Who Was The Naughtiest Pope In History?
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
History Hit
4.8 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2025
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sex, scandal and ... the Sacraments? Renaissance Rome wasn't for the faint hearted. And the Vatican? For some that was the source of the drama.
In this episode, Kate is joined by Catherine Fletcher to meet one of the Vatican's randiest residents - Pope Alexander VI. From saucy parties to the scandals of the Borgia family, why might this be the naughtiest pope in history?
Catherine is the author of a number of books including ‘The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance’.
This episode was edited by Tim Arstall and produced by Sophie Gee. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.
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All music from Epidemic Sounds.
Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, my lovely betwixters, it's me, Kate Lister, you are listening to Bedtwixter sheets. If you've clicked on the link thinking this is an entirely different podcast, this is your chance to get out now. But if you did fancy sticking around, I better warn you that things can get a little bit rude around here. So, this is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things and an adulty way covering a range of all subjects. And you should be an adult too. Now, fair do's. |
| 0:23.1 | We have warned you right on with the show. |
| 0:28.7 | Come with me, lovely betwixters. It's the 30th of October 1501 and we are going to the Vatican. |
| 0:35.8 | That's right. We need some spiritual replenishment. |
| 0:39.0 | We need a holier than holy atmosphere to cleanse our souls |
| 0:42.3 | and to just get us that little bit cloak. |
| 0:44.5 | What on earth is happening around here? |
| 0:47.4 | Is this the Vatican? |
| 0:49.3 | This is the Vatican. |
| 0:50.5 | This looks like the aftermath of Glastonbury. |
| 0:52.9 | There's rubbish everywhere. There's food on the floor, |
| 0:55.8 | roasted meats and dried fruit. It stinks of sweat in here. What on earth is... Hang on. What are they |
| 1:03.2 | doing in there? There's 15 women in the nip crawling around on their hands and knees. And what are they |
| 1:09.3 | doing? What on earth is going on here? I don't |
| 1:12.2 | remember this in Sunday school. Oh my God. They're collecting chestnuts with the, oh God, ladies, |
| 1:18.7 | really, there are better ways to forage than that. Have we actually come to the right place? |
| 1:23.3 | Is this definitely the Vatican? This is the Vatican. What on earth is going on? |
| 1:28.9 | Turns out that we are in a Vatican house party |
| 1:32.1 | hosted by none other than Pope Alexander the 6th himself. |
| 1:36.3 | And what we're witnessing now was probably just a slow Tuesday. |
| 1:40.1 | Are you ready to learn more? |
| 1:41.2 | Well, I certainly am. |
... |
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