Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. One brief
Speaker 1: note before we begin. This episode contains some very sexual scenes.
Speaker 1: October thirty, first, fifteen oh one, the sun was setting
Speaker 1: over Vatican City and most people were preparing to celebrate
Speaker 1: All Saints Eve, which usually involved feasting and attending church
Speaker 1: services in honor of beloved Catholic Saints. They didn't practice
Speaker 1: Halloween as we know it today. Sadly, there was probably
Speaker 1: no one dressing up as a sexy bishop or sexy sacrament,
Speaker 1: but that didn't mean everything was quiet and chaste. Deep
Speaker 1: inside Vatican City, an epic party was about to begin
Speaker 1: in the Pope's private residence. The host was Cesaret Borgia, notorious,
Speaker 1: son of Pope Alexander the sixth. The guest list included
Speaker 1: the Pope himself, as well as Chesare's sister, the equally
Speaker 1: notorious Lucretia Borgia. The party, known today as the Banquet
Speaker 1: of Chestnuts, for reasons that will soon become clear, has
Speaker 1: been gossiped about and debated for centuries. It has been
Speaker 1: depicted in pop culture with an entire episode of Showtime's
Speaker 1: series The Borges dedicated to it. The party began fairly normally,
Speaker 1: with a fine banquet, as you might be imagining from
Speaker 1: the name. It wasn't until after the meal that things
Speaker 1: got interesting. Fifty of Rome's finest cortesans were in attendance,
Speaker 1: and after the meal they were ordered to disrobe. Servants
Speaker 1: moved the lit candelabras to the floor, where chestnuts were
Speaker 1: scattered about. The courtesans were then ordered to crawl around
Speaker 1: and pick them up. As one might imagine, these provocative
Speaker 1: actions quickly led to mass copulation, a holy orgy of sorts,
Speaker 1: blessed by the presence of the Pope, who sat with
Speaker 1: his illicit children and watched as the whole affair unfolded.
Speaker 1: Sounds juicy, right, a perfect little nugget of gossip that
Speaker 1: lasted hundreds of years and helped define the Borges as sinful, lustful,
Speaker 1: and salacious. The banquet of chestnuts is a fascinating bit
Speaker 1: of history, but there is one big question we have
Speaker 1: to ask, is it history at all? Did the banquet
Speaker 1: of chestnuts actually happen? I'm Danish sports and this is
Speaker 1: noble blood. Ah. The Borges, the family that of Renaissance
Speaker 1: era Italians loved to hate. If you listened to our
Speaker 1: episode about Lucretia Borgia, you'll remember that in all likelihood,
Speaker 1: the Borgies were probably more tame in real life than
Speaker 1: their reputations made them out to be, or at the
Speaker 1: very least Lucretia was. But there's no denying that they
Speaker 1: were hugely powerful figures, making bold moves with little regard
Speaker 1: for the fallout. Pope Alexander the sixth born Rodrigo Borgia
Speaker 1: had many illegitimate children. This was not uncommon for a
Speaker 1: pope at the time, even though they of course were
Speaker 1: supposed to be celibate. But Alexander the sixth did make
Speaker 1: waves by actually claiming the four that he had with
Speaker 1: his favorite mistress. Two of the children from that relationship
Speaker 1: were Chesaret and Lucretia Borgia, who quickly gained reputations of
Speaker 1: their own as political movers and shakers. Chesaat was known
Speaker 1: as a ruthless climber whose actions were the model for
Speaker 1: Machiavelli's The Prince, The how To or Tongue in Cheeks
Speaker 1: attire about acquiring power and influence. As a beautiful woman,
Speaker 1: Lucretia was a powerful political tool. Her marriages were orchestrated
Speaker 1: by her brother and father as a way to secure
Speaker 1: alliances and maintain control. At the time of the banquet,
Speaker 1: arrangements were being made for her third and final marriage
Speaker 1: to Alfonso Ladeste, Duke of Ferrara. The Borges were infamous
Speaker 1: for their scheming and outright villainy, with accusationtions of every
Speaker 1: sin under the sun being thrown at the three main Borges. However,
Speaker 1: one had to assume that rumors aside, these guys would
Speaker 1: know how to throw one hell of a party, and
Speaker 1: the Banquet of Chestnuts was one for the ages. The
Speaker 1: only reason we even know about this banquet today is
Speaker 1: thanks to the work of one dedicated man, someone with
Speaker 1: an eye for detail and a nose for a juicy story.
Speaker 1: Think of Truman, Capodi, Gossip Girl, Lady Whistledown. Johann Bouchard
Speaker 1: walked so that they could run. The most detailed account
Speaker 1: of the Banquet of Chestnuts comes from the diary of
Speaker 1: Johann Burchard. Burchard was an Alsatian born jack of all
Speaker 1: white collar trades who worked both as a practicing lawyer
Speaker 1: and an ordained priest, among other things. He left home
Speaker 1: also leaving behind some theft and trafficking accusations, and moved
Speaker 1: to Rome in the late fifteenth century. There he began
Speaker 1: working his way up through the ranks of the Catholic Church,
Speaker 1: ultimately serving as Master of Ceremonies for five different popes.
Speaker 1: Alexander the sixth fell directly in the middle of the
Speaker 1: line of popes that Burchard served. The Master of Ceremonies
Speaker 1: was an essential part of the Renaissance era Catholic Church,
Speaker 1: overseeing the accuracy and precision of the sacred rituals that
Speaker 1: were to be performed by the pope. The Master of
Speaker 1: Ceremonies served as a liturgical watchdog, keeping a close eye
Speaker 1: on the style and structure of religious ceremonies, as well
Speaker 1: as advising on etiquette and protocol for all sorts of
Speaker 1: church related matters, this one specifically also to who are
Speaker 1: great Benefit was a devoted journal keeper. Burchard's collected diaries,
Speaker 1: also known as the Liber Notarum, serve as both an
Speaker 1: official record of the daily machinations of the Church and
Speaker 1: a fascinating look at a particularly wild and decadent period
Speaker 1: in Italian history. Here is what Burchard had to say
Speaker 1: about this particular night in question. Quote on the evening
Speaker 1: of the last day of October fifteen oh one, Cesare
Speaker 1: Borgia arranged a banquet in his chambers in the Vatican
Speaker 1: with fifty honest prostitutes called courtesans, who danced after dinner
Speaker 1: with the attendants and others who were present, at first
Speaker 1: in their garments, then naked end quote. The sex workers
Speaker 1: are the only group Burchard mentioned with any specificity at all,
Speaker 1: calling the other guests, attendants and others who were present.
Speaker 1: This is presumably to protect the anonymity of those who
Speaker 1: were involved. No doubt Borgia family, friends, and associates. Whoever
Speaker 1: the other attendees were, we can assume they were both
Speaker 1: powerful and discreet, or at the very least they didn't
Speaker 1: keep journals that made it into the historical record. The
Speaker 1: title of honest courtesans wasn't Burchard's way of passing judgment
Speaker 1: on the workers. I'd argue that, with multiple confessions under
Speaker 1: his own belt, he was in no position to weigh
Speaker 1: in on the virtue of others, but rather, honest courtesans
Speaker 1: was actually a class distinction, a subset of sex workers
Speaker 1: who specifically served the nobility. They were often quite learned,
Speaker 1: with social graces and artistic, musical, or literary talents befitting
Speaker 1: the upper echelons of society. These honest courtesans could also
Speaker 1: be unbelievably expensive, but their rates were gladly paid. After all,
Speaker 1: many noblemen needed the illusion of women of their own
Speaker 1: class and rank who would indulge their desires and find
Speaker 1: them endlessly fascinating. We'll talk more about the sex workers
Speaker 1: in the later part of this episode, but for now,
Speaker 1: let's press on. When we left them in the diary,
Speaker 1: the fifty sex workers were in the process of shedding
Speaker 1: their clothes and dancing with the other guests, who were
Speaker 1: presumably still clothed. Burchard continues quote. After dinner, the candelabra
Speaker 1: with the burning candles were taken from the tables and
Speaker 1: placed on the floor, and chestnuts were strewn around, which
Speaker 1: the naked courtesans picked up, creeping on hands and knees
Speaker 1: between the chandeliers while the Pope, Cessaret and his sister
Speaker 1: Lucretia looked on. Let's pause here and unpack. Fans of
Speaker 1: HBO's succession might have already picked up on the similarities
Speaker 1: to bore on the floor. A dysfunctional, power hungry family
Speaker 1: watching underlings humiliate themselves for a quick thrill. Abuse of
Speaker 1: power is truly timeless, but questions still abound even with
Speaker 1: this diary entry. Who threw the chestnuts? Were they already
Speaker 1: on the table and grabbed impulsively by Cessaray or one
Speaker 1: of his pals because someone decided the party needed to
Speaker 1: be kicked up a notch? Or was it all planned? Frustratingly,
Speaker 1: Burchard failed to think of future nosy readers, particularly the
Speaker 1: more logistics oriented among us. He did, however, leave us
Speaker 1: with another last detail quote. Finally, prizes were announced for
Speaker 1: those who could perform the act most often with the courtesans,
Speaker 1: such as tunics of silk, shoes, barrels, and other things.
Speaker 1: Plenty of details here about the prizes themselves, not as
Speaker 1: much about the parts that were actually salacious. Who won?
Speaker 1: Are we correct to presume that only men could compete?
Speaker 1: No doubt the revelers were up to all kinds of
Speaker 1: kinky business, but it feels safe to infer that the
Speaker 1: prizes were reserved for the men who copulated with the
Speaker 1: most women. Again, how much of this was planned ahead
Speaker 1: of time? It's unclear when the event picked up the
Speaker 1: name Banquet of Chestnuts, but it's easy to see how
Speaker 1: such a legendary gathering acquired an if you know, you
Speaker 1: know nickname. The party's effects were still on display for
Speaker 1: days afterward. Florentine ambassador Francesco Peppy reported that Pope Alexander
Speaker 1: was a no show for mass for four days. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: rumors swirled of a nasty hangover. The ambassador chalked this
Speaker 1: up to the pontiff having gone out quote until the
Speaker 1: twelfth hour with the Duke, who had brought into the
Speaker 1: palace that night singers and courtesans, and all night they
Speaker 1: spent in pleasure, dancing and laughter. While hangovers certainly do
Speaker 1: get worse with age, and the eldest Borgia was seventy
Speaker 1: years old at this time, a four day recovery still
Speaker 1: sounds a little excessive, but it certainly adds to the
Speaker 1: party's reputation. While Burchard is the only eye witness account
Speaker 1: of the party, the lascivious details fall right in line
Speaker 1: with the existing public image of the Borges. Other documents
Speaker 1: support a party having taken place at the Apostolic Palace
Speaker 1: that night, but none of them have the Master of
Speaker 1: ceremonies eye for details or specifics. During this same time,
Speaker 1: the pope came across a pamphlet that laid bare every
Speaker 1: scrap of public opinion about his infamous family. Written in
Speaker 1: the form of an anonymous letter to political exile Silvio Savelli,
Speaker 1: it functions as a sort of burn book, recording in
Speaker 1: sordid detail an exhaustive account of the borges alleged crimes.
Speaker 1: According to the pamphlet, the Pope was quote betrayer of
Speaker 1: the human race, Chessaret was a debaucherous murderer, and Lucretia
Speaker 1: was an incestuous monster who slept with pretty much every
Speaker 1: member of her family. Clearly, the pamphlet was a combination
Speaker 1: of half truth's hyperbole and outright slander, but it was
Speaker 1: impactful enough that Burchard included passages in his diary. In
Speaker 1: her history book, Cesaret and Lucretia Borgia, brother and sister
Speaker 1: of history's most vilified family. Samantha Morris paints the male
Speaker 1: borges reactions to the pamphlet as consistent with their reputations.
Speaker 1: Quote Alexander, as was typical of him, found the whole
Speaker 1: thing rather amusing. Cessaret, on the other hand, was less
Speaker 1: than impressed. Since he was a young man, he had
Speaker 1: not dealt well with slights on his pride, and during
Speaker 1: the December following the Savelli letter, he took action against
Speaker 1: a masked individual who was wandering the borgo uttering insults
Speaker 1: against the Pope's family end quote. C Cessarey had the
Speaker 1: man's right hand cut off, as well as his tongue,
Speaker 1: and displayed them in a local church as a cautionary tale.
Speaker 1: A month later, Chesarey ordered the execution of a man
Speaker 1: for simply translating a libel against his family. The Pope's
Speaker 1: only response to his son's action was quote, the Duke
Speaker 1: is good natured, but he has not yet learned to
Speaker 1: bear insult end quote. Gossiping about the Borges was a
Speaker 1: dangerous game, especially with Chessaray around, but it was a
Speaker 1: game that few Italians seemed able to resist. It's easy
Speaker 1: to see why something like the banquet of chestnuts would
Speaker 1: have easily taken hold with the public. It's the perfect
Speaker 1: kind of scandal, titillating, extravagant, strange, and best of all,
Speaker 1: it's about people in power. Much of the rumor mill
Speaker 1: surrounding the Borges concerned violent crimes, if not outright murder,
Speaker 1: So we can imagine that it must have been a
Speaker 1: little bit of a relief to be able to gossip
Speaker 1: about something as fun as a glorified orgy. But there
Speaker 1: has been much speculation about how true Richard's version of
Speaker 1: events actually was. Centuries after Alexander the sixth death, Catholic
Speaker 1: monseigneur and historian Peter Derux wrote a five volume defense
Speaker 1: of the controversial pope, with the thesis that the Borgia
Speaker 1: patriarch had essentially been given the villain edit by history.
Speaker 1: It was Deroux's stance that the banquet couldn't possibly have
Speaker 1: happened as described, because Alexander would never have participated in
Speaker 1: behavior that was so quote truly bestial. Dereux has since
Speaker 1: been condemned by other historians for his overly generous, if
Speaker 1: not delusional, view of the former pope. As dubious as
Speaker 1: Deru's argument may be, it does bear stating that it
Speaker 1: was widely known that Johann Burchard was not a fan
Speaker 1: of the Borges, But would that lead him to fully
Speaker 1: fabricate a story, or did he record it exact exactly
Speaker 1: as it occurred and let the family be judged by
Speaker 1: their own actions. In his book The Borges, Power and
Speaker 1: Depravity in Renaissance Italy, Paul Strathorne remarks on the quote
Speaker 1: lurid detail of Burchard's account, as well as a report
Speaker 1: by a contemporary from Perugia named Francesco Materazzo. According to
Speaker 1: Moderazzo's account of the party, Pope Alexander had the lights extinguished,
Speaker 1: then quote the men and women left their clothes and
Speaker 1: had diversion. Still a salacious orgy, but not nearly as
Speaker 1: memorable as the banquet of chestnuts. Strathearne sums up what
Speaker 1: many Italians probably thought at the time. Quote. Despite the
Speaker 1: possibility of exaggeration in these reports, some of the details
Speaker 1: have a compelling particularity. If nothing else, the Borges certainly
Speaker 1: seemed to be living up to their reputation. In other words,
Speaker 1: why be worried about the truth when the details are
Speaker 1: so fun and they could be true? And few people
Speaker 1: have had more fun with the story than William Manchester.
Speaker 1: In his controversial book A World Lit Only by Fire,
Speaker 1: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, Manchester revels in the
Speaker 1: lurid details, often foregoing historical accuracy for the sake of
Speaker 1: a good story, he upgrades the courtesans from Burchard's account
Speaker 1: to quote the city's fifty most beautiful whores end quote,
Speaker 1: and adds some graphic details of his own. According to Manchester, quote,
Speaker 1: servants kept score of each man's orgasms for the Pope
Speaker 1: greatly admired virility, and measured a man's machismo by his
Speaker 1: ejaculative capacity. After everyone was a exhausted, his holiness distributed
Speaker 1: prizes end quote. It's plausible, but we don't get those
Speaker 1: details in the original account. Hard to imagine what might
Speaker 1: have been going through the minds of the Borgia household
Speaker 1: servants as they stood by with pen and paper, jotting
Speaker 1: down hash marks each time a sexual act was finished
Speaker 1: to completion. But in this version of the Borgia story,
Speaker 1: one would have to imagine that at this point in
Speaker 1: the servant's tenure, they probably would have just considered it
Speaker 1: part of the job. Manchester had a particular fascination with
Speaker 1: the female Borgia, even being generous enough to question the
Speaker 1: veracity of Lucretia's monstrous reputation. In his book, Manchester opined
Speaker 1: that quote the Lucretia Borgia, who has come down to
Speaker 1: us is an ad mixture of myth, fable and incontestable fact.
Speaker 1: It is quite possible that she was to some degree
Speaker 1: a victim of misogynistic slander. The medieval Church saw woman
Speaker 1: as Ava Redeviva, the temptress responsible for Adam's fall, and
Speaker 1: the illegitimate daughter of a pope. May have been an
Speaker 1: irresistible target for gossip, particularly when she was physically attractive.
Speaker 1: End quote. If even a fairly salacious fabuloust can spot misogyny,
Speaker 1: then I think it's safe to say it was well
Speaker 1: and present. On that note, let's look at Amy License's
Speaker 1: account from her book The sixteenth Century in one Hundred Women.
Speaker 1: In the chapter titled Unnamed Prostitute Banquet of Chestnuts, License
Speaker 1: imagines how the night would have gone from the perspective
Speaker 1: of two sex workers who were brought to the palace
Speaker 1: for the evening. This version adhears fairly closely to Burchard's
Speaker 1: account as far as details go, with the added context
Speaker 1: of the role that sex work played in the culture,
Speaker 1: License writes, quote, prostitution was tolerated as a necessary evil
Speaker 1: in Renaissance Italy, following the various teachings of the Catholic
Speaker 1: Church Saint Augustine wrote that it prevented men from corrupting
Speaker 1: good women, and Thomas Aquinas believed that without it, the
Speaker 1: city would overflow with sin like a sewer, and men
Speaker 1: would turn to the greater sin of sodomy. Prostitution was
Speaker 1: decriminalized but not respected. From that, one can imagine that
Speaker 1: the women were at the party not as guests, but
Speaker 1: as some combination of entertainment and party favors. Without their work,
Speaker 1: it would have been just another drunken dinner party. License
Speaker 1: concludes her chapter on the Banquet of Chestnuts by zooming
Speaker 1: out and looking at the lives of sixteenth century sex
Speaker 1: workers in general. Quote, very few were able to serve
Speaker 1: members of the aristocracy with the commensurate rewards that could bring.
Speaker 1: The majority had little control over their market or the
Speaker 1: customers who approached them, exposing themselves not just to disease,
Speaker 1: but potentially to degradation and violence at the hands of
Speaker 1: the wrong man. The oldest profession in the world had
Speaker 1: its risks, and its surroundings were rarely as glamorous as
Speaker 1: the Vatican Palace. Sex might have sold as it always has,
Speaker 1: but it paid very little, and the costs to prostitutes
Speaker 1: were often high end quote for a family like the Borges,
Speaker 1: the banquet of chestnuts, whether true or embellished, was a
Speaker 1: drop in the bucket, one more shiny bit of lore
Speaker 1: to add to an already opressive collection for the courtesan's
Speaker 1: tasks with providing the evening's entertainment. We can only imagine
Speaker 1: the long term effects. What would happen if any of
Speaker 1: them became pregnant, or injured or contracted an STI Generally,
Speaker 1: honest courtesans received better treatment than their lower class counterparts.
Speaker 1: Some even enjoyed the same perks afforded to dedicated mistresses.
Speaker 1: But there was certainly no code of conduct that their
Speaker 1: patrons were forced to adhere to, so we can safely
Speaker 1: assume that there was uncertainty and precariousness even at the
Speaker 1: highest levels of the profession. It's hard to imagine any
Speaker 1: member of the Borgia household giving even a glancing thought
Speaker 1: to the long term welfare of the sex workers they
Speaker 1: brought in once the party was over. The details of
Speaker 1: the banquet of chestnuts might have been exaggerated, or maybe
Speaker 1: it did happen and exactly as the Master of ceremony
Speaker 1: wrote down. Either way, I think it's worth looking past
Speaker 1: the salaciousness of the gossip and remembering that if it
Speaker 1: did happen, there were fifty real life women who had
Speaker 1: no choice but to become accessories to the Borges legend.
Speaker 1: That's the story of the Banquet of chestnuts. But keep
Speaker 1: listening after a brief sponsor break to hear another rumor
Speaker 1: of impropriety at the papal palace. Christopher Hibbert gives us
Speaker 1: an additional anecdote that serves as the perfect epilogue to
Speaker 1: our story. In his book The Borges and their Enemies,
Speaker 1: Hibbert details an event that happened just a few days
Speaker 1: after the banquet, when a different kind of entertainment was
Speaker 1: brought into the palace. Thanks to our faithful diar s
Speaker 1: Johann Burchard. There is an account in which a farmer
Speaker 1: delivering wood to the market was redirected by palace guards.
Speaker 1: The guards unsaddled the farmer's mares and led them to
Speaker 1: the courtyard inside the palace gates. According to Hibbert quote,
Speaker 1: four stallions were then freed from their reins and harnesses
Speaker 1: and let out of the palace stables. They immediately ran
Speaker 1: to the mares, over whom they proceeded to fight furiously
Speaker 1: and noisily amongst themselves, biting and kicking in their efforts
Speaker 1: to mount them, and seriously wounding them with their hoofs.
Speaker 1: The Pope and Lucretia, laughing with evident satisfaction, watched all
Speaker 1: that was happening from a window above the palace gate.
Speaker 1: End quote. Again, we must take Burchard's counts with a
Speaker 1: grain of salt, but it's hard not to notice this
Speaker 1: story contains certain echoes of the banquet of chestnuts. Father
Speaker 1: and daughter taking in the spectacle, delighting in sexual exploits,
Speaker 1: this time with the addition of physical violence. Even if
Speaker 1: the family members never actually engaged in sexual acts with
Speaker 1: each other, their apparent comfort with being together in the
Speaker 1: presence of them is enough to raise eyebrows a little bit.
Speaker 1: At best, it's strange. At worst, the Borges are never
Speaker 1: beating those incest allegations. Noble Blood is a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood
Speaker 1: is hosted by me Danish Forts, with additional writing and
Speaker 1: researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Julia Milani,
Speaker 1: and Armand Cassam. The show is edited and produced by
Speaker 1: Noehmy Griffin and rima Il Kaali, with supervising producer Josh
Speaker 1: Thain and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: Four more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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