"Why may I not go down the grave with thee? Wood that my fire might warm this frigid ice, and turn this tears this dust to living flesh, and give the unknown the joy of life. And then would I boldly, ardently confront the man who snapped our dearest bond and cry, cruel monster, see what love can do?”
-- Barbara Torello, 1508, a poem about her close friend Lucrezia Borgia's mourning following the assassination of her spouse Alfonso of Aragon
*************************
'Lucrezia Borgia—victim of her times'
George Dunea
For five hundred years, society has unfairly blackened the name of Lucrezia Borgia—in history, literature, even in opera. Living at a time when girls could be disposed of at their parents’ whim, she became a child-bride at eleven, was contracted to be married five times, had a least ten pregnancies, and died from puerperal fever at age thirty-nine. She has been mispresented in the works of Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, and Gaetano Donizetti; described as a seductress, a poisoner, and a witch; and supposed to have killed her husband, slept with her brother, and committed incest with her father.
Lucrezia was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI Borgia and his mistress Vannozza. A Catalan from the area of Valencia in Spain, Borgia was made a cardinal by his uncle Pope Callixtus III in 1456 and was unanimously elected Pope in the year when the soldiers of Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas.
Alexander Borgia was intelligent and shrewd, devious and ruthless, and avid for money and possessions. Charming and possessing a great sense of humor, he had a limitless lust for beautiful women and great sexual power. He fathered some eight or nine children. He devoted himself to enlarging the territory of the papal estates, promoting his relatives, and carving a kingdom out of the scattered states of Northern Italy. Stories of his debauched activities at the Vatican are legion, though some need to be taken with a grain of salt.
*************************
Lucrezia Borgia: Is Her Bad Reputation Deserved? | HistoryExtra
The Heavens Conspire - Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love, and Death in Renaissance Italy
The Borgias (2011 TV series) - Wikipedia
*************************
Lucrezia Borgia: Pretty Poison | Full Documentary | Biography
366,684 views - August 5, 2022
The story of the illegitimate daughter of a Renaissance Pope. Reports say that she killed her enemies with arsenic-drenched rings and may have had an incestuous affair with her father, in this documentary from Biography.
*************************
The enduring power of rumors
I remember when I was a child, I used to read different mystery comic books, and back then they were very intense, eerie and thought provoking. An adult could enjoy them just as much as a child. Most often there were multiple tales throughout one thick colorized comic. For some reason I recall one tale where a particular man murdered his wife for her fortune. At the end when he seemingly had gotten away with it, suddenly he starts choking on some food. On this very last tale, on the very last page, and one the very last image it showed a attractive woman with a very evil grin, dressed in a grand black dress, holding a bottle of poison, hovering over him as he's presumably dying on the floor (it showed him turning green!).
The caption said something like... the evil spirit of Lucrezia Borgia has returned to do him in. I guess he just couldn't be allowed to get away with it, so she just magically made an appearance to do him in! Who better than Miss Borgia to get the job done? I had no idea then who she was, but it sort've imprinted her name in my mind as synonymous with a wicked woman. The simple truth is that the ambitious Borgia family was hated by their rivals, and they spread rumors about Lucrezia because her father was using her to garner more power, and they wanted to deter anyone of power and influence who may wish to marry her. It's as old as time: don't like someone?; tell lies about them!.... especially if they have the raw power to make it stick.
*************************
************
"The prettiest love letters in the world"
-- Lord Byron
.
