The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de' Medici by Elizabeth Lev

Author:Elizabeth Lev [Lev, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2011-10-18T04:00:00+00:00

14. BLINDED BY LOVE

AS CATERINA CONTINUED her affair with Giacomo Feo, the political landscape in Italy was altering dramatically and dangerously. The distractions of her private life would blind her to its implications for her state.

The year 1492 had opened a new era for Italy, as well as for the Western world. In April Lorenzo de' Medici died and was mourned almost universally. Eulogized as "Italy's peacekeeper," Lorenzo the Magnificent was recognized as one of the greatest figures of the Renaissance. Caterina wrote letters of condolence and sincerely grieved for the passing of a man she had admired since she was a child. Yet it seemed that Lorenzo passed little of his "magnificence" on to his heirs. Lorenzo's son, twenty-one-year-old Piero, known as "the Unlucky," was no substitute for his father. Lorenzo had excelled through his bravery, brilliance, and benevolence; Piero embodied mediocrity. He favored recreation over statecraft and preferred hauteur to humility. The golden age of the Medicis was over. Piero's arrogance as well as his lack of interest in affairs of state soon led to widespread discontent among the Florentines. Moreover, the prominent scions of the cadet branch of the family, Giovanni and Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, who had always resented their status as the "lesser Medicis"—less honored, less wealthy, and less powerful—embarked on a subversive campaign to discredit Piero. Florence, once a bastion of stability in Renaissance politics, was developing fissures in its very foundations.

Caterina was focused so intently on her corner of Romagna that she was slow to appreciate the transformative events taking place in Europe. For Spain, 1492 had been a year of triumph. After over a decade of war, the sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella had retaken Granada, the last Moorish stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, which had been in Muslim hands for 250 years. The newfound strength of victorious Spain introduced an important new player in the European balance of power. In the same year Pope Innocent VIII Cybo died, which brought a sigh of relief for Caterina, as Innocent had been hostile to the Riario family even as a cardinal. His successor, the Spanish cardinal Roderigo Borgia, was close to Isabella and Ferdinand and seemed, at first, like a godsend to the Riario family. Cardinal Borgia had stood as godfather to Ottaviano and had received Caterina's ambassadors warmly, promising to be like a "father to Ottaviano" while offering assurance that Caterina could "count on him for anything." There was every reason to hope for great things for Forlì during the pontificate of Alexander VI Borgia. Amid the jubilation for a freed Spain and a new pontiff, one momentous undertaking of 1492 passed relatively unnoticed. Isabella and Ferdinand outfitted a small group of ships to search for a safer trade route to the Indies, entrusting them to one Christopher Columbus from Genoa.

In France, 1492 saw twenty-two-year-old King Charles VIII take command of his throne from his sister, Anne of Beaujeu, who had been serving as regent. Described by the Italians as "hunchbacked and

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