The Pope's Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice Della Rovere (19 page)

What exactly Felice offered to make the Orsini
condottieri
change their minds is still secret. Undoubtedly Giulio Orsini and Renzo da Ceri were bribed in some way to make it worth their while to return this substantial sum of money to the Venetians. Such bribes must have been sanctioned by both Julius and Gian Giordano. Politically, it was wise that neither party appeared to have been involved in such a transaction – Julius, as it would seem as if he was meddling in Orsini family business, and Gian Giordano, as he would appear not to be putting his own family’s interests first. Both men were clearly content to have Felice, their daughter and wife respectively, act as the negotiator. It absolved them from any blame, which was particularly critical in the case of Gian Giordano and allowed him to maintain a neutrality with Venice, his relatives and the Pope. The Venetians clearly held Felice responsible for the Orsini cancelling their contract; as Sanuto recorded, she was the ‘cause’ of the break.

How did Felice profit from her actions? She had no personal interest in whether the Orsini served Venice or not. But the incident allowed her the opportunity to act in the role that she knew would have been hers had she been born a boy, that of cardinal
nipote
. In mediating between the Pope and the Orsini she was performing as her father had once done for his uncle Sixtus, effectively serving as a papal political mediator. The act gave her something she wanted very badly, widespread public recognition. Her reputation spread throughout Italy’s courts as ambassadors and emissaries sent out accounts of what had occurred. On
2
April, Lodovico da Fabriano, stressing Felice’s involvement in the process, sent word to the Mantuan court: ‘Those Orsini have reached an agreement with Our Lord, and came yesterday to kiss the feet of His Holiness, through the mediation of Madonna Felice...they have undertaken not to fight without a papal mandate . .. ’
⁷

The incident also allowed Felice to strengthen the bond with her father. In her negotiations with the Orsini and Venice, Felice did not act primarily as an Orsini wife. In this instance she was all della Rovere daughter. Gian Giordano’s relatives recognized where her allegiance lay and it made them uneasy. Although they had acquiesced to the Pope’s wishes, this event served to define further the distance between Felice and her husband’s relatives. Felice’s loyalties were embedded in the Vatican Palace, not at Monte Giordano.

chapter 8

Felice and the Queen of France

By
1510
, an accord had been reached between Julius and the Venetians, who were no longer his prime enemy. Instead, he turned his attention to France, whose continued presence in northern Italy he wanted brought to an end. The League of Cambrai dissolved and the Holy League was formed in its place. Its core members were the same as those in the Cambrai League minus France and with the addition of Henry VIII of England, the leaders of the Swiss cantons and, this time, Venice. A letter arrived in Venice from the papal court, with the good news that ‘the Pope will lift his censure against us, and he has sent Madonna Felice, the wife of Signor Gian Giordano, to tell Giulio Orsini to prepare himself, as the Pope wishes to be with the Venetians against France’.
¹

But if Gian Giordano’s relatives were willing to go into battle against France, the Bracciano Lord himself was not. This new political situation caused Gian Giordano an even greater degree of discomfort than had the Venetian affair. Gian Giordano was not only a long-standing servant of France; he had, in the form of his palace at Blois, a significant financial asset tied up in the country. What was important for Gian Giordano was not necessarily that he succeed in bringing hostilities to an end, but that he at least appeared to be working with that aim in mind. If Julius had called on Felice to assist him with the Venetian arbitration, this time it was Gian Giordano who called on her to arbitrate between France and the Pope.

Gian Giordano went on an extended visit to France to put forward negotiations for peace. He returned in July
1511
and went to the Vatican to discuss such a proposal with the Pope. ‘Madonna Felice’, Sanuto records, ‘also came from Bracciano in order to strengthen the agreement.’
2
In other words she supplied moral support for her husband in his dealings with his father-in-law. To achieve peace with France was an insurmountable task for Gian Giordano, who was a
condottiere
acclaimed more for his loyalty than for his political finesse. Moreover, Julius was only one participant in the Holy League. He had, if not loyalties, certain interests in maintaining good relations with his fellow League members, in particular the powerful Holy Roman Emperor, who was himself not ready for a French accord. None the less, Julius was prepared to utilize his Orsini connections as a conduit for dialogue between himself and France. Such conversation was not, however, to involve either Gian Giordano or Julius directly. Instead, the participants were to be Felice and the Queen of France, Anne of Brittany. Like Isabella d’Este, Anne of Brittany was a woman Felice admired and could consider a role model. Six years Felice’s senior, Anne had inherited the Duchy of Brittany at the age of eleven.

A natural ruler, she was married to Charles VIII of France in
1491
, and had governed the country, successfully, during his absence on military campaigns in the
1490
s. Although Brittany was now technically under French control, Anne contrived to rule the duchy autonomously. In
1499
, she married Charles’s successor, Louis XII, and continued to serve as French Regent when necessary. While Louis XII was largely ridiculed for his modest intelligence by such connoisseurs of princes as Machiavelli, Anne commanded the respect of her peers. Castiglione had described her as ‘a very great lady, no less in virtue than in state and justice, liberality and holiness...to compare her to Kings Charles and Louis, you shall not find her inferior’.
³

Anne herself was not in favour of French military action and was clearly of the opinion that it was her husband’s desire for self-aggrandizement that led him to refuse to let French troops leave northern Italy. As powerful as she was, the decision to vacate Italy was not hers to make, and she could operate only from the sidelines. When she received Gian Giordano at the court at Blois, it became clear that she could open a politically decorous dialogue with his intelligent wife. Again, the idea that Felice and Anne could, or would, alter the course of French and papal diplomatic proceedings is not necessarily realistic. But it would do much for public relations on both sides. If the Queen of France and the Pope’s daughter could deal cordially with each other, it would indicate there was the possibility of an accord between the two sides. ‘Madonna Felice has been begged by the Queen of France that she begin a dialogue on the subject of peace with Louis XII,’ wrote a Mantuan emissary to Isabella d’Este, in April
1511
. ‘The Queen of France is looking for every way to remove the King from this mission and so she is working with Madonna Felice to beseech His Holiness her father that he might wish to be disposed towards such an accord.’
⁴
Julius appeared willing to listen to his daughter. In late July
1511
, one of Isabella’s most trusted servants, Stazio Gaddi, wrote to her from Rome, ‘A good end is hoped for the peace, as it is being managed by two sage women: The Queen of France and Madonna Felice.’
5

Anne and Felice persevered over the next two years. On
29
January
1513
, almost two years after the original
entente
had begun, Stazio reported that the ‘Queen of France continues to seek for peace with the Pope, and has sent letter after letter in her own hand. Signora Felice, along with the Cardinal of Nantes, has been managing the affair.’
⁶
None the less, it would be left to Julius’s successor, Leo X, from the pro-French Medici family, to bring the Vatican’s war with France to an end.

chapter 9

Madonna Felice is Everything

For Felice, entering into negotiations with Anne of Brittany was yet another jewel in her newly acquired crown as Rome’s most powerful woman. For her, the most important issue was not whether peace with France was achieved in actuality. Instead, in this world where appearance was everything, the most pressing matter for her was that she be seen as a political player of unquestionable weight. Once again, it had been broadcast widely that her father was allowing her a diplomatic voice and she was now an internationally recognized figure. The Queen of France herself had treated Felice as an equal and had sought out the opinions and influence of the Pope’s daughter. What was particularly pleasing for Felice was that much of the respect she received was precisely because she was the Pope’s daughter. Her status as Orsini wife had helped legitimize her, but her power came through the recognition that she had her father’s ear.

Others at the Vatican saw the power and influence Felice della Rovere wielded at court, among them Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena. Bibbiena had been tutor to Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici, the future Leo X. During Julius’s reign, Bibbiena served as Medici eyes, ears and fixer at the Vatican. He sent a great deal of commentary back to Florence regarding the
1511
Council of Pisa. Five renegade cardinals opposed to Julius’s warmongering made up the Council, which had the aim of deposing him. Two of the cardinals were French, two Spanish, and the other was Francesco Borgia, whose relative, Alexander VI, Julius himself had attempted to depose. The French and Spanish cardinals felt tricked by Julius, who had not fulfilled his promise to reward them once they had cast their votes for him at conclave to become pope. However, the Pisa Council did not succeed in its attempt to remove him, and consequently the cardinals were excommunicated by Julius. However, in the midst of their meetings, the Council’s leader, the Spanish Bernardino Carvajal, wanted to involve Felice in the negotiations. ‘I have been told’, Cardinal Bibbiena wrote to Giovanni de’ Medici, ‘that Bernardino Carvajal has written a thousand pages to Madonna Felice, offering his brother as a hostage to His Holiness and promises that the council will not go against His Holiness, and other similar pleasantries...’
1

Julius’s desire for Felice to take a role in the negotiations with the southern clergy may be surmised by the fact that he let her dispose of the Abbey of Valdina in Sicily. The location of this office, worth
2
,
500
scudi
a year, made it desirable to Neapolitan and Spanish clerics. ‘It appears’, commented Bibbiena, ‘that His Holiness wishes the Badia to be dispensed according to the wishes of Madonna Felice.’
²
What this signified is that any cleric hopeful of obtaining the abbey for himself or an ally would need to work with Felice. They would then enter into private negotiations, not directly involving Julius, so that he could avoid any accusations of bribery. The aspiring abbot would doubtless assure Felice of his loyalty to her father, and refuse to join in any plots against him. The extent of Felice’s entrenchment at court reached the point where Julius relaxed and began to show her open affection. ‘At court,’ a Mantuan emissary observed, ‘Madonna Felice is everything.’
³
She became a frequent presence at the Vatican Palace. ‘Madonna Felice is here,’ wrote Bibbiena on one occasion, ‘a little bit poorly.’
⁴
Eleonora Gonzaga, the new Duchess of Urbino, who was married to Felice’s cousin Francesco Maria della Rovere, wrote to her mother Isabella d’Este on
10
April
1511
about a dinner the Pope had held. ‘Yesterday evening,’ she wrote, ‘the Illustrious Lady Duchess [her great-aunt, Elizabetta Gonzaga], and the Duke and I went to dine with His Holiness, Madonna Felice was there again.Julius also’
5
invited Eleonora and Felice to visit him to examine the fabulous jewels he had acquired for vertiginous sums of money. Later that year, in September,

when Julius was gravely ill, the Venetian ambassador sent the following report home: ‘The Pope is very poorly, and will allow no one to enter his chambers except his sister-in-law [Eleonora], Madonna Felice, his daughter, who is in Rome, Bartolomeo della Rovere, and the Duke of Urbino.’
6
Julius even partitioned out his estate, leaving Felice a further
12
,
000
ducats. He did make a recovery, however, and returned to his building and military campaigns, which left him very short of money. To help her father out, Felice actually returned the money he had passed over to her. Even with such an act of generosity on Felice’s part, there was no guarantee that Julius, whom age had made notoriously fickle and mercurial in mood, would always treat her well and with affection. While he allowed her to perform politically on his command, he grew angry if she tried to take a lead in any matters of state. She was to feel the extent of his wrath when she became involved with the affairs of Isabella d’Este’s family.

chapter 10

Code Name Sappho

No one Italian noble troubled Julius II more persistently than did Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, who was consistently hostile towards the Pope throughout his reign. Fearful that Julius’s invasion of Bologna might have repercussions for his own nearby city of Ferrara, Alfonso acted as an ally of the Bentivoglio and an ally of the French, and refused to obey Julius’s request to desist from hostile activity against Venice. Perhaps most grievously of all, from a financial perspective, he also mined for salt in the town of Comacchio, which directly affected papal income from this most precious commodity in the same region. In August
1510
Pope Julius II chose to punish Alfonso by excommunicating him.
¹