It was about this time that Alexander conceived the great idea of his reign—namely, to secure the definitive submission of the Romagnol barons who had greatly troubled the earlier years of his Pontificate. Caesar was only twenty years of age, and it is hardly probable that he was of much help in this project, although he could not have been indifferent to events about him—the collecting of men to strengthen the papal army, the repairing and provisioning of the castles about Rome, movements undoubtedly directed against the barons of the Romagna now deprived of the support of both France and Naples, the latter the victim of another war, caused by the determination of the Catholic sovereigns to restore the throne of Aragon in the Regno.
At this juncture the Pope decided to strengthen the Spanish party in the Sacred College; he accordingly at one creation—February 19, 1496—bestowed the cardinalate on four Castillians: the Bishop of Segovia, the Bishop of Agrigentum, the Bishop of Perugia, and on Francesco Borgia. The number of Spanish votes in the Sacred College was thereby raised to nine, and a great protest was made in Rome.
Romagna, the Marches, and Umbria nominally belonged to the Papacy, but in reality they were governed by certain powerful families: the Orsini and Colonna near Rome, the Verano in Camerino, the Freducci in Fermo, the Trinci in Foligno, the Della Rovere in Sinigaglia and Urbino, the Baglioni in Perugia, the Vitelli in Città di Castella, the Sforza in Pesaro, the Malatesta in Rimini, the Manfredi in Faenza, the Bentivoglio in Bologna, and the Este in Ferrara. These families Alexander determined to destroy, ostensibly to recover the territory for the Church, but actually to build up a great principality for his family.
To carry out his design, however, the Pope had to find a reasonable pretext, and this he readily did, for when the King of France came to Italy the Orsini had entered into a treaty by which they were to help him, although they had hitherto supported the House of Aragon. Alexander could not have had a better excuse for crushing them; accordingly June 1, 1496, in public consistory he had a bull read declaring Virginio, Gian Giordano, Paolo and Carlo Orsini, and Bartolomeo d’Alviano rebels and deprived of their estates for having sided with the French and borne arms against the Church. Their ruin was hastened by the surrender of Aversa, July 23rd, when Virginio, the head of the family, was taken prisoner.
To carry out his plan the Pope summoned his son Giovanni, Duke of Gandia, to Rome, intending to confer on him the office of Gonfalonier of the papal forces, a position his elder brother, Pier Luigi, had previously held. Giovanni was born in 1474; he was therefore two years older than Caesar. In 1492 he had married Doña Maria Enriquez, a niece of the Catholic Sovereigns, and he seemed destined for a great career.
When Giovanni reached Rome, August 10, 1496, the Cardinal of Valencia, accompanied by the entire Court on horseback, went to meet him at the Porta Pertusa, and escorted him in great state to the papal palace.
Giovanni found his sister Lucretia and his brother Giuffre married into two of the great families of the peninsula and his brother Caesar an enormously wealthy Prince of the Church.
So many benefices had been conferred on him that he was one of the richest of the cardinals. At this time Caesar’s secretary was Carlo Valgulio of Brescia, a famous scholar, who dedicated his “De Contemplatione Orbium Excelsorum Disputatio,” a translation from Cleomedes, to his master with the usual flattery.
Towards the end of October the Duke of Gandia was made Captain-General of the Pontifical forces, and, together with the Duke of Urbino and several of the Colonna, with all his men, arms, and machines of war, set out for Anguillara for the purpose of seizing the estates of the Orsini.
In less than a month they took ten castles, but during this time Bartolomeo d’Alviano made a raid up to the very walls of Rome and just missed capturing Caesar, who was hunting; the cardinal only saved himself by flight.