At this point in history the Pope of Rome had vastly larger powers than the Pope of modern day. The popes of the 15th Century were essentially religious kings, and had wives and children and controlled armies. The series which shows on Showtime covers in the opening Rodrigo Borgia (Jeremy Irons) scheming his way into becoming pope by having his son Cesare Borgia (Francois Arnaud) bribe the voting bishops to elect him as the head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope Alexander VI. Rodrigo is openly opposed by a group of Cardinals led by Cardinal Della Rovere (Colm Feore) who attempts to poison Rodrigo and discredit him with a hired assassin Micheletto (Sean Harris) who is ultimately turned by Rodrigo's son Cesare and hired as a spy. When Rodrigo takes power he can no longer openly have relations with women and his mistress and mother of his children Vanozza dei Cattanei (Joanne Whalley) objects to his dedication to the church over his attentions toward her. When Rodrigo feels further pressures form the affairs of office he turns to young Guilia Farnese (Lotte Verbeek) for comfort, who in turn becomes good friends to Rodrigo's daughter Lucrezia Borgia (Holliday Grainger), causing

fracturing of the happy Borgia household.