Cesare Borgia was born in Rome in the mid-1470s, the illegitimate son of Rodrigo Borgia who would later become Pope Alexander VI, and the grandnephew of Pope Callixtus III. Cesare was trained for a career in the Church, attending schools in Perugia and Pisa, and then studying law at the Studium Urbis. Aged around 15, he was made Bishop of Pamplona, and at 17, after his father had been elevated to Pope, he was made archbishop of Valencia, and then a cardinal.
Cesare was clearly precocious, and biographers say he was also brave, handsome and ambitious. However, he was also ruthless: some historians believe he was responsible for the murder of his older brother Giovanni - his father’s favourite. In 1498, Cesare resigned his office, being the first cardinal in history to do so, becoming an ambassador for the pope to France. For helping King Louis XII receive a papal annulment of his marriage, Cesare was rewarded with the title of Duke of Valentinois. When King Louis invaded Italy in 1499, Cesare was by his side on entering Milan. Subsequently, Cesare was sent by his father, the pope, to subdue rebellious cities in northern Italy. With the full force of the papal armies, he established a new state of Romagna for himself. In 1501, the pope named him a Papal Gonfalonier and Duke of Romagna.
In 1503, however, both Cesare and Alexander VI fell ill with fever; the son recovered but the father died. The new pope, Pius III, supported Cesare, reconfirming him as Gonfalonier, but he died within weeks, leading to the election of Giuliano Della Rovere as Pope Julius II - a deadly enemy of the Borgias. Pope Julius soon sought to recover the northern Italian cities for the Papacy, and Cesare himself was arrested in Naples, then a Spanish possession, and imprisoned. In 1506, he escaped, and fled to Navarre, then ruled by his brother-in-law John III, for whom he served briefly as a military commander, before being killed at the siege of Viana on 12 March 1507. Further information is available from Wikipedia, The Borgia Bull, New World Encyclopedia, or Encyclopedia.com.
‘Cesare is best known,’ Encyclopedia.com summarises, ‘as a model leader, the ideal of the Renaissance prince, in the eyes of Niccolo Machiavelli, the Florentine historian who believed Cesare’s combination of ambition and cunning were best suited to rule in his times. The historian, serving as an ambassador for Florence, spent some time at Borgia’s court in 1502-1503 and described his actions and tactics in his work The Prince. Borgia’s conquest of Romagna and the murder of his rivals at Senigallia on New Year’s Eve 1502 in particular earned Machiavelli’s praise.’
Apart from Machiavelli, historians turn to the diary of Johannes Burchardus (or Johann Burchard) for biographical information on Cesare. Burchardus was born in Alsace, and rose to high rank in the church, being appointed Master of Ceremonies under Pope Sixtus IV, and retaining the position through several popes until his death in 1506. But his main claim to be remembered is as a chronicler, for his Liber Notarum, a record of life in the papal court. Though editions of the work had been published earlier, it was not until the early 20th century that a first full and critical version was published, in Latin. An English version, edited by Dr F. L. Glaser followed in 1910: Pope Alexander VI and his court: extracts from the Latin diary of Johannes Burchardus. This is freely available at Internet Archive.
One of the most infamous passages from the diary records an orgy in the Vatican as organised by Cesare: ‘On the evening of the last day of October, 1501, Cesare Borgia arranged a banquet in his chambers in the Vatican with fifty honest prostitutes, called courtesans, who danced after the dinner with the attendants and the others who were present, at first in their garments, then naked. After the dinner the candelabra with the burning candles were taken from the tables and placed on the floor, and chestnuts were strewn around, which the naked courtesans picked up, creeping on hands and knees between the chandeliers, while the Pope, Cesare, and his sister Lucretia looked on. Finally prizes were announced for those who could perform the act most often with the courtesans, such as tunics of silk, shoes, barrets, and other things.’ The so-called Banquet of Chestnuts - disputed by some - has its own Wikipedia page.
Here are several other extracts from the diary of Burchadus relating to Cesare.
20 April 1499
‘On Saturday, the 20th of April, 1499, the Pope received a letter from France advising him that the marriage contract had been concluded by the former Cardinal Cesare Borgia and the Lord d’Albret in the name of his daughter, by which, as was reported, and as it was in fact set down in the contract, the Pope was to give a dowry of 200,000 ducats, and the marriage was not to be performed until his Holiness had nominated the brother of the bride a cardinal.’
23 May 1499
‘On the 23rd of May, 1499, a courier arrived from France with the report for the Pope that his son Cesare, the former cardinal, had contracted the marriage with the Lady d’Albret, on Sunday, the 12th of May, and had performed it and did take her eight times, one after the other.’
18 November 1499
‘On Monday, the 18th of November, 1499, Cesare Borgia returned secretly through the Porta Cavallegieri to Rome with a chamberlain and the brother of the deceased John Marades and stayed with the Pope in the palace until Thursday, the 21st. On the morning of this day he departed and rode away secretly with an escort of papal soldiers to the city of Imola, which he took over soon afterward by force together with the castle. The Lords of the city, the sons of the deceased Count Girolamo Riario, nephew of Cardinal Riario, were robbed with violence.’
23 January 1503
‘On Wednesday, the 23rd of January, 1503, the report was circulated in Rome that Cesare had brought under his rule recently Chiusi and Pienza as well as the places of Sarteano, Castle della Pieve and Santo Quirico, where only two old men and nine old women were found. The men of the Duke hung them up by the arms and lighted fires beneath their soles, in order to force them through this torture to confess where property had been hidden. But they could or would not confess and perished under the torture. The villainous band tore the roofs from the houses, the beams, windows, doors, chests and barrels, from which they had let the wine run out, and set fire to everything. They took with them whatever they could plunder in the places they passed through, as well as in Aquapendente, Monte- fiascone, Viterbo, and everywhere else.’
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