BORGIA, LUCREZIA 048o-1519), duchess of Ferrara, daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, afterwards Pope Alexander VI. (q.v.), by his mistress Vanozza dei Cattanei, was born at Rome. Her father contemplated a Spanish marriage for her, and at the age of she was betrothed to Don Cherubin de Centelles, a Spanish nobleman. But the engagement was broken off almost immediately, and Lucrezia was married by proxy to another Span iard, Don Gasparo de Procida, son of the count of Aversa. On the death of Innocent VIII. (1492), Cardinal Borgia was elected pope as Alexander VI., and annulled the union with Procida; in June 1493 Lucrezia was married to Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro. When the pope became friendly to the king of Naples, the enemy of the house of Sforza, he planned the subjugation of the vassal lords of Romagna, and Giovanni, feeling his position inse cure, left Rome for Pesaro, with his wife. By Christmas 1495 they were back in Rome. The pope decided that he had done with Sforza, and annulled the marriage on the ground of the husband's impotence (March I497)• In order to cement his alliance with Naples, he married Lucrezia to Alphonso of Aragon, duke of Bis ceglie, a handsome youth of 18, related to the Neapolitan king. But when Alexander backed up Louis XII. of France in the lat ter's schemes for the conquest of Naples, Bisceglie fled from Rome, fearing for his life, and the pope sent Lucrezia to receive homage of the city of Spoleto as governor. On her return to Rome in 1499, her husband, who really loved her, joined her once more. A year later he was murdered by the order of her brother Cesare.
After the death of Bisceglie, Lucrezia retired to Nepi, and then returned to Rome, where she acted for a time as regent during Alexander's absence. The latter now arranged a marriage between his daughter and Alphonso, son and heir to Ercole d'Este, duke of Ferrara, and in Sept. soi the marriage was celebrated by proxy with great magnificence in Rome. On Lucrezia's arrival at Ferrara she won over her reluctant husband by her youthful charm (she was 22), and from that time led a peaceful life. On the death of Ercole in 15o5, her husband became duke, and she gathered many learned men, poets and artists at her court, among whom were Ariosto, Cardinal Bembo, Aldus Manutius the printer and the painters Titian and Dosso Dossi. She devoted herself to the education of her children and to charitable works; the only tragedy connected with this period of her life is the murder of Ercole Strozzi, who is said to have admired her and fallen a victim to Alphonso's jealousy. She died on June 24, 1519, leaving three sons and a daughter by the duke of Ferrara, besides one son (Rodrigo) by the duke of Bisceglie.
See the bibliographies for ALEXANDER VI. and BORGIA, CESARE ; and especially F. Gregorovius's Lucrezia Borgia (Stuttgart, 1874), the standard work on the subject; and G. Campori's "Una Vittima della Storia, Lucrezia Borgia," in the Nuova Antologia (Aug. 31, 1866), which aims at the rehabilitation of Lucrezia.