That is a very characteristic family of a Grandee and Hijo de algo (son of something) of Spain. Leaving the heir out of the question, the eight sons divide between them two cardinalates, an archbishopric, an abbacy, two viceroyalties, and a governorship: while, of the six daughters, two enter religion and become abbesses, and four marry grandees and semi-royalty of Spain. It is worth noting too, that shame on account of their origin, or their ancestors’ supposed misbehaviour, has not yet made its appearance. Alonso was the name of many royal bastards of the House of Aragon, as well as of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III. Rodrigo was the name of the Lord Alexander P.P. VI, who also began his public career in the Cardinal-Diaconate of San Niccolo _in Carcere Tulliano_, and Whose eldest bastard (ob. 1481) was called Pedro Luis. All these names were repeated here in the third and fourth generation; and the eldest son of Don Juan II, bore the second name of his murdered grandfather, Francisco. The Terrible Pontiff, the Lord Julius P.P. II was reigning in Rome, when Don Francisco de Borja was born in 1510 at the ducal palace of Gandia in Spain. The Terrible Pontiff was only a terrible memory ten years later, and the Lord Leo P.P. X. was trying hard to “enjoy the Papacy,” in Rome when riots arose in Gandia, the ducal palace was sacked, and Don Juan II, with his family, was forced to flee for life. Don Francisco, then a gracious boy of ten, was sent to his uncle Archbishop Don Juan de Aragona at Saragossa,[102] who supplied him with a house and retinue suited to his condition, and masters who taught him music, fencing, and Latin grammar; for he was to be bred as became the heir to the duchy of Gandia, and the future head of the Spanish Branch of the House of Borja. In January 1522 died the Lord Leo P.P. X; and the Lord Hadrian P.P. VI, a ship-carpenter’s son out of Utrecht in Flanders, was elected Pope, called the Laocoon a pagan idol, walled-up the Belvedere statue-gallery of the Vatican; and died. To Him, in 1523, succeeded Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, cousin and life-friend of the Lord Leo P.P. X, who ascended Peter’s Throne under the title of the Lord Clement P.P. VII. Great changes were taking place in Europe. By marriage, conquest, inheritance, or lapse, the Holy Roman Empire had passed into the hands of Spain. The Elect-Emperor Carlos V, though he ceremonially had not been crowned with the Iron Crown or the Double Golden Diadem, ruled in Spain, Naples and Southern Italy, Germany, Austria, and part of France. King Henry VIII Tudor, the Defender of the Faith, was becoming a power in England. The Christian King of France was his rival: but the Continent of Europe mainly was the Elect-Emperor’s, and wholly, perhaps, the Roman Pontiffs. At the age of fourteen years, Don Francisco de Borja went to Tor de Sillas as page of honour to the Infanta Doña Catalina, the Elect-Emperor’s sister, who was about to be married to King Don Juan III of Portugal.