The Tigress of Forli (16 page)

An ambassador for the Colonna family sought an audience with the count to beg for the release of Lorenzo, offering in return the strongholds of Marino and Ardea. Girolamo's greed, however, would no longer be sated with only two of their properties. "I will take all of their fortresses by storm!" he declared before putting the hapless messenger to death.
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Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, a neighbor of the Colonna family, pleaded during a family council for the pope to end this persecution. Girolamo, he warned, would "burn down God's church, and completely ruin it" by causing this strife and turmoil. Girolamo turned on his cousin, shouting that "rebels and enemies of the church are in his house!" and accusing him of treason. Cardinal Giuliano protested to their uncle, but there was nothing the ailing pope could do to keep Girolamo in check. "I'll burn you in your own house!"
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Girolamo said, threatening Giuliano before the entire court and vowing that Giuliano's property would meet the same end as that of his friends. Count Riario thus succeeded in alienating the most powerful member of his own family.

Girolamo Riario completed his revenge against the Colonnas on Rome's most important feast day, June 29, the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Lorenzo Colonna, unrecognizable after a month's imprisonment, was dragged out into the courtyard of the Castel Sant'Angelo. Wrapped in a tattered cape, he nonetheless maintained his noble mien as he repudiated the confession extracted from him under torture, expressing more concern for his friends than for his own reputation. Lorenzo sent his blessings to Pope Sixtus before approaching the executioner's tripod and laying his head upon it. Then the blow was struck. Lorenzo Colonna was no more.

When his body was returned to the family, they opened the coffin and discovered the extent of Girolamo's cruelty. Lorenzo's severed head was crowned with a red beret, a cruel joke. During imprisonment he had been suspended with weights attached to his feet until his arms became dislocated, and his feet had been ripped and cut. His thighs had been sliced and his knees sprained. Girolamo had ensured that every moment of the last month of this man's life had been excruciatingly painful.

The next day Girolamo sent his henchmen to destroy the Colonna vineyard behind the wrecked palace. While the trellises were being pulled up, several beams were taken out of Cardinal Giuliano's veranda, no doubt an act of petty vengeance on the part of the count.

Although numerous chroniclers recount the horrific actions of Girolamo, they remain silent regarding the countess. Sidelined by her husband's madness and her papal protector's weakness, she remained by the side of the aged pontiff, comforting him as he helplessly watched Girolamo cast a shadow over his pontificate.

Rome suffered through the summer of 1484. Girolamo and the Orsinis were devastating the countryside, besieging all the Colonna lands. Within the city, Girolamo's reign of terror had everyone from cardinals to cobblers trembling behind closed doors. On August 7, word reached Rome of a new treaty involving Naples, Florence, Milan, Ferrara, and Venice but excluding Pope Sixtus. In response to this political humiliation, Sixtus failed fast. On August 11, the articles of the agreement were brought to Rome and the pope read with pain that not one of the stipulations he presented to the negotiators was included. The next day he died. Upon Sixtus's death, thirteen years of pent-up rage exploded. Roman mobs raced to the Riarios' house and tore it down. The elegant columns with the intricate capitals, the delicate frescoes, the wooden furniture, and even the door and shutters were removed and shattered. The rioters even took out the lead water pipes and troughs in the stables, crying, "Colonna, Colonna!" The protonotary Lorenzo was avenged. The Romans then sacked the Riarios' farmhouse at the Castel Jubileo, about ten miles outside the city, and their supplies and livestock—a hundred cows, a hundred goats, several pigs and chickens, the stock of Parmesan cheese, and a supply of Greek wine—swelled the local pantries.

Caterina was with Girolamo at the Orsini camp near Paliano. She had
been moved out of the city in July to ensure her safety, should the pope die. Despite her popularity among the Romans, their wrath against Girolamo made her a potential target for revenge. But instead of cowering behind her husband's soldiers, Caterina responded to the news of Sixtus's death and the resulting reprisals with daring action. Girolamo, ostensibly obeying the order of the College of Cardinals to cease hostilities with the Colonnas at once, left Paliano and with Virgilio Orsini made his way toward the Ponte Molle, just outside Rome. The Colonnas and Savellis were pouring back into the city, and soon it would be a deathtrap for the hated Riario count. With the Colonnas influencing the College of Cardinals and Girolamo unable to enter Rome to demand his rights, the Riario family stood to lose everything gained during Sixtus's pontificate. Caterina leapt into the saddle and rode toward Rome, accompanied only by Paolo Orsini. A seven-month-pregnant noblewoman, she had a better chance of being let through the city defenses than any other member of the Riario faction. Caterina didn't go to the papal palace to find the cardinals, however. She headed straight to the papal fort of Castel Sant'Angelo. As dusk fell on August 14, Caterina marched up the ramp to the castle and assumed control of it, and thereby the city. Pointing the cannons toward all access roads to the Vatican, she cut the cardinals off from the ecclesiastical nerve center. Caterina's decisive action threw the College of Cardinals into an uproar. While they debated moving their meetings to another palace out of the reach of the castle's artillery and argued over who should talk to the countess, Caterina was girding herself for war by dismissing all the senior keepers of the castle, including Innocenzo Codronchi, who had been personally appointed by her husband as the lieutenant of the fortress. Although he was devoted to Girolamo, Caterina refused to have him within the castle walls. This gesture has perplexed historians; some speculate that she distrusted everyone and wanted to be the only person in the fort with the authority to give orders, and others surmise that perhaps she had overheard seditious words from this ostensibly faithful retainer. Another possibility is that she wanted to act free of her husband's influence. Innocenzo would have done as the count wished, and Girolamo, without the backing of the pope, might be feeble in pressing his own claims and look for a quick compromise. As things stood, Girolamo was issuing empty threats from the safety of the Orsini camp, claiming that he would intervene with his army if any of the cardinals he hated was elected pope. The cardinals could easily dismiss Girolamo, but Caterina knew they would have to take her cannons seriously. The only hope to save her family's fortunes was to force the cardinals into recognizing the Riarios' titles and properties before they elected a new pope.

On the ramparts of the castle, the vivacious darling of the court showed herself to be a fierce warrior. In response to demands that she turn over the fortress, Caterina declared that Pope Sixtus had made her husband responsible for the castle and that she would turn it over only to the next pope. Electing his successor was easier said than done, however, since Caterina's cannons kept the cardinals from crossing the bridge to reach the Sistine Chapel, the designated site of the conclave.

On August 17, a lonely funeral took place for Sixtus IV. Only eleven cardinals attended, since many of the others, including Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, were terrified of approaching the Vatican precinct while the castle remained in Caterina's hands. As was the case when her father died, Caterina never had the chance to bid farewell to the remains of this man who had welcomed her so warmly and cherished her during her years in Rome.

The day after the funeral, a messenger came to the fort bearing a letter from Girolamo's nephew Cardinal Raffaello Riario. The frightened rabbit of the Pazzi conspiracy now held the position of camerlengo, which meant he was in charge of organizing the conclave to elect Sixtus's successor. As a close relative, he took it upon himself to soothe the feisty countess. Distrustful, Caterina allowed only one person to accompany Cardinal Riario's envoy inside to present the missive. When the go-between balked at Caterina's conditions for the meeting, she fixed her interlocutors with a fiery eye and declared, "So he wants a battle of wits with me, does he? What he doesn't understand is that I have the brains of Duke Galeazzo and I am as brilliant as he!"
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Caterina's first recorded spoken words, unlike those found in her dutiful epistles, reveal the proud Sforza warrior spirit that had long lay dormant in the Riario household. Stunned by her audacity, the cardinals retreated once again.

Anarchy was always a danger during the interregnum, the period between the death of a pope and the election of his successor. Without a reigning head of state, rioting, looting, and the settling of old scores were the norm. Adding to the general chaos of the
sede vacante
was the Colonna family back in Rome with two hundred soldiers and more grievances. The Orsinis were stationed near the Vatican. With the Castel Sant'Angelo in the hands of the Riarios, Rome became a battleground.

Desperate, on August 23 the College of Cardinals came to an agreement with Girolamo, offering him eight thousand ducats to pay his soldiers, provided he retreat immediately from Rome. They promised an indemnity for his lost property, an ongoing role as captain of the papal armies, and the continued lordship of Forlì and Imola. Girolamo, content with the cardinals' promises, made ready to leave. Caterina did not.

The next night, Caterina smuggled 150 more soldiers into the castle. After all her years at court she had little faith in the promises of men like Roderigo Borgia or Raffaello Riario. She planned to wait out the conclave and then deal directly with the next pope. The cardinals were infuriated by this new development and put pressure on Girolamo to end the trouble, threatening to revoke their agreement. Girolamo, having received cash and a few promises, was getting ready to leave Rome, and Caterina found herself publicly abandoned and humiliated by the husband whose property she had just saved.
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In the heat of August in the swampy area of the castle, Caterina was feeling the weight of her pregnancy and was frequently unwell. Bribes and threats could not move her, but a husband's betrayal and an impending delivery did.

On the evening of August 25, Caterina's uncle Cardinal Ascanio Sforza came to the castle accompanied by eight cardinals. They treated her with the utmost respect, promising to care for her and her family and allowing her to keep her escort of 150 men as she left Rome. They also confirmed in writing and before witnesses that the lands of Imola and Forlì belonged to the Riario family.

The next morning, the drawbridge of the Castel Sant'Angelo was lowered and Romans and visitors alike crowded around to see this extraordinary woman, who had held the College of Cardinals at bay for eleven days. The pretty little favorite of Pope Sixtus had commandeered a castle to defend her family's rights, something worthy of legend and song. Although she was pale from illness and exhaustion, and heavily pregnant, her beauty still impressed the onlookers. She wore a brown silk dress with a long train and a feathered black velvet cap. But she had added a new touch to her elegant attire. A man's belt, heavy with a coin purse and sword, hung from her hips. Surrounded by foot soldiers and cavalry and framed by a forest of lances, "she was feared, because that woman with the weapons in her hands was proud and cruel."
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Riding off to her new life in Forlì, she resembled less the delicate subject of Botticelli's portraits and more the powerful women who would appear in Michelangelo's painting in the Sistine Chapel.

T
HE RETURN OF THE
Riario family to Forlì was a far cry from their triumphant arrival three years earlier. Although the Forlivesi put on elaborate shows of welcome and organized a multitude of festivities, Count Riario's "return was very bitter for him, his wife, and his children, and... those days were filled with great sadness,"according to the local chronicler Andrea Bernardi.
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Upon the death of Sixtus IV, Girolamo's days as a papal favorite were finished, along with the funding and protection he had enjoyed.

Despite the promises of the College of Cardinals, Girolamo maintained only a tenuous hold on the lands of Imola and Forlì. The new pope, Giovanni Battista Cybo, who had assumed the name Innocent VIII when crowned with the papal tiara, struck contemporaries as a sincere and kind man. But as the Florentine ambassador informed his city, "As cardinal he was no friend to the count."
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Furthermore, the new pope numbered among his close friends Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, Girolamo's cousin and nemesis who had opposed him during the Colonna hostilities. Cardinal Giuliano had not forgotten Girolamo's threats and accusations nor the damage inflicted upon his own palace. For his part, Pope Innocent fervently hoped that the conflicts that characterized the era of Sixtus had ended and that his reign would be remembered for its peace and prosperity. The diplomats from the Italian courts, however, had already spotted an indecisive streak in the pontiff, a weakness that Girolamo's enemies were quick to exploit. Cardinal Savelli, embittered by his imprisonment in the Castel Sant'Angelo at the count's hands, had immediately sought and obtained an appointment as legate to Bologna, only a few miles from Girolamo's territories. Lorenzo de' Medici had long been friends with Cardinal Cybo before the latter's election and thus knew that the pope would not impede his long-awaited revenge on the perpetrators of the Pazzi conspiracy. Closer to home, the Manfredis of Faenza nurtured an intense hatred of Count Riario for his designs on their lands; in addition the duke of Ferrara still fumed over the Salt War. Surrounded by hostile neighbors, Girolamo was becoming aware that Caterina's powerful connections could be more instrumental in keeping his enemies at bay than respect for his personal might.