The Borgia through time

Dr Stella Fletcher opened her fascinating October lecture on ‘The Borgia Through Time’ by asking a provocative question:

Why are all the novels and plays about the Borgia?

• Alexander VI wasn’t the first pope to recognise his children
• Nor the first to play one family off against another
• And he wasn’t the first to arrange marriages between lay kinsmen and ruling families

So why does all the attention focus on Alexander?

• He was not the first pope to make serious effort to control Papal States and their vicars
• Nor the first to hold a jubilee
• He was certainly not the first to promote his kinsmen because they all did it.
• He was not even the first Catalan speaking pope.

So what made the Borgia stand out?

Three main characters populated Dr Fletcher’s lecture: Pope Alexander VI (elected in 1492); his illegitimate son, Cesare, Duke of Valentinois; and Lucretia, Alexander’s daughter.   Another important person was another son –  the Duke of Gandia – Juan or Giovanni. He was murdered and his body thrown in the Tiber.  His killer was never identified, not least because there were many people with grudges. The Pope refused to blame various people who’d been identified as possible culprits, which suggested that he knew who had commited the murder but wouldn’t say for political reasons. Cesare comes into the frame because he benefited from Juan’s death and rumours that he was responsible for the murder surfaced 9 months later.  This led people to wonder whether the pope abandoned the search for Juan’s murderer because it was his own son?

Dr Fletcher then examined the story’s cultural journey from actual history to myth, and in doing so, she provided the audience with a fascinating glimpse into the way history reflects the time in which it was written. The blackening of the Borgia name began with the election of Pope Julius II.  Italians were xenophobic and resented foreigners, and  Naples was invaded – Italy was being used as a battlefield by other powers.  Stories circulated that Alexander’s election was a result of a pact with the devil. Protestants lapped this up and spread the tale. One of the principal agents in this was the English printer, John Bale, who wrote his Pageant of the Popes in 1550.  Now the Pope was equated with the Devil.

Attention moved from Alexander to Cesare in the mid-seventeenth century, with the first publication of Machiavelli’s The Prince in English translation.  The response to Titus Oates and the popish plots led to Cesar Borgia: a tragedy, which turned out not to be the way to impress the patron, James duke of York, who was Catholic. There were lots of anti-Catholic jibes in the play.

In 1800, Byron saw the love letters to Lucretia and declared them to be the ‘prettiest ever written’.  By this stage there was interest in why there was a woman in the Vatican.  As there wasn’t a lot to say, they invented stories laden with suspect morals.  Even the efforts of the Unitarian William Roscoe couldn’t resue her reputation.  He came to Italian Renaissance history through poetry  and found a discrepancy in poetic accounts of Lucretia. Although he took the positive view of her, her bad reputation was still too strong.  Victor Hugo’s imagination ran wild – despite his claims to have read various sources there is no evidence of it in the text he wrote.  Attributes various poisonings to her without any evidence.    Hugo’s  version of events was was hugely influential.

From 1905 the Borgia took a popular turn, which was unsurprising in the cinematic age, then in the 21^st Century, Mario Puzzo (creator of the godfather) wrote ‘The Family’, portraying the Borgia as the earliest mafia.  They even appear in the video game, Assassin’s Creed III.  Dr Fletcher concluded that the graphic violence of these recent contributions to the historiography of the Borgia are a reflection of our post-Christian society more than theirs.

Victorian Society Exhibition: Saving a Century

The Victorian Society brings its photographic exhibition Saving a Century  to Manchester this month. Curated by noted architectural historian Gavin Stamp, it will be on show free of charge at The John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3EH, from 8 January – 24 March, daily during Library hours.

Using archive photographs and material from over fifty years of the Victorian Society’s fight to save historic buildings, the exhibition charts the successes and defeats of the organisation that has done so much to change public attitudes towards the nineteenth century’s best architecture. After more than 60 venues around Britain this is the final showing of the exhibition, which includes local images from Manchester, Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Middleton, Preston and Nelson.

SAVING A CENTURY  EXHIBITION CONTENTS

VICTORIAN BUILDINGS LOST BEFORE 1958 – A photographic survey of some of the best Victorian buildings destroyed in the first half of the twentieth century, among them Crystal Palace (burnt down 30th November 1936), Trentham Hall, Staffordshire (abandoned by the 4th Duke of Sutherland in 1906 and demolished five years later) and Queen’s Park Church, Glasgow (Scotland’s worst architectural loss of the Second World War).

THE FOUNDATION OF THE VICTORIAN SOCIETY – Photographs and material from the opening meetings of the Society. Early members included architect Hugh Casson, architectural historian Christopher Hussey, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and Sir John Betjeman.

THE EUSTON MURDER AND OTHER CASES – Photographs and text documenting the bitter battle for the Euston Arch, as well some of the Victorian Society’s other early defeats. There were early victories too, among them the Oxford University Museum, proposed for demolition in 1961 to make way for new science buildings. The Victorian Society also succeeded in getting the Broad Street Building of Balliol College listed, after it was threatened with a re-build in 1963.

VICTORY IN WHITEHALL – Photographs charting the heroic, ten-year campaign against plans to demolish much of the historic square mile, including nearly every building south of Downing Street and Richmond Terrace. Sir George Gilbert Scott’s Foreign Office, Richard Norman Shaw’s New Scotland Yard and Middlesex Guildhall in Parliament Square were among the buildings proposed for demolition.

PLACES OF WORSHIP – A photographic survey of some of the historic churches, chapels and synagogues with which the Victorian Society has been involved. As churches are exempt from the secular planning system, it can be particularly difficult to guard them against insensitive change. With falling attendance figures and a growing number of redundant places of worship, the future of our best churches is one of the biggest challenges facing heritage campaigners today.

RAILWAY BUILDINGS – Photographs of some of the key buildings the Victorian Society fought for, as the closure of many branch and other railway lines resulted in the redundancy of numerous stations, bridges and viaducts. That many pioneering and magnificent railway structures, such as St Pancras Station, survive today, often still in use, is very much owing to the efforts of the Society.

IRON, GLASS & STONE – Photographs of some of the most innovative nineteenth century buildings, among them Clevedon Pier, Islington’s Royal Agricultural Hall and Bradford’s Kirkgate Market, for which the Victorian Society has fought.

THE FUNCTIONAL TRADITION – Photographs of some of the most impressive industrial buildings for which the Society has fought. With the decline of the traditional industries of the North of England after the Second World War, many mills and warehouses became redundant while many Northern towns and cities became ashamed of their Victorian industrial legacy and anxious to replace it with something new. The Victorian Society, along with bodies such as SAVE Britain’s Heritage, argued that nineteenth century industrial buildings were evocative and substantial structures which were not only of historical importance but capable of gainful re-use.

THE PURPLE OF COMMERCE – Photographs of some of the most significant Victorian commercial buildings to have come under threat in the last fifty years. Built partly as self-advertisements and partly to inspire confidence, these ambitious and substantial banks, offices and warehouses too often fall victim to redevelopment schemes.

COUNTRY HOUSES – Photographs of some of the grandest country houses to have been the subject of Victorian Society campaigns, among them Shadwell Park, Tyntesfield and Highcliffe Castle. Rendered redundant by social and cultural changes, some of the most famous large houses were demolished between the wars while many more disappeared in the 1950s.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE – A collection of photographs of some of the Victorian villas and terraced houses for which the Victorian Society has fought. Often extravagant and fanciful buildings, these buildings are regularly demolished to allow higher density developments in their grounds or make way for flats.

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS – A photographic survey of some of the best municipal buildings that have been saved or lost. Physical embodiments of the Victorians’ strong sense of civic pride and duty, many of these splendid town halls, libraries, swimming pools, museums, art galleries and post offices still add much to the rich character of British towns and cities today.

BEACONS OF THE FUTURE – A survey of some of the Society’s most recent campaigns, focusing on the battle for Victorian schools and swimming pools. Among the battles highlighted are the protest and funeral for Bonner School, the Public Inquiry for Easington Colliery School and the local campaign for the Moseley Road Baths in Birmingham.

THE VICTORIANS VICTORIOUS – Photographs of some of the most notable Victorian buildings used and valued today.

The Victorian Society is the national charity campaigning for the Victorian and Edwardian historic environment. It fights to preserve important Victorian and Edwardian buildings and landscapes so that they can be enjoyed by this and future generations. It provides expert advice to churches and local planning authorities on how Victorian and Edwardian buildings and landscapes can be adapted to the way we live now, while keeping what is special about them. It also advises members of the public about how they can help shape the future of their local Victorian and Edwardian buildings and landscapes. It provides information to owners of Victorian and Edwardian houses about how they can better look after their precious buildings. It helps people understand, appreciate and enjoy the architectural heritage of the Victorian and Edwardian period through its publications and educational programmes.

 

 

Branch Vice President Receives H.A. Fellowship

Bolton Branch Vice President, Dr Glyn Redworth

The Bolton Branch is pleased to announce that our Vice President, Dr Glyn Redworth, has been made an Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association.  Dr Redworth provided some of the first Historical Association podcasts on Golden Age Spain and is a regular speaker to branches across the country.  He also wrote the  classic HA pamphlet on Government and Society in Late Medieval Spain.

A Reader in History at the University of Manchester, Dr Redworth’s research interests are in the history of gender in the early modern period, reformation history, and Britain’s relations with the continent. His study of Luisa de Carvajal, a female missionary to England during the reing of James I, was published in paperback by Oxford University Press in 2011 under the title ‘The She-Apostle’.  In 2012 he edited and published a two volume translation of Luisa’s letters.

Dr Redworth will be speaking to the branch about Elizabeth I next season.

 

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Bloody Mary – Killer Queen?

An audience of about 40 turned out to the branch’s final lecture of the season, which after two sudden changes of title was finally given by branch secretary, Jenni Hyde, on her current research into mid-Tudor ballads.  Focusing particularly on the reign of Mary I, Jenni tackled the issue of Queen Mary I‘s popular image as it was represented in contemporary ballads, concluding that Mary’s accession as England’s first queen regnant was popular with the majority of her subjects.  It was her failure to produce an heir which allowed her enemies to vilify her as ‘Bloody Mary’.

The lecture was followed by a chance for informal questions and refreshments, while the monthly bring and buy history book stall continues to help branch funds.

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• URGENT change to lecture – Mary I (boltonhistoricalassociation.wordpress.com)

Change to April lecture

English: Miniature of Conrad III of Germany from Chronica Regia Coloniensis (Cologne Kings’ Chronicle; Cologne; ca. 1240). Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 467, fol. 64v Deutsch: König Konrad III. Miniatur aus der Chronica Regia Coloniensis (Kölner Königschronik; Köln; um 1240). Brüssel, Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 467, fol. 64v (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Monday 8 April 2013, in a change to our advertised lecture, Dr Jason Roche of Manchester Metropolitan Univeristy will speak on ‘Constantinople, the Queen of Cities: the Views of Western Travellers’.  The lecture takes place at 7.30pm in Bolton Parish Hall.  There is a charge of £3 for visitors to the branch and once again, we will be holding our monthly ‘bring and buy history’ book sale.

There were many different views of Constantinople in the middle ages, and just as many explanations offered by contemporaries and modern historians alike for the multifarious ways in which contemporaries perceived the “Queen of Cities”. The lecture will restrict itself to an analysis of a representative selection of eyewitness accounts, that can be loosely designated as “Western”, and which throw light on how the city looked and was perceived by a handful of travellers during two particular centuries. As we will be seen, the prevailing mood of admiration for Constantinople’s magnificence palpable in the texts of a long twelfth century gives way during the fifteenth century to one of sombre reflection; reflection on the late medieval decline of the Byzantine empire and her capital.

Dr Roche completed his PhD in Medieval History at the University of St Andrews in 2008, and since then has held full time lecturing posts in Ireland, Turkey, and England. He is now a permanent lecturer in Medieval history at the Manchester Metropolitan University. His research and teaching interests focus on the expansion of Latin Christendom and Byzantium’s relations with the Latin world. He has already published widely in the aforementioned fields; has co-edited a volume of articles on the Second Crusade that will be published at this end of this summer; and is currently working on a monograph entitled The Crusade of King Conrad III of Germany: Warfare and Diplomacy in the Byzantine Empire, Anatolia and Outrémer, 1145-1149.

Monday 4 February 2013

University of Liverpool Building. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Don’t forget to join us on Monday 4 February at 7.30pm in Bolton Parish Hall for Dr Rory Miller of the University of Liverpool ‘Football and Society in Twentieth Century South America’. For more information see our current programme