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Lucrezia Borgia (lucrez5.jpg--213x287)

Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519)
June 20, 2002

A Brief Bio of
Lucrezia Borgia

Lucrezia Borgia—younger sister of the famous (or infamous) Cesare Borgia—was supposedly one of the most beautiful women of her time. She was first married in 1493, when she was only thirteen years old, to Giovanni Sforza. This marriage was annulled (cancelled) in 1497. Next, only a year later, she married Alfonso, Duke of Bisceglie, whom Cesare is thought to have killed.

Lucrezia has been shrouded in scandals. One story tells us about an incestuous family of the Borgias; another suggests that Lucrezia attended orgies in the Vatican. After a brief sojourn, Lucrezia reappeared in 1501 when she was seen with a small child. This young boy was first claimed as the son of Cesare and later as Pope Alexandre’s son.

Her third marriage was to Alfonso d’Este. Lucrezia went to the court of Ferrara with her husband. All of her marriages had been arranged for political reasons. She was only freed from being used as a political pawn when her father died. She lived quietly during the last few years of her life and became very religious. She was thirty nine when she died.

Pawn of Cesare Borgia, shrouded in Mysteries

Lucrezia Borgia has been for years considered a hussy or a jade, if not a pervert, of the Italian Renaissance courts. However, without two colorful, if not terrible, relatives—her father, Pope Alexander VI, and her older brother Cesare, she might have led a rather ordinary life of a typical Renaissance lady.

Indeed, her life was used as a pawn by both—especially for her brother Cesare to advance his worldly position and realize his ambitions. When you want to learn the person of Lucrezia, therefore, you cannot ignore these two unique people.

Cesare Borgia (cesare5.jpg--233x302) A hint of the power, charm, and ruthlessness of Cesare Borgia can be seen in the portrait of a handsome man, unsmiling, dark, menacing, eyes fixed on the distance. You can sense the validity of the comment by Baluze (a contemporary observer): “The Pope loves his son and yet has great fear of him.”

Cesare was the oldest son born to Alexander and his long-time mistress—Vannozza de Catanei (Hachette)—during the height of Alexander’s tenure as Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia.

Thus, Cesare was the first child of the second family begun by Rodrigo. His first set of known illegitimate children are from one or more unknown women, and began with Pedro Luis (1462 - 1488), the first Duke of Gandia, elevated to that duchy in Spain by his father’s manipulation.

In 1480, Pope Sixtus IV produced a papal bull that dispensed with Cesare having to prove that he was of legitimate birth, allowing him to receive “benefices”—income from various offices to which Sixtus appointed him.

At the age of seven, Cesare was given the title of prebend of the cathedral chapter of Valencia, then shortly thereafter apostolic protonotary, or dignitary of the papal chancellery. Both of these offices carried benefices.

By the age of nine, Cesare was also the rector of Gandia, provost of Albar and Jativa, and finally the treasurer of Cartagena. These appointments, of course, were granted by the influence of his father, Rodrigo, who ensured that those ecclesiastical properties in Valencia remained in the control of the Borgia family. Thus, Rodrigo decided that Cesare would have an ecclesiastical career, strengthening the Borgia influence in the Church.

Cesare had a younger brother, Vannozza’s second child, Giovanni, and when the stepbrother, Pedro Luis, the first Duke of Gandia died, Rodrigo made Giovanni the second Duke of Gandia. However, his fate was doomed. Many historians believed that Giovanni may have been one of the first of Cesare’s victims (described below).

Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia (alexande.jpg--240x240)
Pope Alexander VI
(Rodrigo Borgia)
Cesare was brought up in Rome until he was twelve, educated by tutors. Rodrigo then sent his son to Perugia, in the care of a Valencian tutor who later became a cardinal, a reward for his tutorial services. Cesare studied law and the humanities at the university, then went to the University of Pisa to study theology. By the end of these studies, his father, now Pope Alexander VI, made him a cardinal.

In 1493, after attending a family dinner with his mother, Vannozza, and his older brother, the second Duke of Gandia—Giovanni—disappeared from this world. He had ridden off into the dusk with his brother, friends and servants. Giovanni took his leave of them, and rode off toward the papal palace accompanied by a groom and an unknown man in a festive mask.

Giovanni was never seen alive again. The following evening, while searching for Giovanni, searchers came upon a witness who had seen two men throw a body into the Tiber. The river was dragged by some three hundred searchers, and, after working all night, the body was found at noon on the next day. He was still dressed in his finery, still had a purse of thirty ducats, but his throat had been slit and his body was hacked with other vicious wounds.

Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia (alexande.jpg--282x363)
Vannozza de Catanei (Hachette)
Rodrigo Borgia’s long-time mistress
When he heard of the death of his favorite son, Alexander went mad with grief, declaring that he had resolved to “amend our life and reform the Church. We renounce all nepotism. We will begin the reform with ourselves and so proceed through all levels of the Church till the whole work is accomplished”.

The temporarily sincere Alexander, however, could not live up his pronouncement, and soon slipped into his old ways—manipulation and pleasure. The murderer was never discovered, but about a year after Giovanni’s death, when Cesare had thrown off the robes of a cardinal for secular power, the rumor spread that Cesare had killed his brother. The motive was supposed to have been Cesare’s jealousy of his brother’s secular success, and his desire to acquire Giovanni’s titles and honors for himself.

Some historians argued, however, that there was little to be gained by Cesare by killing his brother, since Giovanni had a son, also named Giovanni, who immediately became the third Duke of Gandia. The motive could have been for revenge by a cuckolded husband. Giovanni might have incited the hatred of the murderer, whose wife had submitted herself to the duke, whose excessive sexual appetite is consistent with the members of the Borgia family.

Cesare might not have been the murderer, but the later behavior of Cesare made it difficult for the Romans to believe that he had not been involved.

In 1498, when Cesare was still a cardinal, Alexander attempted to arrange a marriage between Cesare and Carlotta, the daughter of the King of Naples. Such a union would bring the wealthy city of Tarento with her as a dowry. Much to his delight, Cesare renounced his holy orders, and thus sped up the negotiations.

However, the King of Naples had other ambitions for his daughter, and declined the pope’s offer. Alexander, not to be thwarted, formed an alliance with the new king of France, Louis XII, who claimed both the kingdoms of Milan and Naples, having inherited them from his predecessor.

In return for annulling the king’s marriage, Louis XII would provide Cesare with a princess, who turned out Charlotte d’Albert, daughter of Duke of Guyenne. The dowry was large, the marriage duly solemnized, and, according to a letter written by Cesare to his father, consummated eight times on their wedding night.

Cesare, now the ally of the French king, became a leading general of Louis XII, winning important victories in the Romagna, a city state adjacent to the papal states. He entered Rome in triumph in February 1500, dragging behind him, Caterina Sforza, the duchess of Forlì and Imola he had conquered. She was imprisoned, and would have died in chains had not the French interceded for her release.

The romans in an orgiastic joy 
(roman.jpg--472x394)

The jubilee year of 1500 began the period of greatest decadence for Alexander and Cesare. Cesare amused the throngs of Romans by killing five bulls in St. Peter’s Square. The court scribe recorded several scenes of debauchery during these early months of 1500. Not only was there the callous shooting of unarmed criminals by Cesare, but also a lascivious scene in which Alexander, Cesare, and Lucrezia watched with amusement as fifty Roman harlots coupled with fifty palace servants, competing for prizes for “best performance” awarded by Alexander.

 

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Copyright Akira Kato
About this author:
  • Educated both in Canada and Japan
  • Traveled extensively in Europe, Far East, and North America
  • Worked as management consultant, com-puter systems analyst, college instructor and freelance writer.
Akira Kato


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