Alexander VI

Rodrigo de Borja y de Borja, the future Pope Alexander VI, was born in Xàtiva on January 1, 1431, into a family of local minor nobility. The premature death of his father caused his entire family to move to Valencia, to the palace of his uncle Alfonso de Borja, bishop of the city.

In 1449, already a canon of the Valencia Cathedral, he was summoned to Rome by his uncle, already a cardinal, to assist him in administrative and ecclesiastical tasks, accompanied by his brother, Pedro Luis, and his cousin, Luis Juan.

Under his protection he began an unstoppable career: he was appointed canon and cantor of the collegiate church of Xàtiva (1450) and studied law at the University of Bologna (1453).

On April 8, 1455, Alfonso de Borja is elected Pope with the name of Callixtus III and the influence of Rodrigo follows the rising trail. Despite his youth, in 1456 he was secretly appointed Cardinal and, a year later, Vice-Chancellor of the Church, a position of great influence that he held for more than 35 years.

After the death of his uncle, on August 6, 1458, Cardinal Borgia relaxes his personal habits, showing an interest in the female sex.

Around 1468, his first-born, Pedro Luis, was born to an unknown mother, followed by two sisters, Jerónima and Isabel. He later has four children with the Roman Vannozza Cattanei: Cesare (1475), Giovanni (1476), Lucrezia (1480) and Goffredo (1481). And two other sons are still known, Giovanni and Rodrigo, who he had later.

As Vice Chancellor, Rodrigo manifests an overflowing sumptuousness, complemented by the social position that all the components of the extended family are acquiring.

In 1472 he traveled to the Iberian Peninsula as a special legacy of the Pope, carrying the bull confirming the marriage of Isabella of Castile with Ferdinand II of Aragon.

Certain subsequent disagreements with Ferdinand were settled in 1485 with the purchase of the right to rule over the town of Gandia, now elevated to a royal dukedom, and with the marriage of his son, Pedro Luis, to María Enríquez, the king's first cousin.

His keen intelligence and his political ability make him one of the richest and most influential cardinals of the moment and, on the death of Innocent VIII, thanks to the division between the factions of the curia and some skilful negotiation, he is elected Pope on the 11 August 1492, under the name of Alexander VI.

In the private sphere, the new pontiff acquires a new mistress, Giulia Farnesse, 45 years younger than he, a woman of renowned beauty.

Very soon he has to face political and territorial balances at stake with the kings of France and Naples. Like his uncle, Callixtus III, he promotes his children and relatives, always with the board of earthly power at stake.

His daughter Lucrezia will marry Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, Cesare will be appointed cardinal and will hold, among others, the rich Valencian diocese, Giovanni will end up marrying María Enríquez, the suitor of his brother Pedro Luis, who had died suddenly in 1488, and Goffredo will marry Sancha de Aragón, daughter of the king of Naples.

Lucrezia, after the annulment of her first marriage, will marry Alfonso of Aragon, natural son of Alfonso II of Naples, who is assassinated by his brother Cesare, and later with Alfonso d'Este, heir to the Duchy of Ferrara.

Tragedy knocked on his door in June 1497, after his son Giovanni, Duke of Gandia, was found dead in the waters of the Tiber.

Cesare, his most brilliant and impetuous son, who has set aside his cardinal's hat, marries Carlota d'Albret (1499), a relative of the French king, and becomes Duke of Valentinois. A possession that will mark the legend of him as Cesare il Valentino. Cesare will also be Captain General of the Church (1500) and Duke of Romagna (1501).

On Friday, August 18, 1503, after a convalescence full of all kinds of repulsive details, Alexander VI died. Rumors attributed his death to the poison he ingested at a dinner, but it was malaria, in the pestilential summer of Rome, that ended his life.

His body was provisionally buried in the chapel of Santa Maria della Febbre, next to the Vatican basilica, alongside his uncle Callixtus III. In 1601 the remains of both pontiffs were transferred to the church of the Crown of Aragon in Rome, Santa Maria in Monserrato, where they still rest.

Alexander VI promoted the evangelization of the American lands discovered in 1492, showed tolerance towards the Jews, practiced artistic patronage, surrounded himself with a circle of humanists, showed special devotion to the Virgin Mary, and bequeathed a strong and powerful papal state. On the negative side, he practiced nepotism and showed a moral disorder for which he was censured by his contemporaries.

His figure, reviled and mistreated historically, was ardently defended by the distinguished Valencian novelist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez in his book on the Borgias: “What do they hold against Alexander VI?... His crime consisted in the fact that some of his children were energetic personalities, intelligent and daring, like true Borjas, eager for power and glory; and the children of the other popes were no more than simple parasites of the Vatican, intent only on fattening themselves like leeches with the blood of the Church, selling jobs and accruing fortunes.”