 |
| Isabella of Naples |
Tumultuous Times
The Sforza
were facing trouble; Charles VIII of France was determined to
interfere in the internal affairs of Italy, believing as he did in the general
unfitness of Pope Alexander to carry out his papal duties. He was given the
excuse when Alfonso of Naples marched on Milan on behalf of his daughter Isabella, married to Gian Galeazzo. Beatrice
d’Esté, as wife of the
regent was taking precedence over Isabella, the duchess of Milan.
Her father had
strong ties to the king and queen of Spain and was able to count on their
support. Alfonso decided to make an issue of his daughter’s embarrassment. Caterina’s
uncle Ludovico called on Charles VIII for aid; by the time Charles reached Piacenza, it was to the news that Gian Galeazzo was dead[i].
Ludovico arrested his niece by marriage and seized her son Francesco; within the year Ludovico was duke
of Milan.
 |
| Beatrice d'Este |
Caterina was
aware that Forli was a bridge the road across the Apennines that the armies
would cross. As a papal fief the Lord of Forli was expected to follow papal
directives and Alexander supported Alfonso of Naples. At the same time she was
pressured by her Sforza relatives to support them. Alexander despatched
Cardinal Raffaele Riario to press Caterina; Rafaelle was surprised to have
Giacomo join in his meeting with the regent.
By
mid-September 1494 Giacomo had become general in chief and vice-Lord of
Ottaviano’s domains. Caterina did not push back against her husband’s
decisions. Giacomo chose to join the anti-Sforza side and shut the city gates
against Caterina’s relatives. Caterina’s spies kept the papal and Neapolitans
updated on the movements of the French and Sforza troops. Local people living
outside the city walls were ordered into Forli for protection against the armies
roaming through the local area.
Bouleversé
Giacomo
insisted that loyalty to the pope meant that Forli received a stipend from the
Vatican. Well aware of the advantages of bribery and corruption, Alexander
issued a condotta[ii]
for 16,000 ducats[iii]
for the privilege of allowing papal and Neapolitan troops passage through the Apennines.
Caterina and Giacomo were also awarded the fief of San Mauro.
On October
20th 1494 two thousand French and Milanese troops demanded entrance
to the fortress of Mordano and Caterina’s Castellan refused. The
fortress was overrun in the late afternoon after the walls were breached. Caterina
begged her ally the Duke of Calabria for support but he failed to
respond.
 |
| Charles VIII |
The French
show of strength meant a change of heart on Caterina’s part; henceforth she
would support them and her family. She complained to Piero de’ Medici[iv],
writing to inform her of her reasons for backing out of the papal alliance;
‘There was no reason to
treat me this way. I have kept [our treaty] and done more than I was obliged
to.’[v]
France’s
armies continued to roll over their enemies and Alexander reproached Ercol
d’Esté;
‘The triumph of France
involves nothing less than the destruction of the independence of every state
in Italy.’[vi]
The last
troops left Forli on 23rd November as the French marched off down
the Via Aemilia in the direction of Rome[vii].
By the time Charles turned his attention back to France he had been crowned
King of Naples. His departure merely meant that things turned back to
normal….relatively. Now France had given itself a reason to interfere in doings
on the Italian peninsula as and when it felt appropriate[viii].
Death of Giacomo
 |
| Ottaviano Riario |
In 1495
Ottaviano turned sixteen, old enough to take control of his lands. Ottaviano
did not care for his stepfather and the pair quarrelled violently; Giacomo
responded by slapping Ottaviano’s face hard in front of his mother who refused
to intervene. By now the Italian princes had come to the decision that
Caterina’s relationship with Giacomo Feo was a liability, although it was
believed that Caterina would be unlikely to give him up voluntarily. The
Florentine ambassador Puccio Pucci claimed
‘The Countess will bury her
children, her allies, and all her belongings, she will sell her soul to the
devil, she will give her state to the Turk, before she gives up Giacomo Feo.’[ix]
In the end
it was Caterina’s own retainers who decided that the situation could not
continue. Giovanni Ghetti[x]
led the plot; his wife Rosa was one of Caterina’s ladies-in-waiting. They and
other members of their family and two priests were the main conspirators.
On 27th
August 1495 the family went out hunting and in the late afternoon returned to
Forli. Giacomo, Ottaviano and Cesare were on horseback while Caterina and the
others rode in a cart. As they passed through the city gate Ghetti and his
fellow plotters stepped out in front of them. Ghetti took the reins of
Giacomo’s horse while his servant stabbed Giacomo from behind.
Giacomo fell
from his horse and his assassins fell on him. Caterina’s immediate response was
to leap out of the cart and onto a horse; she fled to Ravaldino. Ottaviano and
Cesare had already taken refuge in the house of a local nobleman while
Giacomo’s guards had disappeared at the first hint of trouble.
Revenge of the Fury
 |
| Rvaldino |
From the
safety of Ravaldino Caterina was swift to organise her response. When Ghetti
and his accomplices strutted into Forli’s main piazza Caterina sent out a squad
of soldiers to arrest the killers. Ghetti managed to escape and the chief of
police offered one hundred ducats[xi]
for the person who brought him in, dead or alive. One of the militia hunted
Ghetti down in the local cemetery and cleaved his head in two and chopped off
his fingers, scattering the body parts among the graves.
Tommaso Feo
was summonsed from Imola to revenge his brother’s murder. Caterina ordered him
to raze Ghetti’s house to the ground. Ghetti’s wife and children were thrown
into a well in Ravaldino and left to die. The last Ghetti child was found in
the care of a family friend and the five year old’s throat was cut.
Caterina had
every family known to be hostile to Giacomo rounded up and thrown in the
dungeons, hanged in the piazza or exiled. Houses were torn down, warehouses
destroyed and entire families thrown into the dungeons of Ravaldino. One entire
neighbourhood of Forli was razed to the ground so determined was Caterina on
her revenge on those who had taken her husband from her. No-one who had ever
adversely commented on Giacomo Feo was safe.
One of the
priests involved was tortured with fire until he gave up the names of his
accomplices. He was then stripped naked and tied by his feet to the back of a
horse and dragged through the town. His face was then cut open by one of
Giacomo’s supporters before being beaten and stabbed to death by Caterina’s
soldiers.
The Milanese
ambassador reported to Ludovico Sforza about his niece’s goings on;
‘She has used maximum
cruelty against a priest, that seems most detestable, she had women killed, the
wives of the two Ghetti brothers, the young sons aged three and nine months and
even the nurse. All Romagna is crying to the heavens.’[xii]
Caterina’s
cruel response to Giacomo’s killing was not only a sign of how very much she
loved her husband, but also possibly an indication of her father’s influence;
his cruelties had become legend in his own lifetime and now Caterina’s were to
follow her for the rest of her life.
Bibliography
At the Court
of the Borgia – Johann Burchard, the Folio Society 1990
Italian
Dynasties – Edward Burman, Equation 1989
Lucrezia Borgia – Rachel Erlanger, Michael Joseph 1979
The Deadly
Sisterhood – Leonie Frieda, Harper Collins 2013
The Rise and
Fall of the Medici – Christopher Hibbert, Folio Society 2001
The Borgias
– Mary Hollingsworth, Quercus Editions Ltd 2014
Tigress of
Forli – Elizabeth Lev, Head of Zeus Ltd, 2012
The Borgias
– GJ Meyer, Bantam Books 2013
Absolute
Monarchs – John Julius Norwich, Random House 2011
Niccolo’s
Smile – Maurizio Viroli, IB Tauris & Co Ltd 2001
www.wikipedia.en
[i]
He was alleged to have been poisoned, possibly by his uncle. Ludovico found the
rumours of his nephew’s death so embarrassing he felt obliged to write to his
fellow princes protesting his innocence.
[ii]
An annual pension
[iii]
In 2016 the relative: historic standard of
living
value of that income or wealth is £11,840,000.00, labour earnings of that income or wealth is
£97,970,000.00, economic status value of that income or wealth is £278,400,000.00, economic power value of that income or
wealth is £6,603,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[iv]
Shortly before Piero and his family were thrown out of Florence by the
supporters of Savonarola
[v]
Tigress of Forli - Lev
[vi]
The Borgias - Meyer
[ix]
Tigress of Forli - Lev
[x]
Who had helped oust Tomasso Feo from the fortress of Ravaldino
[xi]
In 2016 the relative: historic standard of
living
value of that income or wealth is £74,000.00, labour earnings of that income or wealth is
£612,300.00, economic status value of that income or wealth is £1,740,000.00, economic power value of that income or
wealth is £41,270,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[xii]
Tigress of Forli - Lev
the female of the species truly is more deadly than the male.
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