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Home , Duke of Valentinois, Lucrezia Borgia

THE BORJA FAMILY, UNIVERSAL VALENCIANS

COURTYARD, PAlAU DUCN. GANDIA

DURINGTHE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES, THE BORJAFAMILY WIELDED POLITICAL, CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS POWER OVER RENAISSANCEROME. ACCOUNTS OF THEIR LIVES, MIXING FACT AND FICTION, HAVE GIVEN RISE TO A CONTROVERSY OF ENORMOUS PROPORTIONS. PALAU DUCAL. GANDIA

mongst the families our country branch of settled in Xativa a united Italy. But the death of Calixtus has given to history there is no and began to prosper after taking the III caused a reaction in against . question that the most univer- side of King Peter the Ceremonious in the Borias and Pere Lluís was forced to sally known is the Boria family, espe- the War against the "Unió". This was flee the city. He died shortly after- cially under the ltalianized form of their the start of an ascent which was to take wards, leaving his immense fortune to surname, Borgia. Recently, as part of off when one member of the family, the his brother Roderic. the events surrounding the 1994 "Octo- Bishop of Valencia Alfons de Boria Roderic, who by then had been made a ber" Awards, a symposium was held on ( 1 378- 14581, a man with extraordinary cardinal, managed to withstand the dif- the Borias in which a number of specia- powers of diplomacy, travelled to ltaly ficulties of the moment and with the help lists discussed the main points of the with Alfons V and ,eventually came to of his money, so they say, was elected political and family life of this Valencian occupy the Papal throne with the name Pope in 1492 with the name Alexander clan which, amongst others, produced Calixtus 111 (1455). His coronation was VI. Before and after he was crowned two popes, a saint and such well known the unexpected result of the differences Pope, Roderic had a series of chil- characters as and his sis- between two of the most influential dren, amongst them Pere Lluis (c. ter Lucrezia. At the same time, the fourth families in Rome at that time, the Orsinis 1458-14881, Cesar, or Cesare, (c. volume of Father Miquel Batllori's Com- and the Colonnas. 1475-15071, Joan (c. 1475- 1497) and plete Works, La família Boria (Edicions The new Pope surrounded himself with Lucrecia, or Lucrezia, ( 1480- 1 5 1 91, by Tres i Quatre) was presented. This book people he could trust and placed two of Vanozza Catanei. In 1485, Pere Lluís takes a fresh look at the history of this his nephews in the papa1 court: Pere bought the Duchy of Gandia from King family without the usual preiudices and Lluís (c. 1430-1458) and Roderic (c. Ferdinand the Catholic and married preconceived notions. 143 1-1 503). Pere Lluís became captain Maria Enriquez, the King's cousin. But The Borjas were originally from Ara- general of the pontifical armies. Not a Pere Lluis died young and duchy and gon and settled in the region of Va- few ltalians commented that his aspira- wife pássed into the hands of his broth- lencia during the twelfth century. One tion was to achieve a royal crown over er Joan, who was murdered in 1497. MOUDING, PAlAU DUCAL. GANDIA

At that point, the Dukes of Gandia cut before he was twenty-, gave up the administration and restoring cities and themselves off completely from ltalian cloth and moved to the court of Louis XII fortresses. The architect he assigned to affairs and settled down definitively in in , where he received the title of carry out this task was the great Leo- the capital of la Safor. This branch in- Duke of Valentinois and married Carlo- nardo da Vinci. But the death of Alexan- cludes such notables as the fourth Duke ta dlAlbret. Then, with the help of the der put an end to al1 his hopes. The rise of Gandia ígrandson of Joanl, Saint King of France and 'the money from the to the Papal throne of one of his politi- Francis of Boria and the Viceroy of Popacy, he embarked on the conquest cal enemies, Cardinal Giuliano delle Peru, Francesc de Boria i Aragó of Romagna, the first step on the way to Rovere, as Julius II, was the final blow to (C. 1 577- 1658). the formation of a kingdom in central his dreams. The new Pope ordered his Meanwhile, in Rome, the rest of Alexan- Italy. Shortly after this, he took Urbino, detention in Ostia and forced him to der Vl's children (who, in spite of having at the same time as the Pope granted return, one by one, al1 his possessions adapted their surname to the ltalian him the title of Duke of Romagna. All in Romagna. From there he went to Na- spelling, Borgia, still used Catalan as these victories, achieved either through ples, where at the Pope's instigation he their everyday language, even in cor- force or cunning, aroused the admira- was arrested by Gonzalo Fernández de respondencel, followed a brief but bril- tion of Machiavelli, who saw in him a Cordoba, who had him sent back to the liant trajectory which led them for a few man of talent able to bring about lberian Peninsula. Cesare remained in years to be the most powerful family in something as ambitious as the dream of prison for some time, until he escaped Italy, but which started a rapid decline a unified Italy. Machiavelli's admiration from the castle of la Mota and took for Cesare Borgia was such that it in- refuge in the court of his brother-in-law, -,. following the death of Alexander VI in .:r, 1503. spired him to write the book which for the king of Navarre. Shortly afterwards 'e< CTr:,-.-. .b Cesare, who at first devoted himself to years was almost required reading for he died from the wounds received in a .;?a career in the Church -he was Bishop any man of state: The Prince. skirmish. of Pamplona at the age of sixteen and Following the conquest, Cesare started For her part, at the age of thirteen Lu- - Archbishop of Valencia ond a cardinal on the iob of organising a centralized crezia was married to PALAU DUCAL. GANDl

by her father Alexander VI, a marriage third time, on this occasion to Alfonso . Her graceful female which was later invalidated by the Pope dlEste, son and heir of the Duke of Fer- figure has been made the odious pro- himself on the grounds of the husband's rara. When she moved to her new tagonist of the works of great writers impotence. In August 1498, she was home in , Lucrezia broke for like , and married for a second time, to Alfonso, ever with Rome and began a completely Guillaume Apollinaire, not to mention Prince of , the bastard of the new life far from the political interests of musicians such as , royal family of . Following the her father and brother, who had used who amongst other pieces composed a alliance of Cesare with the French, ene- her as an instrument of their ambition. famous opera with the name of the mies of the Neapolitans, Alexander Vl's She was made Duchess in 1505 and daughter of Alexander VI: lucrezia Bor- son had his brother-in-law murdered so won everybody's affection and respect gia. The cinema has also found in this as to rid himself of a possible obstacle at the centre of a brilliant court surroun- family -and especially in Lucrezia- a to his policy of unconditional alliance ded by artists like and the world full of suggestive ideas worthy with France. It seems to have been great ltalian poet Ludovico Ariosto, of the silver screen. Without meaning during Lucrezia's period of widowhood the author who praises the figure of to be exhaustive, there is Richard spent in the Vatican -where on three this lady in the greatest work of po- Oswald's ( 19921, Abel occasions she took over the administra- etry of the ltalian Renaissance, Orlan- Gance's lucr&ceBorgia (19351, Mitchell tion of Church affairs during her father's do furioso. After 151 2, though, she Leisen's ( 19491, absence- that she acquired her reputa- withdrew from court life and began and Christian-Jaque's lucrece Borgia tion as a libertine and loose-liver. This a discreet existence which lasted until ( 19531. was also the time when the mysterious her death in 15 19 as a result of a mis- Only Lucrezia, then, was saved from the "Roman .childmwas born (if it ever was carriage. wholesale wreck of the rest of the fam- born1, supposedly the fruit of her inces- Lucrezia Borgia's historical reputation, ily, and her court became the refuge tuous affair with her own father. In De- though, is entirely undeserved, as her for several members of her dynasty, cember 1501, she was married for a biographers have shown, especially amongst them some of Cesare's bas- ..-. v -1 1. - - - - -. -1:_-_ - -. -. - 'a 0 DECORATIVE CERAMICS. PALAU DUCAL. GANDIA

tard sons. For his part, Jofré, one of ing to defend their name. The truth, outburst of Roman hatred was ad- Lucrezia's younger brothers, and Rode- though, probably lies half-way between dressed explicitly against "the Catalans", ric, a son from her second marriage, these two extremes. The Borgias could as they were commonly known in the retired to the kingdom of Naples, where well have been as bad as they appear eterna1 city. Finally, we have to remember they held the titles respectively of Prince in certain accounts accusing them of cor- that many historians have been tempted of and Duke of Bisceglie. Ce- ruption and greed. But even so, they to overdo the human dimension of Pope sare's only legitimate daughter, Lluisa, would have been no more than iust Alexander VI and his children, thinking stayed in France and married into the another Roman Renaissance family, that in this way they were diverting criti- famous Bourbon-Busset family. In this neither better nor worse than other fam- cism from the ltalian society of the time way the power of a family which only a ilies that vied with them for power in a and the Church itself as an institution. short time before had seemed destined fight to the death. But this strategy fails to stand up to to rule over the whole of ltaly came to There are three things that might have analysis. The activities of the Borias can an end. given them their evil reputation. One is only be explained in terms of the situa- The life of the Roman Borjas has given the fact that they were finally defeated tion within the Church at the beginning rise to an extraordinary number of con- by their political enemies, who were of the sixteenth century, of the political troversial writings. The romantic move- able to rain down condemnations on tensions affecting ltaly at that time and ment adopted the view their enemies them which no-one would have dared of the profound moral decadence of the had given of them, portraying them as a to utter against a clan with power and Roman society of the period. demoniac family of poisoners, sex ma- influence in Rome. Another, perhaps the These newcomers from the lesser Valen- niacs and cruel and cunning monsters. most important, is that they were for- cian nobility were in fact the victims Contrasting 'with this clearly negative eigners who challenged the ltalian mon- rather than the instigators of a state of view, the well-known "black legend of opoly in the Papal court. This is borne affairs which existed long before they the Borgias", a separate branch of writ- out by the fact that following the deaths ever appeared in ltaly and which conti- ers have come out in their favour, want- of Calixtus III and Alexander VI the nued after their eclipse.