Cesare Borgia

Cesare Borgia, the living image of the Renaissance prince, praised by Machiavelli and reviled by history, was the example of the intelligent politician, loved by his people and feared by his enemies, with whom he was implacable.

He was the first of the children that Cardinal Rodrigo de Borja had with Vannozza Cattanei, born in Rome in September 1475, who would be followed by Giovanni, Lucrezia and Goffredo.

When he was only six years old, he already began to receive ecclesiastical positions, a social sphere to which he had been assigned by his father. In 1491, at the age of 16, he was appointed bishop of Pamplona.

The pontifical election of his father, in August 1492, boosted his ecclesiastical career and he received the archbishopric of Valencia and the Cistercian abbey of Valldigna. In 1493 he settles in Rome and begins to show some of the skills that will make him famous: his bearing and his wit.

Charles VIII of France, on his way through Rome in 1493, on his way to Naples, took him with him as papal legate and hostage. Cesare stars in a resounding escape that will increase his prestige. Pretending that his trip is going to be long, he organizes a large retinue loaded with luggage. The French did not think that the famous cardinal would abandon all his trousseau and lower their guard. Cesare escapes, leaving behind bundles full of stones.

On the night of June 14, 1497, Cesare said goodbye to his brother Giovanni and his body was found a few days later floating in the Tiber. Knowing the disagreements between the two brothers, the gossip echoed the accusation of fraticide that floated in the environment. They never found the culprit.

In August 1498 Cesar managed to get his demands met and passed to the secular state.

Louis XII of France, after agreeing with the pope to divorce his wife Joan of Valois, grants him the Duchy of Valentinois and marries him to Princess Carlota of Albret (1499), with whom he would have a daughter named Luisa. Although he had no recognized mistresses, he would later have two natural children, Girolamo and Camila. 

At the service of the French monarch, Caesar enters Italy with his troops (1499) and during his stay in Rome maintains tense relations with Alfonso de Bisceglie, husband of his sister Lucrezia, whom he orders assassinated (1500).

That same year he expands the Borgia territories throughout central Italy and his father grants him the title of Duke of Romagna (1501).

In this convulsive time, full of intrigues, he breaks up a conspiracy against him carried out by the Orsini, which ends in the prison and execution of the conspirators and the capture of the indomitable Catalina Sforza, whom he confines for a time in the castle of Sant'Angelo (1502).

On August 18, 1503, Alexander VI died. Cesare convalesces in the pontifical rooms, a victim of malaria. Some attributed his state of health to the poison, which his father would have also ingested.

The new Pope, Pius III, confirmed his charges, but died a few months later and was succeeded, like Julius II, by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the bitterest enemy of the Borgias.

Without influence and without power, he took refuge in the Castel Sant'Angelo, to embark for Naples in April 1504. But his freedom did not last long. Ferdinand II of Aragon orders his imprisonment and transfer to Spain in September of that same year.

In the peninsula he will be confined, first in Valencia, and later in the castles of Chinchilla and de la Mota (Medina del Campo). In the latter, he stars in a bizarre escape (1506) that takes him to the domain of his brother-in-law, the King of Navarre, who appoints him general of his armies.

On March 12, 1507, he died in a skirmish near Viana, where he was buried.

His body remained in the church of Santa María until the middle of the 16th century, when the Bishop of Calahorra ordered his remains to be taken out of the temple, in revenge for the murder of a family member armed in his day by the Borgias. 

A model of political cunning in the eyes of Machiavelli, history has presented him as a character without scruples or morals. But Cesare Borgia has also passed into the collective memory as the image of the Renaissance prince, cultured and of exquisite taste.

The motto that was engraved on the sword that accompanied it accurately described it: “Either Caesar or nothing”.