Lucrezia Borgia: the very name has become a slur. It conjures up images of unspeakable corruption in female form. It sends visions of a beautiful, heartless, rapacious, carnal, treacherous femme fatale dancing through the popular consciousness. Her reputation for foulness has achieved mythic proportions. A vague notion of legions of husbands and lovers being used and discarded in fatal fashion is the general impression. She is seen as the ultimate counterpart to her monstrous brother Cesare. Together with their father Pope Alexander VI, they seem to create a perfect triangle of dastardliness. Poisonings, stabbings, and garrottings are believed to be among the favorite pastimes of these three. This is the general image of Lucrezia Borgia that has prevailed since her own lifetime. However, as time has passed, scholars have re-examined her life in an attempt to ascertain how much of this is truth and how much is fiction. Lucrezia has emerged from this scholarship in the form of a pleasant, passive, characterless, shallow woman used as a political pawn by both her father and Cesare. In order to gain some insight into which, if either, of these views is the more correct, it is necessary to examine the major events of Lucrezia's life as they are known to us. It is also necessary to examine her relations with those important to her. Achieving some general idea of how Lucrezia gained her infamous reputation is also important.
On April 18, 1480 A.D., Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia and his mistress Vanozza Catanei were blessed with the birth of their third child, who would henceforth be known as Lucrezia Borgia. The birth took place in the small Italian city of Subiaco which was one of Cardinal Rodrigo's benefices. Vanozza Catanei had been Rodrigo's mistress since around 1473 A.D. when she was in her early thirties. She remains a somewhat shadowy figure, but it is known that she was quite beautiful and from a family which was rather poor. Rodrigo was an extraordinarily wealthy man and he maintained a lavish lifestyle. He provided very well for all of his children. It was said that his attraction for women was rather magnetic, and he made full use of this draw despite his exalted status in the Church. Rodrigo was also quite proud to be a Spaniard. Vanozza's affair with Rodrigo spanned ten years and several of her marriages. By the end of it, she had provided Rodrigo with four strong, healthy, attractive children. In order they were: Cesare, Juan, Lucrezia, and Jofre.
Lucrezia was a beautiful, sweet-tempered baby with gray-blue eyes and blonde hair. This charming little girl utterly captured her father's heart. Lucrezia lived with her mother for the first three years of her life, all the while receiving constant visits from her adoring father. Her brothers were also living with their mother at this time. Vanozza was a widow during this period, but Rodrigo soon married her to another complacent husband for appearances. Once she was remarried, Rodrigo found it in himself to remove the children from their mother's home and place them all under the care of his cousin and fellow-Spaniard, Adriana de Mila.
So began a new phase of Lucrezia's life. She was now being brought up entirely by the Borgia family and was, therefore, being brought up as Spanish. The Borgias were an ancient family in Spain, and they always looked towards it fondly. Almost all of their retainers were Spanish, and this included all of Lucrezia's ladies-in-waiting. It has been suggested that the incredibly intense family loyalty among the Borgias may have sprung from their origins in Spain, and that it was this kind of loyalty which caused them to regard the blood-tie as almost sacred. The Borgias would forgive each other for almost any crime perpetrated amongst themselves.
Adriana de Mila was the widow of Ludovico Orsini and the mother of their son Orsino. Adriana brought Lucrezia up from the age of three until her first marriage at age thirteen. It was Adriana who supervised Lucrezia's education in manners, piety, culture, Spanish, Italian, French, etc. , and while in Adriana's home, the young Lucrezia came into constant contact with the best of Rome's nobility and society. Lucrezia grew into a young woman who could hold her own in the best company.
When Lucrezia was nine year of age, a new and wondrous presence blew gaily into her life. Orsino Orsini was married to Giulia Farnese. Giulia was a fifteen-year-old woman of surpassing beauty and a sweet nature. Lucrezia and Giulia became very close friends, with Lucrezia looking upon Giulia as an elder sister. They both enjoyed dressing in beautiful clothes and would spend up to three hours in front of the mirror and an entire day dressing. During the years spent in the Orsini palace, Lucrezia was as pampered and indulged as a daughter of a great Cardinal could expect to be at the time. She was also left untainted by scandal throughout this period. In fact, very little was said about her at all during this time.
All of that changed and Lucrezia and the rest of her family were catapulted to center stage when Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI in 1492 A.D. Lucrezia was twelve years old and her charmed life of protective obscurity was at an end. Adriana, Giulia (who had been abandoned by her immature husband) and Lucrezia were placed by Alexander VI into the newly-built palace of Maria del Portico. It possessed a private door that let into St.Peters. This allowed the pope to visit his daughter whenever he liked. It also allowed him to visit his latest mistress - Giulia. All of Rome was whispering about the Pope's "concubineBefore long Giulia had become known as the bride of ChristSurprisingly enoughthis affair did not sour amiable relationship these three women. Adriana and continued to live harmoniously despite bizarre circumstances young Lucrezia received an early lesson in accommodation.
However, the Pope's affair with Giulia provided the beginnings of the bad press about the Borgias which would taint the rest of Lucrezia's life. Popes had had mistresses before, but they hadn't been quite so obvious as Alexander VI was with his Giulia. This old man and beautiful young girl having a romantic relationship annoyed the Italians and gossip spread. Thus began the Borgias' unsavory reputation.
Lucrezia was about to embark on the wild oddysey that was her life from her first marriage to her death. She had been formally engaged to two Spanish nobles by the age of eleven. Alexander VI had broken both engagements and next engaged Lucrezia to Giovanni Sforza in February 1493 A.D. This engagement had been facilitated by Giovanni's cousin, Cardinal Ascanio. The clauses of the contract stipulated that Lucrezia should not be made to leave Rome for a year after the marriage, that it should not be physically consummated for that time, and that the dowry was to be 31,000 ducats. On June 12 of that year, the marriage took place in the Vatican amidst great pageantry. Lucrezia's life immediately after the wedding changed very little. She still lived with Adriana and Giulia in the Palace Maria del Portico.
The marriage was, by all accounts, not a happy one. Giovanni was a nervous, lackadaisical sort who was twice Lucrezia's age. He tried to play spy for Milan against the Borgias and Alexander VI knew this. The advantages in politics and diplomacy that Alexander had anticipated in the marriage never materialized. Giovanni became an obvious waste of Lucrezia's talents, and Alexander had had enough. Lucrezia was unhappy in Pesaro and was better suited to Rome since it was no longer so dangerous. Giovanni began to feel afraid and expected little consideration from his in-laws. In January 1497 A.D., Giovanni returned to Rome from the campaign and found Lucrezia affectionate and the family pleasant. He interpreted this as a dangerous sign and fled in disguise to Pesaro. Giovanni followed this up with a demand that Lucrezia follow. Lucrezia refused to return to the stultifying atmosphere of this "backwoods" court. The pope filed for a divorce for her.
This was the cause of the major turning point in the reputation of Lucrezia Borgia. Giovanni Sforza was pressed on all sides to grant the divorce but it could only be achieved by his signing a paper attesting to his impotence. Non-consummation was the reason Alexander VI gave for the divorce. Giovanni had fathered illegitimate children and his first wife had died in childbirth. His impotence seems unlikely and he violently asserted that it was untrue. Giovanni was a man filled with bitterness and damaged pride, and he struck back with an awful accusation that would haunt the Borgias forever.
Giovanni told Ludovico Sforza that Alexander VI wanted him to divorce Lucrezia so that he could have her to himself. Lucrezia was only eighteen years old when Giovanni made the charge and it was something the anti-Borgia faction was more than ready to believe. Historians have been divided ever since about the accuracy of this accusation. In the past, almost all seemed to accept it as truth. However, there has developed a new view which states that Giovanni was either just trying to get revenge or that he genuinely believed it to be true because he was a cold man from a cold family and couldn't understand the warmth of the Borgias' relations with each other. What began as an accusation of an incestuous relationship between Lucrezia and her father soon spread to include her brothers Cesare and Juan. An epitaph that summed up the public opinion of Lucrezia at the time and has been attributed to Jacopo Sanazzaro calls her "daughter, bride, and daughter-in-law" to Pope Alexander VI.
The Borgia children had, in truth, rather extraordinary relationships with one another. Lucrezia loved and was well-loved by all three of her brothers, but was especially close to Juan and Cesare. However, between the elder brothers was more jealousy than love. This was well known, and once the accusation of incest was made, people leapt on the idea that this was the cause of the rivalry between Juan and Cesare. The real cause is much more likely to have been the absolute favoritism that Alexander VI had always shown for Juan, despite the fact that Cesare was the eldest and was, at this time, seen as being by far the superior of the two in intelligence, sophistication, and appearance. When their half-brother Pedro Luis died, it was Juan who received the dead sibling's dukedom of Gandia. Cesare was enraged at being passed over in the inheritance. When Juan set out for his marriage, he was outfitted so superbly by Alexander that a master goldsmith was kept busy for months making his jewelry. Juan was a highly arrogant young man whose favored position left Cesare seething. Lucrezia, however, adored and worshipped Juan as a glamorous hero. She also loved Cesare, but it seems that their earlier relationship may have been a bit less cozy. Cesare tended to involve Lucrezia in the type of bizarre activities which have created the Borgia legend for evil.
One such incident involved Cesare standing on a balcony of the Vatican with Lucrezia at his side while he shot unarmed criminals with a crossbow. It is this type of incident which, coupled with the charge of incest, created Lucrezia's atrocious reputation. That she was present at such instances is known. However, this leaves the question of why she was present. Her contemporaries believed it was because she and Cesare were two of a kind, and she wanted to be present to view such depraved acts. Others have suggested that she was afraid of Cesare, but this seems unlikely due to the fact that she had ample opportunity to escape from him to Pesaro if she had truly desired to do so. Perhaps it was simply because Lucrezia was possessed of a terrible compulsion to please her family. She was brought up to love her family members no matter what their actions.
Despite their amazing closeness, it becomes clear that the closeness did not have an incestuous basis. This was a rumor which began with a husband who was tossed aside and publicly humiliated by the Borgia family. He even stood to lose his dukedom of Pesaro if he and Lucrezia divorced, because it was a papal fief. From the very beginning of his marriage to Lucrezia, he found himself to be competing for her loyalty with her family and he made the terrible accusation out of confusion and bitterness. That it is not true can be seen by the fact that Giovanni Sforza's own loyal retainer Guido Posthumus, who was present during the entire period of the marriage, did not ever mention any suspicions about incest between Lucrezia and her father and brothers in any of his many scathing epigrams on Pope Alexander VI.
The accusation seems to have been a product of fancy rather than fact. It seemed a logical conclusion to many at the time. People knew only rumor of the Borgias. It is common knowledge that the farther a rumor or story travels, the more outrageous it becomes. The Borgias were seen as the epitome of corruption and the fact that the Pope's daughter was quite attractive made it seem likely - almost desirable - for there to be incest in the family. The people were deliciously horrified at the prospect of such a dark awful secret lodged in the hearts of the Borgias. It made all of the rest of the stories about them seem that much more diabolical.
When news of the divorce proceedings instigated by Pope Alexander VI against Giovanni Sforza were made known to Lucrezia she fled to the convent of San Sisto in Rome. Divorce was a humiliating affair and Lucrezia fled with her ladies-in-waiting to the quiet and peace of this convent which was known for the piety of its nuns. She had left her palace without asking or telling her father or brothers. Rumors abounded that she intended to become a nun herself. Her father attempted to extricate her from the convent, but was unable to do so owing to the strong will of the Mother Superior of San Sisto.
Lucrezia and her father were at a stalemate. This act of rebellion against her father may have been Lucrezia's first, and it speaks well of her character. The divorce was to be obtained on grounds she knew to be false. However, she did relent and played her role in the divorce proceedings.
Out of this time came another rumor about Lucrezia, the veracity of which is still debated to this day. It became widely believed that Lucrezia became pregnant in the convent by a messenger of her father, Pedro Calderon. Pedro was a young, handsome Spaniard, and a favorite of the Pope. Much was made of the fact that Pedro was found floating in the Tiber, murdered around the time it was rumored that Lucrezia had given birth. This baby, whose existence is to be questioned, had its paternity variously attributed to Alexander VI, Cesare, and Juan as well. That Lucrezia was pregnant at all during this time seems unlikely. If it were true, then she would have been six months pregnant at the time she stood before the College of Cardinals and declared her virginity. Generally, it is the murder of Pedro which is given as conclusive "proof" of his having impregnated her, but this is not necessarily true. The rumor alone would have been sufficient provocation for such an act by the Borgias. The pope had a child around this time by an unnamed woman and wrote two bulls about its origins. The public bull named the child as Cesare's while the private one named the child as his own. This is the famous Roman Infant that has often been seen as the illegitimate child of Lucrezia by either her father, Cesare, Juan, or Pedro. That the pope should have wished to avoid acknowledging his siring of a child while wearing the papal crown does not seem so very odd and is the more likely explanation.
While she was in the convent, Lucrezia received some devastating news. Juan Borgia had been viciously murdered and his corpse thrown into the Tiber. Blame for this has historically been placed at Cesare's feet with the motive variously being jealousy over Lucrezia, jealousy over Jofre's wife Sancia (who had affairs with both Juan and Cesare), and jealousy over the favoritism shown Juan by their father. Cesare was not considered a suspect at the time, but has been convicted in the annals of history. It is said that the reason for the abrupt end Pope Alexander VI put to the investigation of the murder is that he discovered Cesare to be the murderer. Furthermore, the continuing close relationship Lucrezia had with Cesare when she is assumed to have known of his fratricide is supposed to demonstrate either her cold heartlessness or her passivity. A different suggestion may be a bit more logical. Perhaps the basic assumption that Alexander and Lucrezia considered Cesare guilty is entirely incorrect. The powerful Orsini were one of the few suspects not exonerated by the Pope. It could very well be that the Borgias became convinced of the Orsini guilt and determined on a course of vengeance rather than prosecution. Whether or not they were actually correct in their assumption that Cesare was innocent and the Orsini guilty of the crime is irrelevant in an examination of Lucrezia's character. If she felt she had good reason to believe this (why would she doubt her powerful father's investigation?), it nullifies the traditional views of what her reaction revealed of her basic character (or lack thereof) except to show that she was a loving sister deeply distraught by her family's loss and that she soon returned to the fold.
Lucrezia was granted her divorce and officially declared to be still a virgin, which meant another marriage would soon be in the works. In 1498 A.D., Lucrezia was wed to Alfonso, Duke of Bisceglie. Alfonso was the illegitimate son of a former king of Naples, Alfonso II, and nephew of the present king. He was also the full brother of Sancia, the beautiful wife of Jofre. The marriage was made in an effort to move Cesare closer to his goal of marrying Carlotta, the daughter of Frederico, King of Naples. This political marriage resulted in genuine love for the unexpectedly happy couple. Alfonso was well-educated, young, forthright, gentle, and amazingly good-looking. It could be said that Lucrezia's real nature showed itself fully for the first time. She was happy in her marriage and began to gather a court of intellectuals and artists about herself with Alfonso's encouragement. They were highly devoted to one another and there are no scandals connected with her name during this time until the tragic last few months of the marriage.
Lucrezia's family put an end to their joy abruptly when political changes made her marriage to Alfonso no longer useful to Alexander VI or Cesare. Carlotta, Princess of Naples, refused to marry Cesare and the King of France gave him a French princess for his wife. Naples fell out of favor and France was its replacement. Alfonso knew enough of Cesare's nature to fear for his life and fled to stay with the Colona in Genazzano, where he sent Lucrezia a message to please join him. Lucrezia was six months pregnant and in a constant state of weeping due to his absence. Her father intercepted Alfonso's letters to Lucrezia in order to prevent her from going to him, and sent her off to govern the papal town of Spoleto. Lucrezia's begging melted Alfonso's resolve, he returned to her, and they resumed residence in Rome. Johannes Burchardus, the master of ceremonies for Alexander VI, recorded briefly in his diary the disaster which followed shortly after their return. Burchardus reports that Alfonso was attacked on the steps of St.Peter's at ten o'clock on the night of July 15, 1500, by assailants who escaped with forty men on horses. He barely survived. Lucrezia showed that she was not an incompetent young thing by the very capable way she set about saving Alfonso's life. She had him taken to the Borgia tower in the Vatican and procured a guard of trustworthy men. She and Sancia (Jofre's wife) were constantly at his side and nursed him for the next month. They even cooked his food themselves to prevent poisoning. All of the effort was to prove to have been in vain.
Alfonso was healing well from his near-fatal wounds when he was successfully murdered a month after the original attack. Lucrezia had tried to ensure his safety by arranging with King Frederico for Alfonso's departure to Naples as soon as he could travel. She loved her husband and was absolutely determined to defy her brother Cesare's desire to see Alfonso dead, for she knew Cesare was almost certainly responsible for the attack. Cesare's loyal henchman Don Michelletto tricked Lucrezia and Sancia into running to the next room where the Pope was, to prevent the incarceration of Alfonso's doctors. While they were gone, he strangled Alfonso in his bed.
Lucrezia was utterly distraught and refused to be consoled. Her family hushed up the entire affair, but Lucrezia would not go along with the lie and pretend nothing had happened. The Pope and Cesare were infuriated over her obvious display of grief and banished her to her town of Nepi, along with Rodrigo, her son by Alfonso. Burchardus attests to her genuine grief in an entry in his diary in which he states that "the daughter of the Pope, betook herself from the city to Nepi...in order to find some consolation and rest after the grief and consternation in which she had been thrown by the recent death of her husband, Alphonse of Aragon."
Lucrezia did not avenge Alfonso's murder with murder. She had done all she could to prevent its occurrence and she genuinely grieved over the loss of her beloved young husband. The woman we see her to be throughout this episode was no cold-hearted, poisonous snake. Rather, she is a gentle, loving woman whose life was not her own. She defied her father and Cesare as much as her nature and upbringing allowed. She did eventually return to her family and take part in life again, but this, perhaps, indicates more of a practical nature than it does an amoral one.
The next major event in Lucrezia's life was her third and final marriage. Isabella d'Este had continued to court Cesare despite the fact that his war for supremacy in the Romagna had made refugees of several of her relatives. It was an effort to protect herself from his aggression, but it may have been what gave Pope Alexander VI the idea that he could obtain Isabella's brother Alfonso d'Este for Lucrezia's third husband. The Este family ruled Ferrara and were one of the most noble and respected families in Italy. The were horrified by the prospect of this marriage. Lucrezia had a dreadful reputation by this time, and the Este flatly refused the offer. The pope persisted and, due to his offer of a splendid dowry of over 200,000 ducats and the obvious threat he would pose to Ferrara if he were refused, Lucrezia was again betrothed to an Alfonso.
Thus we enter the last phase of Lucrezia's life. She was an active participant in the marriage negotiations and cajoled her father into granting Duke Ercole (father of Alfonso d'Este) all that he asked for in exchange for his approval of the marriage. The Ferrarese diplomats sent to spy on Lucrezia and discover how much of her awful reputation was true reported to Ercole that she was, in fact, a virtuous woman possessing good sense who genuinely desired a release from her life in Rome. It is as the wife of Alfonso d'Este that Lucrezia was able to develop into the type of woman who was first seen in her short marriage to the Duke of Bisceglie.
The marriage took place by proxy and Lucrezia set out for Ferrara laden down with astounding riches. She needed all of her courage now as she went to meet a family who had so resisted her entering into their midst. However, she only needed courage on the journey and for the first week or so at Ferrara. After that time, all she really needed was to make use of her considerable charm and graciousness. It was this charm which won over her sister-in-law Isabella d'Este. Even her grim and formidable father-in-law Duke Ercole was pleasantly surprised by the grace and gaiety of his new daughter-in-law and wrote to the Pope expressing his startlement at discovering the young Lucrezia to be an absolute treasure. The Este and all those in Ferrara found it difficult to associate Lucrezia with the monster that legend had made her appear.
It was indeed fortunate for Lucrezia that she had, in truth, a lovely nature. Within two years of her marriage her father died abruptly and Cesare was ruined. The Este did not throw her out when her once-powerful family was stripped of any way to protect itself or Lucrezia. Her charm had won her the loyalty of the Este and she even managed to make efforts to protect any of the Borgias whom she could. It was Lucrezia's lovely nature that had established her firmly in Ferrara.
In 1505 A.D., Lucrezia became the Duchess of Ferrara after Duke Ercole died. She quickly moved to the center of court life and attracted visits by all of the greatest poets and educated men of the time. Her husband was not a man who was interested in culture despite his upbringing in the court of Ferrara. Lucrezia maintained and then increased the glory of the court. Lucrezia was a generous and gracious patron to the artists working within the Este palace. She held feasts and banquets daily. She became known as "the good Duchess".
Into her court was to come a Venetian by the name of Pietro Bembo. He was a great humanist poet who became enraptured by the lovely Duchess. It is well known that she and Bembo developed a relationship of mutual respect and affection. It is assumed that this relationship developed into an affair, and this has only added to Lucrezia's reputation for good taste.
Lucrezia was flattered by the adoring poems Pietro wrote about her. His attentions helped sooth some of the hurt she felt as a result of her husband's coolness towards her in the early years of their marriage. Lucrezia and Pietro carried on a long correspondence that continued even after their romance had ended.
In studying the letters she wrote to Pietro, a portrait of Lucrezia at this stage of her life can be discerned. She shows herself to be a woman of refinement with rather delicate romantic sensibilities. Examples of the poems she wrote for Pietro are lovely little literary concoctions but seem to lack a certain depth. She had suffered a "wealth of pain" and she credited her relationship with Pietro with helping to ease this burden. Lucrezia's correspondence with Pietro shows her to be an elegant, cultivated, tasteful woman who has finally gained the kind of maturity that is born out of suffering. Her gentle, gay nature had been pummeled with loss after loss since an early age. Out of this pain she had forged a grave fortitude without losing her delightful spontaneity, and the correspondence reveals this woman in her maturity.
Lucrezia did not live a long life while in Ferrara but she did live an exemplary one. She was left to administer the affairs of state with her brother-in-law Cardinal Ippolito whenever Duke Alfonso was away. She was also given the duty of heading a court for citizens' petitions. All of this attests to her responsible behavior and administrative flair she exhibited during her reign as Duchess of Ferrara. The historians of Ferrara gave her the highest praise for her beauty, modesty, virtuousness, and understanding. Ferrara loved and respected its Duchess. When she entered her thirties, she followed her mother's example and devoted herself to works of piety and charity. She became devoutly religious and retreated several times a year to rest in the convent of San Bernardino, where she could visit with her niece and namesake, Sister Lucrezia (an illegitimate daughter of Cesare whom Lucrezia had reared in Ferrara). On June 24, 1514, Lucrezia died from the effects of yet another unsuccessful pregnancy. She had written a beautiful letter to Pope Leo X the night before her death. In this letter, she expresses a desire for death and states that she is at peace with herself. The Duchess of Ferrara died sincerely mourned by her husband and her people, having earned their affection and respect with a good and charitable life.
An impartial examination of Lucrezia Borgia's life reveals a woman who bears little resemblance to her popular image. She appears as a victim of anti-Borgia propaganda which began circulating in her own time. These stories were so assiduously cultivated by the enemies of her family that they became accepted as fact, and all of the highly complimentary accounts of her character were ignored for centuries. In a study of the major events in her life, it becomes clear from her actions that this woman was in no way a heartless, depraved vixen bent on sensuous gratification. She was not the incestuous lover of her father and brothers, nor was she a weak, passive pawn to her father and Cesare. Lucrezia resisted them to the best of her ability whenever she believed it necessary, but she was limited in her options due to the age in which she lived. She began life as a merry and gentle girl and was forged by her tragic life into the elegant, refined, and kind woman who ruled Ferrara as its much-loved Duchess until her untimely death at age thirty-nine.
A study of Lucrezia's life in view of her popular image makes the peril of taking "popular knowledge" as fact extraordinarily clear. Lucrezia Borgia was a woman who has been shamefully and undeservedly maligned for centuries and whose few champions have been only very moderately successful in setting the record straight. It is, indeed, a cruel irony that this woman, who was the least awful of her clan, has received a reputation as being among its worst.
Works Consulted (please note that footnotes have been removed to reduce the temptation for others to present this work as their own in a classroom):
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Shankland, Hugh, ed., trans., The Prettiest Love Letters in the World: Letters Between Lucrezia Borgia and Pietro Bembo. Boston: David R. Godine, 1987.
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