BORGIA, CESARE duke of Valentinois and Romagna, was the son of Pope Alexander VI. by Vanozza dei Cattanei. He was born at Rome while his father was cardinal, and on his father's elevation to the papacy (149 2) he was created archbishop of Valencia, and a year later cardinal. Cesare was Alexander's favourite son. In the early years of his father's pon tificate he led a profligate life at the Vatican. When Charles VIII. left Rome for the conquest of Naples (Jan. Cesare accompanied him as a hostage for the pope's good be haviour, but he escaped at Velletri and returned to Rome. His violence was notorious; when in 1497 his brother Giovanni, duke of Gandia, was murdered, the deed was attributed, perhaps with reason, to Cesare.
In July 1497 Cesare went to Naples as papal legate and crowned Frederick of Aragon king. Now that the duke of Gandia was dead, the pope needed Cesare to carry out his political schemes, and in Aug. 1498, Cesare was released from ecclesiastical obliga tions. On Oct. I he set forth for France with a magnificent retinue as papal legate to Louis XII., to bring him the pope's bull annul ling his marriage with Jeanne of France (Louis wished to marry Anne of Brittany). In exchange he received the duchy of Valen tinois, as well as military assistance for his own enterprises. He married Charlotte d'Albret, sister of the king of Navarre (May . Alexander now contemplated sending Cesare to Romagna to subdue the turbulent local despots, and with the help of the French king to carve a principality for himself out of those ter ritories, owing nominal allegiance to the pope. Cesare made Sesena his headquarters, and with an army consisting of 300 French lances, 4,000 Gascons and Swiss, besides Italian troops, he attacked Imola, which surrendered at once, and then besieged Forli, held by Caterina Sforza, who was the widow of Girolamo Riario. She held out gallantly, but was at last forced to surrender on Jan. 22, Cesare treated her with consideration, and she ended her days in a convent. The Sforzas having expelled the French from Milan, Cesare returned to Rome in February, his schemes checked for the moment. His father rewarded him for his successes by making him gonfalonier of the church and con ferring many honours on him, and he remained in Rome and took part in bull fights and other carnival festivities. In July occurred the murder of the duke of Bisceglie, Lucrezia Borgia's third hus band. Again Cesare was suspected as the instigator of the deed, and in fact he almost admitted it himself. Bisceglie was related to the Neapolitan dynasty, with whose enemies the pope was allied, and be had had a quarrel with Cesare. When it appeared that he was recovering from his wounds, Cesare had him murdered, but not apparently without provocation, for, according to the Venetian ambassador Cappello, the duke had tried to murder Cesare first.
In Oct. 1 Soo Cesare again set out for the Romagna, on the strength of Venetian friendship, with an army of I o,000 men. Pandolfo Malatesta of Rimini and Giovanni Sforza of Pesaro fled, and those cities opened their gates to Cesare. Faenza held out, for the people were devoted to their lord, Astorre Manfredi, a handsome and virtuous youth of I8. Manfredi surrendered in April 1501, on the promise that his life should be spared; but Cesare broke his word, and sent him a prisoner to Rome, where he was afterwards foully outraged and put to death. After taking Castel Bolognese, he returned to Rome in June, to take part in the Franco-Spanish intrigues for the partition of Naples. He was now lord of an extensive territory, and the pope created him duke of Romagna. His cruelty, his utter want of scruple, and his good fortune made him a terror to all Italy. His avidity was insatiable, and he could brook no opposition; but, unlike his father, he was morose, silent and unsympathetic. His next con quests were Camerino and Urbino, but his power was now greatly shaken by the conspiracy of La Magione (a castle near Perugia where the plotters met). Several of the princes deposed by him, the Orsini and some of his own captains, such as Vitellozzo Vitelli (q.v.), Oliverotto da Fermo, and G. P. Baglioni, who had been given estates but feared to lose them, joined forces to conspire against the Borgia. Risings broke out at Urbino and in Romagna, and the papal troops were defeated; Cesare could find no allies, and it seemed as though all Italy was about to turn against the hated family, when the French king promised help, and this was enough to frighten the confederates into coming to terms. Most of them had shown very little political or military skill, and sev eral were ready to betray each other. But Cesare, while trusting no one, proved a match for them all. During his operations in northern Romagna, Vitelli, Oliverotto, Paolo Orsini and the duke of Gravina, to show their repentance, seized Senigallia, which still held for the duke of Urbino, in his name. Cesare arrived at that town, decoyed the unsuspecting condottieri into his house, had them all arrested, and two of them, Vitelli and Oliverotto, strangled (Dec. 31, 1502).
He was back in Rome early in 1503, and took part in reducing the last rebel Orsini. He was gathering troops for a new expe dition in central Italy in the summer, when both he and his father were simultaneously seized with fever. The pope died Aug. 18, while Cesare was still incapacitated, and this unfortunate coinci dence proved his ruin ; it was the one contingency for which he had not provided. On all sides his enemies rose against him; in Romagna the deposed princes prepared to regain their own, and the Orsini raised their heads once more in Rome. When Cesare tried to browbeat the cardinals by means of Don Michelotto and his bravos, they refused to be intimidated; he had to leave Rome in September, trusting that the Spanish cardinals would elect a candidate friendly to his house. At the Conclave, Francesco Todeschini-Piccolomini was elected as Pius III., and he showed every disposition to be peaceful and respectable.
Cesare's dominion at once began to fall to pieces; Guidobaldo, duke of Urbino, returned to his duchy with Venetian help; and the lords of Piombino, Rimini and Pesaro soon regained their own ; Cesena, defended by a governor faithful to Cesare, alone held out. Pius III. died Oct. 18, 1503, and a new Conclave was held. Cesare, who could still count on the Spanish cardinals, wished to prevent the election of Giuliano della Rovere, the enemy of his house, but on Nov. he was elected, and assumed the name of Julius II. Venice hoped to intervene in Romagna and establish her protectorate over the principalities, but Julius was determined to prevent this intervention, and after trying in vain to use Cesare as a means of keeping out the Venetians, he had him arrested. Borgia was obliged to surrender all his castles, and departed for Naples, where the Spaniards were in possession. The Spanish governor, Gonzalo de Cordova, had given him a safe conduct, and he was meditating fresh plans, when Gonzalo ar rested him by the order of Ferdinand of Spain as a disturber of the peace of Italy (May 15o4). In August he was sent to Spain, where he remained a prisoner for two years; in Nov. i5o6 he made his escape, and fled to the court of his brother-in-law, the king of Navarre, under whom he took service. While besieging the castle of Viana, held by the rebellious count of Lerin, he was killed (March 1 2, 1507).
Cesare Borgia was a type of the adventurers with which the Italy of the Renaissance swarmed, but he was cleverer and more unscrupulous than his rivals. His methods of conquest were fero cious and treacherous; but once the conquest was made, he gov erned his subjects with firmness and justice, so that his rule was preferred to the anarchy of factions and local despots. But he was certainly not a man of genius, as has long been imagined, and his success was chiefly the result of the support of the papacy; once his father was dead Cesare's career was at an end, and he could no longer play a prominent part in Italian affairs.