A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Capello, Bianca
CAPELLO, BIANCA,
Descended from the noble house of the Capelli, at Venice, and daughter of Bartolomeo Capello, was born in 1545. Opposite to her father's house, the Salviatti, a great mercantile family of Florence, had established a bank, and entrusted the care of it to Pietro Buonaventuri, a Florentine youth of obscure extraction, whom they had engaged as clerk. Buonaventuri, handsome, adventurous, and addicted to intrigue, gained the affections of Bianca, whom he deceived by representing himself as one of the principals in the bank. After their intercourse had been carried on for some time in secresy, the effects of it became such as could not be concealed, and to avoid the terrors of a life-long imprisonment in a cloister, Bianca resolved to elope with her lover. Taking a casket of jewels that belonged to her father, she left Venice by night, and at length safely arrived with Buonaventuri at Florence, and was lodged in his father's house, where she gave birth to a daughter. She had been married to Buonaventuri on the road, at a village near Bologna. She lived for some time with her husband in obscurity, continually under apprehensions of being discovered by emissaries from Venice, where her elopement had excited great indignation, not only in her family, but among all the aristocracy. The uncle of her husband, who was accused of having been aware of his nephew's presumption, was thrown into a dungeon, where he died; and Bianca's attendant and confidant, whom they had neglected to take with them, met with a fate equally severe.
At length accident, or contrivance, introduced her to the notice of Francis, son of Francis, Grand-duke of Tuscany, on whom his father had devolved all the powers and dignity of the sovereignty. The wonderful beauty and engaging manners of Bianca made such an impression on Francis, that he offered to protect her, negociated in her favour with her friends at Venice, and on failure of success, drew her from her obscure situation, settled her in a splendid palace, and spent the greatest part of his time in hef company. He created Buonaventuri his chamberlain, and consulted him on all the affairs of the state. This greatly offended the Florentines, whom he treated with the tyranny and haughtiness usual in foreign favourites of low origin.
In 1566, soon after the marriage of Francis to Donna Joanna of Austria, a marriage of expediency, Bianca was introduced at court, and became the centre of general admiration; and the captivated Francis solemnly promised to make her his wife, in case they should mutually be freed from their present engagements.
Buonaventuri, having formed an intrigue with a lady of high rank, which he openly proclaimed, while he behaved with the greatest insolence to her family, was assassinated in the streets one night, in 1569. Francis, who had connived at his fate, allowed the murderers to escape, notwithstanding the entreaties of Bianca, who seems to have retained through all some affection for her first husband.
Bianca was now openly proclaimed the mistress of Francis, who could hardly separate himself from her to perform the necessary duties imposed on him by his station. She exerted all her art in gaining over to her interest the principal persons in the Medici family, particularly the Cardinal Ferdinand, Francis's next brother; and she succeeded. As the want of a male heir by his duchess, had been a great disappointment to Francis, and even a natural son was passionately desired by him, Bianca, who had borne no child since her first daughter, determined to introduce a supposititious child to him, as her own. This scheme she effected in 1576, and presenting to her lover the new-born male infant of a poor woman, he joyfully received it as his own, and named it Antonio. Bianca is charged with several secret assassinations, perpetrated for the purpose of removing all those who were privy to this fraudulent transaction. Francis, however, had a legitimate son born to him the ensuing year, and this event appeared to reconcile the grand-duchess to him, who had been greatly disturbed by Bianca's influence over him. Bianca, for a time, retired from court, but her intercourse with Francis was still carried on, though more secretly.
At length the death of the grand-duchess, supposed to have been caused by the grief she experienced at finding herself again neglected, placed the ducal crown within Bianca's grasp; and, notwithstanding the hatred of the Florentines, who were attached to the memory of the grand-duchess, she persuaded Francis to fulfil his promise of marriage. On June 6th., 1679, the ceremony was performed privately; but her ambition was to share publicly with him the ducal throne, and she persuaded him to comply with her wishes.
He sent a solemn embassy to Venice, to inform the senate of his marriage with Bianca, and to request them to confer on her the title of daughter of the Republic, which would give her precedence of the other princesses of Italy. That crafty government gladly received the proposal, as a means of extending the authority of the Republic; and in one of the most magnificent embassies ever sent from Venice, Bianca was solemnly crowned daughter of the state which had banished and persecuted her, proclaimed Grand-duchess of Tuscany, and installed in all the honours and dignity of sovereignty. This event occurred October 13th., 1679.
Her conduct in this high station was directed to securing herself by obtaining the good-will of the different members of the Medici family, and reconciling their differences; in this her persuasive manners, and great prudence and judgment, rendered her successful. But she never conciliated the affections of her subjects, who had always hated her as the seducer of their prince, and regarded her as an abandoned woman, capable of every crime. A thousand absurd stories of her cruelty and propensity to magical arts were propagated, some of which are still part of the popular traditions of Florence. In return, she employed a number of spies, who, by their information, enabled her to defeat all machinations against herself and the duke.
In 1582, the son of Francis by his former grand-duchess died, and soon after the grand-duke declared Antonio his lawful heir. Yet it is said Bianca had confessed to Francis that he was only a supposititious child; and this strange contradiction throws a mystery upon the real parentage of Antonio. Ferdinand, brother, and next heir to Francis, was rendered jealous of his brother by this report; but Bianca effected an apparent reconciliation between them, and Ferdinand came to Florence in October, 1587. He had been there but a short time, when Francis fell ill at his hunting villa of Poggio de Cajano, whither he had been accompanied by his brother and Bianca; and two days after, Bianca was seized with the same complaint—a kind of fever. They both died after a week's illness, Francis being forty, and Bianca forty-four years of age. Ferdinand has been accused, but in all probability unjustly, of having poisoned them. Their remains were carried to Florence, where Ferdinand would not allow the body of Bianca to be interred in the family vault, and treated her memory otherwise with great indignity; he also had the illegitimacy of Antonio publicly recognised. This behaviour was probably caused by the accusations the enemies of Bianca poured into his ear. His subsequent conduct proves the different feelings that came when time for reflection had been allowed him. He solemnly adopted Antonio as his nephew, gave him an establishment suited to a prince of the house of Medici, settled a liberal annuity on Bianca's father, and made presents to the officers of her household.
On a survey of the life of Bianca Capello, whatever may be thought of the qualities of her heart, it is impossible not to be struck with the powers of her mind, by which, amidst innumerable obstacles, she maintained, undiminished, through life, that ascendency which her personal charms had first given her over the affections of a capricious prince. The determination and perseverance with which she prosecuted her plans, sufficiently testify her energy and talents; if, in effecting the end proposed, she was a little scrupulous respecting the means, the Italian character, the circumstances of the times, the disadvantages attending her entrance into the world, subjected to artifice and entangled in fraud, must not be forgotten. Brought up in retirement and obscurity, thrown at once into the most trying situations, her prudence, her policy, her self-government, her knowledge of the human mind, and the means of subjecting it, are not less rare than admirable. She possessed singular penetration in discerning characters, and the weaknesses of those with whom she conversed, which she skillfully adapted to her purposes. By an eloquence, soft, insinuating, and powerful, she prevailed over her friends; while, by ensnaring them in their own devices, she made her enemies subservient to her views. Such was the fascination of her manners, that the prejudices of those by whom she was hated, yielded, in her presence, to admiration and delight. Nothing seemed too arduous for her talents; inexhaustible in resource, whatever she undertook she found means to accomplish.
Majestic, beautiful, animated, eloquent, and insinuating, Bianca Capello commanded all hearts; a power of which the coldness and tranquillity of her own enabled her to avail herself to the utmost. Though she early lost that beauty which had gained her the heart of the capricious Francis, the powers of her mind enabled her to retain to the last an undiminished ascendency over him.
We learn from this example of perverted female influence the great need of judicious education for the sex. Had Bianca Capello been, in early youth, blessed with such opportunities of acquiring knowledge, and receiving the appreciation her genius deserved, as were the happy lot of Laura Bassi, what a difference would have been wrought in the character and history of this brilliant Venetian lady!