In Renaissance Italy, the Borgia family were admired for their audacity and their ruthlessness - they even inspired Mario Puzo’s depiction of the Corleones in The Godfather. But do the Borgias deserve their reputation? How did they rise to power? How did a man with so many illegitimate children become Pope?

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Mary Hollingsworth about how the Borgias became history’s most notorious dynasty.

For this episode, the Senior Producer was Elena Guthrie. It was edited by Thomas Ntinas and produced by Rob Weinberg.

For more Not Just The Tudors content, subscribe to our Tudor Tuesday newsletter here >

If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! 

To download, go to Android > or Apple store >