Caesar Borgia: A Study of the Renaissance

by John Leslie Garner

The extraordinary record of events in the Vatican, Burchard’s Diarium, breaks off abruptly in February, 1503, not to be resumed again until the following August, but Caesar’s presence in and about Rome is attested by numerous documents and letters.

Louis XII. having established a league comprising Florence, Siena, Lucca, and Bologna, Pandolfo Petrucci, escorted by a French troop, returned to Siena, March 29, 1503. Discord, however, arose among the allies and gave Caesar renewed hope. The dominion of the Pope and his son Caesar did not extend beyond the Patrimonium Petri and even there it was limited by Ferrara and Bologna. Valentino, profiting by conditions in the Regno, began to plot with Spain, who saw in him an able ally against France.

In April, 1503, Gonsalvo de Cordova had begun a brilliant campaign in Apulia; the French commanders Aubigny and Nemours were repeatedly defeated and finally Gonsalvo entered Naples, May 14th, the remnant of the French forces retreating to Gaeta.

Louis XII. sent all the troops he had at Genoa, under the command of the Marquis of Saluzzo, to aid the beleaguered army in Gaeta and in the meantime Gonsalvo had decided to attempt the capture of the place and also of Castel Nuovo, the last strongholds of the French. The latter place surrendered, but the former held out until the arrival of the Marquis of Saluzzo, who forced the Spaniards to retreat to Naples. In the meantime Prospero Colonna, who was in the service of Spain, had been uniformly successful in Calabria and the Abruzzi.

Caesar and the Pope anxiously followed the course of events in the south; the defeat of France would permit them to renew their efforts against Siena and Perugia, and also against Giangiordano Orsini. Valentino could accept the lordship of Siena, which the inhabitants had offered him but which Louis, out of regard for Florence, had compelled him to refuse, and once in possession of Pisa he could attack Florence.

Caesar had been forced to defer his own projects in Romagna because of the sending of forces from Genoa by Louis to aid the besieged at Gaeta. By his agreement he was required to assist the King of France, and he had already dispatched some of his captains—among them Fracasso and the Count of Mirandola—to the French camp, and by the middle of July he had gathered a considerable force about Perugia.

The rumours that the Pope and Caesar were plotting with Spain continued, and the tyrants whom they had been endeavouring to crush asked permission of the King of France to proceed against the Duke. Above all, Guidobaldo di Montefeltre hoped his relative, the Marquis of Mantua, would help him to return to Urbino.

In the meantime—July 28th—in public consistory, the Pope announced Caesar’s departure for the field. August 7th the Venetian ambassador wrote that the Pope had told him Caesar would set forth the following day; at the same time his Holiness stated, placing his hand on his heart and swearing on the word of Christ’s Vicar, that it was not his intention to engage in any undertaking against any one, but simply to attend to his own affairs, and especially the state of Urbino, where, he said, “those in San Leo are constantly trying something new.” Then, turning to Cardinal Adriano, he said: “Bring these Florentine shopkeepers here to-morrow—I wish to assure them that the Duke’s expedition is not against them, or any one else, unless some one should justly provoke him”—and he displayed considerable impatience.

The heat in Italy that year—1503—was intense, and the plague broke out in Rome and elsewhere. The 1st of August Cardinal Borgia of Monreale was stricken, and the 9th Alexander prepared a bull appointing the Cardinal of Este perpetual administrator of the diocese; the bull, however, was never issued, for the Pope himself and Valentino fell ill of the plague August 12th.

The next day the Holy Father was bled and he seemed somewhat better, for he called a number of the cardinals to his bedside and interested himself in watching them play cards. The 14th the fever returned and again the 16th. The doors of the palace were closed and the physician and attendants were not allowed to leave his Holiness. Then they bethought them of a saintly woman who lived immured in a cell in the Vatican and asked her to pray for the Holy Father, but she said that there was no hope. August 18th the Pope confessed to the Bishop of Carniola and then, seated on the bed, received the Sacrament. The same evening the Bishop administered the extreme unction and, in the presence of the datary and a few officials of the palace, the monster who for eleven years had occupied the throne of St. Peter expired.