History of sex, erotica, and pornography XII. - Depraved Popes and Borgias

John XII.

Among the popes who lived in the Middle Ages, John XII was notoriously depraved. Pope John lived in the end of the 10th century. He did not at all correspond to the image that the Catholic Church wanted to show. However, his sexual insatiability did not offend priestly celibacy. Because it only came into force two centuries later. But at the sight of a series of incest, adultery, orgy, and murder, even his contemporaries accused him of making a considerable couplet of the Papal State.

Johannes XII., source: wikipedia.org

His family was already infamous. No one knows, for example, that his father's lover or his legal wife (who was his own stepdaughter anyway!) delivered him?  But his father had an affair with several other women in addition to his wife, who was raised by his foster daughter.
Despite his young age, he threw himself with great enthusiasm into the exercise of papal power. After his father, he also inherited the management of secular state affairs. Unfortunately, he was not talented in either area. His campaigns ended unsuccessfully, so he had to look for an ally.
He thought it would be Otto I, King of Germany, but they were embroiled in a severe war conflict. At one point, the Pope, along with the treasury, dissolved a wheel from Rome.
It was then that stories of the Pope's evil and depravity appeared. We should not think of the usual corruption! But instead of the obscene sexual morals that prevailed in the Pope's court. Rodrigo Borgia organized regular orgies, had sex with his father's lover, his own niece, and countless other women!
He didn't really try to disguise his passion for worldly pleasures. The Pope spent most of his time hunting, gambling, and drinking. It was not advisable for the people around him to upset him in any way, because he had thoughtlessly killed anyone. For example his confessor and a priest, also named John. But he was even fired before.
When he returned to Rome, he tortured his enemies. XII. Pope John died unexpectedly while he was having an adulterous sexual relationship with a woman. According to a popular version, the cuckold husband got the party on him, and he was done with it!

The Borgias

Alfonso Borgia - III. Callixtus

Of the members of the Spanish-born Borgia family, the first pope excelled not in sexual scandals but rather in corruption. So much so that Roman nobles were ousted from crucial offices. Callixtus entrusted all important and lucrative offices to his family and followers. During his reign, two Cardinals of Borgia could also take a seat in the Holy College. He appointed his nephew Rodrigo Borgia cardinal, at the age of bare twenty-five. And with it began the heyday of the lives of the Borgias.

Alfonso Borgia, source: wikipedia.org

Rodrigo Borgia - VI. Alexander

Volumes have really been written about him then, but let's focus on his love and sex life. Rodrigo, who amassed a huge fortune, became Pope VI. Alexander, at the cost of serious bribes at the end of the century. He did not try to disguise his passion for the arts, as well as his sensual pleasures, as a true Renaissance man, living in his "attraction to Venus" all his life.
Rodrigo was known as a real handsome boy. He could get almost everyone in his environment, and he didn't want to give up sex just because of his cardinal title. Feasts were regular in Rodrigo's splendid palace. He also loved the card, excellent food, and drinks. Neither as a cardinal nor a pope did he lack the feminine charms and balls that seemed morally contagious.

Rodrigo Borgia, source: wikipedia.org

He openly planned to establish a papal dynasty that would govern the Ecclesiastical State. Even before he has ordained a priest, he had four children, including the later deservedly famous Cesare and Lucrezia. And he proudly took on all four children! His other children were also born from unknown concubines, with at least 8 descendants known in history.
His name was linked to countless sexual scandals. For example he and his daughter Lucrecia, were regular visitors to unbridled orgies. According to some opinions, he also had sex with her daughter. One of the orgies held in the Apostolic Palace. For chestnut banquets, not only VI. Alexander, but also Lucretia and Cesare, were official guests. At this event, about fifty prostitutes were ready to entertain the guests.

It is an interesting historical fact that the expansion and fertility of the Borgia family peaked just under a pope. As a pope, his political greatness was to place Rome on his side as soon as he ascended the throne. After that, also to strengthen the papal power, he also gave rank and dignity to his own children and side relatives, as well as to more distant acquaintances.

Cesare Borgia

His legal origins were declared by a papal bull as early as the age of five, and at the age of nine, he boasted dozens of ecclesiastical appointments. He was already an archbishop at the age of 15 and later studied law and theology. At the age of 18, his father appointed him a cardinal. He had a masculine and overwhelming appearance, and he could get any woman.

Cesare Borgia, source: wikipedia.org

He is also said to have murdered his brother, Giovanni, in 1497, but there is no tangible evidence of this. But it is characteristic of the Borgias that the brothers were lost at the mercy of their sister Lucretia. The bloodthirsty relationship, however, is more of an urban legend, but it may even be true! Consider that their father was the most scandalous Pope to this day and the orgies he has visited with his children.
When Cesare married a French princess, for the first time in history, he became the first cardinal who resigned. He died young at the age of 31 in a siege.

Lucretia Borgia

The history show her as the queen of poison mixers and the a fleshy woman. She received an outstanding upbringing in her young age. But when her fater's interests wished him to marry his daughter again and again. Three times.
Lucrezia Borgia remained in the memory of a bloodthirsty femme fatale who killed her bored lovers with a poison hidden in her ring. Victor Hugo's drama did a lot for this, but the Borgias series also took a long time to portray Cesare and Lucrezia's sibling. Yet this is not considered likely by researchers. Fact is that Alexander VI. based on a humiliating impotence test, separated her daughter from her first husband. The embarrassed husband retorted as Lucrezia slept with her father and brother.

Lucrezia Borgia, source: wikipedia.org

The image of her may also have been due to the fact that in this age, women were portrayed as dangerous, violent, rebellious, evil figures. Lucrezia's death was also typical at that age. She died ten days after the birth of her eighth child.

Although not all Borgia descendants were degraded, the era marked by their name was undoubtedly rich in murder, intrigue, corruption, and, last but not least, eroticism!

Read more about the eroticism in the Middle Ages!