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Cesare Borgia

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Cesare Borgia
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(born c. 1475/76, probably Rome — died 1507, near Viana, Spain) Italian military leader, illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI, and brother of Lucrezia Borgia. He was made archbishop of Valencia (1492) and cardinal (1493). After his brother's murder (1497), he took command of the papal armies. In 1498 he resigned his ecclesiastical offices and married the sister of the king of Navarre, a move calculated to win French support for a campaign to regain control of the Papal States. Acting in concert with his father, Cesare won a series of military successes in the Papal States (1499 – 1503), gaining a reputation for ruthlessness and assassination; his political astuteness led Niccolò Machiavelli to cite him as an example of the new "Prince." Cesare's gains proved fruitless, however, when his father died (1503) and the new pope, Julius II, demanded that he give up his lands. He escaped from prison in Spain and died fighting for Navarre.

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Biography: Cesare Borgia
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The Italian leader Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) played an important part in Renaissance history. By intrigue and bravery he captured the Romagna, an area of Italy which remained a papal state until the 19th century.

Cesare Borgia was the first child of Vanozza de' Catanei and Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, then archbishop of Valencia. They later had three other children: Giovanni, Lucrezia, and Goffredo.

The Borgia titles and estates in Spain were to be inherited by Pier Luigi Borgia, Cesare's older half brother, and an ecclesiastical career was chosen for Cesare. Thus upon the untimely death of Pier Luigi, Cesare did not succeed as heir to the Borgia secular fortune and titles, which passed instead to his younger brother Giovanni. In 1492, while still a layman, Cesare received the archbishopric of Valencia from his father, who became Pope Alexander VI that same year. In 1493 Alexander named Cesare cardinal deacon, and in 1494 Cesare was ordained a deacon.

These were exciting times in Italy. In 1494 King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy. His objective was Naples, over which he had a distant hereditary claim. On his march south he encountered little Italian resistance. Only after the Italians organized the military League of Venice, which threatened to cut his overextended supply lines, did Charles withdraw, and by 1497 French troops had evacuated Italy.

Immediately after Charles's withdrawal, papal forces turned upon the great Roman baronial families, especially the Orsini, who had helped Charles because of their opposition to the election of Alexander VI. Cesare's brother Giovanni commanded the papal militia during this period. Saddled with the mundane duties of a cleric, Cesare envied Giovanni's more active military career.

Rise to Power

In June 1497 the body of Giovanni Borgia, its throat cut, was found in the Tiber River. Several parties might have been involved in the mysterious murder, but many historians hold Cesare responsible since the death was of political advantage to him. Cesare now saw the possibility of being dispensed from his clerical duties and of assuming his brother's secular titles, wealth, and position as military leader of the Borgias and the papacy.

Unfortunately, the Spanish king, Ferdinand V (Ferdinand of Aragon), opposed the practice of releasing a cardinal from his office for political purposes. Thus Alexander could not release his son without angering the Spanish, his protectors against the French. However, in November 1497 France and Spain reached a truce in which they agreed to divide Naples. Since France was no longer Spain's enemy, Alexander could now approach the French king for help in seeking Cesare's release from the cardinalate. Louis XII, who had become king in April 1498 on the death of Charles, agreed to support Cesare's release in return for papal approval of the dissolution of his marriage. Alexander granted this request and thus became allied with France. In August 1498 he released Cesare from his clerical offices.

In February 1499 Louis gave Cesare command of a company of French cavalry. In March Cesare married Charlotte d'Albret, and in May he received from Louis the French duchy of Valentinois and the county of Diois. Having agreed to the Franco-Spanish partition of Naples, Louis planned an invasion of southern Italy. Milan lay on the supply route between France and Naples and was of strategic importance. In September 1499 Cesare commanded the French force that captured Milan and defeated its ruler, Lodovico Sforza.

In return for his services, Louis XII placed this French force at his disposal, and Cesare used it in his first attempt to capture the Romagna for Alexander. Like all popes, Alexander claimed dominion over the Romagna on the basis of the Donation of Pepin (756), which included the Romagna. Cesare's campaign went well. Before it was completed, however, Louis ordered the French force back to defend Milan from a counterattack by Lodovico Sforza, and Cesare's invasion of the Romagna ended in January 1500.

Success of Romagna Campaign

By 1500 Cesare had received all he desired: a reputation as a military leader, secular estates, and a wife. But the Borgias had paid a high price for Cesare's ambitions; by allying themselves with France they had lost the friendship and protection of the Spanish king. Since Cesare had acquired estates and a wife in France, he was determined to maintain the papal alliance with the French. To that end he ordered the murder of the husband of his sister Lucrezia, the Neapolitan nobleman Alfonso, Duke of Bisceglie. In August 1500, while recuperating from an earlier assassination attempt, Alfonso was strangled in the papal apartments. Alfonso's murder in Borgia-controlled Rome angered the Neapolitans and the Spanish and thus ended the possibility of Alexander's return to the old alliance.

Between October 1500 and August 1501 Cesare seized other territories in the Romagna. Again Louis XII provided him with a French army. During this second campaign Louis and Ferdinand of Aragon signed the Treaty of Granada (November 1500), which formalized their agreement to partition Naples. When the Franco-Spanish operation against Naples was launched, Cesare assisted his French ally, and on Aug. 1, 1501, Naples capitulated.

In June 1502 Cesare began his third and final campaign in the Romagna, and by December 1502 he had captured the entire area for the Pope. Most of the Romagna welcomed the Borgia rule, for Cesare introduced an efficient, enlightened, and centralized administration to the area. But Cesare's fortunes were soon to change.

Cesare's Downfall

In 1503 two events occurred which caused Cesare's downfall. First, Spanish forces turned upon the French in May and drove them out of southern Italy. In control of the Romagna and of papal financial support, Cesare accepted the French defeat calmly. However, the second event, the death of Alexander VI on August 18, ultimately proved disastrous to Cesare.

Because of Cesare's influence, Cardinal Piccolomini, a strong supporter of the Borgias, was elected Pope Pius III in September. He died, however, in October. When the cardinals met again in October to choose a successor, Cesare was tricked by Cardinal Della Rovere's promise of money and of continued papal backing for Borgia policies in the Romagna. He supported Della Rovere, who thus became Pope Julius II. Julius then disregarded his promises and decided to assume control of the Romagna himself. In December he ordered the arrest of Cesare, who won his freedom only by relinquishing key cities in the Romagna to Julius.

In April 1504 Cesare journeyed to Naples seeking financial assistance from friends and relatives. But both Julius and Ferdinand of Aragon feared the presence of a Borgia army, and in May their agents arrested Cesare. In August he was transported to Spain, where he was imprisoned until his escape in 1506. He made his way to Navarre, the kingdom of his brother-in-law Jean d'Albret. After Louis XII had refused to restore Cesare's French estates, Cesare joined d'Albret in fighting Louis's attempt to gain control of Navarre through support of insurrectionist feudal families.

On March 12, 1507, Cesare Borgia died in battle in Navarre. He had lived the life of a Renaissance knight and had captured the Romagna, richest of the papal states. His career was marked by political intrigue, but also by courage.

Further Reading

Most recent works on Cesare Borgia are not in English. Nevertheless, older works in English are still useful. The most thorough, though stylistically difficult, are R. Sabatini, The Life of Cesare Borgia of France (trans. 1912), and William Harrison Woodward, Cesare Borgia: A Biography (1913). More readable is Carlo Beuf, Cesare Borgia: The Machiavellian Prince (1942). For background information see John Addington Symonds, Renaissance in Italy, vol. 1: The Age of Despots (1875; 2d ed. 1880).

Additional Sources

Bradford, Sarah, Cesare Borgia, his life and times, New York: Macmillan; London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Cesare Borgia
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Borgia, Cesare or Caesar (chā'zärā bōr'jä), 1476-1507, Italian soldier and politician, younger son of Pope Alexander VI and an outstanding figure of the Italian Renaissance. Throughout his pontificate Alexander VI used his position to aggrandize his son and establish a papal empire in N and central Italy. Archbishop of Valencia and a cardinal by 1493, Cesare resigned the dignity after the death (1498) of his elder brother, the duke of Gandia, in whose murder he was probably involved. He now began his political career as papal legate to France. He struck an alliance with King Louis XII who made him duke of Valentinois (Valence), and married (1499) Charlotte d'Albret, a sister of the king of Navarre. The French having overrun Italy (see Italian Wars), Cesare, with his father's encouragement, subdued (1499-1500) the cities of the Romagna one by one. Made duke of Romagna (1501) by the pope, Cesare also seized (1502) Piombino, Elba, Camerino, and the duchy of Urbino, and he crowned his achievements by artfully luring his chief enemies to the castle of Senigallia, where he had some of them strangled. By killing his enemies, packing the college of cardinals, pushing his conquests as fast as possible, and buying the loyalty of the Roman gentry, he had hoped to make his position independent of the papacy, or at least to insure that the election of any future pope would be to his liking. But before his schemes could be realized, Cesare was struck in 1503 by the same poison (or illness) that suddenly killed his father. Cesare recovered; however, his political power had suffered a fatal blow. Pius III, after a short reign, was succeeded by Julius II, an implacable enemy of Cesare Borgia. Louis XII then turned against him. Julius demanded the immediate return of what territory remained to Cesare and had him temporarily arrested. Returning to Naples, Cesare was soon arrested by the Spanish governor there as the result of collusion between Julius II and the Spanish rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella. Sent to prison in Spain, he escaped and finally found refuge (1506) at the court of the king of Navarre. He died fighting for him at Viana. His former possessions had passed under direct papal rule; thus, Cesare must be regarded as instrumental in the consolidation of the Papal States, even if that was not his purpose. Cesare has long been considered the model of the Renaissance prince, the prototype of Niccolò Machiavelli's Prince-intelligent, cruel, treacherous, and ruthlessly opportunistic.

Bibliography

See biographies by M. Mallett, The Borgias (1969) and E. R. Chamberlain, Fall of the House of Borgia (1989).

History Dictionary: Borgia, Cesare
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(chez-ah-ray bawr-juh, bawr-zhuh)

An Italian politician of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, known for his treachery and cruelty. He was the brother of Lucrezia Borgia.

Wikipedia: Cesare Borgia
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Alleged portrait of Cesare Borgia, by Altobello Melone. Bergamo, Accademia Carrara.

Cesare Borgia (September 13, 1475 – March 12, 1507), Duke of Valentinois[1] 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.

Contents

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.[2] 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.[2] 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,[3] 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.[4] 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,[5] 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 quell 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.[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 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

Literature

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". A musical story of the the reign of Cesare Borgia is also mentioned in a 2006 album namely "Enigma Borgia - Pecado Mortal".

Notes

  1. ^ His other titles included: Duke of Romagna, Prince of Andria and Venafro, Count of Dyois, Lord of Piombino, Camerino and Urbino, Gonfalonier and Captain General of the Church.
  2. ^ a b Herfried Münkler and Marina Münkler, Lexikon der Renaissance, Munich: Beck, 2000, p. 43ff.(German)
  3. ^ Spinosa, La saga dei Borgia
  4. ^ Rendina, I capitani di ventura
  5. ^ Rendina, p. 250.
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ Ernst Cassirer, The Myth of the State, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1946
  8. ^ Harvey C. Mansfield, Machiavelli's Virtue, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

References

  • 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. 
  • Nanami, Shiono. Cesare Borgia the Elegant Tyrant. 

External links

Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Cesare Borgia
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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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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