Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia (September 13, 1475? – March 11, 1507), Duke of Valentinois, and Romagna, Prince of Andria and Venafro, Count of Dyois, Lord of Piombino, Camerino and Urbino, Gonfalonier and Captain-General of Holy Church, was a Spanish-Italian condottiero, lord and cardinal. He was the son of Pope Alexander VI, and Vannozza dei Cattanei, sibling to Lucrezia Borgia, Jofré Borgia 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.
Biography
Birth
Like nearly all aspects of Cesare Borgia's life, the date of his birth is a subject of conflict. However, it is accepted that he was born in Rome between 1474 and 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 in the mid 15th century, when Cesare's great uncle Alonso Borgia (1378-1458), bishop of Valencia, was elected Pope Callixtus III in 1455. [1] Cesare's father, Pope Alexander VI was the first pope who openly recognized the children he had with his lover Vanozza de' Cattanei.
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 Sixtus IV granted Cesare a release from the necessity of proving his birth in a papal bull.
Early life
With brown eyes and orange hair, Cesare was acknowledged a beautiful child and grew to be a fleet-footed, tall, handsome man of unlimited ambition, much like his father. 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, and his father's elevation to Pope, Cesare was made Cardinal at the age of 18. [2] Alexander VI staked the hopes for the Borgia family on Cesare's brother Giovanni, who was made captain general of the military forces of the papacy. Giovanni was assassinated in 1497 in mysterious circumstances: several contemporaries suggested Cesare being his killer[3], as Giovanni's disappearing could finally open him the long-awaited military career; also jealousy towards Sancha of Aragon, wife of Cesare's other brother Jofré, and mistress of both Cesare and Giovanni[4]. Cesare's role in the act, however, has never been cleared.
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, which explains the nickname "Valentino".
Military career
Cesare's career was founded upon his father's ability to distribute patronage, and through 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 decide to profit of the favourable situation to carve out for Cesare a state of his own in northern Italy, and declared deposed all his vicars in Romagna and Marche. 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. Deprived of his French troops after the conquest of those two cities, Borgia returned anyway to Rome to celebrate a triumph and to received 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 daughter Lucrezia, was soon ousted from Pesaro; Pandolfo Malatesta lost Rimini; Faenza surrendered, his youg 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 eneded 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 fall of the Aragonese power in southern Italy.
In June 1502 he set out for the 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[5], and had them executed.
Last 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 convalescent in Castel Sant'Angelo, his troops controlled the conclave. The new pope, Pius III, supported him, but his reign was short: the accession of Cesare's 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 escaped from a Spanish prison two years later 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.
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 XVII of The Prince, and Borgia's assassination of his captains on New Year's Eve of 1503 in Senigallia. [6]
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.[7]. 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.[8]
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 at one point. Leonardo had worked at the Milanese court of Ludovico Sforza for many years, until Charles VIII of France drove Sforza out of Italy.
He wanted to take over Mantua while Isabelle d'Este was ruling.
Marriage and children
On May 10, 1499, Cesare married Charlotte d'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 first Louis II de La Tremouille, Governor of Burgundy, and secondly Philippe de Bourbon, Seigneur de Busset.
Cesare was also father to at least eleven illegitimate children: Girolamo Borgia, who married Isabella Contessa di Carpi.
Popular culture
Movies
- Lucrezia Borgia (Richard Oswald, 1926), a silent movie starring Liane Haid and Conrad Veidt
- Lucrèce Borgia (Abel Gance, 1935), a French film starring Edwige Feuillère as Lucrezia and Gabriel Gabrio as Cesare.
- The Black Duke (1961), starring Cameron Mitchell and Gloria Milland
- Bride of Vengeance (1948), starring Macdonald Carey and Paulette Goddard
- Prince of Foxes (1949), starring Orson Welles and Tyrone Power (from the best-selling book by Samuel Shellabarger) at IMDB .
- Los Borgia (2006), Spanish-Italian film, featuring Sergio Peris-Mencheta as Cesare.
- Poisons, or the World History of Poisoning (2001), a Russian film directed by Karen Shakhnazarov, where Cesare Borgia is one of the characters — IMDB .
Fiction
- The Family by Mario Puzo
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, père mentions many conspiracy theories based around Borgia.
- Madonna of the Seven Hills by Jean Plaidy AKA Victoria Holt the first half of Lucrezia Borgia's life, Cesare being a large part of that life.
- Light on Lucrezia by Jean Plaidy AKA Victoria Holt the second half of Lucrezia Borgia's life, Cesare being a large part of that life.
- Cantarella by You Higuri is a manga attributing supernatural causes to historic events, starring Cesare.
- Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
- Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger
- The Banner of the Bull by Rafael Sabatini (Fiction)
- The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis
- Kakan no Madonna by Chiho Saito (manga)
- The Borgias by Alexandre Dumas, père
- The Borgia Testament by Nigel Balchin
- Lusts of The Borgias by Marcus Van Heller
- City of God, A Novel of the Borgias by Cecelia Holland
- Then and Now by W. Somerset Maugham
- The Antichrist (1895) by F. Nietzsche Af. #61
- The Dwarf (1944) by Pär Lagerkvist features an unscrupulous prince likely modelled on Borgia
- 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.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Cloulas, Ivan. The Borgias.
- Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince.
- Johnson, Marion. The Borgias.
- Sabatini, Rafael. The Life of Cesare Borgia.
- Spinosa, Antonio (1999). La saga dei Borgia. Mondadori.
Notes
- ↑ Herfried Münkler and Marina Münkler, Lexikon der Renaissance, Munich: Beck, 2000, 43ff.(German)
- ↑ Herfried Münkler and Marina Münkler, Lexikon der Renaissance, Munich: Beck, 2000, 43ff.(German)
- ↑ Spinosa, La saga dei Borgia
- ↑ Rendina, I capitani di ventura
- ↑ Rendina, p. 250.
- ↑ Niccolò Machiavelli, "A Description of the Method Used by Duke Valentino in Killing Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, and Others",The Chief Works and Others, trans. Allan Gilbert, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1989, 3 vols., 163–169
- ↑ Ernst Cassirer, The Myth of the State, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1946
- ↑ Harvey C. Mansfield, Machiavelli's Virtue, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
External links
- The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli
- Description of the Methods Adopted by the Duke Valentino When Murdering Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, the Signor Pagolo, and the Duke di Gravina Orsini, from The Prince
| Preceded by: Ottaviano Riario |
Lord of Forlì 1499–1503 |
Succeeded by: Antonio II Ordelaffi |
| Lord of Imola 1499–1503 |
To the Papal States | |
| Preceded by: Pandolfo IV Malatesta |
Lord of Rimini 1500–1503 |
Succeeded by: Pandolfo IV Malatesta |
| Preceded by: Astorre III Manfredi |
Lord of Faenza 1501–1503 |
Succeeded by: Astorre IV Manfredi |
| Preceded by: Guidobaldo I da Montefeltro |
Duke of Urbino 1502–1503 |
Succeeded by: Francesco Maria I della Rovere |
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