All good things must come to an end, as they say. And, for some, the Borgia Age was actually a good thing. Just not for the Catholic Church in general. In this episode, the deaths of Rodrigo Borgia and his son Cesare bring the "promise" of the Borgia Age to an unexpected end. Meanwhile, in Ferrara Lucrezia Borgia comes into her own outliving both her father and brother.

Sources:

The Borgias: Power and Fortune

The Borgias: The Hidden History

The Borgias and Their Enemies

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Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia schemes to make his son Cesare the unrivaled master of Italy. Forming an alliance (and then unforming it before forming it again) with the French King Louis XII, Pope Alexander almost succeeds at making Cesare the duke of Naples and Romagna... almost.

Sources:

The Borgias: Power and Fortune

The Borgias: The Hidden History

The Borgias and Their Enemies

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Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, had plans for his son Cesare. Big plans. Like, Roman Empire-sized plans. No joke on that one. In this episode, Cesare Borgia sets his sights on Romagna with the intention of creating a permanent Borgia empire in Italy.

Sources:

The Borgias: Power and Fortune

The Borgias: The Hidden History

The Borgias and Their Enemies

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While Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, could have created a mystique in his own right, we know the Borgia family just as much for the children as the father. Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia would have made fascinating case studies in psychology then and they still do now. In this episode, the Borgias begin to make their name synonymous with ambition at any cost.

Sources:

The Borgias: Power and Fortune

The Borgias: The Hidden History

The Borgias and Their Enemies

Become a PATRON and support the show.

Just like the last bonus episode I released, this is another episode off of my Patron's feed that I thought, in light of current events, was worth sharing with the larger audience. 

The history of Ukraine is complex and, decidedly, not synonymous with the history of Russia. In fact, many ethnic Ukrainians suffered greatly under Stalin and Moscow's iron grip. This is a condensed history of Ukraine that sets its unique history and story in perspective. Ukraine has always straddled east and west and I hope this short history explains that.

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