Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia, the pope’s daughter whose three marriages were used to build powerful alliances.
Lucrezia Borgia, meanwhile, was reputedly a conniving vixen who enjoyed poisoning her enemies. Though historians haven’t been able to confirm any of Lucrezia’s alleged poisonings, it is true that enemies of the Borgias had a habit of vanishing suddenly and mysteriously.
During her lifetime, rumours flew that the pope’s daughter wore a ring with a secret compartment containing various toxins so she could stealthily kill at any time. Lucrezia’s close relationship with her father, and her habit of standing in for him when he was unable to attend to papal affairs, gave her easy access to the food and drink of his foes.
Like her brother, Lucrezia was also married off to forge political alliances. However, unlike her sibling, Lucrezia went through three different arranged marriages.
In 1493, when she was 13 years old, she married the Lord of Pesaro, Giovanni Sforza, but it didn’t last long. Alexander soon annulled the marriage after Sforza was no longer viewed as a valuable political tie to leaders in Milan. The annulment was performed on the dubious claim that Sforza was impotent and unable to consummate his four-year-long marriage with Lucrezia.
However, at the time of the annulment, Lucrezia is believed to have been pregnant. Months after her first marriage ended, a child of unknown parentage was born into the Borgia family. Alexander issued two papal bulls regarding the child, first claiming him as Cesare’s son, then as his own.
Lucrezia was suspected of bearing the child with a stable boy named Pedro Calderon, who then turned up dead near the river by the family estate. As for Lucrezia’s ex-husband, he accused the pope’s daughter of carrying on affairs during their marriage with her own father and brother.
Her second husband, Alfonso of Aragon — the illegitimate son of the King of Naples — was attacked by mysterious assassins in 1500, though many suspected Lucrezia’s father and older brother, Cesare, were behind the murder because he’d allied himself with France against Italy.
Lucrezia’s third politically-motivated marriage turned out to be more lasting. In 1502, she wed Alfonso de l’Este, Duke of Ferrara, with whom she had eight children. During this marriage, she became a respectable duchess. In fact, some modern historians believe that earlier in her life she was driven to behave badly by her corrupt family.
Lucrezia was suspected of bearing the child with a stable boy named Pedro Calderon, who then turned up dead near the river by the family estate. As for Lucrezia’s ex-husband, he accused the pope’s daughter of carrying on affairs during their marriage with her own father and brother.
Her second husband, Alfonso of Aragon — the illegitimate son of the King of Naples — was attacked by mysterious assassins in 1500, though many suspected Lucrezia’s father and older brother, Cesare, were behind the murder because he’d allied himself with France against Italy.
Lucrezia’s third politically-motivated marriage turned out to be more lasting. In 1502, she wed Alfonso de l’Este, Duke of Ferrara, with whom she had eight children. During this marriage, she became a respectable duchess. In fact, some modern historians believe that earlier in her life she was driven to behave badly by her corrupt family.
Comments
0 comment