Christoforo Castanea (died July 1492) was the Count of Castel Leone. In 1492, he was hired by the Ottoman sultan to poison Sultan Cem, and he inadvertently also poisoned Pope Innocent VIII. For this, he was executed.
Biography[]
Christoforo Castanea was an impoverished count, holding the title "Count of Castel Leone", but owning no property. In 1492, he met with Mustapha Pasha, the Ottoman ambassador to the Papal States, who offered him money in exchange for the murder of Sultan Cem; Pope Innocent VIII's son Franceschetto Cybo was also involved. Juan Borgia the Younger found out about this plot, and he decided that Cem was of great use to the Papacy, so Juan Borgia and his brother Cesare Borgia decided to befriend Castanea. They had sex with prostitutes as he received oral sex from another, and they talked about Ottoman politics as they did so. Castanea revealed that Sultan Bayezid II had hired him to kill Cem, and he would do so by poisoning the well next to the Apostolic Palace; this might also kill the Pope and all of the clerics who worked there. The Borgia brothers used this newly-acquired trust to spy on Castanea as he made the preparations to kill Cem. One night, at the aqueduct, he was captured by Juan Borgia and his guards, and he was thrown in prison. Castanea was sentenced to public execution, being tied to a rack, naked, as Juan Borgia broke his legs with a mallot and fatally struck him in the head.