Part 15 (1/2)

FOOTNOTES:

[84] Compare Sannazzaro's epitaph on Alexander VI with the epigram of Guido Posthumus: In Tumulum s.e.xti.

[85] Cardinal Ferrari to Ercole, Rome, February 18, 1501. This is the first of the letters regarding this subject in the archives of Modena.

[86] Ercole's letter to his amba.s.sador in Florence, Manfredo Manfredi, April 25, 1501. Archives of Modena.

[87] Ferrari to Ercole, May 1, 1501.

[88] Girolamo Saerati to Ercole, Rome, May 8, 1501.

[89] Bartolomeo de' Cavallieri, Ferrarese amba.s.sador to France, to Ercole, Chalons, May 26, 1501.

[90] At least such was the plan advocated by Monsignor de Trans, French amba.s.sador in Rome. Letter of Aldovrandus de Guidonibus to Duke Ercole, Lugo, April 25, 1501. State archives of Modena.

[91] Bartolomeo de' Cavallieri to Ercole, Lyons, June 22, 1501.

[92] Ercole to Giovanni Valla, July 8, 1501. Ercole to the Cardinal of Rouen, July 8, 1501.

[93] Despatches of Bartolomeo de'Cavallieri, Ferrarese amba.s.sador at the court of France, to Ercole, July 10, 14, and 21, 1501.

[94] Despatch of the same, undated.

[95] Ercole to Giovanni Valla, his special envoy to the Cardinal of Rouen, in Milan, July 21 and 26, 1501.

[96] Da Roma accertasi, che la figliola del papa ha partorito.... Giov.

Alberto della Pigna to the duke, Venice, March 15, 1498. Archives of Modena.

[97] One of the first statements that Caesar was his brother's murderer is found in a despatch of the Ferrarese amba.s.sador at Venice. De novo ho inteso, como de la morte del Duca di Candia fo causa el Cardinale suo fratello. Pigna's despatch to Ercole, Venice, February 22, 1498.

[98] The Malipiero letter (Archiv. Stor. It. VII, i, 490) contains the following: Si dice, que il sig. Giovanni Sforza ha fatto questo effetto (the murder of Gandia) perche il Duca (di Gandia) usava con la sorella, sua consorte, la qual e fiola del Papa, ma d'un altra madre (which was incorrect). The Venetian amba.s.sador, Polo Capello, refers to this rumor (si dice) in his well known Relation of September, 1500.

CHAPTER XX

NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE HOUSE OF ESTE

The hereditary Prince of Ferrara made a determined resistance before yielding to his father's pressure, but the latter was now so anxious for the marriage to take place that he told his son that, if he persisted in his refusal, he would be compelled to marry Lucretia himself. After the duke had overcome his son's pride and secured his consent, he regarded the marriage merely as an advantageous piece of statecraft. He sold the honor of his house at the highest price obtainable. The Pope's agents in Ferrara, frightened by Ercole's demands, sent Ramondo Remolini to Rome to submit them to Alexander, who sought the intervention of the King of France to secure more favorable terms from the duke. A letter from the Ferrarese amba.s.sador to France to his master throws a bright light on this transaction.

MY ILl.u.s.tRIOUS MASTER: Yesterday the Pope's envoy told me that his Holiness had written him about the messenger your Excellency had sent him demanding two hundred thousand ducats, the remission of the annual tribute, the granting of the _jus patronatus_ for the bishopric of Ferrara, by decree of the consistory, and certain other concessions. He told me that the Pope had offered a hundred thousand, and as to the rest--your Excellency should trust to him, for he would grant them in time and would advance the interests of the house of Este so that everyone would see how high in his favor it stood. In addition, he told me that he was instructed to ask his most Christian Majesty to write to the ill.u.s.trious cardinal to advise your Excellency to agree. As your Excellency's devoted servant I mention this, although it is superfluous; for if this marriage is to take place, you will arrange it in such a way that ”much promising and little fulfillment” will not cause you to regret it. I informed your Excellency in an earlier letter how his most Christian Majesty had told me that his wishes in this affair were the same as your own, and that if the marriage was to be brought about, you might derive as much profit from it as possible, and if it was not to take place, his Majesty stood ready to give Don Alfonso the lady whom your Excellency might select for him in France.

Your ducal Excellency's servant,

BARTOLOMEO CAVALERI.

LYONS, _August 7, 1501_.

Alexander did not wish to send his daughter to Ferrara with empty hands, but the portion which Ercole demanded was not a modest one. It was larger than Blanca Sforza had brought the Emperor Maximilian; moreover, one of the duke's demands involved an infraction of the canon law, for, in addition to the large sum of money, he insisted upon the remission of the yearly tribute paid the Church by the fief of Ferrara, the cession of Cento and Pieve, cities which belonged to the archbishopric of Bologna, and even on the relinquishment of Porto Cesenatico and a large number of benefices in favor of the house of Este. They wrangled violently, but so great was the Pope's desire to secure the ducal throne of Ferrara for his daughter that he soon announced that he would practically agree to Ercole's demands, which Caesar urged him to do.[99]

Nor was Lucretia herself less urgent in begging her father to consent; she was the duke's most able advocate in Rome, and Ercole knew that it was due largely to her skilful pleading that he succeeded in carrying his point.