the operations which he contemplated against 
 Tuscany. Alexander usually managed to combine 
 
 185
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 business with pleasure ; and we are told that, in 
 spite of its being Lent, the Papal party indulged 
 in prodigal festivity, and that a performance of 
 beautiful dancing girls was given for the special 
 delectation of his Holiness. On the return journey 
 in the early days of March, his galleys were caught 
 in a storm, and once more Rodrigo Borgia was in 
 danger of a watery grave, not far from the spot 
 where one hundred and eighty of his suite were 
 lost on the return from his Spanish legation in 
 1471. The crew were terrified, the cardinals wept, 
 but Alexander remained calm throughout all the 
 danger, making the sign of the Cross and invoking 
 the protection of the Blessed Virgin whom he 
 believed to be always watching over his safety. 
 
 Since the preceding December negotiations had 
 been taking place between the Vatican and Pisa 
 for the formation of an independent state on the 
 coast of Tuscany, of which Cesare was to be the 
 head with the title of Duke of Pisa ; and the 
 present seemed an opportune moment for carrying 
 out the design. The Roman barons had been 
 crushed, Cesare's lieutenant, Don Ramiro, held the 
 Romagna in an iron grip, Venice was fully occupied 
 with the Turks, Germany was unable to interfere, 
 Ferrara was in close alliance ; and the neutrality 
 if not the active aid of France was confidently 
 counted on because Louis XII needed the Pope's 
 assistance in the inevitable quarrel with Spain, 
 which Alexander had foreseen would sooner or later 
 break out over the partition of Naples. Cesare's 
 ultimate aim seems to have been to weld Tuscany 
 186
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 and the states of the Church (or rather his own 
 states) into one domain, so that a kingly throne 
 of Central Italy, and perhaps even the Papacy 
 itself, might become an hereditary possession of 
 the House of Borgia. 
 
 But first it was necessary to complete his 
 sanguinary work in Romagna and the March ; 
 and on June 13, 1502, he left Rome at the head 
 of his army, having kept his plan of campaign 
 a profound secret. Two of his condottiere, 
 Vitelozzo Vitelli with one hundred and twenty 
 men-at-arms and a company of foot soldiers, and 
 Gianpaolo Baglioni with fifty men-at-arms and 
 five hundred infantry, were already actively engaged 
 in furthering Piero de' Medici's operations against 
 Florence, and had occupied the town of Arezzo ; 
 but Cesare's objective was in another direction 
 altogether. Notwithstanding the warning of the 
 " Letter to Silvio Savelli " six months earlier, any 
 suspicions which Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino may 
 have entertained had been artfully lulled to sleep. 
 The Pope had amicably settled a dispute between 
 the Apostolic Chamber and Urbino respecting its 
 fief, and had even proposed a marriage between his 
 niece Angela Borgia and Francesco Maria Rovere, 
 Guidobaldo's heir. Cesare, on his part, had pre- 
 tended to take Guidobaldo into his confidence, 
 and now, making a feint on Camerino, he induced 
 the Duke to lend him troops and artillery for the 
 purpose, as well as to send a thousand of his foot 
 soldiers to the assistance of Vitelli in Tuscany. 
 Then, as soon as the unsuspecting Guidobaldo had 
 
 187
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 thus disarmed himself, Cesare swooped down on 
 the defenceless State of Urbino, pouring in his 
 troops so suddenly and by so many different 
 roads that Guidobaldo and his young heir had 
 scarce time to disguise themselves and take to 
 flight. Having dismantled the ducal palace of its 
 splendid and valuable books and objects of art, 
 which he packed off to his own favourite castle 
 at Cesena, Cesare turned back upon Camerino. 
 After a siege of some days, a truce was declared 
 to consider the terms of a capitulation ; but 
 whilst the negotiations were in progress Cesare 
 suddenly ordered the place to be stormed, and 
 the unsuspecting and unprepared defenders easily 
 fell into his hands. Julius Caesar Varano, the 
 " tyrant " of the place, with two of his sons, were 
 thrown into prison, and subsequently strangled. 
 The news of these successes made the Pope almost 
 beside himself with joy. He read the announce- 
 ments again and again and caused the Eternal 
 City to be illuminated. Camerino was bestowed 
 on the infant Giovanni Borgia with the title of 
 Duke ; and the perfidious conqueror thereof was 
 now proudly designated, " Cesare Borgia of France, 
 by the Grace of God Duke of Romagna, of Valen- 
 tinois, and of Urbino, Prince of Andria, Lord of 
 Piombino, Gonfaloniere and Captain-General of 
 the Holy Roman Church." 
 
 It was at this time that Machiavelli first came 
 into personal contact with the successful soldier 
 and diplomatist, whom he afterwards depicted as a 
 model for " tyrants " in his Principe. Bishop Soderini 
 188
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 had been sent to Urbino by the Florentines to 
 confer with the Duke of Romagna, and Machiavelli 
 accompanied the envoy as his secretary. It was 
 a game of bluff on both sides ; for although Cesare 
 had no serious intention of furthering the restora- 
 tion of the Medici, he hoped by threats and pre- 
 tences to cajole the Florentines into an alliance 
 with him, whilst they, on their part, merely desired 
 to keep him engaged in negotiations until the 
 French could come to their assistance. But 
 Machiavelli had already formed a high estimate 
 of Cesare's powers ; and wrote home that no 
 enterprise was so great that it would not seem 
 small to him, that he despised danger and fatigue, 
 that he acted with such secrecy and celerity as 
 to arrive at one place before anybody knew he had 
 left the other, that he had not only got hold of 
 the best soldiers in Italy but had gained their 
 goodwill, and that he was constantly favoured 
 by fortune. When a French contingent arrived 
 before Arezzo and speedily brought the rebels 
 to terms, Cesare promptly threw over Vitelozzo 
 Vitelli and the Orsini, alleging that they were 
 acting on their own account and without any 
 instructions either from him or the Pope. Then, 
 in pursuance of his pre-arranged plan, he prepared 
 to turn his arms against Bologna. 
 
 But just at this juncture the disputes over 
 Naples recalled Louis XII to Italy ; and as soon 
 as he arrived at Asti, towards the end of July, all 
 the enemies of the House of Borgia, including 
 Cardinal Orsini from Rome, flocked to him with 
 
 189
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 their complaints and warnings. They succeeded 
 in arousing the French king's suspicions, and as 
 a consequence the Duke of Romagna was at once 
 forbidden to proceed against Bologna or to make 
 any further aggressive movements against any 
 part of Tuscany. Cesare's counteracting stroke 
 exhibited both his usual subtlety and daring. 
 After a hurried conference with his father in 
 Rome, he rode off in disguise to the French camp 
 at Milan, where he arrived on August 5, and in 
 the midst of the crowd of the enemies of himself 
 and his family, by various promises, including that 
 of Alexander VI's support in the affair of Naples and 
 his own influence to secure the election of Cardinal 
 d'Amboise on the next vacancy of the Papal 
 throne, he induced Louis XII to support him 
 (though at present secretly) in his designs upon 
 Bologna and on the Orsini. 
 
 Before this secret agreement was so much as 
 suspected, however, a conspiracy against Cesare 
 was formed amongst the petty tyrants who were 
 his best condottiere. They had become alarmed 
 at his rapidly growing power ; and realising at last 
 that they were all likely to be " devoured by this 
 dragon one after another," they seized the oppor- 
 tunity of his loss of French support to rebel against 
 him. On October 9 they held a meeting at the castle 
 of La Magione in Perugia, where those who were 
 present, including many of the Orsini, several of the 
 Baglioni, Oliverotto of Fermo, and Vitelozzo Vitelli, 
 together with representatives of the Montefeltri 
 and Bentivoglio families, all swore to stand by one 
 190
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 another and to raise a combined army against the 
 dreaded Borgia. A week later, with a force of 
 10,000 men, they captured Urbino ; Guidobaldo 
 was reinstated in his dominions amidst the acclama- 
 tions of his old and devoted subjects ; the sole 
 survivor of the Varani re-occupied Camerino ; the 
 other dispossessed tyrants of the Romagna re- 
 appeared to reclaim their stolen possessions ; and 
 in a moment the whole edifice of the Borgian 
 grandeur seemed tottering to its fall. 
 
 Cesare, who was at Imola, with no force at his 
 command capable of giving battle to the con- 
 spirators' army, which by the addition of Baglioni's 
 troops soon swelled to 12,000 men, clearly realised 
 the gravity of the situation, though he showed no 
 signs of perturbation or dismay. He instantly 
 despatched Don Michelotto and another Spanish 
 captain with all of his army that remained faithful 
 to him, with instructions to harass the enemy and 
 prolong the conflict as long as possible whilst he 
 set about collecting a fresh force. Fortunately 
 for him the Cardinal of Modena had just died (of 
 poison it was said), and the 50,000 ducats of his 
 hoarding which the Pope had promptly seized 
 went a long way towards furnishing a formidable 
 contingent of men-at-arms. But he also sent an 
 urgent request to Louis XII for the aid he had 
 secretly promised ; and at the same time he 
 endeavoured to effect an alliance with Florence. 
 At first the rebels had it all their own way ; the 
 Duke's forces were utterly routed at Fossombrone, 
 and Don Michelotto, who had barely escaped, was 
 
 191
 
 besieged at Pesaro. But whilst he held out news 
 arrived that the French king had sent a company 
 of five hundred men-at-arms under the command 
 of Charles d'Amboise to the Duke's assistance, 
 and the whole aspect of affairs was suddenly 
 changed. With France at his back the rebels 
 knew well enough, Cesare would be unconquerable. 
 But instead of facing the dismayed conspirators 
 in the field the wily Duke now had recourse to 
 diplomacy ; and both he and the Pope exerted 
 all their craft to break up the league by sowing 
 dissension amongst its members. They managed 
 to detach the Orsini faction, and Paolo Orsini, 
 who was completely deluded and won over by 
 Cesare's dissimulation, persuaded the others to a 
 treaty of peace. According to the terms of this 
 agreement, which was made on October 28, all 
 the condottiere agreed to return to the service 
 of the Duke of Romagna, to aid him in the recovery 
 of Urbino and Camerino as well as in all his other 
 enterprises, not to make war without his leave, 
 and not to hire themselves to anybody else. He, 
 on his part, undertook to pay them as before, and 
 to defend them, all and singular, against any power 
 other than the Pope or the King of France. He 
 made a separate treaty with Giovanni Bentivoglio 
 by which, in return for a solemn undertaking not 
 to attack Bologna, Giovanni agreed to furnish him 
 with a specified contingent of men-at-arms. Guido- 
 baldo of Urbino, finding himself thus treacherously 
 abandoned by his late allies, dismantled some of 
 his fortresses, and on December 8 once more 
 192
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 betook himself to flight. Young Varano instantly 
 abandoned Camerino and fled back to Venice. 
 
 Whilst these negotiations were in progress, 
 Cesare had secretly gone on with his recruiting ; 
 but, in order that the number of his forces might 
 not be discovered, had dispersed the men as they 
 arrived into various parts of the Romagna. About 
 the end of November he removed from Imola to 
 Cesena. A few weeks after this the five hundred 
 French lances returned to Lombardy. Nobody 
 knew, and nobody could guess, what these move- 
 ments meant, reports Machiavelli, who was then 
 at Cesena, as Florentine envoy, " for this Duke 
 never reveals his intentions before carrying them 
 out." A little later Machiavelli reports another 
 mysterious and startling occurrence. Don Ramiro 
 d'Orco, Cesare's trusted lieutenant in the Romagna, 
 came from Pesaro to Cesena, and, to the amaze- 
 ment of everybody, was instantly arrested and 
 thrown into prison. Three days later his dead 
 body, cut into two pieces, with a wooden dagger 
 on one side and a bloody knife on the other, was 
 exposed in the market-place. The cause of this 
 sudden execution was unknown, wrote Machia- 
 velli to his government at the time ; but in the 
 seventh chapter of his Principe written eleven 
 years afterwards, he mentions this ferocious act 
 as one worthy to be imitated, and states its motive. 
 In order to reduce the Romagna to unanimity and 
 subjection, he says, it was necessary to employ 
 great severity, and Cesare Borgia appointed Don 
 Ramiro, a cruel and passionate man, as fit for this 
 
 N 193
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 purpose. But as soon as Don Ramiro's ferocious 
 conduct had produced its desired effect it was a 
 good stroke of policy on Cesare's part to execute 
 him, so as to make it appear that whatever 
 cruelties had been perpetrated were the un- 
 authorised actions of the agent and abhorred by 
 the Duke himself. 
 
 Cesare's apparent inaction at Cesena puzzled 
 everybody, including the Pope, who, as the 
 Venetian ambassador reports, impatiently 
 exclaimed that he could not imagine what the 
 devil the Duke was about, loitering there and 
 spending a thousand ducats a day. But the silent 
 and inscrutable dissembler was only biding his 
 time. He had as yet given no campaigning 
 instructions to his reconciled condottiere, although 
 the Orsini and Vitelli, who, with their troops, 
 were stationed now in the reconquered duchy of 
 Urbino, had dutifully sent messengers to inquire 
 what enterprise they were to undertake next. 
 At last, tired of inaction, they sent Oliverotto da 
 Fermo to suggest either an expedition into Tuscany 
 or the capture of Sinigaglia. Cesare replied that 
 the Florentines must be treated as his friends, 
 but that he approved of their other proposal. 
 From the time of Sixtus IV Sinigaglia had been 
 in possession of that Pope's nephew, Giovanni 
 della Rovere, who had married a sister of Guido- 
 baldo of Urbino. Giovanni had died the previous 
 year, and his heir, Francesco Maria, a boy eleven 
 years old, who was also heir to the duchy of 
 Urbino, was now sheltered in the town, with his 
 194
 
 mother and under the care of his guardian, Andrea 
 Doria. One reason for Cesare's approval of the 
 proposed attack on this place doubtless was the 
 hope that he might obtain possession of this 
 inconvenient heir and get rid of him as he 
 had got rid of young Astorre Manfredi. But on 
 the approach of the troops of Vitelli and the 
 Orsini, Andrea Doria sent the princess and her 
 son to Venice, after which, ordering his lieutenant 
 to defend the citadel to the utmost, he hurried 
 off to Florence. The town was not able to hold 
 out long, but the governor of the citadel defied 
 all the efforts of the condottiere, and declared 
 he would deliver up his keys to nobody but the 
 Duke of Romagna in person. On receiving a 
 message from his captains to this effect, Cesare 
 at once set out for Sinigaglia with a force of 11,000 
 horse and 10,000 foot, which he had ordered to 
 concentrate in the neighbourhood of Fano, sending 
 word in advance to the condottiere that he wished 
 to confer with them all respecting future operations, 
 but that, as it would be most convenient for the 
 men coming with him to be quartered in the 
 town, he would be obliged if they would dispose 
 of theirs in some of the most convenient neigh- 
 bouring castles. Everything was done as he 
 desired ; and the blindness with which these 
 past- masters in strategy, treachery, and all kinds 
 of deceit fell into so open a snare is not the least 
 extraordinary part of the story. 
 
 When his advance guard of two hundred horse 
 arrived at the bridge over the river which stands 
 
 195
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 almost over against the gate of Sinigaglia, they 
 did not pass it, but forming up to right and left 
 made room for the infantry, which marched 
 immediately into the town. Vitelli, Paolo Orsini, 
 and the Duke of Gravina then came out on their 
 mules to greet Cesare, who rode at the head of 
 his main body of cavalry. Don Michelotto and 
 several other favourites who could be trusted 
 had received instructions that two of them were 
 to attach themselves to each of these lords and 
 to entertain him and not part from him on any 
 account until he was safely housed in the Duke's 
 apartments. Perceiving at once that Oliverotto 
 da Fermo was missing, Cesare made a quick sign 
 to .Don Michelotto, who rode forward into the 
 town to make sure of his man, whilst the Duke 
 saluted his other captains with the winning address 
 and charm of manner which he so well knew how 
 to employ upon occasion. Michelotto found 
 Oliverotto with a body of 1000 foot and 150 horse 
 drawn up under arms in an open suburb just 
 within the gates, and having induced him to 
 dismiss his men to their quarters in case disputes 
 should arise by these being occupied by Cesare's 
 newly arrived men, brought him to pay his duty 
 to the Duke with due formality without the 
 walls. On arriving at the Duke's quarters they 
 all dismounted, attended him ceremoniously to 
 his apartment, and were instantly arrested. 
 Having commanded Oliverotto's men in the town 
 to be disarmed, Cesare despatched half his army 
 to deal similarly with the troops of Vitelli and 
 196
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 the Orsini, who were quartered some six miles 
 away ; but these men, having heard what had 
 happened to their generals, effected their escape. 
 At ten o'clock that night, Oliverotto da Fermo 
 and Vitelozzo Vitelli were strangled. Oliverotto 
 meanly tried to throw all the blame on Vitelozzo ; 
 the latter scoundrel merely begged that his Holiness 
 the Pope might be supplicated to give him a 
 plenary indulgence for his sins. Paolo Orsini and 
 the Duke of Gravina were kept as prisoners 
 until Cesare was assured that the Pope had been 
 able to seize the Orsini who were in Rome. As 
 soon as he learned that this had been done, on 
 January 18, 1503, they were strangled after the 
 same manner as the others. It was a master- 
 stroke of cunning. After making use of his 
 enemies to reinstate him in his dominions, he had 
 got rid of them all at one blow. And he took 
 care to justify the stratagem he had used by 
 sending envoys to all the powers of Italy alleging 
 (what is likely enough) that he had only anti- 
 cipated a set of secret conspirators who were 
 merely waiting their opportunity to rise and 
 assassinate him. 
 
 Cesare's motions were rapid enough now. On 
 January 1, 1503, the day after the executions at 
 Sinigaglia, his army was on the march towards 
 Siena, whither had escaped Pandolfo Petrucci, 
 whom Cesare considered as the brain of the con- 
 spiracy. All the petty tyrants fled at his approach 
 as from the path of a hydra. He placed a garrison 
 in Citta di Castello, which had been abandoned 
 
 197
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 by the Vitelli ; and placed a regent, on behalf 
 of the Church, in Perugia, which surrendered to 
 him on January 6, after the flight of Gianpaolo 
 Baglioni, but he continued his march without 
 troubling to enter the city. He ravaged the 
 country round Siena, and threatened to attack 
 the city itself unless Pandolfo Petrucci were 
 instantly banished. But on January 28 Pandolfo 
 agreed to depart if given a safe conduct, and 
 Cesare was compelled to be satisfied with this, 
 because France had forbidden him to attack the 
 place, and his father, troubled by an unexpected 
 revolt of the barons, had urgently summoned him 
 to Rome. Notwithstanding the safe conduct, 
 however, he despatched a band of fifty armed 
 men after Pandolfo, with orders to take him dead 
 or alive ; and the Sienese tyrant only escaped 
 because the Florentine commissary, ignorant of 
 their business, arrested the pursuers and kept 
 them prisoners until he could receive instructions 
 from headquarters. 
 
 Whilst Cesare was thus occupied in the Romagna, 
 the Pope had not failed to play his part in Rome. 
 He had collected money and men and artillery ; 
 he had used all his artifice in diplomatic negotia- 
 tions with France and with the league of con- 
 spirators, and he had prudently fortified Civita 
 Castellana as a refuge in case of need. But these 
 grave and weighty matters by no means exhausted 
 the energies of this old libertine, who had all 
 but completed his seventy-first year. He got up 
 festivals and processions and masquerades to amuse 
 198
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 the people (and himself) and to distract attention 
 from his more serious designs. Burchard solemnly 
 notes down in his diary the highly indecent details 
 of one of these masquerades, which paraded in 
 the Piazza of St. Peter whilst the amused Pope 
 watched it from one of his palace windows. And 
 Giustiniani, the Venetian ambassador, wrote home 
 reporting that Alexander went to the races, 
 attended performances of plays in company with 
 his cardinals, and kept up his customary diversions 
 in the Vatican, where certain fair ladies whom his 
 Holiness favoured often remained the whole night 
 long. 
 
 Immediately after Cesare's treaty of reconcilia- 
 tion with his condottiere the Pope had cajoled 
 Cardinal Orsini to Rome ; and keener-sighted 
 courtiers shrugged their shoulders when they saw 
 the deluded Prelate feasting and gambling and 
 taking part in all the other amusements of the 
 Vatican in blissful unconsciousness of the net in 
 which he had entangled himself. On January 3, 
 1503, Alexander, having received private intelli- 
 gence of what Cesare had done at Sinigaglia, 
 sent a message to Cardinal Orsini informing him 
 of the fall of that town and requesting his presence 
 to confer on the subject. The unsuspecting victim 
 hastened to the Vatican to tender his congratula- 
 tions, and was met on the way and accompanied 
 as though by accident by the governor of the city 
 and an escort of soldiers. As soon as he had 
 entered the Sala del Papagallo, Orsini was sur- 
 rounded by armed men and conducted to the 
 
 199
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Torre Borgia, whence, after a short time, he was 
 transferred to the Castle of St. Angelo. Alexander 
 instantly seized the cardinal's palace, confiscated 
 all his treasure, and turned his mother, an old 
 woman eighty years of age, into the street. In 
 vain some of the cardinals interceded for their 
 colleague. Alexander declared him to be a traitor, 
 whose complicity in the plot against the Duke of 
 Romagna could not be allowed to go unpunished. 
 Rinaldo Orsini, Archbishop of Florence, and the 
 prothonotary Orsini, together with several relatives 
 and adherents of the family, were arrested and 
 imprisoned at the same time. So many other 
 arrests quickly followed that whoever had any 
 money thought it might be his turn next, and 
 the number who, in consequence, fled from the 
 city was so great that in order to stop the panic 
 Alexander was obliged to summon the Conservators 
 and assure them that as all the guilty ones had 
 now been secured there was nothing to prevent 
 everybody else enjoying the carnival. 
 
 At first Cardinal Orsini was allowed to lodge 
 with the Governor of St. Angelo and to have his 
 food sent in by his mother, but as this arrange- 
 ment was very soon countermanded, the anxious 
 old lady endeavoured to regain this favour for her 
 son by sending to the Pope a large and valuable 
 pearl that he was known to covet. Alexander 
 accepted the jewel, but made no difference in the 
 treatment of his prisoner. On February 23 the 
 cardinal died, and so general was the suspicion of 
 poisoning that next day the Pope's physicians 
 200
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 were called upon to give their assurance that 
 Orsini had died a natural death. The poisoning 
 is not conclusively proved, although, of course, 
 this piece of evidence to the contrary is obviously 
 of little value. It was remembered that, next to 
 Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, Cardinal Orsini had been 
 most instrumental in raising Rodrigo Borgia to 
 the Papal throne. The one was now dead, the 
 other languishing in a French prison, and all the 
 worldly goods of both were in the possession of the 
 Borgia. 
 
 Immediately after the Cardinal's arrest the Pope 
 had sent his son Giuffre to take possession of Monte 
 Rotundo and other Orsini strongholds. This 
 determined the remainder of the family to make 
 a final effort to preserve themselves from utter 
 destruction. Combining with the Savelli and some 
 of the Colonna they intrenched themselves in Ceri 
 and the impregnable fortress of Bracciano. Mutio 
 Colonna and Silvio Savelli seized upon Palombara ; 
 and on January 23 the united barons attacked 
 the Ponte Nomentano. They were driven back, 
 but Alexander was so alarmed that he barricaded 
 the Vatican and recalled Giuffre to the city. On 
 February 20 he advised his cardinals to fortify 
 their palaces also, as there was reason to fear 
 another attack of the Orsini, and he sent urgent 
 messages to Cesare begging him to come without 
 any further delay. The terrible Duke was already 
 on the march, devastating the country and 
 committing all sorts of atrocities as he came 
 along. Acquapendente, Montefiascore, and Viterbo 
 
 201
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 suffered severely at his hands ; and at San Quirico, 
 whence all the inhabitants had fled except two old 
 men and nine old women, he is reported to have 
 had these miserable creatures strung up over a 
 slow fire in order to make them reveal where the 
 absconding people had hid their treasures ; which, 
 as they did not know, they could not tell, and 
 were accordingly left to be slowly roasted to death. 
 On February 26, accompanied only by a few 
 servants and masked, Cesare entered Rome, and 
 was recognised that evening at the representation 
 of a comedy in the Vatican. 
 
 On his way to Rome Cesare had captured all 
 the Orsini fortresses except Ceri and Bracciano, 
 which he would not attack because they were 
 under the express protection of France. But the 
 Pope was not to be deterred by this from com- 
 pleting his destruction of the family, and he now 
 went through the farce of issuing a Brief threaten- 
 ing the apparently reluctant Cesare with excom- 
 munication unless he proceeded against these 
 strongholds also. At the same time he made 
 cunning proposals to Giovanni Giordano Orsini to 
 exchange these places for the principality of 
 Squillace or for some territory in the March of 
 Ancona. On April 4 Orsini concluded an armistice 
 and appealed to the mediation of the King of 
 France. But affairs in Naples were going badly 
 for Louis XII. In April the Spaniards obtained 
 a brilliant victory over his forces in Apulia, and 
 on May 16 Gonsalvo de Cordova entered the 
 Neapolitan capital in triumph. The Pope ac- 
 202
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 cordingly showed a leaning towards Spain, and 
 Cesare was in a much better position for extorting 
 concessions from Louis XII in return for the 
 promise of his assistance. But the French reverses 
 in Naples promised to be of even greater advantage 
 than this to Cesare, and indeed opened an entirely 
 new prospect before him. Without French support 
 he could never have attained to his present pitch 
 of greatness and power. Yet the jealousy of 
 Louis XII had been the only effective check upon 
 his designs against Tuscany and his secret ambition 
 of founding a Borgian kingdom of Central Italy. 
 Consequently, he began to look about for new 
 allies in order to render himself independent of 
 the French king. 
 
 The most pressing need was money, and both 
 the Pope and his son set about getting it by every 
 means in their power. As early as March the 
 Venetian ambassador had reported the creation of 
 eighty new offices in the Curia, which were sold 
 at 670 ducats apiece, adding, " if your Highness 
 will cast up the sum you will see how much money 
 the Pope has secured." In May nine new cardinals 
 were created, five of whom were Spaniards, 
 including two relations of the Borgia. Most of 
 them, reports the Venetian ambassador, were men 
 of doubtful reputation, and all of them had paid 
 handsomely for their elevation, so that by this 
 means a further 120 to 130 thousand ducats were 
 got together. But this was not sufficient and 
 other expedients were resorted to. On the night 
 of April 10 Cardinal Giovanni Michiel, nephew 
 
 203
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 of Paul II, died after two days of violent vomiting, 
 and even Pastor, who acquits Cesare of many of 
 the crimes charged against him by his contem- 
 poraries, is constrained to admit that he poisoned 
 this cardinal in order to obtain the money he 
 wanted so badly. Before dawn next day Michiel's 
 palace was stripped by order of the Pope, and, 
 according to Giustiniani, property worth 150,000 
 ducats was removed to the Vatican. On June 8 
 the corpse of Giacomo Santa Croce, who had paid 
 20,000 ducats for his life at the time of the arrest 
 of Cardinal Orsini six months previously, was 
 exposed headless on the bridge of St. Angelo, 
 and all his possessions went to swell the war-chest 
 of the rapacious Borgia. Don Michelotto went 
 about the city with a band of armed men, forcing 
 his way into houses where it was expected money 
 might be found, arresting the occupants on the 
 pretext that they were Jews or Marani, and then 
 selling the prisoners their lives for as large a 
 ransom as could be raised. A week or two before 
 this, the Pope's favourite secretary, Troccio, had 
 fled from the Vatican. It was said that in revenge 
 for having been omitted from the last batch of 
 cardinals he had revealed the secret negotiations 
 going on between the Vatican and Spain. He 
 was captured on board a vessel bound for Corsica, 
 and, having been brought back to Rome, was 
 strangled by Michelotto in the presence of Duke 
 Cesare. There were other reasons than money for 
 this murder, but of course all his effects went to 
 the Pope. On August 1 Giovanni Borgia, cardinal 
 204
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 of Moureale, died suddenly, and it was generally 
 thought that Cesare had poisoned him. However 
 that may be, his death brought the Pope another 
 100,000 ducats at a very convenient time, and 
 Giustiniani reports that his Holiness wore a very 
 cheerful aspect notwithstanding that Moureale was 
 his own nephew. 
 
 Cesare Borgia, who was looked upon as a man 
 of almost superhuman sagacity as well as a prime 
 favourite of fortune, had now, whilst yet under 
 thirty years of age, raised himself by crime and 
 treachery and subtle diplomacy and unparalleled 
 audacity to a high position amongst contemporary 
 potentates. At the head of a considerable and 
 successful army, and backed by all the wealth and 
 influence of the Holy See, he was undoubtedly 
 the most formidable power in Italy. Nor did 
 anybody know how much further his vaulting 
 ambition might not carry him. His father, who 
 was in robust health and bade fair to rule in the 
 Vatican for several years to come, had been suc- 
 cessful in all his undertakings. He had subdued 
 the city of Rome, annihilated the factious barons 
 who had kept preceding Popes in awe, wrested all 
 the various towns of the Papal States from their 
 petty tyrants, reduced the College of Cardinals to 
 a subservient assembly for the registration of his 
 decrees, and had at last himself become little 
 more than a willing instrument for carrying out 
 the more imperious decrees of his terrible son. 
 
 At the moment the Pope and his son were 
 obliged to play a waiting game, for they had 
 
 205
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 many different schemes in hand, any one of which 
 might have to be settled upon to the exclusion 
 of the others according to the turn of events ; and 
 accordingly their diplomacy was more than usually 
 shifty, and appeared to many unaccountably 
 vacillating. Alexander would have bestowed upon 
 Cesare the title of King of Romagna and the 
 March were it not that the King of France, whose 
 large army was just about to march through 
 Tuscany and the Papal States to continue his 
 struggle with Spain in Naples, would inevitably 
 have opposed this, seeing that a Borgian monarchy, 
 with Rome as its centre, and all Christendom 
 liable to be covertly laid under contribution 
 for its finances, would have been altogether too 
 formidable an ally. It was perhaps on this account 
 that Louis XII tentatively suggested that he 
 might cede the whole of Naples to the Pope as a 
 monarchy for Cesare in exchange for Bologna and 
 the Romagna. This was not altogether to 
 Alexander's liking, although, in negotiating for 
 something else with the Emperor Maximilian, he 
 said that, in default of other satisfactory arrange- 
 ments, he would be obliged to accept the offer. 
 What he proposed to France as an alternative was 
 that provided either Naples or Sicily were given 
 to Cesare he would support Louis with men and 
 money against Spain, and also allow him to take 
 whatever he liked in Northern Italy. At the same 
 time, in case the French forces should have no 
 better fortune than before, he made overtures to 
 the Spanish king likewise, who, in return for the 
 206
 
 THE CULMINATION 
 
 Pope's support against France was ready to leave 
 him a free hand in Tuscany. And in furtherance 
 of this last-named plan he used every effort to 
 obtain Cesare's investiture of Pisa, Siena, and 
 Lucca from the Emperor. In apparent contra- 
 diction to the whole of this, however, he made 
 passionate proposals to Venice to join with him 
 for the love of God in a league against both France 
 and Spain in order to deliver their common country 
 from foreigners. But while the Pope and his son 
 seemed thus, in one way or another, to be on the 
 very point of attaining the highest object of their 
 ambition, a sudden and unprovided for event 
 destroyed the whole web of the Borgian diplomacy. 
 On Saturday, August 12, both the Pope and the 
 Duke of Romagna fell ill of the same complaint. 
 Cesare's youth and strength of constitution enabled 
 him to survive, although, owing to another disease 
 from which he was already suffering, he remained 
 for some weeks in a state of great prostration. 
 But on the 18th, after confessing and receiving 
 the Holy Communion, the Pope expired. 
 
 207
 
 VIII 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 THE suspicious circumstance of the Pope and his 
 son having been seized with a sudden and violent 
 sickness soon after a supper in the vineyard of 
 Cardinal Adriano of Corneto, and of their host 
 having been attacked with the same malady at the 
 same time, gave rise to a dramatic story of poison- 
 ing, which was credited by the contemporary 
 historians Guicciardini, Bembo, Giovio, Metarazzo, 
 Sanuto, and Volterranus amongst others, and which 
 remained unquestioned until shown to be un- 
 tenable by the more discriminating historians of 
 a later time. There are several, not altogether 
 accordant, versions of the story, of which the best- 
 known is that of Guicciardini. After remarking 
 that everybody knew it to be the usual practice 
 both of the Pope and his son to poison not only 
 those they resolved to sacrifice to their revenge 
 or jealousy but also any person of great wealth, 
 whether cardinal or courtier, whose riches tempted 
 their avarice, this historian relates that Cesare 
 had decided to poison the Cardinal of Corneto, 
 and for that purpose had sent up some flasks of 
 envenomed wine to Corneto's vineyard, where he 
 and his father had invited themselves to supper. 
 208
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 The wine was entrusted to a servant who knew 
 nothing of his master's purpose, and who was told 
 not to open the flasks for anybody without special 
 instructions to do so. But the Pope happening 
 to arrive before the time for supper, and being 
 very thirsty on account of the great heat, at once 
 asked for something to drink. The servant, 
 imagining the poisoned wine to have been reserved 
 because it was particularly choice, brought some 
 of it to his Holiness. The Duke arrived whilst his 
 father was drinking, and being thirsty himself, 
 also took a copious draught of the deadly potion ; 
 and both of them were soon carried back to the 
 Vatican in a critical condition. Marino Sanuto's 
 version is different, and more minutely circum- 
 stantial. He says that the Cardinal of Corneto, 
 having received a message one morning that the 
 Pope and the Duke of Romagna intended to visit 
 him that evening and bring their supper with them, 
 was terrified at the intelligence, because he sus- 
 pected at once that they meant to poison him in 
 order to obtain possession of his great wealth. 
 The frightened cardinal sent an urgent private 
 message to the Pope's chief carver to come to his 
 palace as soon as possible, and on the man's 
 arrival placed ten golden ducats in his hand as a 
 preliminary fee, and promised a more substantial 
 reward if the fellow would save his life by revealing 
 the method of poisoning which was to be employed 
 against him. The carver was won over, and he 
 told the cardinal that after supper three boxes of 
 confectionery were to be placed on the table, one 
 
 o 209
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 before the Pope, one before the Duke, and a third, 
 which had been poisoned, before his eminence. 
 Corneto then boldly proposed that the carver should 
 change the boxes and place the poisoned one before 
 the Pope so that he might eat of it and die. At 
 first the man was horrified by such a suggestion, 
 but eventually he was induced to agree by a bribe 
 of 10,000 ducats in gold. Finally, however, a 
 different procedure was adopted, either because 
 even so heavy a bribe could not screw the carver's 
 courage up to the pitch of slaying the Vicar of 
 Christ with his own hands, or because the cardinal 
 was desirous of making assurance doubly sure. 
 When the Pope and the Duke arrived, Corneto 
 threw himself on his knees, and protesting that it 
 was not respectful for a servant to sit at the same 
 table as his lord, begged as a favour that he might 
 be allowed to wait upon his Holiness. The request 
 being granted and the supper over, Cardinal 
 Adriano brought forward the boxes of sweetmeats, 
 and having carefully placed the one containing the 
 poison before the Pope, ate without apprehension 
 from that which was allotted to himself. " Next 
 morning," says Sanuto, spoiling a fine circumstan- 
 tial fiction with a glaring and easily detected 
 inaccuracy, "the Pope died." 
 
 It is true that the Pope and his son did have 
 supper in Cardinal Adriano's vineyard on the 
 evening of August 5, and that both of them, as 
 well as their host, were seized with sudden and 
 dangerous illness not very long afterwards. But 
 the fact that the malady did not show itself until 
 210
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 after the expiration of seven days, and that when 
 it did appear the symptoms were those of the well- 
 known " tertian " then unusually prevalent in 
 Rome, would be enough to dispose of the fore- 
 going ingenious fiction even if there were no other 
 evidence to the contrary. And there is other 
 evidence ; for the despatches of the Venetian and 
 other ambassadors, who sent off bulletins to their 
 several governments every day, from the 12th to 
 the 18th of the month, reporting the progress of 
 the Pope's illness, make it abundantly clear that 
 he was suffering from the malaria which was then 
 exceptionally severe in Rome, and had attacked 
 almost the whole court, owing in great measure, 
 as they declared, to the bad air of the Papal palace. 
 The origin of the story may have been partly due 
 to the fact that Alexander's corpse was so hideously 
 disfigured by rapid decomposition as almost to have 
 lost the semblance of humanity within twenty-four 
 hours. The face was black, the swollen tongue 
 protruded from the gaping mouth, and the body 
 had become almost as broad as it was long 
 symptoms at that time thought to be sure marks 
 of poison. The persistency of the story, in spite 
 of the explicit evidence of Giustiniani, Soderini 
 and Burchard to the contrary, may perhaps be 
 accounted for by a natural wish to believe that 
 this detested Pope, who was credited with having 
 cleared so many people out of his way by a dose 
 of poison, had at last met with poetical justice 
 and been hoist with his own petard. 
 
 The Borgian apologists' contention that the life 
 
 211
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 of Alexander VI was no worse and no more shock- 
 ing to his contemporaries than that of other Popes 
 and Princes of his era is confuted, amongst other 
 ways, by the legends which instantly grew up 
 about his death. Not only was the poisoning 
 generally believed, but people went about whisper- 
 ing that this had been contrived by the Devil, who 
 had carried off the wicked Pope's soul in the form 
 of an ape. The Marquis of Mantua, who was at 
 the head-quarters of the French army a few miles 
 from Rome at the time, wrote home to his wife on 
 September 22 saying that, during his illness the 
 Pope had talked in such a way as to lead his 
 attendants to suppose he was delirious, calling out, 
 " I will come ; it is but right ; wait yet a little 
 while." But those who were in the secret knew 
 that during the conclave following the death of 
 Innocent VIII, Rodrigo Borgia had purchased the 
 Papacy from the Devil at the price of his soul. 
 According to this agreement, he was to occupy 
 St. Peter's chair for twelve years which he did, 
 says the Marquis, with the addition of four days. 
 And some people say that seven devils were seen 
 in his chamber at the moment when he gave up the 
 ghost. It was with difficulty that anybody could 
 be persuaded to dress his corpse, and next morning 
 strangers had to be hired to remove it to St. Peter's. 
 Then, says Guicciardini, the whole of Rome ran 
 with indescribable gladness to feast their eyes on 
 the carcass of the dead serpent, whose unbounded 
 ambition, vile treachery, horrid cruelty, insatiable 
 avarice, and monstrous lust had filled the world 
 212
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 with venom. After twenty-four hours the hideous 
 and corrupt corpse was dragged by a rope, because 
 nobody would touch it, from its bed to the chapel 
 de febribus. It had then swelled too large for the 
 coffin that had been made for it, and the under- 
 taker's men, covering it with a cloth, battered it 
 in by main force, brutally jesting the while. The 
 Marquis Gonzaga wrote to his wife that the Pope's 
 funeral was more wretched than that of any 
 Mantuan beggar. No monument was erected over 
 his burial-place, and the sarcophagus now shown 
 as his in the crypt of the Vatican is believed to be 
 that of his uncle Calixtus III. 
 
 Alexander VI, according to the judgment of his 
 contemporaries, was a monster of iniquity, the 
 worst Pope who had ever sat in St. Peter's chair. 
 Guicciardini charges him with being impure to an 
 unexampled degree, destitute of religious faith, 
 without probity, barbarously cruel to his foes, 
 meanly ungrateful to the friends by whose aid he 
 had risen to power, false to all, and without a 
 particle of shame ; with being animated by in- 
 satiable avarice, immoderate lust of dominion, and 
 an ardent desire to exalt at any cost a number of 
 children who were as bad as himself. But he was 
 also endowed with extraordinary acuteness and 
 sagacity, with a wonderful capacity for suggesting 
 subtle expedients in council, and with a surprising 
 dexterity and energy in the carrying out of his 
 projects. Although his aims were always high, 
 his attainments never fell short of his expectations ; 
 and his sins met with no due punishment in this 
 
 213
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 world, for, from early youth to the day of his 
 death, his career was one continuous course of 
 prosperity. As to Alexander's political character, 
 the testimony of Machiavelli is to much the same 
 effect, although expressed without Guicciardini's 
 indignation and moral disapprobation. In the 
 eighteenth chapter of his celebrated Principe he 
 quotes this Pope as a striking example of his 
 contention that it is of the utmost importance for 
 a prince to be able to disguise his sentiments and 
 intentions, and not to keep his word when it would 
 be to his prejudice so to do, since " he who best 
 acts the fox will achieve the greatest success." 
 Alexander VI, he calmly declares with implicit 
 admiration, never dealt with anybody without 
 cheating ; no man ever promised things more 
 explicitly or confirmed his promises with stronger 
 oaths ; and no man ever observed his promises 
 less ; yet, because he understood the world and 
 knew how to play the hypocrite well, his policy 
 never miscarried. 
 
 The judgment of some modern historians has 
 been more favourable. In 1805 Roscoe not only 
 defended Lucrezia Borgia but ventured to put in 
 a good word for her father as well ; although, 
 indeed, he did not go very far, contenting himself 
 with the declaration that Alexander's crimes had 
 been exaggerated, and that he was endowed with 
 a number of good qualities which ought not to be 
 passed over in silence. Domenico Cerri's Borgia 
 ossia Alessandro VI Papa e suoi contemporanei, in 
 1858, and the Abbe Ollivier's Le Pape Alexandre VI 
 214
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 et Us Borgia, in 1870, as well as certain more recent 
 fantastic and futile attempts to represent Rodrigo 
 Borgia as a pattern of virtue deserving our reverent 
 admiration, are not worth serious notice. But it 
 is rather astonishing to find so much leniency 
 towards Alexander displayed by Mandell Creighton, 
 whose " History of the Papacy " is a monument 
 of historical accuracy, and in the main of judicious 
 and impartial judgment. Whilst absolving him 
 from some of the vilest of the crimes that have been 
 laid to his charge, Creighton lays great stress upon 
 the facts that Alexander was not forgetful of the 
 formal duties of his office ; that he did but carry 
 on the secularisation of the Papacy which had been 
 begun by Sixtus IV ; that he was the only man in 
 Italy who seemed to know what he wanted ; that 
 there was little moral sense in Europe at that time 
 to be shocked by either his public or his private 
 life ; that political perfidy was universal in Italy 
 in his time ; and he comes finally to the strange 
 conclusion that the exceptional infamy attaching 
 to Alexander's name is due to his want of hypocrisy. 
 On the other hand, the Roman Catholic historian 
 Pastor candidly acknowledges the impossibility of 
 rehabilitating Alexander VI. Although modern 
 critical research has rejected some of the worst 
 accusations made against this Pope, he says, so 
 much has been clearly proved, and it is so useless 
 to attempt to deny his immoralities, both before 
 and after his elevation to the Papal throne, that 
 the modern attempts at " whitewashing " him are 
 " unworthy tampering with the truth." The other 
 
 215
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 most eminent modern historians who have devoted 
 special attention to the Borgia are the German, 
 Gregorovius, and the Italian, Villari. Both arrive 
 at a verdict which differs little from that of 
 Guicciardini. 
 
 There is no doubt that Alexander VI was a 
 past-master in cunning diplomacy ; but he had 
 neither the political aims nor the political genius 
 of a Sixtus IV or a Julius II. His ruling passion, 
 and the one motive of his whole policy, was love 
 of his children ; for the sake of whose aggrandise- 
 ment he committed crime after crime, without 
 scruple and without remorse. He desired to leave 
 the whole of the ecclesiastical states as an hereditary 
 possession in his family ; and in the pursuit of this 
 object he compassed the ruin and death of most of 
 the Roman nobles and feudatory princes. He 
 subjected Italy to one desolating invasion after 
 another, and ultimately surrendered it to foreigners, 
 with the sole object of providing for his bastards 
 in the consequent confusion. Roscoe alleged that 
 whatever Alexander's other demerits may have 
 been, at least he governed wisely and for the benefit 
 of the common people in the Eternal City. But 
 even this cannot be allowed him. Rafael Volter- 
 ranus, a reliable contemporary, declares that justice 
 was extinct in Rome under Alexander ; that no 
 street was safe at night on account of robbers ; 
 that the place swarmed with spies and informers ; 
 and that the slightest expression of dissatisfaction 
 with the Borgian rule was punished with death. 
 Similarly, Cardinal Egidio of Viterbo, another con- 
 216
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 temporary, testifies that to own money or valuable 
 property in Rome during Alexander's reign was 
 equivalent to being guilty of high treason. 
 
 The Borgian apologists have laid great stress 
 upon Alexander's orthodox belief and careful ob- 
 servance of all the rites and ceremonies of his 
 office. He greatly revered the Blessed Virgin, we 
 are told, under whose special protection he believed 
 himself to be. It is to him we are indebted for the 
 daily ringing of the Angelus. By inventing the 
 Index Expurgatorius, we are assured, he exhibited 
 his zeal for pure and uncorrupt doctrine ; and by 
 enjoining Spain to send missionaries to the newly 
 discovered America he showed his anxiety for the 
 diffusion of the Christian faith throughout the 
 world. Wherefore, they argue, the crimes and 
 misdemeanours charged against him must be gross 
 exaggerations. On the other hand, some adverse 
 critics, finding his sensuality and cruelty and 
 criminality proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, 
 and unable to reconcile these villanies with any 
 real consciousness of the existence of a Divine 
 being, have come to the conslusion that Alex- 
 ander VI must have been secretly an atheist. It 
 is undoubtedly a somewhat startling contrast to 
 find Alexander turning from the contriving of a 
 murder to the celebration of a Mass ; to see him 
 at one moment absorbed in adoration of the Blessed 
 Virgin, and at another instructing a painter to 
 adorn his walls by depicting the Queen of Heaven 
 with the features of his adulterous concubine Giulia 
 Farnese. But his is by no means the only case in 
 
 217
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 which fervent piety and ardent immorality have 
 been alternating states of the same mind. The 
 real crux of the matter is that this man was Pope. 
 To separate the office from the man is an impossi- 
 bility ; and the occupation of the Papal chair by 
 a Rodrigo Borgia reduces the Vicarship of Christ 
 and Vice-Regency of God upon earth to a palpable 
 absurdity. 
 
 The sudden illness and unexpected death of 
 Alexander VI threw the whole country into com- 
 motion. Louis XII of France and Ferdinand of 
 Spain were determined to strain every nerve to 
 secure the election of their respective candidates 
 for the Papal chair. The French army, under 
 Francesco Gonzaga, had halted close by at Viterbo ; 
 the Spanish army, under Gonsalvo de Cordova, 
 was advancing from the south ; the streets of 
 Rome rang with cries of " Orsini ! " " Colonna ! 1: 
 " Borgia 1 " and it seemed as though the contest 
 for the Papacy could never be settled without an 
 appeal to arms. Although whilst his father was 
 dying Cesare himself was still so ill that his own 
 life was not out of danger, he had ordered his 
 troops from Pesaro to Rome ; and before the death 
 of Alexander could be announced had possessed 
 himself of all the treasure he could lay hands upon. 
 His trusty henchman, Don Michelotto, entering the 
 Papal apartments, held a dagger to the throat of 
 Cardinal Cassanova and threatened to kill him on 
 the spot unless he instantly gave up the Pope's 
 keys and money. By this means the Duke obtained 
 10,000 golden ducats in cash besides plate and 
 218
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 jewels to the value of 300,000 ducats more. He 
 was in command of an army of over 8000 men, his 
 cavalry encamped on Monte Mario, his infantry 
 holding S. Onofrio and all the streets leading to 
 the Borgo ; eight of the Spanish cardinals were 
 reported to be as subservient to him as though 
 they were his own domestic chaplains ; and it 
 was generally believed that he could control the 
 election and secure the elevation of a Pope devoted 
 to his interests. 
 
 Machiavelli enumerates four principal lines of 
 policy by which Cesare had carefully provided 
 against the dangers that might befall him on his 
 father's death. The first was to destroy the whole 
 line of those families he dispossessed, in order that, 
 in the event of the next Pope being unfavourable 
 to him, there might be no legitimate heirs to claim 
 restitution. The second was to cajole the nobility 
 of Rome and take many of their adherents into 
 his pay, so that his party in the city could put 
 considerable restraint upon a new and adverse 
 Pope. The third was to pack the Sacred College 
 with friends and creatures of his own. And the 
 fourth was to make himself so strong before the 
 death of his father as to be able single-handed to 
 give a good account of all his enemies. The first 
 three he had carried out with some degree of 
 completeness ; and he was in a fair way towards 
 the accomplishment of the fourth when his father 
 died. He told me himself afterwards, says Machia- 
 velli, that he had considered all the accidents that 
 might befall him on the death of his father, and 
 
 219
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 had provided against them all, save only this one. 
 It had never entered his thoughts that he might 
 be laid up with a disabling disease at this critical 
 conjuncture. Such was the Duke's prudence and 
 " magnanimity," continues this cynical political 
 philosopher, and so solid were the foundations he 
 had laid during the last few years, that had he not 
 been confronted by the two great armies of France 
 and Spain whilst suffering from a fierce distemper, 
 he would doubtless have overcome all his diffi- 
 culties and carried his pre-arranged plans into 
 execution. As it was, however, he was obliged 
 to do not what he would but what he could. 
 
 Alexander's death, of course, was the signal for 
 an uprising of all the enemies of the House of 
 Borgia ; and the haughty Duke, whose frown but 
 a few days previously had caused everybody to 
 tremble, was reduced to seek safety by humiliating 
 alliances. He had endeavoured to obtain posses- 
 sion of the now impregnable Castle of St. Angelo, 
 but the Bishop of Nicastro, who was governor, 
 had refused admittance to Cesare's troops under 
 Don Michelotto ; and having failed in securing 
 himself by this means, the Duke, on August 22, 
 submissively swore obedience to the Sacred College, 
 and was permitted to retain his office of Gonfa- 
 loniere during the interregnum. But he guarded 
 all the approaches to Rome, both by sea and land, 
 in order to prevent the Cardinals of Vincola and 
 San Giorgio from attending the conclave. Fabio 
 Orsini, who thirsted after Cesare's blood, entered 
 the city with a following of 400 horse and 500 foot, 
 220
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 burnt houses and shops in the Spanish quarter, 
 came into conflict with some of the Duke's soldiery 
 and washed his hands and face in the blood of a 
 slaughtered Borgian. The Colonna also took up 
 arms ; and Cesare, fearing a confederacy of these 
 two powerful families against him, judged it 
 prudent to conclude an alliance with the latter. 
 Several of the Orsini had been deprived by him 
 both of property and life ; but the Colonna he had 
 injured in their estates only, which he could, and 
 now did, restore. It was still thought that his 
 influence would be decisive in the election of the 
 next Pope ; and both France and Spain courted 
 him assiduously and made large offers for his 
 support of their respective candidates. But the 
 cardinals would not enter the conclave whilst the 
 streets were filled with tumultuous soldiery and 
 whilst there was any fear of interference by the 
 French army at Viterbo, which had refused to 
 pass the Tiber until a new Pope had been elected. 
 Negotiations were carried on with Cesare as with 
 an independent prince. He was still Duke of 
 Romagna, in command of a considerable army, 
 and possessed plenty of money. When the ambas- 
 sadors of France, Spain, Venice, and the Emperor 
 called on him on August 25 to request his removal 
 from the Vatican in order to secure freedom of 
 election, they found him lying on his couch, but 
 fully dressed, and surrounded by the Spanish 
 cardinals. He declined to leave, on the ground 
 that being ill he was not safe elsewhere ; but he 
 expressed his willingness to go into the Castle of 
 
 221
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 St. Angelo on condition that it were garrisoned by 
 his own troops. This, of course, was out of the 
 question, for established there he would have over- 
 awed the Vatican and all Rome. After the negotia- 
 tions had lasted about a week, it was at length 
 agreed that Cesare should withdraw with his troops 
 from Rome on consideration that the College of 
 Cardinals granted him a free passage through the 
 States of the Church, engaged to protect him against 
 all attacks, and promised to warn off the Venetians 
 from any attempts against the Romagna. It was 
 agreed at the same time that the Orsini and Colonna 
 should withdraw also ; and the ambassadors of 
 France, Spain, Venice, and the Emperor pledged 
 their respective governments to prevent any of 
 these troops, or the French or Spanish army, from 
 approaching within ten miles of Rome so long as 
 the Papal throne remained vacant. 
 
 Cesare left Rome on September 2, preserving as 
 much of his accustomed state and dignity as the 
 suddenness and rapidity of his retreat admitted. 
 Preceded by his advance-guard, thirteen carts carry- 
 ing his artillery and ammunition, and more than 
 a hundred baggage waggons with his other effects, 
 passed through the Transtevere. The Duke fol- 
 lowed, escorted by his cavalry, and carried by 
 twelve halberdiers on a high litter with a crimson 
 canopy. Behind him, led by a young page, came 
 his charger, caparisoned in black velvet on which 
 his arms and ducal crown were embroidered in 
 gold. The French, Spanish and Imperial ambas- 
 sadors accompanied him as far as the city walls. 
 222
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 At the Porta Viridaria, Cardinal Cesarini desired 
 to make some communication, but received the 
 haughty reply that it was impossible for the Duke 
 to grant him an audience. Amongst his train 
 were his mother, Vanozza, who had been the object 
 of hostile demonstrations, and also his brother, 
 Giuffre, Prince of Squillace. Donna Sancia, who 
 had been shut up in the Castle of St. Angelo by 
 the Pope some time before his death on account 
 of her licentiousness and the dissensions she had 
 created in the family, was released from her 
 confinement and placed in charge of Prospero 
 Colonna to be conducted to Naples. 
 
 The Duke proceeded to Nepi, when it soon 
 became known that he had thrown in his lot with 
 France against Spain, and that Louis XII had 
 engaged in return to protect him in his present 
 possessions and to assist him to recover those 
 which he had lost. For the extensive dominion 
 which he had built up at the cost of so much 
 bloodshed and treachery had already begun to 
 crumble away. The Orsini and other surviving 
 Roman barons had repossessed themselves of their 
 old estates ; Guidobaldo had been received back 
 with open arms at Urbino ; Giovanni Sforza had 
 re-entered Pesaro amidst the acclamations of his 
 old subjects ; the Vitelli returned to Citta di 
 Castello, Appiano to Piombino, Varani to Camerino, 
 Delia Rovere to Sinigaglia ; and, after one repulse, 
 Gianpaolo Baglioni had succeeded in recapturing 
 Perugia. The Romagna alone remained. Cesare 
 Borgia has been generally commended for his good 
 
 223
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 government of this province, which, it is said, won 
 for him the affection of the inhabitants. There 
 was little affection in the case, but Cesare had 
 certainly to some extent served their interests. 
 After allowing his ferocious agent, Don Ramiro, 
 to stamp out all opposition, and then killing him 
 by way of disavowing his methods, Cesare had 
 shown the Romagnoles that it was more to their 
 interest to have one than many masters. By 
 suppressing the brigandage to which they had all 
 been exposed, by employing many of them with 
 good pay under his banners, and by appointing 
 some of them to comfortable benefices and other 
 posts of profit, which his command of all the 
 wealth and influence of the Papacy easily enabled 
 him to do, he had taught them that it was better 
 to be subject all together to one potent and wealthy 
 lord rather than for each city to be under the 
 dominion of its own petty prince, who was always 
 at feud with his neighbours, and who could neither 
 defend them against their enemies for want of 
 power nor help them otherwise for want of money. 
 As soon as Cesare Borgia had departed, Cardinal 
 Giuliano Rovere, who had been an exile for ten 
 years, entered Rome, and at once boldly announced 
 that he had not come in the French interest but 
 in his own. He was soon followed by Cardinal 
 Ascanio Sforza, who had been released from his 
 Bourges prison in the hope that he would use his 
 influence in favour of the French cardinal 
 d'Amboise. But Sforza no sooner reached Rome, 
 where his reception was an enthusiastic one, than 
 224
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 he set about working hard for his own election. 
 When at Milan in the previous August, in order 
 to obtain the aid of Louis XII in extricating him 
 from his difficulties, Cesare had promised to sup- 
 port the candidature of Cardinal d'Amboise at 
 the next Papal election ; and the French now 
 counted upon him to influence in their favour the 
 votes of the Spanish cardinals. But although these 
 cardinals dared not vote for one of their own 
 nationality in face of the outbreak of popular rage 
 against everything Spanish which had instantly 
 followed the death of Alexander VI, they were 
 not disposed to incur the anger of their king by 
 voting for a French Pope whilst that country was 
 at war with Spain. D'Amboise had come to Rome 
 confident of his own election ; but when he found 
 that to be hopeless he set himself to prevent at 
 any rate that of his principal rival, Giuliano della 
 Rovere. As no party was in a position to carry 
 the election, and as the disorderly state of affairs 
 permitted of no further delay, a compromise was 
 soon agreed upon. On September 22 a man of 
 unblemished character, but aged and infirm, and 
 therefore not likely to rule long, was elected in 
 the person of Francesco Piccolomini, Cardinal of 
 Siena, who assumed the name of Pius III in memory 
 of the uncle who had raised him to the purple. 
 
 Pius III had no great partiality for Cesare 
 Borgia ; but when the Duke entreated to be 
 allowed to return to Rome, and the Spanish 
 cardinals, who interceded for him, assured the 
 Pope he was very ill and only wanted to come to 
 
 P 225
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Rome to die, he gave his permission ; and on 
 October 3 Cesare returned, accompanied by his 
 mother and his brother Guiffre, and bringing with 
 him 250 horse and 500 infantry. The fact really 
 was that the departure of the French army for 
 Naples had left Cesare unprotected, and he feared 
 a combined attack of the Orsini, Savelli, and other 
 enemies at Nepi. He also wanted an opportunity 
 to win the Pope over to his side. Pius was not 
 unfriendly ; and when the Baglioni and Orsini 
 attacked some places in Umbria, he issued a Brief 
 to Perugia forbidding any one to act against his 
 " beloved son Cesare Borgia of France, Duke of 
 Romagna and Valentinois, and Gonfaloniere of the 
 Church." He also sent similar Briefs to the 
 Romagna, where the Venetians had taken pos- 
 session of several cities. But in the course of a 
 few days Bartolomeo d'Alviano, Gianpaolo Baglioni, 
 and the Orsini who were in the city, backed by the 
 Cardinals della Rovere and Riario, demanded the 
 disbandment of Cesare's army. All the Orsini, 
 with the exception of Giovanni Giordano, entered 
 into the service of the King of Spain because 
 Cesare Borgia was on the side of France ; and on 
 October 12 it was announced that they had also 
 made an alliance with their hereditary enemies 
 the Colonna. 
 
 This union of enemies, which had been brought 
 about by Bartolomeo d'Alviano and the Venetian 
 ambassador, terrified Cesare, who immediately 
 endeavoured to remove from Rome to the fortress 
 of Bracciano, whither Giovanni Giordano, who 
 226
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 alone of his family had entered the service of 
 France, engaged to conduct him in safety. This 
 so angered the rest of the family that they talked 
 of throwing Giovanni Giordano into prison, and 
 his own wife urged them to do so. But Bartolomeo 
 d'Alviano had set a guard at every gate, whilst 
 Baglioni and the other Orsini attacked the Duke's 
 men with such fury that he was constrained to 
 return and take refuge in the Vatican. His troops, 
 which were already greatly reduced in number in 
 consequence of Gonsalvo de Cordova having re- 
 called every Spaniard to the aid of his country on 
 pain of death, all deserted or were dispersed ; and 
 when the Orsini demanded his arrest from the 
 Pope and found Pius III lying on his death-bed 
 too ill to attend to their request, they endeavoured 
 to take the law into their own hands. The Duke 
 was at the end of his resources, and took refuge, 
 with a few servants, in the Castle of St. Angelo. 
 
 But on October 18, after a Pontificate of only 
 twenty-six days, Pius III died, and the situation 
 of affairs was again suddenly changed. Sixteen 
 days later, on November 1, after the shortest 
 sitting of any conclave in the whole history of 
 the Papacy, it was announced that Cardinal 
 Giuliano della Rovere had been elected Pope, and 
 that it pleased him to take the title of Julius II. 
 All the world seems to have been greatly surprised 
 at the quickness and unanimity of Julius 5 election ; 
 for although he was a cardinal of long standing, 
 of great power and interest and magnificence, a 
 staunch defender of the dignity and privileges of 
 
 22T
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 the Church, and acknowledged even by his bitterest 
 enemy, Alexander VI, to be a man of veracity, he 
 was also universally known to be of a restless and 
 intriguing disposition, with a turbulent and terrible 
 temper, which had frequently caused offence and 
 created him many enemies. But the truth is these 
 considerations had been of little weight on the one 
 side or the other, for the result had been arranged 
 beforehand by intrigues and promises and bribes 
 of every description. It is not necessary to enter 
 into any detail of the bribes given to the different 
 electors further than to say that the votes of the 
 solid body of Spanish cardinals, who, as the 
 Ferrarese ambassador slyly remarked, did not intend 
 to be poor when they came out of the conclave, 
 were obtained through the influence of Cesare 
 Borgia ; and that when Cardinal Giuliano bar- 
 gained with the Duke and these cardinals for their 
 votes, on October 29, in the Vatican, he promised 
 in return to confirm Cesare's appointment as 
 Gonfaloniere of the Church, to give his nephew, 
 Francesco Maria Rovere, together with his claims 
 on Sinigaglia, in marriage to Cesare's daughter, 
 and, most important of all, to assist him in the 
 recovery of the Romagna, the whole of which with 
 the exception of a few fortresses had now revolted 
 from him. 
 
 When the cities of the Romagna learned that 
 the Duke's troops were disbanded, and that he 
 had been forced to take refuge in the Castle of 
 St. Angelo, many of them returned to their old 
 allegiance. Giovanni Sforza had already been wel- 
 228
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 corned back to Pesaro ; the people of Rimini 
 recalled Pandolfo Malatesta ; Forli recalled one of 
 the Ordelaffi, which had been the reigning family 
 there before the Riario ; Imola hesitated between 
 doing the same or declaring for the Church ; 
 Faenza, in default of a legitimate heir of the 
 Manfredi, installed a bastard Astorre. But what 
 disturbed the new Pope much more was that the 
 Venetians took advantage of the confusion to 
 extend their dominions on that side the Adriatic. 
 They attacked Ravenna, occupied Rimini by arrange- 
 ment with Pandolfo Malatesta, took various other 
 castles in the territory, and besieged Faenza. This 
 place sturdily defended itself, and appealed for aid 
 to Julius II. The Pope sent the Bishop of Tivoli 
 to Venice to protest, but without effect. Being 
 without men or money, Julius could do no more, 
 and it therefore seemed advisable to allow Cesare 
 to reconquer the Romagna and leave him there for 
 a time as vicar, although from the first Julius 
 made no secret of his determination that all 
 wrongly alienated States must be restored to the 
 Church. Immediately on his elevation he had 
 given the Duke apartments in the Vatican and 
 treated him with great consideration. Strangely 
 enough, that master of dissimulation seems to have 
 believed in the sincerity of all the Pope's pro- 
 fessions. He even declared that he had " found 
 a new father." 
 
 Cesare, however, seemed to be stunned and 
 stupefied by his change of fortune. Machiavelli, 
 who was then on an embassy to Rome, found him 
 
 229
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 a very different man from the inscrutable com- 
 mander whose secrecy of plan and swiftness of 
 action had seemed so impressive a year previously 
 at Imola. Cardinal Soderini found him suspicious 
 and irresolute. The Cardinal of Elna thought him 
 so confused as to be completely out of his mind. 
 And the Pope told the Venetian Ambassador that 
 the Duke was so changeable and incomprehensible 
 that he did not know what to make of him. At 
 the same time nobody knew what were Julius' 
 intentions towards Cesare ; although on Novem- 
 ber 17 Giustiniani wrote home his suspicions that 
 the Pope was secretly planning the Duke's destruc- 
 tion. Machiavelli seems to have been much of the 
 same opinion, for when informing the Ten that the 
 Duke proposed to pass through Tuscany, provided 
 he could obtain their safe conduct, with 300 light 
 horse and 400 infantry, the envoy adds that the 
 Pope, who is pressing him to go, has also written 
 to request this safe conduct, but does not care that 
 the Duke should get it. The request so lukewarmly 
 backed up was refused ; whereupon Cesare hotly 
 told Machiavelli that he had already sent on some 
 of his troops and could not wait. He also burst 
 out into furious reproaches, and threatened to side 
 with Pisa, Venice, or the very Devil himself, 
 in order to be revenged on the Florentines. To 
 pacify him, Machiavelli promised to write again to 
 Florence ; and suggested that the Duke should 
 send one of his officers there to negotiate further. 
 What Machiavelli did write was that the Florentines 
 might safely do what they pleased with the Duke's 
 230
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 messenger, and also have his troops arrested and 
 disarmed at the first convenient opportunity. 
 
 On November 19 Cesare started down the Tiber 
 in a boat for Ostia, whence he was to sail to Spezia, 
 and thence go by land to Imola. Soon after he 
 had left, news arrived that Faenza had surrendered 
 to the Venetians. This caused the anxious Julius 
 a sleepless night. He may have feared, as Creighton 
 supposes, that the appearance of Cesare in the 
 Romagna once more might create such a dread of 
 his vengeance that the other cities would throw 
 themselves into the hands of Venice. He may have 
 feared that Cesare, once more established in the 
 Romagna, might defy the Papacy. However this 
 may be, next morning he sent the Cardinals of 
 Volterra and Sorrento after Cesare to command 
 him to give the passwords and surrender into the 
 hands of the Church the citadels of Cesena, Forli 
 and Bertinoro, on the understanding that they 
 should be returned to him when the danger from 
 Venice was past. Cesare had previously offered to 
 surrender these fortresses on condition that as 
 soon as the Venetians were driven out of the 
 Romagna he should be confirmed as Duke ; but 
 Julius, not wishing to commit himself to this, had 
 declined the offer. Cesare, who now thought he 
 was on his way to get back his duchy with or with- 
 out the Papal help, now refused to surrender his 
 forces. But he had not got far enough away to 
 be out of the Pope's clutches. He was arrested by 
 Julius' orders on board of one of the galleys at 
 Ostia ; and the Pope also immediately sent orders 
 
 231
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 to Siena and Perugia to pursue and disarm the 
 troops which had gone forward under Don Michel- 
 otto. 
 
 Cesare was brought back to Rome under a 
 strong Papal guard on November 29. It is said 
 that both Guidobaldo of Urbino and Giovanni 
 Giordano Orsini urged the Pope to put an end to 
 his life ; but this was not Julius' policy. He 
 kept the Duke in safe custody, but assigned him 
 apartments in the Vatican and treated him with 
 much consideration, hoping to induce him by 
 peaceable means to surrender the fortresses. Four 
 days later his persuasions seemed to have had their 
 effect ; for, on condition of receiving a written 
 guarantee of his Romagna territories, counter- 
 signed by the Cardinal of Rouen, the Duke sent off 
 Pietro d'Orvieto with the passwords, accompanied 
 by Papal messengers to take possession of the 
 strongholds. On their arrival at Cesena, however, 
 the governor of the citadel refused to take any 
 such instructions whilst his master was a prisoner, 
 and hanged d'Orvieto from his battlements. Julius, 
 suspecting trickery and highly incensed, confined 
 Cesare in the Torre Borgia and confiscated all his 
 property. Before the end of the month, however, 
 a momentous event occurred which, whilst it 
 shattered all Cesare's hopes of aid from France, at 
 the same time greatly increased the influence of his 
 friends the Spanish cardinals. On December 28 
 the great captain Gonsalvo de Cordova completely 
 defeated the French on the Garigliano ; and with 
 the capitualtion of Gaeta, which followed on 
 232
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 January 1, 1504, the French finally lost all footing 
 in Naples. 
 
 The Pope found himself unable to obtain pos- 
 session of the citadels of Cesena, Forli and Bertinoro 
 without Cesare's consent, which the latter would 
 not give without securing his freedom. At length, 
 on January 29, 1504, it was agreed that the Duke 
 should go to Ostia under the charge of the Spanish 
 Cardinal, Carvajal, on the condition that if he 
 delivered up these three castles to the Pope within 
 forty days he was to be set at liberty. On 
 February 16 Cesare was conducted to the fortress 
 of Ostia and thence opened up communication 
 with his castellans. The captains of Cesena and 
 Bertinoro at first insisted upon the Duke's libera- 
 tion before they would listen to any proposals. 
 When this had been accommodated, the governor 
 of Forli demanded 15,000 ducats for the payment 
 of his troops, which the Pope would not consent to 
 give until he had made Cesare give security for the 
 money. At length, however, everything was con- 
 cluded to the satisfaction of Cardinal Carvajal, 
 who, suspecting that the Pope would raise further 
 difficulties for the purpose of retaining the Duke 
 in his power, allowed the prisoner to depart on 
 April 14. Cesare, who also had suspected the same 
 thing, had applied to Gonsalvo de Cordova for a 
 safe conduct and two galleys to conduct him to 
 Naples. 
 
 Having been received in Naples by Gonsalvo de 
 Cordova with every demonstration of friendship 
 and honour, Cesare Borgia soon showed that he had 
 
 233
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 by no means lost all hope of recovering his 
 dominions. At first he proposed to go to the 
 help of Pisa against Florence ; then a rising in 
 Piombino seemed to offer a better opening for his 
 designs, this being the place which he had wrested 
 from Jacopo Appiano and strongly fortified to 
 form a basis for his operations against Tuscany. 
 Gonsalvo seemed to approve of his projects, gave 
 him leave to raise in Naples whatever troops he 
 required to take with him, and even offered to 
 provide him with galleys for his convoy. But all 
 the time he was only waiting instructions from 
 King Ferdinand, and practising on the Duke the 
 same dissimulation with which Cesare had been 
 so expert in deluding others. On May 27, having 
 made all his preparations and being ready to set 
 sail for Piombino, the Duke had a long conference 
 with the Spanish general, who entertained him 
 with demonstrations of friendship and embraced 
 him at parting. But he had no sooner left 
 Gonsalvo's chamber than he was arrested and 
 carried off to the castle of Ischia. This was done 
 by Ferdinand's orders at the instigation of the 
 Pope ; and Gonsalvo was evidently ashamed of 
 his own part in the matter, for he immediately 
 sought to find and destroy the safe conduct which 
 he had sent to the Duke at Ostia. Julius II, who 
 had written to Gonsalvo requesting him to keep 
 an eye on Cesare and prevent him doing anything 
 to the prejudice of the Church, had also written 
 to Ferdinand and Isabella at the same time charging 
 Gonsalvo with permitting Cesare to conspire against 
 234
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 the Papacy ; complaining that Cardinal Carvajal 
 had set the Duke free, contrary to instructions, 
 before he had carried out his promises ; and alleging 
 that the latter had sent money to the governor of 
 Forli and encouraged him to retain possession of 
 the castle ; wherefore he begs their majesties to 
 put a stop to these proceedings which disturb the 
 peace of Italy and the Holy See. Forli was 
 recovered by a stratagem. Gonsalvo promised to 
 release Cesare from his prison provided he sur- 
 rendered Forli to the Pope. The Duke wrote to 
 his captain accordingly, and the castle was given 
 up on August 10. Ten days afterwards Cesare 
 was released from his prison, but it was only to be 
 put on board a galley and shipped to Spain ; where 
 he was confined, with but a single servant to wait 
 upon him, in the castle of Medina del Campo, near 
 Valladolid in Castile. 
 
 Cesare's wife, the Duchess of Valentinois, his 
 brother-in-law the King of Navarre, his sister 
 Lucrezia, and the Spanish members of the Sacred 
 College all petitioned for his release. On the other 
 hand, it is said, his sister-in-law, widow of the 
 Duke of Gandia, petitioned for his execution as the 
 murderer of her husband and of the Duke of 
 Bisceglia. Neither party obtained any satisfac- 
 tion, however, and for two years Cesare remained 
 in strict confinement in Medina del Campo. But 
 on October 25, 1506, he effected his escape. By 
 means of a rope, said to have been brought him 
 by the chaplain of the place, he let himself down 
 from the window of the highest room in the tower, 
 
 235
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 and mounting a horse that had been placed in 
 readiness by the Count of Benevento, managed to 
 elude his pursuers and reach the territories of his 
 brother-in-law, the King of Navarre. The rope 
 supplied him being too short, he had badly injured 
 himself in his descent from the tower ; and his 
 servant, who had preceded him, having broken 
 both legs, was perforce abandoned, and left to be 
 killed on his discovery by the guards of the fortress. 
 From the court of Navarre in Pamplona, Cesare 
 Borgia petitioned Louis XII for reinstatement in 
 his duchy of Valentinois and for permission to 
 enter the French service. But Louis, being now 
 at peace with Spain and at war with Navarre, was 
 deaf to both requests. Cesare also sent his secre- 
 tary, Federigo, to Ferrara and Mantua, ostensibly 
 to bring the news of his master's escape, but really 
 to see how matters stood in Italy, and ascertain 
 whether there was any opening for a return to the 
 Romagna. Curiously enough, Federigo arrived just 
 in time to report to his master that Pope Julius had 
 taken possession of Bologna, which Cesare had so 
 long coveted as a capital for his province. Julius 
 was greatly disturbed to hear of the Duke's escape, 
 for he knew well enough that Cesare could still 
 command a considerable following in the Romagna, 
 and that he was a firebrand who would not scruple 
 at any conflagration for the furtherance of his 
 ambitious designs. But the Pope's disquietude on 
 this score was not of long duration. Navarre was 
 at issue with one of his feudatories, the Count of 
 Lerin ; and in February 1507 Cesare invested 
 236
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 Lerin's City of Viana on behalf of his brother-in- 
 law. On March 12, whilst in pursuit of a foraging 
 party from the city, Cesare out-distanced his own 
 men and was lost to their view in a ravine. Seeing 
 themselves pursued by but a single horseman, the 
 foragers turned upon him, and he was quickly 
 overpowered and slain. They did not know who 
 he was, but, tempted by the richness of his armour 
 they stripped the corpse and left it lying naked on 
 the ground, where it was soon afterwards found by 
 a detachment of his own men who had been sent in 
 search of him. 
 
 Several authors have remarked on the singularity 
 of the coincidence that Cesare Borgia should have 
 died in the diocese of Pamplona and been buried 
 in the cathedral of the see to which he had been 
 appointed bishop in his early boyhood ; Providence, 
 as one of them moralises, suffering him to be 
 placed when dead where he would not remain when 
 alive. But this is not strictly correct ; for Cesare 
 Borgia was buried in the church of Viana, where 
 a florid Gothic tomb was erected to his memory. 
 A pompous inscription in Spanish read to the 
 following effect : 
 
 Here lies within a small space 
 
 One who was dreaded, 
 
 Who everywhere held in his hands 
 
 Both Peace and War ; 
 
 The passer-by who seeketh 
 
 Anything more laudable 
 
 Or more admirable 
 
 Will need to travel far. 
 
 237
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 But the tomb has disappeared. About the end of 
 the seventeenth century a bishop of Calahorra, in 
 whose diocese Viana lay, happened to be a descen- 
 dant of a former bishop who had been imprisoned 
 by Alexander VI for heresy. Taking advantage 
 of some restorations in the church, this vindictive 
 ecclesiastic ordered Cesare Borgia's sarcophagus to 
 be destroyed and the bones which it contained to 
 be thrown away. 
 
 Although as a youth Cesare Borgia exhibited 
 something of the charming amiability and gaiety 
 with which his father and his sister were so richly 
 endowed, a more sombre expression seems to have 
 become habitual with him from the time of his 
 laying down the cardinalate and beginning the 
 career of a secular prince at the age of twenty- 
 three. Unlike Alexander VI, who to the end of 
 his days maintained an almost boyish joviality and 
 frankness, Cesare became silent and reserved, held 
 himself haughtily aloof from everybody, including 
 even his own trusted followers, and surrounded all 
 his actions with mystery. He was fond of going 
 about masked, and was often inaccessible in the 
 daytime because he had been occupied during the 
 night whether by business or by pleasure nobody 
 knew. He was inordinately ambitious, supremely 
 egoistic, insatiably greedy of " glory," treacherous 
 to his allies, vindictive and mercilessly cruel to his 
 enemies, and absolutely unscrupulous in the carry- 
 ing out of his designs. Endowed with an iron will, 
 a cool, cautious, penetrating intellect, much in- 
 tuitive knowledge of human nature, and the cunning 
 238
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 of a fox ; astute in his calculations, masking his 
 intentions with consummate hypocrisy, and swift 
 in action as soon as the right moment had arrived, 
 he remorselessly swept every obstacle from his 
 path. 
 
 Some modern writers have ventured to describe 
 him as a paragon of Renascence culture, equally 
 accomplished in the arts and in arms. But there 
 is little warrant for such a characterisation. He 
 possessed none of that passionate appreciation of 
 art and letters which was displayed by Ludovico 
 Sforza and the Dukes of Urbino, nor is it possible 
 to credit him with even such a degree of literary 
 and artistic culture as was shown by the Malatesta 
 of Rimini and by many other of the bloodthirsty 
 and dissolute tyrants of the time. His stealing of 
 Duke Guidobaldo's books and tapestries for the 
 decoration of his own castle at Cesena, the pleasure 
 which he is said to have shown in conversing with 
 artists, architects and scholars, and his taking a 
 laureate about with him to celebrate his campaigns 
 in Latin verse are easily to be accounted for by 
 his love of ostentation and his desire to follow the 
 prevalent fashion of his country and his time. 
 
 He was remarkably athletic, and fond of dis- 
 playing his strength and skill at bull- fights ; 
 although both Burchard and Paolo Capello may 
 be suspected of some exaggeration when they 
 relate that during the Jubilee festivities of 1500 
 the Pope's son not only exhibited great skill as a 
 matador in the circus erected in the Piazza of 
 St. Peter, but also showed his herculean strength 
 
 239
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 by striking off the head of one of the bulls at a 
 single blow. Whatever may have been his exploits 
 as an athlete, however, nobody surely ever obtained 
 the reputation of a great soldier on such a slender 
 record. The imitation of an ancient Roman triumph 
 which was got up by the Pope to celebrate his son's 
 return after the capture of Imola and Forli from 
 a woman was all of a piece with the rest of the 
 Borgian bombast and extravagance. For this man 
 who, by crime and cunning and treachery, became 
 for a short time ruler over a large part of Italy and 
 the terror of all his contemporaries, although he 
 successfully besieged a number of more or less 
 insignificant cities and devastated the surrounding 
 defenceless country, was a conqueror who never 
 fought a single battle. 
 
 In the short period of five years Cesare Borgia 
 had risen to a predominant position in Italy, and 
 seemed within measurable distance of the kingly 
 crown of his ambition, not by generalship and 
 bravery in the field, but by craftily taking advan- 
 tage of the confusion created by the invasion of the 
 French to seize one after another a number of small 
 contiguous principalities and unite them under one 
 head. At the time of his father's death, as 
 Machiavelli points out, he had all but achieved the 
 accomplishment of his designs. He was not only 
 secure in the Romagna, but had also possessed him- 
 self of Perugia and Piombino ; and, being the 
 acknowledged protector of Pisa, was in a position 
 to seize Lucca and Siena without the Florentines 
 being able to prevent him. Having raised himself 
 240
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 to this position by the aid of France, he had begun 
 to look about for new and less jealous allies in order 
 to render himself independent of French assistance ; 
 and had his father lived but a little longer there 
 is small doubt he would have secured them. It 
 was not so much his fault as the malignity of 
 Fortune, says the admiring Machiavelli, that when 
 Alexander VI died, Cesare himself was at the point 
 of death, and likewise so hemmed in by the two 
 powerful armies of France and Spain that he was 
 condemned to inaction at the critical moment. 
 
 But his sickness, or the shock of his sudden 
 misfortune, seems to have paralysed all his faculties. 
 On the death of his father, although unable to 
 make a Pope of his own choice, his position was a 
 strong one. Yet he threw away every chance and 
 failed to have any influence on the election. When 
 the French army departed from Nepi, after the 
 election of Pius III, had he been a soldier of courage 
 and capacity, instead of sneaking back to Rome 
 on the pretext of ill-health to continue his intrigues, 
 he might have placed himself at the head of his army, 
 cut his way through the gathering forces of the 
 Orsini and Savelli, and held the Romagna in defiance 
 of all his enemies. And on the death of Pius^ III in 
 the following month, although it was not in his 
 power to secure the election either of a Spaniard 
 or of the French cardinal d'Amboise to the Papacy, 
 he was quite strong enough to prevent the election 
 of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere. How he can 
 have been cajoled into assisting in the elevation of 
 a cardinal who had been the lifelong enemy of his 
 
 Q 241
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 family, and whom he had so grievously offended, is 
 unintelligible. It was his one error, says Machiavelli, 
 and it was the cause of his destruction. 
 
 The ambition of this unscrupulous young upstart, 
 backed by all the wealth and influence of the Pope, 
 had raised him in the brief space of five years to a 
 degree of unparalleled splendour and power. In 
 the beginning of August 1503 he seemed to be on 
 the point of founding a kingdom of central Italy, 
 which would demean the Papacy to little more 
 than a hereditary appanage of his family. With 
 his death, at the age of thirty-two, at the paltry 
 siege of Viana, the menace of the House of Borgia 
 disappeared, like a meteor flashing across the 
 summer sky. 
 
 Although the object of Alexander VI had not 
 been to benefit the Church but solely to aggrandise 
 his son, the final result of all his scheming was the 
 ruin of that son and the exaltation of the Church. 
 Before his time the Italian princes, and even the 
 smaller lords and barons, had thought little of the 
 temporal power of the Holy See. But the Borgia 
 showed Julius II what a Pope with courage and 
 ambition and money was able to do. They had 
 exterminated the turbulent baronage, suppressed 
 all faction in the patrimony, consolidated and 
 annexed the Romagna. He took up the work 
 where they left it, and carried it to its completion. 
 He conquered Bologna, mastered the Venetians, 
 and drove the French out of Italy. But instead of 
 endowing his relations with the acquisitions he 
 had secured, he left them all in the possession of 
 242
 
 THE DOWNFALL 
 
 the Roman Church, of which he did not forget he 
 was only the temporary head. It is very commonly 
 asserted that Machiavelli accounted Cesare Borgia 
 the very incarnation of an ideal prince. But this 
 is not strictly correct. What Machiavelli did was 
 to instance Cesare as the type of " tyrant " best 
 qualified in the peculiar condition of things then 
 existing in Italy to found a new State. Un- 
 doubtedly he occasionally had visions that tran- 
 scended this limited and immediately practicable 
 project. An Italian monarchy, with Rome as its 
 capital, and the temporal power of the Pope 
 abolished, has arisen in our own times ; and per- 
 haps Machiavelli may be regarded as its prophet. 
 But it is nevertheless true, as Gregorovius has 
 pointed out, that the policy of the Borgia, which 
 Machiavelli praised, not only did not avert but 
 positively encouraged the rule of the foreigner, 
 whilst it delayed the formation of a united Italy 
 for more than three centuries. 
 
 243
 
 IX 
 LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA survived the downfall of the 
 brother whose puppet she had been ; and we may 
 now turn, with a sense of relief, to the record of her 
 life in Ferrara. When she took up her residence 
 in Castle Vecchio, the great and imposing strong- 
 hold which Duke Ercole had placed at the young 
 couple's disposal, she looked down upon a city 
 which in many respects presented a great contrast 
 to the Rome which she had now left behind her 
 for ever. Though not so large as the Eternal 
 City, its population was more numerous, for during 
 Ercole's reign it had doubled, and now numbered 
 no less than 100,000 souls. The moral atmosphere 
 of its court was undoubtedly more salubrious than 
 that of the head of the Christian Church ; its 
 government was more orderly, and the physical 
 well-being of its inhabitants was better cared for. 
 Ferrara was the home of a numerous and wealthy 
 nobility, whose magnificent palaces, as well as 
 the fine churches, convents, and other public 
 buildings which adorned the streets, still remain 
 to excite the admiration of visitors. Its university, 
 which maintained forty-five well-paid professors, 
 was only surpassed by those of Padua and Bologna. 
 244
 
 LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 
 
 And in no other city of Italy were there to be 
 found more distinguished men of literature and 
 learning. 
 
 Duke Ercole had drained the extensive marshes 
 round Ferrara, greatly to the improvement of the 
 health of the city, had built dykes to restrain 
 overflowings of the river Po, had encouraged 
 agriculture and commerce, and by his rigorous 
 enforcement of justice and the maintenance of 
 an efficient police had made his city a far safer 
 place to live in than Rome, where, as we have 
 already seen, robbery and murder were matters 
 of nightly occurrence. Laws were made at the 
 Duke's pleasure, and they were administered by 
 twelve judges who openly purchased their appoint- 
 ments, but Ercole is said never to have permitted 
 the purchase by any person unfit for the office, 
 and should any gross miscarriage of justice occur, 
 the offender was promptly dismissed. Rioting 
 was prevented by prohibiting the citizens from 
 carrying arms, either by day or night, on penalty 
 of being flogged by the city guard and the arms 
 confiscated. Whoever attempted to rescue a 
 prisoner from the custody of the police was liable 
 to the same punishment as the culprit himself. 
 Gambling was prohibited in any public place, 
 under penalty of a fine and one month's imprison- 
 ment. Although duelling was prohibited, the 
 custom was too firmly rooted amongst the higher 
 classes, and could not be prevented. Owing to 
 the enormous increase of the population being 
 largely due to the influx of fugitives, of unknown 
 
 245
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 or sometimes of too well-known character, from 
 other States, a system of passports was instituted. 
 Every boatman or carman bringing strangers into 
 the city was obliged, under penalty of fine or 
 imprisonment, either to conduct them to the 
 police office or to give immediate notice of their 
 arrival. Every stranger had to pay one solda 
 to the podesta on his arrival and another on his 
 departure. Whoever allowed a stranger to remain 
 in his house without giving notice to the authorities 
 was liable to a fine of a hundred scudi. 
 
 The markets and the food-supply of the city 
 were strictly regulated and supervised by 
 inspectors. The price, weight, and also the quality 
 of the bread were fixed by law. The penalty on a 
 baker for giving short weight was a severe fine 
 for the first offence, and for a second offence 
 flogging and imprisonment. Moreover Ercole 
 proclaimed that inasmuch as it was known that 
 there were bakers who kneaded the dough with 
 their feet, which frequently were not clean, such 
 practice would be punished with fine or imprison- 
 ment ; and bakers were strictly enjoined to work 
 their dough with clean hands and nails. Butchers 
 were looked after equally well ; the price of every 
 joint was fixed by the authorities, and all bad 
 meat was seized and destroyed. Every wine-seller 
 had to procure a licence, and none were issued 
 except to persons who brought testimonials of 
 good character. Adulteration was severely 
 punished ; all wine entering the city was tested 
 by the officials, no colouring-matter was allowed, 
 246
 
 LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 
 
 and any wine found to be of bad quality was 
 destroyed. 
 
 There were laws of extreme severity against 
 women of disreputable character, notwith- 
 standing that the Duke and his nobility were by no 
 means of impeccable behaviour. Any woman con- 
 victed to the satisfaction of the judge of leading 
 a disorderly or disreputable life was condemned 
 to a fine of twenty-five livres, and to be imprisoned 
 for two months. If unable to pay the fine, she 
 was placed in a pillory in some public part of the 
 city. If she offended again after this, both she 
 and the keeper of the house in which she lived 
 were banished from the city, their effects con- 
 fiscated and sold, and the proceeds devoted to a 
 fund for repairing the cathedral. It was also 
 prescribed that, in order to secure their recognition 
 in case they attempted to return, their noses should 
 be cut off. Both Ercole and Alfonso carried out 
 the provisions of this law, which was older than 
 their time, but it does not seem to have effected 
 its purpose. Down to 1530, debtors were treated 
 with much harshness, being imprisoned in the 
 same place as the vilest of criminals. At one time, 
 if a man could not meet his obligations, from what- 
 ever cause, it was customary to carry him round 
 the city on a car, surrounded by police officers 
 and accompanied by a trumpeter, that his offence 
 might be known to all. Afterwards he was exposed 
 on a pillory for three days with a green cap on his 
 head. 
 
 Over and over again, laws had been promulgated 
 
 247
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 to restrain what one of them described as " the insane 
 passion of women for dress ; " but, as may readily 
 be supposed, with very little effect. Leonello, Duke 
 Ercole's eldest brother, had endeavoured to enlist 
 the male portion of his subjects in a rather sur- 
 reptitious campaign against the sumptuary sins of 
 the females. He called a private meeting " for 
 men only," and asked his audience if there was 
 one amongst them who did not agree that the 
 expenditure of women on dress was most extra- 
 vagant and reprehensible to get up and say so. 
 Of course nobody spoke ; and consequently when 
 he proposed a resolution declaring war against the 
 long trains of ladies' gowns, their large open sleeves 
 lined with costly fur, and other expensive items 
 of feminine adornment, it was carried unanimously. 
 He then promulgated an edict prohibiting any 
 woman from spending more than a third of her 
 dowry on dress and jewellery, and rendering it 
 penal for traders to furnish women with goods on 
 credit, or in any way assist them to evade this 
 law. Ladies were prohibited from wearing trains 
 to their dresses beyond a specified moderate length ; 
 and the wives of farmers or the bourgeoisie were 
 forbidden to wear silk, or ornaments of pearls, 
 gold, or even silver. In order to prevent evasion 
 of this law indoors, Leonello contrived a plan 
 whereby timid husbands or fathers might give 
 information to the authorities with impunity. A 
 box with a slit in its lid was placed just inside 
 the entrance door of the Cathedral, beside the 
 font, so that any man wishing to give information 
 248
 
 LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 
 
 against a lady who wore trains or long sleeves or 
 any other of the prohibited adornments might 
 deftly drop in his secret accusation with one hand 
 whilst crossing himself with holy water with the 
 other. There were three keys to this tell-tale box, 
 one held by an officer of the twelve judges, one 
 by an officer of the podesta, and one by a repre- 
 sentative of the syndic, whose duty it was to 
 prosecute any lady so charged with defying the 
 law. But Leonardo's edict had no better success 
 than many other attempts to stem the tide of 
 extravagance in dress that were made in Ferrara 
 and elsewhere, especially in Venice, which set the 
 fashions for Italy then as Paris does for Europe 
 now. 
 
 The Ferrarese nobility were lavish in their 
 hospitality, and on all festive occasions vied with 
 one another in the profusion and expensiveness 
 of their banquets. Of course this came to be 
 imitated by wealthy burghers, and more than one 
 law was made to check the wastefulness that 
 ensued. There were few cities which surpassed 
 Ferrara in the gaiety and brilliance of its carnival, 
 but Ercole would not permit maskers to go about 
 in the dress of monks or nuns, as was the practice 
 in Venice, on account of the licence and scandal 
 to which it gave occasion. And he introduced 
 into the festivities a unique ceremony called the 
 Ventura. Shortly after nightfall on the evening of 
 the Epiphany it was his custom to make a progress 
 through all the principal streets of the city, accom- 
 panied by a train of nobles and courtiers, and 
 
 249
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 attended by a large number of carts headed by 
 a band of music. The procession stopped at the 
 houses of all the principal nobles and citizens, 
 who each brought out a contribution of some 
 kind of food, which was placed in the carts. When 
 the procession returned to the palace about mid- 
 night, the collectors ate a hearty supper of the 
 viands they had thus procured, and next morning 
 the remainder of it was distributed amongst the 
 poor. One of the chroniclers relates that in 1503, 
 the first carnival after Lucrezia's arrival in Ferrara, 
 the food collected on the first night of the Duke's 
 Ventura consisted of 15 lambs, 15 oxen, 13 calves, 
 5 goats, 5 rabbits, 2 pigs, 66 ducks, 1521 capons, 
 22 turkeys, 73 partridges, 18 peacocks, 60 quails, 
 191 cheeses, 250 boxes of confectionery, and 190 
 large sausages. The ceremony was repeated three 
 nights in succession ; and, after making ample 
 allowance for the appetite of the collectors, there 
 must have been more than a good meal left for 
 the table of every poor person in Ferrara. 
 
 The fine arts received much encouragement at 
 the Court of the Este, and Ercole, who loved music, 
 maintained a numerous band of musicians, not 
 merely to enliven balls, masquerades, and other 
 secular diversions, but to perform in the splendid 
 religious festivals which he was fond of attending 
 in the cathedral. It was literature, however, and 
 especially poetry, for which Ferrara was most 
 renowned. Antonio Tebaldeo, the two Strozzi, 
 Tito, and Ercole, as well as a host of minor poets, 
 lauded Lucrezia in Latin or Italian verse ; and 
 250
 
 LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 
 
 the great Ariosto, who welcomed her on her arrival 
 in a Latin epithalamium, afterwards made a 
 flattering reference to her in his immortal " Orlando 
 Furioso." Gregorovius says that the people, like 
 the city, seem to have been of a serious cast, and 
 given to the cultivation of the exact sciences. 
 But this needs to be taken with the important 
 qualification that there were no exact sciences. 
 Military and civil engineering, to which both 
 Ercole and his son Alfonso were devoted, attained 
 to a higher degree of excellence there than anywhere 
 else in Europe. But both theoretical and applied 
 science were then in their infancy. For example, 
 there was no such thing as a public clock in the 
 whole of Ferrara, with the exception of a large 
 dial affixed to one of the towers of Castle Vecchio ; 
 and this timepiece was moved, not by machinery, 
 but by a man inside, who turned the hands and 
 struck the hours, with nothing better than an 
 hour-glass to regulate his procedure. 
 
 An equally illuminating example may be taken 
 from the state of medicine and surgery. As in 
 England and elsewhere at the same period, the 
 art of the surgeon was combined with the humbler 
 craft of the barber ; a fact which only becomes 
 intelligible when we remember that simple blood- 
 letting was then considered a remedy for almost 
 every disorder. The discovery of the circulation 
 of the blood, and the consequent rise of modern 
 medicine, did not take place until a hundred years 
 later. The virtues of rhubarb, aloes, and some 
 other simple, although of course still valuable, 
 
 251
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 remedies were well known. But in case of sick- 
 ness people placed as much reliance on the astro- 
 loger as on the physician. Ferrara, like Padua 
 and Bologna, was celebrated for its school of 
 medicine, but some notion of the qualifications of 
 its practitioners may be obtained from the perusal 
 of a medical diploma granted there as late as 1642, 
 which the historian Citadella discovered in the 
 archives of Ferrara, and which William Gilbert 
 saw, engraved on parchment, in the library of 
 that city. A certain Generoso Marini, wishing to 
 practise as an authorised physician, applied to the 
 judges for a diploma, and duly presented himself 
 for their examination. What happened is thus 
 set forth in the document itself, which is duly 
 signed by " Joannes Cajetanus Modoni, Judex 
 sapientum civitatis Ferrari," and " Franciscus 
 Altramari, Cancellarius." 
 
 " Having publicly examined and approved the 
 science and knowledge of medicine of Signor 
 Generoso Marini, and his possession of the wonder- 
 ful secret called orvietano, which he exhibited on 
 the stage built in the centre of the Piazza of this 
 our city of Ferrara, in presence of its entire popula- 
 tion (so remarkable for their civilisation and 
 learning) and in presence of many foreigners and 
 other classes of people, we hereby certify that, 
 in our presence also as well as that of the city 
 authorities, he took several living toads, not those 
 of his own providing, which might have given 
 suspicion of deception on his part, but from a 
 great number of toads which had been caught in 
 252
 
 LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 
 
 fields of the locality by persons who were strangers 
 to him, and which were only handed to him at 
 the moment of making the experiment. An officer 
 of the court then selected from the number of 
 toads collected five of the largest, which the said 
 Generoso Marini placed on a bench before him, 
 and, in presence of all the assembled spectators, 
 he cut all the said toads in half with a large knife. 
 Then, taking a drinking-cup, he took in each hand 
 one half of a dead toad and squeezed from it all 
 the fluids and juices it contained into the cup ; 
 and the same he did with the remainder. After 
 mixing the contents together he swallowed the 
 whole ; and then, placing the cup on the bench, 
 he advanced to the edge of the stage, where for 
 some minutes he remained stationary. Then he 
 became pale as death, and his limbs trembled, and 
 his body began to swell in a frightful manner, and 
 all the spectators began to believe that he would 
 never recover from the poison he had swallowed, 
 and that his death was certain. Suddenly, taking 
 from a jar by his side some of his celebrated 
 orvietano, he placed a portion of it in his mouth 
 and swallowed it. Instantly the effect of this 
 wonderful medicine was to make him vomit the 
 poison he had taken ; and he stood before the 
 spectators in the full enjoyment of his health. The 
 populace applauded him highly for the indisputable 
 proof he had given of his great talent. And he 
 then invited many of the most learned of those 
 present to accompany him to his house, and he 
 there showed them his dispensary, as well as his 
 
 253
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 collection of many antidotes, and among them a 
 powder made from little vipers, a powerful remedy 
 in curing every sort of fever, as he had proved by 
 different experiments he made on people of quality 
 and virtue, all of whom he had cured of the fevers 
 under which they were suffering. He also exhibited 
 a wonderful balsam he had invented, which cured 
 with great rapidity all bruises and wounds, as 
 well as burns and scalds of every description. The 
 said Generoso Marini has also great skill in drawing 
 teeth, in which he exhibited an extraordinary 
 dexterity. But that which most distinguished him 
 was his wonderful power in restoring many persons 
 to health who were suffering from divers incurable 
 diseases. In consequence of the rare talent 
 exhibited by Signer Generoso Marini, and as a 
 proof of our love and respect for his wisdom, we 
 have resolved by the authority placed in our 
 hands publicly to reward him with our diploma, 
 so that he may be universally recognised, applauded, 
 and respected. In witness whereof we here set our 
 hands auid the public seal of the municipality of 
 Ferrara." 
 
 It is not very wonderful that Lucrezia's letters 
 are plentifully besprinkled with pious expressions, 
 and that she eventually devoted herself almost 
 entirely to exercises of devotion, for both her 
 father-in-law and her husband were strict observers 
 of all the rites and ceremonies of the Church. 
 Every year when Holy Week came round, Duke 
 Ercole publicly washed the feet of a number of 
 poor men, whom he and his family afterwards 
 254
 
 LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 
 
 waited on at dinner, and to each of whom he 
 presented a pair of thick shoes, a black cap, some 
 stuff for a doublet or shirt, and half a ducat in 
 money. At first the number so dealt with was 
 twelve, as representing the number of the Apostles, 
 but it was afterwards increased, and the year 
 after Lucrezia's arrival in the city she and her 
 husband and her brothers-in-law were called upon 
 to assist at such an entertainment of no less than 
 one hundred and sixty poor men. 
 
 Duke Ercole was also very fond of scenic per- 
 formances of religious subjects, on which he 
 lavished large sums of money. The " Adoration 
 of the Magi," the " Annunciation of the Blessed 
 Virgin," the " Passion," and other pictorial settings 
 of Biblical events were performed in the Cathedral 
 with great splendour, the Duke's servants and 
 singers being dressed up to represent Angels, the 
 Virgin, Jesus Christ, and even the Almighty 
 himself. And there were frequent processions of 
 a similar character in the streets. An account of 
 one of these processions, taken from Lancellotti's 
 chronicle, is quoted by Gilbert. A body of men 
 dressed as prophets and angels paraded the streets, 
 followed by one attired (how we are not told) to 
 represent God Almighty. Then came three donkeys 
 carrying paniers filled with food, and to these suc- 
 ceeded a giant, a bear, three magi on horseback, 
 the Virgin with her Child, and then two devils. 
 Virtue walked along flogged by demons and 
 followed by Envy. Then came a group of devils 
 held in custody by Saints Paul and Bernard. 
 
 255
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 A dead Christ was borne along followed by his 
 twelve disciples and by nuns, monks, and a solitary 
 philosopher. St. Dominic, St. Francesco, and 
 St. Sebastian were drawn along on a car by 
 buffaloes. A dead Virgin, with St. Michael, and 
 surrounded by the twelve Apostles, appeared on 
 another car ; and so on. The procession was 
 accompanied by a number of nobles on horseback, 
 and followed by a crowd of pedestrians estimated 
 at about twelve thousand. 
 
 The Duke was opposed to Sunday trading and 
 one of his edicts commanded that " no butchers 
 shall presume to sell meat on Sundays, or fast days 
 appointed to be kept holy by the Church, or 
 during Lent, either in the Piazza or other public 
 place, or expose it for sale in any way." An in- 
 fringement of this law was punishable by fine, 
 one-fourth of which went to the poor, one-fourth 
 to the police, one-fourth to the Duke, and one- 
 fourth to the informer. But the butchers were 
 allowed to sell their meat on these days provided 
 they did it secretly in their shops, and opened 
 their doors no more than was necessary for a 
 customer to enter. Ercole was also greatly angered 
 at the objectionable practice of swearing in the 
 streets. Another of his edicts quaintly sets forth 
 that, desiring to make provision for those whose 
 own sense of right, and reverence for their Divine 
 maker, is not strong enough to make them eschew 
 such a thing, and knowing that temporal punish- 
 ment, as being nearer, is more feared than a greater 
 punishment hereafter, he ordains that offenders 
 256
 
 LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 
 
 in this respect shall be punished in a variety of 
 more or less unpleasant ways, one being the nailing 
 of the offender's tongue to a log of wood. Ercole 
 was tolerant of the Jews, but they were condemned 
 to live in a specified quarter of the city, and were 
 governed by special laws. In 1496 he ordained 
 that all Jews, with the exception of bankers and 
 doctors of medicine, should wear a yellow badge, 
 of at least four inches in breadth, on the left 
 shoulder. Owing to his toleration there were more 
 Jews in Ferrara in proportion to its population 
 than in any other city of Italy. Astrology was a 
 favourite study of many people in high position, 
 and might therefore be practised with impunity. 
 But for vulgar witchcraft there was no toleration, 
 and several wretched old women were put to death 
 for this unpardonable crime during Lucrezia's 
 residence in Ferrara. 
 
 For some months she seems to have led a very 
 quiet life. Castle Vecchio, which Duke Ercole 
 appropriated to his son and daughter-in-law for 
 their residence, still stands as one of the most 
 imposing architectural monuments of the Middle 
 Ages. It is an enormous, gloomy-looking strong- 
 hold, with four great towers overlooking the whole 
 of Ferrara. It was connected by a gallery, and a 
 subterranean passage under the moat, with the 
 Estense Palace. For some years it had been used 
 mainly as an arsenal, but to make it an appropriate 
 dwelling for the heir-apparent and his wife it was 
 decorated and fitted up with great luxury. In 
 May 1502 Lucrezia suffered from low fever and 
 
 R 257
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 ague, so Duke Ercole sent her off to his country 
 palace at Belriguardo, some ten miles distant 
 from the city. From the first she seems to have 
 been on very good terms with her father-in-law. 
 The day after her arrival at Belriguardo she wrote 
 to thank him for a kind letter and some fish he 
 had sent her, and to say that she found the place 
 far more beautiful than she had anticipated. As 
 time went on, and she promised to become a 
 mother, he grew more anxious about her health, 
 and desired her to write to him daily. On 
 August 10 she reports that, although suffering 
 greatly from fever the previous day, she had slept 
 for five hours during the night and felt greatly 
 refreshed. On the following day she gave a better 
 account of herself, but shortly after she had a 
 relapse, and Ercole wrote to her exhibiting a very 
 affectionate anxiety. She returned to Castle 
 Vecchio for her accouchement, but on September 5 
 the hopes of the Este were disappointed by the 
 birth of a stillborn child. She had hardly 
 recovered from the effects of this when she was 
 once more attacked by fever, which resisted all 
 the remedies prescribed by Dr. Ludovico Carri, 
 the Duke's physician. Her father became alarmed, 
 and his most skilful physician, the Bishop of 
 Venosa, was sent off post haste to Ferrara to attend 
 upon her. 
 
 Doctors differed in Ferrara in the sixteenth 
 century as they do in Harley Street at the present 
 day. The Duke's physician appears to have been 
 a practitioner of the antiphlogistic school, and, 
 258
 
 LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 
 
 like Dr. Sangrado in "Gil Bias," pinned his faith 
 on plentiful bleeding and copious draughts of 
 pure water. The Pope's physician, on the contrary, 
 seems to have favoured a treatment rather more 
 like that of modern times. When the latter entered 
 Lucrezia's chamber, Dr. Ludovico Carri, lancet in 
 hand, was just about to bleed her from the arm. 
 The clerical medico sprang forward, seized the 
 other practitioner's hand, and roundly charged 
 him with doing his best to murder the patient. 
 Dr. Carri defended his method of practice, declaring 
 there was not the slightest hope of Lucrezia's 
 recovery unless she were plentifully bled ; and a 
 violent dispute ensued between the rival doctors 
 at the patient's bedside, although they did not 
 come to fisticuffs like Gil Bias and Dr. Cuchillo. 
 The dispute was only ended by Duke Ercole 
 ordering Dr. Carri from the room and placing 
 Lucrezia under the care of her father's ecclesiastical 
 physician. Under the bishop's treatment she 
 rapidly recovered, and on October 8 removed from 
 Castle Vecchio to the Convent of Corpus Domini 
 for change of air. 
 
 During 1503 and 1504 Lucrezia's husband was 
 mostly away from Ferrara on political business. 
 He was at the Court of France at the time of 
 Pope Alexander's death and Cesare Borgia's 
 imprisonment. But although Lucrezia wrote, 
 imploring him to intercede for her brother, as she 
 did also to the Gonzaga of Mantua, either they 
 did nothing or their representations were of no 
 effect. After the death of Alexander VI, Lucrezia's 
 
 259
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 son Rodrigo and the young " Infans Romanus " 
 Giovanni were exposed to great danger in Rome ; 
 but she did not have them sent to her at Ferrara. 
 Young Rodrigo was still Duke of Bisceglia, for 
 Alexander VI had obtained a diploma from 
 Ferdinand and Isabella in May 1502 confirming 
 the Borgian family in the possession of all their 
 Neapolitan titles and estates. But Sermoneta and 
 the numerous other possessions bestowed upon 
 him had reverted to their former owners, and 
 young Giovanni's duchy of Camerino had been 
 recaptured by the last survivor of the Varani 
 family. Her son's guardian, the Cardinal of 
 Cosenza, proposed to sell Rodrigo's personal pro- 
 perty and send him to Spain, where he would be 
 safe, and when Lucrezia consulted her father-in- 
 law on this point he agreed as to its wisdom. But 
 the children seem to have remained for a time 
 under the care of the Spanish cardinals in Rome, 
 and then to have been sent to live under the 
 guardianship of the Cardinals Ludovico Borgia and 
 Remolini of Sorrento at Naples. Afterwards they 
 were both taken charge of by Rodrigo's unfortu- 
 nate aunt, Isabella of Aragon, widow of Gian- 
 galleazzo Sforza of Milan, who, on the downfall 
 of the two great houses of Sforza and of Aragon 
 to which she belonged, had retired to Bari, of 
 which city she had been made Duchess by Ludovico 
 Sforza in 1499, and where she lived until her death 
 in 1524. 
 
 After concluding his mission to France, Alfonso 
 of Ferrara had gone to the Court of the Archduke 
 260
 
 LIFE IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CITY 
 
 Charles at Brussels, and then to that of Henry VII 
 of England. He was just on the point of setting 
 out to continue his negotiations at the Court of 
 Spain when a messenger arrived to inform him 
 of the alarming state of health of his father. He at 
 once returned home, where he found that his wife 
 had had another miscarriage, and that his father, 
 now seventy-five years of age, was at the point of 
 death. 
 
 261
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA, DUCHESS OF 
 FERRARA 
 
 IT was fortunate for Ferrara that the prince who 
 ascended its ducal throne in January 1505 was a 
 man of intelligence and resolution, for it was his 
 lot to fight against famine, plague, invasion, ex- 
 communication, and the machinations of a Pope 
 as ready to absorb his state for the benefit of the 
 Church as Alexander VI would have been to do 
 so on behalf of his own family. The winter of 
 1505 proved particularly severe, and the following 
 spring exceptionally dry. Meat and vegetables 
 became very scarce, and as the surrounding farmers 
 and peasantry, reduced to a state of destitution, 
 were totally unable to supply the city's needs, 
 Alfonso, taking all the available money in his 
 treasury, went off to Venice to purchase food, 
 leaving Lucrezia to act as regent during his absence. 
 The famine lasted throughout the whole of the 
 summer, and the stock of provisions being com- 
 paratively short in Venice also, Alfonso had to pay 
 exorbitant prices for anything he could get. The 
 corn which he sent home was distributed amongst 
 the most needy of the populace under the direction 
 of Lucrezia and the municipal authorities. It is 
 262
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 not surprising that in time of famine there should 
 have been some rioting. This, however, Lucrezia 
 put down with a firm hand, and at the same time 
 showed strict impartiality towards all classes of 
 her subjects. Some of the mob, imagining that the 
 Jews seemed to suffer less than others, made an 
 attack on their quarter of the city, plundering and 
 burning shops and houses and maltreating the 
 inhabitants. In almost any other city in Europe 
 this would have been passed over with little notice. 
 But Lucrezia insisted that there should be equal 
 justice for all, and instantly commanded the podesta 
 not only to repress such outrages, but to punish 
 those who injured an Israelite with the same 
 severity as those who injured a Christian. 
 
 During Alfonso's absence Lucrezia kept up a 
 constant correspondence with him concerning both 
 family affairs and matters of state. In a letter 
 dated July 11 she thanks him for his offer to send 
 her another physician, but thinks there is no 
 occasion for it, as she feels much better. She 
 appears to have been suffering from a tertian ague, 
 for she reports that last night she slept better than 
 the night before, although this was the third, and 
 therefore the one to be dreaded. She is very happy 
 to hear that he is well, and prays that the Lord 
 God will preserve his Excellency in good health 
 and spirits. And she concludes : " Recommending 
 myself to the good grace of your Excellency, I 
 subscribe myself your Excellency's most obedient 
 consort, Lucrezia." A much longer letter, which 
 was commenced on the 12th and finished on the 
 
 263
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 13th of July, was devoted to an account of the 
 killing of one of Alfonso's gamekeepers by a bailiff 
 of the Procurator of Abbadia, which raised a case 
 of complicated jurisdiction in which she did not 
 quite know how to act. The relatives of the dead 
 man wanted to follow the said bailiff into Abbadia, 
 whither he had fled for refuge, but had been for- 
 bidden, so as to avoid all appearance of private 
 revenge. The captain of the district, however, on 
 making application to have the man given up to 
 him had been met with the objection that Abbadia 
 possessed certain privileges which took the matter 
 out of the Duke's jurisdiction. Moreover, the 
 commissary of Abbadia had written to say that 
 the said bailiff had been furiously attacked by the 
 said gamekeeper, who had killed him in self- 
 defence ; and that the said bailiff was falconer to 
 the reverend cardinal, who had inquired into the 
 affair and decided that it was a case of involuntary 
 homicide. She had sent an officer to inquire into 
 the matter, and had procured some evidence ; but 
 being afraid of doing anything that might show 
 want of respect to the dignity of the reverend 
 cardinal, she thought it well to receive the Duke's 
 instructions before taking any further steps. 
 
 The early sixteenth- century courier was not 
 always so regular and punctual as the modern 
 postman. On one occasion Lucrezia, who had been 
 anxiously awaiting answers to several of her letters, 
 received three from the Duke at the same moment, 
 dated the 23rd, 24th and 25th of the month 
 respectively. Their receipt, she declares, gave her 
 264
 
 *t.
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 such consolation and pleasure as it would be 
 impossible to express. She rejoices to hear that 
 his Excellency is in good health and spirits, and 
 that he has taken ample precautions for his health 
 and security. The expressions of comfort and 
 courage which he has written with so much kind- 
 ness of heart have given her inexpressible delight, 
 and she will now pass her time happily. Altogether 
 the correspondence represents Lucrezia in a very 
 favourable light, and shows that she and her 
 husband were on terms of confidence and affection. 
 But hardly had the famine abated when there 
 came a visitation of the plague. In one of her 
 letters, marked on the outside, " Cito, cito, cito ! " 
 (Haste, haste, haste 1) she tells Alfonso that the 
 plague has broken out in the house of a citizen 
 named Valentini, who has since died, and that by 
 the loan of linen and other articles it has been 
 communicated to other houses, where more deaths 
 have occurred. Alfonso hastened back to Ferrara, 
 and proceeded to fight the dreadful pest with 
 vigour and judgment. Cordons were placed round 
 those parts of the city most seriously affected, 
 nobody being allowed to leave or enter without 
 permission. Carts were sent through the infected 
 districts daily to remove all plague- stricken victims 
 to the riverside, whence they were ferried over to 
 a small island called II Boschetto, which was 
 turned into a lazaretto. Black flags with death's 
 heads on them were affixed to these carts, the 
 attendants wore a distinguishing costume, and in 
 front of each of them walked a man ringing a bell 
 
 265
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 to warn all who were uninfected to keep out of 
 the way. Strict cleanliness was enforced through- 
 out the city ; and any one attempting to enter it 
 without a clean bill of health was liable to the 
 punishment of death. One entry in the books of 
 the municipality is interesting as showing how 
 indefatigably some of the officials exerted them- 
 selves and also the personal attention of the Duke 
 and Duchess. A reward of fifty livres was given to 
 Jacopo Davento, notary of the twelve judges, for 
 his exertions during the whole time of the plague 
 in assisting the said judges in their personal 
 inspection of those infected, in regulating the 
 ministrations of doctors, barbers, and clergy, in 
 writing an infinite number of letters, and in carry- 
 ing daily to the illustrious Duke or his consort the 
 Duchess Lucrezia a report of the progress of the 
 plague and also of the condition of those who were 
 sick. Notwithstanding her condition, Lucrezia re- 
 mained in the city until she collapsed, when she 
 was removed to Mutinae, where, a fortnight after- 
 wards, she was delivered of another stillborn child. 
 Alfonso d'Este had none of that taste for 
 theatrical display which was so prominent a 
 characteristic of his father. He devoted himself 
 with great ardour and perseverance to mechanical 
 studies and experiments, his chief interest being 
 the casting of metals and the manufacture of 
 cannon. This he carried out so successfully that 
 his artillery was the best in Italy, if not in the 
 whole of Europe, and enabled him to win more 
 than one battle against otherwise superior forces. 
 266
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 He also established a manufacture of porcelain and 
 a school for its design and ornamentation, occa- 
 sionally painting with his own hand some of the 
 majolica vases which became a specialty of Ferrara. 
 He bestowed great pains on the training of skilful 
 workmen, whose society he seems to have pre- 
 ferred to that of his rather scandalised and dis- 
 contented nobles. He not only equipped a sort 
 of clubroom for them, with books, chess and other 
 recreations, and formed a band of musicians with 
 himself as instructor, but sometimes even invited 
 the more skilful of these workmen to a seat at his 
 dinner-table, which was more often in the foundry 
 than in the palace. Meantime he left the main- 
 tenance of a brilliant court and the patronage of 
 literature, learning and art to his wife. 
 
 There has been some exaggeration as to Lucrezia's 
 own culture and literary acquirements, but there is 
 no doubt that at the court of Ferrara she played 
 the part of a patroness of literature and learning. 
 And she was repaid in the way that crowned 
 patronesses usually are. Giorgio Robusto dedicated 
 a volume of poems to her ; Antonio Cornazzano 
 his terza rima Life of the Virgin and Life of Christ ; 
 Aldus Manutius several of the works which appeared 
 from his celebrated press ; and Ariosto would 
 doubtless have dedicated to her the Orlando Furioso 
 had he not been in the pay of her brother-in-law 
 Cardinal Ippolito, and therefore under obligation 
 to make the dedication to him. The praises of her 
 beauty and virtue were sung by Antonio Tebaldeo, 
 one of the literary ornaments of the court, who had 
 
 267
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 originally been a physician, but having a fine voice 
 and great proficiency on the lute, acquired some 
 celebrity by singing songs of which both the words 
 and the music were of his own composition. 
 Tebaldeo, having given up medicine for music, 
 finally abandoned music for literature, and attained 
 considerable eminence both for his Latin and 
 Italian versification. The two Strozzi, Tito the 
 father and Ercole the son, equally eminent as 
 poets, lauded her in almost identical terms; and 
 Pietro Bembo professed not merely a poetical 
 devotion but something more. 
 
 Bembo, the Venetian humorist, who afterwards 
 became secretary to Pope Leo X and a cardinal, 
 visited Ferrara in the early part of 1503, when he 
 was thirty-three years of age, in company with his 
 father ; and found the society of the place so 
 congenial that he remained for nearly three years. 
 Whilst living with his poetic friends the Strozzi 
 he commenced a correspondence with Lucrezia, 
 which was maintained to the end of her life. His 
 letters are printed in his works ; and in the 
 Ambrosian Library of Milan are preserved the 
 manuscript of nine letters which Lucrezia wrote to 
 him. These letters, seven in Italian and two in 
 Spanish, which are in the handwriting of Lucrezia 
 and of undoubted authenticity, are enclosed in a 
 folding of white vellum, tied with four ribands, 
 and accompanied by some verses in Spanish and 
 a lock of yellow hair which tradition asserts to be 
 one of the tresses of Lucrezia Borgia. This interest- 
 ing relic, which was evidently tenderly preserved 
 268
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 by Bembo as a memento of his charmer, has given 
 rise to much discussion. By some it has been 
 taken as a proof that even in Ferrara Lucrezia's 
 life was not so strictly virtuous as it ought to have 
 been. There is no doubt about Bembo having 
 been in love with the beautiful Duchess ; he con- 
 fided his passion to his friends the Strozzi, and 
 his letters are those of a most ardent admirer. 
 Some of her letters to him are admitted even by 
 her apologists to contain very warm expressions 
 of attachment, " certainly to the extreme point 
 that ' platonic love ' could go." It is likely enough 
 that the handsome, witty, accomplished Venetian 
 cavalier cast her rather rough and uncouth Alfonso 
 completely in the shade, and inspired something 
 more than mere friendship in the breast of Lucrezia. 
 But there is no proof whatever that their inter- 
 course passed the bounds of propriety. At the 
 same time, it is probable enough, as Gregorovius 
 suggests, that Bembo's retirement from the court 
 of Ferrara to that of Guidobaldo of Urbino in 
 1506 was due to his desire to be at a safe distance 
 from danger that threatened him on account of the 
 jealousy of Duke Alfonso. 
 
 The danger to be feared from the jealousy of 
 princes was strikingly illustrated by a painful 
 occurrence which happened just before Bembo's 
 departure from Ferrara. Angela Borgia, sister of 
 Cardinal Ludovico, who is described by one of the 
 Ferrarese chroniclers as a very beautiful girl, had 
 accompanied Lucrezia from Rome as her chief 
 maid of honour. Amongst her many admirers was 
 
 269
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 the handsome and dissolute young Cardinal Ippolito, 
 Alfonso's brother. It seems probable that Angela 
 encouraged the amorous cardinal up to a certain 
 point ; but when he became too pressing she 
 treated his protestations of love with ridicule, and 
 at length, to rid herself of his importunities, told 
 him candidly that her affections were engaged to 
 another. Ippolito, who was well served by a set 
 of secret spies, received intelligence that the 
 favoured rival was no other than his own illegitimate 
 brother Giulio. As soon as he learned this he 
 obtained an interview with Angela and demanded 
 to know whether the report were true or not. Far 
 from denying it, Angela avowed her preference for 
 Giulio, whereupon the cardinal lost his temper, 
 and in the course of the altercation that ensued 
 Angela tauntingly declared that the beautiful eyes 
 of Giulio were dearer to her than those of any 
 other person in the world. Enraged beyond 
 measure at this, the infuriated cardinal departed 
 and planned a diabolical revenge. Four of his 
 hired ruffians waylaid Giulio as he was returning 
 from a day's hunting at Lucrezia's country seat 
 of Belriguardo, and by the cardinal's orders and 
 in his presence attempted to blind the young prince 
 by putting out the eyes which Angela had found 
 so fascinating. This dastardly crime, which took 
 place on November 3, 1505, did not succeed quite 
 so completely as its perpetrators desired ; for 
 although Giulio lost one eye, the other was saved 
 by the skill of his surgeons. The injured prince 
 demanded that his assailant should be punished 
 270
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 in biblical fashion by an eye for an eye. But 
 although the hired bravos were hanged, it was 
 difficult to deal adequately with an offender of 
 Ippolito's secular and ecclesiastical rank and dignity, 
 so that Alfonso had to be contented with banishing 
 his cruel brother from the territories of Ferrara. 
 
 But the matter did not end there. Many of the 
 nobles complained of the banishment of the gay 
 Ippolito as too severe a punishment, and protested 
 against the Duke's despotism. There was also a 
 strong party amongst the nobility who were dis- 
 contented at Alfonso's absorption in his foundry 
 and manufactories, and the consequent absence of 
 that pomp and display to which they had been 
 accustomed in the time of Duke Ercole. A revolu- 
 tion was decided upon, and a plot formed to murder 
 Alfonso and to place on the throne in his stead his 
 brother Ferrante, an ambitious and unscrupulous 
 prince who had been brought up at the frivolous 
 court of Naples, and who regarded what he con- 
 sidered the low mechanical tastes of his brother 
 with disgust. Giulio, who was deeply aggrieved 
 because Ippolito had not been punished more 
 severely, was induced to join the conspirators, but 
 only on condition that the cardinal should be put 
 to death also, a stipulation to which Ferrante 
 agreed because of his anxiety to obtain Giulio's 
 co-operation. Some delay was caused by this, for 
 Giulio was so eager to avenge the loss of his eye 
 that he insisted on the cardinal being killed first, 
 whilst Ferrante wished to make sure of the Duke. 
 This being adjusted, however, according to 
 
 271
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Ferrante's plan, the conspirators secured the ser- 
 vices of four persons who were continually about 
 the person of the Duke, Count Albertino Boschetti, 
 his son-in-law Roberto, who was a captain of the 
 palace guard, Count Giovanni de Gherrario, and 
 a French musician named Guasconi. The last- 
 named villain was selected to put poison in the 
 Duke's food, which he did ; but for some un- 
 explained reason the venom caused nothing worse 
 than a temporary inconvenience. It was then 
 determined to assassinate Alfonso at a masked 
 ball to be held in the palace of one of the nobles. 
 But the conspirators, finding no opportunity during 
 the ball, proposed to attack the Duke as he returned 
 home. Again they were foiled ; for it so happened 
 that Alfonso was joined at the door by a number 
 of friendly nobles, who obtained permission to 
 escort him to Castle Vecchio. Several other plans 
 for the assassination failed in some similar accidental 
 way ; for of this conspiracy, concocted by his 
 brothers and hatched in his own palace, Alfonso 
 seems to have had no inkling. 
 
 Cardinal Ippolito in Rome, however, suspecting 
 something sinister from the unwonted familiarity 
 of Ferrante and Giulio, and knowing what good 
 reason he had for keeping an eye on the movements 
 of the latter, set his spies to work ; and, having 
 discovered the whole plot, instantly revealed it to 
 Alfonso. This was in July 1506. Ferrante and 
 Count Boschetti were promptly arrested, but Giulio 
 got away to Mantua, where the Marchioness 
 Isabella promised to protect him ; Roberto fled to 
 272
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 Carpi, and Guasconi escaped to Rome. When 
 Ferrante was brought into his brother's presence 
 he threw himself on his knees, confessing his guilt 
 and abjectly imploring forgiveness. Alfonso not 
 only sternly thrust him away, but struck out one 
 of his eyes with a ceremonial staff that he carried 
 in his hand. Ferrante was then confined in one of 
 the dungeons of Castle Vecchio until the other 
 conspirators could be arrested, in order that all 
 might be tried together. The Marquis of Mantua 
 at first declined to deliver up Giulio, alleging that 
 the Marchioness had promised him protection ; 
 but on the production of proofs of his complicity 
 in the plot he sent the prince to Ferrara. 
 
 All the prisoners pleaded guilty, and threw them- 
 selves on the Duke's mercy. They obtained little 
 from the stern Alfonso. Boschetti and three other 
 of the conspirators were executed as common felons 
 in front of the Palazzo Ragione ; and a few days 
 afterwards the Duke ordered the erection of a 
 scaffold, with seats around to accommodate a large 
 number of spectators, in the courtyard of Castle 
 Vecchio, for the more impressive punishment of 
 his two brothers. He issued invitations to the 
 nobles and principal burghers to attend on 
 August 12, and when they arrived they found the 
 block and all other requisites for the decapitation 
 of the culprits arranged on the scaffold. Ferrante 
 and Giulio were led in, accompanied by the common 
 executioner with his axe. But when Ferrante 
 placed his head upon the block, the Duke rose 
 from his seat and in a loud voice commanded 
 
 s 273
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 the proceedings to stop. Infamous as was the 
 conduct of these two princes in having sought to shed 
 a brother's blood, he said, and amply justified as he 
 would be in beheading them for it, yet he shrank 
 from having the slightest taint of the sin of Cain 
 upon his conscience, and would commute their 
 punishment to imprisonment for life. They were 
 then conducted to the dungeons beneath the castle 
 in which he and Lucrezia lived. Ferrante remained 
 there until his death thirty-four years afterwards ; 
 Giulio was released after fifty-three years of im- 
 prisonment, when he had become an old man 
 nearly eighty years of age. 
 
 Giovanni Guasconi remained at liberty some 
 time after the others had been dealt with. He 
 was a peculiarly ungrateful rascal, for he had been 
 raised from mendicancy to a position of affluence 
 by the man he attempted to poison. Some years 
 previously, during one of his journeys abroad, 
 Alfonso had heard the fellow singing in the streets 
 of a French town, and being struck with the beauty 
 of his voice had brought him to Ferrara, had him 
 carefully trained, and introduced him into Duke 
 Ercole's band of singers. On Alfonso's accession 
 to the throne he had promoted Guasconi to a 
 position of trust in the palace. For some time 
 after his escape to Rome he remained in hiding, 
 but eventually he obtained an appointment in the 
 household of Cardinal San Giorgio. Cardinal 
 Ippolito then soon discovered him and informed 
 his brother Alfonso, who immediately wrote to 
 demand the surrender of the culprit. The cardinal 
 274
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 refused to deliver up any servant of his own, what- 
 ever crime might be charged against him ; and 
 after several fruitless applications Alfonso appealed 
 to the Pope. Julius ordered the fellow's arrest, 
 and, on the production of primd facie evidence of 
 his guilt, sent him a prisoner to Ferrara. On his 
 arrival there it was all his guards could do to 
 prevent his being torn to pieces by the mob ; and 
 on the following day he was hung out in an iron 
 cage from one of the balconies of the castle in 
 order that the people might give vent to their 
 feelings by imprecation and insult. After a week 
 of this treatment the miserable wretch took refuge 
 in suicide, being found by his gaoler one morning 
 strangled in his cell with the strips of a torn-up 
 cloth. 
 
 On April 4, 1508, there were great rejoicings in 
 Ferrara, for on that day, four years after their 
 marriage, Lucrezia gave birth to a son and heir 
 to the throne. The child was named after his 
 grandfather Ercole, and in due time succeeded his 
 father as Ercole II. Alfonso was away at the time, 
 but he hastened home on the receipt of the welcome 
 news, although he was obliged to leave again as 
 soon as Lucrezia was convalescent. The good 
 people of Ferrara showed their delight and loyalty 
 by seizing the benches in the law courts, the schools, 
 and the cathedral, and tearing out the window- 
 frames of other public buildings to make fuel for 
 congratulatory bonfires. And the poet Ercole 
 Strozzi celebrated the event in a manner scarcely 
 less extravagant. In an elegy on the recent death 
 
 275
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 of Cesare Borgia, in which the exploits of that 
 cunning and unscrupulous adventurer were likened 
 to the famous deeds of his great namesake, he had 
 attempted to console Lucrezia by assuring her 
 that although, by the decrees of inexorable Fate, 
 Cesare had to die, yet Minerva and Venus would 
 not permit the descendants of the Trojans to be 
 ruled over by aliens, and had obtained a promise 
 from Jupiter in Olympus that from the conjoined 
 lines of Este and Borgia (which sprang from the 
 heroes of Troy and Greece respectively) there 
 should arise a great king who would become the 
 saviour of Italy. He now assured her that her 
 infant was the promised saviour, who was destined 
 to rival the illustrious deeds of his uncle Cesare and 
 his grandfather Alexander, as well as those of the 
 famous ancient heroes whose names they worthily 
 bore. But the muse had not revealed to the 
 unfortunate poet his own approaching fate ; 
 although in one of his elegies some expressions 
 occur which indicate that he may have had some 
 apprehensions of an untimely end. 
 
 The Strozzi belonged to an ancient and eminent 
 family of Florence ; but Tito Vespasiano had 
 accepted a military appointment under Nicolo III 
 and settled in Ferrara. His rank and talents and 
 learning were such that Ercole employed him as 
 ambassador to the court of Rome, and afterwards 
 made him head of the twelve, or Chief Justice 
 of Ferrara. Notwithstanding these employments, 
 however, Tito found time to cultivate literature, 
 and his Latin poetry is said to be of great excellence. 
 276
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 Shortly before his death he had made some 
 progress with an epic dealing with the life of Duke 
 Borso d'Este ; and he left ten unfinished books of 
 this poem to his son Ercole, who undertook to 
 complete the work. But Fate had ordered other- 
 wise. In May 1508 Ercole Strozzi was married to 
 Barbara Torelli, the young and beautiful widow of 
 Ercole Bentivoglio. Thirteen days later, on the 
 morning of June 6, his dead body, pierced by 
 twenty-two dagger wounds, the clothing torn to 
 pieces, and locks of hair pulled out by the roots, 
 was found lying in the streets not far from the 
 Estense Palace. This ghastly tragedy created a 
 profound impression in Ferrara, for Ercole Strozzi, 
 then only twenty- seven years of age, had suc- 
 ceeded to the post of Chief Justice on the death 
 of his father, was the pride of the whole city as 
 a poet, and a favourite of the Duchess and the 
 court. 
 
 The mystery of this murder has never been cleared 
 up. No inquiry was instituted, says Paolo Giovio, 
 and no man dared to name the murderer. Some 
 writers have charged Lucrezia with the crime, 
 alleging that she was in love with Ercole Strozzi 
 and jealous of Barbara Torelli. But this pre- 
 posterous theory will not bear a moment's ex- 
 amination. Others, with more plausibility, have 
 ascribed it to the jealousy of Alfonso. The poet 
 had undoubtedly written of Lucrezia in terms of 
 the highest laudation and with an appearance of 
 unaffected ardour. He broke out into extravagant 
 raptures when she gave him a rose ; her eyes were 
 
 277
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 like the sun which blinds those who gaze upon it ; 
 her equal was not to be found on earth ; and so 
 forth. But there is really no evidence that his 
 raptures were more real than those of any other 
 poet laureate. Neither is there very much in the 
 contention that Lucrezia made Ercole many 
 presents, and those of a kind implying great 
 intimacy between them such as gold brocade or 
 satin for the making of splendid vestments for, 
 in the first place, it was a common practice to 
 make presents of rich clothing in those days ; and, 
 in the second place, if there had been any undue 
 familiarity implied in these things they would 
 never have been openly entered in her household 
 books by her major-domo as "to be presented by 
 her Highness to the Magnifico Messer Ercole 
 Strozzi." Moreover, even if Alfonso had been 
 jealous of Strozzi's admiration for Lucrezia and 
 of her making presents to him, it is highly im- 
 probable that he would have taken no notice of 
 it while the poet was single, and yet ordered his 
 death immediately after he had married a beautiful 
 woman to whom it was well known that he had 
 been devoted for some time. Most probably the 
 dastardly deed was the work of a disappointed 
 rival. Ercole Strozzi had courted Barbara Torelli 
 for a year or more ; but she had been at the same 
 time solicited with equal ardour by one of the 
 Ferrarese nobles named Alessandro Pio. Cardinal 
 Ippolito, who, as has already been seen, learned 
 much from his secret spies in Ferrara, in a letter 
 to a friend written shortly after the occurrence, 
 278
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 named Alessandro Pio as the instigator of the 
 crime, and a certain Mesino del Formo as the 
 actual murderer. Gregorovius considers it proof 
 of Alfonso's guilt that one so ready to punish the 
 conspirators against himself, and usually so stern 
 an upholder of the law, should have allowed the 
 matter to drop so quietly. It must be admitted 
 that this is a difficulty ; although it may, perhaps, 
 be explained by the fact that the family of Alessandro 
 Pio was just about to become allied to the ducal 
 family by the marriage of his brother with a natural 
 daughter of Cardinal Ippolito. 
 
 After 1508 the chroniclers of Ferrara have com- 
 paratively little to say about Lucrezia's doings, 
 her personal history being eclipsed by the exciting 
 political affairs of the state. From the moment 
 of his accession Julius II had bent all his energies 
 to the re-establishment of the temporal power of 
 the Papacy. The House of Borgia having been 
 politically annihilated, he resolved first of all to 
 possess himself of those smaller independent states 
 which had returned to the allegiance of their 
 former lords. In August 1506 he set out at the 
 head of his army against Perugia ; when Gianpaolo 
 Baglioni, without waiting to be attacked, advanced 
 to Orvietto and surrendered his territory. On 
 September 12 the Pope entered Perugia, and having 
 assumed the sovereignty, which he immediately 
 delegated to Cardinal de' Medici, and taken Baglioni 
 with fifty men-at-arms into his service, he advanced 
 with his army to Imola and called upon Giovanni 
 Bentivoglio to surrender Bologna. Giovanni, relying 
 
 279
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 on the promised assistance of France, prepared 
 to resist ; but Louis XII, who had now no further 
 use for the ruler of Bologna, whilst he stood in 
 need of the favour of the Pope, coolly ordered the 
 troops he had despatched from Milan for Giovanni's 
 assistance to co-operate with his assailants ; where- 
 upon Bentivoglio fled, and on November 11 
 Julius II entered Bologna in triumph. 
 
 But this was only a beginning. Venice hitherto 
 had gained rather than lost by the troubles and 
 confusions of the rest of Italy, and was now at the 
 height of her prosperity. Her growing influence, 
 however, was a menace to more than one of the 
 other powers ; and in December 1508 the League 
 of Cambray was formed for her dismemberment. 
 She was to be attacked on all sides, and the con- 
 spirators were to divide the spoil. The Emperor 
 Maximilian was to have Roveredo, Verona, Padua, 
 Vicenza, Trivigi, Friuli and Aquileja. The King 
 of France was to receive the cities of Brescia, 
 Crema, Bergamo and Cremona, with the whole 
 district of Ghiaradadda. Ferdinand of Spain was 
 to regain possession of the maritime cities of Trani, 
 Brindisi, Gallipoli and Otranto, on the coast of 
 Naples, which Venice had still contrived to hold 
 after the subjugation of Naples by Spain. The 
 Pope was to receive all that part of the Romagna, 
 including the cities of Ravenna, Cervia, Faenza, 
 and Rimini, which Venice had seized after the fall 
 of Cesare Borgia. Several other smaller potentates 
 joined the League, of whom the most important 
 was Alfonso of Ferrara, whose territories were 
 280
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 particularly exposed to the aggression of the 
 Venetians. 
 
 The fortune of war favoured first one side and 
 then the other ; but early in 1510 the Pope, having 
 recovered Romagna, which was all he wanted, 
 secretly deserted his allies, took the ban off Venice, 
 and promised the Republic his future support. 
 Ferdinand of Spain, who had recovered his mari- 
 time cities on the Adriatic, was already lukewarm ; 
 and the futile Emperor Maximilian, having been 
 driven out of Padua, had returned with the remains 
 of his forces to Vienna. Louis XII and Alfonso of 
 Ferrara were therefore left to carry on the war 
 against Venice alone. Then Alfonso was ordered 
 by the Pope to desist from hostilities ; and on his 
 refusal to do so he was excommunicated together 
 with all his family, and his dominions declared to 
 be confiscated as those of a rebel against the Holy 
 See. Alfonso rightly judged this to be merely a 
 pretext to enable the Pope to seize the State of 
 Ferrara and add it to the dominions of the Church. 
 
 The Duke of Ferrara had succeeded in taking 
 possession of the districts of Este, Polesella, Mon- 
 tagnano and Monfelice, which he claimed as ancient 
 heritages of his family ; wherefore the Venetians, 
 who were specially incensed against him for the 
 active part he had taken in the war, determined 
 to punish him severely. They sent a fleet of 
 eighteen galleys, accompanied by a considerable 
 force of troops, up the Po, devastating the country 
 on either side as they went along and filling the 
 inhabitants of Ferrara with terror. Alfonso and 
 
 281
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 his brother Ippolito, who also was a capable man 
 of war, did not wait to be attacked, but proceeded 
 down the stream with a flotilla of galleys to meet 
 the enemy. The number of their forces was much 
 smaller than those of the Venetians, but Alfonso 
 was far superior in artillery ; and in a sanguinary 
 engagement the invaders were totally routed, losing 
 all their ships and about 3000 men. In the follow- 
 ing year he was attacked again, for in December 
 1510, in the middle of the coldest winter ever 
 known in Italy, the fiery old Pope, after besieging 
 and capturing Mirandola, marched with his troops 
 to Ravenna in order to combine with his ally in 
 an assault on Ferrara. But Alfonso, in several 
 engagements, defeated the united forces of the 
 Pope and the Venetians to their considerable loss. 
 
 Louis XII and the Emperor proposed to retaliate 
 for the Pope's desertion of them by calling a 
 Council of the Church to depose Julius II, where- 
 upon the Pope, in addition to convening a Council 
 himself in the Lateran, in December 1511 formed 
 what he called a Holy League, by which Venice 
 and Spain united with him for the defence of the 
 Church and to expel the French from Italy. The 
 sanguinary battle of Ravenna, which was fought 
 on April 11, 1512, practically annihilated the 
 forces of the Holy allies, and was due in great part 
 to the excellence of Alfonso's artillery. But owing 
 to the enormous loss of men on the winning side, 
 the death of their brilliant young leader, Gaston 
 de Foix, and the neglect of his successor to follow 
 up the advantage, the victory was equivalent to a 
 282
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 crushing defeat, and within two months afterwards 
 Julius succeeded in driving the French completely 
 out of Italy. 
 
 Alfonso, now left to shift for himself, was 
 naturally anxious for a reconciliation with the 
 Pope. It had so happened that when Fabrizzio 
 Colonna had been taken prisoner at the battle of 
 Ravenna he had fallen into the hands of the Duke 
 of Ferrara, who had treated him with great con- 
 sideration, and, after the expulsion of the French 
 from Italy, had restored the captive to liberty. 
 He therefore applied to the man he had thus 
 befriended, and who was at the moment in Rome, 
 to make his peace with the Pope. Fabrizzio under- 
 took the office, and reported that his Holiness 
 seemed disposed enough to accommodate matters, 
 but had suggested that it would be more appro- 
 priate and according to usage for the Duke to 
 come to Rome himself, publicly to express his 
 regret for having acted as a rebellious son of the 
 Church. Accordingly, in June 1512, Alfonso went 
 to Rome ; and having requested pardon for having 
 borne arms against the Holy See, and promised to 
 behave as a faithful feudatory in future, he was 
 received by the Pope with apparent friendliness. 
 Julius appointed a committee of six cardinals to 
 confer with Alfonso ; but the Duke was aghast 
 when he found that the only terms on which he 
 could secure a pardon and the removal of the ban 
 of excommunication were that he should give up 
 the State of Ferrara, accept in place of it the small 
 town of Asti in Lombardy, undertake that he and 
 
 283
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 all his family would reside in that distant town, 
 and guarantee never to return to Ferrara, which 
 must henceforth be considered one of the States of 
 the Church. 
 
 Alfonso was by no means the kind of man to 
 submit tamely to any such conditions, and he 
 resolutely refused. Moreover, what the Pope's 
 intentions were he was able to see without a shadow 
 of a doubt when intelligence reached him that 
 whilst he was humbly suing for pardon at the 
 Papal court the Pope's troops, with the Pope's 
 nephew at their head, had entered his territories 
 and were threatening Ferrara. He instantly made 
 hurried preparations to return, but the Pope for- 
 bade him to leave Rome. Then occurred an in- 
 stance of grateful return for kindness received 
 which it is peculiarly refreshing to come across 
 amidst such a continuous record of unblushing 
 perfidy and treachery. One morning about day- 
 break Fabrizzio Colonna, with a small band of his 
 trusted adherents mounted and armed, endeavoured 
 to smuggle Alfonso, whom they had carefully 
 disguised, secretly out of the city. But on their 
 arrival at the gate of St. John Lateran the officer 
 of the guard refused to let them pass. It was too 
 late to retreat, so Fabrizzio, trusting to the speed 
 of his horses, broke through the guard and con- 
 ducted the Duke in safety to the fortress of his 
 family at Marino. Thence, in company with young 
 Prospero Colonna, Alfonso set out homewards, 
 travelling by devious routes, and with various 
 changes of disguise, in order to elude the Pope's 
 284
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 emissaries who were sent out after them in every 
 direction. Sometimes they passed for two private 
 soldiers going to join their regiment, sometimes for 
 two huntsmen, sometimes for two friars on pilgrim- 
 age to a shrine, and on one occasion Alfonso passed 
 for Prospero's cook. At length, after much wander- 
 ing in this fashion, and the endurance of great 
 hardships, the Duke arrived safely in his own city 
 of Ferrara. 
 
 Soon after his return he attempted to appease 
 the angry Pope by a submissive embassy ; and as 
 none of his nobles were very much disposed to 
 undertake so dangerous an office, he fixed upon 
 his brother Ippolito's retainer, the celebrated poet 
 Ariosto, for the purpose. On Ariosto's arrival in 
 Rome he found that the Pope was recreating him- 
 self for a short time at Ostia, and accordingly 
 followed him thither. But no sooner had the poet 
 been admitted to the Pontiff's presence and his 
 errand explained than the irascible Julius com- 
 manded him to leave the place instantly or he 
 should be thrown into the sea. Fortunately for 
 the Este dynasty of Ferrara, Julius II died in the 
 following February and was succeeded by Leo X. 
 
 During Alfonso's prolonged absence from Ferrara 
 Lucrezia had proved herself a capable regent, 
 acceptable to noble as well as to burgher, and 
 benevolent to the poor. Her second son, who 
 was christened Ippolito after his uncle, was born 
 in 1509, shortly before the war broke out. In 
 July 1510 unhappy memories of her earlier life 
 must have been recalled by the death of her 
 
 285
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 divorced husband, Giovanni Sforza. Giovanni, like 
 most of his illustrious family, was a man of much 
 culture, and spent a good deal of his time alone, in 
 his castle of Gradara, studying divine philosophy. 
 He had married again in 1504, and he left an 
 infant son to succeed him, thus incidentally giving 
 the lie to the alleged reason for his divorce from 
 Lucrezia. But the child died in 1512, and Julius II 
 seized the opportunity to transfer the lordship of 
 Pesaro to his nephew, Francesco Maria Rovere. 
 In the same year died Rodrigo, Lucrezia's son by 
 her second husband, the murdered Duke of Bisceglia. 
 As already mentioned, this boy had been living for 
 some years with his aunt, Isabella of Aragon, at 
 Bari, not far from his hereditary duchy of Bisceglia. 
 He was evidently being brought up and educated 
 with the " Infans Romanus," Giovanni Borgia, 
 who was about a year older than himself, for 
 Lucrezia's book of household expenditure shows 
 that in March 1505 she sent a present of brocade 
 and damask to Bari for her son Rodrigo, and another 
 entry in April 1508 records an expenditure for both 
 of them, who were then at Bari together under the 
 care of the same tutor. Why Lucrezia left her 
 three-year-old son behind her in Rome and never 
 set eyes on him again is a mystery which has never 
 been cleared up, and is rendered all the more 
 inexplicable by the fact that, on one occasion at 
 least, in 1506, she had his companion Giovanni 
 brought to her at Ferrara. 
 
 Although the Duke had saved his state, the 
 prolonged war had exhausted his treasury, and 
 286
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 plunged the greater part of his subjects into great 
 misery and distress. As it became necessary for 
 Alfonso to appeal to his nobles to make some 
 sacrifice to mitigate the miseries of the people, he 
 and Lucrezia set them an admirable example. He 
 sold off the silver plate and rich furniture of his 
 palace, and she pawned her jewels. An inventory 
 of these, made in January 1516, when presumably 
 they were redeemed and returned to the custody 
 of her chamberlain, enumerates three hundred 
 articles, and shows Lucrezia to have possessed a 
 collection of ornaments that for beauty and costli- 
 ness were probably unequalled by that of any other 
 princess in Europe. 
 
 There were many charitable institutions in 
 Ferrara, wherein both the Duke and Duchess took 
 a laudable interest. There were almshouses for 
 the aged and infirm, workhouses for the able- 
 bodied in temporary distress, a foundling hospital, 
 and an asylum for orphans. Many of these chari- 
 ties were personally superintended by Lucrezia 
 and her husband. One institution in which she 
 took a special interest was an asylum and school 
 for the bashful poor, the object of which was to 
 give assistance to those who had once been well- 
 to-do but through unavoidable misfortune had 
 fallen into decay. Alfonso revived and enforced 
 a law of his father Ercole which compelled every 
 person who made a will to bequeath the sum of 
 five soldi to this Hospital of St. Ann, to provide for 
 the poor whom it sheltered and also to maintain 
 the fabric of the building. In 1505 he ordered 
 
 287
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 collections to be made throughout the whole of 
 his duchy for the building of a special hospital 
 for those suffering from contagious diseases, in 
 order to separate these from the patients in other 
 hospitals. But indiscriminate charity was dis- 
 couraged. Begging in the streets was prohibited ; 
 for the first offence the mendicant was imprisoned, 
 for the second he was flogged also, whilst any 
 person detected in the act of giving money to a 
 mendicant was fined two scudi. A Monte de Pieta 
 was founded in Ferrara for lending small sums of 
 money to the poor, on pledge but without interest 
 for six months ; after that a small interest was 
 charged if the pledge were renewed. Previous to 
 this the Jews of Ferrara had practised extortionate 
 usury, not only charging 60 per cent, per annum 
 to the rich and 100 per cent, for a single month to 
 the poor, but obliging the borrowers to take out 
 much of their loans, not in cash, but in goods, very 
 often goods of no use to them or to anybody else. 
 
 Several more children were added to the family 
 of the Duke and Duchess : in April 1514 a son, 
 Alessandro ; in July 1515 a daughter, Leonora ; 
 and in November 1516 a fourth son, Francesco. 
 Whatever may be said about her apparently callous 
 indifference towards her son by the Duke of 
 Bisceglia, she appears to have been a careful and 
 attentive mother to her children by Alfonso of 
 Ferrara. In the year 1516 she had some corre- 
 spondence with the poet Gian-Giorgio Trissino, 
 who was then at the court of Leo X, and it has 
 been suggested that he was another of her poetic 
 288
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 admirers for whom she cherished a more than 
 poetic attachment. Trissino is notable as the 
 writer of Sofonisba, the first regular tragedy to 
 make its appearance after the revival of letters, 
 and also as the introducer of versi sciolti, or blank 
 verse, into Italian literature. He was also of 
 high repute in his own time as a man of learning ; 
 and the object of Lucrezia's correspondence with 
 him seems to have been the sufficiently innocent 
 one of obtaining this learned man's advice respect- 
 ing an appropriate tutor for her eldest son, Ercole. 
 Five of her letters to Trissino, written in a tone of 
 friendly familiarity, may be found in the appendix 
 to Roscoe's " Life and Pontificate of Leo X." 
 But those who scent scandal in this affair rely more 
 on a letter, of unascertained date, which Trissino 
 wrote to Lucrezia's undoubtedly ardent lover Bembo. 
 Lucrezia had presented Trissino with a medallion 
 portrait of herself, which the admiring Bembo 
 coveted ; and on the other's refusal to part with 
 it had exhibited considerable annoyance. Trissino 
 replied saying that he could not conciliate Bembo's 
 regard in this way, though he would willingly pur- 
 chase it with anything else of much higher value ; 
 and he thought his friend's usually mild and for- 
 bearing temper had been unreasonably ruffled. 
 For, he says, " if the resemblance of this medallion 
 to the lady you admire justifies your wish to 
 possess it, why should it not for the same reason 
 justify my wish to retain it ? " He adds that 
 " two strong ties, affection and fidelity, forbid 
 my making you the gift you request " ; and he 
 
 M W v
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 concludes with the diplomatic politeness so charac- 
 teristic of the time, that the regret which he feels 
 at not being able to comply with the request is 
 much greater than any disappointment his corre- 
 spondent can feel in having made it in vain. If 
 there were no stronger evidence than this against 
 Lucrezia in respect of the other charges made 
 against her, the modern whitewashes of her 
 memory would have had an easy task. 
 
 On November 26, 1518, Lucrezia's mother died 
 in Rome at the age of seventy-seven. After the 
 election of Pius III she had returned to Rome from 
 Nepi in company with her son Cesare. As her 
 title to a good deal of her property was by no 
 means unquestionable, she had resorted to various 
 artful expedients for its preservation. In December 
 1503, after the election of Julius II, and whilst 
 Cesare was a prisoner in the Torre Borgia, she 
 presented her house on the Piazza di Merlo by deed 
 of gift to the Church of S. Maria del Popolo, 
 reserving the use of it during her lifetime. She 
 sold several other houses, and afterwards revoked 
 the bargain, on the ground that it had only been 
 made from fear of confiscation. But she received 
 the protection of a number of powerful friends, 
 especially of the Farnese and the Cesarini, and of 
 those cardinals who were relatives or creatures of 
 Alexander VI, so that she was able to remain in 
 Rome unmolested for the remainder of her life. 
 She kept up a correspondence with her children ; 
 and in 1515 we hear of her ten-year-old grandchild, 
 son of Giuffre, Prince of Squillace, living with her 
 290
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 in her house in Rome for a time. She was described 
 as "la magnifica e nobile Madonna Vanozza " ; 
 and, as mother of the reigning Duchess of Ferrara, 
 was regarded as a lady of high position, whose 
 society many thought it worth while to cultivate. 
 Several of her letters to Lucrezia have been pre- 
 served, and they exhibit her as a shrewd old woman 
 of the world, of no very sweet temper, and with a 
 strong determination to stand up for her rights 
 In one she claims some of the jewels in her daughter's 
 dowry, which she alleges had been given in mistake. 
 In another, dated February 1515, she prefers a 
 number of complaints against a certain Paolo 
 Pagnano, who, she says, is perpetually annoying 
 her with claims on some of her property, as though 
 she were the vilest person in the world and unable 
 to find a friend to stand by her. Wherefore she 
 requests her daughter and son-in-law to send some 
 discreet person to the illustrious Duke of Milan to 
 circumvent the machinations of the said Paolo 
 Pagnano. She concludes her letter by recommending 
 herself to her Excellency of Ferrara, and to the 
 illustrious Duke, and to the children, for all of 
 whom she prays continually, and she signs herself 
 " Your happy and unhappy mother, Vanozza 
 Borgia de Catenai." In another communication, 
 dated December 19 of the same year, Vanozza 
 showed that she had not associated with the wily 
 Rodrigo Borgia without acquiring some of his 
 finesse. The letter, which had been written by 
 some one else for her to sign, begs Lucrezia's 
 influence on behalf of a certain Gianbatista of 
 
 291
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Aquila, who had claims on some benefices in the 
 diocese of Capua ; but after her signature she 
 managed to insert a hurried postscript in which 
 she told Lucrezia she had been obliged to sign the 
 letter, but wished her daughter to do no more than 
 she pleased in the matter. 
 
 For some years past Madonna Vanozza had been 
 ostentatiously devout. She associated much with 
 priests and monks, and Paolo Giovio, who became 
 acquainted with her in her later days, describes 
 her as a worthy and upright woman. She benefited 
 a number of religious foundations in Rome, in- 
 cluding the Company of the Gonfalone ad Sancta 
 Sanctorum, whose records show that she gave them 
 her jewels, which were of considerable value, that 
 she paid a famous silversmith two thousand ducats 
 to adorn their abode with a magnificent work of 
 art, and that she left them enough property by 
 will to bring in annually four hundred ducats for 
 feeding the poor and the sick. Wherefore, to show 
 their gratitude to this " noble and honourable 
 lady," the holy brotherhood decided to celebrate 
 her obsequies with great pomp, to honour her 
 memory with a splendid monument, and to have 
 Mass said for the repose of her soul every year on 
 the anniversary of her death in the Church of 
 S. Maria del Popolo. According to the chronicler 
 Sanuto, her funeral was attended by the Pope's 
 chamberlain and was almost as magnificent as 
 that of a cardinal. Hieronymus Picus, her execu- 
 tor, placed an inscription on her tomb setting forth 
 that she was the mother of Cesare Duke of 
 292
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 Valentino, of Giovanni Duke of Gandia, of Giuffre 
 Prince of Squillace, and of Lucrezia Duchess of 
 Ferrara, and that she was conspicuous for her 
 uprightness, her piety, her discretion, and her 
 intelligence. For more than two hundred years, 
 says Gregorovius, the priests of S. Maria del 
 Popolo sang masses for the repose of her soul. 
 Why they do not continue doing so to-day, or 
 how and when her tombstone disappeared from 
 the church it is vain to ask. 
 
 In March of the following year Lucrezia heard 
 of the death of the Marquis of Mantua, and wrote 
 to her bereaved sister-in-law that it had so grieved 
 her that she was more in want of consolation 
 herself than able to offer any. Yet she would 
 have gone to Mantua, she said, had not the state 
 of her health prohibited travelling. She was in an 
 advanced state of pregnancy, and, after two 
 months of great suffering, on June 14 was delivered 
 of a stillborn child. Eight days later she dictated 
 a letter to Pope Leo, telling him she knew she 
 could not recover, and asking his blessing on her 
 soul. She died on June 24, 1519. Her husband, 
 who had been in constant attendance on her, 
 immediately wrote to his nephew, the new Marquis 
 of Mantua, to acquaint him with the melancholy 
 news. He was a rough soldier, but he declared he 
 could not write without the tears coming into his 
 eyes to find himself deprived of one who had been 
 so excellent a companion, of such an exemplary 
 life, and united to him in the bonds of so tender a 
 love. On the 28th she was buried, after a simple 
 
 293
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 service, in the convent of the Sisters of Corpus 
 Christi, beside the coffin of Alfonso's mother. The 
 grave has long since disappeared ; and, strange to 
 say, of the last resting-places of Pope Alexander, of 
 Cesare, and of Lucrezia Borgia not a trace now 
 remains. 
 
 For seventeen years Lucrezia had been at the 
 head of a court famous throughout Italy for its 
 intellectual culture and the eminence of its men of 
 letters ; but her own acquirements in this direction 
 have undoubtedly been exaggerated. Gregorovius 
 has furnished us with a catalogue of the books which 
 she brought to Ferrara from Rome, seventeen in 
 number, beautifully bound in purple velvet with 
 mountings of silver and gold, from which it is 
 evident that, down to that date at any rate, her 
 studies had not been very profound. Strict observ- 
 ance of the outward forms of religion was the first 
 and most important thing in the education of 
 Italian ladies ; and of this teaching the Pope's 
 daughter had evidently had her full share. Her 
 secular culture was probably, mutatis mutandis, 
 much on a par with that of a fine lady of our own 
 day. She played on the lute instead of the piano, 
 read poems instead of prose novels, and in place 
 of the modern smattering of French and Italian 
 had a corresponding superficial acquaintance with 
 Latin and Greek. She had some skill in drawing, 
 and was exceptionally expert at fine embroidery 
 in silk and gold. She must have been able to read 
 some Latin, or Alexander VI could never have left 
 her to act as regent in the Vatican, as he did more 
 294
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 than once ; but that her acquaintance with it was 
 very slight may be presumed from the fact that 
 on one occasion her father ordered a conference at 
 which she was present to be conducted in the 
 vulgar tongue because she was not mistress of the 
 other. With Spanish and Italian she was equally 
 familiar, for one was the habitual language of her 
 father and brothers, the other that of the land of 
 her birth. But when the biographer of the 
 Chevalier Bayard says that she not only spoke 
 Spanish, Italian, French, Greek and Latin, but 
 also composed poetry in all these tongues, he must 
 either have been misinformed or else was indulging 
 in courtly exaggeration. Italian versification, and 
 especially the composition of sonnets, was a common 
 enough accomplishment of both sexes in her day ; 
 but there is no evidence that it was practised by 
 Lucrezia. On the contrary, it may be taken for 
 certain that had she written verses of even the 
 most mediocre kind they would have been highly 
 eulogised by Bembo, or the Strozzi, or Aldus 
 Manutius ; yet not one of these admirers and 
 flatterers ever hints at such an accomplishment. 
 Bembo does indeed give her a general intellectual 
 testimonial ; for, in dedicating to her his Asolani, 
 a philosophical dialogue on love, he addresses her 
 as " a Princess more desirous of ornamenting her 
 mind with excellent endowments than her person 
 with the decorations of dress." Considering 
 Lucrezia's reputation as the most magnificently 
 dressed woman in Italy, this might be considered 
 pretty high praise, were we not compelled to make 
 
 295
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 a heavy discount for an amorous admirer's flattery 
 of a patronising Duchess. 
 
 Lucrezia's moral character is still a problem. 
 Although the researches of modern historians have 
 done something to modify the previously received 
 estimate of her, the Roman period of her career 
 remains veiled in great obscurity. That murderous 
 maenad who is the heroine of Victor Hugo's play 
 and Donizetti's opera no more resembles the histori- 
 cal personage whose name she bears than the 
 ridiculous figures carried about our streets on the 
 fifth of November resemble the real Guy Fawkes. 
 At the same time there is no warrant whatever for 
 the bold assertion of a recent Roman Catholic 
 apologist that Lucrezia Borgia is now proved to 
 have been a lady of lovely and unblemished 
 character. The traditional account of her, which 
 had been universally accepted ever since the 
 publication of Guicciardini's History in 1561, was 
 for the first time questioned by William Roscoe, 
 who, in 1805, appended a dissertation on her 
 character to his History of Leo X. In substance 
 his plea amounts to no more than the contention 
 that, as the Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor 
 the leopard his spots, it is impossible to credit such 
 infamous charges as were made against Lucrezia 
 concerning the earlier half of her life in face of the 
 abundant and authentic testimony we possess that 
 her conduct during the latter half of her life was 
 not merely without reproach but in the highest 
 degree commendable and exemplary. 
 
 This chivalrous breaking of a lance in her favour 
 296
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 by the amiable Roscoe seems to have inspired a 
 more extended vindication from the pen of William 
 Gilbert, father of the well-known playwright, which 
 appeared in the form of a biography in two volumes 
 in 1869. Gilbert did not carry the matter much 
 further ; for the bulk of his book is devoted to a 
 detailed account of Lucrezia's life in Ferrara. He 
 quotes courtly poets and chroniclers as evidence of 
 the estimation in which she was generally held, and 
 cites her own letters, of which over three hundred 
 are extant, to show that she was sedulous in her 
 domestic duties, careful and discreet in matters of 
 State, benevolent to the poor, and of a pious 
 disposition approaching to bigotry. He does not 
 profess to throw any new light on the period of 
 her life in Rome ; but, while admitting the un- 
 likelihood that she could have resided for twenty 
 years in the pernicious atmosphere of her father's 
 court without being contaminated by it, merely 
 declares that her detractors were too unscrupulous 
 in their accusations. 
 
 Five years later, the learned German historian 
 Ferdinand Gregorovius, who had devoted special 
 attention to the political history of Alexander VI 
 and Cesare Borgia in his " History of the City of 
 Rome during the Middle Ages," produced an 
 elaborate monograph on Lucrezia, based on an 
 abundance of new material which he had dis- 
 covered in the archives of the notary of the 
 Capitol in Rome and elsewhere. He claims to 
 have replaced romance by authentic history. But 
 his verdict, which is sometimes spoken of as though 
 
 297
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 it were a complete exculpation of Lucrezia from 
 all the charges ever made against her, is in reality 
 nothing of the kind. He absolves her from the 
 absurd charge of complicity in the murder of her 
 second husband, Alfonso of Bisceglia. He dis- 
 credits the accusations of incest, as having no other 
 foundation whatever than the divorced Giovanni 
 Sforza's frantic and malignant efforts to retaliate 
 on the family which had discarded and disinherited 
 him. But he confesses himself unable to believe 
 that Lucrezia could have kept herself spotless 
 amidst the shocking depravity which surrounded 
 her in Rome ; and he inclines to credit the Venetian 
 ambassador's report that twelve months after her 
 separation from her first husband she had given 
 birth to an illegitimate child. 
 
 The charges of Lucrezia's accusers relate almost 
 exclusively to the earlier half of her life in Rome ; 
 the eulogies of her contemporary admirers relate 
 exclusively to the latter half of her life in Ferrara. 
 The former cannot be refuted, though they may 
 be disbelieved ; and their evidence must be ad- 
 mitted to be of considerable weight. Not only 
 satirical poets like Sannazzaro and Giovanni 
 Botano, but Guicciardini, Machiavelli, and most 
 of the principal statesmen and historians of the 
 time were firmly convinced of some of the darkest 
 charges made against her. Her modern apologists 
 are scarcely justified in ruling the evidence of these 
 men out of court merely because they were not 
 actual eye-witnesses of the facts to which they 
 testify. To say nothing of incest, how many 
 298
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 murders have ever been proved by the evidence 
 of actual eye-witnesses of the crime ? Guicciardini 
 and Machiavelli were actors in the drama they 
 describe. They were in constant personal contact 
 with most of the other actors. They were not 
 scandal-mongers, but it was their business to 
 become acquainted with and to report the foibles 
 and vices as well as the virtues of those with whom 
 and concerning whom they were negotiating. They 
 had access to all the best contemporary sources of 
 information ; and they were familiar as the most 
 profound historical student can never become 
 familiar, with all the characters and all the con- 
 flicting thoughts and feelings and passions of the 
 people of their time. 
 
 Her contemporary eulogists, who refer to the 
 later period of her life in Ferrara only, were mostly 
 enamoured poets or court dependents. Roscoe and 
 Gilbert and Gregorovius all urge that Ariosto, the 
 Strozzi and others would never have written as 
 they did about Lucrezia if they had believed her 
 guilty of such crimes as had been ascribed to her 
 by Sannazzaro. But Ariosto, who lived nearly all 
 his life in Ferrara, and who was a paid servant of 
 Lucrezia's brother-in-law Ippolito, not only manu- 
 factured a fictitious pedigree for the Este family in 
 his Orlando Furioso, but also flattered the living 
 members of the family as unblushingly as the most 
 venal of court rhymers. Ercole Strozzi called 
 Lucrezia a Juno in good works, a Pallas in decorum, 
 and a Venus in beauty. But it must be remembered 
 that he also lavished the most fulsome eulogies on 
 
 299
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 her bloodthirsty brother Cesare and on her infamous 
 father Alexander VI. To urge that even court 
 flatterers are bound to keep within the limits of 
 probability because to ascribe to a prince such 
 virtues as he notoriously lacked would only expose 
 both prince and flatterer to ridicule, is an argument 
 that cuts both ways. For it may be urged with 
 equal cogency that to accuse a prince of such vices 
 as were notoriously incompatible with his character 
 would also have been a futile proceeding, and the 
 obvious incredibility of the charges would only 
 have recoiled upon the traducer. To disbelieve 
 the story of a hideous crime because one's moral 
 sense revolts against it, may be evidence of the 
 biographer's amiable disposition, but is no exculpa- 
 tion of the accused person ; and one's moral sense 
 revolts with no less strength against crimes imputed, 
 for example, to the Cenci and the Malatesta, which 
 yet have to be admitted for true. And it is 
 scarcely more convincing to urge that the crimes 
 charged against Lucrezia could not possibly be 
 true of a woman with the " maidenly, almost 
 childish face " depicted on the well-known medal- 
 lion which is the only authentic portrait we have 
 of her. Unfortunately, both history and common 
 observation show only too conclusively that a 
 charming face and fascinating manner are by no 
 means infallible indications of a beautiful and 
 virtuous character. 
 
 That the record of Lucrezia' s later life in 
 Ferrara refutes the scandalous stories of her earlier 
 life in Rome seems to be the main contention alike 
 300
 
 LUCREZIA BORGIA 
 
 of Roscoe and Gilbert and Gregorovius. But on 
 this point the last of these, at least, is somewhat 
 contradictory ; for after quoting Paolo Giovio to 
 the effect that she put aside the pomps and 
 vanities of the world to which she had been accus- 
 tomed and devoted herself entirely to pious works, 
 he discounts the praise by remarking that bigotry 
 is often only the last form assumed by feminine 
 vanity, and by pointing out that her own mother, 
 Vanozza, became a religious fanatic, fancying that 
 she expiated her former sins and purchased a place 
 in Heaven with silver and gold ; that her licentious 
 sister-in-law, Sancia, ended her scandalous life in 
 a convent ; and that, in all probability, the 
 adulterous Giulia Farnese herself passed the closing 
 years of her shameless existence in similar pious 
 fashion. 
 
 Absolving Lucrezia from all charge of complicity 
 in any of the murders perpetrated by her relations, 
 and putting aside as unproven the charge of incest, 
 all the available evidence goes to show that up to 
 the time of her marriage to Alfonso d'Este, with all 
 her joyous vivacity and singular charm, she was 
 yet a mere vain, pleasure-loving, callous, character- 
 less girl, content to be a puppet in the hands of her 
 unscrupulous father and his terrible son. But her 
 departure from that " sink of iniquity," as Lorenzo 
 de' Medici termed the Eternal City, was un- 
 doubtedly a turning-point in her life. Her sugges- 
 tive temperament readily took on the colour of a 
 new environment. In the course of the three 
 years immediately following, as wife of the heir- 
 
 301
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 apparent to the duchy, she established herself 
 firmly in the good graces both of her husband's 
 family and of the people of Ferrara. And during 
 the subsequent fourteen years of her life, as reigning 
 Duchess, there is ample testimony that she retained 
 the admiration, the respect, and the affection of 
 them all. 
 
 302
 
 XI 
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 ALFONSO OF FEBRABA survived Lucrezia fifteen 
 years. Like our George II he so honoured his 
 wife's memory that he would not marry again, 
 but kept mistresses instead. His eldest son suc- 
 ceeded him as Ercole II in 1534. His second son, 
 Ippolito became a cardinal, and flourished until 
 1572. Alessandro died in infancy. Francesco 
 became Marquis of Marralombarda and died at 
 the age of sixty-two in 1578. His only daughter, 
 Elenora died a nun, in the Convent of Corpus 
 Domini in 1575. The Este dynasty came to an end 
 with the death of Lucrezia's grandson, Alfonso II, 
 in 1597. The later history of Giuffre, Prince of 
 Squillace, Alexander VI's youngest son by Vanozza, 
 is unknown, but eventually, at some unascertained 
 date, his princedom passed into the possession of the 
 family of his eldest brother, Giovanni of Gandia. 
 The mysterious " Infans Romanus," Giovanni 
 Borgia, who for some technical ecclesiastical reason 
 was first legitimised by Alexander VI as a son of 
 Cesare, and then immediately acknowledged for a 
 son of his own by an unnamed Roman spinster, sank 
 into comparative obscurity. In 1501, when the 
 child was three years of age, Alexander, who 
 
 303
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 certainly provided for his bastards royally, created 
 for him two dukedoms, Camerino, which Cesare 
 had just stolen from the Varani, giving the title 
 to one, and the city of Nepi, together with thirty- 
 six other places, forming the other. But when 
 Julius II succeeded to the Papal throne in 1503 
 the boy's titles and property were all confiscated. 
 From 1505 to 1508, as we have seen, he was being 
 educated at Bari in company with Lucrezia's son, 
 Rodrigo, Duke of Bisceglia. Then he disappears 
 from our ken for some nine years, until 1517, when, 
 coming from Naples and being shipwrecked near 
 Pesaro, he took up his abode for a short time at 
 the court of Lucrezia in Ferrara. In 1518 he 
 went off to seek his fortune at the Court of France, 
 and we do not hear of him again for twelve years 
 more, when he put in an appearance at Rome and 
 instituted a suit for the recovery of the duchy 
 of Camerino, then in the possession of a young girl 
 who was heiress of the Varani family. It is satis- 
 factory to know that he lost his suit and had to 
 pay the costs, which, of course, was what he richly 
 deserved. Nothing is known of his subsequent 
 doings, but when he died at the age of forty-nine 
 in 1547 his property, which was not very consider- 
 able, was divided amongst the surviving children 
 of Lucrezia, of the Duke of Gandia, and of Cesare 
 Borgia. 
 
 Cesare Borgia left only one legitimate child, a 
 daughter named Eloise, who was twice married, 
 first to Louis de la Tremouille, and secondly to 
 Philippe de Bourbon, Comte de Busset. Cesare's 
 804
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 widow, Charlotte d'Albret, Duchess of Valentinois, 
 retired from the world, devoted herself to works 
 of piety, and died in 1514. Two illegitimate 
 children of Cesare's appear to have been taken care 
 of by Lucrezia in Ferrara ; a son, Girolamo Borgia, 
 who married a lady of the Ferrarese nobility, and 
 a daughter, Camilla Lucrezia, who became a nun, 
 and who at the time of her death in 1573 was 
 Abbess of San Bernardino. There were probably 
 more, but the only one of whom we find any 
 mention is a priest, calling himself Don Luigi 
 Borgia, who appeared at the Court of France in 
 1550 and obtained a hundred ducats from the 
 King by way of recognition of Cesare Borgia's 
 services to the French Crown. 
 
 A Roman branch of the House of Borgia which 
 had been settled in Velletri from the time of 
 Calixtus III, or earlier, produced a cardinal 
 nearly three centuries after the death of Pope 
 Alexander VI in the person of Stefano Borgia, 
 who was born at Velletri in 1731. He was a 
 learned ecclesiastic, much given to archaeology 
 and the collection of engraved gems, medals, 
 manuscripts, and rare books, who was raised to 
 the purple by Pius VI in 1789. One of his col- 
 leagues in the Sacred College was Prince Henry 
 Benedict Stuart, grandson of our James II, who 
 was driven from the English throne by the revolu- 
 tion of 1688. In 1788 Prince Charles Edward, the 
 young Pretender, died, and his brother, the cardinal, 
 who was then Vice- Chancellor of the Holy See, 
 claimed to be by divine right the sovereign of the 
 
 u 305
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 land of his ancestors. He made no attempt to 
 enforce this claim, contenting himself with striking 
 a medal bearing his effigy and surrounded by the 
 legend : " Henry the Ninth, of Great Britain, 
 France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, 
 Cardinal-Bishop of Tusculum " ; although, in his 
 last will and testament, he was good enough to 
 bequeath the sovereignty of these realms to Anna 
 Maria of Orleans, daughter of Henrietta Stuart, 
 who had married the Duke of Savoy. But in 
 1799 Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart was in great 
 need of money, owing to losses caused by the 
 French Revolution, and his friend, Cardinal Stefano 
 Borgia, by means of diplomatic negotiations with 
 certain private acquaintances in England, was 
 able to secure for the impecunious Stuart an 
 income of 4000 per annum from the Privy Purse 
 of George III. It is said that if this Cardinal 
 Stefano Borgia had pleased to exert himself in 
 the year 1800 he would undoubtedly have been 
 elected to the Papal Chair. Had this happened, 
 it would have fallen to the lot of a Borgia to 
 consecrate Napoleon as Emperor in 1804, and also 
 to have had his territories taken away from him 
 in 1809 by that later adventurer, whose meteoric 
 career, though on a vastly greater scale, bears 
 much resemblance to that of Cesare Borgia. 
 
 Cardinal Stefano's brother, Gianpaolo Borgia, 
 married the Countess Alcmena Baglioni-Malatesta 
 of Perugia, heiress of two of the principal 
 Romagnian families which had suffered so severely 
 at the hands of Cesare Borgia. The Borgia have 
 306
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 always been remarkably prolific, and Gianpaolo 
 kept up the family tradition by producing eighteen 
 children. The youngest of these, Francesco, who 
 was born in 1794, by a second marriage in 1822 
 established his house in Milan, where it is now 
 represented by his grandson, Count Francesco 
 Borgia. 
 
 It is rather strange that Giovanni, the murdered 
 Duke of Gandia, should be the only one of Pope 
 Alexander's children to found a family, but it 
 is far more strange that from this luxury-loving 
 and libidinous race there should spring, in the 
 person of Pope Alexander's great-grandson Fran- 
 cesco, an ascetic saint, celebrated throughout 
 Christendom as " the most illustrious of all con- 
 querors of the appetities and passions of our 
 common nature." The murdered Duke left two 
 children, a son named Juan and a daughter 
 named Isabella. Their mother married again, but 
 after being left a widow for the second time she 
 became a nun. Her daughter soon followed her 
 example and also became a nun in the same 
 convent. But her son, Don Juan, had two wives 
 (successively of course) and no less than fourteen 
 children. It was a prosperous family, for of the 
 six daughters four married nobles and grandees 
 of Spain, and two, who remained unmarried, 
 entered the Church and became Lady Abbesses, 
 whilst of the eight sons two became cardinals, 
 two viceroys, one an archbishop, one an abbot, 
 one died young, and one became General of 
 the Order of Jesus, and was ultimately placed 
 
 807
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 by Pope Clement XI in the Calendar of the 
 Saints. 
 
 Don Juan, third Duke of Gandia, was noted for 
 his piety and virtue, and his first wife, Dona Maria 
 of Aragon, a grand- daughter of Ferdinand the 
 Catholic and therefore cousin to the Emperor 
 Charles V, was a model Christian matron. Their 
 eldest son, Francesco, who was born on October 28, 
 1510, only seven years after the death of his 
 infamous great-grandfather, consequently grew up 
 in an atmosphere of piety. The first words he 
 tried to pronounce were Jesus, Mary, God. At a 
 very early age he showed great facility in repeating 
 the sermons he had heard, and one day he gathered 
 his friends together and preached to them from 
 a pulpit of his own construction in so impressive 
 a manner that his hearers believed him to be 
 inspired by the Holy Ghost. Even his pious 
 mother thought he went too far and devoted 
 himself too much to religious matters. She told 
 him that when she had asked God for a son she 
 had wanted a duke, not a monk, and suggested that 
 instead of confining his interests to the hearing 
 of sermons and the collecting of pictures of saints, 
 he ought to be learning how to manage a sword 
 and a horse. Probably there was some other secret 
 influence in the household encouraging him to per- 
 severe in his devotions, for it is recorded that 
 when his mother died in 1520 this precociously pious 
 child of ten retired to one of the turrets of the 
 Castle of Gandia and " used the discipline," that 
 is to say, scourged himself severely. 
 308
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 In 1523, at the age of thirteen, young Don 
 Francesco de Borja went as page of honour to the 
 Infanta Dona Catalina, the Emperor's sister, at 
 Tordesillas, where he became a great favourite 
 amongst the ladies. When Dona Catalina was 
 married, two years later, to the King of Portugal, 
 Francesco's father, who was much troubled by 
 the boy's hankering after a religious life, sent him 
 to complete his education under the eye of his 
 maternal uncle, Don Juan of Aragon, Archbishop 
 of Saragossa. The uncle seems to have been much 
 of the father's way of thinking, and saw to it that 
 rhetoric and philosophy and theology were duly 
 alternated with lessons from the riding-master 
 and proper practice in all the accomplishments of 
 a young cavalier. One of his earliest biographers, 
 Cardinal Cien-Fuegos, relates that one day, when 
 the young nobleman was seventeen or eighteen 
 years of age, he happened to be slowly riding 
 along the principal street of Alcala, when his 
 attention was attracted by a poorly clad man 
 who was being led to prison by the guards of the 
 Vicar-General. The man looked up at the splendid 
 young hidalgo ; their eyes met ; and thus, with a 
 single glance, declares the cardinal, Ignatius Loyola 
 took possession of the soul of Francesco Borja. 
 If so, Francesco was blissfully unconscious of the 
 momentous fact, and rode on his way unthinking 
 and undisturbed. 
 
 In 1528 the Duke of Gandia removed his eldest 
 son and heir to Madrid, where he soon became 
 one of the brightest ornaments of the Court of 
 
 309
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 his cousin Charles V. Both the Emperor and 
 Empress showed great partiality for him and 
 treated him almost as if he were a son. He is 
 described as tall, graceful, and dignified, with a 
 high forehead, an aquiline nose, a small mouth, 
 a delicate, bright-coloured complexion, grey, 
 almond-shaped eyes, and curly brown hair. 
 Under the care of the good worldly-wise Arch- 
 bishop of Saragossa he had become a proficient 
 in all knightly exercises. He could master intract- 
 able horses that would allow nobody else to ride 
 them, his strength and skill obtained prizes both 
 in the bull-ring and the tournament, there was no 
 keener sportsman amongst the train who went 
 out hunting with the Emperor, and he was a 
 special adept in falconry. He was also a cultivated 
 musician, composing music as well as playing on 
 several instruments, and he was a lively con- 
 versationist. But beneath all this his aspirations 
 towards the monastic life persisted with un- 
 diminished ardour. In after years, the saint 
 referred to this period as his life of vanity and 
 sin; but nobody else would have so described it. 
 He refused to join in the gambling which was one 
 of the principal amusements of the court, he 
 assembled his household every evening for prayers, 
 and his valet testified that on all occasions of 
 special temptation he wore a hair shirt. Whilst 
 following his quarry in the hunting field, or re- 
 ceiving a prize from the Queen of Beauty in the 
 tournament, he might well have said with the 
 Sir Galahad of Arthur's Court : 
 310
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 More bounteous aspects on me beam, 
 Me mightier transports move and thrill ; 
 
 So keep I fair thro* faith and prayer 
 A virgin heart in work and will. 
 
 In 1529 the young man became enamoured of 
 one of the Empress's maids of honour, Eleanora 
 de Castro, a lady remarkable both for her beauty 
 and her piety. His father was averse to the 
 match, deeming nothing less than a princess of 
 the royal house of Aragon a suitable bride for the 
 future Duke of Gandia. But the Emperor and 
 Empress favoured the young couple, and the 
 father was induced to give his consent. Francesco 
 was accordingly married at the age of nineteen, 
 and immediately afterwards the Emperor created 
 him Marquis of Lombay. 
 
 In 1531 Pope Clement VII issued a Bull granting 
 a number of special privileges to the House of 
 Borja by way of reward for the Duke of Gandia's 
 services to the Holy See. Power was conferred on 
 any confessor they might select to absolve them 
 from the gravest ecclesiastical censures or penalties ; 
 to commute the fasts of the Church into alms- 
 giving ; and, once in a year, to absolve them from 
 any oath or vow ; all cases, it appears, usually 
 reserved for the decision of the Pope himself. 
 They were granted special indulgences for the hour 
 of death ; and for every visit to a church or an 
 altar, and for every Mass celebrated by a duly 
 qualified member of the family indulgences equal 
 to those of certain altars in Rome. They received 
 
 311
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 permission to eat meat in Lent, on other fasts 
 when it is forbidden, and on Saturdays, such 
 permission to extend also to their guests and 
 servants. They were privileged to receive the 
 Sacraments, if necessary, within prohibited times, 
 and members of their household might be buried 
 any day in the year, Easter Day alone excepted. 
 Priests of the House of Borja received permission 
 to recite the Breviary when they pleased, without 
 observation of fixed hours, and to recite it all at 
 once or divide it at their pleasure. And ladies of 
 the House of Borja were to be at liberty to enter 
 any enclosure of nuns once a month, to converse 
 and to eat with the inmates, although not to 
 remain for the night. Considering the reputation 
 both of the Duke of Gandia and of his eldest son 
 for quite remarkable piety and punctilious obser- 
 vance of all the rites and ceremonies of their 
 Church, the reason for some of these special 
 privileges is not very apparent, at least to the 
 uninitiated. 
 
 In 1535, Francesco, now Marquis of Lombay, 
 accompanied Charles V on a visit to Portugal 
 and afterwards on a campaign in Africa, where he 
 so distinguished himself that the Emperor declared 
 he would become one of the first generals of his 
 time an innocent remark in which one of his 
 Jesuit biographers discovers an unconscious 
 prophecy. In the course of this campaign 
 Francesco contracted an intermittent fever, which 
 racked him severely, and set him reflecting on 
 the tortures of Purgatory. During his con- 
 312
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 valescence he read, or had read to him, spiritual 
 books and lives of the saints. In the following 
 year he accompanied the Emperor on a campaign 
 in Provence, and once more distinguished himself 
 as a soldier. Then, for the greater part of two 
 years, he remained quietly at home. 
 
 In 1539 occurred an event which profoundly 
 affected the tenor of his life. At Toledo, on May 1, 
 in the midst of the brilliant festivals in celebration 
 of the Emperor's victories, the Empress suddenly 
 sickened and died. The Marquis and Marchioness 
 of Lombay, who were there in attendance as lord 
 and lady-in-waiting, were ordered to accompany 
 the body to Granada, where it was to be interred 
 in the sepulchre of the kings of Spain. Francesco 
 had cherished an almost filial affection for the 
 Empress, and as the burial could not take place 
 until the coffin had been opened at Granada and 
 some grandee of the highest rank had testified on 
 oath that he recognised therein the mortal remains 
 of his deceased Empress, that office had been 
 entrusted to him. The journey occupied five or 
 six days, during which time Francesco never left 
 the coffin, lying down beside it on the pavement 
 of the various churches where it was necessary 
 to rest by the way. It was in the state of mind 
 induced by this trying vigil that he experienced 
 the first of the supernatural visions with which 
 he became more familiar in after life. As the 
 mournful procession entered the gates of Granada 
 his grandmother (who had died two years previously 
 in her convent) appeared to him, accompanied by 
 
 313
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 a number of angels and surrounded by a shining 
 light, to tell him the time had arrived for him to 
 walk in the way that God had ordained for him. 
 
 On May 7 the Imperial coffin was opened, in 
 presence of the clergy and all the principal officials 
 of the city, in order that the Marquis of Lombay 
 might take oath in the prescribed form that he 
 recognised the corpse therein as that of his sovereign 
 lady, the Empress Isabella. But, to the horror 
 of everybody present, decomposition had set in 
 so rapidly that identification was impossible. He 
 was unable, of course, to make the prescribed 
 oath, but a fresh one was drawn up, and the 
 Marquis swore that he had never allowed the coffin 
 out of his sight, by night or day, since it left 
 Toledo. Profoundly affected, Francesco turned 
 away from the ghastly sight to pray and scourge 
 himself in private until the time for the funeral 
 arrived. When that took place two days later 
 the preacher, an eloquent man, delivered so impres- 
 sive a discourse on the text " All flesh is grass," 
 that Francesco then made a vow that if he should 
 survive his wife he would enter some religious 
 Order so that he might devote himself entirely 
 to the service of a Master who had triumphed over 
 death. 
 
 From this time forth everybody could see that 
 Don Francesco was a changed man. But when 
 shortly afterwards he requested permission to 
 retire from court into private life the Emperor 
 would not hear of it. Charles probably thought the 
 occupations of an active career would soon dis- 
 314
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 sipate his young cousin's morbid musings, and, 
 after decorating him with the Cross of St. James of 
 Compostella, then the most highly prized of all 
 chivalric honours, appointed him Viceroy of 
 Cateluna, a province that then required a firm 
 hand to reduce it to order. Accordingly, towards 
 the end of November 1539, the Marquis and 
 Marchioness of Lombay took up their residence 
 at the Viceregal Palace in Barcelona. He was 
 well fitted for the post, being by all accounts at 
 the age of twenty-nine an accomplished states- 
 man, a prudent diplomatist, an able soldier, and 
 a finished man of the world. His administration 
 was admittedly a complete success. During his 
 reign (1539-1543) it was said that " malice and 
 wickedness were banished, whilst justice, prudence, 
 and temperance prevailed." His first business 
 was to extirpate the brigands who infested the 
 country, and he did it with vigour; but it must 
 have been a strange experience for the Barcelona 
 officials to have a viceroy who could not bring 
 himself to sign the death-warrants of these mis- 
 creants until he had spent some hours in prayer, 
 and who had Masses said for the repose of the 
 criminal's souls after they had been duly executed. 
 Bribery was abolished in the courts of law, and 
 justice made equally available for both rich and 
 poor. Foul or blasphemous language in the streets 
 was punished by fine. And education, both 
 spiritual and secular, was sedulously cared for 
 throughout the whole province. He said after- 
 wards that this vice-royalty had been a good 
 
 315
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 apprenticeship to fit him for General of the Jesuits ; 
 it had taught him how to decide important ques- 
 tions, to settle rival claims, to adjust differences, 
 and to enter into both sides of a question. 
 
 It also gave him an opportunity of showing 
 that even a viceroy may be in the world and yet 
 not of it. As representative of his Sovereign it 
 was necessary for him to give sumptuous banquets, 
 but whilst his guests were regaled with the choicest 
 of viands and of wines, the viceroy himself dined 
 off a single dish of vegetables with two or three 
 slices of bread, and drank nothing but water. 
 He dispensed with the services of a valet, spent 
 from four to six hours in meditation and prayer 
 nightly, and scourged himself so severely three 
 times a week that the walls of his room were 
 bespattered with blood. 
 
 In January 1543 his father died, and Francesco, 
 having become Duke of Gandia, obtained permis- 
 sion to give up his vice-royalty in order to be 
 able to attend to the affairs of his own duchy 
 and other numerous estates both in Spain and 
 Naples. The next three years were passed quietly 
 at Gandia with his wife and eight children. His 
 first public act was to rebuild and enlarge the 
 hospital, and he afterwards founded and endowed 
 colleges and convents and schools and other bene- 
 volent institutions for the benefit of his vassals. 
 His children were brought up to consider themselves 
 but stewards of their wealth, and he gave them 
 large sums of money to distribute in charity accord- 
 ing to their own discretion. Whenever the Holy 
 316
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 Viaticum was carried to a sick person it was always 
 the Duke's custom to accompany the priests on 
 foot, even although the distance were several 
 miles. He had put down the haughty spirit and 
 pride of birth which he believed to have been in 
 earlier life one of his besetting sins. And he 
 had learned to deny himself, to an extent that 
 astonished his friends, not only of every enjoyment 
 that the most ascetic moralist could consider 
 unlawful, but of much that was quite lawful as 
 well as perfectly harmless. 
 
 And now a severer trial awaited him. Towards 
 the end of 1545 the sweet, gentle, pious wife who 
 had been his beloved and worthy helpmate in all 
 good works for seventeen years, lay dangerously 
 ill, and the Duke knelt praying for her recovery 
 in his oratory. After he had poured forth his 
 supplications for a long time, the figure on the 
 crucifix above the altar seemed to speak to him, 
 and it said : "If thou really desirest longer life 
 for the Duchess I will grant it, but I warn thee it 
 will not be well." It was a terrible decision to be 
 compelled to make, but to the Duke of Gandia 
 the Court of Heaven was as real as the Court of 
 Madrid, and he had no more doubt that his wife 
 was destined to shine for evermore in the former 
 than that she had shone for a brief period in the 
 latter. His answer, which he repeated to his 
 confessor afterwards, was given at great length, 
 but the substance of it was : " Not my will, but 
 Thine be done." After hanging for a week or two 
 between life and death the Duchess died, in 
 
 817
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 January 1546. To the day of his own death, 
 twenty-six years alterwards, Francesco firmly 
 believed in the reality of the divine voice from 
 the crucifix in his oratory. 
 
 Whilst the Castle of Gandia was still hung with 
 its mourning draperies, Father Peter Faber arrived 
 there with a message from Ignatius Loyola. 
 Francesco had heard of Loyola some three or four 
 years previously, during his vice-royalty, when 
 Father Anthony Araoz had paid a visit to Barce- 
 lona. He had been much impressed by what he 
 had heard, and had corresponded with and sought 
 advice from Loyola ever since. Now the founder 
 of the Society of Jesus desired him to establish 
 a Jesuit College in Gandia, which, of course, he 
 set about doing with great ardour and liberality. 
 Father Faber had also brought with him the 
 Master's book of " Spiritual Exercises," which the 
 Duke of Gandia began to study with great earnest- 
 ness. The Society of Jesus, then in its infancy, 
 though poor and little known, and with every one 
 of its members under vow never to accept any 
 ecclesiastical dignity, had already aroused con- 
 siderable hatred, but the Duke of Gandia was the 
 type of man to whom its rule of life made a strong 
 appeal. Doubtless he had many discussions on 
 the subject with Father Texeda, his confessor, 
 and plainly showed how his inclinations lay. 
 However this may be, one morning Father Texeda 
 had a vision in which the Blessed Virgin appeared 
 and directed him to tell the Duke it was her wish 
 that he should enter the Society of Jesus in order 
 318
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 to be of greater service to the Church. The Duke 
 was overwhelmed with confusion to find one so 
 unworthy as himself singled out for special notice 
 by the Blessed Virgin, and, as his habit was, 
 retired to his oratory to pray. Whilst on his 
 knees before a statue of the Madonna, the image 
 spoke to him, saying : " Francesco, hesitate no 
 longer ; enter the Society of my Son." Of course 
 Francesco hesitated no longer, and of course 
 Ignatius Loyola did not hesitate to receive him. 
 But the founder of the Jesuits was too wise to 
 grant admission to his Order instantly on applica- 
 tion. The Duke was advised to keep even his 
 intention secret until he had chosen a suitable 
 wife for his eldest son, settled the rest of his 
 children under satisfactory guardianship, and com- 
 pleted the buildings which he then had in hand. 
 Moreover, he was enjoined to apply himself to 
 the systematic study of theology, in order that 
 he might take a doctor's degree before his entry 
 into the Society. The Duke did as he was bid ; 
 in fact, from this time forth he regarded Ignatius 
 Loyola as his religious superior, whose voice was 
 as the voice of God. 
 
 In 1547, whilst Charles V was absent in Italy, 
 his son Philip, as Regent, convoked an assembly 
 of the Cortes, at which the Duke of Gandia was 
 obliged to be present. The Regent, who admired 
 Gandia no less than his father did, was bent on 
 retaining him at court, and pressed him to accept 
 the office of Grand Master of the Royal Household. 
 The Duke declined, and got away to his home as 
 
 319
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 soon as practicable, but in order to escape being 
 compelled to accept some high secular office under 
 the Emperor he implored Ignatius Loyola to allow 
 him to make his profession at once. Loyola, of 
 course, had no intention of losing his illustrious 
 proselyte, and so towards the end of the year 
 a Papal Brief was procured permitting him to take 
 the irrevocable vows without any public acknow- 
 ledgment, and to remain in the world four years 
 afterwards in order to arrange his affairs and 
 provide for the future of his children. Ignatius 
 now regulated the actions of his somewhat too 
 enthusiastically ascetic convert. The Duke was 
 ordered to moderate his austerities, to relax his 
 excessive fasting, and to use for study some of the 
 time he was in the habit of devoting to meditation 
 and prayer. Borja was told that he had gone too 
 far in weakening his digestion and reducing his 
 physical strength ; he must therefore change his 
 regimen, and be content to inflict upon his body 
 only that amount of suffering which was necessary 
 to render it subservient to the spirit. But the 
 Duke could never be persuaded to lie down to 
 rest until he had made reparation for the sins of 
 the day by some penance and mortification, and 
 he now discontinued the use of a bed, lying down 
 to sleep on the steps of an alcove in his room 
 which were covered with an ordinary carpet. 
 By the end of 1549 he had taken his doctor's 
 degree, and having also married his eldest son 
 and two of his daughters, provided his other 
 children with trustworthy guardians, finished the 
 320
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 erection of his public buildings, and pensioned 
 his aged and infirm servants, he was ready to 
 make his formal entry into the brotherhood. 
 
 As Julius III, a stranger to him, had now suc- 
 ceeded Paul III, a friend of his family, in the 
 Papal Chair, Francesco had less fear of opposition 
 to his designs ; and on August 31, 1550, he set 
 out for Rome. As he rode out of the gate of his 
 city he turned for one last look at the towers 
 and battlements of the castle of his fathers, and 
 then, setting his face straight forward, passed out 
 into the open country chanting the hundred and 
 fourteenth Psalm : " When Israel went out of 
 Egypt, and the House of Jacob from a strange 
 people." The honour and ceremony with which 
 his relatives, Duke Alfonso of Ferrara and Duke 
 Cosimo de' Medici, insisted on entertaining him 
 were repugnant to his spirit and necessitated 
 extra humiliation. One night at an inn a disturbed 
 page got out of bed and went to the door of his 
 master's room. The Duke was "taking the dis- 
 cipline." In the silence of the night the youth 
 heard every blow as it fell, and, after counting 
 up to five hundred, crept in awestruck silence 
 away. Francesco then wrote to Ignatius Loyola 
 that he proposed to enter Rome by night in order 
 to avoid any public ceremony. But Ignatius 
 knew better the propagandist value of such things. 
 He informed Borja that it would be impossible to 
 decline a public reception without offending many 
 estimable persons, and that his interior repugnance 
 in submitting to it would gain him all the merit 
 
 x 321
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 of humility, as well as those also of obedience and 
 charity. Consequently the illustrious convert was 
 met by the ambassador of Spain, together with 
 many cardinals and princes and nobles, who, 
 attended by their large retinues, conducted him 
 in solemn procession to the doors of the Jesuit 
 House. The Pope invited him to stay as a guest 
 in the Vatican, but he humbly begged to be 
 excused. All the cardinals and prelates then in 
 Rome called upon him, and he was obliged to 
 return their visits, but he kept himself as secluded 
 as possible, and under Loyola's direction devoted 
 the remains of his fortune to the establishment 
 of the Jesuit college de Propaganda Fide which 
 afterwards became so famous in Rome. 
 
 The consent of the Emperor was necessary 
 before he could divest himself of his rank and 
 titles, and on January 15, 1551, he wrote to 
 Charles V earnestly begging permission to lay 
 them down. But whilst he awaited an answer, 
 intelligence leaked out that it was the intention 
 of Pope Julius III to command his acceptance of 
 a cardinal's hat. To avoid the offer of this, Gandia 
 fled back from Rome to Spain, and, after making 
 a pilgrimage to the Castle of Loyola, the home of 
 the family of his revered superior, he buried 
 himself in the recently established Jesuit college 
 at Onate to await the decision of the Emperor. 
 Charles's answer arrived on February 12, giving 
 the required permission with great regret, and 
 shrewdly intimating that such a strange example 
 would find more admirers than imitators. The 
 322
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 proper legal processes were at once drawn up, 
 all his titles, all his worldly goods, all his territorial 
 rights, were solemnly renounced, and the some- 
 time Duke of Gandia, with beard shaved off, 
 tonsured, and clad in the humble habit of his 
 Order, was no longer a noble, a knight, or even a 
 Spanish gentleman, but plain Father Francisco, S.J. 
 Having made careful preparation for Holy Orders 
 Francisco was ordained priest by the Bishop of 
 Calahorra on Saturday in Whitsun week, 1551. 
 The fame of his extraordinary piety had spread 
 far and wide, so that when he said his first public 
 Mass on November 15 in the principal church of 
 Vergara, that large building was found all too 
 small for the vast crowd that flocked to the place, 
 and an altar had to be set up in the open country 
 outside the walls of the town, where he celebrated 
 from nine in the morning until three in the after- 
 noon. We are told by some of his biographers 
 that he was endowed with the gift of tongues, 
 for not only did the sound of his voice penetrate 
 further than was humanly possible, but each one 
 of the vast crowd composed of divers nationalities, 
 including the Basque, heard the discourse in his 
 own native language. The Duke of Gandia had 
 been called " the modern Narcissus," and com- 
 pared to Apollo for his physical beauty, but all 
 this had now disappeared, and Father Francisco 
 at the age of forty- one, thin, emaciated, his eyes 
 dimmed by vigils and weeping, his scanty hair 
 streaked with grey, and his fine complexion re- 
 placed by a waxen pallor, looked twenty years 
 
 323
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 older than he really was. Yet he had a sweet 
 expression, a winning charm of manner, a pleasing 
 voice, a ready flow of language, a fund of apt 
 illustration, the fierce intensity of the fanatic, and 
 at the same time all the grace and dignity of the 
 Spanish hidalgo. His sermons are said to have 
 been admirable compositions in themselves, but 
 even though they had been destitute of any of 
 the graces of oratory, they would undoubtedly 
 have produced a powerful effect as the earnest 
 utterances of a man of conspicuous piety who was 
 known to practise what he preached. 
 
 Most of his preaching was done during his 
 residence at Onate from 1551 to 1554, but the 
 life there included other duties than preaching. 
 His superior, evidently thinking that a Spanish 
 grandee would need a great deal more humiliation 
 than he had voluntarily bestowed upon himself, 
 set him to do a disproportionate amount of laborious 
 menial labour. He was told off to assist in digging 
 the foundations of a new wing of the house, to help 
 the masons in sawing and carrying stone, to wheel 
 manure and distribute it over the vegetable garden, 
 and indoors he was set to chop wood, light fires, 
 and help the cook by washing up plates and dishes. 
 He did all this quite obediently and cheerfully, 
 without the slightest complaint ; but when Ignatius 
 Loyola heard of it, and found that it had per- 
 manently weakened the already exhausted body 
 of Francisco, he promptly put a stop to such 
 severity. But Francisco continued to practise 
 gratuitous mortifications upon himself. He was 
 324
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 in the habit of making excursions amongst the 
 surrounding villages, with a wallet on his shoulders, 
 to solicit alms. When given dry crusts and other 
 waste matter, he would ask leave to eat of these 
 for his dinner instead of a fresh-cut slice from 
 the loaf. He put sand, cinders, and pebbles into 
 his shoes. He patched and darned his garments 
 with his own hands. He slept in his day clothes 
 on straw upon the floor ; and he frequently pierced 
 his flesh with a sharp-pointed instrument. He 
 refused to have anything to do with money, so 
 that before his death he had lost all knowledge 
 of the relative value of different coins. People 
 insisted on speaking of him as " the Holy Duke," 
 but he would never permit himself to be called by 
 any title, and if letters came to him so addressed 
 he would return them, endorsed, " Not for me. 
 Francisco, S.J." 
 
 In 1552 Ignatius Loyola commanded him to 
 leave his retreat at Ofiate from time to time in 
 order to seek persons desirous of serving God and 
 helping them to set their households in order. 
 In this way he went on a visit to the Viceroy of 
 Navarre at Pamplona, and afterwards spent some 
 months in evangelising expeditions in Castile and 
 Andalusia. Then he received an urgent invitation 
 to visit the Court of Juan III of Portugal, to 
 whose wife Catalina, it will be remembered, he 
 had been page of honour when a boy. Both the 
 King and the Queen sent a nobleman of high 
 rank to meet him at the frontier and escort him 
 to Lisbon. When he approached the capital the 
 
 325
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 Bishop of Lisbon and the Papal Nuncio, with 
 many dukes, marquises, and other great lords, 
 rode out to receive him ceremoniously, and when 
 he appeared in the doorway of the audience 
 chamber, the King uncovered his head, and both 
 King and Queen, rising from their thrones, 
 advanced to meet him. The whole court, we are 
 told, profited greatly by his teaching and example 
 during this visit ; but his own poor body probably 
 suffered severely in the privacy of his chamber 
 to counterbalance the effect on himself of all this 
 deference and honour. 
 
 Father Francisco's residence at Onate came to 
 an end in October 1554, when he was appointed 
 Commissary-General of the Society. As this pro- 
 motion gave him greater freedom, and as the first 
 use he made of that freedom was to increase 
 his penances and mortifications, Ignatius Loyola 
 appointed a superior who was to overrule Francisco 
 in all matters relating to bodily health. Francisco 
 was an admirable recruiting-sergeant, and founded 
 a large number of Jesuit colleges in Spain and 
 Portugal. No one ever did more to inculcate and 
 diffuse devotion to the Blessed Virgin, by sermons 
 and exhortations, by distributing pictures of her 
 throughout the land, and by establishing con- 
 fraternities of her name. There was not a shrine 
 of Our Lady in Europe, it was said, at which 
 Francisco had not offered a lamp. Though abnor- 
 mally strict and severe towards himself, he sternly 
 rebuked those who were wanting in charity and 
 consideration for those placed under their charge. 
 326
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 He was the first to establish the Noviciates of the 
 Society, and in dealing with these his diplomatic 
 training stood him in good stead. His example 
 had attracted a number of grandees and nobles 
 who were not all endowed with his patience and 
 ascetic enthusiasm. But he never got rid of a 
 novice whom he judged capable of being made 
 into a good Jesuit. One young nobleman could 
 not do without a valet. Father Francisco imme- 
 diately found a novice who had been a valet 
 before his entrance into the Society, and appointed 
 him to wait upon the helpless young gentleman. 
 But after a few weeks he became ashamed of 
 being the only one thus waited upon and begged 
 to be allowed to do without such assistance. 
 Another requested permission to go out into the 
 world again because he could not bear the suffo- 
 cating atmosphere of the little room in which 
 the novices slept, and could not exist without a 
 change of linen every day. Father Francisco 
 suavely acknowledged how trying it must be, 
 and immediately ordered the provision of an 
 abundance of linen and a separate large room. 
 Before many days were over this novice also 
 became ashamed of his exclusive privileges, and 
 humbly begged to wear the poorest attire and to 
 be lodged in the most uncomfortable dormitory. 
 
 In 1555 Francisco once more had some trouble 
 to avoid being raised to the purple. The Emperor 
 and Pope Julius III had agreed together that this 
 saintly Borja must be made a cardinal. Ignatius 
 Loyola no sooner heard of the threatened calamity 
 
 827
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 than he hastened to the Pope to protest against 
 it on the ground of the injury it would do to the 
 Society of Jesus. Julius, who had no wish to 
 injure the Society, which he had always hitherto 
 supported and favoured, was in a difficulty because 
 he had pledged his word to the Emperor. Ignatius 
 therefore suggested that his Holiness should make 
 the offer to Father Francisco without commanding 
 him to accept it, and, this being done, Francisco 
 was able to decline the proffered honour. In 
 July 1556 the great Ignatius Loyola died, and 
 was succeeded in the Generalship of the Society 
 by Father lago Laynez. Shortly afterwards the 
 Emperor Charles V abdicated and retired to the 
 monastery of St. Just ; when, having been pre- 
 judiced against the Jesuits by some of their 
 inveterate enemies, he wrote to Father Francisco 
 to visit him, without, however, informing his 
 cousin that he had made up his mind to suppress 
 the Society throughout Spain. In the course of 
 three or four days' intimate conversation, the 
 saint was able to remove the unfavourable impres- 
 sion that had been made on Charles's mind, and 
 the threatened suppression did not take place. 
 A year later, Charles, on his deathbed, summoned 
 Francisco to him again, but the priest only arrived 
 in time to preach his old sovereign's funeral sermon. 
 In the summer of 1557 Francisco had been 
 dangerously ill whilst travelling about his 
 evangelising work. In 1559 he lay ill of fever for 
 some months at Evora and at Lisbon. In 1560 
 he suffered severely from neuralgia, lost the use 
 328
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 of his limbs, and seemed threatened with paralysis ; 
 when these symptoms disappeared, he was afflicted 
 with ulcerous sores in various parts of his body. 
 But he seems to have been in much better health 
 in 1561, when he was summoned to Rome and 
 appointed Vicar- General of his Order. When he 
 preached in the church chiefly attended by the 
 Spaniards in Rome the congregation usually 
 included a number of cardinals, ambassadors, and 
 Roman nobles, and although he always spoke in 
 Castilian we are assured that even those who did 
 not understand a word of that language were 
 greatly edified. He was now generally regarded 
 as a saint and spoken of as el Beato, and already 
 he had been credited with the performance of 
 a number of miracles. Some people saw rays of 
 light emanating from his body when he officiated 
 at the altar, and some testified that they had 
 seen him raised a considerable distance from the 
 ground. One or two of the stories are credible 
 enough, and scarcely require a supernatural 
 explanation ; the following, for example. Many 
 of the Jesuit Houses which he founded remained 
 for some time very poorly endowed. One fine 
 summer's day he arrived about noon at the College 
 of St. Andrew in Valladolid, when he learned 
 that there was only a small quantity of bread 
 in the house and no money. He immediately 
 retired to the chapel to pray, as his custom was, 
 and when he came out he ordered the bell to be 
 rung for dinner as usual. When all were assembled 
 he said grace and desired the Rector to distribute
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 equal portions of the two small loaves amongst 
 the company. Hardly had this been done when 
 there was a loud ringing of the door-bell, and on 
 opening the door the porter beheld an old man 
 of majestic appearance accompanied by a youth 
 of surpassing beauty. The young man presented 
 a large basket containing meat, fish, eggs, bread, 
 and wine, and the old man handed to the porter 
 a purse filled with money. The mysterious bene- 
 factors would not give any name nor were they 
 ever seen again, wherefore the Rector and his 
 brethren devoutly believed them to be angels 
 who had been sent in answer to the prayer of 
 Saint Francisco. 
 
 But some of the stories which are related in all 
 good faith by his Jesuit biographers will perhaps 
 be accepted for true by few persons outside the 
 pale of the Roman Catholic Church. Father 
 Francisco always carried about with him a piece of 
 the true Cross, which had been given him by 
 Charles V. Once, when the Princess Joanna, 
 daughter of the Emperor, was ill, Francisco dipped 
 this relic into a glass of water, which instantly 
 became red, as if mixed with blood. This in- 
 carnadined water was given to the sick Princess 
 to drink, and she recovered. A lady who also 
 possessed a piece of the true Cross was much 
 disturbed by having the genuineness of her relic 
 questioned, and consulted Father Francisco on 
 the matter. He not only pronounced for its 
 genuineness at a glance, but proceeded to demon- 
 strate the fact to all and sundry. Taking it up 
 330
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 reverently in his fingers he broke the wood into 
 two pieces, when from each portion there fell 
 several drops of blood which stained the linen in 
 which it had been wrapped. Francisco was once 
 travelling in company with a Jesuit father who 
 had a great reputation as an eloquent preacher. 
 One evening, as they rested at an inn, two of the 
 preacher's front teeth were knocked out by some 
 unparticularised accident, and the poor man was 
 greatly grieved to think that his usefulness in the 
 pulpit was ruined at a blow. But Father Francisco 
 picked up the fallen teeth, slipped them back into 
 their bleeding sockets, and there they remained for 
 the remainder of the preacher's life, as neither old age 
 nor decay had any effect upon them afterwards. 
 
 In January 1565 Father lago Laynez died and 
 Father Francisco de Borja was chosen General 
 of the Society of Jesus. The history of the remain- 
 ing seven years of his life is merged in that of the 
 powerful Order to which he belonged. His 
 biographer Verjus says that St. Ignatius designed 
 it and laid its foundations, Father Laynez built 
 the walls, and St. Francisco de Borja roofed it in 
 and completed all its interior arrangements. The 
 Roman college owed both its origin and its celebrity 
 to him, and all succeeding ones have been shaped 
 according to his model. His influence was enor- 
 mous, and the spread of the Society under his 
 rule is said by its historians to have been literally 
 " miraculous." When Pius V ascended the Papa) 
 throne in 1566 he did not wait for Father Francisco 
 to call upon him, but stopped his coronation 
 
 331
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 procession on its way to the Lateran in order 
 that he might pay his respects to the Jesuit 
 General. Pius V maintained a close association 
 with General Francisco de Borja. He employed 
 Jesuits to preach before himself and his cardinals, 
 to attend to the morals of his palace guards, to 
 preach to the hetairce, and to convert the Jews. 
 
 In 1570 the Pope sent Francisco on a mission 
 to Spain and Portugal in company with his own 
 nephew, Cardinal Alessandrino, and a number of 
 prelates, six of whom afterwards became cardinals. 
 The General of the Jesuits was welcomed with 
 great delight in Barcelona, where twenty years 
 previously he had been beloved as viceroy. When 
 he crossed the frontiers of Valencia, his eldest son, 
 now Carlos Duke of Gandia, with other relatives 
 and many neighbouring nobles, came to meet 
 him. They alighted from their horses and 
 kissed his feet, imploring him to visit his family 
 domain of Gandia. But he refused, sending them 
 away as soon as he could to pay their respects 
 to the Pope's legate, whilst he continued his 
 journey by another road. A great crowd came to 
 welcome him in Valencia, and he was received 
 with equal honour in Madrid and in Lisbon. It 
 then became necessary for him to pay a visit to 
 the French Court at Blois. But travelling during 
 the severe winter weather told upon him heavily, 
 and in February 1572, what proved to be his last 
 illness began to show itself. He travelled by easy 
 stages back towards Rome. The Duke of Savoy 
 sent physicians to attend upon him. His nephew, 
 332
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 Alfonso II, detained him at Ferrara, waited upon 
 him as if he had been his own father, and sent 
 him on his way in a royal litter. He reached Rome 
 on October 28, and three days after " full of joy 
 at the thought of quitting this world " he died. 
 In 1617 his remains were removed from their 
 resting-place in Rome to a chapel of his Order 
 in Madrid. In 1623 an Apostolic Commission 
 reported that the miracles ascribed to him had been 
 fully verified. In 1654 Urban VIII issued a Bull of 
 Beatification, and in 1671 Clement XI solemnly pro- 
 claimed his canonisation. In 1680 his relics were 
 transferred to a gorgeous church in Madrid built 
 by the Duke of Lerma in memory of his ancestor. 
 
 It is a relief to be able to say of a Borgia, whether 
 we agree with his ascetic ideal or not, that he was 
 honourable, just, and virtuous, devoted to the 
 interests of his fellow men and careless of his own. 
 Nepotism was one of the most pronounced here- 
 ditary failings of the family, and when this passion 
 came to be exercised, without let or hindrance, 
 by persons in the position of Calixtus III and 
 Alexander VI it was productive of far-reaching 
 disastrous results. But Francisco de Borja had 
 conquered this failing, as he had conquered every 
 other feeling which he conceived to be a failing. 
 As nothing could stand out in stronger contrast with 
 the conduct of those representatives of the family 
 who occupied the Papal throne, one or two 
 examples may be given. When a dispute about 
 some property occurred between Francisco's son, 
 Duke Carlos of Gandia, and the Admiral of Aragon, 
 
 333
 
 THE STORY OF THE BORGIAS 
 
 the Emperor asked Father Francisco what he 
 would wish him to do in the matter. Francisco, 
 without going into the merits of the case, pleaded 
 for strict justice, but, in case it were a matter in 
 which favour must be shown to one side or the 
 other, he begged that it might be shown not to his 
 own son but to the Admiral, who, he believed, needed 
 it more. On another occasion, Francisco's third 
 son, Alvarez, needed a Papal dispensation to 
 enable him to make a brilliant marriage. Nothing 
 was done in the matter for sometime until Pius V 
 happened to discover accidentally that the young 
 man on whose behalf the dispensation was asked 
 was a son of the Jesuit General, whom he held 
 in such high esteem. He then expressed his sur- 
 prise that Francisco had never approached him 
 on the subject. Father Francisco replied that 
 he had received many importunities to plead with 
 his Holiness, but had said nothing because he 
 believed that the Pope would grant the dispensa- 
 tion without any interference if he judged it to 
 be for the good of the persons concerned and for 
 the glory of God. But now the matter had been 
 broached he would say this much : if it appeared 
 to his Holiness in any way inexpedient, he hoped 
 the dispensation would not be given, as he had 
 more at heart the interests of the Holy See than 
 the advantage of his own children. 
 
 None of these children ever became known 
 beyond the limits of their native land. A great- 
 grandson of the saint, named Caspar de Borja, 
 became a cardinal in 1611 at the age of twenty-two. 
 334
 
 A SAINT OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA 
 
 After acting as Viceroy in Naples, he is said to have 
 aspired to the Papacy, but he died in 1645 at the 
 age of fifty- six, disappointed of this supreme 
 dignity. A great-great-grandson of the saint, 
 named after him Francisco, a man of piety and 
 learning, became a cardinal in 1700 and died 
 two years afterwards. The last of the descendants 
 of Giovanni Borgia, the murdered son of Pope 
 Alexander VI and Vanozza de Catenai, died 
 without issue as recently as 1882, when the line 
 became extinct. Corvo, in his "Chronicles of the 
 House of Borgia," quoting from El Blason de 
 Espana, tells us that he was ten times grandee of 
 Spain of the First Class, decorated with the Golden 
 Fleece and numerous other knightly orders, 
 possessed of three Principalities, seven Dukedoms, 
 ten Marquisates, fourteen Countships, and one 
 Viscounty ; and we are assured that his name 
 was : " Don Marino Tellez-Giron y Beaufort 
 Spontin Pimental de Quifiones Fernandes de 
 Velasco y Herrera Diego Lopez de Zufiiga Perez 
 de Guzman Sotomayor Mendoza Maza Ladron 
 de Lizana Carroz y Arborea Borja y Centelles 
 Ponce de Leon Benavides Enriquez Toledo Salm- 
 Salm Hurtado de Mendoza y Orozco Silva Gomez 
 de Sandoval y Rojas Pimerilal y Osorio Luna 
 Guzman Mendoza Aragon de la Cerda Enriquez 
 Haro y Guzman." What it was found convenient 
 to call him for short we are not informed. 
 
 335
 
 INDEX 
 
 ADRIANA DA MILA, 68, 69, 81, 109 
 
 Adriano, Cardinal of Corneto, 208, 209, 210 
 
 Albert!, Leo Battista, 38 
 
 Albret, Amadeo d', Cardinal, 152 
 
 Albret, Charlotte d', Duchess of Valentinois, 139, 141, 235, 805 
 
 Albret, Jean d', King of Navarre, 235, 236, 237 
 
 Alexander VI, Pope, see Borgia, Rodrigo 
 
 Alfonso, Duke of Bisceglia, 134, 140, 149, murder of, 150-152 
 
 Alfonso I, Duke of Ferrara, 160, 161, 162, 174, 175, 176, 179, 
 247, 251, 259, 260-261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 
 269, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 277, 279, 280, 281, 282, 
 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 301, 303 
 
 Alfonso I, of Naples, 5, 42, 49, 57, 58, 59 
 
 Alfonso II, of Naples, 4, 16, 82, 85, 86, 90, 97, 105, 110, 134 
 
 Allegres, Ivo d', 158 
 
 Alviano, Bartolomeo d', 226, 227 
 
 Amboise, d', Cardinal of Rouen, 141, 147, 224, 225, 232, 241 
 
 Anne, Duchess of Brittany, 25, 135 
 
 Appiano, Jacopo, of Piombino, 156, 223, 234 
 
 Aretino, Donate, 127 
 
 Arnold of Brescia, 8 
 
 Ariosto, Ludovico, 251, 267, 285, 299 
 
 Atti, Isotta degli, 38 
 
 Aubigny d', General, 156 
 
 Aubusson, Pierre d', Cardinal, 25 
 
 BAGLIONI, the, of Perugia, 33, 173, 190 
 
 Baglioni Gianpaolo, 34, 35, 152, 187, 191, 198, 223, 226, 227, 
 
 279, 280 
 
 Bajazet, Sultan, 15, 24, 27, 30, 87, 88, 89 
 Balue, La, Cardinal, 22 
 Barbo, Pietro, see Paul II, Pope 
 
 Bembo, Pietro, Cardinal, 208, 268-269, 289, 290, 295 
 Bentivogli, the, of Bologna, 153, 174, 190 
 Bentivoglio, Giovanni, 154, 174, 192 
 Bessarion, Cardinal, 50, 63 
 Borgia, Angela, 187, 269-270 
 
 Y 337
 
 INDEX 
 
 Borgia, Cesare, birth, 67 ; ecclesiastical preferments, 69-70 ; 
 made Cardinal, 84 ; escape from Charles VIII, 98 ; 
 youthful characteristics, 107-108 ; design to murder 
 Giovanni Sforza, 115 ; murder of his brother Giovanni, 
 121-125 ; projects of marriage, 134 ; abandonment of 
 ecclesiastical career, 136 ; journey to France, 137-138 ; 
 marriage to Charlotte d'Albret, 139, 141 ; designs on 
 the Romagna, 142 ; capture of Imola and Forli, 142- 
 143 ; triumph in Rome, 145 ; position and characteris- 
 tics at age of twenty-five, 145146 ; murder of the Duke 
 of Bisceglia, 150-152 ; conquest of the Romagna, 152- 
 154; orgy in the Vatican, 164; charges against, in 
 "Letter to Silvio Savelli," 182-183; more conquests, 
 187-188 ; Machia velli's first impressions of, 189 ; Revolt 
 of Condottiere and their destruction at Sinigaglia, 190- 
 197 ; predominant in Italy, 205 ; projects of a Borgian 
 monarchy, 206 ; position at death of his father, 218- 
 221 ; withdrawal from Rome, 222-223 ; sides with 
 France against Spain, 223 ; return to Rome under 
 Pius III, 225-226 ; forced to take refuge in Castle 
 of St. Angelo, 227 ; loss of the Romagna, 228-229 ; 
 arrested by Julius II, 231 ; escape to Naples, 233 ; 
 arrest and imprisonment in Spain, 234-235 ; escape 
 from prison, 235-236 ; death, 236-237 ; character, 
 238-243. Also mentioned, 17, 41, 161, 166, 167, 173, 
 174, 184, 185, 186, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 276, 
 290, 294, 304, 305 
 
 Borgia, Francesco, Cardinal, 171 
 
 Borgia, Count Francesco, 307 
 
 Borgia, Gianpaolo, 306 
 
 Borgia, Giovanni, Cardinal, 77, 85, 143 
 
 Borgia, Giovanni, Second Duke of Gandia, 67, 69, 82, 86, 105, 
 106, 107, 109 ; murder of, 116-125, 307 
 
 Borgia, Giovanni, " Infans Romanus," 127, 128, 160, 188, 260, 
 303-304 
 
 Borgia, Girolama, 66 
 
 Borgia, Giuffre, Prince of Squillace, 67, 70, 80, 82, 86, 108, 
 120, 141, 201, 223, 226, 290, 303 
 
 Borgia, Isabella, 66 
 
 Borgia, Juan (or Giovanni the Elder), Cardinal, 107, 136, 204 
 
 Borgia, Lucrezia, birth, 67 ; under care of Madonna Adrians, 
 68 ; early betrothals, 70 ; marriage to Giovanni Sforza, 
 78, 81, 109 ; visit to Pesaro, 110 ; life in Rome, 113- 
 114 ; Pope's design for her divorce, 115 ; Sforza makes 
 charges of incest, 126 ; marriage to Alfonso of Bisceglia, 
 134 ; birth of son Rodrigo, 149 ; murder of her second 
 
 338
 
 INDEX 
 
 husband, 150-152 ; Regent in Vatican during Pope's 
 absence, 159 ; marriage to Alfonso d'Este, 160-163, 
 169 ; dress and appearance, 167-168, 169-170 ; her 
 trousseau, 171 ; journey to Ferrara, 172-174 ; first 
 meeting with third husband, 174-175 ; entry into 
 Ferrara, 178-179 ; illness, 257-258 ; Regent during 
 husband's absence, 263-264 ; patronage of literature 
 and art, 267-268 ; her letters to Bembo, 268-269 ; 
 birth of son and heir, 275 ; relations with Ercole Strozzi, 
 277-278 ; death of her son Rodrigo, 286 ; interest in 
 charitable institutions, 287 ; more children, 288 ; 
 correspondence with Trissino, 288-290 ; death, 293 ; 
 character, 294-302. Also mentioned, 112, 113, 244, 
 255, 291, 303, 304 
 
 Borgia, Luis Juan, Cardinal, 54, 55, 58, 60 
 
 Borgia, Pedro Luis, Duke of Spoleto, 46, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60 
 
 Borgia, Pedro Luis, 1st Duke of Gandia, son of Alexander VI, 
 66, 69, 105 
 
 Borgia, Rodrigo, son of Lucrezia, 149, 160, 260, 286, 304, 305 
 
 Borgia, Rodrigo, Pope Alexander VI, adopted by Calixtus III, 
 54 ; made Cardinal and Vice-Chancellor, 55 ; Legate 
 to Spain, 63-64 ; dissolute private life, 65-66 ; his 
 children by Vanozza, 67 ; adulterous connection with 
 Giulia Farnese, 69, 111-113 ; elected to Papacy, 71-73 ; 
 description of person, 75-76 ; nepotism, 77-78 ; marries 
 Lucrezia to Giovanni Sforza, 78 ; shifty policy, 84-85 ; 
 negotiations with Sultan Bajazet, 87-88 ; diplomacy 
 with Charles VIII in Rome, 93-97 ; joins league 
 against France, 100 ; attack on the Orsini, 105106 ; 
 decides on divorcing Lucrezia, 115 ; projects of reform 
 after murder of his son, 120 ; charge of incest against, 
 126-127 ; relations with Savonarola, 128-132 ; policy 
 directed by Cesare, 134 ; abandons Sforza alliance 
 for France, 140 ; raid on the Gaetani, 147 ; narrow 
 escapes from death, 148-149 ; agrees to partition of 
 Naples, 157; plunder of the Orsini, Savelli and Colonna, 
 159-160 ; marries Lucrezia to Alfonso d'Este, 160-162 ; 
 scandalous amusements, 163 ; charges against, in " Letter 
 to Silvio Savelli," 180-184 ; further measures against the 
 Orsini, 199-201 ; methods of raising money, 203-205; 
 death, 207; suspected poisoning, 208-211; character, 
 213-218. Also mentioned, 1, 4, 8, 18, 19, 21, 22, 28, 
 29, 36, 37, 41, 47, 58, 60, 225, 228, 238, 242, 259, 260, 
 262, 276, 294, 297, 300, 303, 333 
 
 Borgia, Stephano, Cardinal, 305, 306 
 
 Borja, Alonzo, see Calixtus III, Pope 
 
 339
 
 INDEX 
 
 Borja, Francesco de, Saint, 4th Duke of Gandia, birth, 308 ; 
 precocious piety, 308 ; education, 309 ; at Court of 
 Charles V, 310 ; marriage, 311 ; special ecclesiastical 
 privileges, 311-312 ; effect of death of Empress on, 
 313-314 ; Viceroy of Cateluna, 315-316 ; becomes Duke, 
 316 ; death of his wife, 817 ; connection with Ignatius 
 Loyola, 318 ; joins Jesuits, 318 ; gives up worldly 
 titles and wealth, 323 ; description of, 323-324 ; humble 
 duties and demeanour, 324-325 ; evangelising work, 
 325-327 ; miracles attributed to, 329-331 ; General 
 of the Society of Jesus, 331 ; mission to Spain and 
 Portugal, 332 ; death and canonisation, 333 ; last of 
 his descendants, 335 
 
 Borja, Juan, 3rd Duke of Gandia, 307, 308, 309, 316 
 'Boccaccio, Ferrarese ambassador, 107, 108, 111 
 
 Boniface IX, Pope, 8 
 
 Boschetti, Count, 272, 273 
 
 Bracci, Florentine ambassador, 121, 123 
 
 Brantome, Seigneur de, 138 
 
 Buonvicini, Domenico, of Pescia, 130, 131, 132 
 
 Burchard, John, 26, 28, 113, 119, 164, 199, 211, 239. Pref. vi. 
 
 CAONOLO, Nicolo, 169 
 
 Calixtus III, Pope, 5, 9, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49-60, 213 
 
 Cambray, League of, 280 
 
 Canale, Carlo, 68 
 
 Capello, Paolo, 239 
 
 Capponi, Piero, 89 
 
 Capranica, Domenico, Cardinal, 43-47, 50, 56 
 
 Cardinals, power and splendour of, 21-22 
 
 Carlotta of Aragon, 134, 136, 139 
 
 Carmagnola, Francesco, 3233 
 
 Carri, Dr. Ludovico, 258, 259 
 
 Carvajal, Cardinal, 56, 232, 233 
 
 Cassanova, Cardinal, 218 
 
 Castrano, Cristoforo di, 27 
 
 Cerri, Domemico, 214 
 
 Cesarini, Cardinal, 223 
 
 Charles V, Emperor, 308, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 322, 
 
 327 328 
 Charles VIII, of France, 20, 25, 26, 71, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 
 
 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 109, 
 
 110, 111, 128, 130 ; death of, 133 
 Cibo, Franceschetto, 21, 23, 26, 28, 29, 79 
 Cibo, Giovanni Battista, see Innocent VIII, Pope 
 Cibo, Lorenzo, Cardinal, 71, 74 
 340
 
 INDEX 
 
 Clement VIII, Pope, 48 
 
 Colonna, the, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 44, 50, 52, 80, 86, 89, 99, 
 
 118, 133, 135, 157, 159, 201, 221, 222, 227 
 Colonna, Cardinal, 71, 94, 140, 159 
 Colonna, Fabrizzio, 158, 283, 284, 285 
 Colonna, Mutio, 201 
 Colonna, Prospero, 91, 158, 223 
 Comines, de, 93 
 Condottiere, the, 30-33 
 Cornazzano, Antonio, 267 
 Creighton, Mandell, 18, 53, 121, 215, 231 
 Croce, Giacomo Santa, 204 
 Croce, Giorgio, 67, 68 
 
 DJEM, Prince, 15, 24-28, 29, 87, 88, 92, 93, 95, 96, 99-100 
 Doria, Andrea, 195 
 
 EGIDIO, Cardinal, of Viterbo, 216 
 
 Ercole I, Duke of Ferrara, 12, 15, 36, 48, 161, 162, 165, 168, 
 
 170, 171, 176, 177, 244, 246, 247, 249, 250, 254, 255, 
 
 256, 257, 258, 259, 261, 271 
 Este, the, of Ferrara, 8, 161 
 Este, Ferrante d', 170, 172, 271, 272, 273, 274 
 Este, Giulio d', 270, 271, 272, 273, 274 
 Este, Ippolito d', Cardinal, 83, 114, 165, 166, 167, 170, 267, 
 
 270, 271, 272, 274, 278, 279, 282 
 Estouteville, Cardinal, 60, 91 
 Eugenius III, Pope, 8 
 Eugenius IV, Pope, 44, 45, 49 
 
 FARNESE, Alessandro, Cardinal, 84, 105, 112, 114 
 
 Farnese, Giulia, mistress of Pope Alexander VI, 68, 69, 81, 84, 
 
 110, 112, 113, 217, 301 
 Federigo, of Aragon, 79 
 Federigo, Duke of Urbino, 16, 17, 42-43 
 Ferdinand, the Catholic, of Spain, 20, 24, 29, 82, 139, 157, 
 
 218, 234, 280, 281 
 Ferrante, of Naples, 5, 9, 16, 20, 21, 24, 32, 50, 58, 59, 74, 79, 
 
 80, 82, 83, 85 
 Ferrantino, of Naples, 30, 88, 90, 91, 97, 99, 102, 116, 123, 
 
 134, 135, 138, 139, 140, 150, 157, 158 
 Ferrara, state of, in Fifteenth Century, 244-259 
 Ferrari, Cardinal, of Modena, 181, 184, 191 
 Ferrer, St. Vincent, 49 
 Foix, Gaston de, 282 
 Francesco di Puglia, 130 
 
 341
 
 INDEX 
 
 GAETANI, the, 147 
 
 Gaetani, Giacomo, 148 
 
 Gasparino of Verona, 66, 76 
 
 Gastine, Louis, 125 
 
 Gheraldo, Fra, Patriarch of Venice, 72 
 
 Gilbert, William, 252, 255, 297, 299, 301 
 
 Giovio, Paolo, 99, 208, 277, 292 
 
 Giustiniani, Antonio, Venetian ambassador, 199, 204, 205, 
 
 211, 230 
 Gonsalvo de Cordova, 100, 106, 158, 202, 218, 227, 232, 233, 
 
 234, 235 
 Gonzaga, Francesco, Marquis of Mantua, 102, 162, 212, 213, 
 
 218, 259, 273, 293 
 Gonzaga, Isabella, Marchioness of Mantua, 36, 167, 176, 177, 
 
 178, 259, 272, 273 
 Gravina, Duke of, 196, 197 
 Gregorovius, Ferdinand, 36, 54, 67, 94, 99, 122, 159, 179, 216, 
 
 243, 251, 279, 297-298, 299, 301 
 Gregory the Great, Pope, 7 
 Guasconi, Giovanni, 272, 273, 274-275 
 Guicciardini, Francesco, 93, 158, 208, 212, 213, 214, 296, 298, 
 
 299 
 Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, 17, 105, 106, 119, 120, 173, 187, 
 
 188, 191, 192, 194, 223, 232, 239, 269 
 
 HAWKWOOD, Sir John, 31 
 Hildebrand, afterwards Gregory VII, 7 
 Hunyadi, John, 53 
 
 INFESSURA, 81 
 
 Innocent VIII, Pope, 5, 9, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 37, 
 
 64, 71, 212 
 Isabella of Aragon, wife of Gian-Galeazzo Sforza, 4, 88, 260, 
 
 286 
 
 Italy, state of, in Fifteenth Century, 1, 2 
 Five principal States of, 3-20 
 
 JULIUS II, Pope, see also Rovere, Giuliano della, Cardinal, 
 34, 216, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 238, 236, 242, 275, 
 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 304 
 
 Julius III, Pope, 321, 322, 327, 388 
 
 LANCOL, Pedro Luis, see Borgia, Pedro Luis 
 
 Rodrigo, see Borgia, Rodrigo 
 Leece, Roberto da, 35 
 342
 
 INDEX 
 
 Leo X, Pope, 285, 288, 293. See also Medici, Giovanni de' 
 
 Leonello, Duke of Ferrara, 248-249 
 
 Louis XII, of France, 133, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 
 142, 146, 147, 154, 155, 157, 161, 189, 190, 191, 202, 
 203, 206, 218, 223, 225, 236, 280, 281, 282 
 
 Loyola, Ignatius, 309, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322, 324, 326, 328 
 
 Lucius II, Pope, 8 
 
 Lunate, Cardinal, 91, 95 
 
 MACAULAY, Lord, 36 
 
 Machiavelli, Nicolo, 18, 31, 34, 36, 144, 153, 188, 189, 193, 214, 
 
 219, 220, 229, 230, 240, 241, 242, 243, 298, 299 
 Malatesta, the, of Rimini, 8, 33, 239 
 Malatesta, Pandolfo, 153, 229 
 Malatesta, Roberto, 11, 16, 17 
 Malatesta, Sigismondo Pandolfo, 35, 38 
 Manfredi, the, of Faenza, 8, 229 
 Manfredi, Astorre, 153, 195 
 Manutius, Aldus, 267, 295 
 Marini, Generoso, Dr. of Medicine, 252, his strange diploma, 
 
 252-254 
 
 Martin V, Pope, 44, 49, 54 
 Mathias of Hungary, 24 
 
 Maximilian I, Emperor, 100, 139, 140, 206, 207, 280, 281, 282 
 Medici, Cosmo de', 59 
 
 Medici, Giovanni de', Cardinal, 29, 74, 114. See also Leo X, Pope 
 Medici, Lorenzo de', 3, 6, 14, 15, 20, 23, 28, 30, 36, 101, 301 
 Medici, Piero de', 6, 29, 89, 130, 155, 187 
 Metarazzo, 208 
 
 Michelotto, Don, 151, 191, 196, 204, 218, 220, 282 
 Michiel, Cardinal, 71, 203, 204 
 Mila, Luis Juan de, see Borgia, Luis Juan 
 Mirandola, Count Antonio Maria, 119 
 Mocenigo, Pietro, Doge of Venice, 36 
 Mohammed II, Sultan, 3, 15, 24 
 Montefeltri, the, of Urbino, 8, 33, 190 
 Montone, Braccio da, 31, 32, 33 
 Morelli, Giovanni, 40 
 
 NICASTRO, Bishop of, 220 
 Nicholas II, Pope, 7 
 Nicholas V, Pope, 3, 45, 50, 52 
 
 ORDELAFFI, the, of Forli, 8, 229 
 
 Orleans, Louis, Duke of, see also Louis XII, 8, 100, 102 
 
 Oliverotto, da Fermo, 158, 190, 194, 196, 197 
 
 343
 
 INDEX 
 
 Ollivier, Abbe, 214 
 
 Oreo, Don Ramiro d', 178, 174, 186, 193, 224 
 
 Orsini, the, 8, 17, 19, 33, 44, 50, 51, 52, 60, 80, 105, 106, 107, 
 118, 119, 121, 133, 135, 152, 155, 189, 190, 194, 195, 
 200, 201, 202, 221, 222, 223, 226, 227, 241 
 
 Orsini, Cardinal, 52, 56, 63, 71, 189, 199, 200, 201 
 
 Orsini, Fabio, 220, 221 
 
 Orsini, Giovanni Giordano, 105, 202, 226, 227 
 
 Orsini, Giovanni Paolo, 160, 192, 196, 197 
 
 Orsini, Napoleone, 52 
 
 Orsini, Orsino, 68, 112 
 
 Orsini, Virginio, 6, 20, 23, 29, 79, 80, 82, 83, 90, 91, 99, 105 
 
 PALLAVICINI, Cardinal, 71 
 
 Papacy, origin of temporal power of, 6-8 
 
 Pastor, Ludwig, 43, 122, 149, 215 
 
 Paul II, Pope, 10, 11, 19, 37, 60, 62, 63, 64 
 
 Petrucci, Pandolfo, of Siena, 197, 198 
 
 Piccinnino, Giacomo, 10, 32, 57 
 
 Piccolomini, Enea Silvio, see Pius II, Pope 
 
 Piccolomini, Francesco, Cardinal, see Pius III, Pope 
 
 Pinturricchio, 113 
 
 Pitigliano, Count, 90, 99 
 
 Pius II, Pope, 9, 35, 38, 61, 62, 65-66 
 
 Pius III, Pope, 225, 226, 227, 241 
 
 Pius V, Pope, 331, 332, 334 
 
 Popes, political position of, 6-8 
 
 Prete, El, 167, 169 
 
 Pucci, Lorenzo, 112 
 
 RELIGIOUS spirit in Italy during Renascence, 39-47 
 
 Riario, Pietro, Cardinal, 12, 13 
 
 Riario, Girolamo, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 23 
 
 Riario, Rafael, Cardinal, 28, 71, 114, 226 
 
 Robusto, Giorgio, 267 
 
 Roscoe, William, 121, 289, 296, 297, 299, 301 
 
 Rovere, Francesco della, see Sixtus IV, Pope 
 
 Rovere, Francesco Maria della, 187, 194, 195, 228, 286 
 
 Rovere, Giovanni della, 13, 14, 87, 107, 133, 194 
 
 Rovere, Giuliano della, Cardinal, 12, 19, 20, 22, 23. 64, 71, 79, 
 
 80, 82, 86, 90, 94, 95, 107, 137, 141, 224, 225, 226, 227, 
 
 241. See also Julius II, Pope 
 Rovere, Lionardo della, 12 
 Rovere, Riario della, Cardinal, 72 
 Rucellai, Giovanni, 40-41 
 344
 
 INDEX 
 
 SANAZARRO, 298, 299 
 
 Sancia of Aragon, wife of Giuffre Borgia, 108, 114, 141, 150, 
 
 223, 301 
 
 Sanseverino, Cardinal, 91, 94, 111, 119, 140 
 Sanuto, Marino, 97, 208, 209, 210 
 Savelli, the, 10, 16, 20, 33, 152, 159, 160, 201, 241 
 Savelli, Cardinal, 71, 94 
 Savelli, Silvio, 201 ; Letter to, containing summary of charges 
 
 against the Borgia, 180-184 
 
 Savonarola, Girolamo, 89, 101, 128; career and death, 128-132 
 Scarampo, Cardinal, 10, 56 
 Sensuality of the Renascence, 3537 
 Sforza, Anna, 175 
 Sforza, Ascanio, Cardinal, 19, 22, 30, 71, 72, 78, 84, 86, 90, 91, 
 
 92, 94, 95, 110, 111, 118, 119, 120, 121, 139, 140, 147, 
 
 201, 224 
 
 Sforza, Caterina, 13, 18, 23, 89, 142, 143, 145 
 Sforza, Francesco, Duke of Milan, 10, 82, 59 
 Sforza, Galeazzo Maria, 4 
 Sforza, Gian-Galeazzo, 4, 84, 88 
 Sforza, Giovanni, of Pesaro, 78, 81, 109, 110, 115, 116, 121, 126, 
 
 152, 173, 223, 228, 286, 298 
 Sforza, Ludovico, Duke of Milan, 4, 14, 75, 78, 80, 88, 100, 102, 
 
 110, 111, 120, 139, 140, 144, 146, 147, 239 
 Sforza, Muzio Attendolo, 31, 32, 33 
 Sixtus IV, Pope, 4, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, J.8, 20, 37, 54, 
 
 63, 64, 69, 215, 216 
 Soderini, Cardinal, 188, 211, 230 
 Solafenati, Cardinal, 72 
 Statecraft of the Renascence, 34 
 Strozzi, Alessandra, 39 
 Strozzi, Ercole, 250, 268, 269, 275-276 ; murder of, 276-279, 
 
 295, 299-300 
 
 Strozzi, Tito, 250, 268, 269, 276, 295 
 Stuart, Prince Henry Benedict, Cardinal, 305-306 
 Symonds, J. A., 42 
 
 TEBALDEO, Antonio, 250, 267, 268 
 
 Thousane, L., 99 
 
 Tiberzio, Roman rebel, 9, 10 
 
 Tremouille, La, 146 
 
 Trissino, Gian-Giorgio, 288-290 
 
 Trivulzio, General, 30, 90, 99 
 
 Troccio, Francesco, 204 
 
 URBINO, Elisabetta, Duchess, of 173, 177 
 
 z 345
 
 INDEX 
 
 VANOZZA DE CATENAI, mistress of Pope Alexander VI, 66, 67, 
 
 68, 109, 116, 223, 290-293, 301 
 Varani, the, of Camerino, 33, 188, 191, 223, 260 
 Venosa, Medical Bishop of, 258, 259 
 Villari, Pasquale, 127, 216 
 Vinci, Leonardo da, 146, 185 
 
 Vitelli, the, of Citta di Castello, 33, 155, 194, 195, 223 
 Vitelli, Vitellozzo, 106, 152, 158, 187, 189, 190, 196, 197 
 Visconti, Philippe Maria, Duke of Milan, 32 
 Volterranus, Rafael, 216 
 
 YRIARTE, Charles, 125 
 
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