Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, left her mark on her time as patron of the arts and letters. A victim of her time, the myths making her depraved and a poisoner still persist today.
Wedding negotiations
Born April 18, 1480 near Rome, Lucrezia Borgia is the daughter of Vannozza Cattanei, a Roman patrician, mistress of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (future Pope Alexander VI). She quickly became a political tool for her father and for her brother, César Borgia, an Italian lord. Thus, from her childhood, she was the subject of several marriage contracts signed and then canceled in favor of more advantageous.
She had already been promised twice when she was given in marriage, in 1493, at the age of 13, to Giovanni Sforza, condottiere and lord of Pesaro and Gradara. But Lucretia's father, who became pope in 1492, soon no longer needed an alliance with Sforza and sought to break up the marriage by pushing Giovanni to push for a divorce. Giovanni refuses and raises the rumor of incestuous relations between Lucrezia, her father and her brother. Finally, in 1497, Alexander VI annulled the marriage, arguing that it had not been consummated.
When the marriage is annulled for non-consummation, however, Lucrezia is pregnant, possibly by Pedro Calderon, chamberlain of Giovannu Sforza. She probably gives birth in 1498 to a boy but the birth is denied; the child, Giovanni Borgia, who could be his is attributed to his father and the body of Pedro Calderon is found in the Tiber.
Protector of arts and letters
In 1498, Lucrezia Borgia was married again, to Alfonso of Aragon, natural son of King Alfonso II of Naples. The couple had a son, which prevented the marriage from being annulled for non-consummation, and in 1500 Alfonso of Aragon was assassinated by a group of mercenaries, including a henchman of Caesar Borgia.
After the death of her husband in 1501, Alexander VI again married his daughter to Alfonso I d'Este who would become Duke of Ferrara four years later. This marriage, from which seven children will be born, will last until his death. In Ferrara, she became protector of the arts and letters, actively participated in the cultural influence of the city and governed in the absence of her husband. She died of sepsis in 1519, following her ninth childbirth.
Incestuous, poisonous, depraved… Many accusations have been made against Lucrèce Borgia and many authors (like Victor Hugo) have relayed – and still relay – her sulphurous reputation. Today, historians agree to clear her of what she is accused of. First a political tool in the hands of her father and her brother, Lucrezia Borgia was, in her time, above all known for what she brought to Ferrara's cultural influence.