Giovanni Sforza (The Borgias)

Giovanni Sforza was an Italian male on the 2011 Showtime series The Borgias. Sforza was a member of the powerful northern Italian Sforza family and the cousin of Vice-Chancellor Cardinal Ascanio Sforza.

Sforza was a middle aged, brutish man. Prior to Rodrigo Borgia becoming Pope Sforza had been married but his wife had died.

In the early 1490s Pope Alexander VI arranged for the marriage of Lucrezia to the older Sforza. After the ceremony they headed to his castle in Pesaro. On their first night alone together Sforza raped Lucrezia, and continued to sexually abuse her.

Shortly after arriving in Pesaro Lucrezia met a young stable hand named Paulo, and soon begins an affair with him. Many of the household staff - who all hate Sforza - helped Lucrezia in hiding this affair. Tiring of Sforza's abuse Lucrezia and Paulo arranged for Sforza to have an accident in which he fell off his horse, breaking his leg.

When King Charles VIII of France began his invasion of Italy, Sforza turned against his wife's family by refusing to support the Pope against the French.

Sforza was later summoned before the College of Cardinals at the request of the Pope in order to annul the marriage between him and Lucrezia on the grounds of impotence. Humilated at the hands of the Borgias when offered a chance to perform with two very ugly prostitutes, he refused and stormed away. Sforza was later killed by Lucrezia's brother Cesare.