title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Over the next few weeks, Sting displayed a more maniacal character similar in look and style to Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker from the 2008 film "The Dark Knight". On the July 14 edition of "Impact Wrestling", Sting, now dubbed as the "Insane Icon", regained the TNA World Heavyweight Championship from Mr. Anderson, after Fortune and Kurt Angle, disguised as his clown minions, attacked each member of Immortal, preventing them from interfering in the match. He would go on to lose the title to Kurt Angle on August 7 at Hardcore Justice, after Angle hit him with a chair brought to the ring by Hulk Hogan. Sting continued tormenting head members of Immortal with his strange new personality, and on the August 18 edition of "Impact Wrestling", his longtime rival Ric Flair made his return to TNA and challenged him to a match. Sting agreed to put his career on the line in the match in exchange for Flair promising to deliver him his long-awaited match with Hogan, should he be able to defeat him. On the September 1 edition of "Impact Wrestling", Sting received a rematch against Angle for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, but was defeated following interference from special enforcer Hulk Hogan and the rest of Immortal. On September 11 at No Surrender, Hogan once again cost Sting the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a three-way match, which also included Mr. Anderson. On the September 15 edition of "Impact Wrestling", Sting defeated longtime rival Ric Flair to earn the right to face Hogan at Bound for Glory. On the October 6 edition of "Impact Wrestling", after being exposed for his false claim of retiring and his secret ridicule of the fans, a furious Hogan impulsively agreed to hand TNA back to Dixie Carter, should Sting manage to defeat him at Bound for Glory. On October 16 at Bound for Glory, Sting defeated Hogan to bring Dixie Carter back to power. After the match, Hogan turned on Immortal and helped Sting overcome the odds in his battle with the stable. On the following edition of "Impact Wrestling", Carter placed Sting in charge of the program. Sting returned to the ring on the December 22 and February 9, 2012, editions of "Impact Wrestling", where he teamed up with Jeff Hardy to defeat TNA World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Roode and Bully Ray both times.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: During the first months of 2012, Sting feuded with the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Roode. He was defeated by Roode at Victory Road in a non-title No Holds Barred match, and at Slammiversary in a title match. During this time, he also left the General Manager position in favor of Hulk Hogan, signed a new contract extension with TNA and was announced as the first inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: His next feud was against a newly formed masked faction called "Aces & Eights", where he was pointed as the interim general manager after Hogan hiatus due to a back injury. The feud led to a match at Bound for Glory alongside Bully Ray, where they were defeated by the Aces & Eights, following interference from a man who was afterwards unmasked as Ray's longtime partner, the returning Devon. As a result of their win, the Aces & Eights earned full access to TNA. On the following episode of "Impact Wrestling", Sting defeated Devon via disqualification, following interference from the Aces & Eights. On the November 8 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Sting was sidelined with a storyline injury, after being put through a table and beaten with a ball-peen hammer by DOC, a member of Aces & Eights.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Sting returned on the January 3, 2013, episode of "Impact Wrestling", saving Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe from Aces & Eights before beating the group down with a baseball bat. Sting wrestled his return match the following week, defeating Aces & Eights member Mike Knox after he injured Kurt Angle. Three days later at Genesis, Sting gained his revenge on DOC by defeating him in a singles match. On the February 7 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Sting teamed up with Bully Ray to defeat Devon and DOC in a Tables match. On March 10 at Lockdown, Team TNA, consisting of Sting, Eric Young, James Storm, Magnus, and Samoa Joe defeated Aces & Eights, consisting of Devon, DOC, Garett Bischoff, Mike Knox, and Mr. Anderson in a Lethal Lockdown match. After Bully Ray won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and revealed himself as the president of Aces & Eights later that night, Hulk Hogan blamed Sting as he had encouraged Hogan to give Ray the title shot while also encouraging Hogan to support Ray's marriage with his daughter Brooke. Sting proceeded to walk out on Hogan. Sting returned on the April 25 "Impact Wrestling", saving Hogan from an attack by the Aces & Eights. The following week, Sting reconciled with Hogan and became the number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship later that night after defeating Matt Morgan. On June 2 at Slammiversary XI, Sting unsuccessfully challenged Bully Ray for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a No Holds Barred Match after an interference by Aces & Eights. Per stipulation, Sting would never get another title opportunity again.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: On the June 13 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Sting noted that nobody in the back helped him during his title match, but he would form a New Main Event Mafia to battle the Aces & Eights. In the following weeks, Sting would recruit Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, Magnus, and Rampage Jackson as members of the New Main Event Mafia. Before Bound for Glory, MEM member Magnus complained to Sting because his losses. Magnus told to Sting he had Flair to put him in the map, but he had nobody, so Sting challenged him to a match at Bound for Glory. At Bound for Glory, Sting was defeated by Magnus. On the October 31 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Dixie Carter offered to lift the lifetime ban so Sting can get another World title opportunity again by entering him first in a Battle Royal Gauntlet match, which was won by Magnus as Sting attempted to eliminate Kazarian, and Magnus eliminated the both of them. Sting disbanded The Main Event Mafia after Aces & Eights disbanded, and while other members began to chase their TNA World Heavyweight Championship dreams, Sting started a feud against Ethan Carter III and Dixie Carter after they began humiliating TNA Legends, like Curry Man and Earl Hebner by Carter. On the December 12 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Carter was confronted by Sting, and was issued an option, either face Sting immediately, or enter the Feast or Fired match. Carter entered the Feast or Fired match, and grabbed one of the briefcases. On the December 19 episode of "Impact Wrestling", the Feast or Fired briefcase revealed to contain a future TNA World Tag Team Championship match, and also led to the firing of Chavo Guerrero. On the January 16, 2014 episode of "Impact Wrestling: Genesis", Sting lost a match to Ethan Carter III due an interference from the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Magnus and subsequently challenged Magnus to a Title vs. Career match for the January 23 episode of "Impact Wrestling: Genesis", which Sting lost, and his TNA contract was terminated as a result.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: At Slammiversary, on June 19, 2022, Sting appeared in a video message to congratulate Impact Wrestling, which had changed its name from TNA in 2017, on their 20th anniversary.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Veteran professional wrestling journalist Bill Apter chronicled Sting's career in a piece for WWE.com on February 19, 2014, wherein he stated that Sting's "best days may still be yet to come". He appeared in a WWE Network production on April 15, 2014, sharing a story of his former tag team partner The Ultimate Warrior, who had recently died. This marked Sting's first non-archive appearance on a WWE-branded show. Sting was a prominent contributor to the documentary film "Warrior: The Ultimate Legend", which aired on the WWE Network on April 17. The following day, online retailer Zavvi announced the WWE Home Video DVD and Blu-ray "The Best of Sting", which was released on September 23, 2014. On July 14, Sting appeared in a vignette on "Raw" to promote the video game "WWE 2K15", in which he was featured as a pre-order bonus character in both his 'Crow' and 'Surfer' (pre-1996) incarnations. That same day, WWE began selling official Sting merchandise. On July 24, Borden made his first public appearance for WWE, in full Sting garb, as a surprise guest at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International. The event was held to announce WWE's upcoming line of Mattel action figures, in which the company's first ever Sting figure would appear. Prior to that appearance, Sting gave his first interview with WWE.com, which was released later that day. On August 4, WWE announced Sting as a guest on the "WWE 2K15" "Roster Reveal" panel, which took place on August 16 in Los Angeles.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: On November 23, during the main event of Survivor Series, Sting made his first-ever appearance in a WWE ring by attacking Triple H with a Scorpion Death Drop and also costing Team Authority the match. On January 19, 2015, Sting made his live "Raw" debut by appearing backstage during the main event, then walking to the stage, causing a distraction and costing Authority members Big Show, Kane and Seth Rollins their handicap match against John Cena; this win gave the recently fired Dolph Ziggler, Ryback and Erick Rowan their jobs back. Triple H challenged Sting to a face-to-face confrontation on the February 2 episode of "Raw". Sting accepted this challenge on the February 9 episode of "Raw" by sending a Sting doppelganger into the ring to scare Triple H, after airing a vignette on the big screen accepting Triple H's challenge. Sting and Triple H had a confrontation at Fastlane on February 22. Following physicality between the two, Sting pointed to the WrestleMania 31 sign with his baseball bat, issuing a challenge for the event that was accepted by Triple H. On the March 16 episode of "Raw", Sting made a surprise appearance and helped Randy Orton fight off the Authority. Immediately following on the WWE Network, Sting spoke for the first time in-ring. He lost at WrestleMania 31 in a match involving interference from D-Generation X and New World Order members, but shook hands with Triple H afterward.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Sting returned on the August 24 episode of "Raw" and challenged the WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins at Night of Champions. Sting defeated Big Show by disqualification in his first match on "Raw", as a consequence of Rollins attacking Sting. That same night, a second match was booked with John Cena and Sting defeating Show and Rollins. At Night of Champions, Sting was defeated by Rollins and experienced a legit neck injury after a turnbuckle powerbomb. Sting later told Bill Apter that he does not blame Rollins for his injury, describing the incident as a "freak accident."


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: It was announced on the January 11, 2016 episode of "Raw" that Sting would be the first member of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2016. Sting ultimately reneged on having surgery; on March 22, 2016, he explained that he felt "completely normal" and had none of the side effects associated with cervical spinal stenosis. On April 2, during his WWE Hall of Fame induction speech, Sting announced his retirement from professional wrestling. He appeared at WrestleMania 32, alongside his fellow 2016 inductees, the following night.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: In August 2016, Sting appeared on the WWE Network show "Legends with JBL" and talked about his career. He also stated that he had still not undergone surgery, which would definitively end his career, and he still held hope for a match with The Undertaker, claiming that such a match is his "unfinished business" in wrestling. However, the match would never happen as despite Sting pitching the idea for a cinematic match with Undertaker, it was never approved, and Undertaker himself officially retired in 2020.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: On the February 25, 2019 episode of "Raw", Sting made his first appearance on WWE television since 2016, at the 70th birthday celebration of Ric Flair, but Flair was attacked by Batista before he could make it to the ring. This would end up being Sting's final appearance for the company, other than interviews recorded for WWE Network.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: In May 2020, it was reported that Sting was no longer under WWE contract. In October 2020, the WWE stopped selling Sting merchandise and pulled his page from WWE Shop.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: On December 2, 2020, Sting made his All Elite Wrestling (AEW) debut after a tag team match that pitted Cody Rhodes and Darby Allin against Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks at Winter Is Coming. This was his first appearance on TNT since he defeated Ric Flair in the final episode of "WCW Monday Nitro" on March 26, 2001. After Sting rescued Rhodes and Allin from Hobbs and Starks, he silently checked on each of the four individuals remaining in the ring: His former Four Horsemen rival Arn Anderson, fellow WCW alumni Dustin Rhodes, Cody Rhodes, who had idolized Sting as a child, and Allin, the only one of the four men to stand up to meet Sting face-to-face.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: It was later announced that Sting had officially signed a multi-year contract with AEW. AEW also began selling Sting merchandise. On the December 9, 2020 edition of "Dynamite", Sting spoke for the first time on TNT in nearly 20 years, confirming to Cody Rhodes he was "signed officially with AEW". Sting then aligned himself with Allin, and on January 21, 2021, it was announced that Sting would team with Allin against Team Taz (Brian Cage and Ricky Starks) in a Street Fight at Revolution on March 7, marking Sting's first match since September 2015, thus coming out of retirement. Sting and Allin won the match, which was pre-taped on location.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Sting and Allin again teamed up and defeated the team of Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page at AEW's marquee event Double or Nothing on May 30, 2021, which was done live in front of a full capacity crowd. Sting had initially planned to only appear in cinematic matches for AEW, but Allin convinced him to compete in live events beginning with Double or Nothing, which was his first live match in front of a crowd since WWE Night of Champions in 2015.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: On the August 18, 2021 edition of "Dynamite," Sting wrestled on TNT for the first time in 20 years as he and Darby Allin teamed up at the Fertitta Center in Houston, Texas to defeat 2.0 (Jeff Parker & Matt Lee). On the January 19, 2022 edition of "Dynamite", Sting appeared on TBS for the first time in over 20 years (since his last appearance in a November 2000 episode of "WCW Thunder"). During the event, which was held in the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington D.C., he and Darby Allin teamed up to defeat The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster). At Holiday Bash, Sting, CM Punk and Darby Allin defeated The Pinnacle (MJF and FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood). At Revolution 2022, Sting would win a Tornado tag team match with Sammy Guevara and Allin over Andrade El Idolo, Matt Hardy, and Isiah Kassidy.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Sting and Allin appeared at , an event co-promoted by AEW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, on June 28, 2022, where they teamed with Los Ingobernables de Japon member Shingo Takagi in a six-man tag team match in which they defeated Bullet Club members The Young Bucks and El Phantasmo. Hiromu Takahashi was intended to take part in the match as part of Sting's team, but was unable to travel to the United States due to an illness, and the match was reconfigured. Sting, Allin, and Miro defeated The House of Black in another six-man tag team match at All Out on September 4. At Grand Slam, Sting and Darby Allin defeated House of Black (Buddy Matthews and Brody King). At Full Gear, Sting and Darby Allin defeated Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Sting is scheduled to appear at the Great Muta Final "Bye-Bye" event, to be held by Pro Wrestling Noah at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan on January 23, 2023, where he will team with his long-time in-ring rival the Great Muta in Muta's final match before his retirement.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Sting is widely regarded as the greatest performer in WCW history. Former rival Hulk Hogan asserted that Sting should be mentioned in any conversation regarding the top 10 greatest pro wrestlers of all time; numerous outlets have placed him in such listings. Digital Spy writer Mayer Nissim commended Sting's ability to constantly evolve his gimmick while fellow franchise players Hulk Hogan and John Cena largely failed to do so, in order to maintain spectator interest. Borden is known for his charity work, once regarding his involvement with the Make-A-Wish and Starlight Children's Foundations as his "most fulfilling activity".


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Prior to his signing with WWE, Sting's legacy was perpetuated by the organization. It hailed him as "one of sports-entertainment's elite", and ranked him at number one in listings of the greatest wrestlers to never perform in WWE, and the greatest stars in WCW history. In 2013, the company named Sting's WCW World Heavyweight Championship contest against Diamond Dallas Page, on April 26, 1999, as the greatest match ever aired on WCW's flagship "Monday Nitro" program. At Night of Champions 2013, WWE organized a viewer poll to determine the greatest United States Champion of all time: Sting, a two-time champion, beat out the other four contenders – all WWE Hall of Famers – in a landslide victory with 53% of the overall vote. In regard to Sting's creative handling after he signed with WWE, "PWInsider" editor Dave Scherer wrote that "he really represented WCW so he was never going to get that [legend] treatment".


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Sting was the inaugural inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame. TNA president Dixie Carter credits Sting with being the major wrestling superstar that TNA needed to establish itself. The company describes him as having had an "unparalleled career" and as being a legend who surpasses time.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Sting was regarded by colleagues in WCW as a professional and well-respected locker room leader. Prominent adversary Big Van Vader felt that Sting had unsurpassed athletic prowess within the business, and "ranks right up at the top" as an in-ring performer. Ric Flair called Sting his greatest opponent. Former rival Diamond Dallas Page, commenting on Sting's entry into WWE in 2014, said: "Everyone there grew up watching him... No one did it better than Sting, nobody".


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: John Cena mimicked Sting's hairstyle in his younger years and recalled, "he was my guy"; Seth Rollins would dress up as Sting in his youth. Tommy Dreamer told how he "wanted to be Sting"—a sentiment shared by Jeff Hardy. Cody Rhodes and Shelton Benjamin named him their favorite childhood wrestler, while Tyson Kidd professed to being "a huge Sting fan as a kid". He was also a prominent influence on industry veterans Kurt Angle, Bill Goldberg, Kane, A.J. Styles and Dustin Rhodes/Goldust. Bray Wyatt has stressed that he ""really" would like to take on" Sting, adding: "I have to have [that] before I die; I don't care if it happens outside a Waffle House, somewhere."


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Sting's comeback run with AEW has been acclaimed by wrestling journalists, with some expressing surprise at his predilection for high-flying spots despite his age. Justin Henry of Cultaholic compared Sting's work on Double or Nothing 2021 as similar to his championship match against Ric Flair at the 1990 Great American Bash, in which he was also working following recovery from a serious injury. On Sting's participation in a match at Revolution 2022, Sean Rueter of SB Nation wrote, "The man is 62 years old, and could just be living off a WWE Legends deal and autograph signings. But he's out here jumping off balconies onto Andrade El Ídolo and crashing them both through three tables. I have no idea why The Man Called Sting continues to do this, but I assume it's because he loves it."


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Pro wrestling journalist Bill Apter wrote of Sting, "His colorful face paint, piercing war cry and signature Stinger Splash electrified fans both young and old... he boasted one of the largest and most loyal fanbases of any in-ring personality in history." A young Jeff Hardy was overwhelmed by the crowd reaction to Sting, on whom fans were "really hooked", and "reaching out to want to know, and want to support." Then-WCW colleague Ric Flair recalled, "When he flew out that door with that blonde hair and the paint, man, the chicks went crazy. The people went crazy." Former WCW and WWE announcer Jim Ross described Sting as "truly one of the great stars of the 90s in "any" organization". He was voted by "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" readers as "Most Popular Wrestler of the Year" four times (a record shared with John Cena), for the years 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1997. His young supporters were known as the "Little Stingers".


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Former WCW booker Kevin Sullivan said of Sting's rivalry with Flair: "If I needed to draw a rating, Sting and Flair always drew. It was like [Muhammad] Ali and [Joe] Frazier". The "Clash of the Champions I" event in 1988, which aired opposite the WWF's WrestleMania IV and was headlined by Sting vs. Flair, generated a record-setting 5.6 rating on TBS. The pair also main-evented The Great American Bash 1990, which was the NWA's biggest pay-per-view success up to that point. Reflecting on Sting in the early 1990s, then-colleague Kevin Nash said: "There weren't many draws in WCW at that point, but he was one of them". Another of the company's bookers, Mike Graham, asserted that Sting was a television ratings success during the Monday Night Wars; he was highly profitable in 1997, being WCW's top merchandise seller (second only to the WWF's Steve Austin overall) and, versus Hollywood Hogan, headlining the biggest-grossing pay-per-view event in the company's history at Starrcade 1997. Sting went on to join the nWo Wolfpac stable, which dominated WCW's merchandise sales at events in mid 1998. Discussing Sting's entry into WWE in 2014, Kevin Nash said that he is "so valuable to the company as a trademark". On December 3, 2020, Pro Wrestling Tees owner Ryan Barkan stated that Sting's AEW t-shirt quickly broke the single day record for t-shirt sales.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: On the other hand, "Pro Wrestling Torch" editor Wade Keller wrote that Sting was a "valuable player during "Nitro"s peak years", but not a "consistent draw for WCW". Keller said Sting coasted on "natural charisma and athletic ability", but also chided WCW, where Sting observed "incompetence and political decision-making", and "was never challenged to be better than he was because he didn't have much competition". Fin Martin of "Power Slam" also felt that Sting's box office successes in WCW were sporadic. Martin said Sting "did not grow into the [NWA] champion's role", but allowed that his prospects as franchise player were damaged by the "story lines and booking techniques" and the "list of contenders". Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer claimed that Sting was not a formidable draw, although this assertion was disputed by Sting's former WCW colleague Steve Austin. Dave Scherer of "PWInsider" wrote that Sting "didn't draw huge", but is nevertheless an "all-time great".


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Prior to his signing with WWE in 2014, Sting was widely considered the greatest wrestler never to perform for the company, although he had "really good conversations" with the promotion during his career. His loyalty to WCW, even in its dying days, has been noted. That organization was purchased by the WWF (now WWE) in 2001, and Sting's contract with its parent company AOL Time Warner expired in 2002, but he still refused to make the jump, alternately attributing this to the WWF's creative usage of former WCW talents and negative dealings with their attorneys. The company's onerous live schedule and the content of its programming were also factors. Sting has, however, downplayed rumors of a difficult relationship with WWE.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Rather than sign with the WWF in 2002, Sting performed for smaller promotions, becoming the centerpiece of TNA by the mid-2000s. His pre-WWE career included "dream" matches against former WWF stars Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart in WCW, as well as bouts opposite names such as Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Kurt Angle and Mick Foley. Sting often wrestled Steve Austin in WCW; he had positive negotiations with WWE in 2003, with his proposed debut angle being a confrontation with Austin at the conclusion of WrestleMania XIX.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: He was also "very, very close" to making a deal with the company in 2011, which would potentially have involved a match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVII. In early 2011, during a period where Sting had not re-signed with TNA, WWE teased a mystery wrestler to appear on "Monday Night Raw" on February 21, 2011, with vignettes labelled "2.21.11". This led to speculation that Sting had signed with WWE. Since this "Raw" was billed as the "Return of the Undertaker", it was believed that this was building a Sting vs. Undertaker match at WrestleMania XXVII. Although Sting wrestled Mark Calaway in his pre-Undertaker character, "Mean" Mark Callous, at untelevised WCW live events in 1990, WWE viewers clamored for a televised Sting vs. Undertaker match. Ultimately, Sting re-signed with TNA, and on the February 21, 2011 "Raw", the Undertaker returned to begin a feud with Triple H. TNA then began airing similar vignettes labelled "3.3.11", building to Sting's real return on the March 3, 2011 episode of "Impact!".


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Borden appeared in the music video for the song "Fire in the Hole" by Lȧȧz Rockit in 1989. He made his acting debut in the action-adventure show Super Force as an assassin. He starred in a pay-per-view only film titled "The Real Reason (Men Commit Crimes)" (1998). Borden was featured in a Sprite commercial in 1999. He also appeared in three episodes of the action-adventure series with Hulk Hogan in "Thunder in Paradise" as the character Adam "Hammerhead" McCall. Borden made a guest appearance on "Walker, Texas Ranger" as biker and drug dealer Grangus in the episode "Unsafe Speed". He also appeared in "Ready to Rumble" (2000) as Sting. He also appeared in the Christian film, "The Encounter" (2011) and was featured as the lead actor in the TV movie "Shutterspeed" (2000). He makes a cameo appearance as Sting on an episode of "Upright Citizens Brigade". Borden played an outlaw biker in the film "Revelation Road" (2013).


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: His book, Moment Of Truth, was released on December 1, 2004. In October 2015, WWE released a second Sting DVD titled "Sting: Into the Light". The three-disc set features a behind-the-scenes documentary with Sting himself as he prepares to step into a WWE ring for the first time ever at WrestleMania 31.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Borden was previously married to Sue Borden, they were married in 1986. They have two sons, Garrett Lee and Steven, Jr. and a daughter named Gracie, who was born in 2000. Borden and Sue divorced in 2010 after 24years of marriage. Borden married his second wife Sabine in 2015.


title: Sting (wrestler)

text: Borden was an admitted anabolic steroid user in the 1980s. He became a born-again Christian in August 1998 after confessing his adultery, and substance and alcohol abuse to his then-wife. His elder son Garrett attended Azusa Pacific University, where he played college football as a running back. Steven Jr. attended Kilgore College, where he played tight end; on December 19, 2012, he committed to attend the University of Kentucky. After the 2015 NFL Draft, Steven Jr. was invited by the Kansas City Chiefs to try out for the team at their rookie mini-camp, but did not receive a contract offer.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg ("Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg"; ; 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Despite initial support for the Nazi Party's nationalist aspects, and a tentative opposition to democracy, Stauffenberg joined the covert resistance movement within the Wehrmacht as the war continued, opposing the criminal character of the dictatorship. Alongside Major General Henning von Tresckow and General Hans Oster, Stauffenberg was a central figure in the conspiracy against Hitler within the . Shortly following the foiled Operation Valkyrie plot, he was executed by firing squad.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: As a military officer from a noble background, Stauffenberg took part in the Invasion of Poland, the 1941-42 Invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa and the Tunisian Campaign during the Second World War.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Stauffenberg was born in Stauffenberg Castle, Jettingen on 15 November 1907 and baptised as Claus Philipp Maria Justinian. His parents came from noble backgrounds, with his father, Alfred Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the last of the Kingdom of Württemberg and mother, Caroline Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg, née Gräfin von Üxküll-Gyllenband, the daughter of Alfred Richard August Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband and Valerie Gräfin von .


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: From birth, Stauffenberg inherited the hereditary titles of Graf (Count) and Schenk (Cupbearer), leaving him referred to by his first name and Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg until the 1919 Weimar Constitutional Law abolished privileges of nobility"." His maternal ancestors included Field Marshal August von Gneisenau.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: In his youth, Stauffenberg grew up in Bavaria, where he and his brothers were members of the , a German Scout association and part of the German Youth movement. Though he and his brothers were carefully educated, and Stauffenberg was inclined towards literature, he eventually took up a military career, fitting with his family's traditional expectations. In 1926, he joined the family's traditional regiment, the Reiterregiment 17 (17th Cavalry Regiment) in Bamberg.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Around the beginning of his time in Bamberg, Albrecht von Blumenthal introduced the three brothers to the poet Stefan George's influential circle, "Georgekreis", from which many notable members of the German resistance later emerged. George dedicated "Das neue Reich" ("the new Empire") in 1928, including the "Geheimes Deutschland" ("secret Germany") written in 1922, to Berthold.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: By 1930, Stauffenberg had been commissioned as a (second lieutenant), studying modern weapons at the in Berlin, but remaining focused on the use of horses – which continued to carry out a large part of transportation duties throughout World War II—in modern warfare. His regiment became part of the German 1st Light Division under General Erich Hoepner, another later member of the covert German Resistance, and the unit was among the Wehrmacht troops that moved into Sudetenland following its annexation to the Reich as per the Munich Agreement.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Though Stauffenberg had supported the German colonization of Poland and had made extremist remarks regarding Polish Jews, he refrained from joining the Nazi Party. However, during the 1932 German presidential election, he voiced tentative support for Hitler:


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Stauffenberg's views of Hitler were conflicted during this period. He vacillated between a strong dislike of Hitler's policies and a respect for what he perceived to be Hitler's military acumen, before becoming more disassociated with the party after The Night of the Long Knives and Kristallnacht which he saw as proof Hitler had no intentions to pursue justice. As a practicing Catholic, it was noted that the growing systematic ill-treatment of Jews and suppression of religion had offended Stauffenberg's strong sense of Catholic morality and justice.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Following the outbreak of war in 1939, Stauffenberg and his regiment took part in the Invasion of Poland. During this time, he was a strong supporter of Poland's occupation, and the Nazi Party's colonization, exploitation and use of Pole slave workers to bring about German prosperity. This support was partially rooted in the belief common in the German aristocracy that the Eastern territories, populated predominantly by Poles but taken from the German Empire after World War I, should be colonized as the Teutonic Knights had done in the Middle Ages. Stauffenberg himself noted, "It is essential that we begin a systemic colonization in Poland. But I have no fear that this will not occur". After the Invasion, Stauffenberg's unit was reorganised into the 6th Panzer Division, and he served as an officer on its General Staff in the Battle of France, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: While his uncle, Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband, together with Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg, had approached Stauffenberg to join the resistance movement against the Hitler regime, it was only after the Polish campaign that Stauffenberg began to consider the offer. Peter Yorck von Wartenburg and Ulrich Schwerin von Schwanenfeld had urged him to become the adjutant of Walther von Brauchitsch, then Supreme Commander of the Army, to facilitate a coup against Hitler. Though, Stauffenberg declined at the time, reasoning that all German soldiers had pledged allegiance not to the institution of the presidency of the German , but to the person of Adolf Hitler, due to the introduced in 1934.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: During the quieter months of 1940 to 1941, Stauffenberg was transferred to the organisational department of the ("Army High Command"; OKH), which was directing the German invasion of the Soviet Union and operations on the Eastern Front. Though Stauffenberg did not engage in any coup plotting at this time, his brothers Berthold and Claus maintained contact with anti-regime figures such as the Kreisau Circle and former commanders such as Hoepner.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Hoffman, in citing Brigadier Oskar Alfred-Berger's letters, noted Stauffenberg had commented openly on the ill-treatment of the Jews when he "expressed outrage and shock on this subject to fellow officers in the General Staff Headquarters in Vinnitsa, Ukraine during the summer of 1942." When Stauffenberg's friend, Major Joachim Kuhn, was captured by the Red Army, during interrogation on 2 September 1944, Kuhn claimed that Stauffenberg had told him in August 1942 that "They are shooting Jews in masses. These crimes must not be allowed to continue."


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: In November 1942, the Allies landed in French North Africa, and the 10th Panzer Division occupied Vichy France (Case Anton) before being transferred to fight in the Tunisia Campaign, as part of the . In 1943, Stauffenberg was promoted to (lieutenant-colonel of the general staff), and was sent to Africa to join the 10th Panzer Division as its Operations Officer in the General Staff (Ia). On 19 February, Rommel launched his counter-offensive against British, American and French forces in Tunisia. The Axis commanders hoped to break rapidly through either the Sbiba or Kasserine Pass into the rear of the British First Army. The assault at Sbiba was halted, so Rommel concentrated on the Kasserine Pass where primarily the Italian 7th Bersaglieri Regiment and 131st Armoured Division Centauro had defeated the American defenders. During the fighting, Stauffenberg drove up to be with the leading tanks and troops of the 10th Panzer Division. The division, together with the 21st Panzer Division, took up defensive positions near Mezzouna on 8 April.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: On 7 April 1943, Stauffenberg was involved in driving from one unit to another, directing their movement. Near Mezzouna, his vehicle was part of a column strafed by P-40 Kittyhawk fighter bombers of the Desert Air Force – most likely from No. 3 Squadron RAAF – and he received multiple severe wounds. Stauffenberg spent three months in a hospital in Munich, where he was treated by Ferdinand Sauerbruch. Stauffenberg lost his left eye, his right hand, and two fingers on his left hand. He jokingly remarked to friends never to have really known what to do with so many fingers when he still had all of them. For his injuries, Stauffenberg was awarded the Wound Badge in Gold on 14 April and for his courage the German Cross in Gold on 8 May.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: For rehabilitation, Stauffenberg was sent to his home, Schloss Lautlingen (today a museum), then still one of the Stauffenberg castles in southern Germany. The Torfels near Meßstetten Bueloch had been visited many times. Initially, he felt frustrated not to be in a position to stage a coup himself. But by the beginning of September 1943, after a somewhat slow recovery from his wounds, he was propositioned by the conspirators and was introduced to Henning von Tresckow as a staff officer to the headquarters of the ("Replacement Army" – charged with training soldiers to reinforce first line divisions at the front), located on the (later ) in Berlin.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: There, one of Stauffenberg's superiors was General Friedrich Olbricht, a committed member of the resistance movement. The had a unique opportunity to launch a coup, as one of its functions was to have Operation Valkyrie in place. This was a contingency measure to let it assume control of the in the event that internal disturbances blocked communications to the military high command. The "Valkyrie" plan had been agreed to by Hitler but was secretly changed to sweep the rest of his regime from power in the event of his death. In 1943, Henning von Tresckow was deployed on the Eastern Front, giving Stauffenberg control of the resistance. (Tresckow never returned to Germany, as he committed suicide at Królowy Most, Poland, in 1944, after learning of the plot's failure.)


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: A detailed military plan was developed not only to occupy Berlin, but also to take the different headquarters of the German army and of Hitler in East Prussia by military force after the suicide assassination attempt by Axel von dem Bussche in late November 1943. Stauffenberg had von dem Bussche transmit these written orders personally to Major Kuhn once he had arrived at "Wolfsschanze" (Wolf's Lair) near Rastenburg, East Prussia. However, von dem Bussche had left the Wolfsschanze for the eastern front, after the meeting with Hitler was cancelled, and the attempt could not be made.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Kuhn became a prisoner of war of the Soviets after the 20 July plot. He led the Soviets to the hiding place of the documents in February 1945. In 1989, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev presented these documents to German chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl. The conspirators' motivations have been a matter of discussion for years in Germany since the war. Many thought the plotters wanted to kill Hitler in order to end the war and to avoid the loss of their privileges as professional officers and members of the nobility.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the Allies had landed in France. Stauffenberg, like most other German professional military officers, had absolutely no doubt that the war was lost. Only an immediate armistice could avoid more unnecessary bloodshed and further damage to Germany, its people, and other European nations. However, in late 1943, he had written out demands with which he felt the Allies had to comply in order for Germany to agree to an immediate peace. These demands included Germany retaining its 1914 eastern borders, including the Polish territories of Wielkopolska and Poznań. Other demands included keeping such territorial gains as Austria and the Sudetenland within the Reich, giving autonomy to Alsace-Lorraine and even expansion of the current wartime borders of Germany in the south by annexing Tyrol as far as Bozen and Meran. Non-territorial demands included such points as refusal of any occupation of Germany by the Allies, as well as refusal to hand over war criminals by demanding the right of "nations to deal with its own criminals." These proposals were directed to only the Western Allies – Stauffenberg wanted Germany to retreat from only the western, southern, and northern positions, while demanding the right to continue military occupation of German territorial gains in the east.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: As early as September 1942, Stauffenberg was considering Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt, author of "Unser Weg zum Meer", as a replacement for Hitler.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: From the beginning of September 1943 until 20 July 1944, Stauffenberg was the driving force behind the plot to assassinate Hitler and take control of Germany. His resolve, organisational abilities, and radical approach put an end to inactivity caused by doubts and long discussions on whether military virtues had been made obsolete by Hitler's behaviour. With the help of his friend Henning von Tresckow, he united the conspirators and drove them into action.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Stauffenberg was aware that, under German law, he was committing high treason. He openly told young conspirator Axel von dem Bussche in late 1943, ("I am committing high treason with all means at my disposal..."). He justified himself to Bussche by referring to the right under natural law () to defend millions of people's lives from the criminal aggressions of Hitler.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Only after the conspirator General Helmuth Stieff on 7 July 1944 had declared himself unable to assassinate Hitler on a uniforms display at Klessheim castle near Salzburg, Stauffenberg decided to personally kill Hitler and to run the plot in Berlin. By then, Stauffenberg had great doubts about the possibility of success. Tresckow convinced him to go on with it even if it had no chance of success at all, "The assassination must be attempted. Even if it fails, we must take action in Berlin", as this was the only way to prove to the world that the Hitler regime and Germany were not one and the same and that not all Germans supported the regime.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Stauffenberg's part in the original plan required him to stay at the Bendlerstraße offices in Berlin, so he could phone regular army units all over Europe in an attempt to convince them to arrest leaders of Nazi political organisations such as the (SD) and the Gestapo. When General Helmuth Stieff, Chief of Operation at Army High Command, who had regular access to Hitler, backtracked from his earlier commitment to assassinate Hitler, Stauffenberg was forced to take on two critical roles: kill Hitler far from Berlin trigger the military machine in Berlin during office hours of the very same day. Beside Stieff, he was the only conspirator who had regular access to Hitler (during his briefings) by mid-1944, as well as being the only officer among the conspirators thought to have the resolve and persuasiveness to convince German military leaders to throw in with the coup once Hitler was dead. This requirement greatly reduced the chance of a successful coup.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: After several unsuccessful attempts by Stauffenberg to encounter Hitler, Göring and Himmler at the same time, he went ahead with the attempt at the "Wolfsschanze" on 20 July 1944. Stauffenberg entered the briefing room carrying a briefcase containing two small bombs. The location had unexpectedly been changed from the subterranean to Albert Speer's wooden hut due to the heat on this summer's day. He left the room to arm the first bomb with specially adapted pliers. This was a difficult task for him as he had lost his right hand and had only three fingers on his left hand. A guard knocked and opened the door, urging him to hurry as the meeting was about to begin. As a result, Stauffenberg was able to arm only one of the bombs. He left the second bomb with his , Werner von Haeften, and returned to the briefing room, where he placed the briefcase under the conference table, as close as he could to Hitler. Some minutes later, he received a planned phone call; he then excused himself and left the room. After his exit, the briefcase was moved by Colonel Heinz Brandt.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: When the explosion tore through the hut, Stauffenberg was convinced that no one in the room could have survived. Although four people were killed and almost all survivors were injured, Hitler himself was shielded from the blast by the heavy, solid-oak conference table leg, which Colonel Brandt had placed the briefcase bomb behind, and was only slightly wounded.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Stauffenberg and Haeften quickly left and drove to the nearby airfield. After his return to Berlin, Stauffenberg immediately began to motivate his friends to initiate the second phase: the military coup against the Nazi leaders. When Joseph Goebbels announced by radio that Hitler had survived and later, after Hitler spoke on the state radio, the conspirators realised that the coup had failed. They were tracked to their offices and overpowered after a brief shoot-out, during which Stauffenberg was wounded in the shoulder.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: In an attempt to save his own life, co-conspirator General Friedrich Fromm, Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army present in the Bendlerblock (Headquarters of the Army), charged other conspirators in an impromptu court martial and condemned the ringleaders of the conspiracy to death. Stauffenberg, his aide 1st Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, General Friedrich Olbricht and Colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim were executed before 1:00 in the morning (21 July 1944) by a makeshift firing squad in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, which was lit by the headlights of a truck.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Stauffenberg was third in line to be executed, with Lieutenant von Haeften after. However, when it was Stauffenberg's turn, Lieutenant von Haeften placed himself between the firing squad and Stauffenberg, and received the bullets meant for Stauffenberg. When his turn came, Stauffenberg spoke his last words, ("Long live our sacred Germany!"), or, possibly, ("Long live the secret Germany!"), in reference to Stefan George and the anti-Nazi circle.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Fromm ordered that the executed officers (his former co-conspirators) receive an immediate burial with military honours in the Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin's Schöneberg district. The next day, however, Stauffenberg's body was exhumed by the SS, stripped of his medals and insignia, and cremated.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Another central figure in the plot was Stauffenberg's eldest brother, Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. On 10 August 1944, Berthold was tried before Judge-President Roland Freisler in the special "People's Court" (). This court was established by Hitler for political offences. Berthold was one of eight conspirators executed by slow strangulation in Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, later that day. Before he was killed, Berthold was strangled and then revived multiple times. The entire execution and multiple resuscitations were filmed for Hitler to view at his leisure. More than 200 were condemned in show trials and executed. Hitler used the 20 July Plot as an excuse to destroy anyone he feared would oppose him. The traditional military salute was replaced with the Nazi salute. Eventually, over 20,000 Germans were killed or sent to concentration camps in the purge.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: One of the few surviving members of the German resistance, Hans Bernd Gisevius, portrayed Colonel Stauffenberg, whom he had met in July 1944, as a man driven by reasons which had little to do with Christian ideals or repugnance of Nazi ideology. In his autobiographical "Bis zum bitteren Ende" ("To the Bitter End"), Gisevius wrote:


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Historian Peter Hoffman questions Gisevius's evaluations based on the latter's brief acquaintance with Stauffenberg, misreporting of Stauffenberg's actions, and apparent rivalry with him:


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: British historian Richard J. Evans, in his books on the Third Reich, covered various aspects of Stauffenberg's beliefs and philosophy. He wrote an article originally published in "Süddeutsche Zeitung", 23 January 2009. entitled "Why did Stauffenberg plant the bomb?" which states, "Was it because Hitler was losing the war? Was it to put an end to the mass murder of the Jews? Or was it to save Germany's honour? The overwhelming support, toleration, or silent acquiescence" from the people of his country for Hitler, which was also being heavily censored and constantly fed propaganda, meant any action must be swift and successful. Evans writes, "Had Stauffenberg's bomb succeeded in killing Hitler, it is unlikely that the military coup planned to follow it would have moved the leading conspirators smoothly into power".


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: However, Karl Heinz Bohrer, a cultural critic, literary scholar, publisher, criticized Evans' views in an article originally published in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", 30 January 2010. Although agreeing that Evans is historically correct in much of his writing, Bohrer feels that Evans twists time lines and misrepresents certain aspects. He wrote of Evans, "In the course of his problematic argument he walks into two traps: 1. by contesting Stauffenberg's "moral motivation"; 2. by contesting Stauffenberg's suitability as role model." He further writes, "If then, as Evans notes with initial objectivity, Stauffenberg had a strong moral imperative – whether this stemmed from an aristocratic code of honour, Catholic doctrine or Romantic poetry – then this also underpinned his initial affinity for National Socialism which Stauffenberg misinterpreted as 'spiritual renewal'".


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: In 1980, the German government established a memorial for the failed anti-Nazi resistance movement in a part of the Bendlerblock, the remainder of which currently houses the Berlin offices of the German Ministry of Defense (whose main offices remain in Bonn). The was renamed the , and the Bendlerblock now houses the Memorial to the German Resistance, a permanent exhibition with more than 5,000 photographs and documents showing the various resistance organisations at work during the Hitler era. The courtyard where the officers were shot on 21 July 1944 is now a memorial site, with a plaque commemorating the events and a bronze figure of a young man with his hands symbolically bound which resembles Count von Stauffenberg.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Stauffenberg married Nina Freiin von Lerchenfeld on 26 September 1933 in Bamberg. They had five children: Berthold, Heimeran, Franz-Ludwig, Valerie, and Konstanze, who was born in Frankfurt on the Oder seven months after Stauffenberg's execution. Stauffenberg lived with his family in Berlin-Wannsee. Berthold, Heimeran, Franz-Ludwig, Valerie and Kostanze, who were not told of their father's deed, were placed in a foster home for the remainder of the war and were forced to use new surnames, as was considered taboo.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Nina died at the age of 92 on 2 April 2006 at Kirchlauter near Bamberg and was buried there on 8 April. Berthold went on to become a general in West Germany's post-war . Franz-Ludwig became a member of both the German and European parliaments, representing the Christian Social Union in Bavaria. In 2008, Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg wrote a best-selling book about her mother, "Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg".


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: After the war, a United States intelligence officer, Ernie Blake, who was involved in interrogation of Nazi officers, went on to establish a ski area in Taos New Mexico. He named a ski run on the West Basin Ridge, "Stauffenberg", after Claus von Stauffenberg.


title: Claus von Stauffenberg

text: Dramas with portrayals of Stauffenberg include "War and Remembrance" (1998, Sky du Mont), "The Plot to Kill Hitler" (1990, Brad Davis)," Stauffenberg" (2004, Sebastian Koch), and "Valkyrie" (2008, Tom Cruise).


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Pope Alexander VI (, , ; born Rodrigo de Borja; ; ; 1431 – 18 August 1503) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Born into the prominent Borgia family in Xàtiva under the Crown of Aragon (now Spain), Rodrigo studied law at the University of Bologna. He was ordained deacon and made a cardinal in 1456 after the election of his uncle as Pope Callixtus III, and a year later he became vice-chancellor of the Catholic Church. He proceeded to serve in the Curia under the next four popes, acquiring significant influence and wealth in the process. In 1492, Rodrigo was elected pope, taking the name Alexander VI.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Alexander's papal bulls of 1493 confirmed or reconfirmed the rights of the Spanish crown in the New World following the finds of Christopher Columbus in 1492. During the second Italian war, Alexander VI supported his son Cesare Borgia as a condottiero for the French king. The scope of his foreign policy was to gain the most advantageous terms for his family.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Alexander is considered one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, partly because he acknowledged fathering several children by his mistresses. As a result, his Italianized Valencian surname, "Borgia", became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, which are traditionally considered as characterizing his pontificate. On the other hand, two of Alexander's successors, Sixtus V and Urban VIII, described him as one of the most outstanding popes since Saint Peter.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Rodrigo de Borja was born in 1431, in the town of Xàtiva near Valencia, one of the component realms of the Crown of Aragon, in what is now Spain. He was named for his paternal grandfather, Rodrigo Gil de Borja y Fennolet. His parents were Jofré Llançol i Escrivà (died bef. 24 March 1437) and his Aragonese wife and distant cousin Isabel de Borja y Cavanilles (died 19 October 1468), daughter of Juan Domingo de Borja y Doncel. He had a younger brother, Pedro. His family name is written "Llançol" in Valencian and "Lanzol" in Castillian. Rodrigo adopted his mother's family name of Borja in 1455 following the elevation to the papacy of maternal uncle Alonso de Borja (Italianized to Alfonso Borgia) as Calixtus III. His cousin and Calixtus's nephew Luis de Milà y de Borja became a cardinal.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Gerard Noel writes that Rodrigo's father was Jofré de Borja y Escrivà, making Rodrigo a Borja from his mother and father's side. However, Cesare, Lucrezia and Jofre were known to be of Llançol paternal lineage. G. J. Meyer suggests that Rodrigo would have likely been uncle (from a shared female family member) to the children, and attributes the confusion to attempts to connect Rodrigo as the father of Giovanni (Juan), Cesare, Lucrezia, and Gioffre (Jofré in Valencian), who were surnamed "Llançol i Borja".


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Rodrigo de Borja's career in the Church began in 1445 at the age of 14 when he was appointed sacristan at the Cathedral of Valencia by his influential uncle, Alfons Cardinal de Borja, who had been appointed a cardinal by Pope Eugene IV the previous year. In 1448, Borja became canon at the cathedrals of Valencia, Barcelona, and Segorbe. His uncle, Cardinal de Borja, persuaded Pope Nicholas V to allow young Borja to perform this role "in absentia" and receive the associated income, so that Borja could travel to Rome. While in Rome, Rodrigo Borgia (as his surname was usually spelled in Italian) studied under Gaspare da Verona, a humanist tutor. He then studied law at Bologna where he graduated, not simply as Doctor of Law, but as "the most eminent and judicious jurisprudent."


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: The election of his uncle, Alfons Cardinal de Borja, as Pope Callixtus III in 1455 enabled Borgia's appointments to other positions in the Church. These nepotistic appointments were characteristic of the era. Each pope during this period inevitably found himself surrounded by the servants and retainers of his predecessors who often owed their loyalty to the family of the pontiff who had appointed them. In 1455, he inherited his uncle's post as bishop of Valencia, and Callixtus appointed him Dean of Santa Maria in Játiva. The following year, he was ordained deacon and created cardinal-deacon of San Nicola in Carcere. Rodrigo Borgia's appointment as cardinal only occurred after Callixtus III asked the cardinals in Rome to create three new positions in the College of Cardinals, two for his nephews Rodrigo and Luis Juan de Milà, and one for the Prince Jaime of Portugal.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: In 1457, Callixtus III assigned the young Cardinal de Borja (or Borgia in Italian) to go to Ancona as a Papal legate to quell a revolt. Borgia was successful in his mission, and his uncle rewarded him with his appointment as vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church. The position of vice-chancellor was both incredibly powerful and lucrative, and Borgia held this post for 35 years until his own election to the papacy in 1492. At the end of 1457, Rodrigo Cardinal Borgia's elder brother, Pedro Luis Borgia, fell ill, so Rodrigo temporarily filled Pedro Luis' position as captain-general of the papal army until he recovered. In 1458, Cardinal Borgia's uncle and greatest benefactor, Pope Callixtus, died.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: In the papal election of 1458, Rodrigo Borgia was too young to seek the papacy himself, so he sought to support a cardinal who would maintain him as vice-chancellor. Borgia was one of the deciding votes in the election of Cardinal Piccolomini as Pope Pius II, and the new pope rewarded Borgia not only with maintaining the chancellorship but also with a lucrative abbey benefice and another titular church. In 1460, Pope Pius rebuked Cardinal Borgia for attending a private party which Pius had heard turned into an orgy. Borgia apologized for the incident but denied that there had been an orgy. Pope Pius forgave him, and the true events of the evening remain unknown. In 1462, Rodrigo Borgia had his first son, Pedro Luis, with an unknown mistress. He sent Pedro Luis to grow up in Spain. The following year, Borgia acceded to Pope Pius's call for cardinals to help fund a new crusade. Before embarking to lead the crusade personally, Pope Pius II fell ill and died, so Borgia would need to ensure the election of yet another ally to the papacy to maintain his position as vice-chancellor.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: On the first ballot, the conclave of 1464 elected Borgia's friend Pietro Barbo as Pope Paul II. Borgia was in high standing with the new pope and retained his positions, including that of vice-chancellor. Paul II reversed some of his predecessor's reforms that diminished the power of the chancellory. Following the election, Borgia fell ill of the plague but recovered. Borgia had two daughters, Isabella (*1467) and Girolama (*1469), with an unknown mistress. He openly acknowledged all three of his children. Pope Paul II died suddenly in 1471.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: While Borgia had acquired the reputation and wealth to mount a bid for the papacy in this conclave, there were only three non-Italians, making his election a near-impossibility. Consequently, Borgia continued his previous strategy of positioning himself as kingmaker. This time, Borgia gathered the votes to make Francesco della Rovere (the uncle of future Borgia rival Giuliano della Rovere) Pope Sixtus IV. Della Rovere's appeal was that he was a pious and brilliant Franciscan monk who lacked many political connections in Rome. He seemed to be the perfect cardinal to reform the Church, and the perfect cardinal for Borgia to maintain his influence. Sixtus IV rewarded Borgia for his support by promoting him to cardinal-bishop and consecrating him as the Cardinal-Bishop of Albano, requiring Borgia's ordination as a priest. Borgia also received a lucrative abbey from the pope and remained vice-chancellor. At the end of the year, the pope appointed Borgia to be the papal legate for Spain to negotiate a peace treaty between Castile and Aragon and to solicit their support for another crusade. In 1472, Borgia was appointed to be the papal chamberlain until his departure to Spain. Borgia arrived in his native Aragon in the summer, reuniting with family and meeting with King Juan II and Prince Ferdinand. The pope gave Cardinal Borgia discretion over whether to give dispensation for Ferdinand's marriage to his first cousin Isabella of Castile, and Borgia decided in favour of approving the marriage. The couple named Borgia to be the godfather of their first son in recognition of this decision. The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella was critical in the unification of Castile and Aragon into Spain. Borgia also negotiated peace between Castile and Aragon and an end to the civil wars in the latter Kingdom, gaining the favour of the future King Ferdinand who would go on to promote the interests of the Borgia family in Aragon. Borgia returned to Rome the following year, narrowly surviving a storm that sunk a nearby galley that was carrying 200 men of the Borgia household. Back in Rome, Borgia began his affair with Vannozza dei Cattenei which would yield four children: Cesare in 1475, Giovanni in 1474 or 1476, Lucrezia in 1480, and Gioffre in 1482. In 1476, Pope Sixtus appointed Borgia to be the cardinal-bishop of Porto. In 1480, the pope legitimized Cesare as a favour to Cardinal Borgia, and in 1482, the pope began to appoint the seven-year-old to church positions, demonstrating Borgia's intention to use his influence to promote his children. Contemporaneously, Borgia continued to add to his list of benefices, becoming the wealthiest cardinal by 1483. He also become Dean of the College of Cardinals in that year. In 1484, Pope Sixtus IV died, necessitating another election for Borgia to manipulate to his advantage.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Borgia was wealthy and powerful enough to mount a bid, but he faced competition from Giuliano della Rovere, the late pope's nephew. Della Rovere's faction had the advantage of being incredibly large as Sixtus had appointed many of the cardinals who would participate in the election. Borgia's attempts to gather enough votes included bribery and leveraging his close ties to Naples and Aragon. However, many of the Spanish cardinals were absent from the conclave and della Rovere's faction had an overwhelming advantage. Della Rovere chose to promote Cardinal Cibo as his preferred candidate, and Cibo wrote to the Borgia faction wanting to strike a deal. Once again, Borgia played kingmaker and conceded to Cardinal Cibo who became Pope Innocent VIII. Again, Borgia retained his position of vice-chancellor, successfully holding this position over the course of five papacies and four elections.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: In 1485, Pope Innocent VIII nominated Borgia to become the Archbishop of Seville, a position that King Ferdinand II wanted for his own son. In response, Ferdinand angrily seized the Borgia estates in Aragon and imprisoned Borgia's son Pedro Luis. However, Borgia healed the relationship by turning down this appointment. Pope Innocent, at the urging of his close ally Giuliano della Rovere, decided to declare war against Naples, but Milan, Florence, and Aragon chose to support Naples over the pope. Borgia led the opposition within the College of Cardinals to this war, and King Ferdinand rewarded Borgia by making his son Pedro Luis the Duke of Gandia and arranging a marriage between his cousin Maria Enriquez and the new duke. Now, the Borgia family was directly tied to the royal families of Spain and Naples. While Borgia gained the favour of Spain, he stood opposed to the pope and the della Rovere family. As a part of his war opposition, Borgia sought to obstruct an alliance negotiation between the papacy and France. These negotiations were unsuccessful and in July 1486, the pope capitulated and ended the war. In 1488, Borgia's son Pedro Luis died, and Juan Borgia became the new duke of Gandia. In the following year, Borgia hosted the wedding ceremony between Orsino Orsini and Giulia Farnese, and within a few months, Farnese had become Borgia's new mistress. She was 15, and he was 58. Borgia continued to acquire new benefices with their large streams of income, including the bishopric of Majorca and Eger in Hungary. In 1492, Pope Innocent VIII died. Since Borgia was 61, this was likely his last chance to become pope.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Peter de Roo gives a flattering summary of contemporary descriptions of Alexander, relating him to have been "of a medium complexion, with dark eyes and


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: slightly full lips, of robust health [...]"; in later life, he reports that "his aspect [was declared] to be venerable and far more


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: august than an ordinary human appearance", and that he was "so familiar with Holy Writ, that his speeches were fairly sparkling with well-chosen texts of the Sacred Books".


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: he "inherited" the post of bishop of Valencia. Sixteen days before the death of Pope Innocent VIII, he proposed Valencia as a metropolitan see and became the first archbishop of Valencia. When Rodrigo de Borgia was elected pope as Alexander VI following the death of Innocent VIII, his son Cesare Borgia "inherited" the post as second archbishop of Valencia. The third and the fourth archbishops of Valencia were Juan de Borja and Pedro Luis de Borja, grand-nephews of Alexander VI.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: There was change in the constitution of the College of Cardinals during the course of the 15th century, especially under Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII. Of the 27 cardinals alive in the closing months of the reign of Innocent VIII no fewer than 10 were cardinal-nephews, eight were crown nominees, four were Roman nobles and one other had been given the cardinalate in recompense for his family's service to the Holy See; only four were able career churchmen.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: On the death of Pope Innocent VIII on 25 July 1492, the three likely candidates for the Papacy were the 61-year-old Borgia, seen as an independent candidate, Ascanio Sforza for the Milanese, and Giuliano della Rovere, seen as a pro-French candidate.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: It was rumoured but not substantiated that Borgia succeeded in buying the largest number of votes and Sforza, in particular, was bribed with four mule-loads of silver. Mallett shows that Borgia was in the lead from the start and that the rumours of bribery began after the election with the distribution of benefices; Sforza and della Rovere were just as willing and able to bribe as anyone else. The benefices and offices granted to Sforza, moreover, would be worth considerably more than four mule-loads of silver. Johann Burchard, the conclave's master of ceremonies and a leading figure of the papal household under several popes, recorded in his diary that the 1492 conclave was a particularly expensive campaign. Della Rovere was bankrolled to the cost of 200,000 gold ducats by King Charles VIII of France, with another 100,000 supplied by the Republic of Genoa.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: The leading candidates in the first ballot were Oliviero Carafa of Sforza's party with nine votes, and Giovanni Michiel and Jorge Costa, both of della Rovere's party with seven votes each. Borgia himself gathered seven votes. However, Borgia convinced Sforza to join with his camp through the promise of being appointed vice-chancellor as well as bribes that included benefices and perhaps four mule-loads of silver. With Sforza now canvassing for votes, Borgia's election was assured. Borgia was elected on 11 August 1492 and assumed the name of Alexander VI (due to confusion about the status of Pope Alexander V, elected by the Council of Pisa). Many inhabitants of Rome were happy with their new pope because he was a generous and competent administrator who had served for decades as vice-chancellor.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: In contrast to the preceding pontificate, Pope Alexander VI adhered initially to strict administration of justice and orderly government. Before long, though, he began endowing his relatives at the Church's and at his neighbours' expense. Cesare Borgia, his son, while a youth of seventeen and a student at Pisa, was made Archbishop of Valencia, and Giovanni Borgia inherited the Spanish Dukedom of Gandia, the Borgias' ancestral home in Spain. For the Duke of Gandia and for Gioffre, also known as Goffredo, the Pope proposed to carve fiefs out of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Among the fiefs destined for the duke of Gandia were Cerveteri and Anguillara, lately acquired by Virginio Orsini, head of that powerful house. This policy brought Ferdinand I of Naples into conflict with Alexander, as well as with Cardinal della Rovere, whose candidature for the papacy had been backed by Ferdinand. Della Rovere fortified himself in his bishopric of Ostia at the Tiber's mouth as Alexander formed a league against Naples (25 April 1493) and prepared for war.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Ferdinand allied himself with Florence, Milan and Venice. He also appealed to Spain for help, but Spain was eager to be on good terms with the papacy to obtain the title to the recently discovered New World. Alexander, in the bull "Inter caetera" on 4 May 1493, divided the title between Spain and Portugal along a demarcation line. This became the basis of the Treaty of Tordesillas.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Pope Alexander VI made many alliances to secure his position. He sought help from Charles VIII of France (1483–1498), who was allied to Ludovico "il Moro" Sforza (the Moor, so-called because of his swarthy complexion), the "de facto" Duke of Milan, who needed French support to legitimise his rule. As King Ferdinand I of Naples was threatening to come to the aid of the rightful duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the husband of his granddaughter Isabella, Alexander encouraged the French king in his plan for the conquest of Naples.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: But Alexander, always ready to seize opportunities to aggrandize his family, then adopted a double policy. Through the intervention of the Spanish ambassador he made peace with Naples in July 1493 and cemented the peace by a marriage between his son Gioffre and Doña Sancha, another granddaughter of Ferdinand I. In order to dominate the College of Cardinals more completely, Alexander, in a move that created much scandal, created 12 new cardinals. Among the new cardinals was his own son Cesare, then only 18 years old. Alessandro Farnese (later Pope Paul III), the brother of one of the Pope's mistresses, Giulia Farnese, was also among the newly created cardinals.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: On 25 January 1494, Ferdinand I died and was succeeded by his son Alfonso II (1494–1495). Charles VIII of France now advanced formal claims on the Kingdom of Naples. Alexander authorised him to pass through Rome, ostensibly on a crusade against the Ottoman Empire, without mentioning Naples. But when the French invasion became a reality Pope Alexander VI became alarmed, recognised Alfonso II as king of Naples, and concluded an alliance with him in exchange for various fiefs for his sons (July 1494). A military response to the French threat was set in motion: a Neapolitan army was to advance through Romagna and attack Milan, while the fleet was to seize Genoa. Both expeditions were badly conducted and failed, and on 8 September Charles VIII crossed the Alps and joined Ludovico il Moro at Milan. The Papal States were in turmoil, and the powerful Colonna faction seized Ostia in the name of France. Charles VIII rapidly advanced southward, and after a short stay in Florence, set out for Rome (November 1494).


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Alexander appealed to Ascanio Sforza and even to the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II for help. He tried to collect troops and put Rome in a state of defence, but his position was precarious. When the Orsini offered to admit the French to their castles, Alexander had no choice but to come to terms with Charles. On 31 December, Charles VIII entered Rome with his troops, the cardinals of the French faction, and Giuliano della Rovere. Alexander now feared that Charles might depose him for simony, and that the king would summon a council to nominate a new pope. Alexander was able to win over the bishop of Saint-Malo, who had much influence over the king, by making him a cardinal. Alexander agreed to send Cesare as legate to Naples with the French army; to deliver Cem Sultan, held as a hostage, to Charles VIII, and to give Charles Civitavecchia (16 January 1495). On 28 January Charles VIII departed for Naples with Cem and Cesare, but the latter slipped away to Spoleto. Neapolitan resistance collapsed, and Alfonso II fled and abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand II. Ferdinand was abandoned by all and also had to escape, and the Kingdom of Naples was conquered with surprising ease.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: A reaction against Charles VIII soon set in, for all the European powers were alarmed at his success. On 31 March 1495 the Holy League was formed between the pope, the emperor, Venice, Ludovico il Moro and Ferdinand of Spain. The League was ostensibly formed against the Turks, but in reality it was made to expel the French from Italy. Charles VIII had himself crowned King of Naples on 12 May, but a few days later began his retreat northward. He met the League at Fornovo and cut his way through them and was back in France by November. Ferdinand II was reinstated at Naples soon afterwards, with Spanish help. The expedition, if it produced no material results, demonstrated the foolishness of the so-called "politics of equilibrium", the Medicean doctrine of preventing one of the Italian principates from overwhelming the rest and uniting them under its hegemony.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Charles VIII's belligerence in Italy had made it transparent that the "politics of equilibrium" did nothing but render the country unable to defend itself against a powerful invading force. Italy was shown to be very vulnerable to the predations of the powerful nation-states, France and Spain, that had forged themselves during the previous century. Alexander VI now followed the general tendency of all the princes of the day to crush the great feudatories and establish a centralized despotism. In this manner, he was able to take advantage of the defeat of the French in order to break the power of the Orsini. From that time on, Alexander was able to build himself an effective power base in the Papal States.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Virginio Orsini, who had been captured by the Spanish, died a prisoner at Naples, and the Pope confiscated his property. The rest of the Orsini clan still held out, defeating the papal troops sent against them under Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino and Giovanni Borgia, Duke of Gandia, at Soriano (January 1497). Peace was made through Venetian mediation, the Orsini paying 50,000 ducats in exchange for their confiscated lands; the Duke of Urbino, whom they had captured, was left by the pope to pay his own ransom. The Orsini remained very powerful, and Pope Alexander VI could count on none but his 3,000 Spanish troops. His only success had been the capture of Ostia and the submission of the Francophile cardinals Colonna and Savelli.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Then occurred a major domestic tragedy for the house of Borgia. On 14 June, his son the Duke of Gandia, who was lately created Duke of Benevento and had a questionable lifestyle, disappeared; the next day, his corpse was found in the Tiber. Alexander, overwhelmed with grief, shut himself up in Castel Sant'Angelo. He declared that henceforth the moral reform of the Church would be the sole object of his life. Every effort was made to discover the assassin. No conclusive explanation was ever reached, and it may be that the crime was simply as a result of one of the Duke's sexual liaisons.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: There is no evidence that the Borgias resorted to poisoning, judicial murder, or extortion to fund their schemes and the defense of the Papal States. The only contemporary accusations of poisoning were from some of their servants, extracted under torture by Alexander's bitter enemy Della Rovere, who succeeded him as Pope Julius II.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: The debased state of the curia was a major scandal. Opponents, such as the powerful Florentine friar Girolamo Savonarola, launched invectives against papal corruption and appealed for a general council to confront the papal abuses. Alexander is reported to have been reduced to laughter when Savonarola's denunciations were related to him. Nevertheless, he appointed Sebastian Maggi to investigate the friar, and he responded on 16 October 1495:


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: The hostility of Savonarola seems to have been political rather than personal, and the friar sent a letter of condolence to the pope on the death of the Duke of Gandia; "Faith, most Holy Father, is the one and true source of peace and consolation... Faith alone brings consolation from a far-off country." But eventually the Florentines tired of the friar's moralising and the Florentine government condemned the reformer to death, executing him on 23 May 1498.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: The prominent Italian families looked down on the Spanish Borgia family, and they resented their power, which they sought for themselves. This is, at least partially, why both Pope Callixtus III and Pope Alexander VI gave powers to family members whom they could trust.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: In these circumstances, Alexander, feeling more than ever that he could rely only on his own kin, turned his thoughts to further family aggrandizement. He had annulled Lucrezia's marriage to Giovanni Sforza, who had responded to the suggestion that he was impotent with the unsubstantiated counter-claim that Alexander and Cesare indulged in incestuous relations with Lucrezia, in 1497. Unable to arrange a union between Cesare and the daughter of King Frederick IV of Naples (who had succeeded Ferdinand II the previous year), he induced Frederick by threats to agree to a marriage between the Duke of Bisceglie, a natural son of Alfonso II, and Lucrezia. Alexander and the new French king Louis XII entered a secret agreement; in exchange for a bull of divorce between the king and Joan of France (so he could marry Anne of Brittany) and making Georges d'Amboise (the king's chief advisor) the cardinal of Rouen, Cesare was given the duchy of Valentinois (chosen because it was consistent with his nickname, Valentino), military assistance to help him subjugate the feudal princelings of papal Romagna, and a princess bride, Charlotte of Albret from the Kingdom of Navarre.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Alexander hoped that Louis XII's help would be more profitable to his house than that of Charles VIII had been. In spite of the remonstrances of Spain and of the Sforza, he allied himself with France in January 1499 and was joined by Venice. By autumn Louis XII was in Italy expelling Lodovico Sforza from Milan. With French success seemingly assured, the Pope determined to deal drastically with Romagna, which although nominally under papal rule was divided into a number of practically independent lordships on which Venice, Milan, and Florence cast hungry eyes. Cesare, empowered by the support of the French, began to attack the turbulent cities one by one in his capacity as nominated "gonfaloniere" (standard bearer) of the church. But the expulsion of the French from Milan and the return of Lodovico Sforza interrupted his conquests, and he returned to Rome early in 1500.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: In the Jubilee year 1500, Alexander ushered in the custom of opening a holy door on Christmas Eve and closing it on Christmas Day the following year. After consulting with his Master of Ceremonies, Johann Burchard, Pope Alexander VI opened the first holy door in St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve 1499, and papal representatives opened the doors in the other three patriarchal basilicas. For this, Pope Alexander had a new opening created in the "portico" of St. Peter's and commissioned a marble door.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Alexander was carried in the "sedia gestatoria" to St. Peter's. He and his assistants, bearing candles, processed to the holy door, as the choir chanted Psalm 118:19–20. The pope knocked on the door three times, workers moved it from the inside, and everyone then crossed the threshold to enter into a period of penance and reconciliation. Thus, Pope Alexander formalized the rite and began a longstanding tradition that is still in practice. Similar ceremonies were held at the other three basilicas.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Alexander instituted a special rite for the closing of a holy door, as well. On the Feast of the Epiphany in 1501, two cardinals began to seal the holy door with two bricks, one silver and one gold. "Sampietrini" (basilica workers) completed the seal, placing specially-minted coins and medals inside the wall.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: While the explorers of Spain imposed a form of slavery called "encomienda" on the indigenous peoples they met in the New World, some popes had spoken out against the practice of slavery. In 1435, Pope Eugene IV had issued an attack on slavery in the Canary Islands in his papal bull "Sicut dudum", which included the excommunication of all those who engaged in the slave trade with native chiefs there. A form of indentured servitude was allowed, being similar to a peasant's duty to his liege lord in Europe.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: In the wake of Columbus's landing in the New World, Pope Alexander was asked by the Spanish monarchy to confirm their ownership of these newly found lands. The bulls issued by Pope Alexander VI: "Eximiae devotionis" (3 May 1493), "Inter caetera" (4 May 1493) and "Dudum siquidem" (23 September 1493), granted rights to Spain with respect to the newly discovered lands in the Americas similar to those Pope Nicholas V had previously conferred on Portugal with the bulls "Romanus Pontifex" and "Dum Diversas". Morales Padron (1979) concludes that these bulls gave power to enslave the natives. Minnich (2010) asserts that this "slave trade" was permitted to facilitate conversions to Christianity. Other historians and Vatican scholars strongly disagree with these accusations and assert that Alexander never gave his approval to the practice of slavery. Other later popes, such as Pope Paul III in "Sublimis Deus" (1537), Pope Benedict XIV in "Immensa Pastorium" (1741), and Pope Gregory XVI in his letter "In supremo apostolatus" (1839), continued to condemn slavery.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Thornberry (2002) asserts that "Inter caetera" was applied in the Spanish Requirement of 1513, which was read to American Indians (who could not understand the colonisers' language) before hostilities against them began. They were given the option to accept the authority of the pope and Spanish crown or face being attacked and subjugated. In 1993, the Indigenous Law Institute called on Pope John Paul II to revoke "Inter caetera" and to make reparation for "this unreasonable historical grief". This was followed by a similar appeal in 1994 by the Parliament of World Religions.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: A danger now arose in the shape of a conspiracy by the deposed despots, the Orsini, and of some of Cesare's own "condottieri". At first, the papal troops were defeated and things looked bleak for the house of Borgia. But a promise of French help quickly forced the confederates to come to terms. Cesare, by an act of treachery, then seized the ringleaders at Senigallia and put Oliverotto da Fermo and Vitellozzo Vitelli to death (31 December 1502). When Alexander VI heard the news, he lured Cardinal Orsini to the Vatican and cast him into a dungeon, where he died. His goods were confiscated and many other members of the clan in Rome were arrested, while Alexander's son Goffredo Borgia led an expedition into the Campagna and seized their castles. Thus the two great houses of Orsini and Colonna, who had long fought for predominance in Rome and often flouted the pope's authority, were subjugated and the Borgias' power increased. Cesare then returned to Rome, where his father asked him to assist Goffredo in reducing the last Orsini strongholds; this he was unwilling to do, much to his father's annoyance; but he eventually marched out, captured Ceri and made peace with Giulio Orsini, who surrendered Bracciano.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: The war between France and Spain for the possession of Naples dragged on, and the pope was forever intriguing, ready to ally himself with whichever power promised the most advantageous terms at any moment. He offered to help Louis XII on condition that Sicily be given to Cesare, and then offered to help Spain in exchange for Siena, Pisa and Bologna.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Of Alexander's many mistresses, one of his favourites was Vannozza dei Cattanei, born in 1442, and wife of three successive husbands. The connection began in 1470, and she had four children whom the pope openly acknowledged as his own: Cesare (born 1475), Giovanni, afterwards duke of Gandia (commonly known as Juan, born 1474 or 1476), Lucrezia (born 1480), and Gioffre (Goffredo in Italian, born 1481 or 1482). For a period of time, before legitimizing his children after becoming pope, Rodrigo pretended that his four children with Vannozza were his niece and nephews and that they were fathered by Vannozza's husbands. G. J. Meyer has argued that the birth dates of the four in comparison with Alexander's known whereabouts actually preclude him having fathered any of them, and that his "acknowledgement" merely consisted of addressing them as "beloved son / daughter" in correspondence (while applying the same address to, e.g., Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in the same letter).


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Another mistress was the beautiful Giulia Farnese (""Giulia la Bella""), wife of Orsino Orsini. Giulia was mother of Laura Orsini, born in 1592, probraly daughter of Alexander. However, he still loved Vannozza and his children by her. Caring for them proved the determining factor of his whole career. He lavished vast sums on them. Vannozza lived in the Palace of a late Cardinal, or in a large, palatial villa. The children lived between their mother's home and the Papal Palace itself.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Six other children, Girolama, Isabella, Pedro-Luiz, Giovanni the "Infans Romanus", Rodrigo and Bernardo, were of uncertain maternal parentage. His daughter Isabella was the great-great-grandmother of Pope Innocent X, who was therefore descended in a direct line from Alexander.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: He is an ancestor of virtually all royal houses of Europe, mainly the southern and western ones, for being the ancestor of "Dona" Luisa de Guzmán, wife of King John IV of Portugal, of the House of Braganza.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Cesare was preparing for another expedition in August 1503 when, after he and his father had dined with Cardinal Adriano Castellesi on 6 August, they were taken ill with fever a few days later. Cesare, who "lay in bed, his skin peeling and his face suffused to a violet colour" as a consequence of certain drastic measures to save him, eventually recovered; but the aged Pontiff apparently had little chance. Burchard's "Diary" provides a few details of the pope's final illness and death at age 72:


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Saturday, 12 August 1503, the pope fell ill in the morning. After the hour of vespers, between six and seven o'clock a fever appeared and remained permanently. On 15 August thirteen ounces of blood were drawn from him and the tertian ague supervened. On Thursday, 17 August, at nine o'clock in the forenoon he took medicine. On Friday, the 18th, between nine and ten o'clock he confessed to the Bishop Gamboa of Carignola, who then read Mass to him. After his Communion he gave the Eucharist to the pope who was sitting in bed. Then he ended the Mass at which were present five cardinals, Serra, Juan and Francesco Borgia, Casanova and Loris. The pope told them that he felt very bad. At the hour of vespers after Gamboa had given him Extreme Unction, he died.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: As for his true faults, known only to his confessor, Pope Alexander VI apparently died genuinely repentant. The bishop of Gallipoli, Alexis Celadoni, spoke of the pontiff's contrition during his funeral oration to the electors of Alexander's successor, pope Pius III:


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: When at last the pope was suffering from a very severe sickness, he spontaneously requested, one after another, each of the last sacraments. He first made a very careful confession of his sins, with a contrite heart, and was affected even to the shedding of tears, I am told; then he received in Communion the most Sacred Body and Extreme Unction was administered to him.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: The interregnum witnessed again the ancient "tradition" of violence and rioting. Cesare, too ill to attend to the business himself, sent Don Micheletto, his chief "bravo", to seize the pope's treasures before the death was publicly announced. The next day the body was exhibited to the people and clergy of Rome, but was covered by an "old tapestry" ("antiquo tapete"), having become greatly disfigured by rapid decomposition. According to Raphael Volterrano: "It was a revolting scene to look at that deformed, blackened corpse, prodigiously swelled, and exhaling an infectious smell; his lips and nose were covered with brown drivel, his mouth was opened very widely, and his tongue, inflated by poison, ... therefore no fanatic or devotee dared to kiss his feet or hands, as custom would have required." The Venetian ambassador stated that the body was "the ugliest, most monstrous and horrible dead body that was ever seen, without any form or likeness of humanity". Ludwig von Pastor insists that the decomposition was "perfectly natural", owing to the summer heat.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Commentaries attribute the pope's death to malaria, then prevalent in Rome, or to another such pestilence. One contemporary official wrote home that there was little surprise that Alexander and Cesare had both fallen ill, as the bad air had led to many in Rome, and especially in the Roman Curia, becoming sick.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: After a short stay, the body was removed from the crypts of St. Peter's and installed in the less well-known Spanish national church of Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Following the death of Alexander VI, his rival and successor Julius II said on the day of his election: "I will not live in the same rooms as the Borgias lived. He desecrated the Holy Church as none before." The Borgia Apartments remained sealed until the 19th century.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Catholic apologists of Alexander VI have argued that the behaviors he receives criticism for were not atypical of the period. De Maistre, in his work "Du Pape", "The latter are forgiven nothing, because everything is expected from them, wherefore the vices lightly passed over in a Louis XIV become most offensive and scandalous in an Alexander VI."


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Alexander VI had sought reforms of the increasingly irresponsible Curia, putting together a group of his most pious cardinals in order to move the process along. The planned reforms included new rules on the sale of Church property, the limiting of cardinals to one diocese, and stricter moral codes for clergy, though these were not implemented.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Alexander VI was known for his patronage of the arts, and in his days a new architectural era was initiated in Rome with the coming of Bramante. Raphael, Michelangelo, and Pinturicchio all worked for him. He commissioned Pinturicchio to lavishly paint a suite of rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, which are today known as the Borgia Apartments. He took a great interest in theatrics, and he even had the Menaechmi performed in his apartments.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: In addition to the arts, Alexander VI also encouraged the development of education. In 1495, he issued a papal bull at the request of William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, and James IV of Scotland, founding King's College, Aberdeen. King's College now forms an integral element of the University of Aberdeen. Alexander VI also, in 1501, approved the University of Valencia.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Alexander VI, whom papal rival and successor Giuliano della Rovere alleged without evidence was a marrano, demonstrated relatively benign treatment of Jews. After the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain, some 9,000 impoverished Iberian Jews arrived at the borders of the Papal States. Alexander welcomed them into Rome, declaring that they were "permitted to lead their life, free from interference from Christians, to continue in their own rites, to gain wealth, and to enjoy many other privileges". He similarly allowed the immigration of Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497 and from Provence in 1498.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic, a Bohemian humanist poet (1461–1510), wrote a hostile epitaph on Alexander in Latin:


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Despite Julius II's hostility, the Roman barons and Romagna vicars were never again to be the same problem for the papacy and Julius' successes owe much to the foundations laid by the Borgias. Unlike Julius, Alexander never made war unless absolutely necessary, preferring negotiation and diplomacy.


title: Pope Alexander VI

text: Alexander Lee argues that the crimes attributed to the Borgias were exaggerated by contemporaries because they were outsiders expanding their holdings at the expense of the Italians, that they were Spaniards when it was felt that Spain had too much control on the Italian peninsula, and that after the death of Alexander the family lost its influence and therefore any incentive for anyone to defend them.


title: Titus Welliver

text: Titus B. Welliver (born March 12, 1962) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayals of the Man in Black in "Lost", Silas Adams in "Deadwood", Jimmy O’Phelan in "Sons of Anarchy", and the title role in the television series "Bosch" and "." He is also known for his starring roles in the films "Gone Baby Gone" (2007) and "The Town" (2010).


title: Titus Welliver

text: Welliver was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Neil Welliver, was a well-known American landscape painter who was a professor of fine art at Yale University before becoming dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Fine Art. Welliver's mother, Norma Cripps, was a fashion illustrator. Welliver studied drama at New York University in the early 1980s before his film and television career began. Welliver befriended Adam Sandler in a comedy writing class while attending New York University.


title: Titus Welliver

text: Welliver's life has been marked by losses. His younger sister, Ashley Welliver, died of sudden infant death syndrome as an infant in the spring of 1976, and his 38-year old stepmother, Polly Mudge Welliver, died of a strep infection six months later on October 29. His 21-year old younger brother, Eli Lustman Welliver, was killed in mid-May 1991 by an accidental overdose when spiked with heroin during an attempted robbery at a bar near Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. His 45-year old elder brother, Silas Bartley Welliver, died of muscular dystrophy on February 16, 2002, and his fourth wife, the film producer Elizabeth W. Alexander, died of breast cancer on October 23, 2012.


title: Titus Welliver

text: Welliver has worked on several film projects, including "The Doors" (1991), "Mobsters" (1991), "Mulholland Falls" (1996), "Rough Riders" (1997), "Once in the Life" (2000), "Biker Boyz" (2003), "Twisted" (2004), "Assault on Precinct 13" (2005). He has been cast in all four of director Ben Affleck's films to date; "Gone Baby Gone" (2007), "The Town" (2010), "Argo" (2012) and "Live by Night" (2016). He was also cast in director Michael Bay's film "" in 2014.


title: Titus Welliver

text: On television, he had a recurring role as a doctor on "NYPD Blue" and was one of the stars of the CBS police drama "Brooklyn South". Moreover, Welliver is well known for playing the semi-regular character Silas Adams on the HBO series "Deadwood". Welliver played "The Representative" in two episodes of "Prison Break", portrayed Kyle Hollis (a.k.a. Reverend Orson Parker) in the NBC series "Life", and appeared in the season five finale of "Lost" as the "Man in Black", which he continued to portray during the sixth and final season. In 1999 he appeared in an episode of "Touched by an Angel" titled "The Occupant", where he played a man who was "occupied" by a demon. In 2002 Welliver played Tom Landricks, a rapist, on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit".


title: Titus Welliver

text: He was introduced into FX's "Sons of Anarchy" midway through season two, in which he portrays Irish gun kingpin Jimmy O'Phelan. In 2009, he started playing the role of Prosecutor Glenn Childs, a rival of Chris Noth's character, in the CBS series "The Good Wife". He joined the cast of the apocalyptic drama "The Last Ship" in a recurring role for its first two seasons, as Thorwald, a local warlord fighting underground in a dying world infected by a global pandemic.