Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Gandía

Son of Pope Alexander VI

Giovanni Borgia
Duke of Gandía
Alleged portrait of Giovanni Borgia
Reign	1488–1497
Born	c. 1476^[1] Italy
Died	14 June 1497(1497-06-14) (aged 20–21) Rome
Buried	Santa Maria del Popolo, Borgia Chapel
Noble family	Borgia
Spouse(s)	Maria Enriquez de Luna
Issue	Juan de Borja y Enriquez, 3rd Duke of Gandía Isabel de Borja y Enriquez
Father	Pope Alexander VI
Mother	Vannozza dei Cattanei

Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Gandía (1476–1497) was the second born and the second son of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza Cattanei and a member of the House of Borgia. He was the brother of Cesare, Gioffre, and Lucrezia Borgia. He was murdered on 14 June 1497. Even today, it is not known with certainty who was responsible for his death, although many at the time blamed his brother Cesare.^[2]^[3]

Early life, marriage, and family

Giovanni Borgia was probably born in Rome in 1476 to then-cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (later to become Pope Alexander VI), and his mistress, Vannozza dei Cattanei, who was married to Domenico da Rignano. He was the second son of the couple, after the firstborn Cesare. In September 1493, Giovanni married Maria Enriquez de Luna, the Spanish betrothed of his deceased older half-brother, Pier Luigi de Borgia, 1st duke of Gandía.^[4] He succeeded his brother as 2nd Duke of Gandía and was made Duke of Sessa, Grand Constable of Naples, Governor of St. Peter's, and Gonfalonier and Captain General of the Church.

Giovanni and Maria had two children, a son and a daughter. The firstborn was Juan de Borja y Enríquez, 3rd Duke of Gandía (father of Saint Francis Borgia, who was also 4th Duke of Gandía). Their daughter, Isabel de Borja y Enríquez, was born in 1498 in Gandía and never knew her father, who was killed in June 1497 at Rome; she grew up to be abbess of Santa Clara in Gandía with the name Francisca de Jesús.

Murder

Giovanni Borgia was murdered on the night of 14 June 1497 in Rome. According to Burchard he was last seen alive when he was leaving a banquet at the home of his mother near the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli with his brother Cesare. After the meal Cesare urged Giovanni to return to the Papal Palace but as they approached the Palace of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, the Duke told his brother that he was going to find entertainment somewhere, and dismissed his retinue. He took only his valet and a masked man whose identity was unknown but who had been visiting Giovanni several times in the month before his death. The duke rode to the Square of the Jews where he ordered the servant to wait for him until eight o'clock, and if he had not appeared until then, return to the palace. Then he rode off with the masked man behind him on the back of his mule.

"When the duke did not return to the palace on the next morning, which was Thursday, 15th of June, his trusted servants became uneasy and one of them carried to the Pope the news of the late expedition of the duke and Cesare and the vain watch for the return of the former. The Pope was much disturbed by the news, but tried to persuade himself that the duke was enjoying himself somewhere with a girl and was embarrassed for that reason at leaving her house in broad daylight, and he clung to the hope that he might return at any rate in the evening. When this hope was not fulfilled, the Pope was stricken with deadly terror."^[5]

Alexander ordered a search for his son and a witness was found, a Slavonian timber dealer named Georgio who made a statement that led to the discovery of Giovanni's body. He had been lying in his boat on the Tiber on the night of the murder to guard his wood and watched as five men had thrown a corpse into the river next to the fountain at the Hospital of Jerome, where refuse was usually disposed of.

"At about two o'clock in the morning two men came out of a lane by the hospital on to the public road along the river. They looked about cautiously to see whether any one was passing and when they did not see anybody they disappeared again in the lane. After a little while two others came out of the lane, looked about in the same way and made a sign to their companions when they discovered nobody. Thereupon a rider appeared on a white horse who had a corpse behind him with the head and arms hanging down on one side and the legs on the other and supported on both sides by the two men who had first appeared. The procession advanced to the place where the refuse is thrown into the river. At the bank they came to a halt and turned the horse with its tail to the river. Then they lifted the corpse, one holding it by its hands and arms, the other by the legs and feet, dragged it down from the horse and cast it with all their strength into the river. To the question of the rider if it was safely in, they answered, 'Yes, Sir!' Then the rider cast another look at the river and, seeing the cloak of the corpse floating on the water, asked his companions what that black thing was floating there. They answered, 'the cloak,' whereupon he threw stones at the garment to make it sink to the bottom. Then all five, including the other two who had kept watch and now rejoined the rider and his two companions, departed and took their way together through another lane that leads to the Hospital of St. James."^[6]

When asked why he had not reported the murder the witness replied: "In my day I have seen as many as a hundred corpses thrown into the river at that place on different nights without anybody troubling himself about it, and so I attached no further importance to the circumstance".^[7]

Fishermen and boatmen were summoned to drag the river; on 16 June, Giovanni's body was recovered from the Tiber.

"It was just before vespers when they found the duke still fully clad, with his stockings, shoes, waistcoat and cloak, and in his belt there was his purse with thirty ducats. He had nine wounds, one in the neck through the throat, the other eight in the head, body and legs."^[8]

Giovanni Borgia's only attendant, the servant who was left behind waiting, was also slain, so there were no known witnesses. After the murder the grief-stricken Pope locked himself in his chambers and wept bitterly for hours. He did not eat and sleep until the next Sunday.

Suspects

As the killers were never identified, there are several theories about the perpetrators and motives:

Most suspicions at the time centred on Giovanni's brother, Cesare Borgia. A personal rivalry existed between them and, with Giovanni's death, Cesare was finally allowed to leave the Church as he wished, taking his dead brother's place as a man-at-arms. Giovanni's wife was also convinced of Cesare's guilt and tried, in vain, to have her brother-in-law tried. One salient fact is that the Pope despite his immense grief over Giovanni's death closed the investigation after a week indicating that Alexander knew or suspected the killer was a member of his own family.
To date, historical consensus generally indicates the Orsinis as the culprits as a revenge for the death of Virginio Orsini in a Neapolitan prison. He was one of the heads of this family hostile to the Pope, whose possessions Alexander planned to give to his son (the murder was committed in the quarter where many of their people lived, and the mule of the victim was found there).
Others claimed the killer was his younger brother, Gioffre Borgia who murdered him due to Giovanni's relationship with his wife, Sancha.
The killer was Antonio Maria della Mirandola, the father of a young girl, whose house was located near the Tiber. Shortly before his death, Giovanni mentioned that he dishonoured the daughter of one of the representatives of the ancient Roman family.

In popular culture

In most adaptations, he is referred to by his Spanish name, Juan. In Alexandre Dumas' Celebrated Crimes (1839), he is referred to as Francesco.^[9]

The murder occasioned the epigram by Sannazzaro on Pope Alexander VI as "fisher of men."

In Mario Puzo's historical novel The Family, Giovanni Borgia's murder by his younger brother Geoffre is central to the drama and plot of the story.

In the 2010 animated short film, Assassin's Creed: Ascendance, a fictionalised version of Juan's death is depicted at the hand of Cesare Borgia, who hires a prostitute to murder him.

In the 2011 Showtime series, The Borgias, Juan is played by David Oakes and is killed by Cesare in the second season of the series, in "World of Wonders". In the 2011 French/German series, Borgia, Juan is played by French actor Stanley Weber. He is a main character in the first season and dies in that season's finale "The Serpent Rises". In this adaptation, he is the eldest child of Rodrigo and Vannozza, and his murder is perpetrated primarily by Lucrezia—with the help of her lover, Pedro Caldes. Both portrayals depict Juan as haughty, selfish, and cruel, with few redeeming features.

The CBBC television show Horrible Histories features a song portraying the Borgia family, with Ben Willbond as Giovanni Borgia.

Notes

^ ^a ^b Maxwell-Stuart, P.G., Chronicle of the Popes, London, Thames and Hudson, 1997, page 158–159, ISBN 0-500-01798-0
^ Christopher Hibbert: The Borgias and Their Enemies. Harcourt, Inc. 2008, p. 30
^ Sarah Bradford: Cesare Borgia; His Life and Times. London, 1876, p. 17
^ Williams, George L. (1998). Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. p. 217. ISBN 0-7864-2071-5.
^ Johannes Burchardus Diary pp.88-90
^ Johannes Burchardus Diary pp90-.91
^ Johannes Burchardus Diary p.91
^ Johannes Burchardus Diary p.92
^ Dumas, Alexandre (1839). Celebrated Crimes. Vol. 1 (1910 English ed.). New York: P. F. Collier. p. 48. Retrieved 15 May 2017.