The Lunar Chronicles: Scarlet

In August 1496 Juan, Duke of GandГ­a, returned to Rome, on the summons of his father, leaving his son and his pregnant wife in Spain, to be welcomed to the city by an even-larger gaggle of cardinals, ambassadors, soldiers, and officials than had greeted JofrГЁ and Sancia. The twenty-year-old Juan cut a far finer figure than JofrГЁ. Magnificently clothed in a long mantle of gold brocade and a jewel-encrusted doublet of brown velvet, he wore a scarlet hat hung with pearls and rode a bay horse adorned with tinkling silver bells. He was accompanied not only by his squires but also by an unruly crowd of dwarfs and buffoons. It was soon apparent to the Romans that Cesare and Juan detested each other. Juan was jealous of Cesare, who seemed now to be widely recognized as their father’s right-hand man, while Cesare, the elder of the two, burned with resentment at the indulgence shown to his self-regarding and far less talented brother, who was clearly their father’s favourite. Other than Alexander VI, very few cared for Juan, who was described by the Aragonese chronicler Geronimo Zurita as having been a вЂspoilt boy’ and as being now вЂa very mean young man, full of ideas of grandeur… haughty, cruel and unreasonable.’ He could be seen swaggering about Rome in his gorgeous attire, excessively proud of his figure ...»