I picked this up after I started watching the new Showtime series The Borgias, which I find myself really enjoying. I was really curious to see how much dramatic liberty with the historical figures and events were being taken. The only thing I really remembered about the Borgias was a comment from my European history teacher in high school who said that one of them was a Pope, who had an affair with his son and his daughter. There are so many things wrong with that statement, not even taking into account the large EWWW factor.

The Borgia's were a Spanish family who found a great deal of influence in Italy largely because of their ties to the church. With that said, very few of them could actually be considered holy. Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia is really the first of the family to have a major influence, though is uncle Alfonso was the first to become Pope as Calixtus III. He proved to be one of those elderly Popes who served only a very brief amount of time before dying so his influence was limited.

Rodrigo, on the other hand, was able to use the papacy to start unifying Italy and to provide his children with a great deal of power, influence, and money. His influence started when he served under a number of Popes as their vice chancellor. That helped maneuver him into an important position where, after a very controversial vote allegedly influenced by a number of bribes, he was chosen to be Pope in 1492. He chose to serve under the name of Alexander VI.

He was not alone among the cardinals to have children, but he was unique in that he recognized all five of them. As a holy man who had taken the collar, he should have lived a celibate life. The result was that his children, who were all born to the same mother (Vonezza), would be considered bastards. With that said, his recognition allowed them to gain a surprising level of importance on the Italian peninsula and in France.

Most folks have heard of his son Cesare, who also served for a time as a cardinal, before leaving the cloth to become quite the military leader. He was so successful, that Machiavelli studied him and his actions in order to produce The Prince, one of the most important works discussing leadership in the form of the monarch. Along the way, Cesare had not trouble killing those who got in his way ... enemies, friends, and family were all equal targets if it served his purpose.

His sister, Lucrezia, can probably be considered to be the best of the bunch. While rumors swirled around her when she was younger in regard to her relationships, such as the one mentioned by my teacher, she did eventually settled down as the Duchess of of Ferrara. She was well-loved by her people (and her husband) and strongly supported the arts.

The other three siblings (all brothers) are also explored. While they played important roles in the family's rise to power through marriage and battle, individually they contributed little. Juan, who was quite the warlord and don juan, ended up back in Spain, where his descendants continued to have influence for generations. Jofe married into one of the most important families in Italy (the Sforzas), creating an important tie, but accomplished little else besides providing his family a claim on that land before dying young.

All-in-all, I thought this was a pretty strong presentation of the people and events surrounding the Borgias. Hibbert clearly makes an attempt to provide an impartial presentation of what is considered to be the world's first crime family. It is hard not to be judgmental since they were often on the bad side of ethics with their decisions relating to power, sex, and violence.

At times, it can be difficult to follow the who's who of Italian politics. There are a large number of influential families involved, particularly in light of the fact that the yet-to-be-unified nation was made up of a number of smaller statelets, each with its own king, duke, or other form of leader. Having a master list of major players would have proven extremely helpful. The same could have been said of the benefits of including a family tree for the Borgias as well as similar genealogies of some of the other families playing a major role in the history of events included in the book. Their exclusion does not prevent the book from being interesting or being understandable, but they would have been helpful and eased access to the information.