ABSTRACT
The twentieth-century compartmentalization of Cesare Borgia’s history into distinct Cardinal and Captain phases is the culmination of many historical interpretations and lay historical iterations. This chapter investigates the presentation of Cesare in films from the mid-twentieth century, specifically Prince of Foxes (dir. Henry King, USA, 1949), Bride of Vengeance (dir. Mitchell Leisen, USA, 1949), and The Black Duke (dir. Pino Mercanti, Italy, 1963). All three films present Cesare as an early modern Italian nobleman and without any historical context linking him to the papacy or his father, Pope Alexander VI. In doing so, these films sidestep the family’s core popular reputation with its links to nepotism, incest, and the Spanish/Catholic Black Legend. In these three films Cesare appears as an adventurous and ambitious leader, who is periodically ruthless, but not immoral, in keeping with Niccolò Machiavelli’s vision of the ideal prince. Importantly, the three films presenting a secularized Cesare were influenced by the American Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code, 1930–1968), which avoided critical religious imagery. This stands in stark contrast to how he has been portrayed in other lay historical compositions and in films that acknowledge his clerical background. Most of these films originated in European (and especially Italian) production houses, which had a different relationship with the Catholic Church and expectations for historical films. The outcome is that Cesare Borgia has become intrinsically linked to Machiavelli’s ideal prince in English-language historiography of the late twentieth century.
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