America is United on Only One Issue: Jeffrey Epstein
by James Hickman,
In 1431, a boy named Rodrigo was born to a minor noble family in Valencia, Spain.
He was bright, ambitious, and lucky. His uncle Alonso was a bishop with powerful connections who had climbed the ranks of the Catholic Church.
Uncle Alonso leaned on those powerful connections in the year 1455 when he was elected Pope Callixtus III.
The new Pope was considered pious and personally austere— well respected by all. But he was even more committed to the most important cause of all: ensuring his family’s power and legacy.
So, one of the Pope’s first official acts was to promote his nephew Rodrigo (now 25-years old) to be a Cardinal.
Rodrigo did not share his Uncle’s piety. In fact the new Cardinal was a known womanizer, spending the next several decades collecting mistresses and fathering at least seven children.
Given the family’s power, Rodrigo didn’t even bother denying his transgressions; rather than keep his bastards in the shadows, Rodrigo publicly acknowledged his illegitimate children, including sons Cesare and Giovanni, and a daughter, Lucrezia.
None of this stopped his rise to power, either.
By 1492, Rodrigo had been named Vice-Chancellor of the Catholic Church — effectively the second most powerful man in Christendom.
His Uncle had long since passed away at that point, and several Popes had come and gone in the interim. So when Pope Innocent VIII died in August 1492, Rodrigo saw an opportunity to orchestrate the most openly corrupt papal election in history.
Rodrigo bought the papacy outright, distributing silver, castles, and lucrative church offices to every cardinal whose vote he needed.
And it worked. Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI.
His corruption and depravity would make “Borgia” one of the most infamous names in Europe.
One of his illegitimate sons, Cesare (aged just seventeen) was made a cardinal. Another son Giovanni was made Duke of Gandía. Daughter Lucrezia, just twelve, was betrothed to a nobleman whose alliance Rodrigo needed.
The blatant nepotism was scandalous, but that was barely the tip of the iceberg.
In 1497, Giovanni’s body was fished from the Tiber River with nine stab wounds; suspicion fell immediately on his brother Cesare, the Cardinal. Rodrigo shut down any investigation into the murder.
The following year, Cesare renounced his position as Cardinal and took command of his murdered brother’s armies.
And with daddy’s money, Cesare conquered city after city across central Italy, slaughtering rivals with a ruthlessness that impressed none other than Niccolò Machiavelli, a Florentine diplomat at the time.
Machiavelli was sent to observe Cesare’s campaigns firsthand. Years later, he’d use Cesare as his model ruler in The Prince.
Meanwhile, Lucrezia’s second husband was strangled in his bed – almost certainly on Cesare’s orders – after he’d outlived his usefulness.
Rumors of incest between Lucrezia and her father and brothers circulated as well; they were never proven, but the family scandals were so widespread and well-documented that even the most salacious accusations seemed plausible.
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