Before Henry VIII, before Louis XVI, there was a dynasty in Italy so corrupt, so scandalous, gluttonous, hedonistic, that the others don’t even compare. But this was not a royal family. These were not kings, they were popes, cardinals, bishops. These were holy men, men of the church. Men whose unholy actions may very well have helped spark the dissatisfaction that led to the protestant reformation. These men were part of the house of Borgia, one of the most infamous families in Italy by the turn of the 16th century. They lied, they cheated, they murdered, they did whatever they had to do to get what they wanted - power. But they weren’t all men. One well known daughter of the House of Borgia, Lucrezia Borgia, has had her name drug through the mud right along with her disreputable male relatives. She’s been called a murderer, a whore, accused of incest and even witchcraft. Her name has appeared in the works of Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, Gaetano Donizetti. History has cast Lucrezia as an evil seductress deserving of the Borgia reputation that her father and brother gained. But was she really? Or was she, like so many women of her time, simply a pawn in the hands of men behaving very badly? Let’s fix that. 

 

Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix, where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. I wanted something scandalous this week, like an old smutty Renaisscance drama steeped in secret murder plots and licentious love affairs. And boy did I find it with the House of Borgia. What I wasn’t expecting was for this hedonistic, corrupt family I was craving to be a family that actually led the church in all of Europe at that time. The Borgia family produced multiple popes. Now typically, you don’t have much of a dynasty with popes. Popes are actually not allowed to get married, and the Catholic Church requires that they remain celibate throughout their lives. So Popes don’t typically have children to pass on their power and influence to. Well the Borgias are a bit of an exception to that. 

 

I know I told you this was an Italian family, but it was actually a Spanish family before it was an Italian family. Italy and Spain are a bit blurred at this point in history. And, let’s actually pause to talk about this point in history. The Borgia family first comes on historical radar in the middle of the 1400s with Alfonso de Borgia. So this is before Henry VIII, this is before Ferdinand and Isabella, before Christopher Columbus, although all of those people will operate during or shortly after the heyday of the House of Borgia and feel the influence of their power. But before that power there was Alfonso de Borgia. He was just kind of a normal guy born in Valencia, Spain. He studied law and started to rise through the local church. Because what’s weird is that, at this point, politics and religion are kind of one in the same. They are intermixed, intermingled in precarious ways. Alfonso was eventually appointed secretary to King Alfonso V of Aragon, same name, different guy. So, at this point, Spain is not yet unified, it’s like separate kingdoms, like regions. Aragon is one of them. Alfonso the V rules Aragon right now but two kings later, Ferdinand will rule Aragon and he will marry Isabella of Castille (another Spanish Kingdom) and they will unify Spain, send Christopher Columbus to the Americas, and marry their daughter Catherine of Aragon off to Henry VIII. You see how all this is connected? But this is before all that. Alfonso de Borgia is secretary to Alfonso V of Aragon. 

 

But he quickly worked his way up to vice-chancellor and was soon acting as regent, ruling over Aragon when the king went to conquer Naples, over in Italy. He continued to impress and soon became a priest and bishop and later a cardinal. So these are religious positions, within the catholic church but he’s just sort of being given these roles as like favors from powerful men that he has helped. Not because he’s particularly holy or like faithful or anything like that. It’s all very political. So when he becomes a cardinal in 1445, he moves from Spain to Rome, cause that’s where the Catholic Church lives. In 1455, he gets upgraded again, from Cardinal to Pope. Alfonso becomes Pope Callixtus III. Now, Alfonso AKA Callixtus, is a pretty decent guy. He’s fairly honest, he appears at least to abide by the celibacy thing, but he does practice nepotism. Everyone does, it’s just, that was life. He appoints his nephews, Rodrigo and Pedro as Cardinals. Now, these guys were only in their mid 20s and this was quite shocking. Cardinals were usually old men. So Rome looked at this as a scandal. Their ages, but also the debauchery that was about to ensue. Rodrigo soon became second in command of the church and Pedro was given military control. And so the power and influence of the Borgia family grew and grew. 

 

Despite the nepotism, Callixtus wasn’t a bad guy. He is the pope who ordered a retrial for Joan of Arc, posthumously, of course because she had already been burnt at the stake for witchcraft some 20 years earlier. Because of Callixtus, Joan was declared innocent and eventually made a saint. But Callixtus died in 1458. After his uncle’s death, Rodrigo who was a Cardinal remember and like second in command of the church, helped to select the next several popes, and of course he helped select popes that would be beneficial to him. During this time, he was sent to Spain on behalf of one of those popes to either approve or deny the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. He approved it, obviously, which earned him the support of King Ferdinand, for now. So Rodrigo is sort of gathering supporters despite the fact that he is not at all abiding by the church’s celibacy clause. He earns official reprimands on more than one occasion from the pope for his sexual promiscuity. Now, popes are old, so we go through a handful of popes here after Callixtus until 1492 when Pope Innocent VIII dies and Rodrigo finally gets what he’s been after all these years, becoming Pope Alexander VI, not without a ton of bribery. He basically bought the papacy, the same year, in case you missed it, that Christopher Columbus stumbled upon the Americas. I know all the names are kind of confusing. It’s Alfonso/Callixtus that’s the same guy and then his nephew Rodrigo/Alexander. I’m going to call him Pope Alexander from now on but it’s just Rodrigo, the debaucherous 20 some year old good ol boy Cardinal who is now in his 60s and pope. 

 

Now remember, this guy cannot get married. Cardinals, popes, they can’t get married. They are not supposed to have sexual relations of any kind. But that surely didn’t stop Pope Alexander. He had a legion of mistresses including one main long term mistress named Vannozza dei Cattanei, and was said to have fathered 8 or 9 children. Four of these children, the ones he had with Vannozza, who I guess was like his unofficial wife, would be legitimized - Cesare, Giovanni, Lucrezia, and Gioffre. And the nepotism continued, of course, Pope Alexander lavished his children with great wealth and powerful positions. And I’m starting to understand why popes are not allowed to marry or bear children. There is a major conflict of interest here. Alexander is the head of the church, the church, the only church. And yet he seems wholly unconcerned with religious matters. He’s just here for the power and the glory and the money. I was a little taken aback by the wealth that came with this position. I don’t know why, I guess it’s no different than the dudes who lead these mega churches all over the American south now. So I had to look into if popes, today are wealthy, because I just really didn’t know. Apparently popes get paid a salary of $32,000 a month, so yeah popes are wealthy. I would consider that wealthy. But, the current Pope Francis has nobly declined his monthly salary since taking the position in 2013. Every month he just donates it to the church or to a charity foundation. But he’s not like poor, he still possesses around $16 million dollars worth of assets including 5 cars and basically everything he could ever want or need. There’s a lot, a lot, a lot of money in the Catholic church which is not a great look I don’t think. But this is honestly nothing compared to what it used to be like in the days of Pope Alexander. The church was lavished with riches given by powerful families like the Medicis. And the corruption, oh my the corruption. Popes were known to practice simony which was technically illegal but they did it anyway. That’s selling positions in the church or selling off sacred relics for money. They also sold indulgences which were said to free the buyer of their sins. Super messed up. So these guys are wheeling dealing and they’re super rich and Pope Alexander is passing this wealth and power onto his children which he isn’t even supposed to have but I guess everyone is just letting it slide.  

 

Cesare Borgia became Alexander’s golden son after his other favorite son Juan was assassinated at the age of 20. And, while no one knows who murdered Juan, the more I learn about Cesare, the more I begin to suspect his involvement in his half brother’s death. That’s all speculation. But Cesare would become quite known for killing anyone he viewed as inconvenient and throwing their bodies into the Tiber river, which is exactly where Juan ended up. Alexander made Cesare a Cardinal in 1493 but he would withdraw from the church as a Duke instead so that he could marry to secure a political alliance with France. Alexander was a corrupt pope, but honestly Cesare was next level. According to a Daily Mail article by Annabell Venning quote “The Borgias’ attempts to accumulate wealth now became even more brazen.  Anyone who crossed them was liable to have his lands and property confiscated and be left to rot in prison, if they were lucky. One friar who criticized the Pope was hanged in chains, then burnt until his arms and legs dropped off, and finally blown up with gunpowder. Bishops and cardinals were murdered, and their lands and palaces looted before their bodies were cold… the Tiber ran red with the blood of the Borgias’ enemies…” end quote. Cesare was said to practice his archery perched atop the walls of the prison, aiming for the head of any prisoner within the reach of his arrow. He once arrested a man for spreading scandalous stories about the House of Borgia, partially cut out his tongue, only partially which somehow seems even worse than fully, chopped off his hand, and hung it out the prison window as a warning. He was a true Renaissance prince in the worst sort of way - a murderous, power hungry, womanizer. After that last stunt his father, Pope Alexander had only this to say quote “The Duke is a good-hearted man, but he cannot tolerate insults,” end quote. 

 

But, we do have to keep in mind, a lot of what we know, or think we know, about the Borgia family came from their enemies. This is a powerful Italian family among other competing powerful Italian families. Certainly a lot of what was said or written down was likely exaggerated in order to damage the reputation of the House of Borgia. So, grain of salt with all this. But, I will say, reputations this bad don’t tend to crop up unless there is at least some grain of truth to what the haters are saying. Haters gon hate but sometimes gossip is actually true. 

 

So we know Pope Alexander appointed his children to powerful positions like Cardinal and Duke and also married them off to form political alliances, which was basically all girls were good for in that society. One of those alliances was formed when his daughter, Lucrezia was only 12 years old. Yes, Pope Alexander, who isn’t even supposed to have kids, forced his 12 year old daughter to marry a 26 year old man named Giovanni Sforza. The Sforza family was very powerful at the time in Northern Italy and so this was an advantageous alliance for the Borgias. And this wasn’t even her first marriage contract. Alexander had canceled two previous marriage contracts in Spain when he realized Lucrezia would be more useful in Italy. Lucrezia was said to be a great beauty with golden blonde hair, “brilliantly” white teeth, and a slender neck. It was noted that she smiled often. Which like, what is this fascination with women smiling? Why are we going around telling women to smile and complimenting women when they smile? No one is telling men to smile more. It’s weird. Aside from that, Lucrezia was well educated, could speak 5 languages, was well read, wrote poetry and music. And she was 12. A little girl. Alexander married her off to this Sforza guy as a way to get revenge on one of his enemies, the King of Naples. By forming this alliance with the Sforzas, it was basically an F you to that guy. But, they got over their little tiff, Alexander is cool with the Naples guy again and he’s like “oh crap, I don’t even need this Sforza guy anymore.” What’s a pope to do? Well, after four years, he cancels the marriage claiming that it was never consummated due to Giovanni Sforza’s impotence. But Sforza claims he had quote “known Lucrezia an infinite number of times.” She was 12, well I guess 16 at the time the marriage ended.  But this is where we start to see Lucrezia’s character torn apart. Giovanni Sforza, upset that the pope canceled his marriage and his pride likely hurt by the accusations that he was impotent, started to spread rumors that the real reason Alexander canceled the marriage is because he was jealous. He wanted Lucrezia to himself. Sforza claimed that Lucrezia had an incestuous relationship with her father. And these rumors were only fueled when she supposedly gave birth to a secret baby not long after the marriage ended. Many believed that her father, Alexander, was the father of that baby. But, it’s also been proposed that the father was some Spanish guy whose body was found in the river. Which is interesting, because who do we know who murders people and throws them into the river? Cesare, Lucrezia’s brother. Some believe Cesare murdered this mystery baby daddy to preserve Lucrezia’s reputation but also possibly out of jealousy. Because there are also claims that Cesare had an incestuous relationship with Lucrezia. But I don’t know, I don’t know if she had a quote “incestuous relationship” with her father or her brother. I don’t even want to refer to it like that though. If it’s true, she wasn’t in a relationship with them, she was being sexually abused by them. I feel like that’s different. But also, I can see how these claims could be totally false, made up by her jilted ex-husband Giovanni Sforza to protect his own pride. 

 

Okay, so, moving on. That marriage is done and Alexander secures Lucrezia a new marriage to Alfonso of Aragon, an heir of the Naples family because remember they’re buddies again. The Borgia’s do their best to present Lucrezia as a virgin bride at this wedding, in a dress of gold brocade, dripping with jewels. But they aren’t fooling anyone. She was married for 4 years, she has this secret mystery baby. In the words of one contemporary, the fallacy quote “set all of Italy laughing since it was common knowledge that she had been and was then the greatest whore there ever was in Rome,” end quote. Harsh. Lucrezia marries Alfonso of Aragon, she’s into it actually. He’s only 17 so they’re like the same age and she likes him. They have a happy marriage. They have a son together named Rodrigo and they just sort of settle into married life as happy rich people. But then, Alfonso becomes a less advantageous alliance to the Borgia family, much like Giovanni Sforza before him. There are some shifts in political power and his family is on the losing side. But they can’t exactly claim impotence and failure to consummate to get rid of him like they did before. He and Lucrezia have a kid together. So, I assume, Alexander goes to Cesare and is like “do your thing. Do the thing that you do with the bodies in the river,” something like that. All of a sudden, Alfonso is attacked by this gang of mysterious men in the street. Before they can kill him, some guards intervene and they take him to the Vatican to recover where Lucrezia nursed him devotedly at his bedside. According to Venning quote “But when Alfonso’s condition improved, a man burst in, seized two of Alfonso’s relatives at his bedside, and had them taken to prison. He was Michelotto, Cesare’s chief henchman and assassin. Lucrezia rushed to her father to protest, leaving her weakened husband alone with Michelotto. It was a grave error. On her return, she found Alfonso dead: Michelotto had strangled him. It was well-known that Cesare had ordered the murder out of jealousy and fear that Alfonso himself was becoming too ambitious for power,” end quote. This is like, Shakespeare himself couldn’t make this stuff up. 

 

With Alfonso dead, Lucrezia is up for grabs yet again. This time, now 20 years old, she is married to Alfonso de Este, Duke of Ferrara in north-east Italy. Jeez there are a lot of Alfonsos in this story. Alfonso was to 1500 as Ashley was to 1990. Now this Alfonso, de Este, was not too keen on marrying Lucrezia. The Borgias’ reputation is not great. She’s been married twice before, it did not end well with either of those guys. He’s like “this seems like a terrible idea.” But the Borgias were too powerful to refuse at this point. It got to the point where, if Alfonso didn’t marry Lucrezia, his father was going to, just to seal the deal, make that alliance, plus get the handsome dowry, 300,000 ducats which is like $40 million. But finally Alfonso agrees and the two are married. But, she has to leave her 2 year old son Rodrigo behind in Rome when she moved to Ferrara. She can’t take him with her. He’s too much a reminder of her failed past marriages. She never sees him again and he actually died at the age of 12. I have no idea what happened to the earlier mystery baby. There are some reports of her being seen with an unknown 3 year old boy at one point who is referred to as Infans Romanus or Roman Infant. And then no mention of him.   

 

So she goes to Ferrara to start anew fresh start with Alfonso de Este. But they are not exactly faithful to one another. They both indulge in multiple extramarital affairs during the early years of their marriage. Italy was nuts back then y’all. Like, there are reports of this quote “dinner party” that Pope Alexander threw to which Cesare and Lucrezia both attended, his children attended. But it was less of a dinner party and more of a straight up orgy. Yeah, the 70 year old pope hosted an orgy. A weird one. 50 prostitutes were invited as entertainment at the event. According to Venning quote “The order was given for all the women to disrobe. To spice things up, candelabra were placed on the floor and chestnuts scattered among them. The naked girls were then encouraged to scrabble around the floor picking up the chestnuts, to the lascivious delight of the host and his companions. Prizes were offered to the man who made love to the greatest number of prostitutes,” end quote. This evening of debauchery became known as the Banquet of Chestnuts. And the fact that Lucrezia was present at this event did a lot of damage to her already tarnished reputation. This is likely part of the reason why that contemporary referred to her as quote “the greatest whore there ever was in Rome.” Which I find incredibly unfair. Because what about nasty old man Pope Alexander and sicko Cesare. It’s fine that they were involved. They can do whatever they want and they still get to rule the world. But not a woman. Oh no. How dare she? She gets the distinction as the greatest whore there ever was in Rome. 

 

Married at 12, possibly sexually abused by her father and brother even before that, men of great power, I can’t even imagine how messed up Lucrezia’s perception of sexuality, intimacy was at this point. She had to have been severely damaged. And so it’s no wonder that we see continued displays of infidelity at the start of her third marriage. She is said to have had a possibly platonic, meaning not sexual, affair with a poet named Pietro Bembo. And a not at all platonic affair with her brother-in-law Francesco. Venning says of this affair quote “She seemed not to care that Francesco was sexually voracious and had a string of mistresses, as well as a pimp to provide him with young boys. He, like her husband, soon had syphilis,” end quote. Which like, what? What? What? Who are these people? What is happening? You guys, these are freaking world leaders. No wonder the world is so dang messed up. We’re still rocked by the ripples that these fools started. 

 

Lucrezia’s father, good ol Pope Alexander died in 1503, possibly of malaria soon after she left Rome to remarry. Reports of his death are pretty horrifying, leading some to speculate whether he was actually poisoned. There are some urban legendy claims that Cesare had poisoned some wine to kill off a few rivals but that the poisoned wine accidentally got swapped with the good wine and he poisoned his father and himself instead. Because apparently he also fell ill during this time but recovered. I don’t know it was probably malaria. Alexander apparently had a fever and vomited blood for a week before dying. George Dunea writes for Hektoen International Journal of Medical Humanities quote “In the confusion that followed his death, his body was left unburied for several days. It turned horribly black, the tongue was grotesquely swollen, the stench unbearable, and the cadaver so huge that it could not be fitted into the coffin,” end quote. So that’s fun. But what did Alexander accomplish during his time as pope? We know his uncle Pope Callixtus pardoned Joan of Arc, so that’s great. What about Alexander? Well, he granted Spain and Portugal exclusive rights to conquer the quote New World that Christopher Columbus quote discovered. Although this was never officially recognized by any other European power. He also pushed for evangelization of the Americas which meant forcing the indigenous people there to forfeit their very identities in order to convert to Christianity. That and hosting chestnut orgies I suppose, so that’s not a great legacy. Plus he bore a murderous psychopath into the world in the form of Cesare. Cesare is actually said to be the inspiration behind Machiavelli’s book “The Prince,” which is basically just an instruction manual about how to do whatever you want as a privileged white male and get away with it. He was quite literally a Machiavellian villain. Cesare would meet a sticky end himself in 1507. After the death of his father and benefactor, he sort of floundered around for a bit trying and failing to gain support, was arrested by the new pope, released, and re-arrested by Ferdinand of Aragon of all people who was once a friend of the Borgias, no longer. He escaped that arrest but was killed in a skirmish soon after at just 31 years old.  Because the thing is, you can kill your enemies, you can buy supporters, bribe people, pay them off with power and money. But you can’t actually buy true loyalty or friendship. Those hold no monetary value. Alexander was in a powerful position. No one was going to mess with him. Once he was dead, Cesare was nothing to them. 

 

So anyway, back to Lucrezia, after her brother in law slash lover Francesco gets syphilis, she’s is like “okay we’re done here,” the affair stops and her marriage sort of rights itself. She and Alfonso have at least 6 children together, some sources say 10, including an heir which is all anybody ever wanted back then anyway. So it’s all good. Her reputation improves. She’s able to sort of retreat from the collapsed remnants of the Borgia family and all of its debauchery and scandal and become a part of the more respectable de Este family. Dunea says quote “Her social graces charmed both Ferrarese citizens and foreign dignitaries. Devout and intelligent, she had a natural talent for administration, a necessary quality since … princes like Alfonso were often away for long periods. Lucrezia became a patron of the arts, surrounding herself with a circle of artists, intellectuals, poets, courtiers, and poets. She helped make Ferrara a center of culture and was adored by its people. She acted in place of her husband when he was away and skillfully administered the affairs of state. In times of war and plague she oversaw the defense of the city and administered justice equitably. As a shrewd businesswoman, she built up her own fortune and used some of her wealth to build hospitals and convents, investing in marshy land, then draining it and recovering it for agriculture,” end quote. 

 

So, like I said, some sources say 6 kids, some say 10 and I know she had at least one kid, possibly two, before this marriage. Girl has been cheating death for decades at this point. If you listened to last week’s episode about childbirth you understand. But her luck is about to run out. In 1519, at the age of 39, Lucrezia gave birth to a still born baby girl. Soon after, she developed a fever, infection, childbed fever, the most common cause of maternal death. According to Dunea “Reports indicate that she suffered horrendously with quote “bad material that had built up in her womb and not been purged.” She developed convulsions; her doctors bled her and cut off her hair in a vain effort to save her life—she died on June 24, 1519,” end quote. And I get chills reading that because, like I told you last week, I had a fever with convulsions after my first baby was born and antibiotics probably saved me. Lucrezia was born over 450 years too early for antibiotics. Just makes you grateful to be living now and not then. Because of advancements like antibiotics but for other reasons too. Dunea concludes quote “She lived in a time when women were often treated like chattel and she received a reputation that she does not appear to have deserved,” end quote. 

 

Lucrezia was clearly not the most virtuous woman in her earlier years but, considering the circumstances, considering the family that raised her, it’s not all that hard to see why. But despite rumors of poisoning people with arsenic hidden in a hollowed out ring, there’s no evidence to suggest that Lucrezia ever killed anyone. Why would she need to with Cesare as a brother? Why dirty her own hands? The House of Borgia basically ended with Lucrezia’s death in 1519. I mean there were other Borgias but none of them as prominent or notorious as those 4. It’s just the 4 of them really - Alfonso AKA Pope Callixtus, Rodrigo AKA Pope Alexander, Cesare and Lucrezia. Like, if you were going to be the Borgias for Halloween, like a group costume that’s who you’d be - Callixtus, Alexander, Cesare, and Lucrezia. Hey maybe we’ll be the Borgias this year for Halloween. Just kidding, we’re taking a year off from corrupt historical white people costumes. Last year, this is kind of bad but hopefully funny, last year we did sort of a famous late 18th century historical figures theme. I was Marie Antionette, my husband was Beethoven and my then 4 year old was Mozart, cause he’s all into piano and my husband is a musician. And then the little one was a blue m&m because he can’t ever go with the flow. He does his own thing, it’s frustrating. So other than him, we’re dressed very 1790s, powdered wigs and all. I have pictures on my  instagram @historyfixpodcast if you missed it last year. And we go to this costume parade thing with my sister and her family. She talked us into it, sounded fun, walk around the park in our costumes but we didn’t realize it was also a costume contest. And so after the parade, they like pick a winner like the best costumes. And we actually got runner up in this costume contest we didn’t mean to enter. But we’re standing up there for the final judging and one of the judges is a Black woman. I don’t think anything of it but I can like feel my husband, sort of like shrinking down into his red silk scarf and gold cuff linked jacket. And, I mean, I get it, we’re up here in front of a crowd dressed all crazy, it’s pretty embarrassing. But afterwards he was like “man that was so bad.” And I was like “it wasn’t that bad, we almost won!” and he’s like “no, I mean, did you realize we were up there pretty much dressed like slave owners.” And no I had not realized. He was like “I felt so bad, like what that judge probably thought,” and okay I mean we were Marie Antionette, Mozart, and Beethoven. None of those people directly enslaved people. Although Marie Antionette did wear a dress once that supposedly ignited the slave trade. When a portrait of her wearing a simple cotton gown came out in 1783, it, according to an article in the Week, quote “had an impact that reverberated throughout the world in ways no one could have foreseen. It flipped the textile industry on its head, lighting the fuse laid out by a fast-changing world of exploration, the Enlightenment, and rebellion. It caused cotton, and the institution of slavery it stood on, to explode,” end quote. So not directly involved but certainly of the right time period, and, I mean influential, close enough. If she had lived in the Americas she most certainly would have enslaved people directly. I was honestly super impressed that my husband had made this historical connection because, if you’ve been with me for a while then you know Joey does not do history, like at all. His eyes immediately glaze over. So I was just impressed that he even knew that’s what enslavers would have worn. But I don’t think the judge cared or was offended or even made the connection that he did. I think he was just overreacting. Although, you know, we did only get runner up. Perhaps with her vote, we could have gotten first. No, I don’t think so. But, after accidentally dressing like enslavers last year, I think we’ll skip the Borgias costumes this year. Stay tuned on instagram to see which hopefully inoffensive costumes we end up going with. 

 

But you know what bothers me about the story of the Borgias? When it comes to the men, it’s all these accomplishments, conquests, alliances, all these big things that they did, that they got to do. And with Lucrezia, all the focus is on who she slept with, who she married, who’s the baby daddy, how white her teeth were, how often she smiled. Her actual accomplishments are more of a footnote. Lucrezia was a survivor, a pawn, used and abused by men who had tremendous power over her, her own father and brother, men who were supposed to take care of her and yet they exploited her for their own selfish gain, snatching her around, in and out of marriages, cruelly toying with her. She survived all that. And when they were finally dead and gone she thrived. Beloved by the people, reigning justly in her husband’s absence, smart, capable, she built up her own wealth, donated to build hospitals and convents, invested in the arts, part of the Italian Renaissance. Lucrezia Borgia helped change the world at a time when women in general were only expected to change bed sheets and dirty diapers. But that’s not how she’s remembered. Instead, she’s been unfairly immortalized as a wicked, murderous seductress with a brilliant white smile. 

 

Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix. 

 

Information used in this episode was sourced from Brooklyn Museum, Hektoen International, Encyclopedia Britannica, ThoughtCo, the Daily Mail, Marca, and the Week. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.