by Michael Hone
At around the same time, in neighboring Faenza, Francesca Bentivoglio, the wife of the ruler Galeotto Manfredi, murdered him for taking a mistress. Just being married and having children was normally sufficient for a wife during the Renaissance; a wife’s husband’s extramarital indiscretions were his business. Women were watched over and chastity belts really existed, especially in Florence, to keep women from unlawful intercourse and from pleasuring themselves. But Francesca Bentivoglio was an exceptional woman whose father just happened to be the ruler of Bologna. Her rival was a beauty known as the Peacock, whom Galeotto was rumored to have secretly married before meeting Francesca, making him a bigamist. Her father knew about the affair and tried to get his son-in-law to mend his ways but failed. When Francesca finally discovered the truth, she fled home, certain that Galeotto would poison her. Through the good offices of Lorenzo Il Magnifico, she returned to Galeotto, but only to have him assassinated. The murder was slapsticks comedy, with three assassins hiding under the bed and one behind the bedroom door. In the ensuing struggle it was purportedly Francesca who delivered the decisive blow, a dagger plunged into her husband’s chest. But before dying Galeotto had done at least one thing right, he had fathered Astorre Manfredi.
Antonio Maria Ordelaffi, who was both young and handsome and had gained access to Caterina thanks to the messages shot over the walls of Ravaldino by arrow, offered Francesca his hand in marriage, Bologna being infinitely more desirable than Forlì. Bologna laughed at the offer but decided that with Galeotto dead it was the perfect time for it and Milan to send troops to bring Faenza over to their sides. Lorenzo Il Magnifico, although an ally of Milan, didn’t want the Milanese to extend their control so far to the south. Lorenzo lacked troops but not intelligence. He spread rumors about Faenza being sacked by the troops from Bologna and Milan, the troops outside of Forlì, the troops that Caterina had prevented from entering her town. They were now ready to descend on Faenza, said Lorenzo, rousing the inhabitants into action. The outcome was chaos that Pope Innocent VIII ended by issuing an edict, in 1488, confirming three-year-old Astorre Manfredi as lord of Faenza and naming an eight-member regency of noble citizens to care for the lad and the city-state. The boy had now embarked on the world stage. His mother, Francesca the assassin, remained safely in Bologna. At the same time that little Astorre was made prince of Faenza, the child Ottaviano was confirmed as ruler of Imola and Forlì, under the regency of Caterina.
Humanism played a great part in the education of the young Astorre. It consisted of classical authors, especially Cicero, and included studies in philosophy, history, rhetoric, grammar, mathematics, poetry, music and astronomy. Based on the Greek ideal of a sound mind in a sound body, it included also archery, dance and swimming. There was hunting, which boys took to naturally. Humanists insisted on the genius of man, on morality and on the extraordinary potential of the human mind. Schooling was for rich boys but places were available for poor students of recognized ability. A model education combined the classics with the basics of Christianity. Once a boy developed himself intellectually and physically, he was in the ideal position to become an ideal man, as well as having prepared himself for the best possible afterlife. Latin as well as Tuscan vernacular were in usage. Dante wrote his works in Tuscan Italian, as did the wonderful Boccaccio. One of Caterina’s lovers, Pietro Bembo, helped establish Tuscan Italian as the language of the entire peninsula.
Erasmus was named the Prince of Humanists. Before the arrival of humanism men believed in eternal salvation after death, but philosophers such as Erasmus preached the enrichment of life in the here and now. According to him, the church had to free itself of superstitious and corrupt behavior. It had to drop its pomp, relics and beads used as magical charms. Cults based on saints and indulgences, the purpose of which was to make money by reducing the time believers would spend in hell, had to be proscribed. (One priest was fond of telling people that as soon as a coin rings in the bowl, the soul for whom it is paid will fly out of purgatory and wing straight to heaven.) He fiercely believed in free will, without which human moral action would have no meaning. He accused monks, priests and popes of living in luxury after taking vows of poverty, of caring for their own needs before those of their flocks. Life began in the womb, he wrote, and one shouldn’t be baptized until old enough to accept Christ. He believed that lust was a natural body function like the need to eat. He denounced those who waged war as beasts and he pitied the stupidity, ignorance and gullibility of the ‘’faithful’’. Erasmus favored circumcision. (He would have been better off letting boys decide for themselves, after puberty, as he did for baptisms.) He is idealized by gay groups for being homosexual; heteros furiously deny it.
Erasmus formed a long friendship with Thomas More, a supposed humanist whose reputation was muddied by the six executions for heresy he ordered during his chancellorship. Whether one likes it or not, More was a murderer, abetting executions in the cruelest form possible, by fire. More was against the Reformation which cost him his life under Henry VIII, a king who died in his bed in terrible pain, small retribution for the thousands of children, woman and men he’d had hanged for one reason or another (estimated at 72,000).
Alexander entered into an alliance with Louis XII of France who was in need of a divorce. He decided to meet Cesare in France and give him a royal bride. In preparation for the meeting Cesare decided to turn himself into a perfect male by force of exercise, physical exercise as well as exercise in arms and horsemanship, as reported earlier. He spent hours at the task and contemporaries agreed that there was not a finer looking Italian in all of Italy, with the exception of Astorre Manfredi who began to draw artists and sculptors to Faenza to capture his face for eternity. The artists who flocked to do Astorre honor wielded an art that was reborn, one that took its roots in humanism and in classical antiquity. It was based on classical texts rediscovered thanks to the likes of Cosimo de’ Medici and thanks to commissions by the powerful clergy, cardinals and popes who, flush with church money, had little to spend it on after they had filled their bellies and assuaged their loins, other than building palaces and villas they filled with paintings and sculptures. Renaissance art was accompanied by technical advances that improved the quality of oil paint, adopted by Titian, Tintoretto and Uccello. Da Vinci perfected the art of painting thanks to lighting and perspective, as well as incredible detail in anatomy and landscape. Michelangelo and da Vinci based their art on human anatomy, an accomplishment realized thanks to the dissection of cadavers.
Astorre was certainly unaware of the plans his neighbor in Forlì, Caterina, had in mind for his marriage to her daughter Bianca. As for Caterina, she had had her eye on her stable boy, Giacomo Feo, since he was fifteen. Now seventeen, tall, lithe and incredibly handsome, his contemporaries tell us he was big where it counted. When Caterina found herself pregnant, she secretly married him.
Although the marriage itself was a secret, all hell broke out in every direction when the liaison was bruited. Forlivesi and Imolesi couldn’t accept the primacy of a stable boy over their cities, and Bologna, Milan, Florence and Ferrara proclaimed that they had youths of noble birth who could satisfy the countess at least as much as Feo. The city that eventually won out, should Caterina choose one of their boys, would not only broaden its territory thanks to its influence over the two city-states, Forlì and Imola, but it would control a major artery to the Apennines. Foiled attempts were made on the lives of both the countess and her lad, but she brought her pregnancy to term, giving birth to a baby boy, Bernardino.
Caterina’s son, Ottaviano, age 16, was now a man. In an attempt to gain what was his, he went up to his mother and Feo and demanded to be recognized as the new count of Forlì and Imola. An argument ensued that ended with Feo slapping the boy who stormed out of the room red-faced. A week later, as Feo was riding through the woods along with Caterina, a group of friends approached them on horse. As Feo chatted amiably with one, another stuck a dagger in his back. Caterina had the presence
of mind to turn and ride off to the impregnable shelter of Ravaldino. Feo’s bodyguards also took flight, leaving the handsome boy to fall from his horse into a ditch.
The people of Forlì remembered the heads Caterina ordered cut off after the assassination of Girolama. So when the murderers of Feo came riding into the town square, their clothes filthy with his blood, shouting to all the account of their exploits which, they maintained, were designed to give power over Forlì and Imola to their rightful count, Ottaviano, a group of nobles thought best to go to Ravaldino to find out what had really happened. When they returned, they ordered the arrest of the assassins. The reprisals were indeed terrible. The murderers had their heads axed open, from the top to the chin. Their wives and mistresses and children were slaughtered. Their houses were torn down brick by brick. Two babies associated with them, age three and nine months, along with their nurses, were bludgeoned to death. An accused priest was dragged behind a horse, his head fractured against the cobblestones, as Caterina had ordered done to Girolamo’s assassin, old man Orsi. Under torture another conspirator gave out the name of her son Ottaviano, known by all to have hated Feo for usurping his rightful place as count of Forlì and Imola. Caterina had her son arrested, an act so horrifying that the inhabitants followed the boy to the gates of Ravaldino where Caterina dispersed them with cannon fire. After a stormy meeting with his mother, the boy was put under house arrest. At Feo’s funeral all of Forlì and Imola turned out, so afraid were the populations of their countess. Heaven entered the act by bringing down a plague on the people: rashes appeared on their genitals and their lymph nodes swelled up. The syphilis epidemic had begun.
Caterina had eight children. Bianca Riario was her only girl and Caterina destined her for the handsome Astorre Manfredi of neighboring Faenza. All the surrounding powers had their say in the matter, some for and some against, but the negatives and positives equaled themselves out. For Caterina the union of the lad, age ten, and the lass, age fourteen, would unify the region, as Faenza was exactly in the middle between Forlì and Imola. Faenza was ruled by a Council, as said, which was doing an excellent job of both educating the young Astorre and of governing the tiny city-state. A pretender, however, Ottaviano Manfredi, Astorre’s cousin, decided that the time was ripe for him to take power from the boy who was still a child. The resulting disorder attracted the attention of Venice who was always on the lookout for an easy kill. Bologna came to the same conclusion, as did Milan. All three decided to descend on Faenza. The brouhaha dissuaded Caterina from pursuing the marriage with Astorre and it was therefore annulled.
The Papal States belonged to the papacy, but over the years they had been granted to dukes, princes, counts and important families such as the Colonna and Orsini in exchange for tribute. As the ruler increased in power, he diminished the sums he paid to the pope, an act that created great tension. Alexander VI decided he wanted to recuperate what was his. He sent his warrior son Cesare to bring the papal city-states into the fold, through persuasion or through conquest. And with the troubles brewing around Faenza, the moment seemed perfect.
The first step would be Forlì, governed by a woman, Caterina. After promising her money and a palace of her own in Rome, the tone between the two--Cesare on his white charger facing the closed drawbridge to Ravaldino, Caterina’s fortress, Caterine atop the crenellated tower--turned sour as one insulted the other. They split up but after a few hours of reflection Cesare returned. This time Caterina was standing on the lowered drawbridge. Cesare dismounted and approached the edge. Luckily for him, he was in beauty that day. The terrible traces of his syphilis had temporarily disappeared. Handsome and gorgeously dressed in black velvet, a rarity during the period when both sexes preferred bright colors (after the austerity of the Middle Ages), he decided to trade the filthy language he was partial to with the troops for the sparkling oratory of the likes of Cicero. Caterina too was in beauty, her breasts propped up by a tight bodice. She was immediately aware that Cesare had come to seduce her with a stunning smile similar to that used by Stanley Kowalski to mollify his wife Stella. Caterina, with the same intention, turned a welcoming shoulder in his direction, he held out a hand to touch it, she enticingly took a step back in the direction of the door to Ravaldino, he followed … until he felt the drawbridge rising under his feet. He jumped off just in time to see Caterina disappear behind the closing door. His face red with shame for having been tricked, he stormed off.
Sadly, Cesare would win out. He immediately went back to his obscene military language and ordered an all-out attack on the citadel. I won’t go into the actual destruction except to say that she was betrayed from inside the walls, walls opened to Cesare and his French troops. The Italians inside were spared but ransomed; the mercenaries under Caterina had their throats slit. She stepped over seven hundred strewn corpses on her way out of Ravaldino, in time to see her monument of bronze to her beloved Feo being carted away prior to being melted into cannon balls. Feo was symptomatic of what had undermined her place in Forlì and Imola: she had fought for her own pleasure and a place in the sun for her children; she had known hundreds of lads and wealth and luxury beyond measure; and so as one citizen summed it all up as she was hauled away, ‘’She had put her faith in herself and in the walls of her fortress, and none in the people she ruled’’.
The French commanders observed the fate of the women left behind, their thighs spread as the men lined up. They knew that the prettiest had already been put aside for themselves later on. Realizing what was in store for Caterina, several tried to save the countess by telling Cesare that they had precedence over her and would assure her safety right up to the moment she came before King Louis XII. This hiatus ended in an exchange of money. Cesare retired with the countess while the French officers, rich, sought the comfort of the naked forms awaiting them under the covers of their own beds. One of them was heard to say, as he unbuttoned his superb military tunic, ‘’Well, at least she won’t be wanting for fucking.’’
As with all seventeen-year-olds, Astorre Manfredi had everything to live for. Of medium height, with a boyish chest and slim waist, his eyes were blue and his hair as blond as gold--curly waves of which descended to his shoulders. He was courteous, had a good word for everyone, and was as aware of his charm and sexual appeal as is every Italian boy, then as today. His family had ruled the city-state of Faenza for two centuries, and although there had been some bad apples, the Manfredi, in general, had done somewhat better than the other lords, dukes and princes of the Romagna. Astorre himself was loved. Although the real power behind Faenza lay with the Council that had been regent since Astorre Manfredi was named lord at age three, he had his word to say and that word was listened to more and more frequently. Faenza was one of the few veritable free spirits to exist outside Florence, and it was more of a republic than even the Florentine city.
Indeed, Astorre had everything to live for, and perhaps even a bit more as he had received the best education available. Private tutors had instructed him in Latin, even if his daily speech was in the Italian vernacular. He had read Homer and Plato, the Greek tragedians, Suetonius and Xenophon and Plutarch, he had studied the texts of Cicero and was himself on the road to becoming an accomplished speaker.
Puberty had come later than it does today, but he had already known girls and women. In fact, his extreme beauty brought blushes to the maidens in the market. His marriage to Caterina’s daughter Bianca had fallen through but it was of little consequence as there were plenty of other matches to be made with girls from far more important towns than were Forlì and Imola.
Faenza was well fortified, but its strategic location meant it was in continual danger from this power or that. Like the dissuasion effect of the atomic bomb today, Faenza--being surrounded by powers such as Bologna, Milan, Florence and Venice--was in a strategic position because if one power dared to attack, the others would tear it to pieces in order to maintain the status quo. Faenza was fortified, but with Cesare prowling around the region the
citizens of the city-state decided to add to their fortifications and ensure that neighboring cities would come to their succor if and when needed.
Astorre’s first appeal for support went to neighboring Bologna. After all, his mother was the sister of Giovanni Bentivoglio, the lord of Bologna. Bentivoglio sent a thousand troops to Faenza but was later forced to withdraw them due to pressure from the French king Louis XII and also the pope who threatened excommunication. Louis thanked Bentivoglio for the withdrawal by taking Bologna under his wing, thus preserving the city from future ravages by Cesare. The pope also sent a note of thanks. As a sign of further capitulation, Bentivoglio agreed to feed and house a number of Louis and Cesare’s soldiers. Astorre appealed to Venice, a power he could usually depend upon, but Venice too was afraid of Louis and besides, when Louis overran Milan he gave certain lands adjoining Venice to the Serenissima, who was now in his debt.
When Cesare did more than prowl, when he attacked and ravaged neighboring Forlì and Imola, Faenzans were armed and readied for action. At first Cesare tried charm. He met with the Council and with Astorre, informing them that the time had come for Faenza--like Forlì and Imola--to return to the lap of the Papal States under the direction of their pope, Alexander VI. Nothing would change other than papal troops being stationed in the fort, in addition to Faenzans being enrolled in the ever-more-numerous papal armies. Astorre and the Council didn’t accept Cesare’s offer, as he probably knew they wouldn’t, but the talks gave Cesare a chance to weigh them both. He loved the boy as did the Faenzans, and he was known to bed lads that caught his fancy, a bent that amused his men, many of whom shared the same drift.
Cesare had far bigger fish in mind than tiny Faenza but he couldn’t just bypass it. It was at the entrance to the Apennines and it controlled an important route, the Via Emilia. Anyway, if he let a little fish get away, just because he liked the ruling prince, what chance would he have with bigger states? So he attacked. To his immense surprise the Faenzans defended themselves tooth and nail, even the women took up arms. Priests melted down sacred objects to provide money. The wealthy gave up their stocks of wheat and wine. The siege went on and on until the coming of winter, the winter of 1500, more than normally cold and snowy. Leaving enough men to make certain that Faenza wasn’t supplied in food and weapons, Cesare went to spend winter in Cesena, a locality he liked so much he was thinking of making it, when all power was in his hands, the capital of the Romagna. He spent money like water, offering games, tournaments and processions, and organized huge festivities at Christmas and during Carnival. He showed his prowess by challenging the local boys to wrestling matches and horse races, all of which made him immensely popular. His admiration for the people of Faenza was such that when a merchant escaped Faenza and came to Cesena with important information concerning which parts of the walls were the less secure, Cesare had the man hanged.
