Already Trevignano had fallen, and the attack of the pontifical army
was concentrated upon Bracciano. Hard pressed, and with all supplies
cut off, Bartolomeo d’Alviano was driven to the very verge of surrender,
when over the hills came Carlo Orsini, with the men of Vitellozzo
Vitelli, to take the papal forces by surprise and put them to utter
rout. Guidobaldo was made prisoner, whilst the Duke of Gandia, Fabrizio
Colonna, and the papal legate narrowly escaped, and took shelter in
Ronciglione, the Pope’s son being slightly wounded in the face.
It was a severe and sudden conclusion to a war that had begun under
such excellent auspices for the Pontificals. Yet, notwithstanding that
defeat, which had left guns and baggage in the hands of the enemy, the
Pope was the gainer by the campaign, having won eleven strongholds from
the Orsini in exchange for one battle lost.
The barons now prepared to push home their advantage and complete
the victory; but the Pope checkmated them by an appeal to Gonzalo de
Cordoba, who promptly responded and came with Prospero Colonna to the
aid of the Church. He laid siege to Ostia, which was being held for the
Cardinal della Rovere, and compelled it to a speedy surrender, thereby
bringing the Orsini resistance practically to an end. For the present
the might of the barons was broken, and they were forced to pay
Alexander the sum of 50,000 ducats to redeem their captured fortresses.
Gonzalo de Cordoba made a triumphal entry into Rome, bringing with him
Monaldo da Guerra, the unfortunate defender of Ostia, in chains. He was
received with great honour by the Duke of Gandia, accompanied by his
brother-in-law, Giovanni Sforza, and they escorted him to the Vatican,
where the Pope awaited him.
This was but one of the many occasions just then on which Giovanni
Sforza was conspicuous in public in close association with his
father-in-law, the Pope. Burchard mentions his presence at the blessing
of the candles on the Feast of the Purification, and shows him to us as
a candle-bearer standing on the Pope’s right hand. Again we see him
on Palm Sunday in attendance upon Alexander, he and Gandia standing
together on the steps of the pontifical throne in the Sixtine Chapel
during the Blessing of the Palms. There and elsewhere Lucrezia’s husband
is prominently in the public eye during those months of February and
March of 1497, and we generally see him sharing, with the Duke of
Gandia, the honour of close attendance upon the Pontiff, all of which
but serves to render the more marked his sudden disappearance from that
scene.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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