urned to Rome after seizing Bologna, entering the city with
the pomp of an emperor, this woman, lost in the multitude, must have
exclaimed with bitter irony that her own son Caesar had a part in this
triumph, and that he had been instrumental in raising Julius II to the
Papacy. It must have been a source of no little satisfaction to her to
know that this pope recognized her son's importance when he wrote to the
Florentines in November, 1503, saying that "on account of the preeminent
virtues and great services of the Duke of Romagna" he loved him with a
father's love. She may also have been acquainted with Macchiavelli's
"Prince," in which the genial statesman describes Caesar as the ideal
ruler.

Although the power of the Borgias had passed away and their children
were either dead or scattered, their greatness was felt in the city as
long as Vannozza lived. Her past experiences caused her to be looked
upon as one of the most noteworthy personalities of Rome, where every
one was curious to make her acquaintance. If we may compare two persons
who differed in greatness, but whose destinies and positions were not
dissimilar, it might be said that Vannozza at that time occupied the
same position in Rome in which Letitia Bonaparte found herself after the
overthrow of her powerful offspring.

She looked with pride on her daughter, the Duchess of Ferrara, "la plus
triomphante princesse," as the biographer Bayard calls her. She never
saw her again, for she would scarcely have ventured to undertake a
journey to Ferrara, but she continued to correspond with her. In the
archives of the house of Este are nine letters written by Vannozza in
the years 1515, 1516, and 1517. Seven of them are addressed to Cardinal
Ippolito and two to Lucretia. These letters are not in her own
handwriting but are dictated. They disclose a powerful will, a cast of
mind that might be described as rude and egotistical, and an insinuating
character. They are devoted chiefly to practical matters and to
requests of various sorts. On one occasion she sent the cardinal a
present of two antique columns which had been exhumed in her vineyard.
She also kept up her intercourse with her son Giuffre, Prince of
Squillace. In 1515 she had received his ten-year-old son into her house
in Rome apparently for the purpose of educating him.[241]

An expression which Vannozza used in signing her letters defines her
attitude and position,--"The fortunate and unfortunate Vanno