Vitellozzo Vitelli was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 condottiero. He was lord of Montone

Montone

Montone is a comune in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 35 km north of Perugia.Montone is a walled medieval village with a small industrial and housing estate surrounding the walled town center...

, Città di Castello

Città di Castello

Città di Castello is a city and comune in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of the Umbria region of Italy. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain of the river Tiber. The city is north of Perugia and south of Cesena on the S3bis. It is connected to the A1...

, Monterchi

Monterchi

Monterchi is a comune in the Province of Arezzo in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 80 km southeast of Florence and about 20 km east of Arezzo...

 and Anghiari

Anghiari

-History:Anghiari is famous for the Battle of Anghiari between Florence and Milan which took place there on June 29, 1440. The battle inspired a fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio by Leonardo da Vinci...

.

Biography

Together with his father, Niccolò, tyrant of Città di Castello, and his brothers, who were all soldiers of fortune, he instituted a new type of infantry armed with sword and pike to resist the German men-at-arms, and also a corps of mounted infantry armed with arquebuses. Vitellozzo took service with Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 against Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

, and later with the French in Apulia

Apulia

Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...

 in 1496 and with the Orsini faction against Pope Alexander VI

Pope Alexander VI

Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...

.

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

Cesare Borgia

Cesare Borgia , Duke of Valentinois, was an Italian condottiero, nobleman, politician, and cardinal. He was the son of Pope Alexander VI and his long-term mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei. He was the brother of Lucrezia Borgia; Giovanni Borgia , Duke of Gandia; and Gioffre Borgia , Prince of Squillace...

, 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. While Borgia was actually negotiating with the republic, Vitelli seized Arezzo

Arezzo

Arezzo is a city and comune in Central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about 80 km southeast of Florence, at an elevation of 296 m above sea level. In 2011 the population was about 100,000....

. Forced by Borgia and the French, much against his will, to give up the city, he began from that moment to nurture hostile feelings towards his master and to aspire to independent rule.

He took part with the Orsini, Oliverotto da Fermo and other captains in the conspiracy of La Magione against the Borgia; but mutual distrust and the incapacity of the leaders before Cesare's energy and the promise of French help, brought the plot to naught, and Vitelli and other condottieri, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Cesare once more, seized Senigallia

Senigallia

Senigallia is a comune and port town on Italy's Adriatic coast, 25 km by rail north of Ancona, in the Marche region, province of Ancona....

in his name. There they were tricked by him and arrested while their troops were out of reach. Vitelli and Oliverotto were strangled that same night (31 December 1502).