The Lady Queen

by Nancy Goldstone

  The Sacred College had only three ways to rid itself of an unwanted pope. The first was to induce the pontiff to step down of his own accord. This Urban had already shown himself disinclined to do. The second was to kill him, a remedy the cardinals were perfectly happy to carry out; Urban, however, informed by a sympathetic bishop of the danger, thwarted their efforts by refusing to accept their gracious invitation to visit Agnani.

  The third and most promising alternative took advantage of a loophole in the electoral proceedings. If it could be proven that the cardinals had been constrained in any way during the election—if they had felt fear, for example, which subsequently compromised their decision-making process—then that election could be held null and void, and they could legally depose the pope and choose another. It was at this point that the cardinals suddenly remembered that they had been pressured by a Roman mob to provide an Italian pope, and that this was the reason they had chosen the archbishop of Bari, a candidate whom, they were by now utterly and absolutely convinced, they would never ever have even considered otherwise, a clear case of constraint.

  By this time, the antipathy between the pope and his cardinals was public knowledge, so Joanna, in an effort to reconcile the two parties, sent a new embassy, again headed by Otto of Brunswick, back to Rome to attempt arbitration. The Neapolitan ambassadors were received by Urban on July 15; Niccolò Spinelli was present at this audience. Joanna’s diplomatic initiative was unfortunately overshadowed by the invasion of Breton and Gascon mercenaries, rumored to have been hired by the cardinals, who won a decisive victory over the Roman soldiers sent out to defend the city and the pope on July 16. This was the battle that forced Urban to beg Joanna for troops; later, the arrival of the queen’s forces forestalled further incursions by the ruffians.

  Emboldened by the success of the mercenaries, the French cardinals at Agnani issued an invitation to their Italian counterparts to meet, ostensibly to begin negotiations for a possible reconciliation. Much more inclined toward accommodation in the light of his soldiers’ defeat, Urban sent the three Italian cardinals (the cardinal of Saint Peter, who would die in September, was too weak to travel) to a rendezvous on July 26 with Robert of Geneva, armed with a proposal to call for a general council to resolve the differences within the Curia. This suggestion was rejected by the opposition party. Instead, Robert used the occasion of these talks to acquaint the three Italian members of the Sacred College with their colleagues’ plan to depose Urban by declaring the election null and void. The Italian cardinals would then be able to participate in a subsequent election, at which a new pope would be chosen. Robert strongly hinted that if the Italians were to go along with this proposal, the new pope might well be selected from one of their number, the obvious candidate being Cardinal Orsini, who had a Roman heritage.

  The upshot of this meeting was that Cardinal Orsini, accompanied by Niccolò Spinelli, who was well acquainted with all the French cardinals from his many years of papal service and was especially intimate with the cardinal of Amiens, who loathed Urban and was one of the first to call the election invalid, left for Naples the next day with the intention of apprising the queen of these new developments in the hopes of gaining her protection and support.

  The meeting with the queen of Naples, which took place on July 30, 1378, marked a turning point in the crisis. Joanna’s acceptance of the premise that Urban’s election had been tainted by fear of reprisal by the Romans, and so could not be considered legitimate, was crucial. As the most powerful ruler in the region, only the queen could provide the Sacred College with the protection they would need in order to see this strategy through to its successful conclusion. The support of the king of France would also be necessary eventually, but Charles V was too far away to offer immediate military aid; the cardinals would not send an emissary to Paris until August.

  The audience with the queen was witnessed by Nicholas de Brancaciis, who had accompanied Cardinal Orsini and Niccolò Spinelli to Naples. Joanna had obviously been informed of the circumstances of the case prior to this interview, as Nicholas recorded that her principal focus was to ascertain the veracity of the intelligence provided to her. The queen seems already to have submitted the question of the election’s legality to the expertise of her legal counsel, which included many prestigious masters of law at the University of Naples. During the interview, Joanna went directly to the heart of the issue by questioning Orsini as to whether what she had been told about the abnormalities surrounding the election of Urban VI was true. In reply, “Orsini put his hand upon his heart and swore that Urban was not the true pope,” Nicholas wrote. “The queen then took his hand and kept it in hers until he swore again that he was telling the truth.”

  The testimony of Cardinal Orsini was critical to Joanna’s decision. He was an Italian cardinal and so (as Robert of Geneva well knew) could not be accused of bias toward the French. Additionally, his statement was supported by Spinelli, the man who had represented her in all her dealings with the previous two popes, who knew the papal court intimately, and whom she trusted implicitly. The grand seneschal’s extended sojourn in Rome during the preceding months and position as papal adviser had given him an opportunity to observe these matters firsthand. Whether he in fact believed that the cardinals had experienced sufficient fear at the time of the conclave to taint the election, or whether he more likely simply understood that the rift between Urban and the Sacred College was too pronounced to be repaired, is not certain; what is clear is that by adopting the cardinals’ version of events, Spinelli unquestionably believed he was acting in his sovereign’s best interests. The desire to replace Urban with a new, more diplomatic pope was first and foremost a bid to return to the old, established ways that had served the kingdom of Naples so well in the past. The Sacred College functioned primarily as an old-boy network, and Spinelli was much more a member of the establishment than was Urban, whom the grand seneschal, in company with the cardinals, considered dangerous to the status quo. Spinelli’s loyalties were bound equally to the queen and the church; by adopting the viewpoint that the election was illegitimate, he satisfied both, and so he worked tirelessly to achieve this end.

  Most important to the queen’s decision was her own reverence for the church. Joanna’s faith bordered on superstition by modern standards. According to her beliefs, Orsini risked eternal damnation if he lied to her about something so holy. This made his avowal all the more persuasive and was likely what convinced the queen that the papal election had, in fact, been fraudulent. Later Joanna affirmed that, as he was one of her own subjects, her initial personal feeling inclined her to side with Urban, but that after the meeting with Orsini, “we took the advice of distinguished masters of theology, of doctors in civil and canon law, and of other experts in other relevant disciplines; above all, we received truthful information from our Reverend Fathers and Lords the Cardinals, recorded in their own hand and under their seal in their letters and writs, and without a single member of the Sacred College being of a different opinion.” From this point on, the queen of Naples was never shaken from this conclusion, an indication that her acceptance of the cardinals’ explanation was genuine.

  Assured of Joanna’s patronage, the members of the Sacred College moved quickly to implement their chosen course. On August 9, in a lengthy document laying out in detail the evidence justifying their actions, the cardinals publicly declared Urban’s election null and void and called on the pope to accept this decision and step down voluntarily in order to avoid conflict. The French cardinals then prudently abandoned Agnani for the town of Fondi, which had the advantage of being within the boundaries of the kingdom of Naples and so was subject to Joanna’s protection. The three Italian cardinals were induced to join them and participate in a new conclave by intrigues, which took the form of secret promises made to each that the other cardinals intended to make him pope; Spinelli took an active part in this conspiracy. On September 20, 1378, a new election was held, at which the three Italian cardinals, e
ach believing that he was to be raised to the highest office of the church, refrained from voting. The remaining electors then voted unanimously for Robert of Geneva, who, leaving nothing to chance, was immediately crowned, taking the name Clement VII. Joanna was again the first monarch to be informed of the decision; it took less than twenty hours for an emissary from Fondi to appear at her court with the news.

  The choice of Robert of Geneva as the new pope could not have pleased the queen. Joanna had not forgotten that she had lost Sicily as a result of the romantic interference of Robert’s older brother Aimon in Jeanne of Durazzo’s marriage plans, nor could she have been favorably disposed toward the man responsible for the recent massacre of the inhabitants of Cesena. Nicholas de Brancaciis reported that “she didn’t like Clement VII when he was a cardinal.” But the queen put aside her own personal feelings and previous experience with Robert’s family and sent a magnificent procession of courtiers and noblemen, led by Robert of Artois, Jeanne’s new husband, to congratulate the new pontiff on October 31.

  The Great Schism, which would bitterly divide the church for the next forty years and be as damaging to Europe, and especially to the kingdom of Naples, as any war, had begun.

  CHAPTER XIX

  The Fall of the Queen

  The election of Clement VII was obviously a victory for France, and so, almost by habit, the Christian world divided up once again along the lines previously established by the Hundred Years’ War; in fact, in some ways, the schism may be viewed as merely an extension of that conflict. The king of France was positively gleeful. “I am now Pope!” Charles V exulted and declared himself an official supporter of Clement VII on November 16. The majority of the theological masters at the University of Paris, who were originally in favor of calling a general council, took a little longer to accept the decision, but under pressure from the king, they too endorsed Clement. Because France was in favor, England was naturally against, as was the Holy Roman Emperor and the king of Hungary. Two years later Castile (which had been reclaimed with French aid) also decided in Clement’s favor as did Aragon and Navarre.

  Italy, in general, was dismayed by this turn of events. Although Spinelli wrote personal letters recommending Clement VII to the governments of Pisa and the other Tuscan city states, very few wanted a continuation of French dominance within the church. Rome itself remained staunchly supportive of Urban, particularly after he replaced the entire Sacred College with twenty-six new cardinals, twenty-four of whom were Italian, right after Clement was elected at Fondi. To further buttress his position, Urban asked Catherine of Siena to come to Rome to help counsel him during this period of turmoil; she had written to him in the immediate aftermath of the crisis, “I hear that those incarnate demons have elected an anti-Christ, whom they have exalted against you, the Christ on earth, for I confess, and deny not, that you are the Vicar of Christ.”

  Catherine did not limit her support of Urban to vigorous denunciations of the disgruntled cardinals; she once again inserted herself directly into the conflict by writing a long letter to Joanna on October 7, 1378: “Dearest mother,—in so far as you are a lover of truth and obedient to Holy Church I call you mother, but in no otherwise, nor do I speak to you with reverence, because I see a great change in your person… You who were a legitimate daughter, tenderly beloved of her father, the Vicar of Christ on earth, Pope Urban VI, who is really the Pope… have divided yourself from the bosom of your mother, Holy Church, where for so long a time you have been nourished… It appears that you have not known God’s truth in the way I spoke of… nor have you known truth about your neighbor; but in great ignorance, moved by your own passion, you have followed the most miserable and insulting counsel—having acted according to it—that I ever heard of… I am quite sure that the counsel came from someone beside yourself. Will, will to know the truth; who those men are, and why they make you see falsehood for truth, saying that Pope Urban VI is not true Pope, making you consider that the antipope, who is simply an antichrist, member of the devil, is Christ on earth. With what truth can they say that to you? Not with any; but they say it with entire falsity, lying over their heads.” For all her passion, Catherine showed herself to be a practical negotiator, cognizant of the political realities. Later in the same letter she made an attempt to, if not convert Joanna to Urban’s side, at the very least remove the queen of Naples’s influence from the process by writing, “If you said to me, ‘My mind is not clear as to all these things,’ why do you not at least stay neutral?”

  Catherine arrived in Rome in November. The future saint was well aware that the intolerance of the pope was at least partly responsible for the situation in which he now found himself. In her first letter to him, at the very beginning of his reign, Catherine had pointed out the need for diplomacy and moderation. “Act with benevolence and a tranquil heart,” she had written, “and for the love of Jesus, restrain a little those too quick movements with which nature inspires you.” Catherine counseled mediation, and Urban, still hoping for reconciliation, decided to send her to Joanna, along with Bridget of Sweden’s daughter, who was also in Rome at the time. “It was hoped that the two virgins, who were well known to Joanna, would make her renounce her great errors,” wrote Raymond of Capua, Catherine’s friend and confessor, who was present at this meeting. Catherine approved the idea, but Bridget’s daughter, also called Catherine, balked. “The other Catherine, however, the Swedish one, would not hear of it, and in my presence refused point blank,” reported Raymond. Swedish lore recounts that Bridget’s daughter declined this assignment because she dreaded further contact with the depravity of the queen of Naples and her court, but Raymond, who was there, never mentioned this objection. Rather, he noted that his own and Urban’s principal reservations had to do with the possibility that the two women would be taken hostage, or worse. “The queen whom they had been asked to go and see, egged on by the followers of Satan—and there were plenty of them around her!—could easily have ordered unprincipled men to do them some injury on their way and stop them from ever reaching her, whereby we should both fail in our purpose and they lose their good name,” he wrote. In this, both Raymond and Urban did Joanna an injustice; there is nothing whatever in the queen’s background to suggest that she countenanced violence against nuns; it was quite the opposite. The queen revered Bridget of Sweden. She would never have knowingly allowed either woman to be harmed. Catherine, who wanted to go in spite of Raymond’s fears, fought for the embassy. “If… other holy virgins had thought of things like that they would never have gained the crown of martyrdom! Haven’t we a Heavenly Bridegroom, who can free us from the hands of the ungodly and keep our purity intact even in the midst of a shameless mob of men? Your arguments are quite worthless and were suggested by lack of faith, not prudence,” she told him. In the end, though, Urban decided not to send Catherine to Joanna, and she remained in Rome.

  Although her followers lamented this decision, and wondered if events might have turned out differently if she had gone, there is no evidence that Catherine would have succeeded in her mission. Joanna was unlikely to have taken the word of an unschooled spiritualist, even one purporting to possess mystical powers, over that of the cardinals. Catherine had not even been in Rome during Urban’s election. Her knowledge of what occurred was acquired secondhand. As a point of canon law, this rendered her opinion worthless. Only the testimony of the members of the Sacred College mattered, and each and every one of them avowed that he spoke the truth. Joanna was not alone in rejecting the saint’s interference; none of the monarchs and scholars to whom Catherine wrote, including those who favored Urban, took the least note of her many appeals.

  And so the conflict continued, a war waged, at least for the time being, with sweeping declarations for weapons and ceremonial, largely symbolic acts for battles. On November 22, 1378, Joanna formally declared herself in favor of the new pope and handed over the annual Neapolitan tribute of sixty-four thousand florins to Clement VII, a jab that struck Urban far m
ore effectively than any sword point. Urban countered on November 29 by publishing a long list of people officially branded as enemies of the church; Robert of Geneva’s name headed the register. Niccolò Spinelli’s name also appeared near the top of this index, as did the names of four other members of Joanna’s court, although the queen herself was omitted. Spinelli and the other Neapolitans were ordered stripped of their goods and honors, an act much more pernicious in word than fact, as Urban had not the slightest ability to carry it out. In retaliation, Joanna, who did have the power to implement her commands, replaced all the church officials in the kingdom of Naples who were sympathetic to Urban with priests who were allied to Clement. She also arrested the ambassadors Urban had sent to her court to persuade her to relinquish her allegiance to Clement, so Raymond of Capua had done well in advising against Catherine of Siena’s making the trip to Naples, as she, too, would likely have been detained.

  But, although the queen of Naples, her court and government, and the learned masters of law at the University of Naples were all agreed as to the illegality of Urban’s papacy, the vast majority of the kingdom’s population saw the case very differently. To the average citizen of Naples, their sovereign’s embracement of a French pope over an Italian one—and a Neapolitan at that—was a crime against the church, akin to treason. There were riots in the streets of Naples, and something very like civil war broke out in the important city of L’Aquila, in Abruzzi, which was on the road to Florence. For the first time since the immediate aftermath of the murder of Andrew so many years before, Joanna did not have the support of her people.