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T W O Aurelia Petrucci Admired and Mourned “They love blonde women in Siena,” says Mr Syson. “They were famous for their beautiful women. They would send them out to meet visiting dignitaries.” —Cyar Byrne, The Independent, 24 October 2007 Aurelia Petrucci was born in Siena in 1511 and died there in 1542 at just thirty-one years of age.1 Although her life was brief, her renown was not so, at least not among Tuscan writers who praised and remembered her beauty, her charm, and her poetic talent. In her short life, Aurelia enjoyed a number of distinct advantages, not the least of which was to have been born into a wealthy, privileged family that had been, for some time, at the very center of Siena’s political life. Aurelia was, in fact, a woman born to privilege. She was the daughter , granddaughter, niece, or cousin of five consecutive lords of Siena. Her grandfather, the Magnifico Pandolfo Petrucci (1452–1512), had ruled the city from 1497 to 1512, much beloved by the general population .2 In February 1511, just months before his death, the aging Pandolfo was able to marry his young son and heir, Borghese (1490–1526), to Vittoria Todeschini Piccolomini (1494–1570), the youngest daughter of one of the most powerful families in Siena. Vittoria’s father was Andrea Todeschini Piccolomini (1445–1505), signore of Castiglione della 59 Pescaia and the Isola del Giglio, consignore of Camposervoli, a knight of the Order of Santiago, and a past capitano del popolo in Siena. Her mother was Agnese Farnese (ca. 1460–1509), daughter of Gabriele Francesco Farnese, signore of Ischia and Canino, and of Isabella Orsini of the counts of Nola and Pitigliano.3 The match was clearly a political maneuver meant to tie the Petrucci family both to the powerful Piccolomini clan of Siena and to the rising star of the Farnese family of the Kingdom of Naples. Although the match offered great political opportunities, these were soon lost by a drastic reversal of political fortunes. The following May Pandolfo died and the mantle of power in Siena passed to his twentytwo -year-old son, Borghese, who, according to general historical consensus , was neither as savvy nor as astute as his father. One modern historian describes him as “inept” and soon “discredited.”4 But not everyone agrees with this assessment—another modern scholar points out that Borghese was a steady and faithful follower of his father’s politics and that, rightfully concerned with the presence of a Medici regime in Florence and another in Rome, he tried desperately to keep Siena independent by drawing closer to Spain and the empire, a strategy that, unfortunately, backfired.5 On 16 March 1516, after only four years in power, Borghese was suddenly and unexpectedly overthrown in a coup organized by Pope Leo X and was immediately forced into exile along with his younger brother Fabio. Borghese was replaced at the head of the Sienese government by his cousin, Raffaele di Jacomo Petrucci (1472–1522), bishop of Grosseto, a longtime Medici supporter who would eventually be rewarded by Leo X with the cardinalate (1517). Although a cousin to Borghese, Bishop Raffaele was viscerally opposed to him and to the other heirs of Pandolfo Petrucci.6 At Raffaele’s death in 1522, power passed to his cousin Francesco di Camillo Petrucci, who had been the cardinal bishop’s right-hand man for the previous two years. Francesco, however, held it for just over one year before being forcibly removed in yet another coup d’état. At this point Borghese’s brother, the eighteen-year-old Fabio Petrucci, the youngest of Pandolfo ’s brood of sons, seized power in Siena but managed to hold on to it for just one year (December 1523–December 1524) before republican elements ousted him and seized control of the government, re60 T H E S W O R D A N D T H E P E N turning the city to the so-called government of the Ten Priors that had been in place before the Petrucci dynasty wrestled power away from them. So Aurelia could claim an illustrious political pedigree, though not without its ups and downs—one with great men, their not-so-great sons, and their rival cousins. Aurelia could also claim an illustrious pedigree in ecclesiastical government . On her mother’s side she was a great-grand-niece of the humanist Pope Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini, 1405–64...

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