Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/357

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BORGHESI. 317 BOBaiA. day epigraphy. His writings were very numer- ous. After iiis death a collected edition was begun at the order of Xapoleon III., which has only recently been completed — (Eui-res completes (10 vols., 1802-97). BOBGIA, bOr'jii. An Italian family of Span- ish origin which acquired great eminence after the elevation of Alfonso Borgia to the Papacy as Cali.xtus III., in 145,5. He had previously been a councilor of the King of Aragon. He died in 1458.— RoDRiGO Borgia, nephew of the fore- going, ascended the Papal throne in August, 1492, under the name of .lexander VI. (q.v.). Before his elevation to the Papacy, he had a number of children by a Roman woman named Vanozza (Giovanna de" Catanei), of whom the most celebrated were Cesare and Lucrezia. — Ce- s.vBE or C.ES.B Borgia was one of the most noted men of the times, and his character, like that of his father, has been the subject of much his- torical controversy. He had early received high ecclesiastical preferment, and his father, soon after becoming Pope, made him cardinal. The assassination of his brother Giovanni, Duke of Benevento and Count of Terracina and Ponte- corvo, has been laid to Ciesar's charge, but with no evidence save that Caesar succeeded him. He obtained the duchy and counties for himself, and , was permitted by his father to resign the purple and to devote himself to the profession of arms. He was sent, in 1498, to France, to convey to Louis XII. a bill of divorce from his consort Jeanne, on the ground of no consummation. Louis rewarded him, in his royal gratitude, with the Duchy of Valentinois, a bodyguard of 100 men. 20.000 livres of yearly revenue, and a promise of support in his .schemes of ambition. In 1499, Caesar married a daughter of the King of Xavarre, and accompanied Louis XII. to Italy, where he undertook the conquest of the Romagna for the Holy Sec. But before the con- quest was completed. Ca-sar was compelled to desist on account of the defeat of his French allies in the northern part of Italy. In 1501 he was named by his father Duke of Romagna. In the same year he wrested the principality of Piom- bino from Jacopo D'Appiano, but failed in an attempt to acquire Bologna and Florence. He took Camcrino, and caused Giulio Di Varano, the lord of that town, to be strangled along with his two sons. By treachery as much as by violence, he made himself master of the Duchy of L'rbino. A league of Italian princes was formed to resist him, but he kept them in awe by force until he succeeded in winning some of them over by advantageous oflers, employed them against the others, and then treacherously murdered them on the day of the victory (De- cemI)or 31, 1.502), at Sinigaglia. He now seized their possessions, and seemed to have removed every obstacle in the way of becoming King of Romagna and of T'mbria, when, on August 17, 1.503. his father died, probably of malaria, though at the time there were rumors of poison. Csesar, also, who was a party to the design (and who had long been familiar with that mode of dispatching those who stood in the way of his ambition, or whose wealth he de- sired to obtain), had himself partaken of the poison, and the consequence was a severe illness, exactly at a time when the utmost activity and presence of mind were requisite for his affairs. F.nemies rose against him on all hands, and one of the most inveterate of them ascended the Papal throne as .Julius II. Ca?sar was arrested and conveyed to the castle of Medina Del Campo, in Spain, where he lay imprisoned for two years. At length he contrived to make his escape to the King of Xavarre, whom he accompanied in the war against Castile, and was killed on March 12, 1507, by a rais.sile from the castle of Biano. With all liis intrigue and cruelty. Borgia was temperate and sober. He loved and patronized learning, and possessed in a remarkable degree a ready and persuasive eloquence. Machiavelli, who was at one time dazzled by the energy and ability of Ca»sar and believed that he was capable of unifying Italy, has delineated his char- acter in his /"riHci^c— Lucrezia Borgia, sis- ter of Ca"sar Borgia, a woman of great beauty, was born in Rome in 1480. She was mar- ried first to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, .June, 1493 ; but her father, on the ground of her husband's impotence, annulled this mar- riage (December 20, 1497), and gave her (.June .20, 1498) to Alfonso. Duke of Bisccglie. nephew of the King of Naples. Alfonso, believing that Cxsar had sought his life, attempted to retaliate, and was in turn cut to pieces by his own body- guard at Cesar's command. For the third time free, the Pope's daughter became, in spite of the repugnance of the Duke Ercole d'Este, the wife of the lattcr's son. Alfonso, who soon after in- herited the Duchy of Ferrara. Lucrezia has been represented as placed outside the pale of human- ity by her wantonness, her vices, and her crimes, but the recent researches of most accurate and impartial historians have refuted the more ex- travagant of these assertions, and demonstrated that if any blame whatever attach to her youth, it is certain that during her life at Ferrara she was a pattern of every womanly virtue. She died .June 24. 1519. Bibliography. Creighton, History of the Papacy During the Period of the Reforma- tion, 5 vols. (London and Xew York, 1882- 04) ; ilachiavelli. Historical, Political, and Dip- lomatic Writings, 4 vols., trans, by Detmold (Boston, 1891); Villari, ?iiccolo Machiavelli and His Times, 4 vols., trans, by Villari (London, 1878-83) ; Gilbert. Lucrezia Borgia (London, 1869) ; Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots, 7 vols. (London, 1875-86) ; Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (London, 1878) ; Gregorovius, Stadt Rom im Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1881 ) , also in English translation, and Gregorovius, Lucrezia Borgia (Stuttgart, 1875) ; Leonetti, Papa Ales- sondro VI. (Bologna, 1880) ; Alvisi, II duca Va- lentino (Imola. iS78) ; Yriarte, C^sar Borgia (Paris, 1889) and Aulour drs Borgia (Paris, 1893) ; JIaury, "Une rCdiabilitation de Cfsar Borgia." in the Revue Historique (Paris, May, 1880). BORGIA. Fkan-ci.sco (1510-72). A general of the .bsiiit Order, born at Gandia, Valencia. His early life was spent at the Court of Charles v., and in 1545. after the death of his wife, he entered the Order of .Icsus and was appointed by Loyola vicar-general of the Order in Spain and Portugal, which position he held until the death of Lainez. the successor of Loyola. Under his administration numerous reforms were insti- tuted. He was canonized in 1071. BORGIA, Stefano (1731-1804). An Italian antiquarian and prelate, born at Velletri. In