Lucrezia Borgia

Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519), Italian patron of the arts. Lucrezia was born in Rome, daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI, and sister of Cesare Borgia. Lucrezia's father arranged three marriages for her for political reasons. She was married first at the age of 13, but her father annulled the marriage. She next married a nephew of the king of Naples, but her husband was killed in 1500 by his own bodyguard at Cesare's command. The following year Lucrezia became the wife of Alfonso I, Duke of Este, who in 1505 inherited the duchy of Ferrara. Lucrezia established a court at Ferrara at which the foremost artists, writers, and scholars of the time gathered. Because of her associations with unscrupulous relatives, her reputation suffered, but historians agree that charges of crime and vice against her are without historical proof.