Chronicles of the house of Borgia

The Borgias have been condemned for five centuries as the very embodiment of Renaissance villainy, poisoners, incestuous parricides, monsters in papal robes. Frederick Rolfe undertook something far more radical than scandal: he looked at the evidence. This revisionist history, written in the early 20th century, traces the Borgia family's improbable ascent from obscure Spanish nobility to the throne of St. Peter, focusing on the reigns of Popes Calixtus III and Alexander VI. Rolfe was not interested in compounding legend; he was interested in dismantling it, arguing that the lurid tales of poison cups and family murders were largely Protestant propaganda and Renaissance gossip elevated into fact. The result is a fiercely partisan but meticulously argued defense, one that asks readers to see the Borgias not as exceptions to their era, but as products of it. Rolfe's prose crackles with contempt for the "clean-handed" historians who peddled sensation, and his passion is infectious. Whether you agree with him or not, this remains a vital act of historical reclamation: a reminder that the past is always contested, and that the winners write the legends.