Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 27, 2025
He was travelling from Rome down to Pesaro to complete the sale of the last portion of the estates, the proceeds of which had been anticipated, when he was very opportunely drowned in attempting to cross the Tiber swollen by flood. The little Violante, thus left an almost destitute orphan, was nevertheless a personage of some importance.
Cesare Borgia may have been something of a wolf; but you are not to suppose that the Romagna was a fold of lambs. Giovanni Sforza Cesare's sometime brother-in-law, and Lord of Pesaro flies in hot haste to Venice for protection.
He had been informed by his representative in Rome and by the ambassador of Spain, who was friendly to him, of the preparations his enemy was making, a fact proved by his letter to Francesco Gonzaga, the brother of his first wife, Maddalena. September 1, 1500, he informed the Marquis of Cæsar's intention to attack Pesaro, and asked him to endeavor to interest the Emperor Maximilian in his behalf.
The Duke loaded him with thanks, and in his excessive gratitude pressed upon him at parting a purse of fifty ducats, which Giovanni flung into the Tiber some ten minutes later as he was crossing the Bridge of Sant' Angelo on his homeward way. The Lord of Pesaro proceeded without haste.
Fossombrone and Pergola were the next to rebel and to put the Borgia garrisons to the sword; but, in their reckless audacity, they chose their moment ill, for Michele da Corella was at hand with his lances, and, although his orders had been to repair straight to Pesaro, he ventured to depart from them to the extent of turning aside to punish the insurgence of those towns by launching his men-at-arms upon them and subjecting them to an appalling and pitiless sack.
And with my outward trappings I cast off, too, the name of Boccadoro, and I insisted upon being known again as Lazzaro Biancomonte. But in so far as the Court of Pesaro was concerned, this new life upon which I was embarked was of little moment, for on the Tuesday that followed that first Sunday in October of such momentous memory, the Lord Giovanni's Court passed out of being.
His first enterprise was against Pesaro: this was the polite attention of a brother-in-law, and Gian Sforza very well knew what would be its consequences; for instead of attempting to defend his possessions by taking up arms, or to venture an negotiations, unwilling moreover to expose the fair lands he had ruled so long to the vengeance of an irritated foe, he begged his subjects, to preserve their former affection towards himself, in the hope of better days to come; and he fled into Dalmatia.
"Put on your armour, and shut down the visor so that all shall think it is the Lord Giovanni, Tyrant of Pesaro, who rides. If I do this thing, and put to rout the rabble and the fifty men that Cesare Borgia has sent, what shall be my reward?" He watched me with twitching lips, his glare fixed upon me and a faint colour kindling in his face. He saw how easy the thing might be.
We were three days in sight of Sicily, endeavouring to beat round Cape Pesaro; and, Friday afternoon, the wind set in so strong to the westward, that I was obliged to endeavour to get into Syracuse, but I found the wind directly out of the harbour, and stood again to the southward.
Peter as representative here of the Roman pontiff introduces him to the Madonna, while St. George, as patron of Venice, attends him. The picture is a monument of the victory gained by Pesaro, and the gratitude and pride of his family.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking