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 Chapter Six Study Questions

1. What is the purpose of tracking player statistics in team sports?

Solution: We can see which teams win and lose. Statistics are tracked to see which players are

responsible for this outcome. So statistics are tracked to separate the player from the player’s

teammates.

2. When did the first baseball box score appear? Who developed batting average, and when

was this introduced?

Solution: The first box score appeared in 1845. Batting average was developed by H. A.

Dobson in 1872.

3. According to Pete Palmer, what is the first objective of a hitter?

Solution: The first objective is to not make an out.

4. According to the Asher Blass model, what is the relative value of a single, double, triple,

and home run in baseball?

Solution: A double is slightly more valuable than a single (not nearly twice as valuable). A

triple is about twice as valuable as a single, while a home run is nearly three times as valuable

(not four times as valuable).

5. Which is the “better” measure of a pitcher’s production: ERA or K/BB (and what are

they)? Answer this question by referring to the work of Anthony Krautmann, Andrew Zimbalist,

and J. C. Bradbury.

Solution: Krautmann and Zimbalist argued that earned run average (ERA) does better than

strikeout-to-walk ratio (K/BB) at explaining runs. But Bradbury noted that ERA is not a very
good measure of a pitcher’s performance because it depends on the defensive players around the

pitcher. This was illustrated by noting the relative inconsistency of ERA. Bradbury argued that

a better measure is K/BB because this measure is more about the pitcher’s skill.

6. Relative to baseball players and hockey goalies, how consistent are basketball players

from season to season? What explains this consistency?

Solution: Basketball players are much more consistent than baseball players or hockey goalies.

This goes back to the “short supply of tall people.” Because the population of potential

basketball players is small, the differences in athletes are relatively large and more consistent

across time.

7. According to Bill Gerrard, what is a “complex invasion sport”? What are examples of

this kind of sport?

Solution: Gerrard argued that a complex invasion sport is one where group of players cooperate

to move an object to a location defended by opponents. Examples include soccer, hockey,

basketball, and American football.

8. Why is it difficult to statistically model a complex invasion sport? What happens if you

ignore the nature of complex invasion sports and simply attempt to estimate the impact of every

player statistic in a single equation?

Solution: Complex invasion sports have a hierarchal nature, where higher-level actions (i.e.,

scoring) depend on lower-level actions (turnovers, passing, etc.). If your model already notes the

higher-level action (i.e., scoring), then the lower-level actions will generally appear to be

statistically insignificant because the impact of the lower-level actions is already captured by the

higher-level action. Hence you need multiple equations to capture the impact of both higher- and

lower-level actions.
9. Do NBA players really “create” shots? Explain.

Solution: Players do not seem to “create” shots. The number of shots taken by a team is not

impacted by the loss of a player who takes many shots (e.g., Allen Iverson or Carmelo Anthony).

What we see in the data is that scorers actually just take shots from their teammates.

10. What is Gerald Scully’s method for measuring MRP?

Solution: Scully argued that you need to estimate two models. One of these connects the player

statistics to wins. This allows one to measure how many wins a player creates. A second model

connects team revenue to team wins. This allows one to measure the dollar value of an

additional win created.

11. How do fixed revenues (define) impact our ability to measure the MRP of athletes in

basketball and football?

Solution: Fixed revenues are revenues that do not change with outcomes. An example is

broadcasting revenue, which a team receives whether it wins or loses. Players are clearly paid

more when broadcasting revenue rises. But according to the Scully approach, the player’s MRP

cannot rise with more broadcasting revenue because wins do not impact broadcasting revenue.

So when fixed revenues are large, it will appear that players are generally overpaid.

12. What is a simpler approach to addressing the issue of whether players are overpaid or

underpaid? What does the simpler approach tell us about athletes being overpaid or underpaid

across time? What does this reveal about athletes around the world today?

Solution: One can just look at the percentage of revenue paid to players. Taking this approach, it

appears that athletes were underpaid before the introduction of free agency. It also indicates that

athletes in Europe, where labor restrictions are less common, are paid much better than North

American athletes.
13. Explain how Anthony Krautmann measured the MRP of a professional baseball player.

What did he assume about the market for baseball free agents?

Solution: Krautmann regressed free-agent salaries on the free agent’s statistics. This gave him a

measure of how the market valued these actions. He then used this model to forecast the salaries

of nonfree agents. Krautmann assumed that the free-agent labor market was efficient.

14. Krautmann’s approach was applied to baseball, football, and basketball in Krautmann,

von Allmen, and Berri (2009). Were athletes in these sports found to be overpaid or underpaid?

Solution: In each of these sports, players without the ability to sell their services in a free-agent

market were found to be underpaid relative to free agents.

15. Karl Marx argued in the 19th century that capitalism exploits workers; J. B. Clark argued

in the 19th century that workers are paid what they are worth in a capitalist system. How does

the study of sports allow us to address the arguments of Marx and Clark?

Solution: The study of sports suggests that Marx is right that workers are exploited when they

lack bargaining power. When workers have bargaining power in sports, though, the results are

more consistent with Clark’s argument. So the study of sports allows us to see when Marx and

Clark are more likely to be correct.

16. Imagine you are hired by an NHL team. How much money would you suggest your team invest

in a goalie?

Solution: The textbook argues that goalies are not very different from each other. So a team should not

invest much money in this position, since goalies appear to be relatively the same.

17. Imagine you are hired by an NHL team. How would you measure the marginal product of a

skater center or forward?

Solution: Hockey is a complex invasion sport, so one needs to first estimate the link between outcomes

(team standing points) and goals scored and goals against. Then one needs to link goals scored to shot
attempts and shooting efficiency. After this, one needs to determine how a skater impacts shot attempts

and shooting efficiency. Another model is also needed to determine the impact that centers and forwards

might have on team defense.

18. In 2016–17, Andrew Wiggins attempted 1,570 field goals for the Minnesota Timberwolves, a

mark that led the team. His effective field goal percentage, though, was only 48.4%. This mark was

below the league average and the average for the Timberwolves. So if Wiggins were removed from this

team, what would likely happen to this team’s offense?

Solution: We learned in the chapter that a player’s shots are mostly taken from teammates, so shot

attempts would not likely change if Wiggins were lost. If he were replaced by an average shooter,

though, team efficiency would improve. Team offense would likely get better.
Other documents randomly have
different content
short quilted jerkin. They were introduced by the Venetians into
Lombardy, where their dashing qualities, as well as their ferocity,
soon established the reputation of these irregular horse as most
formidable mercenaries.
Infantry occupied, under the new system, a place until then denied
them. They had hitherto been of small account in the mustering of
armies, and were rarely relied on except in situations which excluded
cavalry evolutions. They carried small shields, and halberts or lances,
but were scarcely at all drilled, and never attempted to stand against
a charge of horse. More effective were their cross-bows, and the
rude muskets which they began to use. As fire-arms were made
more handy, the value of infantry rapidly increased, and its discipline
became an important branch of the military art. But in this section of
the service, Italians had to learn costly lessons from their alpine
neighbours.
In a land where nature had lavished her most sublime efforts, she
reared a race as hardy in heart and sinew as their climate was
severe, their scenery wild, their hardships extreme. Life was there a
perpetual struggle with privations, an unceasing exercise of toil. To
provide the necessaries of existence required limbs enduring of
fatigue, an eye of unerring accuracy, perseverance inexhaustible,
courage indomitable. And such were the qualities of the Swiss
mountaineers, which they developed in the chase, exercised in rude
sports, and perfected in their struggles with the house of Hapsburg,
until their shouts of victory echoed through the valleys around
Morgarten,—until Europe stood aghast at the issue of Granson, and
of
"Morat the proud, the patriot field."
In their country of crags and ravines it was impossible either to rear
powerful horses, or to manœuvre with heavy cavalry; the
accoutrements of gens d'armerie were also too costly for a
population of scanty and much divided means. They therefore
adopted, what proved more effective even in the plain, an infantry
so armed and drilled as to withstand the shock of men-at-arms. In
lines four deep, or in cross-shaped columns, they received the
charge upon their bristling pikes, and with two-handed swords dealt
fell blows on the broken squadrons. Their defensive armour was of
the least cumbrous description, consisting generally but of
breastplates; and with the axe-headed halberts, which some of them
carried, they unseated their enemies, or cut their reins in the mêlée.
By these means they were enabled so well to apply the activity and
endurance bestowed upon them by nature, as to meet on equal
terms with armies apparently much their superiors. Louis XI. was the
first sovereign to avail himself of a new element, whose qualities he
had learned by bloody experience at the passage of the Birsa, in
1444.[243] But after the Swiss mercenaries had tasted the
gratification of regular pay, and the plunder of lands more golden
than their own, an appetite for adventure superseded the pristine
simplicity of their habits. The cantons, finding it difficult to keep their
youth at home, became parties to contracts which hired out their
services to the best bidder; and we shall henceforth find them in the
champagne lands of Lombardy, following with equal goodwill the
lilies of France, the lion of St. Mark, or the Papal gonfalone. Thus in
a few years, the military aspect of Southern Europe became
changed, not only by the employment of Swiss infantry in all
important enterprises, but from an adoption of their system by the
troops of Italy, France, and Germany.
The Emperor Maximilian was the first to organise in Germany a
militia of foot, under the name of lanznechts, against whom the
Swiss, recollecting their ancient struggles for liberty, nourished a
rancour, which only their common stipendiary interests could for the
moment suspend. Lightly armed with lance and dagger, but
encumbered by a preposterous camp-following; reckless of danger,
yet indifferent to glory; they were fractious, disobedient, debauched,
impatient of suffering, greedy of pay, devoted to plunder. But our
notice of the ultra-montane infantry would be incomplete without
the Spaniards. They were brought into Italy to maintain Ferdinand's
pretensions upon Naples, and to support the aspirations of his
successor to extended dominion in the Peninsula. Levied by tuck of
drum, with scanty promise of pay, but unlimited licence to pillage,
they campaigned in the spirit of pirates; and though the energy of
Gonsalvo di Cordova ultimately brought the Hispano-Neapolitan army
into a very efficient state, this stain was never effaced. The
character for ferocity which attached to their birth is stamped upon
their military exploits, and has left its traces to this day upon the
inhabitants of Lower Italy. The cavalry of Germany and Spain was
decidedly inferior to the Italian light horse and men-at-arms, and
played but an unimportant part in the wars which we are now to
consider.
Our review of the military art in the Peninsula must needs include
the recent introduction of fire-arms. The researches of Gaye have
discovered that projectiles were used in Italy considerably earlier
than the date usually assigned to their invention, a due provision of
"cannons and metal balls," both for field-service and fortification,
being ordered by the Florentine government in February, 1326.[244]
Whatever may have been its origin, the invention was slowly
followed up; for, after nearly a century and three quarters, the
Italian artillery was still so cumbrous and defective as to be of little
practical utility, and it was rarely employed except in sieges. Indeed,
according to Guicciardini, the very name of cannons had passed out
of use, and the light and rapidly-served field-pieces of the French
army were regarded with as much surprise as apprehension.
The development of the new power was extremely gradual; and
although we have seen it in operation at the battle of Molinella, in
1467, no other instance occurred during that century of its being
used with effect in the field.[245] Nor is this surprising, when we
consider the unmanageable nature of the service, and the gradual
steps whereby science superseded rude contrivance. Heavy cannon
were then from ten to twelve feet long, requiring at times fifty yoke
of oxen. They carried balls of stone or metal of ten or twelve
hundred pounds; and after each discharge, some hours were needed
to clean out, reload, and point the piece. Even the flying artillery
(passa volanti) were in length sixty diameters, and the basilisks,
reckoned as light guns, were two-hundred pounders. We cannot now
pursue the subject, but any one who visits a complete armoury of
1480-1500, or examines the works upon military engineering of that
age, will probably conclude that few modern discoveries in the
destructive art had not even then been approximated. For attack and
defence of fortified places these machines were certainly better
adapted; yet, with all the talent and princely encouragement then
expended upon fortification, it must be considered as in its infancy.
But when the chivalry of the north poured upon fated Italy, under
Charles VIII., no part of their array appeared so formidable as their
field-train, powerful yet compact, heavy but easily moved; and the
unimportant service required from it in that brief campaign, was
performed in a manner which showed how much even the Italians
had to learn in this department. At the Taro, the nature of the
ground prevented it from contributing much to the success of that
bloody day, and it was reserved for the sanguinary conflict of
Ravenna to develop the capabilities of a service which gradually
became the right arm of European warfare.
CHAPTER XV
 Italy ill prepared for the French Invasion—Duke
Guidobaldo sent against the Orsini—Lucrezia Borgia’s
second marriage—Descent of Charles VIII.—He
reaches Naples and retreats—Battle of the Taro—The
Duke engaged in the Pisan war—Is taken prisoner by
the Orsini and ransomed.

T
HE preceding rapid sketch may show the materials of which
the invading hosts were composed, and the nature of the
approaching danger. Its imminence appalled even those
powers who, like Sforza, thought more of their own ends than of the
general weal; and Alfonso II., who had succeeded to the crown of
Naples on the death of his father Ferdinand, in January, 1494, was
indefatigable in uniting them on the defensive. With Pietro de'
Medici, we have already seen that the latter was in close relations.
Among the princes of Romagna, Gallic influence had obtained no
footing. The Venetians, occupied in the defence of their eastern
dependencies from the Turks, and trusting, perhaps, to see Charles
redeem his promise of a crusade against the Crescent, were inclined
to neutrality. Genoa was in the hands of a faction entirely under the
influence of Ludovico il Moro,[*246] who, though bound by treaty to
Charles, was already alienated at heart from the connection, and
ready on the first opportunity to discard it. The Pontiffs position, like
his usual policy, was somewhat complicated. We have formerly found
his predecessors generally hostile to the dynasty of Aragon, as well
as to that of Hohenstaufen, and tolerably consistent in support of
the Angevine races, whose original title the Neapolitan crown was a
papal grant. Further, claims of the popes as lords paramount of that
kingdom, and the annual payments which in that capacity they
demanded, were fertile grounds for rancour, which but a few years
before had broken out into hostilities. We have also seen Ferdinand
assisting Virginio Orsini in purchasing those estates from which
Alexander was bent upon expelling him. But a deeper cause for
mortification and personal enmity arose out of the resistance by that
King and his son to the matrimonial alliance of a princess of their
house with one of the Pope's spurious sons.[*247] For a time,
therefore, his Holiness balanced between the parties, and appears
even to have allowed his name to be used by Ludovico Sforza in
proposing to Charles the conquest of Naples.[*248] But his object
was merely to annoy and alarm Ferdinand; and when he found this
idea seriously adopted by the young monarch of France, he hastily
backed out, and employed his spiritual and temporal influence to
dissuade him from the enterprise.[249] Alfonso warmly supported his
Holiness in this new policy, and, in order to clench him in it,
betrothed his natural daughter, Sancia, with a dowry of lands worth
10,000 ducats of rent, and jewels to the value of 200,000 ducats, to
Giuffredo Borgia, the Pope's youngest child, whom he created Prince
of Squillace. This son-in-law not being yet marriageable, the King
had an excuse for taking him to be brought up near his bride, with
the intention of securing a hostage for his unstable parent's good
faith. As a further bait, the principality of Tricarico, with estates of
12,000 ducats a year, and one of the seven great offices under the
crown of Naples, were given to the eldest Borgia, now Duke of
Gandia; whilst on Cesare, already raised to the purple as Cardinal
Valentino (or of Valencia), his best ecclesiastical benefices were
showered by the hard-pressed Alfonso.
But the transaction of Virginio Orsini gave rise to a preliminary
episode in the great drama, which, as bringing the Duke of Urbino
upon the stage, requires some notice in this place. Besides the
uneasiness with which Alexander viewed the further aggrandisement
of that already too formidable subject, it is more than probable that,
in claiming the Cibò estates, as lapsed to the Camera Apostolica, his
ultimate intention was, to bestow them upon one of his own
children; for his selfish policy seldom embraced any aim more noble
than nepotism or revenge. Being doubtful of his own ability to drive
the Orsini from their new purchase, he, in April, 1493, leagued
himself with Ludovico Sforza and the Venetian republic. Through the
former, he carried into effect a scheme which at once tended to
facilitate that object, and promoted his favourite aim of providing his
offspring with eligible marriages. His daughter Lucrezia,—she whose
name has, perhaps, done more to render her infamous than her
guilt, but whose beauty, accomplishments, and eventual penitence,
had been forgotten in the heinous crimes which history laid to her
charge unquestioned, until Roscoe's ingenious defence,—Lucrezia
Borgia was then betrothed wife of a Spanish, or, rather, a Neapolitan,
gentleman, named Procida. To nullify a union so valueless cost no
qualm to the Pontiff, and, probably, as little to the lady. To match her
with the widowed Lord of Pesaro scarcely required the persuasions
of his relation Ludovico il Moro, and his brother-in-law, Duke
Guidobaldo, whose good offices the Pope put in requisition to
arrange preliminaries with the bridegroom, paying at the same time
3000 ducats as a solace to her first husband. The betrothal, in May,
was celebrated by a ball in the palace of Pesaro, from which the
assembled guests issued forth in couples, dancing through the
streets a sort of polonaise, which was led by the papal ambassador!
The nuptial ceremony was postponed until Lucrezia's arrival from
Spain in the following spring, and it was not until June that the
bridal party reached their capital.[*250]
 Anderson
ST. CATHERINE OF
ALEXANDRIA
Supposed portrait of Lucrezia
Borgia by Pinturicchio. Detail from
a fresco in the Borgia apartments
of the Vatican, Rome

Having arranged this marriage, Alexander sent Duke Guidobaldo,

along with his son Cesare, against the Orsini. The former, though
only in his twenty-second year, was already suffering from gout, his
fatal malady, which had first shown itself during the rejoicings at
Giovanni Sforza's betrothal. But he resisted it with great courage,
addicting himself more than ever to the hardy exercises of the camp.
The partizan warfare on which the Pope thus employed him as
gonfaloniere of the Church, was, however, productive of little glory,
and the Orsini, driven by superior force from their new lands,
awaited an opportunity for retaliation. The nuptials of Lucrezia took
place in 1494, after she had made a triumphal entry into Rome,
scandalous even in that pontificate of scandal. The ceremonial was
witnessed by a select party of ecclesiastical dignitaries, and a
hundred and fifty of the handsomest women of Rome, selected
without regard to their character, whose husbands were excluded. To
each of these dames the Pope presented a silver cup of confections,
which, amid much outrageous merriment, were emptied into their
bosoms, "and all to the honour and praise of Almighty God and the
Romish Church," as the contemporary narrator caustically observes.
[251] The same parties then paired off to supper, which was
prolonged some hours beyond midnight, the company being
entertained by dramatic representations of a most impure character.
In all these revels Alexander and his then favourite, Giulia Bella took
part, and they were fitly wound up by his conducting in person the
bride to her husband's couch. For the introduction of such disgusting
details an apology may be due, but without them, general
declamation on the vices of the Borgian court would convey no just
idea of the truth. That the loathsome picture is under-coloured, may
be supposed from a concluding remark of the diarist, that he had
suppressed many reports regarding this orgy, as they seemed either
false or exceeding credibility. Bad as is this scene, it is pure
compared with some described by Burchard, another journalist of
the Vatican obscenities. In June, Lucrezia set out for her new home,
and, resting a night at Urbino on the way, was received with the
honours due to her rank. A furious tempest, in which she next day
entered her capital, ruined the costly preparations intended to
celebrate her welcome, and was remembered afterwards as ominous
of the result of her marriage, and of the mischiefs occasioned there
by the Borgia. But men's minds were quickly roused from idle
festivities. The barbarians were already scaling the Alps; Italy and
her spoils lay at their feet.
In return for the favours bestowed upon his children, the Pope
renewed to Alfonso his investiture of Naples, and sent thither his
own nephew, the Cardinal of Monreale, to attend his coronation and
the betrothal of his daughter to Giuffredo Borgia. But, with wonted
cunning, Alexander kept open a retreat from this alliance, by
instructing the Cardinal to obtain as a personal favour, the return to
Rome of his hostage child and bride. He celebrated their arrival in
May following, with pompous festivities exceeding in splendour the
reception accorded to royal personages, and, in defiance of public
decency, appeared in consistory, and in the papal chair of St. Peter,
at the solemn function of Pentecost, between the bastard bride of
his bastard son, and his dissolute daughter Lucrezia.

Such was the position of Italy at the moment of the French invasion,
the calamities of which are thus prefigured by Guicciardini. "From it
originated not only the revolution of states, the subversion of
dynasties, the desolation of provinces, the destruction of cities, the
most savage massacres; but likewise altered habits, changed morals,
a new and more sanguinary mode of warfare, and therewith
diseases previously unknown; it also so entirely disorganised the
guarantees for concord and internal tranquillity, that these could
never be replaced, and thus was the country left to be trodden down
and wasted by other foreign nations and barbarian armies. By a yet
greater misfortune, in order that our shame might derive no
alleviation from the prowess of our enemy, he whose invasion
brought us so many mischiefs, although most amply endowed with
the bounties of fortune, was destitute of almost every natural or
mental endowment. For Charles was from his childhood of languid
complexion, deformed person, and diminutive stature, besides
having a countenance singularly repulsive but for his penetrating and
dignified glance, with limbs so disproportioned as to resemble a
monster rather than a man. Nor was he only destitute of liberal
acquirements; he scarcely knew his letters. Although greedy of
empire, there was nothing for which he was less qualified; for he
was encircled by a few, with whom he maintained neither dignity nor
authority; he was averse to all occupation and business, and, when
he did apply to his affairs, was alike wanting in prudence and
judgment. Even such apparently laudable qualities as he seemed to
possess proved, on examination, more akin to vices than to virtues.
Thus his inclination for glory was from impulse rather than matured
resolution; his liberality was ill directed and without discrimination or
degree; wavering at times in his counsels, he was oftener guided by
foolish obstinacy than by decision; and what many called good-
nature would have been better named indifference or easiness of
temper." The description given by a son of Andrea Mantegna is still
less favourable to the King's appearance. "He is said to have a very
ill-favoured face, with great goggle eyes, an aquiline nose offensively
large, and a head disfigured by few and sparse hairs. When I think
of such a little hunchy fellow my fancy is struck with wonder."[252]
We shall add one other characteristic sketch of a monarch for whom
fortune destined a part strangely at variance with his qualifications.
It was given by Ludovico il Moro, in December of this year, to the
Venetian resident at his court, and has been obligingly
communicated to me by Mr. Rawdon Brown, than whom no one is
more perfectly versed in the transactions of that republic. "The man
is young, and his conduct meagre, nor has he any form or method of
council. His assistants are divided into two factions, one headed by
the Comte de Bresse, the other by St. Malo and Beaucaire with their
adherents; they are violently opposed to each other on every topic,
and provided the one thwart the other and carry his point, no regard
soever is had for the King's interests. They attend to the
accumulation of coin, and care for nothing else; nor would all of
them put together make half a wise man. I remember when at Asti
seeing him in a room with the members of his assembled council,
and, whilst discussing any matter, one kept playing, another was
eating breakfast, a third was attending to this, a fourth to that; and
the King was in motion the whole time whilst listening to any one.
He would order letters to be couched in a certain form, and
subsequently countermand them on hearing another person's ideas."
[253]
It would lead us far beyond our limits to follow the blunders which
on both sides signalised the campaign. Charles opened it by sending
an army into Lombardy, under Sir Bernard Stuart of Aubigny, cousin-
german of John first Earl of Lennox in Scotland, whose career in
arms was rewarded with many dignities, and who, after uniting his
troops with those of Ludovico il Moro, his now unwilling ally,
advanced on Romagna. The King, leaving Vienne upon the 22nd of
August, took the Cenis pass with the main body of his forces, and on
the 9th of September was at Asti in Piedmont. From thence he
visited Milan, before marching against Florence. To meet these
formidable foes, Alfonso alone manifested any energy. He sent a
fleet to the Ligurian coast to watch a naval armament which had
been fitted out at Marseilles, and, if possible, to make a diversion
upon Genoa. He at the same time dispatched his eldest son
Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria, accompanied by two experienced
generals, Nicolò Orsini Count of Petigliano and Gian Giacomo
Trivulzio, to support the Bolognese against the onset of d'Aubigny.
Being joined at Cesena by Guidobaldo of Urbino, who had been
engaged by Alfonso with 200 men-at-arms, at an annual pay of
24,000 ducats, and by Giovanni Sforza, the Duke found himself at
the head of 2500 men-at-arms and 8000 foot, of whom the portion
belonging to Florence was commanded by Annibale Bentivoglio. But
none of these leaders possessed a master influence suited to the
crisis. The spirit of cordiality and mutual confidence, which alone
could promise success, was on this as on all similar occasions
wanting to Italy; and whilst Trivulzio and the other commanders,
confident in the superiority of their army, urged on a decisive
engagement, Petigliano exposed himself to the charge of
sluggishness or the suspicion of bad faith, by frustrating all their
endeavours.
The forces of the league had orders to advance towards Parma, and
meet the French and Milanese troops under d'Aubigny and Gian
Francesco da Sanseverino, Count of Cajazzo, who had been retained
by Ludovico il Moro. This, however, they were unable to effect, and,
finding themselves much inferior in strength to the invaders, they
retired upon Faenza. In that neighbourhood the two armies
remained for some time, face to face, without further encounter
than a few skirmishes, in which Guidobaldo distinguished his
bravery. Whilst they lost time in disunited counsels, the progress of
Charles in Central Italy occasioned the recall of the Florentine and
papal contingents. The princes of Romagna, seeing the game
virtually lost, found excuses for liberating themselves from a falling
cause, and by withdrawing to their several states, sought safety in a
neutral position. The Duke of Calabria thus abandoned, retired
within the Neapolitan frontier to await fresh instructions from his
father; and thus was the last chance of saving Italy shamefully lost.
Meanwhile the French monarch took the road by Pontremoli and
Sarzana, which fortress and Pietra Santa, Pietro de' Medici
surrendered to him in a panic, as base as it was inexplicable.
Disgusted with his cowardice, Florence and Pisa rose and expelled
his whole race, but rashly crediting the assurances of Charles that he
came as a deliverer and friend of liberty, received him with open
arms.
The description of an eye-witness to the overthrow of the Medici
conveys a vivid picture of the revolutions so common in republican
Florence. It has been printed by Gaye,[254] from the original diary of
Giusto. "On Sunday the 9th of November, the people of Florence
rose in arms against the palle, that is, against Pietro de' Medici, who
had so used his sway, and who repaired to the palace. The
populace, observing this, rushed thither, crying, 'Live the people and
liberty!' the children being first in the piazza: and by God's will all
Florence armed and hurried to the palace, calling out, 'People and
liberty!' so that Pietro, the Cardinal, and Giuliano his brother fled.
And there was a reward of 2000 florins proclaimed by the Signory,
for whoever would bring the Cardinal alive or dead to the palace;
and thus matters continued. Next day all the banners and pennons
were set up, and such was the people's fury at the palace,
throughout the town, and at the gates, day and night, that although
I have four times found Florence in arms since 1458, this has been
the most unanimous and extraordinary affair, from the efforts made
by the lilies to erase the balls [gigli and palle, the respective arms of
the republic and of the Medici]: even children two or three years old,
by a miracle, cried in the houses 'People and liberty!' and among
them our little Catherine. Thus by God's grace did this community
free itself from the hands of many tyrants, who, thanks to the
blessed God! were expelled without bloodshed."
But with these revolutions, which ended in giving to Florence and
Pisa independent popular governments,[*255] and with the war of
rivalry which consequently ensued between them, we have at
present no concern. The struggle was maintained during several
years, with an obstinacy and bitterness which more than once
compromised the general tranquillity of the Peninsula; when it
terminated Pisa had been ruined and Florence was bankrupt. It was
at this crisis that there occurred an anecdote preserved in the
Corteggiano, among the facetiæ of the court of Urbino. One of the
Florentine council, in a committee of ways and means, proposed to
augment the customs revenue by doubling the number of city gates
at which dues were collected!
Alexander, ever too occupied with private objects to heed the
general cause, had meanwhile, upon a petty quarrel with the
Colonna, withdrawn his troops from Romagna, to waste them and
much precious time in wretched partizan struggles with these
fractious barons, and in this miserable trifling employed his son
Cesare. Vainly confident while no immediate danger impended, he
had flattered himself that the French invasion would come to
nothing. But when he saw two powerful armies reach his frontier,
without obstacle or check, terror succeeded to foolish security.
Abandoning his ally of Naples, he humbly besought his personal
enemy Cardinal Ascanio Sforza to mediate with the French monarch
in his behalf. Yet to the latest moment did he waver, alternately
insolent and abject, fawning and fickle. Through these fluctuations it
is needless to follow him. On the last day of 1494 the invading army
marched unopposed and triumphant into Rome, and, leaving the city
on the 28th of January, advanced towards Naples. A panic had
already seized upon Alfonso, his army, and his people. On the 23rd
of January he abdicated the crown in favour of his son Ferdinand,
and fled with his treasures to Sicily, where he died after ten months
of abject austerities, as an offset to long years of aggravated
debauchery. The new King, upon his bloodless rout at the Garigliano,
found himself without money, and supported neither by his troops
nor his subjects. The bold front which he assumed availed nothing in
circumstances so desperate. He retired to Ischia, and on the 22nd of
February Charles took possession of Naples, amid the acclamations
of a populace, whom the iron sway of the false and gloomy
Ferdinand, and of his sanguinary son, had alienated from the
Aragonese dynasty. But though we pass thus rapidly over the
campaign of the French and Spaniards in Lower Italy, its results
were of lasting importance. The foretaste of the Peninsula then
obtained by these nations as its invaders or defenders stimulated a
fatal relish for its attractions; and the appetite thus engendered was
not stayed until that fair land had been trodden down by successive
hosts, scarcely less damaging to her prosperity and destructive to
her liberties as her selfish allies, than as her open foes.
Experience had by this time shown the folly of the Italian policy, and
the various states were not unwilling to profit by its lesson.
Forgetting for the moment their individual ends, they resolved to
throw off an incubus which threatened to make the Peninsula a
province of France. Ludovico Sforza had long sought to resile from
his ill-judged engagements with Charles; the Venetians found that
the Turkish crusade was but a false pretext; the Florentines saw
their adhesion to the invader repaid by the loss of Pisa; the Pope,
ever inclined to intrigue, was more especially ready to join in any
plan which should open an escape from his blunders in bringing
down such dangerous neighbours. Nor did the ultra-montane powers
view with satisfaction so vast an accession to French influence.
Ferdinand II. of Spain, whose envoy had formally broken with
Charles ere he crossed the Neapolitan frontier, now put himself
forward to wean the Venetians from their neutrality. Maximilian
(who, not having been crowned, was only King of the Romans, but
whom we shall generally call Emperor) burned for opportunity of
avenging a double wrong which the French monarch had done him
by jilting his daughter Margaret, and by espousing his betrothed
bride, Anne of Bretagne. Having himself married in 1493 Bianca
Sforza, her uncle Ludovico il Moro bribed him by a large dowry to
take advantage of certain alleged flaws in the Milanese investitures,
and to recognise him as Duke, passing over his sickly nephew
Giovanni Galeazzo. The new charter in favour of Il Moro reached him
immediately after the death of the latter, whose feeble and wretched
existence was terminated, perhaps by poison, in October 1494. He
left a son, and in defiance of the title of this child, whose injuries his
uncle, Alfonso of Naples, was no longer in circumstances to redress,
Ludovico seized the trappings of that sovereignty, which he virtually
had usurped long before the imperial diploma reached him. Thus
were these parties prepared for a united exertion in the common
cause; and the minor feudatories of the Peninsula willingly joined
them in a five years' league, for the purpose of restoring and
maintaining the independence of Italy. It was concluded at Venice,
on the 31st of March 1495, and by it Germany, Spain, Venice, Milan,
and the Pope were bound to furnish 34,000 horse, and 20,000 foot,
or monied contributions proportioned to their respective contingents
of that force.
 Anderson
BIANCA, DAUGHTER OF
LUDOVICO SFORZA
After the picture by
Ambrogio de’ Predis in the
Biblioteca Ambrogiana,
Milan

Charles and his army had abandoned themselves to the intoxication

of their easy conquest, and to excess in those pleasures which in the
Ausonian climate seem to enervate natives and strangers. From this
careless security, news of the alliance roused him to the danger of
being entrapped in his new kingdom. Leaving half his army there to
maintain his authority, he on the 20th of May set out with the
remainder on his return homeward. Hastily retracing the same route,
he saw difficulties increasing around him, but avoided hostilities,
until in descending the Apennines into Lombardy he found himself
intercepted among the defiles of the Taro by the allied army, so
superior in force as to render his destruction next to inevitable, even
without taking into account the immense advantages of the position
which they had selected. But the singular good fortune which had
enabled the French monarch to overrun the whole Peninsula,
conquer a kingdom, and retire in the face of opposing Europe,
without once calling into exercise whatever talent, judgment, or
bravery he might have possessed, did not forsake him in this his first
difficulty. The confederates, by unpardonable want of good
understanding among their leaders, and of steadiness among their
troops, let slip the precious opportunity of exterminating their
invaders. On the 6th of July they suffered on the Taro an overthrow
which they vainly claimed as a victory, and after a brief hour's
conflict retired in disorder, leaving above three thousand men on the
field. Of this battle Guicciardini remarks that it was the first for a
long period that had been really sanguinary in its character,
compared with those tactic engagements of the condottieri, in which
bloodshed was little sought on either side. As the earliest struggle
between Italy and her invaders, the only occasion when her
disunited interests were rallied beneath one banner, it holds a place
in history which in a military view it by no means merited.[256] It
was lost by the delays, distracted counsels, and deficient discipline
among the allies, and brought little glory to the retreating army,
which, without further opposition, reached Asti, where a strong
garrison had been left, and in October re-entered France. The
Aragonese party was strong in Naples, and within six weeks after
Charles had quitted that capital, Ferdinand II. was welcomed back to
it by a versatile people, whom the never-failing insolence of the
French had quickly disgusted with their change of masters. The
kingdom was gradually recovered from its invaders and their
supporters, the Angevine barons, by aid of Spanish succours under
Gonsalvo di Cordova, whose gallantry and skill during a harassing
guerilla campaign established his reputation, and procured him the
name of the Great Captain. Montpensier, when left as viceroy in
command of the army of occupation, made feeble head against him
for above a year, until most of his troops having dropped under the
effects of climate and debauchery, he surrendered the remainder as
prisoners of war. Lower Italy, again under Ferdinand's sway, was no
more disturbed by Charles, who wasted the brief remainder of his
life in dissolute indulgences, better becoming his despicable
character than foreign conquests.
Thus terminated the first of those systematic and successful
invasions from which Italy has suffered in later ages. Various
circumstances combined to modify its serious results upon her
prosperity, and though almost unopposed, the victors perhaps paid
more dearly than the vanquished. But the seeds of mischief were
sown, too surely to ripen into fatal evils. The nations of the north
had learned important lessons; her temptations, her disunion, and
her consequent powerlessness had been disclosed to them. This
epoch may indeed be regarded as the turning point of European
history. From it the liberties and prosperity of Italy declined, and the
new combinations, alliances, and intermarriages then formed by
ultra-montane governments gradually matured that political system
which has since come to be regarded as the bulwark of national
independence. We have introduced this rapid sketch of the French
expedition, because, although it but slightly influenced Guidobaldo's
position, subsequent events, to which it in some degree gave
occasion, brought forward himself and his successor as prominent
actors. He had been engaged by the Venetian republic to join the
confederate army with four hundred and seventy horse, but had no
share in the disgraceful conflict at the Taro; his squadrons, however,
seem to have been there under his natural brother Antonio, who,
while commanding the reserve, might have turned the fortune of the
day, but for an oversight in the transmission of orders to him.
The Pisan war was the immediate fruit of the French invasion, as
regarded the internal relations of the Peninsula. Charles,
remembering the old proverb, "sow divisions and rule," or perhaps
from a mere love of mischief-making, had instigated that city to
throw off the yoke of Florence, and re-establish its ancient
republican independence. But the support which he had pledged to
it was forgotten, when personal considerations rendered a retreat
advisable; and the Pisans were left to maintain themselves as best
they could against their old rivals and recent masters, with the aid of
a French brigade under Monsieur d'Entragues. The Florentines lost
no time in engaging the Duke of Urbino to command their troops for
three years, who, by active and well-judged movements, quickly
possessed himself of Ponte Sacco, Palaia, and other small towns
about the Era. Their resistance was punished with the usual
barbarity of the time, by cold-blooded cruelties which Guidobaldo
does not appear to have shared or approved. It seems questionable
how far the blunders in an assault on Vicopisano were owing to him
or to the Florentine commissaries, who, as was usual in the service
of the great republics, were sent to control their general; but the
consequence was a repulse, after which he retired into winter
quarters. His subsequent operations in their service are of no
interest; their jealousies paralysing both his spirit and their own.
The last year's experience was but short-lived in the Italian states.
Instead of profiting by the absence of their common foe to
strengthen themselves against a recurrence of danger, they resumed
their innate rivalries, and fomented fresh discord. The Florentines,
far from joining the league to expel Charles, continued to favour his
cause, attributing, with justice, to his advent their liberation from the
Medici and the re-establishment of a democratic government. What
they, above all things, dreaded was the return of that banished race,
so they kept aloof from any new combination that might lead to it.
This contumacy was looked upon with little favour by those powers
who were averse to popular institutions, or friendly to Pietro de'
Medici; besides which they apprehended that such a state of
matters, if allowed to continue, would facilitate a repetition of the
late invasion. In accordance with the crooked policy of the age, they
succoured Pisa, without any open declaration of the war which they
were in fact carrying on against Florence. This circumstance, and the
wonted bad faith of Ludovico il Moro, complicated a struggle which
was conducted in the drawling spirit of half-fighting, half-negotiating,
usual in such petty strifes. Ludovico finally tempted the Emperor to a
fresh invasion of Italy, in order to force Florence into the general
league, but he conducted the enterprise with equal feebleness and
faithlessness, and after having occupied Pisa, retreated without
leaving any material impression on the campaign, which declined
into a series of unimportant skirmishes. Meanwhile the Pope, the
Venetians, and Sforza united in exciting various neighbours of the
Florentines, such as the Bentivoglii, the Riarii, and Siena, to molest
their frontiers, whilst Virginio Orsini prepared to restore the Medici
by arms. This plan, however, fell to the ground, and Guidobaldo was
soon after summoned, as a vassal of the Church, to leave his
incomplete term of unsatisfactory service under the lilies of Florence,
and join the new combination formed by the Pontiff to replace
Ferdinand upon the Neapolitan throne.
The fate of the French army at Naples, against the wreck of which
this expedition was directed, has been already mentioned. The
evolutions whereby Guidobaldo, as lieutenant-general of the
ecclesiastical forces, in concert with the great Gonsalvo di Cordova,
reduced some Angevine feudatories in the Abruzzi, who, supported
by the Orsini, for a time resisted the restoration of the house of
Aragon, need not occupy our attention. The particulars are involved
in contradiction, and the results were unimportant to his fame. No
sooner had Ferdinand triumphed over his difficulties than he was
called to another sphere. He died in October, 1496, and was
succeeded by his paternal uncle Federigo. Of the French, not above
five hundred escaped from sword and pestilence to reach home.

Peace was once more restored to Italy, but not to the breast of that
turbulent Pontiff who was her curse. The moment was propitious for
resuming his favourite scheme of oppressing the Orsini, in whose
extensive estates he saw ample endowments for his own
disreputable progeny. The leaders of that family, Virginio, Gian-
Giordano, Paolo, and its adopted scion Bartolomeo d'Alviano of
Orvieto, had fought against Ferdinand's restoration, and all of them
remained prisoners in his hands.[257] The Pope at once perceived
the chance thus offered, and hastened to avail himself of it. After
conciliating the Duke of Urbino by a pompous reception on the 14th
of October, and by assigning him apartments in the Vatican, he held
a secret consistory, which attainted the Orsini on general charges of
lese-majesty and rebellion, and sanctioned the military occupation of
their fiefs in name of the Church. He entrusted the command to his
son the Duke of Gandia, associating with him the Duke of Urbino
and Fabrizio Colonna (the latter but too willing to promote the
downfall of a rival house), and, to inaugurate the expedition, he
blessed the banners at St. Peter's, with an imposing military and
religious spectacle.
The troops marched in October, and, having reduced Isola, a castle
within ten miles of Rome, which stood a twelve days' siege, many
other small strongholds speedily surrendered, their absent lords
being unable to aid in their defence. The fortress of Bracciano was,
however, strong by nature, and was held by Bartolomea, sister of
Virginio Orsini, with energy, talent, and unquailing resolution, which
saved her family in their urgent straits, and kept the assailants at
bay until her husband, Bartolomeo d'Alviano, escaping from Naples,
hastily raised a few old adherents of his adopted house, and hurried
to her rescue. The impetuous Alexander, disgusted by this dilatory
progress of affairs, had a lighter hastily built, and sent under a
strong escort to the lake of Bracciano, in order to aid the besiegers'
efforts, and to intercept the manœuvres of the enemy, whose petty
force, passing by the water from one castle to another as occasion
required, was enabled to garrison the three separate strongholds of
Bracciano, Anguillara, and Trevignano. A well-timed ambuscade, laid
by d'Alviano, routed the escort, and the boat was burnt. In another
sally Bartolomeo, falling upon Cesare Borgia while hunting, chased
him almost to the gates of Rome, and, but for the fleetness of his
horse, would have obtained in his person the means of dictating
terms to his father. Of these incidents a partizan warfare was
naturally more productive than a more serious campaign.
Tired of such inglorious marauding, and aware how much delays
might tell against eventual success, Guidobaldo, although suffering
from a gunshot wound, pushed on operations to the utmost, but was
met by a most obstinate resistance, until affairs suddenly assumed
an entirely new aspect. Virginio, head of the Bracciano Orsini, his
eldest son Gian-Giordano, and cousin Paolo, were still captives at
Naples; but his natural son Carlo had repaired to the court of Charles
VIII. to crave assistance. There he found Vitellozzo Vitelli, on a
similar mission in behalf of his brother Paolo, who, having been
suspected by the Florentines of perfidy while in their service against
Pisa, had been arrested by them, and who was subsequently
tortured and put to death upon this charge. They easily obtained
from that King a subsidy to be employed for advantage of the
French party in Italy, and, hastening back, devoted it to the relief of
Bracciano. The two Vitelli were chiefs of a family whose pedigree is
annexed, and who long held Città di Castello in seigneury, greatly
distinguished among the military adventurers of the south. These
brothers had paid especial attention to training their hardy
mountaineers in the art of war, with all those improvements which
the ultra-montane troops had recently introduced. Vitellozzo,
hurrying to the upper valley of the Tiber, quickly recruited his old
followers, whilst Carlo levied men about Perugia and Todi.
Guidobaldo with difficulty persuaded his coadjutors to anticipate the
attack thus preparing for them, by marching towards Viterbo in
quest of the enemy. In the action which followed, on the 23rd of
January, the ecclesiastical troops, though inferior in numbers, had at
first some advantage, but the unskilful management of their artillery
turned the day, and they were in the end totally routed, with loss of
it and their baggage. Guidobaldo, having been surrounded, fought
with the utmost bravery, until his horse fell under him, when he was
taken prisoner by Battista Tosi, a Roman knight. In this reverse the
Colonna and Savelli shared deeply, their ancient hatred of the Orsini
having blinded them to the danger which they, in turn, equally
incurred from the selfish designs of the Pope. The latter was filled
with consternation, and would have brought the whole force of
Naples into the field. But his impetuous energy, being neither based
on principle nor maintained with perseverance, was quickly
discouraged by the coldness of Federigo, who had no inclination to
consume his already dilapidated resources in ministering to the
Pontiff's schemes of nepotism. The higher range to which these
projects were perhaps already aspiring may have conduced to the
arrangement by which his quarrel with the Orsini was patched up,
gilded as it was by the to him irresistible bait of 70,000 ducats
towards the expenses of the war.
The Duke of Urbino was committed to ward in Soriano, a castle of
the Orsini, near which his defeat had occurred, and the whole
influence of his family and numerous friends was exerted for his
liberation under the truce which ensued. With this view Dr. Marino
Giorgi, envoy from Venice to Naples, was instructed by the Signory
to make a detour to Urbino, in order in their name to console the
Duchess, and then to Soriano and Bracciano, for the purpose of
negotiating her husband's release.[258] But their interposition was
fruitless, as he was specially excluded from the free interchange of
prisoners, and held to ransom for 40,000 ducats, without which
timely aid the Orsini would have been unable to discharge the
contribution imposed on them for the costs of the war. Alexander
having, without scruple, left a faithful vassal and ally in his enemy's
hands, had no delicacy in thus pocketing from his captors the sum
which this cruel abandonment cost Guidobaldo. So large an amount
was not, however, raised without difficulty from the sale of jewels,
and other heavy sacrifices by the Duchess, and several of his
subjects, which they did not hesitate to incur. It may perhaps have
been modified to 30,000 ducats, that being the sum mentioned by
Sanuto as paid for his liberation.[259] At Gubbio he was warmly
welcomed by his consort and people, and during more than a year
he enjoyed at home the blessings and leisure of peace, "after having
suffered much and most unfairly."
 CHAPTER XVI
The crimes and ambition of the Borgia—Murder of the
Duke of Gandia—Duke Guidobaldo’s expeditions
against Perugia and Tuscany—He adopts Francesco
Maria della Rovere as his heir—Louis XII. succeeds to
Charles VIII., and to his views upon Italy—Cesare
Borgia created Duke Valentino—Duke Guidobaldo at
Venice.

T
IME was meanwhile maturing the crimes of the Borgia, whose
sinister influence upon the destiny of Guidobaldo was about to
be signally manifested. So far from regarding his spurious
progeny with shame, Alexander was indefatigable in his endeavours
to elevate them to the most conspicuous places. He had obtained for
the eldest the dukedom of Gandia in Spain, and one of the highest
offices at Naples. For the youngest he had secured, by political
intrigue, a similar dignity there, with the principality of Squillace, and
the hand of an illegitimate daughter of Alfonso II. He had loaded
Cesare with ecclesiastical benefices, and had remarried Lucrezia to
the sovereign of Pesaro. But his ambition became insatiable in
proportion as it was pampered. Upon a vague pretext he annulled
his daughter's marriage, that he might give her hand to the Duke of
Bisceglia, natural son of Alfonso. His schemes for endowing his sons
with the Orsini holdings having entirely miscarried, he resolved to
provide for the Duke of Gandia a sovereign principality from the
states of the Church, consisting of Benevento and Terracino. Having
gained a complete co-operation in the consistory, by frightening into
exile or removing by poison the more impracticable cardinals, and by
overawing or corrupting the others, he, on the 7th of June, invested
the Duke with these towns with due solemnity. Three days
previously, Lucrezia had retired to the convent of S. Sisto, to prepare
for the formal rupture of her marriage with Giovanni Sforza, whose
murder would have anticipated the divorce, had not a hint from her
enabled him to save his life by flight, insalutato hospite, as
Machiavelli remarks.[260] On the 9th, Cardinal Valentino received his
credentials as legate for the coronation of Frederick of Naples. On
Thursday, the 15th, he set out on his mission, after spending the
preceding afternoon at a casino of his mother, near S. Pietro in
Vinculis, where all the family except the sister were assembled in
apparent harmony. He quitted it in company with his eldest brother,
who was never again seen in life, and having visited his father at a
late hour to receive a benediction, he left Rome before dawn. When
an alarm was raised on the Duke of Gandia's disappearance, a
boatman deposed to having seen, about one o'clock on Thursday
morning, a body thrown neck and heels into the Tiber, at the present
port of the Ripetta, by four attendants of a mounted gentleman, who
had brought it to the bank swung across his horse. The river was
dragged, and the Duke's body was found pierced with wounds. He
was said to have spent the preceding hours with a lady in whose
favours the Cardinal was his avowed rival. Public opinion, though
distracted by conflicting rumours, branded the latter with fratricide,
and scandal gave to that charge a still more loathsome dye, by
naming the lady Lucrezia Borgia. History has received the former
accusation as established, the latter as uncontradicted, adducing
against its truth no better argument than its revolting improbability.
It is, however, but just to pause ere we lend our faith to charges so
hideous. Burchard, though greedy of gossip, and seldom scrupulous
in exposing the Vatican immoralities, mentions no fact, breathes no
hint, tending to inculpate Cesare. Neither do contemporary accounts
from residents in the Holy City, preserved by Sanuto, attach any
such foul slur to his name, but chiefly mention Cardinal Ascanio
Sforza as then suspected of the murder.[261] They even prove that,
four days after it took place, the latter thought it necessary to rebut
the allegation by the mouth of the Spanish ambassador, in a full
consistory, from which he alone was absent. But this negation does
not appear to have quashed a surmise which gathered strength by
scenting out motives for the outrage. By some, Ascanio was
regarded as an unscrupulous instrument of the Orsini in their
vengeance against the Pontiff's family; others traced his evil purpose
to a recent feud between the Duke of Gandia and some guests at an
entertainment given by him, where mutual insults had led to bloody
reprisals, imputed to the implacable Borgia. Again, we are told by
Burchard that the victim was last seen in company with a masked
figure, who had been observed to follow him during several days,
and whom he that night took up on the crupper of his horse,
probably to keep an assignation; a statement easily reconcileable
with the bargeman's evidence, and pointing probably to some dark
intrigue, whereto it does not appear that his brother was necessarily
privy.

Anderson
 CESARE BORGIA AS THE EMPEROR
Detail from the fresco of the Disputa of S.
Catherine in the Appartamento Borgia in
the Vatican

Although the Duke of Gandia's morals will bear no examination, he

was a general favourite in Rome. To a people fond of pageantry the
taste of his family for splendour was naturally grateful, and he,
alone, of the race, mingled neither tyranny nor cruelty with his
magnificence. The bargeman of the Ripetta had manifested neither
surprise nor curiosity regarding an incident which he stated to be of
frequent occurrence at that spot; but when the victim was
ascertained, the whole city was moved; the tradespeople closed
their shops,[*262] and all retired panic-stricken to their homes. The
few stragglers who crossed the bridge near to which the mutilated
body had been found, started at the cry of many sorrowing voices
which issued from St. Angelo, and one deep-toned note of woe,
which rose above the wailing, was imputed to the Pontiff, "lamenting
him who was his right eye, the hope and glory of his house." His
grief and horror were indeed overwhelming: we are assured that he
swallowed nothing from Wednesday till Saturday, and passed three
successive nights without an hour of sleep. On the 19th he held a
consistory, to receive the condolence of the cardinals and foreign
ministers, whom he addressed to the following purpose[263]:—
"The Duke of Gandia is dead, and his death has been to us the
greatest affliction: a more grievous trial we could not have met with,
for we loved him mightily, and we no longer value our popedom nor
anything; nay, had we seven popedoms, we should give them all to
recover the Duke's life. It is rather a visitation from God, sent,
perhaps, for some sin of ours, than that he should have merited a
death so dreadful. It being unknown by whom he was murdered and
thrown into the Tiber, rumour has ascribed the assassination to the
Lord of Pesaro, which we are certain is untrue; no more can it have
been done by the Prince of Squillace, brother of the Duke; and we
are even satisfied as to the Duke of Urbino: may God forgive who
ever it was! We have, however, determined no longer to apply to
anything, nor take any charge of the papacy, nor of life itself, nor
any thought for the Church; but in order to regulate it and our mode
of life, and for the due correction of our own person, we mean to
commit these to six of you, most reverend cardinals our brethren,
along with two judges of the Rota; and in order that all benefices
may be bestowed by merit, apart from any other consideration, they
shall be decided by a majority of you cardinals." After naming this
executive council, and hearing a justification of Cardinal Ascanio
Sforza, volunteered in his absence by the Spanish ambassador, the
Pope continued:—"God forbid that we should entertain such a fancy,
for never could we credit that his Lordship would do us the smallest
injury, least of all an outrage such as this; for we have regarded him
as a brother, and have on every occasion placed ourselves at the
disposal of himself and of the Duke his brother: assuredly we
harbour not the trace of such an idea, and when he comes to us he
will be welcome."
It was, indeed, high time that the scandals brought upon the Church
by the enormities of her head should terminate. Alexander had for
some time been openly living with a sister of Cardinal Farnese, wife
of Monoculo Orsini, who was known as Giulia Bella; and who, after
appearing prominently by his side on all public and solemn
occasions, had lately borne him a son.[264] But even now he realised
the scriptural proverb of "the dog turned to his own vomit again, and
the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." The remorse
and repentance he had avowed, in full consistory, with sobs and
tears, were quickly forgotten; the public reforms he had promised
were repudiated; the administrative council he had formally
nominated was never assembled nor installed. Nepotism and intrigue
again became his policy, debauchery his pastime. Those who charge
the Cardinal Valentino with his brother's murder, may point to the
exclamation, "I know who did it," which was said to have escaped
from their father in the first outbreak of his grief; and it has been by
some connected with the alleged institution of Giovanni, their next
brother, to the titles and inheritance of the Duke of Gandia, passing
over the suspected fratricide. This, however, is an entirely erroneous
assumption, as there not only appears no brother of the Duke of
Gandia bearing his honours, but the invaluable diary of Sanuto
expressly mentions an investiture of the Neapolitan fiefs obtained for
his son within a few weeks of his death.[265] The Pontiff's
displeasure with Cesare, from whatever cause originating, was
transient as his personal reformation. His schemes of
aggrandisement could not be pursued without the co-operation of
him who, alone of his children, was as ambitious and as
unscrupulous as himself, and the close of the year brought Valentino
an addition to his already enormous plurality of benefices, upon the
death of the Cardinal of Parma.
Valentino had endeavoured, by the imposing splendour of his
legation to Naples, and by scattering immoderate largesses, to
dazzle, and if possible blind, men to the Cain-brand that was upon
him. But when he developed a new scheme of aggrandisement, by
proffering to a daughter of Federigo a hand which his unscrupulous
father was ready to liberate from priestly vows, the King and the
Princess alike recoiled from an offer tainted by sacrilege and
fratricide. We have seen that a similar refusal by Ferdinand I. was a
principal cause for Charles VIII. being invited into Italy. Unwarned by
that result of a wretched policy, the Pontiff prepared to repeat it in
circumstances still more fatal to the Peninsula. Cesare Borgia
returned from his legation on the 5th of September, and was
received with every mark of honour and favour by his father, who
appeared to have dismissed the Duke of Gandia's very existence
from his mind. The pontifical court was once more a scene of
alternate dissipation and crime, and the Cardinal of Valencia was the
moving spirit of both. In December, Lucrezia's divorce was
pronounced, and her dowry of 31,000 ducats returned; next August
she became wife of Alfonso Duke of Bisceglia, with an augmented
provision of 40,000 ducats, he being then seventeen years of age.
In the following summer, the Duke of Urbino was induced to unite
with the Prefect della Rovere in an expedition against Perugia, for
the purpose of restoring the Oddi, who, as heads of the Ghibellines,
had been expelled from thence by their rivals, the Guelphic Baglioni.
[*266] But from this enterprise the Pope speedily recalled him by a
remonstrance, which with wonted devotion he hastened to obey,
stipulating, however, for indemnity of the expenses he had incurred,
amounting to 5000 scudi. About the same time he lost his relation
and counsellor Ottaviano Ubaldini, Count of Mercatello, who died at
an advanced age.
The services of Guidobaldo were speedily required in another
quarter; and by one of those sudden changes, not unusual to
soldiers of fortune, he found himself comrade of his late opponents,
the Orsini and Baglioni.[*267] The occasion was the
recommencement of the Pisan war, when the fickle usurper of Milan
joined the Florentines in their attempts to reduce that city to its
former obedience; a combination which, arousing the jealousy of
Venice, induced her to adopt the cause of Pisa. Pietro de' Medici and
his brother Giuliano availed themselves of this opportunity to make
another effort for their re-establishment in that capital. They offered
to support an invasion of Tuscany, with all the aid which their own
credit and the Orsini influence could bring into the field; and the
maritime republic, accepting the proposal, took into their pay,
besides the Baglioni of Perugia, the Duke of Urbino with two
hundred men-at-arms, and a hundred light horse, for which they
allowed him 20,000 scudi a year.[268] Having gained over one of the
Malatesta, owner of a small fief in the passes above Sarsina, the
confederates sent forward Bartolomeo d'Alviano, who, penetrating
the mountain paths about Camaldoli, entered Tuscany and seized
Bibbiena, in the upper Val d'Arno, ere the Florentines were aware of
the incursion. Guidobaldo followed with a strong body of men, and,
finding the season vigorous, went into winter quarters in that and
the adjoining towns. The enemy was led by Paulo Vitelli, whose
judicious arrangements and great activity, having closed all the
defiles around them, kept them in a state of siege during the winter,
cutting off their supplies, surprising their posts, and tempting their
men to desertion, until they were reduced to great straits. The
Duke's health, already broken by frequent gouty attacks, suffered
sadly from the severe climate of these mountain sites, and the
privations of an ill-supplied commissariat. The critical position of his
army aggravated his malady by preying upon his spirits, and his
applications for a physician were coldly refused by his assailants. At
length, in the middle of February, their general, Vitelli, on his own
responsibility, granted him free passage home to Urbino, an act of
charity afterwards severely visited upon his head by the authorities
of Florence. Disgusted by the losses of a campaign fruitlessly
protracted by disinclination of the respective commanders to risk
their reputation in an engagement, the Venetians recalled the
reinforcements which they had sent under Nicolò di Petigliano, and
abandoned the cause of Pisan independence for that wider field of
ambition which the schemes of Louis XII. were developing.
The Cardinal della Rovere, who, during nearly all the pontificate of
Alexander, provided for his safety by absence from Rome, had
shared the hardships of the Bibbiena campaign, and escaped from
them with Guidobaldo. Whilst thus thrown together they seem to
have planned an arrangement which opened a new era for Urbino.
Feeling that in himself must terminate the male investiture of his
states, and dreading that by his early decease they might lapse to a
Pope who would joyfully endow with them one of his odious
progeny, the Duke willingly listened to a suggestion of the Cardinal,
that he should adopt their mutual nephew Francesco Maria della
Rovere, son of the Prefect of Sinigaglia, then a promising boy of
eight years old. At first they thought of concealing this design from
Alexander, but Guidobaldo, aware that without his sanction it could
not be matured, and trusting to the hold which his services and
dutiful obedience ought to have given him in that quarter, soon
proposed it for his approval. The successor of St. Peter, anticipating
the modern discovery that words are given to conceal thoughts,
professed great satisfaction with the plan, and hinted at bestowing
the hand of his niece Angela Borgia upon the presumptive heir of
Urbino. A brief interval removed the flimsy veil, and proved that the
Pontiff was ready to anticipate the lapse of that dukedom, without
awaiting his vassal's death.
The great convulsions impending over Italy require another general
glance at the new combinations which the politics of Southern
Europe had assumed. Charles VIII. died of apoplexy on the 7th of
April, 1498, and was succeeded by his second cousin, Louis XII., first
of the Orleans branch of Valois. Though a prince of narrow views
and somewhat feeble character, he became the instrument of
unprecedented misfortunes to Italy. In him were centred the
Angevine claims upon Naples which his predecessor had asserted;
and likewise such pretensions upon the Milanese as vested in the
heir of line of the Visconti, through his grandmother Valentina, sister
of the last Duke. Upon these grounds he at once assumed the style
of King of Naples and Jerusalem, and Duke of Milan, and avowed his
intention of rendering the latter at least of these titles effectual.
Federigo of Aragon and Ludovico Sforza trembled at the impending
danger; but, with unaccountable blindness, the other powers strove
who should be foremost to offer their alliance to the invader. The
Venetians hailed the certain punishment of a tyrannical usurper, who
had aided in thwarting them in their recent attempts to maintain the
independence of Pisa. They and the princes of Romagna and La
Marca remembered how little their several interests had suffered
from the expedition of Charles. Florence conceived that the return of
the French was the surest guarantee of their democratic
independence against the re-establishment of the Medici. The Pope,
as usual, had in view ulterior and private ends. His late indignation
against his son, the Cardinal, had, with unaccountable revulsion,
been succeeded by an increased fondness. The latter reminded him
that the years passed since his elevation to the tiara had brought no
fulfilment of those schemes of aggrandisement which their mutual
ambition had nourished. His recent domestic catastrophe perhaps
warned the father how much might be dared by a disappointed son.
Every consideration urged upon both the necessity of a great effort
to obtain for Cesare a sovereign principality; and conscious that this
scheme would have the best chance of success at a moment of
general confusion, they resolved to effect it through the
instrumentality of a new French invasion, if no readier means offered
for their purpose.
Louis XII. had set his mind upon divorcing his queen, Jeanne, the
daughter of Louis XI., in order to marry Anne of Bretagne, widow of
his predecessor, for which purpose papal dispensations were
required, and for these he was a suppliant. The Borgia seized the
golden moment to pledge him to their views. Cesare had been
created a Cardinal in 1494, by means of suborned oaths, that he
was the lawful son of a Roman citizen, for illegitimacy was a bar to
that dignity. On the pretext that ecclesiastical orders had been
unwillingly conferred upon him, his father, on the 17th of September,
annulled them in full consistory, and accepted a renunciation of his
cardinal's hat. Next day he appeared in a rich military costume of the
latest French fashion, and forthwith took shipping for Marseilles, on
a special embassy to the French court, where he arrived about the
18th of October. The following letter of recommendation which he
bore is preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi, and being to all intents
a private missive, written and addressed by the Pope's own hand,
possesses a very different interest from ordinary papal brieves.
"To our well-beloved son in Christ, the most Christian
King of the French;
"I.H.S. Maria.
"Pope Alexander VI., with his own hand.
"Health and the apostolic benediction to our most dear
son in Christ. Anxious in all respects to accomplish
your and our own desires, we destine to your Majesty
our heart, that is, our favourite son, Duke Valentino,
who is prized by us beyond aught else, as a signal and
most estimable token of our affection towards your
Highness, to whom no further commendation of him is