Borgia, Cesare c.1476-1507
Italian soldier

He was the illegitimate son of Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope Alexander VI) and brother of Lucrezia Borgia. He was appointed Archbishop of Valencia (1492) and a cardinal (1493) after his father's election to the papacy (1492). He relinquished his cardinal's hat to marry Princess Charlotte d'Albret, sister of the King of Navarre (1498), and succeeded his elder brother Juan (whom he may have murdered) as Captain-General of the papal army (1499). In two campaigns, with French help (1499-1501), he became master of the Romagna, taking Perugia, Siena, Piombini and Urbino, and was made Duke of Romagna by his father. His ambitious plans for a Kingdom of Central Italy spread terror in an atmosphere of constant treachery and cruelty. In 1502, on the eve of a third campaign, he and his father were mysteriously taken ill at a banquet, believed to have been poisoned. Though his father died, Cesare survived, but his enemies, led by Pope Julius II (elected 1503), forced him to relinquish the Romagna. He surrendered at Naples (1504), under promise of safe conduct, but was imprisoned in Spain. He escaped (1506) and fled to the court of Navarre, but was killed at the siege of Viana. Despite attempts to rehabilitate his reputation, he remains a monster in the public perception. He was praised by Machiavelli in Il Principe as a model prince and the saviour of Italy: opportunistic, aggressive and ruthless. He encouraged art, and was the friend of Pinturicchio and the protector of Leonardo da Vinci.

Bibliography: W H Woodward, Cesare Borgia (1913)