beyond his designs.[1] When Caesar stood at the head of a victorious army, the only Italian army in existence, the ambition of the Borgias soared to great heights. They were absolute in Central Italy, where no Pope had exercised real direct authority for ages.[2] The kingdom of Naples was the Pope's to grant, to take away, or to distribute. Lucretia was married to the heir of Ferrara. A marriage was proposed between an infant Borgia and the Duke of Mantua. Cæsar possessed Piombino; he threatened Florence, Siena, Bologna, Ravenna, even Venice. He received tribute as condottiere from the chief independent States of Italy. The King of France offered Naples to the Pope.[3] The King of Aragon proposed that Cæsar should receive Tuscany with the title of king.[4] Men spoke of him as the future emperor, and dreamed of Italy united and independent, under the sceptre of a papal dynasty.[5] Public expectation went at least as far as the secret hopes of Borgia. And it is certain that Cæsar, hateful as he was, and hated by the great families he had overthrown, was not disliked by the masses of the people whom he governed.[6]
It is not just to condemn the establishment of a powerful dynasty in Romagna as an act of treason against the rights of the Church. Though not done for her sake, it was not done at her expense. Cæsar was more powerful than Malatesta or Varano, but not practically more independent. Rome had derived little benefit from her
- ↑ Furono i successi sua più volte maggiori che i disegni (Guicciardini, Opere Inedite, iii. 304).
- ↑ Fu più assoluto Signore di Roma che mai fussi stato Papa alcuno {Ibid.). Donde viene che la Chiesa nel temporale sia venuta a tanta grandezza, conciossiachè da Alessandro indietro i potentati Italiani, e non solamente quelli che si chiamono potentati, ma ogni Barone e Signore, benchè minimo, quanto al temporale, la stimaba poco; e ora un Rè di Francia ne trema (Machiavelli, "Principe," Opere, i. 55).
- ↑ Constabili to Duke of Ferrara, Aug. 3, 1503.
- ↑ Zurita, 242.
- ↑ Nobody execrated the Borgias more than the Venetian chronicler Priuli. After the destruction of the Condottieri at Sinigaglia, he writes: "Alcuni lo volevano far Re dell' Italia, e coronarlo, altri lo volevano far Imperator, perche 'l prosperava talmente, che non era alcuno li bastasse l' animo d' impedirlo in cosa alcuna" (Jan. 11, 1503).
- ↑ Aveva il Duca gittati assai buoni fondamenti alla potenza sua, avendo tutta la Romagna con il ducato di Urbino, e guadagnatosi tutti quei popoli, per avere incominciato a gustare il ben essere loro (Machiavelli, "Principe," Opere, i. 35).
