The Borgias

Previously on The Borgias...

You have heard what happened at Lucca?

Fire!

We are facing a battle for our very survival.

The French King has laid waste to Lucca.

But their goal is your fair city of Naples. Father.

The French King demands that

Florence be opened to the passage of his armies.

That will need to be voted by the signoria.

The answer is yes.

We will excommunicate that heretic apostate,

Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere.

We will bear no more opposition!

Cardinal Della Rovere has one end in view:

the deposition of our Holy Father the Pope.

I myself voted for the Holy Father.

So we can count on your continued support, then?

Yes, of course.

The French army has passed through Florence.

Your father's days may be numbered.

I do believe the Sforza armies

pledged to his cause. The Sforza armies

may march with France.

There was a reason for my marriage, brother.

Remind me of it.

Give me control of the papal armies.

I will do what is necessary.

You have no experience of battle, my son.

- Does Juan? - The French King would

see me deposed. Now,

if that is God's will, should I just allow it to happen?

The role for which God chose you,

you cannot fail in that.

- I wake up, nauseous. - You are with child.

We must leave this castle at first light.

== sync, corrected by elderman ==

Are you the one?

Yes, my lady.

I knew I would be whipped.

If you speak of your affections, Paolo,

I will see you hanged after you are whipped.

Do you understand?

- Yes, my lady. - And it would be

a shame to maim that body of yours.

For all the pleasure it has given her.

You will prepare us 2 horses at dawn,

already saddled.

I had a dream, my son.

Or a nightmare.

Of Lucrezia?

I dreamed

that all of Italy had deserted us--

Sforzas, Colonnas.

The French armies swarmed through Rome

like a cloud of locusts.

On my feet...

...were the simple sandals of a Spanish peasant.

Summon the Spanish ambassador.

He may be our last hope.

You must come with us.

My lord will kill you. No. He will whip me.

But it will have been worth it.

When will I see you again?

When you return from Rome, perhaps.

When horses fly, as we must now.

Before Lord Sforza awakes.

We granted your King Ferdinand and your Queen Isabella

the title of Most Catholic Majesties.

We delivered

a solemn papal bull, granting them

everlasting rights over that vast new continent--

But, with respect, Holy Father,

what you ask is impossible.

The involvement of Spanish forces

in the protection of St. Peter's

and the head of Christendom--

Would amount to a declaration of war between France and Spain.

I warn you, Ambassador,

favours granted can be rescinded.

And I would beg Your Holiness's forgiveness

that I cannot meet his full demands.

Must we face this...

...French apocalypse alone?

The populace is already fleeing Rome.

Please thank Their Royal Catholic Highnesses.

And tell them...

...our Saviour was kissed thus by Judas Iscariot.

We would review whatever forces we have at our disposal.

Where's your brother?

I know not, Holy Father, but...

...I suspect.

Well, then, seek out the Gonfaloniere of the papal forces

from whatever whorehouse he's seen fit to rest his head!

You know this man?

No, Father. He had no name last night.

Brother.

You have a priest for a brother?

- A cardinal. - A cardinal?

I should have charged you double. I imagine you did. Ah!

Your father would review the forces at his command, Gonfaloniere.

I am out of sorts this morning, brother.

This afternoon.

Ah!

Ah! You know me, brother.

I disapprove of lechery, debauchery, drunkenness.

Which is why our father made you the cardinal.

Why, then, did he make you a duke?

Because lechery and debauchery are the very marks of nobility.

Most of Italy has galloped to the French side.

They have heard a sound that is new to their Italian ears:

the sound of cannon.

And the Gonfaloniere has other duties besides lechery

and debauchery. There is the tedious business of war.

Slow your horse, my love.

You were ill, remember?

And your condition needs nurturing.

Once out of that gloomy castle, my health seems to improve.

We did doubly well to flee, then,

and your father needs us both at this perilous juncture.

Now, you tell me about this Paolo.

You mean Narcissus?

What would you know?

Everything.

Where are they heading?

The horses were gone, my lord, at dawn. I know not where.

You mean they saddled them without you stirring?

They must have, my lord.

You sleep very soundly.

Like a babe in arms, my lord.

You lie.

Would it be in my interest to lie, my lord,

when my back is at your mercy? Your entire being is at my mercy.

The truth, peasant!

Where are they heading?

She is headed as far from you as possible, my lord.

She can no longer stand the sight of you.

The smell of you.

The thought of you.

And nor, my lord, can I.

Peasant.

We have pikes for 2,000 footmen,

lances for 1,000 horse, bows for 1,500 bowmen--

if we can find the soldiers to wield them.

What about cannon?

Nobody worthy in the art of war ever uses cannons.

I have heard it rumoured that the French do.

And I have heard that they are vulgarians, my lord.

Their cannon was vulgar, indeed,

when they brought Lucca to its knees.

I have a stratagem,

Holy Father,

to outwit their cannon.

Would you be so good as to... share it with us?

Indeed.

Just give me some time with my condottieri.

Time is what we do not have!

The barbarians are approaching.

Rome has been sacked twice in her past.

We would spare her a third such indignity.

Cardinal.

There are precedents, of course, Your Highness,

for the deposition of the Pope of Rome.

The Council of Constance, for example.

There were 3 popes with claims upon the papacy.

Three?

It was a schism, Your Highness, a state to be avoided

at all costs. Pope John XXIII,

Pope Benedict XIII, and Pope Gregory XII.

One of them held court in Avignon.

Yes, Your Highness.

Commonly referred to as the Avignon Captivity.

And what was the outcome of the Council of Constance?

Well, Pope John XXIII was accused of various indiscretions.

And of what do you accuse this Borgia pope?

Simony, usury, public lechery,

and poisoning, perhaps.

So, your brother has a stratagem.

Dreamed up in last night's whorehouse.

You will cease, Cardinal Borgia,

in this constant denigration of your brother,

the Gonfaloniere. His leadership

of the papal forces is at present our only hope!

Which is the source of my concern, Father.

We have summoned an assembly of the College of Cardinals.

Now, we are aware-- painfully aware--

how readily they would abandon our papacy

in this hour of greatest need.

But you, Cardinal,

shall be our support in this crisis.

You will express every confidence in the arms

at our disposal, under the leadership of your beloved brother.

They are like rats, my son, deserting a sinking ship.

Thus our Saviour was abandoned by his Apostles,

in his hour of greatest need.

...without protection,

everyone moment we stay here is at our peril.

Holy Father, it is rumoured

that the Colonna arms are rushing to join the French side.

Cardinal Colonna could perhaps answer that.

They are in danger of being beaten to the race by the armies of the Sforza.