Vitellozzo Vitelli

Vitellozzo served the Medici of Florence in their war against Pisa, and later with the French in Apulia in 1496 and with the Orsini faction against Pope Alexander VI.

[1] In 1500 Vitellozzo and the Orsini made peace with the pope, and the latter's son Cesare Borgia, 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.

He was forced by Borgia and the French to give up the city, to his chagrin, and he began from that moment to nurture hostile feelings towards his master and to aspire to independent rule.

[1] He took part with the Orsini, Oliverotto da Fermo and other captains in the conspiracy of La Magione against the Borgia (Vitelli was married to Porzia, daughter of Paolo Orsini), but mutual distrust and the incapacity of the leaders before Cesare's energy and the promise of French help, brought the plot to nought, and Vitelli and other condottieri, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Cesare once more, seized Senigallia in his name.