VITELLOZZO See also:VITELLI ( ?-1502)
, See also:Italian See also:condottiere
.
Together with his See also:father, Niccolo, See also:tyrant of Citta di See also:Castello, and his See also:brothers, who were all soldiers of See also:fortune, he instituted a new type of See also:infantry armed with See also:sword and See also:pike to resist the See also:German men-at-arms, and also a See also:corps of mounted infantry armed with arquebuses
.
Vitellozzo took service with See also:Florence against See also:Pisa, and later with the See also:French in See also:Apulia (1496) and with the See also:Orsini See also:faction against See also:Pope See also:Alexander VI
.
In 1500 Vitellozzo and the Orsini made See also:peace with the pope, and the latter's son Cesare See also:Borgia, being determined to crush the See also:petty tyrants of Romagna and consolidate papal See also:power in that See also:province, took the condottieri into his service
.
Vitellozzo distinguished himself in many engagements, and in 1501 he advanced against Florence, moved as much by a See also:desire to avenge his See also:brother See also:Paolo, who while in the service of the See also:republic had been suspected of treachery and put to See also:death (1499), as by Cesare's orders
.
In fact, while the latter was actually negotiating with the republic, See also:Vitelli seized See also:Arezzo
.
Forced by Borgia and the French, much against his will, to give up the See also:city, he began from that moment to nurture hostile feelings towards his See also:master and to aspire to See also:independent See also:rule
.
He took See also:part with the Orsini, Oliverotto da Fenno and other captains in the See also:conspiracy of La Magione against the Borgia; but mutual distrust and the incapacity of the leaders before Cesare's See also:energy and the promise of French help, brought the See also:plot to naught, and Vitelli and other condottieri, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Cesare once more, seized See also:Senigallia in his name
.
There they were decoyed by him and arrested while their troops were out of reach, and Vitelli and Oliverotto were strangled that same See also:night (3Ist of See also:December 1502)
.
See vol. iii. of E
.
Ricotti's Storia della See also:coin pagnie di ventura (See also:Turin, 1845), in which Domenichi's MS
.
Vita di Vitellozzo Vitelli is quoted; C
.
Yriarte, Cesar Borgia (See also:Paris, 1889) ; P
.
See also:Villari, See also:Life and Times of N
.
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