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PREFACE
PREFACE
This is no Chronicle of Saints. Nor yet is it a History of Devils. It is a record of certain very human, strenuous men in a very human, strenuous age; a lustful, flamboyant age; an age red with blood and pale with passion at white-heat; an age of steel and velvet, of vivid colour, dazzling light and impenetrable shadow; an age of swift movement, pitiless violence and high endeavour, of sharp antitheses and amazing contrasts. To judge it from the standpoint of this calm, deliberate, and correct c
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BOOK I. THE HOUSE OF THE BULL
BOOK I. THE HOUSE OF THE BULL
< “Borgia stirps: BOS: atque Ceres transcendit Olympo, Cantabat nomen saecula cuncta suum.” Michele Ferno...
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CHAPTER I. THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA
CHAPTER I. THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA
Although the House of Borgia, which gave to the Church of Rome two popes and at least one saint,(1) is to be traced back to the eleventh century, claiming as it does to have its source in the Kings of Aragon, we shall take up its history for our purposes with the birth at the city of Xativa, in the kingdom of Valencia, on December 30, 1378, of Alonso de Borja, the son of Don Juan Domingo de Borja and his wife Doña Francisca. To this Don Alonso de Borja is due the rise of his family to its stupen
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CHAPTER II. THE REIGNS OF SIXTUS IV AND INNOCENT VIII
CHAPTER II. THE REIGNS OF SIXTUS IV AND INNOCENT VIII
The rule of Sixtus was as vigorous as it was scandalous. To say—as has been said—that with his succession to St. Peter’s Chair came for the Church a still sadder time than that which had preceded it, is not altogether true. Politically, at least, Sixtus did much to strengthen the position of the Holy See and of the Pontificate. He was not long in giving the Roman factions a taste of his stern quality. If he employed unscrupulous means, he employed them against unscrupulous men—on the sound princ
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CHAPTER III. ALEXANDER VI
CHAPTER III. ALEXANDER VI
The ceremonies connected with the obsequies of Pope Innocent VIII lasted—as prescribed—nine days; they were concluded on August 5, 1492, and, says Infessura naïvely, “sic finita fuit eius memoria.” The Sacred College consisted at the time of twenty-seven cardinals, four of whom were absent at distant sees and unable to reach Rome in time for the immuring of the Conclave. The twenty-three present were, in the order of their seniority: Roderigo Borgia, Oliviero Caraffa, Giuliano della Rovere, Batt
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CHAPTER IV. BORGIA ALLIANCES
CHAPTER IV. BORGIA ALLIANCES
At the time of his father’s election to the throne of St. Peter, Cesare Borgia—now in his eighteenth year—was still at the University of Pisa. It is a little odd, considering the great affection for his children which was ever one of Roderigo’s most conspicuous characteristics, that he should not have ordered Cesare to Rome at once, to share in the general rejoicings. It has been suggested that Alexander wished to avoid giving scandal by the presence of his children at such a time. But that agai
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BOOK II. THE BULL PASCANT
BOOK II. THE BULL PASCANT
Roma Bovem invenit tunc, cum fundatur aratro, Et nunc lapsa suo est ecce renata Bove. From an inscription quoted by Bernardino Coaxo....
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CHAPTER I. THE FRENCH INVASION
CHAPTER I. THE FRENCH INVASION
You see Cesare Borgia, now in his nineteenth year, raised to the purple with the title of Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria Nuova—notwithstanding which, however, he continues to be known in preference, and, indeed, to sign himself by the title of his archbishopric, Cardinal of Valencia. It is hardly necessary to mention that, although already Bishop of Pampeluna and Archbishop of Valencia, he had received so far only his first tonsure. He never did receive any ecclesiastical orders beyond the minor
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CHAPTER II. THE POPE AND THE SUPERNATURAL
CHAPTER II. THE POPE AND THE SUPERNATURAL
By the middle of March of that year 1495 the conquest of Naples was a thoroughly accomplished fact, and the French rested upon their victory, took their ease, and made merry in the capital of the vanquished kingdom. But in the north Lodovico Sforza-now Duke of Milan de facto, as we have seen—set about the second part of the game that was to be played. He had a valuable ally in Venice, which looked none too favourably on the French and was fully disposed to gather its forces against the common fo
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CHAPTER III. THE ROMAN BARONS
CHAPTER III. THE ROMAN BARONS
Having driven Charles VIII out of Italy, it still remained for the allies to remove all traces of his passage from Naples and to restore the rule of the House of Aragon. In this they had the aid of Ferdinand and Isabella, who sent an army under the command of that distinguished soldier Gonzalo de Cordoba, known in his day as the Great Captain. He landed in Calabria in the spring of 1496, and war broke out afresh through that already sorely devastated land. The Spaniards were joined by the allied
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CHAPTER IV. THE MURDER OF THE DUKE OF GANDIA
CHAPTER IV. THE MURDER OF THE DUKE OF GANDIA
On June 14, 1497, the eve of Cesare and Giovanni Borgia’s departure for Naples, their mother Vannozza gave them a farewell supper in her beautiful vineyard in Trastevere. In addition to the two guests of honour several other kinsmen and friends were present, among whom were the Cardinal of Monreale and young Giuffredo Borgia. They remained at supper until an advanced hour of the night, when Cesare and Giovanni took their departure, attended only by a few servants and a mysterious man in a mask,
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CHAPTER V. THE RENUNCIATION OF THE PURPLE
CHAPTER V. THE RENUNCIATION OF THE PURPLE
At the Consistory of June 19, 1497 the Sacred College beheld a broken-hearted old man who declared that he had done with the world, and that henceforth life could offer him nothing that should endear it to him. “A greater sorrow than this could not be ours, for we loved him exceedingly, and now we can hold neither the Papacy nor any other thing as of concern. Had we seven Papacies, we would give them all to restore the duke to life.” So ran his bitter lament. He denounced his course of life as n
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“Cum numine Caesaris omen.”
“Cum numine Caesaris omen.”
(motto on Cesare Borgia’s sword.)...
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CHAPTER I. THE DUCHESS OF VALENTINOIS
CHAPTER I. THE DUCHESS OF VALENTINOIS
King Louis XII dispatched the Sieur de Sarenon by sea, with a fleet of three ships and five galleys, to the end that he should conduct the new duke to France, which fleet was delayed so that it did not drop its anchors at Ostia until the end of September. Meanwhile, Cesare’s preparations for departure had been going forward, and were the occasion of a colossal expenditure on the part of his sire. For the Pope desired that his son, in going to France to assume his estate, and for the further purp
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CHAPTER II. THE KNELL OF THE TYRANTS
CHAPTER II. THE KNELL OF THE TYRANTS
In the hour of his need Lodovico Sforza found himself without friends or credit, and he had to pay the price of the sly, faithless egotistical policy he had so long pursued with profit. His far-reaching schemes were flung into confusion because a French king had knocked his brow against a door, and had been succeeded by one who conceived that he had a legal right to the throne of Milan, and the intent and might to enforce it, be the right legal or not. It was in vain now that Lodovico turned to
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CHAPTER III. IMOLA AND FORLI
CHAPTER III. IMOLA AND FORLI
Between his departure from Milan and his arrival before Imola, where his campaign was to be inaugurated, Cesare paid a flying visit to Rome and his father, whom he had not seen for a full year. He remained three days at the Vatican, mostly closeted with the Pope’s Holiness. At the end of that time he went north again to rejoin his army, which by now had been swelled by the forces that had joined it from Cesena, some Pontifical troops, and a condotta under Vitellozzo Vitelli. The latter, who was
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CHAPTER IV. GONFALONIER OF THE CHURCH
CHAPTER IV. GONFALONIER OF THE CHURCH
Although Cesare Borgia’s conquest of Imola and Forli cannot seriously be accounted extraordinary military achievements—save by consideration of the act that this was the first campaign he had conducted—yet in Rome the excitement caused by his victory was enormous. Possibly this is to be assigned to the compelling quality of the man’s personality, which was beginning to manifest and assert itself and to issue from the shadow into which it had been cast hitherto by that of his stupendous father. T
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CHAPTER V. THE MURDER OF ALFONSO OF ARAGON
CHAPTER V. THE MURDER OF ALFONSO OF ARAGON
We come now to the consideration of an event which, despite the light that so many, and with such assurance, have shed upon it, remains wrapped in uncertainty, and presents a mystery second only to that of the murder of the Duke of Gandia. It was, you will remember, in July of 1498 that Lucrezia took a second husband in Alfonso of Aragon, the natural son of Alfonso II of Naples and nephew of Federigo, the reigning king. He was a handsome boy of seventeen at the time of his marriage—one year youn
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CHAPTER VI. RIMINI AND PESARO
CHAPTER VI. RIMINI AND PESARO
In the autumn of 1500, fretting to take the field again, Cesare was occupied in raising and equipping an army—an occupation which received an added stimulus when, towards the end of August, Louis de Villeneuve, the French ambassador, arrived in Rome with the articles of agreement setting forth the terms upon which Louis XII was prepared further to assist Cesare in the resumption of his campaign. In these it was stipulated that, in return for such assistance, Cesare should engage himself, on his
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CHAPTER VII. THE SIEGE OF FAENZA
CHAPTER VII. THE SIEGE OF FAENZA
The second campaign of the Romagna had opened for Cesare as easily as had the first. So far his conquest had been achieved by little more than a processional display of his armed legions. Like another Joshua, he reduced cities by the mere blare of his trumpets. At last, however, he was to receive a check. Where grown men had fled cravenly at his approach, it remained for a child to resist him at Faenza, as a woman had resisted him at Forli. His progress north from Pesaro was of necessity slow. H
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CHAPTER VIII. ASTORRE MANFREDI
CHAPTER VIII. ASTORRE MANFREDI
On March 29 Cesare Borgia departed from Cesena—whither, meanwhile, he had returned—to march upon Faenza, resume the attack, and make an end of the city’s stubborn resistance. During the past months, however, and notwithstanding the presence of the Borgia troops in the territory, the people of Faenza had been able to increase their fortifications by the erection of out-works and a stout bastion in the neighbourhood of the Osservanza Hospital, well beyond the walls. This bastion claimed Cesare’s f
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CHAPTER IX. CASTEL BOLOGNESE AND PIOMBINO
CHAPTER IX. CASTEL BOLOGNESE AND PIOMBINO
To return to the surrender of Faenza on April 26, 1501, we see Cesare on the morrow of that event, striking camp with such amazing suddenness that he does not even pause to provide for the government of the conquered tyranny, but appoints a vicar four days later to attend to it. He makes his abrupt departure from Faenza, and is off like a whirlwind to sweep unexpectedly into the Bolognese territory, and, by striking swiftly, to terrify Bentivogli into submission in the matter of Castel Bolognese
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CHAPTER X. THE END OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON
CHAPTER X. THE END OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON
Cesare arrived in Rome on June 13. There was none of the usual pomp on this occasion. He made his entrance quietly, attended only by a small body of men-at-arms, and he was followed, on the morrow, by Yves d’Allègre with the army—considerably reduced by the detachments which had been left to garrison the Romagna, and to lay siege to Piombino. Repairing to his quarters in the Vatican, the duke remained so close there for the few weeks that he abode in Rome on this occasion(1) that, from now onwar
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CHAPTER XI. THE LETTER TO SILVIO SAVELLI
CHAPTER XI. THE LETTER TO SILVIO SAVELLI
By September 15 Cesare was back in Rome, the richer in renown, in French favour, and in a matter of 40,000 ducats, which is estimated as the total of the sums paid him by France and Spain for the support which his condotta had afforded them. During his absence two important events had taken place: the betrothal of his widowed sister Lucrezia to Alfonso d’Este, son of Duke Ercole of Ferrara, and the publication of the Bull of excommunication (of August 20) against the Savelli and Colonna in consi
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CHAPTER XII. LUCREZIA’S THIRD MARRIAGE
CHAPTER XII. LUCREZIA’S THIRD MARRIAGE
At about the same time that Burchard was making in his Diarium those entries which reflect so grossly upon the Pope and Lucrezia, Gianluca Pozzi, the ambassador of Ferrara at the Vatican, was writing the following letter to his master, Duke Ercole, Lucrezia’s father-in-law elect: “This evening, after supper, I accompanied Messer Gerardo Saraceni to visit the Most Illustrious Madonna Lucrezia in your Excellency’s name and that of the Most Illustrious Don Alfonso. We entered into a long discussion
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CHAPTER XIII. URBINO AND CAMERINO
CHAPTER XIII. URBINO AND CAMERINO
It may well be that it was about this time that Cesare, his ambition spreading—as men’s ambition will spread with being gratified—was considering the consolidation of Central Italy into a kingdom of which he would assume the crown. It was a scheme in the contemplation of which he was encouraged by Vitellozzo Vitelli, who no doubt conceived that in its fulfilment the ruin of Florence would be entailed—which was all that Vitelli cared about. What to Cesare would have been no more than the means, w
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CHAPTER XIV. THE REVOLT OF THE CONDOTTIERI
CHAPTER XIV. THE REVOLT OF THE CONDOTTIERI
The coincidence of the arrival of the French army with the conquest of Urbino and Camerino and the Tuscan troubles caused one more to be added to that ceaseless stream of rumours that flowed through Italy concerning the Borgias. This time the envy and malice that are ever provoked by success and power gave voice in that rumour to the thing it hoped, and there ensued as pretty a comedy as you shall find in the pages of history. The rumour had it that Louis XII, resentful and mistrustful of the gr
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CHAPTER XV. MACCHIAVELLI’S LEGATION
CHAPTER XV. MACCHIAVELLI’S LEGATION
On October 2 news of the revolt of the condottieri and the diet of Magione had reached the Vatican and rendered the Pope uneasy. Cesare, however, had been informed of it some time before at Imola, where he was awaiting the French lances that should enable him to raid the Bolognese and drive out the Bentivogli. Where another might have been paralyzed by a defection which left him almost without an army, and would have taken the course of sending envoys to the rebels to attempt to make terms and b
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CHAPTER XVI. RAMIRO DE LORQUA
CHAPTER XVI. RAMIRO DE LORQUA
It really seemed as if the condottieri were determined to make their score as heavy as possible. For even whilst Paolo Orsini had been on his mission of peace to Cesare, and whilst they awaited his return, they had continued in arms against the duke. The Vitelli had aided Guidobaldo to reconquer his territory, and had killed, in the course of doing so, Bartolomeo da Capranica, Cesare’s most valued captain and Vitelli’s brotherin-arms of yesterday. The Baglioni were pressing Michele da Corella i
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CHAPTER XVII. “THE BEAUTIFUL STRATAGEM”
CHAPTER XVII. “THE BEAUTIFUL STRATAGEM”
Cesare left Cesena very early on the morning of December 26—the morning of Ramiro’s execution—and by the 29th he was at Fano, where he received the envoys who came from Ancona with protestations of loyalty, as well as a messenger from Vitellozzo Vitelli, who brought him news of the surrender of Sinigaglia. The citadel itself was still being held by Andrea Doria—the same who was afterwards to become so famous in Genoa; this, it was stated, was solely because Doria desired to make surrender to the
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CHAPTER XVIII. THE ZENITH
CHAPTER XVIII. THE ZENITH
Andrea Doria did not remain to make formal surrender of the citadel of Sinigaglia to the duke—for which purpose, be it borne in mind, had Cesare been invited, indirectly, to come to Sinigaglia. He fled during the night that saw Vitelli and Oliverotto writhing their last in the strangler’s hands. And his flight adds colour to the versions of the affair that were afforded the world by Cesare and his father. Andrea Doria, waiting to surrender his trust, had nothing to fear from the duke, no reason
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BOOK IV. THE BULL CADENT
BOOK IV. THE BULL CADENT
“Cesar Borgia che era della gente Per armi e per virtú tenuto un sole, Mancar dovendo andó dove andar sole Phebo, verso la sera, al Occidente. “Girolamo Casio—Epitaffi.”...
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CHAPTER I. THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER VI
CHAPTER I. THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER VI
Unfortunate Naples was a battle-field once more. France and Spain were engaged there in a war whose details belong elsewhere. To the aid of France, which was hard beset and with whose arms things were going none too well, Cesare was summoned to fulfil the obligations under which he was placed by virtue of his treaty with King Louis. Rumours were rife that he was negotiating secretly with Gonzalo de Cordoba, the Great Captain, and the truth of whether or not he was guilty of so base a treachery h
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CHAPTER II. PIUS III
CHAPTER II. PIUS III
The fever that racked Cesare Borgia’s body in those days can have been as nothing to the fever that racked his mind, the despairing rage that must have whelmed his soul to see the unexpected—the one contingency against which he had not provided—cutting the very ground from underneath his feet. As he afterwards expressed himself to Macchiavelli, and as Macchiavelli has left on record, Cesare had thought of everything, had provided for everything that might happen on his father’s death, save that
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CHAPTER III. JULIUS II
CHAPTER III. JULIUS II
Giuliano della Rovere, Cardinal of S. Pietro in Vincoli, had much in his character that was reminiscent of his terrible uncle, Sixtus IV. Like that uncle of his, he had many failings highly unbecoming any Christian—laic or ecclesiastic—which no one has attempted to screen; and, incidentally, he cultivated morality in his private life and observed his priestly vows of chastity as little as did any other churchman of his day. For you may see him, through the eyes of Paride de Grassi,(1) unable one
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CHAPTER IV. ATROPOS
CHAPTER IV. ATROPOS
Vain were the exertions put forth by the Spanish cardinals to obtain Cesare’s enlargement, and vainer still the efforts of his sister Lucrezia, who wrote letter after letter to Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua—now Gonfalonier of the Church, and a man of influence at the Vatican—imploring him to use his interest with the Pope to the same end. Julius II remained unmoved, fearing the power of Cesare Borgia, and resolved that he should trouble Italy no more. On the score of that, no blame attaches to the
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