Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy (44 page)

Early in September Lucrezia departed for Reggio with a cavalcade of thirty horse, leaving her children behind in Ferrara. Later she sent for them but Alfonso, possibly for fear of their being captured, wanted them to remain in Ferrara, even though he himself was spending most of the time in Ostellato. From Reggio, Lucrezia continued to send Gonzaga affectionate messages. She had hoped, she told him in November, to visit him on her way back to Ferrara, but nothing came of it. Both she and Ippolito were back in Ferrara by the end of November.

The war dragged on, prosecuted with unfailing energy by the indomitable old pope who now put together another League, this time with Ferdinand of Spain, Venice and the distant participation of Henry VIII, King of England, for the recovery of Bologna and all other lands of the Church occupied by others (i.e. Alfonso and the French). Spanish troops from Naples arrived under Ramón Cardona. La Bastia was lost again and only the presence of Alfonso with his troops and French lances in Ferrara prevented the Spaniards from advancing on Ferrara. Alfonso came and went with his troops and on 12 January brought the French captains back for a festivity given by Lucrezia. Two days later he was back before La Bastia which he succeeded in retaking and in the process nearly lost his life, being struck on the forehead by the ricochetting of a large piece of stone. Lucrezia’s doctor, Lodovico Bonaccioli, and another were sent to him and found him in remarkably good spirits although he had bled from the nose and mouth. He returned secretly to Ferrara in order not to alarm the people and lodged in Lucrezia’s rooms in the Castello where a medical conference was being held. It was discovered that no damage had been done to the bone beneath the wound, despite his having been struck with great force by the corner of a piece of masonry. Alfonso was lucky: in the bloody taking of the fortress 180 Spaniards and eighty Italians were killed, including three unfortunate Ferrarese prisoners. He was forced merely to wear a bandage round his head for several days and, in order not to embarrass their lord, obsequious courtiers followed suit.

The French returned to Ferrara from time to time throughout February and March for rest and recreation: this included jousting, duelling, feasting and then dancing in Lucrezia’s rooms. For many of them it would be their last dance. On 11 April 1512, Easter Day, one of the bloodiest battles of the Italian wars took place outside the walls of Ravenna. It was a crushing defeat for the papal and Spanish forces in which Alfonso’s artillery deployment was the determining factor. Ten thousand men were estimated to have been killed, among them the flower of the French army, notably the brilliant young Gaston de Foix, and Cesare’s old companion-in-arms,Yves d’Alègre, and his twenty-eight-year-old son. Among the prisoners captured were Fabrizio Colonna and the papal legate, Cardinal Medici, the future Pope Leo X, whom Alfonso took back with him to Ferrara.

There he made a triumphal entry; the populace streamed out to greet him, on horseback and on foot, the children with bunches of flowers in their hands. The noise of tabors, bells and gunfire was such, di Prosperi exclaimed, that ‘it seemed as if the city would fall down’. Riding into the piazza he dismounted at the cathedral to give thanks to St George, then rode to the Castello where Lucrezia was waiting for him on the Revelino. With him came the wounded and the dead, a piteous sight.
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While the body of de Foix was borne back to France via Bologna, the wounded continued to arrive in the city over the following days. Among the prisoners was Fabrizio Colonna, under guard. It was reported from Ravenna, which had been given over to be sacked, that only Alfonso’s prompt action in hanging a number of Gascons saved the women who had taken refuge in the churches, and the nuns in the convents, from rape.

In Ferrara the chief Italian prisoners were treated as guests: Fabrizio Colonna was permitted to go wherever he wished, accompanied only by el Modenese del Forno, captain of the light horse, and Messer Rainaldo Ariosto. The Cardinal de’Medici was taken hawking in the Barco. It was rumoured that he had been heard to say he thanked God for three things: first, for having done his duty and not taken flight like the Viceroy (Cardona) and the other Spaniards; second, for being alive; and third, for having fallen into the hands of the Duke of Ferrara, who had welcomed him and treated him not as a prisoner but like a father. Within less than two years, however, the future Leo X would forget his debt of gratitude to the Duke of Ferrara.

Lucrezia had continued to correspond with Francesco Gonzaga despite their being officially on opposing sides in this war. Strozzi seems to have faded from the picture as intermediary, to be replaced by Count Melina, with whom she had sent a handwritten note in January, ‘to remind Your Lordship that you have in me a most obedient sister, desirous of your good and happiness as much as if it were her own health: may it please God to liberate us from these difficulties so that you can visit here presently as I desire beyond anything to see Your Lordship’.
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A few weeks later she wrote again in her own hand via Count Melina, thanking Francesco for the letter he had written her despite his illness: ‘May it please God to give you the grace to recover your health soon and be as well as I do desire.’ Since Melina, now obviously in their confidence, was the bearer of her letter, she would say no more but leave it to him to deliver her messages. In March she asked him to help Angela Borgia by sending her letters on to the French ambassador at the imperial court and, if not, to recommend ‘this business of Sassuolo’ to the Cardinal-Bishop of Gurk (Matthaus Lang, the Emperor’s favourite minister). She returned to the charge on behalf of her beloved Angela in May, asking him to forward letters from Cardinal Sanseverino to the Emperor and to Gurk, in favour of the ‘business of Sassuolo’, with one she herself had written to Casola, the Mantuan envoy at the imperial court: ‘Because these letters are important, I pray Your Excellency that you will for love of me once more take up the task of seeing that they safely reach Casola . . .’ There were the usual requests for favours from him, for the liberation of prisoners, for the cause of one of her singers, ‘Nicolo cantor’, for the capture of certain prisoners requested by the Capitano of Reggio, etc. For favours on Alfonso’s side, di Prosperi would address himself to Isabella ‘for fear of causing trouble between the signor Marchese and the Lord Duke . . .’

The battle of Ravenna saved Ferrara, but only for the time being. It had been a pyrrhic victory for the French, who were demoralized by the loss of some of their principal commanders, notably the brilliant de Foix. They were forced to return to defend their country against the King of Spain, who attacked through Navarre, and the King of England in Guyenne. The time had come for Alfonso, if he could, to make peace with the Pope and save his state. But in Rome Julius II flew into a rage at the very mention of Alfonso’s name. He had been deeply offended since he had heard of the fate of his statue in Bologna. Francesco Gonzaga attempted to divert his attention from Ferrara by writing to di Camposampiero to persuade the Pope that he could consider Ferrara as already his and his primary objective should be to chase the French out of Italy.
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Under persuasion from the Gonzaga and their emissaries, including the young hostage, their twelve-year-old son, Federico, of whom Julius was extremely fond, the Pope agreed to send a safe conduct, dated 11 June, for Alfonso to go to Rome and make his submission. His safety was also guaranteed by his former prisoner, Fabrizio Colonna, who was to accompany him to Rome, and by the Spanish ambassador. Julius was so delighted to hear from Francesco Gonzaga that Alfonso would be coming to Rome that he leapt out of bed shoeless and, wearing only his shirt, capered triumphantly round his rooms, crying ‘Julius’ and ‘the Church’ and singing out loud. Alfonso arrived in Rome on 4 July with a small company; Julius sent Federico Gonzaga out to greet him and he entered the city supported by the principal Roman aristocracy represented by Fabrizio Colonna and Giangiordano Orsini. The Pope had offered him lodging in the Vatican, but the wary Alfonso preferred to stay in Cardinal d’Aragona’s Palazzo San Clemente. On 9 July, Alfonso’s formal absolution took place in the Vatican where the Pope had prepared what Isabella’s friend and admirer, the humanist writer Mario Equicola, who accompanied him, described to Isabella as ‘a sumptuous collation with all kinds of fruits . . . stunning confections [probably sugar statues], many various wines and fine music performed on viols’. In consistory, Alfonso kissed the Pope’s foot and was embraced by him but mutual suspicion remained, fomented by Alfonso’s enemies at court, Alberto Pio da Carpi, now imperial envoy, and Alfonso’s treacherous cousin, Niccolὸ di Rinaldo d’Este (executed three years later at Ferrara for plotting against Alfonso), dripping poison in the Pope’s ears. The Pope wanted Alfonso to release his brothers, particularly Ferrante who had recently smuggled a letter to him pleading for his help, and he wanted Ferrara. These conditions were completely unacceptable to Alfonso and, fearing a trap, he fled Rome on 19 July with Fabrizio Colonna, the pair forcing their way through the Porta San Giovanni and riding to Colonna’s stronghold at Marino.

Lucrezia and Ippolito received letters, presumably containing the bad news, from Fabrizio Colonna on 21 July, although it was not generally divulged until early August. It would be three months before Alfonso, guarded by the Colonna, reached Ferrara after a tortuous journey northwards, dodging spies on the lookout for him. The Pope remained obsessed by Ferrara, and at a second meeting in Mantua of the ‘Most Holy League’ three decisions were taken – for the restoration of the Medici to Florence whence they had been expelled by the French; the restoration of Ludovico Sforza’s son, Massimiliano, to Milan; and the conquest of Ferrara. While Francesco Gonzaga, pleading illness once again, withdrew from the discussions, Isabella played hostess, avid for information which might have a bearing on Ferrara and fruitlessly trying to divert the participants’ attention elsewhere. The conference ended on 16 August and on the 17th she warned Ippolito that, although the participants could not agree as to who should be the first target for conquest, the much-feared Swiss mercenaries of the Pope were on the move towards Ferrara. Lucrezia, who had been ill for much of the summer, in the absence of Alfonso issued orders for the defence of the city. Artillery was taken out of the Castello and transferred to the bastions and ramparts. On 12 August she had received advice from Alfonso, as she wrote to Isabella, that at all costs the Este heir, Ercole, should be sent to safety to prevent his falling into the Pope’s hands as a hostage for his father: ‘I will be brief because the bearer of this letter will let you know in full what the decision of my lord and myself is concerning our son whom it is unnecessary to recommend to you. Only I beg you that in everything you can concerning this you will do as I have faith you will, for which I will be perpetually obliged to you . . .’ To curry favour with the Marchioness, she congratulated Isabella on the ‘fine court’ she was holding for the meetings at Mantua.
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On the same day she wrote an anguished letter to Francesco, passing on Alfonso’s instructions by messenger and pleading with him not to fail Alfonso and herself and to help save Alfonso from the Pope. By the end of the month, she was writing to him of their ‘extreme need’ of men-at-arms. Even the Pope, having intercepted a similar letter from her, felt sorry for her and spoke ‘very kindly and compassionately’ of her.
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Nonetheless, she had changed her mind about keeping Ercole with her. It was just as well.

15. Lucrezia Triumphant

‘She shall ever grow in beauty, merit, fortune and good repute, just like a tender plant in soft earth . . .’

– Ludovico Ariosto in praise of Lucrezia in Orlando Furioso, Canto 13, line 69, 1516

That year of 1512 Alfonso and Lucrezia ordered three engraved silver votive plaques to thank the patron saint of Ferrara, San Maurelio, for the saving of the city after the battle of Ravenna. One of them is the only representation we have of Lucrezia with her son, the future Ercole II. It shows Lucrezia at the age of thirty-two, in profile, with her blonde hair bound with a jewelled diadem across her forehead, drawn back over her ears and held by a jewelled net, ending in a plait down her back. She is dressed in the height of contemporary fashion in a high-waisted dress, richly embroidered, with huge sleeves and a frilled
gorgiere
covering the top part of her breast. Draped over her right wrist is the latest fashion accessory, a small pelt of sable or ermine; with her left hand she holds little Ercole, aged five, presenting him to the saint who places his hand in blessing on the future Duke’s bare head. She is attended by five extremely pretty women in dresses similar to her own but less richly patterned; three of them have the same bound-back hairstyles as Lucrezia, the other two have elaborately curled, shoulder-length hair; at least one of them is carrying a sable pelt. Another plaque shows Alfonso equipped for war, in armour kneeling before the saint, bearded and with wavy, shoulder-length hair, his helmet on the ground, and behind him his courser in rich harness, and two
staffieri;
one of them poses seductively in skin-tight doublet and hose, with an arm draped languidly over the horse’s neck. The third depicts the prior of the Olivetan monastery of San Giorgio, Girolamo Bendedeo, guardian of the cult of San Maurelio, kneeling before the saint; in the background the towers and ramparts of Ferrara overlook the confluence of the Po di Volano and the Po di Primaro, where the citizens of Ferrara are going about their business on the river bank.
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It is particularly poignant to see Lucrezia as a mother at that time since, towards the end of August, while Alfonso was still at Marino on his way back from Rome, she received yet another personal blow: the death through illness at Bari of her eldest son, Rodrigo Bisceglie. He was twelve years old. She had not seen him since she had left Rome when he was two. Prostrate with grief, she fled to the convent of San Bernardino, remaining there the whole of September, unable to bring herself to write to anyone. When she did so, on 1 October, she wrote of ‘finding myself completely overcome with tears and bitterness for the death of the Duke of Bisceglie, my most dear son . . .’

The tears were understandable, the bitterness too. Separation from Rodrigo had been an unwritten part of the deal which had taken her to Ferrara with the appearance of a virgin bride – ‘
pulcherrima virgo
’, in the words of Ariosto. Reasons of state had decreed that she had not seen her eldest son since her departure from Rome to marry Alfonso.

There is evidence of some kind of agreement between the Este and the Borgias over Rodrigo in a document of 11 October 1505 in the Modena archives which describes not only Cardinal Cosenza as his guardian but Ippolito d’Este as one of his coguardians.
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He was brought up at the court of Isabella d’Aragona in Bari where she lived as Duchess in the city granted her by Ludovico il Moro. He was there in March 1505 when an entry in Lucrezia’s wardrobe accounts mentions a doublet of damask and brocade which Lucrezia had had made and sent to Bari for him.
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He appears to have shared a tutor named Baldassare Bonfiglio with Giovanni Borgia at Bari, but while Giovanni Borgia was allowed to come to Ferrara in 1506 and probably placed at the Pio estate at Carpi with Cesare’s son, Girolamo, Rodrigo did not accompany him. That year, 1506, Lucrezia had apparently made plans to meet him with Duchess Isabella at the shrine of Loreto, but the meeting never took place. According to Gregorovius, both boys were in Bari in April 1508, sharing a tutor, Bartolommeo Grotto; Lucrezia had clothes made for them and paid for the tutor to buy a copy of Virgil for Giovanni.

Rodrigo Bisceglie had lived in some state at Bari: he received rents from his estates in Bisceglie and the Duchy of Corato. In February 1511, Duchess Isabella spent 100 ducats on a horse and harness for him.
⁴
An inventory of his goods taken after his death, presumably on Lucrezia’s instructions, shows him finely equipped as befitted his rank as a young duke, albeit a minor one. There were quantities of rich clothes, belts and purses of gold, furnishings such as table carpets and carriage covers, trappings of velvet fringed with gold for coursers and mules, bed hangings and coverings and a commode – ‘
sedia a necessario
’ – covered in red cloth with a copper vase, arms and armour including daggers in fine Spanish and German metalwork, and spurs and breastplates. His silver tableware included a fine salt gilded inside and out in the Spanish manner, silver gilt plates, dishes and ewers engraved with his arms.
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His accounts were carefully preserved among Lucrezia’s documents, and in the years following his death she succeeded in establishing herself as his heir although she was to discover that, as with so many noble families, the richness of the appanages belied the poverty of the income. On 9 October 1512 she wrote to Gonzaga asking him for a safe conduct for Jacopo de Tebaldi, the ducal chancellor, whom she was sending via Venice to Bari to deal with Duchess Isabella over Rodrigo’s affairs: ‘so that I should have those things which duly should come to me and because at present the journey there is not safe for any messenger of ours’. The recovery of Rodrigo’s inheritance proved to be a protracted and tedious process and it was not until 1518 that it came to an end.

Di Prosperi reported to Isabella that Lucrezia was in such tribulation of spirit at the news of Rodrigo’s death that there was no means of comforting her. Ippolito was on hand to console her on this occasion, as he had been on the deaths of Alexander and Cesare: as an ecclesiastic he was allowed inside the convent and, according to di Prosperi, spent many hours with her there. Alfonso was still making his tortuous way home, sending secret messages to Ippolito. When Isabella complained to Ippolito that he did not pass these messages on to her, the cardinal replied that he could not do so in case they were intercepted and Alfonso’s whereabouts revealed to the Pope. Julius seized two of Alfonso’s
staffieri
in the Marches and had them brought to Rome where he tortured them but they could tell him nothing. He kept up the pressure on the Gonzaga, sending a special representative to Mantua to promise Isabella great promotions for her children, including Ferrara for her son-in-law, Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. He reminded Francesco that the Este had been the historical enemies of the Gonzaga, despite the present relationship, and Alfonso especially so, having always sought to do evil to the Marquis, to kill him and to mock him and hold him in little esteem, and that if he remained in Ferrara he would be the greatest enemy Gonzaga could have.
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Against these intrigues, however, there was on the one hand, Isabella and Ippolito, standing shoulder to shoulder in the passionate defence of Ferrara, and on the other Francesco’s devotion to Lucrezia.

Lucrezia and Francesco continued their correspondence through a new intermediary, Fra Anselmo. Gonzaga sent her
cedri
and truffles, she asked him for favours for her nuns. Gonzaga, for all his carnal sins, was, like Alexander, devout in his religious attachment to the Virgin Mary. On 2 November, Lucrezia wrote to him, asking that as he had been ‘the most potent cause of comfort to my nuns and Mother Superior’ to ensure that the Father Vicar General who had been in Mantua should enact what she had requested and create a new abbess before his return to Rome.

The lack of warmth between Lucrezia and Isabella continued, even over the death of Rodrigo Bisceglie. Isabella wrote to her crony, Sister Laura Boiarda, appointed by Lucrezia as abbess of the convent of San Bernardino, that she did not intend either to write in her own hand or send an envoy to condole with Lucrezia ‘in case it renewed her grief’, so she was entrusting Sister Laura to deal with it as she thought fit. Unsurprisingly, Lucrezia was offended at this breach of protocol, and complained to Fra Anselmo when he visited her on 7 October, saying that though his visit was a signal that Francesco still wished her well, ‘nonetheless I feared that he had grown cold towards me . . . because it seemed to me that he had agreed with My Lady [Isabella] that none of them should be sent to visit me in this my sorrow of my son . . .’ ‘Believe me, My Lord, that this Lady is truly out of the ordinary,’ the impressed friar reported to Francesco.
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It was not until the end of the month that Isabella deigned to write an official letter of condolence which she entrusted to di Prosperi to deliver to San Bernardino. He, however, reported on 20 September that when he visited the convent that day Lucrezia had already left secretly, which he interpreted as a sign that Alfonso would soon be home. By the 9th, however, Lucrezia, dressed in mourning, had returned to San Bernardino and Alfonso did not arrive until the 14th.

Di Prosperi reported his triumphant arrival ‘like Moses escaping from the Pharaoh’, accompanied only by Masino del Forno and a few of his companions, having had a farewell supper with Fabrizio Colonna at Bondeno. He arrived ‘in disguise and in a simple
burchiello’
(small boat) walked through the garden and entered the Castello: the entire populace crowded into the piazza to see him and the great bell of the fortress sounded. He went first to his
camerini
and then to Lucrezia’s apartments to meet her in the ‘second little room where they are used to dine in the winter’. There ‘they embraced and caressed each other, remaining together for a little while and with their children, with happy countenances towards their gentlemen and everyone’.
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Later, Alfonso went to talk to Ippolito and Federico Gonzaga da Bozzolo in his
camerini
for a long time, then to inspect the ramparts damaged by the recent floods. Afterwards he returned to spend a long time with Lucrezia in her rooms.

Alfonso was now a hero to the Ferrarese: ‘let [the Pope] do what he likes,’ di Prosperi wrote to Isabella on 16 December 1512, ‘because these people are more constant as time goes by and faithful to Your Illustrious House and to the Lord Duke your brother, and of this I am most certain . . .’ Julius had succeeded in wresting from him all his lands apart from Argenta, Comacchio and Ferrara itself, but Alfonso was prepared to fight to the last, making a truce with the Venetians and signing up four thousand Italian and German troops. Francesco Gonzaga, however, now thought that Ferrara was finished and instructed his relation, Federico Gonzaga da Bozzolo, to abandon his efforts to help Alfonso or risk losing his state.

He also wanted Lucrezia safely at Mantua with him. On 22 December he wrote to the Archdeacon of Gabbioneta that he wanted favourable treatment for her: ‘I want to be quite clear on one thing: if the Duchess of Ferrara, who has always in the past had great trust in me and towards whom as a woman I have great compassion and willingly would give her pleasure, if she would with confidence come here to our state without her husband and children, in what manner we are to behave to her without displeasing His Holiness . . .’
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Whether Lucrezia – let alone Alfonso – would have acquiesced in this plan we shall never know. She had not run away before when Ferrara had been in danger; it is more likely that Francesco’s was the dream of a sick and lonely man. But the confidential correspondence continued: on 9 January 1513 she sent a private message by one of her gentlemen, Pietro Giorgio (?Lampugnano), with a covering note in her own hand. Francesco presumably sent private messages to her too, because on 4 February she wrote, again in her own hand, how glad she was to get good news of his convalescence from Messer Tolomeo (Spagnoli) and Lorenzo Strozzi who would have returned to him and would be able to tell him in person of her feelings towards him.
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Relations between Francesco and Isabella, however, had reached breaking point and they now led virtually separate lives, she in the ducal palace and he in his palace of San Sebastiano. According to Luzio they had not slept together since 1509 ‘for fear of the pox’. Isabella had greatly enjoyed the independence and power she had had while Francesco was imprisoned. While Francesco was bound to the Pope by his military duties and, indeed, the interests of his state, Isabella carried on diplomatic policy and relations designed only to save her house of Este. Francesco had his own clique hostile to her, which included his secretary, Tolomeo Spagnoli, and, more distantly, the detested Vigo di Camposampiero at Rome. Early in the new year of 1513, Isabella left Mantua by mutual agreement ‘for the sake of peace’, as Luzio put it, to spend carnival at Milan with her nephew, the recently restored Duke Massimiliano Sforza, son of her sister Beatrice and Ludovico il Moro. At Milan, she told Alfonso, she would be able the better to use her influence with the Spanish Viceroy Ramón Cardona, the imperial representative, the Cardinal-Bishop of Gurk, and, of course, her nephew the Duke. On the eve of her departure on 8 January, she wrote defiantly to Ippolito: ‘the Pope wants to have all the possessions of the house of Este in his power, sooner may God ruin him and make him die as I hope it will be . . .’