The Borgias!



Cesare Borgia and entourage

This post is not about the TV series but a chance for me to assemble my collection to represent the army of the infamous Cesare Borgia. As he was at the peak of his power from around 1499 to 1503 it's a great opportunity to use late medieval and early renaissance figures together and as he also employed a wide variety of mercenaries and auxilliaries it means I can use loads of the figures from my collection in one army. Being from a Spanish noble family he employed Spaniards as well as Italians from the Papal States with Swiss and French troops being sent to him at times as he was a French Duke, the Duke of Valentinois.
The excellent flags are by Pete, http://thegreatitalianwars.blogspot.co.uk/ . I love the one with one of Cesares mottos, a play on his name, shown in the first photo below: "aut caesar aut nihil". The Borgia red bull is displayed prominently on them, along with the fleur de lis for Cesares title of Duke of Valentinois and the Papal Keys or Tiara as he was the Papal Gonfalonier. The detail on them is fantastic.
You will notice the force is not too different from those used in my "War for Naples" post a while back, however I have been able to add my mounted Crossbowmen and Arquebusiers that I have completed since then along with the Perry miniatures Cardinal, some priests and Italian Infantry. Being the commander of his father, Rodrigo Borgias', Papal army I thought it would only be fitting to show these ecclesiastics along side the troops. For the very early Italian wars I think the Perry Italian figures fit in really well, especially when mixed in with the Italians by The Assault Group.

Cesare Borgia



Borgia crossbowmen

Stradiots, French Horse and Borgia Italian Horse

Elmeti and Mounted Arquebusiers



Borgia Elmeti



Borgia Light Horse and Mounted Crossbowmen

Papal Arquebusiers and Sword and Buckler infantry

The Borgia Army

A closer look at some of the Borgia flags

The host from behind

The Borgia host