Alexander VI was broken in their presence,’ the symbolic act whereby the college of cardinals formally assumed responsibility for the government of the church and of the city of Rome until such a time when the new pope would be elected. Although the first part of their task proved relatively straightforward, the second was fraught with difficulty and danger.
Rome was in an uproar. On August 24 the Orsini arrived in the city with twelve hundred armed men ‘and immediately started sacking and destroying the houses of Spaniards,’ according to a report made to the Venetian Senate; ‘there were weapons everywhere.’ The bulletins from the Vatican suggested that the commander of the papal army was close to death: ‘The Duke is more feverish than ever,’ Giustinian wrote of Cesare that day; and there was ‘hope in Rome that he will shortly follow his father to the grave.’ Certainly his enemies were eagerly awaiting this piece of news. While Cesare’s men, under the capable leadership of Miguel de Corella, had taken hold of the Borgo — the area around the Vatican and Castel Sant’Angelo — the rest of the city was out of their control.
Much of the city was in the hands of supporters of the rival Orsini and Colonna families, united for once in their hatred of the Borgias, taking what advantage they could of the pope’s demise. As the rumours of Cesare’s worsening condition spread rapidly through Rome, gangs of men marched threateningly through the streets, shouting, as they would never have dared to do while Alexander VI was still alive, ‘Down with the odious Catalan.’
The tension in the city intensified, moreover, when it became known that three armies were approaching Rome. The French troops, led by Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, were on their way south to defend Naples and had reached Viterbo, just forty miles north of the city walls; a force of Spaniards under Gonsalvo di Cordoba was marching north from Naples; and Cesare’s own battalions, poised for the start of what was to have been his Tuscan campaign, were now recalled from their camp near Perugia to march back down the Via Flaminia.
Louis XII of France and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain were hoping to profit from Cesare’s incapacity; all of them — Cesare, perhaps, most of all — were intent upon using armed force to influence the forthcoming conclave in order to ensure that the new pope to be elected was a man sympathetic to their interests.
Cesare himself was still too ill to take personal control of the situation, unable to seize the advantage to establish his control of Rome or to defend his authority in his duchy. ‘He told me himself,’ Machiavelli wrote, ‘that he had foreseen every difficulty that could arise on the death of his father and had prepared adequate remedies; but he could not have foreseen that, at the time of his father’s death, he should himself have been so seriously ill.’ Those whose lands had been dispossessed used the opportunity offered by Cesare’s incapacity to take them back again. Italy was in an uproar, as his empire began to fall apart: Guidobaldo da Montefeltro returned to power in Urbino; Gianpaolo Baglioni came back to Perugia; the Varano family to Camerino; Giovanni Sforza to Pesaro; and the Orsini retook possession of their castles.
Yet Cesare’s position was not as weak as his enemies hoped. He still controlled the Borgo; he had at his command a well-trained army and also the money needed to pay its men; most of the cities of the Romagna remained firmly loyal, and he would have considerable influence in the imminent conclave. According to Giustinian’s reckoning, there were ‘eight cardinals who would follow him in everything,’ and several more besides. But he also had inveterate and influential enemies in the college, too, notably Ascanio Sforza and the cousins Raffaello Riario and Giuliano della Rovere, the latter of whom was on his way to Rome with an escort of one hundred crossbowmen in case of attack by Cesare’s men, who had been ordered to intercept him.
In his weakened state, lying in bed in his rooms above the Borgia apartments in the Vatican, Cesare had been uncharacteristically hesitant during the first few days of the
He also swore his allegiance to the college of cardinals, and a few days later, a deputation of cardinals approached the Venetian ambassador, Antonio Giustinian, with a request that he should use his persuasive skills to induce Cesare to remove his troops from Rome so that a free conclave could be held. Since, as Giustinian put it, this was no business of his and he had no instructions from Venice in the matter, he, at first, declined. Under pressure, however, and persuaded that his actions would bring great credit to his government, the ambassador did, in the end, convince Cesare. And so, on September 2, having been confirmed by the college in his position as captain-general of the church until the election of a new pope, and having been informed that the soldiers of Prospero Colonna had indeed left the city, as he had requested, Cesare finally left for the castle at Nepi.
Cesare, too weak to ride, was carried out of the city on a litter borne by twelve halberdiers, concealed from view behind crimson damask curtains. Those who caught glimpses of him at this time reported him as looking desperately ill, pale, and haggard, his feet so swollen that he could not stand up. Following the litter walked a splendid charger with trappings of black velvet, embroidered with his coat-of-arms and his ducal crown. According to Ferdinand Gregorovius, Cesare was also accompanied by his mother, Vannozza de’ Catanei, and by his brother Jofre, as well as more than one hundred wagons piled high with his luggage. ‘Now that Cesare has gone,’ Antonio Giustinian commented, ‘it is thought that the conclave will take place without any disturbance, since everyone respects the Sacred College.’
The college, meanwhile, had been busy organizing the obsequies for the dead pope, which opened on September 4 with the first of the memorial Masses for his soul. They continued every day at the catafalque that had been erected in St Peter’s for the following eight days. These obsequies, however, were of scant interest compared with the heated discussions about the outcome of the imminent election. Many believed that the next pope might be Ascanio Sforza or the Frenchman Georges d’Amboise, cardinal of Rouen. But most supposed that Giuliano della Rovere, after ten years in exile, would be chosen; on his arrival in Rome in the hope that his long- held ambition to be elected was about to be fulfilled, he had told Giustinian, succinctly, ‘I have come to Rome to look after my own interests and not those of other people.’
When the conclave finally opened on September 16, with thirty-seven cardinals in attendance, it was soon clear that the cardinal of Rouen could not win the tiara; both the Italians and Spaniards were against him, and in order to break the deadlock caused by rival national interests and by fears that Cesare Borgia might recover sufficiently from his illness to interfere in the election, the search turned to a compromise candidate, one who was not expected to survive for long and who would provide a temporary measure allowing all parties to build up support for a candidate of their own. Their choice consequently fell upon Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, archbishop of Siena, the kindly nephew of Pius II, who was racked by gout and already gave the appearance of a very old man, despite being only sixty-four years old. When he was elected, on September 22, he chose to be known as Pius III, in honour of his uncle.
Pius III was a learned and cultured man, a protege of his uncle, who had taken him into his household and arranged for him to attend courses in legal studies at Perugia. At the age of twenty-one, he had become, again at his uncle’s instigation, archbishop of Siena and soon afterward cardinal of Sant’Eustachio. For Cesare, everything now hinged on whether he would enjoy the favour of this man, his father’s successor.
The enforced convalescence at Nepi had by now almost restored Cesare to his previous good health, though he was careful to ensure that reports of his worsening condition continued to circulate in Rome. And his spirits rose when he was given grounds to believe that he would soon be confirmed in his office as captain-general of the church by the new pope and returned to authority in his former estates in the Romagna. Certainly, Pius III seemed prepared to condone the indulgence of Cesare’s ambitions, declaring that it had been God’s will that those lords whom Cesare had dispossessed should lose their authority, even though it had been carried out by a ‘wretched instrument.’
‘In consequence of the pressure put upon me by the Spanish cardinals, I have been compelled to issue some briefs in favour of Cesare Borgia,’ he explained to Giustinian, ‘but I will not give him any further help.’ Pius III’s opinion of his predecessor’s son was not encouraging: ‘I do not wish any harm to the Duke, since it is my duty as Pope to have compassion for all men, but I foresee that, by God’s judgement, the Duke must come to a bad end.’ Giustinian reported that ‘the Duke has had good words from the Pope,’ adding later, ‘But His Holiness does not trust him.’
Cesare now decided to return to Rome, where he hoped to be able to press Pius III to confirm him in his
