Men being products of history, under similar conditions similar men will be produced; but as they in the aggregate are the makers of history there is a constant mutation in conditions and therefore ceaseless change in men.
In every epoch there are men who although in many respects unlike their prototypes resemble them in others, and bear a close relationship to them. Unchecked egoism asserts itself in every age, but the mode of its expression varies according to the institutions of the day.
In Italy from the twelfth to the sixteenth century this egoism was embodied in the tyrant or despot; it has found expression in the absolute monarch, and in the present bourgeois epoch it is exemplified in the captain of industry, the domineering genius of modern finance.
In the fifteenth century Italy was swarming with tyrants great and small—men of boundless ambition and greed, striving for power, deterred by no principle, hesitating at no crime. Duplicity, treachery, murder, had become fine arts.
A host of adventurers, upstarts, brigands, soldiers of fortune, had managed to secure possession of the domain of St. Peter and were building up petty principalities for themselves and their kinsmen. Originally these tyrants were feudatories of the Holy See, which based its claim to the territory on the donation of the Countess Matilda, who, dying in 1115, left her vast estates, which extended from Mantua to Pisa and thence almost to the walls of Rome, to the Pope.
As soon as these vassals of the Holy See felt themselves strong enough they refused all allegiance and declined to pay their annual tribute. Alexander VI. was thus afforded an excellent pretext for attempting to recover St. Peter’s domain—and this he set about doing, ostensibly for the Church, but in reality to build up a kingdom in central Italy for the benefit of his family.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| INTRODUCTION | |
| The Renaissance—The Papacy in the fifteenth century—The Borgia | [23] |
| CHAPTER I | |
| Genealogy of the House of Borgia—Vannozza de’ Catanei—Birth of Caesar Borgia—His youth | [68] |
| CHAPTER II | |
| Charles VIII. invades Italy—Caesar a hostage—Caesar leaves the King’s camp—The League against France—Charles enters Rome—Caesar appointed Governor of Orvieto—The Pope conceives the idea of recovering Romagna—He declares the Romagnol barons rebels—The Pope summons his son, the Duke of Gandia, from Spain to command the papal troops—Charles VIII. aids the Romagnol barons—Giuffre Borgia and his wife, Doña Sancia, of Naples, come to Rome—Caesar appointed Legate to crown the King of Naples | [87] |
| CHAPTER III | |
| The murder of the Duke of Gandia—Caesar departs to crown the King of Naples—He returns to Rome—The Pope’s projected matrimonial alliances for his children | [107] |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| Louis XII. succeeds to the throne of France—His bargain with the Pope—Caesar prepares to go to France—He renounces his cardinalate—He arrives in Avignon, where he meets Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere—Louis XII. and Caesar meet—Caesar’s entry into Chinon—Duke of Valentinois—Caesar’s shrewdness—Charlotte D’Albret—Her marriage to Caesar—The projected conquest of Milan—Ludovico il Moro—The French army invades Italy—Caesar leaves France—He enters Milan with Louis XII. | [122] |
| CHAPTER V | |
| The first campaign in Romagna—Imola surrenders—Caterina Sforza, the type of the virago—Caesar enters Forli—Death of Cardinal Giovanni Borgia—Return of Ludovico il Moro to Milan—Caesar goes to Rome—His entrance into the city—He is invested with the Vicariate of Romagna—Delegates from Imola and Forli request the Pope to appoint Caesar Governor—Caesar is made Gonfalonier of the Church—His oath—Caesar’s physical strength—His personal appearance | [139] |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| Murder of Alfonso of Naples, Duke of Bisceglie—The second campaign in Romagna—Pesaro surrenders—Caesar’s private life—Pandolfaccio Malatesta gives up Rimini—Astorre Manfredi—Faenza’s brave resistance—The Pope threatens Bologna—Faenza surrenders—Caesar returns to Rome—Astorre Manfredi flung into prison—Giovanni Bentivoglio—Giuliano and Piero de’ Medici—Caesar’s agreement with Florence—Piombino invested—Caesar returns to Rome—Coalition of the Pope and the King of France for the destruction of the House of Naples—Yves d’Allegre comes to Rome—Berault Stuart, commander of the French army, enters the city | [157] |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| The expedition against Naples—The taking of Capua—Naples surrenders—Caesar returns to Rome—The orgy in his apartments in the Vatican—The Pope divides the conquered territory in Romagna among his family—Negotiations for the marriage of Lucretia Borgia and Alfonso d’Este—Caesar receives the Ferrarese envoys—Lucretia’s marriage—Her character—The Pope and Caesar go to Piombino—They visit Elba—Caesar and Leonardo da Vinci | [181] |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| The third campaign in Romagna—Caesar goes to Spoleto—The Duke of Urbino flees to Florence—Valentino takes possession of Urbino—Florence sends envoys to him—Machiavelli’s first impressions of Caesar—The King of France warns Valentino not to molest Florence—Caesar plunders the palace of Urbino—Michael Angelo’s “Cupid”—Camerino surrenders to Valentino’s lieutenants—Louis XII. receives Caesar and Alfonso d’Este at Milan—The King and Valentino enter into an agreement—Caesar goes to Imola—Affairs of Bologna—Valentino prepares to attack Giovanni Bentivoglio, of Bologna | [194] |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| The conspiracy of Caesar’s captains—Machiavelli and Valentino—Vacillation of the conspirators—They offer to return to Caesar—They again take heart—A reconciliation is effected—Caesar separates the conspirators—He enters into an alliance with Bentivoglio—The rebels return to Caesar—Paolo Orsini takes possession of Urbino in Caesar’s name—Execution of Don Remiro de Lorca—Caesar goes to Senigaglia, and meets his commanders—The trap at Senigaglia—Fate of the rebels—Caesar informs the Italian princes of his act—The Orsini and their adherents in Rome are seized—Cardinal Orsini’s palace is plundered—Fermo and Perugia surrender to Valentino—He puts Paolo and Francesco Orsini to death—Cardinal Orsini dies in prison—Caesar demands that the Sienese expel Pandolfo Petrucci—He ravages the country about Siena—Activity of the Orsini in the neighbourhood of Rome—Caesar returns to Rome—He lays siege to Ceri—Contemporary opinions of the Pope and Caesar—Gonsalvo de Cordova in Naples—The Pope and Caesar are stricken by the plague—Death of Alexander VI.—Rumours of poison—Caesar recovers—He takes possession of the dead Pope’s property | [206] |
| CHAPTER X | |
| The enemies of the Borgia pour into Rome—Fears of the Sacred College—Orsini and Colonna—The Cardinals and Valentino—Caesar enters into an agreement with France—The Cardinal d’Amboise—Scheming before the conclave—Caesar leaves Rome—Return of Giuliano della Rovere—The conclave—Election of Francesco Piccolomini to the Papacy—The new Pope supports Caesar—Valentino’s fortunes ebb—Death of Pius III.—Machinations preparatory to electing his successor | [242] |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| Election of Giuliano della Rovere—Julius II. and Caesar Borgia—Caesar leaves Rome—Machiavelli and Caesar—Arrest of Caesar—Victory of Gonsalvo de Cordova at the Garigliano—Caesar goes to Naples—Gonsalvo seizes Valentino and sends him to Spain—Caesar imprisoned in the Castle of Chinchilla—Jeanne la Folle and Philippe le Beau—Caesar is transferred to the Castle of Medina del Campo—His escape | [266] |
| CHAPTER XII | |
| Caesar arrives at the Court of his brother-in-law, the King of Navarre—D’Albret’s danger—The Agramont and Beaumont factions—Beaumont holds Viana—War is declared between D’Albret and Beaumont—Caesar is appointed commander of the troops of the King of Navarre—Viana—The chronicler Moret—Caesar is killed—The body is buried in Santa Maria de Viana—His epitaph—Removal of the body and destruction of the tomb—The news of Caesar’s death reaches Italy—The feeling in the Peninsula—Caesar’s wife Charlotte D’Albret and their descendants—His illegitimate children—Death of Caesar’s mother, Vannozza de’ Catanei—Conclusion | [297] |
| Index | [313] |