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.
The campaign in Romagna had been decided upon and Caesar found himself at the head of a thoroughly disciplined and well-equipped force of about sixteen thousand men who were held in camp at Cesena.
Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, whose brother was assured Sinigaglia by the betrothal of his nephew, Francesco, with Angela Borgia, abandoned his kinsmen, the Riario, to their destruction. In a letter dated October 12, 1499, the cardinal thanked the Pope for the proposed marriage and promised to look after Valentino’s interests with the King of France.
November 9th the army broke camp, Caesar taking the cavalry to Piacenza, whence, accompanied by the Bishop of Tulle and a single servant, he came quietly to Rome and remained at the Vatican with the Pope until the 24th, when he rejoined his troops and set out for Imola. Girolamo Riario’s wife, Caterina Sforza, had been given Imola as part of her dowry and, her husband having died in 1488, she acted as regent for her son Ottaviano. Of Caterina Sforza Gregorovius says: “The grandchild of the great Francesco Sforza of Milan, natural daughter of Galeazzo Maria and sister of Bianca, wife of the Emperor Maximilian, she was the ideal of the heroic women of Italy who were found not merely in the poems of Bojardo and Ariosto but also in real life. To understand the evolution of such personalities, in whom beauty and culture, courage and reason, sensuality and cruelty combined to produce a singular organisation, we must be familiar with the conditions from which they sprang—Caterina Sforza’s experiences made her the amazon that she was.”
Shortly after her marriage to the untutored nephew of Sixtus IV., Girolamo Riario, Count of Forli, her father met a tyrant’s death in Milan. Subsequently her husband was stabbed to death and his naked body flung from the walls of the castle of Forli by conspirators. Caterina, however, ferociously avenged the murder of her husband and succeeded in holding his estates for her children. Six years later her brother, Gian Galeazzo, died of poison administered by Ludovico il Moro. Finally her second husband, Giacomo Feo of Savona, was slain by conspirators in Forli, and the heroic Caterina mounted her charger and with a small body of men pursued them to their lair and put them all to the sword, with their women and children—thus she deserved Sanudo’s description, “a courageous woman and most cruel virago.”
Towns taken by assault
Towns surrendered
MAP OF THE CAMPAIGN IN ROMAGNA. TOWNS UNDER CAESAR BORGIA’S RULE.
She ruled her little domain with force and cunning; and later, when she fell into Caesar’s clutches, few lamented her fate and Giangiacomo Trivulzio cynically remarked: “She has now fallen into the hands of two men who can satisfy all her desires.”
She was a woman of heroic character, such as the Renaissance described as a virago, a term expressive of admiration, not reproach. The virago corresponded to the man who possessed what the Italian called virtu, which has nothing to do with virtue, but which comprises energy, intellect, will, the sum total of attributes which enabled a man successfully to cope with his adversaries—in brief, the qualities most dear to the Italian heart of the fifteenth century.