Lucrezia Borgia

[Ismene]

I've just read 2 books about Lucrezia Borgia, one a novel and one a history book. She is an alleged murderess/poisoner but I can't find anything about that. Who was she supposed to have murdered?

[dot.hawkes]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucrezia_Borgia

did thwe history book not say?

[jno]

The Borgias are having an orgy;
There’s a Borgia orgy tonight,
And isn’t it sickening
We’ve run out of Strychnine;
The gravy will have to have ground glass for thickening.

The poison Chianti is terribly scanty
But everything else is all right.
There’s ars’nic mixed in the mock turtle soup.
I’ve hidden an asp in the iced cantaloupe,
And straight Benzedrine in the apricot coupe
At the Borgia orgy tonight.

Our guests are exclusively chosen
From people who give us a pain.
The cr�me of the joke is the knowledge
That they won’t come here again.

We’ll all be most frightfully hearty
At the Borgia orgy tonight.
For the Duke’s eldest son
There’s a monstrous cream bun
Soaked in hot prussic acid;
It’s all good clean fun.

The tank in the ladies will blow them to Hades
If anyone turns on the light.
The bodies will fall through a trap door below
To the Tiber and drift out to sea on the flow.
We think we can promise a jolly good show
At the Borgia orgy tonight.

(continued...)

[jno]

(continuing...)

We revel in giving a party,
A fete or a fancy dress ball.
There’s always a nice game of bingo
And a good time had by all.

The Borgias are giving an orgy;
There’s a Borgia orgy tonight.
I’ve poison ptomaine that will wrack them with pain.
We’ve nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain.

We’re pushing some people
We know off a steeple;
It should be a wonderful sight.
We’ve bricked up some cousins of ours in a wall;
Their agonized cries won’t disturb us at all
As we sit here sipping our wormwood and gall—
(It’s delicious!)
At the Borgia Orgy tonight.

We’ve got all the nobles of Naples
For the Borgia orgy tonight.
The soup minestrone is frightfully phony,
And laudanum reeks in the stewed macaroni.
We’re feeling no pain when they eat the henbane
In the third tangerine from the right.

When the butler flings open the dining room door
There’s a cunning contraption concealed in the floor;
We wonder who’ll sit on the circular saw
At the Borgia orgy tonight.

[Xanthippe]

Lucrezia Borgia is one of the most maligned women in history. Her father and brother Cesare, were undoubtedly ruthless people, the latter being the model for Machiavelli's book 'The Prince', but much of the accepted story of Lucrezia's life is merely gossip, anti-Borgia propaganda and scandalous lies.

There is no evidence to support allegations of her poisoning people, nor is there any evidence of her having sexual relations with her father and brother. It is more than likely her first husband invented the latter piece of salacious gossip because he had been forced to accept a divorce from Lucrezia on the grounds he was unable to consummate their marriage.

After the fall from power of the Borgia family, she led a respectable life with her third husband and children.

[Ismene]

Thanks for your responses. It's a shame that she had such a bad reputation when there is no evidence. It appears that she was another victim of her evil father and brother.

[emandvee]

If you enjoy historic novels try Madonna of the Seven Hills and Light on Lucrezia both by Jean Plaidy.

[Ismene]

Thanks for that - I will definitely try them! I'm reading 'The Wise Woman' by Philippa Gregory at the moment - might try other books too - ''The Other Boleyn Girl sounds good.

Jeanne Kaligridis books are great too - if you haven't tried them I'd recommend them. 'The Borgia Bride' and 'Painting Mona Lisa'. The author uses lots of historical facts and weaves a story around them - so you do actually feel like you are learning a little history with them. I kept going to the history books to check things out and a lot of the time she was accurate.