Introduction
No name, at least in Italy is so famous, respected, feared, loved, hated, considered despised than that of Cesare Borgia, better known as Duke Valentino.
Everybody, thanks to his unofficial biographer, Niccolo Machiavelli, know his actions, his victories and his cruelties.
However, the more you stop to study the events that led to his rise and few go beyond studying the government and its events, its powerful state of Romagna, was all about Italy.
Why we care to write a few short pages that will give a quick overview of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of Italy.
We will see how and where and also because the presence of the state of Romagna, influenced Italian history many years after death of Valentino.
About Cesare Borgia - From Wikipedia
Like nearly all aspects of Cesare Borgia's life, the date of his birth is a subject of dispute. However, it is accepted that he was born in Rome either in 1475 or 1476 to Cardinal Rodrigo de Lanzol y Borja, soon to become Pope Alexander VI, and his mistress Vannozza de' Cattanei, of whom documents are sparse. The Borgia family originally came from Spain and rose to prominence during the mid 15th century, when Cesare's great uncle Alonso Borgia (1378–1458), bishop of Valencia, was elected Pope Callixtus III in 1455.[2] Cesare's father, Pope Alexander VI, was the first pope who was openly recognized to have children with a lover.
Stefano Infessura writes that Cardinal Borgia falsely claimed Cesare to be the legitimate son of another man, the nominal husband of Vannozza de' Cattanei. More likely, Pope Alexander VI granted Cesare a release from the necessity of proving his birth in a papal bull.
With brown eyes and black hair, Cesare was acknowledged as a beautiful child and grew to be a fleet-footed, tall, handsome man of unlimited ambition, much like his father.