Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1886 — Lucrezia Borgia. [ARTICLE]

Lucrezia Borgia.

Lucre tia, or, mote properly, Lucrezia Borgia, was a daughter of Pope Alexander VI., anil a sister of the notorious Cesare Borgia, a prelate and soldier oi Bonie in the latter part of the lifteenth century. Lucrczia was famops in her time for remarkable lieauty and accomplishments, and has been 'known in history chiefly because of the many shocking crimes ascribed to her.. Later writers, however, have defended her from these charges, which, indeed, seem to have little foundation beyond the idea that, from her influence over her father and brother, she must have been a partner in their crimes. She was in her youth betrothed to a nobleman of Arragon, but on her father’s accession to the papacy this contract was broken, and she was married to Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro. This union was dissolved a few years later by the Pope for political reasons, and she was given in marriage in 1498 to the Duke of Bisceglia, a natural son of King of Naples. Two years later the duke was assassinated in the streets of Borne. There is no doubt that he was murdered by the order of Cesare Borgia, and it is quite possible that the deed was done, as has been asserted, with the consent and connivance of LuPrezia. In 1501 she married Alfonso of Este,. afterward Duke of Ferrara. From this time she became a patron of art and letters,’ and attracted a very brilliant society to her court. After her brother Cesare had been killed in battle in 1507, she became very religious and gave up much of her time to devotion and works of charity. The idea of modern historians that Lucrezia was a woman of but little strength of mind, and therefore unable to oppose the crimes of her father and brother, seems hardly consistent with the known fact that she possessed exceptionally intellectual gifts and was far better educated than most women of her time. It is more probable that she shared in the deficient moral sense as well as the in-. tellectual power characteristic of her family. As for the more revolting crimes with which she has been charged, such as living in incestuous relations with her father or brother, or both, it is due to historical accuracy to say that not a particle of genuine evidence has ever- been adduced in their proof.— lnter Ocean.