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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Lucretia Borgia Biography LUCREZIA BORGIA, sister of Caesar Borgia, a woman of great beauty, was born in Rome in 1480. She was married first to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, June, 1493; but her father, on the ground of her husband's impotence, annulled this marriage (Dec. 20, 1497) and gave her (June 20, 1498) to Alfonso, Duke of Bisceglie, nephew of the King of Naples. Alfonso, believing that Caesar had sought his life, attempted to retaliate and was in turn cut to pieces by his own bodyguard at Caesar's command. For the third time free, the Pope's daughter became, in spite of the repugnance of the Duke Ercole d'Este, the wife of the latter's son, Alfonso, who soon after inherited the Duchy of Ferrara. Lucrezia has been represented as placed outside the pale of humanity by her wantonness, her vices, and her crimes, but the recent researches of most accurate and impartial historians have refuted the more extravagant of these assertions. She died June 24, 1519. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. III (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 548-549. |