Lucrezia Borgia, a "Pearl among Women"

Lucrezia Borgia (death of her mother, Vannozza dei Cattanei on 24 November 1518)

Very few women have the kind of notoriety that attaches to the name of Lucrezia Borgia--I remember throwing around her name when I was just a girl and a friend accused me of having been mean to her: "Oh, yeah, I'm Lucrezia Borgia," I snarled. Of course I had no idea who Lucrezia Borgia was--just that she was somehow awful and evil.

Lucrezia Borgia, c. 1510,
portrait by Veneziano

But, while she was accused of poisoning her husband and of incest with both father and brother, Cesare, Lucrezia Borgia was probably guilty of neither. 

As the year nears its end and I'm scrambling to include women in the few remaining posts left in my daybook, I've had to explain more frequently about why I've selected to write about certain women on certain dates, and that is the case here as well. So, although we do know the days on which Lucrezia was born and when she died, I am posting about her on the date of her mother's death, 24 November. 

Lucrezia Borgia was the daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI, and his mistress Giovanna dei Cattanei, known as "Vannozza."* Born on 18 April 1480, Lucrezia was raised in Rome, spending much of her girlhood in the household of Adriana del Mila, her father's cousin. 

She was noted for her educational achievements--a contemporary reported that she spoke Spanish, Greek, Italian, French, and Latin and that she could compose poetry in these languages as well. The household was joined by Giulia Farnese, who had married Adriana del Mila's son, Orso Orsini, in 1489; Giulia became Lucrezia's friend and companion, but she also became Rodrigo Borgia's mistress.

A portrait said to represent
Vanozza Cattanei,
mother of Lucrezia Borgia

Rodrigo looked to his native Spain for Lucrezia's future (and his own political needs), arranging her betrothal in 1491 to Don Juan de Centelles, lord of Val D'Agora in Valencia, and then, when the first contract was annulled, to Don Gaspare d'Aversa, who was also living in Valencia. But that betrothal was also broken when, after his election as pope in 1492, her father arranged for her marriage to Giovanni Sforza; their marriage was celebrated on 12 June 1493.

Unsettled by Charles VIII's threatened invasion of Italy and by "Vatican intrigues," the bridegroom left Rome after his marriage and returned, without his bride, to Pesaro for the summer and fall.

But Giovanni returned to Rome in November, no doubt to ensure his receipt of his thirteen-year-old bride's dowry. In 1494 Lucrezia finally left Rome for Pesaro, where she was living when Charles VIII's threatened invasion became a reality. 

She returned to Rome in the autumn of 1495, acting as hostess for her father at the papal court. But in the changed world of Italian politics, Alexander VI no longer had need of a Sforza alliance, and he decided that Lucrezia's marriage should be annulled on the basis of nonconsummation.

Giovanni angrily rejected the annullment, implying as it did his impotence, and appealed to his uncle Ludovico Sforza for aid. Ludovico was in need of papal support as he fought against Charles VIII, and, fearful that he could lose Milan to the French, proposed a test for Giovanni--he could prove the validity of his marriage if he consummated it, publicly, in the presence of members of both the Borgia and Sforza families.

After Giovanni rejected this proposal, Ludovico then suggested that Giovanni prove his virility in front of just one person, but again the proposal was angrily refused. Giovanni, for his part, reminded the pope and his uncle that his first wife, Maddalena Gonzaga, had died in childbirth; under those circumstances, he argued, there could be little question of his ability to consummate a marriage. He charged that Alexander wanted to dissolve the marriage because Alexander wanted his daughter for himself.

Giovanni's angry charge of incest was almost certainly untrue, but it has become an indelible part of the Lucrezia's unsavory reputation nonetheless. It is also interesting to note, here, that accusations of incest form a regular part of attacks on powerful women as a way of discrediting them--Eleanor of Aquitaine was accused of having such a relationship with her uncle, Raymond of Poitiers, for example, and Margaret Beaufort's intense emotional connection with her son drew criticism and suspicion as well. Marguerite of Navarre was also accused of incest with her brother, Francis I, again because of their emotional connections. (The frequency of such claims about women made by their political enemies puts such accusations against Anne Boleyn in an interesting context, doesn't it?)

If she failed to show her emotional connection to members of her family, a woman like Caterina Sforza could be constructed as an unnatural monster, but intimate and loving demonstrations of affection could also be used against a woman, raising the suggestion of "neurotic" and "obsessive" attachment (in the case of Margaret Beaufort) or, as with Lucrezia Borgia, incest. 

Alexander, instead of expressing outrage at his son-in-law's accusations, replied to Giovanni with concern for the young man's "honorable" reputation: Giovanni could "admit" his impotence, even while everyone acknowledged it was just a temporary condition, perhaps one caused by an evil spell of some sort, or he could agree to an annulment simply by claiming that his marriage was invalid because of Lucrezia's previous betrothals.

Giovanni agreed to have the legality of his marriage examined, but a commission charged with the investigation found no irregularities, despite Alexander VI's obvious desire to have them found. The only remaining argument was nonconsummation, and under pressure from his uncle Ludovico and with financial inducements from the pope, Giovanni Sforza finally agreed. On 18 November 1497 he signed a "confession" of impotence, and on 22 December Lucrezia Borgia's first marriage was formally annulled. She was declared to be intacta, that is, a virgin. (Another good example of "traditional marriage," huh?)

Several new alliances were immediately suggested for her, including one with Ottaviano Sforza, Caterina Sorza's son. But on 29 June 1498 she was married by proxy to Alfonso of Aragon, the illegitimate son of Alfonso II, king of Naples, who made his son duke of Bisceglie. The formal ceremony took place in Rome in July. When Alexander VI and his son allied themselves with the French, who planned to invade Naples, Alfonso left Rome without his wife. Shortly thereafter, Alexander VI appointed his daughter governor of Spoleto and Foligno.

Just nineteen years old, Lucrezia took on the administrative tasks her new role demanded. Apparently reassured of his father-in-law's intentions, Alfonso reclaimed his wife, and the two returned to Rome, where Lucrezia gave birth to a son, whom she named Rodrigo after her father. In July of 1500 Alfonso was attacked by assassins in Rome. As he did not die (Lucrezia's ministrations are credited with his recovery), on 18 August he was strangled in his bed, probably under Cesare Borgia's orders. Lucrezia was dismissed from Rome, her letters from this period signed La Infelicissima--"the most unhappy of ladies."

By July of 1501 Louis XII of France and Ferdinand of Aragon had defeated Naples. While her father campaigned in Italy, Lucrezia returned to Rome to administer his affairs. But Lucrezia's remarriage could provide her father another political ally, and so a third husband was found for her, Alfonso d'Este, Isabella d'Este's brother, son and heir to the duke of Ferrara. After initially opposing the alliance, the duke was compelled to agree. Lucrezia and Alfonso d'Este were married on 30 December 1501. 

Lucrezia Borgia, 1518,
portrait by Dossi Dossi

Contemporary accounts of Lucrezia, just twenty-one years old at the time of her third marriage, counter the more salacious and vicious gossip that still surrounds her name. Her new sister-in-law viewed Lucrezia with suspicion; nevertheless, Isabella d'Este's agent reported to her that Lucrezia was "full of charm and grace," and one of Isabella's ladies-in-waiting, too, grudgingly admitted that if Lucrezia "is not noticeably beautiful, she stands out thanks to the sweetness of her expression." A chronicler in Ferrara reported, "She is full of tact, prudent, intelligent, animated, pleasing, very amiable. . . . Her quick mind makes her eyes sparkle."

Despite d'Este fears and Isabella's suspicions, Lucrezia proved to be an excellent wife--she promptly bore her husband four children, including his son and heir Ercole, who succeeded his father as duke of Ferrara in 1534. 

After Alexander VI's death, Lucrezia no longer played a political role in Italy, but she established numerous charitable foundations in Ferrara and, like her sister-in-law's court at Mantua, Ferrara became a center for artists and intellectuals. 

Lucrezia Borgia died on 24 June 1519, just ten days after giving birth to a stillborn daughter. Lucrezia was thirty-nine years old.

There is a great deal about Lucrezia Borgia in popular culture, from historical dramas like The Borgias to novels. But there are good biographies as well. Although it was originally published in Italian in 1939, I still like Maria Bellonci's The Life and Times of Lucrezia Borgia, trans. Bernard and Barbara Wall; it's out of print, but it has been reprinted so many times that there are lots of used copies available. I also recommend Sarah Bradford's 2004 Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy.

*This post has been adapted from The Monstrous Regiment of Women: Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe (Palgrave Macmillan).

Beatrice d'Este: "Happy by Nature and Very Pleasing"

Beatrice d'Este (born 29 June 1475)

By and large in the posts I'm making this year, I'm focusing on women who do rather than women who simply are--but today I am noting the birth of Beatrice d'Este, the younger sister of Isabella d'Este, whom we've met before.

Beatrice d'Este,
a detail from the
Sforza altarpiece, , 1495

Unlike her elder sister, Beatrice did not live long enough to become a formidable political actor. In 1491, she was married to Ludovico Sforza, then regent of Milan for his nephew Gian Galeazzo, but, by then, equally well on his way to replacing his nephew as duke. (His nephew conveniently died in 1494.)

Beatrice's marriage festivities were designed and directed by Leonardo da Vinci. The fifteen-year-old bride became the center of lavish court life in Milan, noted for her beauty, her fashion, her taste, and her zest for life.

An important part of this courtly life were the poets, intellectuals, and artists with whom she associated, including the courtier, diplomat, and writer Baldassare Castiglione, the poet and courtier Niccolò da Correggio, the architect Donato Bramante, and, of course, Leonardo. In her husband's words, she was "lieta di natura et molto piacevolina"--or, as I have translated above, "happy by nature and very pleasing." 

What she might have become, had she lived longer, is glimpsed in 1492, when she acted as an ambassador to Venice on her husband's behalf, and again in 1495, when she attended a peace conference at Vercelli between the French king, Charles VIII, and notable Italian political figures, including her husband. 

But those glimpses are all we have. Beatrice d'Este died in childbirth on 3 January 1497, just twenty-one years old. Her two sons, Massimiliano (b. 1493) and Francesco II (b. 1495) each took a turn in a precarious role of duke of Milan. 

Tomb effigy of Beatrice d'Este

There is only one biography of Beatrice d'Este, Julia Carthwright's 1907 Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497. You can buy this in a variety of print-on-demand reprints, and you can also download a free Kindle version. You will also find it in a variety of formats at Project Gutenberg.

Isabella d'Este, "la prima donna del mondo"

Isabella d'Este, marchesa of Mantua (died 13 February 1539)

Let Your Highness, I beg of you, keep a tranquil mind and attend wholly to military affairs, for I intend to govern the state with the help of these magnificent gentlemen and officials in such a manner that you will suffer no wrong, and all that is possible will be done for the good of your subjects. And if anyone should write or tell you of disorders of which you have not heard from me, you may be certain that it is a lie, because, since I not only give audience to officials but allow all your subjects to speak to me whenever they choose, no disturbance can arise without my knowledge.

--Isabella d'Este, marchioness of Mantua, to her husband,
Francesco Gonzaga, 30 June 1495

Isabella d'Este was widely praised by her contemporaries--for the poet Niccolò da Corréggio, she was, quite simply, "the first lady of the world" (la prima donna del mondo).

Isabella d'Este was the daughter of Eleanor of Naples and Ercole d'Este, duke of Ferrara.* Today, she may be best known for Karen Essex's historical novel, Leonardo's Swans, or for her dealings with Leonardo da Vinci--details of which appear in many Leonardo biographies. Although her life provides ample material for fiction, and although she was one of the most acquisitive collectors of art and artists, Isabella is also an impressive politician, diplomat, and ruler.

Titian's portrait of Isabella d'Este,
c. 1534-36
(painted when Isabella was in her 60s--
Titian offered a flattering, idealized image)

In 1480 Isabella, not yet six years old, was betrothed to Francesco Gonzaga, son and heir of the marquis of Mantua, strategically located between the rival cities of Milan and Venice. She was married to Gonzaga in 1490, and just a year later, Isabella found herself entrusted with the government of Mantua during her husband's absence.

Among the responsibilities she assumed was maintaining good relationships with both of her powerful neighbors. She also faced the usual task of producing an heir; by the end of 1492, in addition to her administration of Mantua, she had given birth to a child--unfortunately, rather than the desired son, the baby was a girl. 

Isabella was called upon again in Mantua when her husband, as captain-general of the Venetian army, joined the combined forces of Spain, England, and the Holy Roman Empire determined to drive the invading French out of Naples. According to her biographer Julia Cartwright, "she took up the reigns of government . . . and administered affairs with a prudence and sagacity which excited the wonders of grey-haired councillors." 

After Charles VIII retreated from Naples, Francesco returned briefly to Mantua, but by January of 1496 he was once more in command of the Venetian army, leaving Isabella again in control.

To improve her understanding of affairs of state, she added architecture, agriculture, and industry to her on-going humanist studies. During her husband's absence she also gave birth to her second child, another daughter, in July; again, she was disappointed, more disappointed than her husband, who assured her that "if ever a father had reason to be satisfied with his daughters, it was he." 

Despite his eight years of service to Venice, Francesco Gonzaga was dismissed from his position as captain-general in 1497, ostensibly for his French sympathies. In an effort to regain his position, he offered to surrender his wife and children to Venice as hostages, but his offer was rejected.

Aside from the insult to her husband, Isabella suffered another loss as well, with the death of her young sister Beatrice, the wife of Milan's Ludovico Sforza. Isabella set about reconciling her husband and her brother-in-law, and when Charles VIII died in 1498 and Louis XII announced his intention of pursuing his claim to the duchy of Milan, their reconciliation seemed inevitable.

Under this threat, Ludovico Sforza renewed his alliance with the Holy Roman Empire, and Francesco Gonzaga was offered military command of their combined forces, a post he ultimately accepted despite his hope to regain his position of captain-general of Venice, which had allied itself with the French. In 1499 the French invaded, and Lodovico Sforza was forced out of Milan. Francesco Gonzaga immediately offered his services to Louis XII, though Isabella persisted in her allegiance to her sister's husband and offered refuge to Milanese fleeing the French. But after Ludovico's capture by the French in 1500 at the battle of Novara, she turned her attention to cultivating the victors. 

Within a month of Ludovico's defeat, Isabella gave birth to a son, Federico, and his birth gave the marchioness and her husband an opportunity to make a conciliatory gesture to the French. Accordingly, Isabella solicited Cesare Borgia  to act as one of her son's godfathers.

As Cesare continued his conquests in Italy, Isabella grudgingly welcomed his sister Lucrezia as her brother's bride and, once more governing Mantua on her husband's behalf, negotiated with Cesare over the betrothal of her son Federico to Cesare's daughter. Through a continuing series of detailed letters, she also kept her husband advised about political matters.  

The situation in Italy shifted radically after the death of Pope Alexander VI in August of 1503, and his son Cesare Borgia lost his Italian conquests almost as quickly as he had gained them. Isabella, meanwhile, remained in Mantua, still acting as regent for Francesco, who fought first for Julius II, leading the papal army against Bologna, and then for Louis XII, helping conduct the siege of Genoa. Isabella herself was invited to France in 1507 by Louis and Anne of Brittany; despite her renowned love of travel, it was a trip she could not take.

As Cartwright notes, Isabella's continued presence in Mantua was "urgently required" during Francesco's absences. Her role became even more critical when the pope and the French king combined forces in 1508 to attack Venice. Francesco was part of the defeat of Venice at the battle of Cannæ on 14 May, but on 9 August he was taken prisoner. Louis XII and Maximilian demanded her son, Federico, be sent to them as a hostage, in exchange for her husband's freedom. 

Isabella objected strongly, calling the demand "a cruel and almost inhuman thing for any one who knows the meaning of a mother's love," but despite his mother's "deliberate and unchanging" opposition, Federico became a hostage for his father's good behavior after all. Julius II eventually negotiated Francesco Gonzaga's release on 10 July 1510 on the condition that Federico be sent Rome where he would be the hostage of the pope instead of the Republic of Venice. Isabella's son became a papal favorite, accompanying Julius II everywhere; "O Madonna!" one of Isabella's correspondents wrote from Rome, "you have indeed a rare son, and I think you will find more comfort in him than in anything else in the world."

Leonardo da Vinci's chalk drawing
of Isabella d'Este, c. 1519
(an oil portrait was never completed)

His imprisonment had taken a toll on Francesco Gonzaga's health, and he was forced to give up his military career, retiring to Mantua where, as Cartwright indicates, "he depended more and more on his wife" who had an increasingly large part "in the management of public affairs." Isabella's Latin teacher, Mario Equicola, wrote to her brother that "everything is referred to Madonna, and not a leaf is allowed to stir without her knowledge and consent."

Beyond Mantua, Isabella attempted to effect the reconciliation of her brother, the duke of Ferrara, to Julius II. When that effort failed and the threat of war loomed again, a "congress" met in Mantua in 1512, where Isabella "displayed her usual tact and ability in the conduct of negotiations"; she knew, "above all, how to govern others without ever allowing her influence to appear." 

While her husband remained in Mantua over the course of the next few years, Isabella travelled widely throughout Italy, visiting Milan, Rome, and Naples. She was back in Mantua by the end of 1518, however, as Francesco grew increasingly ill. On the morning of 29 March 1519, he drew up a will naming Federico as his successor, with Isabella to act as his "guardian and advisor" until the young man reached the age of twenty-two; he died late the same day.

When Pope Leo X considered making the twenty-year-old Federico his captain-general in 1520, he hesitated, wondering how Mantua could be governed in the young man's absence. The answer, of course, was Isabella, who was once more to guide Mantua after her son took up his new position. But once Federico returned to Mantua and took up the administration of his state "in his own right," he "rarely referred things to her or asked her advice."

No longer needed in Mantua, Isabella decided to travel; she was in Rome, for instance, when it was sacked by imperial troops in 1527. She had fortified the Palazza Colonna, where she was in residence, offering shelter and protection to ambassadors from Mantua, Ferrara, Urbino, and Venice. It was, one biographer notes, "almost the only building in all of Rome to escape serious damage in the terrible sack." In 1528 she was in Ferrara for the marriage of her nephew Ercole to Renée of France, Louis XII's daughter, and in 1529 she travelled to Bologna for the meeting between Pope Clement and the newly elected Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.

She was there for more than the spectacle of the emperor's coronation, however: she intended "to promote the interests of the Gonzaga family," "to help her brother Alfonso in his effort to keep Ferrara an Este duchy," and to "use her influence to have her nephew Francesco Sforza confirmed in his Milan duchy." Her efforts were successful, and the new emperor traveled to Mantua immediately following the events in Bologna; there, on 8 April, he changed the status of Mantua, creating a new duchy, and Isabella d'Este's son became the first duke of Mantua. 

With this success, mother and son were reunited, and when Federico travelled to Montferrat in 1531, where his marriage to Margherita di Montferrat was celebrated, Isabella "once more administered the State in her son's absence." This was the last occasion she took "any active part in public affairs," her biographer Julia Cartwright notes. Isabella continued to travel, as her health permitted, with one last visit to Ferrara in 1538, her birthplace, before her death on 13 February 1539. 

There is an excellent account of Isabella d'Este in Leonie Frieda's The Deadly Sisterhood: A Story of Women, Power, and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance, 1427-1527. But for a detailed, full-length biography, I recommend Julia Cartwright's two-volume Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua, 1474-1539: A Study of the Renaissance, first published in 1903. You can read the book through Google Books: for volume 1, click here; for volume 2, click here. You can also purchase print-on-demand copies via Amazon. 

For an analysis of Isabella d'Este's political role, see Sarah D. P. Cockram's recent Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga: Power Sharing at the Italian Renaissance Court.

*This post has been adapted from The Monstrous Regiment of Women: Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe (Palgrave Macmillan).