Her father at first contemplated a Spanish marriage for her, and at the age of eleven 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 Spaniard, Don Gasparo de Procida, son of the count of Aversa. By Christmas they were back in Rome; the pope had all his children around him, and celebrated the carnival with a series of magnificent festivities.
In order to cement his alliance with Naples, he married Lucrezia to Alphonso of Aragon, duke of Bisceglie, a handsome youth of eighteen, related to the Neapolitan king. Bisceglie fled from Rome, fearing for his life, and the pope sent Lucrezia to receive the homage of the city of Spoleto as governor.
On her return to Rome in , her husband, who really loved her, was induced to join her once more. A year later he was murdered by the order of her brother Cesare. However, by bribes and threats the opposition was overcome, and in September the marriage was celebrated by proxy with great magnificence in Rome. On the death of Ercole in , 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 died on the 24th of June , leaving three sons and a daughter by the duke of Ferrara, besides one son Rodrigo by the duke of Bisceglie, and possibly another of doubtful paternity. She seems to have been a woman of very mediocre talents, and only played a part in history because she was the daughter of Alexander VI. While she was in Rome she was probably no better and no worse than the women around her, but there is no serious evidence for the charges of incest with her father and brothers which were brought against her by the scandal-mongers of the time.
See the bibliographies for Alexander VI. He studied under Louis F. We are not precisely informed of the dates either of the death or the birth of Borgognone, who was born at Fossano in Piedmont, and whose appellation was due to his artistic affiliation to the Burgundian school.
