g Caesar, and that his Majesty
stated that he had not ordered the duke's confinement but had given
instructions for him to be brought to Spain on account of certain
charges which Gonsalvo had made against him. If these were found to be
untrue he would do as the cardinal requested concerning Caesar. However,
nothing could be done until the queen recovered. He made the same answer
to the ambassador of the King and Queen of Navarre, who endeavored to
secure the duke's release, and consequently Requesenz hoped that he
would soon be set free."[196]

From this letter of Requesenz it appears that Caesar was first taken to
Seville and from there was sent to the castle of Medina del Campo in
Castile. The King of France turned a deaf ear to his petitions. No one
in Italy wanted him set free. His sister was the only person in the
peninsula who took any interest in the overthrown upstart, and her
appeals found little support among the Este. It was well known that if
Caesar returned to Italy he would only cause uneasiness at the court of
Ferrara, and would in all probability make it the center of his
intrigues. The Gonzaga alone appeared not to have entirely withdrawn
their favor from him, although, instead of wishing, as they once had
done, to establish a matrimonial alliance with him, they now connected
themselves with the Rovere, the Marquis of Mantua marrying his young
daughter Leonora to Julius's nephew, Francesco Maria della Rovere, heir
of Urbino, April 9, 1505.[197] It was especially Isabella who, owing to
her affection for her sister-in-law Lucretia, seconded her appeals to
her husband. In the archives of the house of Gonzaga are several letters
written by Lucretia to the marquis in the interests of her brother.

[Illustration: Reduced facsimile of a letter written by Lucretia Borgia
to Marchese Gonzaga.]

August 18, 1505, she wrote him from Reggio that she had taken steps in
Rome to induce the Pope to permit Cardinal Petro Isualles to go to the
Spanish court to endeavor to secure Caesar's freedom, and she hoped to
succeed. She, therefore, asked the marquis himself to request the Pope
to allow the cardinal to undertake this mission. She wrote to him again
from Belriguardo thanking him for his promise to despatch an agent to
Spain, and she sent him a letter for King Ferdinand and another for her
brother. It is not known whether the cardinal actually undertook this
journey to Madrid, but it is hardly likely that Julius woul