Borgias - move along everyone, just a historical rant
The Borgias.
Let's get this out.
Cesare did not sleep with his sister. Pope Alexander VI did not sleep with his daughter. There is no historical foundation for the rumor of the secret Borgia poison. The infantus romanus was an illegitimate child, yes, but not a product of incest. Alexander VI was no more corrupt than any other Renaissance pope. Some of the Medici and Della Rovere popes were just as bad if not worse. It was a time when popes had to wear two hats - the Pope hat and the Secular Prince of the Papal States hat.
We do not know for sure if Cesare killed Juan, but it is plausible given Alexander's reluctance to prosecute anyone and his lack of blaming it on either the Calonna or the Orsini. We do know he killed his brother in law whats-his-face.
Most of the legends surrounding the Borgias are false and were created after their fall and by the xenophobia inherent in Renaissance Italy where the Spanish heritage of the Borgias made them prime picking as scape-goats for all the bad things that had been happening. They were also an excellent target by later Protestant propagandists who liked to pick on Papal extravagance. Yet over all they weren't that horrid oreven really out of the oridnary. The deaths that did surround them were politically based (Orisini being Della Rovere and the future Pope Julius II was a Della Rovere and a staunch enemy of Alexander) and were actually never done via poison (have no idea where that rumor originated). Cesare usually had them knifed/hung/drowned etc.
And trust me. They had nothing on the Medici-Pazzi-Strozzi-Salviati-etc-etc. bull shit that was happening in Florence and had been happening for well over 60 years.
The picking on Cesare over his father was most likely done because it's easier to pick on a 'half-breed' bastard son than the Vicar of Christ. The anti-Machiavellian train that ran through western Europe in the 17th c. also did not help since Cesare was picked by Machiavelli to be a prime example of princely material (largely to do with Cesare's strength of character and his ability to generally make his fate, a theme Machiavelli had a slight obsession with in his writings largely due to his own lack of good stars so to speak. Of course Machiavelli does comment on Cesare's rashness and inability to change his personality to suite the moment/times [his ultimate argument for why republics are better than Princedoms] but I digress).
Many of the legends surrounding Cesare sompletely omit his good ruling of Romagna and bypass the fact that his father died (not of poison, or alone as some stories have it) but rather in his bed surrounded by his friends and family.
Simple fact? The Borgias ain't nothing special by the standards Rensaissance Italy.
And Jeremy Irons looks nothing like Rodrigo. Why is he playing him? ;P
kthnxbai.
Let's get this out.
Cesare did not sleep with his sister. Pope Alexander VI did not sleep with his daughter. There is no historical foundation for the rumor of the secret Borgia poison. The infantus romanus was an illegitimate child, yes, but not a product of incest. Alexander VI was no more corrupt than any other Renaissance pope. Some of the Medici and Della Rovere popes were just as bad if not worse. It was a time when popes had to wear two hats - the Pope hat and the Secular Prince of the Papal States hat.
We do not know for sure if Cesare killed Juan, but it is plausible given Alexander's reluctance to prosecute anyone and his lack of blaming it on either the Calonna or the Orsini. We do know he killed his brother in law whats-his-face.
Most of the legends surrounding the Borgias are false and were created after their fall and by the xenophobia inherent in Renaissance Italy where the Spanish heritage of the Borgias made them prime picking as scape-goats for all the bad things that had been happening. They were also an excellent target by later Protestant propagandists who liked to pick on Papal extravagance. Yet over all they weren't that horrid oreven really out of the oridnary. The deaths that did surround them were politically based (Orisini being Della Rovere and the future Pope Julius II was a Della Rovere and a staunch enemy of Alexander) and were actually never done via poison (have no idea where that rumor originated). Cesare usually had them knifed/hung/drowned etc.
And trust me. They had nothing on the Medici-Pazzi-Strozzi-Salviati-etc-etc. bull shit that was happening in Florence and had been happening for well over 60 years.
The picking on Cesare over his father was most likely done because it's easier to pick on a 'half-breed' bastard son than the Vicar of Christ. The anti-Machiavellian train that ran through western Europe in the 17th c. also did not help since Cesare was picked by Machiavelli to be a prime example of princely material (largely to do with Cesare's strength of character and his ability to generally make his fate, a theme Machiavelli had a slight obsession with in his writings largely due to his own lack of good stars so to speak. Of course Machiavelli does comment on Cesare's rashness and inability to change his personality to suite the moment/times [his ultimate argument for why republics are better than Princedoms] but I digress).
Many of the legends surrounding Cesare sompletely omit his good ruling of Romagna and bypass the fact that his father died (not of poison, or alone as some stories have it) but rather in his bed surrounded by his friends and family.
Simple fact? The Borgias ain't nothing special by the standards Rensaissance Italy.
And Jeremy Irons looks nothing like Rodrigo. Why is he playing him? ;P
kthnxbai.