Genealogy of the house of Borgia—Vannozza de’ Catanei—Birth of Caesar Borgia—His youth.

The Spanish house of Borja, tracing its line back to 1035, claimed descent from Don Ramiro Sanchez of Aragon. A certain Don Pedro de Borja who died in 1152—the year in which Don Ricardo, a representative of the junior branch, removed to Naples—had a son, Don Ximenes Garcia de Borja, who was the founder of the senior line. His son, Gonzales Gil, was the father of Don Raymon de Borja, whose son, Don Juan Domingo de Borja, Lord of the Torre de Canals—who was living in the city of Xativa in Valencia in the fourteenth century—had by his wife, Francina de Borja, several daughters and a son Alonzo, the future Calixtus III.

As early as 1233 the Borja family had won fame, for in that year eight of their name had hurried to the support of Don Jaime in his war with the Moors, and by their bravery had secured a place among the Caballeros de la Conquista.

Numerous positions of honour were held by the Borja from that time forth, but the height of their glory was attained when Alonzo de Borja, who had gone to Naples in the train of King Alfonso of Aragon, was elected to succeed Nicholas V. as Pope in 1455. Of the several sisters of Alonzo de Borja—who on his election to the Papacy assumed the name Calixtus III.—Catalina married Juan Mila of Xativa, by whom she had two sons, Cardinal Juan del Mila and Perot del Mila, whose daughter Adriana was the wife of Ludovico Orsini and the kinswoman and confidante of the future Alexander VI., the son of DoÑa Isabella de Borja, another of the sisters of Calixtus III.

Ever since the publication of Tomaso Tomasi’s “Duca Valentino” historians have repeated his statement that Caesar regarded Rodrigo Lenzuolo, or Lenzol, as his father—Riconobbe per padre Cesare Borgia, detto poi il Valentino, Roderigo Lenzolio.10

Gregorovius says that Isabella, the sister of Alonzo, was the wife of Jofre Lanzol, a wealthy nobleman of Xativa, and that she was the mother of several daughters, all of whom remained in Spain, and of two sons, Pedro Luis and Rodrigo; and that Calixtus III., the uncle, adopted these two nephews and gave them the family name; thus the Lanzol became Borgia, the Italian form of the Spanish name Borja.

If Tomasi, Panvinio, Mariana, and the later historians are correct in stating that Isabella’s husband was a Lanzol, their son, following the Spanish custom of uniting the mother’s family name with that of the father, would have been Rodrigo Lanzol y Borja and the descent from the Borja would have been through his mother only. But M. Charles Yriarte11 conclusively shows that Rodrigo was Borja y Borja, doubly a Borgia, his father having been, not Jofre Lanzol, but Don Jofre de Borja y Doms, who married Isabella de Borja, sister of Calixtus III. Doms therefore was the name of Rodrigo’s paternal grandmother, and the shield with the three bands azure, which appears in all the arms of the Borgia, in all the monuments of the Este family, and in all Italian works on heraldry, is the escutcheon of the Doms and not of the Lanzol family, whose arms according to Fabrer were “azure with a sun argent in the first and or with a crescent argent in the second quarter”—a device which is never found in connection with the Borgia in either Spain or Italy.

The Valencian chronicle of the thirteenth century which says that: “the Borja to the number of eight hastened to Valencia to serve the king,” adds that “all, without exception, bore on their shields a bull on a golden ground.” Thus we find the Borgia arms clearly defined at this early date, and two hundred years later Calixtus III. used the same arms with a border of gules charged with eight oriflammes; finally Alexander VI. added to his escutcheon the arms of the Doms, his paternal grandmother’s family, three bands azure on a field of gold, which are the arms of Sibilla Doms, of Catalonia, wife of Rodrigo Gil de Borja, brother of Domingo.

The offspring of this union, Jofre de Borja y Doms, father of Rodrigo Borgia, therefore had the right to place the three bands azure of the house of Doms by the side of the Borgia bull, and this he did.

Rodrigo Borgia therefore was the son of Jofre de Borja y Doms and Isabella de Borja, who were first cousins; and he was the nephew of Calixtus III., his mother’s brother.

All the descendants of Alexander VI. used the arms which he had engraved on his pontifical seal and which by his order Pinturicchio painted in the Appartamento Borgia in the Vatican.

When Lucretia Borgia, through her marriage with Alfonso d’Este, became Duchess of Ferrara, she added to her arms the eagle of the House of Este and also the pontifical keys, and when her brother Caesar, on his marriage with Charlotte d’Albret, was made Duke of Valentinois, he adopted the lilies of France, although he should have taken the arms of Navarre.

Now, what connection had the Lanzol with the Borgia, and what caused the curious mistake regarding the name of Rodrigo Borgia’s father?

Don Rodrigo de Borgia, later Alexander VI., had three sisters, one of whom, DoÑa Juana, married P. Guillem Lanzol de Romani and bore him a son, Don Jofre Lanzol y Borja, who married DoÑa Juana de Moncada and by her had a son, Don Rodrigo Lanzol, who, instead of calling himself Lanzol y Moncada, as he should have done, took the name of Borgia, which was that of his grandmother as well as of his great-grandmother, Isabella, the sister of Calixtus III., and it was this Rodrigo Lanzol, who incorrectly called himself Borgia, whose name finally, in some unaccountable way, became confused with that of Rodrigo Borja y Borja, subsequently Alexander VI., and the error has persisted for centuries. Such is Yriarte’s explanation. The evidence furnished by the arms is substantiated by the Valencian chronicles and by records in the archives of Osuna.

The Borgias were Spanish and such they remained throughout their long and infamous career in Italy, and they were always supported by a powerful Castillian party.

That Rodrigo Borgia was Caesar’s father there is no doubt. Rodrigo as cardinal, and later when Pope, always acknowledged and treated him as his son, lavishing unbounded parental affection on him and striving in every way to advance his material interests, as he did those of all his kinsmen and children.

One of the most striking traits of the Borgia family was their exaggerated affection for each other and their unbounded sense of family solidarity. Even Pope Calixtus III., who has not been accused of sacrificing his office wholly to his kinsmen, saw fit to bestow the cardinalate upon several of them.

If Mariana is correct in stating that Rodrigo’s eldest son Don Pedro Luis, first Duke of Gandia, who was born in 1467, was the child of Vannozza de’ Catanei, the cardinal’s relations with this woman, which lasted about fifteen years, began when he was about thirty-five.

Of Vannozza little is known. She was born in 1441 and was the wife of Giorgio de Croce when she first succumbed to the magnetic cardinal, to whom she presented four children, about whose birth and parentage there is no doubt whatever: Giovanni, born in 1474, married DoÑa Maria Enriquez, and was assassinated in 1497; Caesar, born in 1476; Lucretia, born in 1480, was first married to Giovanni Sforza of Pesaro, then to Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglia, and finally to Alfonso d’Este; Don Giuffre, the youngest, was born in 1481. Mariana makes no mention of Rodrigo’s other children—Girolama, who died in 1483; Isabella, the wife of Pietro Giovanni Matuzzi; and Giovanni Borgia, Lord of Camerino, who was the son of Giulia Farnese.

Vannozza was simply a nickname for Giovanna, and Catanei was a common name throughout Italy. In numerous contemporary documents she is mentioned as Madonna de Casa Catanei. As she was able to hold the pleasure-loving cardinal so many years and secure from him the recognition of her children, various writers have seen fit, in the absence of other grounds for romance, to ascribe to her great physical beauty, force of character, and intellect. Her name does not appear in the list of public courtesans of Rome, and numerous guesses have been made as to her social status and mode of living; they are, however, neither probable nor illuminating. Her obscurity is proved by the indifference of the sonneteers and epigrammatists of the day, who, had she been at all conspicuous, would have made her notorious. Burchard mentions her only twice, once in January, 1495, when her house was sacked by the French, and again in connection with the supper that preceded the murder of the Duke of Gandia in June, 1497.

Although Rodrigo’s relations with Vannozza ceased about 1482 he continued to interest himself in her material welfare. Her husband, Giorgio de Croce, died in 1486, whereupon the cardinal, in order that she might not be without a home and a protector, married her to Carlo Canale of Mantua, a scholarly, but complaisant, individual who had been secretary to that great patron of letters Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, upon whose death in 1483 Carlo had gone to Rome to enter the service of Cardinal Sclafenati.

Rodrigo, probably thinking that Carlo’s talents might be useful, selected him to be the husband of his widowed mistress; and avarice or ambition induced Carlo to acquiesce in the arrangement.

The nuptial contract was drawn up June 8, 1486, and to her husband Vannozza brought as marriage portion a thousand gold ducats and an appointment as sollicitator bullarum. The contract describes this as her second marriage, thus making it doubtful whether she was ever married to Domenico d’Arignano, who, Burchard says, “had been married by Rodrigo to a certain woman who had borne the cardinal a son, whom he had always maintained and recognised as his own, and whom he had made Bishop of Pamplona.”12

With the assistance of her cardinal lover she had amassed a considerable fortune, a part of which by her will she eventually devoted to the purchase of her soul’s salvation. She appears to have been a strong, coarse woman, penurious and avaricious. Records are extant showing that she was charged with stealing, through the agency of her paid servants, eleven hundred and sixty sheep from Ludovico Mattei in 1504, and she was found guilty. In 1502 a complaint was likewise lodged against Donna Vannozza de’ Catanei by Nardo Antonazzi, a goldsmith of the Regola Quarter, for refusing to pay for a silver cross he had made for her in 1500. The jeweller, however, lost his case.

Tomasi says that Vannozza was of ignoble condition and that she succeeded with the consummate art of the courtesan in dominating any one she wished to control, and that she was an insatiable harpy. The same writer states that Cardinal Rodrigo had spent his youth in cultivating his natural gifts with the aid of all the tricks and artifices known to the courtier, and that he was a perfidious, bloodthirsty, and voracious beast of prey, but one who knew how to insinuate himself into the favour of all men.

Such were the antecedents of Caesar Borgia, and if his parentage was bad the environment in which he grew up was worse.

Caesar, if we accept his father’s statement, was born in April, 1476, for in 1501 the Pope, in conversation with the Ferrarese ambassador, remarked: “The Duchess Lucretia will complete her twenty-second year next April, and in the same month the Most Illustrious Duke Caesar will be twenty-six.”

The father’s statement concerning the age of his children, which was promptly reported to Duke Ercole of Ferrara by the ambassador, is confirmed by various dispatches and letters, among which are two sent by Gianandrea Boccaccio to the same person February 5 and March 11, 1493, which are now in the state archives of Modena. These dispatches give Caesar’s age at that time as “sixteen or seventeen years.” He was, therefore, somewhat younger than has for a long time been supposed, and was not as old as his brother Giovanni.

At the time of Caesar’s birth his father was about forty-five and his mother, Vannozza, thirty-four. Of her four children Caesar is the most interesting as a psychological and historical study, not on account of his crimes, for every petty Italian state had its criminal despot at that time, but because he displayed a calculating cunning, a shrewdness in statecraft, and a fidelity to purpose which is rarely met with in men of his years, and which made him pre-eminent among personalities of his own stamp.

Whether or not Caesar was striving to consolidate the numerous Italian states and eventually construct a great central kingdom in the peninsula, as Machiavelli believed, is difficult to determine. Caesar’s activity, however, reveals something more than the unreasoned efforts of a ferocious egoist to gratify an unbounded but vague ambition. At the beginning of the fifteenth century Italy offered great prizes to the resolute adventurer, and Caesar’s horizons may have been wider than the domain of St. Peter.

What is known of his boyhood and youth is, in comparison with a knowledge of the environment in which he grew up, of slight value. A bull of Sixtus IV., issued in April, 1480, in which he is described as the “son of a Cardinal-Bishop and a certain married woman,” relieved him of the necessity of proving himself of legitimate birth; and an Act signed by Ferdinand the Catholic in 1481 provides for his legitimation and naturalisation. These steps were necessary before he could be invested with the various offices his father, the all-powerful Cardinal of San NiccolÒ in Carcere Tulliano, was determined he should enjoy. While still a child privileges of all sorts were bestowed upon him. July 10, 1482—Caesar was then about six—Sixtus IV. granted him the revenues of the prebends and canonicates of the cathedral of Valencia; and by a second bull, dated April 5, 1483, presented him with another canonicate and a benefice belonging to the archdiaconate of Xativa; the following year the Pope appointed him provost of Albar, and finally—September 12, 1484—when according to the bull he was nine years of age, he was made treasurer of Carthagena.

During his childhood Caesar probably lived with Adriana Mila, his father’s cousin. A granddaughter of Catalina, sister of Calixtus III., she had married Ludovico Orsini, Lord of Bassanello, who died some time before 1488. She dwelt in the Orsini palace in Rome. Lucretia Borgia also was placed under her care. Adriana Mila was more than Rodrigo Borgia’s kinswoman, she was his confidante up to the day of his death. Her son it was who married the beautiful Giulia Farnese, and Adriana was the complaisant witness of the adulterous relations of his wife, “Christ’s Bride,” as the satirists called her, with her cousin, St. Peter’s successor.

The dedication—already mentioned—of Paolo Pompilio’s treatise on rhetoric to Caesar in 1488 is the first public notice we have of him. The following year he was a student of canon law at the Sapienza of Perugia, where he also had a special preceptor, Juan Vera of Valencia. At the university he had a number of intimate friends and companions—all young Spaniards—who were closely associated with his subsequent fortunes. The most famous of these young men was Francesco Romolino of Lerida, one of the commissioners sent to Florence in 1498 by Alexander VI. to secure the conviction of Savonarola, and who remarked to his host, Pandolfo della Luna: “We shall make a fine bonfire; I bear the sentence with me already prepared.”13

From Perugia, where Caesar spent about two years, he went to Pisa—in 1491—to attend the lectures of Filippo Decio, one of the most famous professors of canon law of that day, and he was still there September 12, 1491, on which date Innocent VIII. conferred the bishopric of Pamplona on him. Five days later Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, in his capacity of Vice-Chancellor of the Church, informed the Chapter of Pamplona, and the alcaldes and counsellors of the city, of the appointment; and on the same day Caesar, the dignified bishop of fifteen years, also brought the fact to the notice of these various personages and sent them as his representative the venerable Martin Zapata, Canon-Treasurer of Toledo, provided with a power of attorney, and the bulls and letters naming him administrator of the province. The original documents are in the archives of Pamplona.

In the first letter, which is written by Caesar’s father, in Spanish, he is described as a persona muy a nos conjunta—“a person very closely connected with us.” The cardinal adds: “The Holy Father has decided to appoint to this bishopric the prothonotary Don Caesar de Borgia, distinguished for his virtues and his learning.”

Caesar’s letter, written at Soriano, is as follows:—

“To the Magnificos, our Honourable and Especial Friends,—You doubtless have already learned from letters of the Reverend Cardinal, Vice-Chancellor of the Church, that, the Episcopal See of your city having become vacant in consequence of the death of the Reverend SeÑor Don Alfonso Carillo of blessed memory, his Holiness, the Pope, and the Reverend Seniors constituting the Sacred College, unanimous in their choice, have promoted us to this dignity, and have placed in our hands the bulls and briefs which we hereby tender for your examination. Solicitous for the future good government of the bishopric, spiritual as well as temporal, we send to you the venerable Mossen Martin Zapata, the beloved and esteemed canon and treasurer of Toledo, as our representative, duly empowered to decide all matters in our stead. We have specially instructed him to confer with you regarding a number of matters, and we urge you to trust him in all things and to show him all confidence. I expect you also of your own goodwill to aid and serve him. Should anything special arise affecting your noble city and the general welfare of yourselves and the community you may rest assured that we will give it the same attention that we would bestow on any affair of our own. I have only to add that I pray the Lord to take your honourable and noble persons under his protection.

“From Soriano the xvii day of September, MDLXXXXI. Ever yours to command,

“Cesar de Borgia,
“Elector of Pamplona.”

In the latter half of the fifteenth century, when boys were married at sixteen, made cardinals at seventeen, and commanded armies at twenty, children were precocious, and Caesar, a student in Pisa, could not have been blind to the vast opportunities presented to him by his father’s elevation to the Papacy in August, 1492.

By the immediate bestowal of high offices on his favourites and kinsmen Alexander showed that he did not intend to hold himself aloof from nepotism. His uncle, Calixtus III., having set the example, the evil had grown, and Alexander was destined to be its supreme exponent.

Caesar did not attend the elaborate fÊtes given on the occasion of his father’s coronation. His Holiness doubtless thought it wise not to bring his son forth into public gaze thus early in the drama. Caesar was in Spoleto at the time, and, being a shrewd youth, he must have appreciated the scandalous means by which his father secured his election. The coronation took place August 26, 1492, and in honour of the happy event Alexander made his son, Caesar, Bishop of Valencia, an office he himself had held, and which carried with it the dignity of Primate of Spain.

The Spaniards were not forgotten by the Borgia; those who already held office were promoted and places were found for those who had not yet secured a foothold. The Bishop of Modena states in one of his letters that ten popes would not be able to satisfy these satellites. The Pope’s sisters immediately became personages of importance in Rome, and Vannozza, the mother of four of his children—who, after the birth of Giuffre, had found herself deserted for the beautiful Giulia Farnese—gained in both social position and material wealth by Rodrigo’s election. Thenceforth she appears to have lived the life of a respectable and influential matron in the papal city.

All were provided for; the Pope’s mistress, his innumerable kinsmen, the children and grandchildren of his sisters, the hosts of Spaniards who fastened themselves on the papal treasury, the prebends and benefices—and who even demanded a share of the lands confiscated from the Romagnol barons. Prominent among the Spaniards in the papal palace were: Romolino of Lerida, Juan Vera, Juan Lopez—who was made Chancellor—Pedro Caranza and Juan Marades, who were Privy-Chamberlains.

A letter written by Caesar from Spoleto to Piero de’ Medici shows that he was in that place as late as October, 1492. The youth explains why he had failed to call on the Florentine before leaving Pisa, and recommends to his favour the faithful Romolino of Lerida. The letter, which was delivered by Caesar’s tutor, Juan Vera, concludes with the formula used by princes: “Tanquam Frater Vr Cesar de Borgia Elect. Valent.”

Not until the spring of 1493 did Caesar go to Rome, where a house in the Trastevere was furnished him. Here he maintained a numerous Court, and although he was only seventeen years of age, one of the dispatches of Gianandrea Boccaccio, the Ferrarese ambassador, shows that he knew how to play the prince perfectly. The ambassador went to the Vatican to render homage, and March 19, 1493, in announcing the results of his interview to his master, Ercole d’Este, he gives the earliest description we have of the youthful Bishop of Valencia.

“The other day I called on Caesar in his house in the Trastevere. He was about to set out for the chase and was clad in a costume altogether worldly; he was clothed in silk and had a sword at his side. We rode along on horseback, conversing as we went. I am on friendly terms with him. He is intellectual and cultured—with the manners of a prince. He has a serene and cheerful disposition, and his gaiety is contagious. He is very modest. His bearing is much better than that of his brother, the Duke of Gandia, who is by no means devoid of good qualities. The Archbishop [Caesar] has never had any taste for the priesthood, but it should be remembered that his benefices annually bring him in more than sixteen thousand ducats.”

Just what the word “modesty” meant in those days is not apparent, for it is applied to persons who would seem to have possessed little of that admirable trait.

Ecclesiastical rules hampered Caesar but little. He was enormously wealthy, and additional benefices were constantly given him. He was promptly allotted the income of the churches of Castres and Perpignan, and thirty thousand gold ducats from San Michele d’Arezzo fell to his share.

At the time of Alexander’s accession to the papal throne Italy, and Naples in particular, were threatened by grave dangers arising from the contests of King Ferdinand of Naples and Ludovico, Duke of Milan, and in March, 1493, the former endeavoured to secure the friendship of the Pope by suggesting a marriage of one of his natural daughters with Giuffre; the suggestion, however, came too late, for in April Lucretia Borgia was betrothed to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, and kinsman of Ludovico; and a coalition was formed by Milan, Venice, and the Holy See, which could only result in disaster to Ferdinand, as Charles VIII., who had just inherited the crown of France, was beginning to assert his claims to the throne of Naples.

Irritated by the rejection of his offer, the King of Naples wrote his orator in Spain that Alexander was detested by every one in spite of his holy office, and that his only care was to increase the fortunes of his children by fair means or foul.

Some of the other Italian states joined the coalition, and in April, 1493, the Bishop of Nepi, Bartolomeo Flores, publicly read the articles of the treaty in St. Peter’s, and although no threat was made against Ferdinand, every one knew that the purpose of the league was the destruction of the House of Naples. Lucretia Borgia’s betrothal to Giovanni Sforza strengthened the alliance. Alexander hated Ferdinand because he was outspoken in his condemnation of the scandals of the Vatican and because he was a vigorous supporter of the Neapolitan party in the Sacred College. The King had opposed the bestowal of the cardinalate upon Alessandro Farnese, Giulia Bella’s brother, and he had also allied himself with Giuliano della Rovere and Virginio Orsini, who, aided by those who had tried to prevent Alexander’s election, were holding a portion of the territory of the Church by force. Finally the King openly supported the rebels, furnishing them troops and supplies, while his own son, who had gone to Ostia with Giuliano della Rovere, joined Virginio Orsini and Fabrizio Colonna, the Pope’s mortal enemies.

June 12, 1493, Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, was married to the Pope’s daughter, who was then thirteen years of age. She had been betrothed twice before, and is described as a beautiful, vivacious, golden-haired girl. The marriage ceremony was performed in the Vatican, and the festivities which followed caused an uproar throughout the city.

Burchard, the minute Master of Ceremonies, may not have been present—his diary stops abruptly June 11, 1493, and does not begin again until January 14, 1494—but Infessura fills in the lacuna.

The Pope invited one hundred and fifty of the prominent women of Rome and their husbands, and also the ambassadors and city officials, to the wedding. After being kept waiting for some time in a hall, the women were allowed to enter, but when their husbands and the ambassadors and officials were about to follow, the doors were closed and were not again opened until an hour had elapsed; then the notaries who had attested the marriage contract appeared and informed the men, who were then permitted to enter, that the ceremony was over. It was said that on the conclusion of the ceremony the Pope had produced fifty goblets filled with confetti which, in the exuberance of his joy, he had poured into the bodices of the women, “probably the most beautiful ones, and this,” concludes Infessura, “to the honour and glory of God and the Roman Church.”

The chronicler proceeds to describe a banquet in the papal palace, which was attended by Church dignitaries and numerous women, among whom were the Pope’s daughter and Giulia Bella. The festivities lasted until the seventh hour of the night, and included the reading of several comedies—“among them some obscene ones.” Nowhere in connection with the marriage of Lucretia and Giovanni Sforza is Caesar mentioned, although he had left Spoleto.

The tension in the affairs of Italy was somewhat relieved by the King of Spain, and through the intercession of Frederic, son of the King of Naples, an agreement was reached in July, 1493, between Virginio Orsini and the Pope. The price of the agreement and of the dissolution of the league was the hand of DoÑa Sancia to be given to Giuffre, Caesar’s younger brother. The contract was formally signed August 15, 1493, and the league was dissolved. Giuffre’s marriage with DoÑa Sancia, like all those arranged by Alexander VI., was purely a political expedient.

Although Caesar had no inclination or fitness for the Church, shortly after this, September 21, 1493, he was made a cardinal. It was at this same creation that Giuliano Cesarini—whose brother had married Girolama Borgia in 1482—and Alessandro Farnese were made cardinals, and Burchard adds that there were certain others who paid more than a hundred thousand ducats for the honour. Farnese, brother of the Pope’s concubine, as the papal Master of Ceremonies describes him with his usual fondness for exact details, was henceforth known in Rome as “the cardinal of the petticoat.”

In that grossly immoral age it is not surprising that Farnese took advantage of the adulterous relations of the head of the Christian Church with Giulia, “Christ’s Bride” as she was called in derision. The Farnese family had been of slight importance in the history of Italy up to the time of Alexander VI., but when he made Alessandro a cardinal he brought them into the history of Rome and of the world—for this act led to the pontificate of Paul III., the founder of the Farnese House of Parma.