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Most people consider Cesare Borgia one of history’s villains – there are foul rumours that fly around the man’s history, despicable tales of despicable acts: there is little he has not been accused of, in fact. Rafael Sabatini – famed novelist, author of such deservedly renowned classics as Scaramouche and Captain Blood – had a very different idea of who Cesare Borgia was. Sabatini may be right: Borgia may have been one of history’s great men, consigned to villainy because his enemies wrote the histories.

Cesare Borgia; 13 September 1475 – 12 March 1507) was an Italian ex-cardinal and condottiero (mercenary leader) of Aragonese (Spanish) origin, whose fight for power was a major inspiration for The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. He was an illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and member of the Spanish-Aragonese House of Borgia.

After initially entering the Church and becoming a cardinal on his father’s election to the Papacy, he became, after the death of his brother in 1498, the first person to resign a cardinalate. He served as a condottiero for King Louis XII of France around 1500, and occupied Milan and Naples during the Italian Wars. At the same time he carved out a state for himself in Central Italy, but after his father’s death he was unable to retain power for long. According to Machiavelli, this was not due to a lack of foresight, but his error in creating a new pope.