Read The Borgias for Free Online Page A

and into the streets and taverns of Rome that the conclave was in deadlock. The crowds that had gathered so expectantly on the piazza in front of St Peter’s beneath the first-floor windows of the palace, waiting for the result of the election, began to disperse as night fell. The few who remained there overnight were astonished when, shortly after daybreak on the morning of August 11, 1492, the long-awaited announcement was made: ‘Habemus Papam!’
    ‘Deo Gratias!’ came the response and then, from the window above, fluttered down several pieces of paper on which were written the words ‘We have for Pope, Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia of Valencia.’ The new pope himself then appeared at the window, wearing the largest of the three sizes of papal robes that had been made in advance and laid out for the successful candidate. He was clearly much excited by his victory; instead of modestly declaring ‘volo,’ as custom required, he repeatedly shouted, ‘I am Pope! I am Pope!’
    He had, it was said, spent large sums of money in becoming so. As the sixteenth-century Florentine author of The History of Italy , Francesco Guicciardini, explained:
    [Rodrigo] had been a cardinal for many years and had become one of the most influential men at the papal court; his succession to the papacy was due to the conflict between Cardinal Ascanio Sforza and Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, but principally his election was due to the fact that he had unashamedly bought the votes of many cardinals in a manner that was unprecedented in those times, using not only money but also the promise of his offices and benefices, which were plentiful.
     
    There were, indeed, widespread rumours that he had paid bribes to no fewer than thirteen cardinals, including his main ally, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, brother of the Duke of Milan and perhaps the most papabile of all the cardinals. In return for relinquishing his own ambitions to further those of Rodrigo, Ascanio was promised not only gold, which was reported to have been sent under cover ofdarkness to Ascanio’s palace on four heavily laden mules, but also the influential and lucrative office of vice-chancellor, which Rodrigo would have to surrender if he became pope. And along with the job would come the official residence, Rodrigo’s magnificent palace, known as the Cancelleria Vecchia. (It is now the Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini and was completely rebuilt in 1888 to the designs of Pio Piacentini, who retained just one side of the elegant fifteenth century courtyard.)
    According to Burchard’s account, ‘Only five cardinals wished to receive nothing, namely the cardinals of Naples, Siena, Lisbon, San Pietro in Vincoli and Santa Maria in Porticu; they alone refused the gratuities, saying that the votes to elect a pope should be given freely and should not be purchased with presents.’ In the end, however, according to the Florentine ambassador’s report of the election, there was only one dissenting voice in the conclave and that was Sixtus IV’s nephew Giuliano della Rovere, the cardinal of San Pietro in Vincoli.
    Yet even those who had been most ready to condemn the methods by which the new pope had secured his election were now forced to concede that, guilty as he may well have been of simony, bribery, and sexual incontinence, Alexander VI was both conscientious and competent in the discharge of his duties. Approachable, affable, and good-natured, he was also determined to put a stop to the riotous lawlessness into which Rome had fallen during the pontificate of his predecessor, Innocent VIII.
    Accordingly, during September 1492, as Burchard outlined, ‘he established a body of prison inspectors; he also appointed four commissioners whom he charged with listening to all those who had complaints to make in Rome; similarly he reorganized thefunctions of the governor of the city and his officers.’ The pope ‘also decided that he would hold an audience every Tuesday which would be open to all