Renaissance Murders Read online

  MICHAEL HONE

  RENAISSANCE

  MURDERS

  A History

  Cover picture: no one represents Renaissance murder better than Caravaggio, himself a murderer and a victim of murderers. Here his Judith beheading Holofernes.

  New enlarged edition

  © 2017

  Children died literally suckling at the dried up breasts of their mothers. One priest exclaimed, ‘’Those who continue to believe in the goodness of men and the existence of a merciful God are fools.’’

  Towns under siege by Charles V

  The inspiration of my books dates from the French Revolution with its Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789, the end of homophobia in 1791, followed by the right of each man to marry the boy of his choice in 2013, the whole confirmed, in the States, by the American Supreme Court. My books include: Cellini, Caravaggio, Cesare Borgia, Renaissance Murders, TROY, ARGO, Greek Homosexuality, Roman Homosexuality, Renaissance Homosexuality, Alcibiades the Schoolboy, RENT BOYS, Henry III, Louis XIII, Buckingham, Homoerotic Art (in full color), Sailors and Homosexuality, The Essence of Being Gay, John (Jack) Nicholson, THE SACRED BAND, Prussian Homosexuality, Gay Genius, SPARTA, Charles XII of Sweden, Mediterranean Homosexual Pleasure, CAPRI, Boarding School Homosexuality, American Homosexual Giants, Christ has his John, I have my George: The History of British Homosexuality and HUSTLERS. I live in the South of France.

  CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION

  THE MALATESTA

  1240 – 1500

  After losing an eye, surgeons removed part of his nose so he

  could see in all directions.

  Page 8

  THE SFORZA

  1369 – 1535

  A condottiere fights to attain the stature

  of hammer, not an anvil.

  Page 12

  FERRANTE

  1423 – 1494

  He possessed a personal museum of the mummified cadavers of his

  enemies.

  Page 25

  DRACULA

  1431 – 1477

  He roasted children and fed them to their mothers.

  Page 32

  CESARE BORGIA and his father

  ALEXANDER VI

  1431 – 1507

  As Jofrè was too young to consummate the marriage with

  Sancia, his brothers Cesare and Juan performed the task.

  Page 34

  THE MURDER OF

  ASTORRE MANFREDI

  THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOY OF RENAISSANCE ITALY

  1485 – 1502

  ‘’At least she won’t be wanting for fucking.’’

  Page 55

  JULIUS II

  1443 – 1513

  The Warrior Pope

  Page 78

  SCIPIONE BORGHESE

  1445 – 1510

  Both men shared the services of other boys, one of whom, age 18, they

  murdered.

  Page 81

  THE ORSINI AND THE COLONNA

  1400 – 1500

  ‘’Washing her hair one moment, she was suddenly

  dead on her knees the next.’’

  Page 83

  MACHIAVELLI

  1469 – 1527

  ‘’What if he does growl into his lover’s ears?’’

  Page 84

  FRANCISCO PIZARRO

  1471 – 1541

  ‘’Atahualpa had a fine character, his features were beautiful, his eyes

  bloodshot.’’

  Page 86

  PERKIN

  1474 – 1499

  ‘’So ended his short journey on an earth wondrously bountiful,

  heartbreakingly beautiful, and totally uncaring.’’

  Page 90

  THE PAZZI PLOT TO KILL IL MAGNIFICO

  1478

  Giovanni, the woman killer, was dead before he hit the marble floor.

  Page 101

  FERDINAND MAGELLAN

  1480 – 1521

  The rule at sea was to look away when sailors cared for

  each other’s carnal needs.

  Page 105

  HERNÁN CORTÉS

  1485 – 1547

  During a festival in which a virgin boy would have his heart cut out, the Spanish would be massacred.

  Page 107

  JULIUS III

  1487 – 1555

  Julius ennobled and made a cardinal of a street urchin, age 14, he

  lusted for.

  Page 112

  CELLINI

  1500 – 1571

  ‘’His splendor was such that he would have driven the Greek gods

  themselves mad.’’

  Page 114

  THE ASSASSINATIONS OF HENRI III and HENRI IV

  1551 – 1610

  The monk extracted a dagger from his sleeve that thrust it to the hilt into Henri’s abdomen.

  Page 130

  HENRI IV’S SON LOUIS XIII MURDERED CINQ-MARS

  1620 – 1642

  ‘’My God, what a world!’’

  Page 143

  PIER LUIGI FARNESE

  1503 – 1547

  He knew the boy to be primitive, decadent and ruthless, on several occasions even contemplating his excommunication.

  Page 177

  CARLO CARAFA

  1517 – 1561

  We know he was embroiled in murders, assassinations and banditry.

  Page 181

  CARLO GESUALDO

  1560 – 1613

  He then took his knife to Fabrizio’s sexual attributes, emasculating the

  boy.

  Page 182

  CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

  1564 – 1593

  ‘’Those who do not prefer Tobacco and Boys are fools.’’

  Page 184

  THE MURDERS OF RIZZIO, 1566, and DARNLEY, 1567.

  Rizzio shared Darnley’s body before and after Darnley’s marriage.

  Page 187

  THE MURDER OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

  1587

  Mary saw herself taking tea with Elizabeth; instead

  she was met by English troops and incarcerated.

  Page 195

  CARAVAGGIO

  1572 – 1610

  A Renaissance hoodlum and murderer, and arguably the greatest painter who has ever lived.

  Page 202

  RIBERA

  1591 – 1652

  All of which ended in the death of Domenichino for which Ribera escaped punishment.

  Page 221

  CENCI MURDER

  1598 – 1599

  The murder was camouflaged as an accident by shoving the count’s body over the broken railing of his palazzo.

  Page 222

  POSTSCRIPT

  Page 225

  SOURCES

  Page 226

  INDEX

  Page 231

  INTRODUCTION

  This book is the bearer of horrendous events like the smothering of two children, King Edward V and his brother, in the Tower of London; the incredible story of the impersonators of Henry VII, which led to the deaths of hundreds and the end of one of the impostors by slow hanging. Slow hanging, evisceration, emasculation--all performed as the victims looked on--quartering and beheading, were specialties of the Renaissance. Cesare Borgia assassinated his brother and then his sister’s beloved husband Alfonso. Countess Caterina Sforza saw her stable-boy husband’s privates cut away and stuffed in his mouth. Pier Luigi Borghese had a rent-boy’s throat slit outside his apartments to prevent blackmail. Beatrice Cenci murdered her incestuous father and Caravaggio killed Ranuccio over whores they disputed. Cellini stabbed the man responsible for his brother’s death and Cortés massacred thousands by the sword, then millions with the smallpox he and his men carried. Henri
III butchered thousands more during France’s wars of religion. Very few people have ever heard of Astorre Manfredi, said to have been the most beautiful boy in Italy. He lived during these exciting times, home to the likes of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo Il Magnifico, Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, all of whom he might have rubbed shoulders with, one of whom murdered him. And Juan Borgia, supreme in his skin-tight trousers, billowing white shirt and black pearl-studded doublet, the garments he was wearing when brought up in a net from the depths of the Tiber. Wars, girls seduced through incest, heretics burned at the stake, bacchanalias unknown since Ancient Rome. Poverty that condemned a generation to an early death--and wealth beyond measure--were part of everyday life during the Renaissance, and are the essence of this book, Renaissance Murders.

  The Renaissance was an age of unbelievable uncertainty, where even a peaceful hamlet could be wiped off the map in weeks by the plague or overnight by the descent of mercenary hoards led by kings, dukes, lords and emperors. Lutherans raped Catholic nuns on altars and soldiers lined up before the spread thighs of the vanquished. A French captain, disrobing before the girl put aside for him, commented, ‘’Well, at least she won’t be wanting for fucking.’’

  Sexuality during the Renaissance meant omnisexuality. The words homo-hetero-bi wouldn’t be invented for another 300 years, and, anyway, if one is to question sexuality it should be to ask why, today, we divide ourselves into one of these three groups, when it’s infinitely more varied to open ourselves to absolutely all sexual potentialities, as was the case then. In the words of Molière, Tout le plaisir de l’amour est dans le changement. Because girls were kept with Brinks-like security--only virgins could assure a marriage that could advantage her family socially and economically--boys turned to each other.

  Scholars deny, at every possible turn, a man’s true sexuality. Men are declared heterosexual unless there is incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. In that case historians will say he ‘’went through a misguided adolescent stage of bisexuality.’’ Few men were exclusively as heterosexual as François I certainly was, and Charles V who was furious when Scipione Borghese brought his male lovers to Charles’s court. Few men were exclusively homosexual either, as were Michelangelo and da Vinci, both of whom most probably died virgins to heterosexual lovemaking. Males have always sought each other out in ways incomprehensible to women. They play together, drink together, work together and fight side by side. A soldier thinks nothing of giving his life to save that of a buddy, and even a homo-hating Australian would die for his mate.

  And finally, I’m a boy of my times, one who prefers vocable like cock to weenie, fuck to liaison. This book is rigorously authentic; if there are historical mistakes, they are just that, inadvertent and deeply regretted mistakes.

  THE MALATESTA

  1240 - 1500

  In order for Man to be fruitful, as God commanded, He brought to pass testosterone, thanks to which Man has been stirred to do things as various as the creation of the greatest art, from the astounding head of Nefertiti to the body of Michelangelo’s David, from the eternal mystery of the smile of Mona Lisa to the staggering music of Mahler, from base jumpers who hurl themselves from cliffs to astronauts who explore outer space.

  It is here our genesis, for in the beginning it was muscular prowess that leveled the ground so that artists, philosophers and politicians could advance over a smooth surface. In the same way that all life depends on the sun, all human growth relies on a humane, civilized approach to our day-to-day existence, an approach that can only come through order, the nemeses of chaos, and the origin of order is armed might.

  Man is stirred physically, mentally and, of course, sexually. Whether we like it or not, sex is the motor that rules the world, now as then. Millions of years of evolution demand that our first priority be reproduction, the reason why testosterone has inspired us to reach the heights of daring and creativity, as well as condemning us to unimaginable excesses of carnage. Men like Cesare Borgia wanted armed power and sexual conquest, an easy equation for him as he possessed military genius and physical beauty; another condottiere whom we often meet in this book, Federico da Montefeltro, had lost an eye in battle and compensated by having his nose surgically hollowed out so he could see in all directions with what remained. His might and wealth assured him a warming presence for his bed.

  Sexual satisfaction was by far the norm in the man’s world of the Renaissance, but not exclusively. Caterina Sforza, of Imola and Forlì, used her position as regent to put her stable boy into her bed, an extraordinarily handsome lad murdered by her subjects who found him wanting in class. Caterina replaced him by another even more handsome suitor, but as might makes right then as today, she was conquered by Cesare Borgia who wanted her lands.

  The hormone-driven quest for power, in the Renaissance, was especially prevalent in families such as the Borgia, the Farnese, the Sforza, the Orsini, the Colonna, the Borghese and, in this chapter, the Malatesta.

  The Malatesta were a family of hotheads, schemers and murderers who ruled Rimini from 1295 until the arrival of Cesare Borgia who extinguished them with the ease of blowing out a candle. The first Malatesta was a hunchback, Giovanni (ca. 1240 – 1304), called Giovanni the Lame, who killed his wife Francesca and his brother Paolo when he discovered them in flagrante delicto:

  Francesca and Paolo by Ingres (please forgive the poor reproduction).

  Paolo was called ‘’Il Bello’’ and the affaire had been going on for ten years. The great writer Boccaccio claims that Francesca’s father favored the marriage as a way of favoring good relations between his family and the Malatesta, but fearing that Francesca would refuse a cripple, he had her believe that she would be wedding the far more handsome Paolo, and it was only following the wedding night, after she had surrendered her virginity to the boy she loved, that she discovered the ruse: she had slept with Giovanni the Lame. The mysterious ins and outs of just how this took place make a perfect story à la Boccaccio, but one that couldn’t possibly have taken place outside of Boccaccio’s imagination. The reality is that Francesca was obliged to marry Giovanni for political reasons and slept with Paolo for love, until both were murdered.

  The murdered Paolo had a son, Ramberto. He was contacted by a cousin, Uberto, who wanted to kill Pandolfo I Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, and take over his lands. But Uberto was the son of Giovanni Malatesta, Giovanni the Lame, the murderer of Ramberto’s father. In the finest Italian tradition of treachery, Ramberto invited Uberto to a banquet to finalize plans for the murder, but it was Uberto himself the main course.

  Ramberto then planned to gain total power by eliminating two other Malastesta, Malatesta II and Ferrantino Malatesta. As a banquet had worked so well the first time, he organized a second, inviting both cousins. Ferrantino showed up but Malatesta II couldn’t make it. Ferrantino was made prisoner, escaping death until Malatesta II could also be imprisoned. But Malatesta II came with an army. He freed Ferrantino and forced Ramberto to flee.

  Ferrantino’s son, Malatesta Novello, understood what no other member of the family seems to have been able to comprehend, that Ramberto and his plots and intrigues would only stop with the death of Ramberto himself. So Malatesta Novello invited Ramberto to his own banquet where he plunged a knife into Ramberto’s neck, but not before extending his pleasure by giving his uncle time to beg for his precious life. Ramberto was said to have been dead before his body hit the marble floor.

  Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417 – 1468) was called the Wolf of Rimini. A fearless condottiere, he was also a poet and patron of the arts. He began his conquests at age 13 against Carlo II Malatesta who wanted to annex Rimini. He took over Carlo’s lands and became lord of Rimini at age 15. He later gained Pesaro by defeating his own brother Malatesta Novello. He married Ginevra d’Este but had her poisoned when a better match offered itself, that with Polissena Sforza. He fought for the pope and then against him, for Naples and then against it, for the Sforza and then against them, this l
ast treason ending in the death of his wife Polissena whom he had ordered his servants to drown like a cat, or so believed her father Francesco.

  Sigismondo Malatesta

  He had a number of sons from a huge variety of mistresses, one of whom was beheaded by her husband, Rodolfo Gonzaga, when he found out. His third wife was Isotta degli Atti, his long-time mistress. He was accused by Pope Pius II of incest with one of his sons, Roberto. The pope sent a fifteen-year-old priest, the Bishop of Fano, to notify him of his excommunication for incest and a number of treasons. He publicly sodomized the boy in the square of Rimini, in front of his applauding troops. (As we will see elsewhere in the chapter on Pier Luigi Farnese, Pier Luigi was accused of raping a priest also at Fano around a hundred years later; that priest died from hemorrhaging.) Sodomy was such a Renaissance pastime that the Germans called it Florenzer, anal sex à la Florentine.

  In Rome a procedure called the canonization into Hell was brought against Sigismondo. In an unprecedented ceremony--not repeated since--he was sent to hell and its eternal flames. (Alas, I known nothing more of the event, which is strange to say the very least.) His image was burned in public and war was declared against him by a league encompassing the pope, the King of Naples and the Dukes of Milan and Montefeltro. He defeated them all except for Federico da Montefeltro, the greatest condottiere to have perhaps ever lived, who took all his land that he later returned to the pope and the Papal States, leaving Sigismondo only Rimini.

  The great historian Guicciardini described him as an enemy of ‘’the peace and peace lovers,’’ a man who lived for intrigue and duplicitous dealings, in that sense a veritable Renaissance Italian, coupled with the fact that he went from men to women and back with total abandon. He attempted to justify the ‘’disorders’’ in his life in sonnets to his third wife, Isotta.