The Malatesta family, rulers of Rimini and…
1500 CE
The Malatesta family, rulers of Rimini and other cities in the Romagna, have, despite their long identification with the pro-papal Guelph faction, pursued a policy opposed to papal control of the Romagna.
Pandolfo IV Malatesta is the son of Roberto Malatesta, at the death of whom, in 1482, he had been created captain general of the Republic of Venice.
Four years later he was created knight by King Alfonso II of Naples.
In 1495, hired by the Venetians, he had taken part in the Battle of Fornovo, and later besieged the French garrison at Novara.
Pandolfo's violence and murders have gained him the hatred of his subjects: in 1497, a failed rape attempt on a young girl had spurred a revolt in Rimini, which he could suppress only with Venetian intervention.
He escaped another plot in 1498.
Two years later, Cesare Borgia, the Romagna’s ruthless new papal vicar, invades Pandolfo's territories and Pope Alexander VI, Cesare's father, excommunicates him.
Abandoned by his subjects, Pandolfo is compelled to give up Rimini for twenty-nine hundred ducats; he will live in Venice in the following years.
After Alexander's death, he will take advantage of Cesare's illness to attack Rimini in 1503, but without definitive success.
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Southwest Europe
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