Influencing The Prince: The Borgia Family throughout Time - Research Paper Example

? of the Influencing ‘The Prince The Borgia Family throughout Time Month Year Introduction Incest, debauchery, murder, self-indulgence, greed, and, ironically, devoutness—these are the widely known attributes of the Borgia family that embedded itself in Renaissance Italy, and that, in numerous instances, influenced the Renaissance with deception and coercive power for five decades. In several instances, it was a legacy whose effect on the State and Church is still witnessed until today.1 Four members of the Borgia family are specifically, infamously commemorated as incomparable exemplars of wickedness and greed: Alonso Borgia (Pope Calixtus III), Rodrigo Borgia (Alexander VI), Cesare Borgia, and Lucrezia Borgia. Alonso and Rodrigo were popes. Cesare Borgia was a cardinal for a short time, raised to that status by Alexander VI, his recognized father, and soon after, a brutal and homicidal duke. Lucrezia Borgia has become a symbol for femme fatale.2 However, despite of the wickedness of the Borgias, their influence was able to span centuries because of Niccolo Machiavelli’s most prominent work, ‘The Prince’, whose one of the main inspirations is Cesare Borgia. The Borgia Family The Borgia family was supporters of the arts and they contributed greatly to the success of the Renaissance. The Borgias gained influence and power in Renaissance Italy through marriages, entrepreneurship, and charity to the arts. Their influence in Renaissance Italy emanated mostly from their positions in the Church and State. In 1492, Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI. The primary aim of Rodrigo appears to have been to build the Papal States, lands in the center of Italy customarily ruled by the pope, a realm for Cesare, his son.3 Rodrigo had a number of mistresses whom he had several illegitimate children. However, he was particularly doting of his two most infamous offspring, Cesare and Lucrezia. In order to financially support his military missions and other projects he had embarked on, Rodrigo traded separations to the European princes and kings and forcibly took power over the lands of dead bishops.4 The schemes of Rodrigo almost made it. Cesare, in control of the papal soldiers of his father, became infamous for cruelty that gained him numerous adversaries, who feared and hated him at the same time.5 As expressed in the below passage, the Borgias were hated and feared: I met Cesare yesterday in the house in Trastevere: He was just on his way to the chase dressed in a costume altogether worldly: that is, in silk—and armed. He had only a little tonsure like a simple priest. I conversed with him for a while as we rode along—I am on intimate terms with him. He possesses marked genius and a charming personality, bearing himself like a great prince. He is especially lively and merry and fond of society. [This] archbishop never had any inclination for the priesthood but his benefices bring him in more than 16,000 ducats annually.6 (Chamberlin 97) Rodrigo and Cesare employed every tactic to attain success and conquest, comprising not just bloodshed but assassination, most usually through poisoning. Even the other Borgias were threatened. Cesare arranged the assassination of the Duke of Biscegile, the second husband of his sister Lucrezia. At the peak of their control and influence the Borgia family was extremely feared that people asked to feast with them frequently took the vigilance of appeasing their resolves before going.7 Even though Rodrigo allegedly died in 1503 from malaria, hearsays linger until now that he died after devouring by mistake a poisoned food intended for someone else. By the advent of the 16th century the Borgias were doomed. Cesare Borgia lived longer than his father, but his power gradually weakened.8 Overwhelmed by his enemies, Cesare run away from Rome just to be arrested in Naples and incarcerated in Spain. He managed to escape but was slaughtered in combat in 1507, finally terminating the ambition of the Borgias to create a family dynasty in Italy.9 By the 16th century, humanity was on the verge of even more catastrophic and chaotic episodes. The Rule of Borgias The Borgia family was already strongly rooted aristocrats in Spain when Alfonso Borgia was born. On 1455, after the demise of Nicholas V, Alfonso was simply and openly elected and adopted the name of Pope Callixtus III. His primary aim was mobilizing the armed forces of Europe, which was under constant threat by an Islamic incursion. He is considered by most scholars to have been an individual of arrogant ambitions, of limitless determination, energy, and audacity.10 He passed away in 1458 with an exceptional repute, having performed nothing that the people perceived as oddly evil. Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia seized the top echelons even after the demise of Callixtus, his uncle. He was generally revered as a quite competent overseer of the Papal Chancery and even his fiercest rivals believed that he “combined rare prudence and vigilance, mature reflection, marvelous powers of persuasion, skill and capacity for the conduct of the most difficult affairs.”11 However, Rodrigo had several eccentricities. The roster of abbacies, bishoprics, archbishoprics, and other dignitaries he supervised was strangely lengthy, and, even though he was firmly self-disciplined in his drinking and eating, he maintained a lavish home and gambled excessively.12 He immediately became one of the richest men at the time. Aside from other vices, Rodrigo was fond of women. His lavish and corrupt behavior appalled the community and Court of Sienna in 1460 and led to a contemptuous memo from Pope Pius II.13 Rodrigo’s appointment as Pope Alexander VI was received by universal approval. He had, nevertheless, carried out the activities of the Roman Chancery for almost four decades with an unusual competence and hard work, improving himself, but improving Rome and the Church as well. Rodrigo did not frustrate the people who believed in him. He brought back peace and order in the city, and he swiftly eliminated the anarchy that had typified Rome throughout the regime of his forerunners.14 Even though he was aware of the insufficiency of his own education, Rodrigo promoted science, arts and literature. He reconstructed the Roman University and compensated the mentors liberally. He enclosed himself with intellectuals and counselors and endorsed composers and playwrights.15 Rodrigo attempted, just like his deceased uncle, to mobilize the armed forces of Europe. A prominent accomplishment was his arbitration between Portugal and Spain over the newly found Americas. The ‘line of demarcation’ which Rodrigo penciled in through the New Continent pleased both the Iberian colonialists and thwarted a conflict which would have rendered Europe powerless against Islamic incursion.16 A great deal of his attempts to arbitrate between Italian clans and European princes were less victorious, nevertheless, normally because his preferred strategy of arbitration was to prescribe Borgia supremacy.17 Rodrigo, or Pope Alexander VI, could have been known in history as a remarkable and successful Pope except that he chose to carry on as a Pope the vices that had dishonored him as a Cardinal. Rodrigo initially interpreted the assassination of the Duke of Gandia, his son Juan, as a sign that atonement and change were required, and he in fact drafted the reform policies. However, he later deteriorated, the policies were not implemented, and his repentance was immediately snuffed out.18 Without Juan, Cesare Borgia truly acted independently. He prevailed over the Pope’s disapprovals and abandoned all of his positions in the Church deciding to become the highest of secular princes. In the meantime, in the midst of utmost disgrace, the marriage of Lucrezia to Giovanni Sforza was terminated due to the alleged impotence of Sforza, and she was immediately granted as consort to a known illegitimate child of Alfonso II of Naples, Alfonso Biseglia.19 According to some historians, Lucrezia Borgia was an ideal princess and spouse until she passed away in 1519. She was unanimously acclaimed for her good nature, virtue, generosity, and advocacy for the arts. The evil Lucrezia was an imagination of William Mancester, Geatano Donizetti, and Victor Hugo.20 According to these historians, it was Cesare who was truly evil. The Affiliation between Niccolo Machiavelli and the Borgias When Renaissance Italy was at its peak in 1502, three of its prominent but distinct personalities journeyed together through the far-flung mountainous area of Romagna.21 Cesare Borgia, supported by his father, was overseeing a military mission whose objective was to create this own dominion. He had appointed Leonardo da Vinci as his top military architect whose task was to strengthen the fortifications and palaces in the area as well as to build several innovative military equipment. Escorting this odd pair was the mysterious Niccolo Machiavelli, who had been sent by the officials of Florence as a representative to the visiting ‘court’ with orders to get in with Borgia and, if possible, find out his plans towards Florence.22 In a typically Machiavellian affair Cesare was completely aware that Niccolo was planning something and Niccolo was aware that Cesare was aware of this. Niccolo had been ordered to keep regular communication with Florence, informing them about all he was able to unravel. Niccolo knew that Cesare was cutting off these messages and reading them himself, throwing away dispatches he thought should remain unsent. Niccolo, consequently, would frequently turn to reporting in the most indirect way on what was really happening.23 Cesare, a figure whose great intelligence complemented his repute for cruelty and deceitfulness, was not tricked by this. He was aware that the officials of Florence would definitely have formulated an easy cryptogram with Niccolo before he had embarked. Even though everybody knew Niccolo was a mole, there was something cleverly revolutionary in his personality which seemed to fascinate them. This attracted Cesare as well; Niccolo was an individual of erudition, whose intelligence equaled his own, who truly seemed more fascinated in talking about philosophical knowledge than in carrying out the mission of a simple emissary.24 A man like Niccolo Machiavelli was unusual company among the violent and equipped soldiers with whom Cesare was encloses. And, not like his chief officers, in an unexplainable manner he felt that he could trust Niccolo.25 Influence of the Borgia Family on Niccolo Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ Cesare Borgia is Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince. Cesare was wealthy, good-looking, and brave. He could have been a minor figure in history if his confidante, Niccolo, had not produced the universally recognized The Prince. The word Machiavellian is related to power and control, yet Niccolo was not talking about his insights in The Prince. The famous book is about Cesare Borgia, who was an ecclesiastical prince when he occupied the position of a cardinal at a very young age, merely to leave that status to become the Duke of Valence.26 In the biography The Life of Cesare Borgia of France by Rafael Sabatini, he claims that “this ever politic Pope [Pope Alexander VI] indicated that if Cesare was about to become a prince of France, his many ecclesiastical benefices, yielding some 35,000 gold florins yearly, being mostly in Spain, would be bestowed upon Spanish churchmen.”27 Sabatini portrays a number of the immoderation of Borgia when he went through a city and attempted to win the hearts of the residents. Cesare and his horse were ornamented with precious stones. According to Villari (1898): Borgia’s emblem was a red bull and a three-point flame, which symbolized his family’s power and longevity. Borgia died at age 31 in battle; but the Borgia in name continued on with infamous connotations, and Borgia’s ideas were immortalized by Machiavelli.28 Influence of ‘The Prince’ on the Contemporary Period Throughout the last five centuries Machiavelli’s The Prince has been much loved by many political rulers, Napoleon Bonaparte and Louis XIV being the most prominent among the many influential and powerful leaders. Due to entirely practical techniques one can gain from The Prince, it is valuable to all political leaders regardless of their principles. This could have added to the widely held belief that The Prince is only a handbook on how to acquire power or influence by any way possible, without consideration on how a person should exercise that influence. In addition, there is a customary practice of understanding the works of Machiavelli as nationalistic pressures. The concept can be traced back to Hegel. As stated in the nationalistic perspective, the last section of the book can be regarded to sum up all of his ideas.29 The influence of Machiavelli’s The Prince is mostly felt in political science. Numerous scholars have argued that his objective was first of all to make sense of and clarify political forces in a scientific way. Even though this is a contentious argument about his real aspirations, his influence on the discipline is certain. If he did not delineate political science from moral principles, he led those who did. Conclusion Discussion on Machiavelli’s portrayal of power and leadership clearly verifies the assumption that Cesare Borgia is a ruthless and influential political leader. Machiavelli refers to the necessity of ‘selecting’ ways of thinking and forms of behavior, but this proposal to existing or prospective leaders is required due to the fact that, more often than not, people do not conscientiously choose their aspiration or behavior. If the ideas of Machiavelli have had a continuous influence, it is for the reason that flawed selection of leaders, demonstrated by the error of Cesare Borgia and the Borgia family in general, remind people of this. Nevertheless, based on the available literature, it remains uncertain whether the Borgia family was of evil character or merely victims of their circumstances, especially Cesare and Lucrezia. Yet, no matter what, the Borgias remain important figures in history because of their prolific influence, in terms of art, politics, business, and ethics, on Renaissance Italy and the contemporary period. References Primary Pastor, L. The history of the popes: from the close of the Middle Ages. Drawn from the secret archives of the Vatican and other original sources. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1906. Villari, P. The Life and Times of Niccolo Machiavelli. T.F. Unwin, 1898. Secondary Chamberlin, E. The fall of the house of Borgia. The University of Michigan: Dial Press, 1974. Cloulas, I. Borgias. Barnes & Noble, 1992. Dumas, P.A. The Borgias. ReadHowYouWant, 2006. Ferrara, O. The Private Correspondence of Niccolo Machiavelli. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1929. Hibbert, C. The Borgias and their enemies: 1431-1519. Harcourt, Inc., 2008. P. Strathern, “Machiavelli, Leonardo & Borgia: A Fateful Collusion What Happened When a Philosopher, an Artist and a Ruthless Warrior- All Giants of the Renaissance- Met on Campaign in Northern Italy?” History Today (March 2009): 15+ Read More