#his love for him surpasses even mine and machiavelli (hehe) for cesare

[ducavalentinos]

We see here the first clear manifestation of Alexander’s defining weakness as a man and as pontiff: his growing and soon all but unrestrained willingness to subordinate everything else to his favorites. No doubt he remembered how Calixtus III had turned to him and his brother under similar circumstances and had increased his effectiveness as pope by doing so. If the increasing extremes to which he carried his nepotism might to any extent be rationally explained, the explanation must surely have to do with the perception that Juan and his siblings, if empowered, could become Alexander’s most effective tools in the pursuit of his policy objectives.

G.J. Meyer - The Borgias