Alexandre VI

Roderic de Borgia , born the 1 {{er}} January 1431 with Xàtiva (Spain), dead the August 18th 1503, become Rodrigo Borgia after its arrival in Italy, was pope under the name of Alexandre VI (in Latin Alexander VI , in Italian Alessandro VI ) of 1492 with 1503.

Resulting from a noble family of the Kingdom of Valence, he was adoptive nephew and wire of the pope Calixte III (Alphonse de Borgia). In 1456, twenty-five years old, it is named cardinal. In 1468, it is ordered priest. In 1470, it becomes acquainted with Vanozza Catanei, a young Roman patrician who gave him four children (Jean or Joan , César, Lucrèce, and Geoffroi or Jofre ).

The August 11th 1492 it is elected Pape by a vast majority of two thirds of the prelates brought together in Conclave. It is not improbable that it bought certain votes, although no proof was brought to date.

In 1494, a party of prelates to the head of which Della Rovere is, the future pope Jules II, tries to make deposit this pope whom they show, not without reason, of Simonie and corruption. Its private life also shocks: bisexual, he appreciates the pretty boys, such for example, this Astorre Manfredi, lord of Faenza, which he attracts with the Castle Saint-Angel, viol and makes throw in the Tiber. The Nepotism and the scandals will not continue any less with the the Holy See, and this in spite of the admonitions of Savonarole. Alexandre VI fact face nevertheless. The same year, by the treaty of Tordesillas, it divides the New World into allotting Brazil to Portugal and the remainder of the Latin America in Spain.

In 1495, to fight against the French presence in Italy, it forms with Milan, Venice, the Maximilien emperor and the catholic Kings of Spain the Ligue of Venice which knew a heavy defeat with the Bataille of Fornoue, gained by Charles VIII thanks to the superiority of its artillery. César Borgia, his/her son, will conquer nevertheless Romagna.

Jules II, with the assistance of Charles VIII, obliges it to restore his fortresses and the constrained one to approach France where it will take refuge.

Generous patron, it protected the artists (Michel Ange, Raphaël) and showed great capacities in the resequencing of the administration of the church. He also affirmed the authority of the Vatican vis-a-vis the powers. Alexandre VI dies brutally the August 18th 1503 after one evening of festival. Some claim that the poison was the cause (cf Montaigne: Tests Delivers I chapter XXXIV: “Fortune often meets with the train of the reason”, where is advanced a version of died by poison of Alexandre VI). Its corpse, insulted and maltreated, was put at the tomb without ceremony, then returned to Spain. Incontestably, Alexandre VI leaves in Christendom a serious faintness which developed with the years. Even among the Christian historians, it did not find a true defender.

Biographical sources (selection)

Dumas, Alexandre. Borgia , Novel, 2005 (ISBN 2744406015)

catholic Missions in XVIe and XVIIe centuries

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Alexandre VI

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