BORGIA, Caesar, Duke of Valentino, second natural son of Pope Alexander VI. by a Roman lady named Vannozia, was a brave general, but a most cruel and profligate man. It is incredible what numbers he caused to be taken off by poison or by 'the sword; and swarms of assassins were constantly kept in pay by him at Rome, for the sake of removing all who were either obnoxious or inconvenient to him. He experienced various turns of fortune; and was sometimes prosperous, sometimes the reverse. On one occasion he very narrowly escaped dying by poison; for having concerted with the pope a design of poisoning nine newly-created cardinals at once, for the sake of getting possession of their effects, the wine, drugged for the purpose, was by mistake brought to and drank by themselves; even-handed justice thus returning the ingredients of the poisoned chalice to their own lips. The pope died of what he had drank; Caesar, by the vigour of his constitution, and the force of antidotes, recovered. But this illness caused his ruin, and when he recovered, it was only to find that he had outlived his fortune and grandeur, to see himself depressed, and his enemies exalted; for he was soon after divested of all his acquisitions, and sent as a prisoner to Spain, in order to free Italy from an incendiary, and the Italian princes from those dangers which his turbulent and restless spirit made them fear, even although he was unarmed. He managed, however, to escape from confinement; and flying for refuge to John d’Albret, king of Navarre, his brother-in-law, who was then at war with his subjects, he served as a volunteer, and was killed by a ball fired from the castle of Viano, on the 12th March 1507.

Borgia may be regarded as an almost literal incarnation of whatever is most odious and infamous amongst mankind. Educated in an age when every petty court was a school of immorality, falsehood, and perfidy; when the frequency of political iniquities had utterly effaced all shame; when treaties afforded no guarantee, and oaths inspired no confidence; he may be said to have systematized crime, and to have carried impudence, bad faith, and utter disregard of all ties, human and divine, to an extent previously unknown. Many princes have shed more blood than Caesar .Borgia, many have exacted more cruel vengeance, some have inflicted more atrocious punishments. But his name is nevertheless attainted with a surpassing infamy; history has branded him with a peculiar stigma; the public voice has been just towards him. Other monsters have been hurried on by their passions. Borgia calculated every thing, even to ferocity; judged every thing with reference to his own particular objects; sacrificed every thing to his own immediate interest; and regarded religion, morality, and humanity as tools or engines which might occasionally be serviceable, but which, when no longer useful or convenient, were to be broken and cast aside. Nor were the habits of the man unworthy of the principles of the politician. His manners were excessively corrupt. He was sober, however, because his situation imposed upon him the necessity of temperance; but in this is included every thing that can be said in his favour; unless we give him credit for the smooth and seductive eloquence of which he was an undoubted master, and which he employed with but too great success in inveigling his intended victims into the toils. It is not without reason, therefore, that Machiavel, in his book of the Prince, has taken Caesar Borgia as a model; he could not have chosen a hero among men better qualified to inspire unmitigated horror and detestation. The Duke of Valentino is a solitary figure in history; perfect in all its proportions, and alike diabolical in every feature and lineament; an apparent anomaly in the course of providence, but, doubtless, permitted for wise though inscrutable purposes.
If plagues and earthquakes break not Heaven’s design,
Why, then, a Borgia or a Catiline?