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Title: Lucrezia Borgia
Author: Sarah Bradford
Genre: Biography
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: Life sucks when you're the daughter of a murderous pope.
Thoughts: Poor Lucrezia has quite the wicked reputation. The fact that her first marriage was dissolved under very suspicious circumstances and her second ended when her brother had her husband murdered was enough to get her labeled as an evil temptress by Renaissance standards. (Never mind none of this was particularly her fault.) Add in some nasty rumors about her sleeping with her father and/or brother (both of whom were widely hated and feared for very good reason), and the poor girl never really had a chance.
Bradford is very sympathetic to her subject and does her level best to rehabilitate Lucrezia's reputation. (I don't know enough independently about the period to be able to tell how much of the valorization is justified or not, but there's definitely a pro-Lucrezia bias going here.) Whether or not the woman was the master of management she's made out to be, I still feel bad for her. The plight of the Renaissance noblewoman is not particularly kind in general, but Lucrezia's life was unusually subject to politics. Her family forced her in and out of a series of marriages, and keeping up the charade of appearing appropriate virtuous by Renaissance standards required not only all kinds of ridiculous shenanigans but also abandoning her two-year-old son by her second husband. As a mother, I can hardly wrap my head around never seeing my child again so that my brother could make a political alliance.
Overall, it's an interesting life, well-told, but nothing particularly standout.
Author: Sarah Bradford
Genre: Biography
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: Life sucks when you're the daughter of a murderous pope.
Thoughts: Poor Lucrezia has quite the wicked reputation. The fact that her first marriage was dissolved under very suspicious circumstances and her second ended when her brother had her husband murdered was enough to get her labeled as an evil temptress by Renaissance standards. (Never mind none of this was particularly her fault.) Add in some nasty rumors about her sleeping with her father and/or brother (both of whom were widely hated and feared for very good reason), and the poor girl never really had a chance.
Bradford is very sympathetic to her subject and does her level best to rehabilitate Lucrezia's reputation. (I don't know enough independently about the period to be able to tell how much of the valorization is justified or not, but there's definitely a pro-Lucrezia bias going here.) Whether or not the woman was the master of management she's made out to be, I still feel bad for her. The plight of the Renaissance noblewoman is not particularly kind in general, but Lucrezia's life was unusually subject to politics. Her family forced her in and out of a series of marriages, and keeping up the charade of appearing appropriate virtuous by Renaissance standards required not only all kinds of ridiculous shenanigans but also abandoning her two-year-old son by her second husband. As a mother, I can hardly wrap my head around never seeing my child again so that my brother could make a political alliance.
Overall, it's an interesting life, well-told, but nothing particularly standout.
