David | Juan #12: "Maria Enriquez de Luna, a rare beauty!" – Rodrigo; "My wife... I am devoted to her. Body and soul." – Juan
 

Juan Borgia, 2nd duke of Gandía, was the son of Pope Alexander VI the second of the Pope's four children by Vanozza Cattanei. He born in Rome in 1476. He was made 2nd Duke of Gandia, Duke of Sessa, Grand Constable of Naples, Governor of St. Peter's, and Gonfalonier and Captain General of the Church and married Maria Enriquez de Luna, the Spanish betrothed of his deceased older half-brother, Pedro Luis, in September 1493. They had two children: Juan de Borja y Enriquez (known as Juan Borgia), who became the 3rd duke of Gandía, and Francisca de Jesus Borja, who became a nun at a convent in Valladolid. Juan is also the grandfather of Saint Francis Borgia.


He was murdered the night of 14 June 1497 near what later became the Piazza della Giudecca in the Ghetto of Rome. It has been speculated that either his brother Cesare or Joffre Borgia had him murdered, the former because of his ambitions to lead the papal armies in his stead, the latter because it was rumoured that Juan had an affair with his wife Sancia d'Aragón. Other suspects included the Orsini to whose estates Juan attacked in order to reclaim the fiefs for the pope and eventually himself. Juan's richly attired body was recovered from the Tiber River with 30 golden ducats untouched in the purse at his belt. To the immense grief of the pope, this act occasioned the heartless epigram by Sannazzaro on the pope as "fisher of men". Borgia's only attendant was also slain, so there were no known witnesses. Later when his brother Cesare was imprisoned in Spain, his wife Maria Enriquez tried to have him put on trial for Juan's murder.

Juan also is an essential part of many novels about the family and was portrayed in many movies and television series based on the Borgia's rise and fall. For instance most recently:


David Oakes (born in 1983 in Fordingbridge, Hampshire) is an English film, television and theatre actor. He was head boy at Bishop Wordsworth's School, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he was also heavily involved with the Salisbury Playhouse and their youth theatre, Stage 65. He graduated with a first in English Literature from the University of Manchester. From 2005 to 2007, Oakes attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. In 2008 he was part of a BBC 4 radio play A Dance to the Music of the Time where he spoke the part of "Charles Stringham". Between 2008 and 2011 he was part of several stage and television production. For instance, he played the villainous "William Hamleigh" in the television miniseries The Pillars of the Earth (2010), produced by Ridley Scott. In 2011 he was cast as "Juan Borgia" in the television Showtime series The Borgias. He was cast in the role of "Justin" for the movie Truth or Dare? which will be released in 2012.

Double post again... :ff: hates me.

Yeah, I don't think Margaret wanted the crown for herself. That doesn't mean that she didn't want power. She was more a "behind the scenes" woman.

Exactly my thoughts – it doesn't make sense to me why Elizabeth should feel anything but "yay the bastard's dead" at Richard's defeat. He had one of her older sons executed, he had her brother executed, he put her two younger sons into the Tower never to be seen again and named all her children bastards. Sorry but I would be resentful.

As I explained to you in the Joanne thread that rumour was merely apocryphal – as in written more than 200 years after the events by someone who wanted to tarnish Elizabeth I. ... after all she was Lizzie's granddaughter. So...

Yep, two more episodes and you're caught up! :)

Thanks for the new thread, Nina! :)

Wow, Richard III's reign was short. Only two years? :eek: Anne died of tuberculosis shortly before he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field? And is it true that Henry Tudor killed him in battle or was that just Shakespeare taking a wild guess?

Double post again... *shakes hand at :ff: *

I don't think he killed him personally but then you never know... I mean tales from battles are hardly ever accurate, are they?

Ultimately I think who really lost in this are truly George/Isabel and their children Maggie and Teddy. They never got to be happy and a lot came from George never being content with what he had. But I loved that scene in the first episode we watched today where he held Maggie in his arms and told her all about his sad childhood and how he basicallly hated everyone right now. :lol:

Yeah, once again David plays a tragic figure who never gets what he aspires to, and whose reach always exceeds his grasp.

True, the idea that the story ends with Richard and Henry meeting on the battlefield("A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!") and the two fighting to the death until Henry is victorious and Richard dies on the battlefield is really the stuff of Hollywood... or Shakespeare. :lol: We'll never know if Henry was actually the one who killed him.

I really do feel sorry for Teddy, though. He ended up in the tower just like Edward and Richard(if it was him) and was executed in his 20's. Those were good scenes with Maggie and Teddy, although I did wish the boy would shut up and not talk about being king. Yeah, he's George's son all right. What happened to Maggie?

Hmpf, argh.

Well, Teddy was locked up at an early age and never got an education and few visitors. In the time he was free, people obviously told him about his claim to the throne and since that was the only thing he was taught and told, that's what stuck and otherwise he was fairly simple minded.

Maggie had quite a few children, one of them even became a Cardinal in the Catholic church and that was something that Henry VIII really didn't like, that basically his papist cousin could challenge his sham of a reformation. Maggie lived to an old age but then Henry VIII had one of his paranoid fits and had her executed. The story had it that she tried to run away from the block. I found that quite sensible to be honest. I don't really buy in this whole idea of dying a good death when you're being executed.

What, Teddy wasn't allowed an education in the tower? They couldn't hire tutors or something?

OMG, how the hell can that psycho Henry VIII be Lizzie's son? He's a total bastard. How many women did he execute? :no:

Yeah, Henry VIII was the worst... mostly because all the people he executed – it was mainly because they didn't agree on matters of his marriage(s). Meanwhile one could at least understand why his father did what he did although it was cruel, there was a real threat to his reign, his person and his family if the people had risen up in favour of Teddy or one of the fake princes and then country would have been ruled by their pupeteers so to speak.

I guess I can understand Henry VII, although I still think that Teddy was nowhere near the threat to Henry Tudor that Henry was to Richard III.

I wonder if Henry VIII suffered from some mental condition. Historians have speculated that Caligula might've suffered from bipolar disorder. Perhaps this was Henry's problem as well. And Elizabeth I was actually his daughter. Makes one glad that the Tudor line ended with her.

Teddy by himself certainly not and Henry VII must have known that. The issue were nobles who would use Teddy for their own purposes, put him on the throne and reign through him. There were enough of those.

Yeah, I've read things where people speculate regarding Henry VIII's mental condition but I personally found none of these papers terribly convincing. I think we just have to accept that there are people out there who are spoilt and horrible and it doesn't bode well for any of us if they are in power. As far as the reigns of his daughetrs Mary I. and Elizabeth I. are concerned: I think it's more a nurture problem, particularly how they and their mothers were treated by Henry once they had fallen out of favour.

Have a great watch, guys! :D

Thanks, Arinna. I sure hope so. :)