Borgia

Borgia , Span. Borja , Spanish-Italian noble family, originally from Aragón. When Alfonso de Borja, cardinal-archbishop of Valencia, was pope as Calixtus III (1455-58), several relatives followed him to Rome. His nephew Rodrigo became pope as Alexander VI , and Rodrigo's illegitimate children were Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia; the later reputations of these Borgias made the family name a synonym for avarice and treachery. To the Spanish branch of the family belonged St. Francis Borgia and Francisco Borja (1581-1658), a Spanish general and viceroy of Peru. The direct line of the family, whose senior members bore the title duke of Gandia, died out in the 18th cent.

Bibliography: See study by E. R. Chamberlin (1974).

Borgia the family name of Rodrigo Borgia (1431–1503), later Pope Alexander VI, and his illegitimate children Cesare (c.1476–1507) and Lucrezia (1480–1519); their traditional reputation was for ruthless ambition, and they were popularly believed to be skilled in poisoning.

Borgia, Lucrezia (1480–1519) Italian noblewoman. The illegitimate daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope Alexander VI), she married three times, according to the political alliances useful to her father and to her brother, Cesare BORGIA. Always associated with the scandals of her birth and marriages, after her third marriage in 1501 she established herself as a patron of the arts and became increasingly religious.