The Pope's Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice Della Rovere (45 page)

Felice also had to make some personal sacrifices in order to bolster her sons’ position and the family economy. In
1535
, she found herself obliged to sell her castle of Palo to raise money to pay back the loans she had taken out to retrieve Vicovaro and Bracciano. She wrote to her sons’ cousin, Gentile Virginio Orsini, whose estate at Cerveteri bordered the terrain of Palo, ‘I have sold Palo to Maestro Phylippo dal Bene in order to pay the
4000
scudi
that I owe to the Prince of Stigliano, and the aforementioned Maestro Phylippo desires to have a letter from you that informs him that it pleases you that he takes the holding of Palo and that you will be a good neighbour. So I ask that you are content to write a letter in the appropriate form to his satisfaction, and it would give me singular pleasure, and so I ask that you send this letter to me.’
3
Over previous decades, Felice had fought hard to maintain Palo, her prized possession, the dazzling purchase of her youth. The waterfront castle had been her trophy. Its location reminded her of her adventures as a child sailing from Rome to Savona, and the property had given her great power in Renaissance Rome. On more than one occasion the castle had aroused Napoleone’s jealously and ire and he had tried, unsuccessfully, to take it from her. Now, in death, he had succeeded in doing what he could not in life: he had removed the castle from Felice’s ownership.

Yet if she felt the sting of parting with the estate that had, in its time, given her both revenue and prestige, securing her the affection of Leo X, her letters do not reveal it. As the most loving mother in the world, she made what sacrifices she had to safeguard Girolamo’s and Francesco’s inheritance. Even if Girolamo was not as active a ruler as he should have been, he was still the Orsini Lord. While Felice was still performing administrative tasks, she was now obliged to write to Girolamo to confirm arrangements, ask for his authorization, or remind him to release cash from the Orsini coffers, which only he could sanction. Although she was not loath to play her matriarchal card, as the ‘most loving mother’, at moments when her son’s inattention strained her patience, Felice’s diligent observation of estate protocol suggests that she thought it would be good training for her twenty-one-year-old son to assume his responsibilities, to make sure that he understood that he was now Orsini Lord. The tone in which she addresses him is often formal. Before her son had come of age, whenever she had needed wine sent out from Bracciano, Felice would write directly to the keeper of the castle’s cellars at Bracciano. Now she would send Girolamo such requests as: ‘I ask that you are willing to let Antonio da Menico take a bottle of wine from Bracciano that he can take to Francesco my tailor and old servant and that it pleases you not to go against me.
^’
4
Felice had been sending wine to Francesco Sarto for well over ten years, and did not want to break tradition with a faithful servant.

In another letter to Girolamo she explained, ‘Because Palo [prior to its sale] lacks wine, please could you send a bottle to the castellan from the Bracciano vineyard.’
⁵
This letter is dated
29
October
1534
, only a few days after Bracciano had been officially restored to the family, and is indicative of Felice’s decision to make her son aware of what was now his, down to every last bottle of wine. The same letter also informs her son that ‘it would also give me great pleasure if you could send forty pounds of gunpowder, a bit of lead, and lend two arquebusiers’. Clearly the events of recent years had made Felice sensitive to security issues at the seaside castle.

The same need for Girolamo’s sanction applied to other foodstuffs, and Felice was anxious the complicated system of exchange and favours she had carefully instituted over the years went undisturbed: ‘Cardinal Cibo is insistent about receiving the barley that we owe him, so I need you now to authorize sending him the little that we have stored at Trevignano.’
⁶
On another occasion, she needed him to ‘send me your mules on Monday evening, as I wish to send my ladies to Galera, and from Galera they will go to Bracciano’.
⁷

The process of Felice’s stepping down as official head of the Orsini family reveals just how seriously she had taken the duty of pastoral care. She was now very anxious that Girolamo should also attend assiduously to those on the Orsini estate who could not help themselves: ‘Illustrious and beloved son. Among the many cases I put to you before leaving Bracciano, I did not make any recommendation for poor little Fra Francesco. But I do beg of you for the love of God that it will please you to immediately give an order for him to receive a quarter of grain and a pound of meat, and if you do this it will be a good work and give me singular pleasure.’
⁸
A similar request: ‘The son of the late Troiano di Dovaro is now deprived of a father and mother, and if you do not give him a bit of charity he is going to die of hunger, so I beg you to order that he shall be given half a
rubbio
of grain and to order that every year he shall be given a
rubbio
and a half of grain.’ In case Girolamo felt he might like independent corroboration of the orphaned boy’s pitiful state, Felice added, ‘I learned about him from Giovanni Valdecchio, who has been virtuous and faithful servant.’
9
Girolamo now had to arbitrate in judicial matters just as Felice had once done, and she encouraged him to side with a protégé of her own during a dispute: ‘I wanted to write to you to let you know that Menico is an affectionate and loving vassal and servant, and for love of me I would like you to support this young man.’
¹⁰

Another letter served to remind Girolamo of Felice’s vision of his obligations to his familial past: ‘The bearer of this letter will be Captain Romazzato, who was an affectionate servant of my lord Papa Julio, and at the same time a great friend of your father. He has come to continue his friendship, and to let you know that his two nephews extend their friendship to you, so I ask that you treat him with great affection and honour.’
¹¹
In a similar letter she told her son, ‘Maestro Acantio is coming, the son of Francesco de Fiano, to visit you and do you reverence, so for the love of his father be affectionate towards him.’
¹²

For many years, Felice had received letters of introduction from associates who hoped she could find positions for or otherwise assist their own cohorts. She, who had been
patrona et benefatrix
, now found herself calling on Girolamo to assume that position. One such letter she wrote concerned a friend of hers and of her daughter Julia: ‘You must know that Signor Carlo Mirobaldo has always been an affectionate friend because of the demonstrations he has made towards me and the Princess your sister, so we are very obliged to him. Because of this I would like you to accept the son of Signor Carlo which would give me a great and most singular pleasure, so tell me, and I will send him to you, so do not write to me and disappoint me.’
¹³
On a similiar note, she also wrote in January of
1535
,‘A few months ago, I promised Carlo Brancha, my dear friend, the office of Campagna, and I would now like to offer him a similar position.’
¹⁴

There can be little doubt that Girolamo did not find his new obligations very interesting. He was much more concerned about commencing a military career than attending to the distribution of grain and wine or hearing hard-luck stories. Although his father, Gian Giordano, had served the French crown, this allegiance was not one Girolamo intended to pursue. Francis I had transferred Gian Giordano’s French pension to Napoleone and had supported his right to the Orsini inheritance. Girolamo thus had his own grievances against France, and consequently wanted to ally himself with and work for France’s most powerful enemy, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. Shortly after he had received his inheritance, Girolamo began to make plans to serve as a soldier in the Emperor’s army. On
22
January
1535
, Antonio Romero, an agent of the Emperor, who was planning a campaign against France, wrote to Girolamo at Bracciano. He told him that the Emperor’s ambassadors would be passing through Rome,
en route
for Genoa to meet with the naval captain Andrea Doria, of whom Felice was fond, ‘in order to give the necessary orders for this expedition’. He went on to tell Girolamo, ‘It would be well if you could come secretly to Rome to meet with the ambassador.’
¹⁵

Felice, however, was unenthusiastic about her son’s current career plans. A few years earlier, she had been prepared to send him off to war because it would stop him fighting Napoleone. She had never been particularly interested in military matters and was rather unimpressed by
condottieri
. On sending a priest to Bracciano she told her son to ‘make sure that he is housed in a room separate from your soldiers, in such a place where he can be quiet and study at his leisure’.
¹⁶
She felt Girolamo would be better off attending to his new duties as Lord of Bracciano. It was only eight years earlier that her city had been so viciously sacked by the soldiers of the Holy Roman Emperor, forcing her into exile, and then into a massive and costly restoration programme on her return. Her feelings, now that Girolamo would effectively be one of those soldiers, were mixed, at the least. On
1
February, Antonio Romero wrote to Girolamo to tell him, ‘The negotiation for you to serve has not yet been expedited because it has not been possible to open the hand of the Lady Felice, although the solicitude of myself and the ambassador will not cease in asking her over and over again, and we have yet to reach a final conclusion, so I am still hopeful.’
¹⁷
That Felice still had the power to stand in the way of her son’s ambitions says a great deal about the amount of control and influence that she still wielded. He might now be Lord of Bracciano, but Girolamo still did not want to cross his mother.

Felice’s correspondence with Girolamo on that same day was to tell him, ‘Today Maestro Giovanni di Nepi came to see me, as he has found one of his cows at Bracciano.’ The implication was the cow had been stolen by an Orsini servant. Her brief note, which contained no mention of Girolamo’s soldierly ambitions, was clearly intended to emphasize certain points: that a lack of vigilance on his part would see Bracciano’s servants engaging in criminal activity, which would cause bad relations with Girolamo’s neighbours, and do Girolamo’s seigneurial reputation no good, and that Giovanni di Nepi apparently thought that he would get more effective help from Felice than from the new Lord of Bracciano, which did not bode well for girolamo’s ability to command respect.

Girolamo, did, however, get his way in the end, and succeeded in pursuing his soldierly ambitions. The following year,
1536
, he met Charles V in Rome, and by May he was fighting for the Emperor in Provence against France. Felice might always have intended to relent, but the promise of money from Girolamo’s commission to help defray Orsini debts was undoubtedly a deciding factor. She did, however, worry about her son when he was away on the military campaign. She wrote to Francesco on
10
July
1536
, ‘I am sending you some letters which Signor Girolamo, your brother, sent to me, and God knows that they have given me the greatest consolation.’
¹⁸
Girolamo, it seems, was proving better at keeping in touch than he had in the year before he killed Napoleone, when he had disappeared without trace for a period of time.

When not occupied with trying to train Girolamo to become a responsible lord of the manor, Felice spent time concerning herself with her other son, Francesco. Despite their proximity in age, the two brothers were not especially close; one of very few surviving letters Francesco ever sent his brother was simply to inform him that ‘Madonna Francesca [de Cupis] has sent you a pair of slippers, which I am sure will please you.’
¹⁹
Francesco was particularly in thrall to his mother, so did not voice publicly any resentment that it was his brother who had become Lord of Bracciano. However, Felice went to some lengths to ensure he did not feel left out when it was time to secure a bride for Girolamo.

In July
1535
, Felice wrote to Francesco, ‘Today the Bishop of Sutri came to solicit me about making a match between the daughter of Count Bosio and Signor Girolamo. He would like to know if you would be happy with a good church, bishopric or archbishopric worth around
4000
scudi
up until the time that you would get
il capello
[the cardinal’s hat]. I replied that I knew nothing, but that I would write to you.’
²⁰

Felice preferred to arrange marriages for her children where her family could gain extra benefits, such as the deal she and Leo struck to sell a cardinal’s hat to the uncle of Julia’s husband, the Prince of Bisignano. That she should be seeking extra benefits for Francesco was part of a similar strategy. She had also waited a little while for things to settle down after the restitution before she instituted a search for a wife for Girolamo. But when she did, she went seeking a bride who met her requirements for the protection and promotion of her children. The daughter of Count Bosio was such a bride. Bosio was the Count of Santa Fiora, in the province of Emilia Romagna, not far from Parma. The Count of Santa Fiora was not of major importance himself but his wife Costanza was the daughter of Alessandro Farnese, who in October
1534
had been elected Pope Paul III. This meant that Girolamo and his potential betrothed, Bosio’s and Constanza’s daughter Francesca, were both the grandchildren of popes.