United States or Burundi ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The Borgia arms and those of the house of Aragon, which Lucretia, as Duchess of Biselli, had adopted, are united under a ducal crown. Lonely Nepi, which now has only 2,500 inhabitants, had but few more in the year 1500.
Thus were he and his brother Ludovico determined to retain the friendship of the Borgias at any price. Lucretia received a dowry of forty thousand ducats, and the King of Naples bound himself to make over the cities of Quadrata and Biselli to his nephew for his dukedom.
By virtue of a previous agreement, the King of Spain recognized Lucretia's son as Duke of Biselli, and there is an official document of September, 1505, according to which the representative of the little duke placed his oath of allegiance in the hands of the two cardinals above named.
We have a letter written by this unhappy Princess Isabella a few weeks after the death of the youthful Rodrigo, to Perot Castellar, Governor of Biselli: MONSIGNOR PEROT: We write this merely to ask you to compel those of Corato to pay us what they have to pay, from the revenue of the illustrious Duke of Biselli, our nephew of blessed memory, for shortly a bill will come from the illustrious Duchess of Ferrara, and in case the money is not ready we might be caused great inconvenience.
According to this act his title was Don Rodrigo Borgia of Aragon, Duke of Biselli and Sermoneta, and lord of Quadrata. The Pope has written his nuncio that he agreed to the duke's demands, for the purpose of concluding the marriage, which would be extraordinarily advantageous to himself and the Duke of Romagna.
On the face of it, that edict of Valentinois' seems to argue vexation at what had happened, and the desire to provide against its repetition a provision hardly likely to be made by the man who had organized the assault, unless he sought, by this edict, to throw dust into the eyes of the world; and one cannot associate after the event and the fear of criticism with such a nature as Cesare's or with such a character as is given him by those who are satisfied that it was he who murdered Biselli.
He was a handsome boy of seventeen at the time of his marriage one year younger than Lucrezia and, in honour of the event and in compliance with the Pope's insistence, he was created by his uncle Duke of Biselli and Prince of Salerno. On every hand the marriage was said to be a love-match, and of it had been born, in November of 1499, the boy Roderigo.
A royal welcome was accorded them. His lavish hospitality embraced everybody; not only the travellers but their attendants. The abrek, the drink of the country, was freely circulated among the people, and distributed even to the porters. Biselli, it was soon discovered, owned almost everything in the village, and lorded it over the entire neighbourhood.
The marriage contract was concluded in the presence of the Pope and a brilliant gathering in the Vatican, and one of the official witnesses was Don Alfonso of Biselli, who held the sword over the young couple.
He exercised a deep influence upon the religious turn which her nature took during this the second period of her life. The youthful Duchess of Biselli certainly enjoyed the lively society of the cultured and gallant ecclesiastics about her Cardinals Medici, Riario, Orsini, Cesarini, and Farnese not to mention the Borgias and the Spanish prelates.
Word Of The Day