nd a governor.[1] It was he who held
Julius II. at his discretion in 1506, and was sneered at by
Machiavelli for not consummating his enormities by killing the
warlike Pope.[2] He again, after joining the diet of La Magione
against Cesare Borgia, escaped by his acumen the massacre of
Sinigaglia, which overthrew the other conspirators. But his name was
no less famous for unbridled lust and deeds of violence. He boasted
that his son Constantino was a true Baglioni, since he was his
sister's child. He once told Machiavelli that he had it in his mind
to murder four citizens of Perugia, his enemies. He looked calmly on
while his kinsmen Eusebio and Taddeo Baglioni, who had been accused
of treason, were hewn to pieces by his guard. His wife, Ippolita de'
Conti, was poignarded in her Roman farm; on hearing the news, he
ordered a festival in which he was engaged to proceed with redoubled
merriment.[3] At last the time came for him to die by fraud and
violence. Leo X., anxious to remove so powerful a rival from
Perugia, lured him in 1520 to Rome under the false protection of a
papal safe-conduct. After a short imprisonment he had him beheaded
in the Castle of S. Angelo. It was thought that Gentile, his first
cousin, sometime Bishop of Orvieto, but afterwards the father of two
sons in wedlock with Giulia Vitelli--such was the discipline of the
Church at this epoch--had contributed to the capture of Gianpaolo,
and had exulted in his execution.[4] If so, he paid dear for his
treachery; for Orazio Baglioni, the second son of Gianpaolo and
captain of the Church under Clement VII., had him murdered in 1527,
together with his two nephews Fileno and Annibale.[5] This Orazio
was one of the most bloodthirsty of the whole brood. Not satisfied
with the assassination of Gentile, he stabbed Galeotto, the son of
Grifonetto, with his own hand in the same year.[6] Afterwards he
died in the kingdom of Naples while leading the Black Bands in the
disastrous war which followed the sack of Rome. He left no son.
Malatesta, his elder brother, became one of the most celebrated
generals of the age, holding the batons of the Venetian and
Florentine republics, and managing to maintain his ascendency in
Perugia in spite of the persistent opposition of successive popes.
But his name is best known in history for one of the greatest public
crimes--a crime which must be ranked with that of Marshal Bazaine.
Intrusted with the defence of Florence during the siege