e Duke of Milan--had openly uttered the suspicion which
was being whispered about Rome. By permitting himself to do this, he
showed that he had never loved Lucretia.[57]

Alexander had dissolved his daughter's marriage for political reasons.
It was his purpose to marry Lucretia and Caesar into the royal house of
Naples. This dynasty had reestablished itself there after the expulsion
of the French, but its position had been so profoundly shaken that its
fall was imminent; and it was this very fact that made Alexander hope to
be able to place his son Caesar on the throne of Naples. The most
terrible of the Borgias now appropriated the place left vacant by the
Duke of Gandia, to which he had long aspired, and only for the sake of
appearances did he postpone casting aside the cardinal's robe. The Pope,
however, was already scheming for his son's marriage; for him he asked
King Federico for the hand of his daughter Carlotta, who had been
educated at the court of France as a princess of the house of Savoy. The
king, an upright man, firmly refused, and the young princess in horror
rejected the Pope's insulting offer. Federico, in his anxiety, made one
sacrifice to the monster in the Vatican; he consented to the betrothal
of Don Alfonso, Prince of Salerno, younger brother of Donna Sancia and
natural son of Alfonso II, to Lucretia. Alexander desired this marriage
for no other reason than for the purpose of finally inducing the king to
agree to the marriage of his daughter and Caesar.

Even before Lucretia's new betrothal was settled upon it was rumored in
Rome that her former affianced, Don Gasparo, was again pressing his suit
and that there was a prospect of his being accepted. Although the young
Spaniard failed to accomplish his purpose, Alexander now recognized the
fact that Lucretia's betrothal to him had been dissolved illegally.

In a brief dated June 10, 1498, he speaks of the way his daughter was
treated--without special dispensation for breaking the engagement, in
order that she might marry Giovanni of Pesaro, which was a great
mistake--as illegal. He says in the same letter that Gasparo of Procida,
Count of Almenara, had subsequently married and had children, but not
until 1498 did Lucretia petition to have her betrothal to him formally
declared null and void. The Pope, therefore, absolved her of the perjury
she had committed by marrying Giovanni Sforza in spite of her engagement
to Don Gasparo, and while he now, for