Early on, Elizabeth Lev tells us, January 23, 1491, a contingent of soldiers from Milan arrived in Forli to pay their respects to the new castellan. On a Sunday she tells us, to Caterina's 'intense pride and joy', young Giacomo was knighted and was henceforward to be known as Sir Giacomo. Caterina kept up public appearances but, in time the public knew as did her uncle the Duke in Milan and even Lorenzo de'Medici did. Her letters sung his praises but everyone knew her chosen match was not feasible in the larger scheme of things. [p. 164]
Even if they were to marry, he had nothing to offer her except what he was currently doing. He had no dowry, no family, no property or landholdings. No education, no connections, no prior loyalties. If he were killed, she'd be defenseless again. If she were killed, he would not be able to hold the fortress, let alone care for her children afterward. No familial support structure was available with extended groups of loyal family members to help manage things, if and when things turned desperate. Like she knew they could get.
That summer, Lev relates, the children grew sick. At last she and the kids went to Imola, away from the urban bustle and mosquitoes of Forli, to the 'better air' of the country. In time, Sir Giacomo could bear the separation no longer and left command of the fortress with his uncle and rushed to Caterina's side. By now, everyone knew. In September, they were invited to a neighboring town but were informed a trap lay in wait for them. The would be attackers - all but one - were rounded up and brought to her. They said they were defending the rightful claim to Forli for her son Ottaviano, the rightful Riario heir. She had their primary heirs brought and kept with their fathers and then, had all their money taken, their wives exiled and their homes destroyed. The one that got away escaped to Ferrara. Caterina wrote impassioned letters demanding his capture and return but Ercole d'Este would not respond. Finally a year later, Enea Viani was captured and imprisoned in Imola, but relations between Forli and Ferrara had soured. [p. 167]
In 1492, Caterina was pregnant and caught fever. She recovered, had a son and, Lev says, probably married Giacomo around this time. The boy named Bernardino was named in Caterina's will as being the product of a legitimate marriage, that she is also said to have admitted to on her deathbed. But at the time when she overheard a townsman had talked aloud in public about the legitimacy of her newborn son, Caterina had the man beaten so bad that he died. Others suffered the same punishment.
Springtime 1493 brought an embassy from Florence that would stay in Faenza to keep an eye on comings and goings. Most city-states had these witnesses and spokespeople to some degree, in as many places as possible. The times were particularly tense and loyalties could shift and be made to shift with the right forms of persuasion. Old fires relit under this or that aegis, this or that cause. The ambassador, Puccio Pucci left an account - now in the Florentine State Archive - of what he found, that is nearly photographic in Lev's expert retelling.
"Entering the throne room, he found Giacomo perched on a windowsill and wearing a fitted crimson silk jacket. His light brown hair fell in soft curls around his face and hung like tendrils over the collar. The sunlight illuminating him from behind bathed him in golden light and sparkled on the brocade mantle thrown carelessly over his shoulders. Caterina sat by him on a throne decorated with broad wings. Dressed in white damask silk, she looked like an angel, the porcelain glow of her face set off by the black scarf around her neck. "They seemed alone in the world," wrote the startled abassador, embarassed by his intrusion upon such an intimate moment." [pp. 168-9]The world outside was changing. The Spanish cardinal who had baptized young Ottaviano was now pope. The Spanish had also driven out the Moors from Granada. The young French King had assumed power and signed a peace treaty with it's old English foe. Closer to home, Lorenzo de Medici had died in 1492 and his son who took the helm of affairs there wasn't nearly as dynamic. Caterina's baby brother Gian Galeazzo was grown up, married to the grand-daughter of the King of Naples, who bore him a son. But her uncle, Ludovico still acting as Duke of Milan had married Beatrice, the daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, and her sister Anna Sforza had married the heir to the Duchy of Ferrara, Alfonso d'Este. These alliances would again shift local politics and increase the volatility of Italy on the world's stage. [p. 172]
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all notes, pagination from Elizabeth Lev, The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy's most courageous and notorious countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de'Medici : 2011, USA, Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt Publishing Company
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