Michael Hone

Cesare Borgia Michael Hone

If Cesare Borgia cared for any living thing we are unaware of it. That he had Caligulan incestuous relations with his sister is attested to by several sources. That he killed his own brother Juan was witnessed by a man present as Cesare had the lad's body thrown into the Tiber (''Giving the orders in Spanish, Sire, was a man on a white charger, dressed all in black, the horse's hooves and his spurs were of silver''). He spoke filthy barnyard vernacular Italian, but was nonetheless called charming by most who knew him. He raped anything that caught his eye, including the Countess Caterina Riario Sforza de' Medici (''At least she won't be lacking for sex, '' said a French captain as Cesare led her away). It was during an orgy that he murdered seventeen-year-old Astorre Manfredi, said to have been the most beautiful boy in Italy. He assassinated several of his sister Lucrezia's lovers and husbands, acts of violence that would relegate Clockwork Orange to the realm of a tale for infants. Never the fool, Cesare meticulously planned for the coming death of his father, Pope Alexander VI, by amassing wealth and arms. What led to his undoing made an ending not even a Hollywood production could have envisioned. Cicero stated that he could make no claim to originality, but that his life's purpose was to popularize the genius of others. This is exactly my aim in writing this fully-illustrated book, the discovery of Cesare and his times, through the exploration of the narrow window the past offers us