36 Facts About Cesare Borgia

Cesare Borgia was an Italian cardinal and condottiero, an illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and member of the Spanish-Aragonese House of Borgia.

Cesare Borgia's fight for power was a major inspiration for The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli.

Cesare Borgia served as a condottiero for King Louis XII of France around 1500, and occupied Milan and Naples during the Italian Wars.

Cesare Borgia was born in Subiaco in Lazio, Italy in either 1475 or 1476, the illegitimate son of Cardinal Roderic Llancol i de Borja, usually known as "Rodrigo Borgia", later Pope Alexander VI, and his Italian mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei, about whom information is sparse.

Cesare Borgia's father, Pope Alexander VI, was the first pope who openly recognized his children born out of wedlock.

Cesare Borgia was initially groomed for a career in the Church.

Cesare Borgia was made Bishop of Pamplona at the age of 15 and archbishop of Valencia at 17.

Cesare Borgia's career was founded upon his father's ability to distribute patronage, along with his alliance with France, in the course of the Italian Wars.

Louis XII invaded Italy in 1499; after Gian Giacomo Trivulzio had ousted its duke Ludovico Sforza, Cesare Borgia accompanied the king in his entrance into Milan.

When Cesare Borgia eventually took power, he was viewed by the citizens as a great improvement.

Cesare Borgia 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.

In 1500 the creation of twelve new cardinals granted Alexander enough money for Cesare Borgia to hire the condottieri, Vitellozzo Vitelli, Gian Paolo Baglioni, Giulio and Paolo Orsini, and Oliverotto Euffreducci, who resumed his campaign in Romagna.

Cesare Borgia eventually recalled his loyal generals to Imola, where he waited for his opponents' loose alliance to collapse.

Cesare Borgia called for a reconciliation, but imprisoned his condottieri in Senigallia, then called Sinigaglia, a feat described as a "wonderful deceiving" by historian Paolo Giovio, and had them strangled.

Machiavelli argued that, had Cesare Borgia been able to win the favour of the new Pope, he would have been a very successful ruler.

The news of his father's death in 1503 arrived when Cesare Borgia was planning the conquest of Tuscany.

The new pope, Pope Pius III, supported Cesare Borgia and reconfirmed him as Gonfaloniere, but after a brief pontificate of twenty-six days, he died.

Borgia's deadly enemy, Giuliano Della Rovere, then succeeded by dexterous diplomacy in tricking the weakened Cesare Borgia into supporting him by offering him money and continued papal backing for Borgia policies in the Romagna; promises which he disregarded upon his election as Pope Julius II by the near-unanimous vote of the cardinals.

Cesare Borgia was for example forced by Julius to give up San Marino, after occupying the republic for six months.

Cesare Borgia, who was facing the hostility of Ferdinand II of Aragon, was betrayed while in Naples by Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba, a man he had considered his ally, and imprisoned there, while his lands were retaken by the Papacy.

Cesare Borgia recaptured Viana, Navarre, which had been in the hands of forces loyal to Louis de Beaumont, the count of Lerin and Ferdinand II of Aragon's conspiratorial ally in Navarre, but not the castle, which he then besieged.

Outraged at the ineffectiveness of the siege, Cesare Borgia chased them, only to find himself on his own.

Cesare Borgia was then stripped of all his luxurious garments, valuables, and a leather mask covering half his face.

Cesare Borgia was left lying naked, with just a red tile covering his genitals.

Cesare Borgia was originally buried in a marbled mausoleum King John III had ordered built at the altar of the Church of Santa Maria in Viana in Navarre in northern Spain, set on one of the stops on the Camino de Santiago.

Cesare Borgia was an old enemy of Ferdinand of Aragon, and he was fighting the count who paved the way for Ferdinand's 1512 invasion against John III and Catherine of Navarre.

Vicente Blasco Ibanez, in A los pies de Venus, writes that the then Bishop of Santa Maria had Cesare Borgia expelled from the church because his own father had died after being imprisoned under Alexander VI.

Cesare Borgia's remains then were sent to Viana's town hall, directly across from Santa Maria, where they remained until 1953.

Since Cesare Borgia had renounced the cardinalate it was decided that it would be inappropriate for his bones to be moved into the church.

However, when his father died, and a rival to the Borgia family entered the Papal seat, Cesare was overthrown in a matter of months.

Cesare Borgia briefly employed Leonardo da Vinci as military architect and engineer between 1502 and 1503.

Cesare Borgia provided Leonardo with an unlimited pass to inspect and direct all ongoing and planned construction in his domain.

Cesare Borgia alternated bursts of demonic activity, when he stayed up all night receiving and dispatching messengers, with moments of unaccountable sloth, when he remained in bed refusing to see anyone.

Cesare Borgia was quick to take offense and rather remote from his immediate entourage and yet very open with his subjects, loving to join in local sports and to cut a dashing figure.

However, at other times, Machiavelli observed Cesare Borgia as having "inexhaustible" energy and an unrelenting genius in military matters, and diplomatic affairs, and he would go days and nights on end without seemingly requiring sleep.

Cesare Borgia is said to have possessed a high intelligence that was recognized early during his time at the University of Pisa, and his brilliance in being a military commander and battle tactician was respected by friend and foe alike.