Rise of the Borgias

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 15th and early 16th centuries, one Spanish family rose to exert its influence over Renaissance Italy - the Borgias. Deploying diplomacy, marriage alliances and military force to advance their interests, the Borgias’ meteoric ascent was accompanied by stories of incest, murder, and debauchery. But how true were the rumours?

All this month on Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is discovering how the Borgias pushed at the boundaries of acceptable behaviour for Renaissance rulers. She is joined in this episode by Dr. Katharine Fellows to consider the Borgias' rise to the pinnacle of European power.

Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Alice Smith, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

Theme music from All3Media. Other music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb.
0:02.4	If you'd like not just the Tudors ad-free to get early access and bonus episodes,
0:08.4	sign up to History Hit.
0:09.9	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries,
0:15.2	including my own, on Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, Brilliant Rivals.
0:19.3	And enjoy a new release every week.
0:22.0	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:27.6	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit,
0:33.3	the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs,
0:37.7	from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise.
0:43.2	Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft.
0:47.6	Not in other words just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.
1:05.2	This is a story of unbridled ambition, absolute power and shameful scandals.
1:12.8	In the 15th and early 16th centuries, one family, originating in Spain, rose to exert its influence over Renaissance Italy. Their goals were audacious, to carve out for themselves a permanent
1:18.6	duchy in the heart of Italy and to transform the papacy into a hereditary monarchy. Their rewriting
1:25.2	of the rules of power set them apart from their contemporaries and earned them many enemies.
1:30.3	They were the Borgias. Their ascendancy was set against the backdrop of not only unprecedented artistic and cultural flowering, but also political fragmentation.
1:40.3	The Borgers navigated this complex landscape using diplomacy, marriage alliances and military force to advance their interests.
1:49.0	But their meteoric assent was accompanied by scandal and rumour.
1:54.0	Stories of incest, murder and debauchery swirled around them.
1:59.0	But how true were the accusations?
2:05.6	This month, on not just the Tudors, we're stepping into the world of the Borgia dynasty
	...

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