In 1492, the august couple Ferdinand and Isabella, seeking to enlist the support of the all-powerful Rome, spent 50 thousand gold ducats so that their protege Rodrigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI, better known as Borgia, would reign in the Vatican …
The year from the birth of Christ is 1458. Europe is engulfed in wars and even in the heart of the sacred empire, thousand-year-old Rome, war is also raging. The war is secret, but no less bloody.
There are battles for the right to rule over powerful monarchs and their subjects, to dispose of the wealth of the entire continent and to rule over human souls. This is a war for the Papal See.
Torture and murder, bribery, intrigue and blackmail are used. Not a single mortal sin fears those who desire to become God's vicar on earth. And the first of them is the young ambitious Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia …
In order to understand what kind of person he was, it is enough to turn to the description given to him by Karl Marx, who wrote that this two-legged devil of hell gained notoriety thanks to the vileness of his offspring - numerous sons and daughters who sent legions of worthy people to the grave.
Borgia himself achieved that the clerical elite of Italy became the personification of vice: in debauchery, incest, murder, conspiracies, the pope played the leading role with the indispensable participation of his son Cesare and his daughter Lucretia.
The Borgia rulers, his family and henchmen, thanks to the fabulous wealth that he owned, did not exist.
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The Pope did not hide the fact that this gave him the opportunity to reign supreme in a foreign country. His dictum is known: “Wars are won not by armies and gold, but by the cooks in the kitchens and the stewards of the dinner parties. It takes a little - to be able to pour a drop of poison into a barrel of honey."
Borgia knew what he was talking about. He personally sent many representatives of noble families to the other world, and his successor to the throne, Pope Julius II, who knew about the executioner "weaknesses" of the latter by no means by hearsay, did not hide anything in the chronicles he kept on a daily basis:
“As a rule, a vessel was used, the contents of which could one day bring to eternity an inconvenient baron, a wealthy minister of the church, an overly talkative courtesan, a valet with a sharp tongue, yesterday a committed murderer, today still a devoted lover. In the darkness of the night, the Tiber took Cantarella's unconscious sacrifices into the waters."
Cantarella is the "signature" poison of the Borgia family, composed by a Roman aristocrat, beautiful as an angel, but evil and deceitful, like the devil, Vanozza Catanea. The recipe for the poison became known not so long ago thanks to the fact that his personal surprise ring was found in the former chambers of the Borgia.
On the outside is engraved: "Merciful Borgia, 1503". On the inside there is an inscription: "Do your duty, no matter what it takes."
The ring has a movable plate with a cache of poison. The ring is adorned with floral gold ornamentation and a platinum lion's foot, each claw of which has a through channel combined with a cache-container.
The poisoning of the unwanted was carried out in different ways. You could, by sliding the plate by turning the ring around your finger, pour the poison into wine or food. It was possible, again, by sliding the plate and opening the channels of the claws of the lion's paw, to shake the victim's hand. The scratch was enough for the poison to do its job.
There was no antidote for Cantarella, because, as the Italian chemist Carlo Cesini discovered in 1966, the deadly mixture included arsenic, copper salts, phosphorus, rubbed tree toad glands and extracts from South African plants brought by the first Christian missionaries.
A drop of such a hellish mixture was enough to kill the bull. Borgia, in a circle of like-minded people, cynically declared that eating Cantarella was the greatest honor for the most brilliant nobility.
For those who are rotten with blood, that is, for commoners, arsenic is quite suitable, of course, ideal for murder disguised as a disease, because its oxide, when dissolved in liquids, does not color them, does not give a taste, has no smell. A lethal dose is 60 milligrams.
If a person is exposed to small doses of arsenic for a long time, the picture of his illness can turn out to be so variegated and confusing that even experienced doctors will make any diagnosis - from cholera to syphilis: satanic powder affects the nervous system, destroys mucous membranes, ulcers the skin, crushes bone tissue … "Arsenic is king," Borgia used to say, "but it is especially desirable at the court of the splendid Cantarella."
Borgia masterfully wielded a sling, and received a return shot from a cannon. It was so. Deciding to get rid of the cardinals who encroached on his absolute power, but realizing how much they feared his hospitality, Borgia turned to the devoted Cardinal Adriano di Carneto for a short time to provide him with a palace for a solemn reception.
Prior to that, the papal valet had been secretly there, delivering a barrel of poisoned wine, which was to be served only to those whom Borgia himself indicated. Pope dealt with enemies. But by mistake he drank the same poison, however, fairly diluted with water. Thanks to a low dose of poison, Alexander VI did not die immediately, but suffered for four more days …
The Borgia was gone. But his dirty work lived on and flourished. The compilers of the so-called Vatican writings tell that in 1659 Pope Alexander VII decided to end forever the manufacturers of poisons and poisoners who openly traded in death, taking payment not even in gold - in copper: it was not bloodlust that pushed to hellish deals, but poverty.
The male pharmacists, who had a fair amount of arsenic at hand, were not touched: "We will execute them, we will be left without drugs and we will be destroyed like flies." Therefore, they caught 150 outwardly very attractive commoners-widows, accusing them of poisoning their husbands and lovers. Torture in the dungeons of the Inquisition quickly untied tongues.
All the poisoners instantly pointed to a certain Jerome Spara, a warlock and fortune teller who knew who mastered the art of composing poison based on red arsenic: "If someone eats a pea of this herbal stone, he will immediately lose blood." Spara, however, turned out to be a tough nut to crack. The torture did not break her. Alexander VII, who, apparently, like air, also needed a recipe for a poison that had no equal in the world, ordered to release her from captivity, but to establish surveillance.
The trick worked. Soon, papal secret agents detained a lady healer Teofania di Adamo, who developed a unique formulation of a poison that acted instantly and left no trace in the body. This poison, called "Teofana's water", nowadays occupies an honorable place in the arsenals of special services.
Poison, packaged in tiny vessels, decorated with the image of the face of St. Mark, di Adamo supplied everyone for huge money. Thanks to this kind of enterprise, 600 people were killed in Italy in a year!
In Palermo, where the poisoner was allegedly beheaded, there are still very plausible rumors that Teofania di Adamo was presented by the Vatican to King Louis XIV - the one who owns the words: "The state is me!"
Received from the royal hands the title of marquise, di Adamo actively participated in the political and amorous, by no means bloodless intrigues of her patron, checking the effect of the super-poison on those who got confused under the Sun King's feet, prevented him from ruling, or to whom he lost interest.
The marquise impregnated lace handkerchiefs, gloves, bedclothes, thorns of roses in bouquets with poison, filled them with hollow needles, door keys. Louis, never tired of being amazed at the hypocrisy and cunning of this fallen angel in a skirt, they say, once dropped: "This bastard will settle well in the underworld."
The case, however, ended with the monarch beginning to fear his confidant. And then the "accident" came in time. The poisoner stumbled and, having fallen from the tower of the castle given to her by Louis, fell to her death.
In 1659, Pope Alexander VII decided to put an end to the manufacturers of poisons and poisoners, who openly traded in death, taking a payment not even in gold - in copper.
Over the years, the memory of the monster woman has changed in the most bizarre ways. She now embodied holy innocence. Monasteries in France and Italy began to sell amulets-pendants in the form of tiny crystal vessels with the image of the most pure face of the Marquis. Only now there was not poison in these vessels, but consecrated rose oil.
The notorious Cardinal Mazarin called arsenic a just executioner, taking upon himself every single sins and removing responsibility for their commission. Meanwhile, arsenic poison is just one of many, which in the old days was said to be generated by the most terrible poverty - the poverty of the heart.