Giovanni Borgia (1498)

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For the Giovanni Borgia born in 1474, see Giovanni Borgia (1474).

Giovanni Borgia (March 1498 – 1548), the infans Romanus ("Roman child"), was probably the love-child of Lucrezia Borgia. Pope Alexander VI issued two papal bulls, both dated September 1, 1501, in each of which a different father is assigned to him, the second appearing to supplement and correct the first.

The first of these Bulls, addressed to "Dilecto Filio Nobili Joanni de Borgia, Infanti Romano," declares him to be a child of three years of age, the illegitimate son of Cesare Borgia, unmarried (as Cesare was at the time of the child's birth) and of a woman (unnamed, as was usual in such cases) also unmarried.

The second declares him, instead, to be the son of Alexander himself and runs: "Since you bear this deficiency not from the said duke, but from us and the said woman, which we for good reasons did not desire to express in the preceding writing." The pope was forbidden by canon law to publicly recognize children and did not wish that the child should suffer in his inheritance as a consequence [1]. Precisely at the same date the final arrangements were made for Lucrezia's betrothal to Alfonso d'Este, duke of Ferrara.

The child Giovanni appeared as a companion of Lucrezia, who named him as her younger half-brother. Alexander, in two bulls excommunicating members of the Savelli and Colonna families and confiscating their properties, was able to name the young Giovanni as heir to the duchy of Nepi, a property important to the Borgia family, and also as duke of Palestrina (September 17, 1501). Giovanni was passed from guardian to guardian, eventually ending up with Lucrezia in Ferrara. He held several other titles, including the signory of Vetralla, but the unfortunate Giovanni never succeeded in possessing his titles, and, after a career serving as a minor functionary in the Papal Curia and at the court of France, failed to gain much power and eventually died relatively unknown.