rlotta of Aragon, who was being reared at the Court of France.
Accordingly Alexander desired the Bishop of Ceuta to lay his wishes in
the matter before the Christian King, and, to the end that Cesare might
find a fitting secular estate awaiting him when eventually he emerged
from the clergy, the Pope further suggested to Louis, through the
bishop's agency, that Cesare should receive the investiture of the
counties of Valentinois and Dyois in Dauphiny. On the face of it this
wears the look of inviting bribery. In reality it scarcely amounted
to so much, although the opportunism that prompted the request is
undeniable. Yet it is worthy of consideration that in what concerned the
counties of Valentinois and Dyois, the Pope's suggestion constituted
a wise political step. These territories had been in dispute between
France and the Holy See for a matter of some two hundred years, during
which the Popes had been claiming dominion over them. The claims had
been admitted by Louis XI, who had relinquished the counties to the
Church; but shortly after his death the Parliament of Dauphiny had
restored them to the crown of France. Charles VIII and Innocent VIII had
wrangled over them, and an arbitration was finally projected, but never
held.

Alexander now perceived a way to solve the difficulty by a compromise
which should enrich his son and give the latter a title to replace that
of cardinal which he was to relinquish. So his proposal to Louis XII was
that the Church should abandon its claim upon the territories, whilst
the king, raising Valentinois to the dignity of a duchy, should so
confer it upon Cesare Borgia.

Although the proposal was politically sound, it constituted at the same
time an act of flagrant nepotism. But let us bear in mind that Alexander
did not lack a precedent for this particular act. When Louis XI had
surrendered Valentinois to Sixtus IV, this Pope had bestowed it upon
his nephew Girolamo, thereby vitiating any claim that the Holy See
might subsequently have upon the territory. We judge it--under the
circumstances that Louis XI had surrendered it to the Church--to be a
far more flagrant piece of nepotism than was Alexander's now.

Louis XII, nothing behind the Pope in opportunism, saw in the concession
asked of him the chance of acquiring Alexander's good-will. He
consented, accompanying his consent by a request for a cardinal's hat
for Georges d'Amboise, Bishop of Rouen, who had been his devoted friend