The first campaign in Romagna—Imola surrenders—Caterina Sforza, the type of the virago—Caesar enters Forli—Death of Cardinal Giovanni Borgia—Return of Ludovico il Moro to Milan—Caesar goes to Rome—His entrance into the city—He is invested with the Vicariate of Romagna—Delegates from Imola and Forli request the Pope to appoint Caesar Governor—Caesar is made Gonfalonier of the Church—His oath—Caesar’s physical strength—His personal appearance.

The campaign in Romagna had been decided upon and Caesar found himself at the head of a thoroughly disciplined and well-equipped force of about sixteen thousand men who were held in camp at Cesena.

Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, whose brother was assured Sinigaglia by the betrothal of his nephew, Francesco, with Angela Borgia, abandoned his kinsmen, the Riario, to their destruction. In a letter dated October 12, 1499, the cardinal thanked the Pope for the proposed marriage and promised to look after Valentino’s interests with the King of France.

November 9th the army broke camp, Caesar taking the cavalry to Piacenza, whence, accompanied by the Bishop of Tulle and a single servant, he came quietly to Rome and remained at the Vatican with the Pope until the 24th, when he rejoined his troops and set out for Imola.140 Girolamo Riario’s wife, Caterina Sforza, had been given Imola as part of her dowry and, her husband having died in 1488, she acted as regent for her son Ottaviano. Of Caterina Sforza Gregorovius says: “The grandchild of the great Francesco Sforza of Milan, natural daughter of Galeazzo Maria and sister of Bianca, wife of the Emperor Maximilian, she was the ideal of the heroic women of Italy who were found not merely in the poems of Bojardo and Ariosto but also in real life. To understand the evolution of such personalities, in whom beauty and culture, courage and reason, sensuality and cruelty combined to produce a singular organisation, we must be familiar with the conditions from which they sprang—Caterina Sforza’s experiences made her the amazon that she was.”

Shortly after her marriage to the untutored nephew of Sixtus IV., Girolamo Riario, Count of Forli, her father met a tyrant’s death in Milan. Subsequently her husband was stabbed to death and his naked body flung from the walls of the castle of Forli by conspirators. Caterina, however, ferociously avenged the murder of her husband and succeeded in holding his estates for her children. Six years later her brother, Gian Galeazzo, died of poison administered by Ludovico il Moro. Finally her second husband, Giacomo Feo of Savona, was slain by conspirators in Forli, and the heroic Caterina mounted her charger and with a small body of men pursued them to their lair and put them all to the sword, with their women and children—thus she deserved Sanudo’s description, “a courageous woman and most cruel virago.”

141

Towns taken by assault
Towns surrendered

MAP OF THE CAMPAIGN IN ROMAGNA. TOWNS UNDER CAESAR BORGIA’S RULE.

142 She ruled her little domain with force and cunning; and later, when she fell into Caesar’s clutches, few lamented her fate and Giangiacomo Trivulzio cynically remarked: “She has now fallen into the hands of two men who can satisfy all her desires.”

She was a woman of heroic character, such as the Renaissance described as a virago, a term expressive of admiration, not reproach. The virago corresponded to the man who possessed what the Italian called virtu, which has nothing to do with virtue, but which comprises energy, intellect, will, the sum total of attributes which enabled a man successfully to cope with his adversaries—in brief, the qualities most dear to the Italian heart of the fifteenth century.

When the Pope had declared that the lords of the Romagna, having failed to pay the annual tribute to the Holy See, were deprived of their possessions, Caterina Sforza set up the claim that the Holy See still owed her a large sum of money which had been due her husband as Captain of the pontifical army; she therefore announced that if they persisted she would resist, and her first move was to send her younger children and her jewels to Florence for safety.

Knowing in advance that her people, because of their hatred of the Riario, would betray her, she retired to the castle of Forli and, filling it with arms and munitions of war, calmly awaited the enemy.

When Caesar was still some distance from the city, delegates appeared in his camp and offered to surrender the town to him without resistance. The capitulation was signed November 26th and Valentino entered the city the following day.

143 The castle independently of the town was defended by Dionigi di Naldo, whose wife and children were held by Caterina Sforza as hostages in the stronghold of Forli. Naldo held out for some time, but was finally forced to surrender, and December 13, 1499, Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, legate for Romagna and Bologna, received the oath of fidelity to the Holy See, in the Church of S. Domenico in Imola.

The smaller places in the county of Imola having been captured without difficulty, Valentino advanced against Forli, December 15th. On learning of Caesar’s approach, Caterina, who had retired to the castle, dispatched her brother, Alessandro Sforza, to urge the citizens to resist, saying that she herself would fight to the last. They, however, refused, and she took advantage of the last moments to send her eldest son to Florence for safety. The citizens were determined to surrender, and they so informed both the Countess and Valentinois. The two commissioners—who never returned—had scarcely delivered their message when she directed her artillery on the city and partly demolished the town hall.

Caesar arrived before the gates of Forli December 17th, but refused to enter as conqueror until the articles of capitulation had been given him. Two days later he made his entry without opposition, the citizens preferring him to their lord, Girolamo Riario, who had burdened them with heavy taxes and administered the laws in the most partial manner.

The castle still held out and Caesar immediately began preparations for its capture. On Christmas144 Day Caterina raised the flag of Venice, the lion of St. Mark, to make the enemy believe that the republic was her ally, but Caesar was not deceived.

After attempting to make a breach, Valentino decided to try to effect an agreement of some sort, and for this purpose presented himself before the walls, where the Countess herself talked to him from the ramparts; but she refused all offers; the Duke made two other equally unsuccessful attempts, and did not open fire until December 28th.

The Countess succeeded in repelling all his attacks until January 12, 1500. She was everywhere on the ramparts encouraging and directing her men. When the outer walls were stormed, Caterina, before retiring to the keep—the last resort—ordered all the supplies to be set on fire, thinking thereby to compel the enemy to retreat, but it was too late, for Yves d’Allegre and his French company succeeded in forcing their way into the tower, and a Bourguignon, in searching the halls, found the heroic Countess of Forli surrounded by a band of her faithful people. Eager for the reward of twenty thousand ducats which had been offered for her capture alive, he declared her his prisoner.

That same evening the Countess left the fortress with the honours of war; she rode forth, mounted on her charger, between the Duke of Valentinois and Yves d’Allegre, who conducted her and her maids to the palace of the Numai.

Immediately after the capture of Forli, Caesar dispatched Yves d’Allegre to secure the surrender of the remaining small towns, while he devoted himself to reorganising the government of the conquered territory. His solicitude for the proper145 administration of justice and the prompt restoration of order at once won him the respect of the Romagnols, and from Imola and Forli envoys were sent to ask the Pope to appoint Caesar—who had declared himself to be merely the representative of the Holy See—their Governor in place of the tyrant he had expelled.

Caesar signed his first decree: “Caesar Borgia De France, Duke of Valentinois, Count of Diois and Issoudun, Pontifical Vicar of Imola and Forli,” and at the head of the province he placed Don Remiro de Lorca, the Spaniard who had been his constant companion, and whom we shall meet again.

After the capture of Imola, Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, papal legate to Romagna, had gone to Urbino, where he suddenly died, January 14, 1500. In spite of the fact that seventeen days had intervened between his departure from Caesar’s camp and his death, it was rumoured that Valentino, actuated by jealousy, had poisoned him. Sanudo was the first to attribute the Cardinal’s death to Caesar, but—as in the case of the murder of the Duke of Gandia—there is not the slightest evidence that he had anything to do with it. The Cardinal had been in Rome, and on his way to Urbino had been seized with a fever from which he died.

Caesar readily consented that all the benefices of the deceased should be given to his brother, Ludovico, who was made Governor of Spoleto.

The general hatred of the Borgia explains the facility with which these rumours spread and the universal credence they obtained.

146 January 24th it was decided to set out for Pesaro the following day; but in the night the Swiss mutinied, and the Bailli of Dijon went to the castle where Caterina Sforza was held, and, declaring that it was contrary to the rules of war to hold a woman prisoner, and that his sense of honour was outraged, escorted her to the palace where he lodged and refused to surrender her to Valentino, who intended to take her to Rome and deliver her to the Pope.

The revolt lasted a day, and Yves d’Allegre, having been hastily summoned by Caesar, returned in the evening, and Valentino, now sure of being able to repress the rebels with the aid of the French and the Spaniards, addressed the mutineers and threatened them with dire punishment. It was finally agreed that the bailli should surrender the Countess, “who shall be retained in the discretion of the King of France,” and an understanding with the Swiss mercenaries was reached.

The evening of January 25th the army set out for Cesena, Caterina Sforza, in a black satin gown and heavily veiled, riding between the Duke of Valentinois and Monsieur d’Allegre.

At Montefiore, January 26th, news reached Caesar that Ludovico il Moro, who had fled from Milan, had learned of the dissatisfaction of the people under French rule, and, having gathered an army of 1,300 Swiss and Bourguignons, was advancing on Como. Trivulzio, who had been left in charge of Milan, hastily sent for Yves d’Allegre, whose withdrawal from Caesar’s army terminated operations in the Romagna for a time, as it deprived Valentino of his artillery, and left him with only147 about five hundred cavalry and a thousand foot-soldiers.

In Milan the French were defeated as easily as they had conquered, and the people displayed the same enthusiasm on the return of the Moor as they had shown on his overthrow.

Caesar had left a small force to hold each of the towns he had captured in Romagna, and he had placed five hundred horse, under the command of Ercole Bentivoglio, conveniently situated to go to the aid of any garrison that might be threatened.

Valentino, having with him the Countess of Forli, who had again been placed in his charge on the departure of Yves d’Allegre for Milan, set out January 30th with five hundred horse, and passing through Fano, Urbino, and Spoleto, arrived in Rome February 26, 1500.

The Pope evidently wished to make the entrance of the Duke of Valentinois—returning from his victorious campaign in the Romagna—into the Eternal City as imposing as possible, for he instructed all the Church dignitaries then in Rome to meet the illustrious Caesar, with their suites. Several of the cardinals had already gone to greet him at some distance from the city, and now the orators of the various powers, the abbreviators of the Roman Curia, and the secretaries rode forth to welcome him. The Duke entered the city late in the afternoon, and was met near the Church of Sta Maria del Popolo by the Church dignitaries.

First came a train of wagons laden with chests filled with the Duke’s personal effects; then there were a thousand of his foot-soldiers, Swiss and Gascons; these were followed by a papal escort148 of lancers, with the flag of St. Andrew. Caesar followed, riding between Cardinal Orsini and Cardinal Farnese, who had gone forth to meet him. They were accompanied by a bodyguard of a............