§54. POPE ALEXANDER VI — BORGIA. 1492-1503. 449
the capture of its bearer, George Busardo.^ 40,000 ducats were found on Busardo's person, apayment sent by Bajazet to Alexander for Djem's safe-keeping. Alexander had indicated to the sultan that it was Charles' aim to carry Djera off to France and then use him as the admiral of a fleet for the capture of Constantinople. In reply, Bajazet suggested that such an issue would result in even greater damage to the pope than to himself. His papal friend, whom he addressed as his Gloriosity — gloriositas^ — might be pleased to lift the said prisoner, Djem, out of the troubles of this present world and transfer his soul into another, where he would enjoy more quiet. ^ For performing such a service, he stood ready to give him the sum of 300,000 ducats, which, as he suggested, the pope might use in purchasing princedoms for his children.
On the last day of 1494, the French army entered the holy city, dragging with it 36 bronze cannon. Such military discipline and equipment the Romans had not seen, and they looked on with awe and admiration. To the king's demand that the castle of S. Angelo be surrendered, Alexander sent a refusal declaring that, if the fortress were attacked, he would take his positiononthewalls,surroundedwiththemostsacredrelicsinRome. Cardinals Julian Rovere, Sforza, Savelli and Colonna, who had ridden into the city with the French troops, urged the king to call a council and depose Alexander for simony. But when it came to the manipulation of men, Alexander was more than a match for his enemies. Charles had no desire to humiliate the pope, except so far as it might be necessary for the accomplishment of his designs upon Naples. A pact was arranged, which included the delivery of Djem to the French and the promise that Csesar Borgia should accompany the French troops to Naples as papal legate. In the meantime the French soldiery had sacked the city, even to Vanozza's house. Henceforth the
1 These letters are given in full by Burchard, II. 202 sqq. Alexander's letters Gregorovius pronounces to be genuine beyond a doubt. The sultan's are matter of dispute. Ranke discredited them, but Gregorovius regards their contents as genuine, though the form may be spurious. Creighton, III. 300 sqq., gives reasons for accepting them.
- Dictum Gem levare facere ex angustiis istius mundi et transferre ejus animan in aliiid seculum ubi meliorem habebit quietem, Burchard, II. 209. 2g
450 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
king occupied quarters in the Vatican, and the disaffected cardinals, with theexception of Julian, were reconciled to the pope.
On his march to Naples, whicli began Jan. 25, 1495, Charles took Djem with him. That individual passed out of the gates of Rome, riding at thesideof Cajsar. These two personages, the Turkish pretender and the pontiff's son, had been on terms of familiarity, and often rode on horseback together. Within a month after leaving Rome, and before reaching Naples, the Oriental died. The capital of Southern Italy was an easy prize for the invaders. Ciesar had been able to make his escape from the French camp. His son's shrewdness and good luck afforded Alexander as much pleasure as did the opportunity of joining the king of Spain and the cities of Northern Italy in an alliance against Charles. In 1496, the alliance was strengthened by the accession of Henry VII. of England. After abandoning himself for several months to the pleasures of the Neapolitan capital, the French king retraced his course and, after the battle of Fornuovo, July 6, 1495, evacuated Italy. Alexander had evaded him by retiring from Rome, and sent after the retreating king a message to return to his proper dominions on pain of excommunication. The summons neither hastened the departure of the French nor prevented them from returning to the peninsula again in a few years.^
The misfortunes and scandals of the papal household were not interrupted by the French invasion, and continued after it. In the summer of 1497, occurred the mysterious murder of Alexander's son, the duke of Gandia, then 24 years old. It was only a sample of the crimes being perpetrated in Rome. The duke had supped with C;esar, his brother, and Cardinal Juan Borgia at the residence of Vanozza. The supper being over, the two brothers rode together as far as the palace of Cardinal Sforza. There they separated, the duke going, as he said, on some private business, and accompanied Ijy a masked man who had been much with him for a month past. The next day, Alexander waited for his son in vain. In the evening, un-
^ The French left behind them a terrible legacy in the disease which they are said to have carrried during the Crusades and again a century- ago, under Napoleon, to Syria, and known as the French disease. See Pastor, III. 7,