became an ambassador for the pope to
France, who was requesting a papal annul-
ment of his marriage to Jeanne of France
in order to marry Anne of Brittany. Cesare
brought the papal bull (decree) annulling
the marriage and was rewarded by Louis
XII with the title of Duke of Valentinois
(Valence).
The pope sent Cesare north to subdue
the rebellious cities of northern Italy. Ce-
sare brought an army of Swiss, Gascons,
French, and Italians, he marched to the
Romagna and established a base at Ces-
ena. He conquered Imola, and Forli. As
commander of the armies of the church,
he formed the new state of Romagna. In
1500 he defeated Rimini and Pesaro, and
in the next year he defeated Faenza, whose
leader was sent to Rome as a prisoner and
later murdered. Greatly feared throughout
northern Italy, Cesare was rising in his
father’s estimation and arriving at his plan
to establish a hereditary monarchy in cen-
tral and northern Italy. Alexander named
him gonfaloniere of the church (a presti-
gious post) and as the Duke of Romagna
in 1501. Still opposed by several northern
princes and condottieri (leaders of merce-
nary soldiers), four of them repented their
resistance to him and captured the town
of Senigallia for his benefit. Arriving in
the city, Cesare lured them to his palace,
where on New Year’s Eve 1502 he ordered
two of them to be strangled. Cesare sought
to form an independent base of power to
serve his own ambitions, independent
from that of the Papacy, and to this end
maneuvered, schemed, and bribed among
the Italian nobles.
The widespread fear and hatred he in-
spired eventually proved his downfall,
however. Both father and son came down
with a fever in 1503; although Cesare re-
covered, Alexander VI died. The election
of his enemy Giuliano della Rovere as Pope
Julius II. This pope sought the return of
captured cities in Romagna to the papal
territories. Cesare was taken prisoner and
abandoned by the king of France. The
pope demanded the return of territories
conquered by Cesare’s armies. Cesare fled
to Naples. Julius schemed with the rulers
of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, to have
Cesare arrested in Naples, then a Spanish
possession, by the city’s governor Gonzalo
de Cordova. In 1506 he escaped from
prison in Spain and fled to Navarre, ruled
by his brother-in-law John III of Navarre,
the brother of his wife Charlotte d’Albret.
He died at the siege of Viana in 1507.
Cesare is best known as a model leader,
the ideal of the Renaissance prince, in the
eyes of Niccolo Machiavelli, the Florentine
historian who believed Cesare’s combina-
tion of ambition and cunning were best
suited to rule in his times. The historian,
serving as an ambassador for Florence,
spent some time at Borgia’s court in 1502–
1503 and described his actions and tactics
in his workThe Prince. Borgia’s conquest
of Romagna and the murder of his rivals
at Senigallia on New Year’s Eve 1502 in
particular earned Machiavelli’s praise.Borgia, Lucrezia ................................
(1480–1519)
The daughter of the Spanish cardinal Rod-
rigo Borgia and his mistress Vannozza dei
Cattani, Lucrezia Borgia was born in the
Italian town of Subiaco. In 1492 Rodrigo
Borgia was elected as Pope Alexander VI,
and the Borgia family became one of the
most powerful—and ambitious—in Italy.
In the next year the pope arranged the
marriage of Lucrezia, aged thirteen, to
Giovanni Sforza, a scion of the ruling fam-
ily of Milan. Sforza’s usefulness to the pope
soon declined, however, and he was pres-Borgia, Lucrezia