Renaissance Murders

by Michael Hone

  He ended as a highly respected condottiere under Venice. Rimi went to his son Sallustio after his death, but was recuperated by the son he had sodomized, Roberto.

  Roberto, the victim of his father Sigismondo’s incest, was a fearless condottiere, smart enough to align himself with the great Federico da Montefeltro and win back Rimini from his father’s designated heir, Sallustio, son of Sigismondo’s beloved mistress and then wife Isotta. He made peace with Isotta and his two half-brothers, Sallustio and Valerio, and, in the Malastesta family tradition, threw a banquet for them all during which they were poisoned. Years later Machiavelli in his The Prince would write that this was the only possible way for a ruler to deal with his competition, that his choice was between the extinction of potential rivals or his own extinction later one.

  Pope Sixtus IV confirmed him as Lord of Rimini and, more importantly, Federico da Montefeltro--who possessed the real power in the region--gave him his daughter. Once this was all accomplished Roberto up and died of malaria. His son Pandolfo took his place until forced to flee Rimini before the troops of Cesare Borgia, thusly ending the line of the Rimini Malatesta.

  By far the most impressive condottiere of the period was Federico da Montefeltro. He was a Renaissance man, the possessor of a truly wonderful library and study done in trompe-l’oeil. He’s thought to have taken power by killing his stepbrother Oddantonio, made easy by the population of Urbino who was unhappy with his reign. Federico took his place as count. He inspired loyalty among his men, sharing his gains as condottiere with them. Because his fees were high, he was able to enrich Urbino. He had surgeons remove part of his nose, as said, so that he could see with the eye remaining him, the other having been lost in a tournament. He fought for Florence, for Milan, for Naples and then against Florence before the Treaty of Lodi brought peace to the three city-states. This was the reason why Renaissance battles were rarely murderous. A condottiere knew that the lord he fought against today might become the lord who paid him gold to fight at his side tomorrow. The Treaty ended quarrels concerning the boundaries between the belligerents and confirmed the position of each duke, prince, count, doge or what have you as the head of his particular city. It was not only signed by the three city-states, but also by Venice and the Papal States. The Treaty came to an end with the invasion of Charles VIII of France. After the death of Francesco Sforza, Montefeltro assisted Francesco’s son Galeazzo Maria Sforza in governing Milan.

  Federico da Montefeltro

  THE SFORZA

  1369 – 1535

  A condottiere fights to attain the stature of a hammer, not an anvil.

  We’ll begin the story of the Sforza with an affaire of the heart, that between two boys, Muzio Attendolo Sforza and Braccio da Montone, so close that they shared the same colors in clothing, but in the condottiere tradition where the friends of today became he enemies of tomorrow, the boys were separated by multiple wars, yet remained so close in spirit that at the end, when one of them died, the other knew that his time was up too--five months later Braccio did die, in a way that even the Greeks, inventors of the Fates and fatality, would have found incredible. He perished at the hands of Muzio’s own son, who plunged his father’s sword into Braccio’s neck. (Alas, the events that led up to the killing are lost in the sands of time.)

  Muzio was one of twenty-one children. Some say he was poor and that as a boy of 12 he had been spotted cutting wood by passing condottieri. He was so muscular that they invited him to join their ranks, giving him the nickname Sforza, great strength. Others claim his parents had been well-to-do. In both cases the boy was said to have been raised in a Spartan household where he and his brothers slept on wooden banks and ate standing, surrounded by walls decorated with shields and weapons, little wonder that they all--except one destined for the church as was the custom--became condottieri. Muzio was hired by Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan, but showed himself so superior in arms that he was forced to flee to Florence by Visconti’s jealous captains. There he met Lucia Terzana who gave birth to Francesco Sforza, a condottiere so valiant that later condottieri had only to claim to have been trained by him in order to be hired on the spot. It was he the veritable founder of the House of Sforza. Francesco was farmed out to the d’Est of Ferrara until the age of 12 when he rejoined his father at one of his father’s camps. From then on he led the life of a warrior.

  Muzio met his death when, crossing a violent stream, his favorite page fell from his horse into the current. Muzio jumped into the water in an attempt to save the boy, but both were carried out to sea, their shared tomb.

  Milan had been governed jointly by Gian Galeazzo Visconti and his brother Filippo Maria, who assumed control at the death of Gian Galeazzo (much more on Filippo Maria Visconti in the chapter on Astorre Manfredi). Both Milan and Florence vied for the services of Francesco, age 22, when his father drowned, but Milan won out when Filippo Maria offered the boy his daughter Bianca, age 8, in marriage. The wedding took place when Bianca was 17. The Duchy of Milan, made up of Milan and numerous small city-states, fell apart with the death of Filippo Maria. Like his father, Francesco too had to flee from Milan.

  After numerous vicissitudes, Francesco received the aid of Cosimo de’ Medici of Florence who decided to back the young man in his quest to control Milan. The boy and the much older Cosimo became friends for life. Francesco also allied himself with the greatest condottiere in Italy, Federico da Montefeltro (more about Federico in the chapter on the Malatesta) and another very great condottiere Sigismondo Malatesta, who married Francesco’s daughter Polissena. Francesco trusted Federico so highly that he entrusted his family into the condottiere’s loyal hands. Francesco’s brother Alessandro married Montefeltro’s daughter Constanza whom he adored (‘’more than life itself,’’ he had told Federico to win her hand) but who died a year later in childbirth. As seen in the chapter on the Malatesta, no one could ever trust Sigismondo, who soon became Francesco’s mortal enemy.

  Francesco Sforza

  It’s logical to presume that with the marriage to Filippo Maria’s daughter Francesco assumed he had an inside track on succeeding Visconti. The opposite was true. Filippo Maria, jealous of Francesco’s powers, powers learned at his father’s side as Francesco had gone from camp to camp, from campaign to campaign, from the age of 12. So Francesco had gone his own way, conquering city-states in the neighboring March, a region with Alcona as its capital, until Visconti’s death, a man who had lived by the belief that to reign was to divide, right up to his last breath. The vultures had started their descent well before the end, the most serious of which were Charles Duc d’Orléans whose mother had married a Visconti, and Alfonso of Naples who had actually been named by Filippo Maria as his successor, a final fuck-you to the other aspirants. Alfonso got to Milan and posted banners from the castle towers, but he was chased away by armed groups, some backed by the Venetian and the Milanese mercantile classes, others, especially out-of-work soldiers, who favored would-be condottieri à la Visconti, and still others influenced by the new humanism of the Renaissance, who pleaded for a new Republic. These last won the day, especially as they had enticed Francesco, and his troops, to their cause. But before joining the Republicans Francesco asked his friend Cosimo’s advice. Cosimo told him unequivocally to go for it.

  The city-states surrounding Milan immediately broke away on Visconti’s death, and Venice, always out for an easy kill, added what adjoining territories it could swallow to the Serenissima. Milan, despite its own wish for Republican independence, decided, rightly, that Milan without the surrounding provinces would instantly cease being the greatest power in Italy, a title that was Milan’s up to that moment. The reason, again, for turning to Francesco.

  While Francesco was away trying to regain what was daily being lost, Milan, directed by an inexperienced and weak council, fell prey to chaos. Thieves and mobs ransacked the city and the council’s threats of the gallows did nothing to curb the violence. As a counterweight Savonarola-like movements preached m
orality, forbidding even barbers to shave on saints’ days from sunup to sunset. A group of men decided to go to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick for help, but were waylaid and beheaded, initiating a wave of terror that saw other heads on other lances throughout the city. Soon the death penalty was even enacted on those speaking against the Republicans and the Republican government.

  The chaos was so great that Francesco would be unable to return to his own city unless he recaptured it. With a second go-for-it from Cosimo, he took the town of Abbiategrasso, the kingpin of the region that supplied Milan with its food and water, and cut off both. Venice, its nose eternally to the wind, realized that they would be well advised to give Francesco its support.

  Milan was so reduced to hunger and thirst by the Addiategrasso blockade that the Milanese begged Francesco to take possession of the city. Francesco came with troops laden with all the bread they could carry, astonished and moved at the sight of hundreds of famished citizens who came out tens of miles to devour what the soldiers had brought them.

  From conqueror to savior, Francesco would never again lack for support in the Duchy of Milan. Peace descended over Italy with the immergence of five great powers that were to be checks-and-balances against each other: the Aragonese in Naples, the pope in Rome, the Venetians, the Milanese and Florence under the Medici.

  The story of the Sforza and that of Milan would often involve the French. Charles VIII and Louis XII would eventually bring such disaster to Italy as to stir feelings even to our days. The Duc d’Orléans felt he had rights over Milan because his mother Valentina had married a Visconte, as stated. To counterbalance this threat, Francesco invited René d’Anjou to Milan, who promised to marry one of his daughters to one of Francesco’s sons. But René and his troops turned out to be undisciplined, each taking, René on his level, his troops on theirs, whatever caught their eye, in food, drink and lechery. To keep from being ransacked, one town turned against the French and avoided being massacred only through the rapid intervention of Francesco’s army. Believing himself dishonored, René left Italy, never to return. Alas, Italy would again, and still again, turn to the immense power to the north, France, as yet untouched by the Renaissance and so more ruthless than the Italians themselves.

  Because Alfonso of Naples had been named by Filippo Maria Visconti to succeed him he refused to give up his claims to the rich Duchy. But his fear of France, who had its sights on Naples, forced him to enter into a peace pact with Florence and Milan, a huge feather in Francesco’s cap.

  Francesco accorded the Milanese as many freedoms as possible. Like the ancient Roman Caesar, he saw to it that the people had an abundant supply of grain and good water. He controlled the price of wine and salt, and forbade new taxes. He stationed his troops outside the city and saw to it that they paid for everything they took, down to a single egg. Violence against women was punished. He even paid for the ransom of his enemies who had been taken prisoner during his ascent to power. How great was his surprise, then, when, during his first illness that some thought was fatal, revolts broke out throughout the Duchy, some led by his own captains. He brought order through executions, and then promulgated laws that guaranteed that Bianca and his children would rule after him, beginning with his son Galeazzo Maria. He had eight children, six of whom were boys. The boys were superbly educated in religious and classical studies, dancing, riding and fencing. Galeazzo Maria was sent to Ferrara at the age of eight to welcome the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick with a discourse that Frederick announced impossible for one so young if he hadn’t heard it with his own ears.

  Ady Cecilia tells us in her book A History of Milan Under the Sforza that Galeazzo Maria was given subjects to write on, one of which was ‘’in what way, according to what rules, are treaties formed between princes?’’ Francesco wrote extremely moving letters to his son in which he stated that he had not wished to bridle the boy during his childhood so that he could observe his true nature, for good or for bad, but now that he was a lad, he wished the boy to follow certain precepts: To honor God and respect his parents; to be good, wise and polite to people; to not lose his temper and to cultivate justice; to not wish for everything he saw; to eat and drink nicely and moderately; and to choose good riding horses.

  Galeazzo Maria was in France when he learned of his father’s death, an indication of the importance of that country to Milan and to Milan’s future. Louis XI wished the boy God’s speed. In order to arrive unscathed, Galeazzo disguised himself as a merchant but was nonetheless abducted by the Abbot of Cassanova and held for ransom. On arrival in Milan he found the city peaceful thanks to the efforts of his mother Bianca. So at age 22 he began his reign, one peaceful thanks to his excellent contacts with Lorenzo Il Magnifico of Florence, Ferrante of Naples and Pope Sixtus IV. Despite his excellent education and his promising beginning in life--even Pope Pius II had found him ‘’marvelous’’--he was a sociopath who imprisoned for a yes or a no, who killed a poacher by stuffing a rabbit down his throat and murdered a priest for prophesying that he would reign for only 10 years (true); he had the hands cut off a servant who had addressed one of his mistresses; he ravished the wives of the nobles and then took pleasure in bragging about it in public; and he promised a painter death if he didn’t finish a room in a single night. He had perhaps been too coddled as a child, offered whatever his eyes, his stomach and his loins desired by every court he had set foot in. His mother preferred exile to her native Cremona rather than remain around him, but died on the way there, victim to the usual rumor that her son, like Nero, had had her poisoned for standing up against him.

  Galeazzo Maria was said to have ordered the retreat of the Mantuan ambassador, a certain Saggi, accused of being a traitor because he divulged too many court secrets, one of which was Galeazzo’s sexual involvement with the son of the Florentine ambassador.

  He reinforced the silk industry by obliging a certain number of mulberry trees planted every year and their leaves delivered to breeders of silk-worms. He encouraged the industry of weapons, for which Milan became famous. The people in general seemed to have accepted his rule, while those in the know strove for his assassination. Under the direction of Cola da Montana, a master of rhetoric whom Galeazzo had had publicly whipped for a reason that has not come down to us, three men were recruited to destroy the tyrant. One was Giovanni Andrea Lampugnano condemned to death for an unknown crime but spared by Galeazzo Maria himself, Carlo Visconti whose sister Galeazzo had violated and Girolamo Olgiati, age 23, a poet who wanted Milan restored to a Republic.

  Galeazzo Maria Sforza

  They met behind the monastery of Saint Ambrogio to plan and rehearse the deed, horsing around like boys do, plunging bladeless daggers into each other in practice of the coming act. On the Sunday of the murder Galeazzo arrived without armor ‘’so as not to look fat’’ he had said to his wife Bona of Savoy. His men cleared the way for him through the crowds outside the church while inside the three plotters waited, their short daggers concealed in the sleeves of their cloaks. As the duke passed by, Lampugnano fell to his knees before him, his cap in hand, as if to supplicate a favor. Instead, he drove a dagger into Galeazzo’s private parts. He then turned to escape but, tripping over a lady’s robe, was knifed by one of Galeazzo’s servants. The two others had had time to stab the tyrant but they were eventually captured, their heads hung at the ends of lances at the top of the tower of the Broletto Nuovo. The duke had received six wounds, inflicted so instantaneously that those around Galeazzo were unaware of what was taking place--a wound to the groin, to the throat, the breast, the back, the ribs and the spine. (More about Galaezzo and his evil ways in the chapter on Astorre Manfredi.)

  To save Galeazzo Maria’s soul, his wife wrote out an exhaustive list of his murders, his congress with mistresses and his injustices. Pope Sixtus cleared his way to heaven, after the deposit of a huge financial contribution.

  The death of Galeazzo Maria awoke old rivalries. Ferrante of Naples found reason to be unhappy
with Florence and stirred up Genoa against Milan. Of Galeazzo Maria’s remaining brothers, Filippe withdrew himself to a peaceful life on his lands, and Ottaviano and Ludovico decided to take power in Milan, power in the hands of Galeazzo Maria’s widow Bona, regent for the 7-year-old Gian Galeazzo, aided by Galeazzo Maria’s former secretary, Simonetta, who had become the real power. Simonetta met the Sforza brothers in combat. Ottaviano drowned while fleeing Simonetta’s troops and Ludovico surrendered and was exiled. Had Simonetta followed Machiavelli’s advice and had had him throttled to death, he would have eventually saved his own skin. During the period of unrest the Pazzi formed their plot to rid Florence of Lorenzo Il Magnifico, fully covered in the chapter on the Pazzi Plot to kill Il Magnifico.

  Here Galeazzo’s widow Bona made the mistake that would see an end to her regency and an end to the life of her boy, Gian Galeazzo. She fell in love, like Caterina Riario Sforza de’ Medici who had not only loved her stable boy Feo since he was 15, she later married him and let him make policy for Emola and Forlì (more in the chapter on Astorre Manfredi). Bona fell for a lad named Antonio Tassino, as handsome and endowed as Caterina’s Feo was said to have been. In Emola and Forlì the people had risen up against the stable boy turned international diplomat, and in Milan they did the same against Bona and her boy. Ludovico knew that his time had come. Simonetta, seeing Ludovico’s growing popularity, welcomed him back to Milan with open arms, perhaps with the premonition that his personal end was nigh.