Giovanni II Bentivoglio (12 February 1443 – 15 February 1508) was the tyrant of Bologna from 1463 to 1506.
Biography[]
Giovanni II Bentivoglio was born in Bologna in 1443, the son of Annibale I Bentivoglio, the chief magistrate. His father was murdered two years later, and Giovanni became lord of the commune after the death of another relative, Sante I Bentivoglio, in 1463. In 1446, Pope Paul II granted him the privilege to be considered perpetual head of the Bolognese Senate, making him the city's tyrant. Bentivoglio made money by fighting as a condottiero, fighting for Florence, Milan, Ferrara, and Naples. Bentivoglio resisted the expansionist designs of Cesare Borgia by offering his son, Ermete Bentivoglio, as a general of the Papal States, despite intending for his son to become a priest. In 1506, Pope Julius II deposed and excommunicated Bentivoglio, and he failed to reconquer the city in 1507. The Bolognese subsequently rioted against his possessions in the city, destroying his palace; he died as a prisoner of King Louis XII of France in 1508.