History UsefulNotes / PopeAlexanderVI

* Rodrigo is the Grand Master of the Italian Templars and the BigBad of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' as well as a part of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood''. A rather one-note portrayal, unflinchingly in HistoricalVillainUpgrade territory, redeemed by spirited voice-work by Creator/ManuelTadros, [[InkSuitActor after which the character is modeled]]. Tadros also played him in live-action in ''Film/AssassinsCreedLineage''.

* ChurchgoingVillain: Kind of required when you are in Medieval Europe, and especially when you are promoted to high offices in said Church and ultimately Pope. That said, it is noted he was generally competent and zig-zagged in taking his duties fairly seriously or having an orgy in the Vatican. He also seems to have genuinely believed in the faith in a way that many others (including his [[TheSociopath most famous son]]) did not, with his final confession noted as being extremely moving and apparently earnest.

* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The Sensitive Guy to his son [[TheSociopath Cesare]] [[TestosteronePoisoning Borgia]]'s manly man. Several adaptations play up Rodrigo's possible genuine faith and cerebral interests in contrast to Cesare's direct brutality. However, historically, Cesare was also quite brilliant, and his brutality was shown rarely, yet pointedly -- it's what he's known for because he did it so well.
* SinisterMinister: Comes with the territory of being a highly positioned churchman in the Renaissance, but he is arguably THE Sinister Minister in public mind, being the "Spaniard" Pope who held an orgy in the Vatican and tried to turn Italy into a dynastic realm.

* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The Sensitive Guy to his [[TheSociopath Cesare]] [[TestosteronePoisoning Borgia]]'s manly man. Several adaptations play up Rodrigo's possible genuine faith and cerebral interests in contrast to Cesare's direct brutality. However, historically, Cesare was also quite brilliant, and his brutality was shown rarely, yet pointedly -- it's what he's known for because he did it so well.

!!They appear in the following works:

Alexander VI (1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503), born Rodrigo Borgia, was UsefulNotes/ThePope from 1492 to 1503. His Papacy is quite infamous, and believed by some to be the height of the Catholic Church's debauchery during UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance and the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, an era of extravagances that helped to trigger the [[UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation Reformation]] shortly thereafter. [[UsefulNotes/TheBorgias His children and other relatives and associates have their own page]].

[[quoteright:234:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pope-alexander-vi_627.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:234:The Borgia Pope]]

* The manga ''Manga/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'', shows Cesare and Miguel as 16-year-old schoolboys, [[TheWatson through the eyes of]] his classmate, a Florentine commoner named Angelo. The 13 volumes are gentle, scholarly, and packed with SceneryPorn. The artist Fuyumi Soryo created the series with the assistance of a Dante scholar, for maximum accuracy and period detail.
** The ending of the manga shows an entirely different, and plausible if unlikely, version of the new pope's relationship with Cardinal Giovanni de'Medici (the future Pope Leo X), who gave us the page quote. At the time of the conclave that elected Rodrigo, Giovanni was 16, had just become a cardinal, and had just lost his father, Lorenzo the Magnificent. Rodrigo has promised to be like a father to Giovanni in Rome, something Giovanni desperately needs. But Giovanni's older brother, head of the Medici family now that their father has died, has decided to break up old alliances and commands Giovanni to vote for Della Rovere. Each cardinal is allowed to bring two aides into the conclave, and Giovanni brings an older advisor who represents his brother, and Angelo da Canossa, a classmate of his and Cesare's from Pisa University, and the point-of-view character of the series. Giovanni wants to stay loyal to Rodrigo and Cesare, and Angelo gives him the courage to do so. In real life, Giovanni is seen as having been one of the earliest opponents of the Borgias (see the page quote), but he was 16 at the time, and had a lot of time to revise his story after their fall, in order to stay on good terms with Julius II, perhaps, and clear his own way to being elected as Pope Leo X.
* In 2023, Japan gave us a Borgia musical. Based on the above manga, ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'' premiered to great praise after a 3-year COVID delay. The original cast starred Akinori Nakagawa (famous for playing Frankie Valli in ''Theatre/JerseyBoys'') as 16-year-old Cesare, Tetsuya Bessho (famous for playing Jean Valjean in ''Theatre/LesMiserables'') as Rodrigo. They are the only two Borgias who appear. (Miguel da Corella was played by Kenchi Tachibana of the J-Pop group Exile). Cesare's first line is "My father is a monster", but we don't actually see Rodrigo doing anything all that monstrous. He's AffablyEvil, hammy, and rather fun.
* ''Manga/Cantarella'' is another manga about Cesare, though a more fantastic take -- in it, Rodrigo sold not his own soul, but Cesare's, to the devil in exchange for the papacy.

* Rodrigo is the Grand Master of the Italian Templars and the BigBad of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' as well as a part of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood''. A rather one-note portrayal redeemed by spirited voice-work by Creator/ManuelTadros, [[InkSuitActor after which the character is modeled]]. Tadros also played him in live-action in ''Film/AssassinsCreedLineage''.

* In 2023, Japan gave us a Borgia musical. Based on the above manga, ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'' premiered to great praise after a 3-year COVID delay. The original cast starred Akinori Nakagawa (famous for playing Frankie Valli in ''Theatre/JerseyBoys'' as 16-year-old Cesare, Tetsuya Bessho (famous for playing Jean Valjean in ''Theatre/LesMiserables'') as Rodrigo. They are the only two Borgias who appear. Miguel da Corella was played by Kenchi Tachibana of the J-Pop group Exile. Cesare's first line is "My father is a monster", but we don't actually see Rodrigo doing anything all that monstrous. He's AffablyEvil, hammy, and rather fun.

* ''Manga/OneWingedMichelangelo'' features Cesare quite prominently, and quite positively, in one story arc. Michelotto is by his side, and the length of their friendship is acknowledged. Lucrezia is the MatureYoungerSibling, keeping BunnyEarsLawyer Cesare from wandering off.

Borgia was born to a noble family from Aragón (which would [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs unite with Castile]] to form modern UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} when he was 48). According to Catholic doctrine, priests, and especially Popes, are supposed to be {{Celibate Hero}}es by default. Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia was not. But what he lacked in holiness and piety, he made up for in [[TheChessmaster cunning and shrewdness]]: after graduating from the University of Bologna with highest honors, he was made a cardinal by [[{{Nepotism}} his uncle]] '''Pope Calixtus III''' (born Alfonso Borgia), who went as far as making Rodrigo, still in his 20's, Vice-Chancellor of the church, essentially second-in-command to the Pope. Rodrigo held onto this office through the next few papacies, including Pius II and his ill-advised plan to have a crusade (it ended when his entire entourage got the plague and he died); Sixtus IV, who became a great enemy of both the Borgias and their allies the Medici, and who elevated his own nephew [[UsefulNotes/PopeJuliusII Giuliano della Rovere]] to the position of Cardinal; and Innocent VIII, who himself had plenty of illegitimate children. After Pope Innocent VIII died, the stage was set for a showdown of bribery between Cardinals Borgia and Della Rovere. Borgia won.

Alexander VI (1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503), born Rodrigo Borgia, was UsefulNotes/ThePope from 1492 to 1503. His Papacy is quite infamous, and believed by some to be the height of the Catholic Church's debauchery during UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance and the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, an era of extravagances that helped to trigger the [[UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation Reformation]] shortly thereafter.

This is where the story usually ([[Manga/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto but not always]]) begins. Once he was crowned Pope, Alexander brought his young mistress, '''Giulia Farnese''', into the Vatican. He also brought his four children by his previous mistress, '''Vanozza dei Cattanei'''. They were:

!! Cesare

Born in 1475. The oldest of the four, he was chosen and trained to be his father's heir. Of course, this meant he had to be a priest. The {{Nepotism}} started early -- at the age of 8, he was made a General Secretary of the church, and at 16, he became Bishop of Pamplona. Soon after his father became pope, Cesare was made a cardinal. He was never suited to the priesthood, however. He could have just shrugged his shoulders and gone along with the money and power it brought him (like Giulia's brother Alessandro Farnese, who was made a cardinal by Rodrigo at the same time, and later became Pope Paul III, using the office to give away church properties to his family all while writing a book about fine wine). But Cesare was different from that. In 1498, his father finally gave him permission to resign from being a cardinal -- something no one else in history, to this day, has done.

Once free of his clerical roles, Alexander made him captain of the papal forces. At the time, Rome was surrounded by the Papal States, which were ruled, badly, by petty tyrant families on behalf of the church. These rulers were supposed to pay rents and fulfill other obligations to the church, but they didn't because they knew that the church couldn't do anything about it. Alexander and Cesare hoped to change that. With a noble title and an army from the new King of France, Louis XII (who gave those to Cesare in exchange for a divorce, in order to marry his predecessor's widow), Cesare set out to conquer those lands back. His military exploits would inspire Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli's Literature/ThePrince. After the death of his father, the fact that Cesare was ill with the same malaria made it impossible for him to hold his gains together, and he was soon captured. He escaped from the castle where he was being held, but was killed in battle shortly after, on March 12, 1507 -- just 3 days short of [[UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar his namesake]].

Throughout his life, he was accompanied by '''Miguel da Corella''' (a.k.a. Michelotto, a.k.a. [[Series/TheBorgias Micheletto]], a.k.a. [[Literature/ThePrince Don Michele]]), his [[ChildhoodFriends childhood friend]] and [[TheConsigliere most loyal companion]]. Miguel's origins and date of birth are unknown, though some say he was an illegitimate son of a count in Spain. He is most often recorded in history committing murders for Cesare (see below), and his UndyingLoyalty is well attested to. He was captured before Cesare, in 1505, and tortured for information about his master, but he gave ''nothing''. Cesare was very distraught over Miguel's capture as well, offering castles and large amounts of money to his enemy in order to have him back.

!! Juan

Sometimes called Giovanni. His date of birth is unknown, leading some historians ([[Series/{{Borgia}} and works]] to believe he might have been older than Cesare. While Cesare was assigned to the Church, Juan had no such limitations placed on him. He inherited a dukedom from Rodrigo's older son, his half-brother Pedro-Luis (from an unknown mother), who was something of a war hero for Spain and was killed in battle. As Duke of Gandia, he was married to a noblewoman from Spain's royal family. His father made him captain of the papal forces, but he was not a capable soldier and ended up humiliated. He was murdered in 1498, stabbed nine times and thrown in the river. The murder was never solved. Many over the centuries have pinned the blame on Cesare, but for many reasons, it is highly unlikely that Cesare was the guilty party. Some member of the Orsini family, one of the Borgias' many enemies, was most likely behind it -- Juan had many enemies among the Orsini personally (and sexually) as well.

!! Lucrezia

Born in 1480. Rather than the vicious murderer she's usually depicted as, most historical sources say that she was sweet, charming, and beautiful. She was also intelligent -- even historians who want to see her in a negative light have to admit that, from the letters between her and Cesare when they were teenagers, they were both smart enough to make those [[ImprobableAge teenaged doctors and generals in anime]] look realistic. On the ascension of her father to the Papacy, she was married to Giovanni Sforza, but when this became politically inconvenient, the marriage was forcibly annulled on grounds of non-consummation, and Sforza was forced to sign papers declaring himself to be impotent in order to back up those grounds. That was what provoked Sforza to start one of the [[BrotherSisterIncest rumors]] that Lucrezia is most known for [[CommonKnowledge to most people]]. The other is that she poisoned everyone who came near her, especially husbands. In real life, it was only her second husband, Alfonso d'Aragon, duke of Bisceglie, who died while married to her. He was strangled by Cesare's right-hand man Michelotto (see above), not poisoned by Lucrezia. After that, she married the Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso d'Este. As Duchess of Ferrara, she oversaw one of the most elegant and peaceful noble courts in Italy, though the factional and grudge-based violence still wasn't that much better than what she'd seen in Rome. She had an affair with a Venetian poet named Pietro Bembo, and Creator/LordByron said that their love letters were the most beautiful he'd ever read (he also stole a lock of Lucrezia's hair from them!)

!! Gioffre

The youngest of the four, he was married to Sancia d'Aragon (sister of Alfonso, see above), an illegitimate daughter of the King of Naples, soon after his father became pope.

--------

->"''Flee, we are in the clutches of the wolf''".
-->-- '''Giovanni de'Medici''' upon Alexander VI's coronation. [[BeamMeUpScotty Possibly]].

Historically, Pope Alexander VI also played a role in the colonization of the New World, passing papal bulls that divided [[UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} Portuguese]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} Spanish]] territorial discoveries and legitimized their conquest of indigenous land, influencing UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs and the UsefulNotes/SchoolOfSalamanca into developing their laws of protection of the natives (although, ironically, some claimed the brutal UsefulNotes/FranciscoDeCarvajal was his illegitimate grandson). In 1492, after the Jews were expelled from Spain, 9,000 refugees were given permission by Pope Alexander VI to settle in Rome's Jewish quarter. In a period of nasty antisemitism in virtually all the countries and cultures, Pope Alexander VI declared that they were "permitted to lead their life, free from interference from Christians, to continue in their own rites, to gain wealth, and to enjoy many other privileges." He also allowed the immigration of Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497 and from Provence in 1498. And after complaints of UsefulNotes/TomasDeTorquemada's extremism have reached the pope's ears, he had assigned assistant inquisitors just to keep Torquemada in check, before forcing him to retire to a convent.

Borgia was born to a noble family from Aragón (which would [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs unite with Castile]] to form modern UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} when he was 48). According to Catholic doctrine, priests, and especially Popes, are supposed to be {{Celibate Hero}}es by default. Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia was not. But what he lacked in holiness and piety, he made up for in [[TheChessmaster cunning and shrewdness]]: after graduating from the University of Bologna with highest honors, he was made a cardinal by [[{{Nepotism}} his uncle]] Pope Calixtus III, who went as far as making Rodrigo, still in his 20's, Vice-Chancellor of the church, essentially second-in-command to the Pope. Rodrigo held onto this office through the next few papacies, including Pius II and his ill-advised plan to have a crusade (it ended when his entire entourage got the plague and he died); Sixtus IV, who became a great enemy of both the Borgias and their allies the Medici, and who elevated his own nephew [[UsefulNotes/PopeJuliusII Giuliano della Rovere]] to the position of Cardinal; and Innocent VIII, who himself had plenty of illegitimate children. After Pope Innocent VIII died, the stage was set for a showdown of bribery between Cardinals Borgia and Della Rovere. Borgia won.

Alexander VI (1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503), born Rodrigo Borgia, was UsefulNotes/ThePope from 1492 to 1503. His Papacy is quite infamous, for it is considered the height of the Catholic Church's debauchery during UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance and the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars. His extravagances helped to trigger it as well as the [[UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation Reformation]] shortly thereafter.

Borgia was born to an [[BlueBlood ancient and powerful family of nobles]] from Aragón (which would [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs unite with Castile]] to form modern UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} when he was 48). At that time, the lands of the Crown of Aragón extended into Italy (including at that time Sardinia, Sicily, and the Kingdom of Naples--i.e. the southern third of the Italian "boot"). As a result, many Aragonese noble houses had relations with and holdings in Italy, and the Borgias were one of them. Young Rodrigo, being a bright lad but not actually a Borgia [[LineageComesFromTheFather in the male line]] (and thus not in line to inherit much) was sent to the University of Bologna (the oldest in Europe, and then considered the best) to study law.

According to Catholic doctrine, priests, and especially Popes, are supposed to be {{Celibate Hero}}es by nature and default. Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia was neither. But what he lacked in holiness and piety, he made up for in [[TheChessmaster cunning and shrewdness]]: after graduating from the University of Bologna with highest honors, he was made a priest (and subsequently a cardinal) by Calixtus III ([[{{Nepotism}} his uncle]]). After Pope Innocent VIII died, he went on a meteoric rise in politics through all manner of bribery and corruption to buy off the entire Council of Cardinals to vote for him (which was par for the course in that election). He succeeded.

What followed was a spectacle of unholiness: Pope Alexander VI acknowledged all of his children, [[{{Nepotism}} made them the most powerful family of Italy]], had several mistresses ''within the Vatican's walls'', murdered several Italian nobles, bribed others, used his children to gain political advantage, and overall did everything a Pope's not supposed to do. The length of his list of enemies probably influenced the decision to make a force of nature like UsefulNotes/DiegoGarciaDeParedes his bodyguard, at least until a dueling scandal forced the guard to fire him. It came to the point that, when Alexander IV came to greet the Great Captain, UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba, for his vital role in evicting the French army of Charles VIII from Italy, the general would retort asking the Pope to just stop embarrassing Christianity with his antics.

It is said both he and his son Cesare fell ill after a dinner, agonized in pain for some time, and while Cesare recovered, Rodrigo lacked the same luck and, after confessing to a priest, died. Historians differ on whether Pope Alexander VI simply fell ill, was poisoned (and if so, by ''whom''), or if he was a victim of accidental food poisoning. It is said his corpse was a horrifying sight, bloated and deformed, barely fitting into the coffin, and rotting at a very fast pace (some of which has been chalked up to the summer heat). He was succeeded by Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini (Pope Pius III, whose pontificate lasted a mere 26 days), followed by Alexander's virulent arch-enemy, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (later UsefulNotes/PopeJuliusII).

Historically, Pope Alexander VI also played a role in the colonization of the New World, passing papal bulls that divided [[UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} Portuguese]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} Spanish]] territorial discoveries and legitimized their conquest of indigenous land, influencing UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs and the UsefulNotes/SchoolOfSalamanca into developing their laws of protection of the natives (although, ironically, some claimed the brutal UsefulNotes/FranciscoDeCarvajal was his illegitimate grandson). In 1492, after Jews unwilling to convert to Christianity were expelled from Spain, 9,000 refugees were given permission by Pope Alexander VI to settle in Rome's Jewish quarter. In a period of nasty antisemitism in virtually all the countries and cultures, Pope Alexander VI declared that they were [[PetTheDog "permitted to lead their life, free from interference from Christians, to continue in their own rites, to gain wealth, and to enjoy many other privileges."]] He also allowed the immigration of Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497 and from Provence in 1498. And after complaints of UsefulNotes/TomasDeTorquemada's extremism have reached the pope's ears, he had assigned assistant inquisistors just to keep Torquemada in check before being forced to retire to a convent.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: He was ugly on most contemporary (or later) paintings representing him, something the likes of Creator/JeremyIrons or Manuel Tadros are not.
* TheChessmaster: Machiavelli's ''Literature/ThePrince'' acknowledges him as an expert manipulator of the political game.

* DeathEqualsRedemption: Was apparently moved to tears at his final confession, and quite thorough in describing his misdeeds.
* TheDon: UnbuiltTrope material and probably the ancestor of most examples. Mario Puzo took several metric tons of inspiration from him in writing ''Literature/TheGodfather'' and even wrote his own historical fiction rendition of the Borgia family story. In turn, fictional adaptations tend to play up his shades of "Mafia Don[=/=]Patriarch".
* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: Most old portraits of him depict him with a double chin, chubby cheeks and a SinisterSchnoz. He's been portrayed by the likes of Manuel Tadros and Creator/JeremyIrons, who are far from unattractive.
** On the other hand, contemporary accounts suggest that he was actually an attractive man in his prime, so it might be a subversion.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: He was a very shady man, but fiction usually takes this up to eleven.

* ReallyGetsAround: He was a man of many appetites, and loved the pleasures of the flesh.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The Sensitive Guy to his son [[TheSociopath Cesare]] [[TestosteronePoisoning Borgia]]'s manly man. Most adaptations play up Rodrigo's possible genuine faith and cerebral interests in contrast to Cesare's direct brutality.
* VillainousIncest: Was accused of bedding his own daughter Lucrezia (now thought to be propaganda spread by his enemies, though it hasn't stopped the more sensationalist adaptations from treating it as fact).

!!Appears in the following works:

* A main character in both ''Series/TheBorgias'' (played by Creator/JeremyIrons) and ''Series/{{Borgia}}'' (played by Creator/JohnDoman), of course.
* He is the Grand Master of the Italian Templars and the BigBad of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' as well as a part of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood''. A rather one-note portrayal redeemed by spirited voice-work by Creator/ManuelTadros, [[InkSuitActor after which the character is modelled]]. Tadros also played him in live-action in ''Film/AssassinsCreedLineage''.
* Several ''Series/HorribleHistories'' sketches talked about him with Jim Howick performing him as a [[Film/TheGodfather Vito Corleone Expy]].

* A comic book series simply called ''Borgia'' by Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky and Milo Manara takes [[PornWithPlot a rather sensationalist approach]] to the family's history, going even further than the usual VillainousIncest stories (he sodomizes a rebellious preacher to death on a bed of spikes, for one).
* In the musical ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'', Cesare's first line is "My father is a monster", but we don't actually see Rodrigo doing anything all that monstrous. He's AffablyEvil, hammy, and rather fun, and he sings the act 2 opening number about how fabulous Spain is, while Micheletto and the other Spanish students dance elegantly. He has a sweet ParentalLoveSong to 7-year-old Cesare in a flashback.
* The manga ''Manga/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'', source of the musical, shows his ruthless political side, but also his kind and fatherly side. The ending of the manga shows an entirely different, and plausible if unlikely, version of his relationship with Giovanni de'Medici. At the time of the conclave that elected Rodrigo, Giovanni was 16, had just become a cardinal, and had just lost his father, Lorenzo the Magnificent. Rodrigo has promised to be like a father to Giovanni in Rome, something Giovanni desperately needs. But Giovanni's older brother, head of the Medici family now that their father has died, has decided to break up old alliances and commands Giovanni to vote for Della Rovere. Each cardinal is allowed to bring two aides into the conclave, and Giovanni brings an older advisor who represents his brother, and Angelo da Canossa, a classmate of his and Cesare's from Pisa University, and the point-of-view character of the series. Giovanni wants to stay loyal to Rodrigo and Cesare, and Angelo gives him the courage to do so. In real life, Giovanni is seen as having been one of the earliest opponents of the Borgias (see the page quote), but he was 16 at the time, and had a lot of time to revise his story after their fall, in order to stay on good terms with Julius II, perhaps, and clear his own way to being elected as Pope Leo X.

* He is the Grand Master of the Italian Templars and the BigBad of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' as well as a part of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood''. A rather one-note portrayal redeemed by spirited voice-work by Manuel Tadros, [[InkSuitActor after which the character is modelled]]. Tadros also played him in live-action in ''Film/AssassinsCreedLineage''.

-->-- '''Lorenzo de Medici''' upon Alexander VI's coronation. Possibly.

* In the musical ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'', Cesare's first line is "My father is a monster", but we don't actually see Rodrigo doing anything all that monstrous. He's AffablyEvil, hammy, and rather fun, and he sings the act 2 opening number about how fabulous Spain is, while Micheletto and the other Spanish students dance elegantly.

What followed was a spectacle of unholiness: Pope Alexander VI acknowledged all of his children, [[{{Nepotism}} made them the most powerful family of Italy]], had several mistresses ''within the Vatican's walls'', murdered several Italian nobles, bribed others, used his children to gain political advantage, and overall did everything a Pope's not supposed to do. The length of his list of enemies probably influenced his decision to make a force of nature like UsefulNotes/DiegoGarciaDeParedes his bodyguard, at least until a dueling scandal forced the Pope to fire him. It came to the point that, when Alexander IV came to greet the Great Captain, UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba, for his vital role in evicting the French army of Charles VIII from Italy, the general would retort asking the Pope to just stop embarrassing Christianity with his antics.

Historically, Pope Alexander VI also played a role in the colonization of the New World, passing papal bulls that divided [[UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} Portuguese]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} Spanish]] territorial discoveries and legitimized their conquest of indigenous land, influencing UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs and the UsefulNotes/SchoolOfSalamanca into developing their laws of protection of the natives. In 1492, after Jews were expelled from Spain, 9,000 refugees were given permission by Pope Alexander VI to settle in Rome's Jewish quarter. In a period of nasty antisemitism in virtually all the countries and cultures, Pope Alexander VI declared that they were [[PetTheDog "permitted to lead their life, free from interference from Christians, to continue in their own rites, to gain wealth, and to enjoy many other privileges."]] He also allowed the immigration of Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497 and from Provence in 1498. And after complaints of UsefulNotes/TomasDeTorquemada's extremist cruelty have reached the pope's ears, he had assigned assistant inquisistors just to keep Torquemada in check before being forced to retire to a convent.

Alexander VI (1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503), born Rodrigo Borgia, was UsefulNotes/ThePope from 1492 to 1503. His Papacy is quite infamous, for it is considered the height of the Catholic Church's debauchery during UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance. His extravagances helped to trigger it as well as the [[UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation Reformation]] shortly thereafter.

Historically, Pope Alexander VI also played a role in the colonization of the New World, passing papal bulls that divided [[UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} Portuguese]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} Spanish]] territorial discoveries and legitimized their conquest of indigenous land, influencing UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs and the UsefulNotes/SchoolOfSalamanca into developing their laws of protection of the natives. In 1492, after Jews were expelled from Spain, 9,000 refugees were given permission by Pope Alexander VI to settle in Rome's Jewish quarter. In a period of nasty antisemitism in virtually all the countries and cultures, Pope Alexander VI declared that they were [[PetTheDog "permitted to lead their life, free from interference from Christians, to continue in their own rites, to gain wealth, and to enjoy many other privileges."]] He also allowed the immigration of Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497 and from Provence in 1498. And after complaints of Torquemada's extremist cruelty have reached the pope's ears, he had assigned assistant inquisistors just to keep Torquemada in check before being forced to retire to a convent.