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over, Alexander favored Cesare’s older brother Giovanni, appointing
Giovanni to head the military forces of the papacy. (During the Renais-
sance and beyond, and for some three hundred years before the era, the
pope presided over territory known as the Papal States, which comprised
four Italian provinces. To maintain the pope’s sovereignty the Papal States
were defended by an army.) In 1496 Giovanni did not disappoint Alex-
ander when he put down a rebellion of nobles against his father.
But a year later Giovanni was dead—the victim of a slaying. Stabbed
nine times, his body was found floating in Rome’s Tiber River. e crime
was never solved, but a jealous Cesare has always been regarded as a prime
suspect. Another motive is said to be Cesare’s belief that Giovanni was carry-
ing on an incestuous relationship with the brothers’ beautiful sister, Lucrezia.
With Giovanni out of the way, Cesare elected to pursue his own mili-
tary career. He resigned as cardinal and married Charlotte d’Albert. She
was the sister of John III, the king of Navarre, a region in Spain. Now head
of the pope’s army, Cesare swept through Italy, conquering the armies of
nobles whom Alexander regarded as enemies. Many of these principali-
ties and minor kingdoms fell quickly, and when they did Cesare seized
the titles and wealth that had been held by the defeated nobles. By the
early 1500s he assumed the titles of prince of the Italian cities of Andria
and Venafro; duke of the French region of Valentinois; duke of the Ital-
ian region of Romagna; count of the French region of Diois; and lord of
the Italian towns of Piombino, Camerino, and Urbino. All had been led
by nobles hostile to Alexander. When these territories were conquered,
their armies joined the forces under the control of Cesare, making him
one of the most powerful generals in the Renaissance world. In 1502 the
diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli said of Cesare,
is lord is splendid and magnificent, and is so bold that there is
no enterprise so great that it does not seem to him small. To gain
glory and dominions he robs himself of repose, and knows neither
danger nor fatigue. He comes to a place before his intentions are
understood. He makes himself well liked among his soldiers, and
has chosen the best men in Italy. ese things make him victorious
and formidable, with the aid of perpetual good fortune.
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