Foreword
Lucrezia Borgia’s name has been a byword for evil for five hundred years, her life distorted by generations of historians and seen through the prism of the crimes of her family, themselves magnified by hostile chroniclers of the time. Lucrezia herself has been charged with murder by poisoning and incest with her father, Pope Alexander VI, and her brother, Cesare Borgia. As an archetypal villainess she has featured in works by Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, an opera by Donizetti and a film by Abel Gance – to name but a few. Byron was so fascinated by her reputation that, after viewing her love letters in Milan, he stole a strand from the lock of her blonde hair which accompanied them.
A cautious rehabilitation of her reputation began in the nineteenth century, but the general conclusion was that, if she were not a murderer and a whore, she was no more than an empty-headed blonde, helpless victim of the males in her family. The truth is that in a world where the dice were heavily loaded in favour of men, Lucrezia operated within the circumstances of her time to forge her own destiny. Born the illegitimate daughter of one of the most notorious of Renaissance popes, Alexander VI, she was married at the age of thirteen to a man she had never met, then divorced from him at the behest of her father and brother and remarried to a second husband who was murdered on the orders of her brother when she was just twenty. It was then that she took her fate into her own hands and was actively involved in the promotion of her third marriage, to Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, whom she knew to be violently opposed to the idea of her as his wife. As Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia came into her own, showing a powerful intelligence and skill in managing her life. Winning over her hostile in-laws – with the notable exception of the formidable Isabella whose husband she took as a lover – she ruled over a magnificent court with herself as the focus of a circle of poets and intellectuals. In times of war and plague, she administered justice and oversaw the defence of Ferrara. As she had survived the violence of the papal court of the Borgias she survived the inbred violence of the Este family; only childbirth, the curse of the age for women, ultimately defeated her.
More recent historians have imposed their own patterns on Lucrezia: in going back to the original sources, the thousands of papers in the archives of Modena, Mantua, Milan and the Vatican, I have let Lucrezia speak for herself. This is her story.
London, November 2003
The Scene
At the time of Lucrezia Borgia’s birth in 1480, Italy was famously a geographical expression rather than a country, a peninsula divided into independent states bound by the weakest sense of common nationality. Neapolitans, Milanese and Venetians were Neapolitans, Milanese and Venetians first and foremost: the concept of Italy as a political whole did not exist beyond a vague xenophobia in which non-Italians were perceived as barbarians. Italians saw themselves as richer, more cultivated and sophisticated than the rest of Europe. At a time when Europe was unified by the Catholic religion with the Pope, wielding both spiritual and temporal powers, at its head, Rome, as the seat of the papacy, was the centre of the Western world, or Christendom as contemporaries would have known it.
The principal Italian states in the late fifteenth century were (from north to south) Milan, ruled by the Sforza family; Venice, a merchant empire ruled by an oligarchy of patrician families headed by a doge; Florence, then ruled by the Medici as a hereditary despotism in the person of Piero, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent; the Papal States, the temporal dominion of the Pope whose authority in practice was devolved to ‘papal vicars’, principally the Este of Ferrara, but including smaller city states such as Bologna, Rimini, Pisa, Siena, Camerino, Forlì, Faenza and Pesaro, where families such as the Bentivoglio, the Malatesta, the Petrucci, the Varani, the Riarii and the Manfredi held sway. Mantua was held as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire by the Gonzaga family. In this fragmented state the smaller entities bound themselves to the larger ones for protection, sometimes, as in the case of the Este and the Gonzaga, also to outside powers, notably France or, in the case of Naples, to Spain. Round Rome the great baronial families the Orsini and Colonna, Savelli and Caetani officially owed allegiance to the Pope but in practice often fought against him, their loyalties given to the highest payer among the major states. To the south the Kingdom of Naples, at this time ruled by a junior branch of the royal house of Aragon in Spain, included not only Naples itself and the Neapolitan Campania but also Puglia and Calabria. The possession of Naples lay at the heart of the foreign invasions in Lucrezia’s lifetime, the throne being disputed by both its present Aragonese kings and the descendants of the previous rulers, the French house of Anjou. The Pope, as temporal lord, had the right of investiture of the crown of Naples, and it was this power which placed him at the heart of the Italian wars, as the two outside powers, France and Spain, claimed hereditary rights to the Kingdom.
In his History of Italy the Florentine historian Francesco Guicciardini saw 1492, the year of Lucrezia’s father’s election as Pope Alexander VI, as marking the end of a golden age and the beginning of Italy’s troubles:
Italy had never enjoyed such prosperity, or known so favourable a situation as that in which it found itself so securely at rest in the year of our Christian salvation 1490, and the years immediately before and after. The greatest peace and tranquillity reigned everywhere; the land under cultivation no less in the most mountainous and arid regions than in the most fertile plains and areas. Dominated by no power other than her own, not only did Italy abound in inhabitants, merchandise and riches, but she was also highly renowned for the magnificence of her many princes, for the splendour of so many noble and beautiful cities, as the seat and majesty of religion, and flourishing with men most skilful in the administration of public affairs and most nobly talented in all disciplines and distinguished and industrious in all the arts. Nor was Italy lacking in military glory according to the standards of that time, and adorned with so many gifts that she deservedly held a celebrated name and reputation among all the nations.’I
That peace in the country regarded as the richest and most civilized on earth had been kept over the last forty years by the Italian League, the alliance between Naples and Milan, held together by Lorenzo de’Medici (‘the Magnificent’) and cemented by a common fear of the power of Venice. Lorenzo de’Medici died prematurely in April 1492, aged only forty-three; on his death the strains which had developed within the League burst apart, rupturing the hermetic seal which had protected Italy from the newly centralized European powers without. The ambitions of Ludovico Sforza, brother of Cardinal Ascanio, to dethrone the legitimate ruler of Milan, his nephew, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, married to Isabella d’Aragona, niece of the King of Naples, had led to an intense family quarrel between Milan and Naples. This spilled over the Italian borders when Ludovico (always known as ‘il Moro’, a play on his dark complexion and his emblem, the mulberry) invited the young King of France, Charles VIII, to invade and claim his right to the throne of Naples on the grounds of his descent from the former Angevin rulers of the Kingdom. Hungry for glory, in 1494 Charles descended on Italy with a large, well-equipped army in pursuit of his claim, ushering in a period of war and foreign invasion which would be the background to Lucrezia Borgia’s entire life.
Cast of Principal Characters
Borgia (in Spanish de Borja)
LUCREZIA BORGIA: illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI, and his mistress Vannozza Cattanei. Married (I) 1493, Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, (2) 1498, Alfonso d’Aragona, Duke of Bisceglie, (3) 1501, Alfonso d’Este, later Duke of Ferrara
ALONSO DE BORJA, of Jativa in Valencia: Rodrigo’s uncle and Lucrezia’s great uncle, founded the family fortunes when elected Pope Callixtus III in 1455
RODRIGO BORGIA, also of Jativa in Valencia: Lucrezia’s father. Elected Pope Alexander VI in 1492
CESARE BORGIA: Lucrezia’s eldest brother, illegitimate son of Rodrigo Borgia and Vannozza Cattanei. Cardinal of Valencia and then Duke of Valentinois, known as ‘il Valentino’.
Married Charlotte d’Albret, sister of the King of Navarre
JUAN BORGIA: Lucrezia’s second brother, illegitimate son of Rodrigo Borgia and Vannozza Cattanei. Better known as second Duke of Gandia. Married Maria Enriques and was the unworthy grandfather of St Francis Borja
JOFRE BORGIA: supposed son of Rodrigo Borgia by Vannozza Cattanei but suspected by Rodrigo to be Vannozza’s son by her third husband, Giorgio della Croce. Created Prince of Squillace, married Sancia d’Aragona (see below)
VANNOZZA CATTANEI: Rodrigo Borgia’s long-time mistress and mother of his favourite children
ADRIANA DE MILA: Rodrigo Borgia’s first cousin, married to Lodovico Orsini-Migliorati. Lucrezia’s guardian until she married, mother-in-law of Rodrigo’s mistress, Giulia Farnese
ANGELA BORGIA: illegitimate cousin of Lucrezia, known for her beauty which caused havoc among the Este brothers at Ferrara. Married Alessandro Pio da Sassuolo
GIOVANNI BORGIA: known as the ‘Infans Romanus’, illegitimate son of Alexander VI and a Roman woman and therefore Lucrezia’s half-brother. Often reputed to be the product of an incestuous relationship between Lucrezia and her father, a rumour which was almost certainly unfounded
RODRIGO BORGIA (the younger): illegitimate son of Alexander VI, born in the last year of his papacy and therefore another half-brother of Lucrezia.
Aragona
KING FERRANTE I OF NAPLES: grandfather of Lucrezia’s second husband, Alfonso Bisceglie
KING ALFONSO II OF NAPLES: known as Duke of Calabria before his accession, father of Alfonso Bisceglie (illegitimate)
KING FERRANTE II OF NAPLES: son of Alfonso II, known as Ferrantino
KING FEDERICO III OF NAPLES: brother of Alfonso II
ALFONSO D’ARAGONA, Duke of Bisceglie: Lucrezia’s second husband, illegitimate son of Alfonso II
SANCIA D’ARAGONA, Princess of Squillace: illegitimate daughter of Alfonso II and sister of Alfonso Bisceglie, married Jofre Borgia
RODRIGO D’ARAGONA, second Duke of Bisceglie: Lucrezia’s only son by Alfonso Bisceglie
Sforza
LUDOVICO MARIA SFORZA: known as ‘il Moro’, Duke of Bari and then of Milan, married Beatrice d’Este (see below)
ASCANIO SFORZA: cardinal, brother of the above
GIOVANNI SFORZA, lord of Pesaro: illegitimate son of Costanzo Sforza. Lucrezia’s first husband
Este
ERCOLE I, Duke of Ferrara: Lucrezia’s father-in-law
ALFONSO I, Duke of Ferrara: eldest son of Ercole, Lucrezia’s third husband
FERRANTE D’ESTE: Ercole’s second son
ISABELLA D’ESTE. See GONZAGA. Alfonso’s sister, married to Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua (see below)
IPPOLITO D’ESTE: cardinal, Ercole’s third son
GIULIO D’ESTE: Ercole’s illegitimate son
SIGISMONDO D’ESTE: Ercole’s youngest legitimate son
ERCOLE II: Alfonso and Lucrezia’s eldest son and heir
IPPOLITO D’ESTE: Alfonso and Lucrezia’s second son, later also Cardinal d’Este and builder of the Villa d’Este
FRANCESCO D’ESTE: Alfonso and Lucrezia’s third son
ELEONORA D’ESTE: Alfonso and Lucrezia’s only surviving daughter
Gonzaga
FRANCESCO GONZAGA, Marquis of Mantua: husband of Isabella d’Este and lover of Lucrezia
ELISABETTA GONZAGA: sister of the above, married to Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino
LEONORA GONZAGA: daughter of Francesco and Isabella, married Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, after the death of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro in 1508
FEDERICO GONZAGA: son and heir of Francesco and Isabella, succeeded his father as Marquis in 1519 and later became first Duke of Mantua
Della Rovere
GIULIANO DELLA ROVERE: Cardinal of San Pietro in Vincula, Rodrigo Borgia’s great rival for the papacy in 1492, later succeeding as Julius II (see below)
FRANCESCO MARIA DELLA ROVERE: nephew of the above, married Leonora Gonzaga (see above) and succeeded to the dukedom of Urbino
Popes (with the dates of their papacy)
INNOCENT VIII (Giovanni Battista Cibo of Genoa) 1484 – 92
ALEXANDER VI (Rodrigo Borgia, see above) 1492-1503
PIUS III (Francesco Piccolomini of Siena) 1503
JULIUS II (Giuliano della Rovere of Albisola, near Genoa, see above) 1503 – 13
LEO X (Giovanni de’Medici of Florence, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent) 1513 – 22
Spanish sovereigns (with the dates of their reigns)
(For Aragonese Kings of Naples see Aragona above)
FERDINAND OF ARAGON (1479 – 1516) married ISABELLA OF CASTILE (1474 – 1504) in 1469 when they became known as ‘the Catholic Kings’. Rodrigo Borgia’s patron and occasional foe
French sovereigns (with the dates of their reigns)
CHARLES VIII (1483 – 98)
LOUIS XII (1498 – 1515)
FRANCIS I (1515 – 47)
PART ONE
The Pope’s Daughter 1480 – 1501
1. The Pope’s Daughter
‘She [Lucrezia] is of middle height and graceful in form. Her face is rather long, the nose well cut, hair golden, eyes of no special colour. Her mouth is rather large, the teeth brilliantly white, her neck is slender and fair, the bust admirably proportioned. She is always gay and smiling’
—A contemporary description of Lucrezia by an eyewitness, Niccolò Cagnolo of Parma
Rome, 26 August 1492. Rodrigo Borgia, recently elected as Pope Alexander VI, rode in scorching heat through the lavishly decorated streets of Rome from St Peter’s to take formal possession of the papacy in the basilica of San Giovanni in Lateran. In the opinion of experienced courtiers this was the most sumptuous pontifical ceremony ever seen. Thirteen squadrons of men in armour on colourfully caparisoned horses led the way out of the piazza of St Peter’s. Behind them marched the households of the cardinals in a blaze of crimson, purple and rose-coloured satin, green velvet, cloth of gold and silver, lion-coloured velvet, the cardinals themselves in mitres and robes, their horses draped in white damask. Count Lodovico Pico della Mirandola bore the Pope’s personal standard: a shield with a grazing red bull on a gold ground halved with three black bands surmounted by the mitre and keys of St Peter. The roar of cannon from the Castel Sant’Angelo rumbled in the background, the Romans shouted ‘Borgia, Borgia’ with a wild enthusiasm which they were not later to feel. The streets were lined with blue cloth, strewn with flowers and herbs, the walls of palaces hung with magnificent tapestries and at intervals triumphal arches proclaimed the most idolatrous slogans: ‘Caesar was great, now Rome is greater: Alexander reigns – the first was a man, this is a god.’ In front of the Palazzo San Marco a fountain in the form of a bull spurted water from horns, mouth, eyes, nose and ears, and ‘most delicate wine’ from its forehead. The heat exhausted everyone, particularly the heavily built Pope: at the Lateran basilica he had one of his recurrent fainting fits and had to be revived with a dash of water in his face, an evil omen in the opinion of observers.
At sixty, Rodrigo Borgia, a Catalan from the Kingdom of Valencia in southern Spain, now occupied one of the most powerful positions in the known world. As Pope, he was regarded as God’s supreme vicar on earth in both temporal and religious spheres, having inherited the spiritual authority of St Peter and the earthly powers of the Emperor Constantine. With the return of the popes to the city sixty-two years before, after the Great Schism, Rome was again the undisputed centre of the Christian world. The scruffy medieval town clinging to the shattered monuments of the classical city was being transformed; a succession of popes demonstrated their position as heirs to the imperial glories, building bridges, levelling roads and beautifying St Peter’s and the Vatican, the centre of their operations. The cardinals, princes of the Church nominated by the popes for their loyalty and political connections rather than their spiritual qualities, vied with each other in building splendid palaces to display their wealth and importance. Rome
now saw its identity in classical terms: since the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, classical texts and Greek and Latin scholars had flooded into Italy. Men saw their lives in terms of the heroes of ancient Greece and Rome, not of the saints and patriarchs. In the city itself, excavations revealed the glories of imperial Rome, such as the Golden House of Nero, confirming the citizens in their feelings of identity as inheritors of Republic and Empire. The popes were arbiters of Europe and beyond; in 1492 Columbus landed on Hispaniola and, as Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia was to supervise the carving up of the New World between the Spanish and Portuguese sovereigns. In Europe he retained the symbolic power to crown the Emperor and to confirm or refuse the investiture of the Kingdom of Naples. He had the power to initiate alliances and call crusades against the ever more powerful Ottoman Turks, while he directly controlled a large portion of central Italy, the Papal States or ‘the Patrimony of St Peter’, where local lords or ‘papal vicars’ held their lands from him.
Born in 1431, Rodrigo Borgia had been at the centre of this web of power from a very early age when, probably still in his teens, he emigrated from his native town of Jativa in Valencia to Rome to join the Catalan train of his uncle, Cardinal Alonso de Borja, brother of his mother Isabella. He had been well educated as the pupil of the humanist Gaspare da Verona who conducted a smart ‘preparatory school’ for the relatives of eminent churchmen, and then in canon law at the University of Bologna. Alonso’s election in 1455 as Pope Calixtus III changed Rodrigo’s life. Within a year, at the age of twenty-five, he had been appointed a cardinal, then given the Vice-Chancellorship of the Church, the second most important office after the Pope. He survived the purge of Catalans by the furious Romans after the death of Calixtus in 1458, keeping his office and accumulating rich benefices through the reigns of subsequent popes. He gained immensely in knowledge of the workings of the papal court and of international affairs and contacts, building up his position by the acquisition of key papal fortresses surrounding Rome. In the city itself he lived in the style of a Renaissance prince, with a household of 113, and had built himself one of the finest palaces in Rome which today still forms the nucleus of the Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini on the Corso Vittorio Emmanuele. Pope Pius II likened the splendours of the magnificent building with its tower and three-storey loggiaed courtyards to those of the Golden House of Nero. Rodrigo’s ally, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, who as a member of Milan’s ruling family and one of the richest cardinals in Rome, was in a position to judge, was equally impressed:
Lucrezia Borgia Page 2