Borgia, Lucrezia (1480–1519)

The daughter of the Spanish cardinal Rodrigo Borgia and his mistress Vannozza dei Cattani, Lucrezia Borgia was born in the Italian town of Subiaco. In 1492 Rodrigo Borgia was elected as Pope Alexander VI, and the Borgia family became one of the most powerful—and ambitious—in Italy. In the next year the pope arranged the marriage of Lucrezia, aged thirteen, to Giovanni Sforza, a scion of the ruling family of Milan. Sforza's usefulness to the pope soon declined, however, and he was pressured to annul his marriage. He eventually agreed to a divorce on the grounds of his own impotence, but not before spreading tales that the pope wanted Lucrezia for his own mistress. A faction opposed to the Borgia family took up the slander, also spreading the rumor that Alexander VI as well as Cesare Borgia, Lucrezia's brother, were having incestuous relations with her. The pope arranged a second marriage for Lucrezia with Alfonso of Aragon, a member of the dynasty that ruled the city of Naples. Out of jealousy or political ambition, Cesare Borgia ordered his henchmen to attack Alfonso in Rome and then strangle him in his bed. Lucrezia was then betrothed to Alfonso d'Este, the prince of Ferrara. As the Duchess of Ferrara, she presided at a renowned Renaissance court of artists and poets, and was praised by those who knew her as a gracious and intelligent woman. The political turmoil surrounding the Borgia family sullied the reputation of Lucrezia Borgia, who would go down in history as an ambitious, conniving, and evil woman. Modern historians question many of the misdeeds attributed to her, however, and believe her worst attribute was to have passively served her brother and father as a useful political pawn.