Lucrezia Borgia - The Pope’s Poison Princess?

[Music] lucrea boura the Pope's poison princess for 500 years lucrecia boura has been the focus of operas novels movies and television shows she was one of The Inspirations for Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones it is said that she went through three husbands used a poison ring to murder her enemies and slept with her father father and brothers but was she really such a depraved licentious villain or was she the victim of a twisted family and vengeful gossip let's separate reality from the Arsenic dipped rumors and get to know the real lucrecia boura lucrecia was

born April 18th 1480 near Rome in modern-day Italy her mother vanot de contan was famed for her ethereal Beauty and tendrils of golden curls but her four children chesiree Giovani lucrecia and Joffrey were not fathered by any of her three successive husbands they were SED by Cardinal Rodrigo deoria lucrecia's earliest memories were of frequent visits from her warm and affectionate Papa he had a rich melodious voice and magical Charisma today it may seem shocking that a man of the cloth who had taken a solemn vow of celibacy had a mistress and children but during the

Renaissance it barely raised an eyebrow in fact Cardinal boura fed at least 10 Offspring by a handful of cortis what did scandalize Roman society was that he officially recognized his four children born to Vania and gave them his name he loved them dearly but he also saw them as useful tools in his own climb to power when lucrecia was three she and her brothers were taken away from their mother to be raised by their father's cousin while in their mother's household they had the taint of illegitimacy but in their father's Palace they lived like princes

still this early separation from their mother left an indelible mark on their psyches their father became the center of their world he lavished affection upon them and made their advancement the focus of his own career and that career was destined to soar at the time Italy was not a single nation the peninsula was divided into dozens of city states which were constantly at War the biggest Contender was the Papal States which had a strong influence over the others and as the monarch of the Papal States was the pope a position that was elected rather than

inherited there was an opportunity for ambitious men to rise up claim St Peter's throne and rule over much of Italy the position of supreme pontiff had become less about guiding the flock of Christian souls and more about grasping and maintaining power and land as evidenced by the brutal way many popes deployed the papal Army the boria family hailed from Valencia a region of Aragon which had very recently become part of the new nation of Spain they had already seen one family member rise to the highest rank as Pope kius III he invited many of his

relatives to come to Rome and offered them Plum Church positions including granting his nephew Rodrigo the position of cardinal papal politics was a dangerous game with many powerful families including the Michi and the soras vying for their turn on the throne the foreign bouras were viewed with suspicion many whispered that they were secretly Jewish and were only posing as Pious Christians as a result the bouras remained a tightnit family they spoke Catalan amongst themselves and had a strong US versus them mentality as lucrea grew she came to resemble her lovely mother she had the face

of an Angel and heaps of flowing golden locks that fell to her knees her hazel eyes changed color and her pale clear complexion brilliant white teeth slender elegant neck full bosom and natural Grace fit the Renaissance Beauty ideals to a te and she had her father's irresistible charm and Keen intellect While most upper class girls were allowed only a sparse Convent education lucrea was at the center of the Great Leap Forward in arts and thinking that was the Renaissance the boures were patrons of many of the Great thinkers and artists of the day including rapael

and Michelangelo and lucrecia and her brothers were never short of tutors she was well-versed in literature art history and philosophy fluent in Latin Spanish catalon Italian Greek and French and she played the loot danced and gave oration but her greatest joy was poetry though she lived during one of the most significant leaps forward in human development as a woman she was taught to be modest and put the desires of men before her own at the tender age of 10 she was betrothed to a Spanish Lord 2 months later that engagement was broken off and she

was promised to the Italian count of parida in 1492 Pope Innocent VII became Gravely ill and thin and could only consume breast milk from a young woman he died and the Cardinals began to sharpen their blades for the fight to determine who would be the next Pope on a Hot August morning the bells rang out proclaiming Rodrigo bouras Ascent to the throne of St Peter he took the regnal name Alexander V 6 and the boria family moved in to the apostolic Palace many grumbled that he'd only gotten the gig through nepotism though no fewer than

nine other car Cardinals were also the nephews of previous popes and his own Uncle Kus III had been dead for 34 years and that he had secured votes through bribery there were reports of the sparza family receiving four mu loads of silver while all that played a part Rodrigo was the most Centrist candidate in a field where every eligible Cardinal had controversial political alliances Alexander had an advantage most others did not like a king he could enhance his own power through the marriages of his children 13-year-old lucretia's second engagement was broken and she was betrothed

for a third time to 27-year-old Giovani Spa he was the nephew of the Duke of Milan Giovani was an illegitimate son of a previous Duke but he did hold the titles Lord of pizaro and count of kenola so he was a pretty good catch and the bouras couldn't really turn their noses up at illegitimacy luia and Giovani were wed in a spectacular ceremony at the Vatican they had all the pom and magnificent feasting and entertainment of a royal wedding after the nuptuals Alexander followed the newlyweds into the bridal chamber he was there both as the

pope to bless their Union and as a father to ensure that his daughter's marriage was consummated this now horrifying practice was perfectly common at the time it was important to have a witness to ensure that a marriage contract was fulfilled lucrezia's new husband was a man of very little charm for months at a time he left his Young Bride In Rome and returned to his mistress in pisado within a year giovan's Uncle turned on the pope and Allied instead with the king of of France the boures now saw Giovani as a liability rather than an

asset It is believed that lucrezia's older brother chz sat her down and explained that her husband was going to be killed to free her up to marry someone else driven more by morality than real fondness lucrecia warned Giovani of his looming fate he was able to escape Rome disguised as a beggar Pope Alexander was surely a annoyed but as Supreme pontiff he had other ways of dissolving An Inconvenient marriage luia who was after all only 14 at this point had not given birth to any children so Alexander could claim that the union had never been

consummated and simply have it an olded it was rather convenient that he had been the wedding night witness he ordered his son-in-law to sign papers swearing that he was impotent outraged ovani threatened to take the insult to his manhood literally lying down he demanded to prove his ferality by performing sexually in open court in front of witnesses the pope had no desire to see such a spectacle or be proven a liar he knew full well that his son-in-law was not impotent he had been married before and his wife had died in childbirth what's more he'

fathered children by his mistress back in pisado there was a real fear that lucra IIA might actually be pregnant and if she was The Jig would be up and she'd have to stay married to a political dad so she was sent away to a Convent outside of Rome while she was in seclusion two events occurred which tarnished her reputation forever first the corpses of Pope Alexander's Chamberlain Pedro kadon and one of lucrezia's own Maids pilia were fished out of the Tyber River rumors ran wild that lucrecia had been carrying out an illicit affair with Pedro

and that her brother chz had murdered him and pilia who was a witness in order to preserve his sister's virtue and thus her marriage prospects second a mysterious baby appeared in the boria household he was called Giovani but was popularly known as the infas Romanos the baby was assumed Med to be Lucas either born of her actually consummated marriage or her affair with Pedro her insulted husband Giovani poured gasoline on the fire by spreading rumors that the pope actually wanted his daughter back because he and his sons were having incestuous relations with her it was

even speculated that the baby was the product of such incest it is not clear how Pedra and panila met their demise though it is unlikely that he was sleeping with lucrea years later Pope Alexander issued a Papal bll declaring that the baby was actually his son born of a Roman sex worker not his daughter and the most damning insinuations of all those of incest are completely unfounded these vicious rumors of which there is no actual evidence would follow Lucretia for the rest of her life and Beyond and do far more damage to her reputation than

to her male relatives the pope had had enough of Giovani he told the sarza family that they could keep Luca's massive do if they got him in line his uncle threatened to take his fom of pisado away and Giovani accepted his humiliation and swore that he was indeed impotent once luia was able to return to Rome she and her brothers went to visit their mother they had a tranquil family meal together after they bid their Dear Mama farewell the older brothers chesare and Giovani called Juan headed off together into the night Juan never returned home

at first his father assumed that he had spent the night in a brothel but when he failed to return the next day the distressed Pope launched an investigation a merchant swore that he had witnessed five men dump a body in the Tyber and the river was dredged Juan's mangled and Bloated corpse was pulled out of the water he had been stabbed nine times his pockets were still filled with gold so it was clear that he was the victim of an assassination not a robbery the pope and lucrea were inconsolable but chesiree seemed less moved the

brothers had always been rivals as the older son chz had been ordered to join the church and follow in his Father's Footsteps while Second Son Juan had spent his youth living the Glamorous Life of a soldier he was granted the dukum of gandia given command of the papal Army and married to a Spanish princess additionally both brothers were having an affair with the same woman 16-year-old sancha of Aragon who was the wife of their younger brother 12-year-old Joffrey it is possible that jealous Joffrey orchestrated his brother's murder or that it was the Rival or SE

family but historians still strongly suspect that it was chesiree who ordered his brother's murder with Juan out of the way chz was now free to leave the church take his brother's dukum and command of the army and have a political marriage of his own Lucretia now 18 was free to be married off again her father arranged her Union with 17-year-old Alfonso of Aragon the illegitimate son of the king of Naples he was the half brother of Joffrey's wife and chesare mistress sancha Alfonso was a big step up for lucrea who became Duchess of bishel and

Princess of Salerno what's more she actually liked him the couple this time only a few months apart in age f fell in love at first sight he was gentle graceful tall handsome and athletic the Delight the pair took in one another was the talk of Rome after all the hubub of the en nment this wedding was a private family affair but it was still Top Class lucrecia looked resplendant in Jewel studded sleeves and a French style robe with red velvet trim she wore a gold circlet a top her golden hair and Pearls encircled her neck

and waist after the church service the guests enjoyed a decadent party in the apostolic Palace one room was set up with a massive Fountain another was decorated to look like the forest complete with family members dressed as wild animals ches dressed as a unicorn poor cocked jafre was given a goose costume lucrecia and Alan o settled into a happy life together in Rome this marriage was undoubtedly consummated as before long she was pregnant but her Blissful life would last only a year before the shadow of politics lurked in to tear the happy family apart alonso's

Family weren't the only claimants to the throne of Naples King Louis I 12 of France claimed the kingdom as well through a convoluted heritage he also wanted Britany which was not yet part of France to this end he conceived to marry Anne of Britany the only problem was that he was already married so he wrote to Pope Alexander and asked what it might cost him to lose his first wife and gain Britney Alexander was always willing to exchange religious favors for wealth and power he answered that an analment would be no problem if his son

chz was granted a friend duy and the hand of a princess of the Royal Blood this meant that the bouras now had to support the king of Fran's claimed to Naples and the ties with Alfonso's family had to be cut fearing for his life Alfonso fled Rome lucrea begged her father to guarantee her husband's safety and he was able to return to be by her side as she gave birth to their son he was named Rodrigo after her father when the new father was walking down the steps of St Peter's Basilica he passed a group

of pilgrims huddled in dirty robes the pilgrims pounced and stabbed him in the head neck arm and leg before they could finish him off papal guards appeared and carried the Duke unconscious and soaked in his own blood into the boria tower his wife and sister wept over him lucrecia nursed him day and night she called for his doctors from Naples and prepared his food herself to be sure it was free of poison for weeks it appeared that Alfonso was actually getting better but some unknown person snuck past his guards and strangled him to death lucrea

was heartbroken and went into deep mourning her brother and father grew tired of her misery and consigned her to a distant part of the palace all of Rome had little doubt that ruthless Chesire was behind the heinous deed lucrea too may have understood the depths of his cruelty but she never turned against him the bouras remained an unshakable unit and in the minds of the people of Rome the sins of one were the sins of all the bouras were famous for their lust and wrath Pope Alexander and his sons all frequented brothel and had numerous

Mistresses supposedly the family hosted wild orgies in the apostolic Palace according to an account written by an enemy they had a banquet during which 50 naked sex workers crawled on their hands and knees on the floor collecting chestnuts and weaving between lit chandeliers as the pope chz and lucrecia looked on the guests were then challenged to have sex with as many cortis as possible prizes of fine silk clothes were granted to the most verile luia was said not only to be a witness but an active participant this story was exaggerated over time and it was

even claimed that the women involved were nuns one salacious episode that does seem to have been based in fact was an incident during which pope Alexander was unable to attend an official V I meeting he sent lucrea in his place and she sat in his throne ostensibly to share her father's rulings on some matter and report back to him but a woman daring to sit on the throne of St Peter was just as shocking as the orgies and the event was twisted into something baldly licentious and depraved artist Frank Kagan cper who fabricated many historic

scenes painted lucr boria Reigns in the Vatican in the absence of Pope Alexander V 6 the scene is rendered all the more explicit by a Franciscan frier kissing lucrezia's bare toes for centuries the Catholic Church taught that because of Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden all women were duplicitous so while lucrea brother almost certainly was ordering assassinations left and right it was she who gave gained the lasting reputation as a murderous it was alleged that she routinely poisoned her enemies with her own custommade concoction of Arsenic and other ingredients and that she invented an

ingenious way of subtly slipping the toxins to her unsuspecting victims a ring some said the ring was Hollow and through slide of hand she would dump its contents into the Goblet of a distracted rival others claimed the ring concealed a needle which she used to inject her victims as she patted them on the back or took their hand soon all of Rome believed that the woman who looked like an angel would smile in your face while sealing your doom with all these rumors circling Pope Alexander had a bit of a challenge securing a third husband

for his 20-year-old daughter but with a little cunning and blackmail he managed to bag the highest ranking husband yet Alonso deest son of the Duke of Ferrera he was a member of one of the oldest and most powerful dynasties in Italy and Alonso wasn't just an illegitimate son he was the heir the Estee family were even more renowned for their patronage of artists including Michelangelo tishan and Leonardo da Vinci Alonso was undoubtedly hesitant to marry into such a conniving family things hadn't worked out well for lucrecia's first two husbands he sent spies to Rome to

scout out his potential bride they reported back that she was not only beautiful and wise but also entirely innocent so he agreed to take lucreta along with a hefty Dowry back to ferara in order to maintain a thin veneer of virginity she was forced to leave behind her infant son Rodrigo he was given to Joffrey's wife ssha who had also been cast off by the boures as politically useless sanha took Rodrigo and the infas Romanus back to Naples and raised them as her own lucrecia wrote often to her son sent him thoughtful gifts and begged

for permission to visit but she never saw Rodrigo alive again she craved love but had a lonely life in farata her new groom ignored her in favor of his Mistresses and his family shunned her it was little wonder that she looked for affection elsewhere she had a passionate sexual relationship with her brother-in-law Franchesco II Gonzaga Marquis of manua the pair wrote feverish and explicit love letters renowned French soldier the Chevalier beard met lucrea while serving in fed he became a great admirer and called her a pearl on this Earth she had a more cerebral and

sentimental romance with poet Petro bembo he was much older and a cardinal so this relationship does hint at some daddy issues in 1816 Lord Byron visited the library of Milan and read bembo and Luca's correspondence he called them the prettiest love letter in the world he also stole a lock of lucrezia's 300-year-old but still Golden Hair despite being away from home for the first time in her life her father still loomed large she wrote him weekly and was delighted to learn that he planned to visit only weeks before his trip she learned that he had

died of a fever at the age of 72 lucrea was heartbroken over the man who had filled her world since childhood the Pope's death spelled the downfall of the bouras chesare was forced to flee Italy he attempted to take over his wife's homeland of naar but lost the battle as a Young Man chez's handsome face was said to have inspired the popular depiction of Jesus Christ but the ravages of syphilis contracted during his countless visits to brothel had ruined his Visage at 30 he wore a leather mask to conceal his disgrace in 1507 he was

ambushed by a group of enemy Knights and stabbed to death with Spears they stripped the once Mighty Prince naked and left him in the streets with only a red tile covering his genitals Cher's ruthlessness in murdering his enemies including his own brother and deploying his father's papal Army to expand his family's power inpire ired political theorist makavelli to write his pivotal Treatise the prince he likely pinned it as a satirical criticism of Chesire boria but numerous dictators and CEOs have taken it as a literal how to guide Pope Alexander's death did not spell the downfall

of lucrea after 7 years of marriage a miscarriage and a still birth she finally delivered a healthy son ercole four more children followed the birth of anir and the death of her interfering relatives was transformative on her relationship with her husband now that she was no longer politically useful to Alfonso he might have divorced her but he chose not to and their relationship thawed into warm companionship as The Duchess of ferara lucreta earned a positive reputation for her leadership charm and skillful resolution of disputes without resorting to poison and as a mother she was doting

and tender luia was finally able to see her eldest son Rodrigo only after he died at the age of 12 she traveled to Naples and spent a month grieving the child she had never been allowed to know there she saw her last remaining sibling Joffrey he had traveled with his wife sancha and had purchased purched the seaside town of squae with funds he liberated from the papal coffers before fleeing after the death of their father he named his eldest daughter lucrea and his descendants ruled the town for 200 years but Jaffrey died in 1516 at

the age of 34 in 1519 lucrea gave birth to her 10th child the baby was ill and Alonso ordered a priest to baptize her at once she was given the name Isabella Maria and died a few hours later lucrea herself had been weakened by the delivery she languished for 10 days and finally succumbed to childbed fever she was 39 when she was laid to rest at the convent of Corpus domini her husband was so overwhelmed by grief that he fainted alas the love Alonso and her children bore her and the great respect the people of

Fara had for her could not outweigh the titilating rumors circulating back in Rome over the centuries the legend of lucrecia boura grew and twisted until she was known not as a devoted daughter sister wife and mother a dedicated leader to her people or an intelligent and talented woman in her own right but only as the Black Widow with a poison ring want even more tea on History check out the history Tea Time Podcast if you enjoy this video please like subscribe comment your thoughts and check out my other Royal history videos if you really want

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