King Louis of France entered Italy in July 1502, committed to that war with Spain which brought misery to a generation of Italians. Thirty years later Spain would emerge triumphant in the shattered land that had been the battleground for the two superstates.
Left to himself, Louis probably would have devoted his limited talents to France rather than dissipate them in yet another ill-starred Italian expedition. An easy-going, self- indulgent man, he was guided onto that disastrous path by his highly capable minister, George d'Amboise, to whom Cesare had brought a cardinal's hat on his visit to France four years earlier. D'Amboise wished to wear nothing less than the papal tiara, an ornament which seemed now the property and gift of the Borgia family, and he proved to be Cesare's most valuable ally at the royal court of France.
Immediately upon Louis's arrival in Italy, the victims and enemies of Cesare hastened to Louis to lay their interminable, and justified, complaints and protests before the only man who could exert some influence. The complaints grew steadily, accurately charting Cesare's expanding power in central Italy. The Varano family, late lords of Camerino, were the latest victims, bearing the tale of yet another Romagnol city which had fallen to the Borgia onslaught. Its head, old Julius Cesare Varano, had achieved power in the normal Romagnol fashion—his specific crime, fratricide—but now that he was a dishonored corpse and his sons the helpless prisoners of the duke of Romagna, old Varano's crimes were forgotten and his blood turned into good propaganda. The Malatesta had been driven out of Rimini, where the banners of the bull and the flame now waved. In Bologna the Bentivogli family were looking over their shoulder and making prudent overtures to the enraged Vitellozzo Vitelli. Even the Orsini admitted to unease: clearly, their temporary usefulness to Alexander was over and their territories ripe for invading. Rumors abounded, fed by the hopes of frightened men. It was said that the king had come to Italy especially to chastize his insolent protege; he feared the growing might of Cesare; Cesare would be taken back in chains to France.
In August, Cesare visited Louis in Milan; and Louis, instead of arresting him, seems to have gone out of his way to make it known that the duke was his very good friend. In public, before the affronted eyes of those who had hoped to see the Borgia pride laid low, the king of France threw his arms around Cesare's neck, addressing him not merely as ally but as cousin and most dear kinsman. The two spoke at length privately. Details of their conversation remained secret but the result was soon only too obvious: Cesare was given a free hand to settle his difficulties in central Italy.
Of those the most pressing was the disaffection rapidly spreading through his condottieri. Each of them was a territorial lord in his own right, and therefore each had links with at least one family which knew themselves to be threatened by Cesare. Word rapidly spread that Louis had withdrawn his protection from Bologna and, so it was said, had actually lent Cesare troops to smash the Orsini. A spur of fear superceded the constant motive of ambition, and the condottieri moved in mutual self-defense.
For the first time in his career, Cesare was outpaced by events—the deceiver for once deceived. In October 1502, a few weeks after his return from Milan, the condottieri revolted in the state of Urbino and arranged for the return of Guidobaldo. As soon as their base was secured in his state, they arranged an impressive conference in which all holding grievances against Cesare could concert their actions. The conference took place in Orsini territory, where the victims of Cesare rubbed shoulders with the men who had wrought their destruction in his name. Cardinal Orsini presided with his kinsmen Paolo and Francesco Orsini. Petrucci came from Siena, Baglioni from Perugia, Vitelli from Citta di Castello, Montefeltro from Urbino. Oliverotto da Fermo also was present. He held no particular grudge against his employer, the duke, but attended on the sound principle of seeking safety with the majority.
Cesare was at Imola when news of the conference broke. His inner core of Spanish followers remained loyal as ever, but the troops at his command were outnumbered by those the condottieri could raise. Pressured by need, he stepped up recruitment of mercenaries but increased, too, the recruitment of soldiers from his own territories in Romagna. It was a wise move, Machiavelli judged—compared with veteran mercenaries, the native militia were raw recruits but they were far more dependable. Thereafter Cesare steadily increased the ratio of native to mercenary troops. By October he had some six thousand men under arms with the promise of more military aid from Louis. But even graver than the immediate military danger from his rebellious condottieri was the political threat from Florence. Would the Signoria make common cause with those rebels to eradicate the prime source of trouble?
Again Cesare sent to Florence, urgently requesting that an ambassador armed with full powers be attached to his court. The Signoria were just as anxious to know what was happening in the Romagna but they cannily decided to send, not an ambassador, but an envoy. An ambassador could be maneuvered into a position where he might make damaging concessions; an envoy without powers preserved all the observational value of an ambassador without the weakness. The Signoria sent Niccolo Machiavelli with strict instructions to admit nothing, promise nothing, concede nothing. He was to observe Cesare until the situation cleared.
Machiavelli arrived at Imola on October 7. Thereafter he remained with Cesare almost continually until the end of that year, 1502, observing him at close quarters as he felt his way through the perilous, swiftly changing conditions that followed the revolt, and recording his observations with the detachment of an anthropologist. Later, he drew heavily on the experience of these three months to create his enduring portrait of a universal prince.
Cesare, despite his imminent danger, appeared to be in an optimistic, expansive mood. Even when he learned that the faithful Michelotto Corella had been heavily defeated in the first trial of arms with the rebels, and barely escaped with his life, Cesare seemed undismayed. Doubtless he was concerned to put a bold face on the matter in front of Machiavelli, knowing that the Florentine Signoria were being kept closely informed of his reactions. But Machiavelli was convinced that, all evidence to the contrary, Cesare was still in control of events. He warned Machiavelli that the condottieri were no friends of the republic, and the Signoria would do well to enter into an alliance with him while they still had the opportunity. "Secretary, I know who are my friends—and who are my enemies. I am taking you into my confidence. Tell your masters that I wish to count them as friends—if they show themselves as such."71
Machiavelli soon learned the reasons for Cesare's confidence. Inevitably, the condottieri had sought to draw Venice into their plans. The Venetians had at first seemed interested, even encouraging; but on learning that Cesare still enjoyed the support of Louis, the Venetians disentangled themselves. Dismay struck the rebels; the more timorous began scrambling back to solid ground. Still in his remarkably frank mood, Cesare told Machiavelli of the latest moves. "They have begun to be friends again, writing pretty letters. Paolo [Orsini] is coming today and the cardinal comes tomorrow. In this way they believe they can trick me. But I tell you, I am merely playing with them. I listen to all they have to say, and take my own time."
By the end of October the revolt was at an end. The conspirators had found that it needed skill of a very high order to weld into one the conflicting ambitions of a group of independent men, each of whom was aware that his colleagues would betray him at a moment's notice for the sake of immediate gain. Paolo Orsini's mission to Cesare had been undertaken on behalf of Paolo's colleagues, but even he had made it known that he would be ready to make a separate peace. Cesare accepted the overtures from the rebels, and Machiavelli obediently passed on the details of the peace treaty to Florence. Cesare would renew the engagements of the condottieri, on condition that Pesaro and Urbino were returned to him. The condottieri cheerfully assented to the abandoning of Giovanni Sforza, who had been reinstated in Pesaro, and Guidobaldo Montefeltro, who had at least deserved to be restored in Urbino. Machiavelli was at first surprised at the ease
with which the treaty was completed; it seemed unlikely that such deep and bitter animosity could be smoothed over. But he later came to the correct conclusion that both parties were merely maneuvering for a better position—the condottieri in order to launch an attack from more solid ground, Cesare with the intention of removing his enemies one by one. An accident, however, enabled him to remove them all in one operation, that which Machiavelli called the "beautiful deception" of Sinigaglia.
On December 10 Cesare left Imola, still accompanied by Machiavelli, to join the attack on Sinigaglia, a small city on the Adriatic coast. The force at the duke's immediate disposal was impressive, for in addition to the draftees and mercenaries was a large contingent of French auxiliaries who were later dismissed. The French were hardly needed, for the condottieri, anxious to reinstate themselves in Cesare's good graces, already were vigorously assaulting Sinigaglia while he made his leisurely journey across the Romagna. Machiavelli asked discreet questions of all who would answer and came to the opinion that Cesare's dismissal of the French auxiliaries was part of some stratagem to lull the condottieri into a feeling of security.
The company halted at Cesena, and Cesare was immediately inundated with complaints against his governor, Ramiro de Lorqua. The Spaniard had ruled energetically in Cesare's name, but simultaneously had indulged in an orgy of cruelty surpassing that of the most depraved Romagnol tyrants. One of the many tales told against him was of how he had thrust a clumsy page boy into the fire, pressing him down with a foot while the boy burned alive.
Cesare was indifferent to the cruelty as such. Nevertheless, de Lorqua's habits had seriously undermined Borgia control in the areas he governed, for the Romagnols had accepted Cesare's rule only because it delivered them from the arbitrary cruelty of their own lords. There was, too, the matter of a serious deficiency in the supplies which had been sent to Cesena to ward off famine. De Lorqua was summoned from Pesaro where he had gone on a visit, to account for his stewardship. The accounting was deemed inadequate. On the morning of December 26 the Cesenese found a carefully arranged tableau in the marketplace below the castle: the headless corpse of de Lorqua still clad in its Christmas finery, his fierce head itself displayed on a pike and, near it, a bloodstained cutlass.
The body was still in the marketplace when Cesare left the city shortly afterward. At Fano, Vitellozzo Vitelli was waiting for him with the news that Sinigaglia had fallen but that the governor in the castle had refused to surrender the keys to anyone except Cesare himself. Cesare confirmed that he was marching on to the city and requested Vitellozzo and his fellow condottieri to remain in Sinigaglia. Almost as an afterthought Cesare sent orders that they should remove their troops from the city, giving as reason the fact that his own troops would have to be quartered there.
As soon as Vitellozzo had left, Cesare told eight of his most loyal captains the plan he had in mind. The army was to march to within five miles of Sinigaglia, and from that point a detachment of two hundred lances was to ride forward under the command of Michelotto Corella. Cesare would follow immediately with the rest of the army. As soon as they met the four condottieri—the two Orsini, Vitellozzo and Oliverotto da Fermo—the eight captains were to move forward and, two with each condottiere, accompany them back to the city. Care was to be taken not to arouse their suspicions of anything unusual.
The first part of the plan worked smoothly. On the morning of December 31, Vitellozzo and the two Orsini rode out of Sinigaglia to meet Cesare, leaving Oliverotto in the main square with about one thousand men. "Vitellozzo, who was wearing a cloak without any armor underneath, appeared melancholy and dejected which surprised those who knew his normal bearing," Machiavelli learned afterwards.72 Vitellozzo was, in fact, suspicious and had tried to talk his colleagues out of the meeting but had been overruled.
Cesare greeted the three men courteously but noticed immediately that Oliverotto was absent. Cesare made a slight sign to Michelotto Corella, who hurried into the city where he found Oliverotto and warned him to move his men out of Sinigaglia. The reason given was the shortage of quarters which might produce bad feeling between Oliverotto's men and the newcomers. Corella also pointed out that Cesare would take it very badly if Oliverotto did not come out to pay his respects. Oliverotto did as he was advised, dismissed his men and joined his colleagues.
Machiavelli did not arrive in Sinigaglia from Fano until four o'clock in the afternoon, at least two hours after Cesare's plot against the condottieri had been brought to its conclusion. But he had a long interview with the duke at six o'clock and from what Cesare then told him, and from information gleaned around the city, Machiavelli was able to build a very clear picture of what had happened. Vitellozzo Vitelli alone had held any suspicion. He had been reluctant to go to Fano, to disperse his troops, to enter Sinigaglia accompanied only by Cesare's bodyguard. But Paolo Orsini, a boastful, empty-headed young man, had assured him Cesare was only too anxious to make amends for the past. Even then, Vitelli was unconvinced. "I have a conviction that if I go with you I go to my death," he said to Orsini. "But seeing that you are resolved to take the chance of fortune, whether it be to live or to die, I am ready to face it with you and with the others to whom destiny has linked us." He paid the penalty for violating the prime canon of a condottiere's code by placing comradeship above self-interest.
The whole party—condottieri and their still courteous guards—reached the palace. The condottieri wanted to disperse but Cesare pressed them to enter on the excuse that he wanted to hold an urgent staff conference, the first he had been able to have since the rebellion. They agreed and, talking amicably, the party entered. The doors closed behind them, Cesare walked away, and his bodyguard hurled themselves upon the startled condottieri. Paolo Orsini cried out to Cesare, begging him to keep his word. Vitellozzo Vitelli was the only one not totally taken by surprise, and he managed to kill one of his attackers but was swiftly disarmed with the rest. Immediately afterward the rest of the army galloped into the city and, at its head, Cesare scoured the place and suppressed the incipient uprising. Sinigaglia was firmly in Cesare's hands by the time Machiavelli arrived, and shortly afterward he was summoned to his interview with the duke. "His face lit up with delight at his success. He bade me rejoice with him at the happy event, reminding me that he had given me a hint of it at Fano the night before. He then went on to urge me to represent to you that Florence had the best of reasons for rejoicing with him in what had befallen her bitterest foes."
Cesare demanded that Florence should show gratitude by refusing to give sanctuary to the refugee Guidobaldo Montefeltro. Writing again on that same night of December 31, Machiavelli told the Signoria, "The city is still being sacked. I am in the greatest difficulties—it may not be possible to find a messenger to deliver this letter. Tomorrow I shall send more news. However, I think it unlikely that they [the condottieri] will be alive by morning."73
Paolo and Francesco Orsini survived that night; their powerful kinsman, the cardinal, was in Rome and Cesare was uncertain of the reactions if the Orsini were executed immediately. But Vitellozzo and Oliverotto were strangled "in the Spanish manner," seated back to back. Oliverotto died badly, crying for mercy and attempting to throw the blame on Vitellozzo. Vitellozzo died as he had lived— gravely, lamenting only that he had not heeded his own instincts and begging Cesare to persuade Alexander to grant him indulgence for his sins.
In Rome, Alexander adopted a simplified form of his son's stratagem to capture Cardinal Orsini. The cardinal was invited to the Vatican, where he was arrested and taken to Sant' Angelo where he died shortly afterward, probably by poison. His possessions were confiscated, his household evicted. His mother, who had lived with him, "was driven out of her home with her serving maids. No one would give them shelter, for all were afraid, and they wandered through the streets of Rome." Thus the Orsini brothers in Cesare's hands were deprived of what little protection they had enjoyed, and they were strangled as soon as Cesare knew it was safe to do so.
> On January 10 Machiavelli took his leave of Cesare; the Signoria had decided that their interests, at this critical juncture, should be represented by a man of greater weight. Cesare maintained his curious frankness with the Florentine to the last, treating him to a summary of his immediate future policy and giving him, too, an insight into how he and his father worked together.
My enemies are either dead, or my prisoners or are fugitives. Even if they stand their ground they, nonetheless, consciously await their fate. Chief among these last is Pandolpho Petrucci. Petrucci must go. He is at once too astute, too rich, too strongly posted in his city of Siena to be left there with impunity. If possible I aim at securing his person and, to this end, His Holiness is plying him with pleasant phrases while behind that screen I push forward toward his capital. I know that I should not be allowed by that shopkeeper, the king of France, to keep Siena for myself. But I must secure myself against its present lord.74
He urged the Florentines to join him in the attack which would eliminate an enemy as dangerous to themselves as to himself. Machiavelli promised to pass on the request and departed, full of thought.
"The dragon that devours lesser serpents": such was the opinion of those who watched the events in central Italy. The deadly swiftness and efficiency with which a group of dangerous men had been eliminated as though they were inexperienced boys completed the legend of Cesare's invincibility. The Vitelli family abandoned their state of Citta di Castello, Petrucci fled Siena, Baglioni from Perugia. Cesare's march south from the Romagna to Rome was less a military campaign than a hunting expedition, with frightened men running for cover as soon as his now formidable army appeared. City after city in the Papal States fell, or hastened to accept him, so that within a month of the coup d'etat in Sinigaglia, the greater part of the states was under his firm control. There was a brief rebellion from the few surviving barons in the south, hereditary enemies combining in desperation to save what they could. They achieved little enough, saving their lives but not their possessions.
The Fall of the House of Borgia Page 27