The Life of Cesare Borgia | Page 8

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CONTENTS

BOOK I
THE HOUSE OF THE BULL
CHAPTER
I. THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA
II. THE REIGNS OF SIXTUS IV AND INNOCENT VIII
III. ALEXANDER VI
IV. BORGIA ALLIANCES

BOOK II
THE BULL PASCANT
I. THE FRENCH INVASION
II. THE POPE AND THE SUPERNATURAL
III. THE ROMAN BARONS
IV. THE MURDER OF THE DUKE OF GANDIA
V. THE RENUNCIATION OF THE PURPLE

BOOK III
THE BULL RAMPANT
I. THE DUCHESS OF VALENTINOIS
II. THE KNELL OF THE TYRANTS
III. IMOLA AND FORLI
IV. GONFALONIER OF THE CHURCH
V. THE MURDER OF ALFONSO OF ARAGON
VI. RIMINI AND PESARO
VII. THE SIEGE OF FAENZA
VIII. ASTORRE MANFREDI
IX. CASTEL BOLOGNESE AND PIOMBINO
X. THE END OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON
XI. THE LETTER TO SILVIO SAVELLI
XII. LUCREZIA'S THIRD MARRIAGE
XIII. URBINO AND CAMERINO
XIV. THE REVOLT OF THE CONDOTTIERI
XV. MACCHIAVELLI'S LEGATION
XVI. RAMIRO DE LORQUA
XVII. "THE BEAUTIFUL STRATAGEM"
VIII. THE ZENITH

BOOK IV
THE BULL CADENT
I. THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER VI
II. PIUS III
III. JULIUS II
IV. ATROPOS

BOOK I
THE HOUSE OF THE BULL
"Borgia stirps: BOS : atque Ceres transcendit Olympo, Cantabat nomen saecula cuncta suum."
Michele Ferno

CHAPTER I
THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA
Although the House of Borgia, which gave to the Church of Rome two popes and at least one saint,(1) is to be traced back to the eleventh century, claiming as it does to have its source in the Kings of Aragon, we shall take up its history for our purposes with the birth at the city of Xativa, in the kingdom of Valencia, on December 30, 1378, of Alonso de Borja, the son of Don Juan Domingo de Borja and his wife Do?a Francisca.
1 St. Francisco Borgia, S.J.--great-grandson of Pope Alexander VI, born at Gandia, in Spain, in 1510.
To this Don Alonso de Borja is due the rise of his family to its stupendous eminence. An able, upright, vigorous-minded man, he became a Professor and Doctor of Jurisprudence at the University of Lerida, and afterwards served Alfonso I of Aragon, King of Naples and the Two Sicilies, in the capacity of secretary. This office he filled with the distinction that was to be expected from one so peculiarly fitted for it by the character of the studies he had pursued.
He was made Bishop of Valencia, created Cardinal in 1444, and finally--in 1455--ascended the throne of St. Peter as Calixtus III, an old man, enfeebled in body, but with his extraordinary vigour of mind all unimpaired.
Calixtus proved himself as much a nepotist as many another Pope before and since. This needs not to be dilated upon here; suffice it that in February of 1456 he gave the scarlet hat of Cardinal-Deacon of San Niccol��, in Carcere Tulliano, to his nephew Don Roderigo de Lanzol y Borja.
Born in 1431 at Xativa, the son of Juana de Borja (sister of Calixtus) and her husband Don Jofr�� de Lanzol, Roderigo was in his twenty-fifth