Showtime's Borgias - Brief Review

For some it may be hard to imagine that Italy was not always a unified country. Italy was once a large number of city states, many were papal fiefdoms. The various "empires" of Italy in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries were periods of intrigue, battles, and foreign involvement. Even Spain and France ruled portions of Italy, and political alliances were formed and broken constantly. Papal lands consisted of far more than today’s Vatican City. It was the last part of the Nineteenth Century that Italy as a unified country was created.

The House of Borgia was one the famous or infamous families of Italy and the Catholic Church. Interest in the family is sparked again by the historical drama on Showtime. Was the family the crime family of Italy? All the members were not saints. On the contrary, some may have gone straight to hell. Popes of the time were spiritual and temporal rulers. The most difficult aspect of the Borgia Era is the complexity of the political events. Often the Pope was more interested in acquiring political power than in leading the faithful. The Late Crusades were more exercises in extending power than in reclaiming the Holy Land. Spreading the Catholic faith to the new world was for the same reason.

The Showtime series is filled with murder, violence, sex and more. The King of Naples stuffs the dead corpses of his enemies, and has the rotting bodies seated around a banquet table.  Since it is a cable series, some entertaining liberties may have been taken. The show has been compared to The Godfather with the Pope actual being The Don.  There was even a scene when one of the sons closes the door on his sister, Lucrezia Borgia as the Pope has a meeting.

The Borgias were a European Papal family of Béarnaise origin with the name stemming from the familial fief seat of Borja belonging to their Aragonese Lords. The Borgias emerged from Valencia in Spain, so they were Spanish not Italian. Their reputation improved during the Renaissance.  Showtime reminds us of a corrupt rule when one of them was Pope. They have been accused of many different crimes, including adultery, simony, theft, rape, bribery, incest, and murder (especially murder by arsenic poisoning.  The Borgias were no worse than their enemies - the powerful families - Medici and the Sforza, as well as the influential Dominican friar Savonarola.

Rodrigo Borgia was one of nephews Pope Callixtus III.  While a cardinal, he maintained an adulterous relationship with Vanozza dei Cattanei from the House of Candia, and they had four children: Cesare, Giovanni, Lucrezia and Gioffre.  She was married to Domenico da Rignano.  According to Showtime, Rodrigo Borgia bought his pontificate with bribes, and that 17 out of 22 cardinals voted for him out of greed.  He was raised to the papal chair in 1492 and he chose the name of Alexander VI.  He still directed the lives of his children, although he discarded their mother for a younger mistress.  His main interests lay in acquiring more wealth, seducing women, and making his family as powerful as possible – not unlike politicians today - Arnold Schwarzenegger, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Gov. Mark Sanford, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, John McCain, John Edwards and many more.  We’ll have to wait and see if they become pope.

The sole purpose of the Papal guards is to protect the Pope and his family with their lives. By 1503, the Papal Guard protected Pope Alexander VI, and was led by the Pope's son and Papal Commander, Giovanni Borgia.  The Papal Swiss Guard now in the Vatican City State was founded in 1506 and is the only Swiss Guard that still exists.

According to the Showtime website, The Borgias begin on the eve of the death of Pope Innocent VIII in 1492.  A vicious selfish battle rages inside the Vatican over who will become the next pope. The papacy was more a kingdom run by a handful of super-powerful and ancient Italian families.  Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, the outsiders from Spain, goes up against the most powerful and established families in Renaissance Italy.  He uses bribery, extortion, blackmail, and shocking forms of torture and murder, Rodrigo Borgia rises to the position of pope. There were a lot of bodies dumped into the Tiber River.  It’s amazing that some of the heads of the most powerful church in the world were the biggest sinners, seemed spewed by the devil.

Once entrenched on the throne, Rodrigo uses all of his power and influence to turn the papacy into a dynastic possession for his children. The staid, pious Italians vastly underestimate his ambitions, and his rivals plot with all their political might to unseat him.

Supporting him in his deeds are his sons Cesare, a ruthless priest/cardinal who hungers to be released from the priesthood.  Juan (Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Gandia) is a miserable amateur whom Rodrigo appoints to head the papal armies. Daughter Lucrezia and son Joffre( Gioffre de Candia Borgia) are pawns in political marries. They are married off in early teens to members of powerful rival families.   He married Sancia (Sancha) of Aragon, daughter of Alfonso II of Naples.  She has sex with his older brothers. Lucrezia was married off to Giovanni Sforza to establish a political alliance with the powerful Milanese ducal family. It seems Giovanni was an illegitimate son of Costanzo I Sforza. There were a lot of illegitimate children among the nobility.

Conducting their own heated battle for the pope’s affections are Vanozza, his long-time mistress and mother of his children, and the younger Giulia Farnese who he acquires after he becomes pope. Vannozza dei Cattanei (Giovanna de Candia, contessa dei Cattanei) was an Italian noblewoman from the House of Candia, who was one of the many mistresses of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, and the one whose relationship lasted the longest. Although adultery for Vanozza, this was technically not a violation of the celibacy vows then-Cardinal Borgia had already taken upon admission to the clerical state.  Celibacy referred only to institutions of marriage or co-habitation, not sexual relations (fornication), but it was scandalous to have engaged in unchaste sexual relationships as a priest nonetheless. Unbelievable!