Free Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy by Sarah Bradford

relating to the process he had instituted against Masino del Forno who had fallen into his hands. The Pope had been delighted to hear of del Forno’s capture by the Venetians, who handed him over in Bologna. Reacting very much as he had to the arrest of Cesare’s Michelotto, Julius, Sanudo reported, ‘wanted him because he is the confidant and minister of the betrayals and assassinations of the Cardinal [of] Ferrara’. 13 As the Archdeacon of Gabbioneta wrote to Gonzaga on 26 September 1510, the Pope wished to communicate to him things of capital importance but had expressly forbidden him under pain of excommunication to commit them to paper: ‘then he said to me: I want to tell the Lord Marchese what those brothers-in-law of his wanted to do to him . . .’ 14
    As a counterweight to Isabella, the Pope had cunningly instituted Francesco’s scurrilous friend and procurer, Isabella’s hated enemy, Lodovico ‘Vigo’ di Camposampiero, as his liaison officer with Gonzaga. He had presided over the attempted building of a bridge of boats across the Po at the frontier fortress of Sermide in Mantuan territory, and been frustrated by Alfonso’s destruction of the bridge and confiscation of the boats which he took to Ferrara, to Francesco’s rage. On 10 September, Lucrezia wrote, from her newly-founded convent of San Bernardino, an extraordinary, even piteous appeal to Isabella to intervene in yet another quarrel between Gonzaga and Alfonso, addressing her as ‘My Most Illustrious Madam and as my Mother’:
     
    Your Excellency understands well enough in what great perils and difficulties is the State of your lord brothers, and particularly that which has come between the Lord Marchese and the Duke our consort, concerning those ships which were taken in Mantuan territory: and although it was not done to injure His Lordship, we have heard that His Excellency is very aggrieved by it. For this, with every instance and confidence I pray Your Excellency to be a good intermediary between Your Illustrious consort and mine, and that you hold as recommended to you the State of your lord brothers and together with them myself and my children . . .
     
    She signed herself ‘Your Most Beloved Daughter, Duchess of Ferrara’. Normally, she addressed Isabella as ‘Illustrious lady my honoured sister-in law and sister’ and signed herself ‘Sister and sister-in-law, Lucretia, Duchess of Ferrara’. 15 That same month writing to thank Isabella for her present of twenty cedri and eighty pomeranzi (oranges) she found it necessary to add a postscript asking Isabella to intercede with Francesco to restrain some people who were intent on injuring the Duke’s interests, and hoping that he would ‘proceed wisely’.
    Over the autumn and winter of 1510 the danger to Ferrara increased as the Pope himself came north to Bologna with the intention of gingering up his reluctant general, Gonzaga, who complained, as usual, of ill health as an excuse for inaction. In November he reported that he was being treated with mercury for his syphilis, an excuse with which the Pope, another sufferer, could sympathize. Caught between the support of the French (with whom he was in frequent contact) for Alfonso and the Pope’s furious intent to take Ferrara, Gonzaga was indeed in an unenviable position.At Ferrara Alfonso, now backed by the French, was feverishly strengthening its fortifications – both men and women were reported to be working on a bastion in the lower part of the city which necessitated the demolition of several houses. Julius was ‘beside himself because he believed he was soon going to have Ferrara,’ Sanudo wrote. ‘He threatens to sack Ferrara and lay it waste since it won’t surrender and he would sooner see Ferrara ruined than it should fall into the hands of the French.’ 16 Julius sent an envoy to Alfonso to demand the keys of the city. Alfonso, who was supervising the new fortifications in the Borgo di Sotto, took the envoy to