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 Sinigaglia and meets his commanders—The trap at Sinigaglia—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.

Caesar’s preparations for attacking Milan were the signal for the final rupture with his captains, who met at Todi, where they had concentrated their troops. Here they entered into a formal agreement to refuse to obey any of Caesar’s orders directed against their ally Giovanni Bentivoglio. The first meeting was held about the end of September, and a second one took place a little later at Magione, near Perugia. Those present were Ermes and Annibale Bentivoglio, Cardinal Orsini, the Duke of Gravina, two other members of the Orsini family, Guido Petrucci (who also represented Pandolfo Petrucci), and Gentile and Giampaolo Baglioni. Vitellozzo Vitelli, who was ill, had himself carried to the meeting on a litter. At this meeting of the conspirators it was resolved not only to refuse to attack Bentivoglio but also to take active steps against Caesar, their former commander.

October 2nd news of the conspiracy reached the Vatican. In the north Bentivoglio was advancing on Imola; in the south the Orsini and Vitelli were preparing to attack Urbino. Caesar was in Imola awaiting the arrival of the French lances, and there he learned of the revolt of his lieutenants. The loss of the Orsini was especially serious, and he endeavoured to win them over from the conspirators. In the meantime he sent out agents to enlist new troops. As soon as the condition of affairs became known soldiers of fortune hastened to him from all directions; among the first to appear were Gasparo Sanseverino, Luigi della Mirandola, Galeazzo Palavicini, Raffaelle de’ Pazzi, Ranieri della Sassetta, and Francesco de Luna. The Romagnols hurried to his assistance, and he placed them under the command of his ablest leaders, Dionigi di Naldo, Marc Antonio di Fano, Gabrielle da Faenza, Guido di Vaini, and Giovanni Sassatelli. To his Spanish captains he entrusted the command of the cities and strongholds, upon which the security of his new duchy depended.

In the meantime the Pope had used his influence with Giulio Orsini, who was now ready to desert Vitelli, while Pandolfo Petrucci, dismayed by the preparations Caesar was making to crush his enemies, dispatched a messenger to Imola to assure his former commander of his loyalty.

To secure the support of Florence Caesar now requested the Republic to send an ambassador to him to confer on matters of mutual interest, and again the envoy selected was Machiavelli.

No other man was so well fitted as he to read the devious mind of Valentino; he had given evidence of the greatest perspicacity and shrewdness, and if any one was a match for the son of Alexander VI. the Florentine secretary was. Not only his friends the Adriani, the Soderini, the Valori, but even his opponents approved of the selection. Machiavelli accepted his commission eagerly; he was naturally restless and was intensely interested in the political life of the day. He had met Caesar a few months before, and he regarded him as the Italian ideal, a personification of virtu, the aggregation of the qualities most dear to the Italian heart; it is therefore not surprising that he eagerly embraced the opportunity to study Valentino and match wits with him.

Machiavelli having promised his young wife, Marietta di Ludovico Corsini, whom he had married but a few months before, that he would return in eight days, set out for Imola. On the road he met Agapito Gerardino, Caesar’s secretary, on his way to Florence to ask aid of the Signory. The Pope also, foreseeing the danger, had dispatched an envoy to the Republic. Caesar’s secretary decided to turn back and accompany Machiavelli to Imola, where they arrived October 7th.

Machiavelli explained to Valentino that he had come to assure him of the friendship of the Republic and to inform him that it had refused to join his enemies. Valentino received the envoy cordially, and thanked him for the professions of friendship on the part of his Government. They discussed the political situation at great length, and Caesar appeared very anxious to conclude some sort of an agreement with Florence for their mutual support, but Machiavelli was unable to get any very definite suggestion from the Duke. The Borgia, who was then only twenty-six, showed himself a consummate diplomatist and more than a match for the Florentine secretary.

October 9th Machiavelli had another interview with Caesar, who, to strengthen the demands he had made for an alliance with Florence, produced a letter from the King of France in which aid was promised for the undertaking against Bologna. Valentino seemed much elated. “Now, you see, secretary, this letter is an answer to my request for permission to attack Bologna.”

Machiavelli did not allow himself to be deceived by Caesar’s astuteness and eloquence, but he carefully weighed the causes for the Duke’s confidence in the success of his projects; he estimated his actual military strength and the number of troops he could collect, and he found that Caesar was far from weak, but also that his enemies were much more powerful than he had represented them to be.

The Florentine was greatly impressed by Valentino’s astuteness, but he was, nevertheless, able to discern his real purpose. Caesar had boldly stated that if he effected a reconciliation with the Orsini it would be impossible for him to enter into any treaty of friendship with their enemy Florence, and Machiavelli knew that this was true, consequently he wrote the Signory that it would be well to make some sort of compact with the Duke at once.

Machiavelli’s first impressions of Caesar were vague and uncertain. The Duke was not more perspicacious than the secretary, but he had greater self-control, had a sharper insight into motives, and he possessed powers of dissimulation which Machiavelli entirely lacked. Above all else Caesar was perfect master of himself. He therefore succeeded in hiding much of his real purpose from the secretary.

The Signory of Florence, however, attached the greatest importance to Machiavelli’s report of his interviews with Caesar, and Valori wrote him, October 11th, saying his “relation was clear cut, exact, and sincere—and to be relied upon.”

Among the conspirators it had been decided that Bentivoglio should attack Romagna, while the Orsini and Vitelli should try to take Urbino. Some of the leaders had hesitated and the plan was still in abeyance when an unexpected event gave them new courage.

The Castle of San Leo, the bulwark of Urbino, was seized by a supporter of the Montefeltre early in October, and Caesar had been informed of the fact before Machiavelli reached Imola. Valentino was not disturbed by the news, and the Florentine envoy says that he expressed his pity for those who had chosen such an unfavourable moment to attack him; he made light of the loss of a State he had no intention of retaining; he could recover it any time he saw fit. He even showed Machiavelli copies of the orders he had sent his lieutenants to retire within their lines of defence.

These commanders, Ugo Moncada, Michelotto de Corella, Bartolomeo Capranica, and Giovanni de Cordova, retreated, but destroyed the villages that lay in their way, delivering them over to fire and pillage. Pergola and Fossombrone were laid waste and all their inhabitants, men, women, and children, put to the sword. The news of these crimes reached Imola October 12th, and Caesar exultingly exclaimed to Machiavelli, “The stars this year seem to be unfavourable to rebels!”

One after another the towns in Urbino revolted, but still the conspirators hesitated. Paolo Orsini announced that he would return to Caesar if he would relinquish his intention of attacking Bologna and direct his energies against Florence; Vitelli, at first the most active of the conspirators, now offered to follow Valentino if he would assure him of his safety. That all Italy was afraid of Caesar and the Pope there is no doubt.

The Duke pretended to believe in the sincerity of his captains and received them again into his favour; he even dispatched them to the support of the garrisons in Urbino that were still loyal to him. Vitelli had advanced as far as Castel-Durante, and the Baglioni were at Cagli. The Orsini were in the neighbourhood of the stronghold of San Leo, holding aloof from both Caesar and Montefeltre, who had taken refuge in Venice, where he had recruited a considerable number of troops. October 12th a courier arrived in Urbino with the news that Montefeltre was advancing to the aid of the garrison. This meant that Venice was helping the conspirators, who consequently again took heart and threw off the mask. The 15th the Orsini, who had apparently been willing to return to Caesar, fell upon the troops of Ugo Moncada and made him prisoner. Michelotto was forced to flee to Fossombrone, and a few days later the Duke of Urbino again entered his capital.

Had the conspirators with their united forces attacked Caesar at this moment, it is highly probable that he would have lost the greater part of his domain; but each appeared to be concerned only with his own interests and much time was lost by remaining inactive in Urbino. Finally the rebels began to be suspicious of each other. Giampaolo Baglioni, knowing that Fano was Caesar’s most loyal town, asked permission to enter as his lieutenant. Pandolfo Petrucci of Perugia had always hesitated because he feared the Borgia would finally outwit the conspirators; and a few days after the return of the Duke of Urbino he sent a messenger to suggest in the name of all that a new treaty or agreement be made by which they would again enter his service and recover the territory which had been lost.

Louis XII., unable to accomplish his purpose with respect to Naples without the help of Alexander VI., declared those who opposed the Holy Father’s plans regarding the Romagna were also his enemies. The King had promptly discovered the part Venice had played in effecting the return of Montefeltre to Urbino, consequently he threatened the Republic with his wrath in case it lent any further aid whatsoever to the enemies of Valentino; this again strengthened Caesar. Furnished with a safe conduct from Valentino, Paolo Orsini came to Imola October 20th, and the terms of a reconciliation having been arranged, he was allowed to depart unharmed a few days later. All were to be forgiven, and Caesar agreed to protect the estate of each of his lieutenants, and in return they were to defend him and his territory and those of the Pope, and, theoretically at least, also those of all the princes of the House of Borgia. There was to be a special agreement regarding Bologna, and Cardinal Orsini, Pandolfo Petrucci, and Valentino himself were chosen to arrange the terms.

Machiavelli heard Caesar’s confidant, Agapito of Amelia, laugh at the conspirators and speak of them as rebels after the compact had been signed—“a child would laugh at such a treaty.” In Rome, too, the agreement was not regarded very seriously.

Only a short time elapsed between Paolo Orsini’s departure from Imola and his arrival in Urbino, where he informed Vitelli of the terms of the agreement he had signed in the name of the conspirators with Valentino. In the meantime Vitelli had been very active; he had aided the Duke of Urbino in every way possible; he had attacked Caesar’s lieutenants, and had even put some of his civil officers to death. Oliverotto da Fermo, another of the conspirators, had been equally active and Baglioni had not been idle. Romagna, however, had remained faithful to Caesar.

Vitelli rejected Caesar’s offer and persuaded Baglioni also to join him in supporting the Duke of Urbino. The situation, however, was serious. Caesar was frequently heard to remark that he was “eating the artichoke leaf by leaf.” Having detached Petrucci and Orsini from the band of conspirators, he endeavoured to win over Bentivoglio. Finally an agreement was reached with the Lord of Bologna and the treaty was signed in Rome by his representative, Francesco Parato and the Pope’s chamberlain, Michele Romolino. Giovanni Bentivoglio had been left to his fate by the conspirators, and when he entered into the treaty with the Vatican he was acting solely in his own interests without regard to any of the others. The treaty, whose purpose was to assure the integrity of the domain of the two parties, was signed in the Vatican November 23rd. The King of France, the Duke of Ferrara, and the Signory of Florence stood sponsors for the alliance. Bologna agreed to furnish Valentino a hundred men-at-arms and two hundred light cavalry “for one or two enterprises the Duke was planning.” In addition Caesar was engaged by Bologna as a condottiere at an annual salary of 12,000 ducats. The treaty was finally signed November 23rd and was sent to Caesar for ratification.

Giustinian, the Venetian ambassador, in his dispatch of that date reports that he had heard that Cardinal Orsini and the Bolognese envoy had engaged in a violent altercation in the presence of the Pope, the former charging Bentivoglio’s representative with endeavouring to effect an agreement with Caesar and the Vatican without regard to the Orsini.

Vitellozzo Vitelli, finding himself deserted, hastened to accept the terms offered him in Caesar’s name by Paolo Orsini, who, bringing the agreement signed by all the conspirators, arrived in Imola November 27th, before Valentino had formally ratified the treaty between Bologna and the Pope. Two days later Orsini set out for Fano to assume command of the troops and advance on Urbino. He was accompanied by Antonio del Monte, Valentino’s special commissioner for the city of Urbino, bearing letters of amnesty for the rebels, and delegated to take possession of the duchy in the name of his master.

His recent comrades having sworn to recover Urbino, Guidobaldo di Montefeltre gave himself up for lost. In vain some of his loyal subjects urged him to resist; at Valbona the women offered him their jewels to procure means to secure troops and supplies, but he decided to flee. Before doing so he had the strongholds of Pergola and Cagli razed. Early in December Paolo Orsini entered the domain of the Montefeltre and, halting a few miles from Urbino, sent a messenger to ask for an interview with Guidobaldo, who was suffering from an attack of the gout and had to be borne on a litter to the place of meeting. December 7th he took leave of such of his subjects as had remained faithful, and two days later Paolo Orsini entered Urbino and assumed the office of Governor of the domain of the Montefeltre, although the four strongest castles in the territory, San Leo, Maggiolo, Montecuccolo, and San Marino were still held by Vitelli, who, notwithstanding the fact that he had signed the agreement with Caesar, still seemed to be hesitating as to his course.

December 10th Valentino departed for Forli and from there he went to Cesena, where he made preparations to go to Rome by way of Ancona. It had been decided to make war on Sinigaglia, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere having failed to convince the Pope and the King that he had not aided Guidobaldo di Montefeltre in the last rebellion. The Cardinal exerted himself to save his nephew’s estates but failed.

The day before Caesar left Cesena for Pesaro a terrible sight met the eyes of the peasants as they entered the town in the early morning bringing supplies. Thrown in the public square was a bleeding and headless corpse clothed in a rich costume; near by, impaled on a pike, was the head, which the inhabitants of the capital of Romagna immediately recognised as that of their Governor, Don Remiro de Lorca. One of Caesar’s political maxims was: leniency for small offenders, severity for great ones. Numerous charges of malfeasance in office—among others that of having sold for his own profit grain which Valentino had imported—had been made against the Governor and he had been tried “to satisfy justice and our honour, and that of those he had injured—and as a salutary example for all public officials present and to come,” condemned, and executed.

Machiavelli, who saw the body exposed in the public square, observes: “It is not clearly known what was the cause of his death—unless it was simply the pleasure of the prince, who shows that he knows how to make and unmake men according to their deserts.” There were rumours, however, that Don Remiro had been plotting with Caesar’s enemies.

The 29th of the month, while in Fano, which had remained faithful to him, Valentino received a delegation from the citizens of Ancona, who had come to assure him of their loyalty. With them was a messenger from Vitelli, bringing news of the capture of Sinigaglia, after a feeble resistance, about the end of December, 1502.

Caesar’s commanders, to prove their good faith, had not only offered their services for his movement against Sinigaglia but several of them had gone there in person. Paolo Orsini and his son Fabio, Francesco Orsini, Duke of Gravina, and Oliverotto da Fermo were there, and Vitellozzo Vitelli and one of his nephews appeared on the 30th. The only ones absent were Giampaoli Baglioni, who, distrustful of Caesar, had sent him word from Perugia that he was ill; and Giulio Orsini, who was in Rome under the protection of the all-powerful head of the house, Cardinal Orsini.

How astute men, living in an age of unparalleled duplicity, when every man’s hand was against his neighbour, when treachery and assassination were regarded as fine arts, and poison and poignard perfectly proper tools in political machinations, could have rushed into such a trap is difficult to understand. Caesar’s character was known to all of them; he was more than a match for any one of them in cunning, intellect, astuteness, determination, and what is of still more importance, he had even less moral sense; he had frequently shown that mercy, compassion, pity, were no part of his nature, and these men, having betrayed him, conspired to destroy him, ruin him, rob him of the estates he regarded as his own, deliberately placed themselves in his power! It would not have been surprising if one or two had been deceived, but there were seven or eight; in fact, there was only one, Baglioni, who had not fallen into the trap.

The only explanation is that the conspirators were utterly panic-stricken; they found their coalition was gradually being weakened by Valentino—in fact, that he was “eating the artichoke leaf by leaf” as he said—and that they were doomed; they perhaps thought that by surrendering and again entering his employ there would be at least a chance of being forgiven; with many men this would have been the case, but they had failed to grasp what was perhaps Caesar’s chief characteristic, his utter implacability, which, in conjunction with his extraordinary powers of dissimulation, made him the most dangerous of the Italian despots. All the members of his own family, not excepting his father, the Pope, feared him. He possessed all the characteristics of all the other Italian condottieri but in a more highly developed form. Caesar immediately saw that the hour for vengeance had arrived—all the rebels were together.

The conspirators informed the Duke that the territory had surrendered to them, but that the stronghold still held out because, as the warder said, he would relinquish it only to the Duke in person.

The 30th of December Caesar sent them word from Fano that he would be in Sinigaglia the next day with the artillery to reduce the castle in case it still refused to yield.

December 31st the army left Fano with Don Michele and two hundred lances in the van, followed by Caesar with the men-at-arms. When they reached the bridge crossing the Misa just before Sinigaglia, Don Michele halted the light horse to allow the infantry to pass and enter the town.

Oliverotto da Fermo had remained in the city, but Paolo and Francesco Orsini and Vitellozzo Vitelli, who had taken possession of some of the neighbouring castles, came to meet Caesar, who received them graciously, shook hands with them in the “French fashion” and kissed them. According to Machiavelli, seeing that Oliverotto was not with them, Caesar made a sign to Michele to go and find him, which he did and told him to come with him to Caesar.

Valentino entered Sinigaglia on horseback, riding between Vitellozzo Vitelli and Francesco Orsini, and on arriving at the palace the four prepared to take leave of him, but he asked them to go in with him to confer—or perhaps to have luncheon. This they did, but no sooner had they passed the portals than they were seized by Valentino’s guard. The accounts differ in some unimportant details but the above is the generally accepted one.

That evening when Machiavelli reached Sinigaglia he found the streets filled with soldiers and the place in a tumult. As he was about to enter the palace he saw the Duke come forth, armed from head to foot, mounted on his charger. Caesar called the Ambassador to him and told him of the arrest of the Orsini and Vitelli. The Florentine secretary was dazzled by this masterpiece of treachery which he described as il bellissimo inganno—“the most beautiful piece of deception.”

When news of the capture reached the troops of Vitelli and Orsini they at once realised their danger, and rallying about Fabio Orsini and Vitelli’s nephew, withdrew from the town. Encountering no further opposition, Caesar’s men overran the place, robbing, plundering, violating, until he himself issued from the palace with a guard and hanged a number of the rioters in the public square.

Caesar decided to take Orsini to Rome, while Oliverotto and Vitelli were condemned to death after a semblance of a trial, the Duke apparently desiring to give his action an appearance of right. The order was given for them to be executed the same night. It is related that the youthful and proud Oliverotto tried to stab himself to avoid the shame of death at the hands of the executioner. As to Vitelli—“in his last hour he showed himself unworthy of his past life, for he begged to be allowed to plead with the Pope for forgiveness—and Oliverotto turned his back on him.” At the tenth hour of the night they were strangled.

Immediately after the execution Caesar wrote all his friends among the Italian princes telling them what he had done; his officers had conspired to destroy him, and although he had forgiven them they had met at Sinigaglia expressly for the purpose of again entering into a compact to secure his overthrow; having learned of this, he himself had gone to that place with his troops and seized the traitors, who had been duly tried and condemned. The letter to Venice concludes with the remark, “I am certain your SerenitÀ will be pleased.” To the Romagnols he wrote: “All the world ought to be pleased, and especially Italy, seeing that by their death the country is relieved of a dangerous pest,” and he urges them to “thank God for putting an end to the calamities the country suffered owing to these misguided ones,” who, it may be observed, had until recently been among his most capable commanders.

Many of the princes congratulated Caesar, and Isabella d’Este sent him a present of some masks, and in her letter referred to the “favourable progress you are making.”

During the night of January 2, 1503, news was brought the Pope of the capture of Sinigaglia, and the next morning he sent a messenger to Cardinal Orsini to inform him that he desired his presence.

According to the Master of Ceremonies, when the cardinal and his suite reached the apostolic palace their horses and mules were led away to the Pope’s stables, and when Orsini entered the Chamber of the Papagalli he found himself surrounded by armed men and—says Burchard—was frightened.

The Prothonotary Orsini, Bernardino d’Alviano, brother of the condottiere Bartolomeo, Santa Croce, a supporter of the Orsini, and Rinaldo Orsini, Archbishop of Florence, were arrested at the same time. Santa Croce, however, having promised that he would appear when wanted and given bonds, was set at liberty, but Cardinal Orsini was thrown into prison in the Castle of St. Angelo, and the Governor of Rome took possession of his palace and personal property.

January 3rd the Holy Father informed the Signory of Florence of what had taken place at Sinigaglia and in Rome, and the following day he told Giustinian that Caesar’s commanders and Remiro de Lorca, Governor of Romagna, had conspired to destroy him, and that this was the reason Remiro had been executed at Cesena. A few days later nearly the entire Sacred College went to the Pope to ask him to release their colleague Cardinal Orsini, but the Holy Father insisted that he had been the very heart and soul of the conspiracy and refused to accede to their wishes; he also justified Caesar’s action and showed that he regarded the terrible vengeance he had wrecked on his condottieri as a brilliant stroke of genius.

Giustinian gives particulars of the plundering of Cardinal Orsini’s palace. “Everything, even to the straw, was carried away and taken to the Vatican. A vast quantity of silver vessels was found there—estimated to be worth more than 10,000 ducats—the most beautiful tapestries and other household furniture—of money it is not known how much, but it is said to have been less than had been at first supposed. The cardinal’s mother was dragged from the house with only what she had on her back, and a few of her maids. The cardinal was taken to S. Angelo and every one has given him up for dead.”

In his dispatch of January 5, 1503, the ambassador says that Pope Alexander held a convocation the evening before and explained to the cardinals why he had imprisoned Cardinal Orsini, and he also informed them that everything he had heard regarding the prelate’s treachery toward himself and Caesar had been confirmed since his imprisonment; that all this and more, too, was true. The cardinals begged for mercy for their colleague, to which his Holiness replied that he would be governed by a sense of justice in whatever he did with respect to Orsini; that he would see that he was not wronged, and was treated with perfect justice; then he assured them of his love and of his appreciation of their recommendation—and his words confirmed all in their belief that he intended to have Orsini put to death.

The same day the Pope’s son Giuffre and Jacopo Santa Croce, probably as the cardinal’s representative for form’s sake, with an adequate force rode to Mount Rotundo, and in the name of his Holiness took possession of it and of all the other property of the Orsini, including the abbey of Farfa.

The day after the murder of Vitelli and Oliverotto Caesar set out for Perugia and Siena, having with him his prisoners Paolo and Francesco Orsini. Before he left Sinigaglia Andrea Doria had surrendered the citadel to him on receiving Caesar’s permission to retire whithersoever he wished.

On the way Valentino took possession of Vitelli’s capital, CittÀ di Castello, which had been abandoned by the inhabitants. Then he set out for Perugia, where the Duke of Urbino and the Prince of Camerino, Vitelli’s nephew, had found refuge under the protection of Giampaolo Baglioni, who had announced his intention of resisting. Caesar had, however, no sooner reached Gualdo—January 5th—than the Duke of Urbino fled to Pitigliano, and Baglioni, abandoning his wife and children, who fell into the hands of Caesar’s men, made his escape, and joined Pandolfo Petrucci in Siena.

Their leaders having deserted them, the people of Fermo and Perugia sent messengers to Valentino offering him their allegiance, which he accepted, and, having appointed Vincenzo Calmeto and Agapito Gerardino Governors of these places, he set out for Siena. When he reached Assisi—January 7th—he was met by envoys from Siena, come to ask him what terms he would grant. His first demand was that they surrender Pandolfo Petrucci, and without waiting for an answer he pressed forward in the direction of Castel della Pieve. While there he made public the treaty into which he had entered with Giovanni Bentivoglio, who, to prove his sincerity, immediately announced that he was ready to dispatch the troops he had agreed to furnish. At the same time the marriage contract of the sister of the Bishop of Elne, a relative of the Pope and Caesar, with Costanzo Bentivoglio was signed—this had also been stipulated in the treaty.

Caesar reached Castel della Pieve January 18th, and there he had Paolo and Francesco Orsini strangled. He had stated that he intended to imprison them in Civita Castellana, but he probably found their presence hampering to his movements and concluded that there was no reason to defer their death, upon which he was resolved. The papal Master of Ceremonies calmly records the fact: “January 18th Francesco Orsini, Duke of Gravina, Paolo Orsini, and the Chevalier Orsini26 were killed and strangled by Michelotto and Marco Romano by order of the Duke Valentino.”

When the Pope was asked about the affair he replied coldly, saying that he knew nothing about it, as he had received no letters from the Duke; and to give an appearance of truth to what he said he added that the Duke had entered upon the Sienese expedition without his consent.

Cardinal Orsini had been in prison since January 2nd. For a time his mother, who was then eighty years old, was allowed to bring him his meals, but this was finally forbidden. In vain she and her son offered large sums for his liberty; she even sent the Pope a very valuable pearl which he had admired; he accepted it and again allowed her to furnish the cardinal his meals; “but it was believed he had already drunk the cup the Pope had prepared for him.” The Holy Father continued to tell Orsini to be of good cheer and to look to his health, and he informed the cardinals in consistory that he had directed his physicians to take the best of care of the prisoner. His age, the humiliation he had suffered, and the confinement were, however, more than he could withstand. About the middle of February it was rumoured that the cardinal was ill of the fever, and the 22nd of the month he passed away. Immediately the report spread that he had died of poison, and to disprove the rumour the Pope ordered the corpse to be carried to the church on an open litter and with the face uncovered, and he further commanded all the Orsini in Rome to attend the funeral. Giustinian clearly believed that the cardinal had been poisoned. In this connection it is worth remarking that while the Venetian ambassador is hostile to the Borgia he would not intentionally distort what he believed to be facts in his dispatches to his own Government; he was in Rome to watch Alexander and to keep the Senate fully informed of every event. Had he misled his Government his services would have been worthless and he would have been promptly recalled.

Burchard’s comment is as follows: “To-day, February 22nd, Cardinal Orsini died in Castle S. Angelo—and may his soul rest in peace. Amen! His Holiness directed my colleague D. Bernardino Guttieri to take charge of the funeral of the deceased—therefore I did not wish to know anything more than was necessary, I was not present—and I took no part in it.”

Soderini, the Florentine orator, in a letter of February 23rd, says: “Cardinal Orsini was buried yesterday at the twenty-fourth hour in S. Salvatore, the church of the Orsini; by the Pope’s order the corpse was accompanied by his family and by those of the cardinals of the palace. It lay uncovered on a cloth of gold, clad in a chasuble of red damascas silk embroidered with gold flowers. On the head was a white miter.”

In the meantime, in defiance of the Pope and Caesar, the inhabitants of Siena remained faithful to Pandolfo Petrucci, and January 27, 1503, Valentino sent word from his camp in Pienza that he would give them twenty-four hours to expel their chieftain. The same day the Pope dispatched a brief to the officials of the Balia of Siena containing a similar demand. Both documents are given by Alvisi. Caesar lays aside all diplomacy and writes in a tone of mastery and confidence:—

“To-day, the 27th of the month, at the twenty-third hour we received a letter from Cipriano, our chancellor, written yesterday in Siena, from which we learn that you have failed to execute the stipulations contained in the treaty into which we entered. If by the day named you have not expelled Pandolfo from your city and domain we shall proceed against you; we will make you understand that we are not to be deceived by you. We have justly conceived such contempt for your conduct that we are unable to find words to express it in a letter; and we swear by God that when you have received this letter, if you have not already driven forth, without any more delay, the said Pandolfo we will regard each one of you as the same as Pandolfo, and forthwith proceed to the total destruction of all your subjects, goods, and domain, and of your city and of yourselves.”

Then he scolds them for their ingratitude, and reminds them that with his own troops and without their aid and with no expense whatsoever to the Republic he stands ready to relieve their country of a scheming tyrant. He signs the letter Caesar Borgia de Francia Dux Romandiolae Valentiaeque Princeps.

The Sienese refused to comply, and Caesar proceeded to execute his threat by sending out troops to ravage the country. The towns of Pienza, Chiusi, Castel della Pieve, and San Quirico were destroyed and the inhabitants put to the sword; the people of Viterbo, Acquapendente, and Montefiascono suffered the same fate; old men and women were tortured and killed; the fruit-trees were cut down and everything that might offer shelter for the fugitives was destroyed. Burchard records that at San Quirico Caesar’s soldiers suspended two old men and nine old women by the arms and lighted fires under their feet to torture them into revealing where they had hidden their valuables; they, however, would not disclose the place, and died in torment.

The people of Siena, terrified by the cruelties of Caesar’s troops, sent a delegation to the Balia to say that it was wrong for all to be destroyed for the sake of one. Petrucci thereupon decided to leave, and he authorised the Council to treat in his name, but he reserved the right to remove with all his troops. Caesar and the Pope, knowing the city was well supplied with men and munitions of war and admirably situated for withstanding a siege, decided it was wise not to impose too harsh conditions. The Sienese were brave and determined, and they had the support of Giampaolo Baglioni, an able captain. Furthermore, Siena, which enjoyed the favour of the King of France, had never been part of the papal domain. The undertaking against Siena was therefore abandoned for the time being.

Caesar and the Pope may have thought that the Orsini in and about Rome were becoming too dangerous; they and their followers were swearing vengeance for the murder of their kinsmen Paolo and Francesco, and the imprisonment of the cardinal, Giambattista Orsini.

Giulio Orsini had collected a considerable force at Pitigliano, and Fabio and Organtini held Cervetri, while Giovanni and a number of the family’s supporters had fortified themselves at Ceri. In addition Silvio Savelli had joined the Orsini forces in the Campagna, and all were determined to fight to the death.

Caesar hastened to Rome and the Pope urged him to proceed against the Orsini immediately; but the son, no less resolute than the father, was even more astute and thought it best to delay, for which he readily found a pretext. NiccolÒ Orsini, Count of Pitigliano, was a condottiere in the pay of Venice, and this was one of the reasons why Valentino decided to temporise. When Alexander wanted him to seize Bracciano, Caesar objected on the ground that its lord, Giangiordano Orsini, was in the service of the King of France in Naples and, like himself, was a member of the Order of St. Michael, therefore he could not make war upon him, and of this Louis XII. took occasion to remind him by a special messenger. Valentino was too shrewd to incur the King’s displeasure at this juncture, and he concluded it would be wiser to secure and establish order in the States he had already won than it would be to endeavour to add to his domain.

The King of France undoubtedly had misgivings regarding Caesar’s growing power. Pisa, the relentless enemy of Florence, the King’s protÉgÉ, had requested Valentino’s aid, and if Perugia and Siena fell into his hands a formidable power would be established in central Italy under an energetic, brave, and daring soldier—one who would hesitate at nothing and who already enjoyed great prestige.

Louis XII. therefore immediately set about forming a coalition, comprising Siena, Lucca, Florence, and Bologna, to curb Caesar’s ambition.

Alexander was annoyed by what he considered the King’s unwarranted interference, and accused Caesar of weakness with respect to the Orsini. The Duke, however, persisted in his determination to leave Bracciano and Pitigliano alone and to lay siege to Ceri.

The ancient town of Ceri was famous for its stronghold. The castle had been regarded as impregnable; it had resisted numerous sieges from Roman days down through the Middle Ages. It was defended by a large number of troops with able leaders, consequently Caesar’s task was a difficult one.

The Duke went to Rome about the middle of February, but never left the palace except disguised. The Pope was so displeased by his refusal to proceed against Bracciano that he threatened to excommunicate him and deprive him of his estates. Although Caesar probably did not regard these threats as very serious, he prepared to go to Cervetri, where he had left his captains—Ludovico della Mirandola, Ugo Moncada, and Michelotto de Corella. He left Rome April 6th for Cervetri, but on the way learned that the town had capitulated to the Count of Mirandola. The defenders threw themselves on Caesar’s mercy, and he conducted Giulio Orsini to the Pope and interceded for him so effectively that he was restored to liberty.

Giangiordano Orsini betook himself to Celle, in the Abruzzi, and while he was there the Pope offered to give him the principality of Squillace if he would relinquish all claims to his estates in the Romagna. These terms were accepted and, with the aid of the French ambassador, were embodied in a treaty which was drawn up April 8th.

Caesar had now become a power in Italy; soldiers of fortune flocked to his standard; he was the most dreaded man in the entire peninsula; the wealth of the Church was at his command and the influence of the Papacy was behind him. All the castles in the Patrimonium Petri were held by his lieutenants. Matarazzo says he was now the first captain in Italy, not owing to great knowledge of the art of war but to his treachery and corrupt use of money—he had reduced the science of warfare merely to a consummate art of deception.

He, however, had great and loyal admirers because the Italian of the sixteenth century had not learned that the success of men in an evil environment is commensurate with their own capacity for iniquity; that in human competition the ethical sense, the finer feelings, often preclude great achievement. All that Caesar had won he had secured by treachery and crime.

The politicians of the day attributed his success chiefly to the favour of the Pope and of the King of France, while the astrologers held the stars responsible, pronouncing him filium fortunae. Official astrologers, however, like the sycophants of the present, were not blind to their own interests. Cardinal Francesco Soderini says that among the attributes of greatness in Caesar and the Pope was their ability to recognise their opportunities and to avail themselves of them to the utmost—but this they could not have done had they possessed even a suggestion of the altruistic sense; theirs was simply the success of utter, merciless egoism.

The dispatches of the day are filled with suspicions and rumours regarding the aims of the Pope and Caesar; some said the former was plotting with the Spaniards to secure the Kingdom of Sicily for his son; others thought he had his eye on Tuscany. Machiavelli wrote: “Caesar having always thought little of Venice and still less of Florence, it would be well for the latter to build up such a powerful State in Italy that her friendship would be desired by some other potentate.” The secretary also says that Caesar doubtless aspired to the dominion of Tuscany, which, owing to her situation, would serve well with the other States he possessed to form a kingdom. Alvisi thinks that these suspicions and rumours were due to the universal fear of Caesar and he also suggests that the talk of a crown for Valentino may have been due to the steps Alexander VI. had taken to erect the Duchy of Romagna into the Kingdom of Adria, which had already been attempted by Clement VII. in 1379, for a prince of the house of Anjou. This action, however, would not have enlarged the domain he already possessed, and it is even possible that the Pope actually did intend to restore the entire Campagna to the Church after crushing the barons who were withholding it.

While Caesar’s captains were occupied about Ceri the Pope, with his own guard and a few of Valentino’s men took possession of Palombara, Lenzano, Cervetri, and other towns belonging to the Savelli.

The Spaniards in the Regno were successfully resisting the French, and Louis’s influence was rapidly waning. He was, however, still actively supporting the league which he had formed against Valentino.

After Pandolfo Petrucci’s departure from Siena the people became uneasy; the King therefore caused him to return.

Valentino’s grasp on the duchy was far from secure; many of the strongholds of the Montefeltre were still holding out against him; Lattanzio da Bergamo, shut up in San Leo, felt he could defend himself until the Duke of Urbino returned to relieve him. At the same time, the continued activity of the Orsini and their numerous adherents made it necessary for Caesar to remain in, or near, Rome and postpone for a time at least his projected conquests. In fine, conditions were such that he would be fortunate if he succeeded in conserving what he had already secured.

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.

On the death of Alexander all sorts of rumours were circulated, including, of course, one to the effect that he had been poisoned. It is, however, practically certain that he simply died of a tertian fever. Burchard’s notes are extremely clear and concise.

In his dispatch of August 11th Giustinian says “the Pope did not enter the chapel at the celebration of the anniversary of his elevation to the Papacy with his usual cheerful demeanour”—which the Ambassador attributes, probably incorrectly, to worry caused by the political situation. The 13th he gives particulars of the illness of the Pope and of Valentino, and refers to a dinner given by Cardinal Adriano di Corneto about a week before, and states that all the guests had fallen ill, which of course strengthened the suspicion of poison; the host himself was the first to be stricken. Giustinian endeavours to follow the course of the fever in the Pope and Caesar, but great secrecy was maintained by those who were admitted to the palace. The Venetian ambassador clearly discerned what the death of either or of both of them meant for Italy and he tried to keep his Government fully informed. August 18th at the nineteenth hour the ambassador again wrote his Government saying that a messenger had just come from the Bishop of Carniola, who was constantly with his Holiness, asking him to send his secretary to the Vatican, which he did; whereupon the Bishop informed him that the Pope was in the throes of dissolution and could not live through the night. He adds that while his courier was waiting for the dispatch a messenger came to inform him that a member of the Pope’s household had gone to the warder of the Castle of St. Angelo and directed him to place all his men under arms, load the artillery, and put the stronghold in a state of defence.

At the twenty-third hour the orator again wrote the Senate saying that the Pope’s physician, Scipio, had informed him that his Holiness could not survive the night. The physician—omo excellente nell’ arte soa—stated that the Pope’s illness, in his opinion, began with a stroke of apoplexy. He also said that the Duke was in no danger, that he had no fever and could leave his bed any time he desired so to do. For his own safety Valentino was preparing to remove that night to the Castle of St. Angelo, whither the two children, Giovanni, the Pope’s youngest son, and Rodrigo, Lucretia’s boy, had already been sent. Early that morning Caesar’s troops had been ordered to Rome with all speed and they had been pouring into the city all day. They had been massed in the Borgo and drummers had been sent about the city to call the guard to arms; the palace was entirely surrounded by troops, foot and horse.

At the first hour of the night Don Alvarotto di Alvarotis, a member of the household of the Cardinal of Santa Prassede, informed Giustinian that while he was with the cardinal the Duke’s chamberlain, Don Romolino, had come and told them that his Holiness had just passed away. The ambassador was also informed of the death of the Cardinal of Trani. The same morning, according to the messenger, Caesar had dispatched a courier to Prospero Colonna to ask his support and to offer to restore his estates to him.

Gregorovius inclines to the theory of poison, but Burchard records no such suspicion. The corpse was “monstrously swollen and discoloured—black, a most horrible thing to behold, and many suspected poison,” wrote Beltrando Costabili to his master, Ercole of Ferrara. “Never since the beginning of Christianity has there been seen such a terrible and horrible thing. It was the most bestial, monstrous, and horrible body, without the form or face of a man.” Wonderful were the stories told; while he lay ill Alexander had even seen the devil in the form of a monkey enter his room to bear his soul away.

The grounds for believing that the Pope had been poisoned are so slight that they may be disregarded. It is clear from the statements of Burchard and Giustinian, who was hostile to the Borgia, that Alexander VI. died of a tertian fever, or the plague, which in that year destroyed a vast number of people in Italy. The Pope was a fleshy man, well advanced in years, and the appearance of the corpse, even if it were as hideous as it was described, would not necessarily indicate that he had died of poison. Beltrando Costabili, the Ferrarese orator, concluded a letter dated August 14th with the remark: “It is not strange that the Pope and Caesar are sick, because almost all the prominent men in Rome are ill—and especially in the Vatican, owing to the bad air.” Stories of the poisoning began to circulate as soon as the rapidity with which the body putrefied became known.

Guicciardini’s account has been followed by all later writers until the present day, and he was one of the bitterest of the enemies of the Borgia. According to his statement, before Caesar’s departure for the field he and the Pope were invited to dine with Cardinal Adriano di Corneto. Romolino, Valentino’s intimate, and two other cardinals were also present. One of the Borgia, desiring to secure possession of their host’s property, decided to poison him, but the servants confused the glasses and gave Alexander and Caesar the envenomed cups. This account was based on a letter written by Peter Martyr of Anghiara, from Segovia, November 10, 1503—that is, about three months after the death of the Pope. None of the ambassadors in Rome, who were closely following events in the Vatican, even hinted at poison at the time.

The facts, briefly summarised, were as follows: The dinner took place August 5th; Caesar and the Pope fell ill the 10th; the latter was feverish the 12th; the 16th he was bled copiously and his illness became serious; the 17th he was given an exceedingly powerful draught of some sort which failed to relieve him; the 18th, feeling that his end was approaching, he confessed to the Bishop of Carniola, who administered the Communion. Later, Mass was celebrated at his bedside in the presence of five cardinals. The Pope was extremely weak and he declared that he felt death was near. The Bishop of Carniola administered the Extreme Unction and a few hours later the Holy Father expired—thirteen days after the dinner in Cardinal Corneto’s garden, which precludes the idea of poison.

Giustinian makes no mention of poison. Beltrando Costabili, the Ferrarese ambassador, who followed the course of the Pope’s illness from hour to hour, likewise does not suggest it. Alexander VI. was probably merely one of the many victims reaped by the plague in Rome in 1503.

The rumour of poisoning spread through the city and found many believers who, hating the Borgias and believing they had dispatched many by means of poison, were only too glad to conclude that they had fallen victims to a plot which they had laid for another. Caesar’s illness at the same time further strengthened the conviction, as did also the horrible condition of the Pope’s body. Not until after the funeral does Costabili refer to the suspicion of poison.

Valentino, being young and vigorous, recovered in spite of the heroic treatment to which he, according to reports of the day, was subjected. It was said that his physician, Gaspare Torrella, had him wrapped in the warm entrails of a disembowelled mule; another story was that he had been placed in an enormous amphora filled with ice.

Whatever the means employed to save his life his appearance had greatly changed. Formerly accounted one of the handsomest men in Italy—not excepting King Ferdinand of Naples—he was described now as altogether revolting, and the marks of the severe treatment he had undergone persisted until his dying day.

The ambassadors—whose function it is to flatter publicly—had frequently spoken of Caesar as “blonde and handsome”—“like the Emperor Tiberius, the handsomest man of his day”; but Paul Jovius says “his face was disfigured with red blotches and pimples; his eyes, which were very deep set, had a cruel and venomous look and seemed to dart flames.”

When the Pope passed away the Duke, who was still ill, sent Michelotto with a number of men to lock all the doors of the palace, and when the Cardinal of Casanova hesitated to give up the keys one of the swashbucklers drew his sword and threatened to cot his throat and throw him from the window, whereupon the cardinal in terror surrendered the keys. Then they took possession of all the money they could lay their hands on—about 100,000 ducats. Later the servants of the palace rushed in and appropriated everything that was left. The Duke did not go near the Pope during his illness, and his Holiness never once mentioned him or Lucretia. The minute Master of Ceremonies describes the obsequies at great length; he also gives an inventory of the dead Pope’s effects—that is, such as had escaped Caesar’s henchmen and the servants.

The very day of the funeral Silvio Savelli returned and took possession of his house and of the prison of the Sabelle, from which all the prisoners were immediately released.