Vitellozzo Vitelli (c. 1458 – December 31, 1502) was an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
condottiero. He was lord of
MontoneMontone is a comune in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 35 km north of Perugia.Montone borders the following municipalities: Città di Castello, Pietralunga, Umbertide....
,
Città di CastelloCittà di Castello is a city and comune in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of the Umbria region of Italy. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain of the river Tiber. The city is 56 km north of Perugia and 104 km south of Cesena on the S3bis...
,
MonterchiMonterchi is a comune in the Province of Arezzo in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 80 km southeast of Florence and about 20 km east of Arezzo...
and
AnghiariAnghiari is a town and comune with c. 5,850 inhabitants in the Province of Arezzo .-History:Anghiari is famous for the Battle of Anghiari between Florence and Milan which took place there on June 29 1440. The battle inspired a fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio by Leonardo da Vinci...
.
Together with his father, Niccolò, tyrant of Città di Castello, and his brothers, who were all soldiers of fortune, he instituted a new type of infantry armed with sword and pike to resist the German men-at-arms, and also a corps of mounted infantry armed with arquebuses.
Vitellozzo Vitelli (c. 1458 – December 31, 1502) was an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
condottiero. He was lord of
MontoneMontone is a comune in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 35 km north of Perugia.Montone borders the following municipalities: Città di Castello, Pietralunga, Umbertide....
,
Città di CastelloCittà di Castello is a city and comune in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of the Umbria region of Italy. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain of the river Tiber. The city is 56 km north of Perugia and 104 km south of Cesena on the S3bis...
,
MonterchiMonterchi is a comune in the Province of Arezzo in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 80 km southeast of Florence and about 20 km east of Arezzo...
and
AnghiariAnghiari is a town and comune with c. 5,850 inhabitants in the Province of Arezzo .-History:Anghiari is famous for the Battle of Anghiari between Florence and Milan which took place there on June 29 1440. The battle inspired a fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio by Leonardo da Vinci...
.
Biography
Together with his father, Niccolò, tyrant of Città di Castello, and his brothers, who were all soldiers of fortune, he instituted a new type of infantry armed with sword and pike to resist the German men-at-arms, and also a corps of mounted infantry armed with arquebuses. Vitellozzo took service with
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
against
PisaPisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, and later with the French in
ApuliaApulia is a region in southeastern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its southern portion known as Salento, a peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy...
in 1496 and with the Orsini faction against
Pope Alexander VIPope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol, later Roderic de Borja i Borja was Pope from 1492 to 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his surname became a byword for the debased standards of the papacy of that era...
.
In 1500 Vitellozzo and the Orsini made peace with the pope, and the latter's son
Cesare BorgiaCesare Borgia , Duke of Valentinois was a Spanish-Italian condottiero, lord and cardinal. He was the son of Pope Alexander VI and his long-term mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei, sibling to Lucrezia Borgia, Gioffre Borgia , Prince of Squillace, and Giovanni Borgia, duke of Gandia, and half-brother to...
, being determined to crush the petty tyrants of Romagna and consolidate papal power in that province, took the condottieri into his service. Vitellozzo distinguished himself in many engagements, but in 1501 he advanced against Florence, moved as much by a desire to avenge his brother Paolo, who while in the service of the republic had been suspected of treachery and put to death (1499), as by Cesare's orders. While Borgia was actually negotiating with the republic, Vitelli seized
ArezzoArezzo or Arretium is a city in central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about south-east of Florence, at an elevation of 296 meters above sea level. In 2009 the population was about 99,000 people....
. Forced by Borgia and the French, much against his will, to give up the city, he began from that moment to nurture hostile feelings towards his master and to aspire to independent rule.
He took part with the Orsini, Oliverotto da Fermo and other captains in the conspiracy of La Magione against the Borgia; but mutual distrust and the incapacity of the leaders before Cesare's energy and the promise of French help, brought the plot to naught, and Vitelli and other condottieri, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Cesare once more, seized
SenigalliaSenigallia or Sinigaglia is a comune and port town on Italy's Adriatic coast, 25 km by rail north of Ancona, in the Marche region, province of Ancona....
in his name. There they were tricked by him and arrested while their troops were out of reach. Vitelli and Oliverotto were strangled that same night (31 December 1502).