Friday 2 September 2011

2119 News TV series on Papal goings on in 15th century

Of several historical families where fact and fiction have become merged is that of the Borgias and which Sky Atlantic is showing new first season series of 9 episodes here and in the United States with an international cast led by Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia, the ungodly Pope and Colm Fiore as Giuliano della Rovere, a Cardinal determined to expose and remove Rodrigo from office. Derek Jacobi in a short lived part and Gina McKee as Caterina Sfroza are other well known Brits.

Before recording the main events of the TV series I used Wikipedia to first establish something of the reality. The Borgias were a powerful family in Italy, then a country divided into various Kingdoms and Principalities many of which interested the Spanish from where the Borgias originated and France and it is known that they were in conflict with the Medici Family from Florence and the Sforza’s as well as the influential Friar Savonarola. How far they were any different from the heads of states at the time in murdering each other, engaging in various acts involving sex including rape and incest and trying to gain control of other lands and their riches by any means remains to be established. Life at every level could be brutish and short.


What I did not know is that Rodrigo was not the first Borgia Pope Callixtus III who was an academic and diplomat who was Pope for three years 1378-1458 and therefore Rodrigo who was born in 1431 was already 24 when his uncle was elected head of the Catholic Rodrigo was not in fact born Borja but adopted his mother’s family name when his uncle became Pope and over the course of one year was ordained a Deacon and then elevated to the position of Cardinal Deacon by his uncle in 1455- family status, wealth and power being the order of the era, and of many others before and after. However this was only a stepping stone to being a full Cardinal which involved being ordained a priest in 1468 and then Cardinal Bishop in I471 during which time having been created a Vice Chancellor of he Church by his uncle he had played a role in the Papacy controlling Counsel the Curia which had brought him into close contact with five Popes which enabled him to acquire power as well as status, wealth and a first hand insight into the way the Roman led Catholic Church worked.

In keeping with the mode of the church past and indeed present, the celibacy rule was observed from a social and public perspective but as with many clerics he had acquired a wife in all but name and four children and given his subsequent behaviour it can be assumed he had enjoyed other relationship before and during.

In the TV series the first episode The Poisoned Chalice concentrates on his successful attempt to become Pope by bribing the main contender Cardinal Acanio Sforza raising what he could from existing wealth. There is said to be truth in this aspect as he is thought to have bribed 14 of the 22 Cardinals in the Conclave to vote for him with cash awards to their family houses.

In the TV series he also offered the other rival the position of his number two Cardinal della Rovere which he immediately repudiates appointing someone who will be loyal to him. The consequence is that he makes an enemy of della Rovere who joins forces with another Cardinal played by Derek Jacobi to plot an early strike to remove Borgia by poisoning as a dinner arranged in his honour after being invested as Pope Alexander VI in 1492 and then get rid of his children. The poisioner is turned and takes out Jacobi whose possessions are confiscated. The poisoner is then employed as the family assassin.

Son Casare was at school when his father determined should be his eventual successor and therefore insisted on a career in the church making him a Bishop at 15 and a Cardinal at 18 years. He then uses Caasare to do arrange the dirty work. The young man had ambitions to be an adventuring soldier. It was the brother Giovanno who father pushed into the military Also at the centre of the TV series from the outset is young Lucrezia official around 12/13

In the second TV episode, The Assassin Cardinal Rovere attempts to dethrone the Pope on finding that he has established a relationship with a young widow who the Pope sets up in the former home of the murdered Cardinal and which has a secret passage into the Papal Rooms. Soon he is openly flaunting the mistress having told the mother of his children he would no longer be able to maintain their relationship because of his position as head of the Catholic Church. Rovere believes he has the evidence and enlists the support of the majority of the other Cardinals However the Borgia arranged for the witness to be killed and then works out the way to re establish his authority over the Cardinals by creating greater number of new appointments who will support him, including that of his son.

I have been able to separate fact and fiction in the third episode of the series which features one of the sons of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Bayezid II inherited the title from his father Mehmed II who is regarded as a hero in Turkey as the Sultan who reigned for 40 years and conquered Constantinople with further conquests in Asia and in Europe, He had numerous wives and concubine who bore him many sons including Djem or Cem who considered that he had as much right to the throne as his brother It is correct that the Sultan did ay for Djem to be held in house arrest and by a Pope, the Pope an early Pope to Borgia and the man no longer young dies in a Neapolitan prison.

In the third episode The Moor Djem arrives in Borgia’s Rome and the Sultan pays Borgia good money to keep him there but also offers even more money to have him killed. The problem is the young man becomes a favourite with the sons and Lucrezia in particular and this poses a double problem for the rest of the family as Borgia decides that it time for the girl to marry and achieve a useful alliance. Lucrezia is portrayed in much the same light as the daughter of a similar age in the Game of Thrones full of romance but also with a sense of position and wanting to be someone of influence. She Is much taken with “the Moor” of her own age rather than the succession of mature men, sum dullards or boring that come a courting. Father settles for a Sforza, not of the main family who control North Italy but anther arm of the family with estates closer to Rome and significantly 40000 men who will bear arms to protect the Pope. However the family demand a dowry and the way the Pope can raise the cash is to dispose of the Moor for the Sultan. This poses a special problem for brothers whop have taken tot he young man and who shows them something of the way of life ingratitude before offering to convert to Christianity because of their kindness. Needs must and when an attempted poisoning fails he is smothered.

In the fourth episode Lucrezia’s Wedding Cardinal Rovere goes south to try and enlist the help of the King of Naples who his become senile and his at times hysterical and precious son who takes great delight in showing a secret room filled with a Last Supper gathering of stuffed former visitors who pleadings did not please. He draws attention that there is a place set of a Judas. Meanwhile the Papal Assassin has also been sent south but the plot fails although the assassin lives on after killing the King’s bodyguard. Cardinal Rovere is then sent away

The marriage turns out to a traditional lewd orgy which Lucrezia misses out of the latter parts from excitement, tiredness and too much wine. She is pleased when Casare sneaks their mother in the evening dances and other entertainments after the Pope banned her because of alleged pasts as a commoner who used her body for social advancement and so he can flaunt his mistress who is of noble blood. The Sfroza who are stuffy about such matters are offended by the Prince is also a tyrannical brute and takes it out n Lucrezia when they arrive back to his home, Meanwhile Cardinal Revere has moved north to court the French King who has ambitions on Naples suggesting that he will be given a free passage of arms if there is willingness to help depose the Pope,

We are also introduced to Savonarola did plot with the French to purge Italy and Rome of the anti Christ and who was rewarded with control of Florence from the Medici family.

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