Otto M. Schwarz

Symphonie No. 1 - The Borgias - 1. Alexander VI

A so-called "black legend" is circulating around the Borgia family - this term has been used since the late Middle Ages to describe negative reports about Spain and Spaniards. The black legend about the Borgias is about corruption, abuse of power,, sex and murder. Especially during the pontificate of Pope Alexander VI, a scion of the family, these rumors multiplied. Alexander was sometimes even referred to as the Antichrist. When he died, according to contemporary witnesses, the devil is said to have crept around in the death room and a black dog ran up and down the corridors of the Vatican as an envoy of the devil. The brutal rule of Pope Alexander and his relatives led to a kind of demonization of the Borgia family. But it is precisely because of the unscrupulousness, poisoning, incest and other cruelties that this pontificate exerts a certain fascination to this day. 1. ALEXANDER VI Rodrigo Borgia was born in 1431 near Valencia. He studied law in Bolognia and rose through the ecclesiastical hierarchy through his uncle Pope Calixtus III. As vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, he became one of the richest men in Europe. As a cardinal, he fathered four children, whom he later recognized when he was already pope. His election as pope was facilitated by the purchase of offices, blackmail and bribery of all kinds. Through an alliance with Ascanio Sforza, he was able to win the papal election on August 11, 1492 and henceforth called himself Alexander VI, in allusion to Alexander the Great.