Lucrezia Borgia

This article is about the historical person. For the biographical opera, see Lucrezia Borgia (opera). Lucrezia Borgia is also the name Buffalo Bill gave to his gun.

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

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

Lucrezia (or Lucrecia) Borgia April 18, 1480 - June 24, 1519) was the daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, the powerful Renaissance Valencian who later became Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. Her brother was the notorious despot Cesare Borgia. Lucrezia's family later came to epitomize the ruthless Machiavellian politics and sexual corruption alleged to be characteristic of the Renaissance Papacy. In this story Lucrezia was cast as a femme fatale, a role she has been portrayed as in many artworks, novels and films. No authentic portrait of Lucrezia is known, though several paintings, such as Bartolomeo Veneziano's fanciful portrait (see illustration) have been said to depict her. Often these images are simply part of Lucrezia's myth.

Not enough is known about the historical Lucrezia to be certain whether any of the stories about her active involvement in her father's and brother's crimes are true. Her father and/or brother certainly arranged several marriages for her to important or powerful men, in order to advance their own political ambitions. Lucrezia was married to Giovanni Sforza (Lord of Pesaro), Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglie, and Alphonso d'Este (Prince of Ferrara). Tradition has it that Alfonso of Aragon was an illegitimate son of the King of Naples and that Cesare may have had him murdered after his political value waned.

Marriages

First marriage: Giovanni Sforza

By the time she was thirteen, she had been betrothed twice, but both times her father had called off the engagements.

After Rodrigo became Pope Alexander VI, he had Lucrezia marry Giovanni Sforza in order to establish an alliance with that powerful Milanese family. The wedding was a scandalous event but was not much more extravagant than many other Renaissance celebrations.

Before long, the Borgia family no longer needed the Sforzas, and the presence of Giovanni Sforza in the papal court was superfluous. The Pope needed new, more advantageous political alliances, so he may have covertly ordered the execution of Giovanni. The generally accepted version is that Lucrezia was informed of this by her brother Cesare, and she warned her husband who then fled Rome. Possibly Pope Alexander never made such an order, and it was a plot on the part of Cesare and Lucrezia to drive her boring husband away. Whichever way it was, Alexander and Cesare were pleased with the chance of arranging another advantageous marriage for Lucrezia. But before that could occur, they needed to get rid of Giovanni Sforza.

Alexander asked Giovanni's uncle, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, to persuade Giovanni to agree to a divorce. Giovanni refused and accused Lucrezia of paternal and fraternal incest. Since the marriage had supposedly not been consummated, the Pope said that the marriage was not valid, and he offered Giovanni all of Lucrezia's dowry to agree. The Sforza family threatened to withdraw their protection of Giovanni if he refused Alexander's offer. Having no choice, Giovanni Sforza signed both a confession of impotence and the documents of annulment before witnesses.

Affair with Perotto

There has been speculation that during the prolonged process of the annulment, Lucrezia consummated a relationship with someone, probably Alexander's messenger Perotto. The result was that she was actually pregnant when her marriage was annulled for not having been consummated, and this is one of the facts her detractors have cited to support their derogatory view of her character. The child, named Giovanni but who is known to historians as the Roman Infante, was born in secret (1498) before Lucrezia's marriage to Alfonso of Aragon.

Some believe the child was her brother Cesare's, but that Perotto, due to his fondness for Lucrezia, claimed that it was his. During her pregnancy she stayed away from Rome at a convent, so no one would know of her state, and Perotto would bring her messages from her father in Rome. According to this theory, Lucrezia was worried that if news of her pregnancy reached the citizens of Rome, they would surely know it was Cesare's child. Cesare at the time was a cardinal of the Holy Church; if he had been sharing an illicit sexual relationship with his sister during her marriage to Giovanni, it would have to be concealed from everyone, especially their father the Pope.

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

Second marriage: Alfonso of Aragon (Duke of Bisceglie)

Though at his first meeting with Alfonso, before the marriage took place, Cesare was very impressed by his good looks and nature, it soon changed to jealousy and hatred. It was said that Cesare did not like Alfonso because Lucrezia was very happy with him and had, since her marriage to him, stopped giving Cesare as much attention. Also, Cesare himself had a bout of syphilis and a lot of scars remained on his face, even after recovery. This made him very conscious of his appearance, and so he started wearing masks and dressing in black. His own condition is said to have made him hate Alfonso of Aragon all the more, and once when the prince was paying them a visit in Rome, Cesare's men had attacked him during the night. To retaliate, Alfonso's men shot arrows at Cesare one day while he strolled in the garden. This infuriated Cesare, and he had his servant(s) strangle Alfonso while in the recovery room. Lucrezia and Alfonso had only one child, Rodrigo, who was destined to die before his mother in August 1512 at the age of thirteen.

While the reason of this murder might have also been jealousy, it did have a political background. Just like Lucrezia's first marriage, the second one soon became a useless alliance and a reason for embarrassment for the Pope and his son, Cesare, who had just allied himself with the king of France Louis XII who claimed the duchy of Naples, at the time in the hands of Alfonso's family. Whatever the reasons for his murder, Lucrezia was genuinely fond of her husband and broken–hearted upon his death.

Third marriage: Alphonso d'Este (Prince of Ferrara)

After the death of her second husband, Lucrezia's father, Pope Alexander VI, wanted to arrange a third marriage. She was then married to her third husband, Alphonso d'Este (Prince of Ferrara). She gave her third husband a number of children and proved to be a respectable and accomplished Renaissance duchess, effectively rising above her questionable past and surviving the fall of the Borgias following her father's death. During her marriage to Alphonso she embarked on a love affair with the poet Pietro Bembo. She died on 24th June 1519 after a difficult pregnancy.

Issue

Lucrezia was mother to eight children:

• Giovanni Borgia, "infans Romanus" ("Child of Rome", c. 1498 - 1548). Paternity acknowledged by Perotto; however Alexander and Cesare have also been identified as the father.
• Rodrigo Borgia of Aragon (November 1, 1499 - August, 1512). Son by Alfonso of Aragon.
• Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara (April 5, 1508 - October 3, 1559).
• Ippolito II d'Este (August 25, 1509 - December 1, 1572). Archbishop of Milan and later Cardinal.
• Alessando d'Este (1514 - 1516).
• Leonora d'Este (July 3, 1515 - July 15, 1575). A nun.
• Francesco d'Este, Marchese di Massalombarda (November 1, 1516 - February 2, 1578).
• Isabella Maria d'Este (Born and deceased on June 14, 1519). Complications at birth caused the death of Lucrezia ten days later.

Legends and Rumors

Several legends and rumors have persisted throughout the years, primarily speculating as to the nature of the extravagant parties thrown by the Borgia family.

• It is rumored that Lucrezia was in possession of a hollow ring that she used frequently to poison drinks. ^{[citation needed]}
• Lucrezia in her later years had built a friendship with John Pitt a foreign man whose origin remains unknown, he was thought to hear "voices" the only thing known about his apearance is that he was scarred on his right arm. ^{[citation needed]}
• There has been much speculation of an incestuous relationship between Lucrezia and her father and brothers. The rumours were started by her first husband, in an attempt to clean his image after being declared impotent by the Pope. The fact that the Borgias were very close to each other was taken as a proof to support the rumours however there is no concrete evidence. ^{[citation needed]}
• The Romantic poet Lord Byron, who was also rumored of incest, developed a crush on Lucrezia and stole some of her hairlocks conserved in a locket sent to her lover. ^{[citation needed]}
• An early 20th-century painting by Cadogan Cowper that hangs in the London art gallery Tate Britain portrays Lucrezia taking the place of her father, Alexander VI at an official Vatican meeting. This apparently documents an actual event, although the precise moment depicted, (a Franciscan friar kissing Lucrezia's feet), was invented by the artist.[1]

Biographies

• Lucrezia Borgia - Life, Love And Death In Renaissance Italy by Sarah Bradford ; Viking 2004 ISBN 0-670-03353-7
• Lucrezia Borgia: A Biography (©1978) by Rachel Erlanger (ISBN 0-8015-4725-3)
• External link to on-line biography
• The Borgias (1971) by Michael Mallett

Plays, Operas, Films, and Novels

Plays and Operas

• Victor Hugo's tragedy, loosely based on Lucrezia's myth, was transformed into a libretto by Felice Romani for
• Donizetti's opera, Lucrezia Borgia (1834), first performed at La Scala, Milan, 26 December 1834. When it was produced in Paris, in 1840, Hugo obtained an injunction against further productions. The libretto was then rewritten and retitled La Rinegata, with the Italian characters changed to Turks, and the performances were resumed. The first English-language production was in London on 30 December 1843. The 1980 Covent Garden production, with Richard Bonynge conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House meet with great success. [2].

Films

• Lucrezia Borgia (1922) a silent movie with Liane Haid, directed by Richard Oswald.
• Don Juan (1926), one of the first Vitaphone/Silent films starring John Barrymore features the Borgia as villains.
• Lucrèce Borgia (1935), a French film version with Edwige Feuillère, directed by Abel Gance.
• Lucrezia Borgia (1940), an Italian film with Isa Pola, directed by Hans Hinrich.
• Bride of Vengeance or A Mask for Lucretia (1949) starred Paulette Goddard as Lucretia (and Macdonald Carey as Cesare) in a fictionalized portrayal of her as her brother's tool who went straight once she had the chance, a view many historians endorse.
• Lucrèce Borgia (1953), a french movie with Martine Carol, directed by Christian-Jaque.
• The Shaggy Dog (1958), a Walt Disney film features a ring that was owned by Lucretia Borgia that has the power to turn men into dogs when its inscription is read aloud.
• Los Borgia (2006), a Spanish-Italian film with María Valverde as Lucrezia.

Novels

• The historical novel, Prince of Foxes, made into a movie starring Orson Welles and Tyrone Power.
• F.M. Klinger´s 1791 novel Fausts Leben, Thaten und Höllenfahrt features an episode in which the Borgias figure, including an affair between Faust and Lucrezia.
• Rafael Sabatini's novel The Shame of Motley features Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia as supporting characters.
• Rafael Sabatini wrote a novel The Life of Cesare Borgia, available freely at Project Gutenberg that attempts to treat the Borgias historically.
• Gregory Maguire's novel Mirror, Mirror is a historical fantasy that retells the story of Snow White, in which Lucrezia figures prominently as the evil stepmother. She is depicted as a decadent, vain and beautiful woman with a mind for politics and little regard for others. Her affair with her father is hinted at but never confirmed, but her relationship with Cesare is a major plot point.
• Jeanne Kalogridis's book The Borgia Bride tells the story of Sancha of Aragon (sister of Alfonso who later married Lucrezia) married to Jofre Borgia about her life in Rome and her involvement with Cesare and Lucrezia. The latter is depicted as having an incestuous relationship with her father and brother but not as a vicious person. She's mostly manipulated by her family.
• Jean Plaidy's two novels, "Madonna of the Seven Hills" and "Light On Lucrezia" follow the story of Lucrezia and her entanglement with her father and brothers. Plaidy's writing is well-supported by research and her extensive knowledge of European history; based on her understanding, Plaidy portrays Lucrezia as a pawn of her father and brother Cesare.
• Kerri Hawkins' 2002 novel Blood Legacy: The Story of Ryan includes Lucrezia, her father and brother Cesare as minor characters.
• At different times both Scarlett Johansson and Christina Ricci have been slated to appear as Lucrezia in the as-yet-unmade film Borgia.
• A novel titled "The Family," written by Mario Puzo, was centered around the Borgia family. Although this novel was started early in his career, it was his last novel to be completed. Puzo called the Borgias "the first crime family" and incorporated many of their exploits and characteristics into his blockbuster novel, "The Godfather"; most prominently the notion that family loyalty was of primary importance above all else.
• David Davalos' 2002 play Daedalus features Lucrezia Borgia involved in a secret love affair with Leonardo da Vinci, who is working as a military engineer for her brother Cesare.
• Milo Manara, an Italian comic book creator, drew a comic book divided in three parts depicting the story of the Borgia family. The texts were written by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
• A fictionalized version of Lucrezia appeared in issues 98-100 of Avengers West Coast as the supervillain Cyana, a member of the fourth incarnation of the Lethal Legion.
• She appears as a side character in the Dutch book De Scharlaken Stad, by Hella S. Haasse. The book tells the story of her brother Giovanni Borgia.
• A fictionalized version of Lucrezia, along with her brother Cesare, appeared as villains in the 2005 Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel Queen of the Slayers.
• The novel Lucrezia Borgia and the Mother of Poisons, Roberta Gellis, Forge Books, 2004. Depicts Lucrezia as an amateur sleuth tracking down who is doing the poisoning and learning about the properties of aconite, wolfbane, monksblood along the way.
• The novel Lucrezia Borgia, John Faunce, Three Rivers Press; Reprint edition 2004

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