Alexander.** See Alexander VI., Pope.

**Borgia, Cesar**, a man distinguished both for his talents and his crimes, was the illegitimate son of Rodriguez Lenzouli, afterwards Pope Alexander VI., and of a Roman lady named Vanozza. At a time when the court of Rome was a school of falsehood and licentiousness; when the frequency of political intrigues had utterly effaced all shame; when treaties afforded no guarantee, and oaths inspired no confidence, Borgia may be said to have systematized crime, and to have carried utter disregard of all ties, human or divine, to an extent previously unknown. He had scarcely completed his studies when he obtained the archbishopric of Pampeluna; and in 1492 his father, who was now pope, made him archbishop of Valentia, and soon afterwards gave him a cardinal's hat. When Charles VIII. of France appeared before the walls of Rome, the pontiff was obliged to treat with him for the preservation of his capital from invasion. The king, who knew the character of the pope, demanded that his son Cesare should accompany him as a hostage; but scarcely had the French army quitted Rome when Borgia contrived to escape from the camp. In 1497 Alexander bestowed the duchy of Benevento, together with the counties of Terracina and Pontecorvo, on his eldest son, who had already received from the king of Spain the duchy of Gandia. His brother's elevation excited Cesare's jealousy; and when the duke was murdered about a week after his investiture, public opinion ascribed the deed to the cardinal. By his father's permission he now laid aside the purple, and devoted himself to the profession of arms. He was invested with the honours of his brother, and employed to carry to Louis XII. the papal bull of divorce which that monarch had long desired to obtain. In return for this favour Louis made Borgia Duke of Valentinois, and gave him a pension of 20,000 crowns, with a body-guard of 100 men. In 1499 Borgia married a daughter of King John of Navarre, and accompanied Louis XII. to Italy. He first undertook the conquest of Romagna, and caused the lawful possessors of the land to be treacherously murdered. He was appointed Duke of Romagna by his father in 1501; and he then wrested from Jacopo d'Apiano the principality of Piombino.

In his endeavours to make himself Duke of Bologna and Florence he was unsuccessful. For the conquest of Camerino he demanded soldiers and artillery from Guidobaldo of Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. Camerino was taken by storm, and Julius of Barona the lord of the city, and his two sons, were strangled. This fate Borgia reserved for all whom he had pillaged. He scrupled not to attain his ends by the vilest treachery; and, by fallacious promises to spare life on the condition of surrender, he ensnared many in his toils. His violence at length aroused the powers of Italy to form a league against him; but he found means to dissolve this alliance by assembling a body of 3000 Swiss, and winning over their troops to his interest by advantageous offers. There now seemed no obstacle to his being proclaimed king of Romagna, of the March, and of Umbria, when Alexander VI. was suddenly cut off on the 17th August 1503, by partaking accidentally of the poison which he and Borgia had prepared for nine newly-elected cardinals, in order to seize upon their possessions. Borgia likewise suffered severely from the same poison, but by the use of antidotes he recovered. Having obtained possession of his father's treasures, he assembled his troops in Rome, but found himself deserted by his officers, and surrounded on every side by enemies, one of the most bitter of whom was the new pope, Julius II. Borgia was arrested, and sent to Spain, where he was imprisoned by the Spanish court for two years, but at length made his escape through a window, and fled to his brother-in-law the king of Navarre. He accompanied that prince in his expedition against the Castilians, and fell fighting under the walls of Pamplona, the seat of his first diocese, March 12. 1507.

Borgia may be regarded as an incarnation of whatever is most detestable and infamous among men. Many princes have shed more blood, many have inflicted more terrible vengeance, but the name of Cesare Borgia is attainted with a surpassing infamy. Others have been hurried on by their passions; but with Borgia everything was the result of cool deliberation. His manners were as dissolute as those of his celebrated sister Lucrezia; yet, like that princess, he was a patron of letters, even produced specimens of poetical talent, and found panegyrists to celebrate his genius and taste. His situation imposed upon him the necessity of temperance, but in this is included everything that can be said in his favour, unless credit be given him for that seductive eloquence of which he was an undoubted master, and which he employed for the purpose of inveigling his intended victims into his toils. It is not without reason, therefore, that Machiaveli, in his Prince, has taken Cesare Borgia as a model: he could not among men have chosen a hero better qualified to inspire unmitigated horror and detestation.

**Borgia, Lucrezia.** See Alexander VI., Pope.