Lucrezia Borgia
gigatos | February 6, 2022
Summary
Lucrezia Borgia, in Valencian: Lucrècia Borja; in Spanish: Lucrecia de Borja; in Latin: Lucretia Borgia (Subiaco, April 18, 1480 – Ferrara, June 24, 1519), was an Italian noblewoman of Spanish origin.
The illegitimate third child of Pope Alexander VI (born Rodrigo Borgia) and Vannozza Cattanei, she was one of the most controversial female figures of the Italian Renaissance.
Since the age of eleven she was subject to the politics of marriage connected to the political ambitions first of her father and then of her brother Cesare Borgia. When her father ascended to the papal throne he initially gave her in marriage to Giovanni Sforza, but a few years later, following the annulment of the marriage, Lucrezia married Alfonso of Aragon, illegitimate son of Alfonso II of Naples. A further change of alliances, which brought the Borgias closer to the pro-French party, led to the assassination of Alfonso, by order of Cesare.
After a brief period of mourning spent in Nepi with her son by Alfonso, Lucrezia took an active part in the negotiations for her third marriage, to Alfonso I d”Este, eldest son of Duke Ercole I of Ferrara, who had to, albeit reluctantly, accept her in marriage. At the Este court Lucrezia made to forget her origin of illegitimate daughter of the pope, her two failed marriages and her stormy past; in fact, thanks to her beauty and her intelligence, she was well liked both by the new family and by the population of Ferrara.
Perfect renaissance château, she acquired the reputation of an able politician and shrewd diplomat, so much so that her husband entrusted her with the political and administrative management of the duchy when he had to be away from Ferrara. She was also an active patron of the arts, welcoming to court poets and humanists such as Ludovico Ariosto, Pietro Bembo, Gian Giorgio Trissino and Ercole Strozzi.
Since 1512, because of the misfortunes that struck her and the house of Ferrara, Lucrezia began to wear the cilice, enrolled in the Franciscan Third Order, joined the followers of St. Bernardine of Siena and St. Catherine and founded the Monte di Pietà of Ferrara to help the poor. He died in 1519, at the age of thirty-nine, for complications due to childbirth.
The figure of Lucrezia has taken on different nuances throughout historical periods. For a certain historiography, especially the nineteenth century, the Borgias have come to embody the symbol of ruthless Machiavellian politics and sexual corruption attributed to the Renaissance popes. Lucrezia”s reputation was tarnished by Giovanni Sforza”s accusation of incest against his wife”s family, to which was later added the reputation of poisoner, due in particular to the tragedy of the same name by Victor Hugo, later set to music by Gaetano Donizetti: in this way the figure of Lucrezia was associated with that of femme fatale participant in the crimes committed by her family.
She was born in Subiaco on April 18, 1480, the third daughter of the Spanish cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, archbishop of Valencia, who in 1492 would be elected Pope of the Catholic Church with the name of Alexander VI. Her mother was a woman from Mantua, Vannozza Cattanei, Rodrigo”s lover for fifteen years.
The child was baptized Lucrezia and was the only daughter Rodrigo had of Vannozza. The family already included two brothers, Cesare and Juan and, two years later, the little Jofré would be added. Rodrigo Borgia actually had three other children, born of unknown mothers and older than those of Vannozza: Pedro Luìs, Girolama and Isabella, who had little relationship with the other half-brothers. Rodrigo, while secretly recognizing them at the moment of their birth, hid well, at least initially, the existence of the children, so much so that a Mantuan messenger, in February 1492, spoke of Cesare and Juan as nephews of the cardinal.
The young Borgias were very influenced by their Valencian origins and were very close to each other. In particular Lucrezia bound herself more intimately to Cesare and a feeling of mutual love and loyalty existed between them. However, the awareness of being regarded with contempt as foreigners strengthened the sense of cohesion of the Borgias among themselves, so much so that they hired to their services mainly relatives or compatriots, convinced that they were the only ones they could really trust.
Probably the first years Lucrezia lived with Vannozza in the house in Piazza Pizzo di Merlo in Rome, as Rodrigo initially kept the existence of his children as secret as possible. She was much loved by her father who, according to some chroniclers, loved her “in superlative degree”. With her mother, instead, Lucrezia always had a detached relationship. Later she was entrusted to the care of a cousin of her father, Adriana Mila, widow of the nobleman Ludovico Orsini. This head of the family submitted herself entirely to the interests of Rodrigo, acting as guardian of Lucrezia and favoring the relationship of the cardinal with the fourteen years old Giulia Farnese Orsini, his daughter-in-law. The great friendship that was born between Giulia and Lucrezia allowed the latter not to grieve at the departure of Cesare for the university of Perugia and at the death of her half-brother Pedro Luìs.
Lucrezia grew up, like the other female figures in her family, completely subject to the “male sexual power and dominance” of her father Rodrigo. She possessed the same sensuality and indifference to sexual morality as her father and brothers, but she also knew how to be kind and compassionate.
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Youth
Raised by Adriana, Lucrezia received a complete education: thanks to good tutors, including Carlo Canale (Vannozza”s last husband) who initiated her into poetry, she learned Spanish, French, Italian and a little Latin, but also music, dance, drawing and embroidery. She was also taught to express herself with elegance and eloquence. In the convent of San Sisto she also learned religious practices.
At the age of eleven Lucrezia was promised in wife twice to Spanish suitors: Cardinal Borgia had in fact imagined a future in Spain for his children. In February 1491 the chosen one was initially Don Cherubino Juan de Centelles, with a contract that provided for a dowry of 30.000 timbres divided in part in money and in part in jewels given to the bride by the Borgia family, signed on February 26th; two months later Rodrigo Borgia stipulated new nuptial pacts with another Valencian, Gaspare di Procida, son of the Count of Aversa. But in 1492, following the election to the papal throne with the name of Alexander VI, Rodrigo broke both engagements in exchange for rewards to the families of the two suitors.
When he became Pope Alexander VI, the matrimonial plans regarding Lucrezia underwent a profound change: being now able to aim much higher than simple Spanish nobles, the pontiff tried to settle his daughter in Italy, with the vision of making powerful political alliances with the noble families. At the time, in fact, there was a proliferation of alliances between Italian ruling families, and the Borgias took advantage of this situation for their plans to dominate the peninsula. It was Cardinal Ascanio Sforza who proposed to the Pope the name of his nephew, Giovanni Sforza, the 27-year-old lord of Pesaro, a papal fief. Thanks to this marriage, Alexander VI stipulated an alliance with the powerful Sforza family, establishing a defensive league of the Church state (April 25, 1493) to prevent the imminent French invasion by Charles VIII, to the detriment of the kingdom of Naples.
During this period the Pope gave Lucrezia the palace of Santa Maria in Portico. Adriana Mila managed her niece”s house, with Giulia Farnese acting as lady-in-waiting. Soon the house became a worldly meeting point, frequented by relatives, friends, flatterers, noble gentlewomen and envoys from princely houses. Among these envoys, while visiting Rome in 1492, came to Lucrezia also Alfonso d”Este, who would become her third husband.
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Countess of Pesaro
On February 2, 1493, the marriage by proxy was celebrated between the twelve-year-old Lucrezia and the twenty-six-year-old Giovanni Sforza. On June 2, 1493, when the Count of Pesaro arrived in Rome, the two future spouses met for the first time. On June 12, the religious wedding was celebrated in the Borgia Apartment. Lucrezia”s grace was praised by the speakers of the time: “she carries her person so sweetly that she seems not to move”. After a sumptuous dinner, Lucrezia was not led to the nuptial bed as was customary, because the Pope did not want the marriage to be consummated before five months, perhaps because of the physical acerbity of the bride or perhaps to reserve the possibility of canceling it in case of a change in his political objectives. In early August, for fear of the plague that had struck the city, Giovanni Sforza left Rome and it is unclear whether Lucrezia followed him.
Although she became Countess of Pesaro, nothing had changed for Lucrezia except her social position: being a married woman had given her a greater importance. Although she continued to spend her days devoting herself to various amusements, she began to receive homage, reverence and pleas for intercession with the Pope, and even though she was young she already clearly showed a remarkable maturity: in fact, a contemporary described her as a “dignitissima madonna” (a very dignified madonna). The husband returned to Rome before Christmas and spent the holidays with his wife, but at that time the Pope changed alliances by siding with the Aragonese of Naples, through the marriage of Jofré Borgia with Sancha of Aragon: in this way he did not recognize the claims of Charles VIII of France for the dominion over the Neapolitan lands.
After a few months Lucrezia accompanied her husband to Pesaro, followed by Adriana and Giulia who had the obligation to watch over her. They arrived in Pesaro on June 8 where the local nobility offered a good welcome to the new countess and Sforza satisfied every desire of his guests. Lucrezia had a great time in Pesaro, so much so that she forgot to write regularly to her troubled father, and became close friends with the beautiful Caterina Gonzaga, wife of Ottaviano da Montevecchio, who used this relationship to favor and protect her family. Shortly afterwards, Lucrezia was reproached by her father for not having prevented Adriana and Giulia from going to Capodimonte to the bedside of Angelo Farnese, Giulia”s brother, to which they arrived too late. Lucrezia answered to her father”s accusations, demonstrating to have perfectly understood the political situation in which the pope found himself.
During the invasion in Italy of the French army led by Charles VIII, Lucrezia remained safe in Pesaro, leading a luxurious life. Alexander VI succeeded, through his diplomatic skills and flattery, not to be damaged by the French invasion and shortly after created a Holy League against France (March 31, 1495): the army of the coalition, led by Francesco Gonzaga Marquis of Mantua, defeated the French in the battle of Fornovo. Lucrezia returned to Rome after Easter of that year, while the position of her husband was becoming more and more ambiguous: the Pope had ordered him to leave Pesaro and to place himself at his service, while Giovanni intended to place himself entirely under the leadership of Ludovico il Moro.
In March 1496 Lucrezia met Francesco Gonzaga, when the latter was going to Naples with the army of the Holy League. When also Giovanni Sforza left Rome with his army to help the marquis, after having taken several money from the Pope and refused several times to leave, worrying rumors circulated about his wedding; the Mantuan ambassador wrote: “Maybe he has at home what others don”t think” adding ambiguously that he had left Lucrezia “under the apostolic mantle”.
In May, Jofré and Sancha, who had lived in Naples until then, arrived in Rome. In a short time Lucrezia and Sancha became good friends. On August 10, 1496 returned to Rome also Juan Borgia, who in 1493 had gone to Spain as Duke of Gandia, marrying a cousin of King Ferdinand II of Aragon. Alexander VI entrusted him with the task of leading the papal army against the Orsini family, who had betrayed the Pope during the French invasion, but the young Borgia”s campaign resulted in a complete disaster.
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The annulment of the wedding and the presumed relationship with Perotto
On March 26, 1497, Easter Day, Giovanni Sforza fled from Rome. This sudden escape was said to be due to the fear for the Sforza to be killed by the Borgias and that had been the same Lucrezia to warn her husband. Alexander VI ordered his son-in-law to return, but he refused several times. Ludovico il Moro tried to mediate with the Lord of Pesaro asking him the real reason for the escape, and Sforza replied that the Pope was furious with him and that, for no reason, prevented his wife from reaching him. Later the Moor learned of the threats that the Pope had made to Giovanni and was surprised to receive a request from the pontiff to convince Giovanni to return to Rome. Finally, on June 1, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza informed the Moor that the Pope intended to dissolve the marriage.
In order to obtain the separation the Pope affirmed that the marriage was not valid because Lucrezia was already promised to the Lord of Procida Gaspare d”Aversa and that in any case Sforza was impotent and therefore had not consummated the marriage: in this way it was possible to start a process for annulment. Giovanni Sforza then accused the Pope of incest with his daughter. Ludovico il Moro dropped the insinuation to avoid clamor and proposed to his cousin to prove that he was able to consummate the marriage, a test in front of witnesses (a sexual relationship with his wife or other women in front of witnesses accepted by both parties) but Giovanni opposed. In the meantime Lucrezia took refuge in the convent of San Sisto, to escape the clamor aroused by her matrimonial affair. In the convent, in the middle of June, she received the news of the murder of her brother Juan, whose instigator was never officially discovered.
Shortly thereafter, the Sforza family removed all support for the Count of Pesaro to prevent the Pope from being further angered by Giovanni”s procrastination in agreeing to the annulment. Having no choice, the Count signed before witnesses both a confession of impotence and the document of nullity (November 18, 1497). Lucrezia confirmed all that her father had made her sign regarding the non-consummation of the marriage before the canonical judges, who, satisfied, declared her virgo intacta, without even making her visit the matrons (12 December 1497). Lucrezia thanked them in Latin, “with such kindness that if she had been a Tullio Cicerone she could not have said more wittily and with greater grace”.
The clamor aroused by the event of the annulment of her wedding brought a high price for the reputation of Lucrezia. Few believed in the impotence of the Count of Pesaro and the idea that she was a virgin: the accusation of incest against the Borgia family took hold. A few months later, Lucrezia was involved in a new scandal. On February 14, 1498, the corpse of Pedro Calderón, familiarly called Perotto, a young Spanish servant of the Pope, was found in the Tiber. According to the master of papal ceremonies, Burcardo, the young man “had fallen into the Tiber certainly not on his own initiative,” adding that “there was a lot of talk in the city.” In his Diarii, the Venetian Marin Sanudo recounts that along with Perotto, the body of one of Lucrezia”s ladies named Pantasilea was also found. Many speakers pointed to Caesar as the instigator of the double murder for reasons closely related to Lucrezia, who had probably become pregnant by the young Spaniard. Since at that time the second wedding of Lucretia was being organized, Caesar would not have allowed anyone to hinder his and his father”s plans on his sister and for this reason he would have taken revenge on the people responsible for the affair.
In a report dated March 18, a speaker from Ferrara informed Duke Ercole of the birth of the Pope”s daughter. Of this child who would have been born in the convent of San Sisto and whose existence would be proved according to some historians by the tragic end of Perotto and Pantasilea, nothing more was known. Some historians have identified it with the infans Romanus, Giovanni Borgia, son of Alexander VI and therefore half-brother of Lucrezia, born in that period, whom she will always take care of with great affection.
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Duchess of Bisceglie
When Lucrezia returned to the palace of Santa Maria in Portico the negotiations for her second marriage had already been concluded. With a dowry fixed at 40,000 gold ducats she would have married Alfonso of Aragon, illegitimate son of Alfonso II of Naples, and brother of Sancha. The marriage, organized by the Pope and by Cesare, who had thrown down the cardinal”s purple, would have served to bring the Borgias closer to the throne of Naples, together with the much more rewarding marriage between Cesare and Carlotta of Aragon, legitimate daughter of Frederick I of Naples: the latter wedding, however, did not take place, to the great disappointment of the Pope. So Caesar went to the court of Louis XII of France and married Charlotte d”Albret, sister of the King of Navarra.
The wedding of Lucrezia took place, in front of a few intimates, in the Borgia Apartment on July 21, 1498. For Lucrezia, who immediately fell in love with her husband, the figure of the seventeen year old Duke of Bisceglie was not entirely unfamiliar, since her sister Sancha had often sung his praises in front of her: contemporaries were unanimous in recognizing him as “the most beautiful adolescent ever seen in Rome”. In the following months Lucrezia and Alfonso lived serenely, holding court, receiving poets, men of letters, princes and cardinals. Under the protection of the Dukes of Bisceglie was formed a small Aragonese party that later impensierirà Cesare Borgia. Lucrezia in fact, although detesting politics, had learned how to move to safeguard their interests during the political intrigues.
On February 9, 1499, Lucrezia had a miscarriage due to a fall. This loss did not discourage the couple: two months later Lucrezia was pregnant again. At that time, the news of the marriage of Cesare with Charlotte d”Albret rejoiced Lucrezia, but not Alfonso and Sancha because they understood that the alliances of the Borgias had changed again: to get married, the Valentine had to support militarily the reconquest of Milanese and the kingdom of Naples by Louis XII. The Pope tried to calm Alfonso”s growing anxiety, but he fled and took refuge in Genazzano, leaving his wife, six months pregnant, in despair. Enraged, Alexander VI banished Sancha from Rome and put guards on the Palace of Santa Maria in Portico when he learned that Alfonso was inciting Lucrezia to join him in Genazzano. To prevent the two children left without a spouse from being tempted to join them, Alexander VI opted to send Jofré and Lucrezia to Spoleto, appointing the latter as governor of the duchy.
Having placed his children in Spoleto, the main stronghold north of Rome, the Pope showed his adherence to the French party. Lucrezia and her brother, previously united to the Neapolitan lineage by Cesare, were forced, again by his will, to abandon the interests of their adopted house and keep Spoleto, so as to block any possible Neapolitan troops sent to help the Duchy of Milan invaded by the French army led by Cesare and Louis XII.
A Spoleto the Borgia brothers received a warm welcome and, unlike his brother who preferred to devote himself to hunting, Lucrezia engaged in his task of governor: among other things instituted a body of marshals to ensure the city order and imposed a truce with the rival city of Terni. A month after his arrival came from her Alfonso, that Alexander VI had managed to reassure giving him the city and the territory of Nepi. On October 14 Lucrezia returned to Rome together with Alfonso and Jofré. On the night of October 31, Lucrezia gave birth to a child who was baptized Rodrigo of Aragon.
On June 29, 1500 a violent storm made a chimney collapse on the roof of the Vatican: the rubble collapsed on the internal floors killing three people, while the pope was extracted unconscious and slightly wounded in the forehead, without however reporting consequences. This led Caesar to try to maintain, in case of the sudden death of his father, the exceptional fortune he had obtained from the continuous victories in Romagna. He succeeded in obtaining the support of France and of the Republic of Venice, while he did not have the same support from Naples and Spain, which found a possible adversary to Caesar in the husband of his sister, Alfonso of Aragon.
It was so that on the night of July 15, 1500 Alfonso was attacked by armed men and, while trying to defend himself, was seriously wounded in the head and limbs. Lucrezia and Sancha, Alfonso”s sister, took care of the man by keeping watch at his bedside and never leaving him alone. Believing Cesare responsible for the attack, they asked the pope for an armed escort to guard the duke”s room, called doctors especially from Naples and personally prepared the food for fear of poisoning.
On August 18, with a deception, Lucrezia and Sancha were removed from the room of the sick and Alfonso, now out of danger and on the way to recovery, was strangled by Michelotto Corella, personal assassin of Caesar. “The same evening,” writes Burcardo, “around the first hour of the night, the corpse of the Duke of Bisceglie was transported to the basilica of St. Peter and laid in the chapel of Our Lady of Fevers. Cesare, who had initially spread the rumor that it was the Orsini to plot the murder, justified himself to his father by saying that his brother-in-law had tried to kill him with a crossbow shot: while Alexander VI accepted the explanation, Lucrezia, desperate for the death of her husband, did not do it.
Furious with her father and brother, Lucrezia was left alone to cry with Sancha and was seized by a very high fever with delirium, refusing even to eat. Because of her ostentatious grief, her father began to treat her coldly: “Before, she was in grace of the pope madonna Lucrezia his daughter as she is wise and liberal, but now the pope does not love her so much” wrote the Venetian ambassador Polo Capello.
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The turning point
At Nepi, where Lucrezia was sent together with little Rodrigo on August 31 (to quiet any possible animosity with her father and with Cesare), she passed the period of mourning. “The reason for this journey was to seek some consolation or distraction from the commotion that the death of the most illustrious Alfonso of Aragon, her husband, had caused him,” wrote Burcardo. The stay in Nepi lasted until November. To this period dates back a secret correspondence between Lucrezia and Vincenzo Giordano, her confidant and probably her butler. The letters initially concerned mourning clothes for her, her son and the servants, but also the order to celebrate masses for the deceased; soon afterwards, however, the theme of the letters became more mysterious, with hints of the internal intrigues of the Vatican.
Back in Rome, she was called to the Vatican and she was proposed marriage by the Duke of Gravina, already her suitor in 1498. Lucrezia, however, declined the offer and, as reported by the Venetian chronicler Sanudo, when asked by the pope why she had refused, she answered loudly and in the presence of other people “because my husbands are unfortunate”. The fact that at that time the number of suitors for Lucrezia was high, shows that many high-ranking families were interested in tying themselves to the Borgias through marriage with the pope”s daughter.
Many historians agree that this period was fundamental for Lucretia: she understood that it was time to leave the Roman environment, now too oppressive and lacking the security she needed, looking for someone who could counterbalance the strength of her relatives.
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The third marriage
Lucrezia”s aspirations were realized when negotiations began for her marriage to Alfonso d”Este, son of Ercole Duke of Ferrara, in order to strengthen Cesare”s power in Romagna. Thanks to this marriage Lucrezia would become part of one of the most ancient families of Italy.
However, the Este family resisted, also due to the infamous rumors about Lucrezia. To overcome this reticence, the Pope imposed his will on Louis XII, protector of Ferrara, whose approval would have had a decisive weight in the negotiations. Alexander VI blackmailed the king specifying that he would have recognized the rights of the French on the throne of Naples if he had convinced the Este family to approve the wedding. Louis XII was forced to accept, but advised Ercole to sell dearly the honor of his family. Ercole requested from the Pope a doubling of the proposed 100,000 ducats and other benefits to the duchy and to relatives and friends.
In July 1501, during the negotiations, in order to demonstrate how Lucrezia was capable of great responsibility and therefore a worthy Duchess of Este, Alexander VI entrusted her with the administration of the Vatican, while he went to Sermoneta. This fact, however, did not indignate the intimates of the Vatican, already accustomed to the strangeness and excesses of the pontiff.
The wedding contract was drawn up in the Vatican on 26th August 1501, and the wedding by proxy in Ferrara took place on 1st September: when, four days later, the news was made public in Rome there were great celebrations and Lucrezia went to give thanks to the Virgin in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo. This time she was herself an active part in the matrimonial negotiations and also received some letters from Duke Ercole. In mid-December, the Ferrarese escort who was to accompany the bride to Ferrara, led by Cardinal Ippolito d”Este, Alfonso”s brother, arrived in Rome. At the official presentation of Lucrezia to her new relatives, they were stunned and bewitched by the splendor of the woman. On the evening of 30th December 1501 Lucrezia received her nuptial blessing. Days of festivities followed while the money Lucrezia brought as dowry was meticulously counted.
On January 6, after greeting friends and relatives, she went to her father and Caesar for a long conversation in strict Valencian dialect. Afterwards, in Italian and in a loud voice, Alexander VI urged her to stay calm and to write to him for “whatever” she wished, “because he, she absent, much more than that Finally, having received the last blessing from the Pope, Lucrezia left for Ferrara, while on Rome began to snow.
On January 31, after having crossed the center of Italy passing also through Urbino and Bologna, the procession stopped in Bentivoglio, in the holiday residence of the homonymous lords of Bologna: Lucrezia received with kindness and respect her husband who, after two hours of conversation, left her to precede her to Ferrara. On the 1st of February, in Malalbergo, Lucrezia met her sister-in-law Isabella d”Este with whom she would establish a relationship of secret conflict: both would contend until the end for the role of prima donna at the Este court. At Torre Fossa she met Duke Ercole, the rest of the Este family and the court of Ferrara. On February 2, the day of the purification of the Virgin, Lucrezia made a solemn entrance in Ferrara, welcomed with joy by the inhabitants of the city. After a rich reception, Lucrezia went to her apartments, where shortly afterwards she was joined by Alfonso and, according to what Isabella”s chancellor told the Duke of Mantua, that night the marriage was consummated three times.
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New life at the Este Court
After the sumptuous celebrations due to the wedding, life at the court of Ferrara resumed its daily rhythms. Lucrezia tried to adapt to the new environment, but in a short time disagreements arose on the 10.000 ducats given to her by Duke Ercole, which she considered too small considering the enormous dowry she had brought to the Este family. The effects of her discontent had repercussions on her relationships with her gentlemen and gentlewomen from Ferrara, who complained about the preference Lucrezia showed for Spanish and Roman women: in fact, Lucrezia did not care about being popular as much as creating a company around her that she could trust blindly, without a shadow of suspicion.
In spring Lucrezia became pregnant with Alfonso but the pregnancy proved difficult, also because of the news about the sack that the troops of Cesare had made in Urbino, a city that had welcomed her sumptuously a short time before. These events, together with the discovery in the Tiber of the corpse of Astorre Manfredi, who had been held for some time in Castel Sant”Angelo, put the Borgias in an even worse light, and only after having made inquiries among the Spaniards did the people of Ferrara become convinced that Lucrezia”s expressions of sorrow were true.
In the summer Lucrezia was infected by an epidemic of fever that had struck Ferrara. On September 5 she was seized by convulsions and gave birth to a dead baby girl. The difficult situation was overcome and the period of convalescence was spent in the monastery of Corpus Domini. Both on the way there and on the way back, Lucrezia was acclaimed by the people and well received by the courtiers.
The warlike prowess of Cesare brought the fame of the Borgia family to its peak, instilling a certain fear, and as a consequence, Lucrezia received more consideration from the Este family, so much so that the duke decided to increase her appanage. Since Ercole was a widower, Lucrezia began to be called “the duchess”, also occupying positions of representation in public celebrations. Thanks to her love for culture she made the court of Ferrara become the fulcrum of a group of men of letters, among which there was also Ercole Strozzi, whom she took under her protection offering him a preferential friendship. He was the one who told Lucrezia about the Venetian warehouses, not far from Ferrara, where she sent him to buy royal fabrics, golden brocades and other shades on credit. As a revenge against her father-in-law”s avarice, Lucrezia”s expenses far exceeded the amount granted to her.
It was also Strozzi who introduced her to his close friend, the humanist Pietro Bembo. His intellectual prestige, accompanied by his physical appearance, impressed Lucrezia, who began a pleasant exchange of rhymes and verses with Bembo. After a few months, as the correspondence between the two testifies, the platonic love became more passionate, so that, when the poet fell ill in July 1503, she went to visit him.
At Medelana, where the court had taken refuge to escape the plague, Lucrezia received the news of the death of Alexander VI, which occurred on August 18. Lucrezia closed herself in a tight mourning, to which no member of the Este family joined. The only ones who stood by her were Ercole Strozzi and Pietro Bembo. The latter wrote her a letter to comfort her and to suggest her not to show herself too much in despair, in order not to give rise to rumors that her sadness depended not only on the death of her father, but also on the fear of a repudiation by her husband. In fact, Lucrezia had not yet succeeded in giving Alfonso an heir, but she had nevertheless managed to make herself well liked by the people of Ferrara and her father-in-law Ercole d”Este.
The Borgias” misfortune increased when, after the brief pontificate of Pius III, Pope Julius II, a declared enemy of the Valencian family, was elected. The new pontiff ordered the Valentino family to immediately return all the fortresses conquered in Romagna to the Papal State. Cesare refused, supported by Lucrezia who defended through a small army of mercenaries the duchy of Romagna of her brother. The Republic of Venice took action in favor of the Pope, helping many lords to regain the domains taken away from them by Valentino, however the army of mercenaries of Lucrezia was able to defeat the Venetians, defending Cesena and Imola.
Lucrezia also dealt with the fate of her son Rodrigo and Giovanni Borgia, the Infans Romanus, his half-brother. Duke Ercole opposed to having Rodrigo arrive in Ferrara and advised her to send him to Spain, but Lucrezia refused and entrusted the child to his father”s relatives, so that she could keep her Neapolitan possessions. Giovanni grew up instead in Carpi together with Girolamo and Camilla, the two illegitimate children that Cesare Borgia had had by one of Lucrezia”s ladies in waiting.
Julius II complained about Lucrezia”s behavior to Duke Ercole, who replied that he did not participate in these actions, because the one thousand infantrymen and five hundred archers were paid only by his daughter-in-law. Nevertheless, Ercole secretly supported Lucrezia”s actions, preferring that Romagna continue to be dominated by several small lords rather than by the pontiff or the nearby power of the Republic of Venice. However, Cesare was captured on the orders of Julius II. Once in prison, in exchange for freedom, he agreed to part of the papal demands. Once free he took refuge in Naples, where he was arrested with the complicity of Sancha of Aragon and the widow of Juan Borgia, and finally imprisoned in Spain.
Ercole d”Este died of illness on January 25, 1505 and the next day Alfonso was crowned duke. After the ceremony Lucrezia and Alfonso received ovations and applause from the people of Ferrara.
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Duchess of Ferrara
When she became duchess, out of respect for the moment that imposed a new official dignity on her and perhaps because of suspicions on the part of Alfonso, Lucrezia decided to abandon her platonic liaison with Pietro Bembo, probably in a consensual manner. In February 1505, however, the poet dedicated to her Gli Asolani, a work that disquisiva of love. Pietro went to Urbino and until 1513 continued his correspondence with the duchess, which was marked by more formal tones.
On September 19, 1505, in Reggio, Lucrezia gave birth to a son named Alessandro, who, of weak constitution, died only after one month. Lucrezia was very sad: it was the second time she could not give an heir to the Este family. On that occasion her brother-in-law, Francesco Gonzaga, tried to console her by promising to intervene to have Cesare Borgia freed, which seemed to hearten her: Lucrezia still did her best to try to save him, through supplications and prayers.
Between the two brothers-in-law was born an intimate friendship. Francesco invited her to his estate in Borgoforte and Lucrezia gladly accepted. Afterwards the two brothers-in-law reached the duchess Isabella in Mantua, where Lucrezia was forced by her sister-in-law to have a general vision of all the works of art, the salons and the riches owned by the Gonzaga, in order to demonstrate their superiority to the duchess of Ferrara.
Back in Ferrara, Lucrezia found the court upset by a drama triggered by jealousy between Cardinal Ippolito and his half-brother Giulio. The issue was born because of the beautiful Angela Borgia, lady and cousin of Lucrezia, contended by both Giulio and Ippolito: the latter, rejected by the lady, had taken revenge on his half-brother by having him attacked by his servants disfiguring his face and blinding him in one eye. Alfonso tried to do justice, but could not punish his brother cardinal to avoid problems with the Holy See, however, demanded a reconciliation between the half-brothers.
The feud, however, was not healed even after the intervention of Duke Alfonso, who was accused by Giulio of not having done justice. It was in that period that Giulio organized with his brother Ferrante the assassination of the two older half-brothers. The conspiracy was discovered in July 1506 and Giulio and Ferrante were pardoned from the death penalty and sentenced to life imprisonment (unlike other conspirators who ended up decapitated or quartered).
Towards the end of 1506, Pope Julius II defeated the Bentivoglio and conquered Bologna. In the meantime Cesare Borgia managed to escape from the prison of Medina del Campo, taking refuge in Navarra from his brothers-in-law d”Albret. Lucrezia received the news from a Spanish messenger sent by Valentino to try to help him and she immediately did her best for him by sending him letters and trying to find for him the support of King Louis XII, who however refused to help Valentino now that he had fallen into disgrace.
Happy for the liberation of her brother, Lucrezia spent the carnival of 1507 having a lot of fun, also thanks to the presence at court of Francesco Gonzaga, for whom she felt a deeper and deeper affection. Lucrezia danced so impetuously with Francesco that she had an abortion. Alfonso did not hide that he held his wife responsible for the misfortune, however she recovered quickly and continued the celebrations.
In spring Alfonso left for Genoa where Louis XII was, leaving to Lucrezia the government of the duchy, something already happened in 1505 even though at that time the regency was also exercised by cardinal Ippolito. On April 20 arrived in Ferrara Juanito Grasica, faithful squire of Valentino, who brought the news of the death of Cesare Borgia. At the news Lucrezia showed “great prudence” and her “most constant mind” saying only: “The more I try to conform with God, the more I am visited by affanni”. But, when night came, her ladies heard her crying alone in her room. Finally, in honor of her brother, she had a funeral song written, in which Caesar was presented as the hero sent by Divine Providence to unify the Italian peninsula.
In the summer of 1507, after the return of her husband, Lucrezia became pregnant. She then began to devote herself to the pregnancy but, at the moment of delivery, Alfonso suddenly decided to go to Venice for a political trip. Even if the pretext was true, it seems that he did not want to see the loss of a new heir. On April 4, 1508 the future Ercole II was born, a healthy and robust child, and Lucrezia quickly recovered from the birth.
In the meantime, already during the summer of 1507, the relationship between Lucrezia and her brother-in-law became more and more passionate and secret. In order to hide the correspondence with the marquis, the duchess once again used Ercole Strozzi, already the intermediary between the Borgia and Pietro Bembo, who cultivated the sibylline feelings that Lucrezia felt towards her husband and who, as she wrote to Gonzaga, risked his life for them “a thousand times an hour”. Probably during the summer, the two brothers-in-law could find themselves in one of the Ferrara”s holiday resorts. To increase the risks of the relationship there was also the underground rivalry, known by Lucrezia, existing between the Marquis and Duke Alfonso.
In the weeks following the birth, a letter in which Lucrezia hoped for a reconciliation between the two men, so that Francesco could come to visit her freely, was probably intercepted and a spy, a certain Masino del Forno (an intimate of Cardinal Ippolito), would have set a trap for the Gonzaga, confusing him in order to lure him to Ferrara and thus prove his relationship with the duchess. The plan did not succeed and Lucrezia, Francesco and Strozzi increased the precautions, starting to burn the letters after having read them.
On June 4, 1508, Don Martino, a young Spanish priest who had been Cesare”s chaplain and had arrived in Ferrara a few months before, was found murdered under the porticoes of the church of San Paolo. Two days later, the corpse of Ercole Strozzi was found in the city, pierced by twenty-two stab wounds. No investigation was done, although Strozzi was one of the most important men in Ferrara. There is still mystery around this death. Afflicted because of the murder, Lucrezia resumed anyway the correspondence with her lover, through Lorenzo Strozzi, brother of the deceased Ercole.
In the meantime, Julius II, supported by the great European powers, declared war on Venice. At the head of the papal army was placed Alfonso that, through the war, intended to regain the Polesine. Even the Marquis of Mantua joined the alliance against the Venetians. Since her husband was at war, Lucrezia took care of governing the duchy together with a council of ten citizens. The papal artillery led by Alfonso defeated the Venetians at Agnadello, but on August 9, 1509 Francesco Gonzaga was captured by the Venetians. Lucrezia, who on August 25 gave birth to a child (the future Cardinal Ippolito II d”Este), was the only one to get in touch with Francesco and to worry about him during the imprisonment.
Having successfully concluded the military campaign against Venice, Julius II reversed the political alliances by declaring war on France. Alfonso refused to betray Louis XII and was excommunicated by the Pope. Francesco Gonzaga, after being forced to send his son Federico as a hostage to Julius II, was appointed Gonfalonier of the Church and placed at the head of the army against the Duchy of Ferrara. In agreement with his wife Isabella, the Marquis found a pretext not to attack the duchy of his brothers-in-law. In the meantime Alfonso with the help of the French contingent led by the knight Baiardo valiantly defended Ferrara, defeating the papal troops at the bastion of Fosso Geniolo (February 11, 1511).
Lucrezia as a perfect castellana did not show fear for the situation and received her victorious defenders with great honors, parties and banquets. The Baiardo defined her as “a pearl in this world” adding that “she was beautiful and good and sweet and courteous with everyone” and that she had “rendered good and great services” to her “wise and courageous” husband.
While on May 22 the Pope lost Bologna, reconquered by the Bentivoglio, Lucrezia retired to the convent of San Bernardino for health reasons. At that time there was also talk of her visiting Grenoble, the Queen of France who had expressed a desire to meet her, however she did not leave, perhaps because of another miscarriage.
In 1512, the death of Gaston de Foix and the flower of the French army induced Louis XII to retreat. Alfonso, left alone, decided to go to Rome as a penitent: the Pope welcomed him, removing the excommunication from him, his family and the city, but as a compensation, Alfonso would have to free his brothers Giulio and Ferrante and also leave the Duchy of Ferrara to the Pope in exchange for the county of Asti. Before he could give an answer, the duke fled aided by Fabrizio Colonna.
While she was anxious about her husband, Lucrezia received the news of the death of Rodrigo, the son she had had by her second husband. Despite the distance, Lucrezia had always taken care of the child and was shocked by his death, taking refuge for a month in the convent of San Bernardino. Only the return of Alfonso in Ferrara gave her some joy again. At the death of Julius II, who was preparing a new attack against the Este, Ferrara rejoiced. Thanks to Pietro Bembo, particular secretary of Pope Leone X, Ferrara and Mantova were reconciled with the Holy See.
At the end of the four years of war Lucrezia had changed: inclined to devotion, she had begun to wear a cilice under her shirts and stopped wearing low-cut dresses; she assiduously visited the churches of the city and listened to religious readings during meals; finally she joined the Franciscan Third Order to which the Marquis of Mantua also joined. All this did not prevent her from slowing down the pace of her pregnancies. In 1515 she gave birth to a little girl, baptized Eleonora, and in 1516 to a little boy called Francesco. The numerous pregnancies, alternating with miscarriages, weakened her a lot, but did not alter the beauty of the woman.
When Leo X showed hostile intentions towards the Este family, Alfonso requested and obtained the protection of King Francis I of France, going to the Valois court together with Giovanni Borgia, who had been under Lucrezia”s protection in Ferrara for a long time. In the meantime, the duchess was struck by various deaths: in 1516 her brother Jofré died, in 1518 her mother Vannozza died and on March 29, 1519 Francesco II Gonzaga died. The spring of 1519 was very difficult: being pregnant again and very fatigued, Lucrezia spent all her days in bed.
On June 14, she gave birth to a baby girl, baptized Isabella Maria, but the duchess fell ill with puerperal fevers and, to ease the torment, her hair was cut off. On 22 June she dictated a letter to request a plenary indulgence from the Pope. Finally, she signed her will in front of her husband. Before falling into a coma she affirmed: “I belong to God forever”. Lucrezia Borgia died on June 24, 1519 at the age of thirty-nine. Leaving her family and the city in deep mourning, she was buried in the Corpus Domini monastery, wearing the habit of a Franciscan tertiary.
As for the rest of the Borgia family, during and after her life Lucrezia was the object of gossip and accusations. Her scandalous fame was interrupted during her period in Ferrara, in which “no gossip had ever touched her”, writes Indro Montanelli in his Storia d”Italia, and then resumed after the death of the duchess. The most insistent rumors depicting her as “a kind of Messalina, intriguing, bloodthirsty, corrupt, not submissive, but accomplice of her father and brother”, were taken up and reported and handed down to posterity in the chronicles and in the books by the numerous enemies of the Borgias: among them Jacopo Sannazaro (who defined Lucrezia as “daughter, wife and daughter-in-law” of the pontiff) Giovanni Pontano,
The famous accusation of having had an incestuous relationship with his father was launched by Giovanni Sforza against the Pope during the wedding annulment trial with Lucrezia, during which the Lord of Pesaro was accused of impotence. Pro-Borgian historians have labeled the words of the Count of Pesaro as simple slander, launched during an outburst of anger due to wounded pride. It would not have been considered, writes Maria Bellonci (known biographer of Lucrezia), “the whole demeanor of the Sforza, from the thousand reticences of the first times, from the mysterious allusions to the cause of his escape, until his confession in Milan”, but also “the continuous references” later, continues Bellonci, “are to prove a certainty that was in him, alive present and cursed”.
On the other hand, it has been supposed that Giovanni Sforza could have mistaken for incestuous love the Pope”s warm attentions for his daughter. Alessandro VI possessed in fact a carnal and instinctive nature and used to show his affection towards his children and in particular towards Lucrezia with excessive transport, but also his delirium for the Duke of Gandia (and later for Cesare) “almost seems to be the blindness of a lover”. Maria Bellonci wonders if Sforza “had anything more than vices and suspicions”, but points out that, although accusing the pope, Giovanni did not blame his wife directly and indeed several times asked the pontiff to have her back: “one will have reasons to believe that she should be saved, or that nothing had happened and everything was limited to suspicions, or, in the most infernal of hypotheses, that in her there was only the error of a lost and subjugated assertion; the conscience the desire and the responsibility of incest remaining, if ever, on the other side.”
However, the accusation of incest spread rapidly in the Italian and European courts, making itself felt again during the negotiations for the wedding between Lucrezia and Alfonso of Aragon. To these was added the rumor of a certain sexual promiscuity of the girl, due to her relationship with Pedro Calderon: based on the popular rumors that were spreading in Rome and throughout Italy, the Venetian chronicler Giuliano Priuli would later define Lucrezia as “the greatest whore that was in Rome” and the Umbrian chronicler Matarazzo would describe her as “the one who carried the banner of whores”. It is likely, however, that Priuli and Matarazzo, who lived far from Rome, were referring to popular rumors opposed to the Borgias rather than to reliable testimony. In fact, although several Italian chroniclers of the time had reported on the relationship with Pedro Calderon, no one ever spoke of any other love affairs of Lucrezia.
Regarding the incest with the brothers, there were malicious insinuations that Cesare had his brother Juan killed not only because it hindered his political plans, but because he was jealous, since he was preferred “in love by madonna Lucrezia, common sister” says Guicciardini in his Storia d”Italia. As an English biographer of Lucrezia, Sarah Bradford, writes, the relationship that bound the Borgia brothers was very close, in particular that between Cesare and Lucrezia: “whether they had committed incest or not, without doubt Cesare and Lucrezia loved each other more than they loved anyone else, and they maintained their mutual fidelity until the end”. Also according to Maria Bellonci the accusation of fraternal incest is doubtful, since Giovanni Sforza made no allusion to his brothers-in-law in the accusations of incest made against the Borgias, while in them he openly accused the pope.
An important person to know about Lucrezia”s private life in Rome is Johannes Burckardt of Strasbourg, Italianized as Burcardo, master of ceremonies during the pontificate of Pope Borgia. In his diary called Liber Notarum he describes with precision and richness of detail the ceremonials and etiquettes of the papal court and does not fail to note some scenes and events that are anything but flattering for the Borgias and for Lucrezia herself. Although the puritanical mentality could have partly made him misrepresent the meaning of the Borgias” actions, historians generally consider him an objective source of information about the papal court. In fact, in his diary he never gossips or hurls accusations against the Borgias, but limits himself to describing in detail the facts, sometimes rough, often confirmed by other chroniclers of his contemporaries. If Burcardo had wanted to fill his diary with testimonies against the Borgias, he could have easily done so, but he barely mentions Giulia Farnese, Vannozza or the annulment of the marriage between Lucrezia and Giovanni Sforza, scandals that were much talked about in the Roman palaces and that could have been easily manipulated. For this reason there seems to be no reason to doubt the truthfulness of the two scabrous episodes reported by the master of ceremonies, both of which occurred during the period of negotiations for the third marriage of Lucrezia.
The first episode is the “cena delle cortigiane” (dinner of the courtesans), a party with orgiastic implications conceived by Cesare on the evening of October 31, 1501. According to the Florentine Francesco Pepi, “the Duke of Valentino had made fifty “cantoniere” courtesans come to the palace and all night they were in the mood for dancing and laughing”: after a quick dinner, the courtesans had come in and started dancing with servants and young men of the house, “primo in vestibus suis deinde nude”; late at night Cesare had the lit candelabra put on the ground and the naked women on all fours had to compete to pick up the chestnuts thrown to them, incited by the Pope, Cesare and “domina Lucretia sorore sua” writes Burcardo. The second episode narrated by the master of ceremonies took place on November 11, 1501, when from a window, Alexander VI and Lucretia watched “cum magno risu et delectatione” a wild scene of mounting between four stallions and two mares. Burcardo reports only these two isolated episodes with the participation of Lucretia, and if other episodes had occurred he would have probably noted them in his diary. For this reason, and since the two scenes took place shortly before Lucrezia”s departure for Ferrara, Maria Bellonci supposes that they were “shows of matrimonial initiation that would not have offended a woman already married twice”.
For centuries the reading of these two episodes has “aroused scandal and horror in puritanical or hypocritical commentators, while Lucretia”s exaltators do not want to believe that she could participate in such a sort of bacchanal” writes Geneviève Chastenet, Lucretia”s French biographer, concluding: “But this would mean forgetting that these were amusements perfectly in keeping with Renaissance customs”. Finally, many historians have tried to downplay the accusations of perversion levelled against her during the period she spent in Borgia-dominated Rome. “From her own experience, she could already know what an abominable world that was, in which she lived. However, those who believe that she or others similar to her saw and judged it as we do today, or perhaps some few who were animated by purer feelings did, are wrong. It should be added, moreover, that at that time the concepts of religion, decency and morality were not the same as those that prevail today” says Ferdinand Gregorovius. The thesis of the German historian is then taken up, for example, also by Roberto Gervaso in his essay on the Borgia family: “If she was not a saint, she was not even a monster. If she had not been called Borgia, she would have had no need of defence lawyers, nor of posthumous and belated rehabilitations”.
Another accusation concerning Lucrezia, and in general her family, is the use of a deadly poison, called cantarella, with which the Borgias would have eliminated their enemies, pouring it in drinks or on food. Lucrezia was associated with the use of this Borgia poison, becoming one of the most famous poisoners, after the staging of the romantic tragedy of Victor Hugo: “A terrible poison – says Lucrezia – a poison whose mere idea makes pale any Italian who knows the history of the last twenty years. No one in the world knows an antidote to this terrible composition, no one except the pope, Mr. Valentino and myself.” However, today”s chemists and toxicologists are convinced that cantarella, a poison capable of killing in precise times, is only a legend linked to the Borgia family.
Over the centuries the figure of Lucrezia has been associated with the fame of her family of origin. Although after becoming the wife of the Duke of Ferrara she was never at the center of new scandals, and during the last years of her life she finally managed to erase the mark of infamy by which she was marked, after her death, the accusations made against her in her youth came back to the fore.
For example, as early as 1532, Francesco Maria I Della Rovere forbade his son Guidobaldo to marry women unworthy of him, giving as an example the marriage of Alfonso I of Ferrara to Lucrezia Borgia, “a woman of that sort that is publicly known”. But it was above all Guicciardini who, drawing on popular rumors or satires, spread the scandalous reputation on the figure of the woman, writing in his Storia d”Italia: “Lucrezia Borgia is considered to be the incestuous daughter of Alexander VI, the lover of her father and her two brothers at the same time.
During the seventeenth century, society was not shocked by the life in the time of the Borgias, in which faith and a certain freedom of customs coexisted. Everything changed after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which caused a rupture within the scientific community. The famous mathematician and philosopher Leibniz, as a protest to the lack of reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants, polemicized by publishing in 1696 some of the most scandalous extracts of Burcardo”s Diary, under the title of Specimen Historiæ Arcane, sive anecdotæ de vita Alexandri VI Papæ. The book was a great success and was printed again, and in his commentary the philosopher pointed out that “never was there a Court more besmirched with crimes than that of Alexander VI”.
In 1729 the Scottish antiquarian Alexander Gordon published his Vita del papa Alessandro VI e di suo figlio Cesare Borgia (The Lives of Pope Alexander VI and his son Cæsar Borgia), in whose “Preface” he took care to write about the Pope”s daughter: “Lucrezia, Alessandro”s daughter, is as famous for her debauchery as Lucrezia la Romana was for her chastity: Cesare is no less famous for a double fratricide and incest committed with his own sister”. In his work, Gordon cites the sources used, while equating authors such as Burcardo or Machiavelli with other unreliable sources, and the text is perhaps the first referenced case study on Alexander VI and his family. In 1756, Voltaire sagaciously treats Alexander VI in his Essai sur les moeurs, where he casts doubt on the Borgias” use of poison and the Pope”s poisoning as the cause of his death, yet repeats the accusations of incest against Lucretia and Caesar”s crimes.
In the period of the French Revolution followed a revaluation both of the military adventure of Cesare and of the intentions that Machiavelli had expressed in The Prince, that is the idea that the Valentino had wanted the construction of a secular state where to establish freedom later. With the advent of the French Empire and later the Restoration, distrust was again created towards the history of the Borgias and their scandalous customs.
Lord Byron, famous exponent of English Romanticism, was so fascinated by Lucrezia”s love letters preserved in Milan that, after reading them, he stole a hair from the lock that accompanied them. In February 1833, was represented for the first time Lucrezia Borgia, a tragedy by Victor Hugo, in which the Duchess of Ferrara is described as an archetype of feminine wickedness, becoming, “with the dark favor of Romantics, the most beautiful woman in the world”. The drama inspired Felice Romani, who composed the libretto of the homonymous opera by Gaetano Donizetti.
Alexandre Dumas” portrait of Lucrezia in the first volume of the series Delitti celebri: “Her sister was a worthy companion of her brother. Libertine by fantasy, impious by temperament, ambitious by calculation, Lucrezia craved pleasures, flattery, honors, gems, gold, rustling fabrics and sumptuous palaces. Spanish under her blond hair, courtesan under her candid air, she had the face of a Raphael”s madonna and the heart of a Messalina”. Later, the French historian Jules Michelet saw symbolized in the “Italian Andalusian” the female demon installed on the Vatican throne.
A period of historical rehabilitation followed: many historians went to verify the texts on which the accusation against the Borgias was based and, while biographies tending to hagiography on Pope Alexander VI were coming out, in 1866 Giuseppe Carponi published a study on Lucrezia entitled: Una vittima della Storia. This biography contained texts that had never been consulted before, such as documents from the Este family archives in Modena. In 1874, another impressive essay was published, based on a scientific approach to the character and the history of the Borgias: the biography on Lucretia, written by Ferdinand Gregorovius with the contribution of many unpublished documents, puts forward the thesis that if Lucretia “had not been the daughter of Alexander VI and sister of Caesar, she would hardly have been noticed in the history of her time, or she would have been lost in the crowd, as a seductive and much courted woman”. In the same way, thanks to the opening of the Vatican archives in 1888, on the orders of Leo XIII, Ludwig von Pastor was able to begin writing the history of the Popes starting from the Middle Ages.
During the first twenty years of the 20th century, the Borgias became the subject of novels and psychiatric studies, as in the case of I Borgia, published in 1921, by the Milanese doctor Giuseppe Portigliotti. After that of Gregorovius an important biography on Lucrezia was written by Maria Bellonci whose work, published in the spring of 1939, had numerous reprints. In 1973 Rai invited about twenty Italian writers to write for the radio a series of imaginary interviews with famous people of the past: Bellonci chose Lucrezia, who was interpreted by the actress Anna Maria Guarnieri. The “impossible interviews” were broadcast by the Second Program, in the summer of 1974. In 2002, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Lucrezia”s arrival in Ferrara, an exhibition dedicated to the Borgia was set up, during which a short film was shown, based on Maria Bellonci”s impossible interview, directed by Florestano Vancini and starring Caterina Vertova in the role of the Duchess of Ferrara.
In 2002 the scholar Marion Hermann-Röttgen of the University of Berlin published, within the catalog of the exhibition I Borgia – L”arte del Potere held in Rome the same year, an article on the importance of the Borgia family in literature in both Northern and Southern Europe. While in southern Europe, particularly Italy and Spain (nations closely linked to the Borgia family), “a considerable amount of historical-scientific literature” would have spread, in northern European countries there would have been the publication of “a surprising amount of literary works” on the subject. The professor identifies the three main points on which the fame of the Borgia legend is based: “the importance of national greatness and military power” in particular of Cesare, “the critical stance with respect to the Roman Church”, perpetrated by anti-Catholics and anti-clericals, “which focuses attention on the fearful and criminal stories around the figure of Pope Alexander VI” and which will lead “to a demonization of the whole family and the pope himself”, to whom will be attributed, even, “a pact with the devil” and, lastly, “eroticism and sexuality, which has always been a focal point with respect to the interpretation of the role of female figures in the family”.
Lucrezia Borgia would in fact be “one of the historical female figures suitable to propose a model to male fantasies”. This is found in the depiction of Lucrezia in Hugo”s tragedy: the woman is represented as a monster, because if “on the one hand she represents the maximum sense of the good and loving mother, ready to sacrifice herself for love of her son, on the other hand she is the femme fatale, murderer of men, beautiful but cruel who takes revenge for every offense with her horrible poison”. The French poet “does not find in her the feminine ideal, because the “good” woman is not desirable because she is a mother, while the desirable woman is diabolical because she seduces man towards sin”. According to Hermann-Röttgen it would be “the interest in eroticism and sexuality” in reference to “the Borgia legend” that has allowed the depiction of Lucretia as femme fatale to survive to the present day in new literary works.
From her first marriage, annulled for non-consummation, Lucrezia had no children. However, according to Este speakers, it seems that in March 1498, she had a son by Pedro Calderón, her father”s messenger. Little is known about this alleged child, who was born in the monastery of San Sisto. In case he was really born, the English historian Sarah Bradford speculates that he may have died at birth or shortly after: the hypothesis stems from the fact that Lucrezia ended many pregnancies with an abortion. Other historians have identified him with the infans romanus, the Roman infant, born Giovanni Borgia. In this case, even the father of the child is mysterious: Alexander VI in a papal bull, attributed the paternity to his son Cesare, but later, with a secret bull in September 1502, he attributed it to himself; these details have done nothing but feed the rumors of an incestuous relationship within the Borgia family.
From the second marriage, after an abortion occurred in February 1499, Lucrezia had:
From the third marriage, with Alfonso I d”Este, after some miscarriages and a premature birth in 1502 at the seventh month of pregnancy (which led to the death of his first daughter) Lucrezia had:
Also read, biographies – Sheridan Le Fanu
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