History Of The Borgias

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Recommended: Influence of the Renaissance

Sam Barbary
Professor Lawlor
History
2/10/2014
The Borgias
Renaissance Italy was full of famous powerful families: The Medici who ruled Florence, the Sforza ruled Milan and Forli. But out of all of them, the Borgia Family were the most famous and infamous that have ever graced the pages of history. The Borgia’s are a fascination to study because history is so divided over them. They used the power of the Catholic Church for their own personal fortune and political power. They were rumored to have committed every sin and vice under the sun. Many in their time period believed that they were mass poisoners. Yet at the same time, their sins paralleled those of most the nobility and royalty of that age, including previous popes. The Borgia’s presided over some of the most important events of the times; the Bonfire of the Vanities, the Spanish inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the Italian Wars, and, Treaty of Tordesillas. They can also be traced to the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. This paper tells of the Borgia’s rise and fall in the Papacy and their deeds and impact on the world at the time.
Before one can cover Rodrigo Borgia and his family, one must understand the time period in which they lived specifically in Italy. In the 15th century, Italy was divided in dozens of city states, kingdoms, and mini republics, all fighting over dominance of trade and land. There were five major powers in Italy at the time of the Borgia. They were Kingdom of Milan, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Florence, the Kingdom of Naples and of course, the most important, Rome. (Chamberlin ix-xvi) Rome was a big player because the Church held power both monetarily and ecclesiastically in Italy. Because of this power, the ...

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... in the papal election that Rodrigo had bought. Some were cardinals and princes who didn’t get the jobs or prestige that they wanted. Others were genuinely pious priests who were disgusted by the Borgia opulence. The old “the borgias practiced incest” rumor can be traced back to her first husband, Giovanni Sforza. When Alexander VI decided the marriage was no longer politically useful he wanted to annul it and remarry Lucrezia to There were two main ways for marriages to be annulled at this point: by proving it was incestuous or by proving one of the partners was impotent. Alexander VI went the impotency route and Giovanni was obviously not happy about being slandered like that, in revenge he started spreading around the rumor that the real reason Alexander VI was breaking up the marriage was so he could have his daughter to himself or so that one of his sons could.

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