Giulia Farnese

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Giulia Farnese (1474 23 March 1524) was one of the mistresses of the Pope Alexander VI. She was known as Giulia la bella, which in Italian means "Giulia the Beautiful". Lorenzo Pucci described her as "most lovely to behold". Cesare Borgia, the son of Alexander VI, described her as having "dark colouring, black eyes, round face and particular ardour".

[edit] Biography

[edit] Family

Giulia Farnese was born at Canino to Pier Luigi Farnese and Giovanna Caetani, who was the last member of the illustrious dynasty of the Anagni. One earlier member of this dynasty had been Pope Boniface VIII. She had three siblings. The first Angelo was a lord. The second brother Alessandro was a notary but was embarked on an ecclesiastical career. The third was a sister, Girolama.

[edit] Marriage and relationships with Alexander VI

At the age of 15, on May 21, 1489, she married Orsino Orsini. He was the step son of the ambitious Adriana de Mila, who was third cousin to Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, Vice-Chancellor of the Church (and later Pope Alexander VI). Orsini was described as being squint eyed and was devoid of any meaningful self confidence. According to Maria Bellonci, it is uncertain when the pope fell passionately in love with Giulia Farnese and decided to make her his mistress. What is known is that Adriana Mila eventually gave her approval in order to win a higher status for her son with the Vatican. By November 1493 Giulia Farnese was living with Adriana Mila and Alexander’s daughter Lucrezia Borgia in a recently built palace next to the Vatican from where the Pope could easily make his clandestine visits. The affair was widely known among the gossips of the time, however. Giulia and Lucrezia became close friends.

Through her intimacy with the Pope she was able to get her brother Alessandro created cardinal. This earned him the title of "Cardinal of the skirts" from Pasquino.

Giulia Farnese had a daughter whom she named Laura. It is not clear whether Laura’s father was Orsino or Alexander. Maria Bellonci believes that there is evidence that she did have a physical relationship with her husband. Whatever the case may be, Giulia Farnese claimed that Laura was indeed the Pope’s daughter, but this may have been to raise the status of the child for future marriage considerations. In 1494 she angered the Pope by setting off to Capodimonte to be at the deathbed of her brother Angelo. She remained away from Rome, even after her brother’s death, at the insistence of her husband. He eventually capitulated to papal pressure however, and she soon set off on the journey back to her lover. This was the same time as the French invasion of Italy under Charles VIII. Giulia was captured by the French captain Yves d’Allegre, who demanded from the Pope, and received, a ransom of 3,000 scudi for her safe conduct to Rome.

She remained the Pope’s mistress until 1499 or 1500. At this time she seems to have fallen out of his favour due to her age. Bellonci believes that the break between the two was probably made amicably with the help of Adriana Mila. Her husband also died around this time. She then moved to Carbognano, which is not too far from Rome. This town had been given to Orsino by Alexander VI. Alexander himself died three years later.

[edit] Later life

Giulia returned to Rome for the wedding of her daughter Laura in 1505. Laura was wedded to Niccolò della Rovere, who was the son of the sister of then Pope Julius II. For Giulia, her time of love was not over. After a series of lovers, whose names have not been recorded, in the first years of her widowhood, she married Giovanni Capece of Bozzuto. He was a member of the lower ranking Neapolitan nobility. In 1506 Giulia became the governor of Carbognano. Giulia took up residence in the citadel of the castle, on the gate of which, years later, her name was inscribed. The chronicle of the castle states that Giulia was an able administrator who governed in a firm and energetic manner. Giulia stayed in Carbognano until 1522. Then she left the place and returned to Rome.

She died there, in the house of her brother, Cardinal Alessandro. She was 50 years old. The cause of her death is unknown. Ten years later her brother ascended the papal throne as Pope Paul III. Laura and Niccolò had three sons, who inherited the possessions of the Orsini family.

[edit] Sources

• Bellonci, Maria. The Life and Times of Lucrezia Borgia. 
• del Vecchio, Edoardo (1972). I Farnese. Rome: Istituto di studi romani. 
• Spinosa, Antonio (1999). La saga dei Borgia. Milan: Mondadori. ISBN 88-04-48662-7.