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House of Borgia

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Borgia

The House of Borgia was an Italian-Spanish noble family that rose to prominence during the Renaissance. The Borgia originated in the town of Borja in Aragon, Spain, and the family was allegedly descended from marranos (Jewish converts to Christianity), though this claim was mostly made by its anti-Semitic rivals in Italy. The family produced two Popes: Pope Callixtus III (r. 1455-1458) and Pope Alexander VI (r. 1492-1503), the latter of which was the most infamous. Pope Alexander, born Rodrigo Borgia, fathered several children (including Cesare, Juan, Lucrezia, and Joffre Borgia) with the mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei, and he had several other mistresses both before and during his papacy. The Borgia family engaged in adultery, simony, theft, bribery, incest, and murder (especially by arsenic poisoning), becoming enemies with the Medici of Florence, the Sforza of Milan, and the Florentine monk Girolamo Savonarola. During the Borgia papacy, Rome declined into corruption, theft, murder, and oppression, with the Pope setting up "Borgia towers" to occupy the city's districts and oppress the starving people, while Cesare Borgia conquered more lands for the Papal States in the Romagna region. The Borgia family's downfall occurred in 1503, when Pope Alexander died. While a Borgia puppet, Cardinal Piccolomini, became Pope Pius III on Alexander's death, he reigned for less than a month before his own death. His successor, Pope Julius II, was already known as a fierce opponent of the Borgia clan, and he had Cesare Borgia arrested for incest and murder. By this time, all of the Borgia towers had been destroyed by Auditore, Borgia's lieutenants in Rome had been assassinated, and his war machines built by Leonardo da Vinci had been destroyed. The family lost all of its influence, but it survived until 1672; Joffre Borgia's descendants ruled the small city of Squillace until 1735.

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