Latest / The Story of Italy: Rome, Renaissance, and the Birth of Modern Europe — Fexingo History / The Papal States Under Pope Alexander VI Borgia
Transcript
- Luna: So we've talked about the Avignon papacy and the Great Western Schism, but I feel like we haven't really gotten into the Renaissance popes yet. Lucas: You're right. And there's one pope in particular who really embodies the contradictions of that era: Alexander VI, born Rodrigo Borgia. He was pope from 1492 to 1503, right at the height of the Italian Renaissance. Lucas: Now, the Borgia family has become almost legendary for corruption, murder, and scandal. But a lot of that is myth mixed with fact. What's undeniable is that Alexander VI used the papacy to aggrandize his family, especially his son Cesare Borgia, in ways that shocked even the cynical Italian city-states. Luna: Wasn't he the pope who basically started the whole 'Renaissance pope' stereotype? Lucas: Yes, but he wasn't alone. Popes like Sixtus IV, who built the Sistine Chapel, and Julius II, the warrior pope, were also deeply political. But Alexander VI took it to another level. He came from a wealthy Valencian family in Spain, and his uncle was Pope Callixtus III, who made him a cardinal at age 25. So he grew up in the curia, mastering the system. Lucas: When he became pope, he immediately began promoting his relatives. He made his son Cesare a cardinal at 18, but Cesare was more interested in military conquest. Alexander annulled his cardinalate and sent him to lead papal armies, carving out a personal duchy in the Romagna. Luna: The Romagna—that's the region around Ravenna, right? Lucas: Exactly. The Papal States were a patchwork of territories nominally under papal control but actually run by local lords. Cesare, with French support, conquered city after city: Imola, Forlì, Rimini, Faenza. He was ruthless, but also a brilliant strategist. Machiavelli later used Cesare as a model for his book 'The Prince'. Lucas: But Alexander VI's ambitions went beyond Italy. In 1493, he issued the bull Inter caetera, which divided the newly discovered lands of the Americas between Spain and Portugal. That bull became the legal basis for the colonization of the New World, with the pope as arbiter of Christian sovereignty. Luna: That's huge. So he was essentially drawing lines on a map of lands no European had even fully explored. Lucas: Right. The Spanish and Portuguese had been competing, and Alexander, himself Spanish by birth, sided with Spain in a way that shaped world history for centuries. But back in Italy, his papacy also saw the French invasion of 1494, when King Charles VIII marched through Italy to claim Naples. Alexander initially allied with Naples, then switched sides, then brokered a peace. It was a mess. Lucas: And then there was the Savonarola affair. Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican friar in Florence who preached against papal corruption. He called Alexander the Antichrist. Alexander excommunicated him, and eventually Savonarola was burned at the stake in 1498. Luna: That must have been a direct challenge to his authority. Lucas: Absolutely. Savonarola had actually taken control of Florence after the Medici were expelled, and he was a real threat. Alexander's response was political as much as religious—he used the Florentine authorities to do his dirty work. Lucas: If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you might have noticed how often the fate of Italy hinged on the choices of a few powerful people. In that sense, the Borgias were no different. Supporting this kind of deep-dive storytelling is what keeps Fexingo History free and ad-free. If you'd like to help, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Every bit goes straight into research and production. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to make sure we keep covering these stories that often get overlooked. Lucas: Exactly. So, back to Alexander. One of the most famous stories about him is the Banquet of Chestnuts, where it's said that he and his daughter Lucrezia watched prostitutes compete for chestnuts. That story is almost certainly a fabrication by his enemies, but it shows how his reputation was tarred even during his lifetime. Luna: Lucrezia Borgia also gets a bad rap, doesn't she? Lucas: She does. She was married off three times for political alliances, and rumors said she was an incestuous poisoner. But modern historians see her more as a pawn in her father and brother's schemes, and she later became a capable ruler of Ferrara as Duchess. Lucas: Alexander VI died in 1503, probably from malaria, though rumors of poisoning persist. His death effectively ended the Borgia era. Cesare was captured and died in battle a few years later. But the papacy never really reformed from within until the Counter-Reformation, decades later. Luna: So his legacy is really mixed. He helped consolidate the Papal States, but at the cost of enormous corruption. Lucas: Exactly. He also patronized the arts—he commissioned Pinturicchio to decorate the Borgia Apartments in the Vatican, which are stunning. So he was a man of his time: ambitious, cultured, and utterly unapologetic about mixing church and state power. Lucas: And that tension between spiritual authority and temporal ambition would eventually trigger the Reformation. Martin Luther was just a child when Alexander died, but he saw exactly this kind of papal excess as the problem. Luna: It's like the papacy couldn't help but become a political entity once it had territory to defend. Lucas: Right. And that's the story of Italy: the constant interplay between religion, politics, and power. Next time, we might look at how the Medici popes continued that tradition, or maybe the Sack of Rome in 1527—that's a good one. Luna: I'd love to hear about the Sack of Rome. Lucas: We'll get there. For now, let's leave it with the Borgias: a family that, for better or worse, left an indelible mark on the Renaissance papacy and the shape of modern Italy.