Tudor Times is the online repository for all things Tudor and Stewart (1485–1625)

On 11th August 1492 Rodrigo Borgia was elected Pope Alexander VI. His reign as Pope was almost a caricature of the worst excesses of the late mediaeval church – greed, lust, political chicanery and nepotism. Born in Valencia, Spain, Alexander was the nephew of Pope Calixtus III who promoted him within the church hierarchy and he continued the nepotism of the times with the promotions and marriages of his own children, whom he legitimated after being elected Pope.

In 1493, Alexander promulgated the Bull which resulted in the Treaty of Tordesillas, which demarcated the exploration zones of Spain and Portugal in the New World.

His main interest, however, was European politics and his attempts to take control of Italian affairs. It was through his invitation to conquer Naples that Charles VIII of France entered Italy in 1498, sparking the Italian Wars that would last for sixty years. Two of his children were Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, and Cesare Borgia, model for Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’.

On 10th August 1520, Queen Claude of France gave birth to her fifth child, a girl named Madeleine. Born at the royal palace of St Germaine-en-Laye, Madeleine was always a frail girl, and her father, Francois I, who had promised a daughter in marriage to James V tried to substitute another lady, believing that marriage and life in damp Scotland would not be healthy for her.

James V came in person to France and persuaded Francois to permit the marriage. Madeleine herself seems to have been eager to marry and be a queen. The couple were married at the Cathedral of Notre Dame on 1st January 1537 before returning to Scotland. Sadly, the worst prognostications proved true and Madeleine died before her seventeenth birthday. She was buried in the Abbey at Holyrood. Read more about Madeleine’s courtship and marriage here

On 9th August 1559 26 year old William of Orange, sometimes called William the Silent (pictured), was appointed stadtholder of Holland, Zealand and Utrecht by Philip II. William was brought up as a Lutheran until he was eleven, when, in 1544, he became the heir to his cousin, Rene of Nassau-Chalon. The Emperor, Charles V, would only accept William as the new Duke of Nassau-Chalon if he were sent to his own court for education as a Catholic. William was well-received in the Imperial family, having a close relationship with Charles, his sister, Mary of Hungary, the Governor of the Netherlands, and Charles’ son, Philip of Spain.

On the abdication of Charles V, Philip became overlord of the Netherlands, and appointed William to a range of senior posts, as well as using his diplomatic skills to conclude the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis which ended the sixty years of Italian Wars. All seemed set fair for William, except that he came to believe that the position of the Netherlands as, effectively, a vassal state to Spain, was unacceptable. In particular, the violent repression of Protestantism by the Duke of Alva provoked William into leading the movement for Dutch independence.