as swallowed up by Eugene IV. While these prefects were the most active
Ghibellines and the bitterest enemies of the popes, the Farnese, like
the Este, always stood by the Guelphs. From the eleventh century they
were consuls and podestas in Orvieto, and they appeared later in various
places as captains of the Church in the numerous little wars with the
cities and barons in Umbria and in the domain of S. Peter. Ranuccio,
Giulia's grandfather, was one of the ablest of the generals of Eugene
IV, and he had been a comrade of the great tyrant-conqueror Vitelleschi,
and through him his house had won great renown. His son, Pierluigi,
married Donna Giovanella of the Gaetani family of Sermoneta. His
children were Alessandro, Bartolomeo, Angiolo, Girolama, and Giulia.

Alessandro Farnese, born February 28, 1468, was a young man of intellect
and culture, but notorious for his unbridled passions. He had his own
mother committed to prison in 1487 under the gravest charges, whereupon
he himself was confined in the castle of S. Angelo by Innocent VIII. He
escaped from prison, and the matter was allowed to drop. He was a
prothonotary of the Church. His elder sister was married to Puccio
Pucci, one of the most illustrious statesmen of Florence, a member of a
large family which was on terms of close friendship with the Medici.

On the twentieth of May, 1489, the youthful Giulia Farnese, together
with the equally youthful Orsino Orsini, appeared in the "Star Chamber"
of the Borgia palace to sign their marriage contract. It is worthy of
note that this occurred in the house of Cardinal Rodrigo. His name
appears as the first of the witnesses to this document, as if he had
constituted himself the protector of the couple and had brought about
their marriage. This union, however, had been arranged when the
betrothed were minors, by their parents, Ludovico Orsini, lord of
Bassanello, and Pierluigi Farnese, both of whom had died before 1489. In
those days little children were often legally betrothed, and the
marriage was consummated later, as was the custom in ancient Rome, where
frequently boys and girls only thirteen years of age were affianced.
Giulia was barely fifteen, May 20, 1489, and she was still under the
guardianship of her brothers and her uncles of the house of Gaetani;
while the young Orsini was under the control of his mother, Adriana, who
was Adriana de Mila, the kinswoman of Cardinal Rodrigo, and Lucretia's
governess. This, there