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The Borgias: “Truth” vs Reality

By Theodore Kemna

Introduction

As I described often in class for the last few months pre-quarantine, my research for our semester long project had been on the weirder and more taboo Popes, with my research question being “What absurd stories of old Popes are true and what are myths?” Unfortunately, through my research, though I came across some very odd stories from all over the history of the catholic church, I ended up focusing on the biggest of the more well known papacy-centric collections of tales, the saga of the Borgias, which made my research question more “What absurd stories about Alexander VI are true and what are myths?” by the end. Though in the course of my research some of the information that first piqued my interest has been disproven as most likely myths, I don’t wish to rob the class of these stories. That’s why I have decided to present the information as a “Truth” vs Reality article, in which I will first outline the “truth” of the stories as often outlined and believed in our modern day society, then counter and compare it with the reality of the actual situation. With that out of the way, here it is, presented in all it’s glory.

“The Truth” of The Borgias

In late July 1492, Pope Innocent VIII died, and the Cardinals of the Vatican were assembled to vote for his successor. In the center of this vote were two men, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere and Cardinal Rodrigo de Borgia. Della Rovere hailed from a popular and well respected family within the church and the surrounding area, and was expected to be the next person to attain the papacy. Borgia was the nephew of Pope Callixtus III, a lesser known pope, 2 but was best known as a corrupt Spaniard known to often engage in sinful adultery with many women and also as the father of countless children, a great sin for any holy man. To win the papacy, one had to attain a significant majority of the cardinal votes, and early on, as Cardinals voted and changed votes to try to reach that majority, it seemed that della Rovere was close to victory. A few days into the voting this changed however, as Borgia bribed his fellow cardinals with great sums of cash, sweeping the papal election and being made Pope Alexander VI a matter of time later. This was only the beginning of a long reign of papal terror.

As recorded by the unbiased and impartial chronicler and Vatican Master of Ceremonies

Johann Burchard, Alexander VI immediately went to work strengthening his power and

stabilizing his right to the papacy. He placed his three

favorite children, Juan, Lucretzia, and Cesare Borgia,

into important political positions within the Vatican,

he exiled Della Rovere not to return to Rome until

after Alexander VI’s death, and he filled the cardinals

of the Vatican with newly appointed members, all

loyal to him and him alone. After doing this he

proceeded to lead the church with reckless abandon as his children ran amok, the most notable of which was Cesare.

For Alexander’s entire reign Cesare Borgia committed great sins against the church he was so closely associated with. After being made a Cardinal for a time, he constantly engaged in adultery and other sinful acts at his father’s behest, ordering assassinations and on occasion preforming a murder himself. One example of this unknown to his father was when he killed his 3 brother Juan, who had been made the leader of the Papal Army. In the aftermath he seized control of the army himself and used it to conquer land throughout Europe, slaughtering men, women, and children. But the thing Cesare is known best for was his relationship with his pre-teen aged sister Lucretzia. For many years it was widely known across Italy that the two siblings frequently engaged in “consensual” intercourse with each other, even through

Lucretzia’s multiple marriages, and though it is likely Alexander knew of this, he turned a blind eye to it at every chance he could. He was too busy having fun.

Alexander was known to lavishly spend the church’s funds, commissioning expensive portraits of himself, his family, and if he liked them enough, his mistresses. He would also put on lavish shows for him and his daughter, bringing horses into Rome for the sole purpose of watching their intercourse. He is noted to have viewed them mate outside the Vatican with

Lucrezia, reacting with “loud laughter and much pleasure.” But the most expensive passtime of

Alexander’s was not comissioning paintings or laughing at horse sex, it was holding banquets, the best known of which is the legendary Banquet of

Chestnuts. Organized by his son Cesare and recorded by Burchard, “50 honest prostitutes” were brought into the Vatican and made to strip, dancing around the table as the Pope, his children, and many of his close acquaintances ate dinner.

Afterwards, the Pope strew chestnuts out onto the floor and had the prostitutes pick them up, and 4 then announced that whoever around him could have as much sex with the women as possible would be rewarded with riches, such as expensive silks.

His life continued much like this until the Pope’s unfortunate death in 1503. Soon after,

Cesare would be killed on the battlefield and the Borgia family would fade out of the spotlight.

Eventually Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere would return from exile and take his place as the pope he was destined to be, going by Pope Julius II. Under his leadership the Vatican would be put back on track, but unfortunately for all, Alexander VI would forever be remembered as a dark spot in the history of the Catholic Church.

The Reality of the Borgias

That all sounded generally believable right? Alexander was a real bad guy, wasn’t he?

And how about Giuliano? He sure was screwed over right? Well actually, as the premise of this

would suggest, most of that was BS, and to tell the

true story we have to start again, back once more in

late July 1492.

Pope Innocent VIII died, and the Cardinals of the

Vatican were assembled to vote for his successor. In

the center of this vote were two men, Cardinal

Giuliano della Rovere and Cardinal Rodrigo de

Borgia. Della Rovere hailed from a powerful, well

respected, and somewhat corrupt family within the

church and the surrounding area, and was expected 5 by the public to be the next pope. Borgia was the nephew of Pope Callixtus III, a lesser known pope, and was disliked by most higher families in Italy (including the della Roveres) as well as some of the Italian public due to being a Spaniard, but as a person was known to be rather calm and respectful within the church. He did have at least two children, but sins such as that were not uncommon and were often overlooked within that time. Whether any bribery took place is unknown, but what we do know is that Borgia won, and was named Pope Alexander VI soon after.

One of his early decisions as pope was to exile Della Rovere, likely under the circumstances that he was acting strongly against Alexander, a decision that both amplified Della

Rovere’s hatred of Borgia and would later have a severe effect on him posthumously. He also placed his extended family into positions of power within the church, which was common practice at the time, and the reason both Alexander and della Rovere had become Cardinals in the first place. He made his great-nephew Juan the head of the papal army and placed his son

Cesare as one of the many new Cardinals he appointed to secure his somewhat shaky right to the papacy. Unfortunately, in an act suspected to have been an attempt at harming the Borgias, Juan was killed a few years into Alexander’s reign, and Cesare was appointed to his position as a replacement. Cesare would serve the Vatican as best he could in a time of very high tension in

Europe, but was known to be slightly bloodthirsty in his approach.

By the time of Alexander’s death in 1503, he had left a forgettable but not bad legacy. He would be succeeded by the less than year reign of Pope Pius III and Alexander’s family began to fade into papal obscurity. And they would’ve too if it weren’t for two men, Vatican Master of 6

Ceremonies Johann Burchard, and Alexander’s greatest detractor, Cardinal Giuliano della

Rovere.

After the death of Pius III, della Rovere finally returned from his exile and was finally appointed pope. He chose the name Julius II as to emulate Julius Caesar (though he looked more like an evil Santa Claus), and would spend his papacy making influential moves across Europe, leaving a very large legacy. Part of this legacy though, was personal to Julius. Still full of spite and hatred towards Alexander VI, he would launch a long lasting assault on his legacy, permanently desecrating his memory, and ironically as a result making Alexander become a more famous pope than he. To do so, he weaponized the unpopularity of Alexander based upon his homeland within the culture of

Italy. He exiled the remaining members of the Borgia family from Italy and started rumors, powered by pre-existing national bigotry, that would spread across the land and cement themselves in history. These included Alexander’s five to eight other children that weren’t

Cesare or Lucrezia, most of which were members of the extended Borgia family, as well as the tales of lots and lots of incest. To bolster this further, and to assist in making his lies history

(which he was successful in) Julius II equipt himself with the writings of Johann Burchard.

Johann Burchard was the Vatican Master of Ceremonies for the entirety of Alexander’s reign, as 7 well as a chronicler who despised him. Within his private journal he often exaggerated or even completely fabricated stories about Alexander and his family. Julius spread these as far as he could, with one such tale, the “Banquet of Chestnuts,” becoming quite popular as it spread for the next many hundred years. With such a heavy focus on the desecration of Alexander, and with his successes in other parts of the catholic world, by the time of Julius’s death in 1513, just 10 years after Alexander’s death, Alexander’s memory had been warped and destroyed, replaced by the man who peaked my interest in this topic in the first place.

Conclusion

The Borgia legacy has continued to be dragged through the mud in the years since Julius

II’s reign, and though the writings of Burchard were discredited by most historians about 100 years ago, the circulation of the lies about the Borgias continue, be it in video games, books, or a three season big-budget television series which was a productive use of my class time to watch.

In the time since writing my bibliography I’ve discovered even more myths have been created with the advent of the internet, such as how some people believe that the modern depiction of

Jesus was deliberately created by Alexander to be based on Cesare Borgia. It’s a theory which makes no sense because that depiction long predates Cesare’s life (if you don’t believe that this myth exists, look it up). Anyway, though it seems that most of the stories told about the Borgias are in fact myths, and people have easy access to information to learn this, there is no doubt in my mind that the desecration of the Borgia family will continue for years to come, entertaining people like me for a very long time.

Image Links: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pope_Alexander_Vi.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pope_Julius_II.jpg, ​ ​ ​ ​ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alessandro_VI.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pope_Alexander-VI.jpg ​ ​