Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy by Sarah Bradford Page A

finally, on 25 August she gave birth to another son, named Ippolito in honour of his uncle, the cardinal; ‘he is white and well-formed and resembles his father’, di Prosperi reported.
    That autumn Venice increased the pressure on Ferrara, and both the Este brothers were constantly in the field. At the end of November a Venetian force overwhelmed the Bastion of Lendinara; di Prosperi’s dispatches took on a note of foreboding, almost a sense of siege. The Venetians were attempting to build a bridge over the Po and there was a skirmish when the Ferrarese tried to prevent them. ‘I fear for our situation if the French and the Emperor do not divert the war from this direction,’ he wrote, asking Isabella to persuade them to help her brothers. The fear in Ferrara was such that, on Alfonso’s advice, Lucrezia had cancelled her intended journey to Modena to greet Elisabetta, now the widowed Duchess of Urbino, and her niece and daughter-in-law, Leonora Gonzaga, married to the present Duke of Urbino, Francesco Maria della Rovere, in case her departure would be misinterpreted as flight. ‘The Duke’s decision is most prudent,’ approved di Prosperi, ‘because of the terror I have seen here.’ Ariosto was sent to Rome to ask for help and encountered such a furious welcome from Julius at Ostia that he fled, fearing to be thrown into the sea. At Ferrara, Lucrezia continued with her normal administration. On her orders the Guardaroba handed over a string of huge pearls which had belonged to the Duchess Eleonora and several fine pieces of her own jewellery to be pawned to raise money. Much of her silver had already gone the same way. 3
    The Venetians crossed the river by a bridge of boats, seized Comacchio and flooded through the Polesine di San Giorgio towards Ferrara. Ferrarese lives were lost, including that of the Este ally Count Lodovico Pico della Mirandola, decapitated by a cannonball, a misfortune which greatly shocked the Italians, as yet unused to artillery casualties. A large Venetian fleet lay in readiness at Polesella and a message was sent by them to Ippolito promising a good fight if he was willing, a challenge he accepted. The Venetian ships floated high on the Po, swollen by recent rains, presenting, Ippolito recognized, an easy target for the Ferrarese artillery. At dawn on 22 December he made a surprise attack, bombarding and sinking many of the ships; others were captured and only two of the galleys escaped. The Venetians were massacred by the Ferrarese as soon as they reached land and thirteen of their galleys taken back in triumph to Ferrara. On 27 December, Alfonso and Ippolito made a formal triumphal entry into Ferrara on board the biggest of their prizes, armed and with the standards of the Duke and of the Gonfalonier proudly raised, the Venetian flags pointing downwards. Trumpets, small clarinets, tabors, kettle drums played, and gunshots resounded on land and water as they landed at San Paolo where Lucrezia waited to greet them with fifty carriages of ladies. The procession with Alfonso, wearing an armoured breastplate and a tunic of rich, curled brocade, riding on a courser alongside Ippolito – for once in his cardinal’s robes – on a mule on his right hand, proceeded triumphantly and noisily to the cathedral where the Te Deum was sung and prayers offered to the Virgin and the two patron saints of Ferrara, San Maurelio and San Giorgio. To complete the triumph of the Este family, their holy ancestor, the blessed Beatrice da Este, was heard over several days beating on the walls of her tomb in Santo Antonio, presumably in celebration of the great victory.
    Unfortunately for the Este, the blessed Beatrice’s knockings only served to usher in the most dangerous year Alfonso and Lucrezia would yet experience. Julius II had reverted to the policy of Alexander VI and intended to re-establish the authority of the papacy over the States of the Church, which included Ferrara. With the cry of ‘Out with