Over the Edge of the World
Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe
Chapter OneThe Quest
"He holds him with his skinny hand,
"There was a ship, " quoth he.
"Hold off !unhand me, grey-beard loon!"
"Eftsoons his hand dropt he.
On June 7, 1494, Pope Alexander VI divided the world in half, bestowing the western portion on Spain, and the eastern on Portugal.
Matters might have turned out differently if the pontiff had not been a Spaniard -- Rodrigo de Borja, born near Valencia -- but he
was. A lawyer by training, he assumed the Borgia name when his
maternal uncle, Alfonso Borgia, began his brief reign as Pope Callistus III. As his lineage suggests, Alexander VI was a rather secular
pope, among the wealthiest and most ambitious men in Europe,
fond of his many mistresses and his illegitimate offspring, and
endowed with sufficient energy and ability to indulge his worldly
passions.
He brought the full weight of his authority to bear on the
appeals of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the "Catholic Monarchs" of Spain who had instituted the Inquisition in 1492 to purge
Spain of Jews and Moors. They exerted c ... read full excerpt from Over the Edge of the World ebook
