The Borgias
Set in 15th century Italy at the height of the Renaissance, The Borgias chronicles the corrupt rise of patriarch Rodrigo Borgia to the papacy, where he proceeds to commit every sin in the book to amass and retain power, influence and enormous wealth for himself and his family.
Seasons
Season 1
9 episodes
Pope Innocent VIII dies. Rodrigo Borgia wins election as Pope Alexander VI by bribing enough of the cardinals to vote for him in conclave. Alexander "packs" the College of Cardinals with 13 new members, including his son Cesare. He then tries to contract an alliance with the powerful family of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, one of his two original rivals for the Papacy. That alliance, ever fragile, breaks after Alexander's other rival, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (the future Pope Julius II), contracts his own alliance with the King of France for an invasion of Italy.
Episodes
Season 2
10 episodes
Having survived the French invasion with his Papacy intact (just barely), Alexander VI containues to advance his agenda. But the Sforza family continues to thwart him, leading him to make physical war upon them. Nor has Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere given up trying to rid the Vatican of Alexander. Having failed to depose the Pope legally, Cardinal della Rovere plots to assassinate him.
Season 3
10 episodes
Alexander VI survives Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere's assassination attempt, because his daughter Lucrezia knows how to treat catarella poisoning. Alexander's war with the Sforza family continues and escalates. Alexander now plots to turn the Papacy into an explicitly hereditary office.
Cast
Jeremy Irons
Rodrigo Borgia
François Arnaud
Cesare Borgia
Holliday Grainger
Lucrezia Borgia
Joanne Whalley
Vanozza Cattaneo
Colm Feore
Giuliano Della Rovere
Peter Sullivan
Cardinal Ascanio Sforza
Sean Harris
Micheletto
Lotte Verbeek
Giulia Farnese
Thure Lindhardt
Rufio
Vernon Dobtcheff
Cardinal Versucci
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