Micheletto Corella

"Micheletto. The best killer in Roma. No one escapes him."

- La Volpe

Micheletto Corella (1470 - 1506) was a condottiero, and a member of the Templar Order. He was also, at one point, the governor of Piombino.

Early life
Micheletto Corella was born in Valencia, Spain, but grew up in Rome, Italy. He was a childhood friend of Cesare Borgia, and would later become his protector.

Serving the Borgia
Micheletto would go on to serve the Borgia for the rest of his life, Cesare in particular. He became Cesare's personal executioner, killing any who stood in his master's way. He also became a condottiero and the governor of Piombino for a short time.

Siege of Monteriggioni
In January 1500, Micheletto accompanied Cesare, along with Lucreiza Borgia, Juan Borgia, and Octavian de Valois to lay siege to Monteriggioni in order to bring down the Auditore and acquire the Apple of Eden. They went home victorious with the Apple and Mario Auditore's life taken.

Murders
Many of Micheletto's murders went unrecorded, though a few managed to be kept known throughout the years. The Church aided Micheletto by covering up or ignoring his killings.

On 18 August 1500, Alfonso of Aragon, the husband of Cesare's sister, Lucrezia Borgia, was killed by Micheletto on Cesare's orders, as the latter was jealous of Alfonso.

In 1502, Micheletto killed Giulio Cesare da Varano and three of his sons in order for Cesare to be able to take over Camerino.

Micheletto killed Astorre III Manfredi, the Lord of Faenza, on 9 June 1502 inside the Castel Sant'Angelo.

On 31 December 1502, Micheletto simultaneously strangled Oliverotto da Fermo and Vitellozzo Vitelli for conspiring against Cesare.

On New Year's Eve of 1503, Cesare ordered the arrest of all his top captains that had once left his ranks and later rejoined; two of which were strangled back to back by Micheletto. The rest were thrown in prison.

Teaching Giovanni
At times between 1500 and 1503, Micheletto was left to guard and teach Giovanni Borgia, Cesare's adopted son, and Lucrezia's biological child. He attempted to instruct Giovanni to be tough and merciless, often beating him to force him to learn how to defend himself.

At one point, Micheletto brought Giovanni into the city, and instructed him to engage an old man in conversation. As the boy spoke with him, Micheletto approached the old man from behind, and strangled him to death, merely to teach Giovanni the cruelties of the world.

These "lessons" only resulted in Giovanni hating Micheletto, and eventually prompting him to run away from home.

Final tasks
In August 1503, not long after the death of Octavian de Valois, Micheletto accompanied Cesare to a meeting with Francesco Troche, who had told his brother Egidio of Cesare's plans for Romagna. Egidio had sent letters to the ambassador of Venice to warn him, though these letters had been intercepted. Francesco attempted to have Cesare spare his life, but he was ultimately strangled to death by Micheletto, and his body was thrown in the Tiber River.

Micheletto then went on to meet with some Borgia guards, giving them costumes with which they could infiltrate the Colosseum Passion Play to kill Pietro Rossi, Lucrezia's latest lover. Unbeknownst to him, he was being followed by the Assassin, Ezio Auditore, who had sent his apprentices to take down all the aforementioned guards, and steal the costumes they had been given.

Ezio continued to follow Micheletto to the Colosseum, where he took down all the Borgia arquebusiers posted there. Donning his own costume, Ezio followed Micheletto onstage, where they both joined the play. As soon as Ezio came close to Micheletto, he attacked him with his hidden blade. However, Ezio did not finish him off, saying that Micheletto would bring himself down by aiding Cesare.

Cesare later killed his father, Pope Alexander VI, after the latter attempted to poison Cesare. As a result, the Borgias' influence over Rome was gone and Cesare became powerless. Cesare sent Micheletto to gather an army to take back Rome, though he never arrived; and instead, Cesare was captured by the Papal Guard. Micheletto fled Rome, though he was later captured on the order of Pope Julius II.

Final words
(As Ezio attempts to stab Micheletto, he laughs.)

Micheletto: ''You cannot save Pietro. The wine he drank was poisoned. As I promised Cesare, I made doubly sure. (Ezio gets up and leaves him.) I am not yet dead.''

Ezio: ''I did not come here to kill you. He who is the cause of someone else becoming powerful is the agent of his own destruction.''

Trivia

 * In the the mobile phone version of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Micheletto was called Michelotto.
 * Upon "assassinating" Micheletto, he is wearing his Passion play costume; however, when he is saying his "final" words, he is wearing his ordinary clothes.
 * During Micheletto's "final" words, Ezio will hold up his right Hidden Blade to Micheletto's throat, regardless of whether the player had purchased the second blade from Leonardo.
 * In the novelization of Brotherhood, Micheletto helps Cesare escape. However, he later feels that he is being mistreated, and attempts to kill his master. He fails however, and is instead shot in the face and maimed by Cesare's gun.
 * In real life, Micheletto later worked in Florence from 1505 to 1507, and was killed in Milan on January 1508.
 * Ezio's last statement to Micheletto, "He who is the cause of someone else becoming powerful, is the agent of his own destruction", can be found in Chapter 3 of Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, albeit in more detail.