Giovanni II Bentivoglio (12 February 1443 – 15 February 1508) was an Italian nobleman who ruled aslord ofBologna from 1463 until 1506. He had no formal position, but held power as the city's "first citizen." TheBentivoglio family ruled over Bologna from 1443, and repeatedly attempted to consolidate their hold of theSignoria of the city.
Born in Bologna, Giovanni II was the son ofAnnibale I Bentivoglio, then chief magistrate of the commune, and Donnina Visconti. He was a child when his father was murdered by his rival Battista Canneschi in June 1445.
Annibale I was succeeded in Bologna bySante I, of uncertain paternity and origin, but alleged to be a son of Ercole Bentivoglio, a cousin of Annibale I. Originally an apprentice of the woolguild ofFlorence, Sante ruled assignore of Bologna from 1443. When Sante died in 1463, Giovanni II Bentivoglio successfully made himself lord of the commune, although it was nominally a fief of the church under a papal legate.[1] On 2 May 1464 he married Sante's widowGinevra Sforza. In 1464 he obtained byPope Paul II the privilege to be considered perpetual head of the city's Senate.
Machiavelli writes that Annibale, "having been murdered by the Canneschi, who had conspired against him, not one of his family survived but Messer Giovanni, who was in childhood: immediately after his assassination the people rose and murdered all the Canneschi. This sprung from the popular goodwill which the house of Bentivoglio enjoyed in those days in Bologna; which was so great that, although none remained there after the death of Annibale who were able to rule the state, the Bolognese, having information that there was one of the Bentivoglio family in Florence, who up to that time had been considered the son of a blacksmith [Sante], sent to Florence for him and gave him the government of their city, and it was ruled by him until Messer Giovanni came in due course to the government." (The Prince, Chapter XIX)
In order to secure the support of the other powerful families of Italy, Giovanni fought personally ascondottiero. In 1467 he was at the service of Florence, Milan and Naples againstBartolomeo Colleoni, and in 1471 again for Milan, but his first military deeds occurred only in 1477 when he besiegedFaenza for the Sforza. In 1482, during theWar of Ferrara, he helpedErcole d'Este againstPope Sixtus IV andVenice. He later fought in small struggles for theKingdom of Naples, but his personal interventions were always limited by the Bolognese institutions.
In 1488, his daughter Francesca poisoned her own husband,Galeotto Manfredi, ruler of Faenza. The latter's citizens considered the feat as an occult move to conquer the city, and rebelled. When Giovanni reached the city to suppress the revolt, he was captured. He was freed only through the intercession ofLorenzo de' Medici. In the same year he was made Capitano Generale (Chief of Staff) of the Milanese army, but this was an almost honorific position as Giovanni left the command duties to his sons. In 1488 Giovanni had also to crush a plot against him, led by the Malvezzi family, whose members were almost all hanged or exiled. In 1501, the same fate struck theMarescottis.
Bentivoglio had managed to resist the expansionist designs ofCesare Borgia, but on 7 October 1506 PopeJulius II issued a bull deposing andexcommunicating Bentivoglio and placing the city underinterdict. When the papal troops, along with a contingent sent byLouis XII of France, marched against Bologna, Bentivoglio and his family fled. Julius II entered the city triumphantly on 10 November.
Giovanni moved first toBusseto, host of thePallavicini family. An attempt led by his sons Annibale II andErmes to reconquer Bologna in 1507 failed. The Bolognese subsequently rioted against his possessions in the city, destroying the palace.
Excommunicated, Giovanni ended his days as prisoner of Louis XII in Milan. He died in 1508 in theCastello Sforzesco of that city.
Giovanni Bentivoglio is said to have consulted in 1504 the famous astrologerLuca Gaurico about his and his sons' destiny. Displeased with Gaurico's negative prophecy, Bentivoglio subjected him to the torture ofmancuerda, and exiled him from Bologna.
Giovanni II Bentivoglio ruled with a stern sway for nearly half a century,[1] maintaining a splendid court and beautifying Bologna, in particular developing its waterways. The misery of the city's poor, however, stood in stark contrast to the splendor of the city and its festivities.
Among the projects he commissioned were the frescoes depicting the life ofSaint Cecilia in the Oratorio di Santa Cecilia through the archway of San Giacomo. These frescoes were painted by artists living in the city at the time:Francesco Francia,Lorenzo Costa the Elder andAmico Aspertini.[1] Lorenzo Costa'sBentivoglio Altarpiece, housed in the Bentivoglio Chapel in the church ofSan Giacomo Maggiore, was commissioned by Giovanni Bentivoglio as a votive offering of thanks for the family's escape from an attempted massacre by theMalvezzi family.[2] Bentivoglio also ordered thePalazzo Bentivoglio (City Hall) to be built by the architect G. Nadi, starting in 1498. The Bolognese architectAristotile Fioravanti, who later settled inRussia, created the plans for the reconstruction of the Palazzo del Podestà, but the reconstruction was not carried out by Bentivoglio until 1484–1494.
On 2 May 1464 Giovanni marriedGinevra Sforza (1440–1507), the illegitimate daughter ofAlessandro Sforza, Lord ofPesaro and the widow of his cousin and predecessor,Sante Bentivoglio.[2] There was probably a relationship between them before their marriage.[3] She was, among other things, his counselor. Ginevra gave her husband sixteen children, of whom five died in infancy. The others were:
Giovanni also had another daughter (whether illegitimate or not, it is unknown), Camilla Bentivoglio, whose mother is said to be a 'Lucrezia D'Este'. Whether this 'Lucrezia' was the same as his daughter-in-law, daughter ofErcole I d'Este, is a matter of speculation. Camilla went on to marryPirro Gonzaga, a scion of theHouse of Gonzaga (a male line grandson ofLudovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua). It is unknown how many children she had, but 3 of them are known:
Through Isabel and Carlos, Camilla and her father Giovanni are ancestors ofHenri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg and his first cousin, KingPhilippe of Belgium.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bentivoglio, Giovanni".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 749–750. This also cites: