Pope Alexander VI built a state in central Italy for his son Cesare Borgia, and Cesare lost it after his father's death

Cesare Borgia was the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI. He was made a cardinal when his father became pope. After his brother Giovanni was murdered in 1497, he resigned the cardinalate in 1498. With French troops and his father's backing he took most of Romagna and other towns of central Italy, and was named duke of Romagna in 1501. His power rested on the papacy. Alexander VI died in 1503. Machiavelli wrote in The Prince that he had planned for everything that could happen at his father's death except that he himself would be close to dying at the same time. Machiavelli also blamed him for allowing the election of Julius II, an old enemy. Julius II turned against him. He went to Naples, where the Spanish commander Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba arrested him and sent him to prison in Spain. He escaped in 1506 and took refuge with the king of Navarre. He was killed in an ambush near Viana on 12 March 1507, aged about 31, and buried in the church of Santa María at Viana. A bishop later had his remains put outside the church as unworthy of consecrated ground. They were moved several times. Since 1945 they have lain outside the church door, and church officials still refuse to bury him inside.