The river was dragged and Juan’s body was recovered; he had nine stab wounds, and his money was untouched. The pope was shattered, locked himself in the Vatican, and cried and fasted for three days. Most Romans believed that Juan had been killed by enemies of the pope – perhaps by the Sforzas or the Orsinis. It was only later that people began to put two and two together. While his brother was alive, Cesare was doomed to remain in the Church; but what Cesare wanted above all things was to prove himself as a soldier. After the death of Juan, Cesare was finally released from his vows and given a French title, the Duke of Valence (it was all part of a package deal with the new French king, Louis XII, who wanted a divorce). Cesare usually succeeded in getting his own way.
Cesare’s new dukedom served a double purpose; it cemented the pope’s relationship with the French king, and it gave the pope an opportunity to get rid of Cesare for a while. He went to France, asked the French king to find him a bride, and set about making himself thoroughly disliked. It was not difficult; he had been spoilt and he was very arrogant. The French began inflicting minor humiliations, and Cesare was thrown into fits of rage. Finally, he was married to the sixteen-year-old daughter of the king of Navarre; in a letter to his father, he described the sexual details of their wedding night at length; this was the kind of thing the pope appreciated. Cesare seems to have acquitted himself manfully, although he was by this time suffering from the disease that Columbus’s sailors had brought back. The syphilis seemed to be improving with treatment, bin its signs were already apparent on Cesare’s once-handsome face.
Then, with the pope’s approval, the king of France invaded Italy and Cesare came with him. Back in Rome, he began a curious campaign of murder against people who had been with him in France, paying back the slights and insults he had been forced to swallow in the French court. Young men with whom he had had intimate relations died suddenly after banquets, or were found stabbed to death in the Tiber. The Romans recalled the death of his brother Juan, and began to see the light.
Meanwhile, Cesare had at last achieved his ambition of being a successful general. There had been a rather incompetent plot to poison the pope; Caterina Sforza was suspected of being behind it. She was a widow of a Riario, and as governor of Imola and Forli, one of the pope’s bitterest opponents. She was also still a beautiful woman. Cesare set out with the hope of conquering more than her two towns.
In fact, his victories were almost a walkover. Caterina had been a harsh ruler, and her subjects were delighted to surrender to Cesare Borgia. Imola fell; so did Forli. Caterina took refuge in the castle of Forli, but was finally forced to surrender. Cesare made sure she surrendered absolutely everything, and he wrote his father a detailed account of his night in her bed. Well pleased with himself, Cesare went back to Rome. In his conquering mood, he longed for the soft embraces of his sister. It seemed intolerable that she should still be married to Alfonso – and apparently in love with him. In July 1500, Alfonso was crossing St Peter’s square after eating supper with the pope. Some pilgrims approached him and he reached into his pocket for money. Suddenly he was surrounded, and daggers rose and fell. He was strong, and fought furiously. Papal guards ran towards them and the attackers took to their heels. Alfonso, bleeding badly, was carried to his wife’s apartment in the Vatican, and there his wife and his sister Sanchia worked tirelessly to save his life. When he began to recover, the pope gave him a room close to his own, to make sure there would be no further attacks. Just a month after the original attack, Lucrezia and Sanchia left him alone for an hour. They came back to find him strangled. Cesare, accused of the murder, openly admitted it; he said it was self-defence – that Alfonso had fired a cross-bow at him as he walked in the garden.
The people of Naples demanded an enquiry into the case. The pope promised it – then forgot about it. Lucrezia, grief-stricken, went off to her castle at Nepi. Cesare also prepared to set out on another military expedition. He made sure that he called at Nepi on the way. And although Lucrezia knew that her brother was her husband’s murderer, she flung her arms round his neck when they met. Cesare had to demonstrate that she belonged to him again.
After establishing his right to his sister, Cesare marched off to further conquests. He had the kind of dash and boldness that can bring swift victories. The aim was to subjugate Romagna, the area to the south of Venice. The pope provided the money by selling cardinal’s hats to twelve completely unsuitable but wealthy candidates. Cesare captured Rimini, Fano and Pesaro; Faenza, under its young master Astorre Manfredi, held out for months but surrendered in March 1501. Cesare had the bit between his teeth. It looked as if nothing could stop him. In chapter 7 of The Prince his friend and adviser Machiavelli tells a typical story, with obvious approval. When Cesare had subdued Romagna – and been created duke by his father – he decided that the province needed stern laws; there was too much brigandage and general disorder. So he appointed the most ruthless man he knew – Remirro de Oreo – with full authority to do anything he liked to restore law and order. Oreo carried out the task with ferocity, and soon had the whole region cowering. At which point, Cesare – who wanted to avoid the blame for this cruelty – had Oreo seized, hacked into two pieces and left out in the public square at Cesena. It looked as if Cesare had meted out a brutal end to someone whose brutality he detested; so everyone was satisfied.
Machiavelli tells another story with equal approval: how when Cesare learned of a plot against him he charmed the plotters – all noblemen – with offers of good will and future alliances. They were invited to come and discuss their problems at a friendly banquet, and arrived without weapons. As they sat down to talk, they were seized from behind and strangled.
In the summer of 1502, Cesare displayed the same qualities on the field of battle. His latest objective was the town of Camerino. This lay well to the south of his other conquests in Romagna, and the major town of Urbino lay between the two. Its duke, Guidobaldo, was a friend and ally, so felt he had no reason to worry about his exposed position. Cesare marched on Camerino from the south – and then, unexpectedly, swung north and seized Urbino – Guidobaldo had to flee to Mantua. Then Cesare turned south and took Camerino. If anyone had accused him of treachery, he would probably have replied that if an ally is in a position to stab you in the back, then it is commonsense to get in the first stab.
Meanwhile, Lucrezia had married again. Considering the risk involved in forming an alliance with the Borgias, it is surprising that anyone was willing to accept her. But the pope was aware that his magnificent vitality was failing; he wanted to see his favourite daughter settled. For an enormous dowry, the duke of Ferrara agreed to permit the alliance of the pope’s bastard daughter with his son, Alfonso D’Este. It was Cesare himself who suggested the alliance, and this seems to be evidence that his military successes had given him a new self-confidence and drawn some of his venom. But before his sister left for Ferrara, Cesare made sure she spent her final nights in his bed. As a kind of farewell party he brought fifty courtesans into his apartments in the Vatican, then made them scramble, naked, for hot roasted chestnuts. Lucrezia presented the prizes.
And then, with shattering suddenness, the whole edifice of power came tumbling down. On Friday 11 August 1503, the pope and Cesare attended a party at a vineyard just outside the city; their host was cardinal Adriano Castelli da Corneto. Roman gossip later declared that the Borgias wanted the cardinal’s wealth and had taken along a jar of poisoned jam; the cardinal got wind of the plot and poisoned the food of his guests. It could be true – the list of cardinals who had died at convenient moments and left the pope their estates is a long one. On the other hand, it is just as likely that the damp vineyard harboured some kind of fever. The next day, the pope, the cardinal and Cesare were all ill in bed. For a few days, the pope and his son were both on the point of death; then both began to recover, and the pope sat up and played a game of cards. On 18 August he had a relapse and died.
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