A prophecy fulfilled…

515 years ago, during the night of 11 March, not more than a flash in time, Machiavelli’s Prince, Cesare Borgia died…

In Viana, Spain, this legendary Captain General never stopped dreaming of his own grand future despite four years of imprisonment, agony and boredom.

With every fiber in his body, he hates pope Julius II, King Ferdinand of Spain and King Louis XII of France.

They wronged him: broke his trust, broke their vows, and stole everything from him. He wants revenge!

515 years ago, he went to bed, only to be woken up by a terrible storm in the early morning, and the news the enemy had tricked him.

Eager to fight and ready to set the wheels of his own future in motion, he gallops through town, outside into the wild towards his own death.

Does he know he will die when he suddenly sees himself surrounded, outnumbered by the enemy?

He knows. A prophecy is being fulfilled.

Yet he fights because he will not die without showing them who he truly is. His Virtù had never failed him before.

Does he welcome death, or does he, in those very last moments still believe that perhaps the Lady Fortuna will tilt once more towards his favor?

When the news reaches Lucrezia, she cries bitter tears for the brother she loved most. In France, Charlotte shrouds herself, and all that she possesses, in black cloth until the day she dies.

The Romagna keeps waiting for his return, but in vain.

“‘Here, in a scant piece of earth, lies he whom all the world feared.

He who in his hand once bore mankind’s fate of peace and war.

Oh, you that goes in search of things deserving praise,

If you would praise the worthiest,

Then let your journey end here

Nor trouble to go farther.”[1]’[2]

Picture borrowed from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cesare_Borgia

[1] Sabatini, The Life of Cesare Borgia; Bradford, Cesare Borgia: His Life and Times; Woodward, Cesare Borgia: A Biography; Fusero, The Borgias.

[2] Written by Soria, a Spanish poet, who may have spent some time at Cesare’s court.