Series Description

The Borgias is a 60 minute historical crime/drama series on Showtime about the Borgia family's use of threats and bribery to rise to the top of the Catholic Church in the late fifteenth century. Then the story continues as the Borgias fight to maintain their power and protect themselves from their enemies who plot against them.

The Borgias Cast

Jeremy Irons .... Rodrigo Borgia
Francois Arnaud .... Cesare Borgia
Holliday Grainger .... Lucrezia Borgia
Peter Sullivan .... Cardinal Ascanio Sforza
Colm Feore .... Giuliano Della Rovere
Lotte Verbeek .... Giulia Farnese
Joanne Whalley .... Vanozza Cattaneo
Sean Harris .... Micheletto
David Oakes .... Juan Borgia
David Alpay .... Calvino
Vernon Dobtcheff .... Cardinal Versucci
Bosco Hogan .... Cardinal Piccolomini
Ronan Vibert .... Giovanni Sforza
Aidan Alexander .... Gioffre Borgia
Ruta Gedmintas .... Ursula Bonadeo

The Borgias Trivia:

The original plan was for the first season of The Borgias to have ten episodes but Neil Jordan, the excecutive producer has stated that production money ran out so they had to reduce the number to nine. Apparently, the real-life Borgia's name was hard to figure out how to spell because they were also known as the Borjas, Borges and Borjias. They were of Spanish and Italian heritage.

The Borgia family actually produced two Popes. Alfons de Borja ruled from 1455-1458 as Pope Calixtus III and Rodrigo Lanzol Borgia ruled from 1492-1503 as Pope Alexander VI.

The Borgia family is most remembered due to the evil rule of Pope Alexander. He didn't exactly believe in loving his fellow man. His administration is known for numerous crimes including bribery, theft, rape and even many murders by arsenic poisoning.