When the Borgia family no longer needed the Sforzas at the papal court, he was looking for new, more advantageous political alliances, so he may have covertly ordered the execution of Giovanni. While in Rome, Lucrezia served as her father’s hostess at diplomatic receptions.

The marriage was by proxy, and for four months after her marriage, until the arrival of her new husband in Rome, Lucrezia lived in a handsome palace next to the Vatican with the Pope’s new mistress, Guilia Farnese. Thus, the girl already faced her third husband at the age of merely thirteen.

As being the Pope, Rodrigo was able to call off Lucrezia’s previous engagements and arranged for her to marry Giovanni Sforza, a member of the House of Sforza, a powerful Milanese family, on 12 June 1493 in Rome. When Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI he was eager to be allied with powerful families and founding dynasties of Italy. By the age of eleven, she had been betrothed twice, but both times Rodrigo had rescinded the betrothals. Her mother was Vannozza dei Cattanei, one of the many mistresses of Lucrezia’s father Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, who later became Pope Alexander VI. Lucrezia Borgia was born on April 18, 1480, at Subiaco, near Rome. The extent of her complicity in the political machinations of her family is unclear, but she had to obey to several arranged marriages to important or powerful men in order to advance their own political ambitions.

Lucrezia was cast as a femme fatale, a role she has been portrayed as in many artworks, novels, and films. Lucrezia’s family later came to epitomize the ruthless Machiavellian politics and sexual corruption alleged to be characteristic of the Renaissance Papacy. On June 24, 1519, Lucrezia Borgia, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, and Vannozza dei Cattanei, passed away.

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