A REGENT AND A MOTHER Lucretia, now Duchess of Biselli, had been living since July, 1498, with a new husband, a youth of seventeen, she herself having just completed her eighteenth year.

She and her consort did not go to Naples, but remained in Rome; for, as the Mantuan agent reported to his master, it was expressly agreed that Don Alfonso should live in Rome a year, and that Lucretia should not be required to take up her abode in the kingdom of Naples during her father's lifetime.[60] The youthful Alfonso was fair and amiable.

Talini, a Roman chronicler of that day, pronounced him the handsomest young man ever seen in the Imperial City.

According to a statement made by the Mantuan agent in August, Lucretia was really fond of him.

A sudden change in affairs, however, deprived her of the calm joys of domestic life.
The moving principle in the Vatican was the measureless ambition of Caesar, who was consuming with impatience to become a ruling sovereign.
August 13, 1498, he flung aside the cardinal's robes and prepared to set out for France; Louis XII, who in April had succeeded Charles VIII, having promised him the title of Duke of Valentinois and the hand of a French princess.