The Borgias exemplify the type of political/religious intrigue that interests us: they had orgies in the Vatican, sex scandals (unrelated to the aforementioned orgies), murderous tendencies, and blatant nepotism/corruption. Additionally, rumors about them have exaggerated their actual antics to legendary proportions, and sources are divided over the extent of their orgies and murderous bent. This makes them a better subject for sensational stories than true analysis. Indeed, the sensational aspects of their lives overshadow the overall story of the Borgia family. This is similar to modern coverage of sex scandals and the most sensational aspects of politicians.

The Borgias were originally from Spain; their name comes from the town of Borja in what was the Crown of Aragon. The first Borgia pope, Alfonso, came to Italy in the mid-fifteenth century on behalf of the Spanish King of Aragon; he was elected pope in 1455 simply because he was an outsider and not part of the rival Italian factions. He took the name Callixtus III and got to work handing out as many church appointments to his relatives as possible during his short three-year reign.

In the third most famous event of 1492, Alfonso’s nephew Rodrigo became Pope Alexander VI. Alexander VI had clearly violated his celibacy vows by having multiple affairs, one of which produced his four most famous children: Giovanni, Cesare, Lucrezia, and Gioffre. To be fair, though, that was the norm for the time period. One of Alexander’s major goals was to increase the power of the Borgia family: he made Giovanni the captain-general of the papal army, made Cesare a cardinal, and allied the Borgias with various powerful families in Italy and Spain by arranging marriages for his children.

Alexander VI and Cesare Borgia: image from the Showtime series

The most sensational rumors about the Borgias involved orgies at the Vatican. Some claim that Alexander VI invited fifty courtesans for a lascivious “Banquet of Chestnuts” and let Cesare and Lucrezia watch, but others say Alexander was more decent than this rumor would suggest. Alexander certainly did order assassinations and seize power for himself, building a private fiefdom in Italy during his time as pope. This was exceptional because he was trying to build up the Borgia family’s power so quickly rather than for the simple fact that he had these ambitions and resorted to such tactics.

Much of the Borgias’ sexual intrigue involved Alexander’s daughter, Lucrezia. In addition to being engaged and/or married five times for political reasons, she was rumored to have had incestuous relationships with her father and brother. She definitely had an affair with the Spaniard known as Perotto, whose body was found alongside an attending lady’s in the River Tiber one morning. It is broadly assumed that Cesare ordered that murder. He also almost certainly ordered the murder of Lucrezia’s second husband, Alfonso of Aragon, whom she seemed to truly love.

Portrait of Lucrezia Borgia

The Borgia dynasty crumbled after both Alexander VI and Cesare Borgia died in the span of four years, the first from a disease (probably malaria) and the second in battle. Giovanni had been murdered years earlier, possibly by Cesare. It was also rumored that the father had been accidentally poisoned by Cesare, but that is unlikely. The Borgias were disliked for their power-hungry political tactics and for being ambitious foreigners in Rome. Upon their fall from power, their enemies were left to craft the historical narrative, producing exaggerated accounts of the Borgias’ extravagances and misdeeds.

Whether the subject is history or contemporary politics, we are drawn to sensationalism and scandal. As Bill Maher put it in a segment on Real Time, “The only politics we understand is scandal, and the only scandal we understand is sex.” At first I disagreed with his assertion; it seems too outlandish for there to be any truth to it. I started with the second part, which seemed the easier to disprove.

Assuming ‘we’ is referring to the American public, it seems fairly obvious that people are interested in several scandals unrelated to sex. Such scandals include Watergate, Iran-Contra, Hillary’s emails, and the Trump Foundation. However, of these scandals, only Watergate produced a truly dramatic result. It is far easier to produce a list of notable scandals involving sex, and they tended to have larger results: the Monica Lewinsky scandal; John Edwards’s extramarital affair and related campaign finance charges; David Petraeus’s mishandling of classified information around his mistress; Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) having sex with prostitutes; David Vitter (R-LA) having sex with prostitutes; and Anthony Weiner’s repeated sexting scandals. From that list: Bill Clinton was impeached; Edwards dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary; Petraeus resigned and was convicted; Spitzer resigned; Vitter subsequently lost a Senate race and a gubernatorial race in Louisiana; and Weiner resigned from Congress and later lost a mayoral race in New York City. So the public may understand other types of scandals, but sex scandals are the most difficult for a politician to recover from and are most memorable.

It never goes away

The first assertion, “the only politics we understand is scandal” is also a hyperbole, but it rings true. In this election season, the average person is far more likely to be able to rattle off each candidate’s scandals than their policy proposals. In a more typical election season, this would be true in a different way: out of the many, many hours each candidate spent speaking at rallies and on TV, the public would only hear about their gaffes and those specific moments would dominate news cycles. People also like political scandals because they’re interesting yet sophisticated and often engender justified indignation, a delightful emotion for the casual political observer. Bill Maher explained this using the example of the secret service prostitution scandal, which seemed to be about the important topic of the president’s security but was really about little more than sex.

In the case of the Borgias, perhaps the more significant, comprehensive story is of an ambitious Spanish family who moved to Rome and attempted to beat the powerful Italian families at their own game, but moved too quickly and soon crumbled. However, tales of their immorality were swelled by rumors and unforgiving enemies and are often interpreted outside the context of similar behavior in the time period. For better or worse, they have become the face of Vatican scandal, and Lucrezia is often reduced to a scheming and sexually promiscuous girl, despite the recent debate over whether she was instead manipulated by her father and brother.

In both ancient history and contemporary politics, it is important to look beyond the scandal to understand the full story, and to remember that the story may make sense in its own context without being relatable to us. Finally, sex scandals are not eminently disqualifying; don’t begrudge the Borgias their orgies.