Cesare Borgia (
September 13,
1475 –
March 12,
1507),
Duke of Valentinois was a
Spanish-
Italian condottiero, lord and cardinal. He was the son of
Pope Alexander VI and his long-term mistress
Vannozza dei Cattanei, sibling to
Lucrezia Borgia,
Gioffre Borgia (Jofré in Valentian), Prince of Squillace, and
Giovanni Borgia, duke of
Gandia, and half-brother to
Don Pedro Luis de Borja and
Girolama de Borja, children of unknown mothers.
Early life
Like nearly all aspects of Cesare Borgia's life, the date of his birth is a subject of dispute. However, it is accepted that he was born in
Rome either in 1475 or 1476 to Cardinal Rodrigo de Lanzol y Borja, soon to become
Pope Alexander VI, and his mistress
Vannozza de' Cattanei, of whom documents are sparse. The Borgia family originally came from Spain and rose to prominence during the mid 15th century, when Cesare's great uncle Alonso Borgia (1378-1458), bishop of Valencia, was elected
Pope Callixtus III in 1455.
[Herfried Münkler and Marina Münkler, Lexikon der Renaissance, Munich: Beck, 2000, p. 43ff.] Cesare's father,
Pope Alexander VI, was the first pope who openly recognised to have children with a lover.
Stefano Infessura writes that Cardinal Borgia falsely claimed Cesare to be the legitimate son of another man, the nominal husband of Vannozza de' Cattanei. More likely,
Pope Alexander VI granted Cesare a release from the necessity of proving his birth in a
papal bull.
With brown eyes and black hair, Cesare was acknowledged as a beautiful child and grew to be a fleet-footed, tall, handsome man of unlimited ambition, much like his father.
Career
Church office
Cesare was initially groomed for a career in the
church. He was made Bishop of
Pamplona at the age of 15. Following school in
Perugia and
Pisa where Cesare studied law, along with his father's elevation to Pope, Cesare was made
Cardinal at the age of 18.
Alexander VI staked the hopes of the Borgia family in Cesare's brother Giovanni, who was made captain general of the military forces of the papacy. Giovanni was assassinated in 1497 in mysterious circumstances: with several contemporaries suggesting that Cesare might be his killer, as Giovanni's disappearing could finally open him a long-awaited military career; as well as jealousy over
Sancha of Aragon, wife of Cesare's other brother
Jofré, and mistress of both Cesare and Giovanni. Cesare's role in the act, however, has never been clear.
On
August 17,
1498, Cesare became the first person in history to resign the cardinalate. On the same day the French
King Louis XII named Cesare
Duke of Valentinois, and this title, along with his former position as Cardinal of Valencia, explains the nickname "Valentino".
Military
Cesare's career was founded upon his father's ability to distribute patronage, along with his alliance with France (reinforced by his marriage with Charlotte d'Albret, sister of
John III of Navarre), in the course of the
Italian Wars. Louis XII invaded Italy in 1499: after
Gian Giacomo Trivulzio had ousted its duke
Ludovico Sforza, Cesare accompanied the king in his entrance in
Milan.
At this point Alexander decided to profit from the favourable situation and carve out for Cesare a state of his own in northern Italy. To this end, he declared that all his vicars in
Romagna and
Marche were deposed. Though in theory subject directly to the pope, these rulers had been practically independent or dependent on other states for generations.
Cesare was appointed commander of the papal armies with a number of Italian mercenaries, supported by 300 cavalry and 4,000 Swiss infantry sent by the King of France. His first victim was
Caterina Sforza (mother of the Medici
condottiero Giovanni dalle Bande Nere), ruler of
Imola and
Forlì. Despite being deprived of his French troops after the conquest of those two cities, Borgia returned to Rome to celebrate a triumph and to receive the title of Papal
Gonfaloniere from his father. In 1500 the creation of twelve new cardinals granted Alexander enough money for Cesare to hire the
condottieri Vitellozzo Vitelli,
Gian Paolo Baglioni,
Giulio and
Paolo Orsini, and
Oliverotto da Fermo, who resumed his campaign in Romagna.
Giovanni Sforza, first husband of Cesare's sister Lucrezia, was soon ousted from
Pesaro;
Pandolfo Malatesta lost
Rimini;
Faenza surrendered, its young lord
Astorre III Manfredi being later drowned in the Tiber river by Cesare's order. In May 1501 the latter was created duke of Romagna. Hired by Florence, Cesare subsequently added the lordship of
Piombino to his new lands.
While his
condottieri took over the siege of Piombino (which ended in 1502), Cesare commanded the French troops in the sieges of Naples and
Capua, defended by
Prospero and
Fabrizio Colonna. On
june 24 1501 his troops stormed the latter, causing the collapse of Aragonese power in southern Italy.
In June 1502 he set out for Marche, where he was able to capture
Urbino and
Camerino by treason. The next step would be
Bologna, but his
condottieri, fearing Cesare's cruelty, set up a plot against him.
Guidobaldo da Montefeltro and
Giovanni Maria da Varano returned in Urbino and Camerino and
Fossombrone revolted. Cesare called for a reconciliation, but treacherously imprisoned his
condottieri in
Senigallia, a feat described as a "Wonderful deceiving" by
Paolo Giovio, and had them executed.
Later years
Though an immensely capable general and statesman, Cesare could do nothing without continued papal patronage. The news of his father's death (1503) arrived when Cesare, though gravely ill, was planning the conquest of
Tuscany. While he was convalescing in
Castel Sant'Angelo, his troops controlled the conclave. The new pope,
Pius III, supported him, but his reign was short: the accession of the Borgias' deadly enemy
Julius II caused his sudden ruin.
While moving to Romagna to quench a revolt, he was seized and imprisoned by
Gian Paolo Baglioni near Perugia. All his lands were acquired by the Papal States. Exiled to
Spain, in 1504, he was imprisoned in the Castle of La Mota,
Medina del Campo, from where he escaped and joined his brother-in-law, King
John III of Navarre. In his service, Cesare died at the
siege of
Viana in 1507, at the age of thirty-one.
Remains
He was originally buried in a marble tomb beneath the altar of the Church of Santa Maria in the town with an inscription "Here lies in little earth one who was feared by all, who held peace and war in his hand." In 1537, the Bishop of Calahorra visited the church and was horrified for such a sinner being buried in the holy place. Hence, the tomb was destroyed and the remains were transferred to an unconsecrated site outside the church so that his body would be "trampled on by men and beasts", as the bishop ordered. His remains stayed there until 1945, when his remains were accidentally exhumed by some workmen. A group of local politicians pleaded with the Catholic Church to give him a proper burial. However, the local bishop turned down the requests. His body then was placed under a marble plaque outside the church grounds. In 2007, Fernando Sebastian Aguilar, the Archbishop of Pamplona, finally granted the petitions and allowed the remains to be moved back inside the church on the day before the 500th anniversary of his death. The local church was not against the decision. "Whatever he may have done in life, he deserves to be forgiven now," said the local church.
Evaluation
Cesare Borgia was greatly admired by
Niccolò Machiavelli, who met the Duke on a diplomatic mission in his function as Secretary of the Florentine Chancellery. Machiavelli was at Borgia's court from
October 7,
1502 through
January 18,
1503. During this time he wrote regular dispatches to his superiors in Florence, many of which have survived and are published in Machiavelli's Collected Works. Machiavelli used many of Borgia's exploits and tactics as examples in
The Prince and advised politicians to imitate Borgia. Two episodes were particularly impressive to Machiavelli: the method by which Borgia pacified the Romagna, which Machiavelli describes in chapter VII of
The Prince, and Borgia's assassination of his captains on New Year's Eve of 1503 in Senigallia.
Machiavelli's praise for Borgia is subject to controversy. Some scholars see in Machiavelli's Borgia the precursor of state crimes in the 20th Century. Others, including
Macaulay and
Lord Acton have historicized Machiavelli's Borgia, explaining the admiration for such violence as an effect of the general criminality and corruption of the time.
In Volume One of
Celebrated Crimes,
Alexandre Dumas, père states that some pictures of Jesus Christ produced around Borgia's lifetime were based on Cesare Borgia, and that this in turn has influenced images of Jesus produced since that time.
Cesare Borgia briefly employed
Leonardo da Vinci as military architect and engineer between 1502 and 1503. Cesare and Leonardo became intimate instantaneously - Cesare provided Leonardo with an unlimited pass to inspect and direct all planned and undergoing construction in his domain. Before meeting Cesare, Leonardo had worked at the Milanese court of
Ludovico Sforza for many years, until
Charles VIII of France drove Sforza out of Italy. After Cesare, Leonardo was unsuccessful in finding another patron in Italy. François I of France was able to convince him to enter his service, and the last three years of this life were spent working in France.
He wanted to take over Mantua while
Isabella d'Este was ruling.
Personal life
On
May 10,
1499, Cesare married
Charlotte of Albret (
1480 -
March 11,
1514). She was a sister of
John III of Navarre. They were parents to a daughter,
Louise Borgia, (1500 - 1553) who first married
Louis II de La Tremouille, Governor of Burgundy, and secondly Philippe de Bourbon (1499-1557), Seigneur de
Busset.
Cesare was also father to at least 11 illegitimate children, among them
Girolamo Borgia, who married
Isabella Contessa di Carpi, and Lucrezia Borgia, who, after Cesare's death, was moved to Ferrara to the court of her aunt,
Lucrezia Borgia.
Popular culture
What if you were alone in an alley with Cesare Borgia
And he was coming torgia...
--Ogden Nash
Movies
- Bride of Vengeance (1948)
- Poisons, or the World History of Poisoning (2001)
Literature
- Milo Manara, an Italian comic book creator, drew a comic book divided in three parts depicting the story of the Borgia family. The texts were written by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
- The Vulture is a patient bird by James Hadley Chase refers to a ring that belonged to Borgia
Music
Cesare Borgia is mentioned in the song "B.I.B.L.E.", performed by
Killah Priest, which appears on
GZA's
1995 album
Liquid Swords, as well as Killah Priest's debut album
Heavy Mental. The relevant line is "the
white image, of
Christ, is really Cesare Borgia... the second son of
Pope Alexander, the Sixth of Rome".
