Lucrezia Borgia

Lucrezia Borgia
Lady of Pesaro and Gradara Duchess of Bisceglie and Princess of Salerno Duchess of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio
Lucrecia as St. Catherine of Alexandria in a fresco by Pinturicchio, in the Sala dei Santi the Borgia apartments in the Vatican c. 1494.
Spouse(s)	Giovanni Sforza Alfonso of Aragon Alfonso d'Este
Issue Rodrigo of Aragon Alessandro d'Este Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara Ippolito II d'Este Alessandro d'Este Leonora d'Este Francesco d'Este, Marchese di Massalombarda Isabella Maria d'Este
Noble family	House of Borgia
Father	Pope Alexander VI
Mother	Vannozza dei Cattanei
Born	(1480-04-18)18 April 1480 Subiaco, Italy
Died	24 June 1519(1519-06-24) (aged 39) Ferrara

Lucrezia Borgia (Italian pronunciation: [luˈkrɛttsja ˈbɔrdʒa]; Valencian: Lucrècia; Catalan pronunciation: [luˈkrɛsiə]; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. Her brothers included Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, and Gioffre Borgia.

Lucrezia's family politics became subject matter for The Prince where well implemented ruthlessness represents a practical component of Machiavellian politics.

Her family had arranged several marriages for her which advanced their own political position including Giovanni Sforza (Lord of Pesaro), Alfonso of Aragon (Duke of Bisceglie), and Alfonso I d'Este (Duke of Ferrara).

Tradition has it that Alfonso of Aragon was an illegitimate son of the King of Naples and that her brother Cesare may have had him murdered after his political value waned.

Lucrezia was cast as a femme fatale, a role she has been portrayed as in many artworks, novels, and films.

Early life

Lucrezia Borgia, 1518 Dosso Dossi^[1][2]

Lucrezia Borgia was born at Subiaco, near Rome. Her mother was Vannozza dei Cattanei, one of the mistresses of Lucrezia's father, Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI).

Appearance

Portrait of a Woman by Bartolomeo Veneto, traditionally assumed to be Lucrezia Borgia.

“Lucretia de Borgia” in a letter to her sister Isabella Gonzaga (March 1519)

She is described as having heavy blonde hair which fell past her knees; a beautiful complexion; hazel eyes which changed color; a full, high bosom; and a natural grace which made her appear to "walk on air".^[3] These physical attributes were highly appreciated in Italy during that period. Another description said that "her mouth is rather large, the teeth brilliantly white, her neck is slender and fair, and the bust is admirably proportioned".^[4]

One painting, Portrait of a Youth by Dosso Dossi at the National Gallery of Victoria, was identified as a portrait of Lucrezia in November 2008.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} This painting may be the only surviving formal portrait of Lucrezia Borgia; however, doubts have been cast on that claim.^[10] Several other paintings, such as Veneto's fanciful portrait, have also been said to depict her, but none have been accepted by scholars at present.

Marriages

First marriage: Giovanni Sforza

On 26 February 1491, a matrimonial arrangement was drawn up between Lucrezia and the Lord of Val D'Ayora in the kingdom of Valencia, Don Cherubino Joan de Centelles, which was annulled less than two months later in favour of a new contract engaging Lucrezia to Don Gaspare Aversa, count of Procida.^[11] When Rodrigo became Pope Alexander VI, he sought to be allied with powerful princely families and founding dynasties of Italy. As such, he called off Lucrezia's previous engagements and arranged for her to marry Giovanni Sforza, a member of the House of Sforza who was Lord of Pesaro and titled Count of Catignola.^[12] Giovanni was an illegitimate son of Costanzo I Sforza and a Sforza of the second rank. He married Lucrezia on 12 June 1493 in Rome.

Before long, the Borgia family no longer needed the Sforzas, and the presence of Giovanni Sforza in the papal court was superfluous. The Pope needed new, more advantageous political alliances, so he may have covertly ordered the execution of Giovanni. The generally accepted version is that Lucrezia was informed of this by her brother Cesare, and she warned her husband, who fled Rome.

Alexander asked Giovanni's uncle, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, to persuade Giovanni to agree to an annulment of the marriage. Giovanni refused and accused Lucrezia of paternal and fraternal incest. The pope asserted that his daughter's marriage had not been consummated and was thus invalid. Giovanni was offered her dowry in return for his cooperation.^[13] The Sforza family threatened to withdraw their protection should he refuse. Giovanni finally signed confessions of impotence and documents of annulment before witnesses.

Alleged affair with Perotto

There has been speculation that during the prolonged process of the annulment, Lucrezia consummated a relationship with someone, perhaps Alexander's chamberlain Pedro Calderon, also named Perotto.^[14] In any case, families hostile to the Borgia would later accuse her of being pregnant at the time her marriage was annulled for non-consummation. She is known to have retired to the convent of San Sisto in June 1497 to await the outcome of the annulment proceedings, which were finalized in December of that year. The bodies of Pedro Calderon,^[14] and a maid, Pantasilea, were found in the Tiber in February 1498. In March 1498, the Ferrarese ambassador claimed that Lucrezia had given birth, but this was denied by other sources. A child was born, however, in the Borgia household the year before Lucrezia's marriage to Alfonso of Aragon. He was named Giovanni but is known to historians as the "Infans Romanus".

In 1501, two papal bulls were issued concerning the child, Giovanni Borgia. In the first, he was recognized as Cesare's child from an affair before his marriage. The second, contradictory, bull recognized him as the son of Pope Alexander VI. Lucrezia's name is not mentioned in either, and rumors that she was his mother have never been proved. The second bull was kept secret for many years, and Giovanni was assumed to be Cesare's son. This is supported by the fact that in 1502 he became Duke of Camerino, one of Cesare's recent conquests, hence the natural inheritance of the Duke of Romagna's oldest son. Giovanni went to stay with Lucrezia in Ferrara after Alexander's death, where he was accepted as her half-brother.

Tomb of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia, Ferrara

Second marriage: Alfonso d'Aragon (Duke of Bisceglie)

Following her annulment from Sforza, Lucrezia was married to the Neapolitan Alfonso of Aragon, the half-brother of Sancha of Aragon who was the wife of Lucrezia's brother Gioffre Borgia. The marriage was a short one. They were married in 1498; Lucrezia—not her husband—was appointed governor of Spoleto in 1499; Alfonso fled Rome shortly afterwards but returned at Lucrezia's request, only to be murdered in 1500.^[15] It was widely rumored that Lucrezia's brother Cesare was responsible for Alfonso's death, as he had recently allied himself (through marriage) with France against Naples. Lucrezia and Alfonso had one child, Rodrigo of Aragon, who predeceased his mother in August 1512 at the age of 12.

Third marriage: Alfonso d'Este (Duke of Ferrara)

After the death of Lucrezia's second husband, her father, Pope Alexander VI, arranged a third marriage. She then married Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara in early 1502 in Ferrara.

She had ten children during this marriage.

She was considered a respectable and accomplished Renaissance duchess, effectively rising above her previous reputation and surviving the fall of the Borgias following her father's death.

Neither partner was faithful: beginning in 1503, Lucrezia enjoyed a long relationship with her brother-in-law, Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua;^[16][17] as well as a love affair with the poet Pietro Bembo. Francesco's wife was the cultured intellectual Isabella d'Este, the sister of Alfonso, to whom Lucrezia had made overtures of friendship to no avail. The affair between Francesco and Lucrezia was passionate, more sexual than sentimental as can be attested in the fevered love letters the pair wrote one another.^[18] The affair ended when Francesco contracted syphilis and had to end sexual relations with Lucrezia.^[19]

Lucrezia met the famed French soldier, the Chevalier Bayard while the latter was co-commanding the French allied garrison of Ferrara in 1510. According to his biographer, the Chevalier became a great admirer of Lucrezia's, considering her a "pearl among women". How much she returned his admiration is unknown.

Lucrezia Borgia died in Ferrara on 24 June 1519 from complications after giving birth to her tenth child, having had a long history of complicated pregnancies and miscarriages. She was buried in the convent of Corpus Domini.^[20] On 15 October 1816, the Romantic poet Lord Byron visited the Ambrosian Library of Milan. He was delighted by the letters between Borgia and Bembo ("The prettiest love letters in the world")^[21][22] and claimed to have managed to steal a lock of her hair ("the prettiest and fairest imaginable")^[22] held on display.^[23][24][25]

Issue

Lucrezia was mother to seven or eight known children:

1. Giovanni Borgia, "infans Romanus" ("Child of Rome", c. 1498–1548). The child's paternity was acknowledged by both Alexander and Cesare in two separate Papal bulls, but it was rumoured that he was the child of Lucrezia and Perotto. The child (identified in later life as Lucrezia's half-brother) was most likely the result of a liaison between Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI, Lucrezia's father) and an unknown mistress and was not Lucrezia's child.^[26]
2. Rodrigo of Aragon (1 November 1499 – August 1512). Son by Alfonso of Aragon;
3. A stillborn daughter (1502), First child by d'Este;
4. Alessandro d'Este (1507);
5. Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara (5 April 1508 – 3 October 1559);
6. Ippolito II d'Este (25 August 1509 – 1 December 1572). Archbishop of Milan and later Cardinal;
7. Alessandro d'Este (1514–1516).;
8. Leonora d'Este (3 July 1515 – 15 July 1575), a nun;
9. Francesco d'Este, Marquess of Massalombarda (1 November 1516 – 2 February 1578);
10. Isabella Maria d'Este (born and died on 14 June 1519). Complications at birth caused the death of Lucrezia ten days later.

At least one biographer (Maria Bellonci) claims that Lucrezia gave birth to three more children, one by Alfonso of Aragon and two by Alfonso d'Este, who did not survive infancy. She is also thought to have had at least four miscarriages.

Lucrezia is claimed to be the ancestor of many notable people, including American Civil War general P.G.T. Beauregard.^[27] She is a collateral relative of most of the royal families of modern Europe including that of the United Kingdom. Through her granddaughter Anna d'Este, Duchess of Guise and later Duchess of Nemours, Lucrezia is the ancestress of Juan Carlos I of Spain; Philippe of Belgium; Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg; as well as the Count of Paris and the claimants to the Thrones of Portugal, Austria, Bavaria, Brazil, Parma, Saxony and the Two Sicilies.

Rumours

Possible portrait of Lucrezia Borgia, Bartolomeo Veneziano (c. 1510).

Several rumours have persisted throughout the years, primarily speculating as to the nature of the extravagant parties thrown by the Borgia family. Many of these concern allegations of incest, poisoning, and murder on her part; however, no historical basis for these rumours has ever been brought forward beyond allegations made by rival parties.

• It is rumoured that Lucrezia was in possession of a hollow ring that she used frequently to poison drinks.^[28][29]
• An early 20th-century painting by Frank Cadogan Cowper that hangs in the London art gallery, Tate Britain, portrays Lucrezia taking the place of her father, Pope Alexander VI, at an official Vatican meeting. This apparently documents an actual event, although the precise moment depicted (a Franciscan friar kissing Lucrezia's feet) was invented by the artist.^[30]

Biographies

• Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love And Death In Renaissance Italy by Sarah Bradford; Viking 2004; ISBN 0-670-03353-7
• Lucrezia Borgia: A Biography by Rachel Erlanger; 1978; ISBN 0-8015-4725-3
• Lucrezia Borgia by Maria Bellonci; Phoenix 2002; ISBN 978-1-84212-616-5
• The Borgias (1971) by Michael Mallett
• Lucretia Borgia (1874?) by Ferdinand Gregorovius (Author); translated in 1903 by John Leslie Garner (Translator)
• The Borgias by Christopher Hibbert; Constable 2011; ISBN 978-1-84901-994-1
• Blood And Beauty by Sarah Dunant; ISBN 1-443-40644-9; ISBN 978-1-44340-644-4; Harper Collins Publishers Ltd | July 8, 2013 |

Treatments and references

Literature and opera

• Victor Hugo's 1833 stage play Lucrèce Borgia, loosely based on the stories of Lucrezia, was transformed into a libretto by Felice Romani for Donizetti's opera, Lucrezia Borgia (1834), first performed at La Scala, Milan, 26 December 1834.
• F. M. Klinger´s 1791 novel Fausts Leben, Thaten und Höllenfahrt features an episode in which the Borgias figure, including an affair between Faust and Lucrezia.
• Rafael Sabatini wrote the 1912 non-fiction book, The Life of Cesare Borgia,^[31] that attempts to treat the Borgias historically.
• The 1947 historical novel Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger describes the adventures of the fictional Andrea Orsini, a captain in the service of Cesare Borgia, during his conquest of the Romagna; it was made into a film of the same name in 1949, starring Orson Welles and Tyrone Power.
• Jean Plaidy's two 1958 novels, Madonna of the Seven Hills and Light On Lucrezia, follow the story of Lucrezia and her entanglement with her father and brothers.
• Lucrezia, Cesare and Alexander play key roles in Cecelia Holland's 1979 historical novel City of God: A Novel of the Borgias.^[32]

• Gregory Maguire's novel Mirror, Mirror (2003), a retelling of the Snow White tale, puts Lucrezia into the Wicked Queen role when she becomes jealous of young Bianca's beauty and plots to kill her.
• In Roberta Gellis's 2003 novel Lucrezia Borgia and the Mother of Poisons, Alfonso d'Este of Ferrara accuses Lucrezia of murder, and she must solve the crime and expose the true murderer.

Film and Television

• Lucrezia is the subject of Abel Gance's film Lucrèce Borgia (1935) and of a French film of the same name in 1953, played by Martine Carol.
• In the Showtime television series The Borgias, Lucrezia is played by English actress Holliday Grainger. Grainger's portrayal of Lucrezia is notable for showing the pope's daughter not as a ruthless murderess, but initially as an compassionate and sweet young girl who suffers from her family's ambitions, both struggling against and aiding them.
• In the Canal+ television series Borgia, Lucrezia is portrayed by German actress Isolda Dychauk.
• In the 2012 season of the CBBC series Horrible Histories, Lucrezia was played by actress Martha Howe-Douglas in an Addams Family parody, entitled The Borgia Family.

Other

• In the 2010 video game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Lucrezia acts as an antagonist along with Cesare and Rodrigo. In the game the incestuous relationship between Cesare and Lucrezia is depicted openly.
• The 1988 song "Lucretia My Reflection" by the English goth rock band The Sisters of Mercy off their Floodland album was written by band vocalist Andrew Eldritch for band mate Patricia Morrison, in which he speaks "she always strikes me as a Lucretia [Borgia]-type person". The lyrics of the song refers to the fall of empire (quite possibly referring to the Papal empire), war (quite likely referencing and objectifying religious politics of the time, and intimidation threats and assassination methods utilized by her mafio-esque family) and the consequent destruction of other aspects of life (possibly in reference to the aftershocks involving the personal antics of the Borgias, their political intrigue and ecclesiastical perversions she, Cesare and Rodrigo thrust upon the Roman populace).
• Buffalo Bill Cody used a Springfield Model 1866, caliber .50-70 rifle, nicknamed Lucrezia Borgia, to shoot buffalo for feeding the track workers employed by Kansas Pacific Railroad during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.
• In the The Three Stooges episode "If a Body Meets a Body" Moe Howard calls Curly Howard Lucrezia Borgia for serving up Horseshoe soup: "You get out of this house before I split your head open from ear to ear, you Lucrezia Borgia".
• In the M*A*S*H season 9 episode "Depressing News," Corporal Klinger and Major Winchester have a conversation about a newspaper that Klinger is printing and trying to sell. Klinger: "And then there's Igor's gourmet cooking column." Winchester:' "Whose gourmet column!?!" Klinger: "Igor. Igor Straminsky." Winchester: "That beady-eyed simpleton is writing a column about gourmet cooking!?!" Klinger: "Nobody knows more about that stuff than Igor." Winchester: "Lucrezia Borgia knows more!"
• In the Star Trek: The Original Series season 1 episode "The Man Trap," there is an indigenous poisonous plant on Planet M-113 named Borgia, which is initially blamed for the death of Crewman Darnell.
• The Vocaloid song "Cantarella" (named after the poison) has its characters, represented by Hatsune Miku and KAITO, to be personifying Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia.

See also

• Castello Borgia
• Felice della Rovere
• Route of the Borgias

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lucrezia Borgia.

• Lucrezia Borgia: The Family Tree in Pictures
• Lucretia Borgia at the Internet Movie Database
• DIARIO DE LOS BORJA BORGIA