The murder of Juan Borgia, the handsome, vicious, and incompetent Duke of Gandia, was never solved. Whoever killed Juan, Pope Alexander was truly devastated and resolved to reform both the church and his own life. If he had stuck to that resolve, history might well remember Alexander VI as a visionary. Many modern scholars attribute Juan’s murder to Cesare, who was certainly ruthless enough to kill his much-hated brother for a chance at the military career Juan had squandered.

Cesare Borgia would go on to a military career of such brilliance and ruthlessness that he would inspire Machiavelli’s political treatise The Prince. The violence lurking under his surface self-control was legendary; he kept a personal assassin on retainer in the form of the much-feared Michelotto, but Cesare was always willing to do his own dirty work, such as the time when he stabbed the papal envoy Perotto literally at his father’s feet in the Vatican. Cesare’s career and power ended with his father’s death; he died at age thirty-two fighting a minor battle in Spain.

Lucrezia Borgia endured a sinister reputation but seems to have been largely a pawn among the powerful men of her family. During her third marriage to the Duke of Ferrara, she outlived her youthful reputation for frivolity and became known for piety and good works. She died at age thirty-eight, the mother of at least seven children, having survived all her brothers.

Joffre Borgia eventually separated from his wife, Sancha of Aragon. She died in her twenties with a lurid reputation, and he went on to an undistinguished adulthood as Prince of Squillace.

The Roman Infante was the title given to an illegitimate Borgia child born in 1498. He was formally claimed by papal bull as Cesare’s son, and by a contradictory papal bull as Pope Alexander’s son. Rumor of the day claimed the baby had been born to Lucrezia during her convent stay, but she always maintained that the Roman Infante was her half brother.

Giovanni Sforza, Count of Pesaro, went on to marry again after the annulment of his marriage to Lucrezia. He fathered a son with his next wife, disproving the farce of the impotence charge leveled by the Borgias. He retaliated for the loss of his reputation by accusing the Borgias of incest, a charge that dogs their reputation to this day.

Alfonso of Aragon, Lucrezia’s second husband, was murdered two years later by Cesare Borgia once the Neapolitan alliance was deemed unnecessary.

Adriana da Mila remained a Borgia intimate even after the death of her son, acting as escort to Lucrezia when she went to Ferrara to join her third husband.