Pedro Luis de Borja


Pedro Luis de Borja, Duke of Spoleto and Marquess of Civitavecchia was elder brother of Rodrigo Borgia and nephew of Cardinal Alonso de Borja, who in 1455 became Pope Callixtus III. He was called Don Pedro Luis.

Biography

Although he was not a priest but a layman, soon after the elevation of his uncle to the papacy he was loaded with several offices and honours. In the spring of 1456 he was named Captain-General of the Church and castellan of Sant'Angelo, in the autumn of the same year the Pope made him Governor of Terni, Narni, Todi, Rieti, Orvieto, Spoleto, Foligno, Nocera, Assisi, Amelia, Civita Castellana, and Nepi, and at the beginning of 1457 the governorships of the provinces of Patrimony and Tuscany were added to these. In the same time his older brother Rodrigo Borgia was created Cardinal Deacon, Commander-in-Chief of the papal troops and Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, while another relative Luis Juan del Mila y Borja was also elevated to the cardinalate. Such rapid promotions of young relatives of the Spanish Pope Callixtus III were criticised by many older cardinals and met also with opposition of rather xenophobic Roman populace. Particularly Orsini family opposed Borgias. Their enmity towards them increased when Don Pedro Luis was sent to recover for the Church some fortresses kept by Orsinis, and on August 19, 1457 was appointed Prefect of Rome in succession to Antonio Orsini. To counterbalance Orsinis, Callixtus III aligned himself with Colonna family, opponents of Orsinis, but the plan of the marriage of Don Pedro Luis with Colonna had never been realized.
It was said that Pope Callixtus III wanted to make him Emperor of Constantinople after its recovering from the Turks.
Don Pedro Luis was hated by Romans, as almost all relatives and allies of Callixtus III, called "Catalans" due to their Spanish origin. On August 6, 1458, the same day that his uncle Pope died, he had to fly away from Rome because an open revolt against "Catalans" had broken up. He died en route at Civitavecchia, left by almost all of his companions, being only 26 years old.

Ancestry