It was not until Sunday October 2nd that I recommenced to experience the sumptuous sets, costumes and photography of The Borgias and the last four episodes of the first season.
In this carefully crafted prolonged finale all seems lost for the Rodrigo now Alexander VI, played with a wonderful mixture of ruthless passion and considered guile by Jeremy Irons, because it seems that all his preparations and family sacrifices are come to nothing. It ill be remembered that he had bribed his way into the Papacy and the force the college of Cardinals to accept his will by enlarging their number of ensure he always had a sympathetic majority.
He had then cast out his long standing mistress, former courtesan and mother of this three sons and a daughter for a new consort and as if to emphasis the new order he had not invited his former mistress to her daughter’s wedding, that of the innocent and romantic Lucrezia. The Pope’s recently made Cardinal son Cesare (Francois Arnaud) arranged for his mother to attend the after wedding party. The main purpose of the match was to bring onside the Sforza family in general and the army of her husband whose territory marked a gateway into Rome.
In the first episode of the last part of the first season - The French King the Pope arranges for the marriage of his young son Joffre ( played by Aidan Alexander), still a boy, to marry the illegitimate daughter of the King of Naples an older girl no longer a virgin Sancia (Emmanuelle Chriqui). He arranges for his son Juan who is head of the Papal army to visit the King and his infantile and dangerous son to sort out the betrothal.
The Pope has previously given his blessing to the Spanish King to Conquer middle and central America and struck a deal with Machiavelli and the Medici family not to give free passage to the French if they came their way via Milan en route to Rome en route to claim Naples and Southern Italy with the goading of Colin Feore as Cardinal della Rovere who is devoted to replacing the Pope with a more Christian interested individual such as himself.
However as we saw in the previous episode The Borgias in Love (hmm) their attention is divided. The Pope having sidelined his wife who renewed acquaintance with her legal husband is now living openly with Giulia Farnese (Lotte Verbeck) who appears loving and loyal (the widow the Pope befriended and set up household in sequestered property with a convenient passageway into the Pope’s quarters and vice versa)
Cesare, made Cardinal and the Pope’s reluctant organiser of dark deeds and official business has fallen for the wife of a guest at the wedding of Lucrezia. Sensing she wants to reciprocate her husband calls Cesare out and challenges him to dual which he loses and is killed. His body is dumped in a river. Ursula Bonadeo is played by Ruta Gedmintas and while her husband is missing responds to the advances of the Cardinal and they become lovers. I think it is episodes 6 The French King and 7 Death on a Pale Horse that the husband’s body is found with the stab wounds and his widow challenges the Cardinal to deny he as responsible for the death. Cesare explains that he was set upon and defended himself and because she had held dark thoughts and remains Catholic she cannot cope with the guilt and taker herself to a nunnery, She chooses a convent order where unfortunately Cesare is the main patron and this enable him to have access to her quarters but she resists his advances and he is broken hearted.
The middle son and head of the Papal forces is more interested in womanising and frequenting of brothels than paying attention to his military duties. When he travels to the court at Naples to broker the marriage deal and bring back the bride for the wedding he finds that she is a wanton and they have sex and also when back in Rome. And this brings us to Lucrezia who has fallen in love with her husband’s groom. The plan for him to fall of his horse and be killed only partially works as he is badly injured in the fall and it will take weeks if not months for his legs to heal and regain mobility. Lucrezia tends him dutifully prolonging his incapacity while the love affair with the groom progresses.
Della Rovere goes to visit the French King who is a plain speaking realist and whose army now has giant canons which can punch holes in fortified city walls and which chained together a flight of ten will cut down any advancing army using traditional formations. At first the King is reluctant to become involved but the situation changes with the death of the King of Naples and his son coming to power.
In Death on a Pale horse we learn that the Duke of Milan, the big cheese Sforza has given the French army of 25000 men free passage and approach the city of Lucca close to Florence they ask for terms before opening their gates. The King uses the cannon to smash the walls and the gate and then inside gives permission of the troops to destroy the city and its people taking whatever of value they find. When Della Rovere remonstrates the King explains that he can only pay his forces a limited sum and therefore to maintain their loyalty and commitment he welcomes the opportunity to take cities by force. He also believes it will send the right signal to Florence, Rome and anyone else who could stand in his way. Della Rovere is taken aback but not sufficiently to move from his primary objective of deposing the Borgias and claiming power himself.
In the Art of War the head of the Medici family accepts all the demands of the advancing French:-the freedom to enter the city without opposition and to be paid doubles the cost of the campaign to-date plus a hostage from each of the leading families. The Pope had tried to get the college of Cardinals to back his demand to let it be known that everyone in city would ex communicated if they did not stand up and fight the French. Machiavelli remonstrates with the Medici head that the city is being surrendered and the arrival of the King at the city gates demands that he proves his good faith by pointing backward his lance.
Rome and the Cardinals are now in panic and begin to desert the Pope and his family. Gina Mckee as Caterina Sforza persuades her cousin the husband of Lucrezia and also of Cardinal Sforza who had helped Rodrigo to become Pope not to now intervene, hence breaks the marriage dowry agreement which would place their troops as the disposal of the Pope if required. Meanwhile Lucrezia husband has also regained his strength and says it is time they had a child.
The Pope summons the Spanish Ambassador to request that Spain intervenes or risk losing the authority to colonise and convert the Americas, but without success. In desperation he sends his mistress Giulia to visit Lucrezia and find out their position. Lucrezia has visited Rome for the wedding of her young brother and the Pope and the elder brother are struck by how quickly she had moved into adulthood and to looking after her interests. It is evident the marriage was not successful although at this point the nature of his behaviour and that she is having a satisfying extra marital relationship is not known to them.
Lucrezia discloses to the Pope’s Mistress the extent of her husband’s loathing for the Borgia family and his willing support for the French and the plan of Della Rovere. The two women attempt to flee for Rome but run into the advancing troops of the French and in effect become the King’s House guests. Lucrezia is pregnant not by her husband who put the groom on the rack to establish the truth.
Cesare has failed in his attempt to replace his brother as head of the army who it is evident has no stomach or ability to conduct such a campaign. The young has visited his mother for support only to find his step father present and he turns on him, in part from fear that he is the child of the husband and not the Pope because he feels different from the Pope and his elder brother
Vanozza dei Cattanei the former mistress of the Pope and mother of his four children (played by Joanne Whalley) bans her son from their home when he beats up her legal husband. The Pope is also outraged by his son’s behaviour and demands that he apologizes and begs forgiveness from the couple or he will be stripped of the command he has coveted.
In Nessuno (Nobody) Lucrezia and Guilia play every feminine trick to gain the confidence of the King, being honest about his appearance which he likes but also praising all his other qualities. She also pretends to read the runes in his cup of wine declaring that no one will win the coming battle between his forces and those of the Pope.
On the field of battle the first use of the special Cannons destroy first lives of the Roman forces and Lucrezia cuts a deal with the French King and her brother that he withdraws and they allow the French King and his forces to pass through Rome onto Naples. Without knowing this the Pope has prepared his own strategy. He removes his vestments and takes the apparel of simple man of the cloth. He accepts the arrival of the King of France in Rome and through his new found piety he persuades the King to agree to a new coronation in which he not only reviews his vows as King of France but add the Kingdom of Naples. Thus the Pope outwits the accompanying Cardinal who had hoped to summon the absent College and demand a replacement. However through his action the Pope is able to summon the college himself and seeking their atonement for having abandoned him and the city. Each offers a large portion of their wealth.
The departing French had demand that Cesare accompany them as a hostage, but he escapes and commences the next mission which is to capture the husband of Lucrezia and yo persuade him to admit that the marriage was not consummated which is the only ground under which the marriage can be annulled. Thus Lucretia is free to remain home to have her child. There is a touching final scene in which the child is born aided by her mother, the Pope’s mistress and the former mistress of Cesare, who has become a nun,
The French reach Napes and find the city devastated by the Plague.In contrast to the preceding pontificate.
The official Wikipedia version is that “ Pope Alexander VI adhered initially to strict administration of justice and orderly government. Before long, however, he began endowing his relatives at the church's and his neighbours' expense. Pope Alexander VI had four and possibly five children by his long-time mistress Vannozza dei Cattani, a courtesan from the House of Candia married to Domenico d' Arignano: Giovanni (or Juan), Cesare, Lucrezia, Goffredo (or Gioffre, Jofré in Valentian), and Ottaviano.
Cesare, while a youth of seventeen and a student at Pisa, was made Archbishop of Valencia, and Giovanni Borgia inherited the Spanish Dukedom of Gandia, the Borgias' ancestral home in Spain. For the Duke of Gandia and for Goffredo the Pope proposed to carve fiefs out of the papal states and the Kingdom of Naples. Among the fiefs destined for the duke of Gandia were Cerveteri and Anguillara, lately acquired by Virginio Orsini, head of that powerful house.
This policy brought Ferdinand I, King of Naples, into conflict with Pope Alexander VI, who was also opposed by Cardinal della Rovere, whose candidature for the papacy had been backed by Ferdinand. Della Rovere fortified himself in his bishopric of Ostia at the Tiber's mouth as Pope Alexander VI formed a league against Naples (25 April 1493) and prepared for war.
The Naples King allied himself with Florence, Milan, and Venice. He also appealed to Spain for help; but Spain was eager to be on good terms with the papacy to obtain the title to the recently discovered New World. Pope Alexander VI, in the bull Inter Caetera, 4 May 1493, divided the title between Spain and Portugal along a demarcation line. (This and other related bulls are known collectively as the Bulls of Donation.)
Pope Alexander VI arranged great marriages for his children. At age 10, in 1490, Lucrezia was first betrothed to the Spanish nobleman Don Juan de Centelles, then to another Spaniard, Don Gasparo da Procida, Count of Aversa. However, on her father's elevation to the papacy the second marriage contract was broken; Gasparo was given 3,000 ducats in exchange for his cooperation. Lucrezia was formally betrothed to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro and Count of Cotignola, on 12 February 1493; she was married to him on 12 June of the same year. The betrothal and wedding ceremonies took place at the Vatican Palace.
In spite of the splendours of the Pontifical court, the condition of Rome became every day more deplorable. The city swarmed with adventurers, assassins, prostitutes and informers; murder and robbery were committed with impunity, and the Pope himself cast aside all show of decorum; indulging in the chase, and arranging dancing, and stage plays. One of his close companions was Cem, the brother of the Sultan Bayazid II (1481–1512), detained as a hostage. The general outlook in Italy was of the gloomiest and the country was on the eve of foreign invasion.
Pope Alexander VI made many alliances to secure his position. He sought help from Charles VIII of France (1483–1498), who was allied to Ludovico "Il Moro" [The Moor, so called because of his swarthy complexion] Sforza, the de facto Duke of Milan who needed French support to legitimize his rule. As King Ferdinand I of Naples was threatening to come to the aid of the rightful duke Gian Galeazzo—the husband of his granddaughter Isabella—Alexander VI encouraged the French king in his plan for the conquest of Naples.
But Pope Alexander VI, always ready to seize opportunities to aggrandize his family, then adopted a double policy. Through the intervention of the Spanish ambassador he made peace with Naples in July 1493 and cemented the peace by a marriage between his son Gioffre and Doña Sancha, another granddaughter of Ferdinand I.
In order to dominate the Sacred College of Cardinals more completely, Alexander, in a move that created much scandal, created 12 new cardinals. Among the new cardinals was his own son Cesare, then only 18 years old. Alessandro Farnese (later Pope Paul III)—the brother of one of the Pope's mistresses, the beautiful Giulia Farnese—was also among the newly created cardinals.
On 25 January 1494 Ferdinand I died and was succeeded by his son Alfonso II (1494–1495). Charles VIII of France now advanced formal claims on the kingdom of Naples; Pope Alexander VI authorized him to pass through Rome, ostensibly on a crusade against the Turks, without mentioning Naples. But when the French invasion became a reality Pope Alexander VI became alarmed, recognized Alfonso II as king of Naples, and concluded an alliance with him in exchange for various fiefs for his sons (July 1494). A military response to the French threat was set in motion: a Neapolitan army was to advance through the Romagna and attack Milan, while the fleet was to seize Genoa. However, both expeditions were badly conducted and failed, and on 8 September Charles VIII crossed the Alps and joined Lodovico il Moro at Milan. The papal states were in turmoil, and the powerful Colonna faction seized Ostia in the name of France. Charles VIII rapidly advanced southward, and after a short stay in Florence, set out for Rome (November 1494).
Pope Alexander VI appealed to Ascanio Sforza and even to the Turkish Sultan for help. He tried to collect troops and put Rome in a state of defence, but his position was precarious. When the Orsini offered to admit the French to their castles, Alexander had no choice but to come to terms with Charles. On 31 December Charles VIII entered Rome with his troops, the cardinals of the French faction, and Giuliano della Rovere. Pope Alexander VI now feared that Charles might depose him for simony, and that the king would summon a council to nominate a new pope.
However, Pope Alexander VI was able to win over the bishop of Saint-Malo, who had much influence over the king, with a cardinal's hat. Pope Alexander VI agreed to send Cesare as legate to Naples with the French army, to deliver Cem to Charles VIII, and to give Charles Civitavecchia (16 January 1495).
On 28 January Charles VIII departed for Naples with Cem and Cesare, but the latter slipped away to Spoleto. Neapolitan resistance collapsed, and Alfonso II fled and abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand II. However, Ferdinand was abandoned by all and also had to escape, and the kingdom of Naples was conquered with surprising ease. “
In this carefully crafted prolonged finale all seems lost for the Rodrigo now Alexander VI, played with a wonderful mixture of ruthless passion and considered guile by Jeremy Irons, because it seems that all his preparations and family sacrifices are come to nothing. It ill be remembered that he had bribed his way into the Papacy and the force the college of Cardinals to accept his will by enlarging their number of ensure he always had a sympathetic majority.
He had then cast out his long standing mistress, former courtesan and mother of this three sons and a daughter for a new consort and as if to emphasis the new order he had not invited his former mistress to her daughter’s wedding, that of the innocent and romantic Lucrezia. The Pope’s recently made Cardinal son Cesare (Francois Arnaud) arranged for his mother to attend the after wedding party. The main purpose of the match was to bring onside the Sforza family in general and the army of her husband whose territory marked a gateway into Rome.
In the first episode of the last part of the first season - The French King the Pope arranges for the marriage of his young son Joffre ( played by Aidan Alexander), still a boy, to marry the illegitimate daughter of the King of Naples an older girl no longer a virgin Sancia (Emmanuelle Chriqui). He arranges for his son Juan who is head of the Papal army to visit the King and his infantile and dangerous son to sort out the betrothal.
The Pope has previously given his blessing to the Spanish King to Conquer middle and central America and struck a deal with Machiavelli and the Medici family not to give free passage to the French if they came their way via Milan en route to Rome en route to claim Naples and Southern Italy with the goading of Colin Feore as Cardinal della Rovere who is devoted to replacing the Pope with a more Christian interested individual such as himself.
However as we saw in the previous episode The Borgias in Love (hmm) their attention is divided. The Pope having sidelined his wife who renewed acquaintance with her legal husband is now living openly with Giulia Farnese (Lotte Verbeck) who appears loving and loyal (the widow the Pope befriended and set up household in sequestered property with a convenient passageway into the Pope’s quarters and vice versa)
Cesare, made Cardinal and the Pope’s reluctant organiser of dark deeds and official business has fallen for the wife of a guest at the wedding of Lucrezia. Sensing she wants to reciprocate her husband calls Cesare out and challenges him to dual which he loses and is killed. His body is dumped in a river. Ursula Bonadeo is played by Ruta Gedmintas and while her husband is missing responds to the advances of the Cardinal and they become lovers. I think it is episodes 6 The French King and 7 Death on a Pale Horse that the husband’s body is found with the stab wounds and his widow challenges the Cardinal to deny he as responsible for the death. Cesare explains that he was set upon and defended himself and because she had held dark thoughts and remains Catholic she cannot cope with the guilt and taker herself to a nunnery, She chooses a convent order where unfortunately Cesare is the main patron and this enable him to have access to her quarters but she resists his advances and he is broken hearted.
The middle son and head of the Papal forces is more interested in womanising and frequenting of brothels than paying attention to his military duties. When he travels to the court at Naples to broker the marriage deal and bring back the bride for the wedding he finds that she is a wanton and they have sex and also when back in Rome. And this brings us to Lucrezia who has fallen in love with her husband’s groom. The plan for him to fall of his horse and be killed only partially works as he is badly injured in the fall and it will take weeks if not months for his legs to heal and regain mobility. Lucrezia tends him dutifully prolonging his incapacity while the love affair with the groom progresses.
Della Rovere goes to visit the French King who is a plain speaking realist and whose army now has giant canons which can punch holes in fortified city walls and which chained together a flight of ten will cut down any advancing army using traditional formations. At first the King is reluctant to become involved but the situation changes with the death of the King of Naples and his son coming to power.
In Death on a Pale horse we learn that the Duke of Milan, the big cheese Sforza has given the French army of 25000 men free passage and approach the city of Lucca close to Florence they ask for terms before opening their gates. The King uses the cannon to smash the walls and the gate and then inside gives permission of the troops to destroy the city and its people taking whatever of value they find. When Della Rovere remonstrates the King explains that he can only pay his forces a limited sum and therefore to maintain their loyalty and commitment he welcomes the opportunity to take cities by force. He also believes it will send the right signal to Florence, Rome and anyone else who could stand in his way. Della Rovere is taken aback but not sufficiently to move from his primary objective of deposing the Borgias and claiming power himself.
In the Art of War the head of the Medici family accepts all the demands of the advancing French:-the freedom to enter the city without opposition and to be paid doubles the cost of the campaign to-date plus a hostage from each of the leading families. The Pope had tried to get the college of Cardinals to back his demand to let it be known that everyone in city would ex communicated if they did not stand up and fight the French. Machiavelli remonstrates with the Medici head that the city is being surrendered and the arrival of the King at the city gates demands that he proves his good faith by pointing backward his lance.
Rome and the Cardinals are now in panic and begin to desert the Pope and his family. Gina Mckee as Caterina Sforza persuades her cousin the husband of Lucrezia and also of Cardinal Sforza who had helped Rodrigo to become Pope not to now intervene, hence breaks the marriage dowry agreement which would place their troops as the disposal of the Pope if required. Meanwhile Lucrezia husband has also regained his strength and says it is time they had a child.
The Pope summons the Spanish Ambassador to request that Spain intervenes or risk losing the authority to colonise and convert the Americas, but without success. In desperation he sends his mistress Giulia to visit Lucrezia and find out their position. Lucrezia has visited Rome for the wedding of her young brother and the Pope and the elder brother are struck by how quickly she had moved into adulthood and to looking after her interests. It is evident the marriage was not successful although at this point the nature of his behaviour and that she is having a satisfying extra marital relationship is not known to them.
Lucrezia discloses to the Pope’s Mistress the extent of her husband’s loathing for the Borgia family and his willing support for the French and the plan of Della Rovere. The two women attempt to flee for Rome but run into the advancing troops of the French and in effect become the King’s House guests. Lucrezia is pregnant not by her husband who put the groom on the rack to establish the truth.
Cesare has failed in his attempt to replace his brother as head of the army who it is evident has no stomach or ability to conduct such a campaign. The young has visited his mother for support only to find his step father present and he turns on him, in part from fear that he is the child of the husband and not the Pope because he feels different from the Pope and his elder brother
Vanozza dei Cattanei the former mistress of the Pope and mother of his four children (played by Joanne Whalley) bans her son from their home when he beats up her legal husband. The Pope is also outraged by his son’s behaviour and demands that he apologizes and begs forgiveness from the couple or he will be stripped of the command he has coveted.
In Nessuno (Nobody) Lucrezia and Guilia play every feminine trick to gain the confidence of the King, being honest about his appearance which he likes but also praising all his other qualities. She also pretends to read the runes in his cup of wine declaring that no one will win the coming battle between his forces and those of the Pope.
On the field of battle the first use of the special Cannons destroy first lives of the Roman forces and Lucrezia cuts a deal with the French King and her brother that he withdraws and they allow the French King and his forces to pass through Rome onto Naples. Without knowing this the Pope has prepared his own strategy. He removes his vestments and takes the apparel of simple man of the cloth. He accepts the arrival of the King of France in Rome and through his new found piety he persuades the King to agree to a new coronation in which he not only reviews his vows as King of France but add the Kingdom of Naples. Thus the Pope outwits the accompanying Cardinal who had hoped to summon the absent College and demand a replacement. However through his action the Pope is able to summon the college himself and seeking their atonement for having abandoned him and the city. Each offers a large portion of their wealth.
The departing French had demand that Cesare accompany them as a hostage, but he escapes and commences the next mission which is to capture the husband of Lucrezia and yo persuade him to admit that the marriage was not consummated which is the only ground under which the marriage can be annulled. Thus Lucretia is free to remain home to have her child. There is a touching final scene in which the child is born aided by her mother, the Pope’s mistress and the former mistress of Cesare, who has become a nun,
The French reach Napes and find the city devastated by the Plague.In contrast to the preceding pontificate.
The official Wikipedia version is that “ Pope Alexander VI adhered initially to strict administration of justice and orderly government. Before long, however, he began endowing his relatives at the church's and his neighbours' expense. Pope Alexander VI had four and possibly five children by his long-time mistress Vannozza dei Cattani, a courtesan from the House of Candia married to Domenico d' Arignano: Giovanni (or Juan), Cesare, Lucrezia, Goffredo (or Gioffre, Jofré in Valentian), and Ottaviano.
Cesare, while a youth of seventeen and a student at Pisa, was made Archbishop of Valencia, and Giovanni Borgia inherited the Spanish Dukedom of Gandia, the Borgias' ancestral home in Spain. For the Duke of Gandia and for Goffredo the Pope proposed to carve fiefs out of the papal states and the Kingdom of Naples. Among the fiefs destined for the duke of Gandia were Cerveteri and Anguillara, lately acquired by Virginio Orsini, head of that powerful house.
This policy brought Ferdinand I, King of Naples, into conflict with Pope Alexander VI, who was also opposed by Cardinal della Rovere, whose candidature for the papacy had been backed by Ferdinand. Della Rovere fortified himself in his bishopric of Ostia at the Tiber's mouth as Pope Alexander VI formed a league against Naples (25 April 1493) and prepared for war.
The Naples King allied himself with Florence, Milan, and Venice. He also appealed to Spain for help; but Spain was eager to be on good terms with the papacy to obtain the title to the recently discovered New World. Pope Alexander VI, in the bull Inter Caetera, 4 May 1493, divided the title between Spain and Portugal along a demarcation line. (This and other related bulls are known collectively as the Bulls of Donation.)
Pope Alexander VI arranged great marriages for his children. At age 10, in 1490, Lucrezia was first betrothed to the Spanish nobleman Don Juan de Centelles, then to another Spaniard, Don Gasparo da Procida, Count of Aversa. However, on her father's elevation to the papacy the second marriage contract was broken; Gasparo was given 3,000 ducats in exchange for his cooperation. Lucrezia was formally betrothed to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro and Count of Cotignola, on 12 February 1493; she was married to him on 12 June of the same year. The betrothal and wedding ceremonies took place at the Vatican Palace.
In spite of the splendours of the Pontifical court, the condition of Rome became every day more deplorable. The city swarmed with adventurers, assassins, prostitutes and informers; murder and robbery were committed with impunity, and the Pope himself cast aside all show of decorum; indulging in the chase, and arranging dancing, and stage plays. One of his close companions was Cem, the brother of the Sultan Bayazid II (1481–1512), detained as a hostage. The general outlook in Italy was of the gloomiest and the country was on the eve of foreign invasion.
Pope Alexander VI made many alliances to secure his position. He sought help from Charles VIII of France (1483–1498), who was allied to Ludovico "Il Moro" [The Moor, so called because of his swarthy complexion] Sforza, the de facto Duke of Milan who needed French support to legitimize his rule. As King Ferdinand I of Naples was threatening to come to the aid of the rightful duke Gian Galeazzo—the husband of his granddaughter Isabella—Alexander VI encouraged the French king in his plan for the conquest of Naples.
But Pope Alexander VI, always ready to seize opportunities to aggrandize his family, then adopted a double policy. Through the intervention of the Spanish ambassador he made peace with Naples in July 1493 and cemented the peace by a marriage between his son Gioffre and Doña Sancha, another granddaughter of Ferdinand I.
In order to dominate the Sacred College of Cardinals more completely, Alexander, in a move that created much scandal, created 12 new cardinals. Among the new cardinals was his own son Cesare, then only 18 years old. Alessandro Farnese (later Pope Paul III)—the brother of one of the Pope's mistresses, the beautiful Giulia Farnese—was also among the newly created cardinals.
On 25 January 1494 Ferdinand I died and was succeeded by his son Alfonso II (1494–1495). Charles VIII of France now advanced formal claims on the kingdom of Naples; Pope Alexander VI authorized him to pass through Rome, ostensibly on a crusade against the Turks, without mentioning Naples. But when the French invasion became a reality Pope Alexander VI became alarmed, recognized Alfonso II as king of Naples, and concluded an alliance with him in exchange for various fiefs for his sons (July 1494). A military response to the French threat was set in motion: a Neapolitan army was to advance through the Romagna and attack Milan, while the fleet was to seize Genoa. However, both expeditions were badly conducted and failed, and on 8 September Charles VIII crossed the Alps and joined Lodovico il Moro at Milan. The papal states were in turmoil, and the powerful Colonna faction seized Ostia in the name of France. Charles VIII rapidly advanced southward, and after a short stay in Florence, set out for Rome (November 1494).
Pope Alexander VI appealed to Ascanio Sforza and even to the Turkish Sultan for help. He tried to collect troops and put Rome in a state of defence, but his position was precarious. When the Orsini offered to admit the French to their castles, Alexander had no choice but to come to terms with Charles. On 31 December Charles VIII entered Rome with his troops, the cardinals of the French faction, and Giuliano della Rovere. Pope Alexander VI now feared that Charles might depose him for simony, and that the king would summon a council to nominate a new pope.
However, Pope Alexander VI was able to win over the bishop of Saint-Malo, who had much influence over the king, with a cardinal's hat. Pope Alexander VI agreed to send Cesare as legate to Naples with the French army, to deliver Cem to Charles VIII, and to give Charles Civitavecchia (16 January 1495).
On 28 January Charles VIII departed for Naples with Cem and Cesare, but the latter slipped away to Spoleto. Neapolitan resistance collapsed, and Alfonso II fled and abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand II. However, Ferdinand was abandoned by all and also had to escape, and the kingdom of Naples was conquered with surprising ease. “
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