rosemary stems, pulverized marble, and coral cuttlebone. Her blue eyes were bathed daily in rose water, and unguents smoothed her breasts.
Her approach to war was equally stylish. In August 1484, on the death of Sixtus IV, Caterina was dispatched to Rome to hold the ancient castle of Saint Angelo, a papal property, until it could be handed over to Sixtusâs legal successor. Seven months pregnant, she cut a striking figure in a gold satin gown, plumed hat, and belt from which dangled a bag bulging with golden ducats. The only martial touches to the ensemble were a curved sword and the ripe language she employed to curse and cajole the soldiers under her command. Caterina held the castle until October 1484, when she surrendered it by her husbandâs order to the Sacred College of Cardinals.
In 1488 Riario was murdered by members of the rival Orsi family. His palace in Forlì was sacked and his children held as hostages. Caterina, who remained in control of the citadel at Forlì, is said to have shouted to her enemies, âDo you think, you fools, that I donât have the stuff to make more?â and with those defiant words hoisted her skirt to expose her genitals. More polite historians have pointed out that she was pregnant when the threat to her children was made and, in a more decorous gesture, merely indicated her swelling belly. History does record, however, that with the assistance of her uncle Ludovico âil Moroâ Sforza, she was able to defeat her enemies, wrest back possession of her dominions, and exact revenge on the murderers of her husband.
There were public executions and secret stranglings, but the most hideous fate was reserved for the eighty-year-old patriarch Andrea Orsi. Dressed in a vest, shirt, and one sock, and with his hands bound, Orsi watched helpless as his house was razed to the ground; he was then dragged around a square by a horse before being disemboweled and dismembered while still alive. His limbs and organs were tossed to a baying crowd.
Caterina was not a woman to cross. The man who had mutilated and murdered Giacomo Feo, one of her many lovers, was done to death as an entrée before his wife and sons were flung down a deep well and left to die. She contrived to establish more friendly relations with the new pope, Alexander VI, and with the Venetians, whose ambassador, Giovanni deâ Medici, she secretly married in 1496. When he died two years later, the resourceful Caterina deterred the Venetians from seizing her lands by negotiating an alliance with the Florentines.
However, she eventually managed to fall out with Alexander VI by refusing to allow his daughter Lucrezia Borgia to marry her son Ottaviano. The Pope also had his eye on her fiercely guarded lands, which he had earmarked for his son Cesare. On March 9, 1499, he issued a bull declaring that the house of Riario had forfeited the lordship of Imola and Forlì, which he conferred on his son.
Cesare moved against Sforza with an army reinforced by fourteen thousand French troops. The castle at Imola held out until December 1499. Caterina clung on grimly at Forlì, sending Alexander VI letters impregnated with poison in the forlorn hope that dispatching the pontiff would save her. But she would have needed a very long spoon to poison a Borgia, and her plan came to nothing.
In a desperate throw, she ordered the magazines in her stronghold to be blown up, but the order was disobeyed and the citadel taken in January 1500 after Cesare Borgia had demanded
âla bellicosa signoraâ
be brought to him dead or alive. On receiving her alive, he raped her and subjected her to the same humiliations that had befallen the women of Forlì, later boasting to his officers that Caterina had defended her fortress with greater determination than her virtue.
Caterina was imprisoned for a year in the castle of St. Angelo. Thereafter she fled to Florence to escape persecution by the Borgias. When their baleful
Her approach to war was equally stylish. In August 1484, on the death of Sixtus IV, Caterina was dispatched to Rome to hold the ancient castle of Saint Angelo, a papal property, until it could be handed over to Sixtusâs legal successor. Seven months pregnant, she cut a striking figure in a gold satin gown, plumed hat, and belt from which dangled a bag bulging with golden ducats. The only martial touches to the ensemble were a curved sword and the ripe language she employed to curse and cajole the soldiers under her command. Caterina held the castle until October 1484, when she surrendered it by her husbandâs order to the Sacred College of Cardinals.
In 1488 Riario was murdered by members of the rival Orsi family. His palace in Forlì was sacked and his children held as hostages. Caterina, who remained in control of the citadel at Forlì, is said to have shouted to her enemies, âDo you think, you fools, that I donât have the stuff to make more?â and with those defiant words hoisted her skirt to expose her genitals. More polite historians have pointed out that she was pregnant when the threat to her children was made and, in a more decorous gesture, merely indicated her swelling belly. History does record, however, that with the assistance of her uncle Ludovico âil Moroâ Sforza, she was able to defeat her enemies, wrest back possession of her dominions, and exact revenge on the murderers of her husband.
There were public executions and secret stranglings, but the most hideous fate was reserved for the eighty-year-old patriarch Andrea Orsi. Dressed in a vest, shirt, and one sock, and with his hands bound, Orsi watched helpless as his house was razed to the ground; he was then dragged around a square by a horse before being disemboweled and dismembered while still alive. His limbs and organs were tossed to a baying crowd.
Caterina was not a woman to cross. The man who had mutilated and murdered Giacomo Feo, one of her many lovers, was done to death as an entrée before his wife and sons were flung down a deep well and left to die. She contrived to establish more friendly relations with the new pope, Alexander VI, and with the Venetians, whose ambassador, Giovanni deâ Medici, she secretly married in 1496. When he died two years later, the resourceful Caterina deterred the Venetians from seizing her lands by negotiating an alliance with the Florentines.
However, she eventually managed to fall out with Alexander VI by refusing to allow his daughter Lucrezia Borgia to marry her son Ottaviano. The Pope also had his eye on her fiercely guarded lands, which he had earmarked for his son Cesare. On March 9, 1499, he issued a bull declaring that the house of Riario had forfeited the lordship of Imola and Forlì, which he conferred on his son.
Cesare moved against Sforza with an army reinforced by fourteen thousand French troops. The castle at Imola held out until December 1499. Caterina clung on grimly at Forlì, sending Alexander VI letters impregnated with poison in the forlorn hope that dispatching the pontiff would save her. But she would have needed a very long spoon to poison a Borgia, and her plan came to nothing.
In a desperate throw, she ordered the magazines in her stronghold to be blown up, but the order was disobeyed and the citadel taken in January 1500 after Cesare Borgia had demanded
âla bellicosa signoraâ
be brought to him dead or alive. On receiving her alive, he raped her and subjected her to the same humiliations that had befallen the women of Forlì, later boasting to his officers that Caterina had defended her fortress with greater determination than her virtue.
Caterina was imprisoned for a year in the castle of St. Angelo. Thereafter she fled to Florence to escape persecution by the Borgias. When their baleful
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