4. Galeotto, Cardinal of S. Pietro in Vinculis, and Archbishop of Benevento, who died in 1508, aged twenty-eight. In 1505 he was appointed to the Cancelleria, and his public revenues, amounting to 40,000 ducats a year, were liberally administered in the patronage of letters.
5. Nicolò, who left a son Giulio.
6. Lucrezia, wife of Marc Antonio Colonna, who fell at the siege of Milan, in 1522.[209]
Giovanni della Rovere, Prefect of Rome and Seigneur of Sinigaglia, died in 1501, having married in 1474 Giovanna di Montefeltro, who, dying in 1514, had issue—
1. Federigo, who died young.
2. Francesco Maria, who, as Duke of Urbino, will occupy attention in our [next Book].
3. Maria, married in 1497 to Venanzio Varana, Lord of Camerino, who was slain in 1503, with three of his sons, by order of Cesare Borgia. Another son, Sigismondo, shared the campaigns of his maternal uncle the Duke of Urbino, and failing to recover his patrimonial state from the usurpation of his uncle Giulio Cesare Varana, was assassinated at his instigation in 1522: his wife was Ottavia, daughter of Giulio Colonna. A scandalous intrigue of Maria in her widowhood will be mentioned in the life of her brother,[210] but it did not prevent her finding a second husband in Galeazzo, son of Girolamo Riario, Lord of Forlì.
4. Costanza, who died unmarried at Rome in November, 1507.
5. Deodata, a nun of Sta. Chiara at Urbino.
On the accession of Sixtus, the papal treasury was supposed to be full of money and jewels, which it had been the passion of Paul II. to accumulate. Yet he declared that but 5000 crowns were found in bullion, and the few precious stones that were forthcoming appeared not to have been paid for. Notwithstanding this seeming disappointment, which was very generally discredited, and the outlay of 20,000 crowns for the funeral of Paul, and for his own coronation, he discharged the debts of several antecedent pontiffs, and particularly those due by Paul for St. Mark's palace. But these heavy expenses, with the alleged simony attending his election, and the enormous sums lavished by his nephews, gave colour to an allegation that he had seized and misapplied large hoardings of his predecessor. The favour bestowed by him upon his nephews was excessive, even in days when nepotism was at its height, and his fondness for the two Riarii originated suspicions casting a dark shadow upon his moral character; while gossip, with its usual inconsistency, lent currency to the surmise that they owed to him their paternity as well as the advancement of their fortunes.[211] One of his early acts was to confer upon Pietro, the elder of them, and upon Giuliano della Rovere, cardinal's hats on the same day. These cousins were, however, of very opposite habits, and so long as Pietro lived, Giuliano's influence with his uncle was small. The former, known as Cardinal of S. Sisto,