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Rumberto Malatesta loved a good banquet.

He had long thought nothing could top the magnificent banquet he had thrown with his cousin Farantino and his uncle,

Pandolfo, back in 1324. On that occasion, they had invited Ramberto's other cousin,

Uberto, who had not only become an obstacle for them politically, but had also represented the deep-cutting

betrayal perpetrated by Uberto's father Paulo against Ramberto's own father back around

1285. They all had a lovely meal together, and then they killed Uberto.

Ramberto was very proud of that little bit of well-executed political intrigue,

and he had thought it cemented a good relationship with his other cousin Farentino and Uncle Pendolfo. So it's no surprise really

that two or so years later when Pendolfo died and cut Rambarto out of the line of succession

of Rimini, the oh so successful banquet they had all thrown together, was on Rambarto's mind.

What better revenge, he must have thought, than to stage a repeat performance.

So Ramberto planned another banquet and invited his entire family to join in the revelry. This time, there would be

no one left to sully his good name or challenge his power. Ramberto was going to kill them all.

I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood.

Uberto Malatesta grew up in the shadow of his father's death. When Uberto was a teenager,

his father, Paolo, was killed alongside his lover, Francesca de Palenta.

The murder was perpetrated by Paolo's own brother, John Choto, who also happened to be Francesco's

husband. John Choto had caught them in Flagrante after what was apparently a years-long passionate affair.

After the murder of Uberto's father, Uberto was brought, along with his mother and younger sister,

into the household of his father's murderer, where Uberto lived under Janchoto's tutelage. This was, evidently and

understandably, an unbearable arrangement. By 1297, Uberto fled Rimony, and he took refuge with a

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