The Borgias

by Paul Strathern

  Throughout his life, Alexander VI had shown scant evidence of piety, leading more than a few to suspect that indeed he had little more than a purely ceremonial belief in the deity. On the other hand, he had always retained a deep faith in another aspect of the supernatural, which many ascribed to his Spanish origins. Alexander VI was a deeply superstitious man. He had appointed his favourite son Juan as Captain-General, only for him to be murdered. A superstitious man may not have wished to tempt fate by appointing his next favourite son to the same post. Alexander VI’s excessive joy at Cesare’s return from his campaign in the Romagna could well have been prompted by previous superstitious fears. But the ghost had now been laid to rest: Cesare had returned alive after commanding the Papal Troops – he could appoint him regardless. Any such surmise is, of course, no more than speculation, based upon mere clues. I have included them only as possible indications of Alexander VI’s character, and the Borgia ethos. Meanwhile, there is, of course, one undeniable fact. As we shall see, Cesare Borgia’s appointment to the post of Captain-General was central to Alexander VI’s future ambitions for the Borgia family. But such plans remained for the moment covert. What was plain for all to see was merely the first step. As Cesare Borgia’s biographer observes: ‘The Pope’s nomination of his son as official commander of the papal armies implied nothing less than a total Borgia takeover of the Church.’

  Yet what was to become of Caterina Sforza? Upon her arrival in Rome, Alexander VI allowed her to reside in the Villa Belvedere, amidst the gardens overlooking the Vatican. Despite the comfort of her surroundings, this was unmistakably house arrest. Alexander VI wished her to sign away her rights as Countess of Forli. This was, at least in part, a formality, for her title was not recognized by the papal authorities. But Alexander VI wished for a cast-iron legal foundation to the Borgia ownership of these newly acquired territories. True to form, Caterina refused to sign any such document. For the moment she placed her hopes in her uncle Ludovico Sforza retaking Milan. And surprisingly, in February 1500, he succeeded in ousting the French from much of Milanese territory. It was probably this which encouraged Caterina to attempt a daring escape. This was organized by a Milanese friar called Lauro Bossi, who was in contact with Ludovico Sforza; but the plot was soon betrayed, and Caterina Sforza was transferred to a grim dungeon in the Castel Sant’Angelo. By April, Milan was once more in the hands of the French, with Caterina’s uncle Duke Ludovico being led off to France in chains. It looked as if all hope for Caterina was lost.

  A slight restoration of her fortunes would come from an unexpected source. When Yves d’Alègre heard of Caterina’s plight he used his influence through Louis XII for her to be treated according to the rules of chivalry. After some time, Alexander VI was pressurized into reluctantly releasing Caterina:

  On 30 June 1501 Caterina emerged from the dungeon. The horrors and sufferings of the months spent in the darkness of her cell had taken their toll. Of her beauty and her bold affirmation of life only traces remained.

  Caterina’s celebrated red hair had turned white, and she appeared a broken woman. Alexander VI now insisted that she publicly sign away her rights to Forli, and this time she relented. She was then permitted to take refuge in Florence. Her third husband had been a minor member of the ruling Medici family, who placed a villa at her disposal. She would eventually die eight years later, aged forty-six, in the convent of La Murate in Florence.* To her dying day, Caterina would never reveal what took place between her and Cesare Borgia during her time in his captivity. However, in her last days she would confess to a Dominican friar: ‘If I could write anything, I would stupefy the world.’

  But back to Rome in the months after Cesare Borgia’s triumphal entry into the city. This was now 1500, the long-awaited Jubilee Year celebrating one and a half millennia since the birth of Christ. It was (rightly) expected that Rome would be flooded with pilgrims, who soon overcrowded all the inns and taverns, as well as the many makeshift hostelries that opened up. Even the cheapest accommodation of all – the basic hospices maintained by every Christian nation for its visiting citizens who could not afford lodgings – were soon packed to overflowing. The people of Rome would be simply astounded at the numbers who arrived from the faraway nations of northern Europe, most of them making the treck on foot across the Alpine passes.*

  At Easter the Holy Year was duly proclaimed by Alexander VI, welcoming all who wished to make the pilgrimage to Rome. However, for those who were unable to make this arduous voyage, he offered special indulgences, which could be paid by such as could afford them. Alexander VI would also make use of the Jubilee Year to gather further funds from those of sufficient clerical position and wealth who wished to be appointed cardinals. In all, during the course of the year he would appoint no less than twelve new cardinals. Of these, a quarter would be Borgias, or related to the family (such as Cardinal Amanieu d’Albret, Cesare’s brother-in-law), whilst several more would be Spanish. The appointment of these cardinals was, in fact, as much a financial transaction as a friendly gesture. Costs for these red hats would range from 25,000 ducats (for the wealthy Archbishop of Seville) down to around 5,000 ducats (for Bishop Podocatharo, the loyal papal secretary, who also acted as the Pope’s trusted physician). The total amount raised was in the region of 160,000 ducats. As we shall see, this was just the beginning.

  The Jubilee Year meant that Rome was soon thriving as never before in recent centuries. Alexander VI ensured that much of the added papal income was used to improve the city. In preparation for the Easter celebrations, Alexander VI had ordered the clearing of the medieval alleyways and slums which bordered the route from the Ponte Sant’Angelo to St Peter’s. This enabled the building of a much expanded Via Alessandria: a new, suitably grand approach to the Vatican.* Such drastic demolition would prove more than necessary. It is estimated that on Easter Sunday, 19 April 1500, as many as 200,000 pilgrims were crammed into St Peter’s Square and the nearby streets for the Pope to give his traditional blessing.† The clearing of these Trastevere slums was but the beginning of a widespread reconstruction programme which Alexander VI instigated throughout the city. Where previous popes had mainly been preoccupied with building churches and artworks intended as memorials to their own greatness, Alexander VI actually concentrated much of his energies on the city’s infrastructure. The myriad of medieval alleyways in the city itself, for so long the haunt of thieves, cutpurses and murderers, now gradually began to give way to more modern thoroughfares worthy of the Holy City of Christendom. Despite Alexander VI financing such extensive improvements for the benefit of his flock, this should in no way be mistaken for evidence of him becoming a reformed character. Alexander VI continued to take a close interest in all aspects of his flock. According to Burchard, he even went so far as to violate the sanctity of the confession box. For his titillation and entertainment he induced a penitentiary priest to pass on to him choice titbits of any ‘varied and often strange’ sins that had been confessed.

  Prior to Alexander VI Rome had undeniably acquired a measure of Renaissance adornment, but it was only now that it began to emerge fully as a Renaissance city, or as much of one as could be expected amidst the great ruins of its classical heyday. Florence would always remain the epicentre of Renaissance culture, yet it had not emerged as a political power. Venice continued to enter the new age in its own unique fashion, as a centre of printing, art and commerce – yet its buildings retained elements of eastern Mediterranean influence from its empire. Milan, too, was modernizing, retaining a Renaissance-style court such as the one originally installed by Ludovico Sforza, as well as elements such as Leonardo’s plans for the commercial exploitation of its canals. Though its crowning cathedral remained essentially a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. Meanwhile, Naples continued its own sporadic awakening to the new age. The whole of Italy was undergoing a profound change. And now that the French appeared to be permanently ensconced in Milan, Louis XII was turning his eye on Naples – as, too, was Spain. In purs
uit of his diplomatic agenda, Alexander VI had established strong links with both these nations. He foresaw this as his opportunity to establish Rome as the powerhouse of the new Italy.

  ________________

  *Technically, Urbino is in the Marche region, just south of the Romagna.

  *The Spanish version of his first name.

  *This received its unusual name because in the early medieval era it contained a live parrot in a cage. According to one of many legends, a parrot (pappagallo) was said to indicate that the Pope (il Papa) was in residence. It is claimed that this custom is said to have followed the popes into exile during the Avignon papacy, and returned to Rome with them. A wall of the present-day chamber is decorated with a fresco which contains two parrots.

  *Caterina’s son Giovanni, by her third husband, Giovanni de’ Medici, would go on to become one of the most successful condottieri of his time, under the name Giovanni dalle Bande Nere. His son, Cosimo de’ Medici, would in 1569 become the first Duke of Florence, and later be accorded the title Grand Duke of Tuscany.

  *Several sources ascribe this large northern influx to the many millennial cults which particularly thrived across northern Europe. Large followings were attracted to hellfire preachers claiming that the Holy Year would see the ‘end of time’ and the ‘resurrection of the dead’, as prophesied in the Book of Revelation 20: 1–6.

  * Later known as Borgo Nuovo.

  † This is a larger gathering than for most present-day Easter blessings by the Pope.

  CHAPTER 11

  BIDING TIME

  NOT LONG AFTER CESARE Borgia’s triumphant entry into Rome in February 1500 he learned that Charlotte, the wife he had left behind in France, was pregnant with his child. Alexander VI was overjoyed: the Borgia succession was now ensured. The Pope immediately promised several thousand ducats to France to pay for Charlotte’s safe journey to Rome. However, Charlotte replied that she was unwilling to undertake such a journey on account of her pregnancy. Finally, the news came through in May that she had given birth to a daughter. This child would be named Louise, after Louis XII. Charlotte’s powerful father Alain d’Albret immediately sent a message to Rome inviting Cesare Borgia to visit his wife and new child. According to the Venetian ambassador, Cesare Borgia courteously replied that ‘he cares little for returning to France’.

  It soon became clear to both Cesare Borgia and the Pope that Louis XII had no intention of permitting Charlotte and her child to leave France, even if she wished to do so. Louis XII still did not fully trust the Borgias, especially Alexander VI, and wished to retain Cesare’s wife and heir as hostages to ensure the loyalty of the Pope and his son. At the same time, there were a variety of reasons for Cesare Borgia not wishing to leave Italy. With the retaking of Milan by the French in April, this meant that Louis XII’s mercenary troops would once again be available for Cesare Borgia to launch a further campaign in the Romagna. In pursuit of this aim, Alexander VI immediately began making the necessary diplomatic arrangements to guarantee that the new campaign would take place unimpeded by outside interference. The main difficulties on this front came from Venice and France. The Venetians had to be reassured that Cesare Borgia’s conquests in the Romagna posed no threat to their territory to the north, or to the main Venetian trade route down the Adriatic to the ports and islands of its eastern Mediterranean empire (which, although under severe threat from the Ottomans, still included such sizeable possessions as Cyprus and Crete). In order to secure freedom of passage in the Adriatic, Venice had already guaranteed the ‘protection’ of the coastal city of Rimini and the strategic city state of Faenza on the Via Emelia some twenty miles inland. However, at this stage Venice’s military resources were at full stretch. Venice was in reality under severe threat from the Ottoman forces advancing through the northern Balkans. Alexander VI offered to strike a deal with Venice. As Pope he would summon an international crusade against the Ottoman Turks, as long as Venice agreed to withdraw its protection from Faenza and Rimini.

  This was a rash promise and Alexander VI knew it. The time, diplomatic effort, and funds required for such an undertaking would be considerable. Alexander VI was soon organizing the financial side. This aspect of the coming crusade could certainly be turned to his advantage. Given sufficient accounting expertise, such as he had gained during his long years as vice-chancellor, it would surely be possible to siphon off sufficient funds to finance Cesare’s next planned Romagna campaign. According to Pastor, after despatching envoys to solicit funds from the crowned heads of Europe, Alexander VI turned his attention to lesser fry: ‘For his own part, he had imposed a tithe upon all the inhabitants of the Papal States and on the clergy throughout the world.’ Then came the cardinals. Now it was time for the new appointees to show their gratitude towards the man responsible for their recent elevation. And such gratitude would not be limited to recent appointees. A list was drawn up of all forty-one cardinals, along with their incomes. Each was to contribute 10 per cent of his income to the crusade fund. There would be no exceptions. Alexander VI was even willing to risk antagonizing his erstwhile rival Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere with a demand for 2,000 ducats. The full roll call, as listed by Pastor, reveals but one exception: the Venetian Cardinal Marco Cornero, whom Alexander VI had appointed so recently that he had yet to receive any income at all. Against his name was listed ‘no income’ and ‘to pay: nil’. He had after all only just paid the full 10,000 ducats for his red hat.

  With regard to France and its attitude towards Cesare’s coming campaign in the Romagna, Alexander VI decided that his best course was to make what appeared to be further concessions. If Louis XII was willing to continue his support for the campaign, Alexander VI would be willing to appoint the king’s close friend and adviser, Cardinal Georges d’Amboise, as Papal Legate for France. Alexander VI was well aware that Cardinal d’Amboise had been angling for this important and highly influential role for some time. As Papal Legate for France, Cardinal d’Amboise would be the Pope’s permanent representative in Roman Catholicism’s second country. Ever since the Avignon papacy, France had continued to regard itself as second only to Rome. Cardinal d’Amboise’s role would thus be more than a merely honorary one. Though Alexander VI was determined to ensure that his papal powers were not seriously usurped.

  As a further sweetener, Alexander VI instructed his envoys to the French court to inform Louis XII that he promised to support the French king’s claim to the throne of Naples. Like the appointment of Cardinal d’Amboise, this was little more than endorsing the inevitable: Louis XII had made no secret of the fact that he intended to pursue this policy. Although his predecessor Charles VIII may have had a quasilegitimate claim to the Neapolitan throne, the strength of Louis XII’s claim was a little more tenuous. He was not a direct descendant of Charles VIII, merely his cousin. However, it now suited Alexander VI to add his support to Louis XII’s claim. Anything to avoid another debacle like Charles VIII marching his troops through Rome.

  Cesare Borgia played virtually no part in these negotiations on his behalf and was left kicking his heels in Rome, impatient to lead another campaign into the Romagna. Unable to visit – or even receive a visit from – his French wife Charlotte and their new daughter Louise, the handsome Cesare Borgia was not long in exercising his charismatic sexual charms elsewhere. For the entertainment of cardinals and members of such aristocratic families as could afford their expensive charms, there were in Rome a number of discreet, high-class cortigiani honeste – so-called ‘honest courtesans’. These were a class apart from the numerous prostitutes who flocked to the streets and taverns of Rome for the entertainment of the pilgrims and the locals, especially the deprived youths.* As we have seen from Cesare Borgia’s mother Vanozza de’ Cattanei, such courtesans were often strikingly beautiful, independent women of some distinction, who made sufficient funds from their lovers’ ‘gifts’ to retire as rich women. Such wealthy single women would normally have been vulnerable, but usually had sufficient protection
by the mere fact of the power and influence of their former lovers. Witness the fate of the Swiss soldiers who had had the temerity to ransack the property of Cesare’s mother and steal her fortune.

  During the summer of 1500 the most renowned courtesan in Rome was a certain Fiammetta de’ Michaelis. Her legendary beauty and sophistication had already made her a rich woman. Like the dozen or so discreetly well-favoured courtesans living in Rome during this period she lived in some luxury. One of her colleagues was described by the Sienese writer Pietro Fortini as ‘resembling a glittering sun with her splendid and rich clothes, her jewels and her gold chains’. The walls of her apartment were hung with fine art, while her bedroom contained ‘a bed with superb curtains, a royal bedspread, and above all sheets so fine and white that they in truth seemed as thin, as fine, as the membrane of an egg’. Upon visiting one of these ladies, the Spanish ambassador even went so far as to declare that he preferred to spit in the face of a servant rather than defile one of the carpets. Such courtesans were renowned for keeping exotic Moorish servants, as well as dwarfs and monkeys to entertain them and their wealthy gentleman callers. Fiammetta already owned a luxuriously furnished house in Rome, as well as two other properties in the city. On top of this she possessed a fine summer villa with its own vineyard in the nearby countryside. Little is known of Fiammetta’s background, apart from the fact that she was born in Florence. Assuming that by this time she was in her late twenties and had spent her childhood in Florence, she would have grown up during the time when Savonarola held sway in the city: an independent but puritan republic. Despite this, Fiammetta certainly acquired an exceptional education, which included classical Latin authors such as Ovid, as well as more modern poets such as Petrarch, both of whom she could recite – or on occasion sing – from memory. Such intellectual accomplishments may well have appealed to Cesare Borgia almost as much as her beauty and her sensual charms. Fiametta also loved dancing, an accomplishment in which Cesare was particularly proud of his skills.