A CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND

enormous bribes - not just money but palaces and promises of high office. At the second ballot, he
won easily. He became Pope Alexander VI, and historians show a rare unanimity in agreeing that
he was the most corrupt, ungodly and ambitious man who had occupied the throne so far. His name
was Rodrigo Borgia.
Rodrigo had a passion for young girls, and since - like most of the Borgias - he had charm and good
looks, he was able to lead a life that Casanova would have envied. The previous pope had to
reprimand him for holding an open-air orgy in his garden with crowds of expensive courtesans.
(These were the days before Columbus brought the clap back from America and even mass
promiscuity was perfectly safe.) His favourite mistress was a virtuous lady named Vannozza
Cattanei, who regarded herself as his wife. On her Rodrigo fathered three bastards in succession:
Juan, Cesare and Lucrezia. Juan was the eldest and most handsome; he inherited his father’s
easygoing nature. Cesare was less handsome (although, like all the Borgias, he had nothing to
complain about), but more passionate and self-assertive. The youngest, Lucrezia, born in 1480, was
pretty and gentle, with a receding chin and a temperament that seemed to beg to be dominated.
Both brothers obliged enthusiastically, and vied in teaching their sister erotic games. She was
probably the mistress of both of them before she reached her teens.
At the time she was pregnant with Lucrezia, Vannozza was in her late thirties, and felt that her
position ought to be legalised. Rodrigo was unable to marry her, but he found her a husband - who
became the pope’s secretary as a reward. Rodrigo seems to have specified that she should not be
unfaithful to him with her new husband, and when she produced a son named Joffre in 1482,
suspected she had broken her side of the bargain; nevertheless, he gave the boy the same lavish
affection as his brothers Juan and Cesare. One of these two would have to become a soldier, for
Rodrigo had secret plans of becoming the master of all Italy. The other, of course, would have to
enter the Church, because he would in due course become pope. To Cesare’s furious disgust, Juan
was chosen for a military career while he was made a priest.
By the time his father became Pope Alexander VI in 1492, Cesare was already displaying signs of
that peculiar temperament that would make him the most hated man in Italy. He was a youth of
immense self-assertiveness, and he had been spoiled from birth, adored by his mother, later
worshipped by his sister, loved and protected by his immensely powerful father. It was the kind of
background that had created Caligula and Nero. Cesare was handsome, intelligent and athletic. He
could see no earthly reason why his wishes should ever be frustrated. If they were, he exploded into
rage. He never forgave an insult or slight. At sixteen, he put off his clerical vestments and rode
around Rome fully armed, often with the current mistress by his side. He openly behaved like a
lover towards his sister, who was just emerging into her teens, putting his arm round her in public.
It may have been this that made the new pope decide that it was time Lucrezia got married. The
husband he chose was a minor princeling, Giovanni Sforza, related to the family who governed
Milan. Sforza seems to have been delighted at the prospect of an alliance with the most powerful
family in Italy. But when he caught the look of brooding hostility on the face of his new brother-inlaw,
and heard of his reputation for disposing of his enemies with untraceable poisons, he must
have realised that he had made a mistake. For the time being, in any case, he could not consummate
the marriage, because Lucrezia was under age. At an early opportunity, he slipped off back to his
estates at Pesaro.
The pope had fallen in love again, with a young girl named Giulia Farnese, who had long blond
hair strikingly similar to Lucrezia’s. Giulia was betrothed to the pope’s nephew, Orsino, a child
with a bad squint. Giulia did not resist the handsome Rodrigo for long; she became Orsino’s wife