King Charles VIII was now dead, having struck his head violently against a beam at his chateau at Amboise; but his successor, Louis XII, reasserted the family’s right to the throne of Naples. He also claimed the Duchy of Milan on the grounds that his grandfather had married Valentina Visconti. Both these claims were, however, strongly contested by King Ferdinand of Spain; and although in 1500 Ferdinand made an agreement with Louis to share Naples with him, he and the French, quarrelling over their prospectivespoils, were soon at waragain.
In December 1503, the French were defeated by the Spaniards under the spirited command of Gonsalvo de Córdoba. Attempting to escape across the Garigliano to Gaeta, Piero de’ Medici, who had been serving in the French army, was drowned in the swollen waters of the river when his boat capsized. His body was later recovered and buried in the abbey of Monte Cassino.1 He left two children, a daughter, Clarice, and a son, Lorenzo, who was eleven. Their uncle, Giovanni, who became head of the family on Piero’s death, was already recognized as a most remarkable man.
Born in the Medici Palace on 11 December 1475, Giovanni was now twenty-eight. From his earliest years his parents had entertained great hopes for him. The night before his birth his mother had had a strange and alarmingly vivid dream. She had seen herself in the Cathedral, writhing in agony and about to be delivered; but the baby when it came was not a human child. It was an immense lion.
As though encouraged by this vision to believe that the House of Medici would derive great profit from a son being made a prince of the Church, Lorenzo determined to launch Giovanni on an ecclesiastical career. As soon as the boy displayed sufficient promise to merit early preferment, orders were given to the manager of the Lyons branch of the bank to keep a sharp look out for vacancies, French benefices being easier to obtain than Italian. Early preferment Giovanni certainly achieved. Having received the tonsure at the age of eight he was presented with the abbey of Fontdouce by the King of France who would also have made him Archbishop of Aix in Provence had it not been discovered just in time that the present Archbishop was still alive. To compensate him for this disappointment, Giovanni was given the priory of Saint-Gemme near Chartres, made a canon of every cathedral in Tuscany, and presented with the abbeys of Passignano and Monte Cassino as well as with over twenty other honourable and profitable offices. After the death of Sixtus IV and the election of Giovanni Battista Cibò as Innocent VIII, the way lay open to even higher preferment. Fearing that the new Pope might the before his hopes were fully realized, Lorenzo did all he could to persuade him to create Giovanni a cardinal at the earliest possible date. And after the marriage of his daughter, Maddalena, to the Pope’s son, Franceschetto Cibò, he instructed the Florentine ambassador in Rome to miss no opportunity of pressing Giovanni’s claim. He enlisted the help of two cardinals, Roderigo Borgia and Ascanio Sforza, both of whom had great influence at the Curia; and he wrote letter after personal letter reminding the Pope of his ‘chief desire’. In March 1489 Innocent gave way, making the appointment conditional, however, upon Giovanni’s leaving Florence to study canon law at Pisa and upon his elevation remaining secret for three years. Lorenzo had no objection to the first condition, but, constantly apprehensive that Innocent might the within the stipulated period and that a new Pope would declare his predecessor’s unusual appointment invalid, he tried to have his son’s elevation made public immediately. He was unsuccessful. The old Pope, his health declining slowly month by month, refused to give way. Lorenzo afterwards confessed that scarcely a day passed when he did not expect to receive the dreaded news from Rome. Innocent died on 25 July 1492, but he had lived just long enough for Lorenzo’s ambitions to be fulfilled. Three months before the Pope’s death and three weeks before his father’s, in March 1492 Giovanni had entered the ancient Badia at Fiesole and there the insignia of his rank had been blessed before the High Altar and the papal brief had been read out.
Emerging from the church wearing his mantle, scarlet hat and sapphire ring, the sixteen-year-old boy had not presented a prepossessing appearance. He was tall enough and looked both good-natured and intelligent; but his face was pasty and flabby, his body already extremely fat, and his eyesight evidently failing. His nose was markedly snubbed and he kept his mouth half open. Nor did his appearance belie his nature. He was intelligent, his tutors all agreed; he was of a happy and generous disposition; but they had due cause to complain of his laziness, his precocious and excessive predilection for good food, good drink and pleasure. In Rome he had ample opportunity to indulge these tastes, and he did not stint himself. ‘He will not get out of bed in the morning,’ one of his tutors reported. ‘And he will sit up late at night. I am most concerned, since these irregular habits are likely to injure his health.’
Well aware of these faults, his father had thought it as well to write him a long letter of advice in the hope that he might be persuaded to lead a life more befitting his exalted rank:
The first thing that I want to impress upon you is that you ought to be grateful to God, remembering always that it is not through your merits, or your wisdom that you have gained this dignity, but through His favour. Show your thankfulness by a holy, exemplary, and chaste life… During the past year I have been much comforted to see that, without being told to do so, you have often of your own accord gone to confession and to Holy Communion. I do not think mere is a better way of keeping in God’s grace than to make this a regular practice. I know only too well that in going to live in Rome, which is a sink of iniquity, you will find it hard to follow this advice because there will be many there who will try to corrupt you and incite you to vice, and because your promotion to the cardinalate at your early age arouses much envy… You must, therefore, oppose temptation all the more firmly… It is at the same time necessary that you should not incur a reputation for hypocrisy, and in conversation not to affect either austerity or undue seriousness. You will understand all this better when you are older… You are well aware how important is the example you ought to show to others as a cardinal, and that the world would be a better place if all cardinals were what they ought to be, because if they were so there would always be a good Pope and consequently a more peaceful world…
You are the youngest cardinal, not only in the Sacred College of today but at any time in the past. Therefore, when you are in assembly with other cardinals, you must be the most unassuming, and the most humble… Try to live with regularity… Silk and jewels are seldom suitable to those in your station. Much better to collect antiquities and beautiful books, and to maintain a learned and well regulated household rather than a grand one. Invite others to your house more often than you accept invitations to theirs; but not too often. Eat plain food and take plenty of exercise… Confide in others too little rather than too much. One rule above all others I urge you to observe most rigorously: Rise early in the morning. This not only for your health’s sake, but also so that you can arrange and expedite all the day’s business…