THE BORGIA FAMILY.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18165, 1 November 1930, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE BORGIA FAMILY.

THE name of Borgia is associated in the minds of most people with brutal cruelties, with countless murders —chiefly by poison—and with licentious excesses. The history of the Borgia family is a dark one. The cunning and ambition of the Borgias too' them up the steps of the ‘Papal throne. In this family t black sheep were in the majority, and the ruthless, lustra Cesare Borgia was the worst, and one with the blackest deeds to his name. He was the son of Rodrigo Borgia, otherwise Pope Alexander VI. The Papacy at that time was in a state of moral relaxation, “and though Alexander was, as a priest, pledged to live unmarried, this did no hinder him from living openly with a sort of unmarried wife, and devoting the resources of Christendom t 0 ,'t e advancement of his family.” He had a number of children, two of whom, Cesare and his sister Lucrezia, played an important part in history and acquired an unhappy renown. They are the two members of the Borgia family frequently Singled Out For Special Execration. There are two things, however, to remember in coming to any conclusion in the matter. First, the hideous stories are for the most part found in the chronicles written by their deadliest enemies; and then if we read some of the diaries of people who lived in those days, we should find that practically every one who had the means and the power indulged in all these things. It was the spirit of the age. It does not make them any' better from our point of view, but we can hardly judge them by our standards. Judged by any standard, however, Cesare, born in 1476, must be regarded as one of the vilest characters in history. . His boundless ambition and infamous deeds are history. His magnificence, while it lasted, awed the people; and, whatever we think of him, “he ' Realised Machlavelll’s Highest Ideals of a superb and successful prince." Earlier in his career his. elder brother stood in his way, and the quicker to satisfy his ambitions he hired assassins and had his brother murdered. His body w ; as found in the Tiber with fourteen knife gashes and a cut throat, and the hands bound together. Cesare had his sister’s husband murdered too, and numbers of other people he betrayed and sent to their doom. . „ . He had the grace and beauty and the vices of all the Borgias, and hypnotised with his charm those whom he did not think” stood in his way or w>ere likely to frustrate his plans. It required a league of all Italy and the most powerful sovereigns of Europe to arrest the schemes of this dangerous superman, as he thought himself. After the death of Pope Alexander, his father, the days of Cesare were numbered. The enemies of the Borgias set about his ruin; he was hunted, arrested, imprisoned, and escaped to the Court of Navarre. In 1507 he was killed in battle, fighting against great odds. The older historians dealt hardly with his sister, Lucrezia; they placed h§r outside the pale of humanity, pictured her a profligate, a wanton creature steeped in vice and crime. But later research seems to show that

She Was a Much-maligned Lady.

On June 12', 1493, she was married, at the age of 15, to Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro. She had already been betrothed twice —to noblemen of Spain—but. her lather, Pope Alexander, found that neither of these men would be of any value to him in his ambitions. The wadding banquet was held at the Vatican in the presence of the Pope, ten Cardinals, and fifteen Roman patricians and their wives. In the evening there was dancing, followed by a comedy w'hich would certainly not have passed the censor to-day. But the reports which were circulated about the proceedings may be put down, partly at least, to malicious gossip. Unfortunately the marriage was' not altogether a happy one, but the deciding factor in the succeeding events was that the house of Sforza soon became of no use to Cesare and his father. There was only one way by whioh a Borgia settled such matters, and Cesare came and told Lucrezia that her husband

Must Be Put Out Of The Way. He was in Rome at the time, so she warned him at once, which enabled him to escape.

It was then decided that the marriage must be declared void. Lucrezia—who had retired to the convent of San Sisto, was prevailed upon to issue a- demand for a decree, alleging a canonical impediment. Her husband, feeling this to be a serious slight, repaired to Milan to invoke the aid of his powerful relatives. One of them was the Vice-Chancellor Cardinal of the moment, who persuaded him in the end to acquiesce. The decree was published in Rome on December 20, 1497, the Tyrant ofJPesaro refunding the lady’s dowry of thirty thousand ducats. The political reason for all this was soon apparent, for Lucrezia. was married in June of the next year to Alfonso, Prince of Bisceglio, the natural son of the King of Naples. Cesare, against whom not a single person Church or State said one word, had made overtures to the'Duke of

CESARE AND LUCREZIA.

Ferrara with a view to procuring Alfonso as a husband for his sister. This did not prove an easy task. The Duke regarded the project with disfavour and the young man expressed disgust. The ladies of the family were furious. And yet in the end Cesare got his way. Lucrezia’s first, husband had put in circulation the most vile suggestions as to her moral character. That the powerful House of Ferrara should have accepted her as the wife of Alfonso is sufficient to disprove these and other similar innuendoes. The Ferrarese ambassadors were commissioned by their master to furnish a report about her, and the letter which they sent as the result of their investigations is convincing proof that there was nothing "sinister” in her character. “She is a most intelligent and lovely, and also exceedingly gracious lady. Your Excellency and the illustrious Don Alfonso—so we were led to conclude—will be highly pleased with her. Besides being extremely graceful in every way, she is Modest, Loving, and Decorous. Moreover, she is a devout and God-fearing Christian. . . . She is very beautiful, but her charm of manner is still more striking.” For Lucrezia this turned out to be more than a marriage of convenience, for she fell in love with her husband. They were not destined to enjoy their married life, for three months before her child was born Alfonso had to fly from Rome owing to the political situation. Her father made her Regent of Spoleto, and also made over to her the castle, city, and domain of Nepi, where she went to stay and where her husband joined her. But the ruthless Cesare now found out that the marriage of his sister was as useless to him for his ambitions as the former one had been. He therefore planned to Get Rid Of Him In The Surest Way. The young couple had returned to Rome, and one evening when Alfonso was on his way to his wife he was set upon by a'number of masked men with daggers, on the steps of St. Peter’s. Though wounded in several places he escaped into the Vatican. His wife fainted at the sight of him. Lucrezia tended him with the utmost care, even refusing to allow anyone else to cook his meals—a wise precaution—and he recovered.

Two months later Cesare’s patience was exhausted and he forced his way into their apartment. Lucrezia and her sister fought with him, but he called out to his captain to strangle the Duke, which he did. Poor Lucrezia was suffering from fever all the time that she was nursing her husband. Surprise had been expressed that she did not take immediate steps to. revenge herself on her brother for this, the most dastardly of all his crimes. Had she been the horrible creature whom Victor Hugo depicts she would certainly have done so.

Gregorovius says of her: “We must not look for great qualities of soul in Lucrezia, for she possessed them not. She was merely a woman differentiated from, the great mass' of women, not by the strength, but by the graciousness of her nature. It is fairly clear that she told Cesare what she thought of him, for he persuaded the Pope to send her away. She retired to her beautiful home at Nepi. Several of her letters, written from there at this time, are still extant. In them she invariably signs herself ‘ The Unhappy Princess of Salerno,’ with a line drawn, through the last three words. Lucrezia completely justified the good opinions that had been formed of her. Indeed, it is remarkable that a sister of Cesare who had spent so much time in Rome—which city Lorenzo de’ Medici described as ‘a sink of all the vices,’ should have maintained so excellent a character." Even J. A. Symonds, who at times suggests that some of the rumours concerning her wickedness were probably true, says, “At Ferrara she won the esteem of a husband who had married her unwillingly, attached the whole state to her by her sweetness of temper, and received the panegyrics- of the two Strozzi, Bembo, Ariosto, ."" , d many others.” 'She died in child-birth on June 24, 1519, to the

Great and Sincere Grief of all who Knew her. The letter which her sorrowing husband wrote to his nephew shows this most clearly, “'illustrious Sir and 'Honoured Brother and Nephew: It has just pleased our Lord to summon unto Himself the soul of the illustrious lady, the duchess, my dearest wife. I hasten to inform you of the fact as our mutual love leads me to believe that the happiness or unhappiness of one is likewise the happiness or unhappiness of the other. I cannot write this without tears, knowing myself to be deprived of such a dear and sweet companion.’’ Gregorovius sums up the various descriptions of her in this way: “This remarkable woman charmed all beholders with her indescribable grace, to which there was added something of mystery. Vivacity, gentleness, and amiability are the qualities which all Lucrezia’s contemporaries discovered in her. This . animated and delicate face, with large blue eyes, and surrounded with golden hair, suggests the ethereal beauty of Shakespeare's Imogen.” Is she not a much-maligned lady? ,