BORGIA, LUCREZIA

BORGIA, LUCREZIA. – Daughter of Cardinal Roderico and Vannozza, born on 18 April 1480. At the age of 11 she was betrothed to the Valencian Cherubino Giovanni Centelles and subsequently to Gaspare di Procida, Count of Aversa; then, through the efforts of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, she contracted a valid marriage on 13 June 1493 with Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, who served the Pope as a condottiero. Political designs induced Alessandro to annul this marriage as ratified but unconsummated on 20 December 1497, in order to conclude the marriage with Alfonso di Bisceglie, natural son of Alfonso II, King of Naples; the marriage was celebrated without excessive pomp on 15 July 1498. Lucrezia had a son by him, named Roderico. But the changing political relations provoked Cesare Borgia’s fierce hatred of Alfonso, so much so that he had him treacherously attacked in St Peter’s Square on 15 July 1500 and then killed on 18 August. Cesare did not deny having had a part in this crime. Finally, through the intervention of Louis XII, King of France, Lucrezia’s marriage to Alfonso, son of Ercole, Duke of Ferrara, was concluded on 10 September 1501; on 30 December the proxy wedding was celebrated with great splendour in the presence of Cardinal Ippolito, Alfonso’s brother, and on 6 January Lucrezia left Rome with a large retinue. Her life at the papal court had been among the most brilliant; the Pope had entrusted her with custody of the papal palace during his absences, had also taken her with him on his travels, and had entrusted her with the government of Foligno, Spoleto, and Nepi; finally, he had assigned her a princely dowry in properties, jewels, and trousseau. It cannot be said that she remained unmoved through the events of her first twenty years, but she soon knew how to console herself for the tragedies in which she had taken part. She did not escape the calumnies directed against her family; but in those years she was neither a hag complicit in or scheming about crimes, nor a poor victim of the overbearing conduct of others; she was probably nothing more than a vain and disorderly young woman in a sumptuous and unscrupulous court. At Ferrara she knew how to conduct herself with dignity and uphold decorously the prestige of a duchess, which began for her in 1505, while she was continually courted by the leading figures who frequented the Este court in those years. Her children were Ercole II, Ippolito, the second cardinal of that name, who played so large a part in Franco-Este politics, Alessandro, Francesco, and Eleonora. From 1512, perhaps as a result of the tragic events of those years, she devoted herself to a more secluded life dedicated to religious practices, until she died at the age of 39, following a miscarriage, on 24 June 1519 at Belriguardo, and was buried in the Ferrarese monastery of the Corpus Domini.